Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Muellers legal team told a judge Monday night that President Donald Trumps one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort has breached his cooperation agreement and lied to investigators, a new court filing shows. After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsels Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement, the filings says. Manaforts legal team has disputed that charge, telling a federal judge that the embattled former Trump adviser believes he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the governments characterization or that he has breached the agreement. The DC court filing brings to a head weeks of speculation that Manafort s cooperation with the special counsel could be breaking down. Earlier this month, there were mounting tensions between Mueller and Manafort over Manafort s apparent lack of cooperation with the investigation, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Manafort had been fielding questions about a wide range of topics since September when he initially agreed to cooperate, the sources said. But special counsel prosecutors were not getting what they want, one source with knowledge of the discussions said. Manafort pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and agreed to 'broad' cooperation with the special counsel as part of his agreement. Prosecutors said Manafort's cooperation would include "interviews, briefings, producing documents, [and] testifying in other matters." That concession did not come easy. Before striking the deal, a jury in Virginia found Manafort guilty on eight of 18 federal counts of tax and bank-fraud charged against him. A federal judge declared a mistrial on the remaining ten charges after the jury gridlocked. As part of his September plea, Manafort admitted guilt to the unresolved charges in the Virginia case. Manaforts significance to the Mueller probe is not entirely clear. During the Virginia trial, prosecutors invoked his past work as a political consultant for pro-Russia elements in Ukraine and he faced money laundering allegations tied to payments from political figures in Ukraine. He maintained those overseas relationships both before and during his stint as then-candidate Trump's campaign chairman during the 2016 contest. Manafort departed the Trump campaign in August 2016 after reports appeared in the New York Times and Associated Press suggesting he had engaged in illegal lobbying activities in Ukraine. Manafort has been behind bars since the judge in his DC case revoked his bail in June. He is set to be sentenced in Virginia on Feb. 8, 2019. Neither the defense nor the prosecution team has objected to this sentencing date. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. He stated that the central government has directed ministries and local authorities to take action to ensure a fair and transparent business environment in order to enhance Vietnams competitiveness. The Deputy PM also underlined a number of priorities pursued by the government, including maintaining macroeconomic stability while adopting a flexible and proactive monetary policy in accordance with market signals. The 2018 Horasis Asia Meeting is co-hosted by Binh Duong province and Becamex IDC Corp, bringing together over 400 senior leaders from businesses and the government to explore and advance regional cooperation, impact investing and sustainable growth. At the forum, Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung informed the participants on Vietnams notable achievements in the past 30 years and its efforts to improve the business environment. He stated that Vietnam is one of most attractive foreign investment destinations in the world and the country has also signed numerous free trade agreements, thereby opening new opportunities for Vietnam to take a larger part in global value chains and production networks. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Binh Duong Chairman Tran Thanh Liem stated that Binh Duong province has been transformed from a rural backwater to a key industrial province over the past 20 years thanks to its determination to reform. With a favourable business climate, an abundant workforce and developed infrastructure, Binh Duong province is now one of the largest recipients of foreign direct investment in Vietnam, he added. The 2018 Horasis Asia Meeting, consisting of four plenary sessions and 36 discussion sessions, is an opportunity for participants to share their views and experience in new business and advanced development models, thus helping to deal with the problems arising from industrial development in an effective manner. 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. WESTPORT Opponents of a plan to build an ADA-compliant restroom facility on Compos South Beach failed to collect enough signatures to bring the decision to a townwide referendum that they hoped would overturn the projects approval. We have begun a petition drive in order to enable the town residents to voice their opinion on this restroom appropriation resolution, and to finally give the taxpayers the power to decide this rather than having it imposed upon them, resident and physician Jay Walshon, an opponent of the plan, wrote in Nov. 25 email to the Westport News. At a Nov. 13 meeting, the Representative Town Meeting voted 26-8 to approve $840,000 in funding to replace the port-a-potties on South Beach with a permanent ADA-accessible restroom facility and storage room, paid for with a 20-year bond and likely to last 50 to 70 years. A week after the RTM approval, Walshon asked Town Clerk Patty Strauss for a petition to bring funding for the bathroom project to a townwide vote. He and the other project opponents had until 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to gather signatures from 1,885 residents. At 5 p.m. on Nov. 28, Strauss said petition pages were filed, but not enough signatures were submitted to merit a referendum. As outlined in the town charter, a referendum can take place if 10 percent of towns registered voters sign a petition in support of a re-vote. Several of the projects opponents, including Walshon, are avid pickleball players and, over the summer, complained the facility proposed to be placed in front of the pickleball court would obstruct the players view of the beach. Further investigation into the proposal led him to conclude town officials lacked transparency in the formulation and passage of the bathroom facility. The story had quickly become about self-serving government, deceit, lies, breaches in process, illegality, and the imposition of will (at any cost) upon the electorate that has been made impotent by crony politics, Walshon wrote. From our standpoint, its frustrating and disheartening that we spent the last several years working on this and following the towns processes, said Jennifer Fava, director of Westports Parks and Recreation Department that spearheaded the bathroom proposal. There have been 15 public meetings and hearings on the proposal since 2017 and even more in the prior years Fava said, noting all of towns land-use bodies approved the project. What started as an initiative to replace port-a-potties has opened up a conversation about disability rights and access to public facilities, said Jim Ross, a strong proponent of the project and chair of the Westport Commission on People with Disabilities, said. Many members of the commission have spoken in support of the bathroom facility, saying the lack of an ADA-compliant restroom on South Beach makes it inaccessible to those with disabilities. We unfortunately live in a segregated society for people with disabilities, Ross said, adding the RTMs approval of the bathroom facility was a historical civil rights vote for people with disabilities in Westport. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 Lillie Freeman Audio Article Lillie Freeman, 93, of Fairview, Texas, went to be with the Lord on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. Lillie was born... Lewis Bayer Audio Article Lewis Bayer was a caring brother, uncle, and friend to many within Floresville, Texas, and the surrounding communities. The Lord... Gene Ernest Maeckel Audio Article Gene Ernest Maeckel of Poth, Texas, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. Born... On Monday, with the announcement earlier in the day of the imminent closure of a large General Motors plant in Oshawa casting its shadow, Jim Carr was in Winnipeg touting Ottawas new goal of growing Canadas overseas, non-U.S. sales by 50 per cent by 2025. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. On Monday, with the announcement earlier in the day of the imminent closure of a large General Motors plant in Oshawa casting its shadow, Jim Carr was in Winnipeg touting Ottawas new goal of growing Canadas overseas, non-U.S. sales by 50 per cent by 2025. In his new capacity of international trade diversification minister, Winnipeg South Centre MP Carr said the federal government will spend $1.1 billion over the next six years to broaden and enhance export development assistance available to Canadian companies, especially to small and medium-sized businesses. Speaking at the Ace Project Space, a unique partnership between Red River College (RRC) and North Forge Technology Exchange that matches RRC students with startup tech firms, Carr said international trade isnt normal coffee-shop chatter, but "rising global protectionism, the most recent experience in our own backyard, has lifted trade diversification to top of mind. "The U.S. will always be our closest trading partner. Our geography, our history, our family ties make this relationship special. And with the new NAFTA secured, that relationship is in very good shape for years to come. But we cannot rely on a single customer for our future prosperity." Among other things, the new export-diversification strategy announced as part of the federal governments fall economic statement last week will provide resources to small and medium-sized enterprises to help them explore new export opportunities and increase the size of the countrys international trade commissioner service from its current contingent of about 1,000 people in total. All the details are not yet available, but it seems likely that the age and size of businesses able to access funding from the CanExport program, which subsidizes the expenses for companies to attend international-trade missions and trade shows, will rise. On the GM announcement, Carr said his thoughts are with the families of those affected and that over the coming days, there will be a better understanding of the impact and the appropriate response. "It does show that it is increasingly important that Canadian businesses know these trade agreements we are signing that gives us access to 1.5 billion consumers internationally are designed to promote growth and create jobs," he said. Canadas free-trade agreement with the EU (CETA) is now a year old with exports to Europe up $1.1 billion and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is set to go into effect by the end of the year. Canada now has 14 free-trade agreements covering 51 countries with access to about 1.5 billion consumers. Canada is now the only G7 country with free-trade agreements with all the other G7 countries. But Carr said businesses across the country have to champion trade diversification as a national imperative. Kay Gardiner, the program director of Tech West, a consortium of western provincial information and communication technology associations that assists western Canadian technology markets access international markets said, unlike other traditional sectors new technology companies often need to scale up internationally while they are still in startup mode. But it can be a tricky process. "We have not seen tech companies take advantage of that (export-assistance programs) to the degree we would like, but I am really looking forward to these changes," Gardiner said. "We think the changes they are making will make a huge difference." The fact that Carr is now touring across the country talking up the new strategy is an indication that the federal government knows Canadian businesses need to be encouraged. Don Leitch, the CEO of the Business Council of Manitoba, said the province also needs to do a lot more in that regard as well. He said Manitobas trade branch has become less active in recent years and needs to become more engaged. "Its great that the feds are stepping up to the plate." Leitch said. "But its the province that has the linkages to the local firms and knows them way better than the trade commissioner service." He said international trade development services have been active in Manitoba in the past but have been languishing the past few years. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca A fourth Costco store for Winnipeg appears to be on the horizon. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A fourth Costco store for Winnipeg appears to be on the horizon. Plans for a store, including renderings which closely resemble the popular warehouse bulk retailer, were recently submitted to the city's board of adjustment as part of a variance application. The plans are for large commercial building that is 14,693 square metres in size with 802 parking stalls, a gas bar, a tire centre and a propane station. The renderings show a building with a Costco-like facade with the name removed from the building. The address in the variance application is 4075-4077 Portage Ave. Renderings closely resemble the popular warehouse bulk retailer Costco. The proposed building, south of Assiniboia Downs and west of Pointe West Autopark, is part of a 70-acre west Winnipeg development called Westport Festival, which is being developed by Shindico. John Pearson of Shindico said he could only comment on the development project, which is "fully zoned & subdivided, ready for construction." He said the development plans for Westport Festival include large format retailers, a theatre, a hotel, numerous mid-size and small retailers and restaurants. "We intend to start construction (on the development's first occupants in) Spring 2019," he said in an emailed response. "Our new 70-acre Westport Festival development is located at the western limits of Winnipeg. We are close to announcing several tenancies, which will make it a regional destination for West Winnipeg. Westport Festival is located near the prominent interchange of Portage Avenue (Trans-Canada Highway #1) and the Perimeter Highway West. Westport Festival offers a combination of West Winnipeg population, strong TransCanada Hwy traffic and a substantial rural trade area as far west as Brandon, Manitoba. "All three access points onto Portage Avenue (TransCanada Highway) have already been constructed, including two existing signalized intersections and right-in/right-out access." Pearson said traffic in the area includes 35,800 vehicles per day on Portage Avenue/Trans-Canada Highway No. 1. The application, on the agenda for Wednesday's board of adjustment meeting, is for a minor zoning variance to allow a corner of the building to be closer to Festival Road, due to the road's curved design, than is allowed in the area's development standard. The variance proposal notes that the Urban Planning Divisions is recommending approval of the variance request because "the proposed 3.28 (feet which is one metre) front yard at the south western edge of the proposed building will not cause any negative impact to vehicle and pedestrian uses of Festival Drive or any other adjacent future development." No one from Costco Wholesale Canada confirm or deny the involvement of Costco in the project. Spokesman Ron Damiani stated in an emailed response that Costco "does not provide commentary on real estate issues." "We cannot comment on locations that will be opening more than three months from today," read a statement on Costco's media request page. The three Costco stores in Winnipeg are located on Regent Avenue, McGillivray Boulevard and St. James Street. They are all of similar size to the proposed building in the variance application. ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca After a four-day court martial in Winnipeg, a Canadian Forces member has been acquitted of quarrelling with another Forces member and using "provoking gestures" -- described as "bag-tagging." Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. After a four-day court martial in Winnipeg, a Canadian Forces member has been acquitted of quarrelling with another Forces member and using "provoking gestures" -- described as "bag-tagging." Master Cpl. Nicholas J. Lewis had been accused of hitting a fellow master corporal in the genitals with an axe handle following a testy exchange at an axe-throwing venue on Oct. 27, 2017. He pleaded not guilty to two charges under the Code of Service Discipline -- "using provoking gestures toward a person, tending to cause a quarrel" and "quarrelling with a person" -- violations of the National Defence Act. "The accused was found not guilty on both charges," said Maj. Doug Keirstead, Canadian Forces spokesman. The court martial at 17 Wing ran from Nov. 19-22, with Military Judge Commander Martin Pelletier presiding. "The military judge ruled that the prosecution had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused had committed the offences in question," Keirstead wrote Monday in an email to the Free Press. "The judges written decision is forthcoming, and will be available on the website of the chief military judge in due course." In a videorecorded interview with military police shown at the court martial, Lewis described the axe-throwing competition as getting testy, with heckling and lots of "chirping." He said Master Cpl. K.A.W. (Kyle) VanGenne was very competitive and especially critical of him, so he "shouldered" VanGenne after completing his turn and walking past him. "I did not make contact with that man's genitals, nor did I think about doing that," Lewis said in the interview with the military police. He said he "nudged" the other man with his shoulder as he walked past. The military police officer conducting the interview told Lewis the alleged victim, and a second Canadian Forces member at the event, described the "bag-tagging" incident and making contact with his "groin area." Lewis adamantly denied the allegation. He said if such a thing had occurred, the person hit would likely have had a noticeable physical reaction. After Lewis was found not guilty, Col. Bruce MacGregor, Director of Military Prosecutions, said he couldn't comment on the military judge's decision. The military authorities will "review in detail the judge's reasoning and within 30 days make a determination whether or not this matter will be appealed to the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada." The Code of Service Discipline is the basis of the Canadian Forces military justice system. It is designed to assist military commanders in maintaining discipline, efficiency, and morale within the Canadian Forces. It is part of the National Defence Act. "The Canadian Armed Forces holds its members to a very high standard of conduct and performance -- Canadians have a clear expectation that their armed forces will be a disciplined one while reflecting Canadian values and ethics," the Forces spokesman said. "In the event that a member is alleged to have committed a service offence, the matter is thoroughly investigated to determine the facts and, if warranted, charges are laid. "The matter is then dealt with in the military justice system, openly, fairly and in accordance with the law." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca More than two months after rampant and unobstructed liquor store thefts began making headlines in Winnipeg, the provincial Crown corporation is remaining tight-lipped about what if anything has been done to address the situation. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. More than two months after rampant and unobstructed liquor store thefts began making headlines in Winnipeg, the provincial Crown corporation is remaining tight-lipped about what if anything has been done to address the situation. On Monday, days after another liquor mart security guard was assaulted by thieves, a Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries spokeswoman said progress has been made on arresting those responsible for the uptick in thefts. However, she declined comment on whether any policy changes have been implemented to better protect staff and deter would-be thieves. "More than 20 top offenders who are responsible for committing thefts at our Liquor Marts have been arrested," said MLL communications officer Susan Harrison in a written statement. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries has remained tight-lipped on whether any policy changes have been implemented to better protect staff and deter would-be thieves. "As we have previously stated, talking about security and anti-theft policies in a public forum compromises the safety of our staff and customers and undermines the effectiveness of solutions to the problem." On Saturday night, a security guard was hit with a bottle during a theft at a Liquor Mart on Henderson Highway near McLeod Avenue. Four thieves, one of whom was reportedly armed with bear spray, walked out of the store with liquor bottles and assaulted the security guard on the way. The employee was treated for minor injuries and police have not announced any arrests. Its just one example of violence at local liquor marts in 2018 a year which has seen an uptick in violent thefts and increasingly brazen perpatrators. In September, a rash of local liquor thefts ended up in the news after it was revealed MLL had instructed its employees and security guards not to physically intervene when people stole from stores. This resulted in thieves walking out with handfuls of bottles unobstructed. At a press conference at the time, Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jay Murray expressed frustration at the rising thefts and the draining effect they were having on police resources. He also said police believed much of the stolen merchandise was being re-sold online shortly after the crimes. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES MGEU President, Michelle Gawronsky: "The fact these robberies keep happening shows how urgently we need to see changes happen to upgrade and strengthen health and safety protocols at liquor marts." Manitoba Government and General Employees Union president Michelle Gawronsky said this weekends incident highlights the ongoing need for policy changes. "The fact these robberies keep happening shows how urgently we need to see changes happen to upgrade and strengthen health and safety protocols at liquor marts, and we remain committed to being part of the solution," Gawronsky said in a written statement. "We know liquor mart employees have valuable insight on how to improve safety and we encourage (MLL) to tap into their knowledge." An MGEU spokeswoman added the Crown corporation has held discussions with the union and it is believed high-end product is no longer being stocked on the shelves. In September, MLL announced that within the past 12 months thieves had made off with roughly $800,000 worth of merchandise from its stores, although that figure represented a very small amount compared to its annual profits. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES 2018 saw an uptick in violent thefts at Manitoba Liquor stores by increasingly brazen perpatrators. The WPS also reported in September that it had received more than 1,200 reports of liquor thefts on the year. However, an MLL employee who spoke to the Free Press said the Crown corporation wasnt notifying the police about every theft. At the time, MLL released a statement indicating it would discuss the matter with the WPS and the MGEU in an effort to find a solution to the ongoing problem. On Monday, the Crown coporation reiterated that it wont discuss policy matters or safety protocols with the media. "We will not be providing any additional comments on our current security policies or any changes we have implemented or are considering," Harrison said. ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe Gov. Gen. Julie Payette vows her first official visit to Manitoba wont be her last. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Gov. Gen. Julie Payette vows her first official visit to Manitoba wont be her last. Payettes first stop Tuesday on the second day of her tour of the province began at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights where she explored the different exhibits. "I like the one where you walk in and it says, 'Every human being is born free and equal.' Thats what we strive for; its a fundamental Canadian value," Payette said after touring the Canadian Journeys gallery. "Its not necessarily a fundamental world value just yet." Gov. Gen. Julie Payette tours the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Tuesday, the second day of her trip to Manitoba. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) Payette took a particular interest in the Viola Desmond exhibit, where she was given one of the brand-new Canadian $10 bills featuring the black human-rights pioneer who challenged segregation in a Nova Scotia movie theatre in 1946. This is Payettes first visit to the province since she was appointed Governor General in October 2017. Most previous appointees have scheduled visits to all of the provinces within their first year, leading to some criticism in Manitoba. Payette spent a busy first day in the city Monday, beginning with a welcoming ceremony at the Manitoba legislature and meeting with Premier Brian Pallister. The Governor General was then whisked away to tour the Universite de Saint-Boniface in celebration of its 200th anniversary. Later, the former astronaut and scientist joined the Bear Clan Patrol in the North End, where she walked in one of Winnipeg's most troubled neighbourhoods for about a half-hour. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Payette salutes Brig.-Gen. Mario Leblanc before touring Canadian Forces Base 17 Wing. Payette said her trip has been inspiring and she fully intends to return to the province. "We have several years to go and I will be back many times," she said. "But not necessarily in the big urban areas; we are going to go visit people." After visiting the CMHR Tuesday, Payette and her entourage headed to 17 Wing Winnipeg, where she met with military officials from the Royal Canadian Air Force 402 and 435 Squadron. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Leblanc walks with Payette. Payette arrived prepared for the tour, dressed in a dark green military flight suit complete with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) badges she wore on during her two trips to the International Space Station. "Im at home here; very much so. Im part of the military family and very proudly so," she said, sitting in the cockpit of a Hercules CC-130 H, the same model of plane Payette trained on at CFB Moose Jaw. Payette shook the hand of each member of the military she met, offering a few short words of thanks and encouragement before she was rushed off. Payette said she is already making plans to return to the base to observe a search and rescue operation. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Payette checks out the cockpit of a Hercules. "We are just honoured that (Payette) is here," said 17 Wing commander Col. Eric Charron. "Nothing changes the personal aspect of coming and seeing the people, shaking hands, asking them what gets them excited about their job. It gives them a chance for them to see someone of that importance really paying attention to our day-to-day jobs." Payette then boarded the private jet reserved for her and the prime minister, promising she'll return soon. danton.unger@freepress.mb.ca When Julie Payette was suspended above the Earth, hurtling around the planet so fast that the whole of Canada flashed past the International Space Station's window in just nine minutes, she saw part of the truth of Manitoba. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. When Julie Payette was suspended above the Earth, hurtling around the planet so fast that the whole of Canada flashed past the International Space Station's window in just nine minutes, she saw part of the truth of Manitoba. The fertile spread of the plains. The north, spangled with lakes. Life, spreading from prairie to tundra. It was so beautiful, the Governor General said, speaking to a crowd gathered to meet her at a Government House reception on Monday evening. She wished that everyone in that room, wrapped with golden wallpaper, could see. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, met and walked with the Bear Clan Patrol in Winnipeg's North End, Monday. "Luscious forests. Lakes, and not that many people," she said, of the unforgettable view. "There is so much room here, in this country, and that's why we continue to be so welcoming. So beautiful indeed, but resilient Manitoba." That's the big picture, though. To understand Earth, maybe you have to rise into space; but to understand people, you have to get down on the ground. On the ground, in the snow, to the worn-down places where real lives unfold. So when Payette left Government House on Monday night, she went to the North End, for a 30-minute walk with the Bear Clan Patrol. There, she would see another part of the truth of Manitoba: struggle, survival and strength. The contrast between the two evening destinations was vivid. There is no golden wallpaper in Bear Clan Patrol's new headquarters on Selkirk Avenue; only people, gathered to heal a community they belong to and believe in. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Payette, centre, met with members of the Bear Clan Patrol at their headquarters on Selkirk Ave. in Winnipeg's North End. There was patrol volunteer Vanessa Roulette, 38, who blinked back tears as she talked about how joining Bear Clan helped her fight free of the grip of crystal meth: the volunteers are her brothers and sisters now, she said. And there was patrol founder James Favel, who strode next to the governor general. As they walked in the bitter cold, he pointed out gang houses, corners where women are sexually exploited, spots where lives slipped away. "There was a young man murdered just here, this summer," Favel told Payette, pointing to a patch of snow-covered green space near the corner of Flora and McKenzie where, in July, 35-year-old Kenneth Wood was shot and killed. The Governor General looked at the site with sad, searching eyes. This was what Favel wanted her to see. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Members of the Bear Clan Patrol help Payette put on her patrol gear, Monday. "I wanted her to get an idea of what we come across, what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis here in this community," Favel said, speaking to media afterward. "It's not all fun and games here. We need supports here." It's strange to think that, when the International Space Station passes directly over southern Manitoba, it is much closer to us than Regina in terms of raw distance. In spirit, it is a world away, existing on a whole different plane. And in a way, in her first official trip to Manitoba as governor general, Payette played the same role as when she was in space: the eyes from on high. The watchful emissary from halls of such privilege that, relative to the lives of many struggling in Winnipeg's North End, they may as well be another planet. So if the ceremonial work of the governor general is, in part, to direct the gaze of the state to the ground-level details of its citizens, then walking with Bear Clan Patrol during her short two-day visit was a striking vantage. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Julie Payette, left, listens to patrol founder James Favel, right, give details about the streets they patrol several nights a week. It's not just that the patrol embodies the best of Manitoba's volunteer spirit. It is also how, every night, it makes reality of a vision that communities can heal themselves, and weave safety nets to hold each other protected. Before the walk, Payette told volunteers that what they were doing is an "amazing initiative," one she hopes will make "waves all over the country." They provide hope, she said, and belonging; now, Canada sees the stakes. "I had no idea of all that is happening in the neighbourhood," Payette said, after the walk was over. "The volunteers, the engagement, the generosity, the perseverance. "When we get together as a community, when we put our effort together and our will to help others, we can achieve anything," she continued. "That is a lesson for us all. We have always a role to play, in any community." melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca DESIGNED as a safe haven for victims of crime, Candace House will open its doors to the public today. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. DESIGNED as a safe haven for victims of crime, Candace House will open its doors to the public today. The space at 183 Kennedy St. had its grand opening ceremony Monday, in memory of 13-year-old Candace Derksen, who went missing on her way home from school on Nov. 30, 1984, and was found dead about six weeks later. Candace House is the brainchild of her parents, Wilma and Cliff Derksen, who wanted to create a comforting space for families of homicide victims to debrief. Renovations of the former commercial property less than a block away from Winnipegs downtown courthouse cost about $280,000, a large part of that total coming from private donations. Manitoba Justice Minister Cliff Cullen, speaking at Mondays ceremony, said the provincial government will continue to support victims of crime. TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Wilma and Cliff Derksen at Mondays Candace House event. "Certainly, for the families who have lost a loved one, we know how challenging it can be to work through the criminal justice system, and certainly, we as a government recognize the role that we should be playing in terms of trying to help people through that system, help navigate that system. We are certainly committed to victims services across Manitoba and we will do what we can to provide assistance for victims," Cullen said. "Thank you to the Derksens for your foresight in this, and congratulations." Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said he was "humbled" to meet people such as the Derksens "that have the strength of many on their shoulders." "The love that youve shown to other families, many of whom you have not met and maybe never will meet, who will benefit from this space its absolutely incredible. It makes me really proud to be a Winnipegger. It makes me proud to be a Manitoban and a Canadian," Bowman said. Wilma Derksen said she was especially emotional Monday, as she celebrated Candace Houses opening, knowing the 34th anniversary of her daughters disappearance is just days away. "Its kind of a miracle when I think of how it all came to be. Its just a recognition of Candace, of family and the journey," Wilma said. "And I have to admit that theres a real... grief. "Theres a real grief that this wasnt here when we were going through it, and it wasnt here for all those (other) people." katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay Danny Smyth was one of two police officers first on the scene after J.J. Harper was shot by Const. Robert Cross in March 1988. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Danny Smyth was one of two police officers first on the scene after J.J. Harper was shot by Const. Robert Cross in March 1988. While fairly new to the Winnipeg Police Service, Smyth covered and held Harpers wound, accompanying him in the ambulance to hospital. He also, like the rest of Winnipeg, witnessed then-chief Herb Stephen exonerating Cross of any wrongdoing. Smyth while likely aware of a cover-up among officers later testified during the following Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, providing evidence that disputed the claim the shooting was accidental. According to then-Winnipeg Free Press columnist Gordon Sinclair Jr., Smyth now the WPS chief was the "one cop who seemed to have done the right thing." The public outcry from the Harper shooting, the recommendations of the inquiry, and later commissions (such as the Taman Inquiry) led to changes in the way investigations of police are handled. This resulted in the formation of the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba in 2015, a body headed by former Crown prosecutor Zane Tessler and "mandated to conduct transparent and independent investigations of all serious incidents involving police." The JJ Harper shooting scene. During an eight-month investigation led by investigative reporter Ryan Thorpe, the Free Press learned the IIU has fallen short as an oversight body, particularly over the WPS. The IIU has had its work resisted, obstructed, and undermined by the city police. At the same time, its been exposed that the IIU has no teeth (with officers openly refusing to participate), is not as "civilian-led" as it poses to be (made up mostly of ex-police officers), and is mired in a jurisdictional power struggle with the WPS. This has raised an aura of suspicion surrounding possible cover-ups, problems with police investigating police, and injustice at all levels. Sound familiar? It feels like 1988 all over again. Smyths career, it appears, has come full circle. Armed with the recent revelations surrounding the IIU, lawmakers have to act. My Free Press colleague, Dan Lett, wrote Monday the "ball is now squarely in Justice Minister Cliff Cullens court." I agree. Lawmakers have to intervene and the province which mandates and oversees the IIU must act swiftly and determinedly. Public confidence is shaken in the IIU and the WPS and deservedly so. Its traumatic to find out that public institutions are nepotistic, corrupt, and act nefariously, especially when those institutions purport to deliver the law. So, welcome to Indigenous life. Indigenous peoples are the most over-policed people in Canada. This has a lot to do with policies and practices that have targeted our community, driven, and kept us in the throes of poverty. I feel bad sometimes for police officers, who have often been the primary deliverers of Canadas aggressive attacks on Indigenous communities. Some didnt choose this role, but all police inherit it. Its also difficult to understand the complexities of 150 years. Police officers often have to respond in seconds to situations and conflicts that took a century to develop. I wonder sometimes if police are adequately trained and supported to understand what they see or unlearn what theyve been taught. At the same time, the track record of Indigenous peoples and the police is, in a word, brutal. Take, for example, the recent CBC report in April which stated the vast majority of those killed in incidents with police were Indigenous. Some were innocent, like J.J. Harper and 18-year-old Matthew Dumas, shot and killed by Winnipeg police on Jan. 31, 2005. Indigenous women have perhaps bore the worst brunt of police violence. ...there must be Indigenous voices on the IIU, if for no reason than the vast majority of cases and issues comes from interactions between Indigenous peoples and the police Mikmaq lawyer Pam Palmater has been a leading voice, writing: "Evidence of the widespread nature of police violence against women in general is staggering We have a rampant and systemic problem within Canadas law enforcement that operates with drastically insufficient oversight and accountability." Indigenous peoples have long-standing and well-deserved suspicions of police, and the recent revelations surrounding the IIU do nothing but add to this. What comes next now means everything to the Indigenous community particularly since the majority of cases dealt with by the WPS are with Indigenous peoples. The solutions seem so simple. Police have to have objective, fair, and honest oversight the kind judges and lawyers have. People in these professions have citizens from outside their communities assess their work. Police should also not take the lead in overseeing police, even if retired. Heres an idea: the IIU can employ ex-police officers, but they cannot be the majority. Oversight bodies for police must have legislative and legal authority. Police participation in investigations must be led by the IIU. Witnesses must be called and come forward, even if they are police cadets, administrators, and "civilian staff." The IIU must be allowed to collect whatever evidence it needs, without obstruction. This all provides evidence why a civilian-led body intended to reflect the values and makeup of the community must actually represent it. That means there must be Indigenous voices on the IIU, if for no reason than the vast majority of cases and issues comes from interactions between Indigenous peoples and the police. This all seems simple. Like doing the right thing. And, while provincial lawmakers should take a lead, who should actually do this? Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth. I have to admit I was disappointed this past week, when I read a WPS internal memo written by Smyth, where he took issue with Thorpe and the Free Press. He called the investigative reports on the IIU "long-winded editorials rather than serious investigative reporting." Then, he spent two pages defending police accountability while admitting there are "gaps in the Police Service Act that require amendments." Download Police Chief Danny Smyth's memo to officers It was an odd response, as no one else in Winnipeg thought the IIU revelations werent legitimate. Pretending there isnt a problem in the WPS isnt a good look. It sounds like an exoneration. Thats not the Danny Smyth of 1988. niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca Manitoba has become the first province to give paramedics the ability to administer a drug that helps prevent methamphetamine-related psychosis. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Manitoba has become the first province to give paramedics the ability to administer a drug that helps prevent methamphetamine-related psychosis. To kick off Substance Use and Addictions Awareness Week, Health Minister Cameron Friesen announced Monday that olanzapine is now part of paramedics tool kits. Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press Files To kick off Substance Use and Addictions Awareness Week, Health Minister Cameron Friesen announced Monday that olanzapine is now part of paramedics tool kits. "We are giving paramedics this additional tool, and we believe that this will help here to keep not only addicts who are exhibiting the signs of stress, signs of psychosis or extreme agitation help to keep them safe, (as well as) paramedics who are responding to them and those around them," Friesen said. Olanzapine is an anti-psychotic medication that can be taken orally with disintegrating tablets. It helps lessen the severity of symptoms, such as agitation, for those who have used meth. The health minister acknowledged the drug is a piece of the provinces meth plan, but not the whole puzzle. The government has already opened five pilot rapid access to addictions medicine clinics and increased bed capacity at some treatment facilities, Friesen noted. He could not disclose when a long-term strategy for dealing with meth in Manitoba will be presented, but pointed to the May 2018 Virgo report on mental health and addictions as the provinces roadmap. "Manitobans can expect that the government will continue to respond, that we will continue to cascade out additional announcements as we absorb that report, as we look at what we need to do and as we, I think, exhibit that same flexibility and innovation. Were responding," he said. "We havent done everything yet that we need to do and we are fully engaged in this work." Dr. Ginette Poulin, medical director of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, welcomed the addition of olanzapine to paramedics arsenal. She also noted theres much more work to do to curb the meth crisis. "Because its such an acute crisis, its hard. Were reacting as opposed to being proactive. And its hard to keep up with what I term as kind of the drug of the day,'" Poulin said. "So we were dealing with the opioid crisis and trying to find ways to manage this in a more effective fashion, and then we had the surge of crystal meth Were trying to look to other jurisdictions and, unfortunately, when it comes to crystal meth, theres no magic antidote or no pill that solves it all." NDP health critic Andrew Swan said the provincial government has been "over the top at providing information on cannabis," but lagging on public education about meth. "This is a stop-gap measure. We need to do everything we can to protect first responders, but theres so much more that has to be done that this government has not taken on," he said. jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @_jessbu Side by side in the prisoner's box, Billy-Joe Linklater and Lorie Knott faced the jury that will decide their fate. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Side by side in the prisoner's box, Billy-Joe Linklater and Lorie Knott faced the jury that will decide their fate. They were both 21 when they were arrested three days after a 50-year-old Winnipeg man was found dead inside his burned apartment on Aberdeen Avenue. First responders found David Charles Sanderson slumped in a chair in his living room, with serious injuries to his face and arms amid the burn marks. There was soot covering his face. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The scene of a deadly house fire in the 300 block of Aberdeen Ave. on June 22, 2016. Later, the medical examiner would discover there was no soot in Sanderson's lungs, and would determine he died before fire tore through his bungalow suite shortly before 4 a.m. on June 22, 2016. A jury heard for the first time Monday how prosecutors expect to prove Linklater and Knott committed second-degree murder. Over the course of a trial scheduled to last four weeks, the Crown expects to present evidence surrounding the use of Sanderson's bank card before he died and a pair of bloody running shoes found in his suite. "Although the charge is serious, the evidence is not complicated," Crown prosecutor Boyd McGill told the jury during his opening remarks. The Crown believes Sanderson was stabbed repeatedly before the fire started, and McGill said jurors should have no trouble finding both accused guilty when they hear all of the evidence. "On that day, the two accused stabbed and slashed Mr. Sanderson several times in his arms, his shoulder, his neck, his face. He died from those wounds," McGill said. Defence lawyers Mike Cook and Martin Glazer are representing Knott and Linklater, respectively. Winnipeg Police Service forensic identification specialist Garrett Carrette set the scene for jurors, who pored over his police photograph-booklets as he described arriving at 389 Aberdeen Ave. and seeing Sanderson in the back of an ambulance, after he had already been pronounced dead. He described the blood-stained runners found on the floor inside Sanderson's apartment, and he held up Sanderson's plastic-wrapped bank card for court to see. Carrette was the first in a lineup of Crown witnesses that is to include an Assiniboine Credit Union employee expected to testify about how Sanderson's bank card was used, Sanderson's neighbour in the next suite (who first noticed the fire and called 911), and the police detective who took a statement from Knott upon her arrest. McGill said the prosecution also expects to call a DNA specialist and lab technicians, the doctor who performed Sanderson's autopsy, a responding firefighter and other police officers who were called to the crime scene. The trial continues in front of Court of Queen's Bench Justice Robert Dewar. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay OTTAWA As the federal Liberals ordered striking Canada Post staff back to work, Winnipeggers have pushed back, from the front bench to the Senate. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA As the federal Liberals ordered striking Canada Post staff back to work, Winnipeggers have pushed back, from the front bench to the Senate. MPs MaryAnn Mihychuk and Robert-Falcon Ouellette broke ranks with their party over Bill C-89 on Friday. This past weekend, Sen. Murray Sinclair convinced his colleagues in the Red Chamber to postpone a Saturday vote. "I understand that the government felt economic pressure and social pressure to end the strike," said Mihychuk. "But fundamentally, I respect collective agreements and collective bargaining." Ouellette said he was overwhelmed by constituents asking him to vote against the bill. "If you want to have true negotiations, you have to give both sides the freedom to do what it is they need to do," he said. The two MPs are among six Liberals who voted against their governments legislation. Mihychuk cited the issues Canada Post and its union raised in their last collective agreement during her term as labour minister, shortly after the Liberals took office in fall 2015. Ouellette said he worried forcing workers to return will lead them to provide the bare minimum service, further eroding Canada Posts ability to compete with the private market. However, he said the Liberals plan to have the parties proceed to a mediator, and eventually an arbitrator, was better than the previous government's back-to-work legislation in 2011, which a judge later found to be illegal. He called the Liberals' bill "not (former prime minister Stephen) Harper in style or very autocratic." The government has fast-tracked its legislation, citing the impact on small businesses amid the Christmas rush. But when it reached the Senate, Sinclair said that didnt seem to be a compelling reason to breach the charter right to strike. "The employer is getting everything they want," said Sinclair, a former federal judge, who panned the governments provided assessment of how its bill fits in with the charter. "I thought it was actually a preliminary draft," Sinclair told his colleagues. Mihychuk and Ouellette both felt Canada Post needs a radical rethink in how it can meet Canadians needs without drawing their tax dollars. "From my experience a massive from-the-ground overhaul is required at Canada Post," Mihychuk said, while Ouellette mulled bringing back a postal bank service, which Ottawa ended in 1968. In Parliament, Winnipeg NDP MP Daniel Blaikie highlighted the postal unions claims excessive work hours, longer routes, new equipment and an uptick in parcels are all related to the past decades rise in workers injuries. "A strike could have been avoided if the government had taken its responsibilities seriously and if it had appointed managers to Canada Post who would have taken the rate of illness and injuries seriously," Blaikie argued. The union has also argued lower wages for rural and suburban postal carriers has a disproportionate impact on women. Mihychuk, who sits in the front row of the Commons, was a provincial minister under the previous NDP government. She said she made her decision in part by thinking of next years centennial of the Winnipeg general strike. "The labour movement is very important to all of us, whether we're in a union or not," she said. She supported Sinclair using his legal knowledge to question whether the bill complied with the charter. "I think this is an example where the Senate is showing their strength," Mihychuk said. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca The provincial government is inviting Manitobans to help plan the 2019 budget. With a core deficit, and economic uncertainty from trade wars and price fluctuations, efficiency is the word of the day. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion The provincial government is inviting Manitobans to help plan the 2019 budget. With a core deficit, and economic uncertainty from trade wars and price fluctuations, efficiency is the word of the day. Staying innovative is also critical to the economy. Supporting business growth regardless of business size and enabling development is an investment in our long-term prosperity. As we budget for the future, we need efficient innovation. In my experience as an entrepreneur, I have found that true innovation results from holistic approaches that consider the entire ecosystem. What that means is stepping back, listening and being objective so were solving the right problems. When it comes to budgeting, how we invest may be more important than how much we spend. Whatever the amount, we need flexible, multi-sector support that encourages broad thinking. Its a lesson we can learn from bees. In the agricultural sector, technology is transforming the industry. Farmers can invest in autonomous tractors and combines. They can use soil sensors. They can manage fertilizer and irrigation through advanced software. In 2017, investors contributed US$1.5 billion to agtech startups. New technologies help farmers plant faster and farther. An automated tractor will help a farmer add 100 acres in less time and for less cost than ever before. But its hard for a bee to keep up. When larger crops are planted quickly, rather than in phases, the bloom cycle is shorter. A crop like canola needs pollination, which is at risk if bee development doesnt keep pace with agriculture. Climate change throws another question into the mix. Our increasingly variable weather patterns make crop timing more and more unpredictable. Sometimes, were so focused on technology that we miss the point and the profits. If a farmer spends millions on equipment to increase a crop by five per cent but then loses 20 per cent to a lack of pollination, thats a missed opportunity to see innovation holistically. New technologies can, of course, help support these ecosystems. But they need to address the right issues. When my company, Function Four, developed a new system for apiary management, the project evolved as we looked at the ecosystem. Our initial goal with Durston Honey Farms was to build software for record keeping and management. The apiary needed to automate its records to meet new standards for food traceability. But the project quickly became more challenging as we realized we needed to track dozens of in-hive and environmental factors that affect honey production. We werent simply automating the current record keeping; we were adding new components. To increase our capacity to solve the problem, we aligned provincial ag innovation funding with Mitacs, an organization that fosters growth and innovation in Canada. Mitacs helped to align us with researchers across multiple disciplines from the University of Manitoba. Together the team developed specialized sensors in the hives to track bee population, hive temperature, hive weight and more. The sensors measured the bees and the hive, and the software used machine learning and AI to help interpret and make the data accessible to the beekeeper, even from hundreds of kilometres away. This partnership enabled our business to share its challenges with academic expertise to find a viable solution beyond a software system. The academic-industry partnership solved business challenges by considering multiple factors at once. I work in the tech space and know, undoubtedly, technology is helpful. But its not our saviour. If we put our faith exclusively in technology, we dont realize how much we may be losing from nature. Keeping our eye on the end goal what were really trying to achieve is most important. The same principles apply to health care, education and investing efficiently in our economy. As we consider our provincial budget for 2019, lets ensure we step back and recognize we are an ecosystem all businesses, regardless of size, number of employees or annual profits are important parts of Manitoba. Our investments need to be symbiotic. Funding thats flexible and supports groups working together will go further than silos that cut people off. After all, in an age of efficiency, its critical we make wise decisions. The stakes are high these days. We might be betting the farm. Bruce Hardy is the president of Function Four, a Winnipeg-based consulting, research and software development firm, where he leads teams of researchers, scientists, doctors, farmers and innovators aligning human health and wellness with intelligent food production systems for a more vibrant and healthy society. Should governments have a duty to consult First Nations when they craft laws affecting Indigenous and treaty rights? The Mikisew Cree First Nation recently argued yes, that the duty to consult should apply to not-yet-passed legislation that affects their rights to hunt, trap and fish on the land. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Should governments have a duty to consult First Nations when they craft laws affecting Indigenous and treaty rights? The Mikisew Cree First Nation recently argued yes, that the duty to consult should apply to not-yet-passed legislation that affects their rights to hunt, trap and fish on the land. In October 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada denied the Mikisews claim in a complex judgment. All of the justices agreed that the court could not review the actions of elected ministers before a law was passed. Even so, five justices said the "honour of the Crown" was involved at the law-making stage. What does it all mean? In a trilogy of cases involving Haida Nation, Taku River and Mikisew Cree, the Supreme Court of Canada established the principle of the "honour of the Crown." It means the federal and provincial governments have a legal duty to consult and, if necessary, accommodate where their actions negatively impact Indigenous rights. The purpose of this duty is to work towards reconciliation. Treaties and nation-to-nation relationships These cases and the many that have expanded the duty since them have led to some changes for First Nations. However, the courts have not seriously engaged with treaties as part of a nation-to-nation relationship, nor with Indigenous systems of law. The emphasis on colonial constitutional traditions comes at the expense of looking at treaties as foundational constitutional texts in Canadian law. As geography scholar Nicole Latulippe points out about treaties: "Rooted in the land itself, these living agreements embody Indigenous law and diplomatic protocol signifying respect for autonomy and the stewardship of shared lands." Treaties were agreed to in some parts of Turtle Island, also known as North America. They were first made among Indigenous nations and other living and non-living beings, and then later between Indigenous and European nations. Their language signals the long-term nature of relationships, with phrases like "as long as the grass grows, and the water runs." Treaties require that relationships be nurtured and cared for through diplomatic protocols, like feasting and ceremony. Aimee Craft, an Anishnaabe-Metis scholar and lawyer, notes: "Indigenous and non-Indigenous legal communities in Canada will benefit from an enhanced understanding of Indigenous laws." This includes understanding treaties as nation-to-nation agreements. The Treaty of Niagara One legal lesson that few Canadians know about is the 1764 Treaty of Niagara, when more than 2,000 representatives from Indigenous nations gathered over a month to deliberate how they could share the land with European settlers. Wampum belts were exchanged during the treaty deliberations, including the two-row wampum (also known as guswenta) which shows two vessels travelling downstream, parallel but not interfering with one another. The Treaty of Niagara was critical to shaping Canada as a nation. The Royal Proclamation issued by King George in 1763 may not have been accepted by Indigenous nations without the negotiated assurances, conditions and promises that came out of the 1764 Treaty of Niagara. Treaties are also part of the law. Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act affirms the recognition of this and other Aboriginal and treaty rights. Internationally, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, which Canada has adopted, acknowledges the rights of Indigenous nations to have treaties and other agreements recognized by settler governments. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission advocates for the federal government to renew or establish treaty relationships based on the principles of mutual recognition, mutual respect and shared responsibility for maintaining nation-to-nation relationships into the future. Canadians need Indigenous law and treaty education All Canadians should be taught these and other locally relevant treaties. So should governments. The Crowns duty to consult and accommodate has not resulted in the practice of meaningful relationship-building as the foundational treaties called for. In 2017, the province of Ontario introduced legislation that significantly changed the land-use planning appeals process. As in Mikisew, Ontario did not perceive itself as having a duty to consult Indigenous nations in the province as the legislation was crafted and passed into law. The province did not engage with the enduring systems of land-use governance practised by Indigenous communities. As Anishinaabe legal scholar John Borrows argues, "First Nations must comply with provincial laws which they have no real role in crafting or administering." This oversight is particularly concerning given the relevance of land and planning to Indigenous communities. If the Treaty of Niagara process had been used as a guide, Indigenous governments would be fully informed of proposed changes in law, with time set aside for representatives to come together in order to discuss, deliberate, debate and decide on the merits of these proposed changes. Indigenous legal orders would be recognized as a foundational source of land-use law. Inadequate The recent Mikisew case reflects the limits of the duty to consult. It is an inadequate tool in urging Canadian governments to build and honour a nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous communities. There is hope. A majority of the justices leave open that other protections may well be recognized in future cases. Two acknowledge that "the duty to consult is about encouraging governments to consider their effects on Indigenous communities and consult proactively." We know it can happen. In New Zealand, Maori customary law already plays a role in common law. In a recent case this year, the court did not accept that pre-legislative actions are immune from judicial review, unlike the Mikisew decision. Governments should proactively engage with the Treaty of Niagara or other locally relevant treaties, agreements, laws and relationships at all stages of law-making. Instead of the duty to consult and accommodate determining relationships, it should be the relationships that determine the duty. Alexandra Flynn is an assistant professor of human geography & city studies at the University of Toronto. Clara MacCallum Fraser is executive director of the Shared Path Consultation Initiative and a doctoral student in the faculty of environmental studies at York University. This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca. Its a suffering tape, its a terrible tape, the Snowflake-in-Chief told Fox News on Nov. 18, defending his refusal to listen to the recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi being murdered and sawn into pieces in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it. It was very violent, very vicious and terrible. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion "Its a suffering tape, its a terrible tape," the Snowflake-in-Chief told Fox News on Nov. 18, defending his refusal to listen to the recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi being murdered and sawn into pieces in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. "I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it. It was very violent, very vicious and terrible." At least five weeks after the Turks made the recording available to American intelligence, U.S. President Donald Trump finally admitted that it exists. (It only exists because the Saudi hit team who did the murder were so amateurish that they didnt even sweep the consulate for bugs.) But Trumps purpose in going on Fox was to say that the man who almost certainly ordered the hit, Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), is still his friend and ally. "It could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event maybe he did and maybe he didnt," Trump said, but "the United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia." Fair enough. We all have to consort with murderers and torturers occasionally as we go about our business. But this relationship between Trump and MbS, genuinely warm and yet deeply cynical, does offer us an entry point into the weird pseudo-strategies that bind the White House and Saudi leadership together. The focus of the U.S.-Saudi relationship for the past four decades has been shared enmity towards Iran. This is perfectly natural for Saudi Arabia, which faces a far more populous and powerful Iran across the Persian Gulf. The sheer disparity of power, combined with the fact Iran has a revolutionary regime and Saudi Arabia a deeply conservative one, guarantees the latter will see the former as a threat. Its harder to explain the U.S. obsession with Iran. The mullahs engage in lots of anti-American and anti-Israeli sloganeering, but they are much too sane to act on it. Irans ability to project hard military power abroad is so limited it couldnt possibly invade Saudi Arabia. It poses no threat whatsoever to the United States. And yet... The depth and duration of the American obsession with Iran is best explained not by strategy but by psychology. Iran, like Cuba, overthrew an American puppet ruler long ago (the Shah in Iran, Batista in Cuba) and successfully defied subsequent U.S. attempts to snuff out the revolution. For that, neither country has ever been forgiven. It is that long-cherished American grudge, not some subtle strategic calculation about potential Iranian nuclear weapons, that drives Trumps current trade embargo against the country. If he were really worried about nukes, he would be concentrating on North Korea, not Iran. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel feed Trumps obsession with Iran, because they would love to entangle the U.S. in a war with that country. Much better to get the Americans to do the fighting, if war is inevitable. But war is actually far from inevitable, and even Trumps close advisers (with the possible exception of John Bolton) know attacking Iran would be a very bad idea. It is, for a start, much bigger than Vietnam. However, Trump himself seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid. He prefaced his statement about sticking with Saudi Arabia despite the Khashoggi murder with a rant about the evil Iranians who are allegedly waging "a bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen." Despite constant claims the Houthi rebels in Yemen are just a front for Iran (for the most part swallowed uncritically by the western media), there are no Iranians in Yemen, and no Iranian weapons either. On one side, there are Houthi fighters and the homemade, hopelessly inaccurate missiles they occasionally fire at Saudi cities in retaliation for the huge, relentless bombing campaign by the Saudi-led "coalition." On the other side is the aforesaid coalition, the military wing of Arab Military Dictators and Absolute Monarchs Inc., plus some mercenaries the United Arab Emirates has hired to stiffen the local pro-government forces. And MbS waded into Yemen almost three years ago to put that "government," installed by the Saudis in 2012 without an election, back into power. Theres not an Iranian in sight anywhere. The geography alone makes the claim utterly implausible. How could this farrago of shameless lies and distortions be repackaged into a casus belli for an American attack on Iran? Alleged North Vietnamese attacks on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin, subsequently disproven, gave U.S. president Lyndon Johnson an excuse to start bombing North Vietnam in 1964. Saddam Husseins non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" were president George W. Bushs pretext for invading Iraq in 2003. So yes, the Yemen war, creatively reinterpreted, could indeed be used by MbS and Trump to justify an American attack on Iran. It is said war is Gods way of teaching Americans geography, but the wars always come first. Gwynne Dyers new book is Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work). The events, organised by the Party Central Committees Economic Commission, were part of a national teleconference and a national exhibition reviewing the 10-year implementation of the resolution on agriculture, farmers and rural areas, issued at the seventh meeting of the 10th Party Central Committee in August 2008. Vice Chairman of the Economic Commission Cao Duc Phat said in 2017, agriculture contributed 15.3% of total GDP, down 5.1% from 2008. The rate of agricultural labourers fell by 12.4% to 40.2%, while the rate of rural residents decreased by 6% to 65%. These figures are predicted to drop in an even faster pace by 2030, respectively down to 10%, 25% and 55%, he said, noting that agriculture now contributes only 1% of Ho Chi Minh Citys GDP. This is an inevitable trend that all countries have to experience on the path to prosperity, Phat said. To modernise agriculture and improve farmers role and living standards, participants called for more conditions for them to change their livelihoods via diverse vocational training programmes. Additionally, amid global economic integration, it is an urgent need to invest in agriculture and rural development and resolve rural problems so as to industrialise and modernise agriculture and rural areas, they added. With higher productivity and quality, agricultural products have helped boost the sectors annual growth rate to 2.66% between 2008 and 2017, and about 3.5-3.6% this year. At the seminars, participants also discussed experience in forming sustainable agricultural value chains, hi-tech agricultural models, opportunities for Vietnamese farm produce when new-generation free trade agreements take effect, and the States support policies for agricultural investment. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. 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Ltd., AOC Technologies Inc., Badger Technologies LLC, Celetronix, Celetronix India Private Limited, Celetronix USA Inc., Clothing Plus Hong Kong Ltd., Clothing Plus MBU Oy, Clothing Plus Zhejiang Ltd., Clothing+, Eco.logic Brands Inc., Ecologic Brands, F-I Holding Company, GET Manufacturing, Green Point Electronic Technology Co. Ltd., Green Point Precision Electronic Co. Ltd., Green Point Precision Sdn. Bhd., Green Point Technology Co. Ltd., Green Prosperity Co. Ltd., Greenam Electricity (Proprietary) Limited, JCI Funding Ireland Designated Activity Company, JCI Labuan Limited, JN Global Holdings C.V., Jabil AMS LLC, Jabil Advanced Mechanical Solutions Inc., Jabil Advanced Mechanical Solutions de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil C.M. S.r.l., Jabil Canada Corporation, Jabil Chihuahua Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Circuit Austria GmbH, Jabil Circuit Belgium N.V., Jabil Circuit Cayman L.P., Jabil Circuit China Limited, Jabil Circuit Co. Ltd., Jabil Circuit Financial II Inc., Jabil Circuit Holdings Limited, Jabil Circuit Hong Kong Limited, Jabil Circuit Hungary Contract Manufacturing Services Ltd., Jabil Circuit Inc., Jabil Circuit India Private Limited, Jabil Circuit Investment Co. Ltd, Jabil Circuit Italia S.r.l., Jabil Circuit Limited, Jabil Circuit Ltd., Jabil Circuit Luxembourg II S.a r.l., Jabil Circuit Luxembourg S.a r.l., Jabil Circuit Netherlands B.V., Jabil Circuit Pte. Ltd., Jabil Circuit SAS, Jabil Circuit Sdn Bhd, Jabil Circuit Technology LLC, Jabil Circuit Ukraine Limited, Jabil Circuit de Chihuahua S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Circuit de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Circuit of Michigan Inc., Jabil Consulting Limited Liability Company, Jabil DR S.R.L., Jabil Defense and Aerospace Services LLC, Jabil Denmark Aps, Jabil Dutch Mexico B.V., Jabil EMS Switzerland GmbH, Jabil Electronics Co. Ltd., Jabil Energy Ltd., Jabil Green Point Precision Electronics Co. Ltd., Jabil Green Point Technology Co. Ltd., Jabil Guadalajara Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Healthcare DR S.R.L., Jabil Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Holdings Ltd., Jabil Hungary LP Services Limited Liability Company, Jabil India Manufacturing Private Limited, Jabil Industrial do Brasil Ltda., Jabil International Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil International Treasury Pte. Ltd, Jabil Investment Pte. Ltd., Jabil Israel Ltd., Jabil Japan Inc., Jabil Korea International Limited, Jabil Limited Liability Company, Jabil Mexico Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Mexico Investment S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Monterrey S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Nypro Holding LLC, Jabil Nypro I LLC, Jabil Nypro II LLC, Jabil Nypro International B.V., Jabil Optics Germany GmbH, Jabil Poland Sp. z.o.o., Jabil Precision Industry Co. Ltd., Jabil Science and Telecommunication Trading Co. Ltd., Jabil Sdn Bhd, Jabil Services Korea Limited, Jabil Silver Creek Inc., Jabil South Africa (Pty) LTD, Jabil Switzerland Manufacturing GmbH, Jabil Technology Co. Ltd, Jabil Technology and Trading Co. Ltd., Jabil Torres S. de R.L. de C.V., Jabil Tuttlingen Manufacturing GmbH, Jabil Umkirch Manufacturing GmbH, Jabil Vietnam Company Limited, Jabil do Brasil Industria Eletroeletronica Ltda., Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices, Kasalis, Kasalis Inc., Kuatro Technologies, Kuatro Ukraine LLC, Manna Renewable Energy Investments Two (Pty) Ltd, NP Medical Inc., NPA de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Nypro, Nypro Alabama LLC, Nypro Atlanta LLC, Nypro China Holdings Limited, Nypro DR LLC, Nypro Deutschland GmbH, Nypro France SAS, Nypro Guadalajara S.A. de C.V., Nypro Healthcare Baja Inc., Nypro Healthcare GmbH, Nypro Healthcare LLC, Nypro Inc., Nypro Iowa Inc., Nypro Limited, Nypro Monterrey Management S. de R.L. de C.V., Nypro Plastics & Metal Products Co. Ltd., Nypro Plastics & Molding Products Co. Ltd., Nypro Puerto Rico Inc., Nypro Research and Developments Limited, Nypro Spain Holding S.L.U., Nypro de Amazonia, Nypro de la Frontera S. de R.L. de C.V., NyproMold Chicago Inc., NyproMold Inc., NyproMold Investment Corp., PT Jabil Circuit Indonesia, Plasticast Hungary Kft., Plasticos Castella S.A.U., Radius Chicago LLC, Radius Hong Kong Limited, Radius Product Development Inc., Roosevelt Insurance Company Ltd., S.M.R. Metal Ltd., Shay Motion Ltd., Shemer Group, Shemer Motion (2009) Ltd., Taiwan Green Point Enterprises, Taiwan Green Point Enterprises Co. Ltd., Telmar Network Technology, TrueTech, Westing Green Plastic Co. Ltd, Wolfe Engineering, Wolfe Engineering Co. Ltd., and Yen Investments 140 (Proprietary) Limited. The following companies are subsidiares of Centene: APS Parent Inc., AWC of Syracuse Inc., Absolute Total Care Inc., AcariaHealth Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #11 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #12 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #13 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #14 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy Inc., AcariaHealth Solutions Inc., Access Medical Acquisition LLC, Access Medical Group of Florida City LLC, Access Medical Group of Hialeah LLC, Access Medical Group of Lakeland LLC, Access Medical Group of Miami LLC, Access Medical Group of North Miami Beach LLC, Access Medical Group of Opa-Locka LLC, Access Medical Group of Perrine LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa II LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa III LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa LLC, Access Medical Group of Westchester LLC, Accountable Care Coalition Direct Contracting LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Chesapeake LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers IV LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers V LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VI LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VII LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Florida Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland Primary Care LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Mississippi LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of New Jersey Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of North Texas LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northwest Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Prime Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Physician Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Texas Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Tennessee LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Texas Inc., Agate Resources Inc., AirLogix, Ambetter of Magnolia Inc., Ambetter of North Carolina Inc., Ambetter of Peach State Inc., America's 1st Choice California Holdings LLC, American Progressive Life and Health Insurance Company of New York, Apixio, Apixio Inc, Arch Personalized Medicine Initiative LLC, Arkansas Health & Wellness Health Plan Inc., Arkansas Total Care Holding Company LLC, Arkansas Total Care Inc., B2B Gestion Integra S.L.U., B2B Salud S.L.U., Bankers Reserve Life Insurance Company of Wisconsin, Blackcrow Asistencia Medica S.L, Bridgeway Health Solutions LLC, Bridgeway Health Solutions of Arizona Inc., Buckeye Community Health Plan Inc., Buckeye Health Plan Community Solutions Inc., CCTX Holdings LLC, CMC Real Estate Company LLC, CT Poprad s.r.o., CT Presov s.r.o., Calibrate Acquisition Company, California Health and Wellness Plan, Cantina Laredo Clayton LP, Cardium Health Services, Care 1st Health Plan of Arizona Inc., Care1st Health Plan Administrative Services Inc., Carolina Complete Health Holding Company Partnership, Carolina Complete Health Inc., Casenet LLC, Casenet S.R.O., CeltiCare Health Plan Holdings LLC, CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts Inc., Celtic Group Inc., Celtic Insurance Company, Cenpatico Behavioral Health LLC, Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona LLC, Cenpatico of Arizona Inc., Centene Center I LLC, Centene Center II LLC, Centene Center LLC, Centene Company of Texas LP, Centene Europe Finance Company Limited, Centene Health Plan Holdings Inc., Centene Institute for Advanced Health Education LLC, Centene International Ventures LLC, Centene Investments LLC, Centene Management Company LLC, Centene Venture Company Alabama Health Plan Inc., Centene Venture Company Florida Inc., Centene Venture Company Illinois Inc., Centene Venture Company Indiana Inc., Centene Venture Company Kansas Inc., Centene Venture Company Michigan Inc., Centene Venture Company Tennessee Inc., Centro Inmunologocia De La Comunidad Valenciana S.L., Centurion Correctional Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, Centurion Detention Health Services LLC, Centurion LLC, Centurion of Arizona LLC, Centurion of Delaware LLC, Centurion of Florida LLC, Centurion of Kansas LLC, Centurion of Minnesota LLC, Centurion of Mississippi LLC, Centurion of New Hampshire LLC, Centurion of Pennsylvania LLC, Centurion of Tennessee LLC, Centurion of Vermont LLC, Centurion of West Virginia LLC, Centurion of Wyoming LLC, Chrysalis Medical Services LLC, Clinica Santo Domingo De Lugo S.L., Collaborative Health Systems IPA LLC, Collaborative Health Systems LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Maryland LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Virginia LLC, Comfort Hospice of Missouri LLC, Comfort Hospice of Texas LLC, ComfortBrook Hospice LLC, Community Medical Group, Community Medical Holdings Corporation, Comprehensive Health Management Inc., Comprehensive Reinsurance Ltd., Coordinated Care Corporation, Coordinated Care of Washington Inc., Country Style Health Care LLC, Discare CZ a.s., District Community Care Inc., Dr Magnet s.r.o., Elche-Crevillente Salud, Envolve Benefits Options Inc., Envolve Captive Insurance Company Inc., Envolve Dental IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Dental Inc., Envolve Dental of Florida Inc., Envolve Dental of Texas Inc., Envolve Health, Envolve Holdings Inc., Envolve Inc., Envolve Optical Inc., Envolve PeopleCare Inc., Envolve Pharmacy IPA LLC, Envolve Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Envolve Total Vision Inc., Envolve Vision Benefits Inc., Envolve Vision IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Vision Inc., Envolve Vision of Florida Inc., Envolve Vision of Texas Inc., Essential Care Partners LLC, Exactus Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Family Nurse Care II LLC, Family Nurse Care LLC, Family Nurse Care of Ohio LLC, Fidelis Care, Forensic Health Services LLC, Foundation Care LLC, Godgrace Asistencia Medica S.L., Golden Triangle Physician Alliance, Grace Hospice of Austin LLC, Grace Hospice of Grand Rapids LLC, Grace Hospice of Illinois LLC, Grace Hospice of Indiana LLC, Grace Hospice of San Antonio LLC, Grace Hospice of Virginia LLC, Grace Hospice of Wisconsin LLC, Granite State Health Plan Inc., Growly Asistencia Sanitaria S.L., HHS Texas Management Inc., HHS Texas Management LP, Hallmark Life Insurance Company, Harmony Behavioral Health IPA Inc., Harmony Behavioral Health Inc., Harmony Health Management Inc., Harmony Health Plan Inc., Harmony Health Systems Inc., Health Care Enterprises LLC, Health Net Access Inc., Health Net Community Solutions Inc., Health Net Community Solutions of Arizona Inc., Health Net Federal Services LLC, Health Net Health Plan of Oregon Inc., Health Net LLC, Health Net Life Insurance Company, Health Net Life Reinsurance Company, Health Net Pharmaceutical Services, Health Net of Arizona Inc., Health Net of California Inc., Health Plan Real Estate Holdings Inc., HealthSmart Benefit Solutions Inc., HealthSmart Benefits Management LLC, HealthSmart Care Management Solutions LP, HealthSmart Information Systems Inc., HealthSmart Preferred Care II LP, HealthSmart Preferred Network II Inc., HealthSmart Primary Care Clinics LP, HealthSmart Rx Solutions Inc., Healthy Louisiana Holdings LLC, Healthy Missouri Holdings Inc., Healthy Washington Holdings Inc., Heritage Health Systems Inc., Heritage Health Systems of Texas Inc., Heritage Home Hospice LLC, Heritage Physician Networks, Home State Health Plan Inc., HomeScripts.com LLC, Hospice DME Company LLC, Hospinet S.L., Hospital Polusa S.A., Hospital Povisa S.A., Hudson Accountable Care LLC, IAH of Florida LLC, Illinois Health Practice Alliance LLC, Infraestructuras y Servicios de Alzira S. L., Integrated Care Network of Florida LLC, Integrated Mental Health Management LLC, Integrated Mental Health Services, Interpreta Holdings Inc., Interpreta Inc., Iowa Total Care Inc., Kentucky Spirit Health Plan Inc., LBB Industries Inc., LifeShare Management Group LLC, LiveHealthier Inc., Louisiana Healthcare Connections Inc., MH Services International Holdings (UK) Limited, MHM, MHM Correctional Services LLC, MHM Health Professionals LLC, MHM Services Inc., MHM Services of California LLC, MHM Solutions LLC, MHN Government Services LLC, MHN Services LLC, MHS Consulting International Inc., MHS Travel & Charter Inc., MR Centrum Melnick s.r.o., MR Poprad s.r.o., MR Zilina s.r.o., Magnolia Health Plan Inc., Managed Health Network, Managed Health Network LLC, Managed Health Services Insurance Corporation, Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Maryland Collaborative Care Transformation Organization Inc., Mauli Ola Health and Wellness Inc., Medicina NZ spol s.r.o., Meridian Health Plan of Illinois Inc., Meridian Health Plan of Michigan Inc., Meridian Management Company LLC, Meridian Network Services LLC, MeridianRx IPA LLC, MeridianRx LLC, MeridianRx of Indiana LLC, Michigan Complete Health, Mid-Atlantic Collaborative Care LLC, Nebraska Total Care Inc., Network Providers LLC, New York Quality Healthcare Corporation, Next Door Neighbors Inc., Next Door Neighbors LLC., North Florida Health Services Inc., Northern Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Novasys Health Inc., OB Care, OB Klinika, Ohana Health Plan Inc., Oklahoma Complete Health Inc., One Care by Care 1st Health Plans of Arizona Inc, Operose Health (Group) Ltd., Operose Health (Group) UK Ltd., Operose Health Ltd., OptiCare Health Systems - Managed Vision Business, PANTHERx Rare Pharmacy, Panther Pass Co LLC, Panther Specialty Holding Co LLC, Pantherx Access Services LLC, Pantherx Specialty LLC, Parker LP LLC, Peach State Health Plan Inc., Penn Marketing America LLC, Pennsylvania Health and Wellness Inc., Phoenix Home Health Care LLC, Pinnacle Home Care LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Illinois LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Indiana LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Kalamazoo LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Missouri LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Wisconsin LLC, Premier Marketing Group LLC, PrimeroSalud S.L., Pro Diagnostic Group A.S., Pro Magnet CZ s.r.o., Pro Magnet s.r.o, Pro RTG s.r.o, Progress Medical A.S., Prowl Holdings LLC, QCA Healthplan Inc., Qualchoice Life and Health Insurance Company, Quincy Coverage Corporation, R&C Healthcare LLC, RMED LLC, RX Direct Inc., Rapid Respiratory Services LLC, Ribera Lab S.L.U., Ribera Salud II, Ribera Salud Proyectos S.L., Ribera Salud S.A., Ribera Salud Tecnologias S.L.U., Ribera Slaud Infraestructuras S.L.U., Ribera-Quilpro UTE, Salus Administrative Services Inc., Salus IPA LLC, Secure Capital Solutions 2000 S.L.U., SelectCare Health Plans Inc., SelectCare of Texas Inc., Seniorcorps Peninsula LLC, Servicios De Mantenimiento Prevencor S.L.U., SilverSummit Healthplan Inc., Social Health Bridge LLC, Social Health Bridge Trust, Specialty Therapeutic Care GP LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care LP, Sunflower State Health Plan Inc., Sunshine Health Community Solutions Inc., Sunshine Health Holding LLC, Sunshine State Health Plan Inc., Superior HealthPlan Community Solutions Inc., Superior HealthPlan Inc., The Practice Properties Limited, The WellCare Management Group Inc., Torrejon Salud S.A., Torrevieja Salud S.L.U., Torrevieja Salud UTE, Traditional Home Health Services LLC, Trillium Community Health Plan Inc., U.S. Medical Management Holdings Inc., U.S. Medical Management LLC, UAM Agent Services Corp., US Script, USMM Accountable Care Partners LLC, Universal American Corp., Universal American Financial Services Inc., Universal American Holdings LLC, WCG Health Management Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of America, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Louisiana Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Nevada Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Washington Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Connecticut Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Hawaii Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of New York Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of North Carolina Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Southwest Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans, WellCare Health Plans of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Plans of California Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Massachusetts Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Missouri Inc., WellCare Health Plans of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Rhode Island Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Vermont Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare National Health Insurance Company, WellCare Pharmacy Benefits Management Inc., WellCare Prescription Insurance Inc., WellCare of Alabama Inc., WellCare of Arkansas Inc., WellCare of California Inc., WellCare of Connecticut Inc., WellCare of Florida Inc., WellCare of Georgia Inc., WellCare of Illinois Inc., WellCare of Indiana Inc., WellCare of Kansas Inc., WellCare of Maine Inc., WellCare of Michigan Holding Company, WellCare of Mississippi Inc., WellCare of Missouri Health Insurance Company Inc., WellCare of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare of New York Inc., WellCare of North Carolina Inc., WellCare of Ohio Inc., WellCare of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare of Pennsylvania Inc., WellCare of Puerto Rico Inc., WellCare of South Carolina Inc., WellCare of Texas Inc., WellCare of Virginia Inc., WellCare of Washington Inc., Wellcare Health Plans Inc., Western Sky Community Care Inc., Windsor Health Group Inc., Winning Security S.L., Worlco Management Services, and nirvanaHealth LLC. Anixter International Inc., through its subsidiary, Anixter Inc., distributes enterprise cabling and security solutions, electrical and electronic wire and cable solutions, and utility power solutions worldwide. The company operates through Network & Security Solutions (NSS), Electrical & Electronic Solutions (EES), and Utility Power Solutions (UPS) segments. The NSS segment offers copper and fiber optic cable and connectivity, access control, video surveillance, intrusion and fire/life safety, cabinet, power, cable management, wireless, professional audio/video, voice and networking switches, and other ancillary products for the technology, finance, transportation, education, government, healthcare, and retail industries, as well as telecommunications service providers. The EES Solutions segment provides electrical and electronic wires and cables, shipboard cables, support and supply products, low-voltage and instrumentation cables, industrial communication and control products, security cables, connectors, industrial Ethernet switches, and voice and data cables to the commercial and industrial, and original equipment manufacturer markets. The UPS segment supplies electrical transmission and distribution products, power plant maintenance, repair and operations supplies, and smart-grid products, as well as arranges materials management and procurement outsourcing for the power generation and transmission, and electricity distribution industries. The company serves contractors, installers, system integrators, value-added resellers, architects, engineers, and wholesale distributors in various industries, including manufacturing, resource extraction, telecommunications, Internet service providers, finance, education, healthcare, retail, transportation, utilities, and defense, as well as government customers. The company was formerly known as Itel Corporation. Anixter International Inc. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Glenview, Illinois. Read More Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More Two Harbors Investment pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 11.18%. TWO has a dividend yield higher than 75% of all dividend-paying stocks, making it a leading dividend payer. Two Harbors Investment has been increasing its dividend for 2 consecutive year(s), indicating that it does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio of Two Harbors Investment is 61.26%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on EPS estimates, Two Harbors Investment will have a dividend payout ratio of 83.95% in the coming year. This indicates that Two Harbors Investment may not be able to sustain their current dividend. View Two Harbors Investment's dividend history. The following companies are subsidiares of Arrow Electronics: A.E. Petsche Belgium BVBA, A.E. Petsche Canada Inc., A.E. Petsche Company, A.E. Petsche Company Inc., A.E. Petsche Company S De RL, A.E. Petsche SAS, A.E. Petsche UK Limited, ACI Technology, AKS Group Nordic AB, ARROWECS Portugal Sociedade Unipessoal, ARROWECS Sociedade Unipessoal LDA, ARW Electronics Ltd., ARW Enterprise Computing Solutions S.A., ARW Portugal Unipessoal LDA, ASI Dedicated Services LLC, ASI Electrical Services LLC, ASI Managed Services LLC, ATM Electronic, ATM Electronic Corp., ATM Electronic Corporation (HK) Limited, ATM Electronics Hong Kong Limited, ATM Electronics Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd, Addex Distribution AS, Adilam Pty. Ltd, Aiqi Xinxing (Beijing) Information Technology Co. Ltd., Altimate Belgium BVBA, Altimate Group, Altimate ND Belgium BVBA, Altimate Netherlands B.V., Annuity Systems Pty Ltd, Arrow (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Arrow Altech Distribution (Pty) Ltd., Arrow Altech Holdings (Pty) Ltd., Arrow Argentina S.A., Arrow Asia Distribution Limited, Arrow Asia Pac Ltd., Arrow Brasil S.A., Arrow Capital Solution BVBA, Arrow Capital Solutions Inc., Arrow Capital Solutions Nederlands BV, Arrow Capital Solutions SAS, Arrow Capital Solutions UK Ltd, Arrow Central Europe GmbH, Arrow Central Europe Holding Munich GmbH, Arrow Chip One Stop Holdings GK, Arrow Componentes ACCR S.R.L., Arrow Components (M) Sdn Bhd, Arrow Components (NZ), Arrow Components Mexico S.A. de C.V., Arrow Components Sweden AB, Arrow Denmark ApS, Arrow Denmark ApS, Arrow ECS (Ireland) Limited, Arrow ECS (NI) Limited, Arrow ECS AG, Arrow ECS ANZ Limited, Arrow ECS ANZ Pty Ltd, Arrow ECS Asia PTE. Ltd, Arrow ECS Australia, Arrow ECS B.V., Arrow ECS Baltic OU, Arrow ECS Brasil Distribuidora Ltda., Arrow ECS Canada Ltd., Arrow ECS Central GmbH, Arrow ECS Denmark A/S, Arrow ECS FZCO, Arrow ECS Finland OY, Arrow ECS GmbH, Arrow ECS Internet Security AG, Arrow ECS Internet Security S.L., Arrow ECS Kft., Arrow ECS Ltd., Arrow ECS New Zealand Limited, Arrow ECS Nordic A/S, Arrow ECS Norway AS, Arrow ECS Pty Ltd., Arrow ECS SA/NV, Arrow ECS SAS, Arrow ECS SPA, Arrow ECS Sarl, Arrow ECS Services Sp.z.o.o., Arrow ECS Singapore Pte. Limited, Arrow ECS Sp.z.o.o., Arrow ECS Support Center Ltd., Arrow ECS Support Center Morocco S.A.R.L.A.U, Arrow ECS Sweden AB, Arrow ECS a.s., Arrow ECS d.o.o., Arrow Eastern Europe GmbH, Arrow Electronice S.R.L., Arrow Electronics (CI) Ltd., Arrow Electronics (China) Trading Co. Ltd., Arrow Electronics (Jersey) Limited, Arrow Electronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Arrow Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Arrow Electronics (Sweden) KB, Arrow Electronics (Thailand) Limited, Arrow Electronics (U.K.) Inc., Arrow Electronics (UK) Ltd., Arrow Electronics ANZ Holdings Pty Ltd., Arrow Electronics Asia (S) Pte Ltd., Arrow Electronics Asia Limited, Arrow Electronics Australia Pty Ltd., Arrow Electronics B.V., Arrow Electronics Canada Ltd., Arrow Electronics China Ltd., Arrow Electronics Components (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Arrow Electronics Czech Republic s.r.o., Arrow Electronics D.O.O., Arrow Electronics Danish Holdings ApS, Arrow Electronics EMEA Group GmbH, Arrow Electronics EMEASA S.r.l., Arrow Electronics Estonia OU, Arrow Electronics FC B.V., Arrow Electronics Funding Corporation, Arrow Electronics GmbH & Co. KG, Arrow Electronics Hellas S.A., Arrow Electronics Holdings Vagyonkezelo Kft, Arrow Electronics Hungary Kereskedelmi Bt, Arrow Electronics India Ltd., Arrow Electronics India Private Limited, Arrow Electronics International Holdings LLC, Arrow Electronics International Inc., Arrow Electronics Italia S.r.l, Arrow Electronics Japan GK, Arrow Electronics Korea Limited, Arrow Electronics Labuan Pte Ltd., Arrow Electronics Ltd., Arrow Electronics Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Arrow Electronics Norwegian Holdings AS, Arrow Electronics Poland Sp.z.o.o., Arrow Electronics Russ OOO, Arrow Electronics Services S.r.l., Arrow Electronics Slovakia s.r.o., Arrow Electronics South Africa LLP, Arrow Electronics Taiwan Ltd., Arrow Electronics UK Holding Ltd., Arrow Electronics Ukraine LLC, Arrow Elektronik Ticaret A.S., Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions Inc., Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions India Private Limited, Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions Ltd., Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions S.A., Arrow Finland OY, Arrow France S.A., Arrow Global Asset Disposition Inc., Arrow Global Supply Chain Services Inc., Arrow Holdings (Delaware) LLC, Arrow Iberia Electronica Lda., Arrow Iberia Electronica S.L.U., Arrow International Holdings L.P., Arrow International Holdings Limited, Arrow Nordic Components AB, Arrow Norway A/S, Arrow S-Tech Norway AS, Arrow SEED (Hong Kong) Limited, Arrow Systems Integration Inc., Arrow UEC Japan KK, Arrow United Holdings LLC, Arrow United International Holdings LP, Arrow Value Recovery ApS (fka Greentech Denmark ApS), Arrow Value Recovery Belgium BVBA, Arrow Value Recovery Czech Republic sro, Arrow Value Recovery Denmark ApS, Arrow Value Recovery EMEA BV, Arrow Value Recovery Finland Oy (fka Greentech Finland OY), Arrow Value Recovery France SAS, Arrow Value Recovery Germany GmbH, Arrow Value Recovery Netherlands BV, Arrow Value Recovery Norway AS (fka Greentech AS), Arrow Value Recovery Sweden AB (fka Greentech Sweden AB), Arrow Value Recovery UK LTD, Arrow eCommerce B.V., Arrow/Artlink Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, Arrow/Components (Agent) Ltd., Arrow/Rapac Ltd., Artlink Technology Co. Ltd., Aspen Labs LLC, Aspencore China Investment LLC, Aspencore LLC, Aspencore Media GmbH, Aspencore/IDG China Investment LLC, Asplenium SA, Asset Recovery Corporation, B.V. Arrow Electronics DLC, Beijing AIQI Technology, Beijing Arrow SEED Technology Co. Ltd, Beijing Canon Advertising Co. Ltd., Broomco (4184) Limited, COMPUTERLINKS, COMPUTERLINKS (UK) Ltd., COMPUTERLINKS Belgium BVBA, COMPUTERLINKS Denmark A/S, COMPUTERLINKS Nederland B.V., COMPUTERLINKS S.A., CSS Computer Security Solutions Erwerbs GmbH, CSS Computer Security Solutions Holding GmbH, CSS Computer Security Solutions Ltd., CT3 Europe Limited, Centia Group Ltd, Centia Ltd., Channel Support Pty Ltd, ChiWan Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Chip One Stop, Chip One Stop (Hong Kong) Ltd., Chip One Stop (Shenzhen) Ltd., Chip One Stop Inc., Commtech Solutions (UK) Limited, Components Agent (Cayman) Limited, Components Agent Asia Holdings Ltd., Components Distribution Business - Achieva, Conrac Asia Display Products Pte. Ltd., Conrac MENA FZE, Converge, Converge (Shanghai) International Trading Co. Ltd., Converge Asia Pte Ltd., Converge Electronics Trading (India) Private Ltd., Converge France SAS, Converge Netherlands BV, Converge Scandinavia AB, Cross Telecom, Data Modul, Data Modul AG, Data Modul Electronics Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Data Modul FZE, Data Modul France S.a r.l, Data Modul Hong Kong Ltd., Data Modul Iberia S.L., Data Modul Inc., Data Modul Italia S.r.l., Data Modul Ltd., Data Modul Shanghai Ltd., Data Modul Suisse GmbH, Data Modul Weikersheim GmbH, Diasa Informatica, Dicopel Inc., Distribution Business - Seed International, Distribution Central (MY) Sdn. Bhd., Distribution Central HK Pty Limited, Distribution Central Limited (NZ), Distribution Central Pte Limited (SG), Distribution Central Pty Limited, E-InfoChips KK, EC America, EDN Asia Advertising Pte Ltd., ETEQ Components Pte Ltd., Electronics Products Technology Co. Ltd., Embedded Developer LLC, Erf 211 Hughes (Pty) Limited, Eshel Technology Group Inc., Eurocomponentes S.A., Excel Tech, Excel Tech Inc., Firewall Systems Pty Limited, Fusion Distribution FZCO, Gates - Arrow Distributing, Gates - FA Distributing, Global Link Technology, Greentech Holding AS, Gross Telecom, ICC Global Media GmbH, IP Vista A/S, IPVista A/S, ITM USA Enterprises Inc., Intechra Holdings, Intex-semi Ltd., KeyLink Systems Group, LED Franchise LLC, LED Source Holdco LLC, LED Source LLC, LOGIX S.A., License Central Pty Ltd, Lite-On Korea Ltd., Marubun Arrow (HK) Limited, Marubun Arrow (S) Pte Ltd., Marubun Arrow (Thailand) Co Limited, Marubun Arrow Asia Ltd., Marubun Arrow Europe Kft., Marubun Corporation, Marubun USA Corporation, Marubun-Arrow Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Marubun/Arrow (HK) Limited, Marubun/Arrow (M) Sdn. Bhd (Malaysia), Marubun/Arrow (Philippines) Inc., Marubun/Arrow (S) Pte Ltd., Marubun/Arrow (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marubun/Arrow (Shenzhen) Electronic Product Consulting Company Limited, Marubun/Arrow (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Marubun/Arrow Asia Ltd., Marubun/Arrow USA II LLC, Marubun/Arrow USA LLC, NIC Components Asia PTE Ltd., NIC Components Corp., NIC Components Europe Limited, NIC Eurotech Limited, NUH Electronics India Private Limted, Networld Systems Pty Ltd, Nextworth Solutions Inc., Nu Horizons Electronics, Nu Horizons Electronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Nu Horizons Electronics Asia PTE Ltd., Nu Horizons Electronics Hong Kong Ltd., Nu Horizons Electronics Malaysia SDN BHD, NuHo Singapore Holdings LLC, Observatory Crest, Openway Group SA, Openway SAS, PCG Parent Corp., PCG Trading LLC, PT Marubun Arrow Indonesia, Pansystem S.r.l., Pax8 Inc., Power and Signal Group GmbH, R.D. Trading Limited, RDC, RF Wireless & Power - Richardson Electronics, Rack Systems Pty Ltd, Red Education Pty Ltd, Redemtech, Renewal Systems Pty Ltd, Richardson RFPD (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Richardson RFPD (Thailand) Limited, Richardson RFPD Australia Pty. Ltd., Richardson RFPD Canada Inc., Richardson RFPD Electronics Trading (China) Co. Ltd., Richardson RFPD France SAS, Richardson RFPD Germany GmbH, Richardson RFPD Hong Kong, Richardson RFPD Inc., Richardson RFPD Israel Ltd., Richardson RFPD Italy Srl, Richardson RFPD Japan KK, Richardson RFPD Korea Ltd., Richardson RFPD Netherlands BV, Richardson RFPD Singapore, Richardson RFPD Spain SL, Richardson RFPD Sweden AB, Richardson RFPD Taiwan, Richardson RFPD UK Ltd., Richey Electronics, San Systems Pty Ltd, Schuylkill Metals of Plant City Inc., Seneca Data, Seneca Data Distributors Inc., Shared Technologies, Silicon Frameworks LLC, SiliconEgypt Technologies LLC, SiliconExpert Holdings LLC, SiliconExpert Technologies, SiliconExpert Technologies Inc., Sphinx CST Limited, Sphinx CST Networks Limited, Sphinx Group, Sphinx Group Limited, Sphinx Professional Services Limited, Spoerle Hungary Kereskedelmi Kft, Sun Chain Technology Corp., TLW Electronics Ltd., TechTurn, Titan Supply Chain Services Limited, Titan Supply Chain Services Pte Ltd., Trafomo AB, Trafomo ApS, Transim Technology, Transim Technology Corporation, U.S. Micro Operating Company LLC, UBM Tech Electronics Network, Ultra Source Electronics (SZ) Co LTD, Ultra Source Technology Corp., Ultra Source Trading Hong Kong Limited, United Technical Publishing Division - Hearst Business Media, Universe Electron Corporation, Verical, Verwaltungsgesellschaft Arrow Electronics GmbH, Wireless and Infrastructure Business Unit - Waching Company, Yongming Xincheng (Beijing) Technology Co., e-InfoChips, e-Infochips Private Limited, eInfochips, eMedia Asia Limited, immixGovernment Inc., immixGroup, immixGroup Inc., immixSolutions Inc., and immixTechnology. CYBG PLC, through its subsidiaries, provides retail and business banking products and services to individuals and businesses under the Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank, B, and Virgin Money brands in the United Kingdom. It operates through SME Banking and Retail Banking segments. The SME Banking segment offers a range of banking products and services, including business current accounts; and secured and unsecured term loans, business overdrafts, and invoice and asset financing products and services. It also provides international trade services, such as import loans, export loans, documentary collections, currency guarantees, and letters of credit for securing trade; and current account facilities comprising debit cards, cheque books, regular statements, direct debits, and standing orders, as well as day to day and online banking services. This segment serves business customers in the small business, commercial, corporate, and structured finance markets. The Retail Banking segment offers personal current accounts, savings accounts, and term deposits; occupied mortgage loans and BTL loans, unsecured personal loans, and overdrafts, as well as credit card products; and insurance and investment products. The company was founded in 1838 and is based in Leeds, the United Kingdom. Read More 15 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Deutsche Wohnen in the last year. There are currently 8 hold ratings and 7 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "hold" Deutsche Wohnen stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in DWNI, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. View analyst ratings for Deutsche Wohnen or view top-rated stocks. Oasis Petroleum Inc., an independent exploration and production company, focuses on the acquisition and development of onshore unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates through Exploration and Production(E&P), and Midstream segments. The E&P segment engages in the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties. The Midstream segment offers midstream services, such as natural gas gathering, compression, processing and, gas lift supply; crude oil gathering, terminaling, and transportation; produced and flowback water gathering, and disposal; and water distribution. As of December 31, 2020, the company had 401,766 net leasehold acres in the Williston Basin; and 24,396 net leasehold acres in the Permian Basin, as well as approximately 152.2 million barrels of oil equivalent of estimated net proved reserves. The company sells its crude oil and natural gas to refiners, marketers, and other purchasers that have access to pipeline and rail facilities. Oasis Petroleum Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Read More 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. GlaxoSmithKline Plc is a healthcare company, which engages in the research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines, and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals R&D; Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. The Pharmaceuticals segment focuses on developing medicines in respiratory and infectious diseases, oncology, and immuno-inflammation. The Pharmaceuticals R&D segment focuses on science related to the immune system, the use of human genetics and advanced technologies, and is driven by the multiplier effect of Science x Technology x Culture. The Vaccines segment produces pediatric and adult vaccines to prevent a range of infectious diseases including, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, typhoid, influenza, and bacterial meningitis. The Consumer Healthcare segment develops and markets brands in the oral health, pain relief, respiratory, nutrition and gastro intestinal, and skin health categories. The company was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Middlesex, the United Kingdom. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Hudson's Bay. 4.3 Community Rank Outperform Votes Hudson's Bay has received 521 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Hudson's Bay has received 295 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Hudson's Bay has received 63.85% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Hudson's Bay and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe HBC will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe HBC will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Ibstock plc manufactures and sells clay and concrete building products and solutions primarily in the United Kingdom. Its principal products include clay bricks, brick components, concrete roof tiles, concrete stone masonry substitutes, concrete fencing, pre-stressed concrete, and concrete rail products. The company provides facing bricks, walling stones, architectural masonry products, cast stones, facade systems, and retaining walls, as well as lintels, sills, and arches; and cladding solutions; roof tiles, chimneys, soffits, and roofing accessories; and fencings, caps and copings, bollards, balustrades, path edgings, and urban landscaping products. It also offers floor beams, door steps, gully surrounds, screed rails, insulated floorings, and hollowcore products; and rail and infrastructure products, such as troughing, cable theft protection, boards, blocks, bases, catchpits, and inspection chambers. In addition, the company offers engraving, cutting, and bonding services; floor beam and block design, supply, and fitting solutions; bespoke concrete products; and staircases and lift shafts services. Its products are used in new build housing; repair, maintenance, and improvement; and infrastructure markets. The company sells its products under the Forticrete, Supreme, Anderton, and Longley brands to customers in the construction industry. Ibstock plc was founded in 1825 and is headquartered in Ibstock, the United Kingdom. Read More Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Read More Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF's stock was trading at $25.82 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, PCY shares have increased by 0.8% and is now trading at $26.02. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares Europe ETF's stock was trading at $37.19 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IEV stock has increased by 44.2% and is now trading at $53.64. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares MSCI Germany ETF's stock was trading at $23.17 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWG stock has increased by 42.2% and is now trading at $32.94. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF's stock was trading at $36.70 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWT stock has increased by 79.0% and is now trading at $65.69. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Ashland Global: 565 Corporation, ASH GP INC., ASHLAND SPECIALTY CHEMICAL (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD., ASHLAND SPECIALTY CHEMICALS (MALAYSIA) SDN.BHD, Adams Drive Totowa L.L.C., Alera Property Holdings LLC, Alera Technologies Inc., Alix Technologies LLC, Aloe Vemera S.P.R de R.L. de C.V., Ash (Gibraltar) One Limited, Ash B CIS 1 Limited, Ash B CIS 2 Limited, Ash B1 Limited, Ash B2 Limited, Ash B3 Limited, Ash B4 Limited, Ash B5 Limited, Ash CIS Canada Corp., Ash CIS Canada Holdings B.V., Ash CIS GmbH, Ash Global Holding Three GmbH, Ash Global Holdings Two B.V., Ash Junior Global Holding One LLC, Ash Junior Global Holding Two LLC, Ash Swiss Holding Two GmbH, AshLux Three S.a r.l., AshOne C. V., Ashland (Australasia) Pty. Limited, Ashland (Changzhou) Advanced Chemical Co. Ltd., Ashland (Changzhou) Specialty Chemical Co. Ltd, Ashland (China) Holdings Co. Ltd., Ashland (Gibraltar) One Holding Inc., Ashland (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Ashland Argentina S.R.L., Ashland CZ s.r.o., Ashland Canada Corp./Corporation Ashland Canada, Ashland Canada Holdings B. V., Ashland Chemco Inc., Ashland Chemical De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ashland Chemical Hispania S. L., Ashland Chemical Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ashland Chemicals (Nanjing) Company Limited, Ashland Colombia S.A.S., Ashland Comercio de Especialidades Quimicas do Brasil Ltda., Ashland Danmark ApS, Ashland Eastern Markets LLC, Ashland Ethanol Inc., Ashland Finance Limited, Ashland Finland Oy, Ashland France SAS, Ashland Global Holdings One C.V., Ashland India Private Limited, Ashland Industria de Ingredientes do Brasil Ltda., Ashland Industries Deutschland GmbH, Ashland Industries Europe GmbH, Ashland Industries France SAS, Ashland Industries Italia S.r.l., Ashland Industries Nederland B.V., Ashland Industries UK Limited, Ashland International Holdings LLC, Ashland Italia S.r.l., Ashland Japan Ltd., Ashland Korea Limited, Ashland LLC, Ashland Licensing and Intellectual Property LLC, Ashland ME Holdings Inc., Ashland Mexico Holdings One LLC, Ashland Mexico Holdings Two LLC, Ashland Nigeria Exploration Unlimited, Ashland Oil (Nigeria) Company Unlimited, Ashland Oil Inc., Ashland Pacific Pty. Ltd., Ashland Participacoes Ltda., Ashland Pharmachem International Holdings LLC, Ashland Polimeros do Brasil S.A., Ashland Services B. V., Ashland Services Mexico S.A. de C.V., Ashland Singapore Pte. Ltd., Ashland Specialties Austria GmbH, Ashland Specialties Belgium BVBA, Ashland Specialties France S.a.r.l., Ashland Specialties Hispania S.L., Ashland Specialties Holding C.V., Ashland Specialties Ireland Limited, Ashland Specialties Poland Sp. z o.o., Ashland Specialties Sverige AB, Ashland Specialties UK Limited, Ashland Specialty Chemical Korea Co. Ltd., Ashland Specialty Ingredients G.P., Ashland Technologies GmbH, Ashland-Alaskan Limited, Ashland-Plasticos De Portugal Lda., Ashmont Insurance Company Inc., Ashprop Two LLC, Avoca LLC, Avoele S.A. de C.V., Belleville Realty Corp., Bluegrass Insurance Company Limited, CLTA LLC, CVG Capital III LLC, Carol Clifton Inc., Clevedon Sp. z o.o., Curtis Bay Insurance Co. Ltd, East Bay Realty Services Inc., Ever Success Overseas Limited, FRJ Inc., Fospur, Hercofina, Hercules, Hercules Holding BV BVBA, Hercules Holding II Limited, Hercules Hydrocarbon Holdings Inc., Hercules International Limited LLC, Hercules Investment ApS, Hercules Investments Netherlands B.V., Hercules Islands Corporation, Hercules LLC, Hercules Paper Holdings Inc., Hercules Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, ISP (Belgium) International N. V., ISP Alginates Inc., ISP Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd, ISP Biochema Schwaben GmbH, ISP Canada Corp., ISP Capital LLC, ISP Chemco LLC, ISP Chemical Products LLC, ISP Chemicals LLC, ISP Environmental Services Inc., ISP France Holding SARL, ISP France Marketing SARL, ISP Freetown Fine Chemicals Inc., ISP Freight Services N. V., ISP Global Operations (Barbados) Inc., ISP Global Technologies Deutschland Unterstutzungskasse GmbH, ISP Global Technologies Inc., ISP Global Technologies LLC, ISP HC Limited, ISP Holdings (U.K.) Ltd., ISP Hungary Holdings Limited Liability Company, ISP International Corp., ISP Investments LLC, ISP Lima LLC, ISP Luxembourg Canada S.a.r.l., ISP Management Company Inc., ISP Marl GmbH, ISP Marl Holdings GmbH, ISP Microcaps (U.K.) Limited, ISP Pharma Systems LLC, ISP Real Estate Company Inc., ISP Singapore Holding LLC, ISP Technologies Inc., ISP Technologies LLC, International Specialty Holdings LLC, International Specialty Products, International Specialty Products (India) Private Limited, International Specialty Products Funding Corporation, International Specialty Products Inc., Jiangmen Ashland Chemicals Company Limited, Nanjing Clear Environment Protection, Northwest Coatings, Oil Can Henrys, PT Ashland Asia, PT ISP Chemicals Indonesia, Pakistan Gum Industries (Private) Limited, Pharmachem Laboratories, Pharmachem Laboratories LLC, Pharmachem Laboratories Utah LLC, Prince Street Paterson LLC, Progiven S.A.S., Proprietary Nutritionals LLC, Ralop S. de R.L. de C.V., Saudi Industrial Resins Co. Ltd. (Polyester), Shanghai Ashland Industrial Trading Co. Ltd., St Croix Petrochemical Corp, Taiwan Ashland Co. Ltd., Techwax Limited, Vemera S. de R.L. de C.V., and WSP LLC. Margaux Resources Ltd., a polymetallic exploration company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in the Kootenay Arc in Southeastern British Columbia in Canada. The company primarily explores for zinc, gold, and tungsten deposits. It holds an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Jackpot/Oxide, Ore Hill, Aspenex, Bayonne, Sheep Creek, Canex, and Old Timer properties located in Salmo, British Columbia. The company was formerly known as Carmen Energy Inc. and changed its name to Margaux Resources Ltd. in July 2013. Margaux Resources Ltd. was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Calgary, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Travelers Companies: 10762962 Canada Inc., 350 Market Street LLC, 8527512 Canada Inc., Aetna Life and Casualty Co, American Equity Insurance Company, American Equity Specialty Insurance Company, Aprilgrange Limited, Arch Street North LLC, Auto Hartford Investments LLC, Bayhill Restaurant II Associates, Camperdown Corporation, Constitution State Services LLC, Discover Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Discover Specialty Insurance Company, F&G UK Underwriters Limited, Farmington Casualty Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Underwriters Inc., First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Company, Gulf Underwriters Insurance Company, IHP Capital Partners Fund VIII L.P., Northbrook Holdings Inc., Northfield Insurance Company, Northland Casualty Company, Northland Insurance Company, Phoenix UK Investments LLC, SPC Insurance Agency Inc., Select Insurance Company, Simply Business Holdings Inc., Simply Business Inc., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, St. Paul Guardian Insurance Company, St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company, St. Paul Protective Insurance Company, St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Company, Standard Fire Properties LLC, Standard Fire UK Investments LLC, TCI Global Services Inc., TPC Investments Inc., TPC U.K. Investments LLC, The Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford Connecticut, The Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, The Family Business Institute LLC, The Phoenix Insurance Company, The St. Paul Companies Inc., The Standard Fire Insurance Company, The Travelers Casualty Company, The Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company of America, The Travelers Indemnity Company of Connecticut, The Travelers Lloyds Insurance Company, TravCo Insurance Company, Travelers (Bermuda) Limited, Travelers Brazil Acquisition LLC, Travelers Brazil Holding LLC, Travelers Casualty Company of Connecticut, Travelers Casualty Insurance Company of America, Travelers Casualty UK Investments LLC, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of Europe Limited, Travelers Commercial Casualty Company, Travelers Commercial Insurance Company, Travelers Constitution State Insurance Company, Travelers Distribution Alliance Inc., Travelers Excess and Surplus Lines Company, Travelers Global Inc., Travelers Indemnity U.K. Investments LLC, Travelers Insurance Company Limited, Travelers Insurance Company of Canada, Travelers Insurance Designated Activity Company, Travelers Insurance Group Holdings Inc., Travelers Lloyds of Texas Insurance Company, Travelers London Limited, Travelers MGA Inc., Travelers Management Limited, Travelers Marine LLC, Travelers Participacoes em Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Personal Insurance Company, Travelers Personal Security Insurance Company, Travelers Property Casualty Company of America, Travelers Property Casualty Corp., Travelers Property Casualty Insurance Company, Travelers Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Syndicate Management Limited, Travelers Texas MGA Inc., Travelers Underwriting Agency Limited, Ultramar Travel Management, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, Xbridge Limited, Zensurance Brokers Inc., and Zensurance Inc.. POET Technologies Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells discrete and integrated opto-electronic solutions in Canada, the United States, and Singapore. It offers integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer, a novel platform that allows the seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques and packaging methods. It also develops photonic integrated components. The company serves the data center, telecommunications, Internet of things and industrial sensing, automotive LIDAR, and on-board optic markets. The company was formerly known as Opel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to POET Technologies Inc. in June 2013. POET Technologies Inc. was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More Vanguard Real Estate ETF's stock was trading at $81.34 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, VNQ shares have increased by 36.6% and is now trading at $111.09. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Midstates Petroleum Company, Inc. engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in the United States. The company's operations are primarily focused on exploration and production activities in the Mississippian Lime. As of December 31, 2018, its assets consisted of approximately 102,198 net acres in the Mississippian Lime trend in Woods and Alfalfa counties of Oklahoma. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of UnitedHealth Group: 1031387 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1070715 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1st Avenue Pharmacy Inc., 310 Canyon Medical, 310 Canyon Medical LLC, 4C MSO LLC, 4C Medical Group PLC, 5995 Minnetonka LLC, ABCO International Holdings LLC, ACN Group IPA of New York, ACN Group IPA of New York Inc., ACN Group of California, ACN Group of California Inc., AHJV, AHJV MSO, AHN Accontable Care Organization LLC, AHN Central Services LLC, AHN Target Holdings LLC, AMIL International, AMIL International S.a.r.l., APS Assistencia Personalizada a Saude Ltda., ARC Infusion, ASC Holdings of New Jersey LLC, ASC Network LLC, ASI Global, ASI Global LLC, Access Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Inc., Access I.V., Administradora Clinica La Colina S.A.S., Administradora Country S.A., Administradora Medica Centromed S.A., Advanced Care, Advanced Care Pharmacy, Advanced Pharma Inc., Advanced Surgery Center of Clifton LLC, Advanced Surgical Hospital LLC, Advantage Care Network Inc., Advocate Condell Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Sherman Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate-SCA Partners LLC, Alere Health, Alere Health Improvement Company, Alere Healthcare of Illinois, Alere Wellbeing, Alere Wellology, Alere of New York, Aliansalud Entidad Promotora de Salud S.A., All Savers Insurance Company, All Savers Life Insurance Company of California, Alliance Surgical Center LLC, Aloha Surgical Center LLC, Ambient Healthcare, Ambient Healthcare Inc., Ambient Healthcare of Central Florida, Ambient Healthcare of Georgia, Ambient Healthcare of Northeast Florida, Ambient Healthcare of S. Florida, Ambient Healthcare of West Florida, Ambient Holdings, Ambient Holdings Inc., Ambient Nursing Services, AmeriChoice, AmeriChoice Corporation, AmeriChoice Health Services, AmeriChoice of Connecticut, AmeriChoice of New Jersey, AmeriChoice of New Jersey Inc., American Health Network of Indiana Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Indiana II LLC, American Health Network of Indiana LLC, American Health Network of Ohio Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Ohio II LLC, American Health Network of Ohio LLC, Amico Saude Ltda., Amil, Amil Assistencia Medica Internacional S.A., Amil Lifesciences Participacoes Ltda., Antelope Valley Surgery Center L.P., Analisis Clinicos ML S.A.C., Apothecary Holdings Inc., Apothecary Shop of Phoenix Inc., AppleCare Medical Management, AppleCare Medical Management LLC, Aquitania Chilean Holding SpA, Arise Physician Group, Arizona Physicians IPA, Arizona Physicians IPA Inc., AssuranceRx, AssuranceRx LLC, Athens ASC Holdings LLC, Audax Health Solutions, Audax Health Solutions LLC, Austin Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Avella Patient Access Program Inc., Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Avella of Austin Inc., Avella of Columbus Inc., Avella of Deer Valley Inc., Avella of Denver Inc., Avella of Gilbert Inc., Avella of Las Vegas II Inc., Avella of Orlando Inc., Avella of Phoenix III Inc., Avella of Sacramento Inc., Avella of Scottsdale Inc., Avella of St. Louis Inc., Avella of Tampa LLC, Avella of Tucson II Inc., Avella of Tucson Inc., Aveta Arizona, Aveta Health Solutions Inc., Aveta Inc., Aveta Kansas City, Aveta Tennessee, AxelaCare Health Solutions, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings LLC, AxelaCare LLC, B.R.A.S.S. Partnership in Commendam, Banmedica Colombia SpA, Banmedica Internacional SpA, Banmedica S.A., Beach Surgical Holdings III LLC, Behavioral Healthcare Options, Behavioral Healthcare Options Inc., Belleville Surgical Center Ltd. an Illinois Limited Partnership, Benefit Administration for the Self Employed L.L.C., Benefitter Insurance Solutions Inc., Birmingham Outpatient Surgical Center LLC, Blackstone Valley Surgicare GP LLC, Blue Ridge GP LLC, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings I SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings II SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings III SRL, Bordeaux Holding SpA, Bordeaux International Holdings Inc., Bordeaux UK Holdings I Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings III Limited, Bosque Medical Center Ltda., Brandon Ambulatory Surgery Center LC, BriovaRx, BriovaRx, BriovaRx Infusion Services, BriovaRx Infusion Services 102 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 200 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 204 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 209 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 305 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 402 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services Inc., BriovaRx Specialty LLC, BriovaRx of California, BriovaRx of California Inc., BriovaRx of Florida, BriovaRx of Florida Inc., BriovaRx of Georgia, BriovaRx of Georgia LLC, BriovaRx of Hawaii, BriovaRx of Indiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana L.L.C., BriovaRx of Maine, BriovaRx of Maine Inc., BriovaRx of Massachusetts, BriovaRx of Massachusetts LLC, BriovaRx of Nevada, BriovaRx of New York, BriovaRx of New York Inc., BriovaRx of Texas, BriovaRx of Texas Inc., CDC Holdings Colombia S.A.S., CLISA Clinica de Santo Antonio S.A., CMO Centro Medico de Oftalmologia S/S Ltda., CMS Central de Manipulacao e Servicos Farmaceuticos S.A., CNIC Health Solutions Inc., COI Participacoes S.A., COI Clinicas Oncologicas Integradas S.A., Cabin Enterprises LLC, Cabin Holdings LLC, California MedTrans Network IPA LLC, California MedTrans Network MSO LLC, California Medical Group Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, Camp Hill-SCA Centers LLC, Capital City Medical Group L.L.C., Cardio Management, Cardio Management Inc., Care Improvement Plus Group Management, Care Improvement Plus Group Management LLC, Care Improvement Plus South Central Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus Wisconsin Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus of Texas Insurance Company, Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha Ltda., Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha S.A., Castle Rock SurgiCenter LLC, Catalyst360, Catalyst360 LLC, Catamaran Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Catamaran Health Solutions, Catamaran Holdings I, Catamaran IPA III, Catamaran Mail, Catamaran PBM of Illinois II, Catamaran PBM of Puerto Rico, Catamaran PD of Pennsylvania, Catamaran PD of Puerto Rico, Catamaran Rebate Management, Catamaran S.a.r.l., Catamaran Senior Services, Catamaran of Pennsylvania, Cedar Park Surgery Center LLC, Cemed Care - Empressa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Cemed Care Empresa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Central Indiana Care Organization LLC, Central Ohio Care Organization LLC, Central de Compras SpA, CentriHealth Corporation, CentriHealth UK Limited, CentrifyHealth LLC, Centro Medico Hospitalar Pitangueiras Ltda., Centro Medico Odontologico Americano S.A.C., Centro Medico PJ Ltda., Centro de Entrenamiento en Reanimacion y Prevencion Limitada (CERP), Centro de Servicios Compartidos Banmedica S.A., Centromed Quilpue S.A., Centros Medicos y Dentales Multimed Ltda., Centurion Casualty Company, Channel Islands Surgicenter L.P., Channel Islands Surgicenter Properties LLC, Charleston Surgery Properties LLC, Charlotte-SC LLC, Childrens Surgery Center LLC, ChinaGate (Hong Kong) Limited, ChinaGate Company Limited, Citrus Regional Surgery Center L.P., Clinica Oftalmologica Danilo de Castro Sociedade Simples, Clinical Partners of Colorado Springs LLC, Clinica Alameda S.A., Clinica Bio Bio S.A., Clinica Ciudad del Mar S.A., Clinica Davila y Servicios Medicos S.A., Clinica Medico Cirurgica de Santa Tecla S.A., Clinica San Borja (La Esperanza del Peru S.A.), Clinica San Felipe S.A., Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Clinica Sanchez Ferrer S.A., Clinica Vespucio S.A., Clinica del Country S.A., Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare, Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare Inc., Coalition For Advanced Pharmacy Services, Coalition for Advanced Pharmacy Services Inc., Coastal Physicians Management Inc., Collaborative Care Holdings, Collaborative Care Holdings LLC, Collaborative Care Services, Collaborative Care Services Inc., Collaborative Care Solutions, Collaborative Realty, Collaborative Realty LLC, Colmedica Medicina Prepagada, Colonial Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Colorado Innovative Physician Solutions Inc., Colorado Springs Surgery Center Ltd., Comfort Care Transportation, Comfort Care Transportation LLC, Commonwealth Administrators, Connecticut Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Connecticut Surgery Properties LLC, Connecticut Surgical Center LLC, Connextions, Connextions HCI, Constructora e Inmobiliaria Magapoq S.A., Consumer Wellness Solutions Inc., Country Scan Ltda., Crescent Drug Corp., Cypress Care, Cypress Care Inc., DBP Services of New York IPA, DBP Services of New York IPA Inc., DTC Surgery Center LLC, DWIC of Tampa Bay, DWIC of Tampa Bay Inc., DaVita Magan Management Inc., Danbury Surgical Center L.P., Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company, Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company LLC, Definity Health, Dental Benefit Providers, Dental Benefit Providers Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of California, Dental Benefit Providers of California Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois, Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois Inc., Derry Surgical Center LLC, Diagnostico Ecotomografico Centromed Ltda., Diasnostico por Imagenes Centromed Ltda., Dilab Medicina Nuclear Ltda., Diplomat Pharmacy, Distance Learning Network, Distance Learning Network Inc., Doctor + S.A.C., Dry Creek Surgery Center LLC, Dublin Surgery Center LLC, Duncan Printing Services, Duncan Printing Services LLC, E Street Endoscopy LLC, ELG FZE, EP Campus I, EP Campus I LLC, East Brunswick Surgery Center LLC, Electronic Network Systems, Electronic Network Systems Inc., Elual Participacoes S.A., Empire Physician Management Company, Empire Physician Management Company LLC, Employers Health Choice PPO Inc., Empremedica S. A., Endoscopy Center Affiliates Inc., Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Equian, Equian LLC, Equian Parent Corp., Esho Empresa de Servicos Hospitalares S.A., Etho Empresa de Tecnologia Hospitalar Ltda., Evercare Collaborative Solutions, Evercare Collaborative Solutions Inc., Everett MSO Inc., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos Ltda., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos S.A., Excelsior Insurance Brokerage Inc., Executive Health Resources, Executive Health Resources Inc., Executive Surgery Center LLC, Eye Clinic Oftalmologia Clinico Cirurgica e Diagnostico Ltda., FMG Holdings, FMG Holdings LLC, FOR HEALTH OF ARIZONA, Family Health Care Services, Family Home Hospice, Family Home Hospice Inc., First Rx Specialty & Mail Services, Florida MedTrans Network LLC, Florida MedTrans Network MSO LLC, For Health, For Health Inc., For Health of Arizona Inc., Fortified Provider Network Inc., Fortify Technologies Asia LLC, Fortify Technologies LLC, Foundation Financial Services Inc., Franklin Surgical Center LLC, Freedom Life Insurance Company of America, Freeway Surgicenter of Houston LLC, Frontier MEDEX Limited, Frontier Medex Tanzania Limited, FrontierMEDEX, FrontierMEDEX (RMS), FrontierMEDEX (RMS) Inc., FrontierMEDEX Government Services, FrontierMEDEX Government Services LLC, FrontierMEDEX Inc., FrontierMEDEX Kenya Limited, FrontierMEDEX US, FrontierMEDEX US Inc., Fundacion Banmedica, GRANTS PASS SURGERY CENTER LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center Ltd., Gainesville Surgery Center L.P., Gainesville Surgery Properties LLC, Genoa, Genoa Healthcare Inc., Genoa Healthcare LLC, Genoa QoL Wholesale LLC, Genoa Technology (Canada) Inc., Genoa Technology Inc., Genoa Telepsychiatry Inc., Genoa of Arkansas LLC, Glenwood Surgical Center L.P., Glenwood-SC Inc., Golden Outlook, Golden Outlook Inc., Golden Rule Financial Corporation, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Golden Triangle Surgicenter L.P., Grapevine Finance LLC, Greater Hartford ASC LLC, Grove Place Surgery Center L.L.C., Guardian Health Systems Limited Partnership, H&W Indemnity (SPC), H&W Indemnity (SPC) Ltd., H.I. Investments Holding Company LLC, HCP ACO California LLC, HCP ACO Nevada LLC, HCentive Technology India Private Limited, HMI NewCo LLC, Harken Health Insurance Company, Hayes-Strub LLC, Health Business Systems, Health Care-ONE Insurance Agency Inc., Health Inventures Employment Solutions LLC, Health Inventures LLC, Health Net Insurance of New York, Health Net Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Health Plan of Nevada, Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Health Technology Analysts Pty Limited, HealthAllies, HealthAllies Inc., HealthCare Partners ASC-LB LLC, HealthCare Partners Management Services California LLC, HealthCare Partners RE LLC, HealthFirst IPA Inc., HealthMarkets Group Inc., HealthMarkets Inc., HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., HealthMarkets LLC, HealthMarkets NewCo Inc., HealthMarkets Services Inc., HealthSCOPE Holdings Inc., HealthScope Benefits Inc., Healthcare Partners Plan of Nevada Inc., Healthcare Solutions Inc., Heartland Heart and Vascular LLC, Help S.A., Help Service S.A., Highlands Ranch Healthcare, Highlands Ranch Healthcare LLC, Home Care I.V. of Bend, Home Infusion With Heart, Home Medical S.A., Hospice Inspiris Holdings, Hospice Inspiris Holdings Inc., Hospitais Associados de Pernambuco Ltda., Hospital Alvorada de Taguatinga Ltda., Hospital Ana Costa S.A., Hospital Maternidade Promater Ltda., Hospital Samaritano de Sao Paulo Ltda., Hospital Santa Helena S.A., Hospital de Clinicas de Jacarepagua Ltda., Humedica, Humedica Inc., Hygeia Corporation, Hygeia Corporation (Canada), Hygeia Corporation (DE), Hygeia Corporation (Ontario), INOV8 Surgical at Memorial City LLC, INSPIRIS of New York IPA, INSPIRIS of New York Management, INSPIRIS of New York Management Inc., INSPIRIS of Texas Physician Group, IRX Financing I LLC, Illinois Independent Care Network, Imed Star Servicos de Desempenho Organizacional Ltda., Impel Consulting Experts, Impel Consulting Experts L.L.C., Impel Management Services L.L.C., Indian River Surgery Center Ltd., Indian River Surgery Properties LLC, Indiana Care Organization LLC, Infusource, Ingram & Associates, Ingram & Associates LLC, Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3001 S.A., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3600 Ltda., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo S.A., Inmobiliaria Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Inmobiliaria Vinamed Ltda., Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Alameda S.A., Inspiris, Inspiris Inc., Inspiris Services Company, Inspiris of Tennessee, Instituto do Radium de Cammpinas Ltda, International Psychological Services Pty Limited, Inversiones Clinicas Santa Maria S.A., Isapre Banmedica S.A., Isapre Vida Tres S.A., Johnston Surgicare L.P., Joliet Surgery Center Limited Partnership, LHI, Laboratorio ROE S.A., Laboratorios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., LifePrint Health, LifePrint Health Inc., LifeStyles Marketing Group Inc., LifeWell Ltd. Co., Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization, Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization LLC, Lifeprint East, Lifeprint East Inc., Logistics Health Inc., Lotten-Eyes Oftalmologia Clinica e Cirurgica Ltda., Louisville S.C. Ltd., Louisville-SC Properties Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Inc., Lusiadas - Parcerias Cascais S.A., Lusiadas A.C.E., Lusiadas S.A., Lusiadas SGPS S.A., MAMSI Insurance Resources, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, MD Ops, MD Ops Inc., MD-Individual Practice Association, MD-Individual Practice Association Inc., ME AHS UC LLC, MEDEX Insurance Services, MEDEX Insurance Services Inc., MGH/SCA LLC, MHC Real Estate Holdings, MHC Real Estate Holdings LLC, MIAMI SURGERY CENTER LLC, MSLA Management LLC, MXMD Centros De Cancer, Mamoeco Mamografia e Ecografia Centro de Diagnostico, Managed Physical Network, Managed Physical Network Inc., March Holdings, March Holdings Inc., March Vision Care, March Vision Care Inc., Marin Surgery Holdings Inc., Maryland Ambulatory Centers, Maryland-SCA Centers LLC, Massachusetts Assurance Company Ltd. PIC, Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center LLC, Mat-Rx Development, Mat-Rx Fort Worth GP, MedExpress Development, MedExpress Development LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Alabama LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Inc. - Ohio, MedExpress Urgent Care Maine Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care New Hampshire Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach, MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach LLC, MedSynergies, MedSynergies LLC, MedSynergies North Texas, Medalliance Net Ltda, Medalliance Net Ltda., Medica Health Plans of Florida, Medica Health Plans of Florida Inc., Medica HealthCare Plans, Medica HealthCare Plans Inc., Medical Clinic of North Texas PLLC, Medical Hilfe S.A., Medical Preparatory School of Allied Health, Medical Support Los Angeles Inc., Medical Surgical Centers of America Inc., Medical Transportation Services, Medical Transportation Services LLC, Medication Management Systems Inc., Melbourne Surgery Center LLC, Memorial City Holdings LLC, Memorial City Partners LLC, Memphis-SC LLC, Memphis-SP LLC, Mesquite Liberty LLC, Metro I Stone Management, Metropolitan Medical Partners LLC, Metropolitan Medical Transportation IPA LLC, Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, Midwest Center for Day Surgery LLC, Mile High SurgiCenter LLC, Mississippi Surgery Holdings LLC, Mississippi Surgical Center Limited Partnership, Mobile Medical Professionals, Modern Medical Inc., Monarch Management Services, Monarch Management Services Inc., Montgomery Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Mountain View Medical Group LLC, Mt. Pleasant Surgery Center L.P., Multiangio Ltda., Muskogee Surgical Investors LLC, Mustang Razorback Holdings, Mustang Razorback Holdings Inc., My Wellness Solutions LLC, NAMM Holdings, NAMM Holdings Inc., NSC Fayetteville LLC, NSC Greensboro LLC, NSC Lancaster LLC, NSC Seattle Inc., NSC Upland LLC, Nashville-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., National Foundation Life Insurance Company, National MedTrans LLC, National Pacific Dental, National Pacific Dental Inc., National Surgery Centers LLC, Neighborhood Health Partnership, Neighborhood Health Partnership Inc., Netwerkes, Netwerkes LLC, Nevada Medical Services LLC, Nevada Pacific Dental, New Orleans Regional Physician Hospital Organization L.L.C., New West Physicians Inc., Newton Holdings LLC, North American Medical Management - Illinois, North American Medical Management California, North American Medical Management California Inc., North Puget Sound Center for Sleep Disorders LLC, North Puget Sound Oncology Equipment Leasing Company LLC, Northern Nevada Health Network, Northern Nevada Health Network Inc., Northern Rockies Surgicenter Inc., Northwest Surgicare LLC, Northwest Surgicare Ltd., Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care, Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care of Huntsville, OC Cardiology Practice Partners LLC, OSB Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Omesa S.A., OmniClaim LLC, Oncocare S.A.C., OneNet PPO, OneNet PPO LLC, Optimum Choice, Optimum Choice Inc., Optum, Optum Bank, Optum Bank Inc., Optum Biometrics, Optum Biometrics Inc., Optum Care Inc., Optum Care Services Company, Optum Clinical Services, Optum Clinics Holdings, Optum Clinics Holdings Inc., Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings, Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings Inc., Optum Digital Health Holdings LLC, Optum Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Solutions (India) Private Limited, Optum Global Solutions (Philippines), Optum Global Solutions (Philippines) Inc., Optum Global Solutions International B.V., Optum Government Solutions, Optum Government Solutions Inc., Optum Growth Partners LLC, Optum Health & Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, Optum Health & Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, Optum Health & Technology (India) Private Limited, Optum Health & Technology (Singapore) Pte. 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Ltd., Optum Networks of New Jersey Inc., Optum Nevada Accountable Care Organization LLC, Optum Operations (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas Inc., Optum Perks LLC, Optum Pharmacy 701 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 702 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 703 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 705 LLC, Optum Public Sector Solutions, Optum Public Sector Solutions Inc., Optum Rocket, Optum Rocket Inc., Optum Senior Services LLC, Optum Services, Optum Services (Ireland) Limited, Optum Services (Puerto Rico) LLC, Optum Services Inc., Optum Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Optum Solutions do Brasil Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Optum Technology, Optum Technology LLC, Optum UK Solutions Group Limited, Optum Women's and Children's Health, Optum Women's and Children's Health LLC, Optum of New York Inc., Optum360, Optum360 LLC, Optum360 Services, Optum360 Services Inc., Optum360 Solutions LLC, OptumCare ACO Florida LLC, OptumCare ACO Holdings LLC, OptumCare ACO New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Clinical Trials LLC, OptumCare Colorado ASC LLC, OptumCare Colorado LLC, OptumCare Colorado Springs LLC, OptumCare Endoscopy Center New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Florida CI LLC, OptumCare Florida LLC, OptumCare Health Plan of California Inc., OptumCare Holdings Colorado LLC, OptumCare Holdings LLC, OptumCare Holdings New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Management LLC, OptumCare New Mexico LLC, OptumCare New York IPA Inc., OptumCare South Florida LLC, OptumHealth Care Solutions, OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC, OptumHealth Financial Services, OptumHealth Financial Services Inc., OptumHealth Holdings, OptumHealth Holdings LLC, OptumHealth International B.V., OptumInsight, OptumInsight Holdings, OptumInsight Holdings LLC, OptumInsight Inc., OptumInsight India Private Limited, OptumInsight Life Sciences, OptumInsight Life Sciences Inc., OptumRx, OptumRx Administrative Services, OptumRx Administrative Services LLC, OptumRx Discount Card Services, OptumRx Discount Card Services LLC, OptumRx Group Holdings, OptumRx Group Holdings Inc., OptumRx Health Solutions LLC, OptumRx Holdings, OptumRx Holdings I LLC, OptumRx Holdings LLC, OptumRx Home Delivery of Illinois, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio LLC, OptumRx IPA III Inc., OptumRx Inc., OptumRx NY IPA, OptumRx NY IPA Inc., OptumRx PBM of Illinois, OptumRx PBM of Illinois Inc., OptumRx PBM of Maryland, OptumRx PBM of Maryland LLC, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx PBM of Puerto Rico LLC, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin LLC, OptumRx PD of Maryland, OptumRx PD of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx Pharmacy, OptumRx Pharmacy Inc., OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada, OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada Inc., OptumRx of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumServe Technology Services Inc., Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., OrthoNet Holdings, OrthoNet Holdings Inc., OrthoNet LLC, OrthoNet New York IPA, OrthoNet New York IPA Inc., OrthoNet Services, OrthoNet Services Inc., OrthoNet West, OrthoNet West Inc., OrthoNet of the Mid-Atlantic, OrthoNet of the South, OrthoNet of the South Inc., Ovations, Ovations Inc., Oxford Benefit Management, Oxford Benefit Management Inc., Oxford Health Insurance, Oxford Health Insurance Inc., Oxford Health Plans (CT), Oxford Health Plans (CT) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NJ), Oxford Health Plans (NJ) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NY), Oxford Health Plans (NY) Inc., Oxford Health Plans LLC, P2 Lower Acquisition, P2P Link LLC, PCCCV, PCCCV Inc., PCN DE Corp., PHC Subsidiary Holdings, PHC Subsidiary Holdings LLC, PHYS Holding Corp., PHYSICIANS DAY SURGERY CENTER LLC, PMI Acquisition, PMI Acquisition LLC, PMSI, PMSI Holdco II, PMSI Holdings, PMSI Holdings LLC, PMSI LLC, PMSI Settlement Solutions, PMSI Settlement Solutions LLC, POMCO Inc., POMCO Network Inc., PPH Holdings LLC, PacifiCare Health Systems, PacifiCare Life Assurance Company, PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company, PacifiCare of Arizona, PacifiCare of Arizona Inc., PacifiCare of Colorado, PacifiCare of Colorado Inc., PacifiCare of Nevada, PacifiCare of Nevada Inc., Pacific Casualty Company Inc., Pacifico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud, Paoli Ambulatory Surgery Center, Paoli Surgery Center L.P., Parkway Surgery Center LLC, Pasteur Plaza Surgery Center GP Inc., PatientsLikeMe, PatientsLikeMe LLC, Patrimonio Autonomo Nueva Clinica - PANC., Payment Resolution Services, Payment Resolution Services LLC, Peoples Health, Peoples Health Inc., Pharmaceutical Care Network, Pharmacy Review Services, Pharmacy Software Holdco Inc., PhyServe Holdings, Physician Alliance of the Rockies LLC, Physician Care Partners, Physicians Health Choice of Texas, Physicians Health Choice of Texas LLC, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland Inc., Physicians Plaza Holdings LLC, Plano de Saude Ana Costa Ltda., Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico, Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico Inc., Plus One Holdings, Plus One Holdings Inc., Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes, Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia, Polo Holdco, Polo Holdco LLC, Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Precision Dialing Services Inc., Preferred Care Partners, Preferred Care Partners Holding, Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp., Preferred Care Partners Inc., Preferred Care Partners Medical Group, Preferred Care Partners Medical Group Inc., Premier Choice ACO, Premier Choice ACO Inc., Premier Surgery Center of Louisville L.P., Prime Health, Prime Health Inc., PrimeCare Medical Network, PrimeCare Medical Network Inc., PrimeCare of Citrus Valley, PrimeCare of Citrus Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Corona, PrimeCare of Corona Inc., PrimeCare of Hemet Valley, PrimeCare of Hemet Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Inland Valley, PrimeCare of Inland Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Moreno Valley, PrimeCare of Moreno Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Redlands, PrimeCare of Redlands Inc., PrimeCare of Riverside, PrimeCare of Riverside Inc., PrimeCare of San Bernardino, PrimeCare of San Bernardino Inc., PrimeCare of Sun City, PrimeCare of Sun City Inc., PrimeCare of Temecula, PrimeCare of Temecula Inc., ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success, ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success LLC, ProHEALTH Medical Management LLC, ProHealth Medical Management, ProHealth Physicians, ProHealth Physicians ACO, ProHealth Physicians ACO LLC, ProHealth Physicians Inc., ProHealth Proton Center Management, ProHealth Proton Center Management LLC, Procura Management, Procura Management Inc., Progressive Enterprises Holdings, Progressive Enterprises Holdings Inc., Progressive Medical, Progressive Medical LLC, Progressive Solutions, Promotora Country S.A., Pronetics Health Care Group, Pronounced Health Solutions Inc., Prosemedic S.A.C., Prospero Management Services LLC, Pueblo-SCA Surgery Center LLC, Pulse Platform LLC, QoL Acquisition Holdings Corp., Quality Software Services, QuarterMaster Newco LLC, R&H Family Fitness Unlimited LLC, Rally Health, Rally Health Inc., Real Appeal Inc., Recaudacion y Cobranzas Honodav Ltda., Redlands Ambulatory Surgery Center, Redlands-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., Reliant MSO LLC, Research Surgical Center LLC, River Valley ASC LLC, Riverside Electronic Healthcare Resources Inc., Riverside Medical Management, Riverside Medical Management LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Meadowlands LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Newark LLC, Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization Incorporated, Rocky Mountain HealthCare Options Inc., SC Affiliates LLC, SCA Alaska Surgery Center inc., SCA Athens LLC, SCA Austin Holdings LLC, SCA BOSC Holdings LLC, SCA California Surgical Holdings LLC, SCA Capital LLC, SCA Cedar Park Holdings LLC, SCA Clifton LLC, SCA Danbury Surgical Center LLC, SCA Development LLC, SCA EHSC Holdings LLC, SCA EWASC Holdings LLC, SCA Hays Holdings LLC, SCA Heartland Holdings LLC, SCA HoldCo Inc., SCA Holding Company Inc., SCA Holdings Inc., SCA IEC Holdings LLC, SCA Indiana Holdings LLC, SCA Nashville ASC LLC, SCA Pacific Holdings Inc., SCA Pennsylvania Holdings LLC, SCA Premier Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, SCA ROCS Holdings LLC, SCA Rockledge JV LLC, SCA SSC Holdings LLC, SCA SSSC Holdings LLC, SCA Sage Medical LLC, SCA Sage Medical MSO LLC, SCA Southwestern PA LLC, SCA Specialists of Florida LLC, SCA Stonegate Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Center of Cullman LLC, SCA Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Partners LLC, SCA Surgicare of Laguna Hills LLC, SCA Teammate Support Network, SCA eCode Solutions Private Limited, SCA of Clarksville Inc., SCA-Albuquerque Surgery Properties Inc., SCA-Alliance LLC, SCA-Anne Arundel LLC, SCA-Applecare Partners LLC, SCA-Bethesda LLC, SCA-Blue Ridge LLC, SCA-Bonita Springs LLC, SCA-Brandon LLC, SCA-Castle Rock LLC, SCA-Central Florida LLC, SCA-Charleston LLC, SCA-Chatham LLC, SCA-Chevy Chase LLC, SCA-Citrus Inc., SCA-Colorado Springs LLC, SCA-Connecticut Partners LLC, SCA-DRY CREEK LLC, SCA-Davenport LLC, SCA-Denver LLC, SCA-Denver Physicians Holdings LLC, SCA-Derry LLC, SCA-Doral LLC, SCA-Downey LLC, SCA-Dublin LLC, SCA-Encinitas Inc., SCA-Eugene Inc., SCA-First Coast LLC, SCA-Florence LLC, SCA-Fort Collins Inc., SCA-Fort Walton Inc., SCA-Franklin LLC, SCA-Frederick LLC, SCA-Freeway Holdings LLC, SCA-Ft. Myers LLC, SCA-GRANTS PASS LLC, SCA-Gainesville LLC, SCA-Gladiolus LLC, SCA-Grove Place LLC, SCA-Hagerstown LLC, SCA-Hamden LLC, SCA-Hilton Head LLC, SCA-Honolulu LLC, SCA-Houston Executive LLC, SCA-IT Holdings LLC, SCA-Illinois LLC, SCA-JPM Holdings LLC, SCA-Kissing Camels Holdings LLC, SCA-MC VBP Inc., SCA-Main Street LLC, SCA-Marina del Rey LLC, SCA-Mecklenburg Development Corp., SCA-Memorial City LLC, SCA-Merritt LLC, SCA-Midlands LLC, SCA-Midway Management LLC, SCA-Mobile LLC, SCA-Mokena LLC, SCA-Mokena Properties LLC, SCA-Morris County LLC, SCA-Mt. Pleasant LLC, SCA-ND VBP Inc., SCA-Naperville LLC, SCA-Naples LLC, SCA-New Jersey LLC, SCA-Newport Beach LLC, SCA-Northeast Georgia Health LLC, SCA-PORTLAND LLC, SCA-Palm Beach LLC, SCA-Palm Beach MSO Holdings LLC, SCA-Paoli LLC, SCA-Phoenix LLC, SCA-Pocono LLC, SCA-Practice Partners Holdings LLC, SCA-River Valley LLC, SCA-Riverside LLC, SCA-Riverside Partners LLC, SCA-Rockville LLC, SCA-Sacred Heart Holdings LLC, SCA-San Diego Inc., SCA-San Luis Obispo LLC, SCA-Sand Lake LLC, SCA-Santa Rosa Inc., SCA-Shelby Development Corp., SCA-Somerset LLC, SCA-South Jersey LLC, SCA-Sparta LLC, SCA-Spartanburg Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis LLC, SCA-St. Lucie LLC, SCA-SurgiCare LLC, SCA-Swiftpath LLC, SCA-VERTA LLC, SCA-Wake Forest LLC, SCA-Western Connecticut LLC, SCA-Westover Hills LLC, SCA-Wilmington LLC, SCA-Wilson LLC, SCA-Winchester LLC, SCA-Winter Park Inc., SCA-Woodlands Holdings LLC, SCAI Holdings LLC, SCP Specialty Infusion, SCP Specialty Infusion LLC, SHC Atlanta LLC, SHC Austin Inc., SHC 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Sierra Health Services Inc, Sierra Health Services Inc., Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company, Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company Inc., Sierra Health-Care Options, Sierra Health-Care Options Inc., Sierra Home Medical Products, Sierra Home Medical Products Inc., Sierra Nevada Administrators, Sierra Nevada Administrators Inc., Sirona Infusion, Sistema de Administracion Hospitalaria S.A.C., Small Business Insurance Advisors Inc., Sobam Centro Medico Hospitalar S.A., Sociedad Editorial para la Ciencia Limitada., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Maria S.A., Somerset Outpatient Surgery L.L.C., Southwest Medical Associates, Southwest Medical Associates Inc., Southwest Michigan Health Network Inc., Southwest Surgery Center LLC, Southwest Surgical Center of Bakersfield L.P., Space Coast Surgical Center Ltd., Specialists in Urology Surgery Center LLC, Specialized Pharmaceuticals Inc., Specialty Benefits, Specialty Benefits LLC, Spectera, Spectera Inc., Spectera of New York IPA, Spectera 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Board (Chile) SpA, The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, The Lewin Group, The Lewin Group Inc., The Magan Medical Group, The Outpatient Surgery Center of Hilton Head LLC, The Polyclinic MSO LLC, Thomas Johnson Surgery Center LLC, Thousand Oaks Endoscopy Center LLC, Three Rivers Holdings, Three Rivers Holdings Inc., Three Rivers Surgical Care L.P., Tmesys, Tmesys LLC, Topimagem Diagnostico por Imagem Ltda., Touchpoint Health Plan, Trails Edge Surgery Center LLC, Travel Express Incorporated, TriMed LLC, Trinity Infusion, Trio Motion LLC, Tucson Arizona Surgical Center LLC, U.S. Behavioral Health Plan, U.S. Behavioral Health Plan California, UHC Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, UHC Global Health Services BC Ltd., UHC International Services, UHC International Services Inc., UHC of California, UHCG Holdings (Ireland) Limited, UHCG Services (Ireland) Limited, UHCG FZE, UHG Brasil Participacoes S.A., UHIC Holdings, UHIC Holdings Inc., UICI Funding Corp. 2, UMR, UMR Inc., USHEALTH Academy Inc., USHEALTH Administrators LLC, USHEALTH Advisors L.L.C., USHEALTH Career Agency Inc., USHEALTH Funding Inc., USHEALTH Group Inc., USMD Administrative Services, USMD Administrative Services L.L.C., USMD Affiliated Services, USMD CT (Mo), USMD Cancer Treatment Centers, USMD Cancer Treatment Centers GP, USMD Diagnostic Services, USMD Holdings, USMD Holdings Inc., USMD Inc., USMD PPM, USMD PPM LLC, USMD of Arlington GP, Ultima Rx, Unidad Medica Diagnostico S.A., Unimerica Insurance Company, Unimerica Life Insurance Company of New York, Unison Administrative Services, Unison Health Plan of Delaware, Unison Health Plan of Delaware Inc., United Behavioral Health, United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A., United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A. Inc., United Group Reinsurance Inc., United Health Foundation, United HealthCare, United HealthCare Services Inc., United Management Services Inc., United Resource Networks IPA of New York, United Resource Networks IPA of New York Inc., UnitedHealth Advisors, UnitedHealth Advisors LLC, UnitedHealth Group Finance Inc., UnitedHealth Group Global Healthcare Services Limited, UnitedHealth Group Global Services, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UnitedHealth Group Information Services Private Limited, UnitedHealth Group International Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, UnitedHealth Group International GP, UnitedHealth Group International L.P., UnitedHealth International, UnitedHealth International Inc., UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services, UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services LLC, UnitedHealth UK Limited, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas L.L.C., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co. Ltd., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare Global Canada Limited, UnitedHealthcare Global Medical (UK) Limited, UnitedHealthcare Inc., UnitedHealthcare India Private Limited, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Designated Activity Company, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services Inc., UnitedHealthcare International Asia, UnitedHealthcare International Asia LLC, UnitedHealthcare International I B.V., UnitedHealthcare International I S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II B.V., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III B.V., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International V S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VI S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VIII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International X S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., UnitedHealthcare Service LLC, UnitedHealthcare Services Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits LLC, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arizona, UnitedHealthcare of Arizona Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas, UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Colorado, UnitedHealthcare of Colorado Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Florida, UnitedHealthcare of Florida Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare of Illinois Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky, UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky Ltd., UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana, UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi, UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New England, UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico, UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New York, UnitedHealthcare of New York Inc., UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina, UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma, UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oregon, UnitedHealthcare of Oregon Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania, UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., UnitedHealthcare of South Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Texas, UnitedHealthcare of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Utah, UnitedHealthcare of Utah Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Washington, UnitedHealthcare of Washington Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin, UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic, UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands, UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest, UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., UpFront Insurance Agency LLC, Upland Holdings LLC, Upland Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Urgent Care Holdings, Urgent Care Holdings Inc., Urgent Care MSO, Urgent Care MSO LLC, Urology Associates of North Texas, Urology Associates of North Texas P.L.L.C., VERTA MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC, Valley Hospital L.L.C., Valley Physicians Network, Valley Physicians Network Inc., Vida Tres Internacional S.A., Vidaintegra S.A., Vivify Health Canada Inc., Vivify Health Inc., WESTMED Practice Partners LLC, Wauwatosa Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Wayland Square Surgicare Acquisition L.P., Wayland Square Surgicare GP Inc., WebInsure Benefits LLC, WellMed Medical Management, WellMed Medical Management Inc., WellMed Medical Management of Florida, WellMed Medical Management of Florida Inc., WellMed Networks DFW, West Coast Endoscopy Holdings LLC, Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgical Center LLC, WillowB Labs LLC, Wilmington ASC LLC, Winchester Endoscopy LLC, Winter Park LLC, XLHealth Corporation, XLHealth Corporation India Private Limited, Your Health Options Insurance Services, Your Health Options Insurance Services Inc., Your Partner in Health Services, divvyDOSE, eCode Solutions LLC, gethealthinsurance.com Agency Inc., hCentive Inc., inPharmative, inPharmative Inc., and ppoONE. SociAtA GAnArale SociAtA anonyme provides financial services in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and France. The company offers retail banking services, including deposits and loans, vehicles and asset management, corporate finance, insurance, payments, investment, and online brokerage and financial information services; Internet, mobile, telephone, and service platforms; and online banking to individual and professional customers, businesses, non-profit associations and local authorities under the Societe Generale, CrAdit du Nord, and Boursorama Banque brands. It also provides international retail banking and financial services, comprising of deposit and loan products; consumer finance and car finance; mortgage facilities; corporate and investment banking; infrastructure, renewable energies, and agribusiness financing; life, retirement savings, and personal protection insurance products; vehicle leasing and fleet management services; and vendor and equipment finance services to corporate and individual customers. In addition, the company offers capital market services, such as fixed income and currencies, equities, and securities services; mergers and acquisitions, advisory and other corporate finance advisory services, and corporate banking and investment banking, as well as capital raising solutions for debt or equity, financial engineering, and hedging for issuers; transaction and payment services, comprising of cash management, trade finance, cash clearing and correspondent banking, supply chain finance, and foreign exchange services; and export finance, aircraft finance, shipping finance, real estate finance, and structured solutions and leasing. Further, it provides financial engineering and wealth management solutions; structured products, hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity funds and real estate investment solutions; and asset management solutions. SociAtA GAnArale SociAtA anonyme was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Paris, France. Read More Stantec Inc. provides professional consulting services in the area of infrastructure and facilities in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company provides consulting services in engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics. It also offers water, transportation, and public works; transportation planning and traffic engineering; and resource assessment, mine development, reclamation, hydrology, and geotechnical and infrastructure engineering services, as well as urban planning, traffic assessments and optimization, environmental impact assessments, and public consultation services. In addition, the company provides structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and hydraulics engineering services. It serves urban regeneration, infrastructure, education, public and private sector, tourism and leisure, and waste and water sectors, as well as office and commercial, residential, and retail and town centers. The company was formerly known as Stanley Technology Group Inc. and changed its name to Stantec Inc. in October 1998. Stantec Inc. was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of 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.. Delta Galil Industries Ltd. engages in development, design, production, marketing and sale of underwear, socks, children's wear, leisure wear and Activewear as well as in development, design, marketing, distribution and sale of branded products in the category of men's and women's jeans and outerwear and related products. It operates through the following segments: Delta USA, Global Upper Market, Schiesser, Delta Israel, and Delta Premium Brands. The Delta USA Segment engages in the development, design and marketing of lingerie, socks and Activewear to Private Labels. The Global Upper Market segment develops, designs, manufactures and markets men's and women's underwear, socks and Activewear manufactured at the Company's plants and sold to retail chains and to brands in Europe and the United States. The Schiesser segment covers the development, design, manufacture and marketing of labeled women's, men's and children's underwear and Activewear under the Schiesser brand. The Delta Israel segment is involved in the development, design and marketing of labeled women's and men's underwear, socks and Activewear products, as well as children's wear under the Delta brand. The Delta Premium Brands segment engages in development, design, marketing, distribution and sale of premium products under the brands 7 For All Mankind, Splendid, Ella moss. The company was founded by Dov Lautman and Eliezer Peleg in 1975 and is headquartered in Caesarea, Israel. Read More Considerable opportunities provided The main content of the VPA/FLEGT is that Vietnam is committed to developing its timber legality assurance system (VNTLAS) in accordance with EU regulations as a basis for the Vietnamese authorities to issue permits for shipments of Vietnamese timber and timber products exported to the EU. In return, licensed Vietnamese timber and timber products will not have to explain their legality for entering the EU. The agreement has created positive impacts on enterprises, contributing to promoting the export of Vietnamese timber and timber products amid the tightened timber import policies from foreign markets, including the US Lacey Act, Japanese Clean Wood Act; the Republic of Korea Act on the Sustainable Use of Timbers, and others. The VPA/FLEGT will also help Vietnam to build a clean, legal and transparent timber foundation, while improving its institutions for forest governance and combating illegal logging and timber trade, thus contributing to the sustainable development of the timber processing industry. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nguyen Xuan Cuong, said that the VPA/FLEGT agreement is an opportunity to bring about positive impacts to Vietnam in terms of economic, social and environment areas, particularly economic benefits. The agreement will help to enhance the prestige and position of the Vietnamese timber processing industry throughout the world in order to expand Vietnam's timber exports to non-EU countries, such as the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and others, towards the goal of increasing the export turnover of timber and timber products to US$12-13 billion by 2020 to rank fourth in the world, Cuong noted. However, there remain tremendous difficulties and challenges to timber businesses in Vietnam, he said. Joint efforts required According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the export revenue of key forest products in the first 10 months of this year was estimated at US$7.61 billion, equivalent to 84% of the year's plan and up 16.12% over the same period in 2017, and accounted for 23.37% of the total export turnover of the whole agricultural sector. Of which, the export revenue of timber and timber products posted at US$7.23 billion, up 16.12% over the corresponding period last year. Vietnam also enjoyed a trade surplus of US$5.72 billion in key forest products in the first 10 months of 2018. Vietnam's main export markets were the US, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea and the EU, accounting for 87% of Vietnam's total timber export turnover. During the 10-month period, Vietnam imported US$1.88 billion worth of timber and timber products, up 5.23% over the same period in 2017. The main import markets of Vietnam include China, the US, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Germany, Brazil, France and New Zealand, making up 60% of Vietnam's timber import value. Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, Pham Van Dien, said that the implementation of the VPA/FLEGT agreement requires the joint efforts of State management agencies, enterprises and forest owners. In addition, it is necessary to effectively control the source of imported timber, while complying with the regulations on the transparency of origin and source of timber products for export. The commitments in the VPA/FLEGT agreement require Vietnam to amend and supplement several legal documents. The agreement requests that the people and enterprises participating in the timber supply chain fully implement the self-declaration, self-assessment and archival of dossiers and papers in the process of production and trading in accordance with the provisions of law. Furthermore, the agreement requires regular high-level dialogue between Vietnam and the EU with the participation of industry associations and local non-governmental organisations in monitoring the implementation of the agreement in a transparent manner. Therefore, the Government should hastily develop a decree to institutionalise the main commitments of the agreement with the focus on controlling the legal import of timber, building a legality insurance system for Vietnamese timber, and enhancing the capacity of the relevant parties to effectively implement the agreement. The authorised agencies should promote the dissemination of information on the agreement to the business community and forest plantation households so that they will actively realise their commitments. The related agencies also need to develop software and databases to classify enterprises and issue FLEGT license to effectively implement the agreement. The commitments of the VPA/FLEGT agreement have been stipulated in the Vietnam Forestry Law which will take effect in early 2019. To implement the commitments, the State must continue to perfect its policies and legal documents with the top priorities to be given to controlling the legal import of timber and the establishment of the Vietnamese timber legality guarantee system. In addition, the people and enterprises have to participate in a complete supply chain. Forest plantations should have certificates to prove the transparency and legality of the source of timber, while enterprises have to review and renew their business process to be named in the list of transparent businesses. Zalando SE operates as an online fashion and lifestyle retailer. It offers a range of products, including shoes, apparel, accessories, and beauty products for women, men, and children, as well as free delivery and returns services. The company also sells its products through its Zalando Lounge; and brick-and-mortar stores in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig, Hamburg, Hanover, MAnster, Stuttgart, Mannheim, and Ulm. 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 Decision 2018 is not over yet in NY-22, three weeks post-Election Day. Oneida County Board of Elections is done counting absentee ballots, but commissioners are still not reporting numbers in the 22nd Congressional District Race. They say they're working on a final tally because they need to certify all election results to the state by next Monday. Anthony Brindisi, with the seven other counties in the district reporting, is victorious over Republican incumbent Claudia Tenney. Anthony Brindisi sat down with Don Shipman on NewsTalk, to discuss a contentious run for the 22nd Congressional District seat, and what comes next. He says he will prioritize infrastructure, healthcare, ethics and campaign finance reform, and agriculture. The 22nd Congressional District of New York is a Congressional district for the United States House of Representatives, currently represented by Republican Claudia Tenney, located in Central New York. Democrat Anthony Brindisi defeated Tenney, in the 2018 midterm elections. Significant cities in the district include Utica, Rome, Cortland and Binghamton. Binghamton University, Hamilton College, Colgate University, and Utica College are located in the district. The district includes all of Chenango, Cortland, Madison, and Oneida counties, and parts of Broome, Herkimer, Oswego, and Tioga counties. GERMAN FLATTS, N.Y. -- Representatives from FEMA will be in German Flatts on Thursday for what is called a flood map open house meeting. Back in August, FEMA came up with a proposed new flood plain map for Herkimer County, and before it can be approved, there must be a public input meeting and then a 90-day period to make potential changes. It's being held at the German Flatts Community Center on Route 5S. "So they can find out about the new released revisions to the flood insurance rate maps which govern flood insurance how your properties being affected weather you're in a floodplain area or a flood hazard area, said German Flatts Town Supervisor Peter Ravazzi. The open house is set for 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at the German Flatts Community Center. People can come anytime between those hours to talk to the representatives from FEMA. The Lewis County Sheriff's Office is investigating a stabbing at a farm in the town of Martinsburg. Authorities say on November 21, German Abelino Sapon Yax was arrested and charged with assault. They say he stabbed another worker at Demko's Farm on Route 26. The other worker Octavio Sanchez Cruz was stabbed twice in the chest. The victim was rushed to St. Elizabeth Medical Center for treatment. Sheriff's say Yax fled and was found at Stanton Farms by the Albany County Sheriff's Office, and was then turned over to the Lewis County Sheriff's Department. He's being held on $25,000 bail. UPDATE -- A state trooper was killed Tuesday morning after his car was rear-ended and pushed into oncoming traffic in Fultonville. It happened on Route 5S, where Trooper Jeremy VanNostrand was reporting to work at the Fonda barracks. State police say VanNostrand was stopped in traffic Tuesday morning around 7:45 a.m., waiting to turn into the barracks parking lot, when his vehicle was rear-ended by a box truck and pushed into oncoming traffic where it collided with an oncoming pickup truck. The driver of the box truck has been identified as 32-year-old Aaron M. Munsie of Amsterdam. Police say he was not injured. The driver of the pickup truck has been identified as 52-year-old Robert E. Crews of Fort Plain. He was taken to St. Marys Hospital with injuries police do not believe to be life threatening. VanNorstrand was transported to Albany Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries. "The state police is a large organization, but it is a family and we all take these deaths very personally. This is a true tragedy, said New York State Police Superintendent George Beach. Officials say VanNostrand had served with the New York State Police since 2012 - making him a 6-year veteran of the force. He had previously served in the Hudson Valley before making his way to the Capital Region. Prior to becoming a state trooper, he served as a New York state correctional officer for 8 years. VanNostrand is survived by his wife, daughter, his parents and siblings. State police say weather does not appear to be a factor in the crash and no tickets have been issued. The investigation into the crash is ongoing. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FULTONVILLE, N.Y. -- A state trooper was seriously injured on Route 5S in Fultonville. State police say the trooper was stopped in traffic Tuesday morning, waiting to turn into the Fonda barracks, when his vehicle was rear-ended and pushed into oncoming traffic. The officer sustained serious injuries and is being treated at Albany Medical Center. NewsChannel 2 will have more information as soon as it becomes available. WEST LAFAYETTE Ind. (WLFI) -- NASA's latest robot has successfully landed on Mars. The aptly named InSight Lander, will give scientists a new understanding of the planet. Briony Horgan, Purdue Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary professor said this is the first time NASA has ever done research like this on a planet other than Earth. It's this really new look into the interior of Mars, you know, on Earth, we know a lot about the interior of Earth from Earthquakes and things like that to study the interior but we know almost nothing about the interior of Mars, said Horgan. InSight Lander was designed to measure the interior of Mars and look at how its formed and changed over time. The lander will look at the impact of marsquakes, which are similar to earthquakes. It will not only provide NASA with information on the planet's past but also how it could function in the future. Someday it would be great to put humans on Mars, not just to do science but to live there and that's kinda where I think a lot of this work is going, said Horgan. That wouldn't be anytime soon. Horgan said that science has come a long way but there's still much more to learn. So landing on Mars is tough and a lot of other countries haven't been successful. In fact, the U.S. is the only one to really have landed a successful mission that lasted a significant period of time on Mars, said Horgan. NASA plans to keep InSight on Mars forever. Horgan said the robot will be joined by a rover that NASA will be launching in 20-20. Horgan was chosen to be a participating scientist on that mission. WOLCOTT, Ind. (WLFI) The Tri-County School Corporation has named Patrick Culp as it's new superintendent. Culp will replace former Lafayette School Corporation Superintendent Ed Eiler, who has been serving since June in an interim role. Longtime Superintendent Kathy Goad left over the summer for the same role in the Linton-Stockton School Corporation. Culp comes to Tri-County from West Central Middle and High School in Francesville. He has been serving as principal since 2014. Prior to becoming the principal at West Central, he was a principal, assistant principal and history teacher at Fountain Central Junior/Senior High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in education from Purdue University in 1999 and his master's degree from Indiana State in 2007. He and his wife Lisa have three children. Culp will begin Jan. 1. Sudan is a sovereign nation situated in the northeast part of Africa. Sudan was once Africas largest country before it broke up to form Sudan and South Sudan in 2011. The country now occupies an area of 728,215 square miles and is home to more than 39.5 million people. Sudan shares its expansive border with seven countries: Egypt, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Libya. The country's relationship with most of its neighbors has been peaceful. Egypt-Sudan Border Sudan shares its northern border with Egypt. The two countries have experienced conflict since the mid-20th century regarding a portion of the border. The region under dispute is referred to as the Halaib Triangle, which is situated on the SudanEgypt border, along the coast of the Red Sea. The creation of two different boundaries by colonial leaders has led to the current conflict. The first border was created in 1899 as a "political boundary," and ran parallel to the 22 N latitude. Three years later, Britain created an "administrative boundary" that marked the Ababda area to be in Egypt, while the Halaib area was marked to be in Sudan. Shortly after Sudan attained independence in 1956, disputes with Egypt over the Halaib area began, and the two countries have been fighting over the Halaib area ever since. The disputed piece of land has an area of 7,945 square miles and is rich in mineral deposits such as manganese. Egypt currently controls the area, but Sudan and Egypt are often in negotiations regarding how to find a middle ground. South Sudan-Sudan Border Sudan shares a 1,203-mile long border with South Sudan at the south end of the country. Sudan and South Sudan were one nation until the 2011 referendum, after which South Sudan emerged as a new country independent from Sudan. However, Sudan and South Sudan share many cultural, economic, and physical ties. For example, some South Sudanese nationals work in Sudan, and the countries share an oil pipeline that transports oil from South Sudan to Sudan. The relationship between Sudan and South Sudan since the separation in 2011 has also been strained, especially regarding the disagreement over the ownership of several regions including Abyei, Kafia Kingi, and the Heglig Oilfield. Leaders of Sudan and South Sudan have had several negotiations to settle their disputes. Central African Republic-Sudan Border Sudan is connected to the Central African Republic (CAR) by a border along the southwest side of Sudan. Sudans border with the Central African Republic is estimated to be 108 miles long. The two countries have had troubled relations due to political instability in the region. Rebels from Sudan and the Central African Republic have moved between the two countries and caused unrest in the area. In 2012, leaders from both countries formed a joint force to patrol the Sudan Central African Republic border. However, militia groups still roam between the two countries and continue to cause strain. Chad-Sudan Border Sudan and Chad share a 590-mile long border on the western side of Sudan. Long before independence, communities close to the border lived together as one group and shared close cultural and religious links. People from Chad held religious celebrations in Sudan and also worked for Sudanese organizations. However, these good relations were destroyed by the emergence of rebel groups in Sudan and Chad. Violence in the two countries escalated in the 1980s, fueled by unregulated militia groups. Political unrest in Sudan and Chad only added to the chaos in the region. Leaders from Sudan and Chad accused each other of the presence of militia groups. In 2006, the government of Sudan and the government of Chad agreed to end hostilities. Although the two countries signed a peace agreement, the relationship between Sudan and Chad remains strained. Eritrea-Sudan Border Sudan shares a border with Eritrea on the eastern side of Sudan. However, the relationship between Sudan and Eritrea has not been friendly. Due to the totalitarian dictatorship in Eritrea and the constant fighting in Sudan, the neighbors have not developed an amicable relationship. Significant criminal activities occur along the SudanEritrea border such as weapons smuggling, drugs, and human trafficking. Due to the increased crime in the area near the border, Sudanese officials formed joint forces with Eritrean officials to monitor the border and prevent criminal activity. At the start of 2018, Sudan closed its border crossing points with Eritrea. The reason for the shutdown was to confiscate illegal weapons in the area. Ethiopia-Sudan Border Sudans eastern border is shared with the neighboring nation of Ethiopia. The two countries once had friendly relations due to the help Sudan offered Ethiopia during the Ethiopian Civil War. However, the positive relationship changed in 1995 after an attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak while in Ethiopia. Investigations suggested that Sudan was involved with the crime, which angered Ethiopia. Following the revelation, some Sudanese embassies in Ethiopia were shut down, and flights between Ethiopia and Sudan neighboring. Currently, Sudan and Ethiopia do not have the positive relations they once had. Libya-Sudan Border Libya is Sudans neighbor to the northwest. Given that Sudan and Libya are both Arab countries, their relationship dates back centuries. The two countries had similar interests in their foreign policy documents, which involved unity of the Arab countries. However, in the 1970s Sudan developed closer ties with Western nations. These changes conflicted with Libyan foreign policies, which angered the government. In the 1980s the Sudanese and Libyan governments clashed over many issues. However, the severed relations were rebuilt in the 1990s when a change in Sudan's government resulted in the adoption of foreign policies more aligned with numerous Arab countries, including Libya. Sudans Foreign Relations Sudan has strained relations with many foreign countries. In fact, the country has experienced some degree of conflict with most of its neighbors. The reason for its troubled relationship with foreign countries can be linked to support for radical Islamic groups. Additionally, Sudan has failed to contain militia groups, which have led to continuous conflict in the region. THE HINDU, 26th NOVEMBER, 2018- About 145 pilot whales died in New Zealand after being stranded during the weekend on Stewart Island in the extreme south of the country, officials said on Monday. A hiker alerted authorities on Saturday night about the situation of the whales, who were stranded in Mason Bay in two separate groups about two kilometres apart, a Department of Conservation of New Zealand release said. Half of the whales were dead when rescuers arrived and the condition of the rest, by the time they were found, was so bad it was decided to euthanise them, said Ren Leppens, operations manager at Rakiura. Sadly, the likelihood of being able to successfully re-float the remaining whales was extremely low. The remote location, lack of nearby personnel and the whales deteriorating condition meant the most humane thing to do was to euthanise, said Leppens. Pilot whales, also called long-finned pilot whale, are a specimen with a bulging forehead and a robust body that can reach between six and seven meters in length, Xinhua news agency reported. A group of wealthy tourists arrived at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) last afternoon for a three-day excursion of Sri Lanka, Airport Manager Upali Kalansuriya said. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, he said 247 passengers had arrived for sight seen in Hambantota. The tourists were arrived from Singapore by chartered Airbus A 340, he said. The flight landed at MRIA at 1.07 p.m. and scheduled to leave for Uzbekistan at 3.30 a.m on Thursday, he said. A rousing welcome was accorded at the MRIA. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama) General Motors officials announced yesterday that the Detroit-based automaker will close five plants in the US and Canada in 2019 and another two, still unspecified, plants outside of North America. The elimination of 14,700 production and salaried jobs is part of a plan to cut $6.5 billion in costs by 2020. GMs move is expected to be followed by a similar destruction of jobs by Ford and other corporations as part of a new restructuring of the global auto industry. With vehicle sales contracting and relentless pressure from Wall Street to boost profit margins, GM is seeking to get ahead of its rivals by slashing thousands of jobs, particularly in the less profitable passenger car market. To fight back, autoworkers should prepare industrial action, including a walkout across the US and Canada, to defend all jobs and oppose further attacks on wages, benefits and working conditions. This will require the formation of rank-and-file factory committees, independent of the cheap-labor contractors known as the United Auto Workers (US) and Unifor (Canada), to link up auto and auto parts workers across the industry and internationally. The factories that will be closed in 2019 are the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant, with 1,500 jobs; the Lordstown Assembly Plant in Warren, Ohio, with 1,600 jobs; and the Oshawa Assembly Plant, outside of Toronto, Ontario, with 2,500 jobs. Another 645 jobs will be cut at transmission factories in the Detroit suburb of Warren and at the Baltimore Operations in White Marsh, Maryland. GM is also wiping out the jobs of 8,000 salaried and salaried contract staffor 15 percent of its engineers, designers and other white-collar workers in North America. Ford also plans to cut salaried positions but has not announced a number. These actions will increase the long-term profit and cash generation potential of the company, GM CEO Mary Barra declared. Wall Street celebrated the plant closings by pushing the companys stock up nearly 7 percent after the news release. The automaker, which reported a 37 percent increase in third-quarter North American operating profits, is in the midst of a two-year $10 billion spending spree on stock buybacks and dividend payouts to rich investors. The closings will have a devastating effect on communities already hit by decades of plant shutdowns and mass layoffs. The Detroit-Hamtramck plant, opened in 1985, is one of the few auto factories left inside the former Motor City, now the countrys poorest large city. The Ohio plant lies just outside of Youngstown, a former steel mill town where 59.2 percent of children live below the official poverty rate. After years of plant closings in Oshawas Autoplex, one in four of the citys children is growing up in poverty. The latest assault on autoworkers is being facilitated by the UAW and Unifor, which have spent decades collaborating with the auto companies to slash jobs, lower wages and destroy benefits. They are working to block any effort by workers to resist the onslaught, while preparing a new round of concessions and givebacks. Workers in the Oshawa factory walked out of the factory Monday, expressing their outrage over the endless lies by the company and the unions. Unifor Plant Chairman Greg Moffat instructed striking workers to go in to work Tuesday, saying, Were going in to work tomorrow and youre going to build the best vehicles you can make. The UAW and Unifor rammed through concessions contracts in 2015 and 2016 over widespread opposition, claiming that the further attack on wages and benefits would save jobs. Unifor's national president, Jerry Dias, told angry workers in 2016 that the commitment to Oshawa is hundreds of millions of dollars, therefore our fear of a closure in 2019 is now over. This was a lie. In 2015, the UAW pushed through its pro-company contracts through a combination of threats, intimidation and fraud, including overriding a no vote by skilled trades workers at GM. These are not workers organizations, but arms of corporate management staffed by executives with incomes that place them in the top 5 percent of the population. According to the UAWs filing with the US Labor Department, it has more than $1 billion in assets. While collecting $175 million in dues from workers, it spent $75 million on executives and staff and only $2.7 million in strike benefits. The UAW also reported that it received $6.2 million in 2017 from training centers run by GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. These corporatist schemes have been the conduit for billions in payoffs to the UAW since the early 1980s. This includes the millions in bribes to the UAW executives who signed the 2007, 2009 and 2015 contracts. These contracts substantially lowered labor costs by establishing a two-tier wage and benefit system and accelerating the replacement of higher-paid fulltime workers with temporary part-timers. In a statement from the UAW, Terry Dittes, who will negotiate the contract in 2019, blustered that the UAW would oppose the layoffs through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership. In fact, the only fight the UAW and Unifor intend to carry out is against rank-and-file workers who resist the corporate-union conspiracy to impose new, more devastating concessions. This includes holding the shutdowns over workers heads in order to push through plant saving agreements that will set the precedent for a new stage of attacks. According to the Wall Street Journal, A GM spokesman said the plants in Michigan and Ohio will be idled and their fates will be discussed next year during the companys negotiation for a new four-year contract with the United Autoworkers Union. To further enhance business performance, the company statement declared, GM will continue working to improve other manufacturing costs, productivity and the competitiveness of wages and benefits. In their effort to suppress opposition from workers, the UAW and Unifor are resorting to promoting nationalist poison. Deliberately remaining silent on the shutdown of the Oshawa plant across the border in Canada, UAW President Gary Jones echoed Trumps nationalist rants by calling on patriotic consumers to join the UAW in saying No to American companies that choose foreign workers over American workers. The UAW and Unifor have long spewed nationalist and racist filth to divide workers and justify their partnership with the auto corporations. The enemies of US and Canadian autoworkers are not the workers in Asia, Latin America, Europe or anywhere else, but the global auto corporations and the giant banks and financial institutions, which are attacking workers all over the world. The new round of North American closures follows GMs announcement of the planned closure of its assembly plant in Gunsan, Korea; the selloff of its European Opel and Vauxhall operations to French carmaker PSA; and the shuttering of its plants in Australia and South Africa. Only an internationally coordinated counteroffensive by workers can fight the global auto giants and the capitalist profit system. GM is implementing a strategy backed by the ruling class and its political instruments, the Democratic and Republican parties, to transfer wealth from the working class to the financial markets and the pockets of the corporate and financial elite. The Socialist Equality Party and the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter call on GM and other autoworkers to take immediate measures to form new organizations of struggle, rank-and-file factory committees, independent of the UAW and Unifor. These committees will be the basis for an industrial counteroffensive to defend jobs and living standards and reverse the grotesque levels of social inequality created by the capitalist profit system. This must be combined with a new political strategy for the working class based on the international unity of workers and the fight for socialism, which includes the transformation of the giant corporations, including GM, into public enterprises collectively owned and democratically controlled by the workers themselves. The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter is holding an emergency online meeting Wednesday night at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST. The meeting will discuss a strategy for GM, Lear, and all other autoworkers to unify their struggle against the companies and the corporate-controlled UAW. To receive information on how to attend, text Autoworker to 555888, or register here. A little-reported federal parliamentary hearing last week became a forum, involving Labor, Liberal-National and Greens MPs, media representatives and academics, on expanding the censorship of the internet. The November 20 session was part of an inquiry into the conduct of the 2016 federal election and matters related thereto. Its ostensible purpose was to review whether social media or the internet had been used improperly to influence that election. None of those who testified, however, provided any evidence that it had. Instead, those who spoke claimed it was necessary to combat fake news. This is the banner under which the major technology giants, operating in lockstep with the US government, have sought to restrict access to progressive, anti-war and socialist content online. The speakers warned against growing suspicion of the mainstream media among broad layers of the population and the accompanying interest in alternative sources of information. Dr Michael Jensen claimed, without any evidence, that Twitter accounts-linked to Russia had sought to influence discussions on Australian politics. Jensen is a senior research fellow at the University of Canberras Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, a government-funded think tank with close ties to the state apparatus and intelligence organisations. Jensen declared that Russian foreign interference operations could be carried out by influential agents, who would indirectly act upon a target population by trying to shape their attitudes and eventually their behaviours to act in a way thats favourable to the foreign country. Jensens claims dovetailed with a campaign being spearheaded by the Democratic Party and the intelligence agencies in the United States. Their unsubstantiated allegations blame Russian interference for the Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clintons defeat in the 2016 US presidential election. This McCarthyite campaign has been broadened to present all manner of social discontent as the product of a nefarious plot hatched in the Kremlin. The aim is to criminalise mounting oppositional sentiment. Likewise, the Australian media and political establishment, is alleging, also without evidence, that China is conducting widespread interference in Australian politics, economics and virtually every area of social life. The Liberal-National Coalition government and the Labor Party opposition used these claims to pass sweeping foreign interference legislation last June, directed at outlawing growing opposition to Australian involvement in the aggressive US confrontation with Beijing. The latest draconian legislation, including to fast-track the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme and crack open encryption codes for mobile phones and social media, is being pushed through parliament at present (see: Australian government accelerates anti-democratic foreign influence register). The real target of online censorship is not foreign interference but domestic hostility to war and authoritarianism. Jensen declared that Russian interference would likely aim to weaken the Five Eyes alliancethe international surveillance network led by the United States, which monitors the communications of millions of ordinary people and is integral to the preparations for war. Jensen further claimed that Russia and its operatives had advocated strongly on behalf of Julian Assange, asking for Australias intercession regarding his cause to help free him. He said this would become more salient in the near future, as reporting last week has indicated that he is currently under sealed indictment in the United States. These comments were an attempt to blackguard widespread opposition to the persecution of the WikiLeaks publisher because of its exposures of US-led war crimes and illegal diplomatic intrigues. The Socialist Equality Party has spearheaded demands that the Australian government act immediately to secure Assanges safe passage to Australia, with a guarantee against extradition to the US. This included a powerful rally in June addressed by well-known investigative journalist John Pilger. The target of online censorship is not fake news, i.e., false information, but true news that cuts across the lies of the corporate and political establishment. The truth or falsity of a statement is often incidental to its utility in influence operations, Jensen declared. Chris Zappone, foreign news editor of the Fairfax-owned Age newspaper, took up this theme. Over the past two years he has written a stream of articles, claiming that foreign interference is a major threat, and that social media imperils social cohesion. Zappone warned the hearing that people continually asking questions but not with the end goal of reform, but, rather, simply to ask questions can feed into the growing distrust between the populationthe citizensand the leaders of that country. The Fairfax Media journalist declared that it was necessary to determine whether a news article was helping to clarify a matter for the public or actually helping to just break down trust between the public and the leaders in the society. Zappone openly invoked the McCarthyite witch hunts of the 1950s, declaring: They were having this issue then with the communist infiltration and communist propaganda at the time. His comments pointed to fears within the political and media establishment over the attraction of workers and young people to socialism amid a deepening crisis of world capitalism. The journalist suggested greater repression. Where you find that a certain party or group of politicians are relying on a consistent pattern of misinformation, and if it costs money and it takes coordination That might be a place where the state comes in and theres some sort of sanction or penalty. Tom Sears, a PhD candidate at the Australian Defence Force Academys cyber centre, called for a whole-of-government arrangement to target influence operations. This, he said, could involve the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)the domestic spy agencythe Australian Signals Directorate, which intercepts online and phone communications, the Home Affairs Department and the military. Sears also called for the online dissemination of World War I Anzac mythology, which is aimed at promoting the military, and intimidating widespread anti-war sentiment. Anzac is an example of a tradition which has easily transferred into the digital and by which Australians are able to understand what a civic culture is, he said (see: Australia: World War I centenary celebrations end with stepped-up militaristic propaganda). Labor and Greens representatives at the inquiry asked the assembled experts how influence operations and fake news could be combated. The entire political establishment is committed to the suppression of socialist and left-wing views and websites, as it pursues an agenda of militarism, austerity and authoritarianism opposed by the vast majority of people. The World Socialist Web Site has taken the lead in exposing the moves by capitalist governments and the social media conglomerates to censor the internet and issued a call for the formation of an International Coalition of Socialist, Anti-War and Progressive Websites to fight back against this attack on freedom of speech and basic democratic rights. See here for the latest coverage of this campaign. On November 19, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) hosted a mayoral forum for five of the 17 declared candidates standing in the February 2019 mayors race. The forum sponsors included unions and political organizations closely affiliated with the Illinois Democratic Party, and it was hosted by Sun-Times columnist Evan Moore. The event was titled The Great Displacement: Mayoral Forum on Reversing African-American Push-out and Building a Chicago for the Many. It purported to address the concerns of working-class families in a city that is increasingly inhospitable to anyone but the top 20 percent of income earners, as rents and living costs climb and schools and social services remain under relentless attack. (Push-out refers to the tens of thousands who have left the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois in recent years, a significant portion of whom are African-American.) But far from addressing the concerns of working families, the candidates were being quizzed on what they had to offer to serve the interests of an aspiring layer of upper-middle-class African-Americans, including black capitalists and a section of the union bureaucracy. Most of the candidates referred to the citys financial situation, but the population loss added a new facet to the long-standing austerity narrative. None of the candidates denounced the tired lie that there is no money for public servicesa lie promoted by the Democrats, unions and pseudo-left organizations alike. Several of the candidates spoke of needed infrastructure like jobs, hospitals, schools, transit and mental health care, but when it came infrastructure, the political framework of the forum allowed the candidates to quickly douse any hopes, simply by noting that Chicagos population loss could make additional infrastructure hard to justify. But none of the candidates proposed any challenge to the massive wealth controlled by the ruling class, which would be essential to the funding of any major revitalization. Instead, the discussion centered on which organizations and social layers might benefit from the new direction for Chicago after Democrat Rahm Emanuel departs City Hall after two terms in office. Just two weeks after the most expensive governors race in US history, in which the Democrats billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune J. B. Pritzker ousted billionaire Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, no mention was made of the record amounts pumped into the November elections. To do so would have undercut the political framing of the event, which was that tough decisions are going to continue to be made, and to determine who would benefit from the choices made by these five candidates, four of whom are women of color. The five forum participants were * Lori Lightfoot: Once a state prosecutor, Lightfoot is a leading fixture in the citys police reform efforts, having led the Chicago Police Board (the nominal civilian oversight body) and the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, a body established by Emanuel in the aftermath of the killing of teenager Laquan McDonald by a Chicago cop and its cover-up by city officials. * Toni Preckwinkle: One of the biggest cogs in the Illinois Democratic machine, Preckwinkle is currently Cook County board president and chair of the Cook County Democratic Party. The former alderman is a close ally of the Clintons and has been promoted as a progressive as far back as the mid-1990s by the Democratic Socialists of America. She played a key role in the promotion of Barack Obama during his time in Illinois. * Susana Mendoza: A leading figure in the Democratic Latino caucus, she was just re-elected comptroller of the state of Illinois. Formerly the Chicago city clerk and a state representative, she enjoys the support of a powerful section of the Illinois political machine, including Michael Madigan and Emanuel. * Amara C. Enyia: Also a mayoral candidate in the 2015 race, Enyia is currently director of the Austin Chamber of Commerce on the citys far west side. A vocal proponent of black capitalism, Kanye West has given more than $73,000 to her campaign and Chance the Rapper publicly endorsed her. Enyia began her political career working in the policy office of Mayor Richard M. Daley. * Paul Vallas: Formerly Chicago Public Schools chief, former budget director under Daley and one-time Democratic candidate for Illinois lieutenant governor, Vallas is best known as the school turnaround specialist responsible for the massive restructuring of public school systems involving the expansion of charter schools in Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Bridgeport, Connecticut. The forum took place on the same day as the ballot access deadline for the mayoral election, a process that involves candidates turning in tens of thousands of voter signatures to meet the 12,500 required. In orchestrating such an election kick-off event, the CTU has entered a new phase in its role as part of the bourgeois political establishment in Chicago, deepening its integration into the Democratic Party. The CTU is now led by International Socialist Organization (ISO) member Jesse Sharkey, as president, and Stacy Davis Gates, vice president. Sharkey, having fraudulently declared in September that Emanuels decision not to run for re-election is a victory for the working class, is now politically responsible for putting before teachers and other workers the choice of one among these five pro-business Democrats. The ISOs Socialist Worker explained quite clearly in a recent comment that the organization and its partners wish to be courted by the Democrats: If we simply take their word and gift them our support, neither Preckwinkle nor any other mayoral candidate will deliver on their promises. Change doesnt come from the politicians making promises. Its created when movements from below make demands and engage in direct actions to win those demands from whomever happens to be holding office. Just how far the ISO and the other pseudo-left outfits working in and around the CTU and the Democratic Party are willing to go was established by the presence of a vicious enemy of public education on the stage. This was the Democrats time-tested education reformer, Vallas, who offered blunt answers to the moderators questions: Uncomfortable changes are coming and he can be relied upon to promote certain interests. Vallas spoke directly of having provided contracts in the past to black and brown businesses. He claimed future construction projects will hire black and brown workers and businesses, and that schools will hire black and brown teachers. On November 16, Vallas released a plan to right-size, which is to say, further cut down, the Chicago Public Schools amid declining enrollment. He claims to be reimagining schools to meet the needs of residents, and not planning to shut them down. But this is simply not credible given the Democratic Partys record. Several high-profile candidates were not invited to the forum, including another set of politicos from the Democratic Party machine: Gery Chico, once a Daley chief of staff who challenged Emanuel in 2011; investment banker Bill Daley, brother of Richard M. Daley and, like Emanuel, a former Obama White House Chief of Staff; and former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, appointed by Emanuel. McCarthy, who was fired amid the public outrage over the murder of 17-year-old McDonald in 2014 by Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke and its cover-up by the Emanuel administration, is running a far-right law-and-order campaign. The author also recommends: Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announces he will not seek re-election [7 September 2018] Chicago Housing Authority refuses to provide housing assistance while homelessness grows [6 February 2017] Canadas Liberal government has rammed through parliament emergency legislation outlawing the campaign of rotating strikes that 50,000 Canada Post workers have mounted since Oct. 22. In doing so, they are following in the footsteps of the Harper Conservative government, which imposed massive concessions on postal workersincluding real wage and pension cuts and a huge expansion of low-paid and precarious employmentafter passing its own anti-strike law in 2011. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is legally compelled, under the Liberals strikebreaking law, to order postal workers to end their job action. At the time of writing (9 p.m. EST), shortly after Bill C-89s adoption by parliament, CUPW had yet to comply. But that it will soon do so is beyond doubt. Even as the Liberals, with the enthusiastic support of the Conservative Official Opposition, suspended normal parliamentary procedures and stampeded Bill C-89 into law, the CUPW leadership continued to adamantly oppose launching an all-out national strike. Instead, CUPW President Mike Palecek pleaded with the Liberals that CUPWs rotating strikes were so ineffectual as not to warrant a back-to-work law. On Sunday, CUPW issued a press release that confirmed Canada Post had cavalierly dismissed workers concerns in last-ditch talks with a federal mediator. The communique concluded with an all but official announcement of the unions capitulation. Postal workers, it declared, have long memories, will not forget the actions of Canada Post and the government, and will hold their heads high. The illegalization of the postal workers strike is an attack on the entire working class. It is the latest volley in a systematic assault on workers most basic means of exerting their class strength. Outlawing job action, especially when workers are in a position of strength, has become the norm across the country. Quebec construction workers, Nova Scotia teachers, Ontario public school and college teachers and railway workers have all been recent targets of back-to-work laws. Moreover, the issues that are at the center of the postal workers dispute with government-owned Canada Post are those that confront public and private sector workers alike, across Canada and internationally. They include: declining living standards; multi-tier wages; forced-overtime; precarious employment; speed-up; the use of technological change to cut jobs and increase the pace and regimentation of work; and the dismantling of public services. Like any other major corporation, government-owned Canada Post is seeking to maximize profits at workers expense. The expansion of its parcel delivery business has been associated with a surge in accidents. Postal workers now suffer debilitating injuries at a rate more than five times the norm in federally-regulated industries. Yet Canada Post has refused workers demands for changes, insisting health and safety be fobbed off to a management-union committee for further study. The Trudeau governments outlawing of the postal workers strike is part of a further lurch right on the part of the Canadian ruling class. In response to the eruption of trade war and a surge in great-power and inter-imperialist conflict, big business is pressing for more aggressive assertion of its imperialist interests abroad and an intensification of the assault on the working class at home. Last Wednesday, the Liberals announced a further $14 billion in corporate tax cuts and a new mechanism to cull health, environmental and workplace regulations so as to boost corporate competitiveness. The state suppression of the postal workers strike will embolden the new, avowedly right-wing, pro-big business governments in Ontario and Quebec to press ahead with their plans to slash and privatize public services and scapegoat immigrants and minorities. Postal workers now find themselves at an impasse. This is not because they are without strength or potential allies among workers across Canada and internationally. Were postal workers to defy the government and make their struggle the spearhead of a working-class counter-offensive against austerity, concessions and anti-worker laws they would galvanize mass support. But CUPW has done everything to limit, isolate, and now shutdown their struggle. Job action was delayed for almost one month after workers had gained the legal right-to-strike, and then limited to rotating one- and two-day strikes. No attempt was made to link postal workers struggle to a broader movement of the working class to oppose the dismantling of public services and defend workers social rights. The unions publicity campaign for a postal bank is the very opposite of such a struggle. It is predicated on acceptance that Canada Post and other public services must be run as profit-making enterprises. Especially significant was CUPWs silence on the threat of a government back-to-work law. It was obvious from the outset that Canada Post was relying, as it has for decades, on the government of the day, whether Liberal or Conservative, to back-stop its demands for further rollbacks. Yet the union, led by the left-talking imposter Palecek, deliberately kept mum about this threat, and CUPW continued to do so for a week-and-a-half after Prime Minister Trudeau had publicly brandished it, with his statement that all options would be on the table if the rotating strikes did not soon end. CUPWs silence was calculated. It recognized any discussion of the threat of government intervention would have immediately raised the need for workers to break out of the straitjacket of a state-regulated collective-bargaining dispute, and to combine militant industrial action with a fight for the independent political mobilization of the working class against the Trudeau government. CUPW responded to the Liberals tabling of their Bill C-89, by boosting the courts and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) as postal workers key allies in their time of need. In reality, the courts are a pivotal mechanism for upholding and enforcing the domination of big business. They have greenlighted numerous laws stripping workers of their rights to strike and bargain collectively. And even when, five years after its adoption, an Ontario Superior Court struck down Harpers 2011 anti-strike law as unconstitutional, there was no redress for any of the concessions imposed on postal workers. As for the CLC, it has systematically suppressed the class struggle for decades, including openly supporting purportedly progressive NDP, Parti Quebecois, and Liberal governments that have imposed austerity and used back-to-work laws to break strikes. A close ally of the Trudeau government, the CLCs pledges of support for postal workers are not just hollow. They were undoubtedly tied to assurances from CUPW that not only would the union comply with the Liberals Bill C-89, but that it would not call even a legal national strike pending the legislations adoption, so as to ensure workers remained demobilized and divided. Postal workers must draw a critical balance sheet. If they are to prevail in their struggle against Canada Post, they must take its leadership from the hands of the CUPW apparatus. Rank-and-file action committees, entirely independent of CUPW, should be formed at every Canada Post workplace, to prepare an all-out national strike in defiance of the governments strikebreaking legislation. This must be linked to a political struggle: the fight to make the postal workers struggle the spearhead of a working-class counteroffensive against austerity and wage and job cuts, the dismantling of public services, and the criminalization of workers struggles. The inhumanity of the Trump administrations anti-immigrant policies has been exposed even more nakedly with new reports on the effects of its changes to the public charge rule, introduced last month. It connects the qualifications for visas or permanent resident status to the applicants usage of various government programs including housing, subsidized health care or food stamps covered by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Anti-hunger advocates and Food Bank workers report that many immigrant families are choosing to go hungry rather than use food stamps or register at various food banks for fear of being deported or denied permanent residency or citizenship. These reports are based not merely on anecdotal evidence. In the most comprehensive study done on the issue, new research presented this month at the American Public Health Associations annual meeting reveals that SNAP usage by immigrant families has fallen dramatically in the past year, after having steadily increased for a decade. The study, led by Boston Medical Center Deputy Director of Policy Strategy, Allison Bovell-Ammon, surveyed 35,000 mothers with young children in five US citiesBoston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Little Rockfrom 2007 through the first half of 2018. The study found that SNAP participation amongst eligible immigrant families rose steadily in the decade between 2007-2017, regardless of whether the parent had been in the United States for five years or less. The trend, however, changed dramatically in the first half of 2018. Preliminary survey results showed that only 34.8 percent of families in the US for less than five years participated in SNAP, representing a nearly 10 percent drop. Among families with mothers who lived in the US for more than five years, SNAP participation declined to 42.7 percent, a 2 percent drop. In addition, the study also found that household food insecurity increased from 9.9 percent in 2007 to 17.8 percent among immigrant families in the US for less than five years, and rose from 10.8 to 17.5 among families residing in the US for more than five years over the same period. The survey was conducted prior to the announcement of the changes to the public charge rule, meaning that the growth of food insecurity is undoubtedly far more dire today. In the press release introducing the study, Bovell-Ammon said: Its important to note that the eligibility rules for SNAP remained unchanged between 2017 and 2018... These findings demonstrate that rhetoric and the threat of policy changes, even before changes are enacted, may be causing families to forego nutrition assistance. Some immigrant families may be forced to make agonizing choices between enrolling in critical nutrition programs and jeopardizing their future immigration status. These tradeoffs are likely to have a negative impact on childrens and families health. Bovell-Ammons concerns are not mere conjecture. Officials associated with Food Banks and NGOs focused on food insecurity issues have already reported a dramatic and visible trend of migrant families avoiding seeking any assistance in the current holiday season. A recent ABC News report drew together accounts of this trend from different parts of the country. Rodrigo Aguirre, a case worker at the Spanish Catholic Center in Washington, told ABC News that about half the families he talks to are not comfortable applying for benefits, for fear that their information would be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mothers in particular, he said, were afraid of being separated from their US-born children. Immigrants, many of whom already belong to the most vulnerable sections of society, are now being terrorized by the ominous connections being made between usage of government programs and the path to legal residency and eventual citizenship. As Joel Berg, head of Hunger Free NYC told ABC News: Its not like things were hunky-dory for immigrants before then, and now its just gotten so much worse... you take people that are already scared and are coming from countries and are scared of their governmentfor good reasonand throw this on top of that, and its truly a massive calamity. Apologists for the administration have tried to present the changes to the public charge rule merely as a way to streamline the immigration process while making sure that those who qualify for assistance programs continue having access to them. They have also tried to shrug off mounting evidence of migrant families choosing to stay away from government assistance programs even when it is critically needed, as a case of misinformation and hysteria. Jessica Vaughn, a former consular official and director of the pro-Trump Center for Immigration Studies, told ABC News that there could be many reasons why people might be opting out of programs like SNAP. The rule does not aim to deny benefits to US citizen children or others who might qualify for them, she said. Its purpose is to create a better way to evaluate which applicants for immigration benefits are going to qualify by showing that theyre self sufficient. Such claims are patent lies. While most people who enroll in programs like SNAP tend to be American citizens, over 9 million are legal immigrants or citizens whose parents were born outside the US. Even as the changes to the public charge rule were discussed, government officials were aware of the potential impact on immigrant communities. In a proposal discussing the issue, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) even estimated that over half a million migrants would disenroll from public programs should the change be instituted. With the new public charge rule, that reality is far worse than the scenario outlined by the DHS. Migrant communities, already vulnerable and threatened by the plethora of policies attacking their survival, now face the real danger of hunger and food insecurity. The author recommends: US: The public charge rules effects on legal immigrant families US announces new barrier to citizenship for low-income immigrants [13 August 2018] It has been 10 days since a quarter-million people wearing Yellow Vests first protested on November 17 against French President Emmanuel Macrons plans for a fuel tax hike. The deep opposition provoked by the policies of austerity and militarism carried out by Macron in France and the European Union across Europe, has rapidly come to the fore. Deep social anger against social inequality and the arrogance of Macron, the former banker and president of the rich, is building not only among Yellow Vest protesters, but tens of millions of workers. Despite the violent repression of Sundays Paris protest, Yellow Vest protests are continuing and allying with numerous strike movements unfolding at the European level. Port, Amazon and oil refinery workers are on strike and defending roadblocks set up by the Yellow Vest protesters. Their demandsfor Macron to resign, for an end to social inequality and attacks on social rights, and against a European armyare taking on an ever more working-class character. Faced with the eruption of social anger, Macron is slated to speak this evening after discussions with trade unions and NGOs on how to react to the protests. At the same time, the press is trying to impose a leadership for the Yellow Vests, a socially and politically heterogeneous movement, to represent the protesters in talks with Macron and the state. These negotiations are a trap for workers and middle-class people in the Yellow Vest movement. Fifty years after the May-June 1968 general strike, there will be no reformist outcome of the class struggle; Macron will give at most only crumbs. The way forward is to reject these fraudulent negotiations and turn to the working class. Independent organizations of struggle and a new political leadership are required in order to build a movement that raises before workers in France and across Europe the question of the transfer of state power to the working class. Yesterday, Macron adviser and French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT) union leader Laurent Berger, who is leading todays talks, proposed, in an interview with Le Parisien, concrete measures to solve the crisis. Having run into a wall with [Prime Minister] Edouard Philippe, Berger is now supposedly launching a struggle for Macrons soul, Le Parisien writes with a straight face, to determine whether Macron the former banker or Emmanuel the candidate of empathy wins out. What Berger is proposing concretely is to ram through the fuel tax hike and continue with the austerity agenda of Macron the banker. The state cannot do everything and I certainly cannot ask the head of state to step down, Berger declares. Instead, We must make sure that together with the fuel tax increase, there are accompanying measures that make it painless for French people. The only measure he proposed was to give some financial aid for carpooling plans, ecological transport, and thermal renovation. According to government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, Macron is proposing a change of method but not a change in policy. In short, some PR initiatives will be taken to try to sell a presidency that the Yellow Vests reject and the overwhelming majority of the population despises. AFP concluded: A priori, there will be no major financial decisions or moratorium on the fuel tax hike that triggered the explosion. How to impose negotiations on a diffuse, heterogeneous movement in order to sell it out? The press is now promoting a delegation composed of eight Yellow Vests who claim to speak for the movement and to want talks with Macron, while nonetheless claiming to be apolitical. The eight include several entrepreneurs, an air force veteran and a CFDT union official who is demanding to rapidly start talks with the state and wind down the protests: We cannot paralyze the country for three months, we must hold negotiations. The initiator of one of the initial Yellow Vest calls on Facebook, truck driver Eric Drouet, is also in this body, apparently without great enthusiasm. He declared, Nothing will be decided by the eight people of this delegation. At the same time, Le Parisien is hysterically denouncing the danger of a revolutionary perspective influencing the Yellow Vests: Certain professional troublemakers have invited themselves into this movement, proposing only to destroy everything and, why not, to deny and smash even the democratic model of elections. The Yellow Jackets provide a platform for the belching of these birds of ill omen by constantly dwelling on the same dogmas. Such insults deserve the same contempt as the trade union talks proposed by Berger. It is not the Yellow Vests or developing working class opposition to Macron that threaten democracy, but the Macron government, and the trade unions and their political allies who are trying to strangle opposition to Macron with fraudulent negotiations. It is time to take the revolutionary road. There is nothing to negotiate with Macron. Elected by default against the neo-fascist Marine Le Pen, ruling with a legislative majority chosen by fewer than half of French voters, he imposes the naked diktat of the banks. His plan to spend 300 billion by 2024 on a European army, and his austerity policybased on a labor law adopted without a parliamentary vote, under a state of emergency suspending basic democratic rights, and despite the opposition of the overwhelming majority of Frenchmenhave no legitimacy whatsoever. The Yellow Vests cannot pressure Macron to change course and defend their social rights. Bled white by decades of deindustrialization and austerity that created the fortunes of a parasitic aristocracy of multibillionaires, crumbling under its debts, European capitalism no longer has the resources for policies of social compromise, as it did in 1968. And indeed, the trade unions and the middle-class parties like the New Anti-capitalist Party that emerged from the post-1968 middle-class student movement have all stood aloof from or even denounced the Yellow Vests. What is to be done? The task is to organize the working class in France and Europe and to provide it with an internationalist revolutionary strategy and perspective to overthrow the financial aristocracy and take power. This vindicates the perspectives formulated by the WSWS on the protests then emerging in France: The revolutionary struggles developing against Macron will inevitably bring workers into conflict with the parties of what has passed for the post-1968 left. This underscores the significance of the foundation in 2016 of the Parti de legalite socialiste (PES), the French section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). It re-established the presence of Trotskyism in France, fighting for the revolutionary mobilization of the working class against the pseudo-left and all the capitalist parties. As the union bureaucracies openly participate in implementing austerity, the PES calls for the formation of rank-and-file organizations in workplaces, schools and working-class communities across France. These are critical to provide workers and youth with forums to discuss and organize opposition to the social attacks and war plans of the entire political establishment. Strikes and protests have taken place this month in Greece against the austerity policies being imposed by the Syriza-led government of Alexis Tsipras in accordance with the demands of the European Union. A general strike in the public sector was called by ADEDY (Civil Servants Confederation) on November 14. The strike was the first major action by workers since Syriza exited the EUs bailout programme in August, under an agreement that enforces austerity in the country for decades to come. Public-sector workers have seen their pay slashed by 40 percent since 2010 and are demanding an end to a pay freeze and restoration of what are called the 13th and 14th salaries. Despite the huge cuts inflicted on workers, ADEDY demanded only a 2-3 percent pay increase. A general strike called by the General Confederation of Greek Labour (GSEE) private-sector union federation is set for November 28. The GSEE is calling for the restoration of collective agreements, pay and pensions and making the paltry demand that the minimum wage return to its previous level of 751 a month. Transport is expected to be hit by the strike, with the Athens metro, the electric railway and the tram network halted. Employees of the ILPAP trolley-bus service will strike, as will workers on OASA buses for part of the day. Ferry workers are backing the strike, with all passenger ferries to be docked nationwide. So despised is the ruling party that at a November 16 commemoration of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic student uprising against the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974, members of a Syriza delegation, including two government ministers, were forced to leave amid angry protests at their presence. On November 20, dozens of members of the POE-OTA municipal workers union occupied the Labour Ministry in protest at the death of a refuse worker killed after losing control of the truck he was driving in the early hours of November 16. The accident took place near Athens main landfill in Fyli on a busy highway located northwest of the city centre. According to figures released by POE-OTA, since the summer of 2014, 43 municipal workers in Greece have lost their lives in workplace accidents, while 58 have been seriously injured. These deaths and injuries are directly linked to the austerity and anti-labour legislation imposed over the last eight years by successive governments. The week prior to the November 16 incident, a worker lost his life, and another was badly injured when they were hit by a car while cleaning the sidewalk on the same stretch of road. According to reports, the worker was deaf and dumb and unable to hear the traffic. That a disabled person was compelled to work on such a busy stretch of road for 495 (the net monthly minimum wage), with a complete disregard for his safety, is a testament to the social crisis produced by an eight-year-long assault on living standards and working conditions. In the last three years, Syriza has implemented brutal attacks on pensions, shifted more of the tax burden onto the working class, attacked the right to strike and overseen the privatisation of state-owned assets such as the Piraeus Port Authority to the Chinese-owned company Cosco. Two years ago, it completed the privatisation and sale of 14 major Greek airports to the German-led consortium Fraport. In addition, 23 regional airports have been earmarked for privatisation, as well as over 10,000 archaeological sites and museums, many in Crete, in and around the town of Chania. The Keep Talking Greece website reported that in Chania alone, the government is selling off the new Archaeological Museum, the archaeological museum located inside the St Francis Church, the National Museum Eleftherios Venizelos, the Historical Archive of Crete, several Venetian and Byzantine moats, fortifications and bastions, as well as properties where important Minoan architectural remains have been discovered. On October 11, workers at Greeces archaeological sites and museums nationwide struck for 24 hours to protest the transfer of public museums and sites to the Privatization Fund. Strikers at the Acropolis in Athens held up a banner reading, NOT FOR SALE. Dozens of token, mainly 24-hour general strikes called by GSEE and ADEDY have been held over the last eight years as a means of letting off steam, while successive governments imposed EU/IMF austerity diktats. These trade union organisations are largely discredited and their inability to maintain control over workers has caused a crisis within the labour bureaucracy. This is especially the case with the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), the trade union allied to the Stalinist Communist Party of Greece (KKE). As the second largest faction within both GSEE and ADEDY, PAME has historically played the role of a militant loyal opposition within the bureaucracy. The public-sector strike and proposed strike in the private sector were endorsed by PAME, which campaigned for a 24-hour general strike involving both GSEE and ADEDY for November 8, which failed to materialise. On November 1, workers in a group of eight unions struck in what was dubbed an inter-sector strike from below. The unions involved included the SEFK, which covers teachers working in frontistiria-- evening cramming schools that prepare high school students for exams, the union of waiters and catering workers (SSM) and the union that represents employees of Nokia. Demands included the reestablishment of collective bargaining and repeal of a recent law allowing the government to adjust the minimum wage by decree, based on the demands of big business for increased competitiveness. The action was presented as an alternative to PAMEs strike proposal and supposedly independent of the discredited GSEE and ADEDY federations and accountable to the rank-and-file memberships of union locals. In an interview with the EfSyn newspaper, Giorgos Christoforou, the head of the union of Nokia Greece employees, declared: The motivation behind this initiative was the stance of GSEE for the so-called National Day of Action of the Social Alliance on May 30. [The Social Alliance includes the Employers Federation]. We then said that this cant go on. We got sick of waiting for GSEE when they were going to strike together with the employers. The strike was endorsed by the Front for Class Overthrow (META), which, while presenting itself as a nonpartisan left-wing trade union faction, was historically aligned to Syriza. Most of its members are now part of a Syriza splinter group, Popular Unity, which advocates a programme of national autarky. The November 1 action was also endorsed by the pseudo-left Antarsya, in which the Socialist Workers Party (SEK) plays a leading role. Antarsya holds most of the seats on the SEFK unions governing committee. META is headed by Giorgos Charisis, a longstanding senior trade union bureaucrat who was also formerly with Syriza and is now with Popular Unity. In the past, Charisis has served on ADEDYs governing committee and is currently on the executive council of POE-OTA, the municipal workers union. The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter is holding an emergency online meeting Wednesday night at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST. The meeting will discuss a strategy for GM, Lear, and all other autoworkers to unify their struggle against the companies and the corporate-controlled UAW. To receive information on how to attend, text Autoworker to 555888, or register here. Yesterdays announcement by General Motors executives that the company will slash 14,700 production and salaried jobs and close seven facilities globally has triggered shock and outrage among GM autoworkers. The World Socialist Web Site spoke with workers from the Lordstown Assembly Plant in Warren, Ohio, which is one of five North American facilities slated to close next year. The others include the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant and the Oshawa Assembly Plant, outside of Toronto, Ontario. Another two plants outside of North America will also be closed, in addition to an already announced Korean plant, but they have not yet been named. This is a global war, said Mike, who has 36 years at the Lordstown plant. Theyre cutting benefits. Theyre cutting jobs. The UAW [United Auto Workers union] is part of it. Mike said that younger workers have kids and have bought homes. I just talked to a guy who just bought one. He doesnt know what hell do. It was a sullen day today. There are guys with two or three years, kids in school, parents in the area so they cant leave. Theyre laid off, no unemployment, no benefits, and if they get called back, theyve got to start all over again with no seniority. Lordstown workers on last day of the second shift in June Other workers described the impact that the closure would have on the community. The Lordstown plant, opened in 1966, is located just outside economically depressed Youngstown, a former steel center ravaged by decades of deindustrialization. Jack, who recently retired after working for 31 years at the plant, said the closure would have a further roll-on effect. Lear is going to stop as well. Amalgamated is going to stop. The truck haulers who bring stuff to this plant will stop. There are nearby stamping plants that make material for Lordstown, and they will close too. One worker was so shocked by the announcement that she could only say, I cant even go through it right now. Its a bad situation. Its the most heartbreaking thing thats ever happened to me. The number of employees at Lordstown has been steadily reduced from over 4,500 to just 1,600 in recent years, with the collaboration of the UAW. In June, the union oversaw the ending of the second of three shifts, bringing the workforce down from approximately 3,000 to 1,600. One worker who was laid off in June, after having worked for eight years at Lordstown, said, I didnt get any SUB pay and my unemployment is just about out. When we were laid off everyone thought that we would get called back in a few months or a year. I have a new born baby and I dont know what Im going to do. Ive been looking for work, but all there is are a lot of part-time jobs that dont pay anything. Now they are closing the first shift. There is a widespread belief among workers that the UAW was well-informed about the decision. Many workers expressed anger and contempt over the UAWs collaboration with management in slashing their jobs and conditions. This didnt just happen this morning, Mike said. It had to have been planned and the workers were not informed. Theyre hiding things from us. Mike referred to the ongoing corruption scandal exposing payments by Fiat Chrysler to high-level UAW officials. The bribes were paid during negotiations for the 2009 and 2015 contracts, which included major attacks on workers. As we sit here and speak, the union is building a new cottage for the former UAW president. And the money that went to them from Chrysler Im sure came from Ford and GM as well. Look at the scandal that happened, he said. Yet what do they get when they get to court? A year in jail! Its a slap on the wrist. Id go to jail for a year for a couple million. The worker who was laid off in June commented, The union is not fighting for us. They are part of the problem. GM may promise a new line, but they will want everyone to take even more concessions and the union will tell people to vote for it to save your job. Like the job cuts announced on the eve of labor contract talks in 2015, the plant closings are a shot across the bow to 150,000 autoworkers at GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler whose US contracts end in September 2019. GM officials said the final fate of the plants in Michigan and Ohio will be the subject of negotiation for a new four-year contract with the UAW. General Motors also announced the closure of the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant Jack also thought that GM would use the threat of mass layoffs to achieve further cuts to workers conditions. It wouldnt surprise me if they keep it closed for at least a year, and then begin a rumor that they might reopen, if people are willing to accept part-time, temporary positions, and start at $10 an hour, he said. [UAW Vice President] Cindy Estrada set up a deal to outsource workers here, he commented. These people [the UAW officers] think they never have to account for anything and live permanently at their office. When people have to fight a battle on an empty stomach anything can happen. I think therell be a wildcat. Youll see action coming from UAW members. Im not talking about Solidarity House. Im talking about UAW workers. This plant has a fighting reputation. It always has. Another worker who was laid off in June, who had 10 years at the plant, said, The UAW International owns stock in GM; that pisses us off. We are the ones out on the floor making the product. If they give us a benchmark or a quota, we will hit it nine out of ten times. People take pride in what they do. You bend over backwards, and you still get laid off. You can tell they planned this, he added. Every time the contract comes up, they try to scare people. The feeling they want is just be happy you have a job. We have the right to a decent living, he continued. Their profits keep going up and up. It took about 7 years for us to make what we should have gotten five years prior, he said, remarking on the two-tier wage imposed on all new hires by the Obama administration as part of the 2009 bankruptcy restructuring carried out with the collusion of the UAW. The worker discussed the idea of a 30-hour workweek at 40 hours pay, a demand that was long ago abandoned by the UAW. You would get better quality work out of people and people would have time to see their families, he said. That would be awesome. I would strike in a heartbeat. But you know the first thing GM would say is we are moving production to Mexico. We cant have just one plant walking. It would be awesome if we could get on the same page globally, and workers in the US, Mexico and Korea all stand up and say, weve had enough. President Trump traveled to Mississippi Monday in a last-minute effort to save a long-held Republican seat in the US Senate. The runoff election between Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy takes place today. The two finished one-two in the November 6 election, but the runoff was required since neither received 50 percent of the vote. Trump held rallies in Tupelo and Biloxi. He spent far more time than usual pleading for votes for Hyde-Smith, in contrast to his rallies before the November 6 vote, when he generally focused his praise on himself and sometimes ignored the candidates he was supposedly promoting. The two rallies were hastily scheduled after state Republicans warned that Hyde-Smith was in danger of losing, and appeared both badly organized and poorly attended. It was particularly notable that Trumps effort to center the rallies on the question of immigration and trade protectionism did not arouse much enthusiasm, even among his own loyalists. At times, Trump appeared to be merely going through the motions, denouncing the Democrats as the party of radical socialism and open borders, although the White House is now engaged in detailed talks with congressional Democratic leaders on a federal budget that gives the lions share to the military, and billions in additional funding for border security. The US president appeared with Hyde-Smith, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, who appointed her to the Senate seat, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Hyde-Smith was challenged by an ultra-right Republican, State Senator Chris McDaniel, and by Espy, a former Democratic congressman and cabinet official in the Clinton administration. Hyde-Smith won 41 percent of the vote November 6, Espy 40 percent, and McDaniel 17 percent, eliminating McDaniel for the runoff. McDaniels supporters were expected either to vote for Hyde-Smith or sit out the election, but not vote for Espy, an African-American Democrat. Given the uncertainty about voter turnout, and Hyde-Smiths visible deficiencies as a candidate and public speaker, Republican state and national officials have openly expressed concern that the runoff could produce an upset victory for the Democrat, like that won by Doug Jones in Alabama a year ago, when he narrowly defeated the ultra-right Republican nominee Roy Moore. Moores political standing was undermined by a series of media reports alleging predatory conduct against teenage girls more than 30 years ago, when he was a local prosecutor in his late 30s. Hyde-Smith has suffered a similar political slide over the past two weeks based on statements and conduct linking her to Mississippis long history of brutal racial oppression. Several of her comments were made just before the November 6 vote but not widely publicized until afterwards. This included a declaration that she was so loyal to one of her prominent supporters that If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be on the front row. This was widely understood as a casual reference to Mississippis long and gruesome history of lynching, which took the lives of hundreds of black men in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. There was a backlash when this statement became widely publicized, and numerous big corporations that had sent campaign contributions to Hyde-Smith asked for their money back, including Google, Walmart, AT&T, Union Pacific, Pfizer and Boston Scientific. At a campaign event at Mississippi State University November 3, Hyde-Smith expressed support for efforts to suppress voter turnout on other campusesi.e., the historically black colleges and universities in the state, outside the two main public colleges, MSU and the University of Mississippi. Theres a lot of liberal folks in those other schools that maybe we dont want to vote, she said. Maybe we just want to make it a little more difficult. Hyde-Smith refused to apologize for either statement, declaring that she had been joking on both occasions, but then declined all interview requests or further comment on the subject, until she was forced to address it in her lone debate with Espy. Then she issued an apology to anyone who was offended, without indicating that there was actually anything to cause offense. There were also reports in the local Mississippi newspapers that Hyde-Smith had attended a segregation academy as a high school student, one of many such institutions established after court-ordered school integration finally came to the state in 1969. Even more damaging was the report that Hyde-Smith had sent her own daughter to a similar whites-only institution decades later. The Democratic candidate Espy has reacted to the unexpected possibility of actual election to office by shifting even further to the right, in an effort to reassure the Mississippi business elite that he will faithfully serve their interests if he wins the runoff. Espy has his own skeletons in the closet. He resigned from the Clinton cabinet over corruption charges, although he was eventually acquitted on all counts. He then went on to a lucrative lobbying career, representing, among others, corrupt and right-wing African rulers like Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, overthrown in 2011. At the debate with Hyde-Smith, Espy embraced the slogan Mississippi first, a transparent tribute to Trump, declaring, Mississippi first means I value Mississippi over everything else over party, over persons, over everybody. I am an independent person and I will be an independent senator, he said. He also called for a strong immigration policy. Particularly significant was his praise for former Senator Thad Cochran, the longtime Republican officeholder who retired early this year. In his closing statement at the debate, Espy called Cochran a thoughtful and efficient senator, adding, I would hope to be the kind of senator that Senator Cochran is. The Shiv Senasmove to hold a massive rally, last Sunday, in Ayodhya urging the putting up of a Ram temple on the site of former Babri mosque, has many interpretations. The rally supported and attended by BJP parent party Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is primarily viewed by others as a political strategy by the BJP to divert public attention ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. To divert attention from their failures, they raised the Ram Mandir issue. Had their intentions been good they neednt have waited for five years. Its their political tactic, nothing else. Whatever their associates like Shiv Sena and VHP are doing is part of their conspiracy, four times Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and leader of Bahujan Samaj Party chief, Mayawati said in a statement. The next hearing of the Supreme Court petitions on the disputed site is due in January 2019. The last structure on the site, Babri Mosque, was demolished in 1992 by Hindu nationalist groups led by the BJP, RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and a handful of other right wing groups. It was argued that the mosque has been built by demolishing a Hindu temple. However the archaeological excavations carried out in the 2000-2003 period following court orders, have not found any evidence of an ancient Hindu temple in the site. On the other hand evidence of the existence of a Buddhist centre with ruins of stupas and Buddhist style pillars and structures, surfaced. A petition urging the authorities to go by archaeological evidence and do justice to Buddhists was filed in the Supreme Court in March this year by a Buddhist. In July, the bench agreed to admit a writ application filed by another Buddhist petitioner claiming the Buddhist right to the site. However all this is now politically undermined in the loud din of the Hindutva movement led by BJP Chief Minister of Yogi Adityanath and ably supported by the RSS and the Shiv Sena, the latter accused of several incidents of communal riots including 1970 riots in Maharashtra town of Bhiwandi which killed about 250 people, the 1984 riots in the same city that killed 146 people and 1992-1993 Bombay riots that massacred nearly 700 civilians. Meanwhile at last Sundays gathering RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat found fault with the courts for not making Ram temple a priority. Ram temple was not a priority for the Supreme Court said Bhagwat whose organization stands accused of demolishing the Babri mosque in 1992 along with its off shoot BJP and a slew of right wing entities. We brought down the Babri mosque in 17 minutes, so how much time for a law? How much time does it take to draft the papers? a senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjaya Raut had said at Sundays rally. The fact that the present political build up in Ayodhya belittling the judiciary is detrimental to the law and order situation in the country has been brought into the attention by the Samajwadi Party (SP). A similar situation arose in 1992 and it is for everyone to see what happened...the matter is before the Supreme Court and everyone should show patience, Shivpal Yadav, the younger brother of Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav was quoted as saying. Yadav pointed out if the organizations asking for a Ram temple that are unable to wait till the courts ruling theres enough and more land in and around the site to build a temple. Why this obstinacy to build a Ram temple at the spot where Babri mosque was razed, he had asked. The simmering tensions in Ayodhya and the 20% Muslim strong state of Uttar Pradesh are likely to further strain the already fragile relations between Hindus and Muslims in the country. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi fails to exercise restraint at least at this juncture the whole episode is likely to boomerang on his government. The Peruvian daily El Comercio published an article on November 23 titled Increase in the number of Peruvian companies that stopped exporting. According to the report, although the physical volume exported is growing at the meager rate of 0.40 percent so far this year, according to ADEX (Association of Exporters) the mortality of the export companies in the country has accelerated. The newspaper reports that between January and September some 2,402 companies stopped exporting, a figure that is four percent higher than that registered in the same period of 2017. With these companies representing 18 percent of the 13,122 exporters, the Foreign Trade Society (ComexPeru) concludes that one in five has failed. The majority of these bankruptcies belongs to the so-called MYPES (Medianas Y Pequenas Empresas: medium and small businesses). But ADEX reports that 60 companies classified as medium and large have also stopped exporting. El Comercio s revelations indicate that behind the mushrooming corruption scandals and settling of scores within the political establishment during the last months lies the breakdown of the large-scale privatizations and free market economic model introduced in the 1990s. Corruption is such that four former presidents of Peru, as well as, prominent leaders of political parties, could end up in jail for many years, mainly on charges of money laundering. This is the case of Keiko Fujimori, longtime leader of the right-wing populist fujimorista movement and its party Fuerza Popular (FP), which dominates the Peruvian Congress. She was sentenced to 36 months of preventive detention while being investigated for forming a criminal organization inside FP and using it as a cover for laundering money received from the giant Brazilian construction multinational Odebrecht. MYPES were originally presented as an alternative to the limited employment generated by large capital intensive companies and, above all, as a solution to the poverty prevailing in the economys large so-called informal sector. The idea was the brain-child of Peruvian economist and internationally renowned cheerleader for capitalism, Hernando De Soto, and his Institute of Freedom and Democracy (in Spanish, ILD). De Soto made a name for himself in the late 1980s authoring the book El Otro Sendero (The Other Path) in which he set out his fundamental ideology: in order to combat informality every citizen could become an entrepreneur, beginning with granting property rights for their urban and rural real estate holdings and using these to obtain bank loans to start a business. De Sotos claims that MYPES constituted a successful way out of poverty are fundamentally fraudulent. The number of MYPES that die testifies to the falsity of his scheme. Among those who praise his pro-capitalist ideology in the so-called emerging countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia are former Democratic US President Bill Clinton and Republican Governor Jeb Bush. It is well known that De Soto influenced the inexperienced and newly installed president Alberto Fujimori in 1990 to change his Keynesian initiatives and follow the US-dictated neoliberal agenda. He has also served as economic advisor to figures such as Libyas Muammar Gaddafi and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. De Sotos model for the conversion of the country to a free market economy over the last three decades was accompanied by the growth of labor informality, with the majority located in the MYPES. MYPES labor informality is 79.9 percent, according to ComexPeru. That is to say, of the 8.13 million jobs that the Peruvian MYPES generate, at least 6.5 million are informal. MYPES is a very labor-intensive sector that generates the main source of employment in Peru, Minister of Production Perez-Reyes told the Andina news agency. Therefore, the disappearance of thousands of MYPES means a sharp increase in unemployment. Mining is the other sector that dominates economic life in Peru. The mining sector, in the hands of large transnationals, monopolizes the export of raw materials, which constitute 60 percent of total exports and have been the cornerstone of the economic policy of all neoliberal governments, from Fujimoris in the 1990s to the current administration of President Martin Vizcarra. The trend in mining is to use state-of-the-art technology, achieving high productivity. There are dozens of mining projects each valued in billions of dollars. According to data from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, in 2016, the mining sector generated 174,126 direct jobs, representing about 1.1 percent of jobs nationwide. In the same period, 1,567,138 indirect jobs were created. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, for each direct job generated by the mining sector, nine indirect jobs are created, dedicated to supplying products or services for the different activities related to mining. The mining sector also suffered a sharp decline in the month of September. Compared to September 2017, copper exports fell 27 percent. Another negative economic factor is the slowdown in construction, which previously had been the strongest of the private sectors. In the last year, more than 100,000 jobs were lost. And construction continues to suffer from the huge scandals involving the bribery of public officials and private entrepreneurs by the Brazilian mega-construction company Odebrecht. The causes behind the MYPES high mortality are to be found in the economic forces that dominate world markets. The Peruvian economy is suffering from the downward trend of the US dollar and the volatility of world markets in recent months, resulting from trade wars between the great powers. Perus national economy is subordinated to the interests of international capital, which dominates the country by means of the multi-billion dollar investments in mining, relegating the country to the role of supplying raw materials to the developed capitalist world. Within this global context, the MYPES, rather than decreasing informality, have become a major focus of it, leading to increasing social and economic inequality in Peruvian society. The United Socialist Party (USP) in Sri Lanka has called for a left alliance as the countrys political crisis mounts. This is part of the confusion being promoted by pseudo-left groups to block the development of an independent, working-class initiative to fight for a socialist solution to the attacks on democratic and social rights. The fake-left Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) led by Wickremabahu Karunaratne has directly lined up with the right-wing United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, praising him as a great democrat. The USP is taking a different tack, together with similar groups such as the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), distancing itself from both ruling class factions, but opposing the mobilisation of workers on the basis of a socialist perspective. The bitter infighting in the Colombo political establishment erupted on October 26, when President Maithripala Sirisena unconstitutionally sacked Wickremesinghe as prime minister and installed former President Mahinda Rajapakse in his place. The unity government between the UNP and Sirisenas faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) collapsed. In another unconstitutional step, Sirisena attempted to dissolve parliament and call fresh electionsa move that the Supreme Court temporarily prevented. The clash between two factions of the ruling class, desperate to grab state power, is taking increasingly violent forms, even as they both falsely claim to defend democracy. A November 16 USP statement, signed by its general secretary Siritunga Jayasuriya, declared: In the last two and half weeks, Sri Lanka has seen an unprecedented political crisis instigated by desperate power-hungry capitalist rulers. Though the clash was between a few cliques at the top of the ruling class, it affected the lives of ordinary working people and the oppressed minorities. The conflict between the presidency and the elected legislature was threatening the very edifice of bourgeois democracy in this country and could lead to mayhem and blood on the streets. To appeal to widespread popular disgust and alienation, the USP superficially reduces the ruling elites infighting to the actions of power hungry capitalist rulers, as if the crisis were simply motivated by subjective desires. It offers no explanation for the rift between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, whose joint government ruled the country for three years, and to which the USP extended de facto support. Nor does the USP explain why Sirisena is now aligned with his arch-rival Rajapakse, whom he ousted in a US-backed regime change operation in 2015. Reducing the present crisis to a clash of conniving and ambitious individuals serves a definite political purpose in deliberately obscuring the class interests they represent. The USP is covering up the depth of the political crisis of the ruling class as a whole and, thus, the dangers and political tasks that the working class confronts. The USPs call for a left alliance is aimed at promoting the dangerous illusion that one or other of the two factions can be pressured to defend the rights of working people. Just three years ago, the USP lined up behind Sirisena and Wickremesinghe in ousting Rajapakse, proclaiming them to be the lesser evil. It declared, one must dare even to join the devil to fight the common enemy (see: The Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) replies to the United Socialist Party). With the UNP now thoroughly discredited, after three years of implementing the International Monetary Funds (IMF) austerity program, the USP is singing a slightly different tune. It has not explained its previous orientation to the UNP, nor fundamentally changed political course. The USPs call for a left alliance is supported by a list of fake-left groups, including the FSP, Sri Lanka Socialist Party, Marxist-Leninist New Democratic Party, Left Voice, Revolutionary Socialist Centre and post-modernist Praxis Collective. All share its bankrupt political orientation. Significantly, the FSP has appealed to the Sinhala chauvinist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which is openly backing the UNP, to join the alliance The real reasons for the political crisis lie in the resurgence of the class struggle in Sri Lanka and internationally. Workers, the rural poor and young people have begun to fight against the attacks on their living conditions. Amid a mounting global economic crisis and foreign debt, the ruling class is being torn into rival factions over how best to crush this opposition by working people. USP leader Jayasuriya laments that factional rivalry is threatening the very edifice of bourgeois democracy as if there were a blooming parliamentary democracy. In reality, both the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe unity government and the previous Rajapakse government never hesitated to use police-state measures against striking workers and other protests. The USP is organically incapable of telling the working class the truth: that the only way to defend basic democratic and social rights is to rely on its own independent strength and turn to the oppressed masses on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program. Like all pseudo-left groups, the USP rejects the fundamental Marxist position that the working class is the only consistently revolutionary class in capitalist society. In fact, this party joined other left groups and trade unions over the past three years to do everything it could to derail the struggles of workers by steering them into trying to pressure the government. The political crisis is also bound up with escalating geopolitical tensions, in particular the Trump administrations aggressive confrontation with China. On this issue, the USP is completely silent, because it raises the inconvenient question as to why the USP backed the US-instigated ouster of Rajapakse in 2015 over his governments close relations with China. At present, the US is backing Wickremesinghe and has made clear that it wants to deepen the political and military relations developed under the unity government. However, last week the leaders of Rajapakses faction met with foreign diplomats, including from the US, Canada, Germany and Britain, to seek their support. Putting on a left face, the USP statement calls on workers, youth and the oppressed masses to come forward to find their own solution to the crisis and appear on the political scene with their own demands and be prepared to put forward an anti-capitalist program. What a cynical ploy! The call for an anti-capitalist program is completely devoid of any socialist or revolutionary content. What the USP presents is a shopping list of limited demandsopposition to the privatisation of education, health and state-owned ventures, more subsidies and guaranteed prices for farmers and peasants, and support for the families of detainees and the disappeareddirected to the government that bears full responsibility for these attacks. The USP relegates any socialist measures to the distant future, declaring: There is no way out for the poor masses in Sri Lanka within the bankrupt capitalist system, and there is a great need to fight to build a broader mass working class party to prepare a long-term strategy to establish a workers government. Terrified that a revolutionary situation is emerging, the USP dismisses that prospect. Jayasuriya declares: As Marxists we are aware that there can be no mechanical comparison of the situation to the one in pre-Revolutionary Russia of 1917 We recognise we are not even near that situation, but if this anarchic situation prevails, it can develop into a pre-revolutionary situation. While obviously no exact parallels can be drawn, the Russian Revolution holds extremely important lessons for the working class. The revolutionary struggles of 1917, which led to the establishment of the first workers state, were developed and led by the Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Trotsky. They waged an indefatigable political fight to expose the compromisers, opportunists and fake-lefts, who propped up the bourgeois provisional government in Russia. The Russian Revolution erupted in February 1917 under the intolerable conditions and oppression produced by the breakdown of world capitalism and the eruption of World War I, in which the Tsarist empire was engaged. Today, the world is once again wracked by rapidly sharpening geo-political rivalries that are driving toward a new and even more terrible conflagration. They are also, however, fueling a resurgence of class struggle internationally. Workers, youth and progressive-minded intelligentsia should reject with contempt the latest left manoeuvre by the USP and its allies, aimed at confining the working class to futile appeals to the bourgeois establishment. To ensure their basic democratic and social rights, workers must place the banner of socialism and the fight for a workers and peasants government at the very centre of their struggles. To prepare for the battles ahead, the working class needs to build the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, as the revolutionary leadership required to mobilise and unify its struggles in Sri Lanka, South Asia and internationally. President Donald Trump is seizing on an attempt by 500 migrants to rush the southern border to use immigration as an issue to bolster his presidency at a critical political moment. Trump spent weeks ahead of the midterm elections warning that the United States was about to experience an invasion from a migrant caravan trekking north across Mexico, and sent troops to the border in what critics branded a political stunt. 2020 Presidential election Continents and regions Donald Trump Eastern Europe Elections (by type) Elections and campaigns Europe Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - US Immigration Immigration, citizenship and displacement International relations and national security Investigations Legislation North America Political candidates Political Figures - US Political organizations Politics Robert Mueller Russia Russia meddling investigation The Americas United States US Congress US Democratic Party US Federal elections US federal government US House of Representatives US political parties US Presidential elections US Senate White House Latin America Mexico He seized on unrest at the frontier on Sunday to hike pressure on Mexico and to squeeze his political opponents in Washington as he demands financing for his border wall in a looming government funding showdown. "Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries," Trump tweeted early Monday morning. "Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" Trump was reacting to reports that a group of migrants overwhelmed both Mexican federal and local police blockades and rushed towards the border at one of the busiest crossings between Tijuana in Mexico and San Diego. US authorities said several Border Patrol agents were hit by rocks, prompting the use of tear gas. Border crossings were closed in both directions for several hours, and it did not appear that any migrants breached the frontier. The situation appeared to fall well short of the mass invasion by a caravan of thousands of migrants conjured up by Trump before the midterms. Sunday's events will further electrify political tensions in Washington as it gets to work after the Thanksgiving holiday and ahead of a month of transition and increasing vulnerability for the President. Trump and Congress are already facing a two-week deadline to fund the government or risk a partial federal shutdown. Trump's White House is on edge as he mulls the fate of key players ahead of a staff reshuffle. The President is also keen to make the most of his final month of a GOP monopoly on power in Capitol Hill, and finally win funding for his border wall. He is also pushing an apparently reluctant Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to act on a criminal justice bill -- one of the few bipartisan initiatives this year. Trump is also set to travel to another big international summit this week -- the G20 in Argentina -- that carries the habitual possibility that he could again fall out with other world leaders. The trip will also bring him face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the most contentious moment in US-China relations for decades as a trade war rages between the two powers. Democrats lining up investigations Most ominously for Trump, Democrats are positioning themselves to unleash an unprecedented regime of investigation and oversight against his White House as soon as they take the reins of power in January, while special counsel Robert Mueller grinds away ever closer to the President's inner circle. Just how miserable things could get next year for the President was revealed by incoming House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. The California Democrat vowed to bring acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker before Congress to probe whether he was appointed with the express purpose of disrupting the Mueller investigation. He said the President was not being honest in casting doubt on the CIA's conclusion that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Schiff also said the new Democratic House would investigate whether the President's response to this and other foreign policy questions was being influenced by a "hidden hand" of investments or past or business ties. "Is his personal financial interest driving US policy in the Gulf? Is it driving US policy vis-a-vis the Russians? We don't know, but it would be irresponsible not to find out," Schiff said. On NBC's "Meet the Press," Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who will head the House Oversight Committee, vowed proportionate investigations. "The American people said to us through this election, 'We want accountability. We want to check on this President of the United States.' But they also said something else. They said, 'We want you to solve our problems,'" Cummings said. A glimpse of how Washington will change The prospects of flying subpoenas and administration officials being hauled up to Capitol Hill points to crucial dynamics ahead of the 2020 elections. How will the President react? Will Democrats overreach and play into McConnell's warnings of "presidential harassment?" Can the President leverage Democratic opposition to court suburban voters who deserted him in the midterms? Or will any revelations either from congressional probes or Mueller prove to be so serious that they bury his White House in scandal and put his entire presidency at risk? Trump could emerge from a period of retooling in his administration facing even fewer restraints from subordinates than has already been the case. Key officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House chief of staff John Kelly are waiting to see if they will be retained. And Trump denied a Wall Street Journal report that he's getting irked by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over recent stock market losses. Mnuchin is not currently thought to be threatened, but the report, and the President's frequent tweeting about oil prices and the markets, does appear to hint at some nervousness over the future of the economy, which in its currently roaring state is the best argument for his 2020 re-election hopes. In a glimpse into the feudal nature of life in Trump's orbit, his former political aide Corey Lewandowski writes in his new book that enemies of the President are "embedded" in the White House and government agencies and trying to thwart his agenda, according to The Washington Post. Trump has often embraced moments of converging threats and challenges to stoke an atmosphere of chaos in Washington that bolsters his standing with his political base and puts his opponents off balance. But he now faces a test of his political strategy since his method -- for instance, using inflammatory rhetoric about immigration -- appears to have hurt Republicans in House races, even if it boosted Senate contenders. For now, there is no sign of an adjustment: Trump broke convention in his Thanksgiving calls with troops by injecting political rhetoric about immigration and trade and boasting about his success. His recent behavior, including a feud with Chief Justice John Roberts, either betrays an inability to rein in his relish for confrontation or a strategic decision that the wrecking ball approach is the best way to ensure his re-election. Back on the border Trump spent part of the weekend highlighting the migrant caravan. "If for any reason it becomes necessary, we will CLOSE our Southern Border. There is no way that the United States will, after decades of abuse, put up with this costly and dangerous situation anymore!" Trump tweeted Saturday. He may return to the topic on Monday in a pair of rallies for Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing a runoff amid controversy over her past racially-tinged comments and actions. The Washington Post reported that the incoming administration in Mexico has agreed to allow asylum seekers to remain south of the US border while their applications were processed, in what would be seen by Trump as a victory. The new government, however, denied in a statement to CNN that a deal had been done. The politics of immigration will bear watching in the weeks ahead since they are crucial to Trump, who tends to resort to extremes, and Democrats who do not wish to come across as soft on border issues. One Republican, Sen. Joni Ernst, who faces a potentially tricky Iowa re-election race in 2020, hinted at the delicate nature of an issue that electrifies Trump's base but can alienate more moderate voters on "State of the Union." She said she would prefer that Trump not follow through on his threat to close the US border, though pointed to the reports from Mexico to argue his rhetoric could be working. "I certainly think the President sees results any time that he does bring up an issue, and he does lay down certain reasons why he's doing what he's doing," Ernst told CNN's Dana Bash. Ernst also said she hoped that Trump would not honor threats to partially shutter the government if he does not get his border wall funded. Trump said last week that if there was ever going to be a shutdown over the border wall, now would probably be the time to do it. Congress averted a shutdown in September by passing a massive spending bill to fund a large portion of the government. The package did not, however, include money for Trump's wall. Instead, lawmakers passed a shorter-term spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, among other agencies, until December 7. It's not clear either side really wants a shutdown. If precedent is any guide, it's also possible the funding crunch could be put off by short-term deals that run until the end of the year or beyond. The calculations could also influence other priorities in the mix, including disaster funding requests for fire-ravaged California, and a drive by Democrats and some Republicans to shield Mueller. Bipartisan anger over Trump's approach to Saudi Arabia could also complicate deal making, with both sides conscious of how actions now could play out in the new political reality next year. The information was released at a press conference held by the Dak Nong provincial Peoples Committee on November 27. Accordingly, the festival will feature a wide variety of activities including an opening ceremony, an exhibition of brocade products and cuisine, a seminar on traditional Vietnamese brocade, a fashion show of applied brocade and a street festival. The event aims to preserve and promote traditional patterns and costumes of the ethnic minority groups around the country, particularly those in Dak Nong province. The festival is also expected to introduce the cultural heritage values and potential for tourism development of the locality to domestic visitors and international friends, as well as strengthening the national unity bloc, contributing to the countrys socio-economic development and improving the spiritual lives of the people. The provincial Peoples Committee also announced that the Dak Nong Investment Promotion Conference will be held, with the participation of many large corporations and enterprises. At the event, the province will grant investment certificates to several enterprises with total investment of over VND5 trillion (US$213.4 million) and sign the minutes of investment cooperation with businesses worth total over VND92 trillion (over US$3.9 billion) in numerous fields, such as ecotourism, agricultural restructuring and solar power. The Cabinet today approved a Vote on Account (VoA) for the government to cover State expenses for the time being and it would be presented in Parliament shortly for approval, Government Spokesman and Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said today. Minister Samarasinghe noted that the government did not have a problem on the government expenditure for the rest of 2018 as the funds had been already allocated from the Budget 2018 and through the Appropriation Bill and therefore the VoA would be to allocate funds for the first three months of 2019. Addressing the weekly SLFP news briefing at the party office, Minister Samarasinghe said the President had powers to obtain funds from the Consolidated Fund for State expenditure for three months if and when an election was declared but that fund allocation had to be approved soon after Parliament met. Meanwhile, Minister Samarasinghe said the government's parliamentary group would decide today whether to participate in the debate on the motion tomorrow, handed over by the Opposition seeking to curtail allocations for the Office of the Prime Minister. First of all we must decide whether this motion could be tabled in Parliament as it questions the actions taken by President Sirisena and releasing of two presidential gazette notifications. Vocational Training and Skills Development and Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera interjected to say that he asked Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to consult the Attorney General on the motion as he was in the opinion that the motion was subjudice. The tradition and the process of separation of power dictates that the legislature and judiciary does not trespass each others territory. Here, there was clear evidence that the motion has done that mistake, Therefore, I think Parliament cannot entertain this motion in the first place, Minister Jayasekera said. Commenting on the remarks made by the Chairman of the UNP, parliamentarian Kabir Hashim on allegations levelled against former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe before foreign correspondents at the week ends by President Sirisena, Minister Samarasinghe said President Sirisena had never criticized Mr. Wickremesinghe singularly. President Sirisena explained to foreign correspondents the challenges he confronted during the Yahapalana Regime since 2015 and corruption he had to endure, that included the biggest ever fraud in the State sector, the central bank bond scam, bringing the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank under Ranil, the privatization scandal of the Hilton Hotel and Grand Hyatt Colombo, selling of Edirisinghe Trust Investment Company to a foreign bidder bypassing a local investor who offered a higher bid etc are a few to name as large scale corruptions that took place under the previous regime, Minister Samarasinghe stressed. Minister Samarasinghe pointed out that his friend, Mr. Hashim had said in his statement that President Sirisena had talked about a Wickremesinghe government it was totally wrong and President Sirisen had never mentioned about a Wickremesinghe government. When President Sirisena said he would not appoint Mr. Wickremesinghe in his life time as the Prime Minister that was only an average statement in the oft used vernacular parlance. All subject Ministers of the Yahapalana Government must individually take the responsibility for the shady deals that took place under them. President Sirisena is going to take most appropriate step on these alleged corruptions by appointing a Commission of Inquiry which we will support fully, he stressed. Minister Samarasinghe said no one could put the blame on the current economic, political and social dilemma on the doorstep of the current regime as it is only one month old and all misdeeds were done in the last three and half years. (Sandun A Jayasekera) Pix by Pradeep Dilrukshana The US has "slammed the brakes on" a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia, two sources tell CNN. One source familiar with the negotiations over the resolution tells CNN the US "has slammed the brakes on," saying that "we can't support a resolution at the moment." Accidents, disasters and safety Continents and regions Disaster relief Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - Intl Human rights International assistance International relations International relations and national security Middle East Middle East and North Africa North America Politics Saudi Arabia The Americas Treaties and agreements United Nations United States US federal government White House Yemen Houthis Misc organizations Muslim extremists Unrest, conflicts and war The source also said the move is at odds with what US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has been signaling to her counterparts at the UN, since she was supportive of the planned resolution weeks ago. 'Threw a fit' The reason for the delay continues to be a White House worry about angering Saudi Arabia, which strongly opposes the resolution, multiple sources say. CNN reported earlier this month that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, "threw a fit" when presented with an early draft of the document, leading to a delay and further discussions among Western allies on the matter. Sources say US concerns, which are shared by other nations -- including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, both of which support Saudi in the conflict -- hinge on the real possibility that if the Security Council resolution is voted through, Saudi Arabia or the Houthis, or both, won't show up for hoped-for talks that are expected to take place next month in Stockholm, Sweden. The White House declined to comment, referring queries about the resolution to the US Mission to the United Nations. Officials there also refused to comment. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert responded, "Negotiating the Security Council Resolution is important as we look to increase international consensus around Yemen. Our main focus at this time is offering our support for UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths who is making progress in his negotiations with the Republic of Yemen and the Houthi rebels." This latest delay comes a week after President Donald Trump indicated that he will not take strong action against Saudi Arabia or the crown prince for the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will brief lawmakers about the Khashoggi killing on Wednesday. The move to slow the resolution could increase tensions with lawmakers from both parties who have expressed deep reservations about US support for the kingdom's war in Yemen and would like to censure Saudi Arabia for what its officials admit was a premeditated murder. And it will continue to fuel questions about Trump's unusual deference to the kingdom. The draft resolution, crafted by the UK and obtained by CNN, is already seen by human rights groups as disappointingly watered-down: It calls for a ceasefire only in Hodeidah, the principal Red Sea port through which some 80% of humanitarian aid flows. The resolution is not at all critical of Saudi Arabia, and in fact compliments Saudi action; it is critical only of the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and have been fighting Saudi-led coalition forces while maintaining control of the capital, Sanaa. Mattis said last Wednesday that peace talks would take place in Sweden, even as experts cautioned that there's no guarantee Saudi Arabia will take the steps needed for that to happen. Although the resolution in its current form is far from harsh on the Saudis, sources with knowledge of the discussions tell CNN that Saudi Arabia views even calling for a ceasefire and urging more humanitarian aid as indirect criticism of the kingdom and its four-year-long intervention in Yemen. 'Hugely sensitive' "The Saudis are hugely sensitive -- ultra, ultra sensitive -- to international perceptions," one source told CNN. "They hate criticism. And (the crown prince) brings a whole new level of paranoia about this." The situation in Yemen is now viewed as the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, with some 13 million Yemenis at risk of starving to death, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. On Wednesday, five human rights groups had issued an unusually stark statement, saying the US will bear shared responsibility for what may be the largest famine in decades if it doesn't cease support for the Saudi-led coalition. Save the Children said Wednesday that an estimated 85,000 children under the age of 5 may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war began. But one source says that any language on human rights or accountability should not be expected in the UN resolution, as that would be "unwelcome to the coalition" fighting the Houthis. The source told CNN that the crafters of the draft resolution know it is unbalanced in its criticism solely of the Houthis, but "we are faced with a very stubborn set of allies. When you see this resolution not being critical of Saudis, some of that is because if they feel the entire world is against them, they'll continue this war." The conflict, which began in 2015 as a civil war after the ouster of a strongman leader, gathered force when Saudi Arabia and allies entered the battle to counter what they saw as Iranian influence. The Gulf coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France, which have also been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. After nearly four years, the war has killed around 57,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a crisis mapping project. This story has been updated. TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - Huge crowds eagerly waited for President Donald Trump as Air Force One landed on Monday, as he came to rally up support from the Republican base for Interim Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. "I'm here to ask the people of Mississippi to send Cindy Hyde-Smith to the American Senate so we can make it great again, so we can make it great for all Americans," remarked President Donald Trump. One topic for the president was focused on border security. "Illegal immigration is very unfair to workers including African-American workers," Trump said. "My administration will always protect Mississippi workers from unfair and illegal competition." Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is still facing fire for her public hanging comments earlier this month, spoke to crowds on the need for smaller government. It's about the people of Mississippi and what you believe in," said candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith. "Lower taxes, less government, less regulations. Supporting our veterans, supporting our military." She also gave reasons as to why voters should cast her name on the ballot instead of her opponent Democrat Mike Espy. "I think I've given you one good reason that I can ask for your vote tonight, because I've worked very, very hard for you," Hyde-Smith said. "I have stood up for you and you know that I will continue to stand up for the values of Mississippi." The president also invited Senator Lindsey Graham to the stage who urged people in Tupelo to make their vote count. "I want you to show up Tuesday," Graham commented. "We're going to start over in 2019. If you like Kavanaugh there's more coming." If Hyde-Smith wins the senate seat, she will be the first elected female senator to represent Mississippi in Washington D.C. Democrat Mike Espy would be the first African-American senator from Mississippi in more than a century. BETHESDA, Md. (AP) The Latest on reports of an active shooter at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (all times local): 3:35 p.m. The Navy says a drill was taking place at a Maryland base that's home to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where an active shooter had been reported. Naval Support Activity Bethesda tweeted Tuesday afternoon that no shooter had been found and personnel could move about the Maryland base freely. NSAB had tweeted earlier in the afternoon that an active shooter had been reported in the basement of one of the buildings on that base. ___ 3:30 p.m. Officials have given the all clear after reports of an active shooter at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington. Naval Support Activity Bethesda tweeted Tuesday afternoon that no shooter had been found and personnel could move about the Maryland base freely. NSAB had tweeted earlier in the afternoon that an active shooter had been reported in the basement of one of the buildings on that base. Security found "no indication" of an active shooter after clearing the area. ___ 3 p.m. Police in Maryland say they're investigating a possible report of an active shooter at the Walter Reed hospital outside Washington. Montgomery County Police officer Rick Goodale says police were called to the scene Tuesday just after 2:20 p.m. In a tweet, U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland says he and about 40 other people are in a conference room at the hospital. No other details were immediately available. BETHESDA, Md. (AP) Security officers found "no indication" of an active shooter after reports from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, officials said Tuesday. Naval Support Activity Bethesda tweeted at 2:15 p.m. that an active shooter had been reported in the basement of a building at the Maryland base. NSAB public affairs officer Jeremy Brooks told AP by phone that "right now there is no indication that there is any active shooter, but we won't know 100 percent until the buildings have been successfully cleared." Brooks said "we've stopped all traffic coming in or out." He had no timeline for when clearance activities would be completed. U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland said in the tweet that he and about 40 other people were in a conference room at the hospital. The Montgomery County Police Department was called to the scene just after 2:20 p.m., Officer Rick Goodale said. "We have officers out there, but as of yet we haven't been able to confirm this report," he said. Walter Reed is the nation's largest military hospital and according to its website, is among the first stops in the continental United States for troops wounded in combat. NSAB oversees operational support for its major tenants at the base, including Walter Reed. 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Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe There was nothing wrong in appointing a Presidential Commission to probe into alleged corruptions that had taken from 2015 to 2018 but it should not be done to victimise people politically, UNP MP Patali Champika Ranawaka said yesterday. Mr Ranawaka told a media briefing that any Commission that would be appointed should be an impartial one. He was referring to a statement made by President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday that he would be appointing a Presidential Commission to probe into corruptions during the last three years. There is nothing wrong in appointing a Commission to probe corruption that might have taken place during the last three years but it should be an impartial one, Mr Ranawaka said. Referring to another statement made by the President that former Minister Sagala Ratnayake sabotaged an investigation, the UNP MP said legal action should be taken against Mr. Ratnayake if the President was making such an allegation. We know what happened with the investigations with regard to Avant Garde, the killing of Thajudeen and Lasantha Wickramatunga, Mr Ranawaka added. The President should have taken action against anyone who sabotaged investigations then as he was the head of Cabinet and the Head of State, he said. Mr Ranawaka said the political crisis could hamper Sri Lankas GDP growth by 4.6 percent. The crisis he said would result in increase of the debt each individual owes to other countries by Rs. 30,000. Meanwhile, UNP MP Mujibur Rahman, who held a media briefing later said the President should remember that he would be appointing a Commission to probe corruption that had taken place under a Government which he headed. (Yohan Perera) Pix by Nisal Baduge Environmental Politics is a subset of National Politics. This is true for Sri Lanka as it is for other countries. Perhaps more so in Sri Lanka, because here the political sphere dominates all other spheres of activity and most often, not in a salutary fashion. Here in the environment is a mere commodity to be sold, bartered, de-valued, de-based and even de-gazzetted, as in the case of even National Parks which should remain sacrosanct as far as the government is concerned. The environment in question being protected forests, other forest lands and any other natural eco-system type, whether it be marshlands, mangroves or Patana grasslands that are in the custodianship of State agencies such as the Forest Department and the Department of Wildlife Conservation, and District Secretariats etc. These lands dont belong to the Government in office, they are in State custodianship and held in trust for the people in perpetuity. This then challenges the assumption that politicians, other policy makers at Ministry level, as well as departments and other State agencies can do as they please with these lands, without first consulting the people. Steering committees on projects where civil society organisations are represented are ineffective, if the project proponents and project implementers as well as EIA consultants are one and the same, or are hand in glove; and civil society organisations can only rubber stamp the project or step aside by way of protest. Increasingly this is the trend and there is only one word for it: corruption. The rot at the heart of government, cannot but trickle down to ministries and departments over time. Sri Lanka needs a sea change in the way the environment is viewed. An absolute paradigm shift is needed. Once felled, many forests are gone forever as the humus layer and topsoil gets quickly washed away by monsoon rain and thereafter the degraded soil supports only grasses, sedges, invasive plants and thorny scrub. A millennia (one thousand years) may elapse before such land once again supports a closed canopy forest (provided the land is left fallow and the vegetation is allowed to regenerate following natural succession of plants) However in the new forest, the species composition will differ substantially. This is true of our dry zone, but our wet zone and montane forests, once lost will be gone forever. Severe erosion of the exposed land, the change in soil Ph values, as well as the high endemicity, scarcity and fragmentary nature of such forests make them especially vulnerable. An absolute paradigm shift is needed. Once felled, many forests are gone forever as the humus layer and topsoil gets quickly washed away by monsoon rain and thereafter the degraded soil supports only grasses, sedges, invasive plants and thorny scrub With the loss of such forest cover we as a nation lose all the eco-system services they provide. These are not renewable resources; not in our lifetime or even in the lifetime of our grand children can we expect these forests to regenerate. The further loss of forest cover will adversely affect the lives of every man woman and child in this island nation. Whenever elections are held in this near anarchic country, I urge you to look at the environmental track record of the candidate and the party and vote accordingly. Do not be fooled by promises that will be made (from election platforms): those promises and pledges have been broken so many many times: meanwhile we will grow thin on a steady diet of slick slogans, specially around election time. Cheyenne, Wyoming Wyoming Governor-elect Mark Gordon announced the first members of his Administration today, tapping two seasoned Wyoming leaders to fill the role of Chief of Staff and Wyoming Attorney General. Gordon has chosen Bridget Hill, the current Director of the Office of State Lands and Investments to serve as Wyoming Attorney General. Dr. Pat Arp, the current Wyoming Deputy State... All parliamentarians of the government today boycotted the parliament session which commenced a short while ago. The government has decided to boycott the session following a decision was taken at its parliamentary group meeting. As the Prime Minister explains that his former Macedonian counterpart deserves decent treatment from Hungary, opinions continue to sharply differ on the decision to grant him political asylum. In his customary bi-weekly interview with National Public Radio, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he did not know whether the charges levelled against Mr Gruevski were well founded or not, but the former right-wing Premier was an ally, the first leader who joined Hungary in building a border fence to prevent illegal mass immigration and therefore deserves what he called decent treatment by Hungary. The Prime Minister also said that the organisations which criticise the decision of the Hungarian authorities to grant Mr Gruevski political asylum are the same ones which support migrants who illegally cross European borders. In 168 ora, Gabor Miklos a former Nepszabadsag foreign desk editor believes that the Hungarian Prime Minister intends to become the elder brother of other right-wing leaders in the Balkans but doubts if local politicians find such a patronising attitude attractive. He doesnt exclude the possibility that Mr Orban was moved in Mr Gruevskis case by personal feelings. He also believes that Mr Orban may have promised to lend the former Macedonian Premier a helping hand in case the latter finds himself in trouble. Miklos nevertheless finds the price Hungary has to pay for that gesture in terms of diplomatic conflicts too high. On Merce, Szilard Istvan Pap also thinks that the Hungarian government is trying to build a network of support in the Balkans and is protecting Mr Gruevski because he was part of that network. He deplores the opposition which has no reaction to such a Balkan network, although there are left-wing parties there with whom they could cooperate. On Hirklikk, Peter Tarjanyi, a left-wing national security expert concedes that there might be national security considerations which justify granting asylum to Nikola Gruevski. The former Macedonian Prime Minister, he explains, must have a huge amount of information about the Balkans and it may be rational to weigh the advantages of helping him against the drawbacks. He speculates that in case Mr Gruevski doesnt remain in Hungary for long, it would be logical to suspect that Hungary didnt act on its own initiative in transferring him from Albania to Budapest. On Pesti Sracok, Tamas Pilhal fulminates against the leaders of opposition parties which accuse the Hungarian Prime Minister of sheltering Mr Gruevski because he himself is afraid of being criminally prosecuted once he loses power. The pro-government commentator finds particularly tasteless DK chairman Ferenc Gyurcsanys remark according to which jail is the right place for criminals like Gruevski and Orban. If that horror coalition, he writes, were to come to power through a coup organised from abroad, the scenario would be the same as in Macedonia political opponents would be hunted down and sent to prison. In Magyar Hirlap, Istvan Kovacs, strategic director of the pro-government Alapjogokert (for Basic Rights) Centre dismisses critics who accuse the government of double standards when rejecting applications by Middle Eastern asylum seekers while swiftly granting asylum to the former Macedonian Prime Minister convicted of corruption. They think, Kovacs argues, that if someone is brought here by Soros and his people, he must by definition be granted protection, while asylum must be denied to someone who has to flee his country because of Soros and his people. He also rejects the argument that once Hungary considers Macedonia a safe country and turns away asylum seekers coming from there, she should not grant asylum to a politician condemned there for corruption. He doesnt believe the judiciary is independent in Macedonia, but that doesnt mean that Middle Eastern migrants are persecuted there. In Magyar Idok, the other pro-government daily sold nationwide, Andras Karpati writes that Mr Gruevski was indicted by a special prosecutors office set up by the new government and the court ruling about the charges put forward by this new institution has been stacked with new judges by the new government. He believes therefore that the former Macedonian Prime Minister can credibly claim that he is not treated fairly by his countrys judiciary. In another Magyar Idok article, Karpati quotes Tsvetin Khilimanov a Macedonian journalist who accuses the new government of this country of having released Islamist ethnic Albanian terrorists who had been jailed by the Gruevski administration, and therefore the former prime minister can reasonably fear for his life at home. He has already been the target of an assassination attempt and this is why he ordered his interior minister to buy an armoured Mercedes car. He was condemned this year for that order and Khilimanov thinks the charge of corruption was trumped up. Mr Khilimanov is the founder of the Macedonian Stop Operation Soros movement which was an ally of Mr. Gruevskis government. This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online. Click here to Share Your Story MTI Photo: Balogh Zoltan Following a quiet start on 28 October, the first flight between Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Budapest Airport by JOON, the new generation travel experience by Air France, was officially launched on 8 November. The inauguration ceremony was attended by the French ambassador to Hungary, the regional director from Air France KLM, the CEO of Budapest Airport and the CEO of JOON. From the beginning of the winter schedule, the three flights per day between the Hungarian and French capitals, operated earlier by Air France, are now flown by JOON, a carrier launched in 2017. The flights continue to offer the same connectivity in the extensive Air France and KLM network that passengers are accustomed to. The flight launch event, which of course included the water canon salute provided by the airport firefighters, was attended by Pascale Andreani, the French ambassador to Hungary, Jost Lammers, the CEO of Budapest Airport, Thijs Komen, the regional director from Air France KLM and Jean-Michel Mathieu, the CEO of JOON. We are delighted that JOON, Air Frances sister carrier, chose Budapest as one of its first destinations from Paris, highlighted Jost Lammers, the CEO of Budapest Airport. We are certain that this airline will be popular amongst Hungarian travelers; with its youthful and dynamic image and service quality, it offers something brand new in the market. With the appearance of JOON, the number of seats available to passengers on the Budapest-Paris route has increased by 16%. There is sure to be demand for this expansion, as approximately 600 000 people travel between the two capitals annually, and this number is growing continuously, and could reach 700 000 by the end of this year. Jean-Michel Mathieu, the CEO of JOON said: I am very proud of the fact that JOON, the new generation travel experience by Air France, is flying to this beautiful city in the heart of Europe. JOON enables the successful operation of the route for Air France going forward. This winter, with three flights, and from the 2019 summer schedule, with four a day, we are providing 16% more seats for passengers. JOON brings a new approach to the world of airlines; its services have been formulated according to the latest travel trends and needs. The Budapest-Paris flight is part of an intensive expansion strategy. Concurrently with the Hungarian capital, JOON is also commencing operation to Bergen in Norway, known as the gateway to the fjords. The latest wave of new flights follows JOONs summer expansion program, when it launched several long haul flights from Paris, to Cairo, Cape Town, Fortaleza, Mahe and Mumbai, but now we can also fly JOON to Rome, Naples and Istanbul, in addition to Berlin, Barcelona, Porto and Lisbon. In the summer of 2019, they will commence operation from Paris to Quito, the capital of Ecuador and the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean, and will also add Madrid, Stockholm, Prague and Manchester to their European network. Source & photo: bud.hu According to research by Eurostat, the European Commissions statistical agency, 20.1% of Hungarians cannot afford a car, making the country the third worst member state of the European Union in this regard, ahead of only Romania (29.8%) and Bulgaria (20.6%). The EU average for citizens unable to afford a car is 7%. Among Visegrad Four countries, the Hungarians trail the Czechs and the Poles clearly, with both countries performing exactly at the EU average, while only about 11% of Slovaks cannot afford a car. The three EU countries that fare best in this regard are Malta (1.7%), Cyprus (1.7%), and Luxembourg (2.2%). Hungary was the first country to close its borders when around one million refugees arrived on European soil in 2015. The country's Fidesz party swiftly positioned itself as the self-proclaimed defender of "Christian Europe" under the leadership of anti-immigrant leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Following a global trend, growing numbers of Hungary's youth are joining far-right wing and neo-Nazi movements, such as the Highwaymen's Army (Betyarsereg), to fight for a way of life they believe is under threat. The Highwaymen are affiliated with the country's far-right political movement, Force and Determination, and believe in racially-justified violence. They went to 'help' the military forces at the country's southern borders when migrants passed through Hungary on the Balkan route in 2015. And some of their members are currently on trial for intimidating Roma. "We never prepare for a fight, we are ready for a fight," says Adam, a 27-year-old who joined the Highwaymen in 2016. "I like being a member of the Highwaymen's Army because it means togetherness ... In order to apply, you obviously have to be Hungarian, and white. Jews should avoid us. They're not only not allowed to join, but if he asked to join the Highwaymen's Army I would smack him in the face." Political analyst Bulscu Hunyadi believes that "most of these youngsters do not join far-right organisations because they are obsessed with the ideology, because they are neo-Nazis per se. Most of the time they join these organisations because they want to join a community, they want to belong to a group of people. And step by step, of course, they start believing in this ideology." Botond, an 18-year-old high school graduate with ambitions to forge a career in Hungary's far-right politics, is still looking for a movement to join and is determined to defend Hungary against liberalism and multiculturalism. "I feel like I have to fight, fight for my country ... There is a war against the white race. Nowadays, you can say whatever you want except if you are heterosexual, if you are white and if you are a Christian," says Botond, who goes on regular vigilante patrols in the city in search of what he calls "degenerates". However, this perceived threat is a "myth ... because nobody is threatening Hungary, we don't have immigrants at all, zero immigration, but this is the one political topic everybody's discussing," explains Gaspar Tamas, a philosopher and political scientist. "If you want to learn what the world might look like very soon, regard Hungary. And Hungary's an extreme of the predicament the whole world is going through." Source: Al Jazeera English Photo: Szigetvary Zsolt, MTI Several experiences of longer or shorter periods abroad (England, Greece, Italy) made it possible to understand the life of expats, that feeling of uncertainty, being far away from families and friends. I faced the usual questions. How to adapt to local societies? What to discover? What is sometimes hidden even for native people? What kinds of programmes or facilities are granted to learn to live better, and are worth incorporating into daily life. My profession, insurance intermediation, is a typically experience-based business. It is exciting to see it from several aspects. Ive been on the Board of the Association of Insurance Brokers of Hungary for 11 years. I spent another 10 years on the board of the Italian Chamber of Commerce where local Italian investors interests are followed. Now, my focus is on expats to support them finding the proper insurance coverage, both on a corporate and on an individual level, through understanding their activities and needs . I am the proud mother of two daughters, and four grandchildren. 1. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Hungary but attended school in London for a year. It was an experience which affected my future quite a lot. Another important 8-year period of my life was in Italy, when I was already grown up. 2. If you could be an expat anywhere in the world, where would you choose? I would definitely choose a Mediterranean country, with a sea nearby, all year sunshine and fish food. 3. What would you miss most if you moved away from Hungary? Speaking several languages still does not make me easy to understand. I cant express the nuances to enjoy communication at the level of a mother tongue. 4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend. What must they absolutely see and do? They should try to satisfy several senses: long walks in parts of the city not in the guidebooks; a few hours at a day spa; meals in a small restaurant with calm music. 5. What is your favourite food? Anything colourful and delicate. 6. What is your favourite sport/form of exercise? Yoga and squash. 7. What is your favourite place in Hungary? North Balaton and the Kali basin. 8. What career other than yours would you love to pursue? To run a private school or organizing activities for children, focusing on art and other mind opening themes. 9. What job you would definitely never want? Anything boring or monotonous. 10. Where did you spend your last vacation? Mostly at Csopak, quiet enough if needed, and near enough to Balatonfured. 11. Where do you hope to spend your next one? Im just planning a tour of Asia. 12. What was your favourite band, film, or hobby as a teen? Romantic music and films. 13. Apart from temptation, what cant you resist? Cubed chocolate, chocolate balls, filled chocolate, plain chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate 14. Red wine or white? Generally red, except in summer. 15. Book or movie? Book when I am relaxed, movie if I want to be enchanted. 16. Morning person or night person? Night; it is longer than a morning. 17. Which social issue do you feel most strongly about? Vulnerable people in hopeless situations. 18. Buda or Pest side? Living is calm in Buda, while the majority of interesting events take place in Pest: theatres, concerts, films. 19. Which achievements in your life are you most pleased about? Achieving harmony in both my family life and at work. 20. What would you say is your personal motto? Be curious about how to feel, live, and work better and better. (Never stop being curious about new achivements: how to improve your personal condition and skills which will positively effect not only you and your familys life, but also your company. Keep an eye open how to do something for a better world. ) Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Ravindra Wijegunaratne said today that he was not informed by the Senior DIG of the CID, IGP or the Defence Secretary to appear before the CID to give a statement this morning. I have seen the newspaper reports that I was summoned by the CID. But I was not officially informed by the SDIG, IGP or the Defence Secretary, Admiral Wijegunaratne told the Daily Mirror. Inspector of Police (IP) Nishantha Silva of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) who is handling the case, last week informed the CDS to appear before the CID today (27) to record a statement over allegedly harbouring Lieutenant Commander Prasad Hettiarachchi alias Navy Sampath. However, the CDS said that he would appear in the Court tomorrow (28).(Darshana Sanjeewa) Photo credit: Getty Images From Esquire God help us, we have handed government over to soulless lunatics. From the Washington Post: A little girl from Honduras stares into the camera, her young features contorted in anguish. Shes barefoot, dusty, and clad only in a diaper and T-shirt. And shes just had to run from clouds of choking tear gas fired across the border by U.S. agents. A second photograph, which also circulated widely and rapidly on social media, shows an equally anguished woman frantically trying to drag the same child and a second toddler away from the gas as it spreads. The three were part of a much larger group, perhaps 70 or 80 men, women and children, pictured in a wider-angle photo fleeing the tear gas. Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon shot the images, which provoked outrage and seemed at odds with President Trumps portrayal of the caravan migrants as criminals and gang members. Trump officials said that authorities had to respond with force after hundreds of migrants rushed the border near Tijuana on Sunday, some of them throwing projectiles at Customs and Border Protection personnel. Bull. See also, Shit. Photo credit: Getty Images Before we get into this latest atrocity committed in our name, let's go back to October 23, 1998. On that date, the CIA declassified the report by its inspector general regarding what the CIA was doing in Honduras as part of the general (and bloody) Reagan Administration meddling in Central America in the previous decade. Thanks to the irreplaceable National Security Archive, we learned that the Honduran military was freed up to make war on its own people so that the United States could keep using the country as a staging area for its adventurism elsewhere in the region. The report indicates that the CIA knew contemporaneously about the abuses which were occurring, and did not report on them as it should have even though Honduras was the linchpin of U.S. Central America policy during the Reagan administration. Despite CIA knowledge of Honduran military abuses, more than $1 billion in U.S. taxpayers money flowed to the Honduran military throughout the 1980s. Story continues "The CIA knew there was blood on the hands of the Honduran military but covered it up, providing impunity for rights abusers and misleading the U.S. Congress and public," noted National Security Archive Research Fellow Susan Peacock. She called the release of the IG report "a step toward the disclosure which President Clinton promised vis-a-vis human rights abuses in Latin America." Despite the Clinton Administration's commitment to Congress to release the report to the fullest extent possible, major portions -- including critical sections on CIA involvement in "torture or hostile interrogations" and "possible accountability issues" -- are blacked out. (An aside: No matter how critical, say, John Brennan is of the president*, the CIA is still a nightmare that has to be addressed seriously by the Congress.) Photo credit: Getty Images - Getty Images Using small nations for your own military purposes rarely works out well for the former, and such has been the case with Honduras. The military ran things for several decades, propped up by American aid and Cold War fantasies of Nicaraguan pick-up trucks invading Brownsville. (People really believed this stuff.) As the years went by, the United States couldn't quit Honduras. And it was very much a bipartisan bit of business. In 2009, when a military coup deposed President Manuel Zelaya at the insistence of the country's Supreme Court, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton supported the government that was installed by the coup. While Clinton was running for president, she argued, especially to Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez, that the coup was at least nominally constitutional, and that supporting the deposing of Zelaya was the least-bad option. That remains debatable, but what does not remain debatable is that Honduras subsequently descended into the present chaos. For the past several decades, the country's civilian government has been riven with corruption and the country itself has ripped its own entrails out in gang violence. It has become both a de facto and a de jure human rights nightmare, according to Human Rights Watch: Lawyers and human rights defenders suffer threats, attacks, and killings. In 2016, CONADEH registered 16 violent attacks against lawyers, including 13 killings. The IACHR described Honduras in August 2016 as one of the most hostile and dangerous countries for human rights defenders in the Americas. To date, eight men have been charged with the murder in March 2016 of environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres, including an army major and the former environment manager of Desarrollo Energetico S.A. (DESA), the company behind the Agua Zarca dam project that Caceres was campaigning against at the time of her death. The Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists, Human Rights Defenders and Operators of Justice, created in 2015, suffered from a lack of adequate resources and staffing, according to local activists. Photo credit: Rodrigo Abd - AP Meanwhile, the current administration*, because it is headed by a bigot who knows nothing about anything, has strangled aid to Central America as part of its Get The Brown People Out agenda. From Reuters: Under a scheme to strengthen Central America launched in 2014 known as the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle, the United States pledged to put forward a dollar for every four invested by Honduras, Hernandez said. But that commitment has not materialized, he added. That will obviously have repercussions, he told Reuters. Because the whole idea of the Alliance for Prosperity ... was to attack the migration problem at the root. Between 2016 and 2018, combined U.S. foreign aid for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador declined by more than one third to $195 million, according to official U.S. data. The people at the border literally are running for their lives. The idea that the United States is now actively hostile to asylum seekers is a nasty throwback to the 1930s. Photo credit: Getty Images Irish historian Liam Hogan, writing on the electric Twitter machine, unearthed a quote from Congressman James W. Taylor from that time when the United States was turning away Jewish refugees from Europe and sending them back into the maw of what would become the Holocaust. In 1939, shortly before his own death, Taylor said: The American people are not going to be deceived by this refugee bunk. This is just another scheme to bring additional thousands here who are not wanted in Europe. And there we are. The problem was that not enough people in America cared enough to understand why those Jews were fleeing, and from what they were fleeing in the first place. That is still the problem today. Radical Trumpists already are calling the weekend's violence a successful repelling of a horde of "invaders," as though gassing shoeless toddlers was the equivalent of Charles Martel's turning back the forces of the caliphate at Tours. That point of view will be taken immediately as the legitimate Other Side of the argument regarding using chemical weapons on impoverished children. These are people being told through violence that they have to return to the violence that drove them out of their countries in the first place. The ones with longer memories will recall the days when the United States used Honduras to initiate violence in Guatemala and El Salvador for the purpose of initiating it in Nicaragua. The younger ones will simply hate us. The Imperial Prerogative comes with some very heavy dues. This post has been updated. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here. ('You Might Also Like',) Politicians from nine countries have slammed Mark Zuckerbergs decision not to appear in front of a British parliamentary hearing to answer questions on fake news and misinformation a session that included a surprising reference to Casablanca and a bizarre tale of how a bikini-searching photo app lead to Facebooks latest privacy woes. Zuckerberg was empty chaired by Britains Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee in a session in the Houses of Parliament, although 24 official representatives from nine countries, including the UK and Canada, grilled Richard Allan, Vice President of Policy Solutions at the social media giant for close to three hours. One question: where is Mark Zuckerberg?, noted the agency. Committee chief Damian Collins added, We were rather hoping your boss would appear, while one MP accused the Silicon Valley company of being run by frat boy billionaires from California. It is the latest battle between Facebook and UK authorities after British politicians have repeatedly tried to get Zuckerberg to answer questions around data and privacy. It comes after Parliament seized a raft of internal Facebook documents from Six4Three, a company that operates a bikini app via the social media service. Early on in proceedings with Allan, Ian C. Lucas, a Labour MP, compared Facebooks privacy controls to the famous scene in Casablanca, where Renault closes the cafe due to gambling before being handed his winnings from a croupier. Allan admitted that the revelations that Facebook hired consulting firm Definers, who propelled George Soros-related conspiracies, had damaged the public trust in the social media platform. [Mark] Zuckerberg said himself that was not what he expected of us; Elliot Schrage said he was publicly responsible, and [Mark] Zuckerberg has given us instructions to look at all relationships we have, he said, adding that Zuckerberg was leading reviews on Facebooks engineering product. Story continues Allan, who also sits in the House of Lords, said that the company was now looking at rolling out transparency tools around political advertising globally. He also said that it had published several reports about attempts by Russian and Iranian operatives to spread false information on Facebook. However, he accused Six4Three, the company that handed over a slew of documents about Facebooks privacy strategy, of being a hostile litigant. This comes after it emerged that Facebook had discovered that Russians had been accessing information via third party developers. [Six4Threes] beef rests on us making the changes that you all want us to change. When we changed the API, they lost access to the friends data, and they launched a series of lawsuits, said Allan. Their app was I was not a user it promised to help you find photos of your friends wearing bikinis. The hearing included a group of politicians from around the world including Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Ireland, Latvia and Singapore, a rare move for the British parliament. Collins said it was the first time that such a group had come together since the 1930s. This shows just how seriously we take these issues, as do our colleagues from other parliaments, he added. Related stories Facebook's "Rigid And Insular" Management Style Cited By Analyst; Price Target Slashed But "Buy" Rating Intact Outgoing Facebook Comms Chief Elliot Schrage Takes Blame For Hiring DC Firm - Update Mark Zuckerberg's Not Stepping Down As Chairman Anytime Soon Photo credit: Lucasfilm From Esquire Star Wars: The Last Jedi finally revealed an older and wiser Luke Skywalker decades after we last saw him in Return of the Jedi. His returned was teased throughout The Force Awakens, with director J.J. Abrams making fans wait for the second entry in the new trilogy to see the character's face. But, when Rey travels to find Luke Skywalker in his exile in The Last Jedi, she finds a man much different from the hero we remember. Luke is a darker character. He's no longer that bright-eyed boy on Tatooine. After getting betrayed by one of his students, Luke cut himself off from the Force. He went into exile, abandoning the hubris of the Jedi, and leaving the Resistance to fight the First Order on their own. Since the film was released, The Last Jedi has become one of the most polarizing entries in the franchise to date, with fans taking issue specifically with this grumpy, older Luke Skywalker. Many argue that Luke never would have changed this much-that he would remain a hopeful, passionate child well through adulthood. Luke, they argue, would exist in some creepy stage of arrested development-never maturing or growing out of young adulthood (sound familiar?). These fans largely blame Rian Johnson, who wrote and directed The Last Jedi, for fundamentally-and incorrectly-altering the beloved character. However, a new early image from Christian Alzmann, a concept design supervisor at Lucasfilm, shows this darker Luke Skywalker had been planned well before The Force Awakens. On his Instagram, Alzmann posted a picture of a concept design of Luke Skywalker with the caption: "My first image I made for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This was January of 2013. Luke was being described as a Col. Kurtz type hiding from the world in a cave. I couldnt believe I was getting to make this image and I got a George 'Fabulouso' on it to boot." Story continues This image was, of course, made long before The Force Awakens was released in 2015, when, even that early, writers were comparing Luke Skywalker to Marlon Brando's iconic character from Apocalypse Now. Kurtz, as you'll remember from the Francis Ford Coppola classic, was a brutal and ruthless leader who went insane while isolated in the jungle of Cambodia. Given this description, writers had originally intended Skywalker to be much darker than what we ended up seeing in The Last Jedi. Also, what's interesting about Alzmann's post is George Lucas also weighed in on, and approved, this depiction of Skywalker. This should work as unequivocal proof to haters that Rian Johnson's depiction of Luke Skywalker was not a massive screw up, but a complex character arc that had been planned from the beginning. ('You Might Also Like',) When it was announced in 2013, 20th Century Fox World was set to be the studios first theme park. Situated an hour outside Kuala Lumpur, the park would feature characters from Fox animated films like Ice Age, Rio, and Planet of the Apes. But now the project could become a casualty of the Disney-Fox merger. On Monday, the Malaysian resort company that is developing the park filed a billion-dollar suit in federal court in Los Angeles, accusing Fox of trying to back out of the deal. Genting Malaysia Berhad operates the Genting Highlands resort, which includes a casino, seven hotels, a shopping mall, and other attractions. It has already spent $750 million on the Fox theme park, which is running years behind schedule. In the suit, Genting Malaysia alleges that Fox has taken steps to cancel the contract. The suit also names Disney as a defendant, contending that Disney executives have taken the lead on the project, and they are opposed to the park because it would be adjacent to a casino. Disney wanted no association with a gaming company like GENM due to Disneys family-friendly brand strategy, the suit alleges. Canceling the project, the suit alleges, would generate a windfall of accelerated payments to Fox and protect Disneys existing parks from increased competition and protect its family-friendly brand. The park was initially projected to open in 2016, but has been repeatedly delayed. The developer now hopes to open it during the first half of 2019. In the suit, Genting states that Fox has used the delays as justification for seeking to cancel the deal. However, Genting alleges that the delays were Foxs fault. The company claims that Fox withheld approvals for various elements of the park, or withdrew approvals that had already been granted. The suit says that Gentings designers were forced to recreate the Ice Age characters from scratch because Fox failed to provide digital assets for them. Story continues Ice Age Twentieth Century Fox World Genting also claims that Fox frustrated its efforts to use clips from Planet of the Apes by refusing to send a letter of support to the estate of Charlton Heston. The developer sought to use 177 clips from Fox films, but was only able to obtain rights to 52, the suit alleges. Genting says that several of the Fox-themed attractions at the park are nearing completion, and that a third-party compliance body recently granted approval to two rides: Independence Day Defiance and Night at the Museum Midnight Mayhem. Several other rides are under construction, at the cost of tens of millions of dollars. The suit says that Fox recently issued a notice of default, requiring the developer to open the park within 30 days an impossible target to meet. There is little doubt which groups executives will be in charge after the merger and what their view of Fox World would be given their desire to protect Disneys theme parks from competition in the increasingly competitive Asian market, the suit alleges. Fox declined to comment on the suit. Related stories Fox Files Suit in 'The Post' Location Dispute Home Video Pioneer Andre Blay Dies at 81 Steven Zaillian Developing Anthrax Attacks Movie 'Mirage Man' Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts! Oprah Winfreys holiday weekend was filled with highs and lows, as her mom Vernita Lee died on Thursday, the same day the media mogul hosted a big Thanksgiving gathering at her Montecito, Calif. home. For the fourth year in a row, chef Kenny Gilbert, owner of Gilberts Southern Kitchen & Bar, came to Winfreys house to help her prepare the turkeys. They had three smokers going outside and the former talk show host, 64, said in an Instagram video, All Im going to do at the end is, Im going to add a little garnish. Winfrey asked followers to understand that she doesnt cook the whole meal herself. People, please, dont go hating, she continued on Instagram. I have a lot of help. Lee (center) with Winfrey in October. The A Wrinkle in Time star, sporting a The Future is Female t-shirt, also wished her fans, Happy Thanksgiving! In another video, a boisterous Winfrey welcomed guests she includes alums from her Leadership Academy in South Africa in the festivities every year to her house with song. Every time a new girl arrives we sing them home, she wrote on Instagram on Thursday. Makes for an even happier Thanksgiving. A family spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE on Monday that Lee died on Thanksgiving at her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was laid to rest in a private funeral over the weekend. RELATED VIDEO: Oprah Winfrey Pays Tribute to Her Late Mother Vernita Lee: She Lived a Good Life Winfrey shared a tribute to her late mother when she posted a picture of her family including her longtime partner Steadman Graham on Monday. Thank you all for your kind words and condolences regarding my mother Vernita Lees passing, Winfrey Instagrammed. It gives our family great comfort knowing she lived a good life and is now at Peace. Photo credit: Drew Angerer - Getty Images From Esquire "In the months before his death," Dr Mortimer went on, "Sir Charles was a very worried man. He was near to breaking down. He believed the story of the Hound of the Baskervilles. He refused to go out at night. He often asked me whether I had seen any strange animal or heard the cry of a hound on the moor at night. He always got very excited when he asked this question." -The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, April, 1902. Paul Manafort is in trouble. No, really. He's in more trouble than he was before, which was considerable. A compulsive operator, he has managed to maneuver himself into a corner. Robert Mueller and his team believe that Manafort never has stopped lying to them, even in the middle of plea negotiations, and even after the plea was, you know, negotiated. From The New York Times: Prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, said Mr. Manaforts crimes and lies about a variety of subject matters relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement. But under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Manafort cannot withdraw his guilty plea. Defense lawyers disagreed that Mr. Manafort had violated the deal. In the same filing, they said Mr. Manafort had met repeatedly with the special counsels office and believes he has provided truthful information. But given the impasse between the two sides, they asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to set a sentencing date for Mr. Manafort, who has been in solitary confinement in a detention center in Alexandria, Va. The question, of course, is whether Manafort is completely stupid, overwhelmingly confident that he will be pardoned, or simply frightened by something even more terrifying than the prospect of spending his declining years in the federal sneezer-something like, say, a lovely bowl of strontium-90, served up to him by a concerned former overseas client. I used to laugh the latter explanation off. I don't do that anymore. Something is happening in Manafort's brainbox that dwarfs in his mind anything Mueller can do to him. Story continues Photo credit: Getty Images In any case, it is plain that Mueller and his team are fed up to the gills with this guy, and that they are shining up the really big hammer for future use. It is also plain that Manafort has spent a lot of the time during which he was incarcerated sawing off the branch behind him. Mr. Manafort had hoped that in agreeing to cooperate with Mr. Muellers team, prosecutors would argue that he deserved a lighter punishment. He is expected to face at least a decade-long prison term for 10 felony counts including financial fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Instead, after at least a dozen sessions interrogating him, the special counsels prosecutors have not only decided Mr. Manafort does not deserve leniency, but they also could seek to refile other charges that they had agreed to dismiss as part of the plea deal. Meanwhile, the Guardian found another spot on the coffin into which to drive a nail. This latest tale involves Julian Assange, onetime squatter-in-residence in the Ecuadorian embassy, and a man who exchanged his reputation as a messianic truth-teller for a career as a common ratfcker. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 during the period when he was made a key figure in Trumps push for the White House. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Photo credit: Getty Images A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is 100% false. His lawyers declined to answer the Guardians questions about the visits. In a series of tweets WikiLeaks said Assange and Manafort had not met. Assange described the story as a hoax. I'm certainly convinced. How about you? A separate internal document written by Ecuadors Senain intelligence agency and seen by the Guardian lists Paul Manaford [sic] as one of several well-known guests. It also mentions Russians. According to the sources, Manafort returned to the embassy in 2015. He paid another visit in spring 2016, turning up alone, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager. The visit is tentatively dated to March. Manaforts 2016 visit to Assange lasted about 40 minutes, one source said, adding that the American was casually dressed when he exited the embassy, wearing sandy-coloured chinos, a cardigan and a light-coloured shirt. Visitors normally register with embassy security guards and show their passports. Sources in Ecuador, however, say Manafort was not logged. Photo credit: NICHOLAS KAMM - Getty Images Well, if a foreign intelligence service goes out of its way to memorialize that you showed up at their embassy dressed like Ward Cleaver, you're really busted, I'd say. (Where was the ostrich jacket? At the cleaners?) At the very least, this brings the heat closer to Number One Son, Sluggo. The previously unreported Manafort-Assange connection is likely to be of interest to Mueller, who has been investigating possible contacts between WikiLeaks and associates of Trump including the political lobbyist Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr. One key question is when the Trump campaign was aware of the Kremlins hacking operation and what, if anything, it did to encourage it. Trump has repeatedly denied collusion. Earlier this year Mueller indicted 12 GRU intelligence officers for carrying out the hack, which began in March 2016. In June of that year WikiLeaks emailed the GRU via an intermediary seeking the DNC material. After failed attempts, Vladimir Putins spies sent the documents in mid-July to WikiLeaks as an encrypted attachment. Photo credit: Getty Images On the electric Twitter machine Tuesday morning, the president* was even more manic than usual. Scrolling through the presidential* Twitter feed, you could feel the flop sweat soaking through to your fingertips. This is, perhaps, my favorite moment in the now customary early morning tantrum. The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it wont be Mueller and his terrible Gang of Angry Democrats. Look at their past, and look where they come from. The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and theyve got nothing but ruined lives. Where is the Server? Let these terrible people go back to the Clinton Foundation and Justice Department! I just love, Where is the Server?, and not just for the capitalization, either. It's one of those moments that occurs in his speeches, too, when he's rolling along and, suddenly, like a grouse startled from the underbrush, another word he heard somewhere pops into his head. At moments like this, it's like listening to a Hannity radio show on Scan. And Robert Mueller, with no expression on his face, reaches across his desk for another file. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here. ('You Might Also Like',) WASHINGTON Its been an extraordinary 24 hours in the world of Paul Manafort. On Monday evening, Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in an explosive new court filing that Manafort, the disgraced former Trump campaign chairman and Republican lobbyist, had lied to the FBI and the special counsels office despite signing a plea deal in which he agreed to fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly answer all of the governments questions. Then, Tuesday morning, the Guardian reported that Manafort had allegedly visited Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, at least three times over the past five years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange has lived since 2012. One of those visits supposedly occurred in March 2016, the same month that Manafort joined the Trump presidential campaign to help Trump secure the Republican nomination. Later that year, WikiLeaks would receive tens of thousands of emails that were stolen from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party by Russian hackers. WikiLeaks spent the final months of the 2016 campaign selectively releasing those emails in an effort to damage Clintons chances before the election. The latest revelation of Manaforts falsehoods will have serious consequences for both Manafort and the Mueller investigation as a whole. By allegedly violating his plea agreement, Manafort, who is already facing 10 years in prison for tax fraud, could face more time behind bars if Muellers team decides to refile charges against him that were previously dismissed as part of his deal to cooperate with the investigation. Mueller, for his part, will likely lose a valuable trove of information about the inner workings of the Trump campaign in 2016 and a potential star witness. Any evidence gleaned from interviews with Manafort are now tainted by his alleged lies and crimes. Its inconceivable that Mueller could call on Manafort to testify as a credible witness after now having accused Manafort of committing crimes and lies on a variety of subjects, as the new filing puts it. Story continues Muellers lawyers said in the new filing that they will provide more specifics about Manaforts alleged lies in an upcoming briefing with the federal court in Washington, D.C. In the same filing, Manaforts lawyers said that their client had met with the government on numerous occasions, answered their questions and provided information in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations. They continue, He believes he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the governments characterization or that he has breached the agreement. On Tuesday afternoon, Manafort issued a statement in which he flatly denied ever meeting with Assange. This story is totally false and deliberately libelous, he said. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to Wikileaks, either directly or indirectly. WikiLeaks also vehemently denied the Guardians story and said it was willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editors head that Manafort never met Assange. Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper's reputation. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange. https://t.co/R2Qn6rLQjn WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018 The news of Manaforts alleged lies sent President Trump into a Twitter tailspin that, even by his standards, reeked of desperation. In a three-part series, Trump accused Mueller of being a conflicted prosecutor (hes not) who had gone rogue and was doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System (two claim made without any evidence). .The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it wont be Mueller and his Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2018 .The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it wont be Mueller and his Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2018 .terrible Gang of Angry Democrats. Look at their past, and look where they come from. The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and theyve got nothing but ruined lives. Where is the Server? Let these terrible people go back to the Clinton Foundation and Justice Department! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2018 In August, a jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts of tax and bank fraud after a weeks-long trial in northern Virginia. It was the first courtroom victory for Mueller after he had indicted Manafort and a colleague of Manaforts, Rick Gates, who had also worked on the Trump campaign, for an array of financial crimes. Manafort is currently housed in a northern Virginia jail, where he has been in solitary confinement, awaiting his sentencing. Gates, who testified against Manafort in the first trial, is still cooperating and has yet to be sentenced. Manafort was set to face a second trial in a D.C. federal court in September on charges of money laundering, illegal foreign lobbying and witness tampering. But he avoided that trial by agreeing to a lengthy plea deal that would have him cooperate with Mueller. If Judge Amy Berman Jackson finds that Manafort did indeed violate that agreement, either by making false statements to or withholding information from Mueller, the deal is off. Under the terms of that deal, Manafort cannot change the guilty plea he entered in September. But Mueller can prosecute Manafort for the remaining charges he faced. The only salvation for Manafort at this point appears to be a pardon from President Trump. Less than one month after wrapping his whirlwind tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand, Prince Harry is traveling again but this time, hes without pregnant wife Meghan Markle. Harry touched down in Lusaka on Monday for a two-day visit to Zambia. The 34-year-old royal, who has spoken about his love for Africa and has made several visits with the Duchess of Sussex, is there to conduct some business on behalf of the Commonwealth (hes the youth ambassador of the family of nations linked to the U.K.) and to meet with conservation group African Parks, of which he is president. He was greeted by 9-year-old Jane Chawanangwa, dressed in a white dress, who presented Harry with a bouquet of flowers. The royal father-to-be, who revealed in Sydney that he hopes his first child is a girl, bent down to talk to her and shake her hand. Also on hand for Harrys arrival were dancers dressed in traditional garb. Later today, the Duke of Sussex will attend a reception celebrating links between the U.K. and Zambia. Thank you Jane Chawanangwa, aged 9, for the beautiful flowers for The Duke of Sussex, as he arrives in Lusaka at the start of #RoyalVisitZambia ???????? pic.twitter.com/9sFW6lNwqt Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 26, 2018 Prince Harry Prince Harry Cant get enough of PEOPLEs Royals coverage? Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! The solo trip falls on an important date: Nov. 27 marks the one-year anniversary of Harry and Meghan announcing their engagement news to the world. On Tuesday, Harry will, poignantly, meet with an organization called CAMFED, which tackles poverty and inequality in sub-Saharan Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women. It is an issue close to his wifes heart and one she will make a central part of her public work. Story continues Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at their engagement photo call The prince will also head to Burma Barracks to commemorate the Zambian veterans from the two world wars, meet widows of veterans and be shown around a special photographic exhibition about the African soldier of WWI. Prince Harry At an event for The Queens Commonwealth Trust, of which he is also president, Harry is set to chat to young leaders who are leading social purpose ventures around the world. He will also visit Circus Zambia, which helps young people from vulnerable backgrounds across Lusaka with life skills while providing educational and employment opportunities. Commonwealth Trust partner CAMA, the CAMFED alumnae network, will be among those he will meet. Harry is set to make a speech. Harrys final duty in the country will be a visit to BongoHive, the countrys first technology and innovation hub. Hell sit in on one of the workshops, meet entrepreneurs practicing their pitches ahead of the next funding competition and hear from founders of start-ups who have benefited from BongoHives support. U.S. The Hill A pregnant woman in Florida died after a heated and violent interaction with a motorcyclist on the road Saturday. Sara Nicole Morales allegedly intentionally hit motorcyclist Andrew Derr in her car, the Orange City Police Department said, according to a statement on posted to Facebook.Derr was not injured, and he and other witnesses followed Morales after she started to drive away, according to authorities. The police said Morales drove to her... Photo credit: Getty Images From Esquire Popping through the McDonald's drive-thru this morning, because I am a plainspoken good American person unlike all the rest of you elitist bums, and I notice that my local outpost will not be serving salad for a while. This is because of the romaine lettuce plague that descended on the country over the last two weeks. (Ed. Note: To me, romaine lettuce always has tasted like an algae bloom.) How, you may ask, did this horror come about? Is it because we are Making America Great Again? Why, yes. From Wired: For more than a decade, its been clear that theres a gaping hole in American food safety: Growers arent required to test their irrigation water for pathogens such as E. coli. As a result, contaminated water can end up on fruits and vegetables. After several high-profile disease outbreaks linked to food, Congress in 2011 ordered a fix, and produce growers this year would have begun testing their water under rules crafted by the Obama administrations Food and Drug Administration. But six months before people were sickened by the contaminated romaine, President Donald Trumps FDA responding to pressure from the farm industry and Trumps order to eliminate regulations shelved the water-testing rules for at least four years. Photo credit: Nancy Nehring - Getty Images Despite this deadly outbreak, the FDA has shown no sign of reconsidering its plan to postpone the rules. The agency also is considering major changes, such as allowing some produce growers to test less frequently or find alternatives to water testing to ensure the safety of their crops. The FDAs lack of urgency dumbfounds food safety scientists. Mystifying, isnt it? said Trevor Suslow, a food safety expert at the University of California, Davis. If the risk factor associated with agricultural water use is that closely tied to contamination and outbreaks, there needs to be something now. I cant think of a reason to justify waiting four to six to eight years to get started. Story continues As I left the drive-thru, I heard on the radio a story about how General Motors-which, because it is a modern corporation, is more dedicated to enriching its stockholder than in having anything to do with, you know, motors-is taking an ax to its North American operations. Is this because we are Making America Great Again? Why, yes, it is. From the New York Times: The plants include three car factories: one in Lordstown, Ohio, that makes the Chevrolet Cruze compact; the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, where the Chevrolet Volt, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6 are produced; and a plant in Oshawa, Ontario, which primarily makes the Chevrolet Impala. In addition, the company will halt operations at transmission plants in the Baltimore area and in Warren, Mich. Some of the affected plants could resume production, depending on the outcome of contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers union next year. That last sentence is almost assuredly pure crapola designed to knuckle the UAW preemptively. Anyway, about that Making America Great Again business: The companies have also paid a price for the tariff battle that Mr. Trump set in motion. In June G.M. slashed its profit outlook for the year because tariffs on steel were driving up its costs. The company does not import a great deal of steel into the United States, but the increased demand for domestic steel has raised prices. Luckily, President So Much Winning was able to snark those pesky Canadians in the name of all good plainspoken Americans who can't eat romaine lettuce at McDonald's anymore. From the CBC: The Oshawa operation became a talking point for U.S. President Donald Trump during Canada-U.S. trade negotiations, according to a Toronto Star report about an off-the-record aside during an interview with Bloomberg News over the summer. "Every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala," the U.S. president was reported to have said. Settling in for the blogging day, I came upon a story about the plucky soybean. The plucky soybean is in trouble, and so are the people who grow the plucky soybean. Photo credit: Getty Images Is this because we are making America great again? Why, yes, it is. From Reuters: For Louisiana farmer Richard Fontenot and his neighbors, the solution was a costly one: Let the crops rot. Fontenot plowed under 1,000 of his 1,700 soybean acres this fall, chopping plants into the dirt instead of harvesting more than $300,000 worth of beans. His beans were damaged by bad weather, made worse by a wet harvest. Normally, he could sell them anyway to a local elevator - giant silos usually run by international grains merchants that store grain.No one wants them, Fontenot said in a telephone interview. As he spoke, he drove his tractor across a soybean field, tilling under his crop. I dont know what else to do. Across the United States, grain farmers are plowing under crops, leaving them to rot or piling them on the ground, in hopes of better prices next year, according to interviews with more than two dozen farmers, academic researchers and farm lenders. Its one of the results, they say, of a U.S. trade war with China that has sharply hurt export demand and swamped storage facilities with excess grain. In Louisiana, up to 15 percent of the oilseed crop is being plowed under or is too damaged to market, according to data analyzed by Louisiana State University staff. Crops are going to waste in parts of Mississippi and Arkansas. Grain piles, dusted by snow, sit on the ground in North and South Dakota. And in Illinois and Indiana, some farmers are struggling to protect silo bags stuffed with crops from animals. The president* kept one campaign promise. All across America, lettuce growers and soybean farmers, and auto workers and parts salespeople, and everyone who tries to eat semi-healthy fast food, join in a swelling chorus to tell the president* that they are Tired of All This Winning. They yell it louder and louder, mainly to drown out the other voice that keeps greeting them with the sun each and every dawn, saying: Good morning, suckers. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here. ('You Might Also Like',) IITs first MSc Big Data Analytics Graduates from Robert Gordon University, UK Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT), the pioneer in British higher education in Sri Lanka and the countrys premier IT and Business campus, held its first-ever annual convocation of the Robert Gordon University, UK (RGU). During the event held at the BMICH, degrees were conferred to students who had successfully completed the Master of Science Big Data Analytics of RGU. Prof. Kay Cooper and Prof. Nirmalie Wiratunga of Robert Gordon University (RGU) graced the occasion together with IIT staff and graduate families. After the handing over of degrees, the Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe Gold Medal award for his outstanding performance was presented to Mohomed Shafeek Muhammed Shariq. The convocation also included a unique forum titled "Big Data Forum for Data Enthusiasts" where students and other participants were presented with the opportunity to interact with leading experts in the field of Big Data Analytics. These experts included Prof. Nirmalie Wiratunga from the School of Computing Science & Digital Media at Robert Gordon University, Dr. Ruwan Weerasinghe from the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) and Dr. Dilshan Silva - Head of Analytics of Nations Trust Bank. Prof. Nirmalie Wiratunga addressing the gathering Delivering the Welcome Address, Prof. Jayantha Wijeyaratne - Director of the IIT stated, Our collaboration with the Robert Gordon University commenced in 2016 with the offering of two MSc degree programmes namely the MSc in Big Data Analytics and MSc in Business Analytics. IIT thrives in producing graduates in trending technologies which are of high demand. Visionary thinking of the academics and administrators of IIT resulted in offering the first postgraduate programme in Big Data Analytics in Sri Lanka. Today, Big Data platform and processing has been identified as one of the top five trending technologies. Hence, the graduates in this field will have a high demand and they would be able to play a leading role in the organizations involved in big data processing. Prof. John Harper - Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gordon University (RGU) stated, The convocation marks a very important stage in the ongoing partnership between RGU and IIT, which began back in 2016 with the validation of the MSc course. Both institutions share a strong industry focus and top rankings in employability and since the course began we have made further strides to strengthen our relationship in both an academic and research capacity.RGU is a progressive university and we take great pride in seeing our graduates move on to successful careers. We are committed to engaging with industry and professions to ensure that our programmes are up to date, relevant and tailored to the needs of the current and future employment markets. Robert Gordon University is a dynamic, modern place to study with an international reputation for providing high-quality education from undergraduate through to PhD level. The university has been awarded a Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), placing it in the top 20% of the best universities in the UK for the quality of its undergraduate teaching and learning. The MSc Big Data Analytics is a specialist Masters degree course designed for practicing industry professionals such as Software Engineers and Business Analysts who have an honours degree in Information Technology, Computing or related areas. The courses equip students with significant computing knowledge with focus on modern big data analysis and visualisation methods, text analytics and big data specific programming skills coupled with NoSQL data stores. It provides the technical skills and research training necessary to develop sophisticated data analysis and retrieval systems applied to Big Data Analytics.The modules of the two-year, part-time course include Advance Databases, Big Data Programming, Cloud Computing, Data Analysis, Data Mining, Data Warehousing, Research Methods, Text Analytics and the MSc Project. Mohammed Shafeek receiving the Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe Gold Medal Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) was established in 1990 as the first private higher education institute that awards reputed British degrees in the field of ICT and Business. IIT is an award-winning campus offering degree programmes from the Robert Gordon University, UK and the University of Westminster, UK. IIT has played a pivotal role in strengthening the IT and Business sectors in Sri Lanka over the years by producing world-class graduates. These graduates have gone on to become successful entrepreneurs and IT/Business professionals in both local and international corporate and government entities. Since its inception, IIT has produced thousands of graduates who have excelled in over 250 organizations around the globe. A freshman at the University of Maryland died of complications from adenovirus on Nov. 18, raising concerns across the College Park campus as eight more students have contracted the illness. Olivia Paregol had a cough early in the school semester, and over the next few months her health continued to decline. The 18-year-old eventually developed pneumonia, and was in and out of the emergency room in the days before her death. The University of Maryland Health Center confirmed her death in a statement. I am sad to share that a University of Maryland student recently passed away from adenovirus associated illness. We offer our condolences during this difficult time, David McBride, director of the schools health center, said. While we are normally prohibited from sharing medical information publicly, we have been authorized by a family member to share this news and urge others to take seriously this strain of a common virus. The University of Maryland confirmed to PEOPLE on Monday that eight other students have reported falling ill due to adenovirus, up from the five cases reported after Paregols death. Testing conducted by the Centers for Disease Control found that one of the first five cases is the more severe Adenovirus 7 strain, but they do not yet know the strains of the three new cases. Adenovirus are common viruses that can cause sore throats, pneumonia, pink eye and more. Theyre typically easy to treat and fairly mild, but the health risk is greater among immunocompromised people, as is the case with the continued outbreak at a New Jersey childcare facility that has left 11 kids dead. Paregol was taking medication to treat Crohns disease that weakened her immune system, making her more susceptible to adenovirus. Paregols father, Ian, said that his daughter also had mold in her dorm room, which he believes made the situation more severe. It didnt help the illness. I think thats a really fair statement, he told CBS News. We dont know that theres causation, yet, but it didnt help things. Story continues RELATED VIDEO: College Student Left Paralyzed After Contracting Guillain-Barre on Vacation The University of Maryland has been dealing with an outbreak of mold on campus all semester, and had to move students out of dorms into temporary housing as they worked to solve the issue, including Olivia. But the school tells PEOPLE that the CDC says that there is no connection between mold and the cases of adenovirus. They also said that the nine people who were infected are unconnected to each other, and are a mix of students living in on- and off-campus housing. Whether or not the mold was related, Ian said he just wants to know if University of Maryland could have done more to help Olivia when she was in and out of the health center repeatedly. He told the Baltimore Sun that they filled her prescription for the Crohns medication and therefore should have known that she was at a higher risk of infection. When Olivia was admitted to the intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Nov. 12, Ian called the health center to inquire about the mold and to see if it was related to her pneumonia. After that call, the university eventually told Olivias doctors about the other adenovirus cases and she was then tested and confirmed to have adenovirus. If they would have known a week earlier, I think there would have been a different result, Ian told the Baltimore Sun. This should never have happened. Now though, Ian is urging other University of Maryland students to get tested. If theres other students that now maybe get tested and then dont get as sick as Olivia, then thats at least one more child that didnt have a horrible outcome, he told The Diamondback, the schools newspaper. This is the most painful thing a parent can endure. General Motors to lay off 15 percent of workers, shutter 5 plants in North America originally appeared on abcnews.go.com General Motors is laying off 15 percent of its salaried workers and shuttering five plants in North America, the Detroit automaker announced on Monday. The company said it was "transforming its global workforce to ensure it has the right skill sets for today and the future, while driving efficiencies through the utilization of best-in-class tools." These cuts, as planned, will result in about 14,000 layoffs in North America. That breaks down into 8,000 white-collar workers, (some of whom will be offered buyouts) and 6,000 factory workers across North America, although some could transfer to other plants, according to GM. Barring an agreement between the United Auto Workers union and GM, these plans will move forward and the five plants will close its doors by the end of 2019. PHOTO: The General Motors assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, Nov. 26, 2018. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters) (MORE: The Trump Economy: How steelworkers view the midterm elections) "The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future, GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said. We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success." PHOTO: The General Motors assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, Nov. 26, 2018. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters) President Trump, who said he spoke with Barra, was displeased with the news of the layoffs. "Not happy about it. Their car is not selling well, so they'll put something else. I have no doubt that in a not-too-distant future, they'll put something else. They better put something else in," Trump said. (MORE: The Trump Economy: Why new-car prices are approaching record highs) GM has shifted its focus on electric, ride-sharing and autonomous vehicles while eliminating poor-selling models. Industry insiders and Wall Street have praised the move. The company "is trying to get ahead of a potential crisis by making cuts now," Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Autotrader, said, noting that GM is reacting to a weaker market in China and weaker demand in North America, its two biggest markets. Story continues "GM is actually a tad late to adjusting its product line and production capacity to the dramatic car to utility shift. Ford and Fiat Chrysler already revealed their plans to largely abandon traditional cars," Krebs added. (MORE: Trump 'not happy' about GM layoffs that run counter to his claims of bringing jobs back to US) The three assembly plants that will close are: Oshawa Assembly in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit, and Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio. The Detroit plant makes the Chevy Impala, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6. The Ohio plant makes the Chevy Cruze. The closures jeopardize the production of those models. "The sales of all those cars are in decline. They need heavy incentives to sell and a lot of those sales go to fleet or rental agencies," Edmunds analyst Ivan Drury told ABC News. "They have heavy competition in those segments -- Cruze is up against Civics and Corollas and they know theyre not winning there." He added, "The only shock is that a year ago they said they were going to keep all their cars lines." The closures were opposed by organized labor. Unifor, Canada's largest union, issued a statement calling on General Motors Canada to keep the plant open past December 2019. Oshawa Assembly is GMs most decorated plant with a highly skilled, committed workforce, said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. Additionally, the USMCA provides the Canadian auto industry with firm footing so walking away after a hundred year history of manufacturing makes no sense. Unifor does not accept the closure of the plant as a foregone conclusion, said Dias. PHOTO: General Motors workers leave the Oshawa General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Nov. 26, 2018. (Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images) (MORE: US-Canada trade deal may mean higher car prices) The cuts were lauded as a step toward a more nimble future for the automaker but others expressed concern about a collective loss of industry talent. "It comes at a tremendous cost to people and the communities which depend upon GM plants for economic sustainability. While this may be a market necessity, I am concerned about the brain drain: a loss of valuable legacy knowledge and experience as long-term GM employees are let go," according to Kelley Blue Book's Rebecca Lindland. GM stock was trading 5.6 percent higher midday on the news at $37.94 a share. GM spokeswoman Stephanie Rice told ABC News the planned plant closures and job cuts are not related to recent U.S. government trade or tariff decisions, but acknowledged "headwinds" they're experiencing from rising prices on commodities "that are largely a reaction to the recent trade policy changes." GM estimates "recent trade policy changes" have cost them $1.4 billion this year alone. Just before Thanksgiving, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a familiar-sounding warning: Avoid Romaine lettuce. The latest crop is a carrier for E. coli, and so far at least 13 people have been hospitalized in this latest outbreak. The reason that sounds familiar is because the same thing happened back in 2011, when more than 200 people in three dozen states contracted the bacteria, resulting in 27 kidney failures and five deaths. Fruits and vegetables carry E. coli if they're exposed to contaminated water, and salad greens, typically eaten raw, are especially prone to spreading it. Water can get contaminated by livestock or wildlife waste, and that fecal runoff can easily make its way into farming irrigation. So, Congress passed legislation requiring farmers to test irrigation water for pathogens. The legislation would have gone into effect earlier this year, based on criteria drawn up by the Obama-era Food and Drug Administration. As Wired reports: But six months before people were sickened by the contaminated romaine, President Donald Trumps FDA responding to pressure from the farm industry and Trumps order to eliminate regulations shelved the water-testing rules for at least four years. Despite this deadly outbreak, the FDA has shown no sign of reconsidering its plan to postpone the rules. The agency also is considering major changes, such as allowing some produce growers to test less frequently or find alternatives to water testing to ensure the safety of their crops. The FDAs lack of urgency dumbfounds food safety scientists. The lack of urgency from the FDA mirrors Trump's own. He often refuses to acknowledge the findings of his own administration, be it on economics or climate change when they don't say what he wants them to say. In fact, he spent Thanksgiving eating Caesar salad despite the CDC's recall warning. But the connection also reveals what Trump and other wildly pro-business Republicans mean when they talk about the tyranny of big government. He's helped them fight "over-regulation," which for this administration means letting companies pump more mercury into the air or worry less about worker safety. Because it costs a lot less money to ignore petty things like making sure that crap-filled water isn't saturating your bagged lettuce. On Tuesday afternoon, Daniela Tejada tweeted this photograph of her husband kissing her on the cheek in a message of gratitude to everyone who helped her - Daniela Tejada/Twitter A British academic sentenced to life imprisonment by the United Arab Emirates and then pardoned has spoken for the first time since his release, thanking his wife for her "brave" support. Matthew Hedges was freed on Monday after a high-profile battle with the Gulf state ally, but officials persisted in calling him an MI6 spy - a claim denied by family and colleagues. "I could not have done this without Daniela, I hear her face is everywhere!" he said through his family spokesman, after landing at Heathrow airport on Tuesday morning. "She is so brave and strong, seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. I thank you all once again, this is very surreal. He also thanked the British embassy and the Foreign Office for their help in securing his release. The Durham University PhD student, originally from Exeter, was sentenced on Wednesday after being arrested at Dubai Airport as he tried to leave on May 5. His wife, Daniela Tejada, mounted a campaign to free the 31-year-old and Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, personally discussed the case with UAE leaders. "No one should ever have to go through what he did and it will take him time to heal and recover," she said on Tuesday. "He is very overwhelmed. "To say we are happy is an understatement. On Tuesday afternoon, she also tweeted a photograph of her husband kissing her on the cheek in a message of gratitude to everyone who helped her. Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE president, approved the family's appeal for clemency during a traditional tranche of pardons for the state's national day. At a news conference on Monday in Abu Dhabi, officials showed a video of Mr Hedges describing himself as a captain in MI6 during what appeared to be a court hearing. Intelligence analysts have queried the veracity of the UAE account for two reasons. First, it is unusual for SIS personnel to refer to their organisation as MI6, viewing it as a slang term best saved for James Bond movies. Story continues The second, and more intriguing, reason for a raised eyebrow from the intelligence community, is the use of the term Captain. No such rank or appointment exists among Britains spies; they are simply known as Officers. An official told reporters in Abu Dhabi that Mr Hedges was "100% a full-time secret service operative" who was in the country "to steal the UAE's sensitive security national secrets for his paymasters". He said the Briton's pardon came in response to a letter from his family appealing for clemency and due to the historical close ties between the UK and UAE. "His highness has decided to include Mr Matthew Hedges among the 785 prisoners released," he said. "Mr Hedges will be permitted to leave the country once all the formalities are complete." The UK takes a "neither confirm nor deny" approach to allegations of intelligence service membership, but Mr Hunt has previously said he has seen "absolutely no evidence" to suggest Mr Hedges is a spy. Following the pardon, Ms Tejada, from Bogota in Colombia, said: "The presidential pardon for Matt is the best news we could have received. "Our six-plus months of nightmare are finally over and to say we are elated is an understatement. "That he is returning home to me and the rest of his family is much more than I was ever expecting to happen this week. I thank you all for your support." Ms Tejada credited media coverage, support from British diplomats, Mr Hunt, academics and members of the public across the world for helping her husband's cause. She continued to reject the accusation that he was a spy, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "In my heart I know that he isn't." Mr Hedges' release was confirmed after a family representative initially contradicted UAE officials who said he had been freed. Foreign Secretary @Jeremy_Hunt's statement today on the release of Matthew Hedges pic.twitter.com/5WBr6q6Cnl Foreign Office (@foreignoffice) November 26, 2018 Mr Hunt said the UAE had made a "very important gesture" in pardoning Mr Hedges but described it as a "bittersweet moment" given that Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe remains detained in Iran, also accused of spying. He told Today: "In a way it's a bittersweet moment as in Iran, another country in the region, we have Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an innocent woman who is still in prison for nearly three years now. "Indeed, there are other British citizens and other citizens from other countries also wrongly imprisoned in Iran also. "So, you know the wonderful news about Matthew is also making us remember there are other people who are in a terrible state right now and we must never forget them either." UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said the pardon would allow the two countries to "return our focus to the underlying fundamental strength of the UAE-UK bilateral relationship", the WAM Emirates news agency reported. Dr Gargash said: "It was always a UAE hope that this matter would be resolved through the common channels of our longstanding partnership. "This was a straightforward matter that became unnecessarily complex despite the UAE's best efforts." Professor Stuart Corbridge, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said staff were "absolutely delighted" to learn of the news. "It is paramount that he is now allowed to return home to Daniela and his family as quickly and safely as possible," he said. Ms Tejada told Sky News she wanted to arrange a "winter barbecue" for her husband, which had been postponed from Spring due to his detention. Johannesburg (AFP) - South African lawmakers will seek to end the breeding of lions for trophy hunting and the trade in their bones, setting parliament on a collision course with a powerful industry. South Africa has as many as 8,000 lions in captivity being bred for hunting, the bone trade, tourism and academic research, according to estimates by wildlife groups. By contrast there are just 3,000 lions in the wild, living in the country's national parks where hunting is prohibited. Trophy hunting is a $36-million industry, but parliamentarians have been emboldened by high-profile global campaigns to push for its demise. A committee of lawmakers responsible for overseeing environmental affairs recommended on November 12 that the government reconsider the rules governing the breeding of captive lions for hunting and bone harvesting. The global trade of body parts from lions killed in the wild is banned by international treaties -- but permitted for animals bred in captivity. The MPs resolved that ministers should review the issue "with a view to putting an end to this practice". The decision followed two days of crunch talks between MPs, breeders and animal welfare campaigners. - 'Damage to brand South Africa' - Lawmakers also want the government to "reconsider" its recent decision to nearly double to 1,500 the quota of lion skeletons that can be legally traded this year. In the past decade South Africa has exported the big cat bones to Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and other markets in Southeast Asia for use in jewellery as well as their supposed medicinal properties. "South Africa is allowing a practice that everybody is turning their backs to. We need to find a solution as a country to improve the situation," said parliament's environment committee chief Phillemon Mapulane. He added that the country's strong reputation for conservation was being compromised by the situation. "(It undermines) broader conservation, but (benefits) a small number of breeders without proper scientific or conservation basis," said Mapulane. Story continues "The industry is doing serious damage to brand South Africa." Derek Hanekom, who was acting minister for environmental affairs when parliament made its recommendations, told AFP he would appoint a special task force to examine animal breeding rules. "We are finalising the terms of reference of the panel that will investigate and make recommendations on these issues," he said. The practice of hunting lions raised in captivity has long been controversial in South Africa where a large number of animals are confined to pens ringed with electric fences. But former environment minister Edna Molewa, who died earlier this year, warned that changing the rules risked creating a situation in which "thousands of lions will have no value and there will be no income". She also warned that jobs could be lost if the country's nearly 300 lion breeding facilities were closed and the trade banned. Though the industry contributes significant tax revenues every year, activists have labelled it "unethical". Campaigns to ban the importation of captive-bred lion trophies have gathered steam in Australia, France, The Netherlands and the United States in recent years. In 2016 the International Union for Conservation of Nature called on South Africa to end the practice of hunting captive-bred lions altogether. In September, Singapore Airlines, which was the only airline involved in transporting lion bones from South Africa to Southeast Asia, announced it would no longer carry the controversial cargo. - Industry warns of job losses - "This industry is nothing but a blight on the conservation pedigree that South Africa should otherwise be able to claim," said Yolan Friedman, chief executive of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. "South Africa's captive predator breeding industry is cruel, serves no conservation purpose, and damages South Africa's reputation as a wildlife tourism destination," added Mark Jones of the Britain-based Born Free conservation charity. Paul Funston, a senior director at the wild cat conservation group Panthera warned that the government review could be too vague to make a difference. "There is no real clear directive for change, it's not a forceful directive. We are a bit disappointed that it's not an immediate call to close the industry," said Funston. But Kirsten Nematandani, president of the South African Predator Association, warned that if parliament's recommendations were implemented "it means thousands of jobs will be lost". The Hill A pregnant woman in Florida died after a heated and violent interaction with a motorcyclist on the road Saturday. Sara Nicole Morales allegedly intentionally hit motorcyclist Andrew Derr in her car, the Orange City Police Department said, according to a statement on posted to Facebook.Derr was not injured, and he and other witnesses followed Morales after she started to drive away, according to authorities. The police said Morales drove to her... Alec Baldwin attends "El Hormiguero" TV show at Vertice Studio on October 2, 2014 in Madrid, Spain. Actor Alec Baldwin was arraigned in a New York courtroom on Monday just a few weeks following his arrest for alleged assault, reported E! News. On November 2, Baldwin was arrested after allegedly punching a man over a parking space. The New York Police Department reported that the altercation occurred after a driver pulled into a parking spot in Manhattan that a relative of Baldwins was holding for him. The driver and Baldwin began verbally fighting, which then escalated to pushing and punching. The 49-year-old driver was taken to the hospital following the altercation and reported experiencing jaw pain and redness around his neck. Baldwin was held at the 6th precinct before being charged with assault and harassment, deemed misdemeanor and violation-level charges, and given a desk appearance ticket. Following the arrest, the actor took to Twitter to defend himself over the incident. Click here to continue and read more... Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has likened the Central American migrants seeking to enter the US to Jewish families fleeing Nazi Germany, declaring that applying for refugee status should not be considered a crime. After US border guards fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants who pushed past Mexican police, and a small number tried to breach the US-Mexico border, the newly elected New York Democrat compared the plight of the people fleeing nations such as Honduras and El Salvador, to those who escaped other dangerously violent or genocidal situations. At least six million Jews alone, were killed during the Holocaust. Asking to be considered a refugee and applying for status isnt a crime. It wasnt for Jewish families fleeing Germany, the 29-year wrote, above a Reuters photograph showing a mother and her two young children running from tear gas fired by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. The democratic socialist, added: It wasnt for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasnt for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isnt for those fleeing violence in Central America. The issue of the series of migrant caravans making their way north through Mexico has in recent weeks been seized on by Mr Trump, seeking to rally Republicans, and claiming the nation is facing an invasion. In a move that was reportedly been poorly received by senior military officials, the president dispatched more than 5,000 active troops to the border to secure it with razor wire, and offer assistance to CBP if it was requested. In an early morning tweet on Monday, Mr Trump called on Mexico to return the migrants to their home countries. Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isnt a crime. It wasnt for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasnt for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasnt for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isnt for those fleeing violence in Central America. https://t.co/qhv7Rr1itn Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 25, 2018 Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries, said the president, offering no evidence to support his claim they were criminals. Story continues Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the USA. We will close the border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL! As it was, on Sunday evening, Mexico had already said it was immediately deporting up to 500 migrants who had violently and illegally tried to enter the US. The bulk of the migrants come from three countries, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, which suffer from massive levels of violence that is linked to gangs and cartels that supply the US demand for illegal drugs. The comments of Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who has become a target for right-wing media after the secured the House of Representatives seat for New Yorks 14th Congressional District earlier this month, earned her rebuke from conservatives and others. Benny Johnson, a journalist who was fired by BuzzFeed after being accused of plagiarism before being hired by the right-wing Daily Caller, which was co-founded by Fox News broadcaster Tucker Carlson, said Ms Ocasio-Cortezs comments were sick. In recent days, Fox News has been accused of devoting more time to the coverage of the Democratic congresswoman-elects choice of footwear, than it did to a major government report about the perils confronting the US because of climate change. Entering America illegally is a crime. Storming the border is a crime. Violently attacking American border agents is a crime, he tweeted. The migrant caravan has now done all of these. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ms Ocasio-Cortezs tweet. The third suspect involved in the stabbing and death of an Advanced Level student in Matara was arrested this morning at Matara town, Police said. They said the suspect was identified as 17-year-old Jayaweera Mohandiramege Sunuru Vimmukthi Jayaweera, a resident of Walgama area in Matara. Police investigations revealed the suspect as the person who came road the motorcycle with the main suspect. The main suspect who stabbed to death of the student was surrendered to the court and remanded till December 3 by the Matara Magistrate yesterday. Another 17-year-old was surrendered to the Matara ASP Office yesterday over the same incident. A19-year-old student of St. Thomas College, Matara was killed after he was stabbed on Saturday afternoon near a private class at Matara. The victim, who was a resident of Mahahenawatte, Naimbala, was preparing for the GCE (A/L) Examination to be held next year. He was assaulted and killed when he was on his way to a private tuition class with two of his friends on Saturday (24). (Darshana Sanjeewa) Beirut (AFP) - A 10-week-old truce deal in northern Syria looked as precarious as ever Monday after an alleged chemical attack, which has already drawn retaliatory raids despite its origins being unclear. The exact circumstances of the purported attack on three districts of the government-held city of Aleppo Saturday are murky and bitterly disputed. In little doubt, however, is the strain the incident will put on an already fragile agreement reached in mid-September to fend off a fully-fledged assault on Idlib. What happened on Saturday? Syrian state media accused "terrorists" of carrying out a "toxic gas" attack in Aleppo late Saturday, using a term that it uses to mean both rebels and jihadists. State news agency SANA said 107 people were hospitalised with breathing difficulties, after what health official Ziad Hajj Taha said it was a "probable" chlorine attack. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of people affected slightly lower at 94, and said over half had been discharged by the next morning. The Britain-based monitor, which says it gathers its information from people inside Syria, said its sources reported "the smell of chlorine". An AFP reporter saw dozens of civilians carried or helped into a hospital, appearing to be dizzy and breathing with difficulty. Staff gave them oxygen masks. The regime has been blamed for most deadly chemical weapon attacks in Syria's seven-year war, but official media has recently accused fighters in Idlib of planning a chemical attack. What's the context? Aleppo city lies just east of the country's last major rebel bastion of Idlib, which a Russian-Turkey deal has protected from a massive regime offensive since September. More than half of that region is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful alliance led by the jihadists of Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, who have not commented on the Aleppo attack. But the National Liberation Front (NLF), a coalition of Turkish-backed rebels who hold most of the rest of the region, have denied any involvement. Story continues The Islamic State group and the Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen organisation are also present in the area. In September, regime ally Moscow and rebel backer Ankara agreed to set up a U-shaped buffer zone around Idlib to keep pro-government forces outside the region of some three million. But implementation has stalled since jihadists refused to leave the planned demilitarised zone by a mid-October deadline, and sporadic clashes and bombardment have since rocked the area. Jihadists including HTS control around 70 percent of the planned buffer, according to the Observatory. On Sunday, Russia said "terrorist groups" inside a part the planned demilitarised area held by HTS had shelled Aleppo. It said its war planes carried out air strikes against those groups, the first such raids on the planned buffer since the Russian-Turkish deal more than two months ago. What's the outcome? Sunday's air strikes have piled additional strain on the Idlib deal. "The attack and then the Russian bombardment clearly demonstrates the weakness of the Idlib agreement," said Aaron Stein, a fellow at the Atlantic Council. "The Russian response clearly shows that they will not be restrained by the ceasefire with Turkey when its interests are threatened," he said. Regime forces control around two-thirds of the country, after winning back large parts of it with Russian support since 2015. Damascus has repeatedly said the Idlib agreement was only a temporary measure until the northwestern region on the Turkish border reverted to government control. Analyst Julien Theron, from Sciences Po university in Paris, pointed to several possible outcomes. "This affair could be used by the regime, with tacit support or military support from its ally Russia, to retake the whole of Idlib," he said. "But Idlib is a very complex region to retake and the risks are high," he warned. Instead, Russia may seek to keep the agreement alive by "forcing Turkey to intervene" against HTS, he said. "But that would imply Ankara eventually being in control on the ground," he said, a scenario likely not to please Damascus. Nawar Oliver, an analyst with the Omran Center, said he did not expect a Russia-backed regime ground assault. "They don't have the luxury to launch a ground attack because they simply don't have the ground forces," he said. One of the plants where General Motors (GM) plans to slash production and lay off workers next year sits in an area that President Donald Trump promised to revive, within a swing state that will help to decide his bid for a second term in the White House. The Detroit-based automaker announced restructuring plans Monday that could result in the closure of five North American plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Canada . GM plans to lay off about 14,000 factory and white-collar workers. The company said it will cut about 15 percent of its salaried staff. The factories, most of which build vehicle models that will not be sold in the U.S. after next year, may not close entirely, depending on United Auto Workers union negotiations. They could end up with different models to build. Still, the move is a gut punch to one area in Ohio that Trump pledged to boost last year. GM plans to cut as many as 1,600 factory jobs at a Lordstown, Ohio, plant when it winds down production there in March. Last year, Trump speaking about 20 miles away in Youngstown said he saw too many empty factories in the area and promised to revive manufacturing there. "I said, those jobs have left Ohio. They're all coming back. They're all coming back. Don't move, don't sell your house," he said at a rally in July 2017, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Democratic officials in the state saw a betrayal Monday from both GM and the president, who won Ohio in part on his pledges to renegotiate trade deals and push American companies to make products domestically. The president's opponents will likely seize on the job losses ahead of a pivotal 2020 election, when Trump may need Ohio's 18 electoral votes to win re-election. Trump told reporters Monday that he spoke to GM CEO Mary Barra and told her he was "not happy about it." The president added that he was "very tough" and noted that members of Congress have put "a lot of pressure" on GM. He urged the company to produce another vehicle in the Ohio facility other than the Chevrolet Cruze model it currently makes there. Story continues "I think you're going to see something else happen there. ... They better put something else in," Trump said, contending that the layoffs have nothing to do with the tariffs he imposed on steel and aluminum imports. In a sign of the White House's unease with the move, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow will meet with Barra on Monday, CNBC confirmed. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat whose district includes Lordstown, excoriated GM and Trump on Monday. In a statement, he called the move a "bad combination of greedy corporations and policy makers with no understanding of economic development." He asked Trump to "keep his word" from when he came to Ohio's Mahoning Valley last year promising jobs would return. "He promised us that his massive corporate tax cut would lead to dramatic reinvestments in our communities. That clearly is not happening," Ryan added. "The Valley has been yearning for the Trump Administration to come here, roll up their sleeves and help us fight for this recovery. What we've gotten instead are broken promises and petty tweets." Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, called the decision "corporate greed at its worst." He called it "clear" that GM "doesn't respect" the Lordstown workers, and hit the company for not doing enough to reinvest the savings from its tax cuts. Republicans took issue with the move, as well. Ohio Gov. John Kasich another possible Trump challenger called the move "painful" and said he would work with GM on possible ways to save the plant. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also said he was "deeply frustrated" with the decision, adding that he has worked and will continue to work with GM to find a way to keep the factory workers employed. The White House and GM did not immediately respond to requests to comment on the criticism from lawmakers. The Trump administration has repeatedly pointed to strong job creation and gross domestic product growth as evidence of the president's success. Lordstown sits in Trumbull County, which Trump carried by about 6,000 votes as he won Ohio in 2016. Ohio has supported the presidential election winner in every contest since 1964. It's not just Ohio where GM's move could reverberate politically. The company plans to cut as many as 1,800 factory jobs at two facilities in Detroit and Warren, Michigan. Most will come from the Detroit plant. In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Michigan since 1988, in part because of his trade and manufacturing rhetoric. But the state moved away from Trump in this year's midterms, as Democrats won both its gubernatorial and Senate races while flipping two U.S. House seats. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she was "deeply disappointed" by the move, adding that it would have a "devastating impact" on workers and their families. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said he was "extremely disappointed" and urged Congress and the Trump administration to "focus on policies that encourage automakers to invest" in the United States. Trump has targeted specific companies before over their restructuring or relocation plans as he tries to follow through on his campaign pledge to boost American manufacturing. He has cheered firms such as Foxconn for hiring in the U.S., and criticized companies such as Harley-Davidson for moving operations overseas. Automakers in particular have earned Trump's ire over the years, as many have moved operations to lower-cost Mexico. Shortly before he took office in 2017, Trump targeted GM itself and threatened a "big border tax" if it did not make its Chevy Cruze model in the U.S. Ford also announced an $11 billion restructuring plan recently but has given little detail about what the overhaul will entail. Trump has repeatedly commended GM's rival for its plans to invest in Michigan plants . Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has earned Trump's ire for American businesses' decisions to relocate to his country also said he spoke with Barra to "express [his] deep disappointment" about GM's plan to close its plant in Oshawa, Ontario. During negotiations for a new North American trade agreement, Trump reportedly threatened Canada with auto tariffs, which could have forced GM to move its production of the Chevrolet Impala and other models out of the Oshawa facility. The president said that "every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala," according to the Toronto Star. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Writ presented by Human Rights Watch calls for prosecution over mass civilian casualties in Yemen and murder of Jamal Khashoggi Saudi Arabias crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is on the guest list for the two-day G20 summit. Photograph: Amir Levy/Reuters Argentinian prosecutors are considering charging Saudi Arabias crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, with war crimes and torture if he flies to Buenos Aires for the G20 summit this week. The move comes after the advocacy group Human Rights Watch wrote to a federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should invoke a universal jurisdiction statute in Argentinian law, to seek prosecution of the Prince Mohammed for mass civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led coalitions campaign in Yemen, and for the torture of Saudi citizens, including the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. The writ presented by Human Rights Watch was received at the court of the federal judge Ariel Lijo, who forwarded it to the federal prosecutor, Ramiro Gonzalez. The prosecutor must now decide if the principle of universal jurisdiction, enshrined in Argentinas constitution, applies in the case of the crown prince. Judicial sources were quoted as saying that the likelihood that this will happen is very difficult, the newspaper Clarin reported, adding that Khashoggis murder might not qualify as a crime against human rights. However, the HRW submission is based on a wider pattern of torture as well as military operations in Yemen. Since March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has carried out scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes on civilians and civilian objects in Yemen, hitting homes, schools, hospitals, markets and mosques, a HRW statement said. Many of these attacks if carried out with criminal intent indicate possible war crimes. The coalition has also imposed and maintained a naval and air blockade on Yemen that has severely restricted the flow of food, fuel, and medicine to civilians. Millions of civilians face hunger and disease. Story continues A source from President Mauricio Macris office on Monday declined to comment on the request for Prince Mohammeds arrest should he land on Argentinian soil. We can make no comment on that. All we can say is that Mohammed bin Salmans attendance remains confirmed, we have received no contrary information so far, the source told the Guardian. But a spokesperson for the foreign minister, Jorge Faurie, said that the attempt would be unlikely to succeed. We dont believe the court presentation by Human Rights Watch will prosper. Mohammed bin Salman will be protected by diplomatic immunity and he is also travelling in his official status as representative of a foreign head of state. Besides, cases involving diplomatic immunity can only be decided by the supreme court and his visit will be too brief for it to reach the court. So for the time being his attendance will go ahead as scheduled. The case is in the hands of the court and the government will not interfere with it, the spokesperson said. Kenneth Roth, HRWs executive director, said in a written statement: Argentine prosecutorial authorities should scrutinise Mohammed bin Salmans role in possible war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in Yemen. The crown princes attendance at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires could make the Argentine courts an avenue of redress for victims of abuses unable to seek justice in Yemen or Saudi Arabia. The prince is on the guest list for the two-day summit which starts on Friday, and Donald Trump has said he is prepared to meet him, despite growing opposition in Congress to US military support for Saudi Arabia, and its campaign of aerial bombing and economic strangulation in Yemen. More than 50,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war so far, and the Save the Children charity has said a further 85,000 children may have died from starvation. Arsene Wenger would be interested in taking over at Bayern Munich if they sack Niko Kovac Arsene Wenger is interested in a return to management with Bayern Munich, who have discussed the Frenchman as a potential replacement for Niko Kovac. The former Arsenal boss rejected the chance to take over at struggling Fulham earlier this month, but would not make the same decision if Bayern came calling. According to Telegraph Sport, Wenger sees Munich as the perfect opportunity to end his career at the top level and has an eye on the situation. WATCH NOW: The Football Shows latest videos (Click image below) READ MORE: Carragher: Liverpool are a defensive side READ MORE: Van Dijk warns Liverpool theres more to PSG than Neymar and Mbappe READ MORE: Real will respond to shock Eibar loss in Champions League, insists Solari Kovac, who was only appointed at Bayern in the summer, is under increasing pressure following a difficult start to life at the German giants. Saturdays 3-3 draw with newly-promoted Fortuna Dusseldorf saw them fall nine points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund and means they have won only half of their 12 league games so far. Wenger will not manage another English club after spending 22 years at Arsenal, but the Frenchman, who last won the Premier League in 2004, wants his final hurrah to be at a top European club. The former Arsenal boss is keen to end his management career at the top level and can speak fluent German Reports in Germany say that Wenger is one of the names being discussed at boardroom level, with Kovac seemingly headed for an inevitable departure. He is fluent in German and it would somewhat ironic if he were to end up at the Allianz Arena, given their habit for ending the Gunners Champions League dream in recent seasons. Wenger has already turned down offers from elsewhere and has been linked with the technical director role at PSG. Kenneth Branagh on the set of Artemis Fowl (Disney) Appearing right in the middle of Disneys absurdly loaded 2019 slate, nestled between major sequels (Toy Story 4, Frozen 2), jostling for space among pumped-up superhero adventures (Avengers 4, Captain Marvel), and standing alongside the studios huge live-action remakes (Lion King, Aladdin, Dumbo), is the anomalous Artemis Fowl, and the first teaser has just dropped (watch below). Based on the series of hit teen novels by Irish author Eoin Colfer, its a brand-new IP for the hit-making studio, and Disney has enlisted its top man for world-building franchise starters: Kenneth Branagh. Having laid the foundations for the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Marvel Studios make-or-break Thor and initiated the studios live-action remake cycle with Cinderella, Branagh was the perfect filmmaker to get this Harry Potter-challenging fantasy epic off the ground. Artemis Fowl, played by Irish newcomer Ferdia Shaw, is a boy genius. He comes from a line of criminal masterminds, and when his father mysteriously disappears, he must go on an epic journey of discovery that takes him beneath the ground we walk on into the realm of the fairies to uncover the truth. Branaghs film is a largely faithful adaptation of the first book, originally released in 2001. It was described at the time as Die Hard with fairies thanks to a magical siege that takes place in Fowl Manor, the coastal pile thats been home to the Fowls for generations. One major difference between the books and the film is in the casting of fairy commander Julius Root. Branagh has flipped Roots gender, casting his Murder on the Orient Express co-star Judi Dench in the part written as a man in Colfers novels, based entirely on what he describes as an uninformed hunch. Ive worked with [Dench] many times now, Branagh explained during a break in production back in April, and there was just something that the great theater director Peter Brook refers to as the uninformed hunch, and so the uninformed hunch is that whenever I ask Judi to do something she says Is it different? Story continues In the films first trailer (above), you can hear Denchs performance is different, and unlike anything shes ever done before. Branagh describes her performance as Napoleonic, and the filmmaker says he likes to remind the 83-year-old acting titan of her desire to be different in her moments of uncertainty on set. It sounds quite unlike anything youve ever done, you look quite unlike anyone youve ever looked like, and I knew that would appeal to you. Heres everything we learned from Branagh about his take on Artemis Fowl, gleaned from a conversation in the library of Fowl Manor, which has been built for real to last through a possible eight-film shoot at Longcross Studios just outside of London. The book has been described as Die Hard with Fairies, is that what youre going for with this? Well, its definitely a book with a siege at the heart of it, and as youre probably aware, were starting that process today, with a troll hammering its way into the house, and the beginnings of seeing whether the brilliant Artemis Fowl, whos able to translate fairy books through his intelligence and his imagination, can, in combination with Holly Short [Lara McDonnell], stop it. One of the things I think that Eoin [Colfer] really did so well, and one of the things I wanted to encapsulate sometimes at the beginning of a process like this, my distinguished colleagues at Disney, who I get on very well with, will sort of invite you to say, Whats your take on it? Whats your great idea? And my great idea was to copy Eoin Colfer, and to not get in the way. So I hope, for instance, that the film, like the book and books, is very rapid, very punchy, and pacy. I think one of the ways in which he manages to keep us very intrigued by a series of beautifully improbable things unless we have a lot of people who believe in fairies here? Maybe we have, clap your hands if you do of course is that he moves at a pace which means that you just, even if as it were you disagreed with the conception, you are thrilled by the execution. And so I didnt at all disagree. Who am I to say whats out there or indeed under our feet in Ireland? Artemis Fowl is in cinemas 2019 (Disney) But, we move rapidly and I think both the humour and, as always in things that Im drawn to, the humanity and the emotion underneath it all, I think moves very lightly. As I get older, Im a fan of shorter and shorter movies. Maybe thats a bladder issue, I dont know? But having inflicted very long viewing experiences on people, and having to answer questions, like people like you might have asked me years ago when I made our film of Hamlet, and journalists would say to me and so, this is yet one more Hamlet, whats yours about? and Id say its about four hours. I decided that after that, that I would probably that ninety minutes I dont know if you ever do this, there are some great lists out there on the interweb, of great ninety minute movies, but I often, especially when making a movie like this, thats what Ill try and do of an evening, Ill try and watch a ninety minute classic and see how master filmmakers did things swiftly. I think Eoin Colfer does so in the books and thats what were trying to do here. Not rushing, but simply celebrating the swiftness of thought, which is characteristic of the Irish, of him, and indeed of his central character. Did you consult Eoin much? Weve talked a little. I mean, not a lot, but very warmly and very happily, and he was here this week. He was here a couple of weeks ago. I mean it was wonderful to see his face when he walked into this place. As you know, its taken a while, these things always do, or often do. And hes been very good. We told him about a few [plot changes] with the translation of a book into a film and the first thing he said was, God, I wish Id thought of that! He said, Ill certainly put it into the reissue! So hes been very collaborative like that. Can you talk about how much the second book is influencing this movie? Theres a little bit of it heading back in but were trying to hold as much of the first book in its entirety as possible. Were trying to lay out what may be skews on it, in future stories, but essentially were trying to serve this first one with, I suppose, an anchoring emotional pull that comes a bit from the second book, which is that Artemiss father is missing. Kenneth Branagh directing on the set of Artemis Fowl (Disney) And so the search for a father, and the search for family, and the reunion of family is, if there are only 6 or 7 stories ever told, thats definitely one of them. So it provides a way, I think, for us to do what I feel is important in a first film which is for us to, aside from admiring or being thrilled by his intelligence, and his ability to think swiftly and imaginatively, weve also got to like him and feel for him. And in a way, this is a sort of I suppose, its a who know if we make another one but if its an origin story, we had this issue with Thor. When we did the first Thor movie, was just to try to find a way to offer a complete dish. Thats all we were making, thats all were making now, were talking about other stories, but the public will decide that. We know Eoins done them, but were planning for this one, and for this one to feel as if it has an emotional satisfaction and delivery, and so family becomes central to that. Youve gone from Murder on the Orient Express to Artemis Fowl what was the decision there? Artemis has been something Ive been developing since, for three years now actually. My nephews are here today, and they were both reading Artemis Fowl four years ago. We were all on holiday together and they said, You should have a look at this, and then about three weeks later, Sean Bailey rang up and said, Have you ever heard of Artemis Fowl? And I said, Ive just read the first book! And so there have been some scripts and versions and developments up to that point, and they said, Would you be interested in taking it on? Everybody knew that although theres something brilliant at the centre of it that Eions done, that translating it into film was challenging. So, its taken quite some time. Its taken quite some time to find the balance between humour and emotion and magic and the contemporary world. Fowl Manor has been built for real at Longcross Studios. (Disney) [The world of Fowl Manor, Artemiss family home, is] an imaginative place. Its a bonkers place. Fowls, generation after generation, have brought all these additional ideas, but theyre ideas to do with imagination and invention. Its not necessarily to do with the acquisition of lands and money, or the desire to be separate and distinct. We introduce our Artemis at a real school, like the school the kids wholl be watching this film will be seeing hell look like a kid who could be in their school. It took a long time to find a way to do what we believed was that tone. [Meanwhile, as I was developing the script at one studio, I was shooting Orient Express very nearby.] So, the train was at a station just across the way, and [every day] there was a moustache lying on the make-up table in the morning, and we had the chance to do that. But weve been working on it, draft after draft after draft. What Eoin does is some things very beautiful and very simple, and that takes a long time to get to. It took him a long time, and its taken us a long time. Can you talk about your casting choices, specifically the lead role, as it sounds like you saw every young person in the whole of Ireland for the part? Branagh says they auditioned thousands of Irish youngsters before they found newcomer Ferdia Shaw for the lead in Artemis Fowl (Disney) It was just like Thor. I reckon we saw about as many people, and it took months and months and months. We wanted to find someone, if we could, who was Irish, because were trying to allow that to be a distinctive flavour here, just without effort, but with some reality. And then we needed to find somebody who was not going to be overwhelmed or intimidated who could see it for the beautiful opportunity it is, and the fun that it is. I said to Ferdia a trillion times, Were just making this film dont get all worked up about stuff. Its all fine. Well go to work today, well see what happens, I hope we make a good film and I hope itll be a nice time. Dont worry about the pressure. A beautiful moment in the life of the movie was when I took him round the house for the first time. I came in here, it can be a bit overwhelming, so I just came in with me and him, brought him up the stairs, and he just went, Oh wow, bloody hell. And then we got into his room and he looked at the books and he said, God, Ive read all of these! I said, I know, you told us you had, thats why theyre there! Whose decision was it, or how did it originate, to have Judi Dench play Root, because thats obviously a big change from the books? Knock it off (Disney) Well, Ive worked with her many times now, and there was just something that the great theatre director Peter Brook refers to as the uninformed hunch, and so the uninformed hunch is that whenever I ask Judi to do something she says, Is it different? And when she first started she went [makes deep grumbling noise] and then she started walking round the the room. She didnt say anything, she just threw the odd line out. A line that she loved from Root was Knock it off! So she just started doing this, and then her hand went round behind the back, and I thought, Christ, she looks like Napoleon, or Churchill, or somebody. And then she turned into this 6-year-old: Do you think thatll be any good? I said, Thatll be good! Thatll be really good, keep that! You made Thor, early in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what did that film teach you about world-building that you were able to use in this film? Well, that its exciting, but that its a little scary. I think when it comes to something like this and youre talking about the many, many types of fairies, elves, sprites, trolls, goblins, that live under the earth, and at the same time youre looking to have a very sort of contemporary feeling, a modern world that embraces technology and embraces potentially quite advanced technology, that experience allowed me to not feel so intimidated by it. Although it continues to be a pleasant creative, scary thing. I think you are aware that somehow, somewhere you are out there with those sorts of combinations. We all feel it, I think we all feel it, because its a huge, huge, huuuge team effort, and its great that youve met so many people who are so critical to it. Thor was an experience, that once youve been in the world of frost giants and blue planets, and stuff like that, and an enormous blond Australian person lands in New Mexico, and takes his shirt off in front of a scientist, I dont know of anything else that is such a conundrum. So then it isnt so weird to have your one-wheeling 13-year-old Irish boy summon up ancient Celtic spirits to potentially prevent a troll attack on your house. Weve all been there, havent we? Weve all done it, so It was good grounding in embracing the different, the imaginative and the exciting and knowing that its creatively scary but thats the only place to be. And on that note Ill go and have a creatively scary lunch. Artemis Fowl is in cinemas August 2019. Read more Lion King breaks trailer record Watch the first Artemis Fowl teaser Mary Poppins Returns set visit report Texas Rep. Beto ORourke is speaking out against violence against migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, urging the White House to follow our own laws and give asylum seekers the opportunity to petition for sanctuary, not lock them in cages or tear-gas them. People are leaving violent countries where they fear for their lives. Without money, they are subsisting on hope for their kids, for themselves, that they can get to safety. After being denied the ability to lawfully petition for asylum for the last 10 days, they are desperate, he wrote in a piece on Medium posted on Sunday. We choose how to respond to this challenge. ORourke, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Ted Cruz (R) for his seat in this months midterm election, issued his rebuke the same day migrants were seen being tear-gassed by U.S. agents in Tijuana near a port of entry. Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) criticized tear-gassing migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on Nov. 25 and urged more timely processing of asylum seekers' applications. (Photo: PAUL RATJE via Getty Images) President Donald Trump on Monday accused many of the migrants approaching the border of being stone cold criminals and threatened to close the Border permanently if need be. ORourke, recognizing hardships that have propelled many migrants to seek asylum, urged that the people be given the opportunity to plead their cases in a timely manner, as long as it is done so peacefully. But thats just the short-term plan, he said. Longer term: work with the people of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to address underlying conditions that are causing them to flee in the first place. That means addressing effects of our failed past involvement in those countries (in their civil wars, drug trade and drug wars) and the institutional failings in those countries (rule of law), he stated. It wont be easy and will involve a much greater investment of time, focus and resources. Or we can continue to ignore those countries and their people until they show up at our border. Related Content Beto O'Rourke Delivers Emotional Concession Speech After Midterms Loss Ted Cruz Clams Up About Claim That Beto O'Rourke Funded Migrant Caravan Story continues Nielsen Doubles Down On Border Patrol Conduct After Tear-Gassing: We Warned You Beto O'Rourke Isn't Here For Beyonce Critics: 'I'm So Grateful To Her' U.S. Border Patrol Launches Tear Gas At Migrants Over Attempt To Breach Fence Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Washington (dpa) - NASA is due to land a probe on Mars for the first time in more than six years on Monday and begin a mission to explore the planet deep into its core. The InSight probe is scheduled to begin its final descent just before 3 pm (2000 GMT) on Monday, marking NASAs first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in August 2012. NASA scientists admitted Sunday to being a little bit nervous about the landing but also said they felt confident it would be a success. We recognize that you never take Mars for granted. Mars is hard, Thomas Zurbuchen, a lead administrator at NASA headquarters in Washington, said at a news conference. InSight was launched in May and has travelled more than 484 million kilometres to reach Mars. LONDON (Reuters) - Britain condemned Russia on Monday after Russian vessels fired on and captured three Ukrainian naval ships near Crimea, saying the incident provided further evidence of Moscow's destabilizing behavior. "We condemn Russias act of aggression ... This incident provides further evidence of Russias destabilizing behavior in the region," Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman told reporters. "The UK position is clear, ships must be allowed free passage to Ukrainian ports in the sea of Azov. We urge all parties to act with restraint. Russia must not be allowed to use force to exert greater pressure on Ukraine." British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted that the incident showed Russians "contempt for international norms and Ukrainian sovereignty". (Reporting by Kylie Maclellan, writing by William James) Ottawa (AFP) - Canadian postal workers vowed civil disobedience as they went back to work Tuesday after the government ended a strike over rising workplace injuries in the booming e-commerce sector. Online businesses that rely on Canada Post to deliver their wares hailed the move to "salvage the holiday season" but the union representing 50,000 postal workers said "the struggle is not over." Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Mike Palecek called the government's legislation that ended the action "unconstitutional" for trampling workers' collective bargaining rights. He vowed "a campaign of mobilizations, demonstrations and non-violent civil disobedience" would follow. Details would be announced in the coming days. The government, meanwhile, appointed a mediator to help the two sides conclude a deal in the next 90 days. Failing that, Ottawa could impose a labor contract on them. After more than a year of fruitless negotiations, postal workers launched five weeks of rotating strikes, creating a large backlog in deliveries and a stoppage of incoming international mail. This was Canada's third postal strike in two decades. In 1997 and 2011, the government also legislated an end to the disruptions. But this time the stakes were higher, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pro-labor Liberals stuck between striking workers and retailers worried about a disastrous holiday season, ahead of a general election scheduled for next year. Canada Post delivers two thirds of the nation's online shopping and the last six weeks of the year are its busiest due to the holiday rush. Workers sought relief from a massive uptick in parcel volumes owing to the growing popularity of e-commerce and blamed for a jump in workplace injuries. Employment Minister Patty Hajdu said the government struggled morally with this "very difficult piece of legislation" but added it was the "appropriate time to move forward" with it. "Small businesses were struggling, rural and remote communities were struggling and there really wasn't a way forward for the two parties," she said. "They were at a complete impasse." Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's government on Monday legislated an end to rotating postal strikes that threatened a disastrous holiday season for online retailers. After a rare weekend session, the Senate voted 53-25 for the back-to-work bill. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals introduced the emergency legislation on Friday. Postal workers could be back on the job as early as Tuesday. "Legislation is a step we did not take lightly," Trudeau told parliament. "For nearly a year, we have been supporting and encouraging both sides to reach a negotiated agreement." The strikes affected hundreds of communities and led Canada Post in mid-November to ask the rest of the world to stop sending in mail until it had cleared a backlog. At issue is a massive uptick in e-commerce that has been a boon to the economy but also led to a spike in workplace injuries at Canada Post due to higher parcel volumes. Canada Post delivers two thirds of the nation's online shopping and the last six weeks of the year are its busiest due to the holiday rush. A bus company has been fined 2.3 million over a fatal crash involving a fatigued driver in 2015 that left two people dead. Midland Red (South) was found to have been responsible for significant health and safety failings after Kailash Chander, 80, ploughed into a supermarket, killing a pedestrian and a passenger. The company permitted Mr Chander to continue driving despite numerous warnings about his ability. A mother has died after reportedly slipping while trying to fetch help for her ill daughter in the Scottish Highlands. Rescue teams were called to the remote area of Glen Coe after a member of the public raised concerns about a woman seen walking along a path on Monday. The daughter, believed to be 23 years old, was found dazed and cold near the popular hiking spot Buachaille Etive Beag, and the body of her mother, who was 52, was discovered later a short distance away. A jailed sex offender was invited by a council to play an active role in the life of the child whose mother he raped, it has been reported. The rapist, who was part of a grooming gang in the north of England, was contacted in prison by the local authority and given the chance to seek prison visits from his son. The woman, who was 15 when she was raped, said she was extremely distressed that the rapist had been contacted. A cow called Knickers in Australia has become an internet sensation thanks to her impressive height. Standing at 6ft 4in tall and weighing in at 1.4 tonnes the Holstein Friesian steer is taller than the average Australian and weighs more than a Ford Fiesta. China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a business-focused state visit as Beijing, currently engaged in a trade war with the United States, seeks to strengthen ties with Europe. Xi accepted a bouquet of red flowers from children after disembarking from the Air China plane. He later met King Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia on Tuesday evening at the Zarzuela palace on the outskirts of Madrid and will hold talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday. No press conference is scheduled during his three-day visit, which is a stop-off on his trip to a meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Argentina. "Spain is an important member of the EU; it is also China's good friend and good partner in the EU. We hope and believe that Spain will continue to play a positive role in the EU for the sound and steady growth of China-EU relations," Xi wrote in a column published in conservative Spanish daily newspaper ABC. It is the first state visit to Spain by a Chinese president in 13 years. The visit comes as the two countries celebrate the 45th year of ties. Both sides will sign at least 18 business and cooperation deals, including one that further opens up the lucrative Chinese market to Spanish products such as its treasured "jamon" cured ham which is much prized in the Asian country, the Spanish government said. The world's top pork consumer, China has started getting a serious taste for "jamon" which is sold there as a luxury product. - Rising Spanish exports - Spanish companies are hoping to expand their exports to the Chinese market. China is Spain's largest trading partner outside the European Union. While Spanish exports to China increased last year by 28.3 percent, it still has a trade deficit of 19.4 billion euros ($22.1 billion), a 2.3 percent increase over the previous year, according to Spanish foreign ministry figures. "It is a market where we have to be more and more present, and this trip opens the opportunity for us to be able to talk about issues both from the public sector and from the private sector that will deepen these relationships," Spain's secretary of state for commerce, Xiana Margarida Mendez Bertolo, said at the first meeting of a new forum for Spanish and Chinese businesses in Madrid. Story continues Spain, however, will not sign on to China's ambitious "One Belt, One Road" initiative that seeks to better link Asia and Europe, a senior government official said Tuesday ahead of Xi's arrival. The multi-billion-dollar initiative, unveiled by Xi in 2013, aims to link the continents through a network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. - Influence grab? - Beijing plans to develop the network through 65 countries representing an estimated 60 percent of the world's population and a third of its economic output. So far, around 70 countries have signed a memorandum of understanding pledging their interest in the project -- an agreement that Beijing values as it seeks to expand the concept. In Europe, countries such as Poland and Greece have signed but the project has created considerable anxiety that it masks an attempted Beijing influence grab. Xi will stop off in Portugal on December 4-5 on his way back to China from Argentina. At the Group of 20 summit Xi is due to meet with US President Donald Trump, who has imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse alleged unfair trade practices, such as the forced transfer of intellectual property and massive state intervention in markets. China responded by slapping tariffs on $110 billion in US goods. The mens group at Sandy Valley Baptist Church in Warner Robins, Ga., found a way to help members and do good this holiday season. (Photo: Getty Images) A mens group at a Georgia church decided to give out thousands of dollars to members of their community with only one condition: that the recipients pay it forward. CJ Holmes leads the mens group at Sandy Valley Baptist Church in Warner Robins, Ga. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, he said, the group decided to raise $12,000 for its congregation to spend. It really sort of happened as a conversation about ways we could give back to our community and give outreach and the idea came up, Holmes told Yahoo Lifestyle. Holmess wife is a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force stationed at Robins Air Force Base, and Holmes himself works at the base. They wanted to figure out a way they can bless others, Sandy Valleys secretary, Lyn Gill, told Yahoo Lifestyle. So they collectively came up with the idea to raise some money just by telling people what they wanted to do. The church did not contribute to the groups cause. We personally gave and other people who go to the church or are friends or family of the group contributed, Holmes said. In the span of approximately two weeks, they raised the amount. They called it Project Multiply and presented it to the congregation the Sunday before Thanksgiving. They packed about 80 envelopes with different amounts of money ranging from $100 to $1,000, and they handed the unmarked envelopes out randomly to families who were at church that day each family got one envelope. There was only one stipulation: that recipients use it to help someone else. We just gave them guidance to go home and open the envelope with their family and talk about someone they felt could benefit from the money, someone in need, obviously, the 32-year-old Holmes explained. Its a lot easier to get creative with money that doesnt come from your bank account. The congregation was shocked by how much money this small group raised. While there are about 15 members of the mens group, only about eight to 10 can regularly attend the weekly meetings. Its hard to think that a small group like that can have a big impact, but we just wanted to have faith in God that he would do something great through us, Holmes recounted. Story continues While the goal of Project Multiply was for the families to pay it forward, Holmes was fully aware that not everyone would. We considered that and honestly, if it was someone who needed the money that bad in our congregation, we were glad to help them, Holmes said. Even if that was the case, there have been multiple cases where people in the congregation matched the money they were given with their own money and then found ways of giving it. So if anyone kept the money for themselves, it was made up for. He believes most of the people were excited to come up with creative ways to use this money. They were excited, and I think people, for the most part, want to be giving. So they were excited to find an avenue to give to someone who needed it. And they did. Families have used the money to buy food and supplies for the homeless. A few pooled their money to help someone whos going through chemotherapy pay medical bills. Others have used it to tip waiters. We actually heard back from one of the waiters from a LongHorns who told us that they received a $100 tip anonymously, but they figured out from the news report that it was from us, Gill said. And they wanted us to know how much they needed it and that they were thankful for it. One man from the congregation took the money on his trip to Disney World. As he was going through the line where they check your bags, he, like anybody would, asked the man checking bags how he was doing, and the guy just unloaded on him about a lot of the issues he was having in his life, Holmes shared. After giving it some thought, the church member decided this person could benefit from the Project Multiply funds. He had a bunch of medical bills and stuff. He ran into the man again on his last day in the park and said, I want to give you this money to help with your medical bills. I just want you to know that this money isnt from me, its from God, but I think God put me in your life at that moment for a reason and Id like you to have this. Holmes hopes to make Project Multiply an annual Thanksgiving effort. Its had a pretty big impact just in our congregation. Everyones just been really encouraged and inspired to give. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, left, and Robert Cutler, his special assistant for national security affairs. (Photo: Joseph Scherschel/the Life Picture Collection/Getty Images) In the annals of presidential directives, few were more chilling than a document signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in April 1953. Crafted during the height of the Cold War, Executive Order 10450 declared that alongside Communism, sexual perversion by government officials was a threat to national security. The order became the trigger for a massive purge of the federal workforce. In the years that followed, thousands of government employees were investigated and fired for the crime of being gay. The full story of Executive Order 10450 and its terrible consequences has only started to surface in more recent years as a result of books like The Lavender Scare and films like Uniquely Nasty, a 2015 Yahoo News documentary that this reporter co-wrote and directed. But it turns out there was an untold personal drama behind the making of the antigay White House order a saga that is recounted for the first time in a new book to be published next week, Ikes Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler. Written by Peter Shinkle, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it tells the life story of the authors great-uncle, a central character in the creation of Executive Order 10450. A blue-blood liberal Republican from a prominent Boston family, a Harvard graduate and member of the elite Porcellian Club, a wealthy banker and U.S. Army general during World War II, Robert Bobby Cutler Jr. became a close adviser to Eisenhower during his 1952 presidential campaign. He was then tapped by Ike to serve as White House special assistant for national security affairs, the forerunner to the position of national security adviser. In that post, Cutler, who prided himself on never talking to the press, was a pivotal figure, helping to direct U.S. foreign policy during an era of tense global confrontation with the Soviet Union. And it was Cutler who oversaw the drafting of Executive Order 10450 a role all the more remarkable because, as Shinkle reveals, Cutler was a gay man who secretly pursued a passionate, years-long relationship with a young naval intelligence officer on the National Security Council staff. Story continues Bobby served the nations strategic defense and national security interests brilliantly, while living in private agony as a closeted homosexual, deprived of the affections for which he longed, writes Shinkle. As advance word of Shinkles book has spread, it has already begun making waves among historians and activists who have been trying for years to resurrect the erased history of the U.S. governments demonization of homosexuals, and to understand how it came about. Its an incredible piece of research, said Charles Francis, president of the Washington Mattachine Society, who has filed multiple freedom of information requests to uncover documents relating to the governments past persecution of homosexuals. Book cover courtesy of Penguin Random House The Eisenhower executive order caused unspeakable damage to loyal LGBT Americans, he said. Tens of thousands were investigated and had their lives ruined. This is the texture of history. That you have a homosexual known to himself as a homosexual writing this order, it blew my mind. Francis said his first reaction to Shinkles book was anger. He regarded Cutler as the ultimate Quisling for unleashing a policy that did great harm to people like himself. But upon reflection, Francis softened his judgment somewhat. To be fair, he now says, he was living in McCarthys America. The story of how Shinkle came to learn about Robert Cutlers private life is nearly as fascinating as what he discovered. In 2006, while on a family vacation, his aunt and mother first told him the closely guarded family secret: that Uncle Bobby (a lifelong bachelor who died in 1974 and whom Shinkle never met) had been gay. Shinkle was intrigued by the puzzle of how a figure at the pinnacle of power in the U.S. establishment could keep such a secret for so many years. He reached out to Harry Lodge, the son of one of Cutlers best friends, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (and Richard Nixons vice presidential running mate in 1960) Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. The younger Lodge told him that Cutlers sexual orientation was widely known among his peers. He didnt bother to hide it when he wasnt at work, Lodge told him. Shinkles trail soon led to the Eisenhower Library, where he located thousands of pages of documents about his great-uncle that had been donated by another former Eisenhower aide, Steve Benedict, who had served as White House security officer. With the help of an Eisenhower Library archivist, Shinkle reached out to Benedict, then in his late 80s and living quietly in Toledo, Ohio. When they met, Benedict told him an even more astonishing story. Benedict was also gay. His lover was a Russian-speaking naval intelligence officer assigned to the national security staff named Tilghman B. Skip Koons. Benedict and Koons lived together in a bachelors house in Alexandria, Va., that was frequented by Cutler. Koons who photographs from the era suggest had movie-star looks was the object of Cutlers passionate affections, feelings that eventually turned tragically obsessive. In short, Shinkle had come across a gay triangle at the heart of the White House national security apparatus during the height of the McCarthy era a tangle of relationships previously unknown to historians. But Benedict had something else even more revealing in his personal archive, what Shinkle calls the crown jewels: Cutlers six-volume personal diary, which he had left to Koons (and which Koons, after his death, had left for Benedict). When Shinkle opened it, he was amazed to find hundreds of pages in which the presidents chief national security aide poured out his love for the young White House staffer. Skip Koons on the balcony of the apartment he shared with Steve Benedict in Cannes, France, 1951; Koons in his U.S. Navy uniform. (Photos: Courtesy of Stephen Benedict) The passages, quoted in Shinkles book, are poignant and sometimes painful to read. I took his hand our fingers for a moment interlaced, Cutler wrote after Koons drove him home in his Thunderbird after a night at the movies in 1957. It was at that moment the greatest adventure of my life began: the best, the purest, the most penetrating moment I ever knew. From the diary, though, it appears that Cutlers relationship with the young staffer was never consummated, leaving the older man tormented even while he later pursued relationships with other young men. In 1958, while dealing with the crisis over the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, Cutler writes of gazing longingly at night at a blown up photograph of Koons in his bedroom. I love him with all my heart, more than I ever cared for any human being, Cutler wrote in a 1959 entry. But between us me, 64-1/2, he 32-3/4 the thought of love to his normal serene soul is out of course. All this cast another light on the creation of the antigay executive order that did so much damage to others in similar situations. As Shinkle reconstructs the story, Eisenhower had promised during his 1952 campaign to root out subversives in the government a pledge made to appease the demagogic Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a man Ike privately disdained. Early in the new administration, the new attorney general, Herbert Brownell, sent the White House a brief draft executive order to tighten security procedures and enhance background investigations by federal agencies without specifying exactly what conduct would be disqualifying. It was Cutler who, after reviewing Brownells memo, recommended that it be toughened with more expansive language (previously recommended by security officials but never adopted under President Harry Truman) specifically identifying sexual perversion as grounds for dismissal. It was based on a shaky premise: that gays were susceptible to Soviet blackmail and therefore couldnt be trusted with government secrets (although there was no evidence of this actually happening). Still, the new language was adopted, with no record of objections raised at the White House or the Justice Department. Why did Cutler do it? Certainly, it was a sop to McCarthy, who quickly praised the new executive order as a tremendous improvement. But Shinkle lays out evidence suggesting a darker possible motivation: to counteract rumors that had begun to spread in Washington of Cutlers own homosexuality. Shinkle cites an overlooked passage from the posthumously published memoirs of the influential columnist Joseph Alsop (himself a closeted gay man) recounting a nasty confrontation in Georgetown between Cutler and the distinguished diplomat Charles (Chip) Bohlen. Bohlen had been nominated by Eisenhower to be ambassador to Moscow, but his confirmation in the Senate was being threatened by McCarthys smears about the nominees own private life and that of one of his relatives. Upset that the new administration wasnt doing enough to support him, Bohlen grew angry and according to Alsop was about to bring up Cutlers incorrect tastes in love when Bohlens wife intervened, deliberately knocking over a tea tray to defuse the situation. Robert Bobby Cutler, left, and Skip Koons at the pool at the Dumbarton Oaks mansion in Washington, D.C., in July 1957. (Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Benedict) Whatever the motivation, the impact of the executive order Cutler helped draft was devastating. Shinkle writes about the climate of fear it created for gays and lesbians. Security investigators forced them to take lie detector tests and pressured them to reveal names of associates. One security agent at the State Department, Peter Szluk, boasted of being the hatchet man and disparaged hearings and due process as a waste of time. He would say, The son of a bitch is queer, out he goes! Szluk, to be sure, later expressed some regret about the number of his targets who killed themselves, sometimes within minutes after leaving his office. One guy, he barely left my office, and he mustve had this thing in his coat pocket and boom! right on the corner of 21st and Virginia, Szluk is quoted as saying. Over time, the climate of fear he helped create caught up with Cutler and his young gay White House friends. Cutler resigned in 1955, apparently fearing that he could become an embarrassment during the presidents reelection campaign the next year. He cited personal and private concerns. Eisenhower, who appears to have looked the other way at the rumors about his close aides sexual orientation, wrote Cutler a warm note saying his departure was like losing my right arm. After the election, Cutler returned to his White House national security post, although by then, J. Edgar Hoover was on his trail, having picked up allegations about Cutlers s homosexuality from a gay White House correspondence clerk. But Hoover, who was ruthless in pursuing gays as part of an FBI sex deviates program, inexplicably never pressed the investigation of Cutler. Shinkle speculates the FBI director backed off because he feared that pursuing Cutler would have done severe damage to Hoovers standing with Eisenhower (and, even more speculative, that Hoover, who himself was a lifelong bachelor, may have seen in Cutler a kindred soul). Benedict and Koons, both of whom had left the White House and gone to work for the U.S. Information Agency, were not so lucky. They endured years of investigations that, writes Shinkle, put them through agony and, although they never had their security clearances yanked, ultimately drove them from government service. Shinkle, to his credit, presents the story with great fairness and compassion, against the backdrop of Cold War chicanery such as the CIA coups in Guatemala and Iran and controversies over nuclear brinksmanship and a supposed missile gap. He also addresses the ethical elephant in the room: Did the demands of history justify exposing Cutlers private life? It might be said that by revealing Bobbys passion for Skip, I am outing my great uncle, betraying his privacy, Shinkle writes. But, he concludes: After studying Bobbys life and letters for more than a decade, I am confident that his love for Skip was so great that if he were alive today with our eras liberated view of homosexuality he would want this story told. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Mr. Harshana Nanayakkara is an outspoken lawyer who believes an honest, just and well-planned form of governance is key to developing Sri Lanka. To achieve this, he and his colleagues at the National Intellectuals Organization (NIO) have launched an ambitious programme to formulate a National Plan to seek long-term solutions to the social, political and economic issues facing the people of Sri Lanka. Mr. Nanayakkara comes from a well-known family, and is the son of film-maker Yasapalitha Nanayakkara and the nephew of Vasudeva and Hemakumara Nanayakkara, who have been prominent and somewhat controversial figures in national politics. Mr. Nanayakkara, who is also with Lawyers for Democracy, spoke to Daily Mirror on Sri Lankas current political crisis, and NIOs plans to implement their programme, and the groups and leaders they hope to work with to achieve their goals. Our leaders never had long-term plans Our food security is at stake Trade agreements must benefit the country The major parties have businessmen and oligarchs backing them We want fair and just wealth distribution For some, the JVP is not posh enough We stand for racial unity and harmony 42 percent of the population earns under two dollars a day A super hero cannot magically uplift the economy Q: You recently said that politicians use the Constitution like toilet paper. Why did you make such a hard-hitting statement? The Constitution is our supreme law. All Public Servants and tri-forces members pledge to uphold it. Even the president is under obligation to uphold it. Its our shared morality. It reflects who we are. President J.R Jayawardane didnt become Executive President through an election. He used his Parliamentary majority to acquire these amazing powers. But the 19th Amendment curtailed these undemocratic powers and decentralized them to Parliament. Whenever our politicians do anything immoral or wrong, they seek loopholes in the Constitution to justify their acts. They interpret the countrys supreme law to justify their wrongdoings. This is why I said they use the pages of the Constitution to wipe the mess theyve made through their wrong deeds. Q: But havent successive governments violated the Constitution since Independence? Section 29(2) of the Soulbury Constitution which sought to protect minorities was disregarded. So were the 13th and 17th Amendments of the current Constitution. What is so significant about this moment? Yes, every ruler tried to bend, twist, or dig a hole in the Constitution to suit their needs. And thats wrong. But this is the first time the entire Constitution has been thrown into the dustbin. President Sirisena doesnt even need the Constitution. He can run with a Gazette. The removal of the Prime Minister (PM) was unlawful and wrong. Theres no provision to dissolve Parliament unless four-and-a-half years has lapsed or two-thirds of Parliament agrees to it. Thats the spirit of the 19th Amendment. We stand for the rule-of-law and democracy. Ranil Wickremesinghes government introduced the 19th Amendment against the draconian powers of the Executive. That doesnt mean I endorse them. They flouted their mandate, and I would like to see their end. But thus far, governments had changed through elections or a shifting of heads in Parliament. This is the first time a government was overthrown through a conspiracy. In any other country there would have been a bloodbath. It almost happened here. Two people died in the Petroleum Corporation clash. Q: You mention upholding democracy and ensuring the rule-of-law. Werent those, along with ending corruption, the main slogans in the 2015 January 8th campaign? In your estimate, where did things go wrong, and what were the warning signs? In January 2015, the people were tired of the abuse of power and the undemocratic actions of the previous regime. They wanted corruption to end, for thieves to be caught, and for new leaders not to repeat the same crimes. People never asked for jobs or cheaper bread. They wanted democracy, rule-of-law and action against criminals. But the government failed miserably on these fronts. For three-and-a-half years no cases were filed, or anyone locked up. Ranil Wickremesinghe deliberately scuttled arresting people from the previous regime. In the Siriliya case, Shiranthi Rajapaksa went to the Speakers house to make a statement. And Cabinet decided to drop inquiries because it involved the former First Lady. After the bond case, Ranil is no longer Mr. Clean. He brought in Arjuna Mahendran, and defended him. Even after the recent unlawful regime change, no one from the opposing camp is accusing him of the bond scam. Even the President, who insulted the LGBT community with the samanalaya (butterfly) comment, didnt mention this. The early warnings were when members of the previous regime were invited into the government. The organisation Aluth Parapura was assaulted on the campaign trail, but Sirisena gave positions to the perpetrators. They were never committed to their mandate. Q: You say people didnt want jobs, or bread. But werent economic issues, like the fuel pricing mechanism and the rising cost of living, a cause for the growing unpopularity of the Yahapalana government? The main promises from the platform were about ending corruption and arresting criminals. Of course there are economic concerns. But they were not central to the government change. Under this government too prices will rise. Their economic vision is like that of a gambler, waking up each day and deciding what to sell. Did the Yahapalana government open a single factory? Where are the jobs they promised? According to the Central Bank (CBSL), in 2017 we exported around 10 billion dollars in goods and services, including remittances from migrant workers, and tea and rubber exports. In return, we imported goods worth 20 billion dollars. Thats a trade deficit of 100 percent. We are not manufacturing what we can locally. The ocean surrounds us, but our tinned-fish is from Argentina and Chile. We even import dried fish. Our food security is at stake. Up to 1977, our economy could be sustained on tea, rubber and coconut. Since then, with the open economy and globalization, the economy expanded. But we never expanded. For example, when IT first came in the 1960s and 1970s, India trained its IT professionals. But we introduced IT as an A Level subject only in 2014. We lack economic vision. Q: The global economy is experiencing the effects of the 2008 financial crash, and the rise of China. This has led to a power struggle between the US and China. In national politics, Mahinda Rajapaksa is seen as being pro-China, and Ranil Wickremesinghe as being pro-US. I believe both of them are pro-China now (laughs). Q: My question is, how can a small country like Sri Lanka handle this US-China power struggle within a complex and tumultuous global economy? We have willingly offered ourselves to be a victim of this power struggle, by not having a national plan or vision. In this global age, countries depend on each other. Having a closed economy is not the answer. An open economy is required. Its fine to enter into international trade agreements, but they must benefit the country. I recently read that the country has lost 19,000 million dollars due to corruption and theft. With no money to produce food, we are forever dependent on the world market. Certain essential items, like fuel, medicine and vehicles, must be imported. But there are many items that can be produced locally. The major parties have businessmen and oligarchs backing them. So the economy functions to benefit them, and not the public. Its not the fault of China or America. The economy must be able to withstand the shocks of world prices. That can be achieved only through strengthening the local economy. We are 70 percent dependent on agriculture. So we need proper technology to increase the yield. We get only 40 - 45 bushels of paddy per acre, but Japan gets 100 bushels. We must research into seeds that can withstand droughts and floods. There are global contenders for our resources, and if careless, we can become a dumping ground for inferior goods. Trade agreements must be re-drafted to develop our local economy. Our biggest resource is our people. They must be educated. Instead of exporting domestic workers, we should export doctors and engineers. That will bring us more value. Unless people change how they think, we cannot change the governments we get Q: Certain groups have advocated building a new political movement. Even you, as a member of the National Intellectuals Organization (NIO), have gone on record saying this. Thats correct. Q: What do you intend when you say we must build a new political movement? The people are tired of politics. Though governments change, they feel all politicians are the same. Since 1948, only a few families have ruled this country. The Bandaranaikes Horagolla Walauwa ruled for 15-20 years, the Senanayakes Botale Walauwa ruled for 10-15 years. Then the Kollupitya Walauwa of Jayawardane and Wickremesinghe ruled us, and finally the Rajapaksas Medamulana Walauwa. So we have been ruled according to the whims of a few aristocratic families. Our leaders never had long-term plans. They did the minimum to satisfy people, and secure their votes. All economic development was done for this limited purpose. Look at our political culture. You saw how MPs behaved in Parliament recently. Some say we must elect only educated people. But among the unruly MPs were doctors and lawyers. Its decency that matters, not education. So, our political culture is on default mode that is, politicians will stay and theres nothing we can do about it. This is the mindset the NIO wants to change. Unless people change how they think, we cannot change the governments we get. The NIO has set up several committees comprising academics, professionals and Public Servants into areas like agriculture, art, sport, religion, environment, and so on. Through island-wide workshops, we have gathered information from farmers and such, whos knowledge isnt in books or labs. Through this process we have identified societal issues that require long-term solutions. This National Policy document will be out in January, and it will act as a blueprint for development. NIOs role is to facilitate a new political force devoid of corrupt and dishonest individuals, who will give us the necessary political leadership. We want fair and just wealth distribution. We have enough national wealth, but its not distributed fairly. We are taxed 30-40 percent through indirect taxation. Leaders steal from the Treasury to indulge in luxuries, and the public pays through taxes. People will pay taxes if they get proper services. Countries like Denmark have the highest tax rates, but they get free education, good public transport, and free medicine. Q: But is it fair to compare a former colonized country like Sri Lanka with a struggling economy, to a wealthy European country like Denmark? If considering the detail of comparison, then its unfair. But I say they (Denmark) developed because theres no corruption. Even if you compare resources, perhaps we are far better. Its just that we arent utilizing them. Instead we sell them. The Hambantota port was originally planned as a service port. But thanks to China it became a loading-unloading terminal. Our leaders accepted the loan, and China gave it knowing we cannot repay it. Thats the Chinese system. Q: You recently spoke on stage at the JVP rally in Nugegoda. Yes I did. Q: The JVP has a track record of supporting the major parties at different times. They also have a history of violence. What is your rationale for supporting the JVP? Arent they also very much to blame for the current situation? You can blame them for violence in 1971 and 1988-89. Even my fathers life was under threat in 1988-89. But since then, the only party that has not even thrown a stone, or broken a traffic law, is the JVP. There are no allegations of corruption against them. Their six MPs are extremely disciplined and efficient. At the last Local Government (LG) elections they got over 400 members. We see news of Pohottuwa and UNP LG members stealing, or harassing women, or involved in other crimes. But none of the 400-plus JVP members are accused of such wrongdoings. Thats due to the discipline set by the party leadership. The British ruled us for 200 years, and they did more damage than the JVP. But we still speak in English, and wear coat and tie. The past is the past. If they have changed for the better, especially when faced with such a political culture, then they are the option. Thats why I got on the JVP stage. Theyre not corrupt. They are honest and have a vision. They have a plan. Q: But they dont have much electoral support. As I told you, people must change how they think. We tend to support leaders from aristocratic backgrounds. For some, the JVP is not posh enough. And for others, they simply dont get the JVPs message. Remember, 42 percent of the population earns under two dollars a day. These people dont have time to follow the news or discuss things over a cup of tea. They are content if someone gives them a cement bag, or some galvanized roofing sheets. This poverty and ignorance is being shamelessly exploited by the main parties. Even Gamperaliya was about appeasing the public through handouts. The JVP doesnt have money to buy people. So it is difficult for them to get electoral backing. But things are changing fast. We see it at the ground level. And at the next election we will answer your question very affirmatively. Q: You highlight how economic conditions, and other social and cultural factors, influence peoples voting habits. But another aspect of our culture is that of nationalism, be it Sinhala or Tamil nationalism. How much has nationalism impacted our political culture? You say nationalism. I would say racism. Being nationalist is a good thing. It means you love your country, and you want to serve it. Being racist is the problem. And its relevant to both sides - the south and north. And politicians use peoples racial and nationalistic feelings for political gain. The master of this art is Mahinda Rajapaksa. I dont think Ranil can come even close to him in that regard (laughs). Each time something goes wrong for Mahinda, we hear the koti nagitinawo (the Tigers are rising) outcry. They thrive on that. This is why the Pohottuwa camp will not be able to achieve anything in this country. They operate by raising racial and nationalistic feelings within a Buddhist framework. But a proper Buddhist would never judge anyone by their race, caste or creed. The Buddha preached about this in the Wasala Suthraya. You have similar types like Mr. Vigneswaran in the north who is demanding federalism. But the TNA is ready to compromise for a unitary state. This country cannot be taken an inch forward if we think on racial and religious lines. The political movement the NIO seeks to create will not exploit racial or religious tensions to gain power. Even the JVP will be a component of it, and not the sole authority. We stand for racial unity and harmony. We will fight against racist, nationalist and extremist religious views from either side. Q: There was a time when class politics featured prominently in our political discourse. This was later replaced by nationalistic politics. Today we hardly hear the term working-class. Why is the working-class not being addressed in contemporary politics? It is happening. But it depends on our perception of the working-class. People give various meanings to ideas of socialism, capitalism and the working-class. The socialism of 1917 Russia does not exist today. Before 1977, MPs financial stability was not dependent on politics. Leaders like D.S. Senanayake, S.W.R.D Bandaranaike and even J.R. Jayawardane sold their private property to serve the public. The land-owning aristocrats could do this. At that time, the division between the working-class and the aristocracy was clear. But after 1977 there was a massive influx of the common man into Parliament. They were not land-owning aristocracy. This was a good thing, but it also changed our political culture. The new leaders wanted to imitate their aristocratic predecessors. They wanted to own elephants and horses. The aristocracy faded away, and was replaced by new-rich oligarchs. Thats when corruption began. Even now theres a working-class. But theyre not only the factory worker, as commonly perceived. Even the white-collar worker is a worker. People have to either sell their labour, or their mind, to live. So in that sense theres a massive working-class. So yes, there is a division, and the NIO has taken this into consideration. And the JVP has always sided with the working-class. Q: You have given us an analysis from your perspective. But what solutions do you propose? As I said earlier, the NIO is compiling a document to be released in January, which addresses different subject areas and provides solutions for them. But that plan must be put into action. Whatever system we put on paper, be it socialism, capitalism, or mixed-economy, the most important thing is the individuals who run it. Our country is failing mainly due to ongoing massive-scale corruption. The Auditor General has said it would take eight years to figure out how much we are in debt, and how to come out of this abyss. We cant expect a super hero to magically uplift the economy in two years. We need honest policies, and workable actions. And above all honest people. Our action plan is open to everybody, not just the JVP. We urge all citizens to join us. With honest people, within the first five years we can set the country on the right track and ease many burdens. But, contrary to expectations, all problems cannot be fixed in five years. Some expect that. So they want a dictator. You need, not just one person, but a team of efficient, honest people with a plan. You need a good team. And thats why were fond of the JVP. Its not a party of heroes. Its a party made up of a team. Johannesburg (AFP) - An off-duty policeman opened fire inside a divorce court in South Africa on Monday, killing his estranged wife and her brother during a tea break in legal proceedings. The incident in South Africa's southeastern port city of Durban occurred on the eighth floor of the regional magistrate court building as the court heard the annulment case between the couple. "At around 11:00 am... the suspect shot at the wife and her brother and both died at the scene," police spokeswoman Colonel Thembeka Mbele told AFP, adding that the hearing had been about to resume after the break. The two victims suffered several gunshot wounds, she said. The suspect, 32, turned the gun on himself but survived. "He tried to commit suicide and has been taken to hospital where he is in a critical condition," she said. Mbele confirmed the suspect was an off-duty police officer. Local reports said that the two victims were in the court's public gallery when the shooter tried to talk to them before opening fire. South Africa's TimesLive online paper said visibly shaken court staff, including clerks and interpreters, were escorted from the building. Security is usually tight at South African courts where visitors and workers pass through metal detectors and bags are X-rayed. Police officers are allowed to go in with their firearms if they are on duty. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Gov. Andrew Cuomo will travel to Washington on Wednesday to press President Donald Trump for federal funding for a new rail tunnel below the Hudson River. The meeting comes as officials in New Jersey and New York express growing worries about the dilapidated, century-old tunnel owned by Amtrak that connects the two states. Experts have long said a new tunnel is needed to relieve congestion and prevent big problems at one of the most important transportation choke points in the nation. Cuomo said he will also meet with U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao during the one-day trip. He made a similar trip in July. "I'm going to keep hammering away," Cuomo said about the project during an interview Tuesday on WNYC radio. "This is one of those pressing, practical issues that we need resolution on for the good of New York and the entire northeast." Last month, Cuomo toured the existing tunnel and sent video footage to Trump that showed water dripping down the tunnel walls, broken electrical cables and disintegrating concrete. Under an agreement reached with the Obama administration, New York and New Jersey agreed to pick up half the cost of the new tunnel, estimated to be $13 billion. But the Trump administration nixed that deal earlier this year, with Chao saying the two states need to pay more of the cost of the proposal known as the Gateway Project. "They are two of the richest states in the country," Chao said in March. "If they absorb all these funds, there will be no other funds for the rest of the country." The two-tube tunnel provides the only link under the Hudson for New Jersey Transit commuter trains and Amtrak trains traveling the Northeast Corridor. It suffered saltwater damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 that is eating away at walls housing copper cables and electrical wires. Amtrak, which owns the tunnels, has estimated one or both of the tunnel tubes could fail in the next 10 to 15 years. Cuomo estimates the new tunnel would take about seven years to build. Story continues Trump's administration has clashed with officials in New York and New Jersey over a funding plan for the tunnel project. The existing tunnel is a century old and in need of extensive renovations. Experts say a new tunnel is essential to ensuring reliable rail travel throughout the entire Northeast. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the North River Trail tunnel is not the only rail connection between New York City and New Jersey. It is the only tunnel that serves Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains. Maria Lila Meza Castro, a 39-year-old from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands of Central Americans trying to reach the United States, runs from tear gas with her 5-year-old twins, Saira Nalleli Mejia Meza, left, and Cheili Nalleli Mejia Meza, at the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana on Nov. 25. (Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters) U.S. border agents fired tear gas Sunday at a group of Central American migrants that included children, an assault that has medical experts worried. President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials said the chemical spray was required to keep hundreds of asylum seekers from forcefully crossing the border from Tijuana. Trump denied that tear gas was used on the children, despite photographs and videos that show it was. Doctors told HuffPost that the border agents unnecessarily subjected children to a chemical agent that can have serious physical and psychological health effects. Alan Shapiro, chief medical director at Terra Firma, a program that treats immigrant children, said the migrants in the caravan should be able to enter the U.S. without being subjected to physical or emotional trauma by the federal government. Throwing tear gas at children is not immigration policy. Separating children from their parents is not immigration policy, Shapiro said. Its torture. Tear gas, a chemical weapon that is banned on battlefields in almost every country, has a particularly harsh effect on children because of their weaker respiratory systems, according to doctors. Julie Linton, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics and a pediatrician, said that in addition to watering eyes and a burning sensation in their throats and noses, children can have trouble breathing because of their smaller airways. Rohini Haar, a doctor and medical expert for Physicians for Human Rights, added that children also dont know to close their eyes and mouths when tear gas is fired, which exposes them to more chemicals. Most kids scream for their parents when they are in danger, Haar said. That natural, reasonable reaction to pain is detrimental in this case. Alex Mensing, a member of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the immigration rights group that organized the caravan, currently made up of more than 7,000 people that have been traveling toward the U.S. for more than a month, was part of the group of tear-gassed migrants. He said children were wailing at the top of their lungs and coughing, their eyes red and teary. Story continues In a Reuters video, a migrant woman whose daughter was tear-gassed said she saw children faint and struggle to breathe. Were used to tear gas getting used against a mob or something that actually presents some sort of risk, said Mensing, adding that there werent enough medical resources to immediately provide kids with water to rinse out their eyes. But for women ... who are just trying to find somewhere safe to take their kids, to get tear-gassed is unjust and infuriating. Doctors say that the effects of tear gas can be more lasting than burning eyes and a temporary shortness of breath. Haar said the chemical spray can cause permanent damage in some people, such as blindness, burned skin and respiratory problems. She said that if children inhale too much tear gas, it can damage the lining of their respiratory tracts, making them unable to take deep breaths. Shapiro said that, in the most extreme situations, the chemical could kill a child by causing the lungs to become so inflamed that the child can no longer breathe. Throwing tear gas at children is a form of child endangerment that can lead to serious medical effects and death, Shapiro said. We cant have a government that is endangering children as a form of immigration policy. But medical experts told HuffPost that the most common long-term effects of tear gas are psychological. Linton explained that children exposed to the chemical spray in Tijuana experienced toxic stress an acute form of stress that happens when parents cannot protect their kids during a traumatic event. The parent was also being exposed to the chemical weapon, she explained, which takes away any buffer they can offer to a child. Linton says kids who experience this type of stress are at a greater risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as they grow up. [Tear gas] is horrifying in terms of the short- and long-term psychological effects, as well as the threat to physical health, Linton said. The U.S. government is adding yet another layer of pain to a group of children that have already experienced trauma in their home country and throughout their journey to the U.S., she said. The traumas they face can impact them for a lifetime, she added. Only when we begin to treat [immigrant children] with compassion and dignity and respect can they begin to heal. Also on HuffPost Sarahi, 8, is from Honduras and traveling with her family. She likes to draw and enjoys school. She says that the journey is tough, but seeing a lot of other kids makes her feel at ease. Marlin, 15, is a student. Olman, 21, is from Honduras and is taxi driver. The local mafia system has made it impossible to work. He said he misses his favorite dish: baleada, a tortilla that can be stuffed with a variety of ingredients similar to a taco. Osman, the barber. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopia's prime minister on Tuesday met with dozens of opposition parties to discuss reforming the electoral system ahead of national elections planned for 2020. Since taking office in April, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has unveiled an aggressive reform agenda that has included a promise of "free and fair" elections after previous polls were marred by allegations of fraud. Last week, Abiy appointed former opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa to lead the electoral commission after she returned from exile earlier this month. During the 2015 elections, Abiy's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its allies won every seat in parliament. Tuesday's talks with representatives of 81 political parties aimed at laying the foundation for negotiations that Birtukan will preside over. "The consultation focuses on highlighting the reforms required to ensure the upcoming election is free and fair, and the shared responsibilities of all," Abiy's office wrote on Twitter. In power since ousting the Derg military junta in 1991, the EPRDF has been accused of using threats and arrests to suppress Ethiopia's political opposition. Abiy took office after the surprise resignation of his predecessor Hailemariam Desalegn, whose tenure was rocked by more than two years of anti-government unrest that contributed to his downfall. Seeking to mollify the protesters, Abiy has released jailed dissidents since taking office, prompting many key opposition figures to return to Ethiopia from exile abroad. Donald Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to the FBI even after agreeing a plea deal, special prosecutor Robert Mueller has alleged. In a court filing made in Washington DC, Mr Muellers office claimed that crimes and lies made by Manafort during a series of interviews with lawyers meant the agreements made by prosecutors in September were no longer applicable. The special counsel asked a judge to set a date for the sentencing of the 69-year-old. But Manaforts lawyers disagreed, according to the New York Times. They insisted the man who led Mr Trumps campaign from June to August 2016 - a brief but crucial period for the former Apprentice star when he secured the Republican nomination - had been honest with prosecutors. In the same filing updating Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, they said Manafort had been honest. Because of the disagreement with prosecutors, they also asked that the case move to the sentencing phase. In their filing, Mr Muellers team wrote: After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the special counsels office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement. The government will file a detailed sentencing submission to the probation department and the court in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendants crimes and lies. More follows Richard Allan. Facebook faced another round of criticism and tough questions on election meddling Tuesday at a U.K. Parliament hearing with leaders from nine countriesand chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg's chair was left empty. Representatives from the U.K., Canada, Brazil, Latvia, Argentina, Ireland, Singapore, France and Belgiumwhich in total have more than 400 million constituentsgrilled Facebook vice president of policy solutions Richard Allan on fake news, election interference and Zuckerberg's refusal to appear. Allan, who was once a member of Parliament, admitted Zuckerberg's absence was "not great." "In this room we represent over 400 million people," said Bob Zimmer, chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information Privacy and Ethics in Canada's House of Commons. "And to not have your CEO sit in that chair there is an offense to all of us in this room, and really our citizens as well." Other leaders also expressed frustration and disappointment over Zuckerberg's empty chair, and repeatedly questioned whether Allan was the best representative to provide the answers they wanted to know. Charlie Angus, the vice-chair of the Canadian committee, said he was "deeply disappointed. The chair of Parliament's culture, media and sport select committee MP Damian Collins said he had hoped Allan's "boss might make a surprise appearance." Allan said that he volunteered to represent Facebook in the hearing because he has closely followed content moderation policy debates and changes in Singapore and Ireland, which had representatives present Tuesday. International leaders also pressed Allan on information found in documents seized by Parliament last week from the founder of U.S. software company Six4Three. The Guardian reported that the documents allegedly contained emails between Zuckerberg and other senior executives related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Collins said that the documents allege "an engineer at Facebook notified the company in October 2014 that entities with Russian IP addresses have been using a Pinterest API key to pull over 3 billion data points a day." "Was that reported or was that just kept ... within the family and not talked about?" Collins asked. Allan responded that the emails' information was at "best partial and at worst potentially misleading" and that he would follow up with a clearer answer on what steps Facebook took. He also faced questions on whether Facebook white-listed apps that paid large sums for advertising, granting them more access to user data, and retaliated against those that didn't. Allan said he doesn't believe that happened but again promised to return with a more certain answer. Representatives from Latvia and Singapore pressed Allan on whether Facebook would protect democracy in smaller countries elections, and Argentina and Brazil's representatives asked whether Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp would also be moderated to prevent election interference. Angus closed out Allan's portion of the Tuesday hearing with calls to not just regulate the "symptoms" of Facebook, which he described as fake news and hate speech, but rather to regulate the company as a whole. He said consumers who want to leave the platform are left with the choices of WhatsApp or Instagramwhich are owned by Facebookand that perhaps the best next regulatory step would be an antitrust case. "I'm saying that perhaps Facebook, in it's unwillingness to actually be accountable to the international body and legislators around the world, that maybe antitrust would be something that would help us be able to make sure that we get credible democratic responses from a corporation," Angus said. I knew it. I knew the instant I saw Twitter erupt in outrage at the use of tear gas to disperse a crowd of people charging our southern border that someone would find an example of the Obama administration doing the same thing. And sure enough, there it was, shared far and wide within minutes, a San Diego Union-Tribune story from November 25, 2013: A group of about 100 people trying to illegally cross the border Sunday near the San Ysidro port of entry threw rocks and bottles at U.S. Border Patrol agents, who responded by using pepper spray and other means to force the crowd back into Mexico, federal officials said. Twitter existed in 2013. I was on it, and I certainly dont recall an eruption of outrage, followed by days of think-pieces explaining the horrors of pepper spray and the deep betrayal of American values. In fact, that November incident was hardly unique. As the Washington Times reports, the same tear-gas agent that the Trump administration is taking heat for deploying against a border mob this weekend is actually used fairly frequently including more than once a month during the later years of President Barack Obamas administration. But that was then. Sensible people understood that you cant just let a mob rush the border, and Border Patrol agents can and should use non-lethal means to protect themselves from rocks and bottles. And the pictures of kids in cages in the Obama era? Well, there was an enormous spike in kids crossing the border, and we didnt have enough shelter facilities. So kids had to be put in Border Patrol lock-ups. But that was temporary. The Obama administration took good care of kids after they left the lock-up, right? Well, not exactly. Some children faced a terrible nightmare. Heres a paragraph from a 2016 Senate report: Over a period of four months in 2014, however, HHS allegedly placed a number of UACs [Unaccompanied Alien Children] in the hands of a ring of human traffickers who forced them to work on egg farms in and around Marion, Ohio, leading to a federal criminal indictment. According to the indictment, the minor victims were forced to work six or seven days a week, twelve hours per day. The traffickers repeatedly threatened the victims and their families with physical harm, and even death, if they did not work or surrender their entire paychecks. The indictment alleges that the defendants used a combination of threats, humiliation, deprivation, financial coercion, debt manipulation, and monitoring to create a climate of fear and helplessness that would compel [the victims] compliance. [Emphasis added.] Story continues One of the more frustrating aspects of our current political debate is the extent to which differences from administration to administration are exaggerated and distorted. Lets take, for example, media coverage of the Obama administration. To this day, the inaccurate picture of his presidency haunts American discourse. While there are obvious differences with the Trump administration, Obama was not exactly the man who many millions of Americans think he was. He was a peace president who ordered ten times more drone strikes than George W. Bush. He was the peace president who left office with American boots on the ground in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, and scattered across North Africa. His administration refueled Saudi jets to enable the indiscriminate Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen. Oh, and he droned American citizens abroad without even a nod to due process. He was the environmentalist president so hostile to fossil fuels that he presided over an extraordinary boom in domestic oil production: He was the compassionate president who admitted a grand total of fewer than 2,000 Syrian refugees in the first five years of the Syrian civil war. He was the compassionate president whose deportations peaked at an average of 34,000 people in fiscal year 2012. I share these facts not to argue that there arent distinct and important differences between Barack Obama and Donald Trump. There are. And those differences manifest themselves in each of the policy categories outlined above. But when discussing differences, gravity and proportion matter. And they matter greatly. Indeed, Id argue that both conservative and liberal media outlets had an interest in amplifying Obamas progressive credentials and advancing a fundamentally flawed narrative about the nature and character of his presidency. Exaggerating his progressive virtue (or vice) kept partisans engaged. It kept ramping up the stakes of our political conflicts, and it contributed immensely to the Flight 93 mentality that dominates politics today. How much time did conservative media spend debating Obamas willingness to use the phrase radical Islamic terrorism even while he was droning, bombing, and shelling terrorists from Afghanistan to Libya? How much time did the liberal media spend amplifying Obamas desire for peace with Iran even as he helped Saudi Arabia wage its proxy war against Iran in Yemen, at a simply enormous toll in innocent human life? By failing to provide perspective, the media creates a sense of outrage when none is justified and inoculates the public against injustice when injustice is real. The Left looks at the tear gas on the border and believes norms are being violated when theyre not. The Right looks at critical reporting about Trump and starts to presume that its illegitimate, even if the facts are egregious. All too often, we act as if the immense American ship of state lurches from right to left with each new election, when the reality is often that the turns in crucial areas are gradual. Partisans who forget this fact find themselves condemning their opponents for behavior their own side engaged in when confronted by similar challenges. Reality has a way of constraining a governments options, even when very different people occupy the Oval Office. Again, Im not arguing there arent important differences in the presidents. There are, and in some areas those differences are quite profound. Its worth exposing those differences, and its worth debating those differences. At the same time, we cannot abandon historical perspective, a perspective that can and should grant a degree of humility. The lesson? Before you express outrage at any politician for his egregious violation of norms or his radical departure from the rule of law, check recent history. You might be surprised by what you find. Kiara Moore, who died after her mothers car became submerged in the River Teifi, Cardigan, Wales, on March 19 this year. (PA). An quest has heard how a two-year-old girl who drowned when her parents car ran into a freezing river had been left alone for two minutes when the handbrake disengaged. Kiara Moore died after being recovered from her parents silver Mini in the River Teifi in Cardigan on March 19, days before her third birthday. An inquest into her death heard how mum, Kim Rowlands, had ran into her office to grab some money leaving Kiara in the car when she returned she feared the car had been stolen but instead it had ran down the hill and crashed into the freezing river. A balloon marks the spot where Kiara Moores mothers car was found in the River Teifi, in Cardigan, Wales, on March 19. (PA). Police officers waded into the River Teifi in an attempt to save the little girl after they spotted the submerged vehicle. PCSO Carol Griffiths told the inquest on Tuesday at Aberystwyth Justice Centre she had originally been told a car had been stolen with a three-year-old girl inside before she was alerted to a car submerged in the river. She said: I looked to the water and could see the exterior of a car poking above the surface. I took off my stab vest, utility belt and boots. The officer then paused giving her evidence as she began to cry, needing to compose herself before continuing. She said: The river was freezing cold and I could tell the current was very strong. I put my head under the water and it was really dirty. The car was fully immersed with water. The passenger window was open slightly, about 10cm. Flowers left close to the site where two-year-old Kiara Moore was pulled from her mothers car in the River Teifi, in Cardigan, Wales, on March 19. (PA) PCSO Griffiths said she and another officer used a baton to smash one of the cars windows open, which led to Kiaras body floating out. She said: I then felt Kiaras body. She floated out of the vehicle into my arms. She was wearing a pink jacket which matched the clothing described by her mother. As we reached the river bank I took hold over her and lowered her onto the floor, putting her gently on the ground. Officers began CPR on her. All I remember is standing there looking at her body on the ground. Her head was rolling all around the place and her face was purple. Story continues A general view of the River Teifi in Cardigan, Wales, near the scene where a car carrying two-year-old Kiara Moore plunged into the river. (PA) The inquest heard Kiaras mother initially feared the car had been stolen with Kiara inside after she returned to find it missing. Detective Constable Hannah Garney said CCTV footage showed Miss Rowlands had left Kiara inside the vehicle for two minutes and one second while she went inside her office in an old Scouts hall to retrieve cash to go food shopping. Dyfed-Powys Police have previously said there would be no charges in relation to the tragic incident. Coroner Peter Brunton told the inquest he proposed to record the cause of death as immersion as opposed to drowning, as Kiara had no control over what happened. The inquest continues. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK United National Party (UNP) MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka today requested Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to summon IGP Pujitha Jayasundara to Parliament within 48 hours, over the recent remarks made by the President with regard to the alleged assassination plot. The MP said President Maithripala Sirisena had recently said that Sarath Fonseka was plotting to kill him. This is a serious allegation which raises privilege issues since Im an MP. Therefore, I request you to summon the IGP to parliament within 48 hours to give answers to this. Either put me in jail or summon the IGP to parliament, he said. By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday his government will deliver its annual budget early as it prepares for an election due by May, but suffered an immediate setback when one of his MPs said she was quitting his party. Morrison said his conservative Liberal-National coalition government would deliver Australia's first budget surplus since 2007/2008. The budget, for the financial year beginning July 1, will be delivered on April 2, about a month earlier than usual. His government must call an election by May and opinion polls suggest the coalition is on course for a heavy defeat by the center-left Labor opposition. "It will be a surplus budget. It will be a budget which is the product of the years of hard work of our government," Morrison told reporters in Canberra. The promise of a healthy budget comes as Morrison seeks to repair his government's standing with voters, who were angered by a party-room revolt in August that ousted former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. The toppling of Turnbull pushed the government into minority when it lost the former prime minister's seat, normally a Liberal stronghold, in a by-election this month. That minority status came into effect on Monday, a disadvantage that immediately forced Morrison's government into an embarrassing climb-down when it sided with Labor over setting up an anti-corruption body because it did not have the numbers to oppose the move. Already relying on the support of independent lawmakers to progress his legislative agenda, Morrison suffered another major blow on Tuesday when backbench MP Julia Banks said she was quitting the Liberal party immediately to sit as an independent. The Liberals are the senior partner in the governing coalition. Banks said she was quitting the party over disunity, its treatment of women and its policies on energy and climate change. She referred to Turnbull's toppling as "the dark days of August" and said the party was riven by personal ambition. "The Liberal Party has changed largely due to the actions of the reactionary and aggressive right-wing who talk about and talk to themselves rather than listening to the people," Banks told parliament. However, Banks said she would support the government on matters of confidence and supply until the election. While promising not to bring down the government, Banks could vote with Labor on issues such as a likely move to refer Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to the High Court for a ruling on whether Dutton is eligible to remain in parliament. Dutton, who has financial interests in daycare centers that receive government funding, risks falling foul of Australia's constitution, which bans lawmakers from benefiting from state funds. He was also a prime mover behind Turnbull's ousting. The government's most senior legal adviser said earlier this year Dutton was eligible, although Labor is pressing independents to support a court referral. (Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Paul Tait) Hong Kong (AFP) - A Chinese scientist's claim that he created the world's first genetically-edited babies has shone a spotlight on what critics say are lax regulatory controls and ethical standards behind a series of headline-grabbing biomedical breakthroughs in China. University professor He Jiankui on Sunday said the DNA of twin girls had been altered to prevent them from contracting HIV, but his claims prompted a fierce backlash from the scientific community who not only cast doubt over the breakthrough, but also questioned its morality. China is seeking to become a leader in the fields of genetic research and cloning, forging ahead even as others hesitate over ethical issues. Scientists in the country were the first to carry out gene editing on human embryos in 2015, although with mixed results, the British journal Nature reported in 2017. And earlier this year, Chinese scientists unveiled monkeys that were cloned using the same technique that produced Dolly the Sheep two decades ago. While the procedure could boost medical research into human diseases, it also raised ethical questions about how close scientists have come to one day cloning humans. - 'Head transplant' - Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero sparked controversy last year when he claimed to have conducted the world's first head transplant on a corpse at a Chinese hospital, the state-run Global Times reported at the time, though other scientists have called his claims overblown. On Sunday He, who was educated at Stanford University, announced in a YouTube video he had used CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision, to modify the twins' DNA. The tool has not been used in human trials in the United States, though doctors in China have been applying it to treat cancer patients. Qiu Renzong, former vice president of the Chinese health ministry's ethics committee, accused He of obtaining a "fraudulent" ethics review by going to another hospital for review as opposed to obtaining approval from his own university, adding he was destroying the reputation of China's scientists. Story continues Qiu said a lack of regulation mean that scientists often face no punishments as they are only required to abide by the rules of their institutions, which may not stipulate punishments for misconduct. "People say the ministry is without teeth, cannot bite people. So we try to provide the teeth to the ministry head, so they can bite people when people violate the regulations," he told reporters in English at a gene editing conference in Hong Kong. "The mainland is very protective of scientists, if you make some small mistake, that's the end of it, there's no punishment. I suggest that they should be punished," he added. - 'Crazy' experiment - With a sceptical research community waiting for evidence of He's claims, the scientist is expected to speak at the same conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday and Thursday. He, who works from a lab in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, faces scrutiny on the mainland too, with the National Health Commission ordering an investigation into the case. On Tuesday, Shenzhen Harmonicare Women and Children's Hospital said in a statement it suspected the signature on a document approving the experiment, specifically its adherence to ethical standards, was falsified and that it had asked police to investigate. A group of 122 Chinese scientists signed a joint statement calling the experiment "crazy" and said it was unfair to other scientists who stick to "the moral bottom line". The Southern University of Science and Technology, where He works, said he had been on unpaid leave since February and his research is a "serious violation of academic ethics and norms". A notice from Shenzhen's medical ethics authority said that all medical organisations must establish an ethics review committee before undertaking biomedical research concerning humans, and the ethics board of the hospital involved had not completed its registration as required. He defended his research in another video, saying that he is trying to help families who carry genetic diseases. "We believe ethics are on our side of history. Look back to the 1970s with Louise Brown. The same fears and criticisms then are repeated now," he said, referring to the first person to be born through in vitro fertilisation. - $1 billion industry - China has the second-largest genomics market worldwide, according to UBS. Beijing-based CCID Consulting estimates the market's value will nearly triple from 7.2 billion yuan ($1 billion) in 2017 to 18.3 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) by 2022. Looser regulations have allowed China to get ahead in the biomedical field, said Michael Donovan, the founder of Veraptus, a biotech company in China. But other factors such as a larger population providing a larger pool of potential patients, as well as regulatory support from the government also played a role, Donovan said. "In many industries, the regulatory stance is that if there aren't laws for it, then they can proceed cautiously," he added. "And that's the murky area that gene-editing is in right now." While certain hospitals can approve certain procedures without it going to a national approval body, it was "very strange" that He did not get a national authority's greenlight for such a ground-breaking experiment, Donovan said. "From the ethical side you don't have the religious pool that we do in the United States," he said. "But it is still life, so people are still concerned that we're moving forward too quickly with this." Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Americans have fallen out of love with sedans, so Detroit is dropping them as fast as it can. General Motors became the third domestic automaker to move away from sedans, saying Monday that it will stop making six models as it bets its future on the more-popular pickup trucks and SUVs as well as electrified and autonomous vehicles. The cars that are going away include a couple of GMs pioneering models: The Chevrolet Volt, which was the automakers first plug-in EV hybrid, and the Cadillac CT6, which was the first car to use the Super Cruise partially automated driving system. Other models going away include the Cadillac XTS large luxury sedan, the Chevrolet Cruze small car, the Chevrolet Impala large car, and the Buick LaCrosse large luxury sedan. If you own one of the discontinued models, don't fret. Parts, repair and service should be easy to get for years to come, a Consumer Reports expert says. GM isn't the only one refocusing its product line. Ford announced earlier this year that it was dropping most of its sedans, except for the iconic Mustang, as it focuses on trucks and SUVs. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles dropped the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart small cars in the summer of 2016, saying it would focus on larger, more profitable vehicles. Sedan sales are down because consumers enjoy the versatility and seating position they get from riding in SUVs, says Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. As Baby Boomers and Generation X drivers get older, they like how easy it is to get into an SUV versus having the drop down to get into cars, he said. GM says it will focus on vehicles that will use its next-generation battery-electric architectures. It says that resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs will double in the next two years. Story continues What Owners Should Do You'll still be able to service your car if you own one of these models. GM, like many automakers, shares many parts among its vehicles. In fact, GM shuttered Hummer, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Saturn over the last decade, and there are still plenty of parts available for those vehicles. Some of the body parts may be affected for short periods of time, said Mel Yu, CR automotive analyst, but major components are mostly shared with other models and will be continuously produced. In addition, he said, owners should be able to get their cars repaired at Buick, Cadillac, and Chevrolet dealerships well into the future, even after their car is no longer being produced. Why Is This Happening Now? The domestic automakers have a long legacyand a lot of sales successwith trucks, said Ed Kim, vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific, while many import brands have lots of sedan history and heritage. While sales of stalwarts like Toyota Camry and Corolla are declining, they still represent massive volume, Kim said. Sales of the Big Threes sedans have taken a proportionally much bigger plunge because they havent been as popular. Because of that, the Asian brands arent in a rush to abandon cars. Theyll just own the sedan space even more than they do now, he said. Also, Kim notes, it looks like GM is trying to be ready for any possible downturn in the economy. The automaker went through a painful bankruptcy in 2008, and likely doesnt want to repeat that experience, he said. Keep in mind that everything we have seen from GM, post-bankruptcy, has reflected a level of foresight and proactive behavior that is completely unlike the old GM, he said. The culture is much more forward looking than it has ever been in recent memory. And all automakers are looking to maximize returns, said Joe Langley, associate director of vehicle forecasting for IHS Markit, an industry analysis firm. Ultimately, he said, Every vehicle has to stand on its own merit. If a vehicle is losing money by just turning on the lights, then its got to go. Finally, this is one result of the ongoing battle over tariffs, Kim said. The company has said that tariffs on imported steel have cost it $1 billion. As GM, like most other automakers, is a truly global operation, the tariff wars are having a detrimental impact on its business, he said. This is another factor behind GMs changes, and they hurt American jobs in the process. 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. Google has limited what its AI can do (Getty) Googles AI email-writing assistant will predict everything from how to greet someone to how to say goodbye but it wont predict gender-based pronouns such as him or her. The company revealed that its Smart Compose technology, which works with its Gmail email service, will predict words such as, You or It, but not him, for instance. The decision was made because its AI made mistakes such as, suggesting, Do you want to meet him? after a research scientist wrote, I am meeting an investor next week. MORE: British soldier given bravery award for helping victims of Las Vegas massacre MORE: Police hunt for man who unleashed torrent of abuse on woman with guide dog Company researchers tried several workarounds, but found that the only safe way to avoid the AI making biased or wrong decisions, was to rule out gender pronouns altogether. Googles Smart Compose now assists on 11% of emails sent via Gmail, the company said. The researchers say that systems like Smart Compose, which learn from reading billions of sentences, can pick up bias from previous data (such as the idea that investors tend to be men). Googles Prabhakar Raghavan told Reuters, The only reliable technique we have is to be conservative. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron earned global plaudits for pledging to "Make our planet great again," but he faces a moment of truth at home Tuesday in presenting his multi-year roadmap for France's transition to cleaner energy. The 10-year blueprint comes as Macron is facing fractious "yellow vest" protests by French citizens' angry over a string of yearly fuel tax increases to finance green initiatives, which Macron has indicated will continue. Yet environmental advocates are also wary after the government last year walked back on a commitment to reduce French reliance on nuclear energy. It was one of several bones of contention that cost Macron his wildly popular environment minister Nicolas Hulot, who quit earlier this year over the president's green record. "They didn't listen to me, they cited budgetary limits," Hulot said on French television last week, recounting how he advocated more financial aide to help people cope with the costs of cutting pollution. Had Macron done so, the "yellow vest" protests would have been "avoidable," Hulot said. Macron is expected to address the protests Tuesday while laying out his energy priorities for the coming years. Officials have already indicated he will announce the closure of France's four remaining coal-fired power plants, part of a pledge to get 40 percent of France's electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2030. The more delicate question, however, concerns the eventual timeline for shutting down some of France's oldest nuclear reactors. - 'Reactors getting older' - France is by far the country most reliant on nuclear energy, getting just under 72 percent of its electricity needs from 58 reactors spread across 19 power plants. The country's two oldest reactors, which began operating at the Fessenheim site along the German border in 1977, are already slated for shutdown after reaching their 40-year lifespan. Story continues The government is studying three scenarios for closing up to a dozen more, including an ambitious plan to shut down six by 2028, and six again by 2035. "It's not a matter of being pro- or anti-nuclear, but our reactors are getting older and having more and more problems," Environment Minister Francis de Rugy told RTL radio on Friday. But unlike its neighbours Germany and Switzerland, who worry about the safety risks of nuclear sites and radioactive waste disposal, France has no plans to phase out nuclear energy. Apart from being a pillar of the government's plans for cutting carbon emissions as part of the 2015 Paris climate accord on capping global warming, the nuclear sector provides jobs for 220,000 people. State-owned electricity giant EDF -- with the backing of the finance ministry -- is pushing Macron to close just nine reactors starting only in 2028, and replace them with four new next-generation EPR reactors. That has environmental groups up in arms, not least given the huge bill for building the first EPR reactor at Flammanville, which was supposed to go online in 2012 but remains plagued by technical problems. - 'Red line' - Green lawmakers were already miffed by the government's decision last year to push back a pledge to reduce the role of nuclear in France's energy mix to just 50 percent of its electricity needs. It now aims to reach that target by 2030 or 2035, instead of 2025 originally. "The government has caved in to lobbies and surrendered the energy savings which would boost people's spending power, and the job-creating industries of the future represented by renewable energies," Anne Bringault of the CLER network for energy transition said last week. "The red line for us is the closure of reactors" during Macron's five-year term, which ends in 2022, said Alix Mazounie of Greenpeace France. "None of the other three options are acceptable nor sensible," she told AFP. - 'Yellow vest' ire - But Macron must also contend with the ire of the "yellow vest" protesters, mainly from rural and small-town France who rely heavily on their cars. The movement erupted last month over claims that drivers were bearing the brunt of fuel taxes imposed to pay for the environmental push. After violent demonstrations on the Champs Elysees in Paris on Saturday, calls have emerged for a fresh day of protests for December 1. "If the government doesn't come up with any concrete proposals, the movement is only going to get stronger," Jose Espinoza, a "yellow vest" coordinator in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, told AFP. By Tarek Amara and Ulf Laessing TUNIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Tunisians staged the first protests of the Arab world against Saudi Arabia's crown prince as he arrived on a visit on Tuesday, denouncing him as a murderer involved in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The protests were a rare occurrence for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler who faces no overt criticism at home and who received lavish receptions earlier in his tour in visits to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Since the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprising, which unseated several entrenched rulers in the region and triggered turmoil, Tunisia has undergone a democratic transition and is one of the few Arab countries to allow protests. Prince Mohammed was welcomed by Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on arrival at Tunis airport, the presidency said, and the two went into talks shortly afterwards at Carthage Palace. The crown prince told Tunisian state television that Saudi Arabia has long had good relations with Tunisia, adding, "I cannot come to North Africa without visiting Tunisia...Tunisia's president is like my father." A Tunisian presidency statement issued later said Prince Mohammed and Essebsi reviewed ways to improve cooperation on the "economy and finance, investment promotion and security and military cooperation to counter extremism and terrorism". The mood in the streets was less friendly. In a second day of demonstrations against Prince Mohammed, hundreds of protesters marched along central Habib Bourguiba avenue in Tunis, scene of the mass protests that toppled autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. They chanted "the murderer is not welcome in Tunisia" and "shame on Tunisia's rulers" for receiving the crown prince. The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 has frayed Saudi Arabia's relations with the West and tarnished Prince Mohammed's image abroad. Saudi Arabia has said the prince, heir to the throne of the world's top oil exporter, had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said last month that Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. Protesters raised a large poster which depicted the Tunisian president pouring water on the bloodied hands of the Saudi crown prince - suggesting Tunisian complicity in washing away guilt. Protesters also called for an end to the Saudi-led military campaign in neighboring Yemen, which was launched by Prince Mohammed in his role as defense minister in 2015. The protests were in sharp contrast with earlier parts of the crown prince's tour of allied countries in the region. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi underlined the strength of Cairo's ties with Riyadh and called Saudi Arabia's security and stability "an inseparable part of Egypt's national security." DEMOCRATIC TUNISIA DIVERGES FROM SAUDIS Tunisian journalists on Monday put up a huge banner at their union showing the prince with a chainsaw, which Turkish sources have said was used to dismember Khashoggi in Istanbul. It read: "No to the pollution of the Tunisian revolution." In an apparent attempt to avoid embarrassing the prince, the presidency only invited photographers to cover his visit. It will not hold a news conference, a usual event at top visits. Last week Essebsi adviser Nourredine Ben Ticha said the truth about the killing of Khashoggi must be established but the incident should not be used to harm the kingdom's stability. Tunisia and Saudi Arabia have very different political systems. The kingdom is an absolute monarchy while Tunisia has been holding free elections since 2011 and agreed three years later on a constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights. Tunisia was a strong Saudi ally under Ben Ali but ties have since been strained at times. The kingdom granted exile to Ben Ali after he flew to Jeddah on the Red Sea following his ouster, resisting calls by some Tunisian parties to hand him over. Another irritant is that moderate Islamists have been sharing power with secularists in Tunisia since 2011. Some critics have likened the Tunisian Ennahda party to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Saudi Arabia. In contrast, Tunisia has since 2011 expanded cooperation with Qatar, with which Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states severed trade and transport ties in June 2017. The four accused Doha of supporting terrorism and Iran charges Doha denies. Tunisia also has strong ties with Turkey, whose relations with Saudi Arabia have been strained by the Khashoggi killing. The crown prince is expected to fly on to a G20 summit in Argentina at the end of his Tunisia visit. (Reporting by Tarek Amara, Ulf Laessing, Aidan Lewis and Lena Masri; Editing by Mark Heinrich) donald trump Joe Cunningham, an incoming freshman Democrat Congressman from South Carolina, mocked Donald Trump for referring to himself in the third person on Twitter, The State is reporting. On Sunday, as the Inquisitr reported at the time, Trump posted a tweet in which he thanked himself for lower gas prices, referring to himself in the third person. So great that oil prices are falling (thank you President T). Its apparently par for the course for the 45th president to refer to himself in the third person, according to people who have spent time with him. For example, Bill Gates has said that, in a meeting with Trump to discuss HIV, Trump often referred to himself that way. The visit is made at the initiation of Wang Yang, member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Chairman of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference Wang Yang. On November 26, the Vietnamese delegation visited the headquarters of the Beijing Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference. Receiving the delegation, Chairman of the committee Ji Lin introduced the functions and tasks of the agency, including the organisation of courses for its members to learn about the guidelines and policies of the Chinese Party and State. VFF President Man, who is also Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, shared Vietnams experience in uniting the people and encouraging them to build new-style rural areas and civilised areas, reduce poverty sustainably and improve capacity amid international integration, as well as in raising the role of political consultation, social supervision and criticism. The two sides noted with pleasure the positive development of Vietnam-China ties over the past time, with increasing exchanges between their agencies, including the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference and its Beijing Committee with the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its Hanoi chapter. Earlier on November 25, the VFF leader had a meeting with the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy and representatives of the Vietnamese community in China. President Maithripala Sirisena had instructed the relevant authorities to release the Tamil and Sinhala translations of the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Central Bank Bond scam within two weeks, UPFA MP Dallas Alahapperuma said today. He told a news conference held at the parliament complex that the debate on the PCoI report was halted after TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran raised a question about non availability of the Sinhala, the Tamil translations of the report. He said the previous government had prevented the translations from submitting in the House. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera) Video by Susantha MUMBAI, India (AP) As Mumbai marked the 10th anniversary of attacks that killed 166 in India's financial capital on Monday, the United States made a new reward offer for information on the 2008 siege. The Pakistani gunmen who waged the attack were killed or captured. But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that those who planned the attack had not been convicted. He called on Pakistan to implement sanctions against those responsible and said the U.S. was offering a new $5 million reward and was committed to seeing those responsible face justice. On Nov. 26, 2008, gunmen staged coordinated attacks in the heart of Mumbai. They targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a tourist restaurant and a crowded train station in three days of carnage. India blamed the attack on the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, throwing relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors into a tailspin. Indian officials accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of working with the militant group to mastermind the attack an allegation Islamabad denied. "We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to uphold their U.N. Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates," Pompeo said in a statement. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the attacks. "Our solidarity with the bereaved families. A grateful nation bows to our brave police and security forces who valiantly fought the terrorists during the Mumbai attacks," he said in a statement. Shyam Bihari Paswan, who owns a small shop inside the train station and was shot in the shoulder during the attack, said he has stopped watching action movies. "When I watch a movie which has scenes of firing, I remember that day," he said. "I have stopped watching movies. I have seen it live. So much blood, so many dead bodies, it was a very bad scene that day." In November 2012, India hanged the lone surviving gunman from the attacks. India has repeatedly urged Pakistan to pursue the case more actively, demanding action against those it says are responsible. He Jiankui - AP A Chinese university has launched an investigation into claims that one of its scientists genetically edited human babies, an experiment branded monstrous by British academics who called for an immediate global ban. In a YouTube video posted on Monday He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology, in Shenzhen, said he had altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatment, which had led to the birth of twins earlier this month. He said his goal was to give the babies a natural ability to resist HIV. But the university said that He had been on unpaid leave since February and warned the research - which has not been verified - was a serious violation of academic ethics and norms. A joint statement from a group of 100 scientists in China criticised the project saying it was a great blow to the countrys reputation, while researchers in Britain strongly condemned the announcement and one of the inventors of the gene editing technology called for an immediate worldwide ban. Professor Julian Savulescu, an expert in medical ethics from Oxford University, said that in most other countries he would be facing jail. If true, this experiment is monstrous, he said. These healthy babies are being used as genetic guinea pigs. This is genetic Russian Roulette. It exposes healthy normal children to risks of gene editing for no real necessary benefit and contravenes decades on ethical consensus and guidelines on the protection of human participants in research. In many other places in the world, this would be illegal punishable by imprisonment. Dr Sarah Chan of the University of Edinburgh, also described the gene editing as irresponsible, unethical and designed to provoke maximum shock value. Playing with children's health and families' hopes in order to use them as a means for a cheap publicity stunt is nothing short of despicable. In five videos posted on Monday, He said he had used the gene-editing technology known as Crispr to rewrite the DNA of twin girls and claimed the experiment had "worked safely as intended" saying the girls were "as healthy as any other babies. Story continues In the videos, the scientist defended his work, saying in one: "I understand my work will be controversial, but I believe families need this technology. And Im willing to take the criticism for them." Despite providing no evidence or documentation to back up the claims, He said he planned to share data about the trial at a scientific forum this week in Hong Kong and promised his results would be submitted for peer review and published. However Feng Zhang, one of the inventors of Crispr, called for a global moratorium saying he was deeply concerned by the lack of transparency. The issue of genetic editing is deeply controversial. Scientists in Britain and the US have experimented with genetic editing in human embryos but it is currently illegal to implant them. Last September scientists at Sun Yat-sen University used an adapted version of gene-editing to correct a disease-causing mutation in human embryos but they were destroyed after just a few weeks of fertilisation. Dr David King, Director of Human Genetics Alert, said: If these claims are true, the world has changed its a day that I and many others have dreaded. But it underscores the need for an immediate global ban on the cloning and genetic engineering of human beings. FILE PHOTO: Protesters march to urge politicians to act against climate change in Paris, France, October 13, 2018. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo With massive wildfires, intense hurricanes and devastating floods becoming the new normal, some investors are now seeing their portfolio as a crucial tool at their disposal in the fight to save the planet. Its a trend thats getting nearly impossible for investors to ignore as financial companies like Morgan Stanley, EY and BlackRock have outlined what climate change may mean for investors. Even Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist Bill Gates has said he is supporting companies that are helping to solve climate change. Timothy Nash, Sheridan College economics instructor and blogger at Sustainable Economist, says investor interest in climate change is also enjoying a resurgence after being put on the backburner due to the 2008 economic crash. Its been over the last three years that people are starting to understand the very real financial risks associated with climate change, he tells Yahoo Canada Finance. Its really going to start to accelerate. Im seeing more products on the shelves more ETFs, more mutual funds, more green bonds on the market. To divest or not to divest? Some investors, in their push to help companies act in the face of climate change, are choosing to divest themselves of problematic companies, and Nash says that move can really make a difference. When it comes to shifting your assets, really what were doing there is using the invisible hand of the marketplace, Nash says. If one person does it, it wont have an impact on share prices, but enough people do it, then it will start to have an impact. He says he found that divestment campaigns particularly affect a companys cost of capital, which makes it more expensive for them to raise money through share and bond issuances. Its a penalty that he says helps force them to compete. Nash adds that other investors may choose to still invest in a company while being vocal towards seeing it move in a more sustainable direction, but he has doubt that would be as effective. Story continues Im a little bit skeptical, especially for retail investors, just because we dont have as much clout, and although some companies are more open to engagement, a lot of companies simply arent, he says. I would view shareholder engagement as going to the horse thats sort of in last place and pushing them ahead a few steps and then going to another horse and pushing them ahead a few steps. Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of business sustainability nonprofit Ceres, says that investors are a key pillar to enacting businesses to address the realities of climate change. Investors could support public policy. They could use their clout with companies to get the companies to change their practices. They can invest in renewables, and they could pull their money out of fossil fuels, and they could ensure better transparency and disclosure from companies, she says. Its something that is already happening, Lubber says, as over 300 investors with assets totalling over $320 trillion have already said they are going to work with the worlds largest emitters of carbon to push them to significantly reduce their carbon footprint and disclose the risks that they face due to climate. Companies affected many ways Lubbers organization Ceres has been talking about sustainability with large corporations for nearly 30 years, and she says she has noticed a shift in how they are perceiving climate change. Its a radically different discussion now. So I would say in the last 10 years, large publicly traded companies, large investors have realized that these issues water risk, climate risk, human rights risk that they run through the bottomline, she says. And even without investors at the table, companies can still see the impacts of climate change, sometimes on a daily basis. Lubber says the reality now is that clothing manufactures are realizing that losing cotton crops due to climate change can dramatically affect their bottomline and that utilities are facing the fact that theyd have to foot the bill for steep costs associated with disasters like forest fires. While Lubber says there has been significant progress made with companies, theres still more that needs to be done. The reality is we still havent moved enough companies at the pace and scale we need to address climate change, she adds. We cant look at [it as] a problem of the future, and were already seeing so many impacts from climatic changes. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Tehran (AFP) - Iran is determined to fight against US Donald Trump's anticipated Israel-Palestinian peace plan, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday according to semi-official news agency ISNA. Trump has dubbed his administration's long-awaited plan the "ultimate deal", which has already unsettled the Palestinians although no details have yet been disclosed. Speaking in Tehran, Larijani said the "deal of the century" was a "plot" between Iran's arch foe Israel and the United States to establish the Jewish state's domination in the Middle East. "We will stand against the regime of Israel and won't let this deal take place in the region," Larijani said at an annual conference on Islamic unity. "If Americans are imposing sanctions on Iran today and are putting pressure on Iran, the reason for it is because Iran has stood against Israel," he added, quoted by ISNA. Earlier this year, Washington pulled out of the landmark international nuclear accord with Iran and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran. "In order to achieve their objective they try to create new political arrangements in the region," Larijani said of US-Israeli strategy in the Middle East. The parliament speaker also singled out regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as he warned countries against normalising relations with Israel. Countries in the region "should know that they would not benefit at all by letting (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to their countries", Larijani said. "People in the region, in any country, regard Israel as a cancerous tumour and hate it," he added. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this year reaffirmed his country's "steadfast" support for the Palestinian cause, after coming under fire for saying both Israelis and Palestinians "have the right to have their own land". Israel has diplomatic relations with just two Arab states -- Egypt and Jordan -- but Netanyahu has been pushing for broader regional ties. The Israeli premier travelled to Oman in October, while two of his ministers visited the UAE. UNITED NATIONS (AP) The Trump administration has told Israel's government it expects to release its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan in the beginning of 2019, Israel's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday. Danny Danon told a group of U.N. reporters that with Israeli elections now likely next May or June, there is "a window of opportunity for the administration to present the peace plan" early next year. "Today, the president is able to come and present it without interfering in a political debate in Israel," he said. "I think if he will present it during the election it will be horrendous. Everyone will be attacking it. ... Even people who want to support part of the plan will not be able to do it." If the Trump administration doesn't present the plan soon, Danon said, it should wait until next fall when there is a new Israeli government. U.S. President Donald Trump calls the Mideast peace plan the "Deal of the Century." His Mideast team headed by his son-in-law Jared Kushner and adviser Jason Greenblatt has been working on a peace proposal for months but hasn't said when it will be released. "We don't know the details to the plan but we know that it's completed," Danon said. "Now, the question is when they will submit it. As far as we know, they speak with us about beginning of 2019, which is coming soon." "We know that there will be parts that we will like, there will be parts that we don't like," Danon said. "But we will be open-minded. We will be willing to negotiate to speak about everything." He said it's "unfortunate" that the Palestinians consider the plan a non-starter and won't engage without having seen it. The Palestinians have accused Trump of being unfairly biased toward Israel. Based on previous failed efforts to negotiate an end to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli ambassador said there are two options for the Trump administration. Story continues It can present a take-it-or-leave-it plan saying that's the best option for the region, Danon said, or it can try to bring all sides together "and push them to negotiate the plan." He said if the U.S. wants to press for negotiations, he believes it would be better to wait until the fall of 2019 to release the report because doing so in early 2019 would leave only a few months before Israeli elections. Danon said he expects regional aspects of the peace plan dealing with opening diplomatic relations and promoting investments between Israel and the Arab world to be easier than dealing with the key players Israelis and Palestinians. Both sides are skeptical about achieving peace, according to opinion polls, he said. He also said he doesn't think Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants to achieve a peace agreement. "I don't think he really wants to come to a point where he's entering in the room and he's making compromises," Danon said, "because when you negotiate you have to make compromises." Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is among the world's richest people but he has now emerged as a member of another club: China's 89-million-strong Communist Party. The billionaire's Communist bona fides were revealed by the People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China's development. He is not the first nor likely the last Chinese super-rich capitalist to join the party, which counts property titan Xu Jiayin and Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin among its billionaire members. But Ma's membership had not been widely known until now as China's richest man had previously suggested that he preferred to stay out of politics. In Monday's article, the People's Daily said Ma was a party member who has played an important role in pushing China's Belt and Road global trade infrastructure initiative -- a pet project of President Xi Jinping. He has also been honoured as one of the "outstanding builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang Province", where Alibaba is based, the daily said. - Joining the party - Joining the party can be helpful to private businessmen and women in the country as they navigate a complicated business environment where the state-led economy dominates many industries and private business can be unwelcome. In China, company chiefs need the backing of the Communist Party to get rich, but they also need it to survive. It is a relationship that -- when the political winds change -- can hang them out to dry, experts say. Party membership did not prevent the abrupt fall of oil tycoon Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy, who disappeared from public view this spring and is thought to be under investigation in China. Ma's business rivals, Tencent CEO and Chairman Pony Ma and Baidu's Robin Li are not affiliated with any party, the People's Daily said. Xi has renewed a push to expand the Communist Party's influence in private business, requiring any company with more than three party members to set up a party cell, or lacking numbers, join with nearby firms. Story continues Three in four private companies already host party organisations. "We must do a good job in the education and management of party members and guide them to play an active role," Xi told officials in Shanghai earlier this month, noting the increase in private employment and new types of employment. Xi is pushing to further intertwine the party and business, with the latest rewrite to the rules for party organisations published Sunday by official news agency Xinhua. In private companies party cells should "guide and supervise the enterprise to strictly abide by national laws and regulations," the draft order says, according to Xinhua. -'Never marry them'- Ma did not reveal his Communist Party membership in paperwork filed for Alibaba's 2014 initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. It is not known if Ma was a member at the time. A spokeswoman for Alibaba declined to comment. Alibaba bought Hong Kong's English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), in 2015 and controversies have swirled over the editorial slant of its coverage since the purchase. Ma told the paper he wanted to offer a "fair chance to readers" to understand China when Alibaba purchased it. "The political affiliation of any Alibaba executive will not impact or influence SCMPs editorial or operational decisions," SCMP spokeswoman Andrea Leung told AFP in an emailed statement. Despite being known for its in-depth coverage of China, the paper had yet to publish a story on the party membership of China's top capitalist by Tuesday evening. Ma -- who announced in September that he would step down as head of Alibaba next year -- has previously indicated he preferred to keep the Chinese state at arm's length. "My philosophy is to be in love with the government, but never marry them," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2007. But party members must hold up their right fist and recite an oath upon joining. "Be loyal to the party, work actively, fight for communism all one's life, always be prepared to sacrifice everything for the party and people, and never betray the party," they recite. Japan is considering buying up to 100 F-35 stealth fighters from the US for more than $8.8 billion as it seeks to counter China's growing military presence in the region, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The reported purchase comes as President Donald Trump pushes Japan to buy more military equipment and other US products, pointing to Washington's huge trade deficit with Tokyo. Japan has already decided to buy 42 F-35 stealth fighter jets from the US and is now considering purchasing as many as 100 more, worth more than one trillion yen ($8.8 billion), according to the evening edition of the Nikkei daily. The cabinet is expected to approve the plan in mid-December when the nation's defence programme guidelines are released, the business daily said. A defence ministry spokesman declined to confirm the report, saying only: "Everything related to additional purchases is under consideration." In September, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly told Trump: "Introducing high-spec military equipment, including US equipment, is important to strengthen Japan's defence." Tokyo is also considering upgrading its helicopter carriers so that they can transport and launch fighter jets, Kyodo News reported, quoting a government source. The government is looking to upgrade the Izumo, a flat-top destroyer that currently carries helicopters, to a fully fledged aircraft carrier that is critical in the face of China's maritime assertiveness, the local news agency said. China is deploying its first stealth fighter into military service in the latest milestone highlighting the modernisation of the country's armed forces. Izumo-class 19,500-tonne carriers -- Japan's largest postwar naval vessels -- are 248 metres (818 feet) long and can carry up to 14 helicopters. The plan is also expected to be finalised when the guidelines are published next month, it added. Asked about upgrading the vessels, Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters on Tuesday: "We would like to use them for as many purposes as possible." The move indicates a shift from Japan's defence-oriented policy, the news agency said. Under Japan's pacifist constitution, the nation's military has long been restricted to self-defence and the country relies heavily on the US under a bilateral security alliance. Jerome Corsi, a conservative conspiracy theorist and friend of Trump ally Roger Stone, claims that he turned down a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller over the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Corsi and another person with knowledge of the talks confirmed to the Washington Post last week that the special counsel is investigating whether or not he helped link Stone to WikiLeaks, which both Stone and WikiLeaks have denied. The special counsel is investigating Russian meddling, including whether any people associated with the Trump campaign may have worked with them during the election. Trumps former campaign chair, Paul Manafort; Manaforts aide, Rick Gates; Trumps former national security adviser, Michael Flynn; and a foreign policy campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, have pleaded guilty on other charges of misconduct. Corsi said earlier this month that he expected to be indicted for lying to special counsel investigators who are looking into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, the Washington Post reported. He told CNN Monday that as part of those negotiations he turned down a plea deal on one count of perjury. They can put me in prison the rest of my life. I am not going to sign a lie, he told the network. Corsi did not respond to a request for comment from TIME, and the special counsels office declined to comment. Heres what you need to know about Corsi and the accusations against him. Who is Jerome Corsi? Corsi is a writer, avid Donald Trump supporter and former Infowars host best known for spreading conservative conspiracy theories. Corsi has promoted conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks, the Kennedy assassination and President Barack Obamas birthplace. He first emerged on the national stage in 2004 when he co-authored the bestselling book Unfit for Command with political activist John ONeill. The book attacked then-presidential candidate John Kerrys military service and his later anti-war advocacy, but was criticized for drawing upon interviews with servicemen who had not been in Kerrys boat. Story continues Corsi later authored several books, including The Obama Nation in 2008 and Wheres the Birth Certificate? in 2011, which detailed conspiracy theories about Obama. Corsi has argued that Obama is a drug-using Muslim who was born in Kenya and ascribes to black liberation theology. In one of his most recent works Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Save President Trump, Corsi promoted the idea that Trump is being undermined by a shadow government that is determined to remove him by office. Prior to the presidents 2016 campaign, Trump reportedly spoke with Corsi on several occasions about the theory that Obama was not born in the U.S. Read More: Donald Trump Made 211 Arguments About the Mueller Probe What are his ties to Roger Stone? Corsi is reportedly the friend of Roger Stone, and kept up a correspondence with him during the 2016 election. Stone is also well known for promoting conspiracy theories, including about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Hillary Clinton aid Huma Abedin being a Saudi spy. Corsi provided Stone with opposition research about Democratic political figures during the campaign, according to Washington Post. Why is he connected to the Russia investigation? Investigators are reportedly looking into whether Corsi linked Stone with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The key question is whether and how Stone knew that WikiLeaks planned to release emails Russian hackers extracted from Democrats, including former Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. A tweet that Stone wrote in August 2016 prior to the release of the emails appears to suggest that he knew that something was coming. Trust me, it will soon the Podestas time in the barrel, Stone wrote. Stone has also admitted that during the 2016 campaign, he corresponded with Guccifer 2.0, an online persona that the Mueller investigation determined was used by at least one Russian intelligence operative which claimed to have hacked the Democrats. In March 2017, Stone tweeted that he had a back channel to WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign. Stone later claimed that this connection was Randy Credico, a radio host who interviewed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. However, Corsi released an Infowars article in March 2017 in which he appeared to claim that he had connected Stone to Assange. Having reviewed my records, I am now confident that I am the source behind Stones tweet, Corsi wrote. The special counsel subpoenaed Corsi in September to testify before a grand jury about Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, Corsis attorney David Gray confirmed to the Guardian at the time. What have Corsi and Stone said about the accusations? Corsi has denied having contact with Assange and said that he does not intend to accept a plea deal, CNN reported. Corsi announced on Gab two weeks ago that he had started a legal defense fund for himself. Stone released a statement on Twitter on Nov. 23 denying that he knows about a plea deal involving Corsi. He also denied corresponding with Corsi about the Podesta brothers except concerning their overseas business interests. My friend Dr. Corsi has been under a tremendous amount of pressure and it is beginning to affect him profoundly, Stone wrote on Twitter. A general view shows a road-and-rail bridge, which is constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula. Russia resists Western calls to free captured Ukrainian ships REUTERS, 26th NOVEMBER, 2018- Russia resisted international calls on Monday to release three Ukrainian naval ships that its border patrols had fired on and seized near Crimea at the weekend, triggering the most dangerous crisis in years between Moscow and Kiev. With relations still raw after Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the incident risks pushing the two countries towards a wider conflict and is likely to renew Western calls for more sanctions on Moscow. Russias FSB security service said its border patrol boats had seized two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and a tugboat after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors on Sunday. It said it had opened a criminal case into what it called the ships illegal entry into Russian territorial waters. A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, accused Ukraine of sending the ships to deliberately provoke Russia and said the ranking diplomat at Kievs embassy in Moscow would be summoned over the incident. Kiev denied its ships had done anything wrong and accused Moscow of military aggression. KimPorter_Celebrity Funeral Pics Yesterday, more than 2,500 gathered at Cascade Hills Church in Columbus, Georgia, to say goodbye to Kim Porter. The former models funeral was a star-studded ceremony with many of her close friends and family. Since the mother-of-four died unexpectedly last week, many celebrities have taken to social media with beautiful tributes and words of condolences to her family and four children. After Kim Porters funeral, many took to social media with photos from the service. Fans have had the opportunity to see a glimpse of the megachurch where the service was held, the gravesite where Kim Porter was buried next to her mother Sarah L. Porter, and the funeral program. While many have reacted to the photos as expected, there are a few photos Kim Porters fans are actually angry about. Click here to continue and read more... Mitrovica (Kosovo) (AFP) - Several thousand Kosovo Serbs protested in northern Kosovo on Tuesday against Pristina's massive customs tariff on Serbian goods, a retaliatory measure announced last week that has spiked tensions and curtailed trade between the neighbours. The crowd gathered in the northern Serb-half of the divided city of Mitrovica with Serbian flags and signs saying "Help us" and "Stop the violence of Pristina". "Everything is being done to drive us out," Slavka Djuric, a 65-year-old protester, told AFP. The mayors of four majority-Serb municipalities in Kosovo -- North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok -- also resigned in protest at the tariff. Kosovo imposed the 100 percent customs tax on Serbian goods on November 22, after accusing Belgrade of thwarting its bid to join the global police organisation Interpol. Serbia refuses to recognise the independence of its former province and has sought to block it from international organisations, including the United Nations. Yet Belgrade remains Kosovo's top trade partner in the Balkans, with Serbian imports -- mostly food products -- topping more than 400 million euros annually. Belgrade has also maintained close links with the 120,000-strong Serb minority in Kosovo, where the majority of the population is ethnic Albanian. Pristina has struggled to exercise authority over Serb enclaves, particularly in the Mitrovica region bordering Serbia. Kosovo's customs spokesman Adriatik Stavileci said the tariff, which also applies to Bosnian goods, has shrunk trade with only two trucks from those countries entering Kosovo this past week after paying the fee. The measure has yet to trigger any significant food shortages or price surges, though a hospital in northern Mitrovica, the Serb half, warned it was at risk of running out of oxygen and medicine. Speaking to the protesters, hospital director Milan Ivanovic condemned Pristina's desire to "deprive Kosovo Serbs of bread and medicine". Story continues The European Union and the United States have urged Pristina to rescind the tariff. In a statement, the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) also warned against the "escalating tensions" and said Kosovo's decision to impose the tariff was "a clear violation" of regional trade agreements. But Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has said it will remain until Serbia recognises Kosovo's independence -- something Belgrade has refused to do for a decade. Another simmering point of controversy is Kosovo's aspiration to form its own army -- a goal President Hashim Thaci repeated on Facebook on Tuesday. Kosovo's security is currently ensured by NATO-led forces (KFOR). KFOR announced Tuesday it would "conduct some exercise in Northern Kosovo," stressing it was "a normal training activity." MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) A few thousand people rallied Tuesday in the Serb-populated north of Kosovo, demanding that the government abolish a 100 percent tax it recently levied on all goods imported from Serbia. The rally in the divided town of Mitrovica reflects wider tensions that recently soared between the former war foes. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence. Also on Tuesday, four mayors from the Serb-dominated northern municipalities in Kosovo said they were resigning in protest. Serbia's Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said Serbia will take the tax issue to an arbitration court if it is not resolved within the next 90 days. In Kosovo, the U.N. mission expressed "serious concern" over the tensions. Mission head Zahir Tanin said the tax was a violation of a regional trade agreement and "should be retracted." Kosovo imposed the tax last week in an apparent retaliatory move after it failed to be elected a member of Interpol, the international police organization, following intense lobbying by Serbia. Serbia and Kosovo have been engaged in European Union-mediated talks to try and normalize relations to advance toward EU membership. Negotiations have been stalled amid the disagreements. Kosovo Serbs in the north insist the tax has greatly affected the area, which remains closely linked to Serbia. Protesters carried banners reading "Stop violence by Pristina" and "Shame on you, we don't have oxygen." No incidents were reported. More than 10,000 people died during the 1998-99 war between the Serbian security forces and Kosovo's Albanian separatists. The conflict ended after NATO bombed Serbia. PARADISE, Calif. (AP) The Latest on California wildfires (all times local): A Northern California sheriff says no additional remains were found Monday, but the wildfire's death toll rose to 88 after investigators determined that three separate sets of human remains contained remains for more than one person. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Monday that 203 names remain on the list of those unaccounted for after the Camp Fire swept through the rural area 140 miles north of San Francisco. The blaze that ignited Nov. 8 destroyed more than 13,000 homes. Officials said the blaze was fully contained Sunday. ___ This item has been updated to add sheriff's explanation that human remains were duplicated three times. ___ 6 p.m. A Northern California sheriff says there are still hundreds of names on the list of those unaccounted for after a wildfire swept through the rural area. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Monday that 203 people are unaccounted for. The blaze that ignited Nov. 8 destroyed more than 13,000 homes. Officials said the blaze was fully contained Sunday. ___ 3:45 p.m. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is back in Northern California to tour wildfire damage and says fire recovery costs will likely be in the billions. He said he'd rather spend that money on other public services, such as improving visitor experiences at Yosemite National Park or building more boat ramps on public lands. Zinke said he's been astonished by the devastation caused by the Camp Fire. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue joined Zinke in visiting the town of Paradise, which was incinerated. He suggested donating timber from the Plumas National Forest nearby to re-build Paradise. ___ 2:40 p.m. A Northern California sheriff says he has no regrets publishing an inaccurate list of people reported missing after a massive wildfire. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Monday that he decided it was better to have as much information made public than "work to perfection" by releasing only the names of residents who were confirmed missing. Any message the department received with the name of someone believed to be missing was added to the list. Story continues He said some on his staff were concerned that releasing the list would cause confusion and an unmanageable influx of calls from concerned loved ones. Authorities in charge of relief efforts after a wildfire swept California wine country last year didn't release the names of the missing for those reasons. Honea says publishing the list led to significant help from the public in locating people. ___ 2:40 p.m. Two brothers from Chicago who wanted to help after a deadly blaze in Northern California drove more than 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) to deliver hay, grain, dog food and batteries. Kari Wheeler of Wheeler Ranch and Feed tells San Francisco Bay Area television station KTVU that brothers Arek and Danny Zachara arrived at her ranch Friday. It's been a volunteer command post for North Valley Animal Disaster Group that's helped rescue and care for animals affected by the blaze. Wheeler says the brothers spent a few hours unloading their trailer at her ranch in Briggs. They then drove to nearby Magalia to donate the rest of their gear to a woman and her animals. Wheeler says people from Idaho, Utah and Oregon also have made donations to help hundreds of affected animals. ___ 1:30 p.m. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed more than $20 million in assistance for people displaced by California's deadliest wildfire. FEMA spokesman Frank Mansell said Monday that $15.5 million has been spent on housing assistance, including vouchers for hotel rooms. He says the disaster response is in an early phase but many people will eventually get longer-term housing in trailers or apartments. FEMA has also distributed $5 million to help with other needs including funeral expenses. About 17,000 people have registered with the federal disaster agency, which will look at insurance coverage, assets and a variety of other factors to determine how much assistance they are eligible for. The blaze that ignited Nov. 8 destroyed more than 13,000 homes and killed at least 85 people. Officials said the blaze was fully contained Sunday. ___ 11:45 a.m. Survivors of a monstrous 2017 wildfire have erected a twinkling 12-foot Noble fir in another Northern California town also ruined by wildfire. The Mercury News of San Jose reports the head of a Santa Rosa, California neighborhood association drove up to Paradise on Thanksgiving with a donated tree and decorations. Ronnie Duvall says it was good to show the rest of the world that people can come together when disasters strike. The tree has white lights, purple and gold ornaments and a star. The small town of Paradise was leveled in the Camp Fire that started Nov. 8 in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It killed at least 85 people. Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood was decimated in one of several wildfires that sparked in wine country last year. MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) The Latest on a U.S. Senate special election runoff in Mississippi (all times local): 7 p.m. The two candidates in a Mississippi U.S. Senate runoff are rallying supporters a day before President Donald Trump visits the state to campaign for Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith spoke to Republican stalwarts at a Meridian museum Sunday afternoon supported by U.S. Sen. Jodi Ernst, an Iowa Republican. Democrat Mike Espy also spoke in the eastern Mississippi city. He was introduced by Ayanna Pressley, who will join Congress next year after unseating a Democratic incumbent in a primary. Attention on the race intensified after a video of Hyde-Smith surfaced praising a supporter by saying she'd attend a "public hanging" for him. Hyde-Smith has apologized. She is focusing her final pitch on preserving "our conservative values" in a state dominated by political conservatives. Espy tells voters Hyde-Smith's election would be bad for the state's image and says he'd support expanded health care and work with both parties. ___ 6 p.m. U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama is telling Mississippi voters that he and fellow Democrat Mike Espy could work together to be moderate voices and bridge the partisan divide in Washington. Jones spoke Sunday evening on a conference call for the Espy campaign. Espy is a former congressman and former U.S. agriculture secretary. He is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a special election runoff. Hyde-Smith has been serving under a temporary appointment since April, when longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran retired. The winner of Tuesday's runoff gets the final two years of the term Cochran started. Some of the same people who worked on Jones' campaign in 2017 in Alabama are now working on Espy's. Jones did what Espy is trying to do win as a Democrat in a conservative, Republican-dominated state. ____ 1:44 p.m. President Donald Trump has tweeted support for U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a day before he plans to campaign with the fellow Republican in Mississippi ahead of her runoff against a Democrat. Story continues Trump tweeted Sunday that Hyde-Smith "is an outstanding person who is strong on the Border, Crime, Military ... Needed in D.C." The two are to appear together Monday in the northeastern city of Tupelo and later Monday at a Gulf Coast rally in Biloxi. Hyde-Smith is the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress under a temporary Senate appointment since April. She's up against Democratic former Congressman Mike Espy, a former U.S. agriculture secretary vying to become the first black senator from the state since Reconstruction. Tuesday's winner gets the final two years of a six-year term. Los Angeles (AFP) - Central American migrants who ran into walls of security personnel, razor wire and tear gas at the US border in Tijuana, Mexico on Sunday chose possibly the hardest place to pass. Just a few miles (kilometers) away high walls and dense patrolling give way to relatively easily scaled fencing. But even then, they would have faced rugged terrain and a stepped-up presence by US Border Patrol agents. The 2,000 mile (3,200 kilometer) border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico has long defied efforts to seal it off, due to a mix of politics and sheer geography. In the 12 months to September 30, the US Customs and Border Protection apprehended or blocked 521,090 people from entering the country illegally. There are no good estimates of how many get through, but it is likely hundreds per day. President Donald Trump has demanded the whole border be fenced, a near-impossible task. Since 2006 the government has fenced off around 700 miles with vehicle barriers and fences, from eight to 30 feet (2.4 meters-9.1 meters) high. Nearly all of that is in three states: California, New Mexico and Arizona, where the border is relatively straight and most of the land on the US side is government-owned. The longest stretch, the Mexico border with Texas, is marked by the sinuous Rio Grande River, whose loops and bights make a border-hugging fence impractical. Moreover, most of the land along the border is privately owned, and many landowners object to fencing off their property from the river. In addition, in some urban areas there is heavy traffic by people who cross the border every day for school, work and family business. - Into a no-man's land - Nevertheless, at the beginning of 2018 Trump demanded Congress budget $25 billion to fence the entire border. So far $1.6 billion has been allocated for new walls to be constructed in two areas with the heaviest populations. One is at Tijuana, Mexico, where the caravan of several thousand Central American migrants is trying to pass to the San Diego, California area on the north side. Story continues That is already one of the most difficult sections of the border to cross successfully, with two and sometimes three parallel fences, now reinforced with razor wire. The 42 people US officials said were arrested Sunday crossing the border only breached a primary fence into a kind of no-man's-land on the US side, never reaching a second fence. The second section being reinforced under Trump's wall program is the Rio Grande Valley, the easternmost stretch of the border near McAllen, Texas. In between are large areas with no effective barriers. But searing deserts, towering mountains and brutal drug smugglers make passage a highly risky undertaking. Increasingly, too, instead of walls the US has installed border lights and cameras and deployed drones for monitoring, increasing the chance of being caught. Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday tried to take the heat out of mass anti-government demonstrations, as a spokesman for the movement said there would be another show of strength on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Saturday. Macron said he had heard the anger expressed by the protests and would seek to bolster people's spending power but refused to change course from trying to make France greener. The 40-year-old centrist acknowledged that many struggling households felt penalised by years of rising fuel taxes, the spark for road blockades and demonstrations over the past 10 days. Macron offered minor concessions, saying he would propose a mechanism to adjust the tax increases if prices were also being pushed up by rising oil prices internationally -- as they have been for much of this year. And he called for a three-month national consultation to draw up a roadmap for accelerating France's transition away from fossil fuels, which he insisted would remain his overall objective. "What I've taken from these last few days is that we shouldn't change course, because it is the right one and necessary," he told lawmakers at the presidential palace in Paris. In an hour-long speech, Macron repeated several times that he had understood the anger expressed by hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets wearing high-visibility yellow jackets this month. He conceded that many French people felt that taxes were "imposed from above" and promised to accelerate the work of the government to lighten the load for working families and cut public spending. Environment Minister Francois de Rugy later met members of the movement. After the meeting, one of its spokesmen, Eric Drouet, said protesters would return to the Champs-Elysees on Saturday just as they did last week. "The French are not at all convinced" by Macron's announcements, he said at the end of the talks, calling also for a new meeting with "the government's spokesperson or the prime minister". Story continues "There will be a gathering like last Saturday on the Champs-Elysees. The wish of all the yellow vests is to continue every Saturday like that on the Champs-Elysees," he added. - 'Who's going to pay?' - But beyond fuel taxes -- set to increase again in January -- some of the most frequent complaints from the "yellow vests" is Macron's perceived elitism and his pro-business policies. "I have seen, like many French people, the difficulties for people who have to drive a lot and have problems making ends meet at the end of the month," Macron said. "I believe very profoundly that we can transform this anger into the solution." Acknowledging that protesters worry about surviving "the end of the month" in contrast to his government's desire to stave off "the end of the world", he promised: "We are going to deal with both." Last Saturday's protests saw barricades and tear gas on the Champs-Elysees. Many participants have called for Macron to reimpose a wealth tax on high earners, repealed after the former investment banker took office last year. "Macron stays his course, so do we!" a group of around 50 protesters chanted Tuesday at a roundabout in Tregueux, western France. "He's found a solution for saving the environment and being more energy efficient, but who's going to pay for it? Us, like always," said Benoit Julou, a 44-year-old real estate agent at the protest. - Cutting down on nuclear - Macron also used the speech on France's energy transition to announce a programme for reducing France's reliance on nuclear power. The government will shut down 14 of France's 58 nuclear reactors by 2035, with between four and six closed by 2030, he announced. The total includes the previously announced shutdown of France's two oldest reactors in Fessenheim, eastern France. Macron said Fessenheim, which came online in 1977 and is still operating despite the plant's programmed 40-year lifespan, would now close in mid-2020. "Reducing the role of nuclear energy does not mean renouncing it," Macron said, not least because it will help France meet its carbon emission targets as part of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. France relies on nuclear power for 72 percent of its electricity needs. The government wants to reduce this to 50 percent by 2035 by developing more renewable energy sources. Macron said wind power electricity output would triple by 2030, and solar output would increase fivefold, helped by a boost for renewable energy development to seven to eight billion euros a year from five billion currently. He also announced that France would close its remaining four coal-fired power plants by 2022 as part of anti-pollution efforts. Police fired an estimated 5,000 tear gas grenades in running battles with protesters who lit dozens of fires - Corbis News President Emmanuel Macron of France warned that war scenes on the Champs-Elysees last weekend aired by the worlds media risked tarnishing the countrys rising reputation abroad. His words came two days after barricades were torched, traffic lights felled and luxury shop windows smashed on the worlds most famous avenue in Paris as violence by fringe groups marred larger anti-government protests around the country. Luxury brand Dior said it was filing a legal complaint against persons unknown for an estimated million euros in damage it sustained by the rioters on the Champs-Elysees, where police fired over 5,000 tear gas grenades in running battles with so-called yellow jacket protesters who lit dozens of fires. "One shouldn't underestimate the shock to people, in France and abroad, of seeing in the media what looked like war scenes," Mr Macron was quoted as saying during a cabinet meeting. Dozens of the 101 people detained faced expedited trials on Monday. The government has blamed "ultra-right" agitators for much of the violence in Paris. Budget minister Gerald Darmanin even branded troublemakers "the brown plague in a controversial allusion to the Nazis. The "yellow vests" announced on Monday that they were setting up an official eight-person delegation to negotiate with the government. While polls suggest the wider movement is backed by 70 per cent of French, there were signs of cracks on Monday when one of its most prominent founding members said he was creating a splinter group because the main one had been hijacked by the far-Left and Right. One of the movement's founders says it has now been hijacked by far-Left and Right Credit: Le Pictorium / Barcroft Images Finance minister Bruno Le Maire warned that two weeks of blockages was taking a severe toll on the economy and promised to help businesses through a slump in activity that is down by up to 50 per cent in some cases. Mr Macron breezed through his first reforms but has been caught off guard by the amorphous unrest that has sprung up over France in the past two weeks. Story continues What started as a social media gripe about upcoming hikes in green taxes on diesel and petrol has morphed into a wider revolt against basic living costs by mainly provincial and peri-urban France against the urban elite many say Mr Macron represents. His attempts at offering 500 million in sweeteners failed to stem the yellow jackets' blockades of roads and roundabouts. The president is due to address the nation on Tuesday and outline what his aides said would be a new "social pact" for green transition. On Monday his government announced a multi-billion-euro plan to boost collective transport and electric vehicles. However, Mr Macron has made it clear he will not backtrack on fuel taxes. The fury in the room was palpable as UK members of parliament and politicians from the around the world grilled a top Facebook executive in London over disinformation, fake news and privacy on the social media platform. Their main question was: Where is Mark Zuckerberg? The so-called International Grand Committee with politicians from the UK and eight other countries, including Canada, Argentina, France and Brazil were raising concerns about how data harvesting and fake news on Facebook could hurt modern day democracy. Yet Facebooks (FB) CEO Zuckerberg was absent, declining to attend on two occasions. Instead, he sent Facebooks vice president of policy solutions, Richard Allan. The group released a tweet on Tuesday at the start of the meeting, highlighting Zuckerbergs absence with a photo of his empty seat: 9 countries. 24 official representatives. 447 million people represented. One question: Where is Mark Zuckerberg? 9 countries. 24 official representatives. 447 million people represented. One question: where is Mark Zuckerberg? pic.twitter.com/BK3KrKvQf3 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (@CommonsCMS) November 27, 2018 We represent over 400 million people and to not have your CEO sit in that chair there is an offence to all of us in this room, and really our citizens as well, Bob Zimmer, a Canadian member of parliament, said to Allan. Allan said he took responsibility for Zuckerbergs absence at this committee, noting his CEO had already appeared before the European Parliament and two US congressional committees, along with other hearings. Our intent is to be there. To answer the questions, he said. For some appearances, Mr. Zuckerberg has made himself available, but not for every appearance. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declined to face questioning at Tuesdays International Grand Committee hearing in the UK. Photo: Marlene Awaad/Getty Images Allan acknowledged the committees range of concerns, including the threat of foreign interference in elections and the spread of hateful messages, which had led to violence in some nations. Many politicians raised concerns about user privacy in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Story continues Facebook is being investigated by lawmakers in Britain after consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked on Donald Trumps presidential campaign, obtained the personal data of 87 million users from a researcher, drawing attention to the use of data analytics in politics. While we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions seem to have been upended by frat boy billionaires from California, said Charlie Angus, a Canadian member of parliament. The UK, European Union and a range of other nations have become aligned in their desire to regulate and rein in the influence of Facebook as a series of scandals have come to light. Allan said Facebook welcomed the chance to work with lawmakers on social media regulations. But Angus was unhappy with the prospect of Facebook playing a part in setting the rules. Dont you see youve lost public trust and cannot be trusted to police yourselves? he said. The event is being held just days after Britains parliament seized confidential Facebook documents from the developer of a now-defunct tech firm, a move that was considered unusually aggressive. Damian Collins, in charge of the hearing and committee, said in a Sunday tweet that he had reviewed the documents. Under UK law & parliamentary privilege we can publish papers if we choose to as part of our inquiry, he said. Facebook has cautioned Collins that these documents, from 2013 and 2014, were compiled as part of a meritless legal case that the small tech company was bringing against Facebook, and the documents were sealed by the American courts, meaning they werent supposed to be seen by outsiders. Facebook said in March it would overhaul its privacy setting tools to put users more in control of their information. Photo: Mladen Antonov/Getty Images Facebook, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has faced a barrage of criticism from users and lawmakers after it said last year that Russian agents used its platform to spread disinformation before and after the 2016 US presidential election, an accusation Moscow denies. During the hearing, Allan repeatedly declined to give an example of a person or app banned from Facebook for misuse of data, aside from the GSR app which gathered data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. With files from Reuters and the Associated Press Within a period of 10 days in the month of October, 2018 three neonatal deaths and one maternal deaths were reported from the Chilaw District General Hospital, raising concern as to whether something was seriously wrong in the medical set-up. Rasika Jeewani, a 34-year-old mother and her baby died on October 28. According to reports, her husband Aruna Priyanga says that she was in good health when she was admitted to the hospital. They had requested for a caesarean operation to deliver the baby, but the doctors had opted for normal delivery. Both mother and the baby had died later. Priyanga complains that the doctors had not considered their request and demands the authorities to do a handwriting test to determine whether the handwriting in the admission card was his wifes. He says that his wife had requested a caesarean operation. Following the death of the mother and child, another neonatal death occurred. The baby of Tania Kalhari (21) died on November 04. The hospital authorities had claimed that the mother had diabetes and the condition led to the death of the baby. The next day, November 05, another baby died at the same hospital during delivery. This was the baby of Periyandi Wathani, a 30-year-old mother from Udappuwa in Arachchikattuwa. She had been admitted to the hospital on October 24 for the birth of her second child. Wathanis baby was buried the next day, on November 06, without autopsy being performed. Following the three deaths and accusations made by the patients, the Acting Director of the hospital Dr. L. Poddalgoda told the media that he had admitted that the deaths were unusual. He had said that an investigation was underway to determine whether these deaths were caused by any germ or due to negligence of the staff. Investigation produces nothing The Daily Mirror spoke to the Acting Director, who said that they had conducted an investigation, but nothing was found. He said that one baby was immature and already dead at the time of delivery, while one of the others had died; due to what they believed was a congenital bleeding disorder. They had done two diagnoses to find the cause of death. Asked why the doctors had done a normal delivery when Jeewani, the mother, had signed for a c-section operation, the director said that usually most mothers requested for a caesarean while they were awaiting delivery. He said it was not the patient, but the consultant who had to decide whether to do a normal delivery or a C-section. He also said the blood pressure of the mother was under control. Priyanga, the husband of Jeewani, spoke about the death. She was admitted on October 24 to the Chilaw Hospital. She was there for three days and was taken to the theatre on October 27, about 2.30 p.m. My wife signed for a Caesarean operation, but the doctors had opted for normal delivery. This led to her death. I think she would have been alive if they did a Caesarean operation because she had high blood pressure, he lamented. According to him, the doctors had said that they were doing only a limited number of Cesarean operations. Mothers who opt for normal delivery are often left alone and people say that some of the labour room nurses are not friendly. I heard that more babies had died in the hospital after the death of my wife and the baby. The authorities should take action immediately. Maybe she was just another patient for them, but she was my wife. It is not worth to risk my wifes life for anyones carelessness, said a sobbing husband. We are operating a school service van, and the children in the van are inquiring about her. They still cry and ask me to make a complaint with the police. Anyway, no one can bring her back to life. I have lost her, but I dont want it to happen to any other mother or child he said between sobs. According to media reports such tragedies have taken place even earlier at the Chilaw Hospital. M. Sajeewa Shriyanthi Silva (34) in Rambepitiya, had died after delivering twins in a C- section surgery at the Chilaw Hospital. She had died during a complex operation in October 2014, according to news appearing in a website under the headline, Woman dies after Caesarean Operation in Chilaw. The husband of the deceased had said that the hospital had not been able to provide the assistance of a VOG, which he cited as the reason for the death of his wife. On September 09, 2016 a news item accompanied by a video reported the death of 51-year-old Jude Francis in Julianwatta, Chilaw. The report said that Francis was allegedly pushed out of the hospital by the security officers because they thought he was drunk. He had then fallen and hit his head when he was pushed out. The autotsy was done at the Negombo District General Hospital and the cause of death was found to be internal bleeding, in the head. A series of deaths during delivery gives a clear indication that something is seriously wrong and immediate action is needed to stop whatever is causing these deaths. Mel B and Geri (PA Images) Mel Bs promotional tour for her memoir Brutally Honest continues. Just a day after making the somewhat surprising admission that Eddie Murphy is the love of her life, shes now hinted that one of her fellow Spice Girls may be lying about her age. The Spice Girls (minus Victoria Beckham) are due to tour the UK in 2019, but it looks like there may already be a rift between Mel B and Geri Horner. While promoting her book on Tuesdays Loose Women, Mel B said she has no idea how old Geri Horner is. Horner is believed to have been born in August 1972, making her 46-years-old. The thing is Geri has hidden her age for the most part of being a Spice Girl, and when I think about it I still dont know how old Geri is, Mel B told the Loose Women panel. And the rather cutting remarks didnt end there. She went on to say that while Horners date of birth can be found through a Google search, this could also be incorrect. That would be the running joke, and Im sure maybe shes faked it in the past, Im not sure, but I dont think anybody really knows how old she is. The Spice Girls will tour nationwide in 2019, minus Victoria Beckham. (PA Images) You can Google it but I think shes probably given people the wrong age have you, Geri? This swipe came just hours after 43-year-old Mel B made several other digs at Horner during a Heart Radio interview with another fellow Spice Girl Emma Bunton. In a quick fire section of the interview she was asked to say who had the worst breath of the group to which she replied Geri. And when host Jamie Theakston asked: Which Spice Girl annoys you the most? she again replied Geri. It was speculated that Mel B had fallen out with another Spice Girl Victoria Beckham when she dressed as her for Halloween with the mocking sign Not I am not going on tour obviously a reference to Beckham being the only Spice Girl not to participate in the upcoming reunion tour. Read more Spice Girls talk people power and #MeToo Video of Louis Walsh groping Mel B surfaces Mel B admits she was the reason for cancelled concerts By Andrew Osborn and Anton Zverev MOSCOW/KERCH, Crimea (Reuters) - Several senior European politicians on Tuesday raised the possibility of new sanctions against Russia to punish it for capturing three Ukrainian vessels at sea, an incident the West fears could ignite a wider conflict. A Russian minister said further sanctions would solve nothing and that the incident should not be used to derail the Minsk accord, which aims to end fighting in eastern Ukraine between Kiev's forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels. Russian assets have come under pressure on financial markets amid concerns that possible new sanctions could hurt the economy, though the rouble on Tuesday clawed back some earlier losses as investors bet any sanctions would not be swift. Russia opened fire on the Ukrainian boats and then seized them and their crews on Sunday near Crimea - which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Moscow and Kiev have tried to pin the blame on each other for the incident. President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone on Monday that Moscow was ready to provide more details to bolster its version of events. Moscow says Kiev deliberately provoked it in order to trigger a crisis. Merkel, who also spoke on Monday with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, called for de-escalation and dialogue. The United States urged European nations on Tuesday to do more to assist Ukraine in its standoff with Russia. Ukraine has introduced martial law for 30 days in parts of the country it deems most vulnerable to an attack from Russia. It has said its ships did nothing wrong and that it wants the West to impose new sanctions on Moscow. Some of the 24 Ukrainian sailors held by Russia for straying into Russian waters appeared on Russian state TV on Tuesday admitting to being part of a pre-planned provocation. Kiev denounced what it described as forced confessions. A court in Crimea ordered seven of the Ukrainian sailors to be detained for two months pending a possible trial. It was expected to order the other sailors to be detained for the same period in separate hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Their vessels were captured by Russian forces at sea near the Kerch Strait, which is the only outlet to the Sea of Azov and controls access to two major Ukrainian ports. A Reuters reporter at the Crimean port of Kerch where the vessels are being held saw masked armed men on board one of the ships removing boxes of ammunition. Two Russian police officers with automatic rifles stood on the pier where the Ukrainian vessels were moored. The vessels bore traces of collisions and big holes in places. NEW SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA? Senior German conservative Norbert Roettgen, a close Merkel ally, said the European Union may need to toughen its sanctions against Russia, imposed partly over Moscow's annexation of Crimea. Karin Kneissl, foreign minister of Austria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the EU would consider sanctions depending "on the exposition of facts and the further conduct of both parties". Poland and Estonia, both hawkish on Russia, expressed support for more sanctions. Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki told Reuters the incident in the Kerch Strait vindicated Warsaw's call for a more unified Western stance toward Russia. "Russia remains wrongly convinced that the reaction of the West isn't unified... because in energy matters there is one stance and in defense matters there is another," he said, noting that some EU states such as Germany backed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that increases Europe's reliance on Russian gas. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also raised Nord Stream 2 on Tuesday when asked to comment on the Ukraine-Russia spat, saying some European nations should review their support for a project that "helps the Russian government". Nauert also said Europe could more vigorously implement existing sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine. "The United States government has taken a very strong position in... support of Ukraine. We would like other countries to do more as well," she told a regular briefing in Washington. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, speaking during a visit to Berlin, said more sanctions against his country would "not help to solve any problem at all". He suggested Kiev provoked the incident to derail already halting implementation of the Minsk accord in eastern Ukraine, and said Moscow had a keen interest in ending that conflict after absorbing more than a million refugees from the region. EU foreign ministers are due to discuss the crisis on Dec. 10. EU leaders are expected later next month to agree to extend existing sanctions on Russia, diplomats said. Russia's FSB security service released video footage on Tuesday of the captured sailors saying they had ignored Russian orders to stop. At least one appeared to be reading from a script. Ukrainian politicians said the sailors were coerced, rendering their confessions meaningless. The FSB said it had information showing the sailors' mission had been pre-planned by the Ukrainian government and that two intelligence officers from Ukraine's SBU security service had been on board to coordinate the provocation. Vasyl Hrytsak, the head of the SBU, confirmed that his officers were on board to support the military and said one of them had been seriously wounded after Russian aircraft fired missiles at the Ukrainian vessels. (Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets and Matthias Williams in Kiev, Tom Balmforth and Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Tassilo Hummel, Sabina Siebold, Andrea Shalal and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels, John Irish in Paris, Angel Krasimirov in Sofia, Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw, David Alexander and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Gareth Jones) A day after the US shutdown a port of entry on its southwestern border and shot tear gas and pepper spray into crowds of migrants to stop them from crossing illegally, Donald Trump has said Mexico should deport them back to their home countries. Many of the approximately 5,000 migrants camped out in Tijuana, Mexico, are attempting to enter the US through the San Ysidro port near San Diego, California, in order to apply for asylum. US border agents are approving approximately 100 applications per day but tensions over the slow pace came to a head over the weekend. Mr Trump - who also defended the use of tear gas - tweeted: "Mexico should move the flag-waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" Follow live updates below Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Pieces of rebar impaled a migrant mother, causing a non-fatal injury after she fell while attempting to climb over the U.S.-Mexico border wall with her two young children on Friday. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials reported in a Sunday statement that the woman, a 26-year-old Guatemalan native, tried to scale the border fence about a mile from the San Ysidro Port of Entry with her three-year-old and five-year-old. The rebar, a steel reinforcing bar often found in concrete, pierced the young mothers side and buttocks. The segment that the woman climbed is part of a 14-mile stretch of the border wall that is currently under construction to replace decades-old fencing. Border Patrol found the mother and her children around 8:30 p.m. on Friday and EMS immediately administered aid. Once the woman was stabilized, she and her children were driven to a local hospital for treatment. The injuries were not life-threatening. Warning: The photo below is graphic. A 26-year-old Guatemalan mother fell off the border wall while attempting to enter the U.S. undocumented. She pierced her side and buttocks on segments of rebar. (Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection) Entering our country illegally, particularly over our walls is not only dangerous, but also very foolish, San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott said in a statement. This woman placed her own life and her childrens lives in peril. She could have easily died if not for the quick response by our agents and EMS. The mother told officials she was not part of the large migrant caravan camped out near Tijuana, Mexico. The woman and her two children were later released from the hospital into Border Patrol custody. Currently, over 5,000 migrants are being held in limbo in Tijuana, as they wait to apply for asylum. The group of migrants led a peaceful march north to the border this past month to protest the U.S. slow process of asylum claims for Central American migrants. The mayor of Tijuana has called the situation a humanitarian crisis as the group, which includes men, women and children, camp out in tents. The situation escalated on Sunday when some of the migrants attempted to rush the border wall and officials fired tear gas on the crowd. President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen have repeatedly stood by their decision to use tear gas on the migrants, some of whom are toddlers. Story continues Related... Nielsen Doubles Down On Border Patrol Conduct After Tear-Gassing: We Warned You Doctors Say Using Tear Gas On Migrant Children Can Have Severe, Long-Lasting Effects Trump Falsely Claims Border Agents Were Badly Hurt In Migrant Tear Gas Clashes Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Minorities are more interested in starting their own business compared to the rest of the population: Northwestern Mutual survey. Minorities are more interested in starting their own business compared to the rest of the population, according to a new Northwestern Mutual survey. More than 65% of the surveys 8,000 American respondents consider themselves aspiring entrepreneurs, but entrepreneurs of color want to start businesses at a rate of 20% more than their peers. Minorities were also more likely to start successful side hustles that they want to turn into a business. They also took steps to make aspirations a reality: 40% of entrepreneurs of color had assistance from financial advisors, compared to 28% of their white counterparts. And according to Ron Busby, president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers (USBC), a business conference of black chambers of commerce and nationwide small business associations, this increased interest is represented in increased minority entrepreneurship. Going back to the last census in 2012, there were 1.9 million black businesses, Busby said. Now we have 2.6 million. So thats approximately 700,000 black business growth. According to the U.S. Census, Asian-American-owned businesses have increased since 2007 by nearly 30%, to 1.9 million in 2012. According to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic-owned businesses totaled 4.4 million last year, a 33% increase from the 3.3 million highlighted by the Census in 2016. Businesswoman Ivette Mayo, right, of Houston, talks to a customer at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) 32nd annual Convention and Business Expo in Miami Beach, Fla., Tuesday Sept. 20, 2011. The growth of Hispanic-owned businesses is three times higher than any other population group, and four times higher for business owned by Hispanic women, according to the USHCC. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) This increase is understandable to Trevor Wilkins, a principal at Quake Capital, a venture capital firm and startup accelerator. Corporate America is not set up to benefit people of color. Some minorities feel there is a lower glass ceiling than for their white counterparts, Wilkins said. So there are more incentives for them to start their own business. More minority-led companies are also seeking funding, he said: It takes a while to get to the point where you can seek funding. Nobody is getting funded off an idea these days unless they have credentials similar to the Zuckerbergs of the world. Story continues If they are seeking funding and being considered and in some cases getting term sheets it means that these companies are starting to reach a level of maturity that makes investors realize that there is an opportunity there regardless of skin color, he explained. But it is still hard, particularly for black-owned startups to get VC funding, says Busby. Venture capital funding increased in 2018 from last year, according to CB Insights. While that uptick trickles down to minority entrepreneurs, Busby questions if its enough. Black firms will get a small percentage of what they really need, Busby argued. So they have longer startup times so the return on investment isnt as great, or as quickly returned because they dont have the opportunity to accelerate at the same rate as their white peers. Bias at play Money isnt the only hurdle facing minority entrepreneurs. From a founder standpoint, there is an issue of confidence, Wilkins said. To a certain extent, you have racial bias playing a factor. Not seeing people who look like you in the space can be intimidating. Its a sentiment that Busby echoes. Well I hate to say it, but I think discrimination is still a key factor, Busby said. We did research and we found it was a large part in applications being denied or credit not approved. And many are funding themselves. Young people are getting creative. Joint ventures and partnerships where people get together is really helping many of the new startups that were seeing coming from the African-American community, he said. Minority entrepreneurship might be increasing, but both Busby and Wilkins agree more could be done legislatively. Currently, there are programs in place that aim to boost minority entrepreneurship. President Donald Trump, with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., center left, participates in a working session regarding the opportunity zones provided by tax reform in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) In 2017, the White House created opportunity zones, which the Internal Revenue Service describes as an economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment. Theyve made a decision to do the opportunity zones, which is, I guess, a partial solution, Busby said. But they have to be more diligent in ensuring that black businesses get an opportunity to participate. That they dont come into our communities to gentrify without our ability to compete. Favoring certain groups To increase minority entrepreneurship Busby said there needs to be more accountability of procurements when looking at both the private and public sectors. When you no longer account for disadvantaged business, youll see what is happening now, Busby said. Contracting goes towards large firms, and minorities have little representation there. Research from the Center for Responsive Politics shows that women and minority-led businesses only receive a small fraction of federal contracts. The federal government has increasingly awarded more contacts to women and minority-owned businesses since 2008, but of the more than $500 billion awarded to businesses in 2017, less than $50 billion went to minority-owned businesses. Busby said that for black-owned businesses specifically, things have not gotten better with the current administration. Under the current administration, there has been little help to the black community, he explained, adding that the groups that have done well under this current administration include businesses owned by Asian-Americans, women and veterans. According to statement from the Trump administration, the White House is creating a better environment for minority businesses through job training, tax reform, and deregulation. The MBDA [Minority Business Development Association, a government agency] was budgeted to be zeroed out. The USBC fought diligently to keep it funded. They have continued to try and work with the minority community but they are looking at the top 1% or 2% of businesses in that community. After being eliminated in the 2018 budget, the White House restored the agency in its 2019 budget. Washington (AFP) - A Mississippi Republican who drew scorn for making racially insensitive comments managed to hold her US Senate seat Tuesday in the final race of 2018, networks projected, avoiding what could have been an embarrassing setback for President Donald Trump. Incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith was leading Democratic challenger Mike Espy, a former congressman, by 54.4 percent to 45.6 percent with 94 percent of precincts reporting, according to Fox News and NBC. The runoff in the Republican stronghold between Hyde-Smith, who is white, and Espy, who is black, came under national scrutiny when unsettling remarks by the senator -- who said she would attend a "public hanging" for a supporter -- were widely interpreted as alluding to Mississippi's history of lynchings and other racist violence. Hyde-Smith's victory preserves the 53-47 majority that Republicans will hold in the Senate when the new Congress convenes in January, even as Democrats gained at least 39 seats in the House of Representatives, with one race still left to be called. It also allowed Trump to dodge a political bullet in the Deep South, which under normal circumstances is reliable Republican territory. "Congratulations to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith on your big WIN in the Great State of Mississippi," Trump tweeted. "We are all very proud of you!" Trump held a pair of 11th-hour campaign rallies in Mississippi to prop up Hyde-Smith's campaign, which had nearly derailed due to her remarks that Espy and others criticized as racist and un-democratic. "Mr. President, thank you so much for all of your help," Hyde-Smith said during a victory speech, stressing that the race was about preserving the "conservative values" of the state. "Mississippians know me and they know my heart, and thank you for stepping up," she added. - 'Not the end' - Hyde-Smith becomes the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi. She was appointed to the Senate in April to replace Republican Thad Cochran, who stepped down for health reasons, and will now serve the remaining two years of his term. Story continues Democrats were hoping political lightning could strike twice within a year in the South, after Democrat Doug Jones scored a shock Senate upset last December in neighboring Alabama. It was not to be in Mississippi, a state politically divided largely along racial lines, as voters cast ballots in the final Senate contest of the midterm elections and the final referendum on Trump in 2018. Espy sought to frame his defeat as a strong showing for a party seeking to make inroads ahead of 2020 elections in a state where racial tensions still run deep. "Make no mistake -- tonight is the beginning, not the end," tweeted Espy, who once served as agriculture secretary under president Bill Clinton. "When this many people show up, stand up, and speak up, it is not a loss. It is a moment. It is a movement." Hyde-Smith, a former state lawmaker, should have glided to victory. But she startled observers this month when she said she would be "on the front row" if one of her supporters "invited me to a public hanging." Days later she was recorded telling a small group at a university that it would be "a great thing" to suppress votes of liberal students. With Hyde-Smith facing a backlash, Trump told supporters in Biloxi that it was vital to preserve a strong Senate majority in order to defend policies like tax cuts and confirm judges "who will interpret the constitution exactly as written." Democrats reclaiming the House will make it more difficult for Trump to push through his agenda. Experts said black Mississippians would have needed to vote in significantly larger numbers than the white population for underdog Espy to win. He and Hyde-Smith entered a runoff because neither gained a majority in the November 6 election, which featured multiple candidates. Beirut (AFP) - British radio presenter Gavin Ford who hosted one of Lebanon's most popular shows was found dead in his home on Tuesday in an apparent murder, a security source said. An investigation has been opened and "initial information suggests that Ford was murdered", the source told AFP, asking not to be named. Ford's lifeless body was discovered at his home in Beit Meri, a mountain town east of Beirut where his employer Radio One is also based, the national news agency NNA said. Britain's ambassador to Lebanon, Chris Rampling, said he was "shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Gavin Ford, one of Lebanon's most popular morning breakfast hosts". "The thoughts of all at the embassy are with his family, friends and colleagues at this terribly difficult time," he tweeted, also posting a photograph of Ford. Radio One, in a message on social media, said: "We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear Gavin Ford, a member of our team for many joyful years." Neither the police nor his employer elaborated on the cause of his death. Tributes started pouring in on social media for Ford, who had been one of Lebanon's most loved radio hosts for years. Ms. Aroshi Nanayakkara Board Director and Mr. Saman Herath Managing Director officially open the Maharagama branch with the presence of mr. Prashantha Lal de Alwis, Duputy Chairman, Dr. Dilanjan Soysa - a member of the Director Boardand Mr. Andrew Newman Branch Manager , Maharagama. The latest initiative by Siyapatha Finance PLC, one of the leading financial institutions in the country, was made in the bustling town of Maharagama with the opening of its 28th branch located at No. 137 along the Piliyandala Road. The new branch was declared open by the chief guest, Mr.PrashanthaLal De Alwis, the Deputy Chairman of Siyapatha Financeinthe presence of Mr. Dilanjan De Soyza, Miss.AroshiNanayakkara, both of whom are members of the Board of Directors of Siyapatha Finance, Mr. SamanHerath, the Managing Director of Siyapatha Finance, distinguished invitees, customers and other members of the organizations management. Maharagama is a strategic location, which is easily accessible from most parts of the island. It is also a heavily populated city with diversified customers. The town is a growing business hub for textile business in Sri Lanka. The opening of the new branch in Maharagama is of great importance to the organization as our primary aim has and will always be to ensure that the services of Siyapatha Finance are accessible to as many people as possible. Maharagama boasts a high population density and a connection to many other towns in the vicinity, thus by opening a branch in the heart of the town we are able to penetrate further into all the surrounding suburban areas. We have always worked hard to maintain a high standard of service stated Mr. Prashantha Lal De Alwis, the Deputy Chairman of Siyapatha Finance. With the opening of the new branch in Maharagama,Siyapatha Finance will get an opportunity to serve the diversified needs of the customers who reside in the vicinity of the town. Our unique service offering is a combination of a competent staff and innovative financial products said by Mr.SamanHerath, the Managing Director of Siyapatha Finance. The Siyapatha Finance branch inMaharagamais fully equipped to manage allthe services of the company including Fixed Deposits, Leasing, Hire Purchase, Business Loans, Personal Loans, Business Loans, Housing Loans, and Gold Loans as well asFactoring. Siyapatha Finance Trust Assured Mr. Prashantha Lal de Alwis, Duputy Chairman - Siyapatha Finance PLC, addressing the gathering. Mr. Saman Herath, Managing Director - Siyapatha Finance PLC, addressing the gathering. Mr. Prashantha Lal de Alwis, Duputy Chairman - Siyapatha Finance PLC accepted the first transaction of the Maharagama branch, with the presence of Mr. Saman Herath, Managing Director and Mr. Andrew Newman Branch Manager - Maharagama. Siyapatha Finance new branch in - Maharagama. The UK food and drink industry relies on a complex global supply chain. Photo: Simon Dawson/Getty Images Expect more stockpiling in the UK food and drink industry if members of parliament vote against prime minister Theresa Mays Brexit plan and the country braces for a no-deal Brexit. Top executives at Nestle (NESN.VX) and Diageo (DGE.L) outlined their stockpiling initiatives on Tuesday during a question and answer session with politicians in the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee. Nestles director of corporate communications, Ian Rayson, said his company has been planning and stockpiling for some time. He said work had accelerated in the last five months as the company worried about the possibility that the UK could be heading for a no-deal Brexit, which could mean a shift to World Trade Organization (WTO) trading rules outside the European Union. We are stock building at both ends in the UK and EU, he told the committee, but noted that the company was constrained by warehousing space and the short shelf life of some ingredients. The company only had a few weeks of buffer of certain foods and ingredients, he said. He warned that no matter how much companies planned, the problems related to a potential no-deal Brexit would be very severe. Diageo, the parent company behind Guinness beer, Johnnie Walker whiskey and Smirnoff vodka, hasnt started stockpiling yet. But planning is already underway in case the country looks headed for a no-deal Brexit, said the companys corporate relations director, Dan Mobley. Mobley told the committee that Diageo employees have done extensive planning on the logistics surrounding stockpiling and shipping. As we get closer to March, if it looks likely that were going to face a chaotic Brexit, that will pose some challenges for us and we will need to work through, in detail, market by market, whether we need to increase shipments ahead of that moment, he said. Its critical for us to [ensure] a continuity of supply. Many UK-based companies are preparing for the risk of interruptions to the flow of goods and parts across borders once Britain leaves the European Union in late March 2019. Story continues Britains Topps Tiles (TPT.L) separately announced on Tuesday plans to invest 3m ($3.8m) to stock up on its most popular products to shield it against supply chain disruptions from Brexit. With files from Reuters Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inaugurated a Czech House in Jerusalem on Tuesday alongside Czech President Milos Zeman, with both hoping it would serve as a prelude to moving the country's embassy. Czech House, promoting tourism and trade, has been portrayed as a first step toward moving the European country's embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city of Jerusalem, as US President Donald Trump did in May. But the Czech government has also said it will respect the common position of the European Union, which opposes such a move. "In the near future, I firmly believe, and deep in my heart I do believe, we shall overcome," Zeman said at the inauguration ceremony during a state visit to Israel. "There will be... not only the embassy but also a nice Czech tavern with good Czech beer." Netanyahu compared the Czech Republic's support of Israel as similar in spirit to that of his country's most important ally, the United States. "No one in Europe understands so readily and immediately the situation of Israel and the challenge of Israel," Netanyahu said. Zeman is a strong backer of Israel and has long favoured moving the Czech embassy to Jerusalem. In an address to Israel's parliament on Monday, Zeman said he would push to move the embassy, but acknowledged the decision depended on his government. Apart from Czech House, the Czech Republic in May also reopened an honorary consulate in Jerusalem following its closure in 2016 due to the death of the honorary consul. 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. International consensus -- including the EU -- has been that the city's status must be negotiated by the two sides. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Legspinner Yasir Shah's rich match haul of 14 wickets earned Pakistan victory against New Zealand by an innings and 16 runs in the second test on Tuesday. After a career-best 8-41 to help dismiss New Zealand for 90, Shah grabbed 6-143 as the Black Caps followed on and were all out for 312 after tea on the fourth day. Shah equaled the Pakistan record for wickets in a test with fast bowler Imran Khan, who achieved his feat in 1982 against Sri Lanka in Lahore. "I haven't bowled as well as this, especially with the pitch offering turn and bounce like it did," Shah said. "The attempt was to put the disappointment of the first test behind and compete better. We just needed to keep getting wickets, and thanks God that happened." Centuries by Haris Sohail and Babar Azam put Pakistan in command after making 418-5 declared. Shah then went to work. He has 22 wickets in the series, and needs five more to reach 200 in his career. They should come in Abu Dhabi, where the teams return for the third test and series decider from Monday. New Zealand won the first test there by four runs. "Yasir's spell was the best that I have ever seen in my years of test cricket," Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed said. "The responsibility was first with the batsmen to make some runs, and they delivered." Ross Taylor (82), Henry Nicholls (77) and Tom Latham (50) led New Zealand's resistance, but the damage was wrought in the first innings. "We batted better in the second innings, but that session yesterday when Yasir put us under tremendous pressure and put the ball in the right areas (did us in)," New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said. "He is an exceptional bowler, and it's important we learn some lessons quickly because we will face all the bowlers again (in the third test)." Forced to follow on, New Zealand resumed on 131-2 and Taylor and Latham were out in the first session. Story continues Latham was contentiously adjudged caught behind off Hasan Ali soon after completing his half-century. Umpire Paul Reiffel referred to third umpire Ian Gould to confirm. Latham played a defensive shot close to his front pad, and as the ball passed the bat the replay technology spiked. However, Latham walked off the field in disbelief. After lasting for 158 deliveries and hitting four boundaries, his dismissal ended an 80-run, third-wicket stand with Taylor. Two balls later, Nicholls successfully reviewed an lbw decision against him as video showed Hasan's delivery would have missed the leg stump. Taylor completed his half-century off 54 balls when he drove Hasan through the point boundary off the first ball of the day. But Taylor went on the defense for a while before he played a reckless sweep, half an hour before lunch, and top-edged offspinner Bilal Asif to deep backward square leg. Taylor's innings featured seven fours and a six and came off 128 balls. New Zealand reached 222-4 at lunch. Shah then trapped BJ Watling on 27 off the second new ball after lunch. Hasan returned to accept the wicket of Colin de Grandhomme for the third time in the series. De Grandhomme went for an unnecessary pull shot and played onto the fast bowler on 14. Ish Sodhi also gave his wicket away when he tried to sweep Shah, missed the line of the ball and was clean bowled for 4. Nicholls was undone four overs after tea by Hasan's sharp delivery which nipped back into the left-hander to knock back the off stump. Shah wrapped up the innings soon after by claiming the wickets of Neil Wagner and Trent Boult. Hasan finished the innings with 3-46. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Paris (AFP) - France's angry "yellow vest" movement made headlines over the weekend when violent protests engulfed the Champs-Elysees, with tear gas and smoke from burning barricades. But who are the protesters, and what will become of them? What are these protests about? The movement sprang up spontaneously last month against hikes in car fuel taxes, with supporters donning the luminous safety vests carried in all French vehicles. Backed by people in small towns and the countryside where most get around by car, it has snowballed into a wider movement against President Emmanuel Macron's alleged bias towards the rich and big cities. After nationwide road blockades that have left two people dead in accidents, last weekend's violent demo in Paris symbolised a perceived gulf between urban elites and "left-behind" provincial France. Supporters' goals are amorphous. Many complain they barely scrape by and get scant public services in exchange for some of the highest tax bills in Europe. Some want to reverse Macron's tax cuts for the rich while others want more measures to help the poorest. Many have called on the business-friendly president, a former investment banker, to resign. What makes these protests different? France has a long history of protest movements which have flared and waned, opposing everything from fuel taxes to gay marriage. Analysts say what makes the yellow vests unusual is the way their movement has coalesced without leaders, organised via social media. They also hail from diverse social and political backgrounds, though the government has blamed far-right supporters for the violence on the Champs-Elysees. As a broad church, it stands in contrast to another spontaneous movement that spread across France in 2016, "Nuit Debout" or "Up All Night", which was leftist. "There are people who voted for the (far-right) National Rally, but also lots of people who don't vote and people who voted for Macron," said Danielle Tartakowsky, a professor of contemporary history at Paris 8 university. Story continues Can they last? For now, the yellow vests enjoy wide public support: a poll last week showed around 70 percent of respondents found the protests justified. A first day of action on November 17 saw some 300,000 people turn out nationwide to man roadblocks, with sporadic protests continuing through the week. But last Saturday only about 100,000 took part, prompting suggestions that the protests are on the wane. "The movement could well disappear by attrition," said Jerome Saint-Marie, head of research agency Pollingvox. "If next Saturday there are only 50,000 people, it's over," he predicted. But what began as what Saint-Marie called a "spontaneous and horizontal" movement has now indicated it is seeking to become more organised. The yellow vests announced Monday that they are nominating an eight-person delegation to negotiate with the government. "There is clearly a will to organise themselves. What remains to be seen is how Emmanuel Macron will respond," said Tartakowsky. What are the risks for Macron? Macron came to power vowing to restore trust in politics, but the protests have brought widespread anger over his pro-business policies and perceived elitism to the streets. With approval ratings languishing at around 30 percent, many protesters regard him as arrogant and out of touch with people living modest lives in provincial France. His government attempted to head off the protests this month by announcing a series of measures to help poorer families pay the bills, but to no avail. Macron is set to address the nation Tuesday, insisting he will push on with making France's economy greener but promising to make the transition less painful for the poor. But no major policy announcements are expected -- and no reversal of the controversial fuel tax hikes, with more set to come in January. Analysts say Macron faces a tricky balancing act in listening to people's anger while bringing an end to road blockades that are hitting businesses in the run-up to Christmas. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said large retailers had suffered a 35 percent drop in revenues on the first day of the protests, and an 18 percent drop on Saturday. He vowed Monday that the government would restore traffic to normal so that "the country can resume its economic activity". "I don't see how Emmanuel Macron can give in without major political costs," Sainte-Marie said. Whatever becomes of the yellow vest movement, he said: "What this movement has given birth to -- this dissatisfaction and anger with government policies and with Emmanuel Macron -- will not go away quickly." Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari will visit troops on the frontlines of the Boko Haram conflict on Wednesday and is to dispatch his defence minister to Chad following a jump in attacks. The presidential visit comes after months of deadly raids by the IS-affiliated jihadists on military bases which have left scores of troops dead or missing in the volatile northeast. The 75-year-old former general, who is running for re-election in February presidential polls, is under pressure over claims the nine-year Islamist insurgency was close to defeat. In a posting on Twitter on Monday, presidential spokesman Bashir Ahmad said Buhari would attend an army conference in Maiduguri as well as address troops to boost their morale. "President Muhammadu Buhari has cancelled his planned official visit to Benin, Edo State tomorrow, to visit Maiduguri, Borno State on Wednesday," he wrote. Also this week, Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali will hold talks with his Chadian counterpart General Daoud Yaya over "strengthening the operations" of the Multinational Joint Task Force fighting Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region. AFP has reported at least 17 attempts to overrun army bases since July. Many of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram. - A change in strategy - In the latest attack on November 18, militants raided a base in Metele village near the border with Niger leaving at least 43 soldiers dead, although troops who survived put the death toll at more than 100. "There is need for a change in the war strategies. Our troops should be more proactive rather than reactive," said security consultant Don Okereke to AFP. "We have to find out why the insurgents have more superior firearms than our soldiers. What has happened to our huge defence budget?" When he was elected in 2015, Buhari pledged to end the insurgency and has used military successes against the militants as a sign of his administration's progress. But the recent assaults have underscored the continued threat Boko Haram poses to the impoverished region. More than 27,000 people have died since the start of the insurgency in Nigeria's remote northeast in 2009 and 1.8 million are still homeless after fleeing the violence. BERLIN/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview published on Tuesday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had asked for a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and that there was currently no reason not to meet him. "Yes, he has asked Erdogan on the phone, whether they could meet in Buenos Aires. Erdogan's answer was 'Let's see'," Cavusoglu told Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Erdogan and Prince Mohammed will attend the G20 meeting in Argentina later this week. "At the moment there is no reason not to meet with the crown prince," Cavusoglu said. Saudi-Turkish relations have been strained by the killing last month of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said the prince had no knowledge of the killing, which Turkey says was carried out at the Saudi consulate by a squad of 15 Saudi agents which included a member of Prince Mohammed's security team. Erdogan has said the killing was ordered by the highest level of Saudi leadership but ruled out that it had come from King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on the 33-year-old crown prince. U.S. President Donald Trump said last week Washington would remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia despite saying that Prince Mohammed may have known about the plan to murder Khashoggi. Asked if he knew for sure who in Riyadh gave the order to kill Khashoggi, Cavusoglu said that the team would not have acted on its own, but could not say anything else without proof. Cavusoglu said Riyadh had offered to send identikit photos of local helpers who assisted in the cover-up. "Why identikit pictures? The Saudis know the names," he said. Turkey says it has recordings related to the killing which it shared with Western allies. Cavusoglu said he had listened to the recordings and that Khashoggi was killed within seven minutes. "It was premeditated murder," he told the German newspaper, rather than a last resort after they failed to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia. "It can be heard how the forensics expert instructs the others: they should listen to music while he cuts up the body. One notices how he enjoys it." (Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and Daren Butler; Writing by Sarah Dadouch; editing by Dominic Evans) Washington (AFP) - The new North American Free Trade Agreement, which binds Canada, the United States and Mexico, will be signed on the margins of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this weekend, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Tuesday. Kudlow said US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believed the renamed US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would support the auto industry and its employees. "That deal will be signed in Argentina," he said. In Ottawa, Trudeau's office said the parties were "tracking toward" signing the pact on November 30, but added that details were still being finalized. "We're still discussing what a signing ceremony would look like," a senior official said, adding that in the meantime, "the scrub of the legal text continues." Mike Espy, Cindy Hyde-Smith (Photos: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters, Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) JACKSON, Miss. Capping a heated campaign fought largely on racial politics, Mississippis runoff election for U.S. Senate wound its way to a finish Tuesday after dueling election-eve rallies urged voter turnout in a race that went from safely Republican to too close to call. On one side of Mississippi was President Trump, dispatched at the last minute for what Republicans described as a life-saving mission to bail out Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican appointee whose campaign to be the states first elected female lawmaker in Washington was thrown off course when she was captured making comments that invoked the states dark history of racism. In two stops, Tupelo and Biloxi, Trump sought to change the subject and rally the GOP base in the state, which he won by 18 points two years ago. He cast the election as less about Hyde-Smith than about his own fate and agenda an argument Republicans hoped would be enough to push the embattled Hyde-Smith across the finish line. This elections about jobs and judges, borders and protecting the blessings of freedom and prosperity for our children, Trump declared in Tupelo before a largely white crowd. This is what its about. Across the state was Mike Espy, a former congressman and Clinton administration official who is vying to be the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi in nearly four decades and the first African-American since Reconstruction. Espy spent the last hours before Election Day at a praise and worship service at a predominately African-American church in Jackson, where he delivered an impassioned speech recalling the racism he endured as a child growing up in rural Mississippi. Senate candidate Mike Espy at a voting rally at New Horizon Church in Jackson, Miss. (Photo: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters) Speaking to a mostly black audience as part of his campaigns intense effort to turn out the African-American vote ahead of Tuesdays election, Espy cast himself as someone who tried to avoid race as an issue in the campaign and who has spent his career working to bridge lingering racial divisions in a state still reckoning with its Jim Crow past. Story continues Blacks and whites may have come to America in different ships, Espy said, but we are all on the same boat now. He told the crowd he was running to represent everyone irrespective of race, irrespective of gender, irrespective of party, irrespective of religion. I want to be the vehicle of progress in Mississippi. Across the chasm of racial acrimony, we are just trying to rise up from all the noise, from all the division, from all the dysfunction, Espy declared. And make sure everybody in Mississippi knows: If we gonna rise, we gotta rise together. Espys speech came in the final hours of a tumultuous campaign for a seat that was regarded as safely Republican as recently as two weeks ago. But the runoff election was thrown into disarray when a video clip emerged earlier this month showing Hyde-Smith praising a cattle rancher at a campaign event in Tupelo by saying that if the rancher invited her to a public hanging, Id be on the front row. To many, the comment invoked images of lynchings vigilante killings, overwhelmingly of blacks, carried out by mobs to terrorize or impose extrajudicial punishment. The NAACP counts 581 lynchings in Mississippi between 1882 and 1968, the most of any state. A billboard reminding voters about the Mississippi Senate runoff election in Vicksburg, Miss. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) That comment was followed by another campaign remark in which she mused about making it a little more difficult for liberal college students to vote. A 2014 Facebook photo circulated of her in a Confederate Army hat as she visited the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who lived out his final days in Biloxi. Her own history of attending a segregation academy a private school created as an alternative to the integrated public schools was publicized and got more attention after it was disclosed that she sent her own daughter to such a school. Hyde-Smith, a former state senator and state agriculture secretary, seemed flummoxed by how to respond to the racial controversy. She issued a statement accusing her opponents of a political smear. But she didnt initially apologize, and she dropped off the campaign trail almost entirely in the last week. Last Tuesday, in her one and only debate with Espy previously the states first elected African-American member of Congress since Reconstruction Hyde-Smith read from a carefully worded statement that seemed designed not to alienate her most conservative supporters. For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize, Hyde-Smith said. There was no ill will. She accused Espy of twisting her words and turning them into a weapon to be used against her. No one twisted your comments, because your comments were live; it came out of your mouth, Espy shot back. I dont know whats in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth. While Trump made no mention of the controversy on the stump Tuesday, he defended Hyde-Smith to reporters, calling her a good person and saying her apology was genuine. I know where her heart is, and her heart is good, Trump said. President Trump encourages voters to support Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in her runoff against Democrat Mike Espy at a rally Monday in Biloxi, Miss. (Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP) How the race controversy will affect the race is unknown. While people on both sides say the politics in deeply conservative Mississippi favor Hyde-Smith, Republicans acknowledge the uproar has damaged her campaign and given Espy momentum that puts the seat in play. A GOP source told Yahoo News that internal polling had Hyde-Smith up by just five points. There was hope that Trumps visit would help her, however, especially among ultra-conservative Republicans who had voted in the three-way general election for her Tea Party rival, Chris McDaniel, who had finished third. Some had threatened to sit out the election in protest. On Monday, dozens of GOP operatives flooded the state, including staffers for the Republican National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee who fanned out to aid Hyde-Smiths ground game. They were up against several Democratic groups who have been working on Espys behalf to get out the African-American vote, including in low-turnout areas like the Mississippi Delta. On Monday night, Republicans were still predicting a narrow Hyde-Smith win. But another GOP operative with close ties to the national and state party wasnt so sure. He pointed to the uncertainty of the African-American turnout but also to the open question of whether moderate Republicans might defect to Espy or not vote at all in protest of Hyde-Smiths racial views. On Monday, Megan Millroy, a founder of the Mississippi-based Republican Women for Progress, issued a public letter calling Hyde-Smith unfit to represent the state in Washington. Im not saying you have to vote for Mike Espy, but I am saying that if you love our state and want to see it represented as best as it can, you should not vote for Cindy Hyde-Smith, Millroy wrote. In Jackson, there was another ominous sign of how heated the issue of race has become in the Senate contest. On Monday morning, police found several nooses hanging from trees on the grounds of the Capitol, with signs that appeared to criticize Hyde-Smiths response to her public hanging remark. A noose hangs on a tree on the state Capitol grounds in Jackson, Miss., on Monday. A Mississippi official says two nooses and six signs were found on Capitol grounds. (Photo: WLBT-TV via AP) Were hanging nooses to remind people that times havent changed, one sign read, according to a photo posted on Facebook by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the incident. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: A migrant family, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the United States, run away from tear gas in front of the border wall between the U.S and Mexico in Tijuana on Sunday (DM) US Border Patrol shot tear gas and rubber bullets at a group of migrants, including toddlers, as members of the caravan tried to storm the border. Children were screaming and coughing in the mayhem at the San Ysidro Port of Entry when American agents tried to push the surging Central Americans back. They started to use crowd control on Sunday afternoon when migrants tried to cut a hole in the concertina wire gap on the Mexican side of the fence. The tensions prompted US officials to close the crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, stopping thousands of people travelling legitimately between the US and Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she would not put up with this lawlessness and threatened harsh punishments on anyone who anyone who destroys federal property, endangers our frontline operators, or violates our sovereignty. She later added that border personnel were struck by projectiles thrown by caravan members US, (Daily Mail), 26 November 2018 Piers Morgan described gender fluidity as a farce during a heated debate about transgenderism on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday morning (November 27). The debate came after the news that a school in Brighton has 76 children who identify as transgender. A school in Brighton has 76 students who identify as transgender. 40 children don't identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, 36 say they are gender fluid. Trans activist Munroe Bergdorf says it's a result of society being liberal and accepting. pic.twitter.com/uZAghA2aaV Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 27, 2018 Speaking to model and LGBTQ+ activist Munroe Bergdorf, Morgan said: Where does this end? Do we end up with literally nobody in the future identifying as male and female? To which Bergdorf replied: Maybe. Why would you be happy with that? Piers asked. Some people are trans and thats the fact, Bergdorf replied. But Morgan struggled to believe that 76 children in one school can genuinely be transgender, arguing that theyre having their minds turned by a fad. Piers Morgan asks Munroe Bergdorf if she genuinely believes 76 children in one school are transgender Is it possible that theyve all latched on to a fad that is getting more and more attention, and basically having their minds turned to gender fluidity? he asked. Morgan insisted that he supports the ethos of genuine transgenderism, but Bergdorf argued that he doesnt. She said: But you bring gender non-binary people onto your show and berate them. Morgan replied: I challenge them about gender fluidity. Gender fluidity to me, I think its a farce. Bergdorf said: Thats your own bigoted opinion. Munroe Bergdorf calls Piers Morgan bigoted Morgan hit back: I dont think its bigoted. If people decide one day theyre male, one day theyre female, next day back to male, I think its ridiculous. Thats because youre a cis straight man, argued Bergdorf. Stephanie Davies-Aria from Transgender Trend later argued that children are being treated with an adult political ideology by being allowed to transition whilst they are still at school. I think were doing the opposite of allowing children to express their true identity by medicating any form of gender non-conformity, she said. Read More Mel B: Eddie Murphy was the love of my life Craig Revel Horwood made his boyfriend sign a no-kiss-and-tell contract GMB host Ben Shephard urinated on by millipede on live TV The pilot was attempting to land at King Island, Tasmania (Picture: Yahoo) A pilot allegedly fell asleep and missed a landing by 29 miles. The pilot is accused of nodding off in the cockpit of a freight plane while attempting to land on King Island, off Tasmania, Australia. Vortex Air said the pilot was the only person aboard the twin-propeller Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain. The pilot was flying on autopilot during the flight this month from Devonport city on Tasmania north west to King Island in the Bass Strait. The Melbourne-based airline said in a statement that the pilot unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft. MORE: British soldier given bravery award for helping victims of Las Vegas massacre MORE: Police hunt for man who unleashed torrent of abuse on woman with guide dog It said: The issue became apparent when air traffic control was unable to contact the pilot in-flight. The airline said the pilot eventually landed safely on King Island. The plane appeared to double back on its course after passing the island (Picture: FlightRadar) It said the pilot had deemed themselves fit to fly and had previously flown the route a number of times without incident. According to flight tracker data from November 8, the plane left Devonport at 6.21am but overshot King Island and had to double back on its path across the sea. It then landed on King Island at 7.21am. The plane has remained in operation since the incident earlier this month. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it is investigating a pilot incapacitation and intends to interview the pilot. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Malkovich as Poirot (Credit: BBC) The new take on Agatha Christies euro-sleuth Hercule Poirot has lost both the characters thick Belgian accent and his infamous moustache. US actor John Malkovich is playing the detective in the BBCs new adaptation of Christies mystery novel The ABC Murders, which is set to air over Christmas. But the Dangerous Liaisons stars has said hes concerned that hardcore fans could hate it. There was a certain amount of convincing the Agatha Christie estate about this version, and I was involved in some of those conversations, he told the Radio Times. There was never anything unpleasant or difficult. But obviously this is a very known and loved character, and there may have been some worries that we werent, as it were, saluting that. Poirot and Christie fans may just hate all this, I have no idea. David Suchet (Credit: ITV) Many view David Suchets portrayal of the character as the benchmark, having played the role for over 70 episodes from 1989 to 2013. Malkovich added: In our version Poirot has lived in England for 20 years and has made a very long and laborious effort not to seem too much like a foreigner and to speak English like an Englishman. In addition, the waxed moustache has been jettisoned in favour of a goatee beard. The ABC Murders, first published in 1936, will also star Harry Potters Rupert Grint, Broadchurchs Andrew Buchan and Tara Fitzgerald. Its been penned by BAFTA nominated writer Sarah Phelps, who also adapted the excellent Ordeal By Innocence, which aired on the BBC in April this year. Read more BBC reveals star-studded Christmas line-up Anne Hegerty set for another Im A Celeb trial Benidorm movie on the way Moscow (AFP) - Behind this week's confrontation between Russia and Ukraine stand two men - Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Petro Poroshenko in Kiev - both anxious to shore up support at home. As much as disputed waters and national pride, it is domestic politics that are driving the worst tensions in years between the ex-Soviet neighbours, experts say. As the crisis over Russia's seizure of three Ukranian naval ships off the coast of Crimea rumbles on, the two presidents are likely to benefit. In Moscow, Putin has seen his usual sky-high approval ratings fall as economic problems continue to bite and after the government pushed through a deeply unpopular pension reform. "Switching attention to this conflict is in the interests of the authorities," said Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Moscow-based Political Expert Group think-tank. "Assessments of all levels of government, including the president, have been falling. And here comes the easiest way to protect their ratings." Despite some economic reforms and growth, Russia has yet to recover from a 2015-16 recession that hit the country hard. Economic sanctions over Ukraine and low oil prices have not helped. Putin has promised four percent growth and to cut the poverty rate in half by 2024, but the World Bank is forecasting growth of less than two percent over the next two years. The pension reforms, signed by Putin in early October, sparked rare protests and widespread public opposition. The reform -- which will gradually increase the retirement age for men to 65 from 60 and for women from 55 to 60 -- was blamed for poor showings by several Kremlin-backed candidates in regional elections. - Distracting attention - Putin was re-elected to a fourth term in March with nearly 77 percent of the vote but recent polls have seen his support crumbling. Only 40 percent of respondents in a Levada Centre survey last month said they would now vote for Putin, and 61 percent said they held him personally responsible for the country's problems. Story continues A fresh conflict with Ukraine, and the nationalist fervour it stirs up, is likely to give those numbers a boost, Kalachev said. "If you look at the discussion on social networks, it's already working," he said. "Again we're seeing the 'hurrah-patriotic' sentiments, the Ukrainophobia. Talk of a possible war is a great way to distract attention." In Kiev, Poroshenko is also facing difficult poll numbers -- dismal ones, in fact -- as he prepares to make a bid for re-election in March. Elected in May 2014 with more than 50 percent of the vote, Poroshenko now trails in third or fourth place in voting intentions. Recent surveys had him struggling to hit 10 percent support, against 20 percent for his main rival, the ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko. Poroshenko was forced recently to apologise for failing to meet his 2014 election promise to bring the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine back under central control. He also faces harsh criticism over persistent corruption and a major economic crisis that has seen austerity measures imposed in exchange for Western aid. - 'Defender of Ukraine' - Standing up to Russia over the Ukrainian ships is sure to shift the spotlight onto Poroshenko's role as commander-in-chief, Ukrainian political analyst Oleksander Medvedev said. Poroshenko will now be seen as "the big boss, who everyone listens to and talks about," Medvedev said. "Everything else, including criticism of the economic situation, will move into the background." By winning parliamentary approval for his plan to impose martial law on border regions, Poroshenko has already scored one political victory, even though he had to reduce its duration from 60 days to 30. A source close to the president told the RBC-Ukraine news agency that the martial law plan aimed to "strengthen Poroshenko's image as the defender of Ukraine" and to "redirect the campaign" onto issues of national security. In an editorial on Tuesday, Moscow's Nezavisimaya Gazeta said both sides had clear political motives in keeping the crisis going. "Who benefits from an escalation of conflict between Moscow and Kiev? In an atmosphere of tension, it is easier for any politician to keep power.... This is well understood in Moscow and in Kiev," it wrote. "Kiev and Moscow have learned how to live with conflict, and how to use it." Had anybody ever heard of the Sea of Azov? It is a very shallow inland sea not even the size of Lake Michigan, tucked away in a northern corner of the far larger Black Sea. But over the past few days, it has become the site of a dramatic at-sea conflict between Russia and Ukraine. On Nov. 25, Russian warships in the Sea of Azov carrying Spetznatz the Russian equivalent of U.S. Navy SEALS seized two Ukrainian gunboats and a tug, wounding half-a-dozen sailors, the Ukrainian navy has reported. The Russians impounded the sovereign warships and detained nearly 30 sailors, and a Kremlin spokesman has told state media that they are investigating the supposed Ukrainian incursion into their claimed territorial waters. All of this flows from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2014 that led to Russias illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, which comprises much of the southwestern edge of the Sea of Azov, and the ongoing occupation of southeastern Ukraine by rebel forces supported by Russian troops and special forces. Look at the map to truly consolidate the annexation of Crimea, Russia needs totally secure communications from the Russian mainland to the peninsula. The best way to accomplish that is to control the highly strategic Strait of Kerch, the narrow waterway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. For the Trump Administration, though, this will be another testing point in its notably odd relationship with Russia just as President Trump prepares for a summit with Vladimir Putin at this weeks G20 meeting. On the one hand, the Presidents team (especially Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and National Security Advisor John Bolton) have taken a strong stand against Russian bad behavior, particularly the annexation of Crimean. The U.S. has correctly led the imposition of economic sanctions that have had a serious impact on the Russian economy. They have also led the charge against Russias repeated violations of the INF treaty, as well as the Russian militarys dangerous operational practices against NATO warships and jets. Story continues But after before, during and after the Presidents disastrous mid-summer Helsinki press conference beside Putin, Trump has given Russia a pass on its disruptive behavior internationally. This dissonance must end. And the upcoming summit provides an essential opportunity to correct Trumps stance, both in the Presidents private high-level meetings, and in public. Russian behavior in Ukraine is clearly illegal under international law. In particular, the President must make clear that annexation of Crimea is a crime, and that sanctions will continue until Russia modifies its stance and chooses to work with the international community to resolve the situation through the process determined by the Minsk Protocol in 2014. Allowing a frozen conflict, like Georgia and Moldovia (both essentially occupied by Russia), is untenable Ukraine is too large, important and nationalistic to permit a long-term annexation of a further chunk of their state. The President must show zero daylight between the U.S. and our NATO and European allies on this issue, or Putin will exploit the seams to continue toward achieving his ultimate strategic goal of unraveling the trans-Atlantic alliance. The President must also strongly affirm U.S. support for Ukraine in every dimension, including providing them with capable defensive armament. The Obama Administration dithered unnecessarily on this, emboldening Russia, and the Trump national security team has been appropriately strong on this point. In addition to anti-air tactical systems, ammunition, radars, communications devices and the like, America should also provide appropriate levels of training and advising, using NATO as a vehicle to do so. Speaking of: NATO-Ukraine cooperation has an important role to play in this situation. It can provide a reassuring sounding board for the Ukrainians, who are understandably moving toward a war footing. President Petro Poroshenko has successfully declared martial law for 30 days and energized his defense establishment. He clearly sees the Russian moves as a potential thrust to fully consolidate control over the Donbass region in the southeast of Ukraine. Putin may be calculating that, with the Mueller investigation in the U.S. coming to a head, the President and his team will be distracted as the year concludes and the holiday season beckons. This gives us all the more reason to make NATO the centerpiece, and to not make this a U.S.-Russian confrontation, which will better protect all weve gained. Most of all, the President ought to make the point that it is in no ones interest to stumble backward into a full-blown Cold War, let alone have an actual war inside Ukraine. Perhaps by appealing to Putins pragmatic side, we can defuse this crisis before it spirals into something we cannot control. So many wars have begun with seemingly small actions at sea, where decisionmakers incorrectly assume the stakes are lower because land territory isnt immediately involved. The lesson of the Gulf of Tonkin is unfortunately instructive here. Nobody had heard of that body of water either until it pulled the United States into the war in Vietnam. Kiev (AFP) - US President Donald Trump has said he may cancel a long-awaited summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after a confrontation at sea between Russia and Ukraine led Kiev to warn of the threat of "full-scale war". Trump is scheduled to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of this week, but warned it would depend on the results of a report being prepared by his national security advisers about Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships. "Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting," he told the Washington Post on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier warned that the standoff could herald more drastic developments as tensions escalate between the ex-Soviet neighbours. "I don't want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia," Poroshenko said. The number of Russian units deployed along the Ukraine-Russian border has "grown dramatically" while the number of Russian tanks has tripled, Poroshenko said, citing intelligence reports but giving no precise timescale for the buildup. He spoke after Russian forces seized three of Kiev's ships off the coast of Crimea on Sunday and captured 24 Ukrainian sailors. On Tuesday, a court in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea, ordered 12 of the sailors to be held in pre-trial detention for two months. Three hospitalised sailors were also formally detained for two months. The rest are to appear in court on Wednesday. The move stoked already high tensions between Moscow and Kiev, as Russia continues to accuse the sailors of crossing illegally into Russian waters and of ignoring warnings from its border guards. Kiev has demanded the release of the sailors and urged Western allies to impose further sanctions on Moscow. The US State Department has termed Russia's actions "a dangerous escalation" and said Washington wants to see "our European allies doing more to assist Ukraine." Story continues - Putin warns of 'reckless acts' - The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country's east. It has raised fears of a wider escalation -- in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 -- and prompted international calls for restraint. Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine against any "reckless acts" after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscow's seizure of the navy vessels. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday voted in favour of Poroshenko's request for the introduction of martial law in border areas for 30 days. This gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas. In a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday, Putin expressed "serious concern" over its introduction. He said he hoped Berlin could intervene with Ukrainian authorities "to dissuade them from further reckless acts". Moscow has accused Kiev of planning Sunday's confrontation as a provocation aimed at drumming up support for Poroshenko ahead of elections next year and convincing Western governments to impose further sanctions on Russia. Putin said Kiev's actions were "clearly taken in view of the election campaign in Ukraine". Sunday's incident has been playing out on Russian and Ukrainian television screens, with dramatic footage of Russian ships chasing down a Ukrainian tugboat that was trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov. - Sailors on Russian TV - Russian state television has aired footage of some of the captured sailors being questioned by Moscow's security services. One of them is heard saying "the actions of the Ukrainian armed vessels in the Kerch Strait had a provocatory character" -- parroting the version of events put forward by Russian authorities. Ukraine's naval commander, Igor Voronchenko, said the sailors were pressured into giving false evidence. "I know these sailors, they were always professional. What they are saying now is not true," he told Ukrainian media. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev in the dispute, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov and of taking military action without justification. The European Union, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and others expressed support for Kiev on Monday, in statements pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia denounced as "predictably anti-Russian". The foreign minister of Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said Tuesday that the bloc will next month consider further sanctions against Moscow over the flare-up. "Everything depends on the accounts of events and the actions of both sides. But it will need to be reviewed," Karin Kneissl told reporters. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for "maximum restraint," urging both sides "to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions". burs/sms/dl/rl Buenos Aires (AFP) - Human Rights Watch has urged Argentine prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is due to join world leaders in Buenos Aires this week for the G20 summit. The New York-based rights group said it had filed a submission with Argentine prosecutors calling on them to invoke the country's universal jurisdiction statute to prosecute the crown prince for alleged war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. "Argentine prosecutorial authorities should scrutinize Mohammed bin Salman's role in possible war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in Yemen," HRW director Kenneth Roth said. "The submission also highlights his possible complicity in serious allegations of torture and other ill treatment of Saudi citizens, including the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi," the rights group said in a statement. Bin Salman is the kingdom's de facto ruler and defense minister. Argentina's constitution recognizes universal jurisdiction for war crimes and torture. That means its judicial authorities "can investigate and prosecute crimes no matter where they were committed, and regardless of the nationality of the suspects or their victims," HRW said. Argentine press reports said the prosecutor with responsibility for the case, Ramiro Gonzalez, has yet to decide whether to open an investigation. The crown prince is scheduled to attend the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on Friday and Saturday. He has travelled to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt in recent days, and was expected Tuesday in Tunisia -- where unions and human rights organizations have called for protests against his visit. The tour comes weeks after the murder of Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh initially claimed Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed on October 2, before ultimately admitting he was murdered in what officials said was a "rogue" operation. The US Central Intelligence Agency has concluded the crown prince was behind the killing. Saudi Arabia has been put under intense international pressure over the killing and has brought charges against a number of suspects, while denying the crown prince was involved. The Russian government wants to penalize Google for failing to remove unspecified website links from the companys search engine results in the country. The countrys communications and information technology regulatory arm, Roskomnadzor, said Monday that it opened a civil case against the search giant, which could result in fines of up to 700,000 rubles, or $10,450 in U.S. dollars. Although Google could easily pay the minuscule fines, a Reuters report citing unnamed sources said that Russia could debut new laws that would levy stiffer fines against technology giants like Google and Facebook for failing to comply with the countrys Internet laws. Under the proposed tougher Russian law, these tech companies could be fined an amount that matches 1% of their annual sales in Russia, the report said. Under Russian law, search engine operators are obliged to exclude links to resources with illegal information from the results of search results, Roskomnadzor said in a statement that was translated by Googles Chrome browser. To do this, they must connect to the federal state information system containing a list of prohibited Internet resources. Russias proposed fines highlight the challenges U.S. tech companies face operating in countries that maintain strict censorship laws governing what it deems appropriate for their citizens. Some of the websites and apps that are banned in Russia include the Microsoft-owned professional social network LinkedIn and the messaging service Telegram. Get Data Sheet, Fortunes technology newsletter. Google has also been exploring a possible version of its search engine in China, which also has tough censorship laws that worry human-rights activists. The company publicly disclosed in October that it was working on its Project Dragonfly Chinese search engine, but executives have said that it is only an exploratory project. Google declined to comment to Fortune on the proposed Russian fines. Dakar (AFP) - Senegal's culture minister called on Tuesday for the restitution by France of all Senegalese artwork following a French report urging the return of African art treasures. The recommendations in the report by French and African experts, commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron and released last week, could potentially affect tens of thousands of works acquired during French colonisation of Sub-Saharan Africa. The culture minister of former French colony Senegal said his country was ready to work with France to find a solution, but they are looking for complete restitution. "If you have 10,000 pieces (of art identified from Senegal), we want to have the 10,000," Abdou Latif Coulibaly told journalists. Coulibaly made his comments on Senegalese art at a presentation about Dakar's new "cultural jewel," the Museum of Black Civilisations (MCN), which will be inaugurated on December 6. The museum "has everything you want," added its director Hamady Bocoum at the news conference. It features vestiges of the first hominids who appeared in Africa several million years ago to the latest contemporary art in collections of paintings and sculpture. The museum was built with a donation from China of some 20 billion CFA francs (30.5 million euros, $34.6 million), Coulibaly told AFP. The architecture was inspired by African round huts, in particular those in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, Bocoum said. The idea of a museum featuring the civilisations of black Africa was originally proposed by Senegal's late poet-president Leopold Sedar Senghor during a world festival of black artists in Dakar in 1966. LUSAKA (Reuters) - Britain's Prince Harry on Monday offered Zambia support with boosting the country's dwindling elephant population, as he began a two-day working visit without his pregnant wife Meghan. The Duke of Sussex, 34, was received at Lusaka airport by dignitaries and colourfully-dressed traditional dancers, later holding a closed-door meeting with Zambian President Edgar Lungu and his ministers. As president of animal conservation charity African Parks, Harry offered to bring elephants from neighbouring Botswana. Prince Harry told the president during closed-door talks that African Parks will help move between 500 and 1,000 elephants from Botswana into Zambias Kafue National Park," Lungu's spokesman Amos Chanda said. He said this should help boost Zambias tourism and create jobs, especially for the youth." African Parks manages national parks on behalf of governments to help protect animals targeted by poachers, including elephants and rhino. Botswana has the highest population of elephants in Africa, while Zambia struggles to pull in the same crowds to its more rundown safari parks. Harry is a frequent visitor to southern Africa for his conservation work and holidays. Harry and Meghan have enjoyed romantic getaways together in Botswana. Last month the royal couple visited Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga on their first official tour since marrying in May. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Ottawa (AFP) - A Syrian refugee who spent months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has arrived in Vancouver after he was granted permanent residency by Canada, a government source and his lawyer said Tuesday. Hassan al-Kontar's plight became widely known after he shared posts on social media that showed him surviving on donated airline meals, washing and giving himself a haircut in the toilets at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Terminal 2. He had been stuck since March -- blocked from entering Malaysia because of visa issues and barred from travelling to other countries, and was detained last month by immigration officials. "I know I look like someone who ran from the stone or middle ages. I'm sorry for that," the smiling 36-year-old said in a Twitter video Monday, looking tired and stroking his bushy beard. "For the last eight years, it was (a) hard, long journey. The last 10 months, it was very hard and cold," he added. After Kontar's arrest, Malaysian officials had said they were going to work with Syrian authorities to deport him back to his war-torn homeland. But Kontar's lawyer Andrew Brouwer said they brought the Syrian back to the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday before he was put on a Vancouver-bound flight. Brouwer said his client was recognised by Canada as a refugee and was granted permanent residency under the country's refugee sponsorship programme. "We were of course very pleased that Malaysia appeared to agree and abide by international law," he said. Malaysia's immigration office said in a statement Tuesday it had held talks "on the basis of concern and humanity... with the embassy of the country that agreed to receive his relocation," without naming Canada. - 'No more airports' - In the video on his Twitter account Kontar said he was in transit in Taiwan and that he would be reaching his "final destination" the following day. Story continues "I could not do it without the support and the prayers from all of you," he said. In Vancouver, he was greeted by Laurie Cooper, who with the help of a group of residents in the ski resort of Whistler and the British Columbia Muslim Association, brought him to Canada and raised almost Can$15,000 for his fresh start. Public broadcaster CBC said he looked "fragile in a blue T-shirt and jeans, his curly hair long and his beard unkempt" after disembarking. "I've done my time in airports, no more airports," he told the network after a sleepless flight across the Pacific. "In Canada, here you have something very special, you have an amazing group of people who believe they can make a difference, and they can." Looking at Cooper, he said: "When I was thinking of hope, her face was coming to my mind." Before climbing into a car and heading to Whistler, where a bed, fresh clothes and a hotel job were awaiting him, he whispered to himself: "I will be fine." Kontar is not the only asylum seeker who has been left in limbo at an airport for a long period of time. In 2015 an Iraqi family spent more than two months in an empty smoking cubicle in a Moscow airport, relying on passengers to bring them food and water. Kontar's case also recalls the 2004 film "The Terminal," in which Tom Hanks plays a man who finds himself stuck in a New York airport after his government collapses, rendering his papers useless. Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has left more than 350,000 people dead. Kinshasa (AFP) - Tens of thousands of supporters turned out to welcome Congolese opposition scion Felix Tshisekedi as he returned to Kinshasa Tuesday to kick off his campaign to replace President Joseph Kabila in next month's election. "We will go with the people and we will win," declared Tshisekedi, the 55-year-old son of the late Etienne Tshisekedi, who for decades was the face of DR Congo's opposition. "We'll take 60 percent of the votes," he said. He also vowed to deploy observers to combat election fraud, while his running mate Vital Kamerhe, a former parliamentary speaker who returned home with him, said the pair made a "winning ticket". As they flew into Kinshasa airport from Addis Ababa, huge crowds of supporters from Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) and Kamerhe's Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) were on hand to greet them. Police briefly fired tear gas to try and break up the crowds to let their convoy pass, an AFP journalist at the scene said. Under an agreement unveiled on Friday in Kenya, the pair will run on a joint ticket, which, if successful, will see Tshisekedi becoming president and Kamerhe appointed as his prime minister. Kamerhe, who ran against Kabila in 2011, will be Tshisekedi's campaign director ahead of the December 23 vote. - 'No cheating' - Their decision to run on a joint ticket came just days after the pair had withdrawn their support for an agreement hammered out in Geneva in which seven opposition parties coalesced around a joint candidate in order to boost the opposition's chance of victory. That candidate, little-known MP Martin Fayulu, will now vie against Tshisekedi as well as former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, Kabila's hand-picked successor. "We're not going to ask the Congolese people to boycott the vote," Tshisekedi said. "That would leave the road open" for Kabila's candidate Shadary, he said. Story continues "We will deploy observers everywhere so there is no cheating." Tshisekedi's main areas of support are in the west, around Kinshasa, and in the central Kasai areas, while Kamerhe has called for backing from the conflict-hit east, where he comes from. - 21 candidates - Speaking to AFP last year, Tshisekedi, who does not enjoy the same degree of popularity as his father, said that if he won the presidency he would set up a "truth and reconciliation commission" to call Kabila to account. He pledged a return to the rule of law, to fight the "gangrene" of corruption and to bring peace to the strife-torn east of this vast central African country. Fayulu is backed by opposition heavyweights Jean-Pierre Bemba and Moise Katumbi, both barred from running. Bemba, a former warlord who was Kabila's vice president from 2003 to 2006, had his conviction for war crimes overturned at the International Criminal Court after serving two years in prison. Once touted as a consensus opposition candidate, popular business tycoon Katumbi, who lives in exile in Belgium, has been accused of training mercenaries to topple Kabila and was convicted in absentia for real estate fraud. Shadary, a hardline former interior minister, is one of 15 Congolese under European Union sanctions, accused of human rights violations between December 2016 and early 2018. In all, 21 candidates are registered to run in the race to replace 47-year-old Kabila, who has ruled since his father, president Laurent-Desire Kabila, was assassinated in 2001. Kabila's second and final elected term in office ended nearly two years ago, but he has remained in office thanks to a caretaker clause in the constitution. The volatile, poverty-stricken nation has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Kabul (AFP) - Three US soldiers were killed and three wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday, NATO said, with the attack claimed by the Taliban as the US tries to ratchet up efforts to engage the militants in peace talks. NATO's Resolute Support mission would not immediately release any details about the identity of the soldiers, whose deaths took the number of American service personnel to die in the war-torn country this year to 12. A NATO statement said they had been killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan. An American contractor was also wounded, it said, adding that the four injured in the blast were receiving medical care. The casualties come just days after another US soldier was killed in Afghanistan's Nimroz province on Saturday. An initial review showed the soldier was "likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force", a NATO statement said Tuesday, adding that the "tragic" incident occurred as they engaged in a battle with al Qaeda militants. "There are no indications he was shot intentionally," the statement added, naming the soldier as Sgt Jasso without giving a first name. General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Jasso was killed "defending our nation, fighting al Qaeda alongside our Afghan partners". Jasso's death follows a spate of so-called "insider attacks" that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting Afghanistan's military. More than 2,200 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime from power. Washington is trying to find a way out of the conflict more than 17 years since it began. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is spearheading efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban before Afghanistan's presidential election, scheduled for April next year though officials have said it could be postponed until July. Story continues A Taliban delegation met with Khalilzad in Doha in October and November to discuss ending the Afghan conflict. Khalilzad has said he is "cautiously optimistic" for an end to the conflict. The number of American casualties has fallen dramatically since the end of 2014 when Afghan forces took over from US-led NATO combat troops to secure the country. Since the start of 2015, 58 Americans have been killed, President Ashraf Ghani said earlier this month. In the same time period, nearly 30,000 Afghan police and soldiers have died, Ghani said -- a figure much higher than any previously acknowledged, as the Taliban step up their attacks on local forces. The shocking mortality rate, which some experts warn is unsustainable, has sent already shaky morale to new lows. Today is the loneliest day of the year for parents [Photo: Getty] Today, Tuesday 17 November, is the loneliest day of the year for parents. A miserable mix of dark nights, bad weather, struggling to budget for Christmas and waiting for pay day means UK parents feel more isolated today than at any other point in the year. The announcement comes from research released by parenting site ChannelMum.com, which round that almost three quarters of mums pinpointed 27 November as the toughest date in the calendar, with 67% of those polled admitting they have felt lonelier since becoming a parent. Finances are also playing a part in how lonely mums are feeling with half of parents claiming to no longer being able to afford to attend festive bashes after having children. A further 51% turned down invitations to meet other people as they struggled to stretch out their maternity pay. Worryingly, more than half of mums admitted they are lonely as they no longer feel body confident to dress up and attend Christmas get-togethers. Mums with newborn babies face extra pressures, with nine in ten describing themselves as very lonely at this time of year. Seven in ten feel isolated at home with a baby, while 42% confessed to feeling abandoned, as friends and family show less interest as their tot grows up. And 93 per cent of mums are put off meeting up with friends and family by dank November weather. Social media is also impacting the way mums feel with half of the 1,372 parents polled said they were left feeling lonelier after looking at friends celebrating the run up to Christmas Day on Instagram and Facebook, with a quarter claiming it negatively impacted their mental health. Worryingly, 92% confessed they try to hide how they feel, refusing to tell anyone they are lonely. In response, four in five mums want to find more friends and for parents to be more honest with each other about how they feel. Commenting on the findings ChannelMum.com psychologist Emma Kenny said: Its common to feel a little low at this time of the year but today really does bring together all the worst factors. Story continues Looking after children can be very isolating, and on this date its compounded by money worries, dark nights, terrible weather and feeling disconnected as you can no longer socialise as you use to, leaving tens of thousands of mums feeling very alone. With nine in 10 mums saying they hide how they feel, its vital were all more open and honest. We can only end loneliness by reconnecting with each other, so why not turn today into an opportunity to do just that and make new friends? 9 out of ten parents admit to feeling lonely [Photo: Getty] In an attempt to combat some of todays loneliness ChannelMum.com will be sharing the #BlueMumDay hashtag on social media to encourage mums to come together and feel less lonely. Cathy Ranson, editor of ChannelMum said: Nine in 10 mums admit to feeling lonely and not only can this sense of isolation impact your mental health leading to anxiety and depression, it can even manifest as physical ailments too. Mums are one of the loneliest groups as society has lost the village feel. High housing costs means most mums no longer live near their extended family so they dont have the help and wisdom of older generations. Long hours at work and poorly paid jobs means mums may not get much support from their partner and caring for a child alone can be relentless and very tough. Think back to the last two weeks, how many times did you connect with other mum friends in real life? Its not fun admitting that youre billy-no-mates but the sooner you take action the sooner you could make a new mum friend. If youve realised that in the last two weeks its only family members and your partner that youre talking to on a daily basis its time to put yourself out there and go and make some mum friends. Although it can seem daunting, there are ways to cover come it so be brave, be bold and turn today from the loneliest into the loveliest day. Tips to combat parental loneliness Admit how you feel There is no shame in feeling alone. Nine in ten other mums feel the same too, explains Cathy. Reach out for help Cathy suggests going online to explain to others how you feel. You will be amazed at the response, she says. Honesty is the best policy and youll find the floodgates open once you have the courage to share your feelings. Stop comparing yourself to others Mums are often the worst culprits for this! The desire to keep up with the Joneses is not a new one, however the rise of social media has only exacerbated the problem by giving individuals the chance to constantly compare themselves to others, explains Eugene Farrell, Head of Trauma Support Services at AXA PPP healthcare. If youre already feeling lonely, the idea that everyone elses life is more idyllic than yours can make you feel even more isolated and alone. This can lead us to compare and despair which further exacerbates our negative experiences. Eugene suggests reminding yourself that people only share what they want others to see about their lives. Dont form unrealistic expectations about life and friendship based on what you see online, he adds. Break the loneliness habit Go out today and smile and say hello to another mum you dont know. Its a small step but it may make her day and yours, Cathy says. Today is the loneliest day of the year for parents [Photo: Getty] Make the first move Making mum friends is a little like dating, and sometimes youll need to make the first move. Be the one to spot another mum whos on her own and go and say hello, suggests Cathy. Dont be afraid to ask to swap numbers if your children are getting on well and you seem like you might get along too, she adds. Switch up your activities Not all baby groups are equal. If youve not found a baby and toddler group that suits you yet, keep trying out new ones until you find the perfect one, Cathy says. This is a brilliant way to make some new mum friends. Be more open If you feel that you have plenty of connections but dont feel close to any of them, the underlying issue may be that you need to open up to them more to deepen your connection, explains Eugene. He suggests letting a friend or acquaintance in on a vulnerability felt or your honest opinion about an issue. Get out! Leave the house every day or at the weekends if youre working, Cathy advises. Its tempting to stay indoors but get out there, explore your local parks, woods and playgrounds as this is where youll find other mums. Free fun You dont need to spend money on expensive clubs and classes to meet other mums, check out your local library and toy library and ask them about other free activities in the local area whilst youre there. 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: Loneliness epidemic: heres how to make friends as an adult Is social media fuelling anxiety and depression in new mums? Is it ok to want to be a housewife even though you dont have kids? The holiday season can be both exciting and stressful. Between parties, gift giving and travel, its easy to get distracted and let your guard down. But now is the time to be on high alert and watch out for fraud, because nothing kills the holiday spirit like getting conned out of your hard-earned money. Heres how to protect yourself from this years top holiday scams that are easy to fall for. 1. Gift Exchange Scams As if you needed one more reason to avoid Facebook: The social media site is host to a long-running holiday scam disguised as a secret Santa program. Its the secret sister gift exchange, which promises that after donating at least one item worth $10 to a fellow participant, youll receive up to 36 gifts. However, the Better Business Bureau warns that the seemingly innocent gift swap is actually a pyramid scheme in the form of a digital chain letter and is considered illegal gambling. Not to mention that it provides scammers with your home address. There are several variations of this scam floating around social media, including a wine exchange and childrens book exchange. So unless you personally know each person participating in a secret Santa exchange, steer clear. 2. Phony Shipping Notifications Not expecting a package? Don't fall for this holiday scam. (Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images) Between Black Friday deals and late Christmas shopping, theres a surge in online shopping during the holidays. That also means millions of valuable packages are hitting doorsteps, presenting an opportunity for scammers to go to work. One of the biggest holiday scams shoppers might encounter this year is false shipping notifications intended to trick recipients into handing over sensitive personal information. For example, a scammer might send an email that looks as if its from UPS or FedEx, copying the companys email template and logo so it looks legitimate. The email says your shipment is on the way and you need to arrange for delivery. However, when you click the link to update your shipping preferences, you download keystroke logging malware that tracks your computer activity so personal information such as credit card numbers can be stolen. Story continues A low-tech notification scam comes in the form of paper Sorry we missed you notifications left on your door or mailbox. These, again, are designed to mimic official communication from shipping companies. However, if you call the number listed, fraudsters on the other end will attempt to get your bank account information. 3. Porch Pirates Even your delivery drivers can turn out to be porch pirates. (Photo: urbazon via Getty Images) Keep in mind that your packages are also susceptible to good old-fashioned theft. Nearly 26 million Americans reported having holiday packages swiped by porch pirates last year. Even delivery drivers have been caught nabbing packages from doorsteps and apartment lobbies they visited moments earlier. To protect your online purchases from theft, consider requiring a signature for delivery so that packages arent left vulnerable. You can also have packages delivered to your work address or, in the case of Amazon, a designated pick-up locker rather than your home address. Or you might consider installing a motion-sensing security camera for your front door, such as Ring, to deter thieves or catch them in action. 4. Fake Charities (Photo: Catherine Lane via Getty Images) For many, the holiday season is a time to give back to the community. Unfortunately, its also prime time for scammers to take advantage of peoples generosity. Be on the lookout for fraudulent charities that attempt to trick you into donating money. According to Tyler Moffitt, a senior threat research analyst for cybersecurity company Webroot, red flags to watch out for include aggressive pitches and high-pressure tactics, names that sound almost identical to established charities and spammy emails. Moffitt said there are a few ways you can protect yourself from fake charity scams. For instance, if youre donating to an organization you havent dealt with to before, look it up on Charity Navigator or Give.org first to make sure its legitimate. If youre contacted by a charity over the phone, have it mail you a donation form to fill out and return rather than give your credit card information verbally. If youre dealing with a charity over email, check the senders email address as well as any links to make sure they match the organizations official URL. Some scammers engage in spoofing, in which they disguise themselves as legitimate organizations. For example, you might get an email from Joe@habitatforhumanity.com but a quick Google search shows that the official website for that charity is habitat.org. Finally, Moffitt said, no legitimate charity will request that you wire money or pay in gift cards. 5. Bogus Deal Sites Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Online, watch out for pricing thats too good to be true and verify that youre shopping through trusted retailers. (Photo: filadendron via Getty Images) In the rush of holiday shopping madness, it can be tempting to grab a deal when you see one. But Scott Grissom, the chief product officer for LegalShield, said its important to beware of pricing thats too good to be true. Online scammers often set up dummy websites, auction listings or ads that offer popular items far below market value, he explained. Some will send you a fake product, while others will simply take the money and run. Thats why, he said, you should verify youre shopping through a trusted retailer by checking the domain name in the browser. Sometimes emails or online ads promising great deals will direct you to scam sites designed to look like a trusted retailer, he said. One sure sign youre on a legit site? The URL should begin with https:// to indicate its secure. (Thats what the s stands for.) Related Content 19 Tweets That Will Hit Home If You're Single During The Holidays 7 Financial Services You Should Never Pay For 41 Weird Christmas Gifts That Even Normal People Will Love Also on HuffPost "The Muppet Christmas Carol" Scrooge may hate Christmas, but when surrounded by singing and dancing Muppets, who could resist? In this twist on the Charles Dicken's classic, Kermit, Miss Piggy and company show Michael Caine's Scrooge the true spirit of Christmas. James Bond marathon The holiday season is long, so why not spend the time having an epic 007 marathon? Netflix currently has nine James Bond films including "From Russia with Love," "Goldfinger," "You Only Live Twice," "Live and Let Die," "For Your Eyes Only," "A View to Kill," "Never Say Never Again," "The Living Daylights" and "Skyfall." If that's not enough, there are also two Bond documentaries to satiate your secret-agent craving. "White Christmas" This 1954 musical classic stars Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as two war buddies who help save a Vermont inn for two women they fall for. If song-and-dance numbers in Technicolor are how your family celebrate the holidays then definitely add "White Christmas" to your queue. "Pirates of the Caribbean" Remember the days of the good Johnny Depp characters? Yeah, us too. Revisit the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" this holiday season with your family for all the sword fighting, pirate lingo and Captain Jack Sparrow antics, because they're oh so good. "Happy Christmas" If you're looking for a low-key Christmas movie that isn't filled with Hollywood stars and cliche storylines, indie filmmaker Joe Swanberg's "Happy Christmas" is the perfect choice. After Jenny (Anna Kendrick) goes through a bad breakup before the holidays, she moves in with her friends (Melanie Lynskey and Swanberg) and their two-year-old only to prove more self-destructive. "The Usual Suspects" Few crime thrillers have as great of a twist and as entertaining of a cast as Bryan Singer's 1995 film "The Usual Suspects." The film stars Kevin Spacey as a small-time con man retelling the events between himself and four other criminals, one of which is played by a hilarious and crazed Benicio del Toro. "Usual Suspects," which expires from Netflix at the end of the year, is a great film for the whole family to try and unravel the mystery. "Zoolander" "Blue Steel," "Magnum," "Le Tigre" -- all valid options for faces to make in your family holiday photos. There's fewer things funnier than Will Ferrell as Mugatu, Derek and Hansel's walk-off and male models playing with gasoline to Wham!, so why not watch "Zoolander" again? "Love Actually" It's a holiday staple -- what more can we say? You either watch "Love Actually" every Christmas, or you're of the crowd who avoids the British rom-com with all your might. Either way, the movie expires from Netflix at the end of the year so if you're planning to watch it, you might as well do it now. "Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2" For the cinephile family who loves all things Tarantino, "Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2" is the perfect double feature. Because at the end of the day, nothing evokes the magic of Christmas time like snow delicately falling on O-Ren Ishii's garden before a brutal sword fight, right? Right. "Sleepless In Seattle" & "You've Got Mail" If the family's in the mood for some classic rom-coms, there's no better onscreen pair than Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Make it a double feature with "Sleepless in Seattle" & "You've Got Mail," because you can never have too much of these two falling in love via technology of the time. Plus, the latter is expiring from Netflix on Jan. 1. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" Is it a Christmas movie? Is it a Halloween movie? Is it both? The debate goes on, but doesn't stop us from wanting to revisit Tim Burton's magical universe on both holidays. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Prime minster Theresa May, who has been urged to set a resignation date if she wants to receive support for her Brexit deal. (PA). Tory MPs have demanded Theresa May set a timetable for her departure in exchange for support for her Brexit deal. The embattled leader could win over Brexiteers should she set a date for her resignation and allow her successor to renegotiate the future trade agreement with the EU, sources told the Times. The newspaper reports cabinet sources claim MPs who oppose the deal, which will go to a Commons vote on December 11, could be pacified if Mrs May promises to quit soon after March 29. The source claims Tories who dislike Mrs Mays Chequers plan for trade, favouring a Canada-style deal, could still be persuaded to back the legally binding withdrawal agreement if they were confident that the political declaration was doomed. We know that the future relationship is not binding. This means she is the problem, not the deal per se, since it leaves plenty of flexibility for a successor to organise technical solutions for the Irish border and move towards Canada, the source said. Former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon who has described the Brexit deal as the worst of all worlds. (PA). The news comes as a former ally, Sir Michael Fallon, has branded the deal the worst of all worlds. Sir Michaels apparent u-turn follows backbencher Andrew Lewer, MP for Northampton South, announcing that he had become the 25th Tory to publicly admit submitting a letter to the 1922 Committee. A total of 48 letters of no confidence are needed to trigger a leadership challenge but the total is only known to committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, who has not confirmed if he has received any private submissions. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Brexiteer and favourite to replace Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party. (PA). Speaking to Radio 4s Today programme this morning, Sir Michael said: My fear is that this deal gives us the worst of all worlds no guarantee of smooth trade in the future and no ability to reduce the tariffs that we need to conclude trade deals with the rest of the world. So, unless the House of Commons can be persuaded somehow that those are possible, then I think, yes, the deal is doomed. And Sir Michael said the Government must heed Mr Trumps claim on Monday night that the Withdrawal Agreement sounds like a great deal for the EU. Story continues He said: Its no use us just brushing that off, saying No, no, we can do a deal with America; hes the President of the United States, and if he says its going to be difficult, then it certainly looks like its going to be difficult. This is not a good deal and we need a better deal. Some believe that a cabinet delegation could press Mrs May into changing course if in 10 days the campaign to win over hostile MPs is evidently failing. US president Donald Trump who has warned it will be difficult to deal a trade deal with the United States with the existing Brexit deal. (PA). On Monday night US president Donald Trump described the deal as good for the EU but threatened he may not support trade with the UK. But Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington shrugged off Mr Trumps comments, telling the same programme: I dont think it was that unexpected. The PMs de facto deputy insisted the wording of the Withdrawal Agreement does mean the UK can still negotiate trade deals during the transition period, to be signed once the country fully exits the EU. Responding to Mr Fallon, Mr Lidington said: The United States is a tough negotiator, President Trumps always said very plainly I put America first. Well, Id expect the British Prime Minister to put British interests first, but its going to be a very tough negotiation. It comes as Mrs May heads for Wales and Northern Ireland to try to sell the deal she brought back from Brussels on Sunday as good for the union. The PM also challenged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to a Brexit TV debate on the issue, as she launched an intensive two-week campaign to try to get her EU exit agreement through the Commons. Donald Trump has defended the use of very safe tear gas at the US-Mexico border against a group of migrants, including women and children. Asked by a reporter on Monday how he felt seeing images of women and children running from the chemical weapon, the US president said: Well I do say why are they there? I mean I have so start off: First of all the tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself, its very safe. The ones that were suffering to a certain extent were the people that were putting it out there, but its very safe, but you really say, Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and its going to be formed and theyre running up with a child?' Without providing evidence, Mr Trump claimed some adult migrants were taking children who were not their own in order to improve their chances of asylum in the US. In some cases you know theyre not the parents, he said during a press conference in Mississippi. These are people, they call them grabbers, they grab a child because they think theyre going to have a certain status by having a child. You know you have certain advantages in terms of our crazy laws. Mexico announced it was deporting 98 migrants from Central America after hundreds stormed past a police blockade and a small number tried to breach the border fence with the US over the weekend. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said some migrants threw rocks at agents and they had to use tear gas to drive them back from the border fence. The move was condemned by Democrats and human rights organisations, while Mexicos foreign ministry called for a full investigation into what is said were non-lethal weapons directed towards its territory. Earlier on Monday, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House border agents had to use tear gas because they were being rushed by some very tough people. Many of the migrants seeking entry to the US want to escape grinding poverty in their home countries; others wish to avoid staggering levels of violence linked to gangs and drug cartels. Many are motivated by both factors. Story continues US officials, who claimed that as many as 1,000 migrants sought to storm the border Mexico put the number at around 500 said the authorities would retain a robust presence along the southwest border. [The Department of Homeland Security] DHS will not tolerate this type of lawlessness and will not hesitate to shut down ports of entry for security and public safety reasons, said DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Donald Trump has defended the use of tear gas at the US-Mexico border, after a senior Democrat claimed the sight of women and children being engulfed in it was not my America. Mexico said it was deporting 98 migrants from Central America after hundreds stormed past a police blockade and a small number tried to breach the border fence with the US. The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said some migrants had thrown rocks at agents and they had to use tear gas to drive back them from the border fence. The decision over the weekend to use tear gas among crowds that contained a large number of women and children, was condemned by high-profile Democrats. Beto ORourke, who narrowly failed in his bid for a senate seat in Texas, said it should tell us something about her home country that a mother is willing to travel 2,000 miles with her four-month old son to come here. Writing online he said: Should tell us something about our country that we only respond to this desperate need once she is at our border. So far, in this administration, that response has included taking kids from their parents, locking them up in cages, and now tear gassing them at the border. New York congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likened the Central American migrants to Jewish families fleeing Nazi Germany, declaring that applying for refugee status should not be considered a crime. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom, recently elected as governor of California, from where the CBP agents fired the tear gas, tweeted a widely shared Reuters photograph of a woman with two young children running from a gas canister. These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas, Mr Newsom wrote. Women and children who left their lives behind seeking peace and asylum were met with violence and fear. Thats not my America. Were a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom. And we will not stand for this. Yet, Mr Trump and his officials defended the actions. Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a senate campaign rally in Mississippi, the president denied that agents had been firing at children. Story continues They had to use it because they were being rushed by some very tough people. And they used tear gas, he said. Heres the bottom line: nobodys coming into our country unless they come here legally. In recent weeks, and in the run-up to the midterm elections, Mr Trump has repeatedly seized on the succession of caravans of people making their way from a countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. He has termed them a possible invasion. Many of the people are seeking to escape grinding poverty and find work in the US; others wish to avoid staggering levels of violence linked to gangs and drug cartels and apply for asylum in the north. Many are motivated by both factors. Over the weekend, it was reported the US had done a deal with Mexicos incoming president to keep the migrants in Mexico while processing their applications. This was later denied. These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas. Women and children who left their lives behind -- seeking peace and asylum -- were met with violence and fear. Thats not my America. Were a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom. And we will not stand for this. https://t.co/1APpeHIq6v Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) November 26, 2018 US officials, who claimed that as many as 1,000 migrants sought to storm the border Mexico put the number at around 500 said the authorities would retain a robust presence along the southwest border. [The Department of Homeland Security] (DHS) will not tolerate this type of lawlessness and will not hesitate to shut down ports of entry for security and public safety reasons, said DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. On a conference call, with reporters, CBP commissioner Kevin McAleenan, said 69 migrants who tried to cross the border illegally were arrested on the Californian side. He said the border patrols use of force policy allowed agents to use tear gas and other non-lethal methods, but said the incident would be reviewed. As the events unfolded, quick, decisive and effective action prevented an extremely dangerous situation, he said. The US military said it had transferred about 300 service members from Texas and Arizona to California in the past few days, meaning a total of 5,600 troops active-duty troops are now on the border with Mexico. Meanwhile, the Associated Press said that in Tijuana, many migrants were worried the incident would harm their chances of securing asylum The way things went yesterday.I think there is no chance, said Isauro Mejia, 46, of Cortes, Honduras. Alex Castillo, 35, also from Honduras, said he would not spent the night in the shelter where he had been sleeping and would instead head to the Mexican city of Monterrey, an industrial hub, to seek work and avoid getting beaten. He added: If theyre launching tear gas, its better to head somewhere else. Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump intensified his attacks Tuesday on the special counsel probing possible collusion between Russia and his 2016 electoral campaign, after prosecutors said his former campaign chairman lied to investigators. Trump's ongoing attacks against the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller have become more virulent this month, after the president installed a new acting attorney general who has strongly criticized Mueller's probe and suggested cutting its purse-strings. "The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite," Trump said in a series of tweets. "He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it won't be Mueller and his terrible Gang of Angry Democrats." "Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie. Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue," he continued. Trump has repeatedly denied he is maneuvering to shut down the Mueller probe, which has so far indicted more than 30 people, most of them Russians. But the president's attacks on Mueller have sharply escalated since his Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives in this month's midterm elections. Starting in January, opposition Democrats say they will use House investigative committees to open further probes of Trump's businesses and his alleged connections to Russia. Trump's latest outburst comes a day after prosecutors said in a court filing that Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort had lied to investigators, in violation of a plea agreement he made in September. Manafort had agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe after pleading guilty to financial fraud charges related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. Story continues Also on Monday, another former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, began serving a two-week jail term as part of his plea deal with Mueller's team. Among those indicted by the special counsel are members of Russian military intelligence accused of hacking Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic Party. Mueller has also indicted Trump's one-time national security advisor, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. President Trump took another swipe at Robert Mueller on Tuesday, a day after the special counsel accused former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort of lying to investigators. Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie, he wrote on Twitter, adding that Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue. The special counsel is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, he said. The Phony Witch Hunt continues, but Mueller and his gang of Angry Dems are only looking at one side, not the other. Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie. Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2018 .The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it wont be Mueller and his Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2018 .terrible Gang of Angry Democrats. Look at their past, and look where they come from. The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and theyve got nothing but ruined lives. Where is the Server? Let these terrible people go back to the Clinton Foundation and Justice Department! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2018 Heroes will come of this, and it wont be Mueller and his terrible Gang of Angry Democrats, Trump wrote. The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and theyve got nothing but ruined lives. Story continues Muellers investigators said in a court filing Monday that Manafort violated his plea agreement by lying multiple times to FBI and special counsel investigators. Mueller said Manafort should be sentenced immediately given the alleged breach. He faces a maximum of a decade in jail after pleading guilty in September to several financial crimes and conspiring to obstruct justice. If he is found to have violated the plea agreement, the promised leniency for his sentence in the D.C. case will likely be forfeited. He still faces a separate sentencing from a Virginia case where he was convicted of bank and tax fraud. He is the highest-profile witness the Mueller team has charged with crimes as they proceed with the Russia investigation, which was opened to uncover any evidence members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election. After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsels Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement, prosecutors stated. He believes he has provided truthful information and attwmpted to live up to his cooperation obligations, Manaforts lawyers pushed back Investigators did not go into detail about what they believe Manafort lied about or what led them to that conclusion. Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump will hold over half a dozen bilateral meetings on the sidelines of this week's Group of 20 summit in Argentina, including with Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping, the White House said Tuesday. "While at the G20 the president and delegation will interact with many leaders, including bilateral meetings with the president of Argentina, the president of Russia, prime minister of Japan and the chancellor of Germany, and a working dinner with the president of China," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told a White House briefing. Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton added that Trump would also meet the leaders of India, South Korea and Turkey. Asked whether Trump planned to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- who the CIA reportedly believes authorized the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- Sanders said an informal meeting remained a possibility. "I wouldn't say we've ruled out any interaction," she said, although she stressed that "the president's schedule is pretty packed" and that no formal bilateral was planned. Trump has doubled down on his partnership with Saudi Arabia, calling it an indispensable ally, despite the Central Intelligence Agency's reported conclusion that Prince Mohammed authorized the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will have a packed schedule of bilateral meetings in Buenos Aires this week on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of world leaders, the White House said on Tuesday. Trump's talks on the sidelines are the main focus for the White House during the multilateral conference. It is unclear whether officials will be able to reach consensus on a final joint statement, or communique, for the conference. Trump's highest profile meeting will come at the end of the summit, when he has a much-anticipated dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, their first meeting since the two nations imposed tariffs on each other's imports. Also closely watched will be Trump's bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That meeting will cover security issues, arms control, and issues in the Middle East and Ukraine, Trump's national security John Bolton told reporters. Trump is also slated to meet on the sidelines with the leaders of Argentina, Germany, South Korea and Turkey, the White House said. He will meet with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and then the two leaders will meet jointly with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bolton said. But Bolton said Trump has not planned to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA believes ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has vowed to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Chizu Nomiyama) United Nations (United States) (AFP) - US President Donald Trump's administration has told Israel that it will present its long-awaited Middle East peace plan early next year, Israel's UN envoy said Tuesday. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told journalists that the peace plan was "completed" and that the administration had discussed timing with Israel to unveil the proposals. "As far as we know, they speak with us about beginning of '19, which is coming soon," Danon said. "We don't know the details of the plan but we know that it's completed." The ambassador said early next year was considered the best timing because it will be several months before expected elections in Israel. A rollout of the peace plan in early 2019 will allow Trump to "present it without interfering in our political debate in Israel," he said. Israel will come to the negotiating table to discuss the plan, Danon said, but the Palestinians will try to block it even as the United States tries to bring other key countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan on board. The Palestinians have severed ties with the Trump administration after his December decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and declare the city Israel's capital. The US administration has also cut more than $500 million in Palestinian aid. The Palestinians see the city as the capital of their future state. International consensus has been that Jerusalem's status must be negotiated between the two sides. Trump said in September that he planned to unveil the peace plan by the end of the year, and has suggested that the proposals could provide for the creation of a Palestinian state. Danon said he did not know if the two-state solution was included in the US plan. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and lawyer Jason Greenblatt, who have led efforts to draft the plan, traveled to the region several times for talks on the proposals. Greenblatt said in an October interview with the Times of Israel news site that the plan would "be heavily focused on Israeli security needs" while remaining "fair to the Palestinians". US president Donald Trump points out the Brexit deal could hurt US/UK trade. Photo: Reuters Donald Trump is the latest critic to hit out at UK prime minister Theresa Mays trade deal. The president said that while her Brexit withdrawal agreement sounds like a great deal for the EU, it could threaten a US-UK trade pact. Right now if you look at the deal, [the UK] may not be able to trade with us. And that wouldnt be a good thing. I dont think they meant that, he said to reporters outside the White House. In response, a UK government spokesperson said that we have already been laying the groundwork for an ambitious agreement with the US through our joint working groups, which have met five times so far and that Mays Brexit deal is very clear the UK would be able to sign trade deals with countries around the world. Back in July, May said there will be no limit to the possibility of us doing trade deals around the rest of the world once we leave the EU. While Trump did not elaborate on what his US-UK trade comments following the Brexit deal, there are some limits to how and when a bilateral deal with the two nations can be shaped. READ MORE: A no-deal Brexit wont mean that a UK-US trade pact is going to happen anytime soon Britain is set to leave the European Union on 29 March, 2019. After this date, there will be at least a two year transition period and the possibility that this will be extended for a further two years (subject to unanimous agreement between all remaining 27 member states). The transition period is intended for the UK to prepare and implement new rules and structures without pushing businesses and the economy over a cliff-edge. During the transition period, the way the UK trades with the US will remain the same. However, the UK will be still beholden to EU rules. This means that Britain will be limited on what can be negotiated in terms of a free trade deal. However, this would have always been the case if Britain was granted a transition period. When it comes to Mays Brexit deal, there is still a long way to go in terms of a final sign-off. On Sunday, the EU gave the green light to her governments Brexit agreement and urged members of parliament (MPs) to back the deal. Story continues May has been touring the country and been going on a variety of media outlets to sell the deal to politicians and the public. On Monday, she came under fire from MPs over her Brexit deal in the House of Commons. On 11 December, UK parliament will vote on whether to accept the deal. If MPs vote down the deal or demand amendments, this could dramatically shape whether the UK is able to forge these bilateral deals with the likes of US, China, and Japan. If the UK ended up keeping a strong trading relationship with the EU, there would be rules on whether Britain could sign its own deals with major trading partners. READ MORE: Barnier remains available 24/7 for talks even though Brexit deal agreed Donald Trump has avoided singling out Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, implying both countries were to blame for increased tensions around the Crimean peninsula. In his first comments since Moscows forces shot at and seized three of Kievs navy vessels, the US president said: We do not like whats happening either way. We dont like whats happening, and hopefully it will get straightened out. He added: I know Europe is not thrilled; theyre working on it too. Were all working on it together. Speaking to reporters outside the White House before embarking on a campaign trip to Mississippi, Mr Trump was asked for a response to Russia firing on the Ukraine. He replied: Not good. Were not happy about it at all. Not at all. Weve let our position be known, and were not happy about it. Russias coastguard opened fire on two Ukrainian artillery boats and a tug in the Black Sea before seizing the vessels on Sunday. Two of the boats were damaged and six crew were injured, according to Kiev. Moscow claimed the vessels had made an unauthorised passage through its waters, a claim seemingly undermined by distress signals sent one of the Ukrainian boats 1km outside of Russias waters. On Monday, Ukranian president Petro Poroshenko announced 30 days of martial law in parts of the country, warning of the extremely serious threat of a land invasion. Critics said he was was looking to shore up support ahead of elections next year. World leaders including Theresa May and German chancellor Angela Merkel quickly expressed grave concern Russia's seizure of the Ukranian vessels. The UK prime minister condemned Russias act of aggression, while British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said Moscow had shown contempt for international norms and Ukrainian sovereignty. Mr Trumps more muted response came more than 24 hours later. Mark David Simakovsky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Centre, said Vladimir Putin would be "watching Washingtons response carefully". Story continues He said the Russian president would be "taking the measure of Trumps likely lack of interest in Ukraine" ahead of the G20 summit later this week in Argentina, where where the two leaders are set to meet. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, was more outspoken about Russia's aggression, which she denounced as an "outrageous" and reckless" escalation of tensions over Crimea. She added: In the name of international peace and security, Russia must immediately cease its unlawful conduct and respect the navigational rights and freedoms of all states. Ms Haley is to leave her post in January. Donald Trump has once again attacked CNN, claiming the networks international operations represent the United States in an unfair and false way while suggesting the nation launches its own Worldwide Network. While CNN doesnt do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of the U.S. they have very little competition, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way. Something has to be done, he added, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT! The presidents remarks arrived amid explosive domestic and international news, including a major federal government report which says human activity has exacerbated climate change and its dire consequences, as well as Russias seizure of Ukranian ships, which triggered Kiev to declare martial law as world powers called for emergency meetings. ....and false way. Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018 The United States currently funds several news programs, including Voice of America, a government-funded international radio program which serves as the nations non-military broadcasting source. The country also funds news outlets through the independent government agency, United States Agency for Global Media, which has reportedly produced hit pieces on billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who has become a frequent target by anti-Semites and far-right conspiracy theorists, along with Mr Trumps political allies. This is not the first time Mr Trump has reportedly considered launching a major network. Reports surfaced throughout the 2016 election that the future president was reportedly considering overseeing the creation of a new news network if he had not won the election, that would focus on conservative perspectives and voices on current events. Story continues His presidential campaign also launched a Real News series hosted by his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, and experimented with live-streaming news segments and round table discussions throughout the election, many of which raked in millions of views online. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik predicted the possibility of Mr Trump building a right-wing news outlet during the campaign trail, writing at the time, I think that what they would try to do, were they to do this, would be to essentially go to the right or the alt-right of Fox News to outflank a Fox among conservatives with some, you know, nationalistic and populist rhetoric as well. You could easily see Sean Hannity defecting from Fox News, he added. And you could see them trying to divert some of that. The president also stirred controversy by rejecting the findings of a report published by his own administration, which predicts deadly consequences from climate change worsening in the coming years. I dont believe it, Mr Trump said Wednesday. Forty two people were arrested after a group of migrants in Tijuana, the Mexican city, broke away from a peaceful protest - REUTERS Donald Trump threatened to permanently close the US-Mexico border on Monday after US authorities used tear gas to stop migrants crossing into the country illegally. Forty two people were arrested after a group of migrants in Tijuana, the Mexican city, broke away from a peaceful protest and ran towards the border fencing on Sunday. US border patrol agents used tear gas to force the crowd back and shut the crossing - the busiest on America's southern border - for several hours, though it was back open on Monday. Images of the incident showing women with children fleeing the tear gas triggered criticism of the Trump administration from some politicians and migrant rights advocates. However Mr Trump, the US president, and government agencies involved defended the response and insisted on the need to secure the border with Mexico. A migrant family from Honduras runs from tear gas released by US border patrol near the fence between Mexico and the United States in Tijuana Credit: Reuters Thousands of migrants who have travelled through central America in so-called caravans heading to the US are camped in Tijuana, hoping to gain entry. Tweeting about the incident, Mr Trump called on the Mexican government to deport the migrants to their home countries and threatened to close the border for good. Mexico should move the flag-waving migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries, Mr Trump wrote. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are not coming into the USA. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the wall! It comes after Mr Trump turned his attention to a caravan of migrants approaching the US southern border before the midterm elections earlier this month, deploying 5,000 soldiers to help prepare for their arrival. Critics insisted the move was a political stunt designed up to drum up concerns, but Mr Trump insisted it was a necessary step to stop illegal migration into America. Kirstjen Nielson, the US homeland security secretary, said on Sunday that border patrol guards had been struck by projectiles thrown by caravan members. She called the migrants' actions dangerous" and "not consistent with peacefully seeking asylum in America. However, Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, told CNN: Tear gassing families seems unnecessary. By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Dozens of Tunisian rights activists and journalists staged a small protest on Monday against a planned visit by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Tunisia is one of the few Arab states where demonstrations are allowed, following a 2011 uprising that toppled veteran ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and ushered in freedom of speech and the press. The Saudi crown prince is expected to arrive on Tuesday, part of a tour of several Arab countries on his first trip abroad since Khashoggi's murder, which has strained Saudi Arabia's ties with the West and battered his image abroad. Some 13 Tunisian civic and rights groups, among them the journalists' union, had called for a protest at the central Habib Bourguiba avenue in Tunis, scene of the mass protests that toppled Ben Ali in 2011. They waved pamphlets demanding "Freedom for Saudi women" or which read "Bin Salman, you are murderer Number 1". "The Tunisian revolution... cannot agree to receive him (bin Salman) and allow him to clean himself (with his visit) of a murder," Soukaina Abdessamad of the journalists' union told reporters. "We will stage protests on Monday and Tuesday." Saudi Arabia has said the crown prince had no prior knowledge of the killing of the Washington Post columnist at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul last month. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. Since the 2011 uprising that ended the rule of Ben Ali and triggered the Arab Spring protests that convulsed the region, Tunisia has become one of the few Arab countries where protests are permitted. (Reporting by Tarek Amara, Writing by Ulf Laessing, Editing by Gareth Jones) Tunis (AFP) - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held talks in Tunisia on Tuesday as hundreds of protesters rallied against his visit, urging justice over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and condemning the Yemen war. Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, who flew in from Cairo, met with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi before they dined together with Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. Upon receiving him, Essebsi said the Saudi royal was "not merely a guest of Tunisia, he is at home here", stressing the importance of their countries' ties. The Tunisian presidency said the two men had discussed "ways to strengthen cooperation", including boosting investment as well as security and military links. Prince Mohammed's stay in Tunisia is part of a regional tour, which comes as Khashoggi's murder leads to increased scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's devastating war. "Go away assassin!" protesters shouted in the second rally in Tunis in as many days against the Saudi crown prince's visit. Demonstrators held placards with slogans including "The people want Bin Salman to be judged", "No to the killer of Yemeni children", and "You're not welcome". "It's inhuman to see an Arab leader killing his brothers in Yemen, and the murder of a journalist is the icing on the cake," said Basma Rezgui, a teacher brandishing a red-stained saw. - 'Taking a stand' - Saudi Arabia has faced intense global criticism over the killing of insider-turned-critic Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate on October 2. He was reportedly dismembered in what Saudi Arabia said was a "rogue" operation, but CIA analysis leaked to the US media pointed the finger at Prince Mohammed. The crown prince's visit is the first by a Saudi royal to Tunisia since the 2011 revolution deposed longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia. Story continues Political analyst Youssef Cherif said the protests against Prince Mohammed were a sign that post-revolution Tunisia "is one of the rare Arab countries where one can take such a stand". The Saudi crown prince has also held talks in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt on his first foreign tour since the Khashoggi affair erupted. In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised the "unshakable strategic alliance between Egypt and Saudi Arabia" during the visit, the state daily Al-Ahram reported Tuesday. "The stability and security of Saudi Arabia is an integral part of Egypt's security," Sisi said. A study of DNA identifies the origins of the mummies american The man of the Cave of the Spirit returns home and is buried by a tribe in Nevada (USA) in the footsteps of the first american man Since 20 years ago, the north american tribe of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone in Nevada (USA) has fought for the return to the house of the Man of the Cave of the Spirit, a mummy found in 1940 in his territory. The remains match those of a man between 45 and 55 years of age. Since their discovery, they have rested in the State Museum of Nevada and have been claimed by her village to be buried. Did so in virtue of a law for the protection and repatriation of graves that can be applied only if it shows that it is a native american. In the absence of this test, and given that the analysis of dating ensures that inhabited the area makes 10.600 years, while it has lasted the judicial process, nor the indians have been able to take as its ancestor, nor the scientists have had access to him for more studies. In 2015, a group of scientists led by geneticist Danish Eske Willerslev, of the University Copenhagen (Denmark) and in collaboration with the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), managed to analyze his DNA. In the study of which is the mummy oldest in the world, it has been confirmed that this is a native american. It has not been proven that the man of the Cave of the Spirit to be an ancestor of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone, but the standard requires that the remains be delivered to the tribe nearest to you. So have won a battle of two decades and have been able to finally buried, in a ceremony full of rituals, that they claim to be their ancestor. "The remains are part of the cultural identity of the indigenous population and therefore have the right to say the last word", has stated to THE WORLD, Jose Victor Moreno-Mayar, the main author of the research. "It has tried to listen to the voices of the indigenous communities and I hope that this will contribute to the research groups in various fields is taken into account. In our study, we kept the community informed and involved throughout the project and this contributed to develop a relationship of trust that is rare among researchers and indigenous peoples," he added. Eske Willerslev with two members of a tribe The science has continued its journey and has used these results to know how is populated the american continent. A team of 54 researchers, coordinated by Eske Willerslev, has presented this Thursday in the journal Science, a work which analysed the ancient DNA of 15 people of the Ice Age in a study that spans from Alaska to the chilean Patagonia. It contained the mummy of the Cave of the Spirit and the skeleton of Lovelock (Nevada, USA), Lagoa Santa (Brazil), an inca mummy (Argentina), the oldest remains of the Patagonia (Chile) and a milk tooth of a child 9,000 years old, found in the cave Trail Creek Alaska (USA). The scientists explain that both the remains of the Cave of the Spirit in the united States as of Lagoa Santa in Brazil, despite the fact that their skulls are different to those of the native americans today, their genetics, yes, about the native american contemporaries. They would be more closely related even than with any other ancient group. This demolished a theory that claims that these remains are paleoamericanos. In addition, the researchers have been able to verify that these groups moved up the american continent, traveling long distances at great speed. Among the findings most surprising collected in this work is the discovery of genetic fingerprints of upward of Australasia in the ancient native americans of South America, but not in North America, a conclusion that complicates what is known of these populations, and opens new questions. "We have identified this signal in remains of individuals that lived in Brazil makes 10.400 years, we know that this signal has been present in America since at least that time," said Moreno-Mayar, the main author of the research. But how they got there and why we have not found these traces in the populations of the north? This is something new that arises in this research and who do not know, even, resolve. "One possibility is that the carriers of this sign have come to America a little before or in parallel with the first native americans, following a similar route from Alaska to South america. However, we do not have evidence nor genetic, nor archaeological, of a public as well or in Alaska, or North, or Central america; in Brazil alone," explained Moreno-Mayar. "Surely, its origin is mesoamerican, but to say this is still a bit speculative," he explained to this half, Antonio Salas Ellacuriaga, a researcher at the Institute Of Forensic Sciences of the University of Santiago de Compostela and only a co-author of the Spanish study. The scientist has reminded us that there were three great movements on the continent. One from the Bering Strait into north America, a second migration to the south "which probably brought with it a component austral-asian in their genomes," and a third movement that began in Mesoamerica, about 8700 years ago, towards the north, in what is known as the Great Basin, located in the northwest of North America. According to the criteria of Updated Date: 26 November 2018, 20:00 Learn more Turkish investigators search for Khashoggi remains originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Investigators in Istanbul have searched two adjacent villas in a remote village in northwestern Turkey as part of the hunt for the remains of Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post columnist's body has not been recovered since he was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Investigators are also studying a telephone conversation that took place between one member of the assassination team that allegedly killed Khashoggi and a resident at the property on Oct. 1 one day before the murder took place, according to Irfan Fidan, Istanbul's chief prosecutor, who issued a statement on Monday afternoon. The Saudi citizen living in one of the two villas has been identified as Mohammed Ahmad A. Alfaozan, according to the prosecutor's statement. "The communication has been considered to be about the disposal or hiding of Khashoggi's corpse," the statement said. (MORE: Congress orders Trump admin to investigate Saudi crown prince's role in Khashoggi murder) Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a Turkish official familiar with the investigation told ABC News that Alfaozan is a Saudi Arabian businessman who left Turkey shortly after the murder and has not returned. Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister described an audio recording that allegedly captured the murder of Khashoggi. "I listened to it. He was killed within seven minutes. It was a deliberate murder," Mevlut Cavusoglu told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Cavusoglu said he could hear the forensic doctor instructing others to listen to music while he cut up the body. "It can be heard in the recording how the forensic expert gave instructions. He is heard saying that the others should listen to music while he is dismembering the body. It's clear that he is enjoying it. He likes to cut people up. This is disgusting," Cavusoglu said. Story continues Cavusoglu also said that Ankara does not believe those who murdered Khashoggi acted alone. While pointing out that evidence was necessary before making firm accusations, Cavusoglu told Sueddeutsche Zeitung that many in the Turkish government believe Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for ordering the murder. When asked about a possible meeting between bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the two-day G20 summit in Argentina, which begins Nov. 30, Cavusoglu said Erdogan would consider it. "At this point, there is no reason not to meet the crown prince," he said. (MORE: After Khashoggi, Saudi prince looks to rebuild image abroad) Ahead of the G20 summit, Argentine officials are considering whether to file charges against the crown prince for war crimes and torture. According to a statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW), the group filed a submission with an Argentine judge, requesting that authorities assess the crown prince's role in connection with alleged war crimes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and his possible complicity in the alleged torture of Saudi nationals, including Khashoggi. By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States has spoken with Israel about possibly presenting a long-awaited Middle East peace plan at the start of next year, which could avoid interfering with the country's election, Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said on Tuesday. U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been preparing a plan for peace between the Palestinians and Israel. But the Palestinians are skeptical and have accused the Trump administration of siding with Israel on the core issues relating to the decades-old conflict, burying all chances for peace. "We don't know the details of the plan but we know that it's completed. So now the question is when will they submit it. As far as we know they speak with us about the beginning of '19," Danon told reporters. At the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders in September, Trump said in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he wanted to unveil a peace plan over the next two to three months. "We always spoke about the fact that maybe we are going to elections in Israel and the issue was whether you present the plan in the middle of a campaign. As it looks now we are going for elections but not immediately," Danon said on Tuesday. "So basically today the president is able to come and present it without interfering in a political debate in Israel," he said. "If you present it during an election it will be horrendous." The next national election in Israel is scheduled for November 2019, but politicians and political analysts have speculated the poll could be brought forward to March or May after Netanyahu's governing coalition was reduced to a one-seat majority in parliament earlier this month. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said in a statement on Monday it would be shared "at the appropriate time," adding that: "Our timing, our strategy and our messaging is and will be entirely our own." Danon said it was unclear if the United States planned to present a "take it or leave it" plan or if it would try and bring all sides together to negotiate the proposal. Trump's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, who is working on the plan with Kushner, made clear in September that both sides could expect parts they would like or dislike. The Palestinians have refused to participate in the U.S. effort since December when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and then moved the U.S. embassy there. (Additional reporting by Maayen Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Bernadette Baum) By Julia Symmes Cobb RIOHACHA, Colombia (Reuters) - Even though five-year-old Kamila is used to getting blood drawn, she cried out when the needle pricked her arm, clinging to her mother for comfort in a classroom-turned-clinic in the northern Colombian city of Riohacha. Venezuelan Kamila was born premature at 30 weeks, weighing just 900 grams (2 lbs). Her early entry into the world came with kidney problems and cerebral atrophy that have delayed some parts of her development and kept her limbs spindly. She is one of thousands set to receive treatment this week from doctors and dentists from United States Navy hospital ship the USNS Comfort. Many are Venezuelan migrants who have fled economic crisis across the border. Others are Colombians, including indigenous Wayuu, seeking care amid constant delays in Colombia's overcrowded health system. The United Nations on Monday pledged $9.2 million in aid for Venezuela, where hunger and preventable disease are soaring due to food and medicine shortages. President Nicolas Maduro blames the country's problems on U.S. sanctions and an "economic war" led by political adversaries. [nL8N1Y15Q8] Most patients, pre-screened by local authorities, will receive care on land in two clinics set up in schools, while those needing surgery will be flown by helicopter to the ship itself, anchored far offshore. "The tests we needed for her would have cost so much in Venezuela, but here they did it in a few seconds," said Kamila's mother Yennymar Vilchez, 24, who arrived four months ago. The ship's staff last week treated more than 5,400 patients over five days in Turbo, a city near the jungle border with Panama, including 131 who had surgery. An estimated 2,500 will be seen in Riohacha, 91 kilometers (56 miles) from the border with Venezuela, through Friday. The arrival of Venezuelans has burdened the beleaguered Colombian healthcare system, especially in border cities, where patients can wait months for basic care. "The migration crisis has certainly played a factor," Captain William Shafley told journalists after an opening ceremony. "We're here to help the Colombian government and their obviously strained healthcare system." Colombia, which has received about one million Venezuelan migrants, could be hosting four million by 2021, the government has said. [nL2N1WI1AB] Many cross the countries' porous land border without documentation, heading onward to other Latin American countries like Ecuador and Peru. Outside the dentistry room, Yessica Epiayu, 29 and a member of the Wayuu indigenous community, corralled her six children, aged 3 to 11, as they took turns getting cleanings. Her eldest son Orlando grinned broadly, proudly showing off a gifted dental mirror. Some surgeries require too much follow-up to be performed on the ship and are referred back to local authorities. Venezuelan Belkis Chirino, 29, a former restaurant manager, had hoped her 11-month-old daughter Jade could get pelvic surgery to guarantee she will walk despite a congenital deformity. But the doctors need further X-rays and the intense procedure, which risks damaging some nerves, will require significant time in the hospital. "I'm grateful even though she doesn't get the surgery," said Chirino. "At least they can help my Venezuelan brothers and sisters." But others like Vilchez, Kamila's mom, got good news. Her daughter's kidneys are getting healthier and a new medication will help her other symptoms. "It's wonderful!" she said, as she clutched the brown pharmacy bag, Kamila in her arms. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Helen Murphy and Phil Berlowitz) By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - The death toll from a boat accident on Lake Victoria over the weekend rose to 33 on Monday, Ugandan police said, as survivors described moments of heavy drinking and raucous fun before the vessel, slammed by powerful waves, tilted and sank. The Saturday evening tragedy occurred hundreds of meters off shore as the boat, carrying an estimated 100 revellers, was en route from one beach to another in Mukono district near the capital Kampala. Police spokesman, Patrick Onyango said the number of bodies retrieved from the water stood at 33 on Monday while 27 people have been rescued alive. The death toll was expected to rise, he said. This is the second deadly accident to happen on Lake Victoria in as many months. In September, more than 200 people died when an overloaded ferry sank on the Tanzanian side of the lake. Divers from the police and military pressed on with efforts to retrieve bodies while equipment was deployed to try to tug the boat wreck to shore, Onyango said. Boat cruises on Lake Victoria, which is shared by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, are common, with mostly young revellers spending hours out on the waters partying. One survivor, Shamirah Nsereko, told local NTV Uganda on Sunday night the captain had repeatedly warned the passengers that the boat was tilting to one side and taking in water. "But then you're talking to people who are so drunk," she said, adding the revellers couldn't hear the captain's commands. "Suddenly we saw one of the (music) speakers fall out, that was when things had gotten really bad." On Sunday, President Yoweri Museveni blamed the accident on overloading, saying the boat was carrying more than its capacity of 50. The owner of the boat and his wife, had perished in the accident, he said. Another survivor Edward Kateregga, also told NTV Uganda the boat's engine experienced faults repeatedly before the disaster occurred. In the scramble that ensued as the boat sank, a lot of people jumped onto a canoe that arrived within minutes to rescue the victims. "I jumped off it and back into the water after realizing it wasn't going to manage. A minute barely passed before it also capsized," Kateregga said. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Omar Mohammed, William Maclean) Louise Bours has become the 8th MEP to quit UKIP since 2014 (Getty) UKIP has now lost close to half of its representatives in the European parliament after suffering two departures in the space of five days. East of England MEP Patrick OFlynn announced on Tuesday that he has quit the party in protest at the decision of its leader, Gerard Batten, to employ English Defence league founder Tommy Robinson as an adviser. But Yahoo Finance UK can also reveal that north-west England MEP Louise Bours has also quietly left the party. It means just 14 of the 24 UKIP MEPs elected at the last European elections remain in the party. MORE: Barnier remains available 24/7 for talks even though Brexit deal agreed Neither Bours nor UKIP publicly announced her departure, but the European parliaments website states that she left UKIP to become an independent on Friday 23 November. Bours has missed 20 of the 44 sitting days of the European parliament this year, including the last nine. The last time she attended a plenary sitting was on 12 September. UKIPs former health spokesperson, who called for the return of capital punishment, has also deleted her website, Twitter account and Facebook page. There was no answer when Yahoo Finance UK called her office in Brussels on Tuesday. East of England MEP Patrick OFlynn speaking in the European parliament (EP) Bours was subject to an investigation by ITV News in March over her voting record. She has the seventh lowest level of participation in votes since 2014, according to Vote Watch EU. In a statement to the channel, she said: Voting records are no indication of attendance, and nor are they a way of measuring the quality of an MEP. Not all votes in the European parliament lead to legislation in any case so it is often a futile exercise. It is also my personal view that after Article 50 was triggered last March, British MEPs should not be voting on anything that will be enacted once the UK has finally left the EU. MORE: EU and UK join forces against Brexit legal challenge Bours is now one of seven former UKIP MEPs who are not attached to a party. That number also includes former UKIP leadership candidate Steven Woolfe, whose recent application to join the Conservatives was rejected. Story continues Amjad Bashir defected to the Conservatives in 2015. Bill Etheridge, who quit UKIP in October over concerns the party was lurching to the far-right under Battens leadership, has joined the Libertarian party. OFlynn, a former political editor of the Daily Express, announced on Tuesday that he has defected to the Social Democratic party over concerns about Battens growing fixation with Tommy Robinson. In a statement on his website, OFlynn said: I have reached the sorry conclusion that UKIP under its current direction and at this decisive moment has become an impediment to the Brexit campaigning that I have energetically pursued for many years. KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian military counterintelligence officer was seriously wounded after Russian aircraft fired missiles at Ukrainian vessels on Sunday, the head of Ukraine's state security service (SBU) said. Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations after Russia fired on three Ukrainian ships then seized them. The confrontation prompted Ukraine to introduce martial law in some areas, citing the threat of a Russian land invasion. [nL8N1Y11BJ] "According to the confirmed operational information of the SBU, one of the Russian attack aircraft used two unguided combat missiles against the Ukrainian boats, as a result of which one of the officers of the SBU was seriously wounded," Vasyl Hrytsak said in a statement on Tuesday. Russia has said SBU officers were among those captured. Hrytsak confirmed that and said the security officers were there supporting the military. "The real surprise is the fact that against the two Ukrainian boats and the small tugboat, the Russians used six "FSB" (Russian Federal Security Service) and four naval vessels, as well as combat helicopters and airplanes of the Russian Federation Air Force," he said. He added that Ukraine's security council was taking all necessary measures to secure the release of those captured. The confrontation has exacerbated tensions already heightened after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine. (Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Geneva (AFP) - Operations at the Yemeni port of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for the embattled country, have fallen by nearly 50 percent over the past two weeks, the UN said Tuesday. Yemen's Saudi-backed government had been waging a fierce offensive to retake the city of Hodeida from Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Under heavy international pressure, pro-government forces suspended hostilities in Hodeida but the World Food Programme warned that imports had fallen substantially "because of the high levels of insecurity in the city." "Operations at Hodeida Port have decreased by 47 percent over the past two weeks," WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel told reporters in Geneva. "If this situation persists or further deteriorates, it would have (a) drastic impact on food availability and prices in the markets and (would make) it increasingly difficult for Yemeni families to afford their basic needs," he added. The UN estimates that 70 percent of all imports come through Hodeida, a port in western Yemen on the Red Sea. Humanitarian shipments into Hodeida have remained steady over the past two weeks, but falling commercial imports could force more families to rely on food aid. WFP is currently supporting some eight million people in Yemen, but another 20 million rely entirely on commercial food imports. UN agencies say 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-backed coalition launched an offensive against Huthi rebels in March 2015, though some rights groups estimate the toll could be five times higher. A Mexican father who took refuge in a North Carolina church for nearly a year to avoid deportation was arrested Friday while attending an appointment with immigration officials. Samuel Oliver-Bruno, 47, agreed to appear at an immigration office to be fingerprinted and discuss his petition to stay in the U.S. He was taken into custody when he arrived for the appointment, CNN reported. A protest immediately broke out outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Morrisville. A video shared by Alerta Migratoria, an immigrants rights advocacy organization in North Carolina, appears to show Oliver-Bruno being dragged out of the building by plainclothes officers. Faith leaders, family members and immigrant rights advocates who had accompanied Oliver-Bruno to his appointment led a protest around the vehicle he was placed in, leading to the arrest of 27 people, according to the Morrisville Police Department. Oliver-Brunos 18-year-old son was among those arrested, according to multiple outlets and Alerta Migratoria. Democratic Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina suggested in a statement that Fridays biometrics appointment may have been a trap set by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to lure Oliver-Bruno out of the church. ICE generally will not arrest anyone who is inside a church, hospital or school. It appears ICE has acted in concert with officials at USCIS, who instructed Mr. Oliver-Bruno to appear at local USCIS offices to discuss his deferred deportation, the congressmen said. He was then apprehended by plainclothes ICE agents upon entering the building. At best, Mr. Oliver-Bruno was presented with a catch-22 dilemma; at worst, he was entrapped. Congressman Butterfield and Congressman Price released the following statement regarding the Friday arrest of Samuel Oliver-Bruno by ICE officials: pic.twitter.com/BzyPlh8Uvm G. K. Butterfield (@GKButterfield) November 24, 2018 Oliver-Bruno moved to the U.S. in 1994 and met his wife, Julia Perez Pacheco, two years later, according to a website affiliated with the CityWell United Methodist Church in Durham, where the Mexican national had taken refuge. Perez Pacheco had a work permit to be in the U.S., the Durham Herald Sun reports. Story continues Demonstrators surround a government vehicle after Samuel Oliver-Bruno, 47, an undocumented Mexican national, was arrested Friday after arriving at an appointment with immigration officials in Morrisville, North Carolina. (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS) Oliver-Bruno and his wife moved back to Mexico in 2011 to take care of his sick father. While there, Perez Pacheco, who has lupus, fell ill and returned to the U.S. for open heart surgery, according to the CityWell website. Oliver-Bruno tried to follow her but was stopped at the border. ICE reported he had fraudulent documents, and Oliver-Bruno was convicted of entering the country illegally. Oliver-Bruno first sought sanctuary at the Durham church, which his family has attended since 2005, last December, according to the churchs website. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Samuel Oliver-Bruno glances back at CityWell United Methodist Church in Durham, N.C. where he had taken refuge to avoid deportation. (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS) Butterfield, speaking to Joy Reid on Sunday morning, said the fight to ensure Oliver-Brunos release is not over. We are going to continue to insist that deferred action is granted to this man based on humanitarian reasons and the fact that he is law-abiding, he said on AM Joy. Oliver-Bruno will reportedly remain in U.S. detention for the duration of his case. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Washington (AFP) - The US State Department on Tuesday slammed a Hungarian decision to extradite two Russian suspected arms dealers back to Russia instead of sending them to the United States. The US had sought the extradition of father and son Vladimir Lyubishin Sr and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr under an extradition treaty with Hungary. But Budapest denied the request and sent the suspects to Russia, "where it is unclear whether they will face trial," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. "The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia," she added. "Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this decision raises questions about Hungary's commitment to law enforcement cooperation." Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs responded on Twitter that the decision was based on a court ruling and "relevant international agreements." He noted that over the last five years, Hungary had sought extraditions on nine occasions from the US. "Eight of those were rejected," Kovacs wrote. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is one of the few European leaders to have praised President Donald Trump, and relations between the two NATO nations are usually good. The Lyubishins had been living in Hungary for several years. According to the Hungarian news website Direkt 36, Hungarian counterterrorism police arrested them in 2016 in an operation conducted with US authorities. "The United States had a strong case, built in cooperation with members of Hungarian law enforcement," Nauert said. The Nice Baps cafe in Cornwall has been saved from closure (Picture: SWNS) A popular roadside cafe in Cornwall has been saved after it faced closure because it is called Nice Baps. The cafe in Wadebridge was at risk of closing down after two councillors objected to its offensive name and objected to the renewal of its street trading licence. Named Cornwalls best cafe on TripAdvisor, Nice Baps has been visited by former prime minister David Cameron and the cast of BBC drama Poldark. Customers enjoying whats on offer at the Nice Baps cafe (Picture: SWNS) Coffee giant Costa has tried to buy the site on three separate occasions. It is run by Kevin Baker, 54, and his wife, Laura, 34, and is a shipping container made to look like a log cabin. MORE: British soldier given bravery award for helping victims of Las Vegas massacre MORE: Police hunt for man who unleashed torrent of abuse on woman with guide dog But some councillors said the cafe had no place in society because of its name. However, the council has backed down after customers showed their support for the cafe. We had thousands and thousands of people offering support, said Mr Baker. Kevin and Laura Baker are relieved Nice Baps has avoided closure (Picture: SWNS) Laura named it. We have nice five-inch flour baps. Theyre buns, not a degrading name for breasts. Were delighted common sense prevailed. Cornwall Council said it had dropped the complaints and cancelled a planned licensing hearing next month. The business on the A39 has more than 100 outstanding reviews on TripAdvisor. The cafe was almost forced to close two years ago after the Highways Agency raised an objection to their trading licence, but locals launched a campaign to save it. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK By Lucy Nicholson and Hannah McKay TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - A migrant mother photographed running with her daughters from tear gas at the U.S.-Mexico border said she never expected the U.S. Border Patrol to fire gas canisters at children and families. After traveling north from Honduras and spending a week in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, Maria Meza, 35, set out on Sunday with her five children to claim asylum at the U.S. border crossing. She and hundreds of other Central American migrants were blocked by Mexican police and staged a protest in front of the border, some rushing the U.S fence. Three tear gas canisters shot from the U.S. side landed around Meza and her children, who range in age from toddlers to teenagers, she said in an interview at a Tijuana migrant shelter. "The first thing I did was grab my children," said Meza. A photo of her clutching the hands of twin five-year-old daughters Saira and Cheili, as her 13-year-old daughter Jamie runs alongside, has gone viral and sparked angry reactions from some lawmakers and charities. "I was scared, and I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas," said Meza. Her young son James nearly fainted when a canister landed near him. Meza fell and struggled to get up amidst the gas. A young man gave her his hand and pulled her to her feet. "We never thought they were going to fire these bombs where there were children, because there were lots of children," said Meza, sitting in view of the rusted-steel U.S. border fence. "It wasn't right, they know we are human beings, the same as them," said Meza. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were struck by projectiles thrown by the migrants. Around 5,200 people who traveled in a caravan across Mexico are packed into the shelter in a stadium in Tijuana, living in makeshift tents. President Donald Trump has taken a hardline stance against the migrants, who have made their way north from violent and impoverished Central American countries. On Monday, he said Mexico should send them back to their home countries. The U.S. Border Patrol said most of those assembled at the border were economic migrants who would not qualify for asylum. "I came here for one reason, and that's because there is a lot of violence in Honduras," said Meza, as her children played with empty tear gas canisters shot by the Border Patrol. The United States shut the crossing for several hours on Sunday and Trump has threatened to close the border entirely. "If they close the border I ask God that here in Tijuana, or in another country they open doors to us, to allow me to survive with my children," said Meza. (Reporting by Lucy Nicholson and Hannah McKay; Writing by Andrew Hay; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) US press secretary Sarah Sanders is holding the first White House news briefing this month. The conference comes as the White House is juggling controversies on multiple fronts, including growing tension at the US-Mexico border where agents fired tear gas at travelling migrants a move staunchly defended by Donald Trump and recent developments from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election after former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was accused of lying to the FBI in violation of a recent plea deal. During the press conference, Ms Sanders suggested that the Obama administration also allowed for the use of tear gas at the US-Mexico border, and said that Mr Trump would like to see the Mueller investigation come to its conclusion. "Certainly the president has voiced his unhappiness from the beginning that this has gone on, this ridiculous witch hunt for two years, and we would like to see it come to a conclusion," Ms Sanders said when asked why the president appears uneasy with the looming release of the Mueller report, which will be delivered to the US attorney general. Those concerns come just as the US economy shows signs of potential weakening, too, after General Motors announced thousands of layoffs this week amid ongoing tension over the president's harsh tariffs on foreign imports that have left major American industries in jeopardy as the cost of raw materials has surged. Meanwhile, on the international front, Russian aggression in Ukraine has put a spotlight on Mr Trump's relationship with the Kremlin as he has refused to condemn the aggression there. Just at the end of the press conference, the president himself weighed in on Twitter to discuss the GM layoffs, and suggested that the company may see its subsidies for electric car production revoked. White House officials had indicated during the press conference that punishments may come for the auto maker over its thousands of layoffs. Story continues "Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) - dont think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect Americas Workers!" Mr Trump tweeted. Other topics covered during the press conference included the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi US National Security Adviser John Bolton said he would not listen to a tape recording of the murder and the recent US report on climate change, which Ms Sanders said the president does not believe is accurate. Please read along for our coverage of the press conference, as it happened. Thanks for reading! TipRanks Every retail investor wants to ensure a solid portfolio return. The only question is, how? The stock market produces a vast mine of data, that by its nature forms a barrier to access. Some investors take a path of low resistance, and follow one or more market legends. These legends are the giants of the investing world, people like Steven Cohen. The billionaire trader behind Point72 Asset Management has shown that he can survive the vicissitudes of Wall Street. After recovering from Federal inve By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York State's highest court said on Tuesday that the U.S. Constitution guarantees jury trials to noncitizens charged with crimes that could subject them to deportation, in a divided ruling that prompted a call for the Supreme Court to weigh in. The Court of Appeals rejected an argument by Bronx county prosecutors that deportation is merely a civil consequence of criminal convictions, and the Sixth Amendment did not require jury trials for defendants charged with minor yet deportable crimes. "It is now beyond cavil that the penalty of deportation is among the most extreme and that it may, in some circumstances, rival incarceration in its loss of liberty," Judge Leslie Stein wrote for a 5-2 majority. The decision coincided with moves by U.S. President Donald Trump to speed up deportations and tighten U.S. borders. His administration was not involved in the case. Within New York, the decision means noncitizens will be entitled to jury trials even if their alleged deportable crimes carry maximum prison terms of six months or less. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said the decision addressed the "harsh realities" of possible deportation, but also threatened "serious backlogs and disparities in the administration of justice" in state courts and conflicted with Supreme Court precedents. She said she may appeal to that body. The court of appeals ordered a new trial for Saylor Suazo, who was convicted in a bench trial on misdemeanor charges carrying a maximum three-month jail term, for allegedly throwing the mother of his children to the floor and then choking and striking her. Suazo, a Honduran citizen, is considered a "visa overstay," making him deportable, court papers show. The appeals court said it was confident that state trial judges were "competent" to address potential immigration issues. Judge Michael Garcia, a former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, dissented, saying the threat of deportation did not transform "petty" offenses into serious crimes. He also faulted the majority for letting federal immigration law override the state legislature's view of the severity of various crimes, as reflected in their maximum punishments, saying it was "doubtful" the Supreme Court had this in mind. "In the end, the Supreme Court has the ultimate authority to settle this issue," Garcia said. "[I]t should do so." Mark Zeno, a Columbia Law School lecturer representing Suazo, welcomed the decision. "You can't separate penalties imposed by the federal government from those the state imposes when viewing a conviction's consequences," Zeno said. The case is People v Suazo, New York State Court of Appeals, No. 117. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Grant McCool) Wellington (AFP) - Six beached whales were successfully refloated off New Zealand Tuesday, rescuers said, after a spate of mass strandings in recent days that resulted in the deaths of dozens of marine mammals. Wildlife rangers and volunteers used pontoons to float the killer pygmy whales -- part of a group of 12 found beached in the country's far north on Sunday -- and take them about 400 metres (437 yards) offshore. "We are hopeful that the six whales that have been refloated will remain at sea," the Department of Conservation (DOC) department said in a statement, adding that another two whales were euthanised after continually restranding. Two of the pod were already dead, and two more died after being found by rescuers on the North Island's west coast, with the remaining eight transported by truck to the east coast on Monday, where sea conditions were calmer. The survival of even part of the pod was a rare success for DOC as it struggled to deal with four separate strandings in quick succession, including a sperm whale and a pygmy sperm whale in separate incidents on the North Island coast. By far the largest was when up to 145 pilot whales were found late Saturday washed up on Stewart Island, 30 kilometres (19 miles) off the southern coast of the South Island. Half the animals were already dead and the rest were put down because there was no chance of rescuing them from the remote location US travel blogger Liz Carlson was among a group of hikers on Stewart Island that found the whales and she described her frustration at being unable to help the huge sea creatures. "When we realised the horror of what we were seeing, we dropped everything and ran straight into the water," she posted on social media. "Desperately we grabbed their tails and pushed and yelled, before we got hammered by them thrashing around. "It was useless -- they were so big and heavy and the realisation we could do nothing to save them was the worst feeling I've ever experienced." The reason whales and dolphins strand is not fully understood but factors can include sickness, navigational error, geographical features, the presence of predators, and extreme weather. Police ask for information Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Yakima police at 509-575-6200. Tips also can be reported to Yakima County Crime Stoppers at 800-248-9980 or online at http://www.crimestoppersyakco.org. You can also share a tip via the P3 app from p3intel.com. 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. PM Phuc suggested that the two foreign ministries continue reviewing high-level agreements and fix existing shortcomings in the collaboration of trade, investment, transportation, agro-forestry, and education-training. He called for joint work to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the victory over the genocidal regime (January 7, 1979), reflecting the profound solidarity in combat between the two nations and raising the two peoples awareness of the importance of the historic victory. The PM asked both sides to legally recognise 84 percent of the border demarcation and marker planting, and process legal papers for Vietnamese-Cambodians. PM Phuc urged Sokhonn to continue working closely with relevant Cambodian authorities and localities in the relocation of floating houses of Vietnamese-Cambodians on Tonle Sap Lake in Kampong Chhnang province, as directed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. Sokhonn, for his part, said he always gives priority to developing the friendly neighbourliness, comprehensive cooperation and solidarity between the two coutries. He vowed to work closely with the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to build on their past achievements. Regarding the relocation of the floating houses of Vietnamese-Cambodians, he said the province also has plans to ensure new housing for the residents, expressing his belief that both sides will soon be able to make suitable solutions in this field. Two teenage girls were found dead on Monday, both brutally murdered: 16-year-old Yara Ayub from Jish and 13-year-old Eritrean native Silvana Tsegai, who lives in Tel Aviv. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Ayub had been missing for three days when her body was found in a dumpster on Monday afternoon. A 28-year-old resident of Jish was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Ayub and obstructing justice. A 53-year-old man was also arrested in connection with the case. The circumstances of the murder are not yet clear, and a gag order has been put on the investigation. The Tel Aviv scene of the murder of the 13-year-old Silvana Tsegai (Photo: Amit Shaal) Ayub was last seen alive visiting a local bakery. She was on her way to her friends birthday and stopped at the bakery to buy something, and then we lost contact with her. On Monday they told us her body was found, said her father, Nashat Ayub. My heart is aching for my beautiful girl, he added. She was a special girl, she always made sure it was happy at home. Its terrible that weve lost her. I just want to hold her and kiss her, give her back to me. How can we go on without her? Ayub's mother said in tears. Yara Ayub, who was murdered in Jish The head of the local council declared a general strike on Tuesday following the events. Normally, things are quiet here. Weve all been part of the search party for the girl, and we weren't expecting this news, he said. The 13-year-old Silvana Tsegai was found dead at an apartment in southern Tel Aviv after she had been beaten to death. The police are searching for Tesfabran Tesfatsion, the former partner of the girl's mother. The mother is not a suspect. After failing to reach her daughter on the phone, the mother rushed home, where she found the Silvana's body and called the police. Silvana's father, who arrived at the scene, collapsed. The mother pointed to her former partner, who was imprisoned in the past for traffic violations, as a possible suspect. The Tel Aviv scene of the murder of the 13-year-old Silvana Tsegai The suspect's father said his son and Silvana's mother separated three months ago. "He was angry at the girl's mother, and they separated. I don't know why," he said. The father added that "the girl's mother is a very good woman; the problem is with him ... my son is a criminal, stupid and crazy. I didn't think he'd murder the girl, it would've been better if he murdered me." Tesfabran Tesfatsion, who is suspected of the murder of 13-year-old Silvana Tsegai "We can no longer bear the terrible news that just keep coming. After the body of a 16-year-old girl was found in the north, now we've learned about the death of a teenager in Tel Aviv, whose body was found with signs of violence," said the Israel Womens Network. "This is an emergency that cannot be ignored. It's time for the government to join the war for the lives of women in Israel." The Israel National Council for the Child added, "Two girls were murdered today. This is a difficult and painful evening, and the horrendous series of events requires real soul-searching. We cannot accept the murder of childrennot on the streets and certainly not at their homes. The protection of children in the family and in general needs to be at the top of the national list of priorities. We call on the government to allocate resources for early detection and treatment of distress, immediate protection in dangerous situations, real-time warning of at-risk cases and for coordination between welfare, health, education and law enforcement authorities." The two girls make up the 23rd and 24th women murdered this year, reaching a record number of gender-related murders in the past five years, according to the Israel Womens Network. Three people threw Molotov cocktails at a border police force in al-Ram neighborhood (Palestinian town located northeast of Jerusalem) overnight Monday. The authorities arrested one of the suspects, a resident of Hebron. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced Tuesday that it has informed the family of the terrorist who murdered Ari Fuld in September that their apartment is set for demolition. The terrorist's family was given a chance to appeal the decision until December 2nd. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced Tuesday that it launched an operational inquiry into the botched operations in Khan Yunis, Gaza, in which Lieutenant Lt. Col. M., 41, was killed. It was also reported that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot has appointed Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon to head the inquiry and present its findings in the coming weeks. There was much criticism last month over the transfer of Qatari funds to Gaza, but few realize that the cash infusion to the strip will indirectly help Israel by preventing the possible outbreak of disease in the Palestinian enclave that could spread to Israel. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The Qatari payout was the first installment out of six monthly payments, $25 million each$15 million for salaries and another $10 million for the purchase of diesel fuelto be made to Gaza. The first payment was made three weeks ago, with the next one expected in early December. Qatari delegation in Gaza In recent months, the worsening electricity shortage in Gaza forced the Palestinians to prioritize the operation of various facilities in the strip. In the last few months, five sewage treatment plants in the strip have been shut down, and sewage from Gaza has been pumped into the sea and streams, some of which spill into Israel. Furthermore, before the Qatari cash infusion, Gaza residents had running water only once a week. Therefore, Palestinian families filled tubs, sinks and tanks with water, which they reused for cleaning, so they could have enough water to last the entire week. Hamas members receive salaries () X International sources told Ynet there were fears the running sewage and contaminated water could cause an outbreak of disease in Gaza that would spread rapidly to Israel. Sources in the Israeli defense establishment confirmed this appraisal. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the consumption of contaminated water can cause diseases, such as jaundice, polio, typhus, cholera and dysentery. A Qatari fuel truck (Photo: AFP) But thanks to the transfer of large amounts of diesel into Gaza, the strip's sewage treatment facilities were able to resume operations, thus significantly reducing the flow of sewage into streams, the sea and the streets of Gaza. Furthermore, increasing the electricity made it possible to provide running water more often to the average Gazan household: once every couple of days, instead of once a week. The United Nations (UN) was not satisfied with these developments and called for preventive actions in the Gaza Strip. However, due to lack of cooperation from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah (as a result of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' ongoing sanctions on Gaza), the UN had to foot the bill of a large shipment of vaccines from abroad. The shipment of vaccines from India was allowed into the strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, despite the fact that it fails to meet the Israeli standard determined by the Ministry of Health. Police arrested a senior El Al on Monday who is suspected of being involved in a large-scale drug trafficking operation. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The airline official, Rami Yogev, 53, is the manager of the Development and Resources Department at El Al and has been working for the company for 25 years. As part of his job, Yogev serves as the liaison between El Al and the Shin Bet, which determines the security arrangements for EL AL flights and their representatives abroad. The suspect at court (Photo: Avi Mualem) As such, Yogev is granted a top security clearanceone of the highest in Israeland is authorized to enter restricted areas housing the planes, and load and unload special supplies, including weapons. According to the the Israel Police's Unit of International Crime Investigations, as a member of a drug trafficking network, the suspect allegedly used his security clearance and free access to company's planes to smuggle large amounts of cocaine to Israel. Three other men suspected of involvement in the drug trafficking network were arrested. One of the suspects was identified as ex-Shin Bet official Beno Shalom, who served for 12 years as an agent in the Shin Bet's Jewish Division and was even involved in a secret operation in which he infiltrated an extreme right group. El Al plane (Photo:Danny Sadeh) Testimonies gathered by the police suggest that the network had a drug smuggling "route" between Johannesburg, South Africa, to Israel, and managed to smuggle in nearly 15 kilograms of cocaine. Yogev was suspected of assisting the network in airport security checks. The Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court extended the remand of Yogev, Shalom and another suspect, Roy Chen, until Tuesday of next week. "We believe that the suspect (Yogev) played a larger role in the operation than the other suspects so far," a police representative said at the court hearing. Yogev's attorney said that his client "denies these allegations. Due to his classified nature of his job, I cannot elaborate further. We are confident that the police will release him soon." The other suspects also denied their involvement. El Al said it "views these allegations gravely and awaits the result of the police investigation." Anti-Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade, a sweeping new survey by CNN revealed Tuesday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter More than a quarter of Europeans polled believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance. Nearly one in four said Jews have too much influence in conflict and wars across the world. One in five said they have too much influence in the media, and the same number believe they have too much influence in politics. Meanwhile, a third of Europeans in the poll said they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews in lands controlled by Adolf Hitlers Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s. Jewish mass grave and Holocaust memorial vandalized in Ukraine The CNN/ComRes poll interviewed more than 7,000 people across Europe, with more than 1,000 respondents each in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland and Sweden. The poll was commissioned and completed before the killing of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburghthe deadliest ever attack on the Jewish community in the United States. The poll uncovered complicated, contrasting and sometimes disturbing attitudes about Jews, and some startling ignorance. Forgetting the Holocaust? About one European in 20 in the countries CNN surveyed has never heard of the Holocaust, even though its less than 75 years since the end of World War II, and there are still tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors alive today. Lack of Holocaust knowledge is particularly striking among young people in France: One out of five people there between the ages of 18 and 34 said theyd never heard of it. In Austriathe country where Hitler was born12 percent of young people said they had never heard of the Holocaust. Austria also had the highest number of people in the survey saying they knew just a little about the Holocaustfour out of 10 Austrian adults. Anti-Semitic graffiti in Spain Across Europe, half of respondents said they know a fair amount about the Holocaust, while only one out of five people said they know a great deal. Americans do not fare any better: A survey carried out on behalf of the Claims Conference earlier this year found that 10% of American adults were not sure theyd ever heard of the Holocaust, rising to one in five millennials. Half of all millennials could not name a single concentration camp, and 45% of all American adults failed to do so. But Europeans do believe it is important to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. Two-thirds of Europeans said that commemorating the Holocaust helps ensure that such atrocities will never happen again. That figure rises to 80% in Poland, where the Nazis established Auschwitz, the deadliest concentration camp of all. Half of Europeans said commemorating the Holocaust helps fight anti-Semitism today. But at the same time, a third of Europeans said that Jews use the Holocaust to advance their own positions or goals. The same number disagreed and nearly a third of respondents expressed no opinion. Complex relations Attitudes sharpened when it comes to the relationship between the Holocaust, Israel, Jews and anti-Semitism. A slight but solid majority of Europeans54%said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, with the figure rising to two-thirds in Poland. A third of survey respondents believe that criticism of Israel tends to be motivated by anti-Semitism, while only one in five said it does not. However, a third of people CNN surveyed said that Israel uses the Holocaust to justify its actions, with half the respondents in Poland agreeing. Only one in five disagreed. Anti-Semitic graffiti in Spain A third of Europeans said supporters of Israel use accusations of anti-Semitism to shut down criticism of Israel, while only one in 10 said that was not true. A third of Europeans said commemorating the Holocaust distracts from other atrocities today, with higher than average numbers of Germans, Austrians, Poles and Hungarians stating that. And while many people said anti-Semitism is a growing problem in their countriesto the extent that 40% said Jews were at risk of racist violence in their countries and half said their governments should do more to fight anti-Semitismsubstantial minorities blamed Israel or Jews themselves for anti-Semitism. More than a quarter of respondents (28%) said most anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the actions of the State of Israel. And nearly one in five (18%) said anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people. 'I'm not anti-Semitic, but' Few people said they personally have an unfavorable attitude toward Jews. Across the seven countries in the survey, one in 10 people said they didalthough the figure rises to 15% in Poland and 19% in Hungary. In every country polled except Hungary, significantly more people said they had a favorable opinion of Jews than an unfavorable one. In Hungary, favorable topped unfavorable 21% to 19%, with the rest saying they had neither a favorable nor unfavorable view. Synagogue in Gdansk, Poland after a stone were thrown inside during Yom Kippur prayer (Photo: Jewish Community of Gdansk) Attitudes towards many other minorities were notably harsher. While 10% of Europeans admitted they had unfavorable views of Jews, 16% said they had negative views of LGBT+ people, 36% said they had unfavorable views of immigrants, 37% said that about Muslims, and 39% said it of Romany people. But while the number of Europeans openly admitting negative attitudes towards Jews was relatively low, CNN questions about whether traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes still resonate across the continent found clear evidence that they do. In Poland and Hungary, about four out of 10 people said Jews have too much influence in business and finance around the world. Roughly one out of three people there said Jews were too influential in political affairs around the world, and more than a quarter of Poles and Hungarians said they had too much influence on the media. A third of Austrians said Jews have too much influence in finance, while a quarter of French and German respondents said so. About one in five people in all three countries said Jews had too much influence in media, and a quarter said they had too much influence on wars and conflicts. The belief in Jewish power runs in parallel with enormous overestimates of the number of Jews in the world. About two-thirds of the respondents in the survey guessed too high when asked what percentage of the world is Jewish, and similar numbers got the answer wrong for their own countries. A quarter of Hungarians estimated that the world is more than 20% Jewish, and a fifth of British and Polish respondents said so. They were off by a factor of 100. About 0.2% of the worlds population is Jewish, according to the Pew Research Centers Global Religious Landscape study. Jewish grave in Athens vandalized Four out of ten respondents in the survey thought their own countries were between 3% and 10% Jewish. In fact, Israel is the only country in the world where more than 2% of the population is Jewish. The overestimates came even as majorities or near-majorities in every country CNN polled said they were not aware of ever having met a Jewish person. Two-thirds of Germans, Austrians and Poles said they didnt think they had ever socialized with a Jew, while about half of people in Britain, France, Hungary and Austria said the same. ComRes interviewed 7,092 adults online in seven countries between September 7-20 (Great Britain, 1010; France, 1006; Germany, 1012; Poland, 1020; Hungary, 1019; Sweden 1018; Austria, 1007). Data was weighted to be representative of each country based on age, gender and region. The ramming attack in Gush Etzion on Monday does not necessarily indicate a new wave of terror attacks or a change in terrorist activity patterns in the West Bank. But it serves as another painful reminder of the clumsy and arrogant manner with which Israel conducts itself vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Israel is building up Hamas, not just in Gaza but also in the West Bank. To be precise: Israel is elevating Yahya Sinwar as the dominant Palestinian leader. And when Sinwar rises, courtesy of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas will lose the last remnants of his support in the West Bank, paving the way for increased terrorism in the West Bank; Tuesday's attack was only an example. The past two weeks serve as a clear example of this policy of strengthening Hamas and weakening the PAa policy emanating from the Prime Minister's Office while the defense establishment, for its own reasons, goes along. Yahya Sinwar (Photo: AP) On November 13, after Hamas launched hundreds of rockets into Israel and the Cabinet accepted the IDF's recommendation for a ceasefire , defense establishment spokespeople embarked on a PR campaign telling the Israeli public that Hamas was dealt a severe blow, was begging for a cease-fire and could barely overcome the shock upon discovering that Israeli forces operated right under their noses in the Gaza Strip. Perhaps all that is true, but they forgot to mention how Israel turned the vilified Hamas leader into a national hero. Sinwar owes a debt of gratitude to Netanyahu for those wonderful two days of military confrontation with Israel that rapidly caused a dramatic turnabout in his status. Prior to the discovery of the IDF Special Forces operation in Gaza, Sinwar was at a low-point. He was accused of "selling out" Gaza for a fistful of dollars (in the Qatari ambassador's suitcase), and everyonethe Palestinian Authority, the Arab media, the residents of Gazaridiculed him and presented him as one who had given up on the Palestinian national struggle. At the same time, the US administration announced a $5 million reward for information regarding the number 2 man in Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, who resides in Beirut. At the time, Hamas was also willing to make far-reaching compromises with the Palestinian Authority just to survive another day. Saleh al-Aruri, L And then, Israel did Hamas a great favor, to which they responded in a bland and predictable manner. The resignation of Avigdor Lieberman from his post as defense minister provided Hamas with the psychological victory it sought, and the day the shooting stopped, Sinwar became the ultimate Palestinian leader. This initiated a very dangerous process, which could lead to an explosion not only in Gaza but primarily in the West Bank. Hamas leaders became overconfident. Al-Arouri, a "wanted man" by the US, arrived in Cairo(where no one thought of turning him over to the Americans) for reconciliation talks with the Palestinian Authority last week, and it turns out that all previous agreements reached between Hamas and the PA over the last year had been erased. Al-Arouri put an end to talks about bringing in PA officials from Ramallah to govern Gaza. Hamas is talking about forming a national unity government now, elections now, joining the PLO now. Moreover, the Hamas delegation headed by al-Arouri is presenting the Egyptians with a list of demands to Israel, demands which Israel will never accept. It seems that al-Arouri is so shocked and embarrassed by the blow Hamas suffered in the last round of fightingaccording to Israeli intelligence expertsthat he allows himself to make bizarre demands. He demanded, for example, to expand the Gaza fishing zone from 9 nautical miles to 20 miles. The Operation Protective Edge agreements spoke of up to 12 miles. But after the last round, Hamas feels that it has leverage. It also demanded the removal of most of the restrictions on imports and exports of goods from Gaza, as well as another electric power line from Israelfunded by Qatarfully knowing that Israel cannot do so, since any infrastructure project needs to be approved by the Palestinian Authority. A situation in which Israeli military and political activity strengthens Hamas and weakens the PA makes no sense and forces Israel to formulate a new military and political strategy. When the PA is weakened, the Palestinian security apparatus is weakened, the population in the West Bank becomes more confrontational with the PA, as Israel makes it increasingly clear that violence pays off. From this, the road is short to the inevitable conclusion: a military escalation. Russia and Ukraine should de-escalate the situation in the Sea of Azov and solve the conflict without the use of force, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said on Tuesday. "De-escalation is the commandant of the hour," Kneissl told the Berlin Security Conference, urging dialogue through the United Nations or the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "It's important to solve this conflict verbally and not with weapons." Ukraine on Monday imposed martial law for 30 days in parts of the country most vulnerable to an attack from Russia. President Petro Poroshenko said that was necessary to bolster Ukraine's defences after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships and took their crew prisoner at the weekend. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Chad soonm where he and Chad President Idriss Deby will announce the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two nations, the Prime Minister's Office said Tuesday. Netanyahu and Deby met in Jerusalem on Tuesday and discussed common threats and the fight against terrorism, as well as increasing bilateral cooperation in agriculture, counter-terrorism, border defense, technology, solar energy, water and health, among other fields. It is unclear yet who Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to appoint as the next minister of foreign affairs, but what is clear is that this minister would have his work cut out for him, as he will inherit a paralyzed ministry with a NIS 330 million budget deficit. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The prime minister is expected to announce his choice of minister in the coming days, after having held the foreign affairs portfolio since the establishment of the current government in May 2015. Among the candidates are Yisrael Katz, Yuval Steinitz, Tzachi HaNegbi or Yariv Levinall Likud members who currently hold ministerial positions. Whoever that may be, it still remains to be seen whether they would receive a temporary three-month appointment or a permanent position until the government finishes its term in November 2019. The Foreign Affairs Ministry's budget suffered a NIS 12 million cut in recent government-wide cuts. Over the past two years, the ministry's budget was cut five times. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) Because of the massive budget deficit, the ministry won't have the funds to bring delegations of foreign journalists or policymakers to Israel, organize conferences, hold Independence Day celebrations around the world, bring VIPs to Israel on official visits, send Israeli diplomats on missions abroad, carry out public diplomacy, provide medical assistance and supplies to disaster-struck areas, renovate ambassadors' homes, or hire outside consultants. In January, all activities of the Foreign Affairs Ministry will be put on hold. The ministry won't be able to open its cadet course to train and prepare diplomats for careers in the Israeli foreign service, while the Agency for International Development Cooperation will not be able to open most of its courses in Israel and abroad, while the number of experts Israel sends abroad will be reduced significantly. If that's not enough, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has announced it would stop providing services abroad to government ministries, and conditioned any service it does provide in a "commission" of 12 percent of the expense. In turn, the Finance Ministry wishes to fine the Foreign Affairs Ministry, claiming it was trying to secure a source of income. In addition to the ministry's operations, inflexible expenses were also affected by the budgetary deficit, including rents on office spaces, contracts with suppliers, car leasings, and more. "Netanyahu shattered the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and now he's passing it on to someone else. Whoever takes the job needs to condition the appointment on a commitment for funding, because he would have a hard time functioning (otherwise)," said a ministry official. Last week, MKs at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee asked Netanyahu about the crisis in the Foreign Affairs Ministry and its inability to function due to the budget deficit. The prime minister was surprised by the question and asked the Foreign Affairs Ministry's director-general, Yuval Rotem, whether it was true. When Rotem, who was sitting next to Netanyahu, nodded in confirmation, the prime minister appeared surprised. A year ago, during a conference of Israeli ambassadors, Israel's Ambassador to Cameroon Ran Gidor asked Netanyahu how he was supposed to function with a budget of only $15,000. The prime minister responded: "You're a genius; you can do it without money." He then turned to Director-General Rotem and told him "Yuval, take care of this." Gidor received an additional $500 to his budget. Netanyahu has also made the Foreign Affairs Ministry redundant. The secret talks with Muslim countries that don't have diplomatic ties with Israel are done through the Mossad or the National Security Council. The Mossad organized Netanyahu's visit to Oman, while the invitation of the Chadian president to Israel was done by National Security Advisor Meir Ben Shabat. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Chad soon where he is expected to officially announce the renewal of diplomatic ties between Israel and the central African nation, the Prime Minister's Office said Tuesday. So far, no date has been set for Netanyahu's trip. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Netanyahu held a meeting with the Chadian President Idriss Deby at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on Tuesday, where they discussed increasing bilateral cooperation in agriculture, counter-terrorism, border defense, technology, solar energy, water and health, among other fields. The meeting Tuesday morning between the two leaders was their third after a work meeting and a dinner at the Prime Minister's Residence on Monday. Netanyahu with President Idriss Deby (Photo: GPO) On Monday, Deby said that the purpose of his visit to Israel was to renew relations between the two countries, after the central African nation severed them back in 1972. "I announced yesterday that we will renew diplomatic relations between Chad and Israel, and this will happen, God willing, in the coming days or weeks," he said in an interview with i24NEWS. Press conference with Chad president (: ) X Chadian president said his decision not to meet with Palestinian representatives during the current visit stems from the fact that diplomatic relations between his country and the Palestinian Authority are already stable. "We came here this time with a plan because we have not had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1972 and the aim was to renew these relations. We have no problem with Abbas or the Palestinians, they are our friends who participated in all the African Union committees, but we have not held talks with Israel since 1972, and I came here for that," Deby stressed. One of the issues that was discussed with Deby during his visit, is Israels desire to have direct flights from South America to Israel over Central Africa which entails flying over Niger, Chad and Sudan. President Deby reportedly agreed in principle to allow flights over his country. Deby also made it clear that Israel is very close to a breakthrough when it comes to relations with Sudanwhich is defined by law as an enemy state but has undergone positive change in recent years and is developing close ties with the United States. Deby has promised to help Israel's efforts in renewing diplomatic relations with the Sudanese. Chadian President Idriss Deby at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem (Photo: GPO) "The world is changing before our eyes. Crises and wars we knew are changing as well. We dont wish them on today's generation or future generations. Theres a time for war and a time for peace. Our message is global to all leadersChad doesnt presume to speak for black Africa. Chad comes to renew bilateral diplomatic relations, but if Chad can be a facilitator, Chad will not hesitate. Similarly to many other African leaders, Deby, too, began his political career as a military man. He enlisted in the early 1970s, when his country was in the midst of a civil war, and turned out to be an outstanding officer. He became a prominent figure in Chad in the 1980s, when he commanded the rebel forces under the leadership of Hissene Habre, who later became president. Later on, the relationship between the two deteriorated and Deby fled to neighboring Sudan, where he recruited an army of followers who carried out attacks against Habre's forces. In 1990, Deby returned to Chad and seized power in a military coup. Senior politicians from Germany, Austria, Poland and Estonia on Tuesday raised the possibility of new EU sanctions against Russia to punish it for capturing three Ukrainian vessels at sea, an incident the West fears could ignite wider conflict. Financial markets have responded to the prospect of new Western sanctions that could hurt Russia's economy, though the rouble on Tuesday clawed back some losses from the previous day as investors bet any sanctions would not be swift. Israel's UN ambassador says the Trump administration has told the Israeli government that it expects to release its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan in the beginning of 2019. Danny Danon told a group of UN reporters Tuesday that there is "a window of opportunity" for the US to present the plan without interfering in Israeli elections likely scheduled for May or June. Otherwise, he said, it will have to wait until next fall. It was announced Tuesday that the state will ask the High Court of Justice postpone the draft law deadline by four months due to the resignation of Avigdor Lieberman from his position as defense minister. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Tuesday a CNN report that found anti-Semitism in European countries in on the rise. Im concerned because I think anti-Semitism is an ancient disease that rears its ugly head. It first attacks the Jews, but it never stops with them. It then sweeps entire societies, he stressed in an interview with CNN. By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] IRONWOOD City manager Scott Erickson told city commissioners Monday an additional $220,000 grant has been approved for Ironwoods blight fight. The funds will again come through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Erickson said its hoped 10 to 12 houses will be demolished in 2019 in continuation of the Hardest Hit grant program that has resulted in dozens of eyesores being eliminated throughout the city. Bids are sought for area firms to tear down the structures. In other business, commissioners approved three payments totali... 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. Guyana Goldfields Inc. provides exploration and production of gold. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of gold mineral properties. The company also owns and operates gold drilling rights. The company was formerly known as Chiboug Copper Company Limited and changed its name to Guyana Goldfields Inc. in January 1995. Guyana Goldfields Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of August 25, 2020, Guyana Goldfields Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. Read More - Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw has said he has been betrayed by close persons - Anas said his line of work has brought him much of such betrayals - He also said those who betray him come back to beg him all the time Ghanas renowned investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has revealed that he has been betrayed. According to the ace journalist, betrayal is a common thing he is faced with all the time in line of his work. Anas, however, refused to mention names of those who have betrayed him. READ ALSO: Stonebwoys wife shower praises on him over AFRIMA award and its hot He added that those who fallout from his circles and betray him always came back to beg. The Tiger Eye PI boss made this revelation at a media event in Takoradi, as sighted by YEN.com.gh in a Mynewgh.com report. If you do this work for 20 years and you have not been betrayed then you are joking, Anas reportedly said. The controversial undercover journalist indicated that betrayal is one of the major challenges of the work as an undercover journalist explaining how persons who betrayed him in one way or the other came back begging. Despite the betrayal even from some of his close aids, Anas said he made sure to stick to the truth all the time, and this made those who betray him come back to beg him . I stick to the truth and those who betray us come back begging which is normal of human beings. I anticipate such things coming, Anas revealed. READ ALSO: Wild video of Efia Odo and Shatta Wale 'banging' in bed pops up after Moesha exposed her YEN.com.gh earlier reported the news of Anas photos being leaked in the media. This was caused by outspoken NPP member, Kennedy Agyapong, who claimed the photos were released to him by someone from Anas camp. Kennedy Agyapong also claimed he had information about how Anas was sleeping with the widow of the late NPPs J.B Danquah, how he duped people to acquire a mansion at Dzorwulu, and how Anas had fathered 13 children with different women. READ ALSO: Becca loses followers on Instagram for disrespecting fans However, the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako, refuted all of Kennedy Agyapongs allegations, and asked the public to disregard the supposed photos being circulated as Anas. He revealed further that those false information was being spread by a disgruntled member of Anas team who was sacked. This worker, according to Baako, was sacked for refusal to go back to school to upgrade himself. This got him bitter, and he started misinforming Anas enemies about him. READ ALSO: Hot list of popular musicians Efia Odo reportedly dated finally out It is in this vein that Anas felt very betrayed because that person was a close aid. He further commended his former school mates and colleagues including primary and junior high school, and tertiary mates for concealing his identity based on an appeal he made to them. I told my schoolmates that I am moving into another part of the world so anyone who has my images must keep them well in their own interest even though I use several faces in the line of investigative work. Colleagues have done very well and heeded to my advice of partnering and protected me over the years and concealed my identity, Anas said. He was in the news recently for daring Kwesi Nyantakyi's wife to sue him if she claimed he took a bribe from them to 'kill' the 'Number 12' investigative piece on her husband. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo makes final decision on national cathedral construction after many objections by Ghanaians Yenkasa: Some Musicians Share Thoughts on Kuami Eugene's 'Rockstar' Album| #Yencomgh READ ALSO: Energy Minister Peter Amewu assures Ghanaians that "dumsor" is not back Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place Source: Yen.com.gh An officer of the Ghana Police Service has gone viral after he was secretly filmed rejecting bribe from a commercial driver. In recent months, many police officers have entered the bad books of Ghanaians due to their exhibition of misconduct in public. However, that was not the case for Sergeant Felix Koku Tefe, who has earned high praise for his diligence and commitment to work. READ ALSO: UEWs Prof Afful-Broni withholds certificates of 176 graduating students In a secretly filed video, the officer is seen stopping a tro tro driver who drove past a red traffic light around Alajo in Accra. But, unsurprisingly, the driver attempted to bribe his way out of the situation by dipping his hand into his pocket to bring out a 2 cedi note. Sergeant Koku Tefe, who is from the Tesano MTTD, however, stood his ground and rejected the bribe from the driver. Speaking to UTV after he was told that the episode was secretly filmed, the officer said every policeman is supposed to be upholding the laws rather than compromise them. He was coming from carprice, but he moved past the traffic while others were waiting. So I chased him and arrested him right in front of Peace FM. He wanted to bribe me but I rejected it. When they cross the red light, they cause accidents all the time. I will take him to the office and ensure his license is seized, Sergeant Koku Tefe said. Meet Ghana's Peculiar Female Tiler: Faces of Ghana| #Yencomgh READ ALSO: BBC finally releases Shatta Wales freestyle and it sounds great Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page. Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place. Source: Yen.com.gh An 18-year-old prisoner, Akwasi Sarfo, has reportedly broken out of prison, and is currently on the run. The prison is located in the Assin Fosu district of the Assin North municipal of the Central Region. Police officials revealed that on November 21, 2018, the officer on duty, PW/Constable Janet Essilfie, reported for duty at about 2 pm and was to be relieved at about 10 pm. Source: Adomonline.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: I have been betrayed by close people - Anas tells his story During the duty schedule, she allegedly left the keys to the male cells on the charge office counter, which is close to the cells, and stepped out to sit in front of the charge office. While PW/Constable Essilfie was still outside around 6:40 pm, Sarfo, who was to serve a two-year term in a borstal institution, managed to join pieces of plywood used to panel the inner part of the cell, to lift the keys on the counter to his reach. Source: Adomonline.com Source: UGC On her blindside, he allegedly opened the cell which was secured with two padlocks, and steadily escaped from the cell. The police are however on a manhunt for the escapee and the case is under investigation. READ ALSO: Policeman secretly filmed rejecting bribe from a trotro driver Nuru Deen Story - The Miraculous Xylophone Manufacturer: Faces of Ghana | Yen.com.gh Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place. Source: Yen - EOCO and the CID are currently on the hunt for the directors of the Global Coin Community Help (GCCH), Kwaku Damete Kumi and David Opatey. - The suspects reportedly took almost GHC4 million in deposits from clients - The least depositor reportedly had GH5,000, while the highest depositor had more than GH200,000 in his or her account. The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) are searching for two men who have allegedly defrauded over 3000 people. YEN.com.gh understands that the suspects are the directors of an unlicensed company name, the Global Coin Community Help (GCCH), which is a deposit-taking institution. The directors of GCCH are reported to have absconded with more than GHC4 million of funds from depositors. The suspects, Kwaku Damete Kumi and David Opatey. Source: graphic.com.gh Source: UGC READ ALSO: WAEC withholds 2018 Nov-Dec results of 2160 candidates GCCH began as a deposit-operating institution, but later transformed into a cryto-currency trading entity, which gave its customers 27 per cent earnings every month for a year. After that, the customers will lose their principal deposits and any further earnings on their investments. Yes, we have received complaints from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and some of the depositors who have lost their deposits in the Global Coin Community Help and so we are on the lookout for the directors, EOCOs Executive Director, K.K. Amoah said. The GCCH directors who are being hunted by the security agencies are Kwaku Damete Kumi and David Opatey. The least depositor reportedly had GH5,000, while the highest depositor had more than GH200,000 in his or her account. At the moment, the GCCH offices in Nsawam in the Eastern Region and Haatso in the Greater Accra Region have been shut down and customers have formed pressure groups to petition state security and investigative agencies to arrest the directors of the company. READ ALSO: 18-year-old convict breaks out of prison (Photos) Yenkasa: Some Musicians Share Thoughts on Kuami Eugene's 'Rockstar' Album| #Yencomgh Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place. Source: Yen - Three men have been arrested for attempting to drown two masons in a manhole - The masons were accused of stealing iron rods Three persons have been arrested for attempting to drawn two suspected thieves at Danfa, a suburb of Accra, after they were accused of stealing The two masons, Kwaku Akorli and Hope Hortor, aged 51 and 28 respectively, were tied to bamboo sticks and submerged in a manhole filled with water after they were accused of stealing iron rods by the owner of the construction site where they worked. For the timely arrival of the Adoteiman Police personnel after a distress call was placed, the two masons would have been drowned to death. Suspected thief suspended over manhole Source: Grapic.com.gh Source: UGC READ ALSO: 18-year-old convict escapes from police custody The Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Effia Tenge, explaining the issue said the police upon receiving the distress calls at about 1:30pm on Monday, November 26, 2018 went to the scene immediately. According to her, the two men were found tied separately to the bamboo sticks suspended over the manhole at the construction site. DSP Tenge said, when the two were rescued, they were very weak, with their clothes drenched in water and struggling to catch their breath. Suspected thief suspended over manhole Source: Grapic.com.gh Source: UGC READ ALSO: Policeman filmed rejecting bribe from 'trotro' driver DSP Tenge said investigations conducted by the police indicated that the cruel act was carried out by the owner of the building under construction, with the help of two others. The owner of the building, Manasseh Adzroku and his two accomplices, Victor Harrison and Collins Amoako, have since been arrested by the police. READ ALSO: Preacher flies into church auditorium (video) Nuru Deen Story - The Miraculous Xylophone Manufacturer: Faces of Ghana | Yen.com.gh Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place. Source: Yen News In Son La province, NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong answered constituents queries and took note of their suggestions to be submitted to the concerned authorities. She also took the occasion to present VND300 million to the Fatherland Front of Yen Chau district to support underprivileged households. Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh travelled to Long An province and informed voters of the countrys economic performance and the fight against corruption in the past year. He promised voters that the government would take further actions to realise the socio-economic goals set for 2019. Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh meets voters in Long An province. In Dong Nai province, head of the Central Commission for Communication and Education Vo Van Thuong told voters that the Party and State have been particularly aggressive in the campaign to eliminate corruption. At the meeting with a military division stationed in Thai Nguyen province, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh informed soldiers of the substantive results of Vietnams external relations in 2018. In Bac Ninh province, Minister of Public Security To Lam informed his constituents on security issues, adding that his ministry is working hard to prevent and crack down on serious crimes. The leaders held talks in Hanoi on November 27 during the Cambodian guests two-day official visit to Vietnam from November 26. They noted sound developments in the bilateral ties since the 16th meeting of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee in May 2018, especially the two-way trade value that is likely to surpass US$4 billion this year. They agreed to push for the implementation of measures to facilitate trade, in particular border trade, speed up transport connectivity, and apply the one-stop mechanism at border gates to bring two-way trade to US$5 billion. Prak Sokhonn suggested Vietnamese businesses continue expanding their investment, affirming that the Cambodian Government will work harder to make it easier for them to feel safe when investing in Cambodia. The leaders agreed to continue the sound cooperation in education-training, tourism, and cultural and people-to-people exchange to consolidate the solidarity and educate younger generations on the historical tradition of Vietnam-Cambodia ties. They reached a consensus on increasing bilateral coordination to actively carry out agreements reached by top leaders pertaining to the land border demarcation and marker planting, the processing of legal papers for Cambodians with Vietnamese origin, and the removal of floating houses of those residing on Tonle Sap Lake in Kampong Chhnang province, to bolster the bilateral ties in the future. They spoke highly of the countries cooperation at regional and international forums, asserting the importance of reinforcing the unity and central role of ASEAN in the regional architecture as well as maintaining firmly the groups goals and basic principles. The leaders agreed to promote collaboration in the framework of the Greater Mekong Sub-region and the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle to narrow the development gap, and manage and use Mekong river water resources sustainably. They affirmed mutual support and close coordination in 2020 when Vietnam performs the ASEAN Chair and Cambodia hosts the 13th ASEM summit. On the East Sea issue, they stressed the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability in the waters, addressing disputes by peaceful measures on the basis of international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and speeding up the negotiations on an effective, practical code of conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law. They agreed to carry out periodical exchanges between the two foreign ministries to boost their information sharing and coordination, and promote training and research cooperation between the Vietnam Academy of Diplomacy and the newly-established Academy of Diplomacy and International Relations of Cambodia. When the GOP loses their bets, they use their gerrymandered majorities to make workers to pay UPDATE, 12/4/18: Michigans GOP-controlled House has voted to gut both the One Fair Wage minimum wage increase and earned sick leave. The bills now go to the desk of the governor. If you wonder how thats going to go, the Detroit Free Press reports, Gov. Rick Snyder worked on the bills with the House and Senate, but has not said yet whether he will sign the bills. Heres what you can do to ask Snyder to do the right thing, which is unfortunately the one option we have at this moment. UPDATE, 11/28/18: Michigan Senate Republicans voted to gut both the One Fair Wage minimum wage increase and paid sick leave on Wednesday. An amendment to the minimum wage increase passed earlier this year to deny voters a chance to vote on the citizens-backed initiative Senate Bill 1171 will add eight years to the deadline for increasing the minimum wage to $12, from 2022 to 2030. Tipped workers will be hurt most, with their pay capped at $4 an hour. Companies with less than 50 workers will exempted from any paid sick leave under Senate Bill 1175 and the amount of required leave will be cut in half from 72 to 36 hours. It will also take hundreds of hours of work longer to accrue these few days of leave as employees must work 40 hours to earn an hour of leave instead of the 30 established in the citizens-backed initiative established. I think one of the most troubling things is they dropped the bills the day after the election, Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, told the Detroit News. So obviously they had these bills in the works all summer long and didnt have the courage to show the voters what they were planning on doing. The goal here is to deny workers what theyve won regardless what the Michigan Constitution says. Make sure you contact your state House Representative today and tell your rep to leave the minimum wage and sick leave bills alone. You can do that HERE. Michigan Republicans made two bets against democracy. By passing citizen-initiated proposals that would raise the minimum wage and require paid sick leave into law before they could end up on the ballot, they assumed they would keep voters home and leave themselves the chance to amend both pieces of legislation in a lame duck session using their illegally gerrymandered majorities. They lost the first bet, badly. Republicans lost more state constitutional offices in one election than at any time since at least 1938. Now its our job to make sure they lose the second bet. Senate Republicans are in the process of gutting the minimum-wage increase by taking the fair part of the One Fair Wage that activists and nearly 500,000 Michiganders supported. By slashing the wage for restaurant workers, Republicans want to return to a tipped wage. Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) calls this practice a legacy of slavery, noting that it punishes a mostly female workforce of tipped workers in the US struggles with the highest rates of poverty and sexual harassment because they must tolerate inappropriate customer behavior to feed their families in tips. Gutting it endangers these workers and the way Republicans are going about it is clearly unconstitutional, says Pete Vargas, High Road Director at ROC United. This is a subversion of the democratic process, he said. And it will just result in costly time-consuming court challenges. Voters could well win this legal given a 1964 opinion from then Attorney General Frank Kelley who wrote that amending a citizen-initiated proposal in the same session it was adopted would violate the the spirit and letter of the state Constitution. And while special interests opposing higher wages, including the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Restaurant Association, can afford to wait out the courts, workers cant. Neither can Michigan. Vargas estimates that the law as written would be an economic stimulus that would benefit about 25 percent of all working families in the state, sending $3.1 billion to 1.2 million workers. And it would also remove the power imbalance that leaves restaurant workers constantly at risk of harassment. Workers should be getting paid by employers, not the consumers, Vargas explains. By making tipping a reward for good service and not something workers need to survive, everyone does better. One Fair Wage has been fighting to remove the two-wage system and the exploitation that goes along with it and in the seven states where it is law, several of which have had one wage for decades, the group has found that none of the scaremongering about raising wages comes true. This finding is consistent with a recent study The effect of minimum wages on the total number of jobs that finds minimum wage increases raise wages work, raising wages and creating higher-paying jobs that replace lower-paying ones: Using variation in state minimum wages in the United States between 1979 and 2016, we find that, on average, the number of missing jobs paying below the new minimum during the five years following implementation closely matches the excess number of jobs paying just above minimum. This leaves the overall number of low-wage jobs essentially unchanged, while raising average earnings of workers below those thresholds. At moments like these the conservative belief in low wages is laid bare along with Republicans disrespect for direct democracy. But the knife cuts both ways, Vargas warns. Republicans would be creating a dangerous precedent for the citizens-initiated proposal process while taking a stand they know voters would reject. What can you do about it? This is all happening fast. Contact your State Senator immediately and let them know you want One Fair Wage as it was passed into law. And if you can be in Lansing on November 28 to make the case on behalf of a half million Michiganders or want to be part of this effort to save what workers have won, contact Pete at ROCUnited dot com. 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The agreement, expected to be signed within days, would open two-way trade between the two countries. Argentina will have a 20,000-tonne limit on its exports to the US, Bircher said, while there will be no limit on US beef going to Argentina. On Monday the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had deemed Argentine beef to meet US sanitation requirements. "Opening the border to raw beef from Argentina is certain to put downward pressure on US cattle prices, and meat packers will be able to use this cheaper, undifferentiated beef as a direct substitute for beef produced by US cattle producers," Joe Schuele, spokesman for the US Meat Export Federation, said. Bircher said Argentina stopped exporting beef to the US 17 years ago due to US concerns about contamination of Argentine cattle by foot-and-mouth disease. "We have eliminated that through a vaccine programme in our livestock sector," she added. By Washingtonexaminer , Nov. 24, 2018 In a sign that North Korea is not planning to give up all its nuclear arsenal, the communist government has revealed plans to use the weapons to launch EMP attacks that effectively dismantle technology and computers in the blast area. A report on the new document distributed by the government shows the acronym for electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, clearly printed in July. 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 Trac, who is also head of the CPVCCs Commission for Internal Affairs, hailed the significance of the CPPKs visit in the context of noteworthy development in the friendship between the CPV and the CPPK as well as between the two countries. He affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to developing the close traditional friendship with Kazakhstan, adding that he hopes the two parties will increase the exchange of information and theoretical matters on the path to socialism as well as the sharing of experience in Party building and youth work. Legki underlined that the CPPK treasures its ties with the CPV, noting that the fine traditional relations between the two parties provide a firm foundation for them to expand cooperation in the time ahead. On November 26, CPVCC member and head of the CPVCC Commission for External Relations Hoang Binh Quan had a working session with the CPPK delegation, during which the two sides discuss ideological work, Party building and youth issues. Quan stressed that in pursuing the policy of multilateralisation and diversification of external relations along with proactive international integration, the CPV pays great attention to strengthening relations with traditional communist parties, including the CPPK. He suggested that the two parties enhance cooperation and stance coordination at multilateral forums for political parties of which they are members. During their stay in Vietnam, the CPPK delegation also made a working trip to the northern province of Ninh Binh. The first scenario could allow the government to perhaps negotiate further with the U.K. Parliament until the House of Commons approves the exit deal. In order to extend that deadline, the U.K. would have to ask the EU for permission and the 27 countries would have to accept the request unanimously. Such an outcome would also not erase uncertainty for citizens or the economy. The second scenario is the most feared in Europe and by many business groups in the U.K. a no-deal Brexit. Leaving the EU in March of next year without a deal would mean that World Trade Organization rules would apply. This would inevitably raise tariffs and costs for both producers and consumers. At the moment, the U.K. is a member of the EU single market of goods, meaning that trade is frictionless and with zero tariffs. There would be immense disruption and uncertainty, including in the energy market, the supply of medicines and medical devices, as well as in the car industry. An oil production cut is expected when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in Vienna next week amid worries over a U.S.-China trade war, a supply glut and demand slowdown, according to Johannes Benigni, chairman and founder of consultancy JBC Energy Group. "OPEC will probably manage to stabilize the oil market by choosing the right language," Benigni told CNBC's Sri Jegarajah. "They will indicate a cut of between 1 million and 1.5 million, and that will do, the market probably will stabilize." Saudi Arabia raised oil production to an all-time high in November,Reuters reported on Monday, pumping 11.1 million to 11.3 million barrels per day (bpd) during the month. G-20, OPEC and politics The market is cautiously awaiting the outcome of the G-20 meeting when finance leaders meet in Buenos Aires on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 to resolve a trade dispute between Washington and Beijing. OPEC leaders will gather in Vienna on Dec. 6 to discuss how to manage the oil output, supply glut and demand slowdown. "What really are in oversupply are the light crude barrels which are coming out of the U.S.," Benigni said. "So the expectation or the hope for OPEC right now would be that prices go lower, and demand may come back." Politics is adding to the pressure with U.S. President Donald Trump pushing for low oil prices with his tweets and urging OPEC to reject output cuts that will increase prices when the group meets with producers, including Russia, which is a non-OPEC member and the world's second-largest crude oil producer and exporter. Oil markets in a frenzy Oil prices clawed back on Monday, rising close to 3 percent, but concerns remained following news of Saudi Arabia adding to the glut in November. Prices had hit their lowest since October 2017 last Friday. Brent crude oil futures rose 2.9 percent to close at $60.48 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 2.4 percent to close at $51.63 a barrel. :www.cnbc.com Before turning to a quick review of the chapters, it is instructive to deconstruct the Brexit vote. UK citizens were asked, Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? This was a multiple choice test, and the possible answers were: Remain a member of the European Union or Leave the European Union. About 72% of eligible voters cast a ballot. 52% of these chose Leave. According to a poll conducted on the day of the vote (Ashcroft 2016), the young and employed preferred Remain: 73% of 18 to 24 year-olds voted Remain; 60% of over-65s voted Leave; A majority of the voters with jobs voted Remain; and A majority without jobs or retired voted Leave. What did they vote for? Economic policy implications for UK and EU Trade policy Reconstructing UK-EU trade relations; Disentangling the UKs and the EUs WTO memberships; and Reconstituting the EUs trade agreements with third nations. First is the so-called Norway option, which entails almost full participation in Single Market, where this means free movement of goods, services, capital and people.1 Second is the so-called Canada option, which means free trade in most industrial goods, and some liberalisation of services and investment flows, but no passporting, and no automatic right for Brits to work in the EU or for EU citizens to work in Britain. Third is the so-called WTO option, which would see the imposition of tariffs against UK goods and a rise in barriers to UK service exports (including the loss of passporting). This was not a vote along party lines. Among the Leave voters, 40% declared themselves as Tories and 20% as supporters of the Labour party. Among the Remain voters, 30% said they were Tories and 40% said they were Labour-leaning voters. There was also a great deal of difference between the two groups in terms of how serious they thought the decision was. Among the Remain voters, 77% thought the decision we make in the referendum could have disastrous consequences for us as a country if we get it wrong. Among the Leave voters, 69% thought the decision might make us a bit better or worse off as a country, but there probably isnt much in it either way. What did they vote for? Separating Britain from its deep entanglement with the EU will force the government to confront many irritating issues and tricky trade-offs. In navigating these choices, it will be important to know what exactly it was about the EU that voters rejected. In short: What did the Leave voters vote for? Unfortunately, this question was not on the ballot, so no one can know the answer. During the campaign, the Leave campaigners at first refused to clarify what would come next, and then provided conflicting answers. As a consequence, voters could not possibly be sure of what they were voting for only what they were voting against. Some instant econometrics, which is the best we have to date, shows that their motives were complex. Clarke (2016) reports analysis that combines data on the characteristics of people living in 378 of Britains 380 local authorities with district voting patterns. The econometric methods are not clear from the report of the result, but he seems to have controlled for district-specific effects and all the characteristics on which he had data. He finds that living standards, demographics, migration (especially recent increases in migrants), culture, and a feeling of community cohesion were all significant factors in explaining the leave vote. Surely more solid research is needed to identify what voters wanted on 23 June 2016, and what they want going forwards. The chapters by Diane Coyle and David Miles look at these issues. Coyle considers how the impact of globalisation seems to have played in shaping voters views of EU membership. Miles addresses the oft heard assertion that economists failed to be heard, or believed, by voters. He notes that part of the problem is that economists do not really have a handle on the most important relationship, namely, the link between EU membership and productivity growth. In his chapter, Nauro Campos assesses the quality of the advice offered by economists in the run up the referendum. He argues that while gaps in knowledge may have hindered forecasts, Brexit can essentially be put down to three things: an unnecessary manifesto pledge by David Cameron, a lack of engagement by the City in the Remain campaign, and the pro-Brexit stance of some of the UK's major newspapers. The fact that voters went for out when almost all economists said that in would be the better option economically is hard to interpret. One possibility is that economists were ignored, but another is that voters felt the economic costs were worth paying in return for the gains in national control over some policies. Kevin ORourke points out that the last two decades of economic development have left behind a specific slice of the electorate. The Leave vote was at least in part a backlash against this failure to share the gains of progress more widely. This is indeed one of the firmest lessons of history: too much market and too little state invites a backlash. Markets and states are political complements, not substitutes. Economic policy implications for UK and EU UK policy in many areas has been made at the EU level for decades. Leaving the EU therefore means that the UK will have to replace EU policies, rules and agreements with British policies, rules and agreements. This will prove a massively complex task. Consider the shape of the EUs new relationship with the EU, starting with trade policy. Trade policy The UKs trade policy today is crafted in Brussels under the political guidance of all EU leaders, one of which is the British prime minister. As this has been the case for the past four decades, Brexit means that almost every scrap of existing British trade policy will have to be reconstituted. As Jim Rollo and Alan Winters put it in their chapter, [t]he UK now needs to debate and define its ambitions for international trade and then negotiate them with its partners. This will be a challenge along many dimensions. To start with, trade policy in the 21st century is not only, or even mostly, about the trade. We left behind long ago the world where trade meant goods made here and sold there. Most modern manufacturing involves a complex international network of design, financial, manufacturing, and marketing tasks. The UK is no exception; British industry is deeply embedded in what might we called Factory Europe. The main point is that making things today involves back-and-forth international flows of goods, services, capital, knowhow, and people. The challenges can be useful slotted into three categories: The first is by far the most important economically, since something over half of the UKs trade in goods and services is with the EU, and the same is true of the UKs foreign investments. The chapters by Angus Armstrong, Swati Dhingra and Thomas Sampson, Jim Rollo and Alan Winter, Nicolas Crafts, and Simon Evenett all address various aspects of these three challenges. Although nothing is certain at this point, and views differ, the authors discuss three options for the new UK-EU relationship: Are these really the only options? Many pro-Leave analysts, including many in the UK government, are hoping that the EU will create a special Norway-lite deal where Britain would accept a reduction in Single Market access in exchange for some control over immigration from EU members. Many of the authors in the eBook are sceptical of this. As Paul De Grauwe (2016) points out, it is unlikely that the EU would allow this sort of cherry picking of the Single Market policies. The main problem, in my view, is that the Single Market developed over decades and is now a finely balanced package of compromises. If the EU allowed the UK to pick and choose among Single Market measures, the integrity of the Single Market would be threatened as each of the remaining EU members sought to craft their own deal. The Single Market would become 28 single markets. To avoid Brexit disrupting its core economic integration, access to the Single Market will almost surely require acceptance of all four freedoms: goods, services, capital and people. Moreover, many of the sitting EU governments each of which will have a veto over the likely future UK-EU trade deal will wish to avoid creating a comfortable halfway house that might incite their own anti-EU fringe parties. Given the importance of financial services in the UK economy, two of the chapters deal directly with Brexit and the City. The chapters by Patricia Jackson and Michael McMahon both address the prospects under the three scenarios. They agree that maintaining full access to the EU market incuding passporting rights would be the best option for protecting the Citys role as a hub for European financial. This would imply the Norway option. They note, however, that the City is also a global hub so it would thrive even without passporting rights; only some activities and jobs would migrate to be inside the EU. Labour issues The chapters by Jonathan Portes, Brian Bell and Stephen Machin, and Barbara Petrongolo take a look at labour market issues raised by Brexit. Portes focuses on immigration policy that is likely to be part of the governments negotiating stance with the EU. He notes that retaining all or most of the privileges of membership of the Single Market while also achieving significant restrictions on people coming from the EU will be legally, economically, and politically complex, but it is worth trying. Bell and Machin show that areas with relatively low median wages were substantially more likely to vote Leave, and discuss the likely implications of Brexit for wage inequality in the future. Petrongolo argues that immigration has had a positive impact on net fiscal receipts without hurting the labour market prospects of UK-born workers, who are therefore unlikely to benefit from any restrictions imposed on immigration from the EU. Scotland and Northern Ireland The chapters by Ian Wooton and by John FitzGerald and Patrick Honohan look at the thorny issues surrounding Brexit and Scotland and Northern Ireland. Both voted to Remain. The issue for Scotland is simply that they like being in Europe and they are lukewarm on the UK. Although setting up Scotland as an independent state inside the EU would entail real costs if the rest of the UK were outside the EU, this is plainly an option that cannot be dismissed. The UK-EU relationship that would be most likely to avoid succession would be the Norway option, as this would give Scots and Scottish-based firms almost as much access to Europe as they have now. The Northern Ireland issue is even more complex since it turns on the politics of the peace process that put an end to decades of armed conflict. In particular, a key element of the peace deal was that there would be no physical border segmenting the island. Since Ireland is not leaving the EU, Brexit would, in the normal course of affairs, set up just the sort of barrier that would threaten the peace process. FitzGerland and Honohan suggest that a compromise could be found where technology would create a virtual but not a physical border. What it means for the EU The chapters by Thorsten Beck and Charles Wyplosz look at what Brexit means for EU reform. Wyplosz takes the view that the Leave vote reflects an overreach of the EU and that the referendum in the UK should be a wake-up call for EU leaders. They should take the opportunity to rethink the allocation of competencies between the EU level and national levels. Beck likewise views Brexit and the impending loss of British voting rights as an opportunity to fix the institutions of the Eurozone. Concluding remarks The future is an unknowable place, as the old saying goes. No can anticipate where the Brexit vote will take the UK and the EU. The alternative that seems most sensible from an economic perspective is the Norway option. It may well be that the UK government could make this palatable, despite the free movement of people, by bundling it together with a very thorough set of policies to help the UK citizens who have been left behind by globalisation, technological advances, and European integration. Maybe we could call it the EEA plus anti-exclusion option (EEA+AE). If this came to pass, the main economic policy outcome of the Brexit vote would be simple. The UK would end up with more influence over its trade, agricultural, and regional policies, but less influence over the rules and regulation governing its industrial and service sectors. Brexit, in other words, would end up as a sovereignty own-goal on economic policy. It is also possible that even the Norway option would lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom. Scottish political leaders may exploit the opportunity to achieve their long-time goal of independence. In short, even the best outcome is likely to be problematic. Is there any way back from Brexit? Watching UK politics over the last month should make everyone hesitate before proclaiming what is and is not possible politically. Things that seem obvious today may sound crazy in two years and vice versa. But leaving aside the politics, would it be a good idea to revisit the Brexit vote? The key flaw in the June 2016 vote from a public policy perspective was that it allowed people to say what they were against without forcing them to say what they were for. When Norwegian voters rejected EU membership in 1994, they knew that the alternative was the EEA (now known as the Norway option). Why shouldnt UK voters decide whether EU membership is better or worse than whatever the government is able to negotiate over the next two years? Indeed, once the realities of the best alternative to membership firmly displace the wishful thinking that currently surrounds much Brexit analysis, the sitting UK government may decide that it should present the UK voters with a slightly more sophisticated multiple choice question one that would allow them to choose between EU membership and territorial integrity of the UK on the one hand, and the best alternative arrangement available to the UK on the other. This might seem wise if the alternative were going down in history as the prime minister who broke apart a union that has been in place since 1707. The other EU members would have to play along with this, but it might suit them as a means of dampening the anti-EU parties in their own nations. Making the best of it But all this is speculation that may be relevant years down the road (or not). In the meantime, Brexit means Brexit. I believe it is important for economists to help the UK government respond to the many challenges that the Brexit vote has raised and to work towards achieving the best possible alternative to EU membership. Introduction 1 Brexit and globalisation 2 Brexit realism: What economists know about costs and voter motives 3 Lousy experts: Looking back at the ex ante estimates of the costs of Brexit 4 The UKs new trade priorities 5 UK-EU relations after Brexit: What is best for the UK economy? 6 The Ten Commandments of an independent UK trade policy 7 Negotiating Britains new trade policy 8 Brexit: Lessons from history 9 Brexit what happens to banking? 10 The implications of Brexit for the City 11 Immigration the way forward 12 Brexit and wage inequality 13 This backlash has been a long time coming 14 How to prevent Brexit from damaging the EU 15 Brexit and labour markets 16 Brexit a view from north of the border 17 Ireland and Brexit 18 A month after the Brexit vote: More turmoil to come 19 The EU must adapt to survive Ashcroft, M. (2016), How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday and why", 24 June. Clarke, Stephen (2016), Why did we vote to leave? What an analysis of place can tell us about Brexit, Resolution Foundation, [1] The Norway option does not include free trade in food, participation in EU agriculture subsidies, or in the EUs regional policy, nor does it require Norway to adopted EU trade policies with respect to non-EU nations. :www.voxeu.org This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? At their talks, President of the VFF Central Committee Tran Thanh Man and Chairman of the Chinese Peoples PCC Wang Yang concurred to assign their units to coordinate in finalising the draft MoU on bilateral cooperation in 2019-2024 for signing at a suitable time in 2019. The two sides pledged to work together to prepare for a friendship exchange between the VFF chapters in Vietnams seven border provinces and the Chinese Peoples PCC chapters in Guangxi and Yunnan in 2019. They planned to coordinate with relevant agencies to integrate their bilateral cooperative activities into the overall plan for celebration of the two countries diplomatic relationship in 2020. Earlier, the VFF leader had a meeting with Chairman of the Chinese National Peoples Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Li Zhanshu. At the meeting, Man called on the two sides to intensify guidance for the strict implementation of agreements and common perception of their senior leaders, especially those concerning sea-related issues, while continuing to undertake measures to promote bilateral cooperation in economy, trade, investment, security, national defence and people-to-people exchange. He conveyed invitations to visit Vietnam from Vietnamese leaders to Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping and other leaders of China. Li Zhanshu said the visit of the VFF President is significant to promoting the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties and states as well as between the VFF and the Chinese Peoples PCC. He said stronger cooperation between the VFF and the Chinese Peoples PCC will contribute to taking the ties between the two countries forward, adding that the NPC wishes and is ready to enhance partnership and share experience with the Vietnamese National Assembly and the VFF. The NPC Standing Committee Chairman also conveyed an invitation to visit China from Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping to his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Phu Trong. How the UK strives to maintain military balance of power in Europe after Brexit In Different Leagues : How the UK strives to maintain military balance of power in Europe after Brexit London is the leading military power in Europe. It cannot be ruled out that, in the event of antagonism between the EU and UK, the UK may grow increasingly hostile to any form of European strategic cooperation. An op-ed. Britains new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, in the port of Portsmouth Bild: dpa When comparing the UK and EU as strategic actors, the two powers sit very much in different leagues. One is a nuclear-armed state, which is rapidly regenerating its naval strike capability in the form of two vast aircraft carriers, armed with fifth-generation stealth combat jets. To the German version of this article Zur deutschen Fassung des Textes The other is an international organisation, without any recourse to military instruments of its own.Indeed, the UK is by some margin the leading military power in Europe. It has the largest military budget in NATO after the US; a navy with a gross tonnage that exceeds the navies of France and Germany combined; intelligence-gathering capabilities unmatched in Europe; and a strategic culture unrivalled by any European country, with the partial exception of France. The UK also guards the entrances and exits of the Mediterranean Sea, with its military bases in Gibraltar and Cyprus, and is the only European country to maintain a truly global military presence. As the UK leaves the EU, these fundamental strategic facts will not change. Military presence all over Europe British geostrategic objectives in Europe will also remain constant: to maintain a balance of power that favours a liberal Europe.In supporting this, the UK has maintained an unbroken military presence on the continent since the end of the Second World War. With 5,000 troops in Germany, 850 in Estonia, 150 in Poland and RAF jet fighters periodically deployed to Romania, Lithuania and Iceland, it has more troops deployed in other NATO countries than any other ally, with the exception of the US. Also, unlike France, which is not part of NATOs nuclear planning group, the UK devotes its nuclear deterrent to cover the whole of NATO in all instances. Consequently, for the UK, NATO remains sacrosanct as the underwriter of European geopolitics, and the general European peace. As such, the EU remains secondary in a wider Atlantic order created and underpinned by British and American strategic power. Many European countries seem convinced that they should develop EU sovereignty or autonomy, through what has been described by European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, as defence union. However, without really substantial increases in European defence spending, this aim seems unrealisable. Cooperation with UK needed After many years of military cuts, France lacks the resources its defence budget is comparable to Germanys, despite operating nuclear weapons and Germany lacks the full spectrum of military capabilities, as well as the political will to use them either actively (intervention) or passively (dissuasion). This means Europeans will need to cooperate more with the UK if they are to retain existing military assets, let alone generate new ones. But British concerns about the direction of the defence union potentially undermining NATO may make such partnerships difficult. Consequently, structures external to the EU but encompassing EU states may prove to be more fruitful avenues for UK-European defence cooperation, such as the French President Emmanuel Macrons Intervention Initiative and the UK-French Combined Expeditionary Force. Some countries in these initiatives are closer to sharing Britains more active strategic culture, which the EU lacks collectively. British troops will remain in Germany In the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the UK decided to withdraw the remainder of its military presence in Germany by 2020. Given Russias revisionist aggression, this decision has now been reversed: British troops will remain in Germany. This renewed British strategic commitment forms the basis for potential cooperation between London and Berlin, particularly in relation to shared interests in keeping Russia at bay along the eastern flank of NATO. However, the UK like the US is likely to lose patience with Germany if additional defence spending increases are not forthcoming, not least because Berlin has previously committed to raising its defence spending levels towards 2 % of GDP by 2024. A dim view will be taken if Europes economic powerhouse does not pull its weight, particularly when poorer European allies like the Baltic states, Romania and Poland have already managed to contribute at the agreed level. Mehr zum Thema 1/ Indeed, it cannot be ruled out that, in the event of antagonism between the EU and UK, the UK may grow increasingly hostile to any form of European strategic cooperation. This is an issue that the EU and European states must consider carefully. For Europeans, this issue may become increasingly important if the US grows tired of the unwillingness of many European countries to pull their weight, or chooses to focus more on East Asia. Old friends may therefore yet prove to be the best friends. Alan Mendoza, Founder and Executive Director, Henry Jackson Society and James Rogers, Director, Global Britain Programme, Henry Jackson Society Venezuelas former national treasurer was sentenced to ten years in prison Tuesday for his role in a plot to launder $1 billion in bribes. Alejandro Andrade, 54, Venezuelas national treasurer from 2007 to 2010, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to a money-laundering conspiracy. His plea was unsealed last week. Andrade received the maximum sentence possible under his plea deal. He also forfeited $1 billion in personal assets, including bank accounts, aircraft, real estate, vehicles, horses, and watches. Andrade lives in Wellington, Florida. He helped prosecutors bring an FCPA and money-laundering case against Raul Gorrin, a Venezuelan who owns the Globovision news network. Gorrin, a Miami resident, was charged in an indictment unsealed last week with bribing officials in the Venezuela National Treasury to help him evade currency controls and embezzle state funds. Another defendant in the case, Gabriel Arturo Jimenez, pleaded guilty under seal in March this year to a money-laundering conspiracy. Gorrin bribed Andrade and Jimenez with money and private jets, yachts, homes, champion horses, high-end watches and a fashion line, the DOJ said. Jimenezs sentencing is set for November 29. ____ Harry Cassin is the managing editor of the FCPA Blog. The UK Serious Fraud Office said three former FH Bertling Group senior executives and a ConocoPhillips employee were convicted Tuesday for their role in a bribes-for-contracts plot. Executives at Germany-headquartered FH Bertling paid around $445,000 in bribes to win a freight forwarding contract with ConocoPhillips worth $20 million. The contract was for the Jasmine North Sea oil project, the SFO said. FH Bertling executives also paid bribes to guarantee that the inflated prices they were charging for other services would be pushed through by ConocoPhillips employees. Stephen Emler, FH Bertlings former CFO, and Giuseppe Morreale pleaded guilty to their part in the bribes-for-contracts plot. Morreale was the Bertlings managing director for the London, Caspian, and Kazakhstan operations regions. Christopher Lane, the former logistics lead at ConocoPhillips, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy for his role in the overcharging scheme. Colin Bagwell, the former managing director and chief commercial officer at FH Bertling, was convicted by the jury for his conspiracy with Lane. These senior executives failed to show any integrity, resorting to bribery to secure lucrative contracts and hide their illicit activities. It is our mission to bring criminals like these to justice, SFO Director Lisa Osofsky said. The criminal investigation into FH Bertling began in September 2014 and the first charges were announced in July 2016. In September 2017, three former senior employees pleaded guilty to charges in a separate overseas bribery case involving a conspiracy to make corrupt payments to an agent of the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol. The Sonangol bribes paid from 2004 to 2006 helped Bertling win and keep a freight and forwarding contract worth about $21 million. Two of the defendants convicted Tuesday, Emler and Morreale, were also convicted last year in the Sonangol-related investigation. In total, thirteen individuals have been charged in the SFOs investigation into FH Bertling. Nine have now been convicted and four have been acquitted. A sentencing hearing for the Jasmine case is scheduled for December 11, 2018. ____ Harry Cassin is the managing editor of the FCPA Blog. iStock/Thinkstock(MOSCOW) --Russia has started bringing criminal charges against the sailors from the three Ukrainian navy ships that it seized close to Crimea over the weekend. Twelve of the 24 captive Ukrainian sailors were brought to a court in Crimeas regional capital, Simferopol, for pre-trial hearings on Tuesday. A judge ordered the twelve sailors to be held until Jan. 25 pending trial, Russian state news agencies reported. They all face a charge of illegally crossing Russia's border, which carries a possible six year prison sentence. Adam Semedlyaev, a lawyer for the sailors, told the Ukrainian television station Hromadske that the sailors would be tried in three groups, the first on Tuesday and a second group in a week. The final group would consist of the six men injured during Russias seizure of the ships. Russia detained the three Ukrainian ships on Sunday, accusing them of entering Russian waters as they tried to pass through the disputed Kerch Strait that separates Crimea from mainland Russia and opens into the Sea of Azov. Russian coast guard vessels rammed one of the Ukrainian ships before firing at them. The incident has set off an international crisis, with the United States and European Union countries condemning Russia at the United Nations Security Council and prompting Ukraines parliament to introduce martial law in some of its regions. Ukraine has demanded that Russia release the men and its ships immediately. On Monday, the Kremlins spokesman said that the mens fate would be decided by a court and indicated it would not treat them as prisoners of war. "This is not the stance of the Kremlin. This should be the stance of a court," the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters during a conference call. Russia claims that the Ukrainian ships tried to pass through the Kerch Strait without permission as a deliberate provocation. Russias deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, told an emergency gathering of the Security Council that the Ukrainian ships had made a "pre-planned" provocation "in full connivance with western states." Ukraine disputes that, saying Russia had unlawfully blocked its ships in international waters and then attacked them in a deliberate act of aggression. The confrontation is an escalation of a dispute that has been intensifying between Moscow and Kiev over the waters around Crimea. A 2003 treaty designates the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as shared waters between the two countries. Ever since Russia annexed the peninsula, it has begun to exert greater control over it, with Ukraine accusing it of blocking and harassing its ships and those bound for its ports beyond the straits. The three Ukrainian ships-- two small gunboats and a tug-- are being held at the port of Kerch in Crimea. Ukraine's navy said the six wounded men are being treated in a hospital. The country's national security agency, the SBU, also confirmed that some of its officers had been aboard the ships. Russias Federal Security Service, or FSB, on Monday released videos of three of the sailors in what appeared to be coerced confessions. In the videos, which were broadcast on Russian state media, the men say they knowingly crossed into Russian waters and ignored repeated requests to stop. Ukraines navy said the men had been pressured into making the video statements, which they said appeared to have been pre-written. The head of Ukraine's navy, Igor Voronchenko wrote a public letter to the captured sailors promising to bring them back. "It is normal to be afraid," Voronchenko wrote. "The main thing is to believe in your will, defend your dignity and to remember that the entire Ukraine is with you, the entire civilized world." One of the men, Andrey Drach, identified himself as a senior lieutenant in Ukraine's counter-intelligence service and on Tuesday the SBU confirmed that some of its officers had been aboard the ships. The confrontation prompted Ukraines parliament to approve a motion on Monday from its president, Petro Poroshenko, to impose martial law in some regions for 30 days. Poroshenko said that the measures were necessary to prepare the country against a possible Russian attack, warning in a statement that there was a serious threat of a ground invasion. The parliament nonetheless watered down Poroshenkos request amid fears that it was an attempt to postpone elections next March in which he is currently projected to lose. MPs limited the period of martial law to 30 days instead of the 60 he had initially sought. Critics though remained unconvinced, warning that the measure was a threat to democracy and noting that even during far more serious moments during the four-year conflict with Russia, Ukraine had never previously needed to impose martial law. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. ENV - one of Vietnams first NGOs dedicated to protecting wildfire in the country, joined Four Paws and the World Animal Protection in End Bear Farming coalition to launch the Better life for Bears letter writing contest, targeting to put further pressure on bear owners to call for the end of bear farming. The letters will be sent to bear owners and used in other ENV material urging bears farmers to quit bear farming and give their bears a better life at rescue centres. All secondary and high school students aged 11-17 across Vietnam are encouraged to send their letters to ENVs office, Room 1701, Building 17T5, Hoang Dao Thuy street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi, no later than mid-March next year. The award ceremony for the winners is scheduled to be held in September 2019, with six individual and two collective prizes to be granted. Children join a bear maze game at the launch of Vietnam Bear Day 2018, Hanoi, on November 26, 2018. (Photo: Education for Nature - Vietnam) This year's Vietnam Bear Day marks one year of positive achievements in the efforts to end bear farming in the country. As of October 2018, the number of captive bears was reduced to nearly 800, down from more than 4,300 in captivity at hundreds of establishments across the country in 2005. Also in November, three bears in captive in Dong Nai, Ben Tre and Lam Dong provinces have been handed over to bear rescue centres, bringing the total number of bears transferred voluntarily this year to 18 individuals. In addition, Ninh Binh, Can Tho and Ben Tre are the three latest provinces to put an end to bear farming this year, bringing the total number of captive bear free localities in the country to 23. "It is time to increase the pressure of bear owners to end bear farming," Nguyen Phuong Dung, ENV Deputy Director said. "Bear owners need to understand that the bear bile farm industry in Vietnam is against the Criminal Code. The community is also turning away from this outdated activity by not using bear bile or bear products." This years event features a letter writing contest which aims to convey messages to bear owners to end bear farming in Vietnam. (Photo: Education for Nature - Vietnam) With the birth of multiple bear rescue centres across the country, many bear owners have volunteered to deliver their captive bears in order to let them have better lives at such specialised rescue centres, where bears are given healthcare, instinctive rehabilitation and freedom in their vast semi-wilderness, without suffering from the pain of extracting bear bile for the need of humans. The contest provides the opportunity for the community to share their thoughts and feelings with bear owners, thereby contributing to the joint efforts to end the ruthless and illegal bear farming in Vietnam, Dung said, while calling on the community not to use bear bile, spread the message of protecting bears to those around them, and report bear violations to ENVs free wildlife hotline 1800-1522. Vietnam Bear Day 2018 also features various communication activities aimed at raising public awareness on bear and wildlife protection. (Photo: Education for Nature - Vietnam) Venture capital firm Frazier Healthcare Partners has added Mimi Hancock, Ph.D., to its Life Sciences team as a Senior Advisor to assist with attracting top talent for backed companies. Dr. Hancock has over 20 years of experience in the executive search industry. Prior to joining Frazier, she was a member of Spencer Stuarts Life Sciences Practice. Her executive search experience included assignments for organizations ranging from emerging life sciences companies to multinational biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology firms. She executed searches for board members, and senior executives in general management and R&D, as well as a variety of commercial, finance and business development positions. Dr. Hancock previously served as Vice President of Operations and co-founder at Avigen, a startup gene therapy company. Prior to that, she was the Director of Cell Biology at Somatix Therapy Corporation, a publicly-held gene therapy company. Earlier in her career, Dr. Hancock worked at Triton Biosciences, where she conducted pioneering research on a novel therapeutic approach targeting the Her2 protein in breast and ovarian cancer. She began her career in healthcare with Peralta Cancer Research Institute as a staff scientist, and previously served on the board of directors of Bionovo, a public company developing novel therapeutics for breast cancer and womens health. Founded in 1991, Frazier Healthcare Partners is a provider of growth and venture capital to healthcare companies. With nearly $4.2 billion total capital raised, the firm has invested in over 170 companies, with investment types ranging from company creation and venture capital to buyouts of profitable lower-middle market companies. The Growth Buyout team invests in healthcare and pharmaceutical services, medical products and related sectors. The Life Sciences team invests in therapeutics and related areas that are addressing unmet medical needs through innovation. It targets two-thirds of its investments in company creation and early-stage opportunities, where building a top leadership team is critical. Frazier has offices in Seattle, WA and Menlo Park, CA, and invests broadly across the US, Canada, and Europe. FinSMEs 27/11/2018 quip, a NYC-based oral health company, raised $40m in equity and debt funding. The round, which brought total funding to over $60m, was led by existing investor Sherpa Capital, with participation from Blue Scorpion and NBA all-star Baron Davis, Diesel USA CEO Stefano Rosso, actress Rosario Dawson, lead singer of The All-American Rejects Tyson Ritter, Victorias Secret model Roosmarijn De Kok, Kith founder Ronnie Fieg and fashion magnate Sam Ben-Avraham. Debt financing came from Triplepoint Capital. The company intends to use the funds to launch upcoming products and professional care services. Co-founded by Simon Enever and Bill May, quip is an oral health company that provides designed products and professional dental services. The current offerings include a wide selection of one of the first American Dental Association accepted (ADA seal) electric toothbrushes, a subscription service on a dentist recommended schedule for brush heads and optional toothpaste, ongoing oral health advice and support, and incentives for timely dental check ups. quip sold over one million of its American Dental Association accepted electric toothbrushes through its direct to consumer website since its launch in late 2015. In October 2018, the company expanded into an omni-channel approach through a nationwide launch into Target. FinSMEs 27/11/2018 Theres a debate going on when it comes to employee travel right nowshould employees be able to book their own travel? When employees are traveling, the work theyre doing is important. Saving money is also important. And theres a third consideration to be added to thatemployee satisfaction. Were at a time where employees are in the drivers seat in many ways, and its employers who are struggling to find and keep good talent. So, with all of these factors coming into the equation, a lot of companies are having the debate of whether or not they should allow employees to self-book their own travel, and in-line with that debate is whether or not unmanaged or managed travel is right for the organizations needs. The following are some of the many factors to keep in mind if this is a struggle your organization is currently evaluating. The Role of Expense Management Automation If youre considering self-booking options for employees, be aware that its ideal to have automated expense management technology in place. This can actually end up eliminating a lot of the potential issues that come with self-booking. To provide just one example of how expense management software can change how employees book travel and how they submit their expenses, consider the case of hotel folio itemization. In the past, it could be a huge problem because business travelers hated the idea of going through and manually itemizing everything. It led to errors and more opportunities for fraud, and that small task could create much bigger problems. That could lead employers to reconsider any kind of autonomy in the employee travel and booking process. Now, however, that has been completely shifted. There are expense automation tools that allow for the relevant data to be extracted from a hotel bill and then line items are created. Its easy and efficient, but also promotes a sense of accuracy and compliance. Its technology like this that makes it more realistic and affordable for companies to offer autonomy and self-booking options. Its all-in-all a lot easier to offer employees options when they travel if there is a framework in place that manages that, and expense management automation can deliver that framework. The Benefits of Managed Travel When considering something like self-booking, you do have to look at the other side of the spectrum which for many large companies is managed travel. Managed travel isnt without its own set of merits. For example, theres a sense of efficiency and organization. In some ways even with managed travel, there may be opportunities to offer employees autonomy. For example, some travel management companies may have a self-booking portal for employees to use. Of course, it may be more limited than what they would have if they were completely rogue in their booking, but it could be satisfying enough for employees who want to make their own choices. Other benefits include the fact that this is all travel managers do, so theyre going to know how to save money, and theyre going to have strong existing relationships with potential suppliers. They can also be useful for risk management and duty of care. The Downsides of Managed Travel As far as the downsides of managed travel, there is the fact that these programs are expensive. It might be significantly less expensive to have a strong policy, use an expense management system, and then let employees make their own travel choices beyond that. Employees generally dont like the idea of managed travel either. The more rules employees feel like theyre subjected to, the more likely they are to rebel and break them. Finally, employers underestimated the fact that in many cases when left up to do it on their own, employees may just find the best deals. They can search for deals and at the same time travel the way they want to. If employees are guided by a strong policy and an expense management solution that will keep up with overspending, it can become like a game to them to find low-cost flights and accommodations. Theyll also have the added perk of being able to rack up their own points and rewards, which may make them happier to travel. Employers do have to decide what the right option for them and if self-booking is something that could work, but if employee satisfaction is a big priority, then it might be the right direction to take. If you are going to allow for more freedom in how your employees travel, create a system for communicating what their plans are and ensure they stay in contact while theyre traveling. The High Note, Inc., a Los Angeles, CA-based vertically-integrated cannabis company, is to receive USD$15m in funding. Backers included Gotham Green Partners and certain co-investors including Best Buds Funding. Gotham Green Partners is funding USD$11m in multiple tranches and has rights to fund an additional USD$4m based on the company achieving certain performance hurdles. The investment will allow the company to achieve several strategic goals including the expansion of its cannabis lifestyle dispensary brand and to commence development of its 29.5 acres cannabis business park in California City. Founded by Chief Executive Officer John Jezzini, The High Note is a vertically integrated cannabis conglomerate which cultivates, extracts, packages, distributes and sells its own, and third-party product. In addition to the planned California City cannabis park, The High Note operates a licensed cultivation facility in Los Angeles with 45,000 square feet of indoor cultivation space. FinSMEs 27/11/2018 No one can truly predict the outcome of Brexit and how the various industries in the UK will be affected. If we could make such predictions, we would all be millionaires. We know remaining in the customs union would work favourably for industries trading in goods, but it wouldnt mitigate the potential impact on the financial services sector. Different scenarios will have a different potential impact on different industries. Preparedness of businesses will also have a strategic impact. Weathering the Brexit storm, contingency planning and worst-case scenarios should be top of the agenda in every business boardroom. The effect of Brexit on supply chains, staffing and recruitment, and the potential exodus of foreign businesses with operations in the UK are particularly worrying, as is the weakness of the pound. We walk into unprecedented times. Knowing what we do so far, which industries look set to struggle most post-Brexit? A report in the Financial Times earlier this year revealed the 5 sectors Brexit is likely to hit the hardest. These are financial services, the automotive industry, agriculture, the food and drink sector, and chemical and plastics. Heres a round up of each sector and a snapshot of some of the impacts Brexit is likely to have. Brexit and financial services Leaving the EU has significant implications for the financial services sector. The debate so far (there is no knowing what lies ahead) has focused on whether banks and other financial institutions will stay in London or go. Continued passporting is at the crux of the matter and will determine the outcome. A loss of passporting rights would be catastrophic, but it has implications for the EU too. A report by Reuters determines The EU is unlikely to turn off the tap to UK financial services after 2020 as it needs to build up its own capital market after decades of City dominance. Needless to say, the financial services sector is vital to the UK economy. Over 2 million people are employed in the sector and it is also the UKs largest tax payer. Financial services are also the UKs biggest export industry. Last year the financial services export market was worth a record 26 billion. The hospitality industry Brexit will cause a shortage of at least 60,000 hospitality workers per year according to research conducted by Planday and YouGov. In addition, there are major concerns about food and drink imports, which the hospitality industry relies on. The impact of Brexit on the overall economy may also hit the hospitality industry with a knock-on effect on the budgets of consumers. The automative industry and Brexit The automotive industry is one of the UKs manufacturing success stories. The 82 billion industry accounts for 13 per cent of Britains exports. But, with its reliance on integrated supply chains, how will it fare after Brexit? Alongside the slump in diesel sales, Brexit is certainly making key players in the industry jittery. John Neill, chief executive of Unipart wrote earlier this year that he fears hard-line Brexiteers are in danger of destroying the British car industry. Neills biggest worry is not tariffs, but the potential delay in the finely tuned supply chain between the UK and the continent. Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), warned the UK government earlier this year that a hard Brexit could cost JLR 1.2 billion per year in tariffs and force the business out of the UK. More recently, Speth said tens of thousands of jobs in the automotive industry are at risk if there is a cliff-edge break with the EU. Brexit and agriculture Leaving the EU will have significant implications for the agriculture sector in the UK. After Brexit and any transition phase, UK farmers will be operating outside of the EUs Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This means a new domestic agricultural policy will need to be implemented. As CAP currently provides nearly 4 billion of support to farmers each year, will the UK government continue to offer financial support? There is also the question of regulation regarding animal welfare, food safety and pesticides. An article published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health states a no deal Brexit could negatively affect food safety, public health, consumer protection, animal welfare and environmental sustainability. The National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned of a catastrophic wait to be approved as an EU food supplier if no deal is struck. A no deal Brexit could see tariffs on exports and a danger the UK would be flooded with cheap food of poor quality. The chemicals and plastics industry and Brexit The chemicals industry in the UK is the second biggest manufacturing industry and the second largest exporter to the EU. The UKs chemical industry could be hard hit by leaving the EU customs union, with non-tariff barriers to trade being cited as a particular problem. The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and London-based Chemical Industries Association have raised concerns about the UKs possible disengagement from the European Chemicals Agency. The chemical bodies are concerned that establishing a separate UK agency could take years to achieve at significant cost. The industry also relies on having access to international skills on a flexible basis. Plastics is fundamental to the UK economy and is one of the UKs top ten imports and exports. The plastics industry turns over 25.5 billion, but it relies heavily on trade with the EU (69 per cent of the UKs plastics trade is with the EU). The industry also needs to maintain regulatory equivalence between the UK and the EU. In addition, around 10 per cent of the plastics industry workforce in the UK are from the EU. A hard Brexit would impact significantly with astronomical cost implications. At a recent award ceremony in Hanoi, Lijima Isao, Special Advisor to the Japanese Cabinet, said the 49-year-old academician is the youngest awarded with the order since 1875. As Chairwoman and CEO of the AIC, Nhan has supported the Japanese eloquence contest over the past 16 years, creating opportunities for 700 Vietnamese students to visit Japan. Her company has hosted cherry blossom festivals in many cities and provinces across Vietnam, thus boosting Vietnamese peoples understanding about Japan and their sentiments towards the nation, as well as Japanese investment in Vietnam. A Vietnam-Japan investment conference annually held by AIC has attracted the participation of hundreds of Japanese businesses and witnessed the signing of numerous memoranda of understanding on cooperation in the fields of tourism, health, education, environment and hi-tech agriculture. Nhans tireless efforts over the past five years have been reflected through Japanese businesses investment results in Vietnam, said Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeda Kunio, citing data from the Japanese Government as saying Japan poured 9.1 billion USD in Vietnam in 2017 and 6.5 billion USD in the first half of this year, ranking first among countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation. He expressed wish to continue receiving Nhans assistance to further develop the ties between the two countries. Earlier this year, Nhan received the worlds best smart nation concept and model award at the Global Smart Cities Contest London 2018. . , , ... Staff from the Vietnamese facility have made a trip to Bangladesh to lecture and perform the endoscopic thyroid surgery dubbed "Dr Luong" technology, at the invitation of the National Institute of Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) of Bangladesh. In 2016, Bangladesh was among the top countries that have made great strides in maintaining nutrition, basic health care and personal safety in South Asia. However, with the seventh largest population in the world, the disparity of the rich and the poor has led to a limited access to healthcare for a large proportion of local people. This is also the cause of the increased number of patients suffering from diseases associated with large thyroid gland. As one of the leading units in Vietnam in detecting and treating thyroid diseases, in particular, the NHE has successfully applied the endoscopic thyroid surgical technology namely Dr Luong method developed by Assoc. Prof., Dr. Tran Ngoc Luong, Director of the NHE. The success of this method has created a new breakthrough in the world of medicine as for the first time an open laparoscopic surgery via armpit has been performed in patients with thyroid diseases. The success not only helps Vietnamese medicine reach the world's advanced medical level but also draws the attention from international doctors and specialists in this field, who have flocked to the NHE to learn more about the method. A range of major hospitals in the region and around the world have also invited doctors from the NHE to come to their facilities to lecture and carry out Dr Luong surgery. In the working trip to Bangladesh, doctor Phan Hoang Hiep, Head of the NHEs High Technical Medicine Department and his colleagues gave lectures on endoscopic thyroid surgery to more than 100 doctors who are working at major hospitals in the capital city of Bangladesh. They also performed and applied "Dr Luong" technology on eight patients there. The 1950 holiday classic Silver Bells, written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, was inspired by the sounds of the Salvation Army Santas ringing bells on New York City street corners during the annual Red Kettle Campaign. Those bells have also been ringing on the streets of Northeast Ohio for most of the Salvation Army Greater Clevelands 150-year history. But these daysdue to store closures and high use of credit cardsMajor Thomas Applin says the Salvation Army is finding new ways to boost its largest and most known fundraiser. [The Red Kettle campaign] has always been a strong campaign for us, but several issues make it harder than before, says Applin, divisional secretary for Greater Cleveland. The single most piece is people arent carrying cashif you dont have cash, you cant put your change in the kettle. Beyond that, so many people are shopping online, so you dont get the foot traffic. In any given year, there are store closures, with major stores and chains closing or downsizing. And, in any given year, we have that lovely thing called bad weather. So, this year the Salvation Army is turning to online donations, peer-to-peer fundraisers, and corporate sponsorships to raise additional funds this holiday seasonand provide funding for Salvation Army programs and services throughout the entire year. November and December are so critical to us, says Applin, who came to Cleveland from the Buffalo Salvation Army in July. Applin says this years Red Kettle goal is $740,000, but the organizations actual goal is $2 million when other fundraising avenues are included. That money goes toward food, shelter, and clothing for those in need, as well as educational and after-school mentoring programs and other causes like helping human trafficking victims. That $2 million sustains us all year, Applin explains. Salvation Army is doing work all year long, not just at Christmas. One way the local Salvation Army is making up for diminishing Red Kettle donations is to hold Paper Kettle campaigns with local partners. For instance, Hofbrauhaus Cleveland is selling paper kettles during the holiday season for a $5 donation to the Salvation Army, and Applin says they have also invited the Cleveland Salvation Army to be part of their seasonal doppelbock keg tapping on Wednesday, December 4. Hofbrauhaus is hosting us when they tap their new brew, and they invited us to come tell our story, explains Applin. Whats really nice is theyve enlisted the help of their servers to make the pitch and ask for donations. Applin says they have had good success in similar campaigns elsewhere in the country, and he is hoping to make it a popular part of Cleveland's Red Kettle campaign as well. Well be looking for others to do the same thing [as Hofbrauhaus], he says. Its a great way to sponsor the Armyby just giving $1 or $5 for a paper kettle. Other corporate sponsorships involve employees making donations for the right to dress down at work on a Friday. If we could get 10 to 20 organizations across the county, that would be a great impact, Applin says. Individuals can get involved in the campaign by making online donations and/or creating a fundraising page to encourage friends, family, and coworkers to give online to the Red Kettle, Applin says. Its a simple way to do the online Red Kettle, and it only takes three or four minutes to get the page set up. If nothing else, Applin says they are always looking for bell ringer volunteers to man the traditional kettles. No matter how Clevelanders support the Salvation Army, Applin says they are grateful for all of the support to date. We thank the community for their longstanding support of the Army, he says. Were hopeful that again this yearwhen we get to the end of January and tally the resultsour needs will be met. Because our needs are the needs of the people. SEARCH A minimum of 3 characters are required to be typed in the search bar in order to perform a search. Lerch, who served 12 years with the U.S. Coast Guard and another 30 in the reserves, died on Sunday evening of cancer. The highlight of the event will be a seminar held in Ho Chi Minh City on November 29, which will be attended by two famous Danish architects, namely Prof. Dr. Tom Nielsen from the Aarhus School of Architecture and Tina Saaby Madsen, Chief City Architect of Copenhagen. The two architects will share their experience with Vietnam in carrying out urban planning policies and solutions. Denmark is among the worlds leading nations in terms of green technology and green growth is an important area in the comprehensive cooperation agreement between the Vietnamese and Danish Governments. Last year, the Danish Week Sustainable City Solutions was held in Hanoi from December 12-17 and in Ho Chi Minh City from December 14-19. Accident on way to shooting range in Bonn : Investigations against police after man shot in neck Bonn The public prosecutors office is now investigating after an accident at Bonn polices shooting range on Monday evening. A shot was fired on the way to training and hit a 23-year-old officer in the neck. Investigators are assuming misconduct by a colleague. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken A serious accident occurred in the basement wing of the Bonn police headquarters late on Monday afternoon. According to Cologne police, two policemen were on their way from the changing room to an emergency training course at the shooting range around 4.50pm when a shot was fired from one of the service weapons and hit the 23-year-old officer in the neck. He was critically injured. According to the current state of investigations, the police are assuming misconduct by a 22-year-old colleague. The police were carrying their service weapons as well as the so-called red weapons. Red weapons are non-functional pistols identical in design to service weapons that are used by officers in deployment training. The public prosecutors office and Cologne police reported that hospital doctors treating the shot 23-year-old said on Monday evening that he was no longer in danger of dying. The policeman underwent an emergency operation in the University Hospital and will continue to be treated there in intensive care. The 23-year-old cannot be interviewed yet. Cologne police sent a nine person investigation team to Bonn. For reasons of neutrality, the investigations were handed over to Cologne police. They are now questioning witnesses at police headquarters and investigating at the hospital. Wits researchers go on a mission to describe, classify and trace the 4.5 billion-year-old history of a meteorite that landed in Madagascar. Researchers from Wits and colleagues from the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar are on a detective mission to describe, classify and trace the history of a meteorite that landed in and around the small town of Benenitra in southwestern Madagascar shortly before the lunar eclipse on 27 July 2018. News of the event in this remote area was brought to the attention of a Wits Geosciences graduate, Tim Marais, who was travelling in the area a few days after the meteorite fall. He collected some preliminary eyewitness accounts that reported a bright meteor fireball, a loud explosion and a rain of rock fragments that fell in and around Benenitra that, fortuitously, appear to have missed all people and buildings, and he was able to acquire several small fragments that residents had managed to locate. He delivered these to Professors Roger Gibson and Lewis Ashwal in the School of Geosciences at Wits and asked them to verify their extra-terrestrial origin. The signs of a dark fusion crust and small spheres in the rock matrix that were visible on broken surfaces appeared promising and the Schools Senior Technician, Caiphas Majola, was immediately commissioned to prepare a thin section of one of the fragments for microscopic analysis. Tracing the history Assessment of the thin section confirmed that it was, indeed, a meteorite and, more specifically, a relatively common type called a chondrite, referring to the small spherical chondrules that it contains. This established that the meteorite dates from the formation of our Solar System about 4.56 billion years ago. At the same time, a news report appeared in the local Triatra Gazettenewspaper on 4 August regarding the eyewitness reports and showing a large specimen with a similar black fusion crust. To corroborate the event scientifically, the team approached Dr. Andry Ramanantsoa of the Laboratory of Seismology and Infrasound at the Institute and Observatory of Geophysics at the University of Antananarivo to investigate if there was any evidence that a significant explosion occurred in the atmosphere above Madagascar sometime in the evening of 27 July. Ramanantsoa was able to confirm, using infrasound data from the international Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Infrasound Station IS33 outside Antananarivo, that there had, indeed, been an upper atmosphere energy release event at 5.16 p.m. GMT (7.16 p.m. local time). Furthermore, he was able to identify that it occurred in a direction south-southwest of Antananarivo the exact bearing of Benenitra. The next step was to see if the blast wave from the atmospheric detonation was sufficiently large to have caused a ground vibration that could be detected by geophysical seismometers. For this the team turned to Dr. Andriamiranto (Ranto) Raveloson, a Postdoctoral Fellow and Technical Manager of the Africa Array Seismic Network that is co-ordinated from Wits. He was able to confirm a very faint seismic tremor at 5.17 p.m. GMT on the same night. The final confirmation that the fragment was related to a fall on 27 July was obtained from Dr. Matthias Laubenstein from the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy, who measured the meteorite for rare cosmogenic nuclides that are created when an asteroid in Space is bombarded by high-energy cosmic rays. His measurements showed high levels of cosmogenic nuclides, consistent with the meteorite having entered Earths protective atmosphere only within the past few months. Based on these findings, the team has submitted a request to the international Meteoritical Society to officially name and register Africas newest meteorite Benenitraon its database. Classifying Africas newest meteorite Ashwal and Gibson have refined the meteorite classification as an L6 chondrite. The name refers to the fact that it contains a low amount of iron (the L), and that it contains recognizable chondrules. Chondrules are the original building blocks of rocky bodies such as asteroids and the Inner Planets in Space. As these bodies grew larger, heat built up inside them partly through gravitational collapse and partly because of radioactive elements which caused the metals and chondrules to recrystallise and maybe even melt. Where temperatures were sufficiently high to melt the body, the denser metals were then able to settle towards the core of the body, with the less dense silicate melts rising towards the surface. Eventually the body would have cooled down sufficiently to solidify. The Benenitra meteorite appears to have got quite hot (the number 6 refers to the high amount of recrystallisation that occurred within the chondrules owing to this heating process) but only melted partially, allowing some of the chondrules to survive. Poor Mans Space Probe The meteorite also has a thin shock-melt vein that is most likely related to a collision with another asteroid that shattered the original body and sent the fragment spinning off on its eventual collision course with Earth. Meteorites are commonly called The Poor Mans Space Probe, because they deliver rocks from Outer Space to our door for free, where we can study the birth and history of other parts of our Solar System says Gibson. The Benenitra meteorite fragment is being subjected to a range of other tests to establish properties such as its density and magnetism, and the team plans to write the results up soon in a scientific paper. The Benenitra meteorite is a new Space rock, but it is also a witnessed fall, which makes it part of special group of meteorites. It is part of our collective heritage as a species, planet and Solar System. It fell in a remote area that will henceforth be recognised internationally for the event on the evening of 27 July. Our project provides an opportunity to further strengthen scientific collaboration in the SADC region. Ultimately, one of our goals is to inform the people of Benenitra about the significance of what they witnessed and thus build greater awareness of science, says Gibson. Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Wits University. New research from an international team of scientists led by University of Cape Town isotope geochemist Dr Robyn Pickering is the first to provide a timeline for fossils from the caves within the Cradle of Humankind. It also sheds light on the climate conditions of our earliest ancestors in the area. Published online in the journal Nature on 21 November 2018, the work corrects assumptions that the regions fossil-rich caves could never be related to each other. In fact, the research suggests fossils from Cradle caves date to just six specific time periods. Unlike previous dating work, which often focused on one cave, sometimes even just one chamber of the cave, we are providing direct ages for eight caves and a model to explain the age of all the fossils from the entire region, says Dr Robyn Pickering. Now we can link together the findings from separate caves and create a better picture of evolutionary history in southern Africa. The Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site made up of complex fossil-bearing caves. Its the worlds richest early hominin site and home to nearly 40% of all known human ancestor fossils, including the famous Australopithecus africanus skull nicknamed Mrs Ples. Using uranium-lead dating, researchers analysed 28 flowstone layers that were found sandwiched between fossil-rich sediment in eight caves across the Cradle. The results revealed that the fossils in these caves date to six narrow time-windows between 3.2 and 1.3 million years ago. The flowstones are the key, says Pickering. We know they can only grow in caves during wet times, when there is more rain outside the cave. By dating the flowstones, we are picking out these times of increased rainfall. We therefore know that during the times in between, when the caves were open, the climate was drier and more like what we currently experience. This means the early hominins living in the Cradle experienced big changes in local climate, from wetter to drier conditions, at least six times between 3 and 1 million years ago. However, only the drier times are preserved in the caves, skewing the record of early human evolution. Up until now, the lack of dating methods for Cradle fossils made it difficult for scientists to understand the relationship between East and South Africa hominin species. Moreover, the South African record has often been considered undateable compared to East Africa where volcanic ash layers allow for high resolution dating. Professor Andy Herries, a co-author in the study at La Trobe University in Australia, notes that while the South African record was the first to show Africa as the origin point for humans, the complexity of the caves and difficultly dating them has meant that the South African record has remained difficult to interpret. In this study we show that the flowstones in the caves can act almost like the volcanic layers of East Africa, forming in different caves at the same time, allowing us to directly relate their sequences and fossils into a regional sequence, he says. Dr Pickering began dating the Cradle caves back in 2005 as part of her PhD research. This new publication is the result of 13 years of work and brings together a team of 10 scientists from South Africa, Australia and the US. The results return the Cradle to the forefront and open new opportunities for scientists to answer complex questions about human history in the region. Robyn and her team have made a major contribution to our understanding of human evolution, says leading palaeoanthropologist Professor Bernard Wood, of the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at the George Washington University in the USA, who is not an author on the study. This is the most important advance to be made since the fossils themselves were discovered. Dates of fossils matter a lot. The value of the southern African evidence has been increased many-fold by this exemplary study of its temporal and depositional context. Reference: Robyn Pickering, Andy I. R. Herries, Jon D. Woodhead, John C. Hellstrom, Helen E. Green, Bence Paul, Terrence Ritzman, David S. Strait, Benjamin J. Schoville, Phillip J. Hancox. UPb-dated flowstones restrict South African early hominin record to dry climate phases. Nature, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0711-0 Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cape Town. New research disputes a long-held view that our earliest tool-bearing ancestors contributed to the demise of large mammals in Africa over the last several million years. Instead, the researchers argue that long-term environmental change drove the extinctions, mainly in the form of grassland expansion likely caused by falling atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Tyler Faith, curator of archaeology at the Natural History Museum of Utah and assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Utah, led the study. The research team also includes John Rowan from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Andrew Du from the University of Chicago, and Paul Koch from the University of California, Santa Cruz. The study is published today in the journal Science. Despite decades of literature asserting that early hominins impacted ancient African faunas, there have been few attempts to actually test this scenario or to explore alternatives, Faith says. We think our study is a major step towards understanding the depth of anthropogenic impacts on large mammal communities, and provides a convincing counter-argument to these long-held views about our early ancestors. To test for ancient hominin impacts, the researchers compiled a seven-million-year record of herbivore extinctions in eastern Africa, focusing on the very largest species, the so-called megaherbivores (species over 2,000 lbs.) Though only five megaherbivores exist in Africa today, there was a much greater diversity in the past. For example, three-million-year-old Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) shared her woodland landscape with three giraffes, two rhinos, a hippo, and four elephant-like species at Hadar, Ethiopia. When and why these species disappeared has long been a mystery for archaeologists and paleontologists, despite the evolution of tool-using and meat-eating hominins getting most of the blame. Our analyses show that there is a steady, long-term decline of megaherbivore diversity beginning around 4.6 million years ago. This extinction process kicks in over a million years before the very earliest evidence for human ancestors making tools or butchering animal carcasses and well before the appearance of any hominin species realistically capable of hunting them, like Homo erectus, says Faith. Taking a Closer Look Faith and his team quantified long-term changes in eastern African megaherbivores using a dataset of more than 100 fossil assemblages spanning the last seven million years. The team also examined independent records of climatic and environmental trends and their effects, specifically global atmospheric CO2, stable carbon isotope records of vegetation structure, and stable carbon isotopes of eastern African fossil herbivore teeth, among others. Their analysis reveals that over the last seven million years substantial megaherbivore extinctions occurred: 28 lineages became extinct, leading to the present-day communities lacking in large animals. These results highlight the great diversity of ancient megaherbivore communities, with many having far more megaherbivore species than exist today across Africa as a whole. Further analysis showed that the onset of the megaherbivore decline began roughly 4.6 million years ago, and that the rate of diversity decline did not change following the appearance of Homo erectus, a human ancestor often blamed for the extinctions. Rather, Faiths team argues that climate is more likely culprit. The key factor in the Plio-Pleistocene megaherbivore decline seems to be the expansion of grasslands, which is likely related to a global drop in atmospheric CO2 over the last five million years, says John Rowan, a postdoctoral scientist from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Low CO2 levels favor tropical grasses over trees, and as a consequence savannas became less woody and more open through time. We know that many of the extinct megaherbivores fed on woody vegetation, so they seem to disappear alongside their food source. The loss of massive herbivores may also account for other extinctions that have also been attributed to ancient hominins. Some scientist suggest that competition with increasingly carnivorous species of Homo led to the demise of numerous carnivores over the last few million years. Faith and his team suggest an alternative. We know there are also major extinctions among African carnivores at this time and that some of them, like saber-tooth cats, may have specialized on very large prey, perhaps juvenile elephants says Paul Koch. It could be that some of these carnivores disappeared with their megaherbivore prey. Looking at all of the potential drivers of the megaherbivore decline, our analyses suggest that changing climate and environment played the key role in Africas past extinctions, said Faith. It follows that in the search for ancient hominin impacts on ancient African ecosystems, we must focus our attention on the one species known to be capable of causing them us, Homo sapiens, over the last 300,000 years. Reference: J. Tyler Faith, John Rowan, Andrew Du, Paul L. Koch. Plio-Pleistocene decline of African megaherbivores: No evidence for ancient hominin impacts. Science, 2018; 362 (6417): 938 DOI: 10.1126/science.aau2728 Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Utah. Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods form joint venture, Align Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) Initial projects announced in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah will capture waste methane from hog farms and convert it into renewable natural gas to heat homes and power local industries Transformational partnership will dramatically reduce methane emissions from the agriculture and energy industries in support of state greenhouse gas reduction initiatives RNG enhances fuel diversity for natural gas utilities and provides a waste management solution and new revenue stream for family farmers RICHMOND, Va. and SMITHFIELD, Va., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods, Inc. are joining forces in an historic initiative to transform the future of sustainable energy and agriculture, announcing their first projects in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah. The companies are forming a joint venture called Align Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) that will capture methane emissions from hog farms and convert them into clean renewable energy for residential home heating and power for local businesses. At Smithfield, we recognize true, enduring sustainability initiatives require collaboration with other proven innovators who share a similar vision, said Kenneth M. Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods. Dominion Energy is one such proven innovator and we are proud to partner with them in our longstanding pursuit of renewable energy. Align RNG is part of our nationwide expansion of Smithfield Renewables , innovative projects designed to help meet our goal to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2025. By capturing methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, the use of RNG leads to a significant reduction in methane emissions from the agriculture and energy industries. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions RNG is produced from the methane generated from hog or dairy farms, landfills, wastewater treatment plants and food processing facilities. Capturing the methane from hog farms reduces the use of traditionally-sourced natural gas and keeps greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. It can be stored and delivered to homes and businesses through existing natural gas infrastructure, making it a cost-effective, renewable option. The new joint venture will leverage Smithfields relationships with contract farmers, who raise and care for its hogs, and the decades the company has spent studying and perfecting the commercial viability of manure-to-energy projects. Using a technology known as anaerobic digestion, the projects will capture and process methane from large clusters of Smithfields company-owned and contract hog farms. Once collected at the farms, the natural gas will then be transported to a central conditioning facility where it will be converted into RNG. Our companies recognize the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the future of our planet. RNG is an innovative and proven way to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry by converting it into clean renewable energy, said Thomas F. Farrell, II, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dominion Energy. RNG is considered carbon-negative because it captures significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than are released from its end use in homes and businesses. Supporting Virginia and North Carolinas Greenhouse Gas Initiatives Governor Ralph Northam and Governor Roy Cooper have recently announced historic initiatives to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions in Virginia and North Carolina over the next decade. RNG will play an important role in supporting these initiatives and help both states achieve their ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets. Because methane is at least 25 times more potent than CO 2 as a greenhouse gas, reducing methane can have a more dramatic impact on the environment than other carbon reduction initiatives. Across our electric and natural gas fleets, Dominion Energy is becoming a national leader in sustainable energy, said Farrell. On the electric side, we are one of only three utilities in the nation to reduce its carbon intensity by more than 40 percent in the last decade. On the natural gas side, as an industry leader on methane reduction programs, we have already saved more than 10 billion cubic feet of methane emissions. We have made tremendous progress, but we recognize we need to do more. RNG will build on the progress weve made and accelerate our momentum toward a sustainable energy future. This partnership with two leading Virginia based companies shows the power of Virginias largest industryagricultureto promote cleaner energy, sustainable family farms, and a brighter future for rural communities here in the Commonwealth and nationwide, said Bettina K. Ring, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry. Im excited about the technological advances for capturing methane that escapes into the atmosphere from farms, said Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert. That methanewhich we call renewable natural gascan be used to heat our homes, generate low-carbon electricity and drive industry. This bodes well for Utahs environmental health and economic development. Global Industry Leaders Bring Resources, Expertise & Economies of Scale As global leaders in the energy and agriculture industries, Dominion Energy and Smithfield have the resources, expertise and market access to expand this proven technology on a wide scale across the region. The companies are jointly investing at least $250 million in this initiative over the next decade with initial application on 90 percent of Smithfields finishing spaces in North Carolina and Utah. In addition to these states, projects will be implemented in Virginia and have the potential for wider-scale application across the country. With a longstanding commitment to sustainability, and through considerable research and exploration of ways to transform manure into energy for many years, we are well-positioned to make unprecedented and revolutionary progress that will positively impact the future of the agriculture and energy industries, said Sullivan. Building on the success of Smithfields Optima KV pilot project , the new joint venture will immediately expand the program to two larger farm clusters in Duplin and Sampson Counties, North Carolina; Waverly, Virginia; and Milford, Utah. Construction of these facilities is expected to begin in late 2018 with the first projects scheduled to be in-service in late 2019. Renewable Meets Reliable Renewable Energy You Can Depend On RNG provides energy 24/7, 365 days a year and can be used on-demand to meet the real-time needs of homes, businesses, utilities and manufacturers. With this transformational partnership, we are combining the environmental benefits of renewables with the reliability of natural gas to meet the around-the-clock clean energy needs of consumers and businesses, said Farrell. New Revenue Stream for Family Farmers & Enhanced Protection from Storm Events RNG will provide a new revenue stream for family farmers. In fact, the initiative will turn one of farmers largest costs into a new revenue source. Farmers who participate in the program will be paid for the energy their farms produce through long-term contracts. This project is a true win-win for all involved and reflects Smithfields innovative, value-driven approach to sustainability, said Sullivan. RNG facilities will also help protect hog farm lagoons from storm-related damage. In addition to converting manure-to-energy, the covered lagoon digesters mitigate potential issues associated with severe rain events such as hurricanes. Covered lagoon digesters prevent rain from entering the lagoon during severe weather events providing enhanced environmental protection. For more information about Align RNG, visit alignrng.com. About Dominion Energy Nearly 6 million customers in 19 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy, headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to sustainable, reliable, affordable, and safe energy and is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy with over $80 billion of assets providing electric generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas storage, transmission, distribution, and import/export services. As one of the nation's leading solar operators, the company intends to reduce its carbon intensity 50 percent by 2030. Through its Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation , as well as EnergyShare and other programs, Dominion Energy plans to contribute more than $30 million in 2018 to community causes throughout its footprint and beyond. Please visit www.DominionEnergy.com , Facebook or Twitter to learn more. About Smithfield Foods Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the worlds largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathans Famous, Farmland, Armour, Farmer John, Kretschmar, John Morrell, Cooks, Gwaltney, Carando, Margherita, Curlys, Healthy Ones, Morliny, Krakus, and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com , and connect with us on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn . Contacts: Media: Aaron Ruby, Dominion Energy, 804-771-3404, Aaron.F.Ruby@dominionenergy.com Lisa Martin, Smithfield Foods, 757-503-6793, lvmartin@smithfield.com Investor Relations: Steven Ridge, Dominion Energy, 804-929-6865, Steven.D.Ridge@dominionenergy.com Facebook: Dominion Energy Virginia Twitter: @DomEnergyVA YouTube: DominionEnergy Instagram: @DominionEnergy Facebook: Smithfield Foods Twitter: @SmithfieldFoods YouTube: Smithfield Foods LinkedIn: Smithfield Foods An appeal for help from heritages Statistics revealed at a recent seminar, entitled Hoi An tourism: Integration and Sustainable Development, held by Hoi An city People's Committee, raised a concern among the participants. Starting from a small town on the left bank of the Thu Bon River, Hoi An has risen into a destination for four million visitors a year, while the city's population is more than 92,000, which means that there are forty tourists per each local. Resultantly, the local tourism sector is facing tough challenges from the increasing number of construction sites, which have been built in the buffer zone near the ancient town in order to meet the growing demand of visitors. According to Hoi An citys office for culture and information, the city welcomed 1.6 million tourists in 2013, and the figure doubled to 3.3 million in 2017. Over 4.5 million travellers chose Hoi An to spend their holidays during January-October this year. Among the visitors, 3.4 million were foreigners, even higher than the total number of visitors travelling to the city last year The explosive growth in the number of visitors is occurring in the context that the citys infrastructure has not yet been fully upgraded and developed, making Hoi An overloaded with vacationers. Meanwhile, the number of visitors from Vietnams traditional markets such as Europe and North America, who have rather high spending on trips, has sharply decreased. The situation is not only seen in Hoi An in particular but also in many places across the country, particularly those being put under the pressure of overheated tourism development. Thua Thien Hue province, for example, has struggled with the boom of restaurants, hotels, and trade centres, which have created huge challenges on ancient architecture such as tombs, temples and pagodas across the Huong river. Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province is also in a similar situation. Statistics show that Tuan Chau wharf welcomes nearly 10,000 tourists every day and the number triples in peak season. The crowded number of passengers has affected the intact and pristine beauty of caves located around the bay and the habitat of species there, thereby causing a threat to the heritage conservation. No trade off of heritages for growth Heritages are fragile and vulnerable. The situation becomes more severe in the age of mass tourism and commercialisation of tourist activities. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain the harmony between conservation and development. According to Deputy Head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Ha Van Sieu, a cultural tourism development strategy is required in order to develop tourist activities which can promote the values of cultural heritages in line with responsible tourism. Meanwhile, Prof. Dr. Truong Quoc Binh, member of the National Heritage Council, said that it is necessary to define specific responsibilities of the sectors and agencies who work in heritage preservation and environmental production in order to remove overlapping among them, while clearly pointing out who will be in charge when any problem arises. The International Cultural Tourism Charter, adopted by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 1999, sets six principles on the management of heritages in the host community. Notably, the second principle stresses the relationship between heritage locations and tourism, saying it is dynamic and may involve conflicting values. It should be managed in a sustainable way for present and future generations. The principle emphasises that tourism development and infrastructure projects should take account the aesthetic, social and cultural dimensions, natural and cultural landscapes, bio-diversity characteristics and the broader visual context of heritage places. It also declares that before heritage places are promoted or developed for increased tourism, management plans should assess the natural and cultural values of the resource. They should then establish appropriate limits of acceptable change, particularly in relation to the impact of visitor numbers on the physical characteristics, integrity, ecology and biodiversity of the place, local access and transportation systems and the social, economic and cultural well being of the host community. If the likely level of change is unacceptable the development proposal should be modified. There should be on-going programmes of evaluation in order to assess the progressive impacts of tourism activities and development on the particular place or community. Tourist activities and the locals daily practices in heritage places should be carried out in line with the code of ethics for heritages. He also stressed the importance of strict management on ecological system in heritage places and the active participation of the local community in heritage conservation. Once the principle is strictly observed, it will be able to create a harmony between tourism development and heritage preservation. I never was very good at Jenga. For the uninitiated, its a game where little blocks stack up to make a tall tower, and where the goal is to pull the blocks out, one by one, from the bottom. Its a game of skill and cunning: How much can you destabilize the tower without taking a big swing and knocking it down in a single blow? Its a game that the Trump administration has learned to play with remarkable skill.In its first months, the administration lobbed one legislative assault after another on Obama-era policy, but mostly failed to make much difference. Those challenges had precious little to show for themselves, except for the passage of the tax cut a year ago. But after a rocky start, Team Trump has finally figured out that it can get much of what it wants through a kind of Jenga federalism.Instead of engaging in a direct federal-level attack on big policies with major legislation, Trumps team is pushing more decisions to the states. Gumming up the works at the state level, through administrative actions on many fronts, turns out to be a lot easier than pushing for big legislative changes in Washington, where Congress is often gridlocked. Even with its 2018 losses, the administration has enough allies in governors mansions and state legislatures that it can get a lot of what it wants by indirect means.Consider Obamacare. Trump won a significant victory in eliminating the tax penalty for individuals who dont have health insurance. That pulled one large block from the Affordable Care Act tower. Individual states began looking into plans that pared back basic coverage, and some of them made a run at providing cheap plans that skirted many of the fundamental Obamacare rules on coverage, including protection for preexisting conditions.A proposal in Idaho, though, proved too much even for the Trump administration. Seema Verma, administrator for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the state that it had gone too far when it allowed new plans that wouldnt cover preexisting conditions or the basics mandated by Obamacare. But, at the same time, the administration signaled to the states that it was open to allowing skimpy plans for shorter periods. That led some state legislatures to offer cheap but limited coverage for healthy younger Americans. Meanwhile, the administration cut grants for navigators, the local experts who help individuals find their way through the complications of the program. Navigator grants dropped from $62 million in the Obama administrations last year to $10 million in 2018. The combination of less money to encourage people to sign up, along with newer state-based plans providing less coverage for shorter periods, has had a big effect on insurance markets almost everywhere.The Trump strategy has also led to huge differences in annual premium costs among states. In 2018, premiums for the mid-range silver plan dropped by 22.5 percent in Alaska, 15 percent in Minnesota and 10 percent in North Dakota. In contrast, premiums shot up 117 percent in Iowa, 74 percent in Wyoming and 71 percent in Utah. There have been wild swings in adjacent states: Premiums flew up 31 percent in Pennsylvania but just 10 percent in New York, and up 73 percent in New Mexico but down 2 percent in Arizona. These big differences have further unraveled the Affordable Care Act and made private insurers even more nervous about investing for the future. By pulling all these blocks from the program, the Trump administration hasnt achieved its original goal of repeal and replace, but it has made the whole system enormously unstable.The same strategy has spilled over into other programs. The Environmental Protection Agency allowed the states to create their own standards for emissions from coal-fired power plants, in a stark reversal of the Obama-era efforts to ratchet down greenhouse gases. Coal-producing states were elated by this, even though states downwind of big coal-fired plants were furious. Meanwhile, the administration went after Californias authority to regulate tailpipe emissions from cars, which had allowed the state to set de facto national standards for car manufacturers.In education, Secretary Betsy DeVos sent out guidance that only the federal government, not the states, could regulate student loan collection companies. Many consumers had complained that the companies were abusing borrowers, and some states were moving to stop them -- until the feds blocked state oversight.In his presidential campaign, Trump pledged a long list of legislative actions to reverse Obama-era policies, but he couldnt get Congress to act. Jenga federalism, however, has allowed the administration to make significant headway on many of its goals.Since 1932, when Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis championed the idea of states as laboratories of democracy, progressives have looked at the states as places where important new ideas could bubble up to Washington. Now the Trump administration has used this strategy in reverse, with states knocking down big ideas rooted at the federal level.Its a pragmatic strategy that emerged slowly as Team Trump learned its way around Washington. Devolution to the states can replace centralized federal decisions. Now with the shift in the congressional balance of power, Jenga federalism may continue to give the administration the leverage it wants -- in ways the Democrats could find hard to stop, even with their victories in November. The voting in Virginias Chesterfield County did not go smoothly this past November. There were very long lines, incorrect ballots were handed out to some voters and one precinct didnt open when it was supposed to. Not far away, in Marylands Prince Georges County, more than a dozen precincts ran out of printed ballots, delaying voters by more than two hours at some sites.In New York City, it was the same: long lines, broken equipment, even one case of voters being locked out of a polling place due to a programming error. In seven polling places in the Chicago area voters received only one page of what was supposed to be a two-page ballot. And perhaps most incredibly, election workers at a Detroit high school were unable to find the voting machines, resulting in long delays.Of course, thats all small potatoes compared to the total turnout reported by the U.S. Elections Project: 116 million people, or 49.2 percent of the electorate. By the time all the votes have been counted those numbers will likely exceed 120 million and 50 percent, putting it in contention with the 1914 midterm turnout of 50.4 percent, when only men were allowed to vote.Its as plain as it can be that we need to address problems with our voting system -- its supervision, structure and technology. Management is too decentralized, with most states delegating administrative responsibilities to their counties, including ballot design and the actual vote counting. Supervision is politically dicey, leaving us with situations like those we saw this time in Florida, Georgia and Kansas, where candidates for office were responsible for conducting the process. And the voting machinery is outdated, affecting both reliability and security. To update it, states will have to spend more, but Congress needs to help out.Another problem is the shortage of poll workers, who can make the difference between a smooth, efficient electoral process and a chaotic one. Good workers are getting harder to find. In the wake of the 2012 election, President Barack Obama ordered a full review of all election procedures. The national commission he created found that one of the central weaknesses of the electoral system was the absence of a dependable, well-trained corps of poll workers.Finally, we need to make voting easier. I know thats a politically charged recommendation, though it shouldnt be. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center showed that about 80 percent of Democrats felt that everything possible should be done to make it easy for every citizen to vote, while about half of Republicans agreed. Majorities in both parties also favored a requirement that all voters show a government-issued ID, though Republicans were far more supportive (91 percent) than Democrats (63 percent).But the most serious problem with our electoral system is not the way it is administered. Its the system itself. The real demon in the basement is partisan gerrymandering. In North Carolina in 2018, Democrats won about half the vote, which is better than they have done in a decade, yet captured only three of the states 13 congressional districts. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, GOP legislators made no secret of their strategy to cram as many Democratic voters as possible into those three districts, giving themselves a clear shot at the other 10.But this election cycle has given reformers heart. Voters in Colorado, Michigan and Missouri endorsed independent commissions or other bipartisan and nonpartisan ways to create new state legislative and congressional districts. Last May, voters in Ohio did the same. As of this writing, a similar measure in Utah was leading by a slender margin.Perhaps the most interesting new model will be tried in Michigan, where a commission overseeing redistricting will select its 13 members randomly from a list of thousands of prequalified regular citizens. Four will have to be Democrats, four Republicans and five independents. Approval of any plan will require a simple majority, but the majority must include two members from both parties as well as two independents. Every 10 years, after the Census is completed, the commission will draw new lines, taking that responsibility away from the legislature.Aside from the ballot measures, the redistricting process is being challenged through the courts in at least five more states -- Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.Finally, there is the question of who is and is not allowed to vote. On that issue, perhaps the most surprising news came from Florida, the state with perhaps the worst reputation for vote manipulation, dating back to the hanging chad nightmare in the 2000 presidential race and extending to the exact match of signatures requirement on absentee ballots this year. With two of the closest races for governor and for the U.S. Senate, the Sunshine State was a center of attention in this election, particularly for President Trump. Ironically, Florida was the state that passed what may be the largest expansion of voting rights in the nation since 1971, when the voting age was lowered to 18. By a stunning 65 percent majority, Floridians restored the right to vote to as many as 1.4 million felons once they have served their sentences, as long as they were not convicted of murder or sex crimes.Go figure. Ohio will become the first state to accept cryptocurrency for tax payments, beginning this week.Businesses can go to OhioCrypto.com to register to pay tax filings with Bitcoin, an online currency which is slowly gaining mainstream recognition. A business does not need to be headquartered in Ohio to pay in Bitcoin, but must operate in the state.The payment system is run through Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel's office. Mandel said in an interview that he'd like to see the system expanded eventually to allow individuals to pay their taxes in Bitcoin, as well as in other forms of cryptocurrency. He also said he's confident the initiative will continue when he leaves office due to term limits at the end of the year, having discussed it with State Rep. Robert Sprague, who was elected to the treasurer's office in November."I believe that if Ohio wants to be a leader in the technology economy, we first have to be a leader in technology," Mandel said. Mandel announced the initiative in a Wall Street Journal article that published on Sunday.In a statement, Sprague praised Mandel's effort, but was noncommittal about whether he'd keep or expand it once he takes over the state treasurer's office in January."We applaud the pilot that makes Ohio more business-friendly and sets us up as a leader in cryptocurrency. We will evaluate both currency and counter-party risk once we enter the office to see about the future," Sprague said.Bitcoin, created nearly a decade ago, is volatile; the cryptocurrency caught national attention in 2017 when its value spiked before peaking in December 2017 at nearly $20,000 per unit. In 2018 the value began to drop. And in the past week, Bitcoin has lost a third of its value, dropping below $4,000 on Saturday.But the treasurer's office will run tax payments through payment processor Bitpay, which sets the Bitcoin exchange rate for a 15-minute allotted time window for each transaction. The site assumes the risk of any market fluctuations during that window, Mandel said. Each payment under OhioCrypto.com will include a 1 percent commission, compared to the 2.5 percent fee the state treasurer's office charges for credit card payments.The state program's launch coincides with Solutions, a four-day conference in Cleveland that begins on Saturday. The event will focus on blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrency as well as other wide-ranging forms of digital record keeping. The conference was organized following months of advocacy from Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman who has invested in blockchain-based businesses, as well donated to Mandel and other Republican politicians.Moreno said in an interview he discussed the initiative, called "Blockland," with Mandel over the summer."It's not an earth-shattering idea that you can do this, but it's just another signal to the outside world that Ohio (is becoming) a leader in this technology," he said.Moreno already accepts cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, at his luxury car dealerships. There's been a push by Moreno's blockchain group, called "Blockland," for downtown businesses to accept cryptocurrency ahead of the conference. Moreno's advocacy caught the attention of Republican leaders in Columbus -- in August, Republican House Speaker Ryan Smith expressed interest in exploring how to incorporate blockchain into state government functions, and incoming Lt. Gov. Jon Husted is scheduled to speak at the conference on Sunday.The cryptocurrency announcement breaks a long quiet period for Mandel. He's kept an uncharacteristically low public profile since he dropped out of the U.S. Senate race last January, citing personal issues. Mandel said Monday that he's spent recent months focusing on "keeping his head down" as he focuses on his job duties, as well as developing and launching the cryptocurrency site. He also declined to share his future political plans, although in August he formed a federal campaign committee that appeared to lay the groundwork for a future run for office."This initiative has taken up an outsized portion of my time," he said. "You know, I've sort of taken it up as my baby, and wanted to make sure it was built the right way and launched the right way." When Christopher Cacho is home, the 23-year-old data specialist doesn't do much out of the ordinary. He may run a computer analysis at his desk, play a video game or lie down with a good book.But when he does, he'll do it from a roughly 11-by-8-foot space that's cordoned off by a foldable tan wall on wheels.To make the pricey Southern California real estate market work for him, Cacho turned to a company that rented him a partitioned section of a living room. Inside, he's set up his bed and television. In the corner, there's a tiny, square end table and ottoman."It works well as a converted desk," the recent college graduate said.Hard-pressed families have long turned couches into beds, and it's common for recent graduates to bunk with friends in a house. But amid a sharp rise in housing costs in booming U.S. cities, a growing number of companies say the affordability crisis has become so severe that there's significant money to be made in offering, if not solutions, at least some relief.Some companies are selling dividing walls or curtains to create new bedrooms. Others are filling rooms with bunk beds. And some -- armed with Silicon Valley backing and a brand of "co-living" -- are offering a variety of sleeping situations and services that make it easier to find roommates and then live with them.In the largest sense, these outfits effectively are adding bedrooms in a region that's hard-pressed to build enough new houses and apartments to meet demand."People are sharing spaces at a very large rate," said Tyler Lundmark, chief executive of RoomDividersNow, which sells partitions. "We have ridden that wave."Such set-ups have grown more noticeable because of the housing situation in many large cities, which have added lots of jobs but not enough residential units. Median rent for a vacant apartment in the already pricey cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco is one-third higher than it was in 2012, according to Zillow.The median, Zillow data show, has dipped slightly in recent months as more supply comes online and tenants become tapped out. But that's been little relief for the roughly half of people in major California metro areas who pay rents that experts deem unaffordable.The tried-and-true way to cut down on costs is to double or triple up. Nationally, the number of people per housing unit has been on the decline. But in California, that rate has increased from 2.79 per unit in 1990 to 2.97 this year, according to data from the state's Department of Finance.The percentage of renters in crowded situations -- more than one person to a room -- jumped during the recession, then started declining, before taking off again in 2014 as rents climbed. As of 2017, the most recent year for census data, crowding was higher than before the downturn.Many companies that facilitate sharing cater to people who can afford added services, if not their own comfortable apartment.Cacho, for example, moved to the L.A. area from Northern California to take a job as a data specialist for a local nonprofit organization. He wanted a nice, affordable place in a safe neighborhood, with parking and an in-unit washer and dryer. To get it, he turned to a San Francisco company called HomeShare, which contracts with major landlords in expensive cities to create additional bedrooms and match roommates.Cacho now lives in a new luxury building named the Griffith on Los Feliz Road in Glendale. The 220-unit development from Dallas-based Mill Creek Residential provides parking, in-unit washers and dryers and much more. There's a gym, pool and even a skydeck with foosball and a kegerator.Cacho pays $990 a month for his partitioned space in a two-bedroom unit he shares with two roommates found through HomeShare.It's not cheap, but neither are other options. The smallest unit advertised on the Griffith's website is a one-bedroom for $2,565.Last Tuesday, in the surrounding neighborhood, there were no units listed on Zillow below $1,000. The nearest was a $950-a-month studio five miles away in Hollywood. It was close to the 101 Freeway and provided no parking and no private bathroom. The showers and toilets are located down the hall, shared with others.If Cacho wanted to share a larger apartment, there were seven three-bedroom units in the area that would come out to less than $1,000 each if split evenly. The buildings had parking, but were older, without the bells and whistles. "The amenities," Cacho said, "that was the tipping point for me."Cacho, who recently started repairing electronics on the side to help pay down his student debt, could have saved even more if he had found two people on his own to rent a two-bedroom at the Griffith, maybe sleeping on a couch or buying a partition himself. That's because HomeShare charges a fee that's embedded in the monthly rent.HomeShare founder and Chief Executive Jeff Pang declined to disclose the company's fee but called it small and worth it. That's because it's often difficult to find roommates, especially for people new to a city who need to find a place in a hurry.HomeShare asks potential residents about their personality, cleaning habits and more. It plugs answers into a "proprietary algorithm" that spits out ideal matches. "We basically treat it as a big math problem," Pang said.If relationships turn sour, even during the lease, Pang said, HomeShare will transfer residents to another unit for free, absent any fee the landlord may charge.Other co-living firms carve up entire buildings to add additional bedrooms. Starcity, another San Francisco company, recently partnered with Worthe Real Estate Group to cut up a Venice building that Starcity said Snap Inc. formerly used for corporate housing.Rent there, less than 500 feet from the sand, starts at $2,050 and includes furniture, concert tickets, utilities and services such as cleaning of common spaces. For those on more of a budget, RoomDividersNow sells partitions for as low as $80.In East Hollywood, Echo Park and nearby neighborhoods, a firm called Up(st)art has taken over houses in places where most studios -- even in 1920s buildings -- rent for more than $1,000.Jeremiah Adler, the company's founder and chief executive, said his firm signs multiyear leases with property owners, at rates usually 10% to 15% above market. He then adds bunk beds or stacked, enclosed "sleeping pods" that rent for between $695 and $775 a month.Adler said his company operates as a club, which allows him to rent beds only to artists and other creative types. Included in the rent are acting and dance classes, as well as the use of onsite recording and photo studios."This is the future," Adler said. "There are more people coming here, and the only way to solve the problem is people are going to have to start taking up less space."Unlike Adler's company, HomeShare works with developers to divide individual units. The company has units in New York City, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Seattle and the Los Angeles area -- some of which HomeShare doesn't subdivide but only matches with roommates. It declined to disclose the total number of units, but it does have 11 at the Mill Creek building where Cacho lives.Christine Franz, vice president of West Coast property management for Mill Creek, said Mill Creek doesn't receive a portion of HomeShare's fee, nor does it charge HomeShare residents extra in some other way -- which is how the service operates with other landlords, Pang said.Instead, Franz said HomeShare is attractive because it matches people with roommates and allows a broader pool of people to afford apartments, thus making it easier to fill vacant units."This provides us another avenue for a market we haven't really tapped into," she said.According to Pang, there's an added benefit: Once a unit is rented through HomeShare, it stays that way longer than it might through a traditional lease. That's because if one person leaves at the end of the lease, his company can just plug in a new tenant. In a traditional case, if someone bails, remaining tenants may just leave, creating a costly vacancy because they didn't want the hassle of finding a new roommate who would be a good fit.Rick Palacios, director of research with John Burns Real Estate Consulting, said companies like HomeShare are especially attractive to landlords now because the rental market is slowing after years of rapid growth. That's particularly true on the high end, where most new construction is concentrated and there's a limited pool of people who can afford studios that run upward of $3,000 a month."Any developer you talk to, they are no longer as excited about top-notch luxury apartments in these gateway markets," said Palacios, who has not done work for HomeShare.Franz said Mill Creek isn't having trouble renting its apartments. But in theory, if developers can fill more units with HomeShare, they'd have less of an incentive to lower rents or offer the sort of concessions that have been on the rise, such as a month's free rent.Pang doubted landlords could reduce rent to HomeShare levels. Builders still want to make money and often have loans that cover high land and construction costs."We are able to better utilize supply and take what is already out there and enable more people to enjoy it and more people to access it," he said. A three-judge appellate panel in Philadelphia on Tuesday affirmed most of the convictions of two onetime allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie charged in the Bridgegate scandal.But the panel tossed two of the convictions and ordered a new sentencing hearing for Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni.Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, and Baroni, the governor's top executive appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were convicted by a federal jury in 2016 on seven counts each of conspiracy, wire fraud, obtaining by fraud and intentionally misusing government property, and civil rights charges.Their convictions stemmed from their role in a 2013 scheme to cause traffic problems near the George Washington Bridge _ the world's busiest span, which connects New Jersey to New York City _ in order to punish a local mayor for his refusal to endorse Christie's re-election campaign that year.Under the guise of a sham "traffic study," Kelly and Baroni worked with fellow Christie ally David Wildstein, then a Port Authority executive, to reduce the number of toll lanes available to motorists traveling from Fort Lee in Bergen County to the bridge from three to one.This led to four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, exacerbated by the fact that the Christie allies refused to alert local officials of the lane realignment ahead of time.The cover blew open in January 2014, just as Christie was emerging as a top contender for the GOP presidential nomination, after Wildstein provided emails and other documents to a state legislative committee investigating the lane closures."Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Kelly wrote to Wildstein in an August 2013 email. "Got it," he responded.Kelly was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Baroni two years. Both were free on bail pending their appeals.Wildstein pleaded guilty in 2015 and testified against Kelly and Baroni at trial. He was sentenced to three years' probation, fines and community service, as prosecutors praised his "extraordinary cooperation."The jury had found Kelly and Baroni guilty of conspiring to violate Fort Lee residents' rights to intrastate travel.The appeals panel disagreed, writing Tuesday that there was hardly a "robust consensus" that this constitutional right exists, so the defendants didn't have a "fair warning" that they were committing a crime.Prosecutors based the civil rights counts on a 1990 decision by the 3rd Circuit that found "the right to move freely about one's neighborhood or town, even by automobile, is indeed 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty' and 'deeply rooted in the nation's history,'" and was therefore a fundamental right under the Constitution's due process clauses.The 1990 decision stemmed from a dispute over a traffic ordinance in York, Pa.The three-judge panel on Tuesday wrote that although the 3rd Circuit had recognized a right to intrastate travel, other jurisdictions had issued decisions contradicting that position, and the Supreme Court hasn't recognized it.The appeals court, however, upheld all the other convictions.Defense attorneys had argued that Baroni, as a high-ranking Port Authority official, had the authority to realign the lanes the bridge, and thus didn't misuse the bistate agency's resources. The court disagreed, noting that Baroni "had to create the traffic study cover story in order to get Port Authority employees to implement the realignment."A lawyer for Kelly also argued that her actions were indistinguishable from a mayor who, during a snowstorm, orders crews to prioritize plowing the streets where political allies live.This argument wrongly conflated motive with intent and conduct, the court said."Defendants altered the bridge's decades old lane alignment _ without authorization and in direct contravention of Port Authority protocol _ for the sole purpose of creating gridlock in Fort Lee," Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote for the panel."To execute their scheme, they conscripted fourteen Port Authority employees to do sham work in pursuit of no legitimate Port Authority aim," he continued. "That Defendants were politically motivated does not remove their intentional conduct from the ambit of the federal criminal law." Gov. Larry Hogan created an "emergency" commission on Monday to redraw the borders of Maryland's 6th Congressional District, moving ahead on a new map despite state Attorney General Brian Frosh's appeal of a federal ruling that ordered the redraft.At a State House news conference, Hogan praised the ruling by a three-judge panel that Maryland violated the rights of district residents in 2011 when then-Gov. Martin O'Malley and legislative leaders, all Democrats, set out to "flip" the district from Republican to Democratic.The Republican governor said Frosh, who decided earlier this month to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, "continues to be on the wrong side of this fight and the wrong side of history."Hogan also said Frosh, a Democrat, should have recused himself because he was in the state Senate when the map was drawn."Actions like these are exactly why Marylanders are fed up with politics as usual," Hogan said.Hogan signed an executive order creating a nine-person commission -- made up of three Democrats, three Republicans and three unaffiliated voters -- to propose a new map.The governor's decision puts the state on two paths in responding to the decision. As Maryland's chief lawyer, Frosh is fighting to have the Supreme Court hear the case and rule before a new map is created. Meanwhile, Hogan, as chief executive, is pushing forward with an effort to comply with it.The judges' decision gave Maryland until March 7 to submit a new map for the 2020 election. However, the court has since granted a stay of its decision until the Supreme Court rules on the case or July 1 -- whichever comes first.An announcement on the governor's webpage said the Emergency Commission on Sixth Congressional District Gerrymandering would hold hearings around the state. A spokeswoman for the governor said the panel would draft a new map by March 4. The governor's order said he would put the final plan before the 2019 General Assembly as emergency legislation during its regular 90-day session, which begins Jan. 9.Hogan said former U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr., a Democrat, and Walter Olson, a Republican who is a senior fellow at the conservative Cato Institute, would co-chair the commission. The two currently co-chair Hogan's Maryland Redistricting Reform Commission. The governor said Ashley Oleson, state administrator of the League of Women Voters, would represent unaffiliated voters on the panel.The governor's office is inviting members of the public to apply for the remaining six positions. It said candidates for office, staff members of the General Assembly and the Hogan administration, Capitol Hill staffers and registered lobbyists would not be considered.A spokeswoman for Frosh had no comment on the governor's remarks. The office of Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch declined to comment. A spokesman for state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller couldn't be reached.Busch and Miller were two of the architects of the current map, drawn up after the 2010 census as required by the U.S. Constitution. While the 2010 election left Republicans in control of many states, Maryland was an exception. Democrats redrew the 6th District in a way that flooded it with voters from their party's stronghold in Montgomery County. The map threw many Republican residents of the old 6th District into the 8th, where they, too, were outnumbered by Democrats.The strategy worked. In 2012, Democrat John Delaney ousted longtime Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, turning a 6-2 Democratic majority in Maryland's U.S. House delegation to 7-1. The 6th District seat remains in Democratic hands.The judges' decision, if upheld, would require Maryland to redraw its district lines without consideration of voters' party affiliation or voting patterns. Hogan endorsed that requirement Monday, charging the commission with drawing a map that is compact and respects city, county and other boundaries "to the extent practicable."It is not clear whether the state is required to redraw its entire congressional map for 2020. The judges indicated they would consider a map that only redrew the borders of the 6th and 8th districts, leaving an overhaul of the state map until after the 2022 elections.Hogan also repeated his determination to bring back his proposed legislation to permanently put the drawing of congressional and General Assembly district lines in the hands of an independent, nonpartisan commission. His previous attempts pass the measure have been rejected by Democratic leaders without a floor vote.The governor said he would have that bill introduced on the first day of the legislative session. "Free and fair elections are the very foundation of American democracy," he said. Protesters demanding answers in the Thanksgiving shooting death of E.J. Bradford on Tuesday night stopped traffic on U.S. 31 and marched to the Riverchase Galleria.The protest first began outside Hoover City Hall around 6 p.m. and continued down U.S. 31 to the Riverchase Galleria--the place where Bradford was fatally shot by a Hoover police officer Thanksgiving night.The protesters gathered to say they want to hold law enforcement to a higher standard. "This is just one step in the process to bring attention to these issues," said activist Carlos Chaverst Jr. They are also calling to boycott the Galleria mall and for a "real apology" to Bradford's family. Protesters said they weren't satisfied by Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato's statement he read earlier Monday night.They're asking for the Hoover Police Department to release video from the police body cameras and mall surveillance cameras for public review. Earlier Monday night, Brocato said in a prepared statement "there's honestly not a lot we can say at this point since the investigation is not in the city's hands."Brocato said the video is now in the hands of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is investigating the officer-involved shooting. "All video evidence was immediately transferred to outside investigating agencies. It now resides with ALEA, and they will determine what it will be released," he said in the statement.After about an hour of different speakers sharing at the protest outside Hoover City Hall, Chaverst told protesters to block U.S. 31 in front of city hall. Soon after, protesters began walking down U.S. 31 South toward the Galleria.As they approached the Galleria, protesters chanted "stop shopping here," and "no justice, no peace, no racist police," "Say his name! E-J!" They entered the mall and marched up to the Footaction, where the fight broke out that resulted in E.J. being fatally shot by a Hoover police officer.While marching back from the Galleria, protesters were met by the Bradford family attorney Benjamin Crump and some of EJ's family members, including his mother."I feel good I feel like we're going to get justice that we need for this family. I feel confident. I feel we have been heard a little bit. I feel like they're going to get it," Chaverst said as protesters left the mall.No injuries or arrests were reported as part of Monday night's demonstrations.Earlier tonight, faith leaders met at Veterans Park to call for the faith community to stand on solidarity with the Bradford family."These are not problems that we can help by claiming that we do not see color. These are not problems that we can fix by claiming that all lives matter or claiming that someone is pulling the race card when they tell us about their experience about living as a black person in this country," said David Barnhart, pastor of Saint Junia Church. "White church goers need to understand that this is not something that goes away just because you try to treat everyone the same."Another pastor, Ja'Mel Brown, pastor and community activist in Montgomery, also called on the faith community to stand for justice."If Jesus was here today, he would be with us," Brown said.The Hoover City Council has called a special meeting set for 12:15 p.m. at the city council chambers. The meeting is open to the public, but city officials said the city council plans to hold an executive session "to discuss pending or threatening litigation."Another event will be held at 6:30 p.m. at 16th Street Baptist Church Tuesday. Ben Crump will be there to answer the public's questions about what's going on with the case, organizers said.On Friday, a gathering will be held at New Hope Baptist Church on Cleburn Avenue at 6 p.m. Organizers say the gathering will serve as a place for people to come together and mourn or talk with others who have been affected by the events of Thanksgiving night. A Paradise Township employee is dead and a man is in custody after a shooting at the municipal building in north-central Monroe County Tuesday morning.Officials identified the victim as Michael Tripus, 65, of Stroudsburg. David Green, 72, of Swiftwater, Monroe County, was taken into custody without incident, police said.Tripus was a sewage and zoning enforcement officer for the township two days a week for the past 8 years, said Gary Konrath, chair of the Board of Supervisors. He was contracted out of Building Inspection Underwriters of Pennsylvania, based in Scranton."He was talking about retiring," Konrath said.State police were called around 8:20 a.m. to the Paradise Township Municipal Building at 5912 Paradise Valley Road for reports of "shots fired," according to a news release.State police found one person dead and took a man into custody "without incident," the release states."I'm pretty shook up," Konrath said, approaching his sixth year as chairman. "You say this a hundred times, but you wouldn't think it would happen here."Paradise Township has a population of less than 3,000.Janice Parks, who was dropping off mail at the township post office, said the news shocked her."It's awful that happened," she said. "This is a wonderful place to live. We don't have that kind of violence here."Trooper Anthony Petroski tweeted at 9:30 a.m. that the Paradise Township incident was contained. State police said there is no threat to the public.Another fatal shooting at a township building happened in August 2013 in southern Monroe County. A man unhappy with Ross Township officials over zoning issues, Rockne Newell, went on a shooting rampage at the municipal building, killing three.Newell later pleaded guilty and is serving three consecutive life terms.In 1998, a South Whitehall man went into the township building with a .38-caliber revolver and confronted the township manager about a lawsuit. Kenneth C. Adams had sued the township in 1996, claiming he was hurt by a township plow."Don't worry, I'm not going to do you, I'm going to do me, " Adams, 59, told township Manager Gerald Gasda that morning in March.When Gasda left the office to get help, he heard a gunshot. Police found Adams dead of a self-inflicted wound. A bill to legalize recreational marijuana was approved by a House-Senate committee in the New Jersey Legislature Monday, a giant step toward making the cannabis plant and its products available in the state."It's very exciting. We made history today," said Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey. "This is the first time a legalization bill has ever been voted out of committee in New Jersey. So this was a huge win."The bill would legalize the possession and use of limited amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and older. It also would create a state system to oversee the operations of a new potentially multi-billion dollar industry.The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee voted 7-4 with two abstentions while the Assembly Budget Committee voted 7-3 with one abstention.Democratic State Sen. Nick Scutari said he was "very optimistic" the bill will pass, but couldn't say when. "We moved it along quite well today, but a lot depends on the governor to help out," he said.Scutari said Gov. Phil Murphy has indicated a "willingness to sign a legalization bill, in one form or another, and hopefully we will get an agreement from him and that should help us with the floor vote."Next, the bill advances to the floors of the Senate and the Assembly for amendments and a final vote.Three weeks ago, Michigan became the first state in the Midwest, and the 10th in the nation, to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Medical marijuana, meanwhile, is legal in 33 states.Scutari said he was glad to see that "even some members of the committee who were against it said they remain open-minded." Scutari, a municipal prosecutor who was an architect of the medical marijuana bill that passed in 2009, said that final passage will depend on the ability to educate the lawmakers about the bill or to win them over with some changes.Democratic state Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney), who co-sponsored the bill, said its passage marked the Legislature's move into the 21st century."Marijuana is already being sold and used but it is the dealers who are running the drug trade and they are selling marijuana that is sometimes laced with other products," Sweeney said. "We developed a plan that will put in place rules and regulations that allow for adult-use cannabis in a responsible way. As a regulated product, legal marijuana will be safe and controlled."Representatives of some police and sheriffs testified that legalizing the drug would cost the state millions of dollars. They pointed to the expense of retraining police officers, the overtime required to train them and the likelihood that drug-sniffing dogs would be put out of work.Jeff Kasko, deputy mayor of Haddonfield, also expressed reservations, saying the proposed law would be less burdensome if municipalities could opt in, rather than opt out. Already, 47 towns have banned retail marijuana sales.Ed Forchion, perhaps the state's best-known marijuana advocate, testified against the bill. Forchion, a Rastafarian also known as NJWeedman, said there was "no provision for religious use" of cannabis in the proposed law.He saved his most pointed attack for corporate interests that take over sales from the illegal market. He claimed that the bill favors the "C.C.C., the Caucasian Cannabis Coalition." If Trenton lawmakers pass the bill, "I'll be emboldened to start selling weed like the white guys," Forchion said. "It's not going to eliminate the black market."Others heralded the advancing legislation, which calls for home delivery and the creation of many small retailers.Ken Wolski, executive director of Coalition Medical Marijuana New Jersey, said he hopes that both the legalization bill and one to expand the medical marijuana program will pass by mid-December, as some lawmakers have suggested.A retired registered nurse, Wolski testified at the hearings in 2009 to pass a medical marijuana bill, and was struck by the similarities in the testimony. "Some of the very same opponents who opposed medical marijuana used the same arguments, that it was bad for children, it sends the wrong message and is a gateway drug, but we had a stronger argument and it passed. And we also had a stronger argument for legalization," he said. Gov.-Elect Gavin Newsom has condemned the use of tear gas by U.S. agents on migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego over the weekend.Thats not my America. Were a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom, Newsom said on Twitter following Sundays crackdown. And we will not stand for this.Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who has faced scrutiny by the Trump administration over her communitys sanctuary status, also criticized the action.Firing tear gas at those seeking asylum into our country is an unconscionable act of violence by our federal government, the mayor said in a tweet early Monday. A French diplomat with a passionate love for the beauty of Hanoi once said one of the things that impressed him most were the blocks of flats built about half a century ago. He wished that some of them would be preserved as museums even when they were almost certainly destined for renovation. The diplomats suggestion came as some surprise to me when old apartment blocks are what the whole society are trying to escape from, so why keep them? But now when I look at them from a farther viewpoint, I come to realise that any community will undergo different periods of development and those buildings are a part of history, of Hanoians and the heritage of Hanois urban landscape. Hanoians were once proud of owning a flat in these collective houses, as they are known in Vietnamese. These are where vivid memories of a not-so-distant period were left and a culture was formed, unique to citizens of collective houses, that is the flexibility in their manners. They still maintained a part of the rural way of life when neighbours were so closely bonded with each other, while showing respect for the privacy of others by moving lightly and speaking softly within the building. All are different from the culture seen in modern apartment buildings. Heritages are not necessarily things of the past: temples, shrines, festivals and folk songs. Hundreds of years ago, citizens of Hanois streets now known as the Old Quarter, the town of Hoi An in Quang Nam province or Duong Lam village on the outskirts of Hanoi would never have thought that their living space would one day become heritages. Almost all old blocks of flats in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and many other cities are bound for complete demolition and reconstruction. It would be a pity if all these buildings were knocked down. A part of urban history will be erased and we are depriving the later generations of the opportunity to understand the collective houses, like how see Hoi An, the Old Quarter or Duong Lam village with our own eyes today. Once these buildings are brought down, the etiquette of the citizens of such collective houses will also be gone. But if some are kept, our children may be able to sympathise with a difficult time when a person was allocated just a few square metres. Our children would admire our flexibility when having to live in such a cramped space. But they would also raise questions on the role of the authorities concerned, as they allowed the old apartment buildings to be extended in a chaotic way and they might also be startled at how the water pipes were jumbled up. Thinking of this, many would demolish the old apartment blocks as soon as possible, not only to improve the living standards but also to not feel ashamed in face of the future generations. But in the flow of time, the formation of heritages in the future does not rest at old apartment buildings only. Any living space, whether it is a city, a village or a building, will be recorded in history and many will become heritages in the future. Our children then will know the planning and architectural changes and the typical style of each period. They will know that the valuable gifts that we have received from our forefathers today are not only old streets and villages, but also a trove of architectural decorations and knowledge in organising a living space that is harmonious with nature. What will they think of the rural and urban architectural heritages they receive from us? Can they find anything to inherit from how we organise the living space in modern high-rise apartment buildings or high-end villas that mimic French architecture? Can they find any philosophy in todays planning, architecture and construction? What will they think of the omnipresence of narrow, long houses known as tube houses in rural areas? What will they conclude from comparing the grid planning in the Old Quarter with the planning of new urban areas today? November 23 is designated as Vietnam Heritage Day to remind the community to treasure the value of heritages. But the day is not only for discussing the past, it is also an occasion to reflect on the heritages of the future that will be formed from today. Description GIS 27 November 2018: The National Innovation Challenge 2018 Award was presented yesterday to Mr Cedric Azemia for his innovative Mausafe App project. The winner received a cash prize of Rs 500,000 during a ceremony held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tower, in Ebene Cybercity. This competition, in its first edition this year, aims at uncovering and fostering local and professional innovations created by Mauritians working in a variety of fields from academia, start-ups and micro companies, SMEs, communities to local schools and home inventions. The Mauritius Research Council (MRC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation launched the National Innovation Challenge to showcase, nurture and reward ideas leading to potentially life changing solutions proposed by the Mauritian population. The winning project under the thematic Crime and Violence pertains to an Application which would rapidly connect a person who finds himself in danger to ask for assistance from service-providers such as ambulance, firefighters, police and clinics. The App also connects the person at risk to his relatives in cases of peril. In his address at the Award ceremony, the Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Yogida Sawmynaden, stated that it is through innovation that Mauritius will develop its competitive advantage and distinguish its markets and products while enhancing job creation and wealth generation. According to the Minister, the aim is to make Mauritius move away from the middle-income trap to become a high-income country in the years to come and this transition cannot be achieved until and unless creativity and innovation becomes a driving force for creating and fostering new ventures. In addition, the Minister pointed out that the National Innovation Challenge is of high relevance considering the vision of Government to make Mauritius an innovation-based economy and SMEs one of the pillars of the economy. Therefore, he said, dedicating awards specially to recognise innovation and to give innovators a national profile is a significant step in further instilling the culture of innovation in the next generation. It is also crucial in changing the mindsets of people from habitual thinking to novel thinking, he emphasised. The Award Five thematic areas of national relevance were chosen: Traffic and Road Safety; Crime and Violence; Disaster Management; Public Transportation; and Food Security, Safety and Wastage. Following the deadline for the submission of innovative ideas, the MRC received about 120 applications. A pre-selection exercise was carried out by a Jury of local experts for each thematic area and a total of 50 ideas (10 for each category) were preselected for the auditions. The audition exercise was carried out in March 2018 whereby the candidates had to pitch their ideas and also respond to questions from the Jury. After deliberations by the Jury, seven finalists were selected for the proof of concept phase. In this phase, the participants were provided a seed funding not exceeding Rs 75,000 and a three-month period to further refine their ideas/concept and come up with a business plan/prototype. GIS 27 November 2018: An international conference addressing the theme of Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) will be held in Mauritius from 29 November to 01 December 2018. The conference, focusing on Young persons plan for the planet, showcases the youth engagement on sustainable development. The event, which is a joint initiative of the Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre ( RGSC ), in collaboration with the Australia National University, Curtin Mauritius (Charles Telfair Campus, Mauritius) and the Mauritius Commercial Bank, will focus on the integration of Science and Technology with Strategic Management Principles. Participants include some 56 Australian students and 50 Mauritian students, aged 16-18, who have this year, developed and published a book entitled, Young Mauritians Plan for the Planet on how the SDGs could be addressed in their respective countries. They will work towards an implementation plan for addressing the 17 SDGs using Curtin Universitys Balance for the Planet Model. Group discussion and workshops on the SDGs , as well as site visits to places which illustrate Sustainable Development in Action, such as Ile aux Aigrettes Nature Reserve, the Ebony Forest Reserve and the Nauticaz Marine Discovery Centre, have been organised for the three-day event. During the conference, a number of eminent scientists and leaders including Professor Brian Schmidt, Vice-Chancellor, Australian National University and Nobel Prize Winner, will address the audience. The conference is in line with the objectives of the RGSC to promote Science and Technology among the students and to supplement school education through informal programmes. Description GIS 27 November 2018: Mauritius will be endowed with a state-of-the-art transport system, the Metro Express, which will be the spine of the smart society that we are shaping to propel the country into the league of high-income economies. The Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, made this statement yesterday at the rails laying ceremony of the First Rails of the Metro Express Project at Richelieu Depot. The Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, Mr Nandcoomar Bodha, the Chief Executive Officer of Metro Express Limited, Dr Das Mootanah, and other eminent personalities, were present. In his address, the Prime Minister highlighted that the Richelieu Depot will be the nerve centre of the light rail mass transit transport system which is being implemented in Mauritius. He expressed satisfaction that the project implementation is on schedule. Moreover, Prime Minister Jugnauth underscored that construction works of such magnitude may obviously cause some inconvenience to the public, and, in this regard called for the understanding and collaboration of all citizens until the works of the Metro Express Project are completed. Metre Express Rail Tracks The Metro Express Projects requirements include three types of rail tracks for its 26 kilometres track alignment connecting Port Louis to Curepipe. They comprise 32.9 Track kilometres of ballasted track; 13.3 Track kilometres of embedded track; and 8.6 Track kilometres of plinth track. The rails are imported from prominent manufacturers in the rails industry in Russia, France and Austria. The total number of rails received as at date amounts to 4 340, of which 2 770 will be used for Rose Hill Port Louis track. Some 6 000 rails, each of 18 metres in length and weighing 950 kilogrammes, are required to complete the 26 kilometres track between Port Louis and Curepipe, including the Depot. Rails laying for the track between Rose Hill and Port Louis are expected to be completed in September 2019. After nearly seven years of upgrading technology in Palo Alto, Calif., the citys chief information officer has been tapped to become the global industries solution leader for Oracles public-sector division.Jonathan Reichental toldhes resigning next month and scheduled to start at Oracle on Dec. 17. In an executive-level strategy position at the companys headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif., Reichental will be responsible for working with Oracle teams and stakeholders to develop a cohesive, progressive global strategy, including a clear vision for their smart city and urban-innovation activities.One of the largest software developers in the world, Oracle reported nearly $40 billion in revenue in 2018 and employs about 137,000 people worldwide.The move represents a return to private-sector innovation for Reichental, but a leap forward in the scope of his influence. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Reichental immigrated to the United States in the 1990s and holds four degrees, including a Ph.D. in information systems. In the intervening time, he spent nearly nine years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, including as director of IT innovations, taught as an adjunct professor at a handful of universities and was chief information officer of OReilly Media in Northern California before being head-hunted by Palo Alto.In Palo Alto, he said, his focus was modernization.I had a pretty progressive strategy around open government, everything from open data to hackathons and app challenges, all sorts of online forms for community engagement, Reichental said. We delivered well over 250 technology projects in every single domain of the city, everything from libraries to our utilities organization to public works, transportation and so on. Im very proud of the work we did around open government. We were very early in the whole open data movement, and early on in my tenure we deployed three different types of open data environments: one for budget transparency, one for general data and then a very unique GIS open data platform.Since 2011, Reichental oversaw the replacement of Palo Altos entire network and phone system; the implementation of a hybrid cloud environment to accommodate much of the citys technology; the deployment of over 60 online services, citywide Wi-Fi and a full online library; upgrades to ticketing and asset-management systems; and the hiring of the citys first information security manager.Some of this landed Reichental a spot ons Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers list in 2013 Oracle, an established player in a quickly evolving industry, has not always played well with emerging technologies. The company drew criticism from industry insiders last year, for instance, for Senior Vice President Kenneth Gluecks comments to the American Technology Council deriding open source coding and custom development.But the company has shown signs of taking a bit of a different approach recently, and Reichental is optimistic about leading a progressive new public-sector strategy for the company, on a global scale.Ive spent 30 years in tech and Oracle has always been a persistent, important player in my entire career, no matter what Ive done, he said. I think theyre embracing a bold strategy now to become more of a contemporary, innovative leader. If you look at their portfolio theyre into AI, theyre into blockchain, theyre into data analytics, theyre into cybersecurity. Of course theyre into all the traditional [enterprise resource planning] realms, so they have a massive product portfolio. Theyre making a big play for the cloud. But I have to learn more.Oracle hired another Bay Area gov tech leader, Peter Pirnejad from the city of Napa, in October. (TNS) When the Woolsey fire swept into the exclusive neighborhood of Bell Canyon, resident Yen Hsieh grabbed her late music teachers 200-year-old cello, some belongings and her sons betta fish Sparky and fled, not sure whether her home would be destroyed.More than 30 homes in the gated Ventura County community were lost, but Hsiehs survived. Bell Canyon was protected by both county firefighters and a private crew covered by her homeowners insurance policy.Hsieh said its not clear which of the firefighters private or publicly funded were responsible for saving her home, but shes grateful.I just want to hug every one of them, she said.With California experiencing two years of unprecedented wildfires that have left more than 20,000 homes destroyed and scores dead, the private firefighting business is booming. These brigades work independently from county firefighters; their job is to protect specific homes under contract with insurance companies.Their work can vary from pushing back flames as they approach properties to reaching the site before the blaze arrives and spraying homes with fire retardant.But the private forces have generated complaints from some fire departments, who say they dont always coordinate with local crews and amount to one more worry as they try to evacuate residents and battle the blaze.From the standpoint of first responders, they are not viewed as assets to be deployed. Theyre viewed as a responsibility, said Carroll Wills, communications director for California Professional Firefighters, a labor union representing rank-and-file firefighters in the state.What began more than a decade ago as a white-glove service for homeowners in well-to-do neighborhoods has expanded in recent years as the wildfire danger has increased, said Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, a not-for-profit organization that educates the public about the insurance industry.Private firefighting crews that work on behalf of insurance companies, such as Chubb and USAA, say they provide an additional layer of protection for homeowners who opt into the service as part of their insurance policies. The policies range in cost from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars annually, depending on the homes insured value and other factors.Roughly a dozen insurance companies contract with Wildfire Defense Systems to protect their insured properties. When the Woolsey, Hill and Camp fires broke out this month, the firm mobilized a battalion that included 53 firetrucks, more than 100 firefighters and 50 workers in supporting roles, said David Torgerson, Wildfires president.The company operates in 18 states, and its a familiar presence in California. Over the last 11 years, it has fought more than 100 fires statewide, making up a third of its total responses.During a wildfire, the private crews might not visit every home insured under the program but base their location decisions on where flames are advancing and where homes have a high likelihood of being destroyed without their assistance.Wildfire Defense Systems doesnt provide coverage for individual landowners who dont have the service built into their insurance policies. However, homeowners can call on other private fleets to protect their homes a service that comes with a hefty cost but is relatively uncommon. Those arrangements make up roughly 5% of the industry, Torgerson said.Kim Kardashian went on Instragram to thank firefighters for saving her Hidden Hills estate and told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview that she hired a private crew to protect her property."Our house is right on the end of a big park, so the whole park had caught fire and so if our house went, then every other house would go," she said. "I don't take that for granted, and that was such a blessing that we were able to do that."Crews deployed by insurance companies dont exclusively serve wealthy homeowners but also protect middle-class homes in rural areas, like those that were threatened during last years wine country fires and the Camp fire in Butte County this month, Torgerson said.Its unclear how many private firefighting crews were battling the Woolsey blaze, which burned through some of Southern Californias more affluent areas including Malibu, Calabasas and Westlake Village.Were responding to addresses, Torgerson said. Were not responding based on home values.For insurance officials, the benefits are obvious because its less expensive to dispatch private firefighters to save a property than it would be to replace an entire house and everything in it.The California Department of Insurance reported that claims from the wildfires that ravaged California during the tail end of 2017 reached nearly $12 billion, making last years fire season the costliest on record. Numbers for the current year havent been tallied, but analysts say the situation doesnt appear to be improving.The Camp fire decimated the town of Paradise, turning more than 13,000 homes to rubble. In Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the Woolsey fire destroyed 1,500 structures, including many homes.Its clear, unfortunately, that just when I dont think it can get any worse in terms of structures destroyed, it seems to get a lot worse, said Chris Anthony, an assistant chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. If these insurance companies are trying to mitigate risk and liability, the trends are pretty clear the numbers are going to rise as fires get worse. From an economic standpoint, it makes total sense what theyre trying to accomplish.Chubb has been working with Wildfire Defense Systems since 2008, offering the service as part of its standard homeowners policy for properties in wildfire-exposed areas. Roughly 50,000 clients are enrolled across the country, said Frances OBrien, senior vice president of the companys North America Personal Risk Services branch.If a private fleet reaches an insured home before its damaged, their approach is largely preventive.They look for anything around the property that could fuel a fire, like stacked wood or unmanaged vegetation, OBrien said. Cushions on patio furniture can be very flammable.Crews will rake vegetation around the home, close windows and vents, spray retardant the same pink-hued substance thats dropped out of airplanes during wildfires on brush and, in some cases, spray a home with a gel-like substance that protects it from falling embers. The fleets trucks also store water for dousing flames or putting out hot spots around homes.Ventura County Fire Capt. Brian McGrath said private fleets dont coordinate well with incident commanders, can be a liability for firefighters on the front lines and can make their job more difficult. Though McGrath said hes never personally encountered a situation in which a private firefighter needed to be rescued, he said having them in the field can be a hazard for professional crews.The crews presence on major fires became a point of contention in 2008, which prompted Firescope, an organization that manages Californias Wildland Fire Incident Command System, to develop guidelines for how the private companies should operate.Those standards, which include a provision for private fleets to check in with commanders so fire departments know where they plan to deploy, were formalized into law in a state Assembly bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September.Our No.1 operation priority is always life safety, McGrath said. When we think an area has been evacuated and theyre in there, wed have to go back and try to get them out. Its a liability and safety issue.2018 the Los Angeles TimesVisit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Technology Infrastructure Needs Investment Cybersecurity Is a Priority Think Outside the Box and Manage Expectations Conclusion Long before the emergence of smartphones,Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk used their mobile devices to measure radioactive frequencies and receive messages from the Starship Enterprise. Before Tesla introduced self-driving cars, the spaceship commanded by Kirk had smart sensors all around it and video feeds communicating with headquarters and other flying ships in the galaxy. In other words, fiction has become part of our reality. While the rewards are more than imagined, the implications of not planning for the digital age could be far greater.In the more than 20 years since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Internet has gone from nice-to-have to mandatory. Much like water and electricity, the Internet has become yet another utility, and the always-online millennials cant imagine being without it.More than ever, government agencies need to deliver quality services to citizens in increasingly difficult budget times. The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to deliver added value, enhanced capabilities, and streamlined processes targeting citizens, businesses and community partners. IoT is the network of connected computers, devices, machines, and their components with electronics, software, and sensors that enable them to link and exchange data. In a connected government, agency assets become a part of this network. Some examples include smart water meters sending usage data, vehicles equipped with sensors and smart poles and signals transmitting live traffic information.IoT hasnt arrived fully, yet more than 8 billion things are connected worldwide and an estimated 45 percent of the worlds population is now online. Smart devices and automated processes, working out of sight of the public, run vast operations. This model works well for the private sector where investments in technology can produce efficiency and increase profits. Unlike the private sector, most government agencies dont have the luxury of investing in technology adequately. Without proper investment, IoT introduces many challenges.When everything becomes connected, bidirectional communication is essential for collecting and routing data between devices. Regardless of the use case, data needs to get from point A to point B rapidly and reliably. Government leaders must invest in technology infrastructure to ensure reliable, fast connections between facilities and streamlined automated processes that support connectivity. Without technology infrastructure, such as fiber, reliable and secure wired/wireless networks, along with competent personnel, the transition to connected government wont be successful.Operating a connected government requires a fresh approach to collecting and analyzing information. The new approach will involve sophisticated data analysis and business intelligence because smart devices generate massive amounts of data. In a connected government, agencies become more dependent on these streams of data. Therefore, connected devices always have to be operational and monitored. This paradigm introduces the information value loop where data is collected, created, aggregated, analyzed and acted on, creating value, which generates the collection of more data from sensors and yet more value.In its simplest form, the information value loop can be explained by an effective process found in a growing number of local governments. The city of Huntington Beach, Calif., has installed license plate reader cameras on traffic signals and police cars. The cameras collect data as they scan the license plates of cars and create data by converting scanned images into recognizable characters. This data is communicated with a central server for processing and potentially cross referenced and aggregated with other data sources. Next, the data is analyzed, and if the data meets certain criteria, a notification is sent to the local law enforcement agency to be acted on.The process, in turn, creates valuable new information that updates different data sources, which will be reused rapidly. In this example, the outcome, which could be information about a recovered stolen car and arrest of a criminal, could perhaps be even more valuable to the same process and other online processes.Information creates value only if analyzed properly. When hundreds of things create value, organizations will have to build complex analytics to use data effectively. For this to happen, the information value loop requires a solid strategy, resources and commitment from the top.As people and systems become more interconnected, the quantity and value of online information has also increased. So have efforts to steal and exploit that information, harming systems, privacy and information safety. Being connected is now essential, creating new opportunities for innovation and growth for government agencies. To be efficient and effective, employees, vendors and citizens need remote and online access to resources and services. For all of this to work, government leaders must embrace disruptive technologies. This brings risks, however. Government agencies are increasingly a target for cybercrime and attacks.The potential for connected government depends on the extent to which agencies can trust the Internet and cyberspace. Government leaders must be aware of privacy and safety issues. Connected devices that monitor the public space may also collect information about individuals without their knowledge or consent. CIOs have to build effective end-to-end security measures, plan ongoing evaluation and vulnerability assessments, implement proactive incident responses, allocate dedicated cybersecurity resources and educate employees on best practices.Citizens now expect government agencies to deliver online services and uninterrupted connectivity at all times, just like the private sector. This expectation presents a challenge, however, given governments extremely limited budgetary resources coupled with strict compliance requirements.To resolve this problem, government leaders need to become more creative and explore revenue-generating ideas that can help with the high cost of technology. As an example, Huntington Beach acquired 11,000 light poles in the first step towards implementing a broadband strategy. Soon after, the city signed lease contracts with Internet service providers to install smart fusion poles and deploy small cell communications. This will enable Huntington Beach to potentially generate $400,000 in revenue, provide high-capacity mobile connectivity and energy efficient LED lighting for citizens. It will also enable the city to plan and expand future smart applications.There used to be a time when government was at the leading edge of technological innovation, but now it has fallen far behind the private sector. If we are to have smart government, its leaders should embrace disruptive technology. We still have many things to do just to stay current in the 21st century. Failure to do so increases exposure to cybersecurity attacks, decreases the ability to meet constituent expectations and obligations, forces us to use outdated, costly processes and, most important, limits the valuable opportunities the digital age brings.Ultimately, connected government is not simply about technology, it changes how we work, shape business and manage the economy. Government leaders must empower constituents to make choices, encourage technology partnerships across the private and public sector, and most important, view technology as an enabler to shape the future starting today. (TNS) On a recent weekday morning, hundreds of passengers lined up at DFW International Airport to board Japan Airlines Flight 11 to Tokyo.After a standard check of boarding passes and passports, passengers were asked to do one more thing before walking down the jet bridge pose for a picture.The facial recognition captures using tablet-sized monitors with cameras take a few seconds each and are used to keep record of people exiting the country.The scene is one from a rapidly approaching biometric future at U.S. airports that could bring facial and fingerprint scanning technologies to points throughout the travel journey, from self-checking a bag and navigating security checkpoints to boarding a plane and renting a car at your final destination.Its a world that promises increased security and new convenience for passengers that airlines and airports are quickly rushing toward, even as the technology raises a new round of questions about privacy.DFW is one of many large airports around the world embracing the technology, with a pilot program currently being run at two gates operated by Japan Airlines and British Airways in Terminal D.DFW plans to bring the facial recognition technology to more than 75 gates in the coming months, where it will be used to track people leaving the country by comparing their facial captures to an existing government database culled from passport or visa photos. This month, the company signed a two-year, $630,000 contract to license biometric software.For now, the facial screening is predominantly aimed at foreign nationals U.S. passport holders can opt out to comply with federal requirements put in place after Sept. 11, 2001, to better track people entering and exiting the country.But airports, airlines and technology makers see widespread possibilities for biometrics.DFW is looking into bringing biometric technology into its international arrivals hall to speed up customs lines. Next year, it will pilot a program for a DFW-to-London flight that will give passengers the option to use biometric technologies at as many points along the journey as possible, from booking to their hotel.The airports strategy is to leave as much of the decision-making up to passengers about how and when they make use of the technology, said Julio Badin, DFWs senior vice president of customer experience.The experience itself will be much more seamless; the customer is now even more in charge of how they want to use it, Badin said. A simple example would be I dont have to take out my passport, I dont have to take my ticket. ... It really simplifies the things that dont have to be difficult.A recent study by technology provider SITA found that while only one in five global airlines have major biometrics programs in place, more than half are researching the technology or have tests underway. By 2021, about half expect to have biometrics play a role in the boarding process.Delta and JetBlue have led the way among U.S. airlines, with Delta beginning tests as far back as 2016. In September, the Atlanta-based carrier announced an end-to-end process at one of the terminals at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that covers check-in, luggage drop, the security checkpoint, boarding flights and arrival processing at customs.American Airlines recently began testing the technology for international departures at Los Angeles International Airport and is looking at other ways to incorporate it, spokesman Ross Feinstein said.It takes a lot of collaboration to make this work. ... We want to see how the technology works within our systems, he said. Were going to have to continue to figure out how we can make the process easier for our customers while enhancing aviation security. ... We also have to maintain the privacy of our passengers.Passenger privacy is one of a number of legal and technical concerns that biometrics technology will have to address before it becomes widespread.While airports, airlines and government agencies maintain that protecting passenger data is a top priority, a 2017 report by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology raised questions about increasing government surveillance and how accessible the data is to third parties using the technology.If the federal government is going to use biometric technologies on American citizens, then three things, as a baseline, should be true, said Harrison Rudolph, who co-authored the report. Compelling evidence should exist to show biometrics are necessary, the technology should be proven to be accurate, unbiased and privacy protective, and the legal authority should be crystal clear. [The Department of Homeland Security] has come up short on all three.Concerns about the accuracy and reliability of face-scanning technologies have been raised as well, with a recent audit from the DHS Office of the Inspector General showing that biometric technology was only able to confirm the identity of 85 percent of passengers screened over several months in 2017.Reasons for that ranged from network connectivity issues to lack of staff and rushed boarding processes, and the report also found the technology performed worse for certain demographics, including younger and older travelers.The report commended Customs and Border Protection for the considerable progress made, but said results from the 2017 pilot calls into question the CBPs ability to further scale the program to full capacity by 2021.On its website, CBP states that its fully committed to meeting existing privacy laws and regulations. Images captured of passengers are only accessible by the CBP and are routinely discarded 12 hours after verification in the case of U.S. citizens and 14 days for noncitizens.While airlines, airports, federal agencies and consumer advocates continue to sort out these issues, the deployment of biometric technologies continues to pick up pace and is beginning to show the myriad ways it can be used.In August, facial recognition technology flagged a traveler arriving in Washington, D.C., from Brazil who presented a French passport that wasnt his. The system used software developed by Japanese-company NEC Corp., which has its North American headquarters in Irving and is positioning itself to be a major player in the biometric age.Its about helping airports and airlines become more efficient while giving the best travel experience, NEC Corp. of America spokesman John Wise said. News Dubai ranks first in Arab world, finds latest Innovation Index The Index report, bearing the theme The Road to Recovery Through Resilience and Innovation, analysed a total of 39 cities. Seven new cities were added to the latest edition of the Index, which was developed by Dubai Chamber in collaboration with PwC. The possible changes to the financial plan would aim at easing an ongoing deadlock between Rome and the European Union (EU) over the country's deficit targets. Conte discussed the topic with Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, and the two Deputy Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, leaders of the two governing parties. "It is not a matter of decimals. The government's goal is to revamp growth and development," they said in a statement after the meeting. "As for the dialogue with the EU, we have agreed on waiting for the technical reports about those planned reforms that have a wider impact on society, in order to precisely assess the costs," the statement added. No further details were provided with regard to how much Italy's deficit target might be reduced for the next two years, in order to find a compromise with Brussels. Earlier in the day, however, local media reported the deficit might be cut from a planned 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 down to 2.2 percent or 2.0 percent. The cabinet will have to specify and quantify the possible amendments before December 5, when the draft budget will begin its approval path in the lower house of the parliament. Rome's decision to partially soften its position came after Conte met with EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on November 24, after weeks of standoff. On October 24, in fact, the EU Commission rejected the Italian budget for "particularly serious non-compliance" with EU fiscal rules. The Italian government refused to modify its draft, and the EU executive body last week formally warned a disciplinary procedure for excessive deficit would be open against the country. Such procedure would give way to fines. On Monday morning, PM Conte had already signaled his government -- made of a coalition between rightwing League and populist Five Star Movement (M5S) -- was reconsidering its position. "We are working on the budget with a constructive spirit, and there is no unusual distance between the government forces," Ansa news agency quoted Conte as saying. Conte's mention of the two governing parties was because the draft budget was overall outlined to deliver measures both League and M5S had pledged in election campaign. Among such promises were a universal income of about 780 (US$883) to poor households, a rollback from a 2011 pension reform that raised retirement age, and an increase in public spending. Such proposals drew support among many Italians, and voters in March chose largely in favor of the two parties, which at the time were not running as allies. The planned expansive measures resulted in a deficit target at 2.4 percent of GDP in 2019, and at 2.1 percent in 2020. Yet, the EU Commission argued that Italy's growth projections were too optimistic, and forecast the deficit-GDP ratio would reach 2.9 percent in 2019, and 3.1 percent in 2020 (beyond the 3.0 percent EU ceiling). Such path would affect Italy's public finances, considering the country's debt is over 131 percent of GDP, the second largest in the bloc after Greece. Under EU fiscal rules, a progressive decline path of public debt is required from each member country, if the debt is above 60 percent of GDP. If you are a culinarist and always looking out for new and extraordinary tastes you are certainly familiar with Kobe beef. Named after the province in Japan where it originates from, the Kobe beef is from the Tajima strain of Japanese Black cattle raised in that area according to strict rules set out by Kobe Beef Association. In addition to geographical and strain restrictions, the meat must have a marbeling ratio of 6 and above and a quality score of 4 to 5 in order to be granted the trademarked brand of Kobe Beef. There are several restaurants specialised at specialty beef and steak in Japan where you can taste the Kobe beef, and other quality steaks collectively titled Wagyu beef. Kobe beef is probably the most expensive piece of meat you can find, and obviously the supply is very limited. To get to those Kobe restaurants you need to reserve in advance as there is always a queue and in the best places there are only a few seats. I didnt succeed in my last trip to Tokyo. They were all fully booked for the next few nights. Should have reserved before travelling! But when back to Finland and researching the topic, I was surprised to find out that you can have a Kobe dinner here in Helsinki as well! Kobe is offered by only one restaurant in the country; Goodwin Steak House has Kobe in its menu. The restaurant is a specialised beef restaurant originating from Estonia, which has expanded to Helsinki a few years ago. Goodwin is established by a team of steak enthusiasts who studied the concept of good steak in USA and Australia, brought it to Tallin in 2009 and later to Helsinki. The name comes form the old English Go-Dwine meaning good friend. The restaurant in Helsinki is across the street form market hall (Kauppahalli) in Etelaranta. After calling and confirming with the restaurant there was only one thing to do, go and check if the Kobe in Helsinki is as good as the one in Tokyo. One thing you should now about Kobe beef is that you get to cook it yourself. A portion of 200 grams costs 95 in Goodwin. The beef is brought to you as thin slices on a plate. A granite stone heated to 600 degrees is put on the table and sea salt is sparkled on it from a mill. Then you get to grill your Kobe slices to your taste. Usually few seconds are enough as you dont want to overcook the tender meat. Medium raw is the best. As the amount of beef is probably not enough to satisfy your hunger, side dishes are recommended to accompany the meal Other steaks and grilled meat on the Goodwin menu are also high quality and some of them are exceptionally good. The restaurant prides itself in having a history of offering beef and training the best cooks to prepare and grill steaks and you can taste that. Alexis Kouros - HT A group of around 20 members of the far-right group, who call themselves Soldiers of Odin arranged a show off in the Puhos shopping mall in eastern Helsinki on Monday evening, frightening and intimidating immigrants. Puhos is a small shopping mall adjacent to Itis. The outdated mall has been rented out to mainly ethnic shops and restaurants. Visitors of the mall are almost all from Somali, Kurdish, Arab and other immigrant groups. A video posted on the social media by Somali media Warsan, members of the far right group can be seen posing for a camera and standing in a military style line, and marching in the upper floor of the mall. According to witnesses, shoppers and visitors of the mall were frightened by the group and stayed inside the shops. The show off seems to have gone without incidents or violence. Police presence can also be seen In the video, although they do not seem to interfere. According to some sources, ironically, many of the members of the anti-immigrant group Soldiers of Odin are themselves youth with Russian background. The entire video can be seen here. President Sauli Niinisto says the international community must react to recent developments on the Kerch Strait, a strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, without delay. (Credit: Heikki Saukkomaa Lehtikuva) President Sauli Niinisto says he has sat down with Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini (BR) to discuss the stand-off between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea. Tensions between the two countries flared up after three Ukrainian naval vessels, along with 23 crew members, were seized on the Kerch Strait, the only passage into the Sea of Azov, on Sunday by Russia. Up to six of the crew members were injured in the exchange, according to the BBC. Ukrainian army on full combat alert over tensions with Russia in Sea of Azov The Ukrainian armed forces were put on full combat alert over the situation in the Sea of Azov, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Monday in a statement on Facebook. Ukraine brought the units of its army into full combat readiness in line with the possibility of declaring a state of martial law in the country, the statement said. Earlier the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko proposed parliament impose martial law in the country for 60 days over the tensions with Russia. At an emergency meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Poroshenko said the introduction of martial law does not mean that Ukraine will carry out any offensive actions. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The Ukrainian Navy said it has informed Russia in advance about the passage of Ukrainian vessels from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, calling Russia's actions an "act of aggression." The Ukrainian parliament will decide whether to impose martial law in the country during its emergency meeting, which is set to start at 4 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) Monday. Aides have been undermining their presidential bosses since the beginning DEJA VU As the summer silly season was ending, The New York Times published an op-ed portentously signed Anonymous. President Donald Trump was facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader, Mr./Ms. Anonymous declared. Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. [Dramatic paragraph break.] I would know. I am one of them. For a week the article was the talk of the thumb-sucking class. In shielding the authors identity, had the Times embraced best journalistic practices? (The paper acknowledged that doing so was a rare step.) Should a worried insider making incendiary charges not instead quit, and put his or her reputation behind those charges? (Advocacy dies in darkness.) Most tantalizing, who was Anonymous? Long odds were on Vice President Mike Pence, since Anonymous deployed the term lodestara guiding light, usually Polaris, the North Starwhich Pence uncorks from time to time. However, most pundits looked for someone on the inner circles outer rim: a third-level person in a cabinet department, or a National Security Council aide. Anonymous clearly got one thing wrong. Other American presidents have faced senior insiders working diligently to frustrate their bosses agendas and inclinations. Sometimes that resistance has resided at the hub of the inner circlecabinet secretaries. James Madison, Thomas Jeffersons partner and protege, was elected president in 1808, fourth to win the office, with a smashing two-thirds of the electoral vote. Everybody in the first Republican party having pulled together to put Madison over the top, everybody wanted a reward. Senator Samuel Smith of Maryland, a Capitol Hill powerhouse, wanted his younger brother Robert promoted from secretary of the Navy, his job in the Jefferson administration, to secretary of state. Madison wanted State to go to Albert Gallatin, the most talented man in the party after himself and Jefferson. In the end, the president bowed to political reality and tapped the junior Smith. Smith assumed a key position at a fraught time. The worlds two fighting superpowers, Britain and Napoleonic France, each were seizing neutral American ships bound for the foes portsand on the high seas, Britain was stopping American ships to seize alleged deserters. In addressing these issues, Smith had to deal with a mixed lot of British diplomats. One minister to the United States, David Erskine, was friendly but ineffectual, dangling promises of improved relations he could not deliver. Erskines replacement late in the summer of 1809, Francis James Jackson, was an anti-American snob. He derided the U.S. government as a mob with mob leaders; his wife slagged first lady Dolley Madison as a pretty fat woman of the bourgeois class. Smith had the presidents helpmaybe too much of it. Madison, for eight years Thomas Jeffersons secretary of state, had definite ideas about how to handle the world scene. Smith had ideas too, which unfortunately differed from his bosss. Local ties and imprudence were part of the mix. Smith passed inside diplomatic info to Madisons congressional critics, who mainly hailed from port cities, like the Smiths own Baltimore, resentful of his administrations inability to protect their shipping. Among Madisons efforts to help merchants he grabbed at a French offer to call off its navy. Smith doubted Frances good willand rightly; the ploy was insincerebut was cheeky enough to bad-mouth the French overture to the No. 2 diplomat in the British embassy, who reported to London that the Yanks were riven by infighting. In March 1811, Madison finally had a sit-down with his SecState. He told Smith he had been not only disloyal but incompetent. Smith wrote diplomatic letters so crude and inadequate that Madison had to write them anew myself; repeatedly, State Department business had been throwninto my hands. As a sop, the moon not being available, Madison offered to make Smith minister to Russia. How about Britain, Smith dickered, or the Supreme Court? Madison stood firm. Refusing the proffered Russian holiday, Smith quit and published an attack on his ex-boss. Glad to see Smith go, Madison installed fellow Virginian James Monroe at State. Madison and Smith had been scrapping on the eve of the War of 1812. Abraham Lincoln was fighting the Civil War when his cabinet began pestering him. Unlike Madison, Lincoln was the first president from a brand-new partyRepublicans 2.0, a mash-up of antislavery Whigs, Democrats, and Know-Nothings. To unite this disparate band behind him, Lincoln filled his cabinet with men who had challenged him for the 1860 Republican nomination: William Seward at State; Salmon P. Chase at Treasury; Simon Cameron at War; and Edward Bates as attorney general. Seward and Bates were loyal and devoted. Cameron was loyal, but incompetent and crookedless than a year later Lincoln canned him, offering to send him to Russia; unlike Smith, Cameron went. Lincolns most problematic secretary was Chase, an Ohioan who was smart, capable, and out for himself. Chase, like Smith, disagreed with his president about policy. In the 1840s Chase had belonged to the radical Liberty and Free-Soil partiesan antislavery resume that made him a natural to ally with Radical Republicans unhappy at Lincolns cautious approach to emancipation. However, Chases main beef with Lincoln was that he wanted Lincolns job. Seward, Bates, and Cameron, all in their 60s, had let their White House dreams go. Chase, 53 when Lincoln took office, still yearned. He also had a campaign manager at home: beautiful daughter Kate. Wherever she appeared, an observer wrote, people dropped back in order to watch her. Chase needed a charm boost; he was proud, shy, and terrible at telling jokes. Chase first moved against Seward. After the December 1862 Union Army debacle at Fredericksburg, Chase and his Radical allies accused Seward of running the administrationand running it aground. Seward offered to resign. Lincoln had a better idea. He invited the unhappy Radicals to meet with him and his cabinet, minus Seward. Each secretary testified that all had the presidents ear, and that Seward was not calling the tune. When Chases turn came, he agreed rather than buck the room. His timidity disgusted the Radicals. Why had he said one thing privately, and another when on the spot? Vermont Senator Jacob Collamer had a two-word explanation: He lied. In 1864, with the war stalled and Radical Republicans still grumbling, Chase struck at Lincoln. In his 10,000 Treasury employees and 2,500 war bond salesmen, Chase had a ready-made political machine. That February Senator Charles Pomeroy (R-Kansas) wrote a letter, approved by Chase, that was sent to hundreds of Republicans touting Chase as a statesman of rare ability. The Pomeroy Circular, naively marked Private, immediately made the papers. Its only effect was to cause a surge of support for the president, even in Ohio. Chagrined, the malcontent offered more than once to quit. Lincoln kept him on until midsummer, when Chase proposed to resign once too oftenand Lincoln accepted. He ensured Chases support through the election by dangling an offer to make him chief justice, replacing the late Roger Taney, a prize the president did not confer formally until December. Cabinet secretaries are often big men in their own right, and the presidency is the biggest prize in politics. The real mystery is why more principled, ambitious men dont make resistance their lodestar. It was the largest court-martial for mutiny in U.S. Navy history. The 50 defendants had one thing in common: They were all black. ON JULY 17, 1944, THE SS E. A. BRYAN, A NEWLY COMMISSIONED LIBERTY SHIP, was moored to a pier at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, to load ammunition, bombs, and artillery rounds for the upcoming invasion of Tinian, in the Northern Mariana Islands. Under the glare of dockside lights, nearly 100 African-American stevedores rushed to transfer the munitions from depot to ship. Nearly all of them were young, and few were noncommissioned officers. At around 10:18 p.m. there was a loud noise from the pier. Witnesses later described the sound as metallic and like that of rending timbers, such as made by a falling boom. An instant later the Bryan blew apart in a massive explosion that destroyed virtually everything in an 800-yard radius. Another Liberty ship, the SS Quinault Victory, was tied up on the other side of the pier; the explosion tore it to pieces and threw what remained of its stern more than 100 yards into the main channel. A huge fireball rose into the night sky and mushroomed nearly three miles across, throwing fiery debris as high as 12,000 feet. The 320 men who were aboard the Bryan or working on the pier beside it were instantly killed. Another 390 in the vicinity were injured. As the stunned survivors began the grim work of collecting hundreds of mangled corpses from the wreckage (only 51 could be positively identified), the navy launched an investigation into the disaster. Captain W. S. Parsons, the first official investigator on the scene, arrived three days after the explosion. His preliminary report, written four days later, emphasized that his aim was not to determine the cause of the explosion, but to gather data on the damage it had wreaked. Parson estimated that, at the moment of detonation, the Bryan had 1,552 tons of high explosives stowed in its several holds, and another 200 tons waiting to be loaded on the dock. All but five of the victims, Parsons noted, were right on top of the explosion. Survivors of the disaster immediately began to exhibit signs of emotional traumanot only from the explosion but also from the work of recovering bodies torn apart in the blast. The officers in charge of the stevedores, all of whom were white, were granted a months leave to recover and recuperate; their black subordinates were kept in quarters and not allowed time away. When the question of the lingering effects on the surviving sailors was raised later, James Forrestal, the secretary of the navy, advocated putting them back to work loading ammunition as soon as possible; this, he said, was the preferred method of preventing them from building up mental and emotional barriers which, if allowed to accumulate, become increasingly difficult to overcome. But the Port Chicago pier facilities had been so badly damaged that work there could not resume for several weeks. On August 8, 1944, the USS Sangay tied up at Pier 34 East at the Mare Island Ammunition Depot, across from Port Chicago. As the ammunition carrier prepared to take on cargo, the black stevedores were notified that they were to resume ammunition-handling duties in the morning. The first indication that things would not proceed as usual came when the officer in charge of one of the loading divisions informed the commander of the Vallejo Naval Barracks that most of his men were refusing, out of fear, to report to work as ordered. A chaplain offered to accompany the men to the ammunition depot, but they still refused. Commander Joseph Tobin, the senior officer on hand, told the sailors individually that their continued refusal to obey orders would necessitate disciplinary action. Meanwhile, men in other labor divisions were also refusing to work, though some sailors said they would readily obey any order except one that involved handling ammunition. As the day went on, 258 men from three separate labor divisions declared their intention not to engage in any form of the work that had just cost 320 men their lives. The sailors who refused to report for work were separated from their units and placed in a group. The next morning Admiral Carleton H. Wright addressed the men. He spoke of the critical need for ammunition to reach units then fighting on Saipan, appealed to their sense of duty, and told them plainly that their refusal to return to their primary duty of loading munitions amounted to an act of mutiny. Mutiny in time of war, he warned, was a crime punishable by death. Many of the black sailors were taken aback by Wrights warning. Mutiny, most of them had assumed, only applied in cases where a crew attempted to seize control of a vessel; they had no such intention. When the order to report for ammunition loading was repeated, 208 men reluctantly fell in, but 50 others still refused. They were immediately confined in the brig at Camp Shoemaker. Initial interviews by a navy legal officer showed that not a single one of the enlisted men knew the official definition of mutiny, which, according to Section 46 of the Naval Courts and Boards, is the unlawful opposition or resistance to or defiance of superior military authority, with deliberate purpose to usurp, subvert, or override such authority. The navy then began the process that would result in the largest court-martial for mutiny in its history. THE COURT-MARTIAL CONVENED ON SEPTEMBER 14, 1944. THE DEFENDANTS WERE DIVIDED INTO FIVE GROUPS of 10 each, with one attorney for each group. Lieutenant Commander James F. Coakley led the governments prosecution. The defense argued that because the accused sailors had acted only out of fear, and not from any deliberate purpose to usurp, subvert, or override superior military authority, the legal standard required to prove mutiny had not been established. Coakley countered that all that was necessary to prove that a mutiny occurred was to show that the men in question refused to perform military service after they were given the order and then warned of the consequences of disobedience. He went on to assert that what occurred at Port Chicago was an extraordinary case of conspiracyan extraordinary case of mutiny. The seven officers who made up the court did not require much convincing. On October 24, after deliberating for less than an hour and a half, they found all 50 defendants guilty. Each was sentenced to 15 years in prison and dishonorable discharge. Three weeks later Wright reduced the sentences of 40 of the sailors to prison terms ranging from eight to 12 years. (The 206 men who had initially disobeyed the order to work but relented after being threatened with the charge of mutiny had all been tried on charges of refusing to obey a lawful order and received lesser sentences.) Just six days after the court-martial adjourned, a navy court of inquiry laid bare some troubling facts. First, it pointed to a general failure to foresee and prepare for the tremendous increase in explosives shipments as the critical need for steady ammunition resupply to the Pacific Theater grew after 1943. Safety, survivors of the Port Chicago disaster said, always took a backseat to speed. The court of inquiry also found a failure to provide an adequate number of competent petty officers or even personnel of petty officer caliber. In addition to depriving the stevedores of capable supervision at the first-line level, the lack of African-American petty officers meant that the sailors in the racially segregated labor units had no authority figures to advocate on their behalf. Port Chicago was crewed by junior officers (all of them white) who had very little experience in directly supervising enlisted men and no training in the handling and loading of munitions. Inadequate training at all levels, the court said, had dogged operations at the port almost from the beginning of the war. Last, the board faulted the command climate at Port Chicago for failing to provide facilities that could have boosted the morale of the enlisted men as they carried out their dangerous, exhausting work. Much of that, of course, was attributable to the navys practice of racial segregation. At the same time, however, the court of inquiry argued that the morale problems were not a consequence of poor training or treatment. The enlisted men, it said, were unreliable, emotional, lacked capacity to understand or remember orders or instructions, were particularly susceptible to mass psychology and moods, lacked mechanical aptitude, were suspicious of strange officers, disliked receiving orders of any kind, particularly from white officers or petty officers, and were inclined to look for and make an issue of discrimination. These characterizations were completely unfair. The fact that the stevedore units were exclusively black, without black officers or NCOs, created an environment of outright discrimination and racial tension. Nonetheless, the navy insisted that the black ordnance units were administered and trained in the same manner as all other enlisted men in the navy. In fact they were not, as critics of the racial segregation policy quickly pointed out. Perhaps in an effort to stave off criticism for how it dealt with the accused mutineers, the navy had opened the court-martial proceedings to the public and the press. The NAACP sent Thurgood Marshall, a young lawyer who would one day sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, to California to observe the trials. Marshall found the court-martial and its verdicts to inherently unfair. In an appeal he drafted for the judge advocate general of the navy, Marshall noted that both prosecution and defense had used the same sources of legal authority to argue their respective positions on the mutiny question, and he underscored the obvious flaw in the chargethere is no set rule as to what is mutiny. Furthermore, Marshall argued, it was outrageous that the court had deliberated for so short a time before convicting 50 men and consigning them to prison and dishonorable discharge. As the convictions were being criticized across the country, the navy began to reconsider both its ammunition-handling protocols and its racial segregation practices. Marshall had argued in his appeal that the accused were made scapegoats in a situation brought about by a combination of circumstances. Though his appeal was unsuccessful, six months later the navy ordered the sentences of the Port Chicago 50 reduced by one year. In January 1946, 47 of the 50 men were released and paroled to active service at sea. Those who incurred no further disciplinary actions were finally discharged from the navy under honorable conditions. THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE PORT CHICAGO COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED TO RESONATE in legal and political forums for the next 60 years. In the 1990s journalists and historians began describing the incident at Port Chicago as a work stoppage or strike, completely overlooking the fact that such distinctions do not exist in the military. The more salient question was whether the sailors actions truly fit the legal definition of mutiny. The sailors themselves always insisted that mutiny was never their intent, and that their genuine safety concerns and mitigating circumstances were never taken into account. Efforts to overturn the convictions were unsuccessful. While the navy maintained that no racial injustice marked the court-martial and guilty verdicts, it finally admitted that the sailors had suffered from racial discrimination during their servicea provocation that clearly influenced their actions. In 1999 President Bill Clinton pardoned Freddie Meeks, one of two known survivors of the Port Chicago 50. (The other known survivor was also offered a pardon but turned it down.) Most of the former sailors, in fact, had never even sought presidential pardons. Pardons were for the guilty, and to the very end they insisted they were innocent of the crime for which they had been imprisoned. They had refused to obey a specific order that they believed put them in unreasonable physical jeopardy. That fact made them liable to a lesser charge, but they were not mutineers. MHQ John A. Haymond is the author of The Infamous Dakota War Trials of 1862: Revenge, Military Law, and the Judgment of History (McFarland & Company, 2016). This article appears in the Winter 2019 issue (Vol. 31, No. 2) of MHQThe Quarterly Journal of Military History with the headline: Mutineers or Scapegoats? T he Daniel E. Sickles scorecard has two particularly unforgettable entries. The first is February 27, 1859, the day Sickles, a New York Democratic politician, murdered his young wifes lover, Philip Barton Key II, in broad daylight near the White House. The second is July 2, 1863, when Sicklesnow a Union major generallost a leg to a cannonball at Gettysburg while nearly costing the Army of the Potomac victory with an ill-advised decision to reposition his 3rd Corps on Cemetery Ridge. By pleading temporary insanitythe first defendant to do so successfully in this countrySickles got away with the murder of Key, son of the famed Francis Scott Key. As for the grievous wound at Gettysburg, it fortunately ended Sickles military career, which had been trouble-plagued from the beginning of the war. That he was in uniform in the first place shows just how desperate President Abraham Lincoln was to forge the type of political alliance he knew was necessary to save the Unioneven if it meant embracing a rascal like Dan Sickles. The prewar notoriety associated with Sickles name was further exacerbated by a dreadful incident on October 21, 1861. Soldiers in the Excelsior Brigade, a unit Sickles had created and now commanded, were joking and laughing around their campfire on a mild evening in southern Maryland. They had been in the region only a few days, and excitement for their new assignment ran high. It wasnt long before a soldier produced a Confederate cannon ball, one of many that had been fired from the Virginia side of the Potomac River, intended to sink Union shipping heading for Washington, D.C. Someone had brought the ball into camp earlier in the day, and while it was being examined, a substantial amount of powder had been poured out and placed aside. For the bored young men from western New York, the projectile inevitably became a plaything. Before long, the idea of shoving some sort of ember into the balls fuse hole took holda challenge quickly taken up by one of the soldiers, Private John Rouse of Company E, 3rd Excelsior. Within an instant the ball exploded, sending fragments of iron as well as men flying in every direction. Rouse died almost instantly, Sergeant Michael Daly a few days later. Many others were left to suffer from various wounds. For Sickles, the exploding ball incident wouldnt be the last in a run of serious setbacks. A few days earlier, on October 11, Sickles Excelsior Brigade, which he had raised with New York state volunteers, was combined with another brigade to form a new division under Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker. The 10,000 men or so in Hookers new division were tasked with suppressing Rebel activity in southern Maryland and in keeping the Potomac open for Union shipping. The path from New York early in the war would not be easy for Sickles. He first had to fight hard to keep his command together and overcome a hostile governor, then disgruntled subordinates, a contemptuous commander, and discontented regimentsnot to mention getting fired twice. Sickles received approval to form a regiment in the spring of 1861, but soon had permission to create an entire brigade, which he christened Excelsior (Latin for Ever Upwardthe New York state motto). Sickles promised the brigade would represent the entire state, proposing five regiments to be designated 1st Excelsior, 2nd Excelsior, etc. Recruiting was good at first, as men flocked to join the charismatic Sickles. When the process slowed, he followed the lead of other commanders and struck bargains with men facing prison time, offering them a choice of enlistment or incarceration. Organizing the brigade proved a messy affair. When men complained that their enlistment agreements had been breached and they wished to go home, Sickles either ignored their claims or threatened arrest. Amid accusations of corruption and double-dealing, Sickles was eventually able to cobble together his five regiments, collected from 12 New York counties and five other states. Some companies were formed from local militia units, with competent company officers and hometown backing. Others, however, had been scraped together from the lowest rungs of New York City society, prompting the Rev. Joseph OHagan, the Excelsior Brigades chaplain, to assert: Such a collection of men was never before united in one body since the flood. Sickles first adversary, even before the brigade left New York, was Republican Governor Edwin Morgan. Citing dissatisfaction from upstate counties over Sickles recruiting methods, Morgan ordered disbanding of all but 10 of the Excelsior Brigades 50 companies. Undeterred and smelling the foul air of party politics, the Democrat Sickles appealed directly to President Lincoln and eventually kept his brigade intact, though it now had a United States Volunteers designation. When men complained that their enlistment agreements had been breached, sickles either ignored their claims or threatened arrest The next problem involved one of his regimental colonels, James Fairman. There had been many delays in completing the ranks of Fairmans 4th Excelsior, which was filled mostly with New York City firemen. Many officers questioned Fairmans abilities and resented his overbearing style, although the rank and file seemed to like him. With some members of the brigade in Washington, D.C., and 4th Excelsior still waiting at Staten Island, Fairmans simmering feud with Sickles finally boiled over. Fairman had become convinced that Sickles intended to deprive the regiment of its prized Second Fire Zouave designation. Furthermore, Fairman was certain Sickles was unfit for command, saying openly he and his regiment were trapped under a second-rate general. Hearing that, Sickles moved to get rid of Fairman by ordering that the troublesome colonel be barred from boarding the ship that was to carry the regiment from New York. The men of 4th Excelsior were initially outraged, but came to appreciate Sickles bold action. Fairman was later court-martialed for conduct prejudicial to good order while leading the 96th New York during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. The Excelsior Brigade became part of the force protecting Washington during the widespread anguish in the North that followed the Union defeat at First Bull Run on July 21. Men from the different regiments built forts and other defenses on the capitals southeast side. Battalions drawn from across the brigade would occasionally set off for several days of adventure in adjacent Charles County, Md., with orders to root out secessionist sympathizers, arrest anti-government provocateurs, and clamp down on rebellious activity. With a seceded Virginia on Washingtons southern doorstep, the last thing Lincoln needed was another Rebel nest to his east. Despite the expeditions, secessionist men and materiel were making it down from Baltimore, through Charles County, Md., and across the Potomac to Virginia. A large permanent presence in southern Maryland was needed to block this flow and support the Navys Potomac Flotilla as it worked to suppress Rebel artillery batteries on the Virginia shore. The Excelsior Brigade, half of Hookers newly formed division, would be part of this force. Starting October 18, Hooker moved his division into southern Maryland. Serving as a large-scale infantry exercise, soldiers were expected to carry gear as they would during combat. Personal belongings were to be kept to a minimum, and no regimental wagons or ambulances were to be used. Hookers 1st Brigade, mostly New Englanders, performed flawlessly, but for Sickles things went wrong almost at once. The general had either ignored Hookers directive regarding the wagons or had not passed it along to his commanders. His New Yorkers scrounged wagons and ambulances and filled them with all manner of impedimenta. These wagons, Hooker reported, were used for lazy soldiers, officers and womens trunks and knapsacks to such an extent as to lead one to fear that if they reached camp at all, it would be with crippled horses and broken down ambulances Already scornful of the political general, Hooker was outraged. Worse still, commanders of 2nd Excelsior had failed to provide food for their men. As the march extended and hunger set in, the result, as one regimental officer reported, could be expected. Men fell out to chase game, forage, and cook whatever was caught. The line unraveled and eventually Sickles unit was stretched out for miles, a hopeless rabble. Hooker reported Sickles poor performance to the commanding general, George B. McClellan. Sickles protested vociferously, and was able to keep his command while 2nd Excelsior commander Colonel George B. Hall was arrested for negligence, with Lt. Col. Henry Potter taking over. Hall eventually returned to command, but not before the regiment had splintered into factions over who was best suited for command, with officers leveling charges at one another. The hard feelings came to an ugly head one winter evening, when after a regimental parade in front of Hooker, the officers took to drinking. Soon the regiment was embroiled in a fight between Hall Sympathizers and Potter Men. The brawl was almost serious enough to warrant disbanding of the regiment. Hooker and Sickles eventually allowed Hall and Potter to remain at their posts, which only made service in the regiment tense and miserable. Hookers 1st Brigade performed flawlessly, but almost at once things went wrong for sickles Sickles brigade settled into a soldierly routine of patrolling the lower part of the state, from the southern reaches of Baltimore all the way to Point Lookout in St. Marys County. The men chased down suspected Confederate sympathizers and administered loyalty oaths, although the sincerity of these oaths was no doubt questionable. The people here are all secessionist, and it is only the presence of an overpowering Union force which cause them to feign loyalty, confided one local Unionist. They are all ready to take the oath of allegiance; that doesnt hurt them a bit; but just so soon as they think they can help Jeff Davis, so soon their dispatches will be sent. After a few weeks of accepting put-on loyalty oaths and watching the Rebel batteries duel with the Federal flotilla, many men and most officers began to wonder, where was the glorious war they had signed up for? Hooker even appealed to McClellan to allow him to conduct operations across the river into Virginia. McClellan demurred, leaving Hooker and his division frustrated. Undeterred, one enterprising colonel under Sickles in early November gathered up 400 hand-picked men, commandeered some tugs from the flotilla, and conducted a midnight raid into Virginia. The material results of the raid were meager, but the effect on morale was spectacularfinally the men were doing something war-like. Sickles was pleased by the initiative his commander had shown. Hooker was less thrilled, but since the foray had come off without incident, he forgave the breach in discipline. McClellan on the other hand was livid over collapse of command and control, making his feelings known to both Hooker and Sickles. His reprimand served only to reinforce the popular notion that when it came to fighting Confederates, Little Mac was all bluster and no action. That fall, the federal government called upon loyal states to meet their manpower quotas. This added pressure forced Governor Morgan to reconsider incorporating Sickles and his Excelsior Brigade into the states manpower quota. With its new status as a New York unit, the brigade now had fresh numerical designations for the five regiments: the 70th through 74th New York State Volunteers. Sickles had originally been given the rank of colonel. To lead a brigade, he needed confirmation by the Senate as a brigadier general. Given Sickles political past, many senators were ambivalent about his confirmation while others were downright opposed. Republican firebrands questioned the wisdom of giving such high command to this otherwise minded man, fearing the Democrat could march the entire brigade over to the enemy. But Sickles would not sit idly by while the fickle winds of politics played upon his nomination. While his brigade chased secessionists around Maryland, Sickles was frequently absent, back in Washington counting votes and handing out necessary blandishments to secure his nomination. In his absence, Nelson Taylor, colonel of 3rd Excelsior (72nd New York), commanded the brigade. Taylor was a veteran of the Mexican War, had served in the California legislature, and was a Harvard-educated lawyer. Hooker liked Taylor, and many throughout the brigade, especially in the 72nd New York, thought Taylors handling of the brigade far superior to Sickles. Dissatisfaction was growing within the brigade and especially in 3rd Excelsior, where a number of former militia officers served. Many felt they had been relegated to a backwater region to police a Maryland highway while the real action happened elsewhere. Wrote Private Arthur McKinstry of Fredonia, N.Y.: [T]he Excelsior Brigade has never been so well managed as whenCol. Taylor has been acting brigadier. Sickles displayed great energy and patriotism in the raising and equipment of the brigade. He has governed it however in a civilian manner, and whatever talent and administrative ability he may have, he is evidently incompetent to personally maneuver the brigade.I think that we might have played some other role than that of special policemen, and labored up on a Maryland highway, if we had been headed by an experienced soldier. Others believed that being commanded by a general like Dan Sickles would ensure they remained disappointedly far from the fighting. Transfer to another brigade, especially one commanded by a competent officer who would be allowed to take his men into battle, seemed the only clear path for the men of the 72nd. In this climate, a petition was signed by nearly every officer asking the regiment be transferred to another brigade. Sickles bravery, energy in forming the brigade, or his deserving of command was beyond questionthey just wanted to fight. The Senate began debating Sickles confirmation in the spring of 1862. Whether 3rd Excelsiors petition was even considered or if Sickles own poor reputation was enough, the Senate on March 17 rejected his brigadier general nomination. Radical Republicans and Morgan had had the last laugh. Hooker immediately issued orders to relieve the troublesome Sickles and place Taylor in temporary command of the Excelsior Brigade. Sickles argued that an appeal was in order since he technically was senior colonel within the brigade. Hooker reluctantly conceded to Sickles argument, leaving the bigger issue of brigade command still undecided. Sickles would not sit idly by while the fickle winds of politics played upon his nomination Despite the vote, Sickles was soon back in Maryland leading the brigade. Private McKinstry wrote in a letter home: We have had more brigade drills lately, and Gen. Sickles has done much better than his former management would have justified our expecting. I cannot but admire his indomitable resolution and have no mean opinion of his talent. If the time spent at Washington in intriguing for the confirmation of the Generalship had been employed as at present, I believe his nomination would have been more favorably received.If Sickles is to be our General why not confirm him and let him apply himself to his business? If he is not to be, why not at once appoint his successor and let him assume his harness as promptly as possible. It should bea source of humiliation that military experience and signal ability have weighted so lightly when opposed to political trickery and partisan prejudices. Neither Sickles nor his political guardian angel, Lincoln, took the Senates vote lying down. As Republican newspapers howled in protest, Lincoln renominated Sickles. An editorial in the western New York Fredonia Censor charged Lincoln with taking the soldiers welfare lightly: The President has re-nominated Gen. Sickles as a Brigadier General. By what maneuvering he was induced to do this in the face of the unanimous rejection of Sickles nomination by the Senate, is a mystery the people would like to have unraveled. Sickles friends pretend that this rejection was brought by the misapprehension of facts, which has been explained away. But no explanation can do away with the damaging fact that Sickles has not the confidence of his men, and that his best officers signed a petition to be transferred from his command. In time of war no one ought to be appointed to a military position unless fully competent for the discharge of its duties The pace of events in Maryland picked up in March and early April. With the strategic situation changing, Sickles men had become more active, launching larger raids against suspected Rebel installations in the Old Dominion. By April 1, orders had come to remove the sick and prepare to move out. When Sickles returned from a successful raid a few days later, two letters containing orders awaited him. The first, which all had expected: Leave Camp Wool and begin packing onto transport steamers waiting to take them to the seat of war and the upcoming campaign season. The second, a crushing surpriseDan Sickles no longer commanded the Excelsior Brigade. Like many of the men, divisional commander Hooker had long agreed Sickles was unfit for command. And with all of Sickles appeals exhausted and the divisions move to the Peninsula imminent, Hooker issued orders to sack Sickles. He was to stay behind while Taylor took the Excelsior Brigade to Virginia. On board the steamer Elm City, in a cabin Sickles had used as his office, the now-deposed commander penned his farewell address to the brigade he had created. My last act of duty is to bid you farewell, Sickles General Orders No. 6 read. And after restating what he saw as unjust circumstances surrounding his dismissal, Sickles impressed upon the men that, Whether we are separated for a day or forever, the fervent wishes of my heart will follow your fortunes on every field. Despite the heartfelt nature of the address, during the commotion of loading, it is likely few actually heard the farewell. The Excelsior Brigade arrived on the Peninsula on April 11, in time to join McClellans push toward Richmond. Within a month, these New Yorkers under Taylor would fight their bloodiest battle of the war at Williamsburg, Va., losing fully one-fourth of their number. But the paths of Sickles and the Excelsior Brigade would come together again and would remain intertwined until Dans most controversial day of his generalshipDay 2 at Gettysburg. Rick Barram, a history teacher in northern California, is author of The 72nd New York Infantry in the Civil War: A History and Roster (McFarland, 2014). New research from North Carolina State University demonstrates that consumer-grade drones are effective tools for monitoring marine species across multiple sites in the wild. The work shows that the technology can be a valuable platform for scientists and conservationists interested in studying populations of sharks, rays, sea turtles and other marine megafauna. "We found that drones can be used to count and make species-level identifications of marine species, particularly in shallow marine environments," says Enie Hensel, a Ph.D. candidate at NC State and first author of a paper on the work. "Demonstrating the viability of drones for this work matters, because these are inexpensive tools for collecting accurate abundance estimates," Hensel says. "And those estimates are important for both informing the development of conservation efforts and for assessing the effectiveness of those efforts. "Drone surveys are also a good way to monitor shallow water, megafauna species because they are not intrusive," Hensel says. "More traditional monitoring methods - such as boat surveys or gill nets - are more invasive, and have the potential to harm individuals or alter their movement patterns." Previous studies using drones to monitor marine species have focused on single sites. The recent work from NC State evaluated multiple sites, demonstrating that drones can be used to assess environmental variables that may be responsible for population differences between locations. For example, drones may be used to help target conservation efforts on sites that have the most value in terms of supporting specific species. The researchers also showed that drones are effective at sites with varying degrees of water clarity. To assess the effectiveness of the drones, researchers placed fake sharks underwater at two sites with different water clarity. Drone footage allowed researchers to identify all of the decoys at both sites. "We chose grey shark decoys because they would be the most difficult to spot in these environments, but we were able to spot them all," Hensel says. In field testing, researchers were also able to make species-level identifications of lemon, nurse and bonnethead sharks, as well as southern stingrays and spotted eagle rays. The drone footage also allowed researchers to identify sea turtles, though they had difficulty differentiating between hawksbill and green sea turtles. "One reason we chose these sites, all of which were on Great Abaco Island in The Bahamas, was because The Bahamas are interested in using several of the sites as a pilot for a managed conservation effort," Hensel says. "Our surveys provide baseline data for marine megafauna abundances within these newly established parks and we show that drones offer a new management tool for the park service of The Bahamas. And, of course, the technology certainly opens doors for us to explore a range of conservation issues." Source: Press Release This combination photo shows Jino women separating grain seeds with their feet in 1984 (left, file photo); and Jino villager Li Xiuzhen showing a WeChat group for sales of local specialty goods in Baka Village of Jino Ethnic Township on Jino Mountain, Nov. 20, 2018 (right, photo by Lin Yiguang). With a population of slightly over 20,000, the Jino people had only been officially acknowledged in 1979 as an independent ethnic group of China. Until 1949, most of them had lived for generations in primitive mountain tribes in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Over the four decades since it embraced the reform and opening-up policy, China has spared no effort to support ethnic groups with smaller populations. Life on Jino Mountain, where most Jino communities are located, saw positive changes in parallel with improvements in local politics, economy, technology, education, culture, health care, ecology, ethnic development and other social undertakings. Just like its 55 ethnic brethren, the Jino people also benefit from China's reform and opening-up in seeking a prosperous life. In Jino Ethnic Township on the Jino Mountain, residents now have direct access to road, water, electricity, TV and radio, as well as the mobile network. Ninety percent of the residents have moved into new houses. Most residents own motorcycles and tractors, and some of them have purchased cars. More people have increased their income by selling local specialty products via the internet, whereas in the past, doing business was perceived as a shame. Currently, the primary education in Jino Ethnic Township achieved 100 percent coverage for all school-age children. More than 99 percent of residents have joined the rural cooperative medical insurance programme. The Jino ethnic culture undergoes protection and inheritance: the great drum dance of the Jino people has been listed as one of China's national intangible cultural heritages. (Xinhua) As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. China has launched work on building its third aircraft carrier, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. China's first domestically designed aircraft carrier set out on its debut sea trial on May 13, 2018. [File Photo: Xinhua] In an article published on its WeChat account, Xinhua said that as the nation's second, and the first domestically designed, carrier has undergone sea trials, a "new-generation carrier" is being constructed at the shipyard as per schedule. The article, which was intended to mark the sixth anniversary of the first takeoff and landing by a Chinese fighter on the country's first carrier CNS Liaoning, does not elaborate on the program of the "new-generation carrier", which is believed to be the country's third carrier. But the article is the first official confirmation. Chinese weapons enthusiasts and foreign observers have long asserted that China has begun to build its third carrier at China State Shipbuilding Corp's Jiangnan Shipyard Group in Shanghai, speculating that it will be bigger and mightier than the Liaoning and the second carrier, which is yet to be named. A publicity officer at China State Shipbuilding Corp's headquarters in Beijing refused to comment on the matter. Publicity officers of the People's Liberation Army Navy could not be reached on Monday morning. In the last six years, 100 Cats for Christmas has exceeded its goal of spaying and neutering 100 cats. Berkshires Beat: Berkshire Humane Society Offering '100 Cats for Christmas' Program 100 Cats for Christmas For the sixth year, Berkshire Humane Society has received a grant from the Massachusetts Animal Coalitions license plate program, which will support BHSs 100 Cats for Christmas initiative during the month of December. 100 Cats for Christmas is the shelters largest and most successful low-cost spay/neuter effort for kittens and cats in the Berkshires and surrounding area. Without the support of MACs license plate program, this invaluable service would not be possible. In the last six years, 100 Cats for Christmas has exceeded its goal of spaying and neutering 100 cats. To participate, qualifying residents of Berkshire County must visit one of three locations in person to complete a registration form and pay a non-refundable $25 fee, which covers the surgery and a rabies vaccination. Visit the main shelter at 214 Barker Road, Purradise in Great Barrington, or Bark n Cat in North Adams. Registration is on a first come, first served basis. Call 413-447-7878, ext. 124, for qualification requirements and additional information. Appointments will be scheduled during the month of December. All cats and kittens will be dropped off at predesignated locations to be announced. BHS staff and volunteers will transport the felines to participating veterinarians, and will return them for owner pick-up in the afternoon. All cats must be in secure carriers with proper identification including the owners and cats name. This years participating veterinarians include: Allen Heights Veterinary Hospital, Greylock Animal Hospital, North County Veterinary Hospital, Bilmar Veterinary Services, Pittsfield Veterinary Hospital, South Street Veterinary Services, and Valley Veterinary Services. NAMI gift bags National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Berkshire County invites members of the community to participate in the annual holiday collection of gift bags to patients receiving mental health services at Berkshire Medical Center. NAMI Berkshire County is collecting items for 40 gift bags. Examples of items to be donated include crossword puzzles, Sodoku, word search games, warm hats, gloves, socks, sweet treats (such as chocolate), playing cards and healthy, individually-wrapped snacks. Donated items can be dropped off at the NAMI Berkshire County office, which is located at 333 East St., Room 417 in Pittsfield, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The deadline to donate or drop off items is Dec. 11. Monetary donations are graciously accepted as well, and checks should be made payable to NAMI Berkshire County. For information, call 413-443-1666 or send an email. Peacemaker nominations The MLK Jr. Day of Service Committee is seeking nominations for the 2019 Peacemaker Award. The Peacemaker Award is given annually to an individual or group in Northern Berkshire. The award, which originated as part of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, is made to persons who have contributed substantially to peace in our region. In general, the Peacemaker Award recognizes persons who have a history of working with people and/or neighborhoods and communities to provide for greater tolerance, understanding, and caring. While the award may be made to a person or group well known in the region, those making nominations are particularly urged to consider those who have worked hard and have made contributions without much recognition. Past Peacemakers include Don Quinn Kelley, Mark Rondeau, Mark Lincourt, Pastor Dave Anderson, Al & Cindi McLain, PopCares and Dick Alcombright. The MLK Jr. Day of Service Committee is also seeking new members interested in helping to plan the January 2019 event. To join the committee, call Liz Boland at 413-663-7588, ext. 19. To nominate a Peacemaker, pick up a form at the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition office at 61 Main Street, Suite 218, North Adams, or nominate online. Nominations must be received by Dec. 3. Holiday Wish Program Hillcrest Educational Centers' 2018 Holiday Wish Program is now underway. The Holiday Wish Program provides gifts for the 150 special-needs children in their care, many of whom are unable to spend the holidays with their families. There are two ways to participate. Individuals, community groups or businesses can request the desired number of wish cards with instructions on shopping for the children by contacting Tim Gallagher by email or 413-499-7924, ext. 133. Or, to mail a donation to Tim Gallagher, Hillcrest Educational Centers, 788 South Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201. As a guide, $150 sponsors one childs wish list, $25 will buy a gift, $10 will fill a childs stocking. LEEF time The Lenox Education Enrichment Foundation is currently accepting grant applications from teachers, parents, students, nonprofits and Berkshires resident with projects that inspire creative thinking, build confidence and promote teamwork in Lenox Public School students. High school students may apply independently; middle and elementary school students may apply with an adult co-applicant. Launched in 2003, LEEF is an endowed fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Since then, the initiative has awarded nearly $75,000 in grants for projects, funding an average of six to seven new programs per year. These opportunities include class field trips, visiting speakers, artists-in-residence, extracurricular activities and more. The application deadline is Tuesday, Jan. 15. To learn more and apply for a grant, visit the website. LEEFs mission is to enrich the education of students in the Lenox Public Schools by underwriting projects that support the curriculum, encourage creativity and innovation, and enhance the school and community partnership. Berkshire Bank announced changes in its leadership in a statement released late Monday afternoon. Daly Resigns as Berkshire Bank CEO PITTSFIELD, Mass. Michael Daly has resigned as CEO of Berkshire Bank. Berkshire Hills Bancorp announced on Monday that Daly has stepped down effective immediately and President Richard Marotta will take over as chief executive officer. Marotta was also appointed as a member of the board of directors. Sean Gary will take over as bank president. "Mike's commitment to the Bank, our customers and our communities has been instrumental in Berkshire's success. We thank him for his focus on creating the strong franchise we have today," said William J. Ryan, chairman the board of directors, in a statement released on Monday that did not give a reason for Daly's departure. "Building on the Company's progress under Mike's leadership, Richard is in a strong position to step into the CEO role. He is deeply familiar with our strategy, our markets and our people. Richard, Sean and the rest of the executive team remain committed to growing Berkshire's operations, executing on the strategic plan and delivering strong results." Daly had been with the bank since 1986 as a commercial lender. He became CEO in 2002. "I am extremely proud of the accomplishments that the employees of the company have achieved during my time as CEO," Daly said. "When I began my tenure 16 years ago Berkshire Bank was one of the smallest banks headquartered in Massachusetts with some 300 employees, the company is now the largest with nearly 2,000 employees. I've built long-lasting relationships with many employees during this time who I will continue to view as my family." Daly had overseen a vast expansion of the company during his time and it now boasts of $12 billion in assets. Marotta has been the senior executive vice president and president since 2015. He has been with Berkshire Bank since 2010, starting as a chief risk officer. He is credited with restructuring the risk, credit, compliance, and anti-fraud programs. He played roles in mergers and acquisitions and implemented the move of the bank's headquarters into Boston last year. Gray has been the chief operating officer since 2015. From 2010 until 2015 he was the executive vice president of retail banking. He also serves as the president of Berkshire Insurance Group. The Boston Business Journal reports that Daly will receive a severance package worth $7.5 million to be paid out over the next 18 months. iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Three U.S. service members were killed and three others were wounded by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan, according to the NATO-led training mission in that country. The incident took place on Nov. 27, Resolute Support, the official name of the NATO mission, said in a statement. One American contractor was also wounded. "The wounded service members and contractor were evacuated and are receiving medical care," Resolute Support said. No other details about the deadly incident were available. Five service members so far have died in Afghanistan in November -- the deadliest month for U.S. forces this year. Army Ranger Sgt. Leandro Jasso was killed in Afghanistan over the weekend. On Tuesday Resolute Support announced that Jasso's death was likely the result of accidental friendly fire from Afghan forces he was accompanying during an assault on al Qaeda positions in western Afghanistan's Nimroz Province. On Nov. 3, Maj. Brent Taylor, 39, was killed in an insider attack in Kabul. Taylor, a member of the U.S. Army National Guard, was also the mayor of North Ogden, Utah. The U.S. currently has more than 14,000 American forces in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led mission to advise and assist the Afghan military in their fight against the Taliban and ISIS. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. China hopes that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) and the European Union (EU) will finally reach a consensus on Brexit, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang holds a daily press briefing on Nov. 26, 2018. [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn] The European Council on Sunday endorsed the agreement and Political Declaration on the UK's exit from the EU, as well as on a framework of the future relationship between the EU and the UK. "Both the EU and the UK are China's Comprehensive Strategic Partners," spokesperson Geng Shuang told a daily press briefing, adding that a prosperous, stable and open Europe and the UK are in the interest of all parties. Geng said China's established policy of promoting parallel development of China-EU and China-UK relations will not change, and China stands ready to work with the EU and the UK to make new contributions to world peace, stability and prosperity. November 25, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Last week it became clear that what WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his lawyers have been warning for seven years has already happened: He has been charged in a criminal case in the United States. The fear of being extradited and tried in the US has forced him to seek refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012. This news hardly came as a surprise to those of us who have been following his case or have been convinced that Assange's fate is of profound and historical importance and could define the future of the freedom of the press. What happens if Assange is tried in US There are some in the West who are fully convinced that Assange deserves to be tried and thrown in jail for "threatening" US national security and "undermining" its democratic processes. Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Joe Biden have called him a "terrorist", US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then the director of the CIA, has described WikiLeaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence service" and US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said prosecuting Assange is a "priority" for him. Many have also come to see him as a political player who purposefully sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential elections, while others consider him a stooge of Russian President Vladimir Putin, although no evidence for this was ever found. It is more likely that Assange's indictment is coming not as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 US election, but in response to WikiLeaks publishing the biggest leak in the history of the CIA called #Vault7. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Whatever Assange's political leanings or views, his case is not about whether you like him or not, but about freedom of the press. As Edward Snowden rightly said: "You can despise WikiLeaks and everything it stands for. You can think Assange is an evil spirit reanimated by Putin himself, but you cannot support the prosecution of a publisher for publishing without narrowing the basic rights every newspaper relies on." If Assange is eventually arrested, extradited to the US and stands trial there, he is almost certainly going to be found guilty - just as Chelsea Manning was - and he would probably end up in a Guantanamo-like prison. His prosecution and jailing would have global repercussions for whistle-blowers, publishers and journalists. According to US lawyer and civil liberties advocate Ben Wizner at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): "Any prosecution of Mr Assange for WikiLeaks' publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations". In other words, a lawsuit that tries to make it illegal or a form of "espionage" to publish documents would set a dangerous precedent for publishers and journalists who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest. It would endanger the very foundation of free press. Why this is important for all of us We already live in a world in which politics and distribution of information are being profoundly transformed. Not only do dangerous populists and authoritarian leaders come to power by "manufacturing consent", backed by the use of "perception management" methods by tech companies or organised fake news campaigns, but they also come to power by openly spreading misinformation and concealing information of public interest. While it became "natural" for politicians to employ such questionable methods to reach power, it is the job of journalists, the media and whistle-blowers to keep such behaviour in check. Punishing them for doing their job - uncovering uncomfortable truths that those in power would like to keep away from the public - means removing one of the most important checks on executive political power. How would we know today of the wiretapping of the Democratic Party headquarters if it hadn't been for the hard work of American investigative reporters uncovering information the Nixon administration wanted to hide? How would we know about all the offshore accounts and money laundering activities of politicians across the world if a whistle-blower hadn't leaked the Panama papers? How would we know how many Reuters journalists were killed by the US army in Iraq, as revealed by the "Collateral Murder" video leaked by Chelsea Manning and published by WikiLeaks? And how would we know how the Democratic Party treats some of its most progressive members, such as Bernie Sanders, if WikiLeaks hadn't released the files from the hacked Democratic National Committee email server? Assange had in his hands information of immoral political behaviour by a party and he published it. One can argue about timing and political consequences, but it is hard to deny that it was in the interest of the American public to know these facts. The information was not fake or fabricated; it was the truth. A criminal trial for Assange in the US would be another blow to journalists, the media and publishers who are already suffering from increasing pressure across the world. So far this year, 45 journalists have been killed across the world. In March, Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee were shot in their home. In April, nine Afghan journalists were killed in a bombing in Kabul: Abadullah Hananzai, Ali Saleemi, Ghazi Rasooli, Maharram Durrani, Nowroz Ali Rajabi, Sabawoon Kakar, Saleem Talash, Shah Marai and Yar Mohammad Tokhi. In July, three Russian journalists were shot dead in the Central African Republic while investigating the presence of Russian mercenaries: Aleksandr Rastorguyev, Orkhan Dzhemal and Kirill Radchenko. And just over a month ago, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the consulate of his own country in Istanbul. Clear signals are being sent to media professionals across the world that doing their jobs could cost them their freedom or their lives. Feeding this hostile environment instead of standing up to it could be dangerous not only for journalists and whistle-blowers but also for all of us. Walter Lippmann, the father of modern journalism who coined the phrase "manufacturing consent" (which Noam Chomsky made famous in his 1988 book) wrote back in 1919 in a thin volume called Liberty and the News that "there can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies". Fighting the extradition of Assange to the US is not just about protecting his individual rights, but it is also about protecting the very means by which we are able to detect lies. It is about protecting freedom of the press and our ability to keep checks on political power. Whatever you might think of WikiLeaks, it is a fact that as a publisher who protects its sources it has always been detecting and revealing lies. And as Lippman wrote in Liberty and the News 100 years ago: "Not what somebody says or somebody wishes to be true, but what is so beyond all opinions, constitutes, the touchstone of our sanity." Without WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, without the courageous whistle-blowers and journalists who are revealing the dirty secrets and immoral acts of powerful regimes, who are opposing or criticising authority, truth would quickly lose value. And it would be then that we would also lose the touchstone of our sanity. Srecko Horvat is a philosopher from Croatia. This article was originally published by " Al Jazeera " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here ==See Also== Julian Assange's lawyers say they have been stopped from seeing him at Ecuadorian Embassy 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 George Galloway November 26, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - A new Crimean War would be the last, but few amongst the general public realize that endless baiting of Russia, the cycle of war games, sanctions, and false accusations could well lead to all-out war between NATO and Russia. Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, into the Valley of Death rode the six hundred, - Alfred Lord Tennyson The last time Britain fought Russia, we were the most powerful empire in the history of the world and our adversary a ramshackle obscurantist autocracy. The British suffered over forty thousand dead and wounded. It was the first modern war red in tooth and claw predating the American Civil War, which is often awarded that dubious honor. The terrible suffering of the British (and French) soldiers, virtually none of whom even had the right to vote for the parliament which ruled their empire, began to be unpopular at home. Tennyson's braggadocio ballad The Charge of the Light Brigade gave rise to the first whispers of doubt amongst British people generally as to whether our soldiers were lions led by donkeys, into one valley of death after another. Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die. Another Crimean War Looms as NATO Provocations Enter Russian Waters The next Crimean War would be the last war and no poet would be left alive to chronicle it for the remaining cockroaches, the only beings which would likely survive it. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Surprisingly, few amongst the general public had yet to wake up to the fact that the endless baiting of Russia, the cycle of war-games sanctions and false accusations could well lead to all-out war between NATO and the Russian Federation multiple nuclear-armed superpowers, ramshackle no longer. Events this week in the Russian waters off Crimea and the subsequent war-mobilization of the Ukrainian neo-fascist government may well prove a wake-up call. Ukrainian coup-president Poroshenko, with his country mired in debts and his presidency hanging by a thread trailing miles behind his main rival, has decided on the Wag the Dog manoeuvre look over there he cries as he mounts the most serious provocation yet by sailing military and other ships into Russian territorial waters with the inevitable Russian response. Invoking martial law, he may even cancel the forthcoming presidential poll and will certainly fundamentally change the political landscape through draconian legislation, including closing down opposition using the actually fascist militias in Ukraine as his shock troops. Predictably he has called upon his allies in NATO to come to the aid of his beleaguered regime, beggared by his own recklessness. Trump facing imminent Armageddon in Washington as the Mueller Enquiry closes may welcome the opportunity to wag his own Dog. Theresa May possibly in the last days of her premiership otherwise ditto. Macron, the streets of his capital on fire with 77% of his people favoring the arsonists rather than him, likewise. A dangerous constellation of weak, collapsing Western governments and leaders suddenly find their interests coinciding with the tin-pot tyrant Poroshenko. And into the Valley of Death they might just be ready to send their people charging. If they do they will find a resolute Russia far stronger than at Balaclava. Strong and united enough in fact to prevail. Unity in NATO countries is something even the Victorian master propagandist Tennyson would find it hard to spin. And certainly the moth-eaten second-rate spin-doctors of the NATO hirelings the laughably named Integrity unmasked by Anonymous last week ain't no Lord Tennyson, bruv. George Galloway was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. He presents TV and radio shows (including on RT). He is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator. This article was originally published by " RT " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here ==See Also== Russian vessel blocks Kerch strait after Ukrainian Navy ships violate border (VIDEO) Watch: Russian Coast Guard Rams & Opens Fire To Ukrainian Ships. Tension escalates after Russia seizes Ukraine naval ships: Russia has fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels off the Crimean Peninsula in a major escalation of tensions between the two countries. Russian ships used weapons to stop & seize Ukrainian vessels violating territorial waters; NATO spokesperson said, NATO fully supports Ukraines sovereignty and its territorial integrity, including its navigation rights in its territorial waters, Ukrainian President Poroshenko signs decree on martial law Kievs provocation aims to score political points ahead of elections Moscow 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 Paul Craig Roberts November 26, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Ukrainian military ships have violated Russian restrictions in the Sea of Azov and Articles 19 and 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Ukrainian Navy crossed the Russian sea border and entered a closed area of Russian territorial waters. Clearly, Washington was behind this as Ukraine would not undertake such a provocation on its own. Here is an accurate explanation of the event: https://www.rt.com/news/444857-russia-ukraine-kerch-strait-standoff/ The Russian Navy detained the Ukrainian ships. Of course, the Western presstitutes, most of whom are CIA assets, will blame Russian aggression. Washington and its presstitutes are doing everything they can to make impossible Trumps expressed goal of normal relations with Russia. NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu quickly aligned NATO with Ukraine: NATO fully supports Ukraines sovereignty and its territorial integrity, including its navigation rights in its territorial waters. https://twitter.com/NATOpress/status/1066796714672222210/photo/1 The US military/security complex prefers the risk of nuclear war to any diminution of its $1,000 billion annual budget, a completely unnecessary sum that is destined to grow as the presstitutes, in line with the military/security complex, continue to demonize both Russia and Putin and to never question the obvious orchestrations that are used to portray Russia as a threat. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The Russian goverments response to Ukraines provocation and violation of law was to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, as if anything would come of this. Washington pays such a large percentage of the UN budget, that few countries will side against Washington. As President Trumps crazed UN ambassador Nikki Haley said, we take names. From all evidence, the Russian government still, despite all indications to the contrary, believes that presenting a non-threatening posture to the West, which appeals to law and not to arms, is effective in discrediting Western charges of aggression against Russia. If only it were true, but no sooner than a high Russian official announced that, despite the overwhelming elections for independence from Kiev in the breakway Russian provinces of Ukraine, Russia would not recognize the independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk than the Ukrainian army opened massive artillery fire on Sunday, shelling residential areas of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic. https://sputniknews.com/europe/201811261070125114-ukraine-kerch-strait-crisis-martial-law-poroshenko/ By trusting that there is a rule of law in the West, the Russian government is digging Russias grave while it allows Washingtons Ukrainian Nazis to murder Russian people. The Russian government is discrediting itself by trusting US vassals, such as Germany, to enforce the Minsk agreement and, despite all evidence to the contrary, believing that there is a rule of law in the West. Russia continues, year after year, to appeal to this non-existent entity called the Western Rule of Law. This policy reassures the Zionist Neoconservatives who rule Washingtons foreign policy that Russia is incapable of defending its interests. The Putin government seems to think that in order to prove that it is democratic, it must tolerate every Russian traitor in the name of free speech. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/25/if-the-united-states-can-arrest-julian-assange-why-cant-russia-arrest-these-real-traitors/ This makes Russia an easy mark for Washington to destabilize. We see it already in Putins falling approval ratings in Russia. The Russian government permits US-financed Russian newspapers and NGO organizations to beat up the Russian government on a daily basis. Decades of American propaganda have convinced many in the world that Washingtons friendship is the key to success. The Russian Atlanticist Integrationists believe that Putin stands in the way of this friendship. China is also an easy mark. The Chinese government permits Chinese students to study in the US from whence they return brainwashed by US propaganda and become Washingtons Fifth Column in China. It sometimes seems that Russia and China are more focused on gaining wealth than they are on national survival. It is extraordinary that these two governments are still constrained in their independence and remain dependent on the US dollar and Western financial systems for clearances of their international trade. As Washington controls the explanations, surviving Washingtons hegemony is proving to be a challenge for both countries. A Big Step for a Greater Israel By Eric Margolis November 26, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Hardly anyone noticed. The Trump administration quietly changed Americas long-held position on Syrias strategic Golan Heights while attention was focused on the raucous political carnival in Washington. Though barely noticed, the policy change had enormous importance and will lead the United States into a lot of future Mideast misery. The Golan Heights is a volcanic plateau that abuts Syria, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. The plateau rises abruptly from the plain of Galilee, providing dominance of the entire region. To the north, Mt Hermon rises to over 9,000 feet (2,814 meters); the plateau slopes down at its southern extremity. Golan provides the headwaters of the Jordan River and 15-20% of Israels water from its snow-capped north. Israeli artillery atop Golan can hit Damascus and its airport. Electronic intelligence systems on Golan look down onto southern Syria, intercepting all communications and detecting troop movements. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The plateau is quite fascinating. I have walked most of the Israeli-held side, observing dug-in tanks, artillery and small forts surrounded by anti-tank ditches. Burned out wrecks of Syrian tanks and armor litter the countryside. Ive also walked the Syrian side and explored the wrecked Syrian town of Kuneitra that was leveled by the Israelis in 1967. Israel seized Golan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and annexed the plateau in 1981. Almost all of Golans Arab population was driven out by the Israelis. The UN and US demanded that Israel return Golan to its rightful owner, Syria. After 1981, Israel moved over 20,000 settlers onto Golan to cement its control of the strategic heights and its water sources. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Syrian forces came close to pushing Israeli forces off Golan. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. For still unknown reasons, the Syrian armored offensive abruptly halted just as it reached the western edge of the plateau overlooking northern Israel. My understanding is that Soviet recon satellites saw Israel deploying its nuclear bombs and missiles from their cave shelters. Moscow warned ally Syria that it risked nuclear attack by Israel unless its forces halted their advance so the Syrian offensive stopped on the verge of tactical success. This allowed Israel to concentrate enough reserve armored divisions to successfully counter-attack and drive Syria from the heights. Since 1973, Americas policy has been to demand Israel relinquish Golan while quietly allowing US tax deductible funds to expand Jewish settlements on the plateau. Israel even reportedly offered to return Golan in exchange for a peace deal with Syria, but the secret terms of the deal were too onerous for Damascus. The Trump administration abruptly changed US Mideast policy. First, it announced the US Embassy would move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, meaning that it rejected the idea of a Palestinian state with its capital in the old city of Jerusalem. Now, the White House has quietly accepted permanent Israeli control of Golan, though it violates international law and past US policy. Its clear that US Mideast policy is firmly under the control of the neocons aligned to Israels expansionist far right parties. In fact, it is impossible to see any difference between the policies of Israels hard rightwing leader, Benyamin Netanyahu, and President Donald Trump. They are joined at the hip. A coterie of pro-Israel lawyers and property developers from New York City have completely taken control of Mideast policy. More important, what the change in US Golan policy means is that Trump & Co are giving a green light to further Israeli territorial expansion. Now that Washington, which decries Russias much more justified annexation of Crimea, has approved the illegal annexation of Golan, what could be next? Likely further chunks of southern Syria, an invasion of Lebanon and annexation of its water resources. Saudi Arabia and its little ally, the United Arab Emirates, have already been given a green light by Washington to carve out strongholds in Yemen and along the strategic Red Sea coast. This is the Mideast peace settlement that candidate Trump promised; an increasingly close alliance with the Mideasts most reactionary states, notably the murderous Saudi regime. This bodes ill for the United States. By Prof. James Petras November 26, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Over the past three decades, the US government has engaged in over a dozen wars, none of which have evoked popular celebrations either before, during or after. Nor did the government succeed in securing popular support in its efforts to confront the economic crises of 2008 2009. This paper will begin by discussing the major wars of our time, namely the two US invasions of Iraq. We will proceed to analyze the nature of the popular response and the political consequences. In the second section we will discuss the economic crises of 2008 -2009, the government bailout and popular response. We will conclude by focusing on the potential powerful changes inherent in mass popular movements. The Iraq War and the US Public In the run-up to the two US wars against Iraq, (1990 01 and 2003 20011) there was no mass war fever, nor did the public celebrate the outcome. On the contrary both wars were preceded by massive protests in the US and among EU allies. The fir Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter March 20, 2003, President George W. Bush launched the second major war against Iraq despite massive protests in all major US cities. The war was officially concluded by President Obama in December 2011. President Obamas declaration of a successful conclusion failed to elicit popular agreement. Several questions arise: Why mass opposition at the start of the Iraq wars and why did they fail to continue? Why did the public refuse to celebrate President Obamas ending of the war in 2011? Why did mass protests of the Iraq wars fail to produce durable political vehicles to secure the peace? The Anti-Iraq War Syndrome The massive popular movements which actively opposed the Iraq wars had their roots in several historical sources. The success of the movements that ended the Viet Nam war, the ideas that mass activity could resist and winwas solidly embedded in large segments of the progressive public. Moreover, they strongly held the idea that the mass media and Congress could not be trusted; this reinforced the idea that mass direct actionwas essential to reverse Presidential and Pentagon war policies. The second factor encouraging US mass protest was the fact that the US was internationally isolated. Presidents George H. W. Bush, Sr. and George W. Bush, Jr. launched wars that faced hostile regime and mass opposition in Europe, the Middle East and in the UN General Assembly. US activists felt that they were part of a global movement which could succeed. Thirdly the advent of Democratic President Clinton did not reverse the mass anti-war movements. The terror bombing of Iraq in December 1998 was destructive and Clintons war against Serbia kept the movements alive and active To the extent that Clinton avoided large scale long-term wars, he avoided provoking mass movements from re-emerging during the latter part of the 1990s. The last big wave of mass anti-war protest occurred from 2003 to 2008. Mass anti-war protest to war exploded soon after the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11. White House exploited the events to proclaim a global war on terror, yet the mass popular movements interpreted the same events as a call to oppose new wars in the Middle East. Anti-war leaders drew activists of the entire decade, envisioning a build-up which could prevent the Bush regime from launching a series of wars without end. Moreover, the vast-majority of the public was not convinced by officials claims that Iraq, weakened and encircled, was stocking weapons of mass destruction to attack the US. Large scale popular protests challenged the mass media, the so called respectable press and ignored the Israeli lobby and other Pentagon warlords demanding an invasion of Iraq. The vast-majority of American, did not believe they were threatened by Saddam Hussain they felt a greater threat from the White Houses resort to severe repressive legislation like the Patriot Act. Washingtons rapid military defeat of Iraqi forces and its occupation of the Iraqi state led to a decline in the size and scope of the anti-war movement but not to its potential mass base. Two events led to the demise of the anti-war movements. The anti-war leaders turned from independent direct action to electoral politics and secondly, they embraced and channeled their followers to support Democratic presidential candidate Obama. In large part the movement leaders and activists believed that direct action had failed to prevent or end the previous two Iraq wars. Secondly, Obama made a direct demagogic appeal to the peace movement he promised to end wars and pursue social justice at home. With the advent of Obama, many peace leaders and followers joined the Obama political machine .Those who were not coopted were quickly disillusioned on all counts. Obama continued the ongoing wars and added new onesLibya, Honduras, Syria. The US occupation in Iraq led to new extremist militia armies, which proceeded to defeat US-trained vassal armies up to the gates of Baghdad. In short time Obama launched a flotilla of warships and warplanes to the South China Sea and dispatched added troops to Afghanistan. The mass popular movements of the previous two decades were totally disillusioned, betrayed and disoriented. While most opposed Ob The Bank Bailout: Mass Protest Denied In 2008, at the end of his presidency, President George W. Bush signed off on a massive federal bailout of the biggest Wall Street banks facing faced bankruptcy from their wild speculative profiteering. In 2009 President Obama endorsed the bailout and urged rapid Congressional approval. Congress complied to a $700-billion- dollar handout, which according to Forbes(July 14, 2015) rose to $7.77 trillion. Overnight hundreds of thousands of American demanded Congress rescind the vote. Under immense popular protest, Congress capitulated. However President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership insisted: the bill was slightly modified and approved. The popular will was denied. The protests were neutralized and dissipated. The bailout of the banks proceeded, while several million households watched while their homes were foreclosed, despite some local protests. Among the anti-bank movement, radical proposals flourished, ranging from calls to nationalize them, to demands to let the big banks go bankrupt and provide federal financing for co-operatives and community banks. Clearly the vast majority of the American people were aware and acted to resist corporate-collusion to plunder taxpayers. Conclusion: What is to be Done? Mass popular mobilizations are a reality in the United States. The problem is that they have not been sustained and the reasons are clear: they lacked political organization which would go beyond protests and reject lesser evil policies. The anti-war movement which started in opposition to the Iraq war was marginalized by the two dominant parties. The result was the multiplication of new wars. By the second year of Obamas presidency the US was engaged in seven wars. By the second year of Trumps Presidency the US was threatening nuclear wars against Russia, Iran and other enemies of the empire. While public opinion was decidedly opposed, the opinion barely rippled in the mid-term elections. Where have the anti-war and anti-bank masses gone? I would argue they are still with us but they cannot turn their voices into action and organization if they remain in the Democratic Party. Before the movements can turn direct action into effective political and economic transformations, they need to build struggles at every level from the local to the national. The international conditions are ripening. Washington has alienated countries around the world; it is challenged by allies and faces formidable rivals. The domestic economy is polarized and the elites are divided. Mobilizations, as in France today, are self-organized through the internet; the mass media are discredited. The time of liberal and rightwing demagogues is passing; the bombast of Trump arouses the same disgust as ended the Obama regime. There are optimal conditions for a new comprehensive movement going beyond piecemeal reforms. The question is whether it is now or in future years or decades? James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. https://petras.lahaine.org/ 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 Robert Fisk November 26, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - The Saudis are going to get away with it. Muhammad bin Salman, too. They may pay a price well travel in that direction later but they remain the vision of light against Irans vision of darkness, in the words of Saudi Arabias ever more egregious foreign minister. We are all, alas, making the same old Middle East mistake: of thinking that the bad guys will get overthrown or punished for their murders and transgressions and that the good guys (whoever they may be) will come out on top. Jamal Khashoggi was the victim of murder most foul. But in the Middle Easts sectarian civil war, the Sunnis have got to win over the Shiites and the Saudis have got the money, and Americas president for whom the epithet insane is now as irrelevant as it is obvious has managed to quote the Saudis as claiming that Khashoggi was an enemy of the people and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Even if his murder was terrible and a horrible crime. It could very well be, announced the leader of the free world this week, that bin Salman had knowledge of the murder. Maybe he did and maybe he didnt! The story clip-clops along like an old horse and we all trot along behind this lovable, familiar, furry beast. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter There was a kind of tragic inevitability behind Adel al-Jubairs latest appearance as Saudi foreign minister in Bahrain, a Sunni monarchy with a Shiite majority where the UK has just opened a new naval base beside the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet. Al-Jubair accused the press yes us, colleagues of Khashoggi of hysterical coverage of his murder. It was as if he was running the movie backwards to its original claim of innocence: when the kingdom stated that it had nothing to do with his butchery, that he had indeed left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul alive, that they had no idea what had happened to him. Hysteria indeed. How dare the media go on about Khashoggi being murdered and chopped into bits and secretly buried. Anyway, where was the body? If theres a murder, theres got to be a body. And so here, briefly, we go back to Istanbul and to the Sultan himself, who doesnt blame good old King Salman, but who really would like to find the corpse and who might here we go again have yet another tape of Khashoggi to send to the worlds intelligence services. Be sure our political leaders will not sully their ears by listening to it; Trump called the original recording a suffering tape. Canadas Trudeau chose not to listen to it. But they really should have put their ear to the loudspeaker. Listening to an Arab journalist telling his murderers that he was suffocating would have been a fairly accurate symbol of democracy in the Middle East today. But Erdogan must have other plans. And here, I suspect, we should move a little south of the Sublime Porte and gaze over the plains of Idlib, the Syrian province where we were long ago told to expect by Trump, the UN, the British, the EU, Amnesty International, Uncle Tom Cobley and his old grey mare a bloody, gas-infected invasion by Syrian and Russian forces to finally destroy the Islamist fighters of Isis, al-Nusrah, al-Qaeda and their fellow jihadis, along with tens of thousands of civilians. Idlib is the rubbish basket for the enemies of the Syrian regime. Their only escape route is across the Turkish border whence they originally came. But since the Sultan doesnt want them back, and since Syria and Russia see no point in another bloodbath when the Syrian war has almost concluded though readers may check this conclusion against future events the outstanding question remains: where should these assorted Sunni Islamist fighters and their families go? Since their money and their weapons come from the Sunni Gulf and since their Wahhabi Sunni faith was inspired by the very same creed which governs the Saudi monarchy, what better location for their future welfare than one of Saudi Arabias vast sandpits? Could there be a more humane and convenient place for their re-education than the ascetic wastes of the Saudi Empty Quarter? Surely the Saudis, who would according to Trump gladly withdraw from Yemen, could accommodate the lot of them, saving the west yet again from world terror while sparing themselves a second tape from Erdogan and the sudden and most inconvenient discovery of body parts from a victim whose demise may have been known or maybe not to Muhammad bin Salman. Maybe he did and maybe he didnt, as we must now say. The Russians must surely approve. The Americans, too. The Saudis would surely be making a sacrifice for all of us to take on so onerous a burden as the desert imprisonment of the Isis and Nusrah legions inside the kingdom itself. After all, these legions of crucifiers and executioners Im talking about Isis, of course would certainly abide by prison rules when their guards are such experts in publicly chopping off the heads of alleged drug addicts and child murderers with the sword, not to mention the dismemberment of a journalist with a bone saw. Can we see a deal in the making here? The Yemen war comes to an end (thanks to its arms-selling enablers in the west) and the Syrian war reaches its peaceful finale with the blessing of Vladimir Putin. Of the $450bn Saudi Arabia has promised to spend on weapons in the US lets have no more talk of a piece of paper $110bn will go to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and many other great US defence contractors. Adel al-Jubairs vision of light Saudi Arabia, of course can go to war with Irans vision of darkness which seeks to spread sectarianism throughout the region. Khashoggi may have had a certain vision of darkness as they put the plastic bag over his head in the Saudi consulate last month, but in the Middle East the good guys dont always come out on top. The war with Iran must be fought. The war against the Shiites must be fought. Israel and Netanyahu notice how those names have so far eluded us in our woeful tale today? will be satisfied with their secret Saudi alliance against Iran. Boeing and Lockheed Martin will flourish, along with many other great US defence contractors. And the Saudi crown prince unlike Khashoggi will be assured of a long life and an honourable burial in old age. Preferably in one piece. This article was originally published by " The Independent " - 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 MADRID, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- As the first airliner running direct flight routes between China and Spain, Air China has helped facilitate exchanges between the two countries and is ready to do more, said Han Pengyu, head of Air China in Spain. As China's flag carrier for civil aviation, Air China opened its Beijing-Madrid-Sao Paolo air route in December, 2006, the first direct flight route linking China and Spain. It was also the company's first direct flight crossing three continents. Han told Xinhua in a recent interview that as China-Spain ties have been booming in all areas, the company is ready to do more based on the demands of the Spanish market. The company may use more advanced planes to fly its Spanish routes and will increase passenger volume, said Han. Apart from Beijing-Madrid direct route, Air China has also opened direct routes linking Beijing and Barcelona, as well as Shanghai and Barcelona. Since 2015, over 620,000 passengers have flown with Air China's Spanish routes, according to Han. In recent years, Air China has strived to improve its quality of service for a better passenger experience. In addition, the company has put the Boeing 787-9 on the route, enabling a shorter flying time and more comfortable flight experience. "As a major tourist destination in the world, Spain hopes to attract more Chinese travelers. With the direct routes between China and Spain, Air China has facilitated touristic and cultural exchange," said Han. In 2010, Air China received Spain's highest tourism industry award, the "Plaque for Tourist Merit." It is the first time that the Spanish government gave a Chinese airline the award to honor its contributions to promoting tourism in Spain. "We will do our best to facilitate trade, tourism and cultural exchanges between China and Spain," said Han. Originally posted Nov 25: 18:00 utc - Updated below on Nov. 26, 6:00 utc November 26, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - The Ukrainian government under the oligarch Petro Poroshenko is in election campaign mode. That is one reason why it is launching new provocations against Russia. Yesterday Ukrainian forces reportedly occupied a town within the neutral zone between the government controlled part and the rebel held Donetsk area. Today the Ukrainian navy sent a tug and two small gun boats, recently acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard, Ukrainian build Gurza-M class types, to pass through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov. When the ships entered Russian waters without announcing their intent, a Russian coast guard ship rammed (vid) and damaged the tug. The two gun boats escaped but did not pass the strait. The pictures show the melee at sea. With Crimea back in Russian hands, the Kerch Strait is solely Russian territorial water. The Treaty on the Legal Status of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, signed in 2003 by Russia and the Ukraine, provides that military ship entry into the sea is only allowed with mutual consent. Ukraine disputes the status of the sea in an arbitration court. (For a legal discussion of the case see 1, 2, 3.) Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The Ukrainian government, urged on by the U.S., wants to establish a new military harbor in the Sea of Azov. Two of its navy ships, a rescue vessel and a tug, passed through the street on September 23. In October the Russian government warned that it will not allow any further militarization of the sea. Some U.S. hawks even want NATO ships to enter the Sea of Azov. The Sea of Azov has a maximum depth of 7 meters. Typical U.S. frigates have a draft of 10+ meters. What NATO or U.S. ship could even go there? As Russia firmly controls the sole entry point into the sea and can easily attack any ship in the Sea of Azov from within its borders the idea is incredibly stupid. The Kerch Strait is now blocked by a large cargo ship the Russians anchored under the new Kerch bridge. The passage is closed and a number of ships are bunched up on both sides. Pic via MarineTraffic of traffic at 15:45 utc - bigger The Ukrainian provocation may well be aimed to sour the meeting between President Trump and Putin that is planned for November 30 during the G20 summit in Argentina. It should be more careful. It is quite possible that Russia will block commercial traffic to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol over any further incident. The big loser of this useless provocation would then again be the Ukraine. Update - Nov. 26, 6:00 utc The Russian coast guard detained the three Ukrainian ships and their crews in Russian waters. They again illegally attempted to cross from the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian side says the two of its seaman were injured. Since Crimea voted to again become a part of Russia the Kerch Strait is Russian territorial water. Ships can pass the strait but are required to take on a pilot and to undergo inspections if the Russian coast guard demand such. The Ukrainian side understands that these are legal measures. In a report by the U.S. government outlet RFL/RE published in August the Ukrainian side admitted as much: [The Ukrainian Sea Guard and the squadron's spokesman] Poliakov said that, while Russia's actions are "provocative," because of a controversial 2003 agreement on cooperation and shared use of the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait, "everything Russia is doing here is technically legal." The three Ukrainian ships tried to pass Russian waters without informing Russian authorities and without taking on pilots. Since Russia build the $3.7 billion Kerch bridge which connects Crimea with Russia, U.S. commentators and Ukrainian politicians threatened to blow up the bridge: The Kerch Bridge is an enemys infrastructure. It connects the occupied territory with the mainland of the aggressor country, that is why it is an enemys infrastructure, Mosiychuk said on air of 112 Ukraine channel. According to him, any normal country in a state of war strives for destroying enemys infrastructure. Answering a question whether he personally would destroy the bridge, he said that he would do it if he were the defense minister. The Russians are understandably careful with any traffic near to it. Following yesterday's incident the president of the Ukraine Pedro Poroshenko proposed to declare martial law. The parliament will have to decide on that. This is a very convenient move for Poroshenko as it will allow him to move the March 2019 general election date. Poroshenko trails in the polls with some 8% of the total vote. Russia called for a UN Security Council emergency meeting which will be held at today at 11:00am EST. The passage through the Kerch Strait is again open for civil vessels. The usual anti-Russian subject in "western" political circles use the incident to demand more measures against Russia. Fronting the effort is the weapon industry lobbying group Atlantic Council: Anders Aslund, a resident senior fellow in the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center, said: NATO and the United States should send in naval ships in the Sea of Azov to guarantee that it stays open to international shipping. Such action, Aslund said, would be in full compliance with the UN Law of the Sea Convention of 1982 and the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits of 1936. Anders Aslund is listed as member of the "U.S. & Canadian Cluster" of the secret influence operation by the British Foreign Office describe here two days ago. He is obviously unable to read a map, sea chart, or UN convention. The Ukrainian attempt to pass through the Kerch Strait without Russian consent is a breach of Article 7, 19 and 21 of the UN Law of the Sea Convention (pdf): Article 7: "Subject to this Convention, ships of all States, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea." ... Article 19-1: "Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall take place in conformity with this Convention and with other rules of international law." ... Article 21-4: "Foreign ships exercising the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea shall comply with all such [coastal state] laws and regulations and all generally accepted international regulations relating to the prevention of collisions at sea." There will now be again a lot of noise in the media about the 'nefarious Russians' and new demands for even more useless sanctions. But the legal case is clear. It was the Ukrainian navy that willfully attempted to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through Russian territorial waters without regard to the laws and regulations of the coastal state. Russia was within its full rights to prevent the passage and to seize the Ukrainian boats. Ekiti state governor, Kayode Fayemi has made it clear, he wouldnt be probing his predecessor, Ayodele Fayose. The governor revealed this, while he spoke with State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday. According to Fayemi, hes not the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and as such, he wouldnt bother himself with their responsibilities and has decided to leave Fayose to God. In his words: Well, I am sure I have never said anything about probe. Looking into books is the duty of any new governor. You need to know what you found in place, I just talked about a visitation panel into the education sector in the state. There are other sectors in the state, and it will be remiss of me not to check what we found when we came into office and share that with the citizens of the state. It is just accountability not probe. I am not EFCC. I am not ICPC, there are institutions that are charged with the responsibility to do that and its entirely up to them if they want to probe the governor or not. It is not my business, I leave Fayose to God, I have said that before. The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has debunked allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that it diverted funds meant to fight Boko Haram for the 2019 elections. According to the APC, the PDP could only come up with such beliefs because that is what they were good at, during their reign. In a statement by the ruling party on Tuesday, it said the PDP was so desperate to return to power, that it has no problem, playing politics with the death of the slain soldiers. See full statement below The allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that military funds have been diverted to finance the 2019 elections campaigns of the All Progressives Congress, APC is a sad reminder of the evil and retrogressive practices the PDP was notorious for during its defunct rule. God forbid that APC inherits and apply such morbid practice as brazenly displayed during the immediate-past administration where funds allocated to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast were shared among PDP leaders and their cronies. It is clear that PDP and its Presidential candidate, Atiku have decided to dance on the graves of our valiant and patriotic soldiers by politicising their deaths in the recent Boko Haram attack on the Nigerian Army Metele base. Atiku are playing desperate politics where even the blood of our fallen heroes is fair game. Their actions are callous and insensitive to the families of the late soldiers and indeed our military which battles daily to ensure our territorial integrity. Nigerians see through @OfficialPDPNig ploy to score political points as elections approach and it will surely backfire. While the @OfficialAPCNg mourns the death of our military and other security personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty, we urge them to remain focused on the brave task of securing the nation. The @NGRPresident @MBuhari administration remains solidly committed to bringing lasting peace and security to all parts of the country and ensuring that previously displaced persons are rehabilitated to resume their normal and productive lives. Vanguard KadunaGOVERNOR Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, yesterday, said though his re-election for a second term did not occupy top priority in his scheme of things, as available indices from a scientific point of view indicated that his victory at the poll in 2019 was almost a done deal. The Nation FOR states to raise their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), they must cut down on unnecessary overhead costs and enthrone fiscal discipline, the Federal Government said yesterday.Finance Minister Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who gave the counsel, said the application of such measures will enable governments at the states to properly manage the resources at their disposal.Mrs. Ahmed spoke at the opening of the 2018 Conference of the National Council on Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) in Kaduna This Day Nigerias Rising Debt Service Cost Worries NECA The Sun The deputy speaker observed that the House had not committed any offence by suspending the lawmakers, saying that the nine lawmakers that sat formed two/third majority of the members of the House. Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure For over three weeks now, the Ondo State House of Assembly has been embroiled in serious crisis occasioned by leadership Daily Times An Ilorin based lawyer, Kunle Suleiman has said the call on the presidency by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to institute an inquiry into Daily Trust President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, countered the directive of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which tasked its aggrieved members to withdraw court cases they instituted against the party. The NWC, under the chairmanship of Com. Adams Oshiomhole, had last week directed party members to withdraw court cases they instituted against Leadership The gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been charged by the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, to work for the people of Lagos through good governance that will improve the quality of their lives. Oba Akiolu gave the charge when Sanwo-Olu paid him a courtesy call Tribune President Muhammadu Buhari has approved an enhanced salary structure for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and given assurance that his administration will continue paying attention to the welfare and operational needs of the force Buharis Guardian Amid allegations of negligence against President Muhammadu Buhari in the latest killing of soldiers at Matele village in Borno State by a South African firm, Specialised Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection International (STTEP), the 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. Chairman of CITIC Construction Chen Xiaojia (L) and CEO of Algerian energy giant Sonatrach Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour shake hands after signing cooperation documents in Tebessa, Algeria, on Nov. 26, 2018. Algeria and China on Monday signed cooperation documents for the implementation of a mega integrated project worth 6 billion U.S. dollars for the exploitation of phosphate in the eastern region of Algeria. (Xinhua) ALGIERS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Algeria and China on Monday signed cooperation documents for the implementation of a mega integrated project worth 6 billion U.S. dollars for the exploitation of phosphate in the eastern region of Algeria. The deals were signed by CEO of Algerian energy giant Sonatrach Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour and Chairman of CITIC Construction Chen Xiaojia in province of Tebessa in east Algeria. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and his cabinet officials, in addition to prefects of four eastern provinces involved in the project. The two parties are due to meet again in December to sign the shareholder pact for the establishment of the consortium group, as a final step that precedes the start of the construction stage of the project due early 2019. The production phase is planned for 2022. The project will be realized in partnership between CITIC Construction and three Algerian groups, namely Sonatrach, Asmidal and Manal. Ouyahia hailed the project as "the largest industry project in the last decade in Algeria, as it marks the beginning of a real partnership between Algeria and China." Chen said that "the project reflects a profound wisdom of Algeria in terms of serving its people, and we are proud to be selected to contribute in this process." For his part, Kedour said that "the sharp fall of oil prices forced Algeria to adopt a new strategy that is based on diversifying its oil-dependent economy, and this mega phosphate project is in big step toward reinforcing this strategy." "This is not the project of Sonatrach or CITIC; it is rather a federating project that will reinforce our partnership," he added. It will enable Algeria to increase its phosphate output to 10 million tons a year, thus becoming the third largest phosphate reserves in the world. China's share in this mega project is estimated at 49 percent, while the Algerian party will hold the majority share of 51 percent, in accordance with investment law of the North African country. This integrated phosphate project is spread through four main places, namely El Hadaba mine in the easternmost province of Tebessa with an investment budget worth 1.2 billion dollars, "Sulphur Stone" area in the easternmost province of Souk Ahras with an investment worth 2.2 billion dollars, "the Black Stone" area in the north-eastern province of Skikda with an investment worth 2.5 billion dollars, and the extension of the port of the northeastern province of Annaba with an investment worth 200 million dollars. The project will include the duplication of the railway connecting the production site to the port of Annaba, and connecting the sites with industrial water, gas and power. In its construction stage, the project is due to generate more than 14,600 direct jobs. Algeria aims through this project to be able to export annually fertilizer quantities worth 2 billion dollars, and gradually manage to increase its phosphate and natural gas reserves through the establishment of structured transformation and wealth-generating industry, which would pave the way for Algeria to become the third largest exporters of fertilizer in the world. Oxley Academy of Science Faisalabad Jobs 2018 Accountant Latest Oxley Academy of Science Education Posts Faisalabad 2021 Oxley Academy of Science Faisalabad, Pakistan required candidates for the posts of Information Officer, Account Officer, Class Attendant, Composer, Lecturer, Teacher, Physics Teacher, Chemistry Teacher, Math Teacher, Urdu Teacher. Skills Required Education & Tutoring How to Apply on Oxley Academy of Science Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. Pakistan Railways Karachi Jobs 2018 for Accountant & UDC Latest Pakistan Railways Management Posts Karachi 2021 Pakistan Railways Karachi Cantt, Government of Pakistan required applications from experienced candidates for the posts of Operating Officer, Works Accountant, UDC, Clerk, Steno Grapher and LDC. Skills Required Microsoft How to Apply on Pakistan Railways Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. Pakistan Railways Multan Jobs 2018 Luggage Porter & Sweeper Latest Pakistan Railways Transportation Posts Multan 2021 Pakistan Railways Multan, Government of Pakistan required applications from experienced and qualified candidates to fill the posts of Luggage Porter & Sweeper. How to Apply on Pakistan Railways Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley drinks a beer while touring the Cold Garden Beverage Company in Calgary on March 27, 2017. The Alberta government is retreating on craft beer subsidies after they were ruled unconstitutional but will open a new front by targeting the province of Ontario for what it says are its unfair trade barriers. Finance Minister Joe Ceci says the province will cancel payments made to assist smaller Alberta craft brewers by Dec. 15 to bring its beer regulations in compliance with Canadian trade law. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol The Kerch bridge span opens for the passage of ships entrance, near in Kerch, Crimea, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. The Ukrainian parliament is set to consider a presidential request for the introduction of martial law in Ukraine following an incident in which Russian coast guard ships fired on Ukrainian navy vessels. (AP Photo) We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Photo taken on Nov. 25 shows centenarian Deng Kaiming drying noodles in her kitchen in a village in Chongqing, southwest China. (Photo/Zhou Bangjing from Peoples Daily Online) Centenarian Deng Kaiming, though retired from the family business of making dried noodles, still occasionally comes to the workshop to offer some guidance to her granddaughter, who now runs the business. Deng started making dried noodles in the 1930s. At that time, the job was the only source of income the widow had to raise her 12 children. Due to the low wheat yield and lack of machinery, her workshop could produce little more than 10 kilograms of noodles per hour. By 2003, however, when Dengs granddaughter took over the business, she could easily produce 250-300 kilograms of noodles per day thanks to the use of dough mixers and noodle makers. Professor Nora Szech (Photo: Manuel Balzer, KIT) Young Elite Top 40 under 40: thats the title that Capital magazine gives out each year to extraordinary talents from business, science, politics and society. Nora Szech, an economist and professor at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is among the 2018 winners. The market and values are a topic that more and more people are dealing with, but has been neglected for a long time in economics. But its precisely there, in the creation of markets, where that topic cant come up short, says Nora Szech. Thats why Im delighted that my research is recognized in society. Szech is a Professor of Political Economics at KIT. She is conducting research on market and competitive design with a focus on welfare effects and morally relevant behavior. The applications of her research range from auction design, labor market policies and diversity in the workplace to ethical consumption and health. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals such as Science, Management Science and Journal of Economic Theory, and has been honored with the Reinhard Selten Award, among others. International and national newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Forbes, Suddeutsche Zeitung, FAZ and ZEIT have reported on her research. Before joining KIT in 2013, Nora Szech was Professor for Industrial Economics at the University of Bamberg, and before that she held a PostDoc position at the Chair of Benny Moldovanu at the University of Bonn where she earned her PhD at the Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE). Market and morals: Nora Szech in the KIT experts portal Consumers can choose between buying a cheap t-shirt that was sewn in inhumane working conditions or a fairly produced and traded piece of clothing. Do you go for meat from factory farming in the supermarket or do you look out for organic labels? The economist is examining how market mechanisms influence peoples decisions. Learn more about the Nora Szechs research: Portrait in the KIT expert portal: https://www.sek.kit.edu/kit_experten_szech.php Press release 26/2018: Medical Tests with Less Fear: Many People Shy away from Diagnostic Examinations because They Are Afraid of the Result Researchers Want to Reduce Fear with Alternative Test Methods https://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2018_026_medical-tests-with-less-fear.php About Young Talent Top 40 under 40 Since 2007, German business magazine Capital has been selecting the countrys outstanding talents under 40. 40 young people are honored in each of the four categories: Entrepreneurs, Managers, Politics and the State, and Science and Society. The editorial team interviews managers, politicians, headhunters and consultants, as well as the winners from previous years, with 160 award-winners being selected by an internal jury. Award-winners include Zalando Chairman Rubin Ritter, TSG Hoffenheim Manager Julian Nagelsmann, NASA Mars mission participant Christiane Heinicke and Member of the Bundestag for the Green Party Annalena Baerbock. 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. Officials, scholars and entrepreneurs gathered at the Hamburg Summit on Monday, eying more economic cooperation against the backdrop of rising protectionism. The China-proposed Belt and RoadInitiative is well discussed at the two-day "Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe", which opened on Monday. In an opening speech, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the opportunities created by the Belt and Road Initiative will bring people and businesses in Asia and Europe closer together. "This initiative has been received with great interest all over the world -- including Germany and Europe. It is a strong signal that China wants closer, faster, better connections with its main trading partners," Schroeder said. He also called on closer Sino-Germany cooperation to strengthen multilateralism and fend off new threats. Schroeder is the Honorary Chairman of the Hamburg Summit, which is initiated by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce in 2004. Proposed by China in 2013, the initiative refers to the Silk RoadEconomic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road trade routes to seek common development and prosperity. Echoing Schroeder's remarks, Peter Helis, Vice Chairman of the European Union Commerce Chamber in South China, encouraged the EU enterprises to engage more in the Belt and Road Initiative. Helis described the initiative as a multi-dimensional infrastructure network, underpinned by economic corridors featuring land-sea-air transportation routes. Helis said businessmen in Europe should not enclose themselves, adding the logistics infrastructure -- connected by major rail, port and pipeline projects -- has already paved ways for good business opportunities. "There are already several railways linking China's western cities and Germany's Hamburg and Duisburg. So why not utilize it?" Helis said. For Jens Meier, CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority, the Belt and Road initiative means more than just infrastructure building. "It involves more intelligence communication," Meier said, adding his cooperation with Shanghai port has yielded fruitful results. Meier said the young generation of the two countries shared experience of the digitalization and some IT solutions that greatly increase the efficiency in managing seaports. Besides the business value of the initiative, Thomas P. Lamnidis, vice president of Greece's KLC Law Firm, referred it as a driving force promoting peace and stability. Lamnidis said the new Silk Road covers the "hottest areas" of the world, and "it will yield several times of the value people invest" since it not only creates trade flows but generate prosperity, and terrorism and extremism will be averted. "If you create good life... they don't want to make attacks, they want to live a good life with their family together," Lamnidis said. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Clearing and windy. Low 23F. Winds NNW at 25 to 35 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Clearing and windy. Low 23F. Winds NNW at 25 to 35 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. China had seen a rate of return on investment of 5.23 percent from its investment of basic pension funds in 2017, and earned an income of about 8.78 billion yuan (about $1.26 billion), the China Securities Journal reported on Monday. Seniors practice Yoga in Haikou, Hainan province. (Hainan Daily/Zhang Jie) Investments by pension funds had yielded an accumulative total of 8.82 billion yuan by the end of 2017. The country started to use its basic pension funds for investment in December 2016, according to Chinas National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF). By the end of 2017, nine provincial-level regions including Beijing, Henan Province and Shanxi Province had signed contracts with the NCSSF, entrusting a total of 430 billion yuan of basic pension funds for investment. Chinas basic pension funds totaled about 315.5 billion yuan by the end of 2017, among which 29.62 percent of the funds were used for direct investment, while 70.38 percent were entrusted for investment. According to Lu Aihong, spokesperson of Chinas Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, by this September, China had seen 15 provincial-level regions entrust basic pension funds to the NCSSF for investment, with a contract value amounting to 715 billion yuan. The funds entrusted to the NCSSF have been used for direct investment and entrusted investment, said an executive of the NCSSF, explaining that direct investment mainly comprises bank deposit and equity investment handled directly by the NCSSF, while entrusted investment is run by investment managers entrusted by the NCSSF and usually consists of investment in such areas as domestic stocks, bonds, stock index futures, and treasury bond futures. The present market-oriented investment of pension funds in China has shown a tendency for short-term products, both in assessment and investment concepts, which is not good for the preservation and appreciation of funds, said Dong Keyong, secretary-general of the China Aging Finance Forum, suggesting that the country should seek long-term investment via innovation of financial products for old-age care management and pension funds. China should gradually allow pension funds to be invested in ports and encourage the research and development of various types of financial products for pension funds such as asset securitization products and real restate investment trusts when conditions permit, said Feng Liying, president of CCB Pension Management Company, Chinas first professional pension management company. Feng also advised that relevant organizations should create more diversified financial products for pension funds, so as to attract customers of different ages and preferences. The actors of "The Lion King," from left Antony Lawrence who plays Scar, Calvyn Grandling (Simba), Josslynn Hlenti (Nala) and Mthokozisi Emkay Khanyile (Mufasa), pose for a photo in Seoul. Courtesy of Clip Service By Kwon Mee-yoo The first-ever English production of Disney's hit musical "The Lion King" has landed at the Keimyung Art Center in the southern city of Daegu and is receiving rave receptions in sold-out performances almost every day. Based on the 1994 animated film of the same name, the musical portrays the journey of a lion cub on his way to his rightful place along with whimsical depictions using masks and puppets of a variety of animals living in grasslands. Calvyn Grandling from South Africa plays Simba, the young lion who searches for his path of life. Grandling performs the coming-of-age story convincingly, based on his personal experiences. "I'm from South Africa and I had to make a choice when I was 20 years old going to university or joining The Lion King. I chose The Lion King to make money for my family and the show provided that opportunity for me," Grandling said. "Simba is forced to go on his own journey, away from his home. He feels guilty for something he is not. I used to look at that for negative, but I learned how to overcome personal struggles from Simba. It's a really big on for an actor to be true on stage." The show's most famous tune "The Circle of Life" represents much to Grandling as well. "When I go back home, people call me the lion king and chant Nants ingonyama from the song The Circle of Life. Listening to the song has so many meanings to me as it explains the whole story with great lyrics, music, ensemble and the heartbeat that goes through the show." Grandling said unlike his father Mufasa's full mask, his face is half covered by a mask and half exposed to complete the lion's appearance. "It's like half the circle of life as if it portrays Simba's journey to the king," the actor said. Mthokozisi Emkay Khanyile, who played Mufasa in London's "The Lion King" production, joined the international tour for the solemn yet affectionate father of Simba. "The Lion King has a lot of Asian influences in set, costume and puppet design as well as African style. It is exciting for me to share it with Korean audiences," Khanyile said. "Since we are playing set in Africa, a lot of tiny little adlibs I add to the show and character come from my experiences." Khanyile's Mufasa mask is one of the most impressive props of the show. "With the Mufasa mask, I am very big and domineering. There's a point in the show in which he takes off the mask and puts his swords on the ground to communicate with his son, showcasing the loving father side. So the mask carries a lot of meaning, even when you do not have it on," Khanyile explained. The moment is when he sings "They Live in You," a song newly arranged for the stage version. "There is so much subtext going on this song. Mufasa tells his son to look at the stars and the stars are kings of the past looking over them. It's intangible, but the song encapsulates the father-son sentiment so perfectly," he said. "The song is reprised by Simba in the second act as He Lives in You and shows the spiritual support when needed. It's so delicate and beautiful and I am grateful to sing it every night." A scene from musical "The Lion King" / Courtesy of Disney By Lee Kyung-min Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-Byoung joined global movement in setting up "Principles for Responsible Banking," an international treaty drafted among noted financial institutions as part of efforts to better strengthen cooperation toward a more sustainable finance system, the bank said Tuesday. Cho was the only Korean financial group CEO who attend the meeting in Paris Nov. 27 (local time). Over 1,500 top executives gathered to exchange and reaffirm views on the need to boost communication and collaborations to institute measures that align with the Paris Agreement and contribute to the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. To better attain the goal, Shinhan has maintained close consultation and cooperation with 28 global firms including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, BNP Paribas in France, British multinational investment bank Barclays and ING Group, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services firm. Cho made a speech on "Transforming Banking" in which he stressed the role of finance in the stable development and flourishing of the country's economy. Examples he made included inclusive and comprehensive growth, achieved with the group's subsidiaries. "Shinhan will continue efforts to achieve sustainable growth by addressing issues concerning low growth, aging society, youth unemployment and climate change, thereby creating a positive cycle where the value of a company and that of society will be reinforced in a mutually beneficial manner," he said. At the meeting held under the shared theme of United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative, the global financial entities agreed to increase their roles as key industry underpinning the world economy through services and strategies that bring about positive change in the world. The final version of the principle will be declared at the UN General Assembly in September 2019 following a six-month review including setting up specifics on the joint objectives of the financial circle. By Jung Da-min The Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) held a winter gathering Monday at the Grand Hyatt Seoul. At the CICI-Korea CQ Winter Welcoming Gathering, members of CICI reviewed this year's cultural events, where opinion leaders home and abroad gathered to learn about and experience Korean culture. CICI's plans for next year have also been revealed. Among the nine main events held this year were: A tour of KEB Hana Bank Place 1 and lecture on '2018 Economic View' in February and a visit to 'Nine House' in Gapyeong, the house of Jazz vocalist Nah Youn-sun and her husband In Jae-jin, Jarasum Jazz Festival director, in May. August saw the Culture Communication Forum 2018 (CCF 2018), where 10 delegates from 10 countries were invited. In October there was a visit to the National Hangeul Museum and a special lecture by Seung H-Sang, Chief Commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Architecture Policy. 2018 participants also experienced a visit to CEO of Designhouse, Lee Young-hey's hanok "Jiwoohun" and a lecture on hanbok by Kim Young-jin, CEO of Tchai Kim in November. In 2019, CICI's event series will kick off with the CICI Korea 2019 Korea Image Awards on Jan. 10. Main events that will be held next year include a special lecture by Kim Rando, professor of consumer science and trends at Seoul National University, as well as a visit to Chief Commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Architecture Policy, Seung H-Sang's "Iroje." Additionally, there will be a special lecture by professor Yoo Hong-jun, former director of the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA). Interested parties can also expect a visit to the Yoo Geum Museum and a special lecture on "Preservation of Hanok in North Korea" by Dr. Elisabeth Chabanol director of the French School of Asian Studies and team leader of French-North Korean joint investigation. Civic group members call for the abolishment of an article in the Assembly and Demonstration Act in front of the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. The article bans rallies within a 100 meter radius of major state organizations such as the Assembly, courts and the presidential office. The Constitutional Court ruled the clause unconstitutional and told the Assembly to revise it by the end of 2019. / Yonhap By Jung Min-ho Many Filipinos have reacted with fury after a Korean lawmaker belittled their country during a recent with Korean daily Dong-A Ilbo. The reactions came after Rep. Lee Un-ju of the minor right-wing Bareunmirae Party said the people of Korea "would have lived in a country worse than the Philippines" if former military dictator Park Chung-hee had not ruled the country. "Filipino soldiers shed their blood and died in Korea," Romeo Santos Mandinggin, a Filipino man and a fan of Korean culture, told The Korea Times. "By all means she should (apologize), but I doubt she will." Belittling the Philippines, which was one of the first countries to send troops to South Korea during the Korean War (1950-53), is nothing but a disgraceful act, another Filipino said. "The Philippines may not be as rich as Korea is right now, but part of Korea's development is due to the help of Filipinos even after the war," Jerry Yusi said. The lawmaker made the comment as she defended the economic policies of Park, whom she compared with former dictators in other countries such as the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos. "There have been many dictators across East Asia and Africa," Lee said. "Most of them failed to develop the economy, unlike former President Park. We should recognize his achievement." While some Koreans took her remarks just as a political attack against liberal politicians, who generally share negative views of Park, others found them very offensive to the people of the Philippines and diplomatically problematic. A senior official at the Philippines Embassy in Seoul said the about Lee has been brought to the attention of a person in charge and the embassy may issue a statement. Boksoondoga makgeolli at J.Hidden House in Seoul during a gala event hosted by Young YEOL, the 20s-30s program of Yeol Korean Heritage Preservation Society. Courtesy of Young YEOL Yeol Korean Heritage Preservation Society's 20s-30s group hosts annual benefit gala with Boksoondoga, J.Hidden House. By Lee Hyo-won About a dozen young women and men clad in "hanbok" were spotted near Dongdaemun on Saturday. While it has become common to see selfie stick-waving tourists swathed in colorful silks around historical sites, one seldom sees thoroughly traditional Korean garb such as a costume drama-worthy "nambawi" winter headpiece or vintage men's "dopo" overcoat. "My twin brother and I got our father to lend us his dopo that he got tailor made for marrying our mother over 30 years ago," university student Hans Lee said at the annual gala dinner for Young Yeol, the 20s-30s chapter of Yeol Korean Preservation Society, a nonprofit under the auspices of the Cultural Heritage Administration. Lee's brother Joon added: "Our father's never worn it since his wedding, so we thought it was meaningful to make use of it for a fun occasion like this." Lee Hwi-won, a doctor in her 30s, also showed off a classic look complete with a quilted "baeja" vest by hanbok designer Cho Kyung-sun. "The designer tells me it is becoming increasingly rare to see authentic designs these days. I wanted to wear something more traditional." Yet, a handful of women showcased more modern spinoffs, such as a leopard-print shirt paired with ankle-bearing "chima" more befitting a ballerina than a lady of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom. "Yeol embraces not only centuries-old traditions but also modernity," said Kim Young M'Young, chair of Yeol. "Because traditions are passed down from one generation to the next, Young Yeol plays an important role for the future of Korean heritage and arts." Comprising of over 100 supporters, Young Yeol regularly organizes events spotlighting contemporary interpretations of tradition. For the gala, it teamed up with Boksoondoga, a makgeolli brewery based in Ulsan, and J.Hidden House, a traditional "hanok" home-turned-cafe in downtown Seoul. Members of Young YEOL wearing hanbok with Kim Minkyu, CEO of Boksoondoga brewery, center left, and Grace Jun, proprietor of J.Hidden House, center right. Photo courtesy of Young YEOL Charlotte Arribe, sustainable development consultant for UNESCAP / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar By Jon Dunbar The Haebangchon (HBC) area has been chosen for a 2016-2020 city "regeneration" project aimed at balanced development and community empowerment. But French expat Charlotte Anne Li Chen Arribe was curious about the low level of foreign resident participation, and whether or not it was by choice. Arribe outlined the need and the difficulties to getting foreign residents more involved, at the third and final scheduled foreign community meeting of the , held Monday night in Onzigonzi, a community space on the edge of Shinheung Market in HBC. Although HBC community-planned events welcome foreigners, they lack outreach to foreign residents and the events are typically held entirely in Korean. Additionally, events are held at inconvenient times for working foreigners. Even this foreign community meeting, starting at 7 p.m., was only able to drag in three community members, all long-term residents and business owners active in the area. "The perception is of foreigners being short term but it's not the case," remarked Arribe. A graduate of Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies, she wrote her thesis on HBC's multicultural population. She has since moved to Songdo where she works as a sustainable development consultant at UNESCAP. A community survey she disclosed showed almost half of residents, both Korean and foreign, have experienced conflicts with neighbors, while about 15 percent each have had troubles with outside visitors and landlords. For the 450 Korean respondents the most common conflicts were over parking and trash, followed by pedestrian safety and noise and light pollution. But for the 50 foreign respondents, the most common response was "other," suggesting an unspecified set of unknown issues. It tied with rent increase, which led noise and light pollution, parking, smoking and trash. But foreign and Korean community members both suffer the same problems, often together. A restaurant owner present at the meeting mentioned how trash tends to pile up in front of his establishment. "Restaurants don't want trash piles out front," he said. "If Koreans aren't understanding their own garbage system then the foreign community isn't likely to get it." In order to reduce such disputes, the regeneration center is attempting to introduce a "community agreement," laying out standards and clearing up misunderstandings. "It's to benefit the community, not punish anyone," Arribe explained. "They are not looking to make a rulebook that's legally binding. They're looking to use it as a tool for communication: what's something you're worried about, what's something you like." Arribe stressed three important factors for the regeneration project and the community agreement to succeed. First, consistency in people and implementation. Secondly, effectiveness, which requires a process to check what's working and what's not. Third, willingness of local community members to get involved, which remains an uphill battle. Monday was the final of the center's three foreign community meetings, but its director Lim Jin-gyu explained more meetings will be held next year. Currently, he is busy preparing for the on Dec. 8. Foreign vendors are welcome to participate. As of 2018, the foreign population of the area, formally named Yongsan 2-ga-dong, numbers 1,662, or 16.1 percent of the total 10,302. In 1970 the local population was 8,364, with only four foreign residents. Military servicemen walk along the streets of Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, in this file photo. / Yonhap China and the US are probably looking forward to top leaders summit on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) meeting, during which they will review the development of relations, aiming to make progress in areas such as the economy and trade. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart President Donald Trump will meet in Buenos Aires as part of the G20 meetings and look for ways to ease tensions at the end of the week, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai told the Wall Street Journal. Timing wise, Cui said that the meeting is scheduled just over one year after President Trumps state visit to China. It is necessary for the two leaders to review the development of bilateral relations and to provide strategic guidance on the direction of Sino-US ties and how the two countries can fine-tune and develop this important and complex bilateral relationship. Bilateral trade has been growing so quickly that it has benefited both countries. As people do more bilateral trade and investment with each other and there is more and closer contact between each other, competition will also increase. This is just a fact. There is more competition on the Chinese market. This is determined more by economic logic than by any policy, Cui stressed. From his point of view, Cui believes that for a [trade] negotiation like this, people have to make their position clear and consistent. If their position is shifting all the time, I dont think its helpful for any negotiation. If there is some agreement, people have to remain committed to this agreement and try to make further progress. You cannot have some tentative agreement one day and reject it next day, Cui said. When asked if worsening trade friction will lead to a global recession, Cui reiterated that China and US are the two largest economies in the world, so whatever happens to their economic cooperation will have an impact globally. This is just a fact, this is reality. So in other words, we have to be fully aware of our shared responsibility to the global economy, the prospects of global economic growth. If we solve our economic issues in a mutually beneficial way and in a timely manner, it will certainly enhance peoples confidence about global economic prospects. If we fail to do that, it will probably weaken peoples confidence in the global economy, he said. (Compiled by Dong Feng) By Kim Hyun-bin A man threw a Molotov cocktail at the car of Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su who was on his way to work, police said Tuesday. The man allegedly did so out of anger at a civil case ruling against him. The 74-year-old, identified by his surname Nam, threw the firebomb at 9:05 a.m. at the car while it was entering the Supreme Court building in southern Seoul. One of the back tires of the vehicle caught fire but it was immediately extinguished by security guards. Kim suffered no injuries. Parts of Nam's clothing also went up in flames but these were smothered and he had no injuries. Police detained Nam and took him in for questioning. They also confiscated Nam's bag and found four more 500 milliliter plastic bottles containing paint thinner. According to the police, the suspect has been staging a one-man protest in front of the top court for three months, calling for a new trial in his civil suit. Both district and high courts previously ruled against Nam, and after appealing to the Supreme Court, he started the one-man rally, Sept. 20, demanding to meet Kim. Nam told police that he bought the paint thinner at a paint shop in Seoul the previous day. Officers are looking into the possibility of an accomplice. They also plan to send the case to the prosecution recommending the seeking of an arrest warrant. By Kim Rahn The prosecution searched the home and office of Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, Tuesday, in its investigation into whether a controversial Twitter account used for illegal campaigning for him belonged to Lee's wife, Kim Hye-gyeong. A dozen investigators went to Lee's home in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, to find one of Kim's old phones which is suspected of having been used to spread false information about Lee's political opponents via tweets. Kim used an android-powered phone from 2013 but changed to an iphone in July 2016, and again into an android-powered in April this year when police began investigating the allegations. Earlier this month, police concluded Kim was the owner of the Twitter account with the ID "Hyegyeonggung Ms. Kim," and referred the case to the prosecution. The Twitter account owner and Kim changed from an android-powered phone to an iphone at the same time in July 2016. Prosecutors suspect the iphone was used for the controversial tweets posted in December 2016 and April this year about Lee's then presidential election rival Moon Jae-in and his Gyeonggi governorship rival Rep. Jeon Hae-cheol ahead of local elections. Kim had claimed she disposed of all her old phones. The investigators also searched Lee's office, with Lee being present. Lee told reporters, "I hope the investigation can reveal the truth and let my wife free." Prosecutors, however, failed to obtain any cell phone during the search. In December 2016 when Lee was competing against Moon in the party primary for the presidential election, Hyegyeonggung Ms. Kim falsely claimed Moon's son landed a public agency job in 2006 through his father's influence. In April when Lee and Jeon were competing with each other for the governorship, the account also falsely said Jeon cooperated with the main opposition Liberty Korea Party to attack Lee. By Jung Min-ho Former Gwangju Mayor Yoon Jang-hyun is being investigated after sending about 450 million won ($400,000) to a swindler who pretended to be former President Roh Moo-hyun's widow Kwon Yang-sook. The Gwangju District Public Prosecutors' Office said Monday it is now tracing the source of the money, which Yoon sent to the person who turned out to be a 49-year-old ex-convict on four occasions between December 2017 and January. The swindler, who was later arrested on charges of fraud, told Yoon she needed money for her daughter's business. He said he didn't doubt her because the voice on the phone was "exactly like Kwon's." Following the news, civic groups questioned Yoon's motive for sending the money and urged the prosecution to investigate where it came from. "We suspect that Yoon sent her the money as 'insurance' for the next election," an official at Transparency International-Korea, said. "He may be a victim, but he should apologize to everyone in Gwangju for tarnishing its good name We urge investigators to get to the bottom of the case." According to the prosecution, the suspect sent text messages to about 10 politicians, pretending to be Kwon or current first lady Kim Jung-sook. But Yoon was the only one who sent the woman money. By Kim Jae-heun Police will now be able take perpetrators of domestic violence into custody at the scene of alleged crimes, as a part of new regulations to curb such assaults. In addition assailants who disregard restraining orders can be immediately detained and placed behind bars. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, together with the Ministry of Justice and the National Police Agency (NPA) announced the new preventative measures Tuesday. "Our new measures are distinguished from previous ones in that they separate attackers from their victims to protect the latter and put an end to the era where violence has been justified under the name of maintaining the family," Gender Equality and Family Minister Jin Sun-mee said in a joint media briefing at the government complex in Seoul. The rapid changes come after a case in October in which a man murdered his ex-wife after decades of domestic violence and stalking that continued after their divorce. The related government bodies have since been discussing new measures to strengthen both the punishment of perpetrators and protection for victims. With the new regulations, officers will be able to detain a domestic violence assailant to separate them from their family. Until now, officers could only prevent violent acts taking place and take the victim to a counseling center if they agreed. Law enforcement authorities will seek an arrest warrant to investigate assailants who use weapons or are habitual offenders. If an offender does not obey a court order to stay away from the victim, they can face a prison term, much stronger than the current fine. The restraining order can be requested by the victim or family members and covers all areas they go to, a change from the current rule under which an order is made for a particular place such as a residence or office. The new regulations also restrict visitation rights to children while the perpetrator is under such an order. "Even if the victim does not want the offender prosecuted, the police will actively seek measures to separate the two, considering the chances of repetition," Kim Chang-ryong, an NPA official, said. Counselors at domestic violence consultation centers will visit victims' homes to give advice and provide free legal support if requested. For victims without the ability to support themselves, the government will run job training programs at the centers. The administration also said it will open five new centers for marriage migrants exposed to domestic violence that give help in translation, and permission to stay in Korea issues. By Jung Da-minAn elderly man threw a firebomb at a vehicle carrying Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su Tuesday morning.The attack happened at 9:08 a.m. when the man, surnamed Nam, 74, lit a 500-milliliter plastic bottle containing paint thinner and threw it at Kim's car as it entered the court's front gate in Seocho, Seoul.The car's right rear tire caught fire, but a security guard put it out with an extinguisher.No one was injured. Kim did not get out of the car.Nam had been staging a one-man protest there for the past three months, according to police.After being arrested, Nam told police he was upset about his claim not being accepted during a civil action he was involved in and bought the thinner at a paint store in Euljiro, central Seoul. President Moon Jae-in talks with Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, while walking toward an airplane bounding for Prague, a stopover en route to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul President Moon Jae-in plans to ask Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis to support South Korea's bid to construct a nuclear power plant in the central European country. Cheong Wa Dae also said Moon and Babis will discuss new growth opportunities in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT), according to a press statement released, Tuesday. The statement also added Babis has been briefed on the specifics of the ongoing denuclearization process with North Korea and efforts by the government to bring about a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. The Czech prime minister appreciated Moon's efforts toward improving inter-Korean relations and bringing about peace. Moon's visit to Prague is a stopover before participating in this year's G20 summit to be held later this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, f rom Nov. 29 until Dec. 1. Cheong Wa Dae said a summit between Moon and U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled there. During the meeting, scheduled for Wednesday night, Moon plans to ask for Prague's support for the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) bid to win a highly lucrative nuclear reactor deal there, as the Czech Republic is considering options to phase out coal-burning plants and reduce carbon emissions. "Moon agreed with Babis to strengthen the strategic partnership in defense-related industries," a Cheong Wa Dae official said. South Korea is aiming to close its nuclear reactors gradually, but the move is drawing much criticism from relevant industries pushing the government to find ways to keep local nuclear reactor technology competitive internationally. "Defending national interest with providing assistance to South Korean nuclear power companies helping them win contracts, internationally, now here in the Czech Republic is one of the key issues the President dealt with," the official said. South Korea's current energy policy is putting pressure on the country's nuclear reactor suppliers as the policy may weaken their ability to export nuclear technology by hurting their market credibility. The Czech government is on track to decide on how to finance and construct new nuclear reactors for its Temelin power plant by the end of this year. Firms from Russia, the United States and China are competing for bigger stakes in the contract. The Czech Republic is aiming high for nuclear energy technology, which now accounts for about 40 percent of its power output. By Kim Bo-eun It appeared Tuesday that the much-hyped high-level denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S. may face a further delay. There had been speculation that the meeting, scheduled to take place Nov. 8 but later postponed upon Pyongyang's request, would take place within this month. A foreign ministry official said, "The meeting will likely not take place this month, but it appears both sides are willing to engage in dialogue, so they will seek to meet soon." As U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will accompany President Donald Trump to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, it appears unlikely that the high-level talks led by him will be able to take place before then. Recent moves to scale down joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. next year, and a certain sanctions exemption to allow an inter-Korean inspection of railway tracks in the North are seen to have created a mood for dialogue. The delay in the meeting has also been attributed to logistical issues. Yet Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said these were not the determining factors in holding the high-level meeting. North Korea delaying the meeting is likely a tactic to "gain the upper hand in negotiations," he said. "It looks like Pyongyang is waiting to see how much Washington is willing to concede." Professor Park Won-gon at Handong Global University said it looked as if Pyongyang was weighing its options. "It is known to have hinted at disclosing another key nuclear facility besides Punggye-ri during U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo's fourth visit to Pyongyang," Park said, adding this was unlikely to be Yongbyon. "North Korea appears to be considering a new card it can present that the U.S. is likely to accept." He said while it would be difficult for the two countries to lay out a comprehensive denuclearization roadmap at the high-level meeting, Pyongyang would at least have to make pledges about key facilities. Meanwhile, attention is growing over whether talks on the sidelines of the G20 meeting could enable progress President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese and Russian leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Washington has been pushing Beijing and Moscow to maintain strict sanctions regimes against Pyongyang. It is to be seen whether Trump will seek a different approach with them this time. Also drawing attention is whether Trump and Moon will meet. Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said "the current circumstances call for South Korea to play a crucial mediating role." Analysts view that a delay in the high-level meeting would likely lead to a delay in holding a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, that Washington said could take place early next year. The North Korean leader's visit to Seoul is also likely to be postponed. Cheong Wa Dae had sought for the visit to take place within this year, but implied for the first time Monday that this may not take place as planned. "This is because the North Korean leader would have nothing to take from a meeting with Moon at this point in time," Shin said. By Kim Yoo-chul Kim Jong-un By Kim Bo-eun The two Koreas are set to begin a joint inspection of railway tracks in the North soon, after an exemption was made to the United Nations Security Council sanctions. South Korea is waiting for a response from the North on the date they will begin the inspections, while holding discussions with the United Nations Command (UNC), which is in charge of approving personnel and equipment crossing the military demarcation line (MDL). The UNC, which earlier disapproved the plan for a South Korean train carrying personnel and supplies to cross the MDL into the North, will likely grant approval this time, as the sanctions issue has been cleared. The Koreas will then begin their inspection of a train line along the west coast and then another on the east coast. Officials conducting the inspections will be able to work, dine and sleep on the trains. The inspections are expected to take around 20 days. This would enable the Koreas to hold a ceremony to begin work to connect the rail networks of the South and North within the year, as agreed at the third inter-Korean summit in September. However, the ceremony will likely be a symbolic event, as actual work on connecting the railways will take time due to sanctions on the North. The exemptions this time were only made to allow the railway inspections to take place. This is because the easing of sanctions on North Korea depends on the progress it makes on denuclearization. The Koreas agreed at the first summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in April to connect the rail and road networks of the South and North. In a meeting about the train tracks in June, the two sides agreed to begin inspections of train tracks in the North the next month. However, the plan was postponed for months because of the sanctions issue and lack of approval from the UNC. Exemptions to the sanctions were sought for the railway inspections after South Korea and the U.S. held their first working group meeting on North Korea last week. Carrying oil into the North had been an issue, as UNSC sanctions ban this. By Kim Ae-ran Just imagine that we are desperately in need of food. So we eat anything earth, the bodies of human beings, and even indigestible plastics. What would happen if our stomachs were filled with waste and plastic? On Nov. 20, plastic waste was found in the belly of a dead, 5.9-meter sperm whale on the seashore of Kapota Island in Indonesia. There were about 1,000 kinds of plastic including 115 cups, 25 pieces of plastic bags, and two sandals. Not only fish, but also birds end up ingesting plastic. The causes that affect the weather, the wind and the water to be abnormal have various roots. Among them, the use of plastics is one of the main causes of climate change. More unexpected natural disasters such as hurricanes from the sea and wildfires on mountains are happening these days. The recent grand wildfires in Northern California that occurred on Nov. 8 are said to be the one of the greatest disasters we've ever had in the world. If we don't take heed of the warning signs of nature, four serious disasters can be caused by global warming: floods, rising sea levels, ascending temperatures, and marine pollution due to chemicals. So many things that we are using are made of plastic bottles, spoons, plastic bags, plates, drinking straws, family utensils and so on. Our daily lives are so filled with plastic that this situation impacts our health, ecosystems, and economies. Recognizing that plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental issues of our time, various institutions are clearly aware of the importance of using fewer plastic materials and disposable products. It is said that over 5 trillion pieces of plastic trash are currently littering the ocean. What a surprise to know that the greatest garbage island in the Pacific Ocean is seven times bigger than the Korean Peninsula! Considering such a serious situation, Ocean Cleanup was created as a non-profit organization, developing advanced technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic. Utilizing the ocean currents, waves, and wind, drifting systems were created to clean up the Pacific garbage patch. One day in 2013, 16-year-old Boyan Slat was Scuba diving in Greece and was surprised to see more plastic than fish floating in the sea. So he began to think, "Why don't we just clean it up?" Then, he devoted his high school science project to understanding the problem, thinking, "For society to progress, we should not only move forward but also clean up after ourselves." Later, as Dutch inventor based in Delft, the Netherlands, Boyan Slat recruited his team and started a crowdfunding campaign to make a free-floating system. He invited more than 48,000 donators from 160 countries across the world. At present, he has more than 80 engineers, researchers, scientists, and computational modelers. After 5 years of research in 2018, engineering and testing, the Ocean Cleanup team launched the first ocean cleanup system in the Pacific. They made a u-shaped floater in a 600-meter long that sits at the surface of the water and a 1.2-meter in diameter. They also made a 3-meter long shield so that the fish can freely move around underneath. Every six weeks, the ship goes to the location where a free-floating system flows to get rid of garbage. He plans concretely to clean up all the plastics in the oceans up to 2040. Here we see the positive power of a good idea developing in a more creative way for the common good. Concentration on one big issue makes a person an expert in that field. What marvelous passion and excellence he has to build a better clean future! The climate is constantly changing, and we shall have to be more aware of our living conditions and correct our unconcerned habits of using unnecessary and harmful products. The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (Figlie di San Paolo) living and giving the Good News to the world by means of social communication. Learn more about the congregation at fsp.pauline.or.kr. Chinese President Xi Jinpings state visit to Spain will inject new dynamism to the Spain-China comprehensive strategic partnership and bring new opportunities for future cooperation between the two countries, Senate President Pio Garcia Escudero of Spain told Peoples Daily in a recent interview. Spain is looking forward to his visit, Escudero said. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain. Comprehensive, in-depth and rapid development of bilateral relationship has been achieved by the two countries in recent years, the Senate President noted. Spains exports to China maintained a high-speed growth, with closer bilateral economic and trade cooperation. The two countries also witnessed more frequent people-to-people exchanges and contacts. More and more Chinese people are attracted by Spanish culture and art, while Chinese language and culture are gaining increasing popularity and wider attention in Spain, said Escudero. Looking into the future, the two sides should work together to expand cooperation, fully tap into the potential of economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, and take President Xis visit as an opportunity to push forward pragmatic cooperation in various fields, he added. Escudero, impressed by a friendly visit paid by a delegation from Chinas top advisory body to the Spanish Senate a few years ago, believes that exchanges and cooperation between deliberative bodies play an important role in promoting Spain - China friendship. As a complement to the inter-governmental dialogues and collaboration, such cooperation contributes different perspectives to developing bilateral relations, said Escudero. Strengthening relations with China is a consensus of all political parties in Spain, and the Senate is willing to make further efforts to transform the consensus into concrete actions, and consolidate and expand the foundation of bilateral friendship, so as to play a constructive role in developing bilateral relations, Escudero introduced. He told Peoples Daily that the Belt and Road construction benefits people of countries along the route and injects new impetus into the world economic development. A single country is not enough to tackle the challenges and problems that the world is currently facing. Instead, it calls for a global vision and coordinate efforts of all sides to optimize the allocation of projects and investments. By doing so, the world economy will be promoted and all the people benefited, Escudero said, adding that it is the value of the Belt and Road Initiative. Trade barriers impede development, and on the contrary, freedom and openness are the principles that all countries should adhere to during development, stressed Escudero when commenting on the rising anti-globalization, trade protectionism and unilateralism. Spain and China are impellors of economic globalization and firm supporters of free trade. Both sides can further promote steady development of bilateral relations on that basis and achieve new leapfrog development, said Escudero. By Javier Solana MADRID Upon Albert Einstein's death in 1955, the New York Times published a letter to the editor with a marvelous anecdote. Shortly after the atomic bombs had fallen on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein was asked, "Why is it that when the mind of man has stretched so far as to discover the structure of the atom we have been unable to devise the political means to keep the atom from destroying us?" His answer was timeless: "That is simple, my friend. It is because politics is more difficult than physics." As a former student of physics in East Germany, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was able to confirm the truth of Einstein's quip firsthand when she went into politics. I humbly believe that I can attest to the same, as my own life has followed a somewhat similar path. Just as I had done in Spain a few years before, Merkel reacted to the collapse of the dictatorship she lived in by leaving physics to embrace public service. Eventually, she got caught up in the whirlwind of European politics. In her various public roles, and throughout 13 years as chancellor, Merkel has always maintained a methodical and reflective style that suits her scientific background. But world politics seems to be diverging from that style, and increasing agitation in Germany has taken a toll on her standing. Last month, Merkel announced that she would not be seeking another term as chancellor, and that at the end of this year, she would step down as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The race to replace her has already begun. Merkel's successors may well be worthy of filling her shoes, but there is no doubt that Germany and the rest of Europe will sorely miss her composure and steadiness. Much has been said about Merkel's achievements and failures. The greatest blot on her record may be the austerity policies that her government promoted in the European Union after the global financial crisis. Those policies increased inequality, deepened the divide between northern and southern member states, and slowed economic recovery. Since then, populists particularly the governing Five Star Movement/League coalition in Italy have seized on the painful legacy of austerity for their own political gain. Similarly, some blame Merkel for the rise of far-right parties, including the Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) within Germany itself. After welcoming over one million refugees in 2015, Merkel became the bete noire of nationalist anti-immigrant forces across Europe. Needless to say, however, there is a stark contrast between her advocacy of austerity and her decisions at the height of the refugee crisis. In the latter case, Merkel put her own political future on the line to defend European solidarity at a time when other countries no longer seemed willing to do so. In a recent address to the European Parliament, Merkel once again stood up for the EU's foundational values. She joined French President Emmanuel Macron with whom she showed great rapport at the commemoration of the Armistice Day centennial in Paris in his call to form a European army. As both Macron and Merkel have made clear, such a force would not only be compatible with NATO; it would actually strengthen the organization. Predictably, however, Merkel's ambitious speech elicited scorn from Euroskeptics, who would much rather see the EU succumb to despair and political opportunism. In light of her announced departure, some already regard Merkel as a "lame duck" whose legacy will now be debated in political obituaries. Yet these eulogies are premature: There is good reason to believe that she is not yet done forging her European legacy. To be sure, Merkel's successor at the head of the CDU may not be closely aligned with her positions, and could inject more instability into the coalition government with the Christian Social Union (the CDU's Bavaria-based sister party) and the Social Democrats (SPD). But even under those circumstances, Merkel would have a few cards up her sleeve. For starters, a no-confidence vote in Germany cannot succeed unless an alternative candidate wins the backing of an absolute majority in the Bundestag. That has happened only once when Helmut Kohl of the CDU replaced Helmut Schmidt of the SPD as chancellor in 1982 and it would be extremely unlikely in a parliament that is as fragmented as the current Bundestag. A scenario in which Merkel finishes out her term, staying on for another three years, should therefore not be ruled out. She remains very popular on the international scene. And, liberated from electoral pressures, at least of a kind focusing on her directly, she may feel freer to pursue a more proactive foreign policy. Recall that it was during his final years in office that U.S. President Barack Obama achieved some of his biggest milestones in foreign policy. In addition to restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, the Obama administration concluded the nuclear deal with Iran and signed the Paris climate agreement. Though President Donald Trump has sought to reverse these accomplishments, he has not been able to consign them to history. For the EU, it would be healthy if Merkel were to continue revitalizing the Franco-German axis, thereby opening the door to EU-level reform. Nevertheless, there are significant obstacles ahead. In this day and age, it is abundantly clear that politics is more difficult than physics. However, we would do well not to underestimate Merkel, and to heed another timeless Einstein quote: "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Javier Solana is a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution and president of ESADEgeo, the ESADE Center of World Economy and Geopolitics. Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org) By Francis Wilkinson Nancy Pelosi does not want to impeach President Donald Trump. The House Democratic leader, and likely next speaker of the House, has good reasons for avoiding that fight. First, Republicans discredited impeachment when they used it to try to destroy President Bill Clinton for his White House misdeeds. The word "impeachment" used to conjure a righteous end to a crooked presidency. Now it connotes a rusty hatchet in the hand of Newt Gingrich. Second, it's going to be hard to shock Americans into thinking radical action and impeachment is radical is justified. Most Americans long ago came to understand that their president is not a fine person. For every American who says Trump is "trustworthy," almost two say he isn't. (And let's face it: Some of those claiming to believe that Trump is trustworthy were probably MAGA partisans having fun at a pollster's expense.) Watergate was not the outcome that most Americans anticipated from Richard Nixon, who won the 1972 election in a glorious law 'n' order landslide. But the tawdry machinations of the Trump administration seem to be pretty much in line with expectations. In 2016, only one-third of Americans expected Trump to set a high moral standard in the White House. Perhaps a few of the less attentive students needed more time for the lessons to sink in just 27 percent now say Trump sets a high moral standard, so it's fallen slightly in two years. But most Americans seem to recognize that the founder of Trump University has little use for laws and none for ethics. They won't be shocked to have their perceptions confirmed by special counsel Robert Mueller. The political risks of impeachment, which include making Democrats look like so many Newts, are significant. The rewards of seeking to remove a tainted executive from office, especially when the Republican Senate will resist it, are dodgy at best. Instead, Democrats can use their new powers to highlight the most politically salient aspects of Trump's corruption and incompetence without taking on the unique burdens of impeaching him. That seems like the easier way to go. Unless Mueller makes the easy path hard. Last month, the National Archives publicly released the "road map" of Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski. The road map isn't a map at all. It's a list of facts and evidence that Jaworski forwarded to the House of Representatives, where it was used as kindling for the fire that drove Nixon from Washington. As Jack Goldsmith and Benjamin Wittes wrote at the Lawfare blog: The Road Map entirely lacks a thesis. It does not include any hypotheses about what might constitute an impeachable offense. It does not argue that Nixon committed any impeachable offense. It actually does not even argue that he committed any crimes. It simply makes a series of factual claims, each written in a spare and clinical fashion, each supported with citations to material the special prosecutor's office provided to Congress. The document, which is technically the work of a grand jury, may not specify that Nixon committed crimes. But its factual claims, backed by supporting evidence, powerfully lead to that conclusion. When Pelosi was asked this month why she thought she could derail the efforts of liberals, such as donor and activist Tom Steyer, who are eager to see Trump impeached, she said that as a "San Francisco liberal" she has sufficient credibility among liberals to say "no." But what if Pelosi must answer to a higher authority than liberals? It wasn't Nixon's liberal opponents or Jaworski or even Congress itself that turned Jaworski's Watergate list into a road map for impeachment. It was the Constitution, which states that "Treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" are grounds for removing a president. We don't know exactly what Mueller has on Trump or what he will do with it. Much of what we do know, however, is hard to credit to a careful observance of the law, from the $130,000 that Trump paid to Stormy Daniels in a convoluted scheme to buy her silence to the Trump Tower meeting between top Trump campaign personnel and Russian operatives. Meanwhile, many (but surely not all) of Trump's efforts to obstruct the investigation into his campaign, including his firing of James Comey as FBI director, are haplessly public. Would any observer of Trump's slapdash history, in politics as in business, be shocked if Mueller wrote a factual "road map" every bit as detailed and damning as the one Jaworski produced on Nixon? And if Mueller does, then what? In that case, Pelosi and her allies may have to choose between the happy work of partisanship and the more fraught demands of constitutional obligations. Given the recalcitrance of Senate Republicans, who are highly skilled at rebuffing calls to conscience, Pelosi is unlikely to want to impeach Trump only to see the effort falter. But a full accounting from Mueller could make impeachment look less like bad politics, and more like grim duty. Francis Wilkinson writes editorials on politics and U.S. domestic policy for Bloomberg Opinion. He was executive editor of the Week. His commentary appeared in Bloomberg News. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Taiwan's case should be a lesson for South Korea President Moon Jae-in's policy to phase out nuclear energy is triggering controversy once again following Taiwan's referendum last week that voted in favor of nuclear power, rejecting President Tsai Ing-wen's strong push since taking office in 2016 to phase out nuclear energy by 2025. The Moon administration has looked to Taiwan as a benchmark in carrying out the nuclear-phase out policy. So the result of Taiwan's referendum has prompted opposition parties to call for a reconsideration of Moon's anti-nuclear push. There are 24 nuclear power plants in Korea and five new plants are in the pipeline. The Moon administration has called for phasing out the nuclear power plants by 2082 and increase the use of renewable energy. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that Taiwan's referendum will not have any impact on the government's energy transition policy, and that Taiwan's situation is different from ours. The ministry pointed out that a massive blackout last summer has increased the Taiwanese voters' concern about a stable power supply and this affected the referendum. However, it is necessary for the government to look closely at the Taiwanese case and reconsider its swift push to go nuclear-free for several reasons. First, it is being carried out without sufficient communication with the public. A recent survey by Gallup showed a strong public discontent over Moon's anti-nuclear energy policy. According to the survey, 68 percent were in favor of maintaining nuclear power, while 28.5 percent wanted a reduction of nuclear plants. It would be a good idea to carry out a referendum since it is an issue that will have a tremendous impact on Korea's economy and people's lives. Some opposition lawmakers are also calling for a referendum. Second, it does not make much sense that the President is talking about phasing out nuclear energy when he is trying to sell Korea's nuclear power technology abroad. Moon will travel to the Czech Republic, Tuesday, before heading to Argentina this week to take part in the G20 summit scheduled for Nov.30 to Dec. 1. Moon will also visit New Zealand from Dec. 2. It is expected that he will meet with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and seek the country's support for Korean companies' bid to take part in the construction of nuclear power plants pushed by the Czech government. Moon will explain the strengths of Korean companies in this regard. The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea are maintaining that it is a global trend to reduce nuclear energy. While that is true to some extent, it is also true that some major economies including Japan and France are slowing down the pace of their nuclear-free policies. Many people still believe that without nuclear energy, maintaining a stable power supply will be difficult. The Moon administration should consider the people's concerns and reflect them in its basic energy policy which will be announced early next year. The plan should include proper consideration into the stability, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact of its energy shift initiatives, as well as ways to raise the competitiveness of our nuclear power industry. By Lee Seong-hyon In the summer of nuclear love in 1998, a big story was broken by the New York Times, which said, "United States intelligence agencies have detected a huge secret underground complex in North Korea that they believe is the centerpiece of an effort to revive the country's frozen nuclear weapons program." The story was powerful, like a nuclear weapon. However, the report turned out to be false. The writer of the New York Times was David Sanger. Yet, the damage was already done. Sanger's article generated a huge uproar and "bad faith" about North Korea. The Clinton administration faced mounting domestic pressure. It demanded an inspection of the site. Pyongyang reacted angrily but agreed after months of haggling. Washington dispatched investigators to the site. They found nothing close to a nuclear weapons program. Fast forward 20 years, Sanger, today, still with the New York Times, made another headline, "In North Korea, Missile Bases Suggest a Great Deception" (Nov.12). It said, "North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images." Sanger claimed that the satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a "great deception." Sanger sourced it from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which wrote a report about it. However, the CSIS was cautious with the report, adding, "Some of the information used in the preparation of this study may eventually prove to be incomplete or incorrect." Tim Shorrock, an investigative reporter with the Nation took issue with Sanger's article, underscoring that it was a product of "stretching the findings" of a think-tank report on Pyongyang's missile bases. North Korea's continuation of its nuclear and missile programs are a violation of the United Nations sanctions resolutions that prohibit Pyongyang from doing so. In that vein, the report by the CSIS deserves merit for bringing it to the public attention. However, it's a different matter when it comes to the New York Times, the venerable icon for journalism in both the United States and around the world. From journalism's perspective, the obvious problem with Sanger's article was its characterization of Pyongyang's activities as a "great deception." This has been pointed out, already, by many commentators as false. For instance, Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst on North Korea and now with the Heritage Foundation said that "North Korean missile bases are a violation, but not a deception." "The New York Times appears to think that North Korea's failure to declare the existence of these facilities constitutes a "deception." It does not. None of the summit agreements with the U.S. and South Korea requires North Korea to declare them," said Klingner. If the title of Sanger's article didn't contain the word "deception," it probably wouldn't have gotten the kind of attention it garnered. The New York Times didn't have to use the "editorialized" title, without sensationalizing it. Perhaps, the recently hired digital media editors at the New York Times may have calculated that the Google search algorithm would make the word "deception" increase the web traffic. Being a "senior writer" with the New York Times carries a big stick that comes with great social responsibility. Sanger is not freelancing, but using the medium and the outreach of the venerable newspaper many of us cite for as "evidence" for the reasoning behind our views. Sanger's pen will also be part of history. As a journalist, Sanger for decades wrote many "first drafts" of the North Korean nuclear saga. And for years many analysts, including nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis, publicly have taken issue with the accuracy of Sanger's reporting on North Korea. The 1999 U.S. government inspection of the suspected nuclear facility at the Kumchang-ri cave the one written about by Sanger substantiated North Korea's claim that it was not running a nuclear weapons facility at that location and had not abrogated an earlier agreement with the United States in 1994, "the Agreed Framework." The U.S. government inspected the facility one more time the following year and reaffirmed that same conclusion. North Korea is an important story. We may go to war with it. Journalism as the "Fourth Estate" wields significant social influence by shaping the narrative the public understands. The late AP reporter Red Smith compared the process of journalism writing as "opening a vein and bleeding it." The problem with Sanger is that he seems to take journalism too lightly. Lee Seong-hyon (sunnybbsfs@gmail.com), Ph.D., is the Director, Center for Chinese Studies; and also the Director, Department of Unification Strategy at Sejong Institute. European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK) Chairman Dimitris Psillakis, fifth from left, and EU Delegation Ambassador Michael Reiterer, sixth from left, pose for a photo with other ECCK chairpersons during a press conference at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of ECCK EU ambassador calls for revisions to Korea-EU FTAs By Nam Hyun-woo Many European companies are expressing disappointment with the Moon Jae-in administration, saying regulations change too frequently without reflecting the opinions of private-sector stakeholders, according to the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK), Tuesday. The ECCK members also called for the Korea-EU free trade agreement (FTA) and Korea-European Free Trade Association to be revised in accordance with changing business conditions. They say these agreements rather act as hurdles to promoting bilateral cross-border transactions. "In Korea, there are still many cases where rules and regulations that affect foreign businesses change too quickly without adequate input from stakeholders," ECCK Chairman and Mercedes-Benz Korea CEO Dimitris Psillakis said during a press conference at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul. "Sometimes policies change without adequate evaluation on whether the new policies have the desired effect without unintended consequences." 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 By Paul Glickman and Frank Stoltze Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has conceded defeat to challenger Alex Villanueva, marking the first time in about a century that a sitting L.A. sheriff has been voted out of office. McDonnell called Villanueva after the latest update by the county registrar showed Villanueva about 125,000 votes ahead with only about 100,000 votes left to count. Villanueva will be sworn in on Dec. 3. The retired sheriff's lieutenant, who never commanded more than about 40 deputies in three decades with the department, will take command of the country's largest sheriff's department, with more than 9,500 deputies and another 8,000 civilian employees. Villanueva will oversee crime fighting in all of unincorporated L.A. County and 44 cities. In addition, he'd be responsible for the problem-plagued county jails, which hold more than 18,000 inmates - one-third of whom are mentally ill. After Villanueva declared victory on Nov. 16, LAist asked him what would be his first priority as sheriff. Villanueva, who ran as a reformer intent on getting rid of corruption at the top, said, "We're going to clean house." In an interview on Nov. 21, Villanueva told LAist that he plans to eliminate the positions of two constitutional policing advisors who advise the sheriff and senior commanders on a variety of legally delicate matters, from enforcement of the department's use-of-force policy to the dispensing of discipline against deputies accused of misconduct. Peter Bibring, director of police practices for the ACLU of Southern California, called the idea of eliminating the advisors "a troubling step in the wrong direction." Hey, thanks. You read the entire story. And we love you for that. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you, not advertisers. We don't have paywalls, but we do have payments (aka bills). So if you love independent, local journalism, join us. Let's make the world a better place, together. Donate now. Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has unanimously passed universal health and safety standards for homeless shelters. Each night, thousands of shelter beds in Los Angeles go unused, even though tens of thousands of people fall asleep outside. It's a mismatch that prompted KPCC to investigate conditions in shelters earlier this year. KPCC found that some people experiencing homelessness avoid shelters because they can be unsanitary and unsafe. Rats, roaches, bedbugs, and mold were just a few of the things found inside some shelters. READ MORE: There Are Empty Beds. Here's What's Keeping Homeless People Out Of LA County Shelters Inspections and reports calling attention to the problems fell aside, largely because there was no standardized procedure for dealing with them. The proposal considered on Tuesday lays out a universal set of sanitary and operating standards for homeless shelters to follow. It would also provide for the hiring of four shelter-specific health inspectors to check that those standards are being followed. Historically, some of the difficulties and inefficiency in oversight can be attributed to L.A.'s decentralized shelter system. "Prior to Measure H, there was a great deal of fragmentation across interim housing facilities in L.A. County," said Phil Ansell, who directs L.A. County's Homeless Initiative. Measure H is the quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in November 2016 that is expected to raise about $3.5 billion for homeless services over 10 years. "Measure H has created an opportunity to increase the total number of interim housing facilities and associated beds, and to establish a more integrated and coordinated system," Ansell said. Unlike many other regions, L.A. has a disparate network of shelter providers, many with their own unique funding streams. Depending on the shelter, that money could be from the government, from private donors, or some combination thereof. While many funders already require inspections, the lack of a countywide standard has meant some shelters have found themselves overwhelmed with audit paperwork from different funders and even from different departments within Los Angeles County. In some instances, shelter providers are each inspected by the health department, the mental health department, and the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, even though all of those agencies are technically different divisions of the same county government. "They didn't necessarily rely on each other's reports," said Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president and CEO of the North Hollywood-based provider LA Family Housing. "It would be far more efficient for the scale of the work we're all doing out in the community to [standardize]. We all need to find greater efficiencies." Department of Public Health director Barbara Ferrer said at the Tuesday board meeting that shelter inspections will occur three times annually. Opinion / Guest Commentary / Our Readers Write: Thank you for highlighting the ecological importance of South La Jolla State Marine Reserve (SMR) and Californias marine protected area (MPA) network in the Nov. 21 article: Waters off south La Jolla and San Diego prime target for lobster poaching. Unfortunately, this article misrepresents several issues regarding MPA noncompliance and happenings here in San Diego County. It would be more accurately titled: Prosecutors, legislatures and wildlife officers are cracking down on poaching in South La Jolla. First, the article confuses lobster poaching with other concerning MPA poaching behavior that has been observed in South La Jolla SMR. Although, as highlighted in the article, there have been some very high profile lobster poaching cases out of South La Jolla that were prosecuted in recent years, thanks to the City Attorneys office and California Department of Fish & Wildlife officers, lobster poaching is only a subset of MPA poaching. In fact, the commercial lobster fishing industry in San Diego County is very respectful of MPA boundaries. What we, our volunteers, and partners, have observed, and what I tried to convey, is an increase in boat-based MPA poaching sportfishing boats, charters (that may be operating without license), and even commercial passenger fishing vessels (CPFVs) on some occasions. These are, rarely to never, engaged in fishing for lobster. The comments about lobster poaching on weekends and the volume of lobster poaching boats observed are inaccurate. Additionally, the photos are inaccurately captioned. The vessel pictured is engaged in sportfishing, potentially inside the South La Jolla SMR, not lobster poaching. The lobsters in the other photo are confirmed confiscated lobster from a poaching bust in South La Jolla. The second correction is that the City Attorney did not become actively engaged in MPA prosecution as a result of our meeting as the article implies. She has always been a champion of MPAs. MPA cases, apart from her efforts, were sometimes tossed aside statewide by prosecutors prior to 2016 when MPA crimes were all misdemeanor offenses, a heavy-handed penalty for lesser violations. WILDCOAST worked with prosecutors to change that so lesser offenses could be cited as an infraction, leading to a substantial uptick in citations statewide. The City Attorney office has been very active to make sure our MPA network is enforced and is extraordinarily supportive of CDFW wildlife officer efforts. Finally, and to my first point, the Pacific Star, a CPFV, was not engaged in lobster poaching as the article implies. The crime, committed in 2013, occurred in a Channel Island MPA, not South La Jolla SMR. It was this case that help prompt our efforts to work with Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher and prosecutors statewide to crack down on commercial scale poaching in California MPAs, lobster poaching only being a subset of that. The legislation pointed out in the article will alleviate a lengthy administrative process and make sure appropriate fines are levied on commercial scale MPA violations. In summary, the larger issue here is that there are more enforcement efforts in place than ever for California MPAs, including prosecution, technological tools, more resources for wildlife officers, new legislation and hopefully, resources for allied agencies like lifeguards to do patrols. Additionally, the new round of statewide signage, as the Light reported on Nov. 14, will make a tremendous difference informing visitors and user about local MPAs, like South La Jolla SMR. Zach Plopper is Conservation Director at WILDCOAST, an international team working to conserve coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife. For more information, visit wildlife.ca.gov/conservation/marine/MPAs and wildcoast.org Crumbling sidewalks and millions of dollars in injury lawsuit payouts are prompting the City of San Diego to explore drastic action, potentially including a requirement that property owners fix nearby damaged sidewalks before they can sell. Other proposals include property liens, waiving permit fees to encourage sidewalk repairs and educating property owners about their responsibilities and that the City is willing to split the cost of most repairs with them. City officials may also create a master plan for tackling an estimated $39 million in needed sidewalk repairs so they can track their own progress and establish an ongoing maintenance program to limit additional payouts in coming years. The proposals, which the City Councils Infrastructure Committee endorsed during a recent public hearing, come after more than $11 million in injury payouts during the last five years in lawsuits over damaged sidewalks. The City is facing steadily greater liability as more people ride bicycles and electric scooters on sidewalks, where even the smallest lip can cause a relatively high-speed crash with significant injuries. This is a massive problem all over the City, said District 2 Council member Lorie Zapf during the committee hearing. The cost of having them not repaired often far exceeds the cost of repairing them up front. Zapf said a key part of the problem is that most homeowners dont know that the sidewalk adjacent to their property is their responsibility under state law. The new proposals, which City officials said they hope to enact this winter, come after a plan created last fall by District 8 Council member David Alvarez was rejected based on concerns it would sharply increase the cost to the City and its taxpayers. Alvarez wanted to accelerate repairs with a 90-day deadline to fix reported sidewalk damage and to eliminate the responsibility of homeowners to share the cost of fixing damaged sidewalks next to their property. Supporters said shifting all costs to the City and away from homeowners would simplify a confusing policy and avoid the inaction that often comes when homeowners cant afford their portion of the repair bill. City Attorney Mara Elliott, however, said a specific requirement like the 90-day deadline would make the City vulnerable to lawsuits when its not met, with plaintiffs pointing out that the City violated its own policy. She also criticized the proposal to relieve property owners of repair costs, saying it would be a windfall for their insurance companies at taxpayer expense. Other cities have done exactly the opposite in recent years, she wrote in a memo. Other cities plans So the Citys Independent Budget Analyst spent several months studying how other California cities handle sidewalks and issued a report written by Jillian Kissee, a financial and policy analyst. The reports most significant policy proposal was requiring property owners to fix any damaged sidewalk adjacent to their property before they can sell, which would be modeled on a similar policy in Pasadena. Alvarez expressed concerns that local real estate agents and some property owners would aggressively fight the policy, but said it seems like an effective solution. San Francisco and San Jose have similar policies, Kissees report said. They put a lien on a property with damaged sidewalks and allow cash-strapped homeowners to incrementally pay the city back for repairs. In addition, San Francisco allows individual homeowners to participate in competitive bids the City issues for larger sidewalk projects, typically reducing the cost of repairs. Another proposal would waive San Diegos $1,600 permit fee when an individual homeowner decides to fix damaged sidewalk near their property without the Citys help. District 5 Council member Mark Kersey, chair of the Councils Infrastructure Committee, suggested the City could establish a permit holiday for a limited time to encourage accelerated sidewalk repairs. Kissees report also recommended San Diego more aggressively publicize its 50-50 cost-sharing program for sidewalk repairs. The City devotes about $300,000 per year to the program, but could allocate more if there was higher participation. City officials said 48 property owners took advantage of the program last year. Another problem is lack of staff devoted to sidewalk repair projects, which prevented the City from spending a significant chunk of the $12 million included in its capital improvement budget last year. Additional staff could also follow up on sidewalk damage that is the responsibility of homeowners to ensure that either the damage had been repaired or that City officials are aware of the problem and the associated liability risks. Finally, Kissee proposed the City set clear goals for tackling the $39 million repair backlog so progress can be tracked, budget allocations can be tailored to the plan and an ongoing maintenance scheduled can be created. She also recommended the City conduct a follow-up assessments of all of its sidewalks, a review that was conducted in 2015 for the first time in decades if ever. Alvarez said repairing sidewalks comes with benefits beyond avoiding payouts, noting that people using strollers and walkers also struggle with damaged sidewalks. Its a real quality-of-life issue, he said. Citys liability losses The new policy proposals follow a series of significant payouts by the City for sidewalk injuries. The City paid $4.85 million to Del Cerro resident Clifford Brown in spring 2017 for a 2014 crash in which he tore spinal cord ligaments and lost several teeth when he and his bike were launched 28 feet by tree-damaged sidewalk. That settlement, the largest in City history for a case involving sidewalks, was unusually big because of Browns medical bills, his need for future medical care and the possibility he wont be able to work again. Last March, the City paid $1 million to Edward and Mary Jo Grubbs for injuries Mary Jo suffered when she tripped on uneven sidewalk in April 2016 on Park Boulevard at Madison Avenue in University Heights In another notable suit, a jury awarded Cynthia Hedgecock, the wife of former Mayor Rodger Hedgecock, just under $85,000 last December for ruptured breast implants she suffered during a 2015 sidewalk fall. An attorney for Hedgecock said the City behaved with negligence and carelessness by not repairing a 2.5-inch concrete lip in a public sidewalk in Pacific Beach that was caused by a tree. Council member Zapf said she was upbeat about the Citys new proposals, but said that the problem will never be fully solved. A lot of these seem almost like an act of God, she said, noting that much of the damage is caused by the root structure of trees expanding under sidewalks. We want trees, but they have roots. Students at the Instituto Cultural are learning Chinese at a class offered by the Confucius Institute at the University of Panama. (Photo by Zhu Dongjun from Peoples Daily) Instituto Cultural, a school in Panama established nearly 60 years ago, is the first school in the country adopting bi-lingual education in Spanish and English, and also the first one introducing computers and internet. Now, it is taking lead again in Chinese language teaching. We planned to launch Mandarin course three years ago. Due to the rising international influence of China, students need to learn Chinese for better development, said the Katyae Cheverria, principal of the school. She introduced that the school was distressed since it was hard to find Chinese teachers at the beginning, but the situation was relieved by the building of Confucius Institute after the China and Panama established diplomatic relations. Thank all Chinese teachers, said Cheverria. We finally had Mandarin classes. It is quite surprising that students at the school can speak good Chinese. At the beginning, some concerned that Chinese language would be too difficult that it might discourage students from learning it. Therefore, we decided to arouse students interest by not including the scores of Chinese in their school report, explained the principal. Preschool students at the Instituto Cultural play diabolos. (Photo by Zhu Dongjun from Peoples Daily) But now, students are all fond of Chinese classes and are making outstanding performances, she added. We not only teach Chinese but also Chinese culture. Cultural exchanges will build a heart-to-heart bridge for people from Panama and China. We hope to cultivate more envoys of bilateral friendship, said Cheverria. When Yu Xin, a Chinese teacher from the Confucius Institute at the University of Panama brought two diabolos to the classroom, students all showed great enthusiasm. Over 10 children soon crowded around Yu, wearing high expectations and excitement on their faces. In June 2017, China established diplomatic relations with Panama. Three months after that, the Confucius Institute at the University of Panama was inaugurated. Currently, the institute educates nearly 400 students. Panama was celebrating two important festivals in early November. But the students maintained high enthusiasm for learning Chinese and requested to continue Chinese classes during the holiday leaves, Wu Junhui, Panamanian Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Panama, told Peoples Daily proudly. Gamboa, a 65-year-old architectural engineer, is the eldest student at the class for beginners at the Confucius Institute. He felt pressured because he was busy with work and learnt slowly, but he never gave up learning Chinese. China is developing so fast. I want to go there and have a look. Thats the direct driver of learning Chinese, said the engineer, who also helped his wife, a Chinese culture lover, with her Chinese. Ive made up my mind that no matter how hard it will be, Ill always try my best to learn Chinese well, said Gamboa. An increasing number of Panamanians from all sectors have started learning Chinese since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations. Departments of the Panamanian government, such as tourism, foreign affairs, and commerce, have contacted the Confucius Institute and expressed their hope of starting Chinese classes with the help of the Institute, Dong Yang, Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Panama. Think the 15-inch touch screen mounted on the dash of the Tesla Model 3 is impressive? Check out the screen in the Byton M-Byte crossover SUV. It is 49 inches long and 10 inches high. Its not just a size thing. If it performs as promised, drivers and passengers will use hand gestures or Amazon Alexa voice commands to issue instructions, without having to touch the screen at all. Byton M-Byte (Byton) Byton is a China-financed company based in Silicon Valley and headed by renegades from BMW and other European automobile companies. Advertisement The M-Byte which will be on display at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show is designed with a driverless future in mind. The huge screen is one indication. So are seats that swivel so passengers can chat eye-to-eye while the car drives itself. Driverless cars wont become common for years, so the Byton is equipped with a steering wheel and Level 3 driving technology to bridge the transition to the age of the robocar. (Level 3 cars can drive themselves but require a human to take over controls when necessary, a setup that has yet to prove its safety on public highways.) The company has partnered with driverless technology start-up Aurora, headed by former Google self-driving-car engineers. Set to hit the U.S. market by the end of 2020, the M-Byte and follow-on Byton cars will be manufactured in Nanjing, China. And although the U.S. figures to be big in Bytons strategic plans, China could become the primary market for its cars. The company is funded in part by FAW Group, a huge state-owned car company in China, and by CATL, a large and fast-growing Chinese maker of automobile batteries. The M-Byte is aimed at the same customer that lusts for a Tesla Model 3. Pricing starts at $45,000. russ.mitchell@latimes.com Twitter: @russ1mitchell Donald Trump can fret over General Motors Co.s plan to close plants, slash jobs and ditch models. He can even threaten, as he did Tuesday. But market forces are tough to beat, even if youre president. Trump captured the White House thanks in large part to the story he told that he could reverse Americas industrial decline. He promised to bring back manufacturing and fossil-fuel jobs written off as casualties of global trade and overregulation. But almost halfway through Trumps first term, divergences from his Make America Great Again story line continue to pile up, pushed along by technology, globalization and a changing climate. Advertisement Trump is fighting back. On Tuesday, the day after GMs announcement, he tweeted out threats to cut all the subsidies GM receives, including tax breaks for electric vehicles. Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, also piled on: Theres great disappointment that it seems like GM would rather build its electric cars in China rather than the United States, Kudlow told reporters at a briefing just before Trumps tweets. GMs stock price fell 2.6% Tuesday, to $36.69, wiping out much of its gain from the day before. Mondays rally was linked to Chief Executive Mary Barras plan to boost cash flow by shutting plants in the United States and Canada, laying off thousands of workers and jettisoning struggling sedans from the companys lineup. Trump wasnt specific about the subsidies he was referring to, but consumers are eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit toward the purchase of electric vehicles such as the Chevrolet Bolt. GM is nearing a sales limit for the number of EVs that are eligible for that incentive before it starts to wind down over the course of more than a year. Its unclear whether Trump has the authority to revoke subsidies without action by Congress. Its also difficult, if not impossible, for Trump to overcome the dynamics that are driving companies to choose robots over humans, discontinue brands and close plants. Some are choosing to build closer to their consumers and supply chains, including China, while others are moving production lines to lower-cost countries, such as Mexico. Consumers, too, are increasingly switching to alternative energy for cars and homes. As wages finally rise, people are also buying more imported goods, which pushes up the U.S. trade deficit, one metric by which Trump assesses the economy. The market is a tsunami, said Seth Kaplowitz, a finance lecturer at San Diego State University. If you surf it, youll be fine, but if you push back, its too strong. Trump has gone to great lengths to revive once-storied industries. Americas steel and aluminum companies won levies to hamper foreign competitors. He hit Whirlpools biggest rival, South Koreas Samsung Electronics Co., with tariffs on washing machines. For coal miners, Trump is proposing to reduce Obama-era environmental regulations. He also billed his corporate-tax cut as an elixir for capital spending and job creation. Sometimes, Trump has offered an explicit quid pro quo. For GM and other automakers, he pledged to lower fuel economy standards in return for jobs. His administration is also considering tariffs on imported autos and parts on national security grounds. All of this is on top of the presidents biggest push to revive industry: starting a trade war with China, Americas largest commercial partner. Market forces, however, have proved too powerful. For Barra, the plan to close a handful of older plants and dismiss more than 14,000 employees came down to basic economics. Consumers are expected to shift to electric and autonomous vehicles. Theyre also shunning small cars, like GMs Chevy Cruze, in favor of pickups and SUVs. With some factories down to one shift a day, GM said it needed to cut its capacity to make traditional passenger cars, while keeping lower-cost production in Mexico. These moves drew the ire of the president, who said: We have a lot of pressure on them to maintain operations in places such as Ohio a state key to his reelection. You better get back in there soon thats Ohio. GMs restructuring comes less than two years after Trump praised the company for promising to invest $1 billion in its U.S. operations. It was one of many such pledges by large companies even though some were reiterating existing plans meant to gain favor with the new administration. The jobs GM promised, however, have largely gone to Silicon Valley, where its developing autonomous vehicles. Like GM, Ford Motor Co. said it will exit much of the passenger-car market to focus on SUVs and trucks. It also has said it will lay off workers as part of an $11-billion restructuring. Jawboning aside, Trump was unable to stop job losses at a Carrier Corp. air conditioning plant in Indianapolis. Soon after winning office, he made a highly publicized visit to the factory in a bid to stop Carrier from moving positions to Monterrey, Mexico. The company kept the plant open after receiving millions in state subsidies. But about 600 workers ended up losing their jobs anyway. The United States still is a manufacturing heavyweight, but companies increasingly are choosing automation over human labor. Some forces buffeting manufacturers are the result of other Trump policies. He has worked to lower oil prices by cutting environmental rules and pressuring petrostates. U.S. consumers have responded by purchasing yet more SUVs and trucks, which accounted for about 65% of new-vehicle sales in September. Tariffs have also raised prices on aluminum and steel, forcing up production costs. The decision by Harley-Davidson Inc., once Trumps model of a patriotic American manufacturer, to shift motorcycle production to Europe came in direct response to Trumps tariffs, which prompted the European Union to retaliate with duties of its own, damaging sales there. Whirlpool at first welcomed Trumps tariffs by adding 200 jobs in the United States. It was hurt months later by levies on steel and aluminum, which raised the cost of raw materials. The company said it was forced to pass those costs to customers by raising prices, a move that battered sales and resulted in a profit warning and a steep slide in shares. Just hours after GMs announcement Monday, Trump told supporters at a rally in Biloxi, Miss., that they shouldnt worry. Under my administration, weve created 600,000 brand-new manufacturing jobs that people said could never come back to our country. Not quite. Since Trump took office, the U.S. Department of Labor reports, companies have added just over 400,000 manufacturing jobs tiny compared with 150 million non-farm positions. Coal-mining jobs have also increased, but by fewer than 2,000 slots. Early on, Trumps corporate tax cut appeared to boost capital spending, but that may have been short-lived. Companies are reacting more to market conditions than the tax law, such as by paying more because labor is tight. One measure of U.S. business investment shows it at the same level as before the tax cuts. In the end, Kaplowitz said, companies are concerned with profitability and survival over allegiance to a country or politician. Trade-deficit numbers are telling. The gap between what the United States sells abroad and what it buys from other countries has ballooned under Trump. In September, the deficit was $54 billion, up $700 million from August and a seven-month high. In the year to date, the deficit has increased by $40.7 billion, or 10%, from the same period in 2017. Trump isnt deterred, at least publicly. They said manufacturing jobs would never come back, youd need a magic wand, he said in Biloxi. Well, we found the magic wand. Mr. Market begs to disagree. UPDATES: 2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with analysis of President Trumps industrial policy and other examples of companies moving factories or cutting jobs. This article was originally published at 1:05 p.m. A Malaysian resort company is suing 20th Century Fox Film and Walt Disney Co. over its planned amusement park, alleging that Fox has improperly pulled out of an agreement to license the studios intellectual property to the park. The park, known as 20th Century Fox World, has already experienced delays. The company behind it is blaming the Disney-Fox merger, alleging damages of more than $1 billion. On Monday, Kuala Lumpur-based Genting Malaysia Berhad filed a breach-of -contract lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles saying that Fox was pressured to terminate the agreement by its soon-to-be owner Disney. The company alleges that Disney wants to avoid doing business with organizations involved in the casino business. Disney wanted no association with a gaming company like [Genting Malaysia] due to Disneys family-friendly brand strategy, the lawsuit says. Advertisement 20th Century Fox Film declined to comment. A Disney spokesman said in a statement: The claims made against Disney in this matter are utterly without merit. Genting Malaysia was planning to open the Fox-themed park on the grounds of its resort and casino complex about an hours drive outside Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The company alleges in its complaint that it promised to pay Fox annual license fees and royalties, with an understanding that Fox would start receiving payments only after the park opened. But Genting Malaysia says that Fox twice leveraged its approval rights to amend the deal and start receiving annual fees and royalties immediately. The lawsuit also alleges that Fox was largely responsible for the parks delays. It says Fox missed its own deadlines for issuing approvals, backtracked on the approvals it did give and failed to provide guidelines for its intellectual property, such as how the Fox logo should appear on the parks entrance. Genting Malaysia said it is looking to recoup its more than $750-million investment in the park, as well as punitive and other damages. david.ng@latimes.com @DavidNgLAT UPDATES: 10:47 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Disney. This article was originally published at 4:40 p.m. Workers at architecture firm and general contractor Walker Workshop have planned and built high-end homes from Long Island to the Hollywood Hills. But planning for retirement and building savings is another story. Like many small business, the 16-employee Los Angeles company doesnt offer a pension or 401(k) plan. Starting in January, though, workers there and at a handful of other companies will be able to start putting money away in state-sponsored retirement accounts. For the record: A previous version of this article misquoted state Treasurer John Chiang. He said CalSavers participants receive a form acknowledging the program, not that they must sign a form. The previous version also misstated annual IRA contribution limits as $5,500 for workers under age 50 and $6,500 for those over 50. For 2019, the limits are $6,000 and $7,000, respectively. Theyll be early participants in CalSavers, a program that if it overcomes a federal court challenge could soon offer basic retirement savings accounts to millions of California workers. Walker Workshop and about 20 other companies are signing up this week to be part of a pilot for the program, which will open to all employers in July. By 2022, state law will require California companies with as few as five employees to either sign up for CalSavers or offer their own retirement savings plans. Advertisement DeAnna DeLisle, Walker Workshops accounting director and office manager, said the company has looked at retirement plans before, but never pulled the trigger. We looked at some retirement options, but they were too expensive or too complicated to administer, she said. Some required a company match, but, being a small business, it was hard to lock ourselves into that kind of commitment. Some years are good, some years arent. CalSavers, though, is free for employers. All they have to do is help workers enroll and deduct money from their paychecks. The program is overseen by a state board and funds are managed by Boston firm State Street Global Advisors. Workers are enrolled in CalSavers automatically, but can opt out, a system similar to how many companies manage their 401(k) plans. According to research from investment giant Vanguard, workers are more than twice as likely to save for retirement if they are signed up automatically. But legal questions persist, especially when it comes to automatic enrollment. The anti-tax group Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. sued California Treasurer John Chiangs office over CalSavers in May, arguing that the program amounts to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. If thats the case, CalSavers would be governed by a federal retirement savings law that saddles employers with administrative and compliance costs. Chiangs office, backed by California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, argues the program is not subject to and was designed to avoid those requirements. Thats because, they say, employees dont have to sign up and employers are responsible only for helping workers enroll and deducting money from paychecks. Chiang told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month that he believes the program, including the automatic enrollment feature, complies with federal law, specifically a rule that created a so-called safe harbor for certain retirement plans as long as employers themselves have little involvement and plans are completely voluntary for workers. Participants get the form; they acknowledge this program, he said. We think this fits within the safe harbor. But on that point, federal District Judge Morrison England has questions. Last month, England asked Chiangs office and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. to weigh in on a few issues, including whether the program can rightly be called completely voluntary. If the program meets that definition, it may be clear of the additional federal scrutiny and tilt the case in the states favor. If not, it could strengthen the taxpayer groups case. Chiang and Becerra filed a motion to dismiss the case in July. England has yet to rule on that motion. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said he believes the judges questions about the completely voluntary language suggest that he is not likely to dismiss the case. And given that the case may proceed, Coupal said it seems irresponsible for the state to press ahead with even a CalSavers pilot. The state has been extraordinarily irresponsible by continuing to implement this program while theres a significant legal cloud hanging over it, Coupal said. Katie Selenski, executive director of the CalSavers program, said Monday that she is not concerned about the lawsuit or about proceeding before theres a legal resolution. Were very confident were on solid legal ground and were proceeding as planned, she said. California lawmakers, led by state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), passed legislation to create CalSavers initially called California Secure Choice in 2016. Chiangs office has been working since then to sort out program details and bring it to fruition. The program was designed to offer an easy path to retirement savings for the estimated 7.5 million California workers who dont have a retirement plan through work. Workers who dont have access to employer-sponsored plans can start retirement savings accounts on their own, though few actually do so. CalSavers is not a pension program. Rather, its a state program that offers individual retirement accounts to workers. The accounts are not guaranteed by the state and investors may lose money. CalSavers account holders will have to pay management and record-keeping fees of between 0.85% and 0.92% of their account balances annually thats between 85 cents and 92 cents for every $100 though those fees will drop to as low as 0.23% as more workers enroll and more assets are invested through the program. For now, CalSavers offers only Roth IRAs, but starting in July will offer traditional IRAs as well. A traditional IRA invests pre-tax earnings, but withdrawals are taxed as income. A Roth IRA invests already taxed earnings, but withdrawals are not taxed. Workers can choose to invest as little as 1% of their earnings and as much as the federal IRA investment limit of $6,000 annually. Workers over age 50 can invest up to $7,000. Unlike with a 401(k), employers cannot match employees CalSavers contributions. By default, when workers enroll, theyll contribute 5% of their earnings to their CalSavers accounts. A workers first $1,000 in contributions will be invested in a money-market fund with the rest invested in a target-date fund, which holds different mixes of stocks, bonds and other investments that vary based on the expected retirement date. CalSavers account holders can choose from a menu of investment options, including a money-market fund, a bond fund, two stock funds and several target-date funds. The legality of the program at first seemed secure. In 2016, the federal Department of Labor, which oversees employee retirement plans, issued a new rule saying that state-sponsored retirement savings programs would be exempt from federal retirement savings laws. That was in response to requests from California and other states including Oregon and Illinois looking to create such programs. But last year, Republicans in Congress voted to scrap the new rule. Coupal and other critics say that should have put a stop to CalSavers. Chiang and Selenski, though, have said the Labor Department rule was never strictly necessary and that state leaders only asked for it to make business groups feel more comfortable with the program. That was for the chambers of commerce to help them feel more confident that employers would not be subject to those rules, Selenski told The Times last year. james.koren@latimes.com Twitter: @jrkoren Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Kudlow tried to sound optimistic as he discussed the talks for about an hour at the White House. But he also seemed to cast the chances of a breakthrough as a long shot. Advertisement On Jan. 1, the United States is scheduled to raise tariffs to 25% on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Trump said Monday that he was highly unlikely to agree to Beijings request to hold off on that a comment that, Kudlow said Tuesday, reflected no change in the presidents stance. The United States placed a 10% duty on those imports in September as part of an escalating trade war between the two nations. Trump has tried to use tariffs as leverage to force China to stop the alleged theft of intellectual property and other unfair trade practices. Kudlow would not confirm that the tariff increase is a done deal unless there is a breakthrough in the talks, but spoke as if it were. He noted that Trump has said many times the duties would increase Jan. 1. If Saturdays bilateral talks dont produce some movement, Kudlow said Trump might order tariffs on about $267 billion worth of Chinese imports. That would mean all the goods China sends to the United States would be slapped with a duty before entering the country, amplifying the economic impact on businesses that import products and raw materials. Disappointment might lead to additional actions, Kudlow said. President Xi has an opportunity to change the tone and substance of these talks, Kudlow said. This is a big opportunity. President Trump has indicated he is open. Now we need to know if President Xi is open. Asked what might lead to a breakthrough, Kudlow pointed to Trumps reputation as a skilled negotiator. Getting the two leaders in a room to try to hash out the dispute represented potential progress, triggered by Trump reaching out to Xi on trade this month, Kudlow said. President Xi may have a lot more to say in the bilateral, the dinner, Kudlow said. I hope he does, by the way. I think we all hope he does so we can break through these various impasses. But at the moment, we dont see it. Although the existing tariffs already are having an impact on the U.S. and financial markets, Kudlow asserted that the U.S. economy was strong and the nation was weathering the trade war much better than China. With respect to the economics, we are in a very strong position and China is not, he said. Frankly, I like the negotiation position were in. jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera The upcoming G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina has been endowed with special realistic significance given the deep-seated contradictions facing global development as well as the overlying risks and uncertainties encountered by todays world economy. The summit, which would last from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, comes as the rising tide of protectionism and unilateralism threatens the multilateral trading system. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its projection for global economic growth to 3.7 percent for 2018 and 2019, warning that escalating trade tensions and the potential shift away from a multilateral, rules-based trading system are key threats to the global outlook. G20, an important platform for global economic governance, represents around 90 percent of global GDP, 80 percent of global trade and two-thirds of worlds population. It has been entrusted with a responsibility to chart a course for world economy, and pave more ways steering global economy to an open, equal-footed, and rule-based international trading system as a global leader and with strategic horizon. The forthcoming 13th G20 summit will be Chinese President Xi Jinpings sixth time to attend or preside over the summit. Xis attendance represents Chinas strong support to Argentina in hosting the meeting, said Chinese Ambassador to Argentina Yang Wanming. He added that Xi will also, on behalf of China, send a strong signal in guarding multilateral system and economic globalization, contribute Chinese solutions to dissolving predicament of world economy, and pool important consensus in addressing global risks together, realizing inclusive and sustainable growth, and building a community of shared future for mankind. G20 has grown into a key platform on which all parties can communicate and coordinate macro-economic policies, as global financial crisis breaking out in 2008 has prompted a rapid rise of its weight in global economic governance system. China, as the worlds second largest economy, has made well-recognized contribution to world economy. When the globe was lashed by financial crisis, it played a role of stabilizer with its annual increment that equaled to economic size of a moderately developed country. Even though the world economy has walked out of the haze of crisis step by step, China remains an anchor of global growth with its healthy and growing economy. Estimates from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show that in the first half of 2018, China was the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world, although the global FDI dropped 41 percent year on year to hit a decade low. IMF, in its latest World Economic Outlook report released in October, kept its forecast for Chinas 2018 economic growth unchanged at 6.6 percent, in a belief that Chinese economy will maintain a strong development momentum. Since the beginning of this year, China has announced to ease its restrictions on financial investment, cut import tariffs on vehicles and auto parts, and also hosted the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), said Sylvie Matelly, deputy director of French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. Amidst the trade war initiated by some countries, Chinas attitude to continue opening up has won it wide-ranged applause, she added. Setting the theme of this years G20 Summit as building consensus for fair and sustainable development, Argentina has three priorities for its presidency: the future of work, infrastructure for development, and a sustainable food future. The organizer said that the outcomes of the Hangzhou Summit in 2016 have been taken into consideration when designing the agendas of this years meeting, which will follow the spirit of the Hangzhou meeting in big agendas such as global economic governance, policy coordination and development. Forty years ago, China started a historic course to pursue common development with the rest of the world by making a great decision to open the curtain of reform and opening up, while five years ago, China broke a new ground for win-win cooperation by putting forward the Belt and Road Initiative. "China will not close its door to the world and will only become more and more open," China has pledged. An open China is now putting far-reaching influence on the world. Dirk Messner, Director of the German Development Institute, believes that the Belt and Road Initiative highly tallies with G20 in terms of their mission. The Belt and Road construction gives priority to infrastructure, and G20 is committed to pushing global economy for stable and sustainable growth, he explained, adding that infrastructure construction provides key backbone for economic growth. When President Trump issued yet another ultimatum to Mexico to stop a caravan of would-be refugees early Monday, he coupled it with an ominous threat: We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL! In Torrance, Karen Quintana, president of the Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Assn., was perplexed. He cant mean trade as well, she said. He just meant people, right? But the prospect that a border shutdown might halt goods crossing the border and not just immigrants, a frequent target of Trumps ire was not unthinkable. You have to take it seriously, said Quintana, whose trade association represents 300 logistics companies. Months earlier, she noted, California businesses had doubted Trumps threat to launch a trade war with China and then it happened. Closing the border between California and Mexico at the peak of the Christmas season would create chaos, Quintana and others said. Advertisement It wasnt the first time Trump had threatened a border shutdown. In October, as the caravan approached, he suggested he might use U.S. troops to do it. But after a five-hour closure at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Sunday, when several hundred migrants rushed the border, the possibility seemed more real. 1 / 10 A group of Central American migrants -- mostly Hondurans -- climb a metal barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana. (PEDRO PARDO / AFP/Getty Images) 2 / 10 A group of Central American migrants get over a fence as they try to reach the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana. (PEDRO PARDO / AFP/Getty Images) 3 / 10 A Central American migrant is stopped by U.S. agents who order him back across the border after a group of migrants got past Mexican police. (Pedro Acosta / Associated Press) 4 / 10 Tear gas is used to prevent groups of people from crossing the border in Tijuana. (David Guzm / EPA / Shutterstock) 5 / 10 One man makes a stand as U.S. Border Patrol agents deploy tear gas on migrants refusing to step away from the concertina wire set up along the U.S.-Mexico border. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 10 Migrants breach the police line set up by the Mexican federal police in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 10 A Honduran migrant speaks to U.S. Border Patrol agents on the other side of razor wire after they fired tear gas at migrants pressing to cross into the U.S. from Tijuana. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press) 8 / 10 Mexican police run as they try to keep migrants from getting past a border crossing in Tijuana. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press) 9 / 10 Migrants try to push past Mexican police on the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press) 10 / 10 Migrants walk up a river bank at the U.S.-Mexico border after pushing past a line of Mexican police in Tijuana. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press) Trumps tweet left unanswered questions, including whether the president was threatening to close the border just at San Ysidro, or across the entire 1,954-mile expanse, from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico is Californias biggest export market, purchasing at least $26.7 billion, or 15.6%, of the Golden States exports last year. And that understates the actual amount, said Jock OConnell, a trade expert at Los Angeles consulting firm Beacon Economics. A substantial portion of Californias exports are transshipped to Mexico through Texas, and therefore are counted as Texas exports. The San Diego customs district, which includes the border station of San Ysidro, where the caravan of would-be refugees is gathered, accounts for 12.1% of all U.S. imports from Mexico, including aerospace components and avocados. The amount of Mexican imports that remains in California, as opposed to being shipped through to other states, is not calculated, OConnell said. Mexico is our largest trading partner, said OConnell, one of the states foremost trade experts. The economies of the U.S., Canada and Mexico are tightly integrated. Closing the Mexico border, he said, would amount to cutting off your nose to spite your face. Even a temporary closure, as happened Sunday in San Diego, can wreak havoc. We have a shared workforce, said Paola Avila, vice president of international business affairs at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. Some industries report that half their workforce crosses the border: construction, restaurants, hospitality, convention center. Its very difficult as a business to be nimble if you lose half of your workforce in one day. Its very difficult as a business to be nimble if you lose half of your workforce in one day. Paola Avila, vice president, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Although there are multiple ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, San Ysidro is the busiest in the Western Hemisphere. About 70,000 vehicles and 25,000 pedestrians move between the two countries each day. The San Ysidro ZIP Code has 650 businesses, most of them mom-and-pops, and 93% of their customers come from Mexico. The Sunday shutdown, the chamber estimates, cost them $5.3 million in sales. A border closure could also have a drastic effect on California tourism. Visitors from Mexico fuel a tourism economy that benefits all Californians, said Caroline Beteta, president of Visit California, the states tourist office. Mexico is by far Californias top international market, responsible for more than 40% of Californias international visitor volume and $3.1 billion of visitor spending every year. In the last 20 years, two-way trade in goods between Mexico and the United States increased dramatically, from $81.4 billion in 1993 the year before the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect to $557.6 billion in 2017. And Mexico has remained the United States second-largest export market since 1995, with a total value of $242 billion in 2017. Across the entire border, you have more than 1 million crossings a day, $1.6 billion in two-way trade every day, said Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. A shutdown, he added, would mean disastrous, catastrophic losses on both sides of the border. Some California executives expressed skepticism that Trump meant what he said. All you can do is laugh, said Marv Sepe, a senior vice president at CTC Global, an Irvine manufacturer, and chair of the District Export Council of Southern California. I dont think companies can make plans based on a tweet. Trump is a powerful guy and can say what he likes, but there are procedural issues. I dont think you can just shut the door. There would be tremendous outrage. In Rancho Santa Margarita, Said Hilal, chief executive of Applied Medical Resources, a surgical equipment manufacturer, suggested that anything is possible with this administration. But really, there comes a time where we cant be in an economic war with the rest of the world. It is not reasonable. Only $4 million of Applied Medicals $600 million in annual exports goes to Mexico, so the company could easily survive a shutdown. But many medical device companies, such as Johnson & Johnson the pharmaceutical giant that manufactures most of its devices in Juarez and ships them across the border to Albuquerque for packaging and worldwide distribution could take a massive hit if the border closed, according to Gary Johnson, president of Applied Medicals Surgical Group. We are most concerned about patients in Mexico, he said. Only U.S. companies are manufacturing minimally invasive surgery devices. So they would have to resort to open surgery if the border closes. OConnell, the Beacon trade expert, was not taking Trump seriously. These injudicious tweets are directed at the people who watch Fox News and are terrified at the idea of some poor refugees trying to gain access to the American dream, he said. Trump is trying to scare his base. What would the purpose be of halting trade? Who would you be trying to penalize? This is more political than economic. San Diego Union-Tribune staff writers Lori Weisberg and Rob Nikolewski contributed to this report. President Trump, heaping pressure on China to make trade concessions ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, is signaling that he will not back down from his plan to escalate tariffs in January. Administration officials have been making arrangements for a meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina this Friday and Saturday. And with both sides previously indicating a willingness to make a deal, that had raised hopes that Trump could announce a freeze on his previously stated plan to raise tariffs on imported Chinese goods Jan. 1. A freeze would be an important step that could lead to a cease-fire in an escalating trade war between the two largest economies. But the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Trump, in an interview with the newspaper, said that it is highly unlikely he would agree to Beijings request to hold off on raising tariffs. Trump in September slapped 10% duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese products and indicated that the rate would jump to 25% in January, part of a series of actions intended to punish Beijing for alleged theft of intellectual property and other unfair economic behavior. Advertisement Trump has been known to make threats and back off, and analysts say anything can happen at the Group of 20 summit given the presidents unpredictability. But his comments just four days before the gathering of leaders of the worlds biggest economies could rattle financial markets and damp hopes of an easing of tensions between the two countries. Stocks in recent weeks have been dragged down in part by concerns of increasing U.S.-China trade tensions and the damage that could inflict on a global economy already showing some signs of slowing growth. Analysts believe that Chinese officials will be hard pressed to negotiate and give ground if the Trump administration moves ahead to jack up tariffs to 25%. Trump previously imposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, and adding an additional $200 billion of Chinese goods to be hit with such hefty penalties would mark a big step-up in the U.S. trade fight with China. For Chinese exporters and U.S. importers alike, the difference between 10% and 25% tariffs is huge. Very few companies can absorb what would amount to a 25% tax on goods, and American businesses have warned that such an increase in tariffs would sharply raise costs for consumers and could lead to significant disruptions in their operations. The U.S. imported about $505 billion in merchandise from China last year, and Trump previously has said he would impose tariffs on that entire amount if China does not make a satisfactory deal. Trump repeated the threat in his interview with the Journal, saying that U.S. companies should make their products in the United States. The latest from Washington More stories from Don Lee don.lee@latimes.com Follow me at @dleelatimes I always cringed when I heard about actors who directed, says John Krasinski. I remember someone asking me if I would ever direct when I was on The Office, and I said, Absolutely not. Oh, how times have changed and not just for Krasinski, who made waves with his writer-director-actor combo this year in A Quiet Place. Bradley Cooper is making waves of his own for his directing debut with A Star Is Born, and several other actors are taking their own seats in the directors chair. Quiet Place is Krasinskis third feature outing; Marielle Hellers second, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, was released last month even as she finishes shooting her third, the untitled Tom Hanks/Mr. Rogers movie; Australian actor Joel Edgerton released his second feature, Boy Erased, early this month; and both Paul Dano and Rupert Everett are making their debuts, Wildlife and The Happy Prince, respectively. But the path to go behind the camera looks different for every director. In Everetts case, it was the only way to get his passion project about Oscar Wilde made. It was a matter of necessity, he says. All of the directors I wanted to direct the film turned me down. There wasnt anything particularly mysterious. Rupert Everett, right, on the set of The Happy Prince. (Wilhelm Moser / Sony Pictures Classics) Advertisement Heller, meanwhile, originally found her voice as a writer-director after landing the rights to 2015s Diary of a Teenage Girl. I thought for a long time that the best way to tell stories was as an actor, she says. Then, I started to realize that writing was giving me a similar feeling. After writing Diary, the thought of somebody else directing it was just really hard for me, so I had to figure out how to do that. Seeing how the sausage gets made on a set gives curious actors a crash course, in-person master class in how to put together a film, which is how it went for Krasinski, who sat in the writers room, the edit bay and behind directors to get a full experience before his first shot at directing. But learning on set was more casual years ago, says Everett. When I started out in the movies, everything happened at such a slow-motion pace, you had not much else to do but watch how the shots were set up, he says. Whereas, today, things move so fast you have to focus on your lines. Paul Dano, director of Wildlife. (Sundance Institute) Having been (or continuing to be) an actor is a huge asset in the business, these directors say, because they better understand the process and can talk to an actor in his or her own language. I wanted to give [my actors] the experience I would want as an actor, says Dano. I found directing to be like parenting: Im creating this place for this person to thrive. Hopefully, you put the camera in the right place and give them the room to try and fail. Heller agrees. Theres a trust that comes from knowing I understand what actors want, and hopefully they know what Im asking of them, she says. I dont feel afraid to talk to them about what I might want or need or if I want them to do it differently. Hopefully, I can do that in ways that work within the process and doesnt pull them out, or make them feel like theyre being attacked. Still, even with acting experience, its not necessarily easy to start giving the orders. I was nervous filming on the first day, and every day I thought about burning it down because I failed, says Dano. But there were moments of great joy. Actually being in the film while directing also has its benefits, at least for some actor-directors. For Krasinski, It was bizarrely easier for me to be in the movie and direct it there are moments when youre in the zone, and I can stay with the actors, and say go again as were rolling. It feels more like a play we capture on camera than a movie. Another advantage is the ability to avoid conflicts with your leads. To be quite honest, I really enjoyed working with me, quips Everett, who stars as Wilde in his film. But directing and starrings not for Heller. Directing is so frickin hard and requires 110% of myself and my brain I definitely couldnt do both at the same time. Still, as hard as directing can be, its also addictive. Theres a pain to making a film, says Everett. Every day, I would say, Ill never do this again. But in the end, its like childbirth and you forget the pain and say, I want to have another baby. RELATED: No villains in the gay conversion film Boy Erased, just bad decisions, says director Joel Edgerton calendar@latimes.com What might seem the same or similar at first often isnt upon closer inspection. Take for instance Pawe Pawlikowskis acclaimed film Ida. The Polish drama won the foreign-language film Oscar in 2015 and earned raves and a second Oscar nomination for Lukasz Zals gorgeous black and white cinematography. Now Pawlikowski and Zal have collaborated once again on the Cannes-winning Cold War, another film shot in black and white and in the 1:33:1 Academy ratio. And yet, all is not what it seems. Cold War chronicles a tumultuous 15-year romance between Zula (Joanna Kulig) and Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), with their first meeting in 1948 in a desolate and makeshift Polish music academy. Originally, because of the subject matter, Zal and Pawlikowski intended to do something completely different from Ida and, notably, in color. After two weeks of research they realized that the period of Polish history they were beginning the film with wasnt necessarily the most colorful in the nations history. And what they did find didnt feel very Polish at all. Very quickly we realized this color would look like a Soviet or East German stock, when they bleach colors like pastel colors, Zal says. There was no color in Poland [films]. Just black and white. Dark clothes and black and white clothes. It wasnt like the United States where we had beautiful colors. You come here and everything was gray and bleached. While Cold War started with the same aesthetic as Ida on paper, in execution Zal notes it was completely different. Advertisement Ida is very flat, everything is like a poster, and in Cold War we are doing this more in depth, Zal explains of the digitally shot production. We are placing the camera quite high and we are building a lot of layers. Foreground, second ground, background and extras. Also, in Ida the contrasts were quite low. In Cold War we wanted to have a very high contrast because my inspiration for the picture was Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Goddards Vivre sa Vie. Joanna Kulig, right, and Tomasz Kotin in a scene from Zimna Wojna (Cold War). (Cannes film Festival) We wanted to have this like its a picture that has a very distinct texture. Lukasz Zal There is very little sunlight during the winter in Poland, so Zal and Pawlikowski worked with the production design team to make sure they always used dark wood and white pieces of decoration. That was a rule. We wanted to have this like its a picture that has a very distinct texture, Zal says. I was always grading and cutting the light and using a lot of masks just to build these pictures like paintings. In Zals opinion, the most difficult scene to pull off didnt involve singing and dancing (there are numerous performances in multiple locations involving Zulas music troupe), but instead was a seemingly ubiquitous shot of Wiktor crossing the border from East to West Berlin. Not only were large green screens set up to re-create the Berlin skyline, but Pawlikowski wanted to film at sunset, the magic hour for light a lot of distinct elements to synchronize. We had to get five shots in a good light and it was a lot of lighting, Zal recalls. Everything was on the dimmers, so after every shot I had to adjust them and we had extras, we have Victor walking and zooming and a dolly shot and cars in the background. All those things that needed to work in this one good shot. I was really, really stressed, but the big part of West Berlin was in post-production and it was a very long process to find the proper one. Another shot that Zal is proud of was also filmed as the sun was setting. Its the last scene in the film. The 37-year-old director of photography refers to what they encountered that day as kind of magic. We were using no light. It was just beautiful weather, Zal says. We were also shooting this last moment [in the countryside]. And when it finished it was completely dark. Zal notes that often when making this film they were close to catastrophe. If one thing went wrong, an entire scene could have been lost with little chance to restage it. But its clear he thinks that walking that fine line can lead to unforgettable results. You have actors, director, camera operator and we are all together there and thats the power of this amazing meeting of different peoples energies, Zal says. Thats the most exciting thing about cinema. You put all those things to the set and something exciting can happen. FULL COVERAGE: Get the latest on awards season from The Envelope calendar@latimes.com The verdict is still out on whether Netflix can compete in the film world the way it has in the television world, but the streaming giant already has one big-screen actress in its corner: Maggie Gyllenhaal. The Oscar-nominated actress stars in the drama The Kindergarten Teacher, about an educator named Lisa whose life is turned upside down when she discovers one of her young students has a talent for poetry. The film, which Gyllenhaal also produced, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January before being purchased by Netflix and being rolled out on the streaming service on Oct. 12. Though some in the film industry think the filmmakers behind Birth of a Nation and Crazy Rich Asians have been hesitant to see their movies streamed on home televisions rather than play in theaters around the world, Gyllenhaal said shes grateful for the extra exposure afforded by the popular platform. Why is it that people who live only in New York and San Francisco and L.A. and have an art house theater in their city can see movies that are asking you to think for yourself, asking you to think about things that are difficult or complicated, she said during a recent Envelope Live screening of the film. It turns out that many people want that. Advertisement After the screening, held Nov. 19 at the Montalban in Hollywood, Gyllenhaal took part in a discussion with Times reporter Glenn Whipp about the film in which she also revealed that the notoriously secretive Netflix had shared viewership statistics for the film with her and director Sara Colangelo. Literally our jaws were on the floor, Gyllenhaal said. Theres no universe in which even a fraction of that number of people would have seen this movie [in theaters]. She later added, This movie would have had no life without them. Before Netflix came along, the film had a tough time securing financing. Even when the money did come through, the cast and crew were forced to complete filming in just 22 days. We didnt want to shoot it in 22 days, she said. I was changing my clothes in the bathroom on the Staten Island Ferry and like no one should be naked in the Staten Island Ferry bathroom. And yet, were a group of women. Were used to it, we do what we do, we take the tiny bit of money that its taken us years to raise and we make our movie. Thankfully, Gyllenhaal revealed some helpful words of wisdom from her Crazy Heart costar Jeff Bridges that helped put things in perspective on set. Politics also had a big influence on the production because the film was being shot in New York the summer after President Trump was elected. I definitely think that informed the movie, Gyllenhaal said. I think in New York, where we were shooting at that time, there was a kind of combination of a kind of despair and like a radical energy. The actress also drew parallels between the journey of her character to the journey many women have been going through since Trump was voted into the White House. Shes like waking up to something that she had been asleep to and I think thats what happening to lots of women right now. I think thats part of why theres a cultural shift, like a really exciting cultural shift thats happening, she said. Thank you to Donald Trump for that, in some ways, for stirring all that up in all of us. Star and producer Maggie Gyllenhaal describes a feeling of despair and ... radical energy resulting from Donald Trumps election and says the way many women have emotionally responded to his win is definitely in The Kindergarten Teacher. The result is a film that spans across multiple genres, according to Gyllenhaal. It surprised me how undefinable it feels, she said. Its one of the things Im most proud of about it. For more information on future Envelope Live screenings and events, click here. They were arguably the first all-female rock band of importance. The five-member Ace of Cups was based in San Francisco at the height of the Haight, when the neighborhood in the 60s was known for its outsider art and hippie culture. They performed with such acts as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish and Jefferson Airplane. Bill Graham picked them to open for a then-new group called the Band, and Jimi Hendrix, upon returning to England, sang their praises (I heard some groovy sounds last time in the States, like this girl group, Ace of Cups). Original and openly feminist, the act never scored a record deal. Advertisement Until now. Today, with each of the women of Ace of Cups in her 70s, the band has been re-discovered. This month the act released its self-titled debut album via High Moon Records. This is a dream deferred, says Denise Kaufman, who plays guitar, bass and harmonica and has written much of the groups material. Its magical, adds guitarist Mary Ellen Simpson, who is simultaneously celebrating another grandchild. Adds longtime fan Jackson Browne, Ive been waiting 45 years for the debut. The five original Cups Kaufman, Simpson, Diane Vitalich, Mary Gannon and Marla Hunt (Hunt is not involved now) met amid the haze of Haight-Ashbury on New Years Eve in 1966. Then in their late teens or early 20s, they were in school or held clerical day jobs. Gannon, a former Miss Monterey, was working in an all-night doughnut shop, Simpson was studying art at a city college and Kaufman was employed at Fantasy Records, the label famous for its association with Creedence Clearwater Revival. But their passion was making music, and once they merged, they would often practice in Fantasys upstairs studio. Eventually, they landed a manager and started getting gigs in venues like the Avalon and the Fillmore. Their songs upended the It Must Be Him sentiments they grew up hearing and boast lyrics like, There are a whole lotta people tryin to mess with your mind. They were soon part of the fabric of their place and time. None more so than Kaufman, who dropped out of UC Berkeley (where she was arrested in the free-speech protests) at 18, and temporarily hopped on Ken Keseys Merry Pranksters bus. At various points, she was apparently the focus of many a famous males life. (Hint: Check out the current biographies of Paul Simon and Jann Wenner) But the summers of love eventually ended, and by 1972, the Ace of Cups moment had passed. I like to say we faded away, says drummer Vitalich. What followed were their version of normal lives: relationships, babies and geographical changes or, in the words of Gannon, a lot of hookups and wrong choices. Simpson returned to school and eventually became a substance abuse and mental health specialist. Gannon also went back to college and got a degree in education. Vitalich cleaned houses three days a week, and Kaufman, who was married briefly and gave birth to a daughter, moved part time to Kauai, where she started an organic farm, which is still operating, and with six local women opened a private school for kindergartners to 12th graders. She later became a yoga instructor, and her celebrity clientele has included Madonna, Quincy Jones and Jane Fonda. Despite the divergent paths, music was a constant. Ace of Cups in 1967, from left: Mary Simpson, Denise Kaufman, Diane Vitalich, Mary Gannon and Marla Hunt. (Lisa Law) I never put down the guitar, says Simpson, who, like Vitalich and Gannon, played locally with several bands over the years. There was some pain in watching decades go by, as girl groups like the Bangles and Runaways emerged, and proved you could strum and scream and still sell records. I felt glad for them, but I did feel sad that we had so much music out there that so many people had never heard, says Kaufman. That may change. Alec Palao, a writer, archivist and 60s music aficionado who has worked with various record labels on reissues from the era, in 2003 tracked down some Ace of Cups private recordings and started promoting them. He eventually caught the attention of George Wallace, who runs New Yorks High Noon Records. Wallace, now in his 40s, remembered seeing old posters from concerts of the 60s when he was in high school. I kept seeing the words Ace of Cups and wondered what that meant, he recalls. I truly thought it might be a catering company. Wallace fell hard when he heard the bands music and agreed to release an album and set out to find the right studio producer. The Cups lobbied for a woman but were satisfied when Dan Shea was enlisted. He had worked successfully with female artists like Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez, and had Northern California roots. He and Wallace knew instinctively that an album just for nostalgic purposes would not be enough: that the songs most have their beginnings in the 60s, though a few are new had to stand alone. Some of the songs are virtually unchanged from the way they played them in the late 60s, says Shea, and others went through some major rewrites. That can be a difficult thing if people have lived with a song for 50 years and then suddenly some guy says, OK, the verse should actually be the chorus, this one verse should be the bridge, and the introduction should be the verse. The final sound is a combination of rock, folk and blues with a garage-band sensibility. I like to say its trans-genre, says Kaufman. The result is a double album with 21 tracks and contributions from some old friends and fans like Bob Weir, Taj Mahal and Buffy St. Marie. Ace of Cups members always prided themselves on refusing to go softer or sexier or to be backed up by men. Now, of course, they face another potential enemy: ageism. All are proudly gray, and as Vitalich says, We just want to look the best we can for our age, and we are finding it empowering to not try to be what we used to be. The response and good vibes are already starting. San Francisco public television station KQED composed an eight-minute documentary about the group and received 5 million views. Im overwhelmed by the blessings that have come to us, says Vitalich. The goals now are to sell some records, perhaps have their music used in film and television, and even find new young listeners. Or maybe even a Grammy. Kaufman, a proud 72, smiles and says, Wed love to get nominated for best new artist. The U.S.-Mexico border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry was closed in both directions for several hours on Sunday after hundreds of migrants rushed the area. The same day saw earlier protests on the U.S. side of the border. Here are some scenes from around the area this week. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press) 1. People march in support of the migrant caravan near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego on Sunday. Shortly after the march, migrants approaching the border from Mexico were enveloped with tear gas after a number of them tried to breach the fence separating the two countries. (David Guzman / EFE / TNS) Advertisement 2. Border police use tear gar to prevent migrants with the Central American caravan from crossing the border into the United States near the El Chaparral Port of Entry in Tijuana on Sunday. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3. Migrants with the Central American caravan breach a line set up by Mexicos Federal Police on Sunday, then access a flood channel, making their way toward the United States. (Pedro Pardo / AFP/Getty Images) 4. A group of Central American migrants, mostly Hondurans, climb a metal barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border near the El Chaparral Port of Entry in Tijuana on Sunday. U.S. officials closed the San Ysidro crossing point in Southern California that day after hundreds of Central American migrants tried to breach a fence. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5. Thousands from the Central American migrant caravan are being housed at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex in Tijuana. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5. Jose Rodrigues, left, his friend Belkys Godoy and her son, Axel Godoy, look over photos on his cellphone Tuesday at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex, which is serving as a temporary migrant shelter. UPDATES: Nov. 28, 11:55 a.m.: This article was updated with additional photographs and information about Sundays events at the U.S.-Mexico border. This article was originally published on Nov. 27 at 11:50 a.m. The unrest at this border crossing Sunday in which some asylum seekers and immigrants in Tijuana rushed toward the U.S. side and the Border Patrol fired tear gas at them has heightened anxiety among those trying to enter the United States. By noon Monday, 40 people seeking asylum had entered the San Ysidro Port of Entry, said a crew of asylum seekers who manage an unofficial notebook that lists the name of everyone seeking asylum at this particular port. Twenty of the asylum seekers mostly mothers and children waited along a white fence near the U.S.-Mexico border. They were not part of the recent caravan. Instead, theyve resided in Tijuana for more than a month, waiting for their turn to give themselves up to U.S. border officials. Advertisement Alicia Ramirez of Mexico City corralled her toddlers, bought a pack of cookies and rushed her 3-year-old to a nearby bathroom in preparation to enter. She said she felt relieved that shed get to enter soon after more than a month of waiting at a shelter. Yesterday, her hopes sank when she heard the port of entry had closed after a group of people rushed the border fence. Ramirez, who said she is seeking asylum in the U.S. after a group of drug dealers threatened her life, said she is still upset with those involved in the skirmish. They are trying to just run in. Thats not the way to do it. I know we all want to go in, but it takes time and there is a proper process, she said. Ive waited a month, even though Im still in danger. Ramirez, who made a living as a coffin maker, said she was poor but managed to get by. The 22-year-old said she never wanted to leave her home but was forced to after a group of drug dealers broke into her home over the summer. She happened to catch them in the act, and thats when her troubles began. Ramirez said she promised the men she wouldnt report the break-in. But her extended family got involved and called police. Were going to kill you in front of your children, the men told her after they found out. She fled days later. Ramirez said she would have stayed in Tijuana or elsewhere in Mexico but found out the men have ties throughout Mexico, including the border. Monday, she and other women waiting to enter the port, shook their heads as they talked about the altercation. Thats just not the way to do it, one woman told another. Now we are all in trouble. Dennis Martinez, a 34-year-old Honduran seeking asylum, is part of a crew of six men in charge of managing the notebook. Usually, anywhere from 20 to 30 names are called from the ledger. None of the 20 who were called yesterday entered Sunday after the border altercation, he said. The skirmish forced the U.S. government to shut down the San Ysidro Port of Entry, one of the worlds busiest international crossings, for more than four hours Sunday. A growing number of migrants from Central America has made the arduous trek up through Mexico in caravans to seek asylum in the U.S. or escape economic hardship. Many are from Honduras, a country plagued by poverty and violence. Martinez, who said he is fleeing a death threat from a gang in his hometown of Tegucigalpa, joined the caravan with his 15-year-old son in Mexico before forging ahead. He arrived a week earlier than the group. Since the caravan arrived, about 500 have asked for their names to be added to the notebook, he said. They have come little by little to sign up. But there hasnt been a rush, he said. He doesnt know why. Monday, Martinez directed people toward a plastic fold-up table underneath a blue canopy. There, an asylum seeker from Peru asked for identification before scrawling down their names in blue ink. While Martinez said he doesnt agree with those who tried to rush the border, he said he can understand the peoples desperation especially mothers with small children. Here, we are still in danger, he said. The Mexican people here are bothered by our presence. They look us up and down. There were protests. Some dont want us here. Initially, Martinez had thought about staying in Tijuana and finding work. But he realized that the border city is not safe for foreigners like him, he said. Im escaping a dangerous situation, he said. Why would I then put myself in danger, again? Returning is not an option, he said, and neither is staying. Im between a rock and the wall, Martinez said. Im not sure what to do if they shut down the border. He wont entertain the thought of returning. No. I just know they wont shut down the border permanently, Martinez said. It wont happen. Sundays altercation made it even more dangerous to stay in Tijuana, he said. I can understand why the Mexican people are bothered by us, he said. Some are not respectful. But they are giving us all a bad name. Instead, they should come here and put themselves on the list, he said, pointing to the black-and-white ledger. Martinez estimated that he still has about two weeks before his turn. I still have hope that I will enter, legally, he said. Im not trying to jump the wall. Many of us arent. Why should we be punished for what a few have done. cindy.carcamo@latimes.com Twitter: @theCindyCarcamo They trudged single file up a dirt trail to a hillside shoulder of open land in Rancho San Diego. It was a clear midweek morning, with views to San Miguel Mountain and the Sweetwater Reservoir. Nobody in the group of about 15 people admired the scenery. Their heads were down, looking at a patch of parched coastal sage scrub where, if all goes well, 20 years of thinking, hoping and planning will take wing. Many, many wings, actually. Theyre trying to save a tiny butterfly from extinction. Advertisement Paige Howorth arrived carrying a large plastic bin filled with rice-sized Quino checkerspot caterpillars hatched in a lab at the San Diego Zoo, where she is associate curator of invertebrates. Precious cargo, she said. The caterpillars, tucked inside cones made from blue paper towels, rested in a state called diapause. Theyll sleep until the winter rains come and nature takes its course. The rain will prompt California plantain a small, grass-like herb to sprout, and thats like a loud dinner bell to the insects. Theyll wake up to eat, fueling their metamorphosis into butterflies. Thats the idea, anyway. Howorth and her colleagues scientists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Conservation Biology Institute, the U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies have had some success with this approach on nearby sites. But theres still much they dont know, and theyre constantly tweaking their methods and their equipment. Howorth pulled the lid off the storage bin and gingerly removed a small plastic cup. Inside were several of the paper towel cones, each holding a dozen or so caterpillars. Using a pair of tweezers, she tucked the cones one by one into a softball-sized metal cage, or pod. When it was manufactured, the pod was painted red or green and sold as a seed feeder for birds. Now it was a makeshift ark, lined with peat moss and painted beige to blend in with the shrubs. Howorth kept the pod upright so that the caterpillars wouldnt spill out of their cones. She put the lid on and wired it shut. The first one is ready! she called out. Canary in the coal mine Why should we care about a butterfly with a wingspan of less than 2 inches? What difference does it make if it disappears? The world would be less beautiful, for one thing. The Quino has dramatic markings, a checkerboard of orange, white and black on its wings that sometimes makes people mistake it for the larger and more famous monarch butterfly. And it plays an important role in the wild, pollinating plants and becoming meals for birds and reptiles. Butterflies react quickly to fluctuations in the environment, and that is why scientists have long watched them as indicators for the overall health of an ecosystem, even more so now amid climate change. We start losing insects, and everything gets out of sync, said Susan Wynn, a Fish and Wildlife biologist. The Quino checkerspot is a canary in the coal mine. The effort to save it comes amid what scientists have identified as the sixth wave of mass extinction in the Earths history and the first since the loss of the dinosaurs. Dozens of species disappear every day. Across the globe, groups are working to buck that trend. Well into the 1970s, the Quino checkerspot was among the most abundant butterflies in Southern California, with a range that stretched from the coast near Ventura County east to the Tehachapi Mountains and south to northern Baja California. Millions of them flitted about every spring. Construction projects houses, business parks, shopping malls, freeways destroyed many of the habitats and fragmented others. Nonnative plants choked off the vegetation used by the butterflies for shelter and feeding. Fire and drought worked their own mayhem. By the late 1990s, about 75% of what the butterfly used to call home was gone. It disappeared from Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties, barely holding on in pockets of southwestern Riverside and southern San Diego counties. The overall population fell an estimated 95%, and in 1997 the Quino was added to the federal endangered species list. About the same time, Wynn and other scientists were assessing the environmental impacts of what would become state Route 125, the north-south highway that runs from Otay Mesa to Santee. Among the species directly affected was the Quino checkerspot. It lived along the route in Otay Mesa, one of just six places in the county where it was known to exist. To offset the loss of that site, a mitigation program was adopted that included raising caterpillars in captivity, restoring habitat and developing a management plan to keep the Quino population from dwindling further. It took two decades to put everything in place the funding, the land, the science but thats what brought the group to the hillside in Rancho San Diego this month. Sleepy caterpillars Wynn walked over to where Howorth was sitting and reached down for the beige pod and its cargo of Quino caterpillars. She took it to a buckwheat plant several yards away and knelt to get close to the ground. Using strands of wire, she attached the pod to the plant on two sides to keep it from tipping over. John Martin, another Fish and Wildlife biologist, arrived with a second pod and secured it to another branch of the same plant. The pods protect the caterpillars from lizards and birds until its time to emerge, which they do by crawling through small openings in the sides. The buckwheat where Wynn and Martin had tucked the pods was chosen because of its proximity to patches of plantain, the annual herb that is the meal of choice for the caterpillars. As the other pods were being put in place 35 of them on this day Spring Strahm, an ecologist with the Conservation Biology Institute, pulled out handmade laminated signs to be attached to the buckwheat too. Sleepy caterpillars, the signs read. Please do not disturb. In the middle of each sign is a drawing of a caterpillar wearing a nightcap. It looks as though it was done by a child, and that is intentional, Strahm said. Experience has shown that signs drawn by children are less likely to be removed by vandals. Vandals? They may turn out to be a problem at this release site, one of four in the 12,000-acre San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. Its right next to a trail. There are broken bottles and other human debris nearby. The Quino team arrived to find that small flags stuck in the ground to pinpoint where the pods should go had been yanked out. Martin suspected the culprit was someone mistakenly believing that the flags marked the boundaries for a new house. There was no way to know for sure, though, which didnt seem to bother anybody. Theyre used to uncertainty. Two years ago, when they released the first group of caterpillars, we were taking a big leap of faith, Wynn said faith that was rewarded when a strong rainy season led to hundreds of butterflies. We were giddy, Wynn said. Some of the butterflies were captured and taken to the zoo to deliver more eggs so many eggs, 4,500, that the team added additional sites for last years caterpillar release. Everyone was eager for another, even larger bounty. But the winter was dry, and there were hardly any butterflies this spring. The good news is that Quino checkerspots have the ability to remain in diapause for longer than a year if they sense the conditions arent right to emerge. That apparently is what most of them did. They could still take flight. Fingers crossed The scientists remain optimistic. A new batch of caterpillars is in place, another step in the process of creating a core population that can survive the boom-and-bust cycles that are a part of nature. In the coming weeks, the pods will be monitored regularly to make sure no vandalism or other problems have occurred. In her job as a government biologist, Wynn spends a lot of time in meetings, sitting at tables with developers, lawyers and city planners. This outing was not like that. Were outdoors, putting a plan into action that weve worked hard on for a long time, she said. Like the others, she had her fingers crossed, figuratively if not literally. Fingers crossed for good rainfall, for plentiful plantain and for a spring full of winged wonder. Now, she said, we wait. Wilkens writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musks tunneling company has dropped its plans to dig beneath Sepulveda Boulevard on the Westside, months after a lawsuit alleged that the city of Los Angeles violated state law when it sought to exempt the tunnel from environmental review. In a joint statement Tuesday, Musks firm Boring Co. and the group of Westside advocates that sued over the project in May said they had amicably settled the lawsuit. An attorney for the groups said the settlement agreement was confidential. Instead of pursuing plans to dig beneath Sepulveda on the Westside, Musks tunneling company will focus on an underground link between Dodger Stadium and a Metro station about 3 miles away, the statement said. The lawsuit and the settlement agreement mark the first major setback for Musks ambitious goals for tunneling in California. Advertisement Last year, when Boring Co. first began digging a tunnel in the parking lot across the street from the headquarters of Musks aerospace company, SpaceX, in Hawthorne, he said he hoped a tunnel could be completed from Los Angeles International Airport to the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley in a year or so. Instead, he encountered one of the most familiar elements of a Los Angeles construction project: an environmental lawsuit. The company moved briskly through the permit process at first, securing a preliminary exemption from Californias stringent environmental review requirements. Officials on the Los Angeles City Councils public works committee said at the time that the project would not require an in-depth environmental review because it would not carry passengers. But before the City Council could vote on the issue, a group of Westside advocates the Sunset Coalition, the Brentwood Residents Coalition and its president, Wendy-Sue Rosen sued, arguing in court that the Sepulveda tunnel would be part of a much larger planned underground transportation network. The lawsuit cited a map that Musk had posted online that showed a web of possible tunnel routes across the Southland, with a line that appeared to trace the route of the 405 Freeway and Sepulveda Boulevard. The lawsuit said California law bars public agencies from granting piecemeal approval to one component of a larger construction project. The states stringent environmental review requirements cannot be evaded by chopping large projects into smaller pieces that taken individually appear to have no significant environmental impacts, the suit said. The Westside groups also challenged a city commissions decision to approve a route that Boring Co. would use for hauling 80,000 cubic yards of dirt from the tunnel, based on a determination that the project was exempt from environmental review requirements. In the South Bay, Boring Co. is making progress on a tunnel that runs for a little more than a mile beneath 120th Street in the city of Hawthorne. Musk has said that the tunnel will open to the public next month. laura.nelson@latimes.com For more transportation news, follow @laura_nelson on Twitter. Reshape ADF for relevance, departing president says Departing Australian Dairy Farmers president Terry Richardson says the peak dairy body needs to be significantly changed to stay relevant and the states will need to help make it happen. The Global Mayors Forum, a high-end event for city leaders to discuss pressing urban issues and sustainable development, will kick off in Guangzhou on Dec. 6. The three-day conference has attracted over 40 leaders from six continents, as well as over 400 scholars and experts from around the world. The upcoming forum will provide a platform for Chinese cities to communicate and cooperate with their foreign counterparts, while Chinas urban development ideas can also be voiced through this event, said Li Xikui, Secretary General of Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. First established in 2005, the forum is a stage for global urban decision makers and stakeholders to exchange insights and share their efforts. Cities around the globe will be provided chances to cooperate in the areas of urban development, economy and culture. Echoing Li, Chen Zhiying, deputy mayor of Guangzhou, further noted that the forum would focus on global openness and innovation, calling for international cooperation and win-win solutions for cities around the world. In addition to the forum, the 2018 Urban Innovation Conference and the 4th Edition of Guangzhou Award will also be hosted in Guangzhou during the same period, with five innovative cities being selected and rewarded for their unique sustainable development methods. More than 7,000 nurses who work in one of the countrys largest public health systems are expected to begin a strike at 7 a.m. Tuesday, protesting what they describe as unsafe and illegal patient-to-nurse ratios and generally inadequate staffing. Registered nurses and nurse practitioners at Los Angeles County hospitals and community-based clinics will participate, including those who work in emergency rooms, operating rooms, intensive care units and mental health centers, according to Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents the nurses. They will picket outside of hospitals and hold a demonstration at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning, a union spokeswoman said. They have been authorized to strike for four days. About 200 nurses identified by their union and the county as crucial to patient safety have received line passes to cross the picket line and will continue to work, SEIU spokeswoman Coral Itzcalli said in an interview. Advertisement Still, Itzcalli said, a strike is a strike. Theres going to be an impact. Thats why we are urging management to take this seriously. The nurses labor contract with the county expired in September. They voted to go on strike, Itzcalli said, because they regularly carry patient loads higher than the maximum allowed by state law. That violation puts patients at risk and it also puts the nurses at risk personally because of their licensing, Itzcalli said. The countys inability to retain qualified nurses is also a main sticking point. While L.A. County can recruit and hire nurses, they cannot keep them, union president Bob Schoonover said at a Board of Supervisors meeting this month. Schoonover said that L.A. County-USC Medical Center hired 100 ER nurses in the last three years but lost 66. Nursing is a profession where experience matters, where the insight [and] knowledge that only comes with time can be the difference between life and death, Schoonover told the supervisors. A spokeswoman for the county declined to comment, but the Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on whether to authorize the countys Health Agency to hire additional staff on contract, transfer patients to private facilities and reimburse those providers at higher-than-normal rates in order to respond during the strike. nina.agrawal@latimes.com Twitter: @AgrawalNina When the Woolsey fire swept into the exclusive neighborhood of Bell Canyon, resident Yen Hsieh grabbed her late music teachers 200-year-old cello, some belongings and her sons betta fish Sparky and fled, not sure whether her home would be destroyed. More than 30 homes in the gated Ventura County community were lost, but Hsiehs survived. Bell Canyon was protected by both county firefighters and a private crew covered by her homeowners insurance policy. Hsieh said its not clear which of the firefighters private or publicly funded were responsible for saving her home, but shes grateful. I just want to hug every one of them, she said. Advertisement With California experiencing two years of unprecedented wildfires that have left more than 20,000 homes destroyed and scores dead, the private firefighting business is booming. These brigades work independently from county firefighters; their job is to protect specific homes under contract with insurance companies. Their work can vary from pushing back flames as they approach properties to reaching the site before the blaze arrives and spraying homes with fire retardant. But the private forces have generated complaints from some fire departments, who say they dont always coordinate with local crews and amount to one more worry as they try to evacuate residents and battle the blaze. From the standpoint of first responders, they are not viewed as assets to be deployed. Theyre viewed as a responsibility, said Carroll Wills, communications director for California Professional Firefighters, a labor union representing rank-and-file firefighters in the state. What began more than a decade ago as a white-glove service for homeowners in well-to-do neighborhoods has expanded in recent years as the wildfire danger has increased, said Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, a not-for-profit organization that educates the public about the insurance industry. Private firefighting crews that work on behalf of insurance companies, such as Chubb and USAA, say they provide an additional layer of protection for homeowners who opt into the service as part of their insurance policies. The policies range in cost from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars annually, depending on the homes insured value and other factors. Roughly a dozen insurance companies contract with Wildfire Defense Systems to protect their insured properties. When the Woolsey, Hill and Camp fires broke out this month, the firm mobilized a battalion that included 53 firetrucks, more than 100 firefighters and 50 workers in supporting roles, said David Torgerson, Wildfires president. The company operates in 18 states, and its a familiar presence in California. Over the last 11 years, it has fought more than 100 fires statewide, making up a third of its total responses. During a wildfire, the private crews might not visit every home insured under the program but base their location decisions on where flames are advancing and where homes have a high likelihood of being destroyed without their assistance. Wildfire Defense Systems doesnt provide coverage for individual landowners who dont have the service built into their insurance policies. However, homeowners can call on other private fleets to protect their homes a service that comes with a hefty cost but is relatively uncommon. Those arrangements make up roughly 5% of the industry, Torgerson said. Kim Kardashian went on Instragram to thank firefighters for saving her Hidden Hills estate and told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview that she hired a private crew to protect her property. Our house is right on the end of a big park, so the whole park had caught fire and so if our house went, then every other house would go, she said. I dont take that for granted, and that was such a blessing that we were able to do that. Crews deployed by insurance companies dont exclusively serve wealthy homeowners but also protect middle-class homes in rural areas, like those that were threatened during last years wine country fires and the Camp fire in Butte County this month, Torgerson said. Its unclear how many private firefighting crews were battling the Woolsey blaze, which burned through some of Southern Californias more affluent areas including Malibu, Calabasas and Westlake Village. Were responding to addresses, Torgerson said. Were not responding based on home values. A Wildfire Defense Systems firefighter serving USAA Insurance applies a vegetative retardant on bush that halted the Mendocino Complex fire from advancing onto a property near Largo, Calif., earlier this year. (USAA Insurance) For insurance officials, the benefits are obvious because its less expensive to dispatch private firefighters to save a property than it would be to replace an entire house and everything in it. The California Department of Insurance reported that claims from the wildfires that ravaged California during the tail end of 2017 reached nearly $12 billion, making last years fire season the costliest on record. Numbers for the current year havent been tallied, but analysts say the situation doesnt appear to be improving. The Camp fire decimated the town of Paradise, turning more than 13,000 homes to rubble. In Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the Woolsey fire destroyed 1,500 structures, including many homes. Its clear, unfortunately, that just when I dont think it can get any worse in terms of structures destroyed, it seems to get a lot worse, said Chris Anthony, an assistant chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. If these insurance companies are trying to mitigate risk and liability, the trends are pretty clear the numbers are going to rise as fires get worse. From an economic standpoint, it makes total sense what theyre trying to accomplish. Chubb has been working with Wildfire Defense Systems since 2008, offering the service as part of its standard homeowners policy for properties in wildfire-exposed areas. Roughly 50,000 clients are enrolled across the country, said Frances OBrien, chief of the companys North America Personal Risk Services branch. If a private fleet reaches an insured home before its damaged, their approach is largely preventive. They look for anything around the property that could fuel a fire, like stacked wood or unmanaged vegetation, OBrien said. Cushions on patio furniture can be very flammable. Crews will rake vegetation around the home, close windows and vents, spray retardant the same pink-hued substance thats dropped out of airplanes during wildfires on brush and, in some cases, spray a home with a gel-like substance that protects it from falling embers. The fleets trucks also store water for dousing flames or putting out hot spots around homes. Ventura County Fire Capt. Brian McGrath said private fleets dont coordinate well with incident commanders, can be a liability for firefighters on the front lines and can make their job more difficult. Though McGrath said hes never personally encountered a situation in which a private firefighter needed to be rescued, he said having them in the field can be a hazard for professional crews. The crews presence on major fires became a point of contention in 2008, which prompted Firescope, an organization that manages Californias Wildland Fire Incident Command System, to develop guidelines for how the private companies should operate. Those standards, which include a provision for private fleets to check in with commanders so fire departments know where they plan to deploy, were formalized into law in a state Assembly bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September. Our No.1 operation priority is always life safety, McGrath said. When we think an area has been evacuated and theyre in there, wed have to go back and try to get them out. Its a liability and safety issue. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry jack.flemming@latimes.com Twitter: @jflem94 Sam Little, the convicted murderer who earlier this year claimed he had killed at least 90 women across the U.S., has confessed to slayings in at least 37 cities stretching back decades, including more than a dozen in Southern California, according to an FBI timeline made public Tuesday. Little, 78, had been a target of law enforcement for decades after he was linked to the strangulation deaths of prostitutes in Mississippi and Florida in the 1980s, but he eluded conviction. In 2012, a cold-case investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department led to Littles capture in Louisville, Ky., and his eventual conviction in 2014 in three murders. He stayed silent in a California prison until May, when Texas Ranger James Holland began to develop a rapport with him, investigators have said. Since September, Little has confessed to 90 killings, and the FBI team working with Holland has corroborated his involvement in 34 of those cases, with many more pending confirmation, according to an article published on the FBIs website Tuesday. Advertisement Shayne Buchwald, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said she could not immediately release the list of corroborated killings. The Times has independently confirmed Littles suspected involvement in killings in Los Angeles; Gulfport, Miss.; Pascagoula, Miss.; and Gainesville, Fla., during interviews with several investigators. Little went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he had killed in each place, including three people in Phoenix, and one each in Jackson, Miss., Cincinnati and Las Vegas, said Christina Palazzolo, a criminal analyst with the FBIs Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. According to a map made public by the FBI on Tuesday, Little has confessed to homicides in 37 cities. A former boxer, Little stunned or knocked out his victims with a punch in many cases before strangling them to death. Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman, the prosecutor who secured a conviction against Little in Los Angeles in 2014, has said he killed for sexual gratification. Eighteen of those killings, including the three for which Little was convicted in 2014, took place in Los Angeles, according to the FBI. The additional 15 slayings he confessed to took place between 1987 and 1996, according to the FBI, but none of those have been corroborated. Little also confessed to the 1984 killing of a woman in San Bernardino, but that death also has yet to be corroborated. Little, who was known to float in and out of cities in the Southeast and was described by investigators as a transient, also confessed to 10 killings in Florida, four of which took place in Miami. The other uncorroborated killings took place in Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas, according to the FBI. Police in San Bernardino, Phoenix and Omaha also told The Times they had been made aware of Littles confessions and were trying to corroborate his involvement in cold case slayings in those cities. The Times chronicled Littles professed string of killings earlier this week. Some investigators have suggested Littles choice of victims may have insulated him from capture for years. Lt. Darren Versiga, an investigator in Pascagoula, where Little has confessed to one slaying and may have attacked at least two other women, said police may have been hesitant to believe assault claims from black prostitutes in the Deep South 30 or 40 years ago. At that time frame, through societal ways, we just didnt believe prostitutes when they cried rape, Versiga told The Times last week. Little remembered his victims and the individual slayings in great detail, according to the FBI, in some cases drawing pictures of victims and crime scenes. He has struggled to remember the exact dates of the killings, however, sometimes describing incidents that took place in a different year from any comparable cases, the FBI said. His transience, and the manner in which he killed women, also made Little elusive. Federal investigators said Little has been in and out of police custody since 1956, often stealing money for alcohol and drugs as he moved. In at least one instance, he drove from New Jersey to California in just a few days, Palazzolo said. In many cases, police detained and released Little, just hoping hed leave their jurisdiction, she said. Littles attacks did not always leave visible injuries, according to the FBI, meaning many of his attacks were not initially ruled homicides. With no stab marks or bullet wounds, many of these deaths were not classified as homicides but attributed to drug overdoses, accidents or natural cause, the FBI said. Still, Littles repeated trips in and out of police custody have frustrated some detectives and prosecutors who hunted him. Did he kill 10 women? Did he kill 20? Silverman said. I think he made a mockery of the justice system up and down the United States. In Los Angeles, Little said he killed six black women in 1987, all between the ages of 19 and 50. He claimed to have killed an additional five victims between 1990 and 1993 and another four women in 1996. Mitzi Roberts, the Los Angeles police detective who guided Littles arrest in 2012, said the department has put together a task force to investigate the killings here, and hopes to gather enough evidence to prosecute him for each murder. We definitely have a strategy and its just not going to be an easy process but were definitely focused on it and were going to do everything we can, she said. Little is being held in Odessa, Texas, where he has been charged with murder in the 1994 death of Denise Brothers. His attorney has not responded to requests for comment. The FBI said Little is in poor health and will likely stay in prison in Texas until his death. james.queally@latimes.com Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California. UPDATES: 1:30 p.m.: This story was updated with additional information from the LAPD and the FBI. This story was first published at 11 a.m. A Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy was found to be at fault in a crash that left two children dead in Boyle Heights last year, but she will not face criminal charges, court records show. Carrie Esmeralda Robles-Placencia, a young deputy who was new to field work, was responding to a report of a shooting when her vehicle was involved in a chain-reaction crash near Whittier Boulevard and Indiana Street in November 2017 that left 7-year-old Jose Luis Hernandez and his 9-year-old brother, Marcos, dead. She did not activate her siren as she pulled into the intersection against a red light. Robles-Placencias cruiser was struck by another vehicle, and the crash launched the deputys vehicle onto a sidewalk, where it struck the boys and their mother. Both children died from their injuries a short time later. Their mother, Maria Veronica Solis Munoz, suffered a crushed pelvis and several broken bones, according to a memo released Monday by the district attorneys office. Advertisement Prosecutors said an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department showed the crash was caused by Robles-Placencias decision to enter the intersection on a red light without due regard for the safety of all persons. Several other pedestrians also were struck and injured. But there was not enough evidence to charge Robles-Placencia with vehicular manslaughter, according to the memo, which was filed Nov. 16, one year after the deadly wreck. Robles-Placencia and the training officer who was riding with her, Vincent Moran, remain employed and assigned to the East L.A. sheriffs station, according to Nicole Nishida, a sheriffs department spokeswoman. She declined to comment further because of a pending wrongful death suit filed by Munoz. An attorney for the family did not respond to a request for comment. Robles-Placencia, who had been with the Sheriffs Department for roughly three years, accelerated to about 60 mph after receiving a call about a shooting roughly two miles away, according to the filing. She came to a near or complete stop when she approached the intersection of Whittier Boulevard and Indiana Street, then activated the vehicles overhead lights before entering the intersection. As she entered the intersection, the deputy collided with a Honda Accord, which spun and struck another vehicle traveling north on Indiana Street, according to the filing. Her vehicle was traveling only about 14 mph when the collision happened, but the force of the crash and the fact that Robles-Placencia may have accidentally stepped on the gas after her vehicle was struck caused it to speed up, the investigation found. According to the filing, the collision caused the deputys vehicle to swerve and nearly hit a pedestrian in the crosswalk, before slamming into the Hernandez brothers, their mother and a nearby Wells Fargo bank branch. The wreck infuriated some in the neighborhood, who criticized the deputys driving as needlessly reckless. Youre supposed to turn on your lights, sirens and check before taking off, Hector Lopez, who was in the area and heard the wreck before running to the scene, said last year. In the lawsuit filed last month, Munoz claimed Robles-Placencia failed to follow emergency procedures and Moran failed to properly train her. Given the neighborhood, traffic and road conditions existing at the time, an accident was almost surely to happen, the lawsuit read. The crash was not the first time a deputys poor driving led to a death. In 2013, sheriffs Deputy Kamal Jannah failed to turn on his lights and sirens when answering a non-emergency call in Palmdale. Records show Jannah was traveling up to 83 mph when he barreled through an intersection and struck a vehicle, killing Sara Paynter and Robert Delgadillo, a recently engaged couple. Jannah was not criminally charged, but he no longer is employed by the Sheriffs Department, which had to pay $4 million to settle a wrongful death suit last year. james.queally@latimes.com Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California. A Seattle man has been charged with two counts of assault in connection with a possible hate crime that took place near a Los Angeles synagogue last week, but his family said Tuesday he had been battling schizophrenia for years and bore no hatred toward the Jewish community. Mohamed Abdi Mohamed, 32, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement on Tuesday, and will remain in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail. Wearing a wrinkled dress shirt, Mohamed bit his lip and appeared slightly nervous during the brief hearing in a downtown courtroom. Mohamed rented a car in Seattle on Friday and drove to Los Angeles, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Ceballos, who also said Mohamed had worked as a Lyft driver in recent years. Investigators did not say whether Mohamed specifically targeted Congregation Bais Yehuda, but Ceballos said Mohamed did not have ties to the Los Angeles area. Kaelan Richards, Lyfts senior manager of policy and safety, said Mohamed was not driving for the ride-hailing company at the time of the attack, but he has since been permanently banned. The company did not respond to questions about how long Mohamed had been a driver or when he last drove for Lyft. Advertisement Mohamed was taken into custody Friday after Los Angeles police officers said he drove past the Hancock Park synagogue and shouted anti-Semitic slurs and other profanity in the direction of several Jewish people who were exiting a service, LAPD Deputy Chief Horace Frank said Monday. Two men identified only by their ages, 37 and 57 believed Mohamed was acting suspiciously and kept an eye on him. Frank said Mohamed made a U-turn and barreled toward both men as if to run them down near La Brea and Oakwood avenues. Both men escaped unharmed. Mohamed tried to flee but got into a car crash and was arrested a short time later. A knife was found in Mohameds car, but police do not think he owns any firearms, according to Frank, who said the LAPD is working in conjunction with the FBIs Los Angeles field office to investigate the attack. A copy of the Koran was also found in the vehicle, according to a law enforcement official who requested anonymity in order to discuss the case candidly. Federal prosecutors may consider possible hate crime or domestic terror charges against Mohamed, police said, though a spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In a statement released Tuesday, Mohameds relatives said he held no hatred toward the Jewish community. He had been suffering from schizophrenia since at least 2015, according to medical records reviewed by The Times. He was recently seeking treatment in King County [in Washington] through a program designed to provide behavioral health services to individuals with the most severe level of mental health conditions, the statement read. However, he did not receive the intensive medical care he needed. Mohamed is a U.S. citizen who entered the country as a refugee in the early 1990s with his family as they fled from a civil war in Somalia, according to a relative who requested anonymity to protect the persons privacy. He had been held at mental health facilities in the Seattle area at least twice since 2016, according to records provided to The Times. Mohameds mental illness renders him unpredictable and unstable, however, he has never expressed particular hatred toward Jews, or any other group of people or minority, the family said in its statement. Ceballos did not have any information about Mohameds mental health history. A law enforcement official said the suspects mental health background is part of the LAPDs investigation into the attack. In asking for a higher bail, Ceballos said he was concerned by some statements the defendant made to the police concerning other groups that might be willing to post bail for him. Ceballos declined to elaborate when asked about the comment outside the courtroom Tuesday, though the LAPD has said it has no evidence yet that Mohamed is linked to any known terror or hate groups. Police have, however, expressed concern about the similarities between Mohamed s alleged attack and other lone wolf terror strikes in the U.S. and London that saw a suspect use a car to mow down pedestrians, before attacking at close range with a knife. The alleged attack came in the wake of increasing concerns about anti-Semitic vitriol and violence across the U.S. The number of hate crimes targeting Jewish victims across the nation rose by 37% in 2017, according to an FBI report published earlier this month. In October, a gunman shot and killed 11 people inside a Pittsburgh synagogue. Hate crimes in Los Angeles remain relatively unchanged compared to last year, Frank said. A preliminary hearing in Mohameds case is scheduled for Dec. 10. Times staff photographer Francine Orr contributed to this report. james.queally@latimes.com Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California. UPDATES: 8:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Mohameds family and details from his court appearance Tuesday. This article first published at 12:45 p.m. Courtroom artists were forbidden to sketch his face. They were ordered to render his bald pate as a generic hairstyle, his hulking frame trimmed to a nondescript size. In a trial marked by extraordinary security measures, those afforded to Miguel Angel Martinez, who took the stand Monday to testify against his former boss, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, were among the most extreme. Martinez, known as El Gordo, or The Fat One, is one of the prosecutions most closely held cooperators in the trial of the Sinaloa Cartel leader. His testimony lived up to the hype. In a scene scripted for Hollywood, Martinez regaled the court with a dramatic and detailed account of his life under Guzmans command. Advertisement One of the most gripping moments came as he described how he and a pilot who had been in the U.S. Navy landed a plane with two dead engines on a clandestine airstrip in northern Mexico, saving several tons of cocaine bound for Los Angeles. He told me we were missing 10 minutes of gasoline, then seven, then five, Martinez said. We landed on the airstrip without engines and without gasoline. We jumped on the brakes and the landing gear broke. The cocaine was saved. Martinez was a pilot when he went to work for Guzman in 1986, but he soon rose to become one of his most trusted lieutenants. Like the prosecutions first cooperating witness, Jesus El Rey Zambada Garcia, he testified to the cartels ever-evolving import-export business, describing price structures, shipping routes and money laundering schemes. There were lengthy digressions into types of speedboats and brands of cocaine. Among the many colorful details Martinez produced for the court were the code names drug traffickers used to evade detection over the radio. When Guzman wanted planes readied for a shipment of cocaine, he told deputies he was throwing a party. Jet fuel was wine and airplanes were girls. Unlike El Rey, who reported to his brother, Ismael El Mayo Zambada, Martinez worked side-by-side with the crime boss, and it became evident in his testimony that the two men had grown close. One time we went out to dinner at a French restaurant in Mexico City, Martinez said. There was a band playing and they had one of those huge violins, a traditional northern Mexican instrument called a tololoche. He turned and he told me, thats you. There was also the time Guzman called him a terrible pilot because he crash-landed on a clandestine airstrip, and the time Martinez took his boss to Las Vegas after a drug deal in Los Angeles because Mr. Guzman wanted to gamble. When Martinez had a son in 1989, Guzman lobbied to be the boys godfather. I was glad, because, well, he was the boss, Martinez testified. The boss also confided in him about his impoverished boyhood in the mountains of Sinaloa, Martinez said. He was a very poor person who didnt have anything to eat, and that was the reason he got involved in the drug trade, Martinez said . Since he was a little boy, he would plant marijuana in front of his house, and poppies to make heroin. Martinez was arrested in Mexico in 1998 and survived several attempts on his life in prison there. He walked into court a free man Monday, though has been reported to be in a U.S. witness protection program. The terms of his cooperation with the government were not discussed in court Monday. The trial of Guzman, who faces charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder and firearms violations, began early this month and is expected to last until February. The trial has sometimes dragged under the weight of redundant details. Martinez was the third witness to testify Monday, following a former DEA agent and a money laundering expert who explained that $1 million in dollar bills weighs 2.2 tons. Prosecutors were forced to read a long and tedious agreement into the record, sparing the court probably three days of testimony, the judge, Brian Cogan, told the court . Even the judge gave a nod to the duller side of justice when he admonished the jurors not to read or speak about the case at the end of the day. I know this sounds like the same song, but its a Grammy Award-winning song, the judge said. Sharp is a special correspondent. The number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally dropped to the lowest in more than a decade in 2016, according to a new report. Tuesdays report from the Pew Research Center analyzed census and immigration data to estimate that in 2016 there were 10.7 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally. The number is 1.5 million less than its peak in 2007. The center crunched its numbers by subtracting the number of foreign-born people living in the country legally from the total foreign-born population and adjusting with estimated numbers for the many immigrants in the country illegally who do not respond to government surveys. It included more than 1 million immigrants who are temporarily in the country legally under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs because the future of such protections is unclear under the Trump administration. Advertisement (Los Angeles Times) The decline comes from a sharp drop in the number of Mexicans residing in the country illegally, even as the population of Central Americans illegally crossing the border or overstaying visas has grown. Mexico is still the dominant birth country for immigrants in the country illegally, but the explanation for the decline has a lot to do with Mexico, said DVera Cohn, who co-wrote the report. We think the decline in the number of unauthorized immigrants was almost entirely due to fewer Mexicans entering the country without authorization. The number of Mexicans in the U.S. illegally dropped 1.5 million from 2007 to 2016, the report said, leaving Mexican nationals to make up about half of the immigrants in the U.S. without permission. In the same time period, the number of Central American immigrants in the U.S. illegally increased by 375,000. Pew found 1.85 million Central Americans to be residing in the country illegally, with a significant number from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The decline in the share of Mexicans among the people in the U.S. illegally is due to the dramatically different living conditions in Mexico compared with its southern neighbors, said Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, who was not involved in the study. Over the long term, Mexicos economy has improved and its birth rate has declined, leaving fewer people interested in job opportunities in the north, especially after the U.S. recession a decade ago. Capps said migration from Mexico was historically dominated by young men coming to the U.S. alone, while Central American immigrants today tend to come as families. Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, he added, have in recent years experienced higher rates of violence, much more poverty and much lower per capita income than Mexico, leading people to flee north. (Los Angeles Times) Pew did not look at data from 2017 because the American Community Survey, the U.S. Census Bureaus ongoing population estimate, came out as the Pew report was close to completion. But Pew researchers said they expected the trend of decreases in the Mexican population to continue even as the Central American population increased. Because the report does not look at 2017 or this year, researchers could not say what effect the Trump administration has had overall on the number of immigrants in the country illegally. During his campaign, the president vowed to deport all immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, suggesting he could do so through military-style roundups similar to those authorized by President Eisenhower in 1954 that led to mass deportations of Mexicans. President Trump, who has faced criticism for demonizing immigrants in the U.S. illegally by broadly painting them as rapists and killers who infest the country, has also continued to demand the construction of an expanded border wall. If you look at apprehensions data, it does point to the number of Central Americans increasing, but we cant say whats happening overall, Cohen said. Many people from other countries overstay visas rather than cross the border without authorization. Border apprehensions dropped during the first year of Trumps presidency to the lowest number since 1971. Since then, they have increased. Last month, Border Patrol agents arrested or rejected for admission 60,745 people attempting to enter the U.S. at the Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The number is the highest its been since Trump became president. The increase was due in part to high numbers of Guatemalans and Hondurans fleeing violence. RELATED: Migrants decide on next move as tensions in Tijuana heighten Experts caution that it is difficult to draw conclusions from border apprehension and admission rejection numbers. Over the years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has alternated between reporting decreases in border apprehensions as either a measure of border agents doing badly or doing well at their jobs. Deportations have not reached the levels they did during the Obama administration. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the government ordered 287,741 deportations, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. In the 2013 fiscal year under the Obama administration, there were 438,421 deportations. Pew researchers said that although deportations have had an effect on the number of immigrants in the country without permission, the numbers of migrants attempting to enter or stay in the country illegally to begin with is a bigger reason for the decline. Overall, the number of immigrants in the country illegally dropped by 13% between 2007 and 2016. Pew found statistically significant declines from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Korea and Peru. But in addition to those from Central American countries, the number of immigrants from India and Venezuela in the U.S. illegally also grew during that period. Researchers at Pew also concluded that visa overstays were increasingly the source of new immigrants in the country illegally. Among unauthorized immigrants in the centers estimates who arrived in the previous five years, the share who are likely to be people who overstayed their visas probably grew substantially between 2007 and 2016 to the point where they probably constituted most of the recent unauthorized immigrant arrivals in 2016, the report said. Although the total number of immigrants in the country illegally declined in those nine years, the number in the U.S. legally grew by more than 6 million, or by 22%, according to the report. There were about 34.4 million immigrants in the country legally in 2016. The report also broke down numbers of immigrants in the country illegally by state. A dozen saw declines of 10,000 or more since 2007. That included a drop of 550,000 in California to 2.2 million and 240,000 in Florida to 775,000. Three states saw increases in the same period. In Maryland, the number of immigrants there illegally grew by 25% to 60,000. In Massachusetts, the increase was nearly 14% to 35,000, and in Louisiana it was a 27% jump to 15,000. More national headlines UPDATES: 3 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from Randy Capps and details on visa overstays rising as a source of new immigrants in the country illegally. This story was originally published at 2 p.m. President Trumps charitable foundation made no donations last year, a sharp break from the 2016 election year when it gave away millions of dollars and drew a lawsuit alleging the charity was acting as a quasi-political group. The Donald J. Trump Foundation took in no new money from outside groups last year and donated nothing, according to a 2017 tax return posted online Monday. Trump had promised before taking office to dissolve the foundation to avoid conflicts of interest with his duties as president. The foundation gave away $3.1 million in 2016, more than it did in the prior three years combined. Much of the money donated that election year went to veterans groups. Trump and other directors of his foundation are being sued by New York Atty. Gen. Barbara Underwood, who alleges they used its money to settle business disputes, help with his presidential campaign and pay for personal items. The suit argues that the foundation should be dissolved only under court supervision. Advertisement The suit seeks $2.8 million in restitution plus penalties, the foundations disbandment and a 10-year ban on Trump running any charities. Trumps lawyer has said the suit is politically motivated and should be dismissed. But a New York judge ruled Friday that it should go forward because there is no basis for finding animus and bias were the sole motivating factors for the litigation. In 2016, the foundation took in more than $2 million from several groups and individuals, including $1 million from Phil Ruffin, Trumps business partner in a Las Vegas tower bearing the presidents name. By contrast, the foundation last year raised money from only one source, the Trump Corp., according to tax returns posted Monday by the nonprofit monitoring website GuideStar. The presidents company donated $502,400. Trump drew criticism during the campaign after news organizations raised questions about his foundations use of funds and reported that he often did not follow through on promised donations. The Washington Post reported that records showed Trump made $8.5 million in pledges to charitable groups in the 15 years before his campaign but paid out only about $2.8 million. The New York attorney generals suit alleges the foundation was tapped for $258,000 to help settle lawsuits involving the presidents properties in Florida and New York and to pay for a 6-foot painting of Trump. The suit also alleges that the foundation coordinated with Trumps campaign staff to make big donations on the eve of the 2016 Iowa caucuses Trump presented giant checks at political rallies there to help boost his political fortunes. Charities are prohibited by law from giving money to political campaigns. Trump has called the suit ridiculous and has tweeted, I wont settle this case! Trumps lawyer Alan Futerfas has said that donations went to people most in need and that he is confident the president will prevail in court. When allegations first surfaced that China was spiriting Uighurs and other Muslims away from their homes in the autonomous far-western Xinjiang region and sending them to detention camps, the Chinese government said it wasnt happening. Rather, the government insisted, those reports were fabricated by human rights groups with a political animus. Two months later the government partially acknowledged the program, saying it was giving minor criminals an opportunity to change their ways by learning new skills at boarding schools. Then early this month, Chinas vice foreign minister, Le Yucheng, again dismissed the criticisms of the countrys human rights record as politically motivated, and described the detention centers as educational facilities where trainees formerly controlled by extremist ideology were learning new ways. Its another important contribution of Chinas to the global counter-terror field, Le said, evidently with a straight face. No, its not. What the Chinese government appears to be doing is reprising one of the dark chapters of the Mao Tse-tung years by reportedly forcing dissidents, or those considered to be potential dissidents, into concentration camps and subjecting them to brainwashing and, according to some former detainees, torture. Those arrested are held incommunicado and families often can only guess that relatives they suddenly cant find have been snatched by the police. Authorities also reportedly have been sweeping up and detaining the Chinese-based relatives of Uighurs who have criticized the government from abroad. That is an especially atrocious practice that must come to an end. But how to force Chinas hand on an issue its leaders no doubt view as a purely internal matter is the hard part. That Xi feels he can oppress the Uighurs with impunity is a measure of how little sway the international community has with him. Advertisement In recent years, President Xi Jinping has solidified his control over the Communist Party and thus the central government. His agents have arrested booksellers in Hong Kong for selling titles the government doesnt like. The government has turned universities into party strongholds where it uses surveillance and undercover agents to ferret out those who stray from party orthodoxy. It has also jailed pro-democracy activists as well as some of the human rights lawyers who rose to represent them. And as more Chinese turn to religious faith, the government has cracked down on some churches and closely monitored others. Externally, Xi has invested in port and other infrastructure projects around the world under the guise of improving economic ties, though some analysts see the effort as a strategy to expand Chinas global influence , including militarily; it recently opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti. Xi also has sought to increase Chinas footprint in Southeast Asia, including by creating disputed military outposts on rocky outcroppings in international waters. So far, the international community has been unable to come up with a practical response to Chinas expansionism, and President Trump has let his obsession with trade deficits distract him from the geopolitical games that China is playing. That Xi feels he can oppress the Uighurs with impunity is a measure of how little sway the international community has with him. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion China says that it needs to offer these retraining sessions to combat terrorism. And it is true that some Uighur separatists have, since the mid 1990s, carried out sporadic terrorist attacks in Xinjiang province as well as in Beijing, Guangzhou and other locations. But experts in the region report no serious, concerted independence movement, and the levels of attacks, while a concern to the Chinese government, do not merit such an atrocious and overwhelming violation of human rights. In that regard, it resembles the Myanmar governments brutal reaction (which has included killings, rapes and arson) to scattered attacks by Rohingya militias. Whatever the provocation, the grossly out-of-balance responses in both are uncalled for. We should note that the worlds failure to find a strategy to counter Chinas human rights transgressions is not Trumps fault. President Obama similarly had trouble finding a pressure point to change the behavior of an economic giant without damaging global trade. But it must be done. When government repression occurs without consequence, the result is more repression. That is the path back to a disastrous past that the world should work hard not to relive. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook Many justifications are being offered for the tragic police shooting on Thanksgiving night that killed 21-year Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Ala., just south of Birmingham. They all seem beside the point. Bradford, known as E.J., was among the shoppers who crowded the mall on Thursday when, police say, gunshots wounded an 18-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl. Bradford apparently was armed. Police showed up on the scene and shot him, and announced that in doing so, they had ended the threat. They later acknowledged that Bradford had not been the shooter. But they claimed that he had brandished his gun at the scene, leading to a heightened sense of threat in an already dangerous situation. Certainly, if a man holds a gun at the scene of a shooting, police are more likely to zero in on him than on others. Officers arrive in the midst of extremely tense, life-threatening and fast-moving situations and must think quickly. The legal standards for professional negligence in policing, and the training that goes with them, should be toughened up. Advertisement Yet guns are ubiquitous in this nation, whether we like it or not. Many people carry them legally, and for just this kind of situation to be the good guy with a gun who stops the armed bad guy. No less than the president of the United States has called for more armed citizens, so that in the midst of an altercation, many guns might be wielded by good guys and bad guys alike. Officers should expect it. They should be trained for it. Police are human, but they are also specialists. It should not be asking too much to require them to understand who they are about to shoot at before pulling their own triggers not just in spite of the chaos thats inherent at the scene of a fight but precisely because of it. They represent the law and they represent order. Thats what they should be expected to bring to a scene of violence and confusion. Its not yet clear whether Bradford was an armed good guy who pulled his weapon to protect himself and others when he heard shots fired. In any event, although we dont buy the good guy with a gun approach to safety, its tempting to wish that there were some kind of uniform that the good guys who do have guns could wear that would identify them to officers as such, to keep them safe when they are trying to keep others safe. But thats just a fantasy and, besides, we have tragic evidence that no designation, no marking, would suffice. Earlier this month, shots were fired during a fight at a Chicago bar and security guard Jemel Roberson apprehended one participant. Witnesses said his clothing was clearly marked security. Police arrived, saw Roberson with a gun, and shot him dead. He was not merely a good guy with a gun, but a security professional. That didnt save him. Bradford and Roberson were both armed African American men, and, according to one line of thinking, that is what doomed them. Remember Philando Castile, the black motorist who was shot to death by a Minnesota police officer in 2016 after calmly and prudently advising the officer that there was a firearm in the car. In that case there was no altercation other than the one instigated by the police officer just a black man with a gun. There is plenty of evidence to support the contention that the use of force by police is meted out differently according to race. A 2016 analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research, for example, found that blacks and Latinos are more than 50% more likely to experience force from law enforcement officers than their similarly situated white counterparts. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion So it would stand to reason that police kill proportionately more blacks than whites yet that may not be the case. The same study concludes says that when it comes to lethal force, blacks and whites are treated about the same. Squaring those two conclusions is a difficult exercise, and perhaps evidence of the complexity of race in America. But there is still much more studying to be done before scholars have a full grasp of the situation. What this study and many others do show is that police shoot and kill many hundreds of people each year of all races numbers far higher than in other developed nations. Its a signal that the legal standards for professional negligence in policing, and the training that goes with them, should be toughened up. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Workers load containers onto a cargo train which is about to depart from Yiwu, east Chinas Zhejiang province, for Madrid, Spain. Photo by Shi Jiamin from Peoples Daily Online. Chinese President Xi Jinping is about to pay a state visit to Spain, the first one to be paid by a Chinese head of state in 13 years, as China and Spain are embracing its 45th anniversary of establishing bilateral relations. This visit will be a milestone for China-Spain ties. China and Spain enjoy time-honored and everlasting friendly exchanges. The two countries had conducted trade of commodities and people-to-people exchanges before the era of the great geographical discoveries in the 15th century. Since the medieval period, Spain has become an important window to spread the Chinese civilization to Europe. Establishing diplomatic ties in 1973, the two countries upgraded their strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership. In addition, Spain is a good friend and important cooperation partner of China in the European Union (EU). Students from a Confucius Institute rehearse for a dragon dance performance held at a temple fair in Barcelona, Spain, during the 2018 Spring Festival. Photo by Guo Qiuda from Xinhua News Agency The two countries support each other on issues of their core interests, and share common interests on major international and regional issues. The two economies are highly complementary and the prospect for cooperation is broad. In addition, bilateral trade and two-way investment are also on steady growth. At present, China is Spain's largest trading partner outside the EU, while Spain remains the sixth biggest trading partner of China within the EU. The bilateral trade volume has grown to over $30.9 billion in 2017 from $12 million in 1973 when the two countries just established diplomatic ties. In recent years, Spain has witnessed a rising number of Chinese tourists and students, and the interests of the two peoples in each others cultures are also soaring. Earlier this year, Spanish has been officially included in Chinas high school curriculum by the Chinese Ministry of Education and will be taught from this fall. Meanwhile, the Spanish people also have great enthusiasm for learning Chinese. Currently, there are eight Confucius Institutes and nine Confucius classrooms in Spain, receiving more than 40,000 local students. The annual number of Spanish learner sitting Chinese proficiency tests has exceeded those of other European countries since 2011. Under the care and support of leaders of the two countries, China-Spain relations are facing new opportunities. Spanish King Felipe VI said the Belt and Road Initiative will accelerate global economic growth, and Spain is willing to take part in Belt and Road cooperation in infrastructure construction, energy and other fields. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has continued laying high importance on relations with China since he took office, opening huge potential for China-Spain Belt and Road cooperation. Governments, industry associations, and enterprises of the two sides are currently implementing the important consensus on deepening bilateral pragmatic cooperation and exploring third-party markets under the framework of China-Spain Joint Economic and Industrial Cooperation Committee. The Yiwu-Madrid freight route (Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe) has further boosted trade between China and Spain and enriched material lives of the two peoples since its opening at the end of 2014. About 570 trains have travelled on the cargo line, transporting nearly 46,000 TEUs. During Xis visit, the two countries are expected reach a series of important consensus in multiple fields, and elevate China-Spain relations onto a new stage. It is hoped that the trip will serve as an opportunity to further boost bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields and open new prospects for China-Spain comprehensive strategic partnership. (Lyu Fan is Chinese Ambassador to Spain) Sheriff-elect Alex Villanueva has made history even before taking office, becoming the first challenger to oust a living incumbent Los Angeles County sheriff in more than a century (challenger Lee Baca defeated incumbent Sherman Block in 1998 but Block had died in the final days of the campaign). Villanueva beat Jim McDonnell, who conceded Monday after having lost an early election-night lead. Each successive report showed a wider margin in Villanuevas favor. There is no shortage of theories on how Villanueva pulled off the stunning upset. As a Democrat a rarity among elected sheriffs in California perhaps he was buoyed by the nationwide blue wave in this bluest of states. Maybe McDonnells fundraising was too lackadaisical or his message too amorphous. It could be that in this time of stepped-up enforcement against the undocumented and pushback among immigration activists, Latinos turned out to elect a Spanish-surnamed sheriff (although the county has historically had several most recently Baca). It might be that L.A. County voters rejected McDonnell because he opposed many of the criminal justice reforms they embraced. Or it might be that Villanueva drew support from interest groups generally at loggerheads progressive reform advocates and rank-and-file sheriffs deputies. That latter phenomenon could provide a key to the new sheriffs success or failure. In his campaign, Villanueva was able to tap into dissatisfaction with the status quo without delving too deeply into practical details. If he can retain his newly earned support across interest groups as he gets into the nuts and bolts of policy and leadership, he may prove to be a good sheriff. Advertisement In his campaign, Villanueva was able to tap into dissatisfaction with the status quo without delving too deeply into practical details. But thats a tall order for someone with no prior experience in command positions. Villanueva would help his department and himself by picking his top staff from among the nations most accomplished law enforcement professionals and its brightest rising stars, inside or outside the department. He might be able to use his own lack of a record in top positions to his advantage, bringing new light or new goodwill to challenges that vexed McDonnell. For example, he could forge a better relationship with the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. He could try to win funding from the county Board of Supervisors for body cameras without waiting for the results of yet another study, given that virtually everyone agrees on the need. He could welcome some serious scrutiny of the proposed new womens jail at Mira Loma in the Antelope Valley, which is too far away from supportive services and potentially a multiday trip for family members using public transit. He could make the Sheriffs Department a leader, rather than a resister, in implementing criminal justice reforms that seek to lock up fewer people and instead achieve lasting changes in behavior by treating rather than punishing substance abuse, mental illness and trauma. Above all, he can be a better communicator. McDonnell was not always the model of clarity in his public statements. For example, when he said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents werent in L.A. County jails, it was never clear whether he meant they were never physically present, or that they no longer had their own office there but still were granted occasional access. Villanueva has also sent confusing signals about working with ICE, saying for example that he would kick agents out of the jails suggesting a policy of complete noncooperation but also pledging to turn inmates over to ICE after they were released. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Since election day, Villanueva has made some disconcerting statements. He said he had no intention of returning donations that may have been unlawful because he was not involved in any wrongdoing. Thats hardly an inspiring message from the incoming leader of one of the nations largest local law enforcement agencies. Of even more concern is that he said he would do away with constitutional policing advisors civilian attorneys and other experts who counsel the sheriff on internal practices and accountability. Creating the positions was one of McDonnells most important innovations, giving the sheriff an internal counterpart to champion reforms like the oversight commission and the inspector general. Eliminating the positions would look an awful lot like trying to turn the clock back to the Baca era. Such a move would be an early unforced error and a poor way to launch a new beginning at the Sheriffs Department. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Many Americans are hopeful that come January the newly elected Democratic majority in the House will work to keep guns out of the hands of potential mass shooters. Early signals on this front, however, give little cause for optimism. Two days after the midterm election Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive speaker, said House Democrats will prioritize bipartisan legislation to have common-sense background checks on firearm sales. The legislation shes referring to is the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act, which would expand the existing background check system for gun buyers. This is not universal background check legislation; it would just cover private sales that are commercially advertised, such as at gun shows, over the internet or through classified ads. Worse, the bill includes National Rifle Association-drafted language that bars the federal government from registering privately held firearms. Given the overwhelming success of Democratic congressional candidates who championed gun control in the midterm elections, this feels like a weak lead for Pelosi and her caucus. The bill also suffers from a fundamental flaw: It relies on a system replete with dangerous loopholes. Since being instituted in 1998, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has consistently failed to block gun sales to individuals with a history of violence. An FBI study of 63 mass shooting cases between 2000 and 2013 found that only 2% of the guns used were purchased illegally, and 6% were stolen. By comparison, 40% of the guns were purchased legally meaning the buyer passed a background check by people intending to use them in the attack they were planning. (Another 35% of guns were already owned by the attacker.) Advertisement Pelosi would be smart to keep Democrats pro-gun-control base energized and mobilized through the 2020 election. At the same time, the FBI found that mass shooters displayed, on average, four or more concerning behaviors that had been noticed by others. These behaviors included symptoms of mental illness, impulsivity, physical aggression, reckless behavior with firearms and discussion of threats. The NRA would love to stick with the instant check system, which it designed with all its failings more than 25 years ago. The original Brady Bill, passed after the attempted assassination of President Reagan, called for a waiting period on handgun purchases during which state or local law enforcement officials would conduct a background investigation into the buyer. These investigations didnt rely on computerized criminal and mental health records, which few states had at the time. Under the interim provisions of the Brady Law from 1994 to 1998, law enforcement officers researched the histories of gun buyers by talking to families, medical professionals, courts, psychiatric institutions, and other law enforcement officers. That changed in 1998 when, thanks to the NRAs allies in Congress, these multi-day investigations were replaced by the instant check system. The NICS process prioritizes speed over thoroughness and public safety. Heres how it works: Federally licensed firearms dealers contact an FBI call center in Clarksburg, W.Va., and provide the name, race, gender and date of birth of a prospective gun buyer. The FBI checks three separate computer databases for past criminal offenses or involuntary commitments to psychiatric institutions. The agency then responds with one of three commands: approve, deny or delay. Within two minutes, 92% of NICS checks are completed. Federal law also allows many people with a record of violent crime to buy guns, including those with misdemeanor convictions for assault or battery, sex offenses and stalking; and domestic abusers who have been subject to past restraining orders but currently are not. Additionally, NICS allows individuals in crisis to buy guns, including dangerously mentally ill individuals with prior voluntary commitments and many alcohol and substance abusers. Gun sales to such individuals benefit only the bottom line of the gun industry. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion The gun lobbys contribution to the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act a ban on national firearms registration is telling. The NRA knows that requiring a license to buy a gun and registration to keep one with the training, testing and background investigation that would entail is the most effective way to keep firearms out of the hands of violent individuals. In other democracies, this typically results in significantly lower rates of gun death and overall homicide than the U.S. Likewise, a just-published study from researchers at UC Davis and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research concluded that a universal instant check system implemented in California did less to reduce homicide and suicide rates in the state than permit-to-purchase (licensing) laws in Connecticut and Missouri. Why? Because permit-to-purchase laws require gun buyers to deal directly with law enforcement agencies in their communities. For too long, Democrats have been manipulated into promoting the NRAs failed computerized screening process for gun buyers in the name of bipartisanship. Pelosi would be smart to keep Democrats pro-gun-control base energized and mobilized through the 2020 election. That cant be accomplished with half-baked, meek legislation. If Pelosi cant see that gun control is a winning issue, House Democrats should replace her with someone who does and is ready to go big. Republicans in the Senate and White House are highly unlikely to act on whatever gun control legislation is ultimately passed by the Democratic Houseno matter how modest. So shouldnt Democrats set out to craft a policy that, one day, can actually achieve the goal of disarming violent people in America? Ladd Everitt is the director of One Pulse for America, a gun violence prevention group founded in response to the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook Hillary Clinton is right, mostly. In an interview with the Guardian last week, the former next president of the United States said that, in order to stop right-wing populism, Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame. Clinton continued: I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message We are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support because if we dont deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic. If she stopped there, I wouldnt have added the qualifier mostly. But Clinton couldnt help herself. She had to also argue that people who are discomfited by immigration are little more than mindless authoritarians with a psychological as much as political yearning to be told what to do, and where to go, and how to live and have their press basically stifled and so be given one version of reality. Advertisement If responsible politicians do not address legitimate immigration concerns, it will create a political vacuum for unreasonable politicians to exploit. For many on the left, this was simply an argument for concession. Eskinder Negash, the head of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told the New York Times he was shocked by her comments. If shes simply saying you need to cut down on refugees coming to Europe, he said, just to appease some right-wing political leaders, its just not the right thing to do. Negash is right. Clintons remarks were too transparently political and self-serving. (They also appeared with Clintons impeccably poor timing, right as the United States was dealing with a serious refugee challenge at the southern border.) Tony Blair, who was interviewed for the same series in which Clintons interview appeared, had a better take. Youve got to deal with the legitimate grievances and answer them, which is why today in Europe you cannot possibly stand for election unless youve got a strong position on immigration because people are worried about it, Blair said. Youve got to answer those problems. If you dont, he added, you leave a large space into which the populists can march. This has been the argument for reasonable immigration restrictions for decades. The basic position of National Review, where I am a senior editor, has been that if responsible politicians do not address legitimate immigration concerns, it will create a political vacuum for unreasonable politicians to exploit. If you dont like how President Trump talks about immigration, you can appreciate the point. But even better examples can be found across Europe and Scandinavia. James Kirchik, in his book The End of Europe, notes that, across the continent, once-marginal, anti-systemic parties increase their popularity at the expense of mainstream ones almost entirely because of their absolutist stance against immigration. The Sweden Democrats, a far-right party in Sweden that grew out of white nationalism and, some claim, neo-Nazi ideology, won a handful of seats in Parliament for the first time in 2010, solely because it was the only party to run on a platform of cutting immigration. The government, the media and the political establishment in Sweden waged an all-out campaign to demonize the party and the policy. Stigmatizing the Sweden Democrats in the hope that no self-respecting Swede would contemplate voting for them, however, had the opposite of its intended effect, Kirchik writes. Five years later, during the migrant crisis of 2015, the Sweden Democrats had become the most popular party in the country. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Were all of the Swedes who switched parties bigots all along? Unlikely. (Ditto Americans who voted for both Barack Obama and Trump.) But by insisting that voters should not believe their lying eyes when it comes to the problems associated with immigration some overblown, some real Swedish elites gave voters no place else to go. And now, irresponsible politicians have so much more room to maneuver. Clintons problem is that she understands the need to triangulate the way her husband did, by taking culturally fraught political issues and framing them in ways that win over voters. But Clinton, like so many in her party and in the press, is captured by a narrative that insists that anyone who disagrees with her (or supports Trump) has no moral legitimacy. She wants it both ways: They are evil, but we should appease them anyway. That isnt appealing to anyone. jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook Late last month, I took a road trip from Los Angeles to Manzanar. The World War II era concentration camp, which interned more than 10,000 Japanese Americans between 1942 and 1945, sits just 220 miles north of us, in a windswept section of the Owens River Valley and yet, in all the years that I have lived in Southern California, I had never visited it before. I drove up on a Saturday: the 405 to the 5 to the 14 to 395. I passed through the town of Lone Pine, and 7 miles further north, there it was. The site is marked by a pair of entrances: The first to the old camp itself, and the second to a parking lot and museum site. The museum features exhibits in a building originally constructed as an auditorium for internees. There are a handful of barracks, a dining hall and not much else. This there-but-not-all-there piece of history is how we too often reckon with the past in California. Even when we preserve it, even when we confront it, we also paradoxically erase it, distancing ourselves. We prettify the past with Spanish tile and bell towers. We frame the missions and their legacy as romantic rather than virulent. Manzanar was one of 10 American concentration camps, some as far east as Arkansas, in which 110,000 Japanese Americans were interned. Advertisement Certainly, Californias culture of transplants has played a part in this. As the poet William Everson wrote in the 1950s, even Californias graveyards have been built within living memory. Everson was engaging in a bit of literary hyperbole the states formal burial grounds date to the 1700s but he isnt far off about our ahistorical tendencies. Manzanar represents a case-in-point. The camp was almost entirely dismantled not long after World War II ended, and only became a California landmark in 1972. For 30 years, we mostly preferred to ignore what happened there. It wasnt until 1988 that the federal government offered compensation to surviving internees. Here we admit a wrong, President Reagan acknowledged at the time. Here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law. Now administered by the National Park Service, Manzanar was one of 10 American concentration camps, some as far east as Arkansas, in which 110,000 Japanese Americans were interned. [T]hat unlikely place of wind, sand and heat, the California writer Hisaye Yamamoto recalled in her 1950 short story The Legend of Miss Sasagawara, and if the camp she was describing was the one in Poston, Ariz. to which she was sent with her family the description applies equally to Manzanar. In the shadow of Mt. Whitney, the site is severe and windswept, subject to extremes of summer heat and winter cold. It is now so empty that even to imagine 10,000 people concentrated at the site is a stretch. To be there is to get a sense of the space required for the camp, but only the merest idea of what it was like to be interned. In one barracks, I walked through restored living quarters with straw-filled mattresses and furniture made from citrus crates; in another, I found a reconstructed classroom. It is not possible to stand in such a place without thinking of the countless tragedies and humiliations set in motion by internment, or of the new outrages unspooling on our southern border now. And yet, the effect is less that of revisiting our past, our history or remembering our present than of a kind of redeveloped movie set. Manzanar may not have been romanticized, like the missions and ranchos and the Californios, but it has been sanitized. Eight guard towers once dotted the perimeter, in view of Highway 395. The originals are all gone, but in 2005, one was rebuilt; it now stands like a sentry or a symbol next to a barbed-wire fence along the eastern edge of the road. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion The tower, too, fits the paradox of history in California. Think about Chinatown in Los Angeles, torn down to make way for Union Station, then resurrected in a new location, as if no community had ever been disrupted and displaced. Think about the Zoot Suit Riots and the way we rarely speak of them. They, like the order that created Manzanar, grew out of a deep history of racial discrimination and stereotypes. Manzanar stands as a monument to those interned there, but it should also be a clear reminder of American xenophobia, the divisions we have never put away. It is, however, so clean, so stripped down, that it feels as if this history isnt one we need to claim or worry about. When my mother got into the room, an internee named Sue Kunitomi Embry recalled (her words are part of the exhibit), she sat down on one of the mattresses and she said, My, what a place, and she never talked about that for many, many years afterwards. I think what Embry is referring to is her mothers feeling of shame, although that shame is ours, not hers. This is our legacy, our history, and we have never needed to talk about it, facing it squarely and feeling it viscerally, more than we do now. David L. Ulin is a contributing writer to Opinion. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook To the editor: The federal governments National Climate Assessment does not merely remind us of the threats to our society posed by climate change. It states unequivocally that the effects of our consumption of carbon-bearing fuels are upon us today and paints a dire picture of the future if we continue this profligacy. Although this paper and the equally alarming recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been glibly dismissed by the White House, we should respond with renewed resolve to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The new Congress provides a great opportunity. Lets demand that our representatives reach across the aisle and use climate change as a bridge, not a wedge. A unified Congress can reinstate the environmental regulations lifted by the Trump administration and pass legislation leading to drastic reductions in our consumption of fossil fuels. Michael Werner, Pasadena Advertisement .. To the editor: A new federal study tells us that we can expect, among other things, widespread and growing devastation if we dont move decisively to get off fossil fuels. If space aliens were causing climate change, Americans would demand that we use some of the greater than half-trillion dollars we spend annually on defense to defend ourselves from this existential threat. But since climate change is a byproduct of our own economy, we seem incapable of confronting it realistically. Switching our civilization to clean energy is a huge enterprise that will require both human ingenuity and a lot of money. A tax on fossil fuels would be a good start, reflecting the damage carbon consumption causes and incentivizing the use of alternatives. Whatever we do, we must get serious and move fast. Grace Bertalot, Anaheim .. To the editor: Its bad. Its getting worse. But our choices can and do make a difference. So: act now, tweeted Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. Act now. Thats something all of us can do, beginning with the holidays. We can make choices to reduce our carbon footprint and generate a sustainable economy. Buy less, buy differently, and buy smarter. Give fewer presents and spend more on quality and durability. Pay attention to packaging and recycle as much of it as you can. Give the gift of time, like an outing to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, where admission is free for kids. Everyone gets in for free at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City, where the National Geographic Photo Ark is spectacular. By our choices we will generate new and better jobs jobs that add value to our lives and protect the planet. Mary Bomba, Los Angeles Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Newsoms budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimers research, brain task force By Melody Gutierrez Amyloid plaques, shown here in human brains, are a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. (UCLA School of Medicine) Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for the creation of a brain health task force and dedicate $3 million annually from the states general fund to Alzheimers disease research in the budget proposal he will release Thursday, a source close to the administration said. The money for Alzheimers research would target the new grants at understanding why the disease is more prevalent in women and people of color. Former California first lady and Alzheimers activist Maria Shriver pushed for the funding to be included in the state budget. Shriver said in a statement Wednesday that the funding would make California the first state to make understanding our brains a priority. The states former first lady, whose late father Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimers, founded the Womens Alzheimers Movement, an advocacy group raising awareness about womens increased risk for developing the disease. In 2011, she wrote a comprehensive assessment on the disease, to which Newsom then mayor of San Francisco contributed a portion called What one city is doing. This is personal to me, just like it is to millions of California families, Shriver said. Alzheimers is one of the largest medical, social and economic crises in our state, and of our time. I am so proud that, once again, California is leading the way. Wiping out Alzheimers is going to require bold thinking, and there is no doubt in my mind that California is home to bold thinkers who can make this happen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Gavin Newsom orders reinvention of troubled California DMV By Patrick McGreevy A line of people stretches around the South L.A. location of a California Department of Motor Vehicles Office on Aug. 7. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has been plagued by hours-long wait times at field offices, computer crashes and voter registration errors involving tens of thousands of customers. Just a few days after taking office, Newsom appointed a top advisor to a new DMV Reinvention Strike Team to revamp the beleaguered agency over the next six months. By any metric, California DMV has been chronically mismanaged and failed in its fundamental mission to the state customers it serves and the state workers it employs, Newsom said in a statement, adding Its time for a reinvention. The governor appointed state Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead the strike team with a goal of modernizing the agency and enacting changes that improve customer satisfaction, employee performance and transparency. Newsom also ordered an accelerated review of initial findings of an ongoing audit ordered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. The action was welcomed by lawmakers who have been critical of the DMV, including Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield). The egregious management failures of the DMV have been self-evident, which is why I have been calling for new leadership and a comprehensive independent audit of this troubled state agency over and over again as the problems grew significantly worse, Fong said. Last summer, Californians seeking new driver licenses complained of wait times of four to six hours at DMV offices, which the agency blamed partly on snafus caused by a rush of people trying to get Real IDs, a new identification card design required for airline passengers starting in late 2020. Delays were also blamed on computer crashes at DMV offices as the agency struggled to update its aging automation systems. The DMV also admitted that there were an estimated 23,000 errors as people either were unknowingly registered to vote or mistakes were made in their registration status as part of the states new motor voter program. The agency registered to vote as many as 1,500 people with legal U.S. residency but no citizenship. Last month, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto retired from the agency. Legislators were angered earlier this week when the DMV said it needed an additional $40 million to prevent the return of long lines at its field offices. In addition, the agency has been under fire for issuing driver licenses in the last year that do not comply with the federal Real ID standards requiring two forms of identification by applicants. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police unions are preparing to battle new transparency law in the courtroom By Maya Lau Just as a landmark police transparency law is going into effect, some California police agencies are shredding internal affairs documents and law enforcement unions are rushing to block the information from being released. The new law, which begins to unwind Californias strictest-in-the-nation protections over the secrecy of law enforcement records, opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. But the lawsuits and records destruction, which began even before the law took effect Jan. 1, could tie up the release of information for months or years, and in some instances, prevent it from ever being disclosed. The fact that police unions are challenging this law is on some level not surprising, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of the principal supporters of the new law. They have a long history of fighting tooth and nail against transparency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Secretary of State Alex Padilla begins second term with challenge to ensure every Californian is counted By Jazmine Ulloa Secretary of State Alex Padilla takes the oath of office as his family stands by his side on Monday in Sacramento. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in for a second term on Monday, saying he would continue the battle to protect the right to vote at a time when voter suppression efforts, online disinformation campaigns and interference from foreign adversaries have polarized the public and threatened to undermine trust in U.S. elections. I am doubling down on our fight here in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to defend our democracy, he said. Working on the front lines with so many of you, I know that our collective resolve has never been stronger. But the loudest applause came when Padilla promised to fight back against the Trump administrations changes to the U.S. census, saying he will ensure every Californian gets counted. Padilla, a former state senator and Los Angeles City Council member from the San Fernando Valley, led the cause for a new motor voter registration law in 2015, and a new system for online business registrations. But the programs have had experienced problems: More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by the state DMV, the agency reported last year. On Monday, Padilla said he would continue to push back against false claims of voter fraud in California and pointed to the states voter turnout as proof that his office was involving more people in the democratic process, a promise he made when he was first sworn in four years ago. More than 12.7 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm election, representing roughly 65% of the states registered voters, the highest number of any midterm election since 1982, according to state certified results. I made that promise based on a shared belief that we are a stronger democracy and a better California when we hear all voices from all corners of California, and when those voices are not just heard but counted, Padilla said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Ricardo Lara, Californias first statewide officeholder to come out as gay, sworn in as insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the floor of the state Senate in 2016. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Ricardo Lara took the oath of office as California insurance commissioner on Monday, pledging action to boost healthcare coverage and combat climate change. Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, is the first elected statewide officeholder in California who has come out as gay. He began his speech in downtown Sacramento by thanking LGBTQ leaders who came before him and celebrated the occasion. Today, because of you, weve shattered the pink ceiling, Lara said. In his inaugural speech, Lara announced the creation of an executive position in his office to address climate change. There is no other industry that has the necessary expertise to ensure that California is prepared to mitigate and reduce risk to our communities and our environment, Lara said. Our planet cant wait. Im ready, and I hope you are too. Lara served as a state legislator and in 2017 introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He promised to work with new Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand coverage across California. Lara was sworn in by retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared unconstitutional Californias Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was on hand for the ceremony along with multiple other state lawmakers. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis says she will help expand access to universities in the state New Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, center, is shown in June talking with attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) More Californians should be given access to public universities, Eleni Kounalakis said as she took the oath of office Monday to become the states first woman elected lieutenant governor. Kounalakis was given the oath of office by Gov. Gavin Newsom, her predecessor in the job, who pledged they would work together. As lieutenant governor, Kounalakis serves on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees, she noted in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony at the main Sacramento Library. In that role, she said, she will be committed to expanding access to affordable public higher education here in our state. Its wise, its smart and it is the best way to address our rapidly changing digital economy. Kounalakis is former president of a development company founded by her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, and served during the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. In November, she won her first run for statewide office. Also attending the ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California meets Dutch Newsom, who steals the show at his fathers inauguration By Taryn Luna Gov. Gavin Newsom gives his inaugural address while holding his youngest son, Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) In the California political world, all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday until his 2-year-old son stole the show. Dutch, the youngest of four children in the Newsom brood, climbed onstage in the middle of his fathers inaugural address in a tent outside the Capitol on Monday. The unplanned moment saw the 51-year-old governors big day interrupted by the toddler, bringing levity to the ceremony. Newsom was recounting Gov. Jerry Browns last inaugural speech and reference to the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story about two men who built separate homes on sand and rock, when Dutch approached his father, a pacifier in his mouth and blanket in hand. Now more than ever we Californians know how much a house matters and children matter, Newsom said, improvising as he scooped the boy into his arms. The governor kissed Dutch on the cheek and held him for several minutes as he continued with the speech. This is exactly how it was scripted, Newsom joked. Newsom eventually put his child down and Dutch walked to the edge of the stage before retreating behind the podium to hide from his mother, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The crowd roared. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. When fires strikes, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the moment humanized Newsom, threw cold water on any theories that Dutchs cameo was planned. No, I know it was not, Garcetti said with a laugh after Newsoms speech concluded. I could see that look of absolute abject terror [on Newsoms face]. Weve all been there. Kids always think its about themselves and theyve proved it. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) agreed. I worked in early childhood education for 20 years and theres no way you can ever get a child to do anything when you want them to do it, Rendon said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Fiona Ma takes oath as Californias new treasurer By Liam Dillon State Treasurer Fiona Ma. Fiona Ma took the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday as the states 34th treasurer, promising to boost Californias economy. Ma previously served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and on the California Board of Equalization. I want to thank everyone for entrusting me with this important job. I understand my role here as your state treasurer is to build that financial wall around California so that we will remain the fifth-largest economy, Ma said in brief remarks. That is my promise to you. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath to Ma. Following the ceremony, Ma held an ice cream social for guests. On Wednesday, she will host a public event in San Francisco to celebrate her swearing-in. State Treasurer Fiona Ma takes the oath of office. (Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times) Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Expectations are high for newly sworn-in state schools chief Tony Thurmond Tony Thurmond shakes hands with retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco after taking the oath of office. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times) Tony Thurmond took the oath of office as Californias state superintendent of public schools on Monday, promising a labor-friendly agenda before the teachers, students and Democratic officials who filled an auditorium at McClatchy High School in Sacramento to watch him being sworn in. We cant close the achievement gap without a great teacher at the head of every class, Thurmond said Monday to applause. We have to make sure we provide quality compensation and support to our teachers and our classified staff and all the educators who support our kids. Thurmond, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the state Assembly, won a hotly contested and expensive race with the help of labor leaders against charter school executive Marshall Tuck. The race took several days to sort out after Tuck held an initial lead in early returns on election night before falling behind thereafter. Thurmond was sworn in Monday by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. He was joined on stage by labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). Thurmonds former colleagues in the state Assembly took turns praising him and promising to be an ally in improving schools. Many said they expected Thurmond would be a strong leader focused on improving student outcomes. We know we are going to work hard to give you the money you need and the budget you need to fully fund education and our schools so we can put our money where our mouth is and make sure our children have everything they need, Assemblywoman Connie Leyva (D-Chino Hills) said. As state superintendent, Thurmond will oversee the education of 6.2 million students at 10,000 schools. Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa County School Board and a Richmond city councilman before he was elected to the state Assembly. Tony is the right man at the right time to fight the federal, Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos anti-child, anti-education, anti-civil and -human rights agenda, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. Tony is going to do that for us. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State Controller Betty Yee takes oath of office with call for more affordable housing and healthcare State Controller Betty Yee California Controller Betty Yee took the oath of office Monday for a second term, saying she still has work to do addressing problems that include a lack of affordability in housing, healthcare and higher education. A San Francisco native, Yee is the chief financial officer of California the fifth-largest economy in the world having first won election to the post in 2014 before winning reelection in November. No region is spared from the widening inequality and increased poverty that plague our state, fueled by the lack of affordable, stable housing, the cost of healthcare and transportation, limited educational opportunities, student loan debt, displacement caused by disasters and more, she said. Yee was administered the oath of office by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento before an overflow crowd that included state Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. As a public official it is about governance that delivers results and stays accountable while upholding the underlying value of dignity for all, Yee said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra begins new term promising to fight Trump policies California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Monday took the oath of office for a new term, saying he would continue his role as a leading challenger to Trump administration actions that he believes are counter to the states interests. Becerra, a former 12-term congressman, has become a national opposition figure to Trump, having sued the federal government 45 times since he was appointed as the states first Latino attorney general in 2017. Weve been a little busy stopping the dysfunction and insanity in Washington, D.C., from infecting California, Becerra told an audience during a swearing-in ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento. Whether its the criminals on our streets or the conman in the boardrooms or highest office of the land, Becerra said, the California Department of Justice, well, weve got your back. Becerra won his first statewide election as the states top cop in November, two years after he filled the post vacated when predecessor Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. He has peppered the Trump administration with lawsuits challenging federal policies on healthcare, the U.S. census, the environment and immigration. Our state builds dreams, not walls, he said in a direct criticism of Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last week, Becerra led a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general in announcing an appeal of a federal judge in Texas that ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ACA has been the law for nearly a decade and is the backbone of our healthcare system, Becerra said last week. This case impacts nearly every American workers covered by employers, families, women, children, young adults and seniors so we will lead the ACAs defense as long and far as it takes. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California Democratic Party Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall announces bid to lead group By Christine Mai-Duc Daraka Larimore-Hall. (Dominic Parisi / Courtesy of Daraka Larimore-Hall) Daraka Larimore-Hall, a top official at the California Democratic Party, said Monday hes running to replace former chairman Eric Bauman, who resigned abruptly in November after being confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Larimore-Hall, a longtime state party activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, was one of the party leaders who urged Bauman to resign following the allegations. In an email to supporters announcing his bid, he urged both structural and cultural change at every level of our Party. He also repeated his call for a top-to-bottom investigation of the allegations, the party and its culture. In a Times investigation, 10 party activists and staff members said Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching and physical intimidation in professional settings. In order to be where we need to be for 2020, we have to confront the culture of abuse and fear that allowed someone to behave in such a vile way for so long, Larimore-Hall said in an interview. We cant brush it aside or think that our activists or our candidates or our donors are going to forget about this overnight. Larimore-Hall said his first priority would be to fully investigate the allegations and restore rank-and-file confidence in the partys leadership. The second would be to refocus the party on political priorities as the 2020 presidential election nears. The Bauman episode, Larimore-Hall said, threatens to derail the Democrats plans to help defeat President Trump and keep the seven congressional seats gained in the midterm elections. Its definitely a crisis, Larimore-Hall said. But the component parts the energy, the enthusiasm, the volunteers, the infrastructure its still there. We just need to direct it toward something. Larimore-Hall was elected vice chairman of the state party in February following Baumans razor-thin victory over Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis. Ellis has announced another bid for the chairmanship and former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon is also mulling a run. The vote will take place at the partys May convention in San Francisco. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address By Melanie Mason Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Building on the theme of California exceptionalism that defined his campaign, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will depict the state as a guardian of progressive values and a counterweight to President Trump in his inaugural address Monday, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks. What we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country, read the excerpts obtained by The Times. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. The speech casts Californias political stakes in a decidedly national scope, promising an agenda that will unify and be an example to the rest of the country. It contrasts the governing goals of Newsom, a Democrat, with that of Trump, the incoming governors perennial foil. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House, the excerpts say. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. Newsom campaigned on an ambitious and wide-ranging platform, promising sweeping solutions on housing, healthcare, education and other issues that rank among Californians top concerns. In the weeks after his election, he struck a more muted tone, taking pains to emphasize his fiscal caution and need for patience in achieving those goals. The inaugural excerpts indicate a return to lofty pledges. While Newsom will vow to prepare for uncertain times ahead by building budgetary reserves and paying down debt, the prepared remarks quickly turn to a vow to be bold. Newsom has already floated several proposals for his first budget that carry significant price tags, including a nearly $2-billion plan to boost early childhood development for low-income families and a dramatic expansion of paid family leave from six weeks to six months. When asked for a preview of his inauguration speech during a news conference Sunday evening, Newsom predicted pundits would criticize his address as short on specifics. Well, of course, Im at an inaugural, Newsom said. But Ill be very detailed in the budget, a few days later. And then we will architect, in much more nuance and detail, in state of the state. I really see this as three opportunities to communicate over the next few weeks our agenda, our vision for the state. Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom-hosted benefit concert raises nearly $5 million for wildfire victims By Taryn Luna Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom speaks at a concert to benefit wildfire victims at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) On the eve of the gubernatorial inauguration, Californias political class rubbed elbows in Sacramento for a benefit concert hosted by Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and headlined by the rapper Pitbull. Newsom told the crowd gathered at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday evening that the fundraiser brought in nearly $5 million for the California Wildfire Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports the families of fallen firefighters and communities affected by wildfires. You know, a lot of folks feel anxious about not just politics, but government, Newsom said on stage before introducing the rapper and activist Common. But those firefighters, they are the antidote to the fear and cynicism; they are the manifestation of why government matters and why you should care. Top sponsors, including Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and other interest groups, paid up to $1 million each to support the cause and curry favor with the new administration. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said organizers sold more than 7,000 tickets. Several state lawmakers attended the concert alongside Capitol staff, lobbyists and business types, who mingled on the floor of the arena and offstage in private VIP areas. The rock band X Ambassadors and a duo called the Cold Weather Sons from the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire in November, were among several performers who entertained the crowd during the four-hour event. The California Rises concert is the final in a series of festivities held Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Californias 40th governor. Earlier in the day, Newsom attended a private brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum and his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront. Newsoms inauguration is set to begin at 11 a.m. Monday on the steps of the Capitol. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inauguration fever hits Sacramento as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom prepares to take office By Phil Willon Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom holds his son, Dutch, as he and his family attend an inaugural event at the at the state Railroad Museum Sunday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom doesnt officially take the oath of office until Monday, but the parties celebrating his inauguration were in full swing all day Sunday. Newsom and his family were mobbed by well-wishers at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront in the afternoon, where his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families. He just has charisma. Hes able to really connect with people, said Rosielyn Pulmano, an attorney from Elk Grove who came to see Newsom with her husband, two sons and her niece. I think he cares about working Californians and a lot of their issues. Newsom arrived with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four young children, and the governor-elect spent a good deal of his time wading through crowds, taking selfies with supporters and signing autographs as music boomed in the background. As the family toured the inside of the museums locomotives and the bevy of exhibits, Newsoms two-year-old son, Dutch, was wide-eyed, impressed by all the train cars and seemingly a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Newsom said that for his son, all that was missing from the museum was Thomas the Train, popular fictional locomotive in childrens books and cartoons . If theres one thing I can contribute to Sacramento maybe its getting a Thomas the Train exhibit for the two years olds, Newsom joked when talking with reporters afterward. Newsom said he wanted to include such an event in his inaugural festivities to highlight families and children, whose wellbeing will be among the top priorities of his administration. Youll see that not only as a preamble to the inaugural and the budget that well be submitting next week, but I think itll be a big part of the administration, Newsom said. The museum event followed a private, high-dollar brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum. A steady rain failed to dissuade as many as 200 guests who sipped wine and dined on chicken and salmon while waiting for a photo with Californias new first couple. Seen at the event were representatives of some of the states most powerful political interests, among them organized labor, healthcare companies and tribal gaming interests. A few other high-profile guests attended, too, including Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Erika Jayne, a singer and cast member of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Im excited to see someone like Gavin young, vibrant taking over the state and leading us into the future, Jayne said after attending the brunch with her husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Hes got a lot of great plans. Attendees said the event, which was closed to reporters and held under a tent in the museums outdoor atrium, did not include prepared remarks by Newsom. Among those seen leaving the event were representatives of AT&T, the California Medical Assn., Uber, Kaiser Permanente and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. A fundraising invitation obtained by The Times offered bundled tickets to all of the inauguration events, including those on Sunday and the Monday ceremony, ranging in price from $25,000 to $200,000. The money will be collected by a committee specifically organized to pay for Newsoms inaugural weekend. Sundays festivities are scheduled to end with a benefit concert headlined by Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBAs Sacramento Kings, to raise money for the victims of Californias recent deadly wildfires. Among the attendees at @GavinNewsoms pre-inaugural leadership brunch: Real Housewife of Bev Hills @erikajayne. Im excited to see someone like Gavinyoung, vibranttaking over the state and leading us into the future. Hes got a lot of great plans. pic.twitter.com/561NHiy2XQ Melanie Mason (@melmason) January 6, 2019 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement As Newsom inaugural events begin, he unveils more state budget promises on education and paid family leave Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, seen here last April, will propose new state budget efforts on paid family leave and education subsidies. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Californias incoming governor, who must send his first state budget plan to the Legislature this week, has already signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom campaigned on a platform that included a number of child-focused efforts specifically aimed at helping lower-income families. The price tag for the initial efforts is expected to approach $2 billion a cost paid out of an unrestricted tax revenue windfall that could be one of the largest in state history. Newsom may also seek help for families through new subsidies paid by California employers. The governor-elect is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave from six weeks to six months according to an internal document provided by a source close to the Newsom transition team, first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The document doesnt offer a full explanation for how the program will be funded, saying instead that the budget will set a goal of ensuring that all newborns and newly adopted babies can be cared for by a parent or a close family member for the first six months. Employers across the state are currently assessed a payroll tax that helps offer a subsidy to parents who temporarily leave their job to care for a newborn. Newsoms plan, according to the document, would pay for some of the new costs by shrinking the mandated cash reserve of the state fund that administers the program, allowing more of the money to be paid in benefits. The increase in paid leave would not all happen at once but instead be phased in over a multi-year period. A task force to help implement the expanded care plan is also envisioned, according to the document. It would determine whether two parents could split the six months of paid leave and whether an extended family member could be enlisted to help care for the child of a single parent over the six-month period. The incoming administrations focus on young children will also include $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular focus on training childcare workers and pushing for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Those costs, according to an overview memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times, are considered to be a one-time expense while leaving the long-term costs of the effort to be determined later. More community college students would get free tuition under a third initiative expected in the new governors budget plan. Newsom will propose spending $40 million to offer a second year of tuition-free college to California students, according to an outline provided by a transition official, first reported by Politico. Students are already eligible for a single year of paid tuition under a plan agreed to by Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers in 2017. The incoming governor embraced the idea of free community college during the 2018 campaign as part of a broader focus on additional investments in higher education. Education is an economic development strategy, Newsom said at a higher education forum last spring. We need to significantly increase the investment from the general fund of this state on higher education. Theres no greater higher return on investment. Whether the proposal would be targeted to students based on a familys financial need is unclear. Many low-income students are already eligible for fee waivers at community colleges. The new governor must submit his full state budget plan to lawmakers no later than Thursday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be The Old Governors Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will move his family into the mansion. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governors mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had debated whether or when to relocate to the state capital since his election in November. The couple have four young children and expressed reservations about moving in the middle of a school year. To best serve the people of California while also maximizing family time together, the Newsoms have therefore decided to move to Sacramento, said Newsoms spokesman, Nathan Click. On Monday, they will move into the Governors Mansion along with their four children, their two family dogs, and their family bunny rabbit and reside there for the immediate future. The Newsoms currently live in Marin County. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust Brown, moved into the grand house in 2015 after it underwent $4.1 million in renovations to update electrical and plumbing systems, as well as to remove lead-based paint and install a fire sprinkler system and other security features. The mansion was built in 1877 and has been home to 14 governors, but before Brown it had not housed a California governor for nearly half a century. The state bought the mansion from a wealthy Sacramento hardware merchant, Albert Gallatin, in 1903 for $32,500. It was one of the few California homes at that time to have indoor plumbing. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office Julie Su will be secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency for Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday named two advisors on issues related to the California economy, each recognized for their expertise on business and labor. The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. Su, 49, has served as state labor commissioner under Gov. Jerry Brown since 2011 and has led an office tasked with the enforcement of Californias labor laws. She won a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2001 and previously worked as a civil rights attorney representing low-wage workers. In her new position, Su will be tasked with coordinating the work of several workforce departments in state government, including those that administer unemployment benefits and oversee the relationship between agriculture workers and employers. Mendonca, 57, has been a longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward. Previously, he was partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. While he will be a key advisor to Newsom on the states economy, Mendonca will also lead the office often referred to as Go-Biz, designated as a high-level way to encourage job growth and economic development. In his new role, Mendonca will help ensure that California is rolling out the welcome mat to current and future California businesses and growing a sustainable economy for every Californian, said a statement from the Newsom transition team. Newsom will take the oath of office as governor Monday. He has previously selected key advisors on the state budget, legislative affairs and the executive branchs wide array of agencies and departments. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Joshua Groban, aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, sworn in to California Supreme Court By Taryn Luna California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban gives remarks after he is sworn into the court by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. (Taryn Luna) California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban, a lawyer and longtime aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, was sworn into the states highest court Thursday in Sacramento. The ceremony marked Browns fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court and gave the seven-member bench a Democratic majority. We live in a highly chaotic, ever-changing and ever-confusing world, Groban said in prepared remarks at the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. But Im happy to report that Im joining an institution whose fundamental purpose, at core, is to provide stability and consistency amidst this chaotic place we live. I look forward to doing that with a sense of reflection, respect, fidelity to the law and compassion. None of Browns appointees, Groban included, have judicial experience. Groban served as legal counsel to Browns 2010 gubernatorial campaign and joined the administration as a senior advisor to the governor, overseeing the appointments of some 600 judges over the last eight years. Prior to working with Brown, Groban, 45, practiced law for more than a decade. In perhaps his final public appearance before his successor, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, takes office next week, Brown pushed back on notions that he stacked the court. I dont want this to be known as a Brown court, the governor said before administering the judicial oath of office. First of all, the so-called Brown appointments do not agree with themselves and nor should they. They are individuals. They will differ. Its not anybodys court. The governor called the court a high calling and said Groban possesses the values for the job. Probably, next to my wife, Ive talked to no person as much as Ive talked to Josh Groban, Brown said. I think youve talked to him more, Californias First Lady Anne Gust Brown interjected. I cant tell you what the hell hes going to do, Brown later quipped. I warned him, dont screw up, at least not at first. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California campaign watchdog agency seeks law barring use of campaign funds to fight harassment claims Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). ( (Steve Yeater / Associated Press)) Elected officials accused of harassment or discrimination would be barred from using political contributions to cover their legal defense costs under legislation proposed by Californias campaign watchdog agency. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to pursue a law change to clear up confusion after an attorney for one former state lawmaker argued political funds could be used in such legal defenses. Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said putting a prohibition into the law would provide some much needed clarity. As chair, I would like to show the public their lawmakers are held to a standard that is above reproach, Germond said in a statement. People dont give money to campaigns for lawmakers to use it to defend their own bad behavior, so lawmakers shouldnt be able to use it in that manner. The issue came up a year ago when an attorney for former Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) sought a formal opinion from the FPPC after the Senate launched an investigation that later concluded Mendoza likely engaged in a pattern of harassment against female aides. Mendoza resigned in February under threat of expulsion by the Senate. In a Jan. 10, 2018, letter, Cassandra Ferrannini, an attorney for Mendoza, wrote to the FPPC that she believed Mendoza should be allowed to establish a legal defense fund able to defray his legal expenses in defending himself against the allegations. The use of campaign funds for attorneys fees under these circumstances would fall squarely within the scope of legislative matters, since it involves the alleged conduct of a legislator with regard to legislative staff that he supervised, Ferrannini wrote. The commission staff originally issued an advice letter that said Mendoza may use campaign and legal defense funds to defend himself from claims of sexual harassment that arose directly out of his activities or status as a candidate or elected officer. But the panel later rescinded the letter after some members questioned using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims. That left uncertainty about what was allowed, which Germond said could be cleared up by a new law. The FPPC is still looking for a legislator to carry the bill, a spokesman said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias landmark police transparency law takes effect after court denies police union effort to block it California Supreme Court building (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) A new state law allowing the public disclosure of internal police shooting investigations has gone into effect after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid by a police union to block it. The law opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. challenged the law last month, asking state Supreme Court justices to decide that the law only apply to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. The court rejected that request Wednesday, allowing members of the public to seek all applicable records held by police departments. Union president Grant Ward said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision and is now seeking other legal options. We feel this is a statewide issue and should be considered accordingly, Ward said. Last month, the city of Inglewood authorized the destruction of more than 100 police shooting investigations and other records in advance of Jan. 1, when the disclosure law was scheduled to take effect. California law requires police departments to keep such records for five years, and Inglewood City Council voted to destroy records older than that. Mayor James T. Butts has said the decision had nothing to do with the new law. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore has said that complying with the new disclosure rules could take hundreds of thousands of hours of work. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of the transparency law, has said she has no immediate plans to propose changes to it. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Few complaints of racial profiling are sustained by police agencies in California, state panel finds CHP Officer J. Nelson stands outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown as activists in 2015 support requiring the tracking of police stops. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Law enforcement agencies in California sustain few citizen complaints of racial or identity profiling, according to a report Wednesday by a state panel set up to help reduce bias in policing. The states Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board recommended in its annual report that law enforcement agencies improve training and adopt clear guidelines for tracking and reporting data on who is stopped by officers. The panel said that 453 law enforcement agencies in the state received 9,459 civilian complaints in 2017, including 865 complaints alleging racial or identity profiling. Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition that year, 1.5% were sustained, 14.6% resulted in officers being exonerated and 83.9% of complaints were not sustained or were determined to be unfounded, the report said. A clearer picture of the issue is expected from a 2015 law that requires police agencies to report demographic data on all detentions and searches. The first reports by the eight largest agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, are due to be submitted in April. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, whose office oversees the board, said tracking of all detentions and searches will be helpful to understand the scope of the issue. The Boards recommendations will help make our law enforcement agencies more transparent and promote critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust, Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California housing crisis podcast: What Minneapolis decision to end single-family zoning might mean for California A view of downtown Minneapolis in 2014 (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images) Theres a national movement brewing to roll back zoning rules in cities that only allow one house on a plot of land. The epicenter of that movement is Minneapolis, which passed a plan last month to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and let landowners build duplexes and triplexes on residential property. On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, we talk about the reasons why Minneapolis leaders took this action, including their desire to combat a history of racial exclusion and spur more housing density to fight climate change. We also debate how Minneapolis decision might affect housing politics in California. Our guest is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who helped shepherd the new zoning rules to passage and a former San Francisco city planner. The episode also crowns 2018s Avocado of the Year the most ridiculous story exemplifying Californias housing woes and includes our predictions for the most under-the-radar important themes in housing politics in 2019. Gimme Shelter, a biweekly podcast that looks at why its so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters. You can subscribe to Gimme Shelter on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement How young immigrant Dreamers made flipping control of the House a personal quest By Jazmine Ulloa Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldnt vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls. The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didnt have. It could really make a change for us, said Cruz, 29. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost Californias enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsoms plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he will submit to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elects transition team said. The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the readiness gap that exists based on a familys income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten and offer money to help school districts that dont have facilities for full-day kindergarten. The fact that hes making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting, Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. Whats exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because its saying were going to focus on prenatal through age 5. A broad overview document reviewed by The Times on Tuesday shows that most of the outlay under the plan $1.5 billion would be a one-time expense in the budget year that begins July 1. Those dollars would be a single infusion of cash, an approach favored by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Most of the money would be spent on efforts to expand child-care services and kindergarten classes. By law, a governor must submit a full budget to the Legislature no later than Jan. 10. Lawmakers will spend the winter and spring reviewing the proposal and must send a final budget plan to Newsom by June 15. Though legislative Democrats have pushed for additional early childhood funding in recent years a key demand of the Legislative Womens Caucus those actions have typically come late in the budget-writing season in Sacramento. Quite frankly, to start out with a January proposal that includes that investment in Californias children reflects a new day, state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said. The governor-elect will propose a $750-million boost to kindergarten funding, aimed at expanding facilities to allow full-day programs. A number of school districts offer only partial-day programs, leaving many low-income families to skip enrolling their children because kindergarten classes end in the middle of the workday. Because the money would not count toward meeting Californias three-decades-old education spending guarantee under Proposition 98, which sets a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges, it will not reduce planned spending on other education services. Close behind in total cost is a budget proposal by Newsom to help train child-care workers and expand local facilities already subsidized by the state, as well as those serving parents who attend state colleges and universities. Together, those efforts could cost $747 million, according to the budget overview document. An expansion of prekindergarten programs would be phased in over three years at a cost of $125 million in the first year. The multiyear rollout would, according to the budget overview, ensure the system can plan for the increase in capacity. Lempert said the Newsom proposal is notable for trying to avoid the kinds of battles that in recent years pitted prekindergarten and expanded child care against each other for additional taxpayer dollars. The reality is we need to expand both simultaneously, he said. Another $200 million of the proposal would be earmarked for programs that provide home visits to expectant parents from limited-income families and programs that provide healthcare screenings for young children. Some of the money would come from the states Medi-Cal program, and other money from federal matching dollars. Funding for the home visits program was provided in the budget Brown signed last summer; the Newsom effort would build on that. Emphasizing a policy area with broad appeal in his first state budget could reflect Newsoms political sensibility about the challenges ahead. Democratic lawmakers and interest groups will be especially eager to see how Newsom addresses the demand for an overhaul of healthcare coverage in California especially after a 2017 effort to create a single-payer, universal system fizzled. The path forward on healthcare is complex and costly, making early childhood education a more achievable goal in the governor-elects early tenure. Newsom is likely to face considerable demands for other additional spending. In November, the Legislatures independent analysts projected that continued strength in tax revenues could produce a cash reserve of some $29 billion over the next 18 months. Almost $15 billion of that could be in unrestricted reserves, the kind that can be spent on any number of government programs. Kim Belshe, executive director of the child advocacy organization First 5 LA and a former state health and human services secretary, said the initial Newsom budget proposal suggests the next governor will focus on a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for children from low-income families. School-ready kids deserve quality early learning, strong and well-supported families, and access to early screening services, Belshe said. Newsom understands the whole child, multifaceted needs of our kids and is clearly ready to lead. Mitchell, the chair of the Senate budget committee, said shes eager to see the details of the governor-elects proposal to determine whether it might signal the beginning of an even broader expansion of early education efforts. Similar efforts have been hindered by a lack of money and ongoing debate over which services to help children 5 and younger need state funding the most. Universal preschool, in particular, has been debated for more than a decade. California voters rejected a ballot measure to fund a full prekindergarten system in 2006. Its clear theres a new movement afoot trying to engage on investment for universal preschool, Mitchell said. How we invest, and how we prioritize that investment, is going to be a great conversation for the coming months. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Politics Podcast: A final conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown No Californian has served longer as governor, signed more laws, granted clemency to more felons or waged more high-profile campaigns than Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown will leave behind a unique legacy when he packs his last belongings for the trip from the governors mansion in Sacramento to his Northern California ranch. His final two terms in office could be his most consequential. The governor reviewed some of the more notable moments from the past eight years in a far-reaching interview with The Times on Dec. 22. This weeks podcast episode includes extended portions of that conversation. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown says Gov. Jerry Brown, at his Colusa County home on Saturday, said a ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes could struggle in 2020. (Randall Benton/For The Times) An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said. In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldnt read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan. That isnt as easy as you think, Brown said. Because youre going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And youre talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high. The ballot measure would allow counties to more frequently assess the market value of commercial property in California than allowed under Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to place strict limits on assessing property values and taxation for both homeowners and businesses. An analysis of the new measure, which qualified in October for the 2020 ballot, estimates it could bring in some $10.5 billion a year in new tax revenue. The business community will fight it, Brown said. And the minimum wage, the family leave, the environmental rules business[es] have left California, thats going to be the big argument. And I think thats something you really have to think a lot about. The governor, who leaves office early next month due to term limits, declined to either endorse or oppose the ballot measure. He said Californias economic health in two years time could be a key factor in how voters weigh the proposal. Well be in a recession by then, Brown said. So its anybodys guess. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inglewood to destroy more than 100 police shooting records that could otherwise become public under new California law By Jack Dolan Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) The city of Inglewood has authorized the shredding of more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records weeks before a new state law could allow the public to access them for the first time. The decision, made at a City Council meeting earlier this month, has troubled civil liberties advocates who were behind the state legislation, Senate Bill 1421, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The legislature passed SB 1421 because communities demanded an end to the secrecy cloaking police misconduct and use of force, Marcus Benigno, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement. Inglewood PDs decision to purge records undermines police accountability and transparency against the will of Californians. California law says police departments must retain records of officer shootings and internal misconduct investigations for five years. The city of Inglewood, however, had kept records longer than that, including case files of police shootings dating to 1991. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of SB 1421, intended for her bill to allow public access to all qualifying records held by a department, no matter the date of the incident. Inglewood City Council approved the destruction of records that have been in the police departments possession more than 100 cases longer than required by law. The city staff report and council resolution describing the action makes no mention of the new police transparency law. Instead it says the affected records are obsolete, occupy valuable space, and are of no further use to the police department. It added the traditional method of destroying such records is to shred them. It is unclear whether the records have since been destroyed. A spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department along with Inglewoods city manager, attorney, clerk, four council members and Mayor James T. Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief, did not respond to requests for comment. Inglewoods City Hall is closed the last two weeks of December. The Inglewood Police Department has a reputation for secrecy and using excessive force. In 2008, the departments officers fatally shot four men in as many months, three of whom turned out to be unarmed. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe and found significant flaws in the way the department oversaw use-of-force cases and investigated complaints against officers. Civil rights advocates still question why Inglewood police opened fire on a couple found sleeping in a car in 2016, killing them both. California police have a long history of shredding records to avoid scrutiny of their actions. In the 1970s, the LAPD famously destroyed more than four tons of personnel records after defense attorneys began requesting them as part of criminal cases against their clients. The move resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal complaints. In response, the Legislature demanded that records be preserved but then took other measures, supported by police unions, to ensure the public had very little access to them, making California the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to police misconduct. Skinners legislation begins to unwind those laws, which have been on the books since 1978. No video or audio of the Dec. 11 council action is available on the citys website and neither are meeting minutes or any record of the decision. A city spokeswoman, Courtney Torres, confirmed that the council had voted in favor of the police records purge, and said all the relevant reasons for the decision were included in the city staff report. The Jan. 1 implementation for SB 1421 has prompted other police officials to act. A police union in San Bernardino is asking the state Supreme Court to determine that Skinners bill only applies to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner earlier this month warning that complying with the law in regard to older records in the departments possession could take hundreds of thousands of work hours. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Federal officials question California DMVs process for issuing Real IDs (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has notified the California Department of Motor Vehicles that its process for providing residents with federally recognized identification cards is not adequate. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said Friday that 2.3 million residents who received Real IDs under the current process will have to submit additional documentation when their cards are renewed in five years but will be able to use them in the meantime. The DMV is developing a way for residents to submit more documentation online or via email to comply with the stricter federal requirement, he said. But some state legislators are upset about delays in notifying them of the problem and say Homeland Security could eventually require additional documentation provided by current holders. The DMV has known for a month that millions of Real IDs theyve been dolling out are potentially invalid, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said. The DMVs only hope is that the Department of Homeland Security takes pity on California and gives the DMV more time to fix this mess. Real IDs are a new kind of driver license and identification card that federal law will require legal residents to present when boarding domestic flights or visiting military bases and other federal facilities starting Oct. 1, 2020. The DMV has only been requiring one form of documentation, including a current lease or utility bill, to verify the residence of a card applicant. But the federal government said in a Nov. 21 letter to the agency that two such documents are needed. On Friday, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto released a letter defending the current process but said her agency will start requiring a second document to prove residency in April. In order to minimize confusion among our customers, the CADMV will work to inform individuals who have been issued a Real ID under the current process that their card will be accepted for official federal purposes, even if their renewal occurs after the October 1, 2020, final enforcement date for Real ID, Shiomoto wrote to the federal agency. Legislative officials worry there is still a possibility that those issued Real IDs in the past might be required to present a second document to have their cards designated as compliant. The more complex process for obtaining Real IDs has led to hours-long waits for customers at DMV field offices this year, although wait times have been reduced recently by an increase in staffing. Shiomoto last month announced that she is retiring amid problems with the motor voter registration system and after the governor ordered an audit of her agency in response to the long wait times. On Friday, Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido blasted the DMV for waiting a month to tell legislators of the problem. This is unacceptable and flies in the face of security for our citizens, which is what Real ID was created for in the first place, she said in a statement. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom taps Keely Bosler to be his finance director Keely Bosler, the director of the California Department of Finance, will continue in that role under Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (California Department of Finance) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed Keely Martin Bosler as director of the California Department of Finance, continuing the role she has served under Gov. Jerry Brown since August. Bosler will become Newsoms chief fiscal advisor, and will play a pivotal role in shaping Newsoms spending plan for the state that will lay the foundation for his top policy priorities. Newsom must roll out his first budget plan within days of taking office on Jan. 7. Californias brighter future depends on a strong, stable fiscal foundation, Newsom said in a statement released Friday afternoon. Keely is an accomplished public servant of sound fiscal judgment. She understands that state budgets are more than numbers on a page they are value statements affecting the fate and future of millions of families reaching for the California Dream. We are fortunate to have her on our team. Prior to being appointed finance director, Bosler served as Browns cabinet secretary for two years and, before that, as the chief deputy director for budget in the Finance Department for three years. Earlier this year, Brown picked Bosler to lead an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had come under fire for long wait times at DMV field offices and numerous computer problems, including errors in the new motor voter program that registered Californians to vote. As we have discussed, long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles do not reflect the high standards of service that Californians expect from their state government, Bosler wrote in a letter in September to DMV Director Jean Shiomoto. The audit is still ongoing, but Shiomoto has since announced she will retire at the end of the year. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias legislative analyst, after decades of nonpartisan research for lawmakers, calls it a career Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who has led the state research unit since 2008, will retire on Dec. 31. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Only five people have led the independent research office of the California Legislature since its creation in 1941. And each of them has had a pretty simple mantra to live by in reviewing public policy proposals and government programs: Call it like you see it. The job of any analyst, to me, is you maintain that nonpartisanship, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Taylor, 65, will retire from the post at the end of December after a four-decade career with the research team that began, as he likes to tell it, just after the passage of the landmark property tax rollback, Proposition 13, in 1978. He became the leader of the office, with the title of legislative analyst, in October 2008. Two months later, state government found itself in arguably the worst fiscal crisis in its history a projected shortfall that ultimately grew to $42 billion by the following winter. There were forces beyond our control, Taylor said of that time. But dont underestimate the policy changes that were made afterward. Those changes, most notably a boost in taxes paid by high-income earners and a robust state budget cash reserve fund, have helped lead to successive years of fully funded government services. The state is projected to have some $24 billion in reserves by the end of the current fiscal year. Taylor announced his intention earlier to step down this year. Leaders from both houses of the Legislature select the analyst, who leads a staff of almost five dozen researchers. The office provides in-depth reports on pending legislation, as well as on broader policy topics like education and healthcare, and produces an independent analysis for every proposed ballot measure. A succession of lawmakers and governors alike have praised or panned the work of the Legislative Analysts Office based on their own political worldview. Taylor said his staff is mindful that they work for legislators, but try to ignore the rhetoric that follows the release of a major report. People are going to do what theyre going to do with our information, he said. They dont always like it, but they appreciate that we give them our best advice. Taylor oversaw a transformation in the way the Legislative Analysts Office distributes its information, embracing the release of research reports through social media instead of relying on traditional printed copies and journalist roundtable events. But he said the work of the researchers has remained largely unchanged through the decades. Having an independent take on things, I think, is good for the Legislature, he said. No replacement for Taylor has been announced, which means a short transition for his eventual successor before Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom sends his first budget proposal to lawmakers in early January. Taylor, who lives in the Sacramento suburbs, said he will honor the tradition of his predecessors in stepping away from public policy debates in order to give the new analyst space to lead the team as he or she sees fit. He said he hopes to travel in the coming years and spend time with his children who have moved to the East Coast. Forty years in state government, Taylor said in why he was stepping aside now. Isnt that enough? Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Jerry Brown sues to save California sentencing laws By Don Thompson, Associated Press (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown sued Thursday to protect one of his signature actions in office, a voter-approved measure that allows most prison inmates to seek earlier release and participate in rehabilitation programs. His administration filed a lawsuit challenging a pending 2020 initiative that seeks to toughen criminal penalties as part of an effort to roll back reforms adopted by voters within the last decade. Browns lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court contends the measure lacked enough valid signatures to overturn a previously approved constitutional amendment. County officials and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the signatures in July but said they were submitted too late to qualify for last months election. The lawsuit names Padilla and the ballot measures official proponent, Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the advocacy group Crime Victims United. Padilla said the measure exceeded the required roughly 366,000 valid signatures, equal to 5% of votes cast for governor in 2014. Browns lawsuit says he used the wrong threshold. It says changing the state Constitution requires 8%, or more than 585,400 signatures. That makes the pending initiative more than 150,000 signatures short, the lawsuit says. Hes wrong, said Jeff Flint, a spokesman for the campaign backing the measure. He predicted a judge will be reluctant to reject a measure that already has qualified for the ballot. The secretary of state told us how many signatures are required, and thats how many we collected, Flint said. Padillas office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The measure would reverse reforms adopted by voters through Proposition 47 in 2014 and Proposition 57 in 2016. Proposition 57 allows most inmates to seek earlier paroles, and Proposition 47 reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The combination has helped keep Californias inmate population below a population cap set by federal judges. Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said the measure gives corrections and parole officials broad discretion to protect our communities and fashion a rational system of rehabilitation and punishment. This new initiative unlawfully seeks to supplant the departments constitutional authority to implement these critical reforms to our criminal justice system. The pending initiative would shorten the list of crimes that qualify for earlier parole and change some theft crimes from misdemeanors back to felonies. It would also increase the number of crimes for which DNA is collected, a list that was limited when some crimes went from felonies to misdemeanors. Those supporting the tougher penalties say easing criminal penalties has increased the number of dangerous criminals on the streets, but those backing the changes say they have helped reduce mass incarceration and rehabilitate convicted criminals. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Supreme Court orders records unsealed in pardon of ex-state Sen. Roderick Wright Former state Sen. Roderick Wright (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) The California Supreme Court has granted a request to unseal court records involving Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to pardon former state Sen. Roderick Wright for felony convictions involving lying about living in his legislative district, officials said Thursday. The court order was in response to a request by the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition, which argued that the public has a right to know what information went into the governors decision to grant clemency to Wright. This is an important victory for public access to court files involving the exercise of executive clemency, said coalition spokesman Glen A. Smith. We are gratified the court has recognized that these decisions should be subject to the same public access rules that apply to other judicial records under California law. The court gave Browns office until Jan. 2 to redact confidential material before giving the court documents that can be released to the public. The court files submitted by the governors office include letters of support for a pardon and an internal review of Wrights case. The court denied a motion to unseal the records of all clemency cases but left open consideration of requests on other individual cases. Browns office is currently evaluating the courts decision, said spokesman Brian Ferguson. The governor argued against unsealing records in a recent court filing that said confidentiality is consistent with historical practice and is supported by state law. In pardoning Wright on Nov. 22, the governor wrote: He has shown that since his release from custody, he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California political watchdog agency fines BART, urges prosecution over using public funds for campaign A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station in Oakland in this 2013 file photo. (Ben Margot / AP) Californias state political watchdog agency on Thursday imposed a $7,500 fine against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and called for a possible criminal or civil prosecution over allegations the district used public resources to campaign for a 2016 bond measure. The state Fair Political Practices Commission levied an administrative fine against BART for its failure to disclose spending on YouTube videos, social media posts and text messages to promote Measure RR, which authorized $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Though the panel lacks authority to seek criminal charges over the misuse of public funds, it also urged county district attorneys in the BART service area and the state attorney general to pursue possible criminal or civil charges over the spending of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said. It is the concept of misusing public funds that I think we all here are very disturbed about, and we want to send a warning and not create a precedent that is a minor, little slap on the wrist, Germond said, adding that the referral to criminal prosecutors would further send a message that this is wrong. Commissioner Brian Hatch also called for the state Legislature to consider granting the FPPC power to go after public agencies that spend taxpayer money on campaigns. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) called on the agency to increase the fine to the maximum level of $33,375. The proposed $7,500 fine represents a slap on the wrist for a very serious violation of the law and the publics trust, Glazer said in a letter to the panel. In supporting the fine recommended by the staff, Germond said BART has agreed to pay the penalty. Somebody did something wrong and they have admitted it, she said. A staff report said there were factors in favor of a fine below the maximum. Although the Commission considers BARTs violations to be serious, the absence of any evidence of an intention to conceal, deceive, or mislead; the voluntary filing of the delinquent campaign statement; and the absence of a prior record are mitigating, the report said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police union seeks state Supreme Court review of new law disclosing internal investigation records Los Angeles Police Department officers. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A police union is asking the California Supreme Court to block the release of internal officer investigations before a new state law takes effect next year. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. filed a petition Tuesday asking justices to rule that only investigations of incidents that occur after Jan. 1 would be available under the law and not those the department has on file from years prior. The litigation comes after this years passage of Senate Bill 1421, which opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department has told the union it intends to make available in response to public records requests all the information it has. The union is very concerned about any plans to retroactively apply Senate Bill 1421, Grant Ward, the unions president, said in a statement. We believe retroactive application violates our members rights and we hope the California Supreme Court will consider the serious issues raised by our legal challenge. The bills author, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), does not agree with the unions interpretation. She has said her legislation should apply to all the records in a police departments possession because the law simply declared that affected records were no longer confidential. If the record exists, its disclosable, Skinner said. A decision on what records will be available under the law is key to how far-reaching it will be. If the court restricts access to incidents that occurred prior to 2019, those cases will not be subject to public scrutiny. The police union in San Bernardino County is not the only one raising concerns about the law. Earlier this month, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner expressing concern that his agency would be overwhelmed if the law required the department to disclose older incidents. Even if the law only applied to the previous five years, Moore wrote, it could take nearly 300,000 hours of work to comply with its provisions. The LAPD operates with a guiding principle of Reverence for the Law; as such, we will diligently comply with SB 1421, Moore wrote. We maintain, however, that a retroactive implementation of SB 1421 will be exceptionally burdensome and would require significant reallocation of front-line investigative personnel. Skinner said if complying with the law becomes untenable for law enforcement agencies that maintain records for a long time, she would consider modifications. But she said agencies did not raise this concern during discussion over the bill. SB 1421 went through multiple committee hearings, multiple floor debates, extensive opportunity for all parties to weigh in on concerns with its structure, she said. That was not an issue that was raised by law enforcement at the time. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Brown warns of backlash for Republicans in 2020 if Obamacare repeal is upheld Gov. Jerry Brown at the National Press Club in April. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown warned Republicans on Tuesday that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would devastate the partys political chances in the 2020 election. Brown, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club event moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton and Brown family historian Miriam Pawel, said a federal judges ruling last week to strike down the 2010 law if upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only take over the Senate, theyll win the presidency and will win with the kind of momentum, particularly on the issue of healthcare, that [the law] will be replaced probably with something even better. The governor, who leaves office in less than three weeks, said he did not believe the ruling by a Texas judge would ultimately prevail. I think the decision will probably be overturned, Brown said. Few states have embraced the law championed by former President Obama more than California, both through its healthcare exchange, Covered California, and by expanding access to government-funded services under Medi-Cal. Some 12 million Californians now receive healthcare through Medi-Cal, and Brown said a final ruling affecting the federal dollars that subsidize that care would be a serious blow. California would not be able to afford it without the subsidy, the governor said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks (acuna-hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses, and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors, and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bars in Los Angeles and San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks. (Acuna-Hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias DMV director announces retirement amid problems with motor voter program (Kent Nishamura/Los Angeles Times) The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles will retire at years end with a number of questions unanswered about the implementation of a major voter registration system and long wait times experienced by customers for much of the past summer. Jean Shiomoto will not continue in her current role as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom takes office, and announced to staff several weeks ago her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service, spokesman Armando Botello said in an email to The Times on Friday. Newsoms transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might lead the department in 2019. Shiomoto was appointed DMV director by Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013, having served in prior leadership roles with the department. DMV officials have been sharply criticized by lawmakers in recent months for delays in serving customers at its field offices across the state. Last week, DMV officials revealed errors in registering California voters for the November election mistakes that followed a series of problems in the rollout of the states new motor voter registration system. Secretary of State Alex Padilla last week said he had lost confidence in Shiomotos leadership as a result of the voting registration problems. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement New law could break the stalemate over housing on the site of a near-vacant Cupertino mall By Liam Dillon For more than a decade, developers have tried to build new housing on the site of an all-but-empty mall in Cupertino, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Apple headquarters. A well-organized group of neighbors, upset about traffic, building heights and the potential loss of the communitys suburban lifestyle, turned away every plan. Now, for the first time, the stalemate might be broken thanks to a decision made in the state Capitol. In an effort to address Californias housing affordability problem, legislators passed a law last year that requires cities and counties to approve housing projects if they comply with local zoning rules and other standards, forcing some resistant communities to agree to new homebuilding. In September, the city of Cupertino, citing the state law, approved developer Sand Hill Property Co.s proposal to build an office park and more than 2,400 homes where the Vallco Shopping Mall sits. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Local government was a last bastion for struggling California Republicans. Not anymore By Mark Z. Barabak Theres no shortage of watery metaphors to describe the disaster that befell California Republicans this midterm election. A blue wave. A Democratic tsunami. But the most apt may be a flood, with the casualties steadily rising as the vote count climbed in the days and weeks following Nov. 6. Eventually half the GOP congressional delegation was washed away, along with the entire slate of statewide Republican candidates. In Sacramento, Democrats claimed 29 of 40 state Senate seats and seized three-quarters of the 80-member Assembly the largest number since 1883, when Chester A. Arthur was serving in the White House. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print For the Republicans left in Californias Legislature, fewer lawmakers will have to do more work By John Myers From January to late summer every year, the California Legislature is a perpetual motion machine. And in the new year, the people most likely to struggle in keeping up will be Republicans, vastly outnumbered but still responsible for representing millions of the states residents. There are 22 standing committees in the state Senate, plus at least a dozen more subcommittees or special committees. And after Novembers election, only 11 Republican senators will be left to divvy up the work. To the victors go the spoils. To the vanquished go the extra assignments. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Californias DMV failed to finish registering 329 new voters before November election (Los Angeles Times) Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration. Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director. The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust, Padilla wrote. In all, the agency revealed that 589 mailed voter registration records that should have been processed under election deadlines werent sent to Californias secretary of state until late November, including forms from 260 drivers who had intended to update their address on existing voter registration records. The DMV had been instructed to not send registration forms that came in after Oct. 22, but the voters in question had forms that were postmarked before the deadline. In some cases, when the postmark wasnt legible, the agency said, documents inside indicated the voter had intended to finish their registration in time for the Nov. 6 election. The DMV recognizes the pause in transmittals was an error and affected the timing of the registration of the 589 individuals referenced above relative to the November election, Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Padilla on Friday. The pause was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the department, for which we take responsibility. Those who were trying to update their address for voter registration would not have been blocked from casting ballots. But officials said its unclear whether any of the 329 new voters were able to participate in the election. Shiomoto said in her letter that DMV will work with elections officials. The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the states new motor voter law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices for some voters, some people were assigned the wrong political party preference and others who are noncitizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the last several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom appoints a labor advocate and a former staffer as his chief deputy Cabinet secretaries By Taryn Luna A labor advocate and a San Francisco political operative have accepted positions in Gov.-elect Gavin Newsoms new administration. Angie Wei, a Capitol insider with deep ties to organized labor in California, will serve as a chief deputy Cabinet secretary with a focus on policy development. As a legislative director and chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, Wei has represented more than 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers in Capitol fights over a host of policy issues, including drug-pricing transparency and paid family leave. The governor-elect also tapped Jason Elliott, a policy advisor to Newsom during his time as mayor of San Francisco and a chief of staff to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, as another chief deputy Cabinet secretary overseeing executive branch operations. Elliott and Wei will serve under Ana Matosantos, Newsoms previously Allies balk at Trump administration bid to block Chinese firm from cutting-edge telecom markets By David S. Cloud Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administrations call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart Chinas involvement in future mobile networks. Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say. The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause. #Georgia Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush. The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump as recently as Tuesday continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops You really are our heroes, he said as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see. James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes he last won reelection by a 14-point margin suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election again, in blowout fashion but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10. Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters... Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice. Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children the older ones are 5 and 2 about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican she the race felt m Paul Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman who was convicted of several felonies and cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid a second trial, has violated his plea agreement by lying to investigators, according to the special counsels office. After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the special counsels office on a variety of subject matters, according to a new court filing submitted Monday evening. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is leading the investigation into whether anyone from Trumps team conspired with Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election, said the violation means theres no reason to delay Manaforts sentencing. In August, Manafort was convicted in federal court in Virginia of bank fraud and tax evasion related to his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. He then pleaded guilty in September to two charges of conspiracy one involving financial crimes, the other related to obstruction of justice by reaching out to a potential witness in his case in federal court in Washington. Advertisement After the guilty plea, Manafort met regularly with prosecutors, sparking speculation about what he might be sharing. The court filing does not say what Manafort allegedly lied about. The special counsels office promised to file a detailed document closer to the sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendants crimes and lies. Manaforts defense team said he had tried to live up to cooperation obligations, but they also agreed to move forward with sentencing. A date has not yet been scheduled. The filing left unclear how the breakdown of talks between Manafort and the special counsels office might affect the rest of Muellers work. Since before Manaforts plea, there have been persistent suggestions that Trump might pardon Manafort, something hinted at by the presidents lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. The breakdown of the plea agreement will likely mean a longer prison term for Manafort, 69, who will be sentenced without the benefit of a good word from prosecutors. Hes already been in jail since June when a judge decided he had violated the terms of his bail. Manafort could end up spending the rest of his life in prison. This is a great example of how much power prosecutors wield over these cooperation agreements, said Shanlon Wu, a defense attorney who previously represented Richard Gates, a former Manafort associate who was also charged by the special counsels office. Gates ended up cutting his own deal with prosecutors and testifying against Manafort. If you want their help of having a lighter sentence, you have to convince them that youre being truthful, Wu said. Trump has previously said Manafort was treated unfairly and compared him favorably to Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer who has eagerly looked for opportunities to cooperate with prosecutors in order to reduce his own criminal liability. There were signs this month that news could be coming in the case. On Nov. 15, prosecutors and defense attorneys asked a judge for more time to submit a status report, promising it would be of greater assistance in the courts management of this matter. On Monday evening, the new filing made clear that whatever talks were taking place between the two sides were over. The result could jeopardize whatever progress Mueller hoped to make by cutting a deal with Manafort. The special counsel will be unable to rely on him as a cooperating witness in any future trials and, after calling him a liar in court papers, might hesitate to use information provided by Manafort as key evidence. On the other hand, Mueller used testimony from Gates in Manaforts trial even after Gates pleaded guilty to lying. And Manafort may have provided the special counsels office with information that could be corroborated elsewhere, reducing the need to keep his cooperation. On balance, I think this is a much bigger blow to Manafort than the prosecution, Wu said. Mueller has meticulously pursued cases in which Trump associates have lied to investigators, often using such charges as leverage to convince them to cooperate with prosecutors. George Papadopolous, a former campaign foreign policy advisor, pleaded guilty to lying about his conversations with a Maltese professor with Russian connections. He reported to prison on Monday to begin a 14-day sentence. Michael Flynn, Trumps first national security advisor, pleaded guilty to lying about his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. He agreed to cooperate with the special counsels office, and hes scheduled to be sentenced next month. Gates, Manaforts former business partner who served as his deputy on the Trump campaign, also pleaded guilty to the same charge. Prosecutors said he lied about a lobbying meeting related to their work on behalf of Ukraines former president. Follow live coverage of the Trump administration on Essential Washington chris.megerian@latimes.com Twitter: @chrismegerian UPDATES: 5:40 p.m.: The story was updated with additional details. The story was originally published at 4:15 p.m. The Luminor Regatta appellation was first seen on an Officine Panerai watch in 2001, the same year that WorldTempus made its debut on the Internet. The Luminor Marina Regatta 2001 (PAM 107) was a limited edition of 500 which unusually had the year on the dial under the regatta inscription. It was a standard time-only piece with small seconds on the left and a magnified date on the right. A GMT function was added the next year and the year was dropped from the dial (PAM 156) in a limited run of 300 pieces. The first chronograph version came in 2003 with the PAM 168 reference (a limited series of 399), followed by a Luminor Sumbersible in 2004 (PAM 199), which was limited to 500. When the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge started in 2005, the regatta models were associated with this race series, in which classic yachts compete in regattas all over the world. The first such model was the Luminor Regatta with power reserve in 2005 (PAM 222), which heralded a run of limited edition of 500 watches each year. A flyback chronograph version followed in 2006 (PAM 253), a split-seconds model in 2007 (PAM 286) and a chronograph with a hobnail-patterned dial in 2008 (PAM 308). PAM 332, PAM 343 and PAM 526 Panerai Over the past 10 years the Regatta collection has welcomed a number of innovations, from the first case in black PVD-coated steel in 2009 (PAM 332), a 1/8th of a second chronograph indication in 2010 (PAM 343) in a titanium Radiomir case (the only Regatta model to use this case so far) and a tachymeter scale featuring knots rather than units per hour in 2013 on the PAM 526 Luminor 1950 Regatta 3 days flyback chronograph in titanium. The first model to use the Luminor Submersible case came in 2011 (PAM 371), also with a case in titanium and a GMT hand. A second Submersible model came in 2014 (PAM 571) as a limited edition of just 50 pieces to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Panerai Classic Yacht Regatta. Sandwiched between these two models were two Luminor 1950 watches, PAM 427 in 2012 with a split-seconds chronograph movement and eight days power reserve and the aforementioned PAM 526. PAM 371, PAM 571 and PAM 427 Panerai To celebrate the announcement of its partnership with the 35th America's Cup, Panerai presented five nautically-themed watches, three for Oracle Team USA (PAM 724, PAM 725 and PAM 726), one for Team Softbank Japan (PAM 732) and the official America's Cup watch (PAM 727). Read more about them here. Last year, Panerai broke with tradition by presenting not one but three Regatta watches associated with the Panerai Classic Yacht Challenge, each featuring the acronym of the series in the lengthy model name. PAM 652 is a Luminor 1950 PCYC Regatta 3 days flyback chrono automatic in titanium with the 47mm case, while PAM 653 and PAM 654 are Luminor 1950 PCYC 3 days flyback automatic chronographs with a smaller 44mm case in steel. PAM 653 has a familiar black dial with oversized Arabic numerals, while PAM 654 has an ivory dial with a mixture of baton markers at 6 and 12 oclock and dots for the remaining hour markers. Both models have the tachymeter scale in nautical miles and all three have the PCYC initials on the dial. PAM 652, PAM 653 and PAM 654 Panerai This year, Panerai shakes things up again with a watch dedicated to the Transat Classique the race that sees these majestic classic yachts tackle the rigours of an Atlantic crossing. As the Panerai references head towards the thousand mark, PAM 952 brings back the regatta countdown timer in a 150-piece limited edition to celebrate the Panerai Transat Classique, which sets off from Lanzarote on 8th January 2019. Naturally, Panerais own classic yacht Eilean, the 1936 Bermudan ketch, will be among those taking part in the 3,000 nautical mile challenge as she embarks upon the 38th transatlantic crossing in her career. Luminor Regatta Transat Classique (PAM 956) by day and night Panerai This exclusive model in titanium with a blue dial and matching blue strap has the course from Lanzarote to St. Kitts in the Caribbean engraved on its case back and is only available from Panerai stores. You can also find some of the above-mentioned models, at least dating back to 2009, available for sale directly via the official Officine Panerai website. Scientist have begun to bring together stem cells that reorganize themselves to form ebryo-like structures. It wont be long before theyll be able to engineer different kinds of tissues and organs perhaps even features of mature humans, according to Carol Zimmer of the New York Times. That means now is the time to start thinking about rules and ethics of these synthetic embryos, or SHEEFs, according to a report by Harvard Medical School researchers. There are the benefits: A SHEEF made up of a heart connected to a rudimentary brain can teach scientists about how nerves control heartbeats, Zimmer writes. Join the conversation on Facebook But Dr. John D. Aach said before scientists get too far ahead, there should be some established rules. For example, SHEEFs should never be created to feel pain. Q. How does your faith help you weigh the benefits and ethical gray areas of stem-cell engineering? My faith teaches me that humans are unique among all other creations in the universe, the only beings created in the image of God. As the Psalmist exclaims, For You [God] formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mothers womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well (Psalm 139:13-14). Scripture gives credit to God for our conception and development. We are obligated to give thanks and acknowledgment to God for our existence. Scripture teaches that humans have eternal souls that will live in either Heaven or the Lake of Fire after the cessation of the bodys functions. It even teaches us that God had plans for our lives before the creation of the universe: [God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him (Ephesians 1:4). The Book of Genesis teaches that plants and animals beget offspring after their kind. That is, like begets like. Dandelions beget dandelions, storks beget storks and humans beget humans. To date, the only way to beget humans has been the way God established from the beginning, when sperm meets egg (whether in the uterus or in a test tube). I understand that theres no solid evidence that a human has ever been cloned. I dont have an issue with the artificial growth of an organ or another body part. But I dont think that the artificial creation of an entire functioning human body (if its ever possible) could create a soul. At any rate, we must take extreme caution in proceeding with this research. It would be way too easy to rationalize experimentation on a real human if experimentation on a synthetic human ever becomes possible and acceptable. Pastor Jon Barta Burbank .. Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character. I think Albert Einsteins appraisal of what is required of those pursuing the outer limits of human knowledge holds true more than ever. As research takes us to intellectual heights that heretofore have been the realm of science fiction, our existing ethical, regulatory and legal systems are being outdistanced by new discoveries. While researchers are bringing in the SHEEFs, it is essential to develop, fund and enforce ethical codes which can ensure that the essence of the Hippocratic oath, do no harm, is applied to the application of new processes and technologies. The historical record on ethics in science is mixed. As with all human endeavors the temptation for personal gain has often trumped humane considerations. Oprah Winfreys production of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, soon to be broadcast on HBO, will bring to life Rebecca Skloots bestseller about the cell line derived from the cancerous tumor of a patient without her knowledge or permission. The story of Lacks, an African-American woman of humble means, is a prime example of how issues of race, class and gender combined to benefit science through the exploitation of Ms. Lacks and her family. Ms. Winfreys effort is a good example of how to foster popular education on this complex subject. I hope that we can cultivate character in our scientists sufficient to the challenge, so that we can come rejoicing in positive scientific achievements for health and life, rather than needing to repel a morally unmoored science organized primarily for financial profit rather than social benefit. David L. Hostetter, Ph.D. Vice President, Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills La Crescenta .. Humans must use our highly evolved, or (as some would say) divinely created, big brains to determine where the ethical lines should be drawn as stem cell engineering advances. I have faith that sciences endless questioning will focus on this problem and can solve it. Indeed Dr. Aachs report is part of that process. He says, Were going to have to get a lot of input from a lot of quarters, which is what science does. Carl Zimmers March 21st New York Times reporting on the eLife stem cell article quotes a Harvard historian of science who expresses optimist that experts can draw on regulations already laid down for related areas of research, including cloning, and human and animal tissue studies. Those of us who lack a science background can contribute our common sense. For instance, another scientists explanation of a SHEEF is a collection of neurons connected to other tissues in a dish. I believe that consciousness cannot be present in such a structure, and without consciousness there is no experience of pain. The full definition for which SHEEF is an acronym is synthetic human entities with embryo-like features. I believe we need to bear in mind what SHEEFs are and what they are not as we go forward; shorthand such as synthetic embryos needs context if we are to have a useful and honest discussion. Roberta Medford Atheist Montrose .. This is a terribly heavy subject to answer in brief and without full knowledge, but from my Christian perspective, a few thoughts come to mind that Ill venture to share. First, I am not opposed to stem-cell research when the cells are collected from adults or from umbilical cords. There are plenty of those to go around and nobody kills an unborn child to get them. Secondly, since no conception between a sperm and ovum occurs, it seems to me that what we are talking about are merely soulless parts; alive yes, but only in the sense that cells are functioning as created, yet without a personal resident. Imagine making fresh human hearts for perfect transplantation rather than our current use of pig valves. I had a Baptist colleague who got those, and afterward he would joke that he was no longer kosher, as he was also Jewish. Im sure many of his relatives already thought that was the case. But should Christs Second Coming be yet another thousand years, we may see the day where stem-cell scientists can manufacture whole human bodies in their laboratories. The movie Avatar comes to mind, where soulless, manufactured forms float quietly awaiting human possession. Its a wild idea, but I dont know that its unethical, biblically speaking. And whether something so advanced, or something so currently rudimentary should be made devoid of pain receptors, I think rather senseless. If its just reactive cells, it would be akin to pulling a flower off a plant. If it were a full body, it would need them for self-preservation. Now, heres a fly in the ointment, and especially for Easter. Jesus was born of a virgin. This was a miracle, and God can do those. Many deny this truth and posit instead a peculiarity of nature that occurs in some animals called parthenogenesis. Its where an offspring is reproduced aesexually, and no father is required. If this could happen in human beings, the child would be fully human, and virgin-born. However, in creatures that have exhibited such cases, the offspring is always female, as no male chromosome is contributed to the mix. So even if by some fluke Mary was that one case in a bazillion, it would still have been a miracle that she had a son. This is why we mustnt change verses of Scripture to neutralize the gender of our Savior, and why we have to understand that his birth was divinely wrought for his eventual sacrifice and subsequent resurrection. Easter, then, is the culmination of Christmas. Now, if researchers go beyond stem-cells and use whole eggs to tinker and toy, then we have a problem, because then we are not talking just about malleable cells, but parthenogenic material, and therefore human being. Think on this while you watch your children collect Easter eggs this coming Sunday. Rev. Bryan A. Griem Tujunga Carnival Cruise Line will kick off the New Year by launching its first Rose Parade float: a floral replica of the new ship Panorama. The ship will expand the cruise lines presence in Southern California when it arrives in December 2019. It also will be the first new Carnival ship to homeport in the Los Angeles area in 20 years. Were excited about having a brand new ship like Panorama in California, Carnival president Christine Duffy said. We were trying to come up with a great event to showcase all the things were doing on the West Coast. The Rose Parade seemed like a way to get out in front of the market when everyone is watching the parade. The 130th Rose Parade in Pasadena begins at 8 a.m. Jan. 1. When Panorama arrives in Long Beach next year, it will become the only ship to sail to the Mexican Riviera year-round, Duffy said. Advertisement What I think is unique is that the ship will become a fixture at the port, which most California residents can drive to within five hours. The float will include many of the signature features of Carnivals ships, including the red-and-blue funnel, a water park and Lido Deck party, as well as a feature new to Panorama, a trampoline park. The trampoline will be built into the front of the float to represent jumping into fun. Duffy said. The 55-foot-long float will contain flowers from more than 100 countries, representing the number of nations that Carnival employees hail from. The real Panorama will have 1,823 staterooms and carry almost 4,000 passengers. It will have 13 passenger decks, 25 lounges and bars, 10 restaurants and food bars, three swimming pools, six whirlpools and 16 elevators. Info: Carnival Cruises, (800) 764-7419, or contact a travel agent ALSO What one hotel inspector looks for (theres an ick factor) and what one hotelier says about less-than-flattering findings In this Cleveland hall, classical music is king (and ancient Egypt meets the jazz age) Heavy snow blankets Mammoth and Tahoe ski resorts travel@latimes.com @latimestravel Travel Deal Tuesday isnt a made up thing. Online travel agency Hopper looked at flight prices over time during the post-Thanksgiving shopping blitz. It found that the best prices, saving as much as 40%, fell on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The volume of fare sales [last year] was more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, a Hopper news release said. What that means for you is saving on your next vacation now. Browse these Tuesday deals that Hopper confirmed with the respective airlines. And remember, some Cyber Monday deals are still in effect so its not to late to find a bargain. Hawaiian Airlines on Tuesday will be offering one-way economy fares from Honolulu to Sapporo, Japan, starting at $299 per person. The airlines Cyber Monday deal, which continues through Wednesday, shows round-trip airfares from Los Angeles starting at $357 to Kona, Hawaii; $377 to Kauai; $457 to Honolulu, Oahu; and $477 to Maui. Advertisement Theres also a Long Beach-Oahu ticket from $417. Fares are available for travel Mondays to Thursdays between Jan. 9 and March 13. Book through Wednesday at Hawaiian Airlines. Tuesday deals will be forthcoming from other airlines too, such as Icelandair, Cathay Pacific, South African Airways, Qatar Airways, Avianca and Philippine Airlines. For example, Cathay Pacific will be offering low fares from the U.S. to destinations in Asia such as Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai in China as well as destinations in Australia and New Zealand. Philippine Airlines will be offering low fares to destinations such as Manila, Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, and Seoul. South African Airways will be offering their lowest fares of the year, to destinations such as Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, Accra, Ghana, and Dakar, Senegal. The company also predicts Tuesday will bring flight deals to domestic destinations such as Honolulu (27% off), Miami (36% off), Las Vegas (34% off) and New York (26% off). Hopper also confirmed that hotels in major cities such as New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco will get in on the action this year with average savings up to 35%. To take advantage of Tuesday deals, visit individual airlines or hotels or use the free Hopper app. The search screen on Hoppers app will feature a Travel Deal Tuesday Deal Finder. It will allow you to browse all the deals and set up alerts for destinations that youre interested in. Info: Hopper mobile app ALSO Where to find Cyber Monday deals on airfares Cruise lines offer extra perks in their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals What one hotel inspector looks for (theres an ick factor) and what one hotelier says about less-than-flattering findings travel@latimes.com @latimestravel This image of MacArthur Park was the 12th image in the 1955-56 Los Angeles Times Know Your City photography series. The original Nov. 29, 1955, caption read: KNOW YOUR CITY, NO.12-- Don't let that palm tree give you the wrong slant. You know this place, even though it's name was changed a while ago. In its day it has taken quite a paddling. Can you guess where this picture was made? Answer on Page 7, Part lll. ANSWER:Yes, Its MacArthur Park--formerly Westlake Park. In the photo, the view is northeasterly, across the lake, looking toward the boathouse and, behind that, the intersection of Alvarado St. and Wilshire Blvd. The original Westlake Park was built in the 1880s. It was named after Henricus W. Westlake, who donated a portion of his property to the city for the park. On May 7, 1942, the park was renamed to honor Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Feb. 23, 2018: A jogger with two dogs runs around the lake at MacArthur Park. After years of violence and neglect, MacArthur Park is undergoing changes that hint at an incoming wave of gentrification. Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here The Russian Federal Security Service posted a video Tuesday of three captured Ukrainian navy sailors stating that their boat was dispatched to provoke a violent clash with Russian coast guard vessels in the waters off Crimea on Sunday. Ukrainian officials later accused Russia of using psychological and physical pressure on the crew members, and one of them appeared to be reading from an off-camera script in the FSB video. I recognize that the actions of the Ukrainian naval grouping were provocative, a sailor identifying himself as Capt. 3rd Rank Vladimir Lisovoi said to the camera. Lisovoi spoke quickly, with eyes focused off to the side. He also said the group deliberately ignored radio calls from the Russian coast guard. The three Ukrainian naval vessels two gunboats and an accompanying tug were fired on by Russian coast guard vessels near the entrance to the Kerch Strait, a waterway nestled between the Crimea peninsula and the Russian mainland that leads into the Sea of Azov. Russia said the movement violated its territorial waters and seized the vessels, detaining 24 crew members. Advertisement (Los Angeles Times) The incident has inflamed tensions between Ukraine and Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian government officials in Kiev contend that Russian authorities were notified that the three boats intended to transit the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov, where Ukraine has naval ports. Russia maintains that no such notification was issued, and that the boats maneuvered recklessly. The Ukrainian vessels have been taken to Kerch, a city on the Crimean coast, and the crews are being prosecuted in Russian courts there. Russia has claimed that Ukrainian intelligence officers were aboard, and one of these alleged officers identifying himself as Andrei Dach said in the video Tuesday that we entered Russian territorial waters despite repeated warnings. Ukraines intelligence service, the SBU, later confirmed that it had men aboard the boats but said they were there only to perform counterintelligence duties for the Ukrainian navy. The fate of the 24 men captured by the Russians remains in question. The Ukrainian foreign minister told the Interfax-Ukraine news service that Kiev was working through the International Red Cross to get access to its men and ensure they receive proper medical treatment. Six of the sailors were reportedly wounded by Russian fire during the engagement Sunday. Pretrial hearings were held for 12 of the sailors Tuesday in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, and at least three of them were ordered detained for two months pending trial on charges of illegally crossing Russian borders which carries a maximum sentence of six years. Rulings on the detention of the remaining sailors are expected Wednesday. Kiev has argued the men are prisoners of war, which would preclude them from criminal charges such as those three of them now face. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaks to parliament in Kiev on Monday before a vote to impose martial law. (Efrem Lukatsky / Associated Press) Meanwhile, in Ukraine, martial law has been declared across 10 regions that authorities have deemed at risk of Russian aggression. In a national address Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that his intelligence service has evidence of Russian preparations for a massive ground assault on Ukraine. He did not share any evidence publicly. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Kievs imposition of martial law risks sparking hostilities in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian troops have been battling Russian-backed separatists there since 2014, but a frequently violated cease-fire agreement in 2015 has limited the fighting. In Europe, several countries issued statements highlighting deep concern over the situation. NATO has condemned Russia and called for the release of the boats and sailors. Russias handling of the incident has sparked fears that Moscow may be moving to claim total control over the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov. The strait and the sea beyond it are formally governed by a 2003 bilateral agreement between Russia and Ukraine declaring these areas to be shared internal waters. But since annexing Crimea, Moscow has been asserting ever greater control over the Kerch Strait. In May, Russia completed a $3.7-billion bridge crossing the strait to connect Crimea to Russia. Ukraines navy is greatly outmatched by Russias Black Sea Fleet and other military assets in the region, leaving Kiev with few good options. According to Michael Kofman, an analyst at the Virginia-based CNA think tank specializing in the Russian navy, Ukraine may receive a few token weapons packages from Western supporters, but it will not change the situation. Russia is trying to establish itself as the de facto sovereign of the Kerch Strait, Kofman said, thereby forcing Ukraine to submit to its authority on passage into the Sea of Azov. The attack was meant to demonstrate both the fact that Russia is the dominant military power in the Black Sea, but also that it now claims sovereignty over the strait and wont abide by prior agreements. Bodner is a special correspondent. UPDATES: 11:15 a.m.: This article was updated with Times reporting. This article was originally published at 7:55 a.m. During the holidays, many students take advantage of seasonal jobs. This is a great option because many businesses have their peak hiring during the holidays. As such, students can easily find a job that can earn them some extra cash. Retail employees, summer camp counselors, and tax season jobs are just a few examples of what a student can take advantage of. Advertisement One seasonal job that most students might not have considered is a job as a freelance writer. While it isn't always the first job that comes to mind, it can be the perfect fit from many college students. Being a Freelancer as a Seasonal Job One option students have when it comes to seasonal jobs is to work as a freelancer. Students, in particular, have a great chance in freelance academic writing because they have expertise in this field. After all, there are is no one who has quite as much experience writing essays on a variety of topics than a college student who spends their days writing essays for grades rather than a profit. What Advantage Do Student Freelance Writers Have? An advantage that student freelance writers have is that while their peers are finding traditional seasonal work, you are working on essays. In other words, when other students are getting busy with work and are doing their best to keep up with their studies, student freelancers have the chance to help out for a profit. For example, if another student is spending all their time trying to apply for and start their seasonal job, they can call you to help out with their APA research paper outline. In this transaction, the student gets the advantage of academic help and stress relief and you earn a profit. An additional benefit is that when students work as freelance writers, they have the chance to create their own hours. If you have a number of exams one week, you can devote more time to your studies. Alternatively, when you have a day off, you can spend it working and getting a job done. How Do Freelancer Make Money? There are a few ways that freelancers make money. The simple version, though, is that a freelance writer writes the essay, article, or other product and they get paid upon delivery. The differences here are if the freelancer works completely independently or if they work on a platform. The main difference here is that if a freelancer works independently, they are responsible for obtaining funds as well as completing the job at hand. When a freelancer works on a freelancing platform such as Upwork, they have the advantage of a contract and middleman holding the client responsible for paying their fees to the freelancer. This reduces the risk of a freelancer having a client that disappears as soon as they receive a project. However, these platforms do tend to take a percentage of earnings for these services. How Do Freelancers Find Clients? The simple answer to this is that freelancers need to network. This can be done in-person or, thanks to the rise of the modern age, online. Freelancing platforms and business platforms such as LinkedIn can help freelancers network online to find clients. As a different route, freelancers can find their clients by networking with the people around them. The more styles you can write in, the more luck you will have finding clients. It should be noted that in-person networking isn't always the most effective choice for freelancers. For students, though, this is slightly more reliable. If you are focusing on essay writing, it's typically easier to find clientele because the target audience - those who need essays written - amongst their peers. A Few Things You Need to Keep in Mind as a Freelancer... If you want to be a freelancer, there are a few things to keep in mind as you go along. First and foremost, freelance writers need to create a valuable product. If the essays a freelancer writes receive high marks, they are likely to have more repeat customers. On the other hand, if a freelancer's work receives low marks, they are not only likely to lose that client, they are also going to lose the potential clientele of anyone that client tells about the poor performance. Another thing to keep in mind is the time frame in which you are writing. Many clients want the essays that a freelancer writes in as short a time period as possible. This way, the client has time to look it over and have plenty of time to turn it in. The best freelancers will be able to deliver in a short time period without sacrificing the quality that comes from detailed research and editing. When giving a client a time frame, take into consideration how much time the essay will take to complete. Remember, harder jobs usually come with a higher fee for most freelancers. Final Takeaway Considering freelancing as your seasonal profession is a great idea. It can offer students the flexibility they need and it can offer them a profit at the same time! Additionally, they can use their seasonal job to help their peers with their seasonal job stress as well. Until 2017, it was clear from several decisions of the Austrian Supreme Court that trade marks registered in bad faith were invalid and therefore could be successfully attacked any time and that asserted rights based on them would be rejected as immoral. However, the decisions went further: the mere use of that sign was held to be inadmissible and therefore could be forbidden as such without any other reason. In a long-lasting series of proceedings about a television programme named Fashion One (European trade mark (EUTM) of defendant) and Fashion Television (EUTM licensed to the defendant) the then plaintiff requested the courts forbid use of the licensed mark Fashion Television for the sole reason that the use of that mark, acquired with the intent to obstruct and hinder the plaintiff, in itself supports a claim for an injunction. The plaintiff based his request on settled case law as indicated above. In 2017, the Austrian Supreme Court changed its mind and decided in this case that prior case law did not give any reason for an injunction against use of a bad faith trade mark without any further support and that such an injunction does not have a basis in the law. Article 52 paragraph 1 lit b EUTM Regulation as well as the parallel Austrian provision say only that acquiring a registration of a mark in bad faith is forbidden. For example, these provisions do not relate to the derivation of licensed rights. The use of such a mark on the market is independent of acquiring trade mark rights for that mark. This use also does not hinder the plaintiff in any perceivable way. No rights are derived by the mere use of a trade mark registered in bad faith which could be rejected for being immoral and unfair. Hence the old case law was overturned and the complaint rejected. We now have a second case in which that point of law (is mere use of a trade mark registered in bad faith lawful?) was decided (indirectly) in the same way. In this case, the first instance judge rejected the complaint of the same plaintiff as in the above-mentioned case against the same defendant mentioned above regarding the use of the EUTM Fashion Television. The rejection was based on the above-mentioned decision without any relevant procedure since the situation was clear from the beginning. However, before the decision was rendered, the plaintiff added new grounds. This extension of the case was rejected by the judge. On appeal, the decision was overturned. At such an early stage in the procedure, the first instance judge should have accepted these new grounds in light of the fact that the original ground was not sustainable. The Austrian Supreme Court confirmed this. It is therefore now settled case law in Austria that the use of a bad faith trade mark is per se not objectionable. Helmut Sonn SONN & PARTNER Patentanwalte Riemergasse 14 A-1010 Vienna, Austria Tel: +43 1 512 84 05 Fax: +43 1 512 98 05 office@sonn.at www.sonn.at 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 Mexico is a nation made up of diverse cultures supported by its indigenous people. The population that is considered indigenous represents 21.5% of the total population of the country. Article 2 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States establishes, among other things, the right to preserve and enrich the indigenous people's languages, knowledge and all those elements that constitute their indigenous identity. Likewise, Article 4 recognises legal pluralism. In the international arena, Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that every person has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests that correspond to him by reason of the scientific, literary or artistic productions of which he is the author. Likewise, he has the right to gain from the protection of the moral and material benefits to which he is entitled due to his authorship. Notwithstanding the foregoing, indigenous peoples and communities are left unprotected, because intellectual property protection systems often leave them out. There is a specific concern on the part of some communities and organisations with regard to access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Mexico and several countries that have high biological diversity are visited by companies or people, who in their research and development process, enter the territory of a given community and manage to extract a biological resource (genetic organisms, plants or animals), supported in many cases by traditional knowledge contributed by the members of the original community. These biological resources, could be the basis for the development of any drug susceptible to protection through patent. However, after being obtained, the benefits derived from its exploitation are not shared with the communities and indigenous people where the natural resources are located or traditional knowledge related to them. It is estimated that the market value of some pharmaceutical products derived from the traditional knowledge of indigenous people amounts to billions of dollars. Mexico, as one of the most biologically rich countries in the world, is vulnerable in this regard. As a result of the foregoing, the international community has recognised the right of indigenous peoples and communities to prior, free and informed consultation in the following cases: 1) each time that legislative or administrative measures are contemplated, which may affect indigenous people or communities (prior consultation with indigenous people covers not only the use of natural resources, but any measure that may directly affect these communities); 2) before undertaking or authorising any prospecting or exploitation programme of existing resources on their lands. In the field of intellectual property, the right to prior consultation is particularly important because it affects areas such as trade marks, copyright, plant varieties, geographical indications and, particularly, patents. The right to prior, free and informed consultation is foreseen in Convention No.169 "On Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries" of the Labor Organization (ILO), and constitutes the cornerstone on which the provisions are based. Article 15 of this agreement establishes an obligation to provide special protection for natural resources that exist in the lands of people, which implies participation from indigenous people in the use, administration and conservation of these natural resources. Around the world, efforts have been made to incorporate the right to prior consultation into intellectual property legislation. In accordance with UNESCO's recommendations, intellectual property fulfils a social function in accordance with international human rights obligations and principles. One way to fulfil this purpose is to establish mechanisms for human rights-based examination and the possibility of challenging decisions taken under procedures for granting patents, utility models or copyrights. There is broad international consensus that human rights are above rights associated with free trade. When intellectual property is considered a human right, the implementation of preventative measures to guarantee the right to prior, free and informed consultation with indigenous communities and the fair distribution of profits derived from their exploitation is of special importance. It is based on the recognition of creativity and human dignity. There are various collaboration mechanisms through different international organisations to coordinate and harmonise the guidelines of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for the protection of human rights and for cases of abuse resulting from the lack of fairness and transparency exhibited by some companies or individuals, by not sharing the benefits of exploitation with local communities where natural resources are based or where traditional knowledge related to them exists. There are several international agreements on the environment and biodiversity that incorporate the right to prior and informed consultation, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations signed on December 29 1993, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development signed in 1992, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of September 11 2003, and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from their Utilization, dated October 29 2010, in Nagoya Japan. Mexico is part of these international agreements and also recognises in its Constitution the right to prior, free and informed consultation. However, the federal government lacks a protocol for consultation with indigenous people and communities to enforce this principle in legal practice. This is coupled with the absence of regulations and institutions that are capable of responding to the fulfilment of this right. While it is true that these international agreements focus on biodiversity, they interconnect with aspects of intellectual property. This is reflected in the legal provisions of various countries in the world, mainly related to the establishment of disclosure requirements for an invention in the field of patents (PDR), as a tool capable of providing legal certainty to indigenous people and communities when it comes to patent applicants. Historically, there have been political tensions between patent law and legislation related to biodiversity, which have often been the subject of controversy. To date, relevant intergovernmental discussions on biodiversity and intellectual property continue to be held within the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In 2002, the Conference of the Parties in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requested the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) prepare a technical study on issues related to patent disclosure requirements (PDR) related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The resulting WIPO technical study was made available to the Conference of the Parties of the CBD in 2004. Regarding inventions, it is believed that the requirements for obtaining existing patents should be further expanded through the so-called specific disclosure requirements for genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Modern scientific research and the exploitation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge can offer great benefits to humanity. A new patent disclosure requirement related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge could help achieve that goal. Several countries have already implemented this. For example, Indian patent law was amended to include provisions on mandatory disclosure of the source and geographical origin of biological material and associated traditional knowledge used in the invention in patent applications. The member states of WIPO have been discussing the possibility of introducing an internationally harmonised patent disclosure requirement related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Currently more than 30 countries have implemented these requirements through national or regional laws. Some others have expressed interest in doing so, while others have expressed their intention not to implement these requirements. Several countries now require patent applicants to disclose, among other things: the origin and/or source of genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge; evidence of prior informed consent for its use by the provider country (and, in some cases, by indigenous peoples and local communities, in accordance with national laws); evidence of having established a contractual agreement (on mutually agreed terms) for the fair and equitable distribution of the benefit derived from such use, if required by the national legislation of the supplier country. Mexico has not yet incorporated into the Intellectual Property Law the requirement of disclosure. However, it has played an active role in the different international forums concerning this topic. In November 2016, Mexico hosted the Technical Workshop on Monitoring and Compliance under the Nagoya Protocol, which is an international agreement that concerns sharing the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources in a fair manner, taking into account related intellectual property aspects, specifically, the so-called patent disclosure requirements. The purpose of the new patent disclosure requirements is to promote innovation and scientific progress through the patent system, on the one hand, and the objectives of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, on the other. In principle, the patent disclosure requirements could be used as a tool to help monitor the use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and therefore also help promote at least in some cases, compliance with biodiversity obligations. One of the challenges faced by Mexico and various countries in the world is harmonising the laws of biodiversity and intellectual property laws, particularly the patent system. Some opponents of the so-called patent disclosure requirements have shown their concern stating that they may create uncertainty in the patent system for the following reasons: 1) The patent system is not made to meet goals or objectives, such as biodiversity objectives, because it could compromise its integrity. 2) It would be burdensome and expensive for patent applicants and patent offices to implement new patent disclosure requirements (PDR). 3) Patent offices would not be equipped to judge whether information on the disclosure of the origin or source of a genetic resource or traditional knowledge was correct or accurate, and whether national biodiversity requirements had been met. 4) If an examiner had to perform a substantive examination of a patent disclosure requirement, the validity of the patent would no longer be a novelty function, inventive step and industrial application. 5) The need to obtain prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms confronts patent applicants with risk and greater legal uncertainty. 6) Patent disclosure requirements could reduce incentives to innovation generated by the patent system. Notwithstanding the foregoing, several countries have incorporated into their legislation new requirements for obtaining patents related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge through the so-called patent disclosure requirements. This is because many of them are countries rich in biological diversity and maintain that the essence of a patent system is transparency and disclosure. In this way, the new patent disclosure requirements could represent a measure of transparency. Negotiations are continuing within the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Although there is interest in the creation of an international treaty regarding this subject, WIPO has not yet announced a date for any diplomatic conference leading to the adoption of a treaty. The negotiations continue. Fernando Calderon Olivares Pedro Luis Ogazon No 17 Col San Angel 01000 Mexico DF Tel: +5255 53 22 30 00 Fax: +5255 53 22 30 01 olivlaw@olivares.com.mx www.olivares.com.mx 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 Piggy bank budget 168 Budget pressures are driving companies to bring more patent processes into their IP departments, according to in-house sources at technology, life sciences and manufacturing companies. Out of the seven corporate lawyers Managing IP interviewed, six said they had brought or were considering bringing certain functions in house either completely or partly because it would make them more cost effective or efficient, and without sacrificing patent protection quality. All companies have limited budgets and resources, says the senior IP counsel at an automotive parts company. We should be cost efficient, and internal legal professionals are often less expensive than outsourced ones. But, he adds, most businesses have peaks in their patent work, and increasing internal capacity just to manage those would be too expensive. You must find the balance between the size of your internal workforce and how much you outsource, he says. The head of IP at a factory tech manufacturer says that his company underwent a process of tightening processes to reduce costs and drive efficiencies, which meant identifying which functions should be done totally or partly inside the firm. The IP head of a global steel manufacturing company adds that he inherited a mess of around 80 outside counsel charging different rates for different services when he started his role, and put numerous functions in house that could be done better by internal lawyers. The challenge for these companies has been working out which processes are better to bring in house based on cost and speed and putting mechanisms in place to review whether those findings work in practice and continue to work over time. Sustaining resources The first and perhaps most obvious consideration for in-house counsel when working out which functions to do themselves is how much a law firm will charge for a service compared with the price of training employees to do the job and paying their salaries. The main factors in this analysis, according to in-house sources, are how often the department does a particular function and whether it could afford to produce and sustain the same resources or knowledge sets as a law firm to avoid sacrificing quality. If we used outside counsel to sit in meetings and try to understand your companys invention, for example, we would end up with expensive patents The vice-president of legal at a German biotech firms points out that litigation, for example, is commonly outsourced by companies because these cases are large, one-off activities that are not done enough to warrant hiring and training in-house people. Equally, if a company occasionally licenses is patents but is not a prolific licensor, it will likely cost less to leave that function with private practice. In particular, he says, large licensing transactions require enormous resources and a global reach that could not be produced or sustained in most patent departments. That kind of work is hard and fast and very few companies, apart from perhaps large pharmaceutical firms, could not possibly afford to do all of that in house. He adds that businesses may also want the protection of a law firms liability insurance for riskier processes so that they do not have to brunt the cost of that financial protection themselves. It is best to develop a few specialisms within patent departments and more or less outsource the rest, he says. The IP head for a Spanish pharmaceutical company agrees with this approach, and adds that her department does drafting, prosecution and freedom-to-operate reporting internally in Europe because its employees have the skills and qualifications they need to produce work to a high standard there. But she relies on outside counsel when it comes to filing or prosecution in non-European jurisdictions because it would not be cost effective to upskill her patent attorneys to work effectively in different patent systems across the world. The senior IP counsel at an automotive parts company says that his firm similarly does most prosecution and all of its drafting in house partly for that reason and outsources larger projects to law firms that have the required resources. But even when a process is seemingly cheaper to give to in-house lawyers than external counsel, it could still work out cheaper with a law firm after some negotiation. Sources say that patent businesses should seek to strike a deals with law firms that could make the service cheaper and introduce price certainty. The head of IP at the commercial arm of a UK university says his company recently introduced a tendering process for its patent drafting where firms could bid for guaranteed work. We now pay a fixed price and would only pay more under exceptional circumstances, which means it works out well to outsource that particular function, he says. But the chances are most firms cannot afford to do this sort of work so cheaply and will need to find ways of doing more for less to keep companies giving it to them. The IP head of a global steel manufacturing company says his firm underwent a similar process of striking fixed fee deals with private practice firms. He adds that firms might be able to produce even more services for cheaper than in-house departments could afford to in the future by investing in efficiency-driving technologies such as workflow software and artificial intelligence. Reducing friction In-house sources say that another reason to bring a patent processes in house is to drive efficiencies. In-house lawyers often have a better knowledge of a companys inventions that enables them to do some processes more easily, and ultimately makes it easier for external counsel to complete the work thats outsourced to them. If we used outside counsel to sit in meetings and try to understand your companys invention, for example, we would end up with expensive patents, explains the head of IP at a European factory tech manufacturer. We have a lot of communication with external firms, and having a reliable centralised system is the best way to manage that If in-house people who are knowledgeable of the product and of IP harvesting do that homework instead, and they describe the invention to an outside drafter, we can get high-quality protection for less money. He adds that it is ultimately a matter of streamlining the process based on the strengths of both in-house and external lawyers. The IPR manager at an abrasives and tools manufacturer says that his firm does patent searches to determine novelty in house for the same reason, and puts its findings into a package which it gives to its private practice partner. They can work on that much more efficiently than if they were doing searches themselves, I think. Doing these processes quicker has the obvious benefit of cutting down the time and money law firms spend on various functions but it also enables the business to get high-quality protection quicker or enforce its rights more easily. This translates into competitive advantage and increased revenues for the business as a whole. In-house departments could also make processes more efficient if they invest in processes and technology. The head of IP at a UK university commercial arm says that his company implemented a property database and time management system to help streamline processes and manage deadline internally and with outside counsel. We have a lot of communication with external firms, and having a reliable centralised system is the best way to manage that, he says. Budget pressures are driving more patent processes in in-house because theyre often cheaper and faster that way. But IP heads must be careful to find the right balance and ensure not too much is brought inside or given to external counsel. 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 In the home he shared with 11 relatives, Mohammed Abd al-Hamid had no room to start a family. But since he put up a house on a nearby field in 2016, he has paid $4,500 in fines for building on agricultural land. There was no alternative, said Abd al-Hamid, 30, who works for a Cairo security company, standing in front of his pink-painted house in the Nile Delta. Am I supposed to rent an apartment in Cairo? I cant afford that. Egypts population of nearly 100 million is growing rapidly and about 38 million live in unplanned communities. In the turmoil after the 2011 Arab Spring, the number of unlicensed buildings sky-rocketed. Now authorities are cracking down on residents who build on farmland, but are providing few alternatives for those who need cheap houses. People who build on agricultural land now face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 5 million Egyptian pounds ($280,000). Before the law was revised in January, the top fine was 50,000 pounds ($2,800) and the prison term wasnt specified. A view of houses and farmland on an island on the River Nile in front of high-rise buildings in Cair Authorities say they want to end unlicensed building on farmland, reduce overcrowding and provide homes for the poor, but analysts say many new government housing projects are too expensive and have poor services. As a result, large numbers of new homes are unoccupied, while people still build on farmland in areas where housing demand is high. This shows you its a distorted housing market and price incentives and accessibility have not worked out, said Michele Dunne, director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank. Under President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the government has been seeking ways to tighten control over the population. And one of these ways seems to be controlling real estate development and channeling people toward the communities the government is building rather than communities that sprout out organically in places where people want to live. A view of a house at the village of Ikyad Dijwi in the Nile Delta of El Qanater El Khayreya city in ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION UP Since the 2011 revolution, nearly 85,000 acres of farmland have been lost to illegal construction, according to data from the ministry of agriculture. Thats a 40 percent average annual increase compared to before 2011, according to a Reuters calculation based on data going back to 1983. Of those 85,000 acres, 28,000 have been cleared of buildings, but most is not being farmed, the ministry said. On Monday, the government started a campaign to demolish unlicensed buildings from 19,000 acres of farmland. Look at the size of the encroachments on agricultural land, El-Sisi said in September. If it continues at this rate ... then we will have unplanned growth that requires spending on healthcare thats not available, clean water thats not available, roads and electricity networks that are not available. That cant be. The Nile Delta, one of the most densely populated parts of the country, is also one of the hardest hit by unlicensed construction on farmland. Where else should we build? said Sahar Fathi Ayed, 40, Abd al-Hamids sister, who has built a house on the familys fields in the village of Ikyad Dijwi. Our children got older and wanted to get married and there are no rental apartments here, she said. A view of houses at the village of Ikyad Dijwi in the Nile Delta of El Qanater El Khayreya city in A Lack of housing is no excuse for building on farmland, said Hamed Abd al-Dayem, spokesman for the ministry of agriculture. In an effort to tackle its growing housing needs, Egypt has launched a series of housing projects and is developing 42 new cities, but many are underoccupied. New Cairo, Sheikh Zayed and Shorouk have occupancy rates of 65, 50 and 55 percent respectively, according to Leilani Farha, U.N. special rapporteur on housing. One of the more established new cities, 6 October, has an occupancy rate of 75 percent, she said. People in some new cities have limited access to schools, clinics, emergency services, transport and food, she said. There also appears to be a lack of income mix within housing estates and a tendency towards gated communities for upper income housing, Farha wrote in a statement following a visit to Egypt last month. A view of houses at the village of Ikyad Dijwi in the Nile Delta of El Qanater El Khayreya city in A The government does have a social housing programme for low and middle-income families, she said, but only 2.2 percent of all social housing benefits Egyptians with the lowest incomes. Jamal al-Sayed, who left farming when fuel for his tractors became too expensive, sees no alternative to building on his farmland. I built a house for my son so he could get married, said Sayed, 53, who now works in a bakery. Theres a lack of housing in our town. So I built on the land that I own. Homes in the town are small and people are forced to build when their families expand. He has paid 60,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,000) in fines since he built the house in 2013. Residential land tends to be expensive, said Kevin Graham, the Oxford Business Groups editorial manager in Egypt. Developers pick up this land but end up often building very high-cost homes rather than affordable homes, he said. Stricter punishment for building on farmland is part of the governments effort to boost revenue through taxation, he said. But in order for it to really be a solution, other options must be made available to those driven to build outside of the formal system, he said. Egypt is the worlds top wheat importer and authorities want to end building on farmland and grow more at home. The government is also trying to reclaim areas in the desert for agricultural use, said General Mohamed Helmy Abd el-Hamed Rashwan, executive manager of The General Authority for Rehabilitation Projects and Agricultural Development at the ministry of agriculture. It cant be right that while were trying to cultivate the desert we are losing beautiful Egyptian farmland, he said. Agricultural land is a red line. *This story has been edited by Ahram Online Search Keywords: Short link: Thiruvananthapuram : The winter sessions of Kerala Assembly session began today. The House began its proceedings after expressing their deepest condolence to the late MLA PB Abdul Nazar and Wayanadu MP MA Shanavas. Meanwhile, the UDF led opposition has decided to boycott the swearing in ceremony of K Krishnankutty as the Water Resource Minister. The opposition is expected to launch a scathing attack on the LDF government over the Sabarimala, Nepotism allegations against KT Jaleel and Post-Flood activities in the state. Will DOJ Finally Hold Bullion Banks Accountable for Gold and Silver Market Rigging Clint Siegner : It is hard to cheer for the Department of Justice these days, but federal prosecutions have begun to offer hope for precious metals investors hurt by rigged markets and crooked traders. The DOJ looks poised to do what regulators at the CFTC have not. They will use evidence of blatant cheating and fraud to hold a few bankers accountable. Last week, DOJ officials asked the judge in a civil suit against JPMorgan Chase to delay proceedings for 6 months to clear the path for more prosecutions. Plaintiffs in that civil action have accused JPMorgan of ripping off investors based in part on evidence turned over by Deutsche Bank in 2016. Deutsche Bank paid millions of dollars in fines and provided hundreds of thousands of documents plus dozens of voice recordings to settle its portion of the ongoing lawsuit. Justice Department investigators, who may be using the same trove of information, would like to see a pause in the civil proceedings to protect the integrity of their ongoing criminal investigation. Trader Has Turned States Evidence against JPMorgan, Others DOJ's request follows a key conviction last month. John Edmonds, a former JPMorgan metals trader, pleaded guilty to spoofing the metals markets and admitted he had done so with full awareness and support of his managers. Edmonds, like Deutsche Bank, has agreed to cooperate and provide evidence implicating his superiors and other traders, both inside his bank and elsewhere. Edmonds admitted to spoofing markets hundreds of times over 6 years, confirming what many gold and silver bugs have long known. The precious metals markets are illegally manipulated by the bullion banks as a matter of routine and they have been doing it for a very long time. Yes, the debate over whether or not there is price rigging in the metals markets is effectively over. Now the debate over whether these rigged markets can be cleaned up begins. Edmonds will be sentenced for his crimes on Dec. 19th. The DOJs request for a 6-month delay of the civil suit implies that the agency expects to make real progress between now and the middle of next year. If the Justice Department can uncover even more evidence of fraud, charge multiple people with crimes, and implicate several other banks, it will be a tremendous boost to the case. CFTC Continues to Turn a Blind Eye Unfortunately, despite progress elsewhere, the captured CFTC has yet to acknowledge the complete failure of its own 5-year investigation of the crooked silver market. While they searched in futility for wrong-doing, Edmonds and an unknown number of other bank traders cheated incessantly. As of this writing, there is no indication the CFTC plans to take action of any sort they apparently dont find the guilty pleas and mountains of evidence compelling enough to reopen their own investigation. Its too bad because regulators could do a lot to restore confidence in the markets by restricting the banks ability to trade something the DOJ cannot do. The banks are still getting their moneys worth for capturing the CFTC and other regulatory bodies. Bank executives may wish they had invested more in cozying up with the FBI and federal prosecutors. Now it appears criminal and civil juries will get their chance to evaluate what the bullion banks have been doing. Those citizens may not be as tolerant as the bureaucrats at the CFTC. By Clint Siegner MoneyMetals.com Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, perhaps the nation's fastest-growing dealer of low-premium precious metals coins, rounds, and bars. Siegner, a graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals' brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs. 2018 Clint Siegner - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Silver Trading and the Hands of a Broken Clock Sector expert Michael Ballanger muses on lessons learned and profits to be gained in silver trades. "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." Stephen Hunt, The Court of the Air There are times when every investor has to look long and deep into a mirror and determine whether a well-thought-out strategy is actionable or whether it is simply an ad hoc "hunch," barely worth chasing. With regard to silver, this is just one of those times. In 2003-2004, I was stopped out four times under $5 per ounce trying to establish a 10-lot futures position in silver (50,000 ounces), which, at the time, demanded US$18,000 in maintenance margin. When I finally threw in the towel, my $18 grand worth of "dead presidents" was worth slightly less than $6,000. At the time of my decision to abandon the trade, I remember a sense of impending doom as, with great regret, I returned the funds to the (joint) bank account. Days later, when the losses were detected by an appropriately suspicious spouse, one could hear the screaming of insults miles (if not counties) away. As embarrassing and emasculating as that was, the addition of insult to injury was aided and abetted by the cost of a chiropractor due to weeks of punishing couch-sleeping. Further exacerbating my agony was silver, almost immediately upon my departure (and as if it had eyes), deciding to break out through $5 and proceeding to triple. Staring at the quote screen, slack-jawed and near-comatose, I watched with the same sense of disbelief one has when observing a slow-motion train wreck as silvermy precious silvertapped $50 in 2011. Without including the possibility of parlaying the 10-lot to something larger, the original position would have generated a $500,000 profit or something close to a 2,700% ROR. Risk management at its very worst or stepping over a $50 bill to pick up a nickel. The chart posted above captures at once the rapture and the agony of being a silver bull. The high-fiving and champagne-cork-popping of the advance is violently replaced by the agony and self-recrimination of the decline, and while it is typical of all assets that are the focus of the hottest of speculative money, it is a market designed strictly for risk-oriented individuals such as cryptojunkies or late-cycle weed players. Speaking of crypto and cannabis, my investment thesis for silver lies in the addictive behaviours of these largely Millennial and GenY-er-type investors, who I see as logical heirs to the throne of "speculation of choice" once it becomes necessary for them to replace the rush of rapidly rising momentum plays. In a throwback to a kinder, gentler time, the speculation of choice in the first decade of the New Millennium was silver, which outperformed all other assets by a wide margin. As you can see from the chart posted below, silver outperformed the S&P, the TSE300, and the TSX Venture spectacularly from 2003 to 2011. and it is my opinion that it will do the same in 2019 and beyond. Asset performances since the March 2009 lows are distinctly different due to blatant interference, manipulation, and interventions that were deemed so "necessary" to avoid the systemic near-collapse of the banking system in 2008. The presence of the central banks since the 2007-2008 Great Financial Bailout. . .er. . .Crisis has served to ensure American market outperformance at the expense of moral hazard and ethical abandonment. But ten times as bad as that is the propensity and willingness of the entire U.S.-dominated banking cartelto "join in" and one-up their respective trading desks at every turn and all dips. Equities were "ordered" higher from 2009 until Jerome Powell arrived under new "orders" and directed 33 Liberty Street to "stand down." Since the arrival of "QT" (quantitative tightening), the global markets gradually, at first, then suddenly (Hemingway, anyone?) entered into an involuntary Chapter 11, the recognition of which can only be described as refreshing (by me) and "not fair and not my f---ing fault!" by legions of smug little 30-somethings who are just now experiencing their first "correction." Repeat: a correction. Not a crash (1929, 1987), nor an economic collapse (1931-1933), or even a "deep correction" (1998)but merely a mild hiccup in the long-term trend of the S&P500. For me, to see financial reporters like Jim Cramer and Bob Pisani joining in on the Fed-bashing party so disturbed, while watching Rick Santelli and Jim Grant and John Mauldin all part of the Fed-saluting party, is a wonderment and the true definition of a free economic society. We need more free-thinkers to man the gunboats at the G20 central banks to supercede the "global narrative," the nature of which is going to destroy the true meaning of global wealth creation, the origin of which is completely out of the hands of the global banking cartel. To generate truly new "wealth," human labor must be applied to human ingenuity with the goal of pure financial profitability. If, as, and when that achievement occurs, truly new "wealth" has arrived, and with it, the security of a strong, labor-intensive society of working fathers and working mothers whose children grow up wishing with great alacrity the arrival of politicians capable of defining the meaning of the term "leadership." Financial reporting has now taken over the role of the lobbyist, using the power and influence of cable and satellite TV and the Internet to attempt to sway Federal Reserve Board policy. The S&P is barely 10% off the all-time high print for 2018 but still up 279.4% since the 2009 crash lows, thanks largely to the money-printing and credit-creation mission statements of the global central banks and treasuries. Yet all we read or hear about is "the Fed is making a mistake!" One has to wonder what the response will be when this global bear really begins to growl and snarl and gets the GenY-ers and Millennials in his crosshairs. As I have printed before, the countless interventions and manipulations have served to excessively starve this bear to the point of savage desperation and the result of failing to allow the beast to feed with normal regularity has today created an aberration of nature that will devour all in its path. The chart posted below of the Morgan Stanley Total International Stock ETF (IXUS) has collapsed from the February peak and is now a thread away from entering full-blown bear market status thus confirming the global trend of equities and its attendant risk. The purpose of pointing out the possibility of a lengthy bear market is that just as money will flow to defensive sectors, it will seek out new momentum plays. As mentioned above, the logical candidate is silver, a metal used in solar panels, water filtration, jewelery, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils (hence the term silverware), in electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings, in catalysis of chemical reactions, as a colorant in stained glass and in specialized confectionery. Its compounds are used in photographic and X-ray film. Dilute solutions of silver nitrate and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides (oligodynamic effect), added to bandages and wound dressings, catheters, and other medical instruments. These industrial applications make silver a viable futuristic necessity and one that the new generation of investors will more and more appreciate in the same manner in which they have embraced battery metals like lithium, cobalt, graphite, and vanadium. For these reason, I am adding the SLV April $13 @ $1.15 calls to the trading account and will open a 50% position. I will refrain from trading this position and instead set a $10 target by expiry. I will also be ready at the drop of a hat to jettison the position on a two-day close for SLV below the 52-week low of $13.11, at which point I'll be taking a sledge hammer to the quote screen, the liquor cabinet and the medicine chest. Broken clock be damned. Addendum: I concluded my missive with the following: "I am adding the SLV April $13 @ $1.15 calls to the trading account and will open a 50% position this morning." Since U.S. markets were closed for Thanksgiving, I had to wait until Friday morning to execute the trade. Silver opened weaker on Friday on China weakness fears and a slightly stronger USD, with the SLV down $0.17 to $13.43, thus enabling the April $13 calls to open at $1.03. I am changing the limit on the call options to $1.00 and increasing the order size to a 100% position. I like the precious metals in here for one very important reason as to timing. Everyone is fearful of a 2007- or 1987-type crash that will suck liquidity out of the precious metals along with all other risk assets. That logic is flawed because if, in fact, the U.S. markets collapse, the Fed will have no choice but to terminate its efforts at quantitative tightening, which would evoke a violent downside reaction in the USD, which in turn would put a strong bid into the precious metals. Any way you cut it, the precious metals are going to rally hard due to ideal conditions that include the very favorable COT set-up in both silver and gold. Buy the SLV April $13 calls for $1.00 with a target price at $10 by expiry. Want to read more about Silver? Sign up to receive the FREE Streetwise Reports' newsletter. Disclosure: 1) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of Michael Ballanger and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. Michael Ballanger is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. Streetwise Reports was not involved in any aspect of the article preparation. Michael Ballanger was not paid by Streetwise Reports LLC for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. 2) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. 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One should be familiar with the risks involved in junior mining and options trading and we recommend consulting a financial adviser if you feel you do not understand the risks involved. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Missoula County is slated to receive over $450,000 in grants on behalf of two Missoula businesses to support the creation of a combined 63 new jobs. Both businesses, Consumer Direct Management Solutions https://consumerdirectcare.com/ and LumenAd https://lumenad.com/ , are locally owned and headquartered in Missoula County. "Consumer Direct and LumenAd are both great examples of best-fit companies who serve our community by creating high wage job opportunities for Missoulians, and were thrilled that these grant awards will help them grow and thrive," said Grant Kier, Executive Director of Missoula Economic Partnership. Consumer Direct, a human services agency that provides long-term care management solutions, has been awarded $255,300 to support the creation of 37 new jobs over the next two years. CEO Ben Bledsoe lauded the grant program, and shared that business assistance has enabled Consumer Direct to successfully expand in Missoula and nationwide. "Consumer Direct Care Network is proud and thankful for the financial support from the Big Sky Trust Fund. This grant ensures that our growing company can add the sustainable jobs in Montana that allow us to serve people with long-term care needs across the country." LumenAd, a software company that offers a media management platform for brands and advertising agencies, has been awarded an additional $195,000 to support the creation of 26 new jobs over the next year. Ryan Hansen, CEO and Founder of LumenAd, cited assistance received through the BSTF program as a factor in LumenAds recent growth and success. "We see a huge opportunity to disrupt the digital advertising industry using our technology. With the assistance of the BSTF program, LumenAd is well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. It has and will continue to help us develop existing talent in the community and bring in experts from across the country to help us grow to the next level." The Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund (BSTF) Job Creation Grant program through the Montana Department of Commerce Office of Tourism and Business Development awards grant funds to assist basic sector businesses for creating good-paying jobs. Businesses must pay at least $18.99/hr to be eligible for the maximum BSTF Job Creation grant award, which is up to $7500 per full-time job created. The Missoula Economic Partnership works to grow a sustainable, vibrant, and diversified regional economy. Many individuals and groups have been an integral part of this effort since our formation in 2011. We strive to be innovative, nimble, and inclusive in accomplishing our mission, and achieve success through collaboration and partnership with our community. Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali says economic reasons are largely to blame for the high divorce rate in Egypt Egypt's Social Solidarity Minister Ghada has said the number of divorce cases in Egypt has increased over the past decade from around 100,000 to a record 186,000. Wali told MPs on Tuesday that new measures are being taken by the government to stem the high surge in divorce rates, which make up around 20 percent of some 980,000 marriages held every year. During a meeting with members of parliament's Social Solidarity Committee, Wali attributed the rise in divorce cases in Egypt to hard economic conditions and low employment rates. "People who marry but their low incomes do not help them live a decent life mostly end up with divorce," Wali said. She added that the government is developing a comprehensive programme to address the problem of high divorce rates in Egypt. "This programme will be reviewed personally by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who has ordered many times that a solution be found as soon as possible," said Wali, adding that "in preparing this programme, the government has reviewed the experiments of three Muslim countries Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman where divorce rates are largely low." Wali said that in Malaysia, divorce rates have dropped from 35 percent to 10 percent a year. "They took legislative measures there that led to stemming the tide in this respect," said Wali, adding that "in Malaysia, laws stipulate that only judges conduct divorce procedures, and that a divorce goes into effect after six months." "In the UAE and Oman, the focus was on media campaigns and awareness programmes that helped a lot in this respect," said Wali. President El-Sisi has repeatedly criticised the notion of "verbal divorce," saying it is a major reason for high divorce rates in the country, and asking for a legislative amendment to impose a ban on it. However, El-Sisi's call has faced rejection from Al-Azhar Institute's clerics, who insist that verbal divorce is part of Islamic Sharia. Wali said that the government is holding intensive talks with Al-Azhar, Dar Al-Ifta (which is responsible for issuing religious edicts), the Coptic Orthodox Church, and the National Council for Women to implement an anti-divorce programme titled 'Married to Live Together.' She said that the programme is being funded by a grant from the UN Family and Population Organisation. "A number of professors from Egyptian universities will implement this programme in rural areas where divorce rates are high, and this will be in the form of launching awareness campaigns and giving training to young graduates to spread a message against divorce there," said Wali. Wali also said that the Ministry of Social Solidarity is also working to stand up to the phenomenon of homeless children and child labour in Egypt. "The 'Long Live Egypt' fund and the Ministry of Social Solidarity are providing EGP 190 million to address the problems of child labour and street children in terms of giving them refuge in 'specialized institutions' or sending them back to their families," said Wali, revealing that "as many as 985 street children have so far been returned to their families." Search Keywords: Short link: 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. Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in his meeting on Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Egypt is keen to boost bilateral cooperation and coordination, and affirmed the depth and strength of the ties between the two countries. According to a statement by El-Sisis spokesman, he told the Saudi crown prince during the meeting in Cairo that the coordination between Egypt and Saudi Arabia should be at the highest level in order to face the current developments and challenges in the Middle East. The Saudi royal arrived in Egypt on Monday night as part of a regional tour that has seen him visit the UAE and Bahrain, with a stop in Tunisia scheduled after Cairo. During the visit, the Saudi delegation accompanying the prince, which includes investment and media officials, held meetings with their Egyptian counterparts. In a meeting with the Saudi media delegation, chairman of Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Makram Mohamed Ahmed said that coordination between Egypt and Saudi Arabia is important on all levels to protect joint interests and defend Arab national security. Makram also underlined the necessity of regularly holding such meetings to discuss joint interests and international developments. Chairman of the Saudi Press Agency Abdullah Bin Fahd Al Hussein said at the meeting that the Saudi media delegation is keen to promote coordination between the two sides in order to serve joint interests and Arab causes. The Egyptian-Saudi Business Council also held a meeting on Tuesday in Cairo attended by Saudi Minister of Trade and Investment Majed Bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi and Egyptian Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker. Al-Qasabi revealed during the meeting that a joint committee would be formed grouping Saudi and Egyptian businessmen who are members in the Egyptian-Saudi Business Council to hold meetings with Egypt's Minister of Investment Sahar Nasr and Minister of Industry Amr Nassar with the aim of removing impediments facing investors in both countries. Al-Qasabi also said that the volume of trade exchange between the two countries has hit $7.3 billion, while Saudi direct investments in Egypt have exceeded $3.4 billion. He added that the number of Saudi companies in Egypt has reached 5,000. Meanwhile, chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FECC) Ahmed El-Wakil said that a plan was being prepared to upgrade Saudi-Egyptian relations through cooperation between the two sides' trade federations. He highlighted the process of activating cooperation in the small and medium-sized projects between the two countries, especially after a projected meeting between the two countries' federations set for 18-19 December in Aswan. El-Wakil made it clear that Egypt has become more attractive to investors after the government introduced a package of financial, legislative and procedural reforms. He also highlighted a reduction in the balance deficit to 9.5 percent and a rise in the foreign reserve to $44.4 billion, adding that such developments give confidence to Saudi investors. Search Keywords: Short link: The US-China trade row is prompting the worlds second-largest economy to expand its ties with India. Chinese sugar refiners are already lining up to buy up to two million tons of raw product from its neighbor. A Chinese delegation is set to visit India as early as next month, according to Vice-Chairman of China Sugar Association Liu Hande, as quoted by Bloomberg. The visit is reportedly aimed at checking infrastructure facilities and negotiating prices for sugar. The potential deal comes as the ongoing war of tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by Washington and Beijing on mutual exports keep growing as negotiations remain stalled. Read more Indias sugar production has reportedly smashed another record this year and is expected boost the countrys domestic stockpiles. India may even outpace Brazil as the worlds number-one sugar producer for the first time in 16 years, according to the latest data from the US Department of Agriculture. Earlier, the Indian Commerce Ministry said that, besides sugar, China had recently signed another agricultural commodity agreement with India for imports of non-basmati rice. China needs to show its open attitude to trading partners, and is likely to purchase a symbolic amount in a show of goodwill, given its trade spat with the US, Zhan Xiao, a fund manager with Shanghai Buyun Investment, told the agency. According to the analyst, the volume wont be as large as New Delhi is expecting, as Chinas own state stockpiles totals around seven million tons. However, the Chinese government may reject Indian sugar, as stockpiles are still quite high, and Beijing is looking to reduce inventories, not increase them, said Liu Hande. Last year, China introduced high tariffs on imports to protect domestic industry. Sugar imports above annual quotas are currently taxed at 90 percent. We dont know how much import quota would be issued, or whether China and India would sign any agreement regarding low tariffs on imports, Liu said. According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association, the countrys sugar stockpiles reached their highest level in a decade, with 10.7 million tons at the start of the crop year in October, up from 3.9 million tons a year ago. India is planning to sell up to two millions of tons to the Chinese market, the Ministry of Commerce said. We want China to issue import permits to its refiners immediately, Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, said as quoted by the agency. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section Have you ever wanted to feel more in tune with your wild neighbors? Whether it was the insects, the mammals, or the birds that are right outside your door? Thats the question posed by wildlife ecologist George Bumann in... Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will head to Sudan on Wednesday to participate in the ministerial meeting of Libya's neighbouring countries, a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry said. The meeting is scheduled to take place in the Sudanese capital on 29 November. The FMs are expected to discuss the latest developments in Libya as well as means of pushing forward ongoing efforts to restore security and stability in the country. The Khartoum meeting is part of a series of ministerial meetings held periodically by Libya's neighbouring countries. The last meeting took place in May in the Algerian capital. Since the 2011 toppling of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, rival militias have been fighting a weak central government across Libya. Search Keywords: Short link: Love Your Park Day touches down on Summit Meadow By By: Dr. Francis R. Souder, 85, formerly of Telford, died Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 in the skilled nursing unit of Peter Becker Community, Franconia Township. He and his wife Marion R. (Parker) Souder celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in July. Born in Souderton, he was a son of the late Elvin B. and Mary (Rittenhouse) Souder. A 1938 graduate of Souderton High School, he received his undergraduate degree in 1941 from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Souder went on to receive his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in 1944 and completed his internship at Hahnemann Hospital from Oct. 1944 July, 1945. He served with the U.S. Navy Medical Corps for 30 months in San Diego and Long Beach, Calif. during WW II and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant prior to his discharge. He entered his second tour of duty during the Korean War where he served in Panama City, Fla. as the medical officer for the Panama City Naval Air Station and the Tyndal Air Force Base. Dr. Souder owned and operated his family practice on Main Street in Telford from 1947-1989. He served on the staff of Grand View Hospital, and as its president, and taught at the Grand View Hospital Nursing School. He was a member of the Pa. Medical Society, the Bucks County Medical Society, Diplomat American Academy of Family Practices, and served on the board of trustees at Grand View Hospital, Sellersville. He was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Telford, where he sang in the church choir. He was also a member of the MacCalla Lodge #596 in Souderton, the Raja Shrine, and Lehigh Consistory. In addition to his widow, he is survived by a son, Dr. Ronald L. Souder, and his wife Susan L. of Green Lane; a daughter, Susan J. Souder, and her husband Stephan Russo of New York, N.Y.; five grandchildren: Jennifer A. Souder of Philadelphia; Emily E. Souder of Philadelphia; Kathryn A. Souder of Washington, D.C.; Noah Russo of New York, N.Y., and Rebekah Russo of New York, N.Y., and two brothers: Attorney Elvin B. Souder of Souderton and Dr. Lawrence Souder of Souderton. Memorial services will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 12 p.m. in Trinity United Church of Christ, 101 S. Main St., Telford, with calling hours following the service. Interment will be private in Trinity UCC Cemetery Telford. Memorial contributions may be made to Grand View Hospital, 700 Lawn Ave., Sellersville, Pa. 18960. Arrangements are by Sadler-Suess Funeral Home, Telford. 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. Egypt and Saudi Arabia agreed on Tuesday to establish joint projects between their private sectors to strengthen the economic partnership between the two countries, Egypt's Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar said. This came during talks between Nassar and Saudi Minister of Trade and Investment Majed bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, who is currently visiting Cairo as part of a delegation accompanying Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. Nassar affirmed that Egypt and Saudi Arabia represent the safety valve for the Arab world, underlining their assiduous efforts to achieve comprehensive integration among all Arab nations and boost cooperation to develop the Arab economy. Nassar said that there is currently unprecedented international economic and trade variables that require further cooperation and joint action between Cairo and Riyadh. He highlighted the importance of building upon the outcome of the joint committee meetings that convened in Riyadh in May and turning all initiatives into real projects that serve the interests of the Egyptian and Saudi economies. There is full agreement between both countries' trade ministries on improving the investment climate to boost trade exchange rates and joint investments during the coming phase, Nassar said. Nassar noted that the volume of trade exchange between the two countries amounts to about $7 billion. The Saudi minister described the Egyptian-Saudi relations as strategic, saying that the current visit of the Saudi crown prince ensures strong and close relations and reflects keenness on promoting them. Al-Qasabi asserted the importance of the Egyptian market as a distinguished destination for Saudi investments, noting that joint economic ties will be given a stronger impetus in the coming phase. Search Keywords: Short link: 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 Following a four-day visit to Sudan, Egypt's Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki said that Cairo and Khartoum share the same vision regarding threats facing the Middle East region. The minister's comments came after he returned from the official visit, where he discussed with Sudanese officials military cooperation and a number of issues of bilateral interest. During his visit, Zaki met with Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who praised the relations and historical ties between the two countries. Following the official reception ceremony at the Sudanese Ministry of Defence, Zaki discussed with his Sudanese counterpart Awad Mohammed bin Auf and Sudan's Chief-of-Staff Kamal Abdul-Marouf cooperation between the armed forces of both countries. The officials also discussed border security, combating terrorism, and irregular migration. The Sudanese defence minister stressed his country's keenness to enhance military and security cooperation between the Egyptian and Sudanese armed forces and the need to support security and stability efforts. The meeting was attended by a number of Egyptian and Sudanese military leaders. Search Keywords: Short link: Black Knight: Delinquencies See Sharp Decline in October Mortgage delinquencies spiked in the September "first look" report from Black Knight, but that was followed by a swift reversal in October. The company's latest report notes a sharp decline in early stage delinquencies and a downturn in serious ones as well. Loans that were more than 30 days past due but not in foreclosure fell 8.2 percent month-over-month and were nearly 18 percent lower than in October 2017. This translates into 165,000 fewer delinquencies than in September and an improvement of 378,000 year-over-year. These changes leave 1.884 million loans in the national non-current bucket. Serious delinquencies were down as well. Within the total number of loans that are overdue just shy of a half million are 90 days delinquent but not in foreclosure, a 12-year low. This is down by 14,000 from September and 90,000 from a year earlier. Black Knight attributes at least some of the improved loan performance data to continued improvement among hurricane-related delinquencies associated with Harvey and Irma. Yet to be determined are the effects of this fall's hurricanes Florence and Michael as well as from the California wildfires. Foreclosure starts did increase, but Black Knight noted they were coming off of September's nearly 18-year low. They rose by 50,600 or 26.50 percent from September and 0.80 percent from 12 months earlier. There are now 267000 homes in the process of foreclosure, 1,000 less than at the end of September and down 81,000 loans from the previous October. The foreclosure inventory rate is 0.52 percent of all mortgage loans, marking declines of 0.54 percent and 24.24 percent from the two earlier periods. Adding up the damages; early and serious delinquencies and homes in process of foreclosure, brings the total of non-current loans nationwide to 2.152 million, a decline of 165,000 from just a month earlier and nearly a half-million year-over-year. Mississippi, Louisiana Alabama, West Virginia and Arkansas are the top five states by virtue of their non-performing loan rate, ranging from 6.05 percent in Arkansas to 10.0 percent in Mississippi. All four states have improved their delinquency rate over the last 12 months. Black Knight will publish a more comprehensive analysis of some of the loan performance data it gathers in the next edition of Mortgage Monitor, due out on December 10. In recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio and the Dayton YWCA are partnering to host a community screening of BEHIND CLOSED DOORS . This documentary follows three cases of domestic violence from the moment emergency calls were placed, right through to the courts and beyond. On the day of the screening there is a minimum donation of $5. At The Neon , Tuesday, 7:30pm. A court in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday ordered three Ukrainian sailors to be held in custody for two months after a weekend confrontation at sea with Russian border guards. "For now, the court has ordered three people held until January 25" on accusations of crossing into Russian territory illegally, Crimea's rights ombudswoman Lyudmila Lubina told AFP at the court. Several others of the more than 20 Ukrainian sailors held by Russia were expected to appear before the court later Tuesday. They have been held by Moscow since Sunday, after Russian forces captured three of Kiev's ships off the coast of Crimea, sparking the most dangerous crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbours in years. Kiev says 23 are in detention, while Russian officials have put the figure at 24. Three of the Ukrainian sailors were wounded in the clashes and are being treated in a Crimean hospital. Russia has so far resisted calls to release them, accusing the sailors of crossing illegally into Russian waters and of ignoring warnings from its border guards. The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country's east. The court hearings took place in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea, and are expected to continue on Wednesday. Search Keywords: Short link: Life Style Is it time you went on a social media detox? By Nagaland Post | Publish Date: 11/27/2018 5:01:24 AM IST In today's world, social media is central to our lives. It helps us to stay in touch with our friends, promote our work, and follow the latest news. How do these networks impact our mental and physical health? Is it time to take a break from being permanently online? Nowadays, we have plenty of social networking sites to choose from, and the options seem to be ever expanding. Many people actually hold multiple accounts, which they may use for different purposes. I, for one, use one platform to communicate with friends and family, and another to stay up to date with the most recent research developments. Sometimes, however, a sense of dread creeps in: what if I'm wasting too much of my time reading the news instead of actually writing the news? What if my Facebook friends are doing more with their lives? When these thoughts strike, it feels as though social media is a sort of black hole, sucking up time as well as mental and emotional energy. Would I be better off "unplugging" more often? And it seems that I'm not the only one having these concerns. In speaking to my colleagues in the Medical News Today office, I learned that a similar sense of unease regarding social media was a common denominator. "It takes me out of the 'now' all the time," one colleague reported, and several others said that they were worried by social networks' "echo chamber effects." Also, colleagues who had already said their goodbyes to social media still stand by their decision wholeheartedly. "I have stopped using [social media] because of 'fear of missing out' and always being sad about other people doing fun stuff or appearing to do fun stuff," one such colleague confessed. "I know that it's all a fantasy world but it's impossible not to be sucked into it and made to feel as though your life is 'less fun' than others'. I am so much happier without [these accounts]." Over the past couple of years, many people especially from the younger generations have been leaving social networking websites. Viral talks from those who left social media for a month or more such as this one suggest that a proper detox has helped them to become more relaxed, focused, and productive. But does scientific research support these anecdotal conclusions? Spoiler alert: yes. And here's what it says. 1. Social media can affect mental health A number of studies have linked social media use with increased levels of depression, anxiety, and isolation. Research has revealed that younger and older users alike are in danger of breaking under the pressure of unachievable standards of beauty and success, which are often inherent in the workings of social networking websites. A study published last month found that among children aged 10 who are active on the Internet, social media accounts "could have [a negative] impact on well-being later in adolescence and perhaps throughout adulthood," the authors explain. Among young adult users, social media notably increases the incidence of anxiety and depression, according to the results of a sizeable study conducted in 2016. In fact, the researchers saw that users who frequently checked their accounts had a more than twice as high a risk of depression than their less social media-oriented peers. This may partly be due to the fact that social networks create an artificial need to be available 24/7, to respond to messages and emoji reactions instantly. But this attitude creates an unnecessary amount of low-key stress that takes its toll on our emotional well-being. And, despite the fact that such platforms are supposed to enhance our sense of connectedness with other people, research has found that they actually have the opposite effect: they render dedicated users lonelier and more isolated. However, this shouldn't really surprise us. The hyperconnectedness takes place at a superficial level, eliminating all of the extra elements that make communication more valuable and psychologically constructive. Such elements include eye contact, body language, the possibility of listening for changes in our interlocutor's tone of voice, or the possibility of physical touch. 2. Online interactions can harm relationships Social media websites can also promote loneliness by harming the quality of relationships in direct and indirect ways. Firstly, there's only so much that you can control when it comes to what your friends or often "friends" share about you on their social media accounts. Perhaps a new acquaintance thinks it's funny, for example, to publicly share an unflattering photo of you two at the bar after work. Or, maybe your third cousin is amused by the idea of tagging you in a meme with doubtful implications. Such situations may cause embarrassment at best, but a study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior suggests that these moments can often damage relationships in irreparable ways. "We found," explains study co-author Yvette Wohn, "that people who tried to remove or justify embarrassing content actually experienced a decline in their relationship with the offender." "It may be important for people to know that trying to engage in impression management may also come at the expense of a personal relationship," she adds. However, the things that we post on our personal pages can also have unintended consequences. Throwaway comments, links and quotes shared out of context, or misplaced jokes can all be doubly damaging in a medium that encourages quick sharing and rushed reading. "Social media is instant, in some cases can reach millions of people at once, and can even instigate behaviors. We often don't even know who might eventually read it and how it will affect them," warns Nels Oscar, who conducted a study on how social networking websites perpetuate stereotypes. His research focused on what kinds of views about Alzheimer's disease were shared through social media, and the findings were shocking. The study saw that "21.13 percent of all Tweets [...] used [Alzheimer's disease]-related keywords in a stigmatizing fashion." "A point many people don't understand when using social media is that their intent is often irrelevant. All people eventually see is the comment, without any other context, and have to deal with the pain it can cause." Nels Oscar 3. Social media can fuel dangerous behaviors Another reason to be wary of how much time we spend on social media networks is because they are designed to make us come back for more. Last year, researchers in the United States and the Netherlands looked at the degree to which we are conditioned to immediately respond even to simple visual cues related to social media. They found that just seeing the Facebook logo makes people want to go onto the website and look at their feed. In other words, we've learned to just automatically click as if on command, without thinking too much about it. Another set of experiments, conducted a few years earlier, reached an even more worrying conclusion: that the superficial way in which social media teaches us to engage with the world actually fuels irrational behavior. Vincent F. Hendricks, from the University of Copenhagen, and Pelle Hansen, of Roskilde University both of which are in Denmark explain: "With the advent of modern information technology, we more often than not base decisions on aggregated public signals such as likes, upvotes, or retweets on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter rather than taking the time to reflect and deliberate ourselves, with possibly severe consequences for democracy." Also, the carefully "groomed" aspect of what we see on social media can lead us to make harmful decisions, without realizing how dangerous they can actually be. One study from the University of Houston in Texas investigated how and why university students fall into heavy drinking after they misread the posts that their friends share online. "Heavier drinkers tend to overestimate how much others are drinking, and they tend to think that they are drinking less than what's normal," notes study co-author Nguyen Steers. But, she adds, "When heavy drinkers are confronted with what's actually normal, they're usually surprised when they realize they're drinking way above the norm." 4. Our physical health is at risk An over-active social media presence can leave its mark not just on our mental health, as we noted above, but also on our physical health particularly by altering our sleep patterns. A 2014 study of U.S. adults aged 1932 found that the participants checked their preferred social media accounts for over an hour per day, on average, and about 30 times per week. And, 57 percent of these users reported sleep disturbances. The researchers suggest that the reason behind why social media users may experience poor sleep could include: the fact that they feel compelled to be active on these websites at all hours, including late at night the possibility that social media use "may promote emotional, cognitive, and/or physiological arousal" the fact that exposure to bright screens before bedtime has been linked to disturbed sleep Research published in the journal Acta Paediatrica says that the same holds true for younger users, aged 1120. Of the 5,242 study participants, 73.4 percent reported that they used social media for at least 1 hour every day, and 63.6 percent reported getting insufficient sleep. "The impact social media can have on sleep patterns," says senior author Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput, "is a topic of great interest given the well-known adverse effects of sleep deprivation on health." 5. Social media decreases productivity Lastly but no less importantly researchers have proven that our commitment to social media platforms can negatively affect our commitment to our own creative and professional lives in complex ways. A study paper published last year in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology suggested that we spend much more time on social networks than we think we do, therefore wasting one of our most valuable resources: time. "We found evidence," the authors write, "that Internet- and Facebook-related stimuli can distort time perception due to attention- and arousal-related mechanisms." Reports suggest that even when we're at work, we still succumb to the need to check out the newest "likes" and comments, although we know we're not supposed to. One dataset found that employees spend 2.35 hours per day, on average, accessing their social media accounts in the workplace. Is it any wonder that we sometimes find it difficult to meet deadlines if we're itching to count our "likes" again? Social media has also reared a many-headed beast: multitasking. Such platforms encourage us to constantly switch between tasks, or to attempt to perform multiple tasks at the same time such as listening to our friend's new video while also reading the comments left on said video, and maybe also replying to a few. Research shows, however, that when we multitask, we simply lose the ability to focus on any one task at a time. Therefore, we might find that reading through an article or blog post in one sitting has become difficult, and sitting down with a 200-page book may be nigh on impossible. So, if you've successfully read this entire article and related to at least some of the points above, it might be time for you to consider a social media detox. Delete your social apps or install a social media-blocking widget in your browser, and see how you feel after a few days or weeks, or maybe even months without as many distractions. Afghanistan's election organisers vowed Tuesday to hold April's presidential poll on time, after fears it could be delayed as they struggle to compile results of the recent legislative vote amid thousands of complaints. The remarks come as the United States, in a bid to end the 17-year war, spearheads international efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks that some had feared could be derailed by the April 20 presidential election, which is expected to fiercely contested. On Monday, spokesmen for the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) told reporters they were looking at pushing the ballot back to July 13. IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad said "economic, security and weather situations are forcing us to make some changes to the timeline". But on Tuesday, officials decided not to delay, releasing a statement on the IEC Facebook page saying the vote would be held April 20 "on the demand of the people and parties". Presidential, provincial council and district council elections are scheduled to take place across the country in 2019. A parliamentary poll, which was held in 33 out of Afghanistan's 34 provinces last month, also needs to be carried out in Ghazni where voting was delayed following protests. The Afghan constitution requires the presidential election take place no later than April 22. President Ashraf Ghani, who was elected in a fraud-tainted poll in 2014 that was only resolved in a US-brokered power-sharing deal, confirmed earlier this month that he would seek re-election. It is not certain who will challenge Ghani, but potential rivals are jockeying for the top job, including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's de facto prime minister. Last month's parliamentary election, which was more than three years late, was marred by chronic disorganisation and deadly violence. Complete results are yet to be released. The proposed election date would fit with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad's hopes of the Taliban and the Afghan government striking a peace deal before the summer. After a second round of regional meetings that included the Taliban's political representatives in Qatar this month, Khalilzad said he was "cautiously optimistic" for an end to the conflict. On Tuesday, NATO announced that three US soldiers had been killed in an attack claimed by the Taliban, bringing the total number of American service personnel to die in the country this year to 12. Search Keywords: Short link: State Nagaland wish list submitted to 15th FC Nand Kishore Singh being received by Y. Patton and other, Tuesday. By Nagaland Post | Publish Date: 11/27/2018 11:42:51 AM IST Correspondent KOHIMA, NOV 27 (NPN): Nagaland has submitted a memorandum to Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) reflecting the impact due to the change of funding in the previous years and a proposal for the next five years 2020-21 to 2024-25. A team of 12 members led by its chairman Nand Kishore Singh arrived here on Tuesday afternoon on a three-day visit. State finance secretary Kikheto Sema informed media persons Monday evening that the memorandum for 2020-21 to 2024-25 was submitted on August 16 and supplementary memorandum was under preparation for submission during the FCs visit. He said the FC members would be meeting State government officials and private agencies during their visit and leave for Imphal on November 29. Meanwhile, the memorandum projected Rs 3,535.50 crore for the five-year period for repair and maintenance; Rs 1,115.59 crore for four hydro projects and Rs 4,392.93 for critical infrastructural development. Impact on changing of funds: The memorandum pointed out that the states finances suffered due to change in funding pattern by the 9th FC during 1989-90 in which grant of fund was discontinued, instead of providing liberal assistance to cover Balance from Current Revenue (BCR) gap through Additional Central Plan Assistance (ACPA). It was also pointed out that due to the change in funding pattern from 1989-90 onwards, the State faced problems even in releasing monthly pay and allowances to government employees even as the government was unable to undertake developmental activities, which affected the overall socio-economic condition of the State. During 2003, a one-time special grant of Rs 365 crore was provided by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to wipe out accumulated budgetary deficit which was a great relief for the State. However, it said this one-time grant was only for a short period and the deficit started mounting because the state had to create avenues for providing jobs in the absence of other avenues since the formation of Nagaland. State spends 58% on salary and pension: The memorandum submitted to the FFC mentioned that since the number of government employee was very high, the annual growth rate of salary and pension was equally high. It said these two components alone consumed about 58% of the total revenue expenditure. Also, it stated that about 67% of the revenue expenditure was spent on account of salary, wage, pension and interest payments and thus very little fund was left for maintenance of infrastructural assets and other developments activities. Impact of 13th FC: Refreshing the impact of 13th FC, the State government pointed out that the FC had adopted a normative approach of awarding grant to all the States without considering that Nagaland was the only State created out of political exigency. It pointed out that the special-category State was not given any special treatment as the same yardstick was applied to all the States, following which Nagaland suffered a lot during the 13th FC period. Impact of 14th FC: The memorandum maintained that the 14th FC took into account the adverse awards of the 13th FC and recommended considerably better and realistic financing for all the special category States. It pointed out that though the increase of 10% tax devolution raised the share of states from 32% to 42%, it made little difference for revenue deficit states like Nagaland. While appreciating the 14th FC for considering considerably better revenue deficit grant to Nagaland, the State still continued to have a post devolution deficit due to the huge burden. Further, the memorandum explained that the percentage of distribution of share of Central taxes was not too favourable to Nagaland, as compared with some other North-eastern States. The State government appealed to FFC to distribute State share of Central taxes equitably to all the North-eastern States on need basis, with special consideration for Nagaland, taking into account the provision of point 11, clauses 1& 2 of the 16-point Agreement. Rs 3,535.50 for repair and maintenance: State government has urged the FFC to consider granting Rs 3,535.50 crore for repair and maintenance of infrastructural assets during the period 2020-21 to 2024-25. The memorandum submitted to the FC stated that the amount had not reflected the statement relating to State finance under statements 1-4. Requirement of critical infrastructure: The State government asserted that Nagaland did not have any national or regional institution worth mentioning, neither medical nor engineering college and that there was a huge gap in critical infrastructure that was required to cater to the needs of the people. Out of the many requirements, the Stated urged the 15th FC to consider and grant the following projects: New Raj Bhavan, at Thizama, Kohima with a required amount of Rs 400 crore with start-of-the-art facilities on 150-acre land (currently 5.5 acres) and said the State government envisaged to complete the project within the 15th FC period. Housing: Out of the total 6,058 government buildings (offices and quarters) constructed since the States inception till date, 1,142 houses were more than 50 years old and beyond repair, thus requiring new construction. Towards this, out of the 1,142 buildings, the government proposed to replace 25% (i.e. 285) with new buildings at a cost of Rs 1.50 crore per building that would cost about Rs 427.50 crore. General administration buildings: Out of the 12 districts, seven had constructed new office buildings for deputy commissioners (DCs) and the DCs of the remaining five districts including Tuensang, Zunheboto, Kiphire and Wokha were functioning from old dilapidated buildings, while there was similar requirement for the newly-created district of Noklak. In this regard, the government has estimated Rs 100 crore for construction of five DC offices at the rate of Rs 20 crore per office. Also, it mentioned that the five districts also required new offices for superintendents of police (SP), for which an amount of Rs 50 crore would be required (at the rate of Rs 10 crore per office. Further, the memorandum proposed Rs 55 crore for construction of G+1 flat type building consisting of six flats (3BHK) quarters for all India service cadres like IAS, IPS and IFoS (excluding DC & SP) at the rate of Rs 5 crore per district. School: The State government proposed Rs 720 crore for construction of five high schools in each of the 12 districts at the rate of Rs 12 crore per school, stating that out of the 1,913 government schools, around 15 of them were more than 50 years old. Hospitals: Rs 100 crore was proposed for constructing new district hospitals at the rate of Rs 25 crore per hospital in Tuensang, Wokha, Zunheboto and Longleng. New High Court complex: After Rs 256.55 crore was revised, an amount of Rs 61.71 crore was released and Rs 194.84 crore was required for completion of the new high court complex in Kohima. In this regard, the State government urged the 15th FC to consider providing grant. Higher education: Rs 260 crore was proposed for 26 new constructions one higher secondary school each in five districts, two higher secondary schools in seven districts and one college each in seven districts. The project was estimated at the rate of Rs 10 crore for each project. Tourism: The government proposed Rs 120 crore for two eco-tourism centres in each district at the rate of Rs 5 crore per centre. Civil aviation: Rs 90 crore was proposed for one small landing strip in 12 districts at the rate of Rs 7.50 crore per district. Fire stations: The government proposed Rs 60 crore for construction of five fire stations in five districts and additional seven new stations in the other seven districts at the rate of Rs 5 crore per fire station. Village guard: The government projected an amount of Rs 5 crore annually for infrastructure development like constructing barracks and camps for village guards. DUDA: The government requested the 15th FC to grant Rs 50 crore annually for five years to acknowledge the development deficits of the Eastern Nagaland districts of Tuensang, Mon, Longleng, Kiphire and Noklak on a par with other districts. Power generation projects: Rs 1,115.59 was proposed for consideration of four hydro projects 24-mw Zungki Hydro Electricity Project below Phelungre village in Kiphire district at a cost of Rs 317.81 crore, 42-mw Lower Tizu Hydro Electricity project at Moya and Phor in Kiphire district at a cost of Rs 456.86 crore, 24-mw Doyang SHEP Stage-III at Philimi in Zunheboto district at a cost of 241.22 crore and 10-mw Doyang SHEP Stage V at Philimi village in Zunheboto district at a cost of Rs 99.70 crore. Establishment of 4th NAP Battalion HQ, Kohima: The government proposed Rs 425 crore for establishment of new 4th NAP Bn HQ (including cost of land) as the current location was proposed for construction of new Raj Bhavan complex. Request for one time grant to waive off deficit By PTI NEW DELHI: IT czar and philanthropist Azim Premji will be conferred Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) -- the highest French civilian distinction -- later this month. Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France to India, will confer the award to Premji, a statement said. "The award comes in recognition of his outstanding contribution to developing the information technology industry in India, his economic outreach in France, and his laudable contribution to society as a philanthropist through the Azim Premji Foundation and University," it added. Some of the past Indian recipients of the prestigious award include Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee and superstar Shahrukh Khan. Ziegler will be in Bengaluru on November 28-29 to attend the Bengaluru Tech Summit. This will also provide an opportunity to further boost the strong partnership between France and India in areas of information technology and innovation. The Ambassador of France will also meet representatives of more than 30 innovative companies from the French technology business community. This gathering will see a mix of early-stage and large technology companies specialising and developing digital solutions in artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, connected devices, machine learning and supercomputing, the statement said. Large French digital companies already have a strong footprint in India, employing over 1.3 lakh people at their R&D centres and facilities. "This meeting will be an opportunity to initiate the development of a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem that draws inspiration from the French Tech movement, a growing global community made up of a new generation of entrepreneurs, investors, engineers and innovators gathered under one banner," the statement said. Ziegler will also visit the Infosys campus and attend a leadership meeting. "I am looking forward to meeting sectoral French companies, which are creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem to foster and support innovation and partnerships between France and India. "It will be a privilege for me to confer the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honour on renowned tech magnate and philanthropist, Shri Azim Premji," Ziegler said. By PTI NEW DELHI: Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu Tuesday said he has taken up the issue of declining credit to exporters with the finance ministry to ensure adequate availability of funds to them. Prabhu said exports are growing and the ministry is taking steps to further accelerate the growth rate. "One of the main challenges for export is finance. There is a decline in (export) finance, so we have taken up the issue with the finance ministry. I think, the finance minister is also looking into this (as in) how we can improve the credit flow into the export sector," the minister told reporters here. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta has time and again demanded augmentation of credit flow to the export sector, as a sharp decline in credit would impact exports growth. The minister has earlier suggested that loans to exporters should be considered as priority sector lending by the banks. As per estimates, outstanding export credit which stood at Rs 28,300 crore as on March 30 has come down to Rs 22,300 crore as on June 22 this year. Prabhu also said that to boost shipments, exporters should explore new markets including in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. He said logistics sector will play a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of Indian goods in the global markets. The ministry along with FIEO is organising 'Logix India' from January 31 to February 2, 2019 here. Speaking on this, Gupta said over 20 countries are sending their delegations to explore logistics partnerships with India in this function. He said the organisation is focussing on logistics solutions for 'difficult to reach markets' and over 100 international delegates are expected to attend Logix India. Since 2011-12, India's exports have been hovering at around USD 300 billion. During 2017-18, the shipments grew to USD 303 billion. Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange. By Online Desk Infosys, one of the biggest IT companies in India, is doubling pay packages for employees who successfully complete its new 'bridge programme'. This is an attempt by the firm to reduce attrition at the junior level. Infosys has been facing high rates of attrition among the juniors with a 20 per cent hike in recent times, Times of India reported. The company started their 'bridge-to-consult' programme this year to target young employees who on average have spent three years with the organisation. The programme, aimed to move employees to the consulting side, includes a test and three-month curriculum. Following the tenure, the employee will have to undergo a six-month internship with a consulting project and once that's over, the new salary structure will kick in. "We are focused on creating a flexible internal marketplace for our talent to grow, instead of them leaving to join, say, an MBA course. These programmes provide people with alternative career growth opportunities," Krish Shankar, head of human resources was quoted as saying in the report. Infosys claimed that employees who completed these programmes have seen a salary rise by 80-120 per cent. Almost 400 people have been trained under these programmes till date. Several Indian IT firms, including TCS and Wipro, are coming up with methods to skill employees in fields of consulting, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to reduce attrition levels. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Amid reports of the UAE-based Etihad Airways increasing its stake in Jet Airways, the cash-strapped national carrier on Monday announced the appointment of industry veteran Robin Kamark as the nominee director of stakeholder Etihad Airways PJSC. Kamark, who has spent 17 years at Scandinavian Airlines System, will replace Harsh Mohan as the nominee director. Struggling to make payments on every front, fresh reports indicate that Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal could ask Etihad Airways to increase stake in the airline he founded over 26 years ago. Sources indicated that Goyal and senior officials from Jet recently held a meeting with the top management of Etihad and group CEO Tony Douglas. Etihad Airways owns 24 per cent in Jet, while Goyal and his wife Anita hold a 51 per cent stake. According to reports, after the stake sale, Etihad may end up owning 49 per cent of the expanded equity base. In exchange for funds through equity and soft loans, Goyal is considering handing over operations to Etihad, while retaining his position as the chairman of the airline. According to aviation experts, said it makes more sense for Etihad to take the control of the struggling airline as around 11 per cent of Etihads current passengers originate from India and the number is only expected to grow in future. However, the only thing that may stop Etihad from increasing its stake in Jet is its current financials (it reported $1.52 billion in losses for 2017) and its past joint ventures with other airlines. As for Goyal & Co, Etihad is a better option than the other interested player, the Tata Sons Ltd. With Etihad, Goyal would not have to leave his position, unlike Tatas reported offer that seeks full control of the airline with a Board, said an aviation observer, requesting anonymity. Earlier this month, it was reported that Tata Sons was in preliminary talks with the debt-laden Jet, but has not made a proposal to acquire a stake. Jet recently reported its third consecutive quarterly losses for the quarter ending September, and is currently scrambling for funds to tide over a liquidity crisis that resulted in delayed salaries as well as payments to some vendors. Continuing its belt-tightening measures, the carrier on Monday reportedly handed over pink slips to around 16 more employees. These employees were working as ground staff in Jet Airways Kochi and Hyderabad offices. By Express News Service BENGALURU: The mortal remains of the much-loved and revered Rebel Star Ambareesh, who passed away on Saturday night in Bengaluru, were consigned to flames with full state honours at Kanteerava Studios at 5.56pm on Monday. Police fired 21 rounds as a mark of respect, as the national anthem played in the background. There were heart-wrenching scenes at the Kanteerava Studios as Ambareeshs son Abhishek placed the last log of wood to cover his fathers face as he lay on the funeral pyre. Abhishek hesitated, then wept inconsolably before composing himself to complete the task. Ambareeshs wife Sumalatha breaks down at Kanteerava Studios | Pandarinath B Earlier, when Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy handed over the Indian tricolour which draped Ambareeshs body to wife Sumalatha, both mother and son broke down. As he lay on the firewood, Sumalatha stepped forward and kissed her husbands forehead and feet. Ambareeshs last rites and preceding final journey involved a total of at least six lakh people: in Kanteerava Stadium, where his body lay in state from 8am Sunday until 4pm; at Sir M Visvesvaraya Stadium in Mandya until 9.30am Monday (at least three lakh people are estimated to have paid their last respects here); and along the 13km route that an unprecedented procession wound its way, starting at 11.45pm from Kanteerava Stadium to reach Kanteerava Studios at 4.15pm. An Indian Air Force helicopter was pressed into service to fly Ambareeshs mortal remains to and from Mandya, the star-turned-politicians hometown. The whos who of the Kannada film industry was in attendance at this sombre ceremony actors Darshan, Shivarajkumar, Puneeth Rajkumar, besides yesteryears stars. CM Kumaraswamy, who accompanied Ambareeshs remains to Mandya on the chopper, former chief ministers SM Krishna, Siddaramaiah, B S Yeddyurappa and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda were present along with several ministers and political leaders. Egypt will launch the first international tender for oil and gas exploration in the Red Sea next month, a petroleum official has said. The government is now conducting a seismic study off the country's eastern coast to identify areas of prospective resources, Mohamed Abdel-Azim, head of the state-owned South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company, was quoted as saying by state news agency MENA. The company has been working with US firm Schlumberger to carry out 2D seismic surveys of more than 10,000 square kilometres in Egypt's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Red Sea, he added. A maritime demarcation accord signed with Saudi Arabia in 2016 has allowed the country to embark on oil and gas exploration for the first time in the Red Sea. Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla said the region, except for the Gulf of Suez, had remained "untouched" by exploration. Search Keywords: Short link: Sahaya Novinston Lobo By Express News Service CHENNAI: An elderly couple living alone in the city's outskrits near Avadi was found killed in their house on Tuesday. Police have recovered an iron rod with blood strains using which the assailant is believed to have killed the couple when they were sleeping in their bedroon on Monday night. A servant recently hired by the couple, who used to stay in a portion of the house, was also missing on Tuesday and police suspect he could have escaped with gold jewelleries and cash from the house. Jegadeesan, 68, and Vishalini, 61, both retired staff of a government press in Chennai, were staying in a secluded house at Ayyappa Main Road, Sekkadu at Avadi. Jegadeesan had two sons from his first marriage, who would only occasionally visit the elderly couple. The murder of the couple came to light around 8 am on Tuesday when Chandrasekar, a carpenter working in the house, reached the house and found a miss that the couple were unusually not yet awake. "I opened the door and called them. Since none came out, I went up to the hall and found blood drops. Since the servant was also missing, I grew very suspicous and phoned Jegadeesan's younger brother Gopinath, who lives near by," Chandrasekar told Express. When Gopinath went inside the bedroom, he found the couple lying dead with blood spilled everywhere. An iron rod with blood stains was later found in the backyard by the police. "Things were found scatter in another bedroom and I realised that they were killed by someone who wanted to loot valuables from the house. The servant recently joined for work was also missing and his motorbike was also not there," said Gopinath, who had informed police about the incident. A pet dog of the house was also found injured. Police said the servant had joined work only 15 days ago. The couple changed the old servants because of some issues with them and recently engaged a new person to help them with household chores. Priyesh Kumar, the eldest son of Jegadeesan, had last met his father in March. We were not in constant touch with him. But he would phone use occasionally. He built this house six years ago and since then had engaged many servants," he said. A police officer said, "We had asked him to install CCTV camera around the house since it is located in an isolated spot surrounded only by agricultural fields , but he refused. A sniffer dog trailed upto the Avadi railway station. Police said the valuables missing in the house is not yet ascertained. Police have formed five special teams to investigate the case. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Janata Durbar had a security scare after a mosques caretaker was found to be carrying a bullet in his wallet when he visited Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ,s residence in Civil Lines. Mondays security scare came less than a week after a man was arrested for attacking Kejriwal with chilli powder outside his office at the Delhi Secretariat. Mohammad Imran, 39, a caretaker of Masjid Bawli Wali mosque in Karol Bagh, is a resident of Seelampur area in northeast Delhi, the police said. He had arrived along with a delegation of 12 other maulvis and imams at Kejriwals residence on Monday to seek increase in salary of the Delhi Waqf Board staff. The bullet was found when a security guard frisked Imran during a security check. Mohammad Imran, a caretaker of a mosque in Karol Bagh. (Photo | Twitter/@ANI) A live cartridge of .32 bore was recovered from his wallet during search and frisking by a security officer at the CMs residence after which he was handed over to the police, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North, Nupur Prasad said. Imran was arrested and a case was registered against him under the Arms Act at the Civil Lines police station. Interrogation of the man revealed that the man had found the bullet inside a donation box of the mosque some two-three months ago. He told the police that he had planned to throw the bullet in the Yamuna river, but did not do so and kept it in his wallet. "It is a very serious matter that a man carrying a live cartridge managed to reach the chief minister at his Janta Darbar. We appeal to the Centre to set aside petty politics and pay attention to his security," AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said. The AAP leaders noted that last week a man had attacked Kejriwal at the Delhi Secretariat by throwing chilly powder on him. They also alleged that Delhi BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari "along with his goons had tried to hurt Kejriwal during the inaugural of the Signature Bridge". Bhardwaj also alleged that the Delhi Police was not paying attention to the attacks on Kejriwal. He said no charge sheet was filed in an attack on the AAP chief at Chhatrasal stadium. A woman had thrown ink at him during an event at the stadium in January 2016. Reacting to the development, the Delhi BJP unit chief said, "If anybody wanted to kill, he would carry a firearm not merely a bullet. It is all a ploy of Arvind Kejriwal to distract attention from failures of his government and he is coming out with these dramatic things quite regularly as elections are nearing". The Delhi BJP legislators also sought a detailed probe into the chilly powder attack on the chief minister. The MLAs met Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and submitted a memorandum. They demanded the arrest of an aide of Kejriwal, who, they alleged, facilitated the entry of the man who threw chilly powder on the chief minister at the secretariat here last week. "It is surprising that the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and the AAP have not filed a complaint. Do the CMO and AAP have nothing to do with the safety and security of the chief minister?" Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said. "The high voltage drama by the AAP in Delhi smells of a conspiracy to play the victim card over the issue," he said. Gupta alleged there were "discrepancies in the allegations of the Delhi government, Home Minister Satyendar Jain and the AAP, and still the BJP was being targeted over the issue, although the police interrogation of accused (Anil Sharma) revealed that he had no affiliation with the (BJP) party". On Monday, Kejriwal had blamed the BJP for the attack on him at the Secretariat as, he claimed, the party was "baffled" by the "good work" done by his government. Narendra Modi should resign if he cannot protect Delhi's chief minister," he had said on the first day of the Delhi Assemblys special session. They all want to kill me. There is hardly any CM, who has been attacked four times in two years. I have become eyesore for them." By Express News Service NEW DELHI: More than 50 Indian star tortoises, a protected species, which had been trafficked earlier, were brought back home on Monday evening. After being smuggled into Singapore, they were confiscated by the authorities there. Delhi-based NGO WIldlife SOS came to know of the poached tortoises one and a half years ago. This was a long struggle. After inspection and paperwork, 51 tortoises are being transported back to India on Monday, said a member of the NGO. The repatriation mission was launched by Wildlife SOS and ACRES Singapore, an animal welfare charity, in collaboration with the Indian and Singapore governments. Once repatriated to India, the tortoises would be returned to their natural habitat in the forests of Karnataka. During the process, Wildlife SOS coordinated closely with the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to secure permission to repatriate the tortoises, which are indigenous to India. Investigation into the case showed the original home of the tortoises was Karnataka. The NGOs members and ministry officials travelled to Singapore to conduct physical inspection of the tortoises, which were housed at the ACRES rescue centre. For the long plane journey, the tortoises were put in specially designed boxes. Members of both the NGOs accompanied the rescued tortoises on their journey back to India. While we work together to put an end to illegal wildlife trafficking, its critical that such repatriation efforts are made to return these unique animals to their native habitat, said Geeta Seshamani, secretary, Wildlife SOS. Once the tortoises have completed their quarantine period of three months, the NGO plans to initiate radio tagging and monitor them for survival. The project aims to demonstrate commitment towards zero tolerance of illegal wildlife trade. A team of Wildlife SOS field researchers will track these animals. A special anti-predatory enclosure has been built by Wildlife SOS to prepare the tortoises for release into the wild, said Dr Arun A Sha, director, Research and Veterinary Operations, Wildlife SOS. Protected species Indian star tortoise is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, and listed in Appendix II of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) on Monday launched a 24-hour hunger strike, seeking the restoration of academic and institutional functioning of the varsity. The JNUTA gave the call for the hunger strike a day after the university administration issued notice over compliance of faculty attendance and marking attendance of their students. The notice issued by the registrar said the JNU administration seeks information from all the faculty members applying for leaves regarding their attendance rule. Such leaves are not being granted to only those few faculty members who are defying the rules of the JNU as well as the UGC, it said. The Association had earlier submitted a memorandum of demands to the JNU Executive Council members before the Councils meeting last Tuesday, but alleged that it did not come up during discussion. The JNUTA remains steadfast in its opposition to compulsory attendance of students and in upholding the order of the High Court that no coercive steps can be taken against with respect to attendance, the association said. In response to the hunger strike, the JNU administration said the call for a hunger-strike in front of the administrative block was in defiance of the Academic Rules and Regulations. But, the JNUTA maintained that it was not doing anything illegal. Shocking that administration is defending its illegal actions and wrongfully putting the onus on teachers. Peaceful hunger strike is very much as per Constitutional rights, JNUTA president Atul Sood said. By Express News Service KURNOOL: Controversial spiritual leader Bala Sai Baba died of cardiac arrest in Hyderabad on Tuesday and his untimely death came as shock to his devotees. He was 58. On Monday night, he was admitted to Viranchi hospital at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad after he complained of chest pain and he died while undergoing treatment on Tuesday morning, said Balasai Seva Samithi trustee T Rama Rao. A pall of gloom descended on Bala Sai Seva Nilayam in Kurnool, as the body of Bala Sai Baba was brought from Hyderabad in the evening. Devotees and family members were inconsolable and paid floral tributes to the self-styled godman. A long queue of his followers was witnessed at the ashram. His family members and trustees said his final rites would be performed on Wednesday at Balasai International School located at Munagalapadu village on the outskirts of Kurnool. Born Balaraju to Jagannatha Sastry and Jaya Lakshmamma in Kurnool district, he became a monk at the age of 18 and established his ashram. Later he became popular as Bala Sai Baba. Bala Sai Baba set up two ashrams, one at Kurnool and another at Hyderabad. He had followers across the country and abroad. A polyglot, the baba used to impress the foreign devotees by speaking in their own language. Though the number of followers in the State was limited, Bala Sai Baba had a bigger following in foreign countries where he used to visit frequently. Every year on Mahashivaratri, he used to bring out Shivling from his mouth. However, Jana Vignana Vedika and atheists dismissed it as a sleight of hand. The godmans life was full of controversies, right from the time he became a monk. It was alleged that Balaraju, before assuming Bala Sai Baba avatar, used to sell cinema tickets in black to support his family. His detractors say seeing the fame and prosperity of Puttaparthi Sathya Sai Baba, he adopted similar sartorial and hair style. He used to produce objects such as rings, necklaces, bracelets and other pieces of jewellery out of the thin air. Meanwhile, hours after the demise of Bala Sai, fight for the control of his substantial assets worth hundreds of crores, broke out between his brother Ramesh and Balasai Seva Samithi trustee T Rama Rao. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: A 50-year-old woman and her 24-year-old son was brutally murdered, allegedly by their relatives, at Durganagar under Kulsumpura police limits on Monday. The deceased have been identified as Vigneswari and Natraj respectively. The police suspect that Vigneswaris stepson Mohan was involved in the incident. Reportedly, there were property disputes between Vigneswari and her relatives.In yet another gory incident, a 48-year-old man, who reportedly had a criminal past, was murdered within the SR Nagar police limits. The deceased K Krishnaiah was assaulted by miscreants at his residence, following which they smashed his head with a stone, the police said.The family members were said to have been sleeping at the time of the incident. The police have detained three suspects in connection with the offences. By Express News Service HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: Former CBI Joint Director VV Lakshminarayana on Monday deferred announcement of his new political party with Lok Satta Party founder Jayaprakash Narayan and leaders of some other parties inviting him to either join their parties or head them. Lakshminarayana, however, is likely to announce his new party in Vijayawada soon. Though he deferred announcement of his political plans for now, the former CBI JD made it clear that he wold contest the next general elections in AP. When contacted by TNIE, his close aide said the new political party will be launched soon in Vijayawada. In most likelihood, the new party will contest Lok Sabha polls in both Telugu States, he said. Speaking at Meet the Press in Hyderabad, Lakshminarayana shared the dais with Lok Satta Party leader Jayaprakash Narayan, AAP State convenor P Venkata Rama Rao and Telangana Praja Party leader Justice (retd) B Chandra Kumar. He welcomed all like-minded political parties to join him. After travelling through the 13 districts of AP, holding discussions with villagers and seeing their difficulties, I took the decision to join politics on October 6, he said. He further said, Lok Satta Party, AAP and Telangana Praja Party leaders have extended their support to me. I am open to like-minded people who will help me in taking forward the mission for corruption-free government, he said. The key issues for him will be agriculture, education, health, development, gender equality and zero-budget politics to bring about a social change. Lakshminarayana said, There are several legislations that need to be changed. Framed long ago, some of the legislations do not apply in the present scenario. I wish to bring about a change. I can confidently talk about my plans for the development of the State. But I dont comment on the changes others have brought. Asked if he will be able to bridge the gap between lawmakers and law followers, Lakshminarayana said, I have been on both sides of the government, the people and the power. It is the duty of a politician to answer to the people when they ask him about his promises. I am for the people. I shall make concerted efforts for the betterment of my people. When asked about survival of his new political party in the long run, he said, This is a long-drawn battle against corruption in the country. My aim is to eliminate corruption. We will be there till peoples problems disappear. Manish Anand By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Sensing that the outcome of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections could go down to the wire, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is bracing for post-poll manoeuvring, on the lines of what it did in Goa, to stay in power, party functionaries who were privy to the discussions said on Monday. The first three Assembly poll verdicts in the state since it was formed have shown a dropping victory margin for the BJP. The partys strategists are therefore planning to wean away non-Congress MLAs to get past the half way mark in the state Assembly. Results for the polls which took place on November 12 and 20, will be declared on December 11. In the event the state throws a split verdict, the BJP will be on course to outmanoeuvre the Congress to cobble up a majority in Chhattisgarh on the lines of Goa. The BJP strategists are counting on a couple of legislators who could win from the BSP to bolt to the saffron camp to beat the Congress..., said one of the sources cited above. The BJPs victory margin was two per cent in Chhattisgarh in its first election. It came down to 1.5 per cent in the second, and it was squeezed to 0.8 per cent in 2013. If it gets further squeezed, then all possibilities have to be accounted for, added the functionary. In the 2017 Assembly polls in Goa, despite coming in second to the Congress, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is credited to have outsmarted the Congress in-charge Digvijaya Singh in putting together a post-poll alliance to form the government after a split verdict in the state. In the case of Chhattisgarh, BJP leaders are counting on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to win several seats in the Bilaspur region. The smaller parties may share about 5-6 seats in the state which has a total of 90 Assembly seats. The Ajit Jogi factor was seen cutting a greater vote base of the Congress, than the BJPs. Yet, the extent of damage to the BJP and the Congress on account of the Ajit Jogi factor is to be seen, said another senior BJP functionary. By Express News Service BHOPAL: Over 5 crore voters will vote to elect legislators for the 230-seats strong Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday. According to official figures, the 5,04,95,251 voters include over 62,000 service voters (voters of the state employed with defence forces in other states and those working in embassies and high commissions abroad). ALSO READ: High voltage Madhya Pradesh campaign ends, record seizure reported, says CEO A total of 65,367 booths have been deployed across the 52 districts of the state and votes will be cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) attached to Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines. Around 17,000 polling stations have been categorised as critical, where peaceful polling will be ensured through heightened security measures such as webcasting, CCTV camera surveillance and a higher deployment of central security forces and micro observers. While a total of 2,899 candidates are in fray, the prime contest is likely to be between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress in 190-odd seats, while 30-40 more seats are likely to witness triangular and quadrangular contests owing to presence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajawadi Party (SP), the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the SAPAKS Party, besides rebel candidates of both the leading parties who are contesting Independently. In the 2013 elections, when over 72% polling was reported, the BJP won 165 seats with a vote share of around 45%. The Congress won 58 seats with a 36% share while the BSP won four seats with over 6% votes, while the remaining three seats were won by Independents. According to political observers, Wednesdays election will be a very close contest, particularly between the BJP and Congress. The electoral result of this contest is crucial for both parties. While the outcome for the BJP, which has been in power in MP since 2003, may have a bearing on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress is considering the battle for MP as a now or never contest. ALSO READ | Farmer-sons, royals and doctors: Stars aplenty in Madhya Pradesh elections While the BJP has declared the present CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan as its CM face, the Congress hasnt declared anyone as CM candidate, particularly to prevent any internal tussle among various factions within the partys state unit ahead of polls. Hectic campaigning was witnessed in the state over the last three weeks, with all big BJP and Congress leaders hitting the campaign trail. While PM Narendra Modi addressed 10 rallies, the national BJP president Amit Shah addressed 23 rallies, union minister Smriti Irani addressed 22 rallies. The maximum 149 rallies were addressed by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan who is facing a daunting task of retaining the power for fourth consecutive time before a resurgent Congress and amid pressure of 15 years of anti-incumbency and corruption allegations against his government. The ruling partys fortunes could also be dented due to anger of upper caste against the SC/ST Act amendment, particularly in the Vindhyan and Gwalior-Chambal region, besides presence of around two dozen party rebels contesting as independents or as candidates of smaller parties. The Congress, on the other hand, is banking on anti-incumbency factor against the BJP and no 2013-like Modi wave in favour of the ruling party. Among its top leaders, while national president Rahul Gandhi addressed 21 poll rallies in the state, state partys campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia addressed 110 rallies and state party chief Kamal Nath addressed 55 rallies. While the BJP is contesting the polls with the guiding slogan Abki Baar 200 Paar (200-plus seats this time), the Congress is banking on its slogan of Waqt Hai Badlav Ka (Its time for Change). While polling will be held on 227 seats from 8 am to 5 pm, the time of polling will be between 7 am and 3 pm in three seats of naxal-affected Balaghat district. Were targeting 80% polling and all arrangements have been made for peaceful and free-fair polling. 650 companies of central security forces and around 80,000 personnel of MP police have been deployed across the state for ensuring peaceful polling, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO MP) VL Kantha Rao. Pandoras box has been opened. We still might have a glimmer of hope to close it before its too late, the approximately 120 scientists said in the Chinese-language letter. Yang Zhengang, a Fudan University professor, told Reuters he signed the letter because gene editing was very dangerous. He, who is due to speak at a summit on human genome editing at the University of Hong Kong on Wednesday, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Southern University of Science and Technology, where He holds an associate professorship, said it had been unaware of the research project and that He had been on leave without pay since February. Chinas National Health Commission said on Monday it was highly concerned and had ordered provincial health officials to immediately investigate and clarify the matter. The governments medical ethics committee in the city of Shenzhen, in southern China, said it was investigating the case, as was the Guangdong provincial health commission, according to Southern Metropolis Daily, a state media outlet. CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that allows scientists to essentially cut-and-paste DNA, raising hope of genetic fixes for disease. However, there are also concerns about its safety and ethics. The committee organizing the Hong Kong conference where He is due to speak - the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing - said in a statement on Monday it had only just been informed of Hes work on the genes of the twin girls. Our goal is to help ensure that human genome editing research be pursued responsibly, the committee said. By PTI LOS ANGELES: "Game of Thrones" star Kit Harington has dismissed the rumours that he cheated on his wife and actor Rose Leslie. A Russian model, Olga Vlaslova, has leaked online a photo of a man, she claims to be the 31-year-old actor with whom she allegedly had a month-long affair. She claimed that she met Harington in Luxembourg and they slept together multiple times before and after the actor got married to Leslie in June. ALSO WATCH: Game of Thrones season finale teaser In a brief statement to ET Canada, a representative of Harington has denied the claims. "The allegations in this story are completely false. (Harington) has never even been to Luxembourg nor has he ever met Olga Vlasova," the representative said. ALSO READ: HBO irked over Donald Trump's use of 'Game of Thrones' slogan Harington and Rose Leslie tied the knot at a church in Scotland's Aberdeenshire in June 23. They had announced their engagement in the Times newspaper last year. The couple met on the HBO fantasy show in 2012, where they played on-screen lovers Jon Snow and Ygritt, before Leslie left the show in 2014. By PTI MUMBAI: She was not the first choice but it is a role that has come to define her. Looking back, Preity Zinta says "Kal Ho Na Ho" will always have a special place in her heart. The film, which completes 15 years Wednesday, was first offered to Kareena Kapoor but it came to Preity after she declined it. Ironically, Preity was supposed to play Geet in "Jab We Met", a role that Kareena will forever be associated with. "It was very special to me because I lost my first love. I was in love with him, he was not. I felt strongly when the film was offered to me. Some of the best things have happened to me during that film," Preity told PTI in an interview. ALSO READ: Nepotism will always exist but you can't stop those hungry to prove themselves, says Preity Zinta The film revolved around a young, introvert woman, who has trust issues after her father's suicide. Eventually, she falls into love but that is not to be. Preity, 43, said she and Jaya Bachchan, who played her mother in the film, share a great bonding now. She also recalled her bonding with director Karan Johar's father Yash Johar, who tragically passed away after the film. Also, Shah Rukh Khan underwent a major surgery during the shooting. ALSO READ: When an actress gets married and has children, she is out of circulation, says Preity Zinta "It was one of those films that filled me with joy but it broke our hearts as well. It was a roller coaster ride... It is a timeless film. I am fortunate that I was a part of it," Preity said. The actor had turned down "Jab We Met" but has no regrets about the film, which is considered a modern romantic classic. Preity said she and Kareena have a "karmic connection". "There is a karmic connection between Kareena and me. We both are in very good karma with each other because she said no to Kal Ho Na Ho' and I said no to Jab We Met', both of them are iconic and career-defining films. People tell me they liked me a lot in Kal Ho Na Ho' and I think she did a wonderful job as Geet," she said. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: A day after the BJP in Assam dared ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to walk out of the alliance and pull out its support to the three-party ruling coalition, the AGP, on Monday, lobbed the alliance ball on BJP president Amit Shahs court. Miffed over the AGPs opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which the BJP wants to pass to legitimise the stay of non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who migrated to India till December 31, 2014. Assam minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said the AGP was at liberty to sever its ties with the saffron party if it so desired. He said the BJP was ready to face any consequences. The comment stirred the hornets nest, with opposition Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) slamming the AGP for shamelessly hanging on to power despite being insulted by the BJP. If they (AGP) have a spine, they should sever their ties with the BJP and pull out their support to the government, AIUDF chief and Lok Sabha member Maulana Badruddin Ajmal said. The Congress, too, was critical of the AGP for not ending the alliance with the BJP. If they (AGP) have self-respect, they should not waste a minute in pulling out their support to the government, Congress leader and former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said. In the wake of the brouhaha, top AGP leaders met in Guwahati on Monday to discuss Sarmas jibe and the partys alliance with the BJP. An AGP insider said the party had decided to raise the issue of Sarmas outbursts and its alliance with Amit Shah. The AGP will write to Amit Shah and ask if Sarmas position on the alliance was the official stand of the BJPs central leadership. The AGP is approaching Shah, as it was in consultation with him that the party had forged an alliance with the BJP ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the AGP insider said. Bora said, We had forged an alliance with the BJP by believing in Modis commitment ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants would be driven out of the country if the BJP is voted to power. Tenuous political ties under fresh strain Assam minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said the AGP was at liberty to sever its ties with the saffron party if it so desired. He said the BJP was ready to face any consequences. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: In a shocking incident, a man was badly thrashed by an angry mob after being dragged out of police vehicle, the video of which went viral on social media in Shamli district of western UP on Tuesday. The victim later succumbed to injuries. However, the incident raised the political tempers in the state as the opposition -- Samajwadi Party and Congress -- condemned the law and order situation and demanded CM Yogi Adityanaths resignation over the issue. The video of the horrific act shows a youngster, who is sitting in the Dial 100 police van and surrounded by cops, being thrashed by an angry mob. He was then pulled out of the vehicle and beaten up mercilessly again. The incident came to light in Hathchoya village in Jhinjhana area where the inebriated victim, identified as Tarashpal, got into a brawl with some local men who started beating him up. In the melee, some villagers informed the cops by ringing at Dial 100 and a police party reached the site of trouble. Despite the presence of cops who had already made Tarashpal sit inside the police van, the angry villagers kept on thrashing him and alter he died due to injuries he had sustained. Tarashpals family members later staged a protest and demanded the arrest of the culprits. Meanwhile, SP, Shamli, Ajay Kumar, claimed that all the cops present on the site of incident were suspended with immediate effect. "We have come to know about the video in which a person is being beaten after being dragged out of police van. All the policemen seen in the video have been suspended for their laxity. A departmental inquiry will also be conducted, Kumar said. He, however, denied that the person died in front of the policemen. There were reports that the person had died in front of the police, but that is not true." Meanwhile, reacting to the incident, the opposition launched a scathing attack on the state government saying that law and order had come down several notches since the BJP government came to power in the state. While State congress spokekamn Anshu Awasthi demanded CMs resignation over the issue, Samajwadi Party called it jungle raj in UP. By Online Desk 'When in doubt, Google it' is the universal mantra we apply to find an answer, whether it's right or wrong. But guess what this Twitter user got when she googled for "bitches near me"? Google Maps results displayed a list of women PGs and girls' schools. Well, if you can't believe it, check out her tweet here. Google, can you explain why this fuckin exists pic.twitter.com/w0eslFoVSz aesthetic potato (@AHappyChipmunk) November 25, 2018 Shocked like all of us, she tagged Google and Google Maps on Twitter, seeking a reply for the disturbing results. Meanwhile, a lot of Twitter users tried out the same search term and were taken aback to see the same outcome. The distressed users took to Twitter to share their results from different locations across the country. Google needs to fix this. Not funny. @GoogleIndia pic.twitter.com/lroLJqiQQb Prasanto K Roy (@prasanto) November 25, 2018 LMFAOOOO this is in Bangalore pic.twitter.com/OYAly5qL5c AV (@ameypv) November 25, 2018 If you're trying to carry out a search right now, you won't be able to see the results as Google finally fixed the glitch. Yes, it doesn't work anymore and we verified it too. Even Twitter user '@AHappyChipmunk' gave a thumbs up on Twitter verifying the same. But why did it happen in the first place? Google's algorithm is squarely to blame. Since 'bitches' is a widely used slang term for women, however misogynistic it is, the search engine picked it up wrongly. It's not the first time Google has showed such worrisome results. Earlier, even Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had tweeted about the issue with Google's algorithm. It's high time the search engine works on its policies and algorithm to avoid such instances in future without waiting for users to flag the issue. By Online Desk After objecting to an illicit affair between his wife and neighbour, a man was brutally murdered by the latter in Gurugrams Sector 83. According to the police, the victim, Vikram Yadav, a resident of Sikanderpur in Sector 85, was attacked with a steel rod multiple times by Ramesh Yadav aka Tinu near a roundabout. According to a complaint filed by Ramesh Kumar, Vikram's elder brother, the accused and Vikram's wife Geeta were involved in an illicit relationship which the brothers objected to. Ramesh Kumar said Tinu asked Vikram to meet him near a chowk on Sunday evening in Sector 83 and smashed his head with a rod several times. "Despite being rushed to a private hospital in Gurugram after which he was rushed to AIIMS Delhi, he succumbed to his injuries," said the brother of the victim The victim, who was a driver with a senior doctor attached to the Haryana Animal Husbandry Department in Gurugram, had married Geeta in 2007 according to the FIR. Police sources revealed that Tinu, who is absconding, is married to a Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher posted outside the city. The victims body was handed over to his family consisting of his wife, brother and two kids late on Monday evening after a post-mortem examination," said the investigating officer. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Reports that Pakistan will 'invite' Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit evoked shrugs and a smile in New Delhi. Addressing a conference on Kashmir in Islamabad Tuesday, Pakistan's foreign office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said Modi would be invited to the annual summit, which has been dead in the water since 2016 after India pulled out following September 18 attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri by four Pakistani terrorists, who killed 19 soldiers before being gunned down. Subsequently Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan also pulled out. Claiming that the inauguration of the Kartarpur Corridor, which would allow Sikh pilgrims visa-free travel to the gurdwara in Pakistan, was a "great success story" for Pakistan, Faisal admitted that -"We fought a war with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly.-" Dr Faisal said. "Unless there has been some back channel decision, it is highly unlikely that Modi will attend," said former foreign secretary Shashank. Noting that the US too is exerting pressure on Pakistan on terror, he said while the other lower level SAARC talks would continue, Modi was unlikely to attend the summit, which is only for the heads of states or governments. "Last time Modi said he was not going. I'd be surprised if he goes this time," concurred former ambassador and Lt Governor of Andamanan and Nicobar islands and Puducherry Nagendra Nath Jha. "SAARC is doomed in any case. That's why we started the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and Bangladesh, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) Initiative," he said. "When the chief minister of Punjab refuses to attend the Kartapur corridor opening in Pakistan citing terror, do you seriously think the Prime minister will attend an event in Pakistan?" asked another official. "Invitations are easy. It is up to our Prime Minister to accept or decline," he smiled. SAARC member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. By PTI LAHORE: Terming Kartarpur as a "corridor of infinite possibilities", Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said Tuesday that such initiative would promote peace and erase "enmity" between India and Pakistan. Sidhu, who arrived here along with a group of Indian journalists to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor in Narowal, some 120 kms from Lahore, was greeted at the Wagah Border by officials of Pakistan's Punjab province. The 4-km-long corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib Narowal in Pakistan. The corridor will provide visa-free access to the Indian Sikh pilgrims to the gurdwara. Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the groundbreaking of the corridor on Wednesday. Sidhu thanked Khan for making this corridor possible which he said will help promote peace between the two countries. "This will erase enmity between the two nations," he said. "The seed Imran Khan had sown three months ago has become a plant. It is a happy moment for the Sikh community that the corridor to reach Kartarpur to get Baba Guru Nanak's blessing without any hassle," he told the media at Wagah. He said the wait of 73 years is over after the opening of the corridor. He termed it as a "corridor of infinite possibilities" and said through such initiatives, peace would be promoted (between the two countries). Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province. It is said that Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years of his life there. The Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara is located on the banks of the Ravi River, about three-four kilometres from the border in Pakistan. On Monday, Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Gurdaspur. By PTI NEW DELHI: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh had a word of advice for incumbent premier Narendra Modi on Monday, saying he should exercise restraint when he visits states not ruled by his party and set an example with his conduct which should be consistent with his obligations as the PM. Singh was speaking at the launch of a book "Fables of Fractured Times" by former union minister Manish Tewari where former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah was also present. "My advice to the prime minister is that he should exercise due restraint becoming of the office of the prime minister," Manmohan Singh said. Asked about his advice to the prime minister at a time when the level of public discourse was falling, especially during elections, Singh said whenever he as prime minister used to go to BJP-ruled states, his relations with chief ministers were "very good". He said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would certify his claim that during the UPA rule, BJP-ruled states were not discriminated against. "The prime minister, when he goes to states which are ruled by parties other than to which he belongs, I think, has an obligation not to use language of the kind which has now become a common practice," he said. "So what I would say is that the prime minister of the country must set an example. He is the prime minister for all citizens of our country and his conduct must be worthy and consistent with that obligation that he/she has as prime minister," he told the gathering. Singh also recalled that he was asked earlier if he would again used the words against Modi that he had said in 2014, and added that he would "not repeat" them. He had reportedly said that it would be a "disaster" for India if Modi became the prime minister. The Congress has been questioning Modi over his aggressive campaigning during assembly elections where he has attacked state leadership of rival parties, saying such conduct does not behove a prime minister. But the BJP has dismissed the criticism, saying the country has got a "talking Prime Minister" and the opposition fears his popularity among the people. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had earlier said that Narendra Modi was "not prime ministerial" in his election campaign as he indulged in "falsification of history and abuse of political rivals". He said Modi should not demand respect but should command respect of people as prime minister. "He is not prime ministerial in his campaign. After all Prime Minister is Prime Minister. Whoever the individual, the position of PM must be respected," Ramesh had said. By PTI MUMBAI: Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan Tuesday accused Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of interpreting the rules of the State Backward Class Commission as per his own convenience in connection with the report on Maratha reservation. The state government and the opposition are at loggerheads over the tabling of the SBCC report on Maratha reservation in the legislature. While the opposition has demanded that the report be tabled in the legislature, the state government is keen to place only the Action Taken Report (ATR) along with the bill to provide reservations to the Maratha community. Speaking to reporters, Chavan said SBCC rules in Marathi specify that the "report" needs to be tabled along with the ATR in the House. However, he added, the English translation of these rules state that the "annual report" and the ATR needs to be tabled. "Fadnavis has conveniently chosen to use this loophole (difference in terminology in the two languages) in the rules for his own benefit. As per the Marathi translation of the rules, the word is 'report' and the state government, therefore, should table the report on Maratha reservations in the House," Chavan told reporters. He said the Bombay High Court's order on November 14, 2014, staying the then Congress-NCP government's decision to provide 16 per cent Maratha quota, had also stressed the need for tabling such reports in the legislature. The High Court, in its order at the time, had observed that the state government had not tabled the reports on Maratha reservation, prepared by the Bapat Committee and the Rane Committee, in the House. "What does the chief minister want to hide by not tabling the report in the legislature? I fear the report could be rejected by the High Court," Chavan claimed. Earlier in the day, Fadnavis rejected the opposition's demand to table the SBCC report on Maratha reservations in the state legislature. "In Section 14 (of SBCC rules) it is stated that the annual report and ATR (Action Taken Report) on recommendations be placed before the House. The government is committed to giving reservation to the Maratha community and we will place ATR before tabling the (Maratha reservation) bill," Fadnavis said Tuesday. On Monday, state Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil had said that the bill for providing reservations to the Maratha community will be introduced in the legislature on November 29. By PTI MUZAFFARPUR: A court here Monday extended the CBI remand of two key aides of Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the shelter home sex scandal, by another four days. Special POCSO judge R P Tiwari extended the CBI remand of Madhu Kumari and Ashwani by four days, though the investigating agency had sought the same for five days. Appearing for Madhu, who was arrested last month after remaining traceless for many months, counsel Priya Ranjan alleged before the court that his client was being subjected to "torture" in the custody of the CBI and opposed the probe agency's request for extending the remand. The court, however, granted the extension while warning the CBI that no torture should take place during questioning. Madhu, who managed many NGOs, newspapers and other businesses of Thakur, was arrested on November 21, a day after she made a dramatic appearance in the district court premises with the claim that she had come to "cooperate" in the investigation since she was miffed over the inconvenience faced by her family members when CBI personnel visited her house to know her whereabouts. She also claimed that contrary to reports, she had been very much in Bihar and was not on the run, pointing out that no warrant had been issued against her till then nor was she named as an accused in any case. Ashwani, a self-styled medical practitioner who was attached to the shelter home as a "doctor", was arrested on November 20 from his village in Kurhani block of the district. Media reports have alleged that inmates of the shelter home were administered injections laced with sedatives by Ashwani, with Madhu's help, before they were sexually abused. The scandal had come to light in a report of social audit conducted by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Thakur and a number of his employees were arrested in June by the police and the probe was handed over to the CBI in July. Two suspended officials of the social welfare department, Ravi Raushan and Rosy Rani, are also in jail in connection with the case. Both are lodged at the Beur Central Jail in Patna. Thakur, who was initially shifted to Bhagalpur in view of the fact that he was a "renowned citizen" and his presence in Muzaffarpur could come in the way of a fair probe, is at present lodged in a jail in Patiala following an order to the effect passed by the Supreme Court. By Express News Service KOLKATA: A Kolkata youth posted a photograph of himself with his face covered with a handkerchief on Snapchat while on board a Mumbai-bound flight. A snooping fellow passenger spotted the words terrorist and destroy in the caption. Yogvedant Poddar | Bibhash Lodh A high drama went on for next one hour at the citys Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. The youth, Yogvedant Poddar, 21, was arrested and questioned while the plane remained grounded before it turned out that all this brouhaha was just over a joke. As the Mumbai-bound Jet Airways flight 9W472, with 160 passengers and seven crew members, was taxing on the runway for take-off at around 8.15 am, Poddar was busy posting his photograph on the multimedia messaging app. Terrorist on board, I destroy womens hearts, he wrote in the accompanying caption. Co-passenger Benjamin Plackett, sitting diagonally behind him, was alarmed when he saw the photo and the words terrorist and destroy. He discreetly informed an air-hostess who alerted the pilot and he, in turn, reported the matter to the ATC, sources said. The flight was immediately brought back to the taxi bay and was surrounded by Central Industrial Security Force personnel. Poddar, a resident of Beliaghata in eastern Kolkata, was made to de-board and was detained for questioning. His luggage was off-loaded and checked, but nothing suspicious found. He was handed ovet to airport police station for further investigation. Poddar told the police that he was going to Mumbai for a job interview and was joking with his friends. The flight finally departed at 9.37 am. How the drama unfolded A Kolkata-Mumbai plane was preparing for take-off when a passenger, Yogvedant Poddar, 21, was seen typing on his phone Terrorist on flight, I destroy women hearts A co-passenger discreetly informed an air-hostess. She alerted the pilot who, in turn, reported the matter to the ATC Poddar was deplaned and arrested. On questioning, he said he was joking about terrorists with his friends on Snapchat Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRINAGAR: Three militants and an army jawan were killed in two separate encounters in south Kashmir on Tuesday, taking the death toll in militancy-related incidents in the strife-torn Valley this month to 44. Two militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba and an army man Prakash Jadhav were killed and two CRPF men injured in the gunfight at Redwani area of south Kashmir's Kulgam district Tuesday. In a separate encounter at Hafoo, Reshipora village of Tral in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, a militant owing allegiance to Zakir Musa-led Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an Al-Qaeda offshoot, was killed. With Tuesday's incidents, the death toll in militancy violence in the Valley this month has gone upto 44. According to data, of the 44 casualties reported this month so far, 32 were militants, eight civilians, three Army men and a paramilitary CRPF man. The militancy-related incidents and casualties have increased since August, when Satya Pal Malik took over as Governor of the State. On August 21, President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Malik as Governor of the State, replacing N N Vohra who had been the Governor for a decade since 2008. According to data, 45 casualties each were reported in August and September while 52 people died in militancy violence in October. "Of the 45 casualties in September, 33 were militants, five civilians, four policemen and three army men. In August, 24 militants, eight policemen, seven army men and six civilians were killed," it states. The data further reveals that of the 52 casualties in October, 28 were militants, 14 civilians, three policemen, two paramilitary personnel and five army men. Prior to appointment of Malik as Governor, only 27 people died in militancy violence in July, 42 in June, and 36 in May. According to data, of 27 casualties in July, eight were civilians, 11 militants, three policemen, four paramilitary personnel and an army man. "In June, 24 militants, six civilians, eight policemen and three army men were killed while in May, 18 militants, 14 civilians, three cops and an army man were killed in militancy related incidents in Kashmir," it further states. A security official said the rise in militant casualties is due to improved intelligence network. "The security men are getting accurate information about militant presence. And this information is leading to specific anti-militancy operations leading to militant casualties," he said. Going by the trend of this year, Kashmir may witness record violence and militancy deaths in 2018. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: Snubbed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati time and again, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Tuesday reiterated his support to the blue brigade in the 2019 Lok sabha election committing to work for making Mayawati the next Prime Minister of the country. In the same vein, Azad exhorted the Congress party to contest the next Lok Sabha election by joining the grand alliance under the leadership of the BSP chief. If you are pro-Dalits in the true sense, fight 2019 Lok Sabha polls under leadership of Mayawatiji and make her the next PM, he said, while speaking to reporters in Ayodhya. The Bhim Army chief said a temple of Gautama Buddha will settle the issue once and for all. He also advocated a name change from Ayodhya to Saket. However, he favoured a Supreme Court decision in the muddled issue saying that its better than creating tension by bringing a law or ordinance. Reacting to Mayawatis repeated criticism for him, Azad said the BSP chief was being misled. She has been misguided against me. I am not going to contest the Lok Sabha elections and my organisation is also not political. Mayawati is a Dalit leader and she should become the next PM, he said, adding that his only aim was to strip the BJP of power. He expressed his readiness to campaign for any candidate of the alliance in western UP if the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BSP joined hands in 2019. Such an alliance will be very strong and the BJP will not be able to face that challenge, claimed Azad. He said that he came to Ayodhya because he had received information that people were migrating from the city following Sundays saffron build-up. On reaching here, I found everything normal with proper law and order and no migration as such, he clarified complimenting the district and police administration for their efforts to keep the peace and harmony intact. Kiran Balannanavar By Express News Service HUBBALLI: Zarina Abubkar Gadkari is quietly practising what most people only preach -- spreading communal harmony. The 25-year-old crafts teacher, who follows the Muslim faith, conducts daily classes on Hindu epics and prayers for her students, many of whom hail from Muslim families, in Old Hubballi area. Zarina, a teacher at Spoorthi Rural Skill Development Training Centre, which provides free training to women in craft-making and sewing, conducts her spirituality class on the premises every evening. She does not charge anything for the lessons, which include Sanskrit verses, songs and stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and hymns on gods such as Ganesha and Hanuman. Hailing from Jamkhandi in Bagalkot district, Zarina started learning devotional songs and shlokas after getting inspired through the Ramayana and Mahabharata serials on television. When she joined the training centre as a craft teacher, she also started singing and teaching them to students. Its a wonderful feeling to recite the shlokas, she says. Sanskrit words never seemed difficult to me while I was learning them, and my family members gave me big moral support, adds Zarina, who performs namaz every day, and also visits the church and reads the Bible. When I go to Bengaluru, I visit St Marys Basilica in Shivaji Nagar. It is one of my favourite places, and my family members also visit it with me, she says, adding that such gestures from her family lend her huge moral support. We live in a country where communal harmony is everything, and each of us must work hard to achieve it, she says Students from various faiths attending the classes by Zarina Abubkar Gadkari. (Photo| D Hemanth/EPS) The number of students in her classes has only increased over time, and they love every minute of it. I have been attending the classes of Zarina madam for over six months and she is a role model for many, says Nasereen Attar, a student. We never faced any restrictions in our homes about attending classes related to Hinduism. In fact, our parents encourage us to learn new things, she adds. Most students hail her as a motivating figure. Her way of teaching and her commitment to religious harmony, besides her reciting of Sanskrit verses, left me stunned, Shynaz Nadaf, another student, says. Its surprising to see Zarina madam perform namaz and as well as have darshan at temples, Shreya M pitches in. Zarinas endeavour is praised by her colleagues too. Her work shows that attachment to a religion is no hindrance to good work. She is a good human being, says Mukthambika Narebol, a co-worker at the institute. Zarina was introduced to the Ramayana and Mahabharata through teleserials by her parents when she was a child. She got interested in reciting the mantras and shlokas when she started teaching at the Spoorthi centre, where daily prayers are conducted. I also practised other verses like the Hanuman Chalisa and Gayatri Mantra. Initially, I faced problems in pronunciation but within 2-3 months I was able to recite them well in Sanskrit, says Zarina, who draws a lot of strength from her family. While her father Abubkar Gadkari is self-employed, her two brothers and two sisters are well-educated too, and her sister-in-law is a lecturer. Zarina feels that the task of uniting people of different faiths has assumed greater significance today. We live in the worlds largest democratic and secular country where all religions exist together. But in recent times, society has seen changes after the social media took the front seat, she says. Greater onus rests on the youth to build a cohesive society, adds Zarina. Several young lives are going waste by getting involved in violence triggered by communal hate. We must also educate women about the ill-effects of religious divide, and bring awareness about nation-building activities, she says, admitting that the task, however, is far from being easy. K Shiva Kumar By Express News Service MANDYA: Braving the evening chill, lakhs of people gathered at Sir M Visvesvaraya stadium in Mandya to pay respects to their Mandyada Gandu. People started to gather at the stadium premises from Sunday itself. The crowd continued to swell, stunning cops and local leaders as more than three lakh people showed up. This forced Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and the actors family members to keep his mortal remains at the stadium till 10 am. A fan blows a conch shell at Kanteerava Studios | Shriram B N Among the fans were people coming from Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Ramanagara and other districts. The crowd led to choc-a-block traffic with thousands of vehicles parked in and around the stadium as well as in narrow bylanes in the area. Emotions ran high at the stadium with fans in tears paying homage to their leader who represented them for more than 20 years. Ambareesh had also enthralled them on the silver screen for more than three decades. While hundreds took pictures of the actors body and some others took selfies that disrupted the flow of the queue. Police had a tough time managing the crowd when people rushed to break barricades that had been put up by police personnel who were brought in from neighbouring districts. Sensing trouble, District Minister C S Puttaraju helped the fans enter the stadium from the gate reserved for VIPs. The fans standing in long queues raised slogans praising their leader even as the authorities made repeated appeals to maintain peace. After keeping the mortal remains at the stadium for more than 18 hours, Ambareeshs wife Sumalatha smeared mud on her husbands forehead as he had a soft spot for his home district. Her act visibly moved many in the crowd. There was silence in the stadium when Ambareeshs son Abhishek went around thanking fans and people of Mandya for their love for his father before the body was airlifted to Bengaluru in a helicopter. With the body of Ambareesh airlifted for cremation, thousands of people proceeded to Kanteerava studio in vehicles and bikes. Traffic towards Bengaluru witnessed a sudden surge with bumper-to-bumper traffic. One more Ambareesh fan kills himself Mysuru: Upset with the death of his favourite actor, another fan of Ambareesh committed suicide by hanging at his house in Maddur. G S Surendra (46), a diehard fan of Ambareesh from Goravanahalli, had gone to Mandya to pay his last respects to the veteran actor. Unable to bear the demise of his leader, he took the extreme step. Surendra had a tattoo of Ambi on his hand. Ambi relished dosas, chutney prepared in a small Hassan eatery Hassan: In Hassan, tributes are pouring in for Ambareesh. Hundreds of fans have been offering pooja to his portraits in Hassan and Channarayapatna. Local residents too recall the Rebel Stars association with the district. Ambareesh relished the crispy dosa prepared in Hassan city, and he would make it a point to always drop in at Venkatesh Dosa Corner in K R Puram. On several occasions, he waited for over half an hour to savour the dosa. Often on his way to Dakshina Kannada for film shooting, he would sit in his car and eat dosa with his friends. He loved the taste of chutney prepared at our shop, recalls Venkatesh, the owner of Venkatesh Dosa Corner. By Express News Service JAGATSINGHPUR: Two armed miscreants looted `1.64 lakh from the manager of a petrol pump at gun-point near Puran Uddapada of Cuttack-Paradip State Highway under Raghunathpur police limits on Monday. They have managed to flee from the spot with the booty. According to police, the manager of Narayani petrol pump, Kailash Chandra Das left office to deposit `1.64 lakh cash in a local bank when the miscreants, who were also on a bike, stopped him. They assaulted him and opened two rounds of fire, while one bullet hit the petrol pump another hit his bike. Later, they snatched cash from him and fled. Later, Das lodged an FIR at Raghunathpur police station following which a case has been. A man hunt has launched to nab the miscreants. Lack of police patrolling on Cuttack-Paradip State Highway is the main cause of rise in snatching cases and dacoities on the state highway. By PTI CHENNAI: The ruling AIADMK Tuesday contributed a sum of Rs one crore towards relief and rehabilitation efforts in the wake of cyclone Gaja. AIADMK Coordinator and Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam handed over a cheque for Rs one crore to Chief Minister K Palaniswami, an official release said. Palaniswami is AIADMK Joint Coordinator. Cyclone Gaja hit the Tamil Nadu coast between Nagapattinam and Vedaranyam on November 16, and left behind a trail of destruction, besides claiming 63 lives. SV Krishna Chaitanya By Express News Service CHENNAI: Dropping another bomb on Tamil Nadu, the Union government has set Karnataka's controversial Mekedatu balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project in motion. The Central Water Commission (CWC) has accepted the pre-feasibility report (PFR) of the project and allowed Cauvery Neeravari Nigam, Bengaluru, to go ahead and prepare the detailed project report (DPR), thereby drawing sharp criticism from the Tamil Nadu government. ALSO READ: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu farmers push for Mekedatu project Reliable sources told the Express that the Mekedatu dam project was being considered by Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) in its meeting scheduled on December 3 before which the Tamil Nadu government is likely to take legal recourse. ALSO READ: Edappadi K Palaniswami says no to HD Kumaraswamy's plan for dam at Mekedatu Before approving the PFR, CWC director N Mukherjee had written to Secretary of CWMA seeking views for which no objections were raised. In the letter, Mukherjee said Mekedatu dam PFR under examination was mainly for implementing the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award as modified by the Supreme Court on February 18, 2018, without any irrigation component, hence Guidelines for Submission, Appraisal and Acceptance of Irrigation and Multipurpose projects, 2017, are not applicable. As per the above said guidelines, copy of the PFR will have to be circulated to the co-basin states by the project authority to get views/observations on the project proposal. However, Syed Masood Husain, chairman of CWC as well as CWMA, has downplayed the controversy and said acceptance of the PFR does not mean clearance for construction of the project has been given. "Approval has been given only for the preparation of DPR, which need to be concurred by the CWMA. Until, DPR is submitted we do not know what is the proposal," he said. G Umapathy, Tamil Nadu counsel in Supreme Court, told the Express that CWC has gone out of the way to aid Karnataka. "Though the project is still in the infancy stage, approval for preparation of DPR should not have been given without holding consultation with lower riparian state (Tamil Nadu). Legal options are being explored," he said. On other hand, Mohan Katarki, Karnataka counsel in Supreme Court, argued that the Mekedatu project falls within the territorial limits of Karnataka and therefore, there were no legal impediments for Karnataka in constructing the project. "Tamil Nadu cannot object to Mekedatu as long as there is no obstruction to the delivery of 177.25 tmc of water at the inter-state border in a normal year," he told Express. Meanwhile, CWC said the Mekedatu project should be approved by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) as it involves generation of 400 MW of power. The total project costs an estimated Rs 5,912 cr. As per the Electricity Act, 2003, and the notification by Ministry of Power, projects costing more than Rs 2,500 crore need to be concurred by CEA. ALSO READ: Tamil Nadu firm on not to allow building of Mekedatu dam S Janakarajan, president of South Asia Consortium of Inter-Disciplinary Water Studies (SaciWATERs), said the Mekedatu project would spell disaster for Tamil Nadu and upkeep of Cauvery river in general. "Cauvery river is already in great distress due to reduced inflow and construction of any hard structure will obstruct the free flow and lead to delta subsidence in Tamil Nadu." By Express News Service CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, in a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took exception to the Union government's permission to the neightbouring Karnataka to prepare a detailed project report for a new dam across Cauvery River at Mekedatu. Palaniswami wrote the letter hours after the news broke about the Central Water Commission (CWC) giving its nod to Karnataka governments Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited for preparing the detailed project report, a crucial step towards building a new dam. ALSO READ: Modi government drops another bomb on Tamil Nadu; gives nod to Karnataka's Mekedatu dam over Cauvery River The chief minister urged prime minister Modi to instruct the CWC to forthwith withdraw the permission given to Karnataka as it is in violation of Cauvery Tribunal final award. He said the action of the Central Water Commission had caused great alarm and apprehension among the people of Tamil Nadu as it would affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers who depend on Cauvery water. Palaniswami also said he was looking forward to an immediate positive reply in this regard. The proposal for reservoir is not just for drinking water alone as claimed by Karnataka, but to increase the extent of irrigation which is in clear violation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal Award as affirmed by the Supreme Court, Palaniswami added. ALSO READ: Edappadi K Palaniswami says no to HD Kumaraswamy's plan for dam at Mekedatu He also pointed out that the Tamil Nadu government had already conveyed its decision to the Government of India that the feasibility report of Karnataka for constructing a Balancing Reservoir at Mekedatu across the river Cauvery was not acceptable and also furnished detailed comments to the feasibility report. Recalling his letter dated September 4 in this regard wherein he had requested to stop forthwith further processing of the feasibility report of the Karnataka government and not to give any consent to any projects in the river Cauvery without obtaining the prior concurrence of Tamil Nadu and other co-basin States, the chief minister said he also had reiterated the same in the memorandum presented to the prime minister on October 8. ALSO READ: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu farmers push for Mekedatu project The chief minister charged that the Central Water Commission, without considering the genuine and justifiable objections of Tamil Nadu, had given permission to Karnataka to prepare the DPR for the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir-cum-Drinking Water Project. S Viswanath By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu is all set to take up election campaign in Telangana along with AICC chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday and Thursday. Some TDP leaders of Andhra Pradesh are uneasy over the development fearing that it might have a negative impact. The TDP chief will spearhead the party poll campaign from Khammam in Telangana on Wednesday. Naidu is likely to address a joint press conference along with Rahul Gandhi and conduct a roadshow in Hyderabad. Some AP TDP leaders say that Naidus joint campaign plan with Rahul Gandhi is not a good idea. They opine that it will be better for the TDP chief to take up his campaign individually instead of sharing the dais with Rahul Gandhi. However, some leaders feel that people have already understood the political situation which necessitated the TDP to align with the Congress in the Assembly elections. Speaking to TNIE, a senior TDP leader says Naidus joint campaign with AICC chief is too early. I dont have exact information about the visit of the party chief to Telangana. I feel that it is better for Naidu to take up campaign on his own for TDP nominees, he said on condition of anonymity. However, other TDP leaders opine that there is nothing wrong in Naidu campaigning along with the AICC chief. When we feel there is nothing wrong in aligning with the Congress, the argument that Naidu sharing the dais with Rahul Gandhi will create a negative impact is nothing but rubbish, a minister observed. Another leader said that after the Congress leadership promised to accord the coveted Special Category Status to AP, the decision of the TDP to align with the Congress is certainly beneficial to the party and the State. By PTI LAHORE: As India Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 carnage, the mastermind of the attack LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi has virtually secured his acquittal and his six accomplices are expecting their exoneration anytime in the near future. The Mumbai attack case in which seven Lashkar-e-Taiba members are facing charges of planning and executing the deadly strike since 2009 is still being dragged on in a Pakistani anti-terror court though the Islamabad High Court in 2015 directed that the case should be wrapped up in two months. Lakhvi walked free from jail in April 2015 after securing a bail from the trial court, while the six others are in jail. After his release, Lakhvi went underground. He has virtually secured his acquittal with the Pakistan government indicating no plan to challenge his bail. ALSO READ | US asks Pakistan to act against 26/11 perpetrators, offers new USD 5 million reward for information on attackers The six others - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - have also "bright chances" of acquittal with their trial witnessing bizarre twists and turns like frequent change of judges and murder of a prosecutor. On November 26, 2008, ten Pakistan-based LeT terrorists carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai. A total of 166 people died and over 300 were wounded in the strikes. Nine of the attackers were killed by police, while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was captured and hanged after a trial in India. In a fresh development, the US Monday announced a USD 5 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of any individual who committed, conspired, aided or abetted the 26/11 attack. Apart from the US, other countries have also asked Pakistan to bring the 26/11 attack perpetrators to justice. There has been a realisation in Pakistan, especially among politicians, that the attacks had demolished all the past efforts to build friendly ties with India. However, there are divergent views on whether punishing the culprits in Pakistan will help restore ties between them. ALSO READ | 26/11 terror attack: The trauma continues, says Moshe's grandfather But like ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, questions are being asked in Pakistan "why trial is not being completed?" When PTI sought a reaction from the Foreign Office on the status of the 26/11 trial, its spokesman Mohammad Faisal just said, "It is sub judice." Pakistani prosecutors are, however, quick to blame India for the delay. Chief prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told PTI the case can be concluded in a week if India sends 24 witnesses to Pakistan for recording of their statements and other evidence. "The Mumbai case will take not more than a week to conclude if India allows Pakistan to examine the boat on which the terrorists travelled to reach Mumbai and also send its witnesses here for recording of their statements," he said. Azhar, who is also Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special prosecutor, further said India will have to cooperate with Pakistan if it wants logical conclusion of the case. "Crime had taken place in Mumbai and onus is on India to provide full evidence to Pakistan. The Indian government has not yet either clearly refused to send its witnesses to Pakistan or allow us to examine the boat there. If it refuses, the benefit will go to the suspects and the case will be over," he said. When asked why the government has not challenged the bail granted to Lakhvi, he said there was no strong evidence against his involvement. Abuzar Peerzada, another prosecutor in the case, said the hearing of the case in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) is being held on a regular basis and the next hearing is on November 28. When asked about any possible time frame for the conclusion of the trial, he said: "No. It is very difficult to give any time frame. As it is not an ordinary trial (involving two countries)." ALSO READ | Datta Padsalgikar first to reveal Pakistan hand in 26/11 attack: Mumbai police official A lawyer associated with the case, requesting anonymity, said: "Since both Pakistan and India's interests are involved in this case. This is more of a political case than a legal one. And a 'political case' has no time limit (for conclusion)." Raja Rizwan Abbasi, a counsel for Lakhvi and six others, was reluctant to talk to PTI when contacted. However, a lawyer close to him said the defence is not filing a bail petition of the six suspects as it is hoping that since enough time has passed they have "bright chances" to secure the acquittal. "The defence lawyers are optimistic about acquittal of their clients. Therefore, they are not moving their bail plea," he said. Azhar, however, is of the view that they may get benefit only if India does not send its witnesses and other evidence. The case is being tried in the ATC since 2009. There has hardly been any case in any ATC in Pakistan that is pending for over nine years. "It appears that the state is not in hurry to decide this case since the matter is related to its arch-rival India," a senior lawyer said. Interestingly, former FIA chief Tariq Khosa too pointed out lingering on the case "far too long". "Dilatory tactics by the defendants, frequent change of trial judges (at least nine times), the assassination of the case prosecutor and retracting from original testimony by some key witnesses have been serious setbacks for the prosecutors," he said. Like many others in Pakistan, Khosa too believes the case "will not be over soon". Earlier in an interview to Dawn, ex-premier Sharif had questioned, "Should Pakistan allow militants/non-state actors to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai?. Why can't we complete the trial?", remarks that got him into trouble. By IANS DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Tuesday ruled that people who have been jailed for more than two years with their appeals pending, cannot contest the December 30 general elections. The order was passed in response to an appeal seeking a stay order on the imprisonment of five opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders: Amanullah Aman, AZM Zahid Hossain, Wadud Bhuiyan, Md Moshiur Rahman and Md Abdul Wahab, reports bdnews24. As per the Constitution, if a person is sentenced to more than two years in prison, he or she will not be able to participate in elections until an Appellate Division rejects or suspends the verdict, according to the court observation. Tuesday's ruling will prevent BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from contesting the upcoming election as she was awarded a 17-year jail term in two graft cases. By AFP LONDON: A British MP on Tuesday claimed Facebook knew about potentially malicious Russian activity in 2014, long before such activity becomes public, during a parliamentary hearing where international lawmakers grilled the company. Damian Collins, head of a parliamentary inquiry into fake news and disinformation, quoted from internal Facebook emails seized from US software company Six4Three under a rarely used parliamentary enforcement procedure. READ| Targeted Facebook ads helped Donald Trump win 2016 US elections Collins quoted from one of the emails, which are part of a US lawsuit, alleging that a Facebook engineer had notified the company in October 2014 that Russian IP addresses were accessing "three billion data points a day" on the network. "If Russian IP addresses were pulling down a huge amount of data from the platform was that reported or was that just kept, as so often seems to be the case, within the family and not talked about," Collins asked Richard Allan, Facebook's Vice President of Policy Solutions. Allan responded saying: "Any information you have seen... is at best partial and at worst potentially misleading". He said the emails were "unverified partial accounts". Facebook has stumbled from one mess to another this year as it grapples with continuing fallout from Russia's use of the platform to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which user data was harnessed in a bid to help candidate Donald Trump, and a huge security breach involving millions of accounts. An investigative piece published last week by The New York Times said Facebook misled the public about what it knew about Russia's election meddling and used a PR firm to spread negative stories about other Silicon Valley companies and thus deflect anger away from itself. Allan was also forced to defend Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, who has refused to appear before the British parliamentary inquiry despite repeated requests to do so. British MPs joined together with fellow lawmakers from the parliaments of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia and Singapore in an unusual move aimed at emphasising international solidarity on the issue. Charlie Angus from Canada's House of Commons told Allan: "While we were playing with our phones and apps, our democratic institutions... seem to have been upended by fratboy billionaires in California". Catherine Morin-Desailly from the French Senate said Facebook's approach to data protection was "a scandal", while Irish lawmaker Eamon Ryan said Facebook allowing third-party access to data was a "fundamental injustice" By IANS ISLAMABAD: Pakistani traffic authorities have for the first time in the country's history, issued a driving licence to a transgender woman, a media report said on Tuesday. The Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) on Monday issued Laila Ali her license on the special directives of Islamabad's police chief who said that she had been driving without a licence for a decade, reports Dawn news. Ali told Dawn that she spoke to the police chief and informed him of the issues and problems faced by the transgender community in Islamabad, including victimisation by the police. By PTI TUNIS: Hundreds of Tunisian protesters marched through the capital Tunis in opposition to a planned visit Tuesday by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, urging justice over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The demonstrators shouted "Go away assassin!" and held placards with slogans including "The people want Bin Salman to be judged", "No to the killer of Yemeni children" and "You're not welcome". It was the second protest in as many days against the de facto Saudi ruler, who was expected to fly into Tunis from Egypt on Tuesday for talks with President Beji Caid Essebsi as part of a regional tour. ALSO READ | Saudi prince ordered journalist Jamal Khashoggi killing: US intel It comes as Khashoggi's murder leads to increased scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's devastating war. "It's inhuman to see an Arab leader killing his brothers in Yemen, and the murder of a journalist is the icing on the cake," said Basma Rezgui, a teacher brandishing a red-stained saw. Saudi Arabia has faced intense global criticism over the killing of insider-turned-critic Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate on October 2. He was reportedly dismembered in what Saudi Arabia said was a "rogue" operation, but CIA analysis leaked to the US media pointed the finger at Prince Mohammed. His visit will be the first by a Saudi royal to Tunisia since the 2011 revolution deposed longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia. ALSO READ | No 'final conclusion' on Jamal Khashoggi murder: US The Saudi crown prince has also held talks in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt on his first foreign tour since the Khashoggi affair erupted. In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised the "unshakable strategic alliance between Egypt and Saudi Arabia" during Prince Mohammed's visit there, the state daily Al-Ahram reported Tuesday. "The stability and security of Saudi Arabia is an integral part of Egypt's security," Sisi was quoted as saying. By PTI BEIJING: A group of Chinese importers is visiting India as part of New Delhi's efforts to promote Indian grapes in China and tap the country's huge market. Export of Indian grapes to China almost doubled from USD 3.5 million in 2016 to USD 6.7 million last year. However, this is just one per cent of total grapes imports in China of around USD 630 million and two per cent of India's total exports of the fruit of USD 300 million, an Indian Embassy statement said on Tuesday. In order to tap this huge market, Indian embassy in Beijing and its consulates in Guangzhou and Shanghai have taken up steps to promote Indian Grapes in China, which include organising a buyer-seller meet with support from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), an agency under the Government of India's Department of Commerce, in Mumbai. "Around 23 importers from China and over 100 Indian exporters participated in the Buyer Seller Meet which also laid an exhibition of products by the exporters," the statement said. The APEDA will also take the Chinese exporters to Nashik, also known as grapes capital of India, contributing almost half of India's grapes export. The agriculture produce trade between India and China has witnessed a renewed focus with Chinese authorises clearing access to Indian Non-Basmati Rice in June and Rape seed meal in September, it said. Following the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, India and China are exploring opportunities to step up Indian exports to China to address over USD 51 billion trade deficit. Two Chinese teams will be visiting India next month for inspection of pomegranate and soya bean meals. It is expected that these two products will be cleared for imports from India to China by the Chinese authorities at the earliest, it said. India has also pitched for access to various other products like soya bean, okra, banana, sapota, papaya, maize, sorghum etc. The Indian embassy along with other government agencies have organised promotional events for various products like rice, sugar, oil meals, tea during the past few months which has helped in establishing contacts between Indian exporters and Chinese importers. Recently, during a bilateral meeting with China's Vice Minister of MOFCOM Wang Shouwen, Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan emphasised that India can emerge as a major source for many of the agriculture products needs for China, the release said. By PTI TIJUANA: Mexico deported scores of Central American migrants arrested after hundreds forced their way through a Mexican police blockade and headed for the United States but were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Around 500 men, women and children, part of a caravan of roughly 5,000 mainly Hondurans who have been trekking toward the US for weeks, scrambled over a rusted metal fence and surged into a concrete riverbed toward San Diego on Sunday. The group was stopped by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire and US Border Patrol agents firing tear gas and rubber bullets. At least one man was wounded. Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott told CNN that "numerous" migrants -- mainly men -- had made it across, however, and 42 of them were arrested. Mexico's National Institute of Migration Commissioner Gerardo Garcia confirmed the 98 arrests on his country's side, saying there were "instigators" in the migrant caravan pushing people to illegally cross the border. The incident was the most serious flashpoint in a weeks-long crisis that US President Donald Trump used to drum up support in this month's midterm elections. Trump hit out again by threatening a permanent closure of the frontier, and defended the use of tear gas by US border patrol, saying it was "very safe." ALSO READ | Donald Trump strongly defends use of tear gas on caravan migrants "They had to use (it) because they were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas and here's the bottom line: nobody's coming into our country unless they come in legally," Trump told reporters. "The tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself. It's very safe," he later added. Mexico sent a diplomatic note requesting that US authorities "conduct a thorough investigation of the events during which non-lethal US weapons were used in Mexico. " Trump also claimed, without providing evidence, that some people at the border he dubbed "grabbers" clutch unrelated children to make it safer for themselves and increase their chances of getting into the US. The mayor of Tijuana has declared a humanitarian crisis in his border city and says that he has asked the United Nations for aid to deal with the approximately 5,000 Central American migrants who have arrived in the city. (Photo | AP) "They grab a child because they think they'll have a certain status by having a child. You know, you have certain advantages in terms of our crazy laws that frankly Congress should be changing," he said. Most of the migrants stumbled back into camp in the northwestern Mexican city of Tijuana, dirty, scared and with ripped clothes. "We're here with broken hearts and hopes," said Andy Colon, a 20-year-old woman who traveled from Honduras with her sister and two children. "We were deluded into believing that we had already reached the United States, and that they would grant us asylum," Colon told AFP. The San Ysidro border post across from Tijuana -- the busiest crossing on the US-Mexico border -- was closed to traffic and pedestrians for several hours following the incident. Trump, who for weeks has been condemning the caravan, lashed out once more. ALSO READ | Donald Trump strongly defends use of tear gas on caravan migrants "Mexico should move the flag waving migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries," he tweeted. "Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" Trump said, referring to his central election pledge to build a wall across the US-Mexico border. Many of the migrants say they are fleeing violence and poverty in Honduras in search of asylum north of the border. Around 1,000 migrants, including women and young children, had been holding a peaceful midday demonstration in Tijuana when half of the group bolted toward the border. The sudden rush overwhelmed the Mexican police, who were deployed with full riot gear. Several hundred made it over the first barrier, with video clips posted on Twitter showing crowds of people dashing across a shallow concrete riverbed toward the United States. When they neared the second fence, US border agents fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them as helicopters buzzed overhead. A Honduran migrant converses with U.S border agents on the other side of razor wire after they fired tear gas at migrants pressuring to cross into the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 25. (Photo | AP) People covered their faces to protect themselves from the acrid gas, as mothers clutched their young children and fled back to Mexico for safety. "We were told that if we crossed (the first barrier) they would give us asylum, because we were already in the United States," said Flor Jimenez, a 32-year-old Honduran woman who was among those who turned back along with her husband, sister and young daughter. "But now it seems that they want to kill us, and we got very scared." US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen accused the migrants of seeking to harm US border patrol personnel "by throwing projectiles at them. " But one Honduran man, who did not give his name, told AFP that American officers had "got upset because we were close to the border." ALSO READ | Migrants defy Trump at Mexico border as US forces flex muscle "The alarm went off and they began throwing tear gas at us. A lot of people started to go down. A person got hit and lots of kids fainted. So some people got rocks and threw them because many kids were fainting," he said. Another Honduran who gave his name as Wilmer said "they started throwing tear gas and they hit a journalist in the head." A third man, who requested anonymity, showed AFP what he described as injuries from rubber bullets. He had two fresh round bruises in his abdomen. Trump has deployed nearly 6,000 troops to the border, on top of more than 2,000 members of the National Guard, but Scott said the Department of Defense was not involved in Sunday's engagement. To enter the US legally, migrants must apply for asylum, but the wait for those requests to be processed can last up to a year. By PTI COLOMBO: A senior Sri Lankan lawmaker Tuesday urged Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to direct the media not to refer controversially appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime as the lawful government of the island nation. Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the main Muslim minority party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, urged Speaker Jayasuriya that "the print and electronic media are continuing to recognise MP Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. Please issue an order that the media should not give recognition to an illegal government". Jayasuriya has officially conveyed that the House does not recognise Rajapaksa as the legal prime minister until he proved his majority in the House. The island nation is witnessing a political crisis since President Maithripapala Sirisena's controversial move to sack prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and install Rajapaksa in his place on October 26. Sirisena later dissolved Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and ordered snap election. The Supreme Court overturned Sirisena's decision to dissolve Parliament and halted the preparations for snap polls. Both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa claim to be the prime ministers. Wickremesinghe says his dismissal is invalid because he still holds a majority in the 225-member Parliament. Rajapaksa's government continued to boycott the assembly sessions for the second consecutive day Tuesday. Nimal Siripala de Silva, a minister in the disputed government, has said that the government would not recognise Jayasuriya as the assembly speaker. "He says there is no government, no prime minister then how can the parliament function," Silva said. Sirisena's subsequent order to sack parliament in order to hold a snap election on 5 January 2019has been temporarily stayed by the Supreme Court. The final ruling is to be issued early next month. As many as 122 parliamentarians of Wickremesinghe's United National Party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance last Friday filed a petition in the Court of Appeal challenging Rajapaksa's authority as the prime minister. Chief Justice Nalin Perera appointed a seven-judge bench which decided to take up the petition for consideration on November 30 and December 03. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for Buenos Aires, Argentina for the 10th G-20 summit on Wednesday evening, and returns to New Delhi late evening December 2. Apart from the actual summit of the grouping, which comprises 19 countries and the EU, Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings with several world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron. Noting that Modi would be "on the ground" in Buenos Aires for just 48 hours, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters in New Delhi Tuesday evening that apart from the multilateral meetings, there would be a few bilateral meetings on the margins of the summit. The actual summit comprises the leaders retreat and three main sessions, and Modi will make the lead intervention in the first session, 'Putting People First' and subsidiary interventions in the other two sessions on "building consensus" and 'Embracing Opportunities.' The prime minister was likely to dwell on the flagship programs of his government, like the Jan Dhan Yojana, the Mudra scheme, Aadhar, Ayushman Bharat, and open up the International Solar Alliance to countries beyond the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Other issues which would be raised include the risks posed by oil price volatility, which has impacted India, and combating terror financing and money laundering, strengthening the WTO, 'reformed multilateralism,' and 'disaster resilient infrastructure," aimed at ensuring that disasters are addressed not just with aid, but with infrastructure capable of withstanding a similar disaster later. Asked about the agenda of the Modi-Xi's visit, Gokhale noted that the meeting will be fourth between the two leaders in last seven months. "It was decided in (the) Wuhan (Summit between Modi and Xi) that they would take the opportunity whenever and wherever they could meet. They could discuss issues on either leader's mind or issues of mutual concern," Gokhale said. Modi will also meet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, host Argentina's president Mauricio Macri, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, He will also meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the prime ministers of Spain, Jamaica, the Netherlands and the president of European Union and European Council, and probably French President Emmanuel Macron. On Tuesday, Arunachal East MP Ninong Ering wrote a letter to Modi urging him to raise issues like stapled visas and a water treaty over the Siang-Brahmaputra river during his meeting with Xi. Noting that the relationship between India and China is very critical from Arunachal Pradesh's viewpoint since it has an international border with China, he said that "the issue of China providing stapled visas to people from our Arunachal Pradesh is not new and must be brought to their attention tactfully. The Government of India must assert the territorial integrity of India and convey the feelings of Arunachal Pradesh people in a firm manner." Noting that "at many instances in recent time, Chinese troops have tried to enter into Arunachal Pradesh and build roads, recently in Bising village of Tuting subdivision", he said Modi "must protest against such incidents" and ask China to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India for a peaceful co-existence, as envisaged in historical Panchsheel agreement. "A few months back, the holy Siang river which is the lifeline of our state turned black due to ill-intent projects and diversion of waters of Brahmaputra river by the Chinese authorities," he added, and suggested that the government must focus on negotiating a water treaty with China for the sustainable development of the region. "It will help the north-eastern States of India to have their natural right of clean and continuous water," he added, hoping that Modi would "stand up to the hopes and aspirations of people from Arunachal Pradesh". Champaign, IL (61820) Today Rain likely. Low 39F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain likely. Low 39F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Financial Secretary Paul Chan will depart for Buenos Aires on November 28 to attend the Group of Twenty Leaders' Summit, scheduled for November 30 and December 1. Mr Chan will take part in the summit as part of the People's Republic of China delegation. The Leaders' Summit is the G20s most important annual event and provides a forum for leaders of the world's major economies to discuss areas for co-operation. On the margins of the summit, Mr Chan will meet other attendees. During his absence, Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury James Lau will act as Financial Secretary. NASA Rocket Is Now On Its Way to Dimorphos (Newser) Researchers studying the songs of humpback whales have discovered a quirk of the undersea music: The whales sing the same song for a few years, adding individual embellishments and making it increasingly complex all the while. And then, poof, they switch to a simpler tune and start the cycle over again. In fact, lead researcher Jenny Allen of the University of Queensland refers to this switch as a "cultural revolution" in a UQ news release. So why the abrupt change to a new tune? One theory is that the songs become so complex that the whales reach their limit of being able to learn new material, according to the study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. story continues below The researchers studied 412 song cycles from 95 singing whales over 13 years, per Science. While the whales generally sing the same song, the researchers found that individuals add their own touches, perhaps to help them stand out. (Only the males sing.) Another part of the pattern: Whale populations sometimes pick up a new tune from a different populationsuch as when eastern Australian humpbacks meet their western counterparts at a common feeding ground. Smithsonian likens this to a game of whale "telephone." But the same pattern follows: The songs begin simple and grow more complex until they're ditched altogether for a new one. (A beached whale provided unfortunate proof of plastic pollution in the sea.) (Newser) A French-American man has given up his attempt to be the first to swim across the Pacific Ocean after a storm broke the mainsail of his support ship, organizers said Monday. Ben Lecomte, who had completed about 1,500 nautical miles of the more than 5,000-mile journey, called the premature end to the swim a deep disappointment, reports the AP. "We've faced treacherous winds, rain, and ocean swells that have forced us to alter our course, and the irreparable damage to the sail is an insurmountable blow," he said in a news release. The announcement was made by Seeker, a San Francisco-based online science publisher that partnered with Lecomte and has been documenting his attempt. story continues below Lecomte, of Austin, Texas, set out on June 5 from Japan's Pacific coast and was swimming an average of eight hours a day. Violent storms had already forced him to interrupt the swim after 500 nautical miles and return to Japan in late July. The mainsail broke on Nov. 10. The damaged ship and Lecomte are slowly making their way to Hawaii. They are collecting data on plastic pollution in the ocean, one of the scientific aims of the swim. In a June profile, the BBC reported the 51-year-old swam across the Atlantic 20 years ago, managing 4,000 miles in 73 days. When he reached France's shores, his first words were reportedly "never again." (Read more about his preparations here.) (Newser) With the trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman underway, all eyes north and south of the border are on the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel leader. Well, maybe not all eyes. Per the New York Post, someone may have spotted El Chapo's beauty queen wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, with some contraband in the Brooklyn courtroom where Guzman is accused of heading up a bloodthirsty cocaine smuggling operation, per the AP. The Post reports that prosecutors informed the court that Aispuro was seen with a cellphone and asked that she be passed through metal detectors a second time on Monday. Like all members of the public and media, 29-year-old Aispuro has been expected to leave her electronics with security before entering the courtroom. (She's been in the courtroom every day since the trial began, but the two reportedly have not been allowed to hug.) (Newser) A New York state priest allegedly sexually assaulted a teen in the 1980s while holding a gun to his head, according to a complaint filed with a fund set up by the Buffalo diocese to compensate sexual abuse victims. The Buffalo News reports that Rev. Michael R. Freeman was serving over the state line in Lancaster, Pa., when he used the firearm to force the boy to engage in non-consensual sexual contact. The victim, now 49, says that Freeman was a former military chaplain who routinely carried a .38-caliber revolver. "And if the child would not participate willingly in Freemans sexual abuse, Freeman would jokingly threaten him with the revolver," says the victim's lawyer. "He always carried it concealed. And several times, Freeman put the gun to the boys head." story continues below Further, says the victim's lawyer, "Freeman would have this child perform oral sex on him and then absolve him of the sin afterwards." The alleged abuse, which went on for a number of years in the mid-1980s, occurred after the diocese had received reports of Freeman abusing other children, notes the Democrat and Chronicle. "They knew, and they just turned a blind eye," says a man who claims Freeman molested him in 1980. "What kills me is he abused people after I reported it. I think that bothers me more than anything." Freeman died in 2010. (Similar victims funds have been set up in Pennsylvania, where Freeman was mentioned in a grand jury report in August.) (Newser) The Robert Mueller investigation just lost an important witnessand Paul Manafort may have lost additional years of freedom. In a court filing Monday, the special counsel's team said President Trump's former campaign chairman had violated a plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators. The team said Manafort had "committed federal crimes" by lying about "a variety of subject matters" after he had pledged to cooperate "fully and truthfully" with investigators, the AP reports. The filing suggests Mueller's team doesn't consider Manafort a credible witnessand in any case, after publicly calling him a liar, "they could hardly call him to testify," the New York Times notes. story continues below The court filing stated that "the nature of the defendants crimes and lies" will be outlined in a sentencing submission from the government, the Washington Post reports. Manafort's lawyers say he "believes he provided truthful information" to Mueller's investigators. Manafort, currently being held in solitary confinement in a Virginia detention center, cannot withdraw his guilty plea under the terms of the deal, though he can now be prosecuted for additional crimesincluding the 10 felony charges that were dropped when he made the agreement. Prosecutors had also agreed to ask for a reduction of his sentence if he provided "substantial assistance." Manafort is expected to be sentenced to at least 10 years for crimes including conspiracy to obstruct justice. (Manafort looked very different at a hearing last month.) (Newser) Witnesses say a driver tried to run down pedestrians outside a Los Angeles synagogue Friday nightand then did a U-turn for a second attempt at running them over. Security camera footage shows the vehicle plowing across traffic after the attack, hitting two vehicles. Mohamed Mohamed Abdi, a US citizen originally from Somalia, was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, CBS Los Angeles reports. Police say they are investigating reports that the 32-year-old was shouting anti-Semitic abuse at people near the intersection where the attack took place, which has two synagogues. A knife was found in the rented car Abdi was driving, police say. story continues below The Los Angeles Police Department says the FBI and other agencies have been called in to help investigate the incident, which is being treated as a potential hate crime, ABC 7 reports. LAPD Deputy Chief Horace Frank says the two men Abdi targeted escaped injury by hiding behind an electric box and a traffic light, KTLA reports. The Los Angeles Times reports that investigators are now looking into Abdi's background. Frank says he moved to Seattle from Mogadishu a few years ago and drove to Los Angeles a few days before the attack. He says the suspect's "very concerning actions" strongly resemble those used in recent terror attacks. (Last week, a passenger was arrested after saying he wanted to "identify all the Jews" on a flight to Atlanta.) (Newser) Mohammed bin Salman has a very good reason to skip the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week. Should he arrive as planned on Friday, Argentine prosecutors are considering charging Saudi Arabia's crown prince with war crimes and torture related to mass civilian casualties in military operations in Yemen, as well as the Oct. 2 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, reports the Guardian. Human Rights Watch has argued the universal jurisdiction statute in Argentine law should be used to prosecute the crown prince, in a request received by federal prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez. He must now decide if the constitutional definition of universal jurisdictionwhich generally allows states to claim authority over crimes committed elsewhereapplies. story continues below It's not an easy question; the UN has been debating the definition of universal jurisdiction since 2009, with Argentina's delegate recently acknowledging the risk of politically motivated attacks. HRW notes "indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes on civilians and civilian objects" by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen "indicate possible war crimes if carried out with criminal intent." The group also mentions a blockade that's left the country of 28 million on the brink of famine. The crown prince's trip to Buenos Aires "could make the Argentine courts an avenue of redress for victims of abuses unable to seek justice in Yemen or Saudi Arabia," its executive director adds. Still, the crown prince remained confirmed to attend the G20 as of Monday, with local media describing a case against him as unlikely, per Reuters. (President Trump has defended him.) (Newser) The Kremlin has warned that martial law that is to go into effect in parts of Ukraine on Wednesday might lead to an escalation in the rebel-held east. Ukraine late on Monday adopted a bill that introduces martial law in several regions, including those bordering the separatist-held areas, the AP reports. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Tuesday that martial law might trigger a flare-up in hostilities in the east. Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014 but the hostilities have largely subsided since a truce was signed in 2015. story continues below Ukraine's parliament voted to impose martial law for 30 days starting Wednesday morning in 10 of Ukraine's 27 regions to fight what President Petro Poroshenko called "growing aggression" from Moscow. The move followed a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. Poroshenko said it was necessary because of intelligence about "a highly serious threat of a ground operation against Ukraine." He did not elaborate. "Martial law doesn't mean declaring a war," he said. "It is introduced with the sole purpose of boosting Ukraine's defense in the light of a growing aggression from Russia." (Read more Ukraine stories.) (Newser) Police believe three generations of a family were murdered, possibly by one of its members, in a rare mass killing in Japan. Police say six people, five of them from the same family, were found dead in and around a farmhouse in the mountain town of Takachiho, which is a popular tourist destination on Kyushu island, the Guardian reports. The body of a seventh person, who had jumped or fallen from a nearby bridge, was discovered later, reports the AP. Police say the victims include 72-year-old farmer Yasuo Iihoshi, his wife, 66-year-old Mihoko Iihoshi, and Yui, their 7-year-old granddaughter. story continues below The other victims have been named as the elderly couple's 21-year-old grandson Takumi, their daughter-in-law Mikiko, 41, and 44-year-old Fumiaki Matsuoka, a friend of the family, CNN reports. Police say they discovered the bodies after receiving a call from a worried relative who had been unable to contact the family. Police sources say all six victims were stabbed. The body found near the bridge is that of the couple's son, Masahiro Iihoshi, who had apparently driven there in the family car. Sources tell the Asahi Shimbun that that Matsuoka had been visiting the family to help them deal with domestic problems involving Masahiro. (In 2016, a man fatally stabbed 19 people at a center for the disabled in Japan's deadliest mass killing since World War II.) (Newser) Susie Rabaca needs a "perfect" match. That's what the Southern California mother of three, who is pregnant with twins, is desperately seeking in her quest to find a bone marrow donor, People reports. Rabaca, who's due to give birth Dec. 6, has acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive cancer that starts in the bone marrow and can spread rapidly to the blood and other parts of the body. Rabaca discovered she had leukemia when she wasn't feeling well earlier in her pregnancy and went to the doctor, she tells WABC. Because the cancer is so severe, however, a 100% bone marrow match is neededa fact complicated by Rabaca's genetic makeup (she's half Caucasian, half Latino). story continues below "For a blood stem cell transplant to work, you need to find a match who has similar DNA and ancestry to you," says a rep from the Be a Match marrow donor program, adding that even with 30 million people on the global marrow registry, not one syncs up with Rabaca. Even her own sister was only a 50% match. Rabaca and her family have been racing against the clock, promoting the registry on social media and imploring people to sign up. ABC7 says nearly 40,000 people have registered since it aired Rabaca's story on Thursdaya record-breaking number. "It's a simple swab of your cheek. If you are my match, then it's a simple blood draw. You can save my life," she says. In the meantime, Rabaca tells FOX 11 her family is keeping her strong. "My 4-year-old, she just holds my hand, grabs my bald head she's my little rock," she says. (This mom wouldn't treat her brain tumor until she gave birth.) (Newser) The US military says three American service members have been killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province. Three other service members were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on Tuesday near the city of Ghazni, the provincial capital, per the AP. One American contractor was also wounded. The identities of the American casualties were not provided, pending notification of their families. story continues below Lt. Ubon Mendie, a spokesman for the US forces, says the wounded service members and contractor were evacuated and are receiving medical care. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Taliban have an extremely active presence in Ghazni province and attempted to take over the capital in August. Ghazni was the only province that didn't hold parliamentary election in October. (Earlier this month, a Utah mayor was killed in Afghanistan.) (Newser) Amitabh Bachchan, one of the highest paid actors in Bollywood, briefly mentioned his desire to help farmers after one appeared as a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which he hosts. And boy, did he follow through. The actor, who's appeared in some 200 films (including Hollywood titles like 2013's The Great Gatsby), has cleared more than $560,000 worth of debt owed by Indian farmers, thousands of whom are struggling amid crop damage from monsoons, rising fuel costs, and a lack of state support, per CNN. story continues below "Gratitude leans across to the desire of removing some of the burdens that farmers continue to suffer from," Bachchan wrote in a blog post last week, noting he'd "taken care of" the debt of 1,398 farmers in his native state of Uttar Pradesh. Bachchan previously told Who Wants to Be a Millionaire viewers that he helped cover loans owed by some 360 farmers in Maharashtra state, per the BBC and CNN. "I do not want to boast about myself" but "I would urge people to understand the plight of our [farmers]" who lack "even having basic necessities," he said. (Another one of Bollywood's highest-paid actors was sentenced to five years in prison earlier this year.) (Newser) It looks like the man accused of deliberately ramming his car into a crowd of people in Charlottesville will try to sway jurors with a self-defense strategy. Lawyers for James Fields suggested as much Monday as jury selection got underway in the closely watched murder trial in Virginia, reports C-ville. For one thing, attorney John Hill asked potential jurors their views on whether violence could be justified in cases of self-defense, reports the Daily Progress, which notes that University of North Carolina professor Dwayne Dixon is on the witness list. Dixon is affiliated with the Antifa movement, and he has publicly talked about seeing Fields on the block he was patrolling shortly before the crash. story continues below In a speech at Harvard, Dixon said Fields "paused right in front of me, and I waved him off with my rifle," per IndyWeek. Far-right conspiracy theorists have used Dixon's comments to make the case that Fields was fleeing when he drove into the crowd, per the Daily Progress. Prosecutors plans to show jurors video showing that Fields backed up, then accelerated into the counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Also on the witness list: an officer, one who normally worked as a school resource officer, who left her position before the crash because she feared for her personal safety. The trial is expected to last three weeks, though jury selection could take days. (Read more James Alex Fields Jr. stories.) (Newser) India is giving up attempts to recover John Allen Chau's body from the remote island where the US missionary was killed by tribespeople, at least temporarily. Government officials, including those within law enforcement and tribal welfare, agreed Monday to put the plan on hold to avoid disturbing the protected Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island, reports the BBC. A government official adds that a boat was dispatched Tuesday morning "only to check the situation." No contact has been made with the tribe, which resists outsiders, since the 26-year-old Chau is believed to have died after reaching the island on Nov. 16, per CNN. Fishermen who dropped him off believe they saw his body a day later. story continues below "We know the general direction of where it was taken, but we still don't know where exactly it is," the official tells the BBC, referring to the body's recovery as "too risky." Survival International said the recovery would be "incredibly dangerous," noting the risk of disease for the islanders and past incidents that resulted in them using force in a bid to defend their home, reports the Guardian. Still, evidence may need to be collected before Chau's death certificate can be issued. (The bodies of two fishermen killed on the island in 2006 have not been recovered.) (Newser) After more than two decades of marriage and more than three decades together, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower are splitting up. "Grace and I have two beautiful children together. We are entering a period of transition in our relationship which is a difficult but constructive process," De Niro says in a statement to USA Today. "I honor Grace as a wonderful mother and ask for privacy and respect from all as we proceed to develop our roles as partners in parenting." There had been rumors the two were separating, HuffPost reports. The couple met in 1987 when Hightower, now 63, was a waitress at a London restaurant where De Niro, now 75, dined. They wed in 1997; De Niro previously filed for divorce in 1999, but it was never finalized and they renewed their vows five years later. Their children are Elliot, 20, and Helen Grace, 6. (Their youngest was born via surrogate.) (Newser) President Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to express his displeasure with GM's planned 14,000 layoffs and five plant shutterings; National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow did the same thing from the White House. In afternoon tweets, Trump issued a sort of threat, writing, "Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The US saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including ... for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) - don't think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America's Workers!" story continues below The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports those tweets came "moments" after Kudlow departed the White House Briefing Room, where he had said much the same thing: "We're going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others." GM Kudlow characterized the administration's reaction as "a tremendous amount of disappointment maybe even spilling over into anger," reports the AP. Kudlow met with Barra Monday, and on Tuesday told reporters, "The president is very cross with her and of course I transmitted that." He added the sense was that GM "kind of turned" its back on the president in making its move. (There's a surprise among GM's six discontinued cars.) His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday launched the AB-4 pipeline at an event at Shaikh Isa Air Base, held to celebrate over 70 years of energy co-operation between the Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. His Royal Highness Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabias Crown Prince, Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Defence, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, and a number of senior Bahraini and Saudi officials attended the ceremony. During the launch, His Majesty the King highlighted the strength of relations between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, underpinned by deep centuries-old historic ties, common destiny and strong kingship bonds between the two brotherly countries and peoples. His Majesty King Hamad highlighted the Kingdoms commitment to further enhancing bilateral cooperation across all sectors, an effort which continues to see support from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. His Majesty the King noted that the launch of the AB-4 pipeline project is a vital economic milestone in the longstanding relations between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, adding that it will form the nexus for further integrated projects between the two kingdoms. The Cabinet chaired by His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa hailed the high implementation rates of the national projects included in the Government Action Plan 2015-2018, which exceeded 90 per cent. A presentation by the Cabinet Affairs Minister on the progress of the implementation of the main themes of the Government Action Plan 2015- 2018, revealed that a total 321 projects, related to the basic services provided to citizens in the housing, educational, health and youth sectors, as well as in infrastructure, such as roads, had been fully implemented by 35 ministries and government departments, and that the remaining ones will be completed soon. The report showed that the government had succeeded in honouring its pledges in the various themes and priorities. In housing, the government pledged to build 25,000 units, and has already distributed 17,639 units, the minister said, adding that 3,095 housing units are being built and 5,043 ones are being prepared so as to be handed over to beneficiaries soon. Regarding education, the government has completed the construction of six schools, and three others are being built. As far as health is concerned, the government has built three health centres and six specialised health centres, the minister said, noting that two hospital are being constructed. Concerning youth, the government has already inaugurated two model youth centres, and is preparing other youth facilities. The report also highlighted the governments success in attracting investments in development projects in government holding companies and private sector investments in urban development, as well as in stimulating tourism and industry in Bahrain and attracting investments to them. The 25th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) officially began yesterday with a stimulating IIFM (International Islamic Financial Market) Awareness Seminar that covered a broad spectrum of issues, focusing on entrenching transparency in advancing sustainable growth in the Islamic Financial Market. Held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the conference was attended by nearly 300 delegates from across the world. Speaking on the occasion, Khalid Hamad Abdulrahman Hamad, Executive Director of Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Bahrain and Chairman of IIFM, highlighted IIFMs threeyear strategic plan (2017 2020) and its new initiatives being undertaken in collaboration with other international bodies. The two Participation Agreements for Islamic Trade Finance will be launched soon jointly with Washington based Bankers Association of Finance and Trade (BAFT) as well as the master agreements for gold trading being considered with UK-based World Gold Council and London Bullion Market Association. His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday held talks on the solid, longstanding and fraternal relations. The meeting, attended by HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister also covered co-operation and co-ordination on various topics. HM the King stressed that the robust and growing relations between the two kingdoms are based on strong foundations of fruitful cooperation and brotherly ties supported by the consensus between them and their common will to move ties to a broader perspective at various levels HM the King highlighted that Bahrains solidarity with Saudi Arabia has always been a constant choice that stems from the full faith in their common destiny and the belief that this brotherly cohesion is the path to the security and stability of the two countries, the prosperity and prosperity of their peoples, the enhancement of their development gains and the improvement of their ability to face various challenges. A Non-governmental organization, Known as Door to Door Campaign for Buhari/Ganduje 2019 on Tuesday in Kano urged President Muhammadu Buhari to respect the open invitation by honoring the presidential debate against the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alh. Atiku Abubakar, coming up 19th January 2019, organized by Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON).The National Chairman of the campaign organization Engr. Atiku Ahmad Dongurawa, who spoke to reporters, said that president Buharis credential speaks volume of his laudable achievements in many areas of human endeavours, to stand any public debate with opposition parties.Engr. Ahmad who is also a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) said the presidents tremendous accomplishments in the diversification of economy, agriculture, security, infrastructural development, power generation and the most celebrated war against corruption in Nigeria stood tall and above the 16 years records of PDPs administration, adding that there was no basis for comparism between Buhari and Atiku.According to him, There is no reason why president Buhari should shy away from the presidential debate looking at the period when the government came to power, there are so many projects and programs that were executed by this government, even the Nigerian citizens, will bear witness. Also there is no justification that will hinder president Buhari coming out for the debate, because the president has many things to tell Nigerians that will convince the electorate to re-elect this government back to power.Engr. Ahmad explained that the campaign organization was established to promote the good works of APC governments at all levels and use same to educate, enlightening and mobilize the public towards renewing the APC mandates come 2019 general elections.This organization wants to stress the needs for the upcoming campaigns to be issued based. Our strategies from the National, state, zonal to ward and polling unit levels, is about developing innovative and substantive modalities that will help the party in winning a free and fair election.Commenting on the state of the nation, We hail president Buhari and his vice effort towards a prudent and responsible management of the nations resources and security.He further said that the ongoing infrastructural transformation in Kano, spearheaded by the APC administration under Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje deserves commendation and urged Kano state citizens to return come 2019 for consolidation of its huge achievements. He appealed to the electorates to ensure that president Buhari and Ganduje get another mandate through peaceful campaign. President Muhamadu Buhari has urged politicians not to see the 2019 general election as a declaration of war. Buhari said this whil... President Muhamadu Buhari has urged politicians not to see the 2019 general election as a declaration of war. Buhari said this while delivering his good will message at the swearing-in ceremony of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola as Osun governor on Tuesday in Osogbo. The president was represented at the event by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha. Buhari also urged all APC candidates in the election to conduct themselves peacefully, eschew hate speech and avoid violence. The president also called on Nigerians to vote wisely during the election. It is just 81 days to the general elections and I call on Nigerians to vote wisely by voting for APC, the president said. Buhari also said that he was committed to building a better Nigeria by building the economy, fighting corruption and protecting lives and property. While congratulating Gov. Oyetola, the president said Federal Government would continue to support the state in the area of infrastructure development. Buhari said that Osun would be one of the five pioneer states that would benefit from N55.1 billion basic health provision by December. The president, who noted that Federal Government had launched trader moni free loan programme in the state, said 30,000 petty traders would have access to the loan in the state. Buhari also said that his administration would complete all the ongoing infrstraucture projects in the state. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Oyebola Adepele-Ojo, administered oath of office on Oyetola at 1:02 p.m. His deputy, Benedict Alabi, took oath of office at 12:55 p.m. APC governors at the event included Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and Yayaha Bello of Kogi. Also present were Mr Adams Oshiomole, the APC National Chairman, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, APC National Leader and his wife Sen. Oluremi, Chief Olusegun Osoba, a former Ogun Governor, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi and the Alafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi. Some parents and students in Abuja on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to speedily intervene and resolve the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of University.The parents, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja, expressed worry over the constant strikes embarked upon by the university lecturers union.NAN reports that on Monday, the Federal Government and ASUU had a meeting to resolve their agreement in order to suspend the lecturers strike.However, the meeting that reportedly started at about 5pm at the Federal Ministry of Education ended in another deadlock.A parent, Mrs Eunice John, said, It is a pity what our government and ASUU is doing to our children who have been forced once again out of school.We know that many of the leaders have their children either studying in private universities or in other schools overseas, that is why they can always keep our children out of school.Many parents are struggling to pay school fees of their wards to keep them in school and out of the streets, yet these children are forced to come home and some now engage in various vices.That is not the only problem, when their studies are disrupted, it affects them; imagine those who were in the middle of writing examinations having that flow disrupted?John pleaded with the FG and ASUU to reach an agreement that would end the strike and ultimately help improve the education sector.Mr David Onilede, another parent said the strike was worrisome adding that it would affect the productivity of the students.I am worried at the sustained strike by ASUU. As a parent, the capacity of our children for productive interaction with their studies is being jeopardised.I do not trust the FGs negotiating team; it seems that it is fixated on commercialising education at the tertiary level; ASUU should resist this. ASUU too, should be more flexible in their obsession with earned allowances; it portrays their struggles as selfish, he said.Mrs Jumoke Yusuf, a Public Servant, told NAN that the constant and protracted lecturers strikes had marred the countrys university system, as continuous breaks in the learning process had negatively affected the students.This strike is affecting the students and even parents because unexpectedly these children are coming home which we did not plan for.That is not the main issue because you cannot stop your children from coming home no matter what.The issue is that these incessant strikes are actually causing a lot of problems for these children in the sense that they just stay too long in school.Esther Ajayi, a student at the Nasarawa State University, who a spoke to NAN, said the strike had reduced her morale.I paid my fees for admission for a masters degree programme and was excited and ready to go to school, however, this strike has dampened my hope of finishing within the stipulated time.We want the federal government to dialogue with ASUU to end this continuous strike.It is not only sad that children of the masses try to beat all odds to be the best they can be, but more worrisome is how the government of the day plays politics with the education system.Nigeria prides herself as the giant of Africa, but finds it difficult to resolve issues that are beneficial to the populace, we want the strike called off soon. President Muhammadu Buhari has cancelled his planned five-day casual leave as a mark of respect for victims of Boko Haram attacks a... President Muhammadu Buhari has cancelled his planned five-day casual leave as a mark of respect for victims of Boko Haram attacks across the battlefields in the Northeast zone of the country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the President had planned to spend the casual leave at his home country, Daura, Katsina State from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2. The president, according to NAN, had earlier cancelled his official trip to Benin City, Edo, where he was initially billed to inaugurate the Edo-Azura Power Plant and grace the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference. NAN reports that already the advanced teams of the president, who left Abuja for Katsina and Benin on Sunday, had been asked to return. NAN gathered that the cancellation of the trips would also enable the president to continue his ongoing meetings and consultations with relevant security and intelligent community aimed at addressing the nations security challenges. However, the president is expected to declare the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference, which was moved from Benin City to Maiduguri, Borno, on Nov. 28 at the Government House Conference Hall (CGH). President Buharis aide on New Media, Alhaji Bashir Ahmad, had on Sunday confirmed this development on his twitter handle. He said: President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to declare the COAS Annual Conference on Nov. 28, 2018 at the Conference Hall CGH in Maiduguri, Borno state. The conference was earlier scheduled to take place from 26 -28 November 2018 in Benin, Edo state. NAN also gathered that the shifting of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference from Benin City to Maiduguri might not be unconnected with the killing of Nigerian soldiers at Metele, a remote village bordering Nigeria and Chad. NAN learnt that President Buhari would use the opportunity of the COAS conference to address the Nigerian soldiers at the battlefields to further boost their morale. It would be recalled that President Buhari had on Sunday presided over a meeting of security chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as part of the ongoing efforts to engage military and intelligence community towards addressing Boko Haram insurgency. In a tweet in Abuja on Sunday, the Presidents aide on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, said all the service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, Idris Ibrahim and the Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi were part of the meeting. All the Service Chiefs, I-G of Police and DG of DSS were at the State House this morning. As President Buhari said (Saturday) yesterday, in the coming days, he will be engaging the Military and Intelligence Chiefs in extensive discussions on the next steps we shall be taking, Ahmad said in the tweet. President Buhari had pledged on Saturday to ensure that the loopholes, which led to the fatalities are blocked once and for all. On 18 November, the Al Barnawi faction of Boko Haram attack the 157 Task Force Battalion based at Metele in northern part of Borno state, killing scores of Nigerian troops. The military authorities are yet to give the specific number of casualties. Buhari in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu in Abuja on Saturday, reiterated his administrations commitment to the security of military personnel and other citizens. No responsible Commander-in-Chief would rest on his oars or fold his hands to allow terrorists to endanger the lives of military personnel and other citizens, Shehu quoted the president as saying. Our loyal forces have proved their strength over the terrorists and we are ready to give them all the needed support, in terms of equipment and manpower, to succeed in ending the renewed threat. In the coming days, I am engaging the military and Intelligence Chiefs in extensive discussions on the next steps we shall be taking. The President noted that fighting terrorism had taken a global dimension, which necessitated international collaboration among states facing similar security challenges. He, therefore, reassured Nigerians of his continued commitment to their security and of his efforts to sustain the momentum in the previous significant successes recorded against the terrorists. By Emma Umohinyang One of the attributes of great leaders is the mastery of the art of pro activeness, especially at very critic... By Emma Umohinyang One of the attributes of great leaders is the mastery of the art of pro activeness, especially at very critical moments of nationhood. Unfortunately, this art is almost alien to most of our leaders as they are caught napping at times when they are expected to rise to the occasion, leading to a yawning gap between African countries and the developed world in terms of growth and technological advancement. African countries, including Nigeria, leaving unpalatable consequences which impeded and continues to impede our growth and development. This no doubt has been the bane of mostAfrican countries, including Nigeria, leaving unpalatable consequences which impeded and continues to impede our growth and development. It was therefore a thing of joy when President Muhammadu Buhari, not wanting to be bitten by this terrible bug launched Next Level, 2019, a compilation of his achievements and plans for a second term. One of the most striking features of the event was that it took place almost as soon as the curtain on political activities for 2019 was raised which is very instructive. This no doubt is remarkable as it is a demonstration on the part of the president that he is truly serious about leading the nation again to consolidate on the achievements of the last few years. Given the fact that a lot of efforts must have gone into the project, it also underscores that he is not taking Nigerians for granted and a demonstration of the fact that he clearly identifies with their hopes and aspirations. This is a clear departure from what we used to see in the recent past when aspirants at various levels approach us to vote for them without any level of seriousness. Curiously, these are people who we entrust our destiny into their hands as they are naturally saddled with steering the ship of state. It is therefore safe to say that our decisions and indecisions in the recent past is largely connected to the unfortunate rape of our commonwealth by these leaders. This is the major reason why the launch of Next Level 2019 by President Buhari needs to be applauded by all men and women of goodwill who truly love the growth and advancement of our nation, especially at this critical moment. Aside from providing an insight into the journey of the present administration so far, Next Level 2019 gives detailed information about the administrations plans for the future. The document therefore presents Nigerians and all lovers of Nigeria, ample opportunity to score the Buhari administration based on its promises especially the landmarks recorded in the fight against corruption, agric revolution, diversification of the economy, infrastructural development, economic emancipation for the poorest of the poor, fight against Boko Haram and more. This no doubt is very crucial as it lets the reader into the much needed details that could be used in assessing the performance of the Buhari administration in all critical sectors as opposed to speculation or hearsay. Aside this, the document is a veritable research material which is bound to be useful to voters, students, academics researchers, etc who may need critical information about the government. Perhaps, for the first time in our national history, Next Level 2019 presents Nigerians with critical information needed for decision making at a very critical period in our national history. This is unsurprising as the Buhari administration has never hidden its desire to run a transparently open system for the benefit of Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora. Though some members of the opposition have criticised the document, the good thing about it is that they have not been able to rubbish the facts presented. Worse still, it is doubtful whether anyone remembers the title of the document launched by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar same day President Buhari launched Next Level 2019. This no doubt speaks volume especially when one considers the voodoo economics of Atiku which many have so far dismissed as unworkable and an attempt to hoodwink Nigerians to vote for him in his desperate bid to rule Nigerian in 2019. and a half years in critical sectors of our economy agriculture, solid minerals, power, infrastructure, health, anti corruption etc be waved aside by discerning Nigerians? The question really is: can the achievements of Buhari over threeand a half years in critical sectors of our economy agriculture, solid minerals, power, infrastructure, health, anti corruption etc be waved aside by discerning Nigerians? For the first time in our nation, the country has made more money than it has made from non oil exports since independence. From agriculture, to solid minerals, the profile of the Buhari administration keeps rising by the day and winning global applause. This is not forgetting the giant strides made in power, job creation, road construction and more for which Nigerian remain grateful. Consequently, Next Level 2019 is most expedient at this time as it is a story of what the Buhari administration hopes to achieve in the next four years as part of strategies aimed at putting Nigeria back on stream to make her regain our lost position in the comity of nations. Can anyone say he does not desire railways working across the nation as being carried out by the Buhari administration, especially since this government kick started this project some years back? Would anyone kick against the on going efforts to make our airports world-class as demonstrated with the Port Harcourt Airport, and the successful construction of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja second runway by this administration? Does anyone hate the on going social intervention projects aimed at breaking the artificial wall between the rich and the poor through Trader moni and other empowerment schemes to lift the poor out of poverty as demonstrated by the Buhari administration? Even the South East where President Buharis administration recorded the least votes has about 70 on going projects across the zone, with more to come. is all about as it all about the Nigeria of our dreams. This is what the Next Level 2019is all about as it all about the Nigeria of our dreams. Now is the time for all hands to be on deck by supporting PMB for a deserved second term in office. Notable members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu East Senatorial zone have vowed to stage an upset against former governo... Notable members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu East Senatorial zone have vowed to stage an upset against former governor, Chimaroke Nnamani, the Peoples Democratic, Party, PDPs candidate for the election. Both ex-president of the Senate, Chief Ken Nnamani and former governor of old Anambra State, Dr. Jim Nwobodo, have vowed to resist any attempt by the PDP to impose Nnamani on the people by proxy. They made the declaration on Monday during the official flag-off of the campaign of the APC candidate for the district, Prince Lawrence Eze. Senator Nnamani said the action of the PDP was a clear violation of the electoral act and the nations constitution. Nnamani wondered how someone who is in America could be declared winner of an election he did not participate in, adding that Chimaroke Nnamani did not swear affidavit because such sensitive document cannot be sworn to by proxy, yet some people went behind to declare him winner of the PDP primary. I know that there is no law in our land authorising someone to swear affidavit for another person. I am saying this because those who perpetrated this fraud may be matching to the prison. This action shows that the PDP impunity is still rearing its ugly head in Enugu East senatorial zone. Our political process in the country as well as the zone is on trial. We are going to resist this undemocratic act, because I am an interested party in the matter. We cannot have a senator by proxy, he added, warning that the situation, if not properly handled, is capable of igniting political crisis in the senatorial district. Im yet to know why PDP chose to commit such high level of impunity in my own senatorial district. As much as we know, Chimaroke was not seen anywhere. He is still outside the country in his sick bed. Even if somebody filled the forms for him in proxy, the electoral law demands he must swore the court affidavits by himself. Chief Nwobodo, in his remarks at the event, described the fronting of ex-governor Nnamani as candidate of the PDP as a great fraud which they must all join hands to resist at all cost. Nwobodo, and Nnamani boasted that he (Prince Eze), is likely to be the only candidate for Enugu East senatorial election and pleaded to be joined in the suit to seek ex-governor Chimaroke Nnamanis disqualification from the contest. Chief Nwobodo urged the electorate in the zone to vote for Prince Lawrence Eze as the next senator of Enugu East senatorial district, just as he applauded the APC candidate for using his personal resources to provide various social amenities for his people, including construction of asphalted roads in many communities. Prince Eze in his speech, had assured the people of the district that if given the mandate to serve, he would protect the interest of the entire people of the zone, adding that he will also make their empowerment and responsible leadership his watch word. A former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has stated that he was leaving the State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi to his master,... A former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has stated that he was leaving the State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi to his master, the devil, since he has allegedly refused to act like someone with godly mind. Fayose said Fayemi has started enjoying the benefits of the mandate the powers-that-be in Abuja helped him to steal. Fayose spoke through his Media Aide, Lere Olayinka, in reaction to Fayemis statement yesterday, that he was not interested in probing Fayose and that he has left him to God. According to the ex-governor, He (Fayemi) should rather be sincere enough to tell the public that he has checked all the books and found nothing incriminating against Fayose. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Fayose described Fayemis new position that he was not interested in probing Fayose as an afterthought, saying, After going through all the books and could not find anything incriminating, he is now saying he wont probe, who is telling him not to probe? Has he forgotten that it was at the same State House, Abuja that he said on July 19, 2018 that he was going to probe Fayose? So what has changed other than the fact that he has failed in his desperate bid to get evidences of corruption against the former governor? Fayemi should act like someone with conscience for once by letting the people know how he has been carrying operatives of the EFCC up and down, looking for what Fayose did and did not do. He should tell Nigerians how he harboured EFCC officials in the government house for over two weeks, lavished millions of naira on them and also misled them to go about sealing off properties belonging to innocent people in Ado Ekiti under the guise that they belong to Fayose. The fact is that Fayemi has found nothing against Fayose and thats why he has adopted a face-saving tactic. No one is asking Fayemi not to probe his predecessor. He is the one who was not bold enough to appear before a duly constituted probe panel, Fayose is not afraid and that was already demonstrated by the former governors unprecedented submission of himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) less than 24 hours after he left office. Let him set up a duly constituted judicial commission of inquiry today, Fayose will personally appear before the panel. Spokesman of Buhari Campaign Organisation, social crusader, critic, columnist and human rights activist Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN has said that for anybody to say that the President Muhammdu Buhari All Progressives Congress A(PC) government has not moved from where we were in 2015 will be lying.Keyamo in this video talked about Buhari government has been able to recover stolen money on behalf of the Nigerian people.He went on to say that people should give credit when they should.Festus Keyamo: "I am sure you've seen the humongous recoveries of properties and money belonging to Nigerians that people abandoned and ran away and left because of the hot pursuit they got from the law, from Buhari."Full episode: https://t.co/LhGINILTme pic.twitter.com/zWJZNF7xW8 Gatefield TV (@GatefieldTv) November 27, 2018Keyamo, also speaking on Arise TV on Monday said In the past, Buhari has taken active part in televised debate, so nobody can argue that he is somebody who is camera shy,So the decision, whether he would take part this time must be a collective decision of the entire war room. Giving, for example, those who are organising it and all the circumstances taken into consideration.I do take as a basic rule that the Nigerian people must hear from their candidates, but the decision as to yes or no cannot be my sole decision.The advice will be a collective decision, it is not my advise alone. Dont forget that you cannot take these things in isolation of the circumstances.For instance, it happened in Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta refused to take part in debate December last year. Why? He felt the process was skewed.At times, some things are designed and you know that they are core people there, who are hostile to government or who are hostile to your candidate as the case may be.Either way, Uhuru Kenyatta did not take part in the debate, but he won. He won resoundingly. So, as important as that is, at times the people may also understand.He said Buharis strongest campaign point is his ability to squeeze water out of stone." Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has told his under-achieving players to stay at home if they cannot handle the pressure at Old Trafford.United is the only team yet to score at home in this seasons Champions League.Mourinhos men will however qualify for the knockout stages, if they beat visitors Young Boys on Tuesday and Valencia failed to beat Juventus in Turin.If you feel pressure, stay at home and when I say home, I dont say stadium home, I say home home and watch on TV.If you feel pressure to play matches at home where the people come to support come on.I never felt pressure to play at home, Mourinho told Sky Sports. The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has added its voice to the raging land controversy between the Islamic group, Ahmadiyyah Muslims and... The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has added its voice to the raging land controversy between the Islamic group, Ahmadiyyah Muslims and former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose. Ahmadiyyah Muslims had staged a massive protest in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, penultimate Saturday against Fayose. The group, under the leadership of Bashiru Alawode, accused the former Governor of forcefully acquiring its land to build a petrol station for his son. According to the group, an Ahmadiyyah mosque was built on the land since the early 40s but they decided to demolish it recently because it was built with old moulded blocks. The group maintained that the intention was to put up a modern mosque to replace the old one but Fayose allegedly seized the land and started building a petrol station there. MURIC, in its reaction, described Fayoses action as tyrannical, totalitarian and immoral. This was contained in a statement made available on Tuesday and signed by MURICs director, Professor Ishaq Akintola. The rights group said, Fayoses action is shameful. He is a political misnomer and an unmitigated disaster. He has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he is an oppressor without borders. How can a whole sitting governor confiscate a piece of land belonging to the Muslim community for personal use? This is oppression of the highest order. Fayose is a selfish demagogue, a political charlatan and a skullduggery primus inter pareil. This is a man who pretended that he was a friend of the Ekiti masses. He rode okada in public. He ate roasted corn by the roadside all in an effort to deceive the people that he belonged to the hoi polloi. But the wind has blown now and we have seen the ruff of the hen. Fayose is a shenanigan nulli secundus. Napoleon Bonaparte was right when he said Men are led by toys. Fayose must return Muslim land. Any land on which a mosque is built is Allahs land. Seizing that land was audacious in the first place and by that action the former governor has only confirmed that he has no fear of God. This man needs to repent or he will face Allahs wrath. He has also proved his pathological hatred for Muslims by commandeering their piece of land. We have always said that Fayose is a Muslim hater. Are we not vindicated now? Why should he seize mosque land of all the landed properties in Ekiti State? Why Muslim land? The same Fayose went on a demolition spree of mosques in the state when he was governor. The same Fayose refused to give Muslims in the state any political appointment. He was widely known for his extremely lopsided political appointments: an all-Christian cabinet and all-Christian board members and chairmen. It was impunity ad infinitum. Fayose has left a pitiable legacy of endogamy. Muslims in Ekiti State must realize that rights are never given on a platter of gold. You struggle for it. Dare to struggle, dare to win. There is no gain without pain. No people ever overcome their downpressors without struggle. American blacks went through that experience. South Africans regained their land through struggle. The travails and eventual victory of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Martin Luther King Jnr, Nelson Mandela, Haile Selassie, Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Agostinho Neto, Samora Machel and other icons of civil liberty, black struggle and African revolution bear eloquent testimonies to this assertion. Ekiti Muslims must therefore rise as one to give Fayose sleepless nights. The demonstration which started last week must not stop although it must always be peaceful. Muslims must visit Fayoses private residence in Ado Ekiti with placards on a regular basis particularly on Fridays. They must march on Fayoses house straight from the Jumah prayer on Fridays. Taunt Fayose with Bandiri drums. Let Alasalatu women surround his house chanting Islamic ditties (waka). Occupy his street until he surrenders the land. They must repeat the same thing every Salah day as they return from Id al-Fitr and Id al-Kabiir prayers. Like Macbeth, Fayose has murdered sleep. He shall sleep no more. Our people say he who steals a poor mans chicken has offended the most garrulous story-teller. MURIC appealed to the current Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to intervene in the matter. The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has lamented the continued delay of President Muhamadu Buhari to implement the N30,000 minimum wag... The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has lamented the continued delay of President Muhamadu Buhari to implement the N30,000 minimum wage report. Ayuba Wabba, the President of NLC warned that workers were running out of patience on the implementation of the new wage. Wabba frowned at Buharis delay in transmitting an executive bill for the N30,000 minimum wage to the National Assembly. Speaking on Monday at this years Harmattan School of the Congress holding in Abuja, he said the continued delay by the President was stretching the workers patience to their limits. The NLC boss also described as unfortunate the position of some governors who are opposed to the N30.000 new minimum wage, but are spending billions of dollars in the name of security votes which they cant account for. He said, We dont know why the president has not transmitted the executive bill, the report of the tripartite committee to the National Assembly for an enactment into law, because workers patience is running out. We have maintained that any governor that said he cant pay the N30,000 should go to his state, gather workers and tell them they are spending billions of dollars in the name of security votes but once it comes to payment of N30,000 minimum wage, they are saying workers are just 20 percent. How can they say that because without workers which include health workers, police, army and others, most politicians cant sleep. Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu has warned the All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to learn f... Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu has warned the All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to learn from the mistakes of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode that cost him his second term bid. He also warned Sanwo-Olu to beware as most of the people around him now were there for their selfish interest and purpose. The oba urged Sanwo-Olu to embark on reconciliation with his contestants that lost out during the party primaries, particularly, the incumbent Governor, Ambode. Akiolu spoke on Monday during the visit of Sanwo-Olu and his running mate, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat to Iga Idunganran Palace, Lagos Island, saying that every successive civilian administration in Lagos, right from Alhaji Kayode Jakande, Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola, up to Ambode, had done well, asking Sanwo-Olu not to do less. However, I would want you to embrace who will be your immediate predecessor, in few months to come, Insha Allah, Akinwunmi Ambode, who has done his best for Lagos. You must endeavour to carry him along. He has done his best, only that he, (Ambode) was not vigilant enough to know who were his friends and those working against him. He got carried away, which is quite unfortunate. Besides, you must be wary of political jobbers that undoubtedly surround you, and they are many. Dont fall victim of their devilish antics. Learn from Ambode, Akiolu counseled Sanwo-Olu. Akiolu also said that the 16 years of suffering the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) subjected Lagos to would not allow anyone vote for any of its gubernatorial candidate, Jimi Agbaje. He added that supporting the party to rule Lagos would be to erase what transpired between the State Government and the PDP-led Federal Government. According to the monarch, who also debunked claims made about him, any right thinking person would not want PDP to have Lagos because the State has suffered in the hands of members of the party in the past. On the allegation that he received special monthly stipends from the State Governor Ambode, Akiolu said that he had never received such from the office. He noted that his relationship with the governor had been for advisory purpose, saying, this was to ensure that Lagos remain the pride of the country and Africa. Similarly, the Oniru of Iruland, Oba Idowu Abiodun Oniru, also warned Sanwo-Olu against those he described as Traitors. Sanwo-Olu, when you get there, beware, dont betray those who work for you. Dont betray those who help you, I said it again, shun any act of betrayer, Oniru said. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says Mansur Dan-Ali, minister of defence, is expending funds meant for the military on the campaign... The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says Mansur Dan-Ali, minister of defence, is expending funds meant for the military on the campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari. In a statement on Monday, Kola Ologbodiyan, PDP spokesman, said funds meant for military equipment and welfare of soldiers are channeled to the production of partisan materials for All Progressives Congress (APC) re-election campaign. Ologbondiyan said by allegedly using these funds for such purpose, the ruling party had turned the defence ministry to its automated teller machine (ATM). Placing of APC logo alongside that of the ministry of defence on the momento confirms our position that the Buhari Presidency has compromised our defence architecture for Mr. Presidents re-election project, he said. Our party considers it insensitive and a gross impunity for the minister of defence to be engaging in patronising soverniers for President Buhari at a time when our soldiers are being killed in their numbers. It is also instructive to note that President Muhammadu Buhari, as Mr. Integrity, has not reprimanded the minister, ostensibly, given that the diversion of public funds for his re-election campaign is now a policy of the APC and the Buhari presidency. Nigerians can now see how the Buhari Presidency and the APC have turned the Ministry of Defence into their Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) to fund their re-election, at the detriment of our citizens who are being daily attacked by insurgents and marauders in various parts of our country. Ologbondiyan called for an investigation into the militarys funds in a bid to unravel those benefitting from the racket. Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, scored a first when Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo opened the Buhari Cam... Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, scored a first when Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo opened the Buhari Campaign Office in the State. Osinbajo at the event, said the party was certain of victory. We have shown an early commitment to deliver Enugu State and the entire South East to President Buhari, Sen. Ayogu Eze, APC governorship candidate in Enugu, also said of the event. The Presidential Candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has lamented the killings of soldiers by suspected Boko Haram terrorists, saying that such does not speak well of the countrys internal security apparatus.The presidential candidate, in a press statement to commiserate with families of the deceased, on Sunday, wondered why it took the military about a week to confirm the incident whose video already went viral.She challenged the military authorities and the Commander-in-Chief to prove that they havent failed the nations soldiers.While commiserating with families of the deceased, Ezekwesili demanded that the fallen heroes must not be deprived of their honour.The ACPN presidential candidate, whose records and global endorsements have shown to be the best person for the job, noted that many questions were begging for answers with the recent killings of soldiers.She asked the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to publish the names and authentic figures of fallen heroes for Nigerians to know the extent of damage and for record purposes.Ezekwesili said, There are pertinent questions that the Federal Government and the military need to answer. How did this latest in a series of killings of our soldiers in frontline of battle catch our country off-guard? Dont we think the official line that the Presidency and military have been pushing on the state of the terrorism war is endangering our soldiers and nation? Can the government be more honest on the challenges it appears to be facing in prosecuting the war?It is no longer acceptable for our heroes to die and not be accorded the honour of gallantry. The FG and the military must accord full military burial rites to the fallen soldiers and also publish the list of others who have died and had been buried discretely in recent times without giving the Nigerian people the opportunity to celebrate their gallantry.The FG should immediately take measures to protect and preserve our soldiers, military establishments, our people and territory to avoid further deaths. It is time for a review of current operational strategy being used to prosecute the war. It is also high time that our Intel was revamped.FG must take measures to assess the failure of leadership of the Service Chiefs performance, accountability and consequence has been missing for far too long and must now change.She subsequently advised the military to improve on its intelligent gathering, saying that would be key to defeating the Boko Haram insurgency.She said, , We express our sympathy and condolence to the families and loved ones of the departed soldiers. They are another set of heroes who have sacrificed their lives for others to live. This calls for a sober reflection and declaration of mourning days by the government.Nigeria security operatives need to do more on intelligence gathering. It is one of the key apparatus that must not be missing while fighting terrorists.The presidential candidate added, The recent killing is a tragic and saddening occurrence and we pray to God to give the deceased family the fortitude to bear the loss. US President Donald Trump may be planning to set up an international television network to counter what he called an unfair and false ... US President Donald Trump may be planning to set up an international television network to counter what he called an unfair and false representation of the country by CNN. In a tweet on Monday, Trump said CNN had good ratings internationally because it had little competition, but that was not the case in the US. Statistically, CNN International is the most widely distributed television news channel in the world, reaching over 373 million households. While CNN doesnt do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of the U.S. they have very little competition, the tweet read. Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way. Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT! While CNN doesnt do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of the U.S. they have very little competition. Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018 ....and false way. Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018 The president has frequently criticised CNN and its reporters, accusing them of peddling fake news. Following a court order, his administration was stopped from banning Jim Acosta, CNN chief White House correspondent, due to an altercation with an intern. The US president had in 2017 threatened to shut down NBC and other American networks, with talks of challenging their operating licence. The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has dared the Senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Enyinnaya Abaribe, ... The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has dared the Senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Enyinnaya Abaribe, saying that the lawmaker was not more of Igbo than himself. Apparently angered over his frequent invitation to appear before the Joint Senate Committee on Land Transport and Local and Foreign Debts on Tuesday, the angry minister said: I have been hearing what Senator Abaribe has been saying over the eastern railway about me. Abaribe cant be more Igbo than I. Most Igbo people cannot interpret Abaribe, but most Igbo understand and can interpret Amaechi. Immediately, Senator Obinna Ogba, a member of the committee, demanded that the minister retracts the statement, saying it was insulting to the Senate. Ogba said the Senate least expected such uncomplimentary statement from the minister. After persuasion from some members of the committee, the minister withdrew the statement. On the circumstances surrounding the eastern railway arrangement with General Electric, the minister explained that the company General Electric has folded. He further revealed that the federal government has engaged Transnet Construction Company on a private public partnership arrangements. The Federal governments eastern railway development arranged with the General Electric collapsed because the comp has folded, but it is not within me to explain what led to that. China's third aircraft carrier is now under construction, the Xinhua News Agency said via its WeChat public account on early Sunday, with Chinese military experts saying on Monday that the warship is expected to be launched in two and a half years. China's new type of aircraft carrier is being built on berth, the Xinhua News Agency reported on early Sunday, in a story to mark the sixth anniversary of the first takeoff and landing of the J-15 fighter jet on China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. It was the first official report of the national news agency. Wang Yunfei, a naval expert and retired PLA Navy officer, told the Global Times on Monday that the report shows that construction has now begun and in its early stage, where different parts of the carrier are being built on berths. After the parts are built, they will be assembled to form the entire vessel, which is an efficient way to build a large ship like an aircraft carrier, Wang said. The new aircraft carrier might need about two and a half years to be launched because of its bigger size, Wang said, noting that the construction of the Type 001A, China's second aircraft carrier, was faster because it was based on the Liaoning. The third carrier, however, uses very new technologies and has no reference, he said. There is speculation that the construction is taking place at the Shanghai-based Jiangnan Shipyard, as several photos have recently emerged on Chinese social media. In June, the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, manufacturer of China's previous two aircraft carriers, released a photo featuring a third carrier with a flat deck, leading Chinese military observers to speculate it would be installed with an electromagnetic catapult. The Liaoning and the Type 001A have jump-rack decks and use no catapult. Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times on Monday that the words "new type" mentioned in the Xinhua report again indicated the third aircraft carrier will be equipped with a catapult system. The entire arrangement on the flight deck as well as the superstructure will be very different, too, Li said. A third aircraft carrier will significantly boost the People's Liberation Army Navy's capabilities, experts said. The Ministry of National Defense has yet to confirm on the building of the third aircraft carrier. However, the ministry's spokespersons said in routine press conferences in May and June that China will put the overall situation of the country into consideration when it comes to China's future plans with aircraft carriers. The WeChat account of a Chinese official media recently published an article commemorating the first successful landing of the J-15 carrier-based aircraft on the Liaoning aircraft carrier. The article says: the construction of the new aircraft carrier is in progress on the berth. This statement has been widely interpreted as the official confirmation that China is building a third aircraft carrier. However, the Chinese military has yet to make any official comment. The UKs Dailymail.co.uk reported on November 26 that although the article did not elaborate on the program of the new-generation carrier, it could well be the countrys third aircraft carrier. It is noticeable that there are so much domestic and overseas media hype on China is building a third aircraft carrier since the beginning of this year. In January, Hong Kongs South China Morning Post and the US Popular Mechanics both reported China started the construction of the third aircraft carrier. At the end of May, another foreign media said that Chinas third aircraft carrier is under construction. However, the Chinese military is yet to confirm these claims. Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), said at MNDs regular press conference in May that the long-term development of Chinas aircraft carriers will take into account not only the countrys economic and social development, but also the needs of national defense and military construction. One of the key speculations is which technology will be adopted for China's latest aircraft carrier. According to Popular Mechanics magazine, Chinas third aircraft carrier is expected to tip the scales at about 80,000 tons. It is longer than the Liaoning aircraft carrier, and will be employed with the electromagnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS). In February this year, state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) published its strategic outline on its website that it plans to accelerate the process of making technological breakthroughs in nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, new-type nuclear submarines, quiet submarines, maritime unmanned intelligent confrontation systems, maritime three-dimensional offensive and defensive systems and naval warfare comprehensive electronic information system, which will provide high-quality weapons and equipment for the Chinese navys strategic transformation to a blue sea navy in 2025. Zhu Yingfu, the chief designer of the Chinese Liaoning aircraft carrier, said in a keynote speech at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu (UESTC) that Chinas research on steam catapults and EMALS are both in progress. Zhu also expressed his preference over the more advanced EMALS technology. Once these technologies achieve a high level of maturity, they can be applied to the future construction of aircraft carriers. And also nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, we must have it in the future. I believe China will soon catch up with the world and I hope everyone can wait patiently, said Zhu. When asked how many aircraft carriers does the Chinese Navy require, Zhu replied that China may not need as many as the US, but at least there should be three ships. Four or five would be better if possible, said Zhu. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday expressed his "deep disappointment" in General Motors' decision to close its Oshawa plant, a move Canadian officials only learned about on Sunday and which led workers to walk off the job on Monday. Canadian officials promised to aid auto workers affected by the 2019 closure, part of a wider restructuring by the automaker that will cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce. GM said the closure affects a total of 2,973 assembly line jobs. GM's total employment in Canada is 8,150 direct jobs. "I spoke with GM [CEO] Mary Barra to express my deep disappointment in the closure," Trudeau tweeted on Monday. "We'll do everything we can to help the families affected by this news get back on their feet." Ontario, home to the Oshawa plant, was told by the automaker that there was nothing it could do to prevent it, premier Doug Ford said. Oshawa is about 60 km east of Toronto. "The first thing I said is, 'What can we do? What do we have to do?'" said Ford, referring to a Sunday night call with GM Canada's President Travis Hester. "He said the ship has already left the dock." Ford later added: "We're disappointed in GM. We supported GM years ago when they were in trouble." President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday embarks on his last overseas trip of this year that will take him around the world. The president makes his first stop in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, where one goal is to help Korea win a contract to build a nuclear power plant. From Thursday to Saturday, Moon will be in Argentina for the G20 summit. The final three days take him to New Zealand on a state visit, the first by a Korean leader in nine years. Plenty of diplomacy is expected on the sidelines of the G20 as well. Moon will meet with the leaders of South Africa and the Netherlands, both of which are non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. No plans are confirmed yet for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Cheong Wa Dae says it depends on the two leaders' schedules and will be confirmed during the G20 meeting. The forecast comes from a survey of businesses released by the Korea Economic Research Institute on Sunday about the state of the eight major industries -- semiconductors, petrochemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles, oil products, iron and steel, displays, and wireless communications devices. It was conducted on Nov. 7-13. Korea's eight major industries will gradually become less competitive, and only the shipbuilding sector will maintain an edge for the next three years, businesses predict. Four of them -- shipbuilding, oil products, displays and wireless communications devices -- still have an advantage over the foreign competition. Their biggest rival, China, scores about 90 in all of them if Korea is set at 100 on the competitiveness scale. But Japan is way ahead of Korea in automobiles at 130 and iron and steel at 110, and Saudi Arabia leads in the petrochemical sector at 110. But prospects three years from now are gloomier. Korea will maintain its advantage only in shipbuilding but will be overtaken by China in oil products, displays and wireless communications devices. It remains far more competitive than China in building eco-friendly ships, including LNG-fueled ships. Lee Sang-ho of the KERI said, "Korea has a technological advantage over China, but the situation is worrying because it's less competitive on price." Citys request dumbfounds TIRZ board The City of Houston has requested that one-third of all increment (or revenue) from the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 10 (TIRZ) be given voluntarily back to the city. Preliminary figures show that amount would range from $63 million to $114 million. City Councilmember Dave Martin said at the Nov. 15 meeting that it was just two weeks earlier when the city stunned him and the TIRZ board with information that the TIRZ would be expected to give money back to the city beginning in the summer of 2019. Martin likened the request to a hard-ball gambit of the city. The TIRZ wants to build an $80 million Northpark Drive improvement project and cant borrow money without an extension to the life of the TIRZ (set to end in 2028.) Discussion focused on the fact that the city would not extend the TIRZ life unless the TIRZ agrees to surrender one-third of all its revenue. The city wants the money for affordable housing. When I saw the proposal two weeks ago, I was ready to explode. We get zero, zero dollars for the capital improvement plan from the city. If we dont get the 20-year extension to the TIRZ, we wont be able to do any projects not the Northpark Drive project, or Kingwood Drive, nothing, he said. Martin also said the city enacted a municipal services fee last year on top of an existing municipal services charge; essentially the city charges the costs of police protection back to the TIRZ. Boardmember Jeff Nielsen pointed out that affordable housing has typically been funded through Community Development Block Grant programs and HUD. Why are we being asked for affordable housing? Nielsen said. Boardmember Kim Brusatori said the city was being totally unfair. Others questioned whether the TIRZ can move forward with any projects and whether the city is bound to use the money for housing, and not, for example, funding the Houston Fire Departments recent pay raise. Martin pointed out that there are two types of TIRZ structures petition and non-petition. All petition TIRZ programs are required to give one-third to affordable housing but non-petition TIRZs, of which the Lake Houston one is, does not. The city is asking for the money to be given voluntarily. A financial expert was present at the meeting who explained four scenarios she had prepared: one with the money given to the city starting next summer, one without the money being given, and two with graduated steps leading to the money being given back over a period of years. Martin said he suggested discussing a feathered approach where three percent would be given back, with six the next year, then nine percent, etc. beginning the year after the TIRZ life is extended and the money has been obtained for the Northpark project. Martin expressed frustration and disbelief that other areas in the city get far more in city dollars than Kingwood or Clear Lake, Martins other large area of representation. I am not interested in agreeing to refunding the money unless we have the extension, he said. Jennifer Curley, representing the city, defended the criticisms, saying the city has been behind the Northpark project since Day One. She went on to say that using the numbers presented by the financial expert, Phase 1 of Northpark could easily be funded with several million left over to go toward Phase 2. If you look at the feathering-in scenario, the project fund balance is $29 million. Add that to the $15 million the mayor transferred from the Kingwood Drive project to the Northpark project. That is $44 million. Phase 1 is estimated to be $32 million, she said. Curley also pointed out that the financial analysis is essentially flat, not allowing for growth in the TIRZ, which over the last five years (before Hurricane Harvey) has been 12 percent. In fact, TIRZ restructuring has been in the citys plans since Turner was elected His transition team issued a report in 2016 detailing plans to require all non-petition TIRZs to spend one-third on affordable housing within their boundaries or to give that amount to the city. In 2017, the Baker Institute issued a report called Rising Together that also identified TIRZ recommendations. Martin said he and TIRZ Chairman Stan Sarman will be meeting with city officials in a few days and will notify the board with further developments. Rachel Ray-Welsh, engineer for Walter P. Moore, reported that two small mobility projects in Kingwood are about to be completed with two more ramping up. All involve turn lanes and signal improvements. The intersection at West Lake Houston Parkway and Northpark and a second at West Lake Houston and Kings Crossing are waiting on minor adjustments. Kingwood Drive at Woodland Hills and Kingwood Drive at Willow Terrace are in the beginning stages of improvement. Allen Brown, a resident, spoke to the board, demanding that they stop handing out money to area developers. Despite the fact that the developers take all the risk when creating projects and spend their own money on city-provided services like roads, drainage, sewer and other infrastructure, Brown feels they should not be reimbursed. He stated that Martin is responsible for the unsafe conditions in Kingwood. Kingwood is not safe. If something happens in the back of Kingwood, people can die waiting in traffic. We have no money for the Northpark project. We have no projects being done. How can you give money to these millionaires? he said. TIRZ will meet again Dec. 13 at 8 a.m. at the Kingwood Community Center and the meeting is open to the public. 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. Cascades Investing US$58 Million to Modernize Tissue Converting Capacity at Its Wagram, NC Plant Upon completion of the project, the Wagram plant tissue converting capacity will increase from 5.3 million cases per year to close to 15 million cases per year. Nov. 27, 2018 - Cascades announced that it will invest US$58 million in its Wagram plant in North Carolina that will modernize the plant and add new tissue converting equipment. These project investments are part of the capital expenditure envelope previously announced by the company. The Wagram plant produces hand towels, paper towels, bathroom tissue and napkins marketed under the Cascades PRO brand, which serves the Away-from-Home markets. The plant will be largely supplied by the Cascades tissue plant located 30 miles away, in Rockingham. The project will involve the installation of five new state-of-the-art converting lines and the modernization of four existing lines. Sixty-six full time employees will be hired to operate the new equipment. The commissioning of the new converting lines is expected to begin in April 2019 and will be finalized in the first quarter of 2020. Upon completion of the project, the Wagram plant converting capacity will increase from 5.3 million cases per year to close to 15 million cases per year, resulting in a global capacity addition of 3 million cases for the Group. Mario Plourde, President and CEO of Cascades, said, "This modernization project is directly aligned with the objectives set out in our strategic plan. It will not only allow us to replace ageing equipment with modern and efficient technology, but will also improve our integration rate, increase our geographical footprint and extend our ability to serve our customers in the United States. With today's challenging market conditions, this is a crucial investment that will reduce our manufacturing and transportation costs, improve our environmental footprint and more importantly, bring us closer to our customers." Cascades noted that this project has been made possible in part by the cooperation and financial support of governments and economic development organizations of North Carolina and Scotland County. Founded in 1964, Cascades produces, converts and markets packaging and tissue products that are composed mainly of recycled fibres. To learn more, please visit: www.cascades.com . SOURCE: Cascades, Inc. A travel agency in Beijing is advertising a Christmas tour to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Young Pioneer Tours sold the same tour to U.S. student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested there for defacing a propaganda poster and died a year and seven months later. The three-day package tour to Pyongyang, which starts in the border city of Dandong, costs 475 euros, while a four-day tour to the demilitarized zone costs 695 euros. The program includes a tour of downtown Pyongyang on Christmas Eve, taking visitors to the giant statues of regime founder Kim Il-sung and former leader Kim Jong-il at Mansudae, the USS Pueblo, a spy ship captured by the North in 1968, the Taedonggang Beer Brewery, and a trip on the Pyongyang subway. Warmbier died a week after being sent back to the U.S. in a coma in June last year. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans to avoid all romaine lettuce, in light of E. coli-tainted romaine lettuce making more than 40 people across 12 states sick. Which is dire, so of course the Internet had a field day. The CDC now says, not all romaine should be avoided, since the Food and Drug Administration has just linked the outbreak to parts of California. "Our investigation at this point suggests that romaine lettuce associated with the outbreak comes from areas of California that grow romaine lettuce over the summer months, and that the outbreak appears to be related to 'end of season' romaine lettuce harvested from these areas," said FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb in a statement. "The involved areas include the Central Coast growing regions of central and northern California." So apparently this means that romaine lettuce from Mexico, Florida, and Arizona are safe to eat, but the FDA has ordered that lettuce from these places should "now be labeled with a harvest location and a harvest date." And those bundles of lettuce that come without label of origin or harvest date should not be eaten. This is the second time this year that romaine lettuce has been declared unsafe to eat, and the 21st overall food safety warning issued. CNN reports that 2018 has seen the CDC conducting more investigations into potentially harmful food than in the last 10 years. In that report, the aforementioned Dr. Gottlieb insists that isn't due to the presence of more unsafe food, but merely that the CDC is equipped with "better technology than ever before to link outbreaks of human illness to a common pathogen." So, here's to catching the next food-borne illness outbreak sooner rather than later? Lettuce pray. Photo via Twitter Three Members of Persecuted Baha'i Faith Summoned to Prison in Iran While Five Others Arrested 11/27/18 Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran Dorri Amri (Esmailpour), 44, began serving her one-year prison sentence in Vakilabad Prison in the Iranian city of Mashhad on November 14, 2018, for allegedly propagating her Baha'i faith, a source with knowledge of the case told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on November 19. Amri, along with two other Baha'is, May Kholousi and Shayan Tafazzoli, had been arrested by agents of Iran's Intelligence Ministry in Mashhad in June 2014 during a prayer session in Kholousi's home. A few days later, Kholousi's daughter, Saghi Fadaie, was also arrested. Fadaie was freed after 85 days while Amri, Kholousi and Tafazzoli were released on bail after five months, the source added. "All of them were put on trial in three sessions at Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad presided by Judge Mohammad Soltani and charged with 'propaganda against the state' but the reason was unclear," said the source. "The indictment said they had been in contact with non-Baha'is to preach the Baha'i faith," added the source. "The interrogators asked them if they had spoken about the Baha'i faith or read their religious books to others." All of the sources who spoke with CHRI for this article requested anonymity for fear of reprisals by security agents for speaking to a foreign organization. Iran's Constitution does not recognize the Baha'i faith as an official religion. Although Article 23 states that "no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief," Baha'is are denied many basic rights as one of the most severely persecuted religious minorities in the country. The four were sentenced to one year in prison each, and the Appeals Court in Mashhad upheld the sentences in August 2018. Kholousi and Fadaie began their prison terms in Vakilabad on October 31. Tafazzoli has not yet been summoned to prison. Tafazzoli and Fadaie, both 28, were both denied university admission in 2008 because of their religious beliefs despite having passed the national enrollment exams, according to the source. Baha'is are routinely denied the right to higher education in Iran, either by being banned from enrolling in a university or being expelled without a proper explanation once enrolled in the school. Two other Baha'is have also been summoned to prison in the southeastern city of Yazd. Nasser Bagheri, 52, and his son Faez Bagheri, 20, have been sentenced by a preliminary court to nine months and two years in prison respectively for allegedly preaching their faith. "If my father and brother surrender themselves by December 6 [2018] and begin their prison terms, a quarter of their sentence will be forgiven," Peyman Bagheri told CHRI on November 19. "But they have said they will not report to prison because they have done nothing wrong. They will wait until the result of their appeal," Nasser and Faez Bagheri were arrested in March 2015 for holding Baha'i book reading sessions at their home, Peyman told CHRI. At the time, Faez was 17. "My father and brother organized readings for young Baha'is," Peyman added. "They would gather and read religious books. The Intelligence Ministry agents had raided the home and taken away computers, cameras and phones on three previous occasions." Nasser Bagheri's wife, Fariba Ashtari, served a two-year prison sentence for allegedly promoting Baha'ism. She was also charged with colluding against national security. Ashtari was released in January 2017. A Baha'i community source also informed CHRI about the arrest of five members of the faith by the Intelligence Ministry in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, on November 17 and 18: Farzad Bahadori, Kambiz Misaghi, Shahriar Khodapanah, Monika Alizadeh and Kheirollah Bakhshi. "The intelligence agents showed a warrant but did not give a reason for the arrests," said the source on November 19. CHRI was able to confirm that Bahadori and Khodapanah are eyeglass lens distributors and Misaghi has an optometry store in Tabriz. Ghanas Debt-to-GDP ratio has dropped to 57.2% according to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana. In the 2016 Annual Progress report, Ghanas Total Debt to GDP ratio stood at 73.1% at the end of December, 2017 with year on year debt accumulation rate of 36% in the erstwhile administration. The situation resulted in an increasing interest burden, with interest payments alone consuming 45% of tax revenue and 6.8% of GDP in 2016. The Akufo-Addo government upon assuming office realized the negative consequences this high rate of debt accumulation has on the economy which includes narrowing the fiscal space for the government to operate. That is, with high debt to GDP ratio, the country is forced to use more resources to service old debts instead of investing in the economy. With the inherited debt strangling the economy, there was the need to implement prudent fiscal measures to reduce the debt stock of the economy. One of the measures was to accelerate the rate economic growth whilst slowing the rate of debt accumulation. Specific measures implemented as outlined by the 2017 budget statement include reduction in fiscal deficit and debt re-profiling (involves borrowing at less expensive rates to replace more expensive debt at longer tenor). As a result the debt to GDP ratio declined from 73.1% at the end of December 2016 to 68.6% at the end of September 2017. The interest burden declined from 45% of tax revenue to 43.9% in September 2017. (2018 BUDGET FIGURES) In this 2018 fiscal year, the Government again didnt renege on its promise of debt sustainability. The approved 2017-19 Medium Term Debt Sustainability Strategy was strictly implemented. The strategy supported fiscal consolidation and tight monetary policy that minimizes cost and addresses portfolio risk. Vibrant domestic capital market that support domestic financing of budget was governments priority. The recent recognition of increased economic activity has contributed to a further reduction from 68.6% to 57.2%. Excluding the costs of bailing out distressed banks, the debt to GDP was 53.9 % of the rebased GDP. This implies that, the debt Sustainability Strategy implemented is expectantly yielding the required results and has drastically reduced the rate of debt accumulation from 36% to 19.8%. This gives hope that with persistent fiscal discipline as practiced by the administration, debt to gdps ratio will further decrease and therefore freeing up more fiscal space for the government to undertake developmental projects. 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 Members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold on Tuesday, 27 November 2018, hit the streets of Accra to protest against the management of the gold-trading firm in demand for the payment of their full principal investments locked-up with the company. According to them, Menzgolds assurances to pay them an agreed 15 per cent of their principal after the woes of the company has failed, hence the demonstration. Scores of customers of the troubled gold dealership entity who were largely cladded in red and black apparel pleaded with the government to urgently intervene to enable them retrieve their investment. The company was asked to shut down its Gold vault trading by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August, after its brushes with SEC and BoG over the companys operations. The state agencies insist Menzgold does not have the licence to conduct business in the manner it was doing by paying dividend to clients. Meanwhile, the company has shifted its operations online to replace their initial business of trading gold with customers and paying dividend at their offices. 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 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Kwasi Agyeman Busia, has charged workers of the authority to work hard towards the achievement of the authoritys vision and objectives. He also warned them against any conduct that could drag the image of the DVLA into disrepute and cause the public to count the authority among institutions perceived to be corrupt or inefficient. According to Mr. Busia, the DVLA aims at becoming a world-class licensing institution and will not allow any group or the action of any individual worker to retard progress made so far. The DVLA CEO was speaking at Zuarungu at a meeting with management and staff of the authority as part of a familiarization visit to the Upper East Region. He was with members of the newly constituted board of the authority, who are also interested in knowing the progress the DVLA in the region has made so far, as well as challenges militating against their quest to achieve the vision and objectives of the authority. We have come to the Upper East to meet staff to encourage them to do what is right and what is expected of them and the DVLA. We are urging them to see the vision of the authority as achievable and be ready to work towards it. As we embark on this nationwide tour, we understand the operations of the DVLA better and also understand the challenges workers are faced with; we are taking suggestions from the workers on how DVLA can serve its purpose, he explained. Mr. Busia also announced plans to create more offices along the Eastern Corridor road from Accra to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. This move, he said, would help accumulate some revenue for the central government. Workers mentioned inadequate working logistics and other working conditions as their problems and in response, Mr. Busia admonished them to work hard in putting up their best in order to achieve the vision of DVLA so that the authority can address the grievances of all workers. In recent times, the Upper East Regional Office has partnered with the Ghana Police for some inspection of road worthy certificates of private and commercial vehicles in the Bolgatanga Municipality. There have also been calls from various sectors of the Upper East Region, especially vehicle owners, for the DVLA to have another office in the region to lessen the burden on the Zuarungu office which is the only one serving the entire region. 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 Ghanas leading total beverage company, Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited has appointed Samori Gambrah to the role of Marketing Director. Until recently, Samori was managing Africas largest beer brand, Carling Black Label as the Regional Brand Director at Anheuser Busch InBevs Africa zone in Johannesburg. He brings to Diageo, a passion for building award winning brands and driving growth in emerging markets. In Nigeria, he was the Group Marketing Manager for SABM and also has a solid sales and customer/channel marketing experience all within SABM. Samori began his career with SABMiller in 2006; and over the next decade he held various regional and in-market roles across the African continent including Marketing Director for SABMiller in Ghana. The Managing Director of Guinness Ghana Gavin Pike said, We are very pleased to have Samori join our team. There is no doubt he believes in our ambition to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products company in Ghana and has got what it takes to help us achieve this. 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 Mrs Mary Awelana Addah, Programmes Manager, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has said a corrupt free private sector was necessary to achieve President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's "Ghana Beyond Aid" agenda. She said it was crucial for every economy to create an enabling environment, where private sector actors operated at an optimum level without "unnecessary" restrictions, which frustrate businesses to "coil" into corrupt practices. Mrs Addah, who was addressing a Regional Multi-Stakeholder Business Integrity Forum on the theme, "Promoting Good Business Environment Through Ethics, Integrity and Accountability" in Ho, said corruption distorted markets and created unfair competition as companies often paid bribes or rigged bids to win public procurement contracts. She said the practice was affecting the growth of the private sector and challenged actors in the sector to develop company ethics and codes and take internal steps to prevent corruption by activating such anti bribery codes. Mrs Addah said gradually, it was becoming evidently clear that corruption was not only in the public sector but the private sector too, and said it was time the actors addressed the phenomenon before the sector became unattractive. Mr John Nelson Akorli, Ho Municipal Chief Executive, said corruption had become a norm when checks were not in place and that laws to minimize the act must be enforced to make the work of the GII meaningful. He said it was unfortunate that corruption had eaten deep into every part of society, including the Church and asked that churches be probed, especially those that sold items to students. Mr Felix B. Chaahaah, Chief Director, in charge of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, said the Council remained committed to the fight against corruption and pledged its continued support to the GII and other stakeholders in the fight against corruption. The Regional Multi- Stakeholder Business Integrity Forum seeks to facilitate engagements among business/private sector, state actors and civil society organizations to identify, project and advocate for a corruption free environment in Ghana. The business forum was funded by GII with support from DANIDA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Minister for Planning, Prof. Gyan Baffuor has announced that government has earmarked an amount of 335 million Ghana cedis for the Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban and Feeder Roads. The amount which covers a three-year period is targeted at improving on the countrys poor road infrastructure. Professor Gyan Baffuor made this disclosure on behalf of President Akufo-Addo at the 2018 GHANA DRIVER AND ROAD SAFETY AWARDS at the State House. The event was organized by Shenkani Ghana Limited with support from the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) He further disclosed that an additional amount of 6.5 million Ghana cedis from the Road Fund has been set aside for the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) to scale up public education and sensitization programmes on road safety. The President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo praised the efforts of the organizers and encouraged other organisations to partner the National Road Safety Commission to work towards safer roads in Ghana. The Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah also lauded efforts of the organisers and pledged his Ministrys support for 2019 and future editions of the programme. Madam Freda Frimpong, Director of Partnerships at the Ghana Driver & Road Safety Awards Foundation explained that the mission of the Ghana Driver & Road Safety Awards (GDRSA) is to raise Champions of road safety and driving excellence at lorry stations and companies across the country. She invited other corporate organisations to emulate the example of GHACEM and GOIL and support the 2019 edition of the GDRSA to make it bigger and more impactful. Md. Frimpong used the occasion to launch a GHANA BEYOND ROAD ACCIDENTS agenda and invited all Ghanaians to join in it. Professor Gyan Baffuor who is also the Member of Parliament for Wenchi, presented ten brand new Toyota Hilux Pick Ups to the National Road safety Commission to aid their campaign against road accidents. The Overall Best Driver, Mr. Moses Osei of Ayalolo Bus Service, received a brand new Suzuki Alto 800 from GOIL and GHACEM. The colorful event was attended by several driver Unions and Road Safety partners, Officers of the Ghana Police Service and the National Fire Service, a cross-section of Ghanaians, as well as members of the Diplomatic Corps. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Veteran striker Lee Dong-gook has extended his contract with Jeonbuk Hyundai for another year, the club said Monday. Lee, who will turn 40 in April next year, made his debut in the K-League in 1998. He played for Pohang Steelers and Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma before spending a brief spell with Middlesbrough in the English Premier League. He then settled on Jeonbuk Hyundai in 2009. With his contract renewal, he is set to become the K-League's first active field player in his 40s next season. Lee is one of the K-League's all-time most successful players with 215 goals and 75 assists in some 503 appearances, the most by a field player in Korea. "I thank the club for recognizing my efforts. I will do my best as a player for Jeonbuk Hyundai," he said. The much-anticipated grand finale of the Ghana Driver & Road Safety Awards came off on Friday, November 23, 2018 with Moses Osei, a driver of Aayalolo (GAPTE), winning the Overall Best Driver 2018. Prof. Gyan Baffour, Minister of Planning (representing the President of Ghana), Hon. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister of Transport, and several other dignitaries graced the occasion which took place at the forecourt of the State House in Accra. Moses drove away in a brand-new Suzuki Alto vehicle fully insured by Unique Insurance. He also gets GHC20,000 Personal Accident Insurance Cover from Unique Insurance as well as GHC10,000 Seed Fund for Shenkani Drivers Welfare Fund. The mission of the Ghana Driver & Road Safety Awards (GDRSA) is to raise Champions of road safety and driving excellence at lorry stations and companies across the country, according to Md. Freda Frimpong, Director of Partnerships at the Ghana Driver & Road Safety Awards Foundation. She used her speech to invite other corporate organisations to emulate the example of GHACEM and GOIL and support the 2019 edition of the GDRSA to make it bigger and more impactful. Md. Frimpong used the occasion to launch a GHANA BEYOND ROAD ACCIDENTS agenda and invited all Ghanaians to join in it. An exciting highlight of the event was when Florence Marfo, a driver of VIP bus was announced as the winner of the Best Driver, Intercity Category. Florence held her own against several men, being the only female nominee of the 2018 programme, to emerge tops after four stages of screening and selection. Florence has been driving commercial bus for over 15 years and prides herself in her experience on all the long-distance routes of Ghana. For her prize, she received a Table-top Fridge, GHC10,000 Personal Accident Insurance Cover from Unique Insurance, GHC5000 Drivers Welfare Fund from Shenkani Ghana Limited, as well as a Refresher Training Course. In a speech read on his behalf by Prof. Gyan Baffour, Minister of Planning, the President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo praised the efforts of the organizers and encouraged other organisations to partner the National Road Safety Commission to work towards safer roads in Ghana. The Minister of Transport, Hon. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah also lauded efforts of the organisers and pledged his Ministrys support for 2019 and future editions of the programme. The colorful event was attended by several driver Unions and Road Safety partners, Officers of the Ghana Police Service and the National Fire Service, a cross-section of Ghanaians, as well as members of the Diplomatic Corps. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Many investors from the Kingdom of Morocco are increasingly expressing interest in putting their money in the Ghanaian economy, Mr Mohammed Farahat, the Moroccan Ambassador, has announced. They are targeting areas of agriculture, renewable energy, and tourism. Mr Farahat was addressing journalists in Accra, his first media encounter since he assumed duty in May, this year. He said there was already a Moroccan company looking at how to harness the abundant sun to produce solar energy in Takoradi. Another was also in Kumasi exploring ways of generating power from wind. He made reference to the strong ties between Ghana and Morocco, dating back to 1961 when Ghana's first President Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and Morocco's King Mohammed V, and said this could only continue. Mr Farahat, touched on a number of MoUs recently signed between Ghana and his country and said these had opened opportunities for both countries. So far everything is moving on smoothly, there is no obstacle. We are in the phase of follow-ups to the various agreements. What we are doing now is looking at synergies. We have many things that Ghana need and vice-versa. The idea is to make the two countries benefit from the free trade agreement. The Ambassador said the two countries had distinct opportunities, which each could profit from to turn the fortunes of their economies around, grow them to give employment to the youth. It is time to go back to the African fundamentals to transform the economy, and equip the youth with entrepreneurial skills so that they will not be looking for work but will rather create employment and recruit people. He added that through that the much talked about Africa youth migrating to the West would be a thing of the past. I do not understand why we Africans who are highly skilled are called immigrants but those from the West who work in Africans are called expatriates. We need to transform our economy, be confident, listen to our leaders, keep believing in ourselves that we have everything and we can make it. Mr Farahat expressed worry about the rising number of children on the streets in the continent and said the situation was an indication that Africa had a lot to do to address the challenge. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana Chamber National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has held a Business-to-Business (B2B) meeting with their Turkey representatives with the hope of bridging the 57 percent trade deficit it has with Turkey. According to Nana Appiagyei Dankawoso I, President of the GNCCI, although statistics from the International Trade Centre (ITC) showed that Turkey was the third largest trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ghanas exports to Turkey in 2017 amounted to $128 million, while its imports from Turkey were $224 million. This represented a 57 percent trade gap that could be bridged for the mutual benefit of both countries, he said. Nana Dankawoso I, speaking at the Ghana-Turkey B2B Meeting held in Accra on Monday in collaboration with the Ghana-Turkey Business Council and others, said that the GNCCI stood ready to support any agenda that promoted trade and provided opportunities for local industries to compete on the international market. Mr. Alan Kyeremanteng, Minister for Trade and Industry commended the timing of the event, saying that it was a good time for Ghana and Turkey to re-engage and build on the historical bonds of friendship that they have enjoyed over the years but which had not received guidance to deepen. Turkey, he noted, had grown to become one of the most competitive industrialised economies in the world, while Ghana was also now recognised as of the most attractive investment destinations on the African continent. If theres one partner that Ghana should be looking to work with, I think it should be Turkey, and if theres one country in Africa that Turkey should be seeking to do business with I think it should be Ghana, he stated. He explained that governments economic transformation plan, hinged on the four pillars of building a resilient macroeconomic environment, agriculture modernization, industrial transformation, and infrastructure development, showed its commitment to make Ghana attractive for investment. He added that governments focus on decentralizing industrialization through programmes like the one district one factory, one region one industrial park as well as ten other strategic anchor sectors including petrochemicals, integrated aluminum and bauxite industry and pharmaceuticals, presented strategic entry points for Turkish investors in Ghana. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Audio Attachment: Listen t Kwesi Pratt Jnr. Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt has condemned the culture of flying people out of Ghana for medical care abroad. Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Friday's edition of Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Kwesi Pratt wondered why the health facilities in the country can't treat such patients and that it's only when they are flown out of the country that they could perhaps be cured. To him, such behaviour should be encouraged because there are equally qualified medical practitioners and high quality health facilities in the country. He was commenting on the demise of the late Ayawaso West Wougon Member of Parliament, Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko. According to Mr. Pratt, the practice of conveying patients abroad for medical treatment kills the spirit of nationalism as it shows little or no confidence in Ghana's health system. He also explained that sometimes a patient's condition becomes worse when put on flight due to hours involved in getting him or her to a foreign country. Kwesi Pratt called on authorities in the health sector and government to ensure the health facilities in the country are built up to international standards if they aren't and purchase sophisticated equipment to treat all manner of diseases in order to save lives here in Ghana. So should we go to America every time were sick? Should we go to Cuba or South Africa any time were sick? Dont you think if we had the facility at Yale University in Ghana and he had been sent there last Sunday, just maybe we wouldnt have had this situation . . .What sophisticated machine used to cure diseases that we cant get or purchase into Ghana in order to treat people when theyre sick? he questioned. He however sent his deepest condolences to the family of the late MP over the unfortunate loss. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video THE NATIONAL Democratic Congress (NDC) is desperate for political power, according to the newly-elected Communication Director of the party. Sammy Gyamfi, who was recently called into the Ghana Bar Association, said he would never deny that his party is hankering for power. According to him, the country is presently being mismanaged by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, leading to severe economic hardship in the country. He noted that the NDC is aware of the tribulations of the citizenry and is determined to win power and save the country. The NDC is desperate for political power because of the rapid manner at which the NPP administration is sending the country into a deep ditch with bad leadership. Nothing is working for the country now and it is the duty of the NDC to work and win political power so that we can save the people, he said on Nhyira FM. Sammy Gyamfi accused the NPP of relying on blatant lies to unseat the NDC administration in 2016, saying that the NPP had been exposed by their poor performance. Juicy promises like the One District One Factory, One Village One Dam, One Million Dollars per Constituency and all the other promises have not been delivered. He also accused the NPP government of borrowing about GH50 billion in less than two years, reiterating that the NDC is desperate to win power and save the people. Source: The Publisher 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 National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has asked Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to stop coming to Parliament to nod his head when budget statements are being read and rather participate in the budget debate on the floor. He said Article 111 of the 1992 Constitution gives the Vice-President the privilege to join in the budget debate on the floor of the House and proffer solutions to myriads of economic problems afflicting the country and making Ghanaians poorer and poorer. According to the North Tongu MP, who is also the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Article 111 enjoins the Vice-President, ministers and deputy ministers who are not MPs to participate in parliamentary debates, with all privileges accorded MPs similarly extended to them during such debates but are not allowed to vote in the proceedings of the House. Mr. Speaker, Ghanaians are asking where is Dr Bawumia, the one who has the magic wand to fix the economic problems of the country; we have missed his lectures on the economy when he was the running mate, he said stressing that the contribution of the Vice-President to the debate on the budget is highly needed. Mr. Ablakwa threw the challenge to the Vice-President when he was contributing to the debate on the 2019 budget in Parliament on Wednesday. The North Tongu MP went ahead to accuse the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of doing little to fight corruption, which has assumed alarming proportion under the present government. He wondered why only 12 people would have to be employed at the Office of the Special Prosecutor looking at the enormity of the work there which is an indication that the government is not committed to effectively fighting corruption in the country. Mr. Speaker, in the US, the Office of the Special Prosecutor has about 100 people working there and it ensures effective work, he declared. He also stated that the budgetary allocation for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in the 2019 budget has been slashed from GH32 million in 2018 to GH31 million which is also an indication that the present government is not prepared to fight corruption in the country. The ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee also expressed worry about the intention of the government to increase presidential staffers from 998 to 1,614 as indicated in the 2019 budget statement which, according to him, is very high and must be reconsidered. He also disclosed that the about GH400 million of oil money is being spent on procurement of food for the free SHS and the contracts are given to party people who are pocketing the money while educational infrastructure is in shambles. He asserted that the government promised in the 2018 budget to build 8,286 kindergarten schools but ended up building only 150. He indicated that the government with the largest ministers and presidential staffers is hugely tainted with corruption and does not have the courage to fight it. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Chief Executive Officer of the Public Sector Reform Secretariat, Mr. Thomas Kusi Boafo has disclosed that 15 dockets are ready to prosecute accused corrupt NDC officials of the erstwhile John Mahama administration. According to him, the Akufo-Addo government cannot look on for such high level of corruption that was displayed under the former regime go unpunished. He made this known in an interview with Henry Lord on Ejura Sekyedumase based Naagyei FM in the Ashanti Region while commenting on President Akufo-Addos claim that the NDC created, looted and shared state resources while in government. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo addressing the chiefs and people of Somanya during his Eastern Regional Tour on Thursday stressed that the NDCs desperation to return to power is not motivated by any reason other than a desire to misuse Ghanas resources for selfish gain. They, in their desperation to get to power, are prepared to say anything. Their purpose of coming back to power is to continue the programme of Create, Loot and Share. That programme is dead in Ghana. It will not happen again. That is not the programme the people of Ghana are looking for, President Akufo-Addo said. Mr Kusi Boafo however disclosed that the prosecutions will start soon, adding that failure to prosecute the corrupt National Democratic Congress (NDC) officials will spell doom for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2020 general election. You know that in order to have a successful prosecution you need to build strong evidence and I Kusi Boafo can tell you honestly that 15 dockets are ready. Prosecutions will start soon, these are high profile cases and the person giving evidence must be protected. Some of these past NDC officials to be prosecuted have fled the country and were going to haul them back into the country to face the law. They have high level intelligence about what is going to befall them. I know that if we [NPP] are not able to prosecute NDC officials, well surely lose the 2020 elections and we wont sit down for that to happen, he stated. Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, has called on the government to use part of the GHC34 million sanction cost demanded from telcos for poor quality service delivery to compensate Ghanaians, who suffered the act. The former Presidential spokesperson, is also urging the National Communications Authority (NCA) to be more engaging in their dealings with telcos, than being swift with punishment, in case of breaches. Its possible to compensate Ghanaians who lost out because of poor quality service. If the NCA sees telcos as cows to be milked, its regulatory approach will be more of sticks instead of regulating mixture of sticks, sermons and carrots. Government should use part of the fines to compensate customers while ensuring quality service delivery, he wrote on Facebook. The NCA sanctioned all four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) for poor services to consumers. The four network operators sanctioned for their non-compliance with various Quality of Service (QoS) requirements are AirtelTigo, Glo, MTN and Vodafone. A statement issued by the NCA last Wednesday, said the four have been fined a total of GH34,065,000. AirtelTigo is to pay GH11,635,000, Glo, GH4,460,000, MTN GH9,080,000 and Vodafone GH8,890,000. The NCA, regularly undertakes QoS Monitoring to determine MNOs compliance with their licence conditions and to ensure that consumers receive the quality service they have paid for. According to the NCA statement, in the first quarter of 2018, the Authority undertook QoS monitoring of all MNOs in the Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Northern Regions and two districts in the Ashanti Region in the phase one of a nationwide monitoring exercise. The monitoring enabled the Authority to determine the MNOs which were unable to meet their Licence Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in some District Capitals with regards to QoS; Obligations for Coverage, Data, Voice and Speech Quality. It said as has been the practice, the NCA subsequently held reconciliation meetings with all four mobile network operators and they were given three months ending August 21, 2018 to cure the infractions detected. The NCA said at the end of the deadline, it embarked on a follow up monitoring to ascertain if the QoS infractions recorded had been resolved. This follow up monitoring revealed that, though the key performance indicators (KPIs) in some District Capitals had improved, the MNOs, were not able to meet the KPI thresholds as per their licences. The NCA as a result has sanctioned the MNOs. Source: The Herald Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former President John Dramani Mahama on Monday arrived in Kumasi to begin the second part of his campaign tour of the Ashanti Region. Ahead of the National Delegates Congress of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Mahama toured more than half of the constituencies in the Ashanti Region, seeking the mandate of delegates to lead the party to victory in the 2020 elections. Already, Mr Mahamas flagbearership campaign tour has taken him to all constituencies in the Central, Upper West, Upper East, Northern, Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra regions. He has been promising to modernise the activities of the NDC by helping constituencies to own party offices, building a reliable database of the human resource capacity of members as well as providing a mentorship programme for young people in the party. Mr Mahama also says he is committed to working hard to provide jobs and reduce the high cost of living, when elected in the next presidential election. The former President began his tour of the Ashanti Region on Monday, November 12 but had to break three days later to allow delegates of the party attend the 9th National Delegates Congress at the Accra International Trade Fair Centre. He is expected to wrap up his tour of the Ashanti Region on Wednesday. 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 Togolese President, Mr Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, paid a short visit to his Ghanaian counterpart, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in Accra last Sunday, to discuss issues of mutual interest to the two nations. The visit was also to brief President Akufo-Addo on matters regarding the Togolese political impasse. Speaking to the media before their closed-door meeting, President Akufo-Addo said Mr Gnassingbe came over to have an informal chat on mutual matters. He stated that they were the closest of neighbours with good relations. President Akufo-Addo was of the firm belief that it was a good idea to bring each other up to date on matters regarding their relations and other issues. Regular meetings important Mr Gnassingbe said such informal meetings should be a regular affair, especially as discussions centred on mutual interests, including socio-economic and political concerns. He said President Akufo-Addo had been given the difficult task of mediating between parties in the Togolese internal dispute. President Gnassingbe said he was in Ghana for updates and follow-ups on other issues the two Presidents had been discussing. President Akufo-Addo and President Alpha Conde of Guinea have been tasked by ECOWAS to find a lasting solution to the protracted Togolese political impasse. Mr Gnassingbe returned home later in the evening. 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 Actor Park Bo-gum will host one leg of this year's Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), which will be held in Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, respectively next month. Park will host the show to be held in Saitama, Japan on Dec. 12. It will be his second time to do so after the last year's event in Japan. The annual music awards will kick off in Seoul on Dec. 10, before heading to Japan on Dec. 12 and wrapping up in Hong Kong on Dec. 14. MELANIE EKSAL/Penticton Herald Richard Hensen and his son Laisen have competed in numerous arm wrestling tournaments. His wife Corianne and eldest son Trenton supported the two through their journey to the 2017 nationals in Halifax, which was filmed by APTN for their documentary Arm Nation. MELANIE EKSAL/Penticton Herald From left, Michael Carpenter-Newmark, Erik Moore, Bailee Ewen and Aasfi Sadeque, are helping organize this years 10,000 Tonight food drive that will be held at both Princess Margaret and Pen-Hi on Nov. 29, from 5 to 9 p.m. The government's attempt to invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Seoul this year is rapidly running out of steam. Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters Monday, "We are discussing a reciprocal visit within this year by [Kim] while keeping all options open." Asked whether a formal declaration of an end to the Korean War is likely to come this year, Kim said, "This is not a decision that involves only the South Korean government but requires agreement by all the relevant parties including the U.S., and discussions are ongoing." Cheong Wa Dae says it has lived up to core agreements made at the inter-Korean summits in April and September like border disarmament and cross-border railway projects and was optimistic that Kim would visit Seoul this year. But now it seems to have resigned itself to the improbability of such a visit in the remaining five weeks of the year as U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks have reached a stalemate. Most Korean businesses expect their earnings to drop this year or at best stay the same as last year, a poll suggests. Some 74 percent of 362 Korean companies in the survey by the Federation of Korean Industries out Monday said they expect their sales for this year to remain similar or drop. Forty-seven percent of large companies and 63 percent of smaller firms attribute their weak sales to a drop in consumption both at home and abroad. Some 33 percent of large firms also cited government policies like the minimum wage hike and shorter working week, while 22 percent of smaller companies blamed excessive competition. Asked about risk factors to management, the respondents said they are more affected by domestic economic conditions (51 percent) and overseas conditions (31 percent) than any internal issues in their organization (17 percent). Some 26 percent said weak domestic demand is the biggest risk, followed by red tape (21 percent) and the global economic slowdown caused by the trade war between the U.S. and China (20 percent). Boynton Beach (FL) Police Department Said on Twitter that the officerwho has not yet been identifiedreportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Image couresy of Boynton Beach PD / Twitter. An officer with the Boynton Beach (FL) Police Department was reportedly injured in a traffic collision with another vehicle as she was responding to a man-with-a-gun call on Monday evening, according to WPTV News. The officerwho has not yet been identifiedreportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries when an SUV turned in front of her and struck the driver's side of the patrol vehicle. Witnesses said that the officer attempted to avoid the collision but in so doing, crashed into a light pole. The department said on Twitter that the occupants of the other car involved were not injured, and that the cause of the collision remains under investigation. In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Michelle Reynolds says that police used excessive force and violated her 20-year-old son's civil rights in a confrontation outside the family's home in May. Police had responded to reports that Cody Reynolds had stabbed his mother and had ordered the man to get on the ground, but he instead rushed at the officer, who then fired multiple shots, fatally wounding him. In August, the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office cleared Officer Ryan Addis of any wrongdoing, ruling the shooting by the four-year veteran police officer was justified, according to the Detroit Free Press. The lawsuit seeks damages of $10 million. A detention deputy with the Charleston County Sheriffs Office is facing charges that he impersonated a law enforcement officer and had installed a police light bar on his vehicle, according to WCSC-TV News. Court records indicate that Ken Charpia Duncan faces charges of impersonating a law enforcement officer and unauthorized use of signal lights for emergency vehicles. The incident reportedly occurred on Thanksgiving. Following reports of the incident, Duncan was reportedly fired from his job at the Charleston County Sheriff's Office on Monday Police say that Duncan was wearing his uniform at the time of the incident, but is not a sworn law enforcement officer. Hungarian and Austrian banks seen widening footpring in the Balkans Portfolio Save article Share Hungarian Bank sales in the former Yugoslav republics have started to pick up. Austrian and Hungarian lenders may be among bidders for stakes, Bloomberg reported. Prosecutors on Tuesday morning raided Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung's house in Bundang amid suspicions that Lee's wife used a pseudonymous Twitter handle to spread fake news about President Moon Jae-in and other political rivals of her husband. Prosecutors raided the house in search for a missing smartphone that Lee and his wife Kim Hye-gyeong used during the race for the presidential candidacy in the Minjoo Party, when Lee was up against Moon and others. Lee has claimed he lost the phone. Prosecutors also searched his provincial office in Suwon. Lee said he is ready to cooperate with prosecutors and expressed hope that his wife will be free from suspicion soon. Kim is suspected of having conducted smear campaigns against Moon and others under the Twitter handle 08_hkkim since 2013. Lee denies the allegations and claims e-mail accounts linked to the Twitter account were hacked. NordFX Expects Cryptocurrencies and Euro to Go Further Down The relation between 2 currencies at a certain point of time is the result of the market being simultaneously influenced by a whole lot of various factor of various impact and origin. Currency exchange rates, in their turns, affect man other processes meaningful for the majority of people in all parts of the world. NordFX analysts decided to share another weekly forecast. For starters, the experts suggest recollecting last week's market behavior to figure out to what extent those predictions came true. While applying a range of methods, tools and techniques, which have proved to be good at predicting future market behaviors, the experts came up with a new weekly forecast. To some extent, this is a consensus forecast, which takes into account the predictions based on various approaches, techniques, and methods of technical and graphical analysis. This allowed them to come up with a more-or-less clear picture, including the most probable scenarios of the trading week. Having studied the set of factors that can possibly affect EUR/USD, the analysts report that the key event of the week to watch out for is the forthcoming urgent summit of European leaders, where they are expected to discuss the so-called Brexit. The event is planned for November 25-26. If the talks turn out to be a success, the currency pair may go back to November highs around 1.1470 and 1.1500. Over 40% of the experts participating in the consensus forecast share this opinion. The remaining 60% of them expect a stronger dollar. On Wednesday, the USA is to publish their GDP figures for Q3 2018. Should the figures turn out to be stronger than the previous ones (for Q2 2018), the U.S. dollar will definitely get considerable support. Another major event scheduled for the trading week is the Fed's FOMC meeting that's to take place on Thursday. The experts don't expect any surprises from the financial regulator. The bears' goals are located around 1.1300 and 1.1215 - the low of 2018. If the price breaks below that level, the next level of support is 1.1120. Around 15% of the oscillators on H4 are indicating an oversold market, which may hint at a slight recovery in the coming days. In case with GBP/USD, almost 100% of the indicators are painted red. However, the situation may well change while driven by this week's major news and events. Once again, it's all about the Brexit. The European leaders should decide on the terms and conditions of Great Britain leaving the European Union. Should they come up with an agreement, it should also be approved by the British parliament. Chances are, the parliamentarians will reject the agreement, the experts say. If that's the case, there should be another round of voting, which is likely to be scheduled for February 2019 in this case. Apparently, such a scenario is no good for the British Pound since the investors will probably start withdrawing their investments from the British Pound, thereby making it weaker. The closest levels of support are 1.2720, 1.2695, and 1.2660. The closest levels of resistance are 1.2885, 1.2925, and 1.3025. As for the Japanese Yen, it often moves against the trend of major European currencies. With that being said, JPY often moves up when EUR and GBP move down. Over 55% of the experts, coupled with 90% of oscillators, and 70% of trending indicators, expect USD/JPY to move down to 112.60 and below. At the same time, they don't deny the possibility of testing 112.00. However, since the market is oversold, 45% of he experts do not deny a rally up to 113.15-113.40 and 114.20-114.55. As for cryptocurrencies they are likely to keep moing down in value, with Bitcoin probably trying to test $4000 USD/BTC. If that's he case, the next target is $3000 USD/BTC. At the same time, there are rumors that Ethereum-based smart contracts have vulnerabilities. If that's true, may well expect another round of weakness for ETH/USD. There's good news for crypto bulls. THere is a divergence between the BTC exchange rate and many oscillators. This fact may hint at a highly probably recovery, even though it may be a short-term bullish trend. You are free to discuss this article here: forum for traders and investors 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: President Moon Jae-in met OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria on Monday and agreed to promote the "inclusive growth" model the intergovernmental organization is pursuing. In a keynote speech at the APEC Summit a couple of weeks ago, Moon also mentioned his "inclusive growth" model and proposed to compile a case book on similar policies in APEC member countries. The president now seems to nurture hopes of international acclaim for a policy that has massively backfired at home. Cheong Wa Dae officials are patting themselves on the back claiming that Korea has become a global model for something-or-other. Cheong Wa Dae claims that the policy is an extension of his original pitch for income-led growth, innovative growth and fair trade principles. It may look on the outside like a government that sees itself as responsible for the public's wellbeing, but it is the same old wine in new bottles. Moon's sharp minimum wage hike, shortened working week and other policies have in fact increased unemployment and made low-income earners even poorer. Now we must not call the policy "income-led" any more, but the gimmick is fooling nobody. In reality the OECD and International Monetary Fund's vision of inclusive growth profoundly different from Moon's policy. Only last week the OECD issued a report criticizing his drastic minimum wage hike, warning that it could hamper hiring and growth. It was a rare instance of singling out a specific policy of a member country. Yet Cheong Wa Dae wants to share this failed policy around the world. Has the presidential office completely lost touch with reality? Most governments in the world at least pay lip service to being inclusive economies. The question is how to do it, and both communist and populist governments have signally failed in this task. In which direction is the Moon Jae-in administration headed? Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East Rantoul, IL (61866) Today Periods of rain. Low 39F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Periods of rain. Low 39F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Most of Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Tuesday have given the top priority to the contribution-based social security scheme the government is launching today. The government has claimed it will be the beginning of new era in terms of rights of the labourers. Meanwhile, the governments Social Security Fund has provided a jacket advertisements to all daily broadsheets published from Kathmandu today. Gorkhapatra and Republica have published reports about the Finance Ministry rejecting a proposal of the Federal Parliament Secretariat to buy new vehicles for legislative officials. Likewise, the warning of fresh fast-unto-death by medical education reform activist Dr Govinda KC has also been featured on the front page of major newspapers today. There are some other issues from political, sociocultural and financial spheres that have been featured on the front page of major newspapers today. Important What is new social security fund all about? Kantipur says the new scheme has four major components: medical security, disability security, old age security, dependent family security. Meanwhile, The Himalayan Times reports in its lead story that employees have to contribute 11 per cent of their basic pay whereas the employers have to contribute 20 per cent. The scheme will add a burden of Rs 163 billion to the state fund, according to Nagarik. Finance Ministry restricts Parliament from buying new vehicles The Ministry of Finance has turned down a request of the Federal Parliament Secretariat to buy 23 new vehicles for legislative officials, according to Gorkhapatra and Republica. The Secretariat had demanded that it be provided with Rs 200 million for the purchase of 23 vehicles, some computers and furniture, but the Ministry released only Rs 30 million, Gorkhapatra informs. Provinces prepare to recruit staff Kantipur and The Himalayan Times report that Province 2 Assembly has passed a new bill to let the provincial government to recruit its employees on contract till permanent staffers are in place in various offices. Meanwhile, the Sudurpashchim provincial government has also launched similar preparations, according to a brief story in Naya Patrika. The government there has formed a task force to formulate a procedure for the recruitment. Dr Govinda KCs fresh ultimatum Nepal Samacharpatra, Rajdhani, Kantipur, Naya Patrika and Republica report that medical education reform activist Dr Govinda KC has issued a three week ultimatum to the government to find out the murderer of Nirmala Pant and implement earlier agreements signed with him. Dr KC says he will stage a hunger strike from December 15 if the government fails to meet the ultimatum. Ignored Auditor General to look into INGOs accounts The Office of the Auditor General has begun looking into the property and financial transactions of international non-government organisations in Nepal, Karobar reports in its lead story. The Office says it has already summoned related documents from various agencies including Ministry of Finance, Social Welfare Council and district administration offices, according to the report. Lawmakers demand fast track work halted Republica reports in a four column story that some lawmakers have demanded that the ongoing works for the construction of Kathmandu-Tarai fast track be halted till the detailed project report is ready. Speakers of a meeting of the State Affairs Committee in Parliament yesterday, the lawmakers said the project should be halted as locals in Khokana and Pharsidol areas of Lalitpur have launched a protest, according to the report. Janakpur railway technology is one of the oldest in the world The government looks quite excited about resuming a railway in Janakpur within next few months, but the technology it is adopting for the project is one of the oldest of the world, Naya Patrika reports in a brief story, adding the railways speed will be restricted to 35 km per 90 minutes. Many army positions are vacant for months The Kathmandu Post reports in a three column story that a key position in Nepal Army are vacant for last few months as Chief of Army Staff Purna Chandra Thapa failed to take a decision on time. The report informs that the position of the chief of general staff is vacant since the promotion of Thapa to the top post on September 9. According to Army Regulations, there should be two lieutenant generals, but only one, Hemant Kunwar, is on duty. Major General Anuj Bahadur Basnet is the only contender to fill the vancancy, but Thapa is reluctant to promote him, the report claims. Interesting Nepali teen dancing for 6 days hours with Guinness hope A Nepali teenage girl has been dancing with a hope of establishing herself as a Guinness Book of World Records holder, Rajdhani reports in its lead story. The 17-year-old Bandana Nepal has started the dance from 7 am on Friday, November 23, and she has to continue it till 12 noon on Wednesday, to contest for the record, according to the report. Treasuries saw modest weakness during trading on Monday, giving back ground after trending higher in recent sessions. Bond prices moved to the downside early in the session and remained stuck in negative territory. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 1.8 basis points to 3.072 percent. The modest pullback by treasuries came amid a rally on Wall Street, with traders picking up stocks at reduced levels following the sell-off seen last week. The drop seen during last Friday's holiday-shortened session dragged the Dow and the S&P 500 to their lowest closing levels in four and six months, respectively. Trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, with traders looking ahead to a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week. Trump and Xi are due to meet at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, beginning on Friday, with traders likely to keep a close on eye out for signs of progress on a potential trade deal. A lack of economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines, although reports on consumer confidence, new home sales, and personal income and spending are likely to attract attention in the coming days. Traders are also likely to keep an eye on remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as well as the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting. Treasuries remained in negative territory following the release of the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $39 billion worth of two-year notes, which attracted below average demand. The two-year note auction drew a high yield of 2.836 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.65, while the ten previous two-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.77. The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold. Looking ahead, the Treasury is due to sell $40 billion worth of five-year notes on Tuesday and $32 billion worth of seven-year notes on Wednesday. Economic data may also attract attention on Tuesday, with traders likely to keep an eye on reports on home prices and consumer confidence. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis BHP (BHP.AX, BLT.L, BBL,BHP) said it confirmed identification of a potential new iron oxide, copper, gold (IOCG) mineralised system, located 65 kilometres to the south east of BHP's operations at Olympic Dam in South Australia. As part of BHP's ongoing copper exploration program, four diamond drill holes, totalling 5346 metres, intersected copper, gold, uranium and silver mineralisation of IOCG style on BHP's exploration licence 5941. The company noted that Laboratory assay results show downhole mineralisation intercepts ranging from 0.5 per cent to six per cent copper with associated gold, uranium and silver metals. The company noted that the exploration project is at an early stage and there is currently insufficient geological information to assess the size, quality and continuity of the mineralised intersections. BHP is evaluating and interpreting the results reported and planning a further drilling program, to commence in early 2019. BHP said its copper exploration program has targeted the Stuart Shelf in South Australia as part of a focused global program which includes Ecuador, Canada, Peru, Chile and the south west of the United States. Copper and oil are the main focus of BHP's exploration programs in order to replenish resource base and enhance portfolio, BHP said. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Kathmandu, November 27 The Rastriya Janata Party Nepal has been unable to hold a meeting of its presidium since the party changed its coordinator seven days ago. The party had called the meeting for Monday, but it could not take place owing to an internal dispute that was apparent in the change of leadership as well. Now it is not certain when the meeting will take place. Whereas leaders close to the new coordinator Rajendra Mahato claim the meeting was postponed as presidium member Raj Kishor Yadav was outside Kathmandu Valley, another presidium member Anil Kumar Jha has said he was not informed about the meeting. Sources close to the party say majority members of the presidium removed Mahantha Thakur from the lead role last week as leaders close to Mahato want to join the federal government, which Thakur consistently opposed. Likewise, the leaders are not together about whether to give continuity to the presidium after the general convention scheduled for April next year. The party was forced by merging six Madhesh-centric parties in April 2017. Oil prices rose slightly in choppy trade on Tuesday amid expectations that OPEC and its allies would agree to cut output at a meeting in Vienna next week. Global benchmark Brent crude oil rose 0.35 percent to $60.77 a barrel, adding to the previous session's gains after hitting a 13-month low of $58.41 on Friday. U.S. light crude futures were up 0.14 percent at $51.70 a barrel. The upside remained capped after media reports suggested that Saudi Arabia raised oil production to an all-time high in November. As U.S. President Donald Trump pushes OPEC to keep oil prices low, now keenly await the outcome of the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 for directional cues. Both sides may show a willingness to negotiate a trade agreement, but a breakthrough deal seems highly unlikely. If talks fail to produce a deal, the U.S. may raise the punitive tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods on January 1. Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports. The American Petroleum Institute is scheduled to release weekly inventory numbers later in the day. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis European Central Bank Governing Council member Jozef Makuch will step down as the Slovak central bank governor on March 1, 2019, the National Bank of Slovakia said in a statement on Tuesday. He will continue to function as the head of the central bank until his successor is appointed, the bank added. Makuch had signaled in September that he was planning to step down ahead of the expiry of his term in 2021, to allow the government to appoint a successor ahead of the general elections in 2020. He also told reporters in September that finance minister Peter Kazimir could be a good central bank governor. Slovakia adopted euro on January 1, 2009 and Makuch became the governor of the NBS on January 12, 2010. He was reappointed for a second term in January 2015 that was set to last until January 12, 2021. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Economic News What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more. Philippines invited Japan., Korea, Australia to invest in its "Crypto Valley of Asia." A special Economic Zone in the Philippines has announced a plan to attract Japanese, Korean and Australian companies to its "Crypto Valley." The government-owned Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) said it entered into partnership with Rare Earth Asia Technologies to market "Crypto Valley of Asia" as the most ideal investment destination in Asia for Blockchain, Crypto and FinTech companies. Rare Earth is one of CEZA's Principal Offshore Virtual Currency Exchange (OVCE) licensees. It will have the exclusive right to be CEZA's sole marketing and technical partner to promote the special Economic Zone in the Pacific countries and convert their increasing interest in CEZA into actual locator investments. CEZA said in a statement that Rare Earth has also plans of issuing a token that enables its exchange partners to receive a share of transaction fees. This initiative shall be subject to CEZA Fintech and OVCE Rules and Regulations as well as its upcoming framework and regulations on ICO and STO. Rare Earth will comply with all the rules and regulations of the concerned regulatory agencies such as the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). CEZA is strategically located in a major crypto active region in East Asia, where high volume of crypto trade is recorded in countries like China, Japan, Korea and Singapore. CEZA offers potential investors clear guidelines and transparency, attractive tax incentives, access to a rich pool of talent in the areas of Blockchain and FinTech, and other benefits. The development plan for the Crypto Valley of Asia includes the launch of a Blockchain and FinTech University to provide skilled and experienced workers for companies in the Economic Zone. CEZA says its goal is "to make the Philippines the regional center for new FinTech innovations as well as a thriving hub for Blockchain and Crypto startups". CEZA's revenue from January to September 2018 reportedly reached 521 million pesos ($10 million), double the earnings for the full year of 2017, thanks to its venture into cryptocurrency and blockchain . For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The European fluctuated between small gains and losses during the first half of Tuesday's session, but turned definitively lower in the afternoon. Investor sentiment was negatively impacted by renewed trade tensions between the U.S. and China. In the interview published Monday, U.S. President Trump told the Wall Street Journal it was "highly unlikely" he would delay an increase in tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent. Trump also suggested the U.S. could slap 10 percent tariffs on iPhones and laptops imported from China. The comments from Trump come just days before he is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Argentina later this week. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened 0.26 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip stocks decreased 0.19 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.20 percent. The DAX of Germany dropped 0.40 percent and the CAC of France fell 0.24 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. declined 0.27 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished lower by 0.37 percent. In Paris, Accor Hotels rallied 1.85 percent after the hotels company reaffirmed its financial targets for future earnings growth. Vallourec, a world leader in tubular solutions, soared 16.55 percent after providing additional information regarding its liquidity position. In London, Thomas Cook plunged 22.62 percent after the holiday group suspended its annual dividend and issued another profit warning. Standard Chartered slid 0.75 percent on a Bloomberg report that it is considering simplifying its structure to control costs. Novartis dropped 0.45 percent in Zurich. The company announced that its eye care division Alcon would highlight its vision, strategy and benefits as a standalone company following the planned spinoff. France's consumer confidence dropped in November to its lowest level since early 2015, survey data from the statistical office INSEE showed on Tuesday. The consumer confidence index fell to 92 from 95 in October. Economists had forecast a score of 94. UK retail sales growth in November was greater than expected, though retailers are gloomy about activity in the next three months, a survey by the Confederation of British Industry showed on Tuesday. The monthly retail sales balance of the Distributive Trades survey rose to +9 from +5 in October. Economists had forecast +10. Reflecting a pullback in expectations, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday showing a bigger than expected decrease in U.S. consumer confidence in the month of November. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dropped to 135.7 in November after rising to 137.9 in October. Economists had expected the index to dip to 136.5. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis After moving modestly lower over the course of the previous session, treasuries moved back to the upside during trading on Tuesday. Bond prices pulled back off their best levels going into the close but remained in positive territory. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by 1.7 basis points to 3.055 percent. The rebound by treasuries came amid renewed skepticism about a trade deal between the U.S. and China following President Donald Trump's comments in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. In the interview published Monday, Trump told the Journal it was "highly unlikely" he would delay an increase in tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent. Trump also suggested the U.S. could slap 10 percent tariffs on iPhones and laptops imported from China, contributing to an early sell-off by shares of Apple (AAPL). The comments from Trump came just days before he is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Argentina later this week. Trump has previously argued his tough talk on trade has actually helped the U.S. to make deals, including the new trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report showing a bigger than expected decrease in consumer confidence in the month of November. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dropped to 135.7 in November after rising to 137.9 in October. Economists had expected the index to dip to 136.5. The bigger than expected decrease by the consumer confidence index came after it reached its highest level since September of 2000 in the previous month. Treasuries reached new highs for the session following the release of the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $40 billion worth of five-year notes, which attracted average demand. The five-year note auction drew a high yield of 2.880 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.49, while the ten previous five-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.46. The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold. On Wednesday, the Treasury is due to finish off this week's series of long-term securities auctions with the sale of $32 billion worth of seven-year notes. Trading on Wednesday may also be impacted by reaction to a revised reading on third quarter GDP as well as a report on new home sales in October. Additionally, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to deliver a speech on "The Federal Reserve's Framework for Monitoring Financial Stability" at the Economic Club of New York. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Aspects of coordination to strengthen steadfastness in face of aggression discussed [27/November/2018] SANAA, Nov. 27 (Saba) - Prime Minister Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Habtoor discussed on Tuesday with Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee Mohammad Ali Al-Houthi. During a meeting held in the capital Sanaa, they dealt with the coordination aspects of government and revolutionary action in enhancing national steadfastness and popular cohesion in the face of aggression and its all-out war against the people. Yemen. The meeting reviewed the progress of government activity and the efforts exerted by the Government of National Salvation to develop the institutional process, regularity of public performance in all ministries and government agencies, supporting the fronts of pride and dignity in the face of the aggressors and the Saudi and UAE's invaders and their mercenaries, as well as the level of continuity of providing basic services to alleviate the suffering of citizens in coordination with partnerships andl and international humanitarian organizations. The meeting tackled the escalation of the ongoing aggression on all fronts to thwart efforts by UN envoy Martin Griffith to revive the peace negotiations and the initiative presented by the President of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee to stop aiming the stop the war. The initiative called to stop the firing of army's missiles and waging their drones' attack on the enemy if the aggression states have halted theirs war waged on Yemen. The Prime Minister reiterated his appreciation for the responsible national role of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee in preserving the various institutions of the state and protecting them from tampering during the leadership of the country until the formation of National Salvation government . Al-Houthi praised the various ongoing national tasks carried out by the Government of Salvation in this critical and critical period experienced by the country and the Yemeni people. AA President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said safeguarding and strengthening the Constitution is a shared responsibility of the judiciary, the executive and the legislature in partnership with the people of India. Addressing a function to mark the Constitution Day, he touched upon social justice, technology and plugging of fund leakages by linking Aadhaar with the delivery of social welfare schemes. He also expressed concern over disruptions in Parliament, describing them as unfortunate. "Dr Ambedkar and his colleagues in the Constituent Assembly were remarkably generous in their approach. They allowed for flexibility in amending the Constitution and were accommodative of various streams of thought. "They trusted the wisdom of future generations to expand the frontiers of freedom and liberty, justice and fraternity, fairness and equality. They trusted future generations to not just amend the Constitution, but to constructively reimagine and reinterpret it," he said. The Constitution is the modern scripture of independent India and is more than just a collection of articles and clauses. "For us Indians, it is an inspirational and living document, an ideal of the society we are and the even better society we are striving to be," he said. The President said the people of India are the "ultimate custodians" of the Constitution and it is in them that sovereignty vests and it's in their name that the Constitution was adopted. "The Constitution empowers the citizen, but the citizen too empowers the Constitution - by following it, by adhering to it, by protecting it, and by persevering to make it more meaningful with words and deeds. The Constitution is nobody's preserve - and it is everybody's preserve," he said. He said that perhaps the most moving word in the Constitution is "justice" and it must also be seen in a wider context - in terms of society's evolution and its changing beliefs, lifestyles and technologies. "Justice is a single word. 'Justice' is a complex and liberating expression. And 'justice' is both the means and the goal of our constitutional and nation-building process," he said. Underlining that "social justice is the touchstone of our development", the President said that social justice is all about providing equal opportunities -- social, economic and political. He said technology is an enhancer of justice as well as a challenge, calling for thinking of technological justice as a subset of economic justice. "This is very true in the context of access to technology for our poorer and less-privileged fellow citizens," he said, adding that innovation has also worked for the benefit of disadvantaged sections of society. Innovation and technology have brought gains but they have also brought questions of access and privacy. Calling disruptions in parliamentary proceedings as "unfortunate", he said some have suggested that these should be seen as encroachment on the citizen's understanding of justice. He welcomed the decision of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to translate the judgments of the top court into Hindi to start with and gradually to other languages. Justice Gogoi said the "Constitution was the voice of the marginalised" as well as the prudence of the majority. "Its wisdom continues to guide us in moments of crisis and stability. It is for our best interest to heed its advice. If we don't, our hubris will result in sharp descent into chaos." Saying the "Constitution has become an integral part of people's lives," the CJI had said, "This is not an exaggeration; one needs to look at the astounding variety of issues that courts hear daily." The Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the contours of constitutional morality must be laid down with greater clarity so that there was some commonality in its applications instead of it varying from judge to judge. The Law Minister said there should be consensus in applying constitutional morality. Five St Marys College students travelled with their teacher to celebrate the World Youth Tsunami Awareness Day in Osaka, Japan. Etevise Fonoti, Janola Tofilau, Melesete Ioane, Quenjule Slaven and Charla Wendt accompanied their teacher Annie Mauga-Afoa to Japan, to participate in a high school summit, which attracted 400 students from around the world. They participated in workshops, lectures and activities on disaster reduction, discussed ways to protect peoples lives from disasters and shared their experiences on the 2009 tsunami that struck Samoa. Charla Wendt, speaking on behalf of the girls on the drills they participated in, said they learnt a lot about Japan in terms of disaster preparedness. Experiencing the intense drills that citizens go through was really intense. Wed be on a train that stops every now and then, and we would have to get off and suddenly sprint up the hills. It taught us the difference between Samoa and Japan in terms of avoiding and preventing severe damage caused by natural disasters. In Samoa we dont really have drills, but in Japan, they really emphasize that especially in the areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters, she said. Ms Wendt said one particular lecture during the summit caught their attention. This one professor emphasised that in order to save other people; you would have to save yourself first, she said. In Japan they train their citizens to just evacuate immediately without looking for their relatives first to increase the chances of survival. Quenjule Slaven said drills for natural disasters should never be taken lightly and everyone should be prepared at all times. We want to put up awareness programmes and talk to people about it, get communities involved and make sure that everyone is aware of these things, Ms Slaven said. And they have already begun their action plan: Ms Wendt also spoke about their first step from last Saturday. Our teacher Ms Mauga took a few of our Year 13s to town picking up rubbish to prevent drainage blocks to minimize the effects of flooding. The women want to start with these small steps, until they are ready to run evacuation drills and the like, said Ms Wendt. The seven-day trip was funded through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and all the expenses were covered by the Japanese government. Intellectual Property is the solution to many different things, says Head, Academy at the World Intellectual Property organisation (W.I.P.O.), Karen Lee Rata. I hope that Samoans will learn a little bit more about intellectual property (I.P.) because this is driving the forces, she told Sunday Samoan. It is the solution to many different things, for all businesses, for education, we need more of it, its not a difficult concept, its easy to know what it is and I hope the Samoans will use it. Ms. Rata was part of a delegation from W.I.P.O. that was present for the three-day sub-regional workshop on brands and designs for industry and medium and small enterprises (M.S.M.Es) in the Pacific Islands earlier held in Samoa earlier this week. It (I.P.) needs to be done through the legislation and the Samoa Government is already doing that, and theyre also making it easy for you to go abroad through W.I.P.O., which makes it easy and cost effective with one fee, you can designate all the countries you wish to protect your design for example. So the Samoa Government is ready to exceed to this international agreement, so you are in very good hands. Ms. Rata said I.P. can be done in any country, whether its a small or large island. It needs to provide the environment that is conducive to developing ideas, innovation, different designs that are particular to the islands and being able to market it, she said. And that means you should be able to also protect your property so that the other people will not copy and these are important things that everyone needs to know, whether they are small enterprise, micro size or medium size. This is what we are trying to get to everyone who is involved, from the Government, to the businesses, to the associations, everyone who can help, those who are trying to make this work, so that was basically what we were talking about yesterday. Referring to the use of the Fijian word Bula as a trademark for a business in the United States as an example, Ms. Rata said she is not aware of the situation, but if there is a case then the Fijian Government can contest, which is the same for any country. If the Fijian Government feels that it is definitely their own, they can contest it, everyone can use it. What they cannot do is if somebody has registered it is to use it in the same business, and name it the same thing. But if the term itself is very much associated with the country, the country can contest on moral ground and on national interest and pride. And they can reverse the assignment of this term to a company, and they can say this is a Fijian term and it is associated with our national pride or interest then they can contest it, Ms. Rata said. The Government knows how to manage the finances of Samoa Airways, says Minister for Commerce Industry and Labour, Lautafi Selafi Purcell. Lautafi was responding to questions posed by the Samoa Observer on the profitability of the national airline after a year of operation. Now that were a year old, were much smarter, we know how to manage our finances properly, with the resources we have weve managed to come this far, and we can say that we can do a lot more now, he said. With the recent launch of the Samoa Airways Apia-Brisbane service, Lautafi said this was an indication of the Governments vision in identifying routes that would generate more revenue for the country. We wouldnt be going to Brisbane if we didnt think it was going to be a profitable route, he said. It has always been Governments plans to fly the Samoa Airways to other destinations. Lautafi had recently accompanied Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi to launch the new route in Brisbane. So once we have established that its going to be profitable, not only profitable, but theres a service to be provided to people in Brisbane, Lautafi said. And in the future when we expand our fleet, we will be looking at other destinations like Melbourne, Christchurch and Wellington. Its always been planned, he added. Ombudsman Maiava Iulai Toma has praised the Samoa Faafafine Association for continuing to champion human rights in Samoa. Speaking before Samoas Universal Periodic Review Mid-Term Report early in the month, Maiava said the association is legitimate and are genuine. They are a legitimate group of our society in which NHRI Samoa has a genuine interest to promote and to protect their human rights. We as human beings and as Samoans are all entitled to such rights. SFA (Samoa Faafafine Association) has always taken a cautious approach with its advocacy work where it has kept a firm eye on local context and ensured that its work is consistent and upholds the cultural and religious values of Samoa. Such approach has been very successful for the group allowing for greater tolerance and a consolidation of their acceptance by society. This approach is an effective best practice which we as well as the world can learn from, he said. The statement by the Ombudsman set the tone for the Samoa Faafafine Association Universal Periodic Review Mid-Term Report. The outcome of the review will be submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) for its inclusion in Samoas National Mechanism for reporting and follow-up. The SFA, in a posting on their Facebook page, said the review outcome has seen progress in its human-rights-for-all journey. We are proud to announce the outcome of the Review saw tremendous progress by SFA in its Human Rights for All journey which would not have been possible without the support of its stakeholders and allies in Government, Development Partners, Civil Society and Private Sector. Special acknowledgement to the Office of the Ombudsman Maiava Iulai Toma and NHRI Team Loukinikini Vili, Charles Dean and Tracey Mikaele for supporting this important cause for SFA, the association stated in their social media post. KIEV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine's parliament voted Monday to impose martial law in parts of the country to fight what its president called "growing aggression" from Moscow after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. Western leaders and diplomats urged both sides to de-escalate the conflict, and the U.S. blamed Russia for what it called "unlawful conduct" over Sunday's incident in the Black Sea. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other in the dispute that further ratcheted up tensions ever since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine with clandestine support, including troops and weapons. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked lawmakers in Kiev to institute martial law, something the country did not do even during the worst of the fighting in the east that killed about 10,000 people. After a five-hour debate, parliament overwhelmingly approved his proposal, voting to impose martial law for 30 days starting Wednesday morning in 10 of Ukraine's 27 regions those bordering Russia, Belarus and Moldova's pro-Moscow breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester. The locations chosen were ones that Poroshenko identified as potentially in the front line of any Russian attack. The capital of Kiev is not under martial law. Poroshenko said it was necessary because of intelligence about "a highly serious threat of a ground operation against Ukraine." He did not elaborate. "Martial law doesn't mean declaring a war," he said. "It is introduced with the sole purpose of boosting Ukraine's defense in the light of a growing aggression from Russia." Ukraine's Defense Ministry already announced earlier in the day that its troops were on full combat alert in the country. The approved measures included a partial mobilization and strengthening of air defenses. It also contained vaguely worded steps such as "strengthening" anti-terrorism measures and "information security" that could curtail certain rights and freedoms. But Poroshenko also pledged to respect the rights of Ukrainian citizens. His critics reacted to his call for martial law with suspicion, wondering why Sunday's incident merited such a response. Poroshenko's approval ratings have been plunging, and there were concerns that he would postpone a presidential election scheduled for March. Just before the parliament met to vote, Poroshenko sought to allay those fears by releasing a statement revising his original martial law proposal from 60 days to just 30 days, in order to "do away with the pretexts for political speculation." Oksana Syroid, a deputy speaker of parliament, noted that martial law was not introduced in 2014 or 2015 despite large-scale fighting in the east. A state of emergency "would present a wonderful chance to manipulate the presidential elections," she said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Poroshenko assured him that martial law would not have a negative impact on the election. Despite Poroshenko's vow to respect individual rights, opposition lawmaker and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko warned before the vote that his proposal would lead to the possible illegal searches, invasion of privacy and curtailing of free speech. "This means they will be breaking into the houses of Ukrainians and not those of the aggressor nation," noted Tymoshenko, who is leading in various opinion polls. "They will be prying into personal mail, family affairs ... In fact, everything that is written here is a destruction of the lives of Ukrainians." Poroshenko's call also outraged far-right groups in Ukraine that have advocated severing diplomatic ties with Russia. Hundreds of protesters from the National Corps party waved flares in the snowy streets of Kiev outside parliament and accused the president of using martial law to his own ends. But Poroshenko insisted it was necessary because what happened in the Kerch Strait between Crimea and the Russian mainland "was no accident," adding that "this was not the culmination of it yet." Russian coast guard ships fired on the Ukrainian navy vessels near the strait, which separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian seamen and eventually seizing the vessels and their crews. It was the first open military confrontation between the two neighbors since the annexation of Crimea. Ukraine said its vessels were heading to the Sea of Azov in line with international maritime rules, while Russia charged that they had failed to obtain permission to pass through the narrow strait that is spanned by a 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) bridge that Russia completed this year. While a 2003 treaty designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, Russia has sought to assert greater control over the passage since the annexation. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted that the dispute was not an accident and that Russia had engaged in "deliberately planned hostilities," while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed Kiev for what he described as a "provocation," adding that "Ukraine had undoubtedly hoped to get additional benefits from the situation, expecting the U.S. and Europe to blindly take the provocateurs' side." Klimkin told reporters in Kiev that the government is in talks with the Red Cross to make sure the captive seamen are treated as prisoners of war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether the Kremlin considers them prisoners of war. At a U.N. Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged Russia to "immediately cease its unlawful conduct" in the Black Sea. In his first public remarks since the confrontation, President Donald Trump did not specifically call out Russia's behavior. "We do not like what's happening, either way, we don't like what's happening and hopefully it will get straightened out," Trump said. Anne Gueguen, the French deputy permanent representative at the U.N., urged the release of the sailors and the vessels. But Russia called Ukraine's actions "dangerous." Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council the incident was another example of Ukrainian leaders trying to provoke Russia for political purposes. The European Union and NATO called for restraint from both sides. NATO said Stoltenberg expressed the U.S.-led military alliance's "full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law." German Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke by telephone with Poroshenko to express her concerns and emphasize the need for de-escalation and dialogue, her office said. British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman, James Slack, said the incident was "further evidence of Russia's destabilizing behavior in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity." The Chinese indentured labourers of the early 20th century in Samoa are rarely discussed today, but they are at the heart of a photography and archival exhibit at the Museum of Samoa from tomorrow. The exhibition, by guest curator and Chinese Samoan Ronna Lee, is launching tomorrow evening with an invite-only documentary screening and panel discussion on the waves of migration of Chinese to Samoa. There are so many Samoans with Chinese ancestry, but not many if any, know the story of the history of Chinese in Samoa, Ms Lee said. Dragons in Paradise is a documentary released early this year, directed by Tuki Laumea, and features Ms Lee, former Attorney general Tuatagaloa Aumua Ming Leung Wai and other familiar faces on the story of indentured labourers from China and how they were treated here. Dr Safua Akeli, director for the centre for Samoan Studies of the National University of Samoa, Dr Taomi Tapu-Qiliho, academic director of the US World Learning SIT Program, Tuatagaloa and a Chinese scholar will discuss the impact of Samoan migration then and now. A tension in Samoa about Chinese business owners means difficult conversations just have to happen, Ms Lee said. The seminar is all about asking academics, how do we begin to integrate the new wave of Chinese into faasamoa, and asking the hard questions. The exhibition is about indentured Chinese labourers, but its opening is an opportunity to look at Samoas present and future as well. The first two waves of Chinese migrants were well assimilated into Faasamoa, and they were a part of Samoan community. The recent arrivals of Chinese are not as assimilated, she said. The conversations need to steer more towards how to we integrate the new wave of Chinese, she said. Ms Lee said hopefully, by telling the story of indentured labourers, the new wave of Chinese migrants learn about the Chinese that came before them and how they integrated into society, as well as the hardships they endured. The labourers, brought by the German administration to work their plantations from 1903 suffered harsh working conditions and minimal civic rights. This is a part of history that has been fossilised in pages gathering dust on bookshelves, Ms Lee said. I am just a curious Samoan Chinese girl interested in bringing out this issue from bookshelves and illustrating it for anyone who is interested. AMSTERDAM (AP) A scale model of a flying drone-car drove and hovered across an Amsterdam exhibition hall Tuesday, providing a glimpse of what could be the future of urban mobility. The "Pop.Up Next" prototype drone, being developed by aviation giant Airbus, automaker Audi and the Italdesign design house is made up of three separate modules a chassis with wheels, a two-seat capsule for passengers and a four-rotor drone. The concept has been shown before, but a one-quarter-size scale model made its maiden public flight at the Amsterdam Drone Week convention. First, the drone flew across the hall and landed on a black parking spot. Then a small car drove itself underneath the drone and its passenger capsule was lifted up to latch onto the underside of the drone. Once the two were docked, the drone lifted off again and flew back to its starting point, where the capsule was lowered onto another set of wheels to continue its journey. The model's test flight went off without a hitch, but don't plan on hailing such an airborne ride any time soon. There are several steps to be taken before the Pop.Up Next, or a future iteration of the drone, is ready for commercial use. "For this we need to tick a list of boxes - the vehicle is one, safety is the overarching one, infrastructure is one, acceptability is another one," said Airbus executive Jean Brice Dumont. "I think it will take more than a decade until a real significant, massive deployment of an air taxi system" is ready. One serious competitor plans to be ready even earlier. Uber unveiled an artist's impression a year ago of a sleek machine it hopes to start using for demonstration flights in 2020 and to have in service in 2023. Uber's battery-powered aircraft looks like a cross between a small plane and a helicopter, with fixed wings and rotors. Meanwhile, a Dutch company has developed its own flying vehicle called the PAL-V Liberty that is a three-wheeled, two-seat car and gyroplane rolled into one. At the Amsterdam convention, European regulators also are discussing how to keep the continent's airspace safe as more and more drones take to the skies. European Union rules are expected to come into force next year harmonizing drone regulations across the 28-nation bloc. "As this industry is rapidly expanding, it is important for us to anticipate market developments and be prepared for change," said Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Aviation Safety Agency. KIEV, Ukraine (AP) The Kremlin warned Tuesday that a simmering war in eastern Ukraine could boil over after Russia seized three Ukrainian ships and Kiev responded by declaring martial law in parts of the country. Russia paraded the captured seamen on television, a move that Ukraine called criminal. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for Sunday's confrontation in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The clash has raised the specter of renewing a full-blown conflict in eastern Ukraine and saw Russia strongly criticized at the United Nations by the United States and its allies. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday adopted a motion by the president to impose martial law for 30 days. That is something Ukraine avoided doing even when Russia annexed its nearby Crimean peninsula in 2014 or sent in clandestine troops and weapons to insurgents in war-torn eastern Ukraine. On Sunday near Crimea, Russian border guards rammed into and opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels traveling from the Black Sea toward a Ukrainian port. The Russians seized the ships and their crews. Ukraine considers the 24 captured men to be prisoners of war and says some have been seriously injured, while Russia says they are individuals who have violated its border. The Kremlin reacted strongly to Ukraine's declaration of martial law, with Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, telling reporters Tuesday that it might trigger a flare-up in hostilities in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014, a conflict that has left over 10,000 dead, but fighting has eased since a truce in 2015. The martial law formally went into effect on Monday in several parts of Ukraine, including areas bordering territory now held by the separatists. The Russian intelligence agency FSB claimed the ships had Ukrainian SBU intelligence agents onboard with a mission to mount what they called "provocation" in the Kerch Strait. The strait is spanned by a new bridge that Russia completed this year the only land link from the Russian mainland to the annexed peninsula of Crimea. The SBU on Tuesday confirmed it had officers on the ships but denied any nefarious intentions, saying they were simply fulfilling counterintelligence operations for the Ukrainian navy. The SBU also demanded that Russia stop using "psychological and physical pressure" on the Ukrainians an apparent reference to interviews of the crewmembers that Russia released late Monday. The video broadcast by Russian state television showed three separate interviews with Ukrainian seamen, all of whom agreed with Russian claims that they violated its border. It was not immediately possible to ascertain if the men were talking under duress or had been subject to violence. One of them was clearly reading from a script prepared for them. Ukraine's foreign minister told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he has asked the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross to arrange a visit to the Ukrainian prisoners and he's waiting for a Russian response. He said some of the seamen on the seized ships had been seriously injured in the clash with Russia. "It's not a political issue here, because we can have an argument about the legal status, but it's about simply concentrating on protecting them and helping them," Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the AP. When asked about the Ukrainian seamen broadcasts on Russian TV, Klimkin said "even to put prisoners of war on television is already a crime." A court in Crimea on Tuesday ordered that one of the Ukrainians be kept in custody pending a trial. He could be sent to prison for six years if found guilty. Rulings for possible arrest of 11 more Ukrainian seamen are expected later in the day while the court will rule on the remaining 12 on Wednesday. Ukraine said its vessels were heading to the Sea of Azov in line with international maritime rules, while Russia charged that they had failed to obtain permission to pass through the narrow Kerch Strait. Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on the phone early Tuesday, and the Russian president expressed a "serious concern" about what the martial law in Ukraine might entail. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Tuesday that Berlin has "called on Russia and Ukraine to show the greatest possible restraint" and suggested that Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine could work together to resolve the tensions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was visiting Paris on Tuesday, rejected that offer, saying that he did not see "a need for any kind of mediators." He spoke after meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who appeared to soften his criticism of Russia's seizure of the ships. Shortly after Russian border guards seized the Ukrainian ships off Crimea, France's Foreign Ministry said "nothing justifies" Russia's use of force. But after long talks with Lavrov in Paris, Le Drian blamed the ship standoff on the "high level of militarization" in the region and avoided pointing the finger at Russia. The United States and the European Union have slapped sanctions on Russian businesses, tycoons and banks for Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Vistas DJO Global has been sold for $3.15 billion in cash by investors led by the Blackstone Group to Colfax Corp, a diversified technology company in Maryland. Sale of the orthopedic products company, announced Nov. 19, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. DJO employs 5,000 people companywide, with about 500 in Vista. Revenue amounts to $1 billion annually. It will operate as a new segment within Colfax, led by Brady Shirley, DJOs president and CEO. DJO has a long history in North County. It began in 1978 by selling neoprene sleeve supports for the knee, ankle and elbow, but really made its mark by selling rigid but light knee braces. It later branched into other areas of rehabilitation and injury prevention. Advertisement Colfax, which is new to the medical industry, indicated it plans to make more investment in the field. Colfax said in a statement that as it expands in the medical field, it is considering getting out of its businesses in air and gas products. We are committed to reducing leverage and restoring balance sheet flexibility near-term and will explore strategic options for our Air and Gas Handling business, said Matt Trerotola, Colfaxs CEO. Longer term, we see tremendous opportunities to build our new medical technology platform with additional investment. Shirley said he was looking forward to that growth. Colfax has the financial strength, experience, and proven business system to support our operational performance and growth, Shirley said. Importantly, they are committed to our mission to get and keep people moving, and we are confident that the Colfax teams operating expertise across a broad array of businesses makes them the ideal partner to help us build on our momentum, drive new levels of innovation,and continue to deliver outstanding service to our customers. Colfax shares closed at $24.61 on Monday, giving it a market value of about $2.9 billion. Its considered undervalued by Chicago-based research company Morningstar, which gives it a fair market value of $31.68 per share. DJO was founded as DonJoy in 1978 in a Carlsbad garage by Mark Nordquist, the then-Philadelphia Eagles offensive line captain, and Ken Reed, a San Diego attorney. They named the company after their wives, Donna and Joy. In 1998 the company moved to Vista, where it has remained ever since. Along the way, DJO has had a number of owners, including British medical products company Smith & Nephew; independent life as a publicly traded company, and in 2007, the Blackstone Group. Blackstone paid $1.6 billion for DJO, which was merged with another Blackstone company, ReAble Therapeutics. DJOs executives were put in charge of the combined company. DJO also operates a production plant in Tijuana. That began in the early 2000s, as soaring costs pushed the company into the red. Hundreds were laid off at DJO, then a publicly traded company. Those left mainly produced custom-fitted braces for rush orders. The cost-cutting worked, and the company started making a profit again. It also began developing new products to fuel growth, such as devices to stimulate bone healing with electricity and magnetism. Related reading Brace maker DJO Global soars under radar A bracing milestone for DJO Vista medical equipment company agrees to buyout Science Playlist On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1020 U.S. health officials said Monday that they plan to overhaul the nations decades-old system for approving most medical devices, which experts have long criticized for failing to catch problems with risky implants and instruments. The Food and Drug Administration announced plans aimed at making sure new medical devices reflect up-to-date safety and effectiveness features. The system targeted by the actions generally allows manufacturers to launch new products based on similarities to decades-old products, not new clinical testing. The FDAs move came the day after the publication of a global investigation into medical device safety by more than 50 media organizations, including the Associated Press. Led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the group found that more than 1.7 million injuries and nearly 83,000 deaths suspected of being linked to medical devices had been reported to the FDA over a 10-year period. Advertisement RELATED: How a medical device maker kept U.S. hospitals in the dark about deadly infections We believe that newer devices should be compared to the benefits and risks of more modern technology, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. Gottlieb said the changes under consideration would push companies to compare their devices to more up-to-date technology rather than referencing decades-old products. Some of the reforms proposed by the FDA could take years to implement, in some cases requiring new guidelines and regulations for manufacturers. And the most substantive changes could require action by Congress. The FDAs framework for clearing more than 95% of devices on the U.S. market dates to 1976 and has long been criticized in reports from government watchdogs and independent medical experts. Unlike new pharmaceuticals which are tested in patient studies most medical devices only have to show that they are similar to devices already on the market. Only a handful of truly new devices must undergo extensive clinical testing to verify they are safe and effective. Defective devices cleared through the streamlined system have included hip replacements that failed prematurely, surgical mesh linked to pain and bleeding and a surgical instrument that inadvertently spread uterine cancer. As generations of devices have been cleared via the FDAs main review process, medical products have become increasingly complex and often barely resemble the decades-old predicates they claim to reference. Devices cleared through this system, known as the 510(k), include imaging scanners, computerized drug pumps, artificial joints and spinal implants. In 2011, an Institute of Medicine panel recommended that the flawed system be replaced because it does not actually establish safety and effectiveness. At the time the FDA said it disagreed with the groups recommendations. The Advanced Medical Technology Assn., the industrys chief lobbying group, said in a statement that some of the FDAs proposals could prove arbitrary. While we believe the 510(k) pathway has proven its effectiveness over the years, we have always maintained that any process can be improved, the group said. UPDATES: 10 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details. This article was originally published at 8:25 a.m. The migrant caravan crisis that led to a five-hour closure in both directions of the busy San Ysidro Port of Entry on Sunday highlighted the far-reaching economic impact such disruptions can have on the San Diego region from potential labor shortages to substantial business losses among border-area merchants. San Ysidro shop owners alone lost an estimated $5.3 million in sales as a result of the temporary shutdown, with some fearing that any future closures will put them out of business. While there are multiple ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, San Ysidro is the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere. About 70,000 vehicles and 25,000 pedestrians move between the two countries each day. The Sunday shutdown occurred after hundreds of migrants made a rush to the U.S. border and were met by federal authorities deploying tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Advertisement President Donald Trump early Monday morning sent out a tweet threatening to close the border. His comments have raised fears of future closings that threaten to disrupt the local cross-border economy. Here is what we know about how the local economy is affected when there are disruptions and delays at the U.S.-Mexican border in San Diego. How much business flows across the border? Across the entire border, you have more than 1 million crossings a day, $1.6 billion in two-way trade every day, said Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Washington D.C.-based Wilson Center. So if you did see, as Trump threatened this morning that he would permanently shut the U.S.- Mexico border, youd be looking at disastrous, catastrophic losses on both sides of the border. On a daily basis, commercial exchange between San Diego and Tijuana in sectors from tourism to manufacturing is estimated at $2.1 million. Prior to a $741 million expansion last year at the San Ysidro port, the San Diego Association of Governments predicted an 87 percent increase in vehicle traffic by 2030 in the San Ysidro area. What types of goods and services are coming across the border? In addition to agricultural goods, the San Diego-Baja California region is a manufacturing juggernaut, with nearly 600 export manufacturing plants and 50 contract manufacturing options within a 15-mile radius south of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. It is estimated that $42 billion worth of goods are imported and exported at Otay Mesa each year, according to the Smart Border Coalition. Manufacturing components and equipment in such sectors as medical devices, electronics, automotive, plastics, aerospace, ship building and pharmaceuticals are regularly crisscrossing the border. According to Jock OConnell, international trade adviser for Beacon Economics, a research and consulting firm based in Los Angeles, most trade between Mexico and the U.S. goes through Texas but the impact statewide is sizable. In California, Mexico is our top export market, by far, OConnell said, citing that in the first nine months of this year, trade with Mexico accounted for 17.3 percent of all of Californias exports. So California has a strong need to keep borders functioning efficiently. What businesses are most vulnerable? In San Ysidro alone, the Chamber of Commerce counts 650 businesses in its ZIP code, most of them small. A vast majority of the mom and pops make the bulk of their profit between Nov. 20 and Jan. 5, said Jason Wells, the chambers executive director. Wells estimated about 75 percent of San Ysidros businesses, including the popular Las Americas Premium Outlets, decided to close Sunday. It was a decision they didnt make lightly, Wells said. The perimeter of their parking lot is the border wall, so anything happening at the border can affect customers and employees Ive got many businesses who wouldnt survive two more days of this. Its that critical. Stores re-opened Monday but Wells said foot traffic in the early afternoon was slower than normal. Even before the weekend closure, sales were down 35 percent as many of the lanes at San Ysidro were closed in anticipation of the arrival of Central American immigrants. No one wants to cross and (worry) that while Im there they shut down the border, Wells said. Construction trades, landscaping companies, and hospitality businesses, including hotels and restaurants, are affected when there are severe delays at the border because many have employees who live in Tijuana. How many workers need to cross to get to jobs in San Diego? It is difficult to quantify how many workers cross the border each day. One estimate is that about a third of those arriving by car and on foot are coming to jobs in San Diego. Unite Here, the union that represents hotel and hospitality workers, estimates at least 15 percent of its members are crossing the border to work in San Diego. The tourism economy would be devastated if there was a complete shutdown, said Unite Here Local 30 president Brigette Browning. These are the jobs that non-immigrants will not perform, the hardest ones, like housekeeping and the dishwashers. How are businesses in San Diego coping? Like other hotels, the Loews Coronado Bay Resort was affected by the Sunday shutdown when some employees were absent from work. We have team members who live in Tijuana and legally work at Loews Coronado Bay Resort, said hotel Managing Director Sean Clancy. The border closures have obviously resulted in some delays, and a few work absences. Commute times have been extended, and in the case of yesterdays border closure, several of our team members were concerned about how they would get home. Some stayed at the hotel overnight last night to avoid the border entirely. Clarke Ramsey, president of LePerv Landscape Inc. in San Diego, also said the border shutdown led to some tardy arrivals and work no-shows. About 20 percent of his 30 employees live in Tijuana, he said. It definitely hurts us, Ramsey said. The first thing I had to do this morning was send out emails saying we wouldnt be at their properties. People understand it because theyve seen this on the news. Im already trying to come up with solutions, like do we have a place to rent a house for four or five people who need to stay overnight. The San Diego Convention Center Corp., which has about 50 full- and part-time employees who cross the border, has a break room with comfy bean bag-like seating for those workers who arrive early and need a place to relax before their shifts start or need to wait before heading back home across the border. Many of our staff have also made connections with those who live here in San Diego so that they have accommodations to stay here if they need to, said corporation spokeswoman Barbara Moreno. What about trucks? Where will all of that traffic go? The crossing at Otay Mesa is the single largest gateway for commercial trucks moving across California and Mexico and is the second-largest truck port along the entire U.S. border with Mexico. In 2017, the Otay Port of Entry recorded 9.27 million northbound vehicles crossings and 17 million crossings that included passengers and pedestrians. But the Otay Mesa facility is considerably smaller than the port at San Ysidro, which racked up 32.17 million passenger and pedestrians crossings. That means if San Ysidro is closed for an extended period of time, travelers could not simply drive east to Otay Mesa to cross the border without experiencing significant delays. Otay cannot handle San Ysidros traffic, said Paola Avila, vice president of international business affairs at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. We know border wait times on their own cost our economy billions of dollars. What about tourism from Mexico? Visitors from Mexico fuel a tourism economy that benefits all Californians, said Caroline Beteta, president & CEO of Visit California, the states tourist office. Mexico is by far Californias top international market, responsible for more than 40 percent of Californias international visitor volume and $3.1 billion of visitor spending every year. Last year San Diego welcomed more than 4.7 million day and overnight visitors from Mexico. They spent an estimated $360.4 million while here, according to Warren L. Skip Hull, vice president of CIC Research. What now? Representatives of various industries, government agencies, and business groups are already meeting and communicating with one another regularly to be prepared in the event of more border disruptions. Just last week, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted such a meeting to address how to minimize the impact on the workforce and share ideas. San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer is in Washington D.C. through Tuesday, meeting with the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal officials on cross-border relations. In an email to the Union-Tribune, Faulconer said he will urge our leaders to work more collaboratively with Mexico to help resolve this issue as quickly and humanely as possible by providing increased border staffing and more resources to process those who are truly seeking asylum. Los Angeles Times reporter Margot Roosevelt contributed to this report. Business rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski On the 13th floor of a San Diego high-rise, the millennial-laden tech startup Classy is buzzing with energy. Amidst balloons and celebratory banners, a big screen TV is tracking dollars as they roll through Classys website. Its only 2 p.m. and the local startup has already raised over $9 million today. Thats because today is Giving Tuesday, the Black Friday of the charity world. First coined by social activists in 2012, do-gooders around the globe have embraced the idea of donating to causes like disaster relief, cancer research and other charitable organizations on this day (which directly follows the mass consumerism of the post-Thanksgiving season). Its estimated that hundreds of millions were raised for social good during 2017. Here in San Diego, a significant amount of those online contributions go through Classys platform. On Giving Tuesday last year, Classy helped procure over $10 million in one day. This time, theyre expecting $15 million to roll through its platform over 24 hours. That compares to roughly $1.5 million on an average day over the past few months, according to a company spokesperson. The company is one of surprisingly many local tech startups trying to change the world by modernizing, funding and spreading the word about nonprofit work. Advertisement Startups are leaning towards social enterprise missions at a macro level like never before, said Classys CEO Scot Chisholm. When people are looking at the next problem to solve, theyre not looking at the next gaming mobile app. Theyre looking at stuff that has real world applications. San Diego has an interesting concentration of social impact startups, especially in the software world. Besides Classy, which is currently valued at $150 million, the city is also the founding home of GoFundMe, the crowdfunding platform that helps people raise money for charitable causes and other events. Although the tech startup eventually moved up to the Bay Area, GoFundMe still maintains a large office in San Diego and acquired CrowdRise, yet another San Diego-based crowdfunding platform for nonprofits and charities, in 2017. That startup was considered a local tech success, valued at $91 million by PitchBook as of their latest fundraising round in 2015. Jeffrey Wolfe, who co-founded CrowdRise, said hes been surprised happily so with the new popularity for doing social good in the startup world. I dont think people realize it, but San Diego is at the center of social impact tech and its been amazing to play our part in that story, Wolfe said. He added that CrowdRise wanted to make donating more fun for a younger generation, using tools like augmented reality to make fundraising more engaging. We didnt think it would actually work but it did, he said. Giving Tuesday was always our biggest day of the year for charitable giving. Besides the big tech startups in this space, San Diego is home to several smaller social good startups such as Benefunder, which is creating a marketplace for philanthropists looking to donate to social causes, and GameChangers 500, which ranks and profiles social impact companies. And its difficult to walk through local coworking spaces like DeskHub, Downtown Works or Connect without bumping into socially-conscious founders. There seem to be a lot of early entrepreneurs interested in this space, said Neal Bloom, chairman of nonprofit Startup San Diego. Blooms work takes him to startup hubs across the country, with lots of time spent in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In comparison, he says San Diegos business culture is more mission driven. San Diego is under-the-radar, unassuming, give-before-you-get kind of people, he says. And I think the SD culture just calls for more people like that. For an in-depth talk on social good in San Diego and Classys growth, check out Blooms recent podcast interview with Classy CEO Scot Chisholm. Business brittany.meiling@sduniontribune.com 619-293-1286 Twitter: @BrittanyMeiling A woman killed over the weekend in a fiery desert crash has been identified as a much-loved Oceanside native who worked 13 years in the citys Police Department. Brett Ann Gregory, 53, worked 10 years as a community service officer in the departments front office, where she helped people with police reports, fingerprints and other walk-in services. She became a 911 emergency dispatcher in 2015. She dealt with the public with grace and dignity, said Bonnie Stauffer, communications supervisor for the Police Department. She was loved by all. Theres not a better person that I know. Gregory was on her way to meet her family for a weekend campout when the collision occurred, Stauffer said. Advertisement Her favorite place was the desert, she said. She loved Ocotillo Wells. She was an amazing person. Gregory was driving on state Route 78 near Ocotillo Wells when another vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed drifted across the double-yellow lines and hit her car head-on about 7 p.m. Saturday, according to law enforcement officials. Cal Fire crews found the bodies of both drivers in the vehicles after they arrived to douse the flames. There were no other occupants. Neither driver has been officially identified yet, an employee of the San Diego County Medical Examiners Office said Tuesday. The incident remains under investigation. Gregorys father, Joe Gregory, was an Oceanside firefighter who retired in 1984. He and his wife, Paula, have been married 50 years. Their family is a big part of Oceanside, Stauffer said. They know everybody. Survivors also include Brett Gregorys two children and two grandchildren, including a grandson born three days before the collision, and her fiance, Mike Kennard, philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @phildiehl The San Ysidro school board has agreed to pay $107,000 to a former special education director who sued the district after she was let go abruptly in 2016. The school board voted 3-0 on Nov. 8 to authorize the payment to Danielle Clark. Trustees Marcos Diaz and Antonio Martinez were absent. The matter was part of the boards consent calendar and wasnt discussed. Almost three weeks later, however, the case against the district is not quite resolved. Clark hasnt accepted the amount, and negotiations to settle the case are ongoing, district officials said. Advertisement Clarks lawyer, Robert Bartosh, said only that the amount approved by the board falls short of the amount required to be paid as part of the judgment a judge issued. Clark had been employed by the district for five months when she was dismissed. She was sent a letter dated Oct. 24, 2016, that stated she was being released from her probationary position, effective immediately. The notice came 11 days after she received a certificate that honored her hard work and dedication to the students, staff and community of San Ysidro District, according to a wrongful termination lawsuit she filed in February 2017. Clark argued she was not given a reason for her dismissal. The termination letter she received did not cite a state Education Code section or provide grounds for her immediate dismissal. The districts lawyers contended the district was not required to provide Clark with an advance notice or a reason for her termination, arguing she was considered an administrator hired on probationary status. In April, Superior Court Judge John Meyer sided with Clark. Under the state Education Code, he said, probationary employees can be dismissed without cause at the end of a school year only if the district provides them with an advance notice on or before March 15. In Clarks case, that didnt happen. Following the court ruling, Meyer ordered the district to pay Clark salary and benefits to cover the 10-month period in which she was unemployed. She started working as a special education coordinator for the Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County on Aug. 28, 2017, according to court documents. During a closed-door meeting in May, the San Ysidro school board voted 3-0 to settle the lawsuit brought by Clark. Trustees Irene Lopez and Antonio Martinez were absent. According to the nonprofit Transparent Californias online database of public employee pay and pension data, Clark was paid $56,500 in salary and benefits during her short stint in San Ysidro. Clarks termination occurred under the leadership of former Superintendent Julio Fonseca, who resigned in September 2017. A state audit completed in June found he was overpaid more than $160,000 in vacation and insurance payouts over the two years he was at the helm. Clark is not the first former employee who alleged wrongful termination under Fonsecas leadership. Jose Enrique Gonzalez, who worked as coordinator of program development and school services between October 2015 and January 2016, accused Fonseca of firing him after he spoke out about an alleged relationship between the then-superintendent and a woman the board hired. The school board agreed to give Gonzalez, who filed a claim against the district, $113,000 in severance pay in an apparent effort to avoid a lawsuit. Under the guidance of Superintendent Gina Potter, who took over in May as the first permanent leader to succeed Fonseca, the district of about 5,000 students has taken steps to steady the ship. Asked for comment, the district didnt specifically address the matter involving Clark. The districts new leadership is diligently working to close past issues in a concerted effort to bring stability and success to our students, spokesman Francisco Mata said in a statement. Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com Phone: (619) 293-1876 Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez A woman in her 60s was killed and her husband was hospitalized after a fire engulfed the couples townhouse just steps from the sand in Long Beach late Monday. Heavy smoke was billowing from the two-story residence on 38th Place when firefighters arrived about 11:30 p.m., authorities said. A man who was outside told firefighters that his wife was trapped in the home, Long Beach firefighter Jake Heflin told reporters at the scene. Firefighters pulled the woman from the building, and she was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her husband was taken to a hospital in moderate condition, Heflin said. Fifty firefighters who were battling the blaze eventually got the fire under control and prevented it from spreading to nearby homes, authorities said. Residences on both sides of the townhouse sustained water damage. Advertisement Fire officials are investigating what sparked the blaze. At 11:28 pm .@lbfd arrived at an apartment complex on 38th Place in Belmont Shore. Heavy fire was reported from the involved unit with a person trapped. The pt. was rescued but unfortunately died from her injuries. Her husband was also taken to the hospital in moderate condition. pic.twitter.com/YQRZEx72Gq Long Beach Fire (CA) (@LBFD) November 27, 2018 hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday to overturn the murder conviction of a Los Angeles man who became mentally unstable during his trial. Domingo Rodas was convicted of killing Keith Fallin and attempting to kill two other homeless men in 2009 during a series of random stabbings on Hollywood streets over two months. Rodas, who suffers from severe psychiatric disorders, was initially found incompetent to stand trial. He spent several months in a state psychiatric hospital receiving medication before his doctors said he was restored to competency. They warned, however, that his symptoms would return if he stopped taking anti-psychotic and mood-stabilizing medications. Advertisement In March 2013, after a jury had been selected but before opening statements, Rodas lawyer told L.A. Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry that she doubted whether her client was mentally fit to stand trial. Rodas appeared deluded and spoke in what his attorney called a word salad. Perry briefly questioned Rodas, who admitted he had stopped taking his medication, and then allowed the trial to proceed. Rodas was sentenced to life without parole for the killing and two other life sentences for the attempted murders. In a decision written by Justice Leondra R. Kruger, the state high court said Perry should have suspended the trial when doubts were raised about Rodas competency and conducted an evaluation. When a formerly incompetent defendant is stabilized solely or primarily by medication, evidence that he or she has stopped taking the prescribed drugs and become unstable requires a investigation, the court said. Given the circumstances, the trial court erred by proceeding with trial without undertaking the required formal inquiry into defendants competence, Kruger wrote. The court said Rodas may be retried on the murder and attempted murder charges if he is deemed mentally competent. maura.dolan@latimes.com Twitter: @mauradolan Two Los Angeles carwashes must pay more than $1 million to employees who said they were paid as little as $4.50 an hour, the Los Angeles city attorneys office announced Tuesday. Silver Lake Car Wash Inc., at 3595 Beverly Blvd., and Catalina Car Wash Inc., at 4000 Beverly, will offer between $17,000 and $40,000 in back pay to employees who reported wage theft, City Atty. Mike Feuer said. As part of the settlement, the two businesses and their supervisor, Yoosef Aminpour, also agreed to pay $519,027 in civil penalties and $35,996 in attorney fees. Think of the magnitude of those awards, Feuer said. This is going to change the lives of the workers we sought to protect in this case. The settlement comes nearly a year after the city attorneys office filed a lawsuit alleging employees at the two carwashes were paid as little as $45 a day for 10 hours or more of work with no overtime pay or breaks. The suit said the two businesses falsified payroll records to underreport the work hours of about 60 employees. Advertisement Workers also said they had to buy their own boots and gloves because the carwashes did not provide safety equipment. Feuer said the allegations were not proved in court and the settlement comes from an informal agreement. Its very challenging to expect the average worker to have the guts to come forward, said Feuer, who commended employees who made the initial reports and urged other workers to speak up about wage theft. We need to embrace them and let them know well give them the help they need. Trinidad Dominguez, one of the employees, said he was grateful for the outcome. Thank you to the team thats here, he said in Spanish, addressing reporters at a news conference. I cant say more. I am completely happy. Thank you. Thats all I can say. Dominguez, who still works at one of the carwashes, didnt answer questions about the working conditions at the businesses or other allegations in the lawsuit. Feuer declined to say whether immigration status may have deterred employees from speaking out. The two businesses will be monitored for four years to ensure they comply with wage laws and provide necessary safety equipment to employees. A violation during that time is subject to contempt of court, Feuer said. alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com Twitter: @r_valejandra Authorities are trying to determine the motivations and background of a 32-year-old Seattle man who allegedly tried to run down two men outside of a synagogue in Hancock Park last week in an attack that police have described as a hate crime. Mohamed Mohamed Abdi was arrested outside of Congregation Bais Yehuda in the 300 block of La Brea Avenue Friday night and held on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he yelled a number of anti-Semitic insults and barreled his car toward the two men around 9 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Horace Frank said. Abdi was driving a rental car past the synagogue when he began yelling profanity at a group of worshipers near La Brea and Oakwood Avenues, Frank said. Concerned by Abdis actions, two men walked away from the larger group but kept their eyes trained on Abdi, who then made a U-turn and ran a red light while accelerating toward them, Frank said. The two men managed to evade him, and Abdi crashed into a parked car a short time later. Advertisement That monitoring, that vigilance, saved their lives, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said at a news conference Monday. No one was injured at the scene, and Abdi is being held in lieu of $55,000 at Mens Central Jail downtown, police said. A knife was found in Abdis car, but Frank said police do not believe he owns any firearms. Frank expects the LAPD will ask the Los Angeles County district attorneys office to pursue assault charges against Abdi. The department is working in conjunction with the FBIs Los Angeles field office to investigate Abdi, and federal prosecutors may consider possible hate crime or domestic terror charges against him. Mohamed Mohamed Abdi was arrested for asault with deadly weapon with a vehicle. (LAPD) The attack comes in the wake of increasing concerns about anti-Semitic vitriol and violence across the U.S. The number of hate crimes targeting Jewish victims across the nation rose by 37% in 2017, according to an FBI report published earlier this month, and in October a gunman shot and killed 11 people inside a Pittsburgh synagogue. Earlier this month, the LAPD also arrested a man who was snatching coverings off the heads of Orthodox Jewish women in North Hollywood. But hate crimes in Los Angeles are relatively static this year, Frank said. There were 223 reported hate crimes in the city at this time in 2017, compared with 231 this year, he said. Police have not established any links between Abdi and known terror or hate groups, but Frank cautioned the departments investigation was in its earliest stages. Moore said the national uptick in hate and bigotry has become an increasing concern for law enforcement leaders, as they try to contend with what happens after a person decides to turn their racist thoughts to action. Hate in America is on the rise. That has to change, Moore said. A native of Mogadishu in Somalia, Abdi is a U.S. citizen who emigrated to the Seattle area several years ago, Frank said. He rented a car and drove to Los Angeles sometime last week, though it was not clear if he knew anyone in the area or why he came to the city. Investigators did not say if Abdi specifically targeted Congregation Bais Yehuda. A call to the synagogue seeking comment Monday was not returned, and the Seattle Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what, if any, history they had with Abdi. Frank said Abdis chosen method of attack driving toward a crowd of pedestrians and the fact that he was carrying a knife were very concerning. He noted that Abdis actions mirror those of other terror attacks in recent years, where so-called lone wolf assailants have used a rented vehicle rather than a firearm or explosive device to cause carnage in open spaces. Last November, a man accused of supporting Islamic State extremists used a rented U-Haul truck to kill eight people near a bike path in New York City. The spate of anti-Semitic attacks have left some in the citys Jewish community fearful. Matthew Kest, the security coordinator for Young Israel of Hancock Park, said one of his congregants was riding a bicycle to the synagogue earlier this month when a man came up to him and shouted, The Jews wont be around for long. Kest expressed concern that media coverage of one anti-Semitic attack might motivate other bigots to act on their hate. Some of the things that they say we shouldnt be doing is releasing the perpetrators name, because they are looking for fame, he said. james.queally@latimes.com Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California. UPDATES: 4:15 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details of the incident and comments from Chief Moore. This article first published at 3:10 p.m. A woman who fatally stabbed a female acquaintance during an argument at an El Cajon bus stop pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter. Superior Court Judge Robert Amador indicated he would hand down a two-year prison sentence for 24-year-old Alaya Michelle Jenkins, according to Deputy District Attorney Carlos Campbell. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 20 in El Cajon Superior Court. The prosecutor said Jenkins and the victim Leia Anderson, 34 knew each other from encounters in the same homeless circles and had a prior disagreement, but it wasnt clear what the argument at the bus stop was about. Advertisement The fatal encounter happened about 3 p.m. last Jan. 16 on West Madison Avenue near Magnolia Avenue. El Cajon police Lt. Walt Miller said Anderson was a passenger in a car that pulled up to a bus stop where Jenkins was sitting. Anderson and her dog, a pit bull, got out of the vehicle, Miller said. The two women argued, and Jenkins stabbed the victim with a knife in the upper and lower body before fleeing. Anderson and the dog got back in the vehicle and the driver took her to a hospital, where she died, Miller said. Jenkins was arrested the next day at a nearby hotel. She was initially charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. This year, one particular San Diego County school district has been earning attention from education experts across the state and the country for high academic performance: Chula Vista Elementary. Last school year, 64 percent of the districts students met or exceeded state standards in English language arts and 52 percent did so in math. Thats better than the county and state averages for both subjects in the elementary school grades. On the California School Dashboard, the tool the state uses to measure school quality, Chula Vista was green the second-highest performance ranking in every category. It has a below-average suspension rate of less than 1 percent and 78 percent of its English learners are making progress every year on learning the language. If you look at a list of the highest test scores among school districts in San Diego County, there are noticeable differences between Chula Vista Elementary and those other districts, which include Del Mar Union Elementary, Solana Beach Elementary, Cardiff Elementary, Encinitas Union Elementary, Poway Unified and Coronado Unified. Advertisement Chula Vista was the only higher-performing one in San Diego County that did not have mostly well-off students. More than half of the districts 23,412 students come from low-income families, while 30 percent or about 6,900 students are English learners, according to 2017-2018 state enrollment data. The other highest-performing districts, on the other hand, all had wealthier families, such as Poway Unified, with only 18 percent of students coming from low-income families, and Rancho Santa Fe Elementary, where only 33 of its 639 students last year were from low-income families. Chula Vista Elementary Superintendent Francisco Escobedo has led the district for more than eight years, a longer-than-normal tenure for a superintendent. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune) Chula Vista is also one of the only racially diverse districts among the countys highest performers. All but 12 percent of Chula Vistas district students are students of color, including 11 percent Filipino students and 67 percent Hispanic or Latino students. The district has been getting recognition from some of the most prominent education think tanks. The national Learning Policy Institute is conducting a study of the district because it identified Chula Vista as a positive outlier among California schools, meaning its students perform high in achievement after controlling for income, said Linda Darling-Hammond, president and CEO of the institute. Education Trust West, an Oakland-based organization that focuses on education equity, has also highlighted the districts high performance and attributed its success to its intense dual-language approach and autonomy for individual schools. Chula Vista was also the only school district in San Diego County and one of 23 statewide to be named an exemplary district this year by the California Department of Education. Chula Vista has done a tremendous job in aligning resources to meet student needs, particularly dedicating dollars through your Local Control and Accountability Plan to build the capacity of teachers and administrators, and integrating arts education across the district, said Paul Gothold, San Diego County superintendent, in an April statement about Chula Vistas selection as an exemplary district. You and your team are building better, more responsive educational environments so your students succeed and thrive. In the districts Local Control Accountability Plan, the state-mandated document that spells out the priorities of a school district, Chula Vista focused on funding staff who work directly with students in schools. The district funds a resource teacher for every school to specifically work with struggling students, four social workers for foster youth, the equivalent of five psychologists to support disadvantaged students, and 86 visual and performing arts teachers. Education experts attribute much of Chula Vistas success to its bilingual education program, which is one of the largest and oldest in the region. Twenty out of the districts 46 schools have dual-language immersion programs, and a fifth of all district students are enrolled in one, according to the district. The Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School, a dependent charter school, opened two decades ago as the districts first dual-language school and is now a widely recognized model of dual-language instruction. The district is able to get the teachers it needs for these bilingual programs largely through a partnership with San Diego State University, one of the countys most robust producers of bilingual teachers. On top of that, the district has an unusually diverse teaching workforce: Nearly half of its teachers and more than half of its school administrators are educators of color. The district has the third-largest percentage of Hispanic teachers in the county, at 38 percent. At least every other week, teachers across the district get together to talk about their students and how to teach them better while their kids take visual or performing arts classes. On a recent day at Salt Creek Elementary in eastern Chula Vista, first-grade teachers alternated between conversing with each other in Spanish and English as they hashed out a field trip lesson plan. Principals and teams of teachers from a variety of schools gather a handful of times a year to do the same thing talk about how to teach and support students better. The district has found that its dual-language immersion students outperform students who are not in a dual-language program. English learner students who are in a Chula Vista dual-language program not only outperform English learners statewide, but they do better than their English learner peers in Chula Vista. About 41 percent of English learners in dual-language programs met or exceeded state standards in English language arts on state tests, compared to just 14 percent statewide, according to an Education Trust West report about the district. Literally thousands of our students are learning both English and Spanish, whether youre an English learner or youre not an English learner, said Superintendent Francisco Escobedo. We dont segregate our kids. Theyre together, unified not only in learning another language but learning a different culture as well. Kristen Taketa Email: kristen.taketa@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @Kristen_Taketa A trans woman from Honduras who arrived with a previous migrant caravan may have been beaten in federal custody after she asked for asylum, according to evidence in an independent autopsy report commissioned by her family. Attorneys representing the family members are investigating the death of Roxana, or Roxy, Hernandez, known in Immigration and Customs Enforcement records as Jeffry Hernandez. They have filed a wrongful death claim in New Mexico, where Hernandez was last held before she died on May 25. People need to know that she died of dehydration, said Lynly Egyes, director of litigation for the Transgender Law Center, one of the organizations representing Hernandezs estate and her family. People need to know that her death was preventable. Hernandez waited in line with caravan members outside the San Ysidro port of entry after the group arrived in Tijuana at the beginning of May. She was taken in to the U.S. to begin the asylum process on May 9. After about a week at the port of entry, she transferred to ICE custody and was sent to a transgender unit at Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico, a facility run by CoreCivic that holds immigrant detainees for ICE. Advertisement On Hernandezs journey to the detention center, she was vomiting, and other detainees begged officials to give her water and medical care, Egyes said. At some point after she was in custody, she beaten with a baton or similarly shaped weapon while handcuffed and unable to defend herself, according to the autopsy report included in the lawyers investigation. A news release from ICE about Hernandezs death said that Hernandez was admitted to Cibola General Hospital the day after arriving at the detention center with symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration and complications associated with HIV. The release listed cardiac arrest as the preliminary cause of death. ICE said the agency couldnt speak to the validity of the autopsy but denounced its findings. Allegations that she was abused in ICE custody are false, said spokeswoman Danielle Bennett. A review of Hernandezs death conducted by ICE Health Service Corps medical professionals confirmed that she suffered from a history of untreated HIV. At no time did the medical personnel treating Ms. Hernandez at Cibola General Hospital or Lovelace Medical Center raise any issues of suspected physical abuse. ICE hasnt yet released a detainee death report in her case though in its spring appropriations bill, Congress required ICE to publish findings about deaths in its custody within 30 days and to finalize that reporting within 60 days. It has been more than 180 days since Hernandez died. Karolina Lopez of Tuscon-based Mariposas Sin Fronteras said she didnt have to know Hernandez to understand what she went through. Lopez was detained for about three years in Eloy Detention Center when she was seeking asylum from Mexico. Inside detention, you dont have protection, except for officials, Lopez said in Spanish, adding that many officers in the detention center themselves mistreated or verbally abused trans detainees. Jennicet Gutierrez of Los Angeles-based Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement said it was important to push for justice for Hernandez because her death reflects the violence that trans women, particularly trans women of color, experience daily. We face a lot of violence, a lot of discrimination, Gutierrez said in Spanish. It shouldnt happen in a process where were asking for protection. The life expectancy of a trans woman of color is about 35 years old, Gutierrez said. Hernandez was 33 when she died. 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 An Egyptian photojournalist jailed since his arrest while he was covering a deadly 2013 raid on protesters is still languishing in prison, even though a judge ordered his release in September. Mahmoud Abou Zeids release and that of 214 others has been delayed by six months because the prisoners must first pay for damages and judicial fees, but authorities in Cairo have not determined the amount, said Karim Abdelrady, the 31-year-old photographers lawyer. For the record: An earlier version of this report referred to the organization Reporters Without Borders as Reporters With Borders. This story also states the cost of damages from a security forces raid would have been charged to 215 prisoners. The damages would have been spread among all defendants in the case. This is illegal, Abdelrady said, because the law says if someone is imprisoned for not paying the fine, they have to first be notified of what the fine is. Abou Zeid, known by the nickname Shawkan, was arrested Aug. 14, 2013, after security forces raided the camp of protesters supporting Mohamed Morsi, the countrys first democratically elected president, who had been overthrown by the army six weeks earlier. Advertisement Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 800 people were killed when security forces broke up the camp in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. Abou Zeid has maintained that he was arrested simply for doing his job; he had been covering the dispersal for a now-defunct British photo agency. He is one of at least 38 professional and nonprofessional journalists imprisoned in Egypt for their reporting, according to Reporters Without Borders, which ranks the country 161st out of 180 on its 2018 World Press Freedom Index. The photojournalists plight has drawn global sympathy, with Amnesty International calling him a prisoner of conscience. Abou Zeid was sentenced this year in a mass trial with more than 700 others, mostly supporters of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group. The judge on Sept. 8 gave him a sentence of five years, which by then he had already served. The judgment mentioned that defendants would need to pay the charges, but the verdict didnt mention an amount, Abdelrady said. Under Egyptian law, those who cant cover the charges remain imprisoned. Authorities dont know how to move forward with this, so in order to avoid making mistakes and collecting the incorrect amount, they decided to keep them for the longest period possible, which is six months, Abdelrady said. The prisoners release is now expected in mid-February. Abou Zeids family had expected to find out the amounts of the fines soon after the verdict; they asked the prosecutors office every day but never got an answer, said Abou Zeids older brother, Mohamed. The Times was unable to reach a spokesperson for the public prosecutors office for comment. The Interior Ministry referred requests for comment to the State Information Service, which has yet to respond. The situation is upsetting for Abou Zeids family, especially his parents, his brother said. We got his room and clothes ready for his arrival, and some of his friends planned to come and stay over with him in his apartment in Giza, Mohamed Abou Zeid said. Everyone is very disappointed. Mohamed acknowledged that he and his family would probably have been able to pay only the judicial fees, not the charge for damages. The total for damages, related to public and private property and the vehicles of the security forces during the camp raid, was expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars among prisoners. The situation Abou Zeid and the other prisoners face is outrageous, said Hossam Bahgat, a noted human rights activist and journalist in Egypt. What is most insulting about this is not just the fact that massacre survivors have been imprisoned for five years and now are asked to pay for the damages, he said. But the state decided to lock them up for the maximum period under law for six months without bothering to make a public announcement that this is why they are being held. Islam is a special correspondent. Embattled ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange around the time he was appointed to his high-profile post atop the Presidents campaign, according to a report Tuesday. Manafort held a private conversation with Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in March 2016, just months before WikiLeaks published thousands of emails stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers, The Guardian reported. His visit was not logged with guards as is typical for such face-to-face meetings. President Trump hired Manafort to run his White House bid the same month. Both Manafort and Assange denied the report and threatened to take legal action against the British newspaper. Advertisement WikiLeaks is suing The Guardian for libel over this serious fabrication, the radical transparency organization said in a statement asking for donations to a legal defense fund. We must hold The Guardian to account. Manafort called the story totally false and deliberately libelous, denied ever meeting Assange and said hes considering all legal options. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly, Manafort, who is in jail awaiting sentencing, said in a statement. I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter. Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy since seeking political asylum in 2012. According to The Guardian, Manafort also met with Assange in both 2013 and 2015. The report comes a day after special counsel Robert Mueller said in court papers that Manafort lied to investigators and violated his recent plea deal. Its unclear what Manafort lied about. Mueller has been investigating the longtime Trump associate as part of a larger probe into Russian election interference and possible coordination between the Presidents campaign and the Kremlin. The Guardian cited an internal document written by Ecuadors Senain intelligence agency, which lists Manafort and Russians as guests of Assange. Manafort has remained behind bars since his bail was revoked in June after Mueller charged he had attempted to tamper with witnesses in the Russia probe. He was convicted of bank and tax fraud charges in a Virginia case and pleaded guilty to conspiracy counts in a separate case out of Washington, D.C. Hes expected to be sentenced in both cases early next year. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed Trump knew nothing of the alleged clandestine meeting between Manafort and Assange when he hired the 69-year-old GOP consultant. I dont know about it and if I dont know about it, he doesnt know it, Giuliani told the Daily News. The President knows very little of Julian Assange. Giuliani also said the President hasnt ruled out pardoning Manafort, although he stressed there hasnt been any recent discussions on the matter. Pardons are never really ruled out, Giuliani said. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said shes unaware of any conversations about a potential pardon for Manafort. Trump has railed against the special counsel probe since Muellers appointment last year, often calling the investigation a witch hunt and a hoax. Federal prosecutors are fighting a request to unseal an apparent criminal complaint against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (Frank Augstein / AP) Mueller has reportedly been investigating possible contacts between WikiLeaks and a slew of Trump associates including Roger Stone and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. Stone, who reportedly recommended Trump hire Manafort and tweeted out cryptic notes during the lead up to the election, has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said publicly he had no knowledge of where the Democratic emails came from. On Tuesday, Stone further denied any knowledge about Manafort, his onetime business partner, and Assange meeting one-on-one. This is the first I have heard about it and I have no idea whether or not it is true, he said in a text message. Mueller has been interviewing Stone associates for months. Conspiracy theorist and Stone pal Jerome Corsi said Monday he is rejecting a plea deal from the special counsels office and expects to be indicted. Radio host Randy Credico, whom Stone has said was his only connection to WikiLeaks and visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in September and November last year, found it very hard to believe Manafort was able to meet with the transparency advocate without any official record. When I went in to see Assange, I had to let the embassy know three days in advance, Credico told The News. Once you go in, they scan you, you give them your passport. He continued, They kept very thorough logs on anyone who came in and out of there and anyone as high profile as Paul Manafort would definitely have been in there. Unless he went in with a false passport or something, its hard for me to believe, he added. Homeless people living in recreational vehicles are still being ticketed in San Diego despite a federal injunction blocking one kind of enforcement, prompting advocacy groups to launch a program that helps fight the tickets with sophisticated appeals. San Diego police have obeyed the federal judges order to stop issuing tickets under the citys vehicle habitation law, but the police have continued issuing tickets under the citys oversized vehicle law. That law, enacted in 2014, prohibits recreational vehicles from parking on any San Diego city street or in any public parking lot between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., making it essentially impossible to live in an RV -- despite the injunction. So Disability Rights California and Think Dignity began hosting clinics last week at which they teach homeless people living in RVs how to legally appeal the tickets, request administrative hearings and mount a necessity defense. Advertisement Even if the appeals end up failing, the advocacy groups say they will have achieved the goal of making it harder for the city to force homeless people, especially disabled homeless people, out of their RVs and onto the streets. The effort comes as Disability Rights California and city officials continue to discuss a potential settlement of the lawsuit that led to the August injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia. Those discussions have focused on changes in enforcement that would allow homeless people to park their recreational vehicles somewhere legally. Options include issuing special permits or creating a special parking lot. The lawsuit, filed last year, contended that both laws were unconstitutional. It was a class action suit filed on behalf of nine disabled homeless people. Battaglia agreed that the vehicle habitation law was too vague to enforce, but said the oversized vehicle law was legally sound. Disability Rights California argued that the oversized vehicle law is state-created danger, contending it endangers peoples lives by forcing them onto the streets once they get five tickets, the number that prompts vehicle impoundment. Attorneys for the city argued both laws are neutral and cant be challenged under disability discrimination laws because they apply to everyone regardless of disability status. Special parking lots established last year in San Diego allow overnight parking for homeless individuals, but they dont accept RVs and have far fewer spaces than the estimated 1,000 homeless people living in vehicles locally. Disability Rights California says physically disabled people may struggle with stairs in some shelters, and that those with mental health problems dont function well in noisy, dirty, unsafe and overcrowded conditions. A lot of the facilities in San Diego for the homeless population dont have the ability to really effectively make sure these folks get the medical attention that they need, Mitchelle Woodson, a staff attorney for nonprofit Think Dignity, said last week at one of the clinics focused on fighting the parking tickets. Pushing them out onto the street can only exacerbate medical conditions, she said. Youre putting them out in the elements where they are more vulnerable. The homeless people at the clinic, which was held at the Pacific Beach library branch, said they dont understand why the city wont let them park their recreational vehicles overnight in large parking lots near Mission Bay. I can understand people not wanting RVs parked in their residential area, said Teresa Lunsford, whos been living in her RV since May. But when you are parked far away like near the bay, nobody is around there from 2 to 6 in the morning. Were trying to stay out of peoples way and be able to park our RVs. Charles Fink said the overnight vehicle law is also confusing. Signs in Mission Bay Park say no parking there between 2 and 4 a.m., but the oversized vehicle law applies from 2 to 6 a.m. They dont tell you which ones supersedes the other, he said. You would think it would be the posted sign. Max Sperry says the oversized vehicle law, which also applies to trucks and boats that are unusually long, is being selectively enforced. Long trucks get ignored but the police always ticket RVs, he said. The clinics explain step-by-step how to fight tickets under the law, starting with requesting an administrative review online or in person. If that is denied, which is typical, the next step is requesting an administrative hearing, which requires paying the $112.50 ticket. If that is unsuccessful, the next step is to appeal to the state Superior Court. The clinics also focus on two potential legal strategies: claiming exemption from the law because of disability or using a necessity defense, under which the homeless can argue they have no other reliable shelter and cant afford any other options. The sample briefs provided contend that sleep is a necessity of life and that homeless people dont have the gas money to drive around for four hours each night while the oversized vehicle law is in effect. A spokesman for City Attorney Mara Elliott declined to comment. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick A recent round of pardons and commutations issued by the Governors Office includes five people convicted in San Diego County cases, including two murders and a 1970 conviction for possession of marijuana. Statewide, Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned 38 people last week and commuted, or lessened, the sentences of 70 people, his office announced. One of the San Diego defendants who received a commuted sentence is prison inmate Amy Heather Davis, convicted of first-degree murder in the 2005 asphyxiation death of a former actor whod been found in a suitcase, duct tape covering his nose and mouth. She testified at trial that two unknown assailants had killed him. In early 2008, when Davis was 26, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Brown agreed to reduce her sentence to 20 years to life in prison. Advertisement The other local commutation was for one of two people convicted in the 1990 death of man shot execution-style. It happened during a robbery that, according to a story published in 1991 by the San Diego Union, netted his killers $30 in cash and about $40-worth of crack cocaine. In both cases, Gov. Jerry Brown found that each defendant had made a notable turnaround in prison. The two commutations do not mean immediate release. Rather, each inmate will be given the chance eventually to ask the parole board to consider releasing them. Browns grants of clemency last week included pardons for three people who were long ago convicted in San Diego County for drug-related crimes or other non-violent offenses. The latest round of clemency comes as the termed-out Brown winds down his time in Californias highest office. Since Browns return as governor in 2011, he has issued a total of 1,189 pardons and 152 commutations, his spokesman said Monday. In 2005, the slaying of 57-year-old Theodore Salanti caught the publics attention. The victim was a former actor whose work included roles on Silk Stalkings and Renegade. At trial, the prosecutor argued that Davis killed Salanti they were friends then ransacked his home looking for money and drugs. Davis testified that two strangers approached her at knifepoint and ordered her to let them into Salantis Grantville condo, then they robbed and killed him. As part of her clemency application handled by the University of Southern California Post-Conviction Justice Project Davis said her boyfriend, described as a sadistic pimp who brutalized her, had sent the two men who attacked Salanti. A psychologist also found that Davis boyfriend had abused and tortured her. According to her commutation, an investigation by the Board of Parole Hearings found supporting evidence that Davis suffered from intimate partner battery at the time of the crime. Browns commutation of her also notes her rehabilitation in the face of a sentence without parole has been exemplary. After her conviction, two jurors wrote to the judge, concerned that her sentence was too severe given the evidence they had considered at trial, according to Davis formal commutation, signed by the governor. The prosecutor in Davis two trials there was a mistrial before she was ultimately convicted said Monday he sent a letter opposing Davis commutation. Im disappointed that the governor would commute her sentence based on her uncorroborated version, which was at odds with her trial testimony and the statement she previously gave detectives, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Espinoza said. The other local commutation was for William Lewis Smith, one of two people convicted in the 1990 death of robbery victim Ronald Burton. Smith was initially sentenced to life without parole. Brown agreed to commute the inmates sentence to 28 years to life. (The second man involved in Burtons killing pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He does not appear to still be in prison, according to online prison records.) In the other three San Diego cases, Brown granted a full and unconditional pardons. The oldest of the three dates back to a 1970 conviction for possession of marijuana in San Diego County. The defendant who is now 72 years old, according to consumer records spent a little more than two years on probation. Another pardon reaches back to 1992, when the defendant was convicted of possession or purchase of a controlled substance. He spent less than a year in prison and less than two on parole. The remaining local pardon went to a man who had been sentenced in 2004 to six months in jail for trying to steal a bicycle and backpack. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT A San Diego resident using a remote surveillance camera spotted two men breaking into their home Monday evening, prompting a police response that led to a pursuit, a crash, an air and ground search and, finally, two suspects in handcuffs, police said. The homeowner called 911 about 5:50 p.m. after watching from the remote camera as the two men broke into the home on Cypress Meadows Trail west of Rancho Santa Fe Farms Road, San Diego police Sgt. Joe Ruvido said. An officer responded to the home in a neighborhood known as North City, just north of state Route 56 and about halfway between Interstate 5 and Interstate 15 and saw a vehicle in the driveway. The suspect vehicle quickly drove out of the driveway and failed to yield to the officer, Ruvido said in a statement. Advertisement The officer gave chase, pursuing the vehicle about two and a half miles to a mostly undeveloped stretch of land on Carmel Valley Road just south of state Route 56 in Carmel Valley, Ruvido said. Thats where the driver lost control and crashed into a pole-mounted sign. Both men in the vehicle got out and ran away, but a bystander was able to direct officers to the general area of where both suspects ran, Ruvido said. With a police helicopter circling overhead and police dogs searching the ground, officers discovered both men hiding in the brush and arrested them, Ruvido said. As police searched for the suspects, at least one allegedly tried to hail an Uber to escape, according to police radio traffic. Property stolen from the home was recovered inside the suspects crashed vehicle, Ruvido said. City News Service contributed to this report. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com Two deputies are facing criminal charges in connection with a violent arrest in Vista that was captured by a neighbors video camera nearly seven months ago, the county District Attorneys Office announced Tuesday. Charges against police officers and deputies accused of manhandling or assaulting people who are detained or in custody are rare; a decade has passed since the last such case in the county. Bystander footage of the May 7 encounter in Vista showed a deputy repeatedly punching a man on the ground and another deputy shoving the mans father. Both father and son were in handcuffs. The video went viral, prompting both ire and an investigation. That probe by the Sheriffs Department was forwarded to the District Attorneys Office. Advertisement On Tuesday, prosecutors said they were charging the two deputies with misdemeanor assault without lawful necessity by an officer. Prosecutors allege Deputy Nicholas Morgan, 27, assaulted both the man and his father during the arrest. He faces two counts, and up to two years in jail if convicted. Morgan has been a deputy for three years. Deputy Joshua Nahan, 31, faces one count for allegedly assaulting the older man. Nahan, who has been with the department for nearly five years, faces up to a year in jail if convicted. In announcing the charges, District Attorney Summer Stephan issued a statement that officers have a position of trust and must abide by the rules in the exercise of their powers. The evidence on which the charges are based shows the force used by the two deputies exceeded the legal line, violating that public trust. For justice to thrive, it is important that no one is above the law. The two deputies, who are on paid administrative leave, are scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning in Vista Superior Court. Both were stationed in Vista at the time of the incident. Defense attorney Richard Pinckard, whose office will represent both deputies at the coming arraignment, said he looks forward to receiving evidence, also known as discovery, from the District Attorneys Office. Until we have received discovery and have had an opportunity to study it, we will not be in a position to reasonably assess the merits of the misdemeanor charges filed against our clients, Pinckard said. Civil rights advocates focused on fighting police brutality called Tuesdays criminal filing a small step forward. At a press conference outside the Vista Sheriffs station shortly after the charges were announced, Yusef Miller with the San Diego offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said he was glad to see charges brought. None of us expected this to happen, Miller said. We expected the same old story that the law enforcement officers are exonerated of all crimes and it was the victims fault. He and others said they wanted to see charges brought in other cases in which they allege criminal behavior under color of authority. They feel like this crumb is not enough, Miller said. The May 7 encounter with authorities grabbed attention after a bystander shot video of the waning seconds of the arrest of a father and son. The 22-second recording appeared to show deputies manhandling Gerardo Martinez Sr., 50, and his namesake son after they were in handcuffs. The footage showed Martinez Sr. shoved into a wooden fence face first. His 24-year-old son, pinned to a sidewalk, was struck repeatedly on his head. A neighbor shot the recording. A Martinez family member posted it on social media where it quickly picked up steam and media coverage. On Tuesday, the Sheriffs Department issued a statement that it learned of the video the day after the arrest and immediately opened an internal investigation. The department said the probe was comprehensive, and included reviewing video from the deputies body-worn cameras, as well as reviews of reports and interviews with everyone involved. The Department does not tolerate misconduct of any kind, the Sheriffs Department said. The results were forwarded to the District Attorneys Office, which Tuesday said it filed criminal charges commensurate with the deputies conduct in this case. As for the father and son, the District Attorneys Office dropped all charges against the elder Martinez before he was arraigned. Prosecutors also dismissed a resisting-arrest charge against his son. However, the son eventually pleaded guilty to a domestic violence-related charge and was sentenced to four years of probation. That domestic violence incident was what initially drew deputies to the home the morning of the arrests. Attorney Doug Applegate, who is representing the Martinez family, said he intends to file a federal civil rights lawsuit for the family within the next week to 10 days. It has been more than a decade since a law enforcement officer in San Diego County was criminally charged with roughing up a person in custody. In that case, as in the new Vista case, there was video. In 2006, surveillance tape from the jails sally port caught footage of a 17-year California Highway Patrol veteran pushing a drunken-driving suspect. The officer pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and received probation. Most of the criminal cases involving officers accused of on-duty crimes in San Diego County over the last few years center on sexual misconduct. Those cases include charges faced by Sheriffs Deputy Richard Fischer, who is accused of groping several women. He has pleaded not guilty and disputes the allegations. In 2014, San Diego police officer Christopher Hays, a four-year veteran, was arrested for groping women and other inappropriate touching while on duty. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to spend a year in county jail. In July 2012, former San Diego police Officer Daniel Dana was convicted of a lewd act in public involving threatening to take a prostitute to jail if she didnt have sex with him. He was put on three years probation. Seven years ago, 18-year San Diego police veteran Anthony Arevalos was convicted of using his authority to elicit sexual favors from women he stopped. He served more than four years in custody. Some advocates at the Tuesday morning press conference in Vista pointed to other instances around the county in which people have been hurt or died during encounters with law enforcement. We are elated about these charges, Miller said. Its a small step forward, but by no means has the sun come out on racial justice. He later added: We are too familiar with this in the black and brown communities. The rough arrest that prompted criminal charges happened in Vista, where there is a history of unrest between the Sheriffs Department and the community. As far back as 1990, the FBI was looking into whether a reserve deputy in Vista had violated the civil rights a 21-year-old man he had shot to death. The deputy was mistakenly following him, believing he was driving a stolen truck. One Los Angeles Times report said the reserve officer thought he was tailing a 24-year-old Latino man whod had previous encounters with deputies. Some tension dates back to the summer of 2005, when three Latino men were shot to death by deputies inside of five summer days. None of the men had a gun. All three men, it would later be found, had had methamphetamine in their system. The shootings were found to have been legally justified. Within days, then-Sheriff Bill Kolender and then-District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis took part in a public forum in Vista designed to heal the city. Instead, the Union-Tribune reported, the officials faced shouts, jeers, insults and personal stories from Latinos who felt three deadly shootings in a five-day period was a poignant reminder of deeper racial issues in Vista. Tensions heightened again after two Vista gang members were shot and killed in incidents involving the same sheriffs deputy less than a year apart, one in August 2016, the other in July 2017. Each man Sergio Weick and Jonathon Coronel had an arrest warrant, and each was running from deputies shortly before they were shot multiple times. Neither had a gun, but authorities said each man had made movements that led deputies to think they were armed. There is no video footage of either encounter. The District Attorneys office found both shootings legally justified. The families and supporters of the two men have frequently protested, asking for an outside probe of the encounters and demanding change in the department. Protests of police misconduct have taken hold throughout the region. In East County, protesters have railed against the 2016 shooting death of Alfred Olango, a 38-year-old unarmed African immigrant by an El Cajon police officer. Earlier this year, National Citys council meetings were disrupted after dozens of protesters demanded action for the death of Earl McNeil, an African-American man who stopped breathing while in custody of that citys police department on May 26. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT UPDATES: 11:31 a.m.: This article was update with additional information including comments from community advocates. 10:05 a.m.: This article was updated with additional information from the county District Attorneys Office. 9:35 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 9 a.m. Three people were injured Monday afternoon when a short pursuit involving sheriffs deputies ended in a crash between the suspect pickup and a big rig in Otay Mesa, authorities said. Events leading to the brief chase began around 2 p.m. near Caliente Avenue and Otay Mesa Road when Deputies from the sheriffs Border Crimes Suppression Team pulled over a Chevrolet pickup for a traffic violation, sheriffs Lt. Jason Vickery said. The 26-year-old driver stopped and was initially cooperative, but while deputies performed a routine background check on the him and the trucks other two occupants, the driver suddenly sped away from the deputies at a high rate of speed in an attempt to get away, Vickery said in a statement. Deputies chased the pickup about a mile and a half to where it crashed and became wedged under a big rig at Pacific Rim Court and Camino Maquiladora, just south of Brown Field Municipal Airport, around 2:15 p.m., according to sheriffs Lt. David Perkins. Advertisement Emergency crews specializing in vehicle rescues from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department were sent to free the three occupants, according to Fire Department spokeswoman Monica Munoz. Firefighters arrived by 2:22 p.m. and had all three people out of the truck by 2:47 p.m. All three sustained major trauma injuries, according to Battalion Chief Dan Eddy from the Fire Department, who spoke to OnScene TV from the crash site. Two of the injured people were taken by ambulances to Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest, while the third was taken by a medical helicopter to UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, Munoz said. All three patients were alive when taken from the scene, but one of them was gravely injured and possibly could turn into a (fatality), Eddy told OnScene TV. The driver was arrested on suspicion of felony evading and felony evading with injury, Vickery said in a statement Monday night. A 38-year-old passenger was arrested on suspicion of drug possession. The third person was not arrested, Vickery said. San Diego police were investigating the crash, but were not involved in the pursuit, a police officer said. No deputies were injured. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 8:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details. 4:30 p.m.: This article was updated with information about injuries. 3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with information about injuries. This article was originally published at 3:20 p.m. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is trying to secure the final votes she needs to become speaker again ahead of a preliminary vote this morning that will serve as a test of her standing among fellow Democrats. House Democrats will hold a secret ballot vote to determine who they want to put forward as their speaker candidate when the new Congress meets in January. The San Francisco Democrat is expected to handily win a majority of her caucus, but the vote will display the strength of the opposition she faces from rebellious Democrats who say she should clear the way for new leadership. Winning today is just the first step. Pelosi will need to get about 218 votes on the House floor in January. Since Republicans are expected to vote for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), Pelosi will need the vast majority of the approximately 233 Democrats depending on a few uncalled races to support her. That gives her a margin of about 15 Democrats who could vote against her. Pelosi has been aggressively courting her opposition, which is made up of a disorganized group of veteran lawmakers such as Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and newly elected members, such as Rep.-elect Gil Cisneros of Fullerton. One of her allies, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), met late Tuesday with the Democrats on the bipartisan Problem Solvers caucus, nine of whom are withholding their support until she agrees to change House rules, such as allowing bills to come to the floor if they get the support of three-fifths of members. Advertisement Pelosi held one-on-one meetings with members and met with a group of incoming lawmakers at an orientation meeting, where she pitched party unity. We want to remove all doubt to how we go forward in a way that puts our best foot forward on Day 1, in order to show that we can govern, she told the freshmen, according to an attendee. That we can govern in a way that is transparent and hopeful and fair. In a way that is bipartisan, frankly. The argument against Pelosi is that the midterm election was a call to change not just the party that controls the House but also the people who lead it. But Pelosis opponents have not put forward an alternative candidate, leading some Pelosi supporters to accuse the group of supporting change just for the sake of change. Her backers argue that House Democrats will need an experienced leader to go up against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump. Sixteen members of the rebel coalition signed a letter this month promising to vote against Pelosi. But she has slowly picked off skeptics. She offered a subcommittee chairmanship to a prominent critic, Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, who publicly floated the idea of challenging her. She won over Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) who signed the letter by promising to make infrastructure and healthcare key priorities in the new Congress, even though Democrats have already said they would do so. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.), who also signed the letter, told a local radio station that he would obviously support Pelosi over a Republican if no other Democratic opponent emerges. Pelosi has faced several challenges to her leadership of the House Democratic caucus, a position she has held since 2002. While she has beat all of them back, this years opposition poses the most serious threat, even though she helped deliver control of the House in the biggest Democratic wave since Watergate. Pelosis camp has rallied aggressively to ensure she regains the speakers gavel. She would be the first person since Sam Rayburn in the 1950s to become speaker after previously losing the post when their party lost the majority. She has garnered the endorsements of liberal activist groups and a wide swath of Democratic lawmakers. Shell have a winning majority of the caucus, said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin). And I hope that builds momentum so that on the floor on Jan. 3, that we elect a speaker, unify and do the work we were sent to do. Several Democratic candidates promised on the campaign trail to oppose Pelosi as speaker. The caucus vote today is viewed by some Democratic rebels as a way to live up to that pledge, even if they end up voting for her on the House floor in January, when the only other option may be a Republican. That means even if dozens of Democrats vote against her today, many could still vote for Pelosi in January when their support is more crucial. Two years ago, Pelosi lost 63 votes in the secret ballot to serve as House minority leader. But on the floor, she lost only four votes. Democrats are concerned that a messy speaker fight could undermine what they want to accomplish in the next two years. We dont want the first impression to be that we cant get ourselves together, said California Rep.-elect Katie Hill, who wrote a letter to fellow freshmen urging support for Pelosi. Hill said Pelosi has been listening to the concerns of the large class of new members who will make up one quarter of Democratic members and made clear that their issues will be a priority. Pelosi, who was the first woman to be elected speaker and served from 2007 to 2011, has tried to tamp down the calls for new leadership by promising to serve as a bridge or transitional leader. She hasnt specified when she would step down because doing so would immediately make her a lame duck, according to her supporters. The idea that Pelosi will step down in the future has added an additional layer of intrigue to the other leadership positions Democrats will vote for today. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), who has long been Pelosis top deputy, is running unopposed for majority leader. Other lower-level jobs, such as the leader of the House Democratic campaign arm, are perches from which Democrats can rise in the ranks. When Pelosi steps down, the Democrats holding these jobs could be front-runners to replace her. There is a huge desire, that is quite understandable, for change, said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), who supports Pelosi. Sooner or later, we have to rebuild the bench. The latest from Washington jennifer.haberkorn@latimes.com @jenhab UPDATES: 8:15 a.m.: The article was updated with the vote on track for Wednesday morning. 3:10 p.m., Nov. 27: The article was updated with comments from Pelosi and Swalwell. The article was originally published at 2:15 p.m., Nov. 27. The Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the reach of the Endangered Species Act, setting aside a lower court ruling that afforded protection to an area where threatened animals do not live but might one day with significant changes. The justices, in a unanimous but narrowly written decision, questioned whether a wooded area in Louisiana could be deemed under the law as a critical habitat for endangered frogs who might be able to live there in the future if some trees were removed. The roughly 100 remaining dusky gopher frogs live only in a single pond in a wooded area nearby in Mississippi. The justices did not decide whether the Louisiana area could be a protected habitat. Instead, they sent the case back to the 5th Circuit Court in New Orleans to reconsider the matter and make a final decision. Advertisement However, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in his opinion that the critical habitat of an endangered species must also be a habitat. The 8-0 ruling is a partial victory for the Weyerhaeuser Co. and other development companies that challenged the broad habitat protections imposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Environmentalists stressed the ruling was quite limited and left open the possibility that the Louisiana habitat for the frog could win protection. While were disappointed, the ruling doesnt weaken the mandate to protect habitat for endangered wildlife, said Collette Adkins, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity. Were hopeful the 5th Circuit will recognize the importance of protecting and restoring habitats for endangered wildlife. The case was heard on the first Monday in October, and the eight justices sounded closely split. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh took no part in the decision because the case was heard a week before he won confirmation in the Senate. The four more liberal justices spoke in defense of the Fish and Wildlife Service, while the conservatives questioned how a critical habitat could include an area where the endangered frog did not live and could not live unless changes were made. In the end, the chief justice found a way to bring both sides together by deciding very little. In one section, the Endangered Species Act calls for protecting habitat that is essential to the conservation of the species. The 5th Circuit in a 2-1 decision agreed with the Fish and Wildlife Service that the designated forestland in Louisiana was essential to the conservation of the tiny endangered frogs. They breed in small ponds that dry up for part of the year, and they need sunlight from open-canopy forests. The wooded tract in Louisiana was said to be well suited for the frogs and would require only minor changes to preserve them. The agency designated a 1,544-acre tract as critical habitat for the frogs. This designation did not require immediate changes in the land, but it would have limited future development by Weyerhaeuser and other owners of the land. They appealed in Weyerhaeuser vs. U.S. Fish and Wildlife and argued the phrase critical habitat could not be interpreted to include any area where an endangered species might live only if significant changes were made. The chief justice agreed the scope of the law was limited. Only the habitat of the endangered species is eligible for designation as critical habitat, Roberts said. Even if an area otherwise meets the statutory definition of unoccupied critical habitat because the secretary finds the area essential for the conservation of the species, [the law] does not authorize the secretary to designate the area as critical habitat unless it is also habitat for the species. But he also said the law itself does not define the crucial word habitat, and he said the 5th Circuit should decide that issue. Roberts also agreed with Weyerhaeuser that the 5th Circuit should weigh the economic impact before approving the designation of the Louisiana tract as a protected habitat. The latest from Washington More stories from David G. Savage david.savage@latimes.com Twitter: DavidGSavage UPDATES: 12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with more details from the ruling. 8:50 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details from Roberts opinion. This article was originally published at 7:35 a.m. The London-based Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday that Paul Manafort met privately with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in the same month that Manafort joined Donald Trumps presidential campaign in 2016, a meeting that could carry vast implications for the investigation of Russias election meddling. The alleged meeting took place in March 2016 inside Ecuadors embassy in London, where Assange has sought refuge for several years to avoid potential prosecution, the newspaper reported. Four months later, in July 2016, WikiLeaks began releasing a flood of Democratic Party emails that U.S. officials say had been hacked by Russian operatives. Manafort, who was named Trumps campaign chairman in June 2016, was convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion in August this year. On Tuesday, he denied any meeting with Assange, calling the Guardian report totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him, Manafort, who is in jail awaiting sentencing, said is a statement issued through a spokesman. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter. Advertisement A clear connection between Manafort and Assange, if it exists, could be key evidence for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is leading the investigation into whether anyone from Trumps team illegally conspired with Russians to influence the presidential election. A dozen Russian military intelligence officers were indicted in July for stealing tens of thousands of internal emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign and then leaking them to WikiLeaks as part of a covert Moscow effort to boost Trumps campaign and undermine his Democratic rival. The alleged Manafort-Assange meetings could not be independently confirmed. WikiLeaks denied the story on Twitter, saying the Guardian report was destined to become one of the most infamous news disasters. The special counsels office declined comment. A representative for Ecuadors foreign relations ministry also declined to comment on the Guardian report. Manaforts court case has been in turmoil in recent days. A Republican political operative turned international lobbyist, he was convicted by a federal court in Virginia in August for his role in a massive financial fraud scheme stemming from his work for Ukraines former government. He later pleaded guilty to related charges in Washington, D.C., and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors on Muellers team. But the special counsels office said late Monday that Manafort had violated his plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators. Prosecutors said they would file another court document that sets forth the nature of the defendants crimes and lies. Manaforts defense lawyers said he believes he has provided truthful information, but they agreed to move forward with sentencing. A date has not been set. Special correspondent Pablo Jaramillo Viteri in Quito, Ecuador, contributed to this report. Follow the latest news of the Trump administration on Essential Washington chris.megerian@latimes.com Twitter: @chrismegerian UPDATES: 12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with Paul Manaforts denial. This article was originally published at 10 a.m. Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 436 votes after Kern and Tulare counties updated their results. Every update has kept us on track to win, said Phillip Vander Klay, a Cox spokesman, and were still on that track. Advertisement Valadaos campaign did not respond to requests for comment. The mostly rural 21st Congressional District, which Cox and Valadao are vying to represent, takes in portions of Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties. Several thousand ballots remain to be counted before the states Dec. 7 deadline for county election officials to finalize and certify their results The next, and potentially decisive, update is scheduled to come Wednesday, when Fresno County which is home to one-third of the districts registered voters releases fresh totals. A Cox victory would give Democrats a sweep of the California districts they targeted this election and expand the partys biggest gain nationally since the Watergate era more than enough to take control of the House in January. A loss by Valadao, a three-term incumbent and perennial Democratic target, would also mark yet another significant setback for a Republican Party struggling to keep a meaningful toehold in a state the GOP dominated for much of its history. It would give Democrats 46 of Californias 53 House seats leaving Republicans with their smallest share of the states delegation in well over half a century. In a further blow to the party nationally, two-term Rep. Mia Love of Utah once seen as rising Republican star conceded defeat Monday to Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams after a prolonged vote count. Love, who was taunted by President Trump in a postelection news conference, returned the animus Monday. The day after the election, when the outcome of the race was still very much in doubt, Trump had declared Love the loser and had blamed her for keeping him at arms length. Mia Love gave me no love and she lost, Trump said then. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia. Trumps derisive comment, Love told reporters in Salt Lake City as she conceded, gave me a clear vision of his world as it is: No real relationships, just convenient transactions. Loves concession left the Valadao-Cox race as the only contest still unresolved. Valadao, first elected in 2012, was one of seven California Republicans representing a district carried by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Given his past success, he always seemed the most likely to withstand anything short of a Democratic tidal wave. Registered Democrats considerably outnumber Republicans in the mostly rural district, which roughly parallels Interstate 5 between Fresno and Bakersfield. But Valadao withstood repeated efforts by the national Democrats to dislodge him, easily winning reelection in 2016 at the same time Clinton carried the district by double digits. A Hanford native long active in the agriculture industry, the areas lifeblood, the 41-year-old Valadao was a well-known and well-liked commodity in a part of California that leans conservative despite Democrats numerical advantage. He used his perch on the Appropriations Committee to great advantage in a region that counts on federal largess and withstood previous challenges by focusing heavily on local issues such as irrigation and water storage. Cox, 55, is an engineer by training and local business owner who founded two nut-processing companies. He serves as president of a community development organization, the Central Valley New Markets Tax Credit Fund, which focuses on local investment. The race was his second try for Congress. In 2006, Cox ran against GOP Rep. George Radanovich in a different Central Valley district and was crushed by more than 20 percentage points. Cox also began this election cycle running in a different district, the 10th, in the northern San Joaquin Valley. He dropped out of a crowded primary field there and jumped into the race against Valadao after national Democrats helped ease aside Emilio Huerta, a Bakersfield attorney who ran in 2016 and lost badly to the incumbent. In the 10th District, Democrat Josh Harder went on to win, unseating incumbent Jeff Denham. Like many Democratic challengers, Cox battered Valadao for his support of Trump, citing his nearly 100% voting record for the presidents agenda. Valadao attacked Cox for some of his business dealings and his residency. Cox had relocated to Modesto to run in the 10th District before moving back to Fresno to face Valadao; Cox also owns a home in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. The president and his unpopularity seems to have been the greater factor. There was, in fact, a lot of anti-Trump vote in these congressional elections, said Carol Whiteside, a former Modesto mayor and longtime Central Valley policy expert. People who might have otherwise supported a Republican were concerned that the president not control both houses of Congress, and many voted for a Democrat to provide that balance. In addition to the 10th District, Democrats flipped five other Republican-held districts, unseating Rep. Steve Knight in the suburbs north of Los Angeles and incumbent Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Mimi Walters in Orange County. Democrats also won the Southern California seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. As the processing of hundreds of thousands of ballots continued Monday, Democrats extended their lead in several contests. In Orange County, Gil Cisneros, who won the Royce seat, and Katie Porter, who defeated Walters, upped their margins to 3 percentage points. Democrat Harley Rouda, who defeated Rohrabacher, expanded a 2,700-vote election night lead to almost 20,000 votes. The pattern is consistent with previous elections; California Republicans tend to cast their votes early, and Democrats typically make significant gains from mail-in and other ballots tallied after election day. mark.barabak@latimes.com @markzbarabak maya.sweedler@latimes.com @mayasweedler UPDATES: 6:15 p.m.: The article was updated with vote totals from Tulare County and a quote from the Cox campaign. The article was originally published at 4:55 p.m. The humanitarian crisis at the California-Mexico border demands thoughtfulness and clear thinking from federal, state and local leaders. With thousands of Central Americans in Tijuana seeking asylum after the arrival of their caravan this month and thousands more still expected in coming weeks some obvious points need to be agreed upon while more complex moral questions come up for debate. The first point is that President Donald Trump and his administration should follow the letter of federal law on asylum. Last week, San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar issued a temporary restraining order blocking the presidents Nov. 8 proclamation that said no one who crossed the southern border illegally would be eligible for asylum. While Trump derided Tigar as an Obama judge properly drawing a rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts the judge was following a clearly written provision in a 1996 immigration law: Anyone in the nation can request asylum. If the president wants to make it more likely that only those who are genuinely at risk in their home countries receive asylum and that the unqualified dont skip future hearings and join the millions of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. then he should seek to sharply beef up the resources used to process asylum-seekers. There is now a backlog of about 750,000 applicants. Of those from Central America, only 10 percent are generally granted asylum, according to The Washington Post. The disputed Post report that the incoming administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would be willing to have Mexican border areas serve as the waiting room for those seeking U.S. asylum is worth considering if the safety of asylum-seekers can be assured in Mexico and if the asylum review process can be sharply improved and quickened in the U.S. The second point is that the decision to close the San Ysidro Port of Entry between Tijuana and San Diego for four hours on Sunday and Trumps Twitter vow to permanently close the border if more migrant caravans arrive pose an immense threat to the regional binational economy, which generates $230 billion a year. This economic engine is utterly dependent on cross-border traffic, with roughly 120,000 passenger vehicles, 63,000 pedestrians and 6,000 trucks going back and forth on an average day. A border closure should never be made lightly. Sundays chaos at the border even prompted the Las Americas Premium Outlets in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego to close as the border malls holiday retail season began in earnest. Such disruptions are terrible for the economy. Advertisement The third point is that Border Patrol agents have a difficult job: maintaining order at the border. The Democrats who sharply criticized these agents for using tear gas Sunday to stop a group of migrants men, women and children who rushed the border and threw rocks at agents are blaming them for doing that job. Ultimately, no one was seriously hurt in the episode. Thats fortunate. Border Patrol agents and migrants considering rushing the border should both exercise restraint. These tensions dont need violence or the demonizing of government immigration officers. The situation is complex enough. Some polls show that many people want legal immigration cut. Other polls show openness to foreigners is essential to who we are as a nation. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board has long supported comprehensive immigration reform as the most constructive, humane path forward. It remains our goal, but until far more centrists emerge until the demagogues and demonizers stop grandstanding it seems a long shot. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Immigrants can be burden on our nation Re We cant accommodate all who would come (Nov. 16): I concur with the letter writer. It is a sad situation down in Central America. But it would be costly to accommodate everybody who just wants to come here. You hear many opposing viewpoints, but I must agree with those who suggest that if you want to allow an open door policy you should be willing to open up your wallet and support the influx of those who will not acclimate to our society by learning the language and be self-supporting. Being a burden to the social support system should not be an option. Advertisement Alfonso Alcala lll La Mesa Address caravan issues where they originate In response to this letter, the true answer is Yes, we can. Actually, 1 percent of the wealthiest Americans that own 90 percent of the nations wealth could, but dont want to. The bigger problem is not enough of any big American corporate business leaders have failed to enter these poor nations to help develop their economies like they have in America. Doing this would provide these potential migrants enough jobs, security in their own countries, and they wouldnt be caravanning to the U.S. A global economy is what is needed to help all people in need. This is actually what all Christians are supposed to be trying to do, according to Jesus. Mark Lehman Oceanside Whats the solution to caravans of migrants arriving at San Diegos border? Per the Migration Policy Institute, investing in the communities that migrants are fleeing is the right long-term approach to stop out-migration. Womens Empowerment International (WE) and Rotary International have done something about that by funding repayable business micro-loans for women in destitute Central American and Mexican communities. With that, a mother can start a chicken business or sell baked goods from her home. The profits help her feed and educate her children. The loan process is well-monitored to ensure the money gets to motivated poor women. Repaid loans are reissued, so $50 can start dozens of businesses. WEs $621,000 loan donations have enabled thousands of Honduran, Haitian and Mexican families to begin to work their way out of poverty, and stay in their homelands. Rhea Kuhlman President Womens Empowerment International The U.S. has done its fair share to take in refugees Re Wealthy nation can afford to be welcoming (Nov 15). The letter writer implies we have more money than we know what to do with. Does the country, state, county and city have extra money? Or we can just raise our taxes. Then she compares us to other smaller countries in size. We have most of our population living on the two coasts. We have major housing issues here in San Diego, as well as other communities in our state. Are they going to live in the desert? She makes a statement that other smaller countries, have taken in many times the number we can absorb. According to the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. has accepted more refugees for permanent settlement since 1975 than any other country. I think we as a country have shown that we are very open and care for our fellow humans, wherever they may come from. Roy Franklin Alpine Theres a likely reason the caravans are heading here Brownsville, Texas, is 653 miles from Mexico City; San Diego, 1,733 miles. Why travel so much farther when the caravan could have been at the border with a shorter travel distance? Could it be that Texas is more stringent in how it hands out it subsistence programs for just anyone? Just wondering. Steve Miller Chula Vista The invasion we were warned of seems benign The U-T photo on the front page of migrants on top of our national security apparatus, probably taunting Border Patrol agents, speaks volumes. Do our paranoid, xenophobic voters feel safer and more secure now? How many of those potential freeloading welfare recipients might accept a job fighting Californias fires and with the cleanup and rebuilding. When I was in the Forest Service, we received help from volunteers, prison inmates, military personnel and Native Americans from Arizona and New Mexico. It was a cooperative human effort against a common enemy, fire. No one begged off because of bone spurs or inclement weather. I think those desperate people on the wall would pitch right in and help us. And for only three meals a day and minimum wage. Charlie Ballbach Santee No presidents really addressed immigration What do George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump all have in common? None of them had or have the leadership qualities or the backbone to address our immigration problem. We all have heard the excuse the other side would not compromise. A true leader would figure it out. Call Congress back into session and then tell the leadership of both parties that until a new immigration law is put in place there will not be a recess. Mike Cavanaugh University City Maybe we do have jobs for some of these immigrants The front page photo of migrants sitting atop the U.S. Mexico border fence and videos on our local news make it look so easy to scale the vertical column fence. Hey, I have an idea. Hire these folks to test our fence designs because it looks like our best fence engineers need to go back to the drawing board. Dave Beekman Spring Valley Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. Friction between American federal authorities and hundreds of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday led to the closure of the San Ysidro Port of Entry for several hours on the last day of the long, busy Thanksgiving weekend and led us to ask San Diego Countys congressional delegation and Californias two U.S. Senators for their reaction to the tense international incident. Tune in to hear from a reporter who is covering the border below The migrants are part of a caravan of thousands of would-be asylum seekers planning to present themselves at the southern border of the United States. Their trek from Central America to Tijuana, Mexico, in recent weeks has captured the attention of the nation and been the subject of much criticism from President Donald Trump. When some of these migrants rushed multiple locations along the border and moved past a Mexican federal police blockade, law enforcement on both sides responded. Border patrol agents deployed tear gas from the American side of the border to disperse crowds on the other side of it, and Mexican authorities made several dozen arrests. Monday morning, President Trump tweeted a threat to close the border for good. Sundays incident left the border lanes at one of the worlds busiest border crossings eerily quiet for hours and spurred the closure of a San Diego outlet mall near the border. With such chaos unfolding in their backyards, we checked in with local leaders, including the countys congressional delegation and two U.S. senators, to see what they had to say. We asked them all the same questions. How should the federal government address the growing migrant population at the southern border? Under what circumstance, if any, should the federal government close the busy San Diego border crossings? Do you support more judges at the border to handle the thousands of migrants seeking asylum south of the border? Do you support more border patrol agents? More military members? What specific steps can be taken to address this issue? What are your concerns for the San Diego region? Heres what San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a Republican, said Sunday. He tweeted a note of encouragement to those on both sides of the border. Hours before Faulconers tweet, Rep. Juan Vargas became one of the first politicians to respond on social media. Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., heads to a Democratic Caucus meeting in the basement of the Capitol. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Vargas took to Twitter on Sunday to share a statement, blaming the border issues on the president. In response to our questions about Sundays incident, Vargas emailed a statement very similar to the one he shared on Twitter the day before. He wrote: The unprecedented events at the San Ysidro Port of Entry are a direct result of President Trumps failed leadership. His complete disregard for human rights, international law, and immigration law threatens the safety of federal officers and the millions of people that pass through the border region. Denying the asylum process and using chemical munitions against vulnerable individuals is a betrayal of our American values. The president continues to address a complex global issue with an offensive simplicity that makes the United States appear callous and xenophobic to our neighbors and allies. The president and the Republican controlled House and Senate have had two years to pass immigration reform and improve our asylum process. Sadly, they have failed to take any productive action. Now more than ever, our country needs bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform. Comprehensive immigration reform will improve border security while treating immigrants with human decency. Here are what other politicians said in reply to our questions. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., speaks during an interview at a call center on Tuesday Nov. 6, 2018, in Santee, Calif. AP Photo/Denis Poroy The situation that occurred over the weekend at the border is a direct result of the U.S. government continuing to send mixed messages on our immigration process while, at the same time, a full validation that President Trump made the right decision to send troops to the border to augment our current resources. This problem will only continue because people continue seeking to enter the U.S. illegally or gain asylum status with unsubstantiated information know the process will work toward their advantage if they successfully enter. Unfortunately, this has become our nations de facto immigration policy and it is simply unsustainable. The fact remains, these attempts by immigrants to push their way in should not be rewarded and cannot be tolerated. I support efforts to send troops to the border, hiring additional Border Patrol agents and bringing more judges in to hear the asylum cases, but this is all dependent upon building the wall and securing the border once and for all. It is for this reason that I have written to President Trump with the recommendation of utilizing troops sent to the border to help build the infrastructure for the wall, the same effort that we accomplished on the border over 20 years ago with the existing fencing. I would also support utilizing the troops to help build facilities to house those claiming asylum so that they will remain in one location, keeping families together, while they wait for their cases to be adjudicated. The current process is woefully deficient, calling upon the asylum seeker to remain in the U.S. and return on their own for their court hearing, which a vast majority do not. The border region in San Diego is proof that border enforcement works. Today we have housing, shopping malls and schools in areas that before were drenched in violence. This approach will work again and is desperately needed. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Its horrifying to see tear gas used on mothers and young children as they seek refuge in the United States. Thats not what America should be. These families have traveled thousands of miles. Theyre exhausted, hungry and not a threat to national security. Theyre simply seeking the opportunity to request asylum from the U.S. government and make a better life away from violence and poverty. These families are trying to cross the border because President Trump is refusing to allow asylum applications to proceed in the usual manner at ports of entry, leaving them languishing in Mexico with no end in sight. And now the administration is trying to bar asylum for those who enter between the ports, a violation of a U.S. court order. Our immigration policies must be implemented in a lawful, humane way. Its clear the president is doing all he can to end our asylum system, which will do nothing to help our national security and is little more than a political tactic that will end up harming California and the nation. Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego Congressman for the 52nd District Scott Peters at the Hotel Republic where Democrats are gathered for election night in downtown San Diego. Hayne Palmour IV How should the federal government address the growing migrant population at the southern border? First, we need to address the economic and social conditions that cause people to flee their home countries and make the dangerous trek in search of a better life. Investments in foreign aid to Central American countries are critical to improving the economic conditions and lessening the political unrest and violence that drive people to our borders. The $72 million the Trump Administration spent to send military to the border was nothing more than political theatre that only antagonized both sides and did nothing to prepare this nation for the thousands of people we knew weeks ago were on their way to seek asylum. We must also work diplomatically with our allies in Mexico to manage the intake and sheltering of these refugees in a safe, humane, and compassionate way. Under what circumstance, if any, should the federal government close the busy San Diego border crossings? Closing the border should only be a last resortwhen there is a threat of imminent danger. The only time we should close one of the busiest land border crossings in the world is when national security and public safety are at risk. However, it must be done surgically to not interrupt business, commerce, and tourism. Do you support more judges at the border to handle the thousands of migrants seeking asylum south of the border? Yes. USCIS is facing a backlog of 311,000 asylum cases as of January 21, 2018. As the backlog has grown, the rate of asylum applications has more than tripled. It is the growing frustration with this backlog, coupled with the extreme rhetoric and militarization of our border that fueled yesterdays protests, which ultimately put many people, including our law enforcement officers, in danger. Do you support more border patrol agents? More military members? Local Border Patrol agents said they have enough officers to manage an increase in traffic and recent updates at San Ysidro PedEast should allow for more efficient processing. Instead of sending military service members, who are restricted from engaging in law enforcement, we should spend those resources on judges and other personnel to process asylum applications, so those who qualify can seek asylum and those who dont can return home. What specific steps can be taken to address this issue? To address the immediate influx of people and claims, we need to turn to diplomacy and work with Mexico to make sure people are processed efficiently and have humane living conditions while they wait. We also need to direct money and resources to process asylum claims-- whether they go toward hiring more judges and DHS personnel or upgrading technology. Creating safe zones throughout the migrant route can also distribute responsibility across different countries to increase efficiency and lessen the burden on any one region. Its also clear we need to address the root causes that force people to flee their homes. As Ive said previously, U.S. foreign aid is essential to promoting stability, economic growth, and prosperity in places, like Central America. In fiscal year 2017, U.S. foreign aid dedicated $538 million to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala combined. Thats a much better investment than spending upwards of $21.6 billion on a border wall that wont stop people from coming to the U.S. In the long-term, we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken immigration system and find legislative solutions to the challenges weve seen over the last few months like Dreamers, family separation, and border security. What are your concerns for the San Diego region? San Diego sees the border as an opportunity, not a threat. The Trump Administration wrongly militarized our border which ultimately led to violent protests. This is not who we are as a region nor as a country. The economic costs of shutting down the border are also devastating to our region; commercial exchange between Tijuana and San Diego is valued at $2.1 million per day and many San Diegans commute or regularly travel between the two regions. Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego Rep. Susan Davis speaks to the crowd and press in front of her office on Adams Ave. in October. John Gibbins The closure of the San Ysidro Point of Entry and the clashes at the border stem from the refusal of the Trump Administration to follow the law. Trump continues to be rebuked by federal judges for violating our nations laws. First, it was separating families and now its the failure to allow migrants to legally apply for asylum in a timely fashion. By ignoring the law and long-standing policies for processing asylum claims, this president is putting not only migrant families at risk but border patrol and service members, as well. The vast majority of migrants are seeking a better life not confrontations with law enforcement. Its time for this president to start following the law and abandon attempts to militarize a response to immigration. Congress also needs to address long-neglected comprehensive immigration. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-San Francisco In this Sept. 28, 2018, file photo, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. attends a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File This Administrations response to asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution and violence is inhumane and unacceptable. It is lawful to seek asylum. Those who are fleeing murder capitals of the world should not be met with tear gas especially children. It is an affront to our values. Rep.-elect Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano Congressional candidate Mike Levin speaks at his victory rally at the Hilton Hotel in Del Mar, California. Charlie Neuman How should the federal government address the growing migrant population at the southern border? First, we need to prioritize the safety and security of our communities. Anyone who commits a violent crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. At the same time, we must deal with those seeking asylum diplomatically and through an orderly process. People coming here may qualify for asylum under our laws. If they dont qualify, they will be sent back. Our challenge is to maintain our borders while honoring the rule of law and living up to our nations legacy as a beacon of freedom and protection for those fleeing persecution. President Trump threatening to cut off aid to Central America will only worsen conditions in these countries and force more people to escape. We need to support security in Central America to decrease violence rather than further destabilizing these countries. Under what circumstance, if any, should the federal government close the busy San Diego border crossings? Shutting down the border would devastate our local economy. The greater San Diego region depends on the flow of cross-border trade and commerce. I look forward to working with my fellow members of the San Diego Congressional delegation to get back to common-sense immigration reform and hopefully to secure more federal funding to further streamline border crossings and improve border security. Do you support more judges at the border to handle the thousands of migrants seeking asylum south of the border? I am very troubled by reports of how the Trump Administrations ill-informed zero tolerance policy and the resulting flood of misdemeanor cases is wreaking havoc on our local courts. I am concerned that there isnt enough space in San Diego to hold migrants charged with illegal entry misdemeanors. More judges at the border wont solve the underlying problem we need to get back to common-sense immigration policies. Do you support more border patrol agents? More military members? I support stronger border security through reasonable actions stronger vetting, more border agents, and better intelligence and technologies. There are better and cheaper ways to secure the border than Trumps wall, which is little more than a monument to his own ego. I do not support a greater military presence at the border. What specific steps can be taken to address this issue? We need comprehensive immigration reform. The immigration system is broken because both parties have played politics instead of trying to fix the problem, I want a bipartisan solution that would increase border security and create an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants if they keep out of trouble, work hard, learn English, and pay taxes. What are your concerns for the San Diego region? The San Diego region relies on strong trade and commerce with Mexico to ensure the continued growth and stability of the local economy. We must put a stop to the divisive, anti-immigrant rhetoric that does not reflect our values or interests. Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @abbyhamblin 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. Stay up to date on the latest news and the local entertainment scene by subscribing to The New Mexican's email lists. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/26/2018 -- Medical tourism is one of the most dynamically growing industries today. Considered to be the direct impact of globalisation of healthcare, medical tourism certainly exhibits strong growth potential globally. However, based on FMI's research, the market of medical tourism is expected to concentrate within most of the emerging economies of the world. As developing nations are increasingly heading toward technological advancement and quality services in the medical and healthcare sector, the global medical tourism market is anticipated to witness robust growth over 2014-2020, predominantly in Asian countries. The top treatments people travel abroad for, include cancer therapy, cardiovascular surgeries, orthopaedic treatments, dentistry, cosmetic surgeries, reproductive treatments, weight loss therapies, health screenings, and medical tests and scans. In severe cases, a sizeable patient population also seeks second opinion from specialist doctors out of their countries. Request to Get Sample Copy of This Report @ https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/13430 Key Drivers High treatment costs and lengthy waiting times for medical procedures, being the two major factors in driving medical tourism, are also supported by easier and cheaper international travel. While the U.K.'s population prefers to travel abroad for bypassing long waits, patients from the U.S. travel outside for availing of treatments at cheaper costs. Medical excellence along with international accreditation are the key factors fuelling a majority of international patient flow, eventually boosting international medical tourism. Currently, over 600 medical departments and hospitals all over the globe are accredited by the U.S. Joint Commission International (JCI). The number of accredited facilities is projected to increase almost by 20% each year. This is another important driver associated with the market growth. Developing countries, with ever-evolving innovation and demonstrable achievements in medical research are estimated to accelerate the approaching medical tourist flow over the forecast period. Growing healthcare investments by various government and private sectors are also anticipated to further bolster the market growth. Key Restraints However, medical tourists are highly prone to a wide variety of health risks after they return. The conditions may include TB, paratyphoid, amoebic dysentery, deep vein thrombosis, and more; usually caused due to poor post-operative care and inadequate rest. This could affect the market to some extent. Stringent documentation processes, issues related to visa approval, and limited insurance coverage are reportedly some of the most deterring factors for the global market. Request to Get Complete Report List Of Tables and Figures @ https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/toc/13430 Global Medical Tourism Market: Segmentation FMI's research on the global medical tourism market offers a six-year forecast, segmenting the market on the basis of type of medical treatment and geography. On the basis of the type of treatment, the market is segmented into cosmetic treatment, cardiovascular treatment, fertility treatment, dental treatment, orthopaedic treatment, and other general treatments. On the basis of geography, the market is segmented into Asia pacific, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, and South America. Regional Outlook Some of the prominent medical tourism centres across the globe include Thailand, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Israel, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Canada, and the U.S. According to Patients Beyond Borders, the global medical tourism market is currently growing at an impressive rate between 15% and 25%, and the flow of patients seeking cross-border treatment options will be the highest in Mexico. South and Southeast Asia are expected to dominate the global market in the near future. Based on MTA's recently released Medical Tourism Index, there are 41 countries participating in the global medical tourism market. While India broadly secures #1, Israel ranks #1 in the quality of services and facilities. India is renowned for specialist cardiac surgeries, while Singapore is a popular medical tourism destination owing to the expertise in complicated surgical procedures. Thailand has been a popular destination for medical tourism and millions of patients have travelled to Thailand since 2006. It is also the top cosmetic surgery centre globally. Malaysia offers state-of-the-art medical infrastructure and treatments by highly skilled medical professionals, making it another sought after centre among medical tourists. With economically affordable treatment options and favourable government initiatives, Malaysia is anticipated to acquire one of the top market positions in the global medical tourism market, during the forecast period. Key Players: Global Medical Tourism Market Some of the top key players in the medical tourism industry include Asian Heart Institute (India), Apollo Hospitals (India), Prince Court Medical Centre (Malaysia), Gleneagles Hospital (Singapore), Min-Sheng General Hospital (Taiwan), Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital (Bangkok), Raffles Medical Group (Singapore), Clemenceau Medical Centre (Lebanon), Bangkok Hospital (Thailand), Bumrungrad International Hospital (Thailand), Fortis Healthcare Ltd. (India), Wooridul Spine Hospital (Korea), KPJ Healthcare Berhad (Malaysia), Anadolu Medical Centre (Turkey), and Asklepios Klinik Barmbek (Germany). Explore More Related Reports @ https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/category/322 While these players rank amongst they compete on the basis of exceptional service quality, optimum patient comfort, and relatively reasonable costs for various treatments. Several facilities are also undergoing mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and joint ventures for delivering enhanced medical care, thereby strengthening their market positions. A few prominent examples of highly productive collaborations include the collaboration between Bumrungrad International Hospital (Bangkok) and IBM Watson for better cancer care, and the collaboration of Anadolu Medical Centre (Turkey) with Johns Hopkins Medicine (U.S.). This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, geographies, and applications. The report covers exhaustive analysis on: Market Segments Market Dynamics Market Size Supply & Demand Current Trends/Issues/Challenges Competition & Companies involved Technology Value Chain Regional analysis includes North America Latin America Asia Pacific Japan Western Europe Eastern Europe Middle East & Africa The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also the maps qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies. Request to Buy This Premium Report From Here @ https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/checkout?rep_id=13430&licType=S Report Highlights: Detailed overview of parent market Changing market dynamics of the industry In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value Recent industry trends and developments Competitive landscape Strategies of key players and product offerings Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective towards market performance Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint About MarketResearchReports.biz MarketResearchReports.biz is a seller of syndicated market studies, featuring an exhaustive collection of research reports from leading international publishers. Our repositoryis diverse, spanningvirtually every industrial sector and even more every category and sub-category within the industry. We also provide consulting services to enable our clients have adynamicbusiness perspective. Contact Us State Tower 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 United States Toll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-Canada) Tel: +1-518-621-2074 E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Paleontologists in Poland have found fossil fragments from a giant new species of mammal-like reptile that walked the Earth approximately 237 million years ago (Late Triassic epoch). Named Lisowicia bojani, the ancient creature belongs to Dicynodontia (dicynodonts), a group of plant-eating, mammal-like reptiles. Dicynodonts were among the most abundant and diverse synapids early four-legged land vertebrates that gave rise to modern-day mammals from the middle Permian (around 299 to 251 million years ago) to the early Late Triassic (around 237 million years ago), said Dr. Tomasz Sulej from Polands Institute of Paleobiology and Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki of Uppsala University. Fossils of Triassic dicynodonts are extremely abundant in African, Asian, and North and South Americans deposits but are comparatively poorly known from the other regions like Europe. Lisowicia bojani fossils are the first substantial dicynodont finds from European deposits. Lisowicia bojani reached an estimated length of more than 14.7 feet (4.5 m), height of 8.5 feet (2.6 m), and body mass of 9 tons. It had erect-gait forelimbs, suggesting upright limb posture, like that of modern large mammals such as rhinoceroses and hippopotami. Previously, Triassic dicynodonts were characterized only with sprawling forelimbs (the gait of reptiles). The find of Lisowicia bojani shows that at least one dicynodont lineage also participated in the push for gigantism at the same time as the sauropodomorphs, but also suggests that their evolutionary history in the Late Triassic is poorly documented, the paleontologists said. This discovery changes our ideas about the latest history of dicynodonts, mammal Triassic relatives, Dr. Sulej said. It also raises far more questions about what really make them and dinosaurs so large. Dicynodonts were amazingly successful animals in the Middle and Late Triassic. Lisowicia bojani is the youngest dicynodont and the largest non-dinosaurian terrestrial tetrapod from the Triassic, Dr. Niedzwiedzki added. Its natural to want to know how dicynodonts became so large. Lisowicia bojani is hugely exciting because it blows holes in many of our classic ideas of Triassic mammal-like reptiles. The research was published in the journal Science. _____ Tomasz Sulej & Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki. An elephant-sized Late Triassic synapsid with erect limbs. Science, published online November 22, 2018; doi: 10.1126/science.aal4853 The estimated Channel Improvement Project (CIP) cost is $360m of which the federal government is responsible for $230m while the Port of Corpus Christi is responsible for the remaining $130m. To date, the Port of Corpus Christi has transferred $78m of its own funds to the USACE, bringing the total CIP funding level to $173m. The inclusion of additional Work Plan funds is yet another significant milestone toward the United States becoming a net exporter of its energy production, said Sean Strawbridge, ceo for the Port of Corpus Christi. Widening and deepening the Corpus Christi Ship Channel is a mathematical certainty. Energy markets are taking notice as the majority of incremental US energy production is coming to Corpus Christi and ultimately to the global markets. We expect over two to three million barrels per day of new crude production coming our way, and our energy producing and marketing customers know we are building out all the necessary infrastructure to handle these new volumes, safely and responsibly, he added. The FY 19 Presidents Budget already included $13m of funding for the CIP, which was appropriated by Congress in September. Read more: What the US mid-term election results mean for shipping Corpus Christi is the 4th largest port in the United States in total tonnage and located on the western Gulf of Mexico with a 36-mile, 47-foot-deep channel. Methanol, an alcohol-based liquid chemical, emits close to zero sulphur oxide (SOx) and very low nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM), credentials it shares with LNG but without the need for expensive and complex cryogenic shipboard and supply infrastructure, according to the Methanol Institute (MI). Chris Chatterton, coo of MI, pointed out that unlike LNG, methanol is liquid at room temperature, allowing its storag in existing fuel storage tanks or, due to its miscibility in water, even in ballast water tanks, thereby lowering investment costs of building or converting ships to run on methanol. Stena Line Groups 51,837-gt cruise ferry Stena Germanica is an example of a converted vessel that uses its ballast water tanks to carry methanol. Stena Germanica starting using methanol as fuel since 2015 after it converted four main engines to hybrid mode for burning methanol and diesel. To-date, eight methanol-fuelled vessels are in trading including Stena Germanica. Waterfront Shipping, subsidiary of the worlds largest methanol producer Methanex, operates seven two-stroke dual-fuel engines tankers and will add four more to its fleet in the first half of next year. Read more: Four methanol-powered tankers ordered at Hyundai Mipo for Waterfront Shipping We are not talking about needing to overcome major infrastructural modifications and costly investments in order to switch to using methanol as fuel. The only main hurdle is a lack of a global legislation and perhaps political will of individual states, Chatterton told Seatrade Maritime News. In September, IMOs CCC5 sub-committee confirmed draft guidelines for the safe operation of ships using methanol, setting them on course for formal approval by the IMOs Maritime Safety Committee which will convene during the first week of December in London. MI believes that methanol has potential as a future-proof marine fuel to help fulfil the IMOs commitment to halve carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from ships by 2050, a target that cannot be met using conventional fuels or LNG. Using CO2 capture technology, methanol is already produced in a lower carbon format on several mega-scale plants, according to MI. Currently there are a number of organisations producing renewable, zero carbon or low emission, methanol utilizing fermentation, gasification, or electrolysis-based technologies. Chatterton pointed out that pilot and demonstration projects are important first steps to showcase the viability of methanol to the shipping community. MI and Singapores Nanyang Technological University (NTU), for instance, are co-funding a first pilot project in Asia to evaluate the use of methanol as a marine fuel. The pilot project consists of two phases, with the first phase consisting of desktop and bench-testing the methanol-powered engine used in the GreenPilot evaluation programme in Gothenburg, Sweden. For the second phase, the GreenPilot engine will be shipped to Singapore for installation onboard a harbour craft vessel for service within a fleet for a six-month sea trial. The estimated costs of the pilot project are less than $200,000 and will cover the conversion of a ship to be fitted with the methanol-fuelled engine, bunkering, training and subsequent sea trials. Chatterton hopes that for maritime players in Singapore the project will be a useful demonstration of the benefits of methanol as a marine fuel, encouraging them to consider methanol as an alternative fuel once they gain a better understanding. It is probably a one-day affair to train the crew on how to operate a methanol-powered ship, as opposed to a LNG-fuelled ship which is operationally much more complex, Chatterton said. Methanol also has price and efficiency advantages compared to marine gas oil (MGO). Today, methanol as a marine fuel is priced at around $350 per metric tonne (pmt) compared to Singapore MGO at around $700 pmt. In fact, Chatterton said methanol can be even cheaper when blended down with 25% water injection as it does not need to be in its purest form for ship propulsion. In addition, the blended down methanol can still have 2-4% higher combustion efficiency compared to the use of MGO. It is only marginally more expensive to build a methanol-powered vessel compared to building a conventional vessel running on heavy fuel oil, based on Waterfront Shippings newbuild deals, Chatterton said. Meanwhile MI is making progress on establishing a new office in Beijing, China as its second office in Asia after Singapore. Outside Asia, the institute has offices in Washington and Brussels. Our new office in Beijing is in partnership with Chinas ministry of industry and information technology. We look to expand the use of methanol as a marine fuel as we widen our global presence, Chatterton shared. MISC has acquired the vessels LNG Portovenere and LNG Lerici from LNG Shipping and they start five-year time charters with a combined value of $133m in December this year and January 2019 respectively. The acquisition and time charters represent a move into the mid-sized LNG carrier segment by the Malaysian shipowner. In view of the evolving marketplace, there is certainly potential for us to diversify our solutions by including mid-scale and small-scale LNG transportation especially with the growing spot market demand for LNG trading and this will enable MISC to develop our capability in the trading of multiple-size vessels as well as our reach to other global locations, said Yee Yang Chien, president and ceo of MISC. These mid-sized LNG carriers also present unique opportunities that supports MISCs efforts to venture into non-conventional LNG shipping solutions, whereby upon expiry of the charter party, these vessels will have the potential to be converted into mid-sized Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU), Floating Storage Unit (FSU) or other alternative LNG oating solution projects, he added. MISC has a fleet of 28 LNG carriers and two FSUs. Yangzijiang will work with China Ocean Industry Group and its wholly-owned Jiangxi Jiangzhou Union Shipbuilding (Jiangxi Shipbuilding), and investment holding firm Wuxi Tianshi Education Goods. The parties will establish Mining Co to engage in mine construction, digging engineering, explosive works, rock excavation processing, cleansing, sales, freight, transportation, shipping, terminal loading and foreign investment. The board of directors of Mining Co will comprise of seven members, with Yangzijiang appointing four members, China Ocean Industry Group appointing two and Wuxi Tianshi appointing one. The chairman of the board will be from Yangzijiang. Thereafter, Mining Co will establish Shipbuilding Co to engage in the aspects of the shipbuilding business. The agreement to form Shipbuilding Co also includes a plan to reorganise the assets of Jiangxi Shipbuilding. Read more: Yangzijiang stays profitable, orderbook tops $4.1bn After Mining Co and Shipbuilding Co are formed, China Ocean Industry Group will gradually migrate its shipbuilding business currently carried out by Jiangxi Shipbuilding to the new entities as part of the business reorganisation. China Ocean Industry Group, previously named China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry Group, has been diversifying its business away from the ailing shipbuilding market since 2015, venturing into gas operations, LNG and even the car parking business. The new Mining Co entity has also attracted investments from housing construction and investment holding firm Shenzhen Sufa and enterprise management firm Beijing Zhongrun. Shenzhen Sufa has agreed to invest RMB50m to take up 10% shares of Mining Co, while Beijing Zhongrun has earmarked RMB25m for 5% shares. Beijing Zhongrun will also provide loan to China Ocean Industry Group for investments in infrastructure such as logistics corridors, terminals of Mining Co and general working capital. Press Release November 27, 2018 Sen. Lacson's Opening Statement Senate Hearing on the Anti-Terrorism Bills November 27, 2018 More at: https://pinglacson.net/2018/11/27/sen-lacson-chairs-the-senate-hearings-on-anti-terrorism-bills/ Good morning to everyone. This is the continuation of the joint public hearing of the Committees on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs; Committee on National Defense and Security, Committee on Justice and Human Rights; and Committee on Finance, in reference to different bills on anti-terrorism, namely: * SB 1134 authored by Sen. Gordon * SB 1396 authored by Sen. Honasan * SB 1715 authored by Sen. Sotto * SB 1956 by this representation. First of all, I would like to recognize the presence of the chairman of the Committee on National Defense and Security, Sen. Honasan. Also our resource persons: * OIC of the Anti-Terrorism Council, Florentino Manalastas Jr. * From the NICA: Atty. Melanie Albores; Atty. Roberton Lapuz; Atty. Jerome Reyes; Gen. Marte Chioco; Atty. Manuel Llena; Director Candido Bontocon * Atty. Marwin Llasos * National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. As mentioned during the last hearing, the Human Security Act passed in 2007 is seen as a dead-letter law. The only successful implementation (was) Nov. 20, when the Taguig RTC convicted a certain Nur Supian, the one who took up the Jabal Nur or Tiger Base camp in Marawi. He was found guilty but 3 others who were likewise impleaded were acquitted. He was found guilty with rebellion in relation to Sec 3 of the HSA. Aside from that the only successful implementation was the proscription of the ASG as a terrorist organization... So two convictions and one proscription. But still there is a need to amend the HSA. Taking off from where we left off from the recent public hearing on Oct. 1 attended by mostly our security and defense officials, our resource persons arrived at a concurrence to amend the following provisions of the HSA: 1. The redundant provision allowing the person being surveilled to have the right to be informed; it doesn't make sense to inform the person about to be surveilled; 2. The basis for and threshold in applying for an ex-parte judicial authorization or the order to conduct surveillance, as well as preliminary asset preservation; 3. The period by which a suspected terrorist may be detained for the efficient and effective conduct of custodial investigation and its proposed extension to up to 30 days, this is somewhat controversial; and 4. The provision on false prosecution penalizing law enforcers at the high rate of P500,000 per day in favor of terror suspects who are acquitted. This probably is one of the reasons why hindi successful ang implementation of the HSA. With that, let us begin. Press Release November 27, 2018 Lacson Panel Studies Including Abuse of Social Media, Money Transfer in Anti-Terror Act Coverage More at: https://pinglacson.net/2018/11/27/lacson-panel-studies-including-abuse-of-social-media-money-transfer-in-anti-terror-act-coverage/ Harsh penalties may await not just those who directly commit terrorist acts, but also those who abuse social media and money transfer services to further terrorist ends. Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson said Tuesday they are studying the inputs on the issues, which were raised at a Senate hearing on anti-terrorism legislation. "We must be clear. The state must take immediate action in the exercise of its police powers to address the threat of terrorism," said Lacson, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs that headed the hearing. But he stressed they will make sure such provisions do not violate the Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. "This is in the context of the state dealing with terrorism, and as such it needs immediate action in the exercise of its police powers to abate terrorism," Lacson said. During Tuesday's hearing, Atty. Marwil Llasos of the Institute of International Legal Studies said social media has been used as a means of radicalization. Anything harmful to public safety and public order can be regulated by the state, he added. Llasos also noted law enforcement agencies like the National Bureau of Investigation can take down social media accounts for offenses such as cyberlibel. Other countries also have the authority to shut down social media accounts deemed inimical to the national interest. Another issue to be studied after it was brought up during the hearing involved the potential use of money transfer services to finance terrorist activities. Meanwhile, Lacson stressed the need for a mechanism in the executive department that would keep the President updated on terrorist threats. In the United States, he said the President receives a daily executive brief. "There is need for a regular update to allow quick analysis, submitted on a regular basis. If not daily, at least weekly or monthly, to assist in the decision-making process," he said. He also said such a mechanism can avoid the problems encountered by authorities in the 2001 Dos Palmas incident where the Abu Sayyaf abducted 20 hostages at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan. Earlier, Lacson filed Senate Bill 1956, which enhances the Human Security Act of 2007 with provisions on foreign terrorists and aditional predicate crimes. Lacson, who headed the Philippine National Police from 1999 to 2001, lamented that while the HSA had been in effect for more than 10 years, gaps in the law prevented authorities from implementing it properly. Press Release November 27, 2018 SEN. EMMANUEL D. PACQUIAO PRIVILEGE SPEECH| SENATE BILL 189 - ROTC GOOD AFTERNOON, MR. PRESIDENT. BEFORE THE START OF THE 17TH CONGRESS, I WAS ALREADY CLEAR ABOUT MY LEGISLATIVE AGENDA. THAT IS WHY ON JUNE 30, 2016, I FILED SENATE BILL NO. 189 "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE RESTORATION OF MANDATORY MILITARY TRAINING FOR ALL GRADE 11 AND GRADE 12 STUDENTS BY REINSTATING SECTION 38 AND 39 OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7077, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE CITIZEN ARMED FORCE OR ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES RESERVIST ACT." EVEN WHILE I WAS STILL IN CONGRESS, I HAVE ALREADY PUSHED FOR THE REINSTATEMENT OF THE RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS. CLEARLY, THIS IS ONE OF MY PRIORITY BILLS. THE BILLS ON REINSTATING ROTC HAVE GONE THROUGH THE FIRST READING ON AUGUST 1, 2016, SINCE THEN, THE BILLS HAVE BEEN PENDING IN THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, ARTS AND CULTURE AND COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL DEFENSE AND SECURITY. I AM DELIGHTED TO INFORM YOU THAT YESTERDAY, I HAVE RECEIVED A LETTER FROM OUR SENATE PRESIDENT VICENTE SOTTO III CONVEYING HIS INTENTION TO BE MADE CO-AUTHOR OF SENATE BILL 189. FOR THE RECORD, I AM GLADLY ACCEPTING THE REQUEST. UNDER SENATE BILL NO. 189, THE RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS IS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE MILITARY TRAINING TO GRADE 11 AND GRADE 12 OR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ORDER TO MOTIVATE, TRAIN, ORGANIZE AND MOBILIZE OUR YOUTH FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE PREPAREDNESS. MR. PRESIDENT, LET US DO A QUICK REVIEW. ROTC WAS INSTITUTIONALIZED UNDER COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 1, ALSO KNOWN AS "THE NATIONAL DEFENSE ACT." UNDER THIS MEASURE, EVERY PHYSICALLY FIT STUDENT WAS REQUIRED TO PURSUE A COURSE OF MILITARY INSTRUCTION DESIGNED TO QUALIFY HIM FOR A COMMISSION AS A THIRD LIEUTENANT IN THE REGULAR OR RESERVE FORCES. THE NATIONAL DEFENSE ACT WAS AMENDED BY PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1706, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "THE NATIONAL SERVICE LAW." THE DECREE PROVIDES THAT EACH CITIZEN SHALL RENDER NATIONAL SERVICE IN ANY OF THE THREE MAIN PROGRAMS, NAMELY: CIVIC WELFARE SERVICE; LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICE; AND MILITARY SERVICE. THE NATIONAL SERVICE LAW WAS LATER AMENDED BY REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7077, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE "CITIZEN ARMED FORCE OR ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES RESERVIST ACT" WHICH PROVIDES FOR THE MANDATORY TAKING OF THE RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS. THE LAW REQUIRES THE COMPLETION OF THE COURSE AS A REQUIREMENT FOR ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS IN ACQUIRING THEIR BACCALAUREATE DEGREE. ACCORDING TO REPUBLIC ACT 7077, The mission of the Citizen Armed Force, alternately referred to as the Reserve Force, INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING: TO PROVIDE THE BASE FOR THE EXPANSION OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES IN THE EVENT OF WAR, INVASION OR REBELLION TO ASSIST IN SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TO ASSIST IN THE OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF ESSENTIAL GOVERNMENT OR PRIVATE UTILITIES IN THE FURTHERANCE OF OVERALL MISSION And let me highlight this: TO ASSIST IN RELIEF AND RESCUE DURING DISASTERS OR CALAMITIES ALAM NAMAN PO NATIN ANG KALUNOS-LUNOS NA NANGYARI SA ATING MGA KABABAYAN SA TACLOBAN. MR. PRESIDENT, WE HAVE LEARNED OUR LESSONS WELL. ISA SA MGA IMPORTANTENG NATUTUNAN NATIN AY ANG KAHALAGAHAN NG RESERVE FORCE SA PANAHON NG MGA SAKUNA KUNG SAAN MAS MARAMI TAYONG MAPAPAGALAW NA RESERVISTS NA MAKAKATULONG SA ATING MGA KABABAYAN NA MANGANGAILANGAN NG RELIEF AND RESCUE ASSISTANCE. SA GITNA NG MGA NAGBABADYANG SAKUNA, MAS MABUTI NA TAYO AY LAGING HANDA. ON JANUARY 23, 2002, REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9163, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE "NATIONAL SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM OR NSTP ACT OF 2001," WAS APPROVED. THE PROGRAM WAS ENACTED TO ENHANCE CIVIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND DEFENSE PREPAREDNESS IN THE YOUTH BY DEVELOPING THEIR ETHICS OF SERVICE AND PATRIOTISM. UNDER RA 9163, ROTC WAS MADE OPTIONAL AND VOLUNTARY. MR. PRESIDENT, WE RECOGNIZE THAT THERE WERE PROBLEMS AND CONTROVERSIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ROTC. AS SOLUTION PROVIDERS, WE WILL STRENGTHEN THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE ROTC OFFICERS AS WELL AS EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAM. OUR GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT COMPROMISE THE SECURITY OF OUR LAND AND THE WELFARE OF OUR PEOPLE. WE NEED TO EQUIP OUR YOUTH WITH NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN SECURING AND DEFENDING THE COUNTRY IN TIMES OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY. MR. PRESIDENT, REINSTATING THE ROTC IS CONSISTENT WITH THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE THAT THE GOVERNMENT MAY CALL UPON THE PEOPLE TO DEFEND THE STATE. TODAY, MORE THAN EVER, WE NEED TO STRENGTHEN OUR COMMITMENT TO PUT OUR COUNTRY ABOVE SELF. WITH THIS, LET US REVIVE THE MANDATORY ROTC. MARAMING SALAMAT PO. Retirement village and aged care operator Arvida Group saw strong growth in the six months to Sept. 30 on the back of high occupancy and contributions from last years acquisitions. The retirement village and aged care company predicts even better financial performance for the full year, as more people move through its expanded operations. Net profit for the half year rose 110 percent on 1H18, to $30.5 million, and underlying profit rose 45 percent to $17.9 million. Arvida chief executive Bill McDonald said occupancy of its higher-dependency care facilities was 95.3 percent in September, significantly higher than industry experience. Growth in bed numbers, premium fee revenue and high care occupancy underpin a strong recurring cash flow profile, he said. Meanwhile, the strong property market over the last few years helped lift Arvidas resale gains - the difference between the price a unit was initially bought for and what it was sold for during the financial period - by 75 percent, and resale margins rose to 22 percent. Arvida - a play on words mixing 'Arv' as in 'A retirement village' and 'vida', the Spanish word for life - listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2014. That followed what McDonald described at the time as an intense period of merger and acquisition activity to get 17 villages scattered throughout New Zealand into one entity and ready for an initial public offering. The float raised $80 million, with two of the first investors being then All Blacks Richie McCaw and Dan Carter. At the time of the float, Arvida had 952 aged-care beds and 812 retirement units, providing accommodation for more than 1,700 residents. It bought three more villages in 2015. More acquisitions have seen the group expand to 29 retirement villages with over 4,000 residents. McDonald told BusinessDesk that while the ongoing growth strategy includes acquisition, the company will also look more at building new villages, and expanding its existing ones. We are on track to deliver 112 new homes this financial year, in line with guidance provided. This will be a significant milestone for the group as the developments reflect the completion of the first of our major apartment projects since listing four years ago. In August, Arvida announced the purchase of 18 hectares of bare land in Kerikeri for a new retirement village involving 200 independent-living villas and an 80-bed care facility. McDonald said the first new homes at the companys other greenfield development in Tasman should be finished next year. With acquisition of the Kerikeri site, our future annual build rate increased to over 200 new homes from 2021, McDonald said. The future development pipeline includes 1,385 units and beds to be built over the next 5-7 years. McDonald said new villages would be more outward-facing, meaning there would be a focus on involving the community in the life of the village, whether it be through a cafe, recreational facilities like pool or a gym, or even a creche. We have a desire to create a connection with the outside community - not to be inwardly focused. If you look at some of our new development - its outwardly-facing, inviting the community in. Its a model where we see our residents coming in the back door and helping in the structure and function of the village, and the outside community coming in the front door.. Arvida announced a September quarter dividend of 1.3 cents per share to be paid on Dec. 20. The shares closed Monday at $1.30 and have gained about 8.5 percent in the past 12 months. (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: 25th November 2021 Morning Report Gentrack Group Limited (NZ: GTK) Annual Results for the Year Ended 30 September 2021 Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) Results for Six Months Ended 30 September 2021 Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) 1H22 Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) HY22 Interim Results and Capital Raise Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited (NZX: FPH) announces result for the first half of FY22 Serko Limited (NZX: SKO) NZ$75 Million Placement Fully Subscribed The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) to Defend Second Class Action 24th November 2021 Morning Report Serko Limited (NZX: SKO) launches NZ$85 million capital raise Labour has made two key concessions to employment law reforms to secure the support of coalition partner New Zealand First. The two crucial tweaks were announced ahead of the Employment Relations Bill returning to Parliament for its second reading today. The first change clarifies that an employer must enter into bargaining for a Multi-Employer Collective Agreement, but that the new legislation "does not compel them to settle an agreement". The second change confirms that union representatives will be able to enter workplaces as of right, but only where "union members are covered by or bargaining for a collective agreement". In all other cases, consent will be required from the employer before a union representative can enter a workplace. The changes are likely to go some way to mollifying employer groups who lobbied hard against key aspects of the Bill, which is the first of a two-part employment law reform process the government has embarked on. NZ First leader Winston Peters first indicated his party was seeking alterations to the Bill in September when he said it was "a work in progress". The issue was one of a number of outbreaks of friction between the coalition partners on a range of policy issues at the time. Peters today said NZ First's contribution to the changes had been to "give small business a fair go". "We have looked out for small and medium-sized business to ensure that the law reflects their reality," he said. "We heard that changes needed to be made to ensure small businesses weren't unfairly treated under the legislation." The Bill already allows small businesses, employing fewer than 20 people, to continue offering work to new employees on a 90-day trial basis, an option that is being removed for larger employers. The government is likely to argue the new wording relating to multi-employer negotiation obligations does no more than set out more clearly its original intentions. But the change is likely to find favour with employers who had feared a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to industry-wide bargaining. In a statement, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the changes were expected to mean the Bill would pass its second reading today. They were the result of the government listening to submissions in the select committee process and "constructive internal discussions to produce an improved Bill". "Each party has brought their different views and the subsequent consensus reached will result in employment law that is better for workers and employers," she said. "Every aspect of our Bill is better than the current employment legislation and delivers rights and protections for workers which were stripped from them by National." The Green Party was also a signatory to the statement outlining the changes, although its contribution to the internal negotiations between the parties of government was not initially obvious. "Employment relations have become out of balance in New Zealand and this legislation shows the government is listening and making the progressive changes that will benefit New Zealanders," co-leader Marama Davidson said. The Council of Trade Unions welcomed the progress, noting by implication that there had been no change to requirements relating to meal and rest breaks, where employers had expressed concern about the detail of their obligations. "We would like to see further moves in the future like the scrapping of 90-day fire at will trials, which particularly threaten vulnerable people in already precarious employment," CTU president Richard Wagstaff said. "In an MMP environment, robust law can take time to work through. "We are encouraged that this Government has consulted with us and other stakeholders to date, and we expect to see further, carefully managed reforms in industrial relations in the near future." (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: 25th November 2021 Morning Report Gentrack Group Limited (NZ: GTK) Annual Results for the Year Ended 30 September 2021 Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) Results for Six Months Ended 30 September 2021 Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) 1H22 Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) HY22 Interim Results and Capital Raise Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited (NZX: FPH) announces result for the first half of FY22 Serko Limited (NZX: SKO) NZ$75 Million Placement Fully Subscribed The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) to Defend Second Class Action 24th November 2021 Morning Report Serko Limited (NZX: SKO) launches NZ$85 million capital raise Gary Gotlieb, one of the countrys more tenacious criminal defence lawyers, has joined the fight to stop the Auckland District Law Society selling its historic inner-city building. He says selling the building could end up killing the society. ADLS has signed a $14.9 million sale agreement for the Chancery Chambers building, despite members voting in July not to sell. The president of the society, Joanna Pidgeon, promised at a special general meeting earlier in the year she wouldn't sell the building during her term if members didnt want the sale. A new council will be elected in March. Opponents say Pidgeon went against her promise when she accepted an offer from an undisclosed bidder. They are also frustrated that by signing an offer with this bidder - subject only to member approval - Pidgeon has closed the door to other, potentially higher, offers. Pidgeon revealed today that since the $14.9 million offer, ADLS has received "two unsolicited and unconditional offers" - of $15.25 million and $15.5 million. "None of those have been entertained because of the contractual obligations we have to the present purchaser," she said. ADLS has called for a second vote - on the $14.9 million offer - on Dec. 10. If enough members vote yes, Pidgeon says the sale will go unconditional two days later. Gotlieb, who during a long career acted for accused people in some high-profile murder, violence and sex-related cases and was well-known for his bright red Alfa Romeo with the plate ACQUIT, is a former president of the ADLS. In a letter to the law societys own publication, due out on Friday, he calls the building the jewel in the crown of the society and says it was bought as a way to give the organisation financial security. And it did. It seems to me the ADLS is trying to self-destruct via the desperate efforts by the current president and council to sell Chancery Chambers without full and proper consultation, he said. All New Zealands other district law societies were wound up in 2009 when the New Zealand Law Society took on their regulatory functions. However, ADLS survived because it had a building, Gotlieb said. ADLS remains today largely due to Chancery Chambers being our major financial and money-earning asset. To sell the building for a large capital sum means we will lose a secure investment property that has performed well for 40 years, which would amount to signing the death knell of ADLS. Pidgeon told BusinessDesk the proposed price was a good deal for the society, as it was above a $13.9 million valuation the ADLS had received before the July vote. She said the society was particularly keen to sell the building because the proposed purchaser had done initial analysis of seismic risk, which suggested Chancery Chambers could be dangerous in an earthquake. That work indicated the society's 37 percent rating, based on an initial evaluation procedure, may not be accurate. The threshold is 34 percent of the new building standard. "If a detailed report was carried out and the building was at the earthquake-prone level or below, that would have a detrimental impact on tenants and the ability to re-let, Pidgeon told members. This might necessitate bringing earthquake-strengthening works forward to ensure that the building might be fully let but, while these works were carried out, this would have a significant impact on rental income. ADLS would also have to take on debt and this could have a significant impact on the services we would be able to deliver to members, and could lead to an increase in membership levies. But Chris Eggleston, spokesman for a group of members strongly opposed to the fast-track sale, says the law society should commission its own study into the seismic risk and think about doing its own repairs if there is a problem. If a sale is the best option, the building should be marketed to find the best price. He said the two most recent unsolicited offers add fuel to the 'No' fire. "What's obvious is the market is a lot higher than the offer already entered into." Eggleston, whose offices are in Chancery Chambers, is today sending out a letter to all lawyers in New Zealand, in an effort to persuade ADSL members to vote against the proposal. He said he has to send the letter to all lawyers because ADSL wont release names of its members, ostensibly for privacy reasons. He said the society also prevents members attending ADLS Council meetings and is reluctant to give them minutes and agendas. We believe the legality of the hastily-arranged postal vote can be challenged, and we would urge all members to strongly vote against the sale, he said. In the last financial accounts available, for the year to Sept. 30, 2017, rents from the Chancery Chambers building brought in $655,000 for the society. Eggleston said he cant see the sense in selling the building before members at least have the information they need to make an informed decision. But hes worried the dice are stacked against opponents. ADLS is controlling the communications, theyve left us only a three-week window at the busiest time of the year [before the vote], and they have put out a press release scaremongering about risks. We are worried lawyers might vote Yes or might not vote, he told BusinessDesk. Pidgeon said only 20 percent of members voted on the previous proposal, and the vote was tight - only 19 votes between the Yes and No camps. She said ADLS is holding an information meeting for eligible members at 5.30pm today. Gotlieb told BusinessDesk hes joined the fight because no one has been able to explain to him why its a good idea. Ive this motto, Keep the buggers honest, and thats how I approach life. (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: 25th November 2021 Morning Report Gentrack Group Limited (NZ: GTK) Annual Results for the Year Ended 30 September 2021 Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) Results for Six Months Ended 30 September 2021 Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) 1H22 Results Announcement Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) HY22 Interim Results and Capital Raise Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited (NZX: FPH) announces result for the first half of FY22 Serko Limited (NZX: SKO) NZ$75 Million Placement Fully Subscribed The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) to Defend Second Class Action 24th November 2021 Morning Report Serko Limited (NZX: SKO) launches NZ$85 million capital raise Actor Dileep, who is busy shooting for cinematographer turned director Ramachandra Babus, celebrated his wedding anniversary at the shooting location in Bangkok. Dileep married Kavya Madhavan on Nov 25, 2016. The couple has a baby girl, who was born on Oct 19 this year. Both Dileep and Kavya are divorcees. There were rumours of their romance for quite long and had a surprise wedding two years back. Speaking at the Telugu pre-release event of 2.0, Superstar Rajinikanth said: After my debut film,, Im excited and nervous about 2.0 because, in this film, almost 40-45% is filled with visual effects and being an actor, Im eagerly looking forward to watching my own work. Rajinikanth said that he struggled a lot only in the first part (Enthiran), the sequel was quite easy. The only difficulty is that my health wasnt well during the climax portions, added Rajinikanth. China's Xi to attend Mexican presidential inauguration Beijing, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Chinese President Xi Jinping will follow-up his talks with Donald Trump by visiting this weekend another country that has had to face the US leader's ire over trade: Mexico. Xi will travel to Mexico City to attend the inauguration of the country's leftist president-elect, Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, on Saturday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Tuesday. Xi's attendance at the inauguration ceremony "shows the high level of importance that China attaches to China-Mexico relations," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a regular press briefing. China and Mexico are "comprehensive strategic partners and enjoy close, high-level exchanges and political trust", he added. Before heading to Mexico, the Chinese leader will meet with Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires as their trade war shows no signs of abating. Trump has already imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods -- about half of the total imported each year -- in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse alleged unfair trade practices, such as the forced transfer of intellectual property and massive state intervention in markets. And just days ahead of Trump's planned meeting with Xi at the G20 summit, the US president vowed to put tariffs on all remaining imports from China if the two sides failed to reach a deal, according to The Wall Street Journal. China has sought to bolster relations with other countries and forge new economic partnerships this year, as its relationship with the US faces new strains over trade. The Trump administration reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico in October to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) following fraught negotiations. The new pact, baptised the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), even has a provision that essentially forbids any free trade deals between its signatories and Beijing. While Trump and Lopez Obrador both said they had a "great" first phone call after the latter's landslide victory in July, the two were at odds over the renaming of the updated agreement, with Trump insisting on listing the US before other countries. China travel giant's daycare staff sentenced in abuse case Shanghai, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Eight staff of a children's daycare centre run by Chinese online travel agency Ctrip were sentenced to jail Tuesday for abuse that included rubbing spicy mustard into youngsters' mouths. The case emerged last November when disturbing video footage of workers abusing toddlers at the centre went viral, sparking nationwide outrage. Shanghai's Changning District Court said in a statement that the defendants received sentences ranging from 12 to 18 months, but with "reprieve" periods. That typically means the accused may not be required to go directly to jail and may have their eventual sentences reduced or waived with good behaviour in the interim. Clips had showed young children of Ctrip employees being roughly handled and punished by having the spicy mustard shoved into their mouths or being forced to smell the pungent condiment. The court's statement accused the staff of "mustard intimidation" of the children. After video of the abuse went viral, subsequent clips emerged showing irate parents trying to take revenge by forcing what appeared to be spicy mustard into the mouth of one of the accused female staff members as police sought to hold them back. Ctrip is China's biggest online booking site for air, rail and other travel. It bought British flight search app Skyscanner for $1.7 billion in 2016. Ctrip had outsourced daily operations of the daycare centre to an external provider. The company last year fired two top executives, Shi Qi, a group vice president, and vice president Feng Weihua, over the affair, according to Chinese media reports that cited an internal company memo. The company has said the daycare centre has since been shut. Spain rejects China's Silk Road plan Madrid, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Spain will not sign on to China's ambitious "One Belt, One Road" initiative that seeks to better link Asia and Europe, a senior government official said Tuesday ahead of a visit by President Xi Jinping. The multi-billion-dollar initiative, unveiled by Xi in 2013, aims to link the continents through a network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. Beijing plans to develop the network through 65 countries representing an estimated 60 percent of the world's population and a third of its economic output. So far, around 70 countries have signed a memorandum of understanding pledging their interest in the project -- an agreement that Beijing values as it seeks to expand its project. In Europe, countries such as Poland and Greece have signed but the project has created considerable anxiety that it masks an attempted Beijing influence grab. "We're not going to sign the initiative," said an official from the Spanish prime minister's office, who refused to be named. "Europe has a connectivity initiative with Asia, so we think Europeans should work within this framework," the official said, citing his country's reason for not signing China's Silk Road plan. He was referring to the European Union in September presenting its own plans to develop a parallel network of infrastructure to connect it to Asia. But the Madrid statement ahead of Xi's state visit to Spain later Tuesday could irk China. Jean-Francois Di Meglio, president of France's Asia Centre research centre, said the memoranda of understanding that countries have signed with China have little legal value. But they are a "signal that 'I want to do business with you'," he told AFP. "In China's mind, it's really important to get it," he added, as Beijing pushes to revive Silk Road trade routes with its costly initiative. CORRECTED: China's Xi to send special envoy to Mexican presidential inauguration Beijing, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Chinese president Xi Jinping will send a special envoy to attend Mexico's presidential inauguration, following the Chinese leader's talks with Donald Trump at the G20 summit. Shen Yueyue, a senior member of the Communist Party, will travel to Mexico City to attend the inauguration of the country's leftist president-elect, Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, on Saturday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Tuesday. Shen's attendance at the inauguration ceremony "shows the high level of importance that China attaches to China-Mexico relations," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a regular press briefing. China and Mexico are "comprehensive strategic partners and enjoy close, high-level exchanges and political trust", he added. Before Shen heads to Mexico, Xi will meet with Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires as their trade war shows no signs of abating. Trump has already imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods -- about half of the total imported each year -- in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse alleged unfair trade practices, such as the forced transfer of intellectual property and massive state intervention in markets. And just days ahead of Trump's planned meeting with Xi at the G20 summit, the US president vowed to put tariffs on all remaining imports from China if the two sides failed to reach a deal, according to The Wall Street Journal. China has sought to bolster relations with other countries and forge new economic partnerships this year, as its relationship with the US faces new strains over trade. The Trump administration reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico in October to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) following fraught negotiations. The new pact, baptised the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), even has a provision that essentially forbids any free trade deals between its signatories and Beijing. While Trump and Lopez Obrador both said they had a "great" first phone call after the latter's landslide victory in July, the two were at odds over the renaming of the updated agreement, with Trump insisting on listing the US before other countries. Trump believes 'good possibility' of China trade deal: advisor Washington, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 There is a "good possibility" President Donald Trump will reach an agreement later this week to resolve the US trade dispute with China, a White House official said Tuesday. Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a media briefing "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it." Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires later this week on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. But Kudlow said any agreement must resolve the issues of "fairness and reciprocity" at the heart of the dispute. Trump has imposed steep punitive tariffs on about half of the Chinese goods imported into the US market each year, and has threatened to target the remaining $267 billion in goods as well -- which would hit Apple iPhones and laptops produced in China. Trump on Monday said he did not think a deal would be reached this week that would prevent a scheduled increase in the tariff rate on $200 billion in goods. "China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," Kudlow said. And he noted that the US economy is in a strong position, while China is slowing and is in "a slump." Asked about the impact of tariffs on the economy, Kudlow said, "we are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well." Resolving the trade dispute requires that "certain conditions have to be met with respect to fairness and reciprocity... intellectual property theft must be solved, forced technology transfers must be solved." 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"We want to draw the world's attention to the fact that climate change is real, that human tragedies are taking place before our eyes and that action is urgent," Greenpeace Poland activist Katarzyna Guzek told AFP via telephone. She said nine activists from around the world had scaled the 180 metre (560 feet) tower as part of a Greenpeace campaign aimed at phasing out coal use. "Belchatow is the largest coal-fired power station in the EU, one of the largest in the world and therefore the symbol of a system that kills life on our planet," Guzek added. The activists were prepared to remain on the tower "for some time", Guzek said but refused to go into detail. Maciej Szczepaniuk, a spokesman for Poland's PGE power group which owns the Belchatow facility in southern Poland told AFP that the "protest action has no impact on the functioning of the plant". Delegations from nearly 200 countries will meet in the nearby Polish coal city of Katowice for the two-week COP24 summit which opens on Sunday. Calling Poland a "major contributor to global warming", Guzek said: "On the one hand it is organising the summit and on the other hand it is announcing its energy program in which coal remains a staple fuel until 2060." The UN's climate chief Patricia Espinosa insists the summit in Poland must produce a detailed programme to move the Paris climate accord forward. World leaders have been trying to breathe new life into the 195-nation Paris Agreement amid backsliding from several nations -- most notably the United States -- over commitments made when it was signed in December 2015. It is to take effect in 2020 and calls for limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Experts warn that the global measure is on track to surpass three degrees by 2100 and urge governments they must now do even more than first planned if global warming is to be reined in at all. Three US soldiers killed in Afghanistan: NATO Kabul, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Three US soldiers were killed and three wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday, NATO said, taking the number of American service personnel to die in the war-torn country this year to 12. NATO's Resolute Support mission would not immediately release any details about the soldiers, but said they had been killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan. An American contractor was also wounded, it said, adding that the four injured in the blast were receiving medical care. The casualties come just days after another US soldier was killed in Afghanistan's Nimroz province on Saturday. An initial review showed the soldier was "likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force", a NATO statement said Tuesday, adding that the "tragic" incident occurred as they engaged in a battle with al Qaeda militants. "There are no indications he was shot intentionally," the statement added, naming the soldier as Sgt Jasso without giving a first name. General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Jasso was killed "defending our nation, fighting al Qaeda alongside our Afghan partners". Jasso's death follows a spate of so-called "insider attacks" that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting Afghanistan's military. More than 2,200 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime from power. The number of American casualties has fallen dramatically since the end of 2014 when Afghan forces took over from US-led NATO combat troops to secure the country. Since the start of 2015, 58 Americans have been killed, President Ashraf Ghani said earlier this month. In the same time period, nearly 30,000 Afghan police and soldiers have died, Ghani said -- a figure much higher than any previously acknowledged. The Taliban have intensified attacks on Afghan forces, inflicting record casualties even as the United States ratchets up efforts to engage the militants in peace talks. More than 17 years since the start of the conflict, the US is trying to find a way out of the war. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is spearheading efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban before Afghanistan's April presidential election. A Taliban delegation met with Khalilzad in Doha in October and November to discuss ending the Afghan conflict. Three US soldiers killed in Afghanistan: NATO Kabul, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Three US soldiers were killed and three wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday, NATO said, taking the number of American service personnel to die in the war-torn country this year to 12. NATO's Resolute Support mission would not immediately release any details about the soldiers, but said they had been killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan. An American contractor was also wounded, it said, adding that the four injured in the blast were receiving medical care. The casualties come just days after another US soldier was killed in Afghanistan's Nimroz province on Saturday. An initial review showed the soldier was "likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force", a NATO statement said Tuesday, adding that the "tragic" incident occurred as they engaged in a battle with al Qaeda militants. "There are no indications he was shot intentionally," the statement added, naming the soldier as Sgt Jasso without giving a first name. General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Jasso was killed "defending our nation, fighting al Qaeda alongside our Afghan partners". Jasso's death follows a spate of so-called "insider attacks" that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting Afghanistan's military. More than 2,200 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime from power. The number of American casualties has fallen dramatically since the end of 2014 when Afghan forces took over from US-led NATO combat troops to secure the country. Since the start of 2015, 58 Americans have been killed, President Ashraf Ghani said earlier this month. In the same time period, nearly 30,000 Afghan police and soldiers have died, Ghani said -- a figure much higher than any previously acknowledged. The shocking mortality rate, which some experts warn is unsustainable, has sent already shaky morale to new lows. The Taliban have intensified attacks on Afghan forces even as the United States ratchets up efforts to engage the militants in peace talks. Washington is trying to find a way out of the conflict more than 17 years since it began. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is spearheading efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban before Afghanistan's presidential election, scheduled for April next year though officials have said it could be postponed until July. A Taliban delegation met with Khalilzad in Doha in October and November to discuss ending the Afghan conflict. Khalilzad has said he is "cautiously optimistic" for an end to the conflict. 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. Bir Lehlu (Sahrawi Liberated Territories), Nov 27, 2018 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, SG of the Frente POLISARIO, Brahim Gali sent today a message of congratulations to his Panamanian counterpart, His Excellency Juan Carlos Varela, on the occasion of the 197th anniversary of the Declaration of the Independence of his country, on November 28, 1821. Following the full Text: His Excellency Juan Carlos Varela President of the Republic of Panama City of Panama Panama Excellence: On behalf of the people and government of the Saharawi Republic and on my own behalf, allow me to extend to Your Excellency, and to the Panamanian government and people, my sincere congratulations on the 197th anniversary of your country's Declaration of Independence, on 28 November 1821 On this day of great historical significance for the Panamanian people, I convey to you, Excellency, my longings for peace and prosperity and, through you, the Panamanian people, and I express the desire and willingness of the Saharawi Republic to continue narrowing the already traditional ties of friendship and cooperation that unite our two countries and sister nations. Please accept , Excellency, the assurances of my high consideration Brahim Ghali President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic SPS 125/090/TRA Chahid El Hafed, Nov 27, 2018 (SPS) - The Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Ahmudi Labsir, confirmed on Tuesday that the 14th Western Sahara International Film Festival will be held in the Wilaya of Dakhla from 2 to 8December, with the participation of 25 films. Ahmudi Labsir said at a press conference organized in the Ministry of Information of the SADR that the films that will participate in the festival address various aspects of the struggle of the Saharawi people, and many are the produced by filmmakers of the National Film School "Abididin El Kaid Saleh". He said that the festival will be attended by many foreign delegations of filmmakers and international artists from different countries of the world, such as Spain and Algeria. in parallel to FiSahara, the Regional Festival of Culture and Folklore where different aspects of Sahrawi national culture and folkloric activities will be exhibited. He pointed out The International Western Sahara Film Festival, well known as FISAHARA, was held for the first time in 2004 and is currently an annual event taking place in the Saharawi refugee camps to shed light on the struggle of the Saharawi people towards national independence. SPS 125/090/TRA Would better access to the Mississippi River be advantageous to Ste. Genevieve? Yes! It would boost tourism and be awesome for locals. Not really. Anyone who really wants to see it can drive to the ferry landing. View Results 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. A study of the economic strength of Malaga province, including the Costa del Sol, has said that the area will withstand a slowdown in the wider Spanish economy and will end 2018 with local growth of 2.8%, above the national figure. Bosses at the Colegio de Economistas, the professional body that represents accountants and qualified workers in the financial sector in the province, say that Malaga will grow slightly more than Spain this year, mainly because it is more resistant to international changes than previous slowdowns. Vice-dean, Antonio Pedraza, explained, " This slowdown has hit the Malaga economy with stronger defences than on other occasions and with a better foundation." He said that agriculture and food production and new technologies were bringing added value locally, although the area still relied on the service sector. In the third quarter of this year, 6% more companies were set up in Malaga, the highest in Andalucia, and job creation was outstripping the rest of the region as well. This week the International Monetary Fund said it expected to see a small slowdown in Spain's growth this year (2.6%) and next (2.2%). Welcome, DISH customer! Please note that we cannot save your viewing history due to an arrangement with DISH. Watchlist and resume progress features have been disabled. ACCEPT TICKERS: MMV Source: John Newell for Streetwise Reports (11/26/18) John Newell of Fieldhouse Capital profiles a small-cap explorer that he feels could see the same kind of advancement that Great Bear Resources experienced when its discovery hole sent the stock up 150%. To get some background on our investment thinking, look at my Great Bear Resources article published on Streetwise, which can be found here. In October of 2017, we spotted a technical formation in Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd.'s (MMV:TSX.V) chart that suggested to us to look further into why the share price could go higher, as the chart was suggesting at this time. We needed to find out if the project checked the boxes that we feel majors are looking for to replace their ever-declining reserves. Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com. We want to answer the question: Does Mineral Mountain Resources (MMV.V) have the people, the project, the grade and size potential to move the needle for a major, and in a favorable jurisdiction close to infrastructure? That is what we will attempt to answer in this report, knowing that investing in precious metal exploration companies is very risky, and we want to reduce the risk by looking at the background of the people and property. When looking for a mining company in today's markets, in a world where majors must build up their ever-declining reserves, we start by looking for projects with district-size potential or large land packages put together by great management teams and geologists. Mineral Mountain Resources is working in the shadow of the giant 40+ million-ounce Homestake Mine (that built the Hearst fortune), in Lead, South Dakota. Mineral Mountains' situation may be similar to Great Bear Resources Ltd.'s (GBR:TSX.V; GTBDF:OTC). Great Bear is exploring in the famous Red Lake Mining Camp where over 30 million ounces have been discovered to date, and is working in an area no one believed gold could be foundand many had tried before them. The management team was in part working with the adage "the best place to look for gold is next to an existing mine." Despite over 160 holes drilled that to date had produced little exploration success, Great Bear Resources properties sit about 30 km from the famous Red Lake mine. Great Bear Resources kept at it and then about two months ago it hit a high-grade hole and proof of concept, and the shares soared. Mineral Mountain Resources is exploring for gold in the Homestake Gold Trend, which again, seems to be a logical place to begin using the same adage. The Homestake Mine produced over 40 million ounces of gold over its 125-year operating history, and it has been reported that it was the richest, deepest, banded iron formation hosted deposit in the world, mining 152 million tonnes at a grade of 8.5 grams of gold per ton, with very consistent grades. Twenty years prior to closing the mine in 2001, Homestake spent $70 million on exploration within the 70 km by 10 km trend. Mineral Mountain's Rochford Gold Project is about 26 kilometers from the famous Homestake Mine. Mineral Mountain has yet to have the high-grade discovery hole, however it is trying. The Map of Mineral Mountain's Project on the Homestake Gold Trend: About Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. (MMV.V) Mineral Mountain Resources, through its wholly owned subsidiary Mineral Mountain Resources (SD), is focused on the identification, exploration and development of its 100%-owned Rochford Gold Project located in the highly prospective, district scale potential, in the mining friendly, underexplored Homestake Gold Belt, in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the U.S.. The Rochford Project covers 7500 acres and includes three major trends of structurally thickened auriferous iron formation that host ledge type gold mineralization. The Homestake Gold Belt is one of the top gold producing belts in North America. Mineral Mountain Resources is a Canadian precious metals exploration company engaged in advancing projects with special merit in leading mining regions, currently working the famous Black Hills. See information about the team here. Shares Issued and Outstanding: 67,186,536 Stock Options: 6,575,000 Warrants: 22,217,598 Fully Diluted: 95,979,134.00 Cash: ~ $800,000 Current share price: CA$0.16 It is believed that management, family and friends own about 30% of the outstanding shares and warrants. In late 2012, Mineral Mountain's experienced technical team recognized that the 70-km-long Homestake Gold Trend located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, hosting the world's deepest and richest iron formation, hosted gold deposits and was one of the largest gold producers in North American history having produced over 40 million ounces of high-grade gold, was largely unexplored since 1997. It was also recognized that the Rochford District, situated only 26 km south of the Homestake Mine, despite the great geological similarities and the compelling evidence for gold mineralization, this portion of the Homestake Gold Trend was overlooked by explorers. The close similarities between the Homestake Mine and the Rochford District in host rock composition, structural style, metamorphic grade, gold mineralization and the company's extensive historical database clearly suggest that the district has the potential to contain a world-class Tier 1 gold system. Since 2013, Mineral Mountain has continued to expand its land position in the Rochford Gold District by claim staking and purchasing well-positioned private properties that fall along the two sub-parallel structural trends that host the ledge type mineralization. Mineral Mountain now owns the largest land package ever assembled, completing a feat that the giant Homestake could never do, and so the area languished for years with almost no modern exploration until now. Also, and equally important, as technology in mining is rapidly changing, Mineral Mountain owns the most comprehensive proprietary geological database ever collected for the district in the history of the region. All this information is the hidden assets in the company that make finding a deposit in the area easier, but often is unrecognized by the markets. Armed with this database and new cost-effective drilling programs and the belief that the Rochford Gold Project has the potential to host several district-scale gold discoveries that could replicate the # 9 ledge that contained approximately 9 million ounces of gold in the Homestake mine, Mineral Mountain has spent the last four years consolidating the claims for the first time into one clear district-scale project that would get the attention of a gold major, should a large deposit be found. To that end, Mineral Mountain started a phase 1 drill program that completed nine holes totaling about 2,937 meters and was designed to get a better understanding of the upper structure. Curt Hogge, chief geologist for the company, commented, "The 30-meter-wide Homestake-type mineralized core interval in ST18-003 from 153.0183.0 meters downhole, from a visual standpoint, looks as good as any hole that I have logged in the Rochford District during my career in the Black Hills spanning over 30 years. The dramatic increase in arsenopyrite percentage and crystal size as well as gold grade between ST18-002 and ST18-003 makes the untested potential down-dip and down-plunge a compelling target." Nelson Baker, president and CEO for the company, commented, "With seven holes now completed we have intersected significant intervals of Homestake-style gold mineralization in six out of seven drill holes completed in this campaign." Baker also said, "Our Phase 1 drilling has solidified our belief that the Standby Target is of sufficient scale (multi-kilometer plunge length of structurally thickened iron formation) to host a major ore-bearing structure on the scale of the Homestake 9-Ledge that produced 9.5 million ounces of gold." Dr. Brozdowski, vice president of exploration, in a recent presentation stated that initial results from the phase 1 drilling results compare well to the first results of the # 9 Ledge in the Homestake Mine. He went on to say that the company's Standby mine appears to be richer and wider than the upper zone to the surface expression of the original Homestake #9 Ledge. The conclusion we come to after going through the news releases and talking to the company, is that while the share price is down, after hitting it first target area of CA$0.70 area, the company has delivered on what it said it would do. The point of exploration is to figure out whether there is a mine or not; if there is no mine you stop spending money and drilling and look in a different area. Clearly the people at Mineral Mountain believe they are in the right area, where they believe a deposit similar to the #9 Ledge could be, and are continuing to explore that thesis. Historical Homestake Gold Ore Ledges: Homestake Gold Ore from # 9 Ledge and the Standby Core sample from the Upper Tail: This similar looking rock was one reason that caused the shares to spike to the 52-week high of CA$0.74. #7 Down Hole Geophysics Outlined Shear Zone- Strong Conductive Targets Mineral Mountain is going to use Electromagnetic (BHEM) to map the structure while collecting 3D modeling for continued drilling that the company will direct into the face of the mineralized shear zone. Standby/Homestake Model Modern Day Technology = $ Savings and Control Down Hole EM & Directional Drilling After reaching technical success and proof of concept, Mineral Mountain resources is starting phase 2 now. Phase 2 is expected to be a 4,000 meter drilling program that will target what Mineral Mountain believes it has identified as a high-grade gold intersection that Homestake hit in 1987, which graded 10.29 grams per ton over 3.05 meters. This phase will feature advanced directional drilling and Bore Hole ElectroMagnetic (BHEM) methods that are the backbone of a detailed mineral exploration program for massive sulfide detection. The phase 2 program will start with a deep directional drill hole designed to run parallel to the main syncline to intersect the high-grade zone. This type of directional drilling uses a steerable wireline core barrel, which while reducing costs also improves the control of the drill over traditional drilling methods. This steerable wireless core barrel enables the creation of multiple branches from the pilot hole, which allows many accurate cross cuts to penetrate the main mineralized shear zone down plunge. With this directional drilling used in combination with the BHEM, the company believes it will have the ability to see 400 meters off the hole as it tracks the mineralized structure down plunge toward the high-grade zone. When I asked Dr. Brozdowski how the BHEM would work in Mineral Mountain's Rochford Gold Project and geological setting he stated, "The best formational EM conductors in the stratigraphic sequence are the sulfidic, graphitic black schist geologic units that occur just below the iron formation and just above the iron formation (with the iron formation itself being the gold-host unit, where it is cut by late shear zones). When these upper and lower units are cut by the nearly vertical shear zones, the conductance is even stronger in these bounding units than when they are not sheared. Therefore, we are using the Surface & Borehole EM surveys to define a conductive "sandwich," where the best conductors are IN the target shear zone but spatially just ABOVE and just BELOW the target iron formation. Then we aim for the less conductive "gap," which is likely to be the gold (Au) mineralized iron formation unit between the strong conductors. It is indirect targeting, that is, we are inferring the position of the best mineralized iron formationwhich we cannot "see" directly geophysicallybased on its known stratigraphic spatial relationship to the more conductive units above and below the iron formation. Standby/Homestake Model: Modern Day Technology = Advantage Down Hole Directional Drilling to the old drill hole that Homestake found High Grade 10.23 g/t (Down Hole EM & Directional Drilling) This Phase 2 drilling program will use technology never used on this project before. Standby/Homestake Model Down Plunge at Standby Modern Day Technology = Advantage (Down Hole EM & Directional Drilling) The Shared Characteristics of the Homestake Mine and the Standby Syncline: Stratigraphy: Basalt, graphitic and sulfidic pelite, iron formation, meta-clastics Metamorphic Grade: Biotite-garnet isograd transects both districts Folding: Key tight to isoclinal SSE-plunging F2 folds Shear Zones: NNW-trending, near-vertical, brittle-ductile deformation zones: 2 at Homestake, 5 at Rochford: Au Target Trends (Ore Ledge Locations) are intersections of deformation zones with thickened iron formations in F2 synclines Gold Ore Host Rock: Chert-grunerite-siderite-pyrrhotite iron formation Alteration: Arsenopyrite; extensional Au-bearing quartz veins with chlorite selvages A picture of Gold in Quartz at the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota The Technicals: We first started following Mineral Mountain Resources (MMV.V) in October 2017 when we saw the chart build a triangle pattern (see chart below) inside and long 5-year basing pattern. Part of the work we do is to screen for accumulation patterns and find the fundamentals behind the company. When shares broke out, we established three targets shown on the long-term chart, also below. The shares met and exceeded their first target of CA$0.70 in April 2018, when the companies drill core pictures replicated the #9 Ledge Homestake style mineralization core sample pictures. Everyone, including professional geologists thought Mineral Mountain had hit the deposit it was after, but when the assays from the relativity shallow hole came back with lower grade than the market wanted, the shares fell dramatically and have never really recovered. Does that end the exploration? We don't think so. Hidden in the drop is a technical set up that is forming and, while not complete yet, the fundamentals suggest that it could, and that is why we are still following and holding our shares. Our short-term technical targets are currently CA$0.375, the old high CA$0.70 area and lastly CA$1.15, and we will revisit and update those targets if the fundamentals and technicals change, targets are met and/or exceeded in the coming months. Long Term Chart below: Stockcharts.com Does this Chart look like that Chart? I see two Accumulation Patterns. Investment Summary: We feel with this speculative stock idea, Mineral Mountain Resources (MMV.V), we have the right management group, the right geological team, the right jurisdiction, the right infrastructure, and the potential for a high-grade discovery, with district-scale size potential. Mineral Mountain Resources has made great progress in advancing the exploration at its Rochford Gold Project, which we believe it is a largely unknown, unloved story [so were Great Bear Resources (GBR.V) and forgotten GT Gold (GTT.V); both we highlighted and published only three short months ago and both moved up greater than 150% in a matter of days when the market finally recognized what they had, in spite of both companies reporting good drilling results over the past year]. This tends to be a good indicator that we are early, as opposed to late, in this exciting story. Mineral Mountain, as I am writing this Market Awareness Report, is now commencing its longest, deepest drill hole to date using all the modern geological modeling and drilling technology available to help target a #9 Ledge style multimillion-ounce target. Many investors buy shares after a major discovery when more is known, and there is nothing wrong with that strategy, but buying low is another way of mitigating speculative risk and get an entry price as cheap as possible. With the shares of MMV trading at close to its lows of the last five years, coupled with tax-loss selling and disappointed short-term traders selling 20 million shares in the last three months (which someone, groups, and insiders bought), the shares look like an inexpensive bet on the potential of a major high-grade gold deposit: CA$40 million in exploration and past drilling data ($20 million worth of drilling data bought for US$600,000) to work with or about CA$0.50 per share in exploration expenses, and a team of experts in the Homestake Gold District. At the current share price of CA$0.15 it seems like a good exploration play to us. We believe Mineral Mountain shares are a good speculative play up to about CA$0.40 per share (the exploration expense and past drilling data per share), with a technical target of CA$1.15. The charts below are added for context: Junior mining shares are volatile and daily, weekly and monthly movement often do not reflect the true potential of a company out in the field doing its best work to try and bring in a project it truly believes is world class. These are the teams we look for. An interview with Mineral Mountain Resources CEO Nelson Baker is available here. John Newell is a portfolio manager at Fieldhouse Capital Management. He has 38 years of experience in the investment industry acting as an officer, director, portfolio manager and investment advisor with some of the largest investment firms in Canada including Scotia McLeod, CIBC Wood Gundy and Richardson Greenshields (RBC Capital Markets). Newell is a specialist in precious metal equities and related commodities, and follows a disciplined proprietary approach incorporating equity research, analytical frameworks and risk controls to evaluate and select long and short stocks primarily from the Canadian small and mid-cap coverage. Many large, midcap and junior precious metal companies use his technical charts. Newell is a registered portfolio manager in Canada (advising representative). [NLINSERT] Disclosures: 1) John Newell: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Mineral Mountain Resources. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company currently has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Great Bear Resources. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector. Additional disclosures/disclaimer below. 2) The following companies mentioned in this article are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. 3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy. 4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports. 5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Mineral Mountain Resources, a company mentioned in this article. Additional Disclosures and Disclaimer from John Newell, Fieldhouse Capital Management Legal Notice / Disclaimer: This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment. John Newell has based this document on information obtained from sources he believes to be reliable, but which has not been independently verified. John Newell makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. Expressions of opinion are those of John Newell only and are subject to change without notice. John Newell assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission. Furthermore, I, John Newell, assume no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage or for lost profit, which you may incur because of the use and existence of the information provided within this Report. John Newell manages the Fieldhouse Global Precious Fund Class G, which does not own shares of Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. (MMV.V). He was not paid by Mineral Mountain to write this article. Friends and family of John Newell hold shares of Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. (MMV.V) It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these pages will be profitable or that they will not result in losses. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Examples presented on these pages are for educational purposes only. These set-ups are not solicitations of any order to buy or sell. The authors, the publisher, and all affiliates assume no responsibility for your trading results. There is a high degree of risk in trading. Hypothetical and historical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical and historical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical and historical performance results is that they are generally presented with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical and historical trading may not present the financial risks and returns for future trading. For example, the ability to withstand losses or to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading losses are material points which can also adversely affect trading results. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results and all which can adversely affect actual trading results. Disclaimer: This Publication is protected by Canadian and International Copyright laws. All rights reserved. No license is granted to the user except for the user's personal use. No part of this publication or its contents may be copied, downloaded, stored in a retrieval system, further transmitted, or otherwise reproduced, stored, disseminated, transferred, or used, in any form or by any means without prior written permission. This publication is proprietary. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase of an investment program. Any further disclosure or use, distribution, dissemination or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited; such information, whether derived from Fieldhouse Capital Management or from any oral or written communication by way of opinion, advice, or otherwise with a principal of the company is not warranted in any manner whatsoever, is for the use of our customers only and may be obtained from internal and external research sources considered to be reliable. Charts and images provided by the author. The final quarter of 2021 is on its way and theres so much positivity about the rapid growth of the... Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 09:03 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e01aa8 1 Editorial #Editorial,transgender,waria,LGBT,FPI,anti-LGBT Free Transgender people, locally known as waria, have always been a group vulnerable to violence and discrimination. However, they have long been part of local culture as well, accepted though frequently looked down upon. There have been waria celebrities, such as Dorce Gamalama. Men of overtly effeminate appearance are regular fixtures on Indonesian families TV screens. Sally aka Sholeh, a cartoon character imported from Malaysia, featured in the beloved children show Upin and Ipin, is also a waria. Therefore three attacks against waria within the past month must be utterly condemned. Activists, including the leader of the Indonesia Waria Communication Forum, Yulianus Rettoblaut, or Mami Yuli, believe the attacks are linked to the current election campaigns. On Nov. 2, in Lampung, Pesisir Barat regency public order officers arrested three waria for being LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender]. They were hosed down with water from firetrucks as part of their cleansing in Islam. The case became public after pictures of the three people, one kneeling, two squatting, wet and dejected, went viral. In mid-November, seven waria who have lived in an East Jakarta neighborhood for years were told to leave their homes by neighbors who had signed a petition demanding they leave, initiated by the local Mosque Welfare Council. The area is known as a strong base of the hardline Islam Defenders Front (FPI). Residents also erected banners saying that LGBT, including the waria who have lived there side by side and in peace for years, were not welcome. Only a few days later, two waria in Bekasi, West Java, were chased, stripped naked and beaten by around 50 men. Anti-LGBT sentiment in Indonesia notably increased in 2016, when Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister M. Nasir responded to a poster by the Support Group and Research Center on Sexuality Studies based at the University of Indonesia, offering counseling for LGBT youngsters. Since then, concerted actions and statements, dubbed a moral panic by the Human Rights Watch, has taken its toll on LGBT groups, especially waria, whose distinct physical features make them an easier target compared with other members of the LGBT community. Attacks against this community usually increase in line with political campaigns. Ahead of the 2018 regional elections, some politicians, including then-Bandung mayor Ridwan Kamil, said he opposed LGBT rights in response to rumors that he supported LGBT groups. Such negative sentiment is on the rise again ahead of the 2019 presidential and legislative elections. A #2019ChangePresident activist, Neno Warisman, told a rally of her supporters that if people did not want their sons to become homo they should not vote for President Joko Jokowi Widodo. No politician wants to speak up for LGBT rights nowadays because to do so would threaten their political careers. Despite the three recent horrible instances of abuse against waria, no politician has said a word in defense of their human rights. It is therefore incumbent on all candidates for public offices disavow this abuse of vulnerable groups in their race for power. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Wed, November 28, 2018 00:02 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e2bfe4 4 Inforial Free Indonesia and Algeria have made a commitment to increase bilateral trade and investment. The two countries Indonesia in Southeast Asia and Algeria in North Africa have economic ties that go a long way back. Algeria ranks sixth on the list of Indonesias biggest export destinations in Africa and is the fourth-biggest African exporter to Indonesia both according to 2017 statistics. On the list of Indonesias trading partners at the global level, meanwhile, Algeria ranked 46th as an export destination for Indonesia and 41st as an exporter to Indonesia. The two countries announced their renewed commitment after Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita conducted a bilateral meeting with Algerian Industry and Mining Minister Youcef Yousfi in the city of Algiers on Nov. 22. . (Courtesy of Ministry of Trade/.) During his visit to the country, Enggartiasto also conducted a meeting with Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Mohamed Laid Benamor, who is also active as a prominent business practitioner in his country. Benamor asserted that business practitioners in both countries were yet to grasp the huge economic potential that both countries could use to benefit each other. Enggartiasto responded by saying that the needs of Indonesia and Algeria actually overlapped with one another, thereby opening up opportunities for partnerships. Algeria and Indonesia could work together to boost each others economic growth by tapping into each countrys strong economic potential. For instance, Indonesia could benefit from Algerias status as a North African business hub, while Algeria could make use of Indonesias status as a big Southeast Asian country. In addition to that, both sides of the equation could work together in a mutually beneficial cooperation, as Indonesia has ample natural and human resources, which are needed by Algeria, which is actively seeking not only business partners but also a potential market for its products. Algeria prioritizes a number of industrial sectors, including food processing and textiles. I have told them that Indonesia has a great resource capacity and have requested that the Algerian government facilitate Indonesian investment in the country, Enggartiasto said. On Nov. 21, a day before Enggartiasto conducted the meeting with Said Djellab, he had already held a bilateral meeting with Algerian Trade Minister Said Djellab. The two discussed a number of concrete efforts their countries could take to step up their trade relations. For instance, Djellab said Algeria could learn from Indonesia about how to diversify away from oil and gas products, because Algeria had been relying too much on oil and gas products in its trading activities. . (Courtesy of Ministry of Trade/.) We have explored a number of action plans to boost non-oil and gas trade activities between the two countries. One of the steps we can take to achieve that goal is intensifying activities that promote trade between the two countries, as well as boosting the capacity of our small-to-medium enterprises, Enggartiasto said. Enggartiasto said activities that could promote trade between the two countries included inviting Algerian business players to attend business forums and exhibitions during the annual Indonesian Trade Expo to identify companies that had the greatest business partnership potential. I would like to invite the Algerian trade minister as well as the industry and mining minister to pay a visit to Indonesia. [I would also like Indonesia and Algeria] to get to know each others products, learn from one another and, if there are investors who would like to forge investment partnerships with Indonesia, we can arrange factory visits for them, Enggartiasto said. Indonesia expects the Algerian government to provide the countrys businesspeople who have invested there with [easy business procedures] as well as economic certainty. These two things are extremely important to boost export volumes, whether processed products or raw materials, from Indonesia to Algeria, as well as the deployment of Indonesian professionals to Algeria to process the raw materials, Enggartiasto said. According to Enggartiasto, two Indonesian companies are currently invested in Algeria, namely state-owned energy company Pertamina as well as state-owned construction company PT Wijaya Karya. Indonesian food producer PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, meanwhile, is exploring possibilities of opening a factory in Algeria. Trade Ministry International Trade Negotiations Director General Iman Pambagyo said he was optimistic that Indonesias partnership with Algeria could help open doors to other markets as well. Algeria can serve as Indonesias strategic economic partner, [helping Indonesia] penetrate the African and Southern European markets, while Indonesia could also help Algeria penetrate the Southeast Asian markets as well as countries that are part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free-trade agreement, Iman said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 11:04 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e0c80b 1 Art & Culture Education-and-Culture-Ministry,Hilmar-Farid,Kongres-Kebudayaan-Indonesia Free In a bid to establish and advance Indonesia's arts and culture sector, the Education and Culture Ministry is set to hold the Indonesian Cultural Congress in Jakarta on Dec. 5-9, an official has said. The ministry's culture director general, Hilmar Farid, who is overseeing the congress, said the upcoming event would result in a cultural strategy, a policy framework that would shape government policies to support and establish the arts and culture sector and industry, which would be applicable from the regency level to the national sphere. Hilmar explained that the congress itself was already a regular event that took place every five years, which can be traced back to the era shortly after Indonesia's independence with a culture congress taking place in 1948. Further, he added, a reiteration of the congress had also already taken place since 1918. The upcoming congress, however, is different than any previous installments, Hilmar said, where discussions at the regional and national level would all take place during the days designated for the congress. "This is the first time that the congress itself would straightaway focus on discussing gathered empirical data and recommendations from across the nation in order to design the policy framework that would be produced at the end of the event," Hilmar said in Jakarta on Thursday. This year, empirical data has already been gathered ahead of the congress, with discussions at the regency level taking place since March. "As many as 256 regencies and cities have submitted their respective formulations - identifying their cultural strengths, local facilities and infrastructure - that were then brought forward to the provincial level, where 26 provinces had submitted reports so far," Hilmar said. Read also: Mpu Purwa Museum holds Malang's artifacts The congress aims to create a policy framework, or dubbed the cultural strategy, which focuses on the development of culture, in line with Law No. 5/2017 on cultural advancement. The ministry notes that the law outlines 10 focus objects of cultural development, namely oral tradition, manuscript, customs, rites, traditional knowledge, traditional technology, art, language, folk games and traditional sports. The cultural Strategy to be produced at the end of the congress would be the basis for formulating the Master Plan for Promoting Culture, which would be the main reference in the preparation for the short-, medium- and long-term development plan in the cultural field. This year's event also marks a different approach, as it will be open to the public, by involving relevant stakeholders in the creation of recommendations for the grand strategy, as well as hosting performances to showcase the sector itself. (kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 06:05 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877dfef1c 1 Art & Culture Japan-Cinema-Week,Japanese-films Free The Jakarta leg of Japan Cinema Week 2018 is scheduled to be held from Dec. 7 to 16 at CGV Grand Indonesia, Central Jakarta, to commemorate 60 years of bilateral relations between Indonesia and Japan. More than 30 films will be screened throughout the event and they are divided into six categories: New J-Director, New J-Film, Samurai Historical, Kira-kira Teen, Tokusatsu Special Effects and Documentaries. Among the titles that can be watched at the event are GAMERA: The Guardian of the Universe, Godzilla (1954), One Cut of the Dead, Miss Hokusai and Let Me Eat Your Pancreas. Read also: Indonesia, Japan collaborate in fantasy drama film set in Banda Aceh Japan Cinema Week 2018 will provide other activities as well, including a workshop about special effects in films, discussions with Japanese producers and actors and symposiums. The event is the result of collaboration between Japan-based non-profit organization Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO), the Cultural Affairs Agency of Japan and the Japan Foundation. It aims to increase Indonesians' interest in Japanese culture and open up opportunities for Japanese films to be screened in the country. (wir/mut) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 19:31 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e281ad 1 Entertainment DWPX,djakarta-warehouse-project,bali,music,the-weeknd,Afrojack Free Electronic music festival the Djakarta Warehouse Project (DWP), slated to return this year under a new name DWPX, has announced its latest line-up of musicians for the event that will take place in Bali from Dec. 7 to 9. As reported by Antara news agency, United States DJ and record producer KSHMR is among the latest musicians announced in the third phase line up at the DWPX. KSHMR has reached the 12th spot in the annual top 100 DJs poll by DJ Mag in 2017 and has also collaborated with big names such as Tiesto, Hardwell and R3hab. "The DWPX lineup is very special because it brings together musicians who have previously performed at the DWP with musicians who have never previously performed in Indonesia," Sarah Deshita, brand manager of organizer Ismaya Live, said in a statement, as quoted by Antara. Read also: Djakarta Warehouse Project X to be held in Garuda Wisnu Kencana Additionally, musicians in the latest lineup include Claptone, the masked DJ from Germany, as well as Showtek, brother duo Wouter and Sjoerd Janssen from the Netherlands. "Those we are bringing back this year have evolved since the last time they performed at the DWP, along with the development of the DWP. They are also popular names for music lovers throughout the DWP," Sarah said. Musicians The Weeknd, Afrojack, Major Lazer, Porter Robinson and Armin van Buuren had earlier been announced to perform in the upcoming music event that is slated to be held at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana cultural park in Badung regency, Bali. (liz/mut) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Lusaka, Zambia Tue, November 27, 2018 15:01 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e1b3a2 2 People Prince-Harry,zambia,elephant,royals,Britain,conservation Free Britain's Prince Harry on Monday offered Zambia support with boosting the country's dwindling elephant population, as he began a two-day working visit without his pregnant wife Meghan. The Duke of Sussex, 34, was received at Lusaka airport by dignitaries and colorfully-dressed traditional dancers, later holding a closed-door meeting with Zambian President Edgar Lungu and his ministers. As president of animal conservation charity African Parks, Harry offered to bring elephants from neighboring Botswana. Prince Harry told the president during closed-door talks that African Parks will help move between 500 and 1,000 elephants from Botswana into Zambias Kafue National Park," Lungu's spokesman Amos Chanda said. He said this should help boost Zambias tourism and create jobs, especially for the youth." Read also: Harry and Meghan announce move to Windsor in early 2019 African Parks manages national parks on behalf of governments to help protect animals targeted by poachers, including elephants and rhino. Botswana has the highest population of elephants in Africa, while Zambia struggles to pull in the same crowds to its more rundown safari parks. Harry is a frequent visitor to southern Africa for his conservation work and holidays. Harry and Meghan have enjoyed romantic getaways together in Botswana. Last month the royal couple visited Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga on their first official tour since marrying in May. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kate Krader (Bloomberg) Tue, November 27, 2018 17:26 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e2244c 2 Food espresso-martini,martini,cocktail Free There was a time when an espresso martini was the ultimately chic drink at the bar. That time was the mid-90s, the heyday of Sex & the City and the Cosmo. Thats when every flavored martini drink was chic, poured into glasses the exact size and shape of a dogs surgical cone. With the advent of speakeasies, those drinks fell out of favor as fast as a designer fanny pack. But the current freewheeling cocktail culture, in which everything from classic gin drinks to neon-colored concoctions is fair game, its time for an espresso martini renaissance. Its the perfect holiday season drink: The combination of caffeine and alcohol can power people through intensive party schedules. Its even got the appropriately dark hue for Black Friday. Espresso martinis also make sense because its hard not to find the namesake ingredientgood quality coffeethese days. Plus, a lot of talented bartenders these days have barista roots, as if theyve long been training to make a stellar version of the drink. Theres one place where the espresso martini has been going strong for years. At the Portland Hunt + Alpine Club in Portland, Maine, the beverage has been a surprise hit since it appeared on the menu in early 2015. This version features an unconventional local specialty, Allens Coffee Flavored Brandy. We wanted to integrate Maines No. 1-selling spirit, Allens Coffee Brandy, into our menu without being too highbrow about it, says owner Andrew Volk. Allens and Milk is not only the biggest-selling cocktail in Maine, theres a whole cultureand think pieces writtenabout it. (The standard thinking about the popularity of Allens is that its a sweet, strong, inexpensive spirit made in nearby Massachusetts, which lobstermen put in their coffee to keep warm; Fireball Cinnamon Whisky is challenging it.) Its the greatest espresso martini in the world, says mixologist Jackson Cannon of Bostons excellent bar, the Hawthorne. By being true to their approach to sourcing and DIY, they landed on a drink thatwhile faithful to its originsis richer and more expressive than the original. To make this version, Volk tweaked a recipe from the drinks creator, London bartender Dick Bradsell. In addition to the Allens, he substitutes white rum for vodka to enrich the drink; Volk recommends Plantation Three Stars. We rewrite our cocktail list every other month, but ever since the espresso martini was put on the menu, we've found we cannot write it off the menu, says Volk. In their recent cookbook/cocktail guide, Northern Hospitality with the Portland Hunt + Alpine Club (Voyageur Press, August 2018), Andrew and his wife Briana Volk shared their recipe. If you cant find Allens, Volk recommends the coffee-flavored brandy from House Spirits in Portland, Ore. Tequila-based Patron XO works as does the new Mr. Black cold-brew coffee liquor. (Kahlua will work in a pinch, too, but use less of it because its quite sweet). The Portland Hunt + Alpine Clubs drink also uses a sweetened cold brew coffee concentrate. The recipe below is adapted. Read also: Actor Idris Elba is opening tropical-themed cocktail bar in London Espresso Martini Makes 2 cocktails 6 oz. freshly brewed espresso, chilled3 oz. (or to taste) coffee-flavored liqueur, preferably Allens Coffee Flavored Brandy3 oz. white rum2 oz. simple syrup (see note)Ice In a large cocktail shaker, combine all the ingredients, except the ice. Add ice and shake well. Strain into chilled glasses, preferably old school martini glasses, and serve. Note: Simple syrup is made by dissolving equal parts of sugar in water. You can use 1 cup of each and keep leftover syrup in the fridge for a month. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Moscow, Russia Wed, November 28, 2018 03:02 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e2c788 2 Entertainment Russia,music,politics,Oxxxymiron Free Three of Russia's top rappers on Monday gave a concert protesting against the jailing of a fellow star and calling for an end to intimidation by authorities and curbs on their artistic freedom. The packed concert in a Moscow club was organised by rapper Oxxxymiron, who told the audience that the sold-out gig was about "freedom of creativity". The concert expressed solidarity and raised funds for rapper Husky, who last week was was sentenced to 12 days in jail over a performance on the street in southern Russia. His case has prompted rappers to sound the alarm over a clampdown on their artistic freedom, including frequent concert cancellations under pressure from the authorities and conservative groups. In a surprise ruling, Husky, whose real name is Dmitry Kuznetsov, was released hours before the concert after his lawyers asked for his sentence to be reduced. Oxxymiron told the audience that the concert highlighted "the situation with music in our country, which is currently not moving in the best direction, to put it mildly." The 33-year-old rapper, whose real name is Miron Fyodorov, studied at the University of Oxford and is known for his participation in "rap battles" with other stars. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny went to the concert with his family, posing for selfies with supporters. Most attending were in their teens and early 20s and expressed fears the authorities are targeting the rap artists they listen to. "We support this because in Russia there's bloody censorship," said 21-year-old student Ivan Lotman. Read also: Straight outta Bangkok: Thai rappers lay into junta, social conformity "They are starting to tighten the screws and trying to scare certain artists, like Husky," said Denis Zabuzov, also a 21-year-old student, "He was jailed for nothing." Oxxxymiron performed with Basta, a rapper and radio host from southern Russia and Noize MC, who has mocked police corruption and brutality. The concert was titled "I will sing my music," a lyric that Husky performed from a car roof after the venue where he was due to perform cancelled at the last minute. Husky said several of his concerts have been cancelled in recent months, after law enforcement agencies put pressure on organizers. "They've found in my songs insults to the feelings of believers, propaganda of Nazism and sexual perversion," he wrote on social media, rejecting the claims. Husky, 25, was born in eastern Siberia. One of his first songs, written when he was still at school, was critical of President Vladimir Putin. He has also appeared in a play directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, currently on trial on fraud charges that supporters say are part of a crackdown on artistic freedom. However he is not a straightforward opposition figure, having also expressed sympathy for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom Wed, November 28, 2018 01:01 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e2c0ee 2 Entertainment director,film,Nicolas-Roeg,Britain Free Tributes have poured in for late British director Nicolas Roeg, a filmmaker who worked with David Bowie and Mick Jagger and who died at the age of 90 last week. Hollywood star Donald Sutherland, who starred in Roeg's critically-acclaimed 1973 psychological thriller Don't Look Now, paid tribute to him as a "fearless visionary". Oscar-winner Sutherland said in a statement that Roeg was a "liberating joy to work for", adding: "I fell in love with him then and will love him forever". Roeg's family said the director died on Friday. Bowie starred in Roeg's The Man Who Fell To Earth as an unhappy alien. Bowie's filmmaker son Duncan Jones said he was a "great storyteller" and "inimitable". Read also: 'Lazarus': Bowie's grand farewell Roeg also shot Performance (1970) starring James Fox as a gangster and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger as a reclusive rock star. The British Film Institute described Roeg as "a pioneering force of cinema". Roeg "created some of the most affecting moments of beauty, terror and sadness ever seen. A true great if ever there was one," it said on Twitter. Roeg's last major film was The Witches (1990) starring Anjelica Huston. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 07:32 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e00618 1 City drug-raids,Banten,Cilegon,luxury-car Free The West Jakarta Police have foiled an attempt to distribute two bags of methamphetamine and ecstasy that were found on a fishing boat in Cilegon, Banten. Three suspects were arrested during a raid on Nov. 21 that also uncovered dozens of kilograms of methamphetamine and tens of thousands of ecstasy pills, the polices narcotics unit head Adj. Sr. Comr. Erick Frendiz said on Monday as quoted by tempo.co. We are still in the process of developing the case. He said the drugs were supposed to get picked up by a courier driving a luxury car and delivered to a distributor in Jakarta. (rai) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang Tue, November 27, 2018 12:42 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e11005 1 City abandoned-baby,abandoned-boy,soekarno-hatta-airport,child-care Free A baby boy was found crying by the edge of Jl. Perimeter Selatan, near Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Monday morning. Soekarno-Hatta airport spokesman Haerul Anwar said the baby was found alive and healthy. The baby was found by a PT Gatran company employee named Idup. He then directly reported the finding to an aviation security officer, Haerul said as quoted by kompas.com. Haerul said the baby was found at 5:40 a.m when Idup was driving through the road. Idup heard a baby crying out loud and so he searched for the source of the noise Idup found the baby lying on the grass covered with a cloth. The baby, which is estimated to be 1 month old, was then taken to the health office of the airport to be fed before being handed over to the airport police to be taken care of. (gis) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Vela Andapita and Gisela Swaragita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 12:52 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e1361e 1 City anies-baswedan,reclamation,Jakarta-Bay,Islet-C-and-D,IsletG Free Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan announced on Monday the official names of three man-made islets in Jakarta Bay. The islets, which were previously called islets C, D and G, are now called Pantai Kita (Our Beach), Pantai Maju (Moving Forward Beach) and Pantai Bersama (Together Beach), respectively. The names are derived from Anies administration's slogan, maju bersama, which translates to moving forward together. The names are in accordance with our spirit. We are moving Jakarta forward, he told the press, noting that the changes were stipulated in Governor Decision No. 1744/2018. According to Anies, the three islets are still within the area of Java island, and hence, could not be described as islands. Theyre not new islands. Theyre more like beaches, he said. City-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) has been appointed to manage the islets, as outlined in Gubernatorial Regulation No. 120/2018. Jakpro has been granted a 10-year management period. Within that period, Jakpro is required to build low-cost apartments, fish markets, seafood restaurants, houses of worship, government buildings, harbors and other supporting facilities. Previously, the developer of Islet G, PT Agung Podomoro Land, said they had not been informed about the changes by Anies. (evi) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Vincent Lingga (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27 2018 Greenpeace activists who last week prevented a tanker loaded with palm oil from Indonesia from mooring at Rotterdam port and earlier on Nov. 17 illegally boarded the same cargo vessel off Spain in protest at what they described as an ecologically damaging commodity could be regarded as saboteurs of the Indonesian economy. It is one thing to campaign to influence public opinion against unsustainable farming practices, but it is against the law to unilaterally and arbitrarily block the passage of a legal shipment of palm oil. Hence, the demand by the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) and the associations of palm oil companies and smallholders for the government to take stern measures against the Indonesian chapter of Greenpeace is fully justifiable. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Tue, November 27, 2018 09:09 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e03112 2 World #USA,#Donald-Trump,advisor,jailed,Russia,election,probe Free The former Trump campaign aide whose Russia contacts set off the investigation over collusion in the 2016 US president election began a two-week jail sentence Monday over lies he told to the FBI. George Papadopoulos entered the minimum security unit of the Oxford, Wisconsin federal prison more than one year after pleading guilty in one of the first cases brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed. He was the second figure in the Mueller probe to be sentenced to jail, after Alex Van Der Zwaan, a London lawyer who got 30 days for lying about his work with Paul Manafort, chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. Manafort meanwhile faces more than a decade in jail when he is sentenced in February on multiple charges related to money laundering and illegal lobbying. Papadopoulos was an obscure oil industry analyst when he joined the Trump campaign's foreign policy advisory team in March 2016. Based in London, he made contacts with what he believed were important Russian and Russia-linked officials, who through him offered the Trump campaign a meeting between candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. One, a mysterious professor Joseph Mifsud, also told Papadopoulos that Moscow had dirt on Trump's election rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. After an allegedly drunken Papadopoulos related the conversation to an Australian diplomat who passed the information on through intelligence channels, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a probe into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. Emails and testimony by other witnesses showed that Papadopoulos had repeatedly reported his Russia contacts and meetings to the Trump campaign, raising suspicions of collusion. One week after Trump took office in January 2017, the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos. During that interview, he lied about his contacts including with Mifsud, according to federal charges. On October 5, 2017, he pleaded guilty and pledged to cooperate with the probe. At the time, Trump branded him a "young, low-level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar." He was sentenced on September 7 this year after expressing his remorse that he "lied in an investigation that was important to national security." But immediately after that, Papadopoulos declared he had been entrapped by US and foreign intelligence services and alleged that Mifsud was a CIA operative who was part of a broader campaign to damage Trump. "I was framed in many ways," he said in an interview last month with Fox News, calling his Russia contacts "completely orchestrated." He tried to delay his prison sentence, claiming in a court filing that the Mueller investigation was illegal, a claim Trump himself has made. On Sunday, a judge rejected that last-ditch move. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 10:18 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e0a95a 4 City Gerindra-Party,PKS,jakarta,deputy-governor,fit-and-proper-test,candidate Free Mohamad Taufik, the head of Gerindras Jakarta chapter, has criticized the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) for hesitating to conduct a screening for its deputy governor candidates. The two parties, which backed Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno during the gubernatorial election last year, had agreed to conduct the screening before submitting the candidates names to the City Council to replace Sandiaga, who resigned to run as a vice presidential candidate for Gerindras leader Prabowo Subianto in the upcoming election. So what does [the PKS] want? Do they want to directly propose two names? So convenient. We actually agreed to conduct a fit and proper test and the candidates would be from them anyway, Taufik said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. The Jakartas Council deputy speaker also noted that the screening was a normal procedure and that the same mechanism had applied to Sandiaga when he announced his intentions to be a deputy governor candidate. To us it [the screening] is important, he added. PKS faction head at the City Council Abdurahman Suhaimi previously said that such a test was not important and it would only undermine the partys capability in selecting the proper candidates to fill the vacant post. (fac) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 15:16 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e1c97c 4 Business b20-biodiesel-mix,consumption,2019 Free The government plans to double the consumption of 20 percent blended biodiesel (B20) amid the declining price of palm oil on the global market. Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Renewable Energy Director General Rida Mulyana said on Monday that the B20 consumption target for next year would be 6.2 million kiloliters. We expect there will be an increase in the consumption of B20 by 3 million kiloliters [next year], he said as quoted by kompas.com, adding that the state-owned electricity company alone was expected to consume about 700,000 kl of B20 next year. The consumption increase is expected to help boost the crude palm oil [CPO] price and help oil palm growers. As one of the words largest CPO producing country, Indonesia was hit hard by the sudden decline in the commoditys price to around US$420 per ton from around $530, last week. In response, the government has temporarily removed the export levy that was usually charged by the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDP-KS) for replanting. The government introduced the mandatory use of B20 in early September as part of its efforts to reduce crude oil imports that have contributed to the widening trade deficit and current account deficit. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 08:47 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e0133c 1 Business CPO,exports,levy,removal,price,decline,DarminNasution Free The recent slump in the crude palm oil (CPO) price has prompted the government to temporary remove the export levy charged by the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDP-KS) for replanting as well as to incentivize the 20 percent blended biodiesel (B20) program. The sudden decline of the CPO price to around US$420 per ton recently from around $530 last week triggered the governments decision, said Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution in Jakarta on Monday. After a long discussion, we agreed that the export levy on CPO and its derivative products for the BPDP-KS, considering the relatively low [CPO] price, should be fully deducted, said Darmin. Should the commoditys price increase to $500 per ton, a $25 dollar export levy will be charged for CPO products, as well as $10 for primary derivative products and $5 for secondary derivative products. The current export tariffs of $50 for CPO products, $30 for primary derivative products and $20 for secondary derivative products will be charged should the CPO price exceed $549. A finance ministerial regulation would be issued soon after Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati returned from the G20 meeting in Argentina, said Darmin. Darmin also gave assurances that the B20 and oil palm plantation replanting programs would continue despite the governments latest decision, emphasizing that the oil palm agency has enough funds to carry out the program despite the full deduction of the levy. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 12:04 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e0ef71 1 Business PT-Indocopper-Investama,PTFI,Papuan-shares-PTFI,Inalum Free The government responded on Monday to Papua Governor Lukas Enembe's opposition to the assignment of PT Indocopper Investama (PTII) as the company that will accommodate 10 percent of gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesias (PTFI) shares that have been allocated for Papua. State-Owned Enterprises Ministry mining, strategic industries and media affairs undersecretary Fajar Harry Sampurno said on Monday the decision to assign PTII to accommodate Papuas shares in PTFI was to prevent the possible sale of shares by certain parties. Fajar referred to an example of a local administration in West Nusa Tenggara that lost 24 percent of its shares in PT Multi Daerah Bersaing, a joint venture company established to accommodate the shares during the divestment process of gold and copper mining company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara. PTII currently holds 9.36 percent of PTFI's shares. State-owned mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) is set to acquire 100 percent PTII's shares. Under the ongoing divestment process, Inalum plans to control 51.23 percent of PTFI's shares. The government will hand over 10 percent of PTFI's shares to Papua represented by the Papua provincial administration and the Mimika regency administration. Under the scheme, Inalum and Papuas administration-owned company will own 60 percent and 40 percent of PTII, respectively. The 40 percent stake in PTII is equal to 10 percent of PTFI's shares. After the divestment, Inalum, PTII and FCX will respectively own 26.23 percent, 25 percent and 48.76 percent of PTFI's shares. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 14:15 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e19b76 1 Business Jokowi,bank-indonesia,rupiah-against-dollar,protection,intervention,rate-increase Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo praised on Tuesday Bank Indonesia (BI) for successfully stabilizing the rupiah exchange rate amid tough external pressures on the currency. The President was particularly impressed by BIs move to increase the seven-day reserve repo rate (7DRRR) by 25 basis point to 6 percent on Nov. 16, a bold move, to defend the currency. The BI governor made a bold move. [] It was a surprising move that was positively welcomed by the market, Jokowi said during BIs annual meeting in Jakarta. Congratulations to the BI governor and the BI staff. Amid the global fluctuation, BI managed to defend the rupiah exchange rate. We realize how hard our struggle is day by day, week by week and month by month. The rupiahs exchange rate dropped to lower than Rp 15,000 per United States dollar in October, the lowest level in the last 20 years, sparked, in particular, by the trade war between the US and China and the normalization of the US monetary policy. In trying to defend the rupiah, BI raised its 7DRRR six times since May by a total of 175 bps. The central bank also carried out market intervention anytime the rupiahs exchange rate weakened significantly. The central bank intervened in the market and increased the key rate to stabilize the rupiah against the US dollar. Now, the rupiah has strengthened significantly. Its exchange rate now stands around Rp 14,500 per US dollar, Jokowi said. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Vela Andapita and Gisela Swara Gita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 15:49 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e1e582 1 City landslide,East-Jakarta Free The Jakarta administration will demolish buildings standing on unstable land along Jl. Pesona IX in Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta after a landslide hit the area. The landslide destroyed and buried the garage of a house along with a motorcycle parked inside, after heavy rain on Monday. During his inspection on Tuesday morning, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said the house impacted by the landslide had been built without a building permit (IMB). The [destroyed] house stands in the green zone, hence no buildings are allowed here. Theres a significant difference in the ground height. But as we can see, the area is packed with illegal buildings, he said. The buildings stand over ground waterways, which weaken the ground and make them difficult to support, hence the landslide, he added. Houses that stand around the dikes will be inspected. Those at risk of being affected by landslides will be demolished and the owners will be asked to move to safer locations. Anies said he would ask Bina Marga road agency to rebuild dikes in the area to prevent landslides in the future. Locals said they had noticed cracks along the affected garages walls, which may have no longer been able to contain water absorbed by the soil. Head of neighborhood unit (RT) 004 and community unit (RW) 009, Surahman, said the illegal buildings were constructed in 2002. It used to be a green zone, but after the Reform Era [in 1998], many buildings started appearing in the area without permits, he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 10:56 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e0b378 4 Business Kadin,APINDO,taxation,bill,deliberation Free Two major lobby groups, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), have welcomed the House of Representatives decision to delay the deliberation of the General Taxation System (KUP) bill. They argue that the postponement of the bills deliberation, which was initially targeted to be completed this year, would give stakeholders adequate time to voice their aspirations. It is not a proper time to deliberate the bill now. It is unlikely to be implemented in this political year (ahead of legislative and presidential elections). We need to talk more about the problem inventory list (DIM) in the bill, said head of Kadins taxation committee Herman Juwono on Monday as quoted by kontan.co.id. Kadin was particularly concerned about the many articles on criminal charges against taxpayers, both institutions and individuals, while there were less articles that could be used to charge tax officers, Herman added. Tax violations, both administrative errors and fraud, not only involve taxpayers but also tax officers, he added. Meanwhile, Apindo chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani said that Kadin in particular rejected a plan to establish a new institution to replace the Taxation Directorate General, which is currently under the Finance Ministry. We hope there will be no new institution. Independent institutions often become politicized, Hariyadi said, adding that therefore, the delay of the bills deliberation would be used to discuss various issues in the bill more comprehensively. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anita Theresia (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27 2018 Heartfelt appreciation: Students of a senior high school (SMA) in Denpasar, Bali, congratulate their teacher as they celebrate National Teachers Day. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono) Miss, which is faster, a car or a train? a student asked.Miss, why did you pick Dea as Student of the Week? asked another when the teacher picked one of her friends whom the teacher saw had made a personal improvement. Each day, a teacher deals with distinct individuals who have their own list of questions and ideas and jolts of creativity, many of which have never even crossed the teachers mind. In performing their duties, a teacher is given a slew of tasks and responsibilities in relation with the students, their parents, the principal and society. A teacher is then demanded to be highly professional. 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 Japan News/Asia News Network) Tokyo, Japan Tue, November 27, 2018 08:20 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e006d7 2 Business #Japan,#Nissan,president,Carlos-Ghosn,dismissal Free Nissan Motor Co. President Hiroto Saikawa held a companywide briefing session Monday to explain to the automakers 140,000 employees the developments that led to Carlos Ghosns dismissal from the chairmans post. According to sources, Saikawa said, I apologize for causing unease among clients and employees. The briefing for all of the automakers employees was held at the companys headquarters in Yokohama in light of Ghosns Nov. 19 arrest on suspicion of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law. Saikawa delivered the briefing, which was broadcast to other offices in Japan and abroad via the internet. The president explained the details of the alleged misconduct of Ghosn and Greg Kelly, who has been dismissed from the representative director post over the scandal. Saikawa stressed the companys plans to review its management, which concentrated power in the hands of Ghosn. Saikawa also suggested that the company would continue its alliance with French automaker Renault. He was quoted by a source as saying, My job is to help [employees] grapple with work with a positive mentality. Saikawa also held a question and answer session with employees. The president is usually self-possessed, but this time he spoke out in a way that appealed to our emotions. I took his remarks seriously, said a male employee who watched the broadcast. Saikawa spoke to reporters ahead of the briefing, saying: We had a hard time finding an opportunity to speak to our employees. We need to help them return to normal. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 11:21 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e0d7d2 2 Politics Lee-Hsien-Loong,Prabowo-Subianto,Jokowi-Maruf,Prabowo-Sandiaga,#2019PresidentialElection Free Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday met with Indonesia's presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, who is in Singapore for The Economist's "The World in 2019" Gala dinner. Lee in a Facebook post noted that Prabowo, the founder and chairman of Indonesia's Gerindra Party, has been busy campaigning around Indonesia. "We discussed how Singapore and Indonesia can strengthen our strong ties and take our relationship forward," he said. "I wished him all the best and an enjoyable stay in Singapore." For the April 2019 presidential elections, Prabowo, 67, will face off once more with his opponent in the 2014 polls, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. The two presidential hopefuls, along with their vice-presidential picks, have been in Singapore for various events over the past month. Prabowo's running mate Sandiaga Uno in October spoke on Indonesia's future economy at an ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute event. Jokowi had just a few weeks earlier attended the ASEAN Summit and related meetings, while his partner Ma'ruf Amin had been in town in October to deliver the RSIS Distinguished Public Lecture. Lee had met Ma'aruf, the chairman of the Indonesia Ulama Council, ahead of the talk, and posted on Facebook: "I wished him a successful lecture tomorrow and all the best for his campaign preparations." Prabowo, a retired army general, will speak at Tuesday's dinner. It will also feature Malaysian politican Nurul Izzah and Anthony Tan, the co-founder of ride-hailing firm Grab. Prabowo's campaign team's director of foreign affairs Irawan Ronodipuro said Prabowo was invited to give his views on advancing Indonesia and boosting its economic growth. "The international decision-making community wants to know more about Prabowo's strategic views on making Indonesia a sovereign country that can contribute to the global economy," he said. Prabowo will speak about Indonesia's natural wealth at the dinner, said Irawan, adding that one focus is how Indonesia is able to produce bioenergy to meet global needs by reprocessing 10 million hectares of degraded land. Topics : This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27 2018 Hot seat: Suspended Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf attends the first hearing of his trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday. Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors have indicted him on three separate corruption charges.(JP/Seto Wardhana) Irwandi Yusufs name was in the spotlight once again on Monday, when Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors read an indictment letter accusing the suspended Aceh governor of illegal practices in the periods of 2007 to 2012 and 2017 to 2018. Prosecutors indicted Irwandi on three separate charges, including bribery in connection with projects involving lower-level administrations. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Ottawa, Canada Tue, November 27, 2018 09:39 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e04383 2 Business #Canada,#automotive,justin-trudeau,disappointment,GM,plant,closure Free Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he had expressed his "deep disappointment" to General Motors over its decision to shutter a Canadian automotive assembly plant. The move came as part of a massive restructuring announced earlier by the US auto giant that includes closing seven plants worldwide to save $6 billion. Trudeau said the plant's workers in Oshawa, in the east-central province of Ontario, had been "part of the heart and soul" of the community for generations and pledged government support for their families. "Yesterday, I spoke with @GM's (chief executive and chairwoman) Mary Barra to express my deep disappointment in the closure," he tweeted. The closure affects more than 2,500 workers who produce the Chevrolet Impala and the Cadillac XTS, as well as Silverado pick-up trucks. Workers left at the start of their shift on Monday as assembly lines were shut down for the day. Production began in 1953 and at its peak in the 1980s, the plant employed roughly 23,000 people. Its operations even became a talking point for US President Donald Trump during tense Canada-US negotiations to revamp a continental trade pact. "Every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala," Trump said in off-the-record comments to Bloomberg that were reported by the Toronto Star. Federal Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, speaking in the House of Commons foyer, signaled the government's intention to "continue to defend the automotive sector." He noted the several billions of dollars in loans and support for the sector from the Canadian and Ontario governments in 2009, while lamenting the hardship facing workers after the Oshawa plant closes. "This is a really big deal in Oshawa," he said. "There is a long-standing, proud history in terms of General Motors's presence in Oshawa, so now to see this plant close... is incredibly devastating." Jerry Dias of Unifor, the union representing Canadian autoworkers, meanwhile, said the closure "makes no sense." The union, he said, "does not accept the closure of the plant as a foregone conclusion" and "will vigorously fight again to maintain these good-paying auto jobs." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mark Gurman (Bloomberg) New York, United States Tue, November 27, 2018 13:21 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e16124 2 Business #USA,#Apple,DonaldTrump,Tariff-rise,iPhone,laptop Free Apple Inc., which has lost a fifth of its value in a tech market rout since October, is poised for another setback after US President Donald Trump suggested that 10 percent tariffs could be placed on mobile phones, like the iPhone, and laptops made in China. The company already is facing reports of suppliers cutting forecasts, signaling the new iPhone models introduced in September arent selling as well as anticipated. Trumps comments to the Wall Street Journal that he may include Apples signature product in another round of tariffs on Chinese imports are another blow for Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is, the president said, referring to mobile phones and laptops. I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily. Apple stock fell about 1.6 percent in extended trading Monday following the comments. The US is due to raise import duties on about $200 billion worth of goods from China to 25 percent from 10 percent on Jan. 1. The vast majority of iPhones and other Apple products are built in China and then exported globally. Apple couldnt be reached for comment. Some analysts said the comments may shake investors. With consumers clearly price sensitive and the average sales price of an iPhone reaching almost $800, the last thing Cook and investors want to see is additional tariffs added to iPhones and impacting demand drivers at this crucial growth juncture for the company, Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote Monday in a note. The price of an iPhone ranges from $449 to $1,449 in the US, including older models such as the iPhone 7 that Apple still sells. Shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the biggest iPhone assembler, slipped about 1 percent in Taiwan trading Tuesday and have dropped about 40 percent this year. Inventec Corp., which supplies Apple and other US tech companies, fell 4.3 percent to the lowest level in more than a year. So far, Apples most lucrative devices, like the iPhone and iPad, have been left out of US tariffs. Earlier this year, Apple said products like the Apple Watch and AirPods would be affected before the US said it wouldnt impose taxes on such items. Still, the company warned in September, that other items, like the Mac mini, Apple Pencil stylus, and some cables and cases, could be harmed. The company has made a small percentage of older iPhone models in Brazil and India in recent years, in part to avoid local taxes on imported goods. Trump on several occasions has suggested that Apple should bring iPhone manufacturing to the US In his early years running Apple, Cook would respond to questions about increasing manufacturing in the US by saying the skill sets in China are more conducive to producing the companys products. However, in recent months, he has modified that view, saying in an interview this year that its not true that the iPhone is not made in the United States. Some components, like the smartphones glass cover, are manufactured in the US and shipped for assembly in China. In Trumps almost two years in office, Cook has met with him multiple times at large meetings with other technology executives and privately at the White House. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 15:33 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e1db16 1 Politics Jokowi-Maruf,Prabowo-Sandiaga,tomy-winata,election,2019-elections Free The campaign team of incumbent President Joko Jokowi Widodo and running mate Maruf Amin has confirmed that tycoon Tomy Winata has thrown his support behind the ticket in next years presidential election. It is true that [Tomy] supports presidential candidate pair number one, said the campaign teams deputy secretary, Verry Surya Hendrawan, on Monday, as quoted by tempo.co, referring to the Jokowi-Maruf tickets ballot number. Speculation was rife that the Artha Graha boss had endorsed the Jokowi-Maruf pair after a photo of him holding a shirt emblazoned with Jokowi-Amin 01 went viral on Sunday. Tomy apparently was attending a walk initiated by Artha Graha in the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) area in Jakarta on that day. Verry said he did not know whether the tycoon would donate money to the campaign, but he ensured that all donations would be managed transparently and in accordance with election regulations. All of the donations will be transferred to a bank account designated [to pool] campaign funds, which will be audited regularly, Verry said. Separately, the campaign team of rival candidate Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno lauded the Jokowi-Maruf pair for receiving support from the tycoon. I congratulate the pair for receiving support from big businessmen, said Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign team deputy chairman Priyo Budi Santoso. He added that, although Prabowo had not received an endorsement from a tycoon, a fast number of small enterprises were supporting the candidate. (vny/swd) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28 2018 Indonesia has urged Southeast Asias regional organization to remain neutral, Jakartas top ASEAN diplomat has said, as calls mount for the group to take sides over concerns of a deepening rift between the United States and China. Let me assure you that Indonesia firmly adheres to our free and active foreign policy, and we believe that [...] ASEAN too should adhere to this [stance as well], said Jose Tavares, the director general for ASEAN cooperation at the Foreign Ministry, on Tuesday. He warned that if people chose sides, they would undermine ASEAN centrality and would just be following the concepts of others. 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 Endy M. Bayuni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28 2018 Pressure from the business world forced the government last week to back off from its decision to open up more of the Indonesian economy to foreigners, which it had highlighted earlier as part of its latest economic reform package. How is that possible, one may rightfully ask. In one sense, it is a reflection of the lobbying strength of the business world, as represented by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Indonesian Employers Association. In another, it shows how the business world is well, if not thoroughly, represented both in the executive and the legislative branches of government. 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 Yang Feiyue (China Daily) Tue, November 27, 2018 20:02 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e2885d 2 News Airbnb,China,tourism,travel Free Liao Weiwei is planning to quit his job at the Longji scenic spot next year. The 31-year-old lives in Jinjiang village in the countryside surrounding the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's scenic city, Guilin. He wants to quit as Airbnb has set its sight on development in Jinjiang, which is about 10 kilometers from Longji's celebrated rice terraces, since October 2017. Many villagers have migrated to cities. Those who remain have continued to live with poverty. Now, six rooms converted from two villagers' houses perched on a mountainside offer modern facilities for guests. "They were poorly furnished and dimly lit," Liao says. The rooms are fully booked now, although it's an offseason for tourism, he says. Longji's tourism peaks from April to October. "I believe tourism will take off in my village," Liao says. "I'll be able to get in on the sector and spend more time with my family." Read also: Airbnb to launch up to 14 more home-sharing buildings by 2020 Jinjiang has a pristine environment and ethnic diversity. It is located on the main road leading to Longji's rice terraces that lure hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Guilin tourism development commission official Yang Guodong says: "We'd see the road through the village packed with cars half of the year. But there was little we could do to get them to visit (Jinjiang), let alone stay overnight." But Jinjiang's development potential inspired Airbnb and the local government to partner to increase its appeal as a destination via infrastructure construction, including roads, toilets and electricity. The program is expected to help the village's more than 100 residents. "Guilin has been actively exploring the integration of tourism with poverty alleviation," says Zheng Yi, vice-chairman of Guilin's Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The city has reduced poverty through tourism and ethnic-culture development, Zheng says. About 25,000 people worked in tourism in Guilin's Longsheng county last year. Roughly 45 percent of those below the national poverty line benefited from the sector's growth. Airbnb's cooperation with the local government offers to showcase home-sharing's role in tourism development and poverty alleviation, and can promote the mechanism in other places, Zheng says. Owners of renovated houses get a percentage from rentals. And all locals can earn money providing travel services. Remaining money is reinvested in upgrades. "Boosting tourism development through the shared economy is an effective approach to rural revitalization," Airbnb China president Peng Tao says. The company is working to use its global network, experience and tourism philosophy to respond to the Chinese government's call for rural development, Peng adds. Airbnb has sent experienced owners of homestay to provide face-to-face training for Jinjiang's farmers. It has taught local young people how to interact with guests and perform such standard services as cooking, making beds and cleaning. A rural homestay-management instruction manual has been delivered to local villagers to help them develop sustainable tourism. Airbnb will continue to work with Guilin to tap local resources and promote tourism to reduce poverty, Peng says. Around 1,400 county-level administrations nationwide had Airbnb homestays as of last month, the company says. Those homestays have so far received over 1 million guests and helped rural homeowners generate more than 260 million yuan ($37.51 million) in revenue. The number of Airbnb's village rooms has maintained 257 percent year-on-year growth as of October, while that of village hosts and guests have both doubled. "This project brings people living in poverty into Airbnb's global network," says Xi Jianchao, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources. "It changes poor people's production modes and lifestyles through education and training." Head of the World Tourism Alliance Liu Shijun says the program lowers the threshold for tourism-business entry and offers job opportunities for local youth and women. Read also: After Airbnb, Booking.com asked to remove West Bank listings "It'll play a bigger role in rural revitalization and poverty alleviation," Liu says. Before the Airbnb program, Liao and his family had to rely on his salary, fruit orchards and the meager income from his restaurant in the village. His household earned 60,000 to 80,000 yuan a year. Liao says his future income will be at least as much as he earns now. He plans to upgrade his agritainment destination and remodel one of his houses the way Airbnb did with the first two houses developed as homestays. "We'll also take advantage of our natural environment to grow quality passion fruit and gourds that visitors can pick themselves," he says. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 10:32 1094 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e0afaa 1 News AirAsia,#AirAsia,Lombok,#Lombok,Perth,direct-flight,new-route,new-routes,Lion-Air,#LionAir,travel,#travel,tourism,#tourism Free Low-cost carrier AirAsia is set to open a new route connecting Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), and Perth, Australia, in February. NTB Governor Zulkieflimansyah said on Friday that the direct flight aimed to increase the number of foreign tourists in Lombok and Sumbawa, adding that NTB tourism recovery after the earthquake might speed up once the new route and additional flights to and from Lombok International Airport were realized. We have massively promoted [NTB tourism] to [create] the awareness that Lombok and Sumbawa are safe to visit, he said as quoted by kompas.com. In regard to AirAsias new Lombok-Perth route, Zulkieflimansyah explained that the aircraft would have a capacity of 180 passengers, mentioning that the local administration and airline had a block seat agreement, meaning that half of the seats would be covered by the provincial government. This is business, so it needs to make a profit. [AirAsia] asked for a guarantee, he said. Read also: Indonesia highlights West Nusa Tenggara at 2018 ITB Asia Although the provincial government needs to cover the cost, Zulkieflimansyah explained that the money would come from the Tourism Ministry. The block seat arrangement will reportedly last six months and will be reevaluated once passenger numbers increase and stability returns. In addition to AirAsia, the provincial government is also partnering with low-cost carrier Lion Air to open two new routes, namely Lombok-Guangzhou and Lombok-Jeddah. Zulkieflimansyah said there was high potential for Chinese tourists in Lombok. At the moment, there are several chartered flights from China to Lombok. [Extra effort] is needed to realize Lion Airs direct China-Lombok route. We are still [developing] the ideal, yet logical arrangement with Lion Air, he said. (jes/mut) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 27, 2018 16:30 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e1f88c 1 News Diponegoro-University,student,Semarang,university Free Students from Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, won a gold medal at the 2018 International Trade Fair (iENA) - Ideas Inventions and New Products, Antara news agency has reported. The annual exhibition for inventions and new products was held from Nov. 1 to 4 at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center in Nuremberg, Germany. Held by international company AFAG, the event drew more than 800 contestants from 30 countries, including two teams from Indonesia. Yunnia, Laitufa Nidia, Nurul Halwiyah, Ibadurrahman and Rifqi Rudwi Rafifta from Diponegoro University created a Styrofoam-based roof tile, containing 2 to 3 percent Styrofoam by weight ratio, mixed with cement and sand. Read also: Indonesian students win gold medal at iGEM competition in US The students said the idea came from the abundance of Styrofoam waste at their campus dumpster, where they obtained the material. The team was encouraged to use Styrofoam because as it is non-biodegradable. According to Yunnia, a student from the school's faculty of science and mathematics, the tile was 15 to 20 percent lighter than regular roof tiles, which weigh 3 to 4 kilograms on average. We are constantly trying to make the tile lighter, she said. The teams supervisor, M. Nur Sholeh, said the innovation could help to minimize casualties during earthquakes. The Styrofoam is mixed accordingly to achieve optimal resilience while being lightweight, he said. (iru/wng) A terrible traffic accident last night at Forsyth Street and Canal Street left one person dead and several others injured. It happened just before 7 p.m. when the driver of a minivan plowed over a curb while attempting to park, striking 7 pedestrians. A 56-year-old man was killed. The New York Times reports that at least two of the victims are hospitalized in critical condition. Police say the driver, 70 years old, has been identified as Henry Herman of Monroe, NY. He apparently mistakenly stepped on the gas instead of the brakes. After jumping the curb, the minivan took out two fruit carts and knocked over people on the sidewalk. Police announced last night that they arrested Herman and charged him with seven counts of failure to yield to pedestrians and one count each of failure to exercise due care, unsafe backing of a vehicle and driving on a sidewalk. The mayor took to Twitter last night, saying, Terrible car crash on Canal Street has killed 1 pedestrian and injured 6 more. A full NYPD investigation is underway. We cannot accept loss of life on our streets as inevitable. We will continue working hard every day to reach #VisionZero. Terrible car crash on Canal St has killed 1 pedestrian and injured 6 more. A full NYPD investigation is underway. We cannot accept loss of life on our streets as inevitable. We will continue working harder every day to reach #VisionZero. Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 27, 2018 NY1 obtained surveillance camera video showing the crash. NEW: Surveillance video obtained by @NY1 shows driver backing down street and crashing into a fruit stand, where 1 person was killed and 6 people were injured. pic.twitter.com/qfV7G5oEQL Myles Miller (@MylesMill) November 27, 2018 Police said Deng Zhang Chun, 56, of Elmhurst, Queens was killed in the crash. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close You cannot print contents of this website. Sign in Welcome, Login to your account. Forget password? Remember me Sign in Recover your password. A password will be e-mailed to you. EZULWINI You find many decisions made by people are of the heart rather than the head. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF), Langalakhe Dlamini, made this statement in reference to the lack of emotional intelligence in decision-making processes by entrepreneurs, businesses and institutions. This, therefore, he said warranted greater attention be given to mentorship programmes because intelligence was a requirement for building productive relationship and maintaining strategic alliances. He bared this during the panel discussion at the Junior Achievement Eswatini fundraising dinner held at the Happy Valley Hotel in Ezulwini last Friday. He primarily focused on the importance of having mentorship that would go beyond the conventional emphasis of technical and tactic professional guidance, it must also encompass the pivotal aspect of any persons well-being, vis-a-vis emotional aptitude. Mentorship Dlamini added that mentorship was a powerful tool for Corporate Social Investment (CSI). The bifold advantage was that for mentees they could learn and acclimatise to the demands of their intended field of passion, while for companies it would be investing in future actors in the industry. One suggestion tabled by Dlamini was that business institutions should dedicate days in a month for the guru-ship. He further encouraged government and the private sector to support JA Eswatini as it immensely contributed to the development of the human capital, from a young age, in the kingdom. On this panel, Dlamini was joined by the Chief Executive (CE) of Standard Bank, Mvuselelo Fakudze, who mainly spoke on the status and opportunities within entrepreneurship; and Victor Langa from African Alliance, who delved on the critical role that financial literacy had in shaping business rationale and prudence. Langa stressed on the need and improvement of ones personal finance management, especially from a young age. He noted that such literacy would make starting a business and running it easier as financial discipline is the horse to the product-filled cart. Landscapes The more people know about financial processes and landscapes, it is the more they will make calculated decisions, said Langa. He said this knowledge would enable the bearers to appreciate investing through the urge to know more thus do more. Langa then encouraged young entrepreneurs to watch financial television programmes to further educate themselves. He concluded that stakeholders need to do more to support JA implement more of its progressive programmes with the assistance of the media to showcase the productions and publications of our talented youth. The CE conversed about the role the private sector could play by providing skills and knowledge to budding entrepreneurs and giving access to their services and products to regional and international markets. He added that the sector could help raise finance for promising projects especially in agriculture. However, the biggest risk for a bank is financing a business case that is, or never been, operational, highlighted Fakudze. Even though the money saved in the bank belonged to customers, he retained assurance for young entrepreneurs that finance would be provided for viable business plans. Lastly, he applauded JA Eswatini for the amazing work it was doing for the business community and youth in this important epoch in the countrys history. Fund-raising The fund-raising event ended with some of the JA products sold to attendees like the herbal soap and perfumed Vaseline by Manzini Nazarene High School and a testimonial by Dvokolwako High School pupils on the progress of their cooperative. Gratitude was expressed by JA Eswatini Executive Director Siboniso Madlopha to the companies that had bought tables, which include FINCORP, with two tables and the following with only one: Standard Bank, Inyatsi Construction, EswatiniBank, Tibiyo TakaNgwane, Montigny, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC), SEDCO, Swaziland National Provident Fund and Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (SMVAF). LOBAMBA Cabinet ministers are now being chauffeured in normal government cars while others are using ones borrowed from His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS). This means government will no longer part with E36 000 for the car rental per day. The money was spent on 12 of the rented Toyota Forturners which had been used by cabinet ministers since they were sworn into office. The cars have since been returned to the Central Transport Administration (CTA) pending their return to Woodford Car Hire where they were rented. At around 1pm, only one of the 12 rented cars was still being used by a minister. This was the Minister of Public Service Christian Ntshangase. When asked about the car registered HS41HSGP, Ntshangase said he was expecting another vehicle from the CTA. He said the arrangement was that he would get another car as the rented ones were to be taken back. I was shocked to learn that I was the only one left with the rented car after my colleague received a Trailblazer this morning. (Nami besengesaba kutsi ngimi ngedvwa lesengisele nalemoto lena), he said. However, the minister disclosed that the rented car would be returned in the afternoon. The rented car has been returned to the CTA. I am using a trailblazer as I speak now, he said when called later. ministries Other politicians arrived in motor vehicles belonging to their ministries. These included the Minister of Education and Training Lady Howard Mabuza, who arrived in a grey double cab belonging to her ministry. The Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development David Cruiser Ngcamphalala came in an Izuzu double cab belonging to his ministry. When asked about the car, the minister said he got it from the CTA. I think it depends on which car was available at the moment, he said briefly. A white double cab Isuzu was found parked at the space reserved for the Minister of Health. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Thulisile Dladla arrived in a navy blue BMW belonging to her ministry. A white Trailblazer was found parked at the space reserved for the minister of Public Works and Transport. It was a different case with other ministers as they were brought to Parliament in Trailblazers belonging to His Majestys Correctional Services. These included the Minister of Sport Culture and Youth Affairs, Harries Madze Bulunga, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Prince Simelane and Minister of Labour and Social Security Makhosi Vilakati. General Commissioner of His Majestys Correctional Services Isaiah Mzuthini Ntshangase said it had become a norm that organisations assisted with cars since they belonged to one government. Ntshangase said the service had lent the CTA four trailblazers so that they could be distributed to the ministers during the fiscal challenges. MBABANE Former Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Jabulile Mashwama, has been appointed as the new Managing Director of Eswatini Water Services Corporation (EWSC). Ironically, the Board of Directors at EWSC that confirmed Mashwama into the new position, was appointed by the erstwhile minister while she was still in office. This is the same Board that has recommended her as the managing director of the corporation. The appointment is with effect from December 1, 2018. Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Peter Bhembe, who is the former MD at EWSC, confirmed that Mashwama had been appointed into the position. Bhembe cleared the perception that the Board was not objective, adding that he was pleased with the selection process. The concerns regarding Mashwamas appointment as EWSC Managing Director stem from the fact that she had been part of the previous Cabinet, and there might have been a role she played in the appointment of the corporations Board. The minister congratulated the former legislator for her appointment, wishing her and the staff well in executing their duties. He said the Board had been taught about issues of Corporate Governance and nothing contrary to the norm had been practiced. According to Bhembe, Mashwama was entitled to apply for any job which she found appropriate in the country. He said while Mashwama could be viewed as a former politician, she was a standing professional in her own right and was without reservation their preferred candidate. Bhembe said Mashwama held a MBA from Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Eswatini. She brings with her a wealth of experience from both the private and public sector, as well as wide international and global exposure, said Bhembe. He said both the former ministers experience and education made them privileged to have her join the EWSC because of the value she will undoubtedly add to the team. SITEKI A drinking spree ended in tragedy when two siblings beat their friend to death following a minor argument. This happened at KaShoba area under Mpolonjeni Inkhundla, not very far from Siteki town. The three friends had reportedly been enjoying drinks together when a brawl suddenly broke out, reportedly sparked by a petty issue. The two siblings beat their friend to a pulp and left him for dead near a bushy area. His body was discovered by community members the following day, sources close to police investigators said. Identified The deceased has since been identified by the police as John Sithole but his age was not immediately ascertained. It was only gathered that Sithole was employed as a herdboy in one of the farms around Ngcina area. Meanwhile, the suspects were rounded up by Siteki police over the weekend. Subsequently, Sibusiso Fontotje Nxumalo (26) and Phila Nkunzi Nxumalo (30) were charged with the murder of Sithole. The accused persons, either one or both of them, together in furtherence of a common purporse, did unlawfully and intentionaly cause the death of John Sithole by assaulting him, read in part court papers. Phila made a confession statement before a judicial officer, who was sitting at the Simunye Magistrates Court. He reportedly confessed that they were together with Sithole night he died and he is said to have further narrated to the judicial officer the events leading up to the beating and subsequent death of Sithole. Phila reportedly told the judicial officer that they were enjoying drinks with Sithole when he suddenly left the drinking spot, destined to his girlfriends place. He reportedly told the judicial officer that after a while, somebody pelted stones at the house they were sitting in with his brother (co-accused). He is said to have told the judicial officer that the stones hit him on the face, hurting one of his eyes. In retaliation, Phila reportedly told the judicial officer that they went out of the house with his brother, searching for the person who had pelted stones at them. As they went out of the house, he reportedly confessed that they spotted a man jumping over a fence and they suspected that he could be the culprit who had stoned them. As such, he said they chased after the man and when they caught up with him, they assaulted him severely. He is said to have told the judicial officer that after assaulting the man, they left but later realised that they had assaulted their friend. He said to have further told the judicial officer that they tried to get their friend a place to sleep at a certain homestead but the owner of the homestead declined their request. Surprisingly, Phila mentioned that they left the friend at the scene and went to bed. In the morning, he said he was shocked to learn that his friend had died. Judicial He is said to have told the judicial officer that he learnt of his friends death through a group of people who had gathered at the spot where the body was found. Phila reportedly mentioned, in his confession statement, that they were also working as herdboys with his brother (co-accused). Regional and global cooperation can open new doors for the Islamic finance sector and we cannot hope for a new growth paradigm while maintaining the status quo, said Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor, Central Bank of Bahrain. Speaking at the World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC), the largest and most prestigious gathering of Islamic banking and finance leaders in the world, he said: The magic of such global cooperation works when some pre-requisites are in place, namely, leadership, standardization, good governance and risk management & compliance. The 25th anniversary edition of WIBC kicked off today under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain, at the ART Rotana Hotel, Amwaj Islands, Bahrain. Convened by Middle East Global Advisors, a leading financial intelligence platform facilitating the development of knowledge-based economies in the MENASEA markets and in strategic partnership with the Central Bank of Bahrain, the forum is spurring a series of discussions focusing on Islamic Finance & Sustainable Economic Growth in the Age of Disruption, a theme that resonates with the conferences steady vision to serve as a definitive check point for the global Islamic finance and banking industry. Showcasing his support for Islamic finance entities to thrive and grow globally and stressing on the way forward for the industry, Al Maraj said: Islamic finance has followed a fragmented growth pattern since the start with various countries in the Middle East and South East Asia taking the lead. These country specific models have achieved reasonable success as measured by the share of Islamic finance in the respective markets. I would like to argue, however, that the reduced pace of growth suggests that we cannot hope for a new growth paradigm while maintaining the status quo. If the developments in the conventional finance industry are any indicator, it is reasonable to expect that regional and global cooperation can open new doors for the Islamic finance sector. Shariah standards, accounting standards, prudential standards and best market practices, all need to be developed for the Islamic finance industry with the global audience in mind. AAOIFI has been doing excellent work on Shariah and accounting standards while Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) has developed risk management and capital adequacy standards which conform to global best practices. International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) has made valuable contribution towards standardizing money and capital market contracts as well as financing contracts. The recent endorsement by the IMF of the IFSBs proposed core principles for Islamic finance regulation and their assessment methodology for financial sector assessments is a great news for the global acceptance of Islamic finance. What we need now is to convince regulators and market players to adopt AAOIFI, IFSB and IIFM standards in their respective markets, added Maraj stressing on the need for standardization to enable global growth. Commenting on the changing face of financial services due to the advent of digitization, Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, Head of Financial Product Development Centre, Islamic Research & Training Institute, Islamic Development Bank in his keynote address stated, The size of e-commerce is about three times the size of the Islamic financial industry. This means that there is an ample room for the industry to invest and to participate in the digital revolution. Moreover, e-commerce will be a very good channel to manage the liquidity of Islamic banks. This is a challenge that has long been waiting for a solution. E-commerce seems to be a promising sphere. With the fintech revolution, online sales can seamlessly meet the requirement of Islamic finance. If Islamic banks invest in this area, they will be able potentially to reap lucrative returns from a growing large sector, manage their liquidly efficiently, and participate in real economic growth and development. The conference also played host to an exclusive interview of Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive, Bahrain Economic Development Board, which focused on emerging projects and financing, the value added tax which will be implemented in the Kingdom in addition to the benefits and risks of digitization. Al Rumaihi discussed the governments integral role in supporting the continuous development of the local economy; encouraging constant collaboration between the public and private sectors, as well as creating an ecosystem that is conducive to the success of startups and entrepreneurs, in order to ensure the Kingdom maintains its lead at the forefront of its competitors in digital transformation across industries. Al Rumaihi also mentioned the key milestones achieved by the GCC countries during the past three decades, and how they have employed the bilateral cooperation as a factor to promote brotherly countries and unite efforts to succeed in the initiatives and plans set in this regard. Ahead of the panel session on economic growth and sustainable finance, Adnan Ahmed Yousif, president and chief executive, Al Baraka Banking Group, said: The World Islamic Banking Conference, has, over the last 25 years, established itself as a key global forum for in-depth discussions on the facets of the continued global growth in Islamic finance. The Islamic Financial Services industry has shown tremendous progress as one of the fastest growing asset classes in the world. The industry continues to expand in many emerging and advanced markets and introduce new standards that should further help develop products and attract investors. Key highlights to look forward to tomorrow include: One-on-one exclusive Interview with Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, Minister of Oil, Bahrain focusing on investment plans in light of Bahrains mega discovery of shale oil and gas reserves. TradeArabia News Service ASGC, one of the leading construction groups in the UAE, said it has joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) to strengthen mutually beneficial relationships in the development of smart cities. The company move is seen as expansion of its digital roadmap and aimed at applying technology innovations across the UAEs construction sector. ASGCs digital exploration journey has already included tapping into cloud-based technologies and end-to-end integrated cost control systems, as well as using BIM modelling and deploying drones for full coordination of the construction activities, said a statement from the Emirati company. Other areas it is exploring include radio-frequency identification and biometrics, optimization of labour safety and productivity, and asset management by using IoT systems, artificial intelligence, and analytics, it stated. The ILP agreement will provide ASGC with greater access to MITs faculty, labs, and technical expertise, as well as conferences, training, and the potential for collaborative research in new technology arenas, said the statement. The UAE in particular has a strong vision for developing smart communities that are powered by cutting-edge technologies. The regions smart cities market is set to grow by 83 per cent from $1.26 billion in 2018 to $2.3 billion by 2021, according to IDC, with the UAEs government-led Smart City projects driving regional spend. "The construction industry today has an opportunity to do things differentlyto be even more efficient and more effective in delivering outstanding work to clients," remarked its CEO Bishoy Azmy. "Our own clients can expect more from ASGC as we explore new ways to share knowledge across all segments of the global construction ecosystem. Joining MITs Industrial Liaison Program will help us in this pursuit, as we work to bring added-value to our clients around the world," he added.-TradeArabia News Service A key meeting of business leaders and government officials in Bahrain yesterday (November 26) sought new policies that will help unlock the potential of the 4th Industrial Revolution in the Arab world. The meeting, also participated by start-ups and venture capitalists, discussed ways to narrow the gap between the regions technological potential and the policy agenda required to realise it. The leaders looked to understand and positively shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Arab World so that it serves all parts of society, said a statement. Held under the theme The Arab World in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the meeting marked the launch of the next phase of the World Economic Forums work on the digital agenda for the Arab world, said a statement. It is supported by a strong mandate from the forums Regional Business Council on the Middle East and North Africa, it said. The programme's first phase is focused on exploring innovative approaches that are being tried and tested to harness the benefits of technological advancement in the Arab world, it added. Mirek Dusek, deputy head of the centre for regional and geopolitical affairs of the World Economic Forum, said: In the context of the rapidly spreading Fourth Industrial Revolution, the engagement of key stakeholders has never been more important than today. Reaping the benefits of new technologies while maintaining trust, requires the collaborative efforts of government, businesses and other actors in society, he said. Recent technological advances have the potential to fundamentally redefine Arab economies. Participants will address necessary policy challenges in three key areas: E-commerce, data flows and new technologies for the Arab World. Kamal Bin Ahmed Mohammed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications of Bahrain, said: Just as with business, governments that fail to keep pace with immense technological change risk falling behind. Those that embrace change, adapt to change, and anticipate change will emerge winners. This is why in Bahrain we are finding new ways of ensuring the public and private sectors collaborate, as failing to harness all our talents to control the Fourth Industrial Revolution will risk us missing out on the undoubted benefits it can enable, he added. Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive officer of the Bahrain Economic Development Board and current chair of the regional business council for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), added: Our partnership with the World Economic Forums Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution on Cross Border Data Flow exemplifies Bahrains vision and commitment to be at the forefront of technical change, but also to help craft region-wide solutions. TradeArabia News Service Bahrains value of imports increased by 17 per cent as it reached BD515 million ($1.366 billion) during October 2018, compared to BD439 million ($1.164 billion) for the same month of the previous year, said a report. The top 10 countries account for 67 per cent of the imports value, said the foreign trade report by Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) for the month of October, which encompasses balance of trade, imports, exports (national origin) and re-exports. According to the report, China was ranked as the top country that exports to Bahrain with BD66 million ($175.1 million); US came second with BD58 million ($152.9 million); while Australia ranked third with BD46 million ($122.07 million). Aluminum oxide emerged as the top product imported to Bahrain with BD43 million ($114.1 million), while the non-agglomerated iron ores and concentrates as the second with BD40 million ($106.1 million). Floating or submersible drilling platforms came as third imported products with BD28 million ($74.3 million) during October. Additionally, the value of the exported national origin increased by 1 per cent as it reached BD171 million ($453.7 million) during October 2018 versus BD170 million ($451.1 million) for the same month of the previous year. The top 10 countries account for 82 per cent of the exported national origin value and 18 per cent for other countries. Saudi Arabia topped the countries importing from Bahrain with BD33 million ($87.5 million), Egypt came second with BD24 million ($63.69 million); and the US ranked third place with BD22 million ($58.3 million). As for national exported products, aluminium wire emerged as the top products exported in October 2018 with BD27 million ($71.6 million); agglomerated iron ores and concentrates were positioned second products exported with a value of BD26 million ($69 million); and unwrought aluminium stood third place for exported products with BD19 million ($50.4 million). In regards to the re-exported field, the value of re-exports increased by 25 per cent as it reached BD59 million ($156.5 million) during October 2018 versus BD47 million ($124.7 million) for the same month of the previous year. The top 10 countries account for 93 per cent of the re-exported value and 7 per cent for other countries. Saudi Arabia was ranked as the first country to re-export from Bahrain with BD22 million ($58.3 million); China came in second with BD10 million ($26.5 million); and UK ranked third with BD5 million ($13.2 million). Four-wheel drive cars emerged as the top product re-exported from Bahrain with BD10 million ($26.5 million), aircraft engines came as second products with BD5 million ($13.2 million). Additionally, hot-rolled stainless mountings came as third with BD4 million ($10.61 million). The trade balance, difference between exports and imports, the value of the deficit of the trade balance reached BD286 million ($758.9 million) during October 2018 versus BD222 million ($589.1 million) for the same month of the previous year with increase of 29 per cent, it stated. TradeArabia News Service His Majesty King Hamad yesterday (November 26) opened the new 350,000-bpd (barrel per day) AB-4 pipeline between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia that will replace the existing 230,000 bpd link, reported state news agency BNA. The project was launched during an event held at Shaikh Isa Air Base to celebrate over 70 years of energy co-operation between the two kingdoms. Saudi Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, HRH Bahrain's Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bahrain's Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier and senior Bahraini and Saudi officials attended the ceremony, said the report. Addressing the gathering, His Majesty said relations with Saudi Arabia are underpinned by centuries-old ties, common destiny and a strong bond between its people. The pipeline project is a vital economic milestone which will form the nexus for further integrated projects, the King added. The AB-4, which will replace the existing 73-year-old pipeline system, is the only current venture in the GCC linking two countries. His Majesty lauded the longstanding cooperation between the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and Saudi Aramco, since 1945, and added that the new pipeline would serve to ensure this relationship continues to deepen for years to come. "The Kingdom of Bahrain cherishes the strong historic bonds it shares with Saudi Arabia and is committed to further strengthening these ties to drive continued sustainable development. The inauguration of the new AB-4 oil pipeline project is just one of a number of joint initiatives that will undoubtedly benefit the people of both nations", he stated. Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said the 112-km-long AB-4 pipeline will have a capacity averaging 358,000 barrels per day. Its launch signals the biggest expansion in the history of Bahrains oil refinery a massive project which is expected to be completed within four years, he stated. The overall value of crude oil imported from Saudi Arabia would exceed $10 billion per year in refined oil, the minister said. The new oil pipeline will originate at Saudi Aramcos Abqaiq plants and terminate at the Bapco rrefinery in the kingdom, reported BNA. The pipeline will build on Bahrains many achievements, most notably the recent large oil discovery off Bahrains coast, it added. HRH the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa praised the historic relations between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and stressed the importance of the new oil pipeline project, identifying it as a major milestone in the existing bilateral relations between the two kingdoms. Bahrains newly-formed Tourism Sector Development Committee recently held its first meeting chaired by Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. The committee meeting was also attended by the chief executive officer of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa. The new committee, which was formed as a result of a resolution issued by the Economic Development Board, has a clear objective to study the possible means and ways of improving and elevating the tourism sector in Bahrain. The study will then be compiled and shared with the Office of the First Deputy of the Prime Minister. The meeting also discussed the reviewed the main tourism key indicators for the past three years including figures related to the total number of visitors, arriving tourists, tourists average expenditure, as well as the representative offices performance during the period between January 2018 and September 2018. Establishing the Tourism Sector Development Committee was implemented in support of the strategic objectives of the BTEA aimed at developing the tourism sector and increasing its contribution to the national economy. Such endeavours shall further enable the realization of the Kingdoms Economic Vision 2030, said Al Zayani. The members of the committee include representatives from the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, Economic Development Board, Bahrain Chamber of Industry and Commerce and a number of prominent private sector entities. TradeArabia News Service ON THE MOVE: Amun Nabs Rodino for ETFs; Cuttica Leaving Sun Amun AG, a Swiss fintech special purpose company that is launching exchange-traded products in the crypto-currency space, has hired Mark Rodino as Managing Director & Global Head of Distribution. Rodino, who has more than 25 years experience, has worked at selling equities indices and ETFs for Morgan Stanley, UBS, HSBC and Deutsche Borse. If you have a new job or promotion to report, let me know at jdantona@marketsmedia.com Ellsworth Advisors announced the appointment of Michelle Schwab as Chief Compliance Officer. Schwab has spent her entire 17-year career as a securities compliance professional. She has served on the Board of the Southern California Compliance Group, an association of compliance professionals which provides a forum for the development and sharing of compliance best practices. Before that she was appointed to the inaugural compliance advisory board of a national multi-billion dollar independent broker-dealer and registered investment adviser. She is currently a member of the National Society of Compliance Professionals. Most recently, Schwab served as an Associate Compliance Director for Western International Securities, a full-service wealth management firm headquartered in Pasadena, California. Kevin Cuttica is leaving Sun Trading, having helped the high-frequency trading shop and Hudson River Trading integrate their businesses, according to people familiar with the matter. Cuttica became head of Sun in 2015, having joined in 2003. Separately, HRT has re-hired Landis Olson, the former president of its European business, the people said. He returns after two years to take up a business development role at HRT. Crypto exchange IronX named Dimitris Hatzis as its new Chief Executive Officer. Hatzis, a 23 year professional, started his career in 1994 at Schroders in London and subsequently Salomon Smith Barney and Citigroup in New York for 7 years, overseeing international Equity Capital Markets for Asian and European issuers for several international, large and pioneering transactions. From there and over the following 10 years, he became the Head of Regional Banking at Eurobank before transitioning to Head of Leveraged Finance & Complex Restructuring Group. Wilshire Phoenix, a New York-based investment management firm, named Alexander Chang and William Cai as Partners. Chang previously served at J.P. Morgan for the last 8 years, most recently as a Vice President where he structured linear and non-linear equity together with cross asset derivative transactions. Cai, also from J.P. Morgan, served as an Executive Director and a trader at J.P. Morgan for over 10 years, managing multi-billion dollar risk books across asset classes in credit, equities, and most recently in commodity futures. 1 2 3 next For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: Three chemists from the University of Houston have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, recognized as among the best in their fields. Olafs Daugulis was recognized for contributions to developing practical and widely used C-H bond functionalization methodology. Shiv Halasyamani was recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of functional inorganic materials, particularly the design, synthesis, crystal growth and characterization of new nonlinear optical materials. Allan J. Jacobson was recognized for preeminent contributions to solid state chemistry research and innovation, especially relating to materials of industrial and technological importance. Three scientists from the University of Houston have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, joining a select group of researchers recognized by their peers as among the best in their fields. They are: Olafs Daugulis, Robert A. Welch Chair of Chemistry, for contributions to developing practical and widely used C-H bond functionalization methodology. Shiv Halasyamani, professor of chemistry, for distinguished contributions to the field of functional inorganic materials, particularly the design, synthesis, crystal growth and characterization of new nonlinear optical materials. Allan J. Jacobson, Robert A. Welch Chair of Science, for preeminent contributions to solid state chemistry research and innovation, especially relating to materials of industrial and technological importance. Jacobson returned to the faculty in September after more than a decade as director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH. AAAS is the worlds largest general scientific society, and each year it elects members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished. Amr Elnashai, vice president for research and technology transfer at UH, said the honors are a reflection of the high-impact work produced by University faculty. Faculty at the University of Houston are committed to producing knowledge that advances both basic science and solutions for real-world problems, Elnashai said. The recognition for the impactful work produced by Drs. Daugulis, Halasyamani and Jacobson is a well-deserved honor that confirms the position of UH as a leading intellectual institution. The three are among 416 new AAAS fellows, who will be recognized Feb. 16 in Washington D.C. Candidates must be nominated by the steering group of the associations 24 sections or by three current AAAS fellows, or by the AAAS CEO. Each steering group reviews nominations within its section, and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the list. Daugulis, who joined the UH faculty in 2003, has received a number of awards, including an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 2008, the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research in 2013 and the American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in 2014. His work has focused on reactions for breaking the carbon-hydrogen bond in order to replace the hydrogen with another functional group basic science with important potential applications in medicine and industry along with projects in synthetic organic and organometallic methodology. Halasyamani arrived at UH in 1999 following a post-doctoral fellowship at Oxford University. He has received a number of awards, including the Universitys Excellence in Research awards for both the assistant professor (2004) and associate professor (2009) ranks, and serves as associate editor for the journal Inorganic Chemistry. His lab focuses on synthesis, crystal growth, characterization and structure-property relationships in new functional inorganic materials, a key to solid state research and device technology. His current projects include the synthesis of new noncentrosymmetric oxides and multi-ferroic fluoride materials and crystal growth of functional inorganic materials. Jacobson, who was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, joined UH in 1991 from Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories. While there, he discovered a new class of cathode materials, as well as a novel class of catalysts to be used in removing sulfur and nitrogen from hydrocarbons. He served as interim director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH (TcSUH) in 2002 and was named director in 2005. He stepped down this fall to return to his research, focused on microporous materials, metal-organic frameworks and single molecule magnets. Dan E. Wells, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, said the honors point to the strength of the Universitys faculty in the physical sciences. Olafs, Shiv and Allan each have made meaningful contributions to their fields," Wells said. "Their election to AAAS is well-deserved recognition of their work to advance knowledge in organic, inorganic and physical chemistry." About the University of Houston The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter for excellence in undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city and one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the country, UH is a federally designated Hispanic- and Asian-American-Serving institution with enrollment of more than 46,000 students. About 50-in-5 UH Preeminence: 50-in-5 is an initiative of the University of Houston to increase research efforts and scholarly output by UH faculty by 50 percent during the five-year period ending in 2023. This includes publications, citations, awards, casebooks, cited performances and research expenditures. The initiative, led by the Universitys senior vice president for academic affairs and provost and the vice president for research and technology transfer also calls for doubling the number of national research centers led by the University. About the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with 210 ranked faculty and nearly 6,000 students, offers bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in the natural sciences, computational sciences and mathematics. Faculty research and collaborations with industry, Texas Medical Center institutions, NASA and other agencies are impacting health, energy, the environment and space exploration. Our College is best known for advances in energy, biosciences, materials, nanoscience, and high performance computing. According to Global Witness, 2017 was the deadliest year so far for environmental activists; 207 environmental defenders were killed for defending community land or natural resources. More than half of these murders occurred in just three countries - Brazil (23%), Colombia (18%) and the Philippines (14%), and agribusiness, mining, illegal logging and organized poaching crime syndicates accounted for most of the murders. About 10 percent of these murders were of women, most of them indigenous, and this number continues to grow every year. Women, especially indigenous women, are particularly vulnerable to environmental-related violence roughly half of all female activists were murdered for defending community land and environmental rights. In 2016, the world widely condemned the murder of Berta Caceres for defending her communitys rights against the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Honduras. But violence against many other female defenders largely goes unnoticed, including such women as Emilsen Manyoma of Colombia, who defended her communitys land rights from abusive mining and agricultural projects; Leonela Tapdasan Pesadilla of the Philippines, who defended her community from large-scale mining projects; and Laura Leonor Vasquez Pineda of Guatemala, who defended her land against mining interests, all of whom were murdered last year. An even larger number of female environmental defenders face threats, intimidation, rape, torture and/or imprisonment every year, such as Patricia Gualinga Montalvo, indigenous Kichwa activist, who faces regular death threats for her defense of her communitys rights in the Amazon Rainforest. Violence against women defenders, including indigenous women, represents a tragedy for them, their families and their communities, but it also points toward several troubling trends that affect all of us. More than half of all acts of violence recorded by Global Witness are perpetrated by policy, military or security personnel, and many women environmental defenders are increasingly branded as terrorists for the simple act of peacefully defending their lands and territory. This trend represents a global turn toward authoritarianism, and women, especially indigenous women, are at the wrong end of this power spectrum. Violence perpetrated by corporations against the most powerless represents one of the top ten global risks identified in the 2016 World Economic Forum report, citing that decreased national governance capacity, coupled with the increased power of multi-national corporations, represent a global threat to peace and stability. Women, especially poor urban and rural women, increasingly face a relatively new form of violence that of environmental violence, or any activity that contaminates environmental resources, especially soil and water, through the production, spreading, and/or dumping of toxic materials. Environmental violence disproportionately affects women, as toxins bioaccumulate in breast milk, harming women and children alike. Violence is increasingly expanding to those who defend the defenders. Female journalists such as Efigenia Vasquez Astudillo of Colombia, who was killed while reporting on land right disputes in Colombia, and female lawyers such as Maria da Lurdes Fernandes Silva, who legally challenged illegal activities in the Para region of Brazil, appear to be facing increasing threats for their environmental activism, casting a shadow on the future of an open press and a robust legal system that protect us all. There is a reason for hope. Earlier this year, partly in response to the death of Berta Caceres, 24 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean signed a legally binding pact, clearly protecting the rights of environmental defenders. However, much more work is required to ensure that women and men not only are not persecuted for defending their rights, but do not have to fight for them in the first place. Some steps we can take now to achieve this end include: We must hold governments accountable for violence perpetrated against peaceful protestors who are defending their rights. Expanding the signatories of the new pact on environmental defenders, especially in hotspots of violence, could help build momentum for peaceful solutions; Hold corporations accountable when violence and/or environmental pollution can be directly attributed, including holding accountable their shareholders and investors; Expand global news coverage of stories about the frontlines of environmental defenders, the challenges they face and the injustices they endure; and Invest in resolving and securing land and resource rights of indigenous communities, as these rights are at the heart of environmental disputes. UNDP has a clear role to play to achieve these goals by strengthening the work of national human rights institutions and other independent oversight mechanisms as a cornerstone of national human rights systems. The Maldives, which comprises 1,190 small islands in total, is a typical example of the island paradox with multi-dimensional development challenges. On the one hand, the country has achieved relative prosperity; Gross National Income (GNI) increased by over 200% between 1990-2015, and human development indicators such as life expectancy at birth improved by 15.6 years. On the other hand, the country grapples with challenging macro-economic fundamentals: a high deficit (19.6% of GDP, 2016), high public debt levels (65.7% of GDP, 2016), a narrow economic and tax base, weak public financial management systems, vulnerability to external shocks due to a high dependence on fisheries and tourism sector (combined at over 30% of GDP), and increased environmental vulnerability due to climate change. The countrys graduation to middle-income status in 2011 has also resulted in a decline of development aid, of around 60% over a 10-year period since 2006. In this context, how can the Maldives source the finance it needs to meet the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? And what opportunities are offered by new innovative financing models? UNDPs work in the Maldives focuses on addressing democratic governance, gender and climate change challenges. The work also includes assisting the government in improving its access to finance through initiatives such as Tax Inspectors Without Borders which was recently launched in the country and helps tax administrations build their tax audit capacities. This, in turn, helps to mobilize domestic public resources. The recently elected new government's strong commitment to the SDGs will strengthen these efforts. What can be done? One, as a Muslim country, Islamic financing instruments (Shariah law compliant financial products) like Green Sukuk, have significant potential in the Maldives. Earlier this year, Indonesia launched the first sovereign Green Sukuk, which was oversubscribed, and indicative of the growing market demand for sustainable and responsible investments. Zakat funds (a form of philanthropy where followers of Islam are encouraged to donate at least 2.5% of their accumulated wealth) are another pool of resources that could be strategically tapped into. In May 2018, the Maldives began accepting Zakat proceeds, to support health and livelihoods programmes, however, much remains to be done. Two, the country could seek to leverage additional finance from the private sector through blended finance (combining public and private investment) and impact investment (investing to generate impact alongside a financial return) in the major sectors of sustainable tourism and fisheries, as well as agriculture and renewable energy. The Maldives could tap into assistance from initiatives such as the SIDS-DOCK sustainable energy initiative for example, that help small island developing states to connect with the global market for finance to transform their national energy sectors into a catalyst for sustainable economic development. Additionally, UNDP is developing several social impact bonds worldwide, that bear potential for replication. Three, the Blue Economy is gaining momentum. The concept refers to a development approach in which ocean resources are harnessed for economic growth while preserving ocean and coastal ecosystem health. It includes economic activities such as marine renewable energy, sustainable fisheries, better management of ocean waste and ocean-related eco-tourism. To finance blue economy investments, new finance models can be explored, such as blue bonds (tapping into capital markets to fund ocean-related environmental projects). Other innovative blue financing instruments include blue insurance, to co-finance and discount premia if marine economy protection measures are taken. There are examples to learn from. Grenada is the first country to develop a vision for Blue Growth and to articulate a national Masterplan for blue economic development. The Seychelles also champion the blue economy model: It recently announced the issuance of a 10-year blue bond to finance fisheries projects, making it the worlds first country to utilize capital markets for funding the sustainable use of marine resources. Best practices are shared through international events, such as the high-level global conference on Sustainable Blue Economy (26-28 November 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya) organized by the Governments of Canada, Japan and Kenya. Additionally, the government needs to create an environment that better facilitates sustainable investment such as, strengthening institutions, improving transparency and good governance, improving the ease-of-doing-business, and building a strong policy framework for managing coastal and ocean resources, amongst others. UNDP as a trusted development partner is assisting the Maldives on a wide portfolio of activities across climate change and governance, through technical expertise, policy advice, advocacy, knowledge sharing, and dialogue. However, it is crucial for the country to explore new innovative financing mechanisms to be able to achieve its development aspirations. As a small island developing state, the country needs to be supported to build capacities in these new financing models and approaches, to enable them to pull in new resources and build new partnerships for sustainable development. Tokyo UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner concluded a two-day visit to Japan on Tuesday, where he met senior Japanese officials, corporate executives, and academics to discuss their leadership to generate collaborative synergies for sustainable development. Japan is a steadfast partner of UNDP, and a leader in human security and sustainable development, Steiner said. Throughout my stay, I continuously felt the energy of Japan as a whole to join efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We look forward to deepening our valued and trusted partnership with Japan as it continues its support for development through UNDP. As one of UNDPs largest government contributors, Japan is a vital partner in UNDPs mission to end extreme poverty, to reduce inequality, and to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation. Steiner met with the Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr. Norikazu Suzuki, the President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Mr. Shinichi Kitaoka, and members of the Parliamentary League for Promotion of Human Security to discuss critical issues such as global health, disaster risk reduction, stabilization in the Middle East, and African development. While in Japan, Steiner also met the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Mr. Hiroshige Seko to discuss the critical role of the private sector in achieving the SDGs. He signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), the largest business association in Japan, to accelerate SDGs achievement through private sector engagement. Additionally, he met representatives of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai), and CEOs of leading companies committed aligning their businesses with the SDGs. He also signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement with the University of Tokyo, Japans leading university committed to the SDGs under the leadership of its President Dr. Makoto Gonokami, and addressed faculty and students in an interactive lecture on the future of development and the United Nations. The top ten UNDP recipients of Japanese funding in 2017 were Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Indonesia, South Sudan, Jordan, and the Programme of Assistance for the Palestinian People (PAPP). IMPACT OF JAPANS SUPPORT: Africas Development: Since 1993, UNDP and Japan have co-organized the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). The next summit, TICAD7 is going to be held in Yokohama in August of 2019. The key principles of the conference are African ownership and international partnership. Disaster Risk Reduction: Based on its own experience dealing with tsunamis, Japan has provided leadership and support to UNDPs work to reduce the loss of life and property from tsunamis in 18 countries in Asia and the Pacific. This work has supported 58,400 students, teachers and members of school administration, and has prepared 105 schools for tsunamis and other natural disasters. Stabilization in the Middle East: With support from Japan, UNDP has helped Iraq stabilize after years of conflict. Water, electricity, roads, waste management and health services provided for 1.9 million Iraqis, and over 2 million Iraqis in Tikrit now have access to medical services. Womens Empowerment: In partnership with UNDP and the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs, Japan supports the training of women police officers in Afghanistan. Almost 1,200 women officers have been trained since 2013, and the government plans to have women comprise 10 percent of its police force by 2020. Thane reports 102 new Covid-19 cases 25 Nov 2021 | 9:52 AM Thane, Nov 25 (UNI) Maharashtra's Thane district has recorded 102 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total infection count to 5,68,717, an official said on Thursday. see more.. Marathwada registers 30 new cases of COVID-19 cases, one death 25 Nov 2021 | 8:26 AM Aurangabad, Nov 25 (UNI) The Marathwada region of Maharashtra recorded 30 fresh cases of COVID-19 and a single death due to the virus during the past 24 hours, the health authorities informed on Thursday. see more.. Goa: 6-8 mining blocks will be auctioned before Dec 15, says CM 25 Nov 2021 | 3:00 AM Panaji, Nov 24 (UNI) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday announced that six to eight mining blocks in the state would be auctioned before December 15 this year. see more.. Goa govt approves MECL's proposal for assessment of mineral acreage for aunctions related work 25 Nov 2021 | 2:58 AM Panaji, Nov 24 (UNI) The Goa Government on Wednesday approved the proposal submitted by Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL) for assessment of mineral acreage for the state for aunctions related work. see more.. Estonia to back UN Global migration pact at UN General Assembly in January TALLINN, Nov 27 (Sputnik) Estonia will support the UN global compact on migration at the UN General Assembly session in New York in January, Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said on Tuesday. Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid met with Prime Minister Juri Ratas earlier in the day to discuss the outcome of an urgent parliamentary meeting at which the Estonian lawmakers adopted a declaration in support of the global migration pact. The Estonian Foreign Ministry had to decide who would represent the Baltic country at an inter-governmental conference in Morocco as Kaljulaid said she would not attend. "The president was supposed to attend the inter-governmental conference in Morocco. I will not go either. But this will not affect Estonia's support for this UN pact. We will express our views on this document at the UN General Assembly vote. I ordered the representative of Estonia to the UN to support the migration pact at the vote," Mikser told the ERR news portal. French Senate Civil Servant Detained Over Suspicions of Spying for North Korea Reports MOSCOW, November 27 (Sputnik) A senior civil servant of the French Senate was detained over suspicions of spying for North Korea, local media reported on early Tuesday. According to the TMC broadcaster, Benoit Quennedey, who was working on the real estate of the Senate, is suspected of an attempt to submit top secret information to North Korea. French security services are currently carrying our searches in Quennedeys offices, according to the broadcaster. French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly aware of the ongoing police operation. Greece calls on Turkey to hold "responsible stance" in energy issues in Mediterranean Athens, Nov 27 (Xinhua) The Greek government on Tuesday called on Turkey to hold a "responsible stance" regarding energy issues in the eastern Mediterranean. "Energy should be a bridge of dialogue and cooperation in our region. Turkey should refrain from threats and illegal claims and follow a responsible stance," the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a press statement. The statement came in response to a remark made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week. YouTube can face loss if details of accounts not furnished to Ministry of IB 25 Nov 2021 | 3:09 AM New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) YouTube accounts, publishing news or current affairs can face loss of access or termination of all or part accounts if they don't furnish details of accounts to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. see more.. India carefully examining its options on trade, investment ties with Beijing following border tensions: Foreign Secretary 24 Nov 2021 | 11:52 PM New Delhi, Nov 24 (UN) In the wake of Chinas aggressive posture and its attempts at multiple transgressions along the border last year, India is very carefully examining its options with regard to its trade and investment ties with Beijing to ensure that New Delhis integrity and security remain intact, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday. see more.. PVR takes safe entertainment to next level, installs first-ever indoor air purification system in India 24 Nov 2021 | 11:46 PM New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, PVR Ltd, known for providing opulent cinematic experience to the viewers, has joined hands with UFO Moviez, to install anti-viral cinema air purification system at its pan India locations, taking the safety of audience to the next level. see more.. Taliban have been 'very reassuring' in our conversations with them: Foreign Secretary Shringla 24 Nov 2021 | 11:26 PM New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) The Taliban have been very reassuring during Indias conversations with the Islamist group that is ruling Kabul, and they recognise that India has contributed greatly to the people of Afghanistan, and they have good things to say about India, which is a good start, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday. see more.. Ahmedabad, Nov 27 (UNI) A city court on Tuesday allowed till November 30 the police custody (remand) of the accused of the deadly terror attack on Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, Farukh Shaikh, to the crime branch of Ahmedabad police which had nabbed him from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport here yesterday. He was produced in the court here which allowed his remand for further interrogation. Shaikh (47), who had fled from the country after the attack was settled in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia since 1994 and was on the run for past 16 years. He had returned to Gujarat to meet family members and based on a tipoff he was arrested yesterday morning after his flight landed here. He was a resident of Juhapura in Ahmedabad and was brother of another accused Saleem Manekh Shaikh. Farukh Shaikh, along with Abdul Rashid Ajmeri, had participated in a meeting in Riyadh for conspiracy of the attack to revenge 2002 Gujarat riots that erupted after the Godhra train carnage. Earlier in November last year, 60-year-old Abdul Rashid Ajmeri, one of the masterminds of the attack was also caught by the crime branch team of Ahmedabad police from the airport soon after he landed from a Kuwait Airways flight from Gulf countries. Farukh Shaikh is the brother of one of the former accused of the case who was acquitted in 2014 by the apex court. He also used to live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, since even before the crime but he was involved in the conspiracy. In the assault that took place in the evening of September 24, 2002 in the temple situated a few meters away from the official CM residence in Gandhinagar, a total of 32 people including two terrorists were killed and over 80 injured. The attack was said to be a criminal conspiracy to retaliate against the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. A special (POTA) court had convicted six of the accused with capital punishment to three of them. The Gujarat High Court had also upheld the judgement but in 2014 the Supreme Court acquitted them. More than 20 of the accused are still at large. Notably, the grand temple which saw completion of its construction in 1992 had celebrated its silver jubilee on November 2 last year in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. UNI RAJ RP1820 United Nations, Nov 27 (UNI) United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guteress has censured recurrent attacks by terrorists and other extremist groups in northern Nigeria that have claimed many lives. 'Those who violate international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law must be held accountable,' UN Chief's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Monday. Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to end the insurgency across the north-east, which is the stronghold of the Boko Haram militant group, founded nearly a decade ago. National elections are due to be held in February next year. Mr Guterres said the organisation 'stands in solidarity with the Government of Nigeria in its fight against terrorism and violent extremism.' Mr Dujarraic also expressed the UN Chief's heartfelt condolences to the Government of Nigeria and to the families of those who have lost their life. Earlier this month, a Nigerian military base in north-eastern Borno state was attacked by Islamist extremists, in which scores of soldiers were killed. Several other bases were said to have been targeted, reports said. UNI XC SV 0838 Pompeo, Ecuador Ministers Seek Improved Ties With No Mention of Assange - State Department WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (Sputnik) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a meeting with Ecuadors Foreign and Finance Ministers on Tuesday, welcomed expanded bilateral cooperation, but a summary of the meeting omitted any mention of likely the most vexing issue between the two nations - the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "He [Pompeo] recognized Ecuadors significant support to Venezuelan refugees and migrants and welcomed further Ecuadorian cooperation on a democratic solution to the man-made crises in Venezuela and Nicaragua," US Department of State spokesman Heather Nauert said in a readout on Tuesday. The ministers also discussed bilateral trade and Pompeo praised democratic reforms in Ecuador while remaining silent on Assange, the readout said. Qatar delegation arrives in Islamabad Islamabad, Nov 27 (UNI) In a bid to strengthen economic relations between the two nations, an eight-member delegation of Qatar arrived here on an official visit. While welcoming the team, Senator Naseebullah Bazai said high-level meetings and discussions will give a fillip to the economic relations between the two countries, Radio Pakistan reported. Led by chairman National Leasing Holding Company Falah bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, the deputation also expressed hope that efforts will be made to ensure new heights of relations and exchange of high level delegation in the future. Russia in constant contact with Taliban Envoy for Afghanistan GENEVA, Nov 27 (Sputnik) Russia has been in constant communication with the Taliban, a militant group engaged in long-running insurgency in Afghanistan, Russia's presidential envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said. "We have a constant communication channel open with them, which is quite enough," Kabulov told reporters. Earlier this month, Russia hosted consultations between the Doha-based Taliban political office and the High Peace Council, backed by ex-president Hamid Karzai. The Afghan government did not endorse the council. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the meeting a step toward direct talks between the Taliban and Kabul. UN denounces deadly terror attacks in Mogadishu, Galkayo United Nations, Nov 27 (UNI) The United Nations official in Somalia has strongly condemned terror attacks in cities of Galkayo and Mogadishu which left a noted cleric and a number of other civilians dead. No legitimate political agenda can be advanced through the indiscriminate killing of innocent children, women and men, Nicholas Haysom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and the head of the UN mission there (UNSOM) said. Todays attacks on civilians in Mogadishu and Galkayo demonstrate the disregard of violent extremists for the sanctity of human life, he said, adding that the UN stands with the people and government of Somalia in their rejection of terrorism. TORONTO, Nov. 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At a meeting on Monday, November 26, Maple Leaf Foods announced plans to consolidate its Ontario plants by 2022. This consolidation will result in the closure of the plant in Toronto where approximately 600 employees are represented by Local 1006A of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). In addition, the Company will close two other plants in St. Marys and Brampton, whose unionized employees are represented by UFCW Local 175. The Company announced further news that a new facility in London, Ontario will be established to take the place of the plants slated to close. Information provided to the employees indicated that the Company intends to open the new facility in the spring of 2021. The Toronto plant is scheduled to be closed by the end of 2021. Many of our members at the Toronto plant are long service employees. This closure means the loss of good-paying unionized jobs, said Wayne Hanley, President of UFCW Local 1006A. This announcement has deeply affected the workers, their families, and the community in which the plant is located. Employees at the Toronto plant process poultry. The Union has requested to meet with the Company to discuss the closure and the impact on workers. Under the terms of the workers collective agreements, the affected employees will receive enhanced severance. We will work to minimize the impact of this closure and to achieve the best possible outcome for our members as a result of this announcement, said President Hanley. UFCW Local 1006A represents over 35,000 workers in Ontario in all sectors of the economy, including the manufacturing, hotel, retail, restaurant, and meat processing industries. CONTACT INFORMATION Don Taylor Director Central Region UFCW Canada Local 1006A 416-709-7935 communications@ufcw1006.ca Dublin, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "South America Mobile/Portable Printers Market By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet and Impact), By Output (Barcode Label, Receipt and Paper Document), By Country (Brazil, Colombia and Others), Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. South America mobile/portable printers market is projected to cross $ 354 million by 2023 on account of rising deployment of cloud solutions across organizations due to growing trend of Bring Your Own Device' and various benefits associated with mobile printers such as their compact size and capability to perform various tasks. Moreover, rising penetration of smart devices as well as internet is further expected to push demand for mobile printers across South America during the forecast period. South America Mobile/Portable Printers Market, 2013-2023 discusses the following aspects of Mobile/Portable Printers market in South America: Mobile/Portable Printers Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet & Impact), By Output (Barcode Label, Receipt & Paper Document), By Country (China, Japan, India, Australia & Others) Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of Mobile/Portable Printers market in South America To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, Mobile/Portable Printers distributors and other stakeholders align their market-centric strategies To obtain research-based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players To avail of 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get the research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs South America mobile/portable printers market is controlled by the following major players Brother Industries Ltd. Zebra Technologies, Inc TOSHIBA TEC CORPORATION Hewlett-Packard Inc. Honeywell International Inc. Canon Inc. Xerox Corporation Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. South America Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value & Volume 4.2. Market Share & Forecast 4.2.1. By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet and Impact) 4.2.2. By Output (Barcode Labels, Receipts and Paper Document) 4.2.3. By Country 4.2.3.1. Brazil Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.2. Colombia Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.3. Argentina Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.3. List of Major Distributors/Suppliers of Mobile/Portable Printers 4.4. Pricing Analysis 5. Market Dynamics 5.1. Drivers 5.2. Challenges 6. Supply Chain Analysis 7. Market Trends & Developments 8. Competitive Landscape 8.1. Company Profiles 9. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/s34bpb/south_america?w=12 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Dublin, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Asia Pacific Mobile / Portable Printers Market By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet & Impact), By Output (Barcode Label, Receipt & Paper Document), By Country (China, Japan, India, Australia & Others), Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Asia Pacific mobile/portable printers market is projected to surpass $ 3.7 billion by 2023 Anticipated growth in the market can be attributed to increasing penetration of internet and smart devices coupled with growing online businesses across the region. Moreover, rising focus on minimizing carbon footprint as well as printing cost is resulting in manufacturing of highly efficient, eco-friendly printers, which is further expected to have a positive influence on the market in the coming years. Additionally, growing deployment of cloud solutions across an increasing number of organizations is further likely to augment demand for mobile printers in Asia-Pacific during the forecast period. Asia Pacific Mobile/Portable Printers Market, 2013-2023 discusses the following aspects of Mobile/Portable Printers market in APAC: Mobile/Portable Printers Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet & Impact), By Output (Barcode Label, Receipt & Paper Document), By Country (China, Japan, India, Australia & Others) Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of Mobile/Portable Printers market in APAC To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, Mobile/Portable Printers distributors and other stakeholders align their market-centric strategies To obtain research-based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players To avail of 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get the research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs Asia-Pacific mobile/portable printers market is controlled by the following major players Seiko Epson Corporation Brother Industries Ltd. Zebra Technologies, Inc TOSHIBA TEC CORPORATION BIXOLON Co., Ltd. 6Hewlett-Packard Inc. Honeywell International Inc. Canon Inc. Xerox Corporation Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Asia-Pacific Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value & Volume 4.2. Market Share & Forecast 4.2.1. By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet and Impact) 4.2.2. By Output (Barcode Labels, Receipts and Paper Document) 4.2.3. By Country 4.2.3.1. China Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.2. Japan Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.3. India Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.4. Australia Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.5. Indonesia Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.3. List of Major Distributors/Suppliers of Mobile/Portable Printers 4.4. Pricing Analysis 5. Market Dynamics 5.1. Drivers 5.2. Challenges 6. Supply Chain Analysis 7. Market Trends & Developments 8. Competitive Landscape 8.1. Company Profiles 9. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fl7b2d/asia_pacific?w=12 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. (Nov. 27, 2018) -- This year, 98 teams from The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) College of Engineering will present their innovative projects at the Fall 2018 Tech Symposium. The event is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 27 inside the H-E-B Student Union Ballroom (HSU 1.104) on the UTSA Main Campus. The Tech Symposium will exhibit the latest engineering designs that impact health, business and the environment. Fifty-eight Engineering Senior Design I teams will present their concept posters for a chance to win one of three available $1,000 team prizes. Forty Engineering Senior Design II teams will present their products and technologies to compete for $9,000. The first, second and third place teams will receive $4,000, $3,000 and $2,000, respectively. The biannual Tech Symposium gives students the opportunity to showcase their innovations within an academic environment to an audience that includes the UTSA community, family members, industry players and government agencies. The diverse audience gives students direct exposure to business leaders and a chance to develop their networking skills. These Senior Design courses are unlike anything youve experienced in your undergraduate coursework. You will learn to research, design, build, test and blend the efforts of your team to produce an end product that should be your proudest achievement, said James Labelle, a UTSA senior in mechanical engineering. Youre training for the real domain of the engineering industry. Notable projects at this years event include: Aquifer Filtration System In third world countries, clean water retrieval requires multiple trips and long hours. By incorporating a manual pump, a water filter and a four-wheel cart system, communities and families can acquire and transport clean water from local streams and lakes. Team members include Wayne Walker, Kimberly Rios, Kevin Toscano and Kieleon Shaw. WALB (Walking Aid for the Legally Blind) This walking aide for the legally blind is a device that, through the use of a stereo camera, will help users detect obstacles and possibly even recognize them. Team members include Benjamin Contreras, Hector Tenorio and Eduardo Ortiz. A.G.E.L. (Bluetooth, Accelerometer, and Gyroscope Entwined for Localization) Bluetooth and IMU technology offers a localization method that is crucial for control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Team members include James Nelson, Sean Ackles and Abraham Marcos-Toache. In conjunction, this years symposium will include the CITE Big Rowdy Idea Competition, a business model competition, where five competing teams will have a chance to win cash prizes and in-kind services. The five finalists presenting at the 1 p.m. competition include: C-CAM Technologies, which offers a novel oxygen-blowby intubation device that will decrease intubation failures. Team members include Albert Keam, Caleb Haeussler, Carlo Castaneda and Matthew Burgess. Daedalus, which offers developing a new weapon detection software system using CCTV technology that will improve security and police response time. Team members include Allen Herrera, Justice Montes, Miles Martinez and Rembrandt Bukowski. Jackdaw Automation, which offers a new servo motor for robots that will increase durability and usability at a competitive cost. Team members include Alexander Brown and Jose Hotema. Taco, which offers a new risk management system for universities to manage scooters on campus that will reduce injuries and improve user convenience. Team members include Brandon Walter and Delano Covarrubias. These are hands-on events where we let our students engineering brilliance emerge, said JoAnn Browning, dean of the UTSA College of Engineering. Our seniors are participating in cutting-edge work using the knowledge and skills they have acquired over their time here at UTSA. We are preparing the next leaders in the high tech industry. 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. LONDON, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Thursday 29 November 2018 a Honduran criminal court is expected to issue a ruling against eight individuals accused of involvement in the 2016 murder of the activist Berta Caceres. The case has attracted large international interest, including a letter last Thursday (22 November 2018) from 32 MEPs from the European Union (EU) Parliament, alongside Federica Mogherini the High Representative for the EU, calling upon the Honduran authorities to guarantee a fair trial for Berta Caceres. However, worries are felt in some quarters that two of the accused, including DESA executives Sergio Rodriguez Orellana and Roberto David Castillo (the latter of whom is being tried separately), who have been held in pretrial detention for an extended period, are political prisoners, victims of the international pressures felt by the Honduran authorities. Robert Amsterdam, the lead lawyer for DESA in the case said: The European Parliaments intervention into the Berta Caceres trial at this point could not be more dangerous. The continued pressure applied by the EU risks increasing the likelihood of false prosecutions rather than delivering the fair trial they call for. Applying undue pressure on the Honduran authorities to prosecute those currently charged, before the full evidence has been heard, is a blatant disregard to their human rights and safeguarding of the rule of law. Justice for the relatives and friends of Ms. Caceres will only be delivered if those accused of her murder receive a trial that is fair and free from interference and coercion. Mr. Amsterdam said that problems with the legal process have been suffered by both sides and calls to ensure a fair trial have been made by both the victims and the defendants. Currently, the trial cannot deliver a just outcome. Central to our concerns is that COPINH, the organization of which Ms. Caceres was a member, is interfering in the judicial process with a reckless pressure campaign, spreading misinformation about the defendants and DESA to further a political agenda. I call upon the European Parliament to ensure the environment around this case does not become more fervent and vitriolic, and we ensure the rights to a presumption of innocence and a fair trial are upheld, for all Hondurans. Amsterdam concluded by saying hes written to the MEPs to respond to the letter dated 16 November 2018. The letter follows the publication of the white paper War on Development released by Amsterdam & Partners LLP on 15 November, 2018. The report accuses activists of spreading false information, attacking the right to a fair trial, and blocking economic development in Honduras. The Paper is available to download in English and Spanish http://casocaceres.com . More information about Amsterdam & Partners LLP is available at https://amsterdamandpartners.com . Source: Amsterdam & Partners LLP 1054 31st Street, NW Suite 110 Washington, DC 20007 For his visit to Moscow on 8 November, ambassador James Jeffrey was tasked with explaining the current US obsession with the expansion of Persian influence in the Arab world (Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen). Washington now wishes to formulate this question in geo-strategic rather than religious terms (Chiites/Sunni), while Teheran is organising its national defence around forward posts composed of Chiite Arabs. Moscow then considered the possibility of negotiating on Teherans behalf for the easing of unilateral US sanctions, in exchange for its military withdrawal from Syria. President Vladimir Putin confirmed his proposition, not only for his US opposite number, but also for the Israeli Prime Minister, during their meeting in Paris on 11 November for the celebrations marking the centenary of the end of the First World War . He attempted to convince the Westerners that Russia alone in Syria was preferable to the Irano-Russian tandem. However, he could not guarantee that Iran would have sufficient authority over Hezbollah as both Washington and Tel-Aviv pretend to be able to order it to withdraw also. Washingtons only answer, nine days later, was to announce the eleventh series of unilateral sanctions against Russia since the beginning of August. This was accompanied by a ridiculous speech according to which Russia and Iran had together organised a vast plot aimed at maintaining President Assad in power and expanding Persian control in the Arab world. This rhetoric, which we believed had been abandoned, assimilates three states (the Russian Federation, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Islamic Republic of Iran) as machines in the service of three men (Bachar el-Assad, Ali Khamenei and Vladimir Putin) who are united by the same hatred of their respective peoples. It ignores the massive popular support they enjoy, while the United States are profoundly torn apart. We can leave aside the stupid assertion that Russia is aiding and abetting the conquest of the Arab world by Persia. According to the US Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, who presented the unilateral US sanctions on 20 November, they do not form the economic section of the present war, but are intended to punish the atrocities committed by these three regimes . However, on the verge of winter, they mostly concern the supply of refined petroleum to the Syrian people so that they may light their homes and keep warm. It is not necessary to specify that the three states targeted deny the atrocities of which they are accused, while the United States pursue the wars that they started in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. The US sanctions were not decided by the United Nations Security Council, but by the United States alone. They are illegal in international law because in order to make them lethal, Washington is attempting to force third-party states to associate themselves with the motion, which constitutes a threat to the states targeted and therefore a violation of the United Nations Charter. The United States have the sovereign right to refuse to enter into commerce with other states, but not to exercise pressure on third-party states in order to harm their targets. At one time, the Pentagon claimed that inflicting damaging treatment on a particular nation would lead its people to overthrow its government. That was also the theoretical justification for the bombing of Dresden during the Second World War and the endless embargo against Cuba during the Cold War. However, in the space of 75 years, this theory has never, absolutely never, been verified by the facts. Now the Pentagon is considering using detrimental treatment against a nation as a weapon of war like any other. Embargoes are designed to kill civilians. The ensemble of systems currently used against Iran, Russia and Syria constitute the most gigantic siege system in History [1]. These are not economic measures, but without any possible doubt military actions implemented in the economic sector. In time, they will probably lead to a division of the world into two parts, just as in the period of USA-USSR rivalry. Secretary Mnuchin insisted at length on the fact that these sanctions were aimed above all at the interruption of the sale of hydro-carbons, meaning depriving these countries mostly exporters of their main financial resources. The mechanism described by Steven Mnuchin is as follows: Syria is presently unable to refine petrol since its installations were destroyed either by Daesh or by the international Coalitions bombing raids against Daesh. For the last four years, Iran has been supplying refined petrol to Syria in violation of previous unilateral US sanctions. This petrol is transported by Western companies working for the Russian public company Promsyrioimport. This company is paid by the private Syrian company Global Vision Group, which is itself financed by the Iranian company Tabir Kish Medical and Pharmaceutical. Finally the Global Vision Group transfers a part of the money it receives to Hezbollah and Hamas. This a cock and bull story : The international Coalition has the official objective of fighting Daesh. However, numerous testimonies over the last four years attest that it had alternatively bombed the Islamic state whenever it exceeded the zone which had been allocated to it by the Pentagon (the Wright plan), and that, on the contrary, it had parachuted weapons to Daesh in order to maintain its position in the specified area. The two entities worked together to destroy Syrian refineries. What is the purpose of implicating the Russian government in the transfer of petroleum from Iranian refineries towards Syrian ports? Why would Iran suddenly need Syria to transfer money to Hezbollah and Hamas? Why would Syria transfer Iranian money to Hamas while the Palestinian organisation whose leaders are members of the Muslim Brotherhood is at war with them? Steven Mnuchin doesnt bother with long explanations. As far as he is concerned, Syria is criminal state and Russia is its accomplice, while Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are all terrorists . This is the most important point, the word that cancels out thought. A French proverb assures that When you want to drown your dog, you claim it has rabies . So theres no point expecting logic in Secretary Mnuchins answer to President Putins proposition of mediation. Progressively, the United States are withdrawing their troops from the conflicts in which they were engaged, and replacing them with mercenaries on the ground (the jihadists) and economic sanctions, the modern version of the medieval siege. SANDY, Utah, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mountain America Credit Union is pleased to announce its newest location in Farmington, Utah. The Farmington Branch is located at 495 N Station Parkway. A Ribbon Cutting will take place at the branch on November 30 and a Grand Opening Celebration will follow, next spring. The Farmington Branch is managed by Lindsay Hymas, who has worked in the financial services industry for 15 years. Originally from Davis County, Hymas and her husband have lived in Farmington for the past 8 years. She is looking forward to serving the people of the Farmington area and is excited with what the new branch has to offer the community. The Farmington Branch is a beautiful addition to a thriving community that has become a destination place for the Wasatch Front, Hymas said. The new Farmington Branch is an innovative and modern spin on the typical brick & mortar branch. We feature a unique, streamlined concept that allows staff to come out into the lobby to greet members, resulting in a more open and engaging member experience. Our incredible team is excited to serve the residents of Farmington and the Wasatch Front, and help them achieve their financial dreams! The Farmington Branch provides a wide range of financial products and services, including traditional savings, insurance, investments, auto and RV loans and a full array of mortgage loans and services. Mountain America also offers the innovative MyStyle CheckingSM account with customizable rewards. Being federally chartered, Mountain America provides an additional broad assortment of services, including real estate and business lending. About Mountain America Credit Union With more than 780,000 members and $8 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union assists members on the right path to help them identify and achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. Members enjoy access to secure, cutting-edge mobile banking technology, over 90 branches across five states, thousands of shared-branching locations nationwide and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Mountain Americasafely guiding you forward along your financial journey. Learn more at macu.com . A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/60ea2427-645f-4cd7-9cf1-724040a124d3 The 2nd Regional Training of Trainers (ToT) Workshop on the WCO Economic Competitiveness Package (ECP) was held at the Regional Training Centre (RTC) in Mombasa, Kenya from 19 to 23 November 2018, under the WCO-ESA Project II. The WCO-ESA Project II, To progress the Trade Facilitation agenda within the framework of the WCO Mercator Programme in the East and Southern Africa (ESA) Region, 2016 - 2019 is funded by the Finnish Government. A total number of 14 Customs Officers who previously attended the 1st ToT Workshop held in February 2018, from across the ESA Region (Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe) participated in the workshop. During the workshop the participants, in order to enhance their training and presentation skills acquired in the previous workshop, were provided further techniques and methodology in the delivery of effective training. The participants were also provided information and training materials relating to the technical aspects of the ECP including the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC), the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the WCO Mercator Programme. The participants also had the opportunity to make presentations on certain ECP tools and TFA articles and were provided feedback on the activities conducted during the workshop. This workshop will be followed by a final assessment workshop which will be held in the first quarter of 2019 where the participants will have the possibility to become qualified as a Regional ECP Trainer or to become pre-accredited as a WCO Mercator Programme Advisor (MPA). At the invitation of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the WCO attended the Final Conference of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Integrated Border Management (IBM) Capacity Building (CP) Project that was held on 20th November in Warsaw, Poland. EaP IBM CP was a technical assistance project implemented by Frontex with funding provided by the European Commission. The project was launched in 2014 with the aim of supporting six EaP beneficiary countries to implement measures that facilitate the movement of persons and goods across borders while maintaining secure borders through enhancement of collaboration at national, cross-border and international levels. The six beneficiary countries included Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine and project implementation partners included the WCO, the International Organization for Migration, and International Centre for Migration Policy Development. The WCO and Frontex signed the Cooperation Agreement in July 2014 which enabled the WCO to provide customs expertise aimed to enhance the development of the six beneficiary countries by assisting their Customs Administrations in their capacity building efforts. In the course of the project, more than 600 customs officials have been trained with strong expert support from the WCO. Topics covered included Harmonized System, Customs Valuation, Rules of Origin, Risk Management, Intellectual Property Rights, Single Window, Customs Laboratory, etc. In his opening address Mr. Fabrice Leggeri, Executive Director of Frontex, congratulated all project partners and beneficiary countris on the successful conclusion of the Project. He emphasized that the Project was exemplary case of interagency cooperation between authorities in the EU, beneficiary countries and other international organizations which performed as project partners. Mr. Leggeri expressed his strong belief that the Final Conference marked the end of the project but certainly not the end of the cooperation between the project partners and the beneficiaries. At the Final Conference, on behalf of the WCO, the Deputy Director of Capacity Building, Ms. Brenda Mundia delivered congratulatory remarks for the successful conclusion of the project and for the strong partnerships with project partners and beneficiary countries. Ms. Mundia reaffirmed WCOs willingness and readiness to continue collaboration with Frontex and other EU institutions in the framework of similar initiatives to support customs administrations in their modernization and reform efforts. The presentation was well received by the project partners and beneficiary countries, who acknowledged the WCOs integral role in the success of the project. The WCO also participated in the panel discussions on the future of the IBM concept. For more information on this activity, you may contact the WCO at capacity.building@wcoomd.org and for information about the EaP IBM Capacity Building Project, you may consult the website at http://www.eap-ibm-capacitybuilding.eu/en/about/project Fort Polk, LA (71446) Today Mostly cloudy skies this evening. A few showers developing late. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies this evening. A few showers developing late. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%. By WestKyStar & Red Cross Staff Nov. 26, 2018 | 09:24 PM | PADUCAH Blood and platelet donations often decline during the holidays. Regular donors are busy with holiday activities, and travel and severe winter weather may cause blood drive cancellations. Yet donations remain critical for patients like 4-year-old Wyatt Monacelli who is in the midst of intense chemotherapy treatments for leukemia. He has received a number of transfusions since his diagnosis in June and will likely need more. We are fortunate to have had so many donors give the gift of life to our child so far throughout the course of his treatment, and even more so, we are lucky to have had a supply of blood available for him when he needed it, said Julianna Monacelli, Wyatts mother. Donors are urged to give now to ensure that families like Wyatts dont have to worry about the availability of blood this winter. In thanks for helping meet the urgent need around the holidays, all those who come to donate blood or platelets now through Dec. 19, will receive a $5 Amazon.com Gift Card via email. (Restrictions apply; see amazon.com/gc-legal. More information and details are available at RedCrossBlood.org/Together.) Make an appointment to donate blood or platelets by downloading the free American Red Cross Blood donor app, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). Another way to help keep the blood supply strong is to host a Red Cross blood drive this winter. To learn more about hosting a blood drive and to sign up, visit RedCrossBlood.org/HostADrive. Upcoming blood donation opportunities Nov. 26-Dec. 19 First Baptist Church, 307 Massac Creek Road, Metropolis, IL 62960 12/10/2018: 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. First Baptist Church, Monroe and Jefferson, Golconda, IL 62938 11/27/2018: 12:30 - 5:30 p.m. Cross Road United Methodist Church, 1289 Ullin Road, Ullin, IL 62992 11/27/2018: 2 - 6 p.m. First Baptist Church, 135 N. Sixth St. Barlow, KY 42024 12/11/2018: 1:30 - 5:30 p.m. Calvary Baptist Church, 121 Kentucky Ave. Princeton, KY 42445 12/6/2018: noon - 6 p.m. Northside Church of Christ, 711 Housman St. P.O. Box 313, Mayfield, KY 42066 12/14/2018: 2 - 6 p.m. American Legion, 211 S. 7th, Mayfield, KY 42066 12/18/2018: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 210 S. Washington St. Clinton, KY 42031 11/26/2018: noon - 6 p.m. Livingston Hospital Health Care Services, 131 Hospital Drive, Salem, KY 42078 11/28/2018: 12:30 - 4:30 p.m. Lyon County Courthouse, Lyon County Public Library, Eddyville, KY 42038 12/12/2018: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sharpe Elementary School, 8400 US Highway 60 W. Benton, KY 42025 12/3/2018: 1 - 5 p.m. Briensburg Church of Christ, 2349 Benton Briensburg Road, Benton, KY 42025 12/10/2018: 1 - 5 p.m. First Christian Church, 2515 S. Main St. Benton, KY 42025 12/14/2018: noon - 5 p.m. North Marshall Middle School, 3110 Highway 95 , Calvert City, KY 42029 11/26/2018: 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Altona Baptist Church, 5817 US Highway 62, Calvert City, KY 42029 12/18/2018: 3 - 7 p.m. Hardin Baptist Church, 218 College St. Hardin, KY 42048 12/17/2018: 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Paducah Blood Donation Center, 4635 Falconcrest Drive, Paducah, KY 42001 11/26/2018: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 11/27/2018: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 11/29/2018: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 11/30/2018: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 12/1/2018: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. 12/2/2018: 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 12/3/2018: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 12/4/2018: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 12/6/2018: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 12/7/2018: 8:45 a.m. - 3:15 p.m. 12/8/2018: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. 12/9/2018: 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 12/10/2018: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 12/11/2018: 8:45 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. 12/13/2018: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 12/14/2018: 8:45 a.m. - 3:15 p.m. 12/15/2018: 7:45 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. 12/16/2018: 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. 12/17/2018: 11:45 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. 12/18/2018: 8:45 a.m. - 3:15 p.m. First Christian Church, 415 Audubon Drive, Paducah, KY 42001 12/3/2018: 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Lourdes Hospital, 1530 Lone Oak Road, Paducah , KY 42003 12/19/2018: 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. Lone Oak Church of Christ, 2960 Lone Oak Road, Paducah, KY 42001 12/19/2018: 2:30 - 7:30 p.m. Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 9701 Blandville Road, West Paducah, KY 42086 12/9/2018: 1 - 5 p.m. To donate blood, simply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements. Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App. The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nations blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit RedCross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross. The American Red Cross has an urgent need for blood and platelet donors to give now to ensure blood is available for medical treatments and emergencies during the holiday season. Advertisement By Bill Hughes Nov. 26, 2018 | PADUCAH By Bill Hughes Nov. 26, 2018 | 10:56 PM | PADUCAH The McCracken County Fiscal Court meeting on Monday night was a brief one, but a community volunteer was honored and a new Deputy Sheriff was introduced. The meeting was only 26 minutes long, but the county conducted their usual business of paying bills and approving transactions and personnel matters with little discussion. Commissioners were introduced to and approved the hire of new Deputy Sheriff Zachary Dunigan. McCracken County Chief Deputy Mike Turnbow told the court that Dunigan is already certified and can start immediately without any additional training. Dunigan thanked the board for the opportunity to serve the citizens of the county and help keep them safe. Turnbow said Dunigan will be sworn in on December 10. Early in the meeting, County Judge-Executive Bob Leeper surprised Carson Park Board member Steve Atherton with his Refuser Award. As a member of the Carson Park Board for nine years and a member of the South Side Kiwanis Club, Leeper said Atherton has been one of many who go, "over and above what they're asked to do." Leeper said, "The community has benefited greatly from his service over the years, and we have an award that we started when I came into office called 'the Refuser.' I just wanted to thank you for being one of those people in our community that refuses to do nothing, and gets out there every day to make it a better place." Atherton thanked the Fiscal Court for their support. He also thanked Deputy Judge-Executive Doug Moore for his guidance of the Carson Park Board's work. A resolution was also approved that authorizes Jerome Mansfield, Director of the Office of Emergency Management, as the official agent for the county who would interact with federal agencies like FEMA if there are disasters that require federal aid. Newly-elected County Commissioners Eddie Jones and Jeff Parker observed the meeting from the gallery. When they are sworn into office in January, they will replace Commissioners Scott Wathen and Jerry Beyer, respectively. Calvert City Jingle All the Way 5k and Fun Run set for December 4 Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 26, 2018 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 26, 2018 | 05:25 PM | PADUCAH A Paducah business owner has been arrested for alleged domestic assault. A Paducah Police Department report obtained by West Kentucky Star shows that on the evening of Wednesday, November 21, officers responded to a home on Alameda Crescent. They say the fiancee' of 36-year-old Jarred S. Hall said he had been drinking most of the day and when they got into an argument, Hall would not let her leave the home. After she pushed the panic button on the security system of the home, the victim said Hall put his hand on her throat, then kicked her from behind as she left. The police report says Hall told them he had been drinking most of the day. Hall said he argued with the woman and she punched him in the face and he kicked her. Police say the woman had red marks on her neck and was limping. They arrested Hall on a charge of 4th degree assault (domestic violence) with minor injury. He was taken to McCracken Co. Jail and has since been released on bond. Hall is the owner/operator of KC's on Park Plaza Road. English French OTTAWA, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CANARIE, a vital component of Canadas digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation, today announced nine successful recipients of its Research Data Management (RDM) funding call, announced in May 2018. This new funding will enable research teams to develop software components and tools to enable Canadian researchers to adopt best practices in managing data resulting from scientific research. Data management practices impact the entire research lifecycle, from project planning and execution, to backing up data as it is created and used, and finally to its long-term preservation after the investigation is complete. RDM best practices help ensure the protection of data during the research lifecycle and beyond, and help meet the increasingly stringent requirements of research ethics and reproducibility. The RDM stakeholder communitys broad engagement in CANARIEs January 2018 consultation identified the priorities of this funding call. Canada produces some of the worlds best science. To stay competitive, our researchers need access to advanced computing and big data resources. Thanks to CANARIE, research teams across our country are developing new ways to access, store and share the massive amounts of data needed to make the life-changing discoveries that benefit all Canadians, said the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport. CANARIE is proud to support the contribution these teams will make in strengthening Canadas capacity to effectively manage research data, said Mark Wolff, Chief Technology Officer at CANARIE. Effective RDM practices not only maximize investments in science but can have a profound impact on accelerating discovery by simplifying access to data generated from scientific research. This funding is part of the Government of Canadas $105 million investment supporting CANARIE through its 2015-2020 mandate. Research Teams Awarded Funding The following research projects will receive funding through this call. These projects contribute both to the priorities identified by the RDM stakeholder community: enriching [meta]data and discovery, federated repositories / interoperability, domain-specific repositories, data deposit and curation, preservation, persistent IDs / citability, data access and analytics, and data privacy and security; and support of the FAIR Principles : Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability of research data. Canadian Health Omics Repository, Distributed ( CanDIG CHORD) - Led by Dr. Guillaume Bourque, McGill University CanDIG is a national project that allows collaborative analysis of human health genomics data distributed across the country, enabling stewards of this data complete, auditable control over data access. The CHORD project will create a federated Canadian national data service for privacy-sensitive genomic and related health data. It will also broaden the Canadian health research communitys access to the technologies and services being built by CanDIG and its international partners in the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health . Dataverse for the Canadian Research Community - Led by Kate Davis, University of Toronto Dataverse (DV) is an open-source research data repository platform, developed by Harvard Universitys Institute for Quantitative Social Science with adopters and contributors from Canada, the US, and Europe. Originally architected to serve the needs of social science researchers with small to medium size data files, this project will adapt Dataverses software architecture to address the needs of a broad range of researchers in Canada through improved scalability, support for large data files, curation worksflows, and integration with Canadian storage and authentication providers. DuraCloud - Linking Data Repositories to Preservation Storage Co-led by Corey Davis, Council of Prairie and Pacific Research Libraries; and Stephen Marks and Kate Davis, University of Toronto Canadian researchers have access to many storage services suitable for the long-term preservation of digital content, including research data. The DuraCloud project will connect several Canadian preservation storage services via this software, which is maintained by the DuraSpace Foundation. As a result, Canadian researchers will be able to seamlessly access different storage services through a single interface. FAIR Repository for Annotations, Corpora and Schemas (FRACS) Led by Andre Lapointe, CRIM Artificial intelligence-based applications require access to massive quantities of data. To enable Canadas academic researchers to scale their AI-based projects such that they are competitive with private sector applications, large volumes of data must be coupled with detailed annotations. Annotated data sets allow models to be effectively trained and validated by machine learning algorithms. The FRACS project will simplify the management of largescale datasets by facilitating the creation, storage, search, manipulation and sharing of their annotations. Federated Geospatial Data Discovery for Canada Co-Led by Eugene Barsky, Evan Thornberry, and Paul Lesack, University of British Columbia Library Traditionally, research data repositories have relied on text-based searching. However, there is increasing demand for geographic components in research, examples of which include migration paths, the distribution of agricultural yields, infrared satellite imagery, the distribution of artifacts in an archaeological site, and the flow routes of water. The goal of this project is to create an extensible, open-source software method to search and discover Canadian geospatial research data using an interface specifically designed for maps, enabling users to discover geospatial resources in a more spatially-intuitive way. Making Identifiers Necessary to Track Evolving Data (MINTED) Led by Reyna Jenkyns, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), University of Victoria ONC operates world-leading ocean observatories and dynamic data repository services. While there has been a growing recognition of the benefits and need for data citations made evident by the introduction of the FAIR Principles, existing platforms and tools are currently only able to serve the needs of static or non-frequently updated datasets. The MINTED project will apply best practices for dynamic dataset citation, Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), and researcher ORCIDs into ONCs Oceans 2.0 digital infrastructure. Radiam: Management Software for Active Research Data Led by Dr. Kevin Schneider, University of Saskatchewan Research data, which may have value beyond the research for which it was collected, is often distributed across multiple storage devices, tools, and platforms. Simply knowing that a dataset exists, let alone finding it, presents a significant challenge. Radiam will provide a project-level metadata index of research data, regardless of where or how it is stored. Radiam will improve researchers ability to find and cite existing datasets by not only storing the location of the data, but also the standard and custom metadata records associated with it. Managing the Research Data Lifecycle using Islandora Co-led by Donald Moses and Rosemary Le Faive, University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) In collaboration with Simon Fraser University and the Islandora Foundation, UPEI will build research data management capacity and integrations using the latest version of Islandora, also known as CLAW. Islandora is an open-source software framework designed to help organizations collaboratively manage, discover, and share digital assets using a best-practices, standards-based approach. The project will develop integrations with identifier, metadata, authentication, storage, and dissemination systems, supporting the FAIR principles and the research data lifecycle. Research Portal for Secure Data Discovery, Access and Collaboration Co-led by Dr. Elizabeth Theriault, Ontario Brain Institute and Moyez Dharsee, Indoc Research The Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) and Indoc Research have developed Brain-CODE , an extensible neuroinformatics platform designed to manage the collection, curation, analysis and sharing of different data types across several brain disorders. To address the RDM needs of researchers studying disorders of the brain and other disease areas, this project will develop data portal software that will enable research teams to securely and seamlessly capture, query, and visualize patient data; collaborate and share datasets; and access support and training resources. The project will serve the needs of teams using Brain-CODE as well as those from collaborating institutions and the broader medical research community. The projects funded through this call are on track to be completed before April 2020. For more information, please contact: Ela Yazdani Director, Communications CANARIE ela.yazdani@canarie.ca | 613-943-5432 About CANARIE CANARIE strengthens Canadian leadership in science and technology by delivering digital infrastructure that supports world-class research and innovation. CANARIE and its twelve provincial and territorial partners form Canadas National Research and Education Network. This ultra-high-speed network connects Canadas researchers, educators and innovators to each other and to global data, technology, and colleagues. Beyond the network, CANARIE funds and promotes reusable research software tools and national research data management initiatives to accelerate discovery, provides identity management services to the academic community, and offers advanced networking and cloud resources to boost commercialization in Canadas technology sector. Established in 1993, CANARIE is a non-profit corporation, with the majority of its funding provided by the Government of Canada. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 26, 2018 | 11:15 PM | MAYFIELD A Mayfield man was arrested Monday on methamphetamine charges. According to the Mayfield Police Department, officers responded to the area of Sunset Drive in reference to 30-year-old Darren Carroll allegedly stealing items from a carport. Officers said Carroll was found with a small bag containing shurikens and throwing knives. Police say he also had a pipe containing a substance believed to be methamphetamine. Carroll was arrested and lodged in the Graves County Jail. He's charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon, possession of meth and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was also arrested on a Marshall County warrant for failure to appear. By The Associated Press Nov. 27, 2018 | 10:33 AM | KABUL A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the U.S. military said, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the last 17 months. The military said that three other service members were wounded when the bomb went off near the city of Ghazni. An American contractor was also wounded, it said. The military did not immediately identify any of the casualties. Lt. Ubon Mendie, a military spokesman, said the wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care. The Taliban claimed the attack, saying a U.S. tank was completely destroyed. It appeared to be the deadliest attack on American forces since June 2017, when an Afghan army soldier shot and killed three U.S. soldiers in an insider attack in the Achin district of the eastern Nangarhar province. The Taliban claimed that attack. The Taliban carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan forces, and in August the insurgents overran parts of Ghazni, leading to days of intense fighting before they were driven out. Ghazni was the only one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces where parliamentary elections could not be held in October. Voting there has been postponed for a year. The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but still provide close support to Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations. Some 15,000 American forces are currently serving in Afghanistan. In a separate incident on Tuesday, the Taliban abducted 21 passengers from two vans that were traveling through the northern Sari Pul province, according to Habibullah Mujahidzada, a district police chief. It was not immediately clear what motivated the abduction, and there was no immediate comment from the Taliban. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 26, 2018 | MARTIN By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 26, 2018 | 05:10 PM | MARTIN Randy Boyd, a Knoxville businessman and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, alum, assumed duties as University of Tennessee System Interim President over the Thanksgiving holiday and spent Nov. 26, his first working day in office, on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin. It seemed appropriate that I spend my first day (on the job) in Northwest Tennessee, said Boyd, whose family has lived in Crockett and Obion counties for six generations. I think its important to make sure that everybody understands across the state of Tennessee that when youre elected president of the University of Tennessee System, you are president for all the campuses. We want to make sure we are representing all of our campuses. So Im excited to be here, to be back in northwest Tennessee and back in Martin. Boyd will serve a maximum of 24 months in the position or until a permanent candidate is found. He follows previous UT President Joe DiPietro, who stepped down from active service Nov. 21 and will officially retire next February. The fact that Im only here for two years gives me a sense of urgency. There are a lot of things that we want to do, a lot of bold, transformative things that we want to accomplish, and were going to try to do them without waiting around, he said. While meeting with local media representatives, Boyd stated that his top priorities for his time in office are leadership selection, student outcomes, community engagement, and the system's partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He sees UT Martin as a critical component in the UT System and its influence in the northwest Tennessee area, and he plans to focus on student graduation rates and increasing enrollment at the UT Martin main campus and its five educational outreach centers in order to promote economic development in the region. The number one driver behind companies wanting to relocate anywhere in the world is talent. So UT Martin being able to provide the talent to attract future businesses is going to be critical. The best way to produce the right talent is to have lots of communication with industry, he said. One of the things that UT Martin already knows is (the importance of) having lots of interactions with the chambers of commerce and businesses in the area to make sure were not just producing talent, were producing the right talent for jobs that businesses are looking for today. Boyd has an established history of support for higher education, beginning with the creation of the Knox Achieves program to help students in Knox County attend community colleges free of charge. This program later became Tennessee Achieves and ultimately transformed into Tennessee Promise. Boyd also worked with Gov. Bill Haslam to create the Drive to 55 campaign to enhance higher education opportunities statewide. He later served as Tennessees commissioner of economic and community development before running for the governors office earlier this year. He feels his recent visits to all 95 Tennessee counties and established relationship with the current Tennessee legislature will be assets to his new position as leader of the UT System. For more information, contact the UT Martin Office of University Relations at 731-881-7615. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates , Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre welcomes Tareq Derbas as the new General Manager of the iconic luxury hotel located in the heart of Dubais financial district. With experience spanning 26 years, US national Derbas brings a wealth of expertise in leading luxury hotels, resorts and residences across the United States and the GCC. As a highly qualified luxury hospitality veteran, Derbas will direct all operations for the hotel, elevating the already exemplary guest experiences throughout the property and continuing to provide guests with memorable experiences. Derbas focus will be on upholding the traditions of which The Ritz-Carlton is renowned, whilst striving to further enhance service quality and brand value into the future. Derbass career within the hospitality industry commenced in 1989, following his graduation from The University of Kuwait. He began his journey with DoubleTree in San Diego and Chicago before returning to the GCC in 1995 as Deputy General Manager for Sheraton Oman, followed by senior roles with St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, Jumeriah Group at Burj Al Arab, Four Seasons and Le Meridien within award-winning properties across Oman, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE with During his time with St. Regis, he served as General Manager for St. Regis Doha and was recently engaged as Area General Manager for Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq. With an MBA from Phoenix University, US, and a proven track record in achieving the highest levels of employee and guest engagement scores, Derbas brings a wealth of extensive knowledge and experience in effective, efficient management encompassing all aspects of hotel operations. Under his leadership, the luxury hotel in Dubai will continue to provide guests with memorable experiences and enliven the culture of which The Ritz-Carlton is so proud of while channeling efforts to enhance service and brand value and appreciation. Tareq Derbas, General Manager, The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre commented: I am delighted to join the talented team of Ladies and Gentlemen at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC. The property sits at the heart of Dubais bustling financial district and remains a firm favorite amongst business and leisure guests and residents. The hotel seamlessly blends a celebration of art and craftsmanship alongside a genuine passion for delivering exceptional hospitality with a personal touch. Derbas continued: The key to the finest hotel service is an obsessive concern for details, for those small indications of personal recognition and attention. A total commitment to guaranteeing the perfect guest experience that makes a fine hotel an extraordinary one. ### About The Ritz-Carlton, DIFC Set in the bustling heart of Dubais dynamic downtown and located on Sheikh Zayed Road, The Ritz-Carlton, DIFC offers elegant accommodation overlooking the downtown Dubai. With premium amenities and an international spa, this upscale haven is a luxury hotel that celebrates the emerging local arts scene and the craftsmanship of classic Art Deco design. Located only 20 minutes from Dubai International Airport, the hotel offers seven hotel restaurants and lounges, a ballroom with more than 1,000 antique mirrors embedded with 10,000 crystals, a 24-hour fitness center with 2 swimming pools (indoor and rooftop) and a holistic spa. The Ritz-Carlton, DIFC also offers 341 elegantly appointed accommodations and 124 5-star serviced apartments. The luxury hotel is full of visually intriguing space that brings together the classic craftsmanship of Art Deco design with the elegance of traditional Arabic elements. About The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. About The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., of Chevy Chase, MD, currently operates more than 90 hotels in over 30 countries and territories. More than 40 hotel and residential projects are under development around the globe. The Ritz-Carlton is proud to offer The Ritz-Carlton Rewards in which members can link accounts with Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest for instant elite status matching and unlimited points transfer. For more information or reservations, visit the company website at ritzcarlton.com, for the latest company updates, visit news.ritzcarlton.com and to join the live conversation, use #RCMemories. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marriott International, Inc. Attachment Open letter on access to water in rural Limpopo A member of one of our client communities, Butibuti Mabuso, has written an open letter to the President about the lack of access to water in rural Limpopo Honourable President I am writing this public request to you, Mr President, highlighting the suffering of the communities of Ward 15 Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality. The communities of Elandskraal, Morarela, Mbuzini, Tsantsabela and Dichoeung have been suffering for almost 17 years without proper provision of water as a result of a conspiracy against them by the Sekhukhune District Municipality. For your information, Mr President, these communities previously had the uninterrupted supply of water on a 24 hour basis. We had our own water supply pumps. Since the establishment of the Flag Boshielo water plant, these communities no longer have water on a 24 hour basis. Water is being supplied irregularly with no clean water. Our plant was destroyed when the provision of water supply was given to Lepelle water. Our plant was destroyed under the pretext that they make one big plant that will be able to supply the region. For the past 17 years, they changed meter at Elandskraal four times but without water. The communities have protested, approached different Ministers of water and sanitation, local government and the Presidency under the previous administration - but in vain. Also your government was taken to court in which the judgment was in our favour but nothing happened. Your Lepelle District Municipality officials just do as they like with pure impunity. They can lie as they like because in the end no one will account for their actions. This is intentional. When the demarcations of local municipalities came into power they found us having had fought for services, such as Home Affairs, Social Development, Public works, Provision of water and just administration. Honourable President, all these services have been taken away from us by your government. What we experience in our communities is the total abuse of our loyalty and trust we bestowed unto your government. Does that mean when we voted your party into power we voted for such services to be taken away? Next year, we are going for elections. Should we continue to vote your government that will take all our hard fought for gains away from us? When all South Africans are enjoying the fruits of liberation and democracy, we mourn for the loss of services inflicted upon us by your officials. Using the water provision as a weapon against the people. Maybe we are not people but look like them. Honourable President, we believe in you to come to our rescue. Please we request your intervention to ensure our dignity returns to us as humans. Maybe your officials at Sekhukhune District Municipality do not know that we are humans. Please restore our humanity. To show that we are not being taken serious there is a pipe that passes through our villages with water on a 24/7 basis. This pipe supplies Polokwane and Lebowakgomo. Because of poverty in these villages, we are not so important when coming to services. But we are more important for elections. Finally, Mr President, as you embark on operation Thuma Mina we therefore "Thuma" the Honourable President to visit these villages to get first hand information from communities and restore our dignity and humanity. I therefore avail myself if needs be for more information on this crisis. We can also provide the presidency with correspondence to show that we have approached your government in vain. Hope our plea will today enter ears that care for humanity. Kind regards Butibuti Mabuso, concerned resident of Elandskraal 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 LONDON, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bermudas historic business bonds with London and potential future synergies through fintech and emerging technologies were key themes of a multi-industry forum in London today. Close to 200 industry professionals from a range of business sectorsfrom shipping to insurtechattended the Bermuda Executive Forum held at ME London by the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA). The event, the agencys fourth overseas forum and second in London over the past year, brought together more than 50 senior industry and regulatory leaders as speakers and panellists to showcase the island as a financial centre of excellence. Presentations and discussions turned the spotlight on investment and business opportunities, and also underscored commonalities shared by the Bermuda and London markets. London is a very important market, and we want more people to know how were innovating and how were leading the charge, said Premier David Burt who officially opened the forum. Bermuda is differentwe represent a place where you can develop products and services and sell them to the world from a well-regulated environment. We want to make sure that message is consistently heard. The UKs Chris Holmes, Lord of Richmond MBE, joined the Premier for a 40-minute fireside chat on fintech to kick off the event, moderated by BDA Director Jessel Mendes. Holmes is a former Paralympic swimmer and nine-time Games gold-medal winner who has championed digital opportunities and the public benefits of blockchain and assistive technology since entering the House in 2013. London and Bermuda have had an extraordinary relationship over centuries, rooted in areas of the economy such as insurance, which continues to be such a close and fruitful bond for both parties, noted Holmes. When you look at all the opportunities fintech presents, it fits so well into that connection we have as two innovative jurisdictions, where we can collaborate, and where there can be niche areas for both entities. Working together, London and Bermuda can be key players in forging the potential future the Fourth Industrial Revolution offers. Throughout the day, industry professionals discussed the mature foundation and advantages Bermuda affords both established companies and startups, as well as its regulatory leadership and innovative culture that pioneered a legislative framework around fintech this year. Todays forum was even bigger and better than our first one last year an indication of the interest folks in London have about Bermuda, said Mendes, an EY Bermuda Partner. In talking with Lord Holmes and the Premier, clearly theres a lot of common ground. Insurance has been a huge connection for a long time. And now, the same synergies apply to fintech. This is a dialogue we should continue. Attendees included former Bermuda Governor George Fergusson and other members of The Bermuda Society in London. As keen supporters of the BDAs efforts in London, were want to ensure we help cement ties between the City of London and Bermuda by creating opportunities for markets across the globe to understand the island as a sophisticated gateway, said Sheba Raza, Counsel at Conyers UK and a Society Director. We want to encourage opportunities for investors and international businesses as they seek to deploy capital and grow in a post-Brexit universe, she added. It allows us to ensure the UK and its family of territories operate in a cohesive, cooperative way to strengthen ties that exist already between our two countries. Euan Davis, of the Center for the Future of Work Europe at Cognizant Technology Solutions, was lunchtime keynote at todays forum. He outlined 21 Jobs of the Future as new technologies, business practices, and workers emerge over the next decade. Eric Bertrand, founding partner of Centaur Fund Services, praised the BDA forumhis first as an industry participant, where he spoke on a panel about innovative trends in alternative assets. In 2015 when we decided to establish an offshore jurisdiction, we had options, but we decided Bermuda was the place for us to do our business. Three years later, weve grown from one to 16 people in our Hamilton officesso, it proves our point, Bertrand said. I wanted to share our story that Bermuda is a jurisdiction of choice and a great place in which to complete a global presence. We have several offices around the world, but Bermuda is a very important one for us. The Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) partnered with the BDA on a networking reception that concluded the forum. Tomorrow [Wednesday, November 28], the BDA continues the roadshow, staging a dedicated Bermuda Fintech Forum in the morning featuring a chat between the Premier and AIG CEO Brian Duperreault moderated by BDA Interim CEO Sean Moran. In the afternoon, ILS Bermuda hosts Beyond Convergence, a seminar focused on insurance-linked securities, whose global market Bermuda dominates. To register for the November 28 Bermuda Fintech Forum, click here. To register for Beyond Convergence, click here. MEDIA CONTACT: Rosemary Jones Head of Communications & Marketing rosemary@bda.bm 441 278-6558 441 337-4696 CONNECTING BUSINESS The BDA encourages direct investment and helps companies start up, re-locate or expand their operations in our premier jurisdiction. An independent, public-private partnership, we connect you to industry professionals, regulatory officials, and key contacts in the Bermuda government to assist domicile decisions. Our goal? To make doing business in Bermuda smooth and beneficial. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/53d2a1ad-aea5-4e75-91c3-5ffeefff2377 Chicago, IL, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Honolulu, HI -- Guaranteed Rate, Inc. ("Guaranteed Rate"), one of the largest independent retail mortgage companies in the United States, today announced that it will acquire certain assets of Honolulu HomeLoans (HHL) and Hawaii Lending Alliance (HLA), growing its existing Guaranteed Rate presence in the Hawaii market and adding an experienced team of mortgage professionals. In connection with the transaction, Guaranteed Rate will license new branch locations in downtown Honolulu and several other locations and maintain its existing branch locations in Honolulu and Aiea. Hawaii is a growing market where weve already built a great team. Adding this opportunity will accelerate our market share dramatically, said Guaranteed Rate Chief Executive Officer and Founder Victor Ciardelli. I appreciate the hard work and commitment of the current Honolulu HomeLoans and Hawaii Lending Alliance employees during this transition. I am thrilled that Honolulu HomeLoans and Hawaii Lending Alliance are becoming part of Guaranteed Rate, said former HHL President and CEO Anders Hostelley, who joins Guaranteed Rate as a Regional Manager, continuing to lead that business unit. What enables Guaranteed Rate to be a top retail lender in the country will certainly benefit our loan officers, realtor partners and customers. Guaranteed Rate has cutting-edge technology coupled with excellent customer service and an outstanding base of products to offer our clients, which will enable us to excel as a mortgage lender in Hawaii. Guaranteed Rate, which has a customer service rating of 95% and offers consumers an end-to-end online mortgage platform, has been operating in Hawaii since 2015. As a result of this acquisition, the Company will expand its presence with the goal of reaching an even broader audience on the Hawaiian Islands. Many of the former HHL/HLA loan officers joining Guaranteed Rate are fluent in international languages including, Vietnamese, Ilocano and Tagalog. Recently named by U.S. News and World Report as the Top Lender for Online Services, Guaranteed Rate reports funding nearly $12 billion in loan volume the first half of 2018. The company offers conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, jumbo loans and ARMs. About Guaranteed Rate Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the Company has approximately 317 offices across the U.S. and Washington, D.C., and is licensed in all 50 states. Since its founding in 2000, Guaranteed Rate has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances and funded nearly $19 billion in loans in 2017 alone. The Company has cemented itself as the Home Purchase Experts by introducing innovative technology, such as the world's first Digital Mortgage, by offering low rates within an easy-to-understand mortgage process and by delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top Lender for Online Service for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report; No. 3 ranking in Scotsman Guide's Top Retail Mortgage Lenders 2017; Top Lender 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Chicago Agent magazine; Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces list for seven consecutive years; and Best Overall Online Lender and Best Lender for FHA Refinance by NerdWallet in 2018. Visit rate.com for more information. *Sources: GR Customer surveys and https://npsbenchmark.com/industry/financial-services Email Sign Up For Our Free Weekly Newsletter According to the Miami Association of Realtors latest housing data, total Palm Beach County Florida home sales increased 17.1 percent year-over-year in October 2018 as median prices and dollar volume rose for all properties. Palm Beach existing condo sales once again fueled the overall home sales increase, jumping 19.2 percent from 901 transactions in October 2017 to 1,074 in October 2018. Condo sales have now increased year-over-year in 11 of the last 12 months. Year-to-date, Palm Beach condo sales are now 7.3 percent higher than 2017 with 11,870 transactions through the first 10 months of 2018. "Palm Beach real estate posted another robust month of sales," said Barb Fox, a Palm Beach Realtor. "Palm Beach condo sales, particularly at the entry-level price point of $250,000 and below, are in high demand and have seen sales growth in 11 of the last 12 months. Palm Beach single-family home luxury sales also continue to shine, posting 60.9 percent more sales year-over-year." Entry-Level Priced Condo Sales Accounted for 65 percent of all Palm Beach Condo Sales The entry-level market (condos priced from $50,000 to $250,000) comprised the bulk (65 percent) of Palm Beach condo sales in October 2018. The Palm Beach market sold 702 condos priced from $50,000 to $250,000, a significant increase from October 2017. Palm Beach Single-Family Luxury Sales Post 60.9 Percent Growth Palm Beach single-family home sales increased 15.6 percent in October 2018, increasing from 1,261 to 1,458. The bulk of the sales happen in the $250,000 to $1 million and above price range, which saw 999 home sales. The Palm Beach single-family luxury bracket ($1 million and above) posted 60.9 percent year-over-year growth with 111 transactions in October 2018. Sales Dollar Volume Jumps 43.2 Percent to $1.1 Billion Total sales volume increased to $1.1 billion from $768 million in October 2018. Existing condo sales volume increased from $201.1 million to $285 million (an increase of 41.7 percent). Single-family home total dollar volume rose 40.2 percent, from $566.9 million to $794.6 million. Palm Beach Median Prices Continue Rising Palm Beach County single-family home prices increased 6.8 percent in October 2018, increasing from $325,000 to $347,250. Existing condo prices rose 9.5 percent, from $169,000 to $185,000 in October. Low mortgage rates make purchasing a home more affordable. According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage increased to 4.83 percent in October from 4.63 percent in September. The average commitment rate for all of 2017 was 3.99 percent. Palm Beach Distressed Sales Continue to Drop, Reflecting Healthy Market Only 3.1 percent of all closed residential sales in Palm Beach were distressed in October 2018, including REO (bank-owned properties) and short sales, compared 5.2 percent in October 2017. Total Palm Beach distressed sales decreased 30.1 percent year-over-year, from 113 in October 2017 to 79 in October 2018. Short sales and REOs accounted for 0.6 and 2.4 percent, respectively, of total Palm Beach sales in October 2018. Short sale transactions dropped 33.3 percent year-over-year while REOs decreased 29.2 percent. Nationally, distressed sales accounted for 3 percent of sales (lowest since NAR began tracking in October 2008), down from 4 percent a year ago. Palm Beach Real Estate Selling Close to List Price The median number of days between listing and contract dates for Palm Beach single-family home sales was 52 days, a 6.1 percent increase from 49 days last year. The median number of days between the listing date and closing date for single-family homes was 93 days, a 5.1 percent decrease from 98 days. The median time to contract for condos was 52 days, a 5.5 percent increase from 55 days last year. The median number of days between listing date and closing date stayed the same at 95 days. The median percent of original list price received for single-family homes was 94.7 percent. The median percent of original list price received for existing condominiums was 94.4 percent. Palm Beach Cash Buyers Represent Double the National Figure Palm Beach cash transactions comprised 43.9 percent of October 2018 total closed sales, compared to 41.7 percent last year. Palm Beach cash transactions are double the national figure (23 percent). Condominiums comprise a large portion of Palm Beach's cash purchases as 55.9 percent of condo closings were made in cash in October compared to 34.9 percent of single-family home sales. Seller's Market for Palm Beach Real Estate Inventory of single-family homes increased 2.3 percent in October from 6,948 active listings last year to 7,108 in October 2018. Condominium inventory increased 0.1 percent to 6,022 from 6,016 listings during the same period in 2017. Monthly supply of inventory for single-family homes stayed the same year-over-year at 4.8 months, which indicates a seller's market. Existing condominiums have a 5.2-month supply, which indicates a seller's market. A balanced market between buyers and sellers offers between six and nine months supply of inventory. Total active listings at the end of October increased 1.3 percent year-over-year, from 12,964 to 13,130. New listings of Palm Beach single-family homes increased 1.3 percent to 2,124 from 2,096. New listings of condominiums decreased 0.4 percent, from 1,820 to 1,812. Nationally, total housing inventory at the end of October decreased from 1.88 million in September to 1.85 million existing homes available for sale, but that represents an increase from 1.80 million a year ago. Unsold inventory is at a 4.3-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 4.4 last month and up from 3.9 months a year ago. Sign Up Free | The WPJ Weekly Newsletter Relevant real estate news. Actionable market intelligence. Right to your inbox every week. Go Thank you for your interest! You will now be receiving our Weekly Real Estate Newsletter. Several drink & drug drive arrests over the weekend convicted drug driver asks police to remove post as employers googling him This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Nov 27th, 2018 A man has been fined and disqualified from driving after failing a roadside breath test on the weekend. The 41-year-old man was arrested in the Ruabon area of Wrexham shortly before 11pm on Saturday. North Wales Police say a concerned member of the public had contacted North Wales Police after he had been witnessed driving all over the road. Officers later found him where he was arrested after failing the roadside breath test. He was subsequently charged and remanded to appear before Mold Magistrates Court on Monday 26th November where he was disqualified from driving for 14 months, fined 240 with 85 costs and an 85 victim surcharge. The man was amongst nine who were arrested across North Wales between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening Arrests were carried out in Broughton, Deeside, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno, Prestatyn, Ruabon and Brynteg on Anglesey. North Wales Police Roads Policing Unit are once again issuing a warning to the motoring public that they will crack down on those caught driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs following the series of arrests over the weekend. Sergeant Meurig Jones from the Forces Roads Policing Unit said: Despite our repeated warnings regarding the dangers of drink and drug driving, people are still choosing to risk their own lives and the lives of other road users by taking to the roads whilst under the influence. Our Christmas Anti Drink and Drug Drive Campaign is about to get underway where we will continue in our efforts to change driver behaviour in order to make our roads safer. He added: Some of those arrested on suspicion of drug driving now have an anxious wait for the test results. If convicted of drug driving they could face being disqualified from driving, a fine, a prison sentence and a criminal record. A drug drive conviction also means greater insurance costs and the possibility of being unable to travel to countries such as the USA. People need to realise the consequences of their actions. Only recently we were contacted by a convicted drug driver who asked us to remove a press release from our Facebook page as they said prospective employers were carrying out checks and refusing to employ them. This is reality and a drink or drug driving conviction can be devastating, with significant criminal, personal, social and employment consequences. Driving with excess alcohol or under the influence of drugs is not just a criminal offence but also completely unacceptable which puts lives at risk. We will continue to target those breaking the law as part of daily policing. Please heed the warning. If you have information relating to someone you think is driving whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs, please contact North Wales Police on 101 or via Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. In an emergency always dial 999. Top pic: Archive image of a breath test result. Welfare centre helps thousands enjoy safe night out in Wrexham town This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Nov 27th, 2018 A safe space that offers support to people feeling vulnerable or unwell on a night out in town has helped more than 12,000 people this year. Hafan y Dref welfare centre located at the bottom of Town Hill near St Giles Car Park offers a triage-service and immediate first aid if youre injured or suffering from too much to drink. Staffed by British Red Cross volunteers, the centre is funded by Wrexham County Borough Council, Nightsafe, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and the Welsh Ambulance Service. So far this year 56 ambulances have been cancelled thanks to the centre with more appropriate alternatives to 999 being found. The centre opened in December 2015, and as of November this year have already helped over 12,000 people in 2018. Stats released by Wrexham Council show that 79 per cent of people come into the centre themselves. Others are helped there by door staff (seven per cent), friends (four per cent), police officers (four per cent), street pastors (three per cent) and so on. Door staff and CCTV operators can also radio for assistance at the scene of an incident. Often, people visit the centre for some time out and can have a coffee or a lie down, or recover from over-indulging. Most cases are alcohol-related. Although staff have given support and advice to people with mental health issues too. The focus is on providing a social return, with people able to get support when they need it, and public health messages being passed on. 96 per cent of people who have been supported by the centre are able to go on to enjoy the rest of their night out. Michelle McBurnie, of the British Red Cross, regularly works at Hafan y Dref providing assistance to those who need it. I remember one night the team was contacted by door staff to attend a male who was unconscious on the pavement opposite their premises, explained Michelle. On arrival, his partner was on the phone to ambulance control requesting assistance. It was clear he wasnt ill, just extremely intoxicated. Volunteers cancelled the ambulance and he was brought back to the welfare centre where his mother was called to come and collect him. Thinking about and limiting how much youre drinking during your night out, could stop you from getting into some dangerous situations later on. The group of volunteers also work alongside Wrexham Council, Wrexham street pastors, local businesses, the police and health services to ensure people experiencing the nightlife in the town have a safe and enjoyable time out. Wrexham Council and its partners are also promoting the #DrinkLessEnjoyMore campaign, encouraging young people to look after themselves by cutting back on how much they drink before they go outas well as how much they drink once they get to the bars, pubs and clubs in Wrexham. The Hafan y Dref centre opens 10.30pm-4.30am on Saturdays, and extra shifts are laid on at Christmas and Easter. More information about the #DrinkLessEnjoyMore campaign can be found here. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning for several Big Bend counties ahead of cold weather expected to start Tuesday night. The following counties are covered by the NWS freeze warning: Calhoun; Central Walton; Gadsden; Holmes; Inland Bay; Inland Dixie; Inland Franklin; Inland Gulf; Inland Jefferson; Inland Taylor; Inland Wakulla; Jackson; Lafayette; Leon; Liberty; Madison; North Walton; Washington. The temperature is expected to drop into the upper 20s to lower 30s Tuesday night as areas of clear sky and light wind, plus an infusion of cold air, create a chilly setup for Wednesday morning. Due to the anticipated weather, the City of Tallahassee is urging citizens to take precautions. To avoid water pipes breaking due to frigid air, utility customers are advised to run at least one faucet in their home or business at a thin stream to allow water to flow through the pipes. This lowers the risk of broken water lines during freezing conditions. Officials also warn that when pipes break between the water meter and the home or within the home, the customer is responsible for repairs. The city only repairs any damage to pipes between the water main under the street and the meter, or in the main itself. They say citizens might see water trickling out of spigots in area parks and public spaces. But don't worry, this is part of the citys cold-weather plan to prevent or minimize issues caused by the cold. Do not turn it off. The City also offered these additional tips during a hard freeze: Insulate all outside pipes with cloth or a similar material to help prevent freezing. All piping in attics, including those to water heaters, should be protected as well. Check to make sure the cover to your water meter fits tightly. If your pipes do freeze, you can use the valve inside the meter box to shut off all the water to the house, helping to prevent indoor flooding when pipes thaw. If you have a backflow assembly on your water service line, it, too, may freeze with very cold temperatures. Insulate the assembly properly by wrapping or covering the pipe. Do not cover the bottom relief opening on the underside at the middle of the apparatus to avoid creating other flooding problems. Commercial water customers should also wrap any fire lines in their buildings. Disconnect any outside water hoses from spigots, as water trapped inside can freeze and crack the hose. The Tallahassee Fire Department advises residents be extra careful when using supplemental heating units. Make sure all combustible materials, such as drapes or chairs, are at least three feet away from any heating unit. To reduce the chance of fire, avoid using flammable liquids to start fireplaces and do not leave a fireplace unattended. Most importantly, check your smoke alarm to make sure it is working properly. If you are cold outside, your pet is, too. Tallahassee Animal Services recommends bringing outside pets indoors during cold snaps, especially at night when temperatures dip to their lowest. The Tallahassee Police Department recommends that you check in on neighbors and family members who may be more susceptible to cold weather conditions, such as the elderly or disabled. If you are unable to reach them, TPD will conduct a welfare check for you. Simply call the Consolidated Dispatch Agency at 606-5800 to request the service. City of Tallahassee customers can also call 891-4968 for utility service needs. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - More relief is on the way to the Florida Panhandle thanks to a partnership between the Florida Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The Tennessee Highway Patrol loaded two-semi trailers with food, toiletries, and other supplies for those still in need due to Hurricane Michael. The trailers escorted by FHP left for Panama City Beach where the items will be distributed to various schools and non-profits. "The Volunteer State has had a long tradition of volunteering for many, many years, and we continue that volunteering spirit in helping others," said Lt. John Harmon with Tennessee Highway Patrol. "The Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Department of Transportation was just the mechanism to bring that volunteering spirit with the supplies for those in need here in Florida." The team will remain in Panama City until the supplies are gone. They're estimating it will take five days. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Florida Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Highway Patrol are sending two semi-trucks full of items to Panama City for Hurricane Michael relief. The trucks are heading to the Panama City this Tuesday morning. They left from 2900 Apalachee Parkway. LARGO, Fla. (WTXL) - A Florida man has been arrested after detectives say he beat and squeezed his 7-week-old daughter to death. Artem Eydelman, 29, was arrested on Monday and charged with the murder of 7-week-old Gwendolyn Eydelman. According to detectives, deputies were called to a Largo home for a report of an unresponsive child on Nov. 17. When they arrived, paramedics were rendering aid to 7-week-old Gwendolyn, who was unresponsive and not breathing. Deputies say the child was transported to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries. Detectives then spoke to Gwendolyn's father, Eydelman, who was watching the child while the child's mother was at work. Intially, deputies say Eydelman told detectives that he fed Gwendolyn and laid her down in her bassinet, before he fell asleep in his bed. When he awoke 15 minutes later and returned to the child's bassinet, Eydelman claimed he found the child unresponsive and not breathing. That's when Eydelman said he alerted a family member in the home and called 911. However, detectives were informed by doctors that Gwendolyn had suffered a severe skull fracture consistent with high force impact, bleeding on the brain, and numerous rib fractures consistent with compression trauma. Two days after detectives spoke to Eydelman, Gwendolyn was removed from life-support and died from her injuries. During the course of the investigation, detectives found several inconsistencies in Eydelmans statements. Through the investigation, deputies say they learned that Eydelman hit Gwendolyn in the head and squeezed the childs midsection before the child lost consciousness. On Monday, detectives interviewed Eydelman, who finally admitted that he punched the child in the head out of frustration while changing her diaper. He also admitted to shaking the child and squeezing the childs midsection before calling 911. Based on his confession, detectives arrested Eydelman and transported him to the Pinellas County Jail. He was charged with one count of first degree murder, one count of violation of probation (robbery by sudden snatching), and one count of violation of probation (dealing in stolen property). Detectives say Eydelman was not Gwendolyn's biological father. The child's mother informed detectives she first met Eydelman when she was three months pregnant with Gwendolyn, though Eydelman signed Gwendolyn's birth certificate when she was born. An investigation into this incident is ongoing. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A cafe in Tallahassee's Frenchtown neighborhood is accused of unjustly firing eight employees the day after Thanksgiving. Former employees at Southern Velvet Cafe said they were let go without warning. They said most of them are people of color and some are part of the LGBTQ+ community. The group is asking the community to boycott the cafe, adding that one of the current employees has sexually harassed coworkers. Former employee Megan Kane said the owners were behind the harassment. "They went out of their way to make sure that they were hiring people of color and people from the queer and LGBTQ community in an effort to help them, but ended up just doing more harm all in all," Kane said. "With the layoffs as well as the sexual harassment, it has just been a mess." The company spoke to WTXL off-camera Monday, saying the complaints are "false allegations" from a group of "disgruntled" former employees. The group asked people to call Southern Velvet to voice their concerns, but Kane said the phone line wasn't working. The company told WTXL callers started to harass them, so it diverted calls to an automated voicemail. On Facebook, the cafe issued a statement, in part, saying, "The unfortunate truth was that in our excitement to offer a living wage, health insurance, sick leave and vacation pay to those who are so often underemployed in our society, such as members of the trans community, people of color, and those on the neurodivergent spectrum, we overextended. We hired people we wanted to help, not positions we needed filled. It was a horrific oversight, and one we take full blame for." The former employees have created a list of demands, including some form of severance pay, insurance for full-time workers, and the termination of the employee who sexually harassed coworkers. The group created a Facebook page to boycott the cafe. Kane said they plan to protest outside of Southern Velvet on Thursday, but the business said it will be closed for a week starting Tuesday to reorganize. Kane said the group is considering legal action if necessary, but is primarily focused on the boycott and protest. MONROE COUNTY, GA (RNN) - A Georgia woman is suing after she spent months in jail for a false positive on a drug test, which caused her to miss the birth of two of her grandchildren, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. MEMPHIS, Tenn., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bryan Jordan , chairman, president and CEO of First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN), will participate in a fireside chat at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference on Dec. 4 at 4:50 p.m. Eastern Time. The conference will be available to the public via live webcast with audio replays available for 14 days after the conference. A link to the webcast, both live and archived, along with the materials for this conference will be available in the events and presentations section of http://ir.fhnc.com . The presentation and any related materials may contain forward-looking statements, including guidance, involving significant risks and uncertainties, which will be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "should," "is likely," "will," "going forward" and other expressions that indicate future events and trends and may include cautionary statements. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking information. These factors are outlined in our most recent earnings press release and in more detail in our most current 10-Q and 10-K reports. First Horizon disclaims any obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements that are made from time to time to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations. About First Horizon First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN) provides financial services through its First Tennessee, Capital Bank, FTB Advisors, and FTN Financial businesses. First Horizon operates approximately 300 bank locations across the southern U.S. and 28 FTN Financial offices across the entire U.S. Our banking subsidiary was founded in 1864 and has the 14th oldest national bank charter in the country. Our First Tennessee and Capital Bank brands have the largest deposit market share in Tennessee and one of the highest customer retention rates of any bank in the country. We have been ranked by American Banker as No. 5 among the Top 10 Most Reputable U.S. Banks. Our FTB Advisors wealth management group has more than 300 financial professionals and about $4.8 billion in assets under management. FTN Financial is a capital markets industry leader in fixed income sales, trading and strategies for institutional customers in the U.S. and abroad. We have been recognized as one of the nations best employers by American Banker magazine and the National Association for Female Executives. More information is available at www.FirstHorizon.com . FHN-G TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A First Florida Credit Union representative shared holiday savings tips with viewers of Second Cup on Monday. Ruthellen Caldwell, regional branch director, First Florida Credit Union, spoke with WTXL ABC 27 Sunrise Anchor Christine Souders. Watch the segment as Caldwell discusses impulse buying, steps people can take to save during the holiday season, and choices people can make throughout the year to save for the holidays. DECATUR COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - Last month, dozens of 4-H students across south Georgia, including three from Decatur County, went to the University of Georgia in Tifton to learn all about cotton, from growing the crops to the cotton market after it's been harvested. The students spent a full day doing hands on activities and seeing firsthand how much work goes into producing cotton. Experiences like the Cotton Stem workshop show students that they could pursue a future in farming if they chose to. "We also talked to them about the advances in precision that have been going on with cotton," said Nan Bostick, Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension Agent in Decatur County. "I think because they did the hands learning, they were able to see that this is what they could do in the future." This is the second Cotton Stem workshop that has been held, but the first time that 4-H students spent an entire day learning about cotton. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-26 16:51:30|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's ICT ministry decided Monday to inspect all telecommunication facilities after a fire paralyzed communication devices and Internet services in a large part of the capital, according to local media reports. The fire broke out on Saturday at a building of KT, the country's number two mobile operator, in western Seoul. It disabled the fixed-line, mobile and Internet networks in the large part of the western Seoul, paralyzing credit card payment, transportation card and other Internet-related services over the weekend. Yoo Young-min, minister of science and ICT, held an emergency meeting with the heads of wireless carriers, saying the government and mobile operators needed to draw up measures together to prevent the repeat of the paralysis. The minister noted that almost one-fourth or one-fifth of the entire Seoul was affected by the blaze. The ministry planned to inspect all telecommunication facilities, including D-rated ones that had been self-examined by wireless carriers and Internet operators. It would also push to mandate installing CCTVs and sprinklers in cable tunnels less than 500 meters in length, which had not been subject to the installations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 00:23:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIEV, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday signed a decree approving a decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on imposing martial law in the country for 60 days, the presidential press service said. According to the decree, which still has to be approved by the parliament to come into the force, the martial law in Ukraine would be effective from Nov. 26, 2018 to January 25, 2019. The document has ordered the General Staff of the Ukrainian army to organize the air defense of the country in order to protect key public facilities from a possible attack and develop a plan for partial mobilization of troops. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian armed forces were put on full combat alert over the escalation of tensions with Russia in the Sea of Azov. However, Poroshenko said during the meeting of the NSDC that "Ukraine does not plan to fight anyone." On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The Ukrainian Navy said it has informed Russia in advance about the passage of Ukrainian vessels from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, calling Russia's actions an "act of aggression." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 00:23:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Kenya and Chinese technology firm Huawei plan to partner to monitor water quality in order to boost access to clean water, officials said on Monday. Fred Nyongesa, water quality manager of Water Resource Authority (WRA) told Xinhua in Nairobi that they are in discussions to sign an agreement with Huawei to begin monitoring water quality in early 2019. "Under the agreement Huawei will install telemetric systems to relay water quality data to WRA database on a real time basis to check for disease causing organisms as well as to enhance the safety of aquatic ecology," Nyongesa said during the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference currently under way in Nairobi, Kenya. Nyongesa said that once the system is in place, it will enable government to track water polluters on a real time basis using remote sensing. He added that currently 60 percent of all surface water in urban areas and 40 percent of all water bodies in rural areas are polluted. Nyongesa revealed that contamination of water bodies is largely due to illegal discharge of solid and liquid waste into rivers, lakes and streams. WRA is currently conducting a survey on the country's six water catchments areas to assess and classify their levels of pollution. Prateek Bhatt, channel solution manager at Huawei said that the water monitoring system is currently working in China. Bhatt said that its water quality monitoring system works through sensors that are installed at strategic locations to gather data which is stored at private and public cloud. "We have developed a communication platform that is robust enough to extract valuable data according to how it is configured," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 01:19:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BERLIN, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Cars in Germany, the Eurozone's largest economy, produced a total of 115 million tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in 2017, an increase of six percent compared to 2010, official figures published on Monday by the Federal Statistical Office showed. According to the Wiesbaden-based government statisticians, one cause for the increasingly negative environmental footprint of German passenger vehicles was identified by the Federal Statistical Office on Monday in trend towards more powerfully-motorized cars. Whereas newly registered cars had an average motor performance of 97 Kilowatt (kW) in 2010, the figure had risen by 16 percent to 111 kW in 2017. During the same period, the share of CO2 emissions accounted for by cars with a motor performance above 100 kW grew from 36 percent to more than 50 percent. The Federal Statistical Office further noted that the number of vehicles increased by 10 percent between 2010 and 2017 while their combined mileage rose by nine percent. Even though the average fuel consumption fell by around three percent in the past seven years, total fuel consumption consequently still increased by six percent to 46 billion liters of fuel. The increase in fuel consumption was most pronounced for diesel vehicles with a motor performance of more than 100 kW (plus 69 percent), a finding which reflected growing concerns in Germany over the environmental impact of large diesel SUVs with regards to their CO2 and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. The total consumption of highly-motorized petrol vehicles rose as well (plus 15 percent) but fell by nine percent for the category as a whole between 2010 and 2017. The statisticians calculated that the increased motor performance of German passenger vehicles resulted in an absolute rise in CO2 emissions by 8 million tons. Larger vehicle numbers and higher mileage produced caused an additional 6 million tons of CO2 to be emitted. Lower average fuel consumption lowered the amount of CO2 in the air by 7 million tons and was hence only able to partially offset the other two factors. In October, European Union (EU) member states set themselves a goal to reduce CO2 emission limits by 35 percent for new passenger vehicles and by 30 percent for light-duty utility vehicles. Germany is home to the EU's largest domestic car making sector and has recently admitted that it will most likely fail to meet its own climate policy targets for a 40 percent CO2 emission reduction between 1990 and 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 02:49:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday warned in a report that the alarming loss of biodiversity threatens devastating consequences for humankind if it goes unchecked. Changes to climate may be reversible in time, but there is no going back once species become extinct, said the report, which was released during the ongoing UN Biodiversity Conference 2018 held in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Unsustainable crop, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture practices as well as unproductive systems such as industries and mining and urbanization processes are taking an incalculable toll on wealth of the biodiversity and the health of ecosystem, it noted. Vera Agostini, FAO deputy director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Resources Division, said the UN agency aims to save threatened species from demise. She said her agency plans to raise awareness and foster dialogue with communities and stakeholders in the coming years to reduce activities in the oceans, lakes and seas. "We are set to develop metrics and indicators to measure impacts and dependence of the agricultural sector on biodiversity," Agostini noted. Representatives from 196 countries are present at the UN biodiversity conference, which started on Nov. 13 and is expected to last until Nov. 29. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 03:14:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close British Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, on Nov. 26, 2018. The British parliament's vote on Brexit deal is expected to be held on Dec. 11, British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed on Monday. (Xinhua/Tim Ireland) LONDON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The British parliament's vote on Brexit deal is expected to be held on Dec. 11, British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed on Monday. "I'm looking ahead to 11 December and to when this House will be faced with the decision as to whether or not it wishes to deliver on the vote of the British people with a deal that not only delivers that vote but also protects their jobs," said May as she tried to sell her Brexit deal to disgruntled MPs in the House of Commons. May said the deal, endorsed by EU leaders on a special Brexit summit on Sunday, was the right deal for Britain because it delivers on the democratic decision taken by British people in June 2016 in the national referendum. May faced her toughest test yet Monday as she started her task of "selling" her Brexit deal to disgruntled MPs in the House of Commons. She told lawmakers that the choice was accepting the deal or going back to "square one" with no certainty about the future. Main opposition leader, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, said May's deal was a "botched" job, saying the negotiations between Britain and the European Union had failed. He said the Brexit deal, endorsed Sunday by EU leaders in the special Brexit summit in Brussels, betrayed the Brexit people voted for in the 2016 national referendum, adding that the House of Commons would have to reject her deal. MPs from other parties were also lining up to condemn the Brexit deal during the debate, which is seen as a curtain raiser to a fierce debate ahead of the vote on a legally binding Brexit deal. In her statement May said she recognized concerns over the backstop, a measure included in the agreement to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic. The backstop would only ever be used if no permanent trading deal was in place by Jan. 1, 2021. May said if it were to be implemented, it would only be temporary. Telling MPs that both sides have had to make compromises, May added: "The backstop is essential. Without a backstop, there will be no agreement." She added that under the deal, for the first time in 40 years Britain will be able to open up new trade deals around the world. Insisting what was agreed in Brussels was the best deal available, May said no one knows what would happen if it does not pass. With so many MPs from May's own Conservative Party as well as opposition MPs saying they will vote against her deal, political commentators are already predicting a possible defeat for the Brexit deal next month. But May remained determined to see the deal through. "The British people want MPs to get on with a deal and allow the country to come together," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 04:19:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CHICAGO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- For an exhibiting area over 1,200 square meters at the 104th Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Meeting, China's Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co. Ltd. (UIH) has been putting on display 20 latest CT, MR, PET-CT, and RT products as well as some core technology components. This is the first time for UIH to attend the RSNA meeting, which began on Sunday this year and runs till Friday, and the Chinese company took the opportunity to make its debut in the U.S. market. "The United States is the largest and most important medical device market in the world and we are proud to make our debut at RSNA this year," said Xue Min, UIH's chairman of the board and chief executive officer, on Sunday. In the past five years, UIH has opened four R&D centers in the U.S. cities of Houston, Cleveland, Concord and Boston respectively. It is now opening a regional headquarters as well as building a wholly-owned manufacturing facility in Houston. "We are building our U.S. regional headquarters in Houston, which will integrate R&D, production, training and marketing services to better serve our customers in the U.S.," Xue said. Among the machines UIH exhibits at the meeting, there is the world's first total body PET-CT called uExplorer, which has a two-meter-long axial field of view, 30 to 40 times the sensitivity of conventional CT machines, 2.9-mm resolution, and as low as one-40th of radiation dose of conventional machines. Another eye-catching exhibit is the radiofrequency power amplifier (RFPA), a core technology component. Different from being one piece unit as convention has it, the amplifier consists of four modules. "This has facilitated carrying and maintenance," Alex Li, vice president of UIH, told Xinhua. "It can work for a month continuously." UIH has spent five years to develop this RFPA integrated with cross-border technologies. "UIH is a dynamic company focused on innovative technology," UIH North American Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey M Bundy said. "Our commitment to advancements in medical imaging and radiology and our ability to innovate at a rapid pace are core strengths." Established in 2011 and headquartered in Shanghai, UIH develops and produces a full portfolio of advanced medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment, as well as offers medical IT and intelligent solutions. Of its 3,200-strong contingent, half are R&D personnel, Jame Xia, UIH vice president, told Xinhua. UIH began to explore overseas market in 2017, and is exporting its products to more than 20 countries and regions worldwide. The Chinese company is now applying for registration with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "It is UIH's goal to provide premium products and services for customers around the globe," Xue said. UIH's products range from affordable low-ends to high-ends that can be used for research, said Xia. "We are committed to be an agent of positive change in our industry through our product and services offerings," Bundy echoed. Established in 1915, the RSNA is an international society of radiologists, medical physicists and other medical professionals with more than 54,000 members across the globe. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 05:15:15|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Wu Haitao (C, front) addresses a Security Council emergency meeting on the situation on Russia and Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York, Nov. 26, 2018. Wu Haitao on Monday called for restraint to avoid further escalation of tension between Russia and Ukraine. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday called for restraint to avoid further escalation of tension between Russia and Ukraine. Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council that China has noted the altercation between Russian and Ukrainian naval ships in the waters near the Kerch Strait, adding that China is "concerned with the tension arising thereof." "China hopes and calls for the relevant parties to exercise restraint to avoid any further escalation of tension and properly resolve the relevant issues through dialogues and consultations," said Wu. The ambassador said that China has all the long maintained its objectivity and impartiality on the Ukrainian crisis, adding that China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries including Ukraine and opposes any external forces interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs. "We're always of the view that military solution will get nowhere," he noted. "China is of the view that all the relevant parties should earnestly implement the new Minsk Agreement, stay the course of political settlement through dialogue and consultation to seek a comprehensive solution to the Ukrainian issue," he said. UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council that the UN strongly urges both Russia and Ukraine to refrain "from any ratcheting up of actions or rhetoric" and reminded both of the need to contain this incident so as to prevent a serious escalation. She told the Security Council that the UN could not independently verify what had happened. An emergency meeting of the Security Council was called for on Monday morning over the escalating situation, which was chaired by Wu. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. HOUSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE: TRGP) ("Targa" or the "Company") announced today that representatives from the Company will participate in investor meetings at the Jefferies Global Energy Conference on Wednesday, November 28, 2018 in Houston, Texas. A copy of the slides used for the conference meetings will be available in the Investors section of the Company's website at www.targaresources.com, or by going to http://ir.targaresources.com/trc/events.cfm. About Targa Resources Corp. Targa Resources Corp. is a leading provider of midstream services and is one of the largest independent midstream energy companies in North America. Targa owns, operates, acquires, and develops a diversified portfolio of complementary midstream energy assets. The Company is primarily engaged in the business of: gathering, compressing, treating, processing, and selling natural gas; storing, fractionating, treating, transporting, and selling NGLs and NGL products, including services to LPG exporters; gathering, storing, terminaling, and selling crude oil; storing, terminaling, and selling refined petroleum products. For more information, please visit the Companys website at www.targaresources.com . Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this release are "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. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of uncertainties, factors and risks, many of which are outside the Companys control, which could cause results to differ materially from those expected by management of the Company. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, weather, political, economic and market conditions, including a decline in the price and market demand for natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil, the timing and success of business development efforts; and other uncertainties. These and other applicable uncertainties, factors and risks are described more fully in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and any subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact the Company's investor relations department by email at InvestorRelations@targaresources.com or by phone at (713) 584-1133. Sanjay Lad Director - Investor Relations Jennifer Kneale Chief Financial Officer Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 05:50:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BUJUMBURA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Burundi is set to immunize over seven million citizens, equivalent to 77 percent of its total population, against meningitis in December, the Burundian health minister said on Monday. An immunization campaign against meningitis will take place nationwide from Dec. 4 to Dec. 13, where Burundian citizens aged between one year and 30 years will be immunized, said Thaddee Ndikumana, Burundian Minister of Public Health and AIDS Control, during a preparatory meeting of the campaign in Ngozi province, northern Burundi. He requested the administration, security forces and stakeholders in the health sector to contribute to the forthcoming immunization campaign. The last immunization campaign against meningitis in Burundi took place in 1992, according to the ministry of health. The central African country is one of the 26 countries on the extended meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa that has the highest rates of the disease, according to World Health Organization. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 06:30:32|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close by Saud Abu Ramadan GAZA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Human rights films, produced by Palestinian, Arab and international cinema directors, will be screened for three days during the Red Carpet Festival for Human Rights Films which kicked off in Gaza City on Monday. The organizers of the festival said they want to tell the world that it is "enough for 12 years of Israeli blockade and enough for 12 years of internal Palestinian division that left around 2 million Palestinians living in a very hard living situation." A huge red banner was placed on the top of the entrance gate of the theater in the building of the Red Crescent Society. Montaser al-Sabe'a, executive director of the festival, said that dozens of films from Palestine, Arab countries and the rest of the world applied to join the festival, adding that 50 films have been chosen to be screened during the festival. "The title of this year's festival is 'Bekaffi' which means enough, enough for the continuation of the status of internal division that violated the Palestinian's dignity and the future of his children," said al-Sabe'a, adding that "through the cinema, we want to tell the world that we want to live a normal life like others." The audience, who walked on the red carpet and took their seats in the theater at the Red Crescent Society, expressed happiness for having the festival in the Gaza Strip. "Between Two Crossing Points", the first film screened on Monday, expressed the suffering of people in the Gaza Strip at the crossing points on the border either with Israel or with Egypt, said Abdul Rahman Husein, director of the film festival. The director of the film, Yasser Murtaja, who is also a cameraman and a filmmaker, had been shot dead by the Israeli army gunfire in eastern Gaza, as he was covering the anti-Israel marches that started in the eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel on March 30. Husein said that "last year's message of the festival was to tell the world that Gaza Strip populations don't like to die. They love life in spite of the mass destruction caused by the Israeli wars. They can find a space to enjoy watching films." The festival films also include documentaries and animations. The films will be screened in dozens of schools and cultural centers all over the Gaza Strip. Samah Ibrahim, a 37-year-old Palestinian mother of four children from Gaza, said she came to the festival with her children because she has never been to a cinema before and wanted to join this annual event. "This event is different for me. It helps people get out of the horrible and miserable situation that the people here in Gaza are passing through," she said, adding "I like this festival and the movies to be on large screens are great ones." Thirty years ago, there were 10 theaters in the Gaza Strip, but since the beginning of the first Palestinian Intifada or uprising against Israel, which broke out in 1987, the theaters were closed. However, some movie directors are now trying to revive the notion of cinema in Gaza. "I believe it is the right of the Gaza Strip people to breath, to feel free and to see an end to the current internal Palestinian division that damaged all aspects of life," said Sa'ed Sweirki, one of the festival's organizers, adding "our message is so clear that Gaza has the ability to live in peace far from wars and misery." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 06:30:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIEV, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian parliament on Monday supported a bill imposing a martial law in certain regions of the country for 30 days starting from 9.00 a.m. local time (GMT 0700) on Wednesday. According to a statement on the parliament's website, the legislation, which enforces the presidential decree on the martial law, was supported by 276 votes in favor, surpassing the minimum of 226 required. Earlier Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree to put into force a decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on imposing the martial law in the country for 60 days due to the tensions with Russia in the Sea of Azov. However, later Poroshenko said he had decided to reduce the amount of time under the martial law to 30 days. Besides, Poroshenko said that the law will be imposed not across the whole country, but only in the regions bordering Russia; Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria, where Russian troops are stationed; and the regions located on the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian president emphasized that "martial law does not mean the declaration of war," but a step towards strengthening Ukraine's defense. Meanwhile, Oleksandr Turchynov, head of the NSDC, said that the martial law envisages imposing "temporary restriction of citizens' rights and freedoms." According to the Ukrainian media, the martial law regime stipulates for a partial mobilization of troops, curfew, a ban on demonstrations, restrictions on freedom of movement, control over the media activities, seizure of property for the needs of the defense ministry among other measures. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian military sailors. Russia's Federal Security Service said that the Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border, and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of Russia's orders. The Ukrainian Navy said it has informed Russia in advance about the passage of Ukrainian vessels from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, calling Russia's actions an "act of aggression." Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been deteriorating since Crimea was incorporated into Russia in March 2014 following a local referendum that was rejected by Kiev and Western countries. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 06:40:34|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday defended the use of tear gas by border patrol on migrants near the southern border with Mexico as the action drew criticism. "They had to use because they were being rushed by some very tough people," Trump told reporters before leaving the White House for rallies in state of Mississippi. "Here's the bottom line. No one is coming into our country unless they come in legally," the president added. The comments came after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants who sought to enter the United States near border city San Diego on Sunday. U.S. border patrol said it used tear gas and pepper spray after several migrants struck agents with rocks. No injuries were reported. Video of the scene also showed a cloud of tear gas that sent people running, including families with children. The interaction led to U.S. officials shutting down the San Ysidro Port of Entry between San Diego and Tijuana, a border city on the Mexican side, for more than six hours and dozens of arrests. U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, tweeted on Monday that using tear gas on migrants at the border is "shameful and disgusting," adding that "seeking asylum is LEGAL." Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic senator, said the action is "horrendous" while slamming the administration's asylum policies as "diminishing America's promise and project weakness, not strength." Caravans of migrants, many of whom say they were fleeing from persecution, poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, were making their way through Central America towards the U.S. border for weeks. Many of them want to claim asylum. Several thousands of migrants, including women and children, are in Tijuana. Nearly 100 migrants were being deported after they tried to breach the U.S. border on Sunday, according to Mexican authorities. Mexican officials said the migrants had taken part in "violent" chaos, which started as a peaceful demonstration to appeal for the U.S. authorities to speed processing of asylum claims for Central American migrants in Tijuana. Trump on Monday urged Mexico to send those Central American migrants back to their home countries, as he renewed a threat to shut down the border and called for the funding of his long-promised border wall. Thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed along the country's southern border with Mexico to help strengthen border security while offering only engineering, logistic and medical support. However, Trump said last week that he has given the troops the "OK" to use lethal force against migrants "if they have to." The president issued a proclamation earlier this month, saying that only people who enter the country at official checkpoints can apply for asylum, but it was temporarily blocked by a federal judge. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 06:45:36|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Jorge Chediek, secretary-general's envoy on South-South Cooperation and UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) director, briefs journalists on the upcoming annual Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) at the UN headquarters in New York, Nov. 26, 2018. The annual Global South-South Development Expo will be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from Nov. 28 to 30, said Jorge Chediek on Monday. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The annual Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) will be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 28 to 30 Nov., said a UN envoy on South-South Cooperation on Monday. Organized by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in collaboration with UN agencies and other partners, the GSSD Expo "will strategically engage all development actors, including the private sector, civil society, academic and philanthropic organizations, to scale up concrete Southern-grown initiatives to help achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Jorge Chediek, secretary-general's envoy on South-South Cooperation and UNOSSC director, said at a press conference. This year marks 10 years since the GSSD Expo's inception in 2008, he said. Chediek told reporters that in the first few years, the expo was held in UN headquarter cities and in the last two years, it took place in member states. About 50 institutional partners representing UN member states, private sectors and regional organizations and about 800 delegates from over 120 member states will attend the expo, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 06:45:38|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Li Yizhong, Chairman of China Federation of Industrial Economics, speaks at the eighth Hamburg Summit "China Meets Europe" in Hamburg, Germany, Nov. 26, 2018. Policy-makers, entrepreneurs and scholars from China and Europe gathered in the German city of Hamburg on Monday for a high-profile conference on international economic cooperation against the backdrop of rising protectionism. (Xinhua/Yan Feng) HAMBURG, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Officials, scholars and entrepreneurs gathered at the Hamburg Summit on Monday, eying more economic cooperation against the backdrop of rising protectionism. The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is well discussed at the two-day "Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe", which opened on Monday. In an opening speech, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the opportunities created by the Belt and Road Initiative will bring people and businesses in Asia and Europe closer together. "This initiative has been received with great interest all over the world -- including Germany and Europe. It is a strong signal that China wants closer, faster, better connections with its main trading partners," Schroeder said. He also called on closer Sino-Germany cooperation to strengthen multilateralism and fend off new threats. Schroeder is the Honorary Chairman of the Hamburg Summit, which is initiated by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce in 2004. Proposed by China in 2013, the initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road trade routes to seek common development and prosperity. Echoing Schroeder's remarks, Peter Helis, Vice Chairman of the European Union Commerce Chamber in South China, encouraged the EU enterprises to engage more in the Belt and Road Initiative. Helis described the initiative as a multi-dimensional infrastructure network, underpinned by economic corridors featuring land-sea-air transportation routes. Helis said businessmen in Europe should not enclose themselves, adding the logistics infrastructure -- connected by major rail, port and pipeline projects -- has already paved ways for good business opportunities. "There are already several railways linking China's western cities and Germany's Hamburg and Duisburg. So why not utilize it?" Helis said. For Jens Meier, CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority, the Belt and Road initiative means more than just infrastructure building. "It involves more intelligence communication," Meier said, adding his cooperation with Shanghai port has yielded fruitful results. Meier said the young generation of the two countries shared experience of the digitalization and some IT solutions that greatly increase the efficiency in managing seaports. Besides the business value of the initiative, Thomas P. Lamnidis, vice president of Greece's KLC Law Firm, referred it as a driving force promoting peace and stability. Lamnidis said the new Silk Road covers the "hottest areas" of the world, and "it will yield several times of the value people invest" since it not only creates trade flows but generate prosperity, and terrorism and extremism will be averted. "If you create good life... they don't want to make attacks, they want to live a good life with their family together," Lamnidis said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 06:55:46|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close LONDON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Coastal communities around Britain were given a million pound (1.28 million U.S. dollars) boost on Monday, with government funding to help restore coastal landmarks. Projects to receive money from the fund include seven grade II-listed Esplanade shelters in the coastal resort of Weymouth, funding to help restore two 19th century lighthouses in Whitehaven in northern England. The Withernsea Pier Towers restoration program will help to restore 2 historic towers enabling them to become a natural focal point for the town to use in a wide range of social and community events. Meanwhile a new foot and cycle bridge will be created along the Arnside Viaduct railway. It will form an iconic link in a long-distance coastal route from Morecambe to Barrow in one of Britain's most scenic areas. Coastal Communities Minister Jake Berry announced the funding Monday on a visit to see how the Coastal Revival Fund will benefit the historic Withernsea Pier Towers project. Berry said: "From Whitehaven to Weymouth, we're saving some of the nation's most cherished coastal heritage assets and landmarks from falling into disrepair." He said it is part of a plan to invest around 325 million U.S. dollars in British seaside areas by 2020. This is the first image taken by NASA's InSight lander on the surface of Mars. The instrument context camera (ICC) mounted below the lander deck obtained this image on Nov. 26, 2018, shortly after landing. The transparent lens cover was still in place to protect the lens from any dust kicked up during landing. (Xinhua/Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech) LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- NASA's InSight spacecraft touched down safely on Mars on Monday, kicking off a two-year mission to explore the deep interior of the Red Planet. NASA's online live broadcast reported InSight touched down on Mars at approximately 2:54 p.m. EST (1954 GMT) on Monday, after a six-month, 300-million-mile (480-million-km) journey. The lander plunged through the thin Martian atmosphere at about 2:47 p.m. EST (1947 GMT), heatshield first, and used a supersonic parachute to slow down. Then, it fired its retro rockets to slowly descend to the surface of Mars, and landed on the smooth plains of Elysium Planitia. The landing took just under seven minutes to complete, prompting the nickname "seven minutes of terror." InSight is being followed to Mars by two mini-spacecraft comprising NASA's Mars Cube One (MarCO), the first deep-space mission for CubeSats which attempt to relay data from InSight as it enters the planet's atmosphere and lands. At about 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), MarCO sent back the first picture of Mars. The photo is speckled with black dots - probably particles of dust picked up during InSight's harrowing descent through the Martian atmosphere, said Rob Manning, chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Future InSight images will be much clearer, after the camera's dust cover is removed, he added. InSight will detect geophysical signals deep below the Martian surface, including marsquakes and heat. Scientists will also be able to track radio signals from the stationary spacecraft, which vary based on the wobble in Mars' rotation, according to NASA. InSight and MarCO flight controllers monitored and cheered for the spacecraft's successful entry, descent and landing from mission control at JPL in Pasadena, California. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a post landing press briefing Germany and France are great partners of the InSight Mission. A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), support the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, and DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, he said. It took the InSight team about four to five years to design and execute the mission, said an engineer at the mission control. He said the basic design of InSight was inherited from Phoenix spacecraft, which landed on Mars on May 25, 2008. To look deep into Mars, the lander must be at a place where it can stay still and quiet for its entire mission. That's why scientists chose Elysium Planitia as InSight's home, according to NASA. The red planet is comparatively easy to land on and is less likely to melt our equipment than Venus or Mercury, according to NASA. Launched on May 5, InSight marks NASA's first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in 2012 and the first dedicated to studying the deep interior of Mars. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 07:50:59|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that he did not like the Brexit deal between Britain and the European Union (EU), noting it seems to favor the EU more and might block the trade between Britain and the United States. Speaking to the media before leaving the White House, Trump said that the deal that specifies the manner of Britain's leaving the EU "sounds like a great deal for the EU." "I think we have to take a look at, seriously, whether or not the UK is allowed to trade," he said. "Because, you know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn' t be a good thing." "I don' t think they meant that. I don't think that the Prime Minister meant that," he added, noting he hopes Theresa May would "be able to do something about that." "But, right now, as the deal stands, she may not -- they may not be able to trade with the U.S.," Trump noted. "And I don't think they want that at all. That would be a very big negative for the deal." The European leaders on Sunday endorsed the Brexit deal at the EU summit in a major breakthrough since the lengthy Britain-EU Brexit negotiation started one and half years ago. The political document covered Britain's 39-billion-pound "divorce bill", citizens' rights and the Northern Ireland "backstop" - a way to keep the Irish border open, if trade talks stall. Britain was scheduled to leave the economic and political union on March 29, 2019. May confirmed on Monday that the British parliament's vote on Brexit deal is expected to be held on Dec. 11. However, main opposition leader, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, said that May's deal was a "botched" job, and that the negotiations between Britain and the EU had failed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 08:41:25|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SYDNEY, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Quantum engineers in Australia, who are working on developing a scalable supercomputer with silicon chips (known as qubits), have demonstrated a way to monitor information stored in the electrons of individual atoms. Announced on Tuesday by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology team, the successful demonstration of the compact sensor is being heralded as a major breakthrough for quantum technologies and could help pave the way for a new generation of computing. "To monitor even one qubit, you have to build multiple connections and gates around individual atoms, where there is not a lot of room," Professor Michelle Simmons at UNSW said. "What's more, you need high-quality qubits in close proximity so they can talk to each other -- which is only achievable if you've got as little gate infrastructure around them as possible." Previously, four gates were required for one qubit; one to control and three to read it. But now with the new sensor, it only requires two gates for each qubit; one to control and one to read. According to the team, single-gate reading of qubits now has the ability to perform the necessary quantum error correction for a scalable quantum computer. "Not only is our system more compact, but by integrating a superconducting circuit attached to the gate we now have the sensitivity to determine the quantum state of the qubit by measuring whether an electron moves between two neighbouring atoms," lead author Prasanna Pakkiam said. "And we've shown that we can do this real-time with just one measurement -- single shot -- without the need to repeat the experiment and average the outcomes." By the year 2022, the team at UNSW plan to produce a 10-qubit demonstration device as they continue to develop the technology for a commercial scale silicon-based quantum computer. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSE American: CTO) (the Company) today announced the closing of the sale of 17.96 acres for approximately $4.25 million, or approximately $237,000 per acre (the Land Sale). The land parcel is on the east side of Interstate 95 and is located to the east of Clyde Morris Boulevard and on the south side of LPGA Boulevard. The estimated gain on the Land Sale is approximately $4.0 million, or approximately $0.55 per share, after tax. The Company intends to utilize the proceeds from the Land Sale to fund a portion of a previously acquired income property, through a reverse 1031 like-kind exchange structure. The buyer intends to develop approximately 300 multi-family residential units. As of a result of the Land Sale, the Company, year-to-date, has sold more than 2,600 acres of land for an aggregate of approximately $44.3 million, or approximately $16,900 per acre. About Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. is a Florida-based publicly traded real estate company, which owns over 2.3 million square feet of income properties in diversified markets in the United States, as well as nearly 5,500 acres of land in the Daytona Beach area. Visit our website at www.ctlc.com . We encourage you to review our most recent investor presentations which are available on our website at www.ctlc.com. SAFE HARBOR Certain statements contained in this press release (other than statements of historical fact) are forward-looking statements. Words such as believe, estimate, expect, intend, anticipate, will, could, may, should, plan, potential, predict, forecast, project, and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify certain of such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they were made, although not all forward-looking statements contain such words. Although forward-looking statements are made based upon managements expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effect upon the Company, a number of factors could cause the Companys actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Such factors may include the completion of 1031 exchange transactions, the availability of investment properties that meet the Companys investment goals and criteria, the modification of terms of certain land sales agreements, uncertainties associated with obtaining required governmental permits and satisfying other closing conditions for planned acquisitions and sales, as well as the uncertainties and risk factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that future developments will be in accordance with managements expectations or that the effect of future developments on the Company will be those anticipated by management. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 10:06:46|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close SYDNEY, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities on Tuesday have warned the public of the lengths some criminals will go to, after a U.S. woman travelling from San Francisco was allegedly caught at Sydney airport with 13 kg of the illegal drug methamphetamine hidden inside children's toys. Disclosed by the Australian Border Force (ABF) on Tuesday, Sunday's incident was a stark reminder for Australian Federal Police (AFP) Sydney Airport Commander Superintendent Peter Mullins to stay "on the lookout for anyone employing unusual methods in an attempt to import illicit drugs." "The fact criminals are willing to use children's toys to smuggle such harmful drugs into this country demonstrates the importance of continued vigilance at our borders," he said. Stopped for a baggage examination after her flight, ABF personnel found 25 suspicious packages hidden inside four boxes of toys, which later tested positive for methamphetamine. While the exact weight and purity of the drugs is still yet to be determined by authorities, the 37-year-old was charged with importing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs. If found guilty, the woman could face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Pleased with the efforts of the arresting officers, ABF Regional Commander of New South Wales State Danielle Yannopoulos said no matter how hard criminals try to hide drugs, officers have the skills, training and technology to detect them. "With our partner agencies we will do everything in our power to stop illicit drugs from reaching our shores and shut down the criminal syndicates responsible for trying to bring them here." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 11:12:02|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges, violating a plea agreement that he signed two months ago, special counsel Robert Mueller's office said in a court filing on Monday. "The government will file a detailed sentencing submission ... that sets forth the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies, including those after signing the plea agreement herein," prosecutors said. Manafort said in the same filing he disagreed with Mueller's claim that he had lied to the FBI and the special counsel's office and "has provided information to the government in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations." The defendant said "he believes that he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the government's characterization or that has breached the agreement." Both sides agreed that there is no reason to delay sentencing Manafort and asked the court to set a date for sentencing, according to the filing. Manafort, 69, was convicted on eight counts of financial fraud in an August trial where the jury deadlocked on 10 other counts, which were dismissed later. He was the first member of Trump's election team facing trial on charges arising from Mueller's investigation. In September, Manafort struck a deal to cooperate with Mueller's team to avoid a second related trial in the District of Columbia. Since then, he has been meeting with Mueller's team for the ongoing inquiry. Without a motion from prosecutors asking for leniency, Manafort is expected to be sentenced as much as 10 years in prison for his crimes. Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed any collusion between his campaign and the Russians while slamming the Russia probe as a "hoax" or "witch hunt." The president has also tried to distance himself from Manafort, who joined the Trump campaign team in March 2016 and spent about two months working as campaign chairman before resigning over exposure of his Ukrainian lobbying work. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 11:22:04|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. automaker General Motors (GM) announced Monday it will halt production in five North American plants and cut over 14,000 jobs next year, a decision that drew immediate criticism from the White House. Shortly after the announcement, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that he was "not happy" with it, and top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow was scheduled to meet GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra on Monday. "You know, the United States saved General Motors. For her to take that company out of Ohio is not good. I think she is going to put something back in soon," Trump said on Monday afternoon at the White House lawn. He was referring to the 2008 government bailout that saved GM from bankruptcy. GM said in a press release that five of its assembly and propulsion plants in Detroit, Ohio, Maryland, Michigan and Ontario, Canada would be "unallocated" in 2019. It also plans to cut 15 percent of its salaried workers, which trims down the number of its executive ranks by 25 percent. The cuts amount to more than 14,000 jobs in all, some 8,100 white-collar positions and more than 6,000 factory jobs, according to GM. The company also plans to close two plants outside North America by the end of 2019, the specificity of which it didn't disclose in the statement. The company avoided using the word closure or shutdown in its statement since that, according to GM spokeswoman Stephanie Rice, may involve negotiations with United Automobile Union, a powerful labor union representing workers in the United States and Canada. The automaker estimated that the restructuring will save about 6 billion U.S. dollars a year by the end of 2020. "These actions will increase the long-term profit and cash generation potential of the company and improve resilience through the cycle," Barra said in the statement. Trump has made revitalizing the U.S. automobile industry a centerpiece of his "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan, urging manufacturing companies to bring production back to the United States. "I was very tough. I spoke with her (Barra) when I heard they were closing and I said, you know, this country has done a lot for General Motors," the president said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 11:22:04|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Over the past four years, more than 500 teachers from China and the United Kingdom have participated in an exchange program enabling both sides to learn from each other's math teaching methods, local media reported Tuesday. Launched in 2014, the UK-China Math Teachers' Exchange and Cooperation Program saw its fifth round kick off this year. A total of 86 math teachers from primary schools in the UK arrived at Shanghai Normal University on Monday for a two-week program, according to a China Daily report. The program includes research on math education theory, immersive teaching communications, filed trips and experience sharing, said Du Kewei, director general of the Ministry of Education's China Center for International People-to-People Exchanges. Beside teachers involved in the program, another 12,000 teachers in the UK have learned from demonstrations by the Shanghai teachers, according to Paul Kett, director general for education standards at the UK's Department for Education. A delegation of 86 Shanghai math teachers from China will visit 43 primary schools in the UK in January. By 2023, it is estimated that around 11,000 British students will have learned through the East-Asian style of math teaching through the program. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 11:27:06|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close NEW YORK, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and six others injured when a vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in New York City's Chinatown on Monday evening. The incident happened at around 6:45 p.m. local time (2345 GMT) at Canal Street and Forsyth Street, a busy junction of the Chinatown neighborhood in lower Manhattan, local police said. One fatality was confirmed at the scene, while the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital with some said to be in critical condition. Police said the driver, who is still unidentified, lost control of his van while doing parallel parking. The exact cause of the incident remains unclear, with no further details given by authorities. The Manhattan Chinatown is the oldest of nine neighborhoods in New York City with a high concentration of Chinese Americans. It's home to the largest ethnic Chinese population outside Asia, which exceeds 800,000. The Chinese Consulate-General in New York is currently seeking information about whether the incident involved any Chinese nationals. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 11:32:07|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Health Ministry on Monday signed a deal to significantly reduce the sugar levels of industrialized food products. According to the ministry, the government is committed to reducing the sugar levels of those products by 144,000 tons by 2022. A total of 68 companies and 1,147 products are included in the agreement. The deal follows a decision to reduce the sodium levels of several food products in the country. The amount of sodium in industrialized foods in Brazil have been reduced by 17,000 tons over four years. Brazilians consume an average 80 grams of sugar per day, which is 50 percent more than the amount recommended by the World Health Organization. The government hopes the move will result in the reduction of diabetes in the population. "We will also advance in the matter of food labels, so that citizens can make more informed and conscious choices," said Health Minister Gilberto Occhi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 11:37:09|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump traveled to state of Mississippi on Monday to rally support for GOP Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith ahead of her runoff election against Democratic opponent Mike Espy. "Cindy is so important, so respected," Trump told a rally in Tupelo, one of the stops he was expected to make for Hyde-Smith, whom the Mississippi governor appointed earlier this year to temporarily fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated due to the resignation of Thad Cochran. Hyde-Smith is the first woman to represent Mississippi in U.S. Congress. Trump predicted a big day on Tuesday for Hyde-Smith and the Republican Party, noting that the Mississippi election is about "judges, jobs, borders and protecting opportunities" for children. "Don't take any chances" by not voting, the president said. Hyde-Smith told the crowd that she'll continue to stand up for the conservative values of the state if they back her in Tuesday's election. She said a vote for her is a vote for less government and less regulation. Espy was holding a rally at a predominantly African-American church in Jackson, Mississippi's capital, on Monday night. A former congressman, Espy could be the first African American man elected to the U.S. Senate in the state since Reconstruction, If Hyde-Smith wins Tuesday's runoff, Republicans would have a majority of 53-47 over Democrats in the Senate. During the Nov. 6 election, neither Hyde-Smith nor Espy received the requisite 50 percent of the vote, forcing a runoff between them in the deep-red state. The winner of the runoff will finish the final two years of a term started by Cochran. The Mississippi election will also conclude the 2018 midterm elections, during which Republicans consolidated their majority in the Senate, while Democrats flipped nearly 40 seats to recapture the control of the House. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 11:57:14|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close DHAKA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi and Chinese business organizations have signed three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to strengthen further relations and develop mutual cooperation. The MoUs were inked between Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Dezhou Economic and Technological Development Zone at a seminar titled "China (Dezhou) Bangladesh Investment and Industry Cooperation" on Monday. On the sidelines of the seminar, a "Business Match-Making Session" was held with the participation of businessmen from Bangladesh and the city of Dezhou in China's Shandong province. BIDA in collaboration with Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) organized the seminar which was supported by Dezhou Municipal Government, National Dezhou Economic and Technological Development Zone and the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Dezhou Branch. Kazi M Aminul Islam, executive chairman of BIDA, and E Hongda, director of management committee of Dezhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, presented at the seminar. Speaking at the seminar, E Hongda said Dezhou investors are seeking investment opportunities and partners in Bangladesh in various fields including agriculture, machinery, technology and cars, renewable energy and equipment. Moreover, he expressed the hope that the events will pave the way for further collaboration on business and joint-venture investment between investors from Dezhou and Bangladesh to benefit both two countries. BIDA executive chairman said that steps are underway to facilitate more Chinese investment in Bangladesh, through legal frameworks and the investment and business environment. He also encouraged Chinese and Bangladesh enterprises to go for partnering and expanding investment in Bangladesh to boost the economy of both countries. The seminar was followed by a few paper and video presentations from both sides, showcasing trade, commerce and investment opportunities and facilities for businesses in Bangladesh and China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 12:42:22|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close Representatives of Chinese enterprises talk with job seekers during a jobs expo held by the Confucius Institute at the University of Zambia in Lusaka, Zambia, Oct. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Peng Lijun) by Xinhua writer Qu Junya BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A new art space in Nuremberg is bringing China closer to the southern German city. The opening show of works by Chinese and German artists in late October highlighted the venue's role in being a cultural bridge. The space will offer philosophic and artistic perspectives on cultural encounters, said Guenther Beckstein, former state premier of Bavaria and senior advisor to the Confucius Institute of Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, which initiated the art space. The space represents a new attempt in the Institute's agenda to diversify its educational and cultural offerings, with Chinese language teaching at the core. CULTURAL BRIDGE China's Confucius Institute is a non-profit, international public educational organization, similar to Britain's British Council, France's Alliance Francaise, Germany's Goethe Institute or Spain's Cervantes Institute. Built in cooperation with a local educational institution and run by a bilateral committee and dual-presidency structure, more than 530 Confucius Institutes and 1,110 Confucius Classrooms have landed in 149 countries and regions over the 14 years since its debut in Seoul. "The U.S. and China will never really understand each other unless we study their language and culture and share experiences that build a foundation for dialogue," said Susan Jain, executive director of the Confucius Institute of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which was founded in 2007. "We've been criticized by some far-right Senators of being too close to China. That's ironic because our top priority has been to help under-privileged kids here in the U.S. get ahead," said Jain. "Our cultures, our economies, our destinies are irrevocably intertwined. Young people get that, in spite all the rhetoric and negativity they hear from Washington," said theater director Peter Sellers, now UCLA professor in world arts and culture. "The Institute opens doors." In Germany, the 17th Confucius Institute was launched in 2016 in the northeastern town Stralsund. Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the inauguration, "Germany has a rich culture and traditions. We also know that China has a long history of five thousand years of civilization. Confucius Institute can contribute to promoting communication and understanding between the two peoples." Similar to the Confucius Institute in London, the one at Merkel's "political home" features traditional Chinese medicine programs. There's one in Kenya focused on textiles, in Ethiopia on vocational education, and another at the Royal Danish Academy of Music on Chinese music. Confucius Institutes around the world cater to local needs. Academic exchange is becoming another part of the Institute's identity. In late September, the school at Paris Diderot University hosted a seminar on social administration. Thanks to the Confucius Institute at the University of Geneva, visiting Chinese archaeologists learned from the techniques of their Swiss counterparts during a 10-day workshop last summer. JOB OPPORTUNITIES Jain feels the Confucius Institute's language programs are key to giving American kids a competitive future. "When American kids learn languages like Mandarin and understand more about foreign cultures, it opens up all kinds of well-paid job opportunities for them and makes them better equipped to compete with applicants from other countries." Speaking Chinese fluently during a Confucius Institute event in late September, first year Stanford University student Charlie Hoffs said her romance with Chinese started from the love of Chinese characters. "Then I increasingly realized the language's importance for the economy and tourism," she said. "Chinese is a vital skill." For Lytone Chibona, a Confucius Institute student in University of Zambia, learning Chinese is simply practical. "Very few of them take up practical skills such as learning the Chinese language ... which they can use while looking for a job. That skill can later turn out to be your main job in the long run," said the 22-year-old. In October, local branches from 14 Chinese enterprises visited a job fair held by the University of Zambia's Confucius Institute. "Our business is growing with the participation of hundreds of Zambians, so we come here to recruit more skilled young workers," said Linda Yan, a human resources manager with the Chinese aviation company AVIC International. Expanding cooperation in countries under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) leads to increased Chinese investments and local jobs. Learning Chinese has thus become a trend in Belarus, for example. High school student Anastasiya Solonets said she has been studying Chinese for four years and will continue part-time at the Confucian Institute when in college. "I hope to get a good job in the (China-Belarus) industrial park." Likewise in Tajikistan, the craze to learn Chinese in recent years has prompted some 3,000 people a year to pursue further study in China, making China the second largest host country of its overseas students. CULTURAL DIVERSITY Speaking of the UCLA Confucius Institute, Shabnam Fasa, artistic director of the Santa Monica Youth Orchestra, told Xinhua: "The Institute is a powerful force for cultural diversity. They are looking to teach the world what true collaboration and multi-cultural discourse looks like in a creative, impactful way." Globally, more than 9 million students have attended Confucius Institutes and Classrooms. Calligraphy, ink painting, or kung fu complement the language program. The Institute also plays a role in promoting traditional Chinese festival celebrations. A dragon boat sailing event in June took the northern Portuguese city of Aveiro by storm that city official Catarina Barreto called for more such events in the future, saying it combined the traditional cultures of Portugal and China. In the Italian town of Castel Maggiore in September, a Chinese bun stuffed with Bolognese mince brought the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations there to a climax. "What I like most about Chinese culture is that it's rich, it's deep, it exposes you to a lot of things," said Charles Wanika, a Kenyan student. (Xinhua reporters Julia Pierrepont III, Peng Lijun, Yu Xiaohua, Sun Mei, Hu Jing, Wei Zhongjie, Li Jia and Zhang Yuan contributed to the story.) (Video editor: Zhu Cong) Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 12:52:24|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close SYDNEY, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A massive wildfire is continuing to threatening homes and property on the central coast of Australia's Queensland State on Tuesday, with warm weather making the conditions extremely difficult for firefighters. Although crews worked around the clock last night trying desperately to contain the 17,000 hectare blaze between Bundaberg and Gladstone, conditions on Tuesday morning saw the wildfire intensify even further as temperatures reached in excess of 30 degrees celsius. According to local media reports, several homes have been destroyed by the fire and around 800 residents in the townships of Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach, Oyster Creek and Miriam Vale were forced evacuate their properties. In order assist the efforts of local crews and bring some much-needed relief to exhausted personnel, the bordering State of New South Wales (NSW) has sent 100 firefighters to join the operation. "Queensland has seen unprecedented conditions over the last few days, with more than 40 bush fires now burning across the state," NSW Minister for Emergency Services Troy Grant said in a statement. "The NSW Rural Fire Service crews deployed last night will work with fellow Queensland rural firefighters and provide relief for local crews who have worked very hard over the last week." "These volunteers from NSW will carry out frontline firefighting operations." For the first time Queensland have also deployed a large air tanker from NSW to assist with the water-bombing efforts. "It's so smoky out there we didn't get to see the whole fire, all we got to see was the section we were working on," water-bomber pilot John Gallaher explained to ABC radio. "It's burning hot, crews have their hands full." "It's going to take people on the ground to put these out. Our role is essentially to slow the fire down for them," he added. With temperatures expected to be in the high 30's on Wednesday, a total of eight aircraft will continue water-bombing missions on Tuesday in a frantic effort to subdue the wildfire before the conditions deteriorate even further. HOUSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY), the leading global foodservice distribution company, announced today that its e-Commerce platform, Supplies on the Fly, has partnered with Friedas Specialty Produce to offer next-day delivery of specialty and exotic produce items to customers across the United States. Exclusively for Sysco customers, Supplies on the Fly is an online ordering platform designed with convenience in mind, enabling foodservice operators to order the restaurant essentials they need, bill it to their Sysco invoice and get it delivered directly to their door. With over 170,000 products available online, Supplies on the Fly offers a comprehensive selection of foodservice essentials, including heavy equipment, tableware, specialty food and beverages, disposables, kitchen supplies, and more. Through the partnership of Supplies on the Fly and Friedas Specialty Produce, customers have the opportunity to choose from over 150 specialty and exotic produce items, thereby providing them the ability to elevate and distinguish their menus. Orders are delivered next-day in packaging developed specifically for this program, maintaining the freshness and quality of the product. We are excited about our partnership with Friedas Specialty Produce, a women-owned, family-run specialty fruit and vegetable business that has inspired new food experiences for over 50 years, said Brian Todd, senior vice president of merchandising, Sysco. This partnership demonstrates our commitment to being our customers most valued and trusted business partner by expanding our portfolio of innovative and on-trend products that provide our customers with an opportunity to differentiate their menus and businesses. Friedas is excited to join the Supplies on the Fly family, said Karen Caplan, president and chief executive officer, Friedas. This partnership directly connects Friedas to foodservice operators across the country and together we have the opportunity to inspire new food experiences for customers. We are delighted by the opportunity to strengthen our brand and our relationship with Sysco. For more information visit on Supplies on the Fly and Friedas Specialty Produce visit: https://www.suppliesonthefly.com/SuppliesOnTheFly/FriedasProduce . About Sysco Sysco is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Its family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries. With more than 67,000 associates, the company operates approximately 330 distribution facilities worldwide and serves more than 600,000 customer locations. For fiscal 2018 that ended June 30, 2018, the company generated sales of more than $58 billion. For more information, visit www.sysco.com or connect with Sysco on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SyscoCorporation or Twitter at https://twitter.com/Sysco . For important news and information regarding Sysco, visit the Investor Relations section of the companys Internet home page at investors.sysco.com, which Sysco plans to use as a primary channel for publishing key information to its investors, some of which may contain material and previously non-public information. Investors should also follow us at www.twitter.com/SyscoStock and download the Sysco IR App, available on the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Market. In addition, investors should continue to review our news releases and filings with the SEC. It is possible that the information we disclose through any of these channels of distribution could be deemed to be material information. About Friedas Inc. Friedas Specialty Produce has been inspiring new food experiences for friends, families, and food lovers everywhere since 1962. From kiwifruit and dragon fruit to Stokes Purple sweet potatoes and habanero peppers, Friedas has introduced more than 200 unique fruits and vegetables to the U.S. marketplace. Founded by produce industry trailblazer Dr. Frieda Rapoport Caplan, subject of the 2015 documentary Fear No Fruit, the family company is owned and operated by Friedas daughters, Karen Caplan and Jackie Caplan Wiggins, in Orange County, California. Find Friedas on Facebook , @FriedasProduce and Friedas.com . Inspire. Taste. Love. For more information contact: Camilla Zuckero Investor and Media Contact T 281-899-1839 Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 13:07:28|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Alicia Relinque, director of the Confucius Institute of Granada University, holds her translation work, The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu, at the Confucius Institute of Granada University in Granada, Spain, on Nov. 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Guo Qiuda) by Javier Ureta, Guo Qiuda GRANADA, Spain, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Having been translating some of the most precious ancient Chinese literary works to Spanish for decades, Alicia Relinque has found the key to happiness in her life. "It is the Chinese literature," said Relinque, director of the Confucius Institute of Granada University. A modest and peaceful lady in her 50's, the professor easily becomes eloquent when talking about Chinese culture and classic literature. Relinque's translation works include The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu in the 16th century -- a romantic play about a tragicomic love story, and The Orphan of Zhao -- a drama written in the 13th century similar to Hamlet. When translating The Golden Lotus, a famous Chinese novel composed during the Ming Dynasty, she slept only six hours every day in six years because she spent lots of time reading piles of documents about Chinese politics, history and society during that period of time. Thanks to Relinque's efforts, those classical Chinese literary works have been translated into Spanish for the first time. "It was a pleasure to spend hours studying. Sometimes you suffer because of the work that translating involves, but I also enjoy it and hope I can help others enjoy it as well," Relinque told Xinhua. Born in Madrid in 1960, Relinque's bond with China started with Bruce Lee's martial arts movies, which fascinated her so much. She began studying Chinese in 1976 and enjoyed it greatly. After she got to know Chinese literature, she wanted to share the beauty of this language with more Spaniards because at the time hardly anyone in Spain read Chinese literature. Relinque got a law degree at the Universidad Autonoma del Madrid but spent a lot of her spare time studying Chinese. She studied Chinese in Paris for some time and then was awarded a scholarship in 1985 to study in Peking University for four years. "I arrived in Beijing on August 15th," said Relinque. She initially found life difficult, but nevertheless felt "totally happy." As she adapted to life in China, she began a "marvelous" period of learning. "I felt culturally at home. It may seem odd, but the Spanish are not as different from the Chinese as we think. We like to eat and to talk, and we also have very similar concepts of family relations," she said. At the time when few foreigners went to China, Relinque was wandering in Beijing's alleys and discovering the Chinese ancient culture in historian documents. She later returned to Madrid to work as a teacher because "nobody knew anything about Chinese literature" then. After getting her doctorate, she learnt that the University of Granada was opening a department in Asian studies, so she moved to the city in south Spain in 1994 and has stayed there ever since. She started the Chinese classical literature study in Spain, and therefore made the University of Granada a major place of sinology in the country. Now Relinque teaches Chinese literary theory and criticism, Chinese theater and cinema, and general theory of Chinese language and literature. She attributes her love of Chinese literature to the depth of the personalities, the intensity of the emotions and the natural beauty highlighted in hundreds of Chinese stories she has read. "In Tang Xianzu's work I found that China in the 16th century was quite similar to Spain at that time. It was the beginning of the development of commodity economy and it was the time of the awakening of personalities of young people who were seeking free love. It was the greatness of Tang's work," said Relinque. Given her extraordinary work in translating Chinese classic literature, Relinque was granted a special award by the Chinese government in 2017. "I try to let my students see the complexity which dominates nearly all of the literature which comes from China. I hope I can help them feel the same happiness that it gives me," said the professor. "I want to show them that despite the distance between our countries, the Chinese are not distant or closed, but incredibly welcoming," Relinque said. Now Relinque travels to China several times every year. She is witnessing the development of the ancient civilization nowadays. "Spain should pay more attention to China, and on the other hand, I ask my students to study Chinese history, because the country's today and future lie in history," said Relinque. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 13:17:32|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close CHICAGO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- About 50 Chinese medical device manufacturers displayed their core technologies and latest achievements at a high-level meeting in the radiology industry that kicked off Sunday. The annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, an international society of radiologists, medical physicists and other medical professionals, will run six days. Neusoft Medical Systems Co. Ltd., one of the leading medical device manufacturers in China, put on display advanced CT, MR, PET-CT as well as other core technology components, marking its 19th consecutive year to attend the meeting. "In recent years, China's medical device industry has achieved development in leaps. Thanks to the application of artificial intelligence, some of the products made in China are now at world top level," said Patrick Wu, vice chairman of China Association of Medical Equipment and CEO of Neusoft Medical. The company's products are used in over 9,000 medical institutions in over 110 countries, with its total installed capacity exceeding 30,000 units, Wu said. "To compete with global medical equipment giants, our advantages lie in high quality, reasonable price and customer-oriented services," said Jiang Shuyin, vice president and general director of brand and public relations management center at Neusoft Medical. MinFound Medical Systems Co. Ltd., another medical device producer in China, also attended the annual meeting with its independently designed and produced CT equipment CURA-CT16 and ScintCareCT16, both having been granted certification by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "After spending five years in research and development, CURA-CT16 and ScintCareCT16, excellent in performance and stability, have gained widespread recognition in the world," said MinFound's CEO Jiang Haochuan. Jiang added that the company is committed to bringing positive changes to the international radiology industry and making Chinese brands influential in the world. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 14:07:43|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close Photo taken on Nov. 26, 2018 shows the United Nations Security Council holding an emergency meeting on the situation on Russia and Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York. UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday urged both Russia and Ukraine to step away from further confrontation at sea. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) MOSCOW, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Tensions flared up in the Kerch Strait after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships which allegedly breached the Russian border, while Kiev denied Moscow's "provocation" allegations. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed on Monday that Ukrainian Navy's "provocative" actions were devised by Kiev. "The provocation was coordinated by two officers of the Security Service of Ukraine, seconded to the crews of military boats," the FSB said in a statement. The security service also confirmed that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian naval ships in Russia's territorial waters in the Black Sea after they violated the Russian border. In a separate statement, the FSB said that Kiev did not inform Russia of the Ukrainian naval ships passing through the Kerch Strait in advance as requested and ignored multiple warnings by the Russian border guards. Russia's missile defense command decided to carry out preventive shooting after the border agencies had "exhausted all the measures necessary" to prevent violations of the Russian laws by the Ukrainian naval ships, the FSB said. According to the FSB, the Russian side detected the Ukrainian ships approaching the Russian border and informed them twice of the border crossing rules and navigation rules through the Kerch Strait, which stipulates filing a request 48 hours and 24 hours in advance and confirming it four hours in advance. In response, the commanders of the Ukrainian ships at first denied having planned to cross the Russian border or pass through the Kerch Strait, but later claimed that they "have the right to freedom of navigation" in accordance with a bilateral treaty signed in 2003. Ukraine has accused Russia of "aggressive actions" in the Sea of Azov after Russia inaugurated a bridge over the Kerch Strait earlier this year and started inspecting commercial ships sailing through the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Moscow rejects such accusations, saying Russia can exercise its sovereign rights in nearby waters off Crimea and the Kerch Strait is not an international passage. Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been deteriorating since Crimea was incorporated into Russia in March 2014 following a local referendum that was rejected by Kiev and Western countries. The latest developments of the Kerch Strait incident are likely to further drive up tensions, which in turn could lead to a larger military confrontation, observers said. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday supported a bill imposing a martial law in certain regions of the country for 30 days starting Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT). Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier in the day that Ukraine's actions were "a well-thought-out provocation" aimed at inciting regional tensions and creating a pretext for tougher sanctions against Russia. Echoing the ministry's remarks, Russian experts noted that the Ukrainian actions gained immediate support from Western countries, which are looking for fresh excuses to impose new sanctions on Russia. "It is very difficult to prove that Russia intervened in elections in the United States and other places, while such an action is very clear. This option as an excuse to increase the sanctions pressure on Russia will pass," said Andrei Suzdaltsev, deputy dean of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics of the Russia-based Higher School of Economics. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 14:12:46|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close LYON, France, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Ehang, a Chinese company of drone-taxis and commercial drones, signed a memorandum of understanding here on Monday to establish its first European research center. Ehang's founder Hu Huazhi said after the signing ceremony that Lyon is an ideal choice with its practical mobility, a friendly atmosphere for Chinese companies, as well as high-quality research human resources. Ehang aims to help Lyon turn into "a city of tomorrow" by its drone-taxi products, Hu said, adding that the research center will also be an important showcase for his company in Europe. The establishment of this center "will not be far," Hu said, without specifying details. The arrival of Ehang will certainly be favorable for the creation of jobs in Lyon, said David Kimelfeld, president of the metropolis of Lyon. The research center will reportedly create 50 jobs in three years. Based in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, Ehang was created in 2014, and has been described as "a leader" in the drone-taxi industry with its autonomous aerial vehicle Ehang 184 series. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 15:13:03|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China suspended open market operations on Tuesday, citing abundant liquidity in the financial system. It is the 23rd consecutive working day for the central bank to skip open market operations, a record since early 2016 when the bank announced increased frequency of open market operations. No reverse repos will mature this week. Analysts say the central bank prefers mid- to long-term policy tools over reverse repos, which boost liquidity in the banking system within a short period of time, as it faces a major task in reducing the costs of long-term financing. Lian Ping, chief economist with the Bank of Communications, has said the suspensions did not point to tightened monetary policy. "There was still room for targeted reduction in commercial banks' reserve requirement ratios," Lian told online financial information provider Jrj.com. A reverse repo is a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future. The central bank will maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy, easing or tightening only as appropriate, and make the financial sector better serve the real economy, according to a report published by the bank in early November. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 15:13:03|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- United Technologies Corp. announced on Monday that the company has the intention to separate its commercial businesses into independent entities. The Connecticut-based company first announced that its acquisition of Rockwell Collins, an avionics and information technology systems provider, was completed. The company anticipated the acquisition could add 0.15 to 0.20 U.S. dollars to adjusted earnings per share of its stocks in 2019. After the acquisition and separation, there could be three separate companies according to the announcement, including the aerospace and defense industry supplier United Technologies, the elevators manufacturer Otis, and the air conditioning product maker Carrier. "Our decision to separate United Technologies is a pivotal moment in our history and will best position each independent company to drive sustained growth, lead its industry in innovation and customer focus, and maximize value creation," said Gregory Hayes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of United Technologies. The company expected that the separation would be completed in 2020. However, the company said it would not guarantee the ultimate timing of the separation or whether the separation will be finally completed. "As standalone companies, United Technologies, Otis and Carrier will be ready to solve our customers' biggest challenges, provide rewarding career opportunities, and contribute positively to communities around the world," Hayes said. The company is a major provider of commercial and military jet engines, electronics and other high-tech products, which were fitted in a large number of advanced airliners built by Boeing and Airbus, as well as the United States Air Force jet fighters such as F-35s and F-22s. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 15:23:05|Editor: mym Video Player Close Afghans work at a milk factory in Kandahar city, the capital of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Nov. 20, 2018. People in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan's southern provinces, are making great efforts to seek development though the province is still under threats from insurgents. (Xinhua/Sanaullah Seiam) KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- People in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan's southern provinces, are making great efforts to seek development though the province is still under threats from insurgents. Two high quality milk processing and packing plants have recently been built in the province, processing over 65,000 liters of milk, along with other milk-based products, on a daily basis. The biggest plant, Milko Company, took 235,000 U.S. dollars to build and boasts 200 direct workers. The plant can process over 50,000 liters of milk, while the smaller one can process over 15,000 liters of milk per day. "We have more than 200 employees, with 30 women being directly employed and at least 1,000 indirect workers are the beneficiaries of the Milko Company, built in 2007," Meya Sahib, the owner of the plant told Xinhua recently. With sub- industries in the neighboring Helmand, Zabul and some other parts of the Kandahar province netting a monthly revenue of 22.5 million afghanis (295,000 U.S. dollars), the Milko Company supplies other milk-based products such as cheese, milk-cream, butter and yogurt. Meanwhile, Mohammadullah Noori, the promotion manager of the provincial agriculture department, said both milk processing units were of a high standard and besides this, thousands of liters of milk of various types were being processed, packed and sold through other small functional enterprises in parts of the provincial capital Kandahar city and adjoining areas every day. The official said more milk processing factories were needed in the province. Despite some social and traditional restrictions in girls' education in the province, up to 800 girls, far more compared to only 200 to 400 girls of previous years, have graduated from 12 grades this year. With nearly 100 schools currently remaining closed, official figures show that 377 schools, with 362,000 students including 79,000 girls, are now operational in the province. The number of girls leaving school before graduation has been considerably reduced, since the figure was very high, with up to 60 percent of female students prematurely leaving education in the past. In the southern provinces of the country, growing poppies in remote areas and many districts facilitates access to the use and finally addiction to drugs. However, a lot of addicted women have enrolled in a newly established addiction recovery center for treatment. Women are being provided with short-term professional training, in addition to their treatment. "Many women are willingly coming and registering their names with the women's drug treatment center," said Nasima, chairperson of the center. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 15:38:08|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Top internet company Google has struck a 1 billion-U.S.-dollar deal for a big industry park near its headquarters in California, the largest property purchase in the Bay Area this year, The Mercury News reported Monday. The newly acquired site is bigger than Google's existing Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, northern California. The park will occupy a total of 0.21 square km in space with 12 buildings. The deal is seen as another ambitious real estate expansion by the world's largest internet search company in Silicon Valley as it has bought more office space earlier this year in Sunnyvale, a city in Santa Clara County, California. The local newspaper said Google's mega-acquisition is the second largest property purchase in the United States this year. The company has bought a property in Manhattan, New York for 2.4 billion dollars. Earlier this month, Google agreed to buy more than 40,467 square meters from San Jose city for 110 million dollars for its expansion. Apart from the mega property acquisition, Google leased about 27,871 square meters of room for more than 1,500 of its employees in downtown San Francisco in early November, making it the third largest tech tenant in the city. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 15:43:13|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Deputy director of the University of Lisbon Joao Barreiros (2nd L), Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Cai Run (3rd L), Wang Xiaohui (4th L), executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and representatives of the exhibition organizers, cut the ribbon on the opening ceremony of an exhibition called "Wisdom of Confucius Culture" in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 26, 2018.(Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) LISBON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition called "Wisdom of Confucius Culture" kicked off on Monday at the Confucius Institute of Lisbon University in Portugal. Some 60 pictures of Confucius' stories, his hometown and the Confucius Temple were on display, reflecting the enchantment of Confucianism and the development of eastern China's Shandong Province, where Confucius was born more than 2,500 years ago. Confucius, an ancient Chinese educator and philosopher, as well as Confucianism, have profoundly influenced the historical progress of Chinese society, and has been nurturing the spiritual world of the Chinese nation. The exhibition will further the exchange and blend of culture between China and Portugal, said Wang Xiaohui, executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Deputy Director of Lisbon University Joao Barreiros said the exhibition is the continuation of the cultural exchange that the university has always encouraged. Confucius Institutes have played an important role in bilateral cultural and academic exchanges, Barreiros added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 15:48:15|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. aerospace leader Boeing Company said Monday that Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines has placed an order for three more 777 freighters to expand its long-haul freighter fleet. Boeing said the new order came a few days after Turkish Airlines posted record double-digit profits for the first nine months of 2018 due to strong passenger and cargo demand. The Turkish carrier's air freight business increased 25 percent in tonnage terms, with its revenue growing 29 percent over the same period of last year. With the rapid growth of its profits and strong business performance, Turkey has become one of the largest and fastest-growing aviation markets in recent years. Turkey has been making constant efforts to expand its current and future aircraft fleet. It ordered three Boeing 777 freighters last January and finalized an order for 25 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners with five options in March last year. Turkish Airlines also began taking delivery of new 737 MAX single-aisle passenger jets over the past several months. Its fleet of Boeing aircraft has grown to more than 160 jets, while nearly 100 additional planes are on order. Boeing said the 777 freighters have a maximum range of 89,070 km with a full payload of 102 metric tons, which will save the Turkish carrier a large amount of fuel, cargo handling costs and delivery time. Boasting more than 30 Boeing 777 jets in its fleet, Turkish Airlines is one of the top 10 operators of the wide-body jet in Europe and the Middle East. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) is pleased to welcome two full-time commissioners as outlined in the Province of British Columbia Order in Council (OIC) No. 619. Effective November 26, 2018, E. Blair Lockhart and Tom Loski have been appointed to four-year terms as full-time BCUC commissioners. These appointments will greatly improve and expand the capacity of the BCUC, said David Morton, Chair and CEO of the BC Utilities Commission. The four-year appointment terms are also an important step in helping us recruit and attract qualified professionals like Blair and Tom to the BCUC. In addition, effective December 31, 2018, the following commissioners have been reappointed to terms ending on December 31, 2021: Dennis Cote Richard Mason The commissioners listed below have been reappointed to terms ending on December 31, 2019: Miriam Kresivo, Q.C. Bernard Magnan Richard Revel We are encouraged to see longer term appointments for several commissioners as this is important to the overall success and effectiveness of the BCUC, said Morton. These appointments provide both the Commissioners and the BCUC with stability, continuity and consistency which is vital to the complex and highly technical work we do. To read Order in Council No. 619 please visit the following link: Click here . COMMISSIONER BIOGRAPHIES Blair Lockhart has practised law since 1991. She has a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Laws in International Environmental Law from SOAS at the University of London. Blair is also a Geologist with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Manitoba and a Master of Science from the University of Alberta. Blair was a prosecutor with the Attorney General as well as general counsel for several mineral exploration companies. Blair volunteers extensively and served as National President for CISV Canada, an international children's peace education organization. Tom Loski has 34 years of experience working with energy utilities in British Columbia. Tom spent the majority of his career with the FortisBC group of companies and its predecessors, where he held a variety of senior management and executive roles. This experience included positions in finance, strategic planning, operations, marketing, energy supply, regulatory affairs and customer service, where he served as the Vice President responsible for the successful repatriation of the customer service function after having been outsourced ten years previously. For many years, Tom was responsible for the development and implementation of corporate regulatory strategy as the Chief Regulatory Officer for FortisBC, a position he also held at BC Hydro. Tom is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC, earning his CMA designation in 1985. The reappointed commissioners biographies are available on the BCUCs website at: Click here About the BCUC The BCUC is a regulatory agency responsible for oversight of energy utilities and compulsory auto insurance in British Columbia. It is the BCUCs role to balance the interests of customers with the interests of the businesses it regulates. The BCUC carries out fair and transparent reviews of matters within its jurisdiction and considers public input where public interest is impacted. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 15:48:16|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WINDHOEK, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) Namibia and Huawei on Monday night commemorated a ten-year partnership resulting in a substantial market penetration. Chinese company Huawei and MTC have been in a technological transfer partnership with the Namibian Government owned MTC for the past ten years contributing significantly to the company's growth. Speaking at the decade anniversary celebrations in Windhoek, Namibian President Hage Geingob said the partnership is a solid foundation of how best South-South cooperation presents fair opportunities for business. "This partnership has played a role in ensuring that Namibians have access to the latest in mobile communication technology and ensuring that we remain at part with our global peers," Geingob said. Geingob also reiterated that the growing partnership between the two companies is a testimony of growing business links between China and Namibia. "While we encourage smart partnerships between Namibian businesses and foreign businesses, it is important that these partnerships and relations be mutually beneficial, and that Namibians benefit in the short and long-term," he added. Geingob commended the technology transfer to Namibia driven by the two companies. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 16:03:19|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close DHAKA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A High Court division bench in Bangladesh on Tuesday ordered that nobody can compete in polls if he or she is imprisoned for more than two years, meaning former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is "ineligible" for general elections slated for Dec. 30, the country's Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told media shortly after the court ruling. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 16:23:24|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close DHAKA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A High Court division bench in Bangladesh on Tuesday said a convict jailed to more than two years cannot contest the election. The High Court division bench of Justice Mohammad Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice KM Hafizul Alam passed the order, rejecting an appeal seeking a stay order on the imprisonment of ex-Prime Minister Minister Khaleda Zia's five opposition (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) BNP leaders. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told journalists shortly after the court ruling that ex-PM Khaleda Zia, who was found guilty of a corruption charge and sentenced to five years in prison in February, is "ineligible" for general elections slated for Dec. 30. A BNP spokesman was not immediately available for comment. The major opposition alliance led by ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's BNP has already announced to contest the parliamentary polls slated for next month. BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the announcement, urging the government to ensure a level playing field for holding a free, fair and neutral election. The ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which rose to power with a landslide election victory in early 2009 and won its second term in 2014, is facing challenges from Zia's BNP and its allies, which boycotted the 2014 elections. BNP has been demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners including BNP chairperson Zia, who has been in jail since February in a corruption case. Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League party said the release of Khaleda Zia, also chairperson of BNP, from jail is a matter of court's decision. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 17:08:32|Editor: mmm Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday adopted a resolution to boost cooperation between the United Nations and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization(CTBTO). At the 39th plenary meeting of the General Assembly 73rd session, member states expressed strong support for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, adding that its verification regime is a critical element of the global nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament architecture. Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the CTBTO's Preparatory Commission, said that if the international community is serious about its commitment to achieve a world free from nuclear tests, it must be prepared to "act upon every opportunity to promote the instrument and advance its entry into force." "There is no greater threat to peace and security than the use of weapons of mass destruction," he said. Several member states also expressed support for boosting cooperation between the United Nations and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). Spain's delegate Maria Bassols Delgado said that fighting terrorism and transnational crime requires sufficient cooperation among various stakeholders. On the same day, the UNGA also adopted resolutions calling for more cooperation between the UN and other international and regional organizations, such as the Council of Europe and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. One resolution on the impact of rapid technological change on 2030 Agenda goals was also adopted at the Assembly. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 17:28:38|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close MOSCOW, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in the Kerch Strait with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone, the Kremlin press service said in a statement Tuesday. In the conversation initiated by Germany, Putin said the Ukrainian action was a "violation of the norms of international law by its warships," the statement said. The Russian president also expressed his concern over Kiev's decision to bring its military forces into full combat readiness and declare martial law. "It was emphasized that the Ukrainian leadership bears full responsibility for creating another conflict situation and the associated risks," the statement said. Putin also expressed hope that Berlin will "influence the Ukrainian authorities and keep them from making further hasty decisions," the statement added. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian military sailors. Russia's Federal Security Service said the Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border, and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of Russia's orders. The Ukrainian Navy said it has informed Russia in advance about the passage of Ukrainian vessels from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, calling Russia's actions an "act of aggression." The Ukrainian parliament on Monday supported a bill imposing a martial law in certain regions of the country for 30 days starting Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT). Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 17:58:46|Editor: mym Video Player Close People attend an anti-Amazon rally in Long Island City of New York, the United States, Nov. 26, 2018. Hundreds of New Yorkers braved heavy rains and gathered in a Long Island City neighborhood on Monday evening to protest e-commerce giant Amazon's recent announcement of locating a second headquarters (HQ2) here. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) NEW YORK, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of New Yorkers braved heavy rains and gathered in a Long Island City neighborhood on Monday evening to protest e-commerce giant Amazon's recent announcement of locating a second headquarters (HQ2) here. In raincoats or holding umbrellas, the protesters took over Court Square Park, a block away from Amazon's proposed site, and chanted slogans like "We say no!" for about an hour, before marching toward other parts of the area at around 6 p.m. (2300 GMT). The Seattle-based Amazon announced earlier this month a plan to split its second headquarters in the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island and Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. It has promised to host around 25,000 jobs in the New York offices, with an average salary of 150,000 U.S. dollars a year. Both New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed the deal, offering a total of 2.8 billion dollars of incentives, including tax credits and grants from the state, and another two big tax breaks from the city if the company meets the 25,000 jobs target. "I'm very upset that we're giving away taxpayer's money and tax credits and tax abatements to the richest man on earth," Jeremy Rosenberg, a 26-year-old attorney who lives in the neighborhood, told Xinhua, referring to Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. "We have other things that we can spend the money on, and it's time to bring real people who live in the community to the table," he added. Many protesters, including Rosenberg, think the city should use taxpayers' money to fix chronic issues that has plagued the waterfront neighborhood, such as poor infrastructure and a crumbling subway system that suffers constant breakdowns and delays. "When it rains, storm water and waste water flow back into the river, into people's basements, into the old loft building I live in," complained Ernie Brooks, a local resident in the protesting crowd. "There's no real planning for the neighborhood by the city. They are supposed to care about sustainability." Some also doesn't buy Amazon's promise of creating local jobs. "They will try to find any reason to say we are not qualified for it," said Rachel Rivera, a 39-year-old jobless single mother. "They could say 'Oh you don't have a high school diploma so you don't qualify'...There's always a way for finding a loophole to not hire you from locally." The protest took place on "Cyber Monday," a day promoted by online retailers for exceptional bargains after the Thanksgiving holiday and traditional Black Friday sales. Amazon was among the top winners of last year's Cyber Monday with record-breaking one-day sales. The company has said it will invest some 2.5 billion dollars in New York as part of the deal. It has also promised to participate in job fairs and personal resume workshops at the nearby Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing project in the country with over 3,100 units for low-income groups. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 18:03:48|Editor: mmm Video Player Close MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Anti-government militants, obviously Taliban insurgents, stopped two mini-buses in Zari district of Afghan northern Balkh province and kidnapped 25 commuters, taking them to unknown locations on Tuesday, police said. "A group of militants stopped two mini-buses in Zari district today morning and took 25 commuters to unknown locations," deputy to district police chief Ghafor Khan told Xinhua. He also added that the militants before kidnapping the travelers, separated them from their female members and asked the women to go home. The official, however, blamed Taliban militants for kidnapping of the passengers, saying Taliban insurgents in attempt to terrorize the people have kidnapped the innocent commuters. Taliban militants are yet to claim responsibility for the kidnapping. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 18:28:55|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close HARARE, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government has warned the opposition MDC Alliance that it will be held accountable if its planned demonstration on Thursday results in loss of life and limb or damage to property. The warning follows post election violence which happened on Aug. 1 and resulted in the loss of six lives and damage to property. MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has said his party will demonstrate to push for a transitional authority, arguing that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is not legitimately in office. State-controlled newspaper the Herald reported Tuesday that Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications) George Charamba told it that the onus was on the opposition party to ensure there was no injury to life and damage to property. "Section 59 of the Constitution is very clear, it confers the right to demonstrate on all Zimbabweans," he said. "There is no intention of withdrawing that constitutional right except there is a qualification on that right both at the level of the Constitution and subsidiary law. "Apparently, our laws place a burden on the organizers of that demonstration to make sure there is no injury to life, limb or property. In the event of any damage at whatever level, the onus is on the organizers and that must be known fully by the MDC Alliance," he said. Charamba added that the demonstrators would not be given access to certain protected areas. "There are certain places which are protected at law which means you can't violate those places and there is a difference between expressing your grievance and violating the law," he said. "Certain things may not happen," he warned. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 18:33:56|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WINDHOEK, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese company Huawei, together with Namibia's telecommunications provider MTC, is availing funds for the construction of 250 low-cost houses in Namibia. The donation of 10 million Namibia dollars (722,000 U.S. dollars) to the Namibia Shack Dwellers Federations was announced at a gala dinner held on Monday evening in Windhoek at the 10-year partnership celebrations between MTC and Huawei. Namibia's President Hage Geingob said at the event said that this partnership is indicative of the all-weather friendship shared between Namibia and China. "It is also an example of the results of South-South cooperation, where two telecommunications partners have joined forces to bring world class technologies to Namibia while contributing to the wellbeing of society," he added. Kian Chen, Managing Director of Huawei Namibia, said that rooted in Namibia for more than a decade, Huawei has been proactively fulfilling its corporate social responsibility for a long-term and sustainable value creation with our partners. "We are grateful to be in this journey with MTC in facilitating the development of the local communities and result in win-win situations by enhancing ICT infrastructure with customers, nurturing an ecosystem with industrial and academic partners, bridging digital divide by cultivating ICT talent, to contribute to the goal of shared prosperity," Kian added. Speaking at the same occasion, MTC's Chief Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Officer Tim Ekandjo said a house is not a privilege but a societal necessity and its provision thereof does not have to continue being a challenge. In the southwestern African nation, it is estimated that there are currently close to 300,000 people living in shack dwellings in informal settlements throughout the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 18:43:59|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close HARARE, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe, which is facing serious foreign currency shortages, has called on local firms to prioritize local ahead of foreign firms when awarding contracts to preserve the scarce money. However, this should be done according to regulations governing procurement processes as well as international best practice, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance George Guvamatanga said. He was quoted by the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Tuesday as saying that the engagement of local contractors enhances economic activity, boosts job creation and propels the country's goal of becoming an upper middle class economy by 2030. "As part of the economic development plan, engagement of external contractors should be done in cases where there is no local capacity and expertise, that way reducing foreign currency exposure," Guvamatanga said. He said in the event of an external contractor being engaged, the contract should be scrutinized to ensure value for money while also considering the participation of locals as sub-contractors. Zimbabwe is facing an acute shortage of foreign currency which has affected importation of critical products such as fuel and medical drugs. TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), today announced the final November 2018 cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF. Unitholders of record on November 28, 2018 will receive cash distributions payable on November 30, 2018. Details regarding the final per unit distribution amounts are as follows: Fund Name Fund Ticker Cash Distribution Per Unit ($) iShares Premium Money Market ETF CMR 0.072 Further information on the iShares ETFs can be found at http://www.blackrock.com/ca . About BlackRock BlackRock helps investors build better financial futures. As a fiduciary to our clients, we provide the investment and technology solutions they need when planning for their most important goals. As of September 30, 2018, the firm managed approximately US$6.44 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/ca | Twitter: @BlackRockCA | Blog: www.blackrockblog.com/can About iShares ETFs iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 800+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and US$1.8 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2018, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock, trusted to manage more money than any other investment firm1. 1 Based on US$6.44 trillion in AUM as of 9/30/18 iShares ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional. Contact for Media: Julia Koene T 416-643-4010 Email: Julia.Koene@blackrock.com Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 18:59:03|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The police in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, located in the Bay of Bengal, have failed to recover the dead body of the U.S. citizen who was killed by isolated tribals - "Sentinelese" on Nov. 16, after seeing the tribesmen armed with spears, bows and arrows. The police say that they are not authorized to force their way into the tribesmen's territory, as "they are a treasure". "They are a treasure. We cannot go and force our way in. We don't want to harm them," said Andaman and Nicobar islands' top police officer Dependera Pathak. "We watched them from a distance and they watched us from a distance. We are looking carefully at what happened then, and what the Sentinelese did. We are consulting anthropologists to see what kind of friendly gesture we can make." The police have tried to approach the island inhabited by the tribals, who, it is believed, are descendants of Africans and migrated to the area about 50,000 years ago. They survive on the small, forested island by hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants. Almost nothing is known of their lives, except that they attack outsiders with spears or bows and arrows, reported the English daily Hindustan Times. According to media reports, U.S. citizen John Allen Chau had intruded into the Sentinelese' island on Nov. 16 after allegedly bribing the local fishermen, in a bid to interact with the tribesmen. As per the Indian laws, entering the isolated island is strictly prohibited. The fishermen, who have been in police custody ever since the incident happened, told the local government authorities that they saw the Sentinelese killing and burying Chau's body on the beach. The notes Chau left behind reportedly say that he wanted to convert the islanders to Christianity. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 19:24:09|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with former British Prime Minister David Cameron in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with former British Prime Minister David Cameron in Beijing Tuesday, saying China stands ready to work with Britain to strengthen bilateral ties in order to benefit both countries and peoples. During their meeting at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing, Li spoke highly of Cameron's contribution to China-Britain ties when he served as British prime minister. China attaches great importance to its relations with Britain, Li told Cameron, saying that China is ready to work with Britain to consolidate political mutual understanding, enhance cooperation in key areas such as the economy, trade and finance and further tap potentials of investment to make bilateral cooperation yield more win-win results and better benefit both peoples. Noting that the world has paid a lot of attention to the agreement between Britain and the European Union (EU) on the Brexit deal at present, Li said China is glad to see a peaceful, stable, prosperous and open Britain and EU as both of them are China's important partners. China will continue to promote the healthy and steady development of China-Britain and China-EU ties and would like to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade and realize mutually beneficial cooperation, said Li. Cameron said with both sides' efforts, Britain-China relations entered into a golden era while he was in office. Hailing the enhanced bilateral cooperation and increasing growth of two-way investment and trade, Cameron said Britain will firmly support rules-based multilateralism and free trade as always. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 19:34:11|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close CANBERRA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in Australia hosted a reception on Tuesday, at which Chinese officials had exchanges with Australian students who are going to study in China. The 13 students present at the reception are funded by the 2019 New Colombo Plan, an initiative of the Australian government which aims to lift knowledge. Minister Cai Wei of the Chinese embassy, said that China is the most popular destination for Australian students covered by the New Colombo Plan. He hopes that the students could become ambassador for the friendship between China and Australia. Elly Lawson, Assistant Secretary of the East Asia Branch in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that the number of students and scholars visited the Chinese mainland under the New Colombo Plan would exceed 6,000 by 2020. She hopes that the students could learn more about China and make more friends there, playing a positive role in exchanges between the two countries. "China has special attraction for Australian students," said Sean Yeoh, who is going to China in 2019. "Its population exceeds 1.3 billion and growth of GDP is more than six percent." He said that he will establish good relationship with the Chinese after he goes to China, and make contribution to the Sino-Australian relationship. Sarel Steinauer from the Curtin University will be studying for one and a half years in Beijing and Shanghai. "I like Chinese culture," he said. "I would like to visit more places." During the exchanges, Zong Wa, Minister-Counselor for education of the Chinese embassy, gave students a lecture about China's education, while other officials with the embassy talked about the China's culture, trade, and tips for traveling in China. Students also learned how to make dumplings at the reception. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 19:34:13|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close NANNING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- For Chan Ka-ling, commuting between Hong Kong and Guilin, in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has become so much easier thanks to high-speed trains between the Chinese mainland and Hong kong. "In the past, it took at least six hours because I had to transfer in Shenzhen or Guangzhou, but thanks to high-speed trains, it has become so much easier," said Chan, a Hong Kong businessman working in Guilin. He travels between the two cities every week. The entire Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link line was put into official operation in September and travel between the cities only takes three hours and 19 minutes. Guilin is known for its picturesque karst mountains and beautiful rivers. With high-speed trains linking Hong Kong and the mainland, Guilin and its neighboring cities have become a big attraction for visitors from Hong Kong and Macao. In October, Guilin received 54,500 tourists from Hong Kong and Macao, up 39 percent year on year. Before 2014, only one rail route passed through Guilin. The trains were slow, putting off many potential visitors. In 2014, the Guiyang-Guangzhou High-speed Railway connecting Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, went into operation, making travel times shorter. "We have traveled to Guangxi many, many times," said Huang Enping, a tourist from Guangdong. "The trains are always full of people." The Guiyang-Guangzhou High-speed Railway connects many of Guangxi's tourism cities like Hezhou, Guilin and Sanjiang. The short travel time has contributed to a tourism boom in Guangxi, with many choosing to visit on weekends. According to local authorities in Guilin, there are currently nine stations for high-speed trains, with more than 200 trains making stops each day. The trains connect Guilin with many cities across the country. The trains have boosted local tourism. According to Guilin's transport authorities, in 2014 Guilin saw 38.7 million tourists for the whole year. This year, the city received close to 80 million visitors in the first three quarters. Close to the high-speed railway stations in Guilin, the number of shopping centers and restaurants has shot up. "High-speed trains are just like a huge magnet," said Tang Ling, a professor with Guangxi Normal University. "Guilin is hot again, bringing many opportunities for people who used to live deep in the mountains." Guangxi is home to multiple ethnic groups, and the high-speed trains have brought many visitors to their villages tucked away in the mountains. "Every Friday, we have to prepare traditional ethnic banquets to entertain the guests, and we also put on many ethnic shows," said Wu Wanting, a resident in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County. Wu used to make money by farming and working in cities, but now high-speed trains have brought tourists to her hometown. Wu has not only escaped poverty, but now also can stay at home to take care of her kids. "I can make more than 60,000 yuan (8.646 U.S. dollars) a year nowadays," she said. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Guangxi's founding as an autonomous region. In 1958, Guangxi had just three railways, spanning 1,346 km, connecting with neighboring provinces. Sixty years later, the railway route length has expanded to 5,191 km, including 1,771 km for high-speed trains. In Guilin, a "high-speed railway economic belt experimental area of cooperation for Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou" has been established. The area is being developed and is expected to become an economic hub worth 10 billion yuan. "Guangxi is China's first ethnic autonomous region to have high-speed trains, which has put the region's development on fast track," said Kang Wei, with the Nanning branch of China Railway. Kang said that two more railways are being built in Guangxi and are expected to facilitate international trade. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 19:39:14|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close COLOMBO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's political crisis entered its second month Tuesday with legislators loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa boycotting parliamentary sessions for the second time, against Speaker Karu Jayasuriya's decision to not recognize them as the legitimate government. Several MPs including Rajapakse, who was appointed as the prime minister by President Maithripala Sirisena on Oct. 26, after Sirisena surprisingly sacked his former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, said they would boycott sessions till such time the speaker recognizes them as the ruling party. Speaker Jayasuriya, during a parliamentary session last week said there was no prime minister or government anymore as Rajapakse and his government had been defeated in a no-confidence vote. "We have clearly said that the speaker does not have the powers to oppose the decisions of the president and neither does he have the power to select a prime minister. We will not recognize the speaker as the legitimate speaker anymore," Wimal Weerawansa, Leader of the National Freedom Front, a party loyal to Rajapakse, told journalists from the parliamentary premises. He further said Rajapakse's government would continue to call for a parliamentary election in order to resolve the ongoing political crisis. Legislators from ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's party, the United National Party (UNP), informed the speaker that the purported government had failed to show a majority after it was defeated in two no-confidence motions in parliament. UNP MP Eran Wickramaratne requested the speaker to inform President Maithripala Sirisena to appoint a new prime minister and government from the party which had sown its majority in parliament, in order to end the political instability. Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a severe political crisis after President Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed former President Mahinda Rajapakse as the new prime minister last month. The UNP has alleged that the removal of Wickremesinghe was "unconstitutional" and said the new caretaker government could not continue in office as they had been defeated in the no-confidence motions in parliament. Sirisena has however rejected the results of the no-confidence votes saying it had not been conducted in a "constitutional manner" by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and requested parliament to conduct the vote again. Sirisena has maintained that the present crisis is not serious and will not affect the daily lives of citizens and assured the political unrest would be settled soon. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 19:44:18|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (R) meets with a delegation of China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Nov. 27, 2018. Malaysia welcomes foreign direct investment from China and looks forward to the opportunities brought by the investment, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said here Tuesday. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia welcomes foreign direct investment from China and looks forward to the opportunities brought by the investment, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said here Tuesday. Meeting with a delegation of China Entrepreneur Club (CEC), Mahathir reiterated that Malaysia welcomes foreign direct investment from China and welcomes Chinese companies, especially in the manufacturing sector, as Chinese companies have the capital and technology. The people in Malaysia look forward to the opportunities brought by the Chinese investment, he said, adding that his government is willing to listen to the Chinese companies to achieve a win-win outcome. Ma Weihua, president of the CEC and former president of China Merchants Bank, said the main purpose of the visit is to communicate with Malaysia's business community to better implement the consensus and cooperation reached by leaders of the two countries, so as to further bilateral cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative. During his official visit to China in August, Mahathir attended China Entrepreneur Leaders Forum hosted by China Entrepreneur Club, when he sought to attract investment from the leading Chinese entrepreneurs, including Jack Ma of e-commerce giant Alibaba. On Tuesday, the delegation also held a meeting with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), when its chief executive officer Azman Mahmud said Malaysia recognized China's strengths and its domestic technology base and had taken steps to encourage investment through favorable conditions. "We share China's view that the best way to face the global economic headwinds is to increase cooperation and create mutually beneficial and sustainable growth through trade and investments," he said. China has been Malaysia's largest trading partner for nine consecutive years with a trade volume exceeding 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2017. According to MIDA, China accounted for 6.5 billion ringgit, or 43 percent of the total foreign investments in the Malaysia's manufacturing sector in the first half of 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 19:44:20|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WELLINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Goods imports from China were up 430 million NZ dollars (291.6 million U.S. dollars), reaching 1.5 billion NZ dollars in October, which is the largest dollar value increase for monthly Chinese imports on record, New Zealand statistics department Stats NZ said on Tuesday. China is New Zealand's largest trading partner. It is a key supplier of goods such as cellphones and computers, and is a big export market for dairy products, wood and meat, according to Stats NZ. Exports to China rose 242 million NZ dollars to 1.2 billion NZ dollars when compared with the same month a year ago, statistics show. "October 2018 marks the 10-year anniversary of the New Zealand-China free trade agreement," international statistics manager Tehseen Islam said. Two-way goods trade with China is continuing to strengthen. On an annual basis, imports from China are twice the value they were in the October 2008 year, while exports have more than quadrupled, Islam said. Annual goods imports from China have increased 6.1 billion NZ dollars since the October 2008 year to 12.3 billion NZ dollars in the October 2018 year, statistics showed. In the past decade, annual cellphone imports from China were up 644 million NZ dollars, to 781 million NZ dollars, while computer imports rose 479 million NZ dollars to 955 million NZ dollars, according to Stats NZ. Over the last 10 years, annual goods exports to China increased 11.2 billion NZ dollars to reach 13.5 billion NZ dollars in the year ended October 2018. Milk powder, butter, and cheese led this rise, with milk powder alone up 2.1 billion NZ dollars, it said. Logs, wood, and wood articles and meat and edible offal were also key contributors to the exports rise, the department said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:09:25|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- In the latest criticism of the massive incentive package for Amazon, New York State Senator Michael Gianaris said the e-commerce giant's 14-month selection process for new headquarters has been a "charade," and it squeezed governments for subsidies it doesn't deserve. "I am very much opposed to it," Gianaris said in local radio program "The Cats Roundtable" on Friday. "Amazon is probably the last company on earth that needs money," Gianaris said, denouncing the misuse of "public tax dollars." Gianaris' remarks came 10 days after the Seattle-based company announced to locate its new headquarters in New York City and Arlington County, Virginia, a suburb of the capital city. Amazon's promise of 5-billion-U.S.-dollar investment and more than 50,000 jobs might sound appealing, but a total incentive package of over 2 billion U.S. dollars has drawn mixed reactions. Virginia will grant 550 million dollars of direct incentives over 12 years as long as Amazon creates 25,000 jobs with an average wage of over 150,000 dollars in Arlington. New York State, meanwhile, will offer more than 1.5 billion dollars in credits and incentives if the company meets job creation and building occupancy targets, according to the company's press release. A focal point of the discussion is whether the generous incentive package New York State and Virginia offered actually made a difference in Amazon's decision to select its second headquarters out of more than 200 candidates. Gianaris, whose Queens District includes the Long Island city neighborhood where Amazon is located, believes that the company knew all along where it wanted to end up. "I think it's no surprise that they chose New York and Washington, D.C. This is the financial capital and the governmental capital of the country." A recent study published by Michael Farren and Anne Philpot from George Mason University said that such subsidies worth billions of dollars are "unlikely to sway Amazon's decision." They said cities and states are "throwing their money away" when they court Amazon's favor through subsidies. The authors noted that what some of the 20 semifinalists offered dwarfed what New York and Virginia offered -- for example, Maryland promised an 8.5-billion subsidy -- but the intensity of final negotiations only allowed Amazon to drive up the size of the subsidy. The study concluded that other factors are more important in corporate location decisions, with the presence of a skilled workforce topping the list. The Brookings Institution cited a 2017 survey showing that New York and Washington D.C. regions outpace other metro areas in terms of people working in computer and mathematical occupations, and said this is what made them competitive in the fierce bidding war. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, also highlighted the talent factor in making the final decision. "These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come," Bezos said. In the radio program, Gianaris also mentioned a recent 20,000-job expansion in New York City by Google, which didn't get any incentives. "So why Amazon needs it while Google doesn't is simply a matter of bad policy and sacrificing when we don't have to sacrifice." In an opinion piece released earlier last week, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, however, spared no efforts to defend the incentives. "For high wealth individuals or large employee corporations, taxes would always be an economic decision point and several percentage points in tax rates makes a big difference." Cuomo pointed out that every U.S. state offers incentives to attract businesses, and without the incentive, Amazon would not come to New York and would not bring their revenues or jobs. "The essence of the Amazon competition was that they were shopping for the best economic benefits." Amazon is not alone in receiving massive incentives for bringing job opportunities. Last year, Apple decided to set up a 50-person data center in Iowa and was promised over 200 million dollars tax credits. Foxconn could be awarded over 3 billion dollars of tax credits and breaks for its new factory in Wisconsin, which could hire up to 13,000 people. U.S. states and cities together offer an estimated 90 billion U.S. dollars of cash and tax incentives for big companies such as Amazon, according to the New York Times. But will it pay off? In an earlier statement, Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the Amazon project is expected to create 13.5 billion U.S. dollars in city tax revenue over the next 25 years. "The project provides a 9:1 return on investment." Virginia Governor Ralph Northam also said earlier that the project will result in more than 3.2 billion in state revenue over the next 20 years after accounting for direct incentives. David Reibstein, a marketing professor from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, told Xinhua that he thinks it is necessary for cities to cut deals for big companies. "Two billion is a big number, but I think it will pay for itself." But the two professors from George Mason University don't agree. "Targeted economic development subsidies don't lead to broad-based economic growth or improvements in community welfare when measured against comparison cities," they said. " The major beneficiaries are the companies receiving the subsidies." They believe that targeted tax cuts will distort the market forces of supply and demand, leading to lower economic efficiency. They suggested offering tax cuts for all companies instead. Anyhow, local governments should conduct comprehensive research before making such decisions. "I would certainly hope that each of the cities did that detailed analysis before they offered the incentives they did," Reibstein said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:29:32|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian and Chinese businesses on Tuesday expressed high hopes that an Africa-China business forum scheduled to be held in Ethiopia from Dec. 3 to 5 would further deepen ties between Chinese and African businesses. Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa will host the high-level forum next week as some 41 Chinese companies are expected to participate, aspiring to create business partnerships with their Ethiopian and African counterparts. Aynalem Abayneh, Board member of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (ECCSA), said on Tuesday that the forum focuses on deepening the comprehensive partnership of Ethiopia and China so as to encourage the operation of industry and commerce of the two countries. Chinese companies that are engaged in 29 different sectors will take part at the high-level forum, which will also host various other side events, including the China-Ethiopia industrial capacity cooperation forum, investment promotion conference, visit to some of Ethiopia's industrial parks, as well as business to business meeting sessions among Chinese and Ethiopian as well as other African business people, according to the organizers. China International Exhibition Center (CIEC) Deputy Manager Liu Jian said that the forum, sponsored by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in partnership with the China-Africa Development Fund and Ethiopia's ECCSA, will serve as a platform in creating linkage among African and Chinese business people. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:34:35|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Hernan Lombardi, technical coordinator of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit, answers questions during an interview with Xinhua in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 23, 2018. As the host of the upcoming G20 Summit, Argentina aims to consolidate the gathering's role as an effective multilateral mechanism and redefine the summit with an eye to the future, Lombardi said. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala) BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- As the host of the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) Summit, Argentina aims to consolidate the gathering's role as an effective multilateral mechanism and redefine the summit with an eye to the future, a senior official of the country has said. Against the backdrop of rising unilateralism and protectionism that threatens growth, Argentina, with a strategic global view, focused on the summit's long-term development and how it needs to be used as an effective multilateral mechanism, said Hernan Lombardi, head of Argentina's Federal System of Media and Public Content, in a recent interview with Xinhua. He also serves as a technical coordinator of the G20 Summit. The 13th G20 summit, under the theme of Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development, will be held for the first time in a South American country from Friday to Saturday. With the attendance of leaders from world's major economies, the summit will put emphasis on global growth, sustainable development, trade and investment as well as climate change. Chinese President Xi Jinping left Beijing on Tuesday morning for an European and Latin American trip, which will take him to the Argentine capital for the summit. During the event, Xi will reaffirm China's commitment to opening-up, cooperation and common development with all partners. The event will also serve as an opportunity to champion free trade under the current circumstance, Lombardi said, adding that "Argentina is permanently focusing on working towards freer trade and avoiding restrictions." "We believe that better trade, more trade, are of greater benefit to all countries," he added. In a letter to Xi in May, Argentine President Mauricio Macri said while holding the G20 presidency, his country will continue the consensus and results achieved at the 2016 G20 Summit held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Hosting the summit offers a chance for Argentina's greater integration with the international community, Lombardi said. He hoped the summit will yield "very good results for all inhabitants of the planet." For the Argentina-China relations, Lombardi said the comprehensive strategic partnership benefits both countries and both peoples. He drew more parallels between the two countries, saying the South American nation was following "a path similar to China's" because Argentina will host the World Expo in 2023 in Buenos Aires, as China did in Shanghai in 2010; it is about to host the G20 summit, as China did two years ago in Beijing; and it recently hosted the Youth Olympic Games, as did Nanjing not long ago. The coordinator thanked China for its support of the youth games in Argentina, the upcoming G20 summit and "for getting Buenos Aires nominated to host the 2023 World Expo." NEWMARKET, Ontario, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AirBoss of America Corp. (the "Company") (TSX:BOS) announced today that the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") has accepted its Notice of Intention to renew its normal course issuer bid for its common shares (the "Bid"). Purchases made pursuant to the Bid will be made in the open market through the facilities of the TSX and alternative Canadian trading systems, if eligible, in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements. For its current Bid that expires on November 29, 2018, the Company previously sought and received approval from the TSX to repurchase up to 1,359,443 common shares. The Company has purchased 29,009 common shares for cancellation to date over the course of the current Bid, at a weighted average price of $10.99 per common share. All purchases were made on the open market through the facilities of the TSX. As of date hereof, the Company has 23,422,006 common shares issued and outstanding. Pursuant to the renewed Bid, the Company may re-purchase up to 1,283,497 of its common shares (representing approximately 10% of the Company's public float of 12,834,979 common shares as of November 20, 2018). The renewed Bid will commence on November 30, 2018 and remain in effect until the earlier of November 29, 2019, the termination of the Bid by the Company or the Company purchasing the maximum number of common shares permitted under the Bid. Subject to the Company's ability to make "block" purchases through the facilities of the TSX, the maximum number of common shares that the Company may purchase on any trading day is 3,935 common shares (representing 25% of 15,740, being the average daily trading volume of the Company's shares on the TSX in the six month period prior to the Bid). The price paid for any common shares acquired by the Company will be the market price of the shares at the time of acquisition. The Company intends to fund the repurchases under the Bid out of its available cash. All common shares acquired by the Company under the Bid will be cancelled. Purchases pursuant to the bid will be conducted by a broker engaged by the Company to make purchases under the Bid in accordance with the applicable policies of the TSX. The Company has entered into an "automatic share purchase plan" to facilitate the repurchase of common shares under the Bid through the designated broker. Pursuant to the automatic share purchase plan, the broker will be permitted to repurchase common shares under the Bid at times when AirBoss is subject to a self-imposed blackout period, pursuant to instructions provided in advance of such blackout periods. The automatic share purchase plan complies with, and has been adopted in accordance with, the requirements of applicable Canadian securities laws. The Company is making the Bid because it believes that, from time to time, the market prices of its common shares may not fully reflect the underlying value of the Companys business and its future business prospects. As a result, depending upon future price movements and other factors, the Company believes that its outstanding common shares may represent an attractive investment for the Company. Such purchases are expected to benefit all remaining shareholders by increasing their equity interest in the Company. AirBoss of America Corp. is a group of complementary businesses using compounding technology and engineering expertise to create value for its customers. With a capacity to process approximately 400 million turn pounds of rubber annually, AirBoss Rubber Solutions is one of North Americas largest custom rubber compounding companies and a leading supplier of essential calendered and extruded products for a broad range of applications. AirBoss Engineered Products is a world leader in the supply of life saving products for the military and a leading supplier of innovative anti-vibration solutions to the North American automotive market. The Companys shares trade on the TSX under the symbol BOS. Visit www.airbossofamerica.com. AIRBOSS FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION DISCLAIMER Certain statements contained or incorporated by reference herein, including those that express managements expectations or estimates of future developments or AirBoss future performance, constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, and can generally be identified by words such as will, may, could expects, believes, anticipates, forecasts, plans, intends or similar expressions. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent managements expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events and performance. Statements containing forward-looking information are necessarily based upon a number of opinions, estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at the time the statements are made, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies. AirBoss cautions that such forward-looking information involves known and unknown contingencies, uncertainties and other risks that may cause AirBoss actual financial results, performance or achievements to be materially different from its estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Numerous factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking information, including without limitation: impact of general economic conditions; dependence on key customers; cyclical trends in the tire and automotive, construction, mining and retail industries; sufficient availability of raw materials at economical costs; weather conditions affecting raw materials, production and sales; AirBoss ability to maintain existing customers or develop new customers in light of increased competition; AirBoss ability to successfully integrate acquisitions of other businesses and/or companies or to realize on the anticipated benefits thereof, changes in accounting policies and methods, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates; changes in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar; changes in tax laws and potential litigation; ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms; environmental damage and non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations; potential product liability and warranty claims and equipment malfunction. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of AirBoss forward-looking information. All of the forward-looking information in this press release is expressly qualified by these cautionary statements. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information attributable to AirBoss or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this press release and, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, AirBoss disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly this forward-looking information except as required by applicable laws. Risks and uncertainties about AirBoss business are more fully discussed under the heading Risk Factors in our most recent Annual Information Form and are otherwise disclosed in our filings with securities regulatory authorities which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:34:36|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The output of China's building materials sector expanded steadily in the first 10 months with growing profitability, official data showed. Major building materials all posted a rise in their output. The output of cement and flat glass went up by 2.6 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, according to data from the National Development and Reform Commission. Cement and flat glass, which used to suffer from serious oversupply, have both become more profitable in this period. The profits of cement businesses rocketed by 123.1 percent, while that of flat glass increased by 40 percent year on year. The data came as the property sector, a major consumer of cement and flat glass, saw growing investment in the first 10 months. China's real estate investment increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:39:39|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least one civilian was killed and two others injuried after Taliban militants ambushed a military vehicle in the northern Kunduz province on Tuesday, provincial police spokesman Inamudin Rahmani said. When Taliban militants opened fire on a military vehicle on Ali Abad road leading to Kunduz city, the vehicle escaped but a passerby lost his life on the spot, the official said, adding that all the victims were civilians. Taliban militants, who are active in parts of Kunduz province, have not commented on the attack. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:39:41|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Nepal has implemented a contribution-based social security scheme on Tuesday, ensuring pension for the private sector employees after their retirement for the first time. Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli launched the scheme at a ceremony in Kathmandu on Tuesday, which is designated as the Social Security Day. In order to participate in the scheme, an employee of business enterprise should contribute 11 percent of basic salary while the employer should contribute 20 percent of the basic salary to the Social Security Fund created by the Nepali government. Although the government has planned to implement the universal social security scheme, it will first implement the scheme for workers employed in the private sector enterprises, according to Nepal's Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security. According to the ministry, the workers can enjoy four types of facilities under the social security scheme, including the Dependant Family Security, the Elderly Security Scheme, the Medical Treatment, Health and Maternity Security and the Accident and Disability Security. Under the Dependent Family Security Scheme, husband or wife of the deceased employee is entitled to get pension until death on the basis of 60 percent of basic salary earned by the deceased employee. Additionally, an offspring of the deceased will get 40 percent of educational scholarship. Under the Elderly Security Scheme, an employee will get pension until death after his or her retirement from job. It is the first time that pension scheme for the private sector employees has been introduced in Nepal. So far, only the government employees are entitled to get pension from the government after their retirement. In order to get medical facility under the Medical Treatment, Health and Maternity Security plan, an employee and employer has to contribute to the Social Security Fund for at least six months. It is necessary to contribute for at least 12 months to the fund to get facility under maternity security plan. Prime Minister Oli said the scheme was launched as a part of making the state responsible for the people and their well being. "This has ended the long-standing belief that only the government employees should benefit from the state," he added. He also said that scheme was launched as a part of introducing flexible labor law in favor of employer and social security for the workers to create conducive business environment. Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista said on the occasion that it would help enhance the productivity of workers as they are assured of their future. The scheme is expected to benefit around 3 million people engaging in around a millions economic units both government and the private sector. According to National Economic Census conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are as many as 922,445 economic establishments in Nepal, where 3,408,746 people are engaged directly. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:39:42|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close VIENNA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Austrian Defense Minister Mario Kunasek ruled out his country's participation in a European army, citing the neutral stance it has held since the end of the Second World War. He told the Austria Press Agency on Tuesday that the proposal from France and Germany is not on the table for Austria, who would also not be willing to cede any sovereignty by joining such an army. The Austrian national parliament would instead continue to make its own decisions on participation in European Union (EU) or NATO missions. There is a need for improved cooperation, joint training activities, and missions, Kunasek noted, but not for an army as such. In addition, he said Austria still supports joint efforts toward the protection of the European Union's outer borders. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 20:44:43|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with participants of the second governor meeting between China and the Republic of Korea in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday said that China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) should make good use of platforms such as the governor meeting to enhance communication and cooperation, and advance bilateral ties. Li made the remarks when meeting with 17 participants of the second governor meeting between China and the ROK. Commending the stable development of bilateral relations, Li said trade and investment between China and the ROK had increased rapidly and had broad growth space. "China stands ready to work with the ROK to push forward a long-term and stable development of bilateral ties in line with the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit," he said. The governor meeting between the two countries has yielded positive results, especially in facilitating in-depth exchanges in fields such as people-to-people and environmental protection, which shows that local governments of the two countries have strong will and there is great potential for cooperation. Representatives of the ROK congratulated China on the great development achievements it has made over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up. They said the achievements not only benefited China, but also promoted peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia. They said the ROK is ready to work with China to cement trade and investment cooperation as well as people-to-people exchanges, enhance cooperation between local governments, activate folk exchanges, and make new contributions to the development of bilateral relations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:04:50|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close JAKARTA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Production of coffee in Indonesia is forecast to reach between 630,000 tons to 650,000 tons by the year end, the Indonesian coffee exporters association said on Tuesday. A total of 400,000 tons would be shipped offshore and about 200,000 tons would be marketed in Indonesia, said Pranoto Soenarto, deputy chairman of the association. "Obviously, the supply for the domestic market is more than sufficient. Should all of it not be absorbed by domestic buyers, the rest could be exported and it will certainly all absorbed by the offshore market," he said. At the global market, Pranoto said the prices of the commodity have commenced improving and currently it touch 1.13 U.S. dollars per pound (0.4536 kg). The United States is one of the major export markets for the Indonesian coffee as the country's coffee export to the United States grew 2.79 percent to 67,309.2 tons in 2016, according to data from the national statistics bureau. Indonesia's coffee plantation covers a total of 1.23 million hectares of land across the archipelagic nation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:09:53|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said on Tuesday that he will only accept independent candidates for interior and defense ministers amid heated debate among the political parties to win the sensitive posts. "I am not behind delaying the conclusion of cabinet formation, but I am behind postponing their plots," Sadr said on his Twitter account. Sadr accused some parties, who refuse anti-corruption reforms of working together "to bring back the corrupt people" against the will of the Iraqi people and the Shiite religious leadership. "I will not accept non-independent ministers for defense or interior in order that Iraq would have an independent voice rather than from outside its border," said Sadr, who backs the Sairoon Coalition which appeared the frontrunner in May 12 parliamentary election. "Our neighbors are our friends but not our masters," Sadr added, referring to rumors of interference by neighboring countries, particularly Iran, in choosing of candidates for the Iraqi cabinet. He suggested Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to present to the parliament his candidates for the remaining portfolios "except for the candidates of defense and interior ministers." 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. Soure: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:27:33|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Kashmiri people gather near a house, which was burnt during a gunfight between militants and government forces in Redwani area of Kulgam district, about 58 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, Nov. 27, 2018. Two militants and a trooper were killed, while two paramilitary troopers were wounded in a fierce gunfight on Tuesday in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar) Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:14:57|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- African governments should invest in tourism projects that promote climate resilience to ensure coastal communities are shielded from extreme weather events, poverty, hunger and disease, experts said on Monday. The experts attending the blue economy conference taking place in Nairobi, stressed the need for governments and investors to pay attention to the health of marine ecosystem while constructing tourism facilities to ensure livelihoods of communities living along Africa's coastlines are not disrupted. "We need to develop our tourism sector in a green and sustainable manner to ensure marine resources that support millions of livelihoods are protected," Joe Okudo, Kenya's tourism principal secretary said on the sidelines of the blue economy summit. Kenya is hosting the world's inaugural blue economy conference that has attracted around 10,000 participants from 183 countries to explore innovative ways to harness ocean and inland fresh water resources to spur growth. About ten Heads of State and Government drawn mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa as well as ministers, industry executives and scientists are attending the three-day event. Okudo noted that tourism, shipping and aquaculture are strategic pillars of the blue economy whose growth is key to tackle Africa's hunger, poverty, disease and ecological crisis. "Moving forward, sound environmental practices should be embedded in the tourism sector that is heavily dependent on marine ecosystem to thrive," said Okudo, adding that Kenya has developed policies to ensure investments in beach tourism promote conservation of mangrove forests. African governments should factor the sustainability needs of coastal communities during utilization of marine resources to grow tourism, fisheries and shipping. Rodolfo Lacy, director in the environment directorate at Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said that development of tourism should be devoid of ocean pollution to help protect livelihoods of fishermen. "The tourism infrastructure in Africa should be enhanced to ensure it withstands adverse effects of climate change like sea level rise," said Rodolfo, adding that governments and industry have an obligation to protect marine resources during offshore oil drilling and construction of tourist resorts along African coastlines. African countries should replicate global best practices to green the tourism sector and ensure economic benefits trickle down to coastal communities. Douglas Wallace, an ocean scientist, said that investment in research and public awareness is key to promoting climate resilience tourism in a continent with a huge repository of untapped marine resources. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:19:59|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SHANGHAI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- French insurance giant AXA announced Tuesday that it would offer 4.6 billion yuan (662 million U.S. dollars) to acquire the remaining 50 percent stake in AXA Tianping Property & Casualty Insurance Company Ltd to accelerate its growth in China. AXA said it has entered into an agreement with the current domestic shareholders of its joint venture, the largest foreign Property & Casualty (P&C) insurer in China. It said 1.5 billion yuan would be financed through a capital reduction of AXA Tianping to buy back shares from the current domestic shareholders. This is the first transaction in the Chinese insurance market where a leading P&C insurer, with a nationwide footprint, will be fully owned by a foreign company, said Thomas Buberl, Chief Executive Officer of AXA. "AXA Tianping represents a unique platform for AXA to capture fully the significant growth potential of the P&C and health markets in China," said Buberl. "The acquisition further reaffirms our conviction that our operations in China will be a key growth engine of the group and in its preferred segments," he said. "With full ownership and management control of AXA Tianping, we will further accelerate the deployment of our strategy to create a leading insurer that champions healthcare and mobility solutions," said Gorgon Watson, chief executive officer of AXA Asia. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. In 2017, AXA Tianping ranked 15th amongst China's P&C insurers, the only foreign-invested company in the top 20. It is a leading company in direct motor insurance in China, with motor insurance contributing to 91 percent of its gross written premiums and of which 41 percent is distributed through direct channels. AXA Tianping has 25 branches and 93 sub-branches in 20 provincial-level regions across China. Houston, TX, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunnova Energy Corporation, the leading privately-held U.S. residential solar and battery storage service provider, announced today the launch of its Sunnova Protect services. Sunnova Protect, the nations first-ever, service-only offerings from a national solar company, provides solar owners the opportunity to purchase multi-decade coverage from Sunnova, inclusive of monitoring, maintenance and repair services for their solar systems. Sunnovas nearly 60,000 customers already enjoy peace of mind with the companys best-in-class service warranty, and now with the launch of Sunnova Protect service plans, that service protection is available to any homeowner who owns their solar system. Coordinated by Sunnovas team of experts, the plans provide proactive monitoring and system diagnosis to prevent unexpected and costly solar outages and to provide protection against most out-of-pocket expenses for maintenance, equipment repairs and replacements. Backed by an available production guarantee, the Sunnova Protect plans provide consumers with the added confidence that their solar investment is creating the value they expect. Sunnova has extensive experience monitoring, maintaining and ensuring optimal system performance for our customers, said William J. (John) Berger, Chief Executive Officer of Sunnova Energy Corporation. Now, were extending our expertise in solar system service to non-Sunnova solar homeowners so they too can protect their solar investment. Berger added: This is the first time that a residential solar and storage service provider has brought to market a truly unique service-only offering that provides solar owners with a 5-, 10- or 20-year warranty on systems the company itself did not install. Sunnova has launched their Sunnova Protect Services through a newly-formed sales channel and is initially offering this service offering to Southern Californiawhere there is a high concentration of solar owners. Sunnova will then extend Sunnova Protect to additional markets over the next few quarters. Sunnova will incorporate the Sunnova Protect service plans into their product offerings for their dealer networks in early 2019. Deciding to go solar is a big decision and yet we see solar customers buying and financing systems without a service warranty, which means no one will be there to ensure the system is actually working and generating the energy its supposed to over the decades-long life of the system, said Michael Grasso, Chief Marketing Officer for Sunnova Energy Corporation. Were offering Sunnova Protect to ensure solar owners are covered so they can enjoy the energy independence and financial savings they expect from their systems. The Sunnova Protect servicing plans offer three different coverage options (Basic, Premium and Platinum) with multiple term lengths (5-, 10- and 20-year). These plans provide solar owners with the freedom to choose the service solution that best fits their needs. For more information on Sunnova Protect Service plans visit: www.sunnova.com/protectplans/ ABOUT SUNNOVA Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Sunnova is the leading U.S. residential solar + battery storage service provider. With nearly 60,000 customers across the U.S and its territories, including Guam, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, Sunnova uniquely provides a 25-year service commitment with every homeowners customized solar + storage system. Sunnovas goal is to provide the choice of affordable, worry-free solar energy and battery storage technology that generates long-term value for customers and facilitates continued business growth for its network of trusted partners. For more information, visit www.sunnova.com, follow us on Twitter @Sunnova_Solar and connect with us on Facebook. Attachment Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:30:03|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close by Dana Halawi BEIRUT, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's trade deficit widened by 5 percent to 13 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2018 from the same period in 2017. Lebanon's Byblos Bank, which released the figures from the Higher Customs Council, attributed the rise in deficit to the increase in imports by 4.9 percent to 15.2 billion dollars in the first nine months, during which the aggregate exports grew by 4.1 percent to 2.2 billion dollars. Adnan Rammal, representative of the trade sector in the Economic and Social Council, told Xinhua that Lebanese have increased their purchases in the past year due to the hike in salaries for public sector employees which was approved by President Michel Aoun in August 2017. He also said that Lebanese increased their consumption of imported products due to their higher quality than local produce. Another reason, Rammal said, for the increase in imports is due to the failure by local factories to increase their production to satisfy the local demand for products. "Local manufacturers do not have enough money to expand their businesses, not to forget the high cost of production in Lebanon," he said. Lebanese manufacturers have been pressing successive governments to cut the cost of production, citing that many of them were forced to close down due to heavy losses. One of the major obstacles to reducing the cost of production in Lebanon is the high cost of electricity. The Lebanese government finances more than 90 percent of purchases of fuel at a fat bill of 1.8 billion dollars annually, which incurs heavy costs for consumers. Moreover, consumers and factories pay a second bill for private generators due to incapacity of the government to produce the needed amount of electricity. Rammal added that the cost of production in Lebanon is also burdened by the high cost of labor compared to other countries that compete with Lebanon. Independent economist Jassem Ajaka echoed Rammal's views, saying that the agriculture sector is very weak in Lebanon and lacks modern technologies that enables it to satisfy the full demand of the Lebanese market. Ajaka added that the government has opened the Lebanese market in a way that allows foreign products to enter the market and compete with local produce. "The government is well aware that Lebanese producers cannot compete with foreign ones," he said. Experts interviewed by Xinhua said that the government should impose custom fees on imports in a bid to reduce competition by foreign products and boost the consumption of local products. "The government should impose custom fees on products that can be produced in Lebanon," he said. Likewise, Rammal said that the government should impose custom fees on imports to protect local production. But he added that the Economy Ministry should also control prices at the same time to prevent manufacturers from increasing their prices and monopolizing the market which will hurt merchants and consumers. Meanwhile, Ajaka said that the government should invest in modernizing the agricultural sector and empower it to be capable of satisfying local needs of agricultural products. "The government should introduce new equipment and technologies for the modernization of this sector," he said. Ajaka said that if Lebanon succeeds in improving its manufacturing industry so that is capable of producing the items that are imported by Lebanese merchants, it could save 8 billion dollars from the import bill annually. Byblos Bank said that China was the main source of imports for Lebanon in the first nine months of 2018 at 1.54 billion dollars, followed by Greece, Italy, the United States, Germany, Turkey and Russia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:55:10|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JINAN, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Two leading brands in traditional health products of China and the Republic of Korea joined hands on Monday, paving the way for a drink fusion of Chinese ejiao and Korean ginseng set to debut next month. Dong'e Ejiao, a top ejiao producer based in eastern China's Shandong Province, and Korean Ginseng Corp, a leading company of ginseng products in the Republic of Korea, inked a cooperation agreement on developing health products for different ages and collaborating on research, production and marketing. With a history of around 2,500 years, ejiao is made by soaking and stewing donkey skin and refining the results into a tonic. There are claims that it can tonify and enrich blood, boost immunity and treat a range of ailments from anemia and dry coughs to dizziness and insomnia. Meanwhile, there is a long history of ginseng consumption in Asia, where it is considered a food that has remarkable health benefits containing potent vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and other essential nutrients. Traditional Chinese and Korean medicines share a lot of theories and philosophies, and the cooperation would sell traditional Chinese medicine products in the global market, said Qin Yufeng, head of Dong'e Ejiao. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 21:55:11|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The German information technology association BITKOM appealed to the country's federal government on Tuesday to help speed up the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for commercial purposes. "We must succeed in making the diverse opportunities of AI for all areas of life, ranging from medicine, over mobility to education", a statement by BITKOM president Achim Berg read. Berg's described AI as the "most important key technology of the coming decades" and expressed the view that its spread would herald far-reaching changes for German companies. According to a BITKOM survey, the share of Germans who view AI as an opportunity has risen from 48 percent to 62 percent between 2017 and 2018. During the same period, the proportion of citizens who viewed the technology as a threat declined from 47 percent to 35 percent. The findings were based on a representative telephone survey of 1,007 respondents aged 16 or above. While large majorities of respondents were still sceptical about the use of AI in certain areas, such as the education and justice systems, BITKOM highlighted that only 6 percent thought that the technology would not have any visible effect on society at all and 71 percent further indicated that AI would be crucial to ensuring the future success of German companies. "We do not have much time left in order to assume a leading role in AI. The AI strategy of the federal government is a signal of change, now we need to get to work", Berg argued. Having recently outlined a new digital strategy, the ruling "grand coalition" cabinet is scheduled to hold discussions on the specific topic of AI during a summit in Nuremberg next week. Bitkom noted that it "expressly welcomed" a related announcement by the federal government to create 100 new AI professorships in Germany. One of the topics which the association's president said required further attention from legislators at the upcoming Nuremberg meeting was how to define an ethical framework for the use of AI. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:10:18|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ABUJA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Five people were confirmed dead early Tuesday following a road accident in Nigeria's southern state of Ogun, according to local road safety officials. Two others were injured in the accident involving two cars along the Sagamu-Abeokuta road, one of the busiest expressways in southwest Nigeria. Babatunde Akinbiyi, a spokesman for the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, said the accident was caused by speeding. One car veered off the road, crossing into another lane, and collided with an oncoming vehicle, Akinbiyi told reporters. "Three people were initially injured and four died instantly. However, a post-crash report indicates that another of the injured victims has also died," the official said. He said the injured were receiving treatment at a government-run hospital. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:15:19|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ATHENS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Greek journalists have walked off work for 24 hours on Tuesday ahead of a nationwide strike as the country's labor unions press against protracted austerity measures. No news programs are being broadcast on TV and radio, while newspapers will not be printed on Wednesday, the day of the general strike called by the umbrella labor union of private sector workers GSEE. The journalists' walkout is part of the strike but is being held one day in advance to allow media coverage of the main protest. It is estimated that in nine out of ten strikes the Greek journalistic unions opt for a media strike a day before the general strike for the main day's media coverage. The GSEE's demands in Wednesday's strike include pension increases, tax cuts and restoring the minimum salary to the pre-bailout level of 751 euros (853 U.S. dollars), from the current 580 euros (659 U.S. dollars). Up until now, it has been announced that the metro, tram and most buses will not be running on Wednesday as workers from most of the transport companies will join the 24-hour strike. All island passenger ferries will remain docked across Greece due to the strike. Greece's umbrella trade unions of the public sector ADEDY had called a 24-hour strike on Nov. 14, also demanding increases in wages and pensions. (1 euro= 1.14 U.S. dollars) Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:15:20|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ABUJA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian health authorities have launched an investigation into a suspected yellow fever outbreak in the southern state of Edo, according to an official on Tuesday. Faisal Shuaib, head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), told reporters in Abuja that tests done at local laboratories have shown that samples tested positive for yellow fever in the southern state. Shuaib said health authorities, including the NPHCDA, Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), World Health Organization (WHO), Edo State Epidemiology team, and other partners were working together to rapidly conduct a comprehensive investigation and respond appropriately to the situation. The NCDC issued a red alert on the yellow fever outbreak in Edo last Saturday. Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The "yellow" in the name refers to jaundice that affects some patients. "We will like to assure the general public that all the agencies involved are working swiftly to contain the spread and prevent further outbreaks," Shuaib said. Since September 2017, Nigeria has recorded suspected cases of yellow fever in all states in the country. Being a yellow fever-endemic country, Nigeria has received considerable attention focus and support from WHO, UNICEF and other partners and donors following last year's confirmed outbreaks in the country. As of Nov. 11, 140 cases of yellow fever were been confirmed by a local laboratory in Nigeria, according to data by the NCDC. A multi-agency yellow fever Emergency Operations Centre has been established at NCDC to coordinate the national response. The symptoms of yellow fever include yellowness of the eyes, sudden fever, headache and body pain. Last April, WHO launched the Elimination of Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) strategy in Nigeria, as part of a global response to guarantee the protection and containment of yellow fever outbreaks by 2026. On Nov. 22, the government flagged off a large yellow fever vaccination campaign, targeting 26 million children and adults in Niger, Plateau, Borno, Sokoto, Kebbi and the nation's capital Abuja. The exercise will last till Dec. 1. File photo shows Chinese oceanographic research ship Xiangyanghong 03 leaves Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 14, 2018. (Xinhua) NAIROBI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- China will rally behind global efforts to promote growth of blue economy in line with sustainable development agenda, said a Chinese government official on Monday. Xu Jinghu, special representative of the Chinese government on African affairs, told the sustainable blue economy conference under way in Nairobi that Beijing has supported global efforts to boost growth of blue economy through improved governance and sharing of knowledge and expertise to strengthen conservation of marine ecosystem. "China calls for a blue economy partnership and the resolution of ocean issues through cooperation," said Xu. Kenya is hosting the first ever blue economy conference to take place in Africa that has drawn more than 10,000 participants from 183 countries. More than 10 Heads of State and Government mainly drawn from Africa, representatives of multilateral agencies, industry executives, ministers, scientists and grassroots campaigners are attending the three-day conference. Xu Jinghu, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African affairs, delivers a speech at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, on Nov. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Yang Zhen) Xu said that blue economy has become an integral component of sustainability agenda hence the need for key stakeholders to pay enough attention to the sector. "Blue economy is part and parcel to the development of ocean countries and has already become a new engine of the global economy," Xu remarked, adding that prudent use of marine resources is key to achieve the UN 2030 goals and the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063. The envoy said that China has supported global efforts to boost growth of blue economy through improved governance and sharing of knowledge and expertise to strengthen conservation of marine ecosystem. "At the same time, in jointly building the Belt and Road, China will work for greater complementarity in ocean economy strategies and industries among countries, share our experience in the development of ocean economy, actively explore bilateral and multilateral cooperation ranging from marine resources development and protection, mariculture, fishery and marine tourism," said Xu. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit held in Beijing in early September also adopted an initiative that covers blue economy cooperation between China and Africa. Xu said that China is ready to offer technical and financial support that is required to spur growth of blue economy in Africa and other developing countries. File Photo: Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (front), Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a meeting with high-ranked officials representing Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the European Union in Minsk, Aug. 26, 2014. (Xinhua/REUTERS) WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that Ukrainian and Russian presidents should engage directly to resolve their countries' recent confrontation amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia dispute. In his first public statement concerning the dispute, Pompeo said that the United States expresses its deep concern over the incident in the Black Sea that occurred on Sunday as Ukrainian vessels attempted to transit through the Kerch Strait. Noting that Russia's actions represent "a dangerous escalation," Pompeo said "we call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and ... both parties to exercise restraint and abide by their international obligations and commitments." "We urge Presidents (Petro) Poroshenko and (Vladimir) Putin to engage directly to resolve this situation," he added. Earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed hope that the current confrontation between Ukraine and Russia will get "straightened out." "We're not happy about it at all. Not at all. We've let our position be known," he said. "We do not like what's happening either way ... and hopefully, it will get straightened out." Trump and his Russian counterpart Putin were reportedly scheduled to meet later on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina. The Ukrainian Navy said on Sunday that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. For its part, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called on Monday morning over the escalating situation. Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations who chaired the meeting, told the UN Security Council that China has noted the altercation between Russian and Ukrainian naval ships and is "concerned with the tension arising thereof." "China hopes and calls for the relevant parties to exercise restraint to avoid any further escalation of tension and properly resolve the relevant issues through dialogues and consultations," said Wu. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:30:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Ministry of Energy announced on Tuesday that the world's longest and deepest undersea natural gas pipeline will be built and connect Israel with Europe. An agreement to build the pipeline is expected to be signed soon among Israel, Greece, Italy and Cyprus under the auspices of the European Union (EU). The cost of the project is estimated at 8 billion U.S. dollars. The pipeline, which will enable Israel to export natural gas to Europe, will be 2,100 km in length and reach a maximum depth of 3,000 meters. The pipeline will link Israeli maritime area with Italy, passing through sea and land areas in Cyprus and Greece. Some 70 million euros (79 million dollars) have been allocated from the EU and entrepreneurs to promote feasibility checking and planning. Construction is expected to begin in mid-2020. The pipeline is estimated to have a capacity of 10 to 20 billion cubic meters per year. According to the agreement, it will be possible to add other parts to the project with the consent of the four founding countries. Israel's Ministry of Energy said in a statement that this cooperation will strengthen relations among the partner countries. It will be a milestone in the creation of a natural gas hub in the Middle East and make Israel a significant player in the European energy market, the statement added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:30:29|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Tanzanian President John Magufuli (5th L) and Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Wang Ke (6th L) attend the handover ceremony of a China-aided library in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Nov. 27, 2018. China on Tuesday handed over a state-of-the-art library complex located in the University of Dar es Salaam to Tanzania to support the country's education sector. (Xinhua) DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday handed over a state-of-the-art library complex to Tanzania to support the country's education sector. Tanzanian President John Magufuli thanked China for the 41-million-U.S.-dollar project located in the University of Dar es Salaam at the handover ceremony. "Many thanks to China and many thanks to the people of China," said the president shortly before the Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, Wang Ke, handed over the new library to him. President Magufuli said the friendship between China and Tanzania started many years back with the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) in the 1970s and the Urafiki Textile Mills. Magufuli urged Tanzanians to learn Chinese, explaining that with the increasing investments of Chinese firms in the country and the anticipated increased number of Chinese tourists to the country, the future looked bright. Wang Ke, the Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, said the library will help accelerate reforms and transformations pioneered by President Magufuli. "Apart from funding the construction of the library, the Chinese government has also provided free information and communication technology, maintenance systems and furniture to the library," said Wang. The Chinese envoy said the 54 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries were special, adding: "We have every reason to maintain and strengthen this relationship." Joyce Ndalichako, Tanzania's Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, said the library will enable university students from across the country widen their knowledge and skills for the welfare of the country. The library complex covers an area of 4.7 hectares with a floor area of 20,000 square meters. It consists of a library, a Confucius Institute and a Sino-Tanzania Cultural Exchange park. With the capacity of stocking 800,000 books, the library can house 2,100 people at the same time. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To meet the increase in demand for shipping specialty items Oliver Pusch, President of Cratex Industrial Packing in Metro Vancouver is pleased to announce the opening of a new division The Special Projects Division. In the last 40 years Cratex has packed and shipped specialty items such as John Lennons Rolls Royce, helicopters, grand pianos, delicate antiques, and numerous works of art. This fast-motion video shows hours of work in a few seconds, blocking and crating a gull-wing Mercedes Benz for shipping. See it at https://www.cratexgroup.com/sports-car-shipped/ A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9710ffa4-c6d8-4448-ba3a-38dbfd443c9f Not all specialty shipping projects are small. Over the years weve developed broad expertise supported by systems and a number of special resources such as environmentally-friendly Corrosion Protection Technologies, heavy-duty UV Resistant Shrink Wrapping, and forklifts with 90,000 lb capacity. Weve met every challenge When asked about the limits of their new Special Projects Division, President Pusch said, Weve met every challenge brought to us. We get the job done no matter what. We also have expertise in these related services: Export Packing & Crating From the smallest electronic equipment to large industrial projects. Containerization Loading, blocking, and bracing of freight into containers for export. Transloading Unloading import containers for transfer to inland points. We also offer short or long term storage at our 24/7 Electronically Monitored Facility. Shrink Wrapping We have years of experience in vacuum packing and shrink wrapping freight with Heavy-Duty UV Resistant, or Corrosion Inhibiting Film. Corrosion Protection We are the Western Canadian Distributor for Cortec Environmentally Safe Corrosion Protection products. We have whatever protection you might need. Sufferance We are approved by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) to operate as a Licenced Sufferance Warehouse Facility (Licence #809 CW 5607). VGM Certificates Our weighing mechanisms can produce the VGM (Verified Gross Mass) certificates required for all export containers. Global Connections Through our membership in INPRO (the International Packing and Routing Organization) we are part of a world-wide network of companies offering high quality packing solutions. We have expert contacts around the world. CFIA Approved We are approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for adherence to regulations preventing the spread of insects. ISPM #15 Guidelines We strictly adhere to the International Standards For Phytosanitary Measures #15 Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packing Material used in International Trade. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:35:29|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong (C) hands a certificate to a participant as Secretary of Nepal's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Krishna Prasad Devkota (R) looks on at the graduation ceremony of the third Chinese Language Training Course for Nepalese Tourism Professionals in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, on Nov. 27, 2018. Some 40 tourism professionals of Nepal graduated on Tuesday from the Chinese language training course provided by the Chinese government. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma) KATHMANDU, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Some 40 tourism professionals of Nepal graduated on Tuesday from an advanced Chinese language training course provided by the Chinese government. The six-month Third Chinese Language Training Course for Nepalese Tourism Professionals was organized by the Chinese embassy in Nepal in coordination with Nepal's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. The language class has been organized as per an agreement reached between Nepal and China during Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's visit to China in March 2016. According to the agreement, China will provide language training course to 200 tourism professionals of Nepal within five years. Addressing the graduation ceremony in Kathmandu, Nepal government officials expressed hope that the use of Chinese language will contribute to boosting the tourism industry of the Himalayan country. "We are thankful to the Chinese government for organizing the training course since last three consecutive years and for enabling the tourism professionals to learn Chinese language. It is a big contribution to our tourism industry," Krishna Prasad Devkota, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said. He further said that the Chinese language could address the demands of Chinese-speaking guides and can serve more Chinese tourists. The program came when the arrival of Chinese tourists is surging as China is the largest tourism source market for Nepal. In 2017, Nepal received nearly 1 million foreign tourists, with over 130,000 Chinese travelers. Chinese Ambassador Yu Hong said the training program could bring more opportunities and bright future for the tourism professionals. Stating that language is a bridge of communication between people of two countries, she also said that China attaches high importance for the cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. During the language training, the participants were also provided with training on Chinese culture, food, paper cutting and knot making, calligraphy among others. According to the co-organizer, among the 40 tourism professionals, at least 29 passed the HSK tests of two, three and four level. Manish Bajracharya, a tourist guide who performed a Chinese song in the event, told Xinhua, "The six-month course was really fruitful. Not just language, but we learned various aspects of culture. It will definitely support me in my profession." On the occasion, the graduated professionals showed their language skills through the performance of Chinese song, poetry, speech and dance. The course was launched on April 20. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:45:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close OSLO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Norway said on Tuesday that there is a higher demand abroad for Christmas trees produced in the Nordic country. The higher demand provides possibilities for increased production of Christmas trees, which would benefit Norwegian villages and agriculture, Norwegian Minister of Agriculture and Food Bard Hoksrud said in a statement. Norway produces about 1 million Christmas trees each year as well as about 50,000 trees from ordinary forests. Norwegian trees have high quality, which leads to high demand also abroad, particularly for the sort subalpine fir, according to the Norwegian minister . In addition, there is an increased potential for value creation, as about 350,000 trees are imported each year, mainly from Denmark, Hoksrud said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:45:36|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Margrethe Vestager, European commissioner for competition, addresses the closing ceremony of the Hamburg Summit in Hamburg, Germany, Nov. 27, 2018. German and European officials on Tuesday called for stronger EU-China ties to promote a rule-based global trade system at the end of the two-day Hamburg Summit. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi) HAMBURG, Germany, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Several German and European officials on Tuesday called for stronger EU-China ties to promote a rule-based global trade system at the end of the two-day Hamburg Summit. Tobias Bergmann, president of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, said China and European Union (EU), as main drivers of the world economy, are both facing the current uncertainty in the global political situation. He called on China to work along with the EU towards rule-based world trade system within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to fend off protectionism. "In this, China and Europe need to further strengthen their partnership with a view to taking on greater responsibility globally," Bergmann said. Echoing Bergmann's remarks, Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, said China and Europe are partners because of "what affects one of us will affect both of us." According to Vestager, as two of the world's largest economies, accounting for about a third of world's Gross Domestic Product, it is important that China and Europe stay together. "Our size gives us the influence, which means we could make real difference of the world that are facing today...to make world safer and more prosperous," Vestager said. Vestager stressed that Europe and China have a shared interest in strengthening the rule-based international system for a global level playing field and fair competition. "I hope that our meeting today will confirm these shared objectives to help address concerns within the global rules and avoid unilateral measures," said Vestager in her keynote speech. On measures to forge closer relations, Peter Tschentscher, First Mayor of Hamburg, said that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has strengthened the links between Asia and Europe, thus provided potential for multilateral trade and the world economy as a whole. He added that there are over 30 freight trains every week to Hamburg liking 27 cities in China, and the networks are creating benefits for all the countries involved. Tschentscher said that Hamburg is ready to act as the "firm anchor base" of the EU relation with China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:55:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIRUT, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A new batch of French military equipment arrived Tuesday in Lebanon as part of France's aid program to the Lebanese army, local media reported. A statement by the French Embassy in Beirut, which was quoted by the National News Agency, said that the equipment bundle included 10 Mephisto armored vehicles, 96 long-range anti-tank HOT missiles, and two fire shooting simulation systems. The statement said that France sent this new equipment in order to aid the Lebanese army in its fight against terrorism. It added that the number of Mephisto armored vehicles donated by France to the Lebanese army since 2017 has reached 25. "These armored vehicles - along with ammunition and spare parts - can launch rockets with a range of 4,000 meters day and night. Some of these mechanisms will be used mainly for the maintenance of the first batch of vehicles delivered," the French embassy said, while adding that 10 other armored vehicles will be delivered very soon. It noted that France has donated 45 million euros (51 million U.S. dollars) worth of military aid in 2017 and 2018 to increase the capabilities of the Lebanese army, including rocket launchers, 34 explosive detection dogs in addition to training programs at the highest level. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 22:55:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TOKYO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said Tuesday that a prefectural referendum will be held in February 2019 on the central government's controversial plan to relocate a U.S. military base within the island prefecture. According to Tamaki, the referendum will take place on Feb. 24. "It will be an important opportunity to directly reflect the will of the prefecture's residents, and I sincerely hope they cast their votes," he said. The Okinawa prefectural assembly approved a bill last month to set up an ordinance for holding the referendum within six months after its promulgation. The decision came after a civil group in Okinawa, having collected the signatures of some 93,000 people, filed a petition with the prefecture in September. According to the local autonomy law, Okinawans could request a referendum after collecting valid signatures from one-50th of all voters, which means 23,000 signatures in Okinawa. Okinawa hosts the bulk of U.S. bases in Japan while accounting for only 0.6 percent of the country's total land mass. Japan's central government has planned to transfer the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the Henoko coastal area of Nago from a crowded residential district in Ginowan, Okinawa, saying that it is "the only solution" for removing the dangers posed by the base without undermining the Japan-U.S. alliance. The Okinawa people, however, have called for the base to be removed from the prefecture, complaining of sufferings caused by aircraft noise, crimes committed by the U.S. servicemen as well as safety concerns. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:00:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MADRID, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Spain Tuesday for a three-day state visit to consolidate traditional friendship and strengthen cooperation between the two countries. It is the first visit by a Chinese head of state to the European nation in 13 years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:05:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and South Africa's power utility Eskom on Tuesday signed a loan agreement worth 2.886 billion rand (about 209 million U.S. dollars) to improve power transmission in Southern Africa. The loan will be used for the construction of 552 kilometres of transmission lines and associated substations across Mpumalanga and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces, the upgrade of substation equipment including earthing systems at various existing substations in Mpumalanga, Eskom said. It's anticipated that this will translate to integration of distributed generation of mainly large-scale renewable energy, into the transmission network, ensure reliability and security of supply, reduction of transmission losses, improved regional integration and safety of operations and maintenance personnel, according to Eskom. The financing of the Eskom Transmission Project will result in a significant strengthening of South Africa's transmission infrastructure, said Kapil Kapoor, Director General of AfDB's Southern Africa Bureau. "Not only will this improve the reliability and security of electricity supply, but will also allow for the integration of large-scale renewable energy into the transmission network, enhance network capacity for future load growth and ensure reduction in transmission losses," Kapoor said. Eskom, South Africa's major power provider, also contributes about three quarters of the total installed power generation capacity in the Southern African Power Pool, exporting power to at least six countries in the region. Eskom and AfDB have enjoyed a productive partnership since 2009 when the bank approved the first facility in support of the utility's capital expansion program. This project has contributed to the realization of the New Deal on Energy in Southern Africa, one of the bank's priority development areas, by ensuring capacity to add new connections in South Africa and the region. "We are encouraged by the level of support that we continue to receive from Developing Finance Institutions, such as the African Development Bank which continues to be a significant partner and a key contributor to the progress achieved by Eskom in the execution of the current capital expansion program," said Calib Cassim, Eskom's Acting Chief Financial Officer. The loan comes at a time when Eskom has made major advancements towards fully securing the 72 billion rand funding requirement for this year, according to Cassim. These kinds of facilities are a demonstration of the bank's mandate to contribute to the economic development and social progress of African countries, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:25:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israel announced on Tuesday that it will renew diplomatic ties with Chad after Chadian President Idriss Deby's surprise visit here. As Deby concluded the two-day visit, Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will "soon" fly to Chad, where he and Deby "will announce the resumption of diplomatic relations." No specific date was given so far, according to the statement. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said in another statement that Netanyahu and Deby held a meeting on Tuesday morning at the office in Jerusalem. "The leaders discussed common threats and the fight against terrorism," the statement read, adding "they also discussed increasing bilateral cooperation in agriculture, counter-terrorism, border defense, technology, solar energy, water, and health." Chad, a Muslim-majority country in central Africa, and Israel severed their diplomatic relations in 1972. Most Muslim or Arab countries do not have formal ties with Israel. Netanyahu praised the warming ties with Chad as an example of how Israel can form relations in Africa and the Middle East regardless of the continuing conflicts with the Palestinians. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:35:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese investors on Tuesday announced plans to expand humanitarian assistance and community outreach programs in Kenya to help fight poverty, officials said on Tuesday. Zhao Jian, secretary-general of Kenya Overseas Chinese Association that comprises top Chinese companies and residents in Kenya, said after nearly 14 years of reacting to humanitarian needs and disasters in the country, the association has created an internal institution to aid the coordination of humanitarian work. "We have formed this internal institution because we want to be able to respond to the issue of poverty in a different way. We want to do it more regularly. We will not wait until we have another disaster to respond to humanitarian needs," Zhao told Xinhua. Speaking during a ceremony to distribute food items to dozens of Kenyan employees working for Chinese companies registered to operate in Kenya, Zhao said promoting cultural exchanges between Kenya and China was among its key priorities. The internal humanitarian response mechanism would respond to community needs in order to reach a wide cross-section of the Kenyan society. Zhao said the formation of the internal humanitarian response mechanism within the Kenya Overseas Chinese Association would coincide with the celebrations to mark 55 years of the Kenya-China diplomatic relations. Zhao said measures to respond to poverty would focus on building nursing homes, orphanages and assistance to prisoners. He said the poverty response initiatives would also focus on diverse issues affecting the Kenyan society, including enhancing community access to prevention of malaria. "We would like to be involved in the distribution of clothes to communities impacted negatively with cold weather and flooding by providing them with warm clothes," Zhao told Xinhua. He said the humanitarian response initiatives would also expand to other towns in Kenya, including areas around Lake Victoria region, including Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city, which reports regular outbreaks of malaria. "I have talked to the board members of the association. We have to approve projects we intend to undertake. However, we intend to visit people living in malaria-prone zones to provide them with protection and prevention materials so they are able to prevent the death of young children. It would be a self-motivated initiative by the Chinese companies," Zhao said. The association was established in 2005 to promote the exchange of information and culture between Kenyan and Chinese nationals. Since its establishment, the association has helped to mobilize resources for humanitarian assistance and community outreach projects in Kenya. The most notable involvement of the association was in 2011, when it mobilized 25 million shillings (about 250,000 U.S. dollars) to assist victims of drought and hunger in Kenya's Turkana region. The funds were handed over to the Kenya Red Cross to assist in the drilling of boreholes to avail water to the community, Zhao said. In 2015, the association also worked with other organizations to provide a donation of 64,094 dollars to the Moi University, which took most of the students whose studies were interrupted by the Garissa University terror attack on April 2, 2015. Zhao said efforts to respond to humanitarian needs have mostly focused on assisting communities caught up in poverty. "Kenya as a country remains peaceful but there are poverty incidences which we intend to deal with," Zhao said. He said since 2012, the association has also been cooperating with the disability centre in Nairobi to provide them assistance. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:35:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIEV, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Tensions in the Sea of Azov and the subsequent martial law in Ukraine may affect Ukraine's agricultural exports, a senior government official said on Tuesday. Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Maksym Martynyuk, said that the volume of transshipment in the ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol may have to be reduced due to the tense situation in the Azov region. Besides, the martial law regime, which has been imposed on all port regions, may affect the work of the country's whole export infrastructure, Martynyuk said. During the martial law, he said, the defense sector will be a priority to use Ukraine's transport means, including rail cars, which are needed for agricultural logistics. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian military sailors. Russia's Federal Security Service said that the Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border, and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of Russia's orders. The Ukrainian Navy said it has informed Russia in advance about the passage of Ukrainian vessels from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, calling Russia's actions an "act of aggression." In the wake of the standoff, the Ukrainian parliament has adopted a bill imposing martial law on 10 Ukrainian regions for 30 days. Ukraine's agricultural exports stood at 8.6 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2018. Not for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States HAMILTON, Ontario, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agility Health, Inc. (TSXV: AHI) (Agility Health or, the Company) announced today that Pierre G. Gagnon has resigned from the Companys board of directors. The Company thanks Mr. Gagnon for his service as a director and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors. About Agility Health Through its Canadian subsidiary and principal operating entity, Medic Holdings Corp., Agility Health operates foot care clinics in Ontario and Quebec and manufactures orthotics and prosthetics. For further information, please contact: Wayne Cockburn Vice President, Corporate Development (905) 505-0770 Wayne@medicholdings.com Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:50:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed his concern over the incident involving Ukrainian and Russian vessels near the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea at the approach to the Kerch Strait. In a statement issued by his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, the secretary-general underlined "the immediate need to avoid any risk of further escalation of the situation." "The secretary-general urges both parties to exercise maximum restraint and to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions through all available peaceful means in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations," said the statement. "He underscores the need to fully respect the rights and obligations of all concerned parties under relevant international instruments. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognized borders, in accordance with relevant General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, must also be fully respected," the statement added. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called for on Monday morning over the escalating situation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:55:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close Li Zhanshu (R), chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, meets with the President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Tran Thanh Man in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese top legislator Li Zhanshu and top political advisor Wang Yang met Tuesday with the President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Tran Thanh Man in Beijing, respectively. Hailing that China and Vietnam are good neighbors and good comrades, Li, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said the two sides had proactively implemented the consensus reached by leaders of the two parties and the two countries and pushed cooperation in various fields for new progress since the visit to Vietnam last November by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, as well as the 10th anniversary of the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Li said, calling on the two countries to jointly promote comprehensive win-win cooperation, especially in the alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative and the "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan, to build a community with a shared future of strategic importance. The NPC is willing to strengthen exchanges with the VFF to make more contributions to China-Vietnam ties, Li said. Wang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said the CPPCC attaches great importance to its friendly cooperation relations with the VFF and is willing to continuously deepen exchanges and cooperation with it to further solidify the foundation of public opinion and inject new vitality into bilateral ties. Tran Thanh Man expressed willingness to further deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and share experience in party and state governance with China to promote constant development of the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:55:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The growing demand for Ethiopia's major export commodities in China has presented a huge potential for Ethiopian producers and exports, Ethiopian official said on Tuesday. Assefa Mulugeta, Director General of Export promotion Department at the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry, told Xinhua on Tuesday that the Chinese market, which is one of the top importers of Ethiopian products, is still untapped with huge market potentials for Ethiopia's export commodities. "There is a huge potential to expand our market to China," Mulugeta told Xinhua. For example, China is an emerging country for coffee, said Mulugeta, adding that the Ethiopian government together with Ethiopian business community are looking for opportunities on how to penetrate in the vast Chinese market for Ethiopia's major export products. "We need to identify which area has a gap in terms of penetrating the potential market areas in China," he added. Mulugeta, who noted Ethiopia's positive experiences in the Chinese market for products such as sesame seed, also stressed the need to study other potential areas so as to benefit from the vast Chinese consumers base. China has been a major destination of Ethiopia's sesame export in the past decade, as about 70 percent of its total sesame export is going to China, according to figures from the Ethiopian Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices Processors-Exporters Association. According to Mulugeta, the Ethiopian government over the past years has been putting efforts towards penetrating the Chinese market, mainly through bilateral as well as regional and international events that were held in China as well as at home. The Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry, in a bid to create market linkage and look for opportunities that are available in China, had also earlier this month took part at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) that was held in Shanghai earlier this month. As Ethiopia currently aspires to further strengthen its exports, China has already proven to be one of the major export destinations for Ethiopian goods. Ethiopia, during the 2017-2018 fiscal year that ended on July 8, has already exported goods worth about 245 million U.S. dollars to China, according to data from the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry. Wondimu Filate, head of Public Relations and Communication Affairs Office of the ministry, told Xinhua recently that Ethiopia's exports to China has steadily increased with the help of bilateral and multilateral events such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Filate said that in addition to Ethiopia's benefiting from the export of its products to China, Chinese companies are also contributing to the export sector with their plants in Ethiopia. Chinese phone maker Transsion, which is known for two of its mobile brands in Ethiopia that are Tecno and Itel, last week marked a milestone of its presence in Ethiopia, clearing the mark of 100 million U.S. dollars in export of mobile phone products manufactured in its Ethiopian factories in the last two and half years. Transsion employs about 1,800 Ethiopians in its three local plants that produce around 1 million units annually. The achievement is seen in Ethiopia as a big step forward to fulfill the country's ambition of becoming a light manufacturing hub in Africa by 2025. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:06:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LONDON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in Edinburgh on Tuesday that the Brexit deal agreed by British Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU leaders will make Scotland poorer. Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), published an analysis of the impact of May's deal on the people of Scotland, saying compared to staying in the EU, it will cost every resident of Scotland thousands of dollars. The SNP's 35 politicians, who represent Scottish seats in the House of Commons, have said they will vote against the Brexit deal when it is debated at Westminster in December. The assessment claimed the British government's draft agreement with Brussels could cost 1,600 pounds per person by 2030. The study said it is not even certain that a free trade deal will be agreed between Britain and EU, meaning the cost could be higher. The study was released 24 hours before May heads to Scotland on the next leg of her round-Britain tour to seek support for her deal. Commenting on the study, Sturgeon said the analysis shows why the deal agreed by the prime minister is "unacceptable" to the Scottish authorities and "damaging" to the people of Scotland. "No government of Scotland with the interests of this and future generations at heart could possibly accept it," she said. Sturgeon said that the deal would take Scotland out of the EU against its will and remove Scotland from the European Single Market of 500 million people. It would also take Scotland out of the Customs Union and the benefits of EU trade deals with more than 40 countries across the globe. "In short, it will make us poorer," said Sturgeon, adding: "Perhaps worst of all, it will take away opportunities from the young people of Scotland and from the generations to come." Sturgeon added: "Quite simply this is a bad deal, which the UK Government is seeking to impose on the people of Scotland regardless of the damage it will cause. It will not end uncertainty. It will extend it. We are being asked to accept a blindfold Brexit with all the difficult decisions kicked down the road." Sturgeon said the Scottish authorities will also support a second referendum on EU membership, with the option to remain in the bloc on the ballot paper. Judges at the European Court of Justice based in Luxembourg concluded a four-hour hearing Tuesday on whether Britain can call off the process of leaving the EU without permission from its 27 member states. The verdict will be given later at a date yet to be decided. The legal challenge was made by members of the Scottish parliament as well as Scottish members of the European parliament who asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the matter. The decision is expected to help clarify the options available to MPs and the British government if May's Brexit deal is rejected by parliament. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May spent the day in Wales and Northern Ireland as part of a "charm offensive" to rally support for her Brexit deal. At the Royal Welsh Show in Powys, May met farmers and manufacturers to answer questions on the withdrawal deal. May has remained determined to to see the deal through. "The British people want MPs to get on with a deal and allow the country to come together," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:06:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Kwesi Quartey, on Tuesday lauded the recent decision taken by African leaders that introduced a tougher sanction regime on its member states for non-payment of dues. According to Quartey, the sanction regime is in line with the ongoing implementation of the decision on financing of the Union that seeks to realize a predictable, reliable and sustainable financing mechanism for the Union's agenda. The AU assembly of heads of state and government, during its 11th extraordinary summit that was held from Nov. 17 to 18 at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, has strengthened its sanctions regime to ensure its 55 members meet their financial obligations to the Union in time. The set of sanctions, among other things, include a total suspension of a member state from the AU assembly and other gatherings should it fail to meet its payment expectations. "As we speak now in the month of November, member states have only paid 50 percent of the assessed contributions for the year 2018," an AU statement quoted Quartey as saying on Tuesday. "We, therefore, find ourselves in a precarious position where our planning, implementation and execution of programs and activities is greatly hampered," the deputy chairperson said. Quartey indicated that the sanctions regime "will therefore go a long way in addressing the weaknesses in the compliance arrangements." Revealing details of the sanction regime on Tuesday, the AU announced three categories of the sanctions that are "cautionary, intermediate and comprehensive." Cautionary sanctions would be applied to member states that do not pay 50 percent of their assessed contributions within six months. Such states would be deprived of their right to take the floor or make any contributions in the meetings of the AU. Intermediate sanctions apply to members who are in arrears for one year, in which the member states shall be suspended from being a member of a Bureau of any organ of the Union, hosting any organ, institution or office of the Union and losing the right to have their nationals participate in electoral observation missions, human rights observation missions, and will not be invited to meetings organized by the Union. States under the intermediate sanctions "will not have their nationals appointed as staff members, consultants, volunteers or interns at the AU," according to the AU. Under the comprehensive sanctions, which kick in after a member state defaults its payments for two years, such states are liable to the cautionary and intermediary sanctions and their right to participate in the meetings of the Union will be suspended. The AU, however, indicated that exceptions "will be granted to members who demonstrate conditions beyond their control to meet their financial obligations." Quartey also on Tuesday highlighted some of the challenges the Union presently faces in its financing agenda such as the unpredictability and excessive volatility of its revenues, over-dependence on outside partners and the growing dependence on a few countries internally to finance a large bulk of the Union's budget. The deputy commissioner however noted that with the implementation of the decision to impose a 0.2 percent levy on eligible imported goods from non-AU member countries, "member states would ease the pressure on their national treasuries and be in a position to meet their financial obligations to the AU timely." "This is not a dream, it is doable. We have 11 of our states that have paid their dues partially or fully from this 0.2 percent levy," he said. "There is flexibility in the implementation of this decision and the enticing fact is that excesses realized in the collection of levy after meeting the AU assessed contributions, are retained by the state," Quartey added. He also indicated that the approach to have a levy "is not something new or technically complicated," noting that it has been used for the longest time in regional blocs such as the ECOWAS and ECCAS and has proven to be very effective. Nearly half of AU member states are at various stages of implementing the Kigali Decision on Financing of the Union that aims to cover 100 percent of the operational costs of the Union, 75 percent of its programs and 25 percent of AU's peace support operations gradually by 2021, according to the AU. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:06:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mayor of Mongolia's capital Ulan Bator, Sundui Batbold, announced his resignation Tuesday after the country's Prime Minister demanded him to resign. In an official letter to the Citizens' Representative Council of Ulan Bator on Nov. 12, Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh accused Batbold of not fulfilling his duties. On Tuesday, the council discussed Khurelsukh's proposal but failed to make a decision. However, Batbold decided to submit his resignation letter. "Mutual understanding between the prime minister and city mayor is crucial in making decisions in the interests of Ulan Bator residents. So, I decided to resign from my position within December 5 for some 1.5 million residents of the city," the mayor said in his resignation statement. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:11:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon on Tuesday announced that Cyber Monday was the single biggest shopping day in the company's history, with more products ordered than any other day. Customers worldwide ordered more than 18 million toys and more than 13 million fashion items on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, the company said, though not disclosing revenue from the shopping holidays. Throughout the five shopping days starting with Thanksgiving and continuing through Cyber Monday, Amazon customers ordered more than 180 million items, the company said. The best-selling products included the all-new Echo Dot smart speaker, "Becoming" by Michelle Obama, the Amazon Smart Plug, and the L.O.L. Surprise Series toys. Overall, U.S. shoppers spent about 7.9 billion U.S. dollars on Cyber Monday, up 19.7 percent over last year, said Adobe Analytics, which tracks 80 percent of online transactions at 100 of the largest retailers in the United States. For the shopping season so far, consumers have spent 58.5 billion dollars online, up 19.9 percent, Adobe said. For the whole holiday season, which will last until end of December, online sales could hit a record 124 billion dollars, up by 15 percent from last year. Figures from market research firm eMarketer put overall U.S. holiday online sales at around 123 billion dollars, which will make up 12 percent of the estimated 1 trillion retail sales for this holiday shopping season. Amazon is set to continue its dominance in U.S. e-commerce sales in 2018, with sales expected to reach 252 billion dollars, or 48 percent of total U.S. online sales, according to a study by eMarketer. EBay, Walmart and Apple will follow, with estimated e-commerce sales share of 7.2 percent, 4 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively. File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May (front) arrive for a joint press conference at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Jan. 27, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that he did not like the Brexit deal between Britain and the European Union (EU), noting it seems to favor the EU more and might block the trade between Britain and the United States. Speaking to the media before leaving the White House, Trump said that the deal that specifies the manner of Britain's leaving the EU "sounds like a great deal for the EU." "I think we have to take a look at, seriously, whether or not the UK is allowed to trade," he said. "Because, you know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn' t be a good thing." "I don't think they meant that. I don't think that the Prime Minister meant that," he added, noting he hopes Theresa May would "be able to do something about that." "But, right now, as the deal stands, she may not -- they may not be able to trade with the U.S.," Trump noted. "And I don't think they want that at all. That would be a very big negative for the deal." The European leaders on Sunday endorsed the Brexit deal at the EU summit in a major breakthrough since the lengthy Britain-EU Brexit negotiation started one and half years ago. The political document covered Britain's 39-billion-pound "divorce bill," citizens' rights and the Northern Ireland "backstop" - a way to keep the Irish border open, if trade talks stall. Britain was scheduled to leave the economic and political union on March 29, 2019. May confirmed on Monday that the British parliament's vote on Brexit deal is expected to be held on Dec. 11. However, main opposition leader, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, said that May's deal was a "botched" job, and that the negotiations between Britain and the EU had failed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:36:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIEV, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Tuesday called for restraint and dialogue to de-escalate the tensions between Ukraine and Russia in the Sea of Azov. Enzo Moavero Milanesi, the OSCE chairperson-in-office, said that the organization is extremely concerned over the reported developments in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. "We call on all parties to contribute by political and diplomatic means to de-escalate the situation and ease tensions to avoid further risks of destabilization in the region," Milanesi was quoted as saying by the OSCE press service. Meanwhile, the OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger urged Ukraine and Russia "to step back from any further provocations and immediately engage in dialogue" to prevent further escalation in the region. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian military sailors. Russia's Federal Security Service said that the Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border, and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of Russia's orders. The Ukrainian Navy said it has informed Russia in advance about the passage of Ukrainian vessels from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, calling Russia's actions an "act of aggression." Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been deteriorating since Crimea was incorporated into Russia in March 2014 following a local referendum that was rejected by Kiev and Western countries. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:46:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ATHENS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Greek police recovered on Tuesday four dead bodies on railway tracks at the outskirts of Komotini city in northern Greece, Greek national news agency AMNA reported. The four young victims were most likely migrants and refugees, according to police sources. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident was underway. According to initial information the tragedy occurred in the early hours of Tuesday in the dark. Komotini is located about 70 kilometers west of Greece's land border with Turkey. In recent months, thousands of refugees and migrants have been smuggled into Greece from the neighboring country seeking to continue their journey to other European countries despite the closure of borders along the western Balkan route to central Europe since 2016. Over one million refugees and migrants reached Greece since early 2015, risking their lives to cross the Aegean Sea, according to official statistics. Following the March 2016 EU-Turkey agreement aimed to stem the influx, the numbers have been reduced dramatically, but still dozens of desperate people each day land on the northern Aegean sea islands or cross into Greece via Evros river on the land border. More than 12,000 people have entered Greece via Evros so far in 2018, according to the Greek migration policy ministry data, while nearly 60,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in Greece in the past two years. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- College H.U.N.K.S. Hauling Junk and Moving -- which has been featured on "Blue Collar Millionaire," "Shark Tank," and other primetime shows -- has expanded into Atlantic City. The company provides local moving, junk removal, donation pickups, general labor and more. Carl & Katie Hubner will lead the H.U.N.K.S. team. (H.U.N.K.S. stands for Honest, Uniformed, Nice, Knowledgeable Service.) Carl has been working offshore on oil rigs for the past 14 years. Katie previously worked as a Manager for Marriott but has been a stay-at-home mom for the past 5 years. The Atlantic City College Hunks franchise is located at 711 North Main Street, Suite 11 Pleasantville, NJ and will serve customers throughout Atlantic City, Pleasantville, Barnegat Township, Stafford Township, Hammonton, Hamilton, Beach Haven and surrounding areas. The franchise opened junk removal services on October 6th, and move is expected to open in early 2019. Carl & Katie are both excited about providing the best, stress-free experience possible for customers. We are excited about providing a much-needed service to the Jersey Shore. We have a great group of H.U.N.K.S hired, trained and ready to help us earn the business of local residents. They hope to be the premier moving and junk removal business in the area. They are long-time residents of Absecon and look forward to staying involved in the local community. We are excited to hire local residents to assist us with providing amazing, stress-free service to the Jersey Shore. The College Hunks core values are Building Leaders; Create a Fun, Enthusiastic Team Environment; Listen, Fulfill & Delight; and Always Branding. Carl & Katie both agree their favorite core value is Building Leaders, stating We are looking forward to hiring additional H.U.N.K.S and working with the amazing team we already have onboard. We hope to provide the training and knowledge to help our Hunks learn new skills and have a better understanding of business. The desire to mentor leaders and aggressively grow in a new market is why College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving awarded Carl & Katie the rights to the franchise in Atlantic City. "We are very aggressive when it comes to growth, but we want to do it the right way," said College Hunks Hauling Junk President and Co-Founder, Nick Friedman. "That means, first and foremost, finding the right franchise partner. We only want to work with people who are enthusiastic about what we've built as a company, and who believe in our mantra of 'Move the World.' Carl, Katie and their team live and breathe our core values, and clients are going to be blown away by the level of service they receive." College H.U.N.K.S. Hauling Junk and Moving in Atlantic City is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday. You can reach them at (609) 236-2173 or https://collegehunkshaulingjunk.com/locations/nj/atlantic-city/ Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:46:16|Editor: mym Video Player Close Photo taken on Nov. 27, 2018 shows a general view of the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The two-day Geneva Conference on Afghanistan to renew a process of development and reform began here on Tuesday, with an official from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) noting that progress in the country has been better than expected. (Xinhua/POOL/Denis Balibouse) GENEVA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The two-day Geneva Conference on Afghanistan to renew a process of development and reform began here on Tuesday, with an official from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) noting that progress in the country has been better than expected. Toby Lanzer, Deputy Special Representative for UNAMA, said at a UN media briefing that Afghanistan's First Lady Rula Ghani opened the first side event of the conference on the empowerment of women on Tuesday. The conference will assess progress since a pledging conference held in Brussels in 2016 and will be crucial in measuring results against the 15.2 billion U.S. dollar committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016, said the UN official. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had arrived in Geneva and will attend the conference on Wednesday. "On the reform agenda there has quicker and better progress than had been envisaged. IMF benchmarks have not only been met; they have been exceeded. Security reform has outpaced what we had expected," Lanzer said. But he also mentioned the situation of "ongoing violence" and "worst drought in a lifetime." And he noted that the real war in Afghanistan is "the war on poverty". The UN official said 3.6 million people in Afghanistan are in a level of food insecurity which is "one step away from famine." "Afghanistan is not quite where it wants to be yet," said Lanzer, but noted that more women are in high posts than ever before, and the country has a higher number of women in the parliament than in many countries. Among those expected to attend the conference are Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the European Union high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini, the Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis and high-level representatives from some 60 countries. The UN said the goal of the conference is to show the international community's solidarity with the Afghan people and the government in their peace and prosperity efforts, and for the Afghan government to renew its commitment to development and reform. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:01:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ATHENS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Greek government on Tuesday called on Turkey to hold a "responsible stance" regarding energy issues in the eastern Mediterranean. "Energy should be a bridge of dialogue and cooperation in our region. Turkey should refrain from threats and illegal claims and follow a responsible stance," the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a press statement. The statement came in response to a remark made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week. Pointing to Cyprus' drilling for hydrocarbons in Mediterranean which started this summer, the Turkish leader said that Greece and Cyprus should not make "reckless actions" in the region, Greek daily "Kathimerini" wrote, citing Turkish media. Turkey, Greece and the Greek Cypriot government have overlapping claims for jurisdiction of offshore oil and gas research in the eastern Mediterranean. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:26:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close VILNIUS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Lithuanian farmers are to attend a protest in Brussels in December requiring higher direct payments and equal treatment, the head of the country's Chamber of Agriculture said on Tuesday. Lithuanian farmers are to attend a joint protest demonstration in Brussels on Dec. 13 with farmers from Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The protest will be held during the meeting of the European Council to discuss the EU's 2021-2027 budget, or seven-year spending plan. The head of Lithuania's Chamber of Agriculture Arunas Svitojus told local media that Lithuanian farmers do not want to be treated as being "lower rank". "Lithuanians had abandoned their negotiating positions when the country was joining the EU and then in later negotiations, since direct payments to our agriculture are much lower as compared to other EU countries," Svitojus told local news agency BNS. "Lithuania receives less than 70 percent of the EU average," he added. Currently, Lithuanian farmers on average receive direct payments of 170 euros (191.8 U.S. dollars) per hectare, according to local media. On average, direct payments in the EU amount to 266 euros per hectare eligible for payment, according to the European Commission. It will be the second demonstration by Lithuanian farmers in Brussels in 3 months. In October Lithuanian farmers held a demonstration during the meeting of the European Council, also handed a petition to the European Parliament and the European Commission. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:41:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian military experts have started analyzing soil samples and pieces of shrapnel related to the recent suspected gas attack by the rebels in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, state news agency SANA reported Tuesday. Valery Vasiliev, head of radiation, chemical and biological protection of the Russian forces in Syria, said that Russian military experts at a mobile compound started analyzing the samples of soil and parts of shells fired during the Saturday attack. The Russian official said they will try to identify the toxic substance that was reportedly stuffed into the projectiles. On Saturday, SANA reported that 107 civilians, most of whom were women and children, suffered suffocation when the rebels fired several projectiles on the residential areas in Aleppo. It said chlorine gas was used by the rebels in the making of the projectiles. Syrian Foreign Ministry has called on the international community to condemn the attack and take measures to stop foreign support to the rebels in Syria, saying such support led to the rebels' possession of poisonous gas. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:51:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Gu Zhenqiu LONDON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Miniser Theresa May on Tuesday embarked on an election-style campaign across the country, leaving behind a hostile House of Commons, which will cast the make-or-break vote on her Brexit deal on Dec. 11 after five days of debate by members of parliament. The prime minister on Tuesday morning headed to Wales before her trips to Northern Ireland and Scotland later this week, followed by travels in England in a week's time after she returns from the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. With the beginning of the two-week campaign, May is applying circuitous tactics by going over the heads of members of parliament to appeal directly to the whole nation to back her Brexit deal, which won formal endorsement by the 27 leaders of the European Union (EU) member states. Downing Street believes a direct appeal to voters will help get her controversial deal through the parliament, where 90 Tory members publicly stated that they will vote against the EU-UK agreement on how Britain will leave the regional bloc on March 29 next year. As things stand, May knows she faces defeat when the deal comes before the House of Commons next month as enemies on all sides gang up on her. The "meaningful vote", as described by the British government, is believed to be the most significant in the United Kingdom in more than half a century since the House of Commons decided in 1971 to join the EU. In fact, it is members of parliament, not voters across the nation, who will cast the "meaningful vote." May's strategists hope that by stirring up a supportive public mood, they can force the politicians to shut out the tearoom chatter in Westminster and help her deliver Brexit in her own way. In the upcoming vote, there is only one candidate -- the prime minister herself, and only one policy -- the Brexit deal. May has repeatedly ruled out a second referendum, "Plan B" and any possible amendments to her Brexit plans. The signs of May's circuitous tactics emerged shortly after the European leaders supported the 585-page draft withdrawal agreement and 26-page political declaration. The prime minister asked the members of parliament to "listen" to their constitutes who are fed up with Brexit and want to "move on." Meanwhile, the prime minister also wrote an open letter to the British people imploring voters to put pressure on wavering members of parliament to back her. She hopes it might just give her the numbers she needs to get her Brexit plans through a divided parliament and reunite a warring nation. "We will then begin a new chapter in our national life. I want that to be a moment of renewal and reconciliation for our whole country," she said in the letter. "It must put aside the labels of 'Leave' and 'Remain' for good and we come together again as one people." Faced with a risk of a heavy defeat in the parliament, the prime minister urged all her cabinet to join her in trying to sell the deal. In her previous efforts, she also tried to win over members of parliament by mobilizing public and business opinion in favor of her Brexit deal. "My deal delivers for every corner of the UK and I will work hard to strengthen the bonds that unite us," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:56:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, disembark from the plane in Madrid, Spain, Nov. 27, 2018. Xi Jinping arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a three-day state visit. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) MADRID, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a three-day state visit to consolidate traditional friendship and strengthen cooperation between the two countries. It is the first visit by a Chinese head of state to the European nation in 13 years. Two Spanish fighter jets escorted Xi's plane as it entered the country's airspace. Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were greeted by senior Spanish officials at the airport. They were also presented with flowers by Spanish children. Upon arrival, Xi said China and Spain have a long history of exchanges thanks to the ancient overland and maritime Silk Road trade routes. The two countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2005, ushering in a new phase in the development of bilateral relations, Xi added. Noting that now China and Spain are both at an important stage for reform and development, Xi said it is not only in the interest of both countries and peoples but also conducive to world peace, stability and prosperity for the two sides to deepen bilateral ties, cement traditional friendship, expand practical cooperation and achieve common development. He said he looks forward to having extensive and in-depth exchanges of views with King Felipe VI, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and other leaders of Spain on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, so as to kick-start a new journey for the China-Spain comprehensive strategic partnership. The visit also comes as the two countries mark the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic relations this year. Spain is the first stop of Xi's ongoing Europe and Latin America tour, which will also take him to Argentina, Panama and Portugal. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Xi will also attend the 13th Group of 20 summit. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 02:01:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BERLIN, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- German auto parts manufacturer Webasto is entering into a long-term cooperation with Chinese Lithium-Ion producer Wanxiang A123 to pool their automotive industry expertise, the German firm announced on Tuesday. The Munich-based company said that a first joint project would involve the development and production of a battery module for the Chinese market which will be integrated into its own battery system for commercial vehicles. Having mainly focused on the production of sliding- and panoramic roofs, heating- and cooling systems, and convertible roofs in the past, Webasto recently announced that it intended to branch out into battery production for electric vehicles. "The development of the battery production in China is an important step for us towards our goal to become one of the globally leading system partners in the battery business," Freddy Geeraerds, a member of the Webasto management board, explained on Tuesday. Geeraerds said that Webasto products fulfilled the highest quality standards across the entirety of its range, a pledge which it would now also be able to ensure for its Chinese customers thanks to the cooperation with Hangzhou-based Wanxiang A123. Webasto has already opened its 10th factory in China in 2018 and is scheduled to complete the 11th in 2019. Last year, the company produced 6.2 million roofs for German, Korean, Japanese and U.S. carmakers in China. The company's chief executive officer (CEO) Holger Engelmann highlighted earlier that around one third of Webasto's gross revenue of 3.5 billion euros (3.96 billion U.S. dollars) were generated in China in 2017. As the producer of sunroofs for major carmakers including Volkswagen, Volvo and Ferrari, the family-owned automotive supplier has encountered a particularly favorable commercial environment in China thanks to the enthusiasm of local motorists for convertibles. Webasto currently employs 3,000 local staff, including 200 engineers working in research and development in Shanghai. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 02:06:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army said Tuesday it has responded to attacks by the rebels in the northern countryside of Hama province as the rebels attempted to sneak toward military positions, seen as a violation to the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone deal, according to the state news agency SANA. Citing military sources, the report said military units in the northwestern countryside of Hama foiled several infiltration attempts by the rebels to military positions. It added that all of the rebel attackers were killed. An army unit positioned in the town of Jubain spotted a rebel group closing in from near the town of Hesraya on Tuesday, barraging it with fire, which led to foiling the attack and the killing of the assailants. The army also thwarted another infiltration attempt near the city of Latamneh in Hama countryside Tuesday, said the report, adding that the rebel attack aimed to infiltrate the defense line of the Syrian army on the outskirts of the demilitarized zone in the nearby Idlib province. The report charged that the rebels in Idlib and the adjacent countryside of Hama have attempted to take advantage of the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone deal to re-deploy and fortify its positions as well as to get more arms. It said that the rebels of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front on Sunday deployed 50 missiles in several areas in Idlib and its countryside. It added that "French terrorists" modified some of the warheads and stuffed them with chlorine gas. The demilitarized zone deal is in its third month and activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said recently the situation is heated in that zone as the ultra-radical rebels and the government forces are preparing for an "unclear future." The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the umbrella group of the Nusra Front, is also consolidating positions and fortifying its areas while opening the doors for volunteers to join the ranks of its fighters in Idlib. The planned demilitarized zone includes areas in Idlib, which is the last major rebel stronghold in northwestern Syria, as well as adjacent countryside areas of the provinces of Hama, Latakia, and Aleppo. The deal for imposing a demilitarized zone was reached in September between the leaders of Turkey and Russia, aiming at averting Idlib province from a wide-scale offensive by the Syrian army. Turkey's task in the deal is to persuade the rebel groups in Idlib to abide by the plan as Ankara enjoys sway over the militants there. However, the extremist group such as the Nusra Front rejected to withdraw from the zone in accordance with the plan. It is worth noting that the ultra-radical rebels control 70 percent of the buffer zone. The Syrian government has initially welcomed the deal but noted that it was only temporary. But with all the violations, the government officials have recently noted that Idlib will inevitably return under the government control, warning that the situation cannot drag on like this. Throughout the crisis, Idlib has emerged as the major destination and stronghold of the Syrian rebels fleeing other parts of the country after deals or surrender. Idlib is now in a state of severe lawlessness characterized by assassinations, explosions, and infighting. Idlib is also of strategic significance as it shares a border area with Turkey in the north and neighbors the coastal province of Latakia, the hometown of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Notably, the namesake capital city of Idlib lies close to the international road linking the capital Damascus with the northern province of Aleppo. Idlib is home to around 3.5 million people, including those who evacuated after the surrender of rebels in other Syrian areas. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 02:06:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NEW YORK, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. experts are to discuss at a forum here on Tuesday the potential enormous opportunities arising from China's rapid march toward a low-carbon economy. The experts will share their insights on China's challenges and how business can profit from the battle China has launched on its environmental problems at the forum themed "Business and the Greening of China," which is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the China Institute in downtown New York City. Among the speakers are Barbara Finamore, author of a new book, Will China Save the Planet?, and founder of the China Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Damien Ma, a renewable energy expert and associate director of the Paulson Institute's Think Tank, After years of breakneck development, China has turned to environmental clean-up, with ambitious plans to reduce carbon emissions and new environmental standards for its corporate players in a bid to build a new, greener economy. The move is creating entire new markets, in renewable energy, transportation, forestry, water management, and other sectors. By 2020, the country plans to invest 2.5 trillion yuan (about 370 billion U.S. dollars) in renewable energy alone, according to China's National Energy Administration. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 02:51:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday asked for donation to a trust fund for the Aral Sea region, where the dying Aral Sea, an endorheic lake between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is causing socio-economic problems. "Our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals will require a surge in financing. I therefore appeal to donor nations to help bring the Multi-Partner Human Security Trust Fund for the Aral Sea Region fully to life," he told a high-level event to launch the fund. "The fund will advance comprehensive solutions. It will also embody the idea of human security by focusing on people, communities, prevention and partnerships, and on holistic approaches that address root causes." Guterres recalled his "unforgettable visit" to the region in June 2017 and how he was shocked by the shrinking of the Aral Sea. "I saw for myself the drying of the Aral Sea, one of the largest ecological catastrophes of our time. I heard moving accounts from people and experts about how the severe damage to the sea also undermined the region's social and economic systems. Livelihoods, traditional ways of life, and hopes for the future -- all this has been lost." The Aral Sea, formerly the fourth-largest lake in the world, has been shrinking since the 1960s when rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 1997, it had lost 90 percent of its original size. Guterres noted that the growing demands for water, the poor management of water resources, and the growing impact of climate change are increasing water stress in many parts of the world. When ecosystem decline is coupled with other forms of insecurity, as what is happening in the Lake Chad region in Africa, the intersection of water scarcity, climate change, inequality and violent extremism can lead to more intractable crises, he warned. Syracuse, New York, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- All 238 paintings in Robert Shetterlys masterwork portrait series Americans Who Tell the Truth: Models of Courageous Citizenship will be on public display for the first time en masse November 29-December 14 at Syracuse University in the Schine Student Center. The American artist will be on campus for a discussion with two prominent subjects of his work: a former Citigroup senior executive who blew the whistle on Citis fraudulent mortgage practices in the mid-2000s, and a crusading pediatrician and public health advocate whose research exposed dangerous levels of lead in the municipal water system in Flint, Michigan. The portraits and accompanying narratives in the Americans Who Tell the Truth series highlight citizens who courageously address issues of social, environmental and economic fairness. Combining art and other media, the series offers resources to inspire a new generation of engaged Americans who will act for the common good, our communities, and the Earth. Among the historical and contemporary figures portrayed in the collection are Muhammad Ali, Susan B. Anthony, James Baldwin, Majora Carter, Shirley Chisholm, Dwight Eisenhower, Langston Hughes, Van Jones, Martin Luther King Jr., Naomi Klein, Ron Kovic, Arthur Miller, Ralph Nader, Paul Robeson, Edward Snowden, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Malcolm X. The University's Maxwell School is the major sponsor of the exhibit and the Tanner Lecture Series for Ethics, Citizenship, and Public Responsibility, in cooperation with the University Lectures, and the Graduate Program in Museum Studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) School of Design, along with media sponsor WAER. Museum studies students and faculty have been busy transforming the Schine Student Centers Panasci Lounge into a gallery space suitable for displaying the many portraits in the series. Earlier this month, a museum studies team traveled to Shetterlys Maine studio to pack and transport the paintings to Syracuse. The exhibition will be open for public viewing Mondays through Fridays from 7:30 a.m. until midnight, and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. until midnight, beginning Thursday, November 29, and continuing through Friday, December 14. In an on-stage conversation on Thursday, November 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Crouse Colleges Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium, Shetterly will be joined by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, public health advocate and pediatrician at the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, and Richard Bowen, senior lecturer in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas. LaVonda Reed, professor of law and SU associate provost for faculty affairs, will moderate the discussion. Both the exhibition and the lecture event are free and open to the public. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided for the lecture. Several portrait subjects have expressed interest in traveling to Syracuse to attend the exhibition and lecture, including Bill Ayers, Louis Clark, Marian Wright Edelman, Joan Gussow, Kelsey Juliana, Kathy Kelly, the Rev. Jim Lewis, Sherri Mitchell, Betty Morgan, Jon Oberg, Stephen Ritz, David Rovics, Ann Wright and Kevin Zeese. One of Shetterlys subjects lives nearby: SU alumnus Oren Lyons 58, H93, faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation and a chief of the Council of the Chiefs of the Haudenosaunee. Hanna-Attisha is author of What the Eyes Dont See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City (Random House, 2018), her first-hand account of the Flint water crisis. Hanna-Attisha made headlines across the country in September 2015 when she sounded the alarm about the high presence of lead in Flints drinking water. She has received numerous honors for her efforts on behalf of the peopleand especially the childrenof Flint, including being named to Time magazines 2016 list of the worlds 100 most influential people. Bowen is widely known as the Citigroup whistleblower. As business chief underwriter for Citigroup during the housing bubble financial crisis meltdown, he repeatedly warned Citi executive management and the board about fraudulent behavior within the organization. The company certified poor mortgages as quality mortgages and sold them to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other investors. Citigroup responded by stripping him of all responsibilities, placing him on administrative leave and eventually terminating him. Bowen subsequently testified before the Securities and Exchange Commission, giving them more than 1,000 pages of evidence of fraudulent activities. In 2010, he was a key witness in the mortgage mishaps and gave nationally televised testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Shetterly was born in Cincinnati and graduated from Harvard College in 1969 with a degree in English literature. After moving to Maine in 1970, he taught himself drawing, printmaking and painting. While trying to become proficient in printmaking and painting, he illustrated widely. For 12 years he created the editorial page drawings for the Maine Times newspaper and illustrated the National Audubon Societys childrens newspaper, Audubon Adventures and some 30 books. His work appears in collections across the United States and Europe. Along with his Americans Who Tell the Truth series, he is well known for his series of 70 painted etchings based on William Blakes Proverbs of Hell, and for another series of 50 painted etchings reflecting on the metaphor of the Annunciation. He began Americans Who Tell the Truth in the early 2000s in response to U.S. government actions following 9/11. Shetterly undertook the project as a way to deal with his own grief and anger by painting Americans who inspired him. He initially intended to paint only 50 portraits, but by 2013 the series had grown to more than 180 paintings. Today, it numbers 238. Portions of the series have toured widely across the United States, shown in schools, museums, libraries, galleries and other public spaces. A few of Shetterlys paintings have previously been featured at Syracuse University. A small portion of the Americans Who Tell the Truth series was on display in March and April 2014 at VPAs 914Works gallery. An Americans Who Tell the Truth book featuring Shetterlys first 50 portraits was published in 2008. He says the portraits have given him an opportunity to speak with children and adults throughout the United States about the necessity of dissent in a democracy, the obligations of citizenship, sustainability, U.S. history, and how democracy cannot function if politicians dont tell the truth, if the media dont report it, and if the people dont demand it. Shetterly is the subject of a documentary thats in production, Our Childrens Future: A Portrait of Robert Shetterly, sponsored by the Union of Maine Visual Artists and directed by SU alumnus Richard Kane 72. [View the films trailer.] Kane will be in Syracuse this week to record additional interviews for the film. In connection with the exhibit, he will be engaged in a full schedule of classroom appearances at Syracuse University this week, visiting VPA, the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, the School of Education, the Whitman School of Management, and the Renee Crown University Honors Program. About the Tanner Lecture Series on Ethics, Citizenship, and Public Responsibility What does it mean to be an ethical citizen? What do the needs for public responsibility demand from us, whether we work in the private or the public sectors, and whether we are entry-level employees or top leaders? The Tanner Lecture Series on Ethics, Citizenship, and Public Responsibility provides a public forum for exploring these questions in provocative and challenging ways. The series has been generously endowed by alumnus W. Lynn Tanner 75 Ph.D., founder, CEO and chairman of TEC, a leadership development organization dedicated to accelerating the growth and development of outstanding 21st-century leaders. About the University Lectures Now in its 18th season, the University Lectures is Syracuse Universitys premier lecture series. Created through and supported by the generosity of alumnus Robert B. Menschel 51, the cross-disciplinary series brings to campus notable guest speakers of exceptional accomplishment who share their diverse global experiences and perspectives. About Syracuse University Syracuse University is a private, international research university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings and an undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic heart of New York state, with a global footprint, and nearly 150 years of history, Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience. The scope of Syracuse University is a testament to its strengths: a pioneering history dating back to 1870; a choice of more than 200 majors and 100 minors offered through 13 schools and colleges; nearly 15,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students; more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries; and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more information, visit www.syracuse.edu. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 03:22:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CHICAGO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Three Chicago police officers went on trial on Tuesday for alleged cover-up in the controversial killing of a black teenager by their colleague four years ago. Jason Van Dyke, the fellow officer, was already found guilty of second-degree murder last month in fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014. The three Chicago police officers have been accused of falsifying reports to protect Van Dyke. They now face charges of conspiracy, obstructing justice and official misconduct. McDonald reportedly broke into a truck on the night of Oct. 20, 2014 and Van Dyke was one of police officers dispatched to the scene. McDonald carried a knife but walked away from police when Van Dyke fired 16 shots into the teenager, the police car's dashcam video showed. However, before the release of the police video, the three accused officers allegedly made false statements during the initial investigation, exaggerating the aggressiveness of the black teenager in an attempt to shield their colleague. The 2014 incident triggered racial tension in Chicago, the third biggest city in the United States with a large African American population. Community and faith leaders, speaking ahead of Tuesday's trial, called for an end to nepotism in the police force, stricter judicial supervision and urged to rebuild relationship between the police and local communities. File Photo: U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert addresses a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, on Oct. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department said here on Tuesday that it is disappointed in Hungary's recent decision to extradite two suspected Russian arms dealers required by the U.S. side to Russia, noting the decision "raises questions about Hungary's commitment to law enforcement cooperation." In a statement, Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson, said that the United States had requested the extradition of two suspected Russian arms dealers, Vladimir Lyubishin Sr. and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr., pursuant to the U.S.-Hungary Extradition Treaty. "Hungary denied the U.S. request and instead extradited the suspects to Russia, where it is unclear whether they will face trial," she said. "The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision." "Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this decision raises questions about Hungary's commitment to law enforcement cooperation," Nauert added. "This decision is not consistent with our law enforcement partnership, undercuts the work that our agencies had done together to build this case, and will make citizens in the United States, Hungary, and the world less safe." Western media reported that the two men had been charged with conspiring to sell Russian military weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. The two suspects were also accused by the U.S. authorities of trying to send narcotics into the United States and offer arms to protect their shipments. A spokesman of the Hungarian government was quoted by Reuters as saying that his country made the extradition decision based on international laws. He also noted that Washington has rejected eight of nine extradition requests from the European nation in the past five years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 03:57:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Politicians in the United States and Canada have denounced automaker General Motors' announcement Monday that it would cut more than 14,000 jobs and shut down factories in North America and beyond in 2019, a transformation the company said would be profitable. GM said in a press release that five of its assembly and propulsion plants in the United States and Canada would be "unallocated" in 2019. It also plans to lay off 15 percent of its salaried workers, which would trim down the number of its executive ranks by 25 percent. The cuts amount to more than 14,000 jobs in total, including some 8,100 white-collar positions as well as over 6,000 factory jobs. In addition to a previously announced factory closure in South Korea, the company also said it would cease operations of another two overseas plants by the end of 2019, the specificity of which it didn't disclose. "Contributing to the cash savings of approximately 6 billion dollars are cost reductions of 4.5 billion dollars and a lower capital expenditure annual run rate of almost 1.5 billion dollars," GM said of its restructuring in the statement. However, the automaker's decisions triggered denouncement in both political circles and the business community across the United States and Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Monday at the White House lawn that he was "not happy" with the plans. GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra had given notice to U.S. officials before the formal announcement was made, according to media reports. "You know, the United States saved General Motors. For her (Barra) to take that company out of Ohio is not good. I think she is going to put something back in soon," Trump said. He was referring to the 2008 government bailout that saved GM from bankruptcy. Barra said in the statement carried by her company that the measures will continue to make GM "highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future." She also talked with top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Monday in a pre-arranged meeting, on which the company declined to comment. "I was very tough," Trump said. "I spoke with her (Barra) when I heard they were closing and I said, you know, this country has done a lot for General Motors." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with Barra to express his "deep disappointment" over GM closing its assembly facility in Oshawa, Ontario. He added that the Canadian government will do what it can to help laid-off GM workers in Oshawa "get back on their feet." The Canadian government granted GM 10.8 billion Canadian dollars in loans (about 8.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009 to keep the company afloat, provided that it would not reduce its manufacturing operations in Canada over 6 years. Last week, Ottawa gave corporations including GM a tax giveaway of 14 billion Canadian dollars (approximately 10.5 billion U.S. dollars) to guarantee jobs remain in Canada. In its statement GM refrained from the outright use of words like closure or shutdown, opting for "unallocated" instead. The company's spokeswoman Stephanie Rice said abandoning production facilities may involve negotiations with United Automobile Workers (UAW), a powerful labor union representing workers in the United States and Canada. "GM's production decisions, in light of employee concessions during the economic downturn and a taxpayer bailout from bankruptcy, puts profits before the working families of this country whose personal sacrifices stood with GM during those dark days," Terry Dittes, UAW vice president and director of the GM department, said in a statement, adding the potential moves are "a slap on the face" to the government bailout. The job cuts and factory shutdown also provoked repercussion in the U.S. Congress on Monday, as lawmakers across the aisle expressed frustration over the decision. "The workers at Lordstown are the best at what they do, and it's clear once again that GM doesn't respect them," said Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, referring to GM's Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio. "Ohio taxpayers rescued GM, and it's shameful that the company is now abandoning the Mahoning Valley and laying off workers right before the holidays," he added. "I am deeply frustrated with General Motors' decision to shut down its Lordstown assembly plant and disappointed with how the hardworking employees there have been treated throughout this process," Republican Senator Rob Portman, also from Ohio, said. Portman said he urged Barra "in a frank conversation" to consider production of other vehicles at the Lordstown plant now that GM planned to cease production of its Chevrolet Cruze model. "During today's conversation, I pressed GM again to provide new opportunities to the Lordstown workers and take advantage of the skilled workforce there," Portman added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 04:02:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has applauded the rising investment portfolio in the blue economy sector, which comprises investments in reducing the pollution at sea and ensuring that millions of people around the world have access to clean water, its executives said on Tuesday. In a statement issued at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference underway in Nairobi the lender said it had raised 66 billion shillings (about 660 million U.S. dollars) in sustainable bonds, which highlight the critical role of the oceans and water resources play in international development. The Bank has committed 37 billion dollars in water resources and other ocean-related portfolio of more than 4 billion dollars, which include funds invested in a project in the Philippines and Indonesia, aiming to reduce the marine pollution, according to Bank executives. "We are delighted with the diverse range of investors that have purchased our bond series and appreciate the commitment of all stakeholders to new approaches to ensuring better stewardship of our fresh water and ocean resources," said Arunma Oteh, World Bank's Vice President and Treasurer. The Bank through its International Bank for Reconstruction and Development has managed to raise the 660 million dollars through the Sustainable Development Bonds, which aim to assist the development finance institution to achieve broader goals set out in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 6. "We are pleased that investors are committing to increase access to clean water and protecting the health of our oceans, both of which are vital to the sustainable growth of economies, livelihoods and the future of our planet," said Laura Tuck, Vice President of Sustainable Development at the Bank. The Bank has invested 550 million dollars in projects to reduce pollution of the oceans in the Philippines and Indonesia. The Bank officials said investments in enhancing the blue economy sector were focused on helping countries accelerate efforts to aid communities living in coastal areas to cope with shrinking coastlines and improving the management of fisheries and fish stocks. The leaders attending the three-day conference have focused their discussions on the need to assist communities living in coastal areas to deal with pollution of waters, harvesting of water resources and smart technologies investments in order to make industries operating at sea to become profitable. The blue economy conference is focused on building the capacity of ports, shipping facilities and marine safety, which require input of both government and private sector investors to develop. According to the World Bank, it becomes more challenging to maintain focus on fresh water and salty water resources, which requires that both the private sector and the government are involved in developing innovative financial solutions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 04:22:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and visiting Ecuadorian foreign Minister and finance Minister reaffirmed commitment to expand bilateral cooperation, the U.S. Department of State said here on Tuesday. Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson, said in a statement that Pompeo and Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Jose Valencia and Finance Minister Richard Martinez reaffirmed their commitment to expand bilateral cooperation on political and economic issues, including through the recently relaunched U.S.-Ecuador Trade and Investment Council. Pompeo confirmed U.S. support for Ecuador's efforts in strengthening democratic institutions and President Lenin Moreno's commitment to democratic reforms, according to the statement. Pompeo also "welcomed further Ecuadorian cooperation on a democratic solution to the man-made crises in Venezuela and Nicaragua," said the statement. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump slapped new sanctions targeting Venezuela's gold exports, as his National Security Adviser John Bolton unveiled a hard-line policy toward Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 05:12:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of families returned to their homes in government-held areas in northern Syria on Tuesday, the latest in a series of civilians' returns from rebel-held areas, according to the state news agency SANA. These people crossed the Abu al-Duhur crossing between rebel-held areas and government-controlled ones in the southern countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, said the report. It added that the people returned homes in areas that have been retaken by the army in the countryside of Idlib, as well as the nearby countryside of Hama and Aleppo provinces. For weeks people have started returning to their towns and villages as the situation in northern Syria is somehow restrained after Russia and Turkey reached a deal to impose a demilitarized zone in Idlib and surrounding areas. The people are returning from areas mostly controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the umbrella group of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which enjoys massive sway in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. The Turkish, Russian-backed deal in northern Syria is in its third month amid violations reported on a daily basis, with the government in Syria blaming the extremist militias of undermining the deal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 05:27:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Department of the Treasury on Tuesday announced to sanction against Nicaraguan vice president and a key advisor to her over the government's response to the protests that began in April. In a statement, the Treasury said that the targets are Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's closest associates, namely, the vice president of Nicaragua and first lady, Rosario Maria Murillo De Ortega, and Nestor Moncada Lau, who has acted as a national security advisor to the country's president and vice president. Saying the Nicaraguan government continues to engage in "rampant corruption" and "serious human rights abuse," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement that Washington is committed to holding the Ortega regime accountable. Also on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order, which declared a national emergency with respect to the Nicaraguan government's response to protests that began on April 18, and allowed the imposition of sanctions on actors allegedly engaged in these activities. As a result of the sanction, any property or interests in property of those designated, within or transiting U.S. jurisdiction or the possession or control of a U.S. person, would be blocked and reported to the Treasury. Moreover, all transactions by U.S. persons within or transiting the United States that involve any property or interests in property of the designated persons would be generally prohibited. The White House said in a statement issued also on Tuesday that the Trump administration will continue to use all the economic and diplomatic tools at its disposal to add pressure on the Ortega government. On Nov. 1, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton unveiled a hard-line policy toward Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 05:32:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Tuesday pledged to assist Chinese investors from China's Zhejiang Province to set up base in the country. Betty Maina, principal secretary of Kenya's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives said at a trade forum here that Kenya has identified Chinese investors as key partners in the country's journey to achieve economic development. "The Kenya government commits to support investors from China's Zhejiang Province to establish their investments in Kenya," Maina said during the China's Zhejiang-Kenya trade and investment symposium that brought together the private sectors of Zhejiang Province and Kenya. A delegation of over 50 Chinese firms from Zhejiang Province are in Kenya to scout for investment and trade deals in the area of food processing, textiles and clothing, leather sector, construction, automobile, electrical and shipping industry. Maina said that the China-Kenya relationship spans 55 years and the Zhejiang-Kenya trade forum is important as it brings together the private sector of the two countries in an arrangement of signing a Memorandum of Understanding. She said that Chinese investors could play an instrumental role in implementing President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four Agenda of food security, affordable housing, universal healthcare and manufacturing and hence provide a win-win arrangement within the Belt and Road Initiative. Maina said that the business forum is intended to begin a new and long relationship and partnership between China's Zhejiang Province and Kenya. She observed that Kenya has one of the best investment destinations given its expansive market access. She noted that Kenya has preferential market access at the East Africa Community (EAC), Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), the United States as well as the European Union which Chinese investors can sell to after setting up factories in Kenya. She added that the Kenyan government considers the private sector as the engine of economic growth with the role of government to facilitate the growth of the private sector. Wang Xuezheng, counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya said that Beijing and Nairobi have enjoyed excellent relations which has laid a strong foundation for growing cooperation in bilateral trade and investment. Anne Kirima, chairperson of Kenya Investment Authority said that Kenya considers the China-Kenya relations as very important and it is for this reason that this year alone Kenyatta traveled to China twice during the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. Kirima said that in both occasions Kenya's president held talks with the president of China in further strengthening the cooperation. She added that currently, China is Kenya's largest trading partner and the largest official development assistance (ODA) donor. According to Kirima, China is also the largest contractor having contributed significantly to the current improved infrastructure that has gone a long way in enhancing the competitiveness of the private sector. Kirima urged Chinese investors to transfer their knowledge and technology to Kenyan firms so that Kenya can improve the competitiveness of its industrial sector. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L), Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) talk following a group photo of world leaders attending the D-Day 70th Anniversary ceremonies in Benouville, France, June 6, 2014. (AFP File Photo) MOSCOW, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in the Kerch Strait with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone, the Kremlin press service said in a statement Tuesday. In the conversation initiated by Germany, Putin said the Ukrainian action was a "violation of the norms of international law by its warships," the statement said. The Russian president also expressed his concern over Kiev's decision to bring its military forces into full combat readiness and declare martial law. "It was emphasized that the Ukrainian leadership bears full responsibility for creating another conflict situation and the associated risks," the statement said. Putin also expressed hope that Berlin will "influence the Ukrainian authorities and keep them from making further hasty decisions," the statement added. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian military sailors. Russia's Federal Security Service said the Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border, and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of Russia's orders. The Ukrainian Navy said it has informed Russia in advance about the passage of Ukrainian vessels from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, calling Russia's actions an "act of aggression." The Ukrainian parliament on Monday supported a bill imposing a martial law in certain regions of the country for 30 days starting Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT). Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 06:12:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SKOPJE, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 62 out of 120 Macedonian Members of Parliament (MPs) voted on Tuesday in favor of depriving the former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski his parliamentary immunity. Earlier in the day, the Parliament Committee on Rules of Procedure and Issues of Mandate and Immunity endorsed the court's motion for removing Gruevski's immunity as a result of his escape to Hungary after being sentenced to two years in jail on corruption charges. The members of the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE did not attend the parliament session. On Oct. 5, a Macedonian court found Gruevski guilty of acquiring personal gain and influencing officials in purchasing a new Mercedes vehicle in 2012 for more than 600,000 euros (681,000 U.S. dollars) and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment for the case codenamed "Tank". Gruevski had appealed over the jail term, but the Macedonian Criminal Council rejected it on Nov. 9. On Nov. 13, Macedonia confirmed that Gruevski had fled to Hungary. On Nov. 20, Gruevski announced on social media that his request for political asylum was approved by Hungarian authorities. On the same day, Macedonia's Ministry of Justice lodged a request to Hungary for his extradition. Gruevski was prime minister from 2006 to 2016, representing the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE party in Macedonia. Toronto, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Seneca graduate Neil Hetherington is the recipient of the 2018 province-wide college award for Business. The award was presented last night by Dr. Merrillee Fullerton, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities at the annual Premiers Awards gala recognizing college graduates who have made significant contributions to their communities and achieved excellence in their careers. Hetherington is the CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank the largest food bank in Canada. Hetherington was previously the CEO of Habitat for Humanity Toronto and New York City as well as Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services. The entire Seneca community is extremely proud of Neil, said Seneca President David Agnew. Neil has dedicated his life to making a difference and we are delighted that his Seneca education laid the foundation for him to become a North American leader in the non-profit sector. A Seneca graduate is career-ready and prepared to be a fully participating global citizen. Neil is a shining example of our 200,000-strong alumni." A graduate of Seneca's Building Construction Regulations Administration program, Hetherington was named one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 and was also awarded Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals. I am humbled by the Premiers Award and am grateful for all of those at Seneca who have supported me over the years, said Hetherington. It is my hope that seeing me receive this award lights a spark in the imagination of a current student who will see the need, value and reward in community engagement work. The Premier's Awards honour the important social and economic contribution college graduates make in Ontario and throughout the world. The Awards were launched in 1992 to mark the 25th anniversary of Ontario's colleges and are administered by Colleges Ontario. Presented annually in seven categories, the recipients are chosen from nominations submitted by Ontario's 24 colleges. Nominees must demonstrate outstanding career success related to their college experience and have made a significant contribution to their community. Other Seneca 2018 Premiers Award nominees included: Dr. Shawna Lee , Professor, Early Childhood Education, nominated for Apprenticeship award , Professor, Early Childhood Education, nominated for Apprenticeship award Phillip Jang , Professor, Social Service Work, nominated for Community Services award , Professor, Social Service Work, nominated for Community Services award Traci Melchor , TV correspondent and host, nominated for Creative Arts and Design award , TV correspondent and host, nominated for Creative Arts and Design award Jodi Garner , regenerative medicine researcher, nominated for Health Sciences award , regenerative medicine researcher, nominated for Health Sciences award Isabel Kanaan , actor, nominated for Recent Graduate award , actor, nominated for Recent Graduate award Dean Sela, pilot and flight instructor, nominated for Technology award Since 1992, 10 Seneca alumni have received the Premier's Award, including Hetherington. A distinguished panel of leaders from government, arts, community service and business was assembled to judge this years awards. About Seneca Combining career and professional skills training with theoretical knowledge, Senecas expert faculty provide a polytechnic education to 30,000 full-time and 60,000 part-time students. With campuses in Toronto, York Region and Peterborough and education partners around the world, Seneca offers degrees, graduate certificates, diplomas and certificates in more than 300 full-time, part-time and online programs. Senecas credentials are renowned for their quality and respected by employers. Co-op and work placements, applied research projects, entrepreneurial opportunities and the latest technology ensure that Seneca graduates are highly skilled and ready to work. Find out more at senecacollege.ca. Follow us on Twitter. Attachment Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 06:27:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CHICAGO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A leading electricity provider in the Chicago area had to bring additional crews on Tuesday from other states to restore power, after a major blizzard knocked out supply to hundreds of thousands of customers. Heavy snow and high winds in excess of 80 km per hour, and ice brought down wires and resulted in broken poles, causing more than 350,000 customers in the area to lose power since late Sunday. As of 1600 local time on Tuesday, a total of 25,832 households or businesses still remained without power, mostly in the suburbs of Chicago, according to data released by the electricity company Commonwealth Edison (ComEd). "Given the extent of the damage, we have also asked utilities across the country for assistance,"said ComEd in a statement. Over 800 line workers have arrived in Illinois to help, including employees and contractors from ComEd's sister utilities in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, in addition to other crews from as far away as Oklahoma and Florida. As temperature stayed around minus 5 Celsius in Chicago, residents without power at home had to seek temporary shelter while ComEd workers continued to respond to power outages. This combination of pictures created on January 8, 2018 shows files photos of FBI Director Robert Mueller (L) on June 19, 2013, in Washington, DC; and US President Donald Trump on December 15, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at special counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors accused his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, of violating a plea agreement. In a series of tweets, Trump called Mueller a "conflicted prosecutor gone rogue" who is "only looking at one side" in the inquiry while accusing him of causing "tremendous damage" to the nation's criminal justice system. "The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite," Trump said. "Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie." Mueller, who was appointed in May 2017, is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Trump has repeatedly dismissed any collusion between his campaign and the Russians while slamming the Russia probe as a "hoax" or "witch hunt." Russia has denied the meddling allegations. The U.S. president has recently intensified attacks against Mueller, his team and the investigation but has denied trying maneuvering to shut down the investigation, which has so far led to indictments of over 30 people, most of them Russians. Democrats, who will take control of the House after gaining nearly 40 seats in the midterm elections earlier this month, have said they would use investigative committees to open further probes of Trump's businesses and his alleged connections to Russia. The latest outbursts came a day after a court filing showed that Manafort was accused of repeatedly lying to investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges, violating a plea agreement that he signed two months ago. Manafort said in the same filing he disagreed with Mueller's claim that he had lied to the FBI and the special counsel's office and "has provided information to the government in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations." Manafort, 69, was convicted in August on eight counts of financial fraud related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. In the trial, the jury also deadlocked on 10 other counts, which were dismissed later. He was the first member of Trump's election team facing trial on charges arising from Mueller's investigation. The president has tried to distance himself from Manafort, who joined the Trump campaign team in March 2016 and spent about two months working as campaign chairman before resigning over exposure of his Ukrainian lobbying work. Another former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, began serving a two-week jail term on Monday as part of his plea deal with Mueller's team. Jerome Corsi, a conservative writer and associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone, told CNN in a phone call on Monday that he's refusing a plea deal offered by Mueller. Corsi said that he had been offered a deal to plea on one count of perjury but that he plans to reject it. Last week, Corsi said that he expected to be charged with lying to federal investigators, though he said at the time that he was innocent of wrongdoing. Mueller's team questioned Corsi as part of an investigation into Stone's connections with WikiLeaks, an organization that publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified information provided by anonymous sources. U.S. intelligence agencies have claimed that Russia was the source of hacked material released by WikiLeaks in the weeks ahead of the 2016 election that damaged the campaign of Hillary Clinton, then Democratic candidate for presidency. Mueller's team is reportedly trying to determine whether Stone and other Trump associates had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' plans. The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that Manafort met with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, several times in secret, including the time when he was on Trump's campaign. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 06:37:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday that she was not aware of any talk of a pardon for Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman of President Donald Trump. "I'm not aware of any conversations for anyone's pardon involving this process," Sanders told a White House briefing. Manafort was accused of repeatedly lying to investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges, violating a plea agreement that he signed two months ago with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia inquiry, according to a court filing made public on Monday. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had previously signaled that Manafort and others could be eligible for pardons when the Mueller-led investigation ends. Appointed in May 2017, Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Manafort was the first member of Trump's election team facing trial on charges arising from Mueller's investigation. The allegation that Manafort had lied to investigators after reaching a plea deal with Mueller has fueled speculation he might be angling for a pardon, but Manafort's attorneys denied that he had lied to the FBI and the special counsel's office. Manafort, 69, was convicted in August on eight counts of financial fraud related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. In the trial, the jury also deadlocked on 10 other counts, which were dismissed later. Trump has tried to distance himself from Manafort, who joined the Trump campaign team in March 2016 and spent about two months working as campaign chairman before resigning over exposure of his Ukrainian lobbying work. Mueller's team is reportedly trying to determine whether Trump associates had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' plans to release hacked material in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, which damaged the campaign of Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic candidate for presidency. The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that Manafort met with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, several times in secret at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, including the time when he was on Trump's campaign. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. In a statement on Tuesday, Manafort denied having met with Assange. "This story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him," Manafort said. "We are considering all legal options against The Guardian who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false," he added. Stiri pe aceeasi tema - The Health Ministry must reposition as the national authority that takes the public health and medical care decisions required for containing the Covid pandemic and ensuring access to health services for all patient categories, provides the governing program proposed by the PNL - PSD - UDMR ruling - The Government's Department for Sustainable Development will receive the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) award for innovation and excellence in public service at a gala in December in the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai, agerpres reports. According to a statement - As many as 2,136 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been registered in the last 24 hours, following over 19,000 tests performed nationwide, the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), the official novel coronavirus communication task force, informed on Monday, agerpres reports. As of - In a ranking of the top performing companies in 2020, at the national level, there are 12,393 occupying the top ten spots - economic operators from different sectors of activity, such as: industry, services, commerce, tourism, research-development, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and constructions, - The list of the ministers proposed for the Cabinet of Prime Minister-designate Dacian Ciolos and the governing program were submitted to Parliament on Monday. According to regulations, the Standing Bureaus are to meet in order to set the date of the joint meeting of Parliament, within 15 days - O parte dintre detinuti au fost internati in spitalele din sistemul public, iar altii, in spitalele care functioneaza in sistemul penitenciar. Au fost depistate, in urma testarii, 18 persoane private de libertate ca fiind pozitive de coronavirus. O parte dintre acestea au fost transferate in reteaua - Over 6,000 job opportunities and internship programmes in technical and non-technical fields are available at the Virtual Job Fair "TOP Employers" - autumn edition 2021, where they announced the presence of 60 companies, informs the event organizer. According to a press release of Catalyst - With a 1.1 billion euro budget from European funds, the Danube Delta has become in recent years Romania's largest investment project, shows a Sierra Quadrant expert analysis released on Monday. According to the cited document, more than 900 projects in the private sector and 123 public administration Declaratia zilei 25 noiembrie 2021 Cine va fi in urma mea sa duca tot asa sau mai bine ceea ce se face aici la Centrul de Creatie. Mi-am depus dosarul de pensie, sunt foarte hotarata sa ies la pensie, sa las pe altcineva mai tan ... [citeste mai departe] The national touring company of "Hamilton" comes to the Forrest Theatre Aug. 27-Nov. 17. Read more The Kimmel Center is warning fans of Hamilton, the Broadway smash-hit musical coming to the Forrest Theatre starting Aug. 27, to be wary of online sellers claiming to have tickets. No physical tickets exist yet not even through the Kimmel Center itself although you can find seats listed for sale on after-market sites for $600 and even $1,200. On Nov. 20, the Kimmel put out a consumer warning on its Facebook page. Attention, Philadelphia! Tickets for Hamilton are not yet on sale," it said, adding that there are many sites and people who are selling overpriced, and in some cases, fraudulent tickets. The Kimmel offered two season-ticket packages last summer that gave buyers eligibility for Hamilton tickets. So far, those are the only pathways to see the national tour at the Forrest. Single tickets are just not on sale, said Leslie Tyler, director of media relations for the Kimmel Center. The Kimmel Centers Broadway Philadelphia series has not even announced a date when individual Hamilton tickets will be offered for sale. We are currently working with the producers to come up with an on-sale timeline," said Crystal Brewe, vice president of sales and marketing at the Kimmel. The Facebook advisory directed interested playgoers who want to be among the first to receive official information to join the KimmelCenter.org email list. Ticket prices for the Philadelphia run of the national traveling show, which will play through Nov. 17, have not yet been announced. When the touring production played at the Kennedy Center in Washington over the summer, face-value tickets were priced at $99, $149, $179, $199, and $625. Face-value tickets for a run in Pittsburgh in January have been offered at $81 to $490 and are almost entirely sold out. On Broadway, where Hamilton sells out regularly, the face-value price for regular tickets is $200 to $600, according to the authorized vendor, TicketMaster, with premium seats selling for $1,000-plus. When tickets do go on sale in Philadelphia, the Kimmel Center post advised, patrons can eliminate the risk of counterfeits by buying from either kimmelcenter.org or telecharge.com. For shows between now and July with tickets that are currently on sale, the Kimmel Center is throwing a Fee Free Cyber Monday Flash Sale. Hamilton, needless to say, is not among them. In other theater news this week: A Play, a Pie, and a Pint returns ... OK, so the folks at Tiny Dynamite do this play series called A Play, A Pie, and a Pint. They want to get you sitting at a table with your friends at a pub or cafe, stuffing yourself with pizza and swilling beer while watching plays. Artistic director Kathryn MacMillan says PPPs next show and can you love this title enough? is the world premiere of The Audience Disturbs Marcels Bath Time and He Is Very Upset with You All (Dec. 5-16 at Headhouse Cafe). It stars the ubiquitous Charlie DelMarcelle as Marcel and Tiny Dynamite thespian Meghan Winch as his wife. What is MacMillan looking for in a PPP play? First, brevity. Next, sociability. My mandate for PPP felt very clear, MacMillan says. What is a play I want to eat a slice of pizza and drink a beer with? Marcel meets all the PPP criteria: its is a short-form play, a little experimental, comic and most of all interactive. This play is almost like a skeleton on which you can hang a lot of audience interaction. she says, adding that the talented DelMarcelle is especially good at creating new, fresh ideas right in the moment. ... and get ready for Bridges of Madison County, the musical After a year of gray-out, in which no on-site-produced shows played at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, PTC opened this season with an impressive local-all-star production of Sweat. What will they do for an encore? An ambitious musical, The Bridges of Madison County (Feb. 8-March 3). Set during the 1965 Iowa State Fair, Bridges is a romance involving loyalty and desire. It has been a smash-hit 1992 novel by Robert James Waller, a 1995 film with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, and this 2014 musical, with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Price and respect to her; shes truly going for it has put together her cast with an accent on local talent. Sarah Gliko (last seen at the Wilma in Mr. Burns A Post-Electric Play) will play Francesca. Williamsport, Pa., native Gregg Goodbrod (Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway and plenty of regional credits) will be Robert. Barrymore Award-winner Michael Philip OBrien plays Bud, Francescas husband. The multitalented Rachel Camp plays Roberts ex-wife, Marian. Temple grad Kevin John Murray plays Francescas son Michael. Georgiana Summer, a junior at the University of the Arts, is daughter Carolyn. Bucks County resident and Broadway vet Barbara McCulloh (Peter Pan) plays nosy neighbor Marge, and Greg Wood (a Barrymore winner last seen in the Arden Theatres Once), is Marges husband, Charlie. For director, Price has tapped longtime colleague Mark Martino, now based in New York, whom shes known since their days at Theatre Aspen. ATLANTA, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WestRock Company (NYSE: WRK) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary WRKCo Inc. has priced $750 million aggregate principal amount of 4.65% senior notes due March 15, 2026 and $750 million aggregate principal amount of 4.90% senior notes due March 15, 2029. The notes will be guaranteed by WestRock Company and certain of its subsidiaries. WestRock intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes and to prepay a portion of the amounts outstanding under its delayed draw credit facilities, which were entered into in connection with the acquisition of KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation. The offering is expected to close on December 3, 2018, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The notes and the guarantees have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction. As a result, the notes may not be offered or sold within the United States to or for the account or benefit of any U.S. person unless the offer or sale would qualify for a registration exemption under the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. Accordingly, the notes are being offered only to qualified institutional buyers in accordance with Rule 144A under the Securities Act and to certain persons outside the United States in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act. This press release will not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, the notes or the guarantees in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements that are based on managements current views and assumptions and are typically identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "could," "should," "would," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," "target," "prospects," "potential" and "forecast," and other words, terms and phrases of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements include statements such as that (i) WestRock intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes and to prepay a portion of the amounts outstanding under its delayed draw credit facilities and (ii) the offering is expected to close on December 3, 2018. Factors that may affect actual results include, but are not limited to, economic, competitive and market conditions generally, volumes and price levels of purchases by customers; and competitive conditions in WestRocks businesses and possible adverse actions of their customers, competitors and suppliers. Please refer to the cautionary statements set forth in Item 1A of WestRocks Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2018. WestRock undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements. About WestRock WestRock (NYSE:WRK) partners with our customers to provide differentiated paper and packaging solutions that help them win in the marketplace. WestRocks 50,000 team members support customers around the world from more than 320 operating and business locations spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Learn more at www.westrock.com . CONTACT: Investors: James Armstrong, 470-328-6327 Vice President, Investor Relations james.armstrong@westrock.com John Stakel, 678-291-7901 Senior Vice President, Treasurer john.stakel@westrock.com Media: John Pensec, 470-328-6397 Director, Corporate Communications john.pensec@westrock.com The Croda surfactants plant, between I-95 and the Delaware River at Atlas Point south of Wilmington. England-based Croda was urged to close the plant and move the works to Texas by its Gulf Coast-based ethylene suppliers, to avoid the cost and risk of shipping volatile organics by rail across the country. Instead, Croda, committed $170 million to building an ethanol-to-ethylene oxide plant (top of photo) to make its raw material on site, expanding employment from 215 to 250. The state of Delaware gave tax breaks and training subsidies. Read more A new chemical reactor at the Croda chemical plant at Atlas Point remained closed Tuesday, while work elsewhere at the 140-acre complex returned to normal, a day and a half after a flammable gas leak shut the twin Delaware Memorial Bridge spans and snarled traffic for more than seven hours. No one at the plant, which employs 250, was injured. The company said its initial finding was that an "incorrect gasket fitted on one of the pipes during the plant construction" failed Sunday afternoon, causing the leak. Company and state investigators are continuing to review the accident at Croda's ethanol-to-ethylene oxide unit that the state of Delaware wanted badly for its aging riverside industrial corridor. The Atlas Point plant which dates to 1937, 14 years before the first bridge span has used ethylene oxide for years, but only recently started producing it at a new facility on site. Sunday marked "the longest closure of both spans during my 27 years" at the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which owns the bridges, "and I couldn't find any such occurrence" in William J. Miller's 1983 history of the bridge, Crossing the Delaware, said authority spokesperson James Salmon. At least "70 percent" of the volatile organic compound in a storage tank on the site escaped on Sunday afternoon, George Greenley, a spokesperson for the Holloway Terrace Volunteer Fire Company, which was among the first responders, told local media on Sunday. A revised permit that the state granted for the facility on June 7 describes processing tanks of up to 50,000 gallons. Company, state, and fire company officials have declined to estimate how much gas ultimately leaked. The leak was reported to local fire companies, who initially recorded it as a building fire, at 4:15 p.m. Sunday. The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control rushed hazardous-materials staff to assist Croda staff at the plant, and set up monitors on the bridge, where they soon detected traces of ethylene oxide. The commission shut the bridge at 4:23 p.m., at the request of Croda and Holloway Terrace, according to spokesperson Salmon. Rob Snyder, deputy chief at the Holloway Terrace company, said they acted in "an excess of caution." Police sent "reverse 911" calls urging residents of the nearby Collins Park development and parts of nearby New Castle to stay indoors. Monitors showed "there was no point at which there was an unsafe level of ethylene oxide in the air outside the facility perimeter," Croda said in a statement the next day. The bridge commission says DNREC and Croda both told it the ethylene oxide concentrations on the bridge side of the property line did not exceed federal OSHA exposure limits. Besides its volatility, federal officials say short-term exposure to the gas can cause lung injury, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and shortness of breath. Long-term exposure can cause cancer. "There was concern that if people were stuck on the highway or the bridge there could be safety issues," Shawn Garvin, the former Environmental Protection Agency official who heads DNREC, told me later. "We did find elevated levels" of ethylene oxide, he added. Fire crews spent the evening helping Croda staff spray water onto the ethylene oxide facility, pipes, and surroundings to dissipate the leak. The company declared the leak contained, and the commission reopened the bridges at 11:23 p.m. Croda marketing director Cara Eaton said: "We are now conducting a systematic review of all other equipment on the ethylene oxide plant pipework. Until this work is completed, and we, along with regulatory authorities, are confident that the plant can resume safe operations, we will not manufacture ethylene oxide. This process is anticipated to be completed, carefully and thoroughly, over the next two weeks." Garvin, the DNREC chief, said he wouldn't predict how long his department's probe will last. The ethylene oxide unit "is still down until we can figure out what happened," he added. He praised local and state first responders and the bridge commission, who all "did this the way it should be done." Like many chemical makers aware of public sensitivity to pollution, Croda cultivates a reputation as a careful, environmentally conscious operator. "My bet, Croda did everything by the book," said Craig Melville, of Maple Glen, a retired chemical distributor who handled Croda products as well as those made by Dow, DuPont, FMC, and other producers. "They know it's a dangerous chemical," he added. "Things happen like this all the time in Texas, sort of goes with the business." The Gulf Coast is where most U.S. ethylene oxide is made, and where Croda had considered relocating the Atlas Point works after its previous supplier, Sunoco's chemical unit, stopped ethylene production in Marcus Hook due to a fire. Melville said it's in the chemical industry's interest and in the Philadelphia area's to continue producing basic industrial compounds close to customers who rely on their products. The historic Stephen Girard Building in Philadelphia's Market East district is being transformed into a hotel under Hilton's boutique Canopy brand as part of the $800 million initiative to revamp the blocks that surround it. Plans call for the 13-story, 120-plus-year-old Beaux Arts building on 12th Street, between Market and Chestnut Streets, to accommodate about 251 guest rooms, according to documents filed with the city in connection with the project's financing. The hotel plan is part of the East Market commercial and residential complex that is set to eventually encompass the entire property bounded by Market and Chestnut Streets, between 11th and 12th Streets, which was once known as Girard Square. Washington-based National Real Estate Development controls the property under a long-term lease with its owner, the estate of late Philadelphia tycoon Stephen Girard. Dan Killinger, the National Real Estate managing director overseeing the East Market project, declined through a spokesman to comment on the hotel plan. Messages seeking comment from McLean, Va.-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. yielded no response. In a 2014 conference call with analysts, shortly after the Canopy brand was introduced, Hilton chief executive Chris Nassetta characterized the hotel line as "an accessible lifestyle brand" designed to "reflect the local neighborhood flavor and culture where each hotel is located." The company has 27 Canopy properties operating or soon to open in cities including Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, London, and Chengdu, China. Its most recent opening was last month in Zagreb, Croatia, according to its website. In addition to the hotel plan, National Real Estate plans to build space for a restaurant and two stores on the Stephen Girard Building's lower stories, according to Department of Licenses and Inspections records. The developer is nearing completion of its plans for the Market Street-facing northern two-thirds of the property, where the Stephen Girard Building stands. It has developed within the section a pair of apartment towers and an office building, with lower-story spaces occupied by branches of Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, TJ Maxx, Mom's Organic Market, and Little Baby's Ice Cream. It recently obtained a permit to demolish a parking garage on the southern, Chestnut Street-facing third of the block, where it plans two additional "mixed-use towers" atop retail spaces, according to its website. City aviation officials plan to spend $5.5 million to acquire 15 acres near Philadelphia International Airport as part of a plan to develop a massive new air-freight complex serving a broad swath of the region. The land to be acquired is adjacent to the 135-acre property known as the Henderson Tract, which the city acquired control of early this year for the cargo terminal project, airport spokeswoman Diane Gerace said in an email Tuesday. The new acquisition, from a York-based entity called Tinicum Realty Partners LP, requires city approvals. The All-State Career School trucking academy currently operates at the site at 501 Seminole St. in Tinicum Township, just over Philadelphia's border with Delaware County, according to the school's website. With the air-cargo project, Philadelphia aims to claim a larger share of the estimated $50 billion in air-freight activity generated in the region, airport officials have said. Gerace said airport officials have begun taking steps toward advancing the plan by working on issues such as federal environmental reviews and wetland mitigation. Airport activities, including land acquisitions, are financed through fees paid by airlines to use the facility. Colliers International brokers (L-R) Tom Golarz,L, and Richard S. Gorodesky outside of the Northeast Philadelphia buildings that are being redeveloped into a new warehouse complex called the Boulevard Logistics Center. Read more NorthPoint Development of Missouri plans to spend $57 million to build 600,000 square feet of high-end warehouse space at the Northeast Philadelphia site where the IRS once had its local administrative offices. Who's going to use the space? They'll figure that part out later. "We're building it without anybody in mind," said R.J. Agee, a project manager with the Kansas City-area developer. "It's an area we really like." NorthPoint's Boulevard Logistics Center started work this month on its plan, which calls for renovating one of the two former IRS buildings at 11501-601 Roosevelt Blvd. to accommodate 122,000 square feet of warehouse space and a publicly accessible self-storage facility. The other building is to be demolished to make way for a new 465,000-square-foot warehouse. NorthPoint aims to pitch its Philadelphia space to a comparable mix of tenants as it accommodates in similarly situated warehouses that it owns in St. Louis. Those users include Amazon.com Inc. and other e-commerce companies, a distributor of appliances for big box stores such as Lowes Cos. and Home Depot Inc., and a supplier of paper goods for area restaurants. The project places NorthPoint among a vanguard of developers that are building or acquiring big, industrial properties in Philadelphia speculatively, without first lining up tenants for the space, a practice virtually unheard of in the city until recently. Developers are racing to ready space for warehouse users drawn to the city's central East Coast location, its dense population of consumers, and its big potential workforce. "Companies are willing to make the speculative investment because, unless they have a building permitted already, and maybe even physically started, they don't get very far with their potential tenants," said Thomas Dalfo, an executive overseeing real estate activities at the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which has been promoting warehouse growth as a way of boosting employment in the city. Vacancy rates for industrial space in Philadelphia fell 4.3 percent between 2013 and 2017, according to a report in September by real estate services firm CBRE. The report presented the declines as an indication of increasing demand as more tenants flock to densely populated parts of the country to tap their deep pools of labor, estimating that a modern one million-square-foot e-commerce fulfillment center could require as many as 4,000 workers. Philadelphia's drop in vacancies bested the 3 percent average of those in 15 markets classified by CBRE as regional logistics hubs, such as Boston, Phoenix and Detroit. That tightening of supply has coincided with rent growth of almost 37 percent in Philadelphia, compared with an increase of about 19 percent across the 15 regional hubs, which CBRE defines as having smaller warehouse footprints than major hubs such as the I-78/I-81 corridor through the Lehigh Valley and Central Pennsylvania, and Southern California's Inland Empire. Some of this new demand comes from companies fleeing East Coast locations where rents have skyrocketed, such as parts of New Jersey near New York, while others are drawn by the city's abundant supply of potential workers, said Richard Gorodesky, a senior vice president with commercial real estate firm Colliers International, which represented NorthPoint in its Roosevelt Boulevard acquisition. E-commerce businesses such as Amazon.com Inc., meanwhile, need to be in the city so they can dependably fulfill the quick-delivery promises made to its dense populations of online shoppers, Gorodesky said. "Part of it is the push from New York," he said. "Part of it is the desire to be near the labor and the population centers and the overall growth of the city itself." The problem, Gorodesky said, is that Philadelphia has very little up-to-date warehouse inventory of sufficient size to accommodate this demand. That's where the new projects come in. NorthPoint bought the land for its Roosevelt Boulevard warehouse complex for $14.6 million in July from drug maker Lannett Co., which had acquired the buildings years earlier for a never-realized expansion plan there. The developer aims to have completed renovations at the first of its buildings there by the end of January and wants to have the second warehouse finished before the end of next year, Agee said. NorthPoint also has another Northeast Philadelphia property under contract with plans for more warehouse space, said Agee, who declined to specify its location. Meanwhile, in the nearby Byberry East Industrial Park, Chicago-based Ridge Development has broken ground on a 207,500-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on land at 3025 Meeting House Rd. that it purchased from the city for $2.18 million. Ridge, the industrial-property arm of Transwestern Development Co., aims to have its building available for occupancy by the end of September. And across town, in Roxborough, Bryn Mawr-based Alliance Partners HSP bought Penn Beer Distributors Inc.'s longtime warehouse at 401-15 Domino Lane from the distributor for $6.87 million in September as a speculative acquisition. It is seeking a new tenant to use the 130,000-square-foot building once Penn Beer moves out early next year as part of its consolidation with Gretz Beer Co. in Hatfield, Matt Handel, a vice president with the development group, said in an email. Patrick Green, an executive vice president with CBRE, said the spate of speculative activity is unlike anything he's seen since he started working on industrial deals four decades ago. "People are speculating that if I buy this piece of dirt and build this building, they will come," he said. In this Nov. 26, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Biloxi, Miss. Trump said Tuesday, Nov. 27, that he was "very disappointed" that General Motors was closing plants in the United States and warned that the White House was "now looking at cutting all GM subsidies," including for its electric cars program. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Read more The release this week of a book on President Trump seems perfectly timed to (a) counterbalance some of the president's looming and lingering problems and (b) set the stage for a two-year, full-bore reelection effort. Trump's Enemies: How the Deep State Is Undermining the Presidency, written by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former deputy campaign manager David Bossie, argues that an inbred, elite Washington bureaucracy packed with presidential enemies is working to prevent and/or derail the "winning" Trump agenda. This is an early holiday gift for both anti-Trumpers and his loyal base. Lefties can use the boldface title, "Trump's Enemies," for party riffs on how the 288-page offering is but the first of several volumes. The base can brandish the book as proof that Trump is so rogue in fighting for the real America that denizens of privileged, pampered Washington can't allow pro-people programs to upset the establishment. For Trump, it couldn't come at a better time. It helps validate any post-midterms staff or cabinet shake-ups. It could help blunt expected year-end action by special counsel Robert Mueller (assuming he's still around). It offers an alternative to books such as Bob Woodward's Fear: Trump in the White House. Because inside enemies explain a lot. They make Trump a victim, a crusader sacrificing to achieve American greatness stymied by a select, sullied few. It's a perfect plot line. Expect a movie soon. The Washington Post and the New York Times, based on advance copies, report the book tags Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, for trying to "cage" the president; calls former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn "the poster boy" for disloyal staff conspiring against Trump; rips former staff secretary Rob Porter and former press secretary Sean Spicer; and labels Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen a "rat." It quotes Trump saying Mueller's Russia probe "makes my base stronger." And it reminds all of Trump's core belief, "The greatest enemy of this country is Fake News. I really mean it." It also reprises Trump's assertion he was spied on at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign by President Obama. And it slams two potential 2020 Democratic opponents for Trump: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as a "liberal wacko" and California Sen. Kamala Harris as "an enemy of President Trump." So, it's a real table-setter. As Trump approaches two years in, a time when even avid Trump backers might wonder where's the "big, beautiful wall," now they have an answer. Enemies in Congress and the White House obviously hold Trump back. Same goes for any border woes. Embedded conspirators in his administration keep him from keeping the country safe. Plus, now it's clear why the president disagrees with his own intelligence agencies about who's responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It's also plain why the president doesn't believe a new climate report from 13 agencies in his own administration predicting the dire economic consequences of not addressing global warming. Why would Trump or any leader take the word of those who so very clearly are working so hard against him? And that can play forward. The holiday-season layoff announcement of 14,000 General Motors workers during a presidency built in part on a promise to keep U.S. manufacturing jobs and bring back those that left? Can't possibly have anything to do with Trump's tariffs or trade wars. He's a self-graded "A+" president in "the best economy we've ever had." Gotta be those enemies, at it again. The latest tracking numbers from Gallup showing the president's job-approval rating at 38 percent? Must be fake polls. Reported by fake news. Finally, a book on the president's enemies helps put his reelection bid in a place from which he ran in 2016: Washington outsider battling a rigged system that works against real Americans. A promo blurb says it all: "This book will expose the political and bureaucratic underbelly, its struggle to survive an unorthodox commander-in-chief, and its willingness to do almost anything to stop him." It's vindication and rallying cry all in one-stop shopping. Did you hear that? At roughly 9:30 on a Tuesday morning, a bombshell exploded over America's already cacophonous 24/7 news cycle. The Guardian reported that President Trump's convicted-felon 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, held secret face-to-face meetings with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange the conduit for Russian-hacked emails that politically damaged Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton at the same time he was assuming control over the then-GOP front runner's operation in Trump Tower. The report by a highly reputable, Pulitzer-winning news organization based upon sources who witnessed and reported on Manafort visits to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange has been holed up as a fugitive for years threatens to demolish Trump's long-standing claim that his campaign didn't collude in the release of the stolen documents. The stunning new report also suddenly makes sense of a flurry of bizarre developments in the last 24 hours as special counsel Robert Mueller's long, ongoing probe of Trump's 2016 campaign, possible collusion and a subsequent cover-up comes out of its self-imposed quiet period for the recent midterm elections. It may answer the huge question raised by Monday night's shock report that Manafort who, convicted of eight felony counts and facing a raft of other charges involving money laundering and conspiracy, pleaded guilty this summer and promised to tell Mueller what he knows now stands accused of instead telling a new series of lies to prosecutors. Pundits wondered what secret was so big that Manafort who surely dreams of an (impeachment-worthy) pardon from Trump and fears a polonium sandwich from Vladimir Putin would keep lying. This may be it. The Guardian report and Manafort's worsening legal dilemma also sheds light on Trump's increasingly frantic tweets, including a series blasted out on Twitter early Tuesday morning that "Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue," adding: "The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other." Saint or no saint, Mueller may be closing in on Team Trump's number and possibly the president himself. The Guardian report certainly aligns with a flurry of news in recent days that Mueller's team is intensely interested in whether certain associates of Trump including the veteran political dirty trickster Roger Stone as well as journalistic conspiracy monger Jerome Corsi had insider information on what documents WikiLeaks possessed and when they'd be released. There are also reports of a secret and highly controversial U.S. effort to prosecute WikiLeaks' Assange. But Tuesday's report also and this is important to note hasn't yet been matched by other leading news outlets. And the Guardian article has also drawn vehement denials from WikiLeaks, which continues to insist there were no meetings between Manafort and Assange (Manafort's lawyers have made no comment yet). There will certainly be pressure on both the news organization and its sources, which seem to include Ecuadorian intelligence officials, to defend such an explosive story. But the Guardian is reporting that the 69-year-old Manafort met with Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on at least three separate occasions in 2013, 2015 and again in the late winter or early spring of 2016. That last alleged meeting is especially critical because it would have taken place right before a) Trump all but clinched the GOP presidential nomination b) Manafort became the out-of-left-field choice as Trump's new campaign manager and c) WikiLeaks began releasing unflattering emails and other documents hacked from the Democratic National Committee an operation which, Mueller has since charged, was led by Russian operatives. Manafort who earned millions of dollars representing the pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, working closely with an aide Mueller charges has ties to Putin's intelligence network also convened a now infamous June 2016 confab at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Russian sources with links to Putin's government who'd promised "dirt" on Clinton and wanted to gauge Team Trump's willingness to lift sanctions on their homeland. It all smells rather collusion-y, especially when this new Manafort-Assange bombshell gets lobbed into this flaming dumpster. That's really important because "No collusion" has been a kind of warped Zen mantra for Trump during his 21 months in the White House, two soothing words that he's relied on to make the stress of the Mueller probe temporarily go away. And that's because even America's king of denial understands deep down that any hard proof of collusion could be the beginning of the end of Trump. America stands at a place that it's never been in its 242 years of independence. Our 1787 Constitution did provide us with one deeply flawed tool impeachment to deal with un-spelled-out "high crimes and misdemeanors" by a president. But there's no clear mechanism to determine if a presidential election was stolen, nor any real plan for how to restore confidence in democracy if that actually happens. The question of whether this electronic thievery by a rival world power, coupled with its support for a spurious social media campaign, changed the outcome of a 2016 presidential election decided by less than 100,000 votes and what role Trump and his minions played in all of this may be resolved by Mueller, or it may be a thing that historians are still debating in the 23rd Century. History's final judgments may be shaped by two monumental decisions that loom in the coming weeks, if not sooner. The frantic news of the last day or so only makes it more likely that Trump and his unqualified, handpicked acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker will move no matter how awkwardly or unconstitutionally against Mueller. The first step as suggested by Manafort's refusal to play ball with Mueller could be a Trump pardon of his former campaign manager, which would trigger the biggest constitutional crisis since the Civil War and all but ensure the president's impeachment when the new Democratic-led House is inaugurated in January. But equally hard decisions await Mueller who may or may not, anticipating his dismissal or Trump pardons, have scattered secret indictments or giant breadcrumbs of evidence with state prosecutors in New York and, more importantly, House Democrats all but certain to be led by a second speakership of Nancy Pelosi. It seems clear that the Democrats who found that barely mentioning Trump's impeachment during the midterms was a winning strategy had a plan to use their newfound committee subpoena powers to investigate the White House and expose its secrets for two years while their ideal 2020 candidate emerged from a secret trap door somewhere. The problem with that go-slow approach is that the time could soon come when the danger posed to democracy by the illegitimacy of a continuing Trump presidency becomes so great that drastic, outside-the-box, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may action is required, or there won't really be much of a democracy left to preserve by the 2020 election. This explosive November surprise should force lawmakers to seriously ask themselves: Are we there yet? Mayor Kenney and members of the Philadelphia School Board are shown here in this file photo. Read more A year after he declared the city would take back control of its school system, Mayor Kenney said he was pleased with the early results. "The investments and personal commitments that we've made in the past year reflect the kind of future that we dare to dream for this city," Kenney said. Flanked by City Council President Darrell L. Clarke, School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr., and the full complement of his new school board, the mayor spoke in Council chambers on what he said was a "historic" day. The City Charter now calls for at least two public hearings on the district's management per year, and Tuesday's was the first. The new board President Joyce Wilkerson, Vice President Wayne Walker, and members Julia Danzy, Leticia Egea-Hinton, Mallory Fix Lopez, Lee Huang, Maria McColgan, Christopher McGinley, and Angela McIver was chosen in the spring and took over governing the district July 1, after the formal dissolution of the state-controlled School Reform Commission. (Students Julia Frank and Alfredo Pratico also sit on the board as nonvoting members.) Traditionally the district went before Council just once a year, when it made its formal budget request. But that hearing has often taken on an adversarial tone, with Council on one side and school personnel on another. On Tuesday, the board, Hite and city leaders sat together, and the tone was markedly different. Kenney trumpeted the city's investment $547 million in new money over five years in schools as a hallmark of the closer relationship between the city and district. (The mayor did not mention that he asked for more money for schools but that Council balked at raising property taxes.) "As I've said here before just over a year ago, in fact increased investment should be matched with increased accountability to the public. Local control accomplishes just that," Kenney said. "And today, our schools are governed by a diverse, local school board of Philadelphians. I am proud of this new board and grateful to the members for their willingness to serve, and the dedication they have shown in just the last nine months of service." In general, Council had plenty of granular questions for the board and Hite on topics ranging from career and technical education to special education, but seemed pleased with the trajectory of local control. "I want to commend Dr. Hite and the new board for all the progress they have made," said Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez. Though it has been in power only five months, the board has earned high marks for its willingness to engage the public. It has encouraged more informal interaction between the public and the board through committees, which the SRC lacked. That governing body often made decisions with little public discussion; the board has encouraged people to weigh in before final decisions are made. In listening sessions prior to the transition to local control, the need for transparency and public accountability felt more like "an outcry," said Fix Lopez, co-chair of the board's district partnership and community engagement committee. Hite ran through an outline of his highlights of the district's performance: gains in early literacy, two district schools ranked as elite schools by the U.S. Department of Education, an expansion of ninth-grade academies to focus on high school success. Hite has warned against using the school board to engage in magical thinking: The shift to local control has not been a silver bullet. Officials acknowledged the district still has a long way to go to on many fronts. The superintendent noted that more children are enrolled in schools this fall in the top two tiers as measured by a district ranking system, and fewer are in bottom-tier schools. But the vast majority of Philadelphia schoolchildren still attend low-performing schools: 98,498 in low-rated schools and 29,271 in top ones. And some Council members sounded alarm bells about issues on which they feel strongly. City Councilwoman Helen Gym decried persistent staff vacancies, sometimes in subjects that will mean students can't meet state requirements. At one school, West Philadelphia High, she said, foreign language instruction was not available because of teacher vacancies. A spokesperson for the district said the school does offer Spanish instruction, but has no permanent teachers in the subject. Overall, district officials said they had a 99 percent "fill rate" at the beginning of the school year, and that, like other large systems, they struggle with mid-year vacancies. Hite said the district is looking at year-round recruiting, and that a shortage of students graduating from education schools nationwide is a factor. "These are the issues that we grapple with," said Wilkerson. Members of the Tasting Collective Mark Fairfield (right) and Robyn Duda (second from right) talk during dinner at Russet. The members-only dining club meets every other week for a six-course meal at a different restaurant for $50. Guests are also asked to rate and comment on each course using a rating card. Read more On a drizzly Monday night, a small line began to form outside Russet restaurant on the 1500 block of Spruce Street. The BYOB, normally closed on the first day of the week, was gearing up to host a packed house, making diners wait until 7 on the dot. Once doors opened, the cozy restaurant filled each of it 70 seats with a member of the Tasting Collective, Philly's newest dining club, which since its first event in October has grown to more than 300 members. Every other week, the members-only club brings foodies to a different restaurant for a $50, six-course meal, served family-style and featuring experimental, off-the-menu dishes. During each dinner, the lead chef comes out from the kitchen to share stories about how certain dishes came to be and to give insight into both his/her culinary background and day-to-day life. At the start of all meals, diners are given a rating card and are asked to evaluate each course on a scale of one to five. They are encouraged to leave comments, too. "It's essentially an anti-Yelp," Tasting Collective founder Nat Gelb said. "Chefs like getting feedback, but they don't want something that will damage their brand. This presents an opportunity to get constructive criticism in a way that won't live online forever, and the restaurants really value that." Gelb launched the first branch of the Tasting Collective in spring 2016 in New York, where membership now tops 1,500. Gelb said he was driven by a desire to create a more personal connection as part of eating out at a restaurant. "When I moved from rural New York to N.Y.C., I started exploring all of these incredible restaurants but realized I was missing something that human element to the experience," he said. Gelb said he rarely dined out when he was growing up, but that his parents were avid cooks. They made the experience of food feel very personal for him, driving a desire for more from the chefs at the restaurants he was visiting. "To stay afloat, places have to turn as many covers as they can, and so there isn't really any room for the chefs to ever leave the kitchen," Gelb said. "I wanted to find a way to foster more interaction between the person eating the food and the person making it in a way that would be beneficial to both." Today, the club helps fill dining room seats across New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, and San Francisco on nights when restaurants would otherwise be closed or considerably slow. (This means club dinners most often fall on Sundays, Mondays, or Tuesdays.) The Tasting Collective guarantees it will fill every seat at the restaurant, and all proceeds go directly to the owners. The dining club makes its money by selling annual memberships, with prices that vary by city. The current yearly cost in Philadelphia is $99. "Part of our mission was to make chef-led dining experiences accessible to people that want it. It might not be cheap, but it's a good deal and includes this rare opportunity to hear chefs' stories straight from the source," Gelb said. The $50-per-dinner price tag excludes drinks, tax, and tip, but nearly always includes six different courses, which are most often split 50-50 between new dishes the chef wants to try and favorites already in rotation on the menu. "We're also casual we choose acclaimed restaurants, but our vibe is much more this convivial, party atmosphere vs. this fancy setting where your plates and utensils are cleared after every course," Gelb said. At Russet, where twentysomething and sixtysomething couples, coworkers, mother-daughter duos, and solo diners all interacted with one another across tables, the social aspect of the dining club rang loud so loud that the decibel level in the restaurant required nearly shouting from person to person. "For people that are fairly new to the city like me, and single, it's nice to have an organized dinner like this at a fine-dining spot where it's typically all couples," said 58-year-old Laurianne Greene, a sommelier who arrived by herself. Moments earlier, Greene had uncorked a bottle of wine and offered a glass to a 31-year-old filmmaker, a stranger only minutes before, who was seated beside her. Russet was Tasting Collective's third Philly location (Will BYOB was the first, Cadence the second). The night brought about a room full of constant chatter, with people sharing their analyses of the evening's dishes, including a brown butter sweet potato gnudi with matsutake mushrooms and hand-cut pappardelle with smoked pork ragu. Scrupulous debates about whether the pappardelle was cooked a minute too long or whether the fourth-course arctic char involtini was paired with just a little too much braised fennel brought an honest criticism to the table, as well as a display of how truly passionate about food people can be in the company of like-minded folks. "The community piece is the best part, getting to have a shared experience over food it's an important aspect of any culture," said Catherine Carrington, who attended on her own after hearing about the club through a friend. "The food was good, but it's the overall experience that makes me want to come back." Whenever possible, the Tasting Collective works with restaurants to create a communal seating environment. Two-seaters and spots at the bar are in the mix, too, and are available by request to those seeking a more private experience. "Tickets sell out usually within two to three days," Gelb said. "We don't want our members to become worried about getting tickets, so if an event sells out really quickly, we'll chat with the restaurant about adding a second or a third day." Throughout the evening, guests are invited to submit questions for a Q&A during the final course. At Russet, that meant chef Andrew Wood held the mic while guests savored a warm chocolate budino dessert topped with a cognac-hinted cream. Emerging from the kitchen in his black, pinstriped apron, lightly spattered with the offerings of the night, Wood addressed topics ranging from his process for conceptualizing a new dish to his favorite San Francisco Mexican restaurant (Mission Taqueria) to a picture of what date night looks like for him and wife Kristin in Philly. "I have two kids ages 3 and 11 so date night for us is more like date hour, and it's probably just spaghetti, and we're always making it," Wood said, drawing a laugh. The Tasting Collective heads to Marigold Kitchen next; future locations remain secret. "Chefs' calendars are very unpredictable," Gelb said. "We don't want to promise our members a restaurant, and then it ends up changing, so we only announce one at a time." Once a restaurant is announced, however, the night's full menu goes online so members can decide whether the multicourse lineup entices them enough to attend. Members also get access to what Gelb calls a "digital concierge" a section on the Tasting Collective website featuring perks at participating restaurants, like a complimentary dessert at Cadence, and discounts on various items sold online. Members are also eligible to attend dining events in any other city where they are offered. Next year, Gelb plans to launch the Tasting Collective in eight more cities. "Philly was a no-brainer as our fourth destination," he said. "It's a city with a restaurant scene that's thriving and continuing to blow up. In fact, when we launched at Will BYOB, the ratings people wrote on the rating cards were the highest across the board that we've seen at any restaurant in all of our cities." Marybeth Ayella, a sociology professor at St. Joseph's University, includes mental health resources on her syllabus and talks about them regularly in class. Read more After missing class for days, a student walked into Marybeth Ayella's office at St. Joseph's University to explain that she had migraines. But as the conversation progressed, Ayella realized that it was something more. "I can recall I was scared," said Ayella, an assistant professor of sociology. The student was depressed. "I was worried that she might consider suicide." Ayella suggested that they call the counseling center together, and the student was told that she could come over immediately. Ayella wanted to walk her over, but the student refused. So Ayella waited 20 agonizing minutes for a phone call from the counseling center, about a mile away, confirming that the student had arrived. "Today, I don't think I'd let a student go alone," Ayella said. But that episode took place nearly 10 years ago. "I didn't know back then how widespread an issue [mental illness] was." Over the last decade, the percentage of college students seeking mental-health care has nearly doubled, a study from Boston University found. And the proportion of students with a diagnosed mental-health condition jumped from 22 percent in 2007 to 36 percent in 2017. As the mental-health needs on campus outpace the growth of college counseling centers, professors are feeling pressure to address the topic both in and outside of the classroom. They're seen as another resource in preventing suicide, which is the second-leading cause of death for college students, after accidental injuries. But not all faculty members want to take on the responsibility. Many already feel overextended and fear that they are unprepared to handle such issues. Others are reluctant to intrude in students' lives or worry that opening the conversation will lead students to use mental illness as an excuse to delay assignments. Even professors who go the extra mile to help students academically will often feel different when it comes to emotional and mental support, said Janine Mariscotti, chair of the social work department at La Salle University. She wants to maintain boundaries with her students, too, "but because we're seeing such an uptick in students' distress, I'm not sure we can keep avoiding it," she said. Though most colleges have counseling centers, students don't always go. They may think that their troubles aren't serious enough or fear the stigma of being seen as mentally ill. "Where we see their distress is in the classroom, in an assignment they've written," Mariscotti said. That puts professors in prime position to recognize a problem. Ayella at St. Joseph's dedicates a section of her syllabus to mental-health resources on campus and hands out magnets in class with phone numbers to call in an emergency. She also advises a mental-health awareness club and sits on the university's suicide-prevention committee. The simplest thing she does is take attendance. Not for grades, but to recognize patterns. If students repeatedly misses class, she sends them a two-line email expressing concern and offering help. "It's not taking 10 hours a week talking to people," she said. "Little things matter to students." Mariscotti, who has been at La Salle for 30 years, makes it a point on the first day of each semester to let students know they can talk to her if they're in crisis. Many have taken her up on the offer. Former La Salle student Ryan Ridley disclosed to her his severe anxiety and depression his freshman year. After that, any time he felt overwhelmed or plagued by thoughts of a friend's tragic death from which he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder he would drop by Mariscotti's office. "She'd say, 'You want to just talk about him?'" Ridley recalled. "Other times, we'd just talk about what I could do just to get through the day. She did a really good job making sure I had a plan." Ridley graduated from La Salle earlier this year. Now 28, he has landed a job as director of social services for a nonprofit in Germantown. "I don't think I would have been able to finish college without the support Janine and my counselors gave me," he said. Training faculty not to be afraid A 2018 survey found more than 50 percent of faculty don't feel prepared to recognize a student in distress, and two-thirds don't feel prepared to approach at-risk students to discuss their concern. Many universities are trying to change that by training faculty to talk about suicide. On a recent Friday at La Salle, a dozen administrators, professors, and campus safety officials gathered in a small classroom in the business school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to learn QPR a national curriculum on suicide prevention, built on the three steps: question, persuade, refer. It was a deeply personal topic for at least half of the attendees who had lost a friend or family member to suicide. Some had lost students. The training, which costs the university about $4,500, is part of a three-year suicide prevention grant La Salle received from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2017. In the three years before that, five students died by suicide or drug overdose, and the university saw an increase in the number of students taken to a nearby crisis response center. A prominent component of the training is to get people comfortable asking about suicide. Don't call it the "s-word," instructor Govan Martin III said. Ask it directly: Are you thinking of killing yourself? "People are scared to do that," said Martin, who also chairs the board of directors for Prevent Suicide Pa. Some worry that asking will put the idea of suicide in someone's head, even though research has debunked that. For Kate Ward-Gaus, assistant vice president of student wellness at La Salle, training faculty and staff is just as important as having counselors. Not everyone needs a therapist, she said, but everyone needs someone who cares. "There are some students who could and would do better if they had one conversation with a trained person," she said. Several local colleges conduct similar training. At the University of Pennsylvania, more than 2,500 faculty, staff, and students have gone through suicide-prevention training. In a 2017 survey, nearly 70 percent said they had used the tools to ask someone whether they were considering suicide. At St. Joseph's, 300 people were trained last year. "It becomes a communitywide mission" to prevent suicide, said counseling center director Gregory Nicholls. Other schools, such as Rowan University, offer web training options. Studies have shown that training increases the knowledge and skills of attendees, but evidence is still limited on how well it decreases rates of suicide. But for some professors, the training provides more tools to address a problem they see every day. Peggy McCoey, an assistant professor of math and computer science at La Salle, received crisis training from the campus counseling center six years ago. She says she doesn't hesitate to ask students about suicidal thoughts. "Asking is not uncomfortable for me," she said. "What's uncomfortable is hearing the answer." But she knows that hearing that answer can help a student at a crucial moment. "We're responsible for the whole being of students, not just their academics," she said. Alison Goldberg (standing) pours wine as she hosts book club at her Voorhees home October 30, 2018. At left is Charmaine Young. Janine Shinkle (left) and Lisa Earle (right) are on the right. They are using Book Club in a Bag. Read more Alison Goldberg was never an avid reader, but when she got an email last October from the Camden County library suggesting Book Club in a Bag, she was intrigued. "I had never been in a book club, but I thought it would be a nice excuse for friends to get together without our kids, to be able to have adult time," said the Voorhees mom. She liked how easy the bag would make it a long list of titles, enough books to supply each member, and discussion questions to kick-start the meeting. For November, they chose The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, about the Carnegie Mellon professor's final class after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Even though many in the group had read it a decade ago, "We felt we would have a different perspective based on our stage of life," said Goldberg, 47. And they did. Now that her daughter is applying to colleges, Goldberg took to heart Pausch's advice as a professor. Despite the gravity of that book selection, the nine women who meet for two hours each month find plenty to laugh about. Though most of them read the book, for those who didn't: "We love them anyway and still let them drink wine," Goldberg said. Since 1996, when Oprah Winfrey brought book clubs to the masses, the literary equivalent has found innovative ways to stay relevant, from international online groups like the Girly Book Club (more than 80,000 members in 12 countries) to podcasts like Literary Disco to uber-focused groups on cookbooks or comic books. Readers (and listeners) can join literary road trips, supper clubs, cruises, and meet-ups on trains, in restaurants, and bars. There are even book lovers' games, like "Who Am I? A Name Game of Literary Stars." >> READ MORE: Can't finish the book? Consider Podclub like book club, but with podcasts But the basic book club remains alive and well. Though there's no organization that keeps track of the number of book clubs or participants, the American Library Association launched Book Club Central in 2017 "to meet the needs of book clubs because they are so popular right now," said coordinator Robin Hoklotubbe in Corona, Calif., as evidenced by the expansive number of resources available online. The group's website outlines how to find a book club in your area or create and run one yourself. It suggests titles and provides author interviews, and actress Sarah Jessica Parker serves as Book Club Central's honorary chair. Though Book Club in a Bag is now offered in libraries throughout the country, it isn't a coordinated effort. Locally, the program started in the early 2000s, with each participating library adding its own spin. A bag generally contains six to 12 copies of one title, along with discussion questions. Most libraries offer more than 100 titles from which to choose, including fiction, nonfiction, classics, and best sellers, which patrons can keep for eight weeks. "It's the perfect solution for our group because we're all very busy, and if we needed to have time to find a book on our own, we might not take that extra step," said Melissa Schraeder, 39, of Havertown, who started a book club with about 10 friends from her mom's club five years ago. "Also, the cost of all of us purchasing the book might have prohibited people from participating." The program's popularity continues to grow, said Mary Lou Kolowitz, reference manager for the Haverford Township Free Library, where Book Club in a Bag was first offered in 2006 with 10 titles. Now, the library offers 143 titles. In 2018, 370 bags were checked out, up from 363 in 2017. When the library notifies club members that new bags are available, "literally within five minutes we will get either a phone call or an email of somebody wanting to book the bag," she said. Haverford's kits include eight hardcover books, an additional copy with large print, an audio book, discussion questions and often an author bio, reviews, and a movie if one has been made. Another advantage: Librarians vet the books. "We want to make sure the book is discussion-worthy," said Kolowitz. Book Club in a Bag is about convenience, said Rosemary Scalese, head of adult services for the Camden County Library System. "One person is checking the bag out and can provide the books to everybody," she said. "And if we can't find discussion questions online, a librarian will have read the book and will create special questions for a group so people don't have to come up with their own." In 2017, 191 book club bags were checked out from Camden County libraries. This year has already exceeded that number as of October, 234 book club bags had been checked out. Scalese said the most popular title was The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand checked out 23 times since Book Club in a Bag was implemented. Since it began in 2003, One Book, One Philadelphia, which encourages Philadelphians to read and discuss a single book, has grown to offer more than 100 events around the city at libraries and partner organizations. Its 2019 selection, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, was announced last month. Katherine Adriaanse read this year's selection, Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson, with her book club about 10 women and one man in their 20s through 40s. She attended two of the One Book programs, the kickoff event at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the author visit at Haverford Middle School. "It makes us feel more like part of the community, even out here in the suburbs, that we can be reading the same things that Philadelphia is reading and have that common experience," said Adriaanse, 26, who lives in Brewerytown but who works in Haverford and whose group meets each month at the Oakmont National Pub in Havertown. "When there's food and drinks involved, there's more of an opportunity for people to come and have a social experience around books and talk about something we've all read." Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane, facing county prison time, had appealed her perjury conviction to the state Superior Court. Read more HARRISBURG When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear her appeal, disgraced former Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane had exhausted her legal options and must begin serving her jail sentence. Kane, 52, the first woman and first Democrat to be elected to the state's top law-enforcement job, was convicted two years ago on perjury and other charges, but the judge in the case said Kane did not have to serve her 10- to 23-month sentence in the Montgomery County prison until she had exhausted her state appeals. Kane asked the high court to hear her case earlier this year, after Superior Court affirmed her conviction for perjury and leaking grand jury information to hurt a rival. Kane had argued, among other things, that a special prosecutor who first built the case against her lacked legal authority. The justices, in their unanimous decision, did not provide an explanation for their denial. Kate Delano, spokesperson for Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, said the office will now move to revoke Kane's bail. A judge could order her immediate imprisonment or the sides could agree on a date for her to report to jail. Neither Kane nor her attorney, Joshua D. Lock, could be reached for comment Monday. Her case riveted the state's legal and political circles for more than two years, as the onetime rising political star became engulfed in a petty yet deeply personal feud with another former prosecutor a clash that eventually led to her undoing. Kane believed former state prosecutor Frank Fina was behind a March 2014 story in the Inquirer that disclosed that she had secretly shut down a sting investigation that had recorded Philadelphia Democrats accepting cash, money orders, or gifts from an undercover operative. Fina, for many years the head of corruption cases for the Attorney General's Office, launched the sting before Kane took office in 2013. To exact revenge, Kane orchestrated a leak of confidential grand jury information about an investigation once run by Fina, one that she believed showed he had failed to aggressively pursue corruption allegations against the onetime head of the Philadelphia NAACP. In searching for information to discredit Fina, she discovered a trove of emails containing pornography and other offensive content that were exchanged among state prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges including two former Supreme Court justices. Porngate, as it came to be called, led to the retirements or resignations of more than a half-dozen high-profile public officials, including onetime Supreme Court Justices Seamus P. McCaffery and J. Michael Eakin. Kane has said repeatedly that she believes her criminal case was "corruptly manufactured" by a club of "good ol' boys" bent on preventing her from making those emails public although many of them were eventually released. A Montgomery County jury disagreed. Kane was convicted in August 2016 on two counts of perjury, a felony, and seven counts of abusing the powers of her office, a misdemeanor. She resigned shortly afterward and has kept a decidedly low profile as she pursued her appeals. Just last month, she was granted a divorce from her husband, Christopher, whose family runs a trucking business, the Scranton Times-Tribune reported. Kane is from the Scranton area. When she surrenders, Kane will join about 400 other women imprisoned at the Montgomery County jail in Eagleville, about five miles from Norristown. The women are held in a mix of dorms and multi-person cells, according to Warden Julio M. Algarin. Kane's life will be tightly regimented. Prisoners are counted four times a day. Meals are early lunch well before noon, dinner at 4:30 p.m. Lights go out at 10. The TVs offer only broadcast channels and are only available in day rooms, though inmates can rent prison-issued tablets with controlled content. Kane would be permitted to see visitors twice a week for two hours at a time. In response to the opioid crisis, the jail has ended contact visits. Should Kane's two sons visit, they likely will have to talk to their mother through glass. Algarin said the prison would grant any request for Kane to receive special protection as a former law-enforcement official. That would entail placing her in a cell with fewer inmates and guarding her as she moved about the jail. But the warden said he didn't think such precautions would be necessary. "Personally, I don't see a problem," he said. "We've had law enforcement here before." HARRISBURG Former state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane must report to jail by Thursday morning to begin serving her sentence for convictions on perjury and other charges from abusing the power of her office in an attempt to smear a perceived political enemy. Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy on Tuesday revoked Kane's bail and ordered her to report to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility by 9 a.m. Thursday to begin serving her 10-to-23-month sentence. Kane, 52, who was convicted and sentenced in 2016, had remained free on bail while she pursued her state appeals. But on Monday, the state Supreme Court refused to consider Kane's appeal of her conviction, exhausting her legal options. Kane, the first woman and first Democrat elected as the state's top law enforcement officer, had asked the high court to hear her case after Superior Court earlier this year affirmed her conviction for perjury and leaking grand jury information. Kane had argued, among other things, that a special prosecutor who first built the case against her had lacked legal authority. Neither Kane nor her lawyer, Joshua Lock, responded to multiple requests for comment. A Montgomery County jury found Kane guilty of orchestrating an illegal news leak to damage Frank Fina, a onetime top prosecutor in the state Attorney General's Office. Prosecutors had argued that Kane blamed Fina for a March 2014 story in the Inquirer that revealed that she had secretly shut down a sting investigation that had captured Democratic elected officials from Philadelphia on tape accepting envelopes stuffed with cash, money orders or gifts. To exact revenge, Kane arranged a leak of grand-jury information related to a separate investigation that she believed showed Fina had failed to aggressively pursue corruption allegations. After her conviction, Kane resigned from office and has kept a decidedly low profile. It is in stark contrast to the spotlight she enjoyed when she was elected attorney general in 2012. At the time, she was considered the Democratic Party's rising star, and her name was often floated for higher office. Now, Kane will be joining about 400 other women imprisoned at the county jail near Norristown, where the daily routine includes headcounts, early meals, and visitors twice a week for two hours. She'll likely be behind glass for those visits, since the jail has stopped contact visits in response to the opioid crisis. Warden Julio M. Agarin has said the prison would grant any request by Kane for special protection, given her status as a former law enforcement official. Such protection would include placing her in a cell with fewer inmates and guarding her as she moves about the jail. Staff writer Craig R. McCoy contributed to this article. Former state Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves in handcuffs after her sentencing in 2016. Read more In former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane's epic battle with former prosecutor Frank Fina a war that ultimately led to her criminal conviction Kane suggested that Fina and his closest aides were racially biased, had botched a corruption investigation, and even circulated child pornography. Fina and others who were subjected to Kane's verbal attacks sued. In a new ruling in the case, a federal judge picked and chose among the blows landed by Kane, saying she has immunity from being sued for some remarks but must stand trial for others. U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III did so after previously tossing out the entire lawsuit brought by Fina and four other former state officials. An appeals court said Bartle got the law wrong and ordered him to review the case. Peter Scuderi, a lawyer for former state prosecutor E. Marc Costanzo, another plaintiff in the case, said Wednesday that he was buoyed by the ruling. "I'm dying to depose Kathleen Kane, and I'm getting closer," Scuderi said. "She is not going to be able to avoid me." In his opinion, released late last week, Bartle ruled once more that Kane cannot be sued for claiming that a Fina-led investigation of corruption among state legislators had been marred by racial targeting. Fina has vigorously denied this charge, which also was rejected by a county judge presiding over criminal cases stemming from the investigation. Even if Kane had defamed Fina, the judge ruled, her allegation of racism was legally permitted free speech so long as his job was not threatened. By the time of Kane's attack, Fina was working for the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and was beyond Kane's reach. The judge acknowledged that two other men suing Kane former state prosecutor Richard Sheetz and former investigative agent Randy Feathers lost their government positions after Kane publicly linked them to pornographic emails exchanged among officials in her office. In the fallout from Kane's attack, Sheetz was forced out as a prosecutor in Lancaster County and Feathers had to step down from the state parole board. But Bartle ruled that Kane could not be sued over their exits because she was not their employer. The suit also noted that at one point Kane on CNN suggested that the improper email exchanges had included child pornography in an interview that CNN illustrated with photos of Fina and others. Kane's staff almost immediately retracted her statement. The judge tossed out this part of the suit, saying that no further harm came to the men as the result of the broadcast. On the other hand, the judge ruled that a jury should hear Fina's contention that Kane's proxies made overt threats on several occasions. The judge noted that Fina alleges that one top aide to Kane threatened at one point that "if Fina did not stop criticizing, Kane would release the private emails." Bartle also noted that Fina and Costanzo say they were threatened by other Kane staffers while they were in an elevator on their way to testify to a grand jury investigating the illegal leak of grand jury material. "The threats crossed the line from protected First Amendment speech by Kane to speech threatening harm," Bartle said. Kane and Fina could not be reached for comment. Kane's lawyers did not return calls. The Attorney General's Office had no immediate comment. The grand jury investigation prompted Kane's arrest on charges of illegally providing investigative material to a newspaper in an attempt embarrass Fina, with whom she had been feuding. A jury found Kane guilty of leaking the material to suggest that Fina had not aggressively pursued a corruption case involving a Philadelphia civil rights leader who had been receiving state grants. In 2016, Kane quit office midterm after she was convicted in the leak. She was sentenced to serve at least 10 months in jail but has been free pending the result of her appeal. As for the pornography, an investigation later determined that more than 350 staffers in the Attorney General's Office had exchanged such emails and that none of the officials singled out by Kane had been prolific senders of the material. Noonan and Costanzo did not send a single email, the inquiry found. Outside of Arde Osteria in Wayne sits a white Lamborghin that belonged to Giuseppe DiMeo. He was sentenced Monday in federal court to 24 months in prison for tax fraud. Read more Suburban pizza magnate Giuseppe DiMeo was sentenced Monday to 24 months in federal prison for skimming millions off his restaurants' books and paying undocumented employees under the table. He also must pay $463,730 restitution to the IRS. DiMeo, 51, of Eagleville, Montgomery County, who co-owned a handful of restaurants, including Pizzeria DiMeo's in Upper Roxborough and Arde Osteria in Wayne, was charged in May 2017 with two counts of conspiring to defraud the IRS and 12 counts of filing false tax returns. According to court documents, he did not report up to $2 million in revenue over several years, and failed to pay the IRS about $1 million in income and payroll taxes. DiMeo is accused of skimming cash from the DiMeo Pizza Kitchen restaurants formerly at 701 E. Cathedral Rd. in Andorra and in Conshohocken; DiMeo's Pizzaiuoli Napulitani in Wilmington; and the former Allegro Pizza on Monument Road in River Park and paying many of his employees under the table from 2008 to 2012, while failing to tell his accountant or the IRS about it, according to court documents. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria M. Carrillo said she was "very satisfied" with the sentence levied by U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sanchez. "The judge's sentence sent a statement that taxpayers' sacrifices will not be in vain, because people like Giuseppe DiMeo, who have been selfish in their decisions and violated the law by cheating the government out of money, will be punished," Carrillo said. "I think the message is loud and clear to him individually, to the community, and to other restaurateurs who believe that this is business as usual in the restaurant industry, and it's not." DiMeo's lawyer, Jerome Brown, said he had not discussed with his client the possibility of an appeal. After the prison term, DiMeo was ordered to serve four months of supervised probation. Tiyaniah Hopkins, left, and sister Yaleah Hall were two of the four victims in an execution-style quadruple homicide in West Philadelphia, according to police. Read more Detectives visited the North Philadelphia rowhouse of Sharon Hopkins last Tuesday to deliver terrible news: Her 20-year-old granddaughter, Tiyaniah Hopkins, had been killed in an execution-style quadruple homicide in West Philadelphia. A day later, the news got worse. While visiting the morgue, Hopkins learned that Tiyaniah's sister Yaleah Hall, 17, also was among the victims. Hopkins, 61, said Monday that her granddaughters were an important part of her family's life, and that they all were devastated by the deaths. When detectives explained the purpose of their visit, she recalled, "I just started hollering and hollering, 'No! No!'" Police on Monday publicly identified Hopkins and Hall as two victims in the killings. The others, police said, were William Maurice Taylor, 31, and Akeen Mattox, 28. The men, who considered themselves stepbrothers and were raised together, had recently moved into the house on the 5100 block of Malcolm Street where they, Hopkins, and Hall were found dead on Nov. 19 in the basement. Homicide Lt. Norman Davenport said that investigators were still working to identify suspects and a motive. Because the killings occurred inside a house and without any surviving witnesses, he said, it can be a "long process" for detectives to analyze physical evidence, contact those who spoke to the victims before they were killed, or sort through whether anything in the victims' backgrounds offers clues. He encouraged anyone with information to speak to detectives, noting that an $80,000 reward is being offered for information leading to a conviction in this case. Hopkins and her husband, James, 69, said one rumored motive is that Taylor or Mattox were targeted over a belief that they had money, or were set up for a robbery. Another is that the unidentified killers had a problem with Taylor or Mattox, but killed everyone at the home to eliminate witnesses. Davenport said it was possible that the women, who did not live in the house, were killed simply because they were there. James Hopkins said that whatever the reason, "four souls were taken out of here and shouldn't have been taken." He said he and his wife raised the two girls from infancy until Tiyaniah was about 9, when the girls moved back with their parents. Sharon Hopkins said the sisters who had four other siblings were cheerful and intelligent, and loved to dance. "They were full of life," Sharon Hopkins said. She said she recalled tossing her phone in disbelief when detectives told her Tiyaniah had been killed. She couldn't bear to see her granddaughters' bodies in the morgue. Sharon Hopkins said she did not know Mattox or Taylor, and said her relatives didn't either. She and her husband hope police quickly identify whoever pulled the trigger. James Hopkins said they are trying to find the right way to cope with their grief, but that it is difficult. "When you put time in with someone," he said, "you don't just erase it off." Residents and local officials had one major message for the Environmental Protection Agency at a Montgomery County meeting Wednesday: Do more to help communities like theirs that are dealing with tainted water and to develop regulations for the chemicals that polluted their towns and don't make them pay for it. Hundreds of residents and officials attended the daylong meeting convened by the EPA in Horsham, part of a summer tour to visit communities affected by water contamination from chemicals known as PFAS used on military bases. It is the first such coordinated outreach in local communities since the contamination was discovered four years ago. Throughout the morning, a Washington-based contingent representing the EPA, the Department of Defense, and other agencies laid out its findings and plans to address the contamination. Then the group heard from state, local government, and community panels before beginning a public comment session scheduled to last until 9 p.m. The discourse was largely civil but many residents made heated pleas to the EPA, and a handful held protest signs outside the event in the Hatboro-Horsham High School auditorium during a break. Dozens inside took advantage of the opportunity to question, challenge, or implore the federal officials to say and do more. "It would be easier to believe if you would follow through and do anything," said Lauren Woehr, a mother from Horsham who worried about her 16-month-old daughter's health and, like many residents, wants the agency to arrange testing. "If you want us to start believing you, then prove it by providing the testing." Lisa Daniels, one of the many state environmental officials on hand, said the cleanup and remediation demanded federal coordination. "I'm here to say states cannot do this work alone. We're just not capable of doing this on our own," said Daniels, of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "People will continue to question the safety of their water if we don't do this at the national level." Firefighting foams used for years on former military bases in the area tainted the drinking water of at least 70,000 residents in Horsham, Warminster, and Warrington Townships, and similar reviews are underway near hundreds of current and former military sites nationwide. Wednesday's meeting came weeks after the release of a government analysis suggesting that PFAS are potentially more hazardous to humans than the EPA had previously indicated. Four years after the water contamination was discovered, scores of residents are paying higher water bills due to the costs of making the water supply safe, and dozens report cancers and other illnesses. Some residents with tainted private wells are still drinking bottled water supplied by the military, waiting for hookups to public water. People are also, and more commonly, exposed to the chemicals through consumer products. The PFAS class of chemicals is complex, largely unstudied, and vast containing between 3,500 and 4,500 chemicals, officials said which makes the cleanup tasks even more challenging. The EPA detailed its goals for addressing various issues caused by the contamination, including a lack of knowledge about the PFAS chemical class, toxicity and human health, drinking-water treatment technology, cleanup of contaminated sites, disposal of contaminated materials, and understanding how people become exposed. Officials also said they are developing ways to assist states and communities dealing with contamination, including a "PFAS management plan" that the EPA committed to at a national summit in May. The agency is considering listing PFAS as hazardous substances and creating enforceable guidelines. "We're trying to develop data and tools people can use to make actual decisions about managing risk," said Andy Gillespie, an associate director in the EPA Office of Research and Development. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will soon launch a Pentagon-funded study to examine exposure in eight communities near current or former military bases. Military officials were also authorized by Congress this week to begin an assessment of health effects on veterans, said Maureen Sullivan, an assistant director at the Department of Defense. In local communities, officials have ignored the EPA's advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for drinking water and aimed to get their drinking water as close to zero as possible. Speakers Wednesday asked the EPA to set a stricter drinking-water standard for the chemicals one that is legally enforceable. "We are very confident in the value we have that supports the 70 ppt," said Peter Grevatt, director of EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water. "And, that said, we're going to continue to work very closely with ATSDR and others to make sure we've got the best science underlying what we have." << READ MORE: Nearly 400 military bases must be tested for tainted water >> Still, many of the attendees expressed frustration over the pace of the federal response. One after another, health and environment officials from mid-Atlantic states called on the agency to spearhead a uniform national response. On one panel discussion, local officials said federal agencies needed to pay for the cleanup, much of which is currently shouldered by residents and localities. "Our customers, our residents, our family has not caused contamination of the water supply, and they certainly shouldn't be responsible for the cleanup costs," said Tim Hagey, general manager of Warminster Township's public water system. The meeting was part of a series scheduled by the EPA across the country the first was in New Hampshire in June, and officials will go to Colorado in August before visiting North Carolina and other states. They say they will release their management plan in the fall one that some attendees hope will help turn the corner on the issue. "Every community across the country needs a consistent and coordinated action plan," said Joanne Stanton, a lifelong area resident and member of the National PFAS Coalition. "We ask you to act now and please make public health your number-one priority." It used to be called the "Mothball Fleet," a collection of Navy warships and other vessels that were no longer in use but could be reactivated if needed. One of the former Mothball Fleet's best known ships was the New Jersey. After the battleship was decommissioned at the end of World War II, it was recommissioned and decommissioned three more times in the decades that followed for the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and in the 1980s as part of President Ronald Reagan's initiative for a 600-ship Navy. It is now a museum and memorial on the Camden waterfront. The term "Mothball Fleet" is seldom heard these days perhaps because mothballs themselves are not widely used anymore and decommissioned vessels are now stored at three Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facilities around the country. One of them is at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard or simply the Navy Yard, as everyone in Philly calls it at the foot of Broad Street in South Philadelphia. The sight of those ships prompted questions from a reader on Curious Philly, our question-and-response forum in which readers submit questions about their communities and our journalists report out the answers. Of the 49 inactive ships nationwide, 31 are in Philly's Navy Yard. But there used to be even more. The basin, visible from the Girard Point Bridge on I-95 near the stadium complex, held as many as 195 inactive ships in 1997. The Navy has been reducing the size of its inactive fleet, but still houses some at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Bremerton, Wash., which is across Puget Sound from Seattle and is the home of the Camden-built aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. What sets Philadelphia apart besides its number of ships is that it is a fresh-water port, while Pearl Harbor and Bremerton have salt water. Fresh water is better for preventing rust. >> READ MORE: Why is Philadelphia's Suburban Station in the heart of the city? According to Naval Sea Systems Command, the vessels in Philadelphia range from a salvage ship, the Grapple, to the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, which, because of its size, is moored on the Delaware River, not in the basin. The oldest vessel in the basin is the Barry (DD-933), a destroyer that was built at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, commissioned in 1956 and decommissoned in 1982. It was the third of four warships to be named after Commodore John Barry whose name also adorns the bridge linking South Jersey and Chester and took part in the blockade during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis as well as seeing action in Vietnam, earning two battle stars. After it was decommissioned, it became a museum ship at the Washington Navy Yard on the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. But faced with declining attendance and plans for construction of a bridge that would have trapped the destroyer in the Anacostia, the Navy in 2015 moved the Barry to Philadelphia to await scrapping. Before joining the inactive fleet, the ships are stripped down, including removal of sensitive electronic equipment, and drained of fuel. They are then sealed, lightly air-conditioned, and electrically charged to deter rust. Then the ships sit tight while officials figure out their fates. Besides scrapping, the ships could be donated as memorial museums, used as targets, sunk to become artificial reefs, sold to foreign navies, or even recommissioned. According to the Naval Vessel Register, eight of the ships in Philadelphia are designated for possible foreign sale, all of them guided missile frigates that entered service in the 1980s. One ship, the guided missile destroyer Charles F. Adams, is on hold for possible donation (an effort has been underway to make it a museum memorial in Jacksonville, Fla.). The Grapple is the only Philly vessel listed as in reserve. As for the John F. Kennedy, which was retrofitted in Philadelphia in the early 1990s before the Naval Shipyard ceased operations and was stricken from the ships register in 2009, its future remains uncertain. An effort to turn the Navy's last conventionally powered aircraft carrier into a museum in Rhode Island collapsed because the amount of work and money that would be needed to get it into shape. Chances are it will share the fate of its former Delaware River pier mate, the Forrestal. That aircraft carrier left Philadelphia in February 2014 to be scrapped in Brownsville, Texas. A new John F. Kennedy, a nuclear-powered carrier, is under construction in Virginia with plans to commission it in 2020. Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the USS Barry in Philadelphia was the third warship named after Commodore John Barry, not the second. Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan is pushing for the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against him by the union that represents the state police. Read more Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan and the state police union continue to trade barbs in a lawsuit over a list of law enforcement officers whom Hogan bars from testifying in criminal cases. Sean T. Welby, the attorney representing former state Trooper Brandon Daniels and the State Police Troopers Association, earlier this month filed a motion asking a Chester County judge to issue a ruling in the case. The suit, filed in September, centers on a police-involved shooting May 23 in which three troopers fired at a suspect in a DUI-fueled chase in London Grove Township. Daniels, the on-scene commander, was accused by Hogan in an internal memo of making several critical errors during the investigation of the shooting, earning his place on the district attorney's "do not use" list of officers he deems unworthy of being called to the witness stand. Welby maintains that the list, first disclosed in that memo, is unconstitutional and permanently damaged Daniels' reputation. Hogan has called upon Judge Edward Griffith to dismiss the case, saying it has no merit. In a more recent filing, submitted last week, attorney Michael Pullano says Hogan's maintenance of the "do not use" list and the continued inclusion of officers like Daniels was done to "defend the integrity of the criminal justice process." As district attorney, Hogan is not obligated to call a witness he doesn't consider credible. Pullano also noted that there were no cases in which Daniels was expected to testify at the time of his retirement in October. "District Attorney Hogan has lawfully exercised his authority and discretion by barring an untrustworthy police officer from testifying for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," Pullano wrote, adding that the state police union was "trying every legal trick in the book" to reverse this decision. "This is precisely the type of conduct that undermines public trust in law enforcement," Pullano wrote. But Welby wrote that Hogan "misperceives the basis" of the lawsuit. It has nothing to do with Hogan's ability to decide whom to call as a witness in a prosecution, which is "near absolute," Welby wrote. Instead, it has to do with the list his office maintains, which he asserted violates the constitutional right of due process. "However, when [someone with Hogan's authority] goes beyond simply maintaining a formal list and notifies an officer's superiors and other high-ranking officials of that officer's placement on such a formal list, the damage to reputation is more concrete," Welby wrote. It's unclear how many officers are on Hogan's list he has declined to comment publicly on it aside from what has been revealed in Welby's lawsuit. Court filings say that "there is only one active-duty police officer in Chester County" currently on the list, and that the officer has been placed into a position where he won't be required to testify. Additionally, three "current or former state troopers" are on the list: Daniels, Jose Lebron, and John Sromovsky. The latter two were convicted of criminal charges in unrelated cases: Lebron in 2017 for buying cocaine from a confidential informant and Sromovsky earlier this year for physically assaulting a DUI suspect. Daniels, who denies that he did anything wrong, was given "no advance notice that this action was to occur or that his superiors and a representative of the governor's office would be notified," according to Welby. Hogan added Daniels to the "do not use" list after "his failure to follow policy resulted in a series of critical errors during the investigation of the trooper-involved shooting," according to court filings. Daniels, he wrote in his internal memo, lied when questioned about why he didn't notify the District Attorney's Office immediately about the shooting, saying he didn't have Hogan's number and "had other things to do." Welby argued that Hogan was "obliged to take the necessary steps of prior notice and an opportunity for hearing before a fair and impartial tribunal" before adding Daniels to his list. Neither was given to Daniels, who found out about his inclusion in Hogan's memo to his superiors, Welby wrote. Pullano contends that the claim about the violation of Daniels' constitutional rights "is simply illogical." "Should the district attorney decide that an officer is not trustworthy enough to testify, but not keep a list of such officers for the orderly administration of justice?" Pullano wrote. "Could the requirements of the Constitution be fulfilled if the district attorney was the only person allowed to know the identity of the officers?" He added that Hogan notified Daniels' superiors as a "matter of administrative necessity," noting that they needed to be aware Daniels isn't allowed to testify. "Again, plaintiffs seem to be taking the slightly ridiculous position that the district attorney can decide Daniels will not testify, as long as the district attorney never tells anybody about this fact," Pullano wrote. Pullano noted that Daniels was given an opportunity to address Hogan about his actions during the officer-involved shooting, and that his information is included in the report Hogan compiled. Hogan also offered Daniels an opportunity speak with him after the report was compiled, which he declined, Pullano wrote. A similar lawsuit was filed this month in Philadelphia by the Fraternal Order of Police against Mayor Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner, and city police officials. New carbon filters that removed PFOS and PFOA from a contaminated well in Horsham were installed in March. Read more The chemicals found in water supplies near military bases nationwide pose more of a potential hazard to humans than the federal government had indicated previously, according to a new analysis released Wednesday. The results of the study, which linked the chemicals to a variety of health problems, have been highly anticipated since reports surfaced last month that the Environmental Protection Agency and White House officials had sought to block its release, writing in emails that it would cause a "public relations nightmare." The new information could heighten health concerns for thousands of residents in Bucks and Montgomery Counties and across the country who previously drank contaminated water or whose water currently contains the chemicals at levels that the government had once declared was safe. The levels identified by the new report as safe for humans to ingest without a probable risk of health effects are lower than what was previously identified by the federal government. The report, put out by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), identifies the levels of the contaminants that a person could safely consume and its threshold equals only one-tenth of the amount used by the EPA to develop its 2016 drinking water guidelines. The new report concluded the risk level of the chemicals known as per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and used on the local bases mainly in firefighting foam is "roughly seven- to tenfold" higher than what the EPA used in its study, said Alexis Temkin, a toxicologist with the Environmental Working Group, which has pushed for stricter drinking water standards. That could have implications for the drinking water guidelines, although the numbers used for risk levels and drinking water cannot be directly compared. The ATSDR used more and newer data in its study than the EPA had for its 2016 report. >> READ MORE: Nearly 400 military bases must be tested for tainted water >> Questions surrounding the effects PFAS have on human health have swirled since the military-base water contamination became widely known in 2014. Tens of thousands of people in Horsham, Warminster, and Warrington Townships were among the first to learn that their drinking water was tainted, and scores have reported cases of cancer. The Inquirer and Daily News reported last year that the military was beginning to test the water around nearly 400 military bases. Public water systems, private drinking wells, and military water supplies have been treated based on a 2016 EPA recommendation that advised people not to drink water if it had more than 70 parts per trillion of PFAS in it. But scientists and others have questioned that level, with some saying that no amount of the chemical is safe to drink. PFAS are also found in many everyday items, including textiles, food contact materials (such as pizza-box coatings), nonstick cookware, and ski wax. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), who had called for the report's release, said he was glad the document is now public. "Informing the American people about the latest scientific assessments impacting their health shouldn't be political and shouldn't require members of Congress to pressure the administration to be transparent," he said in a statement. In Pennsylvania, residents have clamored for information in the face of unanswered questions about human health effects of PFAS, which had not been studied extensively. State Rep. Todd Stephens, a Republican who lives in Horsham, said Wednesday he felt "angry and frustrated" after reviewing the findings of the new report. No traces of PFAS are currently present in local drinking water because local officials switched water supplies, but residents are paying higher water rates, he said. "Since these chemicals were first identified in our water, the federal government has failed to fulfill its obligations to our community and we are paying the price in higher water bills and, potentially, adverse health consequences," Stephens said. The report released Wednesday described studies of the chemicals' impacts on both humans and laboratory animals. PFAS have been linked to a variety of health problems including increased risk for liver damage, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, decreased fertility, asthma, and slightly decreased birth weight. Certain types of cancer are also linked to PFAS; the report stated that study results vary but there is "suggestive evidence of the carcinogenic potential" of the compounds. Two years ago, a state Department of Health study determined elevated rates of cancer in Warminster, Warrington, and Horsham Townships, but the overall results did not show a consistent pattern, according to a May addendum to the study. The department is also conducting a pilot study that includes blood testing for about 500 randomly selected residents. Data collected in the study will be used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ATSDR to examine the creation of a federal blood-testing program for PFAS. Three men were wounded in a street shooting Monday morning in Kensington. The three men were shot around 10 a.m. while on the 2800 block of North Water Street, police said. They were taken to Temple University Hospital, police said. The victims were a 40-year-old man, shot once in the leg; a 37-year-old man shot once in each leg; and an unidentified male shot once in the chest and two times in his left arm. All three were listed in critical condition, police said. This year 1,249 people have been shot in Philadelphia, more than the 1,220 people shot in the city in 2017. Ask a Reporter is an occasional series about civic engagement in and around the city. Q: "My City Council Member is blocking protesters from social media. Is that a violation of the First Amendment?" A community group fighting plans for a new Amazon headquarters in Long Island City claims their local Councilmember has unfairly blocked them on social media after they accused him of hypocrisy. Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer has emerged as a vocal opponent of the Amazon proposal as put forth by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, but the Queens Anti-Gentrification Project (QAGP) remains skeptical of Van Bramerand theyve made sure he knows it. We were critical of the hypocrisy in this whole Amazon debacle, said QAGP founder and organizer Michael Forest. QGAP is not convinced that Van Bramer is the champion for Long Island City that he claims to be. The group has expressed its furor on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. In turn, they believe, Van Bramer has violated their First Amendment right to protest online. In one QAGP post on Instagram, a text box displays a shortened version of a statement from Van Bramer that was originally reported by Queens Chronicle in October 2017. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the proposal, and of any plan to bring good paying jobs to my district. I think it is clear that Amazon HQ2 would be an ideal fit for Long Island City and for the entire borough of Queens, the full statement read. Van Bramer, who also joined about 70 officials last year in signing a letter urging Amazon to choose New York, objects to the charge of hypocrisy. If I knew then what I know now, I would never have signed on. Soon after the post, Forest says, the group was blocked from accessing Van Bramers Instagram account. Criticism is not what we take exception to, said Van Bramer. The Queens Anti-Gentrification project have threatened me physically. When pressed for specifics, Van Bramer did not elaborate. Forest denies this charge, though he did acknowledge that people associated with the group have occasionally heckled Van Bramer in his neighborhood, chanting, Jimmy Van Bramer is a real estate puppet! after QAGP determined that the Councilmember had accepted at least $106,834 in 2017 from sources related to real estate. Id be upset, too, Forest said, But Ive seen a lot worse, in terms of protest. I dont think its anything a politician cant handle. Still, Van Bramer believes he is justified in blocking members of the group on social media, citing in no specific detail, threats. Weve blocked them in consultation with the City Councils lawyers, he said. A spokesperson for Jason Otano, the general counsel for the New York City Council, could not confirm that such a consultation took place, citing confidentiality rules. We allow folks to express a wide range of opinions on Amazon and on other issues, Van Bramer said. Forest is not convinced. I think it is the criticism he takes exception to. We make harsh criticism, but its not just us. Two other Facebook users, Forest says, have been blocked from commenting on Van Bramers posts (though not blocked from accessing his Facebook profile as a whole), simply for expressing disagreement. One person wasnt happy about a bike lane on Skillman Avenue in Queens. Forest also objects to the charge of violence. Whats violent, he said, is the displacement of people as a result of unchecked real estate development and the Amazon deal. To me thats unforgivable. QAGP, Forest says, is working with a lawyer to try to get Van Bramer to unblock them. If he doesnt comply, then we sue. Van Bramer, however, refuses to budge: We will never have any interaction with them. So does QAGP have a case? Is this a violation of their First Amendment rights? This is an unsettled area of the law, said Lata Nott, Executive Director of the First Amendment Center at the Newseum Institute. When a government official makes something a public forum, the rule is that you cant discriminate based on viewpoint. The Knight Foundation brought a suit against President Trump for this exact reason. A federal judge ruled that it is unconstitutional for the president to block his critics on social media, and in June the White House unblocked seven Twitter users who had sued the President. But threats, which is what Van Bramer alleges, are not points of view and dont constitute criticism in the traditional sense. That would be content-neutral, said Nott. Nott urges caution. If you as an elected official are going to use social media, you just have to remember that its a town hall. Update 11/29: In a statement, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said, "I know Council Member Van Bramer wants to hear different viewpoints from all his constituents. However, no elected official - and no one, rather - should be threatened." Bridget Anne Kelly, a onetime aide to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, pictured in April. Kelly and another onetime Christie ally, Bill Baroni, were convicted in the Bridgegate scandal and appealed their case to an appellate panel in Philadelphia. The court affirmed some of the convictions but tossed others. Read more A three-judge appellate panel in Philadelphia on Tuesday affirmed most of the convictions of two onetime allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie charged in the Bridgegate scandal. But the panel tossed two of the convictions and ordered a new sentencing hearing for Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni. Tuesday's decision marked the latest turn in what has now been a five-year saga, one that has lingered well beyond Christie's tenure and places two key aides a step closer to prison. The case could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, and Baroni, the governor's top executive appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were convicted by a federal jury in 2016 on seven counts each of conspiracy, wire fraud, obtaining by fraud and intentionally misusing government property, and civil rights charges. Their convictions stemmed from their role in a 2013 scheme to cause traffic problems near the George Washington Bridge the world's busiest span, which connects New Jersey to New York City in order to punish a local mayor for his refusal to endorse Christie's reelection campaign that year. Kelly was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Baroni two years. Both have remained free on bail pending their appeals. The jury had found Kelly and Baroni guilty of conspiring to violate Fort Lee residents' rights to intrastate travel. The appeals panel disagreed, writing in a unanimous precedential opinion Tuesday that there was hardly a "robust consensus" that this constitutional right exists, so the defendants didn't have a "fair warning" that they were committing a crime. Michael A. Levy, a lawyer for Baroni, said his client was gratified by that part of the court's decision. "What remains from this unprecedented prosecution are convictions only for the supposed misapplication of a few thousand dollars of Port Authority resources over less than one week," Levy said in a statement. "We disagree that any resources were misapplied and are evaluating further appellate options." Michael Critchley, an attorney for Kelly, said he would take his client's appeal to the Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark said the government was reviewing the opinion, adding that he didn't know when the new sentencing would take place. The underlying facts of the case weren't in dispute. Under the guise of a sham "traffic study," Kelly and Baroni worked with fellow Christie ally David Wildstein, then a Port Authority executive, to reduce the number of toll lanes available to motorists traveling from Fort Lee, Bergen County, to the bridge from three to one. This led to four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, exacerbated by the fact that the Christie allies refused to alert local officials of the lane realignment ahead of time. The governor long maintained he had no role in the closings. The story blew up in January 2014, just as Christie was emerging as a top contender for the GOP presidential nomination, after Wildstein provided emails and other documents to a state legislative committee investigating the lane closures. "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Kelly had written to Wildstein in an August 2013 email. "Got it," he responded. Wildstein pleaded guilty in 2015 and testified against Kelly and Baroni at trial. He was sentenced to three years' probation, fines, and community service, as prosecutors praised his "extraordinary cooperation." Prosecutors based the civil rights charges against the two defendants on a 1990 decision by the Third Circuit that found "the right to move freely about one's neighborhood or town, even by automobile, is indeed 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty' and 'deeply rooted in the nation's history,' " and was therefore a fundamental right under the Constitution's due process clauses. The 1990 decision stemmed from a dispute over a traffic ordinance in York, Pa. The three-judge panel on Tuesday wrote that although the Third Circuit had recognized a right to intrastate travel, other jurisdictions had issued decisions contradicting that position, and the Supreme Court hasn't recognized it. The appeals court, however, upheld all the other convictions. Defense attorneys had argued that Baroni, as a high-ranking Port Authority official, had the authority to realign the lanes to the bridge, and thus didn't misuse the bistate agency's resources. The court disagreed, noting that Baroni "had to create the traffic study cover story to get Port Authority employees to implement the realignment." A lawyer for Kelly also argued that her actions were indistinguishable from a mayor who, during a snowstorm, orders crews to prioritize plowing the streets where political allies live. This argument wrongly conflated motive with intent and conduct, the court said. "Defendants altered the bridge's decades old lane alignment without authorization and in direct contravention of Port Authority protocol for the sole purpose of creating gridlock in Fort Lee," Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote for the panel. "To execute their scheme, they conscripted fourteen Port Authority employees to do sham work in pursuit of no legitimate Port Authority aim," he continued. "That Defendants were politically motivated does not remove their intentional conduct from the ambit of the federal criminal law." Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane, facing county prison time, has appealed her perjury conviction to the state Superior Court. Read more Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane's fight to reverse her perjury conviction reached Superior Court on Wednesday, another milestone in a long march that so far has kept Kane from serving a county jail sentence. Her appeals lawyer, Joshua D. Lock, appeared before a three-judge panel to ask it to undo Kane's August 2016 conviction for illegally leaking grand jury information to embarrass a political foe and then lying to investigators about it. Lock focused on one argument that the special prosecutor who investigated Kane had been granted too much power. Kane, 51, a Scranton-area resident, did not attend Wednesday's court session in Philadelphia. Facing 10 to 23 months in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, Kane remains free while she pursues her appeal in the state courts. Kane was the first woman and first Democrat elected the state's top prosecutor. The path to her conviction was a convoluted one that began when the Inquirer disclosed in 2014 that Kane had secretly ended a bribery investigation involving state legislators from Philadelphia. To retaliate against a former state prosecutor whom she blamed for the story, Kane leaked secret grand jury information that she thought would embarrass him. It backfired. The judge who presided over the grand jury appointed a special prosecutor, Thomas Carluccio, to investigate the leak. After subpoenaing 30 witnesses, Carluccio pinned it on Kane and accused her of lying about her actions. Building on Carluccio's inquiry, prosecutors in Montgomery County, where the grand jury had been based, brought the criminal case against Kane. Kane challenged the legality of Carluccio's appointment before her trial in an appeal to the state Supreme Court. The high court rebuffed her, 4-1. Lock argued Wednesday that another issue remained unresolved: whether Carluccio had been improperly granted the ability to use subpoenas to force witnesses to testify. Lock asked the panel to toss out Kane's conviction on the ground that Carluccio's use of subpoenas fatally tainted his investigation. Prosecutors argued that stripping special prosecutors of subpoena power would neuter them. In court Wednesday, Montgomery County Deputy District Attorney Robert M. Falin argued a different point: that county prosecutors on their own had turned up the key evidence against Kane apart from Carluccio's investigation. Among other breakthroughs, he said, was the discovery of incriminatory text messages between Kane and a political consultant involved in the grand jury leak. The Superior Court panel was made up of two Democrats, Anne E. Lazarus and Carolyn H. Nichols, and a Republican, Paula F. Ott. It made no ruling and is under no time constraint to rule. If the panel were to rule against her, Kane could appeal to the state Supreme Court, which would not be required to take up the case. Snow falls in Center City earlier this month. Snowfall counted toward the month's precipitation total. More to come? Read more Already 2018 has become the fourth-wettest year on record in Philadelphia and is almost certain to become No. 2 by Dec. 31. And with a chance of snow and/or rain showers on Friday, this has a shot at becoming the wettest November in the period of record, which dates to 1871. "It's a very active storm pattern," said Carl Erickson, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. So far, 9.03 inches of precipitation that includes a healthy dash of melted snow from Nov. 15 has been measured by the automated observing system at Philadelphia International Airport. The November record is a few drops away at 9.06 inches, set in 1972, the raining champ. "It'll be close," said Alex Staarmann, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly. Since the summer, storms have tapped into generous moisture supplies, but what has happened this month is quite different from what was going on in August. Summer rains tend to be more random, and this year they targeted areas just to the north and west of the city, particularly Berks County. Reading had close to 15 inches in August. In November, the rains have been more generously distributed as more-organized coastal storms, typical of late fall and winter when the temperature contrasts that drive storms are more pronounced, have succeeded the more-episodic rains of the warm seasons. This month's rains might well have a connection with the burgeoning El Nino, the periodic anomalous warming in the tropical Pacific. Sea surface temperatures out that way now are about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal over thousands of miles of ocean, according to the government's Climate Prediction Center. Weather moves west to east, so what happens out there affects weather in the United States, particularly in winter. Two very wet Novembers, the aforementioned 1972's, and 1977's 7.76 inches preceded El Nino-influenced winters. What this November's storminess bodes for the future of the planet or even the winter of 2018-19 is impossible to say. Erickson said the active pattern is likely to continue well into December, and the climate center agrees. November 1977 was followed by Philadelphia's snowiest winter, at 54.9 inches, since the 55.4 inches of 1898-99. By the way, the precipitation total for November 1898 was 7.19 inches. Conversely, the winter of 1972-73 remains the only winter in Philadelphia history with no measurable snow. Donald White, 83, of Philadelphia, an internationally known archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania and curator of the Penn Museum's Mediterranean section, died Wednesday, Nov. 21, of injuries sustained in a car accident. Professor White and his wife, Joan, were returning from a family visit to Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 18, when their car went out of control, hit a pole, and overturned on Route 30 in Camden. Both were cut out of their seat belts by Good Samaritans and taken by medics to Cooper University Hospital. Joan White was treated and released. Professor White never regained consciousness and died after life support was removed, in keeping with a living will, his family said. Starting in 1973, Professor White spent three decades teaching and inspiring students in a classroom in West Philadelphia and on archaeological digs halfway around the world. He held the titles of professor of classical archaeology and curator-in-charge of the museum's Mediterranean collection before retiring in January 2004. "He was especially well-known as a field archaeologist," said Brian Rose, a curator at the museum. As an explorer of the past in Libya or Egypt, Professor White was larger than life, said son Arthur. Because of that, he was often typecast as Indiana Jones, the character made popular by Harrison Ford in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels. Little could have irritated Professor White more. "He hated the notion of Indiana Jones because he thought Indiana Jones stole antiquities," his son said. "But sometimes Donald was a dashing and really handsome man. At Penn he would wear suits and ties. In the field, he had a funny hat that he wore. My mom went with him on all the excavations." Born to Richardson White and Cornelia Hallowell White in Boston, he was raised in Cohasset, Mass. His father was a Harvard-educated sculptor, gentleman farmer, and Mayflower descendant. His mother was a Quaker and descendant of suffragette Lucretia A. Mott. Professor White graduated from the Groton School in 1954 and Harvard College in 1957. While at Harvard, he developed a passion for rowing, serving as captain of the freshman lightweight crew team. He rowed competitively well into his 50s as a member of the Vesper Boat Club and the Undine Barge Club, both on the Schuylkill. Professor White was fluent in Latin, ancient Greek, Italian, German, and French, and spoke some Arabic skills that were invaluable in Europe and North Africa. After excavating a crockery dump as a boy and studying ancient history, he pursued a degree in classics at Harvard. He then spent six months in the Army before entering Princeton's classical archaeology program. He earned a doctorate in 1964 for research at Morgantina, Sicily. Professor White taught at the University of Michigan from 1963 to 1973. He began excavations in the coastal region of eastern Libya at the port city of ancient Appolonia, now Cyrenaica, in 1964. In 1967, he had to take the last plane out after the Six-Day War in the Mideast began. He returned to North Africa in 1969 to dig at a sanctuary in Cyrene, Libya. In 1973, after being recruited by Penn, he continued the work during the summers. His wife, an art restorer, worked on the site's artifacts, and he wrote extensively about the objects. The excavation came to a halt in 1981 when diplomatic relations between the United States and Libya broke down. In 1984, he turned his attention to a coastal lagoon in northwest Egypt near the port city of Marsa Matruh. There, he excavated a late Bronze Age settlement that proved to be the westernmost point of Minoan, Mycenaean, and Cypriot Late Bronze Age pottery along the southern Mediterranean at that time. The site also yielded the body of a German soldier, which Professor White returned to Germany. In 1990, he undertook an ambitious set of renovations to the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman galleries at the Penn Museum. "He brought wonderful creativity and educational detail to the galleries," his family said. In retirement, Professor White wrote a history of the horse in North Africa. His completed manuscript was expected to be published posthumously. A lifelong animal lover, he was always surrounded by a "peaceable kingdom" of cats and dogs, his family said. Edward Burlingame, a friend starting in college, said Professor White stood out because of his strong, independent mind. "Sometimes he set the cat among the pigeons, but he always thought for himself," Burlingame said. "He also had great natural courtesy and kindness to other people." Besides his wife and son, he is survived by sons Malcolm and Owen; four granddaughters; and a brother. His first wife, Sarah White, from whom he was divorced, also survives. Burial will be private. Riverside Correctional Facility's Suboxone program is one of a few similar ones in the nation. Patients with substance use disorders are given 8mg of the opiate each day, which helps to stave off withdrawal symptoms and curb addiction cravings. Read more The effects of the ongoing opioid epidemic are evident across Pennsylvania. Prisons are no exception. According to Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) estimates, the number of individuals entering state prison with an opioid addiction has more than doubled since 2010. By 2017, a quarter of new inmates reported that opiates were their drug of choice, a dramatic increase. The DOC has responded in a number of ways. There are now therapeutic communities housing units completely dedicated to substance abuse in six DOC institutions. Other programs, including Narcotics Anonymous, operate at every facility. New initiatives, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT), have been launched and expanded. Vivitrol, a form of injectable extended-release naltrexone used to treat addiction, is offered in every state prison as part of the reentry process. Although these programs combine evidence-based treatment with the realities of the correctional environment, there are opportunities to do better. Despite these efforts, opioids and the immediate and long-term effects of opioid abuse continue to pose challenges within the correctional system. A reasonable solution is not, however, to promote greater access to Suboxone. Suboxone can be both a medication and an illegally diverted opioid drug. It is effective at reducing symptoms of withdrawal and can reduce the chance of relapse. Suboxone can be a valuable tool to help with recovery within the community. However, there is also substantial evidence Suboxone can be abused. While most users self-medicate during withdrawal outside the supervision of health-care professionals, some use it as an alternative to heroin or other drugs due to the powerful influence of their addiction. It can trigger the same receptors in users' brains as other opioids. Like all abuse, this can be life-threatening, especially when Suboxone is taken with legal medications and other illicit drugs. This complex situation is acceptable when individuals are receiving managed MAT in the community. Prison presents different challenges; the solutions from MAT often may not work. Delivering MAT in prisons requires the introduction of a controlled substance into a secure environment, as well as ensuring adherence to security protocols. Failing to acknowledge this as it relates to Suboxone jeopardizes the well-being of many who live or work inside a state prison. This is one reason almost no prisons or jails nationally use Suboxone in their treatment programs, even where other MATs are offered. Suboxone is uniquely susceptible to smuggling and abuse. When access to alternatives is limited, as in prison, it becomes a highly desirable drug. As a dissolvable, but solid, strip, it can be concealed inside mail. Dissolved in a liquid, it can be smuggled and consumed many ways. This makes tracking its use challenging for either medical or security purposes. Unsurprisingly, Suboxone is found in more than 40 percent of all illegal drug seizures in Pennsylvania's prisons. Suboxone plays a prominent role in prison's "underground economy." This is not unique to Pennsylvania. The large quantities of Suboxone strips found inside many prisons suggest that these drugs are meant for distribution. Recently, stashes of Suboxone have been discovered with more than 500 strips far beyond the amount safely permitted by a licensed addictions specialist. Contraband-driven markets undermine the security and medical systems, as well as possibly contributing to violence. Most Suboxone currently inside of DOC facilities is illicitly obtained. Legal prescriptions are diverted from their intended recipients, smuggled, and resold. In this case, when alleged Suboxone is received, individuals may not know what they are taking nor the appropriate dose, even for self-medication. This has consequences. Although the exact drug is often impossible to determine, approximately 20 inmates a month are currently sent to the emergency room for overdoses; Suboxone is often identified. Substance abuse within DOC facilities remains a persistent and significant challenge. The DOC, as a member of the Governor's Taskforce on Opioid Addiction, and other state agencies have been working to provide more treatment options, but in a manner that reflects the distinct and challenging prison environment as well as evolving best practices. This includes increased access to Vivitrol; the development of a program for injectable buprenorphine, one of the first in the nation; and and a potential pilot program for strictly supervised Suboxone maintenance. These programs could potentially address aspects of ongoing withdrawal or opioid cravings among the DOC's population, ensure medically appropriate treatment, and ensure compliance with the restrictions of the prison environment, all without many of Suboxone's current and unique limitations. There are illicit drugs inside of DOC prisons and other impediments to recovery. The psychological and medical effects of opioid abuse persist. It is clear that more treatment options should be made available in prisons to address these distinct challenges. Accepting self-medication with illicit Suboxone is not a solution it is part of the cause and its presence undermines genuine efforts to break the cycle of addiction. Jordan M. Hyatt is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Justice Studies at Drexel University. He has conducted several research projects with the DOC, including the Vivitrol Pilot Evaluation. A 70-year-old man was charged with seven counts of failure to yield to pedestrians after he backed his minivan onto a sidewalk, fatally striking a man and injuring six others in Chinatown on Monday night. NYPD Captain Michael R. Gulinello of the 5th Precinct said that just after 6:45 p.m. the driver, Henry Herman, "began to back up on Forsyth Street towards Canal Street in an attempt to park his vehicle," a Toyota Sienna minivan. "As he approached the parking spot, the vehicle accelerated striking several people on the sidewalk near a fruit stand." The NYPD later said that Herman "lost control of the vehicle," which then "jumped the curb," hitting seven people. BREAKING: Several struck, seriously injured when minivan mounts curb in Chinatown pic.twitter.com/bOm8xVnc4s Myles Miller (@MylesMill) November 27, 2018 (Lower East Side, Manhattan) Six Pedestrians Struck by Vehicle At least one fatality has been reported. The driver remained on scene and no criminality is suspected. More here: https://t.co/6K9MslxOUI #CitizenAppNYC pic.twitter.com/nwRh6ZV9wH Citizen NYC (@CitizenApp_NYC) November 27, 2018 Security camera footage, which appears to be sped up, shows the minivan on Forsyth: NEW: Surveillance video obtained by @NY1 shows driver backing down street and crashing into a fruit stand, where 1 person was killed and 6 people were injured. pic.twitter.com/qfV7G5oEQL Myles Miller (@MylesMill) November 27, 2018 According to the Daily News, "Herman mistakenly hit the gas and sped in reverse on to the sidewalk, hit two fruit sellers carts, and then slammed into a retaining wall that undergirds an on-ramp for the Manhattan Bridge." An eyewitness told the News that the minivan, "sped up so quickly . It smashed into the wall, and it pinned one man against the wall. He was caught between the wall and the car." "It sounded like a big boom. People were screaming," another witness told the Post. "I saw people under the car, a lot of blood." The deceased victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was identified as Deng Zhang Chun, 56, of Elmhurst, Queens. Gulinello said that of the other victims, "Two are listed in critical condition, two are listed with severe injuries and two are treated and refused further medical aid." Herman, who lives in Monroe, NY, was also charged with failure to exercise due care, unsafe backing of a vehicle, and driving on/across a sidewalk. The NYPD Highway division said that he "knowingly conducted an unsafe maneuver." PIX 11 reports he was issued a desk appearance ticket for a future court date and released. Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted about the incident, "We cannot accept loss of life on our streets as inevitable. We will continue working harder every day to reach #VisionZero." Hyderabad: Congress on Tuesday released its manifesto for the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections. The state goes to polls on December 7 while the counting will be held on December 11. Here are the promises made by the grand old party in their manifesto: 1. 2 lakh loan waiver for farmers 2. Recruitment of 20,000 teachers 3. 20 per cent of the state budget to be invested in the education sector 4. Arogyashree - health scheme 5. Rs 5 lakh to BPL families for construction of houses 6. Percentage of Dalit reservation to increase The Congress manifesto was announced on a day when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Opposition in Telangana, accusing both the Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) of indulging in dynasty politics PM Modi also accused the TRS government of doing nothing during its tenure while only the KCR "dynasty" flourished. He further said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao did not join Ayushman Bharat scheme under which the Centre would bear medical expenses of the poor to the extent of Rs five lakh a year because of his feeling of insecurity. AIZAWL: Polling in Mizoram will be held on Wednesday with over 7.70 lakh voters expected to exercise their franchise in the state where Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is seeking a third consecutive term and the BJP looking to uproot the Congress in its last bastion in the Northeast. The Congress and the Mizoram National Party (MNF) have ruled Mizoram since 1987 when it became a full-fledged state. Interestingly, no party has been able to form government thrice since that year. Elections to the 40-member assembly in Mizoram, which has a population of about 10 lakh, is significant for the BJP that considers it to be the 'final frontier' in the region. In the 2013 elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while its main opposition, the Mizo National Front (MNF), got five and the Mizoram People's Conference bagged one seat. The Congress and the MNF have fielded 40 candidates each, while the BJP is contesting in 39 seats. The Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM), an alliance formed by two political parties and four groups, is contesting in 35 seats. A total of 209 candidates are in fray for the November 28 polls and the fate of the candidates would be decided by 7,70,395 voters, which include 3,94,897 women. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be used in the polling that would begin at 7 am and end at 4 pm. Ahead of elections, the state witnessed intense protests by civil society groups over the place of voting for 12,026 Bru voters. The issue led to replacement of Chief Electoral Officer SB Shashank in less than two weeks before the polls. Ashish Kundra, who replaced Shashank, said on Monday that the Election Commission has made extensive preparations for the Brus lodged in six relief camps of Tripura to cast their votes at Kanhmun village in Mamit district where 15 temporary polling stations have been set up. The village is located on the state's border with Tripura. "The people of Kanhmun village have even erected a welcome gate at the border expressing heartiest welcome to Bru voters," Kundra said. Campaigning in the state saw paradigm shift this election season with political parties making extensive use of social media platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp to woo young voters. The ruling Congress banked heavily for the elections on its flagship New Land Use Policy (NLUP), which brought the party to power for two consecutive terms. The campaign had reached its peak in the final week with the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Other prominent leaders who campaigned in the state included Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh, National People's Party (NPP) leader and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma. JAIPUR: The BJP, which is in power in Rajasthan, will release its election manifesto for the poll-bound state on Tuesday. According to a BJP spokesperson, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will release the 'Sankalp Patra'.'' The Congress, on the other hand, is likely to release its election manifesto November 28. Polling in the state will take place on December 7 and results will be announced on December 11. In the run-up to the crucial assembly elections in Rajasthan, the top leaders of the two main parties BJP and Congress have attacked each other vehemently and even resorted to making personal comments on their rivals. On behalf of his party, PM Narendra Modi had led the attack on the Congress from the front, slamming the opposition party over its stand on terrorism, Naxalism and tribal development among others. While Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had atacked the ruling party over issues ranging from demonetisation, farmers' suicide, unemployment, black money and, more importantly, the Rafale fighter jet deal. Gandhi had promised that farm loans would be waived if the Congress forms the next government in the state and asked his party workers not to use any bad word against the Prime Minister and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Several top, leaders fro the two main parties including PM Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Ashok Gehlot had addressed rallies in parts of Rajasthan incuding Bhilwara, Dungarpur, Kota, Pokhran, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Sikar, Churu, Bikaner and Jaisalmer districts. New Delhi: First launched in India in May of 2005, Swift from Maruti Suzuki has sold two million units in the country. The company made the announcement in a press release on Tuesday. The Swift came at a time when Maruti Suzuki was already at the top of its game courtesy Alto. The company projected the car as a premium hatchback and while it took a while for customers to warm up to the rather quirky design of the first-generation Swift, it soon became a common sight on roads here. The third-generation Swift is currently on Indian roads and continues to receive a good response. First showcased at the 2018 Auto Expo, the car managed to clock one lakh bookings in ten weeks. While company officials say it is because of the technological advancements and the new looks, fanboys maintain that a peppy drive, auto transmission as an option and good resale value continue to keep Swift a car to watch out for in its segment. Little wonder then that the Swift has managed to consistently find a place in the top-five best-selling cars in the country each year despite competition heating up in recent years. Rivals have brought in hatchbacks and crossovers, and have enjoyed success to varying degrees. Swift, however, continues to bolster sales for the country's largest automaker. New Delhi: One of the most sought-after actresses Anjana Singh, who is quite popular on social media has shared a throwback picture from her Munna Mawali days. Sharing the picture, she wrote, "#throwback #picfroM@Munnamawali#loveyourself #happytuesday #AS." Anjana, who is popular in the Bhojpuri industry as 'hot cake' featured in a special song in power star Pawan Singh's 'Wanted'. Anjana, who is also often referred to as lady Rajinikanth, has done a number of promotional songs. She has worked with Bhojpuri film industry bigwigs and shared screen space with most of them. Anjana shares a sizzling hot chemistry on screen with Bhojpuri megastar Ravi Kishan. She bagged the Best Actress Award for Nazar at the fourth International Bhojpuri Film Awards which was held in Malaysia on July 21. Our latest installment of Quick Bites brings us to a Japanese spot on West 20th street for addictive bar food. THE VIBE First you should know that, in addition to being impossible to Google and unsatisfying to say in that plosive-less way, the new Japanese restaurant Hall is also in no way the sort of grand room its name might be evoking in your brain right now. Think more like the dim and narrow passageway sort of hall, albeit one that serves fancy cocktails, labor-intensive coffee and, as it turns out, some pretty accomplished bar food. All in a space where the cozy wooden walls come from a mansion upstate somewhere. The chef at Hall is Hiroki Odo, who spent many years at the vegetarian, Michelin-starred Kajitsu (and many years before that cooking kaiseki in Japan) before shifting to the slightly more casual, much more meaty fare here. For now, Hall is mostly bar, and the entire place seats about 20 on somewhat rickety old backless stools. Next year, in the not-yet-finished dining room behind one of three unmarked doors in the back (the other two lead to the kitchen and the bathroom... good luck guessing which is which!) Odo is planning on serving a more refined tasting menu. They're also currently serving pastries at breakfast and sandwiches at lunch, but Hall takes on a purposefully sophisticated air after 5 o'clock, when the booze starts flowing and the music gets all jazzy and mellow. THE BITES The menu is short and, given its bar food inclinations, unsurprisingly reliant upon both salt and the deep fryer. The best dish that emerges from the latter is the lightly battered, crisp and juicy chunks of Fried Chicken which, like most everything here, is skillfully prepared, meagerly portioned, and utterly addictive. The small pile of Fried Calamari is also served tempura-ish style, and the heavily-seasoned French Fries are excellent, especially when dredged through the dollop of oily mackerel puree. There are a couple of straight-up plates of meat to be had, both built upon wonderfully rich cuts of Washugyu beef. The "signature" Hamburg Steak is like a dream-come-true version of the diner classic, the peppery ground meat smothered in brown gravy and baby mushrooms, a bit of buttery mashed potato on the side. Even more intense (and eight bucks cheaper!) is the Washugyu Sausage and Smoked Pepper Steak, with two fatty slabs of steak laid across circles of salty, crumbly red sausage. The accompanying Dijon mustard adds a bit too much bite to the already almost-overpowering dish, but the celery root puree does a nice job of smoothing things out. The only salad offered is really just a small pile of raw white mushrooms, with bits of red onion, a drizzle of olive oil, and plenty of salt and pepper amping up the funghi flavor. There are a few specials listed every nightthe canapes were popular with other patrons on both nights I went last weekbut the only one I tried was called simply Sardine and Mashed Potato, and turned out to be a cake formed from the densely-packed tuber, with a layer of crushed fish in the middle. Like everything else at Hall, it definitely didn't need salt. THE VERDICT Hall works well for an adult night outcomplicated drinks, conversation at a reasonable volume, big-flavored nibbles and share platesespecially if your companion is paying. There's no signage out front yet either, giving it a slightly "secret-spot" quality that some people enjoy when out on a date. It will be interesting to see what Chef Odo does in the back room next year. Hall is located at 17 West 20th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, and while hours seem to be fluid for now, is open for lunch and dinner during the week, and dinner only on the weekend (hall.nyc) NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar over its failure to file correct FIR in connection with the alleged Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse cases. While warning the state government of strict action, the top court also gave it a 24-hour ultimatum to additional charges under Section 377 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act in the FIR filed in connection with the cases. Muzaffarpur shelter home case: Supreme Court slams Bihar government over its failure to file correct FIR and gives 24 hours to it add charges under section 377 (rape) IPC and POCSO Act in the FIR. ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 What are you (Bihar govt) doing? Its shameful. If the child is sodomised you say its nothing? How can you do this? Its inhuman. We were told that matter will be looked with great seriousness, this is seriousness? Every time I read this file its tragic, the top court bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi said. Supreme Court says, What are you (Bihar govt) doing? Its shameful. If the child is sodomised you say its nothing? How can you do this? Its inhuman. We were told that matter will be looked with great seriousness, this is seriousness? Every time I read this file its tragic. https://t.co/jRTxusLQfK ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 The top court made these observations while responding to a batch of petitions filed in the case, which alleged that the Bihar government has been very "soft" on the accused. The staff members of the shelter homes were involved in serious sexual abuse, physical violence but the FIRs were registered against them only under the 'soft' sections, they alleged. The top court then said that it will take up the case again on Wednesday. While hearing the petitions filed in the case, the Supreme Court slammed the Nitish government for not taking concrete action in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal case since getting a detailed report in this regard in May. The top court also expressed its inclination to transfer probe into all Bihar shelter home sexual abuse cases to the CBI. The top court said that it was ''not satisfied'' with the probe conducted by the Bihar Police and sought a reply from the state's Chief Secretary, who was also present in the court, by Wednesday. Coming down heavily on Bihar Police, the top court said, ''The state's police has filed corporal punishment charge in case of sodomy. It is "shameful" for the Bihar government that it is going soft against the perpetrators of crime against shelter homes children. Are children not the citizen of the country?" Citing the TISS report, the top court said, ''A boy showed TISS a 3 inch-long scar in his cheek, impaired speech, why haven't you registered an FIR under 323, 325? A child says I don't want to cook, they slashed his cheek.'' ''A girl committed suicide after the alleged severe physical assault. And the FIR has no mention of unnatural death. Why is there no investigation for why she committed suicide? One girl had the phone number of her parents and wanted to call them but the shelter home managers said no. She lost her mental balance. And there is no investigation? Why wasn't she allowed to contact parents?'' the top court questioned the Bihar government. Bihar government also reportedly admitted its mistake before the Supreme Court for not taking proper action against shelter homes and assured it that the mistake will be rectified. The Nitish government also sought one last opportunity to correct the mistake. To which, the top court said that the action of Bihar government is ''unacceptable'' as some of the children in shelter homes were sodomised but Section 377 of the IPC was not invoked. Reacting to the strong observations made by the top court, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said, ''It took two months to file an FIR in the case and, even then, the name of the main accused wasnt included. All the names coming up in the case are of those close to Nitish Kumar. The CM is trying his best to brush the case under the carpet.'' Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the shelter home run by key accused Brajesh Thakur, the head of a state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by TISS to the states social welfare department. An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31. The probe was later taken over by the CBI in July. The sexual abuse of 34 of the 42 inmates was confirmed in their medical examination. New Delhi: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and Disha Patani's 'Bharat' has been high on the buzzword ever since it was announced. The gripping teaser of the film was revealed in August this year and had left fans even more excited for the film. After wrapping up the Punjab schedule of the film, the team recently arrived in the national capital to kickstart the next shooting schedule. Only recently, Salman had shared a still on Instagram featuring him and co-star Katrina looking towards the re-created Wagah border. In the photo, while Salman was all suited up, Katrina was dressed up in a heavy red-maroon saree with a curly hairdo. This will be the first time Katrina will be sporting the ethnic six-yard outfit for a role on the big screen. And in the latest, Katrina has struck a pose with her hair-stylist while she was ready for the shoot. The actress shared the photo on Instagram and captioned it, " 4 . Take a look at her post: Speaking of Katrina's appearance in the film, she will be seen sporting a retro look in the film. She will be seen in mostly heavy traditional wear beside donning wavy curly locks for her character. 'Bharat' has an ensemble star cast with the likes of Disha Patani, Sunil Grover, Tabu and popular television actor Aasif Sheikh playing pivotal roles. The shoot of the film began in July this year with the cast and crew travelling to Malta, Abu Dhabi, Mumbai and Punjab's Ludhiana. The film will be set in the backdrop of India in 1947 and will take us through the events during the countrys partition. Not just that, the film will showcase significant events over a period of 70 years since partition. It is scheduled for an Eid 2019 release. Washington: General Motors on Monday announced the closure of seven of its factories around the world as part of a restructuring plan. The automaker said in a statement that it will close two assembly plants in the US and one in Canada, along with two others in as-yet-unidentified countries. The firm added that it will also close two production plants in the US, reports Efe news. The five North American plants affected by the move are the assembly plants in Detroit-Hamtramck and Lordstown, Ohio, as well as the one on Oshawa, Ontario, and the two engine and transmission production plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and Warren, Ohio, all of which employ some 14,500 people. GM did not say in its statement how many workers will lose their jobs, but it emphasised that it is taking measures to reduce its payroll by 15 percent, including cutting its white-collar executives by 25 percent to facilitate decision-making. The firm`s statement read in part: "Today, GM is continuing to take proactive steps to improve overall business performance including the reorganisation of its global product development staffs, the realignment of its manufacturing capacity and a reduction of salaried workforce." "These actions are expected to increase annual adjusted automotive free cash flow by $6 billion by year-end 2020 on a run-rate basis," the statement said. In addition to these plants, GM said that at the end of 2019 it will cease production at two other plants located outside North America, providing no further details but saying that it will do so in the very near future. The closures come after the company announced it was shutting down its assembly plant in Gunsan, South Korea. CEO Mary Barra told reporters that the firm is making the cuts "to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong," although the firm said it was not anticipating an economic downturn. She added that the move is part of GM`s plan to become a more agile, resilient and profitable company while giving it the flexibility it needs to invest in the future. Barra also said that the firm recognises the need to stay ahead of changing market conditions and consumer preferences so that GM can be successful over the long term. President Donald Trump has blasted GM for making plans to close seven production plants, including four in the US, and demanded that the firm find a vehicle that sells in sufficient quantities to be able to increase the company`s activities in Ohio, a key US election battleground. In remarks to reporters at the White House, Trump said that he had spoken with GM President and CEO Barra after learning earlier on Monday of the firm`s decision to shut down seven assembly and production plants, a move that will directly affect some 14,500 workers in the US and Canada. "I was very tough. I spoke with her when I heard they were closing and I said, you know, this country has done a lot for General Motors," Trump said, in a reference to the federal bailout of the firm after the 2008 financial crash, adding that "the United States saved General Motors, and for her to take that company out of Ohio is not good". The President was referring to the Lordstown assembly plant in Warren, Ohio, one of the four facilities that GM plans to close in the US, along with two others in Michigan and one in Maryland. New Delhi: Sun Pharma Monday said it will acquire Japan-based Pola Pharma for around USD 1 million to strengthen its presence in dermatology segment across the globe. The company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma, which is engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries said in a statement. Pola Pharma's portfolio mainly comprises dermatology products. It has two manufacturing facilities in Saitama with capabilities to manufacture topical products and injectables. It also has R&D capabilities to develop new technologies and formulations. "This acquisition is in line with our strategy to strengthen our global dermatology presence. Pola Pharma is a leading dermatology company and it will help us launch our speciality and generic dermatology products in the Japanese market in future," Sun Pharma Executive Vice-President Kirti Ganorkar said. Sun Pharma Japan Country Head Junichi Nakamichisaid said that by combining its global strengths with Pola Pharma's local expertise, the company will have a great opportunity to further strengthen its presence in Japan, especially in dermatology. Pola Pharma had an annual revenue of around USD 108 million and net loss of USD 7 million for the 12 months ended December 2017 on consolidated basis. "The equity consideration, on debt-free and cash-free basis, for the 100 percent stake in Pola Pharma is around USD 1 million," Sun Pharma said. The transaction is expected to close on or before January 31, 2019, subject to completion of closing conditions, it added. Sun Pharma forayed into the Japanese prescription market in 2016, with the acquisition of 14 established prescription brands from Novartis. The size of the Japanese pharmaceutical market is estimated at USD 84.8 billion, accounting for around 7.5 percent of the USD 1.13-trillion global pharmaceutical market. Sun Pharma shares Monday ended 2.88 percent down at Rs 510.65 on the BSE. A man on his way to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on Monday after he was found carrying a live .32mm bullet. This comes barely a week after another man flung chilli powder at Kejriwal outside his office in the Secretariat on November 20. The man has been identified as Imran, who's a cleric. He was intercepted at the entrance of the CM's residence after the security staff recovered the live cartridge from the wallet. He was scheduled to meet Kejriwal along with a group of 10 to 12 Muslim clerics who requested an appointment to discuss the increase in the salary of Waqf Board. Imran reportedly took care of the cleanliness of the mosque ahead of namaz offerings. During police interrogation, the man confessed to procuring the live cartridge from the mosque's donation box, which he kept in his wallet and later forgot about it. The man has been arrested under the Arms Act. Investigations are underway. Last week 40-year-old Anil Sharma allegedly flung chilli powder at Kejriwal. He was immediately arrested and later found to be "unstable and incoherent" by the Delhi Police. The Chief Minister's spectacles broke but he was not injured in the attack. Following the attack, Kejriwal had alleged that political rivals were hatching a conspiracy to eliminate him. "I've been attacked four times in two years. It's not a minor issue. These attacks aren't taking place, they're being ordered. Humlog inki aankhon ka roda ban chuke hain. Ye log milke mujhe marwana chahte hain. (We have become the biggest obstacles in their path. They want to eliminate. That's why I am being attacked again and again),'' Kejriwal said while responding to questions on the chilli powder attack on him. The Aam Admi Party (AAP) government in Delhi later called a special session of the state assembly to discuss the attack. New Delhi: The commerce ministry has recommended continuation of anti-dumping duty for five years on a chemical used in pharma and agro industries, imported from the European Union and the US. The move is aimed at guarding domestic manufacturers of 'Methylene Chloride' from cheap imports from the European Union (EU) and the US. Continuation of the duty was recommended by the ministry's investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), which conducted a probe into the alleged dumping of the chemical from these two regions. In its findings, DGTR concluded that there is a "continued dumping" of the product from the EU and the US and that is causing injury to domestic industry here. Despite the anti-dumping duty in force, the financial performance of the domestic industry has deteriorated, DGTR said in a notification. "The authority recommends continued imposition of anti-dumping duty...For a period of five years concerning all imports of the subject goods originating in or exported from the EU and the US," it said. It also concluded that during the period of investigation (January-December 2017), the domestic industry has shown negative growth in terms of the economic parameters such as production, sales, and profitability. "The dumped imports from the EU and the US continue to cause injury to the domestic industry," it added. Gujarat Fluorochemicals and Chemplast Sanmar had filed application before DGTR for review and continuation of the duties on these imports. The companies alleged continuation of dumping of Methylene Chloride from the EU and the US. The duty recommended by DGTR ranges between USD 0.32-0.36 per kg. The finance ministry takes the final call for imposition of the duty. In May 2014, the government had imposed anti-dumping duty on these imports from the US and the EU to protect the domestic industry. Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to check if domestic industry has been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports. As a counter-measure, they impose the duty under the multilateral WTO (World Trade Organisation) regime. Imposition of anti-dumping duty might affect the price levels of the product in India. However, fair competition in the Indian market will not be reduced by the anti-dumping measures, DGTR said. The imposition would remove the unfair advantages gained by dumping practices, prevent injury to the domestic industry and help maintain availability of wider choice to the consumers of subject goods. Five more convicts in the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case surrendered before Delhi Tis Hazari court on Tuesday. Earlier on November 22, four out of 15 jawans belonging to the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (UPPAC) surrendered before Delhi's Tis Hazari court. The four UP PAC jawans will now be sent to the Tihar Jail. On October 31, the Delhi High Court had sentenced 16 policemen to life imprisonment for killing 42 people of a minority community in Uttar Pradesh in what later came to be known as the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case. The high court held that the massacre was "targeted killing" of unarmed and defenceless people by the police. A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel reversed the trial court's verdict which had acquitted the accused. The high court convicted 16 former Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel for murder and of kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code. The high court's verdict came on pleas challenging a trial court's decision to acquit 16 policemen of charges of murder and other crimes in the case. The court also said that the families of the victims had to wait 31 years to get justice, and monetary relief cannot compensate for their loss. All the 16 PAC personnel convicted in the Hashimpura massacre case had retired from service and one of them died during the course of the trial in the case. In Lahore to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kartarpur corridor, Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hailed the prospect of peace between the two neighbours while also defending his hug with Pakistan Army Chief during his previous visit here. Asked by Pakistani journalists about the much-talked-about hug with Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during his previous visit, Sidhu said that the embrace lasted hardly for a second. "The hug (with Pakistan Army Chief) was for hardly a second, it was not a Rafale Deal. When two Punjabis meet they hug each other, its normal practice in Punjab," he said. Hailing the Kartarpur corridor, the actor-turned-politician in Lahore also said that it would open up infinite possibilities of peace and prosperity for both India and Pakistan, ending the bloodshed. Sidhu has been invited by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on behalf of the neighbouring countries' Prime Minister Imran Khan. This is Sidhu's second visit to Pakistan this year. PM Imran Khan will inaugurate the opening ceremony of the facilities at the crossing on the Pakistan side on November 28. Kartarpur corridor promises to help Sikh pilgrims from India offer prayers at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur on the banks of Ravi river in Pakistan. The issue of Kartarpur Sahib came into focus after Sidhu visited Pakistan in August to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Imran Khan as the Prime Minister. During his visit, he was seen hugging Pakistan Army chief Bajwa, leading to a massive controversy. At the time, Sidhu had defended himself by saying that the Pakistan Army chief had told him about the opening of a corridor to Kartarpur Sahib, which led to the hug. Last week, the Indian government said it will develop and build the corridor from Punjab's Gurdaspur district to the International Border to facilitate Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the latter had not kept the integrity of his position intact. The former J&K chief minister claimed that contributions of former prime ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were being forgotten, saying, If we are sitting here its because of them. Quality goes down to level of forgetting what Nehru contributed to this nation. What Indira Gandhi gave to this nation, she gave her life. Rajiv Gandhi and other Prime Ministers - did they not give their entire time to build this nation? If we are sitting here it's because of them, said Abdullah at an event in the national capital on Monday. Referring to a recent remark by Prime Minister Modi over alleged attack by Congress members on his parents, the National Conference leader said, What we are talking about? Meri maa ko gaali diya, mere baap ko gaali diya (they abused my mother, they abused my father). Is that the level of the Prime Minister? I have never used my father and my mother in my language. As Prime Minister of this nation, he has to think in a bigger way, said Abdullah. Recalling an interaction between former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Abdullah said that the first prime minister of the country had congratulated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart when the latter made his first speech. Atal Bihari Vajpayee told me that when he made his first speech, Nehru went to him and said 'Atal you'll be the PM of this nation one day'. He, coming from RSS background, realised that this nation can't be built by one but by all and those who built this in past can't be forgotten, said the veteran politician. He further added that the Congress party should have awarded Bharat Ratna to Vajpayee when the former prime minister was in good health and alive. Days after dissolving the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, state Governor Satya Pal Malik on Tuesday triggered a fresh political row, suggesting pressure from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government in Delhi. The J&K Governor has said that if he had listened to Delhi, he would have invited Sajad Lone to form government in the state. Had I looked at Delhi, I would have had to invite Sajad Lone to form government. But I did not want to go down in the history as a dishonest man. I dont bother about the abuses now, said Satya Pal Malik. In a dramatic development last week, the Governor had announced the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, soon after Peoples Development Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti declared that she would stake claim to form government with the support of the National Conference and the Congress party. This sudden decision by the Governor had triggered a political war of words in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in the national capital, with rivals trading charges. While PDP, NC and Congress termed the decision by the Governor as undemocratic and unconstitutional, the BJP had backed Maliks decision, saying it was in the best interest of the state. Launching a scathing attack on the Governor, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah had called Malik a slave of the Centre. Malik, however, rubbished all criticism, saying he had dissolved the Assembly to prevent horse trading. He had also claimed that the PDP did not have the numbers to form government, citing that the party had not submitted any letter of support from the NC or the Congress party. He had said, If PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti and NC leader Omar Abdullah were serious about forming a government (by joining hands) in Jammu and Kashmir, they should have rung me up, or sent me a letter. Mehbooba has ruled out taking the legal route against the Governors decision, saying she would go to the peoples court. Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hailed the Kartarpur corridor on Tuesday and said in Lahore that it would open up infinite possibilities of peace and prosperity for both India and Pakistan. Sidhu is in Pakistan and will join Imran Khan in a ceremony at the Kartarpur corridor which promises to help Sikh pilgrims from India offer prayers at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur on the banks of Ravi river in Pakistan. Last week, the Centre had said it will develop and build the corridor from Punjab's Gurdaspur district to the International Border to facilitate Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur. "People of the Sikh community have long been denied the right to worship at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur. It is good to see that that would no longer be the case," said Sidhu at an event on Tuesday. "I feel that this corridor will be a bridge and erase enmity. It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. This is a corridor of infinite possibilities, of peace, of prosperity, of opening up of trade relations." (Also read: "Nobody should be allowed to go to Pak for Kartarpur ceremony") While Sidhu did heap praise on the opening of the Kartarpur corridor, he has faced massive criticism back home. This is primarily because he skipped the foundation-laying ceremony in India but travelled across the border for a ceremony in Pakistan. He defended his decision by saying that he had been invited by Imran Khan. A similar invitation to Captain Amarinder Singh was turned down and the Punjab CM said that if Sidhu went to Pakistan, it was his wish and decision to do so. "My responsibility to maintain law and order prevents me from going (to Pakistan)," he had said. On his part, Sidhu said that he had sought permission from Modi government to visit the neighbouring country. New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi Monday said it was in "our best interest" to heed the advice of the Constitution as not doing so would result in a "sharp descent into chaos". The Constitution proved critics like Rudyard Kipling wrong as it worked well for last 70 years and not only united 1.3 billion people, but also gave them a 'national identity', the CJI said later in the day, addressing the valedictory session of the Constitution Day celebrations here. Justice Gogoi, in his inaugural address on Constitution Day function at 'Vigyan Bhavan' here, said, "It is in our best interest to heed the advice of the Constitution. If we do not, our hubris will result in sharp descent into chaos." The Constitution Day, also known as 'Samvidhan Divas', is celebrated on November 26 to commemorate the Constitution being adopted. Referring to Kipling's criticism and apprehension that the Constitution might not work in a vast country like India, he said, "Had he been alive today, he would have been surprised to find that India is a well-functioning polity and this is no mean achievement for the world's largest democracy. "The Constitution is working and working well for 1.3 billion people... And the credit mainly goes to the framework of the governance which is laid down in the Constitution," Justice Gogoi said. Referring to B R Ambedkar, the CJI said the success of working of the Constitution does not depend on its nature and would rather depend on the "people who work for it". "The Constitution has successfully united immensely diverse people into one nation. Notwithstanding, the caste, creed and religion, we are a community because we share the same Constitution. The Constitution has the very basis of national identity. It is the source of our Indian-ness. "The Constitution has succeeded in working well for almost 70 years now. The credit for this lies partially with the members of the Constituent Assembly." Justice Gogoi termed the journey of India as a republic as "remarkable" in last 70 years and said despite "flaws and shortcomings", the citizens had accepted and amended it time and again and given new meaning to it. "Despite flaws and shortcomings, it is the spirit of the Constitution. It would not be an exaggeration to say that our Constitution is intricately intertwined with every sphere of life, be it political, social or economical. In each moment of crisis we have turned to it for refuge. This is because of our unshakable belief in Constitution in its ideals such as rule of law, democracy, human rights and so on," the CJI said. The constitutional texts, the people, who worked for the ideals, and their undying spirit for the constitutionalism ensured the longevity of the Constitution, he said, adding that citizens were blessed to have such a "rich inheritance" which needed to be passed on to future generations. Justice S A Bobde, who would be succeeding the CJI, in his speech referred to the efforts put in by members of the Constituent Assembly in drafting the Constitution and specially mentioned 15 women members and their contributions. He also referred to the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and said the strike and its aftermath established that there was rule of law in the country as the Bombay High Court worked during the ongoing strike when all the terrorists were at large and gunshots and explosions were being heard. "I remember when these terrorists were still at large in the city, we could hear gunshots and bombs exploding. We decided as a court to sit through the morning without staff ..." Justice Bobde said. He said then there was clamour for the sole surviving accused to lynched, but the rule of law prevailed, as a proper trial was conducted and the terrorist was executed by following the law and procedure. "That judgement was subject to two appeals which eventually resulted in the execution. This I think is a recent example as to how deeply entrenched the rule of law is and this is what we as courts should and do stand for," he said. Justice A K Sikri, who also spoke at the concluding session, said the Constitution had endured, but there were "miles to go". He became emotional while talking about the constitutional rights and the plight of yje "bonded labourer, the pavement dweller sleeping on railway platforms, the rickshaw puller, landless farmer and the homeless wanderer living in hellish cesspool". He said these people "remind us today that they were amongst those people who on November 26, 1959 enacted, adopted and gave to themselves the Constitution". Attorney General K K Venugopal referred to the pendency of 29 million cases in the country's courts and said the judiciary and the government would have to come together and cooperate to find a solution to the problem so that the fundamental right to speedy justice was made available to all. Senior advocate and Supreme Court Bar Association President Vikas Singh said the apex court lawyers should also be considered for appointment as judges in higher judiciary. Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Tuesday spoke on the issue of Ram Temple and said that the Mandir should be constructed soon otherwise people will lose trust in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ramdev said that BJP is currently in power both at Centre and in the state of Uttar Pradesh and hence it becomes important for the ruling party to construct the Temple or else people will lose trust. Speaking on bringing the ordinance for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Ramdev said that the 'Kar Sevaks' cannot start the constructions of the temple as it would be contempt of court and hence bringing an ordinance is the only option. Ramdev had earlier also made a strong pitch for constructing a Ram temple. He said that a legislation should be brought in Parliament if the Supreme Court does not deliver a verdict on the matter soon. "If the apex court does not take a decision on the matter soon, then Parliament is the highest institution in a democracy and there is nothing wrong in bringing a legislation," Ramdev told reporters. "Ayodhya mein Ram Mandir nahin banega toh aur kya banega (What else will be built in Ayodhya if not a Ram temple)," he said. Earlier on Sunday, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said the time for patience was over and a law should be brought to facilitate the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh if the matter was not a priority for the apex court. Speaking at a rally organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on the Ram temple issue, Bhagwat also said this should be the "decisive phase of the agitation". "One year ago, I myself had said be patient. Now I say, patience will not work. Now we need to mobilise people. Now we should demand a law," he said. "If, for whatever reasons, because the court has a busy schedule or maybe it does not understand the sensibilities of the society, the Ram temple case is not a priority for them, then the government should think how to bring a law for the construction of the temple....The law should be introduced at the earliest," Bhagwat added. Asserting that the Ram Janmabhoomi was a matter of faith which could not be questioned, Bhagwat said, "The society does not move only by the words of law, but also by its own wishes." "In 2010, the court (Allahabad High Court) had ruled in favour of the construction of the Ram temple, but now, indications are clear that it is not a priority of the (apex) court," he added. The Supreme Court, hearing appeals against the high court's decision, had said earlier this month that it would hear the matter only in January, 2019. Bhagwat also said people should not fight with the government, but build pressure on it. The government, if not willing to build the temple, would bow down before such pressure, or if it wanted to build it but could not find a way, would gain "strength from the public pressure", he added. Meanwhile, BJP chief Amit Shah, in one of his rallies, had mentioned that Ayodhya is the only place where Ram Temple should be constructed. Shah said, "We believe that grand Ram Mandir should be constructed at that place (in Ayodhya) only." Earlier, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had visited Ayodhya and urged the government to finalise the dates for construction of Ram Temple. Thackeray said "first tell us when will the construction of temple start, and then we can talk about the rest," the Shiv Sena chief added. NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and top officials Tuesday night reviewed the situation in Assam in the wake of strong protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the state, sources said. Sonowal and his ministerial colleague Himanta Biswa Sarmah briefed the home minister about the continuous protests against the Bill in Assam, they said. The proposed amendment to the Citizenship Bill of 1955 seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they do not possess proper documents. A large section of people, organisations in the Northeast, particularly in Assam, have opposed the Bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971 as the cut off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain and others attended the meeting. The home minister held the meeting hours after a joint parliamentary committee discussed the Bill where some opposition members sought exclusion of Bangladesh under the purview of the proposed legislation. A BJP supported member suggested that a provision should be brought in the Bill so that it does not come into effect in Assam, sources added. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said that a delegation will be sent to Kerala's Sabarimala Temple to take firsthand account of agitation and to assess atrocities being committed on Satyagrahis. The delegation will have Saroj Pandey, Prahlad Joshi, Vinod Sonkar and NK Kateel, news agency ANI reported. A report will be submitted after taking the firsthand account and will be submitted within 15 days to BJP president Amit Shah. Earlier on November 23, BJP observed a dawn-to-dusk bandh to condemn the "disrespectful" behaviour of police towards Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan while he was en route to Sabarimala. Most shops remained closed. BJP workers shouted slogans against the Kerala government and its police. They also blocked some Kerala State Transport Corporation Buses for sometime before police persuaded them to disperse. At Gudalur in Theni district, some BJP workers blocked a KSRTC bus for an hour before police intervened. On November 21, BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai alleged that the ruling CPI(M) was using police to "crush" the party and sangh parivar workers who, he said, were staging a "Gandhian model" of protest against the government's "hasty move" to implement the Supreme Court verdict permitting the entry of women of all age groups into the hill shrine. He alleged that the devotees were being unnecessarily targeted by the police at Sabarimala. Restrictions have been imposed at the shrine following protests by devotees and activists of the BJP and the RSS over the state government's decision to implement the September 28 Supreme Court order allowing the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine. Amit Shah had earlier in a gathering in Kannur said that BJP is standing like a rock with the devotees. Shah also warned Vijayan to stop the politics over Sabarimala arrests else his (Vijayan's) government won't last long. Shah added that the BJP workers would give befitting replies if the schemes don't stop. NEW DELHI: Veteran journalist Radhakrishnan Nair died in the wee hours of Tuesday at the age of 54. He was the Managing Editor of news channel CNN-News18. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. Nair was battling complications after he underwent kidney transplant a few months ago. He had reportedly been on ventilator support for the past few days and died of multi-organ failure on Tuesday. He had an experience of over 25 years in the media industry. He started his career with UNI in Kerala and later moved to Delhi. He joined as a producer of TV18's India Business Report, which was broadcast on BBC India. He was part of the founding team at CNN-News18. Several politicians took to Twitter to condole the death of the senior journalist: Really sad to know of untimely passing away of my dear friend Radhakrishna Nair, sr Journalist ,very good human being, veteran in his field.We all will always miss him.Condolences to his family Om Shanti #RadhakrishnanNair Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) November 27, 2018 Saddened by the demise of Shri Radhakrishnan Nair, an outstanding journalist and a pleasant human being. May God render peace to the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family. Om Shanti. Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) November 27, 2018 Shocked to hear about the sudden demise of senior journalist Radhakrishnan Nair. May God give courage to his family to bear this irreparable loss. RIP Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 27, 2018 Getting sad news in the morning about the passing away of senior journalist and a thorough gentleman Radhakrishnan Nair. Our thoughts are with his family in this moment of grief. Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) November 27, 2018 Shocked by the sudden demise of Shri Radhakrishnan Nair, Managing Editor of CNN-News18. Big loss to the journalist fraternity. Heartfelt condolences to his family members. I pray God to give his family the strength to bear the loss. Om Shanti. Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) November 27, 2018 His body will be kept at his Delhi residence on Tuesday to pay last respects between 12-3 pm. His list rites will be performed at his home town in Kerala. The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the case of Tarun Tejpal for three weeks after the Goa government had earlier sought deferment of the matter, news agency ANI reported. The founding editor of Tehelka magazine, Tarun Tejpal, is accused of sexual assault on his junior woman colleague in a Goa hotel in November 2013. Tejpal was accused of sexually assaulting his colleague in a five-star hotel on November 7-8, 2013 during a "ThinkFest" event organised by the magazine in Goa. Earlier in December 2017, the apex court had asked the Goa court to go ahead with the trial of Tejpal. Asking the trial court to proceed with the examination of witnesses, the bench of Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice L. Nageswara Rao, however, had restrained the court from pronouncing its verdict till the Bombay High Court decided on Tejpal`s plea challenging the charges framed against him. Tejpal had moved the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the framing of charges against him by the trial court. The Panaji bench on September 26 refused to stay the framing of charges against Tejpal by the trial court and said it (trial court) would proceed with the trial only after a nod from it (the high court). A day later, on September 28, the trial court framed charges against him under sections 376(2) (committing rape taking advantage of official position), 354 `A` and `B` (criminal force with intent to disrobe), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code. Tejpal pleaded not guilty to the charges. Earlier, while granting bail to Tejpal on July 1, 2014, the top court had directed the trial court to complete the trial in eight months` time and asked Tejpal to remain present on all days and not seek unnecessary adjournments. Meanwhile, The Editors Guild of India, in November, put out an updated list of its members, which continued to include former Tejpal, who is accused of sexual misconduct. (With inputs from Agencies) JAMMU: At least two terrorists have been killed by the security forces in an encounter which broke out in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam in the wee hours of Tuesday. One security personnel has also been martyred in the encounter, reports said. Confirming the development, ANI reported that one jawan of Rashtriya Rifles died in action and two jawans of 163 Battalion of CRPF injured. The identity of the slain terrorists and their affiliation to terror outfits is being ascertained by the security forces. According to ANI, the encounter took place in Redwani area of Kulgam. Encounter breaks out between security forces and terrorists in Redwani area of Kulgam. More details awaited. #JammuandKashmir pic.twitter.com/1ypOAF4dCx ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 Security forces have cordoned off the entire area and a massive search operation has been launched. Meanwhile, another encounter is currently underway at Hafoo area of Tral in the Pulwama district. The fresh encounter in Kulgam comes three days after six terrorists were killed in an encounter which broke out in Sekipora area of Bijbehara in Anantnag district. A huge cache of arms and ammunition were also recovered from the custody of slain terrorists. In another incident on November 18, two terrorists were killed in an encounter which broke out between terrorists and security forces at Rebban area of Zainapora village in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. The encounter came a day after some unidentified terrorists abducted and killed a 19-year-old teenager. SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday asked the Centre for a clarification on why a former Norwegian PM visited the state and met separatist leaders. Tweeting to Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Omar said: "What are the Norwegians up to in Kashmir? Would either @SushmaSwaraj ji or Doval ji care to put the visit of the former Norwegian PM to both sides of the divided state in the correct context or do we have to rely on rumours & conjecture." Former Norway prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik had on Friday met senior separatist leaders in Srinagar. The meeting was held at the uptown Hyderpora residence of Syed Ali Geelani. Calling it a fruitful meeting of JRL (Joint Resistance Leadership) with Bondevik, senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had tweeted: "As Norway is known to play a constructive role in conflict resolution across the globe, urged Bondevik to help in ending the daily killings and urgent resolution of the festering Kashmir dispute." Geelani and Mirwaiz also told the former prime minister that the Norwegian government should make serious efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute to mitigate the sufferings of the people and ensure a lasting peace in South Asia. They said the leaders explained to the visiting dignitary the prevailing situation in Kashmir and termed it "very sensitive and fragile". The former Norwegian prime minister-led delegation assured the separatist leaders that "they would use their good offices to ensure that a sustained and result-oriented dialogue between India and Pakistan begins so that an amicable solution to the Kashmir issue is found," the statement claimed. Mumbai: A level-2 fire broke out in a slum at Shastri Nagar in Mumbai's Bandra on Tuesday. Fire tenders and ambulances rushed to the spot. No casualties have been reported. Mumbai: A level-2 fire has broken out in a slum at Shastri Nagar in Bandra. No casualties have been reported. Fire tenders, police and ambulance are present at the spot. Firefighting operations are underway. pic.twitter.com/PLfUKy0RX4 ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 Around 15 huts were also gutted in the fire, said a fire brigade official. The blaze erupted around 10.30 am. Seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot, the official said, adding that the flames were put out by 1.15 pm. "Around 15 huts were completely destroyed in the fire. Some furniture and electrical wires were also charred," said the official. The two injured persons were admitted to a nearby hospital where their condition was reported to be stable, the official said. The Maharashtra government told the Assembly on Monday that there have been over 49,000 incidents of fire in Mumbai in the last one decade, killing more than 600 people. Of the total fire incidents in 10 years, 3,151 were reported in slums, he said. A massive fire in two pubs located in the Kamala Mills Compound here had claimed 14 lives on December 29, 2017. In another incident, 12 people were killed in a blaze at a snack shop in Saki Naka-Kurla area on December 18, 2018. With agency inputs London: Prominent Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertulocci, the academy award-winning director of films such as "The Last Emperor", "Last Tango in Paris" and The Dreamers", died Sunday after a brief battle with cancer. He was 77. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson of the filmmaker confirmed the news of his death in Rome. Known for vivid visuals in the films, the director was one of most recognisable face of Italian cinema. He is considered an acclaimed auteur who pushed the boundaries with his unique filmmaking style. He made his directorial debut at a very young age of 22 with the 1962 film "La commare secca" and his style of using flashbacks to tell the story was applauded by the critics. But it was his 1987 feature "The Last Emperor", epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, that brought the filmmaker all the glory. The film won nine Oscars, including best picture and best director for Bertolucci. The director found his place among the stars after the film, with many acclaimed actors lining up to work with him. His other notable works include Eva Green-starrer "The Dreamers", "1900" and "The Conformist, among others. The director's legacy, however, wasn't without a blemish, courtesy his 1972 feature "Last Tango in Paris", starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider. The film had attracted controversy after Schneider alleged that she was never consulted regarding a rape scene. Years later, in a 2013 interview, Bertolucci admitted that Schneider, who died in 2011, did not know about the rape scene which she shot with Brando, and that the graphic nature of the scene in the erotic drama was improvised on set. "I'd been in a way horrible to Maria because I didn't tell her what was going on. Because I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress, Bertulocci said in the interview, which went viral in 2016. Many celebrities had voiced their outrage on the resurfaced news on Twitter. Earlier this year, Bertolucci had criticised fellow filmmaker Ridley Scott's decision to fire Kevin Spacey from "All the Money in the World" after the actor was accused of sexual assault by over a dozen men. Bertolucci had said that when he came to know that Scott had agreed to erase all of Spaceys scenes in the film, he messaged the directors frequent editor Pietro Scalia, "to tell Scott that he should be ashamed." The director had been confined to a wheelchair for over a decade, after surgery on a herniated disc in 2003 was unsuccessful and rendered him unable to walk. Bertolucci received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008 and was awarded an honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2011. The Cannes Festival called the director a "giant of Italian filmmaking, (who) will remain forever a leading light in world cinema". Antonio Banderas tweeted, "Today leave us a great filmmaker, universal italian and master of filmmakers. Thanks for so many talent! RIP Bernardo #Bertolucci" The Venice Film Festival tweeted, "Paolo Baratta and La Biennale di Venezia mourn the passing of Bernardo Bertolucci, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at #Venezia64 and President of the Jury (in 1983 and 2013). He will be remembered among the greatest masters of Italian and international cinema." Karan Johar's 'Koffee With Karan' has turned out to be a revelation ground. Recently, Bollywood's powerful sibling duo Arjun Kapoor and Janhvi Kapoor appeared on the show and the episode was such a fun ride. And knowing the show host Karan, it was expected that the guests would be spilling beans about their personal lives, crush and most important, exes! During the Rapid Fire segment, Karan asked Arjun who would he go for relationship advice between Varun Dhawan and Ranveer Singh, the Namaste England actor answered, "Varun and Ranveer for relationship advice? Are you mad? I don' think this community of actors is very good at giving advice to each other at all." Arjun then made a big revelation about Ranbir Kapoor saying that he once broke up with his girlfriend on the advice of the 'Jagga Jasoos' actor. Arjun recounted the story and said, "Ranbir once gave me relationship advice and I ended that relationship the next day. So, I don' think this community of actors is very good at giving advice to each other at all. It was Ranbir's finest performance and considering he's done 'Barfi' you can imagine. The 'Ishqzaade' actor went on to add, "He gave me a take where we were standing on the balcony. He looked into the darkness and he said, "If you're not happy, just let go." It was like an Imtiaz Ali film moment. I had an epiphany. And I looked at my phone and I sent a message to her saying, "We have to talk." And the next day I ended it. I regretted it after about seven days but I had gone too deep into that breakup to go back. Thus, you shouldn't take any advice from Ranbir Kapoor." However, that was all past! The actor is rumoured to be dating B-town's sizzling diva Malaika Arora and buzz is strong that the duo is planning to tie next year. He even confessed on 'Koffee with Karan' that he is not single anymore and that he is also open to marriage now. The two are often clicked together at parties and dinner outings. On the work front, Arjun has several films lined up in his kitty for the coming year. He will once again be seen sharing screen space with Parineeti Chopra in 'Sandeep Aur Pinki Faraar' besides starring as the lead in Raj Kumar Gupta's 'India's Most Wanted' and Ashutosh Gowarikar's period drama 'Panipat'. New Delhi: HDFC Bank on Tuesday unveiled its next-gen mobile banking app that offers users effortless access to their bank account on the go. The new banking app was launched at the Banks annual Digital Innovation Summit 2018 (DIS) in New Delhi. The Digital Innovation Summit is a marquee event for the bank to showcase and launch innovative products and services that ride on technology. It has simple, intuitive navigation and incorporates features such as biometric log in for enhanced security and access. It also eliminates all financial and technical jargon for users by grouping transactions into 3 easy to understand categories Pay, Save, and Invest. Customers can view a dashboard that offers a 360 degree financial snapshot of all assets and liabilities with the bank. More than 120 transactions available on the app have been selected based on an intensive study of existing navigation and usage patterns coupled with customer research and feedback. Key features of the HDFC mobile banking app: Biometric log-in with fingerprint and facial recognition (iPhone X) for enhanced security Simple navigation based on customer needs like Pay, Save, Invest Notification by the app on bill and utilities payments Simpler terms for all transactions such as Transfer Money instead of Fund Transfer Smart and intuitive technology that intelligently chooses between NEFT/IMPS or RTGS depending on the size and timing of the transaction Customized profile pictures like any social media channel Personalised notifications and display based on consumer's usage and needs. Nitin Chugh, Country Head Digital Banking, HDFC Bank said, The next gen app is one more step by the Bank in its on-going journey to become a constant part of customers life, understand their needs and give products and services that offer a real time experience. A Pakistan-born woman has pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State (ISIS) by participating in a scheme under which she wired over USD 150,000 to individuals and shell entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for the terror group. Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, of Brentwood, New York, pleaded guilty before US District Judge Joanna Seybert, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers said. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal last December, Pakistan-born Shahnaz was a naturalized US. Citizen. She had come to the US using a family-based immigration system, under which she had got the US visa because of her family ties. According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, between March 2017 and the date of her attempted travel to Syria on July 31, 2017, Shahnaz engaged in a scheme to defraud numerous financial institutions. Specifically, Shahnaz obtained a loan for approximately USD 22,500 by way of materially false pretences, representations and promises. She also fraudulently applied for and used over a dozen credit cards, which she used to purchase approximately USD 62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies online. She then engaged in a pattern of financial activity, culminating in several wire transactions totalling over USD 150,000 to individuals and shell entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for the ISIS. During the time she was committing bank fraud and laundering money overseas, she was accessing ISIS propaganda online, including violent jihad-related websites and message boards, and social media and messaging pages of known ISIS recruiters, facilitators and financiers. Additionally, she conducted numerous internet searches for information that would facilitate her entry into Syria, but ultimately was intercepted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at John F Kennedy International Airport while attempting to board a flight with a multi-day layover in Istanbul - a common point of entry for individuals travelling from Western countries to join the ISIS in Syria, prosecutors said. As part of her plea agreement with the government, Shahnaz admitted to defrauding numerous financial institutions and laundering the stolen proceeds out of the country with the intent to support a specified unlawful activity, namely the provision of material support to ISIS, after which she attempted to leave the United States and travel to Syria. Shahnaz faces up to 20 years in prison, as well as restitution, criminal forfeiture and a fine. Everything will remain as it is now: Russia will continue to supply gas to Europe. But the state-owned giant Gazprom wants to make supplies not through Ukraine anymore, but in other ways. Currently, approximately 40% of natural gas exported by Gazprom, that is, about 80 billion cubic meters, goes through Ukraine. By commissioning new gas pipelines, Russia wants to counteract the hostile government in Kyiv and continue to receive billions for gas transit. Currently, Gazprom is working on two projects designed to replace most of the transit gas supplies through Ukraine. One of them is the Nord Stream-2 Baltic gas pipeline under construction, through which in a few years, an additional 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be delivered directly to Germany. The second pipeline is called the "Turkish stream". It should bypass Ukraine through the Black Sea. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to watch the completion of the Turkish Stream underwater part construction. A few years ago nobody believed that this pipeline would be commissioned at the end of 2019. After the conflict with Brussels, the Kremlin chief in 2014 had to bury the South Stream project, the predecessor of the Turkish Stream. But in December 2014, Putin unexpectedly like a rabbit out of a hat pulled out the Turkish Stream project. True, the Russians will suffer significant losses regarding the transmission capacity of the pipeline: through both its lines, it is possible to pump only 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year - half as much as planned in South Stream. Read original article at Neuen Zurcher Zeitung The first protest demonstration took place on November 21, 2013 in the center of the Ukrainian capital after a statement made by the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych under pressure from the Kremlin. He said that the already prepared agreement on the EU-Ukraine association would not be signed. This brought to life Euromaidan, an impressive protest of people striving for European values - a democracy, a rule of law free from corruption, and a state of national self-determination. In the course of this movement, nearly one hundred protesters fell victim to repression of the special forces of Yanukovych regime. They were destined to become not the only ones who gave their lives for the Revolution of Dignity, as this pro-European uprising is today called in Ukraine. Russias contradictory annexation of Crimea, which became its reaction to the end of Yanukovichs domination in February 2014, was followed by the invasion of Eastern Ukraine by Russian hybrid forces disguised as separatists and the implantation of the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics into the body of sovereign Ukraine . Since then, thousands of people have died in the war, almost half a million people have become refugees. On the eastern Ukrainian front, contrary to the Minsk agreements, which the EU insists on fulfilling, the people still die every day. But the aggressor Russia, which is not even called that in the Minsk agreements, is not going to release the loot from its hands. On the contrary, having held unlawful "elections" in the "people's republics", the Kremlin mockingly demonstrated that it did not comply with the Minsk agreement. Five years ago, when the citizens of Ukraine with the flags of the European Union reached the Maidan, it was difficult to imagine that the onset of the new nationalism in Europe would question the European idea and the foundations of European unity. Today we are witnessing a paradoxical phenomenon: while the political leadership of Ukraine, as well as the reformist movements of the Ukrainian civil society, which grew out of the 2013/2014 uprising, are steadily "Euro-optimistic", the EU countries commitment to the idea of a united Europe is dangerously weakening. The fact that the struggle for the introduction of democracy and the rule of law in Ukraine is inextricably linked with the desire for national self-determination and that all this is accompanied by a burning desire to join the EU indicates a fatal delusion of European skeptics and radical opponents of the EU. Their identification of the desire for "even greater Europe" with the restriction of national sovereignty is anti-historical and false. Moreover, for the first time in the history of the continent, the post-imperial structure of the EU guaranteed national sovereignty to small nations. That is why Putins regime, which seeks to restore post-imperial structures, regards the EU structure as an opposing antipode, and the new Ukraine, which understood this interconnection better than any other European nation, as a dangerous spear point of this structure. Read original article at Die Welt The ceasefire largely held along the entire division line in the combat area As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, the current combat activity in Donbas is obviously low; since the beginning of the day, only one attack was observed in the combat zone, the Joint Forces Operation HQ reports. The only firefight took place near Krymske, where the enemy opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machineguns and small arms. None of the Ukrainian defenders were killed or wounded in action. November 26, the militants shelled the positions of the Joint Forces of Ukraine six times, which led to the injuring of two Ukrainian servicemen. The press office of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reported on Facebook. The occupiers shelled our strongholds in the areas of Malynove, Pivdenne, and Krasnohorivka using grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. Besides, the enemy used 82mm mortars near Vilny, Opytne, and Hnutove. The Russian occupiers fired 120mm mortars in the area of Malynove, which is close to Stanytsia Luhanska, the headquarters reported. On November 26, the militants shelled the positions of the Joint Forces of Ukraine six times, which led to the injuring of two Ukrainian servicemen. The press office of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reported that on Facebook. The occupiers shelled our strongholds in the areas of Malynove, Pivdenne, and Krasnohorivka using grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. Besides, the enemy used 82mm mortars near Vilny, Opytne, and Hnutove. The Russian occupiers fired 120mm mortars in the area of Malynove, which is close to Stanytsia Luhanska, the headquarters reported. Over following day, November 26, the militants shelled the positions of the Joint Forces of Ukraine six times, which led to the injuring of two Ukrainian servicemen. The press office of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reported on Facebook. The occupiers shelled our strongholds in the areas of Malynove, Pivdenne, and Krasnohorivka using grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. Besides, the enemy used 82mm mortars near Vilny, Opytne, and Hnutove. The Russian occupiers fired 120mm mortars in the area of Malynove, which is close to Stanytsia Luhanska, the headquarters reported. Two Ukrainian servicemen sustained slight injuries during todays hostilities. The situation in the Joint Forces Operation zone remains under control of the Ukrainian military. Yesterday, November 25, two Ukrainian servicemen were injured. Pro-Russian militants shelled the positions of the Ukrainian army 16 times, two of the attacks were performed from weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements. November 27, no attacks were performed in Donbas combat zone. Over the past 24 hours, the militants performed 18 adjusted attacks using heavy weapons. Two Ukrainian soldiers were injured as a result, as Maksym Prauta, the Spokesperson of Ukraines Defence Ministry, said at the briefing. In Luhansk sector, the enemy performed seven adjusted fire attacks, three of which were conducted from Zolote-6 at the positions of the Joint Forces not far from Vilny Khutir. The militants used grenade launchers of various systems and large-caliber guns, and 82mm mortars twice. The occupants used the same weapons while attacking our defense works near Luhanske. Since 7 am, the militants were shooting at our positions near Malynove using 120mm mortars, anti-tank, and automatic grenade launchers. Besides, the Russian occupation troops were shooting at the defenders of Pivdenne from automatic grenades and heavy machine guns. The militants violated ceasefire near Stanytsia Luhanska later on that day. In Donetsk sector, the enemy performed 11 adjusted attacks using 82mm mortars. In particular, seven shells exploded near Opytne and seven near Hnutove, another one near Vodyane. The enemy shot at the defense works of the Joint Forces units near these settlements, and Kransnohorivka, Shyrokyne, Verkhnyotoretsk and Pavlopil from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms. The Armed Forces units opened fire in response ten times. It is noted that the situation in Donbas combat zone is under the control of the Ukrainian military. Related video: Lawyer Edem Semedlyayev shared the course of his talks with Cpt. Oleg Melnychuk captured during the attack of Russian gunboats in the Sea of Azov Open source Russian Spetsnaz applied force against Ukrainian sailors when boarding their vessels in Kerch Strait. Oleg Melnychuk, the commander of Ukrainian tugboat Yeni Kapi told that to his lawyer Edem Semedlyayev, as reporter Anton Naumlyuk posted on Facebook. According to the latter, Semedlyayev visited his client in Bilohirsk detention center in Crimea. 'He's holding on fine. He said when they (Russian Spetsnaz, - 112 International) detained them, they applied physical force but did not beat them hard. They interrogated him, and he said how it happened: 'We were standing still, waiting for the marine pilot, and then they attacked us. We did not violate anyone's borders; I do not consider myself guilty', the lawyer said. 'This is the political case and the sailors became hostages to this situation', Naumlyuk added. He also said that another two Ukrainian sailors, Vyacheslav Zinchenko and Yevhen Semydotsky were taken to the same center in Bilohirsk. As we reported earlier the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Kyiv demanded from Moscow to immediately provide the medical service to the wounded sailors and provide them urgent return to the Ukrainian territory. According to the Naval Forces of Ukraine, six sailors are wounded and two of them were in the critical condition. Russian Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova named the exact number of the detained Ukrainian servicemen 24. Moskalkova added that procedural actions connected with the establishment of the facts of the events. If a military vessel enters the waters, certainly, this is a violation of the borders, this is a socially dangerous act, which demands a special qualification and procedure. Later it was reported that the Ukrainian servicemen taken captive in Kerch Strait are being forced to give false testimony. The Commander of Ukraines Navy noted that the lawyers have already met with this military. As a response to the recent provocation of Russia in the Sea of Azov, President Administration decided to impose martial law. That night, a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council was held on this issue, at which Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko decided to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada so that MPs could approve the introduction of martial law for 60 days. According to the Law of Ukraine "On the legal regime of martial law," it could be introduced all over Ukraine and in certain parts of the country. The attention of domestic media is focused on the consequences of imposing martial law for the Ukrainian citizens, their property, cars, housing and offices that could be used by the soldiers and officers. However, the problem lays elsewhere. That there is no acute and vital need to impose martial law in Ukraine and its individual areas. If we talk about the real need of the martial law, it was necessary to introduce it in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea or full-scale military actions in Donbas, when the Ukrainian military and volunteers were surrounded by the aggressor's forces in Debaltseve, Ilovaisk, Izvarino, and the Russian military launched an offensive and captured Novoazovsk. Introducing martial law seems to be meaningless not. Even without imposing a special legal regime, the industry and political life of the Ukrainian front-line areas had already adapted to the consequences of the Russian aggression and economic crisis, which had a particularly negative impact on business and the standard of living in eastern Ukraine. The incident in the Sea of Azov, namely Russian warships ramming of a Ukrainian tugboat and the seizure of two boats together with the crew, is a local incident, not full-scale hostilities. If the government refrained from martial law four years ago, introducing it now seems to be at least strange. For example, no one even remembered about the martial law, when on September 1, the Russian side detained Amadore Ukrainian bulk carrier near Berdyansk, on its way from Mariupol (at that time, it was the 99th arrest of the ship in the Sea of Azov since May of this year). Martial law plays into hands of Russia The situation in the Sea of Azov and in the area of the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas will not change even if the martial law is declared. It would be wrong to say that Russia seizes the Sea of Azov. The seas cannot be captured but controlled through the occupation of islands, peninsulas between which navigable straits are located. After the annexation of Crimea, Russia has established full control over the Kerch Strait, connecting the Sea of Azov with the outside world (not counting the Volga-Don Canal and the possibility to navigate to the Caspian Sea). Russia has been controlling the Sea of Azov for four years. Poroshenkos actions somehow look like a backlash. Russia has organized a provocation in order to threat the Ukrainian and to find a reason to close shipping through the Kerch Strait. Kerch was briefly closed immediately after the incident. The goal of Russia is to cause economic damage to the Ukrainian ports in Mariupol and Berdyansk, which are the key local facilities, employing several thousand Ukrainians. After Russia began to detain vessels moving to Ukraine, the turnover of the Mariupol commercial port was reduced by half, and its employees were forced to find a new job. Russia benefits from the worsening of the economic situation in Ukraines front-line zone, rising unemployment rate, and dissatisfaction with the current government. Martial law, which provides for various restrictions, only keeps pouring gas on the fire. Small and medium businesses are already expressing concerns about the negative impact of martial law on business activity in the front-line cities. For foreign counterparties who do not greatly delve into the subtleties of the political situation in Ukraine, martial law is associated with instability, the threat of hostilities. There is a threat of disruption of foreign economic contracts, slowing down the implementation of investment projects. If we talk about preventing the threat of Russia from the sea, then it makes sense to strengthen the coastal defense of the Ukrainian Azov region and to allocate funds for the maintenance of mobile coastal missile systems in order to turn the approaching Russian landing craft into ashes. The Sea of Azov has a small area and is inconvenient for maneuvers, and even the presence of Ukrainian warships will not allow securing shipping since Russia simply blocks the Strait of Kerch. Turkish scenario Ukraines current government might obtain great political benefits from imposing martial law The elections cannot be held and the Constitution cannot be amended. Apparently, the president is following the example of his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan, who has imposed a state of emergency after an attempt of a military coup in Turkey in July 2016 and during its launching until July 2018, he carried out purges in the army and state apparatus, strengthened the power, weakened positions of opposition and prepared for the general election, which he won. Erdogan has used the unsuccessful attempt of a military coup as a pretext for martial law, Poroshenko uses the recent Azov crisis as an argument. Apparently, in Poroshenkos faction in the parliament, as well as the National Front faction have concerns about their defeat in the presidential and parliamentary elections. There is a threat that after the elections the presidential party might lose its leading role in the ruling coalition or even be out of this coalition. Poroshenko needs martial law in order to take a pause, postpone the elections, and get prepared for them. The president is trying to consolidate the electorate around Russia's aggression, he has stepped up international actions as well. On his initiative, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council is held, and the possibility of tightening anti-Russian sanctions is being considered. 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. The Russian citizens who previously visited the occupied territories are banned to enter the country; others simply returned to where they came from on return flights Open source The State Border Guard of Ukraine kept over 70 Russian citizens away from entering the country - on one single day, Monday, November 26. The number included those who arrived from Belarus. Andriy Demchenko, the Head of the PR office of the Ukrainian authority told that in a commentary for 'Ukrainska Pravda' outlet. Commenting on the statement of the State Border Committee of Belarus, which claimed that 47 Russian citizens were turned back to Minsk from Kyiv, Demchenko said there's been more of these cases. 'Yesterday, more than 70 Russian citizens were halted in the capital city's airports, Boryspil and Kyiv,' the official stressed. 'The overwhelming majority was not allowed because they could not confirm the goal of their visit to Ukraine. Another two illegally visited the occupied territories, including Crimea'. The Russians who visited the occupied territories were prohibited to visit Ukraine again, while the others returned to where they came from on return flights, Demchenko concluded. The boosted security measures at Ukrainian border checkpoints are related to the martial law, imposed in ten regions of the country, as well as in the Azov Sea waters. The martial law was imposed on Monday, November 26; it will last for at least 30 days, with possible prolongation. It was the response of the Ukrainian leaders to the aggression in the Sea of Azov, as Russian Navy attacked the Ukrainian vessels in Kerch Strait. On November 26, Charge d'affaires of Ukraine in Moscow Ruslan Nimchynsky was called to the Foreign Ministry of Russia Open source Russias Foreign Ministry has handed the note of the protest to Charge d'Affaires of Ukraine in Moscow Ruslan Nimchynsky, as the press service of the ministry reported. On November 26, Charge d'Affaires of Ukraine in Moscow Ruslan Nimchynsky was called to the Foreign Ministry of Russia to whom the strong protest was expressed due to the grave violation of the rules of the peaceful pass in the territorial sea of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea by the ships of the Naval Forces of Ukraine on November 25, 2018, the message said. The Foreign Ministry emphasized that also, the outrage is expressed due to the unacceptable attacks of the Ukrainian radicals at the diplomatic offices of Russia to Ukraine. The attention of Nimchynsky was drawn to the statement of the Foreign Ministry of Russia dated November 26, 2018; he was handed the proper note. It was especially emphasized that all responsibility for the possible negative development of the conflict situation in the water of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov emerging because of Kyiv lies with the Ukrainian side, the ministry reported. On November 26, the Russian Embassy in Kyiv was pelted with the smoke bombs due to the escalation in the Azov area. The law enforcers did not allow the protesters to burn the tires. Besides, the protests took place near the buildings of the Russian diplomatic establishments in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Kharkiv. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Kyiv to provide the security of the Russian diplomats to avoid the grave consequences. Related video: MPs worked out this regulation to the UN, European Parliament, PACE, NATO PA, OSCE, GUAM, and the national parliaments of the word states Moment of silence in Ukraine's Parliament censor.net.ua The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted the draft regulation #9341, which appeals to the international community concerning the aggression of Russia against Ukraine. 272 MPs voted in the affirmative as 112 Ukraine reported. The document was presented by Hanna Hopko, Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee. We have worked out this regulation to the UN, European Parliament, PACE, NATO PA, OSCE, GUAM, the national parliaments of the word states due to the act of aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. What do we want in it? We express the strong protest to the aggressive actions and we demand, particularly from Russia, to provide the urgent medical assistance to wounded Ukrainian sailors, their immediate safe return to Ukraine and return of illegally seized military property, Hopko said. Adopting the regulation, the MPs urged the international community to assume the effective measures to stop the Russian aggression on both, land and sea, including the use of the new sanctions and extension of the current until the full recovery of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine in the internationally recognized borders. We offer the international organizations to send the observed to the region of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait and offer the sea states to send the military vessels to the region to prevent the further escalation from the side of Russia, she added. Hopko emphasized that the parliament urges the international partners to increase the provision of the military and other kinds of assistance to Ukraine for the protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. We urge the international community to adequately respond to the challenges and threats incurred by the Russian Federation as the policy of appeasement has already led to the occupation of the part of the territory of Ukraine. We also emphasize that the construction of the Nord Stream 2 meets the interest of Russia, and it threatens the security of the whole Baltic region and Northern Europe, Hopko noted. As we reported earlier, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law approving as a whole a presidential decree on the imposition of martial law in Ukraine. Related video: Open source The Ukrainian Parliament adopted draft decree 9342 about the appointment of the next presidential elections in Ukraine. 298 peoples deputies have positively voted for the decree, 112 Ukraine has been broadcasting the event. Earlier we reported that the representatives of Ukrainian parliamentary delegation in NATO Parliamentary Assembly met with Canadian colleagues, invited as observers in Ukrainian elections in 2019. Canadian friends noted that Ukraine-Canada parliamentary friendship groups can do more for strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries. I have invited our Canadian friends to visit Ukraine the next year to observe the presidential elections, First Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Iryna Gerashchenko claimed. As reported before, so-called elections took place in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions on November 11. The voters elected the leaders of "people's republics" and their representatives in the parliaments of the "republics." A member of the Hungarian party Jobbik and a representative of Bekes regional council in the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Tamas Samu Gergo visited occupied territories of Donbas to observe the elections held by the militants. Russian representatives believe that the situation in the area does not require pacification Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, will soon give an explanation on the aggressive action of Russia against the Ukrainian ship group in Kerch Strait, as Dmytry Peskov, his Spokesperson, said, Interfax reported. When the time comes, the President will give all the necessary explanations This might happen within the next couple of days during Putins visit to Argentina, Peskov noted. At the same time, he noted that the Head of the Russian Federation would be ready to give comprehensive explanations, if this question is raised at the meetings of G20 Summit. According to Peskov, the situation around the Kerch Strait does not need pacification. Pacification took place yesterday, when our border guards pacified the violators of Russias state borders, he said, adding that now, a usual order of the maritime transport passage. As is known, the Argentinian G20 Summit will take place on November 30 December 1, 2018 in Buenos-Aires. As we reported earlier, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law approving as a whole a presidential decree on the imposition of martial law in Ukraine. Related video: The meeting was summoned by the President of Ukraine due to the escalation in Azov Sea area Igor Prokopchuk, the Head of Ukraines Permanent Representation to OSCE Ukrainska Pravda Ihor Porkopchuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the international organizations in Vienna, stated that the Russian delegation was in isolation at the meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, as Ukrinform reported. Ukraine has introduced an item to the agenda of the meeting called Another act of Russias unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. All the delegations delivered speeches on this issue. Russia has introduced its own issue and made a statement on it. Russia was completely isolated. None of the delegations of 57 OSCE member states found readiness to associate with this position, which Russia presented, Prokopchuk said. He added that at the meeting, the participants made a clear demand to Russia to immediately and unconditionally return all the captured sailors and vessels of Ukraine. There was a position, that Russia has to provide a free navigation via Kerch Strait so that the Ukrainian ships and other could cruise along the Ukrainian ports located in Azov Sea unimpeded, Prokopchuk said. He noted that the current discussion showed that in fact, the Russian side has no real arguments. In particular, Russian Representative to OSCE attributed preparation of provocations with the use of chemical weapons in Donbas to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Besides, the UN Security Council blocked Russias initiative to consider alleged violation of its borders. Related video: A citizen of Ukraine cleared his car Renault Laguna 2004 with German registration plates, paying more than $1,700 to the state budget Open source The first car with the foreign registration was cleared in Ukraine, as the press service of the State Fiscal Service reported. According to the message, it took place at the customs office in Chernivtsi region. A citizen of Ukraine cleared his car Renault Laguna 2004 with the diesel engine and with German registration plates, paying more than $1,700 to the state budget. Thus, the duty (10%) made $163, the excise tax (concessionary rate with coefficient 0,5) made $1,023 and VAT (20%) made $567, the message said. At the same time, the service noted that until November 25, when the law, which provides new rules of the import of the vehicles with foreign registration came into force, was impossible due to the ban for the customs clearance of the cars older than eight years. On November 23, President Petro Poroshenko signed the law that foresees cutting the excise taxes on the cars with EU license plates. The bill also foresees more control over the movement and the use of cars with foreign registration. The respective statement appeared on the president's official Facebook page. On November 25, the laws on the reduction of excise taxes on cars, as well as the reinforcement of control over the movement and use of cars with foreign registration came into force. On July 13, 2018, Verkhovna Rada supported a bill providing for increased responsibility for breaching the rules of car import to Ukraine. The document establishes a single term for sanctions for customs rules breach, - six months since the day of detection of the violation. Related: Protests near Parliament, Kyiv downtown blocked by drivers of cars with EU license plates On October 22, the Supreme Court of Ukraine recognized the termless use of the cars with the EU license plates imported in the transit mode as legal. Later the State Fiscal Service claimed that the use of the uncustomed cars is still a violation of the law. The President explained why Ukraine imposed martial law just now, not any other time over this period Poroshenko, NSDC urgent session, Kyiv, November 2018 mediarnbo The attack of the Russian Navy and the subsequent capture of Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov is an extraordinary event, the first of such kind over four and a half years of the Russian aggression. Petro Poroshenko, the head of the Ukrainian state said that in his interview with three Ukrainian TV channels on Tuesday evening. The President explained why Ukraine imposed martial law just now, not any other time since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine in spring 2014. 'Actually, what happened on November 25 was an extraordinary event, first time over 4.5 years of the Russian aggression. Officially, without tearing down their chevrons, without any 'little green men', Russian military vessels - in huge amount - attacked the ships of Ukraine's Armed Forces', Poroshenko said. The president stressed that the actual threat of full-fledged Russian military invasion in Ukraine remains. As is known, Russia launched the military aggression in Ukraine in 2014, annexing Crimea and deploying regular troops in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Thousands of people, military and civilians deceased in fights and due to accidents with explosives. Over 20,000 were wounded, and more than 1.8 million people became refugees. Russian militants and regular troops captured 7.2 percent of Ukraine's territory. In February 2017, Ukraine officially recognized Russia aggressor. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin claimed that the captured Ukrainian crews by Russia are prisoners of war Conflict in Sea of Azov TASS Mass media revealed the list of military sailors who have been aboard ships Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yana Kapu. The relevant list was provided to Ukraine's TSN media outlet. Official sources reported on 23 detainees but the list the TSN received includes only 18 names. It is noted that not all of them were the members of the crew. Berdyansk armored artillery boat: - Commander Lieutenant Roman Mokriak (birth year: 1986) - Senior sailor Yuriy Bezyazychnyi (birth year: 1990) - Senior sailor Andrii Artemenko (birth year: 1994) - Sailor Andrii Eider (birth year: 1999) - Senior sailor Bohdan Holovash (birth year: 1996) - Captain Denys Hrytsenko (birth year: 1984) Nikopol armored artillery boat: - Commander Senior Lieutenant Bohdan Nebylytsia (birth year: 1994) - Senior sailor Viacheslav Zinchenko (birth year: 1994) - Sailor Serhii Tsybyzov (birth year: 1997) - Captain- Lieutenant Serhii Popov (birth year: 1991) - Petty Officer Vladyslav Kostyshyn (birth year: 1994) - Senior sailor Andrii Oprysko (birth year: 1971) Yany Kapu sea mule tugboat: - Commander Petty Officer Oleh Melnychuk (birth year: 1995) - Senior Sailor Mykhailo Vlasiuk (birth year: 1984) - Senior Sailor Viktor Bezpalchenko (birth year: 1987) - Sailor Yevhen Semydotskyi (birth year: 1998) - Commander Volodymyr Lisovyi (birth year: 1984) Earlier today, media reported that three Ukrainian sailors in Kerch are in stable condition. Later, media stated the names of three detained sailors: Andrii Artemenko, Vasyl Soroka, and Andrii Eider. Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova claimed that the half of the Ukrainian sailors detained in the Sea of Azov are in a Hospital in Kerch, another half is in Russian border department. As it was reported, Viktor Muzhenko, Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told the entire course of events which lead to the escalation of the crisis in the Sea of Azov at the National Security and Defence Council session. As we reported earlier the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Today, November 25, the ships of the Ukrainian Navy with two armored gunboats and a sea mule tugboat have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. The intention to make the transition was informed in advance in accordance with international standards in order to ensure the safety of navigation. However, contrary to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Treaty between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, the Russian coast guard ships - Sobol class patrol boat, Don border guard cruiser, Mangust class patrol boat and Suzdalets anti-submarine warfare ship performed blatantly aggressive acts against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, reads the message. It is specified that Don border guard cruiser rammed the Ukrainian armored artillery boat, which led to the damage of the main engine, planting and accommodation rail, life float is lost. The Ukrainian Navy states that "the dispatcher service of the occupiers refuses to ensure the right of freedom of navigation, guaranteed by international agreements." Thus, according to the Ukrainian side, Russia has once again demonstrated its aggressive nature and complete disregard for the norms of international law. Peaceful settlement of the conflict that occurred in Kerch Strait remains to be a priority, - Ukraine's PM Ukraine will look for the peaceful ways to settle the conflict in Kerch Strait; however, it will reserve the right for the self-defense. Pavlo Klimkin, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, made such a statement as 112 Ukraine reported. In accordance with UN Charter, Ukraine will look for the peaceful ways for the settlement of the conflict as it is provided by Article 33 of the UN Charter, but certainly it reserves the possibility to use the right of the self-defense as it is stated in the Article 51 of the UN Charter, he claimed. He also emphasized that at the moment Ukraine holds the active negotiations at the international level to release the captured sailors and vessels. It is very important that the whole civilized world will not be restricted by formal and informal statements but used the proper measures against Russia. Now we intensively talk with all our friends and partners. We urge them to use all the measures and levers for the release of our sailors and vessels, the minister said. As we reported earlier, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Kyiv demands from Moscow to immediately provide the medical service to the wounded sailors and provide them urgent return to the Ukrainian territory. According to the Naval Forces of Ukraine, six sailors are wounded and two of them were in the critical condition. The Russians shelled and seized the vessels of the Ukrainian Naval Forces Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yany Kapu, which passed from Odesa (the Black Sea) to Mariupol (the Sea of Azov), moving through Kerch Strait. The state of 23 Ukrainian sailors is unknown. Russian authorities said that three Ukrainian warships in the Sea of Azov illegally entered the territorial waters of the Russian Federation and headed to the Kerch Strait. The boats of the Russian Border Guard Service opened fire on the ship group of the Ukrainian Navy, which was moving towards the exit from the Kerch Strait. Given the tough situation in the area of Kerch Strait in the Sea of Azov, President Petro Poroshenko supported the offer of Ukraine's national security and defense council; it stipulates that the Ukrainian Parliament should consider the option to impose the martial law in Ukraine. Besides, the UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting regarding the aggressive acts conducted by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in the Sea of Azov. It is planned to end martial law at 14:00 on January 25 Ukraine-Russia conflict Open source The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) offered the President Petro Poroshenko to introduce a martial law from 14:00 on November 26. This was stated in the presidential decree. President Poroshenko enforces the NSDC decision to introduce a martial law in Ukraine, as reads the order published on the website of the Presidential Administration. Official Kyiv urgently convened the UN Security Council because of the aggravation in the Sea of Azov. The Russians shelled and seized the vessels of the Ukrainian Naval Forces Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yany Kapu, which passed from Odesa (the Black Sea) to Mariupol (the Sea of Azov), moving through Kerch Strait. The state of 23 Ukrainian sailors remains unknown. Russian authorities said that three Ukrainian warships in the Sea of Azov illegally entered the territorial waters of the Russian Federation and headed to the Kerch Strait. The boats of the Russian Border Guard Service opened fire on the ship group of the Ukrainian Navy, which was moving towards the exit from the Kerch Strait. Given the tough situation in the area of Kerch Strait in the Sea of Azov, President Poroshenko supported the NSDC offer; it stipulates that the Ukrainian Parliament should consider the option to impose the martial law in Ukraine. They will be judged for supposedly illegal crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation The Ukrainian sailors captured during the Russian armed attack at the ship group of the Naval Forces of Ukraine are transferred for the trial in Simferopol in occupied Crimea as Refat Chubarov, Chairman of Mejlis of Crimean Tatars, reported on Facebook. The Ukrainian sailors captured by the Russian occupants of the Ukrainian vessels are already transferred to Kyiv district court of Simferopol, he noted. Earlier Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin reported that Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia will be provided by the Ukrainian state lawyers. As we reported earlier, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Kyiv demanded from Moscow to immediately provide the medical service to the wounded sailors and provide them urgent return to the Ukrainian territory. According to the Naval Forces of Ukraine, six sailors are wounded and two of them were in the critical condition. Russian Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova named the exact number of the detained Ukrainian servicemen 24. Moskalkova added that if a military vessel enters the waters, certainly, this is a violation of the borders, this is a socially dangerous act, which demands a special qualification and procedure. Related video: Ukrainians protest against Russian aggression in Ukraine, New York, November 26, 2018 Voice of America Protest action in support of Ukraine took place in New York near the building where the UN Security Council had an emergency meeting on the escalation of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, as Voice of America reported. The protesters demanded the international community and the U.S. Government to support Ukraine and condemn Russias actions, the message says. Besides, the UN Security Council blocked Russias initiative to consider the question of violation of borders. Four members of the Council voted for the consideration, seven against and four abstained. Therefore, the question was removed from the discussion. Official Kyiv summoned the UN Security Council after Russia attacked and seized three Ukrainian military ships. As we reported earlier, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law approving as a whole a presidential decree on the imposition of martial law in Ukraine. Related video: The UN Security Council blocked Russia-initiated consideration of the issue of the alleged violation of borders, during the emergency session regarding the aggressive acts of the Russian Federation conducted against Ukraine in the Sea of Azov, 112 Ukraine broadcasted the event. Prior to that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley urged to block Russian offers. We fully support the territorial integrity and the independence of Ukraine and fully support the fact that Ukraine protects its territorial waters. We are extremely concerned about the escalation of the situation and the international law, we are looking forward to hear the way Russia is going to explain the escalation of this situation, we also call the participants of the UN Security Council to vote against any decision provided by the Russian Federation, Haley claimed. According to Interfax-Ukraine, only four members of the Security Council have positively voted, so this issue was withdrawn from the discussion. As it was reported, Viktor Muzhenko, the Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told the entire course of events which lead to the escalation of the crisis in the Sea of Azov at the National Security and Defence Council session As we reported earlier the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy acted aggressively against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Today, November 25, the ships of the Ukrainian Navy with two armored gunboats and a sea mule tugboat have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. The intention to make the transition was informed in advance in accordance with international standards in order to ensure the safety of navigation. However, contrary to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Treaty between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, the Russian coast guard ships - Sobol class patrol boat, Don border guard cruiser, Mangust class patrol boat and Suzdalets anti-submarine warfare ship performed blatantly aggressive acts against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, reads the message. It is specified that Don border guard cruiser rammed the Ukrainian armored artillery boat, which led to the damage of the main engine, planting and accommodation rail, life float is lost. The Ukrainian Navy states that "the dispatcher service of the occupiers refuses to ensure the right of freedom of navigation, guaranteed by international agreements." Thus, according to the Ukrainian side, Russia has once again demonstrated its aggressive nature and complete disregard for the norms of international law. Editors Note: This article was updated on November 29, 2018, with comment from eAgronom co-founder Robin Saluoks. Farm management software company eAgronom has completed a 1 million ($1.1 million) seed round that includes four international VCs: early-stage investors Black Pearls VC from Poland, European-focused Trind Ventures VC and foodtech-focused United Angels VC from Estonia, and UK-based TMT Investments. Business angels and previous angel investors also participated in the round. This brings the companys total funding to 2 million ($2.25 million), including a 500k investment from 50 customers of eAgronom in a unique farmer-crowdfunding campaign earlier this year. This raise gives us enough runway to build and prove a scalable sales force. I love the beauty of sales: the art of helping people to make decisions that will change their life, company co-founder Robin Saluoks told AgFunderNews. The guys in our sales team are the ones who open the digital potential for farmers. We have already doubled our sales team from the time we raised the money until this moment. Saluoks and the team spoke with a number of investors and chose a group that they felt supported the companys long-term vision. SaaS is just the beginning for eAgronom, says Saluoks. And while many VCs lacked farming experience, he enjoyed the opportunity to educate a new audience and the exercise in thinking through the industry more deeply. The web and mobile platform allows grain farmers to manage and oversee their farm in real-time, including employee operations and activities in the field. According to the Estonia-based companys case studies, the tool can help farmers save tens to hundreds of thousands of euros per year by reducing risks, improving planning, and honing in on the time it takes to complete certain tasks. All the investors in this round have given us valuable knowledge that we will use to grow the business. International VCs, target market investors and builders of successful SaaS start-ups they all support and help us focus on our long-term strategy. This is crucial for building a company that is going to optimize the entire food industry, company co-founder and CEO Robin Saluoks said in a press release announcing the funding. The startup will use the new funds to improve the platforms agronomic and financial analysis modules that help calculate how agronomic decisions impact financial results. The funds will also help scale sales and support teams to bring more acres on board. Using a team of 35 specialists and 50 total employees, eAgronom has launched its product in 9 countries from Poland to Canada and boasts 700,000 hectares of grain under management. The outfit hopes to grow to one million paying hectares within their system by March 2019 and at least 100 million hectares in the next five-to-seven years. For co-founder Robin Saluoks, being raised in a family of farmers gave him early inspiration for applying technology-based solutions to farmers pain points, particularly when it comes to farm management. Saluoks started his first company at the age of 17 and received the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2018 in Estonia for his work on eAgronom. His fellow co-founder Stenver Jerkku built the roots of the startups engineering team. A graduate of the Faculty of Software Engineering at the University of Tartu, Stenver gained experience in multiple startup ventures, including the successful startup SaleMove. The company is focused on grain operations for now, but eAgronom has many other crops on its to-do list. By focusing only on grain, we have lost some customers. But this is also the reason why I can say with full confidence that eAgronom is the best solution for grain farmers. One of the investors during our last round was an investor in our competitor who did an exit. He was skeptical at the beginning, but decided to invest after he called some of our customers, Saluoks says. Grain was also the first choice for eAgronom due to its prevalence in the food system. As the company expands to other crops, Saluoks and the team will look for things that have synergies with the companys existing program applications. Farm Management Software is a Distinct and Growing Sector in Agtech Almost any farmer will tell you that finding ways to improve whole-farm management would be an ideal opportunity. As a result, farm management software tools have been a distinct and growing sector of agtech for several years. Other sources suggest that farm management software could be a key component in improving traceability throughout the food system. Unsurprisingly, the US market for farm management software could grow to $1.62 billion according to a report issued earlier this year. Although the first farm management software platforms were introduced to the market more than a decade ago, most farmers still rely on pen, paper, and non-computerized tools to keep farm records according to the study. Just 16.5% of the farmers surveyed currently use any kind of farm management software system. Some of the largest agriculture companies are taking notice of these tools. Cargill invested in a Brazilian swine farm management software system Agriness in September 2018 and Syngenta acquired Brazilian farm management software platform Strider in March 2018. In August 2017, DuPont acquired Granular as a result of conversations it had with its customers who expressed a desire to take farm records to the next digital level. A photo exhibition by former LA Times photojournalist, Don Bartletti, documenting Central American stowaways on Mexican freight trains. Bartletti shares stories from his 30-plus year career. Join us Friday, October 5, 6:00 pm 8:00 pm for the opening of Enriques Journey, a photo exhibition by former LA Times photojournalist, Don Bartletti, documenting Central American stowaways on Mexican freight trains. Bartletti will share stories from his 30-plus year career as a photojournalist. The exhibit opens October 5 and runs through December 28, 2018 at the New Mexico Humanities Council, 4115 Silver SE, Albuquerque. Visitors are welcome Monday through Friday, 9:00 am 4:00 pm. In the vast migration thats changing the face of America, thousands of Central Americans annually attempt a harrowing 1,500-mile journey through the length of Mexico on the tops of freight trains. Nearly all are visited by cruelty, hunger and fatigue. Stowaways call the unscheduled train they run to catch La Bestia or The Beast. Some are maimed or killed by the iron wheels. In the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mara Salvatrucha gangsters, corrupt immigration and police officers and opportunist citizens hunt them like animals. By contrast, in the state of Veracruz trackside residents throw gifts of food, water and clothing to migrants as the train passes by. Among these migrants are children as young as 12 who travel alone. Most are trying to find parents usually mothers - who left them behind years ago to work in the U.S. For children, the dream of reunification becomes the quest for the Holy Grail. Success comes only to the brave and the lucky. In 2003, Bartlettis six-part photo essay in the Los Angeles Times, Enriques Journey was awarded a Pulitzer for Feature Photography. Bartletti was the first U.S. photojournalist to document the ongoing Central American diaspora of children clinging to freight trains and their dreams of crossing into the U.S. Bartletti has an interesting New Mexico connection, too. In 2003, he was assigned to photograph legendary New Mexico author, Tony Hillerman, for a Los Angeles Times Travel Section story written by Hillerman. Bartletti will share with exhibit reception guests his wild adventure in the Sandia Foothills capturing the portrait of a New Mexico treasure. Enriques Journey exhibition is part of the "Democracy and the Informed Citizen" initiative, which is administered by the Federation of State Humanities Councils. The series is aimed at deepening the public's knowledge and appreciation of the interconnections joining democracy, the humanities, journalism and an informed citizenry. Special thanks go to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its generous support of the initiative and to the Pulitzer Prizes for their partnership. Thanks, too, to the City of Albuquerque's KiMo Theatre as a major sponsor of the series. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Thunder possible. Low 61F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Thunder possible. Low 61F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. ?? FAVORITES LIST ?? After 2018, who will be the next Dakar champion ? ??? Bikes ??? ?? @MatthiasWalkner ?? ?? Cars ?? ?? @CSainz_oficial ?? SxS ?? Reinaldo Varela ?? ?? Trucks ?? ??Eduard Nikolaev?? #Dakar2019 pic.twitter.com/Vqjuf6eztU El presidente @MartinVizcarraC y ministros de Estado se encuentran en Santiago de Chile para participar del Encuentro Presidencial y II Gabinete Binacional Chile-Peru, que por primera vez se desarrolla en la capital chilena. #ChilePeru ???????? pic.twitter.com/5FXxaeoOYE Llegamos a Santiago para participar en el II Gabinete Binacional #ChilePeru con grandes expectativas y junto al presidente @sebastianpinera trabajaremos por una agenda integral en beneficio de nuestros ciudadanos. pic.twitter.com/tGPcMXNPVX 10:24 | Santiago (Chile), Nov. 27. The working agenda will address topics in social, health, culture, economic-trade, environment, energy and mining, infrastructure, connectivity, and security fields. The program will also include priority issues such as the fight against violence towards women fight against corruption , equalityinclusion, as well asdevelopment. The mechanism of Presidential Meetings and Binational Cabinets between Peru and Chile provides a space for high-level dialogue and coordination. The first gathering took place on 7 July 2017, and marked a milestone in the relationship between both nations , thus embarking on a new journey in multi-sectoral cooperation. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is ready to fully use the potential of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and its structures aimed at boosting the commercial cooperation in the region and ensuring the effective implementation of the organizations goals, reports Armenpress. Deputy foreign minister of Armenia Ashot Hovakimyan presented the message of acting foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan addressed to the participants of the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) in Yerevan. Its a pleasure to host the plenary session of the General Assembly in the 25th jubilee year of the establishment of PABSEC. 25 years ago the parliaments of our countries started implementing the hopes and expectations of our peoples, for the sake of pluralistic democracy which is based on human and fundamental rights, economic liberalization and prosperity via social justice. They affirmed their commitment to use all opportunities and capacities to expand and multiply the cooperation between our countries in multiple spheres and different levels. These commitments obviously are directed for implementing the PABSEC goals and today as well are relevant. Meanwhile, the lack of being guided by these goals is one of the main factors hindering the cooperation, the acting FM said in the message. The acting FM assured that Armenia remains committed to the organizations goals. He emphasized that this year in April-May the people of Armenia established their commitment by strong voice to strengthen the respect towards human rights, rule of law, effective governance and guaranteeing equal opportunities in economic and social life. In its foreign policy Armenia has reaffirmed the principles of friendly relations and mutually beneficial partnership. In this sense Armenia is ready to fully use the potential of BSEC and its structures to boost the regional economic cooperation and move forward the effective implementation of the regulatory goals of the organization, he said. In the message acting FM Mnatsakanyan stated that the PABSEC must support and contribute to the implementation of BSEC goals and principles. He expressed confidence that this goal should continue guiding the future efforts of PABSEC in a depoliticized, constructive and inclusive manner based on the principle of equal self-determination. According to the Armenian acting FM, the BSEC activity should be harmonized with the international agenda, in particular the UNs Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. In this context Armenia supports establishment of closer partnership with international organizations and other regional players that are interested in such economic activity. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker minister of agriculture Gegham Gevorgyan held a meeting with the World Bank delegation, composed of senior specialist for PPP (Public Private Partnership) and senior specialist of agriculture Arusyak Alaverdyan, the ministry said. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibilities for implementing PPP projects with the assistance of the World Bank. Gevorgyan praised the current level of cooperation with the World Bank in the agriculture sector. According to him, the PPP format can be most appropriate for larger and public-significance projects, and at the same time found its implementation to the possible in poultry breeding, as well as in establishing milk collection stations and wholesale agricultural product markets, expecting the World Banks support in attracting investors. Vis in particular attached importance to developing attractive projects for investors, regulation of the legal framework and a number of other issues concerning the business environment. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The Court of Appeals has started examining the complaint over the elimination of the detention measure of restraint against former President Robert Kocharyan that was ruled on grounds of immunity. The presiding judge is Ruben Mkhitaryan. Kocharyan is in the courtroom. Other details weren't immediately available. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The NK conflict will be settled the way the people will want it, caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a campaigning rally of his My Step bloc in the town of Stepanavan. Pashinyan made the comment in response to Republican candidate for parliament Davit Shahnazaryans statement. I am the first Armenian leader to have said the following: no Armenian leader or government can solve the Karabakh issue because it is the people that should solve it. If a settlement offer will exist that in my opinion will be acceptable, I will discuss this offer with the people, Pashinyan said. Pashinyan noted that only the government of Artsakh can present the stance of Artsakh in the NK conflict settlement. Only the Karabakh government can present the Karabakh stance in the NK issue, me and other leaders of Armenia can only negotiate on behalf of Armenia. I have invited the Artsakh government, the entire command of the military, representatives of the political elite and I have presented all circumstances of the negotiations process that exists up to this point with all its detail. The more people possess the Karabakh issue negotiations process, the better, because there cant be secrets for the military, the diplomats, and, taking into consideration certain nuances, also the people. This kind of a meeting didnt take place in the past, Pashinyan said. Pashinyan also addressed the questions about going for concessions. I have publicly said several times that it is unacceptable when international representatives come and ask is Armenia ready for concessions? I have said that Armenia will answer this question when the international community will ask this same question to Azerbaijan, Pashinyan said. Earlier, HHKs Davit Shahnazaryan said that Pashinyan and his government pose a greater danger for Artsakh than the Azerbaijani military. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The examination of the complaint to overturn the decision of eliminating the pre-trial detention as preventive measure for 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan on the basis of immunity has been postponed for preparing a petition for the judge to recuse himself, ARMENPRESS reports Kocharyans lawyer Hayk Alumyan told the reporters. The judge gave us time until 17:45 for preparing the petition for him to recuse himself. We worked on the petition but could not meet the deadline. For that reason the judge has given us extra time until 12:00, November 28, Alumyan said. He did not want to detail on the reasons of preparing such a petition. We will inform you everything after we receive the decision, Alumyan said. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Teghut mine will be exploited after its tailing dump is renovated, ARMENPRESS reports acting Prime Minister of Armenia, Board member of Civil Contract party that is part of My step block Nikol Pashinyan said in Alaverdi city during electoral campaign. This issue has been in my focus since the first day I was elected Prime Minister. When Teghut mine was exploited, it happened as a result of the 380 million USD credit received from Russian VTB bank. This February it turned out that there are problems with the tailing dump and a renovation is necessary for continuing the exploitation. Conditioned by this, they tried to take another loan, but failed to pay the previous loan. They also couldnt take a new loan for the renovation of the tailing dump, sine both Teghut and the copper smelter were hypothecated for the previous loan. As a result, the Government invited VTB and Vallex and told them to negotiate and find a solution. As a result, Teghut passed under the control of the bank. We set an obligation before the bank to attract a new operator who will exploit that mine. Now our compatriot, Russian-Armenian Norik Petrosyan has set to that work. We have brought forward a precondition and set a task before Petrosyan, which is that there should be so many jobs at Teghut that in case this case is prolonged, the employees of the copper smelter could find a job at Teghut, Pashinyan said. According to the acting PM, some time is necessary to putting the mine into operation. Its impossible to exploit the mine without the renovation of that tailing dump. Nearly 14 million USD is necessary for that, after which that mine will again operate, Pashinyan said. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan Despite the best efforts of Kev the Koala to turn things around, PNG has stuck with Huawei to build an important section of its internet infrastructure KEITH JACKSON NOOSA - In the wake of APEC, we have now learned that China has had an important victory with the Papua New Guinea government rejecting an approach from Australia, the United States and Japan to build an important element in the countrys internet infrastructure. PNGs minister for public enterprise and state investment William Duma has announced that his government will stick with Chinese company, Huawei, with which it already had an agreement signed in 2016. This is a significant rebuff to Australia and the United States, which have tried to persuade PNG to dump the Chinese company as, in recent times, they have sought to dilute Chinas influence in the Pacific region. From PNGs viewpoint it could be seen as a balancing move to reassure China that it is seeking to maintain a neutral stand in its relations with both the West and China, especially in the light of the deal with Australia and the US to rebuild Manus as a key military asset. FBR says it has increased security to keep the secrets of the one-armed robot bricklayer. The robot has been moved to a secret location. And FBR staff have been schooled in how to lose a tail. The team behind the creation of the one-armed robot bricklayer had to take extraordinary security measures to protect the secrets behind the technology driving their disruptor to the building industry. Robotic technology company FBR Limited this month announced that its Hadrian X, the commercial version of its robot, built a 180 square metre, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in less than the targeted three days. A structural engineering consultancy group verified the structure met relevant building standards in what the company has called a world first. The bricklaying robot, which can put up a square meter of wall in 2.5 minutes using blocks weighing 19 kilos, is attracting interest from around the world. The company already has investment from, and collaboration with, US-based construction machinery giant Caterpillar. And the company is in talks with some of the world's biggest block (brick) makers. Mike Pivac, the CEO of FBR, told the company's AGM last week that the Hadrian X was shifted to a secret, secure location. This was partly due to the physical constraints of our (Perth) High Wycombe facility, and partly to ensure our people were able to concentrate on getting the job done without the daily distractions that come with being part of a company that attracts the public interest, he says. Pivac told Business Insider the company had to move the Hadrian X out of its High Wycombe facility on security grounds with escalating attempts to get information on the testing of the commercial machine. The staff were briefed not to wear any identifying clothing, such as company logo t-shirts, and to take diversionary action when moving between the two facilities to ensure they were not followed. The incident which pushed FBR into secrecy mode was the appearance of a car with two GoPro cameras taped to the roof which drove in the company's yard and through the factory. Story continues And within 15 minutes, the footage was on a share market tipping site. "There's a roundabout near where our secret facility is, and we make our people go around a couple times, make sure they're not being tailed, and then off they go," says Pivac. "No-one in the last six months has worn a single bit of clothing that identifies them as an FBR employee to this facility. "It's been going 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and we've been able to keep people away. "I would say we're probably getting to the end of that good run, or bit of good luck I suppose. "And people are starting to work it out, but it's now not as important as it was two weeks ago, before we actually got the first building. So, if we get people peeking through the doors now that's okay." Here's the robot at work building a house: https://youtu.be/264r1Bowy-g FBR is also taking a diligent approach to protecting the one-armed robot bricklayer from cyber attacks. "We've had overseas, international firms come to FBR and do break in tests on us to see how easy it we are to penetrate," says Pivac. "We failed and they showed us where we failed and had to plug those gaps." The company's IT department regularly picks up attempts to get in to the system. The company has 25 patent families and as many as 17 patents within each of them. "There's a lot of tech that we've got our arms around at the moment, and it's very valuable because we will be the first people to take a robot outside," he says. "Everybody's been wanting to do this for a long time." Most robots in the world are bolted to factory floors, doing repetitive tasks day and night. FBR's bricklaying robot is mobile, can be moved from site to site and can be programmed to build to different designs. Pivac says the last big change to have a big influence on construction was the introduction of the concrete pumping truck in the 1970s. With robot bricklaying, it's about ordering a wall by the metre and then cladding with whatever you want. "We know exactly how long it will take, exactly what it would cost -- you can program that machine to arrive in a year's time, and know exactly what it's going to cost," he says. "This is a major shift and a major risk reduction for construction companies, and it's why the block (brick) manufacturers see FBR as the ability to change their product offering to their customers." Sometime early in the new year the robot bricklayer will return to the High Wycombe facility near Perth Airport and become more visible. "We've built a viewing platform and building slab and we're getting ourselves ready for a fantastic demonstration of the machine for industry players, shareholders, and the media," says Pivac. "Our fabricators are actually making this thing as we speak so people can get up and safely look over the site as the machine's doing it's thing." In the meantime, the one-armed bricklaying robot is contracted to build ten homes in Western Australia in 2019. Emily Ratajkowski is hitting back at online trolls after being criticized for not wearing a bra while protesting Brett Kavanaugh earlier this year. In October, the model was one of 302 people arrested in Washington, D.C. for publicly protesting Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court amidst several sexual assault allegations. Now, the 27-year-old model is defending her right to go braless in a new interview with Stellar. Today I was arrested protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault. Men who hurt women can no longer be placed in positions of power. pic.twitter.com/nnwq1O4qk3 Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) October 4, 2018 I knew being there would be important and I knew some people would find it controversial but I never expected anyone to talk about why I wasnt wearing a bra under my tank top, the star told the magazine. It was 32 degrees, I was marching through D.C. in jeans; my outfit seemed completely normal to me And I was there making a political point. Why would people focus on what I was wearing? Amy Schumer, who co-starred with Ratajkowski in the film I Feel Pretty, and who was with the model at the rally in D.C., previously took to Instagram to defend her friend for her choice of dress. People are trolling @emrata for not wearing a bra while she got arrested. Well for starters I wasnt wearing a bra either, Schumer wrote on Instagram. Story continues In the what to wear when being detained for 4 hours on an 87 degree day after a 2 hour march handbook. Bras arent recommended. Emily sacrificed herself fighting to protect womens rights to choose what they do with their own bodies. How about we show her the same courtesy and direct some of that toxic energy to the people who deserve it. Your comments are synonymous with saying what a woman wears insights bad behaviour. Ratajkowski says she has developed a thick skin after frequently having her appearance and clothing criticized by men online. Ive learnt to separate social media comments and trolls from real life, she told Stellar. And I dont let the validating, flattering comments impress on me too much, which makes it easier to [ignore] the negative ones, as well. 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. South African lawmakers will seek to end the breeding of lions for trophy hunting and the trade in their bones, setting parliament on a collision course with a powerful industry. South Africa has as many as 8,000 lions in captivity being bred for hunting, the bone trade, tourism and academic research, according to estimates by wildlife groups. By contrast there are just 3,000 lions in the wild, living in the country's national parks where hunting is prohibited. Trophy hunting is a $36-million industry, but parliamentarians have been emboldened by high-profile global campaigns to push for its demise. A committee of lawmakers responsible for overseeing environmental affairs recommended on November 12 that the government reconsider the rules governing the breeding of captive lions for hunting and bone harvesting. The global trade of body parts from lions killed in the wild is banned by international treaties -- but permitted for animals bred in captivity. The MPs resolved that ministers should review the issue "with a view to putting an end to this practice". The decision followed two days of crunch talks between MPs, breeders and animal welfare campaigners. - 'Damage to brand South Africa' - Lawmakers also want the government to "reconsider" its recent decision to nearly double to 1,500 the quota of lion skeletons that can be legally traded this year. In the past decade South Africa has exported the big cat bones to Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and other markets in Southeast Asia for use in jewellery as well as their supposed medicinal properties. "South Africa is allowing a practice that everybody is turning their backs to. We need to find a solution as a country to improve the situation," said parliament's environment committee chief Phillemon Mapulane. He added that the country's strong reputation for conservation was being compromised by the situation. "(It undermines) broader conservation, but (benefits) a small number of breeders without proper scientific or conservation basis," said Mapulane. "The industry is doing serious damage to brand South Africa." Derek Hanekom, who was acting minister for environmental affairs when parliament made its recommendations, told AFP he would appoint a special task force to examine animal breeding rules. "We are finalising the terms of reference of the panel that will investigate and make recommendations on these issues," he said. The practice of hunting lions raised in captivity has long been controversial in South Africa where a large number of animals are confined to pens ringed with electric fences. But former environment minister Edna Molewa, who died earlier this year, warned that changing the rules risked creating a situation in which "thousands of lions will have no value and there will be no income". She also warned that jobs could be lost if the country's nearly 300 lion breeding facilities were closed and the trade banned. Though the industry contributes significant tax revenues every year, activists have labelled it "unethical". Campaigns to ban the importation of captive-bred lion trophies have gathered steam in Australia, France, The Netherlands and the United States in recent years. In 2016 the International Union for Conservation of Nature called on South Africa to end the practice of hunting captive-bred lions altogether. In September, Singapore Airlines, which was the only airline involved in transporting lion bones from South Africa to Southeast Asia, announced it would no longer carry the controversial cargo. - Industry warns of job losses - "This industry is nothing but a blight on the conservation pedigree that South Africa should otherwise be able to claim," said Yolan Friedman, chief executive of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. "South Africa's captive predator breeding industry is cruel, serves no conservation purpose, and damages South Africa's reputation as a wildlife tourism destination," added Mark Jones of the Britain-based Born Free conservation charity. Paul Funston, a senior director at the wild cat conservation group Panthera warned that the government review could be too vague to make a difference. "There is no real clear directive for change, it's not a forceful directive. We are a bit disappointed that it's not an immediate call to close the industry," said Funston. But Kirsten Nematandani, president of the South African Predator Association, warned that if parliament's recommendations were implemented "it means thousands of jobs will be lost". South Africa has as many as 8,000 lions in captivity being bred for hunting, the bone trade, tourism and academic research, according to estimates by wildlife groups Trophy hunting of lions bred in captivity is a $36-million industry in South Africa A lion at Kruger National Park in South Africa where there are just 3,000 lions in the wild in the country's parks The lion breeding industry has warned that thousands of jobs would be lost if South Africa's parliament ends their commerical operation Chinese president Xi Jinping will send a special envoy to attend Mexico's presidential inauguration, following the Chinese leader's talks with Donald Trump at the G20 summit. Shen Yueyue, a senior member of the Communist Party, will travel to Mexico City to attend the inauguration of the country's leftist president-elect, Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, on Saturday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Tuesday. Shen's attendance at the inauguration ceremony "shows the high level of importance that China attaches to China-Mexico relations," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a regular press briefing. China and Mexico are "comprehensive strategic partners and enjoy close, high-level exchanges and political trust", he added. Before Shen heads to Mexico, Xi will meet with Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires as their trade war shows no signs of abating. Trump has already imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods -- about half of the total imported each year -- in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse alleged unfair trade practices, such as the forced transfer of intellectual property and massive state intervention in markets. And just days ahead of Trump's planned meeting with Xi at the G20 summit, the US president vowed to put tariffs on all remaining imports from China if the two sides failed to reach a deal, according to The Wall Street Journal. China has sought to bolster relations with other countries and forge new economic partnerships this year, as its relationship with the US faces new strains over trade. The Trump administration reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico in October to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) following fraught negotiations. The new pact, baptised the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), even has a provision that essentially forbids any free trade deals between its signatories and Beijing. While Trump and Lopez Obrador both said they had a "great" first phone call after the latter's landslide victory in July, the two were at odds over the renaming of the updated agreement, with Trump insisting on listing the US before other countries. China's President Xi Jinping (L,) pictured here with Mexico's outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) in November 2014, will send a special envoy to attend the inauguration of president-elect, Andres Manual Lopez Obrador The Chinese hospital linked to a controversial experiment purporting to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies denied its involvement Tuesday. Shenzhen Harmonicare Women and Children's Hospital said in a statement that it suspected the signature on a document approving the experiment, specifically its adherence to ethical standards, was falsified. It has also asked police to investigate. "We have always firmly opposed the development of genetic experiments that violate human ethics and morality," the hospital said on its website. The experiment, which was led by Chinese professor He Jiankui, claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls born a few weeks ago to prevent them from contracting HIV, and has prompted a heated debate among the scientific community. Some warned that exposing healthy embryos and children to gene editing was irresponsible, while others denounced He's experiment as premature and dangerous. Chinese scientists and institutions have also criticised the experiment, with 100 scientists in China issuing a joint statement calling for better state legislation. "It is a great blow to the global reputation and development of biomedical research in China," said the statement posted on the Twitter-like platform Weibo. The university where He works has also distanced itself from the scientist's experiment. "This research work was carried out by Professor He Jiankui outside of the school," the Southern University of Science and Technology said in a statement Monday. He has been on unpaid leave since February and his research is a "serious violation of academic ethics and norms", it said. The Shenzhen Harmonicare Women and Children's Hospital too has denied any involvement with He. In interviews with Chinese media, Cheng Zhen, the general manager of the hospital, said the hospital had not partnered with He, and that he had never even met the man before. He's experiment -- if it had been carried out -- is prohibited under Chinese laws and regulations, according to state media CCTV in a report citing remarks at a Tuesday event by the deputy minister of China's Ministry of Science and Technology, Xu Nanping. Specifically, Chinese laws limit in vitro human embryonic stem cell research to a maximum of 14 days, said Xu. A group of 122 Chinese scientists have signed a joint statement condemning the experiment as 'crazy' The 2019 Paris-Dakar Rally will not be a "cut price" edition in spite of being hosted for the first time by a single country, race director Etienne Lavigne told AFP on Tuesday. Since the race switched for security reasons in 2009 from its original route from Paris to the Senegalese capital Dakar, it has enjoyed multiple hosts in South America. But this year Argentina, Chile and Bolivia all pulled out for reasons of austerity, leaving Peru as the sole host of the 41st edition. "It will not be a discount Dakar," race director Etienne Lavigne told AFP at the unveiling of the course in Paris on Tuesday. "This is an extraordinary edition. It is the first time that the Dakar will take place in a single country. "This year, we will have to face difficult terrain that requires very good physical preparation. The dunes, the sand, are very challenging environments." The change is reflected in the reduction of the rally from 9,000 kilometres over 14 stages in 2018 -- when it went through Peru, Argentina and Bolivia -- to 5,000 kilometres across 10 stages in 2019. -- Dakar DNA -- According to Lavigne, however, it will still present a touch challenge to the drivers and riders because it is predominantly across sand. "With the sand, we dive into the heart of the DNA of the Dakar," says Lavigne. "The origins, the mythology of the Dakar is built around the Sahara, its dunes, its great stretches of sand. Here, we are at the heart of the matter." The shorter course is unlikely to put off the competition with all the big names of the recent past such as multiple winners Carlos Sainz, Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres, among the 334 vehicles - cars, motorbikes, quad bikes, SxS (buggies) and trucks - to have registered for the start on January 6. "They raise the standard of competition, they make it even more demanding," says Lavigne. "The more people, the stronger it is in terms of competition and uncertainty. They all have strengths, weak points that they will have to manage. "They will have to come to grips with this, and over ten days there are many genuine contenders for victory." Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb also returns for the fourth time, hoping to become the first privateer to win the Dakar Rally since Jean-Louis Schlesser back in 2000. "I have always loved the dunes," said the Frenchman at the course launch. "It's a complicated landscape and everything can happen very quickly. You can easily be trapped. Reading the sand can be complicated. Sand specialists will probably tell you something else. "It's so random, you have to know how to avoid traps, dunes. You can lose 30 minutes looking for a way point or 30 minutes to tank." The race ends in Lima on January 17. The route of the 2019 Dakar Rally Dakar Rally director Etienne Lavigne Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort held secret talks with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, including around the time the lobbyist joined Trump's bid to win the presidency, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. Manafort went to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2013, 2015 and then "around March 2016" to meet Assange, whose organization is accused of leaking thousands of emails allegedly stolen by Russian hackers from Hillary Clinton's rival campaign, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources. The Guardian cited a separate internal document written by Ecuador's Senain intelligence agency which listed a "Paul Manaford" as one of Assange's guests at the embassy. WikiLeaks denied the report, tweeting that it was "willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange." Manafort chaired the Trump election campaign from March until August 2016, initially charged with organizing the all-important battle to win over delegates to the Republicans' national convention. The Guardian said it was unclear why Manafort visited Assange, who has been living at the embassy since he sought refuge in 2012 over a Swedish sexual assault case that was later dropped. Assange also fears extradition to the US over WikiLeaks' release in 2010 of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables. In July, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign team and Russia, charged 12 Russian spies with conspiring to hack Democratic National Committee computers, stealing data from the organization and publishing those files in an effort to sway the election. One of the indictments referred to WikiLeaks, described as "Organization 1," as the platform the Russians used to release the stolen emails. Earlier this month US prosecutors inadvertently disclosed the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange, in an unrelated case. But it was not clear what charges Assange would face. On Monday prosecutors said in a court filing that Manafort had lied to investigators, in violation of a plea agreement he made in September. Manafort had agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe after pleading guilty to financial fraud charges related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. The Guardian cited sources as saying Paul Manafort went to see Julian Assange, pictured in May 2017, in 2013, 2015 and then in the spring of 2016 A frenzy erupted in a Houston car park after word spread about an ATM spitting out $100 notes instead of 20s. When news emerged on social media that the Bank of America ATM in Harris County was malfunctioning in the best way possible, nearby residents raced down to try their luck. As the line of cars began to build, so too did the impatience of those hoping for an easy payday, with local media reporting several fights breaking out during the two-hour window. The crowd quickly dispersed when deputies from the Harris County Sheriffs office arrived. They guarded the ATM machine and notified the Bank of America. A long queue quickly formed after news broke of the ATM glitch. Image: Twitter/KPCR2 Those who managed to exploit the glitch wont go home empty handed either after a Bank of America spokesperson confirmed that customers will be allowed to keep the additional dispensed money. Should the bank have gone in the other direction, authorities say that theft charges could have been laid on those not willing to cooperate. Theres no free lunch. If you receive money that you know it is not yours, and you refuse to give it back upon demand, you can, at the discretion of the district attorney, be charged with theft, Sergeant Joshua Nowick, Harris County Sheriffs Office, Financial Crimes Unit, said on Twitter. Officials with North Carolina-based Bank of America didnt say how much cash was wrongly dispensed. The French government said Tuesday it would take the rare step of reimbursing prescription-bought condoms to combat the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The measure, which covers French-made Eden condoms obtained on prescription from a doctor or midwife, was announced ahead of World AIDS Day on Saturday. Produced by Majorelle laboratories and sold only in pharmacies, Eden condoms cost a fraction of leading brands such as Durex or Manix at 2.60 euros ($2.95) for a box of 12. They are the first to be approved for reimbursement by France's national health authority, one of the few in Europe to do so. In a statement the company hailed the announcement as "sending a strong signal that it (a condom) is not a sex toy but a real and indispensable prevention tool" in the fight against sexually transmitted infections. In July, a health department study showed cases of chlamydia and gonococcus -- two common STIs -- tripling in France between 2012 and 2016, with 15-24 year-olds particularly affected. The study indicated the rise was due to people having sex with "an increasing number of partners coupled with the non-systematic use of condoms". Asked why its brand was selected, a spokeswoman for Majorelle, which was founded in 2012 with the stated aim of reducing inequality in access to health products, said: "We were the first to ask". - Chlamydia cases rise - Agnes Buzyn, the health minister who is a trained doctor, sounded the alarm over the risk of HIV transmission among condom-averse young people. Around 6,000 new cases of HIV infection were diagnosed in 2016 -- down five percent since 2013 -- taking the number of people living with the virus in France to over 172,000. Buzyn warned that young people increasingly "use a condom the first time they have sex but not in subsequent instances." Majorelle cited a study showing that 75 percent of young people would use condoms more if the cost was covered by the state. It said that the state would cover 60 percent of the cost of the condoms and hopes that top-up health insurance providers would cover the remainder. The news was hailed by NGOs involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "Anything that facilitates access to prevention is good news," said Florence Thune, head of the Sidaction association. "There should be no financial obstacle, whatever the method," she said. "It's another string to our bow," said Caroline Izambert, a campaigner at Aides HIV prevention group. The French government plans to make condoms available on prescription Fernch health minister Agnes Buzyn warned of the risk of HIV transmission among condom-averse young people A study indicated that 75 percent of young people in France would use condoms more if the cost was covered by the state Buzyn warned that young people increasingly "use a condom the first time they have sex but not in subsequent instances" French President Emmanuel Macron earned global plaudits for pledging to "Make our planet great again," but he faces a moment of truth at home Tuesday in presenting his multi-year roadmap for France's transition to cleaner energy. The 10-year blueprint comes as Macron is facing fractious "yellow vest" protests by French citizens' angry over a string of yearly fuel tax increases to finance green initiatives, which Macron has indicated will continue. Yet environmental advocates are also wary after the government last year walked back on a commitment to reduce French reliance on nuclear energy. It was one of several bones of contention that cost Macron his wildly popular environment minister Nicolas Hulot, who quit earlier this year over the president's green record. "They didn't listen to me, they cited budgetary limits," Hulot said on French television last week, recounting how he advocated more financial aide to help people cope with the costs of cutting pollution. Had Macron done so, the "yellow vest" protests would have been "avoidable," Hulot said. Macron is expected to address the protests Tuesday while laying out his energy priorities for the coming years. Officials have already indicated he will announce the closure of France's four remaining coal-fired power plants, part of a pledge to get 40 percent of France's electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2030. The more delicate question, however, concerns the eventual timeline for shutting down some of France's oldest nuclear reactors. - 'Reactors getting older' - France is by far the country most reliant on nuclear energy, getting just under 72 percent of its electricity needs from 58 reactors spread across 19 power plants. The country's two oldest reactors, which began operating at the Fessenheim site along the German border in 1977, are already slated for shutdown after reaching their 40-year lifespan. The government is studying three scenarios for closing up to a dozen more, including an ambitious plan to shut down six by 2028, and six again by 2035. "It's not a matter of being pro- or anti-nuclear, but our reactors are getting older and having more and more problems," Environment Minister Francis de Rugy told RTL radio on Friday. But unlike its neighbours Germany and Switzerland, who worry about the safety risks of nuclear sites and radioactive waste disposal, France has no plans to phase out nuclear energy. Apart from being a pillar of the government's plans for cutting carbon emissions as part of the 2015 Paris climate accord on capping global warming, the nuclear sector provides jobs for 220,000 people. State-owned electricity giant EDF -- with the backing of the finance ministry -- is pushing Macron to close just nine reactors starting only in 2028, and replace them with four new next-generation EPR reactors. That has environmental groups up in arms, not least given the huge bill for building the first EPR reactor at Flammanville, which was supposed to go online in 2012 but remains plagued by technical problems. - 'Red line' - Green lawmakers were already miffed by the government's decision last year to push back a pledge to reduce the role of nuclear in France's energy mix to just 50 percent of its electricity needs. It now aims to reach that target by 2030 or 2035, instead of 2025 originally. "The government has caved in to lobbies and surrendered the energy savings which would boost people's spending power, and the job-creating industries of the future represented by renewable energies," Anne Bringault of the CLER network for energy transition said last week. "The red line for us is the closure of reactors" during Macron's five-year term, which ends in 2022, said Alix Mazounie of Greenpeace France. "None of the other three options are acceptable nor sensible," she told AFP. - 'Yellow vest' ire - But Macron must also contend with the ire of the "yellow vest" protesters, mainly from rural and small-town France who rely heavily on their cars. The movement erupted last month over claims that drivers were bearing the brunt of fuel taxes imposed to pay for the environmental push. After violent demonstrations on the Champs Elysees in Paris on Saturday, calls have emerged for a fresh day of protests for December 1. "If the government doesn't come up with any concrete proposals, the movement is only going to get stronger," Jose Espinoza, a "yellow vest" coordinator in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, told AFP. President Emmanuel Macron's push for cleaner energy in France comes amid protests by citizens over fuel tax increases and criticism from environmental advocates The nuclear power plant in Fessenheim eastern France, built in 1977, is slated for shutdown after reaching its 40-year lifespan French President Emmanuel Macron's government has pushed back its target to reduce the role of nuclear energy to just 50 percent of its electricity needs by 2030 or 2035 -- instead of 2025 -- sparking protests from environmental groups Yellow Vests (Gilets jaunes) march behind a banner reading " Yellow vests are angry" at a protest rally against high fuel prices in Rochefort, southwestern France on Saturday French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday tried to take the heat out of mass anti-government demonstrations, as a spokesman for the movement said there would be another show of strength on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Saturday. Macron said he had heard the anger expressed by the protests and would seek to bolster people's spending power but refused to change course from trying to make France greener. The 40-year-old centrist acknowledged that many struggling households felt penalised by years of rising fuel taxes, the spark for road blockades and demonstrations over the past 10 days. Macron offered minor concessions, saying he would propose a mechanism to adjust the tax increases if prices were also being pushed up by rising oil prices internationally -- as they have been for much of this year. And he called for a three-month national consultation to draw up a roadmap for accelerating France's transition away from fossil fuels, which he insisted would remain his overall objective. "What I've taken from these last few days is that we shouldn't change course, because it is the right one and necessary," he told lawmakers at the presidential palace in Paris. In an hour-long speech, Macron repeated several times that he had understood the anger expressed by hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets wearing high-visibility yellow jackets this month. He conceded that many French people felt that taxes were "imposed from above" and promised to accelerate the work of the government to lighten the load for working families and cut public spending. Environment Minister Francois de Rugy later met members of the movement. After the meeting, one of its spokesmen, Eric Drouet, said protesters would return to the Champs-Elysees on Saturday just as they did last week. "The French are not at all convinced" by Macron's announcements, he said at the end of the talks, calling also for a new meeting with "the government's spokesperson or the prime minister". "There will be a gathering like last Saturday on the Champs-Elysees. The wish of all the yellow vests is to continue every Saturday like that on the Champs-Elysees," he added. - 'Who's going to pay?' - But beyond fuel taxes -- set to increase again in January -- some of the most frequent complaints from the "yellow vests" is Macron's perceived elitism and his pro-business policies. "I have seen, like many French people, the difficulties for people who have to drive a lot and have problems making ends meet at the end of the month," Macron said. "I believe very profoundly that we can transform this anger into the solution." Acknowledging that protesters worry about surviving "the end of the month" in contrast to his government's desire to stave off "the end of the world", he promised: "We are going to deal with both." Last Saturday's protests saw barricades and tear gas on the Champs-Elysees. Many participants have called for Macron to reimpose a wealth tax on high earners, repealed after the former investment banker took office last year. "Macron stays his course, so do we!" a group of around 50 protesters chanted Tuesday at a roundabout in Tregueux, western France. "He's found a solution for saving the environment and being more energy efficient, but who's going to pay for it? Us, like always," said Benoit Julou, a 44-year-old real estate agent at the protest. - Cutting down on nuclear - Macron also used the speech on France's energy transition to announce a programme for reducing France's reliance on nuclear power. The government will shut down 14 of France's 58 nuclear reactors by 2035, with between four and six closed by 2030, he announced. The total includes the previously announced shutdown of France's two oldest reactors in Fessenheim, eastern France. Macron said Fessenheim, which came online in 1977 and is still operating despite the plant's programmed 40-year lifespan, would now close in mid-2020. "Reducing the role of nuclear energy does not mean renouncing it," Macron said, not least because it will help France meet its carbon emission targets as part of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. France relies on nuclear power for 72 percent of its electricity needs. The government wants to reduce this to 50 percent by 2035 by developing more renewable energy sources. Macron said wind power electricity output would triple by 2030, and solar output would increase fivefold, helped by a boost for renewable energy development to seven to eight billion euros a year from five billion currently. He also announced that France would close its remaining four coal-fired power plants by 2022 as part of anti-pollution efforts. "Yellow vest" protesters have been demonstrating around France against fuel taxes President Emmanuel Macron during his speech on France's environmental and energy plans -- and his response to protests over fuel taxes -- at the Elysee palace in Paris on Tusday Energy firm EDF has been building a new-generation reactor at Flamanville in northwestern France Tourists were amazed when multiple waterspouts shot out of the sea in a rare phenomenon which occurred near a popular Thai beach. The four waterspouts suddenly sprayed out of the Andaman Sea, near the Thai resort island Koh Lipe, off the countrys west coast. Tourists on Sunrise beach, on the islands east, saw the four waterspouts shooting up towards the sky just before noon on Sunday. The spectacular show was captured by beachgoers, who used smart phones to film the fountain-like waterspouts shooting for 10 to 15 minutes. Multiple boats were located on the water, between the beach and the active waterspouts, but appeared to be unharmed. Tourists at Sunrise beach on Koh Lipe Island, Thailand were stunned. Source: 7News Weather Forecast Bureau spokesman Surapong Sarapa said that waterspouts were a common occurrence in the location during the rainy season, but it was unusual to have four at the same time, the Straits Times reported. The waterspouts stopped shooting as rain came into the area. The family of a young Australian woman believed to have been murdered in Mozambique in 2016 has launched a petition asking the federal government to find out who killed her and why. Elly Warren died in Mozambique, in south-east Africa, two years ago, but her family have not been able to obtain any information from the Mozambique authorities on the exact circumstances of her death. The 20-year-olds mother, Nicole Cafarella, has launched a petition on Change.org asking Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help give them closure. Elly Warren died in Mozambique in 2016 but her family are still trying to ascertain the exact circumstances of her death. Source: Change.org Our 20-year-old daughter Elly Warren was volunteering for a marine conservation program in Tofo, Mozambique, the petition explains. Two years on and we still to this day have little information regarding her death. As Elly was an Australian citizen travelling in an overseas country, Australia has no authority to assist or carry out their own investigation into her death. Mozambique police refuse to provide Australian authorities with their investigative reports on Ellys death and refuse to confirm that an investigation is taking place. Pictures of Elly show a young woman surrounded by African wildlife, including elephants and giraffes. Source: Facebook/KindSum We ask Scott Morrison as Prime Minister of Australia to intervene in this case to put pressure on the Mozambique government to allow Australia to provide an investigation team to work with the Mozambique police to solve Ellys murder and give her some justice. The petition statement describes Elly as a bright, happy, hard-working, determined young girl with her whole life ahead of her. Pictures of Elly show a young woman surrounded by African wildlife, including elephants and giraffes. Elly loved travelling, she loved Africa, the African people and marine life, and wanted to make a difference in marine and wildlife conservation, the petition states. Ellys extended family and friends still find it hard to accept she is gone. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah followed his extraordinary first innings performance with a six wicket haul as Pakistan beat New Zealand by an innings and 16 runs in the second Test in Dubai on Tuesday to level the series 1-1. The 32-year-old, who took 8-41 on Monday, had figures of 6-143 in the second innings for a match haul of 14-184. New Zealand -- following-on after being dismissed for 90 in the first innings -- were bowled out for 312 soon after tea on the fourth day. "I came to know yesterday (about Imran Khan's record) so it's an honour that my name will come with him," said Yasir. "I haven't bowled as well as this, especially with the pitch offering turn and bounce like it did. We wanted to put the disappointment of the first Test behind us and set up the series." Yasir's figures are the second best match return ever for Pakistan in Test cricket, bettered only by former captain and current prime minister Imran Khan who took 14-116 against Sri Lanka in Lahore in 1982. They are also the best by a Pakistani bowler against New Zealand, beating Waqar Younis's 12-130 in Faisalabad in 1990. Medium-pacer Hasan Ali was also at his best, taking 3-46 as Pakistan gained a measure of revenge for losing the first Test by four runs in Abu Dhabi last week. Resuming on 131-2 and needing a further 197 to make Pakistan bat again, the New Zealand batsmen, led by Ross Taylor (82), Henry Nicholls (77) and Tom Latham (50), dug in to make things tough for the Pakistani bowlers. Taylor smashed Hasan's first ball of the day to the cover boundary to reach his 29th half century in Tests, a welcome return to form having scored just 21 runs in the three innings of this series. Latham completed his 15th Test fifty but was dismissed the following ball, a little edge behind off Hasan, television umpire Ian Gould confirming that Sarfraz Ahmed had taken the catch cleanly. Harry Nicholls came to the crease and set about frustrating the Pakistan bowlers, adding 52 with Taylor for the fourth wicket and 57 with BJ Watling for the fifth. Taylor tried to take the attack to the bowlers, hitting seven boundaries and a six in his 82 but grew impatient after being tied down. An attempted sweep off Bilal Asif ended in a top edge that looped to deep backward square leg where Yasir took a comfortable catch. Yasir trapped Watling leg before for 27 to end another frustrating the stand and get into the Kiwi tail. De Grandhomme made just 14 and Sodhi was bowled behind his legs for four, unwisely trying to sweep Yasir from well outside off-stump. Nicholls stood firm amid the wreckage, striking Bilal Asif for a straight six, before Yasir nipped one between bat and pad to bowl him for 77. It was a brave stand from Nicholls but as skipper Kane Williamson later admitted, the damage had been done in the first innings when New Zealand lost all 10 wickets for just 40 runs in 14 overs. "We batted better in the second innings," said Williamson. "But that session yesterday, Yasir put us under tremendous pressure and put the ball in the right areas and got us for 90. That low first innings total was always a factor." The end came swiftly as Yasir picked up the last two wickets in the space of four balls, Neil Wagner caught at midwicket -- another man trying to sweep -- and Trent Boult feathering an outside edge to Sarfraz behind the stumps. The third and final Test starts in Abu Dhabi from Monday. Yasir Shah spins Pakistan to victory in the second Test against New Zealand One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson has given her support to the Sentinelese people for their strict immigration policy. The inhabitants of North Sentinel, generally considered the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world and strictly repels visitors, have made headlines across the world this month after killing a 26-year-old missionary who approached them on the island. John Allen Chau was killed with bow and arrows after travelling to the island located in the Bay of Bengal, trying to convert the tribe to Christianity. Pauline Hanson has given her support to North Sentinels strict immigration policy. And on Tuesday, Ms Hanson revealed she will be asking the Senate to acknowledge the terrible impact immigration would have on the Sentinelese people. Ms Hanson also questioned Labor and the Greens by speculating their stance on the matter. It will be interesting to see if Labor and the Greens are willing to support a country with such harsh immigration rules, she wrote on Facebook. The Sentinelese people killed 26-year-old John Allen Chau after he approached from a fishing boat. Source: Reuters You would think they would be offended by the lack of diversity right? Ms Hansons announcement comes as authorities revealed they will most likely be abandoning their mission to retrieve Mr Chaus body. The rights and the desires of the Sentinelese need to be respected and nothing is to be achieved by escalating the conflict and tension, and worse, to creating a situation where more harm is caused, a group of anthropologists, journalists and activists said in a joint statement. They are a treasure we cannot go and force our way in. We dont want to harm them, Dependra Pathak, the director general of police in Andaman and Nicobar islands, said. A pilot missed their destination by 46 kilometres after falling asleep in the cockpit. The pilot was flying a freight plane in Tasmania when the incident occurred at about 7.15am on November 8. The PA-31-350 was flying from Devonport Airport to King Island Airport, northwest of mainland Tasmania, and there were no passengers aboard the flight when the incident occurred. The pilot, who was the only person on board, fell asleep resulting in the aircraft overflying King Island by 46 km, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said in an investigation summary. The flight was operated by Vortex Air, a charter flights company based at Moorabbin Airport, 45 minutes southeast of Melbourne. The charter company is investigating the extremely rare occurrence and said it was the pilots first flight after returning from a period of leave. On 8 November 2018, a company pilot conducting a Vortex Air flight from Devonport to King Island unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft, Mr Colin Tucker, the managing director of Vortex Air, said in a statement sent to Yahoo7 on Tuesday. The pilot was flying a PA-31-350 aircraft (same model pictured) from Devonport Airport to King Island Airport in Tasmania. Source: Getty (file pic) The issue became apparent when Air Traffic Control was unable to contact the pilot in-flight, and the aircraft travelled past the intended destination point while operating on autopilot. The pilot safely landed the aircraft at King Island airport. The charter company said it was the first scheduled flight for the day and subsequent flights were not affected. It confirmed the pilot was the only person on board the aircraft and no one was injured as a result of the incident. The pilot was adequately experienced and had previously flown the route a number of times without incident, Mr Tucker said. The ATSB has classified it as a serious incident and is currently investigating the flight. The agency will interview the pilot and review operational procedures, with a final report anticipated by March 2019. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is conducting a separate investigation. CASA will review the fatigue management practices of the charter company involved, a CASA spokesman told Yahoo7. US President Donald Trump has said he may cancel a long-awaited summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after a confrontation at sea between Russia and Ukraine led Kiev to warn of the threat of "full-scale war". Trump is scheduled to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of this week, but warned it would depend on the results of a report being prepared by his national security advisers about Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships. "Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting," he told the Washington Post on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier warned that the standoff could herald more drastic developments as tensions escalate between the ex-Soviet neighbours. "I don't want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia," Poroshenko said. The number of Russian units deployed along the Ukraine-Russian border has "grown dramatically" while the number of Russian tanks has tripled, Poroshenko said, citing intelligence reports but giving no precise timescale for the buildup. He spoke after Russian forces seized three of Kiev's ships off the coast of Crimea on Sunday and captured 24 Ukrainian sailors. On Tuesday, a court in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea, ordered 12 of the sailors to be held in pre-trial detention for two months. Three hospitalised sailors were also formally detained for two months. The rest are to appear in court on Wednesday. The move stoked already high tensions between Moscow and Kiev, as Russia continues to accuse the sailors of crossing illegally into Russian waters and of ignoring warnings from its border guards. Kiev has demanded the release of the sailors and urged Western allies to impose further sanctions on Moscow. The US State Department has termed Russia's actions "a dangerous escalation" and said Washington wants to see "our European allies doing more to assist Ukraine." - Putin warns of 'reckless acts' - The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country's east. It has raised fears of a wider escalation -- in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 -- and prompted international calls for restraint. Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine against any "reckless acts" after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscow's seizure of the navy vessels. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday voted in favour of Poroshenko's request for the introduction of martial law in border areas for 30 days. This gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas. In a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday, Putin expressed "serious concern" over its introduction. He said he hoped Berlin could intervene with Ukrainian authorities "to dissuade them from further reckless acts". Moscow has accused Kiev of planning Sunday's confrontation as a provocation aimed at drumming up support for Poroshenko ahead of elections next year and convincing Western governments to impose further sanctions on Russia. Putin said Kiev's actions were "clearly taken in view of the election campaign in Ukraine". Sunday's incident has been playing out on Russian and Ukrainian television screens, with dramatic footage of Russian ships chasing down a Ukrainian tugboat that was trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov. - Sailors on Russian TV - Russian state television has aired footage of some of the captured sailors being questioned by Moscow's security services. One of them is heard saying "the actions of the Ukrainian armed vessels in the Kerch Strait had a provocatory character" -- parroting the version of events put forward by Russian authorities. Ukraine's naval commander, Igor Voronchenko, said the sailors were pressured into giving false evidence. "I know these sailors, they were always professional. What they are saying now is not true," he told Ukrainian media. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev in the dispute, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov and of taking military action without justification. The European Union, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and others expressed support for Kiev on Monday, in statements pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia denounced as "predictably anti-Russian". The foreign minister of Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said Tuesday that the bloc will next month consider further sanctions against Moscow over the flare-up. "Everything depends on the accounts of events and the actions of both sides. But it will need to be reviewed," Karin Kneissl told reporters. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for "maximum restraint," urging both sides "to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions". burs/sms/dl/rl Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine against any "reckless" acts after a naval clash in the Kerch Strait A court in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea, ordered nine of the sailors to be held in pre-trial detention for two months. More are to appear before the court on Wednesday Map locating the Kerch Strait, Sea of Azov and area where Ukrainian ships were seized by Russia Ukrainian vessels seen in Kerch, Crimea, after they were seized by Russian navy ships Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addresses parliament which voted through his request to impose martial law after a naval clash with Russian ships off Crimea Video grab of local media Kerch Info shows Russian aircraft flying over the Crimean Bridge that spans the Kerch Strait, a narrow strip that links the Azov and Black seas Indian police have been urged to call off efforts to recover the body of an American missionary believed to have been killed by an isolated tribe on a remote island. John Allen Chau, 26, was killed with bow and arrows last week after travelling to North Sentinel, part of the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar in the Bay of Bengal, to try to convert the tribe to Christianity. The Sentinelese, generally considered the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world, have violently resisted any contact with outsiders. Two fishermen who strayed onto the island in 2006, were killed and their bodies were never recovered. Dependra Pathak, the director general of police in Andaman and Nicobar islands, said their bodies were hooked to stakes and displayed like scarecrows. John Chau was killed by North Sentinelese islanders. Source: Instagram/John Allen Chau A Sentinel tribal man aims with his bow and arrow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter on December 28, 2004. Source: Reuters The Indian government has for years placed the island off-limits to visitors to protect the tribe. Human rights organisation, Survival International, has now urged police to abandon the search for Mr Chau due to the risk of introducing the tribe to diseases. The risk of a deadly epidemic of flu, measles or other outside disease is very real, and increases with every such contact, they said. The rights and the desires of the Sentinelese need to be respected A group of anthropologists, journalists and activists said in a joint statement that continuing with the efforts to recover Mr Chaus body could lead to further violence and completely unwarranted loss of life. The rights and the desires of the Sentinelese need to be respected and nothing is to be achieved by escalating the conflict and tension, and worse, to creating a situation where more harm is caused. Mr Pathak said they had been in constant conversations with anthropologists and psychologists. They are a treasure we cannot go and force our way in. We dont want to harm them, he said. Indian officials are being urged to abandon their mission to retrieve the body of slain Christian missionary John Allen Chau. Image: AP If they suggest any methodology to interact without disturbing them then we can draw (up a) strategy. At this stage we dont have any plan to confront our Sentinelese. Story continues Mr Chau, who described himself in social media posts as an adventurer and explorer, made several trips to the island by canoe. He told fishermen who took him to the island a day later he would not be returning. The seven people who helped him reach the island have since been arrested. Separately, Andaman and Nicobar authorities issued a statement on Monday reiterating that the island remained off limits to foreigners as well as Indians after some media reported relaxations of restrictions for visitors. When Carlos Ghosn's private Gulfstream jet touched down at Tokyo's Haneda Airport at around 4:35pm on Monday, November 19, the millionaire auto tycoon had an unexpected welcoming committee: an elite unit of prosecutors. The weak winter sun had set moments before and the brightly lit interior of the plane -- call-sign 'N155AN' -- twinkled through the oval windows as the boarding steps unfurled. The first sign Ghosn would have had that all was not as normal was when a white van pulled up onto the tarmac and a line of men in dark suits rushed up the steps. These were top investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, preparing to interrogate the 64-year-old businessman over allegations he under-reported his income by about half over five years -- concealing some $44 million. As the interviews began, shutters descended over the plane's windows to offer privacy to the very public figure inside. This was all captured on a video that appeared on the website of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which broke the story in a special digital edition -- "Ghosn to be arrested" -- sparking pandemonium in newsrooms and trading rooms around the world. Meanwhile, investigators were springing into action. At around 5:00pm, more than 10 men suddenly appeared at the glass-walled reception desk at Nissan's plush Yokohama headquarters. Another team stormed Ghosn's luxurious apartment high up in a skyscraper in the affluent Tokyo neighbourhood of Motoazabu. By 5:30pm, word was out and hoards of camera crews swarmed around the building -- home to wealthy ex-pats and celebrities. The Brazil-born Frenchman himself spent hours inside the plane with prosecutors -- initially on a voluntary basis -- and was later arrested, a stunning development in a glittering career that made him a rare foreign household name in Japan. - 'Resentment and dismay' - Queues soon began to form outside Nissan's Yokohama HQ in expectation of a press conference by Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa that would be watched around the world. Hundreds of journalists clutching cameras and laptops waited patiently for three hours under a huge Nissan advert -- "Innovation is our Finish Line" -- before the doors opened and the press crammed into a windowless room as the tension built. At around 10.00pm, Saikawa delivered an extraordinary news conference dripping with emotion, which lasted around an hour and a half. A trim bespectacled 65-year-old, his short black hair tinged with grey, Saikawa was known as one of "Ghosn's children", a company lifer who owed his career to his mentor. His voice sometimes catching, he spoke of his "resentment and dismay" at the allegations and lashed out at what he called "the dark side of the Ghosn era". Standing alone in front of hundreds of flashing cameras, he pointedly refused to offer the "apology" deep bow usually associated with corporate scandals in Japan and announced a board meeting in three days to oust Ghosn as chairman. - 'In good health' - As heavy rain now lashed the Japanese capital, Ghosn was spending his first night in a detention centre in northern Tokyo -- a far-cry from the jet-setting and glamorous life he usually leads. Rooms there are typically small and basic, with bars on a single window in the door. Experts say Ghosn is almost certain to be alone in his cell. Regulations at the concrete 12-floor centre state he has a right to 30 minutes of exercise per day and two baths a week. The wake-up call is shortly before 7.00am and lights out at 9.00pm. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided. For an extra charge, inmates can order additional food from pre-approved options. Ghosn received consular visits from the French ambassador and the Brazilian consul. The latter told AFP he chatted in Portuguese with Ghosn through a screen and found him "in good health", dressed in detention centre uniform. Meanwhile, near-daily allegations surface in the Japanese media. Ghosn is said to deny them and he has not been formally charged. - 'Loss for words' - Fast forward to Thursday as Nissan board members gather in the conference room near the top of the 22-storey Yokohama HQ to jettison the boss credited with saving the company. The meeting started just after 4:00pm and crowds of journalists huddled outside were told it would last probably a couple of hours. In the event, the five Japanese and two Frenchmen joining by video-conference spent more than double that time scouring the allegations. According to the Asahi Shimbun, Saikawa saw the two French executives -- former Renault men Jean-Baptiste Duzan and Bernard Rey -- as "very close" to Ghosn and needed more time to explain the scope of the internal investigation which had worked for months in secret to gather evidence. By the time the briefing was over, "everyone was at a loss for words," according to the Asahi. Outside, photographers snapped every black saloon car exiting the building and reporters speculated feverishly on social media that the meeting could be over. But inside, a rare vote was taking place. Executives were asked to vote on the motion to dismiss Ghosn as chairman by simply saying "agree." By 9:30pm, Ghosn's fate as head of the company he had turned around was sealed. Nissan announced he had been sacked as chairman. Unanimously. Ghosn has endured a difficult week Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa addressed a room packed with journalists Ghosn's accommodation in a Tokyo detention is a far cry from his jet-setting lifestyle Carlos Ghosn was fired from Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Italy rugby wing Mattia Bellini looks set to miss the Six Nations after being ruled out for four months following surgery on a dislocated right shoulder picked up in the November Test against Australia, his club Zebre said on Tuesday. Bellini scored Italy's only try in the 26-7 defeat to the Wallabies in Padua before going off with a right shoulder injury. "Bellini has undergone surgery following a dislocation of the right shoulder," Pro 14 side Zebre said in a statement, adding that "the intervention ... was perfectly successful". The 24-year-old also suffered ligament damage to the shoulder and a bone fracture. He immediately started physiotherapy after Friday's surgery with the recovery time estimated at four mouths, Zebre said. Italy open their Six Nations campaign against Scotland on February 2 in Murrayfield. Bellini missed Italy's final November Test against New Zealand, a 66-3 defeat for the hosts in the Stadio Olimpico. Italy also lost 54-7 to Six Nations champions Ireland in Chicago earlier in the month before beating Georgia 28-17 in Florence. Italy's Mattia Bellini (L) has been ruled out four four months after shoulder surgery. A rebel administration in Syria's last major insurgent stronghold of Idlib handed over a four-year-old girl to her Belgian mother on Monday after a custody dispute following her father's death. An AFP journalist saw the tiny girl named Yasmine, dressed in a bright pink coat and clutching a gift-wrapped teddy bear, being led to the Turkish border to meet her mother. Her handover was overseen by the civilian branch of the powerful Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, which is led by the jihadists of Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate. "Yasmine was handed over today to her Belgian mother Hajer after the dispute was solved between those who were her guardians here and her mother," Fawaz Hilal, head of the administration, told AFP. "There was communication with the Turkish side to hand over the girl to her mother who was in Turkey," he said. Ibrahim Shasho, another member of the rebel administration, said the mother "filed a petition for custody of her daughter after her father died". The father's "friends" had looked after Yasmine since his death and insisted she remain in their care, Shasho said, without providing any further details on their identity. "The (HTS) judiciary looked into the case and found in favour of the mother," added the bearded man, who brought the wide-eyed child into a press conference to have her photo taken. The officials did not say whether the child's father was a fighter, or to what armed group he might have belonged. There was no immediate information from the Belgian or Turkish authorities. HTS controls more than half of the Idlib region, but other jihadists including the Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group are also present in the northwestern region bordering Turkey. Turkey-backed rebels hold most of the rest of the region. Idlib has since September been protected from a massive regime assault by a fragile truce deal between regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey. Thousands of foreign fighters are present in the region, where they are members of HTS but also other jihadist groups. Some of them have banded together to create what is known as the "French battalion", which is close to Hurras al-Deen, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In February, two Canadians -- a man and a woman -- were released to Turkish authorities after being held by HTS for several weeks. Jolly Bimbachi and a male friend had crossed into Syria from Lebanon, searching for her two sons, she told AFP. Members of a rebel administration in Syria's last insurgent stronghold Idlib escort a four-year-old girl named Yasmine near the Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey in northern Syria on November 26, 2018 A senior student at one of Sydneys most prestigious Catholic high schools has received a standing ovation after coming out as gay during a packed assembly. Standing in front of his teachers and 1500 students, Finn Stannard delivered a speech to St Ignatius College, Riverview, that he had been working on for the past four years. A far cry from the Year 8 student who would hide in his room in the dark, Finn confidently announced to his peers and educators that he was gay during his keynote address in June, the full transcript of which has now been published online by SBS News. It took me 18 months after realising that I was gay to tell my parents. Coming out was a scary experience, he said in the speech. Finn Stannard stood in front his teachers and peers to tell them he was gay and let them know the importance of asking for help. Image: SBS News Even though I knew my parents loved me there is always a fear that comes with telling those you love something important and I was afraid of changing myself in their eyes. Life was easier living as the straight eldest son. I had spent so long behind the facade of a confident, heterosexual man that I wasnt sure if I knew how to be me. After being the subject of countless rumours and unpleasant jokes, Finn struggled with symptoms of depression and anxiety and feared what reaction he would receive from his friends. I didnt know it was possible to be myself at school. I felt that if I was gay or different I could never be accepted. I quickly grew tired of hiding behind the mask Id made for myself, he explained. My main fear was no longer being accepted, of losing my friends, and being the subject of derogatory jokes. The teenager received a standing ovation from the crowd at St Ignatius, Riverview. Image: SBS News But after much deliberation he was overwhelmed by the support he received from friends and family. It was this level of understanding that encouraged Finn to share his experiences with his fellow students. Surround yourself with the people who let you live as your true self and never be afraid of asking for help, he said. Two of St Ignatius most notable alumni former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his deputy Barnaby Joyce opposed last years same-sex plebiscite but despite their high profiles, they dont represent their former school when it comes to this matter, Principal Paul Hines said. Story continues Im not sure anyone chooses their sexuality, thats who they are and therefore we need to be open to that and to accept it and to make sure we live in communities of inclusion and with that will come diversity, Dr Hines told SBS News. Since the speech, Finn has attended his school formal with his boyfriend Tom Moiso. He said the most enjoyable part of the evening was seeing all these other people with their dates and not feeling any different. Three US soldiers were killed and three wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday, NATO said, with the attack claimed by the Taliban as the US tries to ratchet up efforts to engage the militants in peace talks. NATO's Resolute Support mission would not immediately release any details about the identity of the soldiers, whose deaths took the number of American service personnel to die in the war-torn country this year to 12. A NATO statement said they had been killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan. An American contractor was also wounded, it said, adding that the four injured in the blast were receiving medical care. The casualties come just days after another US soldier was killed in Afghanistan's Nimroz province on Saturday. An initial review showed the soldier was "likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force", a NATO statement said Tuesday, adding that the "tragic" incident occurred as they engaged in a battle with al Qaeda militants. "There are no indications he was shot intentionally," the statement added, naming the soldier as Sgt Jasso without giving a first name. General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Jasso was killed "defending our nation, fighting al Qaeda alongside our Afghan partners". Jasso's death follows a spate of so-called "insider attacks" that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting Afghanistan's military. More than 2,200 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime from power. Washington is trying to find a way out of the conflict more than 17 years since it began. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is spearheading efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban before Afghanistan's presidential election, scheduled for April next year though officials have said it could be postponed until July. A Taliban delegation met with Khalilzad in Doha in October and November to discuss ending the Afghan conflict. Khalilzad has said he is "cautiously optimistic" for an end to the conflict. The number of American casualties has fallen dramatically since the end of 2014 when Afghan forces took over from US-led NATO combat troops to secure the country. Since the start of 2015, 58 Americans have been killed, President Ashraf Ghani said earlier this month. In the same time period, nearly 30,000 Afghan police and soldiers have died, Ghani said -- a figure much higher than any previously acknowledged, as the Taliban step up their attacks on local forces. The shocking mortality rate, which some experts warn is unsustainable, has sent already shaky morale to new lows. The number of American casualties has fallen dramatically since the end of 2014 when Afghan forces took over from US-led NATO combat troops to secure the country President Donald Trump will hold a make-or-break trade meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit this week and also navigate a diplomatic minefield with Russia's president after unrest in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday. Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires for a working dinner at the Group of 20 summit that runs Friday and Saturday. Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a White House press conference that "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it." But Kudlow warned that if China holds out against US demands, Washington could ramp up the trade war. "If need be, if things don't work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs." The issue is the biggest looming over Trump's visit to Argentina, with the two economic giants locked in exchanges of punitive tariffs and Washington effectively threatening to target all remaining Chinese imports, including Apple products made in China. Despite Kudlow's repeated insistence that Trump sees cause for optimism, he also underlined the tough conditions that the administration wants to impose on Beijing. "China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," Kudlow said, stressing that he considers the US economy in far better shape than China's to weather a prolonged trade war. "We are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well," he said. China will have to give way on "fairness and reciprocity," he said, warning that US concerns over intellectual property theft and China's forced technology transfers "must be solved." - Cancel Putin summit? - Trump is also to meet separately with Russia's Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Argentina, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, White House officials said. His talks with Putin present an especially tricky task -- and may be cancelled at the last minute over Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the latest episode of a long-simmering military confrontation. US-Russia relations are under huge strain, while Trump is under investigation at home for alleged collusion with Moscow during his 2016 presidential election win. Complicating the already complex diplomatic landscape, Russia shot at Ukrainian ships and captured three vessels on Sunday, prompting the government in Ukraine to accuse Moscow of preparing for "full-scale war." Trump told The Washington Post on Tuesday that "maybe I won't have the meeting." He said he would wait for the results of a report from his national security team before deciding. Trump's last summit with Putin, in Helsinki in July 2018, prompted an outpouring of criticism that the US president had failed to hold his Russian counterpart to account over what US intelligence services have concluded was deliberate Kremlin meddling in the 2016 elections. There are no plans, the White House says, for Trump to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom. The CIA reportedly has told Trump that Prince Mohammed, who has close ties to the administration, was behind the brutal murder of dissident journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. But Trump has dismissed this, prompting an outcry from opponents and even some allies in Congress. Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders indicated that an informal meeting may yet happen. "I wouldn't say we've ruled out any interaction," she said, although she stressed that "the president's schedule is pretty packed." US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping will discuss trade on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Argentina and could reach an agreement to defuse a trade dispute between the countries President Donald Trump launched a fierce new attack Tuesday against Russia collusion investigator Robert Mueller, pumping up the political tensions as the probe increasingly menaces the White House. In some of his strongest language yet against the investigation he has long labelled a "witch hunt,' the US president called Mueller "a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue." "He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System," Trump charged in a series of tweets. The attack on the special counsel came a day after Mueller halted a cooperation deal with Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, accusing him of lying to investigators. The allegations against Manafort came the same day George Papadopoulos, a foreign affairs advisor to Trump's 2016 campaign, was imprisoned for two weeks for lying to investigators about his Russian contacts -- more than a year after pleading guilty in one of the first cases brought by the special counsel. Both moves added to speculation that Mueller is getting closer to wrapping up his 18-month-old probe -- potentially bringing charges related to collusion between Trump's campaign and a Russian effort to tilt the 2016 vote, or to an alleged attempt by Trump to obstruct the probe itself. - Assange connection? - Last week the White House revealed that Trump had answered a long list of questions submitted by Mueller's team early this year, ending a lengthy delay that fueled speculation that Trump could be subpoenaed to testify. The lying claims against Manafort have reinforced the belief Mueller is drawing closer to concluding the main part of his investigation, with the White House in his sights. On Tuesday the Guardian newspaper injected an incendiary new detail into the case, if it is true. It reported that Manafort met WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in March 2016 just weeks before the group began publishing documents embarrassing to Trump rival Hillary Clinton, documents that Washington says were stolen and disseminated by Russian intelligence. Manafort and WikiLeaks both strongly denied the report. "This story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly," Manafort said in a statement. At the same time, the Mueller team has been investigating two other people linked to the Trump campaign, consultant Roger Stone and conservative media activist Jerome Corsi, over their contacts with WikiLeaks in 2016. Corsi told reporters Monday he expects to be indicted after rejecting a plea deal. - Mueller tight-lipped - Mueller, a former FBI director, remains tight-lipped about his sprawling investigation, which has so far given rise to three dozen indictments and guilty pleas and convictions in nine cases. His team remains under threat from Trump, whose new acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, appears to have been chosen in part for his public hostility to Mueller, who he will now oversee. Trump has repeatedly branded the investigation "illegal" and has insisted there was no cooperation with Russia. Trump "was involved in no wrongdoing, was not part of any collusion," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Tuesday. Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have pressed for legislation to prevent Trump and Whitaker from shutting the investigation down. Yet court filings indicate it is fairly advanced, with a focus on whether there is enough evidence in multiple contacts between Trump campaign aides and Russians to support charges of a criminal conspiracy to disrupt the US election. Mueller is also examining possible obstruction by Trump, a charge that could expose the president to an impeachment motion in Congress. When Mueller releases details of the occasions on which Manafort lied to investigators, which could come within weeks, it could indicate just what evidence he might have accumulated against Trump and his inner circle. Celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who has frequently provided Trump with advice, said on ABC News on Sunday that Trump could take a heavy hit when Mueller completes his probe. "It's going to paint a picture that's going to be politically very devastating, Dershowitz said. But he added that he did not believe Mueller's evidence would support criminal charges against the president. Robert Mueller (L) the special prosecutor leading the investigation into collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, and President Donald Trump (R) Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: The Guardian reported that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort met with Assange in march 2016, weeks before WikiLeaks began publishing stolen Democratic Party materials Paul Manafort, chairman of Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign Operations at the Yemeni port of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for the embattled country, have fallen by nearly 50 percent over the past two weeks, the UN said Tuesday. Yemen's Saudi-backed government had been waging a fierce offensive to retake the city of Hodeida from Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Under heavy international pressure, pro-government forces suspended hostilities in Hodeida but the World Food Programme warned that imports had fallen substantially "because of the high levels of insecurity in the city." "Operations at Hodeida Port have decreased by 47 percent over the past two weeks," WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel told reporters in Geneva. "If this situation persists or further deteriorates, it would have (a) drastic impact on food availability and prices in the markets and (would make) it increasingly difficult for Yemeni families to afford their basic needs," he added. The UN estimates that 70 percent of all imports come through Hodeida, a port in western Yemen on the Red Sea. Humanitarian shipments into Hodeida have remained steady over the past two weeks, but falling commercial imports could force more families to rely on food aid. WFP is currently supporting some eight million people in Yemen, but another 20 million rely entirely on commercial food imports. UN agencies say 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-backed coalition launched an offensive against Huthi rebels in March 2015, though some rights groups estimate the toll could be five times higher. Under heavy international pressure, pro-government forces suspended hostilities in Hodeida but the World Food Programme warned that imports had fallen substanially "because of the high levels of insecurity in the city" The US imposed sanctions Tuesday on Nicaragua's vice president and first lady Rosario Murillo, the Treasury Department said, as part of a crackdown on corruption and human rights abuses by the regime of President Daniel Ortega. "This administration is committed to holding the Ortega regime accountable for the violent protests and widespread corruption that have led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent Nicaraguans and destroyed their economy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "Treasury is intent on ensuring that Ortega regime insiders are not able to access the US financial system to profit at the expense of the Nicaraguan people," he added. The Treasury also sanctioned Nestor Moncada, who it said had been a national security advisor to the Ortegas. Nicaragua spiraled into deadly chaos earlier this year as Ortega cracked down on opponents, with rights groups saying more than 300 people have been killed. US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on November 1 Nicaragua was part of a "troika of tyranny" in Latin America alongside Cuba and Venezuela. Ortega's ironfisted rule had "completely eroded" democratic institutions, stifled free speech and imposed a deadly policy against political opponents, according to Bolton. Until free, fair and early elections are held, "the Nicaraguan regime, like Venezuela and Cuba, will feel the full weight of America's robust sanctions regime," he added. The sanctions against Murillo and Moncada block their assets that fall under US jurisdiction and prevent American persons and entities from doing business with them. Nicaragua's vice president and first lady, Rosario Murillo, has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department The US State Department on Tuesday slammed a Hungarian decision to extradite two Russian suspected arms dealers back to Russia instead of sending them to the United States. The US had sought the extradition of father and son Vladimir Lyubishin Sr and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr under an extradition treaty with Hungary. But Budapest denied the request and sent the suspects to Russia, "where it is unclear whether they will face trial," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. "The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia," she added. "Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this decision raises questions about Hungary's commitment to law enforcement cooperation." Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs responded on Twitter that the decision was based on a court ruling and "relevant international agreements." He noted that over the last five years, Hungary had sought extraditions on nine occasions from the US. "Eight of those were rejected," Kovacs wrote. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is one of the few European leaders to have praised President Donald Trump, and relations between the two NATO nations are usually good. The Lyubishins had been living in Hungary for several years. According to the Hungarian news website Direkt 36, Hungarian counterterrorism police arrested them in 2016 in an operation conducted with US authorities. "The United States had a strong case, built in cooperation with members of Hungarian law enforcement," Nauert said. US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the decision raises questions about Hungary's "commitment to law enforcement cooperation" The UN children's fund warned Tuesday that a funding gap and the start of winter could leave nearly one million children "out in the cold" in the Middle East and North Africa. "Years of conflict, displacement and unemployment have reduced families? financial resources to almost nothing. Staying warm has simply become unaffordable," said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. The UN agency said it was facing a $33-million funding gap ?- two thirds of its total allocation -- for assistance to children across the region this winter. Cold and rainy weather would hit those living in extremely basic conditions, especially camps or crowded shelters with little protection. "With cold and rainy weather sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa, nearly one million children affected by crises in the region risk being left out in the cold," Cappelaere said in a statement. "With little nutritious food and healthcare, children have grown weak, becoming prone to hypothermia and dangerous respiratory diseases," he said. UNICEF said it aims this winter to reach 1.3 million children in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt, providing them with warm clothes, thermal blankets, clean water and other hygiene support. UNICEF warned that due to a funding gap, one million children will be severely affected by the incoming cold and rainy weather Brian Kolb will continue to lead state Assembly Republicans when a new legislative session begins in January. Kolb, R-Canandaigua, has been re-elected GOP leader. Tuesday's vote was unanimous. "It is a profound honor to have the trust and support of my colleagues in the Assembly minority conference, and I'm excited to work alongside them as minority leader," Kolb said in a statement. A member of the state Assembly since 2000, Kolb was elected minority leader in 2009. He succeeded Jim Tedisco, a former assemblyman who now serves in the state Senate. Kolb briefly ran for governor this year, but bowed out of the race in February. He endorsed a former Assembly colleague, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, to challenge Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo won a third term earlier this month. With nearly a decade as head of the Assembly GOP conference, Kolb is the longest-tenured state legislative leader. He's the only legislative leader who hails from upstate New York. Assemblyman Gary Finch, a Republican who represents Auburn and the southern portion of Cayuga County, supported Kolb for re-election. He offered high praise of the Canandaigua Republican, calling him the best Assembly GOP leader since Theodore Roosevelt. Finch, R-Springport, lauded Kolb for his collegiality and fairness. He also highlighted Kolb's political efforts. Despite Democrats winning several seats across the state, Assembly Republicans won a handful of races. Kolb's office noted that there are nine new Republican members who will be joining the conference in January. "Members of the conference appreciate that," Finch said. "They know Brian Kolb has their back. If you're in a tight race, he'll step in and help you." When the 2019 session opens in January, the state Legislature will be different. Democrats won control of the state Senate. The Democratic Party has long held a majority of seats in the state Assembly. Kolb said the role of the Assembly GOP "has never been more critical." He touted the conference's work to increase government transparency, address domestic violence and the opioid epidemic, ease the regulatory burden on small businesses and develop solutions for infrastructure and transportation needs. "As the 2019 legislative session approaches, I know the distinguished members of our conference will continue to build on our collective goals and expand on our efforts to move New York in the right direction," Kolb said. Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 With Auburn City Court Judge David Thurston elected as a full-time city judge, his current position as part-time associate city court judge will become vacant on Jan. 1. The Auburn City Council will choose Thurston's replacement. Attorneys interested in the part-time city judge position must submit a resume and a writing sample to Chuck Mason, the Auburn City Clerk, by Dec. 7. Proof of Auburn residency and proof of admission to practice law in New York state at a minimum of five years is also required. Although Thurston and retiring Auburn City Court Judge Michael McKeon cannot recommend a candidate over others, if requested by the council, they can provide information on a candidate's qualifications. The appointment is for a six-year term with a current salary of $93,000 plus pension, medical, dental and eye care coverage. Judicial assignments given to the part-time judge may include: Regular civil Small claims Commercial claims Housing and zoning Parking ticket appeals Dangerous dog hearings Criminal court Treatment court Traffic court The appointee cannot practice law in Auburn City Court and cannot practice law before town and village court justices who are attorneys. The appointee is, however, able to practice law in all other courts in and outside of Cayuga County. These limitations also apply to the appointee's partners and associates. 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 0 AUBURN The Auburn Downtown Revitalization Initiative Local Planning Committee will hold its next public meeting Tuesday to discuss strategies as it works toward finalizing a plan to spend the $10 million in state funding the city won this year. At 3:30 p.m. at the Carriage House Theater behind the Cayuga Museum, the committee will review preliminary project information. Discussion topics will include a recap of the first public workshop held last month, a review of project ideas received through an open call and a review of the projects that were in the city's original DRI application. The DRI committee is made up of downtown Auburn stakeholders who are working with a consulting firm Bergmann Associates to create a final plan for the state to approve. A second public workshop is expected to take place in December, but all of the committee's monthly meetings are also open to the public. Public dreams up Auburn's future with $10M Downtown Revitalization Initiative AUBURN Community members described Auburn's future as diverse, accessible, thriving and fueled by sustainable growth Tuesday night. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 AUBURN The Cayuga County Board of Health Tuesday issued a fine against the owner of Melrose Farms in Owasco for a septic violation in the same structure he was also cited for illegally housing workers in. The board unanimously voted in favor of a $1,000 fine against Joseph Tidd, with half refundable if he complies with the order to fix the septic violation. Tidd was first cited by the town of Owasco in February for housing workers on his dairy farm in a structure that lacked both a permit to be built and a certificate of occupancy. Workers living there said it was filled with cockroaches and rats and hazardous conditions like foul water and exposed electric wiring. At the same time, the Cayuga County Health Department also cited Tidd for not having an appropriate septic system for the structure. According to the health department's letter to Tidd at the time, human waste was being directed to a manure lagoon on the property. The health department gave Tidd a month to either remove or fix the violation. But, according to Cayuga County Environmental Health Director Eileen O'Connor Tuesday, the septic issue essentially became moot once the structure was deemed unsafe for occupancy, as no waste was being generated if people were not living there. However, Tidd was caught violating the order in September, having been housing workers in the structure even after February's citations, according to an employee who came forward in a letter to describe the living conditions. Following that revelation and additional citations from the town, the health department ordered Tidd to remove all plumbing fixtures from the structure or install a brand new system, as well as remove the septic tank from a recreational vehicle kept near the structure. At a Cayuga County Board of Health hearing on Oct. 30, the hearing officer recommended no fines against Tidd after it was confirmed he had complied with the most recent order. On Tuesday, however, the board itself decide to "throw the book" at Tidd, specifically wording the resolution to note the "egregious nature" of his repeated violations. "When someone consistently shows poor moral character and an unwillingness to adhere to the law, that rubs me the wrong way," board member Ralph Battista said. The wording of the fine, which essentially levies a $500 fine since Tidd has already complied with the order, was done to remain consistent with the board's normal style for fines. Additionally, O'Connor said, while the health department focuses more on compliance rather than punishment, the department usually does recommended for hearing officers to include fines. That the hearing officer did not recommend a fine from the October hearing was an oversight likely caused by staff miscommunication, O'Connor said. Prior to the board's vote, Marty Fefer, with the Worker's Center of Central New York, an advocacy group that has worked on behalf of multiple workers at Melrose Farms, asked the board to reconsider the hearing officer's findings. Fefer referred to Tidd's repeated violations and deceptions despite being given several opportunities to fix the problems, and asked the board to consider the dangerous health effects Tidd's actions had on the workers and their families he housed. "It's life and death for these people," Fefer said. Tidd was scheduled to appear in Owasco Town Court Monday for a hearing expected to determine what fines he would face for violating the town orders, but the case was adjourned to Dec. 10. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is also investigating Melrose Farms for potential clean water permit violations. In an email Tuesday, a department spokesperson had no update on the investigation. Tidd, who was not at the Board of Health meeting Tuesday, could not be reached for comment. Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 4 An Auburn man and registered sex offender is facing criminal charges for abusing an infant he fathered with an underage girl, the Auburn Police Department said. On May 4 at around 9 a.m. police were dispatched to the emergency room of the Auburn Community Hospital to investigate child abuse, according to an APD press release. Upon arrival at the hospital's emergency room, patrol units, detectives and Child Protective Services saw a 9-month-old boy with recent extensive unexplained bruising and rug burns on the majority of his body. The babysitter who brought the baby to the hospital said the baby had been dropped off to her by the baby's 17-year-old mother, police said. The mother said she had left the child with her boyfriend, Eugene H. Scott Jr., 37, on the night of May 3 to the following morning. Scott told investigators that he accidentally caused the injuries, but evidence did not support his claims, police said. During the investigation, police concluded that Scott was the biological father of the baby, and that the child was conceived while the mother was a minor, the APD said. On Monday, Scott was arrested at the Cayuga County Jail on an indictment warrant. He was arraigned in Cayuga County Court Tuesday on charges of second-degree assault, third-degree rape and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was remanded back to the jail without bail. Police said additional charges are forthcoming. The child has been placed in foster care and has made a full recovery. Scott was already serving a sentence at the jail for an unrelated conviction. According to records, Scott was charged with petit larceny in separate instances in May and August and had been charged with two counts of failing to register as a sex offender in May 2017. Scott is a Level 2 sex offender, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. The state's sex offender registry said Scott was arrested and convicted of second-degree sexual assault in Texas for having intercourse with a 15-year-old girl in 2002. According to the state Department of Corrections, he was convicted in Wayne County in 2013 for fourth-degree grant larceny and was released on parole in 2015. Police ask that anyone with information on the case or similar contact with Scott call Auburn Police Detective Bryant Bergenstock at (315) 258-9880 or (315) 253-3231. Callers may be anonymous. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 33 The lineup of suspects was long, but Prison City Pub & Brewery has selected an Auburn location for its new production facility. Brewery co-owner Dawn Schulz said Tuesday that the facility will be built at 197-199 North St. The 2.13-acre property, at the corner of North and Standart Avenue, was formerly the home of Jam-O's Car Wash, which was demolished this summer. Prison City is buying the property from the Kyle family, Schulz said. Schulz said she and her husband, Marc, considered more than a dozen sites in Auburn and another dozen outside the city, as far as Rochester and Ithaca, for their brewery's new facility. But the North Street site won out for several reasons. Being in Auburn, it has city utilities like water, electrical and sewer. And by building the brewery from scratch, Schulz said, Prison City's need for those utilities can be met precisely. "Retrofitting a building to become a brewery wouldn't be as beneficial to our manufacturing process," she said. That stretch of North Street is also high-traffic, Schulz said, averaging almost 13,000 vehicles a day. The traffic light at the site will provide easy access to the facility. And the size of the property will allow Prison City to create about 70 parking spots, she added. More than the tangible benefits of the site, however, staying in Auburn was important to Prison City's identity, Schulz said. "Prison City doesn't really make sense outside of the Auburn area," she said. "We really love this community." The facility's construction will be contracted to the Kyle family's KyleCroft Development, Schulz said. Likely to be titled Prison City Brewing, it will be about 20,000 square feet, with a little more than half of that space dedicated to beer production. The facility will also include a 4,500-square-foot courtyard, titled The Yard, as well as a tasting room, kitchen, office space and dining/event space. About 20 to 25 full-time jobs will be created by the facility, Schulz said. At first it will open for customers on weekends only, though that could change as Prison City assesses demand. Staff will also brew there during the week, she added. The facility's brewing system will produce about 10,000 barrels annually, Schulz said, though she noted that it will take Prison City some time to master the system to reach that figure. There will also be a "foeder forest" of the large wooden barrels for aging sours, stouts and other beers, and a line for bottling them. A canning line, meanwhile, will package the brewery's popular hoppy beers, like its critically acclaimed Mass Riot India pale ale. Releases of Mass Riot and other Prison City beers have routinely attracted lines of people outside the State Street brewpub. The demand for brewer Ben Maeso's beers led the Schulzes to announce their plan to build the production facility in the summer of 2016. The brewery opened in December 2014 with a 2.5-barrel system, and has since expanded into the basement of its space with more fermenters to raise its annual production to about 1,000 barrels. Schulz said the opening of the facility will allow Prison City to dedicate the brewpub's system to small-batch beers and research and development, but otherwise, the downtown space will remain as is. The Schulzes at first looked to open the facility at 39 Genesee St., the former Nolan's Sporting Goods, as an anchor tenant of the city's Riverside Regional Public Market. As the market project stalled, the Schulzes began searching elsewhere, including 4022 Technology Park Blvd. in Auburn, before selecting the North Street site. During that time, Prison City was designated to receive $900,000 in state funding through the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council. Schulz said those funds may be reimbursed to Prison City over the next five years based on the money it spends to build the facility and the number of jobs it creates. Schulz said Prison City will submit its plans for the facility to the city planning board in December. She hopes to break ground in the spring and open by fall 2019. Though that timeline may seem "aggressive," Schulz said, it follows years of planning and working with architects and engineers to make Prison City's expansion happen. "We're excited to move forward with a location," she said. "We feel like we've done so much research on so many locations that now it's time." Lake Life Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @drwilcox. Love 20 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 9 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. Three different proposed development projects in the town of Sennett have passed the review of a Cayuga County Department of Planning and Economic Development committee. The projects include an existing business looking to add a convenience store and retail gas station, the relocation of an auto repair shop and a construction equipment and rental equipment company hoping to plant roots in the town. The county's General Municipal Law 239 review committee on Nov. 15 determined all three of the development projects in Sennett to "have no intermunicipal concerns and to be of local concern only," according to meeting minutes. David Nelson, a planner in the department, said Monday that the committee had no other comments or concerns for the projects. Among the projects is Ken and Diana Sroka's request to modify the allowable uses granted to their Repair Plus shop at 2682 Turnpike Road through an approved 2011 Planned Development District. The Srokas hope to add uses that would allow them to build a convenience store with gas pumps for retail gasoline at their property. The Srokas' initial commercial PDD application sought 17 uses, but was scaled back to include the allowable uses of construction vehicle sales and service; concrete pumping equipment service; fabrication and sales of trucking equipment and truck repair, sales and rental. Since then, Sennett has changed its zoning regulations and the property now has a commercial overlay district that would allow for convenience stores and retail gas stations. Another business is looking to relocate to and expand in Sennett after operating from a horse barn in Auburn for the past 16 years. Xcelerated Auto, an auto repair shop, is proposing building a 10,368-square-foot service garage on a roughly 2.5-acre site on Mutton Hill Road. The shop, currently on less than an acre at 191 Grant Ave., sells used cars, works on domestic and foreign vehicles, offers inspections, brakes, shocks, diagnostics and more. A construction equipment and rental equipment company is also looking to relocate to Sennett. The Duke Co., which offers building materials, de-icing products, concrete forming systems and much more, is hoping to open its fourth location at 482 Grant Ave. The company is proposing to build a 4,555-square-foot building addition to an existing building located on a 7.8-acre lot. The addition would be used as a shop and wash bay for equipment maintenance, while the existing building would be renovated into a retail space. Having passed the county review, the projects will return to the the town of Sennett and its planning board. The next planning board meeting is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6. Town Clerk Penelope Dennis said the town won't know until the end of the week what businesses hope to be heard at that meeting. Staff writer Megan Ehrhart can be reached at (315) 282-2244 or megan.ehrhart@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @MeganEhrhart. Love 4 Funny 0 Wow 4 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. It is beyond time for Congress to reign in the over-the-top behavior/remarks/tweets of Donald Trump. Since he was elected, Trump has demonstrated little self-discipline expressing his feelings about endless issues, be they of critical concern to our national interests or petty grievances with famous personalities. Often his words are aggressive, threatening and rude. Trump has threatened and ridiculed political friends and foes. Trump has insulted our long-time allies, while at the same time lavishing praise on long-time adversaries. Trump has disparaged judges and the courts. Trump has lied at an unimaginable rate and encouraged racist and false rhetoric with his base. Trump has threatened the press and called them the enemy of the people. Trump has refused to believe the intelligence reports he gets from the CIA, the FBI and other agencies. And, consistently, Trump has exacerbated the divisions in our country under the ironic pretense of making America Great Again. The most recent egregious example of this is his refusal to take action against Saudi Arabia for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trumps decision to make money more important than American values is a low point in his presidency. Coupled with his nonstop berating of the press, he has shown the dictators of the world that the United States has no moral compass when it comes to respecting the essential role of a free press. Trump displays the same refusal to listen to American intelligence when it comes to Russias involvement in the 2016 election, North Koreas failure to de-nuclearize and the scientific consensus of the dangers of climate change. Silence from the GOP on these matters is extremely troubling. Only a few GOP senators (Flake, McCain, Corker) have been consistently vocal about Trumps abuses of his power. GOP members of the House are AWOL. For the past two years, Democrats have had little leverage in these matters since the overwhelming GOP reaction is to allow Trump to do whatever he wishes, no matter what the cost to our traditional norms or the Constitutional separation of powers. That is all about to change. My hope is that all Congress will finally awake to its Constitutional responsibility to be a true third branch of government. The survival of our country depends on it. Kathryn Franz Marion Love 2 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 A new guidebook for elder care nurses in the United Kingdom, issued by the Royal College of Nursing, offers guidelines for caregivers to deal with what it called the taboo subject of sexuality among senior citizens living in nursing homes, noting in its introduction that, sexuality remains a fundamental aspect of being human throughout life. It encompasses gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, intimacy, sexual expression and sexual acts. Among those sexual acts, according to the guidebook Older People in Care Homes: Sex, Sexuality and Intimate Relationships, viewing online porn and using sex toys for masturbationwithout violating the privacy or personal space of other care home residents. According to the guidebook, nurses in elder care facilities encounter the thorny issue of senior sexuality more frequently than is generally understood. Jefferson, a resident who lives with multiple disabilities and is physically unable to care for himself, asks his key carer to assist him with masturbation, the guidebook recounts, citing one example of a difficult situation encountered by caregivers in one facility. There is no concern that Jefferson lacks mental capacity to make decisions, and the principles of sexual rights would support his right to fulfilling sexual activity. But the facility staff felt ill-equipped to provide the help the patient requested, and also worried that to do so might violate sexual offense laws, so, following expert advice from sexual health services, mechanical assistive devices that individuals use themselves were procured. The exact nature of the mechanical devices was not specified in the Royal College of Nursing guide. In another case study, a nursing home resident demanded that he be allowed to procure a prostitute and avail himself of her services in the nursing home. According to the guidebook, facility staff decided that to prevent the resident from employing a prostitute to meet his sexual needs would be a violation of his human rights. In another instance, a resident who told staff he wanted to watch porn on his laptop computer was told he would be permitted to do so, on the condition that he used headphones and viewed the adult material in a way that no other residents or staff would inadvertently see it. Senior citizens in care homes should be permitted to pursue their own sexual interests and fetishes, the guidebook says, noting that advanced age does not necessarily diminish the strong desire for their usual sexual practices which might include cross dressing [and] sadomasochism. Just because people live in a care home doesn't mean they lose the same rights, choices and responsibilities they once enjoyed in their home, RCN spokesperson Dawne Garrett said. Photo by Morderska/Wikimedia Commons Of the many new political developments in 2018, including record numbers of women elected to the United States House of Representatives, one of the most remarkable and least discussed would be the emergence of sex workers as voting and activist bloc. A new article in Rolling Stone magazine online documents the new, politically outspoken movement among sex workers to advocate for their own rights often in the face of overwhelming opposition from both politicians and the public. Not long ago, most porn stars, escorts, strippers and cam-girls wouldnt feel comfortable entering the political scuffle, wrote Rolling Stone reporter Jennifer Swann. But thanks to a confluence of factorsincluding Stormy Daniels, arguably the worlds most famous sex worker, making herself a symbol of the anti-Trump resistancethe sex-work community has become Americas newest niche political bloc. While attempts and movements to decriminalize sex work have been around for decades, Swan observes that, it wasnt until the passage of the so-called Online Trafficking bill SESTA/FOSTA last spring that many workers began to organize locally, forming grassroots coalitions not just to oppose the bill but also to support sex work decriminalization efforts more broadly. The so-called SESTA/FOSTA bill, passed earlier this year, is purportedly aimed at curtailing online sex trafficking by making online sites liable for any sex trafficking activity on their sites by third-party userssuch as online classified ads or social media postingseven if the site owners have no idea that illegal activity is taking place, as AVN.com has reported. But even the U.S. Department of Justice stated that the law could actually make law enforcements job of chasing actual sex traffickers more difficult. At the same time, sex workers who rely on their online presence to operate their own businesses and screen out potentially dangerous customers have been forced offline onto the perilous streets. As sex worker groups have become more outspoken against the law and in support of their own right to practice their trade, a small number of political candidates have spoken in support of their cause. As AVN.com reported, Julia Salazarwho won a seat in the New York State Senate in the November electionsmade sex worker rights a key plank of her platform and as a result, a collective of more than 100 sex workers supported her candidacy, organizing campaign and fundraising events. Suraj Patel, a New York University professor staging a first-time bid for Congress, also openly courted the votes of sex workers, taking a strong position against SESTA/FOSTA, though he ultimately lost his primary bid to unseat incumbent Carolyn Maloney, a SESTA/FOSTA supporter. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ousted longtime Democratic incumbent Joseph Crowley in a district covering parts of New York Citys outer boroughs, also staked out a position against the sex trafficking bill. In Washington, D.C., Rolling Stone reported, sex worker advocates helped crafty a bill to decriminalize sex work introduced by city council member David Grosso, while sex-worker organizations in San Francisco are leading a legal push to declare the states anti-prostitution laws unconstitutional. Ive never seen sex workers begin organizing in the way they did following SESTA-FOSTA, sex worker activist Siouxsie Q told Rolling Stone. Enough was enough. Photo By Fibonacci Blue / Flickr Creative Commons LOS ANGELESLoveDropa leading U.K.-based couples subscription box serviceis bringing its adults-only lifestyle subscription box service to the United States and Canada. LoveDrop is a discreet bi-monthly shipment of luxury adult pleasure products, games, lingerie, intimacy enhancers and accessories delivered at up to 40 percent off regular retail pricing. The company is setting its sights on North American holiday shoppers in search of a unique, personalized gift set that keeps on giving throughout the year. LoveDrop is a passion project of mine, created with the goal of delivering romance and personal pleasure to peoples front doors, said the companys owner and personal curator, Melissa Anne. This subscription service is a thoughtful and inspired holiday gift for busy couples looking to reconnect, as well as new couples looking to experiment. Each LoveDrop box also includes relevant sexual health information from the industry's insightful diverse sex educators and bloggers, and the items in the collections have been personally selected with both partners desires in mind. All of the products we ship are top-of-the-linewe offer body-safe adult toys, condoms and lube from quality companies such as Lelo, Cloud 9 Novelties, VeDO Toys and System JO, plus added goodies like candles, bars of chocolate and date night idea cards for a guaranteed good time all night long, Melissa Anne said. For a limited time, the popular LoveDrop Couples Date Night Box is available at special pricing during the holidays at Love-Drop.com/products/lovedrop-subscription, as well as participating retailers such as CrateJoy.com and Etsy.com. LoveDrop also offers an affiliate program, where new customers can earn 15 percent for life on every sale they refer until the end of the year, when the company switches to a tiered-scale format. New users can sign up at https://love-drop.com/pages/affiliate-signup. This program will tie into the pop-up party program. For more information visit Love-Drop.com and follow @LoveDropUK on Twitter. BROOMFIELD, Colo.Eldorado Trading Company has joined forces with Oxballs to educate retailers and consumers on the use of cockslings as a means to provide penis owners with longer orgasms. The Boys Just Want Longer Orgasms Facebook contest begins Tuesday, Nov. 27, and runs to the end of day on Nov. 28. Oxballs is thrilled to be partnering with Eldorado for this exciting contest, said Michael Cox, Oxballs account representative. With this contest, we want to inform customers about the added value of using cockslings in a way that is fun for everyone. Contest participants enter by replying to the original contest post shared on Eldorados Facebook page. Contestants replies should complete the following sentence: A longer orgasm would This contest is open to the public and 12 winners will be selected at random from all contest participants. Orgasm studies have shown that females enjoy impressively longer orgasms ranging between 20 seconds to 2 minutes, while the average length of a male orgasm averages between 3 seconds to 10 seconds. Cockslings are one effective way to prolong the male orgasm. Contest winners will be announced on the Eldorado Facebook page by noon Nov. 30. Each prizewinner will be shipped one of the following Oxball cockslings: black Cocksling-2; red ice Oxsling; steel Tri-Sport; and black Unit-X Stretch. Oxballs is a specialty manufacturer that designs and produces mens sex toys known for their unique designs and a wide variety of color options. Established in 2008, Oxballs high quality, sturdy, and well-made products are sold in mainstream and specialty retail stores throughout the United States. For more, visit Osballs.com or EldoradoTrading.net. Oregon Coast Author Speaks in Seaside on Oddities, Historical Trivia Published 11/272018 at 1:59 AM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff (Seaside, Oregon) History, weird science and rather remarkable trivia: the Oregon coast is full of this. When it comes to nature along these beaches, theres a lot more than meets the eye. (Above: the Novaya Zemlya effect, an oddity at sunset). Hence the talk entitled Copious Coastal Oddities, covering a wide variety of beach curiosities from about 180 miles of coastline. It happens December 27 as part of the History and Hops progam, given by coastal expert and author / publisher Andre GW Hagestedt. The talk starts at 6 p.m. at Seaside Brewing Co. 851 Broadway St, Seaside, Oregon. (503) 717-5451. The presentation is free. Geared towards locals and visitors, the talk wanders down the surprising pathways of trivia and facts about the Oregon coast. Often there are objects hiding in plain sight that host a startling story. From surprising history of the region, weird weather facts, and intriguing natural phenomena to the rather spooky geologic beginnings of the beach. Youll get a glimpse of the Green Flash at Sunset, sand that glows, sand that sings, what landmarks were once all lava or a volcano, and even what prehistoric Oregon was like. Historical trivia also gets spotlighted, including unique objects found along the Seaside Prom, Hug Point, or on the central coast. Hagestedt is editor and publisher of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, and this year released the first three books of ten, in a series called Ultimate Oregon Coast Travel: Every Beach Access, Odd Facts, Fun Finds. The first two were on Cannon Beach and Seaside, the third about Lincoln City, and a fourth comes out in January. This talk will take a peek at what hes uncovered in 20 years of covering the beaches as a journalist, history buff, and science writer. There will be some previews of the upcoming books about Yachats, Depoe Bay, Manzanita and others. Among the other finds: The quirkier side of Pixieland near Lincoln City Beach safety issues not always talked about Kooky stories behind beach town names Hagestedt started out in the mid 90s as a music journalist for the Statesman Journal in Salem, which included interviewing some of his favorite rock stars such as members of King Crimson, Yes and Jethro Tull. From 1995 to 2005, hes either written for or been employed with The Oregonian, KXL radio, The Rocket, Hipfish Magazine, Eugene Weekly and many others. Lodging in Seaside - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours Below: more odd finds in the talk, including video 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 The day after Thanksgiving dawned brightly . . and cold. Thankfully, there was no rush to our day. Christian and I were going to Elizabeth City, but not at the "crack of the freezing dawn". Of course, the animals do not believe in sleeping, til the sun comes up. If I so much as blink, they are in a crisis and need to go out at that very moment. Christian is an early riser too, so, between the two of us, everyone went out and came back in to their "breakfast", while we had coffee.Those moments are rare, for Christian and I - and I do not take them lightly. Christian works six days a week and has to be at work mighty early. Many days, he is there by four am. Not long after supper, Christian is in bed. We have brief encounters, at best. I do not know, the last time, that he and I shared a day off, so we were determined, to make this day count.By mid morning, we were on the way to Will and Jennys', where Brant and Tres , were waiting, also. These are my favorite days.The drive was beautiful and we noticed the leaves as we went along. We pointed out to one another, the especially pretty scenes. I decided I would plant a maple, after seeing several vibrant yellow ones. We saw the scarlet dogwoods, and I thought to plant one of those too.Some folks were already highly decorated for Christmas, we noticed.When we arrived in Elizabeth City, it was like a reunion and a holiday rolled all in one. Lyla, said it best when she proclaimed happily "Now, we are all together!"Of course, with it being near noon, I set about fixing lunch.We had all sorts of food (left overs) on the kitchen island, and folks ate in shifts, as they got hungry. Little Brynn was liable to turn up anywhere, as she was passed around like a precious china doll. Lyla was everywhere. She and I were cozy for a while, reading a new book and then watching "Cinderella", then she was off to a more adventurous (and rowdy) company, with her Uncle Brant. Tres had secluded himself in the fancy dining room,to complete an assignment. When the house became quiet, I went looking for Lyla. She didn't seem to be anywhere, but she was. . . Lyla was in the dining room with her "uncle Tres" as quiet as a mouse and writing on a paper, with quite a stern countenance. She said she "had work to do too". So, she sat quietly, with her uncle, for a while.It wasn't long after, we unpacked our violins. Christian had forgotten his guitar, so today, he played the violin, too. Lyla was especially happy to have her own violin, this year. She listened very carefully to our instructions, on what string to play on, for each carol. There were no guarantees, however, that she would stay there. These are my favorite days.Sydney, Brants' fiance, made a blackberry wine cake and of course Lyla joined in on that. The recipe came from Sydneys' grandmother and is one of Sydneys' favorites. We have been looking forward to it, for a while and were not disappointed, when at last, the cake was cut. We all went to bed early. We blamed it on the left over turkey, that we had for supper.Apparently, every one in the family is an early riser. I woke up extra early on Saturday, but not before Brynn. Without prompting, from Cash, nor Christopher Robin, I laid very still, collecting my thoughts and listened to all sorts of commotion upstairs. Will came down the stairs first, to take the dog out. A few minutes later, I heard the washing machine start. I knew then, the day was starting and it was best to get up and join in. Moonlight still washed over the landscape, when I was making coffee. The next sound I heard, was a large flock of geese, flying over. I rushed out just in time to see them flying across the very bright full moon.I made sweet potato pancakes for breakfast. We had so many sweet potatoes left from Thanksgiving, and it seemed a shame not to use them. I made sausage too and eggs. Not long after we ate, it started raining. It rained hard enough, that the whole world looked silver-plated .Brant brought the Christmas decorations down from the attic and Lyla was sure that this was the best day yet. While they worked on getting the tree up, I emptied the contents of the refrigerator. I found green beans, carrots, corn and butter beans . I found potatoes in the pantry and a can of tomatoes. A pot of soup was in the making. Sydney and I decided to go to the grocery, which is just five minutes from the house. We bought all kinds of cheese, for grilled cheese sandwiches and since we were there . . .and since the Christmas wreaths were being hung, I thought to buy the ingredients for "Scottish shortbread cookies". One of the neighbors is from Scotland, and she sent shortbreads for Christmas one year. I decided these cookies were some of the best I had ever had. Jenny agreed and so the first chance that I got, I took, to get her recipe. Today, was the perfect day to make them, I thought. There happened to be good metal cookie cutters in shapes, like snowflakes and angels, stars and gingerbread men, in the store, so I bought those too.The tree was standing joyfully, in front of a window when Lyla found the Santa cookie jar. She brought in the kitchen, and so went to work to fill it. This day, we listened to Christmas music by Bing Crosby, as we baked. If a catchy tune, played, then a dance started, right there in the kitchen! By the time Lyla had used every cookie cutter from the very large supply twice, she was tired and I thought she was going to nod off in the soft dough! Thankfully, Sydney stepped in and helped the long process. Somehow Lyla mustered the strength, to play her violin with Brant and I, while the cookies cooled. Then she listened to a book, which Brant thought was the longest version ever written, of "Little Red Riding Hood". Tres laid beside little Brynn, during the reading . . .and he agreed with Brant. It truly was, one of my favorite days.Before I knew it, it was today . . .Sunday . . .the last day of our gathering. Today, we had an agenda. We had a late breakfast and food was packaged to be sent home with everyone. Bags were packed and good byes were said. I always take the partings, hard. I consoled myself, that Christmas was not so far off. . . and Christmas is full of favorite days. As Chair of the BHL Members Council, I had the privilege of attending the 25th Meeting of the GBIF Global Governing Board convened in Kilkenny, Ireland, 15-18 October 2018. I represent BHL in its capacity as an Associate Participant in GBIF at the governing board meeting. BHL has been a participant since 2014. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) operates through a network of global nodes to develop and maintain an open data infrastructure for sharing digital biodiversity data. GBIF Governing Board Chair Tanya Abrahamse (former CEO South African National Biodiversity Institute) and Donald Hobern (GBIF Executive Secretary), along with the host, Liam Lysaght (National Biodiversity Data Centre, Ireland) led the meeting. Abrahamse and Hobern provided an overview of GBIF activities over the past year, including a discussion of the GBIF Strategic Plan Goals and Work Program updates. The various GBIF Committee chairs (Science, Nodes, Budget) all reported the past years activities. Around 4 July 2018, GBIF reached the one billion record mark. The GBIF 26 Governing Board meeting will be part of the Biodiversity_next joint conference in Leiden, The Netherlands. Results of the Governing Board elections with terms ending in 2020: 1st Vice-Chair, Governing Board: Christoph Hauser, Deputy Director General, Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin 3rd Vice-Chair, Governing Board: Leonard Krishtalka, Director University of Kansas, Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum Nodes Committee Chair: Andre Heughebaert, Belgian Biodiversity Platform Nodes Committee 1st ViceChair : Anders Telenius, Swedish Museum of Natural History Nodes Committee 2nd Vice-chair : Hulda Gideon, Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology Science Committee 1st ViceChair: Gregory Riccardi, iDigBio/Institute of Scientific Data, Florida State University Public Session of GBIF Governing Board. GBIF applications and relevance: progress and next steps. All GBIF delegates and others from the greater biodiversity community in Ireland were invited to the public session. Many of the talks focused on data discovery and mobilization, improving functionality and relevance to policy. Presentations were introduced by Tim Hirsch (GBIF). The winners of the 2018 Young Researchers Award and Ebbe Nielsen Challenge were presented at the end of the public session. The Young Researchers Award honors projects that foster innovative research and discovery in biodiversity informatics and provides financial support for winners. Raquel Gaiao Silva , University of Algarve , Portugal: Raquel is a Masters student in International Science/ Marine Biodiversity Conservation. She has used GBIF mediated data in her work on climate-driven changes in seaweed distribution in Atlantic Iberian marine forests. , , Portugal: Raquel is a Masters student in International Science/ Marine Biodiversity Conservation. She has used GBIF mediated data in her work on climate-driven changes in seaweed distribution in Atlantic Iberian marine forests. Kate Ingenloff, University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute is a doctoral student who used GBIF mediated data along with time-specific environmental and behavioral data to develop better niche models for highly mobile species such as pelagic birds. The Ebbe Nielsen Challenge annual prize honors the memory of Dr Ebbe Schmidt Nielsen, a principal founder of GBIF and leader in biodiversity informatics. The six recipients shared prize money, some provided by the Swedish Research Council. Videos of the public sessions of the meeting are available on the GBIF website . Other Explorations I had some productive, informal meetings with BHL partners and potential partners providing opportunities to explore new partnerships or deepen existing ones. During the reception and other networking events, I learned about GBIFs Biodiversity Open Ambassador program, a chance to promote the principles of open data sharing in presentations, whether or not the work is about GBIF. GBIF will provide slides and information or you can develop your own to add to appropriate presentations. Discussions with Ana Casino of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), Donald Hobern and Dmitry Shigel (GBIF), Dmitris Koureas (TDWG) and Patricia Koleff (BHL Mexico), among others, determined that BHLs future plans will augment interoperability in the biodiversity community and that BHL is a critical resource for many GBIF participants. Fired Marijuana User Can't Sue Employer in Montana As recreational and medicinal marijuana use becomes legal in more states, companies with drug-free employment policies are wondering how long they will be able to enforce them. So long as marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, states are allowed to choose whether employers can mandate drug-free policies. If No State Law Preventing Employers From Prohibiting Marijuana Use, Fire Away! Because federal law still considers marijuana use to be illegal, employers are allowed to make employment policies regarding its use, so long as they are in-line with state law. For instance, in Montana, Charter Communications fired one of its employees, Lance Carlson, for his legal marijuana use outside of work, in violation of the company's employment policies. Carlson sued Charter for wrongful termination and discrimination. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in affirming the lower court's ruling, stated that Charter was within its right to fire Carlson for his marijuana use, since marijuana use was strictly forbidden in the employment handbook. The court noted that because the Montana Marijuana Act, which legalized marijuana in that state, does not specifically prevent employers from prohibiting employees from using marijuana, such prohibition is OK, because marijuana isn't legal on a federal level. In laymen's terms, if a state law is silent on whether employers can keep workers from smoking weed, employers can keep on drug testing and firing for legal weed usage. If State Law Prevents Marijuana Testing, You're Free to Burn! A state could have a Marijuana Act that specifically prohibits employers from requiring drug-free employees. For instance, in 2018, Maine became the first state to protect workers and their non-workplace marijuana use by forbidding employers from drug testing for marijuana. Specifically, Maine's Act to Legalize Marijuana forbids employers from discriminating against employees based on their legal marijuana use, though it does allow employers to prohibit the use and possession of marijuana "in the workplace." So if you work in Maine, smoke as much as you legally desire, but don't do it at work. Federal Legalization of Recreational Marijuana Use If the federal government ever legalized recreational marijuana use, employers would no longer be able to discriminate against employees based on legal usage. But until that day comes, states will be able to dictate whether workers can be fired for their legal marijuana usage. If you have been terminated due to legal recreational marijuana use, contact an employment lawyer. A legal adviser can best decipher your employment agreement and give you guidance on whether or not you can be fired for your marijuana usage. Related Resources: Montana Employer Can Fire Marijuana User Marijuana users have been on a high, but what goes up this time comes down. In Carlson v. Charter Communications, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a marijuana user who sued his employer for firing him under its drug policy. The plaintiff lost in state court, so he asked the federal court to consider it. It came down to a question about whether a state law legalizing marijuana trumped the employer's policy to have a drug-free workplace. In a word, the court said "no." Montana Marijuana Act Actually, the court said, "affirmed." In any case, the judges made short work of it. The decision was three pages long, and about half of it was blank or simply a caption. The question was submitted on Nov. 9, and answered 10 days later. The Ninth Circuit said the Montana Marijuana Act, which legalized pot for medical purposes, did not prevent employers from prohibiting marijuana use at work. The Act also did not preclude a federal contractor from complying with the federal Drug-Free Workplace Act, the panel said. However, the appeals court also acknowledged the validity of the state's marijuana law. It did not violate the state constitution, and survived constitutional scrutiny. "Legitimate Interest" Marijuana advocates have flourished as states continue to legalize the drug for medical and recreational use. It is still a controlled substance under federal law, but the federal government has not enforced the law generally. Although Congress has restricted the Department of Justice from prosecuting people who comply with state marijuana laws, the appeals court said, Montana has a legitimate interest in regulating access to "an otherwise illegal substance." Related Resources: Yahoo! JAPAN Yahoo! JAPAN Breaking News: Robert Mueller says former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort violated his plea deal by lying to investigators. Paul Manafort and Donald Trump thinking they're going to outmaneuver Robert Mueller: pic.twitter.com/HhSZjntb3c Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) November 27, 2018 Federal investigators wrote in a court filing [which you can read here in PDF] that Manafort's "crimes and lies" during a series of interviews with prosecutors working for FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller relieve them of all promises they made to Manafort in the plea agreement. Lying to the feds is never wise. Neither is associating with Donald Trump. From the New York Times: Defense lawyers disagreed. Mr. Manafort has been truthful with the special counsel's office and has abided by the agreement, they argued in the same status report to Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Given the impasse between the two sides, Mr. Manafort asked that Judge Jackson set a sentencing date. The dramatic development in the 11th hour of Mr. Manafort's case means, at a minimum, that prosecutors will not ask for a lighter punishment in return for his cooperation. They could also conceivably seek to refile bank fraud charges that they agreed to dismiss as part of the plea agreement. The prosecutors did not describe what Mr. Manafort lied about, promising to file a sentencing memo that sets forth "the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies." A jury in Northern Virginia convicted Mr. Manafort, 69, of eight counts of financial fraud in August stemming from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. Faced with a second trial in the District of Columbia on related charges in September, he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and to an open-ended arrangement requiring him to answer "fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly" questions about "any and all matters" of interest to the government. Manafort faces a prison term of at least 10 years for his crimes. He is scheduled to be sentenced in the Northern Virginia case in February, 2019. BREAKING: Prosecutors Claim Paul Manafort Lied To Robert Mueller's Office And The FBI After Signing His Plea Deal https://t.co/oxNmQHbXj0 Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 27, 2018 Apparent collapse of @PaulManafort cooperation agreement means he faces more than a decade behind bars to his September guilty plea to cheating the IRS, violating foreign lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) November 27, 2018 5/ Today's filing indicates that Mueller believes he can prove that Manafort lied on multiple occasions. It's worth noting that we knew of at least one unusual issue with Manafort's cooperationTrump's lawyers said Manafort's lawyers were updating them on Manafort's actions. Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) November 27, 2018 9/ Manafort is now in a worse position than if he didn't cooperate in the first place and just pleaded guilty. Mueller can now invalidate the cooperation deal and has indicated in the report that he *has* broken the deal. Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) November 27, 2018 Lawyers for special counsel Robert Mueller and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have told a judge in Washington that Manafort is ready for sentencing. NPR (@NPR) November 27, 2018 Yikes. The extent to which Manafort has apparently never realized that Bob Mueller knows all is incredible. Third time he's been caught lying by Mueller over this year. https://t.co/vIyLJl0AAA Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) November 27, 2018 BAD NEWS FOR MANAFORT: He won't get the benefit of prosecutors asking for a lighter sentence. Instead, they could seek to refile bank fraud charges that they agreed to dismiss as part of the plea agreement. https://t.co/6jafuYB4VI Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) November 27, 2018 The same disinformation campaigns that epitomize the divisions in US society beliefs in voter fraud, vaccine conspiracies, and racist conspiracies about migrants, George Soros and Black Lives Matter, to name a few are a source of strength for autocracies like Russia, where the lack of a consensus on which groups and views are real and which are manufactured by the state strengthens the hand of Putin and his clutch of oligarchs. In a new Harvard Berkman Center paper, Common -Knowledge Attacks on Democracy, political scientist Henry Farrell (previously and security expert Bruce Schneier (previously) team up to explore this subject by using information security techniques, and come to a very plausible-seeming explanation and a set of policy recommendations to address the issue. Farrell and Schneier start by exploring the failures of both national security and information security paradigms to come to grips with the issue: Cold War-style national security is oriented around Cold War ideas like "offensedefense balance, conventional deterrence theory, and deterrence by denial," none of which are very useful for thinking about disinformation attacks; meanwhile, information security limits itself to thinking about "servers and individual networks" and not "the consequences of attacks for the broader fabric of democratic societies." Despite these limits, the authors say that there is a way to use the tools of information security to unpick these kinds of "information attacks" on democracies: treat "the entire polity as an information system with associated attack surfaces and threat models" that is, to think about the democracy itself as the thing to be defended, rather than networks or computers. From there, they revisit the different disinformation styles of various autocracies and autocratic movements, particularly the Russian style of sowing doubt about what truth is and where it can be found (infamously, Russia's leading political strategist admits that he secretly funds some opposition groups, but won't say which ones, leaving everyone to wonder whether a given group is genuine or manufactured there's some excellent scholarship contrasting this with the style used by the Chinese state and also with techniques used by authoritarian insurgents inside of democracies, like Milo Yiannopoulos). In the paper's framework, the stability of autocrats' power requires that the public not know how other people feel for there to be constant confusion about which institutions, groups and views are genuine and which ones are conspiracies, frauds, or power-grabs. Once members of the public discover how many of their neighbors agree that the ruling autocracy is garbage, they are emboldened to rise up against it. Tunisia's dictatorship was stable so long as the law banning dissent could be enforced, but the lack of enforcement on Facebook allowed Tunisians to gain insight into their neighbors' discontent, leading to the collapse of the regime. By contrast, democracies rely on good knowledge about the views of other people, most notably embodied by things like free and fair elections, where citizens get a sense of their neighbors' views, and are thus motivated to find solutions that they know will be widely viewed as legitimate and will therefore be sustainable. So when information attacks against democracies sow doubt about the genuineness of movements and views when Soros is accused of funding left-wing movements, when Koch Industries' name is all over the funding sources of right-wing think-tanks, when politicians depend on big money, and when Facebook ads and its engagement algorithm pushes people to hoaxes and conspiracies it weakens democracy in exactly the same way that it strengthens autocracy. Without a sense of which political views are genuine and which are disinformation, all debate degenerates into people calling each other shills or bots, and never arriving at compromises with the stamp of broad legitimacy. It's not a coincidence that the right's political playbook is so intertwined with this kind of disinformation and weakening of democracy. A widely held belief on the political right is that the most important "freedom" is private property rights, and since rich people are always outnumbered by poor people, subscribers to this ideology hold that "freedom is incompatible with democracy," because in a fair vote, the majority 99% will vote to redistribute the fortunes of the minority 1%. In this conception, the rich are the only "oppressed minority" who can't be defended by democracy. This gives rise to the right's belief in natural hierarchies, which are sorted out by markets, with the best people rising to the top (Boris Johnson: "As many as 16 per cent of our species have an IQ below 85, while about 2 per cent have an IQ above 130. The harder you shake the pack, the easier it will be for some cornflakes to get to the top."). The right's position, fundamentally, is that the "best" people should boss everyone else around for their own good: kings should boss around commoners (monarchists); slavers should boss around enslaved people (white nationalists); husbands should boss around wives and kids (Dominionists); America should boss around the world (imperialists); and rich people should boss around workers (capitalists). So when Reagan started cracking wise about "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help,'" he was kicking off a long project to discredit the US and its institutions in favor of autocrats, the mythological heroes of Ayn Rand novels whose singular vision was so true and right that it didn't need peer review, checks and balances, or anyone who might speak truth to power. He was initiating the process that led the Trump administration's army of think-tankies to dismantle the US government's multibillion-dollar institutions charged with defending us from food poisoning, plutonium spills, unsafe workplaces, tornadoes and starvation: in the autocrat's view of the world, these institutions' word cannot be taken at face value, because every institution is just a pawn for its bosses' and workers' personal ambitions, featherbedding and pocket-lining. Unsurprisingly then, Farrell and Schneier's recommended countermeasures for disinformation campaigns cut directly against the right's most cherished policies: get rid of Citizens United and the idea that secret money can fund US political campaigns; limit financial secrecy and make it harder for anyone to claim that US political movements are the inauthentic expression of manipulative foreign disinformation campaigns. Alongside financial transparency, the authors suggest that vigorous antitrust enforcement, possibly with reclassification of online services as public utilities, would help curb the deployment of ranking algorithms that elevate "engagement" over all else, leading to spirals that drive users to ever-more-extreme and unfounded views and communities (weirdly, this is the one highly selective instance in which the right is calling for a return to pre-Reagan antitrust fundamentals). For example, before the first stirrings of the Arab Spring, the Tunisian government had extensive control over common knowledge. It required everyone to publicly support the regime, making it hard for citizens to know how many other people hated it, and it prevented potential anti-regime coalitions from organizing. However, it didn't pay attention in time to Facebook, which allowed citizens to talk more easily about how much they detested their rulers, and, when an initial incident sparked a protest, to rapidly organize mass demonstrations against the regime. The Arab Spring faltered in many countries, but it is no surprise that countries like Russia see the Internet openness agenda as a knife at their throats. Democracies, in contrast, are vulnerable to information attacks that turn common political knowledge into contested political knowledge. If people disagree on the results of an election, or whether a census process is accurate, then democracy suffers. Similarly, if people lose any sense of what the other perspectives in society are, who is real and who is not real, then the debate and argument that democracy thrives on will be degraded. This is what seems to be Russia's aims in their information campaigns against the US: to weaken our collective trust in the institutions and systems that hold our country together. This is also the situation that writers like Adrien Chen and Peter Pomerantsevdescribe in today's Russia, where no one knows which parties or voices are genuine, and which are puppets of the regime, creating general paranoia and despair. This difference explains how the same policy measure can increase the stability of one form of regime and decrease the stability of the other. We have already seen that open information flows have benefited democracies while at the same time threatening autocracies. In our language, they transform regime-supporting contested political knowledge into regime-undermining common political knowledge. And much more recently, we have seen other uses of the same information flows undermining democracies by turning regime-supported common political knowledge into regime-undermining contested political knowledge. In other words, the same fake news techniques that benefit autocracies by making everyone unsure about political alternatives undermine democracies by making people question the common political systems that bind their society. Common-Knowledge Attacks on Democracy [Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneier/ Berkman Klein Center Research Publication No. 2018-7] Democracy as an information system [Henry Farrell/Crooked Timber] Between Trump's massive tax-breaks for the super-rich and rules like California's disastrous Prop 13, our cities perennially cash-starved and have led to the erosion of the same public services that make cities attractive to businesses (for example, the subway, public education, roads, grid and other public services that made NYC so attractive to tax-dodging Amazon for its second headquarters). After coasting on New Deal fumes for 40 years since Reagan began the American oligarchic regression, cities are reaching a breaking-point, and parents of kids in public schools have become accustomed to a near-constant stream of fundraising emails and flyers brought home from school. Not only can this funding never bridge the shortfalls from austerity, but it converts public schools into a kind of semi-private school where hidden user-fees in the form of "donations" aren't really optional. Some teachers' unions have made corporate taxation a part of the debate over school cuts: the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers talks about the decline in taxation of Minnesota's largest corporations ("Thirty years ago, Bancorp, EcoLab, Travelers Insurance, 3M and Target were taxed at 13.6 percent. That rate has been cut to 9.8 percent. Wells Fargo paid $15 million less in 2014 than they paid in 1990, when the tax rate was 12 percent. In 2014, 10 corporations paid $31 million less than they did in earlier periods") and explicitly connects those tax giveaways to the budgetary shortfalls that harm the city's kids. It's not enough that corporations give back some of that money in the form of charitable donations: those donations always come with strings attached, shaping curriculum and activities to the priorities of corporate benefactors, and the funding can be withdrawn any time our public schools do work that cuts against the corporate agenda. I live in Burbank, a small city in Los Angeles County known for its excellent schools (including Walt Disney Elementary, the school Disney got started to lure his employees to his new Burbank studio, ensuring they'd have somewhere to send their kids, because good education is a required component of a good business environment). Burbank is just one of many California cities that have been hit by lawsuits brought by anti-tax extremists who want to end the common practice of circumventing of Prop 13 by transferring money from city utilities to the general treasury (the litigants say that the utilities should be run on a break-even basis and that cities should just cut services). Last year, after a settlement kicked in, Burbank found itself with the vast majority of its budget unfunded, and, facing a closure of all but one of its fire stations, police stations and libraries, along with a halt to all roadworks, closure of all city parks, and similar cuts, it announced a new sales-tax to help stanch the bleeding. The sales-tax is a terrible answer to a worse problem: a regressive tax that will drive shoppers out of Burbank and into neighboring North Hollywood to save money on their everyday purchases. What's more, it doesn't come close to filling the gap, and as a result, Burbank has a hiring and budget freeze across all its city services. For example, our year-round, outdoor public Olympic swimming pool is now closed half the time to save money on lifeguards, these being the only variable cost in the pool's operation (the heaters, filtration, maintenance, etc are fixed costs). So we have an extremely valuable, fully capitalized city asset that has high operating costs, but which no one can use so that we can minimize lifeguard hours. But the schools are the most hard-hit. They'll have a $2.5 million shortfall this year, and thanks to the failure of a ballot measure, they will not receive money earmarked for "attracting and retaining teachers and staff; maintaining low class sizes in grades TK-3; expanding college and career courses; increasing mental health support; and expanding instruction in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math programs." The city's schools are now soliciting donations to make up the difference (I gave the recommended $170; if you're a Burbanker who cares about our kids and schools, I hope you will too!), but that seems very, very unlikely. Public education is a public good. It saves millions for local businesses, who would otherwise have to pay enough for their employees to pay for private schools. It improves equal access to the tools of social mobility and national competitiveness. Starving our schools is pure looter capitalism, a bet on a future in which most of us have no productive role to play in society, except as head-count and free forced labor in private prisons. Although cities and states across the US began to decrease funding for public schools in the 1980s by lowering corporate tax rates, local funding for schools which get 92 percent of their money from their city and state and 8 percent from the federal government has taken a deep nosedive since the 2007 recession. Over the last decade, plummeting property values and reduced corporate taxation in all 50 states have resulted in reduced tax revenue, causing public investment in public schools to dip. The upshot is that by the 2015-16 academic year, 29 states were providing less funding for K-12 programs than they'd provided in 2008. Staffing took a particularly hard hit, with local school districts slashing 351,000 jobs between 2007 and 2012. Although some of these positions have since been restored, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the number of school employees was still 135,000 lower in 2017 than it was a decade earlier. This, despite the fact that public school enrollment has spiked by a whopping 1,419,000 pupils since 2008. More students, combined with smaller budgets and fewer staff people, have meant that students, parents, teachers, administrators and education advocates have to contend many complex issues. While teachers in numerous states have gone on strike to oppose the relentless cuts to education, to boost salaries for teachers and other workers, and to promote a shift in priorities to elevate public well-being over corporate profits, the challenge of raising enough money to hire an adequate number of teachers, paraprofessionals, librarians and counselors and buy school supplies remains front-and-center. Responses to this challenge vary: Some schools organize near-constant fundraising events while others require staff to write grant proposals to fund computer labs and classroom necessities. Still others have set up foundations whose mission is to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Bake Sales Can't Fix This: Corporate Tax Cuts Leave Public Schools Desperate [Eleanor J. Bader/Truthout] (via Naked Capitalism) (Image: Eli Christman, CC-BY) Michael Lewis is a national treasure, whose gift for explaining how finance grifters think and operate has spawned a whole genre, which he dominates with books like Liar's Poker (an insider view of the S&L crisis); The Big Short (a character-driven, crystal-clear explainer on the financial engineering that led to the 2008 crisis), and Flash Boys (the shitty math and bafflegab behind high-speed trading); and now, The Fifth Risk: an astounding and terrifying book about the experts who fill the ranks in the US government and the Trump-administration grifters who are destroying the work they do to keep us from dying of tornadoes, nuclear accident, food poisoning and a million other dangers, large and small. The Fifth Risk is a very short book, consisting mostly of interviews with current (and usually anonymous) US government officials, as well as former high-ranking officials who left when the Trump administration took over. These are largely extremely technical people, manifestly and palpably motivated by a sense of duty and a commitment to excellence, who have been charged with an insanely hard job: figuring out how to contain all the complex risks of 21st century technical society, including things like a 100-year, 100-billion-dollar nuclear cleanup that involves mitigating vast, badly secured underground stores of waste from the WWII nuclear bomb production effort, which is slowly seeping towards the Columbia River. Each profile takes on a similar form: the expert's journey to government service is explained (for example, how a deep-sea scientist became one of the first US woman astronauts and then helmed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; then, the incredibly technical, incredibly high stakes that person lives with (dealing with all the nation's weather data and figuring out how we can not all die from fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc), and then, the kicker: how Trump's shitty administration of grifters and right-wing thinktankies showed up underprepared, disinterested, and actively hostile to the person and the work they did (in this case, how the guy who runs Accuweather and has been lobbying for years to force the government to stop letting us get weather predictions for free ended up in charge of US governmental weather strategy). It's a powerful format, by turns inspiring, infuriating and terrifying. It's also a powerful repudiation of "public choice theory," a favorite economic theory among the right, whose simplest formulation holds that everyone is looking out for themselves, and that "duty" and other high-minded ideals are at best self-deception from would-be civil-service empire-builders who are just looking to expand their influence at taxpayer's expense. Public choice advocates will tell you that no one really thinks of themselves as a villain, and that your "bad guy" thinks they're doing the right thing just as much as you do. Which is true, as far as it goes, but woefully incomplete. The crooks whom Trump brought in to run these incredibly technical, high-stakes, multi-billion dollar agencies don't think of themselves as villains. They genuinely, legitimately believe that (for example) climate change isn't real, or that poor people will find work faster if you cut off their kids' food-stamps. But there's a difference between the heroes of Lewis's book and the villains: the heroes did their homework. They know what the fuck they're talking about. When they say that you need to spend $X billion to keep the tailings from Little Boy's plutonium payload from seeping into the water supply for much of Washington State and Oregon, they're basing that statement on expert study and research. When a Trumpian asshole sweeps in and declares that any program that costs $100 billion is an example of government waste and can easily be downsized without hurting anyone, they are talking out of their asses. It's the difference between doing your homework and Dunning-Kruger. What's more, the grifter villains of Lewis's book are willfully ignorant: like Exxon, which discovered and then forgot that climate change was real and driven by burning their oil, these blow-dried gators and henhouse-foxes know, in their deepest hearts, that actually doing their homework would make it impossible to do their jobs with a straight face, so they maintain and cherish their ignorance. This skill is an iron-clad requirement in the Trump administration. Lewis has these fuckers' numbers. This book is a hymn to the "deep state," which is revealed as nothing more than people who know what they're talking about. The Fifth Risk [Michael Lewis/WW Norton] (Thanks, Stewart!) For framing innocent black men, a police chief in Florida will go to prison for three years. Impunity is the norm in America for cases like this, so the conviction is a big deal. Raimundo Atesiano, the former police chief of Biscayne Park, Florida, stands convicted of directing his officers to frame innocent men in a series of unsolved burglaries. He now admits he was trying to please white community leaders, and manipulate property crimes statistics in the town of 3,000 residents. From the Miami Herald: "When I took the job, I was not prepared," Atesiano told a federal judge on Tuesday. "I made some very, very bad decisions." His apologies did not sway U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who on Tuesday sentenced the 53-year-old former cop to three years in prison. He allowed Atesiano to remain free for two weeks before surrendering so he can care for his mother, who is dying of leukemia. In September, Atesiano pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge of depriving the three suspects of their civil rights because he and the officers charged them without a legal basis. Atesiano's conspiracy conviction carried up to 10 years in prison. What about the three men who were falsely arrested in the criminal cops' conspiracy? Not much detail there, but hopefully they'll receive some form of restitution. - A Nigerian lady has taken to social media to ask for help after she got abandoned at a restaurant - The lady had been given a N83,000 (about R3 150) bill after her date abandoned at the restaurant - She asked Nigerians to come and bail her out, claiming that her phone was about to be seized PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Pretty Nigerian lady who identified herself as @browncandyx on Twitter has called for help on the micro-blogging platform. The lady revealed that she got a huge bill after her date abandoned her at a restaurant. According to the young lady, she had received a bill of N83,000 (R3 150) after her date abandoned her. The pretty lady called on Nigerians to come to her rescue. She further revealed that her phone was about to be seized from her. She said: "I just got ditched by my date and the bill came in as 83k, please can someone come get me outta here its too early in the week for this." PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app Some Twitter users were furious with the young lady. Many of them asked the lady why she ordered something she couldn't pay for while others expressed that her date escaped because she decided to order over his budget. READ ALSO: Viral video shows man catching wife red-handed in bed with student However, some people expressed that her story sounds fake. They noted that she shared the fake story to seek attention. Read tweets below: 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 Jacob Zuma has been living quite the peaceful and joyous lifestyle after he stepped down as the South Africans president. PAY ATTENTION: Click "See first" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed! And, although many still wait to witness the day Zuma stand accountable for the alleged crimes he committed while head of state, it appears the former president is not facing the music anytime soon. In fact, he is rather the one making the music. In a recent social media post, one of Zuma's wife gave South Africans a glimpse into their lives. Thobeka Madiba-Zuma shared a couple of photos of the former SA head of state and it appears he is having the time of his life. "I take delight in being my familys keeper...Gives me so much pleasure #love #my #half #and #kids," she captioned the post. In one photo, Zuma plays the guitar as his daughter listens to him, while in another photo Msholozi gives the young lady some pointers while she plays the piano. READ ALSO: 7 friends qualify as doctors against all odds: Glory to God! PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app The photos warmed the hearts of social media users and South Africans expressed how much they missed Zuma, Briefly.co.za gathered. One Instagram user, mrhoodini, commented: "uBaba is a man of many talents I see it with his guitar." Another social media user, lemmymayisela, wrote: "@tobeka_madiba_zuma I miss his singing during the events I have broadcasted as he would just burst into a song and bring the vibe of black people and where we come from as a country and people in the dark days." 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 Opinion / Columnist Don Chigumba is a mixed methods research specialist can be found on twitter @Donchigumba Only people's voice is bigger than a political party and not Elias Mudzuri. Nelson Chamisa should tighten his political belt by accepting the party followers' wish to terminate Mudzuri. Mudzuri confessed that he met with the Chief Justice Luke Malaba in parliament because he wanted to console him after been undressed by the MDC Alliance parliamentarians. Today, he made another blunder according to MDC Alliance supporters, Mudzuri put on his expensive suit and disappeared to the Statehouse where he was caught having tea with an illegitimate president.I support the MDC Alliance supporters' wish to expel Mudzuri 100%. Mudzuri is now a political risk within the party and should not be trusted anymore. Mudzuri is the second in command in MDC Alliance, a man who is supposed to keep the rare secretes of the party jealously. I don't think that Nelson Chamisa should continue to trust Mudzuri, the party is at risk. Elias Mudzuri has shown disrespect not only to Nelson Chamisa but to the entire movement. Mudzuri was not even apologetic when confronted by his colleagues. What he displayed before them was an arrogance of power bestowed on him by the party.This is an opportunity for Nelson Chamisa to clean the party ahead of the congress and 2023. It is now clear that Mudzuri has a hidden agenda against his party president and Chamisa should not take this for granted. A whip should be extended on Mudzuri's soul, it is a crime for party leaders to hug political enemies. Zimbabweans are suffering because of ZANU PF government but Mudzuri can get the guts to join them and eat porridge together.I heard some ZANU PF supporters claiming that Mudzuri is right because he didn't break the parliament rules. Such kind of reasoning is not even within ZANU PF, Joice MUjuru was terminated from ZANU PF on 3 April 2015 because of unfounded allegations that she wanted to topple RG Mugabe but they supported her termination from the party. Rugare Gumbo and D Mutasa were later expelled because of their attachment to Joice Mujuru. We all know the names of big politicians terminated from ZANU PF because of Joice Mujuru. Today MDC Alliance wants to chase Mudzuri and ZANU PF supporters now want to give Nelson Chamisa a lecture on parliamentary rules.We all know everything about the termination of the then Vice President of ZANU PF and Zimbabwe ED Mnagagwa by RG Mugabe in November 2017. ED Mnangagwa was terminated because of allegations of disloyalty and had to skip the country via Mozambique border on foot. It was clear that the termination of ED Mnangagwa was unfair because neither the party members nor the politburo were consulted. Who are ZANU PF supporters to give Nelson Chamisa a lecture of the termination of Elias Mudzuri?The termination of errant and stubborn members of the party is a common phenomenon worldwide. There is no one who is superior to the party and Mudzuri should be disciplined. It is now clear that he cannot be trusted with MDC Alliance's secretes and should be terminated from his position in parliament and as a Deputy President. If mercy is applied, Elias Mudzuri should only remain a senator or card carrying member. The disloyalty of Mudzuri against Nelson Chamisa is visibly clear than that of ED Mnangagwa against RG Mugabe and the MDC Alliance's leadership should consider this seriously.I am therefore appealing to Herald Newspaper and ZANU PF supporters to give MDC Alliance party time to discipline their members and clean their party. This is a right time for Nelson Chamisa to demonstrate his authority. I also have great respect for Hon. Mwonzora, he is an able Secretary General but should be submissive to the party all the time. The MDC Alliance leaders were elected by party supporters and not the Chief Justice or ED Mnangagwa. Mudzuri should therefore respect and fear party supporters ahead of any kinds of forces. Opinion / Columnist After the violent demonstrations and the death of six people in Zimbabwe on the 1st August 2018 the president sought to go deeper in the problem. On the 14th September 2018 ED published a proclamation no 6 of 2018 establishing the commission of inquiry into the violence of August 2018. On the 19th September 2018 the commissioners were sworn in. These comprised of statesman soldiers and few lawyers and academicians. There has been a serious misunderstanding in the people of what exactly is the Commission of Inquiry.The appointment of commissions of inquiry to investigate matters of public interest has in recent years become so familiar a phenomenon in Zimbabwe that the practice is sometimes regarded with certain degree of scepticism. As much of this scepticism stems from a failure to appreciate the value and potential of such commissions, generally and the niceties of this method of investigation as practiced in Zimbabwe in particular an exposition of some of the more important aspects of inquiry in this country is appropriate.The President made it very clear the terms of which the commission was to operate on. It was charged with investigating the circumstances leading to the 1st of August Post Elections Violence and making suitable recommendations in the matter.In his statement the president clearly stated that he has undertaken to set a commission which will investigate the post-election disturbing events which resulted in the loss of lives and damage of property, the commission was to be held in a transparent manner. To identify the actors and their leaders their motive and their leaders and the strategy they employed in the disturbances.It should make sense to understand the meaning of a Commission of Inquiry.What is a Commission of Inquiry? Commissions of Inquiry may be established by the Governor or Premier to inquire into matters of major public importance and concern. A Commission may inquire into the conduct of any civil servant, the conduct or management of any department of the public service, or into any matter in which an inquiry would be deemed to be for the public welfare. The scope of a Commission is determined by its Terms of Reference. A Commission of Inquiry has certain powers. It may require the attendance of witnesses and the presentation of certain documentation.This enables the Commission to uncover information which might otherwise be difficult to obtain. The Commission also has credibility in the eyes of the public as, once in train, the Government cannot interfere in the direction taken by a Commission of Inquiry or influence the findings. Commissions may call as a witness any person with an interest in an inquiry. Those interested persons retain the same privileges and immunities as witnesses and counsel in courts of law. Unless otherwise determined by the Commission, an inquiry is held in public, although the Commissioners are entitled to exclude anyone for the preservation of order, for the due conduct of the inquiry, or for any other reason.Commissioners will conduct an inquiry in an impartial manner and in accordance with the direction in the commission. Commissioners will report the result of the inquiry in writing to the Premier and provide the Premier with a statement of the proceedings of the Commission and of the reasons leading to the conclusions arrived at or reported.In the past commissions of inquiry were often instituted either to justify actions taken against opponents or to provide the government with justification for acting against its opponents. Commissions of inquiry thus constitute an important piece of the history of the struggle for freedom. Although the reports of the commissions are often readily available, the minutes of evidence, which contain testimony from both sides of the struggle, were usually not published and copies of them are extremely rare.In our case the commission of inquiry was not set to re-examine the history of ZANU PF violence or it perceived history of violence. It was not set to establish the violence of 2008 and any other violence of pre Restore Legacy.In a very surprising turn of event the MDC hijacked the Commission of inquiry into a grand standing arena. They started playing to the gallery. The whole time given to the sympathisers and leaders was wasted in Chronology of the history of ZANU PF.Tendai Biti and Chamisa both tried to hijack the commission by spending time on the history which had nothing to do with the vents of the 1st OF August 2018. The terms of the commission are so clear the questions to be answered were what happened on that day and what led to the happenings of the day. Why were the people on the streets? why was the army called in the streets and who called the army.Most people spent their time trying to publish their agendas. It was a clear demonstration of what is called out of topic. Those who wish to be leaders of the country could not understand what was required in the commission yet they claim that they can understand what is required in the running of the nation.Biti and Chamisa tried to invoke the emotions of the past yet they were far away from the point and the purpose of the commission.. They had sent their forerunners Japajapa and the mouthful Jim Kunaka. These were buoyed by a vociferous bought MDC T crowd who would applaud for anything but something.One would feel a hot sense of shame running down the spine to see Biti behaving like a mad man chasing nothing as he tried to trudge the long journey of the revolution he is undermining. Tsvangirai who had fired Biti would turn in his grave to see Biti now the Vice President of the party Tsvangirai defended with his life. Tsvangirai had a foresight hence he kicked BITI and Sikhala and the crew out only for the blind toddler Chamisa to pull them back. No wonder they created a stage for their antics at the commission.Most people were fooled and did not understand the purpose of the commission they applauded and rejoiced as Biti and Chamisa tried so hard to display their ignorance of the terms of the commission.Would the Commission look into the evidence of issues in Mozambique during the war? Would they consider Mujuru's death in coming up to the conclusion and recommendations? Does it therefore make any political sense for Chamisa to spend an hour talking about ZANU PF history which was distorted as well? What would Chamisa and Biti and their stooges say they have contributed to the commission?In order for transparency to be seen to have been done the commission allowed them to sing on and bore the nation to sleep. Biti would protest heavily when ZBC could not play his script. He had hoped to have a day on the stage and his audience was switched off. The youthful Chamisa refused to open his mouth until his friends view him on television. A stage to show case their political aurora was set. It was not in the name of the commo9isson but it was another rally this time in the name of the commission. Commissions of inquiry are potentially powerful instruments to fix responsibility on public functionaries, but everything possible has been done to blunt this instrument, by the MDC Alliance who turned the commission into a mudslinging arena. Democracy and vibrant public life need the support of a number of institutions such as Parliament, the media, the judiciary and other specially authorised Constitutional and statutory bodies.One of them is the mechanism of the commission of inquiry appointed to look into definite matters of public importance. But it become frustrating if these institutions start functioning at cross-purposes,At the outset, the distinctive features of an inquiry by a commission must be noted. In such an inquiry, there is no plaintiff or prosecutor and there is no defendant or accused. It was shocking that the opposition came to the inquiry with one aim to clear themselves and to blame ZANU PF. Their motive then was not coexisting with the noble aims of the commission. They approached the commission with dirty hands and wished to handle the white clothes with the soiled hands. This was not a commission of self-cleansing built to find out the truth and come with recommendations. The behaviour of the opposition was dubious and highly suspect. The commission is not expected to act as a judge, but has to make every effort to arrive at the truth. Strict rules of evidence do not apply and the commission does not pass any order which is binding on the government. So there was no need for MDC and Japajapa Kunaka to grand stand.The Commission merely makes recommendations based on its findings. It is left to the government to decide whether to accept the recommendations or to overlook them altogether.The main idea is to bring all facts to the notice of the people at large in open hearings, unless the matter pertains to State secrets or are such that the commission feels that they may not be made public till they are fully inquired into, some assertions made by Chamisa and Biti were destructive to national peace. Making unsubstantiated allegations of past violence and apportioning it to the other party was farfetched and deeply depressing and flabbergasting.Looking at the above, it is difficult to understand why anyone should object to an inquiry by a commission. And even if such an objection is raised, the courts must lay down the strictest possible requirements before entertaining such pleas.The issues, which were considered to be of public importance according to the state governments own notification, ceased to be so due to the injudicious intervention of the opposition.Commissions of inquiry are potentially powerful instruments to fix responsibility on public functionaries but everything possible has been done to blunt this instrument as well.The issues raised by Jim Kunaka Tendai Biti Nelson Chamisa and some other contributors were historical irrelevant and had nothing to do with the commission. The terms of the commission were very clear.It is therefore true that the opposition had tried to hijack the commission derail its terms divert its focus and lead it into wilderness. There is the truth behind the 1st August 2018 this is the Truth WHICH THE OPPOSITION IS TRYING TO HIDE FROM THE PUBLIC BY DERAILING THE PROCESS.VAZET2000@YAHOO.CO.UK By Matt Scuffham TORONTO (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia is optimistic of beating its growth targets next year, Chief Executive Brian Porter said after the bank posted fourth-quarter results which were marginally below forecasts on Tuesday. Canada's third-biggest lender reported adjusted earnings per share of C$1.77 in the quarter ended Oct. 31, up 8 percent but short of the average analyst forecast of C$1.79 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Analysts blamed the miss on costs related to recent acquisitions. Speaking to analysts on a conference call, Porter said he expected the bank to benefit from improved margins next year due to rising interest rates and a strong economic backdrop in its key markets. "We are optimistic that we will continue to perform strongly and, again, exceed our medium-term objectives," he said. Shares in Scotiabank were up 0.3 percent in mid-morning trading, after initially dropping 0.5 percent. The bank has targeted annual earnings growth of 7 percent or more in Canada next year and 9 percent from its international operations, stripping out currency movements. Excluding one-off costs, net income rose by 13 percent to C$2.35 billion ($1.77 billion) in the latest quarter, compared with the average estimate by analysts of C$2.24 billion, according to IBES data. For the full year, Scotiabank reported a 7 percent increase in earnings at its Canadian business to C$4.4 billion, helped by improved margins as it benefited from five Bank of Canada interest rate hikes since last summer and growth in customer deposits. However, Canadian banking head James O'Sullivan told analysts the market for deposits was "quite competitive." Competition for deposits among Canadian banks was heating up for the first time since the financial crisis and could crimp margin growth, analysts said. The bank also said on Tuesday it planned to exit nine countries in the Caribbean, including Antigua and Grenada, by selling its operations to Republic Financial Holdings. It also plans to sell its insurance operations in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago to Sagicor Financial . The bank has been selling non-core businesses and focusing its international operations on the Pacific Alliance trading bloc of Peru, Mexico, Chile and Columbia, which now accounts for around a quarter of its revenue. The transactions are not material to Scotiabank, it said, but will result in its core tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of its financial strength, increasing by 10 basis points. (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Bernadette Baum) (Bloomberg) -- Google runs the risk of hefty fines from the European Unions beefed-up data-protection watchdogs after consumer groups accused the search-engine giant of abusing tools that track users location. Seven European consumer organizations on Tuesday said they would file complaints with their national regulators, who now have powers to levy penalties of as much as 4 percent of a companys annual sales for the most serious violations. The groups accuse Google of collecting data that can reveal a lot more about its users than just their location, such as their political leanings or sexual orientation. Googles data hunger is notorious but the scale with which it deceives its users to track and monetize their every move is breathtaking, Monique Goyens, director general of EU consumer organization, BEUC, said in an emailed statement. The Alphabet Inc. unit is not respecting fundamental GDPR principles, such as the obligation to use data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner, she said, referring to the new rules. The situation is more than alarming. Smartphones are being used for spying on our every move. New EU rules in force across the bloc since May 25 have increased the pressure on U.S. technology companies such as Google and Facebook Inc., which have often faced the scrutiny of European regulators over privacy shortcomings. The EUs General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, gives all 28 regulators the same powers to reprimand and fine wrongdoers. Turned Off In an emailed response, Google said that location history is turned off by default and users can edit, delete or pause it at any time, though switching it on helps improve services like predicted traffic on a commute home. Google also makes clear to users that if they pause location history, it could still collect and use location data depending on other phone and app settings, the company said. Google said users have other additional ways to control location data as well, including through devices as well as through a setting called web & app activity. Story continues "Were constantly working to improve our controls, and well be reading this report closely to see if there are things we can take on board," Google spokesman Al Verney said. Facebook last month became the first big test case for the new EU rules after Irelands data watchdog opened a probe into a security breach that affected as many as 50 million accounts. The consumer organizations will file the complaints in their own countries, including one in Norway. While not part of the EU, Norway adopted the new rules in July, alongside Liechtenstein and Iceland, all members of the European Economic Area. Google uses various tricks and practices to ensure users have features such as location history enabled and does not give them straightforward information about what this effectively entails, BEUC added. These unfair practices leave consumers in the dark about the use of their personal data. To contact the reporters on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net;Natalia Drozdiak in Brussels at ndrozdiak1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman, Molly Schuetz For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2018 Bloomberg L.P. (Bloomberg) -- One of the biggest beneficiaries of the clash between the U.S. and China may turn out to be a gritty Taiwanese town called Taoyuan. The former Japanese enclave west of Taipei had long suffered as local companies shifted factories to the mainland to benefit from lower wages and globalizing trade. But with tensions escalating between the worlds two largest economies, Taiwans biggest tech firms are now moving some production back home and many are turning to this city of 2 million on the northwestern coast. The trend may have gained a boost after Donald Trump signaled hell likely push ahead with increased tariffs. Taoyuan doesnt offer much in the way of glitz. But it does boast an hours drive to Taipei, hosts the islands primary international airport, and overseers whore aggressive supporters. Thats why its a hot destination as the manufacturing powerhouses behind the worlds electronics scour the globe for alternatives. The moves threaten to splinter a decades-old supply chain, in which Taiwanese giants assemble devices out of sprawling Chinese bases that the likes of HP and Dell then slap their labels on. From iPhone assembler Pegatron Corp. to laptop maker Compal Electronics Inc., theyre now preparing for an end to an arrangement thats served them well since the 1980s. Along with fellow Apple Inc.-supplier Inventec Corp., the trio are among those adding capacity in Taoyuan, with announcements coming as Washington and Beijing ramp up the rhetoric over trade and tariffs. Others like Quanta Computer Inc. are snapping up or seeking factory land. The citys population is now the fastest-growing in the country even as U.S.-Chinese tensions dampen the global economy. Our operation model will see a major change from the past two decades, Pegatron Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin told analysts an earnings call on Nov. 8. In the future, production will be spread out in different countries and we will not be able to build mega-plants in other places like those in China. Story continues Trump said Apple iPhones and laptops could be hit by new tariffs, according to an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. President said hes prepared to impose tariffs on a final batch of $267 billion of shipments if he cant strike a deal with Chinas Xi Jinping when they meet at the Group of 20 meeting starting Nov. 30. Thirty years ago, many companies based in Taoyuan and elsewhere on the island decamped for Chinas lower costs, helping create the worlds factory floor. While Taiwanese government data shows investments in China peaked around 2010, they remain a formidable presence. Fifteen of the top 20 exporters from the mainland to the U.S. in 2016 originated in Taiwan, according to a Chinese state-run customs data website. Now, increased tariffs threaten to compress already razor-thin margins. Higher wages will make it more expensive to produce in Taiwan, as will losing the efficiency gained by having the supply chain located close together in China. With tariffs expected to rise to 25 percent, it will push Taiwanese companies to expedite their plans to go home or build operations in a new location, said Angela Hsieh, an economist at Barclays. Yet there are still a lot of uncertainties surrounding a trade war, so companies tend to first add capacities in their existing facilities in Taiwan instead of spending a lot to build new plants. Thats where Taoyuan comes in. While some of Taiwans corporations are considering migrating as far afield as Southeast Asia, others prefer to move closer to home bases. The islands administration -- sensing an opportunity -- is cobbling together incentives such as tax holidays to entice their corporate citizens back into the fold. The fastest way is to add capacity in existing facilities. Looking for new land and building new facilities elsewhere will be too slow, Elton Yang, chief financial officer of Taoyuan-based Quanta, told reporters on Nov. 13. To be sure, Taoyuan has always been pro-business. Steady lobbying and the proliferation of over 30 industrial parks helped produce spectacular results: its industrial output was estimated at close to $100 billion last year, outstripping even Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.s base of Hsinchu to the south. The moves to Taoyuan defy a historical trend throughout the industrial era, which has seen manufacturing gravitate toward the lowest labor costs. The minimum monthly wage in Taiwan is about NT$22,000 ($713), which is more than double the 2,410 yuan ($347) a worker in Shanghai can expect. Taoyuans courtship of manufacturers has accelerated this year amid the saber-rattling. The city has teamed up with real estate agents to help companies locate land, which has gotten progressively pricier. According to Savills Taiwan, costs for industrial land in certain locales have swelled as much as 75 percent from 2014. In the year to September 2018, there were 30 percent more companies asking for the governments help in securing land compared with a year earlier, city officials say. Taoyuan is now the top choice for Taiwanese companies coming home, Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan, of Taiwans ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, said at a event to mark an investment there on Nov. 5. Out of 10 looking to return, four or five say Taoyuan is their first choice. Taoyuan topped all cities in transactions for industrial land and factories from January to September, according to Taiwanese real estate company, Sinyi. Those deals totaled NT$12.65 billion out of NT$29.02 billion transacted by all the islands listed companies. Companies favor Taoyuan partly because Hsinchu is seeing a worse land shortage and sets a higher threshold when screening companies, Sinyi manager Michael Wang said. Even foreign companies have taken notice. San Jose-based Super Micro Computer Inc. is expanding server production capacity in Taoyuan, and proceeding with a separate plan to build a new facility that will take its investment in the city to NT$9 billion, city officials say. It is cheaper than Taipei. With various types of industrial parks, Taoyuan is also easier for companies to build their operations in than Hsinchu, Wang said. (Updates with Trumps comments on tariffs starting in second paragraph.) To contact the reporter on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2018 Bloomberg L.P. Matthew Jefferson has been walking across Canada for nearly six months to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, an issue that hits close to home for the 32-year-old. His aunt, Frances Brown, went missing more than a year ago. Since leaving Victoria on June 1 for the cross-country walk, he has visited Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and most recently Montreal, carrying a 40 kg backpack with her photo pinned on the back. "I miss her every day. But she's with me every step of the way," said Jefferson, whose mother and aunt are from the Witset First Nation in central British Columbia. Brown, 53, was mushroom picking in a forested area north of Smithers, B.C., on Oct. 14, 2017 when she was separated from her picking companion. Investigation ongoing Search and rescue crews from around the province were called in, alongside RCMP and local volunteers. The official search was called off eight days after it began, but family and friends continued until Nov. 11. "It hit our community quite hard," said Marlene Hale, Brown's cousin. Brown knew the woods, she said. Jessica Deer/CBC "She was well dressed. She's smart. How could she just disappear into thin air?" Hale works as a chef in Montreal. She remembers getting nightly calls from her sister with updates during the search and rescue efforts. "After two weeks we knew it was not getting better for us at all. When it [was] over a month, it was harder," she said. Hale said Jefferson is "a wonderful man." "The cause, it opens up many wounds for many people. But it's a good wound to open up because at least it will never close." Cpl. Madonna Saunderson with the B.C. RCMP's north district said the investigation into Brown's disappearance is active and ongoing. Walking for healing For Jefferson, the walk has been personally healing, a way to raise awareness of his aunt's case and to talk about issues like systemic racism and intergenerational trauma with the people he meets. Story continues Smithers RCMP "We all need to work together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike,' he said. "It's up to my generation to heal from residential schools and the Sixties Scoop. It's up to us to heal so that we don't pass that on to our children, and it's up to our generation to work together with other people." His actions left an impression on Jen Jerome, a Mi'kmaw Montrealer. "His walk is important because he is sharing his thoughts and feelings regarding his missing auntie and for all the missing aunties, sisters, mothers and daughters out there," she said. "There's no doubt that many non-Indigenous people do not know fully this serious issue we have in Canada. Hopefully this walk will continue to bring awareness to everyone and have more men come forward to show their support as well." By February, Jefferson hopes to reach the end of his journey in Cape Spear, N.L. Canada joined its allies Monday in condemning Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels near Crimea, but experts are divided on what the sharp escalation of the deadly and protracted conflict will mean. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland called on Moscow to immediately release Ukrainian sailors captured during the weekend skirmish and to ensure freedom of navigation through the Kerch Strait. The Ukrainian navy said in a statement that six of its sailors were wounded when the Russian coast guard opened fire on three Ukrainian ships in the Sea of Azov, which is located off Crimea, the peninsula annexed by President Vladimir Putin's government in 2014. Russia said three Ukrainian sailors were slightly injured during the incident and were given medical assistance. On her way into the House of Commons Monday, Freeland said she spoke with her counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin, in Ukraine over the weekend. NATO and G7 partners, including Britain, were among the other calls she made. "Canada will always be a steadfast partner of the people of Ukraine, and we will continue to work with our allies to hold Russia to account for its unacceptable behaviour," she said in a statement. Precisely what the Western allies, most notably the United States, are prepared to do is an open question. Washington sent mixed signals on Monday. Watch as Freeland condemns Russia aggression towards Ukraine in the House of Commons: Two-track U.S. response Nikki Haley, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was strong in her denunciation. "The United States would welcome normal relations with Russia, but outlaw actions like this one continue to make impossible," she said in a prepared statement. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on both sides to show restraint, but described Russia's actions as "a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law." Chris Wattie/Reuters; Mikhail Klimentyev/Pool Sputnik/Associated Press But President Donald Trump refused to condemn Russia's actions and has not tweeted anything about the incident. Story continues Dominique Arel, an expert in Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa, said the chances of the West taking military action are slim, just the likelihood of further sanctions might be. 'Russia always takes us by surprise' It appears Russia is stepping up pressure on Ukraine by forcing a confrontation in the Kerch Strait after months of tensions and the buildup of forces. It is likely an attempt to put a stranglehold around the important steel exporting city of Mariupol, which despite the war in eastern Ukraine and its proximity to Crimea, has continued to thrive and contribute to the country's economy, Arel said. "Russia always takes us by surprise," he said. "It's a live war. A war of attrition where they are trying to make Ukraine pay at many levels, including economically." David Carment, another expert at Carleton University and the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said the escalation is not entirely surprising in light of the upcoming G20 Summit this weekend in Argentina. Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine's ambassador to Canada, said Monday the Russians had prepared for the escalation for months and now feel comfortable blockading the Kerch Strait in defiance of international condemnation. "They want to cut off our seaports on the Azov Sea and it's extremely important for the exports of Ukrainian steel and commercial products," said Shevchenko. "I think we should also consider the message itself to Ukraine and free world itself. Russia is saying it will do whatever it chooses." Canadians stationed nearby Canada has 200 soldiers stationed in western Ukraine on a training mission. For them, it's business as usual, National Defence said on Monday. "We currently have no indication that events in the Sea of Azov might affect the mission or the security of CAF personnel," the department said in a statement. "We will continue actively monitoring the situation." Officials would not say if there was heightened security in light of the fact many of Ukraine's eastern provinces have been put under martial law and on war footing with fears of a direct invasion. The army also has over 450 soldiers stationed in Latvia as part of a NATO mission to deter potential Russian aggression. "Due to operational security reasons, information about force posture and protection measures cannot be released," the department said about the Baltic deployment. First Indigenous woman to earn engineering PhD at U of A aims talents at tailings ponds When Chelsea Benally worked in a nuclear weapons program, she never knew exactly what she was building. Her commissions were top-secret government assignments and she wasn't supposed to ask questions. Years later, Benally knows exactly the purpose of her research and can talk about it freely. The first Indigenous woman to graduate from the University of Alberta with an engineering PhD, Benally is working on new ways to treat tailings water, a toxic byproduct in the process of extracting bitumen from oilsands. Benally a member of the Navajo Nation who hails from Flagstaff, Ariz., said working in remediation has been a passion since grade school when she first learned about environmental decline and the engineers who wanted to "fix things." But before she would have a hand in oilsands reclamation, Benally spent years working on components for nuclear weapons. You're only given the information that you need to know. -Chelsea Benally After studying chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Arizona, Benally's first job in engineering was at Sandia National Laboratories, a national security technology company in Albuquerque, N.M. It was a good gig for the junior-level chemical engineer. The work was secure, well-paying and she was even sent by the company to university to complete her master's degree. But Benally found the work unfulfilling, she said. Sandia produces nuclear weapons for U.S. Department of Energy and Benally felt alienated by her work. "You're not supposed to ask, 'What is this component or where does it go?' You're not supposed to ask what they're going to be used for," she said in an interview Monday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "You're only given the information that you need to know." Her work had to be kept a closely-guarded secret, but she often wondered why. "If you're ever travelling for international work, you have to be careful if people ask you questions, what information you share and where you leave your things," she said. Story continues "Even when I was working there later on, it didn't feel like I knew anything that anybody would want to gain knowledge about." Time for change When Benally was accepted into a high-level training course on nuclear weapons technology, she decided it was time to step back and do something "more useful." "Before I started I thought, if I'm going to leave, I should leave now because if I go through this and learn all these things, I don't know if they'll just let you leave." I didn't really think about being the only one. - Chelsea Benally After learning of the University of Alberta's oilsands remediation work, Benally applied and was accepted in 2011. She and her young son moved to Alberta, where she began working on her doctorate, studying the treatment of tailings water under researcher Mohamed Gamal El-Din. Her work thus far has focused on creating membranes and other absorption materials that can filter toxins from water. Knowing that she can use her education to work on problems created by humans is rewarding Benally said, but she remains humble about her work. "I'm just working on a very small piece." Being the first Indigenous woman to graduate with a PhD from the University of Alberta's Faculty of Engineering is bittersweet for Benally. She didn't know about the honour until last spring. She wishes there was more Indigenous women represented in engineering. "I didn't really think about being the only one," she said. "A lot of the people who are in my classes are actually from different countries. I didn't feel out of place. "I feel sad in a way because although I'm Indigenous, I'm not from Canada. In some ways, I feel sad that it's not someone from this country. I wish there were more." Doug Ford is trying to 'steal' the TTC's subways, public transit activists charge Ontario Premier Doug Ford said there's nothing the province can do to keep the Oshawa General Motors plant running, a pronouncement the opposition calls shocking and concerning. "They told me straight up there's nothing we can do," Ford said on Monday, after GM confirmed that the company will stop producing cars and trucks at the major plant east of Toronto. The premier called the news "absolutely devastating," and told reporters he's been told 2,600 workers could be affected by the shutdown, which is set to take place in 2019. Ford said he's disappointed with GM, a company Ontario has previously stepped in to bail out during hard times. Ford said he spoke with the head of General Motors Canada on Sunday, and was told that a plan to eliminate production at the Oshawa plant which was months in the making was already underway. He said that was the first he'd heard of the plan. Ford said he'll work with the federal government to provide supports for any auto workers who lose their jobs, in part by extending unemployment benefits. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday the federal government will also do what it can to help laid-off GM workers "get back on their feet," while federal Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said Ottawa stands ready to assist those workers any way it can. NDP demands government 'buck up' But during question period, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath attacked Ford for not announcing the government would do everything it can to keep the jobs. "I've never seen a government roll over so quickly and throw in the towel," she said. Ford should "buck up and fight for good jobs," Horwath demanded. Horwath told reporters that manufacturing is still a key part of Ontario's economy, and the government needs to have an economic plan that protects that type of work. In July, CBC News reported that a government position created in 2015 to champion Ontario's auto industry was unfilled. Ray Tanguay, a former executive with Toyota Canada, had been serving as the province's "car czar" until March, when his term ended. The NDP criticized Ford at the time for not appointing someone to fill the role, suggesting the government didn't appreciate the importance of the auto sector. FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's network regulator set the ball rolling on Monday to auction fifth-generation mobile licenses, winning a nod from lawmakers after months of controversy over whether the plan would help to close a connectivity deficit with the country's rivals. The BNetzA agency said it was immediately opening applications for the 5G spectrum, setting a deadline of Jan. 25 for submissions and saying the auction would begin in early 2019. The process of determining the ground rules for 5G services that could power connected factories and wireless broadband has been fraught, reflecting concerns that Europe's largest economy - already plagued by patchy 4G coverage - could fall further behind its rivals in the digital stakes. In the end, an advisory council of elected lawmakers backed the BNetzA's final blueprint published this month after the regulator addressed earlier concerns around the extent of future network coverage. "Our decision creates important conditions for the digitalization of our economy and society," BNetzA head Jochen Homann said in a statement, adding the arrangements would create conditions to roll out the network quickly. COVERAGE CONCERNS The BNetzA will auction spectrum in the 2.0 Gigahertz and 3.6 Gigahertz bands that are best suited to data-intensive industrial or urban applications - and not to plugging holes in Germany's existing networks. Also on offer will be frequencies in the 3.7-3.8 Gigahertz and 26 Gigahertz ranges that are suitable for local applications, such as creating superfast networks for industrial campuses. Germany's three main network operators - Deutsche Telekom , Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland - are all expected to bid despite their reservations over the design and possible cost of the 5G auctions. A fourth, United Internet , may join the fray although much depends on whether the BNetzA has struck the right balance in allowing new market entrants to rent network capacity where they lack their own infrastructure. The compromise struck by the BNetzA has left market players dissatisfied, raising the risk that they could take their grievances to court. "The rules are legally unclear and would crimp investment," Telefonica Deutschland CEO Markus Haas, said. Germany's UMTS auction back in 2000 raised around 50 billion euros for the state coffers but the regulator has lowered minimum bids for the 5G auction round, meaning the 5G proceeds are likely to be a fraction of that figure. (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by Thomas Seythal and Jane Merriman) Manitoba paramedics 1st in Canada to offer new medication for meth users Paramedics in Manitoba will become the first in Canada to give meth users olanzapine to reduce the risk of psychosis. The provincial government will permit paramedics to administer the drug to agitated people who have used methamphetamine, Health Minister Cameron Friesen announced on Monday. The atypical antipsychotic medication will help lessen or prevent the severity of the symptoms meth users face, such as agitation, the province said in a news release. The drug, which is already used in some clinical settings, can be deployed by Manitoba's paramedics beginning in December. "With rising concern around methamphetamine use and its associated psychosis and aggression, we are facing a time where critical action is required," Dr. Ginette Poulin, medical director of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, said in a statement. "This enhanced protocol will be an important contribution to responding to the devastating effects of methamphetamine use and empower first responders safely support patients in distress." The oral disintegrating tablets are currently given to patients in Australia, the province said. Response to violent behaviour The Paramedic Association of Manitoba commended the province for adding another medication to the arsenal of their front-line staff. "These patients can quickly develop paranoia and exhibit violent behaviour even while being assessed, so additional treatment options are needed," said chair Brent Bekiaris. The provincial government has faced dogged criticism from opposition parties for not doing enough to help meth addicts in what's been described as a crisis. The Progressive Conservatives say they've acted appropriately to deal with the growing problem. They've introduced five walk-in clinics for people struggling with addictions and more mental health beds and women's treatment beds in Winnipeg. The government recently issued a request for proposals from residential treatment centres to treat people with mental health and addictions struggles who would otherwise be sent out of province. Man wanted for murder in Calgary nightclub death turns himself in Calgary police have issued a Canada-wide murder warrant after a man died following an altercation that involved a crowd of people inside a downtown club early Sunday. Police were called to Paranoia nightclub at 118 5th Ave. S.E. at 2:55 a.m. after reports that someone had been injured during a disturbance inside. More than 20 people were believed to have been involved in the altercation, according to police. A man in his 30s was found with life-threatening injuries. He was taken to hospital, where he died. An autopsy was completed on Monday. The victim's identity was not yet being released while investigators notify his family. Cordelius Terry Jackson Harrison, 29, is wanted for second-degree murder. Harrison is five feet nine inches and weighs about 190 pounds, police said. He often has black, shoulder-length, braided hair. Anyone with information about the incident, and who hasn't already spoken to police, is asked to call them at 403-266-1234 or the homicide tip line at 403-428-8877. Tips can also be left anonymously with Crime Stoppers. By Tom Westbrook SYDNEY (Reuters) - Papua New Guinea (PNG) will uphold its agreement with China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to build its internet infrastructure, a PNG government minister said on Monday, dismissing offers from Western countries to take on the work. The comments from the minister, William Duma, are a blow to Australia, Japan and the United States, which have tried to persuade PNG to dump the Chinese company, amid broad efforts to limit China's influence across the Pacific. "We have an existing agreement," Duma, minister for public enterprise and state investment, told Reuters on the telephone from Port Moresby. "It's about honor and integrity, once you enter into a deal and an arrangement you go with it." Huawei won a tender to build a network in the South Pacific nation two years ago, but amid deepening concern in the West over the company's links to China's government, allies Australia, Japan and the United States recently mounted an 11th-hour counter offer. But Duma dismissed it. "It's a bit patronizing," he said, adding that Huawei had done about 60 percent of the work on the project. Huawei said in 2016 it would build a 5,457 km (3,390 mile) network of submarine cables linking 14 coastal towns in the resource-rich nation of 8 million people. A spokesman for the company declined to comment. Australia, which has shut Huawei out of contracts to build its own national mobile network on security grounds, blocked the company from laying submarine cable from Sydney to PNG and the Solomon Islands in July. Western intelligence agencies have said Huawei's technology could be used for espionage - something the company denies. Representatives of the Australian, Japanese and United States governments had no immediate comment on Monday. A spokesman for PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was not immediately available for comment. Jonathan Pryke, of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute think-tank, said those concerned about China's influence had been slow to see the inroads Huawei was making. "We missed the boat on that one," Pryke he said. "I think you'll find there'll be a lot more attention in future to make sure we don't miss the boat." The rivalry over internet infrastructure comes as Papua New Guinea has found itself at the center of a big-power jostle for influence, with China offering cheap loans and development projects and Australia stepping up its own aid contributions. Australia, the United States, Japan and New Zealand this month announced a A$1.7 billion power grid upgrade for PNG, which includes some internet infrastructure, which would mean they were not being completely locked out of the telecommunications sector, Pryke said. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Robert Birsel) SOFIA (Reuters) - Three Bulgarians were arrested and charged over the theft of cryptocurrencies worth about $5 million, the interior ministry and prosecutors' office and said on Monday. Police seized cryptocurrencies worth about $3 million, as well as computers used by the suspects. They also found notebooks listing accounts of people, real and fictitious, used in the scam. The prosecutors said the suspects had very good knowledge of cryptocurrency trading and used innovative methods and specialized software for the theft. According to a report from U.S.-based cyber security firm CipherTrace released last month, theft of cryptocurrencies through hacking of exchanges and trading platforms soared to $927 million in the first nine months of the year, up nearly 250 percent from the level seen in 2017. (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova and Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) One of these couriers of death was 53-year-old Naama Mikdad Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. His book, A Fathers Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror, has just been published and is available at Devonsquarepress.com or Amazon.com. Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. . ..JNS.org..27 November '18..Israel gives the Palestinian Arabs self-rule in large sections of Judea-Samaria, and they use it to promote terrorism.Israel releases Palestinian terrorists from prison as a gesture, and the newly freed prisoners resume engaging in terrorism.Israel permits Arab residents of Gazaenemy territoryspecial permits so that they can receive medical care in Israeli hospitals or to carry out business transactions in Israel, and they use those privileges to assist terror cells.Anybody notice a pattern here?This weeks discovery of a huge Hamas terrorist network in the Palestinian territories is chock full of disturbing lessons. There are many today who look upon the Bible as nothing more than an ancient compilation of misogynistic, homophobic, violent and archaic documents written and edited by a fraternal of men with control issues. Often those who harbour such feelings never actually read the Bible except to Google obscure texts to support their little Facebook stoush in a comment thread. Thoughts and prayers are little comfort for societies sicknesses they claim, whilst doing nothing of positive value themselves. Meanwhile local churches continue to do much practical good all over the earth, something rarely recognized anymore by a generation with its noses stuck so high up in the air they fail to see the good Christianity does for the world. Taking a stand Taking a stand against the new wave of disdain for the Bible is a must for those who know its value. However, a burning, John the Baptist type, prophetic persona that rages against attacks on the faith and stands for Gods law is difficult and tiring to maintain year after year. As the Bible says, we are like sheep and with a nature as such it is hard not to eventually be moved by the overwhelming majority. Satan seems to patiently enjoy house demolition armed with a teaspoon. The apostles warning The Apostles warned us that it would be difficult to stand in the last days. There comes a point where exhaustion from battle means the greatest triumph is not to attack ferociously but simply not to collapse. Of course this stage comes right towards the end. I think the greatest sign that the end of the age may be upon us is not the tsunamis, famines, earthquakes etc., but the difficulty we are having not to give in to the relentless pressure against choosing to live a Godly life in a society who sees no value whatsoever in the Christian faith and teaching. But what are we to stand upon? Saying we stand on the Bible when the world is savvy to the fact that both Christianity and Judaism have dropped certain scriptures as outdated and no longer binding whilst insisting on keeping others convinces nobody. We now have thousands of years of various translations and interpretations, whilst traditions vary from one denomination to the next. Shouting Sola Scripture means nothing to the world and tends to only be used by Christians who are paranoid miracles and spiritual gifts may still be in operation. What is our firm foundation? Jesus still the answer Jesus is still the answer. The incarnate word revealed in flesh is the foundation of our faith and life. The word become flesh will be present and relevant as long as God has a human body to dwell in. Jesus never lessened the authority of scripture. He himself said they cannot be broken. But in fulfilling their intention from beginning to end he demonstrated a life that is beyond reproach, no matter what generational standard it may be set against. The Jews who did not believe resorted to fables and fabrications to discredit their greatest light, and can only resort to the same today. Even Muslims and Hindus hold Jesus in high regard. The truth is as the world changes, so does religion, unless your Amish. The book of Hebrews offers help for those of us caught in the middle of religion in transition. Written to believing priests whose lifestyle and economic situation would have been most affected by becoming disciples of Jesus, the writer assures them of the superiority of Christ over a life where religion, nationalism and provision are completely wrapped up in each other. The rewards of following Jesus and his kingdom are still largely invisible and its not always easy to keep a faith that leads to loss. Seeing Jesus But we see Jesus. That is the difference. Once you have seen Jesus you know the truth. Once you have seen Jesus you can stand no matter what. Once you see Him who others cannot, you can make it to the end. Make no mistake, the Bible stands on Jesus, and so do we. The best Bible translation is the life of Christ. The best defense of our faith is the life of Christ. The word of God is living and powerful, moving through the inner structures of human flesh. You may be confused and exhausted trying to live godly in a evil unbelieving age, but dont give up. Your life is relevant. God is not King James only. You are his latest translation, and Christ is still the central theme. The story of God doesnt start or finish on a printing press. The will of God is revealed in the one who delights to do his will! Lets stand up and be the Word of God we were designed to be! Joshua is a sixth generation house painter. He serves under the ministry of Pastors Ronnie and Shirley Naidoo of KZN Celebration Centre in Tongaat South Africa. He enjoys teaching scripture to both children and adults and has written a book on the sermon on the mount. He enjoys playing basketball and sharing elbows with his opponents. Did you know the political terms left wing and right wing originated in France? After the French Revolution, the 1789 French National Assembly met to prepare drafts for the new constitution. During debate a deep division surfaced. How much authority should be granted to King Louis XV1? The anti-royalists sat to the left of the presiding officer. In the 1790s, newspapers began making reference to the progressive left and the traditionalist right. The terminology spread to English-speaking countries early in the 20th century. Parliamentary seating follows that tradition. In America Democrats and Republicans sit on the opposite side of the House and Senate chambers. The same in Canberra. Left-wing beliefs are liberal. They believe society is best served with an expanded role for the government. People on the right on the other hand, believe the best outcome for society is achieved when individual rights and civil liberties are paramount and the role and especially the power of the government is minimized. Famous left wingers are Barack Obama, Karl Marx, Warren Buffet, Einstein, Bob Hawke. The right wing list includes Rupert Murdock, Ronald Reagan, George Washington, Winston Churchill, Malcolm Turnbull. The two groups have diverse attitudes to social issues, abortion, the death penalty, gay rights and even religion. Most on the right believe standards like the ten commandments should be reflected by government. According to the right the Bible is the guideline for abortion and gay marriage. The left wing believe in secular government applied by the separation of church and state. Rick Warren It is very hard to make this analysis hard and fast, as there will be those on either side who defy definitions. Nevertheless the election of US President Trump unleashed unprecedented displays of right wing support and violently expressed protest. The two sides are passionately opposed to one another. In the heat of the moment these Rick Warren words are enlightening. The coarsening of our culture and the loss of civility in our civilization is one of the things that concerns me most about our nation. We dont know how to disagree without being disagreeable. The fact is you can walk hand in hand without seeing eye-to-eye. And what we need in our country is unity, not uniformity. There are major differences, poltically, religiously, economically in our nation. .What is solvable is how we treat each other with our differencesin fact, the Bible tells me in 1 Peter, show respect to everyone, even people I totally disagree with. So Im coming from that viewpoint in that we must return civility to our civilization in order to get on. But the reason I do that is because of the deeper reason, theres a spiritual root to my reason for civility. Rick Warren. The Christian Left emphasize James chapter 1, verse 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress, and keep oneself, unstained from the world. And James Chapter 2, verses 15,16 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? The website christianleft.org says this: Based on the Word, The Christian Left believes its obvious that the primary message of Jesus was love -- Love for God, and love for our fellow men and women. Many analysts have a negative view of the Religious Right, which they closely link with President George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz. The rebirth of the right in America, they report, was sparked by the Roe v Wade abortion legislation, and the banning of school prayer in Engele v Vitale. Notable Americans on the right include Billy and Franklin Graham, James Dobson, John Hagee, Chuck Norris and Sarah Palin. Australia? This internet comment is interesting: In Australia, the Christian Right dominate in much of northern Queensland, and the infection has also spread into parts of suburban Brisbane as well. It is also rather prevelent in suburban Sydney, New South Wales, particularly in the western parts of Sydney. The Religious Right is also prevelent in South Australia, particularly in suburban Adelaide, as well as parts of Western Australia. (nationalwiki.org). Note the word infection? David wrote: Look, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. (Psalm 133, verse 1) Sadly it reads more like the fanciful words of a poet, rather than a fact. John said: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father also loves the child fathered by him. By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, because everyone who is fathered by God conquers the world. (1 John chapter 5, verses 1-4) I am amazed how easy it is for Christians to disagree. Years ago I sat with a group of leaders to discuss discipline for two teenagers. We talked and even argued for almost two hours. After some heated and passionate exchanges the penny dropped. We realized we were expressing our approach through our ministry gifts Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher. One wanted repentance, another preferred counseling and the other went for Bible study. We were all correct. We just had to agree with all the Bible, not just our preferred bits. Ron Ross is a Middle East consultant for United Christian Broadcasters (Vision FM). Previously he was radio news editor for Bridges for Peace in Jerusalem, Israel. His career started at WINTV (Email: ronandyvonne@mac.com) Ron Ross previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/ron-ross.html In my small island home of Jamaica nestled in the topical region of the Caribbean you can ask 10 people at random if they are a Christian and about 6 out of the 10 will say yes. However, if you ask those same 6 people out of the 10 are you saved? only 1 or 2 will respond with a yes while the others would be uncertain. You would think that being a Christian is synonymous with being saved and it is, but many people dont know what salvation is. What is salvation? To most people its a Christianese word that the pastor uses to give us hope for life in heaven after death but based on my study of the scriptures salvation is so much more. Most Christians think that because they believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they will go to heaven and spend eternity with him and that that is all there is to salvation. But truthfully salvation is the transformation of our lives. It is the reconnecting of the bond that was broken between God and man when Adam and Eve first sinned. Salvation has 3 tenses: present, present continuous and future. Present tense In Romans chapter 10 Paul gives us a good idea of what it requires to be saved. He says we must believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ died and resurrected to save us from our sins and the penalty of our sins. So, it is reasonable to believe once we have done that if we were to die right there our new-found salvation would qualify us for heaven. However, most of us dont die right away. We live and go on to face the struggle of living a holy life in a sinful world and thats where the present continuous tense comes in. Present continuous tense In 1st John 3 and Romans 6 the writers speak very strongly against the idea that because we are saved by grace we now have a license to sin. The whole idea of being saved is not only hinged on avoiding the eternal consequences of sin (Hell) but also the earthly consequences (heart break, broken relationships, broken homes, jail, tarnished reputations, etc.) Living a sin free life as someone who is born again of the Spirit of God is the hallmark of salvation in our day to day lives. However, most if not all Christians have a hard time living the new life God has called us to because we are still tempted, and we still must deal with the urges of our flesh. Even Paul refers to the tug-of-war battle between spirit and flesh he himself also faced in Romans 7. As a matter of fact, so many Christians have been defeated over and over by their flesh that they have become complacent and have formulated a less than biblical impression of salvation in their minds believing that they can never live a day without sinning as long as they live in their physical bodies. This results in them denying themselves the power of the Holy Spirit who has begun a good work within them and wants to bring it to completion but that requires total surrender from the individual. It is true that for most of us we dont stop sinning as soon as we have become a Christian but we must grow into the holiness God has called us to. It may take a lifetime but our progress must be constant and that requires a close relationship with God. Without that we forfeit the power that is available to us to live day by day free from sin. Future Tense This refers to our most common understanding of salvation and is hinged on the return of Christ and Judgment day. Those of us who have found faith in Christ and have kept the faith will be rewarded for doing just that. Our faith in Christ makes us Children on God (1st John chapter 3 and Romans chapter 8) and because of this we have the Holy Spirit within us who not only acts as our spiritual guide and powerhouse but also as a seal on our lives guaranteeing our position in Heaven when we die (2nd Corinthians chapter 1 and Ephesians chapter 1). But if we presumptuously live in a manner that dishonours the Lord we deny the Holy Spirit the opportunity to make us Holy and so we deny our salvation. If we deny our salvation, the penalty for our sin still stands and we will experience much misfortune not only in this life but also in the life to come. Any one of us may get the impression that I am saying we must be good to earn our way into Heaven, but salvation is still given by grace through faith in Christ (Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8-9). Without the Holy Spirit holy living is impossible, trying to live holy without depending on him is futile. So, no it is not our goodness that saves us it is our faith in Christ and our surrender to his Holy Spirit. Darren Salmon is from Kingston, Jamaica where he studied Bachelor of Science degree in BioTechnology at the University of West Indies. He became a follower of Jesus when he was 10 and has since developed a ministry of Christian Poetry for which he has gained a godly reputation. He became a young writer with Christian Today through the recommendation of Stacy-Ann Smith an established and award winning young writer. TUESDAY, Nov. 27, 2018 (HealthDay News) --What if a simple zap to the spine could relieve the debilitating lower back and leg pain brought on by a herniated disk? Such is the promise of "pulse radiofrequency" therapy (pRF), which sends inflammation-reducing pulses of energy to nerve roots in the spine, a new study claims. The therapy is not new, having first received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in the 1980s. But recent advances in CT scan technology now enable clinicians to deploy those energy pulses with much more accuracy, experts said. And the new research suggests the treatment could prove a boon to back pain patients for whom standard therapies have failed to do the trick. "I was amazed with the results of pRF," said study author Dr. Alessandro Napoli. "Especially having read, as a radiologist, numerous lumbar MRI scans of patients with recurrent hernia after surgery." And as a patient himself, Napoli added that "from personal experience I can tell you that the treatment is not painful, and the results are appreciated within days after a single treatment lasting 10 minutes." Napoli is a professor of interventional radiology at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy. He and his colleagues plan to report their findings Tuesday at the Radiological Society of North America annual meeting, in Chicago. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Lower disk herniation results when the insulating disks that sit between spinal vertebrae tear open, allowing jelly-like material to protrude and exert pressure on surrounding nerve roots. Beyond lower back pain, the condition often triggers sciatica, a pain that radiates down a patient's leg. Standard therapies include over-the-counter pain meds, corticosteroid spinal injections, and/or invasive spine surgery that sometimes involves disk removal and vertebrae fusion. The problem, said Napoli, is that such options entail risks without assured relief. "Steroid injections are effective only in portion of the patients, and generally require more sessions," he noted. And though surgery safety has "largely improved," Napoli pointed to the risk for bleeding and infection, the need for a minimum two- to three-day hospital stay, the high cost, and the fact that some patients ultimately realize little benefit. By contrast, pRF is scalpel-free, delivering radio signals directly to affected nerves via a CT scan-guided electrode. The process, said Napoli, requires no hospital stay, is noninvasive, far cheaper and less risky. "The rationale for using pRF on disk herniation is that we eliminate the inflammation process of the compromised nerve root," he explained. "Without inflammation the pain fades, and the body starts a self-healing process that allows for complete resolution of the disk herniation in a large proportion of patients." For the study, the Italian investigators compared 128 lumbar herniation patients who underwent a single 10-minute round of CT-guided pRF with 120 patients who received one to three rounds of steroid injections. All the patients had already undergone standard interventions, with poor results. By the one-year mark following either treatment, a full "perceived" recovery was reported by 95 percent of the pRF patients, compared with just 61 percent of the steroid injection patients. Dr. Daniel Park, director of minimally invasive orthopedic spine surgery at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., offered some caution on the findings. He noted that because "the majority of people with back pain improve with time and exercise alone," it remains an open question as to whether the pRF procedure really cured the condition. Still, Park noted that diagnostic uncertainty can undermine the ability of surgery to get at the true source of a patient's pain, given that "the problem with low back pain is that there are many causes of it, and physicians have trouble identifying the cause of pain." Nevertheless, he remains unsure if pRF is truly ready for prime time. "Best case, I think [pRF] could be an option for people if they [have already] failed therapy and medication," said Park. "It may be a similar option for people if they do not or cannot have steroid injections, but they need more treatment. I think this is experimental, and should not be first-line." More information The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons offers more information on herniated disks. MONDAY, Nov. 26, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Do so-called hypoallergenic dogs really protect you against asthma? Many dog-lovers believe it, but Swedish researchers found no evidence that "allergy-friendly" breeds -- such as poodles and miniature Schnauzers -- actually lower the risk for the wheezing lung disease. Previous studies have shown that growing up with dogs can reduce a child's asthma risk, but researchers wondered if the type of dog makes a difference. For this study, they wanted to see if variables such as sex, breed, size or number of dogs affected the risk of asthma and allergy during a child's first year of life. Researcher Tove Fall of Uppsala University in Sweden led the study. She's a senior lecturer in the department of medical sciences. "The sex of the dog can affect the amount of allergens released, and we know that uncastrated male dogs express more of a particular allergen than castrated dogs and female dogs," Fall said. "Moreover, some breeds are described anecdotally as 'hypoallergenic' or 'allergy friendly' and are said to be more suitable for people with allergies, but there is no scientific evidence for this." For the study, the researchers collected data on 23,600 children, born in Sweden between 2001 and 2004, who had a dog in their home for the first year of life. The investigators linked that information with two dog owner registries that classified dogs by sex, breed, number, size and claimed "hypoallergenicity." The researchers then compared the dogs' characteristics to the risk of asthma and allergies or the prescription of asthma or allergy drugs for children at age 6. They took into account known factors that could affect risk, including parental asthma and allergy, geographical location and number of siblings. The analysis revealed that 5.4 percent of 6-year-olds had asthma. And children who had female dogs had a 16 percent lower risk than those with male dogs. But living with a male dog did not put kids at higher risk than having no dog at all, the findings showed. And children in families with two or more dogs had a 21 percent lower risk of asthma than those with just one. Kids whose parents themselves have asthma or allergies more often had dogs described as "hypoallergenic" than did other children (12 percent versus 8 percent), according to the report. Exposure to these breeds was tied to a 27 percent higher risk of allergy, but no increased risk for asthma. Study co-author Catarina Almqvist Malmros is a professor in the department of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Malmros cautioned that the study findings can't prove that certain breeds cause asthma or allergies, only that there is an association. "The likely explanation for this higher risk is that families with a history of allergy to furred pets more often choose these dogs, and also that 'allergy-friendly' dogs do not in fact release less allergens," she said in a university news release. The report was published online Nov. 15 in the journal Scientific Reports. More information To learn more about asthma, visit the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu laid foundation stone for construction of Kartarpur Sahib corridor on Indian side at Mann village in Gurdaspur district, Punjab. The corridor will provide visa free passage to Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit holy site of Gurudwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan. Gurudwara Darbar Sahib It is 16th century Gurdwara located on the banks of the river Ravi in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located about 3 to 4km from Indo-Pak border in Pakistan in Punjab. This gurudwara was established by the first Sikh Guru in 1522. It is important for Sikhs as Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism and its first guru had assembled Sikh community and lived for 18 years until his death in 1539. Kartarpur Corridor It will road link that will connect Indias border district of Gurdaspur with historic Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. It purpose to let Sikh pilgrims visit holy shrine without visa and to help them walk across and come back without having to secure visa. Indian side of corridor will start from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district and extends upto International border between India and Pakistan. The corridor will be developed by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and will be funded by the Union Government. The project corridor is 4 lanes with service road and will encompass all other appropriate amenities needed by pilgrims while visiting the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. It will help to boost tourism and people to people contact between both countries as more pilgrims will visit holy shrine throughout the year between two countries. Background India had first proposed Kartarpur Sahib corridor in 1999 when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took bus ride to Lahore. Recently this year Pakistan had decided to revive this proposal and built corridor on side. Union Government had decided to build this corridor upto international border between India and Pakistan as integrated development project to mark 550th birth anniversary of the Guru Nanak Dev Ji in 2019. Union Government has signed $200 million loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Bihar State Highways III Project (BSHP-III). It will finance widening and upgrading of about 230 kms state highways in Bihar to all-weather standards with road safety features. Since 2008, ADB has provided four loans to Bihar amounting to $1.43 billion to upgrade about 1,453 km of State Highways and to construct new bridge over Ganga River near Patna (on completion it will be the Indias longest river bridge). Bihar State Highways III Project (BSHP-III) It was approved by ADB Board in October 2018. It aims at upgrading State Highways to standard two-lane width with road safety features and paved shoulders including reconstructing, widening and strengthening culverts and bridges. It also seeks to build institutional capacity of State for road design and maintenance and incorporate appropriate new technologies in the States road sub-sector. The improved roads under the Project will contribute to savings in vehicle operating cost and travel time, reduce vehicle emissions and improve road safety. This loan will complement efforts of Bihar Government to upgrade all state highways to meet minimum two-lane standard with better surfaces and improved road safety leading to improved connectivity. It will also establish State-level Road Research Institute to improve technical and management capacity of Road Agency Staff. Asian Development Bank (ADB) ADB is a regional development bank based out of Asia. It aims to promote social and economic development in Asia by achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. It was established in December 1966. It is headquartered at Ortigas Centre in Manila, Philippines. It has total 67 members, of which 48 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside India and China have signed protocol to amend Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) for the avoidance of double taxation and for prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income by allowing exchange of information. Under Section 90 of Income-tax Act, 1961, India can enter into agreement with foreign country or specified territory for the avoidance of double taxation of income, for exchange of information for the prevention of evasion. Key Facts The Protocol to amend DTAA with China updates existing provisions for exchange of information to latest international standards. It incorporates changes required to implement treaty related minimum standards under the Action reports of Base Erosion & Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. Besides minimum standards, it also brings in changes as per BEPS Action reports as agreed upon by the two sides. It will help prevent tax evasion by allowing the exchange of information. Matthew Hedges' devoted wife could hardly bear the terror in his voice as he sobbed down a crackly phone line.It was the first time she had spoken to the young academic her husband of barely two years since he was marched from a court to start a life sentence in a hellhole Arab prison.His crime? Being a British spy. Posing as a student to 'spy for and on behalf of a foreign state' and 'jeopardising the military, economic and political security of the United Arab Emirates.'Crimes he vehemently denies, and crimes everyone who knows Mr Hedges agrees would be laughable if they weren't so deadly serious.'There is no way he is a spy,' says his wife, Daniela Tejada. 'He would be hopeless at it.'She was in court for the five-minute hearing, during which her 'good-natured' husband had stood, shaking with fear, surrounded by armed guards. There were no hugs goodbye, no final words. She had to wait another 24 hours to talk to him. When they were connected, he began with an upbeat: 'Hello my love,' but soon cracked.'He was absolutely terrified of the idea of spending his whole life behind bars for a crime he didn't commit,' Miss Tejada said, speaking exclusively to the Mail yesterday.'I could hear the terror in his voice. His voice was breaking and he was just crying.' The 31-year-old PhD student, found guilty of being an MI6 spy at a hearing in a secretive Abu Dhabi court on Wednesday, was in failing health and suffering panic attacks, she said, adding: 'I tried to reassure him.'I told him this thing had got a lot bigger than any of us could ever expect.'For Mr Hedges, who spent six months in solitary confinement and signed a confession under duress, his wife's words are all he can cling to.Miss Tejada who says she and her husband are 'each other's rock' vowed: 'He won't live life behind bars, because I'm not going to allow it. I will fight and fight and fight till he comes home.'Miss Tejada, who is only 27, has certainly been doing that, and her fierce determination and measured words in public at least are almost certainly her husband's best hope of seeing an end to his nightmare.Almost immediately after leaving the Abu Dhabi courtroom, she penned a letter to the Emirati rulers begging for clemency.She said: 'It was from the whole family. We gave testament to Matt's good character and explained how his family need him home.'I am just hopeful that the UAE rulers will see it in their hearts to grant Matt clemency. This is an innocent man's life, and also it is my life and I couldn't be more innocent.'I just want to be able to dream about our future.'People always ask if my life is on hold while Matt's in prison, and the answer is always no, because he is my life and that goes for the good times as much as the bad times.'I won't rest until he is back. Matt deserves it.'Mr Hedges, a Durham University student, was arrested on May 5 at the end of a two-week trip to interview sources for his PhD thesis into military and security policies in the United Arab Emirates.UAE looks at plea for clemencyThe United Arab Emirates was last night considering an appeal for presidential clemency from Matthew Hedges' family.It also happens that Thursday is UAE National Day when pardons are granted.Clemency may involve some admission of guilt from Mr Hedges but this may be seen as being a price worth paying.UAE ambassador Sulaiman Hamid Almazroui said: 'We have an extremely close partnership with the UK. Because of the strength of that relationship we are hopeful that an amicable solution can be reached.'Mr Hedges insists he was conducting research for his PhD thesis, but prosecutors said he confessed to spying charges.An expert on the region said the research did not threaten the UAE. Chris Davidson, a former reader in Middle East politics and a fellow at Durham University, who helped to supervise Mr Hedges' research, said the facts in it were in the public domain. He added: 'The overall flavour was sympathetic to the UAE, absolutely of no use to an intelligence agency. There was nothing classified.'Someone in the authoritarian regime clearly took exception to his academic work, and he was arrested as he tried to leave Dubai airport.He was interrogated for six weeks, held in a wretched cell without a mattress, and not allowed access to a lawyer for more than five months. His wife was allowed to visit him only once, and found him in a trembling state of terror and paranoia.Week after week she badgered the Foreign Office to intervene, but got nowhere until she went public last month. She said she had to fight for him because no one else had.However, she is modest about her role, saying only: 'I don't think he needs to know what I did, it's just that I love him, I want him back he is my husband.'We have been married less than two years. It wasn't even about our marriage vows, I would have done it anyway, but I promised to love and support him 'for better or worse', and, well, this has been at the worst end of the spectrum.'Locked up for five months alone, without books, newspapers, TV or radio, and subjected to brutal interrogations, Mr Hedges became so traumatised he resorted to making himself vomit every day, as a form of control. Yet, startlingly, Miss Tejada said her husband who grew up in the UAE and knows the country well refused to resent the second home he loves and admires so much for what it was doing to him.She said: 'Part of my admiration for him is that he's so good natured, and despite the mistreatment he's been subjected to, he still doesn't hold any resentment to the UAE.'He is just actually sad that he will now have such horrible memories to associate with it.'She pauses and begins to well up with tears, adding: 'When I think about Matt and begin to cry, I always just look up to the ceiling and take a deep breath, and then I can carry on.Colombian-born Miss Tejada, a PR executive, met Mr Hedges at Exeter University eight years ago when she still a teenager.She was a 19-year-old undergraduate from Bogota and he was a 23-year-old finishing his masters in Middle East international relations.'It wasn't really love at first sight,' she confesses. 'We met in the summer. When we met I actually didn't think much of him. It took a couple of dates before I fell for him.'But he is probably the most noble man I have ever met.'He is incredibly good-natured, very smart and a really nice guy.'He has a lot of ambition and drive, and I really respect that he is a man of principle and that's something we share. He's just a man of conviction.'Mr Hedges was born in Croydon, south London, and grew up with his mother and stepfather, who had a daughter when he was nine.The family lived in Dubai for many of his teenage years and, after studying at Exeter, he returned to work there.Miss Tejada said: 'We dated for a month. Then he went back to the UAE, and we had a long-distance relationship for three years. Then I had to decide what to do, whether to go back to Colombia or what. And he said, 'Why don't you come to the UAE?' and so I did.'The couple married in January 2017 on Dartmoor in Devon. 'It was a winter wedding,' she recalls. 'We met in Exeter and we both love Dartmoor. It was the perfect place. It wasn't very big, there were just 15 people, it was very intimate.'Ours is a relationship of commitment built on respect.'I have absolute trust in him, and I would never question the character of his work. Over the past few years, I have been his editor and research assistant, so I know almost every detail about his research work.'But was he naive to think the notoriously draconian Emirati regime which routinely locks up drunken British expats would not mind him investigating its secret services for his thesis?She said: 'A lot of people on social media called him an idiot. He's not an idiot. He knows exactly his field of research, and knows the country, and would not have done anything to offend his hosts.'It has been a terrible mistake. But nobody should have their security threatened just for producing academic work.'After returning to the UK on Thursday, Miss Tejada, met Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and later said she had been assured that British officials were doing 'everything in their power' to bring her husband home.However, a frank statement by Abdulla Al Naqbi, the head of the UAE's department of legal affairs at the ministry of foreign affairs and international co-operation, set out the country's position.Mr Al Naqbi said: 'The UAE respects the rule of law and is committed to upholding the highest judicial standards.'Like all countries with an independent judiciary, it is vital that the government does not attempt to interfere in court cases.'Two weeks before his sentencing, Mr Hedges was allowed out on bail and his wife was able to fly out to Dubai to stay with him, and help rebuild his strength.Even after this week's shocking setback, she still clings on to thoughts of his homecoming.Miss Tejada said: 'Matt is a strong man, but is very weakened by this experience and he will need a lot of support.'I feel like we are each other's rock. I'm just prepared to look after him and protect him.'And what is she planning for a homecoming treat? 'We love cooking,' she said.'It's funny you ask, because on the weekend he was due to arrive home, back in May, we were planning to have a barbecue.'It was a practice BBQ for the next weekend, which was the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan. He was really looking forward to it.'So last week I asked him what he was looking forward to when he finally came back, and he said, 'Having that barbecue!'.'We don't care if it's cold. We love winter barbecues.'He will also need a lot of sleeping and trying to recover from these months that have been hell on Earth.' About Documentation Centre The Documentation Centre of ICSF was initiated in 1999, in Chennai, India. The main aims behind the setting up of the Centre were to disseminate relevant information pertinent to small-scale fisheries and fishworkers in a format that would be easily available. The focus areas of information collection of the DC has been: artisanal fisheries, working conditions of fishworkers, fishworkers unions, fishworker movements, social security, women in fisheries, fisheries statistics, fishing technology, fishing communities, aquaculture, fisheries trade, fisheries management, coastal ecosystems and legal instruments, from different parts of the world. It was December 1989. Prem fell in love with Suman, and the entire nation fell in love with the pretty lass in Sooraj Barjatyas classic romantic tale Maine Pyar Kiya. Actress Bhagyashree Dassani who attained stardom overnight, has earlier acted in a couple of Kannada films including the popular Ammavra Ganda alongside Century Star Shivarajkumar, and a remake of Kannada classic Om directed by Real Star Upendra in Telugu Omkaram. She now returns to Kannada for the Nikhil Kumar and Rachita Ram starrer Seetharama Kalyana, in a special role. In an exclusive interview with Bengaluru Chronicle, the lovely actress who is also busy shooting for 2 States in Telugu, in which she plays a Bengali mother, talks about past ventures, her fitness and nutrition classes which she exclusively takes for a few select clients across the globe, and her thoughts on a newer version of Maine Pyar Kiya, and more. The actress announced that she is ready to take up more challenging roles in the future too. I have had a great experience working in all my Kannada films thanks to the good directors I have had, and the entire casting team. It was like a homecoming for me while working for Seetharama Kalyana. It was all thanks to director A Harsha with whose assistance, I was able to pull it off. It was he who made me understand every single dialogue which helped me emote to such precision while acting. I share a unique chemistry with Nikhil Kumar in the movie which the audience will find surprising, says Bhagyashree Dasani, giving us a peek into the film. For her, after being on a hiatus for long, it is the variety of roles she has had the opportunity to portray in Kannada movies that has given her immense satisfaction as an artiste. Insofar as her other south Indian ventures are concerned, she has been shooting for 2 States in Telugu, where she plays the role portrayed by actress Revathi in the original Hindi version. In between, she acted in a television series titled Laut Aao Trisha. A couple of years ago, I had a health issue. I couldnt move an arm, and the doctors had advised me to get it operated to make it functional again. However, I decided not to get it operated, and let it heal the natural way through exercise and healthy living. This is when I started studying about fitness. I attained several degrees including ones from standard American Universities like Standford and Pennsylvania. Now, I run exclusive fitness and nutrition classes for clients across the globe, of which a majority are connected with me digitally, she adds. She explains that it is never too late to learn new things, and one doesnt really need to age if a healthy way of life is adopted and followed religiously. Health issues, fitness and nutrition education kept me busy and hence I didnt take up more work so I could balance work and studies. I have hardly spoken or publicised much of about myself. Now, I am ready to take up more challenging work. I guess I am ready for it now, the actress says. The actress who married her school sweetheart Himalaya Dasani, and has two children hopes to straddle both her professions now. With a few classic Hindi films being remade in Hindi, what of the blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya? She says that she had in fact interacted with Sooraj Barjatya himself, who expressed that it would be challenging to recreate such an innocent love tale in the present context. I would love to see a newer version of it. I guess it is truly a classic for the reason that it is difficult to find such innocent love today. But, it will be a challenging task for sure, says the actress who is from the Sangli Royal family. Before they return to Bhutan, the girls will continue their recovery at a retreat in the town of Kilmore outside Melbourne (Photo: AP) Melbourne: Formerly conjoined twins from Bhutan were released from an Australian hospital on Monday more than two weeks after they were separated in a delicate surgery. The 15-month-old girls Nima and Dawa were joined from the lower chest to just above the pelvis and shared a liver. They were separated during an operation at Melbournes Royal Childrens Hospital on Nov. 9 that lasted almost six hours. A major challenge had been to reconstruct their abdomens. Thank you, everyone, their grateful mother, Bhumchu Zangmo, said as she wheeled her daughters from the hospital where their lives have been transformed since their arrival on Oct. 2. The hospitals head of pediatric surgery Joe Crameri told reporters the twins had made an excellent recovery and were acting independently. I think to the staff on the wards theyve seen a remarkable two girls, girls that weve watched over this journey who started off really attached and bonded to one another, but ultimately frustrated with one another, Crameri said. The twins had become incredibly anxious after the separation when they became aware that they were no longer in front of each other, he said. Over the last couple of weeks, weve seen them gain confidence, weve seen them gain independence, weve seen them gain a lot of strengths, Crameri said. Before they return to Bhutan, the girls will continue their recovery at a retreat in the town of Kilmore outside Melbourne run by the charity that brought them to Australia, the Children First Foundation. Visakhapatnam: The yellowish Niger flower (Valisilu), one of the most preferred backdrops for tourists to take snaps in the picturesque Araku Valley in Vizag Agency is gradually disappearing as a majority of the farmers in tribal pockets are moving on from this oil seed crop to other crops. Sustained losses due to a parasite are being blamed for the situation. Niger botanical name Guizotia abyssinica is an erect, stout, branched annual herb, grown for its edible oil and seed. Niger oil seeds are widely used for manufacturing of cosmetics and also paintings in the country. The golden yellow plant flowers in winter season in Araku, Paderu and a few other areas in Vizag Agency and is the major attraction, drawing visitors from all parts of the country. However, the area under cultivation of Niger has declined to 10,000 acres in Vizag from over 20,000 acres as one root parasite called as Cuscuta (Dodder) in local parlance Bangarutiga or Jalendri has taken its toll. Bangarutiga has destroyed our hopes on high yield of Niger. For past few years, the crop has suffered due to the attack by the parasitic weed. Now, I am growing millets instead of the Niger as I wasnt able to find the best way to kill Pangarutiga and protect the crop, says Pangi Ande, a tribal farmer from Balyaguda area under Dumbriguda mandal in Vizag Agency. The extent of Niger is around 40,000 acres in Andhra Pradesh and over 15,000 acres in Vizag and Vizianagaram districts. Due to various factors, particularly attack by the root parasite, now the area has been shrinking in Vizag region, says S.N. Sudhakar Babu, principal scientist of Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (IIOR) of ICAR. The average yield is 1.6 quintals per acre in Vizag region and the potential yield is around 3-4 quintals in hilly areas, depending upon rain and other factors. Sydney: Australia unveiled a radical plan on Thursday to strip convicted terrorists of their citizenship even if they are native-born Australians. Acting after a series of Jihadist-inspired plots and attacks in the country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government needed expanded powers to withdraw citizenship from anyone found guilty of terrorist activity. People who commit acts of terrorism have rejected absolutely everything that this country stands for, Morrison told a hastily organised press conference. This is something that can't be tolerated, and for those who would engage in this sort of activity, and they have citizenship elsewhere, or we have reason to believe they do, they can go. Australia's current Citizenship Act allows authorities to revoke citizenship from people jailed for six years or more for terrorist activities, but only if they are already dual nationals.Morrison called these limits unrealistic. 'Former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen tried to play India against China as a puppet master but we know the importance of India as an ally which has always come to the aid of Maldives,' Shahid said. (Photo: File) Male: Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Monday alleged that former president Abdulla Yameen had tried to play India against China as a "puppet master" and said the new government was looking into the deals made with China to assess the debt accumulation. Maldives knows the importance of India as it was an "important" partner, said Shahid who was on his first visit to India after assuming charge as the foreign minister of Maldives. The visit assumes significance as the ties between both the countries were severely strained under the previous government in the island nation. Maldivian Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, who is also part of a delegation of minister visiting India, also said the new government had identified a number of projects undertaken with China that were bought at an "inflated price" and it was in the process of assessing how much debt was accumulated. The remarks of both the foreign and finance ministers of Maldives assume significance as reports suggest that China had been trying to expand its influence over the island nation. Ameer said, "The Chinese portion of investment is taking long in assessment because all these deals took place in secrecy." Shahid targeted former president Abdulla Yameen, alleging he tried to play India against China. "Former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen tried to play India against China as a puppet master but we know the importance of India as an ally which has always come to the aid of Maldives," he told reporters at a gathering of Foreign Correspondents Club. He said Maldives considered India such an "important partner" that new Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih would be making his first foreign visit to here on December 17. Shahid, however, said that on the 'Belt and Road Initiative', the country would continue their cooperation with not only China but with other countries too. Ameer said they have identified a number of projects which were bought at an "inflated price" from China. These projects are China-Maldives Bridge, port development project and a project involving construction of around 1,000 housing units, he said. "We believe most of these projects have been bought at an inflated price and we are looking into them. But you have to understand that all these projects are now completed and we cannot renegotiate them. "In going forward, our main objective would be to reduce the cost of these infrastructure projects," Ameer told reporters. Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail said, "We are trying to put past last five years of instability in the Maldives and we will try to resolve all differences between Maldivian and Indian investors." "In that regard, we are hoping to strengthen our bilateral trade. We are hoping to enter into a bilateral treaty with India on increasing investment," he said. He also said they were planning to ease visa norms so that Indian investors could travel to Maldives for business. Ameer said Maldives was mainly seeking budget support in healthcare projects among others. Shahid said Maldives had requested India to give it a Dornier aircraft and the External Affairs Ministry had "promised that it would be delivered soon". "During Yameen's time, Yameen ditched the Dornier gifted by India to get aircraft from Pakistan as Pakistan was giving it as loan and they prefer loan so they could get commission from it. But we will prefer a gift and we want to continue working with the Indian government," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on November 17 in Male. Tel Aviv: Israel has called upon Pakistan to "ensure full justice" to the 26/11 terror attack victims on the 10th anniversary of the carnage that had left 166 people, including six Israelis, dead in Mumbai. At a memorial event organised on Monday evening by the Indian mission here to mark the anniversary, Michael Ronen, Director, South & South East Asia Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel emphasised that it was important for the international community, especially Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators and facilitators of the ghastly attacks do not go scott free. "It is important to provide full justice to the victims and their families," Ronen said, urging "all governments, including the Government of Pakistan, to ensure that perpetrators and facilitators of the attack are brought to justice." The Israeli diplomat also underlined that the objective of the attack was to cripple the Indian society, economy and culture, as well as the growing bilateral relationship between India and Israel. In this regard, "the terrorist attack failed miserably as the Indian economy has continued to grow stronger, its culture remains invincible and bilateral ties continue to reach new heights," he noted. Asserting that terrorism can only be defeated by international cooperation, Ronen "again called upon the Government of Pakistan to ensure full justice to the victims and their families." The event was attended by members of the Indian community in Israel, some Indians visiting the country and also Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, who lost his daughter Rivka and son-in-law Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg in the attack on Nariman House. The couple's two year old son, Moshe, survived the attack thanks to a daring move by his nanny, Sandra Samuels, who risked her own life and rescued the boy by grabbing him while he cried sitting next to the bullet ridden bodies of his dead parents and fleeing the building in a swift move. Sandra's pictures of holding the little boy close to her chest after escaping from the place touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world. She was later honoured with honourary citizenship by the Israeli government and now lives in Jerusalem. The ceremony began with observance of one-minute silence in honour of the victims. India's Ambassador to Israel, Pavan Kapoor, speaking at the event stressed that the worst terrorist attack on the Indian soil "should motivate the world to unite against terrorism and defeat the ideology of hatred". Kapoor pointed out that the planners and facilitators of the attack in Pakistan have not yet been brought to justice and, in this context, welcomed the statement of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. He expressed hope that other countries would follow the US lead and call upon Pakistan to uphold its obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including the members of Lashkar-e-Taeba and its affiliates. Young peoples lack of interest in manufacturing jobs is one of the biggest challenges to firms. Photo by Shutterstock/Thi Young peoples lack of interest in manufacturing jobs has led to a manpower shortage in the sector, a survey has found. The survey, by Navigos Group, a leading recruitment company, released Wednesday said 42 percent of manufacturing firms polled said this is one of the biggest challenges to them. With the digital transformation brought about by the fourth industrial revolution, young people's increased proactiveness and attractive job alternatives "undoubtedly affect the career choices of young professionals," it said. But the top challenge is the competitive market, with 58 percent of employers saying it is difficult to hire people. Almost four out of 10 employers said the long distance between the workplace and the nearest city is a challenge. They were referring both to employees moving in near the workplace and commuting daily to work. These have resulted in a manpower shortage. The shortage affects existing workers, with 37 percent saying their workload increased as a result and 7 percent even having difficulty making time for personal activities. Employers said the top reasons for the manpower shortage are a lack of qualified candidates (35 percent), compensation- and benefit-related factors (17 percent) and not enough candidates overall (14 percent). To address their manpower shortage, manufacturing businesses are tying up with schools to find candidates. Vocational schools rank highest among their list of preferred training facilities (49 percent), followed by universities (42 percent) and junior colleges (24 percent). However, the manufacturing sector also has a high rate of employee loyalty, with 73 percent of employers having a turnover rate of below 20 percent. Forty percent of the workers surveyed said they have been at the current firm for over five years, and almost a quarter (23 percent), from three to five years. The top reason for quitting is uncompetitive salary and benefits (49 percent). Unclear promotion policies is second (43 percent) followed by low and slow salary increases (30 percent). Other reasons for quitting are differences with the direct manager, location far from the nearest city and workplace pollution. Gaku Echizenya, CEO of Navigos Group Vietnam, said unless Vietnam takes action to accelerate the technological transition, it risks "losing an attractive profile in the eyes of foreign investors." "All in all, efforts made by businesses to invest in machinery and tools must be solidified by improving the quality of manpower." The survey polled over 3,200 employees and 200 employers in the manufacturing sector. Porters load bags of dried longan fruit onto a truck in preparation for export to China at Dong Dang town, on the border with China, in Vietnam's northern Lang Son. Photo by Reuters/Kham China is not looking to chase a surplus and create a trade imbalance with Vietnam, new Chinese ambassador reiterates. It is aware of the problem and is taking steps to deal with the situation, Xiong Bo, the newly appointed ambassador to Vietnam, told VnExpress. Vietnam's trade deficit with China in the first ten months this year was $20 billion, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The deficit in 2017 was more than $22.7 billion, and in 2016, $28 billion. Vietnam mostly imports machinery, component parts, electronics products, fertilizer, coal, tobacco material and fresh fruits, while exporting low value products like rubber, fruits, wood, and rice. Ambassador Bo noted that Vietnam was Chinas biggest trade partner in Southeast Asia and eighth biggest in the world. But the trade balance between Vietnam and China is something that should be taken into consideration, Xiong Bo acknoweldged. He told VnExpress that the main reason for the deficit was the difference in the economic models between Vietnam and China. "China does not want to chase after trade surplus and create deficits for Vietnam and has applied methods to deal with the situation," he said. China supports Vietnam in establishing trade promotion centers on its land and gives priority for Vietnam in trade exhibitions and fairs, he added. Early this month, Vietnam was invited to attend the China International Import Expo (CIIE) 2018 as an honored guest. In a meeting with Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the sidelines of the CIIE, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that his country doesnt want to pursue a trade surplus with Vietnam, and will increase imports from Vietnam towards achieving more balanced and sustainable bilateral trade. Attending the CIIE, Prime Minister Phuc said: "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." 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, according to Vietnam's General Statistics Office. The Dong Dang-Tra Linh express way will connect with another one that is being constructed to link the northern provinces of Bac Giang and Lang Son. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Duy Vietnam plans to build a 115km expressway connecting northern Lang Son and Cao Bang provinces on the Chinese border to foster their development. At a meeting with Cao Bang authorities last Saturday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc agreed to implement the project in public-private partnership (PPP) mode, saying it would be a breakthrough in advancing Cao Bang' development. "The expressway will open a new direction for transport, trade and socio-economic development for poorer provinces like Cao Bang." The expressway will run from the intersection of Tra Linh border economic zone in Cao Bang to the high-speed intersection of the Tan Thanh border gate in Lang Son. It will have four lanes, be 17 meters wide and allow vehicles to ply at 80 kilometers per hour. The expressway will have six tunnels through mountains and 18 viaducts and cost nearly VND21 trillion ($895.75 million). Cao Bang Province is expected to invest more than VND7.5 trillion ($319.91 million), mainly in the form of land, while funds brought in by investors and borrowings are expected to be VND13 trillion ($554.51 million). Pleading a resource constraint, Cao Bang has proposed construction in phases. The first phase, in 2019-2020, will see the construction of an 80-kilometer stretch from the Tan Thanh border gate in Lang Son to Cao Bang city at a cost of VND10 trillion ($426.55 million). The remaining 35 kilometers will be built in the second phase. The government has approved allocation of funds for the work. The VND10 trillion in phase one will consist of VND2 trillion ($85.3 million) from the governments coffers, VND2 trillion from the province and VND6 trillion ($255.93 million) from private investors. In 2016 the Government had approved construction of the 144-kilometer Dong Dang-Tra Linh expressway at a cost of VND47 trillion ($2 billion). Dong Dang is a town in Lang Son, and Tra Linh is a district in Cao Bang. The PM had instructed the Ministry of Planning and Investment to allocate funds for the project, with an estimated $300 million to be borrowed from China. But the deal fell through due to issues with loan conditions. The plans have been altered to make the expressway shorter and cheaper. The logo of KEB Hana bank is seen on a building in Seoul, South Korea. Photo by Shutterstock/TK Kurikawa South Korean banks are setting themselves up to score big in Vietnam as foreign ownership limits would be loosened. South Koreas second-largest lender by assets, KEB Hana Bank, is interested in buying a 17.65 percent stake in the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), a source told the Nikkei Asian Review. BIDV is currently the second-largest state-owned lender in Vietnam by assets. 95.28 percent of its equity belongs to the countrys central bank, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). The SBV has "proposed to sell" the stake to KEB Hana for 30 billion won ($26.6 million), said the source, who requested anonymity. Last year, Shinhan Bank, a commercial banking unit under Seoul-based Shinhan Financial Group, acquired ANZ Vietnams retail unit, bringing along the Australian banks 95,000 credit card customers. Shinhan Bank has recently become the largest foreign bank in Vietnam with $3.3 billion in assets, surpassing HSBC. Vietnam presented a draft securities law in Hanoi earlier this month that would remove the current 49 percent foreign ownership cap in many sectors, allowing majority or even 100 percent ownership of a company. Although the limit for banks remains at 30 percent, government economic advisor Can Van Luc said at the draft presentation forum on November 7 that authorities would consider raising this limit for banks on a case-by-case basis, Reuters reported. Analysts say Vietnam's growth potential and deregulation plans make it an attractive market for South Korean banks. "Vietnam is the most desirable market among emerging countries," said Seo Young-soo, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities. "It has more advanced urbanization, and its market is more concentrated compared to Indonesia. Its government-driven economic development model is also familiar to South Korean banks, which have grown under the same strategy," Seo told Nikkei. Data from the Seoul-based regulator Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) show that total assets held by South Korean banks in Vietnam increased 18.9 percent last year to $5.7 billion. This ratio is higher than that of foreign lenders overall, whose combined total assets increased 12.9 percent to $42 billion during the same period, FSS said. South Korean lenders' combined net profit in Vietnam also jumped 28.9 percent last year to $61 million. Vietnam has nine wholly-owned foreign banks, four state-owned banks and 31 domestic joint-stock banks. Vinh Tan thermal power center in the south central province of Binh Thuan. Photo courtesy of Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper While critics highlight environmental and health concerns, officials say its inevitable that coal dominates the energy mix. With the environment increasingly in focus, coal-fired power generation is polarizing opinion in Vietnam. Nguyen Van Doc, Party chief of Quang Ninh, said at a meeting last month no more cement and coal power stations would be licensed in the northern province. Quang Ninh accounts for nearly 90 percent of the countrys coal output and has seven coal-fueled power plants, and people living near the plants are suffering from their environmental impacts. Five months ago, Bac Lieu made headlines when signing a deal with the U.S-backed joint venture Energy Capital Vietnam for building a 3,200MW liquefied natural gas-fired (LNG) power project. Before the signing, the southern provinces proposal that the 3,600MW Cai Cung coal-fired power plant, set to be built in Bac Lieu, be removed from the country's Power Development Plan received Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs in-principle approval. Bac Lieu Chairman Duong Thanh Trung said this was a move to protect the environment for aquaculture. Tran Viet Ngai, chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association, told VnExpress International that much of the equipment and production lines used at coal-fired power plants built by Chinese EPC contractors are imported from China. They are cheap but perform poorly, leading to unsafe operations, environmental impacts and difficulties in maintenance, he said. "Lexus and Mercedes cars cost much more than South Korean ones, but the former offer prolonged good performance and extreme longevity. Coal-fired power development is the same. We should attach importance to the long-term efficiency of coal power plants with large investments in advanced equipment." Coal-generated power should be kept at a maximum of 46 percent of the countrys total power output since the expansion of coal power plants could lead to extreme negative environmental consequences, Ngai added. Under the revised Power Development Plan VII, power stations in the country are expected to generate a total of 60,000 MW by 2020. Of these, coal-fired stations would make the largest proportion of 42.7 percent, followed by hydropower (30.1 percent), gas-fired plants (14.9 percent) and renewable energy sources (9.9 percent). By 2030, the total capacity would soar to 129,500 MW, with coal and gas-fired plants accounting for 42.6 percent and 14.7 percent respectively, similar to the figures set for 2020. But the ratio of renewable energy sources is set to double to 21 percent by then. Many provinces like Quang Ninh are frantically looking for dumping sites for fly ash and slag generated at their coal power stations. At a November 26 press conference held in connection with the second high-level meeting of the Vietnam Energy Partnership Group (VEPG), Bruno Angelet, the EU ambassador to Vietnam, said that coal-fired power development would not be cheap if subsidies for the construction of the plants and their surrounding infrastructure as well as human health costs are included. Angelet, also VEPG co-chair, said the country should develop more renewable energy instead of coal-fired power, pointing out that not only rich countries but also developing countries like Bangladesh have managed to expand renewables. But Vietnamese government officials have insisted that coal power and its high ration in the energy mix is unavoidable. Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An said at the VEPG press briefing that one should not take an extreme attitude toward coal-fueled power. "If we entirely reject coal-fired power stations, the countrys energy security would be at risk, and that is dangerous. "Coal-fired plants will have little impact on the environment if they use good technologies. The country needs to develop all kinds of energy sources based on energy demand." An said his ministry is seeking an optimal energy mix with diverse sources like hydropower, coal, gas, and renewables. "It is rather difficult to find an optimal energy configuration since some sources which threaten the environment are actually major sources to ensure national energy security." No electricity system is based entirely on renewable energy, because this source fluctuates with the weather, he said. Police officers take drug users and sex workers to a local police station during a raid on Tuesday. Photo by VnExpress/ Quoc Thang A pre-dawn swoop on a downtown restaurant in Saigon Tuesday saw many drug users and female sex workers detained. Hundreds of police officers blockaded part of Nguyen Trai Street in District 1 from both ends before raiding the SunFlower Restaurant, a highly popular night hangout in the downtown area. The restaurant's security guards were prevented from turning on the alarm system as police raided the VIP rooms on the second floor. Many people tried to escape but were detained. Around 70 suspected drug users and waitresses were taken to the police station for drug tests. Some of the detainees reportedly screamed and resisted the police officers. At the same time, a group of officers raided a hotel on Le Lai Street, a 15-minute drive from Ben Thanh Market and caught a restaurant waitress offering sex services to her customer. Police said all the waitresses at the restaurant had negotiated prices to have sex with drunk customers. They said the raids were part of an operation to tighten control over several kinds of commercial sex services offered by many restaurants and bars in the tourist district. The raids are happening even as Vietnam considers lifting its late night curfew to 2 a.m. Most bars and nightclubs in Saigon, the countrys largest city, are only allowed to remain open until midnight. According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Saigon has nearly 22,000 registered drug users, the highest in the country at nearly 10 percent of the countrys total. Drug use is banned in Vietnam, and producing and dealing in drugs are criminal offenses. Around 3,000 people are believed to be sex workers in Saigon, according to official data. The Vietnamese parliament has inconclusively debated legalization of sex services in the country. China has handed over Nong Van Khoi, an Interpol-sought man linked to a deal involving over 100 kilograms of heroin in Vietnam. 27-year-old Khoi was handed to Vietnamese authorities by Chinese police on Monday. He was hiding from an international arrest warrant on him in connection with the transport of 95 kilograms of heroin in Cao Bang Province near China border. Nong Van Khoi is in Vietnamese polices custody. Photo by VnExpress/ Bao Ngoc On the night of February 23, Vietnams Drug Enforcement Police under the Ministry of Public Security, in coordination with the Cao Bang police, set up a roadblock to stop trucks driven by Tran Van Bang, 31, and Tran Van Thanh, 30, in Hoa An District, Cao Bang. Seeing no way to escape, Bang and Thanh drove the vehicles into the roadblock, and threw out many bags and packages in the attempt to escape. The drivers were caught later. The two suspects told the police they have destroyed the heroin, worth VND57 billion ($2.44 million). Based on the testimony of the suspects and gathered evidence, police confirmed that Nong Van Khoi played a particularly important role in the shipment. In July, Vietnams Ministry of Public Security released a special wanted notice for Khoi, charging him with "illegally trading in narcotics." Two months later, Interpol also issued a search warrant for him. Under Vietnam's Penal Code, "illegally stockpiling, transporting, trading in or appropriating narcotics" like heroin or cocaine weighing one hundred grams or more can receive capital punishment. Vu Van Dao (L) and Dinh Van Quyet appear in court in HCMC Monday for their responsibility in a fatal boat accident in 2013. Photo by VnExpress/Ky Hoa A HCMC court Monday found two former company directors responsible for a 2013 boat accident that killed nine people. Vu Van Dao, 48, and Dinh Van Quyet, 36, former directors of Viet Sec Technology JSC. and Vung Tau Marina JSC. respectively, were given three-year suspended sentences for "allowing the use of unsafe waterborne vehicles." Despite the serious consequence of the defendants' crime, they were given suspended sentences because of multiple mitigating factors, including good background, active cooperation with authorities and proactive compensation provided to the victims' families, the court said. According to the indictment, Dao's company produced boats made of polypropylene carbonate (PPC) despite Vietnam not having any standard for the design and registration of such vehicles. In March 2013, his company signed contracts to sell two boats to the coast guard of the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, including boat BP 12-04-02. The boats were anchored at the company's dock, however. In late July that year, a steel pipe factory under oil giant PetroVietnam's subsidiary PV PIPE in the southern Tien Giang Province organized a trip to the Dao Xanh tourism area for its employees. The manager of the tourism area, Vung Tau Marina, contacted Quyet for assisetance in arranging the trip. On August 2, under Dao's instructions, the two boats his company had previously sold to the Ba Ria-Vung Tau coast guards were mobilized to ferry PV PIPE employees from Tien Giang to Vung Tau. However, boat BP 12-04-02 sank off the coast of Ho Chi Minh City's Can Gio District at around 7 p.m. while carrying 28 people, more than 2.5 times its capacity, resulting in nine deaths. Investigators found that Dao had instructed the use of the two boats despite knowing that they had a capacity of just 12 people and were only designed for patrol missions on rivers and bays. Furthermore, he allowed the boats to be in operation without registering the journey with the authorities, which resulted in rescue efforts being delayed. Quyet, meanwhile, was seen as Dao's accomplice, because he had directly assigned the sunk boat's helmsman Phuc for the job. Phuc, who was steering the boat BP 12-04-02 at the time of the accident, was among the dead, so he was not prosecuted in the case. While the accident occurred in 2013, prosecutors' attempts to bring the case to court had been delayed multiple times for maritime authorities to conduct inspections into whether the boat BP 12-04-02 met safety standards at the time of the accident. Speaking at the trial on Monday, Quyet admitted that he had committed violations, but pleaded that they were not serious enough to constitute the charge he was accused of. "Accident is something no one wants, but the indictment accused me of deliberately [causing it]. I hope the panel will consider declaring me innocent," he said. Dao also disagreed with the indictment, claiming the way it interpreted the case pushed the crime onto him. "BP 12-04-02 is the property of the border guards so only they have the power to mobilize the boat," he said. He therefore asked prosecutors to withdraw the indictment and the court to suspend the case to avoid him being wrongfully convicted. The court dismissed these claims and concluded that there was enough evidence to prove that the boat in the accident did not meet safety standards for transporting passengers. "It is the defendants' overconfidence and lack of respect for waterway traffic safety regulations that inadvertently killed nine people, causing especially serious consequences," the verdict said. A Hanoi court Monday sentenced two Vietnamese women to six months in prison each for stealing $300 from an Italian man. Nguyen Thi Nga, 20, and Tao Thi Thuan, 31, who sold various souvenir items like postcards and hand fans in the Old Quarter area near the Hoan Kiem (Sword) Lake, were arrested in August. Police found them splitting the loot, VND7 million ($300) in cash, among themselves after pilfering an Italians wallet. According to the indictment, Chiaverini Sergio and his wife were walking around the Hoan Kiem Lake when Nga approached them and requested them to buy the items. However, the Italian couple refused. Later, the two pickpockets saw Sergio buying three postcards from another woman for VND150,000 ($6.4). Thuan went up and harassed the man, distracting him, while Nga quickly took the wallet out of his handbag and fled. Nguyen Thi Nga (L) and Tao Thi Thuan. Photo courtesy of Hanoi Police After receiving a report from the Italian man that his wallet had been stolen by the street vendors, police officers arrested the women while they were splitting up the stolen money. The area around Hoan Kiem Lake, one of the long-standing symbols and most popular tourist destinations in the capital, has been tarnished by petty crimes that show no signs of abating. Last month, Hanoi police detained nine street gang members who were ripping off foreign tourists around the lake. Police said the group, six men and three women with no stable jobs, gathered around the tourist hotspot to polish shoes and sell snacks, but their modus operandi was to coerce unsuspecting foreigners and charge them exorbitant amounts. Hanoi has welcomed 4.3 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of this year, up 20 percent from a year ago, according to official statistics from the city's tourism department. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho addresses the 73rd United Nations General Assembly on September 29, 2018, at the United Nations in New York. Photo by AFP/File Top North Korean diplomat Ri Yong-ho will start a four-day visit to Vietnam this Thursday. The visit is being made at the invitation of Vietnams Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh. Vietnam and North Korea established diplomatic relations in early 1950. Le Hoai Trung, Vietnams deputy foreign minister, had said in September that Vietnam highly values its relations with North Korea and wants to develop it further, contributing to peace, stability and development in the region and the world. After years of self-imposed isolation and sanctions for development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, North Korea has this year been trying to strengthen its foreign contacts. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has spoken recently of his hopes for economic reforms in the country. In three meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in this year, Kim repeatedly cited Vietnams successes, South Korean media reported. Yonhap said Ri has told the Vietnamese government that North Korea hopes to learn from Vietnams model of development. Observers have said Vietnams socialist market economy could be an example for North Korea. Duong Chinh Thuc, former Vietnam ambassador to North Korea and South Korea, said the historical and political resemblance between the two countries would make Vietnam an "appropriate" example for Kim Jong Un. During a visit to Hanoi last July, Washington's top diplomat Mike Pompeo also used Vietnam, which now enjoys burgeoning trade ties with former foe U.S., as a model for North Korea. If only North Korea were to surrender its nuclear arsenal, he suggested, it too could grow rich like its fellow one party state Vietnam. Flooding triggered by storm-turned-tropical depression Usagi demolished a 50m long bridge in Khanh Hoa, stranding 300 families. As Usagi, the ninth storm of the year to form off the Vietnamese coast, dropped heavy rain on the south central Khanh Hoa Province, water levels rose in rivers and several locations were flooded. In Cam Ranh town, many places have been inundated. In some places, the water is several meters deep. Water slides down a badly damaged section of the National Highway 1A that leads to the Binh Tien tourist site. On Monday morning, cars were allowed to use the road at slow speed. Flood waters has wiped away a large section of Nuoc Ngot Bridge in Cam Lap Commune. The bridge connects people on Binh Lap Island (110 hectares) with the outside world. 300 families on the island have been isolated. "The people in the village have to travel by sea, it takes 15 minutes to reach mainland and its very dangerous in this weather," said Nguyen Ngoc Son, Vice Chairman of Cam Ranh. The bridge was 50 meters long and about six meters wide. It spanned a stream called Nuoc Ngot or Fresh Water. Local authorities have prevented people from entering this area as a safety caution. "When the waters recede, we will repair and remediate it by making a temporary bridge so that the isolated households can travel more conveniently," Son said. Binh Lap has suffered a lot from the flooding, which knocked down many electric posts, resulting in power outages. Students cannot go to school. "For almost 30 years now, I have never seen such a massive flood, and we have never been so isolated," said resident Nguyen Van Thuan. A road from the national highway to Cam Lap Commune on the mountain slope was seriously damaged. The Khanh Hoa Military Command has stepped in to provide much-needed flood relief, mobilizing hundreds of soldiers and steel-armored vehicles. Soldiers have used emergency floats and rafts in the floodplains to evacuate people. "Up to now, 2,000 people have been evacuated from flooded sites, which are at risk of landslide, to higher places," Son said. In Nha Trang, one of Vietnams most popular beach destinations which is less than two hours north of Binh Lap, it continued to pour on Monday morning. Pictured is a girl calling on relatives to help after her motorbike engine broke down in a flooded area. Usagis impacts in Khanh Hoa have been severe. Many roads have been damaged or blocked by massive flooding and landslides. Four houses have collapsed so far. The storm came a week after typhoon Toraji triggered landslides that killed at least 20 people in Nha Trang. On Sunday, Usagi made landfall in the southern beach town Vung Tau before weaking into a tropical depression. It caused severe flooding in the nearby Ho Chi Minh City, collapsing dozens of houses along the southern coast. Of a total 87,000 female homicide cases worldwide in 2017, some 50,000 - or 58 percent - were committed by the victims' intimate partners or family members, a study found. Photo by AFP Over half the women who were murdered last year were killed by their partners or family members, a new U.N. study said Sunday. In statistics released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime calculated that of a total 87,000 female homicide cases worldwide in 2017, some 50,000 - or 58 percent - were committed by the victims' intimate partners or family members. Around 30,000, or 34 percent, were committed by intimate partners alone. "This amounts to some six women being killed every hour by people they know," the Vienna-based body said. The vast majority - around 80 percent - of homicide victims worldwide were men, but "women continue to pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality, discrimination and negative stereotypes," said UNODC chief Yury Fedotov. "They are also the most likely to be killed by intimate partners and family... making the home the most dangerous place for a woman," he said. "The fact that women continue to be affected by this type of violence to a greater degree than men is indicative of an imbalance in power relations between women and men inside the domestic sphere." The UNODC calculated that the global rate of female homicide victims stood at around 1.3 victims per 100,000 female population. The study found that Africa and the Americas were the regions where women were most at risk of being killed by intimate partners or family members. In Africa, the rate was around 3.1 victims per 100,000 female population, while the rate in the Americas was 1.6 victims, in Oceania 1.3 and in Asia 0.9. The lowest rate was found in Europe, with 0.7 victims per 100,000 female population. According to the UNODC, "no tangible progress" in combatting the scourge had been made in recent years "despite legislation and programmes developed to eradicate violence against women." The report's conclusions "highlight the need for effective crime prevention and criminal justice responses to violence against women," the UNODC said, stressing the need for measures to boost safety and empower potential victims while holding their abusers accountable. The study also called for greater coordination between police and the justice system as well as health and social services. And the UNODC said it was also important to involve men in the solutions, including through early education. Martial law to not affect social benefits in Ukraine Rozenko The government won't allow any disruptions in the system of social payments to citizens, the official said. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter PM Groysman sees no grounds for economic crisis in Ukraine The official assures everything will be absolutely normal in the country's economy. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Int'l arbitration: Russia should pay US$1.3 bln in compensation to Ukraine's Oschadbank over Crimea The ruling was passed on November 26, 2018 If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Attorney General Maria Jose Segarra. EP More information In defense of clowns: the Dani Mateo case Spanish Prosecutor General Maria Jose Segarra on Monday asked for a serene reflection on the subject of hate crimes, in order to come up with a judicial response to them that is proportional to the crime, acts as a deterrent, and protects civil liberties. Segarras department is finalizing a document with binding guidelines that will be sent to all prosecutors in Spain in early 2019. The goal is to develop a unified approach to hate crimes, while sticking to the criteria established by the European Court of Human Rights in a series of rulings that condemned Spain for applying disproportionate punishment. The Prosecutor General supports alternatives to incarceration for people convicted of online hate crimes Since her appointment in July, Segarra has made it a priority to address the way hate crimes are handled by the criminal justice system. Spain has seen several high-profile cases in recent months that have raised questions about the limits of freedom of speech, especially on social media. In its most recent annual report from September 2018, the Prosecutor Generals Office supported alternatives to incarceration for people convicted of online hate crimes. The government has pledged to study this option, but has yet to take any steps in that direction. On Monday, Segarra insisted on the need to reflect on this type of crime. Her statement came almost at the same time as a television comedian named Dani Mateo was appearing in a Madrid court, accused of a hate crime for blowing his nose on the Spanish flag as part of a sketch on satirical current affairs show El Intermedio. Spanish Congress is working on a new reform of the criminal code sponsored by the leftist group Unidos Podemos Article 510 of the criminal code sets out a top punishment of one to four years of prison for individuals who encourage hatred or violence against a person or a group for reasons of race, religion and antisemitism, among others. Segarra warned that these crimes have been on the rise in recent years, especially on social media, and that both the perpetrators and the victims are often minors. Her department believes that prosecutors should remain vigilant, but feels that disproportionate punishment is being used on occasion. On Monday, Segarra admitted that prosecutors have not always shown a unity of action, but hoped that the upcoming guidelines document will solve that problem. Strasbourg rulings The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights has issued several rulings condemning Spain for violating freedom of expression. The cases included Catalan separatists who burned a picture of the king, and a leader of the Basque radical left who called the monarch the torturer-in-chief. In its annual report, the Prosecutor Generals Office said that part of the problem lies with a reform of the Criminal Code made in 2015 by the conservative Popular Party (PP), which expanded the kinds of conduct that could be prosecuted as hate crimes. The reform also established tougher punishment for online crimes. Yet these changes, said Segarra, did not lead to an unequivocal category for hate crimes. Instead, these remain disseminated throughout the criminal code, making things complicated for prosecutors. We must seek solutions for their interpretation, said Segarra. Spanish Congress is working on a new reform of the Criminal Code sponsored by the leftist Unidos Podemos group, which seeks to protect freedom of expression. The draft document wants to decriminalize actions such as insulting the Crown or offending religious sentiment. It also considers that Article 510 of the criminal code is ambiguous, and asks to use EU case law as a basis for punishment. English version by Susana Urra. British PM Theresa May on Monday. DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS (AFP) British Prime Minister Theresa May has denied she ceded to Spanish demands over Gibraltar in the negotiations over the United Kingdoms withdrawal from the EU, a process commonly referred to as Brexit. Speaking to the House of Commons on Monday, May said: We are proud that Gibraltar is British and our position on sovereignty has not and will not change. In a desperate bid to get her disastrous deal across the line, May appears to have cast the people of Gibraltar aside MP Tom Brake Her comments came after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the political agreement reached over Gibraltar a disputed British Overseas Territory located in the south of the Iberian peninsula and ceded to Great Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht was a clear victory for Spain. With Brexit we all lose, especially the United Kingdom, but when it comes to Gibraltar, Spain wins, Sanchez said on Sunday after the Withdrawal Agreement was ratified by EU leaders in Brussels. On Saturday, Sanchez secured a joint declaration from the European Council and European Commission that guarantees that the political, legal and even geographical relationship of Gibraltar with the EU will pass through Spain after Brexit. PM Pedro Sanchez says Spain has scored a victory over the issue of Gibraltar. Reuters May was heavily criticized for agreeing to the declaration, with her opponents arguing she had caved in to Spain. The prime minister has caved in once again. In a desperate bid to get her disastrous deal across the line, May appears to have cast the people of Gibraltar aside, said member of parliament Tom Brake from the Liberal Democrats. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour party, said the last-minute agreement had allowed Spain to have a role in the decisions that affect the future of The Rock, as Gibraltar is known. But May maintains she has not abandoned the people of Gibraltar. We have ensured that Gibraltar is covered by the whole Withdrawal Agreement and by the Implementation Period. And for the future partnership, the UK government will be negotiating for the whole UK family, including Gibraltar, she told the British parliament. We are proud that Gibraltar is British and our position on sovereignty has not and will not change PM Theresa May May also thanked Gibraltars Chief Minister Fabian Picardo for his statesmanship in these negotiations. As Fabian Picardo said this weekend and I quote, Every aspect of the response of the United Kingdom was agreed with the government of Gibraltar Most importantly, the legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement has not been changed. That is what the Spanish government repeatedly sought but they have not achieved that. The United Kingdom has not let us down. May ended her speech with the following declaration: Our message to the people of Gibraltar is clear, we will always stand by you, we are proud that Gibraltar is British and our position on sovereignty has not and will not change. The conservative press has backed the British prime minister and attacked Spain for grandstanding. In an article headlined: Spain faces backlash after last-minute threat to sabotage Brexit deal over Gibraltar, UK daily The Telegraph maintained that EU diplomats were furious with Spain for threatening to veto the Withdrawal Agreement. One anonymous source told the newspaper: It is really outrageous. It is trying to turn back history for more than 300 years. There is no scrap of justification. English version by Melissa Kitson. These are the responsibility of the editor and convey the newspaper's view on current affairs-both domestic and international Dani Mateo outside the courthouse on Monday. KIKE PARA (EL PAIS) On Monday, the Spanish comedian Dani Mateo appeared before a judge who is investigating whether he committed the crime of publicly offending Spanish symbols, as well as a second count of hate crimes. The investigation is based on a complaint filed by a National Police union called Alternativa Sindical de la Policia over a television sketch that was part of a comedy show on La Sexta. A comedian who offends someone is not a criminal who must answer to the courts, but to his audience Respect for the justice systems decisions means that silence must be kept over the fact that the judge accepted the complaint and summoned Mateo to a hearing. But when it comes to the complaint itself, filed by a police organization citing the defense of citizens rights and freedoms, it is necessary to underscore that theirs is a private initiative, not an automatic application of the law. And as a private initiative, rather than protecting citizens rights and freedoms, what it really seeks to do is to define them, and in this way to award itself the job of limiting those very same rights and freedoms. The complaint talks about the symbols of Spain, demanding respect for them in the name of democratic society. But it is precisely because this is a democratic society that nobody, least of all a police organization, should invoke democratic principles to report a comedian, or to demand from him a type of respect that is easily confused with an invitation to self-censorship. Nobody, least of all a police organization, should invoke democratic principles to report a comedian Contrary to what is often said, cases like this one do not force us to ask ourselves about the limits of freedom of expression, but rather about the justifications sought by intolerance to try individuals who cannot truly offend even when they are trying to. A comedian who offends someone is not a criminal who must answer to the courts, but a bad comedian who must answer to his critics and his audience. A society that takes its comedians to court or its clowns, as Dani Mateo himself has put it is not a society that defends its values more energetically, but a society that is losing its own sense of generosity and greatness. Its not that society does not deserve comedians like Dani Mateo, regardless of whether they are good or bad; what society does not deserve is champions like the ones who filed this complaint. While society awaits a decision by the justice system, our democratic rights and freedoms make it an obligation to stand by the clowns. English version by Susana Urra. 116 million AMD assistance to minors with disabilities in Shirak Province from Mikayel Vardanyan Discussion on the topic IT infrastructure as the basis of the digital economy with the participation of the heads of telecommunication companies in Armenia 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 Google Ad Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13 Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide 1217 new cases Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel 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 Sarhat Petrosyan: We have done everything to destroy the corrupted cadastre Sarhat Petrosyan, head of the Real Estate Cadastre Committee, summarizing 110 days of office said that these 110 days contained a very long process. Petrosyan mentioned that in a very short time they managed to fix the tasks to be implemented by the cadastre. "We have three problems to solve: the elimination of all corruption risks, the problem of effectiveness and the third and the most important issue is the mapping of Armenia as a whole. The work style of the cadastre has changed and has become human-centered," Petrosyan said. Petrosyan thinks that the problems that have been ignored in the past are being brought to the visible field today. "I have received a field that is hard to define as failed; it has been corruption, it has been an organized corruption, we have done everything to stop it. Today, I can say that there is no organized corruption," said Petrosyan by adding that there will be revelations of illegal deals. He mentioned that the matter is about three million abuses. Ara Babloyan holds meeting with Iranian MP Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan on November 27 received member of the Iranian Parliament Masoumeh Aghapour Alishahi, who arrived in Yerevan to take part in the 52nd plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), the Parliament reports. During the meeting the Speaker of Parliament highly valued the Armenian-Iranian relations and highlighted the inter-parliamentary cooperation, in particular, the activities of friendship groups. Babloyan highly appreciated the friendly attitude of the Iranian authorities and people shown to the Armenian community representatives. Coming to the regional issues, Ara Babloyan attached importance to making joint efforts for ensuring stability and peace, in which the parliamentary structures play a great role. The Iranian lawmaker thanked for the meeting and conveyed the warm greetings of the Iranian parliament speaker to Ara Babloyan. She said the Iranian side highly values the relations with Armenia. The MP attached importance to the mutual partnership between the parliaments of the two countries, expressing hope that the traditions of the past will continue. She valued the contribution the Armenian community had in Irans domestic life. Representatives of the Ukrainian government and Germany have signed an intergovernmental agreement on the provision of EU 84.8 million for technical and financial assistance projects to Ukraine, Ukrainian Ambassador in Germany Andriy Melnyk has said. "We have signed the Ukrainian-German intergovernmental protocol on the provision of EUR 84.8 million to Ukraine for technical and financial assistance projects in Berlin," he wrote in his twitter microblog on Tuesday. Ukroboronprom State Concern has enacted a special regime for plants located in the zone where martial law was imposed by the presidential executive order of November 26, the concern said on Tuesday. The special regime will apply to Ukroboronprom plants in Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions, the concern said. The special regime may involve adjustments of the plant's working hours, industrial activity, and civil defense, Ukroboronprom said. Over half of Ukroboronprom enterprises are affected by the introduction of martial law, the company told Interfax-Ukraine. Ukroboronprom, which was founded in 2010 by a presidential decree, operates about 112 defense plants, among them Ukrspecexport and its subsidiaries. Twenty-one plants of the company are located in Crimea and the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions outside of Kyiv's control. Under a Ukrainian law endorsed in June 2011, Ukroboronprom, together with the government, supervises state assets in the defense sector. JSC Ukrtransnafta is ready for the provision of stable and reliable supplies of crude oil in the conditions of martial law, the company's press service has reported. "In order to preserve the stable operation of the facilities of the oil transport system of Ukraine, to prevent and timely respond to emergency situations - all facilities of increased danger of Ukrtransnafta are guided by plans for the localization and liquidation of accidents and emergency situations," the company said in a report. Also, Ukrtransnafta will be guided by the approved mobilization plan and the plan of civil defense of the enterprise. The company will step up the security measures at facilities of the oil transportation system. "Joint Stock Company Ukrtransnafta continues ensuring a reliable and uninterrupted supply of oil to oil refineries of Ukraine and the European Union," the company said. The Verkhovna Rada has approved a statement to be sent out to the United Nations, the European Parliament, several other international organizations, and parliaments of foreign countries in connection with a recent act of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. This decision received 272 votes in the parliament on November 28 late night. The statement says the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine calls on the international community to take effective measures to stop Russia's aggression both on land and in the sea, tighten the current sanctions against Russia, and impose new sanctions on that country pending a comprehensive restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. The parliament also calls on international organizations to send their observers to the areas close to the Black Sea, Azov Sea and Kerch Strait and suggests that maritime nations send some of their naval vessels to that region to help avoid further escalation of tensions from Russia's side. The Verkhovna Rada also calls on Ukraine's international partners to broaden their military and other kinds of assistance to Ukraine to help it protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty. "We call on the international community to respond properly to challenges and threats that are being brought forward by the Russian Federation because pacification policy has already led to the occupation of part of Ukraine's territorythe Autonomous Republic of Crimea and some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the statement reads. Also, the statement says that the construction of North Stream 2 is being carried out not for the sake of Europe but for the sake of Russia and, as such, is posing a threat to the security of the entire Baltic region and North Europe. The Ukrainian parliament said that if Russia is not punished for its aggressive policy and actions, it may lead to consequences on the global scale. Germany's Counsellor Angela Merkel has discussed with President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine the incident in the Kerch Strait, stressing the need for de-escalation and a dialogue between the parties involved, Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the German Federal Government, has said. "The chancellor voiced her concerns about the situation and pointed to the need for de-escalation and a dialogue, which she is going to support," Seibert said. The two politicians agreed to continue to be in close contact on this issue. Ihor Voronchenko, commander of the Naval Forces of Ukraine's Armed Forces, has said that the Ukrainian naval personnel taken prisoners by Russians in the Kerch Strait are being forced to give false testimony under pressure. "The crews of our vessels are now being held in different places. Three of the naval personnel, an officer and two contract sailors, who were wounded, are being treated in hospital in Kerch. Our vessels are anchored in the naval base where FSB boats are stationed. And there are certain reports that our sailors have started giving out false information," he said during the Freedom of Speech program that was aired by ICTV channel on November 27 late night. Voronchenko said there is a video published on the web that is featuring three sailors who have given testimony under physical and psychological pressure. "I know those sailors from Nikopol. They have always been honest professionals in their jobs. And what they say now is not true," Voronchenko said. The Ukrainian Navy commander said those Ukrainian sailors have already spoken to their lawyers. Also, Voronchenko said two of the military personnel are natives of Crimea and since their parents continue to live in the peninsula the former will come under pressure. When asked to comment on the information disseminated by the Russian media that there were SBU officers on board of the Ukrainian naval vessels, Voronchenko said, "They [the Russian party] may say that we have come from the sky on a spaceship." Joint Force Operations soldiers have increased their vigilance in connection with the events in the Sea of Azov. Units and military units are on full alert, the headquarters of Joint Forces Operations (JFO) has said. Events in the Sea of Azov: reaction from the front line. By order JFO Commander Lieutenant General Serhiy Nayev, JFO troops have been put on high alert. All military units are on full alert," JFO HQs said on Facebook Tuesday. Ukraine and Pakistan plan to further boost promising defense cooperation. The press service of the Ukroboronprom State Concern reported on Monday that the current state and potential of Ukrainian-Pakistani defense cooperation were discussed during the negotiations between Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Oleh Hladkovsky with Federal Minister for Defense Production of Pakistan Zobaida Jalal held in Karachi prior to the opening of the 10th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2018 (Karachi, Pakistan). The parties discussed the state of implementation of the current programs of the military-technical cooperation, primarily in the field of armored vehicle building, and outlined the areas for expanding prospective cooperation. The deputy secretary of the NSDC also informed the federal minister of Pakistan about the violation of international law by the Russian Federation and the act of open military aggression against the Ukrainian Navy in the Azov Sea, the press service reported. From the Ukrainian side, Head of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Pakistan Volodymyr Lakomov and Head of Ukroboronprom Pavlo Bukin took part in the talks. According to the state-owned concern, during IDEAS 2018, Ukraine will present, among other things, promising armored vehicles, high-precision anti-tank weapons, and artillery fire control systems to potential customers of the Asian region. "During IDEAS 2018, negotiations on expanding military-technical cooperation in the field of armored construction, and, in particular, expanding the scope of logistic support, maintenance, repair and supply of equipment for modernization are scheduled for the Ukrainian delegation. In addition, it is planned to reach agreements in the segments of aircraft and naval equipment, ammunition and high-precision anti-tank weapons," Ukroboronprom told Interfax-Ukraine. Ukrainian naval personnel captured by Russia in Kerch Strait are prisoners of war by status, they cannot be put on trial Klimkin Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said making the Ukrainian naval personnel captured by Russia in the Kerch Strait stand trial is "a nonsense" because they are prisoners of war. "First of all, it's our highest priority to free our guys. We are currently in talks with the Red Cross because, by status, our guys are prisoners of war. Russia has made several acts of aggression against us, and the Red Cross must actively get involved in this," Klimkin said in the Breakfast with 1+1 program, which was aired live on television on November 27 morning. The minister also said talks are underway with human rights activists and with the Crimean Tatar community in Russia-occupied Crimea. "Since prisoners of war cannot stand trial by default, it's a nonsense; however, Russia is doing it. We must at least protect them for today, at least for the next few days," the minister said. He also said the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has been using various channels to get information about the Ukrainian sailors. "We have been in contact with the Red Cross and ombudsmen, and have used all the channels which are available to us. However, we understand the decision will be made at the level of [Russian President] Putin, and for this, we will exert all our efforts," the Ukrainian foreign minister said. As reported earlier, on November 25 morning, Russia blocked the passage through the Kerch Strait for three Ukrainian naval vessels and captured them with their crews. The correct version of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decree introducing martial law in some parts of the country will be published in the parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrainy on Wednesday, the chair of the Verkhovna Rada's Freedom of Speech and Information Policy Committee, Viktoria Siumar, said. "What was published in the newspaper Uriadovy Kurier was the presidential decree that was sent to the Verkhovna Rada. The document on the introduction of martial law [for 30 days] that the parliament adopted yesterday is now being fine-tuned by the legal department and will be published in the newspaper Holos Ukrainy tomorrow," Siumar said. Earlier, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze wrote on a social network that the presidential decree enacting the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's November 26 decision on introducing martial law had been published by mistake. "We have looked into it. It was published by mistake. Disciplinary sanctions will be imposed on those responsible for it. This decree has been annulled altogether. The law and the relevant decree will be published in tomorrow's issue," she said. On November 26, the Verkhovna Rada endorsed Poroshenko's decree imposing martial law in some regions of Ukraine for 30 days. However, it is unclear exactly when that period will begin, as the first version of the decree said it would be introduced for 60 days starting at 2 p.m. on November 26, while Poroshenko himself said in his televised address that the time had been changed to 9 a.m. on November 28. The final text of the decree has not yet been published. Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has ordered tighter security at railroad terminals and stations, airports, seaports, and other infrastructure. He also endorsed a special regime for national railroads in order to increase their capacity and to assign sufficient rolling stock for the Ukrainian army's needs. "Trains will be assigned in line with the transportation priorities of the wartime period, as requested by military commanders," Omelyan said at an expanded meeting with the executives of Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukravtodor, the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority, the State Aviation Service, UkSATSE, and seaports, according to a statement released by the Infrastructure Ministry. The minister ordered State Secretary Andriy Halushak to set up an operative headquarters for interacting with the military command and administrations while enforcing martial law. Omelyan urged everyone to work calmly but stay prepared. "We plan to follow the example of Switzerland and actively engage transport employees in territorial defense. Everyone should have an 'emergency backpack' with a three-day supply of necessities and a clear understanding of what should be done if the enemy attacks," he said. The Infrastructure Ministry is planning field training of managers and employees of industry enterprises. Deputy Minister Yuriy Lavreniuk will be coordinating interaction between the ministry and enterprises. Lavreniuk and Omelyan wore military uniforms at the meeting. France has urged Ukraine to take measures to de-escalate the situation surrounding the Kerch Strait incident and Russia to release the detained ships, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. "We would like the parties to exercise restraint. I told Lavrov that I expect Russia to release the captured prisoners and ships as soon as possible, and I also call on my Ukrainian counterpart to find opportunities to de-escalate the situation in this region," Le Drian said at a press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "The two countries themselves must begin the process of reducing tension," he said. The U.S. non-governmental organization Freedom House has called on the Ukrainian authorities to maintain a balance between the interests of national security and protection of human rights following an approval by the Verkhovna Rada of President Petro Poroshenko's decree declaring martial law. "The Ukrainian government must carefully balance national security and human rights considerations as it responds to security threats in the Sea of Azov and implements provisions of the declaration of martial law," Freedom House's Director for Europe and Eurasia Programs Marc Behrendt said in a statement published on the organization's website on November 27. He said, "The declaration removes protections on a number of fundamental freedoms, particularly the freedoms of assembly, movement, and expression." "We urge the Ukrainian government to limit implementation of any restrictions to those which are focused on the specific security threat, rather than broadly applied. Any restrictions to fundamental freedoms must be transparently justified and consistent with a democratic society," Behrendt said. He said the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution must be maximally protected in Ukraine, particularly ahead of its 2019 electoral season. As reported earlier, on November 26, the Verkhovna Rada approved the imposition of martial law in several regions of Ukraine for 30 days, following a decree by President Petro Poroshenko. However, it is still not clear from which date and time martial law is to be declared because the first version of the presidential decree said it was to be declared from 2 p.m. on November 26, for a period of 60 days. However, in a televised address to the nation later in the day, President Poroshenko said he decided to impose martial law at 9 a.m. on November 28, 2018. The final version of the decree that was approved by the Ukrainian parliament has not been published yet. Delhi is satisfied with the current level of bilateral military and technical cooperation with Kyiv, expecting its further development, Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy has stated. "We are pleased with the current level of cooperation and will develop it," the head of the Indian diplomatic mission said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. The diplomat noted a significant factor for the development of bilateral military-technical cooperation is, first of all, a "rather attractive" price and quality of Ukrainian defense products. "This is a mutually beneficial cooperation. We hope that this cooperation will only grow," the official said. Evaluating, at the request of the agency, the impact on India's defense market of sanctions imposed by the United States on the Russian Federation and buyers of Russian weapons under the CAATSA law, the Indian diplomat said "India must accept global processes in progress." He said the Indian side has enough experience to work out a policy that meets the interests of the development of the national defense industry in the context of the current global transformations. "Fortunately, we have enough experience to accept all of these factors and develop policies to ensure a sufficient level of functioning of our defense sector," he said. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, by his decree, appointed Yuriy Tkachenko, as his non-staff adviser on Tuesday. As reported, Tkachenko headed the Cherkasy Regional State Administration from September 9, 2014. On October 24, 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the draft presidential decree on his dismissal from this post. In November 2018, he was dismissed from the post of the head of the Cherkasy Regional State Administration. Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy has called on the European Parliament at a meeting with President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani to strengthen sanctions against Russia, as well as to extend their validity up to one year. "The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine called on the European Parliament not only to strengthen sanctions against the aggressor country - the Russian Federation, but also to extend their validity up to one year," the website of the Ukrainian parliament reported. In addition, the speaker called on the European Parliament to adopt a resolution condemning the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Parubiy also informed the President of the European Parliament that Ukraine had begun the process of consolidating the obligation to join the EU and NATO in its Constitution. Tajani called it an important step on the path of Ukrainian integration. We welcome the course of Ukraine to gain membership in the European Union. We are waiting for you in the European Union, the Verkhovna Rada press service quoted him. As is known, on Tuesday, Parubiy is on a working visit to Brussels, where, in addition to meeting with Tajani, he also has talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) has explained how the martial law declared by President Petro Poroshenko and supported by the Verkhonva Rada will be enforced and in what regions. "In line with the Ukrainian Law on Endorsing the Presidential Executive Order on Introducing Martial Law in Ukraine (No. 9338) passed by the parliament on November 26, martial law in Ukraine has been introduced in Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Odesa, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions and in the internal waters of the Azov-Kerch area from 2:00 p.m. November 26 until 2:00 p.m. December 26, 2018," the Council said on Tuesday. The Council said 276 parliamentarians voted for the legislation initiated by the president and taking his amendments into account. "In accordance with the Military Cabinet's proposals, the National Security and Defense Council met at 24:00 a.m. on November 26 and adopted the Resolution on Extraordinary Measures to Ensure Ukraine's State Sovereignty and Independence and Introducing Martial Law in Ukraine. The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council submitted a proposal to the president of Ukraine on declaring martial law in the country for two months starting at 2:00 p.m. on November 26, 2018 (until 2:00 p.m. on January 26, 2019). The relevant presidential executive order was submitted to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada on November 26," the Council said. After the matter was discussed at the parliament, the president decided to reduce the period to 30 days, of which he publicly informed the nation, it said. "The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council resolution of November 26, 2018 supported the president's initiative and amended its previous resolution. In this connection, new Presidential Decree No. 392/2018 introducing martial law for 30 days (from 2:00 p.m. on November 26 to 2:00 p.m. on December 26, 2018) was drawn up," it said. When discussing the Ukrainian Law on Endorsing the Presidential Executive Order on Introducing Martial Law in Ukraine (No. 9338), Petro Poroshenko agreed to limit the effect of the executive order to ten regions, which he announced at the Rada, it said. The presidential website has published Presidential Decree No. 392/2018. Presidential Decree No. 393 (on declaring martial law), which was endorsed by the Verkhovna Rada on Monday, has not been published yet. The law passed by the Verkhovna Rada, approving the decree on imposing martial law in 10 regions for 30 days, gives the right to President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to announce mobilization, parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy has said. "We have simplified the procedure. Conditionally, if aggressive actions take place tomorrow, we have enabled the president to declare mobilization by the decree during these 30 days [martial law actions]. We've expanded the president's powers," Parubiy told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. He recalled that in peacetime the procedure for announcing mobilization is different - the president submits his bill to the Verkhovna Rada, and the Rada makes a decision - the law on mobilization. Four years is a long time in politics but not a particularly long time in the land of government reports. Just under four years ago the UK Intellectual Property Office commissioned research to address the lack of existing data on design infringement. The results of that research were published last week Designs are an important part of the UK economy. In 2015, the UK design economy was worth 6% of the nations total economy. It was therefore considered a worthwhile exercise to review the current designs regime and identify opportunities for improvement. The report includes some positive indicators about the design sector "there is some evidence that the design sector as a whole is thriving, and that the use of design improves the productivity of firms in other sectors." It is less positive about the legal mechanisms which are designed to protect this: "there is still little knowledge based on reliable evidence about the effectiveness of the legal system to achieve its aim [to encourage innovation and reward the design owner]." Key findings There is a lack of appreciation for and awareness of unregistered designs. Most designers (98.3%) have had their designs infringed (and actively monitor for infringement). The most common response to infringement is to send a letter to the other party (around 30% contact a lawyer). However, many avoid taking legal action due to concerns about the cost although they recognise that the infringement damages their business and wastes staff time. Most infringers will cease and desist when challenged by the design right owner but larger companies were more likely to ignore the claim or allege that a design isn't valid. Only a small number of respondents reported international infringement of their designs. China was identified as the most commonly infringing country followed by the USA Unregistered vs unregistered designs One point which particularly struck this Kat was that the survey respondents considered patents to be the most effective means of protecting designs. This is an odd response which may be connected to either the type of innovation or a misunderstanding about the difference between patents and registered designs. Even more strangely unregistered designs were rated at the bottom of the list of useful rights for the designs industry when in practice it is usually the most useful and versatile right. This is confirmed by the report's analysis of court cases which show that unregistered design rights are more commonly litigated and have a much higher success rate than registered designs. It is notable that the authors of the report expected the opposite result suggesting a lack of appreciation by the authors of the report for just how useful unregistered rights can be. I conducted a similar review of IPEC cases for Rouse (on a less formal basis) back in 2012, at that time unregistered design rights were successful in every reported case. The pattern does not appear to have drastically changed in the intervening years The recommendations The report's recommendations were primarily based on how a future report and data collection should be carried out rather than more pro-active plans for the design industry. These recommendations were: data should be collected regularly by the UK IPO through their communication channels and educational projects. any future research should aim to increase participation amongst potential owners of unregistered design rights. more consideration should be given to the wording in future questionnaires: it should be more precise to provoke more informative responses, or more granular detail. negative questioning (e.g. asking what respondents have not heard of) should be avoided. The only suggestions regarding how to enable the design sector to better protect design rights, were: Education : using communications channels, and working with trade associations, to teach and inform designers and design rights owners about their design rights. Accessible guidance : providing guidance in plain English to the court process that is specifically tailored to the design sector. Pro bono legal advice : encouraging the legal profession to offer more pro bono advice to designers and design rights owners, and to always be clearer about long-term costs that may be incurred when defending design rights. These recommendations are not particularly original and not a million miles from what is already available. NATO Allies call on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports, allow freedom of navigation The North Atlantic Council has called on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports. "In view of Russia's use of military force against Ukraine near the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, NATO Allies call on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports and allow freedom of navigation," North Atlantic Council said in its statement made public in Brussels. In addition, the NATO Council "calls on Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized, without delay." On Wednesday, November 28, at 14.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a presentation of an analytical report titled "Foreign Non-state Funds in Ukraine: Directions and Scope of Activity," prepared by the Institute for Economic Research and Political Consultations. Participants include Board Chairman of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting Ihor Burakovsky, Senior Research Fellow at Ukraine's Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting Vitaliy Kravchuk, Researcher at the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting Yevhen Angel (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. Details by phone: (044) 278 6342 or at: institute@ier.kiev.ua. On Thursday, November 29, at 11.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press-conference by representatives of the veteran movement of the participants of the Russian-Ukrainian war titled "Closer Cooperation of Newly Established Veterans Ministry with Veteran Movement." Participants include Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Antiterrorist Operation (ATO) under the Kyiv City State Administration Ihor Mari; representative of the NGO Kyiv City Union of ATO veterans Anton Kolumbet; representative of the NGO Masters Movement of Ukraine Evhen Turchak; representative of the Veteran Brotherhood Dmytro Shatrovsky; representative of the Association of Participants and Disabled ATO Servicemen Oleksandr Tereshchenko; representative of the NGO "Union of Disabled Servicemen and Veterans of the ATO Khmelnytsky Volodymyr Shrubkovsky; representative of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Association of ATO members and veterans Taras Shpuk; representative of the Association of Participants and Disabled Servicemen of the Anti-Terrorist Operation Illia Shpoliansky (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. Tehran has no benefit from the nuclear deal anymore since Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran, the Islamic Republic's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, warned on Monday, November 26. "The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is in a critical situation Abbas Araqchi insisted, adding, This is a reality". Speaking at a seminar on Iran-EU cooperation held in Brussels, Araqchi said with the reimposition of U.S. sanctions, Tehrans benefits from the lifting of sanctions has nearly reached zero. Araqchi said the JCPOA used to be quite balanced in "giving and taking", but now, this balance has been shaken and we should cooperate to restore it. Meanwhile, Araqchi lamented that the real reason behind European countries' reluctance to host SPV is the recent remarks made by Brian Hook, the US State Department's special representative on Iran. The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is designed to act as a kind of clearing house that could be used to help match Iranian oil and gas exports against purchases of EU goods in an effective barter arrangement. However, no EU country has come forward as a potential host - delaying the plan. Earlier at the same seminar in Brussels, the Islamic Republic's deputy President and the head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi bitterly criticized Washington's withdrawal from JCPOA, but reiterated that Iran remains committed to it. Later at a press conference, the Iranian nuclear chief warned the European Union of "ominous" outcomes if it did not follow through with action to keep the economic benefits of the JCPOA alive. "If words are not turned into deeds, then ... it is very ominous, the situation would be unpredictable," Salehi said without any elaboration. Nevertheless, he immediately pointed out that he believed that the 28-nation bloc (EU) was "doing its best" and was on its way to delivering on its promises. At his joint press conference with Salehi, Europe's climate and energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete also said that there is no doubt about Europeans' resolve to put the SPV into operation. "Nobody should have any doubt on the level of political ambition and determination by the member states involved, in particular, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, to swiftly operationalize the SPV," Canete said. A prominent Iranian rights activist and political prisoner has started a hunger strike to support another prisoner of conscience whose health is deteriorating in prison. Nasrin Sotoudehs family announced on November 26 that she has started a hunger strike in Tehrans notorious Evin prison to protest the deteriorating health of Farhad Meysami, who himself has been on hunger strike for more than 110 days. She has told the family that she demands Meysamis release. Mr. Meysami who is a medical doctor was detained in July for protesting compulsory hijab and has been accused of supporting moral corruption and anti-regime propaganda. He started his hunger strike on August 1. Meysamis lawyer in Iran told Radio Farda in an interview on November 26 that his clients health is in serious danger and his only crime is to have protested compulsory hijab. Amnesty International issued a statement on October 24 condemning the authorities for holding Meysami in isolation in a medical clinic to force him to give up his hunger strike. Amnesty demanded his immediate release. Ms. Sotoudeh, who had served half of a six-year prison term before, was arrested again in June and her husband Reza Khandan was arrested in early September. Tehran, Nov 27, 2018 (AFP) - Iran is determined to fight against U.S. President Donald Trump's anticipated Israel-Palestinian peace plan, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday according to semi-official news agency ISNA. Trump has dubbed his administration's long-awaited plan the "ultimate deal", which has already unsettled the Palestinians although no details have yet been disclosed. Speaking in Tehran, Larijani said the "deal of the century" was a "plot" between Iran's arch foe Israel and the United States to establish the Jewish state's domination in the Middle East. "We will stand against the regime of Israel and won't let this deal take place in the region," Larijani said at an annual conference on Islamic unity. "If Americans are imposing sanctions on Iran today and are putting pressure on Iran, the reason for it is because Iran has stood against Israel," he added, quoted by ISNA. Earlier this year, Washington pulled out of the landmark international nuclear accord with Iran and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran. "In order to achieve their objective they try to create new political arrangements in the region," Larijani said of US-Israeli strategy in the Middle East. The parliament speaker also singled out regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as he warned countries against normalising relations with Israel. Countries in the region "should know that they would not benefit at all by letting (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to their countries", Larijani said. "People in the region, in any country, regard Israel as a cancerous tumour and hate it," he added. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this year reaffirmed his country's "steadfast" support for the Palestinian cause, after coming under fire for saying both Israelis and Palestinians "have the right to have their own land". Israel has diplomatic relations with just two Arab states -- Egypt and Jordan -- but Netanyahu has been pushing for broader regional ties. The Israeli premier travelled to Oman in October, while two of his ministers visited the UAE. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Matanat Nasibova - Trend: The North-South project is one of the key points of political interaction between Russia and Azerbaijan, respectively, the significance of the transport corridor is high for both states, Russian analyst at the Center for Political Information Ivan Pyatibratov told Trend. The expert was commenting on the agreement to establish a working group for the further development of cargo transportation on the North-South ITC between Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran. The matter was discussed in Moscow as part of a recent meeting between Russian Deputy Minister of Transport Alexei Semenov, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade and Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Planning of Iran Shahram Adamnejad. The parties of the meeting considered the issues of cargo transportation between the three countries, noting the increase in their volumes. Based on the results of the discussion, the sides decided to establish a joint working group to address issues of further development in transport between countries, as well as an appropriate monitoring system. Pyatibratov noted that the importance of the North-South ITC for Russia is primarily due to geopolitical reasons, more precisely expanding its diplomatic and economic presence in the East. "For Azerbaijan, this corridor is more interesting from economic point of view: the country receives direct access to the western market, as well as the status of an international transport hub, which guarantees its economic growth. Therefore, the potential benefits of the North-South corridor are very real and understandable for our countries," Pyatibratov said. He noted that besides Russia and Azerbaijan, Iran, which is the most important element of the project and the Astara-Rasht-Qazvin transport corridor in particular, also participates in North-South ITC project. "It is obvious that presently, the Iranian side has objective problems: in 2018, the US withdrew from a nuclear deal with Iran and imposed sanctions against the country, which dealt a serious blow to its economy. At the same time, the fall of the Iranian rial and the rise in food prices, as well as the drought led to massive social protests. Thus, one of the partners of Russia and Azerbaijan in the North-South project is in a state of economic and political turbulence, and when it comes out of it, isn't clear yet. In this regard, it can be assumed that the implementation of the entire North-South project will be delayed until the issue with Iran is resolved," Pyatibratov added. The expert stressed that Russia and Azerbaijan won't stop working on the project, which means that the part of the project for which they are responsible will be implemented on time. "It is worth noting that both the Russian and Azerbaijani sides are making efforts so that Iran does not withdraw from the project. And I think that the decision to create a trilateral working group on the development of the North-South corridor in November 2018 is a clear confirmation of this," the expert said. The North-South ITC is designed for the transportation of goods from India and the Gulf countries to Russia, Western Europe, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries. Cargo transportation by sea through the Persian Gulf, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea to Helsinki is carried out within 45-60 days, while the North-South corridor decreases the delivery time to 20-25 days. In order to develop transportation in the region, Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia signed an agreement in 2005 on the construction of 375 km railway in Iran, and in Azerbaijan, between Astara district and Azerbaijan-Iran border, as well as the reconstruction of the existing railway in Azerbaijan. The Astara-Rasht-Qazvin railway project envisages the construction of a new railway line in Iran, which will connect Azerbaijan's Astara to the Iranian cities of Astara, Rasht and Qazvin. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov held a meeting with Campus Director of Geneva Business School (GBS) Mark Hatton. The gathering was also attended by Advisor to SOCAR Vice-president for HR, IT and regulations Ilkin Aslanov, Deputy General Manager of Labor condition norms development department of SOCAR Kamal Dadashov and the BHOS key staff members. Speaking about main directions and latest developments of the Higher School, the Rector Elmar Gasimov said that BHOS developed long-term cooperation with local and international companies. He also informed that BHOS works in close partnership with the Heriot-Watt University (HWU) and that the Higher Schools teaching programs are based on the curriculum of HWU. Having thanked Elmar Gasimov for the warm reception, Mark Hatton told about Geneva Business School, which is a global leader in Swiss quality education offering undergraduate, graduate, and research programs in Business Administration and Finance, including an MBA program. Having expressed interest in cooperation with the Baku Higher Oil School, he noted that implementation of the Geneva Business Schools MBA program with major in Oil and Gas Management at BHOS could be one of the joint projects. In his words, this initiative could also include dual degree program for its students. The Rector Elmar Gasimov expressed his gratitude to the GBS Campus Director Mark Hatton for his proposal and said that the BHOS management is interested in developing bilateral cooperation with the Geneva Business School. In his words, the innovative MBA program with the major in Oil and Gas Management to be implemented for the first time in Azerbaijan will attract attention of many students and professionals. At the meeting, other prospects of future cooperation including student and teacher exchange programs and participation of the GBS students in the BHOS internship and on-the-job training programs were also discussed. In the course of the visit, the guests were given a tour around the campus. They also attended games played within the BHOS futsal and volleyball tournaments. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Spain supports peaceful solution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the international law, Charge d'affaires ad interim of Spanish embassy in Baku Ignacio Sanchez Taboada told Trend. Spain supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs for the solution of the conflict, he said. The diplomat noted that Madrid Principles represent the guidelines for solving the conflict and also the stance of Spain regarding to it: pacific solution of the conflict (non-use of force), respect of territorial integrity and international law and right to return for displaced persons. He went on to add that Spain and Azerbaijan have important ties not only in the bilateral arena but also within the framework of multilateral relations. Spain is a party to the European Union and is very involved in the European Eastern Partnership in which Azerbaijan also participates. The Council of Europe and OSCE are of great relevance for Spain as they are also for Azerbaijan, and a great part of our international relations takes place in the framework of these European institutions, said Taboada. The diplomat pointed out that Spain and Azerbaijan share the values and principles of the United Nations and have traditionally cooperated within its institutional framework (General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, etc.). We have supported each other very recently to be present in different bodies of many international organizations, like the World Tourism Organizations or the International Telecommunications Union. Azerbaijan and Spain enjoy very healthy political relations. We do not have any contending topic in our bilateral agenda. Not bilateral disputes. We have provided each other mutual support in different international fora. We have a reasonable framework of international agreements which regulates our relations and cooperation, in a great variety of topics: education, sports, science, double taxation, etc., he added. 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 the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Details added (first version posted at 11:09). Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: Ruissian mobile operator MegaFon does not carry out any illegal activity in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and official information on the matter will be sent to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Konstantin Noskov said. He made the remarks at a meeting with the Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan Ramin Guluzade. The ministers also discussed the Azerbaijan-Russia cooperation in information technologies, post and telecommunications, information security, control over the quality of mobile communications, reduction of tariffs for international roaming and other topics. An agreement on cooperation in international postal communication between Azerpost LLC and Russian Post was decided to be signed. Talks on the participation of Russian companies in the 24th Azerbaijan International Exhibition-Conference of Telecommunications, Innovations and High Technologies "Bakutel-2018", which will be held in Baku, December 4-7, was also held during the meeting. This blog generally follows traditional journalistic standards. It's not about opinions, though you may read one here occasionally. It's about facts that we think will be useful to rural journalists, non-rural journalists who do rural stories, and others interested in rural issues. We don't try to be provocative, so we don't generate as many comments as most blogs with the level of traffic we have, but we certainly invite comments -- and contributions, to . REPUBLICATION Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: The recent statement by Armenia's acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, repeating the already expressed groundless idea of participation of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the negotiations, even though aimed for internal consumption in the pre-election period, undermines the already fragile settlement process and demonstrates the true intention of Armenia to consolidate the fait accompli situation created as a result of the use of force against Azerbaijan, said Leyla Abdullayeva, the acting spokeswoman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry. Abdullayeva said that if Pashinyan is interested in the settlement of the conflict he would not create obstacles to the negotiations ongoing under the aegis of OSCE Minsk Group, where the direct participants are Armenia and Azerbaijan, as it is clearly determined by the 1992 CSCE (OSCE) Helsinki Ministerial Council decision. "The controversial and unfounded statements of Armenian acting prime minister are an indicator that he would not go far from his predecessor in designing the better future for people of Armenia, and this raises doubts on the sincerity of Armenia in the run-up to the bilateral meeting discussed during the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' visit to the region," Abdullayeva added. 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. 27 By Ilhama Isabalayeva Trend: The EU supports the modernization of environmental monitoring systems in Azerbaijan, the EU resident twinning adviser Katja Loven said at a press conference in Baku on Nov. 27. She said the twinning project to modernize the environmental monitoring systems in Azerbaijan is funded by the EU. The project is worth 1.4 million euros, Loven added. She said the implementation period is from November 2016 to January 2019. The project is aimed at improving environmental activity in Azerbaijan, Loven said. She said the special attention is paid to the air quality. The project is supported by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Loven added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: The 52nd plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) is taking place in Yerevan, and will last until Nov. 29, the Azerbaijan Press Council said in a message Nov. 27. At the session, a report on the activities of PABSEC was heard, the role of trade unions and parliaments of member countries in the development and strengthening of regional economic cooperation, tourism and small businesses as well as prospects for their development were discussed. The head of the Azerbaijani delegation, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee for agriculture policy Eldar Guliyev made a report on the topic The role of parliaments in the development of regional economic cooperation. In his speech, he touched upon issues of economic and humanitarian security, information security, measures to combat international terrorism, drug trafficking, environmental problems in the region. The MP noted that the region is a space where not only economic but also global projects are implemented. He noted the position of Azerbaijan in this context, the role of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and the importance of the TANAP project. MP, chairman of the Azerbaijan Press Council Aflatun Amashov made a report on the topic State support for the development of small businesses in Azerbaijan, where he stressed the need to strengthen cooperation on small business in the BSEC countries. The delegations of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and Ukraine, participating in the 52nd plenary session of PABSEC in Yerevan, refused from jubilee medals on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the organizations establishment. At the session, deputies of the BSEC chairman and secretary general were elected. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: Armenias attempted provocation was suppressed in the UNESCO Interparliamentary Committee, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture said in a message on Nov. 27. Azerbaijans five-year report "Chovgan - a traditional sporting team game with Karabakh horses" was adopted during the 13th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in the city of Port Louis, Mauritius. The report includes the activity carried out in Azerbaijan in connection with the development of the traditional chovgan game, as well as the impossibility of holding this traditional game as a result of occupation of Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region by Armenia. According to the report, the Azerbaijani population, forcibly expelled from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, despite the bitter consequences of the war and aggression, seeks to preserve the chovgan. Remaining faithful to its unconstructive tradition, during the meeting, the Armenian delegation stood against Azerbaijan and demanded to return the submitted report to the Azerbaijani side. Discussions were held in connection with this issue and Armenias another attempt as always failed again. No committee supported Armenias proposals on this issue. Standing against Armenias claim, Azerbaijans Permanent Representative to UNESCO Anar Karimov stressed that this report was created by the Ministry of Culture in accordance with international law, the UN Charter and the corresponding UNESCO convention, and the document reflects the opinions and interviews of all the communities playing the chovgan game in Azerbaijan. Karimov thanked the members of the committee for their constructive position and called on the representative of Armenia not to use his membership in the committee for political purposes. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: The Azerbaijani peacekeepers are expected to participate in an international mission in South Sudan under the UN mandate, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend. Azerbaijani servicemen are expected to leave for Juba, South Sudan, in January 2019. Since 2013, South Sudan has been in a state of civil war. More than two million people have become internally displaced people in the country. Details added (first version posted on 13:32) Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Head of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation Ramzan Kadyrov. The head of state hailed the historically friendly relations between the Azerbaijani and Chechen peoples, saying that bilateral cooperation between the two countries has reached a new level. President Ilham Aliyev congratulated Ramzan Kadyrov and the friendly Chechen people on the great strides made in social and economic areas, pointing out Ramzan Kadyrovs special role in these achievements. The head of state also emphasized the importance of the establishment of stability and peace in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation. President Ilham Aliyev noted that based on strategic partnership, bilateral relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation continue developing successfully in all areas, and underlined the role of the reciprocal visits of the two countries presidents in this regard. Hailing a high level of constant trust and mutual cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia, President Ilham Aliyev noted the significance of the Interregional Forum, which was held during Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to Azerbaijan. The head of state noted that cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus republics of the Russian Federation, including the Chechen Republic contributes to the strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries. President Ilham Aliyev expressed his confidence that the visit of the delegation led by Ramzan Kadyrov will contribute to further expansion of Azerbaijan-Russia relations as well as bilateral cooperation with the Chechen Republic. Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov thanked President Ilham Aliyev for the warm words. He noted that great strides have been made in Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, adding that a lot has been done to strengthen solidarity among religious communities, including among Muslims in the country. Hailing the friendly and brotherly relations between the two nations, Ramzan Kadyrov noted that the Chechen people recall with great gratitude Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyevs support to them. He said that a park named after the great leader is planned to open in order to immortalize Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyev in the Chechen Republic, adding that the people of the Chechen Republic are looking forward to President Ilham Aliyevs participation in the opening of the park. The head of state accepted the invitation to visit the Chechen Republic, and thanked Ramzan Kadyrov for deep respect for national leader Heydar Aliyev. President Ilham Aliyev noted that Haji Ahmad Kadyrov is held in great respect in Azerbaijan, underlining his special role in the Chechen peoples overcoming hardships in the most difficult years. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev hosted an official dinner in honor of Head of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation Ramzan Kadyrov. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received Khairullah Spelenai, newly appointed Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Republic of Azerbaijan. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov congratulated Ambassador Khairullah Spelenai on his appointment as an Ambassador to Azerbaijan and wished him success in his future activities. At the meeting bilateral cooperation relations between Azerbaijan and Afghanistan were discussed and existing favorable opportunities for the development of cooperation in different areas, including in the field of trade and transportation was underlined. Ambassador Khairullah Spelenai highly appreciated the contribution of Azerbaijan to security and stability in Afghanistan. He stressed that will spare no efforts to further advancing the relations between the two countries. Ambassador Khairullah Spelenai presented the copy of his credentials to Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Ilhama Isabalayeva Trend: The EU has implemented about 50 twinning projects in Azerbaijan within 10 years, Ulviya Abdullayeva, representative of the EU delegation in Azerbaijan, said in Baku on Nov. 27. Some state agencies are showing more interest in implementation of twinning projects, she said. Abdullayeva added that the biggest twinning project is being implemented jointly with the Azerbaijani Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. This project is worth 1.4 million euros. She said that the EU is constantly monitoring the twinning projects. In turn, EU resident twinning adviser Zinaida Gorina stressed that the twinning project "Strengthening the National Accreditation System of the Republic of Azerbaijan" is worth 1.2 million euros. The project, the implementation of which began on July 1, 2017, is expected to last 24 months. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: On November 26, Charge dAffaires William Gill visited the Clean World Public Union Shelter in Baku to mark the beginning of the worldwide campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. At the shelter, Charge Gill met with the Director, Mehriban Zeynalova, staff, and many of the resident women and their families, to discuss the harm domestic violence causes to society. As he toured the Clean World Shelter, Charge Gill learned about the support it provides to the residents who have suffered abuse, including help from social workers, psychologists, and others. The Embassy will continue to support this and other shelters, and we encourage the Government of Azerbaijan to do so as well. The U.S. Embassy in Baku invites the public to join the 16 Days campaign by visiting its social media platforms, including on Facebook, Instagram, and on Twitter Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Matanat Nasibova - Trend: The US company Astrum Ventures is looking for potential clients in Azerbaijan to buy real estate in California and Virginia, Alexander Solonin, a representative of the company, told Trend. He said the company is based in these two US states and offers a wide range of brokerage services to investors who are interested in anonymous ownership and want to keep their assets secret. "At the same time, we offer services to the potential customers who are interested in entering the liquid market, but cannot immediately acquire real estate because of lack of funds," said Solonin. "For such people, there is a special system, the main advantage of which are the financial confidentiality and the possibility to reduce tax burden." The California real estate market is quite liquid and more transparent compared to speculative investment projects in some European countries, he said. Some brokerage companies focus on potential earnings, but not returning capital to investors. The difference is that we first of all focus on ensuring that an investor earns money. Solonin added that, of course, the company guarantees the investor an income not of 15 percent per annum, but at least 6-9 percent, depending on the global situation and economic recession. Today, we decided to come to Azerbaijan and present the concept of our company here, he said. If our market causes interest among Azerbaijani investors or property buyers, we will come here again next year and hold a series of presentations. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova An ancient dimension of dark echoes from the past. Lisa and her family barely manage to escape an invasion from the Rebel army in their home of Malta. Shortly after this episode, she discovers Exo, the ancient dimension she cannot understand until her late 20s. Exo is made of memories of the past; it brings forth all the strong echoes we leave behind. Lisa desperately wants to resolve the conflicts of this inner world peacefully, but quickly learns she must fight the shadows in people's hearts, materialized through battle re-enactments, warfare and emotional turmoil. The book is $0.99 during the tour. This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions . STK Chan will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.Are we in danger? I heard Daddy talking to Uncle Bernie about some bad people coming to our island. Theres only water protecting us from them, see?Ah, their long debates over the phone Its just chatting; just people talking. No worries here, my dear.Her mother paused and reflected on whether to be more honest with her child, as some school advisors were recommending, or whether to continue shielding her from the worlds problems.I dont want them to come to my school. My friends might stay at home because theyre scared.They wont, the mother replied with another smile as she caressed the little girls brown hair. They wont. Lets get inside, sweetheart; its getting chilly.They resided in a fortunately situated neighborhood. Though just two miles from the shore, it was elevated enough to have an unobstructed sea view over the gentle slope of their rocky hill. Before entering the house, Lisa spotted some movement above her head.Hey, its Reblas! She waved at their neighbor, who was tranquilly gazing through his telescope, poking out of his dark attic window. Any shooting princesses today?Why dont you come over and take a look? Its a cheesy moon out tonight, beamed the man. He was recently retired and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life on the island.Its late. Maybe tomorrow, Lisas mother called back.Night, Reblas.Sure thing, Strawberry. Itll be there tomorrow as wellalways waiting for us to look up and admire it!The electric shutter on the back door slowly closed after they had passed through. Reblas adjusted his telescopes lens and angle, observing the horizon, while in the background, concerned voices on the radio discussed the recent riots in Europe and the increasing numbers of boats crossing the Mediterranean Sea from both continents.A fan of nourishing SF&F fiction. Seeker of essential truths in historical non-fiction. Exploring life for almost half a century. Delivering action and matters of the inner self. "Chan has license to be more philosophical and issue-oriented, and on the whole he blends together different genres well." (John Staughton, SPR)Buy the book at Amazon or other venues Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: The problem in the export of Azerbaijani wines to Russia has been solved, said Azerbaijans Ministry of Economy. A delegation of the senior officials from the Ministry of Economy and the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan was sent to Russia to promptly study the difficulties of some companies involved in the export of Azerbaijani wines to Russia, said the ministry. As a result of discussions held with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Federal Customs Service, the technical problem was completely eliminated, according to the message. "The export area of Azerbaijani wines, which stand by by their unique taste and high quality, is expanding. Our wines are exported to a number of countries, including the Russian Federation. An agreement was reached on the continuous exchange of information so that in the future exporting companies would not encounter such problems," the message said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Six state properties in the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan were sold over the past month for 473 million soums through the auction trades at the E-IJRO AUKSION electronic trading platform, the Samarkand Regional Department of the State Committee for Assistance to Privatized Enterprises and Development of Competition told Trend. According to the information, over 2.35 billion soums will be invested in the new enterprises, where 92 jobs will be created. In accordance with the resolution of the president of Uzbekistan "On Additional Measures to Simplify the Sale of State-Owned Properties and Land Rights to Business Entities", the regional department put up 21 state properties for auction on the E-IJRO AUKSION electronic trading platform at a starting price equal to 1 soum with certain investment and social obligations. On Oct. 11, Shavkat Mirziyoyev allowed selling empty state-owned properties without estimating their value by putting them up for auction on the E-IJRO AUKSION electronic trading platform at a starting price equal to 1 soum. The only condition for the buyer is taking certain investment and social obligations. At the same time, a number of state-owned properties can be transferred to entrepreneurs only on the terms of a public-private partnership, in which the relevant ministry or agency acts as a state partner. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Tehran, Iran, Nov.27 Trend: Iranian and German authorities held fruitful talks regarding the launch of the train between the two countries, said the Islamic Republic's railway official. Iran hopes to have its first train arrive in Germany next year, IRNA quoted the Deputy head of International Organizations Unit at Islamic Republic of Iran`s Railways Mojgan Kordbacheh as saying at the 22nd meeting of the UIC (International Union of Railways) Regional Assembly for the Middle-East (RAME) in Isfahan. These negotiations have been ongoing in the past two years and are now Iran and Germany are negotiating to resolve regulatory issues for launching a train between the two countries, she said. The train will be launched to carry cargos from Iran to Europe and bring imported goods from Europe to Iran, Kordbacheh said. Tehran, Iran, Nov.27 Trend: The official import of clothes into Iran last year amounted to $59 million, which is a small part of foreign clothes in the local market, member of the board of directors of Iran Textile Exports and Manufacturers Association Majid Nami told reporters in Tehran. "We have nearly $3 billion worth of smuggled clothes," he said. "Easy and high profits make smuggling of clothes economically beneficial." He said currently there are some 300,000 people working in Iran's clothing industry, and the figure has the potential to increase to 1 million. "But now our concern is the loss of 200,000 jobs," said Nami. "Another problem is the flow of liquidity and circulating capital. Nothing can be done overnight by a producer, due to the rise in the price of currency and the fall in the value of the national currency," he added. Referring to the currency supply problem, Eftekhari said that now, for one month, no currency has been given to anybody in the clothing industry. "Before that, we were importing major raw materials from China through the Kunlun bank of China, but with the imposition of sanctions, China was the first country which announced that they will not provide us with textile raw materials anymore." Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Uzbekistan is among the countries to which The Coca-Cola Company has fulfilled its long-term social obligations in the amount exceeding $1 billion, Uzbek media reported referring to companys President and CEO James Quincey. In his official statement, Quincey announced that The Coca-Cola Foundation had broken the $1 billion mark. For over 30 years of its existence, the Foundation has provided financial support in the amount of over $1 to various charitable projects that have benefited 655 million people in over 200 countries of the world, including Uzbekistan. In the early 1990s, The Coca-Cola Company set itself the task to consistently transfer funds to social and charitable projects regardless of the financial situation on the market. The company created its own fund, in which transfers at least one percent of operating income every year. Today, The Coca-Cola Foundation provides grants for projects to solve environmental problems, such as access to clean drinking water in villages, rational use of water in agriculture, to solve problems with environmental pollution, to implement projects for the realization of women's economic rights, and aimed at the development and education of young people. In Uzbekistan, The Coca-Cola Foundation has been working closely with UNDP for over eight years in implementing sustainable development projects. During this time, with the financial support of The Coca-Cola Foundation, UNDP implemented projects worth over $0.5 million. Grants were aimed at addressing the problem of water scarcity, which is acute for all of Central Asia. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: At the Nov. 19-23 trade week at Uzbekistan's Toshkent Republican Stock Exchange, 298 purchase and sale transactions were carried out on shares of 26 joint stock companies in the securities market, the press service of the Stock Exchange said. As a result, 13.4 million shares worth 13.1 billion soums were sold against 18.1 billion soums last week. One transaction worth $230 million has also been carried out in the corporate bonds market. The greatest demand in the past period was on securities of commercial banks a 77.2 percent share in the weekly turnover or 10.3 billion soums mainly thanks to the Ravnaq-bank PJSCB. The average value of transactions amounted to 44.4 billion soums, while the average daily transaction size was 2.6 billion soums. The average selling price per share was 990.7 soums, and the average daily number of securities sold was 2.7 million. Since the beginning of the year, 9,332 security and corporate bond transactions for a total amount of 584.6 billion soums have been concluded at the Toshkent RSE. Some 8.5 billion securities of 115 issuers were used in the trades. (8299.20 UZS = 1 USD on Nov. 27) --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Rashid Shirinov Trend: The Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea is divided into 32 licensed blocks, in five of which oil works are undergoing, Chairman of Turkmen Oil state concern Dovletdurdy Hajiyev said, according to a message of the company. The remaining blocks are the subject of direct non-exclusive negotiations for all interested parties, he noted at the international energy forum in Ashgabat, noting that the priority is to conclude production sharing agreements with foreign companies. Local experts note that more than 80 percent of the resources of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea are located in deposits at depths of more than 3,000 meters and in poorly studied areas of oil and gas accumulation. Middle Caspian and South Caspian oil and gas basins are considered promising. The message reads that under the law of Turkmenistan "On Hydrocarbon Resources" and the concluded production sharing agreements, Turkmen Oil successfully cooperates on the implementation of a number of projects with Dragon Oil, Eni, Buried Hill, Mitro International and ARETI companies. Moreover, the state concern is ready to consider possible cooperation with companies that have innovative technologies in such areas as know-how of well completing, cementing and completion of a productive section. It is about the use of various flushing liquids in drilling directional and horizontal wells, as well as in ensuring successful fastening in areas of abnormally low and high reservoir pressures. Turkmen Oil is also interested in technologies to prevent sand problems in producing wells and to strengthen filter zones of wells as well as to carry out waterproofing repair work and eliminate water flows in oil and gas wells. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashid Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The share of local petroleum products may increase in Azerbaijans energy balance after completing the modernization of the Baku Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery, Public Relations Head at Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told Trend. "As for the import of petroleum products to Azerbaijan, the products of Baku Refinery meet the major part of domestic demand. Local products meet around 95 percent of the domestic demand and this tendency will continue in the future as well. The share of local petroleum products in the countrys energy balance may increase after completing the modernization of Baku Refinery," he said. Ahmadov noted that SOCAR has not imported fuel oil to Azerbaijan this year. He pointed out that the import of petroleum products to Azerbaijan in 2018 is limited to certain volumes of jet fuel (in addition to the produced volumes) to meet the growing demand of local airlines, as well as high-octane gasoline (Premium and Super) and A-92 gasoline only during the period of repair work at the refinery. Since SOCAR carries out trade operations all over the world, petroleum products also hold an important place in its portfolio, noted Ahmadov. "The import of petroleum products, for example, gasoline to Azerbaijan is usually more expensive than domestic production. This is due to the fact that the international market prices for main types of fuel used in Azerbaijan are much higher than the sales prices in the country, even excluding customs and transportation costs," he said. Ahmadov went on to add that the products of Baku Refinery, or the products that are not in high demand in the country, for example, Premium and Super gasoline (95 and 98) are exception. "Depending on the demand level, in certain periods, the import of small volumes of products that are not in high demand may be more profitable and commercially more efficient than producing the same product in the country, since the level of product profitability is often proportional to demand and production volumes," he said. Currently, Baku Refinery is undergoing modernization, which will be completed in 2021. Following the modernization, the refinerys capacity will increase from 6 million tons per year to 8 million tons per year, while its operational term will be extended until 2040. The cost of modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery is estimated at around $2.2 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 27 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Last week, 35 deals were registered at the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange of Turkmenistan, the Exchange said in a message. Businessmen from Afghanistan purchased hydrotreated diesel fuel and base oil. In addition, high density polyethylene, colorless sheet glass, cotton wool and motor transport were sold to businessmen from Russia, the UAE, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The total amount of transactions exceeded $10.744 million. Businesses and organizations of all ownership forms, residents of Turkmenistan and other countries can participate in the exchange trading by acquisition of a broker place or signing of service contract with exchange brokers. Petrochemicals, cotton fiber, local textile and chemical production are the main exports. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: OPEC is likely to decide to cut the oil production between 1 million and 1.5 million barrels in its upcoming December meeting, Johannes Benigni, chairman and founder of consultancy JBC Energy Group, believes. Oil production cut is expected when OPEC meets in Vienna next week amid worries over a US-China trade war, a supply glut and demand slowdown, he told CNBC. Benigni pointed out that OPEC will probably manage to stabilize the oil market by choosing the right language. They will indicate a cut of between 1 million and 1.5 million, and that will do, the market probably will stabilize. The expectation or the hope for OPEC right now would be that prices go lower, and demand may come back, he added. The question would be, is Russia ready to cut at $60? Benigni said. OPEC leaders will gather in Vienna on Dec. 6 to discuss how to manage the oil output, supply glut and demand slowdown. For the first time ever, in 2016, the Member Countries of OPEC coordinated with 11 non-OPEC oil producing countries in a concerted effort to accelerate the stabilization of the global oil market through voluntary production adjustments, which amounted to approximately 1.8 million barrels per day. The Declaration was an outcome of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries Ministerial Meeting held on 10 December 2016 and was effective for an initial period of six months. The Second Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries Ministerial Meeting, held on 25 May 2017, decided to extend the voluntary production adjustments for another nine months commencing 1 July 2017. At the third joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries Ministerial Meeting, held on 30 November 2017, it was agreed to amend the Declaration of Cooperation so that it will take effect for the entirety of 2018. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn How to Fight Corporate 'Gun Control' By Harold Hutchison. November 26th, 2018 When it comes to gun control, many people think of legislation, political campaigns, and even ballot issues. Lately, though, a new front is opening up in the battle for our Second Amendment rights - and it is primarily in corporate corner offices and boardrooms. Major corporations are now siding with those who attack our Second Amendment rights. Sounds harsh, but that is the objective reality behind the decisions of a number of companies who cut ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of the shooting in Parkland. But it is going beyond that, as well. Banks are already enacting policies to close accounts used by Federal Firearms License holders. This was started under Operation Choke Point, and even though the government version was shut down, the approach has been seized on by anti-Second Amendment activists funded by Michael Bloomberg, who have pressured Bank of America and Citibank to take action. The fact is, Bloomberg and others who seek to make the Second Amendment a dead letter have doubled down on the social stigmatization of those who exercise their constitutional rights to keep and bear arms. ....... Many consider that the Second Amendment is there to protect the First, as well as the entire constitution - however, corporate entities such as banks and social media in various ways seek to effect their own methods of control against the 2A. Banks are choosing policies aimed at closing FFL accounts and cutting ties with the NRA - then we have social media selectively flouting free speech rights if they see matters relating to gun rights and right leaning talk in general. These trends have to be defeated. Back to Top Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: An agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for preferential loan to finance the construction of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) is expected to be signed in December 2018, Teodora Georgieva, Executive Officer of ICGB AD (project company) on the Bulgarian side, told Trend. The agreement concerns securing preferential loan financing in connection with using the state guarantee of Bulgaria for 110 million euros. Georgieva noted that the approval of the loan shall take place before the start of the construction phase "The due diligence procedure has been completed and a proposal for the provision of the loan passed the EIB internal approval procedure. At the current stage the drafting of the loan agreement has started. The agreement shall be aligned with the Ministry of Finance of Bulgaria, being the party providing the State Guarantee," she said. In general, Georgieva noted that in terms of ensuring the required financing for the project the company is at very advanced stage. IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets. The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas. --- Follow the author on Twitter:@Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 Trend: With Azercells new Audiobook service, it is going to be much easier to read a book on your mobile phone. Thus, from now on, subscribers of the leading mobile operator can also download the audio version of the e-books. New Audiobook service provides popular books in audio format. The books were recorded by Barama Media in Azerbaijani language. Currently, well-known classic works of world and national literature are available for the book lovers. Barama Media intends to prepare the audio version of contemporary literature works, as well. The ceremony dedicated to the presentation of audiobook service took place in Boulevard Hotel on November 26th. The event was attended by famous individuals, including Bookmate managing director Andrew Baev, National Writer of Azerbaijan Chingiz Abdullayev, writer and poet Gismat Rustamov. Azercell Telecom CEO Vahid Mursaliyev underlined the importance of promoting the culture of reading in modern world and the role of Bookmate and Audiobook services in this regard. He also noted that these services, combine of creation and internet, which meet the requirements of the modern era, will play an exceptional role in promoting both our popular literary samples and contemporary literature. Event was accompanied by artistic performance of Pantomime Theatre. Audiobook service has been developed within the framework of Bookmate project of Azercell. With this service, mobile phone users may listen to any book of their preference in their leisure time in any place they want, regardless of location. The service is aimed to promote literature among young generation and contribute to further popularization of reading in our national language. Notably, Bookmate is a service which allows reading not only on a mobile phone but also on any electronic device. The application includes more than 850,000 books of various genres such as literary, scientific, fiction and others in 12 different languages. Subscription to this popular international platform in our country is offered by Azercell. This library unites readers, authors, publications, brands and broadcasting agencies. Active readers of Bookmate write reviews about books they have read and assist the others to find interesting novels, as well. The most prominent advantage of the service is that it does not need permanent access to internet, as the book is downloaded to the subscribers private library. Therefore, a subscriber may read the books whenever and wherever he wants. It is also worth saying that, every new subscriber who downloads Bookmate will benefit from free use of the application within a week. Thank to Audiobook service presented in the framework of Bookmate, favorite books will be accessible for readers. For further information about the service and subscription, please visit www.azercell.com/bookmate. The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. With 48 percent share of Azerbaijans mobile telecom market Azercells network covers 80 percent of the territory (excluding 20 percent of the occupied territories) and 99,8 percent of population of the country. Currently, 4,5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Azercell has pioneered an important number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, Metro coverage, 24/7 call centre service, 7 day/week Front Office service, M2M services, one-stop-shopping approach Azercell Express offices, Online Customer Care and Social Media Customer Care services, Mobile Customer Care office, mobile e-signature service ASAN Imza etc. Azercell deployed first 4G LTE services in Azerbaijan in 2012. According to the results of mobile network quality surveys of Global Wireless Solutions company and international systems specialized in wireless coverage mapping such as Opensignal and Testmy.net, Azercells network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan. Our state policy today is aimed at supporting entrepreneurs, which will contribute to the development of the country, improvement of welfare of the citizens. All resources of the country's financial institutions are aimed at developing rural areas and supporting entrepreneurship in the regions. The more production in the country, the more jobs, and the less of our compatriots will leave their home in search of earnings, President Soonbay Jeenbekov of the Kyrgyz Republic told Tuesday during a visit to the Viva Tex enterprise in Tokmok, Chuy oblast, which produces textiles, kabar.kg reports. The press service of the Presidents office reported that head of the Viva Tex Ikbol Bahramova told that wool and cotton knitwear and goods made of it are being produced. 630 people are working in Tokmok, 75 people are working in the experimental workshop in Bishkek. In total, 705 people are working for the company. The company cooperates with companies from Kazakhstan, Russia, Germany, Turkey, USA, Uzbekistan. Sales markets - Kyrgyzstan (55%), Russia (27%), Kazakhstan (10%) and Uzbekistan (8%). Production capacity - 100 tons of wool threads and 30 thousand knitwear per month. Funds for modernization were allocated by the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund, which were used to purchase new knitting machines for knitwear from Germany. The President was shown the production departments, familiarized himself with the products and noted the need for further cooperation with the RKDF and modernization of production. He also visited the Pasta Complex of the Kaz Grain LLC, which has just started its work. Information on the activities of the company was provided by its head Sultan Imangaziev. He told that in order to expand the production capacity, Kaz Grain LLC opened an additional workshop and the Pasta Complex line. The workshop is open with the credit funds allocated by the Kyrgyz-Russian Development Fund, and part of its own funds. The company is planning to fully cover Kyrgyzstan, and then export products to foreign markets. Jobs have been to over 50 people, production capacity 1,800 tons per month. Jeenbekov once again stressed that entrepreneurs who open processing enterprises in the regions and provide local people with jobs should be the most respected and honored citizens in the country. Most often, local authorities, law enforcement agencies instead of helping such entrepreneurs, on the contrary, put obstacles in their way, carry out unreasonable checks. We are working hard to change this approach to business. It should not be so, the president noted. Veteran of Tajikistans security services, Davlatkhuja Nazirov, is convinced that the new head of the Main Penitentiary Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of Tajikistan is able to establish order, news.tj reports. Lieutenant-General Mansourjon Umarov, who had previously served as deputy chief of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), has been appointed to head the Main Penitentiary Directorate of the Ministry of Justice. He had been the deputy chief of the SCNS since 2008 He told Radio Ozodi on November 26 that will visit the Khujand-based high-security penal 3/3 that witnessed a deadly riot earlier this month within the next few days. Umarov noted that he wants to start his work as the head of the Main Penitentiary Directorate from getting acquainted with penitentiary institutions of the country and intends to visit high-security penal colony 3/3 located in Khujand. Meanwhile, veteran of Tajikistans security services, Davlatkhuja Nazirov, told Asia-Plus today that he is convinced that Mansourjon Umarov is able to establish order in the countrys prison system. By presidents decree the 53-year-old Mansourjon Umarov was appointed as the head of the Main Penitentiary Directorate on November 23 replacing Izatullo Sharifzoda. Sharifzoda, who had served as the head of Main Penitentiary Directorate for more than ten years, was reportedly retired for age reasons. The Main Penitentiary Directorate is responsible for managing the prison system in Tajikistan and has been part of the Ministry of Justice since 2002. Its 19 penitentiary institutions include 13 correctional colonies (including one colony for women and one colony for juveniles), one prison and five pre-trial detention centers. There are also five regional units responsible for the execution of non-custodial sanctions. Recall, Tajikistan authorities made the first comments on a recent prison riot in the Tajik northern city of Khujand on November 22. Speaking to reporters in Brussels after the EU-Tajikistan Cooperation Council meeting, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin said 21 rioters were neutralized during the confrontation. According to him, two inmates were killed while trying to help prison guards. The rioters attacked prison guards, killing two officers and seriously wounding five others, Tajik top diplomat added. High-security penal colony 3/3 largely houses inmates convicted on charges related to terrorism, extremism, and other serious crimes. Muhriddin said that 12 of the rioters had fought in Syria and Iraq alongside militants of the Islamic State (IS) terror group, while three were convicted for membership in other banned extremist groups. The riot broke out at a high-security penal colony 3/3 in the northern city of Khujand late on November 7. According to some sources, several inmates convicted of religious extremism and terrorism organized the riot at the Khujand high-security penal colony. They were reportedly armed with cold steels and one of them managed to disarm a guard, took his assault rifle and began shooting at guards and wardens. It is not clear what sparked the riot that was suppressed by riot police sent to the prison. Amaq news agency, which is linked to the IS terror group, reported on November 8 that one of IS fighters is responsible for the attack in Tajikistan that sparked a prison riot. Seven prison officers, including the prison warden and a department chief, have reportedly been arrested in recent days. Tajikistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a grant agreement helping Tajikistan reconnect to the Central Asian power grid through interconnection with the Uzbekistan power system, according to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT), news.tj reports. A grant agreement for 35 million U.S. dollars was signed on November 23 in Dushanbe between the Government of Tajikistan, represented by Mr. Nematullo Hikmatulozoda, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, and the Asian Development Bank, represented by Mr. Pradeep Srivastava, ADB Country Director for Tajikistan. Recall, the ADB approved a $35 million grant to reconnect Tajikistans electricity system to the Central Asian Power System (CAPS) through interconnection with the Uzbekistan system on November 15. This is expected to help expand regional energy trade and improve regional energy efficiency among countries connected to CAPS. CAPS is a regional electricity transmission network created during the Soviet Union era, and its operation today is coordinated among Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. In recent decades, power exchange within CAPS has been in progressive decline and Tajikistans disconnection from Uzbekistan in 2009 limited the effectiveness of an interconnected CAPS. But the signing of a power trade agreement to restart the electricity trade between the two countries in March this year is a step forward for a renewed regional energy network. The project aims to install and upgrade modern relay protection equipment for synchronizing Tajikistan and Uzbekistans electricity systems, expand interconnection points, and strengthen Tajikistans capacity for stable parallel operation. The total cost of the project is $40 million, with the Government of Tajikistan providing $5 million. The project is expected to be completed in 2022. ADB and Tajikistans development partnership, which began in 1998, has restored and built the countrys new transport and energy infrastructure, supported social development, expanded agricultural production, and improved regional cooperation and trade. To date, ADB has approved around $1.7 billion in grants, concessional loans, and technical assistance to Tajikistan. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 27 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The Turkmen delegation, headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, offered to host a forum on security and cooperation in Central Asia during the recent EU-Central Asia meeting in Brussels, Altyn Asyr local TV channel reported. Turkmen and EU representatives discussed the cooperation issues in key areas. Among them are preparation of an updated EU strategy for Central Asia; regional cooperation; integration, investment and economic partnership; cooperation in sustainable development and climate change, environmental protection, water issues; security. Special attention in Brussels was paid to such vectors as energy, industry, agriculture, transport and trade. When discussing the issues of climate change, environmental protection and water issues, the Turkmen delegation updated about the preparation of the special UN program for the Aral Sea basin. Earlier, Ashgabat voiced the initiative for holding a forum on cooperation and security in Central Asia during one of the sessions of the UN General Assembly. Iran's proposal to establish a joint venture will be reviewed and the country's transport infrastructure development will be supported, the Chairman of the International Union of Railways (UIC) Regional Assembly for the Middle East Isa Apaydin said on Tuesday, IRNA reports. At the 22nd meeting of the UIC Regional Assembly for the Middle East, Saeed Mohammadzadeh, the managing director of Iran's railways, proposed to form a joint railroad venture with the member states. In an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in the Iranian central city of Isfahan, Isa Apaydn said, 'The proposal should be examined carefully and we will review it at the next meeting held in Jordan in May.' Referring to Iran's efforts to develop rail transport network, Apaydn said, 'Iran has major plans to develop rail infrastructure and we will support its plans in this regard.' Apaydn who is also the managing director of Turkish railways went on to say Turkish railway does its utmost to cooperate with the regional countries, including Iran, and it has the longest railway network with Iran. 'We plan to make arrangement to connect Iran's railway to Turkey's Van Province and we will make efforts to connect Iran's railway network to other Turkish cities as well,' Apaydn added. He went on to say goods transported to Europe have to pass through Iran, therefore this country enjoys a unique position in transit of goods. The three-day meeting kicked off on Monday morning with the aim of expanding cooperation between the member states. Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Oman, Qatar and the UAE are the member states of the union. 'Qatar Airways is pleased to announce that it will expand its operations in Iran with the launch of a new twice-weekly direct service to Isfahan International Airport, starting from 4 February 2019, as well as introducing increased services to Shiraz and Tehran, from early January 2019,' Qatar Airways announced in its statement which was released on Monday, IRNA reports. 'Isfahan will become the airlines fourth non-stop gateway to Iran, joining Tehran, Shiraz and Mashad, with the service operating from Doha each Monday and Friday by an Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring 12 seats in Business Class and 132 seats in Economy Class,' the statement reads. 'Three extra weekly flights will be introduced to the Shiraz service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, taking the route to daily operation from 2 January 2019.' 'The airline will also introduce two extra flights on the Tehran route, with the addition of an extra flight on Wednesdays from 2 January 2019 and Fridays from 4 January 2019, taking the route to a triple-daily operation every day except on Tuesdays, when the service runs twice-daily.' On June 5, 2017 some Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE have officially severed ties with Qatar and closed air, road and sea lines with the country to put it under political and economic blockade. These countries set out 13 conditions for resuming relations one of which was severing ties with Iran. But Qatar considers it as breaching its national sovereignty and has not so far accomplished it. Some regional countries have created challenges in the West Asia by fanning the flames of conflicts and interference in other countries' internal affairs. On the other hand some others like Iran and Qatar are trying to show regional cooperation by boosting relations. Iran and Qatar by maintaining logical, principled relations which are based on international regulations are standing against avarice demands of some countries and coordinating their policies as regard regional issues. Earlier on August 26, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in a phone conversation with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Tehran is seeking strong and deep relations with Doha. Stressing the importance of offering the business people and investors in the two countries with incentives, President Rouhani said strengthening port and maritime cooperation and establishing a joint shipping line between Iran and Qatar can accelerate the process of bilateral trade. Meanwhile, Hamad Al Thani appreciated Iran's support for Qatar in breaking the blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia. A new grant programme Produce for a Better Future will be launched in Georgia from January 1, 2019 within the peace initiative A Step to a Better Future in order to encourage trade across the dividing lines, Agenda.ge reports. The initiative promotes trade relations in such a way as to enhance economic relations across dividing lines, develop new opportunities and access to both internal and external markets. Also, the new ways and opportunities for economic benefits for the population of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, read the press release published by the Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality. The new programme ensures support for joint production and partnership projects on both sides of the dividing lines. The beneficiary of the programme may be a person or a registered entrepreneur, who lives in the occupied territories of Abkhazia or Tskhinvali region, as well as a person from territory controlled by the government of Georgia. The maximum amount of financing is defined: Up to 7,000 GEL for one beneficiary who must be/work in the occupied territories of Georgia; Up to 15,000 GEL for beneficiaries group, which consists of two beneficiaries, one beneficiary should be/work in the occupied territories of Georgia; Up to 20,000 GEL for beneficiaries group consisting of three beneficiaries, including at least one beneficiary to be/work in Georgia's controlled territory; Up to 35,000 GEL for beneficiaries group consisting of four or more beneficiaries, including at least one beneficiary to be/work in the territory controlled by Georgia. Persons interested in participating in the programme at the first stage of the selection will complete and register electronic business plans in Georgian or Abkhaz languages. At the second stage business plans will be evaluated and the winners will be revealed. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell has been fined 30,000 euros (33,864 U.S. dollars) for the use of privileged information in the sale of shares in the Spanish technology company "Abengoa", according to the Spanish Official State Bulletin (BOE) published on Tuesday, Xinhua reports. Borrell is a member of the Board of Directors of Abengoa and sold 10,000 shares in the company on Nov. 24, 2015, just 24 hours before the company announced it was opening bankruptcy proceedings. The value of Abengoa's shares fell by 52.07 percent the day after Borrell sold his shares and by a further 29.72 percent the following day, leading Spain's National Commission of Market Values (CNMV) to open an investigation in July 2017. The CNMV considered Borrell's action to be a "very serious infraction" of inside trading rules given that the foreign minister's position in the company meant that he "had privileged information" about the company's internal situation. The Spanish media report that Borrell will not appeal against the fine, although he will present a letter to the CNMV expressing his disagreement with its conclusions. 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. Slovak Central bank (NBS) governor Jozef Makuch said on Tuesday that he'll quit his post in March next year, Xinhua reports. Makuch, whose official tenure should have ended in 2021, said at a meeting of the NBS Banking Council that he'll carry out his tasks in the post until a new NBS governor is appointed, spokesperson of NBS Martina Vrablik Solcanyiova confirmed it to media. Makuch implied his possible departure from the post early in September when he expressed his concerns about the stability of the political environment in Slovakia after the general election in 2020. He claimed that it might be beneficial for NBS if the current government managed to elect a new governor and thus spared NBS from political fights after the 2020 general election. Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir announced later on the day that hes interesting in the post of the NBS governor. As Chad president Idriss Deby visited Yad Vashem and centers of Israeli agricultural expertise in the south on Monday during the second day of his unprecedented visit, a senior Sudanese official denied reports that his country will be the next African state to renew ties with Israel, The Jerusalem Post reports. Abdel-Sakhi Abbas, the leader of the ruling National Congress Party in Sudan, was quoted by the Turkish Anadolu Agency service as saying that Sudans position on normalization of ties with Israel is clear and is fundamentally linked to the Palestinian cause. According to Abbas, Israel occupies a Muslim Arab state and prevents Muslims from practicing their religious rites. When Israel ceases its hostile practices toward Palestine, Sudan can establish a relationship with it. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday standing alongside Deby in Jerusalem that he will soon be visiting additional Arab countries, Abbas said Sudan would not be among the destinations. Netanyahu paid a public visit to Oman last month. [Netanyahu] cannot visit Sudan, Abbas was quoted as saying. There has been no discussion about this visit among official Sudanese circles. Rabbi Marc Schneier, a Long Island rabbi who has established good ties with leaders in the Persian Gulf as head of an organization promoting Jewish-Islamic ties called the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, said there has been talk inside the royal palace in Bahrain and the foreign ministry of a possible Netanyahu visit, as well as a visit by a senior Bahraini official to Israel. Schneier was in Bahrain several weeks ago. He added that when Netanyahu went to Oman and met Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the focus was on the visit itself. However, the focus of a possible Netanyahu visit to Bahrain, he said, would be on establishing diplomatic relations. As additional Persian Gulf emirates are taking steps toward Israel, Schneier said that Bahrain which has been sending positive signs to Israel for a number of years would be interested in taking back the narrative and being the first Persian Gulf country to establish ties with Israel. Economy Minister Eli Cohen told Army Radio he was invited to attend a conference on technology next year in Bahrain. Deby, meanwhile, told i24News, that the goal of his current trip is also the re-establishment of ties. I said yesterday that we will renew diplomatic ties between Chad and Israel and that will happen, God willing, in the coming days or weeks, he said. He added that he will not be visiting the PA during this trip, because the purpose of this trip is to renew Chads connection with Israel, which was severed in 1972. While Deby held diplomatic talks with Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin soon after his arrival on Sunday, on Monday he went to Yad Vashem, toured the Gilad research center for Arid and Semi-Arid Agricultural research in the Negev, and visited the Netafim drip irrigation plant at Kibbutz Hatzerim. He is scheduled to leave Israel on Tuesday morning. The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the French Academy of Sciences have quite a long history of cooperation and collaboration, The Jerusalem Post reports. A 1989 bilateral agreement for scientific cooperation has flourished through joint conferences, symposia, and significant joint research and scientific projects. In honor of the 70th anniversary year of the State of Israel, the two academies convened joint scientific conferences, first in Paris in June of this year, and on Monday, in Jerusalem. Nobel Prize laureates were present at both conferences and delivered papers. The Jerusalem conference, under the heading of Science without Borders, was held at the Van Leer Institute. President Reuven Rivlin said when most people think of France they think of the Eiffel Tower, but when Jews think of France they think of Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, who in the 11th century authored a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and to this day is considered one of its greatest interpreters. Rivlin said that when he was presented with the title of the conference, he went to his Rashi compendium to see what Rashi has to say about borders, and saw that Rashi defined a border as a limit or an end. But science, said Rivlin, is infinite without borders, without an end. Science cannot be limited by political boundaries because science is wisdom, he said. Rivlin said he was proud of what science and scientists have contributed to Israels development and creativity, calling science a part of the Israeli DNA that can bring a better future to all. He made the point that two of his presidential predecessors were scientists. Chaim Weizmann, Israels founding president was a chemist, and Ephraim Katzir, the fourth president was a biophysicist who remained a scientist and at the end of each week, on completion of his formal duties, returned to Rehovot to work in his profession. He knew that if you want to make a better world and a strong country that takes care of its citizens, you have to invest in science, said Rivlin. Israel has become an international power thanks to Israeli science and scientists, said Rivlin, noting that some of them were in the auditorium. When he travels abroad, Rivlin said he is always impressed by what science has done in terms of saving lives and improving the quality of lives. Knowledge is not enclosed within boundaries and not attached to any particular place, said Nili Cohen, president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Proof of this was Nobel Prize and Israel Prize laureate Ada Yonath who made her discoveries in Grenoble, France, said Cohen, emphasizing that We need science without borders. The language of science transcends cultural, religious and gender differences, and it transcends borders, she said, adding that science helps to build bridges between diverse societies. As for cooperation with French scientists, It enriches us, she said, underscoring that it teaches freedom, tolerance and good values. Prof. Catherin Brechignac, the permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, said that Israel and France are countries that through the quality of their research advance knowledge. She was pleased that a program exists in both France and Israel whereby Nobel laureates in science go to schools and speak to students with the aim of promoting interest in scientific studies. Science is a universal human adventure, and scientific knowledge is useful for predicting and creating, she said. But today, knowledge of genetics makes ethical questions knock at the door. She was also concerned that the gap between those who have vast technological knowledge, and those who dont and are only interested in results is growing. French Ambassador to Israel Helene Le Gal said the conference was a fitting conclusion to 120 events held from June until the end of November in honor of Israels 70th anniversary and to illustrate excellence, creativity and innovation. Israel prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will "soon" fly to Chad to officially announce ties with the country, his office said in a statement on Tuesday, without providing further details, The Jerusalem Post reports. Netanyahu met with Chad's president, Idriss Deby, in his office on the third day of a surprise visit by the dignitary. Chad is a very important country in Africa, and a very important country for Israel, Netanyahu said on Sunday, standing alongside the African leader. I am happy we are resuming our friendship, he added, saying that although diplomatic ties were cut off in 1972, cooperation which he said will now be extended always continued under the radar. The Prime Minister's Office said the ties would be focused on agriculture, water, solar energy and technology, among other fields. Netanyahu said that he and Deby discussed the changes taking place in the Arab world regarding their attitudes toward Israel. This was manifest in my recent visit in Oman, he said of his trip there last month. And there will be more such visits in Arab countries very soon. Russias Pacific Fleet vessels arrived on a business visit to Singapore's Changi naval base on Tuesday, Fleet Spokesman Nikolai Voskresensky told reporters, TASS reports. "Today the Pacific Fleets task force, consisting of the Order of Nakhimov guards missile cruiser Varyag, the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleyev and the Boris Butoma large sea tanker - made a business call to the Changi naval base in line with the long voyage plan," Voskresensky said. During the visit, the sides will hold a joint meeting on the issues related to the ships logistical support. Later on Tuesday, Russias Ambassador to Singapore Andrei Tatarinov will visit the ships. The ships command is later expected to meet with Singapores Navy commander and the city mayor. The Pacific Fleet ships will wrap up their visit to Singapore on December 2. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: As part of the operation conducted against the PKK terrorist organization, 23 PKK members were detained in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Nov. 27. The operation was carried out in 10 districts of Istanbul, the reports said. During the search in the detainees' apartments, a large number of firearms and propaganda literature were found and seized, the media reported. On Nov. 15, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu stated that from early 2018, 87,838 operations have been carried out against the PKK terrorist organization in Turkey. Soylu noted that 289 PKK terrorists were killed during the operations carried out in Turkey. The minister also noted that in 2017, the PKK terrorists planned 965 attacks, while this figure dropped to 677 in 2018. "In 2017, 380 PKK terrorists and in 2018, 343 terrorists surrendered to Turkish law enforcement agencies," Soylu said. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has lasted more than 25 years, claiming more than 40,000 lives. PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the UN and the EU. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: The 2nd Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Member States Conference on Mediation will be held in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign MInistry told Trend on Nov. 27. The conference will be held on November 29, 2018, the ministry said. "The conference will discuss regional problems, as well as the existing conflicts in the OIC countries," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. The 1st OIC Member States Conference on Mediation was held in 2017 in Istanbul. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday addressed several current issues of international relations, including tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, the recent spat between Russia and Ukraine and the U.S. support for PKK-linked People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorists in Syria in the pretext of Daesh terrorists, Daily Sabah reported Erdogan began by warning Greece and Greek Cyprus against "reckless" actions in the eastern Mediterranean. "The reckless behavior of Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration (in hydrocarbon search in the eastern Mediterranean) by receiving support from several European states has become a threat and danger primarily for themselves," Erdogan said at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting. "As Turkey, we will not make the slightest concession from our theses neither in the eastern Mediterranean or any other region and will defend our rights up to the end," he added. Turkey has consistently contested the Greek Cypriot Administration's unilateral drilling activity in the Eastern Mediterranean, saying Turkish Cypriots also have rights to the resources in the area. On Oct. 18, the Turkish Navy blocked a Greek frigate trying to interfere with Turkey's first seismic vessel Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha. The incident prompted an immediate response from Turkish officials who warned Greece against actions in the Mediterranean that would spark tensions in the region. Erdogan also addressed the recent escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine in Kerch Strait separating Crimea with mainland Russia, saying: "We call on our Russian and Ukrainian friends to solve their problems through dialogue as soon as possible and make the Black Sea a sea of peace." "Turkey would like to see brother nations Russia and Ukraine side by side, not facing off, when the world is faced with serious threats," he said. The Ukrainian navy says Russian ships fired on and seized three of its artillery ships Sunday. The incident sharply escalated tensions that have been growing between the two countries since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. In regards to Daesh terror group in Syria, Erdogan said: There's no more Daesh left in Syria anymore. There are only some small bands trained and kept in reserve under the disguise of Daesh to create chaos in (Turkey) and this region." "As Turkey, we commit to a complete removal of the leftovers of this organization (Daesh) within a couple of months," he said. The U.S. has partnered with the PKK-affiliated Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in Syria in its fight against Daesh. The material support and joint patrols between the U.S. and YPG have disturbed Ankara, who has urged Washington that partnering with one terrorist group to fight another will not achieve its intended goals. Turkey recognizes the PKK and YPG as organically linked terrorist groups. The U.S., however, while listing the PKK as a terrorist group, has supported the YPG militarily, under the pretext of fighting Daesh. To date the U.S. has sent 4,700 heavy weapons and armored vehicles to the YPG. Earlier this month, U.S. Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey said that the U.S. administration hopes that the fight against Daesh, in its last foothold in northeastern Syria, will end within months. In accordance with the Manbij agreement, Turkish and U.S. troops began joint patrols on Nov. 1. Since June 18, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has carried out 68 unilateral patrols in Manbij. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: As part of an operation conducted against the PKK terrorist organization on Nov. 21-27, 544 people were detained, Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a message on Nov. 27. During the period, 480 raids were carried out in Turkey, the message read. The largest number of detentions were recorded in the Van province (42 people) and in Ankara (24 people). On Nov. 15, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu stated that from early 2018, 87,838 operations have been carried out against the PKK terrorist organization in Turkey. Soylu noted that 289 PKK terrorists were killed during the operations. The minister also noted that in 2017, the PKK terrorists planned 965 attacks, while this figure dropped to 677 in 2018. "In 2017, 380 PKK terrorists and in 2018, 343 terrorists surrendered to Turkish law enforcement agencies," Soylu said. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has lasted more than 25 years, claiming more than 40,000 lives. PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the UN and the EU. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu US President Donald Trump said on Monday his daughter Ivanka Trump would attend the inauguration of Mexican President-elect Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday along with Vice President Mike Pence, whose attendance was announced in October, Reuters reported. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Mississippi, Trump confirmed Ivanka Trump would attend the inauguration. Srinagar, November 27: Indian forces killed four more youth in Kulgam and Pulwama districts, today, raising the death toll to 21 since Friday. During cordon and search operations and gunfights the troops killed three youth at Redwani in Kulgam and one in Tral area of Pulwama, today. An 80-year old woman died of suffocation during the teargas firing by forces in Shopian. One Indian soldier was killed and two others were injured in a gunfight in Kulgam. The killings triggered protests in Redwani and adjoining areas. Several people were injured when Indian forces fired pellets and teargas shells on the mourners. The authorities snapped the mobile internet services in the district while train service remained suspended. Spontaneous shutdown was observed in Bijbehara area of Islamabad district against the killings in Kulgam and Pulwama. The shopkeepers downed their shutters and the public transport went off the roads. Thousands of people participated in the funeral prayers of a slain youth, Shakir Hassan Dar in Tral.The mourners raised pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans. US President Donald Trump suggested he could place 10 percent tariffs on popular electronic products imported from China, like iPhones, also noting that it is highly unlikely he would delay a planned increase in tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on January 1, Sputnik reported. Trump made his comments in an interview for the Wall Street Journal which was published Monday, just four days before his scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, CNBC reported. Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is, the president said to WSJ about the possible iPhone and laptop tariffs. I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily. Following Trumps remarks, Apple stock was down nearly 2 percent in after-hours trading. Apples products are currently exempt from US tariffs. Although iPhones are assembled in China, some of the parts come from the US. The US president also said that it is highly unlikely that Washington would delay a scheduled January tariff increase unless another trade deal is agreed upon. If we dont make a deal, then Im going to put the $267 billion additional on, Trump said. Trump and Xi are scheduled to meet this week at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina, where they are supposed to discuss, among other issues, the ongoing trade war between the worlds two biggest economies. Chinese officials have said that putting off the planned tariff increase was a top goal in negotiations, The Hill reported. In September, Trumps administration imposed 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatened to raise the tariffs to 25 percent on January 1. The US president also threatened additional tariffs on $267 billion of Chinese imports if China retaliated with its own tariffs which it did unless the US and China reach a new trade agreement. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China, Reuters reports. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump said it was highly unlikely he would accept Chinas request to hold off on the increase, which is due to take effect on January 1. The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States, Trump told the Journal. As far as other countries are concerned, thats up to them. Trump, who is due to meet Xi on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, said that if negotiations were unsuccessful, he would also put tariffs on the rest of Chinese imports. If we dont make a deal, then Im going to put the $267 billion additional on, at a tariff rate of either 10 percent or 25 percent, Trump told the Journal. A Chinese official told reporters last week that the two leaders would look to set guidelines for future talks. The main issue is how to settle down the trade war, the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of preparatory negotiations. I am conservatively optimistic that can be done, he added. At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated Chinas hope that both sides could work towards a positive outcome from the meeting between the two leaders, citing a consensus they reached during a Nov. 1 telephone call. Trump said the next round of tariffs could also be placed on laptops and Apple Incs (AAPL.O) iPhones imported from China, which are part of that $267 billion list of goods not yet hit by tariffs. Cell phones and computers, among Chinas biggest exports to the United States, have been spared as the administration has sought to minimize the impact on U.S. consumers. The Journal said the administration has been worried about a consumer reaction to such levies. Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is, Trump said, referring to the possibility of tariffs on mobile phones and laptops, according to the Journal. I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily. Shares in Apple fell in after-hours trading after the interview was published. An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to Reuters queries. Apple CEO Tim Cook has personally pressed the issue of tariffs with Trump, telling the president that while there are valid concerns about U.S.-China trade relations, tariffs are not the best way to resolve them. Despite using contract manufacturers to make most of its products overseas, Apple has also sought to emphasize its contribution to the U.S. economy, saying it plans to spend about $55 billion in 2018 with its U.S.-based suppliers. KYODO NEWS - Nov 27, 2018 - 20:33 | Urgent, All, World Carlos Ghosn, ousted former chairman of Nissan Motor Co., is suspected of shifting some 1.7 billion yen ($15 million) of personal investment losses to the automaker in 2008, adding to the financial misconduct allegations against him, sources close to the matter said Tuesday. Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission was aware of the alleged misconduct in relation to Ghosn's derivatives trading and notified the bank involved in the transaction of the possibility that he had committed an aggravated breach of trust, the sources said. Nissan shouldered the losses incurred amid the global financial crisis in 2008 after Ghosn could not secure sufficient collateral, they said. Ghosn was arrested by Tokyo prosecutors last week for allegedly violating Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act by underreporting his remuneration by around 5 billion yen over five years to March 2015 even though he received some 10 billion yen in the period. The prosecutors are also considering building a case against him for allegedly underreporting a further 3 billion yen in remuneration received over three years from April 2015. The 64-year-old has denied intending to falsify the financial statements, but admitted that he did not include in the documents part of the remuneration he was set to receive when he retires because the "payments have not been settled," according to the sources. The sources said Ghosn believed he should receive some 2 billion yen annually as remuneration, but instructed his close aide Greg Kelly, a former Nissan representative director who was arrested along with him, for alleged conspiracy, to submit that he earned 1 billion yen a year in securities reports. The move was apparently aimed at fending off criticisms from shareholders and investors that the amount is too high. Ghosn intended to receive the remaining 1 billion yen after retirement, according to the sources. Kelly, who also denies there was a need to list the remuneration, has told investigators that the payment was intended to keep Ghosn tied to Nissan even after his retirement, the sources said. Other sources have said earlier that Ghosn has made a document that shows Nissan had agreed on the post-retirement payment, which was shared with a limited number of senior officials, including Kelly. The prosecutors have seized the paper. Ghosn told investigators that he has let Kelly be in charge of what to write in the financial statements and that he heard from Kelly the reports' contents were legitimate. The financial instruments law requires that remuneration be disclosed in a securities report when it is fixed even if the actual payout is planned in the future. Ghosn used luxury residences outside Japan, apparently purchased by a firm set up by Nissan's Amsterdam-based subsidiary, for free, the sources said. The subsidiary, Zi-A Capital BV, has a wholly-owned unit in the tax-haven British Virgin Islands through which it is believed to have bought upscale homes, including those in Rio de Janeiro and Beirut, for use by the Brazilian-born chairman with French and Lebanon citizenship. The prosecutors suspect that Kelly, 62, sought to hide the flow of Nissan funds by setting up the sub-subsidiary in a tax-haven territory, they said. Among other allegations, Ghosn is also suspected of having used one of Nissan's leased business jets for private trips, including to countries where the automaker has no major bases, the sources said. At a time his luxurious home was renovated four or five years ago in Beirut, Ghosn was seen visiting the site almost every month using the jet dedicated to him, they said. The plane, manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. and bearing the sign "N155AN," is a high-end model priced at billions of yen. KYODO NEWS - Nov 27, 2018 - 15:45 | All, World More than a week has passed since the arrest of Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn in Tokyo but there is no immediate indication of when he could be released, as Japanese law stipulates no limit to the length of detention of crime suspects. Unlike Japanese suspects whom only lawyers can see in principle in most cases, diplomats are allowed access to the 64-year-old non-Japanese at the Tokyo detention center where Ghosn, who has Brazilian, French and Lebanese citizenship, is staying under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Ghosn allegedly shifted investment loss of 1.7 bil. yen to Nissan Nissan CEO hints at intention to review alliance with Renault Ex-Nissan chairman Ghosn denies understating salary At the facility located in northeastern Tokyo, a number of death row inmates, including AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara as well as his key followers, have been hanged. Asahara, convicted of a series of murders involving his cult, was cremated at a facility on the outskirts of Tokyo but his ashes were returned to the detention center as his family members could not decide what to do with them. It remains unknown where his ashes will go. On Nov. 20, French Ambassador to Japan Laurent Pic met with Ghosn at the detention center the day after he was arrested by a special squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office for allegedly underreporting his remuneration by around 5 billion yen ($44 million) for five years through the year that ended in March 2015. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Tokyo District Court prohibited Ghosn on Nov. 21 from meeting anyone other than lawyers, but relevant diplomats are exceptions. Japanese courts ban suspects or defendants from access to the outside world, except for lawyers, in many cases. Given calls for more information about Ghosn's situation, Shin Kukimoto, deputy head of the prosecutors' office, said he will meet the press every week, saying, "We recognize this is a serious case that is drawing attention from all over the world." He usually gives a regular press conference once every two weeks. Joao De Mendonca Lima Neto, Brazilian consul general in Tokyo, also met Ghosn at the facility on Nov. 26. The diplomat gave Ghosn some necessities and magazines as well as talking to him in Portuguese during a meeting that he said lasted for 10 to 20 minutes. The consul general brought the items to Ghosn at his request made during their previous meeting on Nov. 22, according to the Brazilian diplomat. Japanese law has a limit of detention of suspects for one arrest warrant, which is 23 days, but authorities can add another charge with a fresh warrant when that duration expires, which means one person could be detained indefinitely if a court approves it. There is no limit to the number of arrest warrants authorities can serve on one suspect. Japanese police served arrest warrants for one man 10 times in a 2017 murder case in which nine women were found dead at an apartment in Zama, near Tokyo. (A room at the Tokyo detention center) (A room at the Tokyo detention center) Police have to send a suspect to prosecutors within 48 hours after arrest. Prosecutors then have to decide within 24 hours whether to release the suspect or continue with detention for 10 days with court authorization. Prosecutors can extend the detention for another 10 days before deciding whether to indict the suspect or not. Prosecutors can also directly arrest a suspect, which was what happened in Ghosn's case. Ghosn's defense is led by Motonari Otsuru, a veteran prosecutor-turned-lawyer who formerly headed the special squad of the prosecutors' office. (An exercise yard at the Tokyo detention center) Indictment means prosecutors have finished gathering evidence and interrogating the suspect, as is necessary for trials. If state prosecutors indict a suspect, his or her status is changed to that of defendant. Police in some cases serve a second warrant on a defendant on suspicion of another crime, which means the defendant will be kept in custody as a suspect in the second crime. (An exercise yard at the Tokyo detention center) (A CT scanner at the Tokyo detention center) (A kitchen at the Tokyo detention center) (A corridor at the Tokyo detention center) (A dentist clinic at the Tokyo detention center) (A communal room at the Tokyo detention center) The Cabinet entrusted Finance Minister K N Balagopal and Cooperation Minister V N Vasavan to take the follow-up action. 44 militants, 28 civilians, 10 policemen killed, 500 injured, 80 by pellets in eyes, this year Shopian, Nov 27: It is not since the 1990s that a place in Kashmir has witnessed so much violence and bloodshed as Shopian has this year. According to official figures, 44 militants, 28 civilians, 10 policemen, and 5 army/paramilitary soldiers have been killed in the district this year, so far. More than 500 people have been injured during this time, according to numbers given out by government hospitals/health centres. Many of them sustained bullet and pellet injuries, with about 80 civilians hit with pellets in their eyes. Twelve encounters between militants and government forces have taken place in Shopian district this year, during which seven residential houses and two cowsheds have been destroyed with explosives used by government forces. Of the 10 policemen killed in the district, five were killed while on duty and five were abducted by unknown gunmen from outside their homes. Police say that with all the militant commanders killed, Shopian now has none left but Zeenat-ul-Islam, who recently joined Al-Badr militant outfit. There are many recruits but no commander or any big strategist in the district now, a senior police officer said, on condition of anonymity. He said that probably 30 local youths of Shopian survive in militant ranks, after a surge in new recruitments from the month of September this year. On April 1 this year, 12 militants of Hizb outfit were killed and a month later top Hizb commander Saddam Padder along with four associates, including assistant professor Muhammad Rafi, were killed at Badigam village. Six civilians also lost their lives in that encounter on May 5, after sustaining bullet injuries. People describe the ongoing violence as akin to that being faced by people of Syria. I feel it is the survival of the fittest here. We have become desperate after seeing so much blood being spilled on the streets, said Arshid Aziz, a university student. People of the district opine that the ongoing killing of militants and civilians is being done in a planned manner. Nine military installations were set up in different villages of Shopian after the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016. Among them, two were established in the summer this year, said Nisar Ahmad, a political science researcher who is a native of Shopian district. Nisar said that Shopian was garrisoned after the hot bed of militancy shifted here from Tral area in Pulwama district. Ghulam Muhammad, a resident of Turkwangam area, told Kashmir Reader that people are scared to go outside their homes during the night. Most of the people here earn their livelihood by farming. It often gets late in the day working in orchards or loading apple boxes in trucks, but nobody dares to do so now. Everyone is scared and no one knows when he or she may be shot. Military movement goes on most of the times at night and we often wait till dawn even if there is a medical emergency, he said. 7 firms bid for 2nd phase of Bhairahawa airport project Seven international companies responded to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepals tender notice and submitted proposals to develop the second phase of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa. Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu arrived in the Kartarpur corridor on Tuesday. He said in Lahore that it would open up countless possibilities of tranquility and prosperity for both India and Pakistan. Talking to media he said , The hug(with Pakistan Army Chief) was for hardly a second, it was not a #RafaleDeal . When two Punjabis meet they hug each other, its normal practice in Punjab, Navjot Sidhu in Lahore was quoted by ANI. Sidhu is in Pakistan and will join PAK PM Imran Khan in a ceremony at the Kartarpur corridor which promises to facilitate Sikh pilgrims from India offer prayers at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur on the banks of Ravi river in Pakistan. Last week, the Centre had stated it will expand and build the corridor from Punjab's Gurdaspur district to the International Border to smooth the progress of Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur. "People of the Sikh community have long been denied the right to worship at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur. It is good to see that that would no longer be the case," said Sidhu at an event on Tuesday. "I feel that this corridor will be a bridge and erase enmity. It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. This is a corridor of infinite possibilities, of peace, of prosperity, of opening up of trade relations." On his alleged second visit to arch rival country of India, Sidhu said that he had sought consent from PM Modi lead government to visit the neighboring nation. Armys indecision leaves key position vacant for months Nepal Army has yet to appoint one of the two lieutenant generals, 75 days since the position became vacant and despite legal obligation to initiate the hiring process within 15 days. KC joins Nirmalas cause Dr Govinda KC, senior orthopaedic surgeon and anti-corruption crusader, on Tuesday reached Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur, to express solidarity with the family of 13-year-old Nirmala Pant, who was raped and murdered here in July. The nervous system of an animal can be studied by cutting it up into thin layers - however this inevitably leads to the destruction of the cellular structures in the tissue. Analyzing complex nerve connections is then hardly possible. The far more elegant method is the so called optical "clearing" of the various tissues using chemical processes that make the animal transparent. Interesting structures in the tissue can be selectively marked and analyzed. At the Vienna University of Technology, a clearing method has now been developed that can be applied to insects, which is a particularly difficult task. With an improved light-sheet microscope (a so-called ultramicroscope), it is now possible to image large nerve tissue samples and take high-resolution pictures of complex neural networks that have been labeled with fluorescent molecules. The new method has been published in the journal Nature Communications. Fluorescent Molecules "We can learn a lot about the nervous systems of animals by using genetic engineering to insert special molecules into the nerve tissues, which can then be made to fluoresce," says Marko Pende, a PhD student at TU Wien (Vienna). The big question is how these fluorescent molecules can be imaged without damaging the tissue. One method that has been used with great success is ultramicroscopy. Transparent tissue is illuminated with a laser beam, which is widened by special optical elements, creating a two-dimensional flat surface of light. This surface penetrates the tissue and illuminates those fluorescent molecules that lie exactly in that plane. Layer by layer, the tissue can be analyzed with this light-sheet, creating a three-dimensional model from the two-dimensional frames on the computer. "We focused on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster because it is of particular interest for research into the nervous system. Unfortunately, it is particularly difficult to develop a suitable clearing method for insects, "explains Marko Pende."For the tissue to become transparent, it has to be treated with special chemicals, and in insect tissues these chemicals have always destroyed the fluorescent molecules until now." In addition, insect tissue contains chitin, which can hardly be made transparent. Also, Drosophila has particularly robust pigments in it its eyes. The team at TU Wien (Vienna), together with the University of Vienna and the Medical University, succeeded in finding a way to make Drosophila flies completely transparent without destroying the fluorescent marker molecules. This was achieved with the help of improved chemical mixtures. "It is an important step forward for the Drosophila research community," says Prof. Thomas Hummel from the Department of Neurobiology (University of Vienna). The pictures were made possible by pioneering optical research by Saiedeh Saghafi (TU Wien). She was able to significantly improve the ultramicroscope: The light-sheet, with which the plane is illuminated layer by layer, used to be about 10 microns thick. The improved ultramicroscope now produces uniform light-sheets of only 3 m thickness over a large area. In addition, the microscope was equipped with an additional lens, which changes the focal point, much like to a pair of glasses: "So far, we could only focus on the outer area of the tissue, now we can take a centimeter-deep look into the tissue and still get sharp images," says Prof. Hans Ulrich Dodt, Head of the Department of Bioelectronics (TU Wien). "It will enable impressive, high-resolution images that will give us important insights into the way the Drosophila nervous system works." The Connectome and Fruit Fly Behavior The new technique should now help to study the so-called "connectome" of Drosophila. The connectome is the arrangement of interconnections throughout the nervous system, the "electrical circuit diagram" of the animal. This circuit diagram can then be related to behavioral patterns of Drosophila. In addition, Drosophila is ideal for analyzing genes that lead to neurodegenerative diseases in humans, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Transparent flies now provide a unique opportunity to understand the complex changes in various areas of the nervous system during neurodegeneration. ### Contact: Marko Pende, MSc TU Wien / Center for Brain Research, MedUni Vienna T: 0140160-34313 marko.pende@tuwien.ac.at Description 1221 AT MFP the new modern American restaurant located in the Roslyn Hotel, serves a special three-course prix fixe menu for $42.50 every Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday and Sunday beginning at 5 p.m. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the restaurant directly at 516-583-9803. The menu, subject to change, includes: Appetizer Choice of Lamb Kibbeh Meatballs Pine nuts, roasted carrots, flatbread, garlic-labneh Chicken Dumpling Soup Shanghai shoots, coriander, chili oil, aromatic chicken broth Sauteed Shishitos Honey garlic soy and garlic chips Entree Choice of Fresh Tagliolini Roasted tomatoes, asparagus, beech mushrooms, gremolata and tomato essence New Zealand King Salmon Pan seared served with cauliflower mousseline, baby heirloom squash, grated truffles, citrus emulsion Beef Short Rib Pommes puree, peppery bland salad, sweet tamarind jus Organic Chicken Ballotine Truffle fontina, forest mushrooms, vegetables nouilles, truffle jus Dessert Choice of Apple Crumb Panna Cotta Maccha green tea, red bean paste, young peach Roasted Fig Fig gelato, almond praline, caramel Ne puteti urmari si pe pagina noastra de Facebook sau pe Google News ABSTRACT Background: Residence to industrial areas was associated with increased risk of health problems. Lacks of epidemiological data of ear disorders were noticed among Sudanese. Objectives: This study was set out to determine the prevalence of preventable ear disorders in Rabak city, White Nile province in Sudan. Methods: A well-structured open-ended (pro forma) questionnaire was used to screen 300 participants who suffered of ear, nose and throat (ENT) complaints in the industrial area of Rabak city. Ear examinations for participants complaining of ear disorders were conducted using illuminated and pneumatic otoscope, tuning fork and pure tone audiometry. Diagnosis, risk factors and therapeutic outcomes were evaluated. Data were analyzed statistically and manipulated in a suitable manner. Results: Of total (n = 300), only (n = 186) fit the study criteria. About 85 (28.6%) of participants aged 20 - 40 years old, whilst most 99 (33%) lived at urban-industrial part of the city. The participants who were not working 131 (43.6%) and those with basic level of education were 134 (44.6%). Otitis externa was prevalent in 50 (26.9%) of our participants. Around 44 (23.6%) were suffering of chronic otitis media and 40 (21.4%) were suffering of otitis media with effusion. Acute otitis media was detected in 27 (14.3%). Ear wax was detected in 13 (7.1%), and foreign bodies were found in 12 (6.6%) of the study population. Smoking was commonest amongst participants with otitis externa. Our results revealed that the preferred treatment modality was medical treatment and follow-up the participants which resulted in good outcome. Conclusion: Preventable ear diseases represent a significant health problem among participants of Rabak city. Amongst the ear problems, the incidence of otitis media and otitis externa due to industrial pollution was reported to be high. Creating comprehensive health education about the common ear disorders in this community can help reduce the prevalence of these conditions and is highly recommended. Keywords: Ear Disorders, Sudanese, Otitis Media, Otitis Externa, Industrial Area 1. Introduction Ear disorders are serious diseases in underdeveloped country. They are frequently associated with hearing loss, which is the main health issue that affects quality of life. In young children, it retards language development and school progress, both of which have a significant impact in later life. In communities or countries where illiteracy is prevalent, ear and hearing diseases might impair a persons capacity to participate in normal conversation. Acute otitis externa (AOE) is one of the most common ear disorders; it has been defined as an inflammation of the external auditory canal, most often caused by bacterial infection, it seen frequently among swimmer [1] [2] and common in young adult population particularly in females [3] [4] . It may be accompanied by various pathological manifestations such as pain, external ear tenderness, redness, swelling of the external ear canal, and occasionally purulent exudate [5] . Management of AOE include; analgesic treatment, topical preparations and systemic antimicrobial, if, there is extension outside of the ear canal [6] Malignant otitis externa is another type of otitis externa, its an invasive, potentially life-threatening infection of the external ear and skull base that requires urgent diagnosis and treatment [7] . Patients usually presented with severe persistent otalgia, purulent otorrhea, granulation tissue in the external auditory canal [8] . Treatment includes: local debridement, parenteral antibiotics, surgery on severe cases and follow up [9] . Moreover, Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a very common entity in the pediatric population in devolving countries [10] ; its one of the commonest causes of childhood hearing loss [11] . It is treated medically orsurgically in the form of grommet insertion, with or without adenoidectomy [12] [13] . Follow up is crucial, sochildren with persistent OME should be re-examined at 3- to 6-month intervals until the effusion is no longer present [14] . Another serious ear disorder is Acute otitis media, its defined as an inflammation of middle ear cleft, which is common at day care children and at low socioeconomic class populations [15] [16] . It has been found that, one in every 4 children will have at least 1 episode of acute otitis media (AOM) by age 10 years [17] . It proceeded by a respiratory infection and characterized with fever, ear pain, hearing loss, bulging red ear drum. Sometimes maybe complicated with ear discharge following ear perforation [18] [19] . Acute and chronic otitis media may manifest as tinnitus and vertigo [20] [21] . In order to relieve pain, hearing loss, acute otitis media, the treatment necessitates analgesic, nasal drops and oral antibiotic [22] [23] . The surgical treatment includes; Myringotomy which can be reserved for complications such as mastoiditis, or ear discharge continues beyond 14 days [24] . Unhealed large ear perforation requires ear drum grafting using facia, cartilage or perichondrium [25] . Chronic suppurative otitis media is the main cause of hearing loss in developing countries and it is a major burden on the already limited resources of such countries. It manifested as purulent, odorless or offensive ear drainage [26] , occasionally headache, fever and altered mental status present if intracranial infection occur [27] . Wax impaction is a known relatively common cause of hearing loss in under developed country, usually of the mild conductive type [28] . Treatment of ear wax includes sodium bicarbonate ear drops or hydrogen peroxide in glycerol followed by mechanical syringing [29] [30] . At last Foreign bodies in the ear, nose and throat are occasionally seen in family medicine, usually in children, commonly beads and others inorganic objects [31] . Its best treated with removal under general anesthesia with specialist of Otolaryngology [32] . Residence in industrial city like Rabak, which hosted many big factories like sugar and cement, with obvious pollutions, is associated with increased risk of health problems. Ear disorders are common clinical problem in general practice, yet there are remarkably few data available about the demographic characteristics of patients with these conditions and the management approaches used by general practitioners (GPs) in Sudan. The study was designed to determine the prevalence of ear diseases, their risk factors, common presentation and to identify the types of management and their outcomes among the participants presented at Rabak hospital, White Nile province at Sudan during 2017. 2. Methodology 2.1. Ethical Considerations The study was approved by the Health Insurance Research Committee, White Nile state, in the form of Ethical Clearance. Besides, patient verbal informed consent was obtained by all participantsor their copatients in individualized patterns. 2.2. Study Design A prospective cross-sectional, hospital-based study was conducted during the period between August to November 2017 among patients presenting to the Health Insurance ENT clinics at Rabak city, Sudan. 2.3. Study Population All patients attending Rabak city ENT clinics suffering of any ear problems during the study period who fit the study inclusion criteria were enrolled voluntarily. 2.3.1. Inclusion Criteria The study inclusion criteria include; both sex, males and females who are resident in the industrial area of Rabak city and suffering of ear disorders. The total number of the eligible participants was 186 out of 300 individuals. 2.3.2. Exclusion Criteria The study exclusion criteria include; any individual with incomplete investigations or had ENT complaint other than ear compliant. About (n = 114) were excluded. 2.4. Sample Size Estimation The simplest formula of sample size determination (N = PQZ2/d2) was used to estimate our sample size (N = 300). Where N = sample size, P = prevalence of ear disorders factor, Q = 1 p, Z = constant 95% occurred 1.96, and d = desired margin. 2.5. Data Collection Procedure Data were collected using well-designed questionnaire. The participants of the study were approached by asking questions regarding their personal data, ear-related symptoms, whilst investigator performed clinical examinations, ear- related diagnosis, investigations and the management. In addition to checking the records of the treated patients and their referral, especially for those in need of special surgical interventions. All patients had undergone a detailed history and a complete physical examination by the ENT consultant. Appropriate investigations were requested depending upon the patients complaint. 2.6. Data Analysis The patients data were analyzed statistically using the SPSS version 21. The descriptive statistical summarization was done. The associations between patients personal data and risk factors with the dependent variables were conducted using chi-square test. Result considered significant at p-value less than 0.05. 3. Results Table 1 shows that the majority 85 (28.6%) of participants aged 20 - 40 years old, of both sex. The most population 99 (33%) live at the urban industrial part of the city. Those who are not working comprise 131 (43.6%) and those with basic level of education are134 (44.6). Our results revealed that there are five main common of ear disorders which occur separately or in combination. Most of ear problems were ear pain (34.2%) see Figure 1. In our study ear pain was common in the age group (10 - 20), with male predominance, among non-worker populations, in those who live in Urban and urban industrial and those with basic level of education, see Table 2. Clinical examinations showed that external ear tenderness signs were the common for patients suffering of ear problems (Figure 2). Otitis externa was noticed as the commonest diagnosis among participant with ear disorders. See Figure 3. Medical treatments were the commonest modalities of treatments among patients with otitis externa and otitis media, see Figure 4. The most common treatment outcome among participants was treatment and follow-up (38%), see Figure 5. Smoking was commonest amongst participants with otitis externa, as shown in Figure 6. NB: Free duties is any participant without job such as hawkers and porters. Table 2. The relationship between Demographic and ear problems, n = 80. NB: any combination of two or more clinical conditions (n = 106) were excluded from the table, to avoid complications and duplications. Figure 1. The frequency distribution percentage of the five main otological symptoms reported among the study populations. Figure 2. The frequency distribution percentage of ear signs among the participants with ear disorders. Figure 3. The frequency distribution percentageof ear disorders diagnosis among participants. Figure 4. The frequency distribution of treatment modalities among participants with ear disorders. Figure 5. The frequency distribution of treatment outcome among parti- cipants with ear disorders. Figure 6. The frequency distribution percentage of smoking among parti- cipants with ear disorders. NB: Smoking +ve is the participant who smoke, whilst Smoking ve is the participant who dont smoke. 4. Discussion Industrial areas were associated with increased risk of health problems particularly ear disorders where few data available in Sudan. Our results revealed that, majority of participant were young adult of both sex, this because pediatric population with ENT disorders used to be treated in pediatric clinics which considered as miss-concept that pediatric ENT patient should be managed by pediatrician. The incidence among elderly was generally not common, this was agreed with Ronal et al., [3] who stated that, elder population were have less common ear disorders. Majority of population in this study lived at urban-industrial part of the city, where a high rate of pollution was reported and thought to be associated with ear problems, moreover good health facilities were available in contrast to rural area, this disagreed with Minja and Machemba [33] who stated that, rural population were having more hospital visits because of more ear complications. Most of participants were not working and with basic level of education, this is because White Nile province hosting hundreds of refugees from different parts of the country and neighbor countries and this province is not prepared well to welcome those refugees., this agreed with Czechowicz et al., [15] who stated that, hearing problems due to different ear disorders were common among low socioeconomic population. The most common ear symptoms reported among the study participants was severe ear pain (measured with a scale system of severity from 1 to 10), this is because the otitis externa was the commonest diagnosis. This is in agreement with morbidity and mortality weekly report [5] , Pukander [17] and agreed with Heikkinen, and Ruuskanen [18] . External ear tenderness, edema of the externalauditory canal with purulent or fungal masses were reported on reaching this diagnosis. The relationship between demographic factors and the main ear symptoms, ear pain revealed that it was common in the age group (10 - 20), with male predominance, among non-worker populations who lived in Urban and urban industrial and those with basic level of education. This can be taken as an evidence that, the majority of those participants were diagnosed with otitis media with effusion. Acute otitis media and otitis externa as a complication of the last conditions, which are known diseases of childhood, common in male because they usually in outdoor. This agreed with Robb, and Williamson [11] Clinical examinations showed that external ear tenderness was the commonest sign, during manipulation of the auricle. This is due to the special clinical signs of otitis externa. This agreed with morbidity and mortality weekly report [5] . Also, high numbers of participants were having tympanic membrane perforation, this is a known complication that might occur following untreated acute or chronic otitis media. Again this agreed with Pukander [17] and agreed with Heikkinenand Ruuskanen [18] . On other hand, otitis externa was noticed as the commonest diagnosis among participants with ear disorders, this because Rabak city located at near white Nile, and most of the participants used to swim regularly on this contaminated water at the rivers canals of the surrounding factories leading them to external canal humidity and bacterial contamination. This why they developed otitis externa, and this agreed with Sander [1] , also agreed with Hajioff and his team workers [2] and agreed with Rowlands and his colleagues who mentioned that, the diagnosis of otitis externa was common among young adult population [3] . Moreover, this agreed with Calderon and his team workers [4] who described otitis externa to occur commonly at young adult population with poor ear hygiene. Furthermore, concerning ear problems diagnosis, high numbers of participants were diagnosed with chronic suppurative otitis media including both safe and un-safe type. This because chronic otitis media is a known ear disorders at developing countries with poor health care facilities. This agreed with Czechowicz, et al., [15] . Besides, participants diagnosed with otitis media with effusion and otitis media were not few in numbers, most of them were children, since children have short wide Eustachian tubes and presented with ear pain and hearing loss. This in line with Williamson [10] and Robb, and Williamson [11] . In Contrary, few numbers of participants were diagnosed with impacted ear wax, because most of the population used to treat themselves alone by putting sodium bicarbonate ear drops as an over the counter drug (OTC). This result was is contradicting with Burton, and Doree [28] who stated that, impacted ear wax is one of the most common ear disorders that people visit their general practitioners. Moreover, few numbers of participants were diagnosed with ears foreign body, this is because it is an urgent condition which needs immediate intervention at well-equipped hospital and not are expected to visit us at the insurance clinics where only cold cases are treated. This agreed with Di Muzioand Deschler [31] , who stated that, pediatric patients can be successfully managed by skilled emergency department personnel with low complication rates. Majority of participants who suffered from otitis externa were treated medically with analgesic, topical preparations and systemic antimicrobials. This agreed with Rosenfeld [6] and his team, stating that, otitis externa should be treated with topical antibiotic and systemic antibiotics if the infection spread beyond the external auditory canal. On the other hand, patients with malignant otitis externa were treated surgically and using parenteral antibiotics. This in line with Stevens and his team [9] . Participants diagnosed with otitis media with effusion were treated medically with nasal drops and oral antibiotics, some participants required grommet tube insertion with adenotonsillectomy to enhance drainage of middle ear effusion. This agreed with Robband Williamson [11] , Atkinson Wallis and Coates worth [12] . Participants whom diagnosed as chronic otitis media required medical treatment only, because they did not present with any extracranial or intracranial complications, whilst participants with mastoiditis required mastoidectomy. This was agreed with Das, et al., [25] . Patients with acute otitis media were treated medically with analgesics, nasal drops and oral antibiotics, because they presented without ear complications, as mentioned by Del Mar, et al., [21] and van Buchem and his team [21] , in addition, myringotomy spared for participants with otitis media who did not benefit from local and systemic medical treatment. This agreed with Van Buchem, et al., [22] . Patients with ear wax were prescribed sodium bicarbonate in order to liquify the impacted wax then followed 3 days later with ear syringing. This agreed with Burtonand Doree [28] and Loveman, et al., [30] . Regarding children diagnosed with foreign body ear, they were managed with foreign body removal under general anesthesia, which considered as the best way to remove foreign body from child ear, because of their excessive movement, furthermore, it carries the lowest risk for iatrogenic ear traumas, this agreed with Daviesand Benger [32] . The most common management plan among the study participants was the treatment and follow-up, which was crucial on participants with malignant otitis externa since they might developed cranial complications, this agreed with Carfrae and Kesser [7] . Moreover, patients with otitis media with effusion needed regular follow-up using otoscopic examination to detect any residual tympanic fluid, this agreed with Qureishi, et al., [14] . Smoking as a risk factor was found to be more associated with otitis externa. In the literature smoking particularly, the passive type is known to be a risk factor for Otitis media in childhood. In our series smoking was associated with Otitis externa because there was a little relative number of children participating on this study, which was contradicting with Uhari [27] who stated that, parenteral smoking is a known risk factor for acute otitis media. 5. Conclusions Finally, we concluded that, ear disorders were common ENT disorders, especially otitis externa and otitis media in this polluted area, affecting mainly young adult population. On the other hand, otitis media with effusion was more prevalent on childhood, most of these disorders were found mainly among population living within the industrial areas of Rabak city. Moreover, these disorders were common among lower education strata of the population and among participants with basic education and in non-working population. Our findings stated that, patients suffering ear pain should be examined carefully for evidence of both external or middle ear infections and young adult should be focused on prohibiting those bad ear habits such as ear manipulations using different tools. Swimmers should be advised to put in earplugs and avoid swimming in lakes, ponds, or rivers with lots of bacteria; in addition, ear wax is necessary for good ear health. In fact, it actively fights infections. Therefore, cleaning them frequently could put individual at risk of further problems. Creating comprehensive health education and health promotion program about the common Ear disorders in this community can help reduce the prevalence of these conditions. Moreover, strengthening the primary health care services and invest more in training of the health personals to deal properly with common Ear disorders can reduce the burden of these diseases in the community. More efforts are needed to settle the occupational health services in this industrial community concerning the worker health services, environmental services and protection of the population from the resulting hazards. In addition, promotion of the hazardless farming and industrial activities in this area can alleviate the burden of these disorders among this limited recourse community. Conflicts of Interest The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper. Cite this paper Alrayah, M. (2018) Prevalence of Ear Disorders at Rabak City, White Nile Province, Sudan, 2017. International Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, 7, 375-387. https://doi.org/10.4236/ijohns.2018.76038 References Elderly couple found dead An elderly couple were found dead in a local forest of Mathagadhi Rural Municipality-5 in Palpa, on Sunday. Alcon is the global leader in the highly attractive and growing $23 billion eye care devices market Market leading development capabilities and innovation investments Clearly defined near and long-term strategy, focused on sales growth, operational excellence and free cash flow generation 20,000+ employees dedicated to eye care, with a strong and experienced management team Disciplined capital allocation strategy outlined New York, November 27, 2018 - Alcon, the eye care division of Novartis, will today hold its first Capital Markets Day for investors and analysts in relation to the previously-announced intention of Novartis to execute a tax-neutral, 100% spinoff of the Alcon business. If the transaction proceeds, shares in Alcon Inc. will be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "ALC". Chairman-designate, Mike Ball and CEO, David Endicott, will be joined by other senior management to discuss Alcon`s strengths and how the company is positioned to win in the large, attractive and growing eye care devices market, where it is already the global leader. They will present Alcon`s vision and strategy, near- and longer-term growth drivers, five-year financial goals and the benefits of Alcon as a standalone company. Mike Ball, Chairman-designate of Alcon, said: "Alcon has been a leader in the ophthalmic industry for over 70 years and is dedicated to providing innovative products that enhance quality of life by helping people see better. More recently, Alcon has executed a turnaround plan that has reinvigorated its pipeline, strengthened its customer relationships, and increased investments in promotion, capital and systems while developing a nimble medical device culture. These actions have strengthened its foundation and positioned Alcon well to become a standalone company." David Endicott, CEO of Alcon, said: "As the leading eye care devices company in the world, with $6.8 billion in sales in 2017, we are uniquely positioned to succeed as a standalone organization. Our legacy of industry firsts and advancements, our leading positions in the markets we operate in and our substantial investment in innovation position us well for the future. We look forward to sharing our strategy, vision and financial goals with investors and analysts at our Capital Markets Day events." Mega-trends shape future of eye care Alcon will highlight mega-trends shaping the future of eye care, including the aging global population, innovation that improves patient options and outcomes, increasing wealth and growth in emerging economies, and the prevalence of myopia and digital eye strain. These trends present Alcon with sizeable growth opportunities in the $23 billion eye care devices market. Alcon will also showcase its leading ocular solutions for refractive disorders, presbyopia, dry eye, cataracts and retinal diseases. Story continues CFO David Murray will highlight how Alcon has returned to a position of strength by delivering consecutive quarters of sales growth, and how the company plans to make steady core operating margin improvements to industry benchmark levels, from high teens today to low to mid 20s by 2023. Post-spinoff, Alcon is targeting an investment grade credit rating and will have a financial framework focused on sales growth, operational excellence and free cash flow generation. Priorities will include investment in organic growth and R&D, a disciplined focus on "bolt-on" acquisition, licensing and collaboration opportunities, and returns to shareholders with Alcon expecting to pay a regular cash dividend from 2020. Michael Onuscheck, President Global Business & Innovation, will highlight Alcon`s market leadership in its Surgical Franchise, with 2017 global sales of $3.7 billion. He will highlight strong fundamentals, including world class customer focus, a leading portfolio of in-market innovations and a strong pipeline. He will also discuss Alcon`s best-in-class equipment platforms and the expansion potential of its leading installed base and complementary consumables business, as well as key near-term growth drivers such as advanced technology intraocular lenses (AT-IOLs) and leading-edge vitreoretinal technologies. Andy Pawson, President & General Manager, Global Vision Care Franchise, will provide an overview of Alcon as one of the leaders in the $14 billion vision care market, with 2017 global sales of $3.1 billion. Key trends in contact lenses include the shift from reusable to daily disposable lenses and increasing demand for premium lenses such as toric, multifocal and cosmetic. In ocular health, increased awareness of treatment options for dry eye is driving demand. He will also discuss near-term growth drivers, which are the DAILIES TOTAL1 contact lens portfolio and its market-leading dry eye treatment, SYSTANE. The Alcon executive team will also discuss their expectations for the primary drivers of longer term vision care and surgical growth. These include the acceleration of innovation, expansion into new markets and adjacencies, as well as new business models and go-to-market solutions, which better serve the needs of eye care professionals, patients and consumers. Franck Leveiller, Senior Vice President, Head of Global R&D, will discuss Alcon`s aspiration to lead the world in eye care innovation. He will highlight Alcon`s history of industry firsts, positioning as the partner of choice for external innovation, and continued commitment to R&D investment resulting in a pipeline fueled for growth. He will discuss Alcon`s world-class capabilities in optics, material and surface chemistry, equipment and instrumentation, and automation, which is already delivering improved cycle times, increased flexibility and productivity enhancements. Spinoff completion subject to approvals and conditions being met Completion of the planned spinoff is subject to general market conditions, receipt of necessary authorizations, tax rulings and opinions, final endorsement by the Board of Directors of Novartis and shareholder approval at the Novartis annual shareholder meeting on February 28, 2019. If approvals are secured and conditions are met, the spinoff is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019. For background slides and webcast (audio only) please refer to the following link: https://www.novartis.com/investors/event-calendar The background slide deck will be available on Tuesday November 27, 2018. Alcon`s next Capital Markets Day will be in London on December 4, 2018. 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In particular, our expectations could be affected by, among other things: an unexpected failure to satisfy the required conditions to the proposed spinoff, or to obtain the shareholder and other approvals needed to complete these actions, or unexpected delays in meeting these requirements; the potential that the strategic benefits, synergies or opportunities expected from the proposed spinoff may not be realized or may take longer to realize than expected; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the inherent uncertainties involved in predicting shareholder returns; the successful separation of the Alcon business from the Novartis Group; potential adverse reactions to the proposed transaction by customers, suppliers, strategic partners or key Alcon personnel and potential difficulties in maintaining relationships with such persons; the uncertainties inherent in the research and development of new healthcare products, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; the ability of Alcon as a standalone company to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; safety, quality or manufacturing issues, including withdrawal of products from the market; uncertainties regarding actual or potential legal proceedings, including, among others, actual or potential product liability litigation, litigation and investigations regarding sales and marketing practices, intellectual property disputes and government investigations generally; uncertainties involved in the development or adoption of potentially transformational technologies and business models; general political, economic and trade conditions, including uncertainties regarding the effects of ongoing instability in various parts of the world; uncertainties regarding future global exchange rates; uncertainties regarding future demand for our products or those of Alcon as a standalone company; and uncertainties regarding potential significant breaches of data security or data privacy, or disruptions of our information technology systems or those of Alcon as a standalone company; and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG`s current Form 20-F on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or in the initial Form 20-F filed by Alcon with the SEC. 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As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world`s top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 1 billion people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 125 000 people of more than 140 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at www.novartis.com. About Alcon Alcon is the global leader in eye care devices. As a division of Novartis, we offer the broadest portfolio of products to enhance sight and improve people`s lives. Our products touch the lives of more than 260 million people each year living with conditions like cataracts, glaucoma, retinal diseases and refractive errors, and there are millions more who are waiting for solutions to meet their eye care needs. Our purpose is reimagining eye care, and we do this through innovative products, partnerships with eye care professionals and programs that enhance access to quality eye care. Learn more at www.alcon.com (link is external). Novartis is on Twitter. 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The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Novartis International AG via GlobeNewswire HUG#2226968 FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics centre in Boves, France, August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File photo By Jeffrey Dastin LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday it was starting a new antenna service for uploading and downloading data from satellites, in a bid to lure space industry and other customers to the cloud. The world's No. 1 cloud computing company said it was aiming to make data transfers from space cheaper and easier through 12 antennas that will allow direct transmission to its data centers across the globe. The company also announced a partnership with Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), whose satellite receivers would connect directly to AWS Ground Stations to help manage data downloads in real time and meet unanticipated demand. Amazon said the capability would be available to AWS customers in the government or regulated industries, a key area for the company as it bids for a $10 billion contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. "Its not so simple dealing with satellites if you actually want to be able to upload and download data," said Andy Jassy, Amazon Web Services' chief executive. He was in Las Vegas to announce the service, which he called a "total game changer for how people can interact with satellites." Amazon's founder and largest shareholder, Jeff Bezos, is well known for his interest in the final frontier, and he privately owns space company Blue Origin. In September, Reuters reported that AWS was in talks with Chile to house and mine massive amounts of data generated by the country's telescopes. The company already provides a cloud platform for the Hubble Telescope's data and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia. (Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin; Additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Mike Stone; Editing by David Gregorio and Dan Grebler) Apple CEO Tim Cook and Ivanka Trump are visiting schools in Idaho together on Tuesday Apple CEO Tim Cook and presidential advisor Ivanka Trump will visit Idaho's Wilder School District . The district received a grant from Apple in 2015 that helped it issue iPads to all students there. Ivanka Trump made a similar visit to the Waukee Innovation and Learning Center in Iowa earlier this year. Apple AAPL CEO Tim Cook and Ivanka Trump, advisor to President Donald Trump, will visit Idaho's Wilder School District on Tuesday, the White House said. The Idaho Statesman first reported on the visit. Ivanka Trump confirmed the visit early Tuesday, when she posted about the trip on Twitter. "Looking forward to visiting the Wilder School District tomorrow with Apple CEO and #STEM education champion Tim Cook," the president's daughter said. "Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump is traveling to Idaho as part of her ongoing workforce development and STEM initiatives and will visit the Wilder School District with Apple CEO Tim Cook," the White House confirmed in an email to CNBC. tweet It follows a similar trip Ivanka Trump made in March to the Waukee Innovation and Learning Center in Iowa, which Cook recommended she take. The Wilder School District was accepted into Apple's ConnectEd program in the 2015-2016 school year and two schools, Wilder Elementary and Wilder Middle-High School, received part of a $100 million grant from Apple that helped the schools issue iPads to all students. Teachers received MacBooks and iPad minis, Apple said when it highlighted the progress of the program earlier this year. Wilder has a large population of high-poverty families that otherwise weren't able to afford advanced computing equipment, such as iPads. Apple provides ConnectED grants to a total of 114 schools in the United States. Apple partnered with the Trump White House and Ivanka Trump in 2017 in an effort to focus on best practices for computer science and science, technology, engineering and math education in the United States. Story continues Apple was not immediately available to comment on the visit. More From CNBC Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG recently acquired R.T. Beers & Company Insurance Services, Inc. that will not only enable it to expand abilities but also improve its service portfolio in Southern California. However, financial details of the transaction were kept under wraps. Long Beach, CA-based R.T. Beers & Company operates as a retail property/casualty broker, offering an exclusive group safety program for metal service centers. The company uses information as a tool to help its clients in risk identification and mitigation. R.T. Beers & Company caters to clients throughout the United States. On completion of the buyout, the acquired company will continue to operate from its current location. The latest integration is anticipated to be a substantial value addition to the acquirers already robust inorganic portfolio. R.T. Beers & Company provides its customers with a level of service, expertise and knowledge more valuable than a traditional brokers offerings. This is because of its capability in detecting risk in advance, thereby serving its clients more efficiently and effectively. The buyout will enable the acquirer to enhance and extend its capabilities pertaining to its risk management service offering in Southern California and also utilize the intellectual talent provided by the team at R.T. Beers & Company. Therefore, the latest acquisition is expected to reinforce Arthur J. Gallaghers strong inorganic growth profile and add capabilities to its insurance brokerage service portfolio. With respect to strengthening its existence in California and driving its property/casualty and risk management services, Arthur J. Gallagher acquired Tyler Insurance Agency located in El Centro. This in turn, is likely to solidify the insurance brokers prevalent abilities in serving agribusinesses, public entities, electric utilities, schools and construction firms. Arthur J. Gallaghers discreet M&A activity stands testament to its convincing inorganic growth strategy. In the first nine months, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) insurance broker has successfully closed 27 buyouts with annualized revenues of about $234 million. Moreover, its inorganic pipeline remains strong with about $500 million of revenues. It boasts an impressive growth profile, driven by organic sales plus merger and acquisition (M&A) activities. The company remains upbeat about its ability to tow in acquisition partners in its typical small tuck-in size at justifiable prices. Mergers and acquisition activity, an inorganic growth strategy and one of the key trends in 2018, has been adding fuel to the already upbeat performance of the insurance industry. Shares of the company have rallied 21.4% year to date, outperforming its industrys rise of 11.5%. We expect top-line growth, smart acquisitions and a healthy capital position to push the shares up in the near term. Story continues Other Integrations in the Insurance Space We have been noticing insurers embracing the inorganic approach to enhance their respective portfolios for a while now. The insurance industry has been on a conspicuous acquisition spree, attributable to its all-time high available capital resource. Recently, Brown & Brown, Inc. BRO acquired Hays Companies to ramp up its employee benefits business. Stocks That Warrant a Look Two better-ranked stocks from the same space are Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company WLTW and eHealth, Inc. EHTH, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Willis Towers operates as an advisory, broking and solutions company worldwide. The company delivered average four-quarter positive surprise of 7.13%. eHealth provides private online health insurance exchange services to individuals, families and small businesses in the United States and China. The company pulled off average four-quarter earnings surprise of 29.03%. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $8 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $47 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> 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 eHealth, Inc. (EHTH) : Free Stock Analysis Report Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (WLTW) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Speaking at East Tech West, Edith Yeung described how the government in China is investing in blockchain but not endorsing crypto. The China Internet Report, created by Yeung, says 41 percent of new companies that received funding in the first quarter of 2017 were blockchain-related. China's big internet giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent collectively known as BAT in the industry, are all building or investing in blockchain, the report shows. China has a "love-hate relationship" with cryptocurrency and the blockchain with many in the country seeing significant opportunities in the latter, Edith Yeung, head of 500 Startups' China unit, told CNBC Tuesday. The craze of cryptocurrencies has swept across the globe in the last few years as the price of digital coins, like bitcoin , soared and then fell dramatically. Many critics have poured scorn on the volatility of the currencies and their lack of government regulation. But many have spoken favorably of the blockchain, which is the public ledger behind some of these currencies, including bitcoin. The blockchain has won plaudits because it cannot be tampered with or changed retrospectively. Advocates of the technology say this makes bitcoin transactions secure and safer than current system. Speaking to CNBC's Eunice Yoon at East Tech West in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China , Yeung said the Chinese government is investing in the blockchain but said "what they are not endorsing is the crypto part of things, which is challenging the fundamental of financial systems." She made the comments when asked what the strategy was for cryptocurrency in China, after the government banned cryptocurrency exchanges and initial coin offerings (ICOs) there in September 2017, marking the start of a crackdown on digital currency in the country. The China Internet Report , created by Yeung, further details how China wants to be a frontrunner in blockchain technology despite the crypto ban. It says that Shanghai, Shanxi, Henan, Guangzhou, Guiyang and Hangzhou have all issued policies to encourage blockchain development. Story continues New funding has come from Shenzhen, after it established a 500 million ($71.9 million) yuan fund for blockchain investments. Hangzhou also announced plans to invest 10 billion yuan in a blockchain fund. The sector also has central government support from President Xi Jinping who ordered the use of blockchain technologies to create a smart city for the Xiongan New Area economic zone. Blockchain start-ups are also seeing investment growth. The report highlights that the 41 percent of new Chinese companies that received funding in the first quarter of 2017 were blockchain-related. Blockchain potential Speaking at East Tech West, Yeung said the kind of blockchain companies that have potential in China are those more on the enterprise side of things. "I was looking at a user case where they were trying to certify diamonds. Diamonds come from one place and you pass it (on) ... you wanna make sure that it's real jewelry for us," she explained. "I think there is a lot of really practical use cases the whole world can use blockchain for," she said. Yeung's report also highlights more examples where blockchain can be applied across industries, including health care, logistics, identity management, and digital asset tracking. China's big internet giants Baidu, Alibaba BABA , and Tencent collectively known as BAT in the industry, are also all building or investing in the blockchain, the report shows. It sets out some recent examples, including Alibaba's partnership with the city of Changzhou in August 2017 to launch China's first application of blockchain technology in the medical sector. While Tencent partnered with the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing in March 2018 to develop an industry application based on the Tencent blockchain TrustSQL. More From CNBC China citizens are proud the country can compete with the US on AI, venture fund manager says Speaking to CNBC's Eunice Yoon, Yeung described how technology consumers were starting to want more protection for their data from large-scale platforms, namechecking the EU's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force earlier this year. But in China, Yeung described a different view on data protection. "I think there are a lot of Chinese citizens really proud of the fact that we're actually big enough to even be able to compete with the U.S. in terms of AI. And I think it is just a really exciting time to be in China," she said. A fundamental difference in the mindset of Chinese citizens, compared to people in other major economies, means that artificial intelligence (AI) could see significant success in the Asian powerhouse, Edith Yeung, head of 500 Startups' China unit, told CNBC Tuesday. Speaking to CNBC's Eunice Yoon, Yeung described how technology consumers were starting to want more protection for their data from large-scale platforms, namechecking the EU's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force earlier this year. But in China, Yeung described a different view on data protection. "Chinese people are aware of it (data protection) but in general if you talk to most of the normal people they understand there could be big platforms that have access to their data but they're OK with it because of the national pride of wanting to help to be the number one in AI for the whole of China. That mindset is even greater then 'hey I just want to protect my data'," she said at East Tech West in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. "China is so interesting because there is so much data," she added, suggesting that this willingness from the Chinese public will aid data-hungry firms who are looking to enhance and launch new AI projects. "I think there are a lot of Chinese citizens really proud of the fact that we're actually big enough to even be able to compete with the U.S. in terms of AI. And I think it is just a really exciting time to be in China." Story continues Government policy Yeung also talked about the Chinese internet report 2018 , that she created, and the impact government policy in the country has on the internet landscape. "Everything in China is really not that scary. It's actually really exciting to help decipher what is going on," she said. "But what we can't ignore is that the Chinese government is very particular in content." "If in sensitive cases, the government may ask you to take a certain application down. For cases like this, it is less of a worry for investors, honestly, because we don't actively operate any of these apps," Yeung said. "But certainly we want to make sure entrepreneurs and founders that we invest in are aware of this regulatory policy to make sure they don't get into trouble." The venture fund manager was also asked by CNBC on what kind of start-ups she was currently looking for. Her previous investments include Stellar, Nebulas, Solana, Oasis Labs, Hooked, DayDayCook, Silk Labs (acquired by Apple), Fleksy (acquired by Pinterest), AISense, and Penrose, according to her website . "It really depends what you are working on. It is hard for us to get to know a company within five minutes. But what we want to know is that you have a good understanding of the landscape and point out the obvious," she said. "It's completely OK to say (for example), 'We are solving the payment issue for health care because that is unique ... If you can be very specific and you are the person solving that problem, it is very interesting for us," she added. Yeung has invested in over 40 mobile, virtual reality, augmented reality, AI, and machine-learning start-ups. More From CNBC BOGOTA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Colombian state-run oil company Ecopetrol said on Tuesday it will invest between $3.5 billion and $4 billion in 2019, slightly above this year as it bolsters spending on exploration and production projects. The investment is the backbone of an ambitious plan to boost production and explore for more oil to replenish dwindling reserves. The company has said it will drill 700 wells and double the number of rigs in operation this year. Ecopetrol expects output next year at between 720,000 and 730,000 barrels per day equivalent, Ecopetrol said in a statement, slightly above the 715,000 to 725,000 bpd targeted this year. Spending on exploration will increase to about $460 million in 2019 from $250 million in 2018, it said. Some 80 percent of the investment will be focused in upstream projects, mostly in Colombia, the statement said. Another 8 percent will go toward the positioning the company in the United States, Brazil and Mexico. The company said recently it still plans to reach $3 billion to $3.5 billion in investments in 2018, though it had spent just $1.79 billion through the third quarter. Ecopetrol has been working to lessen the effects of local protests, which temporarily shuttered three fields in February. It had cut its investment forecast for 2018 from $3.5 billion-$4 billion in August because of the protests and other spending delays. Output has so far not been affected by nearly continuous attacks on the Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline from the National Liberation Army, a leftist guerilla group, it has said. The pipeline, which can transport up to 210,000 bpd, has been offline for much of this year because of bombings and illegal taps. Production from the Cano Limon field, operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp, has been routed through a different pipeline. Ecopetrol has reserves equivalent to about seven years of production, well below the average of nearly 12 years for the world's top oil and gas companies. (Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) The last decade has been a trying time in journalism. Media organizations large and small around the world have faced the existential threat of a shifting business model as traditional models were upended by digital distribution. African media houses face many of the same challenges. Though print still has plenty of life left in some African countries, those businesses are vulnerable to government influence and economic headwinds. Digital offers an opportunity to be nimble and innovative but no one pretends they have all the answers in such a fast-changing environment. Over the past two years, an additional distraction has come into view: the debate over fake news. The term went mainstream in the US with the repeated assertions of Donald Trump and soon traveled across many African countries. A study this month by University of Cape Towns Herman Wasserman and University of Houstons Dani Madrid-Morales highlights the scale of the problem in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and compared it with what a Pew Research poll showed in the US. The study found people in those African countries believed they were more frequently exposed to fake news than the Americans did. Its worth noting fake news in itself is not new in Africa. In the recent past, disinformation might have been spread by powerful, politically motivated press barons. Now digital media has made it much more efficient to disseminate false information, by almost anyone, particularly on social platforms. While much of the focus in the US has been on Facebook, in Africa and other developing regions, the companys WhatsApp platform is the much bigger problem, as weve noted before. On a panel this week at Bloombergs Africa Business Media Innovators forum in Livingstone, Zambia, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Facebooks strategic media partnerships lead, was clear that even with the companys many other challenges, WhatsApp is high on the agenda: At Facebook, we talk about this every day, she said in response to a question on WhatsApp. What makes it so compelling, [end to end encryption], is also its key weakness. We dont have access to the content at all. We have not fully found a way to crack that problem. Story continues Cracking that problem will become more pressing. As elections approach in the first half of 2019 for some of the developing worlds biggest democracies, Nigeria, South Africa and Indiaall big WhatsApp-usage countriestherell likely be a spike in the sharing of disinformation and misinformation. Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: "We estimate that each year, nearly one person in 10 falls sick after eating contaminated food," said Kazuaki Miyagishima, who heads the World Health Organization (WHO) food security department (AFP Photo/Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS) New York (AFP) - An outbreak of E. coli linked to romaine lettuce appears to have been traced to crops in California, the US food authority said Monday. American consumers were warned against eating the leafy salad by health officials last week. The outbreak has caused 43 people to become sick in the US and another 22 in Canada, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "Our investigation at this point suggests that romaine lettuce associated with the outbreak comes from areas of California that grow romaine lettuce over the summer months," the FDA said in a statement. "The outbreak appears to be related to 'end of season' romaine lettuce harvested from these areas," it said. The harvest has now shifted to other areas and it was "critically important to have a 'clean break' in the romaine supply available to consumers in the US in order to purge the market of potentially contaminated romaine lettuce," the FDA said. It added that the break in supply appears to have been accomplished after officials requested on November 20 that the produce be withdrawn from the market and destroyed. On the same day -- two days before the Thanksgiving holiday when Americans gather and feast together -- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised consumers not to eat any romaine lettuce and to throw away any they might have in their homes. Getting around town Having experienced exponential population growth during the last few decades, the lack of a reliable public transportation system in Kathmandu is felt more prominently now than ever. (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. knew that Russian-linked entities were using a feature on the social network that let advertisers harvest large amounts of data as early as October 2014, according to an internal email a U.K. lawmaker said he had reviewed. Previously, Facebook has said it was unaware of this sort of Russian activity on the social network until after the 2016 election. Damian Collins, head of a committee of British lawmakers investigating the impact of fake news, said he had reviewed an email from a Facebook engineer highlighting suspicious Russian-linked data harvesting on Facebook two years before that. Collins committee obtained the email after it compelled the founder of a U.S. software company, Six4Three, to hand over a large cache of documents during a business trip to London. The Six4Three founder had obtained the documents as part of a legal discovery process in a lawsuit against Facebook that his company has brought against the social network in California. Facebook said that the document cited by Collins was taken out of context. "The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity," the company said in an email to Bloomberg Tuesday. Richard Allan, vice president of policy solutions at Facebook, said in testimony before Collins committee Tuesday that he would not discuss the documents, which have been sealed by the California court. Collins said his committee would not release the full cache of documents "at this time." Collins said the committee hoped to publish the documents in the coming week. Lawmakers from the U.K. and other nations lambasted Facebook during the hearing for abusing public trust and failing to provide honest answers to questions about the misuse of user data. The lawmakers had wanted Mark Zuckerberg, the companys founder and chief executive officer, to appear as well, and they repeatedly hammered Allan over the companys decision not to send the CEO to testify. Story continues The committee laid out a place card marked Mark Zuckerberg, which remained unoccupied during the hearing. "I have a role supporting my company as it tries to grapple with the issues we are discussing today and when we are trying to decide where senior officers of the company should be, we need to balance that out," Allan said in response to repeated questions about why he was appearing instead of Zuckerberg. Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus asked Allan whether Facebook had lost public trust and should now be regulated by governments. "I am not going to disagree with you that we have damaged public trust in some of the actions that weve taken," Allan said. Allan said that Facebook would welcome clear laws globally around political communication and was willing to accept some further regulation. "To the extent this is all clarified and we have a clear playbook to work from, that would be very helpful," he said. But Allan said the company had not violated existing laws or a consent decree the company had signed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission concerning users privacy. And in a testy exchange with Angus in the closing minutes of his testimony, Allan said people would be worse off if governments used antitrust powers to break Facebook apart. "The problem is Facebook, thats the problem," Angus said. "We are talking about symptoms but the problem is the unprecedented economic control of every form of social discourse and communication that is Facebook. That is the problem that we need to address." Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, another member of the Canadian Parliament, pressed Allan over whether a user signing up for Facebook could reasonably be seen as "meaningful consent" -- the standard under Canadian privacy law -- for the company allowing others to access that data. "Our view is when you signed up for Facebook it was sufficiently clear that as part of the social experience that when you shared information with friends that they might share it on," Allan said. Erskine-Smith also asked Allan about whether the company ever sought to tie the purchases of mobile advertising to further access to user data. Allan said he was unaware of any such discussions and would have to get back to the committee with an answer. In another exchange with the deputy speaker of the Latvian parliament, Allan said that "in an ideal world," Facebook would charge users a monthly subscription fee, rather than relying on advertising for revenue. But he said that in reality "most people accept a model where it is free at the point of use and they accept a certain amount of advertising." Allan said the advertising-driven business model was unlikely to change. "Our job is to make sure the content and the advertising are as high quality as possible," he said. Read More: Facebook Cant Wiggle Out of Bikini Photo-Finder Legal Brawl Six4Three allowed users to find photos posted of friends in bikinis. Facebook effectively shut down the app -- which was deemed creepy by the Silicon Valley trade press -- when it cut off third-party developers from the data users share about their friends in 2015. That was about a year after the same back-door channel allowed a Soviet-born American researcher, linked to Cambridge Analytica, to gather basic profile information on millions of Facebook users. Read More: Facebooks Sheryl Sandberg Is Tainted by Crisis After Crisis Since the revelations in mid-March that Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political ad consulting firm, governments in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe have been grilling executives, industry insiders and whistle-blowers to understand exactly how much information the company collects on people and what they do with it. Cambridge Analytica and Nix have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions during U.S. congressional hearings in April, but has repeatedly refused to appear before U.K. lawmakers. The social networks chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, was sent to answer questions in April. Allans hearing comes about a month after Facebook announced it had hired Nick Clegg, Britains former deputy prime minister, to run its lobbying efforts. (Updates with comments on antitrust, business model of Facebook.) To contact the reporters on this story: Jeremy Kahn in London at jkahn21@bloomberg.net;Nate Lanxon in London at nlanxon@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Nate Lanxon For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2018 Bloomberg L.P. After a month in hospital in Riyadh, Gabon's President Ali Bongo will be transferred to Rabat for a period of convalescence (AFP Photo/GABRIEL BOUYS) Libreville (AFP) - Gabon's Ali Bongo, who has spent a month in treatment at a Saudi hospital, will on Wednesday be transferred to Rabat to continue his recovery, his wife said on Tuesday. Bongo, 59, was rushed to hospital in Riyadh on October 24 after falling ill at an economic forum. After an extended period of silence, the Gabonese presidency eventually admitted he was "seriously ill" and had undergone surgery, while insisting he was on the mend. "Tomorrow, Wednesday 28 November... Ali Bongo Ondimba, my husband, will leave the King Faisal hospital in Riyadh," wrote his French-born wife Sylvia on Facebook. He would arrive in the Moroccan capital on the same day, she said. On November 23, a presidential source told AFP he would be transferred to Morocco "next week" to undergo "a period of convalescence and rehabilitation". "The doctors think he is up to travelling, even for such a long trip... he is breathing normally and communicating in a coherent manner," the source said at the time, describing the Gabonese leader as "making good progress." Over the past month, the Gabonese presidency has only released two statements on Bongo's health, first saying on October 29 that he had been taken to hospital "suffering from severe fatigue". Then on November 11, Bongo's office admitted he was "seriously ill" and had undergone surgery. Lack of official news -- along with memories of the secrecy-shrouded death of Bongo's father Omar Bongo in 2009 after decades at the helm -- had sparked numerous rumours, including speculation he was incapacitated or even dead. Earlier this month, a foreign source close to Bongo and his French-born wife Sylvia told AFP the Gabonese president had had a stroke. Top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow will meet with General Motors CEO Mary Barra, after the automaker announced more than 14,000 job cuts on Monday. Top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow will meet with General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra on Monday, only hours after the automaker announced more than 14,000 job cuts . GM will effectively halt production next year at five plants in North America in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland and Ontario as well as two plants outside of North America. The company also plans to cut 15 percent of its salaried workers. The cuts will eliminate more than 14,000 jobs in all, roughly 8,100 white-collar positions and more than 6,000 factory jobs, according to GM. Overall, GM estimates the reorganization will save about $6 billion a year by the end of 2020. As the director of the National Economic Council, Kudlow has been cheering President Donald Trump's administration for its economic policies. "We are the hottest economy in the world right now," Kudlow said last month. Trump also praised General Motors last year, saying the automaker was "starting the big jobs push back into the U.S." Trump had pledged to revive manufacturing in an Ohio region where GM now plans to slash production and layoff workers. "Jobs have left Ohio," Trump said in 2017, but "they're all coming back." GM plans to cut as many as 1,600 factory jobs at a Lordstown, Ohio, plant 20 miles away from where Trump spoke when he promised to return jobs to the area. CNBC's Eamon Javers and Robert Ferris contributed to this report. Google paid $1 billion for a new office park in Mountain View, California. It's already the main tenant of the 12 buildings on the 51.8-acre site. The company has now spent almost $3 billion on property in Silicon Valley over the last two years. Google GOOGL just made another giant move in its Silicon Valley land grab. The internet company spent $1 billion on a large office park near its headquarters in Mountain View, California, according to the Mercury News , and has now spent at least $2.8 billion on properties in Mountain View, Sunnyvale and San Jose over the last two years. In this case, Google is purchasing property that it's already been leasing. The company is the main tenant of the 12 buildings that comprise the 51.8-acre Shoreline Technology Park. Google did not respond to a request for comment about the purchase. Earlier this month, Google agreed to pay an additional $110 million for 10.5 acres for a new campus in downtown San Jose, with the possibility of buying about 11 more acres. The city will vote on the plans in early December. It's also been a big year for Google property purchases outside of Silicon Valley. In the first quarter, the company spent $2.4 billion to buy New York City's Chelsea Market. Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said that the company favors "owning rather than leasing real estate when we see good opportunities." As for leases, Google just signed on for a massive new space in downtown San Francisco. WATCH: Meet the man behind Google Assistant's personality Ryan Germick More From CNBC The U.S. and China have re-engaged in trade talks ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Argentina this week. The meeting offers an "opportunity to break through" after progress toward a trade agreement stalled in recent months, according to White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow. Trump is considering whether to put tariffs on another $267 billion in Chinese goods if the talks do not go well. The Trump administration has restarted talks with the Chinese government "at all levels" ahead of a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Tuesday. The heads of the world's two largest economies are set to meet on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, where world leaders will convene on Friday and Saturday. Trump and Xi will talk trade as a mounting series of tariffs levied by Washington and Beijing contribute to concerns about slowing global economic growth. The two leaders will have dinner on Saturday. Washington and Beijing have re-engaged about a path toward a trade agreement, and the summit offers "an opportunity to break through what has been disappointing discussions" in recent months, Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday. At the G-20, Trump will focus on issues including alleged Chinese theft of intellectual property, ownership of American companies in China and tariffs and non-tariff barriers, the National Economic Council director said. "We're having now a lot of communication with the Chinese government at all levels," Kudlow said. "We were at a total standstill. Nothing was going on." Since taking office, Trump has pushed China to address what he calls unfair trade practices and reduce its trade surplus with the United States. As part of his effort to force China to negotiate, the president has slapped tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods. The moves prompted retaliatory duties on U.S. goods that have hit certain American businesses, particularly in the agriculture industry. Story continues In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday , Trump said he plans to increase the tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent at the beginning of 2019, as planned. He again threatened to put duties on an additional $267 billion in Chinese goods if Washington and Beijing cannot reach a deal after the talks in Argentina. Trump sees a "good possibility" that the U.S. and China can reach a deal at the dinner Saturday, Kudlow told reporters later Tuesday. Asked if more duties will harm the U.S. economy if the sides fail to reach a deal, Kudlow called the goods affected "a fraction of our economy" but noted there would be "winners and losers in that game." He contended that the U.S. is in "better shape to weather this than the Chinese are." In his earlier comments, Kudlow said imposing additional tariffs is a "presidential decision" that Trump "will make following the talks." Beijing "ought to" take Trump seriously, as "the policies are not going away," Kudlow added. "President Xi has the opportunity to change the tone and the substance of these talks. President Trump has indicated that he is open," Kudlow said. He contended that Beijing "must do more" to address U.S. concerns. Trump's trade war with China has at times roiled stock markets this year amid concerns about broader damage to the U.S. economy. China was the largest U.S. trade partner through September, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. On Monday, Trump also suggested he could put tariffs on Apple AAPL iPhones and laptops imported from China. He shrugged off the potential for higher consumer costs, saying "I can make it 10 percent and people could stand that very easily." The president has repeatedly downplayed any concerns about tariffs harming the economy or consumers. His policy has sparked backlash not only from some American businesses, but also from bipartisan lawmakers who argue their constituents will suffer from the duties. Trump has accused China of targeting agricultural products to hurt his supporters in the farming industry. In July, Trump said U.S. farmers are "patriots" who will end up "stronger" after his push for a new trade deal with Beijing. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. More From CNBC (Adds detail, quotes) LONDON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - La Mancha Group plans to buy more underground gold mines in Africa and is ready to snap up mines that Barrick Gold and Randgold Resources will sell after their merger, its billionaire chairman Naguib Sawiris said on Tuesday. "(The Barrick disposals) might be in geographies where we are very strong and that makes sense for us," Sawiris told reporters on the sidelines of the Mines and Money conference in London. "We can extend the mine lives." Sawiris said he was looking for mines with lives of at least 10 years and with output of 150,000 to 250,000 ounces per annum. La Mancha is a private gold company with investments in Toronto-listed Endeavour Mining, Australia's Evolution Mining and in August bought a 30 percent stake in Ghana-focused Golden Star Resources. Golden Star will look for assets in east Africa and mainly Sudan, Sawiris said. Canada's Barrick has said it will sell some non-core assets following its $6.1 billion takeover of Africa-focused Randgold in a deal set to close on Jan. 1. Sawiris said the mining industry still needed some consolidation even after the Randgold-Barrick deal which will create the world's top gold producer. "We believe today is the problem is the whole mining industry needs consolidation and the proof to that the two big ones decided to merge but what about the smaller ones," Sawiris said. "There is more sense and more urgency for the smaller mining companies to come together than for the bigger ones." Sawiris also said he could pursue a secondary listing for Endeavour Mining or one of the gold companies he plans to invest in Africa on the London Stock Exchange. Sawiris said he would not work with Chinese companies in gaining a bigger footprint in Africa as China had "closed its borders" to investors. (Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Jan Harvey and David Evans) HOUSTON (AP) A judge has ordered the U.S. government not to enforce a ban on asylum for people who cross the southern border illegally, another court setback for the Trump administration's efforts to impose new immigration restrictions without congressional approval. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar agreed Monday with legal groups that immediately sued after President Donald Trump issued a Nov. 9 proclamation saying anyone who crossed the southern border between official ports of entry would be ineligible for asylum. The administration argued that caravans of migrants approaching the southern border made the new restrictions immediately necessary. "Whatever the scope of the President's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," said Tigar, a nominee of former President Barack Obama. Trump stopped family separations at the border earlier this year after a global outcry, but it was a federal judge who ruled the administration had to reunify the families. Another judge rejected the administration's request to try to detain migrant families in long-term facilities. Monday's ruling remains in effect for one month, barring an appeal. In limiting asylum, Trump used the same powers he used to impose a travel ban the third try was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court. A joint statement by Homeland Security and the Justice Department said the Supreme Court had already shown the president had the legal right to restrict asylum. "Our asylum system is broken, and it is being abused by tens of thousands of meritless claims every year," the departments said. "We look forward to continuing to defend the Executive Branch's legitimate and well-reasoned exercise of its authority to address the crisis at our southern border." Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, speaking at a San Diego news conference, called the ruling "dangerous" and expressed confidence it would be overturned on appeal. Story continues Trump on Tuesday criticized the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would likely receive any appeal of Tigar's order and has already ruled against the administration in several immigration cases. Trump called the circuit a "disgrace" and its judges "very unfair." Whether asylum seekers would try now to enter between official ports of entry was unclear. One immigrant waiting at the official border crossing vowed to stay in line regardless of the ruling. "I've always taken the correct path, and I'm not going to do something illegal now," said Byron Torrez, 28, of Nicaragua. Torrez said he fled Nicaragua after someone threw acid at him during a government protest. He said he did not travel with any of the caravans. "I think it is good that the court did this because a lot of people cross illegally, not to break the law, but because they believe you have to get to the U.S. first before requesting asylum," he said. The regulations were put in place in part to stop what the government says are loopholes that allow thousands of people to avoid deportation. DHS estimates around 70,000 people a year claim asylum after crossing illegally. But illegal crossings overall are well below historical highs from previous decades. Tigar's ruling notes that federal law says someone may seek asylum if they have arrived in the United States, "whether or not at a designated port of arrival." "Individuals are entitled to asylum if they cross between ports of entry," said Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which sued the government alongside the American Civil Liberties Union. "It couldn't be clearer." Around 3,000 people from the first of the caravans have arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego, California. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday that it closed off northbound traffic for several hours at the San Ysidro crossing to install movable, wire-topped barriers after reports that some migrants were planning to rush through the lanes but none did. As of Monday, DHS said it had referred 107 people to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services people who had sought asylum between official crossings since Trump's order went into effect. Officials didn't say whether those people's cases were still progressing through other, more difficult avenues left to them after the proclamation. Administration officials said the asylum law changes were meant to funnel migrants through official border crossings for speedy rulings instead of having them try to evade such crossings on the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border. But many border crossings such as San Ysidro already have extensive wait times. People are often forced to wait in shelters or outdoor camps on the Mexican side, sometimes for weeks. ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said that some people seeking asylum cross between official ports because "they're in real danger," either in their countries of origin or in Mexico. "We don't condone people entering between ports of entry, but Congress has made the decision that if they do, they still need to be allowed to apply for asylum," he said. The U.S. military has deployed 5,800 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. Another 2,100 National Guard troops have also been deployed since April as part of a separate mission. They are not allowed to detain illegal crossers. ___ Associated Press journalists Julie Watson in Tijuana, Mexico, and Jill Colvin and Colleen Long in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. Governments purchase of assets abroad is haphazard and ineffective Ignoring repeated investigations and recommendations of the Auditor Generals Office, the Foreign Ministry is procuring assets and properties for its diplomatic missions and chanceries abroad haphazardly without consulting with the Finance Ministry. A report from campaign group Global Witness claims Nigeria will lose $6 billion in revenues from a 2011 oil deal with Shell and Eni. The deal is being investigated by Italian prosecutors as the oil giants and their executives face bribery allegations. The terms of the transaction mean Nigeria will see no revenue from the oil production, the report claims. Shell and Eni, some of their former employees, and former Nigerian ministers all deny any wrongdoing. A deal Shell and Eni brokered with the Nigerian government in 2011 is set to cost the African nation $6 billion in lost revenue, a report claimed Monday. The report , published by campaign group Global Witness, said the allegedly corrupt deal's terms would stop Nigeria accessing its share of the profits from oil extracted from its offshore block. Shell and Eni were accused of bribery last year over a $1.3 billion payment that secured an exploration licence for the block, known as OPL 245, in 2011. It was alleged that although the funds were paid to the Nigerian government, the money actually went to Malabu Oil and Gas a company linked to former oil minister Dan Etete. Global Witness claimed that a term granting Nigeria a share of the oil production profits was negotiated out of the 2011 deal by former Nigerian ministers, who it alleges took bribes from the oil giants. It said the clause was replaced with a back-in option that required Nigeria to pay more towards the exploration costs than it could afford. Shell and Eni along with some of their former employees are facing charges relating to the payment, with Italian prosecutors alleging there was awareness the funds would be pocketed by individuals. All of the defendants have denied any wrongdoing. 'No case against Shell' In a statement emailed to CNBC, a Shell spokesperson said: "Since this matter is before the Tribunal of Milan it would not be appropriate for us to comment in detail. We maintain that the settlement was a fully legal transaction with the federal government of Nigeria and Eni and, based on our review of the prosecutor of Milan's file and all of the information and facts available to us, we do not believe that there is a basis to convict Shell or any of its former employees." Shell's Executive Vice President Frans Everts wrote to Global Witness ahead of the report's publication to reiterate the company's position. In the letter, seen by CNBC, Everts questioned the methods used in Global Witness' research. Story continues "We dispute your characterization of the facts, your allegations of criminality and the legal conclusions you reach," he said. "The statements in your letter are based on faulty methodologies which do not meet adequate qualitative standards. They fail to take into account elements that are typically used by the industry misconstrue the terms of the 2011 settlement and even reference legislation which has not been passed." Nigeria's back-in right Eni agreed with Shell's position, a spokesperson told CNBC via email, and claimed Global Witness' analysis may have overlooked the Nigerian government's 50 percent back-in right on the oil block. "This fact alone would make the analysis groundless," the spokesperson said. The company also noted that Global Witness and its partners had made two requests to be admitted in the court proceedings as aggrieved parties, but those requests had been rejected. "We wish to confirm the correctness and compliance of every aspect of the transaction in respect of OPL 245 concluded in 2011, both with applicable laws and global industry practice," the spokesperson told CNBC. "Eni reaffirms that it signed a commercial agreement in 2011 for a new license for OPL 245 with the federal government of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, and the consideration for the license was paid directly to the Nigerian government." A Global Witness spokesperson told CNBC over the phone that Nigeria's back-in right had been considered, but the group felt it was irrelevant because the government would have to pay billions of dollars to retrieve its share of the profits. "For the government to back in they would have to pay a share of the $10.8 billion costs, something substantially beyond their means," they said. "This is the main reason Nigeria shifted in the 1990s to a system of production sharing contracts, where they receive a share of production without paying for the costs. It's this share of production that was taken away from Nigeria in this deal." Earlier this year, research showed Nigeria had overtaken India as the nation with the highest concentration of extreme poverty despite being an oil rich nation and one of Africa's wealthiest economies. Shell and Eni still hold the exploration licence for OPL 245. A spokesperson for the federal government of Nigeria was unavailable for comment when contacted by CNBC. Reuters contributed to this report More From CNBC Integrated energy biggies BP plc (BP) and Chevron (CVX) started up production at their Clair Ridge and Big Foot developments, respectively. It was a week where oil prices sank to its lowest finish since October 2017, while natural gas futures hit more than four-year highs. On the news front, integrated energy biggies BP plc BP and Chevron Corp. CVX started up production at their Clair Ridge and Big Foot developments, respectively. Overall, it was another mixed week for the sector. While West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost 10.6% to close at $50.42 per barrel, natural gas prices edged up some 0.8% to $4.308 per million Btu (MMBtu). The U.S. crude benchmark tumbled to its lowest settlement in more than a year, reflecting rising supply from major producers (Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States) and fear that an economic slowdown will dampen the outlook for demand. Data showing domestic crude inventories increasing for a ninth straight week also contributed to the losses. Meanwhile, natural gas prices reached their highest point since February 2014 as inventories remain significantly below their five-year average amid predictions of strong demand with the early onset of cold weather. Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories 1. BP plc commenced production at the Clair Ridge oil field in the U.K. North Sea. The field is considered as one of the country's biggest new oil developments in decades. The company anticipates production to peak at 120,000 barrels of oil per day. Located 75 kilometers (47 miles) west of Shetlands, the Clair Ridge project represents the second phase of the Clair field. The first phase commenced production in 2005, while the third phase is under evaluation. Discovered in 1977, Clair is expected to produce for the next four decades. The project is estimated to hold recoverable volumes of 640 million barrels of oil. The other partners in the field include Royal Dutch Shell plc, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. The partners spent seven years and more than $5.8 billion to enhance the fields output. In 2018, Clair Ridge is BPs sixth major start-up subsequent to seven in 2017. These new projects are anticipated to boost the companys production by 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day by 2021. (Read more BP's Clair Ridge Commences Production After Four Decades) Story continues 2. Chevron recently declared the commencement of production from its Big Foot deepwater project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The field first brought to light in 2006 is expected to hold more than 200 million oil-equivalent barrels of recoverable resources. The production site, at a water depth of around 1,584 meters, is located 360 kilometers south of New Orleans. The Big Foot field has an estimated production life of 35 years. The field has a production capacity of 25 million cubic feet of natural gas and 75,000 barrels of oil per day. Production from the site began on time, as expected by the company. This will likely enable Chevron to achieve its 2018 production growth target of 7%. The $4-billion deepwater project was sanctioned during 2010-end. While Chevron, the operator, has 60% stake in the project, a subsidiary of Equinor ASA has 27.5% and Marubeni Oil & Gas holds 12.5%. (Read more Chevron Commences Production From Big Foot in GoM) 3. Differences in opinion between the Timor-Leste Government and Australia, regarding the development of Greater Sunrise project, have resulted in another leading company to exit the project. Recently, Royal Dutch Shell plc RDS.A inked a deal to divest its 26.56% interest in the Greater Sunrise natural gas fields, off the northern coast of Australia. The move will help the company upgrade and streamline its portfolio. Notably, the Greater Sunrise LNG project which is located about 150 kilometers south east of Timor-Leste and 450 kilometers north west of Darwin, Australia had been shelved since long, owing to disputes between Australia and East Timor. Importantly, Woodside Petroleum is the operator of the project holding 33.4% share, while ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka gas possess 30%, 26.56% and 10%, respectively. While the project partners had intended to have the gas back-piped to the Darwin facility for processing in Australia, the Timor-Lester government was determined to process the gas in its territory. Timor-Leste is keener for an onshore gas processing plant. rather than a floating plant and the project partners are not finding the option very viable. (Read more Shell to Sell Stakes in Greater Sunrise Project for $300M) 4. Eni SpA E and Algerian state company Sonatrach have installed a 10-megawatt (MW) solar plant in Bir Rebaa North (BRN) in Algeria. Jointly managed by Eni and Sonatrach through the Groupement Sonatrach-Agip (GSA), the plant will supply green energy to the oil field. This will enable decarbonization of the Algerian energy system. To further boost their partnership in the renewable energy sector, Eni carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Sonatrach have inked an agreement to construct an advanced research and development laboratory at the BRN site. The facility will assess solar and hybrid technologies in a desert environment. To enhance their scope of co-operation, the companies inked an agreement to create a new joint venture, which will be devoted to Algerias renewable energy sector. The partnership intends to install and operate solar power production units at the companies production sites as well as in other locations in Algeria. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Enis presence in Algeria dates back to 1981.Currently, it operates 32 mining permits in the country, with an equity production of 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. This makes the company one of the countrys main international player. (Read more Eni, Sonatrach Install Solar Plant at BRN Site in Algeria) 5. TransMontaigne Partners L.P. TLP recently entered into a merger agreement with ArcLight Energy Partners Fund VI, L.P.s indirect subsidiary, TLP Finance Holdings, LLC. The deal is expected to enable TLP Finance to acquire all the outstanding units of TransMontaigne, which are not already owned by TLP Acquisition Holdings, LLC, for $41 per common unit. The aggregate value of the transaction is estimated at $536 million. Notably, a similar offer of $38 per common outstanding units of TransMontaigne was made in July. Based on the stock price of $36.40 on Nov 23, the offered price translates into a 12.6% premium. Per the deal, the unitholders of TransMontaigne will be receiving 80.5 cents of quarterly distribution per unit, until the deal closes. The transaction, which awaits some necessary approvals, is expected to close in first-quarter 2019. Headquartered in Denver, CO, the midstream firms common units will stop being publicly traded, upon transaction closure. Price Performance The following table shows the price movement of some the major oil and gas players over the past week and during the last 6 months. Company Last Week Last 6 Months XOM -4.4% -5.5% CVX -4.6% -5.3% COP -3.5% -4.9% OXY -4.8% -13.7% SLB -3.8% -32.9% RIG -7.4% -24.2% VLO -7.3% -34.1% MPC -5% -17.3% Reflecting the weeks negative oil market sentiment, the Energy Select Sector SPDR a popular way to track energy companies generated a -4.9% return last week. The worst performer was offshore drilling giant Transocean Ltd. RIG whose stock slumped 7.4%. Longer-term, over six months, the sector tracker is down 12.8%. Oil refiner and marketer Valero Energy Corp. VLO was the major loser during this period, experiencing a 34.1% price decline. Whats Next in the Energy World? In this week, market participants will be closely tracking the regular releases i.e. the U.S. government statistics on oil and natural gas one of the few solid indicators that comes out regularly. Energy traders will also be focusing on the Baker Hughes data on rig count, while outcome from the weekends G-20 summit in Argentina where talks between the United States and China on the ongoing trade war are expected will be of some interest. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $8 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $47 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> 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 Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Chevron Corporation (CVX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) : Free Stock Analysis Report Eni SpA (E) : Free Stock Analysis Report BP p.l.c. (BP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Transocean Ltd. (RIG) : Free Stock Analysis Report TransMontaigne Partners L.P. (TLP) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian Navy vessels, and 23 crew members, on Sunday provoked international consternation. UKraine wants to see Western sanctions extended on its powerful neighbor Russia. Moscow said the vessels had illegally entered its waters off the coast of Crimea. Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian Navy vessels, and 23 crew members, on Sunday provoked international consternation. But the timing of the incident could be good for Ukraine, which hopes to see Western sanctions extended on its powerful neighbor. Moscow said the vessels had illegally entered its waters off the coast of Crimea. The incident, which Ukraine called an "an act of aggression," took place in the Kerch Strait, a channel that separates the Sea of Azov and Black Sea to the south of Ukraine and Russia, waters crucial to both economies. Ukraine has reacted to the situation by declaring martial law for 30 days in certain districts bordering Russia . President Petro Poroshenko warned of the "extremely serious" threat of a land invasion and said martial law was necessary to bolster Ukraine's defenses. The latest incident could be good for Ukraine, however, in that it adds weight to arguments for sanctions on Russia imposed after its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine to be extended, analysts say. "To some degree it's good timing, from the Ukrainians' point of view," Tim Stanley, senior managing director for Russia at Control Risks, told CNBC on Tuesday. "There's been movements on the European side about perhaps relaxing sanctions against Russia, so from the Ukrainian point of view, the pressure needs to be kept up. Obviously, we're facing a G20 meeting at the weekend in Buenos Aires and there's potential for a Putin-Trump meeting and so the Ukrainian side needs to keep the pressure up domestically," he told CNBC's "Capitol Connection." Alex Brideau, director of Eurasia research at Eurasia Group, said Monday that the incident would likely lead to more sanctions on Russia. Story continues "The incident in the Kerch Strait and the Ukrainian reaction so far carry geopolitical implications, as well as effects on Ukraine's domestic politics," Brideau said in a note. "Western governments will side with Ukraine against Russia over the incident itself, making new sanctions against Russia likely. It is not clear which side made the first move in the strait. But the U.S. and EU will react to Russian ships firing on Ukrainian ships; Moscow's use of violence will stand out in the eyes of the West," he said, noting that the U.S. and EU had previously warned Russia over increased naval activity. 'Outrageous' violation The incident comes before a G20 meeting in Brazil this weekend where Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet with President Donald Trump, who said Monday that he didn't like the situation, but refused to condemn the aggression. It makes it unlikely that Trump will put pressure on his Russian counterpart at the G20 summit to ease up on Ukraine, given the president's present and past reluctance to openly criticize Russia. So far, Trump seems content to let Europe handle the situation, remarking Monday that European leaders were "working on the situation," Reuters reported. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, was stronger in her criticism, calling Russia's action an "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory" and said such "outlaw actions" made it hard for the U.S. to have a normal relationship with Russia. European Council President Donald Tusk took to Twitter on Tuesday to condemn the action and called on Russia to release the ships and sailors. Russia has so far refused to do so. Tweet: The U.S. and European Union currently have sanctions on Russia in place for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, as well as its role in a pro-Russian uprising in the east of the country, although Russia denied involvement in this. The EU must decide soon whether to extend those sanctions, which have seen asset freezes and travel bans on individuals alleged to have assisted in the annexation and sectoral sanctions in Russia . In September, the EU extended Ukraine-related sanctions on 155 persons and 44 entities until March, saying that its "assessment of the situation did not justify a change in the sanctions regime." A separate series of European Ukraine-related sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy are in place until January and there are sanctions on Crimea itself until June. Likewise, the U.S.' Ukraine-related economic sanctions on Russia are in place until March. Eurasia Group's Brideau said more sanctions were now likely. "The most that Washington and Brussels are likely to impose at this stage is more sanctions against individuals and entities. Stronger sanctions that might target new economic sectors or major Russian oligarchs are unlikely unless the episode escalates," he said. "New fighting would make sanctions escalation more likely but, even in this case, the potential for much stronger action against sovereign debt or Russian crude oil exports would remain low." Bridge over troubled water The latest episode is the latest chapter in strained relations between Russia and Ukraine, a former part of the now defunct Soviet Union. Needless to say, after the 2014 annexation of Crimea there's no love lost between Russia and Ukraine and the waters around the Crimean peninsula have become a part of their ongoing dispute. A bridge linking Crimea with the Russian mainland to the east, called the Kerch Strait Bridge, has only exacerbated the situation with Ukraine claiming it is designed to damage its economy. The bridge's construction in July 2017 has not gone unnoticed in Europe, with the EU sanctioning six companies involved in its assembly. "The Kerch bridge (is) effectively creating a situation whereby Russia has direct control over what vessels enter the Sea of Azov and leave the Sea of Azov," Stanley said. "There are complaints from the Ukrainian side, unsurprisingly, of further delays in transit and inspections (of vessels). There's a low bridge clearance as well, so it limits the size of vessels which can go through that all has a major impact on the Ukrainian economy because two major ports are in the Sea of Azov which allow Ukraine to export its steel and agricultural products." Ukraine is not entirely innocent when it comes to the Kerch Straits, with Stanley mentioning a number of "tit-for-tat vessel seizures by the Ukrainians and the Russians in the spring." "It all comes back to the question of sovereignty over Crimea," he said. "From the Russian point of view, Crimea is now de facto a part of Russia. And the 2003 treaty which monitored access to the Sea of Azov is no longer valid. From the Ukrainian point of view, and most of the international community, Crimea remains an integral part of Ukraine and therefore nothing has changed." More From CNBC Splitting with President Donald Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told Axios he try to punish Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman if the CIA has in fact determined that MBS was likely responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Its important that we back up the intel community if we think theyre right, Graham told Axios. If reports about the CIAs intelligence are true, the South Carolina senator said everything would be on the table for punishmentincluding the end to President Donald Trumps acclaimed arms dealas we cannot have a normal strategic relationship with somebody this crazy. He and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez are already working on sanctions against Saudi Arabia for Khashoggis killing, Axios reports. Graham also said he will be looking at MBSs behavior in a number of instances. What I would also do in my resolution is also look at other behavior of MBS that has been very erratic and disruptive: the handling of the Yemen war, the bizarre episode with the prime minister from Lebanon, and the embargo of Qatar without any consultation, he told Axios. Grahams position opposes that of Trump, who announced last week that he would stand with Saudi Arabia. While he acknowledged the crown prince may have been involved, Trump argued it could not be proven: We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi, the White House said, noting that billions of dollars could be lost to Russia or China if the U.S. were to cancel its arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Ministry of Energy, NEA clash over power purchase modality The Ministry of Energy and the Nepal Electricity Authority are clashing over the modality of power purchase agreements (PPAs) for run-of-the-river type hydropower projects. FILE PHOTO: People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo (Reuters) - Standard Chartered Plc (STAN.L) is considering simplifying its structure as it looks to curb costs across its networks from Zambia to Macau, Bloomberg reported https://bloom.bg/2P3jiBW on Monday, citing sources. The London-based bank is looking for ways to free up liquidity and reduce funding expenses within its different legal entities, the report added. The bank will also outline how it plans to "deliver higher returns" when it reports its full-year results in February, Bloomberg said, citing a statement, and is expected to unveil a strategic plan in the same month. Standard Chartered did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. (Reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey) President Donald Trump fumes against special counsel Robert Mueller in a tweet storm, claiming his probe of Russian interference is "ruining lives." Trump's attack echoes the salvos against the investigation recently launched by right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, who claimed a day earlier that he has rejected a plea deal offered by Mueller. The attacks also highlight lingering questions about the possibility of Trump granting pardons to some of the special counsel's targets a notion the president's own lawyer appeared to entertain Tuesday. Hours after former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was accused of lying to federal investigators in violation of his plea deal, President Donald Trump fumed against special counsel Robert Mueller, claiming his probe is "ruining lives" and suggesting that he had inside information about the investigation. As he pilloried the special counsel, Trump echoed the salvos against the investigation recently launched by right-wing conspiracy monger Jerome Corsi , who claimed Monday that he rejected a plea deal offered by Mueller. Corsi had said that he would "rather sit in prison and rot" than say he lied to Mueller. "Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie," Trump tweeted Tuesday. "The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other." The president's attacks also highlight lingering questions about the possibility of Trump granting presidential pardons to some of the people targeted by the special counsel a notion that Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared to entertain Tuesday. The former New York City mayor suggested that Mueller's probe may be going too far when NBC News asked him whether the president plans to offer Manafort a pardon. Story continues Watch: Mueller's investigation could make money for taxpayers, thanks to Manafort "Is it conceivable that [Manafort] and Jerome Corsi, who is saying Mueller's people are pressuring him to lie, are telling the truth and the special counsel in their zeal to get the president may be going too far?" Giuliani told NBC. Trump began his trio of tweets Tuesday morning by again labeling the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election a "Phony Witch Hunt." The president complained that Mueller's team was "only looking at one side, not the other," appearing to refer to his former political opponent Hillary Clinton, who he has long claimed broke the law through her use of a private email server. Trump tweet 1 Trump tweet 2 Trump tweet 3 The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's inquiries about Trump's tweets. The special counsel declined to comment. On Monday night, Mueller accused Manafort of breaching the terms of his plea agreement by lying "on a variety of subject matters" to investigators . The allegation, revealed in a filing in Washington, D.C., federal court, did not say what Manafort is specifically accused of lying about, but said that the government would "file a detailed sentencing submission to the Probation Department and the Court in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies, including those after signing the plea agreement herein." The filing also said the alleged breach relieves the special counsel of its own obligations under the plea agreement, which was reached on the eve of Manafort's second trial. Those obligations included agreeing to reduce Manafort's prison sentence " for acceptance of responsibility ." The charges lodged against Manafort related mostly to work he performed years before joining the Trump campaign, when he was working for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. Trump has shown sympathy for targets in the Russia probe before. After Manafort was found guilty on eight criminal counts in a trial in Virginia brought on charges lodged by Mueller, Trump tweeted that he feels "very badly" for Manafort and his family. Trump tweet very badly Trump has also avoided a straight yes-or-no answer on the possibility of a pardon for Manafort in the past. Trump's suggestion that Mueller is "ruining lives" of people for "refusing to lie" has been floated by other individuals targeted by the special counsel. Corsi, one of the leading proponents of the false "birther" conspiracy theory which alleged that former President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., said Monday that he was offered a plea deal on one count of perjury. But the former Infowars bureau chief, who also proliferated the much-criticized "Swift Boat" campaign against 2004 Democratic presidential frontrunner John Kerry, said he would "rather sit in prison and rot" than say he lied . Corsi did not immediately respond to CNBC's questions about Trump's tweets. Trump latched on to the birther conspiracy theory in 2011 and quickly became among the loudest public crusaders for the narrative, which has been widely condemned as racist. Trump finally acknowledged that Obama was born in the U.S. in September 2016, just before the 2016 election. Meanwhile, former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, the first person to be charged in Mueller's probe, was incarcerated in Wisconsin federal prison Monday . Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators in October 2017. More From CNBC Shares of United States Cellular Corporation USM scaled a new 52-week high of $57.45 during yesterdays trading session, before closing a tad lower at $56.28, for a solid one-year return of 50.8%. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock has the potential for further price appreciation and looks poised to touch new highs in the remainder of 2018 on the back of healthy growth dynamics. Growth Drivers United States Cellular is determined to offer the best wireless experience to its customers by providing innovative devices, coupled with superior quality network and national coverage. Notably, to increase smartphone penetration, the company has initiated Shared Data plans for consumers and businesses, at minimal charges. United States Cellular is also focused on expanding its solutions for business and government customers, including a growing suite of machine-to-machine solutions across different categories. The company plans to continue enhancing its advanced wireless services and connected solutions to better cater to the consumer, business and government customers. In addition, United States Cellular has partnered with Internet of Things America LLC or IoT America to provide an advanced suite of IoT solutions for enterprise customers and rural communities across the nation. Together, the companies will provide smart farming solutions for farmers and ranchers to deliver high yields while enhancing daily operations. This, in turn, will bridge the infrastructure gap by providing connectivity to Americans who earn their living in rural areas. Moreover, United States Cellular has successfully completed its 4G LTE network roll-out. This network carries about 88% of the companys data traffic and reaches 99% of its postpaid customers, providing an exceptional network experience in the suburban and rural markets. The company has initiated testing of voice over LTE or VoLTE and plans for commercial deployment early next year. Additionally, multiple 4G LTE roaming agreements have been duly signed. We, thus, expect the company to benefit from its LTE expansion, as well as implementation of the VoLTE services. United States Cellular is bullish about the rising demand for smartphones, which enjoy significant market penetration, supporting growth in data revenues. The company raised its earlier guidance on healthy growth dynamics and expects total operating revenues in the band of $3,950-$4,000 million, up from the previous range of $3,925-$4,025 million. Adjusted EBITDA is projected in the range of $925-$1,000 million, up from $850-$950 million estimated earlier. The company anticipates adjusted OIBDA of $760-$810 million, up from the prior guidance of $700-$800 million. This reflects the companys expectation for modest customer growth, additional demand for data and continued migration through equipment installment plans, along with a very competitive pricing environment. Notably, equipment sales will likely continue growing as the take rate for equipment installment plans increases. Earnings estimates of the company have increased by a stellar 500% in the past year to $1.62 per share at present. Such a bullish outlook, with continued growth impetus and core focus, perhaps boosted investors confidence and catapulted share prices to a new 52-week high. Other Stocks to Consider Some other top-ranked stocks in the industry are ATN International, Inc. ATNI sporting a Zacks Rank #1, and Sprint Corporation S and Telenav, Inc. TNAV, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. ATN International has trumped earnings estimates thrice in the preceding four quarters, the average positive surprise being 138.1%. Sprint has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 19.6%. It surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 320.8%. Telenav has outpaced earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average positive surprise being 12%. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $8 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $47 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> 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 Sprint Corporation (S) : Free Stock Analysis Report ATN International, Inc. (ATNI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Telenav, Inc. (TNAV) : Free Stock Analysis Report United States Cellular Corporation (USM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research FILE PHOTO: White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow speaks about the upcoming G20 during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is open to reaching a deal on U.S.-China trade irritants over dinner on Saturday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but is ready to hike tariffs on Chinese imports if there is no breakthrough, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday. Days before the high-stakes dinner, it was unclear whether the two sides had agreed on a formal agenda for the leaders' conversation after the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Kudlow said there were no scheduled talks on the ground for their advisers. Kudlow said Trump had told advisers that "in his view, there is a good possibility that a deal can be made, and that he is open to that." But he said "certain conditions have to be met," listing intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, ownership of American companies in China, high tariffs and non-tariff barriers on commodities, and commercial hacking as examples of issues that "must be solved." Kudlow declined to comment on whether China had made offers of concessions. The White House sees the dinner, which Kudlow hinted would involve Argentine beef, as an opportunity to "turn the page" on a trade war with China. But he said the White House has been disappointed so far in the Chinese response to trade issues. "Their responses have disappointed because ... we can't find much change in their approach," he said, declining to comment on specifics. "President Xi has an opportunity to change the tone and the substance of these talks," Kudlow told reporters at the White House. "President Trump has indicated he is open - now we need to know if President Xi is open." If there is no progress, Trump is prepared to raise tariffs on $200 billion of imports to 25 percent from current levels of 10 percent, and could add tariffs on another $267 billion of imports, Kudlow said. "As we've all learned, he means what he says," Kudlow said. Story continues Asked whether the two sides had agreed on a list of agenda items for the leaders to discuss, Kudlow said: "We're in some significant preparation on all that." Kudlow said he was not sure whether Trump and Xi would agree to a joint statement at the end of their dinner, as is typical for a meeting between two world leaders. "It's a dinner party-kind-of-thing," Kudlow said. He declined comment on who would attend the dinner. Trump's wife Melania Trump will accompany the president to Buenos Aires. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, national security adviser John Bolton and Kudlow will also be at the G20. Trump has a packed schedule of bilateral meetings in Argentina, including one with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump is also slated to take part in a signing ceremony for the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, Kudlow said. Details on the date for the ceremony were not immediately available. As far as the formal G20 talks go, Kudlow said deputies were still working on a possible joint agreement, known as a communique. "I don't think anybody on our team is on pins and needles about the communique. If we got one, it's got to be something we agree with. If we didn't get one, there'd be no tears shed," he said. Kudlow was involved in a clash between the White House and allies in the G7 group of nations in June, when Trump rejected a statement agreed to by his fellow leaders. Shortly afterward, Kudlow had a heart attack, from which he has since recovered. "I had to rewrite a communique in Quebec this spring, which I did, taking names and kicking butts of some very nice world leaders. Then I went home and had a heart attack, so - hoping not to go through that process again," Kudlow said. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Grant McCool) Multi-million-rupee publicity stunt overshadows governments much-hyped social security policy The representatives of companies that sponsored advertisements in over a dozen publications on Tuesday said government officials at the Social Security Fund, Nepal Telecommunications Authority, and the Central Bank had called them to sponsor the publicity. Comedian Aziz Ansari will bring his "Road to Nowhere" tour to Denver next year. He'll perform Feb. 16 at Buell Theatre. Tickets go on sale at noon Friday. Go online to axs.com. The Master of None and Parks and Recreation star was embroiled in the #metoo movement this year, when he was accused of sexual misconduct in a babe.net post. This will be his first full tour since the accusation. DOUGLAS COUNTY One suspect died, a second suspect was shot and wounded and a third person is in custody following a deputy-involved shooting A correctional health-care provider has agreed to pay $4.25 million in the case of a Fremont County jail inmate who died of prescription drug withdrawal, attorneys said Monday. John Patrick Walter, 53, lost 30 pounds in less than three weeks before dying naked on the floor of his cell April 20, 2014. We believe it is one of the highest jail death settlements in Colorado, said attorney Edwin Budge of Budge and Heipt in Seattle, which alleged civil rights violations in a 2016 lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver. Budge declined to provide more details, citing a confidentiality agreement. The for-profit Correctional Healthcare Companies Inc., the jails former medical provider, agreed to a settlement Oct. 18, court records show. The company was dismissed as a defendant Monday. The settlement doesnt include Fremont County or former Sheriff James A. Beicker, who were sued with several county employees. Those defendants remain on track for a 10-day trial scheduled to start Feb. 18 in Denver, records show. Correctional Healthcare Companies Inc. was acquired in 2014 by Correct Care Solutions Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., now known as WellPath. An email sent Monday to a media contact listed on the WellPath website wasnt answered. WellPaths affiliates have been sued dozens of times in recent years over jail deaths and reports of insufficient care. Walter was booked into the Canon City jail on suspicion of first-degree assault and menacing, both felonies, and reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor. The El Paso County Coroners Office initially couldnt determine what caused his death 17 days after his incarceration. In April 2017, however, the office released a new finding that he died of acute benzodiazepine withdrawal. Benzodiazepines are antianxiety medications marketed under names including Klonopin, Xanax and Ativan. Although patients on small doses can experience discomfort when they try to quit, patients on high doses must be gradually weaned off them under medical supervision, or they face serious complications, including delusions and death. Walter, who was prescribed a daily dose of 6 mg of Klonopin, or clonazepam, was withdrawn from clonazepam without taper, the autopsy said. In her report, Dr. Emily Berry said she revised her opinion after reviewing newly obtained medical records and eyewitness accounts. The new evidence apparently was discovered by attorneys for Walters estate, who say the Fremont County Sheriffs Office conducted a sham investigation that failed to include a list of Walters prescriptions. Walter also suffered several broken ribs and internal bleeding, injuries the lawsuit says remain unexplained by the Sheriffs Office. The settlement will go to his estate, and a probate court then will distribute the money to some of his relatives, Budge said. Two unmarked graves are the final resting places for 223 souls in El Paso County who had neither money nor family to bury them. Their cremains fell to the care of county Public Administrator Catherine Seal, a probate attorney appointed as the fiduciary of last resort to liquidate a decedents assets, pay his debts and ensure a proper burial when no heir is found or willing to do so. If Im doing my job right, it should not be worth mentioning, Seal said. But the jobs of all 29 public administrators in Colorado came under the spotlight last year, when the Office of the State Auditor found that lax oversight caused a dearth of detailed records of the administrators caseloads, assets overseen, hours worked and fees charged to estates for their services. Because the estates involve incapacitated, vulnerable parties and their families, or absent families, the risk for abuse was high without proper oversight, the auditors office found. No abuse was uncovered, but five changes were implemented in varied degrees over the past year to prevent administrators misuse of their authority. The changes: Public administrators must submit a form explaining all fees and costs for services charged to an estate. The administrators are to submit annual reports outlining caseload, total assets overseen, total hours worked and fees charged. County courts are to collect and maintain those records and review the public administrators position annually. Public administrators must increase their fiduciary bonds from $25,000 to $100,000 and file them with the Secretary of States Office annually. County courts are to ensure that funds remaining in a decedents estate are transferred to the state and held in the appropriate account. Seal said she already kept such records and submitted them to the court annually, but copies were not available. Lynette Cornelius, clerk of El Paso County courts, initially said she never got an annual report from Seal but later said she misspoke and would turn over records dating to 2014. The records never were sent to The Gazette, and subsequent calls to Cornelius were not returned. Seal shared snippets from her records but said she doesnt track cases by types, separating decedents estates from conservatorships, so she could not say how many burials shes arranged since she was appointed in 2004 by the 4th Judicial District. Evergreen Cemeterys registry lists 223 people buried in the public administrators plots, and the states Registrar of Vital Statistics says Seal has been named on 184 death certificates in the county since 2014. Other funeral home owners who have worked with Seal estimate theyve buried another dozen individuals. But because the role of public administrators is not widely known, Seal explained some of the policies. Administrator paid by estates they manage The city-owned Evergreen Cemetery donates two vaults used for cremains and deeply discounts burial service costs to a flat $500 in kindness to Seal, said cemetery supervisor Jody Sanchez-Skamarak. My understanding is she doesnt get very much out of it, Sanchez-Skamarak said. Seal said most burials she handles are for indigents, on which she loses about $50 per case. We also make money on cases, Seal said. She lost about $10,500 in unpaid services last year but received $84,737.42 for overseeing 92 cases, decedent estates and conservatorships for the living, her records show. Seal said she charges $250 to $300 per hour to manage and close estates, depending on the size, and her employees bill $90 to $120 an hour, depending on their role and expertise. In cases where decedents dont have assets but received government assistance, the county pays Seal $500 per person up to its contracted amount, $20,000 this year and $10,000 in previous years. The county reports paying Seal $39,000 for burials since 2014, including $3,500 for seven burials through early October of this year. I just think its sad how many times people admit theyre related but wont accept responsibility (of the deceased), Seal said. They dont want to spend money on final arrangements, and there is no legal requirement to make them. Funeral homes help bury the unclaimed Two funeral homes regularly help the public administrator despite the risk of not getting paid, Seal said. They are Cappadona Funeral Home and The Springs Funeral Services. Somebodys got to do it, and apparently were the only ones that will work that close with the public administrators office to be able to help these people, said Paula Cappadona, who owns Cappadona Funeral Home. I just know whenever they call us, we dont ever turn anyone away. Seal said she tries to pay funeral homes, but sometimes the money isnt there. If the person was receiving public assistance, funeral homes can apply to recover their costs from the state. Terri Flores-Brown, president of The Springs Funeral Services, said her family-owned business feels its a duty to take care of the dead. Were trying to do this as part of the community. We always try to get full price, but if its not there, its not there. Other funeral homes occasionally work with Seal but say they dont expect to be paid. Theyre not easy cases to do you lose a lot of money, said Brian Allen, general manager of Evergreen Funeral Home. If there is money left in the estate, they pay you. But if not, you kind of eat it. Leftover money reverts to state Any money left in a persons estate after Seal, debts and burial services have been paid reverts, or escheats, to the state treasurys Unclaimed Property Division, where it is held for up to 21 years. If no family claims it, the money then goes to the state schools fund. Seal said she escheated $37,017.97 to the state last year. Human remains carefully cataloged Seal stores cremains for about two years to give relatives time to claim their loved ones before they are buried, usually at Evergreen Cemetery. The cemetery does not mark the public administrators two grave sites, but it does track all of the people buried there on its website, coloradosprings.gov/evergreen-and-fairview-cemeteries. Sanchez-Skamarak said a name search will show if the person is there and in what plot. Currently, 108 people who died through 2008 are buried in plot 111, which falls in the countys potters field section, Sanchez-Skamarak said. Another 115 people rest in plot 229, which last was opened in July to bury 86 decedents from the past two years. Contact the writer at 719-636-0362 or find her on Twitter: @njKaitlinDurbin. Need an opposition The Nepali Congress must unite to keep the government on its toes A missing Air Force Academy cadet candidates vehicle was found Monday afternoon at the Longs Peak trailhead, Rocky Mountain National Park officials say. Micah Tice, 20, a student at the academys preparatory school, left his sponsors home in Colorado Springs on Thursday evening, an academy statement says. His parents, who live in Nevada, last spoke to him about 9 p.m. Friday. He told them he was going to do schoolwork that night and perhaps take a hike Saturday. His phones signal last was received Saturday near East Woodmen Road and Interstate 25. Tices planned destination and route were unknown, but the weather Saturday on Longs Peak was poor with significant snow accumulation, extremely high winds and bitter cold temperatures, a national park news release says. A search was to begin early Tuesday, with teams focusing on the lower sections of the Longs Peak Trail to the Keyhole and Chasm Junction. Tice is about 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighs about 160 pounds, and has dark hair and brown eyes. Anyone who has been in the Longs Peak area since Saturday or has information about Tices planned route is asked to call Rocky Mountain National Park at 970-586-1204. Chris Reen, former president of The Oklahoman Media Co. and publisher of The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, will become president of The Gazette Amada partners with families to get to the heart of senior care Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years. Selbyville, Delaware, Nov. 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Edge Data Center Market is estimated to cross USD 13 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Growing demand for edge and cloud computing technology is driving the market. These technologies allow organizations to set up their infrastructure facilities close to the source of data generation. It offers complete control over the data processing and storage at the edge of a network rather establishing it in a centralized warehouse. Several advantages of these technologies in the industrial sector include reduced network traffic, real-time data analysis, low operating costs, and improved application performance. The organizations are witnessing a rapid increase in the data processing frequency and rate, enhancing the business operations and fueling the edge data center market growth. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2421 Moreover, the edge data center market is witnessing a growth due to the increased adoption of these facilities in harsh environmental conditions such as bad weather. These facilities are pre-built, offering protection from humidity, heat, rain, fire, etc., which can cause catastrophic damages to these devices. The products offered by manufacturers in the market are integrated with several cooling and fire protecting devices, saving infrastructure facilities from the external factors that can damage them. Moreover, the applications of these facilities offer an increased level of physical as well as data layer security. The data loss and theft instances are increasing in several industry verticals, encouraging the players to adopt a secured data environment, thereby propelling the market growth. The IT & telecom sector is witnessing a high adoption in the edge data center market. A rapid increase in the amount of data generated in the telecom sector is expected to drive the industry demand. The telecom operators are offering flexible offers, plans, and 4G internet connectivity, which are responsible for the generation of such massive information. Moreover, the companies are dependent on these facilities for a secure environment that will allow them to store confidential customer information to reduce the chances of data thefts. Increasing demand for 5G connectivity in the telecommunication industry is forcing the companies to depend on the edge computing technologies as operators are planning to locate the facilities close to 5G towers. Browse key industry insights spread across 250 pages with 291 market data tables & 22 figures & charts from the report, Edge Data Center Market Size By Component (Solution [Cooling, Power, UPS, IT Racks & Enclosures, Networking Equipment, DCIM] Service [Installation & Integration, Managed, Consulting]), By Application (BFSI, Colocation, Energy, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, IT & Telecom), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Benelux, China, India, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, GCC, South Africa), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 2024 in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/edge-data-center-market The power solutions in the edge data center market was over 35% of the overall industry revenue in 2017 and will witness more demand due to the rising and focused needs across industries for effective power management products to minimize the power consumption of electrical devices. Such requirements are encouraging developers to provide products and solutions that monitor and analyze the consumption of energy by each device. The power management solutions are the most widely adopted technologies in the market that are developed for enhancing the performance of the infrastructure facilities with less operational costs. Europe edge data center market will observe traction with the rising interest of global companies to expand their business operations in the region to manage the massive data generated in several application industries. For instance, in November 2018, EdgeConneX announced the acquisition of the Linxdatacenter facility based in Poland. The newly acquired data center facility will support the companys expanding business operation in the country. The favorable environmental conditions and the availability of other resources, such as suitable government regulations and the availability of the suppliers, are encouraging the players to select the region for deploying their infrastructure facilities, thereby driving the market demand. Major players operating in the market are Cisco Systems, Inc., Edgeconnex, Rittal, Elliptical Mobile Solutions, Dell, Inc., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Zellabox, Anixter, VXchnge, Anixter International, Dell, Inc., Wave-2-Wave Solution Corporation, Schneider Electric, Panduit Corp, Silicon Graphics, Inc., 365 Data Centers, Compass Data Centers, and Bytegrid, among others. The companies in edge data center market are increasingly targeting their offerings in small and medium enterprises. These businesses are adopting cloud technologies to store and process large volumes of data. Moreover, the companies are adopting strategies, such as new product development and product differentiation, to tackle the competitive environment in the market. Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2421 Browse Related Reports: Green Data Center Market Size By Component (Solution [Cooling, Networking, Power, Management Software], Service [Installation & Integration, Consulting, Managed]), By End-Use (Colocation, BFSI, Energy, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, IT & Telecom), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Benelux, China, India, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, GCC, South Africa), Regional Outlook, Application Potential, Price Trend, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 2024 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/green-data-center-market Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM) Solutions Market Size By Application (Incident Management, Device Discovery, Asset Management), By End-Use (IT & Telecom, BFSI, Energy & Utilities, Government, Manufacturing, Colocation Data Centers), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Benelux, Russia, China, India, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, GCC, South Africa), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 - 2024 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/automated-infrastructure-management-aim-solutions-market About Global Market Insights Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology. PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Nov. 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Celebrating 25 years of innovation, B2W Software, a leading provider of heavy construction management software, reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to leading the digital transformation in heavy construction with significant enhancements to its popular estimating solution. Used today by tens of thousands of estimators across North America to manage complex, competitive bids on accelerated deadlines, B2W Estimate has become the go-to solution for contractors looking to replace spreadsheets, paper-based processes and the frustration of outdated technology. B2W Software was founded in 1993 when it introduced one of the first-ever specialized applications for heavy construction estimating. The company has since revolutionized the way that owners, estimators, operations and financial leaders calculate and manage project profitability. B2W has expanded its product platform to include solutions for resource scheduling and dispatching, field tracking and analysis, equipment maintenance, safety and data capture. B2W products form a unified platform for estimating and operations The ONE Platform . This alternative to disparate software solutions eliminates redundant data, allows real-time collaboration across workflows and provides data-driven insight for managing personnel, jobs and equipment. Our ONE Platform works the way heavy construction works and integrates seamlessly with leading ERP and accounting systems, said Paul McKeon, founder and CEO of the New Hampshire-based company. This is a model our clients are leveraging to accelerate software advantages in the field as well as the office, unify their workflows and improve profitability. McKeon emphasized that B2W has grown its revenue, client base and technology platform organically since inception. This has given us the stability and the autonomy to reinvest heavily in our products and support capabilities according to the requirements of our clients, he added. Highlights of the recent enhancements to the companys flagship estimating product, B2W Estimate, include: Updates to the underlying product architecture, which enable faster processing of complex bids against larger cost-item databases - positioning the product and platform for optimal performance well into the future; Improved usability through the implementation of modern user interface standards and natural language search capabilities that provide both seasoned estimators as well as those just entering the field with more of what they love about B2W Estimate intuitive ease of use instead of complicated code names and extra clicks; Enhanced connectivity within the B2W ONE Platform, making it easier to schedule resources and plan work according to how an estimate is developed and improving future estimates based on actual field performance data. In addition to maintaining its leading position among estimating solutions for heavy construction, in 2018 B2W expanded its sales and support team by 30% and doubled the size of its Atlanta-area sales and service facility to meet growing demand for its solutions. B2W clients range from mid-size paving, excavating and site construction contractors to enterprises completing large-scale bridge, highway, energy, utility and specialized infrastructure projects. We will continue to drive the industry shift from spreadsheets and paper with our innovative ONE Platform, and through the talent of the B2W team supporting it and the input of our customers - many of whom have been with us for decades, said McKeon. B2W is truly empowering the heavy construction industry and we look forward to the next 25 years. About B2W Software Headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, B2W Software empowers and inspires heavy construction companies to win more work and complete it more profitably. The companys ONE Platform connects people, workflows and data and includes advanced, unified applications to manage estimating, scheduling, field tracking, equipment maintenance, data capture and business intelligence. Media Contacts: Betsey Rogers Public Relations BridgeView Marketing 603-821-0809 betsey@bridgeviewmarketing.com Photos accompanying this announcement are available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/48570c8d-fc7b-40f8-9f98-8744585bc5e0 http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e99397d3-2ea5-4421-bc42-2326cfef919e English French MONTREAL, Nov. 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Knight Therapeutics Inc. (TSX: GUD) (Knight), a leading Canadian specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced that Health Canada has approved ILUVIEN for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME). ILUVIEN is a fluocinolone acetonide sustained release non-biodegradable intravitreal implant used to treat DME in patients who have been previously treated with a course of corticosteroids and did not have a clinically significant rise in intraocular pressure. Knight entered into an exclusive Canadian agreement for ILUVIEN with Alimera Sciences, Inc. (Alimera) in July 2015. The approval of ILUVIEN is great news for Canadian DME patients, payors and healthcare providers. ILUVIEN represents a well-studied, proven effective treatment for DME patients who can benefit from CONTINUOUS MICRODOSING without the burden of frequent injections, said Jonathan Ross Goodman, CEO of Knight. We are eager to work with all payors and stakeholders across Canada to make ILUVIEN available to Canadian patients. We are excited that ILUVIEN has received approval by Health Canada, said Dan Myers, CEO of Alimera. ILUVIEN is the only treatment approved in Canada with CONTINUOUS MICRODOSING that can treat DME every day for up to three years with a single implant. We look forward to working with Knight to make ILUVIEN available to Canadian patients. About ILUVIEN www.ILUVIEN.com ILUVIEN (fluocinolone acetonide intravitreal implant) 0.19 mg is a sustained release intravitreal implant approved in the U.S. and Canada to treat diabetic macular edema (DME) in patients who have been previously treated with a course of corticosteroids and did not have a clinically significant rise in intraocular pressure. Each ILUVIEN implant is designed to release submicrogram levels of fluocinolone acetonide, a corticosteroid, for 36 months to treat DME. ILUVIEN has also received marketing authorization approvals in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom for the treatment of vision impairment associated with chronic diabetic macular edema (DME), considered insufficiently responsive to available therapies. ILUVIEN is available commercially in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and the U.A.E. About Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) DME, the primary cause of vision loss associated with diabetic retinopathy, is a disease affecting the macula, the part of the retina responsible for central vision. When the blood vessel leakage associated with diabetic retinopathy results in swelling of the macula, the condition is called DME. The onset of DME is painless and may go unreported by the patient until it manifests with the blurring of central vision or acute vision loss. The severity of this blurring may range from mild to profound loss of vision. The Wisconsin Epidemiologic Study of Diabetic Retinopathy found that over a 10-year period approximately 19% of people with diabetes included in the study were diagnosed with DME. All people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes are at risk of developing DME. About Knight Therapeutics Inc. Knight Therapeutics Inc., headquartered in Montreal, Canada, is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on acquiring or in-licensing innovative pharmaceutical products for the Canadian and select international markets. Knight's shares trade on TSX under the symbol GUD. For more information about Knight, please visit the company's web site at www.gud-knight.com or www.sedar.com. Forward-Looking Statements This document contains forward-looking statements for Knight Therapeutics Inc. and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements, by their nature, necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Knight Therapeutics Inc. considers the assumptions on which these forward-looking statements are based to be reasonable at the time they were prepared, but cautions the reader that these assumptions regarding future events, many of which are beyond the control of Knight Therapeutics Inc. and its subsidiaries, may ultimately prove to be incorrect. Factors and risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations are discussed in Knight Therapeutics Inc.'s Annual Report and in Knight Therapeutics Inc.'s Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2017. Knight Therapeutics Inc. disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events, except as required by law. Contact Information Dublin, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Middle East & Africa Mobile / Portable Printers Market By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet & Impact), By Output (Barcode Label, Receipt & Paper Document), By Country (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE & Others), Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Middle East & Africa mobile/portable printers market is projected to grow to $ 454 million by 2023 Growth in the market is led by rising demand for mobile printers due to various benefits associated with them such as high-speed processor, extensive memory, etc. Moreover, rising penetration of smart devices along with growing need for advanced and easy-to-use portable printers is further fueling growth in the market. Additionally, booming e-commerce industry and third-party logistics services is further likely to aid the growth of Middle East & Africa mobile/portable printers market in the coming years. Middle East & Africa Mobile/Portable Printers Market, 2013-2023 discusses the following aspects of Mobile/Portable Printers market in MEA: Mobile/Portable Printers Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet & Impact), By Output (Barcode Label, Receipt & Paper Document), By Country (China, Japan, India, Australia & Others) Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of Mobile/Portable Printers market in MEA To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, Mobile/Portable Printers distributors and other stakeholders align their market-centric strategies To obtain research-based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players To avail of 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get the research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs Middle East & Africa mobile/portable printers market is controlled by the following major players Brother Industries Ltd. Zebra Technologies, Inc TOSHIBA TEC CORPORATION Hewlett-Packard Inc. Honeywell International Inc. Canon Inc. Xerox Corporation Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Middle East & Africa Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value & Volume 4.2. Market Share & Forecast 4.2.1. By Technology (Thermal, Inkjet and Impact) 4.2.2. By Output (Barcode Labels, Receipts and Paper Document) 4.2.3. By Country 4.2.3.1. Turkey Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.2. Saudi Arabia Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.3. UAE Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.2.3.4. South Africa Mobile/Portable Printers Market Outlook 4.3. List of Major Distributors/Suppliers of Mobile/Portable Printers 4.4. Pricing Analysis 5. Market Dynamics 5.1. Drivers 5.2. Challenges 6. Supply Chain Analysis 7. Market Trends & Developments 8. Competitive Landscape 8.1. Company Profiles 9. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/46x757/middle_east_and?w=12 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. HIGHLIGHTS Measured and Indicated Resource of 1,678,000 tonnes of LCE, an increase of 29%, with lithium grade of 505mg/l Li Inferred Resource of 631,000 tonnes of LCE, an increase of 27%, with lithium grade of 518mg/l Li Significant zones of higher grade lithium-bearing brines identified in two major depocentres Combined Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes (PPG) Project Resource of 2,617,000 tonnes LCE in Measured and Indicated category and 938,500 tonnes LCE in the Inferred category 1 ,2,3 Combined Resource to be used in PEA for the PPG Project based on target production rate of 20,000tpa lithium carbonate to be released by the end of November TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC or together with its subsidiaries, the Company) (TSXV:LSC) is pleased to announce an updated resource estimate (Resource Estimate) for its Pozuelos Project in Salta Province, Argentina. The updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate has increased the Measured and Indicated Resource to 1,678,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate (Li 2 CO 3 ) equivalent (LCE) and the Inferred Resource to 631,000 tonnes of LCE. This is an increase of 29% in the Measured and Indicated Resource category and 27% in the Inferred Resource category compared to the previous Resource Estimate dated February 28, 20182. The average grades from the salar have also increased by 30% in the Measured and Indicated category from 387mg/l to 505mg/l and by 52% in the Inferred category from 340mg/l to 518mg/l. Ian Stalker, President and CEO of the Company, noted, We are extremely pleased with the updated Mineral Resource Estimate on the Pozuelos Project. This is a huge milestone for LSC and is a great announcement ahead of our anticipated PEA. The updated Resource Estimate emphasises the potential of the jointly developed Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project with the impressive size of the Resource. The PPG Project now has a combined Resource of 2,617,000 tonnes LCE in the Measured and Indicated category and 938,500 tonnes LCE3 in the Inferred category which will be used in the anticipated PEA based on a target production rate of 20,000tpa lithium carbonate. Our targeted 20,000tpa of lithium carbonate production in 2021 may indeed be only the beginning for this impressive inventory when we combine both salars. Hains Engineering Company Limited and Hains Technology Associates located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada were engaged to prepare the pdated Mineral Resource Estimate for LSCs Pozuelos Project and also to prepare the Technical Report in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards and Disclosures for Mineral Projects. The previously announced Resource Estimate for Pozuelos included 1,296,000 tonnes of LCE in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource category with average grade of 387mg/l Li and 497,000 tonnes in the Inferred Mineral Resource category with average grade of 340mg/l Li2. Updated Pozuelos Resource The updated Mineral Resource Estimate for Pozuelos is detailed in Table 1. Table 1: Resource Estimate Summary, Salar de Pozuelos November 22, 2018 Classification Brine Vol1 (000 m3) RBRC2 (%) Brine Assay Values3 (mg/L) Contained Li (tonnes) LCE9 (tonnes) Li Ca Mg K SO 4 2- Measured 4,713,466.09 8.41 470 1757 2652 4143 6570 180,000 958,000 Indicated 4,259,737.29 5.84 544 1054 3216 2761 11359 135,155 719,500 Measured & Indicated 8,973,203.38 7.19 505 1423 2920 3487 8843 315,155 1,678,000 KEY RATIOS Measured and Indicated Mg/Li Ca/SO 4 K/Li SO 4 /Li Li/Ca K/Mg 5.78 0.16 6.91 17.52 0.35 1.19 Classification Brine Vol1 (000 m3) RBRC2 (%) Brine Assay Values3 (mg/L) Contained Li (tonnes) LCE9 (tonnes) Li Ca Mg K SO 4 2- Inferred 4,936,541.30 4.64 518 1170 2948 2240 8771 118,603 631,000 KEY RATIOS Mg/Li Ca/SO 4 K/Li SO 4 /Li Li/Ca K/Mg 4.82 0.13 4.32 16.82 0.44 0.76 Notes: Brine volumes are before application of Relative Brine Release Capacity (RBRC) factor. RBRC value is the weighted average for the Resource classification category. Resources have been classified in accordance with CIM Mineral Resource definitions, May 25, 2014. Assay values have been rounded to nearest whole number. Resources have been estimated by Louis Fourie, P. Geo., Pr.Nat. Sci., under the direction of D. Hains, P. Geo. The effective date of this Mineral Resource Estimate is November 22, 2018. Resources have been estimated using a cut-off grade of 330mg/l lithium. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic value. There is no assurance that additional exploration will result in the conversion of Mineral Resources to Mineral Reserves. Inferred Mineral Resources are considered as too speculative to have economic criteria applied to them. There is no assurance that additional exploration will result in the conversion of Inferred Mineral Resources to Indicated or Measured Mineral Resources. A conversion factor of 5.323 has been used to convert Li metal to Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE). Totals for M&I and Inferred Resources have been rounded. The Resource Estimate is sensitive to the cut-off grade used. See: Figure 1: Grade-Tonnage Curve by Resource Classification, Salar de Pozuelos Resource Estimate November 22, 2018 . Mineral Resource Estimation Methodology Resources were estimated using a polygonal method. Polygons were defined by the 2017 exploration drill program2 and boundaries were not adjusted for the current Resource Estimate. Polygons were created in ArcGIS by centering the polygon on each drill hole and clipping to the salar perimeter or the adjoining polygon. The base of each polygon was cut at the limit of the drill hole data for the respective polygon or the interpreted base of productive lithology based on the available seismic data. Polygon volumes were calculated in ArcGIS. The volume in each polygon was further calculated based on the thickness of the respective lithological units within each polygon. Lithologies were determined based on analysis of drill logs and drill core photos and extended across each polygon. Five major lithologies were defined: FHL Highly Fractured Halite MFH Moderately Fractured Halite MCH Moderately Compact Halite PCH Porous Compact Halite CSC Clay Supported Clastics RBRC data, a proxy for Sy (Specific yield), was determined from core samples for each lithology. The Sy value for the FHL lithology was determined from pumping tests for two 15m deep wells located within polygons representing holes SP-2017-02 and SP-DDH400 and two trenches. Pump test data was analyzed using Infinite Extent software and the Neuman type curves to derive an average value of 31.25% for the upper 15m in the salar. Brine Resources were calculated for each polygon by multiplying the volume of each lithological unit in the respective polygon by the average RBRC value for the respective lithological unit in the polygon. Estimated grades by polygon and lithological unit were calculated by applying the drill hole assay or pumping assay data for the respective polygon and lithological unit to the calculated brine volumes. In those cases where both specific packer sample assay data and pumping sample assay data were available for adjacent holes, the data was averaged for the samples within the screen interval of the pump. Contained lithium metal in each polygon and lithological unit was converted to LCE using a conversion factor of 5.323. Resources were classified as Measured, Indicated or Inferred based on the number of sample points within the respective polygons and lithological units. In general, Resources within the upper 15m of the salar were classified as Measured, and those Resources between 15m and 50m classified as Indicated. Resources found below approximately 50m depth were classified as either Indicated or Inferred, based on the density of sample data. Resources in polygons where only surface sample data was available were classified as Inferred. Surface sample assay values were applied to a depth of 50m, and in the case of Polygons 3 and 4 in the northeast of the salar, assigned assay values from Polygon 1 for the interval below 50m and assigned a Sy value of 2.57 for the full interval and classified as Inferred. Those Resources within polygonal lithological units lying below the lower limit of the assay data but containing RBRC data were also classified as Inferred. Where RBRC data was available but no assay data was available for the respective interval and lithology, assay data was assigned based on the average for similar lithology and interval from adjacent holes. In such cases, the estimated Resources were classified as either Indicated or Inferred, based on the number of sample points. Resources for Polygon 1 in the northeast of the salar were classified as Indicated regardless of level in the salar. Estimated Resources were summed by classification and polygon to derive totals and average grades. The Resource Estimate is based on the results of previous exploration as detailed in prior NI 43-101 Technical Reports filed by LSC on SEDAR2 and the 2018 exploration program. The 2018 exploration program included a program of deep exploration drilling, development of pumping wells with step tests and continuous tests to develop data on the hydraulic properties of the salar, hydrogeological studies of the salar, including geophysics and construction of perimeter monitoring wells, additional seismic studies to enhance understanding of the lithology of the salar, and extensive brine sampling and RBRC core analysis. Table 2 summarizes the 2018 drill program undertaken at Salar de Pozuelos. The 2018 exploration program identified significant zones of higher grade lithium bearing brines. The available data indicate a central, high grade zone extending in a northeasterly direction over a distance exceeding 6km and a width of approximately 3.5km to depths in excess of 350m. This is complemented by a smaller high grade zone in the southwest centered in Polygon 10. The brine chemistry at Salar de Pozuelos is highly amenable to conventional solar evaporation processing and is complementary to the brine chemistry found at Salar Pastos Grandes. Table 2: 2018 Drill Program, LSC Lithium Salar de Pozuelos Project Hole Gauss-Kruger POSGAR 94 Zone 3 datum, AR-16 geoid Elevation (m) Depth (m) Azimuth Dip Type Size Type Northing Easting SP-2017-02W 7270791.66 3416483.05 3755.622 128.0 0 90 Tricone 8 Pumpinig SP-2017-pz5-2W 7270787.32 3416479.16 3755.705 128.0 0 90 Tricone 4 Piezo SP-2017-pz10-2W 7270799.02 3416473.75 3755.698 128.0 0 90 Tricone 4 Piezo SP-2017-10W 7265930.67 3413190.89 3756.186 141.5 0 90 Tricone 8 Pumping SP-2017-pz10-10W 7265927.59 3413200.62 3756.26 141.5 0 90 Tricone 4 Piezo SP-2017-pz5-10W 7265935.35 3413192.75 3756.22 141.5 0 90 Tricone 4 Piezo SP-2017-14W 7264929.00 3417966.00 3756.15 123.5 0 90 Tricone 8 Pumping SP-2017-pz5-14W 7264928.73 3417966.20 3756.133 123.5 0 90 Tricone 4 Piezo SP-2017-pz10-14W 7264923.18 3417976.60 3756.217 123.5 0 90 Tricone 4 Piezo WPZ-18-01 7269675.67 3416824.78 3756.163 103.0 0 90 Rotary 8 Pumping Pzm20-WPZ18-01 7269655.41 3416825.78 3756.02 100.0 0 90 Rotary 4 Piezo WPZ-18-04 7264938.43 3415953.20 3755.937 183.0 0 90 Rotary 8 Pumping PZ-18-01 7267900.13 3417787.38 3755.865 380.3 0 90 DDH HQ Exploration PZ-18-02 7272770.83 3419744.2 3758.407 358.0 0 90 DDH HQ Exploration Total Drilled 2,303.3 Table 3 provides a summary of the brine assay results from the pumping tests completed in the 2018 exploration program. Table 3: Assay Comparisons for Pump Tests Well Average Assay Values (mg/L) Step Test Constant Rate Test 2 Day 7 Day Li Ca Mg K SO 4 Li Ca Mg K SO 4 Li Ca Mg K SO 4 SP-2017-10W 704 706 4194 5707 14712 731 584 4459 5832 15764 750 536 4522 6160 16500 WPZ-18-04 534 1325 2732 4546 5857 SP-2017-2W 381 1282 2992 3304 6099 388 1269 2958 3309 6542 WPZ-18-01 396 931 2948 3229 10053 415 624 2995 3385 12763 SP-2017-14W 365 2141 1826 2673 2946 358 2086 1791 2656 3103 Sampling and QA/QC Brine sampling for packer tests involved collection of brine from the sample interval in a 20-litre container, which was flushed with fresh brine several times prior to collection of the sample. Brine was poured into 1-litre sample bottles which had been previously flushed with fresh brine from the 20-litre container several times. Sample bottles were filled to the top to eliminate the inclusion of air and sealed with a leak proof lid. Samples were labelled and labels covered in clear tape to prevent erasure of sample information. All samples remained in the possession of the site geologist until delivery to Alex Stewart Laboratory in Jujuy, Argentina. Brine sampling for the pump stress test involved collection of samples from a valve attached to the pump outlet. Brine was allowed to flush and then fresh brine was used to wash the sample bottle several times before collecting the sample. Sample bottles were 1-litre in size and were filled to the top to prevent entrance of air. The samples were sealed with a leak proof lid, labelled and the label covered by clear tape. Samples remained in the possession of the site until delivery to the assay laboratory. Brine sampling for the pumping tests used the same sample collection and handling procedures. Depending on the nature and duration of the test, samples were collected every 15 minutes (step tests) or on a 1 hour, 3 hour and 8 hour schedule (2 day and 7 day continuous pumping tests). RBRC samples were cut to length using a hack saw, bubble wrapped for protection and then placed in PVC tubes which were sealed with packaging tape. The samples were labelled and the labels wrapped in clear tape. Samples remained in the custody of the site geologist until shipped. Brine (20-litre) from each of the holes from which the samples were collected was also shipped to Daniel B. Stephens & Associates Inc. ("DBSA") as part of the sample test protocol. DBSA is independent of LSC. LSC has a well-developed QA/QC program. Brine assays are undertaken at Alex Stewart Argentina (ASA) S.A. in Jujuy, Argentina. ASA is independent of LSC and has significant experience in assaying lithium brines and is certified to ISO17025 standards. Brine assays are undertaken using ICP, gravimetric, potentiometric and volumetric methods as detailed in a press release from LSC dated April 10, 2017. ASA runs internal duplicates at a rate of 1 in 20. LSC inserts blanks and standards in sample batches at a rate of 1 in 20. Standards are internal standards developed by LSC that have been independently certified by round robin testing. LSC uses distilled water as blanks. Qualified Person/Data Verification The scientific and technical information included in this press release is based upon information prepared and approved by Donald H. Hains, P.Geo. Mr. Hains is a qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC. Mr. Hains has verified all sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information contained in this press release by on-site inspection during drilling, brine sampling, and selection of RBRC samples; review of drill core photographs to verify lithology; review of certified assay certificates against the assay data base; review of pump test data; and review of RBRC results received from DBSA. There are no drilling, sampling, recovery or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy and reliability of the data. A Technical Report prepared under the guidelines of NI 43-101 standards describing the Resource estimation will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of this release. ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION: LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its material projects: Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes Project, Rio Grande Project and Salinas Grandes Project. All LSC tenements are located in the Lithium Triangle, an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile where the worlds most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina. For further information please contact: LSC Lithium Corporation Ian Stalker, President & Chief Executive Officer 40 University Avenue, Suite 605 Toronto, ON Canada M5J 1T1 +416 306 8380 Email: info@lsclithium.com Web: lsclithium.com Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance, including statements as to the timing and completion of its PEA study for the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project, ability and likelihood of using combined resource of PPG in the PEA, timing of production and likelihood of producing in 2021, likelihood of meeting target production rate at PPG, ability and results of combining inventory from PPG, ability and timing of advancing LSCs properties through various stages of exploration and resource development, and any other matters relating to the exploration and development of Pozuelos and LSCs other properties. The use of any of the words could, anticipate, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Whether actual results and developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as risks related to: drill program results; title, permitting and regulatory risks; exploration and the establishment of any resources or reserves on LSC properties; volatility in lithium prices and the market for lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in LSCs share price; the requirement for significant additional funds for development that may not be available; 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 Argentina or elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the Company's properties. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. For more information, see the Company's filing statement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. 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 TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. _________________________ 1 See Technical Report titled Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report on the Salar de Pastos Grandes Project, Salta Province, Argentina with an effective date of October 28, 2018 filed on the Companys SEDAR profile. 2 See the Technical Report titled Mineral Resource Estimate & Technical Report on the Salar de Pozuelos Project, Salta Province, Argentina with an effective date of February 28, 2018 filed on the Companys SEDAR profile. 3 This Measured and Indicated figure is comprised of 1,678,000 tonnes LCE from Pozuelos with average grade of 505mg/l Li and 939,080 tonnes LCE from Pastos Grandes with average grade of 464mg/l Li. This Inferred figure is comprised of 631,000 tonnes LCE from Pozuelos with average grade of 518 mg/l Li and 307,500 tonnes from Pastos Grandes with average grade of 467mg/l Li. Numbers have been rounded and may not add. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Happy Planet, an all-natural food company, is partnering with Farafena to bring its African-grown and sustainable superfood Moringa to Canadians - in the form of its Extreme Green - Spirulina and Moringa smoothie. Moringa, a raw, gluten-free vegan whole food is a source of vitamin A, fiber, magnesium, and calcium. Now Canadians can enjoy all the health benefits of Moringa in Happy Planets most popular smoothie. Kyle Marancos, Director of Marketing, from Happy Planet says: We are proud to partner with Farafena, a purpose driven company that is improving the livelihoods of farmers and their communities. Moringa has been a great addition to our #1 selling smoothie Extreme Green, making it even more green and nutritious. Supporting family farms and uniting Canadians with the best ingredients on earth thats a Happy Planet. Farafena currently partners with over 850 African women farmers in nine villages, resulting in these women being able to start micro businesses, build homes for their families, and educate their children as well as improving the health and prosperity of rural villages. Farafenas Founder, Oumar Barou Togola, was born in Mali, West Africa. When talking about the partnership, Oumar said: Were proud to partner with Happy Planet to share healthy, sustainably farmed food with Canadians. My dream is for Farafena to set an example of how families like yours, can engage with and get to know families like mine, and our authentic African foods and culture. Partnering with Happy Planet supports this dream. Canadians can enjoy an Extreme Green smoothie at thousands of stores across Canada including - Metro, Sobeys, Safeway and Natural Food Stores like Goodness Me, Avril, Choices Markets and SPUD.ca. Farafenas product range includes Moringa, Fonio Grain, Fonio Flour and Baobab, which are now available at over 600 stores across Canada, including Whole Foods, Loblaws, Superstore, Save-on-Foods, Urban Fare, HY Louie IGA. For more information, please visit www.farafena.com. About Farafena Farafena which means Africa in Bambara, the national language of Mali, is an African-Canadian superfood company that works with women farmers in Africa to provide nutritious foods to sustainability-conscious consumers in Canada. Farafena promotes health and sustainability through its offerings of nutritious grains, flours and powders, as well as through an equitable exchange with local women farmers in Africa. For more information, visit: www.farafena.com. Learn more about Farafena here: https://vimeo.com/292400022 About Happy Planet http://happyplanet.com/ Get social: Twitter Instagram Facebook Odd-even number plate system during Asia Pacific Summit The government has decided to operate vehicles according to the odd and even number plate system during the Asia pacific Summit to be held in Kathmandu on November 30 to December 3. Tarrytown, NY, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- MJ Munchies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nightfood Holdings, Inc. (OTC: NGTF), has announced a Letter of Intent has been signed with a cannabis beverage and edibles company to license the Half-Baked brand in the state of Colorado. MJ Munchies, having registered the Half-Baked mark for federal trademark protection earlier this year, and having been granted trademark protection in the state of California, is now set to launch Half-Baked products in a second state. The final licensing agreement is expected to be completed in the coming weeks, and to include quarterly royalty payments from the Licensee, along with an option to expand the relationship into other states. There will also be the possibility for the Licensee to acquire the national rights to the Half-Baked brand if certain operational milestones are achieved within certain specified timeframes. The Licensee will have the rights to manufacture, market, and distribute products in Colorado under the Half-Baked brand in both beverages and edibles. The Agreement will require that a Half-Baked THC-infused beverage in a shot format be brought to market before March 31, 2019. Edibles and beverages are clearly the future of recreational cannabis consumption, commented MJ Munchies CEO Sean Folkson. With the launch of Half-Baked edibles in California next quarter, it was important to us not only to add a second geographic market, but to launch a Half-Baked beverage. For several reasons, we have agreed that a Half-Baked THC-shot, similar in format to a 5-Hour Energy shot, be the first product brought to market under this agreement. Management envisions a future where Half-Baked is a leading brand in the national edibles market, which is beginning to take shape. On November 19, 2018, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stated that he believed federal action on marijuana policy would happen at some point soon, and declaring it an inevitability. Against that backdrop, and with ten states currently having legalized recreational marijuana use, Management believes launching a mainstream national edibles brand in 2019 is optimal. Cannabis market research firm Brightfield Group has identified cannabis-infused edibles as the most rapidly evolving cannabis product category. Their research indicates that $2.3B will be spent on edibles in 2018, projected to hit $5.3B by 2022, with candies, drinks, and baked goods all projected to grow at a rate of between 14% and 16% compound annual growth rate. We were extremely fortunate to secure the best brand name in the space with Half-Baked, continued Folkson. Were going to nature it and grow it. And, when the country reaches its tipping point, we believe Half-Baked will be a tremendous acquisition target for the right multi-national looking for a competitive advantage in a booming US edibles market. About NightFood Holdings: NightFood Holdings, Inc. (OTC: NGTF), operates both NightFood, Inc. and MJ Munchies, Inc. NightFood, Inc, The Nighttime Snack Company, is a snack food company dedicated to providing consumers delicious, better-for-you, sleep-friendly choices for evening snacking. According to IRI Worldwide, 44% of snack consumption occurs at night, representing a consumer spend of over $1B weekly on nighttime snacks. The Company has developed a dynamic infographic at http://NightSnacking.com as a definitive consumer and media resource clearly illustrating the size and scope of the largely untapped nighttime snack category. Market research giant Mintel recently released a report identifying nighttime specific food and beverages as one of their most compelling and category changing trends for 2017 and beyond. Consumers most popular choices are cookies, chips, and ice cream. NightFood creates, manufactures, and distributes snacks formulated to help consumers satisfy nighttime cravings in a better, healthier, more sleep friendly way. MJ Munchies, Inc. was recently formed as a new, wholly owned subsidiary of Nightfood Holdings, Inc. to capitalize on legally compliant opportunities in the CBD and marijuana edibles and related spaces. The Company intends to market some of these new products under the brand name Half-Baked. Munchies is currently preparing a patent application with the USPTO for a proprietary ingredient to be used in Half-Baked snacks that Management believes will give it a unique and defensible competitive advantage against other recreational edible brands. The Company believes tremendous opportunities currently exist to launch successful and legally compliant products in this space, and that such opportunities will continue to grow over time. For more information, visit http://ir.nightfood.com and http://nightfood.com Questions can be directed to investors@nightfood.com Forward Looking Statements: This current press release contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future, including but not limited to, any products sold or cash flow from operations. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with distribution and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our most recent annual report for our last fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Pittsburgh, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cognition Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage neuroscience company focused on the protection and restoration of synaptic function in neurodegenerative disorders, today announced the addition of three renowned leaders in imaging and molecular biomarkers to the companys Medical Advisory Board. The global thought leaders, Kaj Blennow, M.D., Ph.D. and Henrik Zetterberg, M.D. of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and John Harrison, Ph.D. of the VU Medical Center (VUmc) Alzheimers Center in Amsterdam, add significant expertise in the research and development of biomarker tests and alternative endpoints to Cognitions efforts in the development of its lead experimental medicine, Elayta. The insights of these thought leaders into biomarkers of Alzheimers disease pathology and treatment will greatly benefit our clinical programs as we progress with the SNAP, SPARC and SHINE trials of Elayta, stated Cognition Therapeutics Chief Science Office Susan Catalano, Ph.D. Our earlier clinical study in Alzheimers disease patients provided initial evidence that patients treated with Elayta have a reduction in protein biomarkers of synaptic damage after only 28 days of treatment, and we expect to work with our new MAB members to expand on these findings in ongoing and future clinical trials of Elayta. Dr. Kaj Blennow is a professor of clinical neurochemistry and the head of the research team on neurochemical pathogenesis and diagnostics in the neuroscience and physiology department at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In addition, he is the head of the Clinical Neurochemistry Lab at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. His major areas of research interest include cerebrospinal fluid biochemical markers of the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimers disease and other brain disorders, including methodological aspects of cerebrospinal fluid analyses. Dr. Blennow is an M.D. with specialties in general psychiatry and clinical chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Gothenburg in 1990. In 2011, he was awarded the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award by the Alzheimers Association, and in 2016 the Soderberg Prize in Medicine for his research on Alzheimers disease. Dr. John Harrison currently serves as an associate professor with the Alzheimer Center at the VUmc in Amsterdam. He is also an honorary professor in the department of medicine at Imperial College London and a principal consultant at Metis Cognition Ltd, an applied psychology consulting practice that advises pharmaceutical companies on the integration of cognitive testing in clinical studies. Dr. Harrison has held several positions in industry, most recently as head of neuropsychology at CeNeS Pharmaceuticals. He holds Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow status with the British Psychological Society and Chartered Scientist status with the UK Science Council. He holds doctorate degrees in neuroscience and classical and ancient studies. Dr. Henrik Zetterberg is a professor of neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and at University College London, UK, as well as the head of the department of psychiatry and neurochemistry at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. With a background in molecular biology and medicine, Dr. Zetterberg has spent over a decade focusing on the development of biomarkers for Alzheimers disease and other brain disorders. His research involves evaluation of biomarkers in cell and animal models, as well as in longitudinal studies of patients and healthy individuals. He has published more than 900 scientific articles and has received the Erik K. Fernstrom prize for young scientists and the Inga Sandeborg prize for research on Alzheimers disease. In the face of the clear complexities of developing new medicines for Alzheimer's disease, biomarkers will be crucial components in the understanding of synaptic damage and the role it plays in disease progression, said President & CEO Kenneth I. Moch. We are honored that these distinguished thought leaders will provide additional guidance to Cognition and look forward to building on their keen insights to help us craft the optimal development and regulatory pathway for Elayta based on its novel mechanism of action and unique impact on synaptic function. About Cognition Therapeutics, Inc. Cognition Therapeutics is a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on the protection and restoration of synaptic function in neurocognitive disorders through a pipeline of disease-modifying small molecule drug candidates. Cognitions lead candidate, Elayta, is a proprietary first-in-class, orally available small molecule that has shown synaptorestorative potential and is in development for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimers disease. Dosing has commenced in three clinical studies of Elayta: SPARC (Synaptic Protection for Alzheimers Restoration of Cognition), SNAP (AO Displacement from Synapses on Neurons in Alzheimers Patients) and SHINE (Synaptic Health and Improvement of Neurological Function with Elayta). Elayta has been granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. FDA. Elayta and Cognitions other pipeline candidates were identified using the companys disease-relevant screening and novel chemistry platforms. Additional information about Cognition and its product candidates may be found online at http://www.cogrx.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the development and commercialization of Cognitions products, the potential benefits and attributes of such products, and Cognitions expectations regarding its prospects. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual future events or results to differ materially from such statements. These statements are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results may vary. Cognition undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auramex Resource Corp. (the Company or Auramex) (TSX.V: AUX) announces the launch of a new corporate website, www.auramex.com , and appoints Janice Davies as the Companys Corporate Secretary. Ms. Davies has been engaged in administration and corporate secretary services and systems development for public resource companies for more than twenty years. She is a graduate of Sir George Williams University Two Year Business Program in Montreal. Ms. Davies has specialized her career in the resource sector and is Corporate Secretary to numerous companies. The new website is designed to provide the investing public with up-to-date information on Auramex business activities and core assets. It features information on the Companys projects as well as quick and easy access to in-depth information regarding the Company, its management and board of directors, corporate presentations, news releases, financial reports and other relevant corporate information. Auramex is exploring a large and highly prospective property portfolio in the Stewart Camp, at the southern end of the Golden Triangle in British Columbia. Auramex has 200 square km of mineral rights, located on or near roads within 45 km of the deep-water port of Stewart. The Companys efforts are concentrated on the Stewart Camp in the southern part of the Golden Triangle where numerous past producing mines, developed prospects and showings demonstrate the rich precious and base metal endowment of the camp. Auramex is prioritizing four project areas, three of which are highly prospective for large-scale intrusion-related precious metal mineralization related to the presence of Texas Creek Plutonic Suite rocks: The Lower Bear Project, immediately north and east of Stewart, consisting of the Lower Bear property and the newly optioned Bay Silver property; The Bear Pass Project, centred on the Bear Pass corridor, northeast of Stewart and comprising the Capital, West George Copper Option, Confluence, Confluence Option, Champion, Lucky Frenchman, Lucky Frenchman East, Tory and Cornice Mountain properties and: The Georgie River (GR) Project, centred 18 km south of Stewart along the Portland Canal including the Georgie River, Georgia River Mine, Georgie Girl and Gamebreaker properties. The Tide North Project is in the Bowser River drainage, north of the past-producing East Gold mine and is prospective for Eskay Creek style volcanic exhalative precious and base metal mineralization. The Golden Triangle is beginning to be recognized as one of the most highly mineralized geological settings with excellent exploration potential for future discoveries. The Golden Triangle region has matured dramatically over the past few years, with two mines now in production, road access greatly improved, and a quantum leap in terms of geological understanding of the processes that created some of the largest, and highest-grade metal deposits on the planet. On behalf of the Board of Directors: Lawrence Roulston President & CEO For further information, contact: Nancy Curry VP Corporate Development info@auramex.com www.auramex.com . Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Lithuanian English On 27 November 2018 Lithuanias natural gas transmission system operator, AB Amber Grid (hereinafter referred to as the Company), concluded an agreement with the subsidiary company, UAB GET Baltic, company code 302861178, address Savanoriu av. 28, LT-03116, Vilnius, company data stored at the Register of Legal Entities of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement) of the transaction for the provision of a publishing service. The terms of the Agreement provide that AB Amber Grid will pay UAB GET Baltic 54.400,00 EUR without VAT within 3 (three) years. This transaction will not affect the Company's bottom line. UAB EPSO-G audit committee, acting as audit committee of the Company, issued and opinion whereby the transaction is in compliance with the market conditions and is fair and justified in respect of all of the shareholders of the Company. On 26 November 2018 Board of the Company approved conclusion of the Amendment with UAB GET Baltic. The individual authorised by AB Amber Grid (the issuer) to provide additional information on the material event: Dovile Jukneviciute Lawyer tel. +370 5 236 0314 fax +370 5 236 0850 e-mail: d.jukneviciute@ambergrid.lt English Lithuanian The unaudited consolidated results achieved by Snaige, AB in the third quarter demonstrate that the company has managed to control the disruptions caused by an increase in raw material prices. According to Gediminas Ceika, the CEO of Snaige, AB, the unaudited consolidated profit before tax earned in the third quarter is considerably higher than compared to the same period last year. Although the profit earned in the third quarter does not cover the loss suffered as a result of the rise in raw material prices in the first two quarters of this year, the positive dynamics show that the companys profitability is gradually recovering, said Mr Ceika. The companys EBITDA, according to the unaudited non-consolidated data, reached EUR 1.2 million in the first three quarters of this year, which is 3% higher than compared to the same period last year when the unaudited consolidated EBITDA was EUR 1.16 million. Snaige, AB reached significant agreements with financing banks in terms of changing credit return terms and amounts, as well as with controlling parties on the repayment of loans. With these agreements, the company secures investments in the development of new products or even new categories. The company has long been nurturing plans for its product portfolio to expand states Mr Ceika. These agreements with the banks and the controlling parties provide sizeable acceleration in implementation of the above plans. In the third quarter of this year, Snaige, AB increased its turnover. According to the unaudited non-consolidated data, it exceeded EUR 10 million, which was 12% higher than compared to the second quarter of this year. The company exported its products to over 30 countries in Europe and Asia. The largest share of the sales revenue came from Germany, France, Ukraine, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. The company introduced two refrigerator lines with new designs. These are the retro style refrigerators Snaige RETRO and modern refrigerators with larger spaces for storing fresh produce called Snaige FRESH INN. The new fridges have already reached the stores and their customers in some of the countries across Europe. The CEO Snaige, AB Gediminas Ceika +370 315 56206 Attachment Washington, D.C., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Netherlands will open its fifth consulate general in Atlanta on January 7, 2019, to strengthen the economic ties between the Southeastern US and the Netherlands. Mr. Ard van der Vorst will serve as the first Consul General in Atlanta. A seasoned diplomat, Van der Vorst was stationed in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. This will be his second official posting in the US after working in San Francisco. The new consulate will temporarily be located at 1175 Peach Street NE, 100 Colony Square, Suite 1208, Atlanta, GA 30361. The Netherlands Consulate in Atlanta will serve Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. The opening of this office was years in the making and was spurred by the 2014 visit of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to Atlanta to promote the strong economic relationship between the Netherlands and the Southeastern US. The Prime Minister announced the formal plans for the new diplomatic post when visiting President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on July 2. The new consulate will not provide consular services. Passport applications will continue to go through the Netherlands Consulate in Miami. We see great potential in the American Southeast, explained Netherlands Ambassador to the United States Henne Schuwer. Atlanta is a natural home for a new Dutch representation to further strengthen our partnership with the US. The Netherlands and Atlanta have much in common. We both are gateways to a vast hinterland, we both are incubators for innovation, and we are both leaders in logistics, cybersecurity and fintech. Atlanta and the Netherlands have enjoyed a strong economic relationship for years. Atlanta-based companies like Coca-Cola Enterprises and UPS have offices in the Netherlands. Dutch businesses like KLM and VanderLande Industries thrive in the Atlanta area. Through the centuries, the Netherlands and US economic partnership has created jobs, sound investments, and promising opportunities. The Netherlands is a fixture in the top five of the largest foreign investors in the United States, and maintains its place as the No. 1 destination for American investments. The US has a $30 billion trade surplus with the Netherlands, as it exports $59.3 billion to the Netherlands and imports $29 billion from the Netherlands. Top US exporters to the Netherlands include Texas, California, Louisiana, Illinois and Washington. Trade and investments between the Netherlands and the five states that fall under the Atlanta Consulate support an estimated 80,000 American jobs. Exports to the Netherlands are $3.7 billion. State US jobs supported by NL-US trade & investment Exports to the Netherlands Foreign Direct Investment Georgia 29,000 $1 billion $1.6 billion Tennessee 19,000 $1.25 billion $727 million North Carolina 16,000 $930 million $1.75 billion South Carolina 8,000 $302 million $908 million Alabama 7,700 $212 million $700 million The Atlanta consulate joins Dutch consulates in Chicago, New York, Miami, and San Francisco, as well as an embassy in Washington, D.C. Please follow the Netherlands Consulate in Atlanta on Twitter @NLinAtlanta starting January 7th. In the meanwhile, for more information about the relationship between the Netherlands and the United States, please visit www.NLintheUSA.com and follow us on Twitter @NLintheUSA. ### The Netherlands is a trading nation that continues to blossom from a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and that is rooted in the strong beliefs of security, freedom and justice. For more than 400 years, the Netherlands and the United States have shared a deep bond founded on shared values and history. Our economic ties have created jobs, sound investments, and promising opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic. Simply said, the Netherlands and the US have a partnership that works. The Netherlands diplomatic network in the US promotes strong bilateral relations between the United States and the Netherlands, especially in the areas of agrifood and horticulture, water management, sustainable urban planning, peace and justice, and creative industries. Attachment SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DesignCon , the nations largest event for chip, board and systems design engineers, today announced that Dr. Irfan Siddiqi, Dr. Robert W. Heath Jr. and Gloria Lau will keynote this years event. DesignCon takes place January 29 31, 2019, at the Santa Clara Convention Center. To register as press, please visit: designcon.tech.ubm.com/2019/registrations/Media . Siddiqi, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California Berkeley, will examine the current state-of-the-art in nascent quantum processors, as well as key challenges for future implementation of the technology. Heath, Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, will explore his work in automotive communications and how to solve the design and test challenges embedded in vehicle technology. Finally, Lau, Head of Hardware Engineering at Uber, will discuss the hyperscale datacenters that power the artificial intelligence (AI) to enable Ubers futuristic self-driving and flying cars. To complement and extend the AI keynote, DesignCon devoted a new conference track to exploring the developing space of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence for hardware and electronics design. Track 15, Machine Learning for Microelectronics, Signaling & System Design , consists of a boot camp class offering participants a hands-on opportunity to measure and train dynamic neural networks, a panel discussion, and eight technical sessions reviewing real world AI and ML deployment for hardware design, among other topics. We are fortunate to offer DesignCon attendees keynote presentations that meet the evolving needs of todays engineering community, said Suzanne Deffree, Brand Director, Intelligent Systems and Design, UBM. This year, Siddiqi, Heath and Lau headline a 15-track conference speaking to the fundamental trends impacting the industry, from 5G deployment to the emerging wave of AI-powered hardware innovations. Full details on this year's keynote presentations, which are open to all event attendees: Quantum Computing: Future Challenges for Testing & Commercial Implementation Presented by: Dr. Irfan Siddiqi, Professor, Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley In his keynote, Siddiqi will explore the practical implementations enabled by quantum theorys paradigm shifting approach to information processing including the potential to tackle classically intractable computations, realize ultra-secure communication and develop new classes of precision sensors. The presentation will take place in the Elizabeth A. Hangs Theater on Tuesday, January 29 from 12:00 p.m. 12:45 p.m. PST. 5G for Vehicle-to-X Communications Presented by: Dr. Robert W. Heath Jr., Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin The 5G of cellular communication networks offer functionality to support new applications like vehicle-to-anything (V2X) connectivity. In his keynote, Heath will review the requirements for V2X connectivity and how 5G may address them, with particular focus on the role millimeter wave communication may play in providing high bandwidths for connected vehicles. Heath will provide speculation about ways that sensors and communication can interact together in future networks. The presentation will take place in the Elizabeth A. Hangs Theater on Wednesday, January 30 from 12:00 p.m. 12:45 p.m. PST. Hyperscale Artificial Intelligence: A Glimpse at the Hardware Innovation Powering Uber's Self-driving & Flying Cars Presented by: Gloria Lau, Head of Hardware Engineering at Uber Lau will cover game changing solutions for AI hardware acceleration available for both the research and commercial space. This keynote will focus on the hyperscale datacenter hardware technology used for real world deep learning applications. Lau will discuss the many challenges faced at a hyperscale level, along with the hardware innovations developed to address these challenges. Her presentation will take place in the Elizabeth A. Hangs Theater on Thursday, January 31 from 12:00 p.m. 12:45 p.m. PST. DesignCon 2019 is also supported by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , offering its accreditation to conference attendees. Each conference hour is equivalent to one professional development hour (PDH), and 10 PDHs result in one continuing education unit (CEU) and an official IEEE certificate. IEEE accreditation can be used to meet training requirements, stand out to future employers, and maintain an engineering license. DesignCon Social Media (#DesignCon) English French TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunwing is making it even easier for residents of Southwestern Ontario to Vacation Better this winter with the addition of new flight services from Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan for the first time ever. Starting January 20, 2019 until April 22, 2019 inclusive, travellers can book select vacation packages to Punta Cana and Montego Bay with weekly direct flights from Detroit. Flights to Punta Cana will operate on Sundays, while flights to Montego Bay will operate twice-weekly on Mondays and Fridays. President of Tour Operations for Sunwing Travel Group, Andrew Dawson, commented on the news, We are excited to be offering Canadians more convenient ways to travel south this winter with the addition of the new departure airport in Detroit, Michigan. This route is a great addition to the current weekly flight service out of London and Windsor and offers travellers in Southwestern Ontario a wider selection of vacation options. Travellers can choose from a number of vacation packages, all in Canadian dollars, from Detroit to resorts in Punta Cana , including the family-friendly Royalton Bavaro Resort and Spa . Located on the sparkling white sands of Bavaro Beach, the resort has something to offer vacationers of all ages including an on-site splash pad, lazy river and a FlowRider surf simulator. In Montego Bay , travellers can choose from a number of beachfront resorts on Jamaicas famous white-sand beaches. The recently-renovated Sensatori Azul Beach Resort Jamaica is located on the sparkling shores of legendary Seven Mile Beach in Negril and is ideal for both family-friendly vacations and romantic getaways. Vacationers can stay in modern rooms and enjoy a range of dining options with Karismas Gourmet Inclusive experience. Jewel Paradise Cove Beach Resort and Spa is another beautiful resort in Runaway Bay thats home to a stunning state-of-the-art spa, fitness facilities including yoga classes and diverse dining options. All Sunwing packages from Detroit include return airfare on Sunwing Airlines aircraft, airport transfers and the services of a Sunwing representative. On board, travellers can look forward to a complimentary non-alcoholic drinks service, a complimentary snack and a selection of buy on board meals, snacks and alcoholic beverages (all prices in USD)*. Ten adults travelling together can receive special prices, added values and reduced deposits. For more information on group vacations click here . To book your next all inclusive vacation visit www.sunwing.ca or contact your travel agent. * Advanced seat selection and Elite Plus are not available on these flights and a checked baggage fee of $50 CAD roundtrip per bag will apply. About Sunwing The largest integrated travel company in North America, Sunwing has more flights to the south than any other leisure carrier with convenient direct service from over 33 airports across Canada to over 45 popular sun destinations. This scale enables Sunwing to negotiate the best deals and exclusive offers at all of the top-rated resorts across the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. Renowned for its award-winning service*, Sunwing is consistently voted the top leisure airline by travel agents and is the perennial winner of the Consumer Choice Award. Customers departing from US gateways can look forward to starting their vacation off in style with inflight service offering tea, coffee and non-alcoholic beverage service; together with a buy on board menu of light meals and snacks (including kids choices). Sunwing customers also benefit from the assistance of the companys own knowledgeable destination representatives, who greet them upon arrival and support them throughout their vacation journey. * Service may be unavailable on select flights For all media enquiries, please contact: Rachel Goldrick Senior Corporate Communications Manager Sunwing Vacations 1-800-387-5602 | media@sunwing.ca https://www.facebook.com/SunwingVacations https://twitter.com/SunwingVacay https://www.instagram.com/sunwingvacations https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzjZ-lcuaqBQH7Sq0u3ru7A A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e265cc77-0d33-4857-848e-69a0c5fad90d Hello ,Please take some time to evaluate my profile,-Asian or Pacific Islander Male (U.S. citizen)-4.0 Major GPA at a SEC school (double major in digital marketing and entrepreneurship)/ a perfect senior thesis and capstone project/ 2.85 cumulative GPA (switched major as a junior, increased from lower 2s to 2.85 without retaking classes)Some of you might know that, Asian parents want their male children to grow poor so they can develop a hard-working mentality, but I never wanted to be poor at school, and I worked 50 hours per week at Domino's to finance my sport car and lifestyle, which messed up the grade a lot (I feel SO regretful until this very moment). Due to poor grades, I got into an elevated academic probation from my major department. I later switched from Financial Engineering to digital marketing as a junior to focus on my new passion of advertising, but more importantly, to strategically get registration clearance from the the university itself rather than my major department, and yeah, my plan got terribly wrong... my previous department's retention committee noticed my major change, they went so far and called the business school to expel me as a student, although my mid-semester grades are in A ranges. They later forced me to switch major to liberal studies (virtually means nothing, everyone knows it), or permanently expel me as a student because they viewed my major change as a serious disciplinary issue rather than a change of better career path. I knew that, with a low GPA in liberal studies major, my future career could be over before even starting. Then, for the first time of my college career, I opened up to my parents about my academic and personal struggles, and they thought a lawsuit against my major department was the only option to save me from these messes. I took a full year gap and formed a team of legal experts, detectives and psychological professionals that we considered as a dream team in my state, and I eventually gathered enough evidence to sue my major department for some very serious charges, ended up settling with my university out of court for a huge settlement (I guess they really messed up at this time, big time... and the result was an instant millionaire), because they didn't want me to release detailed evidence to news outlets- I have 4 years of relevant working and internship experience in business management and digital marketing field, all after the academic probation (One summer at a local advertising company under brand management department, one summer at Accenture as a digital marketing intern, and last summer, before graduating, I did an intelligence analysis internship at the Fed with the help of a customer. In addition, I also co-found a relatively successful chain of barbecue restaurants and three automobile dealerships using my settlement money)-My GRE score is slightly above 320 after three tries (near perfect quant score in all three tries), but only 660 in GMAT after two tries (low verbal score)-relevant skills: indesign, photoshop, sql, tableau, google analytics, microsoft office-values: very detail orientated, strong teamwork ability, strong desire of making positive changes, strong analytical, critical and strategical thinking skills.-tons of extracurricular activities and volunteering experiences (red cross, local churches and police station)-I wish to apply for a school that has strong marketing or advertising focus, and hopefully I can translate these skills into my brand's growth and success in the future.List of schools:-Darden-Ross-NYU-Carroll-USC-Minnesota-Uconn-Iowa-PurdueI know the full-time program at any school can be an uphill battle for me due to my low GPA and 8 W's on my transcript, so I will probably only consider part time and online programs at these schools. I also intentionally dodged all SEC schools, since they may blackball me altogether due to the lawsuit I had with my UG school.What is my chance of getting into these schools? I am really appreciated for your help! Darmody wrote: In the 1870s, small groups of immigrants, many from Eastern Europe, formed the earliest anarchist parties in the United States, but most Americans became concerned about the movement only after when the bloody Haymarket Riot occurred in 1886. A) became concerned about the movement only after when the bloody Haymarket Riot occurred in 1886 B) became concerned about the movement only after 1886, when the bloody Haymarket Riot occurred C) became concerned about the movement only after the occurrence of the bloody Haymarket Riot in 1886 D) developed concerns about the movement only after the time of the bloody Haymarket Riot in 1886 E) developed concern about the movement only after there being the bloody Haymarket Riot in 1886 This sentence says that movement occurred after 1886 and this is the time when some riots occurred. If we notice, more importance is given to the 'time' here and not to the 'riots' C depicts the meaning that we are looking for. It says that Americans became concerned after the riots, which happened to occur in 1886. I welcome critical analysis of my post!! That will help me reach 700+ Signature Read More The meaning of the sentence is that Americans became concerned about some movements after some riots, and there were riots happened to in 1886.Out of B and C. C is the right option for below reasons:-B) became concerned about the movement only after 1886, when the bloody Haymarket Riot occurred.C) became concerned about the movement only after the occurrence of the bloody Haymarket Riot in 1886._________________ Padlock at Tri Chandra College against fee hike Students of Tri Chandra College in Kathmandu on Tuesday padlocked various offices inside the college demanding withdrawal of fee hike. Pants fight for justice enters fourth month Life for the Pant family is only getting tougher with each passing day. The Pant familys fight for justice for their daughter Nirmalas unsolved rape-and-murder case stepped into its fourth month on Monday, and yet, the family sees no light at the end of the tunnel. 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 Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani spoke as officials were still failing to resolve the problems that led to a weeks-long strike at a major sugar factory in western Iran and nationwide protests over rising living costs. However, he threatened workers over allowing their protests to be hijacked by the enemy, who are causing disorder in the country; a likely reference to Iranian Resistance group the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) who are helping to organise the protests. According to the judiciarys news agency Mizan Online, Larijani said: Workers should not allow their demands to become an excuse and an instrument for the enemy and creation of disorder in the country. He then said that the Regime must immediately address the problems of workers who are struggling to make ends meet, but dismissed the workers peaceful protest as contrary to public order. He said: The demands of dear workers must be met in a rational atmosphere with the involvement of the government and the judiciary branch. [But] demands will never be met by turmoil, crisis and actions contrary to public order. The strike On Monday, this round of a strike by workers at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in Shush, a city in Khuzestan province, entered its 22nd day. The workers are protesting the late payment of their salaries, the arrest of their fellow strikers on November 18, and alleged criminal activity by managers, which has occurred since the factory was privatized in 2016. The business employs around 4,000 people, but about 2,700 of them have been subject to some sort of salary arrears. On Monday, the Regimes ILNA news agency reported that workers had confirmed that had finally been paid their salaries for the period August 23 to 22 September and that three-quarters of the workers arrested on November 18 have subsequently been released. In 2018, Iran has been hit by constant strikes and protests across all sectors including education, mines, transport and the steel industry, mainly outside of the capital, which shows that these growing protests are more likely coming from the Regimes base. The fact that the Regime is trying to intimidate workers shows that they are terrified of the power of the people, especially when they are led by the Iranian Resistance. Reuters reported on Monday that the state-owned Qatari Airways was planning to expand its service to Iran, despite the fact that wide-ranging US sanctions on the Islamic Republic went back into force during the first week of November. The move is arguably a gesture of defiance aimed not only at the Trump White House but also at regional powers that have longstanding status as allies of the US and adversaries of the Iranian regime. In June 2017, Qatar came under pressure from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after they accused the small Middle Easter country of supporting terrorism and trying to counteract a policy of isolating Tehran. Egypt and Bahrain joined the Saudis and the UAE in severing economic and political ties, but Qatar has seemingly grown closer to Iran since then. Meanwhile, dissent against economic sanctions has also continued to emanate from sources that are both geographically and politically closer to the US. The Associated Press reported on Monday that the European Union and Iran were still mutually affirming their support for the international nuclear deal from which the US withdrew in May. This sentiment was expressed, for instance, by EU Energy Commissioner Arias Canete in advance of a meeting held in Brussels to discuss civil nuclear cooperation between the EU and the Islamic Republic. The EU generally maintains that the 2015 agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is serving its purpose effectively, but US President Donald Trump and other harsh critics of the Iranian regime believe that Tehran still aspires to obtain nuclear weapons, and so they demand greater restrictions on relevant Iranian activities. But the American withdrawal also established broader expectations regarding Tehrans overall foreign policy and its influence on regional conflicts. The Iranian leadership has so far rejected any notion of renegotiation of the JCPOA, as well as negotiations involving anything other than the regimes nuclear program. This defiant position was reiterated over the weekend, as Tehran hosted the latest Islamic Unity Conference, at which its highest ranking officials joined in condemning US pressure and encouraging coordinated opposition to American policies and interests. In keeping with the theocratic regimes self-identity as a standard-bearer for political Islam and an opponent of Western worldviews, the conference also provided an outlet for more general anti-Western propaganda as well as commentary targeting the state of Israel, which Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described as a cancerous tumor despite his reputation as a supposedly more moderate figure within the clerical establishment. That reputation has previously been undermined by his administrations failure to counteract an escalating crackdown on domestic dissent or to follow through on progressive campaign promises such as securing release for the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement protests. Furthermore, Rouhani and his cabinet ministers have certainly contributed to anti-Western rhetoric, including declarations of military readiness and threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, especially in the wake of the US exit from the nuclear agreement. Rouhanis moderate credentials were further called into question by his place of promise in the Islamic Unity Conference, which explicitly frames regional issues in terms of conflict between a US-led foreign alliance and the Muslim world in its entirety, without acknowledgment for internal political differences. In other words, the conference showcased political alignment between Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who is the head of the hardline faction of Iranian politics as well as being the ultimate authority in all major affairs of state. Fox News indicated that Rouhanis televised speech at Saturdays conference was distinctly reminiscent of earlier commentary from the supreme leaders office. And Reuters noted that that commentary was reiterated on Khameneis official website, which declared that world powers headed by America are fixated on Tehran and the Middle East because they fear an Islamic awakening. The statement went on to say that the US and its regional allies will be defeated in areas like Yemen, where they are competing with Iran for influence. Tehran blames a Saudi-led bombing campaign for the devastation that the Yemeni people have experienced during the three year civil war, while the Saudis blame the Iran-backed uprising by Shiite militants known as the Houthi. Last week, the White House endorsed the latter talking point in a statement that highlighted the threat of Iranian influence and Iran-backed terrorism as a major reason for maintaining close ties with the government of Saudi Arabia. Such statements evidently showcase the American commitment to a policy of maximum pressure, which includes economic strategies that aim to bring Irans global oil exports as close to zero as possible. For the time being, the US Treasury is granting limited exemptions from sanctions to countries that are dependent upon Iranian oil. But these exemptions are conditional upon major reductions in those exports, and the sanctions are expected to tighten as partners of the US moved toward other energy sources. The forthcoming escalation will presumably challenge Iranian defiance, as well as the efforts by the European Union, Qatar, and others to support the Iranian position with respect to the future of the JCPOA. But in the meantime, the threat of that escalation may be indirectly encouraging more defiance, as Iran makes appeals for help to all existing and prospective partners. In some cases, as in nuclear talks with the EU, these appeals take the form of promoting economic cooperation. But in other cases, as with Qatar and the Islamic Unity Conference, they constitute a commitment to antagonizing mutual adversaries, either within the Middle East region or around the globe. The European initiative (sometimes called the special purpose vehicle or SPV) aims to facilitate financial transactions between Europe and Iran in Euros rather than the US in the hopes that this will allow trade to continue so that Iran could still reap all the benefits from the nuclear deal, despite US sanctions. The main problem is that this agreement would still violate US sanctions, according to experts. Another major problem is that, given a wave of foiled, Iran-orchestrated terror plots on European soil, including in Albania, France, and Denmark, relations between EU member states and the Iranian Regime have become tense, to say the least. This has also led to no European company being willing to host the SPVs headquarters. Not to mention that, even if those countries did come on board, the EU still couldnt present this to the US as one of the USs demands was that Iran stops supporting terrorist entities. But Iran cant stop. The Iranian Regime needs to try to annihilate its opposition in exile, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK), in order to make the group seem insignificant to the Iranian people, who are taking part in nationwide MEK-led protests. The SPV The SPV was introduced by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini a few months ago, but the idea of it wasnt enough to stop European companies pulling out of Iran en-masse. Now its facing many obstacles as experts try to understand how the SPV will allow Europeans to purchase Irans oil and gas without being subjected to US secondary sanctions. Even those media outlets prompting a return to the nuclear deal and appeasement of the Iranian Regime are sceptical of how this will work, indicating that the SPV is nowhere near functional. The New York Times wrote: Officials have said they are watching such engineering attempts closely, although few economists and officials in Europe believe such efforts will offer Tehran much in the way of sanctuary from American penalties immediately. Businesses are even more sceptical, which is likely why so many have already pulled out. The SPV does not protect against US sanctions as it cannot replace the SWIFT global messaging system and therefore still leaves companies reliant on the US financial system. Alex Beard, chief executive for oil and gas at Glencore, said: The European payment mechanism doesnt shield you if you use the US financial system you can pay but dont expect to be on their Christmas card list. To make matters even tenser, the Iranian Regimes Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his deputy Abbas Araqchi have complained that the nuclear deal no longer offers Iran any benefits, which indicates that they might well pull out. Especially as the SPV does not even have a timetable for its launch yet and no one knows how it will actually work. Right activists stage sit-in demanding justice for Nirmala Right activists in Nepalgunj have staged a sit-in in front of District Administration Office (DAO) in Banke district demanding justice for Nirmala Pant who was murdered after rape in Kanchanpur district in July. Social media marketing shines in Nepal market Social media marketing has become an effective way to promote products and services on a small budget with high impact, thanks to a rapidly growing number of social media users in Nepal. The digital marketing business has been expanding at a healthy rate as many people are using digital devices to buy things instead of visiting shops. - For President Rodrigo Duterte, Catholic members should not go to church - He accused some of the priests and bishops for being corrupt - The netizens shared their opinions regarding the issue PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed It has been recently reported by that President Rodrigo Duterte shared during a speech that Catholics should build their own chapel at home instead of going to the Church and pay for the priests or bishops. KAMI learned that the remark of the President had made rounds online. You build a chapel on your own house and pray there. You don't have to go to the church to pay for these idiots, President Duterte said as he accused some bishops of being corrupt. The President also made it clear that he believes in his own God. Sabi ko: 'I do not believe in your stupid God.' I have my own god, in my estimation. Hindi 'yan nangongolekta nang pera, the President stated. PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! The netizens shared their take on the remarks made by the President. Here are some of their comments from the Facebook page of GMA News: I am Catholic and I will never ever switch Religion. But it's about time someone tell this priest/bishops stop using our church for your personal profit. Im a catholic but I have doubts on the culture. Btw, ano nga pala laman ng bible? You cannot find God on church alone. God is everywhere! I'm a Catholic but this is actually true, most of the priests today (not all) have more sins than normal people. Reminds me of what our National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal did hundreds of years ago. Remember the Noli and Fili?!! Sino mga kontrabida dun? Wala bang masasabi si PRRD tungkol kay Quiboloy na may-ari raw ng Earth at nakapaglakbay na sa Solar System? The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country. However, it did not hinder the President to condemn some priests and bishops for allegedly being hypocrite. The President had also made a remark about God is stupid. POPULAR: Read more news about President Duterte! Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Let's Play: Pera or Bayong? | We are again catching Filipinos and suggesting them to choose: they can either take money or the unknown present (native bag). What would you choose without knowing what's inside the bag? on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: Kami.com.ph - The Bureau of Immigration finally released a decision against Mader Sitang - This is after Wilbert Tolentino submitted a complaint-affidavit to the agency - The Immigration categorized Mader Sitang as undesirable alien PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Another controversy is glued to the name of Thai Internet sensation Mader Sitang as she was declared undesirable alien by the Bureau of Immigration. KAMI learned that Commissioner Jaime H. Morente was one of the people who agreed and signed the papers that have the aforementioned remark in it. Because of the order, Mader Sitang is already blacklisted in the agency and will not be allowed to visit the Philippines again. According to Wilbert Tolentino, the former manager of the Internet sensation, the declaration by Immigration bureau was a testament that justice is rightly served. He also showed gratitude because his grievances or complaints against Mader Sitang were considered credible and legit by the agency. Maraming salamat sa pagbibigay ng karampatang aksyon laban kay Mader Sitang. We are thankful at nakita ng Bureau of Immigration na credible ang aking reklamo the former manager quipped. We value this official pronouncement of the Bureau of Immigration for it stands for the legitimacy of our grievances. I am thanking my legal advisers for their tremendous support & The Philippine Embassy of Thailand who assisted us well. We see this as justice rightly served... he added. PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! It can be remembered that in a previous article by , Wilbert bravely made a surprising confession about the true attitude and personality of Mader Sitang. He revealed that the Internet sensation is just after fame and money because of an incident that happened to them when he met her in Thailand. The Mr. Gay World-Philippines 2009 alleged that Mader Sitang left him at the airport upon knowing that he had no money. Here is the video of Wilberts confession: Mader Sitang is a 59-year-old transgender from Thailand who is currently an endorser of a top product in her country. She rose to fame after posting several videos on social media that showed her signature dance along with other half-naked men. Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Today we are going to ask Philippines strangers some very funny Tagalog tricky questions! Do you think you can answer them correctly? These individuals from the Philippines have their answers! Saan Aabot Ang Bente Pesos Mo? This question might sound easy, but in reality, they are pretty tricky and it is easy to make a mistake! on HumanMeter! Source: Kami.com.ph You cannot lack good words to describe Dr Fe Del Mundo. The woman of many firsts as some refer to her was just extraordinary in any aspect imaginable. It is, for this reason that many years down the line, she is still very fresh in our hearts and minds. Today would have been Fe Del Mundos 107th birthday and she has been honoured by Google Doodle for her achievements in the field of paediatrics in the Philippines. So Who is Fe Mundo? What was the invention of Fe Del Mundo? Who invented the incubator Filipino? Read on to find out about the amazing life of Fe Del Mundo. Photo of Dr. Fe del Mundo, a well-known a Filipino pediatrician. SOURCE: wikipedia.org Source: UGC Best known for defiling all odds and her love for children. She is one of those people we can say have truly lived. Pure of heart and full of confidence, she is one person who people will read and hear about for years to come Fe Del Mundo family Dr Fe Del Mundo was born into a family of eight. She was the sixth born in this large family according to todays standards but back then, eight was a small number. Fe Del Mundo was born on November 27th the year 1911. Unfortunately, three of her siblings did not survive infancy. To add salt to the injury, while she was still young, her elder sister, who was then eleven years old, succumbed to appendicitis. Her sisters death is what inspired her to be a doctor and not just a doctor but a paediatrician. This is because her sister had made it known to her and other people that she wanted to be a doctor. When the sister died at a young age, she could not be a doctor and hence Del Mundo took the mantle and continued in that path. SOURCE: google.com.ph Source: UGC Who was the first woman to attend Harvard Medical School? The first woman to attend Harvard Medical school was indeed Fe Del Mundo. As I had said earlier, she is definitely the woman of many firsts. She joined Harvard Medical school in the year 1936, that was still when Harvard was a mens only institution. It was until 1945 when women were accepted into Harvard. So that answers the question: When did Harvard allow female students? But her medical journey did not start there. Del Mundo was the first woman allowed to study at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts SOURCE: wikipedia.org Source: UGC Fe Del Mundo education Del Mundos medical career started after she joined the medical school of the University of the Philippines. She joined the school in 1926. She earned her medical degree in 1933. She graduated as a valedictorian. She was then awarded an unexpected scholarship offer under President Manuel Quezon and was accepted to Harvard University Medical school for postgraduate work. She was accepted into Harvard without the officials knowing they had enrolled a female student. She had previously said she remembered the day she went to the dormitory which she was assigned only to find out it was full of men. This is how she became the first woman to attend the male-dominated Harvard School. Due to her remarkable records, the head of the paediatrician department saw no reason not to accept her. She stayed in Harvard until 1938 where she completed three paediatric courses. She then took up a residency at the Billings Hospital of the University of Chicago, before returning to Massachusetts in 1939 for a two-year research fellowship at the Harvard Medical School Children's Hospital. She also enrolled at the Boston University School of Medicine, earning a Master's degree in Bacteriology in 1940. Fe Del Mundo hospital In 1941, Fe Del Mundo Tagalog returned to Manilla. This was just before the Japanese invaded their country. She joined the International Red Cross and volunteered to care for child-internees then detained at the University of Santo Tomas internment camp for foreign nationals. She set up a makeshift hospice within the internment camp, and her activities led her to be known as "The Angel of Santo Tomas". This was during World War II. In 1942, she persuaded the Japanese to let her start a childrens home where she and her fellows could take care of a lot of kids. She later became the director of a government hospital shortly after the Japanese left. She was, however, soon frustrated with the bureaucracy and all the processes of the government hospital. She sold her own personal home and most of her property. The question that now comes to mind is, why did she do this? Why did she sell her personal home and most of her property? Together with the loan she had gotten from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), she had done this so that she could get money to finance her own hospital. Yes, you heard it right, this is how much love she had for children. Fe Del Mundo always believed that she could do so much with the education she had gotten abroad and indeed, she was doing a lot. After selling her home, Del Mundo chose to live on the second floor of her Children's Medical Center. This was a 100-bed hospital inaugurated in Quezon City in 1957. This hospital is now known as the Fe Del Mundo Medical Centre. It was the first Paediatric hospital in the Philippines. In the year 1958, this is one year after the opening of her hospital, she transferred the ownership of her hospital to the hospital's trustees. The hospital was expanded in 1966 through the establishment of an Institute of Maternal and Child Health, the first institution of its kind in Asia. For the much love she had for the children, Fe Del Mundo spent the rest of her life caring for the children. Even when she was very old, somewhere in her 90s and even couldnt walk, Fe Del Mundo would still make rounds in her wheelchair. She was very passionate about children. Fe Del Mundo passed away in the year 2011. She died in the month of August. She was ninety-nine years old when she died. She was only a few months shy of her one-hundredth birthday when she died. She suffered a cardiac arrest that resulted in her passing away. Fe Del Mundo quotes Dr Fe Del Mundo has many quotes but she will always be remembered by many for her famous quote on the much love she had for children. She was quoted saying I'm glad that I have been very much involved in the care of children, and that I have been relevant to them." She said this in the year 2007. Dr Fe Del Mundo is also remembered for saying, Im glad I never got married, I believe that Ive been able to do what Ive longed to do because of this." She was truly married to the job. When Fe Del Mundo died, many people had different things and quotes to say about her. They include: Dr Yolanda Oliveros, the former director of the Department of Healths (DOH) National Center for Disease Prevention and Control said, She is a big loss to the Philippines. We consider her as the Mother of Philippine Pediatrics and a very great scientist," Oliveros said. "In fact, if Im not mistaken, she is the one who invented the incubator for Philippine setting," she noted. The paediatrician's nephew and former DOH Undersecretary Dr Jade Del Mundo remembered her as a "caring and loving auntie." She was a very caring and loving auntie," he said. "When we were confined in a hospital for dengue, she personally attended to us." Who invented the Filipino incubator? Doctor Fe Del Mundo is credited with studies that led to the invention of an improved incubator and a jaundice relieving device. She had dedicated her life to the cause of paediatrics in the Philippines. Fe Del Mundo field of natural science and the field of public health was something she was actively involved in. When Fe Del Mundo was not busy treating and taking care of children, she did some pioneering work on infectious diseases in Philippine communities and authored the Textbook of Pediatrics, as well as hundreds of articles and medical reports on diseases such as dengue, polio and measles. Fe Del Mundos achievements President Ferdinand Marcos named Fe Del Mundo as the National Scientist of the Philippines. She was the first woman to be named so. This adds to her list of firsts. In 1966, she was handed the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for Outstanding Service to Mankind. In 1977, she was cited as an Outstanding Pediatrician and Humanitarian by the International Pediatric Association. Still, in the same year, Del Mundo was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. She received the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Award of the AY Foundation in 2008. On April 22, 2010, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo awarded Del Mundo the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Bayani at the Malacanan Palace. Posthumously, she was conferred the Grand Collar of the Order of the Golden Heart Award in 2011, by President Benigno Aquino III. On November 27, 2018, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate Del Mundo's 107th birthday That is all we had about the amazing life of Fe Del Mundo. Truly a life well lived. Source: Kami.com.ph Tika R Pradhan is a senior political correspondent for the Post, covering politics, parliament, judiciary and social affairs. Pradhan joined the Post in 2016 after working at The Himalayan Times for more than a decade. Man Charged with Fatally Shooting Boss at Alhambra Newspaper An employee at a Chinese-language newspaper in Alhambra has been charged with fatally shooting his boss, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced today. Zhong Qi Chen (dob 4/26/59) of El Monte faces one count of murder with allegations that he personally used a handgun and caused great bodily injury and death, according to the criminal complaint in case GA104674. Chen pleaded not guilty today and is scheduled to return on Dec. 18 in Department 5 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Alhambra Branch. The case was filed for arrest warrant on Nov. 20. ADVERTISEMENT On Nov. 16, Chen is accused of entering the offices of China Press and shooting his boss because of a dispute. The victim, Yining Xie, 58, died at the scene. Chen faces a possible maximum sentence of 50 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged. Bail has been set at $6 million. Deputy District Attorney Presciliano Duran is prosecuting the case. The case remains under investigation by the Alhambra Police Department. Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Guest blogger: Pilar Calderon, law student, University of San Francisco On an eternal stretch of road before and behind, poor Central American migrants are greeted like pilgrims as they pass small villages and pueblos that sprinkle Mexicos dusted trails. Women and children come out to greet the line of hungry, sun-backed, and tired people, handing them bottles of water, offerings of bread or tortilla, or perhaps a simple pair of socks. The humble contributors emerge from dilapidated structures, adding to a sense that their acts of charity are not spun from sympathy or empathy, but recognition. Recognition that any one of them could fall on hard times. Rural and indigenous people throughout South and Central America may not share a form of dress, dance, or custom, but they each share the scars of surviving all the changes the New World has endured. Pueblo Sin Frontiers (Country without Borders) is an American tax-exempt organization that has been in operation for almost fifteen years. Their mission has always been to guide, assist, and document the pilgrimages of migrants as they move in search of better resources. Though the recent 2018 caravan was dominantly Honduran, the nonprofit had reported that about twenty percent of people walking are from El Salvador, with a few migrants joining the march in Mexico. Pueblo Sin Frontiers charges itself with choosing the best routes that will keep the vulnerable pilgrims safe from the domestic violence that consumes the nation. Whats more, this group of volunteers oversees 300 minor children, ranging in age from one month to eleven years old. The caravan is made of mothers, young men, and about four hundred women who identify themselves as LGBT. The mind reels to imagine what life must have been like, that someone would pack a lifetimes worth of belongings in a bag and, step by step, march toward something different. The first group that made international headlines this summer was composed of some four thousand men, women, and children, who crossed the border from Guatemala into Mexico on the morning of October 19, 2018. One of the largest caravans in Pueblo Sin Frontiers record, was composed of able-bodied men, elderly women, young children, couples, grandparents, mechanics, musicians, cobblers, and dancers. Economic stagnation and severe unemployment in Honduras is the reason given when media reporters attempt to understand why a family would choose to join the caravan. Never-ending financial crisis, the rise of organized crime, and extortion of local businesses is understood to be at the crux of the mass exodus. The Eleconomista.net, a Honduran news outlet, reported that between 2012 and 2013 some 18,000 businesses closed because of pressure from gang members (Silvio Larios, Extortion in Honduras, en.centralamericandata.com). A typical scenario may begin with a phone call from a cartel demanding collaboration money. Should the business resist, an initial demand of $25 could quickly rise to $250 and the small-business owner is forced to choose between materially contributing to a terrorist organization (an enumerated ground for inadmissibility into the U.S.) or close its doors. The impact of these collaboration demands has decimated the local trading posts and lifeblood of small rural communities. The organized crime has even destroyed larger corporate ecosystems. In one statement, a national construction company was unable to meet cartel demands and was forced to close its doors, lay off its employees, and was helpless to rebuild the city. In Honduras, since 2012, owners who are unable or unwilling to pay collaboration tax to non-federated criminal rings, are being forced to abandon their livelihood in search of more reliable means of survival. Unsatisfied, I dove deeper into Honduran history of organize crime. What I found was a series of roads completed in 2013 that connected Mexico to Honduras by means of a superhighway. The roads, one might suspect, were not only used to move Honduran exports of coffee and bananas to Mexico for market, but also to give access to the weak country that was easily overwhelmed with the superior weaponry, sophistication, and size of the Mexican and Columbian drug rings (PPP Knowledge Lab; Total PPP Projects; https://pppknowledgelab.org/countries/honduras). Plan Pueblo Panama (PPP) was a development project initiated by President Vicente Fox after the United States, Canada, and Mexico entered into the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement, which delivered exacting agreements regarding trade among the three statesmade for easier movement of goods between the borders of the three North American states, made Mexico poised to become the gateway where all South and Central American goods might travel to Mexico for sale in the American marketplace. After severe rioting in 1994, when the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) took the capital city of San Cristobal de las Casas in protest of the signing of NAFTA, activists and watchdogs kept a close watch on the proposed roadways, electrical grids, and sewage lines, President Vicente Fox had planned to cross over the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, the sacred and secluded land of the Tzotzil and Yucatec people living in the high plans of Chiapas. Realizing that poor publicity would hurt negotiations with the other eight Central American countries and the World Bank, President Fox had ordered that no public announcements concerning the construction of the superhighway would be made. As such, many watchdog and activist groups assumed, after so many years of apparent inactivity, that the project must have failed. Not until 2012, in a regional summit, did President Fox announce that they had completed the first phase of PPP and was preparing to apply the remaining investment funds to complete the project. Honduras has long been one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Today, it is also among the most violent and crime-ridden of places. The violence carried out on their streets is usually led by gangs, crime rings, security forces, and trafficking groups based in Mexico and Colombia. The completion of the road infrastructures orchestrated through PPP coincides with the records local journalists were keeping with regard to the astonishing rate of coercion and ultimately a collapse in the countrys domestic marketplace. Curiously, no current data has been published by The Eleconomista.net. Perhaps this business, too, was unable to remain in the area. bh https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2018/11/race-is-politics-plan-pueblo-panama-and-increased-violence-in-honduras.html A Chinese scientist claims he successfully created the worlds first genetically-edited babies. Chinese researcher He Jiankui made the claim in interviews with the Associated Press. He also spoke about his research with organizers of an international conference on gene editing in Hong Kong, the AP reported. He is a research professor at Chinas Southern University of Science and Technology in the southern city of Shenzhen. He said he had edited the genetic substance, or DNA, of twin girls born a few weeks ago. There was no independent confirmation of Hes work and he did not provide written documentation of his research. Many scientists working in genetics say they believe such experimentation is dangerous. Hes claims were immediately condemned by some scientists as unsafe and unethical. This kind of gene editing is banned in the United States and many other countries. Such changes to a persons DNA can pass to future generations and risks harming other genes. In interviews, He Jiankui defended his work. He said he had performed the gene editing to help protect the babies from future infection of HIV, the virus responsible for the disease AIDS. He said the process had worked safely and the twin girls were as healthy as any other babies. He told the AP he felt a strong responsibility not just to make a first, but also to make an example for future research. Society will decide what to do next, he said. China to investigate Hes activity He had studied in the past at Rice and Stanford universities in the United States. He then returned to his homeland China to open a laboratory at Southern University of Science and Technology. When Hes claims became public, the university issued a statement saying his work had seriously violated academic ethics and standards. University officials said they had no knowledge of his research and had launched an investigation. A university spokesman said the professor had been on a break from teaching since early this year. But he remains an employee and still works in the laboratory. Chinas National Health Commission said it was highly concerned about the claims and ordered local health officials to immediately investigate Hes activity. We have to be responsible for the peoples health and will act on this according to the law, the commission said in a statement. Limited use of gene-editing Scientists discovered in recent years a new way to edit genes that make up a persons DNA throughout the body. The tool, called CRISPR-cas9, makes it possible to change DNA to supply a needed gene or take one away that is causing problems. So far the tool has only been used on adults to treat deadly diseases, and the changes only affected that person. Editing sperm, eggs or embryos is different because such changes can be passed down. In the U.S., the process is only permitted for lab research. China bans human cloning, but not specifically gene editing. Kiran Musunuru is a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal. He told the Associated Press that if such an experiment had been carried out on human beings, it could not be morally or ethically defensible. Julian Savulescu, a medical ethics expert at Britains University of Oxford, agreed. If true, this experiment is monstrous, he told Reuters. However, one well-known geneticist, Harvard Universitys George Church, defended the attempt to edit genes to prevent infections of HIV. He told the AP that since HIV is a major and growing public health threat he finds such experiments justifiable. Im Anna Mateo. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Hai Do 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 unethical adj.morally bad standard n.level of quality considered acceptable sperm n.male reproductive fluid clone v.an exact copy of a plant or animal made by scientists removing one of its cells justifiable adj.having a good reason We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. The website Dictionary.com has chosen the term misinformation as its word of the year. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Oxford Dictionaries chose toxic as its word of the year. Many people mix up the meaning of misinformation with the word disinformation. They sometimes use one term in place of the other. Dictionary.com defines misinformation as false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead. And it describes disinformation as deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda. So what's the difference? Officials at Dictionary.com say it comes down to what the writer or speaker actually means. They say that when people spread misinformation, they often believe the information they are sharing. But disinformation is often shared with the goal of misleading others. For example, if people share information that they know to be false in a story or a picture, that is disinformation. Jane Solomon is a language expert with Dictionary.com. She told VOA that the choice of misinformation, instead of disinformation, was done for a reason. She said, disinformation is a word that looks outside of ourselves. You can point a finger at someone who is spreading this disinformation. As for misinformation, there is a quality of looking inward and it helps us evaluate our own behavior to fight against the spread of misinformation. The word misinformation has been used since the late 1500s. But Solomon said the word was chosen this year because it also ties to a lot of events that are happening in 2018. In Myanmar, misinformation, like hate speech and propaganda, fueled violence against Rohingya Muslims. And there were riots in Sri Lanka after stories that proved false set the country's Buddhist majority against Muslims. The disappearance and reported killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi fueled misinformation about him and his fiancee. And stories about Brazils recent presidential election were filled with misinformation, everything from incorrect voting times to false campaign promises. Facebook and other social media websites have published misinformation, including images of police arresting immigrants and long lines at voting stations in the United States. They also posted incorrect voting hours and false voting requirements before the November 6 elections. Liz McMillan is head of Dictionary.com. She noted that the online publisher has chosen words like identity in 2015, xenophobia in 2016, and complicit in 2017. She said, By arming our users with these words and enabling them to identify misinformation when it is encountered gives us a fighting chance against its influence. I'm Dorothy Gundy. Hai Do wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story toxic - adj. poisonous regardless of - phrase. without being stopped or affected biased - adj. showing unfair tendency to believe that some people, ideas ... are better than others manipulate - v. to deal with or control someone or something narrative - n. a story that is told or written evaluate - v. to judge the value or condition of someone or something fiancee - n. a woman that a man is engaged to be married to Russia says Ukraines decision to declare martial law could lead to hostilities in eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by telephone Tuesday. He warned Ukraine against carrying out what he called any reckless acts. His comments came two days after Russian forces seized three Ukrainian ships and their crews in the Black Sea. Ukraines parliament voted on Monday to approve martial law in 10 of 27 regions, or administrative areas, for 30 days. The declaration is to take effect on Wednesday. The order would give the military increased powers. It comes as Ukrainians prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections next year. The crisis started when Russian forces fired on two Ukrainian naval ships and struck a tugboat in the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The waterway separates Russia from the Crimean Peninsula. Russian forces seized the ships, the boat and their crews. Russia has accused them of illegally entering its waters. Ukrainian officials say at least six of the sailors were injured. President Petro Poroshenko has demanded the immediate release of the ships and their crews. He also said that there is, in his words, an extremely serious threat of a land invasion. Seizure denounced The United States and other countries have strongly criticized Russia for its actions in the Kerch Strait. The waterway connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Russian seizure of the Ukrainian ships a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law. He called on both sides to ease tensions. At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the Russian action a violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on the issue. Most Council members condemned the increased tensions, also calling for the release of both the sailors and ships. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of violating international rules. He said it was using dangerous methods that created threats and risks for the normal movement of ships in the area. Shared waters The Kerch Strait is shared territory under a treaty between the two countries. The two Ukrainian naval ships and the tugboat were trying to travel from the port of Odessa to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. However, a Russian ship blocked their passage, took control of the ships and seized the crews. Russia said that the Ukrainians were violating its waters and Ukraine had not informed Russian officials of its naval movements. Ukraine denies this. It is the latest incident since Russian forces took the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. At the time, the Russia government said the areas ethnic Russian majority was under threat. Pro-Russian forces have also been fighting Ukrainian forces in the eastern part of the country, although tensions had eased recently. Im Mario Ritter Jr. Margaret Besheer reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story martial adj. related to war or soldiers reckless adj. not showing proper concern about the possible bad results of ones actions escalation n. a situation that is becoming worse or more severe sovereign adj. describing something that has independent authority or the right to govern itself We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. A new U.S. government report says climate change is affecting the United States. It warns that the danger of destructive weather events -- from powerful storms to extremely dry weather and wildfires -- is worsening. Some findings are in conflict with the statements and policies of President Donald Trump. The report, called the Fourth National Climate Assessment, was released on November 23. It was written long before the deadly fires in California this month and before Hurricanes Florence and Michael struck the East Coast. The report noted that new U.S. records for destructive weather have been set in recent years. Weather-related damage has cost nearly $400 billion since 2015, The Associated Press reported. The climate assessment report The climate assessment is required by law every few years. It was based on more than 1,000 earlier research studies. More than 300 researchers in 13 U.S. government offices and agencies prepared the report. It explains how the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is affecting different areas of the country and how this affects the U.S. economy, including energy and agriculture. The report noted that temperatures in the Lower 48 states have risen 1 degree Celsius since the year 1900. By the end of the 21st century, the country will be 1.6 to 6.6 degrees higher, depending on how much pollution is released into the atmosphere. Studies have linked the temperature increase to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The climate assessment warned of longer and more powerful disasters resulting, at least in part, from rising temperatures. It said weather disasters are becoming more commonplace and warned that without aggressive action, they could become much worse. The report avoids proposing policy changes. But it said that people must take steps to stop future weather disasters to avoid substantial damages to the U.S. economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades. Future risks from climate change depend primarily on decisions made today, the report said. Trump administration downplays report The Trump administration is downplaying the importance of the findings. It says the report was largely based on the most extreme scenario and fails to consider new technology and other actions that could reduce carbon emissions and the effects of climate change. A White House spokeswoman noted that, since 2005, carbon dioxide emissions related to energy production in the United States have dropped 14 percent. Yet emissions worldwide continue to rise. The Trump administration has eased enforcement of several environmental rules enacted during the presidency of Barack Obama. The administration also has a campaign for the production of fossil fuels like coal. Last year, President Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement. He said the agreement would hurt the U.S. economy and said there was little evidence it would improve the environment. The measure, signed by nearly 200 countries, sets rules for fighting climate change. I'm Alice Bryant. The Associated Press and VOA News reported this story. George Grow wrote the report for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story greenhouse n. a glass-covered building used for the protection of plants; adj. of or relating to rising temperatures on Earths surface emission n. something being released, usually into the air primarily adj. mainly scenario n. a series of possible actions or events decade n. a 10-year period We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. US ambassador Berry calls on Dahal US ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry called on Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the latters residence in Khumaltar on Tuesday. Poland to Snub UN Migration Pact, Slovakia Has Reservations WARSAW/BRATISLAVAPolands government said on Nov. 20, it would join a growing list of mainly ex-Communist European countries planning to snub a U.N. pact on regulating migration, as Slovakias leader said he also had reservations. Approved in July by all 193 U.N. member nations except the United States, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration addresses issues such as how to protect people who migrate, integrate them into new countries, or safely return them home. Drafted following the biggest influx of migrants into Europe since World War Two, most fleeing war or poverty in the Middle East and Africa, the non-binding pact is due to be adopted next month by heads of government at a meeting in Morocco. Poland said it would not be endorsing the document. (It) doesnt meet Polish demands regarding strong guarantees for countries to have the right to independently decide (who) they choose to accept, the government in Warsaw said in a statement. Polands ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has maintained strong anti-migrant rhetoric since it took office in 2015, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki indicated earlier this month he was likely to reject the pact. An estimated one million Ukrainian migrants live and work in Poland. Hungary, Czech Republic, and Bulgaria have already rejected the pact, and Austria has said it does not plan to adopt it either. In Bratislava, Slovakias Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said he was concerned his country might be required to take in more migrants than it wanted to. Our red lines are obligations that would limit our sovereignty to decide about accepting migrants, he told reporters after a government meeting. His foreign minister, who oversaw the drafting of the pact last year while serving as President of the U.N. General Assembly, threatened to quit the government if Slovakia rejected it. A 19-year-old local student has been charged with aggravated robbery after he was identified as the main suspect in two recently reported house robberies, the Judiciary Police (PJ) revealed during yesterdays joint police press conference. The cases were reported to the police on the morning of Nov. 23 by the owners of two shops located in the northern district. The shops power distribution boxes were damaged. Together, the two owners reported a total loss of MOP7,000 and HKD3,000. The PJ determined that both crimes had been performed by the same person using CCTV surveillance footage. On the same day as the crimes were reported, the PJ visited the identified suspects residence in Coloane, where the suspect, surnamed Chou, confessed to the crimes. According to Chou, after the shop staff had left he damaged the electricity distribution box before breaking in. The money he stole from the two shops was allegedly gambled away in a casino. Later, police discovered that three similar robberies had been reported by shops last June. The police then found that Chou had committed all the robberies and he had been convicted of the crimes. After this, Chou was ordered by the court to report periodically to the police. This time, the police charged the young local resident with aggravated robbery. In the first half of this year, a total of 28 crimes committed by juveniles was recorded. The 28 cases involved 50 young people, representing 28 more compared to the same period in 2017. The increase is mainly due to cases of fighting (10), while four were arson cases. Fire exposes illegal employment A FIRE triggered by a cigarette butt has exposed another incidence of illegal employment, according to PJ. The fire took place in a shop located in the Barra area. The suspect is a local resident (49) and owner of a renovation company. While the police were investigating the fire, they discovered that the suspect had hired two non-local residents who were working on his current project. Another local man (61) was also found to be involved in the illegal employment case. The police charged the two with illegal employment. The 49-year-old man was also charged for triggering a fire alarm Local man charged after beating up his girlfriend AN UNEMPLOYED 40-year-old man has been charged with illegal imprisonment and the physical assault of a mainland woman. The woman (29, unemployed) was the suspects girlfriend. On Nov. 25, the suspect, after consuming alcohol, got involved in a fight with his girlfriend. That same afternoon, the suspect beat up the victim, causing injuries to her left eye, the loss of one front tooth and several facial bruises. He also threatened her if she reported his actions to the police. However, that night, the victim fled their apartment and reported the man to the police. The man is charged with offences against the woman. 1. Yes. Nonprofit youth organizations are underfunded in the city. Its a good decision. 2. Yes. In conjunction with city-run programs, it will provide needed opportunities. 3. No. The money should be used to benefit all residents, not just the citys youth. 4. No. The funds should be invested in the area where the project is being developed.. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether its an appropriate use of the money. Vote View Results A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the worlds first genetically edited babies twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics. A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes. Many mainstream scientists think its too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus. He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was done. There is no independent confirmation of Hes claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts. He revealed it yesterday in Hong Kong to one of the organizers of an international conference on gene editing that is set to begin today, and earlier in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press. I feel a strong responsibility that its not just to make a first, but also make it an example, He told the AP. Society will decide what to do next in terms of allowing or forbidding such science. Some scientists were astounded to hear of the claim and strongly condemned it. Its unconscionable [] an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible, said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal. This is far too premature, said Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. Were dealing with the operating instructions of a human being. Its a big deal. However, one famed geneticist, Harvard Universitys George Church, defended attempting gene editing for HIV, which he called a major and growing public health threat. I think this is justifiable, Church said of that goal. In recent years scientists have discovered a relatively easy way to edit genes, the strands of DNA that govern the body. The tool, called CRISPR-cas9, makes it possible to operate on DNA to supply a needed gene or disable one thats causing problems. Its only recently been tried in adults to treat deadly diseases, and the changes are confined to that person. Editing sperm, eggs or embryos is different the changes can be inherited. In the U.S., its not allowed except for lab research. China outlaws human cloning but not specifically gene editing. He Jiankui, who goes by JK, studied at Rice and Stanford universities in the U.S. before returning to his homeland to open a lab at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, where he also has two genetics companies. The U.S. scientist who worked with him on this project after He returned to China was physics and bioengineering professor Michael Deem, who was his adviser at Rice in Houston. Deem also holds what he called a small stake in and is on the scientific advisory boards of Hes two companies. The Chinese researcher said he practiced editing mice, monkey and human embryos in the lab for several years and has applied for patents on his methods. He said he chose embryo gene editing for HIV because these infections are a big problem in China. He sought to disable a gene called CCR5 that forms a protein doorway that allows HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to enter a cell. All of the men in the project had HIV and all of the women did not, but the gene editing was not aimed at preventing the small risk of transmission, He said. The fathers had their infections deeply suppressed by standard HIV medicines and there are simple ways to keep them from infecting offspring that do not involve altering genes. Instead, the appeal was to offer couples affected by HIV a chance to have a child that might be protected from a similar fate. He recruited couples through a Beijing-based AIDS advocacy group called Baihualin. Its leader, known by the pseudonym Bai Hua, told the AP that its not uncommon for people with HIV to lose jobs or have trouble getting medical care if their infections are revealed. Here is how He described the work: The gene editing occurred during IVF, or lab dish fertilization. First, sperm was washed to separate it from semen, the fluid where HIV can lurk. A single sperm was placed into a single egg to create an embryo. Then the gene editing tool was added. When the embryos were 3 to 5 days old, a few cells were removed and checked for editing. Couples could choose whether to use edited or unedited embryos for pregnancy attempts. In all, 16 of 22 embryos were edited, and 11 embryos were used in six implant attempts before the twin pregnancy was achieved, He said. Tests suggest that one twin had both copies of the intended gene altered and the other twin had just one altered, with no evidence of harm to other genes, He said. People with one copy of the gene can still get HIV, although some very limited research suggests their health might decline more slowly once they do. Several scientists reviewed materials that He provided to the AP and said tests so far are insufficient to say the editing worked or to rule out harm. They also noted evidence that the editing was incomplete and that at least one twin appears to be a patchwork of cells with various changes. Its almost like not editing at all if only some of certain cells were altered, because HIV infection can still occur, Church said. Church and Musunuru questioned the decision to allow one of the embryos to be used in a pregnancy attempt, because the Chinese researchers said they knew in advance that both copies of the intended gene had not been altered. In that child, there really was almost nothing to be gained in terms of protection against HIV and yet youre exposing that child to all the unknown safety risks, Musunuru said. The use of that embryo suggests that the researchers main emphasis was on testing editing rather than avoiding this disease, Church said. Even if editing worked perfectly, people without normal CCR5 genes face higher risks of getting certain other viruses, such as West Nile, and of dying from the flu. Since there are many ways to prevent HIV infection and its very treatable if it occurs, those other medical risks are a concern, Musunuru said. There also are questions about the way He said he proceeded. He gave official notice of his work long after he said he started it on Nov. 8, on a Chinese registry of clinical trials. Its unclear whether participants fully understood the purpose and potential risks and benefits. For example, consent forms called the project an AIDS vaccine development program. The Rice scientist, Deem, said he was present in China when potential participants gave their consent and that he absolutely thinks they were able to understand the risks. Deem said he worked with He on vaccine research at Rice and considers the gene editing similar to a vaccine. That might be a laymans way of describing it, he said. Both men are physics experts with no experience running human clinical trials. The Chinese scientist, He, said he personally made the goals clear and told participants that embryo gene editing has never been tried before and carries risks. He said he also would provide insurance coverage for any children conceived through the project and plans medical follow- up until the children are 18 and longer if they agree once theyre adults. Further pregnancy attempts are on hold until the safety of this one is analyzed and experts in the field weigh in, but participants were not told in advance that they might not have a chance to try what they signed up for once a first was achieved, He acknowledged. Free fertility treatment was part of the deal they were offered. He sought and received approval for his project from Shenzhen Harmonicare Womens and Childrens Hospital, which is not one of the four hospitals that He said provided embryos for his research or the pregnancy attempts. Some staff at some of the other hospitals were kept in the dark about the nature of the research, which He and Deem said was done to keep some participants HIV infection from being disclosed. We think this is ethical, said Lin Zhitong, a Harmonicare administrator who heads the ethics panel. Any medical staff who handled samples that might contain HIV were aware, He said. An embryologist in Hes lab, Qin Jinzhou, confirmed to the AP that he did sperm washing and injected the gene editing tool in some of the pregnancy attempts. The study participants are not ethicists, He said, but are as much authorities on what is correct and what is wrong because its their life on the line. I believe this is going to help the families and their children, He said. If it causes unwanted side effects or harm, I would feel the same pain as they do and its going to be my own responsibility. Marilynn Marchione, Hong Kong, AP Indian officials have traveled repeatedly in recent days near the remote island where an American missionary was killed by people who have long resisted the outside world. But they have not set foot onto North Sentinel Island since the killing, and it remains unclear if they will. They are a treasure, Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on the Andaman and Nicobar island groups, said of the Sentinelese people. We cannot go and force our way in. We dont want to harm them. The Sentinelese, who scholars believe are descendants of Africans who migrated to the area about 50,000 years ago, survive on the small, forested island by hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants. Almost nothing is known of their lives, except that they attack outsiders with spears or bows and arrows. American John Allen Chau was killed by islanders in mid-November after paying fishermen to smuggle him to the island, where outsiders are effectively forbidden by Indian law. The fishermen told authorities that they saw the Sentinelese bury Chaus body on the beach. The notes Chau left behind say he wanted to bring Christianity to the islanders. A boat carrying police and other officials approached North Sentinel on Friday and Saturday, watching the Sentinelese through binoculars. On Saturday the tribesmen were armed with spears and bows and arrows, but they did not attempt to shoot them at the authorities, Pathak said. We watched them from a distance and they watched us from a distance, he said. Officials have not given up on recovering the body, he said. But they are moving very gingerly, studying the 2006 killing of fishermen whose boat had drifted onto the island. We are looking carefully at what happened then, and what [the Sentinelese] did, he said. We are consulting anthropologists to see what kind of friendly gesture we can make. The islanders buried the two fishermen on the beach in 2006, but dug up the corpses after a few days and propped them upright. Authorities apparently never recovered those bodies, and the killings were never investigated. There has been no significant contact with the Sentinelese for generations. Anthropologists used to occasionally drop off gifts of coconuts and bananas, but even those visits were stopped years ago. Anthropologist P.C. Joshi said he understands why authorities want to recover the body. If there is a death, then the cause of death should be known. Its important, said Joshi, a professor at Delhi University. Of course, we cant prosecute the islanders if they killed Chau, he said. Plus, he noted, it may already be too late to learn much from the body, since the heat and humidity on North Sentinel will cause rapid decomposition. Ultimately, its becoming futile, he said. TEN YEARS AFTER MUMBAI ATTACK As Mumbai marked the 10th anniversary of attacks that killed 166 in Indias financial capital yesterday, the United States made a new reward offer for information on the 2008 siege. The Pakistani gunmen who waged the attack were killed or captured. But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that those who planned the attack had not been convicted. He called on Pakistan to implement sanctions against those responsible and said the U.S. was offering a new USD5 million reward and was committed to seeing those responsible face justice. On Nov. 26, 2008, gunmen staged coordinated attacks in the heart of Mumbai. They targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a tourist restaurant and a crowded train station in three days of carnage. India blamed the attack on the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, throwing relations between the nuclear- armed neighbors into a tailspin. Indian officials accused Pakistans intelligence agency of working with the militant group to mastermind the attack an allegation Islamabad denied. We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to uphold their U.N. Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates, Pompeo said in a statement. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the attacks. Our solidarity with the bereaved families. A grateful nation bows to our brave police and security forces who valiantly fought the terrorists during the Mumbai attacks, he said in a statement. MDT/AP Come for the giant neon lotus flowers, stay for the weed. Thats the pitch from Planet 13, a Las Vegas marijuana dispensary that bills itself as the worlds largest. Housed in a 3,700-square-meter building with retail space, back offices and room for weed cultivation the store opened earlier this month just off the Strip in the shadow of the Palazzo, Treasure Island and the Wynn. Planet 13 embraces the gaudy showmanship that lures more than 40 million tourists to the desert each year to gamble and party. Besides the 15-foot lotus blossoms on the roof, theres a glowing 20-foot orb sitting in a fountain out frontstrategically positioned for maximum visibility from thousands of hotel rooms nearby. Planet 13 feels like someone put an upscale jewelry store inside a night club. Alongside tasteful wood and glass display cases, are the glam embellishments one associates with Las Vegas. The floor lights up when you step on it. Massive screens play trippy 3-D images. The marijuana is displayed in containers designed to look like wine goblets; customers can grab a sniff or examine the buds with magnifying glasses. Cashiers at more than 40 registers wait to ring up bags of weedor edibles and vape pens for gamblers seeking discretion. A gram of high-grade weed sells for USD20, an eighth of an ounce for about $60 and disposable vape pens cost $40. Las Vegas businessmen Bob Groesbeck and Larry Scheffler decided to open a weed store when Groesbeck, a former suburban mayor who once opposed the drug, realized the state was moving toward legalization. He acquired a license for a store outside the city and transferred it to Planet 13, so named because the m (for marijuana) is the 13th letter of the alphabet. The company parent, Planet 13 Holdings Inc., is publicly listed in Canada and has a market cap of roughly $125 million. The store, which will eventually include a coffee shop and tasting room, cost more than $8 million to build and is aimed squarely at free-spending tourists seeking an upscale experience. This being Las Vegas, the joint is open 24/7. These are the same people who are paying $12 for a beer and dont bat an eye, Groesbeck says. We wanted to take this out of that head-shop mindset. Weed was legalized for adult use in Nevada last year, and stores have sprouted across Las Vegas. For some tourists, dispensaries have become the first stop on the way into town from the airport. Theres no marijuana for sale on the Strip itself (yet), and Planet 13 is one of the closest weed stores to the casinos and hotels. Competition is ramping up as weed growers and retailers look to cash in on Las Vegass millions of free-spending tourists. Green Thumb Industries, whose $1.6 billion market capitalization makes it one of the nascent industrys most valuable companies, recently acquired Nevada stores and cultivation facilities in a deal valued at $290 million. That included a dispensary called Essence on South Las Vegas Boulevard, a quick cab ride from the main hotels. In addition to its store, Planet 13 owns two growing facilities, one housed in a former brothel about 120 miles north of the city. The company can produce about 2,500 pounds of marijuana a year and uses the harvest for its Medizin brand. Smoking weed is not allowed in the casinos or technically at Las Vegas hotels. With that in mind, Groesbeck is hoping local authorities will approve a bill backing on-premise consumption, allowing him to add a smoking lounge at Planet 13. We want this to be a destination, he says. Craig Giamonna, Bloomberg Seventeen-year-old racing driver Sophia Florsch says that her severe crash during the Macau Grand Prix weekend wont stop her from coming back next year. Florschs single-seater collided at high speed with Japanese driver Sho Tsubois car in the final hours of the Grand Prix event, tearing through a catch fence at the Lisboa bend and injuring several people. The accident left the young F3 driver with spinal fractures that warranted a seven-hour surgery and extended stay at the Conde de Sao Januario General Hospital. Having made a partial recovery, Florsch made her first public appearance yesterday since the November 18 crash. She was due to fly back home last night. At a press conference held at the public hospital, specialist physicians said that it might take the young driver as long as 12 months to completely recover from the accident. However, they said Florsch has already shown a significant improvement and is able to walk without assistance. Sophia Florsch has made a significant recovery after a successful surgery carried out by our professional medical team in Macau, said Dr Chan Hong Mou, a consultant orthopedist at the Conde de Sao Januario General Hospital. She will head home later today. Dr Lau Wai Lit, the chief of the public hospitals orthopaedics department, said that it may take months for Sophia [Florsch] to make a full recovery, but for now she has been recovering really well. She can make a full recovery within a year. Speaking through a translator, Lau said that it would be fine for her to return to motorsports in due time, but whether she is able to move to a higher level of motorsports competition will be her own decision. Florsch, interrupted by multiple rounds of applause, expressed her gratitude for the care and treatment she received at the public hospital. My surgeons have done a great job working on my back and my hip, she said. I am thankful for being here and having a good recovery. Im walking already. The racing driver also thanked the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee and contested the idea that the Guia Circuit turns presented a safety hazard. I dont think so. I think it was just unlucky. Of course there is now a lot of talk about sausage curbs, but this [kind of] crash happens once and never again. It was my first-ever big crash and it took me a little while to get over. But Im over it now and a new chapter is starting. I will be back racing and chasing my dream, she added. Despite the crash and her week-long stay at the public hospital, Florsch was generally upbeat about her performance in the competition. To be honest, Macau was great, she told reporters. Although I had a bad crash, I think that I have had a lot of good and bad luck. [] I think I had a quite good weekend actually. I think I had quite a good pace for a rookie. Its my first season in F3 and I really wanted to go to Macau because Macau is such an historic race. The race, the city, the people; it is all so special, she continued. For racing car drivers, its really a dream. If possible, I will for sure come back for the 66th [Macau] Grand Prix. The director of the Macau Government Tourism Office, Helena de Senna Fernandes, was also present at the press conference to present the teenage F3 racer with a certificate that reads, We hereby appoint Ms. Sophia Florsch as Goodwill Ambassador. A Vermont woman whose family peacock ran off with a flock of turkeys says shes hopeful to get close enough to catch it with a net. The peacock belonging to Rene and Brian Johnson has been on the run for six weeks. Last week, the Johnsons posted a message on the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Facebook page: My peacock has run off with the turkeys. Do you have any suggestions on how to catch the little twerp? Rene Johnson told WCAX-TV she thinks the bird she calls Pea was lonely so it sought turkey companions. Johnson said Friday she got close to Pea on Thanksgiving Day, but couldnt catch it. Johnson says shes worried about the cold, but she recognizes the unusual situation, which she says is kind of funny, actually. The assistant dean of the School of Business of the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), Zhang Jinghua, is suggesting that there should be more transparency within Macaus hospitals. Currently, the Macau medical system is open, it gives the private medical sector rooms. However, the medical market is in a situation of unbalanced information [between service providers and customers], Zhang said on the sidelines an event that took place last week at MUST. Regarding the medical sectors information and transparency, the private sector will need to do more in order to open all information to the public and to receive the medical committees supervision, said Zhang. In the professors opinion, with the constant development of the Internet, data and technology continuing to move forward, if the medical sector can become more transparent the customers will have a better service at a lower cost. The lack of transparency results from the fact that the public has no information regarding the market or service providers, for instance, customers are not aware of certain medical techniques, said Zhang, adding that this transparency issue will cause a big problem because, when there are medical disputes [the public will not know] whom to hold accountable. The professor also said that, in Macau, private hospitals receive less supervision when compared to the public ones. She explained that this is due to the undeveloped information system within the private sector. In addition to Zhangs opinion on Macaus hospitals, the MUST professor released a report yesterday on which she worked as a researcher. Talking about her research, which concerns Macau peoples health, the professor briefed that many of Macaus health indexes are at an advanced level globally, and that Macaus medical care efficiency is worlds first-class. The professor then highlighted the fact that cancer is the number one cause of deaths in Macau. Her study found that the survival rate of such cancers as breast, cervical, and colon has been increasing in Macau in recent years, which follows the trend of Europe and the US. The waiting time for medical services has been a concern of local residents for a long period. Her study indicates that Macaus waiting time for medical services is relatively short when compared to Canada. Macaus healthcare efficiency is also comparable to that of Hong Kong and Singapore, and is ahead of Japans and Europes, according to Zhang. A U.S. aircraft carrier docked in Hong Kong last week, days after a pair of American B-52 bombers flew over the South China Sea. The arrival of the USS Ronald Reagan and its battle group in the Asian financial hub was seen as a friendly gesture ahead of a planned meeting later this month between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. That will mark the first time theyve sat down together since the start of a bitter trade war and amid tensions over the South China Sea. In late September, a Chinese destroyer came close to the USS Decatur in the South China Sea in what the U.S. Navy called an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver. Asked to comment on the incident, Rear Adm. Karl O. Thomas, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, said the vast majority of our interactions out there at sea are very professional. That was a rare, unusual occurrence, Thomas told reporters at a ship-board news conference. It was unfortunate and Id like to see that not happen again. U.S. Pacific Air Forces said two B-52 bombers flew over the South China Sea earlier in the week, calling it a routine training mission. NEW CONSTRUCTION ON REEF HELD BY CHINA The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, reported that China had installed a new platform on Bombay Reef, a remote undeveloped feature in the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Vietnam and Taiwan also claim the reef. The platform appears to be topped with a radome and solar panels, and its strategic location makes it likely it is intended to extend Chinas radar or signals intelligence collection in the area, the report said. Bombay Reef already has a lighthouse to serve as an aid to navigation. Unlike Chinas large man-made islands created by piling sand on top of coral reefs, installing the modestly sized Bombay Reef platform did not require inflicting major environmental damage, CSIS said. However, that illustrates how easily China could expand its footprint to other features such as Scarborough Shoal, which it seized from the Philippines in 2012, it added. Compared to dredging and reclamation, the installation of a modest platform would be harder to prevent at the time and more difficult to rally international condemnation against after the fact, the report said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he had no information about the details of the report, while reasserting Chinas right to carry out development on islands it claims. XI GIVES 3-YEAR FOR TALKS ON CODE OF CONDUCT Chinese President Xi Jinping said negotiations between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations on a nonaggression pact to prevent clashes in the South China Sea could be concluded in three years and promised that any differences will be dealt with peacefully. Xi made the assurances after holding talks with President Rodrigo Duterte and other officials on a visit to the Philippines aimed at deepening relations with the American treaty ally. Xis overnight visit to the Philippine capital, Manila, was his last stop on a three-nation swing through Asia, where he has offered infrastructure loans and aid and championed free trade amid a rivalry for regional influence with the United States. We will continue to manage contentious issues and promote maritime cooperation through friendly consultation, Xi said. He said China aims to conclude the talks on the code of conduct in the disputed waters with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations within three years. CHINA, PHILIPPINES SIGN PACT ON GAS DEVELOPMENT During Xis visit to the Philippines, the sides signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on oil and gas development, but officials provided few details. Ahead of Xis visit, China and the Philippines tried to negotiate an agreement allowing joint oil and gas exploration in the disputed waters. No consensus appeared to have been reached. Its a cooperation to find ways to find a solution, Philippine Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said of the agreement signed during Xis visit. Filipino nationalists have warned that any agreement that can undermine the Philippines internationally recognized exclusive rights to fish and exploit resources within 200 nautical miles of the countrys coast would violate the Philippine constitution. Beijings relations with Manila deteriorated over the territorial rifts until Duterte won the presidency in mid-2016 and sought to rebuild ties with China while criticizing U.S. security policies in a dramatic pivot. The administration of Dutertes predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, had brought the territorial disputes with China to international arbitration and won, but China has ignored the outcome. Christopher Bodeen, AP EDITORS NOTE: This is a weekly look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves. It is published on Tuesdays. The French President, Charles de Gaulle, has for a second time said he will veto Britains application to join the Common Market. He warned Frances five partners in the European Economic Community (EEC) that if they tried to impose British membership on France it would result in the break-up of the community. All five Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Germany have said they would support negotiations towards British membership. Only France remains opposed. At a news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, attended by more than 1,000 diplomats, civil servants and ministers as well as journalists, General de Gaulle accused Britain of a deep-seated hostility towards European construction. He said London showed a lack of interest in the Common Market and would require a radical transformation before joining the EEC. The present Common Market is incompatible with the economy, as it now stands, of Britain, he said. He went on to list a number of aspects of Britains economy, from working practices to agriculture, which he said made Britain incompatible with Europe. Hopes that he might offer clear terms for associate membership were also dashed. He said France would back commercial exchanges with Britain be it called association or by any other name but that was all. His remarks were greeted with dismay in Europe, where it is feared an open crisis within the EEC is now inevitable. General de Gaulles position has hardly changed since he first vetoed Britains application to join in 1963. He leaves the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, with no realistic hope of taking Britain into Europe in the near future. All three political parties are committed to joining the EEC, and the news of General de Gaulles continuing intransigence on the issue was met with gloom in Westminster. The only group which was pleased with the Generals comments were anti-European campaigners. They called on the prime minister to withdraw Britains application immediately. Only then, they said, could a humiliating inquiry into the UKs economic affairs be avoided when Common Market foreign ministers meet to consider Britains application formally next month. Mr Wilson himself said he would not countenance what he called peevish reactions which might jeopardise Britains relations with France or the other five EEC countries. Courtesy BBC News In context Harold Wilson waited two days before replying to General de Gaulles statement. He made a 16-point rebuttal of the French leaders statement and ruled out any offers of associate membership. He also said Britain would press ahead with its application for full membership of the Common Market. After General de Gaulle fell from power in 1969, Britain applied a third time, and was accepted. On 1 January 1973 the UK became a fully-fledged member of the EEC. The European Union, as it is now known, has grown to 27 member states after 10 new states from eastern and southern Europe joined in May 2004, and Bulgaria and Romania joined in January 2007. The EU is now the worlds largest trading bloc by population, with about 455 million citizens. Among its achievements, the community has been responsible for establishing the Single Market in 1993 and launching a common currency, the Euro, in 2002. In June 23, 2016, Britons voted in a referendum to exit the EU. The word Brexit entered the political and media lexicon. Four Turkish soldiers died while another was fighting for life after their helicopter crashed yesterday into a residential area of Istanbul. Even though the helicopter struck a four-storey building before crashing, there were no civilian casualties, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The UH-1 helicopter, which was on a training flight, ended up on a street in Istanbuls Sancaktepe neighborhood on the Asian side of the city that straddles two continents while trying to make an emergency landing, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters at the scene of the crash. The helicopter appeared to have turned over and debris from the crash scattered around the street, according to video footage from the scene. Akar said the pilot appeared to be trying to land the helicopter, which was on its way to the air force base of Samandira, near Sancaktepe, on an empty plot of land in order to prevent civilian deaths. They tried to make an emergency landing for a reason that we do not know yet, the minister said. [The helicopter] was very close to the air base, but unfortunately could not make it back. The dead servicemen included two officers and two non-commissioned officers, Akar told reporters. The injured serviceman, a sergeant, was in serious condition and facing an operation. An investigation into the cause of the crash has been launched, he said. AP U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was starting a frantic two-week race yesterday to convince the British public, and a skeptical Parliament, to back the Brexit deal she has struck with the European Union. May was gathering her Cabinet for a meeting hours after returning from Brussels with the divorce agreement approved by the 27 other EU leaders. She plans to address lawmakers in the House of Commons later in the day. The deal needs to be approved by Parliament, but scores of legislators from both the opposition and Mays governing Conservative Party say they will oppose it. May aims to convince them that the deal honors the referendum in 2016 that saw Britain vote to leave the EU. She argues that the British people are sick of endless debates about Brexit, and backing the deal will allow us to come together again as a country whichever way we voted. Parliaments vote is due before Christmas, likely the week of Dec. 10. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay conceded that its going to be a challenging vote. But he said Britain would be in choppy waters if the deal was rejected. Rejection by Parliament would plunge Britain into a political crisis just weeks before it is due to leave the EU on March 29. Both Britain and the EU are adamant that the U.K. cant renegotiate the deal, struck after 18 months of tense negotiations. May says it is the best possible deal. It is the only deal. That hasnt stopped pro-Brexit campaigners pushing for a cleaner break from the bloc, and pro-EU activists trying to stop Britain leaving at all. On Monday, a European court threw out a challenge from 13 Britons living in other EU nations seeking the annulment of the Brexit negotiations. The 13 said they were not allowed to vote in the 2016 referendum because they were living abroad and said their court case was the only way to avoid losing EU citizenship when Britain leaves the EU. The EU general court said that the opening of the Brexit negotiations had no direct impact on their situation. AP Killeen, TX (76540) Today Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Thunder possible. Low 51F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Thunder possible. Low 51F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%. CAMBODIA Police yesterday arrested more than 200 Chinese citizens accused of defrauding people in China over the internet. JAPAN Police said yesterday they found six bodies believed to be members of a family in a farmhouse in a remote mountain village, and the body of a seventh person who jumped or fell from a nearby bridge. INDIA As Mumbai marked the 10th anniversary of attacks that killed 166 in Indias financial capital yesterday, the United States made a new reward offer for information on the 2008 siege. IRAN Authorities said yesterday that the number of injured in the magnitude 6.3 earthquake in western Iran the previous night has risen to 716. No fatalities were reported from the temblor. TURKEY Four Turkish soldiers died while another was fighting for life after their helicopter crashed yesterday into a residential area of Istanbul. Even though the helicopter struck a four-storey building before crashing, there were no civilian casualties, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. ISRAEL-PALESTINE The Israeli military says a Palestinian assailant rammed his car into a group of soldiers in the West Bank and was then shot and killed. UKRAINE Three former Ukrainian presidents have joined forces to oppose the motion to impose martial law in the country in the wake of Russias seizure of three Ukrainian ships and their crews. Current President Petro Poroshenko has reportedly reduced the martial law proposal to 30 days from 60. FRANCE President Emmanuel Macrons government vowed yesterday an uncompromising stance toward troublemakers who use protests over rising fuel taxes to damage businesses and clash with police including in the heart of Paris, on the glittering Champs-Elysees. MEXICO looked set to shore up security near its border with the United States yesterday, and local authorities said that 39 migrants were arrested after a peaceful march devolved into mayhem when U.S. agents fired tear gas into Mexico to stop some migrants who tried to breach the international line. Skin cancer cells from a mouse show how cells attach at contact points. Credit: NIH Image Gallery Searching through the mountains of published cancer research could be made easier for scientists, thanks to a new AI system. The system, called LION LBD and developed by computer scientists and cancer researchers at the University of Cambridge, has been designed to assist scientists in the search for cancer-related discoveries. It is the first literature-based discovery system aimed at supporting cancer research. The results are reported in the journal Bioinformatics. Global cancer research attracts massive amounts of funding worldwide, and the scientific literature is now so huge that researchers are struggling to keep up with it: critical hypothesis-generating evidence is now often discovered long after it was published. Cancer is a complex class of diseases that are not completely understood and are the second-leading cause of death worldwide. Cancer development involves changes in numerous chemical and biochemical molecules, reactions and pathways, and cancer research is being conducted across a wide variety of scientific fields, which have variability in the way that they describe similar concepts. "As a cancer researcher, even if you knew what you were looking for, there are literally thousands of papers appearing every day," said Professor Anna Korhonen, Co-Director of Cambridge's Language Technology Lab who led the development of LION LBD in collaboration with Dr Masashi Narita at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and Professor Ulla Stenius at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. "LION LBD uses AI to help scientists keep up-to-date with published discoveries in their field, but could also help them make new discoveries by combining what is already known in the literature by making connections between sources that may appear to be unrelated." The 'LBD' in LION LBD stands for Literature-Based Discovery, a concept developed in the 1980s which seeks to make new discoveries by combing pieces of information from disconnected sources. The key idea behind the original version of LBD is that concepts that are never explicitly linked in the literature may be indirectly linked through intermediate concepts. The design of the LION LBD system allows real-time search to discover indirect associations between entities in a database of tens of millions of publications while preserving the ability of users to explore each mention in its original context. "For example, you may know that a cancer drug affects the behaviour of a certain pathway, but with LION LBD, you may find that a drug developed for a totally different disease affects the same pathway," said Korhonen. LION LBD is the first system developed specifically for the needs of cancer research. It has a particular focus on the molecular biology of cancer and uses state-of-the-art machine learning and natural language processing techniques, in order to detect references to the hallmarks of cancer in the text. Evaluations of the system have demonstrated its ability to identify undiscovered links and to rank relevant concepts highly among potential connections. The system is built using open data, open source and open standards, and is available as an interactive web-based interface or a programmable API. The researchers are currently working on extending the scope of LION-LBD to include further concepts and relations. They are also working closely with cancer researchers to help and improve the technology for end users. Explore further Mining the language of science More information: Sampo Pyysalo et al. LION LBD: a Literature-Based Discovery System for Cancer Biology, Bioinformatics (2018). Journal information: Bioinformatics Sampo Pyysalo et al. LION LBD: a Literature-Based Discovery System for Cancer Biology,(2018). DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bty845 Two new studies being presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) address the potential risk of cyberattacks in medical imaging. The Internet has been highly beneficial to health careradiology includedimproving access in remote areas, allowing for faster and better diagnoses, and vastly improving the management and transfer of medical records and images. However, increased connectivity can lead to increased vulnerability to outside interference. Researchers and cybersecurity experts have begun to examine ways to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks in medical imaging before they become a real danger. Medical imaging devices, such as X-ray, mammography, MRI and CT machines, play a crucial role in diagnosis and treatment. As these devices are typically connected to hospital networks, they can be potentially susceptible to sophisticated cyberattacks, including ransomware attacks that can disable the machines. Due to their critical role in the emergency room, CT devices may face the greatest risk of cyberattack. In a study presented today, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, identified areas of vulnerability and ways to increase security in CT equipment. They demonstrated how a hacker might bypass security mechanisms of a CT machine in order to manipulate its behavior. Because CT uses ionizing radiation, changes to dose could negatively affect image quality, orin extreme casespose harm to the patient. "In the current phase of our research, we focus on developing solutions to prevent such attacks in order to protect medical devices," said Tom Mahler, Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "Our solution monitors the outgoing commands from the device before they are executed, and will alertand possibly haltif it detects anomalies." For anomaly detection, the researchers developed a system using various advanced machine learning and deep learning methods, with training data consisting of actual commands recorded from real devices. The model learns to recognize normal commands and to predict if a new, unseen command is legitimate or not. If an attacker sends a malicious command to the device, the system will detect it and alert the operator before the command is executed. "In cybersecurity, it is best to take the 'onion' model of protection and build the protection in layers," Mahler said. "Previous efforts in this area have focused on securing the hospital network. Our solution is device-oriented, and our goal is to be the last line of defense for medical imaging devices." He added that it is also important to note that although these types of attacks are theoretically possible, there is no indication that they ever actually occurred. "If health care manufacturers and hospitals will take a proactive approach, we could prevent such attacks from happening in the first place," he said. A second study, to be presented tomorrow, looked at the potential to tamper with mammogram results. The researchers trained a cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN), a type of artificial intelligence application, on 680 mammographic images from 334 patients, to convert images showing cancer to healthy ones and to do the same, in reverse, for the normal control images. They wanted to determine if a CycleGAN could insert or remove cancer-specific features into mammograms in a realistic fashion. "As doctors, it is our moral duty to first protect our patients from harm," said Anton S. Becker, M.D., radiology resident at University Hospital Zurich and ETH Zurich, in Switzerland. "For example, as radiologists we are used to protecting patients from unnecessary radiation. When neural networks or other algorithms inevitably find their way into our clinical routine, we will need to learn how to protect our patients from any unwanted side effects of those as well." The images were presented to three radiologists, who reviewed the images and indicated whether they thought the images were genuine or modified. None of the radiologists could reliably distinguish between the two. "Neural networks, such as CycleGAN, are not only able to learn what breast cancer looks like," Dr. Becker said, "we have now shown that they can insert these learned characteristics into mammograms of healthy patients or remove cancerous lesions from the image and replace them with normal looking tissue." Dr. Becker anticipates that this type of attack won't be feasible for at least five years and said patients shouldn't be concerned right now. Still, he hopes to draw the attention of the medical community, and hardware and software vendors, so that they may make the necessary adjustments to address this issue while it is still theoretical. Dr. Becker said that artificial intelligence, in general, will greatly enrich radiology, offering faster diagnoses and other advantages. He added that there are positive aspects to these findings as well. "Neural networks can teach us more about the image characteristics of certain cancers, making us better doctors." Explore further Deep learning can distinguish recalled-benign mammograms from malignant and negative images Tim Long, a professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech, examines a gel created in his lab. He is testing the gel with Tim Showalter, a radiation oncologist at UVA's Cancer Center, as a new method to relieve discomfort in cervical cancer radiation treatment. Credit: Virginia Tech A unique partnership between a Virginia Tech scientist and a University of Virginia oncologist could result in a solution to reduce discomfort during cancer treatment for women. Tim Long, a professor of chemistry with the Virginia Tech College of Science, and Tim Showalter, a radiation oncologist at UVA's Cancer Center, are testing a gel that could be used during radiation treatment for cervical cancer. At his Charlottesville clinic, Showalter performs brachytherapy. It involves inserting radioactive material directly into cancerous tissue. For patients who have cervical cancer, the radiation is inserted directly into the cervix. But this outpatient procedure, which Showalter performs at least five times for each patient, often is so painful and uncomfortable that some women have to have anesthesia. "If we can do something to reduce the amount of discomfort during the procedure, it's a really big deal," Showalter said. His hunt for a solution began four years ago. He initially sought out chemical engineers at UVA, but he kept hearing about Long, who is well-known for his work in polymer chemistry at Virginia Tech. Long directs the university's Macromolecules Innovation Institute and oversees a diverse research group that has received more than $50 million in research funding during the past 18 years. He has more than 50 patents in macromolecular science and engineering, and in 2015, he was one of three people named Virginia Scientist of the Year. Long was perfect for the job, Showalter said. He approached Long with his idea, and the two became a team. They discussed the work via video conferences and visited each other's labs and clinics. Long had never before designed a product for use in a human body, but he said it is one of his ultimate goals. Similarly, Showalter has never created a medical product. "We complemented each other," said Long. Long and Showalter initially received funding for the project through a 4-VA grant, which is a program that sponsors certain partnerships, such as research advancements, with six state institutions, including Virginia Tech and UVA. Long and Showalter also have received funding from other sources in the past few years, including the National Institutes of Health. Initially, Showalter suggested creating a spray foam substance, but it was Long's idea to go with a hydrogel. In his Virginia Tech lab, Long, along with a postdoctoral scholar, Nicholas Moon, used click chemistry, which is a fast reaction, to create what he coined a "smart" gel that moves and forms fast in parts of the body. The gel's primary ingredients are baking soda and a digestive aid, similar to an over-the-counter drug for constipation. "The reaction happens in the body," Long said. "Within two minutes, the gel fills the space." The gel isolates the tumor and becomes soft by adding water. The idea is for a physician to insert this gel into a patient before radiation treatment, rather than packing the vaginal area with gauze, which is the current standard method that can be painful, said Showalter. Showalter created a Charlottesville-based company, Brachyfoam, to develop the gel product. There is an agreement for the product to develop the patent through both UVA and Virginia Tech. So far, Showalter has tested the gel's performance in human cadavers, and it performed well, he said. The next step is to complete more preclinical testing and then to test the gel in humans as part of clinical trials. Showalter and Long are seeking funding for this next phase. Ultimately, Showalter said he'd like the product to be ready for the commercial market by 2021. "I think we are onto something good," said Long, who will be a consultant during the clinical trials. This may not be the end of the scientist and oncologist's work together, though right now they are focused on developing the gel and getting it into clinics to help women. Their partnership clearly shows the power of two universities working together for the good of the public. "We've gotten close and enjoy learning from each others' different perspectives," Showalter said. "It is important for the commonwealth when there are synergies available across institutions." Explore further Team aims to help patients with cancer make complex care decisions By Moses Kyeyune. The government has declared Friday 30, a national day for mourning, in honor of lives lost in the Lake Victoria wreckage. The announcement has been made by the first deputy prime minister, Gen Moses Ali at the House sitting this afternoon. This implies that flags at all public offices will fly at a half must. An unknown number of people perished when a boat capsized in lake Victoria on Saturday, and only 26 people were rescued alive, while only 30 bodies could be clearly identified. The police and sister security organs are still searching the waters, to retrieve other bodies that are said to be covered in the water. Related Stories. More than 30 bodies retrieved from the #LakeVictoriaBoatAccident Despite federal opposition, Denver is trying again to become what could be the first U.S. city to open a supervised drug injection site, a strategy that some liberal cities have tried repeatedly to launch to reduce overdose deaths fueled by a nationwide opioid epidemic. The Denver City Council voted 12-1 on Monday to approve a measure that would allow one site to open for at least two years under a pilot program. But there are still several hurdles to clear. The program must win approval from the state Legislature, which is now under Democratic control after this month's election. Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled state Senate killed similar legislation. Despite the Democratic edge in the session starting in January, Democratic Gov.-elect Jared Polis has not taken a position on the issue and could veto the measure. If successful, Denver could have the nation's first publicly sanctioned site for people to use heroin, methamphetamine and other illegal drugs under medical supervision, with staffers able to intervene in case of an overdose. Supporters say it's a safer alternative for those who aren't ready for rehab, while opponents say it condones dangerous drug use. Facilitating the use of illegal drugs is a federal felony, and the U.S. government has indicated it wouldn't stand by if cities move to open such sites. Other U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Philadelphia, have expressed interest in opening supervised injection sites. California lawmakers passed a measure that would have protected workers and participants in a San Francisco pilot program from state prosecution, but Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it in September. A private nonprofit is raising money for a safe injection site in Philadelphia but has pushed back its potential opening date from January to mid-March, the group Safehouse said. While Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has said he won't prosecute anyone providing medical oversight at the facilities, state and federal officials have said they wouldn't be legal. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who serves on Safehouse's board, said he's willing to go to prison to try a new approach that may save lives in Philadelphia, which has the highest rate of opioid deaths of any large U.S. city. It had more than 1,200 fatal overdoses last year. Drug overdoses were the second-leading cause of death in Denver last year, killing 201 people. They died in places like grocery stores, abandoned buildings and along a bike path, according to death records reviewed by Denver's Harm Reduction Action Center, the largest needle exchange in Colorado. It's offered to host the safe injection site. Once users get a clean needle, they now have to leave the center, which is across the street from the state Capitol, and usually wind up injecting drugs in nearby alleys and streets, executive director Lisa Raville said. The cities' efforts come as federal officials have vowed to crack down on injection sites. U.S. law includes a "crack house" statute that makes it a felony to knowingly maintain a place for using a controlled substance. In an op-ed in The New York Times in August, days after California lawmakers passed their measure, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said cities and counties that allow such sites should expect "swift and aggressive action" from the Justice Department. In Denver, the measure's sponsor, Albus Brooks, said Tuesday that he's reaching out to the governor and legislative leaders to urge their support. "I am very hopeful that these folks in the General Assembly will look at a 1,000 deaths from drug overdoses in our state (in 2017) and move quickly to pass this bill," said Brooks, who has said he learned how easy it was to become dependent on opioids while being treated for cancer. Sen.-elect Brittany Pettersen, who sponsored the earlier statewide legislation, said she has bipartisan support for another attempt to allow at least one injection site. The suburban Denver Democrat thinks it's "highly likely" it will pass next year but downplayed the importance of the Democratic shift at the Statehouse. "This is about keeping people alive today and ensuring they get the help they need tomorrow," said Pettersen, whose mother struggled with opioid addiction for years. She and state Rep. Leslie Herod traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, to learn about its supervised injection site last year. Advocates say no overdoses have been reported there or at about 100 publicly sanctioned injection sites in Europe, Canada and Australia. The lone council member opposing the Denver proposal, Kevin Flynn, said he was concerned it wasn't aggressive enough in helping people get treatment. "A safe injection site is not treatment. It's like bringing a lung cancer patient into a smoking room and giving him more cigarettes," he said. Explore further Philadelphia wants safe injection sites to help opioid fight 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Credit: CC0 Public Domain A leading expert in fetal medicine at the University of Birmingham has warned that there is 'little room for complacency' over a fall in twin stillbirth rates as the reason for this phenomenon are complex. In a paper published today in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Mark Kilby, Professor of Fetal Medicine at the University of Birmingham's Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research and Honorary Consultant in Fetal Medicine at Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, with collaborators explore the reasons as to why there has been a nearly 50 per cent fall in twin stillbirth rates from 11 to six per thousand total births between 2013 and 2016. These figures were the findings of Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK)'s perinatal surveillance report published in June 2018. The MBRACCE-UK report noted that, although there had been a significant reduction in stillbirth rate in twins, there had been no change in still birth rates in pregnancies involving a single fetus. Approximately one in 60 pregnancies are twins; an incidence increasing in the UK because of the use of artificial reproductive techniques and a rising maternal age. Professor Kilby believes the fall in stillbirths in twins is, in part, due to an increasing recognition by healthcare professionals of the increased fetal risks in "identical twins". Identical twins either share a single placenta with a single outer membrane and two inner membranes (monochorionic diamniotic twins), or share both the inner and outer membranes (monochorionic monoamniotic twins). These twins are at higher risk due to complications such as twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), twin anaemia polycythaemia sequence (TAPS) and selective fetal growth restriction (sGR). This recognition of the higher risks has led to the introduction of several clinical guidelines including The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' Green Top Guideline on the Management of Monochorionic Twins and the generic NICE Guidelines on the Management of Twin and Triplet Pregnancy (currently under revision and to be republished in 2019). A survey by the charity Twins and Multiple Births Association (Tamba) of 29 obstetric units has shown that hospitals following NICE guidance for management of twins have associated lower twin stillbirth, neonatal death rates and admissions to special care baby units. However, the data from Tamba through its Maternity Engagement Programme, indicates that "there is still considerable variation in implementation by NHS healthcare providers across the UK". Professor Kilby said: "The UK has been innovative in recommending the establishment of twin multidisciplinary teams and clinics along with several national clinical guidelines to aid the management of twin and triplet pregnancies and high risk identical twin pregnancies. "However, adequate resourcing and professional engagement is required to prevent the current considerable variation in implementation of guidelines by NHS healthcare providers across the UK." Professor Kilby also states that refinements in in-utero treatments, along with new guidelines over the last 15 years on the monitoring of both identical and non-identical twins using ultrasound has also undoubtedly led to increased and earlier detection of complications . Professor Kilby concluded: "The fall in twin stillbirth rates from 11 to six per thousand total births between 2013 and 2016 is welcome news, however, there is little room for complacency and more comprehensive uptake of clinical guidelines and close working with stakeholders such as Tamba and the Multiple Births Foundation will hopefully continue this trend into the future." He estimated that it would take a minimum of two years for hospital trusts in the NHS to engage with the recommendations by establishing multidisciplinary teams, a multiple pregnancy service and an infrastructure to deliver care and urged that much more work still needed to be done. Keith Reed, CEO of Tamba, said: "Hundreds of babies lives could be saved and potentially thousands prevented going into neonatal care, but progress is at risk because funding for TAMBA's successful Maternity Engagement Programme is due to end on March 2019 and there are another 124 obstetric units in England to engage with." Explore further Treatment guidelines for twin pregnancies More information: MD Kilby et al. Falling perinatal mortality in twins in the UK: organisational success or chance?, BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (2018). MD Kilby et al. Falling perinatal mortality in twins in the UK: organisational success or chance?,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/1471-0528.15517 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Gene therapy holds a lot of promise in medicine. If we could safely alter our own DNA, we might eliminate diseases our ancestors passed down to us. Now, a team of University of Delaware researchers has demonstrated a major step forward in gene therapy by engineering microparticles that deliver gene-regulating material to hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, which live deep in our bone marrow and direct the formation of blood cells. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, Chen-Yuan Kao, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, and Eleftherios T. (Terry) Papoutsakis, Unidel Eugene du Pont Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, describe how they used megakaryocytic microparticles, which circulate naturally in the blood stream, to deliver plasmid DNAs and small RNAs to hematopoietic stem cells. With more development, this technology could be useful in treatment for inherited blood disorders that affect thousands of Americans. These include, for example, sickle cell anemia, a disease that causes abnormally shaped red blood cells, and thalassemia, which disrupts the production of the blood protein hemoglobin. The methods developed by Kao and Papoutsakis could also be used to deliver personalized medicine, because these microparticles can be individually generated and stored frozen for each patient, said Papoutsakis. This novel approach has advantages over other approaches under investigation. "A lot of researchers are trying to deliver DNA, nucleic acids, or drugs to target hematopoietic stem cells," said Papoutsakis. "This is the right cell to target because it gives rise to all blood cells." Alter those cells, and you could, in theory, ward off the genetic defect for most or all of the patient's life. However, some previously developed methods to target these stem cells deliver genetic material with help from a virus, risking side effects to the patient, said Papoutsakis. Instead, the University of Delaware team developed a method that takes advantage of tiny particles that already float in the blood stream: megakaryocytic microparticles. Kao and Papoutsakis found that they could load these microparticles with gene-regulating material and that they would infiltrate only the desired stem cells, thanks to special properties on the surface of the microparticles. Explore further Research paves path to accelerating, enhancing platelet production More information: Chen-Yuan Kao et al. Engineering human megakaryocytic microparticles for targeted delivery of nucleic acids to hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, Science Advances (2018). Journal information: Science Advances Chen-Yuan Kao et al. Engineering human megakaryocytic microparticles for targeted delivery of nucleic acids to hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells,(2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau6762 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Millions of American kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have a genetic vulnerability to the disease, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed data from more than 55,000 individuals and identified 12 gene regions linked with ADHD. These regions probably affect the central nervous system, the study authors said. The discovery might help scientists develop new treatments for ADHD, which affects more than 9 percent of American children. "We all carry genetic risk variants for ADHD," explained researcher Anders Borglum, a professor of biomedicine at Aarhus University in Denmark. "The more we have, the greater our risk for developing ADHD." Those same genetic areas share a connection with 200 other diseases and traits, he said. The investigators also found that 44 gene variants implicated in ADHD are linked with depression, anorexia and insomnia. "We now understand better why some individuals develop ADHD, and begin to get insights into the underlying biology, paving the way towards new and better treatment of ADHD," Borglum added. The genetic areas his team uncovered show that this is primarily a brain disorder, Borglum said. The researchers also found genes that may be linked with ADHD have a role in how brain cells interact and also affect speech development, learning and regulation of dopamine (a chemical messenger that carries signals between brain cells). Still, the vast majority of ADHD genetics is still undiscovered and will require larger studies, Borglum said. Study author Stephen Faraone noted that the team "found 12 of the very manywe don't know how manyprobably thousands of genes related to ADHD." Faraone is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y. The researchers don't expect to discover just one, two or even 10 genes that each have a dramatic effect on causing ADHD and can be used to diagnose the disorder or quickly develop a treatment, he said. Most likely, a combination of genes and environmental factors trigger ADHD, the study authors said. Environmental factors may include being born prematurely and underweight or suffering from developmental problems, such as fetal alcohol syndrome, Faraone said. Interestingly, he added, even though medications work in treating ADHD, they don't target the genes that the investigators found were linked to the condition. None of the genes affected by the drugs showed up in their analysis of genes tied to ADHD, Faraone said. The report was published online Nov. 26 in the journal Nature Genetics. Ronald Brown, dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, said, "This is a promising investigation, as it provides further evidence that ADHD is likely an inherited disorder." Brown was not involved with the study, but was familiar with the findings. It's been clear for years that ADHD runs in families, he said. These findings are also important because they suggest that certain therapies effective for one family member are likely to be effective for other family members who are diagnosed with ADHD, he added. This study is also important because it shows that several psychological disorders are likely tied to these genes, though no cause-and-effect relationship was proven in the study. This information could help families with prevention and early intervention efforts, Brown said. Explore further Scientists discover genes that contribute to ADHD development More information: undefined undefined et al. Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Nature Genetics (2018). Journal information: Nature Genetics undefined undefined et al. Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-018-0269-7 Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Childhood obesity is a major health issue in Turkey. The World Health Organization recently found that between 20 and 25 percent of Turkish children aged 1019 years are overweight or obese. A recent study of fourth grade children in Ankara found over one-third to be overweight or obese, much higher than anticipated. CUNY SPH is collaborating with Hacettepe University in Turkey's capital city of Ankara to strengthen the research and translation capacity in a region that is heavily affected by obesity and type 2 diabetes. To decipher perceptions of obesity prevention measures among parents by socio-economic strata (SES), CUNY SPH faculty Sean Haley, Terry Huang and Sheng Li led a study which was recently published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing. The study found strong recognition of childhood obesity as a problem among parents in Ankara, suggesting acknowledgement of the health issue across economic strata. Industry and the media were ranked high as influencers. While schools were seen as important in obesity prevention, healthcare providers and government were ranked lower. Overall, parents reported greatest support for school-based interventions, more limitations on marketing to children, greater opportunities for physical activity and restrictions on unhealthy foods. Fiscal policies such as taxes on unhealthy foods received the lowest support. Degree of support for obesity prevention policies was generally higher among high-SES parents compared to those from lower SES groups. "Future research will seek to more clearly identify opportunities for prevention interventions by SES and gender," Haley says. More information: Prevalence of childhood obesity and related parental factors in Ankara, Turkey. Prevalence of childhood obesity and related parental factors in Ankara, Turkey. www.emro.who.int/in-press/rese n-ankara-turkey.html Its still unclear whether a shorter or longer gap between pregnancies increases the risk of complications in the next pregnancy. Credit: Richard Jaimes/Unsplash Women often wonder what the "right" length of time is after giving birth before getting pregnant again. A recent Canadian study suggests 12-18 months between pregnancies is ideal for most women. But the period between pregnancies, and whether a shorter or longer period poses risks, is still contested, especially when it comes to other factors such as a mother's age. It's important to remember that in high-income countries most pregnancies go well regardless of the gap in between. What is short and long The time between the end of the first pregnancy and the conception of the next is known as the interpregnancy interval. A short interpregnancy interval is usually defined as less than 18 months to two years. The definition of a long interpregnancy interval varies with more than two, three or five years all used in different studies. Most studies look at the difference every six months in the interpregnancy interval makes. This means we can see whether there are different risks between a very short period in between (less than six months) versus just a short period (less than 18 months). Most subsequent pregnancies, particularly in high-income countries like Australia, go well regardless of the gap. In the recent Canadian study, the risk of mothers having a severe complication varied between about one in 400 to about one in 100 depending on the interpregnancy interval and the mother's age. The risk of stillbirth or a severe baby complication varied from just under 2% to about 3%. So overall, at least 97% of babies and 99% of mothers did not have a major issue. Some differences in risk of pregnancy complications do seem to be related to the interpregnancy interval. Studies of the next pregnancy after a birth show that: shorter interpregnancy intervals are associated with increased rates of preterm births, small babies, and stillbirths or infant deaths where the previous birth was by a caesarean, a very short interpregnancy period (less than six months) also increases the risk of scar complications (uterine rupture) in the next labour longer interpregnancy intervals of more than five years are associated with increased rates of pre-eclampsia, preterm births and small babies. Most pregnancies in developed countries go well regardless of the gap in between. Credit: shutterstock.com What about other factors? How much of the differences in complications are due to the period between pregnancies versus other factors such as a mother's age is still contested. On the one hand, there are biological reasons why a short or a long period in between pregnancies could lead to complications. If the gap is too short, mothers may not have had time to recover from the physical stressors of pregnancy and breastfeeding, such as pregnancy weight gain and reduced vitamin and mineral reserves. They may also not have completely recovered emotionally from the previous birth experience and demands of parenthood. If the period between pregnancies is quite long, the body's helpful adaptations to the previous pregnancy, such as changes in the uterus that are thought to improve the efficiency of labour, might be lost. However, many women who tend to have a short interpregnancy interval also have characteristics that make them more at risk of pregnancy complications to start with such as being younger or less educated. Studies do attempt to control for these factors. The recent Canadian study took into account the number of previous children, smoking and the previous pregnancy outcomes, among other things. Even so, they concluded that risks of complications were modestly increased with a lower-than-six-month interpregnancy period for older women (over 35 years) compared to a 12-24-month period. Other studies, however, including a 2014 West Australian paper comparing different pregnancies in the same women, have found little evidence of an effect of a short interpregnancy interval. So, what's the verdict? Based on 1990s and early 2000s data, the World Health Organisation recommends an interpregnancy interval of at least 24 months. The more recent studies would suggest that this is overly restrictive in high-resource countries like Australia. Although there may be modestly increased risks to mother and baby of a very short gap (under six months), the absolute risks appear small. For most women, particularly those in good health with a previously uncomplicated pregnancy and birth, their wishes about family spacing should be the major focus of decision-making. In the case of pregnancy after miscarriage, there appears even less need for restrictive recommendations. A 2017 review of more than 1 million pregnancies found that, compared to an interpregnancy interval of six to 12 months or over 12 months, an interpregnancy interval of less than six months had a lower risk of miscarriage and preterm birth, and did not increase the rate of pre-eclampsia or small babies. So, once women feel ready to try again for pregnancy after miscarriage, they can safely be encouraged to do so. Explore further Short interval after pregnancy termination ups preterm risk This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. (HealthDay) Caesar salad fans, rest easy: It's safe to eat romaine lettuce again. Just be sure to check the label, to avoid any chance of E. coli, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now says. In a statement released late Monday, FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb announced that the agency was lifting its advisory against eating romaine lettuce, first put in place last Tuesday. At that point, the agency hadn't been able to narrow down the source of the tainted lettuce, Gottlieb explained. But now the source seems to be "end of season" lettuce, harvested somewhere in the Central Coast regions of central and northern California. And, "harvesting of romaine lettuce from this region has [already] ended for the year," Gottlieb noted. So, starting as early as this week, romaine lettuce sold in stores will carry labels listing the region where the produce was grown, along with its harvest date, the FDA said. By checking these labels, consumers can quickly determine that the produce is safe to eat. "Romaine lettuce that was harvested outside of the Central Coast growing regions of northern and central California does not appear to be related to the current outbreak," Gottlieb stressed. That would include romaine farmed in Arizona, Florida and Mexico, as well as California's Imperial Valleylettuce harvested from these areas is OK to eat. "Hydroponically- and greenhouse-grown romaine also does not appear to be related to the current outbreak," Gottlieb added. "There is no recommendation for consumers or retailers to avoid using romaine harvested from these sources." If heads of romaine are sold loose, without affixed labels, retailers are being asked to post a notice showing place and date of harvest near the store register. Such labeling may become standard going forward, according to an agreement between the FDA and the leafy greens industry, the agency said. So far, 43 people across 12 states have been sickened in this latest outbreak of E. coli, with onset in the last case occurring on Oct. 31. Twenty-two more cases have been reported in Canada. No deaths have yet been reported in the outbreak. "Through laboratory studies we have identified that theE. coliO157:H7 strain causing the outbreak is similar to one that produced an outbreak ofE. coliO157:H7 in thefall of 2017 that also occurred in the U.S. and Canada, which was associated with consumption of leafy greens in the U.S. and specifically romaine lettuce in Canada," Gottlieb said. So who's most at risk from E. coli? Dr. Robert Glatter is an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City who's seen the effects of infection with the gastrointestinal bug firsthand. It's not a minor ailment, he said. "In general, symptoms of E. coli infection generally begin about three to four days after consuming the bacteria, and may include abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, and watery or bloody diarrhea, along with fever," Glatter said. And while healthy people who battle a bout of E. coli typically recover within five to seven days, the illness can be more protractedand even deadlyfor people already made vulnerable by chronic disease or advanced age. "People with diabetes, kidney disease or those with cancer or autoimmune disease run the risk of a more severe illness," Glatter explained. The particular strain of E. coli detected in the current lettuce outbreakE. coli O157:H7is particularly nasty, he noted. "Most strains of E. coli do not actually cause diarrhea, but E. coli O157 produces a powerful toxin that injures the inner lining of the small intestine, leading to bloody diarrhea," Glatter said. Even a tiny amount of ingested bacteria could spur this type of illness. "It can make people much more ill, and may lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure, in some cases," he said. Indeed, the CDC has reported one such case already in the latest outbreak. In many cases, antibiotics are used to help beat back an E. coli infection, but these drugs can affect the kidneys, Glatter noted. "Antibiotics may be necessary in certain cases, so it's important to see your doctor if you have continued and severe symptoms such as fever, bloody diarrhea, and you are not able to eat or drink," he said. However, in the case of E. coli O157:H7, "taking antibiotics may actually increase your risk of developing kidney failure, so it's important to speak with your health care provider if you should develop severe symptoms," Glatter advised. And if you do think you might be sick with E. coli, or any other foodborne illness, make sure you don't spread it to those near you. The bacterium "can be transmitted person-to-person, so it's vital that anyone who is potentially infected wash their hands thoroughly and not share utensils, cups or glasses," Glatter said. "This also goes for bath towels. Linens also need to be washed in hot water and treated with bleach." He noted that "ground beef, unpasteurized milk, fresh produce and contaminated water are common sources of E. coli bacteria." More information: Find out more about E. coli illness at the Find out more about E. coli illness at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Colorized scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus particles (green) both budding and attached to the surface of infected VERO E6 cells (blue). Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID An international research team has begun patient enrollment in a clinical trial testing multiple investigational Ebola therapies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The randomized, controlled trial is enrolling patients of any age with confirmed Ebola virus disease (EVD) at a treatment unit in the city of Beni operated by The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), a medical humanitarian organization. The trial, which will expand to additional DRC districts, is organized through an international research consortium coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is led and funded by the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), part of the DRC Ministry of Health, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and also involves several additional international partners. "Combatting Ebola requires a comprehensive response that draws on the strengths of all areas of public health. Biomedical research can lead to critical new tools, such as potentially life-saving therapies," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci., M.D. "Through scientifically and ethically sound clinical trials, we hope to efficiently and definitively establish the safety and efficacy of these investigational Ebola treatments, offering new ways to save lives." On August 1, 2018, the DRC Ministry of Health declared the country's 10th outbreak of EVD. As of November 25, 2018, 240 deaths out of 419 confirmed and probable cases of EVD have been reported in the northeastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. Under the leadership of the DRC Ministry of Health, the WHO has coordinated the outbreak response with several international partners. NIAID, along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other U.S. government partners, have provided guidance and support to the multi-sectoral outbreak response. "We urgently need a safe and effective treatment for this deadly disease," said DRC Minister of Health Oly Ilunga Kalenga, M.D., Ph.D. "As we face a 10th outbreak of Ebola, we hope this clinical trial will give us more information about how best to treat patients." The trial aims to compare mortality among patients who receive one of three investigational Ebola drugs with a control group of patients who receive the investigational monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment ZMapp, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc. The therapies being tested include: mAb114, a single monoclonal antibody developed by NIAID, with early support from the INRB; and remdesivir (also known as GS-5734), an antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. The trial has been approved to begin enrolling patients in these three groups, and plans are underway to amend the trial to include REGN-EB3 (also known as REGN3470-3471-3479), a monoclonal antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The participating Ebola treatment units will continue to provide all participants with supportive care for EVD. Ebola care includes supportive oral and/or intravenous fluids, electrolyte replacement, maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure, and pain management. The investigational treatments have varying levels of data to support their use from testing in the laboratory, animals, and humans. However, none has been approved for treating EVD. ZMapp is the only investigational treatment previously tested in a randomized, controlled efficacy trial. Results from that study, conducted in the U.S. and West Africa during the 2014 to 2016 outbreak, suggested that ZMapp appeared to be beneficial, but as the outbreak waned, the trial ultimately could not enroll enough participants to definitively establish the drug's efficacy. The investigational treatments also have been administered to most of the Ebola patients in the current outbreak in the DRC under an ethical framework developed by the WHO called Monitored Emergency Use of Unregistered and Investigational Interventions (MEURI). However, this emergency-use mechanism cannot yield generalizable evidence on how well the treatments work. "A randomized, controlled clinical trial is necessary to obtain reliable data about the safety and efficacy of investigational Ebola treatments," said H. Clifford Lane, M.D., director of NIAID's Division of Clinical Research. "It is possible to conduct rigorous clinical research in an outbreak setting, and we anticipate this trial will provide useful data." Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, M.D., Ph.D., director-general of the INRB, and Richard T. Davey, Jr., M.D., deputy director of NIAID's Division of Clinical Research, are co-principal investigators for the study. Trial participants will be randomly assigned to receive one of the investigational treatments by intravenous infusion. Site clinicians will monitor patients' symptoms and take blood samples for laboratory tests. Patients will remain in the Ebola treatment unit until they fully recover from the disease. They will be asked to return to the clinic approximately two months after receiving treatment for a check-up and to provide additional blood samples for laboratory tests. Plans are underway to expand the trial beyond the ALIMA site in Beni to additional Ebola treatment units operated by medical humanitarian organizations, including International Medical Corps. The trial also may be adapted to continue across more than one outbreak and in several countries. The number of participants enrolled in the trial ultimately will depend on the evolution of Ebola outbreaks. The study is designed to enroll 112 patients per arm, potentially over multiple outbreaks. "This clinical trial marks a significant and important step forward for the DRC and our international partners," said Dr. Muyembe. "We are eager to learn more about each of these investigational treatments as we continue to work tirelessly to identify new cases, trace contacts and control the spread of disease." Explore further Congo starts first-ever trial testing Ebola drugs By Benjamin Jumbe. Government has ordered the operators of the Marine vessel that Ply the Entebbe Kalangala route MV Kalangala to immediately halt operations so as to help retrieve capsized MV Templa. The vessel Capsized on Saturday evening while transporting more than 100 people to K Palm beach in Mpatta Sub County, Mukono District. UPDF and Police marines working with the local people have so far retrieved bodies of over 30 people and over 26 people rescued with several others still missing. In a letter to Sadala Musoke, the managing director Nation Oil Distributes, the Acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of works Benon Kajuna said it has been found necessary to utilize the services of MV Kalangala to assist salvage the capsized vessel and recover the remaining trapped bodies. The letter comes at a time when several marine vessels of the security agencies failed to retrieve the remaining dead bodies from the lake. People moving to and from Kalangala using the Port Alice Entebbe Kalangala route are now advised to use the remaining SENCATA boat to reach their final destination. According to Kajuna MV Kalangala will return after retrieving the capsized vessel. Related Stories.. More than 30 bodies retrieved from the #LakeVictoriaBoatAccident Govt declares Friday a National mourning day #LakeVictoriaBoatAccident NOTICE: TO BE CLEAR: WE HAVE OUTLINED UNDER OUR RECORD MAINTENANCE POLICY WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE A FAIR PROCESS FOR ALL. SIMPLY PUT: IF THE COURT SAW FIT TO EXPUNGE YOUR RECORD,SO WILL WE, FREE OF CHARGE. ARRESTS DO NOT IMPLY GUILT AND CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE MERELY ACCUSATIONS,EVERYONE IS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW AND CONVICTED. FCRA DISCLAIMER: MUGSHOTS.COM DOES NOT PROVIDE CONSUMER REPORTS AND IS NOT A CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY. 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WE BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO PUBLISH UNPOPULAR SPEECH. OPEN RECORD LAWS WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC; BY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF ARRESTS AND TO HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ARRESTEES. MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE... FNB announced that it will now offer customers the ability to conduct ATM transactions using a Tap and PIN method. This functionality removes the need for customers to insert their card into an ATM, instead allowing them to tap their NFC-compatible bank card and enter their PIN to complete the transaction. FNB estimates that the Tap and PIN feature will reduce the time it takes to make a withdrawal by up to 20 seconds per transaction. Additionally, this method of interacting with ATMs protects FNB customers from card-skimming devices. In the last three years, consumers have processed approximately R1 billion worth of contactless payments from five million transactions on FNB issued credit and debit cards alone, said FNB Retail CEO Raj Makanjee. The frequency of use by consumers has grown by between 100% and 300% on our Credit and Debit cards respectively, highlighting the confidence of our customers in adopting new and secure payment methods. He added that 8.5 million FNB customers now have contactless-enabled debit and credit cards. Contactless payments offer substantial benefits in an era where consumers and retailers want to avoid long queues, Makanjee said. The bank said this functionality is currently available at 100 FNB ATMs, with more set to be upgraded during 2019. Now read: FNB and fintech startup partner to connect informal traders MTN South Africa CEO Godfrey Motsa announced that the mobile operator will reach 90% 4G population coverage by the end of the year. Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg, Motsa said when MTN reaches this coverage figure by the end of 2018 more than 50 million South Africans will be covered by its 4G network. He added that MTN will be the first in South Africa to reach this 4G milestone and the acceleration of MTNs 4G network in South Africa is unprecedented and has been much faster than that of previous technologies. At the end of 2015, MTNs mobile network had 4G network coverage for 5 million South Africans. Detractors will tell you that we only roll out 4G in rich areas, but that is not true for MTN, Motsa said. He said that MTNs number of rural sites shows its dedication to providing coverage across the country and not just in major metros. Fibre network Motsa also stressed the importance of a good fibre backbone to deliver widespread coverage in South Africa. For us, it doesnt just stop with the radio access network, we also need a strong fibre network, he said. MTN South Africa has more than 18,000km of fibre infrastructure in South Africa. The fibre network we have today in the country is the biggest after Telkom, Motsa said. He said MTNs fibre network is very important to its continued growth, and the operator sees it as complementary to its radio network. Infrastructure sharing Motsa also spoke about MTNs new roaming deal with Cell C, stating that it is about infrastructure sharing in the industry allowing Cell C to greatly improve its 4G population coverage while also benefiting MTN. He noted that Cell C has improved its 4G population coverage from percentages in the 30s to above 80% in a very short time due to the roaming deal with MTN. I want to emphasise the point that MTN is open to sharing in commercially-agreeable arrangements, Motsa said. MTN said its competition with other mobile operators to reach 100% population coverage is a great driver towards a better customer experience. There is a huge battle between us and other mobile operators to reach 100% 4G coverage in South Africa, Motsa said. He added that if the governments WOAN plan is implemented without consideration for infrastructure competition, prices of mobile data could suffer. The idea of opening our wholesale network at cost will disincentivize us from improving our infrastructure, Motsa said. We believe that if you undermine infrastructure competition, you will hurt prices. A hybrid model meets government objectives and industry objectives. Now read: MTN vs Vodacom disappearing airtime tests The South African education system has come under heavy criticism in recent years, including being labeled one of the worst in the world. The requirements to pass matric have been said to be getting easier each year, and the requirements to get into university to study a bachelors degree were lowered in South Africa in March 2018. Maths is one of the more important subjects when it comes to preparing pupils for university, and getting into a range of degrees, but South Africas maths levels have dropped significantly according to experts like former University of the Free State vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen. Jansen previously warned matric students that passing Grade 12 in South Africa is actually quite easy, and it means very little. This is because the exams are too easy and do not test students as they should. This includes maths papers. What maths teachers say To find out what the state of maths is, MyBroadband asked a maths teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, whether matric maths standards have dropped over the years. Papers today are a mix between the old Higher Grade and Standard Grade papers, but they are definitely of a higher level overall than Standard Grade used to be, said the teacher. Government papers leading up to 2016 were more comparable to Higher Grade maths papers, but have now dropped in level a bit. The Association for Mathematics Education in SA (AMESA) echoes this view. After the 2017 matric maths results were released, AMESA analysed the 2017 question papers. Its conclusion was that while the papers were well-balanced, they were marginally easier than the 2016 papers. Another teacher told MyBroadband that average learners with a good grasp of the basics should be able to pass maths currently, but to achieve 70% or more, learners would need to score well on more difficult questions. These questions compare very well with the more difficult questions in the old Higher Grade papers, he said. There is no doubt that we still have a number of challenging topics and the recent National Senior Certificate papers contained plenty of unusual questions which would have suited only the more capable learners. Students are underprepared HOD of the Wits School of Mathematics Professor Betsie Jonck, however, stated that students are entering universities underprepared. The old [Higher Grade] did a much better job, said Jonck. The curriculum is wide, but not deep enough. She added that students undergraduate studies are where a lot of catching up happens. The ideal would have been an extra year to prepare students well before their degree studies, she said. The DAs Shadow Minister of Basic Education Nomsa Marchesi is more critical of how maths education has been handled by the government. Since 1995, South Africa has performed very poorly in the TIMSS subjects, especially in Maths and Science, said Marchesi. The 2015 TIMSS results have shown that South Africa continues to perform very poorly and was ranked second last in Maths. In order to avoid bottlenecks, dropouts, and repeats, the department has decided to implement bizarre progression policies to ensure that enough learners were pushed through the system. A comparison between maths questions from the 1998 matric exams, and those from 2018, are shown below. 1998 vs 2018 Algebra 1998 vs 2018 Geometry 1998 vs 2018 Calculus Now read: The 4 graphs which show how much trouble South Africa is really in City of Joburg Mayor Herman Mashaba has warned that if the illegal mining threat in Johannesburg is not taken seriously, there will be deadly consequences. Mashaba made the statement in response to the Department of Mineral Resources stating there was no immediate threat to critical infrastructure as has been claimed. The claims follow a report by the Sunday Times that Johannesburg is on the brink of a disaster as illegal miners run rampant underneath the city. Besides instability of the ground created by illegal mining, Transnet and Sasol have come forward to warn of the potential looming disaster as illegal miners are using explosives to blast rock underground and are coming within metres of gas and fuel lines. Mashaba said that the latest statement by the Department of Mineral Resources was misleading, and he has been writing to several government departments for help on the matter for over a year with no response. Mashaba said the threats posed by illegal mining in the city are: Pipelines carrying gas and fuel are at risk, potentially putting residents and city employees in danger. Risks of contamination of the citys water supply. Illegal mining has resulted in tremors, which risk the structural integrity of roads, residential communities, and businesses. Illegal mining has compromised the pillars that support decommissioned mines, placing a risk of imminent collapse of the mine. He added that of significance is the Nasrec precinct where the pipelines intersects with Sasol gas lines. Investigations have revealed that if illegal mining activity continues within these old mining shafts, the entire FNB Nasrec precinct, including the iconic FNB stadium, could go down in ruins as a result of unstable earth directly underneath the area, said Mashaba. The widespread use of explosives in decommissioned mines could have disastrous consequences for the residents of Johannesburg and may lead to large scale loss of life. Now read: Government to assess illegal mining risks in Joburg Napa County hopes to take advantage of recently passed Proposition 68 to buy the 850 acres of hilly, oak-sprinkled land it leases from the state for Skyline Wilderness Park. State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, plans to introduce legislation that would authorize the state Department of General Services to negotiate with the county on a sale price. Whether the two parties could reach a deal is another matter. Simply to have an opportunity to negotiate with the state for the land, the county needs a bill to pass the Legislature and win the signature of governor-to-be Gavin Newsom. Theres always a possibility that something happens thats out of our control, Dodd said on Monday. But as I sit here today, given the past history and whats going on, I would expect it to pass. The bill will probably be introduced in the Legislature at the end of the year, Dodd said. Then it would proceed through the various legislative steps during 2019 and, if successful, would become law on Jan. 1, 2020. Skyline Wilderness Park is along Imola Avenue southeast of the city of Napa. It has 25 miles of trails that lead to hills with views of the Bay Area and the Napa Valley. One popular hike leads to tiny Lake Marie. Napa County leases the land from California for $100 annually. The 50-year agreement that began in 1980 expires in February 2030, and the county has long sought to buy the land. Park advocates have voiced concerns that the states long-term plans there may not include a park. The county sees an opportunity over the next few years. Proposition 68, the $4 billion bond measure passed by voters last June, will make competitive grants available for parks. Thats a potential funding source for Skyline purchase money. Skyline could be owned by either Napa County or by the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District, the countys proposed 2019 state legislative platform says. The county as a condition of the purchase would ensure that the land is used as a park in perpetuity. Napa County has tried to buy the Skyline land before. Legislation passed in 2010 authorized negotiations between the state and county over Skyline. The county had an appraisal done to arrive at a sale price, but state General Services wanted to submit its own appraisal. It never did so and the legislation expired in January 2015, county Open Space District General Manager John Woodbury told the Napa Valley Register in 2016. State Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, introduced legislation co-sponsored by then Assemblyman Dodd in 2016 authorizing the resumption of negotiations. But the bill died and Wolk left office that year. The state Department of Hospitals is creating a master plan for its five hospital campuses. Given Skyline is adjacent to Napa State Hospital, the state in 2016 didnt want to sell the park land before knowing if the hospital would expand. Whether a similar dynamic will play out this time remains to be seen. Thats really going to be the challenge for us in the next few years, Supervisor Ryan Gregory said during the Nov. 16 county legislative subcommittee meeting. Napa Countys position is the Skyline land has never really been a part of Napa State Hospital, Deputy County Executive Officer Molly Rattigan said. Dodd said he doesnt know of any pending state plans to use the Skyline land for Napa State Hospital. Selling the land to the county would support the states policy of encouraging parks and open space in communities, he said. Skyline Wilderness Park is run on behalf of the county by the nonprofit Skyline Park Citizens Association. 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. Napa will begin its annual hydrant flushing program next week, with water lines in Browns Valley, Alta Heights and downtown areas regions to be cleaned out by next April. This procedure removes particles and minerals that have settled over time and flushes them out of the system. This program may cause periods of discolored water and reduced water pressure in localized areas where flushing is being conducted, the city said in a news release. The water will remain safe to use and generally clears within a few hours after flushing has been completed. Residents should monitor their water prior to starting laundry, especially when washing white clothes. Although customers will continue to have water service during this program, flushing operations may activate low-pressure alarms on automatic fire sprinkler systems due to temporary reductions in water pressure. Commercial customers, especially businesses that serve the public, should be aware of the water quality while flushing is taking place in their area. The hydrant flushing staff will be using dechlorination tablets to remove chlorine in the water before the water goes into the storm drain system and eventually into the Napa River. Due to the high volume of water flowing from the hydrants, the dechlorination tablets may cause some bubbling of the water, giving it a soapy appearance. The tablets are environmentally safe and are being used to protect the river, the city said. This years program will start with Zone 4 (Browns Valley, then Alta Heights), then Zone 1the central downtown area from Lincoln Ave in the north to the Marina south of Imola Avenue. The Water Division will update the citys website regularly to provide a map of the region being flushed each day and a map of the region that will be flushed next to help keep the public up to date on the procedures progress. The flushing program maps and updates can be found at: www.cityofnapa.org/water Contact the City of Napa Water Division at 707-257 9521 with any questions or concerns. 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. PORTLAND, Ore. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has recommended for a California winery to lose its licenses to distribute wine or do retail business within the state. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports commission executive director Steven Marks sent a letter to the owner of Rutherford, California,-based Copper Cane LLC, saying multiple violations of Oregon labeling regulations were found. The winery was accused of putting misleading labels on wines to make it appear they were produced in Oregon. Regulations require labels to list Oregon as only the appellation of origin when the grapes cross into California. Owner Joe Wagner says new Copper Cane labels will clearly state that the grapes are grown in Oregon and the wines are made in California. The winery has until Dec. 20 to request a hearing on the commission charges. Politicians are marking the 40th anniversary of Harvey Milk and George Moscone's assassinations today with ceremonies in San Francisco and Oakland. Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and served until his assassination in 1978. He was known as a leader in the LGBT movement and the first openly gay American to be elected into public office. Moscone was a state senator before being elected as mayor in 1975. He and Milk were killed by Dan White, who had recently resigned from the Board of Supervisors. Mayor London Breed issued a statement today honoring the two slain politicians. "Supervisor Harvey Milk's impact was transformative not just for San Francisco, but the nation. His very presence on the Board of Supervisors as the first openly gay elected official in California opened the doors of opportunity for future leaders in our LGBT community," Breed said. "Mayor George Moscone made many contributions leading the city where he was born and raised, including his work to make our government reflect the diversity and backgrounds of the people of San Francisco," she said. "As a black woman who served as a commissioner before becoming supervisor, I know these opportunities opened up paths for people like me to serve our city in ways that were not possible before." State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who is gay and a former San Francisco supervisor, also issued a statement marking the anniversary. "I had the honor of representing Harvey's old district on the Board of Supervisors. For those of us who are LGBT and serving in elected office, Harvey continues to be an inspiration and role model for what it means to be out, proud, and making change in our communities," he said. Breed and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman will host a commemorative event at San Francisco City Hall at 12:30 p.m. along with former Mayor Willie Brown, Cleve Jones and members of the Moscone family. At tonight's Oakland City Council meeting, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland's first openly lesbian councilmember, will offer an "in memoriam" to honor Milk's legacy. "Harvey Milk was an inspiration and role model for me," Kaplan said in a statement. "His outspoken leadership, commitment to justice and hope, and proud fight for LGBT rights while also actively working with broad coalitions for workers' rights and racial and social justice, have helped inform my own work and been a beacon of hope to many." This years California wildfires have been the most destructive in state history, killing at least 100 people and burning nearly 1.7 million acres. The 2017 wildfires, which included major conflagrations in Napa County, were the second-most destructive. Given the growing frequency of such events, the decision to allow people to rebuild is controversial. Some say that rebuilding puts an unfair burden on taxpayers and insurance policyholdersparticularly those not living in fire-prone areasto shoulder the reconstruction costs. State and local officials largely side with homeowners who want to rebuild. The state has clamped down on insurers that want to raise rates or drop homeowners seeking to rebuild. And local officials have expedited the building permit process, clearing the way for reconstruction. For people who have rebuilt, or who are in the process of doing so, the new fires conjure not only scary reminders, but second thoughts about whether they made the right decision in opting to return. Still, many are determined to see their communities rise from the ashes, saying: Where else would we go? Starting over after a wildfire is far from simple. Yes, theres the recognition that the most precious thingscollectibles, heirlooms, photos, souvenirscan never be replaced. And, yes, theres a sense of excitement in building a new home. But dealing with the trauma of the losses while reconstructing a home, neighborhood and community nearly from scratch can be emotionally daunting and overwhelming, residents say. Last year in Santa Rosa, as chunky embers fell around her car, and houses caught fire as she was evacuating, Tricia Woods, 47, was convinced that shed be returning to her Northern California community. Its still not in my head right now that my house is burning downright noweven though it was, she said, describing the cognitive dissonance she felt as she was fleeing with her three children. A year later, construction is well underway on her do-over home in Coffey Park, a residential neighborhood in northern Santa Rosa where more than 1,200 homes were burned. Its been a bittersweet journey. She lost everything inside. She was underinsured. But everyone was safe. Woods said she views the rebuilding as an opportunity to create not exactly a dream home, but a better home for where she is now in life. Im a silver-lining girl, she said during a break between classes at the school where she teaches. A year after the Tubbs Fire, which together with the other Northern California fires in fall 2017 killed 44 people and caused billions of dollars in damage across multiple counties, many lots in Santa Rosa are empty. A handful of houses have been rebuilt, and some, like Woods, are somewhere in between. People who decided to rebuild face several common challenges. A labor and material shortage. Confusion about debris removal. An increase in material costs because of tariffs. Some insurance companies no longer providing coverage. And a loss so widespread, many who would have been in a position to help with rebuilding effortsarchitects, lawyerswere themselves affected, causing still more delays. Mike Behler, owner of Behler Construction in Santa Rosa, said a series of updated fire-safety building codes were enacted several years ago, and there have been no new codes in these fires aftermath. In wildlife-urban interface zones, which are in rural areas of Sonoma County, homes use tempered glass, fire-resistant siding and decking, sprinklers, gutter covers to keep leaves out and, in some cases, water storage, he said. Behler said hes also observed people making new homes more fire-resistant on their ownusing plaster and metal instead of wood, for example. All the houses will definitely have upgraded systems, he said. For 12 years, Chris Keys, 43, was homeless, battling a drug addiction. In 2017, he was healthy, married, employed, a father of three, and living in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Fountaingrove, east of Coffey Park. When he got word his house had burned, he said he thought, Here we go again. He moved his family into his office for a few nights. Eventually, they resettled in a rental. When he started thinking about rebuilding, he froze. Hed never designed a house, and it was the last thing he wanted to do, under the circumstances. His wife was even less interested: [She]would tell you, Just put a roof up and four walls and let us move in, he said. That echoes what Keith Woods, chief executive officer of the North Coast Builders Exchange, a trade group, said: When he speaks to groups, he asks people to raise their hands if theyve ever built a house from the ground up. Not picking floors from one of several options in a plan home, but working out every single detail, every step of the way. Im going to say less than 1 percent have been through that, Keith Woods (no relation to Tricia Woods) said. The huge learning curve, paired with the emotional damage and the uncertaintyabout timelines, budgets, regulationsmake building a house after a fire that much harder. Keys asked an architect friend for the blueprint to his own house, which Keys liked, and a list of suggested tweaks. His new house, in the early stages of construction, will have four bedrooms (same as before) and roughly the same size: about 2,900 square feet. The previous house, built in the 1970s, had a step-down living room, but the new ground floor will be all on one level. They will move the laundry room upstairs, expand a half-bath into a full bath and add a large porch, because his wife always wants a Southern-style veranda. The biggest change is adding a one-bedroom unit of about 600 square feet, which might bring rental income, house any of their aging parents or serve as lodging for their autistic son one day. They incentivized it to the point where youd be kind of stupid not to do it, he said of the extra unit. Every decision Keys and his wife, Sara, made was with an eye to the homes resale value. Were choosing to look into the future, kind of like what a city council would do with a general plan for the city. Im trying to find out whats going to be standard in 20 years. And thats where were spending our resources. There was one exception. The master bathroom was the only thing we decided to be super-selfish on. Because we need that, he said. With three children, the bathroom was the only place we get some alone time. They splurged on a double Jacuzzi tub and installed a rain forest shower head. Financially, they are making sacrifices. They bought their old house on an 8,900-square-foot lot for $575,000 in May 2015. They used insurance money$485,000 for the house and $318,000 of their contentsfor the rebuilding. Keys said theyll fill the inside over time. Speaking about the loss as he faced his now-empty lot, the sun shining on a fall afternoon, Keys said the hardest part has been the emotional aspect. Trying to recover from something like this, there are no silver linings that are silver enough. And Ive been homeless, on the streets. . . . I would go months at a time without anybody knowing my name. Woods, the trade group leader, said less than 5 percent of people will rebuild the home they lost. But for those who do, he said: Now is their chance to upgrade that kitchen, add a bath, make a game room. People who bought properties decades ago now want to age in place, so theyre modifying their floor plans to ditch the second story, he said. Plan homes are costing roughly $250 per square foot, he said, while custom homes are costing $400 to $500 per square foot or morewith prices shooting up for luxury features. Ray Willett, principal of TBE Architecture of Santa Rosa, a firm that is rebuilding nine homes lost in the fires, said people want smaller, more efficient houses. Its trending down, in terms of square footage, he said. People are also looking to create an opportunity for income, he said, such as with accessory rental units. Stylistically, funky Tudor styles are going away, and hes seeing more interest in Eichler looks. Tricia Woods, a seventh-grade teacher, sat her children down after the fire and asked them what they wanted in a new house. Her oldest, a teenager with a foot out the door, said he didnt care. Her middle son, 15, answered: a wardrobe instead of a closet. Im like, it still takes up the same amount of space, kid, she said with a chuckle. And her daughter, 13, wanted a secret Murphy door that looks like a bookcase, which connects to her mothers bedroom. A reflection, Woods said, of her fear and insecurity since the fire. For Woods, too, the rebuild has been a chance to identify what matters to her now. I designed it for me, she said. This is where I plan to live. An entertainer who loves to cook, she knew immediately that the kitchen would be her focus. She chose Himalayan Moon quartz counters, off-white with flecks of beige and gray. There will be a large island with a raised bar and a window above the kitchen sink, so she can look into the yard when shes washing vegetables or preparing one of her favorites, polenta with sugo. She tweaked the facade, opting for a Craftsman looka long desired upgrade from the very boring tract home with wood siding and no architectural detail she had before. The rest of the new house will closely resemble the old: four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths. She added 400 square feet by pushing out a wall, because it cost the same as indenting it. The plan was to include an outdoor room in the back, but thats on hold until she can afford it. She bought her old house in 2015 for $512,000, and it is costing $756,000 to rebuild. And thats not including the lot, Woods said. Shes financing the first phase with a $50,000 loan from her IRA and a $200,000 insurance settlement for the contents of the burned house. She is still waiting for funds for the burned structure, to finish the project. Like Keys, shes adding a front porch. After knocking on neighbors doors the night their lives changed and banding together in the next chapter, they want to keep in better touch. So many of us put front porches on our homes. None of the houses used to have front porches, Woods said. Did you catch what Elle Snow said earlier this month? She is a human trafficking survivor and founder of Game Over who spoke Nov. 8 at a joint Soroptimist forum in St. Helena. Snow was targeted by a pimp and turned into a prostitute. She was targeted. A nice guy with a nice car showed interest in her when she was 19 and working three jobs. They went on a few dates and then, when he had his claws in her, he moved back home to Sacramento. He called her every day and found out all about her by design, for the express purpose of trafficking her. This didnt happen overnight, but it did happen. For eight months she lived in a world that she hadnt known existed. And shes lucky to have escaped it. One of the slides in Snows presentation detailed how a trafficker defines a target. These 12 characteristics are instructive and just a start. They are: Any vulnerability Lack of supervision Disabilities Drug addiction Sex industry involvement Economic struggles Marginalized people LGBTQ community People of color Homeless/runaways Foster youth Previous abuse During the presentation, Snow told her story and I cant get it out of my head. At 19, she seemed like such a normal young woman, and she was. She was targeted. And turned into a prostitute. Until she was 6 or 7, Snow said she was very privileged. Then, her father developed a brain tumor and did not go to the doctor. Instead, he turned to alcohol. Things only got worse, and he abandoned his family, a wife and five children. They moved from Oregon to Humboldt County, where they lived in poverty. When I was 10, my older brother started showing signs of psychosis, Snow said. Hurting and killing animals. Then, he turned to hurting Snow and two younger children. Snow said it was her duty to protect her younger siblings. A year later, she came forward and told the authorities that her uncle, who was a registered sex offender, had molested her, not once, but an unknown number of times. Thankfully, Snow said, she was believed not everyone who comes forward is believed. By the time she was 15, Snow was working, and three years later, she was living in rural Humboldt County, working three jobs, including managing a restaurant. She met a guy, who was attractive, clean cut, smart and smooth. He had a good car. The two went out a couple of times and at 19, she thought he was the perfect man. In fact, he was too good to be true. He left Humboldt County and went back to Sacramento Snow never asked much about him, including why he had so much time to be with her. They talked every day for about a month and he wanted to know all about Snow. First, the questions were simple, such as, whats your favorite music? but then they got personal, Wheres your Dad? and Tell me all about the abuse you suffered from your uncle? and What did your uncle look like, what clothes did he wear, how did he wear his hair? At the end of the month, he wanted to take Snow away for a three-day vacation. He picked her up, met Snows mom, shook her hand, and Snow said when they arrived at their destination, it was nighttime. I didnt know enough to pay attention to the address, she said. At some point during the evening, they drank a little bit and the boyfriend showed Snow his gun. They went to bed. The next morning, I woke up and then entered a whole new world that I didnt know existed, Snow said. There was a man standing in front of her, holding a skirt and high heels. He told me to get up, it was time to get to work. Over the next couple of days, Snow found out there was no way out the men took her shoes and wallet, threatened her life and threatened the lives of her family. If I didnt do this, Snow was told, the men would take my 14-year-old sister. Shortly thereafter, the men moved her to a brothel in Walnut Creek. They told Snow that being a prostitute is just what she was made for, that she was oversexualized, and thats why her uncle molested her. The man running the brothel looked exactly like her uncle. By design. To terrorize and abuse Snow. Three of the women in the brothel were lined up and every half hour, there was another man who wanted sex. The men broke Snow in, she said, just like a cowboy would break in a horse. Then, she was trafficked throughout the Bay Area. She escaped twice and was successful the second time by calling law enforcement. I ended up quitting that day, she said, when she was 21 or 22. In 2014, she testified against her boyfriend, the man who turned into her pimp, and he was sentenced for 10 years, although he served only four. He was released from prison earlier this year. I found out it was called sex trafficking, she told the crowd in St. Helena. I thought I was a criminal, a prostitute. Snow founded Game Over, a nonprofit, anti-sex trafficking organization. In addition to helping survivors and raising local awareness, Game Over is currently training residents, service providers, foster parents and law enforcement to recognize the signs of sex trafficking throughout the nation. For more information, call 707-382-5360 or visit itsgameover.org. The National Human Trafficking Hotline is 1-888-373-7888 or text Be Free to 233733. Snows talk was sponsored by Soroptimist International of St. Helena and St. Helena Sunrise. Both groups are committed to stopping human trafficking. David Stoneberg is editor of the St. Helena Star. Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Donald Trump and his Republican Party were obviously big losers in this months California election. But so was a loose confederation of civil rights, public school reform and charter school advocates, most of whose leaders are Democrats. The reformers, at times dubbed the Equity Coalition, pumped many millions of dollars into supporting former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas campaign for governor and Marshall Tucks second effort at becoming the states superintendent of public instruction. Democrat Villaraigosa fell short in the June primary of getting into a two-candidate duel with Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who easily bested Republican John Cox in November. Democrat Tuck survived the June primary but lost this month, albeit very narrowly, to another Democrat, Richmond Assemblyman Tony Thurmond. Both contests were major skirmishes in a years-long political war pitting the reformist groups against Californias education establishment, led by the California Teachers Association, which is also joined at the hip with the state Democratic Party. The party had officially endorsed both Newsom and Thurmond in their intraparty duels. Had Villaraigosa and/or Tuck prevailed, the reform faction would have had officials in place to support their positions in the war over how the states six million K-12 students are educated. The reformers say better management and more parental options, such as charter schools, are needed to raise Californias very low performance on national academic tests and close the achievement gap that separates poor and English learner students from their more privileged classmates. The establishment argues that the key to better outcomes is more money. This years elections may mean that the war continues to be fought out in the Legislature, local school boards, the state school board which is appointed by the governor and in the courts. However, its also possible that some compromises may be reached. A week after the Nov. 6 election an organization calling itself the Alliance for Continuous Improvement, co-chaired by Eric Heins, president of the California Teachers Association, but including some of members of the reform coalition, issued a call for an eight-point school improvement action plan. It wants more money, of course, calling on Newsom to raise per-pupil spending to the level of the 10 top states which would cost tens of billions of dollars more each year. A recent comprehensive study of the states schools, overseen by Stanford University, says that raising per-pupil financing to a level needed to meet state academic goals would cost about $25 billion more a year, 36 percent higher than current spending. Other goals include addressing a looming shortage of teachers, expanding early childhood education an oft-stated Newsom priority and creating a comprehensive data system to let policymakers know whats working well in the classroom and whats not. The action plan doesnt directly address the issues that have dominated the years-long war, including more accountability for how money to close the achievement gap is being spent, more accountability for effectiveness of the Local Control Funding Formula that provides that money, and the status of charter schools. Having been burned badly in this years voting, the reformist faction must now decide whether to continue to press its issues in other venues, such as the courts, or back off until the new governor and the new schools superintendent have had a chance to show their true colors. The fates of six million kids and a state that needs an educated citizenry and workforce hang in the balance. EU, WHO provide Yerevan's Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center with state-of-the-art X-ray machine Armenian soldier found dead on Armenia's border in Tavush Province had been drafted in February (PHOTO) What Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia really said in response to Russian journalist's question Analyst: Iran's accession to EEU will create serious counterbalance to Turkey and strengthen Armenia's positions Armenia FM holds phone talks with Iranian counterpart Firefighters put out fire in Range Rover Sport near night club in Yerevan Putin discusses current situation in Karabakh during phone talks with European Council President Armenia's Liberation Movement holding march after rally, calling on citizens to join Greek City Times: Azeri military captured the historic Armenian city of Shushi Georgia says it's not considering possibility of joining '3+3' regional format Union of Armenia National Security Service's Reserve Officers in favor of fulfillment of Liberation Movement's demands Armenia, Russia FMs hold phone talks Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of another serviceman found in Mataghis Armenia's ex-Ambassador to Iran appointed Advisor to PM Armenia's Pashinyan receives Russia Deputy PM, unblocking of communications discussed Armenia FM presents situation created after Azerbaijani aggression during phone talks with Tajik counterpart Armenia convict dies from COVID-19 at medical center Armenia Syunik Province's community heads: Nikol Pashinyan said there won't be corridor NEWS.am daily digest: 24.11.21 Newly appointed Ambassador of Germany to Armenia presents credentials to Armen Sarkissian Armenia Armavir Province governor sacked Armenia MOD: Conscript's body found at combat position, with lethal firearm injury in head area US has invited 110 countries to Summit for Democracy in December, including Armenia Requiem Service for Armenian statesman Vano Siradeghyan to be held on Dec. 3 Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker meets with Argentina Ambassador Armenia FM presents situation created as a result of Azerbaijan's aggression to Germany's new Ambassador Armenia PM receives community heads of Syunik Province Armenia ex-deputy economy minister appointed member of Eurasian Economic Commission's Advisory Board Exchange rates in Armenia Another plane heads to Baku through Armenian airspace Ambassador: Armenia may play major role in development of Iran-Eurasian Economic Union cooperation Details of Overchuk-Aliyev meeting reported 3 children hospitalized in Yerevan with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning UAE-Iran-Turkey corridor to officially start functioning after visit of Emirates officials to Tehran Sweden elected a female PM for the 1st time in history Konstantin Ishkhanov: EUFSC determined to continue presenting very best in classical music Trade Representative of Russia in Armenia: Eurasian Union and Iran are interested in using North-South direction Human Rights Watch calls on Poland to end violence against migrants Apple confirms: Eavesdropping is carried out by Pegasus spy program in Armenia WTI crude oil prices rise by close of trading in US COVID-19 in Armenia: 28 new deaths Policemen apprehend protesters who close Yerevan subway entrances Apple suspends sales of devices in Turkey due to collapse of local currency Court session kicks off as Serzh Sargsyan sues Khachatur Sukiasyan Russian peacekeepers clear nearly 2 hectares of land in Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian PM: Remains of Vano Siradeghyan will be transferred to Armenia soon Armenian PM: 40-45 square kilometer territories of Armenia under Azerbaijani control after Azerbaijan's May 12 attack Armenia premier says what the heaviest blow was during his term of office, adds that it's not the defeat in the war Armenia PM: I had planned to deliver a message on circumstances of war and negotiations on Nov. 9 PM: Armenia decides road through which communication between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan will be ensured Armenia PM: Karabakh conflict settlement and unblocking of communications shouldn't be discussed in '3+3' format Pashinyan fails to clearly state whether Armenia applied to Russia and CSTO in writing in regard to Nov. 16 attack Armenia PM: Azerbaijan is trying to turn the region into a jungle Pashinyan: Armenia and Azerbaijan recognized each other's territorial integrity when they acceded to CIS in 1991 Pashinyan: If government of Armenia was a giver, there wouldn't be shootings Armenia PM: 32 servicemen were captured on Nov. 16, according to unverified information PM: It's the first time that direct communication is established between Armenian and Azerbaijani defense ministers Armenian premier: Armenia will not give in to that policy of blackmail Armenia PM answers question about online meeting with Azerbaijani leader on Nov. 9 Armenia PM on upcoming meetings with Azerbaijan President in Brussels and Sochi Azerbaijani plane flies from Nakhchivan to Baku through Armenia's airspace (PHOTOS) Armenia PM is giving a press conference Armenian demining experts demine 2,000,000 square meters of territory in Damascus along with UNMAS Armenia opposition movement holding march in Yerevan, calling on citizens to join NEWS.am daily digest: 23.11.21 Russian analyst: Karabakh's regions under Azerbaijan's control are becoming a serious problem for Aliyev Stepanakert: Azerbaijan intends to create terrorists training centers in Karabakhs territories Iran and Georgia hold talks on creation of Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor Israeli FM demands Turkey to close offices of Hamas movement Opposition MP: Situation in Armenia's judiciary is impacting security issues Armenia PM calls UN Under-Secretary-General's attention to facts of destruction of Armenian heritage Ruling party MP: If Russia's proposals are acceptable for Armenian premier, they are in Armenia's interests Putin, Pashinyan and Aliyev to hold talks in Sochi on November 26 Armenia Ombudsman: Baku's Armenophobia is policy aimed at maintaining hostility between two peoples around the world Karabakh National Security Service: Citizen gets lost, in territory under Azerbaijani control, taken into custody ECHR awards 5,000 each to judges detained in Turkey after 2016 putsch American Center of US Embassy in Yerevan sends more than 5,000 Armenian library items to United States Iranian Ambassador to Turkey: Iran supports '3+3' regional format Azerbaijan MOD thanks Turkish ASELSAN's CEO for equipment used during war against Karabakh Armenia MOD receives Russia Ambassador and embassy's Defense Attache MFA: Armenia has informed Moscow about its willingness to normalize relations with Turkey without preconditions UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues calls US a nation of paradoxes Armenian parliamentary commission honors memory of soldier who died yesterday Alen Simonyan briefs Gerard Larcher over continuing aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan China and Russia are discussing details of Putin's possible visit to Beijing Olympics Yerevan court rejects motion to apply to Constitutional Court due to lack of procedures for overcoming MP's immunity Criminal case initiated into death of Armenian soldier Employee of Norabak village council on exchange of fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, issue of wounded soldiers Russian peacekeepers donate humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh Coronavirus in Armenia: 48 new deaths 116 million AMD assistance to minors with disabilities in Shirak Province from Mikayel Vardanyan Armenian soldier who died in Armenia's Gegharkunik Province was Yezdi by nationality, was in army for a year Taliban want to establish 'fraternal' ties with Turkey Letter addressed to UN Security Council President about Azerbaijani attack published as SC official document Armenia, India to end process of mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccination certificates soon Syrian mercenaries who fought on Azerbaijani side during 44-day war complaining about not having received 'salaries' Armenia Ombudsman: Videos about captured Armenian servicemen being explored, translated from Azerbaijani and identified Armenia National Academy of Sciences Physiology Institute wins Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's grant Armenian MFA on news about Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker receives ARF-D Lebanon Central Committee member Hagop Pakradouni YEREVAN.- The examination of the complaint to overturn the decision of eliminating the pre-trial detention as preventive measure for 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan on the basis of immunity has been postponed for preparing a petition for the judge to recuse himself, Kocharyans lawyer Hayk Alumyan told the reporters. The judge gave us time until 17:45 for preparing the petition for him to recuse himself. We worked on the petition but could not meet the deadline. For that reason the judge has given us extra time until 12:00, November 28, Alumyan said. Second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan was charged within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenias constitutional order, in conspiracy with others. On July 27, Kocharyan was remanded in custody for two months by a court decision. But on August 13, the Court of Appeal granted Robert Kocharyans legal defenders appeal to commute the first-instance courts decision on remanding their client in custody, and Kocharyan was released from courtroom on the grounds that he had presidential immunity. Both the Prosecutor Generals Office and the defense, however, appealed this decision. In addition, the defense argued that there were other grounds too for the release of their client. On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities of Armenia used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the then recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day. Dr. Felicia Marie Knaul, professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and director of UMs Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas, is in Reykjavik, Iceland, participating in the Women Leaders Global Forum, a three-day event exploring ideas and solutions to further advance society, increase equality between women and men, and promote and positively develop the number of women in leadership positions. The inaugural event began Monday and concludes Wednesday. Knaul, UM's First Lady, is presenting a talk Wednesday titled, The Power of Beauty, which is scheduled to take place at 9:35 a.m. Eastern time. CBS News is live streaming the event, which can be found here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/women-leaders-global-forum-watch-live/ Felicia Knaul (right) with Vigdis Finnbogadottir, former president of Iceland, and her daughter, Mariana Frenk Knaul, who is attending as a delegate of the forum's Girls2Leaders initiative. The forum will be held annually and is hosted by Women Political Leaders and the Government and Parliament of Iceland. The theme for this years event is Digitalization, and how our increasingly interconnected world has changed how we live. The 400 attendees to the invitation-only event come from more than 100 countries. This is an important forum worldwide, said Knaul. Even in Iceland, which ranks first in the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Survey, there remains considerable room for progress. Evidence shows that increased participation of women in leadership positions is key to closing this gap, which will promote economic growth and gender equity. Knaul noted that a recent study showed that closing the gender gap by 25 percent by 2025 would have a positive effect on the global economy, resulting in a global bump in GDP of $5.3 trillion. The gains for Latin America and the Caribbean would be truly significant, Knaul said. I also believe that there is an important opportunity to identify the pathways to reduce discrimination and that these are important lessons to share with our students of all genders. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. HTMLCountry1 Members of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances Mr. Luciano A. Hazan (Argentina), Chair-Rapporteur, appointed in 2017 Mr. Luciano A. Hazan, of Argentina, was a member of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) for two terms (2011-2013 and 2013-2017). He was a lawyer at the Grandmothers Plaza de Mayo Association for ten years, where he coordinated its legal team and litigated several criminal cases on enforced disappearances of children abducted during the dictatorship and whose identity have been changed. Luciano Hazan also coordinated the Truth and Justice Program and was Undersecretary of Policies Against Criminality, both at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in Argentina; and served as legal counsel at the Human Rights Commission of the House of Representatives. He was a Lawyer at Active Memory, an association of the victims of the terrorist attack against AMIA in 1994, where he represented them in the case on the cover up of the crime by judicial and government officials. Hazan was also Assistant Director at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences (INECIP), and expert consultant on judicial reform at the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA). He studied Law with a mejor in Criminal Law (University of Buenos Aires) and Journalism, and has an LLM on Human Rights Law from Southwestern University Law School (Los Angeles, USA), thanks to the Fulbright-Siderman Scholarship. Currently he coordinates the Program against Institutional Violence at the Federal Public Defenders Office of Argentina. Ms Aua Balde (Guinea-Bissau), Vice-Chairperson, appointed in 2020 Ms Aua Balde has an expertise in international human rights law, in particular the African Human Rights systems, and is the author of O Sistema Africano de Direitos Humanos e a Experiencia dos Paises Africanos de Lingua Oficial Portuguesa, (UCP/2017). She has also published more broadly in human rights and her work experience reflects her expertise, including a position as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court and various roles within the United Nations system. Notably, she has worked as an Information Analyst Officer at both the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic and at the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire, as well as Political Affairs Officer for the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau. She has also worked for the NGO Tostan in Senegal and as a Legal Adviser to the Minister of Education in Guinea-Bissau. She currently holds the position of special invited lecturer and researcher at the Catholic University of Portugal, where is she a PhD candidate conducting her doctoral research in international criminal law. Ms. Balde has also been guest lecturer at several other universities for international criminal law; international humanitarian law; international human rights law, in particular the African human rights system. She has been admitted to the Portuguese and Bissau-Guinean Bar Associations. Ms. Balde holds a law degree from the Autonomous University of Lisbon, a post-graduate diploma in human rights from Coimbra University and a post-graduate diploma in international humanitarian law and human rights in conflict situations from the University of Lisbon and the National Defense Institute of Portugal. Ms. Balde also holds a masters in law degree with specialization in international human rights law from Harvard Law School. Mr. Tae-Ung Baik (Republic of Korea), appointed in 2015 Mr. Tae-Ung Baik, of Republic of Korea, is Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa. He teaches international human rights law, international criminal law, and comparative law. Before joining the law school, he taught at the Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia as assistant professor and Director of the Korean Legal Studies program. Mr. Baik was admitted to the Bar as an attorney-at-law in the State of New York. He worked for Human Rights Watch in New York as a research consultant, and served at the 56th United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights as a legal adviser to the delegation of Republic of Korea. Mr. Baik was engaged in the democracy movement in the 1980s-90s in the Republic of Korea, and had advised several human rights organizations. He serves as an editorial board member of law journals, and is the author of the book, Emerging Regional Human Rights Systems in Asia (2012). He published several articles on human rights and transitional justice issues. Mr. Baik graduated from Seoul National University College of Law. He earned his master (LL.M.) and doctoral (JSD) degrees on international human rights law from Notre Dame Law School in the U.S. He conducted research as a visiting scholar at East Asian Legal Studies, Harvard Law School. Mr. Henrikas Mickevicius (Lithuania), appointed in 2015 Henrikas Mickevicius, of Lithuania, is the founder and Senior Advisor of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute in Lithuania and teaches European law at the School of Law of Emory University, USA. He has over 35 years of experience in national and international law practice, teaching and training, democratic and legal reform, promotion and protection of human rights in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and former Soviet Union. Mr. Mickevicius has served for a number of national and international agencies, including the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Open Society Institute, and expert bodies such as the Judicial Selection Commission, the Selection Commission of Senior Public Prosecutors, the Expert Committee for the Program on Strengthening Judicial Capacity in Moldova, and the Advisory Committee on the Reform of Legal Profession in Central Asia. Mr. Mickevicius is a former judge, trial attorney litigating, inter alia, at the European Court for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, and visiting professor of law in Lithuania and the United States. He has authored numerous articles, opinion pieces, commentaries, and reports, overviews, analysis, assessments, methodologies for a number of national and international institutions. Mr. Mickevicius has been educated in Lithuania, Hungary and the United States. He holds LL.M degree from Dickinson School of Law of Pennsylvania State University, USA. Ms. Gabriella Citroni (Italy), appointed in 2021 Ms. Gabriella Citroni is Adjunct Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy). She is also lecturer at the Geneva Academy of Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (Switzerland), holding a course on Enforced Disappearances in International Law for LL.M. students. She has been invited professor and imparted courses on international human rights and transitional justice at several universities worldwide, including the university Pantheon-Assas (Paris, France), the university of Aix-Marseille (Aix-en-Provence, France), the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (Lima, Peru), and the Academia Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (Saltillo, Mexico). She has cooperated, as legal advisor, with several NGOs providing legal assistance to victims of gross human rights violations and their relatives in different countries and delivering trainings to human rights defenders and local practitioners. In this realm, she is the senior legal advisor of TRIAL International. From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Citroni was a member, as legal advisor, of the Italian delegation at the United Nations during the negotiations of the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. She researches and has published extensively on subjects related to international human rights law. She has been appointed as expert witness before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in three prominent enforced disappearance cases. Ms. Citroni has been an external consultant in charge of researching and drafting studies on issues related to enforced disappearance for different international institutions, including the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe; the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and the International Committee of the Red Cross. A list of former members is available here (scroll down to Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances). Fuck him. Reply Thread Link Mis pensamientos exactos. Pinche gringo. Reply Parent Thread Link if it's gonna be as bland as he is, then i can't see this being a successful business move also he can go fuck himself Reply Thread Link He's really an all round prize, isn't he Reply Thread Link How very George Clooney of him Reply Thread Link Room for alcohol discussion: I bought a spiced rum today called The Kraken because I'm making a pirate/map themed present set. It's supposed to have flavours of cinnamon and caramel, so I hope my brother wants to try as soon as he gets it. Bought it a liquor/spirits store that seriously had rums from 20 bucks to 70, almost an entire wall of it and I was like.. overwhelmed. Reply Thread Link Kraken is SOOOO good, especially mixed with Coke. I cant even describe it but I was shook. I havent tried it in any other mixed drinks because I am lazy Reply Parent Thread Link Ooooh, now I'm even more curious, good decision making on my side! Edited at 2018-11-27 09:05 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Ive seen that brand, love the packaging but Ive never had it (cant do rum after a bad hangover in college...) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I prefer captain Morgan for spiced rums Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lots of people like it, but it's a li'l too vanillay for me. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link A bar I go to has a frozen drink called the iron whip thats OJ, orange vodka, and vanilla vodka and it tastes like a dreamsicle but if you put a floater of kraken in it, it's like next level delish. idk how but replicate that with your bro because omg. (Also they call it a "kracked whip" and I love it) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link What is the sparkling wine equivalent of tequila? Elon leading the Blue Agave Alcoholic Beverage revolution! He should make Tesla bidets and piss off Big Bidet in Japan! Reply Thread Link oh god reading the replies to his response.... Musk Bros are something else... Reply Thread Link A South African would. Reply Thread Link lmao forreal, this is the most Musk thing he's ever done Reply Parent Thread Link thats sad huh Reply Thread Link this asshole would, fucking gringos Reply Thread Link I want to fight Elon Musk so bad. Reply Thread Link Snatch him by the hair implants Reply Parent Thread Link I'll fuck his hair up so badly Bosley is gonna want to sponsor me. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i want him gone by the end of next year Reply Thread Link Hallelujah and amen! (I've always found it ironic that the god warrior mom said this line, because it sounds exactly like what manifestation in magic is. And we all know that shit is dark sided.) Reply Parent Thread Link Seed/harvest prayer is a really big thing in American evangelical milieus (good scam mechanism to get ppl to part with their $$$) Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao I love this one!!!! Reply Parent Thread Link From your lips to god's ears Reply Parent Thread Link this needs to be used more Reply Parent Thread Link "Big Tequila" I can't wait for this guy to get his ass beat. Reply Thread Link The civil war in Syria has resulted in government-controlled areas being deprived of domestic oil. Before the war, Eastern Syria produced 95 percent of the countrys oil. Today, Syrian government forces have been forced to source oil from external actors to power the country. Last week, the Trump administration exposed a complicated scheme involving companies and individuals in Russia, Iran, and Syria working together to transport oil to the necessary areas. Sanctions have now been announced concerning those accused of participating in this complicated Iranian-Russian plan to smuggle oil. The scheme This oil smuggling scheme has, allegedly, been in place since 2014, transporting millions of barrels of oil to war-torn Syria. Damascus, in turn, has facilitated the transfer of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force to Hamas and Hezbollah. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declared Today we are acting against a complex scheme Iran and Russia have used to bolster the Assad regime and generate funds for Iranian malign activities. The critical actor within this plan has been Mohammad Amer Alchwiki and his Russia-based company, Global Vision Group. The Syrian national Alchwiki was central to both the delivery of oil to Syria and the transfer of funds via Irans Quds force to Hamas and Hezbollah. The source of the alleged malign activities is the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) which provided the money. In order to conceal the source, the CBI apparently used Iran-based Tadbir Kish Medical and Pharmaceutical Company to transfer money to Alchwikis Global Vision Company. The companies both have a bank account at the Mir Business Bank in Russia which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Irans Bank Melli. The front company is a medical organization, meaning it adheres to humanitarian needs so that sanctions do not apply. In Russia, Global Vision has an agreement with Promsyrioimport, a subsidiary of the Russian Ministry of Energy (Minergo). The Russian company facilitates the purchase and shipment of Iranian oil purchased from the National Iranian Oil Company to Syria. Transport is extra precarious as some of the ships have been insured by European companies and allegedly have turned off their beacons since 2014 to conceal their destination. Related: Mexicos Oil Crisis Deepens (Click to enlarge) In addition, Alchwiki has also acted as a conduit for Tehran to transfer money to proxies in the region. Using his international connections at the CBI and Mir Business Bank, he has been an interlocutor on behalf of the Syrian government. As with the oil scheme, the CBI played a central role by providing the necessary funds. Confronting Iran It has been the Trump administrations policy to confront Iran, and these sanctions are further evidence of that. The U.S. withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal was the prelude of opposing Tehran in political, economic, and diplomatic areas. Washingtons success has been mixed. Politically and diplomatically, President Trumps actions unified an unusual alliance of global powers including Russia, China, France, Germany, and the U.K. in maintaining the Nuclear Deal. The U.S. has also tried uniting several Arab states in what has been called the Arab NATO. This initiative isnt yet the success it was hoped to become, primarily due to the blockade of Qatar by several other members. The awkward collaboration of these Arab countries seems to be motivated by appeasing Trump rather than confronting Iran. Related: The Real Effect Of Iran Sanction Waivers On an economic level, Washington has had more success in confronting Iran. After the signing of the Nuclear Deal, many companies showed a willingness to invest in the country. The reimposition of sanctions, however, made many companies reconsider their investment plans. Most notable of those companies was French energy giant Total which abandoned its massive South Pars LNG project. Although the U.S. has granted temporary sanction waivers to eight countries to import Iranian oil, it is highly unlikely these will be extended. The prime reason for Washingtons decision was its fear of increasing the price for oil by depriving the market of 1.5 million barrels of Iranian oil. Currently, Tehran is under pressure as the economy is failing and protestors are taking to the streets. Despite the difficulties Iran is facing, many analysts believe Tehran will be able to ride out the storm. Despite the recent drop in prices, the country is aided by relatively high oil revenues and the inability of Trump to form a united coalition as the Obama Administration managed with the previous nuclear agreement. These new sanctions will not have the desired effect of crippling the Syrian economy or depriving Assad support of Moscow and Tehran. It is likely that oil shipments will continue while the U.S. itself faces increasing pressure from a confrontational Turkey in Eastern Syria vis-a-vis the Kurdish YPG. By Vanand Meliksetian for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: U.S. oil production has skyrocketed this year, leaving even the most optimistic forecasts in the dust. But, the recent crash in oil prices could do what the much-hyped pipeline bottlenecks could not slow down shale production. Between 2015 and 2017, shale drilling activity fluctuated with oil prices (though on a several-month lag), with drillers deploying rigs and adding output when prices rose, and scrapping rigs and dialing back on activity when prices dipped. Drilling and production has always fluctuated with prices, but the much shorter lead times for shale compared to conventional drilling, meant that the oil market was responding much quicker to price changes. The ebb and flow of drilling activity gave rise to the shale band theory, which dictates that oil prices had an upper and lower bound, largely decided by shale output. Whenever prices tested one of those limits, U.S. shale would steer them back into the middle of the range. More specifically, if prices rose to, say, $60 per barrel, shale activity would ramp up and new supplies would come online, dragging prices back down below that threshold. If prices fell to $40 per barrel or below, drilling dried up and the drop (or slowdown in growth) tightened the market just enough to push prices back up. Since late 2017, when the OPEC+ production cuts really began to bite, Brent prices reliably rose above $60 per barrel and stayed there. While prices bounced around this year, they did so above the roughly $40-$60 price range that dominated the oil market over the last several years. As such, U.S. shale continued to grow rapidly and consistently. Outages elsewhere in the world, combined with OPEC+ action, kept prices from falling. Related: Legendary Oil Trader Expects Crude Prices To Rebound Until this past month. The crash in oil prices down more than a third since October could make the shale band theory relevant again. WTI is down in the low-$50s per barrel, and is starting to flirt with levels that could impact drilling operations. At $50 per barrel, we generate enough cash to still grow our production single digits within our cash flow, Whiting Petroleums CFO Michael Stevens said at an industry conference this month, according to the Wall Street Journal. So $50 is an important floor for us. Moreover, while many shale drillers have cut their breakeven prices over the past few years, pressure from shareholders on capital discipline is much stronger than it used to be. In years past, shale drillers could pile on the debt, promising to eventually be profitable, and investors went along. That is no longer the case. That means that the pressure to cut back in order to preserve profitability is potentially higher than it used to be. On top of that, some shale regions are still suffering from discounts because of pipeline issues. So, while WTI is now in the low-$50s, some shale operators might be fetching even less. Earlier this year, Permian discounts exceeded $10 per barrel. The Bakken is expected to see its discount worsen as pipelines fill up. The flip side is that drilling techniques have advanced considerably over the last few years, boosting production rates and lowering cost. That could allow E&Ps to weather the current downturn should it stick around much better than last time. Related: India Looks To Double Its Natural Gas Usage As the WSJ notes, the shale industry is in the midst of putting together drilling plans for 2019. Up until now, very few industry insiders or analyst forecasts had prices falling below $60 per barrel next year. The recent plunge could force a rethink. If the industry goes in a more conservative direction, shale output might not grow as much as previously thought. With all of that said, OPEC+ could put an end to the latest slide in prices as early as next week. Rumors of a large production cut began circulating a few weeks ago, and the lower prices go, the more likely it is that the cartel will take action. At this point, with expectations of some sort of action largely priced in, inaction would likely drag prices down much farther. As such, it seems highly unlikely that OPEC+ will do nothing. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Goldman Sachs believes that the price of oil and other commodities are set for a rebound next year and the first catalyst could come as early as this weekend at a G-20 summit in Argentina, where leaders could discuss the U.S.-China trade standoff and an OPEC idea to begin cutting production again. Given the size of dislocations in commodity pricing relative to fundamentals with oil now having joined metals in pricing below cost support, we believe commodities offer an extremely attractive entry point for longs in oil, gold and base, Goldman said in a research report on Monday, as carried by CNBC. The G-20 summit in Buenos Aires later this week will see the participation of the three key figures capable of swaying decisions regarding oil production policiesU.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In addition, President Trump is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the trade war. If the worlds top politicians reach some understandings about trade and an OPEC cut, they could offer the oil market some clarity on the current geopolitical uncertainties that have been weighing on oil pricesglobal economic slowdown and oil oversupply. Many of those uncertainties have a chance to be addressed at the summit, including some improvement on the China-U.S. relationship and like in the 2016 G-20 meetings, some greater clarity on a potential OPEC cut, Goldman Sachs said. Related: Aramcos $500 Billion Global Expansion Last week, the investment bank said that volatility would be high over the next few weeks, because prices would need a fundamental catalyst to stabilize. While we didnt think that Brent prices were justified at $86 per barrel, neither do we believe that they are at $59/bbl with our 2019 Brent forecast at $70/bbl, Goldman said in todays note, quoted by Reuters. Meanwhile, in the week to November 20, hedge funds cut their net long positionthe difference between bullish and bearish betsin Brent Crude to the lowest level since January 2016, when oil prices crashed below $30 a barrel, according to Bloomberg estimates on data by ICE Futures Europe. Following a 7-percent plunge on Friday, both WTI Crude and Brent Crude were up more than 2 percent at 09:40 a.m. EST on Monday. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Oil prices are struggling to find a bottom, moving up on Monday but floundering in early trading on Tuesday. (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) - Natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been declining for two decades. But 10 new projects are expected to begin operations in 2018, according to the EIA, followed by another 8 in 2019. - These 18 projects have a combined resource estimate of 836 billion cubic feet. - Together, they could allow Gulf of Mexico gas production to rebound. Market Movers Cheniere Energy (NYSE: LNG) has produced just about enough LNG at its Corpus Christi export terminal to ship its first cargo, according to S&P Global Platts. Kosmos Energy (NYSE: KOS) fell nearly 3 percent after-hours on Monday when it announced the sale of 15 million common shares in a secondary public offering. Total SA (NYSE: TOT) announced a shutdown of its 253,000-bpd Gonfreville refinery in Normandy because of a strike. Tuesday November 27, 2018 Saudi Arabia pushes for quiet cut. A few weeks ago, rumors floated of a potential aggressive production cut at the upcoming OPEC+ meeting, perhaps as large as 1.4 million barrels per day. However, that now looks unlikely, as President Trump has simultaneously protected Saudi Arabia from international outrage over the Khashoggi murder, at the same time that he has pressured them into keeping oil prices low. Russia is also not keen on a large production cut. That leaves Saudi Arabia looking for a quiet cut, which would mean taking production back down to previously agreed upon production limit around 10 mb/d, down from the current 11 mb/d. Trump wants low oil prices, but U.S. shale could take a hit. The pressure campaign by the White House to deter OPEC+ from cutting production could succeed in keeping crude prices low, but prices are approaching a level that could damage U.S. shale companies. We're at the point where we're nearing full cycle break-evens for Permian producers and depending on how long this lasts, we might see an impact on capex budgets over the next few months, Muhammed Ghulam, senior research associate at Raymond James, told CNBC. Related: Could Oil Prices Fall To $40? Saudi Aramco eyes $500 billion makeover. Saudi Aramcos CEO told Bloomberg that the company will spend $500 billion over the next decade to transform itself into a major refiner and petrochemical maker, not just an oil producer. Saudi Aramco will make the most of those prospects with global investments in the chemicals space of roughly $100 billion over the next 10 years -- in addition to prospective acquisitions, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said. In total, Nasser outlined $500 billion in spending plans. Long-term oil demand is looking increasingly fragile, but the petrochemical sector is where most demand growth will be concentrated, according to the IEA. Russia-Saudi oil alliance faces a test. Saudi Arabia is clearly itching for a production cut at the OPEC+ meeting next week, but Russia is much more hesitant. Russian oil firms are opposed to curtailing output, and the Russian economy does not benefit as much from higher prices than the Saudi economy does. Still, President Vladimir Putin has strategic reasons to keep up the partnership with Saudi Arabia. But after the production increases in June backfired, Moscow and Riyadh are not exactly on the same page anymore. Venezuela reaches deal with Crystallex. Canadian mining company Crystallex has been trying to force Venezuelas PDVSA to sell Citgo as compensation for an expropriated gold mining project back in 2011. However, Venezuela and Crystallex just struck a deal that will allow PDVSA to hold onto Citgo. Under the terms, Venezuela paid an initial $425 million to Crystallex, and will pay the remaining balance in installments through 2021. Venezuela rejects BP offer. BP (NYSE: BP) reportedly proposed buying Total SAs (NYSE: TOT) stake in a moribund natural gas project in Venezuelan waters. The project is located along the maritime border of Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago. BP owns the rights to the Trinidadian side and wanted to buy Totals stake on the Venezuelan side, and could use the gas to expand operations in Trinidad. Caracas blocked the offer, according to Reuters. Goldman Sachs: Oil shortage in 2020s. The oil market may be oversupplied now, but Goldman Sachs says a shortage is coming in the 2020s. In the 2020's we are going to have a clear physical shortage of oil because nobody is allowed to fully invest in future oil production, Michele Della Vigna, Head of EMEA Natural Resources Research at Goldman Sachs told CNBC Friday. Nigeria lost $6 billion to Shell and Eni. A new report finds that Nigeria missed out on nearly $6 billion in projected revenues because of the odd structure of a 2011 oil deal it made with Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) and Eni (NYSE: E). The deal is now in focus because of a corruption trial in Milan, where Eni executives are in the hot seat. France and Germany move to keep business with Iran alive. The EU previously proposed to setup the special purpose vehicle (SPV) to allow European companies to continue to do business with Iran, working around U.S. sanctions. France and Germany have agreed to jointly host the financing arrangement, and are taking aggressive moves to try to keep the Iran nuclear agreement alive even as the U.S. continues to pressure European capitals not to move forward. U.S. pressures Iraq to break from Iran. The U.S. is trying to pressure Iraq to wean itself off of Iranian energy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Iraq depends on Iran for natural gas, which is used to generate electricity. The U.S. granted Iraq a 45-day waiver on sanctions on gas imports, but Iraq says it will need more time. Iraq warns that the U.S. could destabilize the country if it presses too hard. Related: Goldman: Oil Prices Set For Rebound In 2019 China imports from Russia amid Iran sanctions. China cut oil imports from Iran ahead of U.S. sanctions, and instead is leaning more on Russia. Chinas imports of Russian oil hit a record high in October. Chevron announces first oil from Gulf of Mexico project. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) announced first oil from its Big Foot project in the Gulf of Mexico last week. The project is located 225 miles south of New Orleans and has a projected lifespan of 35 years. France fuel protests. France has seen a second week of protests over a proposed tax hike on diesel. Diesel prices have climbed around 20 percent this year in France, although that is largely due to the increase in crude oil prices (until recently). The tax is intended to harmonize gasoline and diesel prices diesel has long been undertaxed relative to gasoline in France. Trump maintains hard line on China. Trump is set to meet with Xi Jingping this week, but on Monday he suggested that he would move forward with a tariff hike in January. The 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese imports is set to jump to 25 percent at the start of 2019. Trump said it was highly unlikely that he would hold off on that increase. He also said he was ready to move forward with additional tariffs on another $267 billion of Chinese goods if the two leaders dont reach an agreement this week. By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Chinas oil imports from Russia hit an all-time high in October, further consolidating Russias position as Chinas top oil supplier, while Chinese imports from Iran dropped last month on uncertainties over the U.S. waivers for Iranian customers. According to Reuters calculations based on data from Chinas General Administration of Customs published on Monday, China imported around 1.73 million bpd of oil from Russia last month, a 58-percent surge compared to October last year, thanks to appetite from the independent refiners rushing to fill up their import quotas for this year. Chinas oil imports from Russia averaged 1.39 million bpd between January and October, up 16.6 percent year on year, Reuters estimates based on the customs data showed. Iranian oil shipments to China, on the other hand, slumped by 64 percent on the year, to around 247,160 bpd in October, when Irans buyers were cutting imports, hoping to get a U.S. waiver to continue importing reduced volumes of Iranian oil at least until May next year. Chinas imports from Iran dropped for a third consecutive month in October, before the U.S. granted waivers in November to eight Iranian buyers, including to Tehrans largest single customer China. Irans archrival and Chinas number-two oil supplier, Saudi Arabia, sent around 1.12 million bpd of oil to China in October, up by 3.4 percent annually. Chinas total crude oil imports in October hit a record-high, beating the previous all-time high set in April this year, according to official Chinese data. Over the past year, Russia has consolidated its position of Chinas biggest oil supplier ahead of number-two Saudi Arabia. Chinese purchases of Russian oil jumped to an all-time high of 1.66 million bpd in September, according to Chinese customs data, while imports from Saudi Arabia averaged 924,552 bpd. Now the October figures show that Russia and Saudi Arabia increased shipments to China in October, and Russia set a new record high of exports to China1.73 million bpd. Russias ESPO crude is a top pick among Chinese independent refiners, while state-held PetroChina has significantly raised ESPO imports since a second Russia-China oil pipeline started operations earlier this year. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: State-controlled China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is replacing French oil and gas major Total in Irans multi-billion-dollar South Pars gas project, Irans semi-official news agency ICANA quoted Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying. Last year, Total became the first supermajor to return to Iran after the previous sanctions were lifted, with the multi-billion-dollar South Pars 11 gas development project. But after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Total said in May that it would not be in a position to continue the South Pars 11 gas project and would have to unwind all related operations before November 4, 2018, unless Total is granted a specific project waiver by the U.S. authorities with the support of the French and European authorities. This project waiver should include protection of the Company from any secondary sanction as per US legislation. Total has always been clear that it cannot afford to be exposed to any secondary sanction, which might include the loss of financing in dollars by US banks for its worldwide operations, the French company said a week after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal. In early June, Totals chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said that the companys chances of securing a waiver were very slim. In August, Iran said that Total had officially left Iran due to the threat of secondary sanctions from the United States if it were to continue to do business with Tehran. Now Oil Minister Zanganeh said that CNPC had officially replaced the French major in the South Pars 11 project. The Chinese state firm, however, has not started work on the project yet, as Iran has yet to hold talks with CNPC about when operations will begin, the minister added. Before Total quit Iran, the French company had 50.1 percent in the project and was its operator, while CNPC owned 30 percent, and Petroparsa wholly owned subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)held the remaining 19.9 percent. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Iraq has allocated 67 percent of its 2019 oil sales to Asia, the countrys oil ministry said on Tuesday, as OPECs second-biggest producer aims to sell more of its oil on the prized Asian markets. Iraqs oil sales next year will include shipments from both the key export ports in Basra in southern Iraq and from the Kirkuk oil fields in the north, Reuters quoted the oil ministry as saying in a statement. Earlier this month, Iraq resumed oil exports from the Kirkuk province, a year after it had stopped oil flows from the area due to a dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region over oil shipments via the only export outlet in the areaa pipeline owned by the Kurdistan region. For next year, apart from 67 percent of Iraqs oil going to Asia, 20 percent will be exported to Europe, and the remaining 13 percent will be shipped to North and South America, according to the Iraqi oil ministry. Iraq is raising the share of its oil shipped to Asia to 67 percent for 2019, from around 60 percent earlier this year. In March this year, Alaa al-Yasiri, the head of Iraqs state oil marketing company SOMO, told Reuters that Iraq was looking to grab a greater market share on the Asian markets and was working to sign joint venture deals with China, Japan, India, and South Korea. Earlier this month, al-Yasiri told Bloomberg in an interview that Iraq is intensifying efforts to build up its market share in Asia and aims to boost its oil supply to the worlds top oil importer China by around 60 percent. Related: Why The China-Philippines Energy Deal Wont Last Based on talks with current long-term customers, Iraq is ready to send around 1.45 million bpd of oil to China next year, al-Yasiri said. To compare, Iraq currently ships around 900,000 bpd to ten term buyers in China, including state oil traders ChinaOil and Unipec, the Iraqi manager told Bloomberg. If Iraq manages to ship 1.45 million bpd to China, it will become Beijings second-largest oil supplier ahead of Saudi Arabia and second only to Russia, as per Chinas latest oil import figures. SOMO will also launch an oil trading venture with Zhenhua Oil, with tentative plans to sell some 160,000 bpd to independent Chinese refiners and large petrochemical plants, al-Yasiri told Bloomberg. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Saudi Arabias plans to build a nuclear power plant will speed up the Kingdoms economic development as it would diversify its over-reliance on crude oil, a Saudi energy expert told Sputnik in an interview on Tuesday. The decision to build a nuclear power plant in the kingdom is the result of serious research that confirmed the need for this step, Saudi energy expert Said al-Shahrani told Sputnik. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched several new strategic projects in the country, including one to build a nuclear research reactor. The peaceful atom will spur development of several economic sectors such as energy, desalination, agriculture as well as oil and gas production, al-Shahrani told Sputnik. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has been planning to begin building a nuclear power plant with the help of U.S. technology, but earlier this year, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that the U.S. was not the only option for the Kingdom when it comes to developing nuclear energy projects. Cooperation with the United States in the field of nuclear power is only possible for countries that sign the so-called 123 agreement, which stipulates a clear distinction between using nuclear technology for civil and for military purposes, and binds the signee to utilizing the technology for civil purposes only. At the end of last month, a group of Republican Senators led by Marco Rubio urged U.S. President Donald Trump to halt talks on a nuclear energy agreement in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The Senators expressed concern that Saudi Arabia is refusing to commit to an agreement prohibiting it from pursuing uranium enrichment and nuclear weapons. The Middle East and nuclear weapons is a combination that always draws media attention, just as it did earlier this year, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS in an interview that 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. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Algerias state oil and gas company has pulled out of Libya citing deteriorating security conditions, Libyan media report, adding the company had first evacuated its personnel from its neighbor and has now transported production equipment across the border. Sonatrach had partnered with the Libyan National Oil Corporation on drilling seven oil wells in its eastern neighbor. The Algerian company returned to Libya relatively soon after the 2011 civil war to explore for oil in the Ghadmes basin, in block 65, where Sonatrach held a 25-percent stake that was awarded to it back in 2005. Earlier this year, Sonatrach and NOC signed a deal for the joint exploration of two fields, one on the Algerian side and one on the Libyan side, which may turn out to be one single field. If it was proved that the two fields are in fact one field, they will be run and managed jointly by the two countries, a source told Turkeys Anadolu Agency at the time. Interestingly, Sonatrach is leaving as the situation in Libya creeps closer to normalization. Although a lot more time will need to pass before normal returns for real, there have been fewer field outages in the last three to four months and oil production has been growing steadily. The latest sign yet that things in Libya may be on the mend was the October announcement by BP and Eni that they will start drilling at a field they share in early 2019. BP won two exploration licenses in Libya back in 2007, but the 2011 civil war interrupted its plans for the country. Eni agreed to buy a 42.5-percent interest in BPs exploration and production sharing agreement with NOC earlier this month, and they are now ready to start drilling in the offshore block. Despite continued political instability and a deep economic crisis, Libyas National Oil Corporation has ambitious goals: by the end of 2019, its chairman Mustafa Sanalla told Bloomberg last month, NOC plans to pump 1.6 million bpd of crude, the level of production from the times before the 2011 civil war. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Teslas sales in China nosedived by 70 percent last month in the latest demonstration of the adverse impact the U.S.-Chinese trade war is having on business. The news, from the Chinese passenger car association as reported by Reuters, comes a few days after the carmaker said it plans to cut its prices for the Chinese market. China is a key market for Tesla where it plans to build a gigafactory, and last month it only sold 211 cars there, according to the associations data. A price cut makes sense amid continued trade tension between Beijing and Washington, and a speeding up of the gigafactory plans would also make sense. Tesla also plans to move some production to China. The company last month said it was launching pre-orders for its affordable model, Model 3, in Europe and China before the end of this year and added it was considering moving the production of some Model 3s to China next year. We are aiming to bring portions of Model 3 production to China during 2019 and to progressively increase the level of localization through local sourcing and manufacturing, Tesla said in its third-quarter earnings report. The cars manufactured in China would be sold in China, Tesla also said. Separately, earlier this week chief executive Elon Musk admitted the company had been on the brink of collapse because of the delays in the Model 3 production ramp up. Tesla faced a severe threat of death due to the Model 3 production ramp. Essentially, the company was bleeding money like crazy and if we didnt solve these problems over a short period of time we would die. It was extremely difficult, Musk said in an interview with Axios on HBO. The money bleeding was certainly no secret at the time Musk talked aboutspring this yearbut somehow the company managed to turn things around quickly enough to not just avoid death by money bleeding, but even to turn in a profit for the third quarter of the year. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: MALACANANG reiterated Monday, November 26, that the joint exploration deal with China would be beneficial to the Philippines and the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last week "does not create MALACANANG reiterated Monday, November 26, that the joint exploration deal with China would be beneficial to the Philippines and the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last week "does not create rights or obligations that may delineate our territory or sovereign rights." "As we have repeatedly said, the signed MOU on cooperation on oil and gas development is only an agreement to agree on certain things...The MOU does not create rights or obligations under international or domestic law which may delineate our territory or sovereign rights," said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. Panelo's statement came as the Palace chided Vice President Leni Robredo and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales for making "baseless and unfair" remarks on the joint deal. Robredo, on November 21, called on the Duterte administration to be "transparent" regarding the bilateral agreements it signed with China during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Manila last November 20. She said the government should inform the public about the "benefit" the country will gain from the joint exploration deal. Morales, on the other hand, warned against "treason" within the government. At a forum on protecting the Philippines's sovereign rights in the disputed South China Sea, she was quoted as saying: "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within." But Panelo said Robredo and Morales have based their "misplaced observations and apprehensions" on the two nations' joint exploration arrangement "merely on media reports." He said the two may have "not studied nor even read" the MOU on cooperation on oil and gas development before sharing their respective views. "The remarks of Vice President Leni Robredo and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales are not only premature but baseless and unfair as well. They anchor their comments merely on media reports, and not on the actual document itself," he said in a statement released Monday night, November 26. Story continues READ: Joint exploration deal between PH, China 'not an act of treason' "Sadly, disappointment comes to mind as expectations for their being trained in the law have not been reached. Legal minds are not only analytically exacting but judicious as well," he added. Panelo reassured that the signed agreement merely serves a framework for a "future agreement based on mutual respect on each others sovereignty and interest." "The apprehensions of Mmes. Robredo and Carpio-Morales are thus more imaginary than real," he added. The Philippines and China have signed 29 deals on November 21, including the MOU that intends to bolster the two countries' cooperation on exploring and exploiting oil and gas resources. (SunStar Philippines) Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Thread Rating: 14 Vote(s) - 3.36 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 8 9 10 1 ... 7 11 ... 36 CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS : GUILTY 1st. DEGREE MURDER - ALL 10 COUNTS GrimShaw Asinus Asinum Fricat User ID: 470470 11-27-2018 12:33 AM Posts: 32,615 Post: #121 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" Advertisement LoP Guest Wrote: (11-26-2018 08:46 PM) 269346 Wrote: (11-24-2018 10:53 AM) Fatty was blocking the road, when she may have been strayed by a moving vehicle. Whose fault is that? that's very Christian of you c*nt He's not a real Christian. He's a Christian Taliban though. He's not a real Christian. He's a Christian Taliban though. Isabella Registered User User ID: 421592 11-27-2018 12:49 AM Posts: 27,261 Post: #122 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" He Man Wrote: (11-27-2018 12:30 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (11-26-2018 11:10 PM) I doubt it'll fly. I hope they fry him. The videos that are available sure look like premeditated murder and terrorism. The ones they are saving for the jury are supposedly good enough for the grand jury to allow an investigation for first degree murder. It is likely very convincing. I think they will get him convicted. If the 3 juries from Charlottesville who convicted the 3 Neo-Nais who brutally beat DeAndre Harriss in the parking is any indication Fileds will never see the light of day. Two of the guys got 6 and 8 yrs and the third one pleaded out. He's like Manafort and is facing 2 trials..1st degree murder then the federal 30 counts of hate crimes. If the wrath of hell is brought down on him from this jury it will be interesting because his lawyers will appeal and try and hold up the federal trial. That could take a long time and a judge may deny the motion I'm not sure if the charges for the people injured are included in the murder trial or they are under the hate crimes or these charges are part of both trials? If the 3 juries from Charlottesville who convicted the 3 Neo-Nais who brutally beat DeAndre Harriss in the parking is any indication Fileds will never see the light of day.Two of the guys got 6 and 8 yrs and the third one pleaded out.He's like Manafort and is facing 2 trials..1st degree murder then the federal 30 counts of hate crimes.If the wrath of hell is brought down on him from this jury it will be interesting because his lawyers will appeal and try and hold up the federal trial.That could take a long time and a judge may deny the motionI'm not sure if the charges for the people injured are included in the murder trial or they are under the hate crimes or these charges are part of both trials? Isabella Registered User User ID: 421592 11-27-2018 12:53 AM Posts: 27,261 Post: #123 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" GrimShaw Wrote: (11-27-2018 12:33 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (11-26-2018 08:46 PM) that's very Christian of you c*nt He's not a real Christian. He's a Christian Taliban though. Especially when it comes to females...and thankfully they avoid him like the plague. He's a prime example of the combo of mental illness and religion run amok. Especially when it comes to females...and thankfully they avoid him like the plague.He's a prime example of the combo of mental illness and religion run amok. Isabella Registered User User ID: 421592 11-27-2018 12:58 AM Posts: 27,261 Post: #124 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" " Couldn't find anyone from the media posting tweets, but I found her (don't know who she is- not from the media tho'- she says "live tweeter of charlottesville government proceedings"???):" molly @socialistdogmom 4m4 minutes ago jury selection is moving along slowly. when we were allowed into the courtroom shortly before 10am, only 69 jurors remained. a pool of 28 has been selected at random & theyll do the majority of voir dire individually in chambers. molly @socialistdogmom 52m52 minutes ago the only two pieces of information of note so far, in my opinion, are that the defense plans to call officer tammy shifflett as a witness she was the officer who left her post at 4th street on august 12th, leaving it open to traffic, molly @socialistdogmom 53m53 minutes ago and they affirmed that they intend to argue the defendant believed he was acting in self defense. i was pretty sure this is where they were headed but its a real gut punch to hear it said aloud in court. molly @socialistdogmom 48m48 minutes ago all of the potential jurors responded that theyve read media coverage of the event. more than half said they already had some opinion about it. individual voir dire will probe these opinions more deeply & determine if they are able to hear the case impartially. molly @socialistdogmom 49m49 minutes ago the defenses motion for a change of venue is still technically under advisement. i have faith that this court will be able to seat an impartial jury. remember, you dont have to be ignorant of the case to hear evidence - you just have to be able to set your opinion aside. molly @socialistdogmom 41m41 minutes ago im going to head back to the courthouse momentarily but my ears are burning with the sound of defense counsel hill asking jurors does anyone feel like using violence to defend yourself is never appropriate? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- molly @socialistdogmom 2h2 hours ago jury selection is plodding along. the judge says theyre about 1/3 of the way through individual voir dire on the pool of 28. jurors outside that group have been released until 5pm, so i assume we wont see any jurors struck until at least 5. molly @socialistdogmom 2h2 hours ago so weve got our pool of 28 being questioned individually, plus 41 jurors in the gallery ready to fill in for anyone who gets struck after individual questioning. but theyve ALSO got a second pool of around 90 people scheduled to report tomorrow morning. molly @socialistdogmom 2h2 hours ago its going slow, but thats ok. i still firmly believe theyre going to be able to seat a jury, probably sometime tomorrow. Isabella Registered User User ID: 421592 11-27-2018 01:06 AM Posts: 27,261 Post: #125 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" The jury-selection process in the trial for an Ohio man charged with murder is going very slowly "Roughly 360 people have been called to be potential jurors in the James Alex Fields, Junior trial. The 21-year-old briefly appeared in Charlottesville Circuit Court Monday, November 26, before being taken behind closed doors. Judge Richard Moore announced Monday morning that the defendant is now facing a total of five counts of aggravated malicious wounding. Each of these charges can carry a sentence of up to life in prison. Fields is also charged with first-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and failing to stop at an accident involving a death. Prosecutors - Commonwealths Attorney Joseph Platania and Senior Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Nina-Alice Antony - say Fields was behind the wheel of a Dodge Challenger used in the deadly car attack following the Unite the Right rally on August 12, 2017. Heather Heyer was fatally struck, while 28 other people suffered injuries. http://www.nbc29.com/story/39538016/fields-trial-day-1 Charges Fields is facing in this trial."Roughly 360 people have been called to be potential jurors in the James Alex Fields, Junior trial. The 21-year-old briefly appeared in Charlottesville Circuit Court Monday, November 26, before being taken behind closed doors.Prosecutors - Commonwealths Attorney Joseph Platania and Senior Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Nina-Alice Antony - say Fields was behind the wheel of a Dodge Challenger used in the deadly car attack following the Unite the Right rally on August 12, 2017. Heather Heyer was fatally struck, while 28 other people suffered injuries. Isabella Registered User User ID: 421592 11-27-2018 01:10 AM Posts: 27,261 Post: #126 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" Difference Between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia "Malicious Wounding in Virginia (Va. Code 18.2-51) and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia (Va. Code 18.2-51.2) are both serious felonies. This post discusses the difference between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia. difference between malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding in Virginia One Difference Between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is the Severity of Injury For more information on Malicious Wounding in Virginia, click here. For more information on Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia, click here. Malicious Wounding To convict an offender of Malicious Wounding in Virginia, the Commonwealth must prove that he intentionally and without provocation wounded another person by cutting, shooting, stabbing or other means with intent to maim, disable, disfigure, or kill. Aggravated Malicious Wounding Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is the intentional and unprovoked wounding of another person by cutting, shooting, stabbing, or other means with intent to maim, disable, disfigure or kill, resulting in severe injury and permanent and significant physical impairment. Difference Between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia: Permanent Injury One difference between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is whether a permanent injury resulted from the offenders actions. To convict an offender of Malicious Wounding in Virginia, the Commonwealth must prove that he maliciously wounded another person by cutting, shooting, stabbing or other means with intent to maim, disable, disfigure, or kill. A permanent condition does not need to actually result in order to be convicted of Malicious Wounding in Virginia. However, to convict an offender of Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia, the Commonwealth must prove not only a wounding by cutting, shooting, stabbing or other means with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill, but also that the offender caused a severe injury and permanent and significant physical impairment (in other words, a permanent condition). Difference Between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia: Penalty Another difference between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is the penalty. Malicious Wounding is punished with 5-20 years in prison and a fine up to $100,000, whereas Aggravated Malicious Wounding is punished with a MINIMUM of 20 years up to LIFE in prison and a fine up to $100,000." http://humbrechtlaw.com/difference-betwe...s-wounding "Malicious Wounding in Virginia (Va. Code 18.2-51) and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia (Va. Code 18.2-51.2) are both serious felonies. This post discusses the difference between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia.difference between malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding in VirginiaOne Difference Between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is the Severity of InjuryFor more information on Malicious Wounding in Virginia, click here.For more information on Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia, click here.Malicious WoundingTo convict an offender of Malicious Wounding in Virginia, the Commonwealth must prove that he intentionally and without provocation wounded another person by cutting, shooting, stabbing or other means with intent to maim, disable, disfigure, or kill.Aggravated Malicious WoundingAggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is the intentional and unprovoked wounding of another person by cutting, shooting, stabbing, or other means with intent to maim, disable, disfigure or kill, resulting in severe injury and permanent and significant physical impairment.Difference Between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia: Permanent InjuryOne difference between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is whether a permanent injury resulted from the offenders actions. To convict an offender of Malicious Wounding in Virginia, the Commonwealth must prove that he maliciously wounded another person by cutting, shooting, stabbing or other means with intent to maim, disable, disfigure, or kill. A permanent condition does not need to actually result in order to be convicted of Malicious Wounding in Virginia.However, to convict an offender of Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia, the Commonwealth must prove not only a wounding by cutting, shooting, stabbing or other means with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill, but also that the offender caused a severe injury and permanent and significant physical impairment (in other words, a permanent condition).Difference Between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia: PenaltyAnother difference between Malicious Wounding and Aggravated Malicious Wounding in Virginia is the penalty. Malicious Wounding is punished with 5-20 years in prison and a fine up to $100,000, whereas Aggravated Malicious Wounding is punished with a MINIMUM of 20 years up to LIFE in prison and a fine up to $100,000." LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 475345 11-27-2018 01:21 AM Post: #127 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" I watched the video and believe he is innocent Isabella Registered User User ID: 421592 11-27-2018 01:42 AM Posts: 27,261 Post: #128 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" LoP Guest Wrote: (11-27-2018 01:21 AM) I watched the video and believe he is innocent "the video" you watched is not the video that was used to indict him on 1st degree murder. The 2 videos used were from a restaurants security camera which showed all of his actions leading up to accelerating down the street the video from the crashed helicopter. Premeditated . "the video" you watched is not the video that was used to indict him on 1st degree murder.The 2 videos used were from a restaurants security camera which showed all of his actions leading up to accelerating down the street the video from the crashed helicopter.Premeditated . He Man Subscriber User ID: 426188 11-27-2018 02:10 AM Posts: 40,117 Post: #129 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" LoP Guest Wrote: (11-27-2018 01:21 AM) I watched the video and believe he is innocent Meaning,... You probably watched a very biased youtube video that made a case with no evidence or facts. You likely sucked it up without thinking critically about it or looking for other youtube sources or media sources that do have videos that are not edited to create impressions and that shows this was a case of deliberate terrorism murder and the maiming and injury some with great bodily harm, to 35 other people. Meaning,... You probably watched a very biased youtube video that made a case with no evidence or facts. You likely sucked it up without thinking critically about it or looking for other youtube sources or media sources thatthat are not edited to create impressions and that shows this was a case of deliberate terrorism murder and the maiming and injury some with great bodily harm, to 35 other people. Making LOP Great again since 06-07-2013! Robert Reich @RBReich "News flash: If you ban mask mandates, outlaw abortions, dictate what educators can teach in schools, and stop people from voting, you're not the party of "limited government."" Isabella Registered User User ID: 421592 11-27-2018 02:37 AM Posts: 27,261 Post: #130 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" Charlottesville 'Alt-Right' Murderer Leading Rightwing Terrorist Vanguard Robyn Pennacchia November 26, 2018 01:55 PM Snip: And speaking of Proud Boys, we had Gavin McInnes reenacting the assassination of a Japanese socialist as though the assassin were a hero -- not to mention repeatedly encouraging his followers to engage in acts of violence against left-wing protesters. Then there are the incels sitting around discussing their plans to rape and murder women as casually as one might plan a dinner party. Then there are the militia people and the Republican elected officials who go around talking about how the Second Amendment gives people "redress" against the government ... with guns. Ever since Fields's arrest, white supremacist sites like VDare have been trying to frame his murder of Heather Heyer as an act of self-defense. But they're not alone. More mainstream conservative sites, like Big League Politics, have been pushing this narrative as well -- while also claiming that many of those protesting the Charlottesville rally were only there because they were being paid. If you're the kind of person that might be tempted to do something like this, there is literally no one out there in the kind of media you consume that is telling you that it is a bad idea. These aren't just "memes," they aren't just "trolling," they are violent fantasies and justifications for acts of violence that are being repeated over and over and over again, by people who see those who commit these violent acts as heroes . That's some real f**ked up cognitive behavioral therapy right there. If you want to know why "this keeps happening," that is why this keeps happening [NBC] https://www.wonkette.com/james-alex-fiel...l-starting Robyn PennacchiaNovember 26, 2018 01:55 PMSnip:And speaking of Proud Boys, we had Gavin McInnes reenacting the assassination of a Japanese socialist as though the assassin were a hero -- not to mention repeatedly encouraging his followers to engage in acts of violence against left-wing protesters.Then there are the incels sitting around discussing their plans to rape and murder women as casually as one might plan a dinner party. Then there are the militia people and the Republican elected officials who go around talking about how the Second Amendment gives people "redress" against the government ... with guns.More mainstream conservative sites, like Big League Politics, have been pushing this narrative as well -- while also claiming that many of those protesting the Charlottesville rally were only there because they were being paid.. That's some real f**ked up cognitive behavioral therapy right there. If you want to know why "this keeps happening," that is why this keeps happening[NBC] LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 475345 11-27-2018 03:51 AM Post: #131 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" He Man Wrote: (11-27-2018 02:10 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (11-27-2018 01:21 AM) I watched the video and believe he is innocent Meaning,... You probably watched a very biased youtube video that made a case with no evidence or facts. You likely sucked it up without thinking critically about it or looking for other youtube sources or media sources that do have videos that are not edited to create impressions and that shows this was a case of deliberate terrorism murder and the maiming and injury some with great bodily harm, to 35 other people. This is the video I watched. Btw, are you always so condescending to people? This is the video I watched. Btw, are you always so condescending to people? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 475361 11-27-2018 04:55 AM Post: #132 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" If I came across a group of people blocking my way in the street, I would not stop. I have children to raise, they should know at their ages not to be playing in the street. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 266097 11-27-2018 06:13 AM Post: #133 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" Were they peacefully protesting and have permits? Were they obeying traffic laws and properly using crosswalks? It's ok to blame stupidity. People are stupid. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 475371 11-27-2018 06:20 AM Post: #134 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" Reginald Denny. (never stop). Sin Loi. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 474933 11-27-2018 06:22 AM Post: #135 RE: CHARLOTTESVILLE:JAMES FIELDS "Thought He Was Acting In Self-Defense" DUDE was Mentally Ill! And When ANTIFA Terrorist Started Attacking his CAR With BaseBall Bats He FREAKED Out and Went CRAZY! The act was clearly initiated By ANTIFA Terrorist Attacking a Mentally Ill Man! Advertisement Back to Forum QUEZON CITY, Philippines Police arrested two alleged illegal drug couriers in Barangay E. Rodriguez, Quezon City at dawn on Tuesday (November 27). The suspects have been identified as Ernie Rodriguez, 44, and Teresa Matias, 60. According to Director Joel Plaza, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-NCR, (PDEA -NCR), the two had been under surveillance for a month. After authorities confirmed the suspects illegal activities, PDEA operatives promptly conducted a buy-bust operation in coordination with the Quezon City Police District. Yung front nila dito ay nagbebenta sila ng gulay, pero may tinatago silang illegal drugs distribution (The suspects were selling vegetables as a front for their illegal drugs distribution activities). Police confiscated almost a kilo of suspected shabu from the couple which has an estimated street value of P6.8 million. The two were allegedly selling shabu by kilos in different parts of Metro Manila and as far as the Bicol region. The suspects are now under the custody of PDEA and will be facing charges for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. Asher Cadapan, Jr. | UNTV News & Rescue The post P6.8-M shabu recovered in QC buy-bust, couple arrested appeared first on UNTV News. MALACANANG urged its critics to "change tack" and "be positive in outlook" after Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Jose Luis Martin Gascon called for the International Criminal MALACANANG urged its critics to "change tack" and "be positive in outlook" after Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Jose Luis Martin Gascon called for the International Criminal Court's (ICC) formal probe into President Rodrigo Duterte. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said instead of defaming Duterte, Gascon must start contributing to the progress of the country. "Expectedly, Commission on Human Rights Chairman Jose Luis Martin 'Chito' Gascon has again politicized the issue of human rights during the launch of the 2018 Human Rights Festival," he said in a statement released Monday night. "Perhaps it is about time for the detractors to change their tack and be positive in their outlook. They can start contributing to the peace, safety and progress of our country by joining in the efforts to effect the desired change for the nation," he added. Panelo made the remark after Gascon expressed optimism that the formal investigation of Duterte's alleged human rights violations would commence by the first quarter of 2019 before the ICC. In August, families of alleged victims of extrajudicial killings filed a communication against Duterte before the ICC, accusing the President of committing crimes against humanity in connection with his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. Prior to the filing of the communication in August, Duterte is already facing a communication lodged before the ICC by lawyer Jude Sabio in April 2017 and a supplemental communication by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano in June 2017. Sabio, Trillanes, and Alejano sought the international court's intervention in the Duterte government's brutal drug war. In February, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda began the preliminary examination of Duterte's supposed human rights violations attributed to his drug war. The international court's initial review of the Philippines's situation prompted Duterte to declare on March 14 that the Philippines is withdrawing its membership from the ICC "effective immediately." Story continues The Philippines, however, is still a member-state of the ICC, as Article 127 of the Rome Statute provides that the withdrawal from the ICC "shall take effect one year after the date of receipt of the notification, unless the notification specifies a later date." But for Panelo, the public's acceptance of Duterte's policies remained "unchanged" more than two years since the Chief Executive assumed office. Panelo also stressed that Duterte's words are "searing" only to individuals "who mock and derail his undertakings to create an environment of sustainable peace, order and progress for our people." "He continues to be the most approved and trusted national official in the country. This is a testament that our people have accepted his authenticity and candor as a leader," Duterte's spokesman said. "Honesty is still the best policy. The Presidents words are hurtful and harmful only to those who cannot accept -- or refuse to accept -- the truth. Or having accepted the truth, they cannot admit the falsity of their opposite stance," he added. (SunStar Philippines) President Donald Trump will hold a make-or-break trade meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit this week and also navigate a diplomatic minefield with Russia's president after unrest in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday. Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires for a working dinner at the Group of 20 summit that runs Friday and Saturday. Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a White House press conference that "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it." But Kudlow warned that if China holds out against US demands, Washington could ramp up the trade war. "If need be, if things don't work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs." The issue is the biggest looming over Trump's visit to Argentina, with the two economic giants locked in exchanges of punitive tariffs and Washington effectively threatening to target all remaining Chinese imports, including Apple products made in China. Despite Kudlow's repeated insistence that Trump sees cause for optimism, he also underlined the tough conditions that the administration wants to impose on Beijing. "China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," Kudlow said, stressing that he considers the US economy in far better shape than China's to weather a prolonged trade war. "We are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well," he said. China will have to give way on "fairness and reciprocity," he said, warning that US concerns over intellectual property theft and China's forced technology transfers "must be solved." - Cancel Putin summit? - Trump is also to meet separately with Russia's Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Argentina, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, White House officials said. His talks with Putin present an especially tricky task -- and may be cancelled at the last minute over Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the latest episode of a long-simmering military confrontation. US-Russia relations are under huge strain, while Trump is under investigation at home for alleged collusion with Moscow during his 2016 presidential election win. Complicating the already complex diplomatic landscape, Russia shot at Ukrainian ships and captured three vessels on Sunday, prompting the government in Ukraine to accuse Moscow of preparing for "full-scale war." Trump told The Washington Post on Tuesday that "maybe I won't have the meeting." He said he would wait for the results of a report from his national security team before deciding. Trump's last summit with Putin, in Helsinki in July 2018, prompted an outpouring of criticism that the US president had failed to hold his Russian counterpart to account over what US intelligence services have concluded was deliberate Kremlin meddling in the 2016 elections. There are no plans, the White House says, for Trump to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom. The CIA reportedly has told Trump that Prince Mohammed, who has close ties to the administration, was behind the brutal murder of dissident journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. But Trump has dismissed this, prompting an outcry from opponents and even some allies in Congress. Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders indicated that an informal meeting may yet happen. "I wouldn't say we've ruled out any interaction," she said, although she stressed that "the president's schedule is pretty packed." China sent its first ever satellite built in partnership with another country into space on Monday, a device tasked with helping scientists better predict dangerous cyclones and climate change by monitoring ocean surface winds and waves. A Long March 2C carrier rocket blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China's Gobi Desert at 0043 GMT, according to China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence. The 650-kilogram (1,430 pound) China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT) is the first satellite jointly built by China and France and will allow climate scientists to better understand interactions between oceans and the atmosphere. It's fitted with two radars: the French-made SWIM spectrometer, which will measure the direction and the wavelength of waves, and China's SCAT, a scatterometer that will analyse the force and direction of winds. The data will be collected and analysed in both countries. The instruments will allow scientists to collect information about winds and waves of the same location simultaneously for the first time, Wang Lili, chief designer of the satellite with the China Academy of Space Technology, said, according to the official Xinhua news agency. "It will help increase the observation and prediction of catastrophic sea states, such as huge waves and tropical storms, and provide security support for offshore operations and engineering, ship navigation, fisheries, and coastal management," said Zhao Jian, a senior official at the China National Space Administration. The rocket successfully put the satellite into orbit 520 kilometres (323 miles) above the Earth. 'Historic' Chinese leader Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron exchanged congratulations in a phone call, according to Xinhua. "It's historic. It's the first satellite China has made through international cooperation," Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of France's National Centre for Space Studies, told AFP. "This satellite will help make considerable progress in understanding climate change." The project began in 2007. The two countries are also working together on the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) mission, which will launch a satellite in 2021 to detect and study gamma-ray bursts. China and France already cooperate in space, with a French cardiovascular device aboard China's Tiangong-2 space lab to monitor a crew's hearts. The lab is expected to de-orbit after July 2019. Le Gall said France is also working with China on cooperating in exploration missions to the moon and Mars. China plans to have a crewed space station by 2022 and send a manned mission to the moon in the future. "The (CFOSAT) launch shows that the international community is more and more willing to consider China as a full partner," said Jacqueline Myrrhe, a space expert at GoTaikonauts.com, which specialises in China's space programme. "It will also allow (France) to have launch opportunities and privileged access to space cooperation with China. And who knows, maybe to put a French astronaut in the future Chinese space station," Myrrhe said. Some three hours after the joint Chinese French launch, Japan's space agency sent a rocket carrying a satellite that will monitor greenhouse gases. The satellite is officially named GOSAT-2, short for "greenhouse gases observing satellite-2", and is intended to provide data that will help Japan create and publish "emission inventories" of the CO2 output of various countries, as outlined in the Paris climate accord. Explore further China, France launch satellite to study climate change 2018 AFP Commissioner Moedas likened the European Open Science Cloud to a 16-th century coffeehouse where new ideas could circulate and flourish. Image credit - picture is in the public domain Credit: picture is in the public domain The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), a virtual one-stop shop for researchers to share, access and reuse data, was officially unveiled at the University of Vienna, Austria, on 23 November, giving scientists, open data advocates, research institutions and policymakers a first glimpse of the portal. It is part of the EU's vision for an open-border, cross-disciplinary, digital future for science. "Science should have no borders," said Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, in a video message. Moedas likened the EOSC to 16th-century English coffeehouses where the coming together of people of different backgrounds sparked new ideas. "Today marks the beginning of Europe's new architecture for the strength of ideas, of a common platform for research data," he said, He added that the portal, which joins up existing infrastructures under one umbrella platform, would free up time for more research, crucially link up data across disciplines and change the culture of research and science. "The cloud represents open science at its best," he said. The idea of the EOSC, which can be viewed at eosc-portal.eu, is to make publicly funded research data open for anyone to investigate and use. The portal launched in Vienna will now undergo further refinement as scientists begin to use the system before it is fully launched in 2020. Jean-Eric Paquet, the EU's Director-General for Research and Innovation, said at a press conference before the launch that for the 1.7 million active researchers who share and generate data in Europe today, no tool until now has allowed them to share and reuse data across member states, institutions and disciplines. '(EOSC) will make much more efficient science, but also I think much better science," he said. The portal, two years in the making, is now ready for scientific communities to take the reins, get scientists involved and develop it, Paquet said. "It is a work in progress, and so scientific communities need to help us get it right," he said. "We have a very good framework, which is called a FAIR framework (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), about what type of data we want in the cloud." Silver-cheeked toadfish Over the last couple of years, various small-scale projects, known as science demonstrators, have already been using the prototype EOSC with the aim of testing the portal or coming up with tools or services. Dr. Gianpaolo Coro, a researcher at the National Research Council of Italy in Pisa, used it to see where the silver-cheeked toadfish, a toxic, invasive pufferfish wreaking havoc on fisheries in the Mediterranean and whose spread is fostered by climate change and the Suez Canal expansion would go next. Using about seven tools on EOSC to retrieve and run datasets, including information from the EU's Copernicus Earth observation programme on climate and observations of the pufferfish in its natural habitat, Dr. Coro was able to determine that it will likely enter the Black Sea through the Bosporus in the next five years. He estimates that without these tools it could have taken one year, much of it spent on collecting and preparing data, to get these results. A simulation of the UK's nuclear fusion reactor generated through the European Open Science Cloud will feed into the design of ITER. Credit: A simulation of the UK's nuclear fusion reactor generated through the European Open Science Cloud will feed into the design of ITER. Shaun de Witt from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, the UK's national laboratory for fusion research, agrees that speed is a major advantage of EOSC and will revolutionise the way that the next generation of scientists conduct research. "They will be able to access data and understand data in days as opposed to years. Now, really understanding some of the data takes so long that you're halfway through your career before you can make a useful contribution." De Witt has been working to determine whether EOSC resources can be used in the ITER project the world's biggest fusion reactor presently being built in the south of France. For fusion researchers, simulations or models that take months or weeks to run on a local supercomputer can take just a matter of days through EOSC. His work has included developing Prominence, a cloud computing software that can handle the huge computation needs of fusion researchers. '(ITER) is going to pose a major data challenge," de Witt said. His team is now readying their tool for the EOSC's marketplace section, where researchers can request that their data is processed using particular tools and services and track the status of their order like you would on Amazon. De Witt said the marketplace is currently probably too complex to use but is optimistic that it will evolve to become more user-friendly. WhatsApp effect Some participants said ease of use is one of the niggles still to iron out before the EOSC becomes a go-to tool for researchers. Dr. Eva Mendez, chair of the European Open Science Policy Platform and associate professor at University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain, said: "EOSC should have the WhatsApp effect. What is the WhatsApp effect? That everybody uses it. Nobody asks why I have to use it." Other implementation challenges voiced by speakers, scientists and data experts that Horizon spoke to include transparency, convincing universities about the value of research data and the portal, training researchers, getting the word out and putting into real, tangible terms what is for many just a vague acronym. Hilary Hanahoe, secretary general at the Research Data Alliance, a grassroots, international forum working on best practicessocial and technicalfor data sharing and reuse, says trust and being inclusive of researchers are critical issues. "The best practice in that is allowing people to have a voice," she said, adding that there's a need for bottom-up consensus-building. For Dr. Mendez, the virtual portal is a way of making publicly funded research transparent but also gives regular people the chance to engage with the data. She says scientists often assume a regular person won't understand their data. But, she suggests, if you have an 'extreme motivation," such as a loved one who has cancer, you want more than just Google. "Even if I'm not a researcher, I'm just a motivated citizen, I should have access to the results of the money that the European Commission or whatever is the funder puts to that research," she said. Explore further VRE4EIC releases video tutorials on how to build virtual research environments Credit: CC0 Public Domain Women tend to be more conservative than men on political questions related to marijuana. A recent study finds that this gender gap appears to be driven by religion and the fact that men are more likely to have used marijuana. "This subject got our attention because it is the rare political issue where women are more conservative than men," says Steven Greene, co-lead author of a paper on the study and professor of political science at North Carolina State University. "We wanted to better understand what was behind that 'reverse gender gap.'" To explore the subject, Greene and co-lead author Laurel Eldera professor at Hartwick Collegeevaluated a 2013 political survey by the Pew Research Center. The nationally representative survey had about 1,500 participants, evenly split between men and women. The survey also asked a range of questions about marijuana policy, as well as marijuana use. The researchers evaluated responses to six survey questions about marijuana, such as "Should marijuana be legal?" and "Is marijuana a gateway drug?" They compiled these responses to create a "support for marijuana" scale, running from zero to 100. Men scored a 67 on the scale, while women scored a 61. The researchers then delved into the survey data to identify what contributed to the gender gap. "One hypothesis we saw in popular media was that women are less supportive of marijuana due to their role as mothersbut the data didn't bear that out at all," Greene says. "In fact, mothers were no different from women without children in terms of either their support for marijuana policy or their reported use of marijuana." Instead, Elder and Greene identified two other factors that accounted for the distinction: marijuana use and religiosity. Religiosity is measured by accounting for how often survey respondents said they attended church and whether they identified as born-again Christians. "When we ran a statistical analysis that accounted for religiosity, the gender gap shrank, so it appears to play a role in attitudes toward marijuana," Greene says. "But when we ran an analysis accounting for marijuana use, the gap disappeared altogetherso that clearly plays a major role." In the Pew survey, 57 percent of men reported having used marijuana, compared to 45 percent of women. "One takeaway message from this work is that, as marijuana legalization and use become normalized, rather than being viewed as immoral or dangerous, the existing gender gap should shrink," Greene says. The paper, "Gender and the Politics of Marijuana," is published in Social Science Quarterly. Explore further Many U.S. adults view marijuana use positively More information: Laurel Elder et al, Gender and the Politics of Marijuana*, Social Science Quarterly (2018). Journal information: Social Science Quarterly Laurel Elder et al, Gender and the Politics of Marijuana*,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12558 Credit: CC0 Public Domain The Big Bang theory and the question of how life on Earth began has fascinated scientists for decades, but now new research from The University of Western Australia suggests the conditions that resulted from the Big Bang are different to what we thought. The Big Bang theory, developed in 1927 is considered the most credible scientific explanation of how the universe was created. It suggests that through a process of expansion and explosion hydrogen gas was created which led to the formation of stars, and their death (supernova) led to the creation of life. Researchers Professor Snezhana Abarzhi and Ms Annie Naveh from UWA's School of Mathematical Sciences conducted a mathematical analysis of the conditions that were created from a supernova. Professor Abarzhi said although the supernova explosion was violent it wasn't as turbulent and quick as previously thought. "It is traditionally considered that turbulence was the mechanism for energy transfer and accumulation which resulted in chemicals being formed in the supernova," Professor Abarzhi said. "However our research has revealed it wasn't turbulent but actually a slow process where hot spots of energy were localised and trapped, resulting in the formation of, for example iron, gold and silver from atoms produced by the Big Bang. "The findings are important because they challenge our understanding of the Big Bang theory and how life formed." Professor Abarzhi said it was fascinating to see the complexity of how the universe might have been formed. "Human beings essentially started as hydrogen atoms and energy, swirling around to create other chemicals and these interactions resulted in life," she said. "The creation of life on Earth will always fascinate and challenge us, leaving more questions than answers, but this latest research brings us one step closer to understanding how we came to exist." Explore further New theory suggests some black holes might predate the Big Bang Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg declined an invitation to attend the hearing, sending a vice president named Richard Allan in his place Facebook acknowledged on Tuesday that its engineers had flagged suspicious Russian activity as early as 2014long before it became publicbut did not confirm evidence of a coordinated campaign. The revelation came as the British Parliament held hearings featuring lawmakers from nine countries into how the social media behemoth was being used to manipulate major election results. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg refused to attend the meeting and organisers pulled up an empty chair in front of a spot with his nameplate at the shoehorn-shaped table in the House of Commons committee room in London. Zuckerberg's company is reeling from a series of crises linked to its handling of alleged Russian meddling in both the 2016 US presidential election and that year's British referendum on leaving the European Union. Committee chief Damian Collins said he reviewed internal Facebook emails showing the company's engineers telling management in October 2014 that Russian IP addresses were accessing "three billion data points a day" on the network. The emails were seized from the now-defunct US software provider Six4Three under a rarely used UK parliamentary enforcement procedure. Six4Three is suing Facebook and the emails cited by Collins have been sealed by a California court. He did not release their content on Tuesday. No 'specific Russian activity' Facebook argued on Tuesday that the emails referred to by Collins were taken out of context. A seat for Zuckerberg was left vacant during the hearing "The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity," Facebook said in a statement provided to AFP. It was unclear from the company's wording if its engineers found no evidence of suspicious activity or whether that activity could not be linked directly to Russia. Collins appeared flustered as he tried to get Facebook's attending vice president Richard Allan to explain what exactly happened in 2014. "If Russian IP addresses were pulling down a huge amount of data from the platform was that reported or was that just kept, as so often seems to be the case, within the family and not talked about?" Collins asked. Allan responded by saying: "Any information you have seen... is at best partial and at worst potentially misleading." The Facebook executive added that the emails were "unverified partial accounts". 'Fratboy billionaires' An investigative piece published last week by The New York Times said Facebook misled the public about what it knew about Russia's meddling in the US campaign. The story added that Facebook executives then used a PR firm to spread negative stories about other Silicon Valley companies and deflect anger away from itself. Facebook vice president Richard Allan disagreed that Russian meddling helped Donald Trump win the US presidency Facebook ended its contract with the PR company days after the article's publication. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has cited Russian campaign interference as one of the factors that helped tip the presidential race in Donald Trump's favour. Facebook's Allan disagreed. "We did spot this activity that was wrong, shouldn't have happened, was political activity directed from Russia," said Allan. But he added that the crux of the problem was campaign spending. "If you say to me was the election won because of this mass of (campaign spending) activity here, or because of this small amount of activity over here, I think it's reasonable to say let's start by lookingif we think there is a problemat campaign spending generally." He also appeared unable to placate committee members' anger at Zuckerberg's refusal to show up. "Who advised Mr. Zuckerberg?" asked Canadian politician Charlie Angus. "Was that his decision or did Facebook sayto protect Mr. Zuckerbergto stay away from this meeting?" "I will take responsibility for decision-making around appearances," Allan replied. Explore further Facebook's Zuckerberg says he is not considering resigning 2018 AFP USDA Forest Service researchers collect samples of snow to test for rare carnivore DNA. Credit: USDA Forest Service An innovative new project has discovered that animal footprints contain enough DNA to allow for species identification. Scientists have traditionally relied on snow-tracks and camera traps to monitor populations of rare carnivores, like Canada lynx, fishers and wolverines. These traditional techniques can tell part of, but not the entire story of an animal population, and are sometimes difficult to validate species identification. The study, led by the USDA Forest Service, collected snow samples within animal tracks from known locations of collared or photographed animals. DNA was extracted from these samples and analyzed with cutting-edge genomic tools and newly developed molecular genetic assays to identify each species. They found these assays positively detected the DNA of each species in various snow samples and outperformed traditional lab techniques on previously undetectable genetic samples, which suggests that this method could revolutionize winter surveys of rare species by greatly reducing or eliminating misidentifications and missed detections. "It was the craziest thing, we were talking about how we use environmental DNA to detect aquatic species and thinking, maybe we could do the same in snow, since it is just water after all," said Thomas Franklin, a scientist with the USDA Forest Service National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, who is lead author on the study. "This study shows that thinking outside the box and collaborating with researchers from other disciplines can pay real dividends in terms innovation and scientific advances." Monitoring for rare carnivores in the winter, using traditional methods, can be time intensive, expensive, and dangerous. "This new technique has the potential to make track misidentifications a thing of the past," said Jessie Golding, a study co-author and scientist with the USDA Forest Service. What this means for managers is gained efficiency and accuracy, and that better information will be available to help conserve these species of concern. Explore further On the DNA trail of the platypus More information: Thomas W. Franklin et al, Using environmental DNA methods to improve winter surveys for rare carnivores: DNA from snow and improved noninvasive techniques, Biological Conservation (2018). Journal information: Biological Conservation Thomas W. Franklin et al, Using environmental DNA methods to improve winter surveys for rare carnivores: DNA from snow and improved noninvasive techniques,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.11.006 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Efforts to protect the UK's native honey bees could be helped by research that maps their entire genetic make-up. Experts also analysed the genetic profile of bacteria and other organisms that live inside bees, to shed new light on emerging diseases that threaten bee colonies. Researchers say their findings could help to safeguard native bee populations from the effects of infectious diseases through improved health monitoring. Bees play a vital role in helping to pollinate crops and wild plants, so minimising risks to them is crucial. A team led by the University of Edinburgh analysed the entire genetic makeup of bee colonies from across the UK and compared them with recently imported bees. They found that bees from some hives in Scotland were genetically very similar to the UK's native dark honey bee, even though southern European strains have been imported for many years The researchers from the University's Roslin Institute say this is good news as native bees were thought to be endangered in the UK. They suggest this could mean that native bees survive better in cooler climates than their relatives from southern Europe. The team also analysed the genetic makeup of bacteria and other organisms that live inside beesthe so-called metagenome. The findings uncovered organisms that had not been seen before in honey bees and that may cause disease. Hives that are infected with these organisms may also be more susceptible to other infections. Explore further Common weed killer linked to bee deaths More information: Tim Regan et al, Characterisation of the British honey bee metagenome, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Tim Regan et al, Characterisation of the British honey bee metagenome,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07426-0 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. 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Lawmakers from nine countries grilled Facebook executive, Richard Allan, on Tuesday as part of an international hearing at Britain's parliament on disinformation and "fake news." Facebook's vice president for policy solutions, answered questions in place of his boss, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who ignored repeated requests to appear. (Gabriel Sainhas/House of Commons via AP) A cohort of international lawmakers is trying to turn up the pressure on Facebook, grilling one of its executives and making a show of founder Mark Zuckerberg's refusal to explain to them why his company failed to protect users' data privacy. The rare "international grand committee" of lawmakers from nine countries gathered in London to get answers about Facebook's handling of personal data and made a point of leaving an empty seat with Zuckerberg's name tag. Richard Allan, the company's vice president for policy solutions, said he volunteered to attend because Zuckerberg had already appeared before other committees this year, including in Washington and, briefly, Brussels. Lawmakers from Canada, Ireland, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Belgium, France and Latvia joined their British counterparts at the parliamentary select committee hearingthe first such cross-border event in London since 1933. British select committees are used to investigate major issues and have the powerfulfrom CEOs to government officialsexplain their decisions in a public forum. They don't have the power to make laws but the government takes their recommendations into account when formulating new policies. Allan appeared after the committee's chairman, Damian Collins, took the unusual move of seizing a trove of confidential internal Facebook documents from a visiting U.S. tech executive. The committee wanted the files, which have been sealed by a California judge, in the hope they would shed light on Facebook's privacy policies. In this file photo dated Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, Richard Allan, Facebook's Director of Policy for Europe, gestures as he speaks at the London Cyberspace Conference in London. International lawmakers are preparing to question Facebook executive in charge of public policy, Richard Allan, at parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing in London Tuesday Nov. 27, 2018, as they to look into the social media company's data protection policies. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, FILE) Collins, who has not yet made the documents public, asked Allan about one item he said was of considerable public interest that suggests Facebook was alerted to possible Russian hacking years before it became a major issue. He said the document indicates a Facebook engineer notified his superiors in October 2014 that "entities with Russian IP addresses" were pulling more than 3 billion data points a day from Facebook. Allan said that information was "at best partial and at worst potentially misleading." Facebook said in a statement that the "the engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity." An activist wearing a Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mask stands outside Portcullis House in Westminster as an international committee of parliamentarians met for a hearing on the impact of disinformation on democracy in London, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Lawmakers from nine countries grilled a Facebook executive who came in place of Zuckerberg on Tuesday as part of an international hearing at Britain's parliament on disinformation and "fake news." (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) The committee obtained the files from Theodore Kramer, CEO of app maker Six4Three, after they discovered he was in London, threatening him with prison if he refused. Kramer's company acquired the files as part of a legal discovery process in a lawsuit against Facebook. Allan apologized frequently but revealed little new about Facebook and its operations. He acknowledged that the company has not been without blame in how it handled various scandals. "I'm not going to disagree with you that we've damaged public trust with some of the actions we've taken," he said. Allan was responding to Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus, who said the social media giant has "lost the trust of the international community to self-police," and that governments have to start looking at ways to hold the company accountable. Facebook accepts that a regulatory framework is needed, Allan said. An activist wearing a Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mask stands in front of Portcullis House in Westminster as an international committee of parliamentarians met for a hearing on the impact of disinformation on democracy in London, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Lawmakers from nine countries grilled a Facebook executive who came in place of Zuckerberg on Tuesday as part of an international hearing at Britain's parliament on disinformation and "fake news." (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) An activist wearing a Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mask stands in front of Portcullis House in Westminster as an international committee of parliamentarians met for a hearing on the impact of disinformation on democracy in London, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Lawmakers from nine countries grilled a Facebook executive on Tuesday as part of an international hearing at Britain's parliament on disinformation and "fake news." (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) An activist wearing a Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mask stands in front of Portcullis House in Westminster as an international committee of parliamentarians met for a hearing on the impact of disinformation on democracy in London, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Lawmakers from nine countries grilled a Facebook executive who came in place of Zuckerberg on Tuesday as part of an international hearing at Britain's parliament on disinformation and "fake news." (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Britain's Damian Collins, centre, speaks during a press conference for the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in London, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. 8 different Parliaments from all over the world, known as the "International Grand Committee on Disinformation and 'fake news'" gathered for a special evidence session. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Explore further Facebook was warned of alleged Russian meddling back in 2014 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai last month acknowledged publicly for the first time that the company is considering a search engine for China Google workers on Tuesday posted an open letter calling on the internet giant to abort plans for "a censored search" service in China or risk setting a dangerous precedent. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai last month acknowledged publicly for the first time that the company is considering a search engine for China, saying it could offer "better information" to people than rival services. Unconfirmed reports of "Project Dragonfly" had sparked protest from Google's workforce as well as groups including Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, which is encouraging people to sign an online petition calling for its cancellation. "Our opposition to Dragonfly is not about China: we object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be," read the workers' letter, which bore the names of 90 Google employees and called for more of the firms' more than 94,000 employees to sign. "Dragonfly in China would establish a dangerous precedent at a volatile political moment, one that would make it harder for Google to deny other countries similar concessions." A search application designed to filter out censored content from results could damage all internet users' trust in Google, Amnesty International said in a post on its website on Tuesday. "This is a watershed moment for Google," said Amnesty International researcher on technology and human rights Joe Westby. "As the world's number one search engine, it should be fighting for an internet where information is freely accessible to everyone, not backing the Chinese government's dystopian alternative." Speaking at a conference last month, Pichai said Google leaders "feel obliged to think hard" about China despite criticism over the possibility of cooperating with Chinese censorship. "We are always balancing a set of values," he said, while adding that "we also follow the rule of law in every country." Google shut down its search engine in China in 2010, refusing Beijing's requirement to censor search results. Pichai described Project Dragonfly as an effort to learn about what Google could offer if it resumed its search operations in the world's second largest economy. "It turns out we would be able to serve well over 99 percent of the (search) queries," he said onstage in a question-and-answer session. "And there are many, many areas where we would provide better information than what is available." Pichai offered no details on the status of the effort but said he was taking a "long-term view" on China. "We don't know whether we would or could do this in China but we felt it was important to explore," he said. "I think it's important for us given how important the market is and how many users there are." US internet titans have long struggled with doing business in China, home of a "Great Firewall" that blocks politically sensitive content, such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and The New York Times website are blocked in China, but Microsoft's Bing search engine continues to operate. 2018 AFP One option is to educate young people about criminal behaviourif they are willing to listen. Credit: Shutterstock We have conducted what we believe to be Australia's first quantitative research on young people's behaviour in nightclubs and the findings present a disturbing picture. The research suggests that behaviour is taking place at these clubs that would be criminal if non-consensual, and totally unacceptable at the very least. However, the behaviour is somehow tolerated in some cases almost encouraged. Many young people think they are too conservative, and that the behaviours they witness must be normal and acceptable in a nightclub settingso they just put up with it. Men engage in this conduct such as groping, grabbing, and pinching a person on the buttocks far more than women. Our research was confined to behaviour between heterosexual men and women. The respondents came from across Australia. On the relatively rare occasions when women initiate such conduct, respondents of both genders regard this as somewhat more acceptable than when it's men engaging in the conduct. A values and accountability-free zone? On any given weekend, young Australians flock to nightclubs and bars to have a good time and, in many cases, find a sexual partner. For years, nightclubs have been hot spots for sexual behaviour that would be deemed out of order in any other setting. We hear of women who avoid nightlife settings because they dislike their "grab, grope and grind" culture. We also know these behaviours can potentially cause some people to feel degraded, threatened or distressed . In our study, we explored the norms of sexual behaviour in nightclubs and bars as experienced by 381 young Australians. They comprised 342 women and 39 men, all of whom identified as heterosexual. They were aged 18 to 30 and had been to nightclubs in the past six months. We recruited them using social media, given the high level of adoption of these platforms by nightclub-goers. We were able to find only 39 male respondents because it's very hard to get men to open up on this subject. Statistically, this is less than ideal. We posed the various scenarios listed below, then reversed the role of male and female for each scenario. The third scenariogrindingis clearly non-consensual, and so would amount to criminal assault. The other scenarios might well amount to criminal assault if non-consensual. Both genders are more accepting of these behaviours if the perpetrator is a woman. This finding is difficult to explain. The explanation is likely to be complex, but several factors probably play a role. It could be that the rise of feminism and the associated sexual liberation of women might have influenced participants from both genders to be more accepting of these behaviours by women. All participants were presented all four sexual behaviors twice, once with male/female and again with a female/male recipient/actor construction. Credit: Chart: The Conversation Men's behaviour more likely to cause harm Or could it be that participants believed this type of behaviour by men could cause more harm to recipients than women would cause. This belief is also echoed in the media and society, where the voices of male survivors of sexual assault by women are dismissed or belittled as the harm caused to them is often perceived to be less than that of a female victim. Women are sexually assaulted by men in far greater numbers than the number of men sexually assaulted by women. In follow-up questions we posed after the study, several men indicated that the more attractive the woman engaging in the unacceptable behaviour wasattractive as perceived by the respondent making the judgementthe more acceptable the behaviour would be. No woman said anything similar of such behaviour by men. Other research has previously found that men are welcoming of most sexual behaviour in nightlife settings. In relation to the rare instances of women groping men at nightclubs, men have said women cannot help themselves around a young attractive man and that they, the men, do not see the behaviour as a threat more as a [self-esteem boost]. People think they must be more prudish than their peers Participants in our study reported they often observe these four behaviours in nightlife settings. Why do they suppress their personal values in this setting and not in others? Many young people wrongly think that most other people find the behaviours acceptable. Research shows it's a common phenomenon for people to wrongly think they are more conservative than their peers. They therefore subjugate their personal values in nightlife settings because they think most other people find the behaviour acceptable. Another reason is patrons find it difficult to identify whether the behaviour is consensual or not. The continuum of consensual sexual behaviour in nightlife settings extends much further than in most other public settings, such as workplaces or the streetthat is, an act that would clearly be assault on the street might conceivably be mutually consented to by two people in a nightclub. Some people go to nightlife settings to find sexual partners, and flirting and hook-up behaviours often occur. There can also be significant pressure on people, especially men, to find a sexual partner, which can lead to riskier and more aggressive sexual advances. So what's the solution? Nightlife settings serve an important social function as a place where young people relax, socialise, develop their social identities and find sexual partners. Society should allow them that opportunity, but at the same time the nightclub should not necessarily be a place where personal values and integrity are left at the door. The lock-out laws in some states are an overreaction by authorities to engineer change in these environments. But how can young people bring the right balance to what happens in nightlife settings? One possible way forward is to use what we academics call "normative interventions." Such interventions involve first letting young people know what the majority of them actually think, and that is that "grabbing, groping and grinding" in nightlife settings is wrong. Just because it seems like everyone is doing it, doesn't make it OK. The next step is to encourage patrons to speak up when such behaviours occur, whether they are the victim or a bystander. Research in other settings shows it's possible to develop programs that encourage people who observe such behaviour to intervene, such as confronting the perpetrator or reporting the incident to authorities. In further research currently underway, we are looking more closely at the role of consent in nightclub conduct. Explore further Drugs and alcohol complicate sexual consent, but context can make things clearer This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Research beneath the Archbasilica of St John Lateran has revealed the appearance of world's first cathedral and the remarkable transformations that preceded its construction. A team of archaeologists from Newcastle University,UK, the universities of Florence and Amsterdam and the Vatican Museums, have worked far beneath the streets of Rome to piece together a pivotal moment in the history of the eternal city. Credit: The Lateran Project Supported throughout by the British School at Rome the teamdrawn from Newcastle University, UK, the universities of Florence and Amsterdam and the Vatican Museumshave been able to bring the splendour of successive transformations of the ancient city to life. The church, the Pope's own cathedral, was originally built in the 4th century AD by Constantinethe first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Positioned on the Caelian Hill, the church would have dominated the Roman skyline at the time. As research reveals, however, the site had already been in use for centuries. To build his magnificent cathedral, Constantine had swept away the Castra Nova (New Fort), the lavish headquarters of the imperial horseguard constructed over a century before by the Emperor Septimius Severus. In much the same way, Severus had previously destroyed the palatial houses of some of Rome's most powerful residents to make way for the horseguards' impressive new home. This ongoing process of construction on the site meant that over hundreds of years layers of Roman history were laid down, much of it reflecting the changing fortunes and priorities of the Empire. Working far beneath the modern streets of Rome, the team on the Lateran Project have brought to life the first ever holistic picture of hundreds of years of Roman history by using digital mapping, ground penetrating radar and 3-D visualisation techniques. Research beneath the Archbasilica of St John Lateran has revealed the hidden history of the world's first cathedral and the remarkable transformations that preceded its construction. A team of archaeologists from Newcastle University, UK, the universities of Florence and Amsterdam and the Vatican Museums, have worked far beneath the streets of Rome to piece together a pivotal moment in the history of the eternal city. To build his 4th century cathedral, To build his magnificent cathedral, Constantine swept away the Castra Nova (New Fort), the lavish headquarters of the imperial horseguards constructed over a century before by the Emperor Septimius Severus Credit: Lateran project Working with some of the world's leading visualisation specialists, the team has reconstructed the splendour of the buildings. It is one of the first projects in the world to have used terrestrial laser-scanning over such a large area to drive archaeological research. The work has also permitted study of how the different buildings that occupied the site evolved, how different elements relate to one another and has given a sense of the scale the four-hectare site covers. The work carried out by the Lateran Project is featured in the latest edition of Current World Archaeology. Talking exclusively to the publication, Professor Ian Haynes, Co-Director of the Lateran Project and Professor of Archaeology at Newcastle University, UK, said: "There is a large area of space underneath the Lateran that it is possible to walk or crawl through. "The archaeology is at varying levels belowat the deepest we were 8.5m below modern ground surface. To access some of the spaces we worked with a group called Roma Sotteranea who specialise in working on buried sites and use exactly the same equipment and techniques as potholers. In some places, it was necessary to rotate the teams on a half hourly basis because otherwise it just becomes stifling." The construction of the cathedral was a pivotal moment marking the start of the major Christian buildings that came to define Rome and is a potent symbol of the military making way for religion. Research beneath the Archbasilica of St John Lateran has revealed the hidden history of the world's first cathedral and the remarkable transformations that preceded its construction. A team of archaeologists from Newcastle University, UK, the universities of Florence and Amsterdam and the Vatican Museums, have worked far beneath the streets of Rome to piece together a pivotal moment in the history of the eternal city. Using innovative 3D mapping and visualisation tools, the Lateran Project team have brought to life the first ever holistic picture of hundreds of years of Roman history. Credit: The Lateran Project In AD312 Constantine's army fought the Battle of Milvian Bridge, after which the old Horse Guards base and several nearby buildings were destroyed. The land was given to the Church and provided the perfect spot for Constantine to set out his new vision for Rome. Professor Haynes told Current World Archaeology: "The land may have been given to the Church within weeks of the battle. A decision was certainly taken pretty soon afterwards and work on the Lateran started some years before it did on St Peter's. "The cathedral was rebuilt in the 1650s but there is still original Constantine fabric in the walls, while the original foundations are exposed beneath the church. "There have been various efforts to reconstruct it since then, so we wanted to pull together all of this information to create a digital cathedral that you can walk around. "Working with colleagues at the University of Amsterdam and Newcastle-based visualisation specialists, New Visions, we've incorporated information from earlier excavations. We also created a simpler model to test the acoustics and to try to understand how sounds would have worked in the basilica." Explore further Rome subway construction uncovers 2nd-century military home Multifractal and fractal manifestations of nervousness in the world economy. Top: changes in the Hurst exponent for the S&P 500 index in the last half-century, with the moments of financial crashes marked. Below: oscillations of the S&P 500 in the years 1800-2003 with extrapolation (made in 2003) to 2025. Credit: IFJ PAN The near future of the global economy looks extremely bleak. This pessimistic forecast comes from advanced statistical analysis of the S&P 500 stock market index, recently published by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow. Based on their analysis, the researchers explain why, in up to a dozen or so years, we can expect an unprecedented financial meltdown. Black Monday, the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers shook up the global economy. Soon, however, we may have to deal with such a gigantic collapse of financial markets that all previous crashes will appear as minor stumbling blocks in comparison. This catastrophic vision emerges from the multifractal analysis of financial markets presented in the pages of Complexity by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracowand it coincides with their previous forecasts from a dozen or so years ago. "The data is, unfortunately, quite unambiguous. It seems that since the mid-2020s, a global financial crash of a previously unprecedented scale is highly probable. This time, the change will be qualitative, indeed radical," says Prof. Stanislaw Drozdz (IFJ PAN, Cracow University of Technology). In their latest publication, scientists from the IFJ PAN looked at various economic data, including the daily listing of Standard & Poor's 500 index in the period from January 1950 to December 2016. The main goal of the Cracow researchers' article was not to make catastrophic forecasts, but to credibly present issues related to the occurrence of multifractal effects in the financial time series (i.e. prices or stock market indices). The scientists' attention was especially drawn to a graph showing changes in the Hurst exponent, calculated for the S&P 500 based on multifractal spectra obtained during the analysis. The Hurst exponent can assume values from 0 to 1 and reflects the degree of susceptibility of a system to a change in trend. A value equal to 0.5 means that in the next measurement, the fluctuating tested value has the same probability of changing up as of changing down. Values below 0.5 indicate a greater tendency to alternation in the directions of fluctuation: a rise in value increases the probability of a decrease or vice versa, which in the context of finances can be interpreted as a symptom of nervousness. Values above 0.5 indicate the persistent nature of the changes and the tendency for the system to build a trend. After an increase, there is then a higher probability of another increase, and after a decreasea greater subsequent fall. Stable, mature markets are recognized as being those whose Hurst exponent is equal to 0.5 or shows only slight deviations from this value. The Hurst graph for the S&P 500 does actually start at 0.5. On October 19, 1987, however, there was a crashBlack Monday. The exponent then slightly decreased, but for more than a decade, it remained relatively stable again. At the turn of the century, there was a clear fall, and by March 2000, the dot-com bubble had burst. Just as before, the Hurst exponent again stabilized, but for a shorter period. At the end of the first decade, it suddenly began to grow rapidly, only to fall after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. From that moment, the Hurst exponent not only did not return to the value of 0.5, but in the last decade, it has quite clearly and systematically fallen below the particularly worrying value of 0.4. "What is also striking in the changes in the Hurst exponent for the S&P 500 is the shortening time intervals between consecutive crashes and the fact that after each collapse, the indicator never returns to its original level. We have a clear signal here that the nervousness of the world market is growing all the time, for decades, regardless of changing people, business entities or technology," notes Prof. Drozdz. This observed dependence corresponds with another detected by Prof. Drozdz and his colleagues already in 2003. In their publication in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, one of the graphs shows the changes of the logarithm from the S&P 500 index starting from 1800 (values from before the introduction of the S&P 500 were reconstructed on the basis of historical data). The zig-zag curve bends along a sinusoid of increasing frequency, ever more dynamically ascending to the asymptote located around 2025. Each subsequent crash is preceded by smaller swings, quasi-mini-crashes, which have been called precursors. Many of the precursors have their own still smaller precursors, thus showing some self-similarity. "The thing is that analogous self-similar dependence can also work on larger time scales. In which case, all previous crashes would only be precursors of a much larger and more dangerous event. When we come across a process with similar dynamics in physics, we talk about phase transition of the second type, such as the appearance or disappearance of magnetic properties in magnetic material around the Curie temperature," says Prof. Drozdz. The question concerning the credibility of such a pessimistic forecast remains open. If financial markets do not change qualitatively in the coming years, the worst-case scenario of the development of events has the chance of becoming a reality. However, the significant difference between the worlds of mathematics or physics and the world of finance is key. Mathematical laws and models constructed within physics are effective and relatively uncomplicated, due to the internal simplicity and immutability of the objects they concern. Financial markets are much more complex. Their participants are changeable: They remember, they learn, they can react both logically and emotionally. There is no shortage of examples proving that when knowledge about a law with the power to forecast is disseminated among a significant number of market participants, the market changes rapidly and the detected regularity disappears. Will the same happen in the case of the impending hyper-crash? The problem is that we do not know what would have to affect the global market to prevent the impending collapse. It is not even certain whether known remedies could be introduced in timeand time is running out, according to the researchers. The future of the world economy from the mid-2020s thus appears very gloomy. "Probably, we are the only ones who can't lose on this forecast. If the hyper-crash does occur, we will have shown the power of our multifractal statistical tools in a spectacular way. Personally, however, I would prefer for this not to happen. If this is the case and the hyper-crash does not occur, we will still have the quite acceptable interpretation that our forecast was correct, but today's press release will have influenced the behaviour of market participants and, we have just saved the world," notes Prof. Drozdz. Explore further Bitcoin better than the dollar? More information: Stanisaw Drozdz et al, Dynamical Variety of Shapes in Financial Multifractality, Complexity (2018). Stanisaw Drozdz et al, Dynamical Variety of Shapes in Financial Multifractality,(2018). DOI: 10.1155/2018/7015721 J. Kwapien et al. Alternation of different fluctuation regimes in the stock market dynamics, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications (2003). DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.012 Provided by The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences The Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the robotic arm of NASA's InSight lander, took this picture of the Martian surface on Nov. 26, 2018, the same day the spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet. The camera's transparent dust cover is still on in this image, to prevent particulates kicked up during landing from settling on the camera's lens. This image was relayed from InSight to Earth via NASA's Odyssey spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA's InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals, which were received on Earth at about 5:30 p.m. PST (8:30 p.m. EST). Solar array deployment ensures the spacecraft can recharge its batteries each day. Odyssey also relayed a pair of images showing InSight's landing site. "The InSight team can rest a little easier tonight now that we know the spacecraft solar arrays are deployed and recharging the batteries," said Tom Hoffman, InSight's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which leads the mission. "It's been a long day for the team. But tomorrow begins an exciting new chapter for InSight: surface operations and the beginning of the instrument deployment phase." InSight's twin solar arrays are each 7 feet (2.2 meters) wide; when they're open, the entire lander is about the size of a big 1960s convertible. Mars has weaker sunlight than Earth because it's much farther away from the Sun. But the lander doesn't need much to operate: The panels provide 600 to 700 watts on a clear day, enough to power a household blender and plenty to keep its instruments conducting science on the Red Planet. Even when dust covers the panelswhat is likely to be a common occurrence on Marsthey should be able to provide at least 200 to 300 watts. The panels are modeled on those used with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, though InSight's are slightly larger in order to provide more power output and to increase their structural strength. These changes were necessary to support operations for one full Mars year (two Earth years). In the coming days, the mission team will unstow InSight's robotic arm and use the attached camera to snap photos of the ground so that engineers can decide where to place the spacecraft's scientific instruments. It will take two to three months before those instruments are fully deployed and sending back data. In the meantime, InSight will use its weather sensors and magnetometer to take readings from its landing site at Elysium Planitiaits new home on Mars. Explore further How NASA will know when InSight touches down Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new Curtin University study has found trapdoor spiders do not survive intense bushfires but have high survival rates in low-intensity fires, in a finding that may have important implications for conservation management practices. The research, published in journal Austral Ecology, also found that spiders in burnt areas were more likely to fall victim to predators than those in unburnt areas. Lead author Ph.D. student Leanda Mason, from Curtin University's School of Molecular and Life Sciences, conducted a survey before and after prescribed burns in two Perth bushland patches, which are both part of a southwest Australian global biodiversity hotspot located at Kings Park and Bold Park. "Bushland remnants within cities are like islands of habitat, surrounded by inhospitable or deadly urban seas where only very few native species are able to survive," Ms Mason said. "The more specialised the spider species, the less likely it will be able to adapt to urban environments and therefore it will be restricted to the bushland remnants. "Due to them being highly specialised for their habitat, having low mobility and being restricted to a limited area, once trapdoor spiders are locally extinct in an urban bushland remnant, there is almost no chance of re-colonisation." The urban ecology study monitored spider survival for a year after both high and low-intensity fires. Of 257 burrows found, 115 spiders initially survived after an intense fire and none were confirmed alive after 12 months. In contrast, only one spider of 103 burrows was confirmed dead after a low-intensity prescribed fire. Using clay models, researchers also assessed predation rates as a secondary effect of fire. While they found higher rates of predation in burnt areas, with burnt burrow lids exposing burrow shafts, predation was strongly influenced by site and predator type. The trapdoor spider is part of the mygalomorph group of spiders, which constitutes about 13 per cent of known species of spiders. Of the 330 identified Australian mygalomorph species, 323 are endemic, meaning they are native and restricted to a certain place. Many are protected under state and federal environmental laws. Research co-author Associate Professor Grant Wardell-Johnson, also from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the study's findings could inform conservation management practices. "The introduction of numerous weeds in urban remnants has led to increased flammability, leading to a downward spiral for biodiversity conservation, as we reported in another recent paper from the same study," Professor Wardell-Johnson said. "Alternative fuel management is a priority. However, where prescribed fire is implemented, it needs to be at a micro scale and accompanied by weed control. In the presence of weeds we need less fire rather than more in urban remnants." More information: Leanda Mason et al. Ashes to ashes: Intense fires extinguish populations of urban short-range endemics, Austral Ecology (2018). Leanda Mason et al. Ashes to ashes: Intense fires extinguish populations of urban short-range endemics,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/aec.12685 Jack Ma's membership of China's Communist Party had not been known until now as China's richest man had previously suggested that he preferred to stay out of politics Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is among the world's richest people but he has now emerged as a member of another club: China's 89-million-strong Communist Party. The billionaire's Communist bona fides were revealed by the People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China's development. He is not the first nor likely the last Chinese super-rich capitalist to join the party, which counts property titan Xu Jiayin and Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin among its billionaire members. But Ma's membership had not been widely known until now as China's richest man had previously suggested that he preferred to stay out of politics. In Monday's article, the People's Daily said Ma was a party member who has played an important role in pushing China's Belt and Road global trade infrastructure initiativea pet project of President Xi Jinping. He has also been honoured as one of the "outstanding builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang Province", where Alibaba is based, the daily said. Joining the party Joining the party can be helpful to private businessmen and women in the country as they navigate a complicated business environment where the state-led economy dominates many industries and private business can be unwelcome. In China, company chiefs need the backing of the Communist Party to get rich, but they also need it to survive. It is a relationship thatwhen the political winds changecan hang them out to dry, experts say. Party membership did not prevent the abrupt fall of oil tycoon Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy, who disappeared from public view this spring and is thought to be under investigation in China. Ma's business rivals, Tencent CEO and Chairman Pony Ma and Baidu's Robin Li are not affiliated with any party, the People's Daily said. Xi has renewed a push to expand the Communist Party's influence in private business, requiring any company with more than three party members to set up a party cell, or lacking numbers, join with nearby firms. Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, has been revealed as a Communist Party member Three in four private companies already host party organisations. "We must do a good job in the education and management of party members and guide them to play an active role," Xi told officials in Shanghai earlier this month, noting the increase in private employment and new types of employment. Xi is pushing to further intertwine the party and business, with the latest rewrite to the rules for party organisations published Sunday by official news agency Xinhua. In private companies party cells should "guide and supervise the enterprise to strictly abide by national laws and regulations," the draft order says, according to Xinhua. 'Never marry them' Ma did not reveal his Communist Party membership in paperwork filed for Alibaba's 2014 initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. It is not known if Ma was a member at the time. A spokeswoman for Alibaba declined to comment. Alibaba bought Hong Kong's English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, in 2015 and controversies have swirled over the editorial slant of its coverage since the purchase. Ma told the paper he wanted to offer a "fair chance to readers" to understand China when Alibaba purchased it. Despite being known for its in-depth coverage of China, the paper had yet to publish a story on the party membership of China's top capitalist by Tuesday evening. Mawho announced in September that he would step down as head of Alibaba next yearhas previously indicated he preferred to keep the Chinese state at arm's length. "My philosophy is to be in love with the government, but never marry them," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2007. But party members must hold up their right fist and recite an oath upon joining. "Be loyal to the party, work actively, fight for communism all one's life, always be prepared to sacrifice everything for the party and people, and never betray the party," they recite. 2018 AFP Japan's space agency on Monday launched a rocket carrying a satellite that will monitor greenhouse gases, as well as the first satellite built entirely in the United Arab Emirates. The nation's H-IIA rocket lifted off Monday afternoon at 1:08 pm (0308 GMT) from the Tanegashima Space Centre, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). About 16 minutes later, it sent a Japanese satellite nicknamed Ibuki-2 into orbit. The satellite is officially named GOSAT-2, short for "greenhouse gases observing satellite-2", and is intended to provide data that will help Japan create and publish "emission inventories" of the CO2 output of various countries, as outlined in the Paris climate accord. The satellite will also make precision observations of methane and other gases. The Japanese rocket also released "KhalifaSat", the first satellite built entirely in the UAE by local engineers. "The launch of KhalifaSat is an unprecedented Emirati achievement," Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed said in a tweet. "Our dreams to embrace space have become a reality." Five other smaller satellites are scheduled to be released from the Japanese rocket. Japan's space agency and its private partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries see the international satellite launch market as a possible revenue stream. Explore further Rocket carrying 1st UAE-made satellite launched from Japan 2018 AFP Malaysian casino operator Genting claims the Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox walked away from a planned theme park near Kuala Lumpur Shares in Malaysian casino operator Genting fell nearly 19 percent Tuesday after it sued The Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox for allegedly abandoning a project to build a theme park in the country. The $1 billion lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that Disney and Fox failed to honour a 2013 deal to license intellectual property, including from Fox animated films like "Ice Age" and "Planet of the Apes," for the theme park outside Kuala Lumpur. The suit alleges that Fox was seeking to terminate the contract and that Disney executives were also keen on distancing themselves from the project because the park would be adjacent to a casino and would harm the company's "family-friendly" image. Disney and Fox representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Genting Malaysia Berhad (GENM) said in a statement to the local exchange it was claiming damages in excess of $1 billion. It vowed "to fully enforce its rights" under the deal and "claim for the cost of its investments and consequential and punitive damages". "The litigation is not expected to impact GENM's current business operations," the company said. However, investors still sold Genting stocks, which plunged by as much as 18.6 percent before recovering slightly. They were down 14.72 percent by mid-afternoon. Brokerage CGS CIMB Securities described news of the litigation as a "major negative surprise" for the theme park, the opening of which has already been delayed by more than a year. "Potential legal complications" could also affect the park's new proposed opening date, scheduled for the first half of 2019, it added. "The plan was for Fox World to be the new centerpiece of Resorts World Genting, GENM's integrated resort complex in Genting Highlands," according to the lawsuit. The suit alleges that Fox had used repeated delays in the project as a reason to cancel the deal and had recently issued a notice of default, requiring the developer to open the park within 30 days, an impossible deadline. "This is a case about seller's remorse, first by Fox, and then by Disney, after the latter began the process of acquiring Fox in a deal now expected to close in the first half of 2019," the suit claims. It adds that Genting was entitled to recoup the more than $750 million it had already invested in the park, along with consequential and punitive damages in excess of $1 billion. Built on more than 25 acres (10 hectares) in the Genting Highlands, an idyllic mountain retreat an hour's drive outside of Kuala Lumpur, the park was to feature more than 25 rides and attractions based on such blockbusters as "Ice Age," "Life of Pi," "Alien" and "Night at the Museum." Explore further EU approves Disney's deal to buy Fox entertainment assets 2018 AFP Meng Cao, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in statistics, and Professor Jay Breidt teamed up with researchers from the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources to drill down on results from using the randomized response technique. Credit: Joe Mendoza/CSU Photography Conservation scientists and statisticians at Colorado State University have teamed up to solve a key problem for the study of sensitive behaviors like poaching, harassment, bribery, and drug use. Sensitive behaviorsdefined as socially unacceptable or not compliant with rules and regulationsare notoriously hard to study, researchers say, because people often do not want to answer direct questions about them. To overcome this challenge, scientists have developed indirect questioning approaches that protect responders' identities. However, these methods also make it difficult to predict which sectors of a population are more likely to participate in sensitive behaviors, and which factors, such as knowledge of laws, education, or income, influence the probability that an individual will engage in a sensitive behavior. Assistant Professor Jennifer Solomon and Associate Professor Michael Gavin of the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at CSU, and Abu Conteh from MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, have teamed up with Professor Jay Breidt and doctoral student Meng Cao in the CSU Department of Statistics to develop a new method to solve the problem. The study, "Understanding the drivers of sensitive behavior using Poisson regression from quantitative randomized response technique data," was published recently in PLOS One. Conteh, who, as a doctoral student, worked with Gavin in New Zealand, used a specific technique, known as quantitative randomized response, to elicit confidential answers to questions on behaviors related to non-compliance with natural resource regulations from a protected area in Sierra Leone. In this technique, the researcher conducting interviews has a large container containing pingpong balls, some with numbers and some without numbers. The interviewer asks the respondent to pick a ball at random, without revealing it to the interviewer. If the ball has a number, the respondent tells the interviewer the number. If the ball does not have a number, the respondent reveals how many times he illegaly hunted animals in a given time period. While the interviewer does not know specifically if the number given was a number on a ball or a number related to illegal hunting, the distribution of numbered and unnumbered balls allows inferences to be drawn. Using this technique, Conteh made inferences about the percent of the population that engaged in illegal behavior. But Gavin, Solomon and Conteh wanted to learn more about what drives poaching: Are younger men more inclined to engage in this illegal activity? Are people from larger households more likely to violate hunting regulations? Were people deterred from illegal activity by their knowledge of law enforcement activity? Frustrated with their inability to move beyond generalizations about an overall population, Gavin and Solomon asked Breidt for help refining the data. An intriguing proposition Breidt had read about the randomized response technique in scientific journals, and was intrigued. "Here's this interesting probabilistic way to get data, but I had never encountered someone who really did it," he said. He enlisted Cao, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in statistics, to tackle the problem. Cao and Breidt developed a methodology and the software to implement it. They tested the new methodology with extensive simulations, before applying it to the Sierra Leone data. Armed with the new computer program, the scientists found that people from rural communities with less access to jobs in urban centers were more likely to hunt in the reserve. People in communities with a greater proportion people displaced by Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war were also more likely to hunt illegally. The researchers said that collaborating across disciplines was and is key to addressing complex problems like this one. It is commonplace for people to be noncompliant with rules and regulations and equally important for social scientists to analyze these behaviors. Solomon said the team is hopeful that the software and methodological approach will be used broadly for research around the world. "This is an exciting advance that should prove useful for a variety of different topics of societal concern," she said. Explore further Sierra Leone sees worrying spike in Ebola cases over week More information: Meng Cao et al, Understanding the drivers of sensitive behavior using Poisson regression from quantitative randomized response technique data, PLOS ONE (2018). Journal information: PLoS ONE Meng Cao et al, Understanding the drivers of sensitive behavior using Poisson regression from quantitative randomized response technique data,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204433 Credit: Oregon State University The microorganisms that cause malaria, leishmaniasis and a variety of other illnesses today can be traced back at least to the time of dinosaurs, a study of amber-preserved blood-sucking insects and ticks show. In addition to demonstrating the antiquity of vectors and their long-term association with parasitic microorganisms, the findings are remarkable for several reasons. First, bloodsuckers like mosquitoes, fleas, sand flies, ticks and biting midges aren't frequently found in amber, and rarer yet is evidence of any microorganisms they might have been carrying. But a review by entomologist George Poinar of Oregon State University showed that amber from five regions around the world contained hematophagous arthropods carrying preserved, identifiable pathogens and parasites. "Feeding on vertebrate blood evolved as an efficient way for certain insects and acarines to get protein for growth and reproduction," said Poinar, professor emeritus in the College of Science and an international expert on plant and animal life forms found preserved in amber. "It's likely that primitive mosquitoes and other arthropod vectors were present back in the Jurassic and were even transmitting pathogens at that period. This would have resulted in widely dispersed diseases, many of which were probably fatal to vertebrates when they first appeared." Poinar looked at bloodsucking insects and ticks encased in Dominican, Mexican, Baltic, Canadian and Burmese amber dating back from 15 million to 100 million years. Credit: Oregon State University Among the vectors were mosquitoes, sand flies, biting midges, bat flies, black flies, fleas, kissing bugs and ticks. They carry a cornucopia of microorganisms that today cause diseases such as filariasis, sleeping sickness, river blindness, typhus, Lyme disease and, perhaps most significantly, malaria. Malaria remains a relentless public health concern, with multiple nations reporting increases in infections for 2018. In Venezuela alone, Poinar notes, more than 650,000 new cases of malaria have been reported this year. "Numerous malaria species parasitize vertebrates today, and we now know that over the past 100 million years, malaria was being vectored by mosquitoes, biting midges, bat flies and ticks," Poinar said. "Obtaining fossil records of pathogens carried by biting arthropods establishes a timeline when and where various diseases appeared and how they could have affected the survival, extinction and distribution of vertebrates over time." Poinar stresses, however, that while his research shows what parasites and pathogens specific bloodsuckers were transmitting at particular periods and locations in the past, "these fossils are not old enough to tell us when and how associations between vectors, pathogens and vertebrates originated." Poinar believes that the microorganisms first infected blood-sucking arthropods and only after equilibria had been reached between them were the microorganisms then vectored to vertebrates. "That topic has been and will continue to be under discussion for years to come," he said. Explore further An ancient killer: Ancestral malarial organisms traced to age of dinosaurs More information: George Poinar, Vertebrate pathogens vectored by ancient hematophagous arthropods, Historical Biology (2018). George Poinar, Vertebrate pathogens vectored by ancient hematophagous arthropods,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2018.1545018 Interdisciplinary studies reveal how nature creates a globally used antibiotic. Credit: University of Bristol Scientists at the University of Bristol have revealed the secrets of the key ring forming cascade in the biosynthesis of a globally used antibiotic. They hope their findings could lead to the development of antibiotics with improved properties and new biocatalysts for the clean and efficient synthesis of medicinally important molecules. With the widespread problem of increasing resistance to existing antibiotics, there is an urgent need for the discovery and development of new cost-effective ways to combat bacterial infections. Mupirocin is an antibiotic widely used as a topical treatment for bacterial skin infections such as impetigo. It is produced commercially using the microorganism Pseudomonas fluorescens which has developed complex biosynthetic machinery to produce the final molecule assembled on the tetra-substituted 6-membered ring essential for antibiotic activity. Now, scientists at BrisSynBio, a BBSRC and EPSRC-funded research centre at the University of Bristol, have revealed for the first time an enzymatic reaction cascade that generates selectively this 6-membered ring from a complex linear starting material. The multidisciplinary study, described in Nature Catalysis today (26 November), shows that the enzyme MupW is responsible for a chemically challenging transformation to give a new intermediate which a second enzyme, MupZ, then converts to the 6-membered ring. Without MupZ (which itself forms beautiful hexagonal crystals, shown in the image), a 5-membered ring is produced which has no antibiotic activity. This latest work builds on earlier research carried out by Bristol's Professor Tom Simpson FRS and Professor Chris Thomas from the University of Birmingham. Professor Matt Crump from the School of Chemistry was one of several supervisors who worked on the study. He said: "This work serves as an example of the importance of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in chemical and biochemical studies. Access to the 700 MHz NMR spectrometer, funded by BrisSynBio, enabled the identification of key intermediates in the pathway and opens future opportunities in synthetic biology which could not be achieved without the sensitivity of cutting-edge instrumentation." This reaction cascade would be difficult (arguably impossible!) to achieve using existing synthetic methodology and the team is now investigating these biocatalysts to prepare more stable analogues of the active component of the antibiotic mupirocin. Professor Chris Willis, from the School of Chemistry who jointly led the study, said: "This important breakthrough was achieved by an interdisciplinary team effort comprising talented postdoctoral researchers and postgraduates here at Bristol on a journey that included structural biology, synthetic and analytical chemistry in parallel with molecular modelling to unveil an overall transformation not previously reported for this family of enzymes." Dr. Paul Race and Dr. Marc van der Kamp from Bristol's School of Biochemistry were also part of the supervisory team carrying out the study, which was funded by the BBSRC and EPSRC via the Bristol Centre for Synthetic Biology. Explore further Modification of amino acids provides new starting point for development of medical treatments More information: Luoyi Wang et al, A Rieske oxygenase/epoxide hydrolase-catalysed reaction cascade creates oxygen heterocycles in mupirocin biosynthesis, Nature Catalysis (2018). Journal information: Nature Catalysis Luoyi Wang et al, A Rieske oxygenase/epoxide hydrolase-catalysed reaction cascade creates oxygen heterocycles in mupirocin biosynthesis,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41929-018-0183-5 Schematic of the circulation in the western North Atlantic during episode of strong (left) and weak (right) westward transport of the Labrador Current (LC). The oceanography of this region is characterised by the interaction of water masses formed in the Labrador and moving westward (LC and Labrador Sea Slope Water (LSSW)) and the water masses moving eastward originating as the Gulf Stream (GS) and its Atlantic Temperate Slope Water (ATSW). The exact location where these two water mass systems meet (yellow dashed lines) is determined by the strength of the northern recirculation gyre (white arrows), which then control the temperature recorded by the foraminifers. The positions of the sediments cores is indicated by the white dot. Credit: The University of Hong Kong A study led by Drs. Christelle Not and Benoit Thibodeau from the Department of Earth Sciences and the Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, highlights a dramatic weakening of ocean circulation during the 20th century that is interpreted to be a direct consequence of global warming and associated melt of the Greenland ice sheet. This is significant, as reduced circulation in the North Atlantic can yield profound changes on both the North American and European climate, but also on African and Asian summer monsoon rainfall. The findings were recently published in Geophysical Research Letters. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is the branch of the North Atlantic circulation that brings warm surface water toward the Arctic and cold deep water toward the equator. This transfer of heat and energy not only has direct influence on climate over Europe and North America, but can impact the African and Asian monsoon system through its effect on sea surface temperature, hydrological cycle, atmospheric circulation and variation in the intertropical convergence zone. Many climate models predicted a weakening, or even a collapse of this branch of the circulation under global warming, partly due to the release of freshwater from Greenland ice sheet. This freshwater has lower density than salty water and thus prevents the formation of deep water, slowing down the whole circulation. However, this weakening is still vigorously debated because of the scarcity of long-term record of the AMOC. Drs. Not and Thibodeau used microfossils called foraminifera found in a sediment core to estimate the past temperature of the ocean. The sediment core used is located in the Laurentian Channel, on the coast of Canada, where two important currents meet. Thus, the strength of these currents will control the temperature of the water at the coring site, which implies that the temperature reconstructed from this core is indicative of the strength of the North Atlantic circulation. With their collaborators from the United States of America, they validated their results using instrumental data and two numerical models that can simulate the climate and the ocean. "The AMOC plays a crucial role in regulating global climate, but scientists are struggling to find reliable indicators of its intensity in the past. The discovery of this new record of AMOC will enhance our understanding of its drivers and ultimately help us better comprehend potential near-future change under global warming," said Dr. Thibodeau. Picture of the foraminifer specie used in this study. Credit: The University of Hong Kong Interestingly, the research team also found a weak signal during a period called the Little Ice Age (a cold spell observed between about 1600 and 1850 AD). While not as pronounced as the 20th century trend, the signal might confirm that this period was also characterized by a weaker circulation in the North Atlantic, which implies a decrease in the transfer of heat toward Europe, contributing to the cold temperature of this period. However, more work is needed to validate this hypothesis. "While we could ground our temperature reconstruction for the 20th century against instrumental measurement, it is not possible to do so for the Little Ice Age period. Therefore, we need to conduct more analysis to consolidate this hypothesis," said Dr. Not. Explore further Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest point in more than 1,500 years More information: Benoit Thibodeau et al. Last Century Warming Over the Canadian Atlantic Shelves Linked to Weak Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, Geophysical Research Letters (2018). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Benoit Thibodeau et al. Last Century Warming Over the Canadian Atlantic Shelves Linked to Weak Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation,(2018). DOI: 10.1029/2018GL080083 Magnus Kramshj takes soil gas measurements at a field site on Disko Island, West Greenland. Credit: Klaus Kramshj Damp cellar. Old socks. Rotten eggs. Steamy cow dung. Believe it or not, these are the scents of our research, which has taken us across the European Arctic from Northern Scandinavia to many corners of Greenland. We're studying the release of a particular group of compounds from the Arctic tundra as the climate warms. On one trip, we helped out some of our colleagues to drill down into the frozen soil to retrieve a core of permafrost, and we noticed a strong, characteristic smell. We can best describe it as a nasty smell of rotten eggs blended with the fresh scent of soil after rain. And it is this stench that led us to believe that there is much more than just carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are odorless greenhouse gases, being released to the atmosphere when permafrost thaws. So, we brought back some of the permafrost soil to our lab in Copenhagen. We placed the samples in Mason jars, hooked them up to an extremely sensitive gas-analyser to see what these gases were. To our surprise we found not just a couple of overlooked gases, but several hundred different types of gases oozing out of the thawing permafrost. Many of them truly smell, but in the lab we discovered many more that are just as odorless as they are invisible. Living in the permafrost But what are these gases? And where do they come from? The answer lies in the bacterial life hidden away in these frozen soils. The gases belong to a group of chemicals that are collectively known as volatile organic compounds or VOCs, produced by bacteria. Permafrost soil might seem a rather inhospitable place with temperatures constantly below freezing. But, a single gram of this cold, Arctic soil can contain millions of bacteria. The majority survive by entering a metabolically inactive dormant state, but some of them have adapted to the harsh conditions and stay active. For example, some bacteria contain anti-freeze proteins that prevent ice crystals from forming in the cells by lowering the freezing point of water. In fact, permafrost hosts quite a large diversity of microbial life. They thrive in liquid brine veins that run through the frozen ground, where the freezing point is lower due to the large amount of salt. And they can also survive in the top of the permafrost, where melt water from the unfrozen soil above can infiltrate. Bacterial small talk Bacteria probably do not experience heartache or midlife crises, and life as a bacterium is probably not that complicated. Nonetheless, they do communicate with each other and their surroundings. Bacteria produce VOCs to act as signals that let other bacteria know when to reproduce or deploy defense measures against potential enemies. Some experiments are better suited to the laboratory than the field. Here, soil is incubated in small glass bottles to study the microbial degradation of ethanol and methanol. Credit: Magnus Kramshj Other VOCs are released for no specific purpose. They are simply a byproduct of evaporation or a myriad of other activities going on in microbial communities. So, the permafrost gases we observed in our experiment were essentially products of old bacterial communication and metabolic activity. While bacterial activity in permafrost is very low, these gases can build up over a long time. As they slowly accumulate, they become trapped in these ancient permafrost soils, which can be millions of years old and eventually build up a substantial amount of gas. This could explain the large, quick gas release that we observed upon thaw. Free bar in the permafrost Of the hundreds of VOCs we measured, ethanol stood out in particular, as it accounted for 50 per cent of the mass released from the thawing permafrost. Ethanol gas indicates fermentation processes in the frozen permafrost. The amount of ethanol released was impressive and highlights the vulnerability of permafrost and the possible impact this reservoir of carbon could have on the overall chemistry of the atmosphere. If we as a planet, neglect to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then the subsequent global warming is likely to drive 40-80 per cent of the near surface permafrost soils to thaw by the end of this century. Assuming that all permafrost soils emit the same amount of ethanol as we have observed, climate warming will lead to the release of 1,000 billion tonnes of ethanol. This is equivalent to 21,500 years of traffic emissions from a city the size of Los Angeles, the most congested city in the world, assuming all cars used ethanol as gasoline. Like at least part of the human population, bacteria also eagerly consume ethanol. Permafrost is overlain by a layer of soil that thaws every summerthe so-called 'active layer.' The active soil layer harbors an active microbial community ready to booze on the permafrost VOC gases like ethanol, as they diffuse upwards to reach the atmosphere. VOCs on the menu We were able to observe these gases because we dug down into the deep permafrost and physically brought them up to the surface. At which point the frozen soil thawed and the gases were released. But what would happen in 'real life', if the gases were not physically disturbed in this way? Would they still reach the surface if they were left to diffuse up to the surface on their own? While VOCs are released by some bacteria, they might be food to others. So the question was if the permafrost VOC gases would be eaten by microorganisms living in the active soil layer, and so prevented from ever reaching the atmosphere? To test this, we set up another experiment, in which we compared the release of VOCs from mason jars with permafrost alone to mason jars that contained both permafrost and an active layer soil. We saw that the active layer was colonised by thirsty microorganisms as almost all of the permafrost VOCs never made it through the active soil layer. It takes a bit of digging to reach permafrost. Then comes the tough part when frozen soil core samples are drilled out of the permafrost. Zackenberg, North-East Greenland. Credit: Photo: Mats Bjorkman Does this then mean, that permafrost released VOCs will not affect the atmosphere? Most likely not. The Arctic is currently experiencing climate warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, and this means that the permafrost is thawing with increasing speed. Periodic freezing and thawing are powerful processes that cause landslides and push deeper soil layers to the surface. Such reshaping of the landscape exposes frozen permafrost soils to direct contact with the atmosphere allowing VOCs to by-pass thirsty bacteria. The soil sink? We also discovered another important process: that is, the ability of bacteria to consume large amounts of VOCs in the soil above the permafrost, even at low temperatures. Like bacteria, trees and other plants use VOCs for communication and defense purposes. And actually, VOC release from plants is 10-1000 times higher compared to soil. VOCs emitted from vegetation swirl around in the air near the ground, before they eventually reach the upper atmosphere. But what happens when these VOCs briefly land on the soil surface? If the soil effectively takes up plant emitted VOCs and thereby reduces the net release of VOCs to the atmosphere, this might have consequences for VOCs in the atmosphere. VOCs affect the atmosphere in a number of ways, many of which are not fully understood. For example, when mixed with traffic exhaust VOCs contribute to production of air pollution. They can also stick together to form tiny particles and even clouds, which can cool the planet. On the other hand, VOCs can also increase the concentrations of atmospheric methane and ozone, which are both potent greenhouse gases. So, right now, we are in the laboratory running experiments to figure out precisely how VOCs are released from the permafrost in different situations to understand how this might change in the future as the climate continues to warm. VOCs mitigate or accelerate climate warming Climate scientists are interested in VOCs, because they can alter the physical and chemical balance of the atmosphere. Depending on the specific compounds, meteorological conditions, and what other gases they are mixed with in air, VOCs can have either a warming or a cooling impact on climate. VOCs facilitate atmospheric particle growth and induce cloud formation that cools the climate by reflecting solar radiation back to space. On the other hand, VOCs may contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, which is a greenhouse gas. The reactions VOCs participate in may also prolong the lifetime of methane, another greenhouse gas. This has the potential to amplify climate warming. Explore further A new permafrost gas mysterium More information: Magnus Kramshj et al. Biogenic volatile release from permafrost thaw is determined by the soil microbial sink, Nature Communications (2018). Magnus Kramshj et al. Biogenic volatile release from permafrost thaw is determined by the soil microbial sink,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05824-y Christian Nyrop Albers et al. Rapid mineralization of biogenic volatile organic compounds in temperate and Arctic soils, Biogeosciences (2018). DOI: 10.5194/bg-15-3591-2018 Journal information: Nature Communications , Biogeosciences This story is republished courtesy of ScienceNordic, the trusted source for English-language science news from the Nordic countries. Read the original story here. Wenzhong Zhang is an environmentalist from the University of Helsinki, who in his doctoral thesis in the field of chemistry describes a method for capturing small quantities of rare-earth elements from the waste heaps of the aluminium industry. Credit: Riitta-Leena Inki If rare-earth metals can be extracted from previously quarried ore, the environmental hazards of new mines and mining waste can be mitigated. In his doctoral research, Wenzhong Zhang from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Helsinki developed a new material by which scandium, a rare-earth metal, can be extracted from the waste of the aluminium industry. The amount of bauxite needed to manufacture one aluminium tin produces some 60 grams of a reddish, clay-like substance called red mud that manufacturers used to dump in the sea. Now, it is amassing as ever-growing heaps in producer countries including Greece, and there are over 3 billion tonnes of this waste product in the world today. "The problem is that the minerals we want are hidden in the waste heaps in very small quantities, and we do not have efficient methods for extracting them," says Wenzhong Zhang. In his research, Wenzhong Zhang focused on scandium, an interesting element due to its high cost; scandium mining may soon start in Finland at the Rautalammi deposit. The use of scandium in combination with aluminium will make it possible to manufacture more durable aeroplanes and bicycles with lighter structures. Wenzhong Zhang is developing new, functional material to capture scandium cleanly, leaving the rest of the waste behind. The work of a chemist is like building with blocks. Once the blocks are in place, a usable material is born with features that can be further developed by engineers. One day, the method will be deployable on an industrial scale. "At the moment, the aluminium industry does not put its focus on the metal extraction methods. It is more interested in looking for solutions that will make an end to the mountains of waste," says Wenzhong Zhang. At the University of Helsinki, the Academy of Finland-funded USEMA project USEMA-project (Ultra-Selective Hybrid Materials for Separation of Group 3 and f-block Element) started by Risto Koivula is developing new materials on the basis of the research group's expertise in methods of inorganic chemistry and ion exchange. "There are many areas of application, such as transforming waste flows to raw material and development of new processes to destroy radioactive waste, or manufacturing radio-medicine," says Koivula. Explore further Discarded waste could be a treasure trove of rare metals More information: Metal(IV) Phosphate Based Functional Materials for Selectively Harvesting Rare-Earth Elements from Bauxite Residue, Metal(IV) Phosphate Based Functional Materials for Selectively Harvesting Rare-Earth Elements from Bauxite Residue, helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/258263 Luminescent yeasts. Credit: Sergey Shakhov Russian scientists with colleagues from the U.K., Spain, Brazil, Japan and Austria have fully described the mechanism of fungal luminescence. They report that fungi utilize only four key enzymes to produce light and that transfer of these enzymes into other organisms makes them bioluminescent. Some living organisms can glow due to special chemical reactions in their bodies. Such organisms are called bioluminescent; they include fireflies, jellyfish and worms, among others. They use this ability to attract prey, scare away predators, communicate and disguise themselves. Scientists have identified thousands of species of luminescent organisms and about 40 chemical mechanisms to emit light. Most of these mechanisms have only been partially studied, or not studied at all. Decoding of the mechanism of fungal luminescence was made possible by years of preceding research in the field. In the early 19th century, scientists discovered that mycelium make rotting trees glow. In 2009, Anderson G. Oliveira and Cassius V. Stevani, co-authors of the present paper, determined that a single biochemical mechanism is shared by all fungi emitting light. In 2015-2017, a team of Russian scientists led by Ilia Yampolsky made a series of key discoveries. In particular, the team determined the structure of luciferin, the molecule that emits light when oxidized. While conducting their new study, the scientists discovered a set of enzymes that produce this molecule, as well as luciferase, a light-emitting enzyme. The researchers used various types of cells to test activity of the luciferase, including human cancer cells and clawed frog embryos. In all cases, they obtained positive results: The gene introduced was active in cells, making them luminesce upon addition of luciferin "If you understand how a bioluminescent system works, you can put the necessary components in a test tube and see luminescence. An important stage in our work was to identify the principal enzymes of fungal luminescence: those that catalyze biosynthesis of luciferin and the luciferase. We succeeded using a combination of analytical methods that allowed us to 'disassemble' the entire system into its components," says Konstantin Purtov, research fellow at the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk and one of the researchers on the project. Mushrooms of Neonothopanus gardneri growing on the base of babassu palm tree in Coconut Palm Forest biome in Cana Brava Farm, municipality of Altos, PI, Brazil Credit: Hans E. Waldenmaier & Cassius V. Stevani/IQ-USP, Brazil The fungal luminescence system turned out to be surprisingly simple. Scientists discovered enzymes that perform the caffeic acid cycle in fungal cellsa pathway for the biosynthesis of luciferin and emission of light. Activity of these enzymes is necessary and sufficient for any caffeic-acid-producing organism to become luminescent. And if an organism does not contain caffeic acid, luminescence can be induced by adding two more enzymes, which the authors demonstrated by engineering a yeast strain that glows in the dark. "We have discovered in fungi the components needed to create a genetic module for bioluminescence; by transferring it from genome to genome, we can make virtually any organism luminescent, which has previously been an unattainable goal for researchers," explains Alexey Kotlobay, the first author of the article, junior research fellow with the Laboratory of Chemistry of Metabolic Pathways of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in Moscow. According to scientists, even though much has been understood in the genetics of fungal bioluminescence, the most interesting things still lie ahead. "The results of our study open up opportunities for new fundamental research, for instance, in fungal ecology or in the photophysics of enzymes, as well as for developing new molecular technologies," adds Yuliana Mokrushina, junior research fellow with the Laboratory of Biocatalysis at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, who shares the first authorship in the published article. The new system can be used for visualization of various biological processes, for instance, to track tumor growth and migration of cancer cells, as well as for developing new pharmaceuticals. The results of the study are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Explore further Fungi get the green light: Chemical basis for bioluminescence in glowing fungi uncovered Provided by AKSON The cover of 'The Design of Protest' by professor Tali Hatuka of Tel Aviv University. Credit: AFTAU Public protests are a vital, common tool for expressing grievances and creating communities. The political and social aspects of protests have been extensively studied, but little attention has been paid to the physical spaces in which they take place. The Design of Protest, a new book by Prof. Tali Hatuka of Tel Aviv University, addresses the crucial role of place in influencing both the dialogue between institutions and participants and the dynamics among the participants themselves. In her study, published in August by University of Texas Press, Prof. Hatuka presents the first extensive discussion of protest-as-designa planned event in a space whose physical geometry and symbolic meaning are used and appropriated by its organizers to different ends. "The book is about the ways in which protesters envision their actions and plan them in a specific space," says Prof. Hatuka, Head of the Laboratory of Contemporary Urban Design at TAU's Department of Geography and Human Environment. "Protesters often develop spatial strategies to both help achieve their goals and to overcome any potential organizational, legal and/or social challenges. They create displays that allow them to express their beliefs and ideas. It's important to understand what kind of dynamic they create and what kind of opportunities they open. The book investigates the details of specific events as aesthetic manifestations as well as political tactics." Prof. Hatuka explores "spatial choreography," or protest tactics, from case studies around the world: Tiananmen Square in Beijing; the National Mall in Washington, DC; Rabin Square in Tel Aviv; the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires; and more recent protests in the United States, the Middle East and South America. The spatial choreography tactic she calls "theater," for example, refers to the most common type of protest, characterized by a static performance and a hierarchical relationship between protest leadership and its captive audience. "Synchronicity," another common spatial choreography tactic, is an orchestrated, rhythmic spectacle that takes place in multiple locations, as did the 2003 protests in around 800 cities worldwide against the Iraq War. Another kind of spatial choreography Prof. Hatuka delineates is "city design," which focuses on territorial claims as a display of power, exemplified by the Poor People's Campaign, led by Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, in which people settled on the National Mall in an encampment called "Resurrection City." "I tried to emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of the various spatial choreographies involved and the limits of contemporary forms of protest," says Prof. Hatuka. "Varied choreographies may be useful in terms of getting an image into the newspaper, but they don't guarantee lasting change." For her book, Prof. Hatuka conducted archival research on the sites and events in question; physical and architectural analyses of the sites; interviews with key figures in the cities; and interviews with the activists involved in the protests. "The performance of protest and dissent is a creative task, and contemporary activists today face numerous challenges," she says. "First, the dynamics between the citizens/residents, municipalities, and state and global powers have dramatically changedmany local concerns today stem from global dynamics. A second challenge is the normalization of protests. Protests are not rare or unique events anymore. Instead, they've become a 'normal' communicative practice. Finally, another challenge is the power of social and traditional media, which enhances the supremacy of images, sight and visibility over text, meaning and processes." Prof. Hatuka is continuing to research protests relating to the refugee crises in Israel and Germany. "There is no compatibility between the design of contemporary protests, which tend to be diffused and open, and the structural, often closed, system of political power," concludes Prof. Hatuka. "To a certain extent, this is a comfort to political powers because contemporary protests don't pose a real threat to their security or ideology." Credit: CC0 Public Domain Large amounts of black carbon particles from wildfires reach the stratosphere where they can induce strong local heating and thus influence regional climate. Wildfires, like those currently burning in California, have a large environmental impact. Uncontrolled blazes can burn tens of thousands of acres, destroy vegetation and settlements, and severely affect local and regional air quality. An international team of scientists, led by Yafang Cheng and Hang Su from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, have now found that wildfire impact on the atmosphere may be even stronger than previously thought. The researchers discovered that large amounts of soot, which contains a lot of black carbon and is released by wildfires, can be transported through the troposphere up to the lowermost stratosphere around 10 kilometers altitude. Black carbon is the most strongly light-absorbing aerosol material from fires and is regarded as one of the most important individual climate-warming agents. The black carbon concentrations in fire plumes were over 20 times higher than in the background atmosphere, and most black carbon particles were covered with a thick coating of other chemical substances enhancing their light absorption. The high concentrations and thick coating of black carbon particles imply a strong local heating in the lowermost stratosphere that may substantially influence regional climate. The results of the study have just been published in PNAS, the scientific journal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. To gather the data, the scientists integrated a specially-designed Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) into an airfreight container on-board an Airbus A340-600 from Germany's Lufthansa airline. The SP2 can detect individual soot particles and determine the concentration and coating of black carbon aerosols. The study analyzed measurements that took place during 22 flights between Europe and North America from August 2014 to October 2015, including sampling over a total of 230 flight hours, mostly at altitudes in the range of 10 to 12 km. The research was part of the CARIBIC project that pursues an innovative approach to study atmospheric composition, chemical and physical processes, and climate change with the help of passenger aircraft. "In the stratosphere, a black carbon particle can have a much stronger effect on climate than at lower altitudes because of more intense solar radiation, further enhancement from the back-scattering of clouds, and long particle residence times," says Yafang Cheng, principal investigator of the CARIBIC-SP2 black carbon project and leader of an independent Minerva research group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. "Via deep convection and specific weather conditions, wildfire emissions can be transported into the lowermost stratosphere, where we have gathered high-quality measurement data during a large number of intercontinental flights," adds Jeannine Ditas, a postdoctoral researcher in Cheng's group, who worked on the SP2 measurements. Extended warm seasons, drier soils and vegetation, and changing precipitation patterns are leading to more frequent wildland fires with increased duration and intensity in many parts of the world. "Long-term and wide-range measurements are essential to quantify how wildfires affect the atmosphere and improve our understanding of current and future climate change," states Cheng. "As a next step, we plan to extend the observations to Africa and Asia, where wildfires are very common," adds Hang Su, a co-investigator, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Professor at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. Further analyses of the measurement data will address the fate of aerosols in the stratosphere and their interactions with clouds. Explore further California fires smoke spews aerosols into an already saturated sky More information: Jeannine Ditas et al. Strong impact of wildfires on the abundance and aging of black carbon in the lowermost stratosphere, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jeannine Ditas et al. Strong impact of wildfires on the abundance and aging of black carbon in the lowermost stratosphere,(2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1806868115 Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 2 Vote(s) - 5 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Germany offers to mediate between Russia and Ukraine ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 473649 11-27-2018 03:39 PM Posts: 5,423 Post: #1 Germany offers to mediate between Russia and Ukraine Advertisement German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said Germany could mediate between Ukraine and Russia in the ongoing crisis in the Sea of Azov. But some critics in Germany are calling on Berlin to help Kyiv militarily. Angela Merkel and various members of her cabinet have appealed for both sides of the Ukraine-Russia conflict to de-escalate amid Ukraine's calls for more military support from Germany and NATO. A major crisis in the four-year conflict was triggered on Sunday when Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian navy ships entering the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait. Russia accused the crews of a border infraction, and the Russian intelligence agency FSB said the presence of intelligence officers on board, admitted by Ukraine, amounted to a "provocation." The German chancellor phoned Vladimir Putin on Monday evening to emphasize the "necessity for de-escalation and dialog," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement. For his part, the Russian president condemned Ukraine's "provocative behavior" and said he hoped Berlin could "influence" Ukraine into refraining from such actions in the future. Putin also expressed concern about Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decision to impose martial law for 30 days. The tentative solution hashed out by Merkel and Putin, Seibert reported, was "an analysis of the incident with the participation of Russian and Ukrainian border-security experts." The two leaders agreed to consider this option. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-offers-to-...a-46467952 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... Germany offers to mediate between Russia and UkraineGerman Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said Germany could mediate between Ukraine and Russia in the ongoing crisis in the Sea of Azov. But some critics in Germany are calling on Berlin to help Kyiv militarily.Angela Merkel and various members of her cabinet have appealed for both sides of the Ukraine-Russia conflict to de-escalate amid Ukraine's calls for more military support from Germany and NATO.A major crisis in the four-year conflict was triggered on Sunday when Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian navy ships entering the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait. Russia accused the crews of a border infraction, and the Russian intelligence agency FSB said the presence of intelligence officers on board, admitted by Ukraine, amounted to a "provocation."The German chancellor phoned Vladimir Putin on Monday evening to emphasize the "necessity for de-escalation and dialog," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement. For his part, the Russian president condemned Ukraine's "provocative behavior" and said he hoped Berlin could "influence" Ukraine into refraining from such actions in the future. Putin also expressed concern about Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decision to impose martial law for 30 days.The tentative solution hashed out by Merkel and Putin, Seibert reported, was "an analysis of the incident with the participation of Russian and Ukrainian border-security experts." The two leaders agreed to consider this option. ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 473649 11-27-2018 04:28 PM Posts: 5,423 Post: #2 RE: Germany offers to mediate between Russia and Ukraine Ukrainian Navy's armored artillery boats Defense Ministry of Ukraine / Flickr Ukrainian Navy ships which entered Russian waters off Crimeas shores had counterintelligence officers on board, Kievs security service admitted. Vasily Gritsak, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), confirmed that counterintelligence officers were on the ships which entered Russian waters in the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The agents were routinely providing counterintelligence support to the Ukrainian Navy unit, an SBU statement reads. The FSB has also asserted that the provocative mid-sea encounter was in fact ordered by the Ukrainian government. Top Russian officials had previously voiced similar statements, accusing Kiev of trying to win sympathies in the West, put pressure on Russia and help President Petro Poroshenko cement power. https://www.rt.com/news/444971-ukraine-i...-standoff/ Ukraine security chief says intel agents were on board Navy ships during Kerch standoffUkrainian Navy's armored artillery boats Defense Ministry of Ukraine / FlickrUkrainian Navy ships which entered Russian waters off Crimeas shores had counterintelligence officers on board, Kievs security service admitted.Vasily Gritsak, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), confirmed that counterintelligence officers were on the ships which entered Russian waters in the Kerch Strait on Sunday.The agents were routinely providing counterintelligence support to the Ukrainian Navy unit, an SBU statement reads.The FSB has also asserted that the provocative mid-sea encounter was in fact ordered by the Ukrainian government. Top Russian officials had previously voiced similar statements, accusing Kiev of trying to win sympathies in the West, put pressure on Russia and help President Petro Poroshenko cement power. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 473649 11-27-2018 06:45 PM Posts: 5,423 Post: #3 Ukraine-Russia sea clash: Captured sailors shown on Russia TV Statements by three captured Ukrainians have been released by Russia's security service after Russian ships fired on and seized three Ukrainian boats off the coast of Russian-annexed Crimea. One of the men, Volodymyr Lisovyi, said he was aware of the "provocative nature" of the Ukrainian action. Ukraine's navy commander said the men had been forced to lie under duress. Meanwhile, a Crimean court ordered the first two of the 24 Ukrainians seized on Sunday to be detained for 60 days. The court is expected to issue similar rulings for 10 more sailors later on Tuesday. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46356111 Ukraine-Russia sea clash: Captured sailors shown on Russia TVStatements by three captured Ukrainians have been released by Russia's security service after Russian ships fired on and seized three Ukrainian boats off the coast of Russian-annexed Crimea.One of the men, Volodymyr Lisovyi, said he was aware of the "provocative nature" of the Ukrainian action.Ukraine's navy commander said the men had been forced to lie under duress.Meanwhile, a Crimean court ordered the first two of the 24 Ukrainians seized on Sunday to be detained for 60 days.The court is expected to issue similar rulings for 10 more sailors later on Tuesday. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread 11 hours ago US GDP slowed sharply in Q3 but big rebound expected in Q4 WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. economy slowed to a modest annual rate of 2.1% in the July-September quarter according to the governments second read of the data, slightly better than its first estimate. But Read Article By Nicola Nightingale Living in a foreign country raises all kinds of questions, both practical and emotional: how do you define yourself and how are you characterised by your adopted homeland? This series relates, in alternating parts, the experiences of a British woman in Hong Kong and a French woman in the UK. Over the last half century, those in charge of Hong Kong have had an on-off relationship with mainland China ranging from tetchy to the more recent overly tactful. It has seen and suffered violent, pro-Cultural Revolution riots in 1967; witnessed the occasionally ill-tempered negotiations before the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on its future; and read, and possibly enjoyed, the colourful insults thrown at the final colonial governor, Chris Patten, who was branded a snake and a sinner for a thousand generations by Beijing in the run-up to the 1997 handover. Yet before the handover, before it became a semi-autonomous region under the one country, two systems arrangement, Hong Kong always had a connection with China beyond politics through people. It was a place of, if not comfort and succour, at least refuge for hundreds of thousands of mainlanders. Vast numbers were illegal immigrants but, if they managed to avoid the attention of both the British and Chinese border guards, they were allowed to stay. At least they were until 1962, when famine forced people across the border. In May of that year, some 50,000 mainlanders entered Hong Kong illegally in just 23 days. The authorities spluttered and introduced a policy of repatriation, which lasted for five years. The policy was revived in the 1970s when there was another major exodus. Today, the flow continues, albeit a measured and legal one thanks to the one-way permit scheme that aims to connect mainlanders with their families in Hong Kong. The scheme, which is under mainland control and gives Hong Kong no say in the matter, allows up to 150 people a day to move to the city and make it their permanent home. Since 1997 more than 1m people have done so. Then there are the tourists. During the golden week public holiday in October more than 1m mainlanders descended on the city. It was a welcome boost to the Hong Kong hotel and retail industry no doubt, but it made nipping out to grab a bite to eat or a few groceries a rather crushing experience or so it seemed to this curmudgeonly expat. Hong Kong is well provided with air, sea and land routes to China, but the authorities decided it needed two more. A 55km mega bridge connecting Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai price tag $20bn; immeasurable cost: 20 deaths and more than 500 injuries during its construction was declared open at the Zhuhai end by Chinese president Xi Jinping on October 23. A month earlier, the $11bn Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link opened, connecting the city to the mainlands extensive high-speed rail network. It can hardly be a coincidence that earlier in September Beijing made it much easier for mainlanders to get a visa to visit Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Now visitors can apply in the place where they are living rather than returning to their registered household address, which is usually their birthplace. The Public Security Ministrys State Immigration Administration estimates that under the new system around 7.8m mainland residents will enjoy the benefits of applying for group tour visas to the three destinations every year. There is a danger, of course, inherent in quoting any immigrant and visitor figures of conjuring up the primitive, and usually poisonous, fear of inundation. But the problem here is one of physical rather than mental space. Gary Fan Kwok-wai, a Neo Democrat lawmaker in Hong Kong, summed up the situation succinctly when he told the South China Morning Post that the decision to streamline visa applications ignored the highly limited capacity of a city as small as Hong Kong and the impact on local peoples daily life. Just 5 per cent of the 7.8m who stand to benefit from the change could make Hong Kong sink, he said. Previous stories in this series: I am not Chinese Im officially almost British Cantonese should be defended Deserving to become a citizen When church meets state I dont suddenly feel British Goodbye to subsidised education To be an American in Paris Theres a snake under my desk! Loaded words for movers abroad Photographs: Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images; Corbis via Getty Images; AFP/Getty Images; VCG via Getty Images While online retail businesses used to have to pay sales tax only in states where they had a physical presence, a June Supreme Court ruling has given states the ability to make companies collect online sales tax, so your Christmas shopping bill depends on where you live, or shop. For giant nationwide retailers selling online, sales tax was already a reality because of their wide physical presence, but for businesses with smaller brick-and-mortar footprintslike Wayfair and Overstock--no sales tax has been a selling advantage. As such, the Supreme Court decision could end up shifting the advantage even further to the big players. So far, this holiday season, 11 states have started collecting from online retailers as of October 1st, and another six are scheduled to jump on this band wagon by the end of this year or the beginning of next. Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin have launched their online sales tax requirements in October, AP reported. By the end of this year, over 30 states will require retailers to collect sales taxes for online purchases. The full line-up of online sales taxes, by state, looks like this: (Click to enlarge) Source: Yahoofinance It could mean even an even bigger Cyber Monday turnout than usual, as shoppers try to get in what may be their last sales-tax-free big ticket buying event. Last year, 81 million shoppers spent nearly $6.6 billion on Cyber Monday, and this year, expectations are for that to hit $7.25 billion, according to Forbes. Buying online will cost shoppers the most in Louisiana, where the highest average combined state and local sales tax rates are 10.02 percent. Thats followed by Tennessee, with 9.46 percent, Arkansas, with 9.41 percent, Washington, with 9.18 percent and Alabama, with 9.10 percent, Forbes notes, citing the Tax Foundation. Overall, shoppers can expect to spend up to 8 percent more than last year at some online sites. Overstock used to collect sales tax in eight states, according to AP, but since June, thats grown to every state. Similarly, Wayfair used to collect sales tax in 25 states, but now collects in 36. According to Chuck Maniace, director of regulatory analysis at Wilmington-based Sovos, a tax compliance software provider, as reported by YahooFinance, On balance, if you live in a state that has enacted a remote seller collection rule and you buy online from sellers that historically dont charge tax, expect to pay approximately 8% more for your purchases. So, if you plan on spending $600 online this holiday season, reserve at least an additional $48 for tax. Related: Black Friday A Welcome Distraction For Amazon While shoppers wont like it, and the non-giant online business such as Wayfair and Overstock might lose some more advantage to behemoths like Amazon, small brick-and-mortar businesses love the idea. Its a leveling of the playing field, we believe, because online retailers had a 7 percent roughly advantage over your brick and mortar store that was in your community, Andy Ellen with the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, told reporters right ahead of Black Friday. Retailers arent exactly flinching right now, though. While brick-and-mortar physical shopping traffic this Black Friday fell 9 percent compared to last year, shoppers spent more money online, according to data from RetailNext and ShopperTrak, as reported by MarketWatch. From last Wednesday through Black Friday, internet sales rose by 26.4 percent year-over year, according to Adobe Systems Inc. Sales taxes for online purchases may be coming to every state this year and next, but online shoppers arent backing down. Online shopping has become too prevalent to be cowed by sales taxes at this point. So, its Cyber Monday full click ahead. By Fred Dunkley for Safehaven.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: Education Reporter Mathew Burciaga is a Santa Maria Times reporter who covers education, agriculture and public safety. Prior to joining the Times, Mathew ran a 114-year-old community newspaper in Wyoming. He owns more than 40 pairs of crazy socks from across the globe. One of the earliest projects Federica di Palma got involved in was also among the most prestigious in her career. In the early 2000s, di Palma participated in the human genome project and identified the genes behind several deafness syndromes. Di Palmas fascination with genetics led her to study for a PhD in immunogenetics in the UK. She won the Fogarty Fellowship from the UKs National Institute of Deafness and Communication disorders. She was also director of vertebrate genome biology at the Broad Institute, a genomics research centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now di Palma is director of science at the Earlham Institute, a biological science research centre in Norwich, UK. She also leads BRIDGE Colombia, a network of scientists aiming to build long term research links between the south American country and the UK. Di Palma tells SciDev.Net about the importance of biodiversity for development and gives some tips to women starting out in science. What part of your research has been the most exciting? My group studied coelacanths, rare deep sea fishes that were considered extinct, but then rediscovered in the early 20th century. It first appeared hundreds of millions of years ago and has fins that resemble the trotting legs of a horse; they move alternately. These are thought to be the precursors of the limbs of humans and four-legged vertebrates. During our investigation, we took part of the gene of the fish and implanted it into a mouse. The mouse grew limb buds as a result. That caused quite a stir! Why does genetic diversity matter in conservation? Knowing about diversity within species helps us to manage biodiversity. Usually, when species are threatened, there is less diversity in their genome and they are less likely to survive. If thats the case, you can introduce some management strategies. This is important because climate change and human activity are destroying the diverse ecosystems that are the foundation for human existence. Does your research have uses in developing countries? Most certainly. In South America, for example, cocoa contains a high proportion of the poisonous element cadmium. It is absorbed by the plants from the soil, and this is threatening cocoa exports. Using DNA sequencing technology, we are characterising the soil to see where we can find cocoa species that are more resistant to cadmium, where there is less cadmium or where you could grow cocoa more sustainably. What are you working on now? My most recent project in Colombia has 6.5 million (US$8.3 million) worth of funding from the UK government. Through my leadership, the team will not only analyse DNA, but how people interact with biodiversity and why it is important for a country in the tropics. The tropics have the highest levels of biodiversity, and Colombia contains many undiscovered species. Since 2016, when the government signed a ceasefire deal with a guerrilla group, more of Colombia has opened up. The government is financing the exploration of unknown territory. The research will help develop the countrys bioeconomy, for example by stimulating innovation in coffee agriculture. What do you do to attract more women to your field? My group regularly engages with local schools to showcase our science, my personal story and the winding path I took. The idea is to encourage both boys and girls. At the moment, woman scientists need to work twice as hard as men to get the same recognition. Therefore, we need better gender balance at all levels, including among conference speakers, in faculty jobs, on boards and so on. Women also need support from men. Ive got this far and had four children, but not made a big deal of it. Its good that a woman can be successful and have a family, and Ive done that because of my passion for what I do. What gender-based obstacles have you encountered and how have you overcome them? When I reflect on this I often think about the recent movie The Post, which follows the female owner of a newspaper in the patriarchal world of the 1970s. I truly related to the main character entering a boardroom full of men. The glass ceiling is only part of the problem and we demonstrated it can be broken. What kind of advice would you give to a female researcher just starting out? But once you break it, there is the issue of staying where youve gotten. As the movie highlighted, womens voices are heard but not really listened to they are often quickly dismissed. Follow your passion; dont let anyone or anything distract you from that. And learn to accept, cherish and celebrate your talents. Women suffer a lot more than men from imposter syndrome as a direct consequence of what I said above. To counter that, surround yourselves with good and trustworthy collaborators and sponsors. Ive also had great support from my husband, friends and family. It takes a village to ensure a woman can break the glass ceiling! " " From physics, mathematics and science, to mysticism, occultism, the Kabbalah and the Torah, the number 137 may just be the most magical and important number in the universe. Flickr (CC BY-2.0) What's the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe? If you're expecting an incantation in some ancient language, uttered by a holy man sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop, this answer may disappoint you. It might just be the number 137. Those three digits, as it turns out, have long been the rare object of fascination that bridges the gulf between science and mysticism. "137 continues to fire the imagination of everyone from scientists and mystics to occultists and people from the far-flung edges of society," Arthur I. Miller, an emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London and author of the 2009 book "137: Jung, Pauli and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession," says via email. Advertisement The Fine-structure Constant To physicists, 137 is the approximate denominator of the fine-structure constant (1/137.03599913), the measure of the strength of the electromagnetic force that controls how charged elementary particles such as the electron and muon interact with photons of light, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The fine-structure constant is one of the key physical constants of the universe. "This immutable number determines how stars burn, how chemistry happens and even whether atoms exist at all," as Michael Brooks explained in a recent New Scientist article. And, in a paper published Dec. 20, 2020 in the journal Nature, a team of four physicists led by Saida Guellati-Khelifa at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris reported the most precise measurement yet of the fine-structure constant. The team measured the constants value to the 11th decimal place, reporting that = 1/137.035999206. The new measurement is nearly three times more precise than the previous best measurement in 2018 by a group led by Holger Muller at Berkeley, with a margin of error of just 81 parts per trillion. The fine-structure constant "characterizes the strength with which matter couples to light, e.g. the probability that an excited atom will decay in a certain time," Paul Davies, Regents Professor of Physics at Arizona State University and a best-selling author of 30 books on science, explains in an email. If the constant was bigger, "atoms would decay faster. It is significant too because it is a pure number a ratio of quantities with equal units. Unlike, say, the speed of light, which is either 186,000 miles per second or 300,000 kilometers per second, depending on which units you prefer." (Davies wrote this 2016 article on the fine-structure constant for Cosmos.) In this video, British physicist Laurence Eaves explains that if the fine structure constant was a different value, "physics, chemistry, biochemistry would be totally different and we might not be around to talk about it." But practically from the time of its discovery in 1915 by German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, who originally rendered it as 0.00729, the fine-structure constant seemed to signify some larger metaphysical truth as well. The fine-structure constant "determines the distance between an atom's spectral lines, which are the atom's DNA," Miller explains. "And so it is one of those numbers that is at the root of the universe. If it were any other value then the structure of matter would be very different, and so us too. People began referring to it as a mystical number." Miller continues: "The language of the spectra the spectral lines where Sommerfeld found it is a true music of the spheres within the atom," he wrote. "People asked why it has this particular value. Physicists could only conclude that it cannot have this value by accident. It is 'out there,' independent of the structure of our minds." But in 1929, English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington who played a key role in establishing the validity of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and was an early advocate of the Big Bang theory, among other things began expressing it as 1/137. He also saw it as having larger, spiritual implications. "Arthur Eddington sought a new mysticism which would emerge from the natural sciences," Miller says. "Perhaps, he thought, the clue lay in numbers, particularly the number 137. Eddington's reputation as one of the great astrophysicists of his day put a great deal of weight on this approach." Advertisement Relativity and Quantum Theory As Miler's book details, Austrian-born quantum physics pioneer Wolfgang Pauli became fascinated with the number as well, since it figured in the mysterious intersection of relativity and quantum theory that he explored with the help of his friend, psychoanalyst Carl Jung. The scientific fixation on the fine-structure constant was such that in 1936, Nature published an article titled "The Mysterious Number 137." But as Pauli learned in the 1950s from a religious scholar, 137 had another significance. It was the number associated with the Kabbalah, an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism what Miller calls "an extraordinary link between mysticism and physics." As this article by Billy Phillips from Kabbalahstudent.com details, the number 137 also appears frequently in the Torah. It's the lifespan in years of figures such as Ishmael and Levi, for example, as well the age of Abraham when he bound his son Isaac to an altar in preparation to sacrifice him. And as Phillips explains, if the number of letters in the Torah 304,805 is split into the numerical pairs and reversed, the result is the numbers 50, 84 and 03. Add those together, and you get 137. Beyond that, the relationship of the fine-structure constant to light in physics parallels the Kabbalists' concept of connecting with light, or becoming enlightened by shedding the ego. "The missing puzzle piece for physics is consciousness," Phillips writes. Now That's Interesting Physicist Richard Feynman predicted that the periodic table would end at 137, based on the rules of relativity. Advertisement Originally Published: Nov 27, 2018 Notable crime fighting comments by Deputy AG Rosenstein in Chicago | Main | New ACLU poll suggests significant interest in criminal justice reform November 17, 2017 "The Criminal Justice System Stalks Black People Like Meek Mill" The title of this post is the headline of this New York Times op-ed authored by Jay-Z. Here are excerpts: This month Meek Mill was sentenced to two to four years in prison for violating his probation. #FreeMeek hashtags have sprung up, and hundreds of his fans rallied near City Hall in Philadelphia to protest the ruling. On the surface, this may look like the story of yet another criminal rapper who didnt smarten up and is back where he started. But consider this: Meek was around 19 when he was convicted on charges relating to drug and gun possession, and he served an eight-month sentence. Now hes 30, so he has been on probation for basically his entire adult life. For about a decade, hes been stalked by a system that considers the slightest infraction a justification for locking him back inside. Whats happening to Meek Mill is just one example of how our criminal justice system entraps and harasses hundreds of thousands of black people every day. I saw this up close when I was growing up in Brooklyn during the 1970s and 1980s. Instead of a second chance, probation ends up being a land mine, with a random misstep bringing consequences greater than the crime. A person on probation can end up in jail over a technical violation like missing a curfew. Taxpayers in Philadelphia, Meek Mills hometown, will have to spend tens of thousands of dollars each year to keep him locked up, and I bet none of them would tell you his imprisonment is helping to keep them safer. Hes there because of arrests for a parole violation, and because a judge overruled recommendations by a prosecutor and his probation officer that he doesnt deserve more jail time.... Look at what hes being punished for now: In March, he was arrested after an altercation in a St. Louis airport. After video of what had actually happened was released, all charges were dropped against Meek. In August, he was arrested for popping a wheelie on a motorcycle on his video set in New York. Those charges were dismissed after he agreed to attend traffic school. Think about that. The charges were either dropped or dismissed, but the judge sent him to prison anyway.... [I]ts time we highlight the random ways people trapped in the criminal justice system are punished every day. The system treats them as a danger to society, consistently monitors and follows them for any minor infraction with the goal of putting them back in prison. As of 2015, one-third of the 4.65 million Americans who were on some form of parole or probation were black. Black people are sent to prison for probation and parole violations at much higher rates than white people. In Pennsylvania, hundreds of thousands of people are on probation or parole. About half of the people in city jails in Philadelphia are there for probation or parole violations. We could literally shut down jails if we treated people on parole or probation more fairly.... Probation is a trap and we must fight for Meek and everyone else unjustly sent to prison. Prior related post: November 17, 2017 at 10:03 AM | Permalink Comments When I discussed probation and parole sharking, one person was a working white male, another was a white female. I believe, the sole bias is in favor of squeezing money. While he is black, he is also well to do. The above article emphasizes prison employment as a factor. I am emphasizing pure cash as a motive. I am going to ask staff to survey people, to find more cases. Will report back. Posted by: David Behar | Nov 17, 2017 2:55:01 PM This is not only true for those on probation or parole, but also sex offenders who are supposedly free from "restrictions", but can wind up in jail or prison for actions that are deemed OK for most every other American. We have a great "Justus" system here in America. A government of the government for the police and by the prosecutor, all for extorting money from both "criminals" and ordinary citizens to keep us "safe", so that said agents are overcompensated for their contributions to society. I call b-llsh-t! Enough is Enough. Posted by: albeed | Nov 18, 2017 8:15:56 AM Meek Mill was sentenced to prison for this violation over the objections of the prosecutor and probation officer by a BLACK JUDGE who is now the subject of an FBI investigation into possible conflict of interest and other issues arising from the sentencing, including her urging of Meek Mill to change his professional representation to a local Philadelphia music figure. Jay-Z is a tool who is doing a great disservice to the very real issue of racial inequity in the justice system by using this case. Posted by: USPO-Retired | Nov 18, 2017 10:28:22 AM USPO. I would like to know if you have witnessed parole sharking in the federal government. Its elements are: 1) Pending end of probation or parole in less than 6 months; 2) Gotcha on a very trivial or even false infraction (borrowing a vacuum from one's mother is not a crime): 3) huge fines, perhaps larger than justified by the original crime, along with seizures of possession in civil forfeiture; 4) no hearing, no lawyer advocacy, no argument before a judge; 5) long extensions of probation or parole, potentially exceeding the term for the original crime. Posted by: David Behar | Nov 18, 2017 11:02:09 AM The word, "element," in the above legalistic comment violates the Establishment Clause, being borrowed from the catechism analysis of mortal sin. Defense people, its utterance should trigger a motion for a mistrial in any tribunal. Posted by: David Behar | Nov 18, 2017 11:06:57 AM David, I NEVER saw ( in 28 years) anyone get a fine on a violation. I'm not even sure that a fine is an authorized sanction. In the federal system, nobody can be taken into into custody without a judge first issuing a warrant, and it is not possible to violate an offender without a hearing. An offender can agree to a non-custodial modification of conditions without a hearing (like adding drug treatment)for example. And a favorable modification can be made without a hearing (expanding travel permission, for example) I saw my share of "technical violations" (like failing to submit a monthly report), but I never once had an officer recommend custody for such a thing (and I was a supervisor for 25 of my 28 years). There are such robust protections in federal court that to parole shark someone, you would need the complicity of the PO, the AUSA, the Judge and the defense attorney. And even if somehow this happened, a pro se letter from the offender to the Appeals Court would undo it. So you'd also have to have an offender who magically never comes into contact with any jailhouse lawyers. Posted by: USPO-Retired | Nov 18, 2017 12:44:11 PM Thanks, USPO. Your answer is reassuring. No legal procedure took place whatsoever. Only the PO's and their supervisors were involved. I do not know where the money went. Both my cases were under Pennsylvania county jurisdiction. I had two cases, a female and a male, both white. The "fees" were $3500 for the female, and $8000, for the male trucker. They appear to be by ability to pay. Both were addicts. They did not relapse. However, they knew how to get money when they needed it. Not doubt, Meek has spent $millions, being able to afford that. I may submit Right to Know Law requests about where these 'fees" are going. Posted by: David Behar | Nov 18, 2017 12:57:58 PM Post a comment The challenge of modern federal sentencing: "there are 15 distinct factors in 3553(a)" | Main | "All Bathwater, No Baby: Expressive Theories of Punishment and the Death Penalty" April 24, 2018 Meek Mill pledges to "shine a light" on criminal justice issues after Pennsylvania Supreme Court orders his release on bail As reported in prior posts here and here from last November, rapper Meek Mill became the focus point for complaints about an unfair criminal justice system in Philadelphia after he received a seemingly extreme 2-4 year prison sentence for violating his probation from a 2008 gun and drug case. Today, as reported in this USA Today article, he got some relief thanks to this short order from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: Meek Mill is finally free. The rapper's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, confirmed to USA TODAY that the rapper was freed on bail Tuesday after Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ordered a judge to release him while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions. "We are thrilled that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has directed Judge Brinkley to immediately issue an order releasing Meek on bail," said Tacopina in a statement. "As we have said all along, Meek was unjustly convicted and should not have spent a single day in jail." Mill immediately vowed via social media to use his spotlight to "shine a light" on how America's criminal justice systems treat people of color. The Philadelphia-born rapper (real name is Robert Rihmeek Williams) has been fighting for release from jail for the past five months. Mill was sentenced in November to two to four years in prison for violating probation on a roughly decade-old gun and drug case (a ruling opposed at the time by the Philadelphia district attorney and Meek's probation officer). But in March, the most damning piece of evidence came to light when Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner admitted that Mill may have been unjustly convicted thanks to a cop who lied at his 2008 trial. Krasner said he would not oppose Mill's immediate release on bail pending appeal of his case. Because hundreds of other convictions have already been reversed based on information provided by a whistleblowing cop, "there is a strong showing of likelihood of (Mill's) conviction being reversed (in whole or in part)," Krasner said in a statement at the time. "Therefore the Commonwealth is unopposed to (Mill's) petition for bail." Lawyers for Mill have accused Judge Genece Brinkley, who sentenced Mill 10 years ago and has subsequently tacked on 14 years of probation, of having "a personal vendetta" against him. An investigation by Rolling Stone said Brinkley "repeatedly torched his rap career each time he was poised for mega-stardom." Since last fall, Mill and his lawyers have been trying and failing to persuade Brinkley to release him on bail while his case is appealed. On Tuesday, Mill's lawyer said the legal team was "also pleased that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has noted that Judge Brinkley may opt to remove herself from presiding over any further proceedings in Meeks case in the interests of justice." The district attorney's office also weighed in on Tuesday. "As our office has made clear in recent court filings, the Pa. Supreme Courts decision on Meek Mill being released on bail is consistent with the position of the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office," Ben Waxman, spokesperson for the DA, said in a statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday. Waxman noted that "just last week, our office agreed to withdraw prosecution from three lesser-known individuals whose cases were also tainted by potential police credibility issues by following the same procedures and analysis."... A national movement has surged in Mill's defense, along with a hashtag: #FreeMeekMill. While in prison, Mill has received high-profile visits from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin, Colin Kaepernick and Philadelphia's mayor. Kraft has subsequently called for reform of the criminal justice system. On Tuesday, Mill tweeted his thanks, calling the past five months "a nightmare."... Mill continued: "To the Philly District Attorneys office, Im grateful for your commitment to justice. I understand that many people of color across the country dont have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues. In the meantime, I plan to work closely with my legal team to overturn this unwarranted conviction and look forward to reuniting with my family and resuming my music career." It is not uncommon for high-profile persons caught up in the criminal justice system to pledge a commitment to reform efforts upon their release, but it is a bit more uncommon to see these persons effectively follow-up on such a pledge (I am thinking of Martha Stewart here). In this case, I have an inkling Meek Mill will in fact be an important high-profile advocate for criminal justice reform. Prior related posts: April 24, 2018 at 07:48 PM | Permalink Comments I do think it's important. I'm glad his artistic talent was able to give him some attention, but in many ways, what he dealt with was not unusual and it's worth highlighting that many people are still in prison in similar circumstances. Posted by: Erik M | Apr 24, 2018 8:33:33 PM Only you would want an "ally" who is a known racist that teaches people through rap how to break in, steal and commit violence on Asian people. Yea a real stand up figure for your cause. Only nutjobs would be skeptical of a movement with saints like meek Mill adovcated for it. Posted by: Woke one | Apr 25, 2018 3:41:52 PM Post a comment AirAsia flies to new airport in Panglao posted November 27, 2018 at 07:05 pm by Alena Mae S. Flores November 27, 2018 at 07:05 pm Low-cost carrier AirAsia on Tuesday flew a special flight from Manila to the New Bohol Panglao International Airport, the Philippines newest and first eco-airport in Bohol province. Other airlines like Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines will also transfer operations to the Panglao International Airport in Barangay Tawala, on Panglao Island effective Wednesday. The old Tagbilaran Airport in Tagbilaran City will be closed effective Nov. 28.The new airport, which has a capacity of up to two million passengers a year. It will replace Tagbilaran Airport but will continue to use the existing IATA (International Air Transport Association) airport code TAG. We are delighted to be finally operating in the new airport that will offer our guest passengers one of the best airport experiences and facilities in the country. Aside from its sustainable and eco-friendly structures, Panglao International Airport provides access to international tourists making Bohol with its abundant attractions the next premiere destination in Asia, AirAsia Philippines CEO Captain Dexter Comendador said. COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section. FIRST STEP Act, already compromised to cater to tough-on-crime crowd, may be watered down further for Senate vote | Main | Previewing SCOTUS consideration of civil forfeiture in Timbs v. Indiana from many sources As noted in this post, after being released from prison earlier this year, rapper Meek Mill pledged to use his spotlight to "shine a light" on how America's criminal justice systems treat people of color. He has made good on that pledge in various ways, including through this recently published New York Times opinion piece with this extended headline: "Meek Mill: Prisoners Need a New Set of Rights; Like many who are now incarcerated, I was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. I got lucky, but because of dysfunctional, discriminatory rules, most dont." Here is an excerpts from this commentary: Like many who are currently incarcerated, I was the victim of a miscarriage of justice carried out by an untruthful officer, as determined by the Philadelphia District Attorneys office, and an unfair judge. My crime? Popping a wheelie on a motorcycle in Manhattan. Even though the charge was dismissed in a New York City court, a Philadelphia-based judge still deemed my interaction with the police to be a technical violation of my probation stemming from a 2007 arrest and sentenced me to two to four years in prison despite the fact that I didnt commit a crime. The judge also refused my motion for bail, calling me a danger to the community and a flight risk. The ordeal cost me my most precious commodity: my freedom. I served five months. With the help of friends and the intervention of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, I was released on bail this past April and was able to resume my life. But I know Im the exception to the rule a lucky one. Its clearer than ever that a disproportionate number of men and women of color are treated unfairly by a broken criminal justice system. The system causes a vicious cycle, feeding upon itself sons and daughters grow up with their parents in and out of prison, and then become far more likely to become tied up in the arrest-jail-probation cycle. This is bad for families and our society as a whole.... We all need to hold our lawmakers accountable for supporting unfair or inhumane policies and all practices that perpetuate injustice, especially for the blacks and Latinos who fall prey to them most frequently. The reality is African-Americans and Latinos who come from poverty-stricken neighborhoods are assigned public defenders too overburdened to do anything in most cases other than negotiate the most favorable plea deal, regardless of guilt or innocence. Soon, some friends and I will be announcing a foundation dedicated to achieving real change. In the meantime, if youre interested in joining us and lending your support to solving what is the moral crisis of our time, please visit www.reformnow.com and sign up. Together, we will demand stronger prison rehabilitation programs, updated probation policies including shortened probationary periods an improved bail system and balanced sentencing structures. Its a shame that model probationers can be immediately put back behind bars simply for missing curfew, testing positive for marijuana, failing to pay fines on time or, in some cases, not following protocol when changing addresses. Our lawmakers can and should do away with these technical violations. And more broadly, if theyre serious about reducing mass incarceration and unnecessary government surveillance, they should introduce legislation that allows people on probation to earn a reduction in probation time for good behavior so that entire swaths of people arent spending the majority of their adult lives on probation as I did. An notable debunking of "Three Myths From Critics of Criminal Justice Reform" | Main | Special counsel saying Paul Manafort is breaching his plea agreement by lying "on a variety of subject matters" November 26, 2018 Senator Tom Cotton continuing to do everything he can to try to keep the FIRST STEP Act from moving forward Senator Tom Cotton continues to work with all his might to halt Congress from taking any reform steps via the FIRST STEP Act, and his latest efforts involve this new National Review commentary and what is reported here by Politico under the headline "Cotton wields sex offender report to tank prisons bill." Here is how Senator Cotton himself gets started at NR: It remains to be seen whether the lame-duck 115th Congress will debate a sweeping overhaul of our federal criminal-justice system before we adjourn for the year. You may have heard about the legislation at hand, the FIRST STEP Act. I oppose it. I urge my fellow conservatives to take the time to read and understand the bill before signing on in support of this flawed legislation. The 103-page bill that was released the Friday before Thanksgiving has some good parts, and I dont question the intentions of the bills proponents. But you may have noticed that they talk more about their intentions than about the consequences of the bill. As conservatives, we know that good intentions say little about actual consequences. And to paraphrase Thomas Sowell, intellectuals who generate ideas with good intentions rarely have to face the consequences of those ideas personally. When proponents of the bill discuss the substance, they claim that nothing in the FIRST STEP Act gives inmates early release. Instead of early release, proponents say, it merely provides incentives for inmates to participate in programs. This is nothing but a euphemism. Let there be no doubt: If the bill is passed, thousands of federal offenders, including violent felons and sex offenders, will be released earlier than they would be under current law. Whatever word games the bills proponents use will make no difference to the future victims of these felons. Here is what Politico is reporting: GOP Sen. Tom Cotton is locked in an awkward fight with fellow Republicans over their push to change federal prison sentencing guidelines. And now he has a new attack line intended to make his rivals squirm: Warnings that sex offenders could get off easy. A new Justice Department analysis conducted at Cottons request found that the Senates bipartisan sentencing and prison reform bill could make people convicted of some sex crimes eligible for early release. And though President Donald Trump supports the bill, Cotton says the DOJ confirmation underpins his argument that convicts of certain sex-related crimes could accrue credits making them eligible for supervised release or pre-release to a halfway house. While GOP leaders are beginning to assess the prospects of the bill on the Senate floor, the Arkansas Republican argues that the latest version of the bill has been rushed and contains significant flaws and is hoping to sway undecided Republicans to join him. Cotton and Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) have been battling over the specifics of the bill since it was released in mid-November, exactly the type of intraparty firefight Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been hoping to avoid. The argument over the bill's treatment of sex offenders took center stage on Monday, drawing the latest public shots between the warring Republican senators. Now that the Department of Justice has confirmed that the Senate FIRST STEP Act offers early release to multiple categories of sex offenders in several provisions of the bill, Congress should fix these problems instead of ramming this bill through. There is no such thing as a low-risk violent sex offender who deserves earlier release than under current law," Cotton said in an emailed statement. A spokesman for Lee defended the legislation in response to the DOJ analysis on Monday and accused the bills opponents of spreading fake news about the bill. Just because a federal offense is not on the specific list of ineligible offenses doesnt mean inmates who committed non-specified offense will earn early release. All inmates must first pass a DOJ risk assessment before they can even begin earning good time credits. And then they must secure certification from their warden that they are not a threat to safety before they can be released, said Conn Carroll, a Lee spokesman. Carroll added that Lee is open to revising the bill if it turns opponents into supporters: If adding to the list of specifically forbidden offenses would get some senators to yes, we would love to help them do that on the Senate floor. Their colleagues are watching closely. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said that a Cotton op-ed panning the bill made a "compelling argument" and indicated his vote is in play. A number of Trump's allies, from Grassley to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are behind the bill, but in the Senate even a small band of opposed senators can make a floor debate stretch out for a week all while lobbing attacks at fellow Republicans for being soft on crime. "I'd like to get it through but we still have a few problems that we ought to work out," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). "I'm for doing it if we can. We have a shot at it but we're going to have a lot of cooperation." Senior Senate Republicans said on Monday they could not predict what McConnell will do. The president has lobbied McConnell to bring up the bill, but the GOP leader has told Trump the Senate's schedule is crowded over the next month. McConnell has emphasized that funding the federal government by the Dec. 7 deadline and finishing a farm bill are his top priorities. And the House would probably have to vote on whatever the Senate passes on criminal justice reform, and ousted House Republicans may want to head home as soon as the funding bill is finished. November 26, 2018 at 05:24 PM | Permalink Comments From my understanding, a person with a sex offense serving federal time can still take RDAP (Drug Program) and while ineligible for the "up to one year off" can still be given "early release" to a halfway house, which is up to 6 months off the sentence, separate from any other halfway house planning which but must be done entirely at the halfway house. Since it's an RDAP Program, the person must COMPLETE that portion of the halfway house assignment. Posted by: Tony Price | Nov 27, 2018 12:23:35 PM In my opinion: All these people in prison are for making revenue. Doing harm to others is the point. If a person wants to take drugs, it is hard to stop them. If a person gives drugs to others, they are doing harm to that person and deserve to be penalized. How many people are in prison that are truly innocent and there because of others. One innocent person is too much! Posted by: LC in Texas | Nov 28, 2018 5:21:38 PM Post a comment KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Malaysian state-owned oil and gas firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad, or Petronas, has set up a new business within the group to make a push into renewable energy, the head of the new venture said on Tuesday. Petronas has expressed interest over the last year to diversify into renewables amid low oil prices. In March, Chief Executive Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said Petronas will explore new business areas including new energy and that the company will assess opportunities in solar power. Jay Mariyappan told an industry forum that the 'New Energy' team is in the early stages of looking at options in the renewable energy space. Mariyappan's LinkedIn profile shows he started at Petronas in October. Before joining the Malaysian firm, he was managing director of Sindicatum Sustainable Resources, a Singapore-based clean energy developer. Petronas is the latest oil and gas major to look into the renewables space. Top oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell , BP and Total are investing more in cleaner energy sources such as solar and wind power and electric vehicle technology. Petronas is the sole manager of Malaysia's oil and gas reserves and is a significant contributor to government revenue. Earlier this month, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said Southeast Asia is a potential hotspot for renewable energy, yet the region has not met expectations because it lacks policy frameworks that would encourage investment. Global renewable capacity, excluding hydro, has soared from under 100,000 megawatts (MW) in 2000 to more than 1 million MW in 2017, according to IRENA data. Only a tiny portion of that has come in Southeast Asia, though more efforts have been made recently. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations plans to generate 23 percent of its primary energy needs from renewables by 2025, up from just over 10 percent now. (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.) (Getty Images file photo) This is the second of four stories based on the responses by Singapore residents to questions in a Blackbox Research survey related to Section 377A of the Penal Code. Over three in 10 Singapore residents agreed that the absence of a law criminalising sex between women is harmful to society, according to a survey commissioned by Yahoo News Singapore. Of the other respondents, about 26 per cent strongly disagreed or disagreed with the statement, while 41 per cent were neutral. Among the respondents by gender, more males strongly agreed or agreed with the statement at 35 per cent, compared with 32 per cent of females. The proportions of males and females who were neutral on the statement were 40 and 41 per cent, respectively. The proportions of males and females who strong disagreed or disagreed with the statement were 25 and 27 per cent, respectively. The survey, conducted by Blackbox Research between 12 and 19 October, asked 1,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents on their views on Section 377A of the Penal Code. (INFOGRAPHIC: Blackbox Research) Under Section 377A, sex between men is illegal in Singapore although it is rarely enforced, with offenders facing up to two years jail. The law does not apply to sex between women. The proportions of respondents who strongly agreed or agreed with the statement were somewhat consistent across all age groups: 31 per cent (15-24 years old), 35 per cent (25-34 years old), 31 per cent (35-49 years old) and 35 per cent (50 years old and above). Among those who strongly disagreed or disagreed with the statement, the proportions were 34 per cent (15-24 years old), 27 per cent (25-34 years old), 24 per cent (35-49 years old) and 25 per cent (50 years old and above). The proportions who were neutral were 34 per cent (15-24 years old), 38 per cent (25-34 years old), 45 per cent (35-49 years old) and 41 per cent (50 years old and above). The debate over 377A, introduced in Singapore in 1938, was reignited after the Supreme Court of India ruled on 6 September that consensual gay sex was not a crime in the country following a two-decade legal battle. Story continues Section 377A was enacted when India and Singapore were still under British colonial rule. The landmark ruling stirred heated discussions between LGBT activists in Singapore, who argue for a repeal of the law, and those who are against such a move. Veteran Singapore diplomat Tommy Koh, who is Ambassador-at-Large, waded into the debate when he encouraged Singapores LGBT community to bring a class action to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A in a Facebook post. Petitions have since been started by activists on both sides of the divide, with religious groups weighing in, and a deejay filing a fresh legal challenge. Read more about the Blackbox survey: Singapore residents split on whether 377A repeal would lead to breakdown of family unit: survey Most Singapore residents agree religious views shouldnt influence the law: survey Related stories: AG Lucien Wong rebuts views of Walter Woon and V K Rajah on Section 377A Repeal 377A organisers urge supporters to reach out to their MPs Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno The failure of Congress to approve the 2019 budget before the end of the year will result in the delayed implementation of new infrastructure projects, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno warned Tuesday. The national budget for 2019 may not be signed into law before the end of the year, according to the new budget calendar transmitted by the Senate to the Budget Department on Nov. 19, 2018.The latest update from the Senate marked Jan. 25 next year as the earliest possible date for Congress ratification, and Feb. 7, 2019 as the latest possible date. This means that a reenacted budget may have to be implemented for the first three months of the next fiscal year, the agency said. Diokno said in a statement that no new projects could start until the 2019 General Appropriations Act was approved. He said the anticipated delay in its implementation would likely result in a five-month implementation gap for new projects. We want to be able to frontload projects at the start of the year, if possible, especially infrastructure projects, he said. The failure of Congress to pass the GAA before Dec.r 31 will not allow us to do that. Add to this the election ban from March to May and you have a 5-month implementation gap for our infrastructure projects, Diokno said. Capital spending proposed for 2019 will have to wait until the 2019 budget is passed and becomes effective, he said. The department said the 2018 capital outlays could not be reenacted because projects funded in 2018 were assured to have been obligated or done in 2018 and no new projects could be authorized to start without authority from Congress, with few exceptions.Large projects covered by multi-year obligational authority would not be adversely affected. Personal services (salaries, wages, pension and retirement, and the like) and the maintenance and other operating expenses would be deemed reenacted. They will be based on the 2018 level. Salary adjustments for civilian and military personnel programmed for 2019 will have to wait, it said. The internal revenue allotment for local government units and debt service, however, are automatically appropriated, and, therefore, will be provided budgetary allocations based on the 2019 budget as proposed by the executive. Diokno earlier said that President Rodrigo Duterte gave Congress more than enough time to scrutinize the budget. He said while the president was mandated by the Constitution to submit thebudget to Congress within 30 days after he delivered his State of the Nation Address, the president decided to submit the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing on the day of his SONA. The president has done his job. The ball is in Congress court. It is the collective responsibility of legislators to approve the general appropriations bill before they go on a holiday break, he said. Duty first before leisure, he said. Despite the mall culture, Filipinos are becoming more active in e-commerce, especially during sale events The anti-Valentine Singles Day sale, which occurred on 11th of November, has surpassed yet again its recorded revenue from last year earning US$ 30.8 billion. Its annual growth rate however is the lowest in the history of Singles Day as it only increased by 27 percent from US$ 25.3 billion in 2017s earning. In the Philippines, Singles Day overwhelmed merchants like Lazada as the company reported that it needed to further expand its local warehouse due to the after-sale surge. Lazada Philippines CEO of Logistics, Juan Spencer, said that its continued growth prompted the company to scout for another logistics hub that would raise its footprint from 60,000 square meters in warehouse space to 120,00 square meters by 2021. This success of Lazada Philippines proves that Filipino online consumers are becoming more and more active in online shopping, especially in these sale events, despite the mall-culture. To understand the overall performance of Singles Day in the country, iPrice Group conducted a research in the Philippine market analysing its local consumer behavior trend, geographical trend and the market search interest during the pre-sale 11.10 and 11.11 in 2018 as well as the 11.11 in 2017 sale period in the country. The data used in this report is a mixed of our proprietary data from Google Analytics as well as external data from Google Trends. There is a surge of online shoppers in the country during the late hours peaking consistently at around 9 pm Based on the traffic of both 11.11 sale period from last year and this year, there is a consistent upward trend suggesting that Filipinos are consistently hyped for this sale event. Based on our proprietary data, there is a whopping 91.3 percent increase in terms of online visit this year versus last year from 48,385 to 92,603. While in comparison against the pre-sale event, the Singles Day itself showed a 29.7 percent increase in terms of online visit from 71,386 to 92,603. Story continues Interestingly, despite that both Singles Day sale events this year and last year occurred during the weekends, majority of Filipinos still preferred to shop at the very last minute. Based on our proprietary data from Google Analytics, majority of online Filipino shoppers are actively searching for products during the late-night hours. The hourly consumer behavior of Filipinos is consistent comparing the sale trends from 11.11 pre-sale, and the 11.11 sale period this year and last year. Early mornings specifically around 3:00 AM is the dead hour for the online shopping, while it slowly gains momentum in terms of number of visits starting from 5:00 PM surging continuously every hour whereas 9:00 PM is the most active hour. The rationale behind this late-night hour shopping trend is correlated with Filipinos social media activity which coincidentally peaks in the late-night hours. A majority of Filipino online shoppers are from Greater Manila Area: Quezon City, Makati and Manila Majority of Filipino online shoppers during the Singles Day are mainly from the Greater Manila and some other provincial metropolis cities. The Greater Manila cities mainly Quezon City, Makati City and Manila are the top three most active cities that participated in this years Singles Day sale which had 36 percent, 26 percent and 11 percent consumer activity. Meanwhile, the other cities in Greater Manila namely Pasig and Caloocan took the 6th and the 8th spot respectively with five and three percent consumer activity. Only three provincial metropolis cities namely Cebu, Davao and Cavite made it on the list placing 4th, 5th and 7th spot which is significantly less than the three major cities in Greater Manila: Quezon City, Makati City and Manila. The rationale behind the activity in these cities can be traced from their respective minimum wages. The Greater Manila cities, Quezon City, Makati, Manila and Pasig, have the highest minimum wages in the country justifying their high shopping activity during the sale event. Cebu Pacific and Air Asia are the most searched in airline promotions, while a majority of Filipinos are actively searching for online deals on Lazada and Shopee In terms of the search interest, Filipinos are actively searching for online promotions for airlines and general top merchants in the country. In fact, the top two most searched keywords are Cebu Pacific and Lazada, placing 1st and 2nd respectively. Interestingly, the respective competitors of Cebu Pacific and Lazada namely Air Asia and Shopee came in for the 3rd and 4th spot. Meanwhile general search interest in 11.11 and Seat Sale came in as the 5th and 6th most popular keywords. The reason behind the interest in Lazada and Shopee this Singles Day sale is that Filipinos online shopping preference is based on brand familiarity, thus directly seeking mainly for the top online merchants in the country. This is according to Kantar Worldpanel survey, revealing that 84 percent of Filipinos preferred to buy from established companies despite the alternatives available in the market. Meanwhile, airline promotions are one of the most searched keywords during this sale period which is consistent across Southeast Asian markets: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines. The rationale behind the popularity in airline promotions is that majority of the participating airlines in the Singles Day sale are offering an early Christmas and New Year holiday promotions. - e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here. Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash The post We analysed Singles Day consumer behaviour from the Philippines, and this is what we found appeared first on e27. Beloved Hong Kong bull Billy found dead with stomach full of plastic bags, prompting call for beach-goers to take their trash home Hong Kong beachgoers have been urged to take their trash home, after one of the citys most beloved bovines was found dead with a stomach full of plastic. Billy, an eight-year-old bull who lived on Pui O beach on the south of Lantau Island, was found dead on Friday, according a post on its Facebook fan page. An examination showed that the animals stomach and intestinal tract had been blocked with enough plastic bags to fill two rubbish bins, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said on Monday evening. I believe this tragedy happened partly because people were leaving behind their trash after going to the beach or to the countryside, Greenpeace campaigner Chan Hall-sion said. She added that beaches were high-risk areas as single-use plastics thrown into bins could easily be blown back out into the surrounding area. Dont think that youve already done your part by throwing rubbish into the bin, Chan said. The fan page, titled Billy the Pui O legendary cow although Billy was male said the bovine had been attacked by dogs when it was only a few months old. It became used to humans after being nursed back to health by vets and Lantau residents and later joined a buffalo herd on the beach. What can be done about Hong Kongs feral cows? In recent years, its friendly encounters with tourists who frequented the beach and the neighbouring campsite meant it ended up eating their leftovers. It also got into the habit of being fed by visitors. This led to a change in its habits for finding food and made it correlate plastic bags with food, the AFCD statement said. We are extremely sad that its gone. Billy taught us a lot Ho Loy, Lantau Buffalo Association chairwoman Lantau Buffalo Association chairwoman Ho Loy, who had helped raise Billy over the years, said Lantau residents were greatly saddened by the news. "We are extremely sad that its gone. Billy taught us a lot," she said. Ho said Billy was described as legendary because it had joined an entirely different species on its own at a young age and at one point learned from the buffaloes how to swim. Story continues Billy also helped change the way people thought about cattle. Some Lantau residents used to think that they were dangerous and aggressive, but Billy helped them change that perception with his friendly demeanour, she said. She criticised the government for the red tape preventing groups from putting up banners to educate the public about not feeding wild animals. The government had put up one banner, she said, but it was badly designed and most people ignored it. They just regulate for the sake of regulating, they don't think if what theyre doing is effective or not. How many people would actually be willing to spend money on making banners to help save cattle? Are Hong Kongs green policies doing more harm than good? Chan said it was important to curb the use of single-use plastics at the source. For visitors who are going to beaches or the countryside, planning ahead and bringing reusable cutlery and boxes can already help, she said. She also encouraged restaurants and kiosks at beaches to take the lead in handing out less throwaway plastic. Since July, the government has run a Plastic Free Beach, Tableware First campaign, with at least 47 kiosks and restaurants operating at the citys public beaches pledging to avoid distributing plastic straws and disposable plastic tableware. Plastic debris account for between 60 and 80 per cent of marine litter found along shorelines, according to a survey of 34 coastal sites by WWF-Hong Kong in 2015 and 2016. Most of them were single-use disposable items such as polystyrene fragments and plastic packaging. About 154 tonnes of disposable plastic tableware about 2 per cent of all municipal waste went into the citys overflowing landfills in 2016. Plastic, in general, accounts for roughly a fifth of the citys daily municipal waste generation. This article Beloved Hong Kong bull Billy found dead with stomach full of plastic bags, prompting call for beach-goers to take their trash home first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Chinese scientists have rounded on a colleague who claimed to have conducted an experiment that led to the birth of the worlds first genetically edited babies, describing it as crazy and unethical. More than 120 Chinese scientists signed a letter condemning the claim by He Jiankui, a biologist with the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen. The project completely ignored the principles of biomedical ethics, conducting experiments on humans without proving its safe, said Qiu Zilong, a neuroscience researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai who wrote the letter. We can only describe such behaviour as crazy. The letter was published on social media on late Monday and was signed by scientists at some of Chinas leading research universities, such as Peking University and Tsinghua, as well as overseas institutions, including Stanford in the US and Singapores Agency for Science, Technology and Research. Officials told Thepaper.cn that the Medical Ethics Committee in Shenzhen had opened an investigation into the experiment. Earlier in the day, the citys Health and Family Planning Commission said the experiment had not been registered with the medical ethics commission. The scientists letter said a major risk from gene editing was the so-called off-target effect, which would result in other genes having their functions disrupted. The gene-editing technique used in the experiment is nothing new, Qiu said. But scientists across the world wont, or would not dare to, do it because of the off-target risks and the social impact it could have. He said he had used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-cas9, which alters DNA to supply genes that are missing or disables one that is causing problems. The scientist said he had given the babies immunity to HIV by disabling a gene called CCR5, which produces a protein that acts as a receptor for the virus, causing it to spread across the human body. Story continues But Rao Yi, a renowned biologist with the Peking University, said this could carry additional risks and cited experiments on mice that showed disabled or missing CCR5 could lead to cardiovascular diseases. Immunologists such as Zhang Linqi, from Tsinghua University, said the gene He claimed to have edited was critical to the human immune system and disabling or knocking it out could lead to unforeseen diseases. The trial was approved and conducted by Shenzhen HarMoniCare Women and Childrens Hospital, according to documents submitted by the research team to the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, a database affiliated with the World Health Organisation. The document suggested that an ethics review committee at the hospital had signed the approval paper, but Qin Suji, the former director of medical affairs who left the hospital last month, denied he signed it, saying the signatures could be fabricated. T This article Chinese scientists condemn crazy and unethical gene-editing experiment 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: This is a bribery case with no bribes, a lawyer for former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping told the court as his US$2.9 million corruption trial opened in New York on Monday. In addition to arguing that the sums Ho had given to various African officials on behalf of a Chinese energy giant were donations rather than bribes, the defence said that key prosecution witness Cheikh Gadio was testifying against Ho because he planned to run for president in Senegal. The trial began on Monday after US District Judge Loretta Preska together with the prosecutor and defence teams went through a four-hour jury selection procedure. Twelve primary jurors and three substitutes 11 women and four men were selected for the trial, which is expected to last two weeks. Ho, who was Hong Kongs home affairs minister from 2002 to 2007, was arrested in the US and has been behind bars since last November, having sought and been denied bail five times. He earlier pleaded not guilty to eight charges: three for money laundering and five for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The prosecution will have to secure unanimous verdict from the jury for each charge. Ex-Senegal official to testify against former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho This case is about corruption, money laundering and bribery, prosecutor Paul Hayden said in the opening paragraph of his statement. Bribes often paid by the defendant, that man Patrick Ho, he said pointing at the defendant, who sat still throughout. Hayden went on to present the details of two schemes allegedly conducted by Ho, 69, involving a total of US$2.9 million to secure exclusive oil rights in Africa for CEFC China Energy, a Shanghai-based private conglomerate. At the time, Ho was working for the China Energy Fund Committee, a Hong Kong research group that received funding from CEFC. One scheme involved bribing the president of Chad, Idriss Deby, via a US$2 million donation facilitated by Gadio who is expected to testify in the following weeks and his son. The other scheme involved high-profile Ugandan official Sam Kutesa. Story continues The prosecutor said Ho used foreign ministers to open the doors for business opportunities for CEFC, which wanted, in addition to oil rights, to acquire a foreign bank. Defence lawyer Benjamin Rosenberg, however, told the jurors that the payments made to the African officials in both cases were donations and contributions. The payments were not bribes, they were payments, but not bribes, Rosenberg said in his opening statement. This is a bribery case, but with no bribes. It was Dr Hos job to look for business opportunities for CEFC Energy. His job was to network, and for that reason, he met people from other countries, he said. Patrick Ho denied bail a fifth time ahead of US$2.9 million bribery trial The defences main argument was that the CEFC, represented by Ho, had not received anything in return after making the donations, and no complaints had been made. Dr Ho and his colleagues asked for nothing and received nothing, he said. Rosenberg also said that ex-Senegal official Gadio, formerly a co-defendant in the case, was testifying against his client because he planned to run for president. He figured out the government will dismiss all the charges if he witnesses on behalf of the government, the lawyer said. During the one-year investigation, prosecutors provided a wide range of evidence showing Hos links to different schemes involving UN officials as well as gun deals. Those links will be mentioned during the trial but may not be used against him in this case. Patrick Ho accused of being illegal arms dealer by US prosecutors Ho, who is also known for being the middleman in cutting deals for Chinese companies and helping to facilitate Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a global trade program, had smiled as he entered the courtroom. He was allowed to wear his own clothes instead of prison uniform for the hearing, but as he had lost weight over the past months, the purple shirt he was wearing appeared oversized. Ho observed the jury selection process closely, watching attentively as people entered and left the courtroom. He also turned to study those seated in the gallery, especially the members of the Chinese press. This article Ex-Hong Kong minister Patrick Hos US$2.9 million corruption trial opens, as defence calls it a bribery case with no bribes first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort held secret talks with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, including around the time the lobbyist joined Trump's bid to win the presidency, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. Manafort went to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2013, 2015 and then "around March 2016" to meet Assange, whose organization is accused of leaking thousands of emails allegedly stolen by Russian hackers from Hillary Clinton's rival campaign, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources. The Guardian cited a separate internal document written by Ecuador's Senain intelligence agency which listed a "Paul Manaford" as one of Assange's guests at the embassy. WikiLeaks denied the report, tweeting that it was "willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange." Manafort chaired the Trump election campaign from March until August 2016, initially charged with organizing the all-important battle to win over delegates to the Republicans' national convention. The Guardian said it was unclear why Manafort visited Assange, who has been living at the embassy since he sought refuge in 2012 over a Swedish sexual assault case that was later dropped. Assange also fears extradition to the US over WikiLeaks' release in 2010 of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables. In July, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign team and Russia, charged 12 Russian spies with conspiring to hack Democratic National Committee computers, stealing data from the organization and publishing those files in an effort to sway the election. One of the indictments referred to WikiLeaks, described as "Organization 1," as the platform the Russians used to release the stolen emails. Earlier this month US prosecutors inadvertently disclosed the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange, in an unrelated case. But it was not clear what charges Assange would face. On Monday prosecutors said in a court filing that Manafort had lied to investigators, in violation of a plea agreement he made in September. Manafort had agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe after pleading guilty to financial fraud charges related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. THE Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the implementation of two preventive suspension orders on Samars Catbalogan City Mayor Stephany Uy and the other local officials for grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, and gross neglect of duty. These were in addition to violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees or Republic Act 6713 in connection with the purchase of farm lots with a market value of P155,497.84 for P120,225,000 and the lease for a public market in 2016. Ombudsman Samuel Martires backed the recommendation of Special Prosecutor Edilberto Sandoval, ordering Secretary Eduardo Ano to implement the suspension orders immediately upon receipt hereof, and to notify this Office within five days from said receipt of the status of said implementation. Apart from Uy, also ordered suspended were Vice Mayor Art Sherwin Gabon; city councilors Maximo Pescos, Edward Uy, Christine Joy Escober, Beethoven Bermeo and Nannette Jasmin; accountant Peachy Daguman; treasurer Elizabeth Lim; budget officer Ma. Theresa Aroza; assessor Romero Tuazon; assistant city assessor Arthur Macabare, and tax mappers Rody Ocenar and Rizal Ignacio. The complainantBernard Jake Ramosaccused the city officials in cooperation with one another, purchased the agricultural lands of Alvin Cesar L. Laohoo and Lorenzo L. Laohoo Jr. at an exorbitant price of P120,225,000 with a market value of P155,497.84. Based on court records, the city council passed an ordinance in 2015 authorizing the city government to borrow P125 million from the Development Bank of the Philippines for some of its various infrastructure projects. On June 8, 2015, the council passed an ordinance and two resolution authorizing Uy to enter into a deed of sale for the acquisition of the lands, ratification of the term loan agreement and reclassification of the agricultural land. All the resolutions and ordinances were approved by Stephany just in one day of 14 June 2016, Ramos said.The Ombudsman after a careful evaluatoin of the complaint and its supporting documents, this Office finds sufficient basis to place respondents Stephany, Gabon, Coefredo, Jeffrey, Pescos, Edward, Escober, Bermejo, Jasmin, Tuazon, Macabare, Ignacio under preventive suspension pending investigation of the case. The eventual purchase thereof which drained the government funds worth P120,225,000, likewise shows a grossly prejudicial act against the government. The respondents were hereby preventively suspended during the pendency of this case until its termination, but not to exceed the total period of six months without pay. In case of delay in the disposition of the case due to the fault, negligence or any cause attributable to the respondent, the period of such delay shall not be counted in computing the period of the preventive suspension. The evidence of guilt, however, against respondents Daguman, Lim, Aroza and Ocenar is not strong. The prayer for preventive suspension against them is denied, the anti-graft court ruled. In another resolution, the Ombudsman ordered the six-month suspension without pay of Stephany Uy, Coefredo Uy, Macabare, Aquino, Pescos, Bermejo, Edward Uy and Jasmin for grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority, Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service, and violation of RA 6713 in connection with allowing a private sector to lease of the 10,027-square meter Catbalogan public market in 2916. The case was filed in 2017 by the Catbalogan public market vendors, led by Mario Yamugan. Reuters Bharat Biotech's vaccine was only 50% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in a high-risk population during a devastating second wave of infections in India this year, data gleaned from hospital workers showed. The real world study for Covaxin, conducted April 15-May 15, compares with a 77.8% effectiveness rate in a late-stage trial of more than 25,000 participants that was conducted November 2020 to January 2021. The much lower effectiveness rate for the two-dose shot seen in the new study can possibly be attributed to the fact that the study was restricted to hospital employees who had a higher risk of being infected than the general population, that it was conducted during a surge in infections and also to the prevalence of the Delta variant at the time, the study concluded. Freyr Energy is a full-service solar solutions firm providing access to cheap energy whereas Verloop is SaaS customer engagement automation platform Freyr Energy Freyr Energy, an India-based full-service solar solutions firm providing access to cheap energy, has closed a US$1.5 million Series A round from Impact Partners, a crowdfunding platform for impact investing. Operated by Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), Impact Partners brought together a consortium of global investors including Netherlands-based C4D Partners and India-based angel investors. According to IIXs impact assessment, the funding will expand access to reliable and affordable solar energy to 2,275 households and 2,975 businesses, enable 675 off-grid rural villages to enjoy electricity for the first time through micro-grids, and avoid 167,270 metric tons of CO2 emissions by 2022. The funds will also be used to improves its technology platform, increase the strength of its sales and channel partner network and support the marketing activities to fuel future growth. Established in 2014, Freyr is a triple bottom line impact enterprisea company that generates social and environmental returns alongside financial profitthat helps homeowners, businesses, and remote villages to access and invest in solar energy while contributing to a cleaner planet. Freyr enables people to shift to solar energy by providing affordable rooftop systems for those underserved by the national power grid, and designing and building microgrid projects for remote villages and areas of social and economic unrest. Also Read: Japanese firm Mitsui & Co. leads Series B funding in wearable healthcare brand GOQii The firm has developed a proprietary technology platform and mobile application, SunPro, that makes it easier for anyone from any background to sell or install solar systems, and uses algorithms to identify the best solar solution for customers. Verloop Bangalore-based SaaS customer engagement automation provider, Verloop, has raises US$3 million in Series A investment round led by IDFC Parampara Fund, which invests in technology IP and innovation-themed startups. Story continues Co-investors in this round include Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, and Dr Ranjan Pai, Chairman of the Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG). The funding will be used to enhance the Verloop customer engagement platform as the company expands its team and scales operations to address the global market for automated customer services and marketing. Verloop is promoted by GrowthStory, the venture-builder platform founded by serial entrepreneurs K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh. Launched in 2016, Verloop.io is a language-agnostic platform that supports seven Indian languages. In addition, the company has developed a new messaging protocol and a patent-pending technology for bot to human handoff of conversations when it detects that the conversation can be better served by a human chat rep. The company claims to have processed more than 120 million unique conversations so far. Verloop use-cases span marketing & Sales (lead generation qualification, conversational campaigns, upsell and cross-sell etc.), customer support (automated helpdesk, personalised onboarding of customers etc.) and celebrity brand management (persona management, engaging with fans, pre- and post- launch etc.). Verloop was part of the YC (Y Combinator) Startup School 2017. The post India: Solar startup Freyr Energy, SaaS firm Verloop raise funding appeared first on e27. Eko was founded by an heir to the Chearavanont family, the Thai conglomerate behind the Charoen Pokphand Group Thailand-based business communication and collaboration platform developer Eko has recently announced a US$20 million Series B funding round led by Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV), with the participation of other investors such as RedBeat Ventures (an investment unit of AirAsia), East Ventures, and Gobi Partners. Eko Founder & CEO Korawad Chearavanont said that the funding will be used to support international expansion to Europe, the UK, and the US. The founder himself is an heir to the Chearavanont family, the Thai conglomerate behind the Charoen Pokphand Group. The Eko platform might remind us of platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Team, and Facebook Workplace. But Chearavanont said that the product is developed to go beyond communication and collaboration. It also includes features to support remote working. Also Read: East Ventures, Yahoo! Japan Capital, and SMDV launch EV Growth The Eko app has features that were designed to support work flow such as hierarchical approval system, digital signature, and even auditing facilities. It is also designed to facilitate companies in various sectors from hospitality, retail, corporation, construction, to healthcare. As a SaaS platform, Eko is being offered through subscription service, with packages that suit companies of different sizes. According to an IDC research, collaboration platforms still have a great potential in the market, which is expected to reach US$31 billion by 2022. The growth is supported by a recent trend among companies, which sees them transforming their internal culture digitally. The article SMDV Pimpin Pendanaan $20 Juta untuk Eko, Startup SaaS Bisnis Asal Thailand was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Randi Eka Yonida for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27. The post Indonesias SMDV leads US$20M funding round for Thai SaaS platform Eko appeared first on e27. French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday tried to take the heat out of mass anti-government demonstrations, as a spokesman for the movement said there would be another show of strength on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Saturday. Macron said he had heard the anger expressed by the protests and would seek to bolster people's spending power but refused to change course from trying to make France greener. The 40-year-old centrist acknowledged that many struggling households felt penalised by years of rising fuel taxes, the spark for road blockades and demonstrations over the past 10 days. Macron offered minor concessions, saying he would propose a mechanism to adjust the tax increases if prices were also being pushed up by rising oil prices internationally -- as they have been for much of this year. And he called for a three-month national consultation to draw up a roadmap for accelerating France's transition away from fossil fuels, which he insisted would remain his overall objective. "What I've taken from these last few days is that we shouldn't change course, because it is the right one and necessary," he told lawmakers at the presidential palace in Paris. In an hour-long speech, Macron repeated several times that he had understood the anger expressed by hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets wearing high-visibility yellow jackets this month. He conceded that many French people felt that taxes were "imposed from above" and promised to accelerate the work of the government to lighten the load for working families and cut public spending. Environment Minister Francois de Rugy later met members of the movement. After the meeting, one of its spokesmen, Eric Drouet, said protesters would return to the Champs-Elysees on Saturday just as they did last week. "The French are not at all convinced" by Macron's announcements, he said at the end of the talks, calling also for a new meeting with "the government's spokesperson or the prime minister". "There will be a gathering like last Saturday on the Champs-Elysees. The wish of all the yellow vests is to continue every Saturday like that on the Champs-Elysees," he added. - 'Who's going to pay?' - But beyond fuel taxes -- set to increase again in January -- some of the most frequent complaints from the "yellow vests" is Macron's perceived elitism and his pro-business policies. "I have seen, like many French people, the difficulties for people who have to drive a lot and have problems making ends meet at the end of the month," Macron said. "I believe very profoundly that we can transform this anger into the solution." Acknowledging that protesters worry about surviving "the end of the month" in contrast to his government's desire to stave off "the end of the world", he promised: "We are going to deal with both." Last Saturday's protests saw barricades and tear gas on the Champs-Elysees. Many participants have called for Macron to reimpose a wealth tax on high earners, repealed after the former investment banker took office last year. "Macron stays his course, so do we!" a group of around 50 protesters chanted Tuesday at a roundabout in Tregueux, western France. "He's found a solution for saving the environment and being more energy efficient, but who's going to pay for it? Us, like always," said Benoit Julou, a 44-year-old real estate agent at the protest. - Cutting down on nuclear - Macron also used the speech on France's energy transition to announce a programme for reducing France's reliance on nuclear power. The government will shut down 14 of France's 58 nuclear reactors by 2035, with between four and six closed by 2030, he announced. The total includes the previously announced shutdown of France's two oldest reactors in Fessenheim, eastern France. Macron said Fessenheim, which came online in 1977 and is still operating despite the plant's programmed 40-year lifespan, would now close in mid-2020. "Reducing the role of nuclear energy does not mean renouncing it," Macron said, not least because it will help France meet its carbon emission targets as part of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. France relies on nuclear power for 72 percent of its electricity needs. The government wants to reduce this to 50 percent by 2035 by developing more renewable energy sources. Macron said wind power electricity output would triple by 2030, and solar output would increase fivefold, helped by a boost for renewable energy development to seven to eight billion euros a year from five billion currently. He also announced that France would close its remaining four coal-fired power plants by 2022 as part of anti-pollution efforts. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and President Xi Jinping of Peoples Republic of China pose for a photo prior to their expanded bilateral meeting at the Malacanan Palace on November 20, 2018. RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO MANILA, Philippines Malacanang on Monday (November 26) countered communist leader Jose Maria Sisons allegation that the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Philippines and China for the proposed joint oil and gas exploration in some parts of the West Philippine Sea was an act of treason. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the deal was just an agreement to agree on certain things there is nothing there that will be a basis for any allegations of treason even the critics says there is nothing there. The copy of the MOU provided by Malacanang, both in English and Chinese languages, states that both the Philippine and Chinese governments have decided to negotiate on an accelerated basis arrangements to facilitate oil and gas exploration and exploitation in relevant maritime areas consistent with applicable rules of international law. It also notes that the two governments will endeavor to agree on the cooperation agreements within 12 months of this Memorandum of Understanding. This Memorandum of Understanding and all discussions, negotiations and activities of the two governments or their authorized enterprises under or pursuant to this Memorandum of Understanding will be without prejudice to the respective legal positions of both governments. This Memorandum of Understanding does not create rights or obligations under international or domestic law, it added. In a statement on Saturday (November 24), Sison said the signing of the MOU under the direction of President Rodrigo Duterte was a clear act of treason, a blatant betrayal of the sovereign rights and national patrimony of the Philippines and the Filipinos. He urged the Filipino people to reject the MOU because it only sets aside the 2016 legal victory of the Philippines against china before a united nations-backed Arbitral Tribunal which invalidated Beijings expansive claim over the South China Sea. Marje Pelayo (with reports from Joan Nano) The post Malacanang to Joma: No treason in PH-China joint exploration deal appeared first on UNTV News. Prominent economists called Tuesday for an alternative measure of economic well-being, arguing in an OECD-backed work that the current focus on gross domestic product (GDP) is insufficient. "There is no simple way of representing every aspect of well-being in a single number in the way GDP describes market economic output," the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a "short book" authored by well-known figures within the economic world. "Subjective well-being measures are critical to assess the non-monetary costs and benefits of public programmes and policies," it added. Steps taken by countries from Ecuador and Scotland to Bhutan and New Zealand could point to policies that achieve their goals and "help in restoring peoples trust that public policies can deliver what we all care about: an equitable and sustainable society." "Beyond GDP: Measuring What Counts for Economic and Social Performance" is a compilation of chapters by economists including Joseph Stiglitz, Angus Deaton, Martine Durand and Thomas Piketty, some of whom have won Nobel Prizes, others who influence policy at the OECD or teach at prestigious universities. It was officially presented at an OECD statistics forum in Incheon, South Korea, and calls for a "dashboard of indicators" that displays conditions faced by ordinary people throughout a complete economic cycle. Measures limited to GDP and public debt, for example, fail to inform decision makers about the state of the environment, a population's general and economic security, its trust in institutions, or the disparate treatment of different ethnic or racial groups. The notion of an "Accountability Day" observed by the Dutch government and parliament was another initiative welcomed in the work. While sometimes dismissed as an "anti-growth" agenda, the authors believe that use of a wider set of economic indicators to address the "Great Recession" a decade ago "would have led, most likely, to stronger GDP growth than that actually achieved by most countries in the aftermath of the crisis." The economists urged in addition that indicators be broken down "by age, gender, disability status, sexual orientation, education and other markers of social status in order to describe group differences in well-being outcomes." Health authorities are trying to determine if the cases that have killed at least 22 people in Malapatan, Sarangani are caused by measles. Informed source said the regional health unit had sent blood samples to the main office of the Department of Health in Manila for confirmation if the victims, who have displayed symptoms of measles, in fact, died of measles. Medical experts say measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 1012 days after exposure to an infected person and last 710 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than 40 C (104.0 F), cough, runny nose, and inflamed eyes. Reports said more or less 200 patients had displayed symptoms of measles. Data from the World Health Organization showed that cases of measles had decreased by 84 percent from 2000 to 2016. On Monday, local health officials in Sarangani said at least 17 children were reported to have died in several remote communities in the Sarangani town of Malapatan during the past three weeks due to a suspected measles outbreak. Dr. Diomedes Remitar, Malapatan Municipal Health Office chief, said the victims, who included infants, reportedly died several days after exhibiting severe symptoms of measles infection. Remitar said the suspected outbreak was monitored in Sitios Lower and Upper Kyogam, Mahayag, Lino, Datal Nai and Alna of Barangay Upper Suyan. Based on information relayed by barangay health workers and officials of Barangay Upper Suyan, the MHO chief said the affected villagesamong the remotest areas in the townare inhabited by the Blaan tribe. These are considered suspected measles cases as we have not conducted confirmatory tests on the fatalities, he said.The health officer suspected that some of the reported fatalities could have suffered from diseases other than measles. As of Monday, at least 23 people from Barangay Upper Suyan are confined at the R.O. Diagan Hospital here after earlier showing symptoms of suspected measles such high fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, and other flu-like illnesses. Hospital records showed 15 of the patients, which included a four-month-old baby and a seven-month pregnant mother, had confirmed measles infection and were currently under isolation in at least three rooms. Boyet Ogan, chairman of Barangay Upper Suyan, said around 100 people, mostly infants and children, were affected by the outbreak. Ogan said the initial measles cases were monitored in one of the sub-village last Nov. 5 and rapidly spread to the other areas. As part of their interventions, Remitar said they had vaccinated around 500 infants and children in the area against measles. He said their office has provided medicines and treatment to some of the affected residents. Its quite difficult to access the affected communities due to their remoteness and the problematic roads, he said. Remitar added that they also had difficulty getting proper information as it requires a hike of at least 20 hours to reach the areas. The Online Citizen has resumed operations while being investigated for criminal defamation. (Photo: Yahoo News Singapore) Socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC) resumed operations on Monday (26 November), after it received donations from the public to purchase new computer hardware needed to run the site. The long-running independent online media platform, which was founded in 2006, stopped operations on 20 November after police seized electronic equipment such as desktop computers and mobile devices from the home of TOC chief editor Terry Xu. The police later said it was investigating an alleged criminal defamation by the website, reported by Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), in which the article The take away from Seah Kian Pings Facebook post made serious allegations that the Governments highest officers are corrupt and that the Constitution has been tampered with. The article was written by a member of the public who goes by the pen name of Willy Sun, in response to comments made by Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng on Facebook about a meeting between several Singaporean activists and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in August. The article misspelled Seahs name. Repaying the kindness of supporters On Monday, however, Xu posted a note on the website saying that TOC will continue its publication, even as the police continues its investigations. He added, Other than purchase of new hardware, a number of kind hearted individuals have signed up as supporters on Patreon or subscribers to the site. In light of such support, we cannot but to continue our work to repay their kindness. We would like to express our thanks to all who have contributed so far, whether it is in monetary or in contribution of article and information. Fund-raising campaign soon Xu also revealed that TOC will be launching a fund-raising campaign soon to expand its team in preparation for the upcoming general elections. He wrote in his note, As there is the risk of me being arrested and put to jail, there is an urgent need to ensure that the publication is able to run even with me behind bars especially during the election period. Story continues With your support, my team and I pledge to continue our work till the day we have exhausted all available resources or forced to have our operations ceased. In 2011, the Singapore Registry of Political Donations gazetted TOC as a political organisation, noting that the editors of the website organised online and offline campaigns to change legislation and government policies. Under the Political Donations Act, political entities cannot receive funds from foreign contributors and anonymous contributions above S$5,000. In February 2018, TOC was de-gazetted as a political association, as it is currently run by only Xu, with volunteer editors and writers. Related stories: Police seize equipment from The Online Citizen in defamation investigation The Online Citizen removed as political association, must register with IMDA The Online Citizen registers with IMDA to continue operations in Singapore KAMPALA (Reuters) - Police in Uganda used teargas and live rounds to disperse opposition supporters on Monday, an opposition aide said. The clash occurred in the southerwestern of town of Rukungiri, home to the country's main opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, a veteran rival to President Yoweri Museveni. A police spokesman said "necessary" force was used in the incident in which 15 people were arrested. Pictures and footage posted on social media by Ronald Muhinda, an aide to Besigye, showed plumes of smoke from exploding teargas canisters, fires lit in the middle of the roads and anti-riot police vehicles on the town's streets. Muhinda said police had also used live rounds. Other posts by various social media users also showed teargas and heavy police deployment in the town. Opposition supporters in the East African nation regularly clash with police and military personnel, both of whom are accused by critics of being used to crack down on opponents of long-ruling Museveni, 74. Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said they had arrested 15 people from the Forum For Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda's largest opposition party, whom he accused to attempting to stage an illegal meeting. When asked whether police had used teargas and live rounds, Onyango said: "We used force that was necessary to match the level of resistance from the offenders," he said, adding the detained included Ingrid Turinawe, a senior official of FDC. He declined to clarify what specific means of force had been used but accused the party of organising the meeting without obtaining police's permission. Under Uganda's public order management laws, the police have sweeping powers to ban public gatherings for a range of reasons. In the footage, posted on Facebook, Muhinda said FDC had planned a thanksgiving and fundraising meeting in the town but that the police had blocked supporters from gathering at the venue and also blockaded Besigye at his home. Story continues Besigye could not be immediately reached for comment. In power since 1986, Museveni is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders and is widely expected to seek re-election in 2021 when the next poll is due in the prospective oil producer. Last year, the ruling party-controlled parliament voted to remove the age cap from the constitution, a move critics say effectively cleared the way for a Museveni life presidency. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Alison Williams) Venus Goon, the Penang woman whose video clip of a young Cambodian boy speaking several languages went viral earlier this month, has spoken about her meeting, calling the boy an inspiration. Many people like to complain about how tough their lives are. But this boy, had a lot of positive vibes. His positivity and cheerfulness in the face of adversity just won me over, she told The Star. Two weeks ago, the travel-lover posted a series of photos and video clips of Thuch Salik, a 14-year-old Cambodian boy that she met selling souvenirs near the tourist hot spot, and UNESCO World Heritage site, Angkor Wat. via Venus Goon Working his way through the ELEVEN languages he is conversational in, Salik manages to maintain good humor and a charming disposition as he explains the goods that he is selling. Throughout their conversations, he manages to slip between Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai, Japanese, English, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Tagalog, and our very own, Bahasa Melayu counting, singing songs, explaining his wares, and showcasing his chit-chatting skills. He even gave a pretty moving performance of the Chinese song Wo Men Bu Yi Yang, at one point. He can count to ten in no less than 16 languages, including Russian, Vietnamese and Italian. Oh, and three Chinese dialects. When she asks him how he learned all of the different languages, he modestly explains that the tourists visiting Angor Wat have taught him new words and phrases. Salik is one of many children who work in and around the UNESCO site, helping to sell magnets and postcards alongside his mother and brother. Channel News Asia spoke with the boy and his family, who explained that he began selling souvenirs when he was 11, and at the time only spoke his native tongue, slowly learning a bit of English, and then realizing that if he learned a few Chinese and English ballads, he could up his entrepreneurial game with visiting tourists. After gaining worldwide fame, Salik and his family have since been taken to the Phnom Penh on an all-expenses paid trip to be featured on local television. Charities and wealthy individuals have pledged thousands of dollars, donated new bicycles and toys, and even promised to fund Saliks education until he finishes university. Story continues Salik attends school during the week, but then comes to help his mother sell wares in the afternoon, causing him to miss out on many school activities that the family cannot afford. According to CNA, his mother has said that the new financial security for her sons education, he may never sell again If he does not have time, I will push him to focus on his studies more because I want my son to be educated, because I am uneducated, she said. via Venus Goon Speaking with the woman who brought Salik on the world stage, Venus explained to The Star that the boy was just not linguistically talented, but a great businessman. He would use all kinds of ways to make sure people buy from him. He asked me to buy a flute from him and he would teach me how to play with it. If I still didnt know how to after he taught me, he would give me the flute for free. When asked about the videos sudden viral fame, she admitted that she was surprised: She had only thought her friends would watch. I was overwhelmed by all the response. Some of my friends told me the video made them sit up and take notice that there are still many children who live in poverty out there. Heartwarming, and most importantly a story that carries a message: Remember those less fortunate, be happy for what you have, take the time to speak with people and learn from them, as Venus learned from Salik, and know that there are still good people out there willing to help. We hope you continue learning, Salik youre really good at it! This article, Penang woman tells of inspirational meeting with young, multilingual Cambodian souvenir seller, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. For more Coconuts stories, you can download our app, sign up for our newsletters, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. US President Donald Trump has said he may cancel a long-awaited summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after a confrontation at sea between Russia and Ukraine led Kiev to warn of the threat of "full-scale war". Trump is scheduled to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of this week, but warned it would depend on the results of a report being prepared by his national security advisers about Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships. "Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting," he told the Washington Post on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier warned that the standoff could herald more drastic developments as tensions escalate between the ex-Soviet neighbours. "I don't want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia," Poroshenko said. The number of Russian units deployed along the Ukraine-Russian border has "grown dramatically" while the number of Russian tanks has tripled, Poroshenko said, citing intelligence reports but giving no precise timescale for the buildup. He spoke after Russian forces seized three of Kiev's ships off the coast of Crimea on Sunday and captured 24 Ukrainian sailors. On Tuesday, a court in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea, ordered 12 of the sailors to be held in pre-trial detention for two months. Three hospitalised sailors were also formally detained for two months. The rest are to appear in court on Wednesday. The move stoked already high tensions between Moscow and Kiev, as Russia continues to accuse the sailors of crossing illegally into Russian waters and of ignoring warnings from its border guards. Kiev has demanded the release of the sailors and urged Western allies to impose further sanctions on Moscow. The US State Department has termed Russia's actions "a dangerous escalation" and said Washington wants to see "our European allies doing more to assist Ukraine." - Putin warns of 'reckless acts' - The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country's east. It has raised fears of a wider escalation -- in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 -- and prompted international calls for restraint. Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine against any "reckless acts" after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscow's seizure of the navy vessels. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday voted in favour of Poroshenko's request for the introduction of martial law in border areas for 30 days. This gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas. In a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday, Putin expressed "serious concern" over its introduction. He said he hoped Berlin could intervene with Ukrainian authorities "to dissuade them from further reckless acts". Moscow has accused Kiev of planning Sunday's confrontation as a provocation aimed at drumming up support for Poroshenko ahead of elections next year and convincing Western governments to impose further sanctions on Russia. Putin said Kiev's actions were "clearly taken in view of the election campaign in Ukraine". Sunday's incident has been playing out on Russian and Ukrainian television screens, with dramatic footage of Russian ships chasing down a Ukrainian tugboat that was trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov. - Sailors on Russian TV - Russian state television has aired footage of some of the captured sailors being questioned by Moscow's security services. One of them is heard saying "the actions of the Ukrainian armed vessels in the Kerch Strait had a provocatory character" -- parroting the version of events put forward by Russian authorities. Ukraine's naval commander, Igor Voronchenko, said the sailors were pressured into giving false evidence. "I know these sailors, they were always professional. What they are saying now is not true," he told Ukrainian media. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev in the dispute, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov and of taking military action without justification. The European Union, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and others expressed support for Kiev on Monday, in statements pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia denounced as "predictably anti-Russian". The foreign minister of Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said Tuesday that the bloc will next month consider further sanctions against Moscow over the flare-up. "Everything depends on the accounts of events and the actions of both sides. But it will need to be reviewed," Karin Kneissl told reporters. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for "maximum restraint," urging both sides "to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions". burs/sms/dl/rl BOC seizes fake cigarettes, rice posted November 27, 2018 at 11:10 pm by Vito Barcelo November 27, 2018 at 11:10 pm The Bureau of Customs seized fake cigarettes and imported rice worth P60 million in Zamboanga city. Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said the seized contraband consist of 55,000 sacks of rice and 85 cartons of cigarettes. The smuggled seized shipments were found on board m/v Maria Rebecca where operatives found 85 cartons of fake branded cigarettes worth P4.9 million while M/B RJ Express has 5,081 bags of rice worth 5.81 million. Another shipment on board m/v Hulk yielded more or less 50,000 bags of rice worth P50 million. The operation was part of the joint BOC and Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine National Police against the proliferation of smuggled goods.The shipments are now under the custody of the Port of Zamboanga. The seized rice shipments will be donated to DSWD while the cigarettes will be destroyed. COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section. Ark harnesses data science and microRNA detection technology to develop non-invasive and cost-effective blood tests to detect early stage cancers before clinical symptoms appear Singapore-based medtech company Ark, which has developed early-cancer detection technologies, has raised US$40 million in Series A round of funding, led by local VC firm Venturecraft, with participation from Chinese VC fund Gaorong Capital (formerly Banyan Capital). The funds will be used to scale up multi-centre clinical studies focused on early cancer detection. The startup also aims to expand its solutions to China and beyond. Ark is committed to developing innovative, actionable, and affordable test kits for the early detection of deadly and highly prevalent cancers in Asia and around the world. By detecting cancer early when treatment cost is lower, we could also assist in reducing healthcare cost for both patients families as well as the healthcare system, Dr. Zhou Lihan, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Ark. Established as a result of a merger between MiRXES (a microRNA diagnostic test developer) and Venturecraft, Ark is harnessing advanced data science and proprietary microRNA detection technology to develop non-invasive and cost-effective blood tests to detect early stage cancers before clinical symptoms appear. The company is kicking off by launching a blood test for early detection of stomach cancer in Asia. The firm plans to develop and launch new blood tests for early detection of other high prevalence cancers such as lung, breast and colon cancer. Ark has research collaborations with top medical research institutions globally. Having recently completed a 5,000-patient gastric cancer trial in Singapore, Ark is planning to launch Asias largest clinical studies targeting at least 50,000 participants through partnerships with local governments and medical institutions. Also Read: This Machine Learning startup helps breast cancer patients customise treatment, predicts risk of recurrence Story continues Formed in 2014, Singapore-based Venturecraft which has been investing in global growth-stage and late-stage ventures in medtech, biotech, and digital health invested in MiRXES in 2016. Venturecraft has since been actively supporting MiRXES to commercialise and scale its technologies and products. MiRXES founding team and shareholders of Venturecraft will remain as key strategic shareholders of Ark. Isaac Ho, Co-founder and co-CEO of Ark, shared: In many ways, the creation of Ark through this merger simply formalises a long-standing relationship between MiRXES and Venturecraft. We have been working together from the very beginning to disrupt cancer via early cancer detection in Asia and the rest of the world and are excited to do this officially as Ark. Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Cancer statistics show that early detection of cancer will improve patient survival rates from as low as 10 per cent as high as 90 per cent. Furthermore, 70 per cent of cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries where people have no access to early cancer detection technologies. Ark is targeting this vast population in Asia that is at risk of developing cancer, an estimated US$50 billion market. With operations in China as well as the US, Ark will build up necessary infrastructure, including sales channels and diagnostic laboratories, to reach consumers directly with more affordable early cancer detection solutions. After years of research and development, we are readying ourselves to move to the battlefront in the war against cancer. Through early detection, many cancers can now be cured or managed with good long-term survival. Our partnership with the Singapore medical ecosystem and A*STAR through DxD Hub has been instrumental and has laid a good foundation for us to grow faster in the future, said Lihan. Besides our continued focus on R&D and large-scale clinical studies, we are also building key commercial infrastructure and capabilities to prepare for the launch of the tests. We have more than doubled our headcount to over 110 people in the last four months, Lihan added. The post Singapores Ark raises US$40M to expand its non-invasive cancer detection technologies in Asia appeared first on e27. Former Spanish King Juan Carlos was under fire Monday after a photo emerged of him meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has been tainted by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The photo, which was released on the Twitter account of the Saudi foreign ministry (@KSAmofaEN), was published in several Spanish newspapers. Conservative daily El Mundo ran it along with the headline: "The photo of shame". A spokesman for the royal family said the former king shook hands with the de facto Saudi ruler at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday in what was a "greeting required by protocol, with no institutional significance and no previous meeting." Far-left parties Podemos and Izquierda Unida which oppose the monarchy criticised the unexpected greeting. "It is humiliating Spain and Spaniards," wrote Pablo Echenique, a leading member of Podemos, on Twitter. Izquierda Unida leader Alberto Garzon questioned the Spanish royal family's friendships, saying on Twitter they are a "faithful reflection of an era that has to end". "The Spanish monarchy is a problem not just for the Spanish people as this photograph shows. It's not a simple photo, it is a symbol," he added. Juan Carlos, 80, has long had close ties with the Saudi royal family which has helped Spain to land lucrative contracts in the oil-rich kingdom. He abdicated in 2014 after several scandals in favour of his son Felipe VI, who has tried to restore the monarchy's reputation. In an online article, El Mundo said the former monarch "is obliged to... have a vision of the state and a sense of opportunity. And right now it is not appropriate to be photographed with the Saudi crown prince." Saudi Arabia has faced intense global criticism over the killing of insider-turned-critic Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate on October 2. He was reportedly dismembered in what Saudi Arabia said was a "rogue" operation but CIA analysis leaked to the US media has pointed the finger at Prince Mohammed. Riyadh has repeatedly and insistently rejected any suggestion the prince was connected to the killing. Spain has found Ryanair guilty of violating cabin crews' right to strike and work safety regulations as well as obstructing labour inspections, threatening to fine the low-frills airline for 16 infractions, unions said Monday. The labour ministry found that the company, by emailing or calling employees to see if they would stop work before planned strikes on July 25 and 26, and September 28, had infringed on their right to strike, the USO and Sitcpla unions said. The labour ministry confirmed to AFP that it had "given the company notice of infractions," but refused to reveal further details. Europe's biggest low cost airline has been clashing with worker representatives for close to a year over contracts, pay and work conditions. In July, strikes by cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers. Then on September 28, cabin crew walked out again in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain and in some countries pilots' unions also took action. A resolution emitted by the Spanish ministry's labour inspection department on November 22, seen by AFP, said that some of those responsible for Ryanair bases in Spain had "obstructed" the work of inspectors when they showed up to investigate accusations the airline had violated the right to strike. "Those responsible for the bases -- or those acting as such -- told the inspectors that they did not have the necessary information to duly attend to the labour inspection, having obstructed, in some cases, their verification work," the resolution said. It added that based on those interviews it had managed to conduct with employees, it concluded that the company had violated workers' right to strike by asking them via email whether they planned to stop work, and in some cases following up by phone. It also said the company put more staff on airport or home standby than normal, which meant there was not enough space and furniture for the higher number of employees on standby in airports, violating work safety rules. As such, it proposes to fine them for a total of 16 infractions -- 15 serious and one very serious -- although the exact amount is not stipulated. Ryanair can appeal this. The company was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP. A Syrian refugee who spent months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has arrived in Vancouver after he was granted permanent residency by Canada, a government source and his lawyer said Tuesday. Hassan al-Kontar's plight became widely known after he shared posts on social media that showed him surviving on donated airline meals, washing and giving himself a haircut in the toilets at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Terminal 2. He had been stuck since March -- blocked from entering Malaysia because of visa issues and barred from travelling to other countries, and was detained last month by immigration officials. "I know I look like someone who ran from the stone or middle ages. I'm sorry for that," the smiling 36-year-old said in a Twitter video Monday, looking tired and stroking his bushy beard. "For the last eight years, it was (a) hard, long journey. The last 10 months, it was very hard and cold," he added. After Kontar's arrest, Malaysian officials had said they were going to work with Syrian authorities to deport him back to his war-torn homeland. But Kontar's lawyer Andrew Brouwer said they brought the Syrian back to the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday before he was put on a Vancouver-bound flight. Brouwer said his client was recognised by Canada as a refugee and was granted permanent residency under the country's refugee sponsorship programme. "We were of course very pleased that Malaysia appeared to agree and abide by international law," he said. Malaysia's immigration office said in a statement Tuesday it had held talks "on the basis of concern and humanity... with the embassy of the country that agreed to receive his relocation," without naming Canada. - 'No more airports' - In the video on his Twitter account Kontar said he was in transit in Taiwan and that he would be reaching his "final destination" the following day. "I could not do it without the support and the prayers from all of you," he said. In Vancouver, he was greeted by Laurie Cooper, who with the help of a group of residents in the ski resort of Whistler and the British Columbia Muslim Association, brought him to Canada and raised almost Can$15,000 for his fresh start. Public broadcaster CBC said he looked "fragile in a blue T-shirt and jeans, his curly hair long and his beard unkempt" after disembarking. "I've done my time in airports, no more airports," he told the network after a sleepless flight across the Pacific. "In Canada, here you have something very special, you have an amazing group of people who believe they can make a difference, and they can." Looking at Cooper, he said: "When I was thinking of hope, her face was coming to my mind." Before climbing into a car and heading to Whistler, where a bed, fresh clothes and a hotel job were awaiting him, he whispered to himself: "I will be fine." Kontar is not the only asylum seeker who has been left in limbo at an airport for a long period of time. In 2015 an Iraqi family spent more than two months in an empty smoking cubicle in a Moscow airport, relying on passengers to bring them food and water. Kontar's case also recalls the 2004 film "The Terminal," in which Tom Hanks plays a man who finds himself stuck in a New York airport after his government collapses, rendering his papers useless. Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has left more than 350,000 people dead. Italy rugby wing Mattia Bellini looks set to miss the Six Nations after being ruled out for four months following surgery on a dislocated right shoulder picked up in the November Test against Australia, his club Zebre said on Tuesday. Bellini scored Italy's only try in the 26-7 defeat to the Wallabies in Padua before going off with a right shoulder injury. "Bellini has undergone surgery following a dislocation of the right shoulder," Pro 14 side Zebre said in a statement, adding that "the intervention ... was perfectly successful". The 24-year-old also suffered ligament damage to the shoulder and a bone fracture. He immediately started physiotherapy after Friday's surgery with the recovery time estimated at four mouths, Zebre said. Italy open their Six Nations campaign against Scotland on February 2 in Murrayfield. Bellini missed Italy's final November Test against New Zealand, a 66-3 defeat for the hosts in the Stadio Olimpico. Italy also lost 54-7 to Six Nations champions Ireland in Chicago earlier in the month before beating Georgia 28-17 in Florence. Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Tuesday vowed to voluntarily go to any jail even in Davao City, President Rodrigo Dutertes hometown if it can be proven that his late father, and his mother, who is afflicted with Parkinsons disease, had been involved in any anomaly. If he [Duterte] finds anything anomalous, again, I would voluntarily walk into any detention facility even in Davao, Trillanes said. At the same time, Trillanes dare Duterte to pretend that hes mad and order the arrest of the drug lord involved in the P6.4 billion and the P11-billion shipment that were smuggled into the country. Trillanes was referring to the drug shipment of alleged 604 kilos of shabu, which slipped past the Bureau of Customs express lane and the ones seized from two warehouses in Valenzuela City last year. He also cited the P11 billion worth of shabu that were discovered inside four empty magnetic lifters inside a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez town last August. It would really appear that he was behind these shabu shipments, Trillanes said. The senator said he welcomes Dutertes statement that he would probe the transactions allegedly entered by his late father, a member of PMA Class 59 who retired from the service in 1988 (and died 10 years later in 1998) and her aging mother. In fact, Ill raise the ante, said the opposition senator who has engaged the President in a word war over various issues. After the government failed to send Trillanes to jail, Duterte said on Monday, that he had ordered the investigation of the alleged Philippine Navy deals entered into by the senators parents. We are looking into the paper. Were investigating quietly the deals during the time of his father and mother. You can be very sure that they will all come out, the President said. Earlier, the President accused Trillanes mother of acting as a supplier for the Philippine Navy, which the President claimed was a clear case of conflict of interest due to the senators status before as a Navy officer.Trillanes, however, strongly denied the Presidents allegations and insisted that the President only mentioned his parents since he cannot throw anything else against him. He also slammed the President for dragging the name of his 84-year-old mother, who has been suffering from Parkinsons disease, in their war over certain political issues. Duterte said during a one-on-one interview with Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo that Trillanes parents had transactions with the Philippine Navy but did not expound on the said deals. You soldiers, you believe in Trillanes. His father was still then in the service. He was then in the service and most of the transactions, most of the supply in the Navy, her mother was involved, Duterte had said. The President earlier issued a proclamation voiding Trillanes amnesty void and ordered the senators arrest but Makati City Regional Trial Court Judge Andres Soriano of Branch 148 has sustained its decision not to issue an arrest warrant against the senator. The government sought a motion for reconsideration, as it argued that the coup detat case should be revived and an arrest warrant issued against Trillanes, but this was also struck down by the court. However, Malacanang remains confident that it can still win the case and have Trillanes jailed over his long-dismissed coup detat charges. Panelo, who is also Dutertes chief legal counsel, said the government will appeal Sorianos decision before the Court of Appeals (CA) with the Office of the Solicitor General in charge of the appeal. Were very confident (that) we are going to win this case. Courts will always rule on the basis of evidence. We feel that our evidence is very strong, Panelo said. US report says China not moving fast enough to stem flow of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids Bilateral efforts to stem the flow of synthetic opioids like fentanyl from China to the United States are being stymied by Chinas inadequate regulations on pharmaceutical and chemical production, according to a report released Monday by a US congressional commission. Beijings classification of controlled substances is slow and ineffective, warned the report by the US-China Security and Economic Review Commission. According to the report, Beijing's step-by-step approach to legally classifying chemicals has hampered its ability to crack down on the production of fentanyl, a substance 50 times more powerful than heroin. Because the drug can exist in many variations or analogues producers can easily skirt regulations by adjusting its chemical make-up. Because the Chinese government schedules chemicals one by one, illicit manufacturers create new substances faster than they can be controlled, the report said. US lawmakers propose going after Chinese suppliers of fentanyl In negotiations between the two countries drug control authorities, US representatives had urged the Chinese government to consider a blanket regulation that would categorise the entire fentanyl class of substances as a controlled substance, prohibiting their production, use and distribution, the report said. Such a move would follow steps taken by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which earlier this year issued a temporary order lasting two years to schedule all fentanyl derivatives as controlled substances. China has yet to consider the recommendation for a similar regulation, though DEA officials said that Beijing was receptive to the idea, according to the report. Despite maintaining that the US fentanyl crisis responsible for almost 29,500 deaths in 2017 was a matter of domestic market demand and not supply, Chinese authorities have taken part in efforts to curb the flow of fentanyl from China to the US. At a September hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Paul Knierim of the DEA said that enforcement officials from both sides had met regularly since 2014. Story continues For the past four years, representatives from Chinas National Narcotics Laboratory have met with DEA experts to exchange information on emerging substances, trafficking trends and drug sampling standards, Knierim, the deputy chief of operations at the agencys Office of Global Enforcement, said. Figures released in August by Chinas National Narcotics Control Commission indicated the addition of 32 new psychoactive substances (NPS) to its list of 170 controlled substances, which also includes 25 fentanyl substances. Substance control on its own would not be enough to stop the flow of fentany, said USCC commissioner Katherine Tobin, but it is a necessary first step. Getting control at the first step of the supply chain is critical, she told the South China Morning Post. Collaboration key to solving China-fuelled opioid epidemic, US officials say But questions remain as to the effectiveness of such classification to hamper the ability of opioid producers, many of whom operate on the black market anyway and ship the product to the US in unmarked, small packages through commercial shipping providers like FedEx and UPS. Failings of Chinas chemical and pharmaceutical regulatory framework were due in part to misaligned incentive structures for local governments, which are encouraged to prioritise economic growth and development objectives above all else, the report concluded. The problem was compounded by the complex bureaucracy that governed the regulation of chemicals, said the report, citing the fragmented nature of Chinas administrative system that oversees the production and export of chemical and pharmaceutical products. Because the Chinese government schedules chemicals one by one, illicit manufacturers create new substances faster than they can be controlled US-China Security and Economic Review Commission report Mondays report listed a number of fentanyl-class substances China added to its list of controlled substances since February 2017 including carfentanil, furanyl fentanyl and valeryl fentanyl, and precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl substances, such as 4ANPP. But a cursory search online returned several China-based pharmaceutical firms that market their products for chemical research purposes and found that all these substances were still publicly advertised and available to buy. A company representative for one such firm Angel Pharmaceutical previously told the South China Morning Post that government checks were strict, but that the company operated its own laboratory and was selling packages of fentanyl substances to US buyers at a cost of US$5,500 per kilogram. The US Congress has made several efforts to enact legislation to counter the influx of synthetic opioids from overseas. In October, US President Donald Trump signed into law the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, directing the US Postal Service, which handles some international shipments once they enter the country, to require advance electronic data on packages. Trump blames China for outrageous fentanyl overdose epidemic Also in October, Representative Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committees subcommittee on global health, introduced the Combating Illicit Fentanyl Act of 2018, now awaiting a House vote. If passed, the legislation would require the Treasury and State departments to investigate and sanction any Chinese national involved in the production or export of fentanyl. Mondays report comes at a time of heightened tension between the US and Chinese governments, as their dispute over trade has spread to multiple fronts, including sabre rattling in the South China Sea, sanctions over Chinas procurement of arms from Russia, and increased scrutiny of Chinas human rights record. Trump, who is expected to discuss trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week on the tails of the G20 summit in Argentina, previously categorised of the flow of fentanyl from China to the US as outrageous. Despite that, China was not included among a list his office provided to the State Department identifying the worlds 10 major drug-producing countries. This article US report says China not moving fast enough to stem flow of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Zimbabwe's opposition leader distanced his party Monday from post-election protests on August 1 in which six people were killed and several others wounded after soldiers opened fire. Testifying during an inquiry probing the killing of the six people, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa said his party was not a perpetrator but rather a victim of state-sponsored violence. "History is replete with examples of how we were victims of violence," Chamisa told the commission of inquiry chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe, a former president of South Africa, denying claims that the six victims died after being attacked by MDC supporters. "Violence has never been part of our DNA. My hands are clean. My conscience is very clear...my heart is pure. My mouth has never conspired to have a life lost on the basis of political violence. The paradox in all this is the allegations are being made by those whose hands are unclean." The deaths occurred after protesters took to the streets accusing the country's electoral commission of delaying the announcement of results for the July 30 general election. President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed Motlanthe to lead a seven-member team to investigate the killings. Chamisa denied that his party had sanctioned demonstrations on August 1 and rebuked the detaining of several opposition supporters and officials in connection with the protests. "The people who were arrested were not demonstrators. They were members of staff who were doing parallel voter result tabulation." Chamisa called for Mnangagwa to appear before the commission of inquiry as he was said to have deployed soldiers onto the streets on the fateful day. Mnangagwa succeeded long-time ruler Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in November 2017 following a brief military takeover. Several witnesses, including relatives of the deceased, army and police commanders have given their testimonies. Some of the relatives want the government to compensate the victims' families. MDC vice national chairman Tendai Biti had earlier testified, producing a list of thousands of victims of state-sanctioned violence. The commission has three months to complete its investigations and report back to the president. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Tuesday insisted that there was a link between the shabu intercepted in Metro Manila and Maguindanao the and billions of pesos worth of shabu inside magnetic lifters seized at the Manila International Container Port on Aug. 7, saying they came from the same source. At Camp Crame in Quezon City, Derrick Carreon, PDEA public information officer, echoed PDEA director general Aaron Aquinos claim that the same profile of drug samples means same source, same manufacturer and same method used in the production of the illegal drug. The PDEA said that the illegal drugs intercepted from Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City; at Ronquillo Street in Sta. Cruz, Manila; in Maguindanao in Mindanao and at the MICP have a correlation value of .99. You could see there a semblance, Carreon said. According to Carreon, the PDEA employed impurity drug profiling which he explained as a scientific tool that applies chemical and physical techniques to determine if a relation exists between illicit drug seizures and the significance of such relationship. A similarity match or strong correlation of samples where the correlation value is greater or equal to 0.98 (range is 0.98-1.0) obtained from a statistical tool and cluster analysis, meaning they (drugs) came from the same manufacturer and same method of production. We are preparing cases, Carreon told the Manila Standard.He said there are other suspects in the shipment of shabu who still remain at large. We are conducting pursuit operations against them, he added. He said PDEAs regional offices at the National Capital Region, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Calabarzon) have been tasked to file appropriate charges and go after those who have managed to elude arrest. PDEA earlier said the shabu came from Taiwan, with Malaysia as the transshipment point. The anti-drug agency chief said the Chinese syndicates operating in the Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos and Myanmar) are believed to be behind the illegal drug shipment. Listen to this episode of Studio 360 by clicking the arrow on the audio player below: Get More Studio 360 Slate Plus members get extended, ad-free versions of our podcastsand much more. Sign up today. Join Slate Plus Subscribe to Studio 360 Copy this link and add it in your podcast app. copy link copied! For detailed instructions, see our Slate Plus podcasts page. One day at school in the early 1990s, Shane McCrae watched a TV movie about teen suicide. The first half was all exactly what you would have expected: cheesy platitudes, heroic teachers, and feathery haircuts. Then, a character quoted the poetry of Sylvia Plath. I dont want to be hyperbolic, but it did feel like a kind of an electric shock, McCrae remembers. I had never heard anything like it. I never had a feeling like that. Advertisement That day, he wrote eight poems at school. Then he took the bus home and wrote some more. From there, McCrae dived deeper into Plaths life, checking out a book of her poems from the library and never returning it. Today, McCrae is a professional poet. And even though Plath is no longer his central poet, she remains his emotional and creative bedrock. We talked to McCrae to learn how a long-dead, white, East Coast writer known for her depressing verse gave purpose and uplift to a young black teenager living in suburban Oregon. This podcast was produced by Justin Glanville for Studio 360. Studio 360 plugs: Please remember to like us on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. Send your emails to incoming@studio360.org. Yorgos Lanthimos The Favourite plays fast and loose with the facts of history to hilarious effectthe destined-for-infamy dance scene, for one, is decidedly not period-appropriate. But other aspects of the story have a stronger grounding in reality than audiences might expect, including the central love triangle between Queen Anne and her favorites, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham. Below, we break down how the films depiction of various affairs (and affairs of state) compares with what we know of the 18th-century queens real-life reign. Advertisement Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) We first meet Anne in the midst of an argument with Sarah (Rachel Weisz) about her 17 rabbits. The pets are fictional, but the children they memorialize are real: Anne suffered 12 miscarriages, and the five who werent stillborn did not survive childhood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her own frailty in the film is likewise true to life. According to Edward Greggs biography Queen Anne, she struggled with a likely autoimmune disease (diagnosed as gout at the time), which over time became more and more confining. As we see in The Favourite, she progressed from relying on two walking sticks to being effectively wheelchair-bound. Politically, however, she may have been a stronger figure than Lanthimos gives her credit for. Propagandists painted her as fickle and indecisive, but it seems likely that she was simply determined not to be dominated by one party or the other. Most historians now believe that she acted decisively and relied on her own judgment in making policy. Advertisement Though it may not have impacted her governance as her critics suggested, Anne does appear to have been interested in women. Romantic friendships were not uncommon at the time, but her relationships were believed by many to overstep the accepted boundaries of that impassioned, asexual love. Considered overly deferential to her female favorites even as she ignored the counsel of male advisers, she was the victim of bedchamber narratives, tabloid-style speculation about her personal life that aimed to undermine her authority. Both Sarah and Abigail featured heavily in these accounts. One 1708 poem said of the latter that [Annes] secretary she was not,/ Because she could not write,/ But had the conduct and the care/ Of some dark deeds at night. (Sarah, out of the crosshairs herself after her dismissal from court, was known to have enjoyed this one and even performed the ballad for her friends amusement.) Advertisement Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) Advertisement Early in the film, Anne reveals her plan to build Blenheim Palace for Sarah; not long after that, she recounts their first meeting when they were both girls. Its true that the friendship began in childhood and that Annes affection quickly translated to political power. Sarah rose to the rank of keeper of the privy purse (the treasurer for the monarchs private finances, traditionally a position occupied by men) following Annes coronation, and the queen was notorious for showering her with giftsincluding, yes, an entire palace (though the estate was officially presented to her husband in recognition of his victory in 1704 over French and Bavarian troops). Advertisement Advertisement Unlike in Lanthimos version of events, however, Sarahs fall from grace and ultimate dismissal from the court didnt involve being poisoned by her rival. Instead, it was her own persistent meddling and insistence that Abigail be cast out that finally alienated Anne. Her threat to blackmail the queen with their passionate letters to one another was, on the other hand, real. Though your Majesty takes care to make them less pleasing to me, she wrote once the relationship had begun to sour, I cannot yet find it in my heart to part with them I have drawers full of the same in every place where I have lived. As historian Rachel Judith Weil noted, Despite Sarahs best efforts to describe her dismissal in political terms, it was treated by others as a purely personal and emotional event. And while Abigail did replace her as keeper of the privy purse, she didnt inherit everything of Sarahs quite so cleanly: The Duchess of Somerset (another of Annes favorites) took on several of her titles and responsibilities as well as the attendant perksincluding the golden key to the royal bedchamber. Advertisement Advertisement Abigail Masham nee Hill (Emma Stone) During her first audience with Sarah in The Favourite, Abigail identifies herself as her cousin, explaining that the Hills have fallen on hard times since her father gambled away their fortune. Both claims are true, though some of the more extreme detailsnamely that he burned down the family home and lost her in a game of whistappear to be the inventions of screenwriters Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. Advertisement In the film, Abigail begs for a position and only earns Sarahs attention and respect gradually. Historically, however, it was Sarah herself who introduced and advocated for her at court (if only to avoid embarrassment by association). In fact, she had first taken Abigail in as a servant in her own home. Advertisement Advertisement After that fateful appointment, Abigails precise path to power is somewhat hazy. George Macaulay Trevelyans England Under the Stuarts credits Harley (Nicholas Hoult) with her rise, arguing that he used his position as minister to insinuate a rival favourite to the Duchess of Marlborough supplant[ing] Mrs Freeman in the love of Mrs Morley (Anne and Sarahs pet names for each other, which also feature in the film). In return, Abigail used her influence for the High Church and Harley, against the Whigs and Marlborough. Advertisement Advertisement The nature of that love is unclear, but rumors were widespread. It was exacerbated by Sarah herself, who claimed in one letter that Anne was exposed to be the talk of all courts and countries, for so wrong a thing, as having such a fondness for a bedchamber woman, and being so much governed by her. As Weil puts it in Political Passions: Gender, the Family and Political Argument in England, both Sarahs private correspondence and public propaganda all came within the vicinity of accusing [Abigail] of lesbianism without actually getting there. In either case, her marriage to Samuel Masham (Joe Alwyn) and the relative secrecy of the ceremony are also true to life. Harley (Nicholas Hoult) and the War of the Spanish Succession Advertisement In the film, the course of the war becomes a bellwether for Annes favor, with Sarah championing it while Harley insists that they end Englands involvement. Continuing the conflict would mean doubling the current land tax, which he warns will anger property owners. As Sarahs influence wanes and Abigail forges an alliance with Harley, Annes commitment to both the war and the tax wavers accordingly. Advertisement Advertisement Hoults character is based on Robert Harley, the Earl of Oxford and a Tory politician. In The Favourite and in life, he advocated for peace and was finally able to broker it himself when he became Lord High Treasurer (not, as Anne says in the film, prime minister, though the position was essentially equivalent). The role of Sarahs husband, the Duke of Marlborough, is also accurate: He was then the head of the English forces, and it was under his leadership that they won the decisive Battle of Oudenarde. Still, it was the role of the women in Annes life that has fascinated ever since. As Margaret Oliphant wrote of Anne and Sarah in 1894, Few things can be more interesting than the position of these two female figures in the foreground of English life. Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos on Tuesday urged authorities and schools to ensure the safety of learning institutions following a supposed rape incident at the Ateneo De Manila University-Loyola campus over the weekend. Marcos also called on probers to leave no stone unturned in getting into the bottom of the alleged rape incident. Predators should not be allowed in campuses. If true, this incident in one of the countrys most respected educational institutions is a serious cause for concern and should be a wake-up call for security personnel in all campuses throughout the country, Marcos stressed. The governor also said that as the students second home, schools are duty bound to keep a safe environment for them that is conducive to learning.We must make sure that the schools where our children spend their days are safe and free from criminal elements, she added. In a statement, the Sexual Misconduct Task Force of the Loyola Schools denounced the incident, which reportedly happened in one of the schools restroom. Looking for womens stories of 19th-century miscarriage, historian Shannon Withycombe expected to find grief. Instead, she encountered startling admissions of joy at the knowledge of pregnancy loss, with women writing sentences like: I am happy again; O Bliss, O Rapture unforeseen! To a 21st-century reader only recently accustomed to reading writing by women who have broken a general cultural silence on the topic in order to discuss their experiences with miscarriageexperiences characterized by sadness and mourningreading evidence of this kind of happiness feels strange and a little uncomfortable. That foreign feeling persisted as I made my way through Withycombes intriguing book, Lost: Miscarriage in Nineteenth-Century America. Advertisement There were many reasons why 19th-century women might have welcomed a miscarriage. The women whose thoughts Withycombe can partially access, by dint of diary and letter, lived with limited access to contraception and experienced adult life as a series of unending pregnancies. (Withycombe describes the condition of 19th-century womanhood as twenty or thirty years of constant pregnancy, birthing, and nursing.) Women especially expressed thankfulness at the ends of pregnancies when their families were in perilous financial circumstances, or when they were living in frontier conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the women in the book, Alice Grierson, physically separated from her husband in 1871 when their seventh child died at 3 months old. In a letter to him, she left a description of her relationship to reproduction that makes it clear how exhausting many women found the endless births: Advertisement Charlies existence I accepted as a matter of course, without either joy or sorrow. Kirkies with regret, for so soon succeeding him. Robert came nearer being welcomed with joy, than any other. Edie was gladly welcomed so soon as I knew her sex Henry succeeded her too soon to give me as much rest as I would have liked and told you before he was a year old, that I would rather die, than have another child, yet no sooner was he weaned, than Georgie came into life I firmly believe it injured me, as soon as I weaned him, and was again immediately pregnant, my nerves became so irritable to such a degree, that life has ever since, been nearer a burden to me. Advertisement Grierson told her husband she left his house because she feared getting pregnant again so greatly: Both of us will know one thing, which will inevitably occur, if the good Lord permits us to meet again, and are both well aware of the possible consequences that follow. Withycombe writes: I was well aware of the numbers and had heard the statistics about family size in 19th-century America, but Griersons letter makes the lived reality clear. If even Grierson, a good 19th-century mother, preferred complete separation from her husband to another pregnancy, it stands to reason that miscarriage would carry a different set of meanings for a woman in this situation. Advertisement Then theres the fact that many 19th-century miscarriages, in the age before medical imaging and consistent prenatal care, happened with much less fanfare. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, doctors were deeply confused as to what counted as a miscarriage, and most women didnt consult those doctors in matters of pregnancy anyway. Withycombe quotes a series of books published in 1749 by German physician Johann Storch, who had a not-so-great handle on what came out of a womans body in the course of miscarriage: Bubbly lots; untoward matter; fleshy morsels; useless beings. This indeterminacywas what happened a miscarriage, or just a very delayed menstruation?may have resulted in women holding their early-stage pregnancies at emotional arms length. Advertisement Advertisement Nor did they know much about the causes of the event, and this lack of knowledge allowed them a certain latitude to not worry. As late as the 1870s, Withycombe writes, a doctor published a prodigious list of potential miscarriage causes: Among his almost seventy distinct causes he included: hemorrhoids, cancer, fissure of the rectum, drastic cathartics, fecal worms, bladder stones, lactation, the pain and shock of tooth extraction, syphilis, excessive sexual intercourse, ovarian disease, gastric irritation, chronic vomiting, coughing, sneezing, scrofula, debility, lead poisoning, anemia, small- pox, fever, morbid state of the placenta, falls, blows, overexertion, jumping, riding, lifting heavy loads, excessive joy, grief, rage, sorrows of captivity, and apprehension of death. Advertisement None of these miscarriage causation hypotheses seemed to have gotten through to the women whose diaries and letters Withycombe read: Only one mentioned the idea that something she did could risk the termination of a pregnancy. Withycombe theorizes that the very length and diversity of the list of possible causes might have rendered this particular bit of medical advice moot. In other words, realizing there was nothing they could do to avoid all these risk factors, women shrugged, threw up their hands, and carried on with their lives. Advertisement many 19 th -century miscarriages, in the age before medical imaging and consistent prenatal care, happened with much less fanfare. Withycombe finds that, following the cultural tradition of their day, the women whose diaries she examined didnt necessarily think of their miscarried fetuses as people. For many women, Withycome writes, pregnancy did not make a childbirthing did. This wasnt universally trueWithycombe does find some examples of women who perceived their babies vividly; Lucy Garrison wrote a letter in 1866, calling her fetus Katherine and writing the child has hardly left me room for a word, what a talker at so early an age!but the modern idea that a woman would intimately know a fetus and consider it a person, from conception on, was not at all commonplace. In a terrifying and intriguing chapter, Withycombe describes how doctors attending miscarrying women in the second part of the 19th century, as embryology advanced and scientific attention turned to the fetus, got hold of miscarried fetuses to study. Sometimes doctors did this via trickery (those stories are extremely upsetting), but sometimes they came away with a fetal specimen with full consent from the woman and the family, for whom it simply had no emotional weight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A final reason why miscarriage didnt always inspire sadness lies in cultural expectations. Even in the late 1800s, as mainstream culture increasingly considered motherhood to be the ultimate expression of womanhood, women didnt necessarily see miscarriage as failure. This was what Withycombe describes as a space of freedom in a generally oppressive patriarchal vision of womens lives. As doctors, politicians, and popular writers informed women that their sole duty in life was to have children, and their lives should be shaped around that undertaking, the experience of miscarriage stood apart: when that enterprise failed in the form of miscarriage, no one blamed the woman, least of all herself. Today, when we tend to have much more control over our own fertility (political climate and personal circumstances depending), the dominant narrative is that miscarriage is a loss. The struggle lies in claiming the experience publicly and owning a womans right to grief. Looking at this history reminds us that emphasizing this side of the miscarriage experience has its own traps. In a post about her research on the blog Nursing Clio, Withycombe writes: It is dangerous to think that miscarriage is now somehow imbued with certain natural and inalienable meanings as a death, a tragedy, and something gone wrong. Coercive laws requiring the burial of miscarried and aborted fetuses are the dark side of this perception. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sometimes, looking at a diversity of womens historical experiences can help us see how much we reduce and conflate womens lives today. Reading the journal of Gertrude Thomas, in which the Georgian described her feelings relating to each of her 10 pregnancies, Withycombe points out: Her writings reveal how each of a womans pregnancies could be differently construeda completely obvious statement that is revelatory when you think about how much pregnancy gets reduced into a universal experience in 2018. Why shouldnt we believe that a mother like Gertrude Thomas or Alice Grierson could want one pregnancy, but not the next? Historically, and today, the particular circumstances of womens lives matter. Newly released emails show that Fox & Friends prepared former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt with questions before on-air interviews and once even sought the agencys approval of part of the shows script, the Daily Beast reported Tuesday. The emails, acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Sierra Club (an avowed enemy of Pruitt), showed that Pruitts team was given the opportunity to agree to topics before the interviews. In one instance detailed by the Daily Beast, a producer for the show sent a list of three topics the show wanted to cover. In the show the next day, the hosts asked Pruitt six questions related to the agreed-upon topics, one question related to a topic the EPA had pitched the day before to another Fox show, and one question that did actually make a small amount of news. The host did not press Pruitt on that question. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a more flagrant ethical violation, the show once asked approval for the language in a script. In May 2017, Pruitts staff reached out to the show to discuss Pruitts interest in helping communities that were poorly served by the last administration. A producer brought into the email conversation asked the EPA press secretary at the time for talking points and then asked, Would this be okay as the setup to his segment? She pasted the text from a script in the email: Theres a new direction at the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trumpand it includes a back-to-basics approach. This after the Obama administration left behind a huge mess more than 1,300 super-fund sites which are heavily contaminatedstill require clean-ups. So why was President Obama touted as an environmental savior if all these problems still exist? Advertisement The press secretary replied: Yes perfect. The next day, the hosts were faithful to the script. While it is common for producers to discuss topics in advance and occasionally share pre-interview questions for the sake of facilitating a better on-air discussion, it is not normal to feed questions to the public official for that officials approval. Seeking an officials approval for a script would not be considered ethical for journalists under any circumstances, and some reporters would argue that giving so much control to a government agency would categorize Fox & Friends work as communications on behalf of the administration, rather than independent journalism. Advertisement A Fox News spokesperson told the Daily Beast, This is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved. Advertisement Fox & Friends has been criticized often for the shows blind loyalty to the president and his administration, and some critics have accused it of being a source of propaganda. The relationship between the administration and Fox News in general has been a warm one: former White House communications director Hope Hicks took a job running corporate communications at Fox; Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is a personal friend of Trumps; Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has phoned into multiple meetings in the Oval Office to advise the president on policy matters; and Fox News personality Sean Hannity, another personal friend of Trumps, once appeared as a speaker at a Trump campaign rally in Missouri. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met secretly on multiple occasions with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London over several years, including one meeting in 2016 just months before Wikileaks published Clinton associate emails hacked by Russian operatives, the Guardian reported Tuesday. The report does not detail what the nature of their meetings was, but it appears clear that the meetings would be of interest to Robert Muellers special counsel investigation, which on Monday accused Manafort of lying to the investigators on a variety of subject matters in violation of his plea deal. In one Ecuadorian intelligence document listing Manafort as a guest of the embassy, Russians were also mentioned, according to the Guardian. Advertisement The 2016 meeting between Manafort and Assange occurred in March, around the time he joined the Trump campaign, the Guardian reported. His first meeting took place in 2013, a year after Assange took refuge in the embassy to avoid sex crime charges in Sweden. The second occurred in 2015. While its not known why he sought out Assange in these meetings, Manaforts first acquaintance with Assange occurred when Manafort was working as a consultant and influential lobbyist in Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The third visitthe one that is likely of interest to Mueller, who has been investigating connections between Wikileaks and Trump associates such as Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr.lasted about 40 minutes, one source told the Guardian. He showed up alone. Advertisement Earlier this year, Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for perpetrating the hack in 2016. Last week, a court filing accidentally revealed that the Justice Department intends to indict or had already charged Assange, though it did not say what Assange would be charged with. In response to the Guardian report, Wikileaks asserted that the story was a fabrication. Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper's reputation. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange. https://t.co/R2Qn6rLQjn WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Manafort, who pleaded guilty in September to federal conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with Muellers investigation as part of a plea deal, has denied any involvement with the Wikileaks hack and any 2016 meeting with Assange, according to the Guardian. He is currently in jail in Alexandria, Virginia, and still faces sentencing. Update, Nov. 27, 2018 at 3:45 p.m.: Manafort released a statement Tuesday categorically denying the allegations in the Guardian story. This story is totally false and deliberately libelous, he said. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to Wikileaks, either directly or indirectly. He added: I have never reached out to Assange or Wikileaks on any matter. We are considering all legal options against the Guardian who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false. In a letter addressed to her Democratic colleagues and members-elect over Thanksgiving weekend, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi gushed over the important reforms the Democratic majority would make in its rules package for the 116th Congress. Among these captivating new changes, she wrote, the package would establish a select committee to improve the operation of Congress, ensuring that we deliver in a manner that is transparent, bipartisan and unifying. Establishing a committee to further investigate a topic of concern, however, is a congressional leaders way of telling a particular bloc of members that have been seeking specific concrete action, No, you will not be getting that. Advertisement In this case, the group Pelosi was saying no to was the Democratic membership of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan, moderate caucus affiliated with the centrist political advocacy group No Labels. A group of nine of the caucus Democratic members, as well as some members-elect, has been threatening to withhold its votes for Pelosi for speaker on the House floor in January unless she agrees to a series of a rules change that, in their words, would allow for more transparency and bipartisan governing.* Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What they really want is a loosening of congressional leaderships total control over what legislation reaches the floor. Leadership, naturally, is resisting this. This consolidation of power away from members and in the hands of leadership has reached soaring new vistas in recent years of Republican control. Under Speaker Paul Ryan, few bills were open to amendments, and legislation that had the numbers to pass the Housebipartisan compromises protecting Dreamers from deportation, for examplewould be blocked from consideration if they had more Democratic than Republican supporters. The Problem Solvers essentially want to rewrite the rules so that legislation enjoying bipartisan support cant be ignored. Some of their most aggressive proposals are being met with resistance from leadership, who dont want their power weakened, and progressives, who dont want centrists running the show. Advertisement Many of us have been incredibly frustrated [that] we couldnt get things to the floor, just for a debate or a vote, New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, the Democratic co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, told me on Monday. Gottheimer says the group wants the House to be able to pass measures on health care, immigration, and infrastructure that would have the bipartisan backing to get through the Senate and the White House. Advertisement The Problem Solvers released their series of proposed rules reforms, titled Break the Gridlock, over the summer and are now seeking to use their leverage over Pelosis speakership to institute them. Several of the groups dozen proposals already have been incorporated into the draft rules package that incoming Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern is negotiating in coordination with Pelosi, though nothing is final yet. Advertisement Least surprisingly, Pelosi and McGovern have agreed to make it more difficult for a small group of members to overthrow the speaker using a motion to vacate the chair. And per a senior Democratic aide, Pelosi and McGovern have also agreed to establish a rule that will allow a floor vote on any bill that has two-thirds of the House as co-sponsors, and to require a three-day notice for any committee markup. They have also offered additional changes not specifically requested in Break the Gridlock. Advertisement These are mostly transparency issues, though, that have been given the go-ahead, and if something dangerous is close to getting 290 co-sponsors, Pelosi could just whip against it. Its the proposals that would noticeably weaken leaderships control that have earned the lets have a committee figure it out treatment. Advertisement Advertisement The Problem Solvers essentially want to rewrite the rules so that legislation enjoying bipartisan support cant be ignored. The one that seems to be a total non-starter for Pelosi is a proposal that any legislation considered under a closed rulei.e., legislation that cant be amended on the floorrequire a 60-percent majority for passage. The idea here is to force more bipartisan legislation, but more likely it would just drag out debates on most pieces of legislation and bring the body to a crawl. That item didnt make the latest counteroffer that the nine Democratic members of the Problem Solvers Caucus sent out Monday morning. Instead, the group asked Pelosi to publicly support three specific changes in order to win their support. The first one is the two-thirds sponsorship measure that a senior Democratic aide says Pelosi has already agreed to. (Maybe there was some miscommunication there.) The other two are currently thornier. Advertisement One of them, which would allow every member to introduce one bill for debate and vote in committees of which they are members, is meeting predictable resistance from committee chairs who dont like being told what to do. The other would require that any amendment with 20 Republican and 20 Democratic co-sponsors get a vote when the underlying legislation is considered on the floor. This would weaken leaderships authority, yes. But sources opposing the measure also argue that it would give corporate lobbies an easy road map toward securing the changes they want, even from a Democratic House: Just have the 20 most corporate-friendly Democrats join up with Republicans to, say, further weaken the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law, and theyre set. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This touches on one of the lefts broader criticisms of the Problem Solvers Caucus: that theyre little more than a front for corporate America. Many of the Democratic members pushing for these changes were supported in their campaigns by the No Labels PAC, which drew large-dollar contributions from a small group of wealthy donors often from the financial sector. The No Labels PAC supported Gottheimer, himself, in the closing weeks of the campaign, and the securities and investment industry donated nearly $1 million to his campaign. I dont really know what they mean by that, Gottheimer, who had also heard this criticism of the 20-20 idea, said. Whats being implied there is that, what, members of Congress are in the pockets of folks? He was incredulous at the very idea. Advertisement Theres lots of people who are out there who get support of business, he continued. I personally dont think that because business supports an idea that thats bad. The notion that the Problem Solvers financial supporters might be affecting their effort, he said, has a lot of ludicrous implications about peoples integrity. Another major criticism of the Problem Solvers proposed changes, coming from both liberal commentators and fellow Democratic representatives, is that they amount to a sort of unilateral disarmament. Republican leadership ran a partisan House of Representatives for eight years, and now, the minute Democrats get control, some of them want to dilute the strength of Democratic leadership and link legislative arms with Republican moderates instead? Gottheimer, who represents an R+3 district and will be a major Republican target once again in 2020, argues that those who would oppose such a power-sharing approach are merely obstructionists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im not in the obstruct-no-matter-what camp, Gottheimer said. Im part of the get-stuff-done [camp]. I get that there might be two different feelings on this. A number of congressional staffers Ive asked about the Problem Solvers expect them to support Pelosi in the end, with an exception or two. Theyve already extracted enough concrete changes to declare victory, if they choose, even if theyre not the changes that would meaningfully trim leaderships power. But at least they would have that select committee to figure out the rest. Slates expanded voting rights coverage is made possible by the support of Slate Plus members and readers like you. Defeated Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and her allies are taking on Georgias shoddy election system in the right way: through a big and bold lawsuit. At the very least, the lawsuit will shine the light of day on how Georgia makes it much harder than many other states to register and successfully cast a ballot. If the lawsuit achieves its more ambitious aims, a court could put Georgias voting system back under federal supervision for up to 10 years. Advertisement Rather than how a typical voting lawsuit works with a singular focus on a problematic aspect of Georgias electoral processlike overexuberant voter purges or its shoddy voting machinerythe lawsuit makes an argument that the cumulative effect of Georgias system is to deny voters, especially voters of color, the opportunity to easily cast a ballot which will be fairly and accurately counted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit attacks the strict voter purges, which the complaint says were timed with former Secretary of State and now Gov.-elect Brian Kemps own elections; its strict exact match policy which has kept thousands of voters off the registration rolls for discrepancies on voting forms and driving records as minor as a missing hyphen; its outdated voter registration database and voting machinery, which are insecure, vulnerable to hacking, and lacking in backup paper records; its closing and moving of polling places; its inaccurate voter registration rolls; its inadequate oversight over the casting of provisional ballots; and its problems with the dissemination, processing, and counting of absentee ballotsincluding the states failure to notify voters of problems with their ballots which could have been cured in time for the vote to be counted. Advertisement The suit alleges these problems together violate the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. While not all of these claims require proof of intentional racial discrimination in voting, if the plaintiffs do succeed in proving intentional discrimination, a court will have discretion to put Georgia back under the federal preclearance for changes in voting rules that was in place before the U.S. Supreme Court killed the pre-clearance system in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision. Advertisement It is hard to say at this point how successful this suit will be. Some of the constitutional claims require proof of intentional racial discrimination in voting, which can be tough to produce even when voting rules appear to target voters of color. Suits under Section 2 of the Act for vote denial claims have had mixed success in court, and there is good reason to expect the Supreme Court to continue to put the brakes on more aggressive uses of the Voting Rights Act. Advertisement Advertisement But we do know that some other lawsuits attacking pieces of Georgias system have been successful, such as an attack on some of the absentee voting rules and the exact match system. A federal court has also strongly suggested that it will find Georgias voter registration system so flawed in terms of its security as to be unconstitutional. More importantly, it is smart to make an argument that the system cumulatively disenfranchises voters. Rather than focusing on one of the hurdles facing voters, this suit lays out all of the hurdles together. Voting should not be an obstacle course, but the lawsuit claims thats exactly what Georgia has created through a combination of misfeasance and malfeasance. Advertisement The lawsuit also has the benefit of coming before the 2020 election season gets underway. When lawsuits are brought during elections, it puts special pressure on the courts because court orders can alter election outcomes. A Supreme Court ruling also prevents courts from making some changes in voting rules in the period before the election because of a supposed danger of voter confusion. A lawsuit now allows the courts to examine the claims without them having any direct immediate effect on election outcomes. And even if the claims are unsuccessful, the continued focus on Georgias problems can help put the pressure on election officials to fix the worst of what is wrong in the state. Advertisement I wrote in an earlier Slate piece that it is dangerous rhetoric to claim the Georgia election was stolen, because such language undermines confidence in the fairness of the election process and because it takes the focus away from the dignity of each voter. This lawsuit strikes the right balance, by bringing the focus back to each voter. It shouldnt be that some people in Georgia, especially people of color, have a much harder time voting and having their votes counted in a fair and accurate system than others. Voters in Georgia deserve a modern and fair voting system before 2020. This lawsuit directly or indirectly may help them get it. This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy. In the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, President Donald Trump railed against the threat posed by an invasion of migrants making their way toward the southern U.S. border. Offering no evidence, the president claimed that criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in to the migrant caravans. In October, the president deployed more than 5,000 regular Army troops to the southern border, supplementing state-deployed National Guard soldiers already there. Now that the midterm elections are over, some expected that the manufactured fear of a crisis at the border would dissipate, if not vanish. No such luck. In an extraordinary cabinet order signed on Nov. 20 by White House chief of staff John Kelly, President Trump authorized active-duty soldiers to perform functions in defense of border agentsincluding use of lethal forcethat challenge the longstanding statutory presumptions against military involvement in domestic law enforcement enshrined in the Posse Comitatus Act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Americans have embraced missions for the military at home with caution. We understand the value of a highly disciplined, well-equipped, experienced fighting force to defend against foreign invaders or to support civilian authorities overwhelmed by domestic violence or natural disasters. Sometimes U.S. troops operating on home soil have done what no other government entity couldsaving thousands of lives and avoiding huge property losses, as when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. At other times, soldiers have threatened the very interests they are sworn to protectcivil liberties, representative government, and the rule of law. During World War II, for example, troops were used to round up and intern 120,000 Japanese Americans. During the Vietnam War era, the Army illegally compiled personal dossiers on 100,000 Americans opposed to the war, in what the Church Committee called the militarys worst intrusion into American life. Military excesses in civilian life have usually not been the product of decisions by rogue officers or renegade soldiers. The military has almost always been respectful of civilian authority. But our civilian leadership has on occasion employed the military for political purposes in ways that violate civil liberties. Advertisement Kellys memorandum authorizes troops to perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary to protect border agents, including a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention, and cursory search. It asserts that credible evidence and intelligence asserts migrant caravans moving toward the southern border may prompt incidents of violence and disorder that could threaten Customs and Border Protection and other government personnel and prevent them from performing the Federal functions necessary to secure and protect the integrity of the southern border. Advertisement The memorandum authorizes the secretary of defense to order deployed regular military to perform the activities quoted above, while in the next sentence it forbids soldiers from conducting traditional civilian law enforcement activities, such as arrest, search, and seizure in connection with the enforcement of the laws. Defense Secretary James Mattis is directed to consult with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on this mission, and again with Nielsen and the attorney general prior to withdrawing military personnel. Mattis defended the order on Nov. 21, stating that we dont have guns in their hands right now. I will determine it based upon what DHS asks for and a mission analysis. In response to a follow-up question about the use of force, Mattis said theyre not even carrying guns, so just relax. Dont worry about it, OK? Advertisement Advertisement What about the crowd control, temporary detention, and cursory search permitted by the order? Mattis responded to a question about troops involvement in law enforcement this way: We do not have arrest authority. Detention, I would put it in terms of minutes. [We would stop an assault on a CBP agent] and deliver them to a Border Patrol man, who would then arrest them. Advertisement Since 1878, the PCA and its contemporary service branch regulations prohibit the military (except the Coast Guard) from enforcing domestic laws unless authorized by Congress or the Constitution. The default prohibition does not apply to National Guard troops acting under a governors authority. Because immigration and border enforcement is a federal law enforcement mission, state-deployed National Guard troops likewise cannot participate in direct law enforcement activities at the border. Earlier this year, National Guard troops were deployed to the southern border under the command of border state governors. Those forces were specifically prohibited from conducting arrests and could not use surveillance equipment pointed toward Mexico. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush similarly deployed National Guard troops to the border to combat drug smuggling and related violence. The drug operations are specifically authorized by federal statute. Advertisement The Constitutions plan for domestic security is convoluted and requires too lengthy an explanation for this essay. In brief, the federal government has the authority to deploy federal military forces to an incident in a state only if the crisis is especially grave. Under a series of federal statutes originating in 1792 and now generally known as the Insurrection Act, the president may unilaterally deploy federal military forces in a state under limited circumstancesgeneral insurrection and invasionand where necessary to execute federal laws, subject to a number of predeployment conditions. The Insurrection Act overcomes the statutory presumption against military participation in law enforcement enshrined in the PCA. Advertisement Advertisement In theory, President Trump could have invoked the Insurrection Act, overcome the PCA presumption, and followed the statutory procedures to carry out the deployment. (The Insurrection Act was last invoked by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 to send federalized California National Guard troops, as well as active-duty soldiers from Fort Ord and Marines from Camp Pendleton, to Los Angeles to help control rioting in the wake of the Rodney King trial verdict.) Prior to issuing such an order, the president must find that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. He must then issue a proclamation ordering the insurgents or those obstructing the enforcement of the laws to disperse. On the basis of the reported facts, it is hard to see how the required finding could be made at this time. Advertisement The best legal argument for the cabinet order is to suspend disbelief and accept its claim that there is credible evidence and intelligence that migrants moving toward the southern border may prompt incidents of violence and disorder. If CBP personnel are in danger and cannot reasonably perform their border control and federal law enforcement tasks, then the president as commander in chief may act with a species of his defensive war powersrepelling an attack on the United States or its personnel. The scope and limits of this power are uncharted in circumstances like these. Advertisement Advertisement Absent some version of this constitutional authority, the cabinet order authorizes active-duty military to act in violation of the PCA. The limited judicial record interpreting the PCA suggests that the legal line has been crossed if the military engages in activities that are regulatory, proscriptive, or compulsory. Temporary detention and cursory search certainly meet the test. Of course, the PCA is a criminal law and requires federal prosecution to enforce its terms. There have been no reported prosecutions of the PCA. Advertisement Advertisement An alternative legal rationale for the cabinet order may be found in Department of Defense regulations providing immediate response authority for a local commander to respond quickly, upon the request of a civilian official, without relying on the Insurrection Act or waiting for approval from the chain of command in order to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate great property damage. The regulation stipulates, however, that the response may not include law enforcement actions that would violate the PCA. This authority was cited when the Army furnished medevac aircraft, ambulances, bomb detection dog teams, and various personnel to assist civilians following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Another regulation provides for emergency authority to act without either presidential approval or a request from civilian officials to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances that threaten significant loss of life or wanton destruction of property, in order to restore governmental function and public order or to protect Federal property or Federal governmental functions. Neither regulation would support the use of force or military participation in law enforcement at the southern border at this time. The regulations do not cite their authority. Most likely they rely on residual constitutional powers of the president mentioned above. If a circumstance arose like one imagined by Mattis, soldiers would act defensively and lawfully to protect CBP agents, but unless conditions change dramatically the conditions for immediate response or emergency authority do not exist. More important is what the Constitution, Posse Comitatus Act, and other federal laws representa longstanding legal norm disfavoring military involvement in domestic affairs except in dire circumstances. It is no exaggeration to say that avoidance of military involvement in civil society is part of our cultural heritage. Lets hope that Mattis cool head prevails in the days ahead. More From Just Security: Warning Signs: President Trump May Violate Federal Law in Absolving Saudi Crown Prince What Not to Believe About InterpolExploding Five Myths While speaking to reporters on Monday, President Trump defended the use of tear gas on Central American migrants seeking asylum at the border over the weekend, saying that border patrol agents had to use it in self-defense. The use of the gas has angered many critics who noted there were families with young children among the migrants. Images from Sunday show toddlers in diapers screaming and fleeing from the gas with tears streaming down their faces. When asked by reporters if he was comfortable with the use of tear gas on children, Trump responded: They had to use [force] because they were being rushed by some very tough people. And they used tear gas. Heres the bottom line: Nobodys coming into our country unless they come in legally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The migrants had arrived at the San Ysidro border crossing, and hundreds of them rushed toward the fence to try to cross the border. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said some of the migrants threw projectiles at border agents, according to the Washington Post. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan also told reporters Monday that some migrants were throwing rocks and otherwise behaving aggressively and the tear gas prevented a dangerous situation from getting worse. As the Post reported, tear gas as a weapon has been banned in warfare in most of the worldsome consider it a chemical weaponand while it is legal for use by law enforcement authorities, it is considered very dangerous to infants and may be harmful to other children. Advertisement That has not stopped conservatives from jumping to defend its indiscriminate use as necessary and humane. On Fox & Friends on Monday, Ron Colburn, the president of the Border Patrol Foundation and a former deputy chief for U.S. Border Patrol, said its use was an effective way of deterring people without long-term harm. He explained: To clarify, the type of deterrent they used is OC pepper sprayits literally water, pepper, with a small amount of alcohol for evaporation purposes. Its natural, you could actually put it on your nachos and eat it. Advertisement While its still unclear if pepper spray was also used with the tear gas, neither it nor tear gas are harmless if one is exposed. Pepper spray would certainly not be harmless if consumed, and the chemical distilled from chile peppers is several thousand times more concentrated than it would be in food. Children and the elderly are at risk of respiratory issues if sprayed. Advertisement Sen. Lindsey Graham turned his attention to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, expressing outrage over her tweet that said applying for asylum isnt a crime and compared the migrants to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and other historical refugees. In his own heavily criticized tweet, Graham chided her: I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC. Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana. Advertisement The response that disgusted Democrats the most came from Fox commentator Tomi Lahren, who tweeted: Bum-rushing the border is a CHOICE and has consequences. Watching the USA FINALLY defend our borders was the HIGHLIGHT of my Thanksgiving weekend. While Colburns argument was mocked for its absurdity, Grahams dismissed as a weak attempt to redirect outrage, and Lahrens tweet treated as the work of a pundit who peddles in outrage, Trumps comments rested on a specific cause for the ruthlessness. Not for the first time, Trump cited rock-throwing as a justification for force. In the past, border patrol agents have mentioned rock-throwing as the reason for using lethal force. Just last week, an agent who shot a Mexican teenager 10 times through the border fence in 2012 was acquitted of manslaughter, as his defense argued he was acting on his training and defending himself from the boy. In fact, earlier this year, Trump endorsed using deadly force on migrants who throw rocks. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back, he told reporters. I told them to consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like what they did to the Mexican military and police, I say consider it a rifle. But even if one agreed that rock throwing warranted an aggressive response from border agents, the fact remains: The toddlers who were tear-gassed at the border could not be called anything other than innocent victims. Earlier this month, world leaders gathered in Paris to mark the centennial of the armistice that ended World War I. Scores of articles and essays accompanied these events, discussing the war and the moment the guns fell silent. They included images of poppies and trenches and quoted lines from war poets. But for many Europeans, especially those in central and Eastern Europe, peace in any meaningful sense of the term did not come in November 1918. From the vantage of Paris, the bloody and pointless war, as Slates Rebecca Onion recently described it, did indeed appear to be over with the signing of the armistice. But if we turn to the east, everything about the war looks much different. There, the Great War morphed into smaller conflicts. Empires collapsed; civil wars, border wars, revolutions, and anti-Semitic pogroms broke out; paramilitaries and militias formed; wartime emergency legislation and blockades remained in effect; refugees were on the move, people starved, and POWs languished in captivity. In short, millions of central, eastern, and southeastern Europeans fought or died long after the November 1918 armistice, and the war failed to end, as historian Robert Gerwarth puts it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This long First World War was certainly bloody, and we can and should argue about the destructive effects of nationalism for the history of Europe. But it was hardly pointless. Given that these conflicts led to the creation of independent states in these shatterzones of empires and that great power politics continued its disruptive influence in a revamped postwar form, World War I in this region is central for understanding 20th-century European and global history and even provides some insights on developments in contemporary Europe. The experiences of these conflicts and their legacy profoundly shaped the rest of the 20 th century. Unlike the stationary front lines and trenches on the Western Front, the war in the east was one of movement. The Russian Empire advanced west, only to be pushed back in mid-1915 even farther than where they started as the German and Austro-Hungarian armies advanced eastward. These campaigns produced millions of casualties and approximately 6 million POWs, which easily dwarfed the number of soldiers held in captivity in the west. The violence and repression that characterized the occupation regimes established in Eastern and southeastern Europe between 1914 and 1918 were preludes to more radical occupations of the region later in the century. Advertisement The fighting on the Eastern Front also produced millions of refugees, many of whom fled to urban centers like Budapest and Vienna or deep into the Russian interior to avoid the expansive front lines. Already displaced from their homes, these refugees became the target of political attacks as military and material conditions deteriorated. Many of those uprooted were Jewish, and they became increasingly vulnerable to persecution because of the political and geographical transformations that would follow the armistice. Advertisement Paradoxically, the Central Powers of Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary, which ended up being on the losing side of the overall conflict, were the victors on the battlefield in the east. The punitive treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest ceded huge swaths of territory and natural resources to them as the Russian Empire plunged into revolution and civil war. But then the tide of the war in the west and, perhaps more importantly, the home front turned, and by the time the peace conference in Paris began in January 1919, the empires that had dominated the political geography of central and Eastern Europe were no more. Advertisement Advertisement In place of the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires emerged countries that were newly independent and shrunken (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria), brand-new or newly independent (Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia), reconstituted (the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia), enlarged (Romania) or resurrected (Poland). But the transition wasnt easy or peaceful. Newly established national militaries, militias, and paramilitaries engaged in battles over territory and borders into the early 1920s. The Second Polish Republic, for example, went to war more than six times, with every one of its neighbors, between 1918 and 1921. Hungarys territorial lossesover two-thirds of its prewar territorysparked renewed war in 1919 and continued to influence Hungarian politics and foreign relations through World War II and even beyond. Despite attempts by political leaders and their dutiful historians to define these smaller conflicts as their own distinctive, national wars, local populations seem to have generally believed that these struggles were fundamentally linked to the Great War. Advertisement Advertisement These regional conflicts over future state boundaries were arguably less violent than the internal struggles that raged for the hearts, minds, and souls of these countries. Liberal and social democratic revolutions broke out in autumn of 1918 in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary and seemed to signal the victory of liberalism and social democracy in the region. By the winter of 191819, political radicals, buoyed by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, found an opportunity to solve the inequalities that had ravaged their societies before and during the war. In Germany, uprisings broke out in early 1919 in Berlin and Munich, pitting revolutionary socialists and Communists against radical nationalist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Communist volunteer militias known as Freikorps. After the German government re-established order, the Freikorps moved to the Baltic countries, where they terrorized local communities, killing Communists and Jews without consequence. Advertisement Advertisement The story is similar in Hungary. After the failure of the democratic government to secure better treaty terms in Paris for the beleaguered country, Communists modeling themselves on the Russian Bolsheviks took power in March 1919 and established the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The most successful of the Communist revolutions that took place outside of Russia lasted 133 days, implementing radical social reforms and waging a renewed war with its neighbors. Advertisement But in the end, it too failed, collapsing when Romanian troops, supported by the U.S., Great Britain, and France, invaded Budapest in August and helped install a violent and anti-Semitic counterrevolutionary government. A far cry from principles of democratic governance espoused in Paris during the Versailles peace conference, Hungarys leaders could nevertheless count on the Western powers for at least tacit support of their Christian National state because of its commitment to anti-communism. Right-wing paramilitary groups were active in Hungary into the 1920s, subjecting the country to a white terror campaign of retribution. Advertisement The experiences of these conflicts and their legacy profoundly shaped the rest of the 20th century. These states, often regarded as marginal to the history of Europe, served as the front lines of global conflicts in World War II and the Cold War. After all, it was Eastern Europe that fueled the Nazis dreams of expansion and where the first anti-Semitic legislation of the post-1918 eraa 1920 law limiting Jewish students access to universities in Hungarywas passed. It was expansion into Eastern Europe that enabled the Soviet Union to become a global superpower in the second half of the 20th century, and it was the collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe and the USSR that ended the bipolar standoff, not some imagined global victory of capitalism over communism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As we consider contemporary developments in the region, such as the rise of illiberalism and nationalism and the antipathy expressed toward the European Union by the governments of Law and Justice Party in Poland or Prime Minister Viktor Orbans Fidesz in Hungary, thinking about the legacy of the unknown war in the east might be helpful. The recent attacks on the press, civil society, and academic institutions, including my alma mater, Central European University, in the very countries once considered the success stories of post-Communist transition is a vivid reminder that state building involves entire populations, takes a long time, and is not something that can be imposed from the outside. The more recent rise of nationalism and ethnic conflict in the region can, at least partially, be attributed to the brutal process of unmixing populations that began in 1918, often with the approval of western powers. And recalling past foreign interventions, revolutions, and treaties that dismembered countries and produced vulnerable minorities across the region during and after World War I isnt just about exploiting narratives of victimization or grievance by cynical politicians. Advertisement Pretending that developments in Eastern Europe are the result of the supposed backward and inferior character or culture of the people living in the powder keg of Europe, a persistent popular myth that largely goes uncontested, wont make these genuine challenges owing to distinctive histories go away. Advertisement But even as we consider why central and Eastern Europe have mattered so much to the great powers, and certainly before we deploy the region simply as the worlds canary in the coal mine for the growth of illiberalism that affects those of us who live in powerful countries, its important to remember that what happens in Eastern and central Europe affects real people whose lives, experiences, and history are worth remembering even though theyre complicated and difficult for outsiders to fully grasp. Many of the questions these wars after the war opened up in 1918 are still on the table in many of the countries of the region today: what does it take to build democracy, how to be independent while still vulnerable, and how to be a nation in an era of unequal globalization. But in the end, perhaps the most urgent ones are what does it mean to be overlooked, and what happens when we privilege only the perspective from Paris? The deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history is finally out. The three days of rain that began last Wednesday gave the more than 1,000 firefighters trying to extinguish the Camp Fire the assist theyd needed for more than two weeks. By Sunday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire had been contained. The Camp Fire scorched about 240 square miles of Northern California. There have been 85 confirmed deathsso far. But that figure will probably keep growing. Right now, the list of people still unaccounted still hovers around 300. Crews composed of searchers from sheriffs departments all over Northern California, Federal Emergency Management Agency task forces, and other state and local agencies are scouring the evacuation zone, looking for building hazards and the deceased. I recently interviewed one of the responders about that grim and important task. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One family we found in one structure, said Dr. Patrick Sweet, a family and emergency room doctor from San Diego deployed to the Camp Fire with FEMAs California Task Force 8. We communicated over text message while he was inside the evacuation zone, traveling with a team from burned house to burned house to search for human remains using rakes and shovels. He described the process: Our search teams look through the debris and look for bones. Then they call me in to look and see if they are human. We then have the dog brought in and see if they make the find without interference. We then notify [the] sheriff after we tape it off. Then a coroner is called in to collect and eventually help to identify the remains of the person identified by the search crew and their dogs. Advertisement The Camp Fire was massive and unsparing. Whole forests have been erased, along with 14,000 homes. More than 50,000 people have been displaced. With flames so powerful, the heat from the fire consumed everything. Stone and steel structures have been reduced to ashbricks to dust. And if a person did die in the flames, typically only whittled bones are left behind if any of their body remains. And even those are nearly 80 to 90 percent cremated, Sweet told me. Remains of larger bones, like the femur, the humerus, and the tibia are what the search teams usually find. Advertisement Teams have to go slowly, since there are jagged edges of corrugated metal from torn dwellings, many of which are trailer homes, and holes in the ground obfuscated by debris or ash. Septic tanks in particular are a known problem, and some rescue workers have even been reported to have fallen in. Advertisement Those who rode up with Sweets crew and other teams from across the area ate a paper-plate Thanksgiving meal on Thursday at a base camp in Chico, the largest city near the Camp Fire. In Chico, thousands who barely escaped have moved into tent encampments in parking lots, their cars, and shelters. Some know their homes are gone and have nowhere to go. Others are waiting until more evacuation orders are lifted to see what, if anything, of their homes still stands. Advertisement The teams that came from across California to help have been sleeping in tents, too, according to Sweet. Like the shelters that have been plagued with an outbreak of what appears to be norovirus and has infected more than 120 people in the area, the emergency personnels tent accommodations are susceptible to disease, too. Im like a broken record, Sweet told me, describing how he stressed the need to sanitize to his crew before they ate. Advertisement Advertisement This week, the firefighters are leaving. All inter-agencies that were assigned to suppress the fire, we are pulling out today now that the fire is contained and turning it over to the Butte County Sheriff, the Search and Rescue team, and the Governors Office of Emergency Services, said a Cal Fire spokesperson on Monday. Its supposed to rain again later this week. The rain, as long as it doesnt wash too much away, wont necessarily make things harder for the crews, though it may slow them down. One of the things that it does do is it does concentrate the scent into a smaller compartment because of all the ash that was flying around, Craig Covey, battalion chief with the Orange County Fire Authority with California Regional Task Force 10, told local NBC affiliate KCRA. It more compacts it, centralizes it, and the dogs can be very successful in that. The more bodies that are identified, the more clarity and perhaps closure the fire survivors who are trying to piece their lives back together will have. And a little clarity is probably welcome now, no matter how grim. Many who survived the Camp Fire arent sure where theyll sleep in the coming months. Hundreds of Google employees have signed an open letter published Tuesday on Medium demanding that the company cease work on Project Dragonfly, which is aimed at creating a search engine that the Chinese government would be able to control to censor certain results and surveil users. International human rights organizations and investigative reporters have also sounded the alarm, emphasizing serious human rights concerns and repeatedly calling on Google to cancel the project, the letter reads in part. So far, our leaderships response has been unsatisfactory. Advertisement Google has kept much of Project Dragonfly under wraps, but news outlets like the Intercept have obtained documents revealing some of the details. The search engine reportedly would block websites having to do with democracy and political dissidents and also blacklist terms like human rights. One of the prototypes also reportedly has the capability to link searches to users phone numbers. Organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have raised concerns about the project. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The letter from employees argues that Googles work on Project Dragonfly would render the company complicit in the Chinese governments human rights abuses and make it easier for other countries to demand similar controls from the company. Many of us accepted employment at Google with the companys values in mind, including its previous position on Chinese censorship and surveillance, and an understanding that Google was a company willing to place its values above its profits, the letter reads. After a year of disappointments including Project Maven, Dragonfly, and Googles support for abusers, we no longer believe this is the case. This is why were taking a stand. Google initially withdrew its search services from China in 2010 over censorship and cybersecurity concerns. Advertisement More than a thousand employees signed a similar internal petition to end Project Dragonfly in August. With Tuesdays letter, they are taking a more public stand on the issue. CEO Sundar Pichai previously defended the project by claiming that the resulting search engine could serve well over 99 percent of queries. The company provided a statement on this latest letter to the Verge: Weve been investing for many years to help Chinese users, from developing Android, through mobile apps such as Google Translate and Files Go, and our developer tools. But our work on search has been exploratory, and we are not close to launching a search product in China. Advertisement Activism among Google employees has attracted considerable attention as of late. Thousands of employees at more than 40 Google offices participated in a walkout at the beginning of November in reaction to a New York Times investigation that found that the company had been giving lucrative exit packages to executives who had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct. (CNBC reports that two of the original signers of Tuesdays letter were among the core group of organizers for the walkout.) Google ultimately ended its forced arbitration policies for sexual harassment claims and updated its trainings and reporting mechanisms for such misconduct. The company also plans to end its contract with the Pentagons Project Maven after employees filed petitions and resigned over concerns that Googles A.I. technology would eventually be used for weapons. For Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, legislative inquiries in aid of legislation are acts of futility because no legislation, only harassment happen during such investigations. Arroyo met with reporters Monday during which she intimated that in one instance, Rep. Deogracias Victor Savellano of Ilocos Sur sought her support for a resolution that calls for an investigation in aid of legislation. [Congressman] DV Savellano came to me... he mentioned something [about an investigation] and I said, DV you know inquiries in aid of legislation, I dont like them to be done unless you give me a rough draft of the legislation you are thinking of, otherwise lets call it oversight, she said. Lets have a briefing not an inquiry where you are going to be so inquisitorial, she added. Following that suggestion, Arroyo said Savellano changed his resolution. Arroyo said briefings from experts and other resource persons will help craft legislation better than investigations. This way, she said legislators will be encouraged to study the issue at hand and have an idea of the law to be crafted instead of congressmen going on fishing expedition during investigations, and later deciding on what bill to file. During Arroyos watch as president, several of her Cabinet members and other senior officials were summoned to the Senate for Senate investigations in aid of legislation only to be browbeaten by legislators who had an ax to grind against her administration. Soon after Arroyo stepped down from power, a former Armed Forces chief of staff wasted himself after being insulted during a Senate investigation. Arroyo said the proper implementation of laws is better than enacting them. There will always be room for making new policy and legislation. But on the whole, I think it is time to pivot from mere policies to implementation, Arroyo said. We must harvest the results during the final three and a half years of President [Rodrigo] Dutertes term, she added.In just 25 session days under the watch of Arroyo, the House of Representatives tackled a total of 778 measures or an average of 31 measures a day. This means that in only 25 session days, Arroyo was able to accomplish 21 percent of the total 3,707 measures or output of the 17th Congress that opened on July 25, 2016. Most of the measures tackled are on the legislative agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte as Arroyo proved true to her word that she will endeavor to push the measures backed by Duterte. Of the 778 processed measures during the Third Regular Session, a total of 32 were enacted into law, eight of which were of national significance and 24 of local significance. Four days after the opening of the Third Regular Session, the much-awaited Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was signed into law by President Duterte as Republic Act 11054. That law was based on House Bill 6475. Also among those signed by the President was Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act that is based on HB 6221, which establishes a single national identification system to promote the seamless delivery of government services, and increase transparency while reducing corruption in the delivery of social services. Meanwhile, 41 more measures are awaiting the Presidents signature to become laws. Apart from these landmark measures, the House ratified 10 bicameral reports, nine of which are of national importance and one of local significance. Also during Arroyos watch, the House approved House Joint Resolution 26, which extends until December 31, 2019 the period of availability of funds intended for victims of human rights violations during the imposition of martial law by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Meanwhile, the House approved on second reading 16 bills, all of national significance and adopted a total of 24 resolutions17 regular resolutions, four concurrent resolutions, two resolutions on inquiries in aid of legislation and one resolution of the Committee of the Whole. Ive never thought much about what a uterus actually looks like, but now I know how Lena Dunhams looks. In the process of profiling her for New York magazine, Allison P. Davis saw a picture of it. She describes Dunhams uterus as: a bloody, swollen crimson orb resting casually on industrial-blue surgical cloth, with fallopian tubes that looked like little outstretched arms. That a description of her removed uterus was included in the profile may not surprise anyone familiar with Dunham. The actor/director has long been known for gazing at her own problems, often through a somewhat frustrating lens. In so many cases, her privilege causes her to woefully miscalculate their severity, her intense self-focus distracting from whatever larger truths may be buried in her work. Shes insecure about her looks, but shes fairly conventionally attractive and has access to spendy clothes. Girls featured a struggling artist, while Dunhams own roster of mentors is filled with journalism and comedy elites. Like many people, I suspect, I dont so much actively dislike Dunham as I am just exhausted of hearing from her, and feel vaguely concerned about her former dog. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But this profile was different. It details Dunhams illness at length, taking seriously her medical issue in a way that womens medical issues seldom are, especially in celebrity profiles. Davis observes in the piece that Dunham, texting her increasingly intimate shots of her life and hospital stay, might be the director of her own candid, sympathy-generating magazine story. And, surprisingly, it works. At age 31, Dunham had a hysterectomy, a possibly-extreme and definitely non-cure-all measure to deal with her endometriosis, a condition which made hers misshapen. Endometriosis causes uterine lining to grow beyond the bounds of the uterus. It may affect more than 10 percent of women in the United States and yet is commonly dismissed as simply being a painful period (it took Dunham until 2014, when she was nearly 30, to be diagnosed). Advertisement Seemingly as naturally as she details her breakup with superstar music producer Jack Antonoff, or squeezes blackheads from one of her hairless cats chins, Dunham shares the uterus photo with Davis and describes the sheer emotional toll of illness. Physical pain is really isolating, she tells Davis of what she was experiencing toward the end of Girls. I was lonely and medicated. She worries that her surgeon will think she is a hypochondriac psycho. She takes Davis on a tour of her pill bottles: no pricey Hollywood concoctions on display, just regular, medically necessary stuff. Advertisement The main image I have in my head of a uterus, besides that of a flat sex-ed cartoon, is of a knife stabbing around my insides. Dunham, via Davis, provides a more fleshed out image, both literally of her organ and how it entwines with her existence. And while Dunham can afford a $1,600 status heating pad for pain relief, the denial of womens suffering still comes for her in many of the same ways it can come for the rest of us. She describes worrying that her doctors still might not believe there is a physical cause when she announces pain. She talks about the unpredictability and judgement surrounding her reproductive health choices, the way looking at a baby post-hysterectomy can give her the feeling of a little catch in the throat so much so that she was relieved to learn you can mute the Instagram stories of new moms. Advertisement Advertisement Dunham has invested in her own work on this topicher recent spate of Instagram posts on her illness are certainly worthwhile, for example. Thanks to the personal essay economy which Dunham has bolstered with her own filterless dispatches, we are hearing a lot more about womens pain, the weird things our bodies can do and produce. Its rarer that our experiences are validated by a third party. Dispensed by Davis, the facts feel freshly sharpfor better or worse, accompanied by a byline other than Dunhams, they are harder to shrug off. For once, Dunham is not a narrator donning blinders, but a woman with a real problem being taken seriously. It all makes sense once you realize they want to kill us, by Mike Whitney - The Unz Review : 'It is now apparent that these products in ... 20 percent of young people would vote for extremists in the parliamentary elections, the survey has revealed. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The majority of first-time voters would cast their vote in the favour of the far-right Peoples Party Our Slovaia (LSNS) led by Marian Kotleba, if the parliamentary elections took place this autumn. This stems from a poll carried out by the Focus agency for the Youth Council of Slovakia (RmS), the TASR newswire reported. LSNS would win the support of 11.7 percent of respondents. The second most popular party would be the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) supported by 8.5 percent, followed by the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) with 7.7 percent, said Michal Povazan of RmS. The polling agency surveyed 1,000 young people aged 15 to 24 years. The ruling Smer party would come fourth with 6.6 percent and Sme Rodina (We Are Family) of Boris Kollar would win the support of 5.9 percent of respondents. Other parties would not exceed the required 5-percent threshold to enter parliament. Frustrated young voters Nearly 30 percent of young people, four out of 10 surveyed, would like to vote, but they cannot find any political party within the current political spectrum that represents their interests, said Povazan, as quoted by TASR. Precitajte si tiez: Precitajte si tiez: Sociologist: Liberal and open-minded spirit is weak among Slovak youth Read more More than 20 percent of voters aged 18 to 24 years would vote for extremists because young voters have become frustrated, claimed Povazan. However, political preferences between first-time voters occur according to region or gender. Men from the Banska Bystrica Region would, in particular, go for extremists while young people ages 20 to 24 from Bratislava Region would support SaS, said Katarina Cavojska of RmS, as quoted by TASR. For example, OLaNO would be favoured the most by young people in major cities, she added. Among people who did not say who they would vote for are often young women and respondents with no long-term experience from abroad, Cavojska said, as quoted by TASR. Young people who often do not take part in youth organisations or volunteering activities comprise the group of respondents who would not cast their vote, the survey has revealed. The government should support the activities of youth organisations in regions and towns more to tackle the issue of radicalisation, Povazan opined. The region reports an increased number of visitors. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Visitors planning their trip to the Trencin Region can now use a new bilingual tourist guide, prepared by the Regional Tourism Organisation of the Trencin Region (KOCR Trencin) and The Slovak Spectator. Apart from short profiles about the tourist sites in the region, readers can also find thematic stories presenting the region from various aspects. Read also: Read also: Blog: Trencin-a city of romantic legends Read more We did not try to profile only castles and museums but also to offer stories of people behind the places, because it is what people are seeking now, said Jan Pallo, publisher of The Slovak Spectator. The tourist guide was written by an international team of journalists, who had travelled around the region to discover it for visitors. Popularity on the rise The number of people coming to the region is on the rise. About 173,000 tourists visited Trencin in the first half of 2018, which is 1,000 more compared to the same period last year, said Juraj Gerlici of KOCR Trencin, as quoted by the TASR newswire. The number of nights spent in the region by foreigners has also increased, by 17 percent. It is the highest increase across Slovakia, Gerlici added. The number of tourists from the Czech Republic and Germany have gone up the most, and a 100-percent increase was reported in the case of Americans and Britons. The Trencin region is the first in terms of average nights spent in a region, which is about four nights, Gerlici said, as quoted by TASR. The region comes fifth regarding the total number of visiting tourists. Other novelties Precitajte si tiez: Precitajte si tiez: Trencin is the crown city of the Vah and Tatras Read more Apart from a new tourist guide, audio recordings are a new thing for tourists, which are primarily intended for the disabled. We learned that the sights are not accessible for disabled people, said Eva Fryvaldska, KOCR Trencin head, as quoted by TASR. The organisation conducted a survey at the sights in the regions to figure out whether they can be accessed by the disabled. The audio recordings, which offer e.g. stories about castles, are available on the organisation's website. At the moment, the recordings cover ten sites in the region. Of course, we want to push each tourist site to create specific tours for people who are disadvantaged, Fryvaldska added, as quoted by TASR. Its here! The 2018 holiday season is finally here, and with it, a swarm of gift guides great and cheap, big and small, for you and not even remotely for you at all. Here at Sprudge holiday gift guides are a long-running tradition, dating back to the internets earlier, simpler, arguably less evil times. To kick the Guidesapalooza off this year, we tapped three of our favorite regular contributors: Jenn Chen, Zac Cadwalader, and Anna Brones. We asked them some very simple questions: What moves you? What coffee gifts would you give to a loved one? Does this spark joy? Read on to find out, and happy holiday-ing from all of us at Sprudge. Handmade Mug and Dripper by Sam Lee There is something particular about drinking coffee out of a handmade mug, something that helps to turn it from routine into ritual. San Francisco-based artist and ceramicist Sam Lee creates beautiful everyday objects, including those made for making and drinking coffee, and I love her style. Her work is simple yet stunning, like in the V60 dripper, glazed to balance the texture of both the smooth glaze and the rough ceramic. Any morning would be made just a little more beautiful with Lees work in it. Anna Brones Rainbow Cupping Spoon Born out of a desire to empower themselves and other marginalized folks in the industry at the cupping table, Umeko Motoyoshi created the Rainbow Spoon project. Their store, Umeshiso, has a wide array of pins, cupping spoons, and stickers for your favorite coffee professional. Sold as a single spoon or a set of six, these rainbow spoons offer a perfect bowl depth for a dip and slurp. The spoons are offered on a sliding scale basis to reflect the stores inclusive mission. Choose to pay the at-cost fee or a few dollars more to contribute back into the project. Jenn Chen Terroir Coffee Chocolate and Coffee Blossom Honey Coffee gifts dont always have to be coffee. They can also be chocolate and honey. Coffee chocolate and coffee honey. From Terroirthe sister company of Onyx Coffee Labcomes two tasty sweets cultivated on actual coffee farms. The cacao comes from one of three originsColombia, Uganda, and Guatemalaand each bean-to-bar dark chocolate is made with coffee from the same farm. The honey is from Finca El Apiario in Guatemala, produced by bees who only pollinate coffee blossoms. Not only are these products really tasty (I eat the honey on my morning yogurt daily), they are also providing auxiliary revenue streams for the farmers producing them. Its a great coffee gift for non-coffee people that brings in additional money to the coffeelands. Win win win. Zac Cadwalader Field Barista kit from Snow Peak Theres a clear intersection between outdoor lovers and coffee drinkers, and Japanese lifestyle brand Snow Peak caters to the nature enthusiasts who want to ensure that their coffee game is as strong outside as it is at home. The brands Field Barista kit is the ultimate in outdoor coffee brewing setup, including a dripper, grinder, and kettle. You dont have to opt for the entire set, each piece can be purchased separately. The dripper is cone shapedwhich will keep your filters from collapsingand disassembles to fit in a small bag, and the grinders handle easily folds down, which makes packing easier. The weight of the kit makes it geared at the kind adventures that include a base camp, or just a morning coffee brew in the local park, as opposed to journeys where weight is a consideration, but if youve got the whole set, you just might start to prefer brewing in your backyard to your kitchen counter. Anna Brones Standart Subscription Creative types will appreciate an annual subscription (four issues) to Standart, a beautiful independent print magazine (and 2017 Sprudgie Award winner) dedicated to the art of coffee. The stories, illustrations, and photographs within its pages cover a wide range of global issues and perspectives. Youll just as easily read a profile with a barista champion right after a piece exploring tasseography, the art of reading tea and coffee leaves. Content is at the forefront in Standart and theres something for everyone. The subscription is available globally and comes with a bag of coffee roasted exclusively for subscribers. Jenn Chen Craft Coffee: A Manual Getting into coffee can be intimidating. It feels like there is an entire lexicon to memorize just to learn how to make a pour-over. Luckily, there is Craft Coffee: A Manual by Jessica Easto. Easto is not a coffee person, as she described to Sprudge in our interview with her earlier this year, and thats the perspective she brings to the pages of Craft Coffee. With the help of her husband and coffee person Andreas Willhoff, Easto covers just about everything you need to know to get started on your coffee journey, including: brewing basics, equipment, processing, and step-by-step guides for making coffee with 10 different brewing devices. Its all the coffee info, none of the intimidation. Zac Cadwalader Ebb Filter by GDS Cloth Goods Coffee is a product that centers around origin, but while we focus on where our coffee comes from, we dont always apply the same principles to our brewing equipment. For the coffee drinker who cares about how things are made and where theyre from, Ebb Filter is the perfect gift. This reusable filter is made from organic cotton grown in Texas, processed and woven into fabric in the Carolinas and sewn into final product the Bay Area by GDS Cloth Goods. The filters come in a variety of sizes to fit all types of brew methods, and are wrapped in biodegradable packaging. Anna Brones Melodrip Buying gadgets for a coffee tinkerer can be a tall order because 1) geeky gear is often prohibitively expensive and 2) what even is that thing and how does it make coffee? For those wanting to gift something brewing-related that wont break the bank, look no further than the Melodrip. Essentially just a dispersion screen on a stick, the Melodrip allows you to drastically cut down on the amount of agitation in the brewing process, which leads to a cleaner cup of coffee, according to the creators. After a successful Kickstarter campaign (of which I backed with my own actual dollars), the Melodrip is now in full production and available for purchase for a cool $45. Zac Cadwalader Charitable Donation A thoughtful gift for the coffee lover who doesnt want any physical products, a charitable donation in their name goes a long way to supporting the communities who create your morning brew. Did you know that over 80% of women newly diagnosed with cervical cancer live in developing countries and that 70% of coffee farm laborers are women? Grounds for Health provides cervical cancer screenings at coffee farms. For a more general contribution to the coffeelands, the International Womens Coffee Alliance (IWCA) works in 22 countries to empower women at the local community level. And if youd like to invest in the next generation of farmers, Coffee Kids works with young farmers on business training and seed capital. Jenn Chen Commandante Hand Grinder I have more hand grinders than I care to mention in polite company, but whenever I go out of town and need a way to pulverize some whole beans, the Commandante manual grinder is always the one I bring with me. Besides being one of the most aesthetically pleasing grinders on the marketjust look at all that wood grain!the German-engineered Commandante is the perfect mix of portable and dependable, making it the ideal suitcase (or day pack) companion. At $250, this isnt exactly a small gift, but, speaking from opinion here, its worth every penny. Zac Cadwalader Coffee Isnt Rocket Science by Sebastien Racineux and Chung-Leng Tran Have you ever been asked by friends and family how to make better coffee at home? Get them this book. Coffee Isnt Rocket Science by Sebastien Racineux and Chung-Leng Tran (both co-owners of Hexagone Cafe in Paris) is a well-rounded guide to better understanding and making coffee. For the newly coffee acquainted, its a helpful tool for navigating the world of coffee, the kind of book that can always be kept close to the coffee brewing equipment. And for well-versed coffee lovers, its a fun resource to include in your coffee library, particular for those moments when you forget some of the basic details of the drink you love. Anna Brones Kaffe Box Subscription Sometimes the best coffee gift is simply just coffee. For those who want to gift coffee but dont know what is good, a subscription is always a solid place to start. As an American who makes primarily filter coffee, I have yet to find a subscription service more up my alley than Norways Kaffe Box. Each month, the subscription service works with a different Scandinavian roaster to deliver light-roasted coffee directly to your doorstep. Past roasters include big names like Tim Wendelboe, La Cabra, The Coffee Collective, and Koppi as well as lesser-known micro-roasters like Jacobsen og Svart, Nord, and Talor & Jorgen. To me, this is THE subscription service for lighter-roast filter coffee drinkers. But if you are buying for someone who is an espresso drinker or likes more developed coffees, Trade Coffee is where I would start. Zac Cadwalader So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo A New York Times bestseller and book that transcends any industry lines, So You Want to Talk About Race is a must-read for the well-meaning ally. The book isnt about coffee, yet like any industry built on colonialism and capitalism, race is inextricably tied to coffee. Oluo breaks down key concepts in a straightforward manner and provides the reader with tangible ways to talk about race. This is a great place to start for those who find themselves saying things like, But what can I do? and I dont know what that means after listening to the Black Coffee podcast episodes. Jenn Chen Trailing by 4-1/2 lengths and wide at the half, Outburst exploded through the final turn and captured Mondays feature at The Meadows, a $14,000 conditioned trot. Outburst appeared to be gapping cover when Dave Palone tipped him off the cones. But the seven-year-old Explosive Matter-Exquisite Lady gelding found his best stride late, holding off the rallying Media Buzz by three-quarters of a length in 1:57.3 over a good surface. Chef Lee shot the Lightning Lane for show. Ron Burke trains Outburst, who won for the 19th time over the past two seasons and lifted his career bankroll to $685,352, for Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. It was one of four victories for Palone on the 13-race card. (The Meadows) Syrian businessman Firas Tlass has lashed out at the US and their lack of planning and strategy in Syria writes Ana Press. The American position towards Syria becomes more ambiguous as each day passes and the evasions which have contributed to prolonging the Syrian war, to the benefit of some parties and basic players, are increasing. Contradictory and confusing American statements continue, with Washington describing the Syrian regime president as a war criminal and a shame on humanity and then saying they have no intention to change this regime. The American Special Envoy for Syrian affairs, James Jeffrey, in an interview with Russias Novosti news agency and the Kommersant newspaper, said, We consider him [Assad] a disgrace to mankind. He is a brutal war criminal probably the biggest and most brutal war criminal in the world today. America will never have good relations with Bashar al-Assad nonetheless, we are committed to a political process that is for and by the Syrian people. He said that his country did not aim to change the regime or the leadership in Damascus, saying, The Syrian people get to decide who will lead them and what kind of a government they will have. Jeffrey had previously said that Washington did not consider removing Assad from power to be an aim, but that it saw his presence as an obstacle to stability in the country, and called for him to leave during the expected Syrian political process. The opposition Syrian businessman Firas Tlass said, Honestly, I havent trusted the Americans for a day, and I have never relied on their statements about the Syrian revolution. The previous administration called for Assad to go and claimed that in a few days things will end in Syria. Tlass told Ana Press, The United States has a particular agenda in Syria, which has become clear. We are part of a larger field for them in the Middle East. It wants Syria to be a workshop for the demolition of the entire area. He continued, saying, Every time I hear about the American and Israeli desire to get Iran out of Syria, I laugh at their laughter at us, and I cry at our fate All the talk about getting Iran out is nonsense and idle words. Iran is staying in Syria. It wont leave, and America and Israel know that. For his part, the head of the Council of Free Syrians, Osama Bashir, said, From the start of the revolution, Washington has been saying that Assad has lost his legitimacy and then they deal with him secretly If we look at all the stages of the revolution on the field and politically, we can see that America has preserved Assad. Bashir told Ana Press, Theres no point to Washington confiscating chemical weapons and leaving behind those who used them, while they brought down Saddam Husseins regime just because of the suspicion of chemical weapons. Even when Assad used them again, it was ridiculous they shot a few rockets at the Shairat airbase. Bashir said that these American statements were more of the same. They had already described him clearly, and know well what type of leader he is, however, they also see him as being appropriate to their needs. We will not forget that America is the one that prevented the rebels from being armed with air defenses. If the rebels had air defenses, they could have brought down the regime and defeated Russia. Washington cannot claim it is with the people and with the opposition. These statements that Assad is a disgrace to humanity are for consumption. The political decision has not changed at all, and they will not bring down Assad, even if he uses chemical weapons dozens of times, since the green light has been given to him by the Americans since the start of the revolution, Bashir said. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Syrian-Kurdish women marched to end gender-based violence to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women writes Al-Araby al-Jadeed, On Sunday, hundreds of female protesters took to the streets of the Syrian Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli to call for an end to violence against women. Some banging large drums and others ululating, they marched through the streets, an AFP correspondent said. Underage marriage is a crime, said one sign held up by a protester, on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Another demonstrator held up the picture of a woman with a swollen eye, her mouth covered with one hand. We must take part in this day in large numbers, said Hanifa Mohammed, 47, wearing a green jumper and a dark-coloured headscarf. Women must organise and reach decision-making positions, she said. They must determine their future. Women of all ages carried the portraits of fighters in the Womens Protection Units (YPG), the all-female branch of the Syrian Kurdish militia. Syrias Kurds pride themselves in promoting equality of the sexes even in combat, as the YPG play a key role in the battle against the Islamic State. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. During his time in the Ministry of Finanace, Mamoun Hamdan oversaw the seizures of assets belonging to tens of thousands of people. In Brief In 2016, Mamoun Hamdan was moved from the study halls of the accounting department at the College of Economics in Damascus to the corridors of the Finance Ministry, and was appointed to the top position by Bashar al-Assad. Since then, the number of Syrians whose wealth has been seized by the regime on charges of terrorism has risen, growing into the tens of thousands. The positions to which Hamdan has been appointed in Syria indicates the extent of Assads faith in him. During 2016, Assad issued decrees to appoint Hamdan as Syrias top representative in five international institutions, and assigned him the task of representing Syria at a number of international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund. Background Hamdan was born in Damascus in 1958. He studied economics and accounting at Damascus University, and completed his specialization in Germany, where he obtained a doctorate in 1989. He became a legally certified accountant and a member of the Chartered Accountants Association and a member of the Arab Society of Certified Public Accountants. He occupied the position of Director of the Technical Institute of Accounting and Finance in Damascus from 2005 to 2008, and then served as Executive Director of the Damascus Securities Market after 2011. He remained a faculty member at the College of Economics from 1989 until 2016. Minister of Blocking and Freezing Assets In 2016, Bashar al-Assad selected Mamoun Hamdan to be Finance Minister. In the same year, Assad appointed Hamdan the Syrian representative for five international institutions: The International Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Arab Monetary Fund, and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa. It seems that Hamdan was in charge of implementing the regimes policy of revenge against Syrian opposition members. During his tenure, the Finance Ministry ordered the seizure of assets belonging to thousands of opponents of the Assad regime. According to statistics issued by the Finance Ministry, during 2017 alone the Ministry seized the movable and immovable assets of 40,000 Syrians. This was an increase of 10,000 from the previous year. The Ministrys ready excuse was the involvement in terrorist acts. The Finance Ministry periodically issues new lists , indicating which Syrians will have their movable and immovable assets seized by the government. Some of the decisions include entire families, and also include the precautionary seizures from Syrians who have left their homes and fled outside Syria under charges of funding terrorist operations. The 40,000 Syrians whose assets were seized by the Finance Ministry during 2017 come in addition to 30,000 people whose assets were seized in 2016, the year Hamdan became the head of the Ministry. Terrorism Court The decisions issued by Hamdan, with photos of them published, show coordination between his Ministry and the Terrorism Court, to which Syrian opposition members are referred. The court is a mixed court, composed of both civilians and the military. Since its establishment in 2012 until the end of May 2015, the number of cases which it considered was close to 35,000, with only about 700 rulings issued, which were either prison sentences or the death penalty. System for Seizing Funds Hamdan had a role in the formation of a group which the regime called a system for precautionary seizure indications, which began work on Feb. 5, 2018, and carried out its work in coordination with the Justice Ministry and Finance Ministry. Commenting on this system, Hamdan said on that date according to the Finance Ministry website that, decisions for precautionary seizures issued by the Finance Ministry comprises a major portion of the documents, given that they are the biggest issue of circulars at the government level, and therefore implementing the system will increase the efficiency of seizures, through the immediate access to all concerned agencies and easing searches, in addition to reducing waste and achieving speed in circulars, preventing manipulation, and collecting the rights of the state and citizens. The people whose possessions were seized includes Syrian businessman Imad Ghrywati, the former President of the Syrian Chamber of Commerce. The decision included 11 members of his family, including the mother of the Ghrywati siblings, Sabria al-Samman, and five children of Zuhair Ghrywati. Imad, the oldest and most famous; Essam; Hanan; Bashar; Mohamed; as well as Imad Ghrywatis wife, Bushra al-Albi, and four of their children: Nour, Zuhair, Faysal, and Hamza. The last one was not yet 18. The decision did not note the main reason for the seizure of these assets. Imad has lived in Dubai for several years after leaving Syria, when he resigned as President of the Chamber of Commerce and the Damascus Chamber of Industry in 2012. The Ghrywati family is considered one of the biggest and oldest capital owners in Syria, and owns a large group of companies and car showrooms. Hamdans statements triggered criticisms against him by Syrians on social media. During an address in parliament in December 2017, Hamdan denied that there was a single starving person in Syria, which triggered protests by some MPs in parliament. At the time, Hamdan continued by saying: Sometimes someone feels hungry. Im often hungry. I dont have time to eat. He added, repeating the phrase, In Syria, no one is starving. His statements coincided with the regimes siege of 400,000 people in eastern Ghouta, which caused children to die of starvation. Two months before Hamdans statements, the United Nations recognized the presence of malnutrition in eastern Ghouta. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Syrian Observer. President Rodrigo Duterte lambasted the Catholic Church again on Monday, suggesting that the public should stop going to churches and pray instead at their own chapels at home. You build a chapel in your own house and pray there. You do not have to go to church to pray for these idiots, said Duterte in his speech during the groundbreaking of a bulk water supply project in Davao City. At the event, he asked if there were any bishops present, and dismissed their teachings as archaic. Are there bishops here? I would hit you on the nape of the neck. The Catholic Church even the Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, [are] clinging on to a belief which was 3,000 years ago, he said. He also noted that while he considers some priests as his friends, he does not encourage people to offer money to bishops. The President then accused some Catholic bishops of asking the government for vehicles. They would ask for cars from the government, knowing fully well that it is corruption, as there is a separation of church and state. And you have the balls, brave as you are, to ask [for] property of the government. Then they would speak [against the government] you motherf**k*r who are you, he said. Also, without supporting his claim, Duterte accused David of being into illegal drugs. I suspect that you could be involved in drugs, said Duterte, who threatened to cut off the bishops head if he was found to be selling illegal drugs. Im telling you, David. I am doubtful that you make rounds during the night. I am doubtful mother f**k*r youre into drugs, Duterte said. The Caloocan-based prelate was quick to dismiss Dutertes accusations and urged the President to take fruit shakes. No sir, Im not into drugs of any sort, whether legal or illegal. [I have] never been. I only help in rehabilitating people addicted to drugs. I partner with the anti-drug abuse councils/offices of the local government units of Caloocan, Malabon, and Navotas in this endeavor, he said.Thank God I am not even taking any maintenance drugs yet. I only take vitamins with fruit shake blended with malunggay in the morning. You might want to try it, Sir. It will do you a lot of good. God bless you, the Church leader added. Dutertes latest tirade against the Church came after he accused David of pocketing church offerings for use by his family. David, who also serves as the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines vice president, has already denied the Presidents accusation. The head of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos, called Dutertes remarks irresponsible and heartless. Opposition Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said the Presidents renewed attacks on the teachings of the Catholic Church should serve as a wake-up call for Filipinos to fight for God. If you really love your country, if you love your family, if you love your God, you have to fight for them, Aquino said. Another opposition senator, Leila de Lima, called Dutertes attacks on David slanderous. It is vintage Duterte. He destroys the reputation of those who oppose him and those who fight for the victims of his rule. Bishop Ambo is his latest victim, said the senator, who is detained on drug charges. In responding to Dutertes earlier accusations, David said the allegations came from a sick man and asked the public to pray for the President. He also said he had been taught by his parents not to steal. People who are sick sometimes do not know what they are talking about, so we should just bear with them, the bishop said. READ: Rody to Catholics: Dont get lost, shun stupid drunkards, go for St. Rodrigo Peace process adviser Jesus Dureza has resigned, President Rodrigo Duterte announced Tuesday, as he also fired two officials from the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process. READ: Duterte fires three DSWD officials Duterte accepted the resignation of Dureza, a fellow Davao native and a close friend of the President, as he also dismissed OPAPP Undersecretary Ronald Flores and Assistant Secretary Yeshtern Donn Baccay and promised he would drop the axe on another undersecretary, as he did in previous days. I am very sad that I accepted the resignation of Secretary Dureza, the President said during the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport on Tuesday. Duterte seemed to spare Dureza from blame but noted he was the supervisor of Flores and Baccay. Flores was Undersecretary for Support Services and National Program Manager of PAMANA, the OPAPPs development arm, while Baccay was Assistant Secretary for Support Services and PAMANA Concerns. On Monday, during his speech for the Davao City Bulk Water Supply Project Construction ceremonial kickoff, Duterte said he would dismiss another undersecretary for corruption. Corruption is not acceptable to me. I need not repeat it every day. Then when I go to Manila, Im going back, Im going to fire another undersecretary for corruption, Duterte said.Dureza, who turns 71 in December, is a lawyer, journalist, consultant and politician. He was a former chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority and a presidential assistant for Dutertes home region, chair of the government peace panel in talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and a former congressman of Davao Citys first district. Last week, Duterte fired Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council Secretary-General Falconi Millar also over corruption allegations. The President has been dropping the axe on high-ranking officials and heads of offices accused of corruption, excessive travels, and abuse of power. Earlier this year, the President ordered the dismissal of military officials over supposed anomalous transactions at the V. Luna Medical Center. He also fired the board members and the management of Nayong Pilipino Foundation for entering into a supposedly disadvantageous lease deal with a Hong Kong-based developer for an integrated casino resort project. Duterte had vowed to reduce corruption to the barest minimum under his watch. MoscowThree of Russias top rappers on Monday gave a concert protesting against the jailing of a fellow star and calling for an end to intimidation by authorities and curbs on their artistic freedom. The packed concert in a Moscow club was organized by rapper Oxxxymiron, who told the audience that the sold-out gig was about freedom of creativity. The concert expressed solidarity and raised funds for rapper Husky, who last week was sentenced to 12 days in jail over a performance on the street in southern Russia. His case has prompted rappers to sound the alarm over a clampdown on their artistic freedom, including frequent concert cancellations under pressure from the authorities and conservative groups. In a surprise ruling, Husky, whose real name is Dmitry Kuznetsov, was released hours before the concert after his lawyers asked for his sentence to be reduced. Oxxxymiron told the audience that the concert highlighted the situation with music in our country, which is currently not moving in the best direction, to put it mildly. The 33-year-old rapper, whose real name is Miron Fyodorov, studied at the University of Oxford and is known for his participation in rap battles with other stars. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny went to the concert with his family, posing for selfies with supporters. Most attending were in their teens and early 20s and expressed fears the authorities are targeting the rap artists they listen to. AFP We support this because in Russia theres bloody censorship, said 21-year-old student Ivan Lotman.They are starting to tighten the screws and trying to scare certain artists, like Husky, said Denis Zabuzov, also a 21-year-old student, He was jailed for nothing. Oxxxymiron performed with Basta, a rapper and radio host from southern Russia and Noize MC, who has mocked police corruption and brutality. The concert was titled I will sing my music, a lyric that Husky performed from a car roof after the venue where he was due to perform canceled at the last minute. Husky said several of his concerts have been canceled in recent months after law enforcement agencies put pressure on organizers. Theyve found in my songs insults to the feelings of believers, propaganda of Nazism and sexual perversion, he wrote on social media, rejecting the claims. Husky, 25, was born in eastern Siberia. One of his first songs, written when he was still at school, was critical of President Vladimir Putin. He has also appeared in a play directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, currently on trial on fraud charges that supporters say are part of a crackdown on artistic freedom. However, he is not a straightforward opposition figure, having also expressed sympathy for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. I've always wanted to be a collector. I have the gene. (Although I don't have quite enough organizing ability.) But I've never had the means, or the space (which are two aspects of the same thing). I've told this story on myself before, and it's embarrassing to me now, but it's also instructive. When I was young I was very interested in books. In Washington D.C. I befriended Bill Hale of William F. Hale books and his mentor across the street, the novelist Larry McMurtry. Larry was first a reader, second a bookman, and third a writer of novelshe won the Pulitzer Prize for his epic Western Lonesome Dove in 1985 (it was also a series of made-for-TV movies). Larry once quit a teaching post at Yale because it interfered too much with his reading timehe said, "instead of spending time talking about reading, I would rather read." Among other things, I readvoraciously at firstabout reading, bookmaking, and book collecting. I decided I might collect fine press books, and an early if obvious enthusiasm along these lines was the book designer Bruce Rogers. So from Larry's tiny little Shangri-la of a bookshop on 31st Street in Georgetown I purchased a three-volume set of John Florio's translation of Montaigne, designed by Rogers. It was a magnificently well made set of books, and I swelled with pride to own it. Admiring it on my shelf, I considered that I was on my way. There was only one little problem: the set had cost $800 or so, which at the time was a very large subset of "all the money I had." It had failed to occur to my evidently very small brain that to collect books, or at any rate books that other people already valued, required something called resources, which I did not have. This may be why I'm such an enthusiast of putting nice things in peoples' hands for relatively little dough (is dough still slang for money, or is that just too Edward G. Robinson now? Translated into English: dosh). I always try to make sure that the things we bring you here are bargains. My "book collection" stood at one title for some number of months while the truth wormed its way laboriously through the thick plate of my skull. Finally, when no others could join it and it began to look lonely, and then accusatory, and finally pathetic there on the shelf all alone, a large tripartite monument to my folly, I sold it back to Larry, who generously gave me all my money back. Larry was very kindhe also gave me a binder's copy of the first Irish edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which someday I will have rebound...probably just before I head for the George. Not cheap, inexpensive I wonder if people appreciate being able to buy top-flight signed collector prints for a mere $350, which was the amount I was instructed in photography school to sell my student prints for...way back in the 1980s. It's not always the right move. In one long-ago print sale here on top, we were selling a print for something like $100, and I got a call from a man who really wanted one. But he had a big problem. He said he lived in a $3 million house, and he didn't have a single piece of art on his walls that cost less than $5,000, and he was very reluctant to hang a $100 print in his home. Of course I quickly offered to sell him the same print for $5,000, but, while that seemed a perfect solution to me, it did not seem so to him. We both ended up deprived on that occasion. And another story on the same lineswhen I taught high school in the '80s, I took portraits of some of my students for the yearbook, charging only $100 for expenses, which I thought was a nominal fee. But there was one girl whose mother wouldn't let her hire me. Her father was famousif you're anywhere near my generation, you would know who he isand the family was very wealthy. The mother simply refused to let her daughter pay $100 for her yearbook portrait. It just wasn't enough. So they hired the most fashionable society photographer in Georgetown at the time, and the girl asked me for a bunch of samples of my work, and she took my samples to the other photographer and asked her to make a portrait in the same style. So they got a portrait pretty much like one of mine, but they got to pay $1,200 for it, which was much more satisfactory to them. So I just wanted to say, if anyone would feel more comfortable paying $1,200 for one of our current Turnley printsmore in line with what they go for in galleriesI will be most happy to try to talk Peter into accommodating you. That's how cooperative a fellow I am. For everyone else, I hope the nice accommodating price will help you to have more than one single solitary print in your photography collection. :-) Mike P.S. Regarding Bruce Rogers, Paragraphs on Printing is a fascinating window into the world of type design and book design. But it's a book I love, so I can't be objective about it. P.P.S. Regarding Edward G. Robinson, it's not widely remembered now, but he was among Hollywood's first major art collectors. If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, search for an article called "Hollywood's First Great Art Collector." Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. B&H Photo Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Germany Amazon Canada Adorama (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.) Featured Comments from: Stephen Scharf: "My advice: stay away from collecting watches (if you think camera-owners suffer from GAS...). Particularly the exceptionally well-regarded-by-watchonistas German brand, Sinn (pronounced "Zinn"). Superb German quality and execution with functionally beautiful, legible design at a fraction of Swiss watch prices. "It's very easy to become a Sinner; you've been warned! ;-) "Picture here: my beloved Sinn 104i (photo by yours truly)." Geoff Wittig: "I went through a phase of diligent book collecting centered on exactly the same kind of thing you did, Mike. Bruce Rogers was by common consent the most brilliant book designer in American history. He designed exquisite books ranging from very expensive limited editions to trade hardcovers that were nearly as beautiful. His goal was to carefully tailor the typeface, typesetting, page design, even the paper and the smell of the ink, to echo the message of the text, without overpowering it. I probably have about 20 Rogers-designed books in my collection. "But it's not nearly as much fun collecting books as it used to be. Circa 1990, this meant combing through shelved and piled up books in musty little 'used and rare' bookstores, preferably in remote locations. My best finds were in small bookstores in Vermont, and they were quite affordable. All this changed when the Internet arrived. Overnight, bookstores listed their best fine books on-line; prices skyrocketed and serendipitous finds disappeared. Now it's all about the Benjamins." David Brown: "Your story about the school portraits reminds me of trying to sell my wife's car about 10 years ago. There was really nothing wrong with it, but the dealer didn't want it, so they only offered $1,000 on trade in. Low book value was $3,500, so I decided to sell it myself. I listed it on Craigslist for $3,200, hoping for a quick sale. The only responses I got were people asking if I would take $500. I took down the ad, and drove the car myself for the summer. Then one day, on a whim, I listed it on Craigslist for $5,000. I immediately had several positive inquiries. The car was sold within hours, at full asking price. Apparently the low initial asking price had put people off. The Turnley prints are beautiful. I'm running out of wall space, but I may bite anyway. Thank you for these print sales, they are a great service to the community." Turkey is a mystical land, both swathed in ancient myth and modern misconceptions. From the crumbling ruins of Constantinople to the lingering charms of the Persian empire and the blossoming republic that arose with Ataturk from the Ottoman era. Turkey is vast, diverse, charming and also quite different to what people first imagine. With the failed coup, vicinity to Syria and Iraq as well as a somewhat erratic leader it is often perceived as a dangerous and difficult country to visit. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, the visa process is a breeze, the trouble is isolated to the very far east of the country and the culture, scenery and history is completely enchanting. Here is our practical guide to visiting Turkey, covering all you need to know before your visit as well as the best website for Turkish visa and asking Is Turkey safe? Getting in: What you need to know about visas In the past when we have visited it was as simple as turning up with a 10 note in your hand, queuing up for a little while and then receiving your visa and stamp right there and then! Things have changed a little since my first visit 12 years ago but the process means that the queues arent have as long! However, as with all things in life, the price has gone up and you also have to be sure to use the best website for Turkish visa as there are also many scams. One thing you need to be aware of is that from the end of October 2018 you can no longer get a visa on arrival, in the past this was the norm and for years since the introduction of the e-visa there has always been both options available. However this is now not the case since the removal of e-visa kiosk in the airport. If you are travelling by air you should always have your visa as you could be refused boarding. Visa on arrival/ e-visa work around! Though in extreme circumstances there is a possible workaround which we dont recommend but you could very well we sat at the Turkish border right now wondering what to do. We got stuck travelling from Plovdiv, Bulgaria to Turkey unaware of the new rules. So we applied online for the e-visa from the checkpoint terminal (its pretty big and have duty free!) on our phones. This was a little sketchy as we only just got access to Wifi, it was 3:00am and thankfully the visas went through straight away!! However even the best website for Turkish visa cant guarantee it to be processed in such a short time! Applying for the visa online: best website for Turkish visa Applying online is easy and although the price has gone up, it is also now in USD rather than GBP meaning the rise isnt quite so steep. A multi entry visa for a UK passport holder costs 20 USD and allows you to spend a total of 90 days within 180 in the country where you can come and go as you please. Essentially you can spend 3 out of 6 months in Turkey. The visa runs out 180 days after it is issued or you use up your 90 days. You can then apply for another. There are a lot of scams out there too selling visas for vastly inflated prices. The best website for Turkish visa is the official website for the Turkish government is: www.evisa.gov.tr However, many people are quite wary of applying for their own visa as for many UK visitors on the usual two week holidays it isnt often a consideration. Using a visa company will take the stress out of applying for yourself and leave you to concentrate on enjoying your holiday instead. For this we recommend e-visums as a great value and reliable alternative to doing it yourself, it is the best website for Turkish visa if you want to use a third party. Is Turkey safe to visit? As with anywhere in the world, we cant promise you are 100% safe. Just last year 22 people were killed in a terrorist attack in our very own home city of Manchester. There have also been attacks in our adopted home of Melbourne and all across the western world. Turkey lies in a turbulent region to its far east, but most of the troubles here are not directed towards tourists but are much more insular than attacks that target western countries. Here the police and the state are the targets of violence so in many ways I consider it to be safer than the streets of Paris and especially the gun hungry USA. In todays world nowhere is 100% safe and we cant allow some isolated incidents to stop us from travelling, especially to such a special part of the world. Is Turkey safe? we cant promise anything but we have never had any worries here visiting over the last 20 years since being children! The country is vast too, in fact if it were to be considered European it would be by far the largest country after Russia. This means that not only are you likely to be very far away from the far east of the country which is home to most of the trouble, but it is also an incredibly diverse country to visit. Road tripping around Turkey is incredible, its sapphire blue oceans to the south are a million miles away from being targets and offer a wealth of options, from secluded hikes and camping in local villages to resorts and hotel chains, whatever takes your fancy! The middle of the country is another matter, from deep forests and imposing lush mountains to the Mars like landscape of Cappadocia, there is wealth of places to see that are so isolated from the wider politics of the region. When most people ask, Is Turkey safe? I often tell them just how far away from the troubled regions you really are! Do I have to act differently in Turkey? The short answer is no! Turkey is built on being a secular nation, Ataturk transformed it into the modern country we see today. Most Turks are very easy going, friendly and incredibly welcoming! Drinking Raki (an aniseed flavoured spirit) is just as much a part of daily life as visiting the Mosque and in Turkey alcohol isnt frowned upon one bit! As well as Raki, the local beer is EFes which locals and visitors alike love! Of course, Turkey is a vast and diverse land with a large split in believe and conviction in that believe. But at its very core and the reason is is secular is all about choice! Visiting Turkey is all about reading your surroundings and being respectful. You wouldnt walk around any city centre in a bikini or shirtless (I would hope!) but around the beaches is fine. Pretty much anything you would normally wear, shorts, skirts, vests, dresses are all perfectly fine. If you decide to visit a Mosque then of course, you must cover up, but most have robes and headwear to lend for visitors and are very welcoming. Some areas are more conservative than others, but as long as you are respectful then its never an issue! Generally speaking you are likely to see a good mixture of people, from those in modern western clothing to those in very conservative muslim dress. Turkey might just surprise you and by the end youll never ask, Is Turkey safe? again! Getting around this huge country! Turkey is huge! Did we mention that!! However, car rental is cheap and it is the perfect way to get around the country. We rented a car for around 15 a day from Fethiye to do some trips up to Cappadocia, Antalya and the surrounding coastal regions. Road tripping in Turkey is the absolute best way to take in the amazing and ever changing landscapes as well as allowing you to visit some of the more off the beaten track places along the way. The people of Turkey really are so warm and welcoming that stopping in the little villages along the way is such an enriching experience. However, that isnt always an option for many. Turkey isnt well equipped for long rail journeys and instead buses travel all over the country. Its a long and arduous way to tour this incredible country but as far as night buses go the ones in Turkey are some of the best weve used. Most come with your own TV, catering service and regular stops, they are also pretty reasonably priced given the distance covered. In each city it is easy to book a bus and often many leave throughout the day to popular destinations and big cities. Turkey also has a great network of low cost domestic flights from the likes of Turkish Airways and Pegasus. From Dalaman on the south coast to Istanbul is takes only 1 hour. Cappadocia is also served by several regional airports too as is the country as a whole making flying an easy, fast and cheap way to get around Turkey. Why we love Turkey so much! Turkey is a country we keep going back to! We have family living there and life long friends made over years and years of visits. Its a country that seems to have everything, incredible cities, beautiful coastlines, mysterious mountains, unbelievable history and unsurpassable culture! There is a Turkey for everyone, from those wanting the adventure of a lifetime, to delve deep and get lost in the sights, smells and sounds of this ancient land. To those wanting to sit back relax and take in the warm azure ocean and jaw dropping beaches. Not to get lost in asking Is Turkey safe?! Its authenticity remains to this day amongst the commercialisation of the world, plus you can paraglide right over this amazing beach! Organise an amazing Turkey experience here: Book your accommodation here: Booking.com Hey, youve got your Travel Insurance sorted havent you? Travelling and especially backpacking is a wild adventure, but make sure you are covered just incase something goes wrong, which if youre living it up to the fullest its always a possibility! Is Turkey safe? Yeah, but you still need insurance! Check travel insurance prices with World Nomads here! Have you visited Turkey? Did you also fall in love with this incredible country? See more from this country: See more from our backpacking adventures: Photo Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved It's been 4 years -almost to the day- when I was traveling to Hanoi on my Hau Dong: Spirit ... "How I'd love to see such issues in our local elections." Mid-term elections were held in Taiwan last Saturday. Local posts, such as city and county local government positions, were at stake. The election template here is similar to the United States, in that a president is elected for a term of four years, and is allowed to seek one reelection. Presidential elections are not simultaneous with the local elections, unlike our synchronized elections. The Saturday results, while not necessarily unexpected, proved to be a stunning upset for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Public opinion polls the week before the elections showed the Kuomintang (KMT) was likely to win more seats than the ruling DPP, but the results in key DPP strongholds were particularly bad for the administration. At stake were 22 mayoral and county magistrate seats and 11,025 local offices (similar to our barangays). Of the 22 races, the DPP lost seven of the 13 cities and counties it previously heldTaichung, Kaohsiung, Chiayi cities and Yilan, Yunlin, Changhua and Penghu counties. Only six were won by the DPPTaoyuan, Tainan, Keelung and Hsinchu cities, as well as Chiayi and Pingtung counties. The KMT kept all the seats it previously occupied, namely New Taipei City, Miaoli, Nantou, Taitung and Lienchiang counties, and won KMT-aligned Kinmen and Hualien counties previously held by independents. Independent Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je, the incumbent, won a second term by a mere 3,254 vote margin over the KMT candidate, Ting Shou-chung. Had the DPP not insisted on fielding its own candidate, the incumbent Ko, who had an alliance with the ruling party, would likely have won with a much bigger margin. Political analysts here conceded New Taipei City to the Kuomintang early on, with the incumbent Mayor Eric Chus deputy mayor predicted to win easily. Mayor Chu was a popular city mayor who previously held the mayorship of Taoyuan as well. Chosen by the KMT to be its presidential candidate in 2016, he was however defeated by DPPs Tsai Ing-wen. The contest was too close to call in Kaohsiung and Taichung, DPP strongholds, and the ruling party candidates defeat in these two large cities was truly upsetting for the administration party. DPP campaign strategists conceded early on that if they lost New Taipei, it was expected. If they lost Taichung as well, it would be a stalemate. But if they lost Kaohsiung, which has been under their control for 20 years, it would be a defeat. KMTs Han Kuo-yu, who is not even a long-time Kaohsiung resident, prevailed over DPPs Chen Chi-mai who acted as mayor after then incumbent Chen Chu was appointed as the secretary-general of President Tsais office, despite a lackluster debate performance a week before the elections. Taking full responsibility for the DPPs showing, Pres. Tsai Ing-wen immediately resigned as party chairperson.Premier William Lai, the charismatic former mayor of Tainan, resigned as premier as well, but the President and the cabinet asked him and former Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu, now secretary-general of the Office of the President, to stay in their posts for the sake of continuity. The results of the local elections, while they could affect the fate of both major political parties in the 2000 presidential and parliamentary elections, do not necessarily constitute a repudiation of the national leadership. Media and academics are having a field day at analyzing the results of the elections, clearly an upset for the DPP. While understandably the opposition KMT is ecstatic, the acceptability and campaign efforts of its individual candidates, more than the party as a whole, were contributory to the upset. I recall what the long-time Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Tip Oneill kept stating, that all politics is local.. Add to that the politica del estomago. Economic issues, such as cutting down on the pensions of retired civil servants in an aging society, thus losing the senior citizen vote. Still for the government, that was an actuarial matter; they had to save the pension fund system. And while the economic situation is not in the doldrums and exports have actually been increasing, there is no question that the state of cross-strait relations, plus the nascent trade war between the worlds largest economies have had its toll. For an island of shopkeepers and SMEs, economics prevails over politics when voting time comes. Unfinished infrastructure and environmental issues as well. For Kaohsiung, it was the winner Hans promise to revive the local economy, largely dependent on the activity of one of the worlds busiest ports, and being tough on controlling air pollution. How Id love to see such issues in our local elections, such as if a mayor loses because garbage collection is bad, or because factories are closing down. For the capital Taipei, the election results were very close, where the incumbent mayor won narrowly over the KMT candidate by a 3,254 vote margin. Had DPP not fielded its own candidate, Pasuya Yao, pundits claim that Mayor Ko would have won more handily. The results of the close Taipei City elections was completed a bit late, around 2:30 Sunday morning. Citizens were howling because the other major cities had completed the canvass much earlier. Now the postscript: The chairman of the Central Election Commission (their Comelec) apologized to the voters and promptly resigned. As the senior official. I must accept all responsibility, Chairman Chen In-chin said in announcing his resignation. The resignation was accepted by the Executive Yuan. Only in Taiwan? Inwould you see such a spate of resignations by officials for failures not even directly attributable to them? Lawyers acting for a group of Scottish politicians argued before the top European court Tuesday that the British parliament should have the power to unilaterally halt the countdown to Brexit. A Scottish court has referred the case, which hinges on whether Westminster MPs could simply revoke Britain's "Article 50" EU withdrawal process, to the European Court of Justice. Prime Minister Theresa May's British government argues it has no intention of halting Brexit anyway and that the case has been brought as a political tactic by pro-European opponents. "Once Pandora's box is open, it's always difficult to close it," warned lawyer Lord Keen of Elie, urging the ECJ to throw out the case and "show respect for the UK parliament and the position of UK Government." May is trying to sell an agreement on a "smooth and orderly" Brexit to a hostile House of Commons, arguing that their choice is to back a deal or face the economic calamity of crashing out of Europe without a plan. But pro-Europeans hope that if the European court confirms that Britain has the right to stop the countdown then a third option would emerge: stopping Brexit altogether and remaining in the EU. "It is fundamental to the treaties -- and to the values of the European Union -- that a member state can choose to revoke its withdrawal from the Union without the need for the unanimous agreement of all the other member states," argued lawyer Aidan O'Neill. - 'Chaos, uncertainty' - The European Union institutions also oppose the Scottish case, fearing member states will tempted to launch their own speculative exit bids to extract concessions from Brussels -- only to reverse course. "Can you imagine the state of uncertainty the process would put us in?" argued Karen Banks, a lawyer and senior European Commission official. "There would be chaos, uncertainty." Under Article 50 of the Lisbon EU treaty, any member state can declare its intention to quit the union, a decision which for Britain comes into effect on March 29 next year. Britain invoked the article on March 29, 2017 -- after voters backed Brexit in a national referendum the year before -- and is on course to formally leave EU institutions in less than five months. The decision remains hugely controversial, however, and a group of politicians -- members of the Scottish, UK and EU parliaments -- has brought a case arguing that Britain should have the right change its mind. But EU legal experts argue that all 27 remaining member states would have to agree to suspend the Article 50 process once it is launched. The European Parliament has investigated the clause in the treaty and concluded, as did the Scottish courts that took up the legal challenge, that only the ECJ can make a legal ruling on the matter. After Tuesday's hearing, the court retired to consider the arguments. The ECJ is treating the case under an expedited procedure but no date has been given for a ruling. A court source told AFP that the decision could well be made before the end of the year, but the judges must first decide if the ECJ even accepts jurisdiction in the case. Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacation "Why are we allowing the Chinese to take jobs away from Filipinos?" An insider privy to the discussions between the producers of Ang Probinsyano and Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde said that the police chiefs threat to disallow the network from using the uniforms of the police in the show was key to the agreement between the two parties. This was in exchange for the positive portrayal of cops in the popular primetime show. Santa Banana, this may be seen as a precedent to curbing freedom of expression. ABS-CBN surrendered, in effect, to the police and the Department of the Interior and Local Government. This is subservience to the police, my! * * * In an earlier column I expressed the legality and workability of Memorandum 32 issued by President Duterte for two reasons: First, its in compliance with Article VII, Section 18 that in the case of lawless violence, invasion or rebellion, the President as commander in chief and as top cop of the Philippine National Police could call on the military and the police to suppress the violence. This is contrary to the hallucination of the communists, the leftist groups, the opposition and other critics of the President that its a prelude to martial law. My second argument is that military and police presence would prevent the New Peoples Army from inflicting harm further. Local police can no longer be trusted because they are always outgunned and outnumbered by the NPA. The memorandum is both practical and timely with the upcoming midterm elections. I would even say that the President should put troops in election hot spots if only to deter guns for hire, private armies of politicians and proliferation of loose firearms during elections. I dont think the move will scare the masses and lead to abuses. We know only too well what can happen during elections. Rivalries are so intense that they sometimes mean the difference between life and death. I say to the Presidentdont mind your critics. * * * I have always admired and respected the ponencia of Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio. He exhibits erudition and independence in his decisions. Carpios probity and integrity also show when he makes his opinion known on the issue of the memorandum of understanding between China and the Philippines on the exploration and exploitation of oil, gas and other minerals.I like the stand of Carpio since it is within the right of the Philippines to exclude any country from a partnership within our territory. That would be an incursion into our sovereignty. The problem, as Carpio so very well put it, is that the 1.3-billion Chinese believe that they own 87.5 percent of the South China Sea. This is also the reason why China has rejected the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on the issue. Its actually a difficult situation for President Duterte. He cannot make President Xi Jinping understand this. All he could do is open up our country to China for loans, grants and investments. * * * The reported entry of some 119,000 Chinese from the mainland as tourists is alarming. The Bureau of Immigration has given them employment permits! We know only too well that this bureau is graft-ridden. I remember when I was with the Philippines Herald, many Chinese at Immigration detention centers were allowed to leave their cells during weekends upon payment of a fee. I am glad that the Senate will be looking into this problem. There is a need to amend labor laws. Chinese tourists have been found in online gambling activities and also in the hospitality business. One tenth of our population is jobless. Why do we allow the Chinese to take these jobs away from us? Something is terribly wrong here. * * * I cannot understand why the government has not yet given the go signal to Ramon Ang to pursue a planned aerotropolis on 250 hectares of flatland in Bulacan. This will have six runways it will solve our current congestion problems at NAIA. The government is also dragging its feet in the final approval of the consortium of taipans to improve NAIA. The consortium even partnered with Changi Airport in Singapore. Meanwhile, Ang has partnered with Incheon Airport through an MoU with the second biggest airport in the world. Why the delay? Foods and vegetables sold like hot cakes at several supermarkets and minimarts in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, as people were eager to do the shopping after one day restricted by torrential rains that lasted the whole of Sunday. Several shelves of vegetables, fish, eggs and processed foods at the Co.op Mart supermarket on Phan Xich Long Street in Phu Nhuan District went empty at 7:30 pm on Monday. Confectionery on the shelves next to the payment counters, which are normally ignored by customers, was also sold out. According to an attendant here, the supermarket was so crowded from the early morning that many items had been out of stock by mid-day. It's been a long time since I saw so many people go shopping here, the attendant said. Similarly, different kinds of vegetable at another Co.op Mart supermarket on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street in District 3 sold faster than ever on Monday. Common vegetables like water spinach and Malabar spinach were nowhere to be seen, while other greens were only left in a small amount. Empty egg shelves are seen at the Co.op Mart supermarket on Phan Xich Long Street in Phu Nhuan District at 7:30 pm on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Hanh, a resident in Binh Thanh District, who went to the aforementioned supermarket to buy pork, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that she could not go to the market for two days because of flooding. There are fewer vegetables today than the other days, many of them are sold out, only fruits and root vegetables are left, no suitable vegetables to buy, Nguyen Ngoc Le, who works near the supermarket, said while selecting veggies here. Demand for vegetables saw an unusual increase, according to an attendant at the supermarket, while the goods supply fell behind the need due to the impact of the rains triggered by storm Usagi. Likewise, meat sales of Vietnam's leading meat processor Vissan at its counter inside the Nguyen Dinh Chieu Co.op Mart supermarket on Monday rose by 40 percent compared to other days, according to an attendant. At other supermarkets such as Big C on To Hien Thanh Street in District 10, some vegetables were completely sold out; at the Satramart supermarket in District 10, there were only a few meats, clams, shrimp, and fish left. Empty bread and cookies shelves are seen at the Co.op Mart supermarket on Phan Xich Long Street in Phu Nhuan District at 7:30 pm on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Mini-supermarkets alike Mini-supermarkets in the city also faced the same situation, quickly running out of foods and vegetables. Normally, the vegetable shelves are still full when I come here at 6:00 pm every day, but theyre sold out too early today, said Huynh Nhat Minh, an office worker, shopping at Satrafoods on Phan Dinh Phung Street in Phu Nhuan District on Monday night. I still have not found enough to cook. An attendant of the supermarket said that they had sold all the vegetables by the afternoon of the same day, instead of 8:00 pm on normal days. At Japanese retailer AEONs Citimart in District 1 and Satrafoods on Phan Dang Luu Street in Phu Nhuan District, a lot of vegetable shelves were also empty. Addressing this issue, a Co.op Mart representative told Tuoi Tre that the lack of goods only occurred at particular points of sale because of the sudden large purchase. An empty meat counter is seen at the Co.op Mart supermarket on Phan Xich Long Street in Phu Nhuan District at 7:30 pm on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Overall, the supply of goods of the leading Vietnamese retailer remained stable as Co.op Mart coincidentally had just re-stocked for discount programs right before the storm. Some items, mainly leafy vegetables and seafood, were really in short supply because of the heavy rain. According to the representative, prices did not fluctuate much in the aftermath of the storm. Similarly, the South Korean retailer Lotte Mart explained that people could not do the shopping for two days due to the rainstorm, so a significantly larger number of customers visited its supermarkets on Monday. This retail chain also reported a rise of around 40-50 percent in purchase compared to the previous days, causing many commodities to be sold out. As storm Usagi mainly hit the southern region of Vietnam, while vegetables are mostly sourced by supermarkets from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and other localities in other regions, the lack of goods is not severe, except for some types of leafy vegetable. The storm made landfall on Ho Chi Minh City and other southern provinces on the weekend, causing a historically heavy rain in the city that sank many streets under up to 400mm of rainwater on Sunday. Empty meat shelves are seen at the Co.op Mart supermarket on Phan Xich Long Street in Phu Nhuan District at 7:30 pm on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Empty vegetable shelves are seen at Satrafoods on Phan Dinh Phung Street in Phu Nhuan District on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnamese carmaker VinFast introduced the first made-in-Vietnam cars to the public in Ho Chi Minh City at a launch ceremony attended by thousands of people on Monday. VinFast is the carmaking arm of Vietnams leading property developer Vingroup. After its successful introduction in Hanoi on November 20, the firm went on to bring its sedan, SUV, city car and electric motorcycles to Ho Chi Minh City, at the super-tall skyscraper Landmark 81. As observed by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspapers reporters, the exhibition space inside the venue was crowded by thousands of people when it was only 9:30 am on Monday. Many customers even decided to purchase these VinFast cars on the spot. Nguyen Hoang Vu, a car enthusiast in Phu Nhuan District, said that he was impressed by the BMW-like three-spoke steering wheel and the 10.4-inch vertical screen like those newest designs of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo. Vu read the technical specifications, the car engine and other features thoroughly and commented that the space inside is as large as that of a luxury car made by a European or U.S. brand. Attractive price Tran Van Manh, a resident in Binh Thanh District, told Tuoi Tre that he paid a deposit to buy the seven-seater LUX SA2.0 SUV as his family includes many members. This model is quite beautiful. Although I have just seen it for the first time, I decided to buy it as the price is appropriate with the current discount of nearly VND600 million [US$25,800], Manh said. The LUX A2.0 sedan is seen at the launch ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre According to VinFast, its cars will be offered to consumers with a three-zero policy: zero depreciation expenses, zero financial expenses, which include interest, plant construction cost, working capital, and zero profits. In particular, the LUX A2.0 sedan is priced at VND1.818 billion ($78,174), LUX SA2.0 SUV at VND1.366 billion ($58,738), and the Fadil city car at VND423 million ($18,189). For the time being, the three models will be sold at VND1.136 billion ($48,848), VND800 million ($34,400) and VND336 million ($14,448), respectively, according to Nguyen Viet Quang, Vingroups vice-president and general director. In addition, VinFast will also consider working with banks to introduce a wide selection of financing options to car buyers, according to the companys president Le Thi Thu Thuy. In its plan, the firm will deliver Fadil cars in mid-2019 and the LUX models by the end of the same year. The carmaker will also push the development of store and showroom systems nationwide, making use of the available space of Vingroups many shopping malls and supermarkets. According to economics expert Ngo Tri Long, VinFast cars prices will be more competitive once the company achieves the localization rate of 60 percent at its production complex in Dinh Vu Industrial Park in the northern Vietnamese city of Hai Phong. The plant was inaugurated in September 2017 at a cost of $1-1.5 billion in the first phase. It is the largest and most modern project of its kind in the region, producing both quality gasoline cars and electric motorcycles and having its intellectual property protected in Europe, according to Quang, Vingroups vice-president and general director. On the other hand, senior automotive expert Vu Tan Cong assessed that VinFast has gained the first success in promoting its first made-in-Vietnam cars, creating a sense of national pride in producing high-value products. Cong also advised that VinFast better prove their capability of meeting customers need in the future. Customers read the technical specifications of the LUX SA2.0 SUV at the launch ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Your browser does not support the audio element. A Vietnamese woman of short stature has managed a healthy firm despite her physical disabilities, an achievement that compels admiration from many people. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuong, weighing 25 kilograms, is unable to stand but can roll on the bed and use her hands to type. Thuong, 80 centimeters tall, has to sit in a baby wheelchair for mobility and suffers from brittle bone disease. But this woman now runs a company of 20 employees who are people with disabilities in Hanoi. Fifteen years ago, Thuong learned handicraft at the age of 20, creating lampshades from shirt buttons. A woman caught sight of Thuongs skillful products shown on the Internet and decided to provide her materials from which she could make items to be sold at her paper filigree shop. The woman introduced Thuong to quilling within three days, before Thuong learned the art by herself and even showed her younger sister how to create paper filigree designs, Thuong recalled. Connected with other disabled people over the Internet, Thuong realized they wished to fend for themselves and have employment, as she did. Thats why I invited them to learn the trade at my place in two months and then gave them materials so that they could create handicrafts at home, Thuong said. She received their products and sold them to market. In 2013, her dream came true when she opened her own workshop whose workers were people with physical impairment from her hometown in Hanoi. The atelier evolved into Thuong Thuong Handmade, a company specializing in quilling pictures, handmade greeting cards, jewelry boxes and jewelry items which are purchased domestically and exported to France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuongs employees at their workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre Thuong receives orders and conducts transaction with customers. The woman, who did not attend school but was taught literacy by her family and English by college students, can negotiate deals with foreign customers and send via email catalogues she and a disabled artist designed. As Thuongs business has been on the upswing, she is planning to open another workshop right in the capital. She stated her philosophy of business shorthand: sell products with real quality and evoke no customer pity for the disabled. If customers have pity, they buy only once. But they have made multiple purchases with us, Thuong said. The 35-year-old woman often receives over a dozen morning phone calls for design advice from her workers, who are monthly paid VND2-6 million ($86-$258), depending on their performance. As Thuong covers their accommodation costs, the salary is enough for the employees to send to families. Her sister, Nguyen Dieu Nhu, said Thuong is unwavering in her decision, working hard to create jobs for others despite her familys dissuasion. Thuong said she could hardly remember how many times her bones had fractured as a result of brittle bone disease. The latest of such incidents was in August and it took her nearly three months in bed to recover. She could not have broken bones wrapped by plaster and had to lie in the same posture during the period. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Here are todays leading news stories: Politics -- North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is scheduled to conduct an official visit to Vietnam from November 29 to December 2 at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh. Society -- Two more people were confirmed dead of drowning and electrocution during the heavy downpours accompanied with strong gusts in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday, local authorities stated, after a man died after a falling tree earlier the same day. -- The north-to-south railway system resumed its normal operation as of 8:00 am on Monday, after the issue where floodwater had washed away a large amount of soil underneath the train tracks in the south-central province of Binh Thuan last weekend was solved. -- South Korea will start issuing five-year visas for residents with household registration in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and the central city of Da Nang on December 3. The visa will allow multiple entries, each lasting a maximum of 30 days. -- Police in the north-central province of Ha Tinh confirmed on Monday evening they had summoned two local men to verify a video footage showing them killing a monkey and eating its brain. The video was uploaded to one of the mens Facebook account on Sunday and has stirred up outrage on social media. -- Two female Vietnamese passengers have been detained by security officers at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after saying there were bombs in their luggage, a source of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper at the Embassy of Vietnam in Malaysia said on Sunday. -- Officers in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum have arrested a 50-year-old man for beating his wife to death with a brick following an argument. Business -- VinFast, the car-making unit of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, introduced its four car models and an electric motorbike during an exhibition at the Landmark 81 building in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday. -- Horasis, an independent think tank based in Zurich, convened the 2018 Horasis Asia Meeting in the southern province of Binh Duong on Monday, which was attended by about 800 Vietnamese and foreign businessmen. -- The State Bank of Vietnam has announced a draft law in which it is expected to implement certain steps to replace all ATM cards with chip cars by 2022. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A Ho Chi Minh City-based museum has been organizing apologetic trips for South Korean veterans of the American war in Vietnam to return to the country for reconciliation and repentance over the last two decades. The success of the program was presented to attendees at a museum development conference in Hanoi on Monday by Huynh Ngoc Van, former director of the War Remnants Museum. The War Remnants Museum, located in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, is where South Korean veterans visited to end haunting ghosts from the war in repentance trips that have been consistently maintained by the Vietnamese museum and a South Korean partner, the Seoul-based Korean Peace Museum. The trips were first organized in around 2000, when the Korean Peace Museum visited its Vietnamese counterpart and suggested both sides jointly hold those tours. Initially one such trip was arranged yearly but the number has since stood at two or three, and could be higher in the near future, Van told the conference. Participants in the journeys included South Koreas war veterans and students who wanted to know more about the war in Vietnam, she said. The one-time soldiers, most of whom took the trips many times, usually toured the War Remnants Museum in daytime and at night, conversed with Vietnamese war survivors and expressed their apologies for the sufferings they caused in wartime. They cried and even knelt down in atonement before the victims. The veterans also watched musical performances by Vietnamese people disabled by defoliant Agent Orange, and they failed to hold back tears, Van said. In 1968, South Korean troops slaughtered 135 civilians in a village of the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam. The massacre did not come to light in the East Asian country until 2000, when Seoul-based newspaper The Hankyoreh 21 published stunning revelations about the atrocities. The paper then launched an apology campaign in February 1999 that lasted until February 2003. The campaign which was a call for apologies and financial contributions to support Vietnamese victims and build a peace park in Vietnam, among other activities was enthusiastically embraced. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A Vietnamese businessman is at the center of criticism after he posted photos of himself posing with slaughtered wild birds, thought to be of the vulnerable great hornbill species, and boasting about eating the feathered animals. Tuan Kiet, director of a company based in Ho Chi Minh City, shared the controversial photos on Facebook on Sunday, in which he could be seen smiling and holding the already slaughtered and defeathered birds by their bills. Anyone want to grab a drink? I cant finish these birds by myself, Kiet wrote in a caption under the photos. The post went viral on the social media site, as users accused the entrepreneur of killing and eating an endangered species. Great hornbills are listed as a vulnerable species with a decreasing population by the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. There are currently around 13,000-27,000 mature great hornbills worldwide, mainly in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, according to IUCN statistics. The birds iconic bill is said to be even more expensive than elephant tusks and rhino horns, costing thousands of U.S. dollars per kilogram on the black market, according to Le Van Tanh, director of the forest protection department of Binh Phuoc Province in southern Vietnam, Binh Phuoc is home to the Bu Gia Map National Park, a major conservation area for the rare birds. A great hornbill in its natural habitat is seen in this photo on the official website of IUCN. However, great hornbills also exist in other national parks in Vietnam as well as in Laos and Cambodia, Tanh said. There is insufficient evidence to suggest the birds killed in the photos uploaded online were from Binh Phuoc. Tanh added that the birds showed in the photos could belong to a more common species of the hornbill family, though a definitive conclusion is not possible from just a few pictures. Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper has reached out to the Facebook account where the photos were posted but the paper has not received any response. As of Tuesday, the original post has been removed from the account by its owner. Tanh said the forest protection department of Binh Phuoc has requested cooperation from Ho Chi Minh City authorities in confirming the entrepreneurs identity and getting in touch with the man for questions. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnamese nationals who were born or are a registered permanent resident in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City or Da Nang will be eligible for five-year multiple-entry visas to South Korea, starting December 3. The news was announced on Monday by Jeong Woo-jin, Deputy Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Ho Chi Minh City, during a visit to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's headquarters in Phu Nhuan District. Vietnamese applicants who have proof, either through a birth certificate or residence book, that they are from one of the three major cities will enjoy the extended visa benefits, starting next week. Visa holders will be allowed multiple entries into South Korea during the five-year validity period of their visa, with each stay lasting no longer than 30 days, Jeong said. The new visa policy is an initiative from South Koreas foreign ministry to make traveling to South Korea easier for residents in Vietnams most developed cities. South Korea has plans to expand this visa policy to other Vietnamese cities and provinces in the future based on the results of its implementation in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, the diplomat said. Jeong Woo-jin (R), Deputy Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Ho Chi Minh City, visits Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's headquarters in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City on November 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre In addition, all applicants from ASEAN member states, including Vietnam, who are professors, medical doctors, lawyers, or have earned a four-year undergraduate degree in South Korea or a graduate degree in a foreign country, will be eligible for ten-year multiple-entry visas to South Korea from December 3. ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a socio-economic and political bloc consisting of ten countries in Southeast Asia, which are Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. The new policy is the result of efforts from the Embassy and Consulate General of South Korea in Vietnam to improve the exchange of people between the two countries, the deputy consul general said. In the first ten months of 2018, Vietnam welcomed over 2.6 million visitors from South Korea, more than the number of Korean visitors to India and any other ASEAN countries, he said. Over 441,000 Vietnamese nationals visited South Korea in the same period. Vietnam currently exempts visas for all South Korean nationals who intend to stay in the country for 15 days or less. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Two Vietnamese women are in detention and facing prosecution in Malaysia after they claimed to be carrying bombs in their luggage while preparing to board a flight at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport last week. The female passengers were going through airport security to get on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi on November 22 when they were asked to declare what was inside their baggage. In response, the Vietnamese couple said they were carrying bombs, which prompted security officers to detain them on the spot for investigation. However, a thorough baggage inspection by Malaysian authorities found no bomb and the passengers admitted that they were only joking when they made the declaration, a Vietnam Airlines representative said in a statement. Nevertheless, the passengers could face legal prosecution for the bomb hoax, which violates aviation safety laws in Malaysia, the airline representative said. The Embassy of Vietnam in Malaysia confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday that the two passengers were still being held by Malaysian police for a probe into the case. Local police have not disclosed further information regarding the two Vietnamese nationals, citing ongoing investigation, the Vietnamese Embassy said. Malaysian police said they would notify Vietnamese authorities when they wrap up their investigation, which could take 1-2 weeks. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Discovery Channel is heading to the bottom of one of the worlds largest submerged sink holes in Into the Blue Hole. Explorer Fabien Cousteau and Sir Richard Branson will feature in an exploration mission Into the Blue Hole on Discovery. Located 74 kilometres off the coast of Belize, the Great Blue Hole is one of the worlds largest submerged sink holes known for its crystal-clear water and its abundance of sea life. But the 30 million-year-old, 130m deep and 300m wide hole has never been plotted and only been explored once, in 1971, by the legendary Jacques Cousteau. The exploration mission will be broadcast Live in the US just days before its Australian screening. Into the Blue Hole will take viewers to the bottom of the sink hole via a submersible and document the findings. The on-board exploration team will include Sir Richard Branson; Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau; and Erika Bergman, the submersibles pilot. Hosted by Australian marine biologist Luke Tipple and presenter Chris Jacobs the special will explore how the Great Blue Hole was created, how technology has evolved since Cousteaus first mission, and will delve into the legends surrounding the unique spot. The data collected will help researchers and scientists understand how changing sea levels affected its formation and provide key information about climate change patterns. Wednesday 5 December at 9.30pm on Discovery. Workers handle beef carcasses at the Ecocarne Meat Plant slaughterhouse in San Fernando Workers handle beef carcasses at the Ecocarne Meat Plant slaughterhouse in San Fernando, Argentina, June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci By Hugh Bronstein, Cassandra Garrison and Tom Polansek BUENOS AIRES/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Argentina is on the verge of signing a deal with the United States that would allow two-way trade of fresh beef for the first time in nearly two decades, the South American country's international trade secretary, Marisa Bircher, said. The agreement, expected to be signed within days, would simultaneously open beef imports to both countries, Bircher told Reuters in an interview. "We are negotiating the reopening to happen over the days ahead," she said. "All the technical and administrative questions have been settled." At a time when the South American nation is seeking to boost beef sales abroad, the agreement would allow Argentina to show other prospective buyers that its meat is healthy enough to enter a country with some of the world's toughest sanitary protocols. The deal would also open a new market for the U.S. cattle sector, although demand for U.S. beef is low in Argentina. The country is famous for its quality steaks, some tender enough to be cut with a spoon, as demonstrated with a flourish by waiters in the iconic steak houses of Buenos Aires. Argentina will have a 20,000-tonne limit on its exports to the United States, Bircher said, while there will be no limit on U.S. beef going to Argentina. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative's Office in Washington declined to comment. The U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires did not respond to a request for comment. U.S. beef passed a bureaucratic hurdle needed to access Argentina last week, according to a notice posted on Wednesday on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service website. But before any U.S. beef can be exported to Argentina, meat companies need to register their products, processing plants and labels with Argentinas National Service for Agrifood Health and Quality, said Joe Schuele, spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a trade group. Story continues The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service formally approved imports of fresh beef from northern Argentina in 2015, according to a document posted in the U.S. Federal Register. The USDA still needs to certify Argentine processing plants that would ship meat to the United States to make sure they meet safety standards, said Bill Bullard, chief executive of U.S. cattle producers' group R-CALF USA. "Opening the border to raw beef from Argentina is certain to put downward pressure on U.S. cattle prices, and meat packers will be able to use this cheaper, undifferentiated beef as a direct substitute for beef produced by U.S. cattle producers," he said. CATTLE DISEASE Bircher said Argentina stopped exporting beef to the United States about 17 years ago due to U.S. concerns about contamination of Argentine cattle by foot-and-mouth disease. "We have eliminated that through a vaccine program in our livestock sector," she said. Another senior Argentine official, speaking on background, confirmed that Argentina and the United States were "close" to striking a deal. The last time the United States sent fresh beef to Argentina was in 1999, according to Argentina's official statistics agency. Once one of the world's top five beef suppliers, Argentina was hobbled under the anti-farm policies of the country's previous president, Cristina Fernandez. The country fell off the top 10 list of beef exporters during her eight-year presidency. It is back in the top 10, according to USDA data and could get into the top five next year thanks to the free-market policies of President Mauricio Macri and a sharp weakening of the local peso currency this year. The United States produced 11.9 million tonnes of beef last year and exported 1.3 million tonnes, according to USDA data. Argentina produced 2.8 million tonnes of beef and veal in 2017, exceeding its domestic consumption by 293,000 tonnes in 2017. It is a delicate time for the world food system. Traditional trade routes of grains and oilseeds have been interrupted by a trade war between Washington and Beijing, and the world's two biggest economies are now looking for new commercial partnerships to strengthen their positions. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Cassandra Garrison in Buenos Aires and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Additional reporting by Maximilian Heath and Gabriel Burin in Buenos Aires and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin and Leslie Adler) Irelands finance ministry on Tuesday welcomed the signing of an agreement with Malta. Pic: Reuters Irelands tax authority on Tuesday said it had signed an agreement with its Maltese counterpart to close a tax avoidance loophole known as the single malt. The controversial loophole allows multinational companies to pay single-digit tax rates by recording foreign income in Ireland and routing it to low-tax jurisdictions like Malta. The structure had been deployed as recently as July 2018, according to an Irish charity that has criticised its use. Irelands finance ministry, which had insisted that US tax reforms introduced by President Donald Trump would effectively put an end to the use of the loophole, welcomed news of the agreement. I am pleased that this agreement has been reached which should eliminate any remaining concerns about such structures, finance minister Paschal Donohoe said in a statement. This is another sign of Irelands commitment to tackling aggressive tax planning, he added. The structure allows companies to funnel their non-US sales income from one Irish subsidiary into another Irish, but Maltese-resident, subsidiary by paying royalties for the use of company intellectual property, the rights of which have been given to the Maltese-resident company. This typically reduces the taxes paid on this sales income dramatically. The Competent Authority Agreement, signed by Ireland and Malta, states that the double taxation convention in place between the two countries should not be used for those purposes. Irish tax laws have been under international scrutiny for many years. In 2014, the Irish government moved to close a loophole involving Caribbean tax havens known as the double Irish. In September, Irish charity Christian Aid said that the Irish government had failed to take meaningful action against the single malt tax avoidance structure. The December 2017 overhaul of the US tax code by the Trump administration aimed to reduce the exploitation of foreign low-tax jurisdictions by US multinationals. But Christian Aid said in a September report that Teleflex, a multi-billion dollar medical technologies company headquartered in Pennsylvania, had used the double Irish structure as recently as this year to reduce its global effective tax rate to just over 3%. The Competent Authority Agreement will be ratified as part of Irelands 2018 Finance Bill. The ministry said it would deposit the final documents with the OECD in early January 2019. READ MORE: Controversial single malt tax avoidance structure still in use in Ireland The banknote maker posted a slump in half-year profits to 7.1 million, down from 18.9 million a year earlier. Banknote printer De La Rue has revealed a strategy rethink for its identity business after losing a key UK passport contract. The group announced it will refocus the business on specific parts of the manufacturing process for identity documents. Chief executive Martin Sutherland said the shift in strategy came after the group lost the contract to make the UKs post-Brexit blue passports to FrancoDutch firm Gemalto earlier this year. He said: Over the last six months we have conducted a thorough review of our strategy and market positions. In the light of the UK passport decision, we have concluded that we will refocus our identity business on the supply of higher margin security features and components. De La Rue will concentrate on separate parts of the manufacturing process such as on polymer plastics and security technology. The company is currently in the midst of a five-year plan to transform De La Rue into a less capital intensive, more technology led security product and services provider in order to improve earnings. The Government came under heavy fire in March for its decision to choose a European firm for the contract, but claimed it will save 120 million during the lifetime of the 11-and-a-half-year contract. The company abandoned its appeal against the Governments decision in April, when it revealed that it will take a 4 million hit from its failed bid. De La Rue, which has produced banknotes since 1860, is also the firm behind both the new polymer 5 and 10 notes. Details of its strategy overhaul came as De La Rue posted a slump in half year profit due to lower margins in the currency division and continued investment in the business. For the six months ended September 29, the banknote maker made a pre-tax profit of 7.1 million compared with 18.9 million in the same period a year earlier. However, revenue increased 5% to 257.6 million and the company maintained the interim dividend at 8.3p a share. Mr Sutherland said: We maintain a strong order book and pipeline which provides good visibility for the second half of this year and into next year. With good revenue coverage from the groups 12-month order book of 365 million and based on the orders planned for production and shipment in the second half, we are confident that we will meet our expectations for the full year. US army afghanistan Reuters Three US service members were killed and three wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on Tuesday near the central Afghan city of Ghazni, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement. The names of the killed soldiers will be withheld until the miltiary can contact their next of kin. There was no word on the circumstances of the blast but Ghazni has been one of the most heavily fought over areas of Afghanistan this year. Three US service members were killed and three wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on Tuesday near the central Afghan city of Ghazni, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement. A US civilian contractor was also wounded in the blast and was receiving treatment with the other wounded, the statement said, giving no further details. The names of the killed soldiers will be withheld until the miltiary can contact their next of kin. In a separate incident on November 24, another US soldier was killed while fighting Al Qaeda militants, this one by friendly fire. Afghan police and the country's national army have also recently suffered heavy losses to Islamist militants, with 20 police and 10 troops by the Taliban on Sunday. "Since 2015, still much regrettable, but the entire loss of American forces in Afghanistan is 58 Americans. In the same period, 28,529 of our security forces have lost their lives," the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in mid-November, according to the New York Times. Read more: The most elite US-trained forces in Afghanistan routed by the Taliban, another sign the war is a lost cause There was no word on the circumstances of the blast but Ghazni has been one of the most heavily fought over areas of Afghanistan this year. A large Taliban force overran Ghazni earlier this year and Afghan and NATO forces took days to fight them back out of the city. NOW WATCH: The true story behind Boston gangster Whitey Bulger See Also: The European Union has adopted a 30 million program in support of vulnerable communities affected by prolonged displacement in Yemen. The package will address the urgent needs of internally displaced populations and vulnerable host communities in Yemen by providing basic services in health, education, protection and legal counselling. It will also help build the capacities of local institutions responsible for monitoring population flows, the EU commission said in a press release Tuesday. Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica said: The prolonged crisis in Yemen has devastated the lives of millions. Close to 18 million Yemenis dont have their daily meals secured. More than 3 million have had to flee their homes in fear for their lives some of them only to be displaced a second or third time. The EU is deploying all the instruments available to it in support of the UN-led peace process in Yemen. This new package of assistance will help displaced Yemenis to rebuild their livelihoods and overcome the current crisis. Together with the 41 million package adopted in October 2018, this measure is part of the EUs comprehensive response to build socio-economic resilience and strengthen the food and nutrition security in a country ravaged by years of violent conflict, hunger and epidemics, the press release added. This new support complements the ongoing first phase of the Enhanced Rural Resilience in Yemen Program a flagship initiative supported by the EU since the beginning of the current crisis to sustain the capacity for resilience of ordinary Yemenis, whose livelihoods and community services have been devastated over the past three years. These actions are in line with the Council Conclusions on Yemen of 25 June 2018, which put particular emphasis on the situation of vulnerable communities affected by the on-going hostilities and the humanitarian crisis. Throughout 2018, the European Union also allocated 118 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen. The overall EU commitment in support to resilience and development in Yemen now stands at 244 million since the start of the conflict in 2015. The conflict in Yemen continues to escalate, resulting in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world with unprecedented levels of hunger and poverty, and the spread of preventable diseases. An estimated 22.2 million people in Yemen (out of 28 million total population) need some kind of humanitarian and/or protection assistance, including 11.3 million who are in acute need. An estimated 17.8 million people in the country are food insecure. Reuters Architecture student Arijana Pirusic is one of some 23,000 young people planning to leave Bosnia in search of better education or work opportunities, part of an annual brain drain from their troubled homeland. A new survey by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found that 47% of Bosnians - or 269,000 - aged 18-29 are thinking of going abroad temporarily or for good, unhappy with a lack of jobs, poor public services and endemic corruption. Pirusic, 23, now completing a master's degree in architecture at Sarajevo University, will spend her final semester at the University of Stuttgart in Germany under the European Union's Erasmus student exchange programme. A worker handles beef carcasses at the Ecocarne Meat Plant slaughterhouse in San Fernando, Argentina, June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci Thomson Reuters By Hugh Bronstein and Cassandra Garrison BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina is on the verge of signing a deal with the United States that would allow two-way trade of fresh beef for the first time in nearly two decades, the South American country's international trade secretary, Marisa Bircher, told Reuters. The agreement, expected to be signed within days, would simultaneously open beef imports to both countries, Bircher said in an interview. "We are negotiating the reopening to happen over the days ahead," she said. "All the technical and administrative questions have been settled." At a time when the country is seeking to boost beef sales abroad, the agreement would allow Argentina to show other prospective buyers that its meat is healthy enough to enter a country with some of the world's toughest sanitary protocols. The deal would also open a new market for the U.S. cattle sector, although demand for U.S. beef is low in Argentina. The country is famous for its quality steaks, some tender enough to be cut with a spoon as demonstrated with a flourish by waiters in the iconic steak houses of Buenos Aires. Argentina will have a 20,000 tonne limit on its exports to the United States, Bircher said, while there will be no limit on U.S. beef going to Argentina. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Trade Representative's Office in Washington, and the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires did not respond to requests for comment. Bircher said Argentina stopped exporting beef to the United States about 17 years ago due to U.S. concerns about Argentine cattle being contaminated by foot-and-mouth disease. "We have eliminated that through a vaccine program in our livestock sector," she said. Another senior Argentine official, speaking on background, confirmed that Argentina and the United States were "close" to a deal. The last time the United States sent fresh beef to Argentina was in 1999, according to Argentina's official statistics agency. Story continues Once one of the world's top five beef suppliers, Argentina was hobbled under the anti-farm policies of the country's previous president, Cristina Fernandez. The country fell off the top 10 list of beef exporters during her eight-year presidency. It is back in the top 10, according to USDA data and could get into the top five next year thanks to the free market policies of President Mauricio Macri and a sharp weakening of the local peso currency this year. It's a delicate time for the world food system. Traditional trade routes of grains and oilseeds have been interrupted by a trade war between Washington and Beijing. The world's two biggest economies are now looking for new commercial partnerships to strengthen their positions. to bolster their positions in their trade war. A U.S. beef deal with Argentina could provide a glimmer of good news for U.S. farmers after weeks of bearish trade war headlines. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Cassandra Garrison; Additional reporting by Maximilian Heath and Gabriel Burin; Editing by Ross Colvin) See Also: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday called on both Moscow and Kiev to de-escalate tensions during a joint press conference in Paris with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea on Sunday after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors, a move that has ignited a new crisis between the two former Soviet countries. Following talks in Paris on Tuesday, France's Le Drian urged Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors, adding that he would also urge his Ukrainian counterpart to ease tensions in the region. The "remilitarisation of the Azov Sea will only aggravate tensions", Le Drian told Lavrov, referring to the sea that lies between Russia and Ukraine and is linked by the narrow Kerch Strait to the Black Sea. Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia illegally blocked the Kerch Strait and acted against international law by grabbing the vessels and sailors. But Moscow has accused the Ukrainian boats of unlawfully entering Russian waters, a stance reiterated by Lavrov on Tuesday. Ukraine must be told "not to play with fire", Lavrov told reporters in Paris, accusing Kiev of "intentionally provoking" the incident at sea. The Prime Minister paid tribute to a formidable figure in British politics, best known for sticking two fingers up to a Lords colleague in 2011. Theresa May has paid tribute to Baroness Trumpington after her death at the age of 96, describing the Tory peer as a formidable figure in British politics. The Prime Minister said the kindness and humour of the former Bletchley Park code-breaker, famed for flicking two fingers at a colleague during a debate, would be sorely missed. Lady Trumpington previously Jean Barker was a Conservative peer who retired from the House of Lords last year and was celebrated as one of Parliaments most colourful characters. Baroness Trumpington had a truly extraordinary career from her work at Bletchley Park during WW2 to her decades of public service in local and national Government. She was a formidable figure in British politics and her kindness and humour will be sorely missed. Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 27, 2018 Mrs May said: Jean enjoyed a truly extraordinary career, from her work in intelligence at Bletchley Park during the Second World War to her decades of public service in local and national government, and in Parliament. She was a formidable figure in British politics and her kindness and humour will be sorely missed. Tributes came from across the political spectrum after Lady Trumpingtons son, Adam Barker, announced on Monday afternoon that the former Conservative minister died. https://twitter.com/adamant138/status/1067181357284159488 At the start of business in the Lords, the Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, paid tribute to Lady Trumpington to loud cheers of support from all sides. I regret to inform the House of the death of our much loved colleague and friend Baroness Trumpington, he said. On behalf of the House I extend our condolences to her family and friends. Former prime minister David Cameron tweeted: So very sad to hear that Baroness Trumpington has passed away. Story continues She was one of a kind they simply dont make politicians like that anymore. She will be sorely missed in Westminster but long remembered for her outstanding ability and great humour. RIP Trumpers. Fellow Tory peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said she was a huge inspiration. She tweeted: She always had time to deliver a good telling off, give advice or pay a compliment. I had the privilege of being at the receiving end of all three! Defence minister Tobias Ellwood said her passing was so sad But what a life. Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said she was admirable, decent and unique, while Labour MP Kevin Brennan expressed his admiration for a remarkable woman. Lady Trumpington spent 37 years as a Conservative peer and had spells as a minister and a government whip. She shot to fame in 2011 when she was caught on camera in the Lords chamber flicking a V-sign at Lord King over what she perceived as a rude remark about her age. Lord King told the Press Association: She was a good friend. Its very sad. But, she had a terrific innings and an amazing life. She made me much more famous by her famous joke the famous two-fingered salute. During the Second World War, she was a Land Girl for David Lloyd George before working in naval intelligence at the Bletchley Park code-breaking headquarters. Before entering Parliament, Lady Trumpington was a Cambridge councillor, rising to become mayor in 1971. She took her seat in the Lords in 1980 and was a government whip and minister during several periods in the 1980s and 90s. Born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris on October 23 1922, she married Alan Barker after returning to England following a spell in the US. The European Court of Justice has been asked to give guidance on whether EU withdrawal can be halted unilaterally. Politicians need to know all their options on Brexit, including whether the UK can unilaterally halt the process, a lawyer has argued in the European Court of Justice. Aidan ONeill QC is representing a cross-party group of politicians who launched the action to determine whether the withdrawal process triggered under Article 50 can be halted by the UK on its own, without prior consent of the other 27 EU member states. Those who brought the case argue unilateral revocation is possible, while legal representatives for the UK Government said the case is inadmissible as it deals with a hypothetical situation. The court also heard from lawyers representing the Council of European Union and from the European Commission, who both argue revocation is possible but would require unanimous agreement from all member states. Brexit: Hearing in Case C-621/18 Wightman on the possibility to revoke Article 50 has started. Full Court hearing the arguments. pic.twitter.com/pZYT83sskZ EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) November 27, 2018 Giving evidence at the court in Luxembourg, Mr ONeill said it is fundamental to the treaties of the EU that an individual member state can unilaterally revoke the decision to withdraw. He said: It cannot be in the interest of the union as a whole to force a member state to leave the union against the wishes of the people. The unions wider interest lies with member states remaining in the EU when their peoples wish to do so. He accused the Council of the European Union and the European Commission of inviting the court to act unconstitutionally and in contravention of the rule of law by reinterpreting the treaties. Mr ONeill said the commission misunderstands and the UK Government misinterprets UK constitutional law. Story continues He said the politicians who brought the case, need to know the options for revocation, which are open to withdrawing member states now, to allow them, properly and in a fully informed way, to carry out their duties as democratically elected representatives, accountable to the people. Advocate General for Scotland Lord Keen QC, representing the UK Government, argued the question of whether or not Article 50 can be unilaterally revoked should be ruled inadmissible as it is a hypothetical validity challenge and asked the court not to open this Pandoras box. He said the UK Government does not intend to revoke Article 50 and later confirmed it has no position on revocation. Mr Keen said what those bringing the case seek is political ammunition to be used in and to pressure the UK Parliament. It was brought forward in February by a group Scottish politicians Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, Joanna Cherry MP and Alyn Smith MSP of the SNP, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project Lord Keen added: In short, they seek to co-opt this court into their ongoing political campaign in regard to an issue of almost unparalleled political controversy and sensitivity. He said this would be a constitutional anathema that would pose an unprecedented threat to parliamentary privilege. So to summarise at #CJEU no one has argued that #Art50 cant be revoked. The argument is whether it can be done unilaterally or only with permission. UK Govt threw its toys out of the pram & refused to address the substantive question #StopBrexit #PeoplesVote Joanna Cherry QC MP (@joannaccherry) November 27, 2018 Hubert Legal, representing the Council of the European Union, said allowing unilateral withdrawal could lead to disaster, of which the main victim could be the European project altogether. He said Article 50 is not ambiguous, adding: The prerogative of acting alone will have been exhausted by putting the notification letter on the councils table. The ECJ is the highest court in Europe regarding EU law and a written judgment on the case is expected in the coming weeks, with the president of EJC saying it will happen quickly. Scotlands most senior judge Lord Carloway ruled in September to refer the question to the ECJ after the case was heard at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotlands highest civil court. UK Government attempts to appeal against this ruling were rejected by the Court of Session and the Supreme Court. In its ruling last week, the Supreme Court stipulated the Court of Session will have to reach a judgment on the matter after the ECJ has given guidance. Alyn Smith MEP said the court would provide important clarity which only they can give and he is very optimistic about the outcome. He said: I think it paves the way for other ways out. I think the Peoples Vote is one of those things. A second EU referendum, a meaningful vote in the House of Commons instructing Theresa May to revoke Article 50 letter theres other ways in which this could be fixed, its not about a false choice between Mrs Mays deal or chaos. There are other ways out this. What this ruling will give when we see it, and I think today was very positive for that, will be identifying the road map out of Brexit. Russias President Vladimir Putin has told the German chancellor that he is seriously concerned about the weekends escalation near Crimea and developments in Ukraine. Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. Ukraine on Monday announced martial law in parts of the country, citing a growing threat from Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin (Alexei Nikolsky/AP) The Kremlin said Mr Putin expressed his concern over the escalation and the martial law in Ukraine in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr Putin told Mrs Merkel he lays all the blame for the confrontation on Ukraine and said Ukraine provoked it for political reasons. Mrs Merkels spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Mrs Merkel in the conversation with Mr Putin stressed the need for de-escalation and dialogue. Russias main intelligence agency has released a video of three crew members of the Ukrainian vessels that were seized. The FSB put out the video, showing interviews with three seamen, all of whom confirmed that they violated the Russian border. It was not immediately possible to ascertain if the men were talking under duress. One of them was clearly reading from a teleprompter. A Syrian refugee who was forced to spend seven months in a Malaysian airport has been granted asylum by Canada. Hassan al Kontar landed in Vancouver on Tuesday afternoon, UK time, having been in limbo at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's budget terminal since March. The 36-year-old's plight has been followed by people around the world after he shared posts on social media of his life in the airport, surviving on donated airline meals, washing and giving himself a haircut in the bathrooms. He was blocked from entering Malaysia due to visa issues but was barred from travelling to other countries. Last month the former insurance marketing manager was detained by immigration officials who said they wanted to deport him back to his war-torn homeland, which he last visited in 2008. But Canadian volunteers fought for him to gain asylum and on Monday officials brought him back to the airport he spent seven months in to get on a flight to Canada via Taiwan. Arriving in Vancouver, he was greeted by Laurie Cooper, who with the help of fellow residents from Whistler ski resort and the British Muslim Association, brought him to Canada and raised nearly $15,000 (8,865) for a fresh start. "I've done my time in airports, no more airports," he told CBC. Looking at Mrs Cooper, he said: "When I was thinking of hope, her face was coming to my mind." He was then taken to Whistler where accommodation, fresh clothes and a hotel job await him - he whispered to himself: "I will be fine." While in transit in Taiwan he posted a video on Twitter, saying: "I know I look like someone who ran from the stone, middle ages. I'm sorry for that. "For the last eight years, it was a hard, long journey. The last 10 months, it was very hard and cold." He thanked his supporters, his family and his lawyer, Andrew Brouwer, who said his client was recognised by Canada as a refugee and has been granted permanent residency under its refugee sponsorship programme. Story continues "We were of course very pleased that Malaysia appeared to agree and abide by international law," Mr Brouwer said. Hundreds of Mr al Kontar's supporters sent their congratulations to him. Malaysia's immigration office said it had held talks "on the basis of concern and humanity...with the embassy of the country that agreed to receive his relocation," without naming Canada. Mr al Kontar added: "I could not do it without the support and the prayers from all of you." He follows in the foosteps of an Iraqi family who spent more than two months in 2015 in an empty smoking cubicle in a Moscow airport, relying on passengers to bring them food and water. It also bears a resemblance to the 2004 Tom Hanks film The Terminal, in which he plays a man stuck in a New York airport after his government collapses, rendering his papers useless. U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as artificial snow falls during his address to supporters at a Make America Great Again rally in Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S., November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque T By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's renewed demand for U.S. taxpayer funding of his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall was threatening again on Tuesday to bring on a budget standoff and a partial government shutdown, leaving Congress just 11 days to act. With time running short, Trump and Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives huddled at the White House. Representative Steve Scalise, who attended the meeting, later told Fox News: "It's all about border security and $5 billion (3.9 billion pounds)is the number" for the wall. That figure is significantly higher than even Republicans in the Senate have sought and Democrats have rejected. Trump, in an interview with the Washington Post, hinted at a way to avoid a government shutdown but still build his wall. He referred to his ordering of U.S. troops to the border in October to install "barbed wire and fencing and various other things," the newspaper reported. By Dec. 7, Congress must pass a spending bill to keep some government agencies funded, including the Department of Homeland Security, which polices the border and immigration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with the incoming foreign minister of Mexico on Sunday to discuss immigration, a top White House official said. "They will have a full conversation about all the issues in connection with the border," White House national security adviser John Bolton told reporters. Washington's focus on the Mexican border coincides with televised images of U.S. border police lobbing tear gas canisters over a border fence in Southern California on Sunday into crowds of asylum seekers, mostly from Central America. Even with the divisive Nov. 6 congressional elections over, Trump has continued to rail against thousands of migrants in a caravan travelling from violence-ridden Central American countries to seek asylum in the United States. The latest border incident was unlikely to shift the partisan split in Congress over Trump's proposed, $23 billion wall, with many Republicans in favour and most Democrats against, Senator Marco Rubio told reporters. Story continues "People here are pretty dug in," said Rubio, a Republican. Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who like Rubio is a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, predicted a border security deal would be struck in coming days. But a House Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said in a telephone interview that, at least for now, talks over Homeland Security's budget were "a total mess." The $5 billion House Republicans tout for Trump's wall, compares with $1.6 billion Senate Republicans have sought for this fiscal year. The Trump administration would like the entire $23 billion up front, fearing that a House run by Democrats next year would never fully fund the long-term costs. Rubio said more "physical structures" are needed to reinforce the border. But, he said, "The ultimate border security is to help address ... the causes of people leaving Guatemala and Honduras" and fleeing to the United States. Under Republican control of the Senate and House in recent years, U.S. spending on combating violence and promoting the economies of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras has declined. Meanwhile, despite Trump's efforts to make immigration more difficult, the number of illegal crossings has risen. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, apprehensions on the southwest border of unaccompanied children rose 21 percent from the previous year to 50,000, while family apprehensions were up 42 percent to more than 107,000. As Trump gears up for his 2020 re-election bid, he is expected to hammer on his 2016 campaign pledge to stop illegal immigration, raising fears that he might not back down, as he has before, from a threat to close the government. "Life is hard, but it's harder when you're stupid. A government shutdown would be stupid," said Republican Senator John Kennedy, also an Appropriations Committee member. "But if we can't agree on the budget, we can't agree on the budget," he added. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Grant McCool) Tunisians come out in force to protest Saudi Crown Prince's visit Hundreds of Tunisians protested on Tuesday against a visit by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, denouncing the kingdom's de facto ruler as a murderer in a second straight day of demonstrations condemning the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, left Cairo on Tuesday and was expected in Tunis in late afternoon on a tour that has also taken him to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago has strained Saudi Arabia's ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammed's image abroad. Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said last month that Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. Hundreds of protesters marched through the central Habib Bourguiba avenue in Tunis, scene of the mass protests that toppled Ben Ali in 2011. They chanted "the murderer is not welcome in Tunisia" and "Shame on Tunisia's rulers" for receiving bin Salman. Protesters also called for an end to the Saudi-led military campaign in neighboring Yemen, which was launched by Prince Mohammed in his role as defence minister in 2015. Journalists put up a huge banner at their union showing the prince with a saw, which Turkish sources have said was used to dismember Khashoggi in Istanbul. It read: "No to the pollution of the Tunisian revolution." Dozens of Tunisian rights activists and journalists staged a similar protest on Monday. In an apparent attempt to avoid embarrassing the prince, the presidency only invited photographers to cover his visit. It will not hold a news conference, a usual event at top visits. Last week Nourredine Ben Ticha, adviser to Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi, said the truth about the killing of the Saudi journalist needed to be established but the incident should not be used to harm the kingdom's stability. Story continues Tunisia and Saudi Arabia are very different political systems. The kingdom is an absolute monarchy while Tunisia has undergone a democratic transition since 2011. The north African country has been holding free elections since then and agreed in 2014 on a constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights such as freedom of speech. Tunisia was a strong Saudi ally under Ben Ali but ties have since been strained at times. The kingdom granted exile to Ben Ali who flew to Jeddah on the Red Sea after his ousting, resisting calls by some Tunisian parties to hand him over. Another irritant is that moderate Islamists have been sharing power with secularists in Tunisia since 2011. Some critics have likened the Tunisian Ennahda party to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Saudi Arabia. In contrast, Tunisia has since 2011 expanded cooperation with Qatar, with which Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states severed trade and transport ties in June 2017. The four accused Doha of supporting terrorism and Iran charges Doha denies. Tunisia also has strong ties with Turkey, whose relations with Saudi Arabia have been strained by the Khashoggi killing. The prince is expected to fly on to a G20 summit in Argentina at the end of his Tunisia visit. (REUTERS) Toan Nguyen Takes Down the Master Classics of Poker 1,500 Progressive Bounty November 27 2018 Milko van Winden The Master Classics of Poker just crowned another champion in Holland Casino Amsterdam. Toan Nguyen took down the 1,500 Progressive Bounty for 41,452 ($47,121) plus an impressive 26,200 ($29,783) in bounties. The Dutchman beat the Israelian poker play Eyal Eshkar heads-up to take down the lion share of the prize pool. Nguyen has an impressive year so far, winning tournaments in the Netherlands and Vietnam. This tournament victory, however, is Nguyen's biggest score to date. His previous biggest score came at the end of August in this year when he took down the 275 WSOP Circuit Cup over at the World Series of Poker International Circuit in Holland Casino Rotterdam (27,012/$30,706). MCOP Progressive Bounty Final Table Results Place Player Country Prize Bounties Total in Total in $ 1 Toan Nguyen Netherlands 41,452 26,200 67,652 $76,908 2 Eyal Eshkar Israel 27,687 2,860 30,547 $34,726 3 Cem Degirmenci Netherlands 19,207 2,650 21,857 $24,847 4 Remy van der Nagel Netherlands 13,835 2,980 16,815 $19,116 5 Olvedo Heinze Netherlands 10,288 1,590 11,878 $13,503 6 Daan van Hoogmoed Netherlands 7,901 2,390 10,291 $11,699 7 Matias Knaapinen Finland 6,233 1,610 7,843 $8,916 8 Frank de Wolf Netherlands 5,021 1,490 6,511 $7,402 9 Daniyar Aubakirov Kazakhstan 4,108 5,230 9,338 $10,616 MCOP Progressive Bounty Day 2 Action Just 17 hopefuls made Day 2 out of the 181 that started the tournament the day before. Daan van Hoogmoed started the day as chip leader while Joris Ruijs was the ultimate short stack of the tournament. Ruijs was the first to exit the tournament when he ran ace-six in the ace-ten of Danny van Zijp. Ruijs took home 2,370 plus 1,860 in bounties. Van Zijp ended up in 12th place himself banking 2,844 and a total of 3,840 in bounties. Others that started Day 2 but didn't make it to the final table included Paul Berende (15th - 2,370 + 1,150) and Kimmo Kurko (11th - 3,406 + 990). Boubekeur Benhalima busted out on the final table bubble of the tournament in tenth place; he had to settle for 3,406 + 2,240. MCOP Progressive Bounty Final Table Daniyar Aubikarov was the first player to exit the final table after he lost a big pot against the eventual runner-up Eshkar. All the chips got in the middle when Aubikarov had bottom set with pocket sevens on the king-eight-seven-queen board. Eshkar was playing king-queen of clubs which gave him two pair and a flush draw to go along with that. The river was a queen, and Aubikarov was sent to the rail as the ninth-place finisher. Aubikarov started the day with the biggest bounty on his head, and he also entered the final table with the biggest bounty, worth 5,730. He was sent to the cashier to collect 4,108 while he already had collected 5,230 in bounties. Eshkar started the final table without any bounties, and he immediately took the biggest one he could find. The ever-smiling Frank de Wolf was the next player to hit the rail. De Wolf found himself with pocket aces, and he got it in the middle on a jack-ten-queen flop with two clubs. His opponent was Remy van der Nagel with ten-eight of clubs. The turn was a blank but the river was another ten, and Van der Nagel managed to hit trips on the river to eliminate De Wolf. The Dutchman collected 1,490 in bounties throughout the tournament, and he added another 5,021 to that by finishing in eighth position. Frank de Wolf It took a while for the next player to bust out of the tournament. Matias Knaapinen from Finland was the unlucky one to exit in seventh after he lost a flip against the eventual winner Nguyen. Knaapinen had pocket treys, and Nguyen was playing ace-king suited. The flop was all safe for Knaapinen, but the king on the river left him with only two outs in the deck. The river was a queen, and he didn't manage to win another plate here in Amsterdam for the Finnish players. He collected a decent 1.610 in bounties and added another 6,233 to that by finishing seventh. Nguyen started to heat up after this hand, and no one was safe anymore for the bounty hunter. Nguyen's next victim was start-of-day chip leader Van Hoogmoed. The flop read queen-king-ten, and Nguyen continued his preflop aggression with a continuation-bet after Van Hoogmoed had checked to him. Van Hoogmoed raised all in, and Nguyen called with king-seven. He made the right decision as he was up against the queen-seven of Van Hoogmoed and the jack turn and ten river didn't change Van Hoogmoed's fate. Van Hoogmoed cashed for 7,901, and he added another 2,390 in bounty-earnings to that. Olvedo Heinze was flying a bit under the radar since the moment the final table started, but he eventually pushed all in for his last ten big blinds and was called by Nguyen. Heinze was playing king-ten offsuit, and Nguyen had the lead with ace-seven suited. Nguyen immediately flopped an ace, but Heinze had a gutshot-straight draw as the flop also contained a jack. No queen on the turn or the river and Heinze busted out of the tournament in sixth place. Heinze took home 1,590 in bounties and won the first five-figure prize of the tournament when he collected 10,288 at the cashier. Van der Nagel was one of the more aggressive players at the final table, but his run ended in fifth place against no other than, of course, Nguyen. The board read king-queen-five-trey, and Van der Nagel was all-in and at risk with ace-king for top pair top kicker. Nguyen turned his two pair with queen-five and held on to the lead on the seven river card. Van der Nagel collected 13,835 plus an additional 2,980 in bounties. The third-place finisher of the tournament was Cem Degirmenci. He ended the day with a cash worth 19,207 and 2,650 in bounties. He went down against Nguyen as well in a coin flip. Degirmenci had ace-king suited, and he needed to hit against the pocket jacks of Nguyen. The flop fell seven-seven-seven and Nguyen joked about not wanting another seven on the board. The turn was a deuce, and the river was a ten and Degirmenci couldn't catch up. Nguyen his own bounty rose to 11,860 as he busted out his fifth player from the final table. Eyal Eshkar Nguyen entered the heads up with the chip lead. Eshkar had about 1,400,000 in front of him while Nguyen was playing 2,200,000. The Israelian player couldn't catch Nguyen who had been busting out every player since they were seven handed. Eshkar himself went down on a king-queen-eight flop where both players had flopped two pair. Eshkar had queen-eight, but Nguyen was holding a better two pair with king-eight. The turn was a deuce, and the river was a five and that marked the end of the tournament. Eshkar took home 27,687 and 2,860 in bounties, but the big winner of the tournament won the first-place prize of 41,452 and a very impressive 26,200 in bounties. PokerNews will be present at the Master Classics of Poker in Holland Casino Amsterdam to report on the 4,300 Main Event. Day 1B will take place at 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday, November 27. The tournament will have Day 2 of the tournament on Wednesday, November 28, and Day 3 will be on Thursday, November 29. The tournament will conclude on Friday, November 30. Keep an eye on PokerNews to follow the Main Event at the Master Classics of Poker. Qatar Airways Monday announced expansion of its flights to Iranian cities despite US sanctions on Iran and floating threats on foreign companies dealing with Tehran. The airline said in a statement it will begin twice-weekly flights to Isfahan in February 2019 and increase existing services to Shiraz and Tehran in January 2019, Qatari London-based media The New Arab reports. These latest launches are further evidence of Qatar Airways commitment to Iran, the carriers Chief Executive, Akbar al-Baker, said. The expansion in the operations flies in the face of US current sanctions on Iran after the US administration slapped tranches of punitive measures on the Iranian regime in August and early November following President Donald Trumps removal of his country from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. The sanctions prohibit foreign companies willing to deal with the USA to trade with Tehran. Ties between Qatar and Iran have grown stronger since June last year after Tehran stepped forward to provide food supply to the Gulf country after its neighbors and allies namely Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain plus Egypt severed ties and imposed a sea/air/ground blockade on it. The quartet accuses Doha of supporting terrorism and warming up ties with Iran. Qatar offered to mediate the rivalry between Tehran and Washington, which are both Dohas allies. Psychic Powers at Play in Poker? November 27 2018 Ashley Adams I sometimes ask fellow poker players which psychic power they'd rather have, clairvoyance (knowing what cards will appear on the flop, turn, and river) or telepathy (the ability to know the cards held by their opponents). The question usually gets a conversation going, at the very least. It surely contributes to my goal of having fun at poker. The subject invariably leads to further questions about whether either power exists. There have been many claims of psychic ability. If it were to exist, might it be possible to use it to your advantage at the poker table? Before you dismiss the topic out of hand, consider this. Doyle Brunson and many others have stated their belief in psychic abilities. Uri Geller achieved almost cult status and received widespread attention from the mainstream media (including an article about him in Nature) for his apparent demonstration of psychokinesis, the ability to move and alter physical objects with his mind, and of remote viewing, the ability to see objects not within his physical line of sight. Scientists Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, working with the Stanford Research Institute and later the Science Applications International Corporation, both studied psychic phenomena. In fact, they carried out research funded by NASA and the CIA. After considerable investigation, Puthoff and Targ actually announced to the world at a conference in Switzerland that they had proven the existence of psychokinesis! Contemporary author Sunil Padiyar has written a couple of books on the subject, fully embracing the ability of a poker player to employ psychic powers to augment his chances of winning. Here's part of the description of his book Psychic Poker: Human beings possess a subtle energy field that envelops the physical body. When activated, it is capable of manufacturing luck and producing remarkably accurate powers of intuition and foresight. Beneath the deceptive fabric of everyday reality, energy fields, continually wage wars to determine who 'gets lucky.' Individuals who possess active energy fields will dominate those with passive energy fields. How can you activate your energy field and put it to use at the poker table? The book provides the answers... present[ing] practical techniques to harness psychic powers and put them to use in winning at the poker table. To a person used to dealing with reason and the knowable universe, this all sounds ridiculous even fraudulent little more than relying on superstition and the supernatural to sell a poker book. But before we reach a final conclusion, let's look specifically at what Doyle Brunson once wrote about ESP and poker in Super/System: I believe some good Poker players actually employ a degree of extrasensory perception (ESP). While I've never studied the subject in depth, it seems to me there's too much evidence to ignore that ESP exists or that most people have it to some degree. Everybody has had the experience of riding with someone else in an automobile and thinking of a song, then being surprised to hear his companion start singing that very song. As proof of the existence of ESP, Brunson goes on to recount how he has been able to predict the exact cards that his opponent held. I don't doubt Brunson's right about what he and others have experienced. But these experiences can be explained logically, and without the existence of any psychic powers. The brain can absorb many things below the level of consciousness. Cards exposed during the gathering of the deck, patterns seen in prior deals, and a rudimentary understanding of shuffle tracking may all combine in our subconscious to give our brains some knowledge of the cards to come that could perhaps appear to be clairvoyance. Similarly, a skilled reading of "tells" can seem to be a psychic reading of an opponent's hand, though it isn't. Selective memory also accounts for much that may be confused with psychic phenomena. Many of us have indeed had an experience of knowing something was going to happen and then having it happen, including what card was going to hit the river. But so, too, have we each had many experiences of "knowing" that something was going to happen, and then not having it happen. That occurs so often that it's not memorable. But when what we thought would happen did happen, that becomes extremely memorable. Hence, we remembered it, and might have thought it was proof that we were psychic. But it wasn't. It was just selective memory. The most celebrated debunker of psychic phenomena is the magician James Randi. He has offered $1,000,000 to anyone who can genuinely demonstrate psychic ability. No successful claimant has ever come forward. It is simple to conclude that since no one ever successfully claimed this prize by demonstrating any psychic ability, that no one with such ability exists. Indeed, thanks at least in part to Randi's rigorous debunking, the scientific community has largely dismissed those earlier studies conducted by Puthoff and Targ. In retrospect, their studies were discounted due to a lack of strict adherence to scientific methodology. Even so, I am left with an unanswered question. If someone possessed psychic powers, would even $1,000,000 in cash entice that person to come forward? Wouldn't a poker player, able to psychically know opponents' cards or predict accurately which cards were going to come off the deck, do everything in his power to hide this ability so he could continue to use it undetected in the future? Surely the person wouldn't blow his or her cover by submitting to any public test, no matter the prize. So what do you think? Are psychic powers real? Wait... don't tell me. I think I know what you're going to say. Ashley Adams has been playing poker for 50 years and writing about it since 2000. He is the author of hundreds of articles and two books, Winning 7-Card Stud (Kensington 2003) and Winning No-Limit Hold'em (Lighthouse 2012). He is also the host of poker radio show House of Cards. See www.houseofcardsradio.com for broadcast times, stations, and podcasts. Brazil's Ilha de Queimada Grande is infested with highly venomous snakes. So many golden lancehead vipers live on "Snake Island" that the government banned visitors. Most people wouldn't dare set foot on it, but occasionally, researchers or the military visit, and they take along a doctor in case of bites. Incredibly, Smithsonian.com reports, wildlife smugglers take their lives into their hands and ignore the ban. There's a demand for these specialized snakes in the exotic pet trade and on the scientific black market. Brazil mainland separated from the deadly island About 12,000 years ago, "Snake Island," as it's come to be known, formed part of the mainland. However, between 10 and 11 thousand years ago, the seas levels rose. Those snakes trapped on the island adapted and their evolution mainly involved developing a deadlier venom. Their close cousins, the original lancehead snakes still live on the mainland, and despite them not being so toxic, they account for 90 percent of snake bites in Brazil. Scientists hope to study the golden version to see if their much stronger venom could be used to counter snake bites in Brazil. The golden lancehead didn't have anything to catch and eat at ground level, so they climbed up trees to catch birds. Allthatsintersting.com noted that "since the island vipers had no prey but birds, they evolved to have extra-potent venom so that they could almost immediately kill any bird." Venomous snakes' potent bite When a human gets bitten they can die within the hour. Even with a doctor and medical treatment, three percent of victims pass away. Discuss this news on Eunomia The snake's bite can "cause kidney failure, necrosis of muscular tissue, brain hemorrhaging and intestinal bleeding," according to Smithsonian.com. Reports of deadly encounters with the snakes include that of a fisherman who allegedly visited the island to harvest bananas. Later, his boat was found and revealed the dead man bore snake bites and he was surrounded by a pool of blood. The military visit the island every year. They need to take precautions as they inspect the lighthouse. Local stories point to the last lighthouse keeper and his family all being killed by snakes in their home. It is estimated that about 4,000 golden lancehead vipers live on the 430,000 square meters (110 acres) sized island. Endangered status of Brazil's venomous snakes While the island's snakes seem numerous enough, they actually face longterm survival issues and are listed as endangered. It seems that human development in the past and predation by biopirates helped to drop their numbers by 50 percent in the last 19 years. While humans may feel the deadly island off Brazil might be better off without the snakes, research shows their venom may provide treatment for various heart conditions. Syndicates and rights activists took to the street Monday and Tuesday to protest the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MbS) marred in the controversy surrounding the assassination of his critic Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct.02. MbS is set to visit the North African country this Tuesday as part of his first international tour since Khashoggis killing and amid international pressure with US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) establishing him as the mastermind of the assassination following an investigation of the crime-related tapes given by Turkish authorities. Turkey has indicated that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered with an electric saw by a hit-man squad dispatched by Riyadh. Ankara also stated that the killing was ordered from the highest level of the Saudi establishment. Tunisian unions and civil society groups called for protests, with the cities of Tunis and Sfax being the centerpieces of anti-MbS demonstrations, reports say. Protest banners were placarded in Tunis, showing the 33-year old Crown Prince holding an electric saw. The banners read: No to the stepping on the land of Tunisia, [the land of] the revolution. An open letter to Tunisias president from the journalist union slammed the visit which constitutes a danger for the safety and the peace of the region and the world, and is a real threat to freedom of expression, The New Arab reports. The journalists regard the visit as a blatant violation of the Tunisian revolution. On Friday however, the Tunisian presidency said the Saudi leaders visit was welcome. He is welcome in Tunisia, like the rest of the Arab brothers. Saudi Arabia has an important role in the Arab region, Nourredine Ben Ticha, an adviser to Tunisias President Beji Caid Essebsi, said. But this sentiment was not shared by many Tunisians. Under the title No to polluting revolutionary Tunisia, Tunisian journalists and 12 civil society organisations held a press conference on Monday at the headquarters of the syndicate, condemning their government for hosting bin Salman. Tunisia was the cradle of the 2011 Arab Spring that swept away autocratic ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali who has been in exile in Saudi Arabia despite being sentenced to prison over several charges including corruption. Virginia Techs Innovation Campus in Alexandria, which will be located less than two miles from Amazons future headquarters at National Landing, is a historic investment that will transform Virginias high-tech economy, said Vice Rector Horacio Valeiras, chief executive officer and partner of Frontier Global Partners. This new campus will provide a pipeline of talent to industry and is a natural extension of the universitys commitment to drive economic development throughout the state. As the land-grant research institution in the state, Virginia Tech reaffirmed its commitment to drive economic development by leveraging our strengths in technology and engineering and building on our strong partnerships in Washington, D.C., said Greta Harris, president and CEO of the Better Housing Coalition and member of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. It also illustrates the universitys ability to leverage both its urban and rural assets. This will not only help Northern Virginia, but the commonwealth as a whole. The Innovation Campus will bring together the highest-caliber students, world-class faculty, smart ideas, and forward-thinking companies. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Virginia Tech to grow, added Treacy. All aspects of the university will benefit. A unified and supportive board behind the Innovation Campus project is critical to its success, said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. We have tremendous work to do, and the leadership of this board understands the challenge and embraces the opportunity. During the nearly three-hour meeting, board members received reports on the overall project, including enrollment support and faculty start-up costs; the states higher education package; enrollment, faculty, and capital support in Blacksburg; and research and industry partners. Board members also reviewed memorandums of understanding between Amazon and the Commonwealth of Virginia, those signed between the university and the City of Alexandria, as well as the developer (Stonebridge Associates Inc.) and the owner (BRE/DP Alexandria LLC) of the proposed location. In other business, the board approved a resolution to amend the comprehensive agreement for the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute Biosciences Addition in Roanoke, Virginia. Both Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic sought to amend the agreement to recognize an increase in the funding authorization by the Commonwealth of Virginia to complete two laboratory spaces within the project, to align the project schedule, and to help mitigate cost overruns. Three weeks after the offer made by King Mohammed VI to Algeria for direct and frank talks to settle all pending issues, Algerian authorities have not responded officially yet. Many analysts are wondering why they remain silent and avoid showing their cards. Some say they were surprised by the Kings offer to establish a political mechanism for dialogue and consultation, while others explain their elusiveness by their skepticism and embarrassment to see neighboring Morocco becoming a lodestar, taking over leadership position in the region. Instead of responding directly and openly to the royal initiative for bilateral dialogue, the Algerian regime called the Secretariat General of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) to convene an urgent meeting of the foreign Ministers council of the North African grouping. Despite this evasive move to avoid face-to-face talks, Morocco keeps faith and remains upbeat over the future of relations with Algeria as put by the Moroccan Foreign Ministry in a press release issued Monday following a meeting between Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Algerias ambassador to Rabat. The Algerian move requesting a meeting of the Arab Maghreb Union foreign ministers is unrelated to the royal initiative, said the press release affirming that Moroccos offer is purely bilateral, while the Algerian approach is part of the revival of regional construction. The royal initiative for direct talks with Algeria gained worldwide praise and appreciation. It stems from a sincere desire to create a framework for direct and inclusive bilateral dialogue to resolve all disputes between the two countries, and to relaunch their cooperation and consult on regional challenges, said the Foreign ministry statement. The lethargy that the Maghreb Union has known for years, is mainly due to the abnormal nature of Moroccan-Algerian relations, which can be treated only in the framework of a bilateral direct dialogue and without intermediaries, underlined the statement. It also affirmed that the Moroccan government has no objection to holding a meeting of the Arab Maghreb Union as it is deeply committed to the construction of this regional bloc on solid foundations but looks forward to receiving an official Algerian response to the royal initiative offering to open direct dialogue to improve relations between the two neighbors, sharing the same religion, language, history and destiny. In his speech made on November 6, King Mohammed VI reached out to Algeria saying that Morocco stands ready for a direct and frank dialogue in order to dispel the transient and objective differences that are impeding the development of relations between the two neighboring countries. The Sovereign also suggested the setting up of a joint political mechanism for dialogue and consultation to break the stalemate in bilateral relations, affecting the Arab Maghreb Union. Czech President Milos Zeman Monday pledged to do his utmost to relocate his countrys embassy to Jerusalem despite the Czech cabinet and European Union (UE) positions opposed to Israels claims that Jerusalem is its capital. Speaking to the Israeli Knesset Monday, Zeman vowed to transfer the Czech embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem even though the Czech cabinet, led by Prime Minister Andrej Babis, is staunchly opposed to the move. Well, friends, I am no dictator, unfortunately, Zeman told the Knesset plenum. But I promise Ill do my best in order to realize the third step, after [the] honorary consulate and after [the] Czech House and you can guess what is to be the third step. The 74-year-old president earlier on unveiled a three-stage process for the embassy relocation. Tomorrow I will open the Czech House. Where? In Jerusalem. And it connects CzechInvest, CzechTrade, CzechTourism, Czech Center and so on, he said. The first step, back in April, was the appointment of an honorary consul in Jerusalem, Times of Israel reports. Israel has unilaterally declared the old City as its capital breaching international consensus to tie the fate of the holy city to final status negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinians hope to make of the eastern part of the disputed city the capital of their future state. Israels drive to seek international backing for its controversial move has met global condemnation. Only the US and Guatemala decided to relocate their embassies to the holy city. David Cyranosky and Heidi Ledford in Nature: A Chinese scientist claims to have helped make the worlds first genome-edited babies twin girls, who were born this month. The announcement has provoked shock and outrage among scientists around the world. He Jiankui, a genome-editing researcher at the Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, says that he impregnated a woman with embryos that had been edited to disable the genetic pathway HIV uses to infect cells. In a video posted to YouTube, He says the girls are healthy and now at home with their parents. Sequencing of the babies DNA has shown that the editing worked, and altered only the target gene, he says. The scientists claims have not been verified through independent genome testing, nor published in a peer-reviewed journal. But, if true, the twins birth would represent a significant and controversial leap in the use of genome editing. Until now, the use of these tools in embryos has been limited to research, often to investigate the benefit of using the technology to eliminate disease-causing mutations from the human germ line. But some studies have reported off-target effects, raising significant safety concerns. HIVs entry point Documents posted on Chinas clinical-trial registry show that He used the popular CRISPRCas9 genome-editing tool to disable a gene called CCR5, which encodes a protein that allows HIV to enter a cell. Genome-editing scientist Fyodor Urnov was asked to review documents that described DNA sequence analysis of human embryos and fetuses edited at the CCR5 locus for an article in MIT Technology Review. The data I reviewed are consistent with the fact that the editing has, in fact, taken place, says Urnov, who is based at the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences in Seattle, Washington. But he adds that the only way to tell whether the childrens genomes have been edited is to independently test their DNA. More here. It's the holiday season here in Oakland! Along with lights and festive decorations, events are popping up all around The Town. Here's a list of performances, holiday shopping, walking tours, tree lighting ceremonies, and an ice-skating rink to get you started. The Outback Express Train at the Oakland Zoo. Zoolights: Oakland Zoo Celebrate the holidays at Oakland Zoo amid a million glowing lights! Soar over the Oakland hills in our festively lit gondolas and see the Bay Area skyline like never before. This year, you can enjoy swirling snowfalls over a dazzling Winter Wonderland attraction featuring Santa in his decked-out workshop for the ultimate holiday experience. See the Music in Motion laser light show and stroll through twinkling holiday lights, animal structures, and a candy cane lanethemed Adventure Landing with rides your kids will love. Hop on the illuminated and warm up with hot cocoa and dinner at the Landing Cafe with a scenic view for miles. Black Santa Winter Wonderland Pop-Up The exclusive pop-up will feature festive workshops including ornament making and writing dreamers notes, meet-and-greets with Black Santa and Mrs. C., photo opportunities for the whole family, special events such as kids' yoga and dance parties, and Mrs. C.'s Sweet Shop, which offers nostalgic novelty holiday sweets and Black Santa merchandise. Black Santa's U Wish Workshop in Jack London Square will provide families and the Oakland community a winter wonderland where they can come together to celebrate one another and the holiday season with festive fun and a robust lineup of special events. The retail store will be open Wednesdays through Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Meet Black Santa and Mrs. C. from noon to 6pm Fridays through Sundays. The holiday ice rink in downtown Oakland. Old Oakland Holiday Ice Rink Oakland Central is incredibly excited to the Old Oakland Holiday Ice Rink to downtown. We have found a home for this important initiative on the corner of 9th and Washington, in one of Oakland's most beautiful and iconic neighborhoods. Join us as we celebrate the holiday season and bring in the new year on the ice! Fairy Winterland For 10 days in December, Fairyland celebrates the winter holidays of many cultures: Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, Diwali, and Chinese New Year. Join us for stories, crafts, a festival of lights, and visits from Santa! For one modest admission fee$12 for each adult and child over the age of 1 ($6 for members)you'll enjoy performances by the renowned Storybook Puppet Theater, a daily Festival of Lights Parade, holiday storytelling, magic, daily visits from Santa Claus, holiday-themed arts and crafts, unlimited rides, and more special surprises! The park is open from noon to 7 pm during Fairy Winterland (weather permitting). Fairyland members receive free admission to the opening day of Fairy Winterland, December 14th and from noon to 2pm on other Winterland days! Season's greetings from Oakland! // For details on Oakland's various festive holiday events, go to visitoakland.com. Oakland: You've heard the rent's cheaper and the weather's better, recent blockbusters like Blindspotting and Sorry to Bother You showcase the city's unique culture, and every week there seems to be a new restaurant opening. And even though San Francisco is a world class city, has the highest livability rating of any city in the U.S., and is the reigning tech hub of the planet, many of your friends and coworkers are moving across the Bay. What gives? To help explain the attraction, we've addressed some common questions about Oaktown. Is housing really cheaper in Oakland? Modern amenities are to be found at rentals around Oakland's Jack London Square. At Fourth Street East, apartments range from $2,775 for a studio to $5,000 for a three-bedroom. (Via Zillow) Absolutely, if for no other reason than SF's population density is more than five times higher than Oakland's. The City packs 875,000 people into roughly 47 square miles, while Oakland has 426,000 people living in 125 square miles. This helps explain not only why SF housing is more expensive but why driving and parking are suckier here. As of October, the average rent for a one bedroom apartment in SF was $3,200. In Oakland, it was $2,300. But neighborhoods vary a lot even in the same city, so it's more accurate to consider comparable neighborhoods. Probably the closest sister neighborhoods, which include new-builds that face the Bay, are SF's South Beach ($3,600 for a one bedroom) and Oakland's Jack London Square ($2,100). Oakland, like San Francisco, does have rent control, but it's generally less favorable to renters. If you are looking to buy, Oakland is significantly cheaper, with an average home price of $740,000 vs SF's $1,370,000. As with renting, prices depend on neighborhoods, but even so, you can get a lot more for your money on the East side of the Bay, including outdoor space. How's the transportation? Oakland is more car-friendly than San Francisco. Whereas SF is nearly surrounded by water, Oakland is ringed with interstate spurs like 580 and 880. For people using car share, not only does Oakland have ZipCar, Turo, and Get Around, the East Bay also has Gig, which differs from other services in that the cars don't have designated parking spaces. Just pick one up wherever it's parked, and drop it off in any legal parking spot when you're done. Most of the residential areas do not require parking permits. As far as transit on trains, much of Oakland enjoys quicker access to downtown San Francisco than many SF neighborhoods. The 10-mile trip from City Center Oakland to SF's Embarcadero is a 15 minute BART ride, while the five mile trip between UCSF and the Embarcadero takes about 30 minutes on MUNI. Half the distance, twice the time. That said, there is no Oakland equivalent to MUNI's much-maligned but intensely used light rail system. AC Transit is the East Bay's extensive bus system, which includes transbay lines that link to the Salesforce Transit Center. Oakland bicyclists also enjoy wider and flatter streets than their SF counterparts. How's the weather? Despite the hype, Oakland is only slightly warmer overall than San Francisco. The biggest differences are in the summer months when Karl, our advection fog avatar, chills the city an average of five degrees more (and earlier) than Oakland. Oakland lacks The City's many microclimates, which means you can travel comfortably across town without bringing extra layers. How are the employment opportunities? A respectable number of large companies call Oakland home: Kaiser Permanente, Pixar Media, and Pandora being the most obvious. But hiding in plain sight is the area's largest employer. The Port of Oakland handles 99 percent of all containerized goods moving through Northern Californiaabout $41 billion dollars worth of international trademaking it the nation's fourth busiest port. There are more than 70,000 jobs related to marine cargo transport in the Oakland area, ranging from minimum wage hourly positions to tech jobs to management positions paying six figures. Overall, Oakland's Alameda County has an unemployment rate of 2.8 percent, on par with SF's 2.2 percent, and both well below the U.S. rate of 3.6 percent. I hate to sound like a douche, but is Oakland dangerous? It's a fair question. As far as crime goes, Oakland is considered a "high" crime city while San Francisco is considered "moderate." That said, violent crime of all types in the Bay Area, including Oakland, has decreased nearly 24% since 2012. What else should I know about Oakland? Redwood Regional Park has all the magic of Mill Valley's more famous park, but without the crowds. Most transplants from San Francisco report that Oakland feels more like a community. While it's oddly rare to encounter a native San Franciscan in The City, it's quite common in The Town to meet second- and third-generation Oaklanders who still live near family and childhood friends. And Oakland Pride isn't reserved for the festival and parade in September. There's a huge emphasis on celebrating the city and its culture. Locals regularly wear Oakland branded gear, while in San Francisco only tourists wear city-branded clothing. In San Francisco we like to tout our racial tolerance and diversity, but whites still make up nearly half of the city's population. Contrast that with Oakland, where the breakdown is more equal with whites, blacks, and Hispanics each representing about 25 percent. Finally, while Oakland projects an urban facade, the city has more than 80 parks. In addition to the well known Lake Merritt, the 155-acre lagoon in the middle of the city, locals also enjoy outdoor havens like the 1,830 acre Redwood Regional Park, which contains a huge forest of coast redwoods and nearly 40 miles of trails. Just down Skyline Drive is the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. The site of an ancient volcano, the park boasts campsites, trails, a rock labyrinth, and great views of the East Bay. Rural trivia nugget: While Cow Hollow hasn't seen dairy cows since the 1880s, cattle still graze in Oakland's Anthony Chabot Regional Park. So are you ready to move to Oakland? Dig deeper into The Town's most popular neighborhoodsas well as its more desirable neighboring citiesin our Hella Guide to the East Bay. Study Details To better understand the effect of California's law on vaccine exemptions, the Pediatrics study authors interviewed 40 health officers and immunization staff -- all of them members of the Health Officers Association of California, an organization that represents health officers in California's local health jurisdictions. Interviews were conducted in August and September 2017, and included health officers, immunization coordinators and directors, communicable disease directors, and public health nurses. The interviews revealed frustration and concern among health officials regarding the rise in medical exemptions, as well as about how they now are being issued. They also took issue with not having the authority to review exemption decisions. In one instance, an immunization coordinator in an urban jurisdiction related how a physician switched from issuing permanent medical exemptions to temporary exemptions while charging high fees for these services. "I'm getting a very high volume of medical exemptions from one provider, and from what I understand, for all intents and purposes, she's selling these medical exemptions," said the coordinator. "She used to just give permanent medical exemptions, and now she's giving temporary for three months. So, now families have to go back every three months and pay $300 to get their temporary medical exemption updated." In another instance, a physician submitted a statement requesting a "temporary" medical exemption through July 2030. "That's one hell of a temporary exemption," said the health officer who reviewed the statement. In a third instance, a health officer reported having more authority to approve or deny vaccine exemptions for dogs than for children. "I don't get to approve or disapprove the medical exemptions. The law didn't give the health officer any role, and I'll tell you how ridiculous this is. In comparison with the fact that I have to review dog rabies vaccine exemption requests and I get to see medical records of dogs and I have the authority to disapprove requests for exemptions for rabies vaccines and for people, we don't have that authority," the health officer confided. Other concerns included the following: physicians advertising medical exemptions online for a fee; medical exemptions being issued by cardiologists, dermatologists, surgeons and other physicians who typically do not treat children; and medical exemptions submitted by nurse practitioners and other unauthorized health care professionals. Further Analysis of Law's Effects The study authors also reviewed information from the California Department of Public Health and noted that the proportion of kindergarten students who received all of the required vaccines rose from 92.8 percent in the 2015-2016 school year (the academic year before S.B. 277 took effect) to 95.1 percent in the 2017-2018 school year. But that increase has been offset to a degree by the increase in medical exemptions, with rates increasing from 0.2 percent in 2015-2016 to 0.7 percent in 2017-2018. And although the number of medical exemptions issued in the past couple of school years has not yet reached the level of personal belief exemptions that were claimed before the law took effect, evidence indicates a trend in that direction. "If medical exemption rates continue to rise, portions of California will remain susceptible to vaccine-preventable outbreaks," the authors cautioned. The study authors also pointed to problematic language in S.B. 277 itself, which allows physicians to base a medical exemption decision on "family medical history." Because the law does not clearly define what aspects of family medical history should be considered, physicians have issued medical exemptions on the grounds of a family history of allergies and/or autoimmune disorders, even though the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices does not consider these medical contraindications to immunization. "Some physicians may continue to write medical exemptions for children without scientifically justified medical contraindications to vaccines," the authors wrote. "Without additional legal changes to S.B. 277, including a standardized review of medical exemptions, this could potentially undermine and limit the long-term impact" of the legislation. In a related commentary Richard Pan, M.D., M.P.H., a California state senator from Sacramento who helped write S.B. 277, and Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, L.L.B., Ph.D., of the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, stated that "Policymakers should recognize that granting medical exemptions to legally required vaccines is not the practice of medicine but a delegation of state authority to licensed physicians to protect public health and individuals." Physicians who grant medical exemptions, therefore, "are fulfilling an administrative role" delegated to them by the state, which has a constitutional duty to protect public health and safety. "This delegation makes sense," the commentary authors continued, "because physicians already evaluate patients for existing health conditions and can identify which of their patients warrant medical exemptions." They further note that according to standards of care established by medical professional associations, granting unwarranted medical exemptions constitutes unprofessional behavior that may be subject to potential liability and discipline by a state licensing board. Difficulty arises, however, when families who seek unwarranted medical exemptions aren't willing to release patient records needed to investigate the physicians who grant them. Add to that the fact that professional standard-setting organizations have historically been reluctant to censure clinicians "who promote vaccine misinformation and grant unwarranted medical exemptions." For these reasons, public health officers should be allowed to review medical exemptions, invalidate exemptions that are not justified, and revoke the authority to grant medical exemptions from physicians who abuse it, the commentary's authors concluded. California AFP Weighs In The California AFP supported S.B. 277 and praised the bill's passage. In a statement to AAFP News, the chapter said it was pleased with the improved vaccination rates but concerned about some of the reports noted in the health officer interviews. "We are very concerned with any physician offering exemptions that are not based on the medical condition of the patient, as specified in the law," said the statement. "CAFP finds it unconscionable that a physician would base an exemption solely on payment, putting their communities and immunocompromised patients at risk." California AFP President Lisa Ward, M.D., of Windsor, noted that although medical exemptions have increased, the overall effect of S.B. 277 has been positive. "It is important to keep in mind that even with an increase in medical exemptions, the improvements in immunization rates show the positive result of this legislation," she said. "Vaccines are one of the safest and most powerful tools for improving public health," Ward added. "Along with other primary and preventive care services, we need to do our best to ensure all patients have access to this important health measure." To that end, the California AFP is considering options to fix some of S.B. 277's loopholes that would keep immunization rates high without creating additional issues. "We are currently exploring the ways we can best assure that communities have herd immunity, as well as methods to prevent exemptions not rooted in legitimate medical concerns," said the California AFP statement. "A review process may be one strategy; however, we want to ensure that any such process would not have unintended consequences and would respect the art and science of family medicine." Related AAFP News Coverage Study Underscores Role of Effective Physician Communication Conversations With Parents Influence Decision to Vaccinate Teens Against HPV (10/25/2018) Study Finds Disturbing Trends in Vaccination Exemptions Rising Rates of Nonmedical Exemptions Could Hike Vulnerability to Disease Outbreaks (6/20/2018) Thanksgiving is officially in the (family) history books. And you know what that means: It is time to look ahead to the next celebration on the horizon. If gathering at home for the holidays has become a challenge because your house is too small for the entire family or youre scattered across the country and theres no central place that makes sense, there are still plenty of ways to gather together for Hanukkah, Christmas or New Year's, even if youre planning at the last minute. Consider renting a ski house, beach house or rooms at a B&B, or travel to a nearby city to share the sights you love with the next generation. Its not too late to book a cruise or a trip abroad to experience another countrys holiday traditions. Holiday travel is a great opportunity to connect and reconnect with family members on a different level than when you are at home, says Julie Danziger, a travel adviser at Ovation Travel Group. There are minimal distractions and you can really enjoy each others company. When youre home, a lot of people lose that. The key to a multigenerational family trip, especially when planning late, is to be flexible and open to new experiences, since prime vacation spots like resorts in the Caribbean are booked far in advance, and prices for popular spots can become out of reach. To get the best airfare, consider traveling on the actual holiday and be flexible about when you return, says a spokesman for United Airlines. Here are suggestions to please everyone from your parents to your 5-year-old grandchild: Eight games set for this weekend at Dacotah Bank Classic sports WASHINGTON An associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone said Monday that he is rejecting a plea offer in the special counsels Russia investigation. In an email to The Associated Press, Jerome Corsi, a conservative author who has pushed conspiracy theories, said he planned to reject a potential plea deal with prosecutors. He did not elaborate, but in earlier interviews with other news organizations, he said he had been offered a chance to plead guilty to a single count of lying to investigators. He said he planned to reject that offer because it would force him to admit to willfully lying, which he insisted he did not do. They can put me in prison the rest of my life, Corsi told CNN. I am not going to sign a lie. Muellers team has questioned Corsi, a former Washington bureau chief of InfoWars, as prosecutors scrutinize Stones possible connections to WikiLeaks. American intelligence agencies have said Russia was the source of the hacked material released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential election. Those emails included messages from John Podesta, the chairman of Democrat Hillary Clintons campaign. Mueller is trying to determine whether Stone and other associates of President Donald Trump had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks plans. ABC News reported that Corsi had provided copies of a draft plea agreement in which he would have admitted to lying about an email about an associates request to get in touch with an organization that he understood to be in possession of stolen emails and other documents pertaining to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Corsis lawyer, David Gray, declined to comment, as did Peter Carr, a spokesman for special counsel Robert Mueller. Corsi told the AP last week that he was in plea negotiations with Muellers office and had earlier said on his YouTube show that he expected to be indicted for making false statements. Corsi has said he cooperated with the probe for about two months after he received a subpoena in August. As part of that cooperation, he turned over two computers and a cell phone and provided the FBI access to his email accounts and tweets. Stone has denied being a conduit for WikiLeaks and has not been charged. He has said he did not have advance knowledge of the source, content or exact timing of the WikiLeaks release. In an email Monday, Stone said Corsi was being harassed by the Special Counsel, not for lying, but for refusing to lie. He added, As Dr. Corsi has said I have no knowledge of any contact or Communication with Julian Assange or Wikileaks by Dr. Corsi. ___ Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report. A man who was involved in a shooting at a South Valley gas station earlier this month, and then reported missing days later, has been found dead in Belen, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office. Brian Romero, 22, was found dead on Friday, according to a news release from the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office, which said it was alerted to the discovery by New Mexico State Police. Deputy Felicia Maggard, a spokeswoman for the sheriffs office, said that investigators believe that Romero was killed in Bernalillo County. Deputies on Nov. 9 were called to a gas station on the 500 block of Rio Bravo SE for a reported shooting. When deputies arrived, no victims or suspects were located, according to the news release. Maggard said the shooting took place in the parking lot and deputies did speak with witnesses on scene. On Nov. 13, a family member reported that Romero was missing. Maggard said investigators believe that Romero was involved in the shooting in some capacity. She said there are not currently any suspects in the shooting. Therefore, she said authorities arent releasing what role Romero may have had in the gas station shooting or what condition his body was found in on Friday. We want to limit the information that is released so we can hopefully not taint any witness statements, Maggard said. Albuquerques KOAT-TV, Channel 7, has a new woman at the helm. On Monday, Hearst Television, which owns ABC affiliate KOAT, announced that Lori Waldon, Hearsts regional director of news and longtime news director at Hearst stations KCRA and KQCA in Sacramento, Calif., has been named president and general manager of KOAT. Her appointment is effective Jan. 1. Waldon succeeds Mary Lynn Roper, who officially retired Nov. 9 after 41 years at the station, 25 of them as general manager. Roper, as a woman, accomplished firsts as an on-air anchor and then as a member of management. Waldon will be the first black woman to head a major TV station in the Albuquerque market, according to the New Mexico Broadcasters Association. I am absolutely delighted, Roper said Monday. I hold Lori Waldon in the highest regard. Shes an excellent journalist, a fair manager, insightful, instinctive, fun and a true leader. In Waldons previous position as regional director of news, she had the extra global view of news trends and what was working across the nation, Roper said, and she helped with the oversight of our news department, so she has intimate knowledge of KOATs news operation. Im excited about this. It was my baby, my life for a long time, so this is fantastic news. Waldon, who was traveling Monday, could not be reached for comment. In a press release, Jordan Wertlieb, Hearst Television president, praised Waldon, saying, Lori is an accomplished, award-winning journalist with an outstanding record of leadership. Lori brings the experience, skills and reputation to build upon the exceptional work of Mary Lynn and the KOAT team, he said. Under Waldons leadership, NBC affiliate KCRA in Sacramento earlier this year received a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall News Excellence. Before that, the station won five consecutive regional Murrow Awards for Overall News Excellence and a 2015 national Murrow Award for Breaking News, among many other honors. At WISN-TV, a Hearst-owned ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, Waldon was Wisconsins first black news director, according to Hearst. She led that station to news-ratings leadership and a national Murrow Award for Best Newscast. Waldon holds a bachelors degree in political science from the University of Southern California and a masters degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University. Waldon has served on the NBC News Directors Task Force, chaired the ABC News Directors Advisory Board, is a visiting faculty member at The Poynter Institute for Journalism Studies and is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Military recruits enter the chamber one by one and don protective masks. Tear gas swirls. Then, the order: Take off your mask and breathe. Eyes well and throats tighten, and men and women training for war uncontrollably gag. Nearly every uniform is coated in snot. Some recruits vomit. The gas chamber exercise demonstrates to troops that their equipment works. It also shows, in a visceral way, what happens if an enemy targets US forces with an agent like tear gas, commonly known as CS gas an aerosol compound considered a chemical weapon that has been outlawed on the battlefield by nearly every nation on Earth, including the United States. But as a riot control agent, 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile is legal to use by police and federal authorities in the United States and many other countries. On Sunday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents fired the chemical agent at mostly Honduran migrants attempting to cross at Tijuana an unusual escalation of lobbing weapons over an international border at unarmed civilians seeking refuge, drawing condemnation from Democrats. I felt that my face was burning, and my baby fainted. I ran for my life and that of my children, Cindy Milla, a Honduran migrant with two children, told The Wall Street Journal. Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott, the senior Border Patrol agent for the San Diego area, defended the use of the gas, telling CNN that three of his personnel were struck by rocks or debris that also dented vehicles. None of his agents was seriously injured, he said. They had to use [tear gas] because they were being rushed by some very tough people, President Donald Trump said Monday after public outcry, according to a White House press pool report. That evening, Trump questioned why a parent would run into an area filling with tear gas, saying without evidence that some adults grabbed unrelated children because they think they will have a certain status by having a child. Chemical weapons such as CS gas are indiscriminate and uniquely terrorizing in their application, which necessitated their ban in combat in 1993, said Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association. Once launched in a volley or thrown into an area, chemical weapons cannot be controlled and can drift toward people who are not targets, Davenport told The Washington Post on Monday. In battle, that would include civilians and wounded troops, and even friendly soldiers if the winds shift. US battle planners in World War I accounted for US casualties from its own asphyxiating gas attacks. On the border Sunday, women and children came into contact with tear gas, raising questions about whether it was a proportional response. Research has noted that an infant exposed to CS gas develops severe pneumonitis and requires a month of hospitalization. But the effects of tear gas on younger bodies is not well-documented, said Anthony Cordesman, a biological and chemical weapons expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. We dont have the ability to easily predict effects unless there is more history of use against children, Cordesman told The Post. It looks like were setting the precedent. Scott, the senior Border Patrol agent, said 42 people, mostly men, were apprehended on the U.S. side of the border. A CBP spokesman did not return a request for comment on agency policies for when it is appropriate to use CS gas, or on concerns about firing over the border, or how many rounds were fired. No serious injuries of migrants were reported. Photos of children and mothers fleeing from tear gas could sour public opinion on the border operations itself, Cordesman noted. You dont want to escalate force to a level that discredits your operation, he said. Images of children and mothers fleeing from tear gas outraged Democrats critical of Trumps response to the migrant caravan. The photos outraged Democrats critical of President Trumps response to the migrant caravan. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor-elect of California, argued that images of kids sprinting from tear gas run counter to American ideals. These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas, he tweeted. Women and children who left their lives behind seeking peace and asylum were met with violence and fear. Thats not my America. Were a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom. And we will not stand for this. On Monday evening, Trump questioned why a parent would run into an area filling with tear gas, saying without evidence that some adults grabbed unrelated children because they think they will have a certain status by having a child. Soon after, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement, which never mentions tear gas, that the accepted use of nonlethal force (also used by the Obama Administration in 2013) prevented further injury to agents and a mass illegal rush across the border. Tear gas was used during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown, drawing similar rebukes from rights groups and citizens who said the police response was disproportionate. Middle Eastern and African countries typically use CS gas more potent than what U.S. authorities wield with devastating results. In 2013, Egyptian police fired tear gas into the back of a vehicle carrying supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi to prison, asphyxiating and killing 37 people. An attorney for the men posted photos of one corpse on Twitter with a face so darkened that families believed at first that the victims burned to death. Other people have been killed by inhaling CS gas or by the projectiles themselves. The first of subsequent chemical weapons ban occurred after World War I, according to the Arms Control Associations Davenport, after the international community was shocked by twisted corpses in the trenches and horrific wounds of troops who survived with blistered skin and scarred lungs. In the modern era, the use of chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein in war and against Iraqi civilians was a factor to push for a total ban of chemical agents, Davenport said. The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention banned not only the use of chemical weapons in war but also the production and stockpiling of weapons for 193 signatories, she said. Israel has signed but not ratified the convention. North Korea, Egypt and South Sudan have not taken action. SANTA FE Jeremiah Valencia was something of a daredevil. The boy loved to do tricks on his bike or his skateboard and was a big Batman fan, and its still hard for his friends and family to cope with his tragic death one year later. I miss him, and I really wish I could see him again, said Jeremiahs older half-sister, Karen Gonzales. Nobody really knew how close me and him were. He was my best friend. We talked about everything with each other every chance we had. He is always going to be missed. He was the coolest kid Ive ever met. Gonzales and about 35 others gathered at Frenchys Field park in Santa Fe Monday night to hold a candlelight vigil for Jeremiah on the anniversary of his death. The memorial also comes two days before Jeremiahs mother, 36-year-old Tracy Ann Pena, is scheduled to take a plea deal for taking part or allowing the boys torture and death and the disposal of his body. Jeremiah was allegedly killed by 20-year-old Jordan Nunez while Jeremiah was locked in a dog cage on Nov. 26, 2017. After Nunez repeatedly flipped the cage and killed Jeremiah, Thomas Ferguson Nunezs father and Penas boyfriend who allegedly had abused and tortured the boy for months forced Nunez and Pena to help dispose of the body in a shallow grave off N.M. 503 near Nambe. The body was recovered in January after Pena spoke about the murder while in jail on other crimes. Court documents say Jeremiah was tortured and starved in the weeks leading up to his death. Jeremiahs younger sister, who now lives with a foster family, testified in court earlier this year that Ferguson forced her to poke Jeremiah with a homemade spear as he was locked in a cage. In testimony, the younger sister also has described how Jeremiahs was killed in the dog cage by Nunez. Ferguson killed himself in the Santa Fe County jail in April and charges against Nunez are still pending. At the Monday night vigil, Gonzales, about eight years older than Jeremiah, that she didnt know what was going on inside that home in Nambe. I really didnt want to believe it, Gonzales said. I know how her (Penas) mind works, but I didnt think she would ever put him in that type of situation. I thought she would have been smarter, stronger and more protective. Pena pleaded not guilty to child abuse resulting in death, tampering with evidence and conspiracy charges, but shes scheduled to change that plea as part of a so-far-undisclosed deal with prosecutors on Wednesday in Santa Fe District Court. Gonzales doesnt agree with that. She had every chance to try to stop it, and she didnt, so I dont think her plea deal is fair, Gonzales said. I feel like shes just doing it because its less time for her. Ive known her for years, and I know how her mind can really work. I feel like shes going to plead guilty to take an easier way out. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal The councils Finance and Government Operations Committee on Monday declined to recommended to the full council a proposed ordinance that would mandate employers provide paid sick leave to employees of businesses in the city, effectively killing the bill because of a one-year time limit on legislation. Council President Ken Sanchez, co-sponsor of the bill, and Committee Chair Klarissa J. Pena voted to send the bill to the council with no recommendation, a procedural action that would have allowed councilors to extend the life of the bill and send it back to committee. The bill was first introduced on Dec. 18, 2017. Councilor Pat Davis, who attended the meeting for Don Harris, also a co-sponsor of the ordinance, Councilors Diane Gibson and Brad Winter voted against sending the bill to the full council. While this proposal is off the table, that doesnt mean, however, that the effort to bring a sick leave ordinance to the floor is dead. Representatives with Equality New Mexico, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, and El Centro de Igualdad, who have been advocating for a sick leave ordinance, told committee members they were in favor of a deferral, opting for a clean bill that would contain items not included in the current legislation. We would much rather have a clean piece of legislation, said Adrian Carver, executive director of Equality New Mexico. We think we can have a better outcome for New Mexico and Albuquerque workers that is fair for everybody. Sanchez said action on the proposed ordinance was delayed while councilors awaited completion of a University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research report on the proposal. I have not seen the study, but I did make the recommendation toward staff to ask (UNM) that the document be comprehensive and that it was complete, and that both the business community, along with the advocates supporting sick leave, got a copy of the bill so we could look at this together, Sanchez said. The proposed ordinance would apply to businesses with 50 or more employees. It would not include temporary workers. Under the proposed ordinance: One hour of paid sick leave would be provided for each 40 hours worked by an employee, up to a maximum of 40 sick leave hours per calendar year. Employees would be able to carry over up to 40 hours of unused sick leave they have earned to the next calendar year. Workers would be allowed to use their sick leave for medical care for themselves, their spouses or family, or if the employee is a victim of family violence. Employees would be able to begin using earned sick leave after working 720 hours. Employees who work an average of at least 20 hours a week would be covered. Employers that already have an existing sick leave/paid time off program in place that meets or exceeds the requirements of the ordinance would be exempt. Any collective bargaining agreement effective before Jan. 1 wouldnt be affected. If passed, the bill would have gone into effect Jan. 1. The proposal would have also provided an avenue to file a complaint with the citys Office of Diversity and Human Rights. The proposal came after voters last year narrowly rejected a sick leave ballot initiative that many Albuquerque business owners and groups warned would impose onerous regulations and hurt the local economy. The so-called Healthy Workforce Ordinance was defeated by fewer than 800 votes in last years municipal election. That ordinance would have covered all companies regardless of number of employees, and covered all part-time and temporary employees, as well. BENTONVILLE, Ark. This summer, Arkansas became the first state to require poor people to prove theyre employed to receive Medicaid. Critics say the state is trying to save money on the backs of the poor. Thats nonsense, Arkansas officials reply. They want to help the poor. Backed by the Trump administration, they are inspiring slackers and moochers to climb the economic ladder. Thirteen other states are pursuing similar policies. Theyd do well to pause their plans. For many low-income families, the Arkansas experiment has already proved disastrous. More than 12,000 have been purged from the state Medicaid rolls since September and not necessarily because theyre actually failing to work the required 80 hours a month. Consider Adrian McGonigal, who is challenging the policy in federal court. McGonigal, like most non-disabled, nonelderly Medicaid recipients, had a job. Full time, too, at a chicken plant. The plants chemicals sometimes aggravated his COPD, a chronic lung disease, but his employer accommodated the condition by moving him from processing to shipping. More important, McGonigals prescription medication funded by the states Medicaid expansion, since his job didnt come with health insurance kept his symptoms in check. McGonigal was unclear about what he needed to do to report his work hours, or if he had to report at all. The new policy applies only to Medicaid expansion enrollees, but even most people in that group dont have to frequently check in with the state because of age, disability, the state already has work information on file, etc. Like many I spoke with, McGonigal says he got confusing and sometimes conflicting information from the states Department of Human Services, which told him to report online. He doesnt have a cellphone or computer, so he borrowed his sister-in-laws smartphone. I thought that everything was good, he told me in an interview for The Washington Post and PBS NewsHour. I thought it was just a one-time deal that you reported it, and then that was it. It wasnt. The state wanted him to report monthly. He learned this only when his pharmacy told him his insurance had been canceled. After that, he couldnt afford his medication. His COPD flared up and he landed in the emergency room. And he missed lots of work. I tried to stick it out, and still go to work, but I just couldnt do it, he said. Ultimately, reluctantly, his supervisor let him go. In other words: A policy intended to help people get jobs instead cost McGonigal his. There are other reasons programs such as Arkansas are unlikely to improve work outcomes. The lives of low-income Americans can be precarious. They may change addresses and phone numbers often which explains why other Arkansans I interviewed, including at a Little Rock homeless shelter, said they learned about the work reporting system only after their insurance was at risk. The state made reporting online-only to avoid hiring more staff. Officials did this even though Arkansas has the lowest level of household Internet access in the country, and the online portal doesnt work well on smartphones. Most indefensibly, the website shuts down every single night between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. for scheduled maintenance. No wonder 80 percent of those required to report work hours or exemptions each month are reporting nothing at all. I asked Cindy Gillespie, director of the states DHS, how confident she was that all or even most of the thousands of people kicked off Medicaid were not working and were insufficiently motivated to work. She said shes confident anyone improperly removed from the rolls could easily get (it) reversed. McGonigals experience suggests otherwise. Last month, his legal-aid lawyers persuaded DHS to grant him a good cause exemption and a chance to re-enroll in Medicaid. But because of additional red tape, he still hasnt gotten any of his medication. Its been six weeks. Meanwhile, the chicken plant says hes welcome back when and if hes healthy enough. WESTMINSTER, Colo. Most people who walk in the door of a small, brick building labeled 24/7 Crisis Center are depressed, suicidal, or experiencing audio or visual hallucinations. Others are young adults going through the first breakup of their lives, feeling so distraught that they want to talk to a therapist. Every crisis is self-defined and Colorados 12 walk-in centers have had almost 68,000 visits since they opened four years ago. The centers along with a statewide crisis hotline, mobile crisis teams and five-day stabilization clinics were created in response to the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, a mass murder committed by a University of Colorado graduate student who, according to his attorneys, was in the throes of a psychotic episode. Now, four years after Colorados $33 million mental health crisis system was set up, it will undergo radical change, The Colorado Sun reports. State officials, who are seeking new contractors to oversee the system, say an overhaul is needed to improve mobile crisis teams response, incorporate local mental health services that already exist and, more broadly, put separate people in charge of financial and clinical decisions. We see this as an evolution to the crisis system, said Dr. Robert Werthwein, director of the state Office of Behavioral Health. But for those who manage the current system, the overhaul is an affront to their progress. There are now four contractors that manage four mental health crisis regions, and none of them bid on the new contract. The new system will transform the four regions into seven, in part to align with the states Medicaid government insurance regions. It will break up the metro-area region into three areas. Each of the seven could have its own contractor, or one agency could oversee all seven, under the rules. The current contractors which are coalitions formed by groups of local mental health centers are accusing the state of tearing up the process instead of simply tweaking what is flawed. They filed a formal appeal to the state, which was rejected, and planned to appeal in Denver District Court. Meanwhile, responses to the states request for proposals were due the week of Nov. 4, and state officials hope to have new contractors by the end of the year. You are not going to have statewide crisis services, said Rick Doucet, CEO of the Community Reach Center, which runs a walk-in crisis center, a five-day stabilization center, a mobile-response unit and a respite center in the north Denver suburbs. You are going to have probably a hodgepodge of services offered across the state. There wont be much in the way of integration or communication and it definitely is going to damage the metro area. Colorado Crisis Connection, the contractor for the Denver metro region, was created by six mental health centers, including the Mental Health Center of Denver and the Community Reach Center. The agency that holds the state contract subcontracts to its own mental health centers to provide crisis care. Many of the mental health centers, including the Community Reach Center, increased their services to provide mobile response teams and walk-in clinics four years ago. The legislation that created Colorados crisis system also created a new source of funding for mental health centers willing to expand their services to fit the requirements of the law. The system received a boost in 2017 with legislation that made it illegal for Colorado to lock people in jail on mental health holds if they had not committed a crime. That was a pot of money that allowed us to expand, said Doucet, noting that the state funding has helped fund crisis services for people who had no insurance or were underinsured. Under the new plan, developed by the state Office of Behavioral Health, the contractor will hire a variety of mental health providers in a region, including some that already exist and others that might open. In Douglas County, for example, a mobile crisis unit that already exists could receive state funding to become part of the crisis system. It removes the conflict of interest that exists in allowing coalitions of mental health centers to make decisions on how to spend state money at the same time they are making decisions about what is the best for patients, Werthwein said. Werthwein said the state has to take some ownership for the systems flaws because the rules werent specific enough. He is particularly disappointed with the network of mobile crisis teams, which two-thirds of the time have responded not to a home, dorm room or workplace, as intended, but to emergency departments and mental health centers, according to state data. State officials were also distressed about the findings of a sample analysis of calls to the hotline. In several instances, the hotline dispatcher wanted mobile teams to respond, but the teams chose not to go out on the call. Thats a problem when two behavioral health entities are conflicting on whether they need to go out, Werthwein said. Doucet, however, said state officials should allow mental health providers who know the community to make decisions about when to respond. They get to know frequent callers and know whether a mobile unit might escalate the situation, for example. He also took issue with the implication that mental health providers cannot properly manage spending and patient welfare at the same time. They have served state Medicaid clients for decades. Girchi Leader Not to Vote for Any Candidate in Runoff By Tea Mariamidze Zurab Japaridze, the presidential candidate of Girchi, who got 2.26% of votes during the first round held on October 28, says he is not going to vote for any candidate in the runoff that will take place on November 28.However, in late October Japaridze announced he would support United Opposition candidate Grigol Vashadze in the second round, even though this candidate is not as unacceptable for him as Salome Zourabichvili, backed by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD). In addition, Japaridze said that he would not call on his supporters to vote for any candidate.On November 22 Japaridze took to Facebook to express his concern about both presidential candidates. He explains that there is so much dirt ahead of the runoff that he changed his mind and will reject both candidates.I am lying to myself. I watch all this dirt and put up with it I am not going to vote for any of the candidates during the runoff, his Facebook post reads.The final results of the first round of elections, published by the Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) showed that the GD-backed presidential candidate got 38.65% of votes, followed by Grigol Vashadze - 37.74%.Some opposition parties stated they would support Vashadze, as Zourabichvilis candidacy was unacceptable for them.Parliamentary Minority European Georgia called on its supporters to vote for Vashadze, as their candidate David Bakradze received only 10.97% of votes and came third in the first round.Republican Party also expressed support to Vashadze.In the first round we voted against Zurabishvili and of course in the second round we will do the same and support Vashadze, the party Chair Khatuna Samnidze said. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs and Texas Tech University in Lubbock have signed an agreement that will make it easier for students seeking a four-year degree to transfer. We have a lot of students that are geared up and ready to go in terms of completing that bachelors degree, so thats a good partnership, said NMJC President Kelvin Sharp. Sharp and Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec signed the historic agreement in Lubbock last week. A second agreement signed by the two presidents will allow junior college students to feed into the animal science program at Texas Tech and eventually the new School of Veterinary Medicine. New Mexico doesnt have a vet school, but theyre willing to take animal science students from our program and then work them through the animal science at Texas Tech and then into their veterinary science school, which they plan to start in Amarillo, Sharp said. New Mexico transfer students also will qualify for in-state tuition because they are in a county that borders Texas, according to Texas Tech. With Hobbs just down the road from Lubbock, our institutions are serving our region through comprehensive educational offerings for students seeking educational opportunity in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, said Ethan Logan, associate vice president for enrollment management at Texas Tech, in a news release from the university. The distance between Hobbs and Lubbock is about 110 miles, less than a two-hour drive. We want to provide opportunities for the students to transfer to Texas Tech with a minimum loss of hours, said Melanie Hart, vice provost of eLearning & Academic Partnerships, a division of the Office of the Provost at Texas Tech, in the news release. Texas Tech will advise NMJC students on courses they should take to make the transition seamless, according to Hart. An academic adviser from Texas Tech visited the NMJC campus recently and was booked solid that day, extending appointments to 6 in the evening, Sharp said. I think the time frame is immediately, he said when asked how soon students could transfer under the new agreement. Affordability and proximity makes the new partnership a plus for students who want to get a bachelors degree. NMJCs president is looking for more ways to expand opportunities for students in eastern New Mexico. I hope that we can partner with institutions around the state of New Mexico the same way so that we can show students, Hey, you can go to New Mexico State, you can go to UNM, Sharp said. The All of Us Research Program bus with hands-on exhibits about its national effort to speed up medical breakthroughs is in town through Friday, as well as for nine days in December. The Public Library Albuquerque and Bernalillo County are hosting the traveling exhibit on behalf of the National Institutes of Healths All of Us Journey. The initiative is seeking one million volunteers to share different types of health and lifestyle information, such as where they live, what they do and their family health history, to build a database with a goal of revolutionizing ways to improve health and treat disease. The program plans to create a research resource to inform thousands of studies, covering a wide range of health conditions so researchers learn more about different diseases and treatments, organizers said in a news release. The bus will be on Third Street outside the Albuquerque Convention Center today through Friday and Dec. 3-7. Drop in any time between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to enroll in this nationwide research study, organizers said. In addition to its stop in Downtown Albuquerque, the All of Us Journey bus will be visiting other locations in New Mexico as follows: Dec. 10 at the Juan Tabo Library 3407 Juan Tabo NE in Albuquerque Dec. 11 at True Health New Mexico 2440 Louisiana NE, Albuquerque Dec. 15 at the Downtown Plaza, Las Cruces Jan. 12, 2019, at Walgreens 3400 Coors NW, Albuquerque Jan 16, 2019, at UNM Smith Plaza, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Albuquerque is one stop on the All of Us Journeys national tour. We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com. BELEN Two internationally renowned artists who call Belen home have officially pulled the plug on a possible museum featuring their lifes work. Although out of town at the time, feminist artist Judy Chicago and her photographer-husband, Donald Woodman, watched the City Councils discussion of the proposed museum on Nov. 19 via Belens Facebook live feed. Although we deeply appreciate the support and good intentions of many in our community, after watching the proceedings of the city council meeting and some of the uninformed and insulting Facebook posts in the comments the board of Through the Flower has decided that it does not wish to partner with the city, Chicago wrote in an email. Please do not proceed any further. Thank you. The council chamber was filled to capacity for the discussion, as dozens of residents turned out to voice both support and opposition to the proposed museum in downtown Belen. Last month, Belen City Councilor Ronnie Torres pitched the idea of a museum dedicated to Chicago and Woodman during a council workshop. The proposal quickly divided some community members. Torres said he realized Chicago has a lot of art that scares people, and rightly so. Most artists do. He said Chicagos intention was always to make sure the Belen museum would fit the city. The art pieces that will be put in there is absolutely nothing pornographic, Torres said. He called the artwork proposed to be hung at the museum G-rated but did note that books available for sale at the facility would contain illustrations of Chicagos more controversial works. Mary Frances Wells said she is a third-generation Belen resident and wanted some kind of guarantee of what kinds of artwork would be displayed. Its like TV. Everything started G-rated, and eventually, without knowing what happened, its not G-rated and its acceptable, Wells said. Thats my biggest fear. The Nov. 19 meeting was initially supposed to be a vote on whether the city would fund a part-time employee for the museum to be housed in the former Through the Flower Gallery on Becker Avenue owned by Chicago and Woodman but was reset as a discussion item only after outcry from the public. At the meeting, Belen Mayor Jerah Cordova presented the plan for a public-private partnership, including possible increased tax revenues for the city. The couple would provide the building and cover most of the expenses, while the city would pay for a part-time employee at a cost of about $13,650 a year. Cordova said the estimated dollar value of what the couple were offering was more than $234,000. An analysis of the proposed venture by the New Mexico Economic Development Department showed that based on the 15,000 visitors the Harvey House attracts annually, revenue for the first year of the Chicago-Woodman museum would be about $27,000, growing up to $300,000 a year in 10 years. City Councilor Wayne Gallegos posed the question of What has Judy Chicago done for Belen? Shes done things in Oakland and other cities, moved into that building and opened a business a long time ago, Gallegos said. Ive been here a long time and felt I had the right to ask that question. Tonight Im hearing a whole other view. Molly Madden, a retired Belen teacher, said that during Chicagos 18 years in the community, Chicago has hosted numerous free workshops, seminars and lectures on art, often featuring prestigious artists. There was a lot of free education offered to Belen in her presentations and the speakers she brought in, Madden said. When The Dinner Party opened in Brooklyn, she invited the people of Belen. My husband and I went, and it was fantastic. The history of 900 women is in that work of art. I learned so much about women Id never heard of, from all centuries, walks of life and professions. Los Chavez resident and Belen Board of Education member Lisa Chavez said some seemed to be rejecting the museum based on the idea of family values and the opinion that some art is pornography. Family values are based on the way you choose to live your life. If you dont want to expose yourselves to this, if its against your values, live your choice and allow others to do the same, Chavez said. I support the Nativity that stands in the heart of the community, and I support a museum dedicated to the art of Judy Chicago. John Thomspon said he was at the meeting as a lover of art. I love fine art, but I would never want to see a vagina hanging on my wall, Thompson said. Were Belen. This is Bethlehem, and we need to capitalize on that. You say what we have here will be G-rated. I think this is a Trojan horse. KIEV, Ukraine Russia on Tuesday began prosecuting the crew of Ukrainian navy vessels captured over the weekend in a confrontation off Crimea, putting some of the seamen on camera, where they confessed to intruding into Russian waters. Ukraine demanded that Russia stop using psychological and physical pressure on the sailors, as tensions between the two neighbors escalated. Ukraines top diplomat called the men prisoners of war, telling The Associated Press that displaying them on TV was a crime. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for Sundays clash in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The incident has drawn strong criticism of Russia by the United States and its allies and fueled fears of a full-blown conflict in eastern Ukraine. Ukraines parliament on Monday adopted a motion by President Petro Poroshenko to impose martial law for 30 days in parts of the country a measure that Kiev avoided even when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 or sent clandestine troops and weapons to separatists in eastern Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned the move could cause hostilities to flare up in eastern Ukraine. The introduction of martial law could potentially raise the threat of escalation of tensions in the region of conflict, he told reporters. Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014, a conflict that has left over 10,000 dead, but fighting has eased since a truce in 2015. Martial law went into effect in several parts of Ukraine, including areas bordering territory held by the separatists. In Sundays confrontation, Ukraine sent three small naval vessels from their Black Sea base in Odessa to Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov. The Russian coast guard blocked their way near the Kerch Strait and at one point rammed one of the Ukrainian vessels to keep it from passing through the narrow waterway. The ships had spent tense hours maneuvering until the Russians opened fire and seized the Ukrainian vessels and crew. The Ukrainian navy said that six of its seamen were wounded, while Russia said that three Ukrainian crewmen were slightly injured. Ukraine said 24 of its sailors were taken into custody. Russian state television broadcast separate interviews with three of the seamen, who said that the Russian coast guard repeatedly warned them that they were violating Russias territorial waters and urged them to leave. It was not clear if the men were talking under duress, but one was clearly reading from a script on camera. Ukraines National Security Service, or SBU, demanded that Russia stop using psychological and physical pressure on the men an apparent reference to the interviews. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the AP in an interview that he has asked the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross to arrange a visit with the captives and is awaiting a Russian response. He said some of the seamen had been seriously injured in the clash. Its not a political issue here, because we can have an argument about the legal status, but its about simply concentrating on protecting them and helping them, Klimkin said. When asked about the seamen shown on Russian TV, Klimkin said even to put prisoners of war on television is already a crime. A court in the Crimean regional capital of Simferopol put 12 of the Ukrainians in custody for two months pending trial on charges of violating the Russian border. One of the seamen, Yuri Budzylo, commented briefly to media while awaiting the court decision, saying his vessel was sent into the Sea of Azov with the understanding that an agreement was in place for free passage for Ukrainian ships. Ukraine said its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules, while Russia alleged they had failed to get permission to pass. A 2003 treaty between the two countries designated the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, but Russia claimed the strait in its entirety after annexing Crimea and has sought to assert greater control over the passage. Klimkin said the use of force against the Ukrainian vessels was a show of strength by Russia intended to buttress Russian President Vladimir Putins falling approval ratings. He needs a permanent crisis with Ukraine, he told the AP. Declaring martial law was needed to protect Ukraine from a possible Russian invasion, Klimkin said. But Russian officials and state media cast the incident and the imposition of martial law as an attempt to shore up Poroshenkos own sagging popularity ahead of a presidential election in March. Martial law allows the current government to flex its muscles and try to bolster public support, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. Or they could be looking at cancelling the election as an ultimate move. NATO on Tuesday emphasized its full support to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, noting there is no justification for Russias use of military force against Ukrainian ships. It urged Russia to release the Ukrainian seamen and vessels promptly. Russia insisted it was protecting its waters against an illegal intrusion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that Ukrainian ships in the past had sought and quickly got permissions to pass through the strait. Speaking on a visit to Paris, Lavrov accused Ukraine of a deliberate provocation and urged the West to warn Ukraines leadership against playing with fire. Putin spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel early Tuesday, expressing serious concern about what martial law in Ukraine might entail. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Berlin has urged both Russia and Ukraine to show the greatest possible restraint and suggested that Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine could work together to resolve the tensions. Lavrov rejected that offer, saying he did not see a need for any kind of mediators. He spoke after meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who appeared to soften his criticism of Moscow. Frances Foreign Ministry said shortly after the incident that nothing justifies Russias use of force, but after long talks with Lavrov, Le Drian blamed the standoff on the high level of militarization in the region and avoided pointing the finger at Russia. The U.S. and the European Union have slapped sanctions on Russian businesses, tycoons and banks over the annexation of Crimea. ___ Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Angela Charlton in Paris, and Kirsten Grieshaber and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed. ___ Read all about the Russia-Ukraine story on The Associated Press website at https://www.apnews.com/Ukraine Metropolitan Court judges have chosen a new chief judge after the current chief lost his retention election earlier this month. Judge Sandra Engel, who has served in the courts criminal division since 2006, will take over as chief Jan. 1, according to a news release. I am looking forward to serving the citizens of Bernalillo County in this comprehensive capacity and ensuring that this already well-run court continues to operate in an efficient and effective manner, Engel said in a statement. Before becoming a judge, Engel worked as a prosecutor in Bernalillo County, an assistant city attorney for Rio Rancho, and she handled civil and criminal cases in private practice. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama law school and was admitted to the New Mexico Bar in 1994, according to the release. As a judge, she has overseen specialty court programs and served as presiding judge of the courts criminal division. She is now a member of the Supreme Court Ad Hoc Pretrial Release Committee and the Advisory Board of the Code of Judicial Conduct Committee. On top of handling a regular docket, she will oversee administrative matters, including the budget, security, building maintenance and personnel issues, the news release said. Engel replaces Judge Edward Benavidez, who has served as chief since 2017, but recently lost a retention election. He has since applied for appointment to a vacancy across the street in the 2nd Judicial District Courts criminal division. Voters also decided against retaining Metro Court Judge Kenny Montoya. The Judicial Nominating Commission is accepting applications now from attorneys seeking appointment to one of those two positions. Engel has selected Judge Yvette Gonzales to head the courts criminal division and Judge Frank Sedillo will continue to preside over the courts civil division, according to the news release. Voters also decided against retaining Metro Court Judge Kenny Montoya. The Judicial Nominating Commission is accepting applications now from attorneys seeking appointment to one of those two positions. Greenhouse growers can now bathe their crops in yield-boosting, late-summer-like sun rays all year round courtesy of Los Alamos startup Ubiquitous Quantum Dots. UbiQD Inc. launched commercial sales of its red-light emitting window film for the first time this week, marking a major milestone for the 4-year-old company, and possibly a ground-breaking advance for greenhouse production. The company says its film can boost crop yields by 10 percent or more by using quantum dots that shift sunshine into a red-light-emitting spectrum that mimics late-summer sun year-round. Thats considered the most potent time of year for plants because they sense winter coming and grow faster, said UbiQD CEO Hunter McDaniel. Weve been testing it in greenhouses in commercial settings for about a year and a half now, McDaniel said. Weve seen yield improvements in excess of 10 percent in numerous crops. The company is now selling rolls of quantum-dot-coated film as a simple retrofit that attaches to the undersides of greenhouse windows. You just string it up under any existing structure, McDaniel said. Its quick and easy to install, so growers can test it out in sections before laying it out across acres of production. The film is currently installed in five commercial greenhouses in New Mexico, Oregon and Colorado, where growers are producing tomatoes, cucumbers, cannabis and hemp. The film can last four to five years. It currently sells for $10 per square foot, but the company expects the price to drop over time, and McDaniel said growers can quickly earn back their investment through higher yields in just a few months. The new UbiGro film is UbiQDs first commercial product since launching in 2014. The company developed a low-cost, low-toxic process for making quantum dots, which are tiny, three-dimensional structures that manipulate light in unique ways. Theyre used in everything from transistors and sunscreen to LCD televisions and smartphones. The company is also building photovoltaic window coatings to generate electricity for buildings. UbiQD uses a copper and zinc base in its manufacturing process, which it licensed from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. LANL recently completed extensive testing for toxicity that showed the product is extremely safe, McDaniel said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved UbiGro for commercial sales this month. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE A murder charge is going to be dropped against a Santa Fe teen, but he still remains a suspect in the case. Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna confirmed in an email that an open count of murder and a charge of tampering with evidence against 17-year-old Zachary Gutierrez will be dropped without prejudice, meaning charges can be refiled. Gutierrez was accused of killing 64-year-old Richard Milan of Kalamazoo, Mich., a visitor making a stop in Santa Fe as part of a cross-country trip, during a Sept. 26 encounter on Airport Road. This is still an open and ongoing investigation, and although Z. Gutierrez remains a suspect, my office will not be able to present the case to a (grand jury) before the juvenile time limits would expire on Dec 13, Serna wrote. Gutierrez will remain in custody on a separate matter until Dec. 13. Gutierrezs attorney, Steven Aarons, said he has a cellphone video of two young females who witnessed the shooting saying they were intimidated into blaming the murder on Gutierrez. Aarons issued a news release early Tuesday disclosing the charges against his client were being dropped. Milan was walking his dog along Airport when he encountered a group of young people at the intersection of Lucia Lane. Surveillance video from a nearby business captures Milan going down from two gunshot wounds to his lower body. He later died from blood loss at the hospital. A 17-year-old girl who was part of the group told Santa Fe police that Milan and Gutierrez exchanged words before Gutierrez became aggressive and got in Milans face, court documents say. The girl said she turned around and had her back toward them and heard a gunshot. She said she turned around and saw Gutierrez shoot Milan two times. The girl then said she saw Gutierrez standing and bending over the Old Man looking at him and laughing. Aarons told the Journal Tuesday that the cellphone video captures two young women saying they were intimidated into fingering Gutierrez as the shooter and that someone named Chuey pulled the trigger. Aarons said he didnt know Chueys real name. SFPD spokesman Greg Gurule said early Tuesday afternoon that the department was not aware of the District Attorneys decision to dismiss the case. The case remains under investigation, there have been no additional arrests, Gurule said in an email. No suspects on the loose. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE New Mexicos midterm election results were certified Tuesday, but not before a dispute over the legality of online absentee ballots applications roiled a meeting of the State Canvassing Board and prompted questions from Gov. Susana Martinez about whether Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver had overstepped her legal authority. While the secretary of state, a Democrat, staunchly defended the programs legal moorings and the integrity of this years general election results, Martinez, a Republican, and others suggested the online absentee ballot requests could open the door to voter fraud. This is a statutory process, and the statute wasnt followed, Pat Rogers, an Albuquerque lawyer, said during Tuesdays meeting at the state Capitol. Absentee ballots played a key role in determining the outcome of at least one contest this month New Mexicos hotly contested 2nd Congressional District race. Democrat Xochitl Torres Small defeated Republican Yvette Herrell by 3,722 votes in a race in which nearly 200,000 ballots were cast, according to final results certified Tuesday by the Canvassing Board. But Torres Small had been trailing in the race until more than 8,000 absentee ballots cast in Dona Ana County more than double the amount cast in previous years were added to the vote tally and vaulted her into the lead. Although she has not provided any evidence of wrongdoing, Herrell has filed a lawsuit seeking to impound the absentee ballots, and her attorney said in a letter to the secretary of state this week that absentee voting is uniquely susceptible to irregularities. However, the Secretary of States Office said 968 absentee ballots were requested online in Dona Ana County and 2,823 such ballots were requested across the entire district. Thats significant, because even if all those ballots were invalidated, the election results would not change. Statewide, 19,329 absentee ballots were requested online for this years general election and 16,536 of those ballots were ultimately returned. Meanwhile, the dispute over the legality of the online ballot request program hinges on a requirement in state law that voters sign the application and provide other identifying information. The current online application process, authorized in 2017, does not require a voters signature, but the Secretary of States Office maintains thats legal because only voters who have already registered to vote and provided a signature at that time are eligible to participate. We believe this has been a legal and successful program that has allowed 20,000 New Mexicans to vote, Deputy Secretary of State John Blair said Tuesday. Democrats posted big wins up and down the New Mexico ballot on Election Day, including all three congressional races and Michelle Lujan Grishams victory over Republican Steve Pearce in an open race for governor. Martinez was barred from seeking election to a third consecutive term and will step down at the end of the year. Democrats will also expand their majority over Republicans in the state House, as they are on track to pick up eight seats in the 70-member chamber and enter next years 60-day session with a 46-24 advantage. The State Canvassing Board did order automatic recounts Tuesday in two state House races House Districts 22 and 63 in which the final margin separating the two candidates is less than 1 percentage point. Rep. Gregg Schmedes, R-Tijeras, was up by 140 votes over Democrat Jessica Velasquez of Sandia Park in the House District 22 contest, while Republican Martin Zamora of Clovis had a 27-vote edge over incumbent Rep. George Dodge, D-Santa Rosa, in the House District 63 race. An automatic recount in a third legislative race, the Albuquerque-based House District 20 contest between Democrat Abbas Akhil and incumbent Republican Jim Dines, is expected to be ordered on Friday. The Canvassing Board did not order it Tuesday because it had not received final county canvass results in time to include it on its agenda. Final voter turnout for the Nov. 6 general election was 701,654. Thats roughly 55.6 percent of all registered New Mexico voters and represents a higher turnout than in 2010 or 2014, the most recent previous nonpresidential election years. First, he disregarded one of the Ten Commandments inside a church, no less the one about not stealing. Then, he responded to a social media post bearing his picture and asked that the image be removed. The picture in the post IDed the suspect who had swiped a backpack and a $2,200 computer from inside Calvary Chapel Three Crosses in Las Cruces in early June. Now, 40-year-old Eric Martin Carnero of Las Cruces has been charged with larceny of more than $500, a fourth-degree felony. Thats all according to the Las Cruces Police Department, which detailed the events that followed the June 6 theft in a news release on Tuesday. Officers learned the church at 4302 Bataan Memorial West had a security camera system that captured images of the suspect. The owner of the backpack posted surveillance camera still images of the suspect on a social media page. The post generated several responders who identified the suspect as Eric Martin Carnero, the release reads. Carnero, himself, responded to the social media post and asked that his image be removed from the site. LCPD says investigators reviewed the security camera images with a known photo of Carnero and positively identified him as the case suspect. Officers issued an arrest warrant this month and police say Careno surrendered himself to Magistrate Court Tuesday morning. NGOs: Initiative to write off debts represents unprecedented case of alleged vote buying We, Transparency International Georgia, the Young Lawyers Association of Georgia and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy respond to the initiative announced by the Prime Minister of Georgia on November 19, according to which 600 000 voters will be written off debts. We believe that the initiative noted, which will be carried out by, ,Kartu Foundation, is supposedly an unprecedented case of vote buying and law enforcement agencies should express interest.In particular, at the briefing held on November 19, the Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze announced that over half a million citizens will be written off debts. In accordance with the PM, it includes financial liabilities of 600 000 citizens towards banks, online credit organizations or different institutions, which, in total is approximately a billion and a half Georgian Lari. By his statement, this process will start on December 15 and come to the end on December 31: 600 000 citizens will surely be removed from the debtor registry by December 31 and meet the New Year without debts. According to the Minister of Finance Ivane Machavariani, ,Kartu Foundation will completely cover debts of estimated 600 000 citizens, who are in a so-called, Blacklist. This applies to individuals who have not to be able to pay a loan for one year and the amount of principal loan is no more than 2 000 GEL.The decision announced by the government contains signs of vote buying and is directed in favor of Salome Zurabishvli, the candidate supported by the ruling party and aims at winning the heart of voters before the second tour of the election. In accordance with the ,,Criminal Code of Georgia ,,For election purposes, indirect or direct offering or promising of money, securities (including a financial instrument), other property, property rights, services or any other advantages, or knowingly accepting the above noted, or making a fraudulent, hypocritical or another kind of deals in order to avoid the restrictions imposed by law envisages imprisonment for up to three years or the fine.It is noteworthy that such a scale of allege vote buying is unprecedented for Georgia. The initiative, considering its scale, will undoubtedly affect the results of the election.It is true that Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is the chairman of the party "Georgian Dream, is not mentioned in the registration documents of the Kartu Group, however, for the society, this organization is associated with him and his family. Besides, the chairperson of the board of,, Kartu, Foundation directly states that the decision noted is taken by Bidzina Ivanishvili. [1] Consequently, the announcement made by the representatives of the government on the repayment of such a scale and amount of financial loan by the Kartu Group before the second round of the elections, will be naturally associated with Bidzina Ivanishvili and his campaigning in favor of Salome Zurabishvili. In addition, it is vogue and untransparent, what kind of negotiations have been held with the banking sector and various financial institutions regarding the debts write-off. The deal to purchase 1.5 billion financial liabilities from commercial banks for 100 million, might raise additional doubts concerning the banking and financial businesses participating in the state`s dishonest influences. The fact is that the agreement would be difficult to achieve without the state involvement and the question is whether would it be possible at all having another person instead of Ivanishvili-related, Kartu Foundation.We believe that this initiative might stand for scaled and unprecedented violation of the legislation. In addition, it is also directed by narrow party-related and political interests, which negatively affect not only the electoral environment but also the democratic development of the country. The use of hard social conditions of voters by the political party for election purpose is unacceptable and demonstrates the low political culture.Correspondingly, we call on:- The government refrain from adopting populist and narrow political decisions and draw out a fundamental approach to overcome the poverty of citizens instead of manipulating with the financial problems of voters;- All political parties to realize their role and responsibility and refrain from making such populist statements;- The Georgian Prosecutor's Office to investigate the fact timely and objectively and respond with relevant legal action. Amid escalating tensions at the US-Mexico border, there is currently no ambassador or even a nominee to the key diplomatic post in Mexico City -- one of more than a dozen that is vacant and without a nominee. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider 18 nominations during a business meeting Wednesday in the wake of a standoff Sunday between US border officials and a group of migrants, in which a major border crossing was temporarily closed and US Border Patrol agents fired tear gas at a group of migrants. Donald Trump Political Figures - US Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Politics US federal government White House International relations International relations and national security Government departments and authorities State departments and diplomatic services Bob Menendez Political organizations US Democratic Party US political parties Embassies and consulates Government organizations - US US Department of State US federal departments and agencies US Congress US Senate Border control Continents and regions National security North America Territorial and national borders The Americas United States The top diplomatic posts in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Yemen also remain unfilled as the US grapples with continued fallout from the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the military and humanitarian implications of the conflict in Yemen. There are 68 ambassadorial vacancies, not including international organizations, according to a tracker from the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA). Of those, 49 have nominees and six nations do not exchange ambassadors with the US. "We remain dedicated to filling critical posts around the globe with ambassadorial candidates who are most qualified to advance US leadership and America's foreign policy priorities abroad. We will continue to work with the Senate to confirm these qualified, solid nominees, before the end of the year so that these candidates may take their place alongside the finest diplomats in the world," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said. There is no ambassador or nominee for ambassador to Mexico, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other officials have been in communication with their Mexican counterparts on the migrant issue, according to the State Department. The post for US ambassador to Saudi Arabia is vacant, with nominee John Abizaid being named only weeks ago. The Charges d'Affaires at the US Embassy in Riyadh Christopher Henzel -- who leads the embassy in the absence of an ambassador -- has been nominated to an ambassador role in Yemen. Turkey has no nominee for its vacancy. Pressed about these particular vacancies in mid-October, State Department deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino noted that there were senior diplomatic staff at the helms of the embassies. "These are senior Foreign Service officers that have had full careers and we're confident in our team's ability," he said. Ambassador Ronald Neumann, a former US ambassador to Algeria, Bahrain and Afghanistan and the president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, said the importance of having an ambassador installed depends on the country. In countries where the US does not have deep relations, the role of the ambassador is critical, Neumann told CNN. "The ambassadors always have an easier time reaching a higher level of the host government," he said, who noted that it is harder for the second in command to gain the same level of access. "You get the job done but more slowly." Moreover, as the President's representative, it is the ambassador's role to keep the many officials from various branches of government in line, Neumann said. "The ambassador has to keep them from going off on all different agency directions," he explained. For Neumann, it is the delay in filling top positions at the State Department and what he sees as the "disinclination of this administration to make use of career officials" that are a bigger cause for concern. "I think this is an administration that does not trust a career service of any kind," he said, warning of destroying "the nonpolitical meritocracy of our professional US government." "If you're not careful, you'll be back to the spoils system of the 1900s," Neuman said. According to AFSA's tracker, Trump's ambassadorial nominees are almost evenly split between career and political appointments. However, his appointments to senior State Department positions have been 90% political. In a charged October statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to blame Congress for the gaps in staffing both abroad and in Foggy Bottom. However, the State Department has expressed approval at the pace of confirmations in the passing month. "Since October we've made progress with Senate confirmations. We were pleased that the Senate confirmed eight nominees before they recessed for the midterm elections. These confirmations included our Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kim Breier and our Assistant Secretary for Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Denise Natali. In addition, we welcomed Mary Elizabeth Taylor, our Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, who is spearheading the Senate confirmation process for our nominees. We still have approximately 70 nominees pending before the Senate and are working hard to confirm them before the end of the year," Nauert said. Questions have been raised about some of Trump's ambassadorial nominees. For example, a CNN KFile review found that his choice for ambassador to Barbados and several other Caribbean countries spread fringe conspiracy theories and unfounded attacks about Trump's political opponents on Twitter, including ones about Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, during the 2016 presidential election. Former deputy national security adviser KT McFarland withdrew her nomination to be US ambassador to Singapore in February. In December, Democrats placed a hold on the nomination until she answered their questions about her knowledge of communications between fired national security adviser Michael Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, a Democratic source told CNN at the time. In rapid succession, the results of this month's election and the release of blockbuster new scientific studies are widening the distance between the politics and science of climate change. The massive new study released by federal scientists Friday, like another landmark analysis in October from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, identified an accelerating convergence of risks from a changing climate. Those threats range from heavier rainfall and deadlier heat waves to increased coastal flooding, transformed agricultural growing patterns and potentially severe reductions in economic growth. 2020 Presidential election Accidents, disasters and safety Air pollution Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade California California wildfires Climate change Continents and regions Donald Trump Elections (by type) Elections and campaigns Emissions Energy and environment Energy and resources Energy and utilities Environment and natural resources Environmental regulation and policy Environmentalism Fires Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - US Jerry Brown Legislation Natural disasters North America Political candidates Political Figures - US Political organizations Politics Pollution Renewable energy Sherrod Brown Southeastern United States Southwestern United States The Americas United States US Congress US Democratic Party US Federal elections US federal government US House of Representatives US political parties US Presidential elections US Republican Party US Senate White House Wildfires In just the past few months, historically deadly wildfires in California and unusually powerful hurricanes in the Southeast have punctuated the message that climate change is shifting from something that will disrupt American life to something that already is doing so. Yet the results in this month's election underscored the political standoff that has blocked a federal response to the gathering threat. On one side, Democrats mostly committed to action against climate change regained the majority in the House of Representatives and recaptured control of several governorships and state legislatures. They made those gains largely by expanding their support in well-educated suburbs where more voters tend to express concern about the changing climate. The increasing tilt of their caucus into those suburban areas could even make it easier for the party to reach consensus for action than in 2009, when the House Democratic majority narrowly passed "cap and trade" climate legislation that sharply divided urban liberals from rural and exurban moderates. But simultaneously, Republicans this month expanded their hold on Senate seats from the states most heavily invested in the existing fossil fuel economy, both as energy producers and consumers. With their power reinforced by the filibuster rule that allows 41 senators to block any bill, those high-carbon states now constitute a seemingly impregnable brown barricade against federal legislation to reduce the carbon emissions linked to climate change. Those same states have provided the core of the Electoral College support for President Donald Trump, who said Monday that he doesn't believe the climate change report and who has systematically moved to rescind former President Barack Obama's regulatory initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. These divergent electoral trends frame the likelihood that even as the scientific consensus solidifies on the dangers of climate change, the US political system will further splinter in its response to it. With control of the House, Democrats are planning a quick flurry of hearings to highlight climate change questions and are debating whether to re-establish a special select committee to explore responses to the issue. Action in blue-leaning states is also likely to intensify. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this fall committing his state to 100% carbon-free energy by 2045, and other newly elected Democratic governors ran on similar commitments this year, including not only candidates in Southwestern states such as Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada but also Rust Belt battlegrounds including Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Maine, according to the League of Conservation Voters, which promoted the pledge. Fifty-five newly elected Democratic House members also signed the pledge for transitioning to carbon-free energy sources. But in the Senate, where the Republican majority is centered on states that emit the most carbon, there appears to be no prospect for action. A succession of Republican senators responded to the blockbuster federal report last weekend with what amounted to shrugs of dismissal. And the Trump administration effectively has disowned the report, which was the product of a massive federal interagency effort. Patterns of energy use reinforce the general trend of American politics over the past quarter century toward an overlapping demographic and geographic resorting of the two parties' coalitions. In all corners of the country, Democrats now run best in metropolitan areas that are experiencing high levels of demographic and cultural change and advancing fastest in the transition toward a digital, information-age economy. Simultaneously, Republicans have been consolidating their hold on non-metropolitan areas that remain preponderantly white, religiously and culturally traditional, and more rooted in the dominant 20th-century industries of manufacturing, energy production and agriculture. The carbon divide Carbon emissions, measured either per person or per dollar of economic activity, have emerged as one of the most revealing measures of that separation. Republicans now dominate almost all of the states that emit the most carbon per dollar of economic activity, most of them in the nation's heartland. Meanwhile low-emitting states, primarily along the East and West coasts, have become the backbone of Democratic strength in Congress and the Electoral College. Carbon emissions thus follow the tracks of other divides between states that lean toward each party, such as the share of immigrants, college graduates or white Christians in the population. That pattern is especially consequential in the Senate, where the two senators per state rule magnifies the influence of smaller, heavily rural states, which include many of the nation's largest energy producers. The federal Energy Information Administration ranks the states by the amount of carbon each emits to produce one dollar of gross domestic product. Even before November's election, Republicans controlled 32 of the 40 Senate seats from the 20 states that emit the most carbon per dollar of economic output. Then in the election, Republicans ousted three of the Democrats on that small list: Sens. Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota (ranked second), Joe Donnelly in Indiana (ranked 10th) and Claire McCaskill in Missouri (ranked 18th). The only Democratic senators left from these 20 high-carbon states are Joe Manchin and Jon Tester, who won tough re-election campaigns in West Virginia and Montana, respectively; Doug Jones, who faces an uphill re-election in Alabama in 2020; and Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich in New Mexico. In a mirror image, before the election Democrats controlled 32 of the 40 Senate seats from the 20 largely coastal states that emit the least carbon per dollar of economic output. Those numbers didn't change in November, as Democrats gained one Senate seat from these lower carbon states (in Nevada) while surrendering another (in Florida). After the election, as before, Democrats control all 28 Senate seats in the 14 states that emit the absolute lowest amount of carbon per dollar of economic output -- a list topped by New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Maryland, Washington, Oregon and Rhode Island. Democrats also gained one Senate seat (in Arizona) from the 10 states that rank 21st through 30th in carbon emissions per dollar of economic output. Perhaps even more important for the party, four Democratic incumbents from these states who had appeared vulnerable after 2016 all won re-election: Sens. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Bob Casey Jr. in Pennsylvania, Debbie Stabenow in Michigan and Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin. The two parties now split the 20 Senate seats from these middle tier states exactly in half. For 2020, the Democratic Senate targets are concentrated on relatively lower-carbon states. The Democrats' two top targets in 2020 are likely to be Republican incumbent Sens. Cory Gardner in Colorado (which ranked 30th in carbon emissions per dollar of GDP) and Susan Collins in Maine (which ranked 28th). (On Monday, Collins, referencing the new federal report, tweeted out concern about climate change.) Other top Democratic targets will include Republican-held Senate seats in Arizona (26), Georgia (31) and North Carolina (36). Texas (at 19) and Iowa (at 15) are the high emitting states most likely to reach the upper tier of the Democratic target list, though both could also fail to develop into serious races. The Electoral College largely follows these same lines. In 2016, Trump won 19 of the 20 states that emit the most carbon per dollar of economic activity (with New Mexico as the only exception.) His Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, won 16 of the 20 states that emit the least carbon (with Georgia, Idaho, Florida and North Carolina as the exceptions.) Trump won all seven states that ranked 21st through 27th in emissions per dollar of economic activity, while Clinton carried the three states that ranked 28 to 30. For 2020, the three states Democrats are most hoping to recapture from Trump are all in that middle group: Michigan (22), Wisconsin (23) and Pennsylvania (24). The party's other top targets to flip cluster toward the bottom of the list, including Florida, North Carolina and possibly Georgia; among high-emitting states only Iowa, Ohio (21) and perhaps Texas might draw much Democratic interest in 2020, and none of those are guaranteed targets. No cracks in the brown blockade Despite their urban-rural split, Democrats passed a "cap and trade" bill to limit carbon emissions in 2009 the last time they controlled the House. But that bill could not advance in the Senate, and Republicans have rejected action on the issue since they regained the House majority in 2011. Whatever the Democratic House majority does now, it is virtually certain Washington will not act on climate issues while Trump, who has at times called climate change a "hoax," holds the White House. But even if Democrats can oust Trump in 2020, the high-carbon blockade in the Senate looms as an enduring challenge for any federal legislation to confront climate change, such as a "cap and trade" program, a tax on such pollution or federal requirements on states to generate more of their power from renewable clean-energy sources. Just the 35 Senate seats Republicans now control in the 20 states that emit the most carbon per dollar of economic output, combined with their six from the states that ranked 21 to 26 on that list, would be enough to sustain a filibuster against climate legislation. These higher emission states could tilt even further toward the GOP in the coming years: In 2020, Democrats will face a tough fight to hold their Senate seat in high-emitting Alabama (ranked ninth), as well as a competitive, if less immediately threatening, contest for Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan. And few Democrats are sanguine about their long-term prospects in West Virginia or Montana after Manchin and Tester someday leave office. In the report released Friday, the federal agencies painted a dire picture of mounting risk to all areas of the country from the changing climate. "High temperature extremes, heavy precipitation events, high tide flooding events along the US coastline, ocean acidification and warming, and forest fires in the western United States and Alaska are all projected to continue to increase, while land and sea ice cover, snowpack, and surface soil moisture are expected to continue to decline in the coming decades," the authors wrote. The report forecasts that the most severe changes could be felt in some of the regions, particularly the Southeast and upper Midwest and northern Plains, that emit the most carbon per dollar of economic activity and elect many of the members of Congress most resistant to acting on climate change. These increasingly tangible disruptions might create more political pressure in those states for action on the climate. More likely, any federal initiative to combat climate change for the next several years will need to find ways to circumvent the Senate's brown blockade. Ways around the filibuster One option is executive branch regulatory action from a future president, like the rules on automotive fuel economy and power plant emissions that Obama imposed. But the five Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, who are generally suspicious of federal regulation, might limit the scope of such unilateral executive action. It's also easier for a succeeding administration to undo regulations than it is to rewrite laws -- as demonstrated by the contrast between Trump's success at thwarting Obama's climate agenda and his inability to repeal the Affordable Care Act. These considerations explain why talk is quietly increasing among environmental groups about exploring ways a future Democratic Senate majority might use the reconciliation process, which allows legislation to pass with 51 votes, to address climate change. The reconciliation process is limited to bills with impact on the federal budget, but it provided the vehicle for two of the most sweeping legislative initiatives of recent years, the GOP tax plan approved last year and the ACA. It's possible that parliamentary obstacles could block the reconciliation route as well, leaving climate legislation still dependent on 60 votes to clear the Senate. That prospect raises a final option for how the climate debate could unfold in the years ahead. If the brown blockade continues to stalemate federal action even as the risks surge from rising seas, deadly wildfires and intensifying hurricanes, it may be that climate change is the issue that eventually causes the Senate to sweep away the venerable institution of the filibuster itself. BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonney Purdue joined state and local officials to tour the areas affected by the Camp Fire on Monday. Along with the tour, the members discussed the hot topic of forest management. "The dynamic in California has changed," Zinke said. "Wildfires are not just forest and wildland problems any more. They have now become city problems." They joined Congressman Doug LaMalfa and several other state and local elected officials to discuss the topics and tour the areas affected. "This is why we're a team, we're a family," Zinke said. "The secretary and I are here talking with the local community and the press to work on making sure this doesn't happen again." Monday's visit took a strong stance on forest management, with officials highlighting the lack of legislation supporting safe forest management. "We need to get out of the litigation business and get into the mitigation business," Purdue said. "We can't stop the fires, but we can help prevent the carnage we see in these kinds of fires." They also heard first accounts from those affected including firefighter Leland Radcliff, who lost everything while fighting the fire. "I live in paradise," Radcliff said. "We lost everything. "You can talk about fuels and what we are going to do and thin the forests but we need money. We need stuff to be able to thin the forests. To think that we'll be able to pull that off in the winter time too, that's not going to happen." Looking towards the future, these leaders on all levels of government and firefighting are pledging their cooperation so that Paradise can rise from the ashes. Smriti Shadra started her advertising career with Grey Worldwide and then went on to work with some of the biggest names like JWT, Leo Burnett and Dentsu India Group, before moving to The Social Street, Mumbai in 2016. Over the nine years that she has spent in the industry, Shadra, now Associate Creative Director at The Social Street, has been an integral part of creating path-breaking campaigns for some of the most iconic brands like Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, Max Healthcare and Britannia. She has won about 190 national and international awards across Print, Activation, Media and Out-of-Home. She also had the opportunity to be a jury at The Abbys and The Emvies. In 2017, Shadra was chosen as one of the Adobe Young Lanterns, acknowledged and judged by the finest jury in the country. What does it takes to climb up the ladder in advertising? Heres Smriti Shadra in her own words... How did you get into the role you are serving? I was a Graduate in Economics from the University of Delhi and a fresh pass out of an MBA Finance programme, when I decided to join a field that was totally unrelated to anything that I had studied about Advertising. Anyone who heard of my plans at that point obviously thought that I was being too frivolous. But then I joined the Crafting Creative Communications programme at MICA. And following that, worked with some of the biggest networks, including Grey Worldwide, J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett and Dentsu Aegis Network at their Delhi offices. In 2016, I moved to Mumbai to join The Social Street. What particular skill sets do you think you bring to the table? Ive spent a considerable part of my career working with some of the biggest mainline agencies, which helped me get a thorough understanding of advertising on mediums like television, print and radio. And then, I consciously made the shift to explore a completely different world, that of activations, on-ground, digital and out-of-home. I believe these two experiences have today given me the ability to adopt an integrated approach to advertising and come up with solutions which can be expanded across various mediums. Icons in advertising you look up to and how they have influenced you and your work? Like most 90s kids, I grew up admiring the iconic ads created by Piyush Pandey sir. From the quirky Fevicol ideas to the heart-warming Cadbury commercials, I have always been in awe of the simplicity that he put to work, every single time. Even today, I find myself going back to his work for inspiration whenever Im stuck. And I must say that the therapy works pretty well. I am also fortunate to have worked with a lot many people who have mentored me in the true sense. They are the ones who have shaped the way I think and approach my work. What are the five most productive things that you do in your everyday routine? Crack an idea and spend time with it. Doing so, gives me a better perspective, whether the idea is actually effective or not. Find simple solutions that are lying all around us. All that we need to do is step out of office, take our minds of work and observe. Read a lot of blogs. I believe they are a great way of getting to know new people, no matter which part of the world they belong to. Look at briefs from the lens of solving a human problem rather than a brand problem. Because at the end of the day, the core of every brand is related to us humans. Travel often. Not something I do every day, but definitely once in every few days. It gives me a chance to understand a new set of people, with a new approach to life, always inspiring me in some way or the other. Do you think a career in advertising is a viable one in the long term? Definitely, as long as one is not okay with doing the same thing over the years and is open and willing to evolve with the times. As creative people, our work is to make products and services alluring for consumers. But if we ourselves are bored, there is no way we can keep the consumers interested. What does it take to succeed in a career like advertising? A hell of a lot of passion, hunger and a self-driven approach to keep learning, unlearning, breaking rules and creating some of your own. What would be your advice to youngsters planning to enter this industry? Come with an open mind, a big heart and lots of guts. Most importantly, have your resources to keep yourself motivated. Because, at the end of the day, itll always be upon you to ensure that there isnt any room for monotony to settle in. Where do you see yourself in five years time? Well, the plan is to acquire new skills, gain fresh perspectives and have unique experiences under my belt, especially in terms of getting a stronger grasp of mediums like digital. Id also love to continue being a part of this growing community of people from across the globe, who have been involved in creating path-breaking work in the social advertising arena. Is there any agency/ organisation that you would like to work with in the future? Ive always been the one to choose people over agencies or brands. So, Id love to join any place that gives me the opportunity to learn and get inspired from some great minds and in the process, create interesting work too. Bank of Baroda, one of the countrys trusted public sector banks, has announced the launch of a unique digital campaign #BeTheChamp. The fortnight-long campaign that commenced on November 14 and concludes on November 30, has been launched keeping in mind twin occasionsNational Childrens Day (November 14) and World Childrens Day (November 20) The campaign invites parents and schools to encourage children up to 18 years of age to participate in a digital talent hunt by uploading photos/videos/images/audios showcasing their best activities and talents such as dance, music, arts, writing and others The promotional campaign would lead the audience towards a microsite https://www.bethechamp.in; to participate in exciting contests and quizzes. All participants will be provided a digital certificate by Bank of Baroda to value their capabilities and encourage such creative activities. Airing his thoughts on the occasion, Mr.O.K Kaul, General Manager and Head of Marketing, Corporate Communication and Wealth Management Services, Bank of Baroda, said, We are pleased to launch this one-of-its-kind digital campaign for children and the response that we have received thus far is indicative of our faith in the thought behind it. At Bank of Baroda, we firmly believe that every child is creative in his or her own way and it is the collective responsibility of our society to provide them with as many platforms as possible to showcase the same. We are hopeful that #BeTheChamp provides them with one such avenue. BIG FM, one of India's largest radio networks has associated with The Indian Express for the 2nd consecutive year as a radio partner for Stories of Strength - A memorial event to mark the 26/11 anniversary. The radio station is revisiting 26/11 by celebrating stories of strength from that fateful day, across its morning and evening show. On 26th November at the memorial event to be hosted by Indian Express at Gateway of India, BIG FM will also set up a live booth where BIG MJ Dilip will connect listeners across the nation to witness the honorary celebrations. Speaking about Stories of Strength BIG MJ Dilip said, "As we enter November, each day passes by. However, there is one date with which many horrific stories of Mumbai are related. Mumbai can never forget this date - 26/11 and this year it completes 10 years. The Indian express for the past three years has been hosting a memorial event: 'Stories of Strength' at Gateway of India where prominent personalities such as Amitabh Bachchan come together to pay their tribute. This year at the 3rd edition, BIG FM will be joining thememorial by going live from Gateway of India. I will be hosting my entire show live on 26th Nov. I would request everyone to join us in paying a tribute by sharing some meaningful and thankful messages to those brave hearts and police officers who sacrificed their lives for our safety. The messages can be shared with us on our Whatsapp number 9323927927. Some of listeners among you will go live with us on 26/11 from Gateway of India." The radio stations morning show for the week of 26/11 remembered the brave hearts on-air who sacrificed their lives for the safety of the nation. The heart-rending/moving stories of Arun Jadhav, Atul Kulkarni , Anant Goenka , Rohit Deshpande , Rohit Sharma , Dhaval Waghela among others were shared each day on the network, as a salute to their absolute strength and bravery . In the evening show, the radio station is driving listener engagement by inviting listeners to pay tribute to the martyrs in the form of thankful messages. Sixteen people among these would be selected to be a part of the on-ground memorial ceremony on 26th November. Speaking about associating with BIG FM, Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express said, "BIG FM is one channel that is differentiated. It has got a unique positioning which is so difficult in a medium which is as commercialized as radio. I am very happy to partner with BIG FM. These kind of projects aren't easy and radio as an audio medium has an attention span of 15-20 secs. It requires some kind of passion and commitment towards the cause to be able to talk about it so effectively. I am grateful to the entire BIG FM team." ExxonMobil Lubricants Pvt. Ltd. is set to expand its presence in India, the worlds fastest growing lubricants market, with one of the most exciting brand associations, 2.0. Associated as the energy partner, the worlds leading lubricant brand aims to engage its consumers, trade partners and employees through marketing associations that reflect the Mobil brand promise. The 2.0. association is first amongst many initiatives under the Farak Laakar Dekhiye brand campaign. The campaign embodies Mobils strategy for India and articulates the position of making a difference to things that matter and seeing the change. As a brand, Mobil continues to stay ahead of the curve, through its advanced technology and engineering capabilities to offer better protection - which sets Mobil branded products apart from every other lubricant manufacturer. Commenting on the association, Deepankar Banerjee, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ExxonMobils lubricants business in India said,We are extremely pleased with our association with 2.0. The movie illustrates best-in-class and is synonymous with the Mobil brand promise. This association is just one of the many brand associations we will launch in India. The brand campaign, Farak Laakar Dekhiye, was conceptualized with the Indian subcontinent in mind, promising an array of unique and relevant experiences that lead to stronger brand recognition and curiosity for Mobil products in India. Sony Pictures Networks India has appointed Amogh Dusad as Head of Content, Partnerships and New Initiatives. Amogh was previously Head of Digital Products. He joined Sony in 2011 as Senior VP and head - Programming and content acquisition. With an experience of over 15 years, Dusad has a history of working in leadership positions covering different facets of the broadcast media industry. Prior to joining Sony, he worked with NDTV Imagine. Dusad started his career with TAM Media Research (JV between Nielsen and KMR) working on several consulting projects for advertisers and broadcasters, to leverage big data analytics towards strategic decision making. Congresswoman Elise Stefaniks district has one of the great carbon banks in North America, its public and private forests. Governor Cuomos Department of Environmental Conservation and Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation have, on our behalf, custody of over an even larger carbon bank in the Catskills, Adirondacks, State Forests and Parks and Conservation Easements all across the State. Yet, despite their vocal and demonstrable commitments to combat climate change, Ive not heard either official tout the great importance of New Yorks forest policies and stewardship to store and offset our carbon pollution. Goals and policies on use of solar, wind, hydro, transportation, batteries, and efficiency are routinely and passionately enunciated and in some cases enacted. Rarely is forest policy in that mix. Its curious. Although he was probably not thinking of climate mitigation, in his book Land Use in America the late (and first) DEC Commissioner Henry Diamond wrote: land use is the stepchild of the environmental movement, meaning, I think, that since the first Earth Day in 1970 the vast majority of our attention and talents have focused on environmental regulation of air and water resources, not land use policy. The constitutional right to do whatever we wish with land, perceived and real, even if that means developing it in ways that forever forgo its future benefits and values in a relatively undisturbed state are that powerful. If the 1890s had not turned out as they did for our Forest Preserve, would todays elected officials and electorate choose to wrap the protective aegis (Samuel Hammond, c. 1857) of our states constitution around Adirondack and Catskill forests as one known, effective effort to mitigate climate change? Despite the enormous present threat and irrevocable impact of our societys current practices on extreme weather, Im not certain we would. No other state has had the political will to follow our lead in all this time. So, take a deep breath of additional gratitude for the originators of forever wild, the committee on forest preservation at the 1894 constitutional convention. At the same time, resolve that its urgent our elected officials and land planning and management agencies, both state and local, overtly and intelligently link state and local land use decisions with climate change. Climate needs to be in todays land use conversations at all levels of government. Nobody has done more to bring this matter to Adirondack public attention than botanist and author Jerry Jenkins. As Jerry wrote in Climate Change in the Adirondacks (2010, Wildlife Conservation Society), world forests absorb 3 billion tons of carbon a year. The clearing of forests releases 1.6 billion tons. The balance is 1.4 billion tons of carbon absorbed enough to offset 22% of the worlds fossil fuel emissions. This is good, but not as good as it could be. If we were not clearing tropical forests and turning them into farms, the net storage could be the full 3 billion tons, enough to offset 47% of all fossil fuel emissions. That would be an ecosystem service that really meant something. To bring the issue home for me, our small solar photovoltaic system has, over its 10 years of use, prevented about 15 tons of avoided carbon dioxide emissions we would have created without the solar system. But the 25 acres of temperate deciduous forest we have invested in has stored about 100 tons of CO2 during the same decade. Our local zoning board granted us a variance for the solar array, a relatively painless process. Our local planning board would have a great deal more to say if we applied to cut down, subdivide and develop our forest. Traffic increases, storm water, lighting and curb cuts would be among the concerns and issues they would raise. Climate change offsets and carbon storage would probably never be mentioned. Will the new Brazilian president make decisions that accelerate conversion of tropical forests and the people who depend upon them to cattle, soy and other uses humans greedily consume? If so, he would constitute one of the greatest immediate threats to the planet. If so, he would mimic what we in the United States ravaged in the 19th and 20th centuries- our original rainwood forests in the northwest, hardwood swamps in the south, and midwestern and eastern pine and spruce forests. Jerry Jenkins went on in his book to caution that forests are not carbon neutral, and that in regards to forest harvesting, making paper and other forest products there is a lot of energy used and carbon emitted. If we are going to claim the (carbon) benefits, we need to be honest about accounting for the costs, he writes. Still, its time for our officials to point to our 3 million acre, constitutionally protected Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve (and other State Forests) and to our nearly 1 million acres of privately owned conservation easements. What are they accomplishing each year to offset our carbon emissions and to store carbon as these forests mature? Each DEC Unit Management Plan, from the High Peaks to the low peaks, should address the question. Jenkins stressed that the temperate deciduous forests of the eastern United States and Canada are one of the great carbon banks on the planetcurrent growth is offsetting past losses. Most eastern forests are young and many are expanding. If they are allowed to mature, they will remove much of the carbon from the atmosphere that was released when the forests were originally cleared or cut. One of those forests, still maturing, lies within the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness. In the area we were in we noticed many forest stands still recovering from the intense clear-cutting for charcoal production in the late 19th century. There is a lot of carbon offsetting and storage happening in this and other Forest Preserve and conservation easement units in both Parks. Jenkins argues that even older, mature or old growth forests in the Adirondacks are storing carbon at a surprisingly high rate. Even when annual carbon storage in the tree bole and branches themselves may decline with great age, carbon storage in the dead wood around these older giant trees and in the soil beneath them is steadily accreting. This storage in trees, living and dead and in the forest soil is our constitutionally protected carbon bank for which we should be justly proud, and watchful. As for carbon storage, Jenkins estimates that carbon bank in all Adirondack forests, public and private, is about 85 tons per acre, or over 430 million tons in all. There is even more stored in the Catskill Park. As he writes, if all of that stored forest carbon were to be released at once, it would be equal to all the carbon emissions from within the Adirondack Park over the past 750 years. And yes, America has released all this and much more as a result of our national deforestation since 1865. As for carbon offsets, Jenkins guess is that the public Adirondack Forest Preserve, all 2.7 million acres of it, is realizing a total accumulation rate of 0.4 tons of carbon per acre per year, or over a million tons of carbon per year on state lands. Another 1.3 million tons is being stored annually on the parks private forests, or 2.3 million total tons of carbon offsets per year thanks to Adirondack forests, with a lot more from the Catskills and other small forest holdings like mine. In all the State Land Unit Management Plans, which set the management direction of 3 million Forest Preserve acres, there is rarely any mention of the role these forests play in carbon offsets and storage, nor of the potential carbon and economic benefits which are accruing each day and which could increase in the future by reaffirming Article XIV. On the private land side, New York and local planning agencies should be encouraging, if not mandating sound practices of good spatial design of new residential development that leaves plenty of undeveloped space for private forest management and accretion of carbon storage. This would be one of the most important benefits of mandating conservation subdivision design at the Adirondack Park Agency. We need nature, desperately. Given what we know about carbon storage going on in older forests like the Forest Preserve as well as carbon sequestration in young, vigorously growing, undeveloped private forest stands it would be well for our congressional delegation, state legislature and Governor Cuomo to document and safeguard what we already have done with forest policy, and to create new incentives to expand forest conservation and stewardship as a climate tool. One of those new incentives could be the DECs Empire Forests for the Future program, proposed in last years executive budget but not yet adopted by the state legislature. DEC touts it as a comprehensive forestry initiative aimed at assisting private forest owners to manage their forests for climate mitigation, wildlife habitat and forest products. Lets resolve the hurdles and enact this program. Photos, from above: Satellite view of the Adirondacks, with the Blue Line (the Parks boundary) superimposed and recovering forest in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness. By John Stone I recently wrote to Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer of England and to the British government, asking her for the basis of her statement to the BBC regarding MMR: "It's a safe vaccination - we know that", and was a lucky enough to receive a reply (letter of 12 November, from which I extract): Specifically in relation to whether MMR vaccines may be a cause of autism, a substantial body of population-based research has found no evidence to suggest a causal association. This evidence (not just for MMR, but other types of vaccine) is available for review in the published medical literature, and was summarised in a meta-analysis in 2014 which is free to download (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X14006367?via%3Dihub). In relation to vaccine safety monitoring more generally, I can assure you that systems are in place to keep safety under review. This includes continual review of suspected adverse reaction reports (such as those submitted through the Yellow Card Scheme), evaluation of GP and hospital-based health records linked to immunisations, review of worldwide data and close collaboration with international health authorities. It is noteworthy that the "meta-analysis" by Luke E Taylor is identical to the one cited by Thomas Insel to a US Congressional committee in 2014, but it constitutes no more than a bureaucratic fig-leaf. Dame Sally - who is the UK's leading government adviser on medical matters - ought to be able to do a lot better than this if every child is to be subjected to these products. It is, if anything, a rather naive response citing a shallow collection of studies which were published under political pressure decades after the policy was introduced. I have since attempted a conscientious and detailed reply: 21 November 2018 Dear Dame Sally, Thank you for your letter of 12 November. I would point out that though you are quite right I am concerned about the rise in autism I specifically asked about the evidence base for MMR safety. That said it is reasonable to point out autism for a whole host of reasons is a much more serious problem in modern Britain (and elsewhere) than measles. When the DHSC last surveyed this problem in 2004-5 the overall ASD rate among school children was ~1% which was 5 times higher than the rate for those young people born between 1984-8 mostly before MMR was introduced, as reported in the equivalent 1999 survey. Since then your department has neglected to look at the issue (apart from a couple of failed adult autism surveys) as everything manifestly got worse, year on year [1,2]. As it is, a recent survey carried out by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland showed that the rate had risen from 1.2% in 2009 to 2.9%, while in Belfast it was as high as 4.7%. Moreover, 60% are educational Stage 5 [3], ie the most severe level of disability, so these are not cases that could previously have been missed because somehow subliminal. Educational data from across the nation and reports of collapse in educational services in the media testify that Northern Ireland is not an isolated case, but just better documented [4]. Regarding the meta-review by Taylor 'Vaccines are not associated with autism' [5] which you cited I note that there are just six MMR related studies included all of which have major problems. Three of the studies show apparent protective effect of MMR vaccines against autism (Madsen 8% [6], Smeeth 14% or 22% [7] and Mrozek-Budzyn 83%!!! [8]) which suggests bias. Of the Madsen paper Cochrane 2005 warned [9]: "The follow up of diagnostic records ends one year (31 Dec 1999) after the last day of admission to the cohort. Because of the length of time from birth to diagnosis, it becomes increasingly unlikely that those born later in the cohort could have a diagnosis" It remains troubling that as with a number of studies from this Danish group the co-ordinator on behalf of US Centers for Diseases Control, Poul Thorsen, is wanted for financial fraud from the CDC, though not extradited to the US now after nearly 8 years [10]. Of the De Stefano paper Cochrane commented [9]: The conclusion, however, implied bias in the enrollment of cases which may not be representative of the rest of the autistic population of the city of Atlanta, USA where the study was set. And indeed in 2014 the paper was repudiated by one of the leading authors, William Thompson [11]: I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed. The study by Smeeth [7] is compromised by its patchy data source, the General Practice Research Database where the autism rate represented is perhaps only one tenth of cases diagnosed [12]. Cochrane commented [9]: In the GPRD - based studies (Black 2003; Smeeth 2004) the precise nature of controlled unexposed to MMR and their generalisability was impossible to determine It remains problematic whether the unvaccinated in this study were genuinely unvaccinated. Of the Uchiyama study [13] Cochrane commented [14]: The cohort study of Uchiyama 2007 was potentially affected by a different type of bias, considering that the participants were from a private clinic and that definitions of applied Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis and of methods used for ASD regression ascertainment were not clearly reported. And the Uno study [15] will suffer from similar issues since the cases came from the same clinic. Moreover, in both instances the studies were far too small (904 persons and 413) to necessarily provide any clear result even if they had been better controlled. Nor can the Taylor meta-analysis [5] cover up the entire absence of pre-marketing studies. In 1988-9 when the British government was persuaded to introduce Pluserix, MMR2 and Imravax there were no safety studies at all, and successive governments have been forced into the defence of a policy which they had embarked on without safety evidence. As to the robustness of the yellow card reporting system I note the recent correspondence in the columns of BMJ On-Line regarding monitoring of Pandemrix vaccine from Wendy E Stephen and Clifford G Miller [16], which has serious implications for how the MHRA monitor all products. The MHRA has, of course, the ultimate conflict of being entirely funded by the manufacturers. It may be mentioned that in 1992 the Pluserix and Imravax vaccines were withdrawn not apparently by the British Government concerned about patient safety but by the manufacturers catching the government on the hop [17]. We are confronting a catastrophic situation among our young people with chronic illness replacing infectious illness as the main issue and cost to the state, and laying the emphasis on infectious diseases (with endless hate campaigns in the media against critics labelled anti-vaxxers) is a distraction, and a distortion of policy. It would be unfortunate if ministers were being advised about the safety of the programme on such a threadbare and inadequate basis. Re-examining the policy is both essential and urgent. [1] John Stone, Response to David Oliver I (The Indisputable Rise in Autism), BMJ Rapid Responses 28 August 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3596/rr-12 [2] John Stone, What about autism? BMJ Rapid Responses, 21 August 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3596/rr-0 [3] Information Analysis Directorate 'The Prevalence of Autism (including Asperger Syndrome) in School Age Children in Northern Ireland 2018', published 10 May 2018, https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/health/asd-children-ni-2018.pdf [4] Responses to Viner RM, 'NHS must prioritise health of children and young people', https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k1116/rapid-responses [5] Luke E Taylor et al, Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies, Vaccine 2014, https://autismoevaccini.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/vaccines-are-not-associated-with-autism.pdf [6] Madsen et al, A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism, NEMJ 2002, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa021134 [7] Smeeth et al, MMR vaccination and pervasive developmental disorders: a case-control study. Lance 2004, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15364187 [8] Mrozek-Budzyn et al, Lack of association between measles-mumps-rubella vaccination and autism in children: a case-control study. Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal 2010, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19952979 [9] Demicheli et al, Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children., Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2005 Oct 19;(4):CD004407. [10] Office of Inspector General, US Department of Health and Human Services, Fugitive Profiles, https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/fugitives/profiles.asp [11] https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Documents/2016/WorkGroups/House%20Health%20Care/Bills/H.98/Witness%20Testimony/H.98~Jennifer%20Stella~William%20Thompson%20Statement~5-6-2015.pdf [12] John Stone, An old story: the GPRD does not provide credible autism data 11 February 2014 https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/10/e003219.responses [13] Uchiyama et al, MMR-vaccine and regression in autism spectrum disorders: negative results presented from Japan. J Autism Dev Disord. 2007 Feb;37(2):210-7. [14] Demicheli et al, Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children., Cochrane Systematic Review - Intervention Version published: 15 February 2012, https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004407.pub3/full [15] Uno et al, The combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines and the total number of vaccines are not associated with development of autism spectrum disorder: the first case-control study in Asia, Vaccine. 2012 Jun 13;30(28):4292-8. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2012.01.093. Epub 2012 Apr 20. [16] Responses to Godlee, A tale of two vaccines BMJ 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4152/rapid-responses [17] Report, BMJ 26 September 1992, https://www.bmj.com/content/305/6856/777 When your government, the BBC or the mainstream media tell you that MMR is safe, this the best that the British government can do. After three decades of pure bluster they need to go back to the drawing board. Note: This is post #102 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Cyclical unemployment is a type of unemployment that is connected to the regular ups and downsthe cyclical trends in growth and recessionthat occur within the business cycle. One factor that affects cyclical unemployment is sticky wages. As Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution University explains, wages often adjust more slowly after an economic contraction, which in turn reduces an employers incentive to hire. Other factors affecting wage adjustment could include minimum wages or union contracts, which put contractual limits on how low wages can go. All of these factors affect the rate at which unemployed workers are rehired. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, Id recommend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on Settings (the gear symbol) and changing Speed from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.) Click here to see other videos in the Introduction to Economics series. Following a dicey, barb-ridden public exchange, the Aiken City Council has hit pause on an effort that would revise what has been described as a western gateway to the city's downtown area. City Council on Monday night unanimously tabled an ordinance to rezone 11 properties fronting Waterloo Street, a stretch between and perpendicular to Richland and Hayne avenues. The pause was first suggested by City Council member Ed Woltz. The actual motion was made by City Council member Ed Girardeau, and it was seconded by City Council member Dick Dewar. City Council member Gail Diggs was absent from the meeting. Aiken City Council finalizes changes to limited business, downtown business zones The limited business and downtown business zoning districts will be a little different from here on out. If the ordinance is eventually approved which requires two nods, and no timeline was provided Monday night the 11 properties would assume limited business zoning. The 11 lots are currently zoned limited professional, a seldom-used designation. Earlier this month, the Planning Commission, which advises City Council, recommended rezoning the 11 lots. The Planning Commission's recommendation excluded two general business-zoned lots along Waterloo Street. Public opposition to the rezoning was evident Monday night. Clusters of neighbors and concerned residents attended the City Council meeting. About a half-dozen spoke. The oft-cited rezoning concern the Waterloo Street endeavor is now months in the making is that a limited business designation would spur abundant commercialization, essentially ruining the historical atmosphere in and around the area. That includes parking woes. One woman on Monday night said limited business zoning would erode the area, not strengthen it. Another woman said the historic district needed protecting. A third woman alleged inaccurate information was being presented at the meeting. One man said he was "disappointed" in the entire process, describing it as amorphous, "not well thought out" and ramrodded; another man suggested the rezoning effort might be happening backwards. Various City Council members on Monday night called for better information the next time the Waterloo Street topic is taken up. Limited business zoning has been described in Planning Commission documents as transitional: zoning that encourages a fusion of business, walkability and homemaking. A majority of the Waterloo Street properties have most recently been used for commercial purposes, according to planning information. City Council earlier amended the definition of limited business to exclude and prevent convenience store and liquor store uses. That move followed Planning Commission deliberation, as well. Planning Director Ryan Bland was called on several times to clarify things and answer City Council's questions Monday night. Jack Hunter, the Planning Commission chairman, attended the meeting Monday night to represent his panel. 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. ANKARA, Turkey President Recip Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday his Justice and Development Party (AKP) would cut a deal with its right-wing rival, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), for Turkeys municipal elections in March. The move is a bid to consolidate the right-of-center vote ahead of polls in which the AKP could suffer significant losses owing to the failing economy and a falling approval rating for the president. Over the weekend the leader of the MHP, Devlet Bahceli, said his party would not field candidates in the three biggest cities: Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. The withdrawal provoked speculation that Erdogan would reciprocate by not fielding AKP candidates in cities where the MHP seeks to win: Adana, Mersin, Manisa, Osmaniye and Isparta. On Tuesday, Erdogan said such arrangements would be made, but gave no details. Once you have an agreement, each side will have to make gestures toward the other, he told reporters. In his weekly address to AKP legislators in parliament, Erdogan named his choices for AKP mayor of Ankara, Izmir and 18 other cities. But he did not name his candidate for the biggest prize of all: mayor of Istanbul. Instead, he said his choice for Istanbul would be declared after his return from the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires this weekend. The man favored to be the AKP candidate for Istanbul is Binali Yildirim, the current speaker of parliament and former prime minister. He met Erdogan after his speech but no statement was issued. Word here in the capital is that Yildirim does not want the job. Earlier this month he criticized the way his name was being bandied about as the candidate for Istanbul, a city currently in AKP hands. His record makes him well suited for the position. A nautical engineer, Yildirim served as head of Istanbul Deniz Otobusu (Istanbul Sea Bus), which runs the huge catamarans that carry people from one side of the city to the other across the Bosporus Strait and Marmara Sea. He is credited with vastly expanding the citys maritime transport sector. However, Yildirim is a lousy campaigner. His speeches are dry and monotonous and he looks uncomfortable as he delivers them. These faults could cost him dearly if the main opposition, the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), chooses Muharrem Ince to be its candidate for Istanbul. Ince is unquestionably the best campaigner in Turkey, drawing crowds as big as two million people in the June elections. Political insiders say Yildirim has grown tired of changing jobs. In the space of three years, he has been minister of transportation, prime minister (May 2016 to July 2018) and speaker of parliament. It is thought that he was looking forward to finishing his political career in the relatively easy position of speaker rather than having to tackle the cut and thrust of politics in Istanbul, whose 14 million people comprise the most diverse and outspoken electorate in the land. But to anyone who finds Istanbullular (Istanbulites) daunting, Erdogan gave a lesson in how to put them down on Tuesday. The CHP leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, gave him the opportunity by boasting of the results of a survey of the nations municipal districts. Compiled by the Human Development Foundation, the survey had evaluated development in almost 500 districts according to UN criteria. The Human Development Index by District, 2018 found the top five districts in Turkey to be Besiktas, Kadikoy, Cankaya, Sisli and Nilufer. All of them are run by CHP municipalities and three of them (Besiktas, Kadikoy and Sisli) are in Istanbul. Cankaya is in Ankara and Nilufer is in Bursa. In fact, 17 of the top 20 districts on the list are run by CHP mayors, and eight of the 10 districts at the bottom of the list are run by the AKP. It was exactly what Kilicdaroglu needed to launch the CHP campaign for the local elections on March 31. Where the CHP runs a municipality, there is democracy, gender equality and respect for [freedom of] thought, he crowed. Erdogan had to reply. A former mayor of Istanbul, he was shocked when the city voted against him in the constitutional referendum last year. On Tuesday he resorted to his trademark tactic of dividing Turks into "them" (the liberal elite) and "us" (the conservative working class). Referring to the surveys top five districts, he said, The people living in those districts would not care if Turkey burns down or prospers. Their electoral profile is detached from the reality of the country. They are the people who eat the cream of Turkeys pie. In fact, many of the residents of Besiktas, Kadikoy and Cankaya are not rich, but middle class. They include blue-collar workers as well as professionals. They tend to be well educated and politically liberal, which is why they vote for the opposition. Surveys have found the average AKP voter did not finish high school. CAIRO Egypt is ready to assume the African Union presidency for 2019 and is stepping up preparations for the group's Jan. 31 summit. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will preside as chairman of the summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sisi was elected by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government for a one-year term, succeeding Rwandan President Paul Kagame. In a weekly cabinet meeting Nov. 13, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly instructed all ministries to prepare cooperation programs with the other African countries, noting that the AU presidency is a golden opportunity to strengthen Egypt's interests and standing in Africa. On Nov. 8, the government published an action plan to promote relations with African countries. It includes a number of bilateral and regional cooperation programs in health, trade, investment, aviation and culture. Egypt will also host numerous pan-African events such as the Africa Investment Forum, in addition to several cultural festivals. Two weeks ago, Egypts Ministry of Youth and Sports established Africa Summer School 2063, an educational camp for youth leaders that is part of a 50-year plan to transform the continent through growth and development. It's intended to develop routes to turn the aspirations of the African Agenda 2063 and Egypt Vision 2030 into projects on the ground," Hassan Ghazali, founder of the ministry's African Youth Bureau and vice president of the Pan African Youth Union, told Al-Monitor. Training youth leaders through this school will focus on supporting strategic relations with Africa. It will also support regional aspirations to fight terrorism and end armed conflicts on the continent," he added. The government is now strongly inclined toward African rapprochement. Relations with Africa, in general, have become a priority on the agenda of the presidency and the various state institutions. The objective is not to create a new Egyptian role in Africa, but to revive Egypts historic role. Egypts AU presidency comes as its influence is waning among other North African countries such as Libya and Tunisia, which have seemed preoccupied with repercussions of their internal Arab Springs. New African leaders have emerged from southern and eastern Africa, most notably Rwanda's Kagame, the outgoing AU president who was entrusted in 2016 with reforming the AU Commission and achieving financial independence. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also has been promoting ties with African countries. Ethiopia signed a peace deal with Eritrea and has been warming up to Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan. The leaders of Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement in September and talks are underway to include Djibouti and Sudan. These developments show that several African actors are now controlling the balance of power and influencing the decision-making process in Africa. Egypt has to find its own influence on several African issues. Al-Monitor spoke to Ahmed Hajjaj, former assistant secretary-general of the AU's predecessor, the Organization of African Unity. No specific African country has control over Africa or solely and unilaterally controls Africa's decision-making process." Hajjaj said. "In light of the different regional balances of power and their impact on the African landscape, the Egyptian policy must focus on cooperation and consensus to reach collective decisions. The various issues raised within the AU should be solved without the AU giving preference or supremacy to the interests and visions of a specific region. Egypts foreign policy toward the rest of Africa is based on promoting economic and development partnerships and on tapping the continent's market potential. But other factors also affect Egypts Africa policy, including current security threats against the Egyptian state, international and regional agendas in the Middle East and the Red Sea area, g and the implications of the upstream Nile countries individual actions and their impact on the Egyptian water quota. Egypt's per capita water share has dropped well below the international standard of 1,000 cubic meters per capita per year. The main challenge for Egypt is its conflicts of interest with international powers, said Amani al-Tawil at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. This appeared in the diverging opinions between Egypt and France regarding the security threats of terrorist groups and local militias in the Sahel and Sahara. She pointed out, The alliance of Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Chad emerged as an alternative to the joint defense system adopted by Egypt at the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting of African defense ministers in March 2016. Tawil went on, Some African countries are seeking to form regional alliances. Ethiopia has ambitions to create a regional interaction with Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti on one hand, and with eastern Africa in the Nile Basin on the other. This could be another challenge for Egypt, which must set forth serious visions to deal with these developments in the African arena. She said the government's initiatives to strengthen cooperation with the rest of Africa might not result in major changes for several reasons. Most of Egypts ministerial portfolios have a limited funding capacity to implement development projects or offer grants. It is worth recalling that the African ministerial committee formed by former Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab in April 2015 was a failure. Tawil added, The central issue where Egypt can play a strong role during its upcoming chairmanship of the AU summit consists of finding solutions to ensure the AUs financial independence and self-financing. This has been the focal point of the reform process currently underway. African countries have yet to reach a consensus on this point. The AU will only be able to efficiently deal with the various thorny issues when the AU gains financial independence and distances itself from the positions of powerful donor nations. During the extraordinary summit held Nov. 17, the AU reached decisions on financial reform and reduced the number of the group's commissions. The AU also imposed sanctions on member states failing to pay their statutory financial contributions. Sanctioned members will be deprived of the right to speak at AU meetings, to vote and to present candidates for AU posts. Egypts AU presidency presents a new challenge for Sisi against the background of a number of initiatives aimed to support and strengthen Egyptian-African cooperation at the bilateral level. Since assuming Egypt's presidency in 2014, Sisi has been warming up to several African countries, especially those in the Nile Basin. Key House lawmakers of both parties are pressing the Donald Trump administration to demand that Egypt release detained US citizens and end its crackdown on civil society in a sign that the incoming Congress is serious about taking Cairo to task over its checkered human rights record. More than 30 lawmakers so far have signed onto to the Dear Colleague letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spearheaded by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., the top Democrat on the Middle East panel, and panel chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. Among the signatories to date is incoming House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., raising the possibility that the annual $1.3 billion US military aid package to Egypt might be used as leverage. Like you, we strongly believe that the US-Egypt bilateral relationship provides critical stability in an increasingly unstable region, says the letter, which is set for release before the end of the month. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore abuses of fundamental human rights, especially those directed at Americans. Click above to read the letter. The letter notably presses Cairo to drop charges against American nongovernmental organization workers and pay the medical expenses of April Corley, a US citizen injured in a mistaken Egyptian airstrike in 2015. It also calls out Egypt for a recent spate of arrests of activists, bloggers and human rights advocates. Despite the White Houses focus on freeing detained Americans, such as evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, Pompeo has opted to lift a freeze on $195 million in foreign military financing to Egypt put in place by his predecessor. Pompeo acknowledged that Egypts human rights record continues to deteriorate in approving the release of the money, citing Cairos importance in providing Suez Canal access and overflight rights to the US military. Meanwhile, Egypt is believed to be detaining at least 15 American citizens and permanent residents, according to the letter. The lawmakers specifically mention the case of former New York cab driver Moustafa Kassem, who was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison, while noting that Egypt released 27-year-old Ahmed Etiwy after five years of detention in May. They also pronounce themselves disappointed by Egypts refusal to pay for more than half the cost of the medevac for Corley, who is in constant pain and will never be able to work again, according to the letter. The California resident was once a professional rollerblader and appeared in music videos by Madonna and Chet Faker. Experts tracking US policy on Egypt say the letter could be significant given the Houses past reluctance to slash military aid. Senate appropriators have previously sought to slash weapons assistance to $1 billion, only to be rebuffed by the lower chamber. In particular, Lowey is seen as reluctant to cut aid, experts say, given Egypts close military ties with Israel. But advocates say Lowey has been receptive to learning about alleged Egyptian human rights abuses. Its more likely to be the first shot across the bow rather than a clear indication that shes ready to make fundamental changes to the house markup on Egypt, said Andrew Miller, a former Egypt country director on the National Security Council during the Barack Obama administration. The letter is worded in fairly restrained terms. Its certainly not a screed against the Egyptian government. Her approach remains to address cooperation with the Egyptians. The House letter joins a bulging file of grievances over Egypts human rights record from Congress. In May, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the higher chambers powerful spending panel, called on Egypt to meet a series of conditions to release $300 million in US weapons aid, including allowing American military monitors access to the Sinai, an investigation into the 2016 murder of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni and the dismissal of the 2017 NGO law. Leahy is currently holding up $105 million in US military aid to Egypt over Kassems detention and Corleys medical bills. A House aide who spoke to Al-Monitor said the letter got an unusual push from grassroots advocates, including Aayah Hossam, the daughter of Egyptian-Americans Ola and Hosam Khalaf, who were detained by Cairo earlier this year. Hossam also wrote a letter to Vice President Mike Pence earlier this year. The Trump administration itself may have fresh ammunition to call out Egypts human rights record. The Egyptian daily Mada Masr reported last month that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is seeking changes to the constitution that could abolish term limits for the head of state. And though Trump praised Sisi on the campaign trail in 2016, the affection cooled after his administration relocated the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, rankling Cairo. I would be surprised if there wasnt more focus on the Americans detained in Egypt, said Miller, now with the Project on Middle East Democracy, a Washington think tank. Any perception that the administration was going soft on the Egyptians there would elicit a very strong reaction from the House. Cairo will have another opportunity to mend US ties before the next Congress is seated in January. Egypt will retry 16 of 43 defendants in the nongovernmental organization trial Dec. 20. CAIRO The ancient village of Shali stands as a formidable fortress in the middle of the Siwa oasis in Egypt's Western Desert. Built in the 13th century to protect the inhabitants of this remote strategic location 340 miles west of Cairo, Shali today is on the verge of rebirth as a destination for ecological tourism. After seven centuries of habitation, a three-day wave of heavy rain in 1926 severely damaged the buildings of the village, which had been constructed from a mix of salt, rock and clay called kershef. As a result, most residents were forced to relocate outside the village. Over the decades, the village began to be referred to as the City of Ghosts, due to only a few of its buildings being used, as remains the case today. Shali's ruins are one of the main draws in Siwa, attracting tourists as well as archaeologists. In mid-October, the Egyptian government announced a plan to preserve what remains of Shali and to restore some of its buildings. Emad Farid, an architect at Environment Quality International (EQI), the company overseeing implementation of the plan, explained to Al-Monitor that the project consists of rehabilitating the streets and the main wall around the village and restoring three houses to showcase different types of buildings. A study of Shalis remnants involving input from residents will also be conducted. Farid said, explained, We discuss a lot of things with Siwas elders and leaders, who have a lot of knowledge about the buildings and can help us identify all the details. The Ministry of Antiquities is supervising the project, which is being funded by the European Union (EU) and is scheduled for completion by 2020. Shali is a very important part of Egyptian heritage and culture, Gamal Mostafa, head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, told Al-Monitor. It is part of our history. You can imagine how life was like for the Egyptians in that area and the problems they faced before the government could arrive there during the era of Mohammed Ali [in the early 19th century]. Beyond the objective of preserving a valuable part of Egyptian heritage, the restoration project has the broader goal of boosting tourism outside Cairo. In the particular case of Siwa, the plan is to develop and promote the area as an ecotourism destination, an effort made public in March 2017 by Alaa Abu-Zaid, former governor of Matruh, during a tourism conference in Siwa. Mahmoud al-Qassiouni, an ecotourism adviser to the ministers of tourism and environment from 2009 until 2014, told Al-Monitor, The natural heritage of Egypt is incredible, [and] Siwa's potential is enormous, but we have to deal with it from the perspective of environmental awareness, because it is an extremely fragile environment, and we should protect it. In this regard, he praised EQI's involvement in Shalis restoration as a step in the right direction. Siwa is an oasis [located] in a depression right in the middle of the Western Desert, and it really needs very highly educated personnel and professionals to manage its environment, Qassiouni said Because of the area's fragility, the Ministry of the Environment is working hand in hand with the Ministries of Tourism and Antiquities. Environment Ministry spokesperson Abdel Gawad Abu Kab explained to Al-Monitor that the major challenge at the moment is preserving the traditional way of building. Modern structures have been proliferating, threatening the landscape of the oasis as well as the potential of ecotourism. We are spreading environmental awareness so we can convince the community that a unified environment of houses in Siwa is the most suitable for the oasis, said Abu Kab. Despite Siwas tourism potential, the number of visitors has been substantially reduced as a result of the instability triggered across Egypt following the January 25 Revolution in 2011 as well as Siwa lying only 31 miles east of Libya and the ongoing unrest in that country. Ahmad Hassan, vice president of the Siwa Shali Group, which owns a travel agency specializing in the Western Desert and the Siwa Shali Resort, told Al-Monitor that today around 70% of visitors at the resort are from Egypt and the rest are foreign tourists. Before the revolution, those numbers were reversed. Asserting that there is no reason for this shift, Hassan said, Despite the security warnings from certain embassies not to go to Siwa because it is near to Libya, Egyptian borders are safe and there has not been any incident in recent years, so we need to re-establish the 2010 levels [of tourist arrivals]. Siwis working in the tourism industry have praised the plan to restore Shali as a way to promote their sector, which is only now beginning to recover from the severely negative effects of the 2011 upheaval. Now ecotourism is a trend all over the world, because new generations are looking for it, and we have great possibilities in Siwa to develop such tourism, because [the place] is very well suited, said Hassan, whose Siwa Shali Group is a member of the Chamber of Tourism. [That is why] the initiative to restore Shali is good, because it helps us to develop the flow of tourists in the area. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Abdallah, who owns a shop selling handmade Siwan products in a bazaar next to Shali, said, If old Shali and its surroundings are repaired, that will provide all the people in the area with new opportunities to open businesses for tourists. Khaled, the owner of a hotel next to old Shali, agreed with Abdallah while also asserting that new touristic initiatives must preserve and respect the value already extant in Siwa. Khaled told Al-Monitor, Sustainable tourism is most suitable to Siwa [because] this is all part of our heritage and our culture, and also because we dont want to miss in the future what we had in the past. We need to preserve it for the generations coming after us. In the eyes of Samantha Fathalbab, an Egyptian who has visited Siwa several times and owns a shop in Alexandria promoting products from the oasis, ecotourism is indeed the best way to approach the area. Being environmentally friendly and having a sort of natural and organic experience is close to Siwis way of life, she told Al-Monitor. Siwa is still a very pure place. It is not consumed by commercialism, so it is important to continue to respect [that]. As the Gulf crisis continues with the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with no sign of a resolution, each country deems it necessary to seek a rapprochement with Iraq and win the country over to its own economic and political camps. Each is trying to have Baghdad align with its axis, while Baghdad affirms its need for help from both countries to get rid of the destruction left by the Islamic State (IS) in the Sunni areas. A Qatari delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani visited the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Nov. 7, where he met with the Iraqi president, prime minister and parliament speaker to discuss the ties between the two countries. Three days after the Qatari delegation's visit, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia Khalid Al-Falih visited Baghdad and met with as many figures as did the Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs. This happened in light of the tense relationship that has governed Saudi-Qatari ties since June 2017. While in Baghdad, Falih met with Iran-backed leaders of the Popular Mobilization Units that Saudi Arabia categorizes as lawless militias, and he invited them to visit Doha. These meetings confirm that Doha is trying to compete with Riyadh and even sabotage its ties with Iraq by building a relationship with Saudi enemies in Iraq. Given the polarization between Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the region, each of them is trying to attain a rapprochement with Iraq. Meanwhile, as Iraq is trying to cut off energy imports from Iran due to US pressure after the reimposition of sanctions against Iran, both Riyadh and Doha could replace Tehran in this issue. This is also a chance to win over Baghdads new government. Moreover, some Iraqi Sunni blocks that are funded and backed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia are competing for the minister of defense position in new Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdis government. It is therefore likely that the two countries of the Gulf are also competing at this level. While Qatar supports former parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri to head the Ministry of Defense in Abdul Mahdis government, Saudi Arabia supports the candidate of Al-Wataniya Alliance, led by Ayad Allawi, or any side that is not linked to Qatar or Turkey. Research Fellow at Chatham House in London Renad Mansour told Al-Monitor, [Saudi Arabia] has faced many challenges in creating allies in Iraq. For this reason, it is searching for Shiite leaders who are critical of Iran, while Qatar has strong ties with both Shiite and Sunnis including leaders of the Popular Mobilization [Units], with the national Sunni front and with figures close to Iran. Mansour added, Iraq must balance ties with both countries, as it cannot take sides in the Saudi-Qatari crisis especially since there is no common foreign policy. So two different actors will work more closely with either side. The simultaneous visit of Qatari and Saudi delegations to Iraq could point out both the unlikelihood of the normalization of the Qatari-Saudi relationship in the short term and the importance of Iraq as a neutral actor in the region and a market open to energy and gas. The Qatari-Saudi race did not stop at the diplomatic level. Media outlets in both countries started implying the failure of the other to influence and align with Iraq. The Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya channel talked about Iraq refusing Qatars suggestion to form an alliance of five countries including Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. The Qatari-funded Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper discussed [Saudi Arabias] failure to politically influence Iraq and its resorting to economic questions to compensate for its loss. This shows that the rivalry between Qatar and Saudi Arabia to win over Iraq is at its peak. Ihsan al-Shammari, adviser to former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said, There is indeed a Qatari-Saudi competition for Iraq. Riyadh and Doha are looking for a greater space to develop ties with Baghdad. The reason for this is that Iraq has stayed impartial regarding the issues of the region. As a result, Iraq can improve the position of both countries in the crisis happening between them. He added, Both Riyadh and Doha are offering Iraq opportunities to improve ties. Iraq has no choice other than balancing ties because siding with the new axes rising in the region would cost it a lot. Over the past few days, the official statements published after Iraqi and Qatari figures met focused on reconstruction in the Sunni areas freed from IS. Saudi Arabia has previously mentioned that it would take part in this process, but Qatar is also trying to display its power in the Iraqi case. Abdul Mahdis new government knows that the Saudi-Qatari political and economic competition for Iraq is at its peak. At this time, Iraq needs the support of both rich states to reconstruct the freed Sunni areas that both Riyadh and Doha have warned against marginalizing. Yet the question is whether the new government will be capable of balancing ties between both sides. Senior researcher at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington Rahman al-Jobori told Al-Monitor, Iraq must ignore the Saudi-Qatari rivalry and decide on its vision for the region and itself. It is therefore important that Iraq bases its ties on what interests it as opposed to foreign interests. We thought our love was hopeless, but we continued nonetheless, Fadi al-Ghazali told Al-Monitor, standing in his heavily damaged apartment in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City. As he and his mother went about clearing the rubble in their apartment from the Nov. 12 Israeli airstrike, on the wall hung a wedding gown, an object that has dominated social media as the symbol of the touching love story of Fadi and Yara, a young woman from Syria. Fadi had met Yara al-Zoubi on Facebook five years ago, just like many other youngsters of their generation. What set their relationship apart from the millions of other keyboard romances, however, was that they had very little hope of ever meeting in person. One was living under an Israeli blockade that made traveling nearly impossible, and the other spent her life moving from city to city to escape the fighting in Syria's civil war. Yara is originally from Khan Sheikhoun, the city in northwestern Syrian that made headlines in April 2017 as the site of a poison gas attack that killed at least 86 people. Our common experience and the harsh circumstances we lived under brought us together, Fadi said. I knew she was my soulmate. They fell in love three years ago and got engaged online. A lot of people called our love story hopeless and delusional, because of the blockade on Gaza and the war in Syria, but we persevered, and we believed that our love is worth all the challenges, Fadi said, noting that several attempts to get Yara to Gaza had failed. Over the past three years, we moved heaven and earth to get Yara here. Fadis family had contacted Egyptian authorities on numerous occasions, including at the embassy in Damascus, to try to get Yara a visa to enter Gaza, but their efforts appeared to be in vain. In the meantime, Yaras parents had advised her to end her engagement to Fadi, believing that the relationship was hopeless. Yara brushed aside their remarks and remained faithful to the young man who assured her that he would wait for her even if it takes 60 years. In late September, the Egyptian Embassy finally contacted Yara to tell her that she had been granted permission to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. After three years of trying, Yara finally arrived in Gaza, on Nov. 8. As Fadi describes it, they can't remember what their first conversations were about, because when they first met in person, they both blacked out from extreme joy and excitement. On Yara's first day in Gaza, there was a celebration, with fireworks, a live band and a lavish meal to welcome the Syrian bride-to-be. Her parents had not obtained permission to accompany her, but she had brought with her a gown from Syria to be worn for her wedding in 10 days time. The next few days were filled with shopping for the wedding. Fadi and Yara were to be married on Nov. 18, the same day Fadi was to turn 22. They would then begin their life together in a new apartment in Sheikh Radwan. The couple had furnished it together before Yara arrived. Fadi sent photos of the rooms to Yara, and the two spent hours online discussing where to put the furniture and what curtains to buy. Fadi and Yara knew that life would be difficult in Gaza, but they were nevertheless hopeful. They were young, happy and in love. They had a wedding to look forward to and would have a roof over their heads. The couple's euphoria lasted for four days, until Nov. 12, when Israeli F-16 airstrikes leveled al-Rahma Tower, next to the couples apartment. Residents had been warned beforehand to leave the area, so there were no casualties, but Yara and Fadi's newly decorated apartment was severely damaged. Just before the shelling, we were having the days of our lives as we were preparing for our wedding, Fadi said. We thought that we had left the sad days behind, but the strike turned our happiness into misery. The apartment is in shambles, and we have no choice now but to postpone the wedding. The attack also delivered a heavy blow to Yara, especially when she saw her wedding gown in the middle of the destruction. Yara was devastated and became severely depressed after the Israeli strike, Fadi explained. She said that wars, pain and destruction will follow her wherever she goes. I stood shocked and helpless. As the couple's story began to spread around Gaza, offers of assistance began pouring in from fellow residents and even from abroad. Gazan businessmen, philanthropists, neighbors, and people who read about them on social media rushed to help, offering small and large sums of money so they could buy new furniture and paint the walls of their apartment. One businessman generously offered to shoulder their wedding costs, down to hiring a good DJ and buying flowers. The same way our love endured countless hardships, I have no doubt that itll endure this tragedy as well, Fadi remarked. Our love has proved to be resilient and powerful beyond what anyone could have imagined. An ever-worsening financial crisis has been plaguing the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the beginning of 2018. Foreign support for its budget has been declining and it is expected to keep on doing so given the current political conditions. As a result, the PA will no longer be able to perform its duties and meet its economic, financial and social commitments. Its financial deficit for 2018 has already reached 2.6 billion Israeli shekels ($697 million). In August, Washington cut $200 million in aid to projects in the Palestinian territories and to PA salaries, after the United States declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017 and transferred its embassy there in May. As a result, the PA had to take severe austerity measures that affected the salaries of its employees and reduced the budgets of many sectors of the government after foreign aid dropped by 70%. However, in a surprising development, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Egypt and permanent envoy to the Arab League, Osama Nugali, announced Nov. 11 the transfer of $60 million to the PA, as part of the kingdoms monthly contribution for August, September and October 2018. He stressed that the kingdom will always support the Palestinian cause at various political, economic and humanitarian levels. Although Nugali never mentioned rewarding the PA for its solidarity with Saudi Arabia, the resumption of its support for the Palestinians, which it had skipped the past three months without explaining the reasons, raises several questions, especially as to whether or not it is linked to the PAs official position in solidarity with the kingdom over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. On Nov. 15, the Palestinian presidency praised the measures Saudi Arabia had taken regarding the Khashoggi case and reiterated its confidence in the Saudi judiciary. On Oct. 14, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement stressing that Palestine would always stand by the kingdom. On Oct. 20, the PA announced its adoption of the Riyadh narrative of the Khashoggi case. A Palestinian official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ramallah told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Saudi Arabias support to the Palestinian cause is one of its main principles. Most importantly, the kingdom has always committed to providing direct financial support to the Palestinian budget for years. It has always contributed to supporting the health, education and housing sectors, not to mention exempting Palestinian products from customs and establishing funds to support Palestinians. Saudi Arabia's relations with the Palestinians have been strained since November 2017 after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked Abbas to support the US vision of peace with Israel. The resulting tension led Saudi Arabia to cut support for several months. In July, however, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud declared support for the Palestinians' position in the conflict with Israel, contrary to the position of his son. On Nov. 19, King Salman said during his speech before the Saudi Shura Council that the Palestinian cause would remain a priority, so that the Palestinian people would have all their legitimate rights. By supporting Saudi Arabia in the Khashoggi case, the PA has challenged the Palestinian street that opposed the kingdom, be it through petitions demanding to reveal Khashoggi's killers or the positions of Palestinian writers who were disturbed by the Saudi behavior in this case. Meanwhile, worshippers prayed for Khashoggi at Al-Aqsa Mosque Nov. 16 in protest to Saudi Arabias role in the Khashoggi affair. Khalil Shaheen, director of research at the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies - Masarat, told Al-Monitor, Saudi Arabias support shows that it was pleased with the PAs position in Khashoggi's case. The PA has steered clear of disturbing the kingdom, which ended up granting it financial support, although no such support was promised to the PA prior to the Khashoggi case. Shaheen added, The PA is well-aware that a regional alignment is forming and believes that by standing by Saudi Arabia, it will have the financial and political support it needs. It is no secret that President Abbas is satisfied with King Salman rejecting the US 'deal of the century' and not forcing Palestinians into policies they do not agree with. In May, Saudi Arabia announced in a statement to the Royal Court that its humanitarian and development assistance to the Palestinian people between 2000 and 2018 amounted to $6 billion, but the recent resumption of its support to the PA raises three observations in particular. First, for Riyadh to resume its support for Ramallah without coordination with Washington does not seem like an easy task since it does not have the courage to challenge the Trump administration, given the tension between them over the Khashoggi case, which means Riyadh most likely got the US blessing before resuming aid. Second, the resumption of Saudi support for the PA coincides with Qatari support for the Gaza Strip in October worth $150 million. This reflects the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to increase their influence in the Palestinian territories. Third, with this financial support to the PA, Saudi Arabia may want to overshadow its relations with Israel and stop any Palestinian objection to it. Nael Mousa, professor of economics at An-Najah National University in Nablus, told Al-Monitor, The latest Saudi financial support for the PA comes to stabilize its existence and enable it to manage its functions in the West Bank since the US and Israeli interests do not lie in causing chaos in the Palestinian territories. The Saudi aid is temporary, although Saudi Arabia never explicitly said so. The Saudi aid helps prevent the living conditions in the West Bank from deteriorating in light of the decreasing international support for the PA and the shaky Saudi-Palestinian trade relations. These relations have become limited to simple Palestinian exports to the kingdom such as cheese and olive oil. Saudi Arabia's support of $60 million came after Qatar's massive support to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Oct. 10, as it provided $150 million in emergency humanitarian aid to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave. This reveals Saudi intentions to stop Qatar from monopolizing financial aid to the Palestinians and attempt to compete with it in this role, especially in light of the escalating crisis between them since June 2017 when Gulf countries boycotted Qatar. While Hamas thanked Qatar on Oct. 10 for backing Gaza, it has been silent about Saudi support for the PA, while Fatah has described Qatar's support for Gaza as deepening Palestinian division. Jamal Nassar, chairman of the budget committee in the Palestinian Legislative Council, representing Hamas, told Al-Monitor, "Saudi financial aid to the PA is not enough to save it from its suffocating crisis. It is only temporary assistance, but it does not provide enough support to keep up with the increase in the PA's expenses. This aid is more about propaganda and has no real impact on the PAs financial recovery. The PAs staggering financial crisis coincides with a sharp drop in international support, which forces it to hold onto any support it can get. Perhaps Saudi financial support albeit sporadic is the only source of aid the PA can rely on right now. The PAs concerns about the imminent announcement of the US deal of the century bring it closer to Saudi Arabia, which is withdrawing support for this deal. Despite losing public support by standing by Saudi Arabia in the Khashoggi case, the PA is gaining much-needed financial support. Ankaras draft budget for 2019 the first since Turkeys transition to a new governance system that concentrates power in the hands of the president has reinforced opposition concerns that the countrys rulers are building an authoritarian regime with a heavy Islamist flavor. The lavish funds allocated to the presidential office and the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) are at the core of the criticism directed at the bill, which passed through parliaments Planning and Budget Commission last week and is expected to reach the general assembly for a final vote in December. The executive presidency system -- tailor-made for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was narrowly approved in a controversial referendum last year and took effect after the presidential polls in June, replacing the countrys long-standing parliamentary regime. Under the budget bill, the budget of the presidential office which was 845 million Turkish liras in 2018 is being increased by 231% to 2.8 billion liras ($529.6 million), according to Abdullatif Sener, a former finance minister and now a lawmaker for the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) who sits on the Planning and Budget Commission. Funds earmarked for purchases of goods and services for the presidential complex are up 631%, while its personnel expenditures are up by 179%, said Sener, who served also as deputy prime minister under Erdogan before falling out with him. The bill earmarks another 3 million Turkish liras (about $567,000) as health care funds for the president and his family, he told Al-Monitor. Amid the economic crisis bruising Turkey, the only pay hike is granted to the president. Garo Paylan, a deputy for the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, said, The president has asked the people for sacrifices, but he himself gets a 26% hike on his salary. The presidential salary is raised to 74,500 Turkish liras [some $14,000]. Including his [previously earned] pension, the presidents monthly income reaches 105,000 Turkish liras [nearly $19,900]. The minimum wage in Turkey the only income for millions of people is currently 1,600 liras ($302). The Diyanet stands out as another body entitled to a significant increase in its budget. The fact that the Diyanet budget outstrips those of many ministries and other institutions reinforces opposition criticism that the rule of the Justice and Development Party is increasingly becoming one of Islamist authoritarianism. An important aspect of the debate over the Diyanet budget is that millions of Alevi taxpayers contribute to those funds. However, the agency not only makes no contributions to the religious freedoms of the Alevi community, but it is also in itself a stumbling block. The Diyanets fields of activity are also a subject of controversy. During the debates at the Planning and Budget Commission, Vice President Fuat Oktay said the Diyanets domestic spending items included activities such as Quranic courses and mosque building, while its activities abroad included religious services in more than 100 countries and religious training in Turkey of more than 2,000 foreign students from 108 countries. Oktay mentioned neither the Alevis nor Turkeys non-Muslim minorities, underscoring how the Diyanet is in the service of Sunni Islam exclusively. Paylan, an ethnic Armenian who also sits on the commission, said, As a Christian citizen of the Republic of Turkey, let me put it openly: I pay taxes, just as all Christians, Alevis, Jews, Yazidis and people from all faiths in this country do. They say the Diyanet is in the service of Islam alone. In fact, I do not want the Diyanet to serve us because our institutions are autonomous. Ever since Ottoman times, we have been in favor of running our institutions autonomously. Thats the way it should be. The state cannot have a religion and a religious authority. Yet in the existing framework, Paylan stressed, the Diyanet could function as a coordination body that serves or supports everyone since everyone is paying taxes. The institutions current approach of serving only one sect of only one religion does not conform with rights and justice, he added. What about the Diyanets use of funds collected from non-Muslim and non-Sunni Muslim taxpayers for activities across the world? This is an indication that the policy of Turkification and Islamization that Turkey has been pursuing for hundred years has now crossed borders, Paylan said. For Selin Sayek Boke, a CHP deputy and scholar of economics, the draft budget speaks to the intentions of Erdogans administration which she calls the palace regime to solidify the executive presidency system. The budget is the text in which a government manifests its ideological choices, Boke told Al-Monitor. And Turkeys 2019 budget tells us this: The Palace is my only concern. How do we know that? Because we have here a budget that hikes the presidents salary while no one else in the country has had a pay rise. And the largest share [of the budget] is allocated to the presidency. The budget bill is a message that the palace regime will be deepened, while the increase in the Diyanet budget signals that political Islam is indispensable for Erdogans administration, Boke said. Those increases come at the expense of cuts in social security and other basic spending items, which are about the real needs of the people, she added. For Boke, the increase in the Diyanet budget meshes with the spirit of the new governance system. The Diyanet budget complements a structure that exploits religion in politics, she said. Political Islam is one of the principal crisis-generating legs of the current system. The budget invests in the Diyanets spreading of Sunni Islam across the country and abroad, meaning that it does not invest in the countrys future and education. The budgetary choices in favor of both the Diyanet and the presidency highlight the nature of the system under which we are being governed. Of note, funds allocated to religious activities are not limited to the Diyanet budget. The budget of the Religious Education Directorate of the Ministry of National Education serves the same purpose. Last but not least, Ankaras 2019 budget proposal does little to help the impoverished masses against the impacts of the deepening economic crisis. According to economist Haluk Celiktas, belt-tightening policies that cut down public investments will worsen the effects of the crisis. Public investments are cut by 30.9% and social security spending is cut by 10.1% from the previous year. In total, public spending items are down by 59.9% in the 2019 budget, he said. Celiktas noted that the proposed defense budget, on the other hand, gets a fresh boost to reach 102 billion liras ($19.3 billion). For many organizations and civil society groups that call for political dialogue and peaceful solutions on various issues, primarily the Kurdish question, this is a militarist budget, he said. CNN reported today that the United States is pulling its support for a Yemen cease-fire resolution at the United Nations after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expressed frustration over language calling for increased humanitarian aid and accountability almost four years after the Saudi-led intervention. Why it matters: The report indicates that the Donald Trump administration is contradicting its stated policy goal in Yemen, which was to get the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis to the negotiating table. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has signaled for weeks that the United States is looking for a deal to end the conflict. But CNN reports that the United States is now worried that the Saudis or the Houthis or both wont show up to peace talks if the resolution passes. Capitol countdown: Even after the Pentagon stopped refueling Saudi aircraft in early November, the Trump administration faces mounting frustration on Capitol Hill, with the Senate set to vote on a bipartisan war powers resolution this week that would pull US support to the Yemen conflict. Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hope to get the last word in beforehand, scheduling a last-minute briefing for senators on the morning of Nov. 28. I think the Trump administrations decision to send Mattis and Pompeo to brief all senators and [Senate Majority Leader] McConnells strong resistance to scheduling a war powers vote until after that briefing show that Saudi Arabias defenders are taking seriously the prospect of losing this vote, said a former US official on condition of anonymity. What legislators want: A House aide told Al-Monitor that members of Congress were frustrated by Mattis briefing earlier this year, which failed to reveal that US Special Forces were helping Saudi troops in raids against Houthi missile sites on the border with Yemen. Lawmakers only learned about the operation from The New York Times. The aide said senators will be looking to get the full picture of US support to the Saudi-led coalition, including intelligence support and Special Forces raids. Target MBS: The Senate remains frustrated over Saudi Arabias role in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and has other ways to force the administrations hand. The Treasury Department placed sanctions on Saudi officials for the killing but avoided chastising Prince Mohammed himself. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told CNN on Monday he may attach legislation to a must-pass spending bill set to move ahead in early December targeting the crown prince. Whats next: Peace talks between the Iran-backed Houthis and the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi are expected to resume next week in Sweden. The World Food Program said today that shipping to the port of Hodeidah is down 50% over the past two weeks. The port is the entry point for 70% of Yemens humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, in the US Senate, Corker also ordered a fresh sanctions investigation into Prince Mohammeds alleged role into the killing. The Trump administration has 120 days to decide whether to directly sanction the king-in-waiting. The Senate could also move on a bipartisan bill that formally suspends weapons sales and slaps sanctions on parties blocking humanitarian access in Yemen. Learn more: Read Jack Detschs latest on the US administrations inflated tally of Saudi Arabias weapons purchases, which was spearheaded by White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to an ABC News report. Kushners influence on the relationship has created an imbalance in US-Saudi relations, experts say. Theres a structural problem to the relationship where you have a crown prince who is kind of the principal point man hes thoroughly consolidated all levers of power and on the other side youve got Jared Kushner, a former US official in the Gulf told Al-Monitor this month on condition of anonymity. Thats not a healthy way to run a relationship of this size and importance. The pile of dry kindling in this crisis is Yemen, and Khashoggi is the match. - Jack Detsch Birmingham consulting engineering firm Sain Associates has acquired a Maryland-based transportation planning and engineering firm. Vision Engineering and Planning has locations in Columbia, Md. and Atlanta. The terms of the deal were undisclosed. In a release, the company said the acquisition gives Sain specialization in travel demand forecasting, transit and freight planning and regional planning. Sain, headquartered in Birmingham, has offices in Pulaski, Tenn. and Mandeville, La. Sain Associates President and CEO Jim Meads said the addition brings an exciting opportunity to broaden" the companys services. Our firm strives to evolve and stay ahead of the ever-changing industry so that we will continue to be recognized as one of the top engineering firms in the Southeast, Meads said. Paul Gilliam, Vision Engineerings president, will be part of Sains team. Gilliam has 24 years of experience in construction engineering, roadway and rail transit design, traffic engineering and transportation planning projects. He said the two companies have worked together on several projects over the last decade. Our complementary skill sets and shared commitment to delivering great client services make our firms a great fit, he said. Oscar season is always in full swing, but the National Board of Review's annual winners list gives it a huge shot in the arm. The same was true Tuesday afternoon when the NBR announced "Green Book" as its best film of 2018, prompting even more debates about where it and other contenders will end up in the Oscar race. "Dumb & Dumber" co-director Peter Farrelly's new film is a Deep South-set comedy/drama about a black pianist (Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali) who hires a white Italian-American bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) as his driver and security. "Green Book" also scored a win for best actor (Mortensen). Bradley Cooper's "A Star is Born" remake landed him the best director prize, along with a best actress win for Lady Gaga and best supporting actor for Sam Elliott. "Moonlight" director's highly anticipated follow-up "If Beale Street Could Talk" scored wins for best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay, and it landed a spot on the top films list. Rounding that out are "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," "Black Panther," "Can You Ever Forgive Me?," "Eighth Grade," "First Reformed," "Mary Poppins Returns," "A Quiet Place," "Roma" and "A Star Is Born." So what could this mean for Oscar? Potentially nothing. The last time the NBR Best Film matched with the best picture winner was 2008, when "Slumdog Milloinaire" brought home the Academy Award. Read the full list of 2018 winners below: Best Film: GREEN BOOK Best Director: Bradley Cooper, A STAR IS BORN Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen, GREEN BOOK Best Actress: Lady Gaga, A STAR IS BORN Best Supporting Actor: Sam Elliott, A STAR IS BORN Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK Best Original Screenplay: Paul Schrader, FIRST REFORMED Best Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK Best Animated Feature: INCREDIBLES 2 Breakthrough Performance: Thomasin McKenzie, LEAVE NO TRACE Best Directorial Debut: Bo Burnham, EIGHTH GRADE Best Foreign Language Film: COLD WAR Best Documentary: RBG Best Ensemble: CRAZY RICH ASIANS William K. Everson Film History Award: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND and THEY'LL LOVE ME WHEN I'M DEAD NBR Freedom of Expression Award: 22 JULY NBR Freedom of Expression Award: ON HER SHOULDERS Top Films (in alphabetical order) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Black Panther Can You Ever Forgive Me? Eighth Grade First Reformed If Beale Street Could Talk Mary Poppins Returns A Quiet Place Roma A Star Is Born Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order) Burning Custody The Guilty Happy as Lazzaro Shoplifters Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order) Crime + Punishment Free Solo Minding the Gap Three Identical Strangers Won't You Be My Neighbor? Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order) The Death of Stalin Lean on Pete Leave No Trace Mid90s The Old Man & the Gun The Rider Searching Sorry to Bother You We the Animals You Were Never Really Here A 19-year-old man was killed in a crash during a police pursuit in Selma. Alabama State Troopers on Tuesday identified the man as Jamar Desean Pritchett. Sr. Trooper Reginal King said the crash happened at 12:56 a.m. Sunday on Dallas County 37 in the Valley Grande city limits. He was driving a 1999 Ford Crown Victor that left the roadway and struck several trees. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Selma Police Chief Spencer Collier said police responded at 11:50 p.m. Saturday to Michaels Pub on U.S. 80 to a report of a man armed with a small rifle. Within minutes, an officer assigned to the departments Special Operations Unit spotted the man in a blue Ford Crown Victoria leaving the area of the pub. The officer attempted to stop the vehicle on Alabama 219, but the chief said the man now identified as Pritchett refused to stop. Additional Selma officers and Dallas County deputies joined the pursuit. Collier said the driver continued at a high rate of speed through Selma and into Valley Grande. As the pursuit turned onto County Road 37, officers reduced their speed as Pritchett began to drive extremely reckless. He said the vehicle left the road and went airborne before striking the trees. The chief requested Alabama State Troopers investigate the accident. In addition to weapons charges, Collier said, Pritchett had an outstanding felony warrant for burglary. As World War I neared its conclusion in 1918, the Allies faced determined resistance from Germans making their last stand on the Western Front, including along a a fortified barrier called the Hindenburg Line. French and British armies, weathered by four years of war, had received an infusion of manpower and military leadership from the United States, which entered the war in 1917. The American Expeditionary Force included the 42nd Division, called the Rainbow Division, made up of National Guard soldiers from Iowa, New York, Ohio, and Alabama. Starting early in 1918, the Rainbow Division fought alongside the French to help turn back German offensives. In the summer of 1918, the Rainbow Division and its 167th Infantry Regiment from Alabama went on the offensive, absorbing heavy casualties but driving back the Germans in key engagements, including at Croix Rouge Farm in France. Then in September of 1918, the Rainbow Division took its place in a massive offensive the Allies directed at the Hindenburg Line, the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Nimrod Frazer, a Montgomery investment banker who commanded a tank platoon in the Korean War and received the Silver Star, chronicles the story in his second book, The Best World War I Story I Know: On the Point in the Argonne. Frazers first book, Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division, published in 2014, tells of the recruitment, training and combat experiences of the young men from more than 400 Alabama towns and villages who made up the 167th Infantry Regiment. In the new book, Frazer zeroes in on the mission to take the Cote de Chatillon, a fortified German hill that was a stronghold in the Kriemhilde Stellung, a linchpin in the Germans' Hindenburg Line. The Best World War I Story I Know, is not only about the Alabamians but describes the efforts of two other divisions to reach and capture the Cote de Chatillon during intense fighting over hilly terrain fortified with concrete pill boxes, machine gun nests, trenches and barbed wire. Participants in the campaign included Harry Truman, who was part of the 35th Division, from Missouri and Iowa, and George Patton, who was wounded while commanding a tank regiment attached to the 35th. After three weeks of fighting, Rainbow Division regiments from Iowa and Alabama, along with a machine gun battalion from Georgia, finally captured the Cote de Chatillon on Oct 16, 1918. They were commanded by Douglas MacArthur, then a brigadier general. The war officially ended less than four weeks later, when Germany formally surrendered on Nov. 11. Frazers research and writing is aimed at rekindling and preserving the memory of what he and others say is an underappreciated chapter in Alabama history. The Rainbow Soldier statue at Union Station in Montgomery, by British sculptor James Butler, commissioned by Nimrod Frazer of Montgomery. A twin version of the statue stands at the Croix Rouge Farm battlefield in France. Additionally, Frazer commissioned British sculptor James Butler, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, to create a Rainbow Soldier statue. Twin versions of the statue stand at Croix Rouge Farm in France and at Union Station in Montgomery. The Union Station statue was dedicated in August 2017, one hundred years after the 167th Infantry left there by train to go to New York on their way to the battlefields of France. Ed Bridges, an author and historian who served for 30 years as director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, wrote the introduction to Frazers first book. Bridges noted that the soldiers from the Rainbow Division returned to great fanfare in Alabama a century ago, but the recognition did not last. Alabama newspapers of the time hailed these men as The Immortals, but as we read their story today, we are all too conscious that The Immortals have largely been forgotten, Bridges wrote. Rod Frazers excellent research and forceful writing, however, will help a new generation understand and appreciate their story. Frazer said he spent seven and a half years writing Send the Alabamians. Research for that book sparked an interest in the battle that is the subject of his second. Frazers drive for telling the stories is deeply rooted. Frazers father, William Johnson Frazer, fought at Croix Rouge Farm and other Rainbow Division battles in France, spent time in a Paris hospital recovering from wounds and returned to fight at Cote de Chatillon. Frazer wrote that he took his fathers Purple Heart medal to school as a child. Will Frazer was from Greenville and had only a sixth or seventh grade education, Frazer said. His background was typical of the soldiers in the 167th Infantry, Frazer said. After the war, many encountered economic difficulties, alcoholism and eventually the Great Depression. All were factors that caused their stories to fade from public consciousness, Frazer said. Very few of them were from families that had any sense of genealogy or had any education, Frazer said. And as a consequence very few people in Alabama know what the hell happened. Will Frazer was one of more than 20 soldiers from Greenville who fought in France in the 167th, Frazer said. They come back home, theyre together, and they know each other all their lives, and its the most important thing theyve ever done in their life, Frazer said. The Depression catches them. Most of them are alcoholics by then." Many of the soldiers in the 167th Infantry were grandsons of Confederate soldiers who had fought in the Civil War a half-century before. Will Frazers grandfather spent two and a half years as a prisoner of war, Frazer said. It was a common bond that helped make the 167th Infantry an effective force, Frazer believes. They had heard all that stuff, all those stories about the Civil War," Frazer said. "They believed it. And then they were with each other." In the introduction to The Best World War I Story I Know, Frazer said his sources for the book were regimental histories, military citations, diaries, personal letters and literature written by experts on the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He wrote that he relied heavily on essays written in the 1920s and 1930s by officers in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, essays written for the infantry school at Fort Benning, Ga. Montgomery investment banker and author Nimrod Frazer, second from right, commanded a tank platoon in the Korean War. Frazer, who still goes to work every day at age 88, said he learned the rigors of research and documentation when he wrote Send the Alabamians. I had done 1,400 footnotes in the first draft that I sent to the University of Alabama Press, Frazer said. "And they came back and said, You havent done enough footnotes. Im obviously not an academic. Im an amateur writer. They said, We want a footnote for every paragraph. So I gave them a footnote for every paragraph. Then they wind up throwing half of them away. But they wanted to be sure that Id done the right research. The Best World War I Story I Know, has 732 footnotes. Frazers accounts of the battles for the Cote de Chatillon are filled with stories of individual acts of heroism by the Alabamians and by the soldiers in the 35th Division and the 1st Division who took part in the campaign. The accounts vividly describe the daily grind and discomfort soldiers endured aside from combat. Army lore holds that soldiers in combat find the danger of death less threatening than physical hardships, Frazer wrote in the introduction. Most believed that death was for somebody else, but the exhaustion of rain, cold, mud, and lice did not retreat from them or their memory. My father remembered these things vividly, along with the hill, the sacrifices and the hard year of fighting that culminated with the Cote de Chatillons capture. Frazer writes bluntly about acts of cowardice. He says he knows from his own combat experience that efforts by men to steer clear of the fighting are commonplace. Two million guys from the United States got to France, Frazer said. "Nothing like that many ever smelled gunpowder." But individual acts aside, the 167th Infantry was deeply engaged in the fighting. At the Cote de Chatillon, the 167th had 81 killed, 36 dead of wounds and 554 wounded, Frazer wrote. Overall, more than 600 of the roughly 3,700 soldiers in the 167th Infantry lost their lives in the war. In retracing the 167ths steps I have been reminded that most of its men enlisted as ordinary men with simple ways," Frazer wrote. "Their military service enabled them to participate in a complex, life-wrenching event, an adventure larger than they were. It also forged their identity. They left home as small-town southerners, but they returned as Americans. This story was edited at 7 a.m. on Nov. 27 to correct four dates from 2018 to 1918. As U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, inches closer to what he expects will be a decision to run for the Senate in 2020, he said Tuesday that he has had two recent conversations former Sen. Jeff Sessions. So to get to the question lingering over the south Alabama native who recently resigned under pressure as U.S. Attorney General, did Sessions say anything about the possibility he might run for his old Senate seat? No, Byrne said Tuesday morning during a visit to Huntsville. I think thats the simplest answer to your question. It also appears that Sessions who stepped down as AG on Nov. 7 has made no firm plans about his future. Hes got some decisions to make about his own life and I understand that, Byrne said of Sessions. Its been less than three weeks since he left the attorney generals office. I understand his need to have some time to think about his future. I want the best for his future. I think everybody in Alabama wants the best for Sen. Sessions future. But Im going to continue to do what Im doing. And thats running for Senate. Not at this point in time, Byrne said when asked if he could envision a scenario where he decided not to run for Senate after spending the past six or seven months touring the state to drum up support for his candidacy. His schedule tentatively has a formal announcement in early 2019. His conversations with Sessions, Byrne said, did nothing to discourage him from continuing that pursuit of unseating Sen. Doug Jones the Democrat who edged Roy Moore to win the special election last year to fill the seat Sessions left to become AG under President Trump. If he had told me something in the conversation that would change my mind, I would change my mind, Byrne said. I havent changed my mind. Im on the trajectory Ive been on for months. Hes known about that since before he left the attorney generals office. Weve known one another for a long time. I told him, Senator, Im continuing to do what Ive been telling you I was going to do. Thats what weve done and this trip is a part of that. Sessions has not made any public appearances since resigning, though he was back in Alabama last week, Byrne said. State Sen. Arthur Orr of Decatur posted a picture of himself and his son Jack with Sessions on Twitter and Facebook on Sunday. Jack and I were glad to see Jeff Sessions this past week! Looking well and rested. pic.twitter.com/LUceMwAeRE Senator Arthur Orr (@SenatorAOrr) November 25, 2018 Should Sessions decide to enter the race, however, it would perhaps turn whats expected to be a wide-open GOP primary upside down. He served in the Senate for 20 years, maintaining a statewide popularity before joining Trumps campaign and subsequent nomination as attorney general. Meanwhile, Byrne has emerged as the Republican frontrunner in a race where other potential candidates have kept a low public profile about their intentions. That figures to change soon with the primary scheduled for March 3, 2020 barely more than 15 months away. Byrne, though, is taking an admittedly different strategy in his undeclared campaign. Hes meeting with potential opponents. It probably is unusual but its the way I do things, he said. Particularly when youre talking about people who are friends of mine. I agree its unusual but its the way I do things. Ten candidates appeared on the ballot for the Republican special Senate election last year and with no GOP incumbent, it could again be a crowded field. I know all these people, Byrne said of potential opponents. One of the great things about Alabama were a small enough state where we all know one another. Some of these people are friends of mine. And it would not be right for me to be jumping out there in a political race without me at least sitting down and saying, This is where I am. Where are you? Weve had some great conversations and renewed some friendships with people and Ive enjoyed that. Were getting closer to the time we need to bring closure to those conversations. After the holidays are over, its going to be time for all of us to be having a very clear conversation in or out and Ive been very clear with people what Im doing. The wreck of the Ivanhoe, a Confederate blockade runner, has been uncovered in the surf along Fort Morgan. The Ivanhoe dates to the Civil War. It was an iron hulled paddlewheel steamer built in Scotland in May of 1864. The ship was sunk on its maiden voyage just seven weeks later as it attempted to steam into Mobile Bay, past the Union naval blockade set up between Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island. At the time, the Confederates still controlled both forts. The Union ships patrolled the mouth of the bay just outside of the reach of the cannons in the forts. According to historical accounts, the Ivanhoe came under heavy fire from Union ships and was forced to run aground on Fort Morgan before it sank. The crew survived the incident, and most of the cargo was removed by Confederate forces stationed in Fort Morgan. The Union ships were kept at a distance by the big cannons of Fort Morgan as the cargo and engine were pulled from the Ivanhoe. Union troops managed to slip in under the cannons in a small boat and set the Ivanhoe on fire about a week later. Today, the Ivanhoe lies 50 yards from shore, in six feet of water at low tide, roughly a mile to the east of the tip of Fort Morgan. Its location has been known since the Civil War, but most of the time, the wreck itself is covered beneath several feet of sand. That changed this summer, as waves associated with tropical storms and hurricanes, swept the sand away and revealed the outline of the hull, its ribs, and two giant smokestacks. The stacks themselves are always visible above the sand, but they remain underwater even at low tide. If you hurry, before the water gets cold, you can actually snorkel over the wreck right now. I swam on it a few days ago and the water was still warm enough that I didnt need a wetsuit. You will find a scene very much like what you see in Dreas Andreasens aerial photos accompanying this story. Andreasen, captain of the Fort Morgan Fire Rescue, saw the wreck was uncovered during a training flight on a helicopter and shared the news via Facebook. Much of the 201-foot length of the big iron ship is exposed and swarming with schools of small fish. Be careful if you swim out to the Ivanhoe, as the smokestacks are festooned with hooks and fishing lures, and the wreck itself is composed of jagged and rusting iron. Your best bet would be to visit on a day with a north wind, so the Gulf will be flat. Otherwise, breaking waves will make snorkeling over the ship most difficult, and dangerous. The water will also be much cleared on a calm, north wind day. The day I visited, there were a number of small schoolmaster snapper on the wreck, an unusual sighting for our area. There were also spadefish, hand-sized sheepshead, a few flounder, and lots of little mangrove snapper. Brian Jones of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab found two octopus on the wreck and a big electric ray. If you are unfamiliar with the electric ray, I have this advice, dont touch one! I got shocked by one a few years ago while diving. It definitely gets your attention. Like being hooked up to three or four car batteries at once. Another word of caution about historic shipwrecks: It is illegal to remove anything from the site, dig for relics, or disturb the wreck in any way. The Ivanhoe is protected by the Alabama Underwater Cultural Resources Act, said Stacye Hathorn, Alabama State Archaeologist. It is important for people to understand they are welcome to view the wreck, but it is illegal to remove anything from the site as well as damage, destroy, salvage, excavate or alter the wreck in any way. The Ivanhoe is a nonrenewable cultural resource, meaning that if it is damaged or destroyed, it is gone forever, and that piece of history is lost. But what a fun piece of history to have revealed to us for even just a moment. Blockade runner ships were purpose built for evading Union ships then patrolling Confederate ports as part of a massive naval blockade. Steam-powered and designed for speed, hundreds of blockade runners were employed during the war, mostly to sneak cotton out of the Confederate states to Europe, and then return with the cannons, guns and gunpowder vital to the war effort. Further adding to the romance of the blockade runners is that Rhett Butler, Clark Gables character in Gone with the Wind, made his fortune as owner of four blockade running ships. Like the real-life profiteers his character was based on, Butlers fortune was based on the desperation of the Confederacy in the face of the Union naval blockade. As nearly all of the nations manufacturing apparatus was in the north, once the war started, the Confederacy had no access to guns, gunpowder, or other vital supplies. Likewise, the wealthy in the south suddenly found themselves cut off from everything Europe and New York had to offer, including wine, fine clothing, and other luxury goods. Meanwhile, the southern farmers had lost access to the markets of Europe, which typically purchased all of the cotton coming out of the southern fields. With the Union blockade in effect, no cotton could make it out of the country to provide income for the Confederacy, and no weaponry could make it into the country to equip the Confederate army. Answering these twin needs, was the blockade runner. There were thousands of privately-owned ships employed to sneak cargo in and out during the war. As it turns out, the blockade runners were mostly very good at evading the much slower Union ships. And the Union ships, at least in the early years of the war, were lousy at catching what amounted to steam-powered speedboats. Even so, by wars end, the Union Navy had reportedly captured more than 1,000 blockade runners, and sunk another 355. Jim Delgado, a celebrated marine archaeologist with Search Inc., said that most of the Civil War era wrecks known today were actually blockade runners, not warships. The largest group of Civil War wrecks are the blockade runners. There were some smaller craft. But then there were also these high-speed greyhounds of ocean steam power. Thats what the Ivanhoe represents, Delgado said. It was a ship designed purely for speed. A look at its measurements suggests as much. According to records from Clydeships.co.uk, a website that documents ships built in Scottish shipyards along the River Clyde, the Ivanhoe was 200 feet long and 20 feet wide, or a 10 to 1 ratio for length to width. That is an exceptionally long and narrow vessel. Such ships were built to be fast, not seaworthy. A more typical ratio for length to width for a ship of the era would be roughly 4 to 1, meaning an 80-foot-long vessel would be 20 feet wide. The wreck is important because while you are always talking about different civil war wrecks, and how much of the southern coastline is littered with them, each presents a unique story, Delgado said. In this case, the Ivanhoe speaks powerfully to the importance of Mobile to the war effort. As the Union kept continually tightening the blockade, and worked on this powerful push to take the ports, Mobile, given the strength of the fortifications, and the shallowness of the bay, it stayed open. Indeed, Mobile was the last major southern port to remain open, finally falling in August of 1864. Highlighting the importance of the trans-Atlantic trade coming through Mobile, the war was over just a few months after the Union Army captured the port. Unable to get goods in or out of Mobile, the Confederacy was simply starved of income and guns. The Ivanhoe was one of the last blockade runners to attempt to enter Mobile Bay, sinking in June of 1864. It fell victim to an effort to tighten the Union blockade in preparation for the Battle of Mobile Bay that summer. It was in that battle that Admiral Farragut famously uttered the phrase, Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead! I recall that the number of cotton bales shipped out of Mobile was over 850,000, thats a 500-pound bale, Delgado said. With cotton fetching more than a dollar a pound in Europe during the war years, the cotton exports were crucial. Basically, the economics of the situation are such, that if you are in the blockade running business, you could make a really good living if you could make at least one run. Though the Confederacy passed laws toward the end of the war that prohibited the blockade runners from importing anything other than necessities, like guns and gunpowder, they were never really enforced. There remained a lucrative and illicit trade in luxury items brought in by blockade runners throughout the war. The Ivanhoe really underscores the importance of the port of Mobile and all of that throughout history, Delgado said. We are seeing more storms, and more and more ships are becoming exposed. Im seeing this nationwide. With sea level incrementally rising, we are going to see more and more of this. With more ships becoming exposed, state officials encouraged people to exercise care. The Alabama Historical Commission encourages the citizens of our state to enjoy our cultural resources, but they should do so responsibly, said Lisa D. Jones, Executive Director of the Alabama Historical Commission. It is important to protect and preserve the Ivanhoe, a significant piece of our states Civil War history, so that future Alabamians can experience it. Anyone wishing to explore or scientifically survey the Ivanhoe or any other wreck in Alabama waters can apply for a permit through the Alabama Historical Commission. Ben Raines specializes in investigations and natural wonders. You can follow him via Facebook, Twitter at BenHRaines, and on Instagram. You can reach him via email at braines@al.com. You can watch Bens most recent documentary, The Underwater Forest, here on Youtube. The College Media Association censured the University of North Alabama on Nov. 26, months after the university changed the requirements for the faculty adviser for the student newspaper so he would no longer qualify. The ousting followed the publication of a student article critical of the university administration. The College Media Association called UNAs retaliation a way to silence student press. The University disagreed The University believes that the recent action by the College Media Association is unwarranted, outside the scope of its authority, and inconsistent with its own investigation, a UNA spokesperson told AL.com. The Flor-Ala, UNAs student newspaper, published a story in September detailing how the administration denied a public records request for a professors personnel records after he was banned from campus during a Title IX investigation. One week after the story published, the student journalists, along with their adviser Scott Morris, met with University Provost Ross Alexander to discuss the article. Morris said Alexander was displeased with the piece. After the meeting, Morris learned the university was rewriting his job description so that he would no longer be qualified for the position. Morris said he believes the universitys reaction is in retaliation for the papers piece criticizing administration. "If college officials decided to remove the adviser as punishment for something that students published, then that reeks of retaliation for Constitutionally protected student speech," said Chris Evans, president of the College Media Association, in a press release. Evans said issuing university censures is a rare occurrence, with the last one being issued in 2016 to Saint Peters University in New Jersey. A UNA spokesperson said today they have been discussing changing the student media adviser position to a tenure track faculty position since late 2014, and provided CMA with significant and substantial documentation supporting their timeline. But CMA investigators said the university couldnt provide correspondence indicating that changing the adviser role had been considered prior to the publication of the Flor-Ala article. Gregory Gaston, the professor who is being investigated for a Title IX Violation, has taught geography at UNA since 2009. He was placed on a no trespass order on June 22, 2018, barring him from the university campus and university-sponsored events. The university takes nothing more seriously than the health and safety and well-being of its students, faculty and staff, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Ross Alexander told the Flor-Ala. That being said, professor Gaston is on the trespass notice and barred from campus pending the outcome of a Title IX investigation. Gaston was paid $42,995.97 by UNA from July to Nov. 1, despite not being allowed to teach classes on campus. Morris has advised students at the Flor-Ala for four years and previously helmed the Times Daily as its executive editor. Though his employment is at risk, his role as a teacher has remained a top priority. [My students] learned how to get open records and what steps to take next when theyre denied and how to report that, and how to report something that effects their own publication, Morris said. Cyber Monday was booming for online retailer Amazon. Amazon said more products were ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday than any other day in company history. In addition, the five day period starting with Thanksgiving and running through Cyber Monday saw consumers purchase millions more products over the same period last year, buying some 180 million items from Amazon in 2018. Amazon customers worldwide ordered more than 18 million toys and more than 13 million fashion items on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, combined. Here were some of the top items: Christmas lights were the bestseller on Prime Now. The best-selling products at Amazon 4-star and Amazon Books over the five-day holiday weekend included the Echo Dot, Becoming by Michelle Obama, the Amazon Smart Plug, and the L.O.L. Surprise Series toys. The best-selling products at Amazon Pop-Up device kiosks included the Echo Dot and the Amazon Smart Plug. The best-selling products across Amazon.com on Cyber Monday included the Echo Dot, AncestryDNA: Genetic Testing Ethnicity, Bose QuietComfort 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones for Apple devices, Becoming by Michelle Obama, Jenga, and Instant Pot DUO60 6 Quart. The Echo Dot was the number one selling product on Amazon globally, from any manufacturer, in any category. Other best-selling Amazon products were Fire TV Stick 4K with all-new Alexa Voice Remote, and Fire 7 tablet with Alexa. Other popular devices included Ring Video Doorbell 2, iRobot Roomba 690 Robot Vacuum, TP-Link Mini Wi-Fi Smart Plug, and Amazon Smart Plug. Record-setting cyber day Amazon wasnt the only retailer cashing in on Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday spending rose 19.3 percent over year to a record $7.9 billion by the end of the day, making it the biggest online shopping day of all time in the U.S., according to Retaildive. Last years online sales were $6.6 billion. Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he is deeply and sincerely sympathetic to the family and friends of Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., the man who was fatally shot by a Hoover officer at the Riverchase Galleria mall Thanksgiving night. Brocatos statements came during a press conference at the Hoover Senior Center Monday night. A special Hoover City Council meeting will be held at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday to discuss pending or threatening litigation. Officials said the meeting is related to what happened at the mall Thursday night. In a prepared statement, Brocato asked for patience as the city works with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency in the investigation. The mayor did not answer any questions. But what we definitely stress is that we are deeply and sincerely sympathetic to the family and friends of Mr. Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. The loss of any fellow human being is deeply tragic, whatever the circumstances. We all want answers and we believe that with patience and focus, the truth will be firmly established. We have to trust the process and we plead your patience in that, he said. We are currently in the process of requesting a meeting with the Bradford family. Read the mayors full statement below: Mobile police say Robert Hooper, 39, is the suspect accused of injuring his 9-year-old daughter Sunday night while shooting into moving car containing her and other children. Hooper remained silent early Monday evening as he was marched from police headquarters to a vehicle waiting to take him to Mobile County Metro Jail. Police say he faces multiple charges including five counts of attempted murder, based on the number of people in the car. A police spokesman, Cpl. LaDerrick DuBose, said that passengers in the vehicle included other children in addition to the one who was injured. Police have previously said that her injuries were not life-threatening. DuBose said police first became aware of the situation at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, when they responded to a call about a child being treated for a gunshot wound at University Hospital. DuBose provided a few more details about the sequence of events on Monday. He said the potentially deadly situation began with gunfire at one location as the people in the vehicle, believed to include the mother of the girl, attempted to flee. DuBose said investigators thought the encounter had begun with the exchange of custody of one or more children between the estranged parents. The shooting continued along eastbound I-10, with more shots apparently fired at or into the vehicle in the area of the Virginia Street and Broad Street crossings, DuBose said. Several lanes were closed for a period Sunday evening as police investigated the scene. Police had previously said the suspect was a known male subject. DuBose said search and arrest warrants were issued for Hooper on Monday and he was arrested at his residence. It has been nearly 12 months since the Ontario Superior Court of Justice declared that Canadas use of solitary confinement is unconstitutional. It has been nearly 12 months since the Ontario Superior Court of Justice declared that Canadas use of solitary confinement is unconstitutional. Eleven months have passed since the Supreme Court of British Columbia handed down a similar ruling. In September, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale issued a mandate letter to the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, instructing her to reduce the use of solitary confinement. And just last month, Ottawa introduced Bill C-83, which promises to eliminate the use of segregation altogether. From the outside, this looks like progress. But a loose coalition of organizations says the federal governments effort to reduce the use of a practice that the UN essentially equates to torture is falling apart. A 12-month deadline In last years Ontario Superior Court ruling declaring solitary confinement to be an infringement of inmates Section 7 rights, Associate Chief Justice Frank Marrocco wrote that it imposes a psychological stress, quite capable of producing serious permanent observable negative mental health effects. He declared unconstitutional sections 31 through 37 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, as they lack appropriate safeguards to protect inmates. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which helped bring the lawsuit forward, celebrated the ruling as a victory. But it lamented that Marrocco didnt take the judgment further. They would have welcomed a finding of a constitutional breach under the Canadian Charters sections 12, which protects against cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, and 11(h), which protects against being punished twice for a conviction. We will continue to fight, the CCLAs acting executive director said at the time. A month later, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association won a similar judgment in that province, when Justice Peter Leask also ruled that solitary confinement infringes prisoners Section 7 rights. He also found that it breaches Section 15, in that it disproportionately affects the mentally ill, disabled, and Indigenous inmates. Both courts suspended their rulings for a year to give the government time to draft legislative or regulatory changes. Justice Marrocco wrote that the constitutional challenge posed by this application essentially involves the court and Parliament in a conversation about the constitutional appropriateness of sections 31-37 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. In granting a year, he remarked that a six-month suspension of his ruling would be too short. Twelve months later That 12-month deadline is fast approaching, and there appears to be virtually no chance that Ottawa will pass C-83 in time. It introduced the legislation in October, and hopes to pass it by July 2019. Canada did nothing for ten months, says Michael Rosenberg, a partner at McCarthy Tetrault and counsel for the CCLA. He and his client were in court last week to argue against Ottawas pleas for a seven-month extension to the deadline. Rosenberg told CBA National that Ottawa offered little by way of evidence of the extraordinary circumstances needed to justify an extension. The Attorney General only supplied a single affidavit, from a law clerk, that attaches public documents pertaining to Bill C-83, he says. The CCLA is arguing that Justice Marroccos ruling should be left to stand, although it is seeking a ruling that he erred by not finding that the Act infringed Sections 11(h) and 12 of the Charter. Meanwhile, the Attorney General is appealing the B.C. ruling. In a statement to CBA National, a spokesperson for Ralph Goodale said they were seeking judicial clarity on the issue. The government is arguing that the current law can be administered in a way that is Charter-compliant even as amendments to the law are being debated. Goodales office notes that they are seeing a steady reduction in the use of solitary confinement. The department has tracked 6,037 admissions to administrative segregations in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, a 27 per cent decrease from two years prior. Solitary confinement by any other name One lingering issue is that Ottawa refuses to admit that it employs solitary confinement. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners also called the Mandela Rules defines it as the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact. Canada relies on the term administrative segregation which, according to a directive from the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, affords prisoners in segregation the opportunity to be out of their cell for a minimum of two hours daily, including at least one hour every day outdoor exercise, weather permitting, or indoors if not. The government has argued that its form of segregation also allows for meaningful human contact. Both courts tossed aside that distinction as both meaningless and inaccurate. As the B.C. Supreme Court heard, almost all human contact occurs through the food slot in the cell door, and is often perfunctory and brief. Both courts concluded that Canada uses solitary confinement as defined by the Mandela Rules. Bill C-83 claims to eliminate the use of segregation by replacing it with structured intervention units. According to Public Safety Canada, those new units will allow for a minimum of four hours a day outside the cell, and two hours of meaningful human contact. Independent review While Ottawa submits that C-83 will comply with both court rulings, critics are far from convinced. Constitutionally, this bill is dead on arrival, says Rosenberg. Most disconcerting, he argues, is that C-83 includes no requirements for independent review of decisions to transfer an inmate into one of these units. That decision belongs to the Corrections Commissioner or his or her delegate. The Commissioner must have reasonable grounds to believe that the inmate has acted, or intends to act, in a way that could jeopardize the safety of anyone in the prison, or that their presence in general population could jeopardize their own safety. Within five days of the inmates transfer to the unit, the head of the corrections institution must review their status in the unit and come to a decision as to whether they should remain. That decision must be reviewed by the commissioner within 30 days. That is absurd, Rosenberg says. The head of the institution works for the Commissioner, and is being asked to review a decision made by his or her boss. The Canadian Bar Associations Criminal Justice Section and the Sections Committee on Imprisonment and Release have also highlighted the lack of proper oversight. We are concerned though about the degree of discretion in Bill C-83 for correctional administrators to deprive prisoners of basic rights and the lack of independent oversight to ensure that discretion is properly used, a letter recently sent to the Justice Minister reads. Jennifer Metcalfe, who sits on that committee and who helped pen the letter, says theyre hoping the government amends the legislation to add an independent adjudicator to handle cases and ensure that the governments attempt at modernization truly ends the practice of solitary confinement. If its just not enforceable then its not worth the paper its written on, she told CBA National. Other shortcomings Metcalfe also worries that, for many inmates, the new structured intervention units wont be that much different than solitary confinement. Two hours a day of meaningful human contact is better, she says, but inadequate. As written, the bill allows for a wide amount of discretion at the institutional level. Time outside could consist, as it often does now, of standing in a small area, resembling a dog kennel, surrounded by a brick wall and barbed-wire fence. A number of exceptions could still deny an inmate that small amount of time outdoors. It still doesnt take Canada out of the UNs definition of torture and cruel treatment, she says. These weaknesses are even more damning in light of Ottawas failure to meet the courts deadline, says Rosenberg. Its real chutzpah to ask for an extension of the stay to enact a bill that doesnt address the underlying constitutional defect, he says. If the Court of Appeal sides with Rosenberg in his appeal, it will only be more dire for the federal government. Neither of these decisions imposed a hard cap on the length of time that inmates can spend in solitary confinement, he notes. We say that the cap should be the international standard under the Mandela Rules of 15 days. Whats more, neither decision specifically bars underage inmates from being placed in solitary confinement. Nor do they address the needs of inmates seeking protection, such as LGBTQ inmates, or former police officers who may need to be segregated from the population but who should, perhaps, not be placed in solitary confinement, as is often done now. Also, the notion that Sections 11(h) and 12 are being violated, are not specifically addressed in C-83. That could come alive in the appeal and further derail the push to pass C-83. Goodales office has defended the bill, reiterating the claim that the legislation will eliminate segregation, and establish a fundamentally different system focused on rehabilitative programming and treatment. The spokesperson continued that this new approach will allow us to maintain separation when necessary to maintain safety, and at the same time allow programming and human contact. Whats next When Crown lawyers appeared in the Court of Appeal last week to argue their case, requesting that the court let the Parliamentary process run its course, Chief Justice George Strathy was outwardly skeptical not just over the request for an extension, but over the legislation itself. If I could cut to the chase on this issue, how does the proposed legislation address the defect? I dont see how it does that, he said, according to the Globe & Mail. The court ordered the Crown to return this week to detail how the new units would comply with the lower courts decision. After that, the CCLA will get another chance to respond. Rosenberg is hoping Ottawa can identify non-legislative remedies that can be taken immediately. Metcalfe is a bit more circumspect. She says that regulations and guidelines, ultimately, leave discretion at the hands of the Correctional Service. I think that it does require legislation, she says. As for the extension on the suspension of invalidity to get C-83 passed, the Supreme Court of Canada only recently gave some direction on how the courts should entertain such requests. When Ottawa asked for one following the Carter ruling that struck down the ban on physician-assisted dying, it pointed to the upcoming federal election campaign as extraordinary circumstances that made legislating impossible. The top court agreed and granted a four-month extension instead of the requested six. Under the circumstances today, seven months appears to be a tall order. Red tide, a condition that can sicken humans and kill marine life, has been found in water samples taken near the Alabama coast, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. The ADPH said people should use caution in the area after water samples collected from Alabama Point to Little Lagoon Pass in Baldwin County indicated the presence of red tide cells in the low to medium range. Red tide is caused when harmful algae blooms grow out of control resulting in toxic and harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds. The species that causes red tide in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico is known as Karenia brevis, often abbreviated as K. brevis. People with respiratory problems or those experiencing symptoms of nose, throat or eye irritation are advised to avoid any mist generated by the waters. Fish kills are also possible in the area because of red tide, according to the ADPH. The Alabama reports come after months of battling red tide in Florida. The outbreak there was blamed for the deaths of thousands of animals and almost 20 hospital visits from people sickened by the tide. Red tide blooms can last days, weeks or month and can change daily due to wind conditions. ADPH said it is continuing to monitor the situation and tests for the presence of red tide cells. The ADPH advises people in the area of the red tide to: Protesters demanding answers in the Thanksgiving shooting death of E.J. Bradford on Tuesday night stopped traffic on U.S. 31 and marched to the Riverchase Galleria. The protest first began outside Hoover City Hall around 6 p.m. and continued down U.S. 31 to the Riverchase Galleria--the place where Bradford was fatally shot by a Hoover police officer Thanksgiving night. The protesters gathered to say they want to hold law enforcement to a higher standard. This is just one step in the process to bring attention to these issues," said activist Carlos Chaverst Jr. They are also calling to boycott the Galleria mall and for a real apology to Bradfords family. Protesters said they werent satisfied by Hoover Mayor Frank Brocatos statement he read earlier Monday night. Theyre asking for the Hoover Police Department to release video from the police body cameras and mall surveillance cameras for public review. Earlier Monday night, Brocato said in a prepared statement theres honestly not a lot we can say at this point since the investigation is not in the citys hands." Brocato said the video is now in the hands of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is investigating the officer-involved shooting. All video evidence was immediately transferred to outside investigating agencies. It now resides with ALEA, and they will determine what it will be released, he said in the statement. After about an hour of different speakers sharing at the protest outside Hoover City Hall, Chaverst told protesters to block U.S. 31 in front of city hall. Soon after, protesters began walking down U.S. 31 South toward the Galleria. As they approached the Galleria, protesters chanted stop shopping here," and no justice, no peace, no racist police, Say his name! E-J! They entered the mall and marched up to the Footaction, where the fight broke out that resulted in E.J. being fatally shot by a Hoover police officer. While marching back from the Galleria, protesters were met by the Bradford family attorney Benjamin Crump and some of EJs family members, including his mother. I feel good I feel like were going to get justice that we need for this family. I feel confident. I feel we have been heard a little bit. I feel like theyre going to get it, Chaverst said as protesters left the mall. No injuries or arrests were reported as part of Monday nights demonstrations. Earlier tonight, faith leaders met at Veterans Park to call for the faith community to stand on solidarity with the Bradford family. These are not problems that we can help by claiming that we do not see color. These are not problems that we can fix by claiming that all lives matter or claiming that someone is pulling the race card when they tell us about their experience about living as a black person in this country, said David Barnhart, pastor of Saint Junia Church. White church goers need to understand that this is not something that goes away just because you try to treat everyone the same. Another pastor, JaMel Brown, pastor and community activist in Montgomery, also called on the faith community to stand for justice. If Jesus was here today, he would be with us, Brown said. The Hoover City Council has called a special meeting set for 12:15 p.m. at the city council chambers. The meeting is open to the public, but city officials said the city council plans to hold an executive session to discuss pending or threatening litigation. Another event will be held at 6:30 p.m. at 16th Street Baptist Church Tuesday. Ben Crump will be there to answer the publics questions about whats going on with the case, organizers said. On Friday, a gathering will be held at New Hope Baptist Church on Cleburn Avenue at 6 p.m. Organizers say the gathering will serve as a place for people to come together and mourn or talk with others who have been affected by the events of Thanksgiving night. Everyone is dispersed now Anna Beahm (@_AnnaBeahm) November 27, 2018 It appears Hoover PD cruisers blocked 31 south so protestors can cross the road EJs family is now here with Ben Crump Anna Beahm (@_AnnaBeahm) November 27, 2018 Leaving the mall pic.twitter.com/pC15uLH6zV Anna Beahm (@_AnnaBeahm) November 27, 2018 Several stores around where protestors are have closed. From what I can see, JC Penny, Footaction, Game Stop, ifix, Lids and Journeys have closed Anna Beahm (@_AnnaBeahm) November 27, 2018 A 12-year-old girl wounded when gunfire erupted inside the Riverchase Galleria Thanksgiving night has been released from the hospital. I am so thankful for all the messages, prayers and gifts we have received, said her mother, Julie Moore Bennett, in a Monday message to AL.com. Molly is home now and doing much better. The shooting happened just before 10 p.m. Nov. 22 on the second floor of the mall. Hoover police said an argument between several young men led to gunfire. An 18-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was wounded, as well as Molly. Emantic Fitzgerald EJ Bradford, 21, was shot and killed by Hoover police. Authorities said Bradford was involved in the initial altercation but did not fire the shots that wounded the two others. Multiple investigations are ongoing. Bennett, whose daughter Molly was an innocent bystander when the shots rang out, posted about the ordeal on Facebook over the weekend. She said Molly and sister Jessie were shopping with Mollys grandmother. They were upstairs, outside of J.C. Penney when a fight broke out. Shots were fired, and one of the bullets hit Molly in the back, Bennett wrote on Facebook over the weekend. She said that her back hurt, but didnt even realize she had been shot until she overheard my mom telling me on the phone. A military medic took care of Molly until Hoover Fire medics arrived. A nurse came to help and assured my mom that the medic was doing everything exactly right, Bennett wrote. The shoe store employees allowed the medic to use a shirt off the rack to hold pressure on the wound, and they brought a jacket to cover Molly when she got cold. Once at Childrens of Alabama, a CT scan showed that Molly had a fractured rib, but her spine was not touched by the bullet. The bullet will stay where it is and shouldnt cause her any more trouble, her mother said. On Monday, Bennett asked that those who want to do something for Molly instead consider doing something for other children who remain hospitalized. There are many other children in the hospital that would greatly benefit from your generosity, she said. If you were thinking of sending Molly a gift, please consider donating a gift to Childrens of Alabama, St. Judes, or your local childrens hospital in her honor instead. Anyone who would like to send Molly and/or Jessie a card, can do so at P.O. Box 205 Columbiana, AL 35051. Authorities are asking for the publics help identifying a man who robbed a Birmingham pharmacy last week. The holdup happened Monday, Nov. 19, at Walgreens on Clairmont Avenue. Birmingham police Sgt. Johnny Williams said the robbery happened at 7:11 p.m. Officers arrived on the scene to find the suspect entered the business and presented a note demanding various items. He left the store with an undetermined amount of drugs. Anyone with information on the suspects identity is asked to call robbery detectives at 205-254-1753. Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. If the tip to Crime Stoppers leads to an arrest, Crime Stoppers will provide a cash reward. A Birmingham teenager pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced this week, before he was set to go on trial for capital murder. Anthony Murray, 19, was originally charged with capital murder and two counts of robbery in the 2015 shooting death of 58-year-old Leon Slay. Court records show Murray pleaded guilty on Monday to the lesser charge of felony murder and one count of first-degree robbery. Murray was set to stand trial this week on his original charges. He was sentenced by Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Carpenter to 20 years in prison, split with five years to serve. Murray was also ordered to serve five years of supervised probation when he is released from prison. The New Hill teen was among four others also charged in Slays killing. Harold Mason, Rufus Clyde Jr. and Rashad Taylor all pleaded guilty last year. Another man, Javar Humphrey, is still awaiting trial. Slay's body was discovered near the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and 16th Street on Oct. 5, 2015, and he was pronounced dead on the scene that evening. Police said he was killed just after he had walked away from the BP convenience store on Alabama 150, apparently counting his money. He lived about one block away. At court hearings following Slays killing, police said the fatal shooting was part of a crime spree of carjackings and attempted carjackings, all intended for the teenagers to have money and cars to attend that years Magic City Classic. The teens were believed to be part of a gang known as Trained To Go, or TTG. Investigators said the group was responsible for at least a dozen incidents across Jefferson County. At the time of his plea, Murray was represented by Cynthia Umstead. Deputy District Attorney David Michaels prosecuted the case. In September 2016, youd be about as likely to find living things in certain parts of Buck Creek as you would in a bottle of household cleaner. The creek water near U.S. 31 in Saginaw, turned milky white and registered a pH of 12.05, according to one sample taken by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Another sample showed 11.3. Household bleach has a pH of about 12.6. Alabama water quality standards stipulate that discharges from a facility should not raise pH higher than 8.5. ADEM inspectors noted that no aquatic life could be found. Cahaba Riverkeeper David Butler, who first reported the problem, described the creek as being sterilized. In 2018, its a different story. The water is clearer. Much of the dirt, rocks and branches have returned to a more normal coloration. And now, the creek lives again. We went from not a single living thing in the creek to having frogs, fish, turtles, crayfish, Butler said. I about stepped on a snake one day when I was out taking samples. Bringing the creek back from sterilization wasnt easy or cheap. The problem: high pH wastewater from the Carmeuse Lime and Stone lime production facility was leaching through the ground and entering the creek, raising the pH to levels incapable of sustaining life and staining most everything that touched the water white. Chalky-looking calcium carbonate sediment gummed up the creek bed downstream from the plant. Carmeuse operations manager Todd Sheffer said the condition of the creek, and the pathway the wastewater was taking came as a surprise to everyone at the facility. Carmeuse had monitored the places where it discharged treated water into the river, which was within the limits of its permit. But the problem was underground, and the parts of the creek where the damage was evident were either overgrown or off the premises of the 2,400-acre limestone quarry and production plant. We never imagined we had the potential for water to migrate through the ground like that, Sheffer said. Now we know. Sheffer said Carmeuse, after agreeing to a consent order with ADEM, has spent about $1.25 million to revamp the drainage around their facility and prevent the process water from reaching the creek. Carmeuse installed about 3,000 feet of diversion ditches and several sump pumps to redirect the seepage to their onsite water treatment facility, where its treated before being discharged into the creek. The difference is dramatic. Photos from an AL.com visit to Buck Creek in Saginaw, Ala. on July 10, 2017 show visible discoloration in vegetation and soil along the creek bed. This photo shows Buck Creek near the Carmeuse Lime and Stone facility in Saginaw, Ala. on Nov. 16, 2018. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). al.com We always want to do the right thing for our community, Sheffer said. Its really important for us, and its important for our employees. The guys have really bought in and gone above and beyond. Carmeuse has invested thousands of man-hours and equipment to fix the problems and brought in additional consultants and equipment where necessary. Sheffer said several employees volunteered to work on the project on their days off. The company hired an engineering firm and conducted geological surveys to find out how the water was migrating into the creek and used dye marker tracing to see how long it took. The dye tracing showed it took more than two months for water to seep through the ground and show up in the creek. A large part of the issue stemmed from the historic operations at the facility. Carmeuse bought the land in 1998, but its been an active quarry since the early 1900s. The tree-covered hillside along the creek is not a natural hill, but a pile of mine refuse covered in soil and planted with pine trees. That artificial hillside left several easy pathways for water to migrate to the creek, Sheffer said. Now, large parts of that hillside have been excavated to install diversion ditches, sump pumps and other equipment. The company added electric lines to the site for the pumps, and a gravel road to allow personnel to easily monitor the creek. The pond that was the primary cause of the seepage is being retired and will most likely be filled in and covered, Sheffer said. Carmeuse takes daily water samples in the creek not just at their outfall points and havent tested above their pH limit since May 1. Jackie Padgett, Carmeuses senior area environmental manager, said the wooded area that had to be cleared while the ditches were installed is being converted into a natural area where the companys 130 Alabama employees can eat lunch beside the creek. You couldnt get down here to the creek before, Padgett said. This really allows us to keep our eyes on things and make sure were not having any more problems. The agreement with ADEM fined Carmeuse $32,000 for the violations of its water permit, and required them to submit investigation reports and plans to address the contamination and evaluate the need and feasibility of remediating Buck Creek. Butler said Carmeuse has gone above and beyond what was required to address the contamination issues that he first reported to ADEM. Hes continued to monitor the creek on his own and worked with Carmeuse on restoration efforts as the creek returns to a more natural state. Carmeuse says it will continue to monitor the creek and be more vigilant about potential pollution issues indefinitely. We dont think we can ever say were done, Sheffer said. Its something well always have to monitor and stay on top of it just because of the complexity of the issue. Litigation and arbitration can be lengthy and costly, which explains in part why mediation has been gaining in popularity as a method for resolving cross-border commercial disputes. Whats lacking, however, is a comprehensive legal framework for the enforcement of international settlement agreements. Without one, parties to a mediated settlement usually have to get a court judgment in a foreign jurisdiction to enforce the agreement. That is set to change, as the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) moves forward with a new tool that will facilitate the recognition and enforcement of mediated settlements. This year, UNCITRAL approved the Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation informally known as the Singapore Convention. The document is now open for signing. The document is the culmination of a process that began in May 2014, when the United States proposed to develop a multilateral approach that would assist with the recognition and enforcement of mediation settlements. In essence, the idea was to replicate the mechanisms that exist under the New York Convention for arbitration awards. The Singapore Convention, which applies only to international agreements resulting from mediation and concluded in writing, excludes several matters from its jurisdiction consumer, family and employment disputes, for example. Article 1 also excludes settlement agreements which (a) have been approved by a court or have been concluded in the course of court proceedings; (b) are enforceable as a judgment in the state of that court or (c) that have been recorded and are enforceable as an arbitration award. These exceptions are intended to avoid conflicts with other international conventions, namely the New York Convention. Some conditions must be fulfilled for a state to enforce a settlement agreement. Under Article 4, a party must supply a signed settlement agreement, and evidence that it resulted from a mediated process. Proof of this may include the mediators signature on the settlement agreement, an attestation by the institution administering the mediation or any other evidence acceptable to the competent authority under their domestic law. An affidavit from the mediator may be sufficient. Litigation and arbitration can be lengthy and costly, which explains in part why mediation has been gaining in popularity as a method for resolving cross-border commercial disputes. Much like the New York Convention, a signatory state may refuse relief only on one of five grounds outlined in Article 5. Otherwise, it must recognize and enforce the settlement agreement. The five grounds are: (a) the incapacity of a party to the settlement; (b) the settlement agreement is null and void, inoperative or incapable of being performed under the applicable law; (c) the settlement agreement is not binding, or is not final, according to its terms; has been subsequently modified; the obligations in it have been performed or are not clear or comprehensible; granting relief would be contrary to its terms; (d) there was a serious breach of mediator standards; (e) failure by the mediator to disclose to the parties circumstances that raise justifiable doubts as to the mediators impartiality or independence. Article 5(2) also provides that relief by a signature state may be refused where it is contrary to the public policy of the state where enforcement is sought or the subject matter of the dispute is not capable of settlement by mediation under the law of that state. Within the context of the UNCITRAL Model Law and the New York Convention, there is an abundance of case law explaining the scope of Article 5(2). Ultimately, once it comes to effect, and assuming a critical number of states agree to sign it, the Singapore Convention ought to facilitate transnational trade by allowing mediated settlements to be more easily recognized and enforced by the different signatory states. For example, by allowing arbitration awards to be recognized and enforced across different jurisdictions, the New York Convention became one of the most successful treaties in private international law. Hopefully, by helping alleviate the cost of litigation, the Singapore Convention will achieve the same measure of success and mark a breakthrough for international trade. If you're gonna fight, fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp to Noah's Ark... and brother its starting to rain. Leaders of 19 of the worlds biggest economies, as well as the European Union gather to discuss policy and trade deals. The G20 is made up of 19 member states and the European Union. This years conference will be held in Buenos Aries, Argentina on Friday and Saturday. It will focus on the global economy, the future of labour markets and gender equality. Trade tensions between the United States and China will also be in the spotlight. In addition to the 19 countries that make up the G20, Spain is a permanent invited guest. As the host, Argentina has also invited leaders from Chile and the Netherlands to attend. A number of chief executives of several international forums and institutions will also be present. Last week, Germanys Africa Commissioner Gunter Nooke said that European countries should be allowed to lease land and to build and run cities in Africa as a means of stemming what he views as the unchecked expansion of migration from Africa to Europe. For Nooke, allowing the free development of these areas would stimulate African economies and create growth and prosperity and therefore, reduce the attractiveness of Europe as a destination for migration. The proposal has elicited mixed reactions. Some have seen it as a novel economic proposition to stem a complex political challenge. Building on existing economic arrangements like Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Economic Processing Zones (EPZs), they argue that this would simply be the next stage in the evolution in the idea that economic exclaves that protect industries from the ravages of the open economy are the best way to stimulate growth. Now, instead of jeans and sneakers, we want to optimise people or at least labour by protecting them from the realities and ravages of their societies. Understandably, there has also been considerable pushback. The word colonialism has been raised, with critics arguing that Germany, especially, with its history of violent colonialism and genocide in Namibia, Cameroon, Tanzania and Togo, has no moral authority to even table such an idea. More broadly, many African countries are still struggling to recover from the damage from European colonisation. In many African countries, land tenure is still irregular and skewed to wealthy and often white minorities, engendering generational economic exclusion. Many African economies have failed to move beyond the extractive, labour intensive economies they inherited from their European counterparts. The violence of colonisation is still very present in Africa should we really be talking about a new, trendy colonialism that only really hopes to address Europes paranoia about a possible invasion by black bodies? The easiest way to get to the heart of whats wrong with this proposal is to go back to basics what is colonialism and why is it bad? The dictionary defines colonialism as a policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. Ultimately, its about exploiting a power differential in order to reorganise one society for the economic and social benefit of another: saying that one societys economic and social imperatives are more important than the others. {articleGUID} So, Nookes proposal is fundamentally hipster colonialism attempting to reclaim colonialism by couching it in neoliberal trends or ideology while advocating for a return to an essentially exploitative system of social and economic organisation. Many of those speaking in favour of this proposal do so it in sterile and agnostic terms, focusing on the economic dimensions and the potential financial growth and leaving out the most important element the people involved and affected. Underneath this is a reductive premise that human beings, and Africans specifically, are not as fully actualised human beings who deserve holistic life experiences Africans are just labour or economic opportunities. Yet human beings are not just labour we are complex, social and interconnected beings whose needs cannot just be collapsed into money. We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our birth. These are concepts which the Black Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black mans mind before our society is driven to chaos by irresponsible people from Coca-cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds, said Steve Biko, the founder of the Black Consciousness movement and a leading light in the anti-apartheid movement. Biko rightfully observed that colonisation and apartheid were about more than a process of economic disruption even while that process specifically centred on the alienation of land was traumatic enough. Colonisation was also about mental degradation of black people in South Africa. The apartheid system was about breaking down the spirits of black people so that they could be malleable and even amenable to a system of political organisation that kept them demeaned, powerless and even ashamed in their own home. Colonisation is about unmaking one society for the benefit of another. More urgently, Nookes hipster colonialism is only attractive if you ignore history and indeed, reality. Some facts about migration to Europe easily challenge its flawed premises. Nooke doesnt go to the heart of the economic and political climate that makes migration an attractive alternative for young African people. What are they fleeing from that would make near-certain death on the sea a more attractive alternative to home? Nooke has nothing to say for the massive land expropriation by Western corporations and Middle Eastern governments; of a war on terror that has criminalised young black malehood across the Sahel and down Africas eastern seaboard; of an international political system that supports and sustains autocracy in pursuit of stability. {articleGUID} Then there is the simple issue of numbers. For one, the vast majority of people attempting to migrate to Europe are not African they are from the Middle East. At the peak of Europes migrant crisis in 2015, of the just over one million people who attempted to enter Europe, nearly 80 percent were from the greater Middle East and primarily Syria a country devastated by a war that Germany continues to profit from through arms sales to the regime that these people are fleeing. If Europe is serious about stemming migration, it should get serious about stopping war. More broadly, African cities are already performing many of the functions that Nookes economic enclaves claim to work towards. Privileged people are already able to access better facilities, opportunities and representation than their rural or urban poor counterparts. This hasnt stemmed the flow of migration. It has just created a power differential between the urban elite and the poor, in turn exacerbating problems like insecurity and state violence against the poor who are criminalised through the process of protecting the privilege for the few. European schools and universities are clearly failing to educate their students on the underlying social, cultural and structural violence that made colonisation possible. Its a fascinating coincidence that this conversation is happening in the shadow of the death of an American missionary attempting to take a vintage colonial, civilising mission to North Sentinel Island in India. The Sentinelese, a society last contacted by outsiders in the early 20th century, responded to the unsolicited invasion with a volley of arrows that almost instantly killed the young man. We are reminded that the civilising mission of European colonialism was ultimately an invasive, violent process. Dehumanising, neoliberal, hipster colonialism is being proposed so liberally and uncritically that it is easy to lose sight of what makes colonialism toxic. Human mobility across the Mediterranean is indeed increasingly dangerous and that requires a robust, coordinated and concerted effort to resolve. But we cant ignore reality and history as we throw around variations of old policies rephrased in modern, trendy language because such half-baked solutions will inevitably compound whatever problems we seek to resolve. Ultimately, hipster colonialism and Nookes proposal is yet another reminder that we need to re-centre people in our policymaking it cant just be about money and that the road to solutions begins quite simply with reading a history book. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Pakistan is silencing discussion on a growing number of topics, causing concern among human rights activists, journalists and political dissidents in the country. A Committee to Protect Journalists report published in September this year concluded that the countrys powerful military establishment is using fear, intimidation and even violence to pressure the media to self-censor. In October, journalists and media workers held rallies across the country to protest against measures aimed at curbing newspapers circulation and TV channels transmission in certain areas. A number of high-profile TV anchors who were critical of the security establishments interference in Pakistani politics were fired from their positions. Recently, I myself was targeted by this ongoing silencing campaign. Earlier this month, along with three other rights activists, I was barred from speaking at the 4th Faiz International Festival a three-day music, art, debate and literature event named after renowned socialist poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz whose work and life exemplified defiance and resistance against authoritarianism. The irony could not be starker. We were told that there was external pressure for our removal, including threats of cancelling the entire event if the organisers did not remove us from the schedule. It was clear that we were not welcomed there because of our past criticisms of the countrys military establishment. {articleGUID} The festival went forward as planned, without our participation, but the organisers placed an empty chair on the stage during the sessions that we were supposed to attend. This was their way of silently registering their protest against censorship. A fifth-generation warfare The current crackdown on free speech in Pakistan stems from the security establishments belief that a pervasive fifth-generation warfare is being waged against the country. The fifth-generation warfare is an awkwardly woven narrative that suggests that the country is besieged by enemies who are using their proxies to control the minds of Pakistans vulnerable youth. It is a form of paternalism, one which is seen in one form or another in all paranoid, authoritarian states throughout history, and it is employed to target the usual suspects in Pakistan: human rights activists, progressive intellectuals, critical journalists and the political opposition. The Pakistani state has never been confident of its own viability as a political entity because it views the countrys ethnic faultlines and geostrategic position as perpetual threats to national cohesion. Yet, the silent martial law that is clouding political debate in the country is entangled with a formally democratic set-up. This unstable intersection between a civilian government and military control is propelling a new type of political practice that has both comical and tragic dimensions. The comedy stems from the tragic fact that people are too scared to directly name the military establishment in their criticisms. This fear has led to the creation of a large set of euphemisms that are commonly used in critiques. For example, writers often use terms such as the boys, angels, unknown individuals or even extra-terrestrial creatures (a term popularised by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) when referring to the countrys secret agencies. {articleGUID} During the election campaign earlier this year, Iqbal Siraj, a candidate from Sharifs party PML-N, alleged publicly that his warehouse was raided, his men were harassed and he was personally threatened by the personnel of a secret agency who wanted him to switch loyalties. After two days, presumably under intensified pressure from the same forces, he backtracked from his earlier statement, claiming this time that it was the agriculture department that raided his warehouse over tax concerns. Since then, the term agriculture department is often used satirically when discussing issues involving the security apparatus, including the contentious issues ranging from forcefully disappeared persons to electoral rigging. But sometimes, the euphemisms are simpler and more traditional. When I was informed of my removal from the panel at the Faiz Festival, the organisers used the ubiquitous they the meaning, with all the implied and latent threats, understood by all parties. They did not want my participation. Blurred lines The biggest tragedy of Pakistans double system of oppressive military control and seemingly democratic civilian rule is the fact that, unlike direct military rule with a firmly regimented list of dos and donts or indeed a well-functioning democracy where free speech is fully protected the lines between acceptable and unacceptable speech remain blurred. Officially, there are few restrictions on free speech in the country and many journalists, intellectuals and political activists get away with scathing critiques of the establishment. But then many others run into trouble with the same forces over much politer versions of the same critiques. For example, I was barred from the Faiz Festival while many others who had often presented harsher critiques of the security establishment than myself were permitted to speak. The excessive contingency of the situation makes all the actors involved more anxious about the precise place of the red lines that ought not to be crossed. It also leads to the impression that there is little method to this madness, and that the fates of many are decided by the whims of anonymous local intelligence operatives. The chaos of the situation raises larger questions about the contemporary era, particularly in light of the melting away of political certainties on a global scale. Not only is the international financial system and the neoliberal ideology undergirding it incredibly unstable, but the nation-state form, the arena par excellence for political claim-making, is itself threatened by the accelerating flows of resources, ideas and people. In other words, the framework that structured postwar politics is now falling apart, exposing the rigidity of our political forms to the openness of the unknown, with all the anxiety such an encounter entails. {articleGUID} It is then not surprising that fear of foreign elements is propelling political thought and action around the globe, displacing debates over resource distribution and other social justice issues. For the Trump administration in the US, it is the immigrants; for Europe, it is the refugees; and for Indias Modi, it is Muslims and secularists who threaten the homogeneity of the nation-state. These communities become the internally excluded part of the nation, acting as phantoms against whom an imaginary identity is cemented. And since they are the displaced focal point for the anxieties generated by rapidly collapsing political, economic and material certainties, they become targets for the vilest forms of abuse that they must repeatedly endure to sustain a fragile nationalism. What we are witnessing is the nation-states struggle to understand, or even define, the threats it currently confronts. Terms such as fifth-generation warfare, hybrid warfare or accusations of foreign agents are imprecise attempts to define any phenomenon that appears to exceed the normative language available to the state, turning our political chaos into a properly linguistic crisis. This state of affairs betrays an anxiety that a gap has opened up in the status quo, which can no longer be sutured using conventional methods of control. And it is here that censorship fails most spectacularly. The very act of suppression and removal only widens this anxiety, since prohibited content often takes on a life of its own as a symptom of the widening cracks, further haunting the present through its very absence. The difficulty of the situation is that the gaze of the state deployed to judge the proliferating threats in society is unable to turn inwards to interrogate its own role in perpetuating the chaos that it so fears. In Pakistan, this lack of introspection is compelling the state to decimate all forms of dissent in hopes of resuscitating a political order that has lost all vitality. The challenge, today, then is not only one of resisting the worst excesses of a paranoid establishment, but also of intensifying the search for new ideological and institutional coordinates for constructing political communities. This means that we have to open ourselves to the challenges presented by the foreignness of the new, with all the patience and creativity it demands, if we are to move beyond the endless violence and haunting silences that mark our present. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. 278 scholars from dozens of countries sign letter on Xinjiang, as Uighur woman details torture in the remote region. Countries must impose sanctions on China over the mass detention of ethnic Uighurs in its western Xinjiang region, hundreds of scholars said, warning that a failure to act would signal acceptance of psychological torture of innocent civilians. At a briefing in Washington, DC, on Monday, representatives of a group of 278 scholars in various disciplines from dozens of countries called on China to end its detention policies, and for sanctions directed at key Chinese leaders and security companies linked to abuses. This situation must be addressed to prevent setting negative future precedents regarding the acceptability of any states complete repression of a segment of its population, especially on the basis of ethnicity or religion, the group said in a statement. Countries should expedite asylum requests from Xinjiangs Muslim minorities, as well as spearhead a movement for UN action aimed at investigating this mass internment system and closing the camps, it said. In August, a United Nations human rights panel said it had received credible reports that one million or more Uighurs and other minorities were being held in what resembled a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy in its far western region. Rather die The scholars call came as a member of the Uighur minority, who arrived in the US in September, detailed the abuse she said she suffered in one internment camp. Mihrigul Tursun said she was interrogated for four days without sleep, had her hair shaved and was subjected to an intrusive medical examination following her second arrest in China in 2017. After she was arrested a third time, the treatment became worse. I thought that I would rather die than go through this torture and begged them to kill me, Tursun, 29, told reporters at the National Press Club. Born in China, Tursun moved to Egypt to study English at a university where she met her husband. In 2015, after travelling to China to spend time with her family, Tursun was arrested, separated from her young children, and kept in detention for three months. She is convinced her children triplets were operated on while she was detained because one died and the others developed health problems. {articleGUID} Tursun was arrested for a second time about two years later and, when she was detained a third time, she spent three months in a prison cell with 60 other women having to sleep in turns, use the toilet in front of security cameras and sing songs praising Chinas Communist Party. Tursun said she and other inmates were forced to take unknown medication, including pills that made them faint and a white liquid that caused bleeding in some women and loss of menstruation in others. Tursun said nine women from her cell died during her three months there. One day, Tursun recalled, she was led into a room, placed in a high chair and had her legs and arms locked in place. The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head and each time I was electrocuted my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins, Tursun said in a statement read by a translator. I dont remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness, Tursun said. The last word I heard them saying is that you being Uighur is a crime. She was eventually released so she could take her children to Egypt but was ordered to return to China. Tursun contacted US authorities in Cairo and settled in Virginia in September. {articleGUID} Pressure needed China rejects criticism of its actions in Xinjiang, saying it protects the religion and culture of minorities and that its security measures are needed to combat the influence of extremist groups. The countrys Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said the world should ignore gossip about Xinjiang and trust the government in Beijing. But after initial denials about the detention camps, Chinese officials have said some people guilty of minor offences were being sent to vocational training centres to be taught work skills and legal knowledge aimed at curbing militancy. Michael Clarke, a Xinjiang expert at Australian National University who signed the scholars statement, told reporters that China sought international respect for its weight in global affairs. The international community needs to demonstrate to Beijing that it will not actually get that while its doing this to a significant portion of its own citizenry, Clarke said. Arrest of Alipur, an anti-Taliban commander from the Shia Hazara minority accused of abuses, triggered violent protests. An Afghan commander arrested over allegations of human rights abuses has been released following two days of violent protests in which several demonstrators were allegedly killed and dozens of policemen wounded. Alipurs release, as President Ashraf Ghani flew to Geneva to attend a United Nations conference on Afghanistan, was confirmed by Vice President Sarwar Danishs office on Monday, according to a report by Reuters news agency. Alipur, an anti-Taliban commander from the mainly Shia Hazara minority, was detained in the capital Kabul weeks after an earlier attempt to arrest him in the western province of Ghor ended in a shoot-out that killed 12 people. Known widely as Commander Sword, Alipur was accused of serious abuses mainly against ethnic Pashtuns in the Maidan Wardak region, west of Kabul. In conflict-ridden Afghanistan, Hazaras have felt especially targeted. There has been growing resentment among many Hazaras against Sunni Pashtuns, the countrys dominant ethnic group. {articleGUID} Alipurs arrest triggered violent protests, in which dozens of police were wounded by thrown rocks, at least eight security checkpoints and recruiting centres were burned down, and 19 vehicles damaged, according to the interior ministry. We have not received the number of casualties of the protesters in Kabul over the past two days but that 48 security force members were wounded, Deputy Interior Minister General Akhtar Mohammad Ibrahimi said on Monday. Several killed Demonstrators and eyewitnesses, however, told Al Jazeera the police opened fire indiscriminately to disperse the crowd, which allegedly resulted in the death of several protesters. The police opened fire on people. In two days, seven people were killed and 70 others wounded in the firing. I witnessed the senseless barbaric action, Amir Yaga, a protester, alleged. The government officials are lying and not giving the exact figure. Ibrahimi rejected claims of any deaths by police gunfire. No live ammunition was used against demonstrators. No one was killed during the protest in Kabul, he told a press conference. Another witness alleged a 10-year-old schoolgirl was killed as videos and photographs of security personnel firing at demonstrators circulated on social media. Alipur stands against the Taliban and yet the government arrests him? We wanted answers but instead, the police shot on us. You can find videos on social media, Qasir Saboori told Al Jazeera from Kabul. What was the crime of that schoolgirl? What is the difference between the police, ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] and Taliban? he asked. Ethnic, sectarian divide The decision to let Alipur go underlines the struggle Afghanistans Western-backed government has had in reining in politically connected militia commanders that operate outside its control. It also highlights the risk of fragmentation along ethnic and sectarian lines in Afghanistan, even as hopes have been raised of a possible start to peace talks with the Taliban. {articleGUID} It is very sad to see people like Alipur bailed out and the government succumbing to pressure, an unnamed security official told Reuters. It is going to turn into a pattern where even if the security forces arrest a wanted criminal, the government just frees them, he said. Security forces will lose faith in the government. Like many militia strongmen, Alipur enjoyed high-level political backing that enabled him to defy attempts to arrest him. He also has wide support among the Hazaras, who are embittered by what they see as government inaction following a string of attacks on Shia targets by the ISIL group. Argentina has been asked to investigate Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for possible war crimes in Yemen and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. New York-based Human Rights Watch said it submitted the request to Argentinas federal judge Ariel Lijo on Monday. HRWs Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said the international rights group took the case to Argentina because Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, will attend the opening of the G20 summit this week in Buenos Aires. Argentinas constitution recognises universal jurisdiction for war crimes and torture, meaning judicial authorities can investigate and prosecute those crimes no matter where they were committed. We submitted this info to Argentine prosecutors with the hopes they will investigate MBSs complicity and responsibility for possible war crimes in Yemen, as well as the torture of civilians, including Jamal Khashoggi, said Whitson. Theres an extremely strong basis for Argentina to closely examine a very broad record of documentation and facts. People around the world are desperate to see real accountability for people who are getting away with terrible crimes, she told Al Jazeera. Neither Lijos office nor the office of Argentinas public prosecutor responded to requests for comment. Argentine media cited judicial sources as saying it was extremely unlikely authorities would take up the case against the crown prince, Saudi Arabias de facto ruler. The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadhs consulate in Istanbul on October 2 has strained Saudi Arabias ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammeds image abroad. Worlds worst humanitarian crisis Cases taking advantage of universal jurisdiction have had success in the past, most notably in 1998 when Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon was able to order the arrest in London of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The crown princes attendance at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires could make the Argentine courts an avenue of redress for victims of abuses unable to seek justice in Yemen or Saudi Arabia, said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, in a statement. Since March 2015, the Saudi-Emirati led coalition has carried out scores of indiscriminate air attacks on civilians in Yemen, hitting homes, schools, hospitals, markets, and mosques. The alliance has also imposed a naval and air blockade on Yemen that has severely restricted the flow of food, fuel, and medicine to civilians. The UN estimates about 14 million people, half the countrys population, are facing famine. The United States and other Western countries have increasingly called for an end of fighting to address the unfolding humanitarian disaster, the worlds worst. Senate grilling Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon chief James Mattis will brief US senators on Wednesday on developments related to Saudi Arabia. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters Pompeo and Mattis would brief the full Senate at 11am (16:00 GMT) in a closed-door session. Corker said he also hoped Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel would attend. Trump last week called Saudi Arabia a steadfast partner and said it was unclear whether Prince Mohammed was aware of the plan to kill Khashoggi. With tensions high over Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Corker said it was crucial to hear from the administration as to where this is going. The briefing comes as liberal Senator Bernie Sanders moves to re-introduce a resolution, as early as this week, to end US participation in the Yemen war, months after his initial effort fell short. Corker signalled it could have broader backing this time. I have a pretty good gauge on how people feel about Saudi Arabia right now, and Id say were in a very, very different place than when we kept this from happening in March, Corker said. Im considering what the options are to make sure that we deal appropriately with Saudi Arabia on multiple issues right now. Republican Senator Marco Rubio also expressed concern, saying he had supported US involvement in the war as a check on Irans influence and because he believed American technology sold to Saudi Arabia would help avoid the killing of civilians. Unfortunately, that hasnt played out that way, Rubio said. Some US legislators have also called for a strong US response to Khashoggis murder, including blocking arms sales and imposing sanctions. Initially sentenced to life in prison for spying, Matthew Hedges was released on Monday after receiving pardon from UAE. British academic Matthew Hedges, who was jailed for spying in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has arrived in the United Kingdom a day after being pardoned by the Emirati president, ending a seven-month ordeal. A flight carrying the 31-year-old scholar landed at Londons Heathrow airport on Tuesday morning, according to Reuters news agency. Abu Dhabis Federal Court of Appeal had sentenced the British scholar to life in prison last week after he was convicted of spying and supplying sensitive security information to external actors. He was among more than 700 people pardoned by President Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan on Monday, the countrys national day. Emirati officials made a point on Monday to insist that the arrest came on solid grounds, showing journalists in Abu Dhabi short video clips of Hedges purportedly acknowledging his intelligence work. In one video clip, Hedges is seen describing himself as a captain in MI-6 during what appears to be a court hearing in the Gulf Arab country. Another clip appears to show Hedges speaking to someone in an office and saying: It helps the research to go in an easy way. Then, Hedges is seen snapping his fingers and adds: Then it becomes MI-6. Emirati officials did not allow journalists to record the video. He was a part-time PhD researcher, a part-time businessman, but he was a 100 percent full-time secret service operative, said Jaber al-Lamki, an official with the UAEs National Media Council. Mr Hedges has been found guilty of espionage. He sought out sensitive information he knew had access to it. He was here to steal the UAEs sensitive national security secrets for his paymasters, al-Lamki added. Daniela Tejada, Hedges wife, said on Twitter that the pardon was the best news we couldve received but told the BBC that she did not believe her husband is a spy. I cant wait to have him back, she said. In my heart, I know that he isnt a spy. International pressure The UAE had come under immense pressure from Britain since Hedges, a doctoral student in Middle Eastern studies at Durham University in northern England, was handed a life sentence. He was arrested at Dubai International Airport on May 5 after a two-week research visit. The UAE signalled on Friday that it was working on an amicable solution to the issue after London described Hedges sentence as deeply disappointing. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter that the pardon was fantastic news and that the UK was grateful the issue was resolved. {articleGUID} In a statement regarding the pardon, Emirati Foreign Minister Dr Anwar Gargash said: It was always a UAE hope that this matter would be resolved through the common channels of our long-standing partnership. This was a straightforward matter that became unnecessarily complex despite the UAEs best efforts. The International Campaign for Freedom in the UAE (ICFUAE), meanwhile, said the release of Hedges did not right the wrong of a grossly unfair trial or of [him] being held for months in solitary confinement without access to legal counsel. Matthews ordeal should serve as a wake-up call to the UK government on the realities of repression in the UAE. All future relations with the Gulf state must now be conditional on the Emirati regimes adherence to international human rights legislation, the ICFUAE said in a statement. Let us not forget the scores of other prisoners of conscience who remain detained in the UAE it is imperative that his case be understood within this wider climate of repression, it added. Scientists denounce claims by Chinese geneticist as concerns are raised about its safety and ethics. Chinese officials and scientists have denounced the claims of a geneticist who said he had created the first gene-edited babies. Authorities have ordered an investigation as a hospital linked to the research suggested its ethical approval had been forged. The National Health Commission said on Monday it was highly concerned and had ordered provincial health officials to immediately investigate and clarify the matter. Pandora's box has been opened. We still might have a glimmer of hope to close it before it's too late Scientists say in an open letter The governments medical ethics committee in Shenzhen said it was investigating the case, as was the Guangdong provincial health commission, according to Southern Metropolis Daily, a state media outlet. More than 100 scientists said in an open letter the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit the genes of human embryos was risky, unjustified and harmed the reputation and development of the biomedical community in China. CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that allows scientists to essentially cut-and-paste DNA, raising hope of genetic fixes for diseases. However, there are also concerns about its safety and ethics. Pandoras box In videos posted online, scientist He Jiankui defended what he said he had achieved embryonic gene editing to help protect twin baby girls born this month from infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Pandoras box has been opened. We still might have a glimmer of hope to close it before its too late, the scientists said in their letter, a copy of which was posted by the Chinese news website the Paper. The biomedical ethics review for this so-called research exists in name only. Conducting direct human experiments can only be described as crazy, the Chinese-language letter, signed by approximately 120 scientists, says. Yang Zhengang, a Fudan University professor, told Reuters he signed the letter because gene editing was very dangerous. Chinas Genetics Society and the Chinese Society for Stem Cell Research said in a statement that the geneticist had acted as an individual and his work posed tremendous safety risks for the research subjects. We believe the research led by He is strongly against both the Chinese regulations and the consensus reached by the international science community, the two groups said in a statement posted online. He, who is due to speak at a summit on human genome editing at the University of Hong Kong on Wednesday, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Shenzhen Harmonicare Hospital, listed on Chinas online clinical trial registry as having given ethical approval for Hes experiment, denied having ever taken part in any clinical operations relating to gene-edited babies. Very shocked The signatures on the online form were suspected of having been forged and no relevant meeting of the Medical Ethics Committee of the hospital in fact took place, Hong Kong-listed Harmonicare Medical Holdings said in a statement. The Southern University of Science and Technology, where He holds an associate professorship, also said it had been unaware of the research project and that He had been on leave without pay since February. The Shenzhen City Science and Innovation Committee, a municipal fund which was also listed on the clinical trial registry as having backed the trial, said in a statement on Monday it had never been involved in the project. Xu Nanping, vice minister in Chinas science and technology ministry, told reporters he was very shocked on hearing Hes claim, adding that such work had been prohibited since 2003. Details of the case were still unclear, Xu said. We dont know if this work is real or fake. If its real, then this is certainly banned in China. The official Xinhua news agency said ethics could not be ignored. Scientific exploration is never-ending but this does not mean that the morals of science can be abandoned or that ethical standards can be ignored, the news agency said in a comment posted on social media. The committee organizing the Hong Kong conference where He is due to speak the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing said in a statement on Monday it had only been informed of Hes work on the genes of the twin girls. Our goal is to help ensure that human genome editing research be pursued responsibly, the committee said. Thousands greet Felix Tshisekedi as he lands in the capital, Kinshasa to start presidential election campaign. Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi has returned to the Democratic Republic of Congos capital, Kinshasa, to kick off his campaign to replace longtime president and foe Joseph Kabila in December elections. We will go with the people and we will win, Tshisekedi, the 55-year-old son of the late Etienne Tshisekedi, the face of the DRCs opposition for decades, said on Tuesday. He vowed to deploy teams of observers to combat election fraud, while his running mate Vital Kamerhe, a former speaker of parliament, said on Twitter that the pair made a winning ticket. Tens of thousands of supporters from Tshisekedis main opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party and Kamerhes Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) were on hand to greet them as they arrived at Kinshasas airport. {articleGUID} Under an agreement reached on Friday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, if Tshisekedi wins the presidency in the December 23 polls he will appoint Kamerhe as his prime minister. Kamerhe, who ran against Kabila in 2011, will be Tshisekedis campaign director. The pair withdrew from an agreement hammered out in Geneva earlier this month in which seven opposition parties coalesced around a joint candidate in order to boost chances of victory. Their surprise choice, little-known member of parliament Martin Fayulu, will now vie against Tshisekedi, as well as former Interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, Kabilas hand-picked successor. Tshisekedi, who does not enjoy the same degree of popularity as his father, last year told the AFP news agency that if he won the presidency he would set up a truth and reconciliation commission to call Kabila to account, but would allow him to stay in the country. He has promised a return to the rule of law, to fight the gangrene of corruption and to bring peace to the conflict-wracked east of the vast mineral-rich central African country. Fayulu enjoys the support of opposition heavyweights Jean-Pierre Bemba and Moise Katumbi, both barred from running. Bemba, a former militia leader who was Kabilas vice president from 2003 to 2006, saw his conviction for war crimes overturned at the International Criminal Court in June. He later registered to run in the elections, but his candidacy was later disqualified by electoral officials. Once touted as a consensus opposition candidate, popular business tycoon Katumbi, who lives in exile in Belgium, has been accused of training mercenaries to topple Kabila and was convicted in absentia for real estate fraud. {articleGUID} Shadary, a hardline former interior minister, is one of 15 Congolese individuals under European Union sanctions, accused of human rights violations between December 2016 and early 2018. In all, 21 candidates are registered to run in the race to replace 47-year-old Kabila, who has ruled since his father, president Laurent-Desire Kabila, was assassinated in 2001. Kabilas second and final elected term in office ended nearly two years ago, but he has remained in office thanks to a caretaker clause in the Constitution. The volatile, poverty-stricken nation has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Democratic Republic of Congo has seen multiple outbreaks of Ebola, but this time it faces more challenges. It is the worst Ebola outbreak to have struck the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the most complex one. Since August, authorities in the country, together with a host of partners, have been trying to contain a new outbreak of the disease in the eastern North Kivu and Ituri provinces. As of November 21, there have been 373 suspected cases of Ebola, including 347 confirmed cases. At least 217 people have already died. There have been 10 outbreaks of Ebola since 1976 in the DRC, which is considered among the most experienced in dealing with the virus. The situation this time, though, is different. The North Kivu and Ituri provinces are among the most unstable and densely populated in the country, and subject to some of the highest levels of human mobility in it. At the same time, there are warnings that a perfect storm of insecurity, community resistance about vaccinations and political manipulation threatens the efforts to contain the spread of the virus. These factors collectively make the latest outbreak unlike anything the DRC, which is scheduled to hold a crucial presidential election on December 23, has experienced before. What is Ebola and how does it spread? The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of infected animals. These include, but are not limited to, monkeys or fruit bats. The virus is known to cause high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, as well as internal and external bleeding; it puts the body into a state of shock and results in a decrease of the perfusion of blood to vital organs, ultimately inducing multi-system organ failure. Once infected, patients have a very low chance of surviving. When did the latest outbreak in the DRC begin? In late July 2018, the provincial government of North Kivu reported 26 cases of acute haemorrhagic fever that had resulted in 20 deaths. {articleGUID} Six specimens of blood were sent to the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale (INRB) in the capital, Kinshasa, where four samples tested positive for the Ebola virus. The result of the genetic analysis by INRB confirmed Ebola Zaire strain, but not linked to the Equateur outbreak strain, meaning that we are dealing with a new outbreak, Lianne Gutcher, a communications officer with the World Health Organization (WHO), told Al Jazeera. The countrys Ministry of Health officially declared an outbreak on August 1, 2018. The centre of the outbreak is now Beni in North Kivu, though the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French initials MSF, has warned that there is a possibility it could move to Butembo, a town close to neighbouring Uganda. How does this outbreak compare with previous ones in the DRC? Ebola is considered endemic in the DRC, with the first cases in 1976 appearing simultaneously in Yambuku in the north of the country near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name and Nzara, in what is now South Sudan. While there is still no cure, the introduction of a vaccination programme earlier this year has been touted as the next step towards a more effective management of future outbreaks. The DRC has been hit by two outbreaks this year. The first one was declared in May after the deaths of 29 people in the city of Mbandaka in the Equateur province. Though there were concerns the towns proximity to the Congo River would see the virus moving to Kinshasa, the timely implementation of a vaccination drive saw the virus quickly contained. That outbreak was announced over on July 24. Both Uganda and the DRC have been able to prevent mammoth epidemics spreading as it did in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 that infected 28,000 people and caused 11,300 deaths. But given that the current outbreak in North Kivu is perhaps the first time the virus has spread into an area already home to a large-scale humanitarian crisis, containing the spread of Ebola this time around is proving to be a lot more difficult. It is already the largest outbreak in the DRC and is on course to become the second largest Ebola outbreak ever. The difference is that we are now operating in a war zone, Axelle Ronsse, the emergency coordinator for MSFs Ebola response, told Al Jazeera, referring to the militia violence that has long plagued parts of the countrys east. How has the security crisis impacted efforts to contain the virus? North Kivu is home to a number of armed groups, including the Allied Defence Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group, that has operated with impunity since 1995. The endless upheavals in the region have meant regular dispossession and the incessant movement of refugees to neighbouring countries or within the province itself. As it stands, there are more than a million internally displaced people in North Kivu. The violence impacts our work on a daily basis, Ronsse says. We are not targeted but it is a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Likewise, Gutcher, from the WHO, says that some attacks have resulted in medical activities being severely impeded or temporarily shut down. Community violence has also at times impeded the work of safe burial teams ability to conduct safe and dignified burials. {articleGUID} In October, rebels killed 13 civilians and kidnapped a dozen children in an assault on Beni. In November, seven Malawian and one Tanzanian peacekeeper were killed in another attack on the town. The instability has also made it difficult for health professionals to locate others who might have been in contact with suspected victims, in what is known as contact tracing, considered a basic pillar of any effort to contain Ebola. Last month, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) wrote that carrying out the effective contact tracing and community engagement can permit rapid identification of people who are ill and facilitate the provision of early clinical care, which has been shown to improve the likelihood of survival. Jessica Ilunga, communications officer for the DRCs Ministry of Public Health, told Al Jazeera that every security-related incident affected field activities. She added that the underlying security context had also created a climate in which health workers faced an unprecedented level of community resistance. The predominance of traditional healers, who are more trusted by the population than modern medicine, has also led to an important number of nosocomial transmissions of the virus, Ilunga said. {articleGUID} Citing the instability in the eastern DRC, the WHO elevated the national crisis to very high in late September. The crisis is still not considered a public health emergency of international concern and the world health body does not recommend imposing any trade or travel restrictions with the DRC. How have the DRC and the international community responded to this crisis? Since the introduction of the vaccination programme by the DRCs government and the WHO, a key intervention has involved vaccinating suspected patients and then administering a second ring to those who might have come into contact with these suspected cases. The vaccine is Canadian-developed but licensed and produced by the American pharmaceutical company Merck. According to the WHO, around 300 medical specialists have been deployed to the country to support the response plan. Around 32,500 people-at-risk have been vaccinated, including 10,600 health workers and 8,600 children. On November 24, the government and the WHO said they would be conducting clinical trials to assess the safety and effectiveness of drugs used on Ebola patients to find the most effective treatment for the virus. Authorities have already started using the drugs on a case-by-case basis on around 151 people. Those who used the drugs had a 63 percent chance of survival, while those who did not receive medication had a fatality rate close to 80 percent. Now that protocols for trials are in place, patients will be offered treatments under that framework in the facilities where the trial has started, the WHO said. {articleGUID} Over and above vaccinations and drugs, efforts have been made to spread information through door-to-door advocacy, with more than 2,500 homes visited, including almost 1,400 homes in Beni alone. Faced with rumours and misinformation, some families have chosen to care for sick relatives at home; some patients leave healthcare centres to find alternatives or actively avoid follow up, Gutcher says. Authorities have also trained around 1,700 volunteers to assist with community-based efforts. Across the border in Uganda, 758 health workers in 19 health facilities have been vaccinated. In mid-November, the WHO said that the outbreak would end in mid-2019. But Ilunga, from the DRCs Ministry of Public Health, says her government is hopeful that the efforts to contain the outbreak would succeed sooner than the WHOs target, but concedes that the success of this response also depends on a number of factors that we do not control, such as security. A health worker carries a four-day-old baby suspected of having Ebola, into a Doctors Without Borders-supported Ebola treatment centre in DRC [File: John Wessels/AFP] Why do outbreaks continue to occur in the DRC? Microbiologists argue that viruses such as Ebola often occur among animal populations faced with restricted movement. However, health professionals are concerned that should the Ebola become endemic to the troubled areas in the northeastern DRC, it would mean a sustained and unpredictable spread of the deadly virus, with major implications for travel and trade. This will mean that weve lost the ability to trace contacts, stop transmission chains and contain the outbreak, Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in a briefing earlier in November. For her part, Ilunga says the country needs to accept the fact that the disease will resurface regularly and make preventive and curative treatments more available and improve the populations knowledge about the virus. Announcement comes after talks between Egypts Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have jointly announced that their ongoing blockade of Qatar would remain in effect until further notice, according to the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television channel The two countries on Tuesday reiterated their ongoing refusal to make any concessions towards Doha, which has been facing sanctions from four Arab states for more than a year. The announcement was made following a meeting in Cairo between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the latter of whom visited Egypts capital on Tuesday as part of a regional tour. Later on Tuesday, Prince Mohammed is expected to arrive in Tunisia where protesters have taken to the streets to oppose to his visit and demand justice for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month in the kingdoms consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Ongoing blockade In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut off ties with Qatar and imposed a land, sea, and air blockade on the Gulf state. The quartet accuses Doha of supporting terrorism and proscribed opposition political movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar has repeatedly rejected the accusations as baseless. Shortly after breaking ties with the country, the quartet issued a list of demands for Qatar, which it had to comply with in order to normalise ties. The list included demands to shut down the Al Jazeera media network, expelling Turkish troops from the country, cutting off ties with Iran, and making reparation payments to the states. These were also rejected by Qatar, which denounced them as attempts to infringe its sovereignty. Despite an initial disruption to its supply chains, Qatar has managed to weather the embargo by establishing new trade links, primarily with its ally Turkey, and injecting around $40bn from its ample foreign currency reserves into the economy. Abiys meeting with members of 81 opposition groups focused on ensuring 2020 poll will be free, his office said. Ethiopias Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has met members of opposition parties to discuss ways of reforming the countrys electoral system, the latest move in a campaign to open up a political arena dominated by his ruling coalition. The meeting with 81 opposition groups on Tuesday discussed ways of ensuring elections in 2020 were free and fair, the Ethiopian leaders office said on Twitter. There was no immediate comment from opposition groups. {articleGUID} The prime ministers EPRDF coalition has been in power since 1991. The grouping and affiliated parties hold all the seats in parliament. Abiy has turned Ethiopian politics on its head since coming to power in April by welcoming back exiled opposition and separatist groups, releasing prisoners and appointing a formerly jailed dissident as head of the election board. Last week, Abiy made Birtukan Mideksa the head of the board preparing for the 2020 elections. Mideksa was one of dozens of opposition figures arrested in the violent aftermath of a 2005 vote when an opposition coalition that stood against the government across the country challenged the EPRDFs victory. Security forces opened fire on crowds who took to the streets accusing the government and the election board of rigging that vote. Dozens of people died. Abiy has promised to rein in the powerful security services and started consultations to rework an anti-terrorism law that critics say has criminalised dissent. The prime minister is the first member of Ethiopias majority Oromo group to lead a coalition long dominated by ethnic Tigrayans. Also on Tuesday, parliament approved new members to the census commission, signalling that the country is getting ready to conduct its first census in 10 years, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency said. Ethiopia has more than 80 ethnicities and has designed its political system around regional ethnic groups, making the results of the census potentially contentious. Four out of every 10 people in the countrys workforce are either unemployed or underemployed. Abuja, Nigeria There has been one single promise that has dominated the election manifestos of Nigerias presidential candidates as they seek to lure the support of the countrys voters ahead of polls in February: jobs, jobs and more jobs. This has also been the one issue that has consumed Immaculate Uba, who lost her bank job two years ago. It has been a horrible experience I never expected in my life knowing fully well that you are willing and able to work but cant secure a job, she told Al Jazeera in Nigerias capital, Abuja. I am still searching for a paid job, she says. In the meantime, she adds, shes trying to make a living by doing bead- and shoe-making work. Shrinking opportunities Four out of every 10 people in the countrys workforce are either unemployed or underemployed. The unemployment rate stood at 18.8 percent in the third quarter of 2017, with underemployment at 21.2 percent. The National Bureau of Statistics has not released new jobs data since last year, prompting accusations by critics that this is due to political reasons. Meanwhile, a number of companies have exited Nigeria in recent months the latest being global banking giants HSBC and UBS. South African casino and hotel operator, Sun International, is also close to shutting operations after its earnings were hurt by subdued growth and one-off costs, the company said. Analysts have blamed the exits on shaky investor confidence, dealing a big blow to foreign direct investment and jobs in Africas most populous nation. Nigerias unemployment level is beyond crisis levels, and ought to be the governments top concern as it has social implications, Cheta Nwanze, head of research at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, told Al Jazeera, describing the joblessness figures as unsustainable. {articleGUID} Amid this environment, thousands of young Nigerians are seeing the prospects of landing their dream job fade. I had hopes of a very bright career after graduating from university, says Agnes Uzoigwe attention, a 28-year-old who took her geology degree six years ago. I looked forward to a job with an oil company in the Niger Delta area but after almost four years of applying for different roles, I got frustrated, she adds, fighting back tears. The most annoying thing is that it looks like theres no hope. Those employed by companies are being sacked and people like me with no job experience cant even imagine getting any job, she adds. Uzoigwes father, who funded her studies, recently retired as a government employee and is relying on his pension to cater for his family of seven. After a long period of searching for a job in Abuja, Uzoigwe has now taken up a job as a teacher in a private college. But she says her wage is barely enough to take care of her basic needs. Frustrated people will eventually turn to demagogues Nigeria is Africas biggest economy, yet this that has not translated to jobs for many. Frustrated and desperate, many job seekers have often fallen victim to fake hiring firms which cash in on their need to get a job. These companies advertise positions with attractive offers, but end up swindling job seekers who are asked to pay registration and logistics fees before landing a job. With the school system adding roughly a million people a year to the workforce, and a very high birth rate, this represents Nigerias biggest challenge, Nwanze, the analyst, says. Frustrated people will eventually turn to demagogues for their daily bread, he adds. Political arena The countrys worsening unemployment situation has negatively affected the governments image. {articleGUID} President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 elections on the back of a campaign vowing to fix the nations economy, but has struggled to fix the worsening economic crisis. Now, ahead of the February elections, he is promising to generate more employment. The next level of effort focuses on job creation across various sectors, Buhari said in his election campaigns policy document. From an enlargement of the N-Power programme [government loan scheme for young graduates] to investing in technology and creative sector jobs to agriculture and revolutionising access to credit for entrepreneurs and artisans, there is scope for over 15 million new jobs. His main challenger for the presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has attacked the governments job creation record since Buhari assumed office four years. Close to 16 million people are unemployed, nine million more than in 2014, Abubakar said in his own campaign document. Abubakar has promised to remedy this with the creation of up to three million self- and wage-paying employment opportunities in the private sector annually. Iniobong Paul, a hotelier who lost her job two years ago, told Al Jazeera she hopes that the political promises will be realised after the elections. Its not been easy, she says, adding that she looks forward to working again. Its really been a trying time for me. French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledges widespread anger over fuel prices, but says he wont change course. French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed reviewing the tax rate on diesel and petrol every three months to take into account shifts in global prices. The plan outlined in a long-awaited speech on energy strategy on Tuesday came amid nationwide anger over rising fuel prices, with protests bringing the country to a standstill at times. Macron said the fuel taxes would be adjusted to take into account sharp rises in world oil prices, but vowed not to back down on measures to protect the environment. Over the last 10 days, tens of thousands of people across France have protested and staged blockades over the price of petrol, which has gone up as much as 20 percent since the start of 2018. The mass rallies have often turned violent with running clashes between the protesters and police officers. What Ive taken from these last few days is that we shouldnt change course, because it is the right one and necessary, Macron said in the hour-long speech at the Elysee Palace in the French capital, Paris. But we need to change how we work because a number of our citizens feel this policy course is imposed on them from above, he added. In an attempt to calm the protesters, Macron proposed a three-month consultation with associations and activist groups, including the so-called yellow jackets who have led the recent protests. The name comes from the neon jacket worn by many of the protesters. The French president said protesters could not demand better public services and also expect lower taxes. However, he acknowledged the increase in fuel tax, which kicked in just as pump prices were rising, had inflicted more pain than anticipated. I have seen like many French people the difficulties for people who have to drive a lot and have problems making ends meet at the end of the month, he said. I believe very profoundly that we can transform this anger into the solution. Nuclear energy Although the price of oil is increasing across the globe, many in France believe Macrons so-called green taxes have exacerbated the increase in the price of fuel. Macron, who took office in 2017, imposed the taxes in an attempt to lower air pollution, but protesters say the taxes unfairly punish people who need their cars. In his speech on Tuesday, Macron also said that France would shut down 14 of the countrys 58 nuclear reactors currently in operation by 2035, 10 years later than the 2025 target set by his predecessor Francois Hollande. France gets about three-quarters of its electricity from its 19 nuclear plants. Macron has promised to develop renewable energy instead, saying his priority is weaning Frances economy from fuel that contributes to global warming. Hospital ship gives free medical care to Venezuelans in Colombia A US navy hospital ship anchored in Colombia has started giving free medical care to locals and Venezuelan refugees. President Donald Trumps senior adviser, Jared Kushner, inflated arms sale figures to Saudi Arabia in order to strengthen Washingtons relationship with the Gulf nation, according to an ABC News report. Citing two officials and three former White House aides, the US network said on Monday that Kushner, who is also Trumps son-in-law, pressured US State and Defense Department officials to inflate numbers in his bid to symbolically solidify the new alliance between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia. In May 2017, Washington and Riyadh inked a much-touted arms deal estimated at $110bn, a number that critics have long questioned. The deal however, which was signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in Riyadh during Trumps first official trip abroad, was a memorandum of intent with very little legal weight. This document does not create any authority to perform any work, award and contract, issue articles from stock, transfer funds, or otherwise obligate or create a binding commitment in any way either for the United States or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the document, which ABC obtained of a copy of, states. In the run-up to the summit, Kushner was quoted by a White House source as telling colleagues at a national security council meeting that we need to sell them as much as possible. Unwavering support Another source said there had been an ongoing debate between Kushner and officials at the Departments of Defense and State, respectively, to get a larger number because initially figures would only add up to 15bn. Little progress has been made since the deal was reached however, with the Saudis so far having signed Letters of Offer and Acceptance (LOAs) valued at around $14.5bn for equipment, including helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons and training. Riyadh has also passed on a September deadline to acquire the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) that comes with a price tag of $15bn. According to ABC, many of the deals included in the memo lack details as to the type and quantity of equipment to be sold, some of which is not expected to be delivered until after 2022. Kushner and Prince Mohammed developed a close working relationship since Trumps assumed office in January 2017. Trump, meanwhile, has come out in support of MBS, dismissing a reported CIA assessment that the 33-year-old heir to the Saudi throne had ordered the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the countrys consulate in Istanbul on October 2. On November 20, Trump said he would not take any punitive measure against Riyadh, adding that a halt in arms sales to the kingdoms would allow China and Russia to fill the void. If we foolishly cancel these contracts, Russia and China would be the enormous beneficiaries, the president said. Mexico to deport asylum seekers who tried to breach US border Mexico arrests 98 people as march turns chaotic after US agents fired tear gas at migrants and refugees near border. Authorities in Myanmar seized a boat carrying 93 Rohingya fleeing displacement camps in western Rakhine state in hopes to reach Malaysia, an official said on Tuesday. The vessel was the third bound for Malaysia stopped in Myanmars waters since monsoon rains began to subside last month, bringing calmer weather and raising fears of a new wave of hazardous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers. Moe Zaw Latt, director of the government office in Dawei, a coastal town in southern Myanmar, said fishermen reported a suspicious boat to authorities. The navy stopped the boat on Sunday and detained the 93 people, who said they had come from the Thae Chaung camp in the Rakhine states capital of Sittwe. They said they ran away from the camp. They said they intended to go to Malaysia, said Moe Zaw Latt, adding authorities were preparing to send them back to Sittwe on Tuesday. Photographs in media showed police standing by as passengers many of them women in headscarves and children huddled on the deck. The boat resembled vessels the Rohingya typically use to escape the apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state, where their movements and access to services are severely curtailed. Root causes Myanmar detained 106 Rohingya men, women and children on a boat near the commercial hub of Yangon on November 16 when their engine failed on their way from the Sittwe camps to Malaysia. Those people have been returned along with another group of more than 80 people whose boat was seized off the coast of southern Rakhine last week, also bound for Malaysia, according to an aid worker in Sittwe monitoring the boat movements. The UN refugee agency has said Myanmar must address the root causes of displacement, including the lack of citizenship for the Rohingya, who consider themselves native to Rakhine. Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and has confined tens of thousands to sprawling camps outside Sittwe since violence swept the area in 2012. More than 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh last year fleeing an army crackdown in the north of Rakhine, according to UN agencies. UN-mandated investigators have accused the Myanmar army of genocidal intent and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied most allegations of atrocities, blaming Rohingya rebels who attacked police boats for sparking the exodus. Announcement came after Deby met Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday in landmark visit after Chad severed ties in 1972. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Chad in the near future to formally establish diplomatic relations between the two countries, his office has said. The announcement came hours after Netanyahu met Chad President Idriss Deby in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. The two discussed shared threats and the struggle against terrorism, increased cooperation between the nations in the areas of agriculture, counter terrorism, border security, technology, solar energy, water, health and more, the statement said. Deby had arrived in Israel on Sunday for the first official visit by a leader of the Central African country that severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 1972. We discussed the great changes that are taking place in the Arab world in its relations with Israel, Netanyahu said, adding there will be more visits to Arab countries soon. Netanyahu previously pledged to strengthen ties with the continent and described his pledge as a priority at a regional security conference he attended in Liberia last year. His government has been investing in outreach to Africa, where some countries previously warm to Israel have severed ties since its occupation of the Palestinian territories. Israel maintains diplomatic ties with 32 of the continents 54 countries. Deby said his visit was historic for both countries and that it could facilitate the turning of a new page in relations between us but added that even with a renewal of ties, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not be ignored. Of course, the renewal of diplomatic ties between us, which I very much want, is not something that can make the Palestinian issue disappear, Deby said in French through a translator. Unofficial contacts between Israel and Chad have been ongoing for an extended period, Deby said. One source told Reuters news agency the visit is focused on security, adding that Israel has supplied Chads army with weapons and equipment this year to help fight rebels. Chad is one of several states engaged in Western-backed operations against the Boko Haram armed group and fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior Palestinian official, voiced displeasure over Debys visit. All countries and institutions must boycott the extremist government of Israel and impose a siege on it because of its settlement activities, its occupation of Palestinian land, Youssef said. Deby, one of Africas longest-serving leaders, took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016. Shipping companies have been put off delivering supplies due to clashes between Houthi rebels and Saudi-led alliance. Operations at Yemens lifeline port of Hodeidah have dropped by almost 50 percent over the past two weeks, with shipping companies deterred by insecurity in the flashpoint Houthi-held city, according to the United Nations. Saudi Arabia and UAE-led forces are fighting to overthrow the rebels that have taken over most of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. As 70 percent of imports come in through the vital Hodeidah port, a drop in the arrival of wheat and other supplies would affect food stocks in Yemen where 14 million people are facing possible starvation after nearly four years of war, the UNs World Food Programme said on Tuesday. WFP is very concerned about a nearly 50 percent decrease in operations at Hodeidah port over last two weeks, Herve Verhoosel, a spokesperson for the agency, told reporters in Geneva. Shipping companies appear to be reluctant to call to Hodeidah port because of the high levels of insecurity in the city, he said. The WFP, which provides rations to eight million Yemenis each month, has been trying to scale up its efforts to avert famine. It has two more months worth of food stocks in the impoverished country, Verhoosel said. Any disruptions to the port operations would hamper humanitarian efforts to prevent famine as well as increase food prices in markets even further, making it extremely difficult for the majority of Yemenis to feed their families, he added. On Monday, a single vessel was at Hodeidah port, which was not normal for a port whose current offloading capacity is for seven vessels, he said, adding: We need to reassure the private sector to say come back to the port. UN envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths, who was in the Saudi capital, Riyadh on Monday, is seeking a role for the world body in supervising the port. He continues his consultations ahead of peace talks planned in Sweden next month, UN spokesperson Rheal LeBlanc said. Bombing campaign After the Houthis swept through most of the country in 2014 and deposed its government, a Saudi-UAE military coalition, backed by the US, intervened in 2015 with a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Since then, data collected by Al Jazeera and the Yemen Data Project has found that more than 18,000 air raids have been carried out in Yemen, with almost one-third of all bombing missions striking non-military sites. Weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals, as well as water and electricity plants, have been hit, killing and wounding thousands. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, and according to Save the Children, as many as 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since 2015. Opposition parties ask Modi government to explain ex-Norway PMs surprise Kashmir trip during which he met separatists. A recent visit by a former Norwegian prime minister to Indian-administered Kashmir, where he met separatist leaders, has sparked a controversy, with opposition parties questioning the government over the surprise trip. Omar Abdullah, the leader of regional party National Conference (NC), pointed fingers at the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain the closed-door meetings held in Srinagar, the main city in the region. What are the Norwegians up to in Kashmir? Would either (External Affairs Minister) @SushmaSwaraj ji or (National Security Advisor Ajit) Doval ji care to put the visit of the former Norwegian PM to both sides of the divided state in the correct context or do we have to rely on rumours & conjecture? Abdullah tweeted. There is a complete vacuum in Kashmir at the moment. Hence this uncoordinated step that is filling that vacuum Ajai Shukla, defence and security analyst Kjell Mangne Bondevik, the longest-serving former prime minister of Norway, met separatist Kashmiri leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday. The disputed region, which has witnessed widespread unrest in the past few years, was brought under New Delhis direct rule earlier this year. Last week, the Indian government dissolved the state assembly a move criticised by the opposition parties. Bondeviks trip to Kashmir was the first by a foreign dignitary since Modi took power in 2014 and came months after the United Nations urged an international inquiry into human rights violations in the Muslim-majority region by Indian security forces. He later travelled to Pakistan-administered Kashmir where he held talks with a cross-section of people. Bondevik serves as the Executive Chair at the Norway-based Oslo Center that claims to promote peace and human rights. He had mediated between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil fighters during the civil war. Bondevik met Syed Ali Shah Geelani, left, and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, right, in Srinagar [File: Danish Ismail/Reuters] In August 2014, New Delhi cancelled scheduled talks with Islamabad after the then Pakistani ambassador to India met Kashmiri separatists in New Delhi. We want clarity A spokesperson at the Norwegian embassy in New Delhi distanced itself from the visit on Tuesday. The embassy had no knowledge of this trip and we have nothing to do with Bondeviks meeting, an embassy official, who did not want to be named, told Al Jazeera. Indias foreign ministry is yet to clarify whether Bondeviks visit to Kashmir on both sides of the border is a mediation attempt backed by the Indian government. We want clarity on what exactly is happening. We are a votary of dialogue between India and Pakistan, Tanvir Sadiq, political adviser to the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state Omar Abdullah, told Al Jazeera. If anything breaks the ice, it would be a welcome step. But we need to know if the government in New Delhi is backing these meetings, he said. Modi claimed he was the strongest prime minister in recent times. We were expecting some out-of-the-box ideas from him. The situation here has gone from bad to worse. Even to go back to a relatively peaceful situation like that existed in 2014 would be a herculean task, he added. The ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party is opposed to any foreign interference in the Kashmir dispute and had announced a so-called muscular approach to the crisis since it assumed power in 2014. Sheikh Ashiq, who was part of the delegation of local industrialists in Srinagar, which met Bondevik on Friday, told Al Jazeera everyone wants an end to the bloodshed. We were invited on a short notice. It was surprising. He wanted to know about the ground situation and we told him about it. We thought lets not lose this opportunity. There is a growing loss of human lives. We definitely want an end to it, he said. Kashmir has seen a record number of fatalities since January with over 400 people killed, including 145 civilians the highest since 2009. Positive development New Delhi and Islamabad have staked claim over the disputed territory since the two countries won independence from British colonial rulers in 1947. They have fought two wars over the disputed territory. On Friday, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a member of Hurriyat, Kashmirs main separatist alliance, tweeted photos of their meeting with the Norwegian leader. Hurriyat is an umbrella group of political and religious groups fighting for Kashmirs secession from India. Whenever international interest is evoked in our conflict it is a welcome move. Norway has a history of facilitating conflict resolutions across the globe. So meeting their former prime minister in this regard is a positive development and we hope things move forward, Farooq told Al Jazeera. The move also angered some within the ruling BJP, with party MP Subramanian Swamy hitting out at the government for allowing gross interference by the former Norwegian prime minister. Calls to the BJP spokespersons for a response went unanswered. The BJP has long favoured a hardline approach to quell the armed revolt in Kashmir that has claimed more than 70,000 lives, most of them civilians. Indias foreign ministry maintains that there are only two stakeholders on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir India and Pakistan, none else. Its further evidence of a lack of a Kashmir policy on the part of the government. If they had a coherent Kashmir policy, the Indian government would be in a dialogue with the separatist leaders themselves, defence and security analyst Ajai Shukla told Al Jazeera. The government is unable to bring the Hurriyat to the table. There is a complete vacuum in Kashmir at the moment. Hence this uncoordinated step that is filling that vacuum. Additional reporting by Rifat Fareed from Srinagar Greed motivated a Hong Kong businessman to pay government officials in two African countries millions of dollars in bribes in an attempt to land lucrative business deals and oil rights for a Chinese energy conglomerate, federal prosecutors told a jury in New York. But a lawyer for Patrick Ho, who was once Hong Kongs home affairs secretary, said on Monday the payments were both charitable and above board, and the conglomerate received nothing in return. This is a bribery case with no bribe, Benjamin Rosenberg said in his opening statement in Hos defence. The payments Ho made to government officials, including the president of Chad and the Ugandan foreign minister, were intended only to generate goodwill and long-term relationships, he argued. The conflicting portrayals of Ho came on the first day of trial in a United Nations-linked case that has drawn international attention. Ho has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, money-laundering, and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Hos defence team agreed before the trial it will not try to argue the US brought the case against Ho as part of a broader campaign against China, or that the timing of the prosecution was part of a wider political agenda. Prosecutors said Ho gained access to prominent officials through his role leading a nongovernmental organisation funded by the oil and gas conglomerate CEFC China Energy. They said Ho tried to disguise the bribes as charitable donations, even though he concealed one of the initial payments as cash in gift boxes. Bribery playbook Running an NGO allowed the defendant to pass himself off as a humanitarian, the US Justice Departments Paul Hayden told the jury. He offered millions of dollars in bribes, and he did so to gain business. The case focuses on two schemes prosecutors said involve the same playbook, in which Ho scouted potential business opportunities and then used his connections to arrange high-level meetings with government officials in a position to steer business to CEFC. One of the bribes backfired, Hayden said, when the president of Chad, Idriss Deby, became furious and demanded to know why Ho had attempted to pay him off. Hayden said Ho was impressed by the presidents refusal and eventually persuaded him to accept the $2m in cash as a charitable donation. Call it a donation or not, Hayden said, the defendant was focused on business. Rosenberg countered that cash was not necessarily a suspicious form of payment given the circumstances in Chad. He told jurors they should not trust a key government witness, Cheikh Gadio, a former co-defendant in the case who agreed to give evidence against Ho under a non-prosecution agreement. Prosecutors said they intend to present emails, text messages and financial records as part of their case, as well as Hos voice captured on a recorded call. The warning comes after a court in Crimea said five captured Ukrainian sailor will be held in jail for two months. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine is to blame for the confrontation in Crimea, as Moscow warned that the conflict could escalate because of Kievs decision to declare martial law. In a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, Putin said he is seriously concerned about the weekend naval standoff off the coast of Crimea between the Ukrainian navy and Russias coastguard, which saw the latter seizing three Ukrainian ships and their crew. The Russian president accused Ukraine of provoking the confrontation for political reasons. Merkels spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, said the chancellor in the conversation with Putin stressed the need for de-escalation and dialogue. Hours after the phone call between Moscow and Berlin, the Kremlin also issued a follow-up statement denouncing the martial law in Ukraine. The imposition of martial law in some regions may pose a risk of escalating tensions in the conflict-hit region, namely the south-east, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by the state news agency, TASS. Ukraines leadership responded to the weekend clash by imposing martial law throughout much of the country on Monday, just as the UN held an emergency session to discuss the escalating tensions. Court appearances Meanwhile, a Crimean court on Tuesday ordered five of 24 captured Ukrainian sailors to be held in jail for two months for their involvement in the incident. On Wednesday, 12 more will appear in court after Russia accused them of illegally entering its territorial waters. Several others are still in the hospital for treatment. Djamil Temishev, a lawyer for sailor Roman Mokryak, said the sailors cases will be handed over to Moscow after the Crimean court determines their fate. The 24 sailors were caught on Sunday after Russia seized two Ukrainian navy ships and one tugboat near the Kerch Strait. Ukraine Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ihor Voronchenko wrote an official letter to the Ukrainian sailors, which was passed on to them through their lawyer, showing them support. It is normal to be afraid. The main thing is to believe in your will, defend your dignity and to remember that entire Ukraine is with you, entire civilized world, Voronchenko said. All sailors understand what is behind your testimonies, we all know how RU (Russian) special forces work. I went through this in 2014 and I know what does it mean to be captured and what every word you say during the interrogation means, he added. Im proud of each and every one of you. Thank you for your loyalty to the Motherland and remember that we do whatever is in our power to get you back to your families that are waiting for you. Martial law Russia also released a video statement by three Ukrainian sailors, Andriy Drach, Serhiy Tsybizov and Volodymyr Lisoviy, in which they state the ships were planning to enter the Strait and ignore Russian orders to stop the ships. The Ukrainian government said the statements should not be taken seriously, claiming the sailors made their statements under duress and threat of torture, the Kyiv Post reported. On Tuesday, the countrys state security service announced that its intelligence officers were among the crew on Ukrainian naval ships seized by Russia. The SBU agency said the officers were fulfilling counterintelligence operations for the Ukrainian navy, in response to psychological and physical pressure by Russian spy services. It did not elaborate, but demanded that Russia stop such activity. Meanwhile, Al Jazeeras Andrew Simmons, reporting from Kiev, said that the SBU has acknowledged that two fighter jets opened fire with missiles on three Ukrainian boats on Sunday. This hasnt been heard of before, Simmons said, adding that there were injuries during the incident. Pro-Russian separatist groups, which Russia has represented in negotiations, and the Ukrainian military have been battling in Ukraines two eastern-most regions for the past four years. With tensions spilling over, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas suggested on Tuesday that Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine could work together to resolve the tensions between Moscow and Kiev. We must do everything for de-escalation, to prevent this crisis turning into an even more serious crisis for security in Europe, Maas said. He called on the two parties to show the greatest possible restraint, and offered to work on a solution to end the crisis. Turkish president blamed US billionaire philanthropist last week of trying to divide and destroy nations. US billionaire George Soross Open Society Foundation said it has decided to cease operations in Turkey, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the philanthropist of trying to divide nations. The organisation said on Wednesday that it was no longer possible to work in Turkey after it became the target of baseless claims in the media and a renewed investigation by Turkish authorities into mass protests against Erdogans government five years ago. {articleGUID} It said the Turkish interior ministry was renewing attempts to prove that the Soros foundation was behind the 2013 anti-government Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest political challenges to Erdogans 15-year rule. The foundation denied any link to the protests. Erdogan denounced Soros last week while speaking of the detention of 13 activists and academics accused of supporting attempts by jailed businessman and rights advocate Osman Kavala to revive the Gezi protests. The person (Kavala) who financed terrorists during the Gezi incidents is already in prison, Erdogan told a meeting of local administrators on Wednesday. And who is behind him? The famous Hungarian Jew Soros. This is a man who assigns people to divide nations and shatter them. He has so much money and he spends it this way. Detentions One of the 13 people detained on November 16 was Hakin Altinay, who helped establish the Open Society Foundation in Turkey. Others were staff members of Kavalas Anadolu Kultur centre, which campaigns for human rights and cultural diversity. {articleGUID} All but one of the detainees were later released after the European Union and the US expressed concern about their cases. Ankaras Western allies have repeatedly criticised the arrest of tens of thousands of people since a failed military coup in Turkey in July 2016. Kavala, in detention for more than a year, said on Monday in a statement posted on his website that he was still waiting for an indictment to be prepared so that he could prove that the claims he had helped to direct and finance the Gezi protests and wanted to overthrow the government were unfounded. {articleGUID} Soros, a US-based financier and philanthropist, and his Open Society Foundation have also come under fire in Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orban accuses Soros and the liberal causes he backs of trying to undermine Europes Christian culture by promoting mass migration, a charge the financier denies. More than 500 bodies have so far been recovered in one of largest found mass graves in ISILs former de facto capital. A month and a half since digging in one of Raqqas largest discovered mass graves began, grave diggers continue to exhume bodies, with one official saying that more than 500 bodies have been so far recovered. The operation in the city in northern Syria, once the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group, is being undertaken by local groups and first responders amid concerns regarding the preservation of bodies and evidence for possible war crimes trials. {articleGUID} Raqqa was taken from ISIL in October 2017 after a fierce US-backed campaign, but recovery teams continue to locate mass graves in and around the city. The Panorama mass grave, named after the neighbourhood where it was found, is one of the largest of nine mass graves discovered so far, and is believed to contain around 1,500 bodies. Hammoud al-Shawakh, a local official involved in the work, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that 516 bodies believed to be of ISIL fighters and civilians have so far been exhumed. Race against time The work to exhume the bodies, which are believed to have been buried there in the last days of the four-month campaign to capture Raqqa, is painstaking and the task is huge. Abdul Raouf al-Ahmad, a deputy forensic doctor, said local teams start their work at 8am and work for more than seven hours straight each day. After we extract the bodies from this grave we document whether it belongs to a fighter, child, baby, an adolescent or woman or an ordinary person, he told AP. We document clothing, ornaments, height, type of injury, cause of death and how it was covered, what the person was wearing, with what it was wrapped and its position in the grave, he added. International human rights groups say they are concerned that local groups are not getting the support they need in terms of forensic expertise and human resources. Were in a race against time. These bodies are decomposing at an exponential rate, said Sara Kayyali, of Human Rights Watch. If these bodies are not preserved in the correct way, in the way thats been established, then it does mean that much of this evidence might be lost when were seeking accountability for crimes committed either in the context of the battle or before it, she added. Special counsel investigating Russian meddling in 2016 US election says Trumps former campaign aide lied to FBI. US President Donald Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been accused of breaching a plea deal by lying to federal prosecutors, signalling a potential setback to the special counsels probe into Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election. In a court filing on Monday, lawyers working on Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into the alleged Russian interference said Manafort had nullified their agreement to cooperate charges denied by the 69-year-old. In the latest filing, Muellers team said Manafort committed federal crimes by lying about a variety of subject matters even after he agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation, which has been ongoing since 2017. Prosecutors said they will detail the nature of the defendants crimes and lies in writing at a later date to the judge. {articleGUID} Manafort, who pleaded guilty in September, denied lying and breaching his plea agreement, saying he believes he provided truthful information during a series of sessions with Muellers investigators. But both sides agreed the court should move ahead and sentence him for his crimes. The surprise development comes at a critical time for Mueller, who is expected to finalise a report in the coming months on the findings of his 18-month probe into Russias election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. While not a fatal blow, the dissolution of Manaforts plea agreement means Mueller is losing the contributions of a witness with deep ties to Russia and who ran the Trump campaign as it took off in mid-2016. Its bad for the overall Mueller investigation, Patrick Cotter, a criminal defence lawyer in Chicago and former assistant US attorney in New York, told Reuters news agency. Hes got one less witness today. Ethical line Manafort, who remains jailed, had been meeting with the special counsels office since he pleaded guilty in September to a conspiracy against the United States a charge that included a range of conduct from money laundering to unregistered lobbying. He also admitted that he tried to tamper with witnesses. He cut that deal to head off a second trial after being convicted last summer of eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in offshore accounts. Manafort already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his plea agreement. In his separate Virginia case, Manaforts potential sentencing under federal guidelines has not yet been calculated, but prosecutors have previously said he could face as much as 10 years in prison on those charges. Manafort was a long-time Republican political consultant who made tens of millions of dollars working for pro-Kremlin politicians in Ukraine before joining the Trump campaign in March 2016, promising to work for free. Manafort attended a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a group of Russians offering dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who lost in an upset to Trump in the vote that November. His long-standing relationship with an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin was another reason Manaforts cooperation was seen as important to Muellers probe. Manaforts lawyers said he met the government on several occasions and made an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations, according to Mondays joint filing, which was submitted to US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington. Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the Russia probe, said Muellers team had crossed an ethical line between the search for the truth and exerting too much pressure on Manafort. They are trying not to get a witness to sing, but to compose, he said in an interview with Reuters on Monday night. Mueller, a lawyer and the head of the FBI from 2001 to 2003, was appointed as special counsel to the US Justice Department to investigate possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election on May 17. Trump says he has only read parts of a report that warns climate change will cost the US billions by end of the century. US President Donald Trump said on Monday he doesnt believe his own governments report warning of massive economic losses if carbon emissions continue to feed climate change unchecked. The National Climate Assessment, quietly unveiled on Friday, warns that natural disasters are worsening in the United States because of global warming. It projected that climate change will cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century. The effects will spill over into global trade, affecting import and export prices and US businesses with overseas operations and supply chains, it added. Responding to questions about the economic impacts of climate change, Trump said it doesnt think they will be devastating. I dont believe it, he told reporters on Monday. Ive seen it, Ive read some of it, and its fine, he said. {articleGUID} The report, written with the help of more than a dozen US government agencies and departments, said the effects of climate change would harm human health, damage infrastructure, limit water availability, alter coastlines and increase costs in various industries. The assessment also said projections of damage could change if greenhouse gas emissions were curbed, although many of the impacts of climate change, like powerful storms, droughts and flooding, have already begun. The report supplements a study issued last year that concluded humans are the main driver of global warming and warned of catastrophic effects to the planet. Trump on climate change Trumps comments on Friday were not all that surprising given the presidents past rhetoric on climate change. Last year, Trump announced his intent to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change, though the country cannot do so until after the 2020 presidential election. {articleGUID} Trump has also rolled back Obama-era environmental and climate rules such as the Clean Power Plan, while seeking to boost output of oil, gas and coal for domestic use and for shipping to allies and partners. US output of crude oil is already the highest in the world, above Saudi Arabia and Russia. During the 2016 presidential election, Trump called climate change a hoax, although he has since said he does not believe that to be the case. The president often falsely cites cold weather as proof global warming is not as bad as scientists say. Scientists, however, are quick to point out that weather is a short-term event and climate science looks at weather patterns over an extended period of time. Before meeting Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump calls on China to open market as part of possible tariff deal. US President Donald Trump has said he expected to raise punitive tariff rates on hundreds of billions in Chinese imports as early as January 1, 2019. Just days before a planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump also vowed to put tariffs on all remaining imports from China if the two sides failed to reach a deal, according to The Wall Street Journal. Trump has already imposed tariffs on more than $250bn in Chinese goods about half of the total imported each year in an attempt to pressure the country to change its trade rules. If we dont make a deal, then Im going to put the $267bn additional on, he told the newspaper, referring to the remainder of Chinese imports which so far have not been hit with tariffs. The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States. If Trump decides to impose the new tariffs, the total amount of taxes on goods from China would be up to $517bn. In September, Washington slapped 10 percent duties on $200bn in imports from China in an effort to get Beijing to reverse alleged unfair trade practices, such as the forced transfer of intellectual property and massive state intervention in markets. The duties are due to rise to 25 percent at the start of next year something US companies and markets are hoping can be averted. Another $50bn already faces 25 percent punitive tariffs. Beijing was hoping Washington would call off the planned increase as a result of this weeks meeting between Trump and Xi at the G20 summit in Bueno Aires, Argentina. If Trump goes ahead with the additional punishing duties, it would include Apple products produced in China. He added that any potential backlash from US consumers could be tempered if the tariff rate on Apple products was just 10 percent, according to the newspaper. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is, Trump said, referring to the possibility of tariffs on mobile phones and laptops. I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily. Apple Inc shares fell in after-hours trading after the interview was published. More protests in Tunisian capital as hundreds express anger at Saudi crown princes visit in wake of Khashoggis murder. Tunis, Tunisia For a second day in a row, Tunisians have taken to the streets of the countrys capital to express their anger at a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Hundreds of people on Tuesday gathered in the iconic Habib Bourguiba Avenue in central Tunis to protest against the crown princes arrival after the allegations of his involvement in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul on October 2. The avenue was the scene of massive demonstrations more than seven years ago which toppled long-time ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and sparked a wave of uprisings across the Middle East. Ben Ali, who held power for 23 years, has been a fugitive in Saudi Arabia since 2011. I was here yesterday and I came here again to say No to the murderer and criminal, Mohammed bin Salman, Said Arous, a prominent human rights activist, told Al Jazeera, calling Khashoggis killing an appalling crime. The crown prince also known by his initials, MBS arrived in Tunisia on Tuesday evening as part of a regional tour as he makes his way to the G20 summit set to take place in Argentina on Friday. In Tunis, he is expected to hold talks with the countrys president and prime minister. 'We cannot accept to receive or welcome a dubious crown prince." Tunisians have been protesting a planned visit by Saudi's MBS. It is his first overseas tour since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. pic.twitter.com/xKyXn0rJiG Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 27, 2018 Arous said the crown princes tour his first time abroad since Khashoggis killing is aimed at whitewashing his image abroad amid an international outcry over the murder of the Washington Post columnist. We are not here to support the Qatari-Turkey axis over the UAE-Saudi Arabia axis, Arous said, in reference to an ongoing diplomatic spat that began last year when a Riyadh-led quartet imposed a blockade on Qatar. A recipient of Gulf aid and investment, Tunisia has officially avoided taking a side in the dispute. We are here to underline our dignity, our national sovereignty and to say we are not for sale, said Arous. We dont need your oil barrels, or your petrodollars. The free Tunisian people are not for sale, Arous added, as if he was addressing MBS. Protesters also denounced a Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, where a four-year war has spawned the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. I left my children without lunch today and came down to this street, the street of the revolution, to say No to this murderer and to urge Arab leaders to save the innocent children of Yemen, said Latifa, a stay-at-home mother, preferring to go only by her first name. Campaigners have long accused MBS of being the chief architect of the devastating war in Yemen, which is believed to have killed tens of thousands of people, including many children. Tunisia is pure now. If you have blood on your hands, dont come to Tunisia, said Latifa. Hundreds of people demonstrated in central Tunis [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera] G20 talks Prince Mohammeds next stop is Buenos Aires, where will attend the G20 meeting on November 30-December 1. In Argentinas capital, he is expected to meet other world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who has given the crown prince a pass on Khashoggis murder. Human Rights Watch, a US-based rights group, has formally asked Argentina to use a war crimes clause in its constitution to investigate MBS alleged role in possible crimes against humanity in Yemen and the assassination of Khashoggi. Argentina recognises universal jurisdiction for war crimes and torture, which technically allows its judiciary to investigate and prosecute those crimes regardless of where they were committed. Cases taking advantage of universal jurisdiction clauses have had success in the past. Still, Argentine media cited judicial sources in recent days as saying it was extremely unlikely for Buenos Aires to take up the case against MBS. Saudi authorities have repeatedly denied that MBS had any knowledge of the killing and its subsequent cover-up. Flags of several Arab countries could be seen at the protest in Tunis [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera] Arab flags raised Back at the protest site, Arous argued that the crown prince is also using his time abroad to promote the so-called deal of the century, a term widely used to refer to Trumps plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Details of the plan have not yet been announced but media reports have suggested that the US had offered the Palestinian Authority a Jerusalem suburb as an alternative to East Jerusalem for the capital of a future Palestinian state. In a controversial move last year, Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital and later moved the US embassy there. He (MBS) wants to convince Arab presidents and kings to make Jerusalem the forever capital of the Zionist entity, said Arous. Tunisia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and any activity perceived as normalisation with the Israeli state is banned under the law. In 2016, Mohammed al-Zawari, a Tunisian aviation engineer who the Palestinian group Hamas said was one of its members, was assassinated in his home in Tunisias coastal region. His killing was blamed on the Israeli national intelligence agency Mossad. But Tunisians anger towards Israel goes beyond a pro-Palestinian sentiment. In 1985, an Israeli air raid on the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization south of the capital killed more than 30 people, including Tunisian citizens. Flags from several African countries could be seen in Tuesdays protest, most visibly those of Egypt and Algeria. Their presence, protesters said, was meant to convey the presence of a widespread sentiment against the Saudi de-facto rulers trip across the region, regardless of the Arab governments ties with him. Before arriving in Tunis, MBS had already visited the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. In Cairo, he was greeted warmly on Monday by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in what Egyptian media dubbed as a protest of love. Tarek Hussein, an Egyptian human rights lawyer residing in Tunis, said it meant a lot to him to see his countrys flag raised in Tuesdays protest. The Tunisian people came out today to show other Arab dictatorships that the Arab people could still go out to the streets and express their anger, he said. Saudi crown prince set to arrive in Tunis on Tuesday as part of a regional tour, his first in wake of Khashoggi killing. Tunis, Tunisia Dozens of Tunisians gathered on the capitals main avenue on Monday evening to protest against a planned visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Prince Mohammed, commonly known by his initials MBS, is expected to arrive in Tunisia on Tuesday afternoon as part of a regional tour as he makes his way to the G20 summit set to take place in Argentina at the end of the month. It is also MBSs first overseas tour after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two months ago. The murder widely seen as orchestrated by the crown prince created an international firestorm against Saudi Arabia that continues to reverberate. As a Tunisian citizen, I reject bin Salmans visit to Tunis, Achraf Aouadi, a civil society activist, told Al Jazeera. Tunisia adheres to a human rights framework that should protect the rights of the Yemeni people, preserve journalists right to do their work, and grant female activists rights to express themselves freely, said Aouadi. In addition to the Khashoggi killing, Aouadi was referring to recent reports on the alleged torture and sexual harassment of female Saudi activists, as well as the four-year Saudi-led war in Yemen which has created the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. It provokes me that we [Tunisia] are dismissing this framework for economic interests, he said. While the Saudi Royal Court did not clarify the official visits programme, Tunisia has long been a recipient of Saudi aid money. The two countries air forces held their first ever-joint exercises in October, signalling tighter relations. Tunisia, land of revolution Faces painted in stark black and white, a group of performance artists cleared the cascading series of steps where the hundred-something protesters gathered to perform a mime sketch. Amid the crowds cheers and giggles, the lead artist, dressed in traditional tribal garb, began to throw paper planes at his peers. They were acting out the war on Yemen where a Saudi-Emirati led military alliance has used air raids against Houthi rebel targets, but also hit many civilian areas. Tens of thousands are believed to have died since the war began. Protesters dressed as clowns perform during a protest opposing Prince Mohammeds visit [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera] Simply said, we came here today to say that the Tunisian people who have exported the revolution to the rest of the [Arab] world and who fought for justice, dignity and human rights cannot welcome a criminal like bin Salman, Hamza Nasri, the mime artist playing MBS, said. Tunisia made world headlines in 2011 after long-time autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was deposed following mass demonstrations, triggering a wave of uprisings across the Middle East that saw the departure of three other Arab presidents. But the deposed leader has been a fugitive in Saudi Arabia since 2011, and Riyadh has consistently ignored extradition requests from Tunis. Instead, Ben Ali was handed lengthy prison sentences and hefty monetary fines in a series of trials in absentia, on charges ranging from complicity in the killing of several hundred protesters during the uprising to misappropriating public funds, to trafficking in drugs, weapons and archaeological artefacts. Perhaps as a people in the past we [Tunisians] could not speak our minds. But today we can, said Emna Mizouni, another protester. It is shameful for Tunisia, which received the Nobel Peace Prize, to receive someone like this, she said of the Saudi crown prince. In 2015, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quarter, a democracy group credited with staving off another uprising in the country, was awarded the international peace prize. MBS also visited the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt all staunch allies of Saudi Arabia and is expected in Argentina for the G20 summit on Friday. Because Tunisia is a pioneering country when it comes to promoting human rights, there is no reason why not to come out and say no to MBS, said Mizouni. Everyone is against whitewashing oppression. Unfortunately, our Arab brothers could not organise similar protests, she said, adding the demonstration not only highlighted Tunisians anger but spoke in the name of all oppressed Arab people who could not organise publicly to condemn the crown princes policies. Similar performance art protests took place when Ben Ali invited late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Tunis in 2005, and several Tunisians also protested a visit by Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan. This is not new, said Aouadi. The point is, post-revolution Tunisia continues to receive leaders and officials with blood on their hands, he continued. The same people who protested Sharon and others are here to express their rejection of that, said Aouadi. A banner depicts Prince Mohammed holding a chainsaw and reads no to the desecration of Tunisia, land of the revolution [Asma Ajroudi/Al Jazeera] Symbolic lawsuits MBS trip to Tunis, made known last week, has generated widespread condemnation among civil society for days. On Monday, the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate (SNJT) announced it planned to file a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed at an international court for war crimes committed by the Saudi regime in Yemen. In an open letter addressed to President Beji Caid Essebsi days prior, the union slammed MBS as a danger for the safety and the peace of the region and the world, and a real threat to freedom of expression. Tunisians reject the war crimes being committed in Yemen and the obvious human rights transgressions against Saudi activists like Jamal Khashoggi, Sakina Abdel Samad, an SNJT member, told reporters during a press conference. A giant poster of the Saudi prince holding a chainsaw has been hung outside the groups office. No to the desecration of Tunisia, land of the revolution, read the banner. In another symbolic move, a group of 50 lawyers announced they too filed a lawsuit with a Tunisian court to pressure the government to cancel the crown princes visit. We have officially requested an investigation into crimes committed by bin Salman, Nizar Boujalal, a spokesman for the lawyers, told reporters. MBSs involvement in Yemen in addition to his alleged role in Khashoggis killing and the detention of the female activists has put the countrys ties with Western allies under tight scrutiny. It remains to be seen which leaders shake hands and pose for photos with the crown prince at the G20 in Buenos Aires later this week. Protesters have rallied against the Dutch blackface tradition, but many still refuse to see how it is deeply offensive. NDjamena says the strategic redeployment is to better adapt to the organisation of rebel groups in the region. Going out on a limb: Life above the forest floor The impact of global environmental change has no borders. To assess how habitat loss and habitat degradation is impacting reptiles and amphibians, Jesse Borden, a PhD student in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at UF/IFAS, traveled to Kenya to see how these animals are using their habitat in three dimensional space, from the edge to core of the Arabuko Sokoke Forest. Reptiles and amphibians are strong bioindicators of a healthy environment. They are some of the organisms most vulnerable to global climate change, providing researchers with signs for what to expect of other organisms. With biodiversity declining at unprecedented rates, Borden has dedicated his studies to community ecology and how ecosystems are responding to human-caused disturbances. Jesse Borden, right, with his team in the Arabuko Sokoke Forest. Working with Patrick Malonza, research scientist in the herpetology department at the National Museum of Kenya, Borden set off to learn more about two native reptilian species: the Tana River Gecko and the Green Keel-Bellied Lizard. The two reptiles are classified as data deficient on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Bordens research specifically targets gaining information about these rare species, while simultaneously surveying the entire herpetological community in the forest to see how habitat degradation is impacting their abundances, distributions and use of ecological niches. To better protect biodiversity and manage healthy ecosystems in the face of rapid human-caused change, we must first understand the ecology of individual species and how they fit into their ecological communities, Borden said. Tackling declining biodiversity Completely surrounded by cultivated lands, the Arabuko Sokoke Forest has a sharp boundary that is agricultural land on one side and natural forest on the other. Climate-sensitive reptiles and amphibians are greatly affected by factors that alter the microclimates of the forest. Borden, climbs the Arabuko Sokoke Forest trees to gather samples and collect data. Working with the Scheffers Lab and Flory Lab at UF, Borden designed this preliminary survey to collect as much data as possible on the reptile and amphibian community within the forest. Starting on the edge of the forest and moving inward toward the core, he conducted scans of the forest floor at increasing distances from the forests edge. Using arborist climbing techniques, Borden searched at stopping points vertically along the climbs to look at height distribution and species composition throughout the forest, from the degraded forest habitat edge to the more pristine forest interior. While it is no surprise that global biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, Borden recognizes the importance of first understanding the ecological role these endangered species play before being able to mitigate their loss. One of the biggest goals for this research project was to be a preliminary study of the area and to form connections with local agencies, organizations and people, so that we can keep designing future research there, Borden said. It was a study of the area to see what was going on and set the stage for future research. I read a very liberal local newspaper that comes out weekly. I was hopeful that when I saw this headline TV news is as much to blame as Trump that I might at last agree with something in it. And then I read the beginning of the article: Much is being made of the presidents targeting of CNNs Jim Acosta, but TV news bears as much blame as anyone for our democracys dystopian decline, culminating in the presidency of an ignoramus with a personality disorder. They must immediately stop doing three things: repeating his demagoguery verbatim, playing the outrage game, and focusing on him to the exclusion of other important stories. Instead, they must embrace their solemn duty and educate the population about our great challenges ratings be damned. But the authors only problem with the media seems to be that the media covers Trump and repeats what he says too much. My complaints about the media, on the other hand, relate the intentional bias as to what they report, what they choose not to report and how they report. A significant amount of reporting today is based on pushing the Democrat agenda while seeking to elect Democrats and destroy Trump and other Republicans. Facts have meant little for quite a while. Here are just some examples. For over two years, the media have reported on Russian collusion with Trump even though there never was any actual evidence that any occurred. Meanwhile, the media knows that Hillary and the DNC paid over $10 million to cook up a fake Russian dossier to destroy Trumps presidency, knows that Hillary and many other people in government violated multiple laws with her private non-secure server and email, knows that Obama also sent and received information to that email and then lied about it, and knows that people at the Justice Department and FBI intentionally targeted Trump for defeat while protecting Hillary and others from prosecution. The media cared little about any of that. The DNC says the Russians hacked into their computers but would not allow any government agency to examine those computers. The only "proof" is the report a consulting group, paid for by the DNC, that Russians hacked them. But that was good enough for the media and Obama Administration to report that the Russians did it. Journalists should be concerned that the intelligence agencies would blame the Russians without examining the computers, and also wonder why the DNC is hiding the computers from the government. Sadly, they dont care. In the summer of 2016, while the CIA, FBI and Justice were supposedly so concerned about Russian hacking and interference, President Obama gave a stand down order to his cyber security chief to stop investigating Russia. The media never cared or asked why. It is truly a tyrannical government that uses so many taxpayer resources -- including the FISA court and injecting spies and informants into an opposition campaign -- to destroy a political candidate while protecting a violator of laws that they liked as the next president. Instead of caring about the abuse of power, the media overwhelmingly also targeted Trump and supported Hillary. The media, in collusion with and in support of other Democrats, sought to destroy the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Kavanaugh with unproven allegations. It is absolutely dangerous and despicable when the media colludes with a political party to destroy a man and his family based on allegations that have zero actual evidence because he is too conservative (in their opinion) in his views of the law and Constitution. Harry Reid, Bill Clinton, Obama, Schumer, Durbin and others have given speeches in which they vowed to go tough on illegal immigrants. Not only weren't they referred to as racists and bigots by the media, they were continuously supported. Yet when Trump says similar things and wants to enforce laws passed by Congress, he is continuously referred to as a racist. (The media and other Democrats always play the race card because they don't like to argue facts and polices.) After portraying Trump over and over again as a racist, the media then take polls that show that a majority of Americans think Trump is a racist. Obviously propagandistic repetition by the media works. After Ferguson, Missouri, the media and other Democrats pushed the fictional "Hands up don't shoot" narrative. It worked to gin up racial hate and violence and hate of cops. It is truly dangerous to America and to minorities themselves when the media and other Democrats intentionally promote divisiveness and gin up racial hate while they pretend that it is Trump and Republicans who promote divisiveness. Obama repeatedly said that he couldn't unilaterally change immigration laws then he dictatorially and unilaterally did it anyway with DACA. The media, instead of denouncing Obama, almost universally supported the unconstitutional move. Then when Trump tries to undo the unconstitutional DACA, the media acts as if it were settled law and denounce Trump as a dictator. Puppet judges who also care little about the Constitution go along. Ben Rhodes, of the Obama administration, bragged about how they lied to get the Iran deal and used journalists (who asked few if any questions) to spread those lies. The media never cared and have continually supported the deal to build up Iran -- which continues to sponsor terrorism and pledge death to America and Israel. The Obama administration obviously recognized quickly how most of the media would just repeat what they say without question. That is very helpful to power hungry politicians but an absolute disservice to us, the people. Obama even had the Justice Department stop an investigation into a drug running operation in America by the terrorist organization Hezballah to appease Iran. Not only didn't most of the media care when they heard about this and how many deaths this helped cause, they continue to pretend that the Justice Department operated independently under Obama. A current example of the way the media reports is the story about a non-American citizen who was killed in Turkey. A major newspaper gets the story from anonymous sources that the CIA has determined that the Saudi Crown Prince is directly involved. The journalists obviously have not seen the CIA report themselves but report that the anonymous sources are absolutely telling the truth. Almost all the media then prints and repeats the story as if it is true and denounce Trump because of this unverified story. Some stories from anonymous sources are true but many are not and the media rarely corrects the false ones. The media know that Clapper, Brennan, Cohen, Holder, Rice, Hillary and others committed perjury before Congress, but not only don't they care, but they continue to use them as sources for stories against Trump as if they were truth tellers. I could go on with the lies and abuse with IRS, Obamacare and Benghazi but the examples of the media kowtowing to Democrats and Obama are almost endless. What should Trump and other Republicans or Conservatives do when they see this obvious continued bias by the media seeking to destroy their party and take away their power? Just shut up? That seems to be the medias goal. Ten years ago, the founders of the Richardson Texas-based Holy Land Foundation -- the largest Islamic charity organization in the United States at the time -- were found guilty of a variety of charges including conspiracy, money laundering, terrorist finance, and tax evasion. In 2009 the five defendants, now commonly known as the HLF five, were given sentences of between fifteen and sixty-five years in prison for funneling money to Hamas through a charity front organization and for other terror-related activities. The case is often looked to as an unequivocal victory over shadowy Islamist figures intent on civilizational jihad. However, few are aware of the profoundly negative effect the trial had on the local and national coverage of terrorist finance cases like HLF. Todd Bensman was a reporter for the Dallas Morning News from 1993 to 2003. He remembers the strategic campaign launched against the Dallas Morning News by such organizations as Muslims Against Defamation at the time of the investigation. The campaign involved daily protests, a boycott of the newspaper and the creation of a website that featured a Black List of Morning News reporters, including Bensman. The websites webmaster, John Janney, today the Executive Director of CAIR-DFW, said in an interview at the time that the newspapers reporters hate HLF and they hate Muslims. Bensman says he remembers the daily protests of Muslim groups in 2000 very well: They had them every day for months, months, at about lunchtime. They would all gather around on the outside of the building with picket signs. I dont really remember a lot of the picket signs, but I know that a lot of them would name Steve McGonigle by name, and call him names and things. They did that for a long time. Steve McGonigle was the investigative reporter for the Dallas Morning News who first covered the Holy Land case. He became Public Enemy #1 on the website when, by looking at public records, he found that the political leader of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzak, had given hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to Holy Land. He continued to cover the case until his editors informed him that he could no longer write on the subject. In April 2000, the Holy Land Foundation sued the Dallas Morning News, its parent company A.H. Belo, and a number of Morning News reporters, including Bensman. Today Bensman says that lawsuit was a good example of the effectiveness of lawfare. We were following the lead of Federal investigators who had actives cases on these guys. If you know that the FBI has got a major terrorism case, thats called news. You follow the news wherever it goes. Marc Finc, the Director of the Legal Project at Middle East Forum, an organization that works to protect researchers and analysts who work on the topics of terrorism, terrorist funding, and radical Islam from lawsuits designed to silence their free speech, agrees that the media play a key role in maintaining freedom of the press in the face of strategic lawfare: Journalists need the freedom to follow facts. Otherwise, the body politic is ignorant of the threat it faces until it is too late. Unfortunately, western media has been too quick to self-censor and surrender to this lawfare rather than fight for a free press. After HLF filed the lawsuit, news reporters at Dallas Morning News were told not to cover any stories about the investigation, according to Bensman. They also did not cover the daily protests of Muslim groups in front of the newspaper that went on for months in 2000.Nor did they print any stories about the lawsuit itself. Nobody covered it. It was a very effective lawsuit in terms of controlling coverage and clamping the coverage down. The paper just really rolled over, very timid and frightened about the whole thing. They just wanted it to go away. The terms of the final settlement are not available for public record, but Bensman remembers that reporters at the paper were told that certain reporters would no longer write about Holy Land Foundation and that the group was given permission to review stories before publication. More than ten years have passed since the newspaper settled with Holy Land Foundation. While the legal position of those who filed the lawsuit against the Morning News has significantly changed since the conviction of the Holy Land Five on November 24, 2008, the effect of the lawsuit on how such trials are covered continues and can be seen in the lack of coverage of other terrorist finance cases today. If you're wondering why the Mexican response to the caravaners' border riot Sunday was so swift with Mexican-side border reinforcements, 500 arrests, 69 criminal charges filed, and 98 on-the-spot deportations look no farther than this NBC News item, dug up from the Mexican press: A poll released Sunday by El Universal, one of Mexico's biggest newspapers, found seven in 10 Mexicans have a negative view about the arrival of the migrant families, with more than half 52 percent supporting blocking them from entering the country without legal documents and 55 percent supporting tougher measures on future caravans. Support for the migrant families has also dropped in the last few months, the survey found. This has implications for President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1: About half, 52 percent, of Mexicans opposed his announced measure to give work visas to Central American migrants, while 40 percent support the measure. This, by the way, was what the Mexicans thought before the riot. One can only guess how high the number is now, given the costly border shutdown, which local news here in San Diego pegged at $5 million in lost sales for the few hours of shutdown, but another piece of buried news dug up by NBC is likely indicative. Mexicans went after the rioting caravan migrants with "bats and sticks" on Sunday. According to NBC News: After the shutdown, some Tijuana residents and business owners came out with bats and sticks and threatened the migrants. "They should not be here in Tijuana," an upset resident told Mexican authorities. The fury at the border shutdown obviously drove some over the edge. And NBC tried to bury that aspect of its story as, you know, unimportant. Left unsaid, their targets were arrogant, unemployed, entitlement mentality-minded, military-aged young men who served as shock troops for the Chavista far-left project the migrant caravan amounts to. NBC7 screenshot photo from the television. Obviously, the Mexicans see it for what it is: a foreign invasion. They also don't like the crime, the garbage, the pestilence, and the lawlessness the caravan has brought. They don't like the special treatment free food, jobs, medical care, and legalization the migrants are getting, while Tijuana's poor continue to get nothing. Some of them went off the deep end, which signals how deep a well of discontent this frustration springs from. What's more, it shows how badly the initial press reports were about the protests, claiming that last week's Tijuana protesters were merely a few locals complaining on social media, who by no means represented the majority. Hadn't Mexicans just given out free food to the passing migrants from the journey farther south? NPR reported that last Sunday's Tijuana protests amounted to just "a few hundred." It turns out there were a lot more of them than that. Now NBC is reporting that they are so numerous that they are likely to affect the administrative course of incoming left-wing populist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who take office on Dec. 1. What's a populist if he doesn't do things that are popular? They are going to want AMLO to stop this, and odds are, he will, if for nothing else, then to tweak his weakling predecessors. This poll represents a sea change in Mexican sentiment toward illegals, which in turn is an obstacle to the Democrats back here in the states. The Mexicans do still seem to have the hooks in California's state government, which is promising "free" health care to illegal aliens and already doles out many goodies. But as Democrats and their political activist and left-wing lawyer allies nationally seek to open borders and undermine rule of law to expand the welfare state and secure votes here, they're going to find a wall of opposition from our south. Mexico is no longer shipping large numbers of illegal aliens, and now public attitudes there are changing in one of the sharpest U-turns in public sentiment I've ever seen. Not surprisingly, the migrants are starting to pack up and go home. Image credit: NBC7 San Diego news broadcast screenshot. Talk about a welcome mat for the 116th Congress, scheduled to be sworn in on January 3, 2019. Newbie representative-to-be Ilhan Omar, a hijab-wearing Democrat from Minnesota's 5th District, the first Somali Muslim woman elected to Congress, asked the leadership of the House of Representatives to abandon the rule against wearing any head covering on the House floor when in session (said rule was imposed by the 25th Congress on September 14, 1837), and her wish appears slated to become the House's command. It is 181 years since the original rule was imposed, with nary a challenge, overt or covert, 'til now. No tam o'shanter, fascinator, Balmoral bonnet, fedora, sombrero, Tyrolean, kufi, ushanka, shtreimel, Stetson, toque, zucchetto, bowler, pillbox, turban, or fez imposed itself atop a member's brow. Enter Representative-Elect Omar cum her hijab, along with her pro-BDS, anti-Israel, co-dependent militant oratory, already in the public domain prior to the midterm election. Did her constituents give her their vote to bring their 7th-century extremes once the House convenes? To wit, has the House, 'til now a bastion against the intersectionality of church and state, wigged out, submitting to religion? Note: Over time, Congress has had a variety of ethnic and religious members: Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, Syrian Antiochan, Greek Orthodox, and Quaker, in addition to Jewish and various sects within Christianity. In addition, there have been two Muslim representatives prior to Omar. None of the groups mentioned above was hard pressed to press the House leadership to okay head coverings during any of their terms of public service. As Congress becomes even more diverse in the future, what other accommodations will that esteemed body accommodate? Politico reports that the opposition to Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker of the House is crumbling as the reality of dumping a Democratic Party icon hits home. The rebels signed a letter last week saying they would not vote for Pelosi to be speaker. At that point, it looked as though the California Democrat was in real trouble, as the signees were just a couple of votes short of denying her a majority. But as the senior Democrat in Washington, Pelosi has a lot of leverage. She bought off her main challenger, Rep. Marcia Fudge, by giving her a prized chairmanship of the subcommittee on elections. Several other potential rebels have bowed to the inevitable and are now backing her. The anti-Pelosi forces have been struggling to regain their footing in the past several days after the longtime Democratic leader picked off two of their members, including a potential challenger. And the conflict over strategy among the group's dozen-plus members threatens to thwart their plan to deny Pelosi the gavel. Still, the group got a much-needed boost on Monday: Rep.-elect Gil Cisneros of California, whose race was just called, has signed on to the group's letter vowing to defeat Pelosi on the House floor. If the rebels don't put up a strong showing of opposition when members meet for a closed-door caucus vote on Wednesday, their effort could run aground well ahead of the official vote on the House floor on Jan. 3. "I'm trying to replace the current leadership of the Democratic Party," said Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, one of the rebels who is not interested in a potential deal with Pelosi that Moulton floated Monday. "We need somebody who is a fresher face, that voters don't identify with the old establishment, who is new, that shows Democrats have chosen a new direction[.] ... We don't want her to be the face of the party." Talk of a "new direction" scares the daylights out of many establishment Democrats, who see the rebellion as a bid by party radicals to drive the Democrats even farther left. The newcomers are feeling empowered by their victories and want to make a strong statement on the direction of the party going forward. Pelosi, even though she is a San Francisco liberal, just isn't radical enough and is too easy a target for Republicans: Sources inside the rebel camp say the group has not communicated effectively and is struggling because of a lack of organization. Pelosi's team has accused her critics of being sexist and espousing values that are contrary to the progressive energy that helped lead the party back to the majority. And while she leans on her powerful allies on the outside to make this case, her critics don't have the same microphone or connections to push back on the accusations Some signers of the letter calling for Pelosi's ouster have also said their letter should not have zeroed in solely on Pelosi. They regret that it did not mention Hoyer and Clyburn, too. But doing so would have no doubt divided the group, some of whose members have strong relationships with the No. 2 and No. 3 leaders. House Democrats will meet on Wednesday for closed-door leadership elections at which Pelosi needs to win a simple majority. But to seize the gavel again, she'll need to persuade half of the House usually 218 votes to back her on the floor in January. This is the Democrat's dilemma. Those who want change at the top can't agree on who should replace the former speaker. Hoyer and Clyburn would be equally unacceptable to many in the rebel camp. And there is simply no Democrat with a national profile whom the caucus could unite around. So even though not very many Democrats really want Pelosi as speaker, most of them are too afraid of being branded "sexist," or worried about what the powerful speaker could do to them, to vote against. Despite everything questions about her mental acuity and her energy and the fact that she is a tired, old face of the party Pelosi will most likely be speaker when the House convenes next January. You often see it at the bottom of news stories or in less prominently placed news stories, from the more serious local news outlets near the scene of the Tijuana caravan encampment: Migrants are taking a look at the lay of the land and deciding to pack up and go home. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune: Outside the Benito Juarez migrant shelter in Tijuana, dozens stood in line Monday for a chance to return to their home country, a day after chaotic clashes at the border dimmed their hopes of entering the United States.Members of the Central American migrant caravan slumped in a line late afternoon to ask for return passage, after traveling for more than a month and trekking thousands of miles by foot, by bus and crammed into the beds of trucks for days. Some were tired and reluctantly surrendered their dream of going to the United States, rather than face months more in the overcrowded and unsustainable conditions in Tijuana shelters. Others said they had economic duties to fulfill in Central America. And a small handful said they did not want to face any legal consequences for the violent confrontations with border agents and Mexican federal police on Sunday. The Associated Press reported similarly: There was a steady line outside a shelter at a tent housing the International Organization for Migration, where officials were offering assistance for those who wanted to return to their home countries. As did CBS8 of San Diego: SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - Giving up and going home. More than a thousand Central American migrants are doing just that. Frustrated and saying there is no chance of a better life in the United States, they boarded vans that will take them back where they came from. There seems to be a feeling of desperation even hopelessness in Tijuana among many migrants who made the long journey from Central America to seek asylum in the US. But as the president has repeatedly said, they have to do it the legal way. That is proving to be harder than many migrants thought. Vans were seen leaving from Tijuana to El Salvador yesterday. So about 100 people are already being deported. Obviously, the great grand bid to storm the gringo border and jump in and avail oneself of all the welfare benefits the U.S. has to offer, leftwing lawyers in tow, has failed, and migrants, as it turns out, with no fear of returning to their home countries after all, (contrary to their organizers' asylum arguments), are going home. Some of them even have the bus fare. Turns out the free stuff wasn't free. Their quest to enter the U.S. on Tijuana's hospitality is not popular. And the leftist organizers, promising these migrants instant entry as well as a Chavista-sized banquet of free stuff, courtesy of the gringos, stand exposed as frauds. So now the migrant caravan is breaking up, and those who seek to enter the U.S. are going to be forced to do it legally. And President Trump, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, have said they are welcome to do that, so it's not as if a door is shut. But what we have here - and the media is never going to admit it - is something called winning, a victory for rule of law. Anyone who wants to enter the U.S. -- worldwide -- has gotten the message from this caravan charge and its big media buildup -- that the U.S. is holding firm in defending the integrity of its borders. Any entry to the U.S. must be legal entry. The scruffy barbed border fencing, the double walls, the troops at hand, cobbled together as they were, along with the resolution and will of our leaders, really did do the job. Anyone wanting to bust a border is better off heading to western Europe. Trump -- and the voters who sent him to Washington to get this job done - stands victorious. Surprise, surprise, Congress has now gotten serious about border wall funding. China has been winning an economic war with America for decades. Unfair currency maneuvers, tariffs, stealing of technology and intellectual property, and tariff-like burdens have been China's war machine against America for a long time. Such economic victories over America have enabled the Chinese to build up their military might through their unfair accumulation of wealth. Europe has taken advantage of America's generosity in funding too much of NATO expenses, too much of U.N. expenses, and our military nuclear power stick against Russia. Enough is enough! France's own people finally are recognizing the folly of socialism's focus of economic power on the elite political leadership. Europe disrespects and won't fully support our bold hard line against Iran's overt hatred of America and Western values. They also cheat about backing sanctions against N. Korea. They try to hide behind some vague anti- nationalist "globalist patriotism," which is really, at its core, their economic advantage-seeking. European political leaders seem blind with denial about Iranian religious fascism; Chinese communist economic aggression; and the social, political, and economic dangers involved with immigration as an economic threat to Western democracies. The so-called "caravan" from Central America is in essence a left-wing liberal, neo-Marxist, and neo-socialist economic political invading army. Socialist "caravan" organizers hide behind naive, innocent asylum-seekers, and women and children, in a way analogous to Saddam Hussein's use of innocent civilians as human shields before his fall from power in Iraq. Duped migrant political foot soldiers carry flags of their countries like an invading economic army. They stir empathy among good-hearted Americans but throw rocks, punches, and insults and break the law when they don't get their way. It is highly suspicious who supports them economically. Demonstrably, gangs, human-traffickers, political operatives, terrorists, and criminals hide among innocent, naive, or complicit migrants. Wake up, America! Especially liberal Democrat politicians. Currently, World War III involves Marxist, fascist, socialist ideologies versus Western political capitalist ideologies and values. Communist China uses bad economic acquisitive trade deals, not bullets, missiles, and overt military action, yet! The Central American economic migrant army is yet another form of economic warfare unless America and other Western democracies implement effective immigration policies that ensure national sovereignty. At the Saratoga National Historical Park in New York is an American Revolutionary War memorial depicting a single boot sculpted in stone. The dedication on the memorial reads: In memory of the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army who was desperately wounded on this spot, winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the American Revolution and for himself the rank of Major General. The memorial carries no name, but its understood that it honors Major General Benedict Arnold who fought at the Battles of Saratoga for the Continental Army. The Boot Monument. Photo credit: U.S. Army RDECOM/Flickr Major General Benedict Arnold was the American Revolutionary Wars most infamous traitor. He was a celebrated soldier who rose to the rank of Major General through his successful military campaigns at Fort Ticonderoga, and then in Quebec and during the Battle of Valcour Island. His greatest moment came during the Saratoga campaign where he personally led charge despite his wounded leg and suffered additional damage when his horse went down under him, shattering his already shot leg. The Saratoga campaign ended with a resounding victory for the Americans. Saratoga was the pinnacle of Arnolds career, after which his ethics began to falter. He started abusing his power, lived extravagantly and began dealing in businesses that violated state and military regulations, gaining him many enemies within the military and political circles. Eventually, charges were brought against him and although he was acquitted in most inquiries, it left Arnold frustrated and bitter for being continually ignored and dishonored by the Congress. It didnt take much cajoling from his young wife, who had close contact with the British espionage system, for Arnold to change sides. Arnold made a deal with the Britishin exchange for 20,000, he would hand over West Point, a major American stronghold, which President George Washington placed him under his command. But the plan was exposed and Arnold fled to Britain. Arnolds reputation was further tarnished when he returned to America, now as a British Brigadier General, and led raids against the very men he once commanded. Major General Benedict Arnold The story goes that when Benedict Arnold was leading the British forces against his former compatriots in Virginia, he asked one of his officers what the Americans might do to him if he was caught. In answer to Arnold's question, the officer replied: They will cut off the leg which was wounded when you were fighting so gloriously for the cause of liberty, and bury it with the honors of war, and hang the rest of your body on a gibbet. Indeed, the boot memorial in New York is supposed to commemorate Arnolds wounded foot which he incurred during the Battles of Saratoga, but never mentions him by name. The victory memorial at Saratoga, a towering stone obelisk, has four niches to honor four generals of the battle. Three of them are occupied by statues but the fourth niche, where a statue of Arnold should appear, is empty. Similarly, on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, there are plaques commemorating all of the generals who served in the Revolution. One plaque bears only a rank and a date but no name: major general born 1740. At the Gorton Memorial (pictured above) dedicated to the defenders who fell during the Battle of Groton Heights, the plaque reads: In memory of the brave patriots massacred at Fort Griswold near this spot on the 6th of Sept. AD 1781, when the British, under the command of the Traitor Benedict Arnold, burnt the towns of New London and Groton and spread desolation and woe throughout the region. The truth was, if only he had the good fortune to die on the field of Saratoga he would go down as one of our great American heroes. Unfortunately for him, and for New London, which he burned to the ground after he turned traitor, he didn't die in Saratoga, said Dale Plummer, a historian from Norwich, the city where Benedict Arnold was born. The loathing for Benedict Arnold is so great in his birth-town that in the city's handwritten birth records, somebody had written was the traitor against his name. One Norwich native and a former state senator said that he was suspended from high school in 1948 after he wrote a paper that Arnold's military accomplishments made him the most valuable American who ever lived. But now there is a growing movement across the nation to recognize Arnold's role in history. In the 1990s, Norwich erected the first marker at the site of Arnold's home. At the city's tourism office, there are quirky souvenirs like a mug that features Arnold's face and the word patriot. But when hot water is poured into the mug, the word traitor appears. Historical markers remembering him by name also appears at a number of places such as one in Danvers, Massachusetts, commemorating Arnold's 1775 expedition to Quebec, and another one in Lake Champlain, New York, and two in Skowhegan, Maine. The house where Arnold lived in central London bears a plaque describing him as an American Patriot. The faculty club at the University of New Brunswick, in the Canadian city of Fredericton, there is even a Benedict Arnold Room in which letters written by Arnold hang on the walls. Photo credit: TaterRater/Imgur Microbiology student to research Antarctic microorganisms This December, a University of Florida College of Agricultural and Life Sciences graduate student will head far south to the cold of Antarctica. On Dec. 2, Christina Davis, a microbiology and cell science Ph.D. candidate, will join a team of 37 scientists and staff funded by the National Science Foundation who will explore Mercer Subglacial Lake in Antarctica for the first time. The project, known as Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA), aims to discover what lies beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The SALSA project has implications for understanding past and present life under the ice, the movement of water beneath the ice, and how ice sheet dynamics affect global sea level rise. Davis will conduct research for her dissertation while working with her mentor Brent Christner, a UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences microbiology and cell science associate professor. Christner specializes in the study of microorganisms inhabiting environments on Earth that are typically below the freezing point of water. Im looking forward to this life-changing experience, Davis said. I know that I will have access to so many scientists who are experts in their fields, and Im looking forward to collaborating with them in Antarctica. To read the full article, click here. Several consumer groups in the European Union rallied against Googles user-tracking practices, having announced their intentions to file complaints with their national privacy authorities on Tuesday, alleging Alphabets subsidiary broke numerous provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation. The agencies in question are those of the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Norway, Greece, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and Slovenia. German consumer watchdog Verbraucherzentrale is also considering legal action against Google for the same reasons and is presently pondering filing for an injunction based on select GDPR stipulations, according to the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) to which the groups in question belong to. At the same time, the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, a US-EU forum focused on consumer policies, pledged to inform the Federal Trade Commission of the ordeal and highlight Googles suspect user-tracking practices in the companys home country. The new wave of complaints is largely based on a new research paper published by BEUC member Forbrukerradet which saw the Norwegian watchdog accuse the American technology giant of resorting to various tricks and practices in order to ensure as many of its users enable as many data-tracking features of their smartphones and other devices as possible. The dishonest practices are alleged to be in violation of GDPR as they tricked users into enabling certain privacy-invading tracking features under false pretenses, the newly published research suggests. Besides being uninformative and misleading, Googles practices aimed at enticing consumers to agree to to widespread tracking have also been devised primarily for the purpose of turning a profit via targeted advertising, researchers added, concluding that users have no real choice when it comes to handling many options from the privacy settings of their Google Accounts. As Google has no legal ground to collect such sheer volume of information and is pushing its allegedly intrusive practices in a highly aggressive manner, its in violation of numerous GDPR clauses, the groups argue. Monique Goyens, Director General of The European Consumer Organisation, criticized Googles data hunger, with the watchdog consortium itself vowing to put an end to consumer exploitation. Google has yet to comment on the development in any capacity. Advertisement Background: The new turn of events comes on the heels of numerous regulatory issues Google endured on the Old Continent over the course of this year. Several months back, the European Commission hit the company with its largest-ever antitrust fine amounting to the equivalent of some $5 billion over antitrust violations related to its efforts to promote its first-party Android apps. Following an investigation that spanned around half a decade, the EC concluded Googles practices directly hurt competing app developers, stating that the firm hence abused the dominance of the Android operating system which currently accounts for over 85-percent of active smartphones in the world, according to every major industry tracker. On the privacy side of things, media reports from this summer accused Google of dishonest user-tracking practices, particularly those associated with Android smartphones and tablets. While the company repeatedly dismissed the allegations as baseless, the wave of reporting prompted a number of investigations and lawsuits in the United States. New Mexico and Arizona are among the states that have already taken action against Google over the matter, with the former recently suing the company over illegal tracking of children. Privacy concerns surrounding the firms practices continued growing after a disclosure that Google+ potentially compromised hundreds of thousands of users due to an oversight that the company decided to cover up as part of an incident so bad that it led to the demise of the struggling social media network confirmed last month. The Mountain View, California-based Internet juggernaut isnt faring much better on the GDPR front as it managed to get targeted by several day-one complaints launched as soon as the law went into effect in late May. One of the strictest-ever pieces of legislation regulating digital data management requires companies to approach information-gathering activities in a transparent manner, obtain user consent prior to starting any such activities, and inform consumers of how their data will be used, stored, and managed. Being one of the worlds most successful examples of ad-based monetization, Google found itself in the crosshairs of many a privacy advocate after GDPR went into effect, with most of the firms digital products and services collecting user data in one way or another. Advertisement Impact: As GDPR still hasnt been properly tested in practice, the potential implications of the new anti-Google initiative formed by over half a dozen European consumer groups are difficult to predict. On paper, the strict regulation allows for fines amounting up to 10 million ($11.29 million) or two percentage points of the violators annual global revenue, whichever is greater. In Googles case, that could equal a fine in excess of $22 billion, though such a draconian measure is unlikely to be issued, especially for a first-instance offense. And while this isnt the first occasion on which Google got hit with a GDPR complaint, the potential consequences of the new development reach far beyond Alphabets subsidiary; BEUC explicitly stated its push against Google is meant to signal the start of more concentrated opposition to all digital giants and their intrusive data-collection practices, vowing its prepared to force them to accept the responsibility to handle user data in a transparent and reasonable manner. How exactly does the initiative intend to do so remains to be seen given how the European Union doesnt rely on a precedent-based law system so even a successful legal push against Google wouldnt make similar efforts against other technology giants more likely to succeed. Likewise, the FTC is unlikely to initiate any new probes into Google on the behest of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue seeing how the said group has little real pull with stateside regulators. Regardless, BEUCs latest move will undoubtedly attract more negative publicity to Google as the consortium appears adamant to fight what it perceives are predatory and illegal tracking practices in a highly public manner. Smartphones are being used for spying on our every move, the group wrote in its Tuesday communication, asserting that the current state of affairs is not the digital society that European consumers want to live in. A new version of Google Glass Enterprise Edition has now been spotted at Geekbench, shedding light on at least a few details of what may be in store with its eventual release. The wearable is listed as running what is likely a customized variation of Android 8.1 Oreo and shown to have 3GB of RAM backing up a Snapdragon 710 chipset. Built on a 10nm process node, that SoC is listed with a base clock of 1.21GHz and a total of four cores. Background: The previous Enterprise Edition Glass was built on the Intel Atom platform and came with just 2GB of RAM. For storage, the original design offered 32GB. Bluetooth and dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 n/ac provided connectivity options while location services operated over GPS and Glonass. The camera included with that hardware was a 5-megapixel snapper and a 780mAh battery powered everything. None of those specifications are made apparent by this particular benchmark but the new AR gadget was previously spotted passing through the FCC. Based on the documentation associated with that listing, the company hasnt come a long way in terms of hardware design. The new device was shown to have boosted the battery up to a 3.08Wh 800mAh unit and to bolster connectivity to support dual-band operation across Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac protocols. Dual-mode Bluetooth 5.0 was shown to be included as well. The original Google Glass sold as the Google Glass Explorer Edition cost end-users around $1500 and was a commercial failure. So it isnt at all unlikely that the new wearable will only be sold to the business sector but that doesnt mean that the search giant has given up on AR for other consumers. Among recent related developments, one recent patent from the company suggests that Google is looking for a way to tie its AR progress into the AI ecosystem it has created under the Android Things and Google Assistant umbrellas. The glasses that are shown in that documentation dont bear any resemblance to the current Glass in design or styling. Instead, they appear to be aesthetically similar to traditional aviator sunglasses but they also step away from Glass in terms of functionality. Instead of requiring voice input, for example, they are described as interacting with a wide variety of smart home devices through glances and simple head motions. Although it isnt likely that those features will show up in the new Enterprise Edition of Googles wearable, that also isnt out of the question entirely. Advertisement Impact: Each of the new specifications that appear to have been revealed seem to indicate that the next generation of Glass will be a significant step up from its predecessor. If that continues across every piece of hardware, the camera, display technology, and audio aspects of the wearable will almost certainly see some big changes too. None of that means that this will become available to a more general consumer audience, however. Google has expended a lot of resources positioning itself as one of the go-to manufacturers for workplace AR and its partners in that space have followed suit. So although there have been some indications that the search giant is still exploring the possibilities for a consumer AR product, this particular Google product is not going to fill that gap. Huawei is mounting yet another self-driving and networking push with the newly announced Mobile Automation Engine, a wireless solution meant to enable and accelerate deployment of autonomous vehicles and supporting infrastructure. The technology has three main aspects that complement one another and are all geared toward making driverless cars a reality in as straightforward of a manner as possible. The first one of those and the primary idea behind MAE itself is to make autonomous vehicle deployment scenario-oriented, i.e. devise infrastructure that suits the needs of such means of transportation instead of trying to develop self-driving cars that do what they can with existing technologies. The second concept revolves around artificial intelligence which Huawei wants to integrate into vehicles and make them as independent of the cloud as possible. While future cars will undoubtedly be interconnected and communicate with both the world wide web and other traffic participants, as well as smart signage and similar elements, Huawei believes its crucial to make such vehicles capable of operating on their own, both for consistency and security reasons. MAE has hence been devised with intelligent engines in mind and is meant to support machine-learning solutions that make self-driving cars better at navigating traffic the more theyre used, even after their commercialization. The final aspect of the newly launched platform is layer-based autonomy which improves efficiency, consistency, and user-friendliness, according to the Shenzhen-based company. In practice, MAE is intended to allow for closed-loop vehicle autonomy which would make driverless cars relatively straightforward to use, meaning customers could be solely focused on communicating their desired destinations and taking advantage of such means of transportation in other ways, without having to worry about any technical aspect of self-driving technologies. MAE is the creation of Huaweis Wireless Solution division whose CMO Zhou Yuefeng described the debut of the new service as a major industry milestone which has the potential to play a crucial role in the deployment of next-generation traffic solutions. The platform as a whole has been envisioned as an AI-driven ecosystem which doesnt just include Huaweis technologies but also encompasses solutions from network operators; naturally, in addition to the vehicles themselves seeing how the Chinese juggernaut still doesnt appear to have any plans for actually making its own cars. Advertisement Huawei sees MAE as the ultimate answer to the rising complexity of issues surrounding the deployment of self-driving solutions which stems from the fact that the incoming arrival of 5G has automakers and tech companies more divided about radio access platforms than ever. In effect, Huawei wants to invest toward global network automation, allowing the industry to place a larger focus on real-world applications instead of technical challenges, many of which would theoretically be resolved with its proposal. Ultimately, MAE is meant to facilitate rollouts of self-driving systems by enabling highly specialized solutions based on such solutions in a manner that would allow them to consolidate with one another once the technology catches up with the industrys ambitions. Background: Huawei started ramping up its investments on the self-driving front over the course of this year, having done so as part of its ongoing efforts to diversify its portfolio and evolve into a(n even) more sustainable business moving forward. The latest pre-MAE announcement in the sector came at this years Huawei Connect 2018 whick took place in Shanghai last month, with the company using the conference as an opportunity to reveal a major partnership with Audi meant to lead to level-four autonomous cars. While no specific timeline has been attached to the project, the German vehicle manufacturer has already been experimenting with level-three prototypes since last year, having created them in collaboration with NVIDIA. The China-based firm has also been involved in various side projects with Porsche, including a publicity stunt that saw one of its most recent Android flagships operate a custom Panamera model on its own. While experts dismissed the demo as unfeasible, Huawei suggested it only organized it to illustrate its continued R&D efforts in a wide variety of technology segments. While the companys self-driving commitments started only recently, its investments in IoT and 5G have been ongoing for many years now, with both of those sectors being expected to play a major role in the future of transportation. Advertisement Impact: The significance of MAEs debut lies in the fact that Huawei is now clearly communicating it believes consumer-grade self-driving solutions are just around the corner. Due to that perceived state of affairs, the company is pushing for the industry to exit the lab and start discussing actual real-world implementations of these emerging technologies that are safe, digitally secure, and consistent. Its scenario-based model could amount to some commercial applications of self-driving tech in the coming years, though theres still no way of telling how scalable such an R&D approach would actually be. Huawei unsurprisingly claims its an excellent model for the future but the jury is still out on the proposal until the platforms capabilities are tested in some concrete scenario. Whether MAE ends up being the driving force behind the change that Huawei is trying to initiate remains to be seen as the success of the platform will almost entirely depend on the industrys willingness to embrace it. On one hand, that doesnt appear to be a massive challenge seeing how Huawei remains the worlds largest network equipment maker and hence already has access to many network operators and technology companies that could help it push MAE on a global level. Still, security concerns surrounding the company and its products continue emerging from the West, particularly the United States, making it questionable whether Huawei will manage to organize a wide-scale launch of its solution in its potentially most lucrative markets, i.e. those that will likely be among the first in the world to actually embrace self-driving technologies. Regardless, the launch of MAE marks yet another step in Huaweis efforts to strengthen its leading position in the telecom equipment market and will at the very least have a significant impact in the Far East where the firms solutions arent facing as much regulatory scrutiny. According to a new report by Nokia anew, the Nokia 9 PureView will not become official on December 5. Nokia had announced a press conference in Dubai for December 5, and the company even teased the arrival of three smartphones. Considering how many Nokia 9 PureView rumors popped up in the last couple of months, many people suggested that it will launch during that even, but it seems like that will not be the case, according to the source, which is something we presumed when that event got announced. The source says that the real reason behind this delay is yet unknown, but the companys Chief Product Officer, Juho Sarvikas, had something to do with that, it seems, it may have even been his decision. Some rumors are suggesting that a camera-related software issue is to be blamed for this delay, which is possible if the company attempted to include the PureView technology in the device, as HMD Global acquired rights to use that tech quite recently, so chances are that they didnt have time to implement it properly, but well talk about that a bit later in this article. It is possible that the phone will arrive later in December, but the source does not mention anything regarding that. Background: The Nokia 9 was supposed to arrive quite some time ago, as the Nokia 8 launched back in September last year, so pretty much everyone assumed that its successor will arrive in September, at the latest. The companys Chief Product Officer, Juho Sarvikas, decided that the phone was not ready to be announced back then, however, which caused the first significant delay. Some of HMD Globals employees were not happy with this decision, as they felt like such a move is removing Nokias flagship from the map, and is allowing the competition to claim the market, which is more or less true. In any case, the phone got postponed, and soon after that report, a confirmation came that HMD Global acquired rights to use the PureView technology in its smartphones, those rights were acquired by Microsoft, in case you were wondering. About that time is when the Nokia 9 PureView rumors started popping up, suggesting that the PureView tech will be included in the Nokia 9 flagship, and such a move would require time, of course. Including such camera technology in a phone is not an easy feat, and it required quite a bit of planning and optimizing on the software side, so that may be the reason why the phone seemingly got delayed yet again. A recent rumor suggested that the Nokia 9 PureView is codenamed Olympic inside the company, and that it will ship with Android 9 Pie out of the box. That part is not that difficult to believe, as the phone will ship with stock Android, for the most part, and Android 9 Pie was released a while ago. A regular silicone case for the phone also leaked quite recently, suggesting that the CAD-based renders that surfaced a while back are accurate, and that the phone will have seven rings on the back, five of which will be occupied by camera sensors. Thats not all, though, a report which surfaced earlier this month actually suggested that the Nokia 9 PureView will not become official this year at all, that report suggested that the phone will launch next year, prior to the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, which is set to kick off in February. So, if that info is to be believed, the Nokia 9 PureView may actually arrive in January, and not December, but well see what will happen. Advertisement The phones design seemingly got revealed in CAD-based renders which popped up earlier this month. If those images are to be believed, the phone will be made out of metal and glass, as expected, while its back side will be curved. Nokias logo will be placed both on the back of the phone, and in the upper-right corner of its front side. The phone is rumored to sport five cameras on the back, while an LED flash will also be placed on the back, and the last right is reserved for some sort of a dual sensor, but we still do not know the details. The phone will not sport a 3.5mm headphone jack, while all of its physical keys will be included on the right-hand side of its body. The Nokia 9 PureView will sport bezels above and below the display, those bezels will not be thick, but they will not be as thin as they are on modern flagships either. Unlike most of those flagships, however, the Nokia 9 PureView will not sport a display notch, at least if the leaked renders are to be believed. A Type-C port will be included on the bottom of the phone, same goes for the phones loudspeaker, and an earpiece. It is still unknown whether the Nokia 9 PureView will ship with dual speakers, or just a single one, but the phone is said to offer facial scanning features, and an in-display fingerprint scanner, as a fingerprint scanner is not visible anywhere on its body, at least not in the leaked renders. The phone is rumored to ship with the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core processor, though it is possible that HMD Global may announce it with the next-gen Qualcomm flagship, and then ship it later on, as the Snapdragon 845 will soon become replaced by a new flagship processor by Qualcomm called the Snapdragon 8150 or 855, as that SoC is expected to launch sometime in December. Impact: If HMD Global manages to include PureView technology in the Nokia 9 (PureView), the device may end up being quite interesting to consumers. Price will be one of the factors that the company needs to think of, of course, but if PureView technology made some advancements since it was implemented in the Nokia 808 PureView, this phone may actually compete with the best camera smartphones out there, it may actually hold its own against the Galaxy Note 9, Xperia XZ3, Pixel 3, and so on. It remains to be seen when will this phone become official, and which SoC will fuel it, but it will almost certainly arrive in the next month or two. Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor opened an official investigation into Google after the company failed to censor certain Search results for its users in the transcontinental country, the agency said Monday. The probe is predicted to run until next month when the regulator will make a final decision of whether to pursue the matter in the court of law. The actual contents of Googles alleged administrative violations havent been disclosed, with Roskomnadzors announcement of the investigation only containing vague references to Russian censorship laws that require Internet companies to censor illegal information, which in turn is defined by other legislation. The Mountain View, California-based company has yet to publicly reflect on the situation. Background: Russias existing laws require all Internet companies serving third-party information to participate in a specialized state registry meant to identify websites the local government determines are illegal. The platform is then used to inform participating companies of websites they ought to censor, either by blocking access to them or not listing them in their services. Thats the crux of the issue Google is now facing in the country, with Roskomnadzor Alphabets subsidiary failed to join the said registry. Free speech and human rights advocate argue Russias definition of illegal information is frivolous and made for the sole purpose of censoring thoughts and facts critical of Kremlin. Some ten years back, Google was harshly opposed to widespread government censorship, having even gone as far as to exit the lucrative Chinese market in 2010 after refusing to help Beijing censor its isolated version of the Internet. However, as the company broke all performance records in the meantime, its now facing a realistic possibility of its growth stagnating in the immediate future, which prompted it to revise its stance on foreign government censorship and its willingness to work with (largely) non-democratic regimes with the goal of turning a profit. One recent example of that philosophy shift is Project Dragonfly, a controversial initiative that saw Google begin building a censored version of Search for China. Despite massive pressure from the general public and U.S. legislators, Google refused ruling out the possibility of returning to the Far Eastern country and continues funding the project to this date, even after some employees quit over ethical concerns raised by the secretive effort which was only exposed following media reports from this summer. Advertisement The change in Googles stance on China makes the current issue in Russia more confusing as the firm clearly signaled it doesnt find censorship demands a deal-breaker any longer. Still, Google has a rather substantial history of issues with Kremlin. Two years back, the company was fined for anti-competitive behavior in the mobile market, having been handed a $7.8 million fine due to its product practices that were found to have promoted its Android apps at a direct expense of rivaling solutions following a complaint from local Internet giant Yandex. The Google-Kremlin relations deteriorated further in 2017 after the worlds largest Internet search engine started removing results linking to some Russian outlets for Western audiences as part of its efforts to combat online misinformation. Previously, the Russian government forced Google to delist some Play Store Android apps such as LinkedIn. The tense relations have a highly political pretext seeing how Russia remains the subject of a U.S. probe helmed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller whos still investigating the extent of election meddling conducted by Russian nationals and companies during the stateside presidential race in 2016. As part of the same investigation, the veteran attorney and former FBI Director is also looking into any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, with the President repeatedly publicly criticizing the endeavor as a witch hunt. Those circumstances make any clashes between Kremlin and American entities private or not of particular interest to the global public, which may be related to the fact that Google apparently failed to enroll in Russias state registry for censorship despite indicating an acceptance of such practices in other parts of the world. The latest development comes on the heels of many other issues Google had with foreign regulators in recent times. This July, the European Commission issued the largest antitrust fine in its history to Alphabets subsidiary after determining it promoted its Android apps in an anti-competitive manner, ordering it to pay $5 billion for the transgression as part of a case thats thematically similar to the one concluded in Russia two years back. The firm is presently also combating the concept of the so-called right to be forgotten in some parts of the world and is facing questions about the manner in which it approaches the subject of user privacy after media reports revealed aggressive Android tracking practices and Google itself admitted its Google+ social network potentially compromised hundreds of thousands of users due to a vulnerability that went undiscovered and then undisclosed for months. On its home turf, Google is currently also facing accusations of a liberal bias as even the President itself repeatedly accused the firm of censoring conservative voices and threatened investigations, though those warnings are yet to amount to anything substantial. Advertisement Impact: Even if Roskomnadzor finds Google guilty of administrative violations, the agency may not necessarily file a lawsuit against the American technology giant. Still, that appears to be a probable scenario seeing how the regulators authority is relatively limited; while it has the autonomy to penalize Google without involving the Russian judicial system in the process, it can only do so with a fine up to 700,000 rubles, or approximately $10,500, an insignificant sum for a multi-billion dollar business thats one of the largest corporations in the world. Due to that state of affairs, Roskomnadzor might eventually pursue a more serious penalty in the court of law, dropping yet another regulatory issue on Google after the company has already gotten involved in some high-profile legal clashes with foreign governments in recent years. As to why Google failed to enroll in Russias censorship registry, the move may have been a calculated risk taken with the purpose of avoiding further public criticism that its still facing due to Project Dragonfly and its general ambitions to relaunch its flagship Search service in China as an aggressively censored product. Posted on: November 27, 2018 11:08 AM [Episcopal News Service, by Lynette Wilson in San Salvador, El Salvador] Families with small children, single mothers and their babies, young men and women, adolescents, the elderly, they all gathered here on a late October morning at the Plaza Salvador del Mundo to form a caravan and begin the long walk north through El Salvador, across Guatemala and Mexico, and for some, eventually to the US border. It was the second of three caravans to depart that day from the plaza, where a statue features Jesus Christ, saviour of the world, standing atop planet Earth. Some 250 people many carrying just backpacks and bottled water, some lugging large suitcases that would prove hard to manoeuvre within blocks of the trek left in the second caravan; others would join them along the way for the 2,600-plus-mile journey. The caravans leaving El Salvador followed one that departed Honduras earlier in the month. Carla, 29, and her four-year-old son, Anderson Roberto, were among the second Salvadoran caravan to leave that day. Carla volunteered her last name, but in interest of safety its withheld. A mother of three, she left her eight- and two-year-old daughters behind with her father; it would be too difficult to travel with three children, she said. She wants to give her son a better life, and to get a job to provide for her family. It was a decision Carla said she has contemplated for five years. As she spoke, Anderson Roberto cried and held tight to her leg. Carla, 29, and her son Anderson Roberto, four, were among the 250-or-so people leaving San Salvador in a caravan on 31 October 2018. Photo: Lynette Wilson / Episcopal News Service Across Central Americas Northern Triangle, a region that includes El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, more than 700,000 people have been forcibly displaced by violence. Forced displacement whether or not it is recognised has become a political issue regionally and in the United States, where President Donald Trump has called economic migrants and asylum seekers an assault on our country, and his administration has deployed 8,000 troops to the border. The president has vowed to deny asylum claims of migrants who attempt to enter the United States illegally, meaning not through a designated point-of-entry. Already, theyre arriving at the border Hundreds of Central American migrants arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, on 14 November, and more followed on 15 November as city officials scrambled to offer shelter in what could be an extended stay. The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande sponsored a Border Ministries Summit in El Paso, Texas, earlier this month. These are not delinquents, said Celia Medrano, regional program director for Cristosal, a San Salvador-based nongovernment organisation with Episcopal ties that receives support from the church. Medrano monitored the caravans movement through El Salvador via a WhatsApp group. They are not bad people; they are people looking for work and fleeing violence. Such was the case with Jose Antonio, 34, who two years ago lost his job at a supermarket where hed worked for 15 years. Jose Antonio, who declined to give his last name, was with his wife, Daisy, 34, and their two children, Maria, 11, who wore a Frozen cap Disney merchandise from the popular film and Uriel, four, who wore a Cars cap. The family had been living with Daisys parents in Mejicanos, El Salvador, where a ditch controlled by gang members ran behind the house. For this journey, the family carried enough food for two days, planned to ask for help in Mexico and, perhaps, eventually would join relatives in Los Angeles. Migrants have been travelling in caravans since the 1990s; the one that left Honduras in early October is one of the biggest in history. The current caravans size and visibility break with the paradigm of clandestine border crossings sometimes aided by human smugglers. The caravans represent a change in that pattern, said Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal and an Episcopal Church-appointed missionary. Recent data shows that many people lack the social and familial networks and the resources to displace internally, and therefore, see caravans as a viable option, Bullock said. Whats changed about immigration is its no longer a lone Mexican crossing the border to find a job. Its Central American children and families showing up at the border applying for asylum or trying to find protection, thats whats changed about it, he said. So even with these caravans, you still dont have an increase in numbers that even moves the net immigration. Immigration isnt at a 10-year high, its at a low. And when you compare that to movements of migrants elsewhere in the world, its still really small, so you have a problem in these three countries thats grave. It needs a solution and its totally manageable, if you decide to manage it. Cristosals Episcopal ties and support Cristosal began in 2000 as a partnership between Episcopal clergy in the United States and El Salvador. It later became an independent non-governmental organisation with a $2 million [USD, approximately 1.56 million GBP] budget that has grown from three employees in 2010 to more than 60 in three countries thanks to a US International Aid and Development (USAID) grant, though it still maintains close ties to the Episcopal Church. Episcopalians donate $350,000 to the organisations annual budget. Cristosal has offices in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The USAID grant was awarded to increase knowledge about forced displacement caused by violence and to support the development of models to address it, as well as to establish a regional mechanism for tracking and monitoring forced displacement in the Northern Triangle, building capacity in the three Northern Triangle countries for the creation of national protection systems specific to internal displacement, and piloting regional solutions that will improve community-based protection for displaced people. What we are so uncomfortable with is the idea that Central Americans are making rational decisions, that families might be assessing their situation at home as so grave that doing crazy things like sending their children unaccompanied or walking to the United States or whatever it would be, is actually a really rational decision, said Bullock. Government leaders and officials dont want to acknowledge that migrants are making a rational decision, Bullock said, because to do so would raise responsibilities of the state to protect people, to protect human rights; it challenges the traditional immigration narrative that is largely [portrayed as] people coming for jobs and not people fleeing some of the most violent countries in the world. For instance, he said, Iraq has a homicide rate of 15 per 100,000, while in El Salvador, even after a reduction in the homicide rate, it is still 60 per 100,000. Since 2014, 7,000 children have died in El Salvador. You are much more likely as a Central American and as a poor Central American to die a violent death than you are living in war zones in other parts of the world, yet its more convenient when immigration is drop by drop and clandestine. And now that its visible, it should be seen as protest, he said. The people are protesting protesting that their national countries dont provide options for protection and freedom from fear . . . and protest[ing] that, when they cross an international border, they find no place on planet Earth where they can pursue legitimate ends in life. A global phenomenon Forced displacement is an international phenomenon affecting a record 68.5 million people worldwide, a population larger than that of the United Kingdom. In El Salvador alone, an estimated 296,000 people are internally displaced, meaning theyve been forced to flee their homes but have not yet crossed a border, whereas in Honduras, a conservative estimate puts the number at 190,000. In Guatemala, the number exceeds 242,000. Of the three Northern Triangle countries, only Honduras has recognised the existence of forced displacement, establishing a national commission to study and document cases. Thats about to change, however. In July, as a result of Cristosals work, El Salvadors Supreme Court gave the government six months to officially recognise forced displacement by violence in the country, design special legislation and policies for the protection and assistance of victims, and make victims of displacement a priority in the national budget. Many young men and women, families and elderly persons joined the caravan that departed San Salvador on 31 October 2018. It was the second of three caravans to leave for the north that day. Photo: Lynette Wilson / Episcopal News Service Its the governments responsibility to protect its citizens. Its a security issue, said Elizabeth Ferris, during a 29 October talk at the University of Central America. Theres a short-term need to address migrants needs, and in the long term, a reduction in violence and to recover territory. Ferris, a research professor at Georgetown Universitys Institute for the Study of International Migration and a former director of the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program, was in El Salvador to provide technical expertise to advance the legislation. Forty countries recognise forced displacement, but only 11 or 12 have strategies to address it, said Ferris. As early as 2013, individuals and families began showing up at Cristosals office seeking assistance, some of them referred by the US Embassy because at the time the Anglican-Episcopal Church of El Salvador resettled refugees through Cristosals office. It even took a long time for us to learn the language around displacement. First, it was people affected by extortion and gang violence, and there are some who are refugees, and then we learned about internal displacement, said Bullock. And then in 2014, 69,000 unaccompanied minors, mothers and children arrived at the US border, bringing attention to the high number of people forcibly displaced by violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The number on the Southwest border dropped to 59,692 in 2016 and to 41,435 in 2017, according to US Customs and Border Protection. Before the child migrant crisis in 2014, there was no context to advocate or even talk about displacement by violence in Central America, and so when the child migrant crisis happened, there was a lot of pressure on the US government to come to the region and find out what could be done, Bullock said. That was the first time that violence was linked to migration in a really visible way for the US public. By then, Cristosal had two to three years practical experience dealing with forced displacement by violence. USAID recognised its work and encouraged Cristosal to expand its presence and develop an adaptive response beyond El Salvador and into Honduras and Guatemala. Still, it was the support of Episcopal churches and individual Episcopalians that allowed Cristosal to become one of the foremost organisations addressing forced displacement in the Northern Triangle. The important thing for Episcopalians to know is that Cristosals ability to work on an issue that nobody wanted, before anybody else was willing to fund it, was wholly supported by Episcopalians who believed in us, said Bullock. That support allowed us to become a regional leader in developing a response, and thats something we never want to lose. Our Episcopal support base allows us to be independent and take risks and develop response and then move donors to our issues as we scale. Thats what worked for us. And, so we want to keep doing that. 2014 also marked the 30th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration, which amended the 1951 refugee convention and the 1967 protocol definition of what it means to be a refugee: persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalised violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order. The Obama administration responded to the unaccompanied minor crisis by increasing security at the border, detention and interdiction by Mexico of minors and families seeking refuge in the United States. Trump made curbing immigration a centrepiece of his election campaign. Then, in the first eight months of 2018, Customs and Border Control agents detained more than 252,000 people 32,371 unaccompanied minors and 59,113 families at the Southwest border and the administration began separating families. The family separation policy coincided with the first caravans arrival when, of the several hundred members who requested protection, 95 percent were found to have a credible fear of persecution and were referred for a full hearing in the immigration courts, according to the US Department of Homeland Security. On 22 October, Trump threatened to cut aid to Central America if countries did not act to stop the flow of migrants. In advance of the 6 November midterm elections, Trump used the caravans as a scare tactic, and his political team produced an ad portraying immigrants as a violent threat. US TV and social networks pulled the ad and denounced it as racist. Reductions by Trumps White House to the nations refugee resettlement program show an interest in limiting more than just illegal immigration. The United States was a worldwide leader in refugee resettlement just two years ago, when more than 80,000 refugees were welcomed into the country with help from the nine agencies with federal contracts to do that work, including Episcopal Migration Ministries. That number has dwindled under the Trump administration, which announced on 17 September that it would reduce resettlement further, to no more than 30,000 a year. The United States Refugee Act of 1980 guarantees a persons right to ask for asylum. And it was a civil war and a refugee crisis that have contributed to the current violence in El Salvador. When Salvadoran refugees left in the 1980s, three percent were recognised as refugees, forcing Salvadorans who came to the United States to marginal parts of our cities, where they became gang members and then were deported back to their countries of origin, which gives us the basis of the current violence that is driving people out, said Bullock. The region has a strategic interest in promoting safety and security in Central America, because un-stabilised, unprotected people destabilise, said Bullock. Civil conflict and transitional justice From 1980 to 1992, El Salvador suffered a brutal civil war fought between its US-backed, military led-government and a coalition of guerrilla groups, organised as the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN. The war was fuelled mostly by the gross inequalities that existed between a small group of wealthy elites who controlled the government and the economy and the majority of the population, which lived in extreme poverty. The 1992 Peace Accords negotiations included the formation of a truth commission to investigate human rights violations that occurred during the civil war. However, a 1993 amnesty law made it impossible to prosecute war crimes and reform the justice system and police and military forces, leading to weak democratic institutions and persistent impunity and discrimination against victims. People who had political and economic power maintained it after the war ended. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared that the amnesty law could not protect those responsible for the massacre at El Mozote, where government soldiers killed some 800 people, half of them children, in December 1981. In post-war El Salvador, grassroots human rights and social justice organisations have played a key role in protecting the historical memory and bringing these cases out of the shadows of history. In 2016, Cristosal began using strategic litigation to get justice for victims and end the long-standing culture of impunity and is working on both the El Mozote and the 1982 El Calabozo massacres. Strategic litigation, explained David Morales, Cristosals director of strategic litigation and El Salvadors former human rights ombudsman, is a way of providing transitional justice, which is a political and social process aimed at applying justice and addressing grave human rights abuses and holding perpetrators of violence accountable. Cristosal focuses its legal actions on cases that will have a lot of impact, said Morales. Impunity today is linked to impunity in the past . . . decades of dictatorships, systematic human rights abuses. The state never created a support system for victims. Posted on: November 27, 2018 6:59 PM The leaders of eight Anglican Provinces whose churches cover the territory from Cape Horn to the Arctic are gathering in Toronto for a regional Primates Meeting. Seven Primates and a Bishop representing the Church in the Province of the West Indies, where there is a Primatial vacancy, are meeting in to discuss the Lambeth Conference 2020 and other issues including the Anglican Communions Instruments of Communion and relationships within the Communion. The meeting has brought together Primate Bishop Naudal Alves Gomes from Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil; Archbishop Julio Murray Thompson from the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America; Primate Bishop Francisco Moreno of the Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico; Presiding Bishop Greg Venables of the Anglican Church of South America; Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the US-based Episcopal Church; Archbishop Tito Zavala, of the Iglesia Anglicana de Chile; and the meetings host, Archbishop Fred Hiltz of the Anglican Church of Canada. The Bishop of the Windward Islands, Leopold Friday, represented the Church in the Province of the West Indies. They have been joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, and the Chief Executive of the Lambeth Conference, Phil George. I am very happy to welcome all of the primates of our region of the Communion, Archbishop Fred Hiltz said. This is a meeting that is conversational. We are not making decisions or pronouncements. We are being invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury to come together in our respective regions to have conversations. These conversations will then feed into the Lambeth design group for Lambeth 2020. I take the Canadian contribution to the conversation of Lambeth 2020 very seriously. It is for all the bishops not for just the Primates to shape the agenda. At the last meeting of the Canadian House of Bishops, we had good conversations about the Instruments of Communion and how they bolster the life and witness of the Communion as a whole. We also reflected on the theme of Lambeth 2020: Gods Church for Gods World. He continued: Our own bishops in Canada are looking forward to learning about ministry in other local contexts; building relationships; understanding our witness of the local and the whole. Also, many Canadian bishops are interested in matters of concern for the household of faith including the nature of a post-colonial church; honouring indigenous self-determination; learning from other indaba conversations across the Communion; reconciliation; sustainable development goals; and combating gender-based violence among other matters. The meeting got underway this morning (Tuesday) and will continue until Thursday. Posted on: November 27, 2018 3:12 PM The Bishop of Egypt, Mouneer Anis, has appointed a new bishop and an archdeacon to serve the Horn of Africa episcopal area. The recently retired Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Singapore, Kuan Kim Seng, will serve as interim Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa. In addition, the Revd Rajan Vincent Jacob has been appointed to serve as Archdeacon of Gambela, an area of Ethiopia within the Horn of Africa Episcopal Area. Please pray for them, that the Lord may use them for the expansion of his Kingdom in this important region, Bishop Mouneer said. The area bishopric became vacant following the resignation of Bishop Grant LeMarquand, who served the area with his wife Wendy. Ill-health forced the couple to return to the US and Bishop Grant stepped down in October last year. Bishop Kuan will adopt the title Commissary Bishop for The Horn of Africa Episcopal Area rather than Area Bishop. When I invited him to be the Area Bishop of the Horn of Africa, he said he would prefer to be called a Commissary Bishop because he wants to work on my behalf and fulfil the vision of the Diocese, Bishop Mouneer said. I have known Bishop Kuan since 2005. He is a man of God, who is humble, and with a clear vision. The Gospel mission is deeply-seated in his heart. I am very grateful that he accepted my invitation. In addition to previously serving as an Assistant Bishop in Singapore, he has served as Dean of St Andrews Cathedral, Singapore and the Diocesan Director of Missions. He became a Christian at the age of 16 after a classmate invited him to an after-school Christian meeting. Reverend Rajan Vincent Jacob, who will serve as the new Archdeacon of Gambela Region, is currently the Priest in Charge of Christ the King Anglican Church in Tripoli, Libya, another part of the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa. He was ordained in the Church of South India and served in a parish in Madurai diocese before taking on a teaching role at the Hindustan Bible Institute & College and the Gurukul Lutheran Theological Seminary and Research Institute, before moving to Libya three years ago. He had a great sense of calling to work in the most troubled country within the Diocese: Libya, Bishop Mouneer said. He was kidnapped, robbed, and exposed to many hardships during these years. And yet, he served with joy. He visited Gambela with me and we were encouraged to know that there are a number of Indian professors at the Gambela University! Training STEM teachers to improve tomorrows workforce Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects are taught to Florida students as early as elementary school, but more teachers and more rigorous training are needed if we are to support the states continuous bid to become a reputable high tech economy that relies on an exemplary high-tech work force. The Florida Department of Education put science, especially in middle schools, on its Top 10 list for Critical Teaching Shortages in 2016. In 2017, FLDOE added computer science & literacy and mathematics to the list. Nancy Ruzycki, Ph.D., Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Laboratories at the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineerings Department of Materials Science & Engineering, is addressing this gap with a $5 million Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant recently awarded to her by the U.S. Department of Education. With the participation of 11 school districts in Florida and members of the Florida High Tech Corridor, as well as the involvement of other UF departments and colleges, she will lead the effort to improve the pedagogy of STEM learning among K-9 students. The project, Engaged Quality Instruction through Professional Development (EQuIPD) will involve 11 urban to rural counties within Florida, including Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Hardee, Hendry, Okeechobee, Glades, DeSoto, Highlands, St. Johns, Sarasota and Manatee counties. These districts account for over 30% of elementary schools on Floridas lowest 300 list and contain 12 schools listed as persistently underperforming (FLDOE, 2017). Schools in the EQuIPD project will benefit directly from targeted teacher professional development programs that will ultimately increase the number of highly qualified STEM elementary and middle school teachers in these schools, resulting in improved student learning activities and outcomes. To read the full article, click here. BarcelonaEuropeans increasingly see Spain as an authoritarian country. That is the conclusion that stems from a poll carried out by Spanish think-tank Real Instituto Elcano, which shows that most European citizens believe that Spain has been too authoritarian with Catalonia, following the push for independence. The Belgians (56 per cent), the Germans (54 per cent), the British (53 per cent) and the Italians (50 per cent) are the nationalities which show the strongest disapproval, while the Portuguese, the French and the Polish sympathise with the Spanish authorities the most, even though 40 per cent of them do not approve. In a similar vein, 63 per cent of Germans, 59 per cent of Belgians and 55 per cent of Italians feel that the Spanish government hasnt shown enough willingness dialogue with Catalonias pro-independence parties, with only France and Portugal scoring below the 50 per cent mark. Only 21 per cent of French respondents and 20 per cent of Italians condone Madrids heavy-handed approach. On the impact of a hypothetical Catalan independence in Europe, those who believe this would be negative for Europe as a whole are only a clear majority (52 per cent) in Portugal. In other countries respondents are evenly split between those who believe it would be counterproductive and those who think it would have no clear effect. Only a minority believe that it would have a positive effect of some sort. In Russia up to 25 per cent of the people believe an independent Catalonia would be good for Europe (the highest percentage), whereas the Portuguese (7 per cent) and the French (9 per cent) are the most skeptical. Respondents are more split on the hypothetical benefits for Catalans, with large variations between different countries. Only a majority of Britons (52 per cent) believe that Catalans would be better off with independence, the one question which clearly shows the general publics lack of familiarity with the situation. Nevertheless, there is a great awareness of Catalonias pro-independence movement, as over 80 per cent of respondents in all countries have heard about it. Only the UK and Holland have a lower score (77 per cent), but it is still a very high percentage. The highest figure is Portugals (95 per cent), followed by Italy (90 per cent), with Belgium and Germany following at 83 per cent. Besides being well-known, Catalonias separatist movement is regarded as a problem by all countries and most of them perceive it as a serious problem, particularly in the two nations where people are the most sympathetic to Madrids position: Portugal and Poland. A majority of respondents in Italy, Holland, the UK and Sweden believe this is not a very serious issue. Most Europeans would not endorse the independence of a region, with the Portuguese, the Italians, the Polish and the Germans showing the strongest disapproval. In Belgium, Walloons have a more negative attitude than the Flemish, where only 40 per cent would oppose it (60 per cent in Wallonia). On the political future of Catalonia in ten years time, most Europeans are certain that Catalonia will remain a part of Spain and nearly two thirds of respondents (63 per cent) believe things will stay as they are. This view is even more widespread among the Portuguese, the Italians, the British and the Polish. Even most people in Flanders adhere to it. MadridThe legal counsel of jailed Catalan leaders Jordi Sanchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull have lodged four new appeals with the Constitutional Court requesting the release of the political prisoners and their full reinstatement as members of the Catalan parliament. Their barrister, Jordi Pina, points to new jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) following its verdict on the case of Kurdish presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas, of the Peoples' Democratic Party, who was jailed ahead of the elections. On November 20 Strasbourg urged Turkey to take the necessary steps to end the pre-trial detention of Mr Demirtas, who has been held on remand for over two years. According to the ruling, his detention can be justified, but prolonging the Kurdish leaders imprisonment has pursued the predominant ulterior motive of stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate. Now the defence of Sanchez, Rull and Turull have asked to include this jurisprudence in every appeal on grounds of unconstitutionality already lodged with the Spanish Constitutional Court as they await the courts decision. This is now in the hands of former Public Prosecutor Candido Conde-Pumpido, who has stated that he wishes to deal with the appeals grouped by theme and unanimously, given the lack of a precedent. According to Pina, there is an obvious similarity between the ECHR ruling and the case of Catalonias political prisoners. The order adds more of the long-range freighter to Turkish's fleet as the airline pursues its goal of becoming the world's largest cargo carrier. Based on the 777-200LR (Longer Range), the 777 Freighter can fly 4,900 nautical miles (9,070 kilometers) with a full payload of 112 tons (102 metric tonnes or 102,000 kg). The long range means fewer stops and associated landing fees, less congestion at transfer hubs, lower cargo handling costs and shorter delivery times. "We are excited to expand our efficient cargo fleet with the 777 Freighter. This aircraft has contributed greatly to Turkish Cargo, Turkish Airlines' successful sub brand, becoming the fastest-growing air cargo carrier in the world. The additional aircraft will provide us more flexibility to serve even more destinations as we continue to grow our global freight network," said M. Ilker Ayc, Turkish Airlines chairman of the board and the executive committee. The new order comes days after Turkish Airlines posted record profits for the first nine months of 2018 on strong passenger and cargo demand. The carrier's air freight business saw a 25-percent tonnage increase and a 29-percent revenue increase compared to the same period a year ago. The results extend the airline's success in recent years as Turkey has become one of the largest and fastest-growing aviation markets. In line with the rapid growth, Turkish Airlines has steadily expanded its current and future fleet. Last January, the carrier announced the order of three 777 Freighters. Two months later, Turkish finalized an order for 25 787-9 Dreamliners and five options to prepare for growing demand at Istanbul's third airport, named "Istanbul Airport" by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during its official opening last month. Over the past few months, Turkish has begun taking delivery of new 737 MAX airplanes to refresh its single-aisle jets. In all, the airline's fleet of Boeing jetliners has grown to more than 160, with nearly 100 additional jets on order. "Turkish Airlines has achieved significant success over the past decade. In addition to introducing innovations that have powered the growth of Turkey's commercial aviation sector and anchored a new state-of-the art airport, the airline is delivering outstanding results and rising in the ranks of elite airlines. We are extremely honored that Turkish Airlines has placed its trust and confidence in Boeing's flagship airplanes: the 737 MAX, the 777 and the 787 Dreamliner," said Kevin McAllister, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. With more than 30 777s in its fleet, Turkish Airlines is among the top 10 operators of the wide-body jet in Europe and the Middle East. To support the long-term growth of the Turkish aerospace industry and strengthen Boeing's presence in the country, Boeing launched a strategic partnership program in Turkey last year, called the National Aerospace Initiative. Aligned with the targets of Turkey's Vision 2023 that set for the 100th anniversary of Turkish Republic's foundation, the initiative lays out a strategic collaboration framework in four key areas: industrial development, technology acceleration, services collaboration and advanced-skill training. In line with these goals, Boeing is planning to open an engineering center in Istanbul that would specialise in research and support Turkey's growing aerospace capability. The company also recently expanded its collaboration with Turkish Technic, the maintenance arm of Turkish Airlines. Under the agreement, Turkish Technic becomes a strategic supplier for Boeing's Global Fleet Care program, providing operators with line maintenance, heavy maintenance, component service and repair for multiple aircraft models. Additionally, Boeing and Turkish Technic will partner to train and certify aircraft technicians. "We continue to expand our commitment to grow in Turkey, together with Turkey. Our new engineering center and our growing cooperation in so many areas with the Turkish aerospace sector reflect our confidence in the country's capabilities," said McAllister. Recent Listening: Harry Vetros Northern Ranger A generation of Canadian musicians is coming to prominence in their youth and making substantial impressions. One is drummer Harry Vetro. After he was graduated from the University of Toronto Jazz Program, the 23-year-old spent much of last year exploring his country as it celebrated its 150th year of nationhood. He visited what he calls Canadas six indigenous cultural areasArctic, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Plains and Eastern Woodlands. He gathered impressions of his native land and converted them to music, then assembled thirteen other young artists to help interpret his ideas. The directness of Vetros writing has much to do with the musics effectiveness, and so do the talents of its players. Pianist Andrew Downing begins the title composition, Northern Ranger: Air Borealis. then we hear Vetros cymbals and drums, Lina Allemanos trumpet, and the string section composed of violinists Jessica Deutsch and Aline Homzy, violist Anna Atkinson and bassist Phil Albert. Vetro has announced that proceeds from Northern Ranger will go toward a program called Northern Ranger Outreach to help young people who need assistance with their musical education. Thats a nice bit of giving back. 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. They want to acquire businesses below their ideal equity cheque size, but suitable for thematic investment in fragmented sectors such as travel and tourism, child-care, food and agribusiness, said Glen Sauer, private equity partner. Our view is that more traditional buyout funds will face increased competition for assets from investors who are willing to invest across the entire capital structure. Australian and foreign fund managers operating in Australia also raised a record amount of debt funds in 2018. The firm said that alternative debt funding benefits everyone involved, providing stable returns in a low-yield environment. The firms dealmakers also see a strong pipeline of deals across numerous sectors in the coming year. The governments inquiries into various industries are proving beneficial for investors looking to buy, the firm said. We are likely to see PE funds looking for opportunities as a result of rationalisation occurring out of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, and the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, said Ricky Casali, who is also a partner in MinterEllisons private equity team. Major financial institutions may look to divest non-core assets due to diminished risk appetites and renewed focus on their core business. At the same time, the aged-care sector may look to consolidate and partner with incumbents needing capital to meet rising social expectations about the quality of aged care. The consumer discretionary and the food and agriculture sectors dominated deals by number in 2018. Packaged food and meats accounted for the majority of private equity activity in the sector in the past year, the firm said. By value, PE deals were dominated by the healthcare and the food and agriculture sectors. Japan's government is considering tweaking its method for calculating defense spending, amid calls by the United States for allies to shoulder more of the burden. President Donald Trump's administration has urged allies to commit more money. This call came despite NATO countries setting the target for defense spending at 2 percent of their GDP. Japan has been spending more than 5 trillion yen, or 44 billion dollars, on defense in recent years. But the figure amounts to less than one percent of its GDP. Tokyo believes a significant increase in spending is unlikely, given the country's fiscal situation. The Japanese government is contemplating counting other expenses as part of its defense spending, as NATO countries do. They may include pension payouts to soldiers of the now-defunct Japanese Imperial Army or to their bereaved families, as well as expenditures related to UN peacekeeping operations. According to the new calculation method, the country's defense spending is expected to rise to around 1.3 percent of its GDP. - NHK Yet somehow, I'm stuck. And not in a way that's easy to get out of, despite repeated tries. Let's put that in perspective. Right now I'm driving on the sand dunes of the North African Sahara, in a special version of a Navara 4x4 from Nissan. This truck is equipped with the special AT32 package from Arctic Trucks that includes locking front and rear differentials, off-road tires, a snorkel, and bash plates. There are few experiences as humbling as having your ass handed to you. Let's forget about this thing called a driver's pride, the fact that I had to avoid another vehicle in the convoy (a Terra with Philippine conduction plates) which was why I'm in this predicament, or that I had just made a bet with my co-driver Deakin that he who gets stuck first, pays to quench the other's thirst. No, what got me was a camel just over the rise, glancing over with an almost judgmental nonchalance as he breezed by, unfazed by the terrain that he adapted on to survive, reminding me that we're just tourists here. He belongs. Go anywhere, they said. It'll be fun, they said. Welcome to Morocco WHAM! No, not before you go go. That was the sound of the rotund Moroccan immigration officer stamping my passport with the authority and force required to stamp steel body panels. It was surprising to walk out of an airport and see no office buildings, tall condominiums, or even cell towers. You see, while most would think of places like Casablanca or Marrakech with the mention of Morocco, we had landed in neither of those places. We're in Errachidia, a locale that -honestly- we'd have a hard time pinpointing on a map without the aid of Google. Usually when we go on these drives, the car company has just launched a new vehicle and we'll drive them around, caravan-style. But it's almost always just one model. What Nissan had prepared, however, was something remarkably different. Sitting outside the diminutive airport's parking lot were 4 distinct Nissans of different shapes and sizes. What they did have in common was the fact that these weren't crossovers or soft-roaders: they were all properly rugged SUVs and trucks. A Global 4x4 Fleet The gargantuan of the group has to be the Titan at 5.8 meters long. This pick-up came here all the way from the US of A, a place where this class of truck is extremely popular. It's so massive that even the name is officially capitalized: TITAN. It's followed by the Patrol, a 4x4 that doesn't really need introduction. This legend of 4x4 performance is the Y62; the luxurious sixth generation of a 4x4 that started life as a Japanese military jeep in the fifties. The Patrols on the parking lot were from Dubai. That meant they had 5.6-liter V8 engines that drank fuel at will; not really a problem for the markets in the Middle East. What caught our eye was the Navara. The examples Nissan had were made at their factory in Spain (Barcelona, to be exact) which was quite apt; the name of the truck is derived from the Navarre region. But what got us very interested in it was the fact that the Navaras were the AT32 versions; the ones kitted out by Arctic Trucks for off-roading. Perhaps the most unusual of all was the presence of four units of the Nissan Terra... with Philippine conduction plates. These Terras were the ones we actually drove during the regional launch in Clark, Pampanga. They dealt with the lahar beds easily, but how will they do against the sand dunes of Morocco, and on highway tires? Let's find out. An Afternoon Escapade in the Desert Nothing dates a place quite like seeing a donkey, said my intrepid co-driver. He wasn't kidding. The moment we pulled out of Errachidia's airport, we started to realize just how preserved in time Morocco is just by the number of donkeys we saw serving their primary purpose as beasts of burden. And judging by the number of shops selling fossilized shells and other artifacts, we truly have have gone back in time. Honestly I didn't know what to expect from driving on Morocco's roads. But they're smooth, and more importantly the views are just gorgeous. You can see for miles and miles, and then come up over a rise and see mountains in the distance, glinting in the sun. And when you drive through the mountains that were once islands (much of Morocco was under water a long, long time ago), it felt like we were driving in the Grand Canyon. Just when we had settled into driving fairly quickly on the pavement, we made a left onto the dirt. If they hadn't shown us, we would never have thought this was a road. We were driving at a leisurely pace, but we figured it's better to have extra traction should we need it. But I needn't worry; this wasn't a problem for the Terra and its suspension. Or ground clearance. To make the drive easier, we switched to 4WD high range. A few kilometers down the road, we were about to enter a small village in the midst of nowhere. And just then, in the distance, we could make out a group of kids running flat out to meet the convoy. Were we to stop and say hi? Were they expecting us? At that very moment, a strong Spanish accent came over the radio. It was our convoy leader. The children here always run towards us, he said. Don't stop, but don't hit them. Those words were comforting. Over the next few days, we'll find out that kids suddenly pop out of villages and homes when they see vehicles coming by. I've been told hitchhiking is quite popular in Morocco, though I don't think that's going to be on our agenda today. Monuments in the Middle of Nowhere We made our switch to the Navara, and kept on our way. The Navara AT32 simply looks cool. The Safari snorkel is the most obvious modification made by Arctic Trucks, but much of the enhancements were under the vehicle itself. The AT32 rides higher with an extra 20mm of ground clearance. This extra height was achieved by modifying some components of the coil-sprung suspension system, as well as the taller Nokian off-road tires (made by the same company as Nokia) and dual-valved (for easier pressure adjustments) Arctic Trucks wheels. If you do get it wrong, beneath the engine is a reinforced bash plate (with the Arctic Trucks logo) for extra protection. The most major upgrade, however, cannot be seen; apart from a switch on the dashboard. This Navara AT32 comes with a locking front differential; an Arctic Trucks original. That's serious off-roading equipment right there. The product expert from the UK says that the entire package costs 7000 Euros, or about PhP 417,000 on top of the price of the truck. If you opt without the locking front differential and the snorkel, the AT32 kit comes out to about 4500 Euros, or about PhP 268,000. At this point we were no longer in Errachidia. We were now in a place called Erfoud, not that we can notice; there weren't any structures or visible buildings you'd find in a town here. But as we kept driving, we saw a series of structures that looked very odd in the distance. There was no mirage, but it almost looks like we're approaching a kind of Stone Henge, but in the desert. As we got closer, we were given an explanation: this wasn't some historical structure built by the indigenous Berber tribes of Morocco. What we're seeing is a life-sized piece of modern art. Called the City of Orion, this was made by a modern German artist named Hannesjorg Voth. The inspiration is the constellation Orion, and the height of each tower corresponding to the brightness of each star. Voth apparently made more, including something straight out of a Led Zeppelin album: a Stairway to Heaven. Perhaps only Voth can tell you why he made these structures, but they sure look neat -if not odd- in the desert. Interesting stops on the way to our home for the next three days in Erfoud. Dakar Dreaming The next morning, we all got up bright, early, and cold. Yes, it was very cold in Morocco; which is why most of us were shivering during the night as we enjoyed a few drinks and conversation. To make the morning go a little more smoothly, I made a bee line for what was clearly the pride of this 4x4 fleet: the Nissan Patrol. Driving the Patrol on the dirt is the off-road equivalent of sitting in a La-Z-Boy, sipping on a cup of coffee and binging on Netflix: you just couldn't be bothered by the world around you, no matter how hard it tries. All we did was set the intelligent 4x4 drive system to sand, and kept on. We were easily doing 80 km/h on a wide expanse of dirt, through ruts and steps and rocks. No problem. We push the speed up, hit a few bumps. No problem. We pick an unused driving line that doesn't seem to have ever been driven on. Still, no problem. The Patrol soaks up the abuse laying all around you; a veritable couch with four-wheel drive. Perhaps the only thing that bothered me in the slightest was Patrol's modified off-road brother: the Armada Mountain Patrol. Even when we were driving around 100 km/h, that SUV carrying the brave (albeit already nauseous) camera crew just soared past with its higher suspension, off-road tires, steel bumpers, and more. We take a quick break to stretch our legs and, to be frank, pee. Driving on rough terrain, regardless of how good the Patrol is, can be very annoying for bladders. Us guys have the ease of just finding a tree for some, uh, relief, but the ladies will need proper facilities. Just when I was about to make for the only Acacia tree nearby, our Spanish instructor-slash-drive leader motioned for all of us to go there. Great. He then proceeded to tell us an interesting story about the tree, and its significance in something called Dakar. For the unfamiliar, we're actually driving on the original route of the Paris-Dakar Rally; a rally raid using trucks, SUVs, cars, ATVs, bikes, and basically anything motorized with wheels. As the name says, it ran from Paris, France, all the way to Dakar, Senegal on the Atlantic coast of Africa, a test of endurance between the drivers, co-drivers, and machines. Back to the tree: Dakar drivers and riders used to stop under these Acacia trees for some rest and respite from a long day's journey at high speed, but then they stopped doing so. The reason: these Acacia trees had thorns that were thicker and harder than most barbecue sticks. Run over one the wrong way and you could end up replacing a tire. Or two. This tree could be a painful, uh, urinal. Hamunaptra to Dune Bashing Further down the path, we made a quick stop at what appeared to be a fort that was built into a mountain. We were told that this was a Portuguese prison for slaves back in the day. That makes sense, as there's absolutely nothing else around as far as the eye can see. Despite the infamy, this outpost also had its fair share of fame: this was the location that stood in for Hamunaptra, the fictional city where the 1999 film, The Mummy, was shot. Later in the day, we found ourselves in the bigger of the two pick-ups: the Titan. The Titan drives like I expected: big, soft, and American. Case in point: when you turn the wheel, you have to factor in a little delay before the truck actually responds. It almost feels as if the Titan asks you whenever you give the steering some lock: Are you sure? Okay then. Let's go. Still, there's a certain growl about the engine with every little prod to get going. That massive V8 is no slouch, and the size, height, and heft certainly make you feel like the commander of your own destiny in the desert. After lunch, we finally made it to the cherry on top of this epic drive: Erg Chebbi, otherwise known as the sand dunes at Merzouga, close to the Morocco-Algeria border. If you've been to the sand dunes in Ilocos, it's like that, but in a scale that's hard to describe in words. The pictures don't do it justice either. We dropped tire pressures to just 1 bar. To put that in perspective, normal road tires typically run on about 30-32 psi of air pressure. For this drive on extremely tricky soft sand, the tires will just have 14.5 psi in them to allow the rubber to deform a bit more, increasing the surface area for better traction. We switched back to the Navara AT32 and made our way onto the dunes. Despite the photogenic beauty of this landscape, I can't really relax as a driver, as I'll have to stick to the instructions during the briefing and make use of my limited experience in off-roading on this kind of surface. We we're traversing one dune to another, keeping 1 dune gap (more or less) between us. I really can feel the truck slipping on the very soft ground, and it's important to keep momentum as much as you can with 4x4 low range activated. It's exhilarating, to say the least, and refreshing whenever you get to the top of the next dune. And the next. And the next. You can't be rough with the pedals and you can never hesitate. Unfortunately, the driver in front (in the Terra, no less) hesitated at the top of the next dune, just as I was making my way down the previous one. He got stuck, and by having to avoid him, so did I. And, almost as if on cue, a line of camels go past who couldn't care less for these tourist drivers getting themselves stuck in the sand. A Global Force in 4x4 Eventually (after several tries) we did get going. The rest of the day went on without a hitch (pun intended), and I made sure to never get stuck again. On the drive back, with my co-driver taking over, it's finally time to take the experience all in. Truth be told, we had just made a little pinprick into the Sahara; the real desert was further south, but that would have been an extremely challenging drive best left for pros dedicated to the off-roading craft. We did, however, get a taste of what it was like, even if just for a day at a time, returning to a comfortable bed and good food every night. As far as drives go, the Nissan Go Anywhere experience is an eye opener. Nissan has a long and innovative history in off-roading and 4x4s, as evidenced by the presence of a restored Dakar Patrol rally car from the 80s. They're also looking towards the future and to the stars with the presence of the Navara Dark Sky concept vehicle that was built with the input of the European Space Agency to be a mobile and functional observatory, as shown by the really clear photos of the moon and even a photo of a distant supernova. More importantly, the drive showed us that Nissan is truly a force in building great 4x4s for any market around the world. Each of these four 4x4s demonstrate that there are different flavors for off-roading on offer by Nissan, depending on where you are. Beyond the vehicles, what we saw was perhaps even more important: Nissan is no longer just a Japanese company. Judging by the people we spoke with, drove with, and shared meals with, Nissan is a truly global auto company that draws strength from a great diversity within their team. We met team members from the USA and talked about how Detroit is now. We had a good talk about the potential effects of Brexit with the British members of the team. We got a thorough explanation of the capabilities of the Patrol and talked Netflix with their Pakistani marketing head. We had good conversations over breakfast with a French-Japanese designer who did some work on the Navara Dark Sky. We even spoke about philosophy, religion, politics, and Elon Musk with their Asia Pacific communications head from India. We can see, feel, and drive how diverse Nissan has become in these four very different 4x4s they brought to the North African Sahara but, more importantly, we can see it in their people. And they all wear their Nissan jackets with a unique kind of pride. Piaggio Aerospace, which is wholly owned by Mubadala, based in Abu Dhabi, says it is no longer financially sustainable and has entered extraordinary administration, a type of insolvency procedure that will allow the company to restructure its debt. In a statement, the company cited continued uncertainty and current market conditions and said the key fundamental assumptions of the restructuring plan approved in 2017 have not materialized. Mubadala had planned to invest up to $342 million in the company over five years. As recently as the Farnborough airshow, in July, the company was upbeat. We started a new transformational path, which is already boosting production line and orders,Renato Vaghi, CEO ofPiaggio Aerospace, said at the show. The Evo turboprop has attracted generally good reviews, with users appreciating its performance, economy and comfortable cabin. Piaggio Aerospace has been celebrating its first 100 years in the aviation business this year. In November 1917, the company formally entered the aviation industry with the takeover of OfficineAeronautiche Francesco Oneto, in Pisa, and it was incorporated in January 1918. Advancing age has its benefits when it comes to flyingwisdom and experience are two, and perhaps greater financial security to allow us to indulge our aviation passion. But despite increasing longevity, much as we fancy achieving the ripe age of 969 years as Methuselah, were a long way from that (50 is the new 70). For those younger than 40 years, keep readingyoull see why later. Lets review how the general aviation pilot population is aging and discuss research exploring the effect of the march-of-time on flying performance. Well also summarize research on accident rate and types of mishaps older pilots are more prone to. Finally, well wrap up with tips to enhance IFR flight safety as one continues into the golden years. Pilot Population Is Aging Our FAA Safety Team holds monthly Houston-area meetings coordinated by a highly efficient team lead. Looking at the attendees its obvious that were not a youthful set. No, this is not an anecdotal observation specific to Houston-area airmen. The fact is that the US pilot population is getting older. Between 2011 and 2015 the number of pilots 70 years and older rose from 20,000 to 32,000. There is more than a smattering of octogenarian (and older) pilots toothe count of active (i.e. holding a medical certificate) airmen of this age group increased from 1,508 to 2,305 between 2002 and 2016thats a 50-percent increase. But remember that, as an aggregate, the general aviation pilot population is shrinking. Based on FAA statistics, the number of active private pilots decreased from 241,045 (2003) to 162,455 (2017)a 33-percent drop. Recall that unlike air carrier operations (where pilots must hang up their hats at 65 (FAR 121.383) there is no upper age for general aviation pilots. Satisfy a flight review and physical (be it a Class III or Basic Med) and youre fit to fly-wellmaybe or maybe not. Battle With Mother Nature The truth is that, as we age, were fighting an uphill battle with the living world. Our vision deteriorates, the speed of mental processing slows, short term memory is impacted and motor skills suffer (activating that touch screen on your spanking new Garmin 750 might prove challenging even in smooth air). How do these physical degradations impact flight operations? Two research studies addressed this question. In the first, IFR pilots were tasked with shooting ILS approaches in a Frasca simulator programmed for IMC. The researcher assessed flight performance largely based on lateral deviation from the localizer. Perhaps not surprisingly, pilots above age 40 showed less precise flight control (more meandering left and right of the localizer) compared with their younger brethren. On the bright side, the researchers found that expertise partly offset the decline in performance with CFI-Instrument airmen faring better than IFR-rated private pilots. In the second study, again using a flight simulator, VFR-pilots were challenged with instrument failures and decision-making regarding cross-wind landings and memory recall both assessed. The researchers identified deficient memory recall of landing weather information and noted a decline in the speed of mental processing with creeping age. Nevertheless, cognitive assessment was superior to chronological age in predicting flight performance. Maybe thats not too surprisinga 40-year-old may look/perform like a 75-year-old and vice versagenetics and lifestyle (the proverbial burning the candle at both ends applies here) are major contributors. Advancing Age And Accidents Of course, flight simulator studies are just that. The bigger question is how older pilots fare in terms of flight safetyis this group more accident-prone and are they (more or less) likely to be involved in a fatal mishap? A Johns Hopkins University study showed that general aviation pilots 65 years or older, had a nearly three-fold higher risk of being involved in an accident than those aged 18-24. No, these results werent due to older pilots flying more often since the study adjusted the accident count for differences in flight time accrued by the two age groups. But there is some good news. Recent research on octogenarian and older pilots suggests that, while they are more likely to incur an accident, they are not at higher risk for a fatal outcome. One thing that was apparent with the latter study was a higher percentage of landing accidents by the octogenarian pilots (31- vs. 17-percent). While we know that instrument flight is demanding, landing is arguably the most challenging phase of flight. As seasoned IFR pilots, the trials and tribulations of landing an aircraft might seem in the distant past harking back to our primary training. Ever wonder why mastering this phase of flight was so difficult back then? Remember, theres a lot involveda rapidly changing visual picture, shifting/gusting winds all requiring well-timed hand/foot-eye coordination to transition the aircraft from typically a nose-down (for a light aircraft) to a near-level attitude just above the runway. Now, heres where an age factor might throw a wrench into the works. Worsening vision, slower mental processing time and poor eye-hand/foot coordination can conspire to make what seemed to be such an easy task in our post-training halcyon flying days to be more of a challenge as we age. Suggestions For IFR Pilots If you are passionate about flying, and the prospect of losing that privilege is daunting, here are a few suggestions for enhancing safety in the instrument flight environment as one ages. Some of these tips are drawn from the Air Safety Institute recommendations. However, a few suggestions have come from my personal observations of a 98-year-old ex-USAF pilot-friend whom I had the privilege of flying with on a regular basis for nine years (invariably our flights were in the IFR system). He was the second oldest active general aviation pilot in the world at the time. IFR is challenging and deserves respect (regardless of age). Why not fly like the pros with a first officer? Pilots flying transport category aircraft must have two warm bodies up front (that doesnt include George). Agree how to divvy up the work load before launching. Often younger pilots are more button-savvy have them handle the avionics. Consider increasing visibility minimums. Sure, in the old days you could shoot the ILS to 200 feet AGL partial-panel, but if you find the CDI pegging on a precision approach, it might be time to be more generous with the lateral/vertical visibilities. As for visibility, are our eyeballs up to snuff for picking up the runway lights looming out of the murk or reading the approach chart? For near-vision, do you constantly have to pinch the tablet screen to zoom in to read the text? A Class III medical requires 20/40 vision and will be evaluated every other year for a pilot 40 or older. Heres the curve ball though. For pilots availing themselves of BasicMed, remember that vision is per the states driving license requirements. Some states allow restricted driving with 20/70 vision. Also, since BasicMed rules require a physical exam by a state-licensed physician only once every four years, to keep safe, pilots should schedule a visual acuity test with an optometrist or ophthalmologist annually. Just as with vision, hearing loss is common with aging. Communications is a vital part of IFR flight youre always talking to ATC whereas a VFR pilot may only have to listen up at the departure and arrival airports. If say again is a frequent utterance, consider purchasing an active noising-cancelling headset. As for deterioration of memory recall, just as we were taught in our instrument training, make good use of pen/paper (or tablet) for the ATIS, altitude and vector assignments. Finally, what about your steed? Sure, big and fast is many a pilots dreambut that means things happen quicker and theres more to doespecially during departure and approach. This could be an issue with slower response times. Is it time to down-grade to a slower more docile beastsay a non-complex, lower performance airplane? In the end, we all need to know our limitations. Respect your advancing years. Heeding some of the above tips and who knowslike my chum Jack you might fly IFR safety till the ripe age of 98 as he did. Farewell Jack. Further Reading: Aging and the General Aviation Pilot, Air Safety Institute. Research and Recommendations, 2014. Douglas Boyd is a retired Professor at The University of Texas, and a Commercial, SMEL and instrument rated pilot. This article originally appeared in the July 2018 issue ofIFR Refreshermagazine. For more great content like this, subscribe toIFR Refresher! Google has joined a growing list of organizations that have asked embattled Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican candidate in Mississippi's special Senate election runoff on Tuesday, to refund its $5,000 campaign contribution in the wake of recent controversial statements. Details: A spokesperson for Google confirmed the refund request to Axios. Hyde-Smith, who is running against Democratic challenger Mike Espy to complete the term of retired Sen. Thad Cochran (R), sparked national backlash after saying at a campaign event earlier this month that she would be front row if invited to a public hanging. The remark triggered outrage due to Mississippis history of racially motivated lynchings. News of Google's contribution was first reported by the political newsletter Popular Information. Wall Street analysts are responding to General Motors' plans to lay off nearly 15,000 salaried workers in 2019 and idle five North American manufacturing plants. The big picture: Analysts were largely surprised by the scale of the restructuring, GM's largest since emerging from bankruptcy, but welcomed the cost cuts. What analysts are saying: Elon Musk, the inventor and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, told "Axios on HBO" that humans must merge with machines to overcome the existential threat of artificial intelligence. The big picture: Musk said artificial intelligence is "just digital intelligence. And as the algorithms and the hardware improve, that digital intelligence will exceed biological intelligence by a substantial margin. It's obvious." And he said we're way behind: "We're like children in a playground. ... We're not paying attention. We worry more about ... what name somebody called someone else ... than whether AI will destroy humanity. That's insane." Musk's bottom line: "My faith in humanity has been a little shaken this year. But Im still pro-humanity." Why it matters: Musk warned humans could go the way of monkeys, dismissed to small pockets of the Earth. That could happen, he said, if we dont respond more urgently to the dire and increasingly real threat of machines holding exponentially more knowledge than mankind. "When a species of primate, homo sapiens, became much smarter than other primates, it pushed all the other ones into a very small habitat," Musk continued. homo sapiens, became much smarter than other primates, it pushed all the other ones into a very small habitat," Musk continued. "So there are very few mountain gorillas and orangutans and chimpanzees monkeys in general." mountain gorillas and orangutans and chimpanzees monkeys in general." "They occupy small corners of the world cages. ... Zoos. Even the jungles that they're in are narrowly defined so they were sort of like big cages ... So, you know, that's one possible outcome for us." Musk said his neuroscience company, Neuralink, has about 85 of "the highest per capita intelligence" group of engineers he has ever assembled with the mission of building a hard drive for your brain. "The long-term aspiration with Neuralink would be to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence." with Neuralink would be to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence." Wait. What? "To achieve a sort of democratization of intelligence, such that it is not monopolistically held in a purely digital form by governments and large corporations." "To achieve a sort of democratization of intelligence, such that it is not monopolistically held in a purely digital form by governments and large corporations." Musk said he'll do that with an "electrode-to-neuron interface at a micro level" "a chip and a bunch of tiny wires" that will be "implanted in your skull." he'll do that with an "electrode-to-neuron interface at a micro level" "a chip and a bunch of tiny wires" that will be "implanted in your skull." "I believe this can be done. ... It's probably on the order of a decade." this can be done. ... It's probably on the order of a decade." "And by the way, you kind of have this already in a weird way: You have a digital tertiary layer in the form of your phone, your computers, your watch. You basically have these computing devices that form a tertiary layer on your cognition already." Musk said an immediate application could be spinal cord injuries: "We already know how to do this: Implant electrodes into the motor cortex of the brain, then bypass the severed section of the spine and have effectively local micro controllers near the muscle groups. It could restore full limb functionality." how to do this: Implant electrodes into the motor cortex of the brain, then bypass the severed section of the spine and have effectively local micro controllers near the muscle groups. It could restore full limb functionality." "As people get older, they lose their memory incredibly sad to have a mother forget her children, and that can be solved too." And Musk said people don't appreciate the damage off-the-shelf AI presents today: "You could make a swarm of assassin drones for very little money. By just taking the face ID chip that's used in cellphones, and having a small explosive charge and a standard drone, and just have it do a grid sweep of the building until they find the person they're looking for, ram into them and explode. You could do that right now. ... No new technology is needed." But perhaps an even bigger threat, he said, is "incredibly effective propaganda ... influence the direction of society. Influence elections." AI can hone a message by watching online feedback and reacting to news, then making the message "slightly better within milliseconds." a message by watching online feedback and reacting to news, then making the message "slightly better within milliseconds." Musk said Washington is losing the war to control AI: "The way in which regulation is put in place is slow and linear. And we are facing an exponential threat. If you, if you have a linear response to an exponential threat, it's quite likely the exponential threat will win. That, in a nutshell, is the issue." After a string of mind-stretchers, Musk added: "Maybe we're in a simulation. Lawmakers will push members of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to provide details of their investigation into whether Facebooks handling of the Cambridge Analytica data leak violated a previous legal settlement with the agency. Why it matters: Facebook is under intense political pressure around the world, with hearings on both sides of the Atlantic challenging its commitment to treating its users fairly. Details: The five members of the Federal Trade Commission, including Chairman Joe Simons, will appear Tuesday afternoon before a subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee. Last March, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the FTC also confirmed that it was investigating whether Facebook's privacy practices violated the Commission's 2012 consent decree, the subcommittees chair, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran is expected to say, referring to a legal settlement with the agency that required the social giant to make certain privacy guarantees to users. It would be useful to know if the Commission has an anticipated timeline for when the results of that investigation will be announced, and what penalties the company might face if the Commission determines that its practices did violate the consent decree," he'll say. The panels top Democrat, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, said on Twitter this weekend that the FTC, Justice Department, SEC, & Senate Commerce Committee all must investigate Facebook. Privacy commitments, deceptive & misleading practices, shareholder disclosure, antitrust everything must be on the table. A spokesperson said Blumenthal would press the agency on Tuesday about what actions it plans to take in the Facebook investigation, and about what he sees as a failure to address the damaging nature of Big Tech. Across the Atlantic, Facebooks Richard Allan will face policymakers from around the world who are part of a British parliamentary effort to question the company. Allan's appearance is complicated by the news this weekend that the British committee leading that effort had seized documents from Facebook that were part of litigation with another firm. The big picture: The social network has been gripped in recent weeks by allegations that its leadership failed in key ways to manage the many scandals that have struck the company over the last two years. General Motors' plan to shutter several plants and cut thousands of workers is a glimpse into big changes that may loom as major automakers make the slow transition to electric vehicles. Driving the news: As my Axios colleagues reported, GM said Monday that it will cut 15% of its salaried workforce, estimated to be more than 14,000 people in North America. It will idle factories in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Canada. The intrigue: The auto giant called it part of a restructuring that will help devote more resources to fully battery-powered offerings even as it also focuses on larger gasoline-powered products in the move away from some sedans. The company is focusing on crossovers, trucks and SUVs, while "resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs will double in the next two years," the company said. By next year, it will no longer make the Buick LaCrosse, the Chevrolet Impala, or the Cadillac CT6 sedan. The plan also includes killing off the Chevy Volt, a plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid with limited range first launched in 2010. The big picture: Autotrader analyst Michelle Krebs called the GM move the result of several forces, including a downturn in the North American and Chinese markets, a consumer shift toward SUVs, and tariffs and trade policy. But one impetus is to position itself for electric and autonomous offerings that won't be money makers any time soon, she tells Axios. "It has got to be very profitable right now to finance all that. The automaker plans to launch at least 20 all-electric models by 2023. "GM is really betting big on autonomous and electric vehicles, and so it has got to shore up its profits right now prepare for that future." Michelle Krebs But, but, but: Via Greentech Media, the Union of Concerned Scientists' David Reichmuth offers a critical view of GM's near-term positioning for its long-term, more electrified future. I like what they said about electrification; the problem is what theyre investing in," he tells Greentech, noting the company's focus on SUVs and pickups. "I think GM and a lot of the companies know that electrification is the future, but theyre prioritizing the short-term profits from some of these less efficient gasoline vehicles," he says. What's next: Mark Muro, a Brookings Institution expert in industrial transitions, also tells me the GM move is about slowing sales in the U.S. and China and the shift away from sedans. But he adds, "The changes are equally all about accelerating the companys move toward into the future of mobility. In that sense the restructuring reflects the companys aggressive transition from gas to electric and analog to digital." That will shift the employee base, with more emphasis on software engineers and electrical engineers, Muro says. He called the changes part of maintaining a competitive industry. "There will be excruciating pain in some places left behind," Muro says. Go deeper: Seven-in-ten Americans say the U.S.-German relationship is "good," according to a new Pew poll. Just 24% of Germans agree, and 72% say they want more independence from the U.S. when it comes to foreign policy. By the numbers: Similarly, while 70% of Americans say the U.S. should cooperate more with Germany, just 41% of Germans would like to see more cooperation with the U.S. Meanwhile, a whopping 69% would like to see Germany cooperate more with Russia, and 67% with China. A growing group of Google employees have signed on to a letter asking their employer to end its Dragonfly project aimed at creating a censored version of its search project for the Chinese market. Why it matters: The letter, which was initially published Tuesday and is being updated with more signatures on an ongoing basis, is the latest example of employee activism at the tech giant. A walkout staged by its employees over the companys poor handling of sexual harassment cases was successful in pushing the company to announce some policy changes, although not all the organizers' demands were met. What theyre saying: The employees said they are worried that enabling the Dragonfly project in China would "would establish a dangerous precedent at a volatile political moment, one that would make it harder for Google to deny other countries similar concessions" around censorship. The employees wrote in the letter: Many of us accepted employment at Google with the companys values in mind, including its previous position on Chinese censorship and surveillance, and an understanding that Google was a company willing to place its values above its profits. After a year of disappointments including Project Maven, Dragonfly, and Googles support for abusers, we no longer believe this is the case. This is why were taking a stand. A Google spokesperson referred Axios to an earlier statement on its work in China. We've been investing for many years to help Chinese users, from developing Android, through mobile apps such as Google Translate and Files Go, and our developer tools, the spokesperson said. But our work on search has been exploratory, and we are not close to launching a search product in China. The company pulled its search product in the country over censorship concerns in 2010. The other coast: Google CEO Sundar Pichai has agreed to testify in front of Congress, where lawmakers have questions about issues including China, unproven allegations of platform bias against conservatives and the companys broad dominance in the technology sector. Lawmakers have yet to settle on a date. Go deeper: Japan will make companies responsible for explaining decisions made by artificial intelligence software they use, according to a government draft of legal guidelines shared with Nikkei. The list stipulates AI should not infringe on basic human rights. Personal information should be handled carefully, it continues, and AI's security must be guaranteed. It also calls for maintaining a fair competitive playing field, making AI more accessible by improving education, and building an environment that encourages cross-border data sharing. A top goal is to increase transparency around how AI makes decisions, such as whether to extend a loan or hire someone for a job. A lack of clarity in AI's decision-making standards can leave the person being evaluated dissatisfied or uneasy. There are also fears that AI could factor gender or ethnicity into a decision on whether to hire someone, for instance, without the knowledge of even the company employing it. Assigning people with the ultimate responsibility for clearly explaining decisions is expected to ease fears surrounding the use of the technology. The seven guidelines will be officially unveiled next month by a government council on forming principles for a "human-centric" AI society, chaired by University of Tokyo Professor Osamu Sudo. Japan will call on Group of 20 members to adopt the rules at June summit meetings in Osaka. - Nikkei 1 big thing: Why press fears on Assange charges are premature A lot of journalists fear that putting Wikileaks honcho Julian Assange on trial a prospect that looked more likely last week thanks to an inadvertent legal revelation could be very bad for the free press. My mom is worried, too: In my reporting in 2016, I received and published a bunch of leaked documents from Russia. If Assange is in trouble for doing that, I might be as well. But, but, but: There's a good chance charges against Assange will have little to do with press freedom. Here's why saying otherwise might be jumping the gun: An errant line in a recent legal filing appears to have confirmed that sealed charges against Assange do exist, although the Department of Justice is still fighting releasing any details. Those unknown charges rattled journalists, who worry about setting a dangerous precedent. And they could be an issue for any journalists who have handled leaks including me. In my reporting in 2016, I received reams of documents from Russia. If Assange is in trouble for doing that, I logically might be as well. This is sometimes called the "New York Times problem." It's hard to punish WikiLeaks without punishing every news outlet that reported on the documents it released. The intrigue: The DOJ almost certainly has facts not available to the public. And there's no good reason to assume that charges against Assange would just be about publishing documents. Leaked documents show WikiLeaks may have taken several actions that moved it far afield from the realm of journalism. The organization: Hacked a website of an anti-Trump PAC and shared the ill-gotten password with the Trump campaign. Directed hackers to attack a specific target. While the request was brought to those hackers by someone other than Assange, they believed the messenger was an intermediary sent by Assange. Provided hackers with external support in the form of a search algorithm to sift through hacked documents. Each of those instances could be viewed as either an outright violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or conspiracy to do so. Hacking the anti-Trump PAC website may actually be two crimes: trespassing into a computer and trafficking in the password. Reporters don't get to break the law to create or investigate a story. "If you speed on the way to a story, you're still speeding," said Paul Rosenzweig, who teaches cybersecurity law at George Washington University School of Law. "You don't get a pass to rob a bank if you're going to write about robbing a bank." The FBI has never contacted me about my role in the 2016 leaks. I assume that's at least in part because receiving leaked documents is not by itself a problem. The bottom line: We don't know that the leaked documents paint an accurate picture of WikiLeaks' involvement in crimes. They do, however, at least suggest it may be worth waiting to see what the DOJ has before declaring a press emergency. 1 big thing: Russia opens new front in Ukraine conflict Ukrainian servicemen look at activists digging trenches on the coast of the Sea of Azov. Photo: Sega Volskii/AFP/Getty Much of Ukraine is now under martial law a day after Russia intercepted, fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels off of Crimea, wounding at least six sailors in the process. Why it matters: This is a new, more dangerous form of aggression, says John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council. In the light of day, Moscow demonstrated that it will attack Ukraine with its conventional forces. Absent U.S. and European pushback that turns a Kremlin tactical victory into a strategic defeat, he says, further aggression is likely. The big picture: Alina Polyakova of Brookings writes for Axios Expert Voices that Moscow has been harassing commercial ships bound for Ukraines ports in the Sea of Azov for months. The attack on naval vessels now opens a new front in Russias four-year aggression against Ukraine, which includes the ongoing land war in Ukraine's east and the occupation of Crimea. How it happened: Ukraines navy says it alerted Russias coast guard that a tugboat escorting two small warships bound for the Sea of Azov was en route to the Kerch Strait, but didnt receive a response. As the tugboat approached the strait, a Russian vessel slammed into it. They were clearly trying to provoke Ukraine into firing and seeking a justification to engage the Ukrainian navy militarily, Herbst says. That didnt happen. Now he says, Theyre trying to get away with it without any international reaction. The Trump administration was all but silent on Sundays attack until outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley denounced Russias outlaw act this morning at an emergency Security Council session. Asked about the situation hours later, President Trump seemed to suggest there was blame on both sides, saying, We do not like what's happening either way. Secretary of State Pompeo, shortly thereafter, issued a statement condemning Russias dangerous escalation. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sought and received parliamentary support for a declaration of martial law that will last 30 days and affect areas bordering Russia. The declaration comes ahead of Ukrainian presidential elections, scheduled for March, which observers say the Kremlin has been seeking to disrupt. Poroshenko is highly unpopular and trails in the polls. Jonathan Katz of the German Marshall Fund says hes yet to hear a good explanation for what makes this moment different that demands the unprecedented declaration of martial law. He says theres concern it will be used to Poroshenkos advantage, and to the detriment of Ukraines democracy. While the order is only set to last 30 days, these things tend to get extended, Katz says. Somebody can create a provocation theres plenty of ongoing violence that could be treated as a justification. What's next: Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin in just a few days at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Much of Ukraine is now under martial law a day after Russia intercepted, fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels off of Crimea, wounding at least six sailors in the process. Why it matters: This is a new, more dangerous form of aggression, says John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council. In the light of day, Moscow demonstrated that it will attack Ukraine with its conventional forces. Absent U.S. and European pushback that turns a Kremlin tactical victory into a strategic defeat, he says, further aggression is likely. The big picture: Alina Polyakova of Brookings writes for Axios Expert Voices that Moscow has been harassing commercial ships bound for Ukraines ports in the Sea of Azov for months. The attack on naval vessels now opens a new front in Russias four-year aggression against Ukraine, which includes the ongoing land war in Ukraine's east and the occupation of Crimea, she writes. How it happened... Ukraines navy says it alerted Russias coast guard that a tugboat escorting two small warships bound for the Sea of Azov was en route to the Kerch Strait, but didnt receive a response. As the tug approached the strait, a Russian vessel slammed into it. They were clearly trying to provoke Ukraine into firing, and seeking a justification to engage the Ukrainian navy militarily, Herbst says. That didnt happen. Now he says, theyre trying to get away with it without any international reaction. The Trump administration was all but silent on Sundays attack until outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley denounced Russias outlaw act this morning at an emergency Security Council session. Asked about the situation hours later, President Trump seemed to suggest there was blame on both sides, saying we do not like what's happening either way. Secretary of State Pompeo, shortly thereafter, issued a lengthy statement condemning Russias dangerous escalation. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sought and received parliamentary support for a declaration of martial law, to last 30 days and affect areas bordering Russia. The declaration comes ahead of Ukrainian presidential elections, scheduled for March, which observers say the Kremlin has been seeking to disrupt. Poroshenko is highly unpopular and trails in the polls. Jonathan Katz of the German Marshall Fund says hes yet to hear a good explanation for what makes this moment different that demands the unprecedented declaration of martial law. He says theres concern it will be used to Poroshenkos advantage, and to the detriment of Ukraines democracy. While the order is only set to last 30 days, these things tend to get extended, Katz says. Somebody can create a provocation theres plenty of ongoing violence that could be treated as a justification. What's next: Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin in just a few days at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has issued a stern warning to a newly formed nationalist party whose members stormed a police base in Yerevan more than two years ago. Pashinian said on Monday that the Sasna Tsrer party and its supporters will feel the taste of asphalt if they attempt to destabilize the political situation in Armenia before or after the December 9 parliamentary elections. Sasna Tsrer is a rebranded version of Founding Parliament, a radical movement that challenged the former Armenian government. It is one of 11 political forces running in the elections. Sasna Tsrers list of election candidates is topped by Varuzhan Avetisian, the leader of an armed group that seized the police base in Yerevans Erebuni district in July 2016. The three dozen gunmen demanded that then President Serzh Sarkisian free Founding Parliaments jailed leader, Zhirayr Sefilian, and step down. They laid down their weapons after a two-week standoff with security forces which left three police officers dead. Despite standing trial on serious charges, Avetisian and the vast majority of the other arrested gunmen were set free shortly after Pashinian came to power in May in a wave of anti-Sarkisian protests. Sefilian was also released from prison following the velvet revolution. The Lebanese-born activist, who received Armenian citizenship only this month, is not eligible to run for the parliament. But he is participating in the election campaign of his and his allies party strongly opposed to any Armenian concessions to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Avetisian has stated during the campaign that the National Assembly to be elected on December 9 will have to be dissolved within two years because Armenia is now in a post-revolutionary transitional period. Pashinian, whose My Step alliance is expected to win the upcoming polls, reacted furiously those statements when he campaigned in Armenias northwestern Shirak province on Monday. Have you have decided that you have a right to determine the length of the parliaments and sometimes even peoples life? he appealed to the Sasna Tsrer leadership during a campaign rally. Im telling you: make no mistake, this is not Serzh Sarkisians weak and spineless government. Let nobody interpret our smiles and courtesy as weakness. There have been several such cases, and those who thought so felt the taste of asphalt, Pashinian said, alluding to high-profile detentions of some members of Sarkisians entourage and their bodyguards. The prime minister added that the new parliament will fully serve its five-year term set by the Armenian constitution. Sasna Tsrer condemned the premiers remarks in a statement issued on Tuesday. Pashinian made unfounded statements, using threats and phrases having an offensive subtext, it said. Avetisian defended his statements. He said they do not mean that Sasna Tsrer is now demanding the holding of fresh elections by 2020. It is first and foremost a prediction, Avetisian told RFE/RLs Armenian service. Many other politicians and political forces have made the same forecast. The 2016 attack on the Yerevan police base was condemned by the United States and the European Union. We abhor the actions of Sasna Tsrer and others who use violence or who threaten to harm others to serve their political agenda, Richard Mills, the former U.S. ambassador to Armenia, said in March 2018. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to grab by the throat, throw to the ground and jail loyalists of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) who would try to pressure voters ahead of next months parliamentary elections. Pashinian stepped up his verbal attacks on the party led by his predecessor Serzh Sarkisian as he toured the northern Lori province on the second day of campaigning for the December 9 polls. Where are the Republican village mayors who bully their villagers in connection with the elections or anything else? he said at a campaign rally held in the town of Spitak. I say to those village mayors: be aware that I personally will visit you, grab you by the throat and throw you out of your offices. Are there people in this country who dare to bully citizens? I will force all of you to lie on the ground. Who are they? Which Republicans? Which oligarchs? Which burly men? I will force all of you to lie on the ground and you wont get off the ground for years. Pashinian went on to order the Armenian police to deal with HHK-linked criminal elements in a similar fashion. Who do you think you are? he said, appealing to those elements. Tell me your names. You must not come out of your holes. You must not walk in the countrys streets. Your place is in prison and you all -- criminals, plunderers and scoundrels -- will end up in prison. Pashinian did not name any village chiefs or other individuals allegedly trying to earn the HHK voters with illicit methods. Sarkisians party, which was forced out of power more than six months ago, has been the main target of his harsh verbal attacks on his critics launched on the campaign trail. The HHK condemned Pashinians hate speech and threats against elected officials in a statement released by its campaign headquarters later on Tuesday. Such behavior is unprecedented for our political culture, especially on the part of the prime minister bearing responsible for our security and well-being, said the statement. The HHK urged Armenias Central Election Commission, human rights ombudsman and foreign election observers to pay attention to Pashinians pre-election rhetoric. The HHK won the last parliamentary elections held in April 2017. But it is now fighting to remain represented in the National Assembly. Pashinian reacted furiously after HHK figures and other critics condemned one of his close associates, Sasun Mikaelian, for saying on Monday that the success of this springs velvet revolution was more important than the Armenian victory in the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He accused his political opponents of deliberately misinterpreting Mikaelians statement which he portrayed as a slip of the tongue. By Leman Mammadova The cooperation on transportation between Iran and Russia through Azerbaijan is crucial in the realization of the North-South International Transport Corridor project. In 2019-2021 cargo transportation between Russia and Iran is expected to be increased by 30 percent. Chairman of Russian State Duma's Committee for Transport and Construction Evgeniy Moskvichev said in his speech at the Transport Week-2018 which took place in Moscow, AZERTAC reported. He noted that a free transit to Iran to be organized between Russia and Azerbaijan. Therefore, the volume of cargo arriving in Iran and from Iran, will increase by 30 percent in 2019-2021. Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran established a joint working group on further development of transportation between the countries within the Transport Week. The North-South transport corridor was established in 2000 within the Intergovernmental Agreement between Russia, Iran and India. The main purpose of the agreement is to increase the efficiency of transport communications in the organization of freight and passenger transportation, to create conditions for member states to enjoy the international rail, automobile, sea, river and air transport services, to assist in increasing the volume of international transportations. The project envisages connecting India with the Middle East and the Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe. In total, 13 countries have ratified the Agreement. Azerbaijan joined this Agreement in 2005. The purpose of the corridor is to reduce the delivery time to 3 weeks from India to Russia, as well as to North and Western Europe as the current route route is more than 6 weeks. Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia signed an agreement in 2005 on the construction of 375 km long Astara-Resht-Qazvin railway project envisages the construction of a new railway line in Iran, which will connect Astara, Azerbaijan to the Iranian cities of Astara, Rasht and Qazvin as well as the reconstruction of an existing railway in Azerbaijan. The railway between Astara regions of Azerbaijan and Iran has been already completed. Qazvin-Rasht part of railway has been already launched last week. The construction of the Rasht-Astara railway will be completed in two years. The expected volume of cargo on the corridor passing through the territory of Azerbaijan is 3 million tons at the first, 5-8 million tons at the second and 15 million tons at the third stage. Last year, Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia lowered the tariffs by 50 percent for the activation of cargo transportation via the North-South international transport corridor. In 2017, the increase in cargo transportation through the territory of Azerbaijan between Russia and Iran was 68 percent. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The North-South project is one of the key points of political interaction between Russia and Azerbaijan, respectively, the significance of the transport corridor is high for both states, Russian analyst at the Center for Political Information Ivan Pyatibratov told Trend. He was commenting on the agreement to establish a working group for the further development of cargo transportation on the North-South ITC between Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran. The matter was discussed in Moscow as part of a recent meeting between Russian Deputy Minister of Transport Alexei Semenov, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade and Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Planning of Iran Shahram Adamnejad. The parties to the meeting considered the issues of cargo transportation between the three countries, noting the increase in their volumes. Based on the results of the discussion, the sides decided to establish a joint working group to address issues of further development in transport between countries, as well as an appropriate monitoring system. Pyatibratov noted that the importance of the North-South ITC for Russia is primarily due to geopolitical reasons, more precisely expanding its diplomatic and economic presence in the East. "For Azerbaijan, this corridor is more interesting from economic point of view: the country receives direct access to the western market, as well as the status of an international transport hub, which guarantees its economic growth. Therefore, the potential benefits of the North-South corridor are very real and understandable for our countries," Pyatibratov said. He noted that besides Russia and Azerbaijan, Iran, which is the most important element of the project and the Astara-Rasht-Qazvin transport corridor in particular, also participates in North-South ITC project. "It is obvious that presently, the Iranian side has objective problems: in 2018, the US withdrew from a nuclear deal with Iran and imposed sanctions against the country, which dealt a serious blow to its economy. At the same time, the fall of the Iranian rial and the rise in food prices, as well as the drought led to massive social protests. Thus, one of the partners of Russia and Azerbaijan in the North-South project is in a state of economic and political turbulence, and when it comes out of it, isn't clear yet. In this regard, it can be assumed that the implementation of the entire North-South project will be delayed until the issue with Iran is resolved," Pyatibratov added. The expert stressed that Russia and Azerbaijan do stop working on the project, which means that the part of the project for which they are responsible will be implemented on time. "It is worth noting that both the Russian and Azerbaijani sides are making efforts so that Iran does not withdraw from the project. And I think that the decision to create a trilateral working group on the development of the North-South corridor in November 2018 is a clear confirmation of this," the expert said. The idea of the North-South transport corridor appeared in 1993. However, only on September 12, 2000, Russia, Iran and India signed a corresponding agreement, which was ratified in 2002. Azerbaijan joined the project in 2005. The implementation of the idea has stalled due to Western sanctions against Iran. With the lifting of sanctions against Tehran in January 2016, the project again acquired its relevance. The length of the international transport corridor is more than 7,000 kilometers. A significant part of the North-South corridor runs along the Russian railways, which, depending on the route, account for 33-53 percentage of the total length of the land part of the corridor. The INSTC in its southern part involves several routes for the passage of goods using rail transport: Trans-Caspian route implies using of the Russian sea ports of Astrakhan, Olya, Makhachkala and the ports of Iran - Bender-Enzeli, Nowshehr and Bender-Amirabad. The western branch of the corridor is a direct rail link through the Samur (Russia) -Yalama (Azerbaijan) border crossings with further access to the Iranian railway network via the Astara (Azerbaijan) - Astara border (Iran). The eastern branch of the corridor is a direct rail link through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan with access to the Iranian railway network through the border crossings Sarakhs (Turkmenistan) - Sarakhs (Iran) and Akyaila (Turkmenistan) - Inche Burun (Iran). Currently, these routes are mainly destined for Russia's export cargo to Azerbaijan and Iran. The main advantage of the North-South corridor over other routes is a reduction of two or more times the distance of transportation, as well as a reduction in the cost of transporting containers compared to the cost of transportation along the sea route. Rasht-Astara (Iran) - Astara railway (Azerbaijan) has great importance for the project, which is the last link of the direct railway route along the western branch of the North-South. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova A gala concert in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was held at the fourth largest city in Turkey, Adana. The event was attended by ambassador of Azerbaijan to Turkey Khazar Ibrahim, prominent public figures, representatives of culture and science, the Azerbaijani diaspora, Trend Life reported. During the concert, the Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra performed the works of Azerbaijani composers. The orchestra was conducted by People's Artist of Azerbaijan Yalchin Adigezalov. The gala evening opened with the performance of "Azerbaijan Capriccio" by Fikret Amirov. Then the first performance of the Concert for Balaban with Orchestra by the talented composer Ilyas Mirzoyev, specially written for virtuoso, Peoples Artist of Azerbaijan Alikhan Samedov sounded on the stage. The world premiere of the new composition was a tremendous success. The second part of the concert opened with "Holiday Overture" by Vasif Adigezalov. The evening ended with a stunning work by Fikret Amirov - Suite from the ballet "Nasimi". On May 28, 1918, Azerbaijan declared its independence establishing the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which became the first secular parliamentary democracy in the Muslim World and recognized by other democratic nations, including the United States of America. During the short period of independence Azerbaijan granted all people the rights to vote regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion, becoming the first Muslim nation to give women equal political rights with men, an accomplishment preceding the United States. Azerbaijans independence was interrupted in 1920, when it was invaded by Bolshevists, and forcefully incorporated into the USSR in 1922 to restore its independence only in 1991. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, the occupation of Karabakh is a problem not only for Azerbaijan but also for Turkey. The fictional "Armenian genocide" is a lie, slander and is not legally justified. The Armenian side was asked to open all the archives many times and recognize everything that has been proven on the basis of historical facts. But Armenians still did not accept this proposal. Armenia takes a similar deconstructive position also in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Armenia must withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani lands, spokesman for Turkish President Ibrahim Kalyn said at a conference in Ankara dedicated to future relations between Turkey and Russia. The press secretary also noted that withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territories would be useful for Armenia itself. Kalyn considers that Russia has a great responsibility in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani lands is important for establishing peace and stability in the southern Caucasus," a spokesman concluded. The firm position of the Republic of Turkey on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the international arena and its policy of support in relation to the restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan are the main examples of solidarity. As a result of Armenia's armed invasion into Azerbaijan's legal territory, the two neighboring countries have remained locked in a bitter territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Armenia-backed separatists seized from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the early 1990s. 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. Despite Baku's best efforts, peace in the occupied lands remains a mirage in the distance as Armenia refuses to comply with international law. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The permission for the "head" of the illegal separatist regime, established in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, to enter the Russian Federation is contrary to Russia's mediation as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Fikrat Sadikhov, a well-known Azerbaijani political analyst, former diplomat, told Trend Nov. 26. Armenian media had earlier spread information that the "head" of the separatist regime, Bako Sahakyan arrived in the Russian Federation. Sadikhov noted that this fact negatively affects the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "At the same time, this contradicts the legal framework of the bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan. As we know, there is a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan, according to which the parties pledged not to support the separatist movements, as well as to stop the activities of individuals against the state sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the other party. Russia, as a supporter of the peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, should stop Bako Sahakyan's dubious visits to its territory," Sadikhov said. Sadikhov said Sahakyan's visits to any of the countries that have pledged to carry out the mediation mission are unacceptable. "Sahakyan's illegal visits to each of the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group are directed against the conflict's settlement since the visits violate the norms and principles of international law and at the same time question the mediation efforts of the countries involved in the negotiations," Sadikhov added. 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 Armenian prisoner of war, soldier Arsen Baghdasaryan, has sent an appeal to acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for releasing prisoners of war and hostages upon "all to all" principle, the Azerbaijani State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People said in a message on Nov. 26. Baghdasaryan was detained in Azerbaijans Aghdam district while trying to make a provocation on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, and was sentenced by Ganja Heinous Crimes Court to 15 years in prison. Baghdasaryan asked the Azerbaijani State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People to make his appeal public. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Spain supports peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of international law, Charge d'affaires ad interim of Spanish embassy in Baku Ignacio Sanchez Taboada told Trend on November 27. Spain supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs for the solution of the conflict, he said. The diplomat noted that Madrid Principles represent the guidelines for solving the conflict and also the stance of Spain regarding to it: pacific solution of the conflict (non-use of force), respect of territorial integrity and international law and right to return for displaced persons. He went on to say that Spain and Azerbaijan have important ties not only in the bilateral arena but also within the framework of multilateral relations. Spain is a party to the European Union and is very involved in the European Eastern Partnership in which Azerbaijan also participates. The Council of Europe and OSCE are of great relevance for Spain as they are also for Azerbaijan, and a great part of our international relations takes place in the framework of these European institutions, said Taboada. The diplomat pointed out that Spain and Azerbaijan share the values and principles of the United Nations and have traditionally cooperated within its institutional framework (General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, etc.). We have supported each other very recently to be present in different bodies of many international organizations, like the World Tourism Organizations or the International Telecommunications Union. Azerbaijan and Spain enjoy very healthy political relations. We do not have any contending topic in our bilateral agenda. Not bilateral disputes. We have provided each other mutual support in different international fora. We have a reasonable framework of international agreements which regulates our relations and cooperation, in a great variety of topics: education, sports, science, double taxation, etc., he added. 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. As a result of Armenia's armed invasion into Azerbaijan's legal territory, the two neighboring countries have remained locked in a bitter territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Armenia-backed separatists seized from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the early 1990s. 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. Despite Baku's best efforts, peace in the occupied lands remains a mirage in the distance as Armenia refuses to comply with international law. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Ruissian mobile operator MegaFon does not carry out any illegal activity in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and official information on the matter will be sent to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Konstantin Noskov said. He made the remarks at a meeting with the Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan Ramin Guluzade. The ministers also discussed the Azerbaijan-Russia cooperation in information technologies, post and telecommunications, information security, control over the quality of mobile communications, reduction of tariffs for international roaming and other topics. An agreement on cooperation in international postal communication between Azerpost LLC and Russian Post was decided to be signed. Talks on the participation of Russian companies in the 24th Azerbaijan International Exhibition-Conference of Telecommunications, Innovations and High Technologies "Bakutel-2018", which will be held in Baku, December 4-7, was also held during the meeting. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend A military junta that is on the path of aggression will bring only misfortunes to its people, and Armenia can be cited as an example, said Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov. Hasanov made the remarks on Nov. 26 at an official opening ceremony of the 9th Bosphorus Summit in Istanbul, held under the motto "Sustaining Peace and Development for All". Hasanov expressed gratitude to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey for organizing such an event that is of great international importance. Speaking about the current bitter realities, Hasanov stressed that some countries have chosen the path of occupation, aggression and arming themselves, rather than achieving sustainable development in conditions of cooperation. "Such an anti-human policy today runs through the geopolitical axis of the whole world beginning from the borders of Central and North America to the borders of Syria and Turkey, Myanmar and Bangladesh, he said. This tragedy exists in the South Caucasus for about 30 years. The aggressive policy pursued by neighboring Armenia in the first years of independence of Azerbaijan, territorial claims to Azerbaijan without any historical and legal right led to the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, and as a result, over one million Azerbaijani citizens became refugees and internally displaced people, Hasanov said. An OSCE assessment mission confirmed that the ancient Azerbaijani religious and historical monuments were destroyed on these lands, he said. More than 10 countries and numerous international organizations have recognized the Khojaly Genocide committed against Azerbaijanis." Hasanov stressed that the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict threatens not only the fragile peace in the South Caucasus, but also the security of Europe and the whole world. This is due to non-recognition of international law, territorial integrity of other countries and peaceful appeals of religions, delusion of grandeur, claims to possess territories from sea to sea, the use of any falsification and committing crimes against humanity for the sake of fulfilling this claim, he said. "Despite aggression, today thanks to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs policy, Azerbaijan has been able to ensure not only its dynamic development, but has become a country playing a special role in the economic and cultural integration of Europe and the Middle East, ensuring Europes energy security," Hasanov said. The global projects being implemented by Azerbaijan together with its partners are not just communication projects and energy security projects - they are making great contribution to security, connect the continents and renew geo-economic map of the world," he added. "As President Aliyev said, all member states, especially neighboring countries, benefit from the projects initiated by Azerbaijan, Hasanov said. It is enough to mention the benefit the recently commissioned STAR refinery will bring. However, Armenias criminal regime as a medieval usurper willing to enrich itself in an easier way - by occupying another countrys lands - is now isolated from all the regional initiatives, he said. A military junta that is on the path of aggression may bring only misfortune to its people, rather than prosperity, and Armenia can be cited as an example. Azerbaijan is remarkable for its activity in peacekeeping operations, Hasanov said. The country is an active participant in the cooperation programs of NATO, EU, OSCE and CIS. "Azerbaijan is developing cooperation with all its neighbors in bilateral and multilateral cooperation, except for aggressive Armenia, he said. Of course, if there was no military aggression against our territorial integrity and if our countrys financial and human resources were not directed at eliminating the occupation, then the development of Azerbaijan and the region would be at another level." "We want to see such a region, such a world where people with the same or close cultures are not forced to migrate, so that they stay in their historical lands, live and develop," he said. Everyone must have the courage to say no to the aggressor, support all initiatives put forward in this direction and unite efforts. In this regard, over the past nine years, the Bosphorus Summit has been contributing to sustainable development for all, seeking peace, Hasanov added. Turkey has done tremendous work in settlement of conflicts and in restoration of sustainable peace in the region. The policy of Turkey, which has become an important geopolitical actor in the world under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, its peacekeeping operations, tense diplomatic struggle are a great activity aimed at fair settlement of regional conflicts, as well as fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order appointing Hikmet Hajiyev as head of the foreign policy department of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration. The order comes into force from the date of its signing. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova Every year, several 100,000 earthquakes occur on the globe, and about a hundred of them are destructive, causing death to people and entire cities. Although Azerbaijan is not the most earthquake-prone place on Earth, the country has witnessed a considerable number of earthquakes from the beginning of the year. Most of the recorded earthquakes occurred in the Shamakhi, Ismayilli, Zagatala, Balakan regions, in the Lesser Caucasus, in the Talysh zone, as well as in the middle and northern parts of the Caspian Sea during the year. Over the past few weeks, Azerbaijan stopped to receive information on small earthquakes, usually regularly recorded on the territory of the republic. As Sputnik Azerbaijan reports, it is widely known that the lack of activity in the seismic territory may indicate the threat of a significant earthquake. For example, it happened so on November 25 at the Iran-Iraq border. The source of an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 lied at a depth of ten kilometers. As a result of tremors, about 550 people were injured. There is information about one dead. According to official data, the last tremors of magnitude 3 were recorded in the territory of Lerik region in Azerbaijan on November 5, 2018. Commenting on the three-week lull Vusala Rafigqizi explained the reason for the lack of activity in the country - and what this could lead to. She said that insignificant earthquakes occur every day. The fact is that, an agreement about providing the public with information only about earthquakes of a magnitude higher than three was reached together with international seismological organizations. And since certain processes always occur on the earths surface, earthquakes happen daily, the representative of the seismic center explained. As for the predictions for more serious earthquakes that may occur as a result of the accumulation of tension in the crust, the expert noted that today no country can give such predictions. Rafigqizi once again stressed that Azerbaijan is one of the seismically active territories. Currently, the tension of the earth's crust on our site is at the background level. If small tremors cease to be registered, this may be a cause for concern, as it may indicate the accumulation of energy. However, fortunately, we have such minor earthquakes every day, said the head of the department. Meanwhile, over the past few months in Azerbaijan, small earthquakes occurred in the territory of Lerik, Gabala, Agsu, Gobustan and other areas, as well as in the waters of the Caspian Sea. Generally, more than 4,400 tremors have been registered in the country since the beginning of the year. As many as 27 of the earthquakes that occurred were felt, the general director of the Republican Center for Seismological Service (RCSS) of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (ANAS), member of ANAS Gurban Yetirmishli told AZERTAG on October 30, 2018. He noted that since the beginning of the year the strongest tremor had been recorded on the territory of the Zagatala region. Characterized by high seismic activity and situated in the active collision zone of Arabian plate with Eurasian, the territory of Azerbaijan has complicated block structures differing from each other by the level of seismic activity. Therefore, Azerbaijan is considered to be a seismically active region a lot of earthquakes occur here every year, however, majority of them are not felt. The seismogenic zones with potential to produce dangerous force cover the whole country, as the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt passes through Azerbaijan. Strong and catastrophic earthquakes that took place several times in this area from ancient times till now caused huge destructions. Currently, more than 35 seismic stations are established in Azerbaijan with the leading station in the Academic Town of Baku. The stations are connected to the satellite system. In addition, it is planned to install an additional five stations on land. By the way, scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Montana (U.S.) predicted a year ago that in 2018 the frequency of earthquakes with a magnitude of more than seven points would increase almost twice, and it would happen because of the fact that the decline of Earth's rotation speed, reported MIGnews referring to foreign media. Scientists studied the strong earthquakes that occurred since 1900. Seismic intensification periods began about five years after the slowdown of the Earths rotational speed reached a maximum. About 4.5 years have passed since the last deceleration of the Earths rotation. There is not much time left before the debriefing and verification of the scientists predictions, but it must be admitted that the outgoing year was indeed rich in serious and even destructive earthquakes... --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova The implementation of the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) that will provide delivery of Azerbaijani gas to South-Eastern Europe has already been settled. It is an irreversible process. This was stated by Energy Minister of Bulgaria Temenuzhka Petkova at a round table on Risks and prospects for the energy security of South-Eastern Europe. The construction of the IGB is an irreversible process, since all the key government procurement for the project has already been launched, said Minister adding that the project is of great importance for the diversification of sources of supply of natural gas, not only for Bulgaria, but also for the entire region she noted. She recalled that European Commission identified the project as one of the top seven energy priorities. European Commission has already confirmed that the IGB project complies with European Union guidelines for State Assistance. The measures approved by the Commission will support the construction and operation of a cross-border gas interconnector (called IGB) between Greece (Komotini) and Bulgaria (Stara Zagora). The gas interconnector is designed to transport 3 billion bcm per year of natural gas from Greece to Bulgaria by 2021. Later, the capacity may reach 5 bcm per year. The IGB project was supported by Greece and Bulgaria governments within Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2009. The 185 kilometer interconnector is designed to transport 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Greece to Bulgaria by 2021. One billion cubic meters of gas produced by Shah Deniz in 2020 will be delivered to Bulgaria per year via IGB. Bulgargaz EAD signed 25-year agreement gas purchase in September 2013 within Shah Deniz-2. The total investment cost for the realization of the IGB interconnector amounts to 240 million euros. The European Union attaches great importance to this project and has allocated 46 million euros for its funding. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will also provide a loan of 110 million euros to BEH (and subsequently passed-on to ICGB AD). As many as 39 million euros will come as a direct financial contribution from the Bulgarian State budget via the Bulgarian Operational Programme "Innovation and Competitiveness" 2014-2020 (OPIC). Bulgaria through Bulgargaz EAD company has already concluded a contract with the Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR for the delivery of 1 billion cubic meters per year from the second phase of Shah Deniz gas field. These volumes represent about 25-30 percent of the consumption of natural gas that Bulgaria expects by 2020 in our country. IGB is a gas pipeline which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP, to create an alternative source to Russian gas flowing to Bulgaria. TAP in turn is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor which provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov About 1.5 billion kWh of electricity was exported by Tajikistan to Uzbekistan in April-September of 2018. First deputy chairman of Barki Tochik, Mahmadumar Asozoda, more precisely stressed that for this period 1 billion 480 million kW / h of Tajik electricity was exported at a price of 2 U.S. cents per kilowatt. Representative of Barki Tochik said that since September of this year, the export of electricity to neighboring Uzbekistan has stopped in order to meet domestic needs Earlier in the report Monitoring and Early Warning in Tajikistan it was noted that in September 2018, Uzbek consumers received about 182 million kWh of Tajik electricity. This figure is 200 million kWh. less compared to the volume of August of this year. A gradual reduction in the supply of electricity to Uzbekistan occurred after the peak volume in July - 417 million kWh. Prior to that, the neighboring republic received from 110-120 million kilowatt-hours of Tajik electricity every month from April 2018. Tajikistan, in accordance with the agreements reached between the two countries, pledged to supply at least 1.5 billion kW / h to Uzbekistan this year. electricity. The cost of each kilowatt should be 2 U.S. cents. In September, the volume of electricity exports to Afghanistan also decreased from 200 million kW / h. in previous months to 158 million kWh in September. At the beginning of 2018, Mahmadumar Asozoda reported that Tajikistan last year exported 1 billion 304 million kWh of electricity to Afghanistan. According to the agreements this year it is planned to increase this figure to 1.5 billion kW / h. Asozoda considers that in 2017, Tajikistan exported electricity to neighboring Afghanistan at a price of 4,081 cents per kWh. According to the agreement signed earlier between the energy departments of the two countries, the cost of Tajik electricity for Afghanistan is increasing annually by 3 percent. The term of this agreement on tariffs is valid until 2029. The amount of electricity exports to neighboring Afghanistan last year amounted to $ 52.3 million. Tajikistan has restored electricity supplies to Uzbekistan since April this year after a nine-year break. In total, according to the agreements, Tajikistan will supply up to 1.5 billion kWh of electricity to the neighboring country. Tajikistan can export up to 5 billion kWh of electricity. Seasonal recipients of Tajik electricity are Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan (1.5-2 billion kWh) along with Uzbekistan. Over 18 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, which allowed the country to provide electricity without imposing a limit, were produced in Tajikistan in 2017. Previously, Central Asia had a unified energy system. It included 83 power plants with total capacity of 25,000 megawatts in the territory of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and southern Kazakhstan. In winter, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan accumulated water in reservoirs and received electricity and energy resources (coal and natural gas) from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In summer, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan sent water to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan for irrigation farming. However, after Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan left the unified energy system of Central Asia in 2003 and 2009, respectively, the system ceased to function. According to agreements reached by the electric power companies of the two countries, in summer, Uzbekistan purchases electricity from Tajikistan for $0.02 per kilowatt, in winter - $0.025 per kilowatt. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Last week, 35 deals were registered at the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange of Turkmenistan, the Exchange said in a message. Businessmen from Afghanistan purchased hydrotreated diesel fuel and base oil. In addition, high density polyethylene, colorless sheet glass, cotton wool and motor transport were sold to businessmen from Russia, the UAE, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The total amount of transactions exceeded $10.744 million. Businesses and organizations of all ownership forms, residents of Turkmenistan and other countries can participate in the exchange trading by acquisition of a broker place or signing of service contract with exchange brokers. Petrochemicals, cotton fiber, local textile and chemical production are the main exports. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Iranian and German authorities held fruitful talks regarding the launch of the train between the two countries, said the Islamic Republic's railway official. Iran hopes to have its first train arrive in Germany next year, IRNA quoted the Deputy head of International Organizations Unit at Islamic Republic of Iran`s Railways Mojgan Kordbacheh as saying at the 22nd meeting of the UIC (International Union of Railways) Regional Assembly for the Middle-East (RAME) in Isfahan. These negotiations have been ongoing in the past two years and are now Iran and Germany are negotiating to resolve regulatory issues for launching a train between the two countries, he said. The train will be launched to carry cargos from Iran to Europe and bring imported goods from Europe to Iran, Kordbacheh said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Armenian Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's position on many issues is far from the ideal, but his unwillingness to save his own citizens, about whom he should care first, is nothing but an egoism. After using the services of saboteurs to commit provocations against Azerbaijan, Armenian authorities abandon them as soon as they receive an adequate response from Baku. Detained on December 26, 2014, while attempting to carry out a provocation on the contact line of troops in Azerbaijans Aghdam district, Armenian soldier Bagdasaryan Arsen Eduardovich, convicted on May 5, 2015, sent an appeal to acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The appeal was sent in connection with the issue of exchange of hostages discussed in the media on the principle of all for all. In this appeal, Baghdasaryan asks the Armenian authorities to take serious steps in the salvation and liberation of their people. He also noted the importance of reaching a general consensus with opponents from Azerbaijan in the release of suffering people of two countries and stressed that Armenian people are tired of this war which brought nothing to the people except sorrow and suffering. However, Armenian authorities most likely to ignore this appeal. Recently, Pashinyan, in particular, stated that Armenia refuses the proposal of Azerbaijan to exchange prisoners of war. In response to a protest action organized by the family of another Armenian saboteur Karen Ghazaryan captured by the Azerbaijani military, Pashinyan literally dismissed this action. He stated that the requirement to solve the issue at any cost does not meet the interests of Armenia and expressed doubt that the society would treat such actions with understanding. Pashinyan stressed that there are many hostages in Azerbaijan and it would be wrong to focus on one or the other person and holding actions with regards to this is meaningless. But in that case, Pashinyan disproves himself by this statement. If he really cares so much about the prisoners of war, then the question arises, why Azerbaijans peace proposal to exchange prisoners with a formula of all for all was rejected? Although before the upcoming parliamentary elections in December, Pashinyan can take this step and show the people that he is supposedly for peace. Anyway, if Armenian hostages will be released, they are unlikely to stay in Armenia. Either they will run away to the western countries to ask for political asylum, or return back to Azerbaijani prison, because Azerbaijan, in contrast to the aggressor state of Armenia, is humane even in relation to prisoners of war. According to official data, three Armenian citizens are in captivity in Azerbaijan: Arsen Baghdasaryan, Zaven Karapetyan and Karen Ghazaryan. In July 2014, Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov and Azerbaijani citizen Shahbaz Guliyev was taken hostage by Armenian soldiers while attempting to visit their fatherland in Kalbajar, while Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov was shot dead. Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev was sentenced to 22 years in prison under the illegal "court" of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The 2nd Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Member States Conference on Mediation will be held in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign MInistry told Trend on Nov. 27. The conference will be held on November 29, 2018, the ministry said. "The conference will discuss regional problems, as well as the existing conflicts in the OIC countries," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. The 1st OIC Member States Conference on Mediation was held in 2017 in Istanbul. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Kazakhtelecom national company has requested frequencies from Kazakh Information and Communications Ministry for the deployment of 5G cellular communication technology, the companys Managing Director for Innovations Nurlan Meirmanov said. "We asked the regulator for the appropriate frequency within ranges where we plan to develop 5G. This is the millimeter range and C-band in which mobile networks will operate. Now we start to test them," he said at the 2nd IOT Forum Astana 2018. Meirmanov noted that the new technology allows connecting up to 50,000 different devices to one source. "There is no need for traffic or for large data transfer. What is necessary is a guaranteed connection of large devices at the same time. We plan to test one of the technologies before the end of the year a narrow beam," he said. Meirmanov explained that this technology allows high speed and maximum data transmission distance. He noted that this technology will be tested in late 2019-early 2020, and existing LTE base stations will be used for the new technology at the first stage. "We conduct tests in all directions and plan to launch ready-made technologies by 2021-2022," Meirmanov added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz In explaining why he repeatedly stabbed his father in mid-November, Timothy Nelson claimed he, his mother and sisters suffered years of abuse Two Greek shipping companies pleaded guilty to illegally discharging oil in Texas port waters and to giving false information to authorities during the investigation process, according to information from the United States Department of Justice. Avin International LTD and Nicos I.V. Special Maritime Enterprises pleaded guilty in Beaumont Monday to one count of obstruction of an agency proceeding, one count of failure to report discharge of oil and three counts of negligent discharge of oil. A 38-year-old Florida man was arrested in Orange after police allegedly found meth and two unrestrained young boys in his vehicle, according to information from the Orange Police Department. At approximately 10:06 p.m. an Orange police officer was patrolling the area near the 4000 block of Interstate 10 when he saw a vehicle with an expired registration sticker leave the Motel 6. A project to deepen and improve the Sabine Neches Waterway Channel has an anticipated start date for construction, more than two decades after planning began. The project has now been awarded $18 million in federal funding for fiscal 2019 to begin the process of deepening the waterway to 48 feet from its current depth of 40 feet. Lets dig it! Sabine Neches Navigation District Board chairman Paul Beard said Monday. He says everywhere he goes Southeast Texas residents ask him when the dredging will begin. The allocation of these funds so quickly is notable because of the amount of discretionary funding nearly $5 billion the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gets each year for its civil works program compared with the cost of this one project, said Byron Williams, chief of the corps Project Management Branch, Galveston District. The project alone is a $1.2 billion project, he said. So that puts into perspective how important it is that this money was allocated for construction. In addition to the deepening, the project will increase the 64-mile waterway to 77 miles. That means more economic benefits because we have larger, longer and deeper ships bringing in more commodities, he said. We also have the Port of Beaumont, which is the largest strategic military port in the country holding 55 percent of the nations oil reserves. Ships are being loaded with 50 percent less product than they could be because of the waterways depth, said Matthew Kaufman, the Navigation Districts assistant manager. In 2017 the waterway accounted for more than $20 billion in exports, and that annual figure is expected to swell to more than $73 billion by 2026. The Corps of Engineers began planning for the dredging project some 21 years ago, but its study was delayed by major hurricanes and bureaucracy, Beard said. The project finally received federal authorization in 2014 under the Water Resources Reform and Development Act. Earlier this year, funds were allocated to complete the planning, engineering and design phase. That work continues. The recent allotment of money came several months before officials had anticipated. Given the time required to receive bids and approve a contractor, Williams anticipates construction in late 2019. The waterway is the nations largest exporter of crude oil, liquefied natural gas and petroleum coke, according to a Sabine Neches Navigation District news release. Its also home to the nations third largest refining complex with proposed expansions that would make it the largest. The Sabine-Neches Waterway is one of the most critical energy and military transit assets in our country, Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said in a news release announcing the funding. While most Americans may not yet have heard of us, we deliver for them every day. kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/KaitlinBain A traffic stop in San Antonio for an expired license plate led to the discovery of a missing 5-month-old child, according to Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. Ruben Carlos Calderon, 34, was booked into Bexar County Jail Monday for charges of driving with an invalid license, endangering a child, possession of a controlled substance and tampering with evidence. HIPAA Journal's October 2018 data breach report showed a month-over-month increase in healthcare data breaches, with more than one healthcare data breach occurring every day in October. Here are the key details to know: 1. Two ASCs were among the largest healthcare data breaches in October, including the Soux Falls, S.D.-based CJ Elmwood Partners Surgery Center, which affected over 40,000 patients, and the Fullerton, Calif.-based National Ambulatory Hernia Institute, which affected 15,974 patients. 2. Collectively, 2,109,730 records were exposed in October. 3. HIPAA-covered entities and their business associates reported 31 healthcare data breaches in October. Gregory P. DeConciliis, PA-C, CASC, is the administrator of Waltham, Mass.-based Boston Out-Patient Surgical Suites , a multispecialty center that opened in July 2004. On Dec. 4, Mr. DeConciliis will be a panelist for a webinar titled "CMS Reimburses Non-Opioid Postsurgical Pain Management in the ASC: A Review of the New CMS Rules and Opportunity for ASCs." Click here to register for the webinar and learn more about coding and billing for Exparel under the new rules. Here are five things to know about Mr. DeConciliis: 1. He has served as the center's administrator since its inception and been instrumental in the ASC's growth and development since then. 2. Mr. DeConciliis also serves as the president of the Massachusetts Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. "Massachusetts is a very tough state to have an ASC because we're such a hospital-driven healthcare community," he told Becker's ASC Review. "Oftentimes, the hospitals have political ties and strength with the insurers, so our strategy for years has been to stay under the radar. We don't want to make too much noise, because we've found that whenever things are beneficial for ASCs, the hospital associations get word of that and we weren't successful in fighting those political battles." 3. Under his leadership, Boston Out-Patient Surgical Suites developed the first outpatient total joint program in Massachusetts last year. Mr. DeConciliis shared his insight on starting a total joint program with Becker's ASC Review, saying: "My advice for facilities is not to just jump in to this thinking it's just adding another service line. [ASCs] should be sure that they have done an accurate facility assessment, and make sure everyone is on board with this huge undertaking. [They then should] put together a group of all the key stakeholders, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and administration. [and have that group] develop a clinical pathway on how [the center is] going to take the patents through the facility, all the way from patient selection to home care and follow-up appointments. I always suggest to reanalyze the clinical pathway plan as well; we did it after 10 procedures, asking ourselves 'What are we doing right, what are we doing wrong and what can we improve upon?'" 4. Before he was the administrator at Boston Out-Patient Surgical Suites, Mr. DeConciliis worked at New England Baptist Hospital. 5. A licensed physician assistant, Mr. DeConciliis assists with surgical procedures at Out-Patient Surgical Suites. A Manhattan jury found New York City-based NYU Langone Hospital colorectal surgeon Christian Hirsch, MD, guilty of negligence after a patient died from infection, the New York Post reports. Here's what you should know: 1. Cheryl Raefski went to NYU Langone in November 2011 to have a polyp on her colon removed. During the operation, Dr. Hirsch burned a portion of Ms. Raefski's small bowel. After the surgery, Ms. Raefski complained about excessive pain, rating it a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale, while she was on painkillers. 2. Dr. Hirsch ordered a CT scan four days later and discovered an infection. As physicians were preparing to treat the infection, Ms. Raefski went into septic shock and died. 3. The jury convicted Dr. Hirsch in under a day. Each of Ms. Raefski's three children were awarded $3 million, while husband Darren Raefski was awarded the remainder. 4. Mr. Raefski brought the suit against Dr. Hirsch in 2012. It was delayed several times before the verdict was read in late November. Here are the 13 ASCs that were opened or announced in November: Anchor Health Properties and Knoxville-based Tennessee Valley Eye Surgery Center opened an 18,000-square-foot ASC in Knoxville. Braselton (Ga.) Surgical Specialist Center filed a letter of intent to establish an ASC in Braselton. Billings (Mont.) Clinic will build a $40 million "destination ambulatory center," in Bozeman, Mont. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Health System plans to open an outpatient ASC at Green Spring Station in Lutherville, Md., and it's hiring an administrator to lead the facility. The North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulations gave conditional approval to Greensboro, N.C.-based Triad Center for Surgery's proposed ASC. The Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency approved Kingsport, Tenn.-based Holston Medical Group's certificate of need to build a $3.7 million multispecialty ASC. Tampa Bay (Fla.) Surgery Center opened a medical office building with a surgery center in Tampa Bay. A hospital with an ASC is being developed on the Phoenix-based HonorHealth Sonoran Medical Center campus. Bel Air-based University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health is building an outpatient pavilion with a surgery center in Bel Air. Atlanta-based Grady Health System filed a letter of intent to develop an ASC. Athens, Ala.-based Athens-Limestone Hospital will hold a grand opening for its new surgery center Dec. 3. Pensacola, Fla.-based Sacred Heart Health System plans to build a Pensacola-based outpatient center with a surgery center. Glendale, N.Y.-based EMU Health held a grand opening for its new facility featuring an ASC, multispecialty center and women's health services Oct. 25. Orthopedic Associates of Hartford (Conn.) is preparing to open a new 45,000-square-foot orthopedic ASC, where it will migrate most procedures previously performed at inpatient facilities. The new ASC's co-owner Project Managers Pietro Memmo, MD, and Andrew Caputo, MD, told Becker's ASC Review why OAH made a $30 million investment in the center and what makes it cutting-edge. Note: Responses were lightly edited for length, clarity and style. Question: You have both overseen the facility's development. How has physician involvement helped shape and enhance the final product? PM & AC: We received input from fellow partners, our nursing staff and administrators and our patients. The success of our original surgical center for over 15 years provided a wealth of knowledge to help create a state-of-the-art surgical center where patients will choose to come, physicians will want to operate and our staff will want to work. We then coordinated directly, often on a daily basis, with the architect, construction manager, surgical center administrators and onsite project manager for the successful completion of the center. Whether it was the selection of the masonry stone, the design choices of the outdoor courtyard, soothing fabric schemes for the furniture or the operating room technologies, we were there to make decisions that were representative of their fellow partners. Our facility was designed with strong emphasis on employees. Our employees, nurses and dedicated staff are the heart of what we do. We want them to be in a beautiful setting that is designed to make their jobs easier and is also designed to optimize patient workflow and surgical outcomes. We want our staff to be happy and to work in a setting that is second to none. Q: OAH describes the new facility as one of the most innovative outpatient surgical facilities in the state, if not the nation. What makes it so distinctive? PM & AC: Every detail was designed to be environmentally responsible and resource-efficient. Even the skin of the building is environmentally efficient and uses Centria panels that have built-in insulation and water drainage systems. Every possible enhancement was implemented to create a safe and sterile environment that meets the highest standards reserved for brand-new hospitals. For example, epoxy floors and whiterock walls in the operating rooms create the most innovative surfaces for maintaining a sterile environment. Our autoclaves and sterilization equipment are the most advanced means for keeping patient infections near 0 percent. Technology in our 650-square-foot ORs was critical. The ORs are fitted with ConMed surgical camera systems with two floating 32-inch monitors and one 75-inch Sony 4K monitor; video integration will allow surgeons to view live video while simultaneously viewing MRIs and X-rays from multiple sources; wireless connectivity will allow for a seamless interface of data, images and video with electronic medical records; and the ORs are equipped for live HD video and audio streaming for viewing and recording for educational and training purposes. Robotic surgery will allow for more precise and safer surgeries. Q: What were some features incorporated to enhance the patient experience? PM & AC: We want our patient experience to be second to none. The surgical center is on one floor, so there are no stairs or elevators. The drop-off and pick-up areas have covered entrances to protect against snow and rain. The lobby is more of a family lounge, equipped with large screen televisions, a snack bar and a patient monitoring system so family members can track the status and progress of the patients surgery. A physical therapy area is placed right in the postoperative care unit so therapy can begin immediately after surgery, directly in the recovery area. We have a courtyard with outdoor seating for family members to enjoy as they wait for their loved ones. Lastly, there is natural lighting, high ceilings and clean finishes throughout the interior of the center to create a soothing, meditative environment. Q: Patients are shopping around for care, and you're adapting to that trend with this patient-centric facility. What else is Orthopedic Associates of Hartford doing to adapt to overall industry trends? PM & AC: Orthopedic Associates of Hartford has perhaps the most comprehensive orthopedic urgent care in Connecticut. We are open seven days a week in Farmington and Glastonbury (and soon in Rocky Hill), and provide an avenue for both new and current patients to have immediate access, specifically for orthopedic emergencies. This will allow patients to avoid going to costly and time-consuming emergency rooms. We are confident that we can provide superior orthopedic care above and beyond the services provided in other stand-alone facilities that are more equipped to deal with non-orthopedic medical conditions. Q: How will shifting most procedures to the outpatient setting set OAH up for success? PM & AC: Industry trends are clearly seeing a shift in most orthopedic surgery moving from costlier inpatient settings to more efficient and less expensive outpatient, same-day venues. This includes spine surgery and joint replacement surgery. These changes are being driven by cost, technology and advances in anesthesia. Orthopedic Associates of Hartford welcomes this trend and is prepared to meet this demand. Research, our own data and patient feedback from our existing surgical center in Rocky Hill show our patient outcomes are superior, our infection rate is near zero and patient satisfaction is over 98 percent. We expect to further improve these outcomes in our new state-of-the-art surgical center. Q: Why should other practices/organizations follow your lead? PM & AC: They will have no choice. The trend toward outpatient surgery is only accelerating and orthopedic practices must have the infrastructure to adapt to this change, or they will fail or be bought out by another healthcare system. Some studies have shown that, in the very near future, over 70 percent of joint replacements will be done in an ASC. The federal government and insurers are already reducing reimbursement for the number of postoperative days allowed for surgery. However, with the advancements in anesthesia, robotics and pre- and postoperative coordination of care, there is no reason these mandates cannot be met while maintaining optimal patient outcomes and satisfaction rates. At Orthopedic Associates of Hartford, we have invested in our future to meet these industry changes and hopefully other independent practices will do the same. For more information about Orthopedic Associates of Hartford, visit www.oahct.com. The radiology department at New York University School of Medicine in New York City has published what it's calling the largest public release of raw MRI data to date. The dataset is part of fastMRI, a collaborative research effort that NYU School of Medicine launched with Facebook in August. Under the collaboration, the medical school's radiology department will work with the social network's Facebook AI Research division to apply artificial intelligence to MRI scans. The fastMRI project centers on changing the way an MRI machine creates an image. Today, an MRI puts together a rendition of a patient's internal organs by gathering a series of sequential views of a patient, which it translates into a cross-sectional image. This is a time-consuming process, which makes MRIs challenging for children, elderly patients and those with claustrophobia. However, early research conducted at NYU School of Medicine suggests AI can generate high-quality images from limited data, meaning an MRI machine may be able to capture less data and therefore scan more quickly and still create an accurate image. In fact, NYU School of Medicine and Facebook think that, with AI, they can complete MRI scans up to 10 times faster. The first phase of fastMRI focuses on using AI to complete MRI scans of the knee, with the initial data release comprising more than 1.5 million knee images pulled from 10,000 MRI scans. The data, which was collected by researchers NYU School of Medicine, has been fully anonymized and stripped of patient identifiers. "We hope that the release of this landmark data set will provide researchers with the tools necessary to overcome the challenges inherent in accelerating MR imaging," said Michael Recht, MD, chair of the radiology department at NYU Langone Health in New York City. "This work has the potential to not only help increase access to MR imaging, but also improve patient care worldwide." To encourage other researchers to contribute to the project, Facebook has released a set of open-source AI models and tools alongside the dataset. In an August blog post, Facebook highlighted that its participation in the project is limited to supplying the fastMRI team with its expertise in AI and computer vision. The fastMRI project does not use any Facebook data. "FastMRI not only could have an important impact in the medical field, it's also an interesting research challenge that will help to advance the field of AI," said Larry Zitnick, PhD, research lead at Facebook AI Research. "The dataset NYU Langone is releasing and the baseline models we've open-sourced will enable other researchers to join us in working on this challenging problem, and we believe this open approach will bring about positive results more quickly." To request access to the fastMRI dataset, click here. In 2011, athenahealth acquired a 387-acre property in Northport, Maine. Since then, the company has used the property, which overlooks a bay and is located on the side of a mountain, for public and private events and conferences, according to Penobscot Bay Pilot. But athenahealth operating through its Athena Point Lookout put the property, Point Lookout Resort and Conference Center, up for sale about a year ago, and now that the medical records company has agreed to sell itself for $5.7 billion, Point Lookout's future is up in the air. Here are seven things to know about the resort: 1. The property features a gym, bowling alley, cabins, an artificial turf playing field and two centers for events such as weddings and conferences. 2. APL has experienced some legal trouble when trying to sell the property. In January 2018, a Montana couple entered into talks to purchase the resort and put in a $6.5-million offer. One day later, APL received another offer from an unnamed party, and entered negotiations with that party. 3. David and Tami Hirschfeld, the Montana couple, upped their offer to $7 million in response, at which point APL issued the Hirschfelds a letter of intent to pursue a deal. However, the agreement, noted the proposal was nonbinding and that APL was still considering multiple offers. Just hours after it sent the Hirschfelds the letter, APL said it entered into a contract to sell the property to a third party. 4. The Hirschfelds filed a complaint against APL in April 2018, alleging it violated Maine law on six counts, including breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation. 5. In a Nov. 8 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Singal sided with APL, arguing "the facts as pled are insufficient to state any of these claims." The judge said the language used in the letter of intent was unambiguous and plain. Moreover, the judge said APL's alleged promises to the Hirschfelds were "insufficient to state a claim for either equitable or promissory estoppel." The case was dismissed Nov. 8. 6. Days later, on Nov. 12, athenahealth announced it would sell itself to Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital in a deal valued at $5.7 billion, leaving questions about the property's future unanswered. 7. When asked about its plans for the property, an athenahealth spokesperson told the Pilot, "We won't be commenting at this time." To access the full Penobscot Bay Pilot report, click here. Hospitals and health systems across the nation are amplifying year-end fundraising efforts by joining the Giving Tuesday movement, which has celebrated ways to give back after Black Friday and Cyber Monday since 2012. Nonprofit hospitals rely on donations to fund everything from research to construction projects, and they are hoping to boost fundraising efforts on Giving Tuesday. Some hospitals, such as Memphis, Tenn.-based St. Jude's Research Hospital, have created webpages asking for donations on Giving Tuesday. Many hospitals set fundraising goals for Giving Tuesday. For example, the fundraising arm of Indianapolis-based Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health set a $150,000 goal. "Giving Tuesday is one of the biggest days for donations that can have a lasting impact on sick and injured children all over the state, who are served by Riley Hospital for Children," Karen Ferguson Fuson, interim president and CEO of Riley Children's Foundation, told WEHT. "With the help of donors, we can continue to support the only comprehensive children's research hospital in the state of Indiana." Although Giving Tuesday is a way for hospitals to raise money, some healthcare companies are making donations. Molina Healthcare, a managed care company, is committing $90,000 in donations to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Feeding America and the National Council on Aging. More articles on healthcare finance: Vanderbilt University Medical Center's finances bounce back after EMR launch Ascension's operating income triples as its footprint expands 10 hospitals seeking CFOs Charles Gijanto, interim CEO of Massena (N.Y.) Memorial Hospital, said the staffing ratio and "Medicare for All" bills proposed by state lawmakers could affect his hospital's bottom line by upward of $10 million, according to the Watertown Daily Times. The staffing ratio bill would require hospitals to increase the number of nurses, depending on the patient census, and lead to a reduction of non-nursing workers. "For Massena Memorial Hospital, depending on our census fluctuation, the cost for us would be $2 million to $3 million a year. Everybody across the state would be looking at staggering large increases in costs," said Mr. Gijanto. The universal Medicare proposal would reduce reimbursement rates for many patients, which Mr. Gijanto said could be very costly for Massena Memorial. "On the surface, there are some interesting benefits to [the proposal], but there are also some drawbacks; particularly, on average, every hospital in New York state will lose about 17 percent of its current reimbursement.," said Mr. Gijanto. "So thats not a good thing. That size a cut in reimbursement to Massena Memorial is pushing in the $8 [million] or $9 million range." The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia and the city of Philadelphia, have introduced an effort to spur local purchasing by city universities and health systems, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. "This is a unique collaboration between the city, a nonprofit, and all of our major eds and meds institutions. They're all lined up to figure out how to use their purchasing power to create more jobs," Jeff Hornstein, executive director of the Economy League, told the publication. "This is the first time in this city that anyone has built a citywide collaborative to do this stuff." The Economy League said the initiative, Philadelphia Anchors for Growth and Equity, aims to get Philadelphia health systems and universities to localize $500 million in contracts for goods in services and create up to 5,000 living wage, middle-skill jobs for city residents. Contracts would apply to goods and services such as office supplies, lab equipment and food, and job creation would take place over the next eight to 10 years, according to the report. Founding partners, which provided seed money to launch the initiative, include the city of Philadelphia's Commerce Department, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania Health System, Temple University and Temple University Health System. The initiative follows a January 2014 report from the city controller's office that showed city health systems and universities spend $5.3 billion annually on goods and services in contracts, and about 52 percent, or $2.7 billion, is with local vendors. "Each year Philadelphia's anchor institutions spend over $5 billion on goods and services in contracts, with nearly half being spent outside of Philadelphia. These contracts could be channeled towards local businesses as a way of addressing problems of unemployment and poverty," the Economy League said. "Cities such as Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit have developed effective local purchasing strategies to leverage the power of institutions to create jobs and build wealth." More information on the initiative is available here. More articles on healthcare finance: Patients frustrated by higher-than-expected lab bills: 5 things to know For-profit hospital stock report: Week of Nov. 19-23 Physicians employed through religious hospital systems often sign contracts that limit what they can express politically, what they post on social media and whether they can take on part-time work performing abortions, according to NPR. Here are five things to know: 1. Noel Leon, a lawyer at Washington, D.C.-based National Women's Law Center, was hired two years ago to provide legal protection to physicians who want offer abortions as a patient service. "Institutions are using the institutional religious and moral beliefs to interfere with employees' religious and moral beliefs," Ms. Leon told NPR. 2. Ms. Leon indicated this legal argument potentially prevents physicians from providing care they feel called to perform, even as a side job outside the hospitals that employ them. Many abortion clinics also rely on part-time staff, meaning restrictive employment contracts can hinder their ability to find physicians. 3. Since the 1970s, federal rules have given clinicians "conscience protections" that protect physicians from losing their jobs if they do not want to perform or help with an abortion. Hospitals with religious affiliations are also protected, meaning Catholic health systems can opt out of providing abortions or sterilizations. Clinicians working for religious hospitals sign employment contracts indicating they will uphold the hospital's religious values in their own practice. 4. One physician, Kimberly Remski, MD, was offered a job with a Michigan-based physician group. She signed her contract and started preparing for her move, but was later told she no longer had the position. Throughout the interview process, Dr. Remski had been transparent about wanting to offer abortions to patients at an independent clinic one day a week. Dr. Remski later learned her potential employer was owned by Trinity Health, which requires its physicians to "provide services in a manner consistent with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services," according to NPR. 5. Ms. Leon has worked with 30 physicians and nurse practitioners from 20 different states who are faced with situations similar to Dr. Remski's. "They're being told, 'We can't provide the care we went into medicine to provide,'" Ms. Leon told NPR. "We shouldn't be putting providers in the position of caring for their patients or keeping their jobs." More articles on integration and physician issues: Local newspaper challenges shift to hospitalists at Florida health system Ex-CHS hospital may end residency program funding after 25 years Why more physicians are leaving medicine: 4 takeaways The board of trustees for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston voted to acquire four hospitals from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. "This transaction is the first time MUSC has acquired other hospitals," Charles W. Schulze, chairman of the MUSC board, said in a press release. "The additions will increase the size and scale of the MUSC Health network, and in today's environment, larger, more efficient healthcare systems can deliver greater value to patients and have a positive impact on population health." The transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019, includes the following hospitals: 82-bed Chester Regional Medical Center; 225-bed Springs Memorial Hospital in Lancaster; 396-bed Carolinas Hospital System in Florence; and 124-bed Carolinas Hospital System-Marion in Mullins. More articles on healthcare industry transactions: California DOJ approves CHI-Dignity merger, with conditions CHS to divest 4 hospitals, exit South Carolina LifePoint merges with RCCH, goes private Overturning two lower courts' rulings, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reinstated a lawsuit several employees brought against two University of Pittsburgh Medical Centers, claiming negligence in connection with a 2014 data breach, Business Insurance reports. Employees of UPMC and UPMC McKeesport filed a lawsuit in 2014 alleging negligence and a breach of an implied contract claim after a data breach exposed personal and financial information, including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses, tax forms and bank account information. The information of roughly 62,000 employees and former employees was accessed and stolen. The two lower courts ruled UPMC was not responsible for securing its employees' data, since they submitted that information voluntarily. Overturning those rulings, the six state Supreme Court judges unanimously agreed UPMC is responsible for protecting its employees' data. "Employees have sufficiently alleged that UPMC's affirmative conduct created the risk of a data breach," the ruling stated, according to Business Insurance. "Thus, we agree with Employees that, in collecting and storing Employees' data on its computer systems, UPMC owed Employees a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect them against an unreasonable risk of harm arising out of that act." UPMC may also owe employees monetary damages if the employees can show UPMC was negligent. The case was remanded for further proceedings. The CEO of Maryland's largest health insurer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, said the company is eyeing further expansions into government programs and supports a proposal to require all state residents to purchase health insurance, according to The Baltimore Sun. Effective July 1, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield promoted its COO, Brian D. Pieninck, to president and CEO. Mr. Pieninck has served as CareFirst's COO since April 2017. Here are three things to know about Mr. Pieninck's strategy: 1. Mr. Pieninck told The Baltimore Sun he would like to see Maryland move forward with its plans to replace the ACA's federal health insurance mandate, which will no longer be enforced in 2019. Unlike the federal mandate, Maryland's proposal would allow uninsured residents to put the penalty toward buying insurance. The penalty, which would cost $700 or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is greater, would be enforced on state tax returns, according to the report. The proposal has mixed support so far. 2. Mr. Pieninck also seeks permanent funding for Maryland's reinsurance program. In August, CMS approved a proposal from Maryland lawmakers to institute a reinsurance program to help shore up ACA markets. The program would provide payments for insurers who cover extremely sick patients. It is valued at $462 million and will run from Jan. 1 through 2020. Maryland officials estimate the reinsurance program will prevent premium increases of up to 30 percent in the state's individual markets. 3. As for government programs, Mr. Pieninck said CareFirst is mulling an entrance into the Medicare Advantage market by 2021, and may consider entering the state's Medicaid managed care market, according to The Baltimore Sun. A scabies outbreak at Kealakekua, Hawaii-based Kona Community Hospital was reported Nov. 19 and has potentially infected more than 50 hospital employees, according to West Hawaii Today. Here are six things to know: 1. Lisa Downing, director of infection prevention and employee health at Kona Community Hospitals, indicated people started showing scabies symptoms Nov. 19. "We're still in the middle of the outbreak, so it's definitely not over yet," Ms. Downing told West Hawaii Today. "I don't have totals of numbers and probably won't until at least six to eight weeks out." 2. Another source, cited by West Hawaii Today, asked to remain nameless because contacting the press violates hospital policy. The source indicated more than 50 hospital employees have a scabies diagnosis. Ms. Downing did not confirm or deny the number of employees sickened, but indicated the number of scabies cases is likely to rise. 3. The source of the scabies outbreak is unknown. Ms. Downing said with disease outbreaks, there is not one definite source to point to. The anonymous source said the outbreak likely started with a patient and that there may have been a miscommunication that led to a misdiagnosis. 4. Patients with compromised immune systems face the greatest risk for contracting the infection. Hospital policy for infection outbreaks is to remove any employee with an active case from the facility for a full 24 hours after their treatment has started. The Hawaii Department of Health supports Kona Community Hospital with these steps. 5. Staffing will continue to be a struggle due to more than 50 hospital employees being infected with scabies. The anonymous source indicated the department where the outbreak started was an intensive care unit. Kona Community Hospital officials have only informed staff members, infected patients and the families of patients of the outbreak and increased the hospital's cleaning efforts. "To notify every one of our patients when there is any kind of contagious disease when they come in, that's not feasible. And frankly, scabies it's not life threatening," Ms. Downing told West Hawaii Today. "We do not and are not going to notify patients coming in of that potential risk. We don't do it for any other conditions either." 6. Janice Okubo, Hawaii Department of Health spokesperson, indicated in an email to Kona Community Hospital that hospitals are not required to report scabies outbreaks and the branch of Hawaii's Disease Investigation does not track scabies. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Subtle changes may point to greater risk of sepsis death, study finds Detroit hospital cited after insects found in ICU Viewpoint: Healthcare policymakers ignore nurses at peril of us all CMS cited Detroit-based DMC Harper University Hospital for several infection control issues, including bugs that were flying around an intensive care unit during a recent inspection, according to The Detroit News. The federal agency authorized an investigation of Detroit Medical Center in October after four cardiologists who were pushed out of their leadership roles at the institution voiced concerns about patient safety at the hospital. In a Nov. 7 letter to Harper University Hospital, CMS said a facility survey the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs completed about three weeks earlier found several infection control deficiencies, including dirt and debris on the hospital's kitchen floor, an operating suite table with a surgical tray draped in blue towels before a delivery and small black bugs flying around an ICU. Nurses said the insects had been present for months. In the medical center's Nov. 21 response to the findings, hospital officials said they had taken numerous actions, including reviewing a sterilization techniques policy, having staff extensively clean the facility and contracting with a pest control company. A CMS spokesperson said the next step in the process is an unannounced survey. DMC representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the News. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: ED crowding linked to delayed antibiotics for sepsis, study finds 2nd pediatric flu death reported in 2018-19 season Glove use may thwart hand hygiene, particularly among nurses Four spine surgeons share what they are most thankful for this year. Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses. Next week's question: What healthcare policies concern you the most? Please send responses to Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 5 p.m. CST. Question: What are you most thankful for this year? J. Brian Gill, MD. Spine Surgeon at Nebraska Spine Hospital (Omaha): There are so many things to be thankful for this year that I could go on for quite some time. First, I am thankful for my family who supports me wholeheartedly. Our career is quite demanding with time, stress, etcetera, but it's just that, my career. It is not my life, which is why I am thankful for my family and the many blessings that have been bestowed upon me through grace. Rob D. Dickerman, DO, PhD. Director of Neurosurgery at Presbyterian Hospital of Plano (Texas) and Director of Spine Surgery at Medical Center Frisco (Texas): My friends and family. Vladimir Sinkov, MD. Spine Surgeon at New Hampshire Orthopaedic Center (Nashua): First of all, I am most thankful for my family. They are the biggest joy in my life and the greatest motivation for me to do what I do professionally. Very close second item I am grateful for is my ability to provide excellent care to my patients and see them recover and improve their quality of life and ability to function. This year, I was finally able to start using robotic technology in my minimally invasive spine practice to provide more precise, efficient as well as the most technologically advanced spine surgery available on the market. Brian R. Gantwerker, MD. Founder of the Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: I am most grateful for the support of my wife and partner, who is just as dedicated to patient care and safety, and the integrity and quality of our practice as I am. Ram Mudiyam, MD, Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Hoag Orthopedic Institute (Irvine, Calif.): Every year, at this time of Thanksgiving, I'm most grateful to my immediate family members for their unending love and support. Their understanding and constant encouragement go a long way in reducing the stress and anxiety I am subjected to on a daily basis. Spine surgery as a profession ranks among the most difficult and demanding jobs out there and it is reassuring that you have a caring spouse and appreciative children with unfailing loyalty in times of need. I'm most thankful to my patients who have placed their utmost trust in me. They are the reason why my colleagues and I exist in this challenging profession, constantly pushing ourselves to be the best we can be, ethically, morally and technically, in our lifelong endeavor to relieve pain and improve function and quality of life in patients afflicted with complex spinal disorders. The credits are not ready to roll just yet. In fact, by staking out its unique value and by tweaking the way it sells advertising, television could yet retain its historic leading edge amongst marketers. That is what the Swedish TV network TV4 has done, and TV4 sales director Malin Hager claims the company is reaping the benefits. TV is super hot at the moment in Sweden, she says in this video interview with Beet.TV. It feels really strange. We were appointed the best media before Google, Facebook, all the others. We were really shocked, but we were seen as the most modern media at the time, so were happy. Earlier, TV4s COO Mathias Berg had told Future of TV Advertising Forum: 2017 will be our highest turnover and will deliver the highest profit margin, and one of the main reasons is digital. Bonnier-owned TV4 launched in 1990 and has public service obligations including a network of local stations. The outfit offers VOD via TV4Play and ad-free stream via C More. This year, Telia, TV4 Group, Discovery Networks and Modern Times Group (MTG) teamed up to offer dynamic ad insertion on Telias platform. In fact, Telia was courting TV4 for an acquisition another example of a global telco looking to buy in to media and content. How has Hager managed to improve ad fortunes whilst many broadcasters suffer? We had difficulties to explain for the young people in the agencies the price differences between the video content and TV, she says. So, last year, we put it in new target, which is three plus. It was more meant to be like a comparison to the digital players, but it ended up that the agency liked it, it was so comfortable and it was very easy for them to buy it. So we sell quite a lot of it and this year we take away all the limits of 54, so we sell 25 plus all through. So we have taken almost all target groups away because thats we want to sort of state that TV is at its best when you buy them all. Its a mass product than mass media. This interview was conducted at the EGTA New York meetings hosted by Viacom. EGTA, the Brussels-based trade association of international television companies, is the sponsor of this Beet.TV series. For more videos, please visit this page. Around one in eight cattle herds in Northern Ireland are affected by bovine tuberculosis, a report has said. Stock Around one in eight cattle herds in Northern Ireland are affected by bovine tuberculosis, a report has said. The disease remains a common problem, despite around 40m a year being spent trying to eradicate it. The rate of infected cattle here (12.4%) is more than double that of the Irish Republic (4.9%). The figures are set out in a report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office published yesterday. It notes that over the last half century, around 500m has been spent on a bovine TB eradication programme here. Auditor General Kieran Donnelly said: "The long running and costly bovine TB eradication programme has not achieved bovine TB-free status for Northern Ireland and, therefore, cannot be seen as value for money." Bovine TB is a chronic, infectious cattle disease. It is difficult to clinically diagnose and tough to eradicate. A bovine TB eradication programme was introduced in Northern Ireland in 1964. Over 50 years later and after spending more than 500m, prevalence of the disease remains high. The report examines the escalating costs of the programme and the disease's continued prevalence. It outlines the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs' (DAERA) proposals to adopt a new strategic approach to control and ultimately eradicate it. Mr Donnelly added: "Northern Ireland farmers receive 100% compensation when animals are compulsorily removed for disease control purposes. In effect, since 1998 the public purse has underwritten farmers' risk of herds contracting bovine TB. "This has provided little incentive for the industry to share ownership of the problem. Stakeholders (government, farming industry and environmentalists) must work together if the disease is to be eliminated." The report acknowledges that prevalence of the disease would have been significantly higher without interventions by the department. DAERA said it would take time to examine the report. "The bovine TB programme is vital to underpin Northern Ireland's livestock and livestock products export market estimated at 1.5bn per year and DAERA is pleased that the NIAO report notes that supporting this trade with an eradication programme is essential," it added. It was a long time coming, but after months of talks, UK and EU negotiators finally reached a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement on November 14. And on Sunday, the European Council endorsed both the agreement and a political declaration setting out the high level framework for the future relationship between the UK and the EU. The draft withdrawal agreement covers a number of areas including citizens' rights, the UK's financial settlement with the EU, separation issues, a transition period and the Northern Ireland backstop. The backstop has been under much scrutiny throughout the UK but, as might be expected, there has been a particular focus on it here in Northern Ireland. Under this arrangement, the UK would remain in a single customs territory with the EU, while Northern Ireland specifically would continue to align with some EU rules, such as legislation relating to goods. This would mean that businesses here would continue to be able to sell products in the rest of the UK and in the EU single market. However, goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland would be subject to checks. It is important to remember that the backstop is not the desired long-term solution to the border issue - it is really just an insurance policy. Both the UK and the EU have stated that they want to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland over the long-term by reaching agreement on a new future relationship. In effect, the backstop is not meant to be used. Whether this deal is good news or bad news has been the topic of public and political debate for much of the past two weeks. I'm not going to comment on the politics here and, of course, everyone is entitled to their own personal views, but what follows is my opinion based on the economics. I have always believed, and continue to believe, that Brexit will prove to be detrimental to the UK and Northern Ireland economies. Therefore the best that can be hoped for during the Brexit negotiations is to minimise the extent of the damage to the economy. The draft Brexit deal is not perfect, and there is still a considerable amount of work to do in the months and years ahead, but I consider the draft withdrawal agreement reached a couple of weeks ago to be a positive development. In arriving at this conclusion, there was one factor that impacted me more than any other. This deal, if approved, would avoid a no-deal Brexit and secure a transition period during which businesses could continue to trade in the way they do now. A no-deal Brexit would be a disaster for the UK and the Northern Ireland economies. Businesses would face uncertainty at a level far beyond anything experienced since the UK voted to leave the EU two and a half years ago. Difficulties could, quite literally, arise overnight with regards to selling products in the EU, bringing in the inputs necessary to keep manufacturing goods, providing services to EU businesses and recruiting EU nationals. The transition period that this agreement would deliver would mean that businesses would not face the challenges that a no-deal outcome would result in come the end of March next year. Negotiators from both the UK and the EU would also have the time and space they need to agree a new, long-term relationship. This can only be viewed in one way - positively. In the weeks ahead, Parliament will vote on whether to approve this deal. At present, there is considerable uncertainty around the outcome of that vote. If the House of Commons were to reject the deal, that could result in the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement. A no-deal Brexit is, unfortunately, still a possibility. That being the case, businesses must not take their foot off the gas when it comes to their Brexit planning. They should continue to assess the potential impacts that Brexit could have on them and prepare appropriate contingency plans. The bottom line is that businesses need to be prepared for the UK leaving the EU on March 29, 2019, whether that is with a deal or without. The coming days and weeks will likely prove to be a crucial period in the Brexit process. Uncertainty continues to persist and it is extremely difficult to predict what will happen in the House of Commons. But through all the uncertainty and the haze one thing remains clear - a no-deal Brexit simply must be avoided. There is no doubt that the draft Withdrawal Agreement is a welcome step forward for the majority of businesses in NI and it is definitely much better than a no-deal scenario. Our trading firms will be paying close attention to what happens next. The agreement is a significant milestone in the political process of Brexit, and is clearly a personal achievement for the Prime Minister. As she visits NI today, it is the perfect opportunity to highlight how her resilience has been matched only by that of businesses challenged by three years of non-stop political debate and continuous uncertainty. This is not a great environment for entrepreneurs and inward investors trying to grow their businesses and provide much needed employment. We now encourage our political representatives who support the agreement to do everything in their power to influence political representatives in Britain to join them. They must be persuaded to put the economy ahead of political ambition. It is time to support the general direction of the agreement and use the transition period to focus on the details. For those that are not in support of the draft agreement, it is now time to outline your alternative proposals. Any new proposals must ensure that NI has unfettered access to markets and a business environment conducive to growth including access to skills from across the globe. Businesses acknowledge that this agreement, and the proposed backstop mechanism, are not the intended permanent solutions. Since the Withdrawal Agreement was published, NI Chamber has reiterated its views with the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State Karen Bradley, and yesterday business organisations continued their engagement on the deal via meetings with the DUP, Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance Party and Green Party, with further meetings scheduled with the UUP. As an organisation whose aim is to help grow the NI economy, NI Chamber's overarching message is clear - we must grow the private sector - not shrink it. Therefore businesses cannot face the chaos of a messy and disorderly exit from the EU next March. As we await whatever outcome before Christmas, with people's livelihoods, their jobs and the future prospects for many companies in the balance, we ask that parliamentarians keep the millions of firms and families trying to plan for the future at the forefront of their minds over the next number of weeks. Accountancy firm BDO has confirmed that it is in advanced talks to merge with rival Moore Stephens. The enlarged firm will overtake Grant Thornton to become Britain's fifth largest accountant, behind the so-called Big Four of Deloitte, PWC, EY and KPMG. The deal is expected to be completed in spring 2019 and the new group will trade under the BDO brand. It will boast gross annual revenue of 590m and employ 5,000 people across the UK. Partners of both firms have voted in favour of the merger, subject to final contracts. Paul Eagland, managing partner at BDO, said: "If ever there were a time for firms to turbocharge their growth, it's now. "As a combined firm, we offer greater choice, competition and scalability to the top end of the market, and are better placed to deal with any economic disturbance from Brexit." BDO specialises in auditing firms on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market and the group plans to take on a second office in the City. The deal comes at a sensitive time for the sector, with the competition watchdog earlier this year launching an investigation into auditors following a string of scandals and concerns over conflicts of interest. The Competition and Markets Authority is undertaking a detailed study of the audit sector to examine "concerns that it is not working well for the economy or investors". But it is the role of the dominant Big Four giants, rather than smaller players, that will come under most scrutiny amid calls for them to be broken up. The CBI, along with all other business representatives across NI and civic society, have over the last week voiced our broad support for the Prime Minister's EU Withdrawal Agreement, which, if signed off by the UK, allows us to move on to the real negotiations around future trade. There have been 20 months of negotiations since Article 50 was triggered. What we have on the table now is a compromise withdrawal deal that while not perfect, is a step forward. The UK government is aiming for a future trade deal with the EU that will hopefully ensure that borders and checks are not needed. However, November's Withdrawal Agreement could only be signed off if a 'back-stop' arrangement for NI was included. The EU, the UK and the Irish government all concede that a hard border in NI is not acceptable and thus the agreed back-stop is an insurance policy measure only. This guarantee also gives a degree of assurance to the 7,400 firms in NI that trade on a north-south basis. Simultaneously, the back-stop, if ever needed, would allow NI firms unfettered access to the GB market. If ratified, the Withdrawal Agreement would take the prospect of a cliff edge no-deal Brexit off the table. It would unlock the transition period which provides companies with a further 21 months to adjust to any new arrangements. This is important because most companies are simply not ready for dramatic changes on March 30 next year. After prolonged negotiations the business community is now desperate to move on and build on this progress. There is no appetite to go back to square one. Continued Brexit uncertainty is already affecting investment, resulting in changes to companies' supply chains, and in some instances, jobs moving. Stockpiling has already begun. Furthermore, valuable investment that should have come here has not arrived. The business community believes this is the moment when we all must compromise to achieve progress. Business leaders are realists and pragmatists. They desperately want to focus on the domestic policy agenda, such as skills and infrastructure to increase our productivity growth and raise living standards for all. Falling unemployment in Northern Ireland has led to a rise in wages and more competition among employers for candidates with the right skills, according to research - Gareth Fuller/PA Wire Falling unemployment in Northern Ireland has led to a rise in wages and more competition among employers for candidates with the right skills, according to research. Recruitment firm Hays said that while business sentiment has been dented by the lack of a functioning Executive and uncertainty over Brexit, nearly 70% of companies here expect business activity to rise in 2019, above the United Kingdom average of 61%. The annual Hays UK Salary & Recruiting Trends 2019 guide found that 80% of employers expect to hire additional staff in the next year, compared to a UK-wide average of 76%. Northern Ireland firms had the strongest hiring intentions of any UK region. However, 95% of employers here reported that they had experienced some form of skills shortage within the past year, against a UK average of 92%. More than two-thirds said the top recruitment challenge faced by their business is a shortage of suitable candidates. The skills shortage contributed to average salaries among the Northern Ireland employers surveyed rising by 2% in the past year, slightly higher than the UK average (1.9%). John Moore, managing director of Hays in Northern Ireland, said that in 2019 employers will need to interrogate their brand as employers and how they stand out from the competition, particularly in sectors such as technology, finance and construction. "Employers in Northern Ireland told us they are pressing ahead with business plans and are generally optimistic about the wider economic climate for the next two to five years," he said. "Recruitment expectations are at their highest levels for five years, for both temporary and permanent roles. "Increased competition for talent coupled with skills shortages has helped support above UK-average salary growth in Northern Ireland. "While that is positive for those seeking new employment it also has downsides, including negative impacts on productivity, staff morale and ability to deliver projects. "Given the intense competition and, at times, unrealistic salary requirements from candidates, it's never been more important for employers to understand the complex factors that influence movement of employees." He added: "Salary is still a top consideration, but candidates are now influenced by other benefits, such as life balance and career progression opportunities. "However, only 17% of employers surveyed saw work-life balance as a priority, compared with 30% of employees." Across the UK, the survey found the average pay increase was 3.2% for cyber security roles, 2.7% for developers and 2.6% for data and advanced analytics roles. Business leaders have said the DUP's call to renegotiate the EU withdrawal agreement will spell more uncertainty for firms in Northern Ireland. Speaking after meeting 30 business delegates who back the deal in Stormont yesterday, Arlene Foster said it is doomed to fail when it goes before MPs on December 12. "Businesses want certainty therefore they should not waste the next few weeks in advance of the meaningful vote, especially when many parliamentarians have already made up their minds to reject the deal," said the DUP leader. Labour shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer suggested yesterday that if the deal is voted down, it could force the Government and EU to agree to extend article 50 in order to stop a no deal scenario. Stephen Kelly of Manufacturing NI said businesses are not closed to the idea of renegotiation. But he said it would require more time, meaning delaying the Brexit process. But CBI director Angela McGowan said the business community is "desperate" to move on. "There is no appetite among CBI members to go back to square one in terms of the EU negotiations," she said. "Continued Brexit uncertainty is already affecting firms' investment intentions, resulting in changes to companies' supply chains and, in some instances, jobs moving." The chief executive of the NI Chamber, Ann McGregor, said businesses cannot face "the chaos of a messy and disorderly exit from the EU next March". She appealed for MPs to "keep the millions of firms and families trying to plan for the future at the forefront of their minds over the next number of weeks". Ulster University economist Esmond Birnie has suggested that although it would result in a longer transition period, renegotiation could be more beneficial in the long-term. But writing in today's Business Telegraph, Danske Bank chief economist Conor Lambe said: "The best that can be hoped for during the Brexit negotiations is to minimise the extent of the damage to the economy." While he said it was not perfect, he added: "I consider the draft withdrawal agreement reached a couple of weeks ago to be a positive development." 34-36 Rathfriland Road, Dromara, Co. Down, one of the portfolio of sites that has been listed for sale Lisney has listed a substantial investment portfolio of seven properties in rural locations across Northern Ireland with a combined asking price of almost 5m. The assets within the portfolio total over five acres with a combined asking price of 4.7m. Five of the units are currently being leased to Spar owner, Henderson Retail, and are made up of a filling station and convenience store with additional retail units and residential development opportunities. The portfolio's units are in Clough, Dromara and Drumaness, as well as two in Killyleagh and two in Crumlin. The property agent is also offering some of the units to be sold off in lots. The properties at 4-6 Downpatrick Road and 1-6 Irish Street, Killyleagh, are available in one, two or three lots, and 119-125 Drumaness Road is potentially available in one or two lots. David McNellis, director at Lisney Northern Ireland, said:"This is a really interesting portfolio to come to the market, particularly as all but two of the seven opportunities are let to Henderson Retail Ltd, with 18 remaining years on the lease. "Each of these assets generate significant income every year, however, with asset management strategies, there is potential to further grow the income generated. "Acting as the sole agent on behalf of the seller, we are expecting significant interest from local investors given the combination of commercial and residential assets. "These assets present an excellent opportunity for investors." Meanwhile, a site with planning permission for purpose-built student accommodation in Belfast city centre has been put on the market by CBRE with an asking price of 2.5m. The site is located on Library Street, close to the new Ulster University campus. Full planning permission for an accommodation block with 393 bedrooms has already been granted but a further application for 93 residential apartments has also been filed by the current owners. In the Mid and East Antrim borough, Eglington Yard at Glenarm Harbour has also been listed by Lisney property agents. Overlooking the Marina and Glenarm River, the unit is described as a seafront regeneration development opportunity. The 1.26 acre site includes an open-sided warehouse, a number of outbuildings and a substantial hardcore yard area. The Marina has 40 fully serviced pontoon berths within the village's historical limestone harbour. It is strategically positioned fronting New Road, along part of the Causeway Coastal Route. Opposite the subject site is the new Tourist Information Office, located within the Old Seaview School. Meanwhile, a 15,000 sq ft industrial estate has become available to rent in Moira. The unit, which consists of two levels, is located on the Old Kilmore Road, with a minimum of a 12 month lease. The unit, which is being advertised by Robert Wilson, comprises a 7,500 sq ft ground floor space at 4 per sq ft and a 7,500 sq ft first floor space at 1 per sq ft. A former marketing boss who left her job to become an artist has said she dreams of her homeware designs helping her become the new Cath Kidston. Kathryn Callaghan, who lives in Co Down, said she would love to build a homewares brand to rival the success of the UK entrepreneur. Kidston's patterns, many with a floral or spotted motif, have become a well-loved design feature around the world, gracing everything from suitcases to napkins and mugs. The business she founded now has annual sales of up to 200m. In today's Small Business Can, featuring two businesspeople who took part in Global Entrepreneurship Week, Kathryn describes working from a converted cowshed near her home in Lisbane. And while starting out as a painter, she has launched a homeware range with images created especially for the pieces, which range from cushions to coasters. "I am trying to make the business more sustainable so that it doesn't depend entirely on me painting because there are only so many hours in the day," she says. Markets traded lower on Tuesday on investor concerns over Britains departure form the European Union, Italys budget issues and US-China trade tensions. The FTSE 100 closed 19.15 points, or 0.3%, lower at 7,016.85. Frances Cac was down 0.2%, while Germanys Dax fell 0.4%. David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets, said: Stock markets are in the red following yesterdays bullish move. Fears regarding US-China trade, Italys budget and Brexit all play into the mix. President Trump warned that the levy on Chinese imports might be increased, and further tariffs could be announced. This dampened investors hopes about a deal being struck at the G20 summit. Meanwhile, the pound came under pressure as opposition to Prime Minster Theresa Mays EU Withdrawal Agreement continued. The pound was down over 0.5% versus the US dollar at 1.273 and the British currency shed 0.2% against the euro to finish the session at 1.128. Mr Madden said: The DUP, who are propping up the Conservatives at Westminster, have made it clear they wont support it. Former defence secretary Michael Fallon said it was doomed. The chances of a no-deal Brexit have increased as there is speculation that the deal will be voted down, and that is weighing on the pound. Oil prices were largely unchanged as investors continued to fret about oversupply and the trade tariffs between the US and China. Saudi Arabian production reached a record high, and tensions are rising between the US and China in relation to trade, and dealers are cautious that demand might drop too. Mr Madden said. A barrel of Brent crude was up 0.4% at 60.63 US dollars (47.60). In corporate news, Thomas Cook closed 10.98p, or 23%, lower to 37.56p after it issued its third profit warning of the year. The company said it would take a 30 million hit to profits in an unscheduled announcement due to extra costs and the effect of the heatwave on holiday bookings. Topps Tiles shares fell 1p to 65p after the company said it is stockpiling key products ahead of Brexit as it prepares for possible supply disruption. The retailer said it would increase stock levels of key selling lines ahead of March 2019, echoing the likes of Premier Foods and Pets at Home which have also said they will store products in case of disruption. Shares in Greggs rose 136p to 1,373p after the bakery chain upped its full-year profit outlook thanks to a rise in sales following strong autumn trading. The group, which has more than 1,900 shops across the UK, saw like-for-like sales growth strengthen to 4.5% in the eight weeks to November 24. Pets at Home shares were down 1.3p to 113.3p after the company revealed action to stockpile pet food and products worth millions of pounds ahead of Brexit as it announced 30 vet practices are set for possible closure. New chief executive Peter Pritchard, who took on the top job in May, told the Press Association the group has already imported goods worth a couple of million pounds as part of no-deal Brexit contingency plans. The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Coca-Cola up 104p to 2,373p, Ocado up 26.20p to 816p, Kingfisher up 5.7p to 253.8p, and Intertek up 106p to 4,752p. The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Johnson Matthey down 127p to 2,950p, GVC Holdings down 30.20p to 778.5p, Antofagasta down 27.20p to 778.6p, and Evraz down 15.50p to 460.6p. On Friday, November 18 the movers and shakers of the Northern Ireland property industry gathered at the Crowne Plaza to celebrate their successes during what has been another incredible year. Theresa May has arrived in Northern Ireland as part of a whirlwind tour to secure support for her withdrawal agreement. The Prime Minister first stop is Queen's University where she will meet with business leaders. Read More On her visit Mrs May will meet with all of the main political parties, with Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Alliance Party, and the Greens all giving their backing for the deal. She will also meet with members of the DUP, her party's coalition in the confidence and supply agreement., which has vociferously opposed the deal. Ahead of her arrival the Prime Minister rejected claims by Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster that she has given up on getting a better Brexit deal. Theresa May faces a battle to get her draft EU withdrawal deal through a House of Commons vote on December 11. The DUPs 10 MPs are pledged to oppose the agreement. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) Mrs May visited the Royal Welsh Winter Fair in Builth Wells, Powys, ahead of her arrival in Belfast. She said: We have been resisting many of the things the European Union had wanted to put. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May is greeted by President and Vice-Chancellor Queen's University, Professor Ian Greer as she arrives at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland. PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May is greeted by President and Vice-Chancellor Queen's University, Professor Ian Greer as she arrives at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland. When you negotiate neither side gets 100% of what they want, it is about compromising, but you have to be clear about what your vital interests are and we have protected those vital interests, and that includes protecting the interests of the people of Northern Ireland. Mrs May is due to visit business leaders at Queens University Belfast on Tuesday afternoon. In an interview with the BBC, Mrs Foster said: The disappointing thing for me is that the Prime Minister has given up and she is saying this is where we are and we just have to accept it. She may have given up on further negotiations and trying to find a better deal but I have not given up. I believe in a better way forward and I believe we must find that. 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) Ian Paisley is facing questions following a BBC Spotlight programme which raised queries about trips he has taken to the Maldives (Brian Lawless/PA) DUP MP Ian Paisley has claimed his return to parliament after a 30-day suspension "couldn't have been timed better" and that a "smaller man would have crumbled" under the criticism he received. The North Antrim MP returned to the House of Commons last week after serving the suspension for failing to declare 100k in hospitality from the Sri Lankan government. The House of Commons Standards Committee found he had brought the House into disrepute and that he had committed serious misconduct. Mr Paisley, speaking to the Ballymena Guardian, said: "Back to Westminster this week couldn't have been timed better given the activities and the intrigue. The parliamentary week commenced with business on Monday on the Finance bill. The party abstained on the vote, disproving again the claim by my political opponents that my suspension would impact on crucial votes." Mr Paisley will be back at the House of Commons for the crucial vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal on December 11. On his suspension, Mr Paisley said: "I have taken what I still consider to be a severe punishment on the chin and I also think many a smaller man would have crumbled." He added he was keen to get back to work and put the suspension behind him. The DUP MP survived a petition of recall to unseat him after it failed by 444 votes. Earlier this year 7,099 people signed the petition over a six week period, failing to meet the 10% of the North Antrim electorate required to force a by-election. Damaged cars following an arson attack at a garage in the Woodburn Road area of Carrickfergus. Picture: PressEye Five cars have been torched after an early morning incident at a business in Carrickfergus. Police have condemned those responsible, and said they are "only increasing tensions and causing fear". Officers on patrol came across the cars on fire shortly before 2am in the Woodburn Road area of the town. Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue crews attended the scene and extinguished the fire. Inspector Michael Simpson said: Those responsible have shown no regard for the safety of the local community in carrying out this reckless act. Regardless of the motivation their actions are only increasing tensions and causing fear. I would appeal for anyone with influence to use it to prevent incidents like this happening again. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact police on the non-emergency number 101, quoting the reference 72 with the date 27/11/2018. Alternatively information can be given to independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Families of the 10 people shot dead in Ballymurphy in 1971 attending their inquests yesterday at Belfast Coroners Court An eyewitness heard soldiers shout "kill the b******s" before wounded civilians were thrown into an Army vehicle like "animals", the Ballymurphy inquest has heard. In a statement originally submitted to a 1972 inquest, the now deceased Desmond Crone described how he lay on the ground for almost an hour to dodge a hail of bullets while he was out searching for his son Raymond. His wife's cousin, father-of-12, Joseph Murphy (41), was assisting him with the search and was killed on August 9, 1971 after the Parachute Regiment opened fire on a crowd of people standing in a field near Henry Taggart Memorial Hall. Mr Crone said he was just five yards away when an armoured military vehicle drove into the field to pick up injured people and heard a soldier saying: "We've got five." Mr Crone also detailed the chilling words he claimed came from the mouths of soldiers. "Kill the b******s," he recalled hearing them say. "They threw them into the back like animals." Father-of-13 Daniel Teggart (44), mother-of-eight Joan Connolly (44) and window cleaner Noel Phillips (19) were also shot dead on the first day of internment. The statement, which was read to the coroner by barrister David Heraghty, stated that Mr Crone and Mr Murphy stopped to talk to other individuals, including Joan Connolly. She was also out looking for her children before she was shot in the face. "Then all of a sudden, the Army opened fire on us," Mr Crone said. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Soldiers frisking passengers and driver of a car on the Springfield Road, near Ballymurphy. (14/01/1971) Riots: Belfast. August 1970. Soldiers shelter behind their riot shields during rioting at Ballymurphy. (04/08/70) Riots : Belfast. August 1970. The common sight in the Roman Catholic estate at Ballymurphy, Belfast, as young rioters attack the army with missiles during the troubles. (04/08/70) Ballymurphy: troops stand by at the junction of Springfield and Whiterock Roads (20/09/1970) Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Catholic housing estate, Ballymurphy. (15/01/1971) Mourners file past the coffin of Father Hugh Mullan, one of the 10 people killed (PA Archive) PA Archive/PA Images Father Hugh Mullan. Shot at Moyard Park. 9/8/1971 THE FUNERAL HEARSE CARRYING THE BODY OF FATHER HUGH MULLAN TRAVELS ALONG THE ROAD IN BALLYMURPHY ESTATE. 12/8/1971 Joseph Murphy was one of 10 people shot dead by British soldiers in West Belfast in 1971 Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 John McKerr who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Fr Hugh Mullan who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Joseph Corr who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Danny Teggart who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Danny Teggart who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Danny Teggart who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Press Eye Ltd Northern Ireland - 25th January 2012 Mandatory Credit - Photo-Jonathan Porter/Presseye. Ballymurphy massacre relatives call for a meeting with the Prime Minister, David Cameron. 10 people were shot dead by soldiers in west Belfast in August 1971. The victims, which included a priest and a mother-of-eight, were killed over the course of three days in August 1971 by members of the Parachute Regiment during Operation Demetrius, when people suspected of paramilitary activity were interned. Relatives Rita Bonner, John Teggart and Briege Voyle pictured at the top of the Whiterock Road in west Belfast beside a mural depicting the shootings. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Soldiers frisking passengers and driver of a car on the Springfield Road, near Ballymurphy. (14/01/1971) He said Mrs Connolly had already started running towards Springhill Road when the gunfire started before she turned and shouted: "I'm hit in the eye." Mr Crone described how Daniel Teggart also shouted out when he was hit while running for his life. "We could not get out to bring him back," he added. He was later able to pull Mr Teggart away from the chaos, but it was too late. Mr Crone said he and others defied a two-minute evacuation warning to grab a young boy left lying in the field that night. "It turned out he was not injured, but suffered a cramp," he added. Mr Murphy was shot in the pelvis and developed septicaemia after his right leg was amputated - he died 13 days after being shot. Many of the statements given by relatives and eyewitnesses denied claims by the Army that those who died were armed or had been throwing stones. Medical reports also show that swabs taken from the hands of the deceased failed to detect the presence of lead. Statements relating to the shooting of Shorts worker Joseph Corr (43) and Belfast Corporation employee John Laverty (20), were also read out. They were shot at separate locations on Whiterock Road on August 11. Mr Corr's widow Eileen described how she and her husband had left the house after being woken by the sound of "bin lids rattling" at around 3.40am. She returned home to look after the couple's seven children after hearing shots, but her husband never made it back. Following a desperate search, she found him in Musgrave Military Park, where he was being treated for injuries to his stomach, intestines and lungs. Mrs Corr said she was supervised by military staff on every hospital visit and was unable to have a conversation with her husband, who was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital on August 14. He died on August 27 before doctors could operate. A man who tried to swallow heroin after being spotted supplying on the streets of Belfast has been jailed for 10 months. Dwayne Michael Mullan put up to 15 wraps of the drug in his mouth when police detained him earlier this year, prosecutors said. The 32-year-old father of four, from Victoria Street in the city, was also said to have been carrying quantities of Xanax and cannabis at the time. Based on his previous record, a judge described his drug offences as being on a "commercial basis". Belfast Magistrates' Court heard Mullan was observed conducting an exchange with a female in the area of Hamilton Street and Joy Street on April 27. When she was stopped two wraps of heroin were recovered. A Crown lawyer said police managed to keep sight of Mullan and make an approach. He attempted to swallow a small plastic container, refusing to spit it out for officers, the court was told. Eventually it was recovered and found to contain 15 wraps of heroin. Packages of Xanax and cannabis were discovered after he was taken into custody. Mullan admitted possessing Class A, B and C drugs, supplying heroin and resisting police. Defence counsel Fintan McAleer stressed no payment was made for the wraps provided. But District Judge Fiona Bagnall responded: "He's not doing it as a charity exercise." Identifying eleven previous drugs-related offences committed by Mullan, she queried why his latest prosecution was not before the Crown Court. "This is on a commercial basis with a record like that," Mrs Bagnall said. "I really do question the decision-making to keep him in the petty sessions." Mr McAleer disputed her assessment of the scale of the latest offending, pointing out that the heroin's value was only in the hundreds of pounds. "This is a street supply observed by police in the right place at the right time," the barrister said. He also disclosed that his client has already spent 27 weeks in custody. Imposing six months imprisonment for the supply offence, Mrs Bagnall handed Mullan a further four months for possession the drugs. A new walkway is due to open opposite Primark's burnt-out Bank Buildings in the crisis-hit city centre on Monday, it can be revealed. The 35-metre pedestrian passage, linking Royal Avenue to Donegall Place, represents a first milestone in making Belfast more accessible to shoppers in the wake of the devastating fire that started on August 28. Its opening, which Belfast City Council chiefs confirmed yesterday, comes as the popular department store gets ready to trade again in Commonwealth House, while a further nine shops, including jewellery shop Argento and McDonald's, may soon follow suit. Primark project executive Joe O'Connor, who is overseeing the current restoration effort, said the landmark store remains structurally unsound, adding: "Basically the building is hanging in the breeze." As work continues to brace the edifice against collapse, he added: "We're trying to engineer a system which will allow pedestrian access from Royal Avenue to Donegall Place so eight retailers can open up in the next week or two if they choose to do so." Mr O'Connor said they had to "refit Commonwealth House out again" prior to Primark's opening because it was badly damaged by the fire, but he confirmed that it's "ready to go on December 8". He added: "The goal by Easter is to have Fountain Lane open...the long-term plan is to reinstate the building to its former self." Northern Ireland area manager Neale Kirk said that Primark anticipates shoppers will arrive prior to the 9am opening that Saturday, adding that measures are in place to deal with high numbers. "We have crowd control in - a new store opening is a fairly big event throughout Europe now, no matter what," he said. "We're predicting it will be popular. There's going to be a few free giveaways and hopefully there will be tea and coffee there for people. "We will have to carefully manage our queuing system to make sure that the public are looked after and we'll have flyers for our customers because it is quite difficult to get to Castle Street let alone our store." Four floors will open and all departments will be represented at the 26,700 sq ft shop, with normal opening hours. There will also be two customer elevators, three sets of customer stairs, 22 tills and 31 fitting rooms. Mr Kirk said access will only initially be possible via Castle Street, from the west side of the city centre, adding that its opening hours would be extended "very soon". "We'll bring an element of our colleagues and our management back, but returning to Belfast has been well received by them and we know that our customers will like it as well," he said. "We also believe that opening in the city centre at this time will restore footfall to the immediate area and that's really important to us as well." Pedestrian access to other previously off-limits parts of the city close to the currently unsafe building is expected to be restored in the coming weeks once support structures are put in place. A total of 10 shops within the safety cordon, which were forced to close, will be free to welcome customers again by December 8. The blaze has left 14 businesses unable to trade and compensation money has been distributed. Earlier this month, it emerged the fire had caused a 30% drop in footfall in the city centre and a city council report found a reduction of almost 50% in some areas close to Bank Buildings. Prime Minister Theresa May will say her Brexit plans strengthen "every corner" of the union as she visits Wales and Northern Ireland on Tuesday. As part of her bid to win support for the EU Withdrawal Agreement ahead of a looming crunch Commons vote, Mrs May will say that devolved administrations will have more powers after the UK quits the bloc. Read More While meeting employers and politicians, the PM will stress that responsibility for more than 150 areas of policy will pass to devolved parliaments and assemblies after Brexit. The Prime Minister will say: "Having been told by the EU that we would need to split the UK in two, we are leaving as one United Kingdom. "My deal delivers for every corner of the UK, and I will work hard to strengthen the bonds that unite us as we look ahead to our future outside of the EU. "Throughout negotiations, I have fought to ensure that powers returning from the EU will be restored to the National Assembly for Wales, the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly. "This deal delivers for farmers in Wales, who deserve better than the Common Agricultural Policy. "After we leave the CAP, we will be free to design a new policy that works for agricultural producers in all four nations and we are taking that work forward. "This deal avoids a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. This has been at the forefront of my mind throughout the negotiations. "It has been especially clear to me when I have visited communities along the border in Northern Ireland and seen first-hand how important it is that the unique circumstances local employers face are recognised in any agreement. "They need to be able to trade freely across the border with Ireland and have unfettered access to the rest of the United Kingdom's market. "This deal makes that possible and that's why, across Northern Ireland, employers large and small have been getting behind it." During her visit to Wales, Mrs May will tour the Royal Welsh Winter Fair. In Northern Ireland, the PM will meet with the five main political parties. Mrs May is also expected to visit Scotland in the coming days. Dissident republican prisoner Tony Taylor is to be released from jail after 993 days, a Sinn Fein MLA has said. Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney welcomed the belated release of Taylor. However his release has not been officially confirmed by the Prison Service. The Belfast Telegraph understand Taylor is to be released on Wednesday. Londonderry man Taylor was returned to Maghaberry Prison in March 2016, on the instructions of the then Secretary of State Theresa Villiers. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said his licence was revoked by the Parole Commission because of the risk he posed to the public. However, he was not charged with or convicted of any new offence. Foyle MLA McCartney said that Taylor should never have been returned to prison in the first place. His release comes after 993 days wrongful detention, during which time the British Government consistently failed to produce any evidence which could in any way justify his incarceration," the Sinn Fein justice spokesperson said. Tony Taylors return to prison was a clear violation of his human rights and Sinn Fein opposed his detention from the start and consistently campaigned and lobbied for his release. We welcome the fact that the right thing has now been done albeit belatedly - and Tony can return to his family. Taylor, a former IRA man, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1994 after he was seriously injured in a premature explosion in Derry. He was then released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In 2011, Taylor was then sentenced to three years behind bars for possession of a rifle in a case that made history by using covert surveillance evidence gathered by a drone. Police have launched an investigation after a community worker escaped a gun attack in Londonderry last night. Detective Constable Richard Donnell said: Shortly after 8pm it was reported that a masked man had fired a shotgun at a van in Clooneyville Avenue. "The blast struck the rear of the van breaking the window and lodging pellets in the passenger head rest." But he said: "Fortunately the 37-year-old male driver, who was alone in the vehicle, was unharmed." Expand Close Derry van shooting / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Derry van shooting He added: We believe the gunman made his escape on foot along the alleyway that runs down the back of Bonds Street." A cordon was in place until this morning. Reports suggest the driver got out of the vehicle a few seconds before the pellets struck the headrest. The street was a dead end so the driver - who is thought to be from the area - had to drive the van to the end of it and into a wall. It was claimed he jumped out of the van and climbed over the brick wall in his escape. Detectives are keen to speak to anyone who was in the Bonds Street, May Street, or Clooneyville Avenue areas at around 8pm on Monday night and who may have information that could assist the investigation." Call 101, quoting reference 1193 26/11/18, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. DUP Leader Arlene Foster at Stormont this evening before her meeting with Theresa May. Pacemaker DUP leader Arlene Foster has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to "bin the backstop", after meeting with her in Belfast on Tuesday. The pair met in Stormont House as part of Mrs May's visit to Northern Ireland to raise support for her Brexit deal. Mrs May met with representatives of Northern Ireland's main political parties as part of her visit. Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Alliance Party and the Greens have given their backing to the Prime Minister's deal while the DUP and UUP have rejected it, calling it a threat to the union. The DUP is unhappy that the deal will see Northern Ireland aligned with EU rules and remain part of the single market with checks on some goods coming in from the UK to Northern Ireland, if the Brexit backstop is implemented. The Irish Government and EU leaders signed off at the deal at an EU Summit in Brussels on Sunday. Mrs May's deal faces an uphill battle to get through Parliament with Labour and many of her own MPs calling for the deal to be renegotiated. The Conservative Party currently relies on the support of the DUP's ten MPs to pass key legislation as part of their confidence and supply agreement. Speaking after the meeting Mrs Foster said that the Brexit withdrawal agreement was not acceptable to the DUP in its current form. The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA said that there was no way the Prime Minister could persuade her party to accept it. Mrs Foster was accompanied to the meeting by DUP MEP Diane Dodds and her party's Assembly Chief Whip Gordon Lyons. She said that the proposed deal would "place barriers to our greatest market and it would lock us into accepting rules and regulations from Brussels with absolutely no democratic control over those rules." "There are a growing number of voices right across the House of Commons who oppose the withdrawal agreement. They see good parts but they want the backstop to be binned. With no enthusiasm amongst parliamentarians for the withdrawal agreement, it seems destined to be rejected by the House of Commons," Mrs Foster said. "We have urged the Prime Minister to dump her PR plans for the withdrawal agreement and instead work on finding a better way forward. If the backstop was removed, then consensus could be achieved." Mrs Foster urged Mrs May to reconsider, saying there was a potential Brexit deal that would work for everyone. We should not be pressurised into accepting a deal that senior figures, including the Chancellor, have said is bad for the economy and bad for the Union because of a false choice that there is no alternative. There is another way. This is not a binary choice. We need to explore that third way," the DUP leader said. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland. Photo credit: Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland. Photo credit: Liam McBurney/PA Wire "The European Union will obviously say there can be no change right until the moment they accept change. Presently there is absolutely no pressure on them to shift their position because the United Kingdom isnt even asking. "Now is the time to accept that the Withdrawal Agreement, as it currently stands, is damaging and that the United Kingdom cannot accept it. The conversation can then begin to ensure we get a deal that works for everyone." After meeting with Mrs May in Belfast, Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said that the current deal was "imperfect" but represented the "least worst option". In contrast to Mrs Foster's comments the Sinn Fein leader said there can be "no renegotiation of the Brexit withdrawal agreement". The backstop as contained in the withdrawal agreement is the bottom line. This is what Brexit looks like. Its not perfect but it is the least worst option and the alternative is a catastrophic crash out," Mrs McDonald said. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood also stressed the need to protect the border backstop. "No matter what happens on the 11th of December, no matter what happens in the House of Commons, the backstop needs to be banked," he said," the Foyle MLA said. "It needs to be banked in the event of an extension Article 50, it needs to be banked in the event of a people's vote or another election, or any of those outcomes. Alliance Party deputy leader Stephen Farry said the backstop had to be retained as a "safety net". "It is important that we do bank the backstop," he said. Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann urged an extension of Article 50 to give the Government more time to strike a better deal. He said the current agreement would leave Northern Ireland as a "place completely apart" from the rest of the UK within five to 10 years. "Take the time, put plans in place to allow for the extension of Article 50, to allow further negotiation so we can get a deal that actually works, because one thing that we don't want, that we realise doesn't work for Northern Ireland, is no deal," he said. An Antrim woman who died aged just 26 has sent a letter to the Belfast Telegraph from beyond the grave accusing her local health trust of letting her down and not meeting her complex treatment needs. Rachel McAlpine passed away on November 5 after battling a debilitating illness for seven years. But she claimed her condition deteriorated significantly after the Northern Health and Social Care Trust outsourced her care to a private company which she said failed to fully appreciate the level of treatment she required. Read More And in the heart-rending letter written on her deathbed and posted to this newspaper by her solicitor after her funeral, Rachel outlined her disaffection and grievances with both the trust and private operator, Trackars Healthcare, over the last year of her life, when she suffered extreme mental and physical anguish. The healthcare failings, she alleged, "could have cost me my life" on several occasions before her ultimate passing, and included a terrifying incident in which she "was literally suffocating and going into respiratory arrest". "Unfortunately this fight has pushed me to an early grave," she wrote. "I really do not want to die in vain, so I hope someone has the courage and strength to pick up where I have left off; a disabled person has the right to the same quality of life as an able-bodied person." Expand Close Rachel McAlpine with her mum Veronica and stepdad Denis / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rachel McAlpine with her mum Veronica and stepdad Denis Rachel, a former care worker, also sent a posthumous letter to Trackars Healthcare owner Patricia Casement, and to the Northern Trust's chief executive Dr Tony Stevens, because "the only way to make change is complete openness and honesty". She added: "This is what I have been trying to do for over a year, to ensure that people like myself receive safe care at home to enable quality of life." Rachel, who fell ill when she was 19, suffered from an undiagnosed progressive physical condition which left her wheelchair-bound. She also had a tracheotomy (artificial airway) fitted and required round-the-clock specialist care in her specially-adapted Antrim home. She claimed her care, which ultimately ended up as the responsibility of Trackars Healthcare, began to deteriorate in September 2017 following a staffing crisis that also saw her being admitted to hospital on several occasions. Rachel said her mental health began to suffer after September 2017, and there were "specific incidents" where her "life was on the line", including severe, traumatic breathing problems on two specific occasions. She suffered a nervous breakdown in October 2017, and contracted pneumonia in December. Rachel wrote a letter of complaint to the trust in January of this year, which the Belfast Telegraph has seen, claiming that Trackars Healthcare hadn't appreciated the severity of her condition, and citing "bad management, lack of communication, poor calibre of staff and inadequate specific training". Expand Close Rachel McAlpine and best friend Carolann Maguires baby Avery / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rachel McAlpine and best friend Carolann Maguires baby Avery She also demanded that the Trust assume direct responsibility for her care package, adding: "I deserve this especially as my condition is life-limiting and the time I have left is unknown." The trust began an investigation, which concluded with a response in April, also seen by this newspaper, dealing with her specific points - but it did not agree to her request to assume responsibility for her care. Therefore, despite her complaint, Rachel's care package was once again awarded to Trackars Healthcare "even though they had jeopardised my life on a number of occasions". "The issue was that no other private healthcare provider applied for my contract," she said. Following Rachel's January complaint, the trust recognised and addressed some of her concerns over Trackar Healthcare's care provision in its response on April 24. It acknowledged, for instance, "the delivery of your service has been challenging over the past year due to several factors including staff sickness and a national shortage of nurses..." Expand Close Rachels special Christmas visit to Santa with her family in October / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rachels special Christmas visit to Santa with her family in October In response to "specific examples where you felt compromised by Trackars Healthcare staff" it said: "The trust has sought assurances from the provider regarding these incidents and is satisfied that the appropriate actions were taken." And, as regards one incident with a senior healthcare assistant, the trust said that the employee "confirmed she did freeze in the delivery of suction... she conceded that this was unacceptable and agreed to further training". Sinn Fein MLA Declan Kearney, who wrote to the Northern Trust in February requesting "an urgent exceptional intervention" for Rachel, said he was "deeply distressed" by what has happened. "This is a very tragic case where someone with a very acute medical condition was failed entirely by the system," he said. "Rachel found herself in a situation where her only reliable option was for the trust itself to assume responsibility for her care, and for that to be rejected is a terrible indictment of the lack of compassion and urgency demonstrated by the system as well as its inflexibility. "The care system broke down; it hasn't listened to Rachel and it didn't listen to me, and in this case there must be fundamental and systematic learning from what has happened." He added: "There must be no more Rachel McAlpines. We can't bring Rachel back but we absolutely must ensure that this never happens to another young man or woman or patient of any age under the aegis of the Northern Trust." Rachel's best friend Carolann Maguire said the letters were written in the final two weeks of her life. "At last Rachel will have her voice heard," she said. "It is what she has fought and wished for. "She did not want her death to be in vain. "During the last year of her life she fought tirelessly for what she felt was right, not only for herself, but for others in the same position whose lives, literally, depend on private care providers. "She never gave up, even on her deathbed." In her letter to the trust's chief executive, Rachel once again asked why people with complex needs are outsourced to private companies who don't match their needs, and why the trust itself can't provide 24-hour care? "To say the system let me down is an understatement," she told Dr Stevens. "The trust has given far too much power to the private providers who do not have the same standards of care as the trust. "Clients and families will not always stand up and fight and say what's wrong, because of the power the trust has given private providers through four weeks' minimum notice to withdraw, so the patients and their loved ones would rather take the poor care at home than go into an institution. "The irony is that my fight for safe care at home to ensure a quality of life has taken me to my grave." Northern Trust and Trackars give their response We would like to offer our sincere condolences to Rachels family following her recent passing. The delivery of complex nursing care to clients in their own home can be challenging due to the specialist care required. The trust strives to deliver the highest level of care to service users through effective working relationships with our partners in the independent sector. There are rigorous contractual and quality monitoring arrangements in place to ensure that the highest standards of care are delivered and maintained. We also have enhanced care management arrangements in place to ensure that the health and wellbeing of individuals with complex nursing needs are safely delivered, monitored and managed. The management, nursing and care staff at Trackars Healthcare wish to express their sadness and extend their condolences to the family of Rachel McAlpine who died on November 5, 2018. Rachels courage and grit impressed all those at Trackars Healthcare who had the privilege over the last three years of providing 24-hour care at home and more recently palliative support. The healthcare team respects the heartfelt views expressed in the series of letters which have been circulated. However, it is not appropriate to comment on these or any confidential clinical matters which have been raised. As a provider of experienced professionals across the healthcare system, employing highly qualified nursing and care staff, Trackars is dedicated to exceeding the highest quality standards. This work is continually evaluated and monitored by professional bodies, the regulator and the commissioners of our services, including the health and social care trusts. If a concern is raised it is thoroughly investigated at every level with transparent reporting and recording of the process. The robustness of these systems enforces best practice and identifies any changes required to enhance services. Each of our patients has unique and changing needs which we strive to meet responsively and sensitively and, where possible, in the privacy and comfort of their own homes so that they may maintain their independence and ability to choose the care they receive, for as long as they need it. Health chiefs are reviewing urgent and emergency care across Northern Ireland's hospitals in a bid to meet the needs of a rising elderly population. Health chiefs are reviewing urgent and emergency care across Northern Ireland's hospitals in a bid to meet the needs of a rising elderly population. Over the next eight years Northern Ireland's population is expected to grow by a further 77,600. By 2026, the numbers aged 65 and over will have reached 74,500. The Department of Health says emergency departments here have faced serious pressure in recent years - something that will intensify as the health service struggles to deal with this growing older population. The warning comes as another challenging and difficult winter period is anticipated at hospitals across the UK. Retired public health doctor David Stewart has undertaken research on Population Health Needs, which will inform the newly announced review on meeting the needs of the growing proportion of older people. The increase has been sparked by the Baby Boomer generation entering retirement and has prompted health service providers to launch a review of how emergency care is delivered in the future. It's anticipated that by the time people reach 85, more than a quarter of patients discharged from hospital will need support in the community, such as at nursing homes. Currently the proportion waiting longest for emergency admission are those aged over 75, many waiting more than 12 hours. Department of Health Permanent Secretary Richard Pengelly acknowledged that patients are experiencing unacceptable waits while staff are being increasingly stretched. He said: "The pressures faced by our emergency departments reflect pressures right across the health and social care system - with the rising demand for services outstripping our capacity to provide it. "We need to fundamentally change the way we do things. That's why we have announced this review, which will be clinically led." Northern Ireland's chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said the review involves establishing a new regional care model, with specific focus on the elderly when it comes to hospital admissions and medical assessments. "There is going to be a significant rise in older people and that is going to put pressures on our hospital services and in primary care," he said. "We need to think about smarter ways of meeting the needs of this growing population." Sinn Fein health spokesman Pat Sheehan MLA said patients and staff must be fully involved in the department's review from the outset if it is to be successful. Maghaberry Prison - which was once branded dangerous and Dickensian - has made immensely encouraging progress, a report said. Watchdogs revisited the institution in April, three years after finding it "unsafe, unstable and disrespectful", and said excellent leadership efforts to stabilise it had borne fruit. Read More The inspectors said: "We rarely see a prison make the sort of progress evident at Maghaberry and it is to the credit of all those involved that many of the outcomes for the men held at the prison are now among the best we have seen in this type of prison in recent years." Levels of violence and disorder had reduced significantly and the prison was much more stable and calm, while relations between staff and prisoners had been "transformed". Areas where inmates congregate were once no-go zones for staff but are now regularly patrolled. Reservations remain over the handling of vulnerable prisoners, the inspectors said. Five inmates have killed themselves since the last inspection and a "very high" 500 reports of prisoners at risk had been opened recently. Observation cells for inmates vulnerable to self-harm had been used 200 times and strip clothing, designed to be resistant to suicide bids, in 80% of cases, which inspectors noted can add to distress. The unannounced inspection was conducted by Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority and the Education Training Inspectorate. It said the regime inside was much better than observed previously and was being delivered reliably. It also said learning, skills and the provision of work had improved but much more still needed to be done. The inspectors said rehabilitation and release planning work was amongst the best they had seen. Prisoners received good support on arrival, a special area is set aside for the first few days with arrangements for mentoring by other prisoners and enhanced contact with family and friends, and the prison seemed safer, with a relatively low level of violence, but many men still said they felt unsafe, the report said. Robust and effective action had been taken to reduce the supply of illegal drugs. Some men spent long periods in a special care and supervision unit but more was being done to integrate them, inspectors said. Levels of self-harm had fallen, but management arrangements were too risk-averse, which can mean over-reliance on intrusive monitoring which can itself be stressful, and the underlying issues were not addressed adequately, the review found. The report also said that response to recommendations following deaths in custody was "insufficient". At the time of inspection there had been five self-inflicted deaths since a previous inspection in 2016. Living conditions were reasonable, although some "houses" offered poor cell accommodation, the inspectors said. A new block is being opened soon. A more conducive environment for training and learning was created but inspectors said not enough activity places existed and the curriculum was too narrow. The report made 14 recommendations surrounding the negative perceptions held by many prisoners, the need for timely responses to health complaints and poorer outcomes seen by Catholic inmates. It said the practice of supplying medicines which had been prescribed for direct administration by prison staff should be reviewed to reduce the opportunity for bullying by other prisoners. Theresa May has challenged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to a Brexit TV debate, as US president Donald Trump strongly criticised her EU withdrawal plans. The Prime Minister went on the offensive as she launched an intensive two-week campaign to try and get her EU exit agreement through the Commons. As Mrs May heads for Wales and Northern Ireland on Tuesday to try and sell the deal as good for the union, she told The Sun: I am going to be explaining why I think this deal is the right deal for the UK and yes, I am ready to debate it with Jeremy Corbyn. I will take this deal back to the House of Commons confident we have achieved the best deal available and full of optimism about the future of our country. #BackTheBrexitDeal pic.twitter.com/NBm2kGZU5B Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 25, 2018 Because I have got a plan. He hasnt got a plan. Exactly how it might be done, if he takes it up, would be a matter for the broadcasters to determine. What I think is important is that people are able to see the issues around this plan. I am willing to stand up and explain why I think it is the best possible deal available for the UK. A Labour spokesman said: Jeremy would relish a head to head debate with Theresa May about her botched Brexit deal and the future of our country. The comments came after Mr Trump appeared to undermine Mrs Mays Brexit deal. Expand Close Mr Trump says he wants the Prime Minister to look at her deal again (Jack Taylor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Trump says he wants the Prime Minister to look at her deal again (Jack Taylor/PA) The US president told reporters: Sounds like a great deal for the EU. I think we have to take a look at, seriously, whether or not the UK is allowed to trade. Because, you know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us. And that wouldnt be a good thing. I dont think they meant that. I dont think that the Prime Minister meant that. And, hopefully, shell be able to do something about that. But, right now, as the deal stands she may not, they may not, be able to trade with the US. And, I dont think they want that at all. That would be a very big negative for the deal. I am willing to stand up and explain why I think it is the best possible deal available for the UKTheresa May In response to Mr Trumps comments, a Downing Street spokesman said: The political declaration we have agreed with the EU is very clear we will have an independent trade policy so that the UK can sign trade deals with countries around the world including with the US. We have already been laying the groundwork for an ambitious agreement with the US through our joint working groups, which have met five times so far. The US Trade Representative also issued a call for views from the public on a future UK-US free trade agreement earlier this month. Mr Trumps intervention came as it was confirmed that MPs will vote on Mrs Mays Brexit deal on December 11 after five days of debate. The timing gives Mrs May a fortnight to avert what threatens to be a humiliating defeat at the hands of scores of Conservative rebels. She was loudly barracked by MPs as she insisted that no better deal was available than the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration on future relations endorsed by EU leaders in Brussels on Sunday. A Sinn Fein MLA has responded to the Taoiseach's call for the party to resign its seats to allow non-abstentionist candidates to run, saying the idea of a democratic mandate might be "an alien concept to some people in southern politics". (Brian Lawless/PA) A Sinn Fein MLA has said the idea of a democratic mandate might be "an alien concept to some people in southern politics", after a call from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for the party to resign its seats in Westminster. Speaking on Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme on Tuesday, the party's Brexit negotiator Mr Murphy said: "As I say I am sure he is not unaware that other candidates stood in those elections who offered the electorate the choice of taking their seats." Speaking at an event in Dublin on Monday on government infrastructure, Mr Varadkar said the party's MPs "have the option now of resigning their seats and allowing people in those constituencies decide whether or not they want to have a say when this vote comes to Westminster". His comments come in the context of Westminster's impending 11 December vote on the controversial Brexit deal agreed upon by the UK and Brussels. With Prime Minister Theresa May struggling to secure support for the deal from parliamentarians, there could be a scenario where the votes from Sinn Fein's seven MPs could prove crucial. "As a democrat I think we should respect the wishes of the electorate. Thats what we do. We ask for a mandate, we are given it, and we respect the wishes of those who give us that mandate," said Mr Murphy. "It might be an alien concept to some people in southern politics but thats the mandate that we were given. And we have made very good input into all of this and we have been very effective in Europe and we have been very effective in dealing with Dublin. "I think that we have assured that the Good Friday Agreement - it wasnt the choice of the British Prime Minister or the British Government that the Good Friday Agreement was put front and centre in this by Europe - but we ensured that it was the case." His comments follow a rebuttal of Mr Varadkar's suggestion by party president Mary Lou McDonald, who said the Taoiseach needed to "catch himself on". The reality is that the people of 'those constituencies' have already spoken and they chose abstentionist Sinn Fein MPs," she said. "The Taoiseach's problem is that he doesn't like the democratic choice of the people of 'those constituencies' and now makes the ludicrous proposition that there should be another election without Sinn Fein's participation, taking the democratic choice away from the people. A charity which runs foodbanks across Northern Ireland has warned that it is preparing for its busiest December ever in the run-up to Christmas. (Jonathan Brady/PA) A charity which runs foodbanks across Northern Ireland has warned that it is preparing for its busiest December ever in the run-up to Christmas. The Trussell Trust has revealed that a total of 6,101 people here used its foodbanks during December 2017 - the busiest single month last year. The figures, which were revealed today to mark the start of its Christmas campaign, show Co Antrim had the highest level of need with 1,249 adults and 1,025 children using the service - a total of 2,274. This was followed by Co Down with 890 adults and 703 children visiting just over 12 months ago. The third highest was Londonderry at 1,256 (726 adults and 530 children, then Armagh (384 adults and 341 children). Fifth highest was Tyrone with 105 adults and 84 children, a total of 189, while the lowest was Fermanagh with a total of 64 foodbank users (41 adults and 23 children). Across the UK the Trussell Trust provided 159,388 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis last December - 65,622 of which were distributed to children. According to its latest statistics, this is a 49% increase on the 2017-18 monthly average. The trust said its latest figures reveal that the need for foodbanks in December is rising steeply, with it recording a 10% increase across the UK from December 2016 compared to the same month last year. The Trussell Trust has warned that it anticipates the need will be even greater this year due to the introduction of the Universal Credit benefit system which finishes its phased introduction here next month. This system has resulted in people waiting a "minimum of five weeks" for their first payment, and has "only made matters worse", according to the charity. It also cites the "inability of benefit levels to cover essential living costs", and issues with payments as remaining the most common reasons for foodbank referrals. The issue has prompted Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie to urge supporters to donate food items as early as possible in December to help alleviate pressure ahead of the festive period. "Christmas is supposed to be a time for joy but what we're seeing is the festive period becoming increasingly stressful for more and more people across the country," she said. "Our benefits system is supposed protect us all from being swept into poverty - but what we're seeing is people struggling to heat homes and put food on the table because they simply cannot afford the basics anymore and that just isn't right." The chief executive added: "Ultimately, it's unacceptable that anyone should have to use a foodbank in the first place. "We do not want to be here in the long-term, continuing to pick up the pieces. "That's why we're urging the Government to ensure benefits payments reflect the cost of living and reduce the waiting time for Universal Credit to help ensure we are all anchored from poverty." To find out more please visit: www.trusselltrust.org/get-help/ find-a-foodban the number of people in Northern Ireland who used foodbanks here in December 2017 A former civil servant has told of how Northern Ireland changed the face of healthcare in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev brought democratic reform, prompting an offer from the European Union to help transform the highly-centralised health system. A group from Northern Ireland won the first big contract, having already forged an unlikely partnership with Soviet medics. Remarkably, nearly half of St Petersburg's 5 million population now use the new GP system they introduced. Dr Rob McQuiston worked for the overseas body NICARE and remembers his "grim" first impressions of life in Russia. "Change was very badly needed," he recalled. "The general standard of living was terrible, the health service itself was pretty grim, to be honest. "Even day to day life, there was nothing to buy in the shops. "One day we saw a huge queue at a department store. It turns out there had just been a delivery of electric kettles and everybody was desperate to have one." His team helped to establish a pilot programme of four GP-led practices in St Petersburg. Similar models were rolled out in the cities of Samara, Ekaterinburg and Kemerovo in Western Siberia. He said patients were quick to flock to the new service despite a frosty reception from some health officials. "There was quite a lot of resistance, not from patients but the management level of the health service," he said. "They were wedded to the old system of polyclinics, which would often see patients self-refer themselves to the wrong type of doctor. "They couldn't afford to provide for that, so the quality was very low. GPs at least had a limited referral service but of a much higher quality." The unusual collaboration first began when Dr McQuiston met a Soviet delegation at a world health summit in Geneva. A technical exchange programme was agreed, which saw Russian doctors trained at Queen's University to become GPs and GP trainers. Dr McQuiston, who has published a book about his experiences, Born in the USSR, is currently working with Ulster University to evaluate the progress of the St Petersburg programme so far. Money was stolen during a burglary in the Cregagh Road area of Belfast. Police have appealed for information after money was stolen from an elderly person's home during a burglary in Belfast. The incident happened at a house in Cregagh Road area on Tuesday. Detective Constable Clarke said: It was reported that sometime during the early hours of Tuesday morning, entry was gained to the property and a sum of money was stolen. An older person was inside the property at the time of the incident but was not injured. Enquiries are continuing and we are appealing to anyone with any information or who saw anything suspicious in the area to contact detectives on 101, quoting reference number 157 of 27/11/18. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime. Police officers cordoned off Little May Street in Belfast city centre following a report of a sexual assault on Sunday November 25. Police have appealed for information following the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman in Belfast city centre over the weekend. The assault took place at Little May Street shortly before 2.30am in the early hours of Sunday November 25. As well as the injured party and the assailant, a man walking along, and a male and female couple are also believed to have walked along Little May Street in the direction of Catherine Street North at the time of the incident. Detective Sergeant Graeme McArthur said: "I would ask these three individuals to give detectives at the Public Protection Unit at Strandtown Police Station a call with any information they may have. The number to call is 101 and the reference number is 246 25/11/18. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime. A young Co Fermanagh mother who was left unable to walk after a car crash in Bundoran says she is "grieving" for her legs and is still hoping for a miracle while trying to stay positive for her young son. Rachel Elliott (25), from outside Irvinestown, suffered injuries to her brain, back and pelvis after she was thrown out of the back window of a car when it hit a wall in the Co Donegal seaside resort in August. Two of the six people who were travelling in the car - mum-of-one Shiva Devine (20) from Belleek and Conall McAleer (20) from Kesh - died. Two other men were seriously injured. Former St Mary's College pupil Rachel was in a coma for around two weeks, and in September began physiotherapy which she hoped would help her walk again. She told the Belfast Telegraph at the time that she was determined to get back on her feet for her three-year-old son Ronnie. Last night, Rachel returned to social media for the first time since the tragedy, and thanked those who had supported her and her family. "Thank you so much for all your kind messages and your prayers and for helping my family get through the days my eyes were sleeping," she wrote. "To think it was 14 weeks yesterday that the tragedy happened where I lost my best friend Shiva and good friend Squeak. "There isn't a day that goes by I don't think of them both or think of the crash. It still feels like it happened just yesterday. "But I know they're up there now looking down on us all. It's true what they say - God really does take the best." The young mother said she just "wants to go back to the old Rachel", and added: "Looking at my legs everyday and just wanting them to move, and trying to make my brain make them move, just seems impossible when they won't move. "And I beg for them to move because I just want my old life back. "And I had faith and hope that I would walk again, but it's so hard to keep having hope when each week goes by and I don't feel anything from my stomach down. "I feel like giving up, but I keep thinking I was given a 1% chance of walking so maybe a miracle will happen to me yet. "But I just don't know where to get the strength to get used to my wheelchair. "I just want to go back to the old Rachel. "But I have to try and get myself back together and think positive for my wee boy Ronnie and be adamant I'll walk again some time. "Sometimes I think it's selfish because there are two families grieving for their children but I'm grieving for my legs! "I wish I could turn back to three months ago. But here's hoping tomorrow is a better day." Northern Ireland is set to be hit by gale force winds. Cars navigate a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire Cars navigate a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire Cars navigate a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire Joggers run along the seafront on the Southsea Esplanade in Hampshire, as the UK braces itself for a blast of gales and heavy rain ahead of Storm Diana which is sweeping in from the Atlantic. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Diana. Photo credit should read: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire Joggers run along the seafront on the Southsea Esplanade in Hampshire, as the UK braces itself for a blast of gales and heavy rain ahead of Storm Diana which is sweeping in from the Atlantic. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Diana. Photo credit should read: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire Cars navigate a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire A tail back of trucks in Dublin port as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire A woman crosses a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire A woman crosses a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire Cars navigate a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire A tail back of trucks in Dublin port as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire Cars navigate a flooded street in Dublin as the tail end of Storm Diana crosses the East Coast of Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story WEATHER Wind Ireland. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire Dublin Port has closed to shipping channels as the island of Ireland braces itself for strong winds coming in on the tail end of Storm Diana. The Irish Met Office has warned that wind speeds are likely to reach close to 70mph on Tuesday, with rain also due to fall. Dublin Port Company announced on Tuesday all cargo terminals were due to close until winds subside. Storm Diana Update. All cargo terminals are closed in Dublin Port until winds subside. #StormDiana #DublinPort pic.twitter.com/owWdBEiCQM Dublin Port Company (@DublinPortCo) November 27, 2018 Northern Ireland's main maritime hub Belfast Harbour, which facilitates around 70% of seabourne trade in the province, is not expected to close. Read More A spokesman for Belfast Harbour Commissioners said: We understand container operations in Dublin Port have been suspended due to the wind direction. Ports on the island are susceptible to different types of severe weather conditions such as wind direction and tidal movements depending on their geographical location. "Belfast Harbour risk assesses every shipping movement on its own merit and has robust safety procedures and resilience plans in place to guide our response to bad weather conditions. "Temporary suspensions of crane operations due to high winds is standard operating practice and we are closely monitoring the weather today but at present operations in Belfast are continuing as normal. It remained opened last year during a number of storms, including ex-hurricane Storm Ophelia which brought gusts of up to 100mph to Northern Ireland. On Tuesday three flights scheduled to arrive at Belfast City Airport from London were cancelled. All flights into and out of Belfast International on Tuesday are scheduled to go ahead. The Carlingford Lough Ferry, which takes passengers between Greencastle in Co Down and Greenore in Co Louth is currently not running. Across Northern Ireland motorists are advised their journey times could take longer, and that there are likely to be delays on public transport. A yellow weather warning for wind will be in place from 9am on Wednesday morning until midnight. With gusts of up to 70mph in some exposed locations, vans and high-sided vehicles have been told to take particular caution. The turbulent weather will heavily impact the Azores, a mid-Atlantic set of islands which are an autonomous region of Portugal, and due to this the Portuguese Meteorological Authority has named it Storm Diana. The UK Met Office and Met Eireann - which give storm names jointly - have not given Wednesday's conditions storm status. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Met Office metreologist Sarah Kent said: "I would think twice before going out on Wednesday. "It is going to be extremely windy. With potential for damage to trees and there could be damage to local power networks. "And of course there are going to be high waves on exposed coast - which is almost all of Northern Ireland - so it is not an afternoon to walk your dog for a walk by the sea." Elderly people were victims of burglaries almost 1,000 times in Northern Ireland in the last year. Police figures show around three break-ins every day on average involving people aged 65 and over. The figures emerged after an 87-year-old man was tied up and robbed during a horrifying burglary at his Portadown home. The pensioner was left shaken and tearful after a gang of three masked men broke into his home around 8.30pm on Sunday and made off with cash. And the ordeal could have been worse were it not for the bravery of his daughter, who has Down's syndrome, also in the house at the time. The intruders pulled the homeowner into the hallway, tied his hands with a clothes line and broke his mobile phone so he could not call for help. They pushed their way into his daughter's bedroom and took her phone, but she chased them and demanded it back. It took two of the men to fight her off and they were forced to give the phone back, but took the Sim card out so she could not make calls. It is understood they were disturbed minutes later and fled the house, in the rural Derrylettiff Road area to the west of the town, taking the sum of cash. The man told UTV he was in tears and had been left feeling nervy and emotional. He said he just wants the gang to be caught. His son said he was relieved his father was not badly hurt. Upper Bann MLA Jonathan Buckley condemned those responsible, saying the three intruders tied the man up in his kitchen while he was reading a book. "It is disgraceful that anyone would target such a vulnerable member of the community, and it is vital that those responsible are brought to justice," he said. "I have known this gentleman and his wider family for many years. He is a well-respected member of the community. "This attack is utterly appalling and I know that everyone in the area will be disturbed. Ultimately, the issue of burglaries is a cause for major concern." PSNI Detective Constable Joanne Jackson appealed for information. She said: "This despicable crime has left an older man and his daughter extremely shaken and we are appealing to anyone with information to please get in touch with us. Witnesses can call 101, quoting reference 1226 25/11/18." This latest shocking incident comes as PSNI statistics reveal elderly people have been the victims of crime over 4,300 times in the past year. Police recorded 4,384 crimes against people aged 65 and over between September 2017 and August 2018, 12 a day on average. The figure is down from 4,536 the previous 12 months. The figures include 954 burglary offences, up from 939 the previous year. They also include 305 incidents of violence involving injury (up from 271), and 668 incidents of violence without injury (up from 551). A breakdown of figures also includes 54 sexual offences, 34 robberies and 1,121 incidents of criminal damage. Eddie Lynch, the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland, said: "These burglaries against older people are disgraceful and I support the PSNI who will be investigating to bring the offenders to justice. "The fear of crime is a palpable thing for many older people. While these crimes are terrible for each victim, I wish to emphasise to older people that crimes against older people are still relatively rare in our society," he said. "If older people are frightened or worried they should never hesitate to call the PSNI." There has been a spate of burglaries involving older people in recent weeks. Earlier this month a Lisburn pensioner was tied up in his home and threatened with hedge-cutters, while and a pensioner in Moneymore had treasured possessions stolen during a break-in. In Bessbrook an elderly man was left shaken after two men broke into his home. In Warrenpoint a man and woman in their 70s were assaulted in their home. Further incidents in October included a woman in her 80s being robbed in Newtownabbey, while a gang of six tied up a pensioner in his 70s and ransacked his Pomeroy home. In January Aughnacloy woman Pat Davidson (83) was left for dead by four attackers. Earlier this year the Pensioners' Parliament said that almost half of older people here have become more fearful of falling victim to crime in the last two years. The PSNI has said overall crimes were on the decrease. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald at Stormont before her meeting with Theresa May. Pacemaker The Prime Minister has sidestepped questions on whether she would support Sinn Fein taking their Westminster seats to back her Brexit deal. Theresa May, who was pressed on the issue a number of times during her visit to Belfast, insisted it was a matter for the republican party to decide on. What my job is about is showing those MPs who will be voting on December 11 on this deal why it is a good deal for the UK, she said. On Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said if Sinn Fein was not prepared to ditch its abstentionist policy, it should resign its seven seats to allow other MPs to represent its constituents in the House of Commons vote. Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald, in Belfast on Tuesday to meet the Prime Minister, rejected the notion as politically illiterate. McDonald rules out any renegotiation of Brexit deal after Sinn Fein leadership delegation meet with British Prime Minister https://t.co/yKM5FgAzAu @MaryLouMcDonald pic.twitter.com/e9SPB3CBi7 Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) November 27, 2018 Ireland wont be protected at Westminster, she said. Any notion that Sinn Fein MPs could ride in on their chargers and stop Brexit or save Mrs May are politically fanciful I would go so far as to say politically illiterate. We are abstentionists, we are Irish republicans, we believe as the nationalist people of this island believe, that our decisions are best taken here in our democratic institutions on this island. The partys MPs do not take their seats in Westminster because they refuse to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen. Expand Close Theresa at Queens University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa at Queens University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA) Mrs McDonald accused Mr Varadkar of disrespecting Sinn Feins mandate. She further noted that his Fine Gael party had chosen to abstain from Northern Ireland, having not run in elections north of the border. Commenting ahead of a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May at Stormont today, party President @MaryLouMcDonald said the backstop as contained within the Withdrawal Agreement, remains the bottom line. #Brexit pic.twitter.com/6k48DStsIa Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) November 27, 2018 Sinn Fein has been broadly supportive of the Prime Ministers draft deal, describing it as the bottom line and least-worst option in terms of protecting the economy on the island of Ireland. On Monday, Mr Varadkar said Sinn Feins seven MPs should consider resigning their Westminster seats to give voters in Northern Ireland an opportunity to elect MPs who would take up their seats. Sinn Fein is an unusual party in that it isnt taking up its seats in Westminster for one reason and not taking its seats in Stormont for another, he added. Generally, people who get involved in politics do so because they want to make a difference and they want to use the democratic process to get good outcomes for their citizens. If they are not willing to take up their seats because they feel they cant because they got elected on the basis of abstention, they do have the option now of resigning their seats and allowing people in those constituencies to decide whether or not they want to have a say when this vote comes to Westminster. Bear in mind there are 18 MPs in NI, eight of those are in support of what Theresa May is proposing, but seven are abstaining. Ulster Unionist Party peer Lord Empey has asked "what is going on with Peter Robinson" after the former First Minister said he couldn't care less about an Irish language act. Lord Empey said that the former DUP leader's comments would be "greeted with incredulity by those who remember the decades he spent talking tough and lambasting fellow unionists." Read More Speaking during a wide-ranging talk at Belfast's Methodist Centre last Thursday Mr Robinson said that the Irish language is "such a small issue" it should not prevent power-sharing institutions at Stormont from being restored. The veteran politician stressed that he believed Irish language issues should not be standing in the way of devolution, and they could be overcome. "I couldnt care less about the Irish Language. Let them speak it until they are green, white and orange in the face, as long as it doesnt encroach on me Mr Robinson said. The Irish language issue, the former DUP leader said, paled in comparison to policing and justice which had been an obstacle to power sharing in Northern Ireland in the past. However former UUP leader Lord Empey said that Mr Robinson was "at it again" referencing statements made by Mr Robinson earlier this year when he said that border polls should be held at specified intervals to stop them being used as a political tool. Last time it was a border poll and talks about a United Ireland; before that the disgraceful legacy proposals that will lead to years of uncertainty and anguish for thousands of former soldiers and police; and before that was the shrine at the Maze. Now Peter Robinson says he couldn't care less about an Irish Language Act," he said. Each one of the above are key Sinn Fein demands, and each one - to one degree or another - has received backing from Peter Robinson, leaving ordinary unionists wondering just what is going on with him." The former East Belfast MLA said that Mr Robinson had changed his position since leaving politics. Expand Close Ulster Unionist peer Lord Empey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ulster Unionist peer Lord Empey I have expressed concern about his behaviour before and this latest example of his seemingly supportive comments for a Sinn Fein demand should have all unionists concerned," Lord Empey said. If he was so keen on building up trust with republicans and nationalists and regretting that he did not engage directly with them rather than via the government, perhaps he should examine his campaign of vilification of those unionists who did so years before himself! Annie Cahill (right) with the late Lily Hall. The widow of veteran IRA leader Joe Cahill has passed away. Annie Cahill, who herself was heavily involved in the republican movement died in Belfast on Tuesday. Her husband Joe Cahill was IRA Chief of Staff during the Troubles and later served as honorary Sinn Fein Vice President for life. She was a prominent Sinn Fein supporter and member of the community in west Belfast. The couple married in 1956 and had seven children, Tom, Maria, Stephanie, Nuala, Aine, Patricia and Deirdre. Joe Cahill passed away in July 2004 aged 84. Speaking shortly before his death he paid tribute to Annie. "I have been very, very lucky in the women I have met in my life. I owe a terrible lot to Annie. Never once did she say don't, stop, I don't want anymore, she always encouraged me," he said. Annie's great-niece Mairia Cahill said she would remember her as a "gentle woman" who she shared many happy memories with. "She lived for Ireland and was very supportive of Joe. She was always very kind to me, we had some good times together and I'm very sad to hear of her passing," Ms Cahill said. Expand Close Joe Cahill was a founder member of the Provisional IRA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Joe Cahill was a founder member of the Provisional IRA Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said her thoughts were with the entire Cahill family. It was with great sadness that I learnt of the death of Annie Cahill," Mrs McDonald said. Annie was a fearless and committed republican woman of boundless energy. Her commitment, her good humour and her resolve was an inspiration to generations of other republican women." A weapons haul discovered in a residential boiler house that caught fire in Belfast. A 33-year-old woman arrested yesterday by detectives from PSNI Terrorism Investigation Unit in connection with a firearms seizure in Rodney Drive, west Belfast earlier this month has now been released unconditionally. A 31-year-old man also arrested yesterday remains in custody. A homeless charity has been forced to change its Christmas donation programme as child homelessness reaches an all-time high in Ireland. Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) in Dublin has run a shoe box gift appeal in conjunction with the Luas and Transerv for four years. In previous years, the group would ask for shoe boxes with items suitable for rough sleepers, offering dinner and haircuts aboard a Luas for a Christmas event. Now the group will be hosting Santa in his grotto aboard a Luas tram, and is appealing for small toys and gifts for homeless children. Anthony Flynn, who founded ICHH, says the rising number of children and families that come to his organisation for help meant the event had to change. The day was, and is, about engaging with people who normally would not have a good Christmas, a warm home and a small gift, he said We want to give them a feeling of worth and compassion. Since we started, we have seen a 463% increase in child homelessness, so were changing the theme to make it more family orientated. The problem is getting worse, the demographic of homelessness has completely changed. We want the kids to have somewhere to go, we have a number of kids living in hotels and emergency accommodation, who have to walk the streets every day and dont get somewhere warm until 8pm when their accommodation opens. We want these people to bring their kids, they can get fed, Santa will have his grotto on the tram and each child will get a present. The Christmas event will be held on December 6, and Mr Flynn says he has received donations from schools, youth clubs and large corporations. The group is aiming to collect 40,000 shoe boxes for the appeal for adults and children. From kids perspective, a small toy, a hat and gloves, or a gift voucher, Mr Flynn said. Weve asked people to donate a voucher for a coffee shop for a rough sleeper, practical things that will be useful. Were asking people to think outside the box, but we want to ensure that kids want the presents too, if people want to include a message too, maybe from them wishing them well. Septembers figures for Ireland state that 9,698 adults and children are currently homeless. One in every three homeless people in Ireland is a child, and Mr Flynn says his organisation has had to adapt quickly as the problem develops, including installing a soft play area in his headquarters. We counted 114 people sleeping rough in Dublin on Monday night, in the last 24 hours weve had to maximise outreach teams to do day support, he said. People were drenched and slept out last night in the tail end of Storm Diana, and the same people will be this evening. We had 150 people through our doors this morning soaked through, looking for a hot drink, dry socks, and a warm place to sit. Were not seeing a reduction in people on the street. The system is in turmoil, there doesnt seem to be any forward planning from the ministers perspective. A spokesman for the Department of Housing said: To support vulnerable rough sleepers all local authorities have developed their Cold Weather Initiatives, and the department has been working with them to ensure these plans are in place and ready to be activated. These arrangements ensure that additional temporary beds can be brought into use across a range of existing services and facilities for singles and couples, who need them during periods of bad weather. Providing additional accommodation for rough sleepers is essential. A report into the procurement process of Irelands national broadband plan has found it was not influenced by former minister Denis Naughten or businessman David McCourt. The review by independent assessor Peter Smyth said it was satisfied that neither the former communications minister or Mr McCourt influenced the tender process after it emerged the pair held a number of private meetings and dinners. Mr Naughten resigned his Cabinet seat last month amid controversy over the dinners he had with the head of the last remaining bidder for the multimillion-euro state contract for the rollout of high-speed broadband. The review was commissioned by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar following concerns about the procurement process. Expand Close Leo Varadkar (Michelle Devane/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Leo Varadkar (Michelle Devane/PA) In a statement Mr Naughten said he welcomed the findings. The report said: I also believe that the decision by the former minister to resign, thereby removing himself from the process, insulates the process from any apparent bias created by his engagements with Mr McCourt. The fact that the former minister met with Mr McCourt (or representatives of the other bidders) outside of the process is not in and of itself a basis for finding that the procurement process has been tainted. But in its conclusion it said the meetings gave cause for concern. Due to limitations of the review process, in the absence of formal minutes or meeting notes for a number of meetings, I am reliant on statements of the former minister, Mr McCourt and other parties for verification of the purpose and contents of those meetings, it added. Therefore I cannot unequivocally state that the state-led intervention under the NBP (national broadband plan) was not discussed at the meetings outside of the procurement process. Mr Smyth considered whether the former minister was privy to any sensitive information that would have been of benefit to the consortium Granahan McCourt or whether he took any decisions within the process that benefited Granahan McCourt. Minister @RichardbrutonTD publishes the Peter Smyth Review into NBP @merrionstreethttps://t.co/X06tzhpdxd Dept. Environment, Climate and Communications (@Dept_ECC) November 27, 2018 Minister for Communications Richard Bruton said the Government has accepted the findings. Speaking at a press conference after the report was published he said: The problem that arose is the fact that some of these meetings were not minuted and there was no independent person there, so there could have been an opportunity for a discussion to occur on a tender which should have been insulated from that process. Thats where the cause for concern arose that the auditor has identified. During leaders questions, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said: What stands out (in the report) is the extraordinary level of connectivity between Granahan McCourt and the former minister 18 meetings, nine telephone calls and five dinners. The majority of all of those, particularly the 12-minute phone call, were clearly on the broadband plan. To me its a series on a level of engagement thats without precedent in terms of a bidding process, in terms of a ministerial involvement with a lead bidder. I think its extraordinary, by any yardstick. One has to question why Mr McCourt would feel it so necessary to be in such regular engagement with the minister. Mr Varakar said: That report indicates that the process has not been tainted so now we go on to next steps and thats the assessment of final bid. The final bid was received by the department and the final tender was received by the department on September 18 and that is now being evaluated, and a decision will be made in the next couple of weeks as to whether we can go forward with it. Mr Naughten said: As minister my job required me to meet investors from all sectors under the remit of my former department, whether they were investors from telecoms, renewable energy, environment or natural resources. These investors are the men and women who provide jobs in our country. My sole objective throughout this process, during my time as minister, was to deliver much promised broadband to rural Ireland. I am proud of the work that I achieved which has ensured that over one third of rural homes will, by next June, have access to up to 1000mbps pure fibre broadband. I hope that once this procurement process has been completed that the remaining homes, farms and businesses will get access to this technology. This should now be the only goal of our government and members of Dail Eireann at this point and I urge colleagues not to succumb to those who want to make a political issue of the NBP for their own ends and not that of the country as a whole. The Taoiseach said a report will be carried out on resources and staffing for childrens mental health services across Ireland after it emerged that tens of thousands of young people are awaiting vital treatment. Childrens charity Barnardos released its winter waiting list report, which shows that 37,000 children are waiting for health assessments for mental health, disability or speech and language treatment. The report reveals that some 78% of children with a disability or suspected disability are overdue an assessment of needs to identify their health requirements. It also shows that over 4,000 children are waiting for disability assessments, while 2,621 children are waiting for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) services. Barnardos report highlights government?s failure of children in need of health assessments - @PearseDoherty https://t.co/TdqaRzgyaM pic.twitter.com/wnaNyQrJs9 Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) November 27, 2018 Speaking in the Dail, Sinn Feins Pearse Doherty slammed the report as scandalous. The report also highlights an issue I raised last week, the fact that thousands of children are waiting for mental health assessments to identify their needs, he added. Many of them are waiting over a year to be assessed. It is another unbelievable figure. Approximately half of the positions in CAMHS teams have been vacant for some time, yet when we raise the crisis that is in full swing with regard to recruitment and retention, the Taoiseach dismisses our concerns. #WaitingLists Childhood is a time of rapid development - timely assessments and treatments are crucial to a childs development. Too many childrens health, wellbeing and overall development is being compromised; https://t.co/FB2pvCDrb2 pic.twitter.com/EMXheQK5Ef Barnardos Ireland (@Barnardos_IRL) November 27, 2018 Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the levels of child poverty remain far too high, adding that there is more to be done. He said he will seek a report comparing resources, staffing and outcomes in regions across the country. With regard to CAMHS, the Deputy will be aware that under our mental health services as of September 2018 there are some 10,000 staff, he continued. In just the past six years 2,000 posts have been approved, of which 1,500 have now been filled. The figures for those who are waiting for that prolonged period are 0.6% in Dublin, 0.6% in Donegal and the Border, but it is 29% in Cork and Kerry. I do not believe that resourcing and staffing is so much lower in Cork and Kerry to have nearly 30% of people waiting over one year when in other parts of the State it is 0% or less than 1%. June Tinsley, head of advocacy at Barnardos, said: These children face extreme difficulties in their everyday lives because they cant get timely access to healthcare. Problems in school, in some cases not being able to attend school at all, difficulty making and maintaining friendships, poor mental health and developmental delays are all common for children on waiting lists. It doesnt have to be like this. There are solutions out there in the community which are working but they need funding and support from the Government. Baroness Trumpington retired from the House of Lords at the age of 95 last year (PA) Baroness Trumpington, an imposing, uninhibited and redoubtable figure, of whom it was said would feel most at home directing a team of Sherpas across the Himalayas, served the Government with distinction in the House of Lords in a series of ministerial posts spanning many years. She was a daunting, but kindly figure, the arch-enemy of political correctness and one of the most outspoken some would say outrageous but never malicious figures in Parliament. Once she was caught on camera giving the two-finger gesture in the House of Lords to fellow Tory Lord King, former defence secretary, who had good-humouredly made some disobliging remark about her. But there was no ill-feeling on either side. Expand Close Conservative peer Baroness Trumpington was an outspoken figure in Parliament (Jeff Overs/BBC/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Conservative peer Baroness Trumpington was an outspoken figure in Parliament (Jeff Overs/BBC/PA) And after she stopped smoking she said that passive smoking was one of the few pleasures left to her in life a remark which upset the anti-smoking lobby. And those who heard her, well into her 80s, belting out Chattanooga Choo-choo at a Parliamentary charity concert, in a gaudy scarlet dress and a floppy wide-brimmed hat, will not easily forget the occasion. Lady Trumpington, who has died at the age of 96, was a tireless campaigner for the causes which she thought worth fighting for, and, although she did not reach Cabinet level, she was a lynch-pin for the Tory Government where she handled innumerable portfolios with firmness and good humour and a very loud voice. Lady Trumpington was born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris on October 23, 1922 and educated privately in England and France. During the war she was a land girl and later served with Naval Intelligence at Bletchley Park. Expand Close Baroness Trumpington shot to fame when she was caught on camera in the Lords chamber apparently flicking a V-sign at a fellow Tory peer (Chris Jackson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Baroness Trumpington shot to fame when she was caught on camera in the Lords chamber apparently flicking a V-sign at a fellow Tory peer (Chris Jackson/PA) I hated being a land girl. There were only old men there. The young men had joined up. And it was all apples no animals, she said. Afterwards she went to the United States to work for an advertising agency, setting off with 5 in her pocket and subsisting for the first few weeks on cocktail snacks until her first pay cheque came through. On her return to England she married Alan Barker, a Cambridge don, who was to become headmaster of the Leys School. But politics was in her blood and she tried unsuccessfully to be selected as a Conservative candidate in East Anglia. Undaunted by this rebuff, she threw herself into local government. Eventually she became Mayor of Cambridge, a magistrate and a tax commissioner. In 1980, to her surprise and delight, she was awarded a life peerage and took her title from the name of a Cambridgeshire village. She quickly became a character in the House of Lords, as well as a forthright and controversial speaker. She once enraged thousands of animal-lovers who sent her letters of abuse after she had suggested that Falklands sheep should be used as sacrificial mine detectors. My point was that sheep could be put out of their misery and eaten, whereas men could not. Unimpressed by this explanation, one correspondent referred to her as a fat, old scrubber, a description she always recounted with relish. She also had a loud and public row with British Rail, who refused to refund half her return ticket. Incensed by BRs demand for documentary proof, she promptly accused them of calling her a crook. Less controversially, she sponsored measures to allow Sunday trading and was an advocate of dog-owners cleaning up after their pets. Expand Close Baroness Trumpington with the Yeomen of the Guard in the House of Lords (Andrew Parsons/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Baroness Trumpington with the Yeomen of the Guard in the House of Lords (Andrew Parsons/PA) After three years she was made a whip, to ensure that Tory peers could not leave the Palace of Westminster when there was a critical vote. She became known as the Keeper of the Gate as she sat by the most popular exit, deterring escaping Lords by her imposing stature and ringing voice. She was never an ardent feminist, but supported equal opportunity on merit. The problem is that strong feminists are apt to put peoples backs up by over-emphasis just women, women, women, and you cannot have women without men, she said. On the other hand it is very difficult to win a fight unless you exaggerate. Over the years she was a Government front-bench spokeswoman on the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Health and Social Security, and Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. She bowed out after 37 years as a Conservative peer in October last year, at the age of 95. Lady Trumpington had many outside interests. In her time she had been President of the Heads of Independent Schools, Steward of Folkestone Racecourse, Hon Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, a prison visitor, member of the Airline Users Committee, and United Kingdom representative to the United Nations Status of Women Commission. The Duchess of Cornwall has hailed an artificial pancreas created by medical researchers to give type 1 diabetes patients control of their lives as brilliant. During a visit to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, Camilla was shown the innovative technology being trialled in the UK which mimics the human body and automatically gives patients the right amount of insulin, ending the need for constant monitoring and injections. Speaking at the end of her visit the duchess said: Having seen this artificial pancreas and being a technophobe I shouldnt really have understood what it does it looked quite simple and completely brilliant. I'm sure it's going to change the lives of a lot of you and a lot of your children in the very near futureCamilla The artificial pancreas, which researchers hope to make commercially available in the future, consists of a small skin sensor which sends data about glucose levels to a smartphone installed with software which tells a small pump how much insulin to administer to a patient. Camilla heard first-hand from young patients and their families about the problems of living with type 1 diabetes and met some of the team behind the project based at the Cambridge Clinical Research Centre, part of the NHSs research arm. Parents said they would get up more than six times a night to check their childs blood glucose level and give injections if needed. The duchess added: Im sure its going to change the lives of a lot of you and a lot of your children in the very near future. They just have to get it through the right channels, find the money and make everyone believe in it because I feel sure this is going to save so many lives and make so many lives easier to deal with. This is what our clever body does all the time without us knowing itRoman Hovorka For type 1 diabetes sufferers their pancreas does not produce enough of the hormone insulin which controls blood glucose so, after regular finger-prick blood tests, they have to inject themselves with insulin to make sure they have the right level of blood glucose. If it is too high, long-term problems include blindness and kidney disease, and if it is too low, a patient could become confused and fall into a coma. Dr Roman Hovorka, from Cambridge University, leads the team which has been working on the system since 2006 and is financially supported by the charity JDRF, formerly called the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, of which Camilla is president. Dr Hovorka, a professor of diabetes technology, told Camilla the secret to the pump was replicating the work of nature: This is what our clever body does all the time without us knowing it. Camilla asked about Theresa May, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes late in life and uses a sensor to measure her blood glucose levels. The duchess met Rob Hewlett, 41, from Cambridge, who discovered he had the same condition as the Prime Minister when he woke up in a Sydney hospital after collapsing on a flight while travelling in Australia aged 26. He told Camilla the threat of suffering from low glucose, known as hypoglycemia, when asleep is a constant worry: The night time is the scary time because youre asleep and you dont know whats going on. Mr Hewlett, who has helped test the artificial pancreas, added: In the diabetic community theres a think called DIB dead in bed. You have a severe hypo and you dont wake up thats something that plays constantly on my mind, but with this system its like a little guardian angel. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to Ely Market Place (Steve Parsons/PA) The Prince of Wales sipped a sloe and cherry gin and described it as absolutely irresistible as he spoke to traders during a visit to a market in wintry Cambridgeshire. He and the Duchess of Cornwall toured stalls in Ely, with both stopping to sample apple juice, Camilla buying some brownies and Charles pausing beside a gin stall. Shall I try a drop? he said, before laughing that it was served in the biggest glass, big as my whole face! He called the gin absolutely irresistible, thanking stallholder Nancy Decleir and wishing her a happy Christmas as she gave him a bottle of the spirit. Expand Close The Prince of Wales chats to a stallholder in Ely Market (Steve Parsons/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Prince of Wales chats to a stallholder in Ely Market (Steve Parsons/PA) Ms Decleir, who founded Ely Gin in the market seven years ago with her husband, James Clark, said afterwards: What an honour to be able to present your product to such an audience. Its incredible. Expand Close The Duchess of Cornwall browses one of the stall in Ely Market (Steve Parsons/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duchess of Cornwall browses one of the stall in Ely Market (Steve Parsons/PA) She added: He tried it neat, he enjoyed it, and I think, with these temperatures today, he can definitely use it. Charles and Camilla took time to speak to crowds of well-wishers as they carried out a series of engagements. Krista Richardson, 34, of Littleport, was with her five-month-old daughter, Alexis, who squeezed Charless finger as he spoke to them. Expand Close Five-month-old Alexis Richardson squeezes Charless finger as he visits Ely Market Place (Steve Parsons/ PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Five-month-old Alexis Richardson squeezes Charless finger as he visits Ely Market Place (Steve Parsons/ PA) He just said she was bundled up really warm, wrapped up really warm, then she grabbed his finger and he said Shes got a very strong grip, she said, adding it was lovely. Maddy Boning, aged three, who was with a group of children from Rainbow Pre-School in Ely, gave Camilla a bunch of flowers. Debbie Reed, manager of the pre-school, said the children were excited about the royal visit. Expand Close The Prince of Wales is kissed on the cheek by a member of the public as he arrives at Ely Cathedral (Steve Parsons/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Prince of Wales is kissed on the cheek by a member of the public as he arrives at Ely Cathedral (Steve Parsons/PA) Charles also visited The Stained Glass Museum in Ely in his role as its patron, cutting a cake to mark its 40th anniversary. He also visited an almshouse run by Thomas Parsons Charity, wishing residents an early happy Christmas. A Brexit legal challenge will be heard at the the European Court of Justice (Stefan Rousseau/PA) A legal challenge over Brexit is due to be heard at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). A cross-party group of politicians launched the action to determine whether the UK can unilaterally revoke its Article 50 request to leave the European Union. Those bringing the case believe the UK Parliament could halt the Brexit process if MPs vote down the final deal, while the UK Government argues the case is hypothetical as it has no plans to revoke Article 50. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Luxembourg in a bid to determine whether the withdrawal process triggered under Article 50 can be halted by the UK on its own, without prior consent of the other 27 EU member states. The ECJ is the highest court in Europe regarding EU law. The hearing was fixed after the highest court in the UK, the Supreme Court, last week rejected the UK Governments application to appeal against the ruling made by Lord Carloway at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in September to refer the question to the ECJ. The case was launched in February by a cross-party group of politicians: Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, Joanna Cherry MP and Alyn Smith MSP of the SNP, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project. Under pressure, the Govt has finally published the text of its (failed) application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. What is significant is that the Govt formally recognises MPs can simply direct it to revoke the Article 50 notice. https://t.co/vCjTlvvlXV pic.twitter.com/iBpjCyU03M Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) November 26, 2018 In June, Lord Boyd refused their request to refer the case to the ECJ, ruling the question was hypothetical and the conditions for a reference had not been met. The September judgment of Lord Carloway, Scotlands most senior judge, overturned this ruling. He said the European court would not be advising the UK Parliament on what it must or ought to do but instead merely declaring the law as part of its central function and how Parliament chooses to react to that declarator is entirely a matter for that institution. He added: It seems neither academic nor premature to ask whether it is legally competent to revoke the notification and thus to remain in the EU. The matter is uncertain in that it is the subject of a dispute; as this litigation perhaps demonstrates. The answer will have the effect of clarifying the options open to MPs in the lead up to what is now an inevitable vote. No judgment is expected at Tuesdays hearing and it is understood the European court will issue a written judgment later. In its ruling, the Supreme Court stipulated the Court of Session will have to reach a judgment on the matter after the ECJ has given guidance. Mr Wightman is among those travelling to Luxembourg and said he is looking forward to the hearing. He added: The question as to whether MPs can unilaterally revoke Article 50 is vital, as the chaos around Brexit shows no sign of being resolved. The UK Parliament must be fully informed of all of its options. A UK Government spokesman said: It remains a firm matter of policy that we will not be revoking Article 50. An actor dressed as Mark Zuckerberg arrives at Portcullis House, London, where a hearing is taking place on the impact of disinformation on democracy (Kirsty OConnor/PA) Facebook knew about a possible cyber attack on the platform linked to Russia years before they were made public, according to a leading MP in charge of holding the social network to account over issues of disinformation on the platform. Damian Collins, chairman of the parliamentary inquiry into fake news, said a company engineer had warned that entities with Russian IP addresses had accessed three billion data points a day from the network in October 2014, quoting from internal Facebook emails seized from US software company Six4Three. Speaking in front of politicians from around the world at an international grand committee on disinformation, the social media giants vice-president of policy solutions, Richard Allan, could not say whether the company knew about the alleged data access or whether relevant authorities were notified, but claimed the email cache was at best partial, at worst potentially misleading. A Facebook spokeswoman said the engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity but offered no further clarification. Expand Close Lord Allan, Facebooks vice-president for policy solutions, gives evidence to MPs next to an empty chair left for founder Mark Zuckerberg, who declined invitations to appear. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lord Allan, Facebooks vice-president for policy solutions, gives evidence to MPs next to an empty chair left for founder Mark Zuckerberg, who declined invitations to appear. Six4Three obtained the internal Facebook emails through legal mechanisms in the US, where the company is involved in court action against the social media giant. Parliament seized the emails on Sunday and Mr Collins promised to release a redacted version of the correspondence very soon. Alluding to the Six4Three emails, Labour MP Clive Efford said the committee had seen evidence regarding the closure of third-party apps on the network which could not pay large sums of money for mobile advertising and closing apps so that Facebook can move into that area and make money. Lord Allan said he was not aware of such practices. The Liberal Democrat peer and Facebook executive faced stern questioning on Tuesday over a range of criticisms including recent data breaches, allegations of business malpractice, repeated electoral interference and the rampant spread of disinformation and hate speech on the platform. Chief among the grievances of representatives was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbergs refusal to answer questions, despite repeated invitations. In this room we represent over 400 million people and to not have your CEO sit in that chair there is an offence to all of us in this room and, really, our citizens as well, said Bob Zimmer, chairman of Canadas committee on access to information, privacy and ethics, pointing to an empty seat and nameplate left for founder Mark Zuckerberg. While we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions our form of civil conversation seem to have been upended by fratboy billionaires from California, said Mr Zimmers vice-chairman, Charlie Angus. Lord Allan appeared in Mr Zuckerbergs place but was criticised for repeatedly failing to answer questions. 9 countries. 24 official representatives. 447 million people represented. One question: where is Mark Zuckerberg? pic.twitter.com/BK3KrKvQf3 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (@CommonsDCMS) November 27, 2018 An exchange with Singapores Edward Tong drew gasps from the assorted politicians as Lord Allan described Facebook green-lighting hate speech on the platform as a mistake. A Facebook post published in Sri Lanka during a time of political unrest in the country proclaimed Kill all Muslims, dont even let an infant of the dogs escape, said Mr Tong, but a Facebook moderator said it did not violate the networks standards. Mosques were attacked, Muslims were killed and a state of emergency was declared in the country in March 2018, he added. Would you accept that this case illustrates that Facebook cannot be trusted to make the right assessment of what can appear on its platform? Lord Allan agreed that the social media giant should be held accountable. Hildegarde Naughton, chairwoman of the Irish joint committee on communications, climate action and environment, said: In light of the fake news and data breaches that your company has been involved in over the last two years, do you accept that Facebook needs to be regulated? So yes, Lord Allan replied. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt should meet the family of a Scottish Sikh who is being held in India, MPs have heard. Foreign Office Minister Mark Field, who is responsible for Asia, said he would personally ask his boss to step in on the case of Jagtar Singh Johal. The case was raised by SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes, who led an adjournment debate on his constituents arrest, detention and alleged torture by the Indian authorities. Indian authorities allege Mr Johal, who was born and brought up in Glasgow, was involved in financing the killing of Hindu leaders. 384 Days In Detention It is now approaching 13 months since Jaggi was abducted by plain clothed officers whilst out shopping with his wife and cousin in Punjab. #FreeJaggiNow #JagtarSinghJohal pic.twitter.com/tz20doaBuO #FreeJaggiNow (@FreeJaggiNow) November 22, 2018 Mr Docherty-Hughes said he had been raising the case in Parliament for a year, but the Foreign Secretary was yet to meet the Singh Johal family. He said: When is the Foreign Secretary going to meet me and the family? These allegations of mental and physical torture, threats of violence against family members, simulated execution and forced confessions were horrifying enough when I first raised them a year ago. It has got harder as the year has gone on, and the longer it takes for the authorities of the Republic of India to address the issue the possibility of torture recurring cannot be ruled out. Mr Field explained his own frustration at the length of time negotiations were taking and pledged to get Mr Hunt involved. The family of Jagtat Singh Johal, detained in India without charge, mark 100 days of their #FreeJaggiNow campaign by calling for new UK intervention pic.twitter.com/ReHqkcSv2R Paul Ward (@paulward21) February 12, 2018 He said: These things do often take time and the Indian legal process can be slow, as indeed can ours Sometimes one has to wait for a considerable length of time to get a response. I know that is incredibly frustrating, and particularly when there are allegations of maltreatment and torture that becomes an even more serious state of affairs. Weve met Mr Johals brother Gurpreet on three occasions in the last year to try and discuss the very slow progress in relation to this case and Ive offered up a further meeting to the family. I will try to make representations that they can meet up with the Foreign Secretary and I expect I shall also be there at any such meeting going forward. Labours Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) said: Theres a pattern developing here where British citizens, in Iran or any other country now seem to be under threat. I wonder what the Foreign Office is doing about that? Mr Field later told MPs that FCO staff aimed to provide tailored support and guidance to each individual incarcerated abroad, but outlined that around 2,000 Brits at any one time are in detention around the world. He said: In the last financial year alone our staff overseas dealt with approximately 5,000 detainees, it is difficult. These are some of the most distressing and difficult cases and it is a distress to me that there are British citizens who feel that the FCO has fallen short in its consular service on some occasions. Clearly it is something that we will continue to take very seriously. As they attempted to enter en route to the Ukrainian port Mariupol, Russian coast guard vessels intercepted them, eventually opening fire and then seizing them with special forces. "NATO is closely monitoring developments in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, and we are in contact with the Ukrainian authorities". Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti, citing Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, said the three vessels of the Ukrainian navy had reversed course away from Kerch Strait. Ukrainian parliament has voted to impose martial law for 30 days in wake of Russian seizure of Ukrainian vessels. "The incident in Kerch Strait is a serious breach of worldwide law". It says crews did not comply with demands to stop. Mr Romaniw said people were very nervous and anxious, waiting for Russia's next step and that they needed to be held to account. His statement was echoed by other Russian officials and Pro-Kremlin media. Ukraine's parliament voted Monday to impose martial law in parts of the country to fight what its president called "growing aggression" from Moscow after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russian Federation fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. At an emergency United Nations Security Council session requested by Ukraine, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley condemned Russia's "outlaw actions" in violation of global law, but made no mention of whether the U.S. might toughen existing sanctions against Moscow. Because of the sharp disagreement between Russian and Western representatives, the United Nations meeting did not lead to any meaningful resolution of the escalating confrontation. The document was later ratified by the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. Martial law is scheduled to be in place from November 26 to January 26. Just before the Parliament was to vote on the proposal, Mr Poroshenko sought to allay those fears by releasing a statement that revised his original proposal from a 60-day period of martial law to just 30 days, in order to "do away with the pretexts for political speculation". The proposal, which could curtail certain rights and freedoms, was met with suspicion from Mr Poroshenko's critics who wondered why the Black Sea incident merited a state of emergency. According to a 2003 agreement, both Ukrainian and Russian vessels can navigate freely through the strait into the Azov Sea. Some 200 protesters waving Ukrainian flags and anti-Russia slogans have demonstrated outside the Russian Embassy in Poland over the latest standoff between Russia and Ukraine. The worldwide community has largely not recognized Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine. Though Russia has been actively supporting the separatists for the duration of the conflict, Sunday's incident is the first time Russia has openly engaged Ukrainian forces in an armed confrontation. The United States has since sold Ukraine weapons systems and participated in bilateral military exercises, while ramping up military operations along the US -led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance's eastern flank to reassure Russia's neighbors. Doing so would restrict Ukrainians' civil liberties and increase state power and give the unpopular president a free hand to postpone elections in March, where he faces an uphill battle to hold onto power. Terminally-ill Noel Conway has called on politicians to change the law on assisted dying after his legal fight to die peacefully and with dignity was rejected by the UKs highest court. The 68-year-old retired lecturer, from Shrewsbury, who has motor neurone disease, said the Supreme Courts refusal to hear his appeal was extremely disappointing and is the end of the road for his case. But he said campaigners would take the fight for a change in the law to Parliament. The Supreme Court has refused permission to bring Noel Conway's case to a full hearing. Noels case will proceed no further. We will now turn our attention back to Parliament and demonstrate to MPs the strength of support for assisted dying.https://t.co/UZoSwYPiIz Dignity in Dying (@dignityindying) November 27, 2018 In a statement after the court announced its decision on Tuesday, he said: All I want is the option to die peacefully, with dignity, on my own terms, and I know that the majority of the public are behind me. It is downright cruel to continue to deny me and other terminally-ill people this right. This is the end of the road for my case, so we must now turn our attention back to Parliament. I hope that MPs will listen to the vast majority of their constituents and give people like me a say over our deaths. Dying people like me cannot wait years for another case to be heard.Noel Conway Supreme Court justices rejected Mr Conways bid to appeal against an earlier ruling in his fight over current legislation which prevents him from being helped to die. He wants assistance from a medical professional to end his own life when he has less than six months left to live and still has mental capacity. Such assistance is currently a serious criminal offence with a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. Mr Conway said his only option is to effectively suffocate to death by having his ventilation removed, which is not acceptable to him. He added: Dying people like me cannot wait years for another case to be heard. I am particularly disappointed that the courts have instead listened to the arguments of doctors who have never met me but think they know best about the end of my life. I have no choice over whether I die; my illness means I will die anyway. The only option I currently have is to remove my ventilator and effectively suffocate to death under sedation. To me this is not acceptable, and for many other dying people this choice is not available at all. permission to apply to the Supreme Court rejected. They do not seem to have considered that if I come to be using my ventilator for 24-hour day I will be in a totally immobile condition. Is this not suffering? Cannot understand Lady Hale and Lord Kerr refusal? Noel Conway (@noel_conway) November 27, 2018 Mr Conway lost a Court of Appeal challenge in June against an earlier High Court rejection of his case that the blanket ban on assisted dying was an unjustified interference with his human rights. He sought to challenge that at the Supreme Court and justices took the unusual step of considering his case at a hearing last week. During that hearing, Mr Conways lawyers told the court the retired lecturer does not accept that withdrawal of his non-invasive ventilation (NIV), which he needs 23 hours a day, would be an acceptable way for him to end his life. They said he is particularly fearful he would experience a drowning sensation he currently feels when his ventilation is removed temporarily and worries he would not be able to hear his family or feel their touch while sedated. But Lady Hale, Lord Reed and Lord Kerr declined permission for an appeal. Giving reasons for their decision, the justices said in a joint statement that only Parliament can change the law. They said the prospects of Mr Conways appeal succeeding were not sufficient to justify giving him permission for a full hearing. Mr Conway, whose case was supported by the campaign group Dignity In Dying, was too unwell to travel to London for the Supreme Court hearing. He is now dependent on a ventilator for up to 23 hours a day and only has movement in his right hand, head and neck. Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity In Dying: We will now turn our attention back to Parliament and demonstrate to our MPs the strength of feeling on assisted dying. Last time around, MPs failed in their duty to represent the views of their constituents. Next time, we hope they will stand up for a safer, more compassionate law that benefits dying people. Norwegian will use Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft for the flights between London and Rio de Janeiro (Norwegian/PA) Norwegian is to become the first budget airline to operate flights between the UK and Brazil. The Scandinavian airline will operate four weekly services between London Gatwick and Rio de Janeiro from March 31 next year. This puts it in direct competition with British Airways, which is the only other airline flying non-stop between London and Rio. Test bookings by the Press Association for three return flights from London to Rio in April and May on hand baggage-only fares found that passengers could book with Norwegian for between 480 and 540, compared with between 721 and 763 with BA. BAs flights are a daily service to and from London Heathrow and its fares include food and drink, while Norwegian customers travelling on the cheapest tickets must pay extra if they want refreshments. Were committed to lowering fares and making travel more affordableNorwegian There is also a more generous hand baggage allowance with BA. Norwegian is also extending its South America operation by increasing its Gatwick-Buenos Aires flights from four per week to a daily service from December 3 in response to customer demand. In October, the airline launched domestic flights in Argentina with two routes from Buenos Aires to Mendoza and Cordoba. Norwegian chief executive Bjorn Kjos said: Were building on our expansive global network by launching the UKs most affordable flights to Brazil and making South America available to even more consumers. Our new Rio de Janeiro route breaks the monopoly on direct flights between the UK and Brazil as were committed to lowering fares and making travel more affordable for all holidaymakers and business travellers. Brazil is a fantastic addition to our global network and we look forward to welcoming customers on board. Norwegian has shaken up the long-haul aviation market in recent years by offering flights at knockdown prices. Some of its most popular deals have included 99 transatlantic flights to New York. The airline has struggled to contain costs during its growth, and had around 2 billion of net debt at the end of last year. Ryanair boss Michael OLeary predicted it would go bust this winter, but the Scandinavian carrier insisted his comment has no root in reality. Two budget carriers Primera Air and Cobalt Air collapsed last month. Aviation experts believe there will be an increase in airline consolidation in the coming months. BAs parent company IAG acquired a 4.6% share in Norwegian in April and has subsequently made two takeover offers, which were rejected. IAG said it was considering its options, while Norwegian insisted it remains fully committed to delivering on its stated strategy. Police are appealing for information about the crash (Joe Giddens/PA) A man has died five days after he was hit by a car as he crossed the road. Emanuil Paunov Asparhov, 64, was struck by a Vauxhall Mokka as he crossed the northbound carriageway of Gallow Green Road in Paisley at around 6.25pm on Thursday November 22. He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where he died on Tuesday morning. It is understood the 50-year-old female driver of the Vauxhall Mokka was not hurt. We know from inquiries carried out so far, a dark-coloured car stopped and the male driver got out to assist at the incidentSergeant Andy Mair Police are appealing for the occupants of a car that stopped to help at the incident to contact them. Sergeant Andy Mair said: We know from inquiries carried out so far, a dark-coloured car stopped and the male driver got out to assist at the incident, however, he left before police arrived. I am appealing for this driver and any occupants of the car to contact us as they could have vital information. We are also appealing for any dash cam footage as it may have captured images which could assist us in our investigation. Mr Paunov Asparhov was originally from Bulgaria but had been living in the Renfrewshire town. The incident on Gallow Green Road happened near its junctions with Maxwellton Street and Broomlands Street. Anyone with any information or footage is asked to call road policing officers at Helen Street Police Station via 101 quoting reference number 3077. The Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan could see Scotland become a world-leader in ending homelessness (Yui Mok/PA) Scotland could become a world-leader in ending homelessness under a new plan to end rough sleeping, charities have said. The Scottish Government said it will shift towards getting homeless people into long-term and settled accommodation as part of their Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan. Described as a historic opportunity to make a real difference, it aims to not only rehouse those on the streets quickly but to prioritise prevention of homelessness in the first place. The publication of this action plan gives us a historic opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable people across Scotland facing homelessnessSally Thomas, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations The plan was launched by Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell at visit to homelessness charity Cyrenians in Edinburgh. It includes all 70 recommendations made by the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group. Ms Campbell said: Everyone needs a safe, warm place to call home. Its more than a place to live its where we feel secure, have roots and a sense of belonging. The causes of homelessness can be complex and thats why all services need to be joined up. Working together we can end homelessness for good. The First Minister made a commitment in this years Programme for Government to end rough sleeping and homelessness, and this is what will get us there. The plan builds on the many changes in homelessness and affordable housing we have delivered in recent years, including more than 3 billion to deliver 35,000 homes for social rent and the multi-million-pound Ending Homelessness Together Fund. Expand Close Aileen Campbell has launched the Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan (Andrew Milligan/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Aileen Campbell has launched the Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan (Andrew Milligan/PA) Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: This is an ambitious plan that firmly positions Scotland as a world-leader in ending homelessness. The turnaround has been swift and the approach is bold but achievable if the commitment is shared across local government, housing associations and homelessness charities. The plan has people at its heart and makes clear that the best approach is to prevent homelessness in the first place, however, we need to see a prevention duty in law for all public bodies as well as an ambitious set of targets which demonstrates that homelessness has been ended for more people. However, overall this plan presents us with a chance to get behind bold and transformative reforms, and see Scotland lead the way once again. It is a unique opportunity to get policies and services right for homeless people, but also to look beyond homelessness into the wider systemic issues of inequality and poverty to bring an end to the injustice of homelessness in Scotland once and for all. Gavin Yates, the chief executive of the charity Homeless Action Scotland, welcomed the report as a useful tool to help judge progress but warned long-term funding commitments were required to remove the stain of homelessness from Scottish society. Mr Yates added: The key to change is to ensure that all the participants in making change, work together. The Government, local authorities, housing associations and NHS and health and social care partnerships need proper joined-up planning and crucially need to work hand in glove with voluntary sector partners to make the change needed on the ground. For third sector bodies to make their contribution they need security of funding beyond the one-year deals that many face. We have an opportunity for change and we hope that when this is debated in Holyrood on Thursday that we see a real appetite to make homelessness a relic of days past. Scottish Federation of Housing Associations chief executive Sally Thomas said: The publication of this action plan gives us a historic opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable people across Scotland facing homelessness. We have the political will, we have funding available and we have key housing agencies in housing ready to deliver. There is an appetite to do better and move Scotland towards a fairer, more equal society. Expand Close Patrick Harvie says the law must be reformed (Andrew Milligan/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Patrick Harvie says the law must be reformed (Andrew Milligan/PA) Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie MSP branded some present laws inadequate. He said: We must ensure that homelessness is prevented in the first place and this cannot be achieved by relying on the good work of councils and charities. Scottish ministers must review current inadequate laws, such as the Private Housing (Tenancies) Act, which still allows for the eviction of tenants on eighteen statutory grounds including when they have done absolutely nothing wrong, and should not find themselves losing their homes. Until then the new action plan cannot be realised if people continue to be threatened and forced into homelessness. A British academic sentenced to life imprisonment by the United Arab Emirates for spying and then pardoned by the nations president days later thanked his wife and everyone who helped securing my release as he landed back in the UK. Matthew Hedges was freed on Monday after a high-profile battle with the Gulf state ally, but officials persisted in calling him an MI6 spy a claim denied by family and colleagues. In his first statement issued after landing at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday morning, Mr Hedges praised his brave and strong wife Daniela Tejada, saying seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. I could not have done this without Daniela, I hear her face is everywhereMatthew Hedges The Durham University PhD student, originally from Exeter, was sentenced on Wednesday after being arrested at Dubai Airport as he tried to leave on May 5. I dont know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release, Mr Hedges said. I have not seen or read much of what has been written over the past few days but Dani tells me the support has been incredible. Thank you so much to the British Embassy and the FCO (Foreign Office) for their efforts in ensuring I arrived safely back home. I could not have done this without Daniela, I hear her face is everywhere! She is so brave and strong. Seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. I thank you all once again, this is very surreal. His wife mounted a campaign to free the 31-year-old and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt personally discussed the case with UAE leaders. The presidential pardon for Matt is the best news we couldve received. Thank you friends, family, media, academics, and the wider public for your undivided support - Ive been brought back to life. pic.twitter.com/vruok0ST6O Daniela Tejada (@DanielaTejada) November 26, 2018 I am so happy to have my Matt home, she said. Thank you once again for the overwhelming support we have received, especially from the embassy in the UAE and the Foreign Office in ensuring that Matt was safely returned home. We are overjoyed and exhausted! Thank you once again as well to the international community and the international media who were very supportive from the beginning. I hope you can all understand that Matt and I, as well as his family, really need some time to process everything that we have been through. No one should ever have to go through what he did and it will take him time to heal and recover. He is very overwhelmed. To say we are happy is an understatement. Foreign Secretary @Jeremy_Hunt's statement today on the release of Matthew Hedges pic.twitter.com/5WBr6q6Cnl Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) November 26, 2018 Earlier, she said news of the pardon brought her familys nightmare to an end, and Mr Hunt described it as fantastic. At a news conference on Monday in Abu Dhabi, officials showed a video of Mr Hedges describing himself as a captain in MI6 during what appeared to be a court hearing. However, MI6 the foreign intelligence service is not known to use military ranks. An official told reporters in Abu Dhabi that Mr Hedges was 100% a full-time secret service operative who was in the country to steal the UAEs sensitive security national secrets for his paymasters. He said the Britons pardon came in response to a letter from his family appealing for clemency and due to the historical close ties between the UK and the UAE. His highness has decided to include Mr Matthew Hedges among the 785 prisoners released, he said. Mr Hedges will be permitted to leave the country once all the formalities are complete. The UK takes a neither confirm nor deny approach to allegations of intelligence service membership, but Mr Hunt has previously said he has seen absolutely no evidence to suggest Mr Hedges is a spy. Following the pardon, Ms Tejada, from Bogota in Colombia, continued to reject the accusation that her husband was a spy. UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said the pardon would allow the two countries to return our focus to the underlying fundamental strength of the UAE-UK bilateral relationship, the WAM Emirates news agency reported. Professor Stuart Corbridge, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said staff were absolutely delighted to learn of the news. Matthew Hedges is reunited with his wife, Daniela Tejada, back at home in the UK (Daniela Tejada/PA) A British academic who was pardoned days after being given a life sentence for spying in the United Arab Emirates is back in the arms of his wife. Matthew Hedges was freed on Monday after a high-profile battle with the Gulf state ally, but officials persisted in calling him an MI6 spy a claim denied by family and colleagues. Mr Hedges, from Exeter, appeared in a picture on social media, kissing his smiling wife, Daniela Tejada, after landing back in the UK. Ms Tejada posted the picture on Twitter and wrote: Thanks for collectively helping me to bring back my husband. Weve been through hell and back and would really appreciate having some space to catch up on much-needed rest. Thanks for collectively helping me to bring back my husband. Weve been through hell and back and would really appreciate having some space to catch up on much-needed rest. Kindly asking you to please respect our privacy and our families - they too deserve your consideration. pic.twitter.com/m3hGZrq3TX Daniela Tejada (@DanielaTejada) November 27, 2018 Kindly asking you to please respect our privacy and our families they too deserve your consideration. In his first statement issued after landing at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday morning, Mr Hedges praised his brave and strong wife, saying seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. Mr Hedges, a PhD student at Durham University, was sentenced last Wednesday after being arrested at Dubai Airport as he tried to leave on May 5. I dont know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release, Mr Hedges said. She is so brave and strong. Seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. I thank you all once again, this is very surrealMatthew Hedges, about his wife I have not seen or read much of what has been written over the past few days but Dani tells me the support has been incredible. Thank you so much to the British Embassy and the FCO (Foreign Office) for their efforts in ensuring I arrived safely back home. I could not have done this without Daniela, I hear her face is everywhere! She is so brave and strong. Seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. I thank you all once again, this is very surreal. His wife mounted a campaign to free the 31-year-old and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt personally discussed the case with UAE leaders. The presidential pardon for Matt is the best news we couldve received. Thank you friends, family, media, academics, and the wider public for your undivided support - Ive been brought back to life. pic.twitter.com/vruok0ST6O Daniela Tejada (@DanielaTejada) November 26, 2018 I am so happy to have my Matt home, said Ms Tejada. Thank you once again for the overwhelming support we have received, especially from the embassy in the UAE and the Foreign Office in ensuring that Matt was safely returned home. We are overjoyed and exhausted! Thank you once again as well to the international community and the international media, who were very supportive from the beginning. I hope you can all understand that Matt and I, as well as his family, really need some time to process everything that we have been through. No-one should ever have to go through what he did and it will take him time to heal and recover. He is very overwhelmed. To say we are happy is an understatement. Foreign Secretary @Jeremy_Hunt's statement today on the release of Matthew Hedges pic.twitter.com/5WBr6q6Cnl Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) November 26, 2018 Earlier, she said news of the pardon brought her familys nightmare to an end, and Mr Hunt described it as fantastic. At a news conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday, officials showed a video of Mr Hedges describing himself as a captain in MI6 during what appeared to be a court hearing. However, MI6 the foreign intelligence service is not known to use military ranks. An official told reporters in Abu Dhabi that Mr Hedges was 100% a full-time secret service operative who was in the country to steal the UAEs sensitive security national secrets for his paymasters. He said the Britons pardon came in response to a letter from his family appealing for clemency and due to the historical close ties between the UK and the UAE. His Highness has decided to include Mr Matthew Hedges among the 785 prisoners released, he said. The UK takes a neither confirm nor deny approach to allegations of intelligence service membership, but Mr Hunt has previously said he has seen absolutely no evidence to suggest Mr Hedges is a spy. Following the pardon, Ms Tejada, from Bogota in Colombia, continued to reject the accusation that her husband was a spy. UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said the pardon would allow the two countries to return our focus to the underlying fundamental strength of the UAE-UK bilateral relationship, the WAM Emirates news agency reported. Terminally-ill motor neurone disease sufferer Noel Conway has been refused permission for an appeal over the law on assisted dying at the Supreme Court (Aaron Chown/PA) A terminally-ill motor neurone disease sufferer has been refused permission for a challenge over the law on assisted dying at the UKs highest court. Supreme Court justices rejected a bid by Noel Conway to appeal against an earlier ruling in his fight over current legislation which prevents him from being helped to die. The 68-year-old, from Shrewsbury, says that being forced to choose between unacceptable options to end his life is barbaric. He wants medical assistance to die when he has less than six months left to live, still has the mental capacity to make the decision and has made a voluntary, clear, settled and informed choice. Ultimately the question for this panel is whether the prospects of Mr Conways succeeding in his claim before this court are sufficient to justify our giving him permission to pursue it, with all that that would entail for him, for his family, for those on all sides of this multi-faceted debate, for the general public and for this court. Not without some reluctance, it has been concluded that in this case those prospects are not sufficient to justify giving permission to appealSupreme Court justices Mr Conway lost a Court of Appeal challenge in June against an earlier High Court rejection of his case that the blanket ban on assisted dying was an unjustified interference with his human rights. He sought to challenge that at the Supreme Court and justices took the unusual step of considering his case at a hearing last week. During that hearing, Mr Conways lawyers told the court the retired lecturer does not accept that withdrawal of his non-invasive ventilation (NIV), which he needs 23 hours a day, would be an acceptable way for him to end his life. But Lady Hale, Lord Reed and Lord Kerr declined permission for an appeal. Giving reasons for their decision in a joint statement, they said: No-one doubts that the issue is of transcendent public importance. It touches us all. We all have to experience the death of people about whom we care. We all have to contemplate our own death. The justices added: Ultimately the question for this panel is whether the prospects of Mr Conways succeeding in his claim before this court are sufficient to justify our giving him permission to pursue it, with all that that would entail for him, for his family, for those on all sides of this multi-faceted debate, for the general public and for this court. Not without some reluctance, it has been concluded that in this case those prospects are not sufficient to justify giving permission to appeal. Mr Conway, who is supported by the campaign group Dignity In Dying, was too unwell to travel to London for the Supreme Court hearing. He is now dependent on a ventilator for up to 23 hours a day and only has movement in his right hand, head and neck. Tommy Robinson (front and centre) has been appointed as an advisor to Ukip leader Gerard Batten on rape gangs (David Mirzoeff/PA) A Ukip MEP has quit the party in protest at leader Gerard Battens decision to employ Tommy Robinson as an adviser. Patrick OFlynn, a former political editor of the Daily Express, said that under Mr Batten the party had become an impediment to the Brexit campaigning that I have energetically pursued for many years. He attacked the decision to employ Mr Robinson, suggesting the Ukip leader had an apparent and growing fixation with the co-founder of the English Defence League. Mr OFlynn, who has represented the East of England since 2014, said that he was quitting to join the Social Democratic Party. An announcement from me in the light of the continuing tie-up between UKIP and Tommy Robinson https://t.co/R67Swn9p92 Patrick O'Flynn (@oflynnsocial) November 27, 2018 His departure follows criticism by ex-leader Nigel Farage of the decision to hire Mr Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, in a role advising Mr Batten on rape gangs and prison reform. Mr Farage denounced Mr Robinson as a thug. In a statement on his website Mr OFlynn attacked the decision to align with Mr Robinson, including in an upcoming Brexit protest, saying: Without any mandate from the membership or the partys elected ruling body to go down this path, Gerard is transforming what Ukip stands for and offers to voters. Many long-standing party members have already left as a result. Today I am joining them because I have reached the sorry conclusion that Ukip under its current direction and at this decisive moment has become an impediment to the Brexit campaigning that I have energetically pursued for many years. The key question in British politics now is which party are millions of sensible, moderate Brexit voters betrayed by establishment parties but wishing no tie-up with Tommy Robinson supposed to vote for? The answer, alas, is clearly not Ukip. Last week Mr Farage said he would write to Ukips ruling National Executive Committee to demand a vote of no confidence to remove Mr Batten as leader, saying he was damaging both the party and the Brexit cause. He described Mr Robinson as a man whos done four prison sentences, lives under a pseudonym and wherever he goes theres violence. But Mr Batten defended his decision, describing Mr Robinson as courageous. The decision was announced shortly after Ukips NEC voted not to stage a ballot on whether to allow Mr Robinson to join the party. Mr Batten denied moving Ukip to the extremes or opening its doors to racists, and told the BBC Mr Robinson would help him turn the party into a mass movement a party for ordinary people. Male panda Yang Guang is recovering following an operation (Andrew Milligan/PA) The UKs only male giant panda is recovering from surgery to remove both testicles after tumours were discovered. Yang Guang (Sunshine), who arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in 2011, underwent the operation following a group consultation involving British and Chinese giant panda specialists. The zoo said the tumours developed recently and have not been a factor in Yang Guang and female panda Tian Tian (Sweetie) not having had a cub. The operation took place on Saturday November 17, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) said. Edinburgh Zoo will now look into future breeding opportunities. Expand Close Yang Guang has lived at Edinburgh Zoo since 2011 (Andrew Milligan/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Yang Guang has lived at Edinburgh Zoo since 2011 (Andrew Milligan/PA) Darren McGarry, head of living collections at the zoo, said: We are pleased Yang Guang is recovering well. Testicular tumours have previously been reported in giant pandas. The tumours we removed developed recently so they have not been a factor in Yang Guang and Tian Tian not having had a cub. We will discuss next steps, including future breeding possibilities, with our partners in China over coming weeks. The black and white bears arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and are due to remain at Edinburgh Zoo for a decade. Tian Tian has had cubs in China but not in the UK. The zoo tried natural breeding in 2012 and has attempted artificial insemination each year since 2013. Earlier this year, RZSS said no efforts to breed the pair would take place in 2018. Nasas newest probe on a two-year mission to Mars, InSight, made a successful landing on the planet on Monday afternoon, triggering delighted celebrations across the globe. When the announcement was made that InSight had landed and the mission was a success, Nasa employees were obviously thrilled, with two mission controllers launching into an impressive handshake to celebrate. The uplifting moment from inside the agencys California Jet Propulsion Laboratory quickly went viral, garnering tens of thousands retweets. In a statement, Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine said: Today, we successfully landed on Mars for the eighth time in human history. This accomplishment represents the ingenuity of America and our international partners and it serves as a testament to the dedication and perseverance of our team. People on social media obviously loved the multi-part handshake complete with high-fives and dance moves, with some claiming that the moment was even more exciting than the Mars landing itself. Not sure if I'm more excited about the landing or this dope ass handshake. https://t.co/4bDcosnO2D are you there satan? its me, margaret (@itsamemargaret) November 26, 2018 I'm losing at this InSight probe celebration handshake pic.twitter.com/A0i4mQmb2M Eric Morrow (@morroweric) November 26, 2018 May we all have a NASA nerd handshake moment in our lives. https://t.co/QJ4w0MzTZg Mythili Sampathkumar (@MythiliSk) November 26, 2018 The InSight probe touched down on Mars Elysium Planitia area north of its equator after travelling at 13,200mph through the planets atmosphere. Nasas $814 million (633 million) mission aims to explore how the planet was formed and map its core, crust and mantle. A second device will burrow five metres into the planets surface, measuring Mars temperature, while a third experiment will determine how Mars wobbles on its axis. Forty two people were arrested after a group of migrants in Tijuana, the Mexican city, broke away from a peaceful protest and ran towards the border fencing on Sunday. United States authorities shot tear gas at hundreds of migrants who attempted to storm the U.S. border on Sunday. More than half of them are Hondurans, including five women. Mexico's Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said on Monday that migrants who attempted to cross into the USA in a "violent way" would be deported. Numerous thousands who have gathered in Tijuana have said they will wait until they can seek asylum. Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed the incident Monday, saying at least 50 individuals were in custody inside the United States after storming the border at San Ysidro, California. A Tijuana official said Monday that things will get worse if the migrants don't get help from the federal government. Around 5,200 people who travelled in a caravan across Mexico are packed into the shelter in a stadium in Tijuana, living in makeshift tents. American authorities also shut down the nation's busiest border crossing at San Ysidro for several hours at the end of the Thanksgiving weekend. The US Border Patrol said most of those assembled at the border were economic migrants who would not qualify for asylum. A group of migrants climbed a fence as they tried to reach the US-Mexico border The migrant caravan at the U.S. -Mexico border consists of mostly men who are not "true asylum seekers", former Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said Monday, adding that he agrees with President Donald Trump's threat to shut down the border if Mexico doesn't deport the migrants back to their home countries. Estella, a woman from Honduras, said she was shocked to see the response at the border. Mr Trump again urged Congress to fund his long-promised border wall, as well as reiterated his unsubstantiated assertion that there are many criminals among the migrants. The migrants, who are fleeing poverty and violence, have said they would wait there until they could request asylum, despite growing USA measures to tighten the border. "Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries", Trump wrote on Twitter. There were some sections that had the dilapidated border wall that was made out of scrap metal the military gave us. "They want us to wait in Mexico but I for one am desperate". How should Mexico and the United States deal with the migrant issue? "We did not use kinetic force on any children". Rescuers attempt to refloat pigmy killer whales after they were transported to Rarawa Beach from Ninety Mile Beach (Department of Conservation/AP) Conservation workers and volunteers in New Zealand managed to re-float six surviving stranded whales and were hoping the animals would soon swim away into deeper water. Ten pygmy killer whales were initially found stranded on Sunday at Ninety Mile Beach on the North Island. Two whales later died there. On Monday evening, crews transported the remaining animals on hay-lined trailers to Rarawa Beach on the opposite coast of the peninsula, where the sea conditions were calmer. Expand Close Rescuers stand with a pygmy killer whale (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rescuers stand with a pygmy killer whale (AP) The trip took about an hour, said Department of Conservation ranger Jamie Werner. Mr Werner said the whales were then placed in a tidal stream to relieve the pressure on their bodies. But he said the whales became too buoyant and were moved onto the sand, where volunteers kept a vigil through the night, regularly cooling the animals with water. Mr Werner said about 200 people showed up to help, and groups of a dozen per whale lifted the animals into the sea on Tuesday morning and re-floated them on the high tide. He said that two of the weaker whales beached themselves again. Expand Close Rescuers attempt to refloat the whales (Department of Conservation/PA) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rescuers attempt to refloat the whales (Department of Conservation/PA) They were calling to the other whales in the pod, and they were coming back in, he said. So we made a quick decision to euthanise them. Its actually phenomenal to see how in tune they are with each other. He said the remaining whales were swimming about 400 metres from the shoreline on Tuesday afternoon and would continue to be monitored until they swam into deeper water, their natural habitat. The crews were hoping for a better outcome than from an unrelated stranding over the weekend in which all 145 pilot whales died. Travel blogger Liz Carlson wrote that she was on a five-day hike on a remote part of Stewart Island when she and a friend found the pilot whales on Saturday evening. Expand Close Rescuers keep two pygmy killer whales wet (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rescuers keep two pygmy killer whales wet (AP) She said they rushed into the water. Desperately we grabbed their tails and pushed and yelled, before we got hammered by them thrashing around, she wrote on Instagram. It was useless, they were so big and heavy and the realisation we could do nothing to save them was the worst feeling Ive ever experienced. She said her friend ran nine miles to a hut to tell rangers and she stayed with the whales, dragging the smallest baby back into the water every few minutes before it would beach itself again. I knew they would inevitable die, she wrote. I sank to my knees in the sand screaming in frustration and crying, with the sound of dozens of dying whales behind me, utterly alone. When conservation workers arrived, they found that 75 of the animals were already dead and they decided to euthanise the others due to their poor condition and remote location. Whale strandings are relatively common in New Zealand during the Southern Hemisphere spring and summer. Scientists believe strandings can be caused by a number of factors, such as the whales trying to escape predators, falling ill, or navigating incorrectly. The death of American Christian missionary John Allen Chau, killed in a hail of bows and arrows on the tiny island of North Sentinel (a part of the Andaman group of islands in the Bay of Bengal) as he attempted to convert the inhabitants to Christianity, produces a mixture of emotions. The first, of course - and let us be candid about this - is a kind of wry bafflement. Missionaries? Tribes? Conversion? It seems like the bones of a Two Ronnies sketch from the 1970s. This type of thing simply doesn't happen in our latte-loving, agnostic world. Even many of those with faith will find the idea of a missionary walking into what seemed to be certain death all rather bewildering. The Sentinelese are what is officially described as an 'uncontacted people', meaning they have had no real contact with the wider world. Even their tribal name is a made-up one - we have no idea what they call their island or themselves; we don't even know a single word of their own language. In an era where we like to think of ourselves as part of the global village, where we delude ourselves that our world is snugly tied together by commerce, technology and common cultural assumptions, the death of Chau implicitly challenges our complacency. First of all, Chau's faith is unsettling. He knew the risks. Fully. Unblinkingly. He had attempted to make contact with the tribe several times. As he prepared to make another attempt, he wrote a letter to his parents: 'You guys might think I'm crazy in all this, but I think it's worth it to declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed. Rather, please live your lives in obedience to whatever He has called you to and I'll see you again when you pass through the veil. This is not a pointless thing. The eternal lives of this tribe is at hand and I can't wait to see them around the throne of God worshipping in their own language, as Revelations 7:9-10 states.' The missive ends: "Soli Deo Gloria" (glory to God alone). Whatever our theological positions, the sincerity of his words should make us pause to reflect. His truth and 'our' truth don't coincide. John Allen Chau was prepared to lay down his life for his truth. Like a Christian martyr of old, he walked towards the arrows that were to kill him. But nor do the truths of the Sentinelese themselves fit with ours. Described as the world's last Stone Age tribe, they have aggressively defended themselves from the outside world. From Marco Polo back in the fifteenth century, through British Imperial expansion right up to today's agents of the modern Indian state, the Sentinelese have defended their isolation, raining mini-hells on anyone so arrogant as to stick their neb into their business. And so successful have they been in preserving their isolation, we know - even today - little about their beliefs, their customs or even how many of them there are (best estimates say about 150) on their island, which is 7.8km long by 7km wide. Indeed, judging by some newspaper reports, the only thing we do know is that the tribe enjoys vigorous communal sex on the beach (you don't get that at Brown's Bay!). Thank goodness for the investigative powers of the Press. The Sentinelese need more protection from us than we do from them. They are under siege from ever more exotic tourism (while it is illegal to visit North Sentinel island, half-a-million tourists a year visit the greater Andaman group), our insatiable curiosity masquerading as concern. Even our germs are hostile, threatening the tribe with possibly fatal diseases as flu, measles and the common cold. Bows and arrows won't protect you against those. The Sentinelese are a salutary reminder that 'our' way isn't the only way. From what little we know, they seem happy, surviving on fruit and berries, clams and the odd pig. It may seem flippant but there is something to be envied in their isolation from our values and the pointless neurosis of our society. Imagine no internet, no Facebook or WhatsApp. No paranoia about why so and so hasn't liked your last tweet. No TV. Imagine that. No Simon Cowell, no Ant & Dec (& Holly), no Davina McCall, no Cheryl New Name, No Kanye and no Love Island. Bliss. But more important than those boons, no demands - to be thinner, richer, more successful, more fulfilled, more compassionate, more aware, smarter, wittier, wiser, more in touch with yourself, more fashionable, less solipsistic, calmer, happier, aware and self-confident. They have never heard the word 'Brexit'. Glib, perhaps. But there are times when you think of places like the Andamans and wonder if we're so smart: we know everything except our own minds, we have advanced but we know not where to and at what cost. Maybe it is sentimental to think that the Sentinelese are on to something, watching the sea and the stars, living from day to day, sufficient but no more than that, living without judgment. But are their lives any less complete, any less satisfying than our own? It's a big question. Chau and the tribespeople who killed him unnerve us because each, in their differing ways, chip away at all our easy assumptions. Chau's own assessment of his own mission and its risks does have something noble about it. You can call him foolhardy - but then mountaineers and seafarers and rushers into burning buildings can be dubbed unwise. Whatever he was, he paid the heaviest price for it. By the same token, he was killed by people against whom no law of our devising can reasonably be deployed - and by 'our' I mean any law of any legal or moral system existing anywhere. Those who killed him weren't murderers. More than likely, the isolation of the Sentinelese will eventually wither away as the ravenous appetite of the consumer world for novelty and freaks and fly-on-the-wall voyeurism finally finds a way to encroach upon their tiny life. Then we may indeed someday find a means to account for the response they had to aliens landing on their beach. But I don't think it'll be much of a surprise, really. We like to think that we would be open to the unknown and the totally unfamiliar - genuinely 'alien' life, for example. We like to think also that we respond in a friendly fashion to those who seem friendly to us. But that's the greatest self-delusion, the story in which 'we' (or glorified versions of ourselves) are always the heroes. But we are not the goodly, beauteous creatures Shakespeare had Miranda celebrate in The Tempest. Instead, isn't it true we must appear immediately ugly, hostile, fearsome and invasive? And is that guesswork so misguided? After all, wherever we go, we drag a fairly hellish existence behind us. The record shows, as Tyrone poet John Montague noted in The Last Monster, that the story of our contact with the strange and unfamiliar doesn't end well: "Somewhere on the ultimate scarp/the last monster will watch/with hooded eyes/while tiny men trek importantly towards him/bristling with strange supplies." It's no disrespect to the late John Allen Chau, who ran his ultimate risk of his own beliefs, or to those completely innocent islanders who met him with their own, to note that it isn't so clear just who the more fearsome party is in that exchange between islander and visitor. The monster, for want of a better word, may be closer to home than we think. Strabane man Patsy Gillespie was the victim of a robbery in his home last October that left him shaken and disbelieving that such vile thuggery existed. Yet this weekend he will celebrate his 102nd birthday, having put the ordeal behind him and got on with his previous life, which includes madcap inventions and lots of laughter. Patsy is obviously a very resilient man and he was buoyed by the support and goodwill messages he received after people read of the burglary in this newspaper. But many more elderly people have found it difficult to bounce back after being subjected to burglaries or robberies, often accompanied by quite vicious assaults. The scale of the problem is enormous, running at three burglaries a day on average against elderly people. It is a particularly mean crime, picking out frail people, often in the belief that they will have ready money in their homes compared to younger people who use plastic more often than cash. The thieves also know that there is little chance of their targets fighting back, although they reckoned without the daughter of an 87-year-old when they broke into his home in Portadown on Sunday evening. The woman, who has Down's syndrome, grappled with the three masked men who had assaulted her dad and it took two of them to fight her off. Neighbours also arrived at the scene and the thieves, in typically cowardly fashion, fled. It is easy to say that the PSNI should do more, but the closure of many police stations during the past two decades, and with patrols being thin on the ground, there is an obvious problem in trying to prevent such crimes. One of the most effective ways of protecting our elderly people is for neighbours to keep a friendly eye on them, watching out for strange vehicles seen near their homes or unfamiliar faces entering the property in the late evening or night. However, the thieves are adept at picking their targets well, often older people who live alone or in remote rural locations where there is less chance of being observed. There are preventative measures that the elderly can take to make their homes more secure, and technological aids are available to enable them to quickly call for assistance in an emergency. Although many elderly people are fearful of becoming victims, the good news is that their chances of being attacked are still small. Reopening of stores a boost for city after Primark blaze There will be a partial return to normality for Belfast city centre over the next couple of weeks. Primark, which suffered a devastating fire three months ago, is due to reopen part of its building and another 10 shops forced to stop trading because of the proximity of the damaged building will also begin trading on December 8. It is all welcome news to the business community in the city after a dramatic drop in footfall in the wake of the blaze. A lot of effort has been put into enticing shoppers back to the city and the crowds last weekend showed it was having a positive effect. Reopening Primark can only add to the feelgood factor. "Outcomes for the men are now among the best we have seen in recent years." That is how inspectors have described Maghaberry Prison in a report published today. In stark contrast to three years ago, the prison is described as safe and respectful with resettlement and rehabilitation at its core. While we must continue to improve in some areas highlighted, it is a credit to all those who work at Maghaberry that the prison has made such progress. The role of the Prison Service is to support and challenge those placed in our care to change; to address their offending behaviour and to prepare them for resettlement back into our community. The progress at Maghaberry has been led by the Governor David Kennedy and his senior team who have shown energy and determination in working to turn what was a failing prison around. It is therefore very encouraging to read the words of the Chief Inspector when he says: "We rarely see a prison make the sort of progress evident at Maghaberry." Building on the work of his predecessor, the late Stephen Davis, Governor Kennedy, working with his staff, has ensured Maghaberry achieved the progress reported today. Prisons are challenging places to work and live, and sometimes hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. Those in our care sometimes have complex needs and challenging behaviours with issues of mental health increasingly coming to the fore. We need to understand such issues better as we work with our partners, particularly in healthcare. The challenge we face should not be underestimated as issues faced in our society are concentrated in prisons. Today's report is hugely encouraging and demonstrates we are on the right path and doing the right things. On what is an important day for the service, I want to acknowledge the professionalism, commitment and compassion of prison officers and those who work alongside them. The past few years have been difficult for Maghaberry; but this report demonstrates that the prison is now playing a full part in building a safer Northern Ireland. Ronnie Armour is Director General of NI Prison Service Philippine Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza (left) and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (center) and National Security Adviser General Hermogenes Esperon (right) inspect firearms seized by security forces from Muslim militants during the siege in the southern city of Marawi, June 8, 2017. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he had accepted the resignation of his chief peace adviser Tuesday, as the nation was preparing for a January 2019 plebiscite to ratify a Muslim autonomy law in the south. Duterte did not give any reason for Jesus Durezas resignation as presidential adviser on the peace process, but his surprise announcement came at the same time that he divulged that he had also fired two of Durezas top men on allegations of corruption. I am very sad that I accepted the resignation of Secretary Dureza, Duterte said at an early evening speech in the central island of Bohol, where he had inaugurated an international airport. He suggested in his speech that Dureza was not implicated in corruption in an anti-poverty program for residents in insurgency-wracked areas. Dureza is considered one of the Dutertes closest and trusted aides, having been a longtime friend and a former classmate of the president. In his Nov. 27 resignation letter to the president, Dureza said he had informed Duterte as early as Nov. 6 about allegations of corruption involving his two men. He explained that he could not focus on the internal management of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process because he concentrated on settling the insurgencies. I am sad because despite my efforts to be compliant with your strong advocacy against corruption, I failed, Dureza said in his letter, which he made public. Durezas resignation came more than a month before the south holds a special plebiscite in January aimed at ratifying the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL). Duterte signed the BOL in July last year four years after the previous government signed a peace deal with the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). BOL aims to give the poverty-stricken south an expanded autonomous area, offering self-determination to the nations minority four million Muslims by giving them powers to elect their own parliament. Authorities hope that the BOL would end a nearly 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people in the countrys second-largest island of Mindanao. As part of the deal on the BOL, the MILF had also agreed to disband its fighting force. The plebiscite is to take place in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur. It will also include six towns in Lanao del Norte and the cities of Cotabato and Isabela in Basilan. There have been fears of attacks from other militant groups allied with the Islamic State and opposed to the MILF-government peace deal, officials said. Additional troops would be deployed in areas in the south to thwart attacks, the military and police said. Mark Navales from Cotabato City contributed to this report. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (right) meets with Lorenza and Saldy delos Santos, the parents of a 17-year-old who was killed by police in a counter-narcotics operation in 2017, in Manila, Aug. 28, 2017. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has escalated his verbal war with the Catholic Church by threatening to behead a bishop over allegations tied to drug dealing. Duterte directed his comments against the church, which represents the countrys dominant faith and has led huge but peaceful street protests against his administrations deadly crackdown on illegal narcotics, during a speech in southern Davao city on Monday night. Bishop, if you are selling drugs, Ill have your head cut off, Duterte said, according to transcripts made available on Tuesday. The president did not specify which bishop he was alluding to, but he lashed out at a Bishop David for allegedly being engaged in corrupt practices, such as asking for vehicles and other favors from the church. The Catholic Church and Bishop David is clinging to a belief 3,000 years ago. How can people 3,000 years ago predict what is happening today? And you have the balls to criticize, brave as you are, to ask for cars from the government? Duterte said. David, Im beginning to suspect why youre frequently roaming around at night. I suspect that you could be involved in drugs, Duterte said without explaining how he got his information. In the Philippines, the Catholic church only has one bishop named David Pablo Virgillo David, a known critic of Duterte who spoke out against the killing of teenager Kian Loyd delos Santos during a police counter-drug raid in August 2017. Duterte made his comments days before a court in a Manila suburb was expected to rule in the case of three policemen accused of murdering delos Santos, who was 17 years old. On Tuesday, David responded to Dutertes allegations. No, sir, Im not into drugs of any sort, whether legal or illegal. ... I only help in rehabilitating people addicted to drugs, the bishop said in a statement. I partner with the anti-drug abuse councils and offices of the local government units of Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas in this endeavor. He was referring to three suburban areas in northern Manila where drug abuse is rampant. Thank God I am not even taking any maintenance drugs yet. I only take vitamins with a fruit shake blended with malunggay (moringga) leaves in the morning. You might want to try it, sir. It will do you a lot of good. God bless you, David added. A dutiful shepherd Delos Santos was one of several children slain in the drug war last year, but his case galvanized church-led grassroots opposition to the crackdown. The police claimed delos Santos had pulled a gun on the three officers now standing trial in his killing, but closed-circuit TV footage showed the policemen leading the boy away. Meanwhile, Sen. Leila de Lima defended Bishop David against President Dutertes criticism, which she called slanderous. He destroys the reputation of those who oppose him and those who fight for the victims of his rule. Bishop David is his latest victim, De Lima said in a statement, referring to Duterte. David is a dutiful shepherd of his flock, doing all that is within his power to protect them amidst the murderous onslaught of Dutertes drug war that has left a lot of children orphans. He has been successful in condemning the endless killings under Duterte, to the point that he has now become the newest target of Dutertes intrigues, lies, and slanders, the senator added. De Lima has been jailed since last year. She claimed she was falsely accused by the government of profiting from drug syndicates when she led the countrys justice department. Her jailing was political payback for questioning Dutertes drug war, she alleged. As of October, 4,948 suspected drug addicts and dealers were killed since the crackdown began in mid-2016, when Duterte took office, according to statistics compiled by police. But human rights groups put the death toll at around 12,000. A Thai police forensics unit inspects the site of a bombing that ignited a fire at a market in southern Narathiwat province, Feb. 24, 2018. Thailands new chief negotiator said Tuesday he had asked the Malaysian facilitator of Deep South peace talks to invite the leader of the most powerful insurgent group to the table so that all the armed separatist organizations would be represented. The Thai side is looking to include Doonloh Wae-mano, (alias Abdullah Wan Mat Noor), chairman of the supreme council of the National Revolutionary Front or BRN, in the Malaysia-brokered negotiations, Thai delegation head Udomchai Thammasarorat said. We are reorganizing the peace-talk team. The approach is we want to talk with the de facto representatives of all dissident groups and MARA Patani, Udomchai told BenarNews in a phone interview. Dissident is a term used by officials from the Thai military government to describe the southern rebels. MARA Patani is an umbrella group that claims to negotiate on behalf of all the Deep South insurgent groups. It includes BRN representatives on its panel. Whether he himself would join or not, or accept the invitation or not, I cannot get involved," Udomchai added, referring to Doonloh. Previously, he said MARA Patani was not his group. We try to talk with the group under his control, so we asked the facilitator to coordinate. Udomchai, a retired general who served as the Fourth Army regional commander overseeing the Deep South, recently replaced Aksara Kerdpol as Thailands chief peace negotiator in the south. Abdul Rahim Noor was tasked with the facilitator role for Malaysia by the new government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Every group must join so we talk it over once and for all, Udomchai said. We dont force anyone to join but we requested the facilitator to help. Back in 2004, the year the longtime insurgency flared up again in Thailands southern border region, Doonloh was headmaster of the Jihad Witaya School in Pattani province. He was later accused of training militants who looted a fort in Cho I-rong, a district in neighboring Narathiwat province, that year. Doonloh succeeded Spae-ing Baso, who died in January 2017, as head of BRNs supreme council. Last year, after bomb attacks at a Pattani super store injured about 80 people, then-Thai Army Chief Gen. Chalermchai Sitthisart publicly condemned Doonloh for extremist attacks. Thai officials, who posted a 10 million baht (U.S. $302,000) bounty on Doonloh, reported that he fled to and was living in Malaysia. We wont propose a ceasefire Since a new set of talks began in mid-2015 between rebel groups and the Thai junta, negotiators have sought to establish a limited ceasefire in a specific area of the Deep South, to be dubbed a safety zone. Thai officials claimed last year that both sides had agreed to establish such a zone in Cho I-rong district. But in his comments to BenarNews, Udomchai appeared to back away from this idea, although it was not clear whether he had taken if off the table completely. We wont propose a ceasefire, it is useless because violence is their tool, Udomchai said. The more a ceasefire is discussed, the more violence occurs as they use it as a bargaining tool. We will talk about how to co-develop the areas, making them trade zones, not war zones, he said. Days after the two sides had announced in February 2017 that they would work together to establish a safety zone, eight people were killed and four injured in attacks blamed on insurgents. On Tuesday, after a monthly meeting of the nations defense council meeting, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan responded to reporters questions about Doonloh. He refused to come out three times already, Prawit said. I dont know what doubts he has in his mind. I let the facilitator coordinate with him. In Malaysia, Abdul Rahim had little to say when asked about the status of the talks. I cannot comment on the issue at the moment, he told BenarNews. The Thai government requested that the peace process be put under wraps, so unless theres a change in the policy, I cannot divulge it to the public. MARA Patani officials in Malaysia did not respond to requests for comment. The predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla province. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the region since the decades-old insurgency re-ignited 14 years ago. Wilawan Watcharasakvet in Bangkok and Muzliza Mustafa in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report. This weekend it is the Democratic Unionist Party conference in Northern Ireland and it is fair to say it is probably attracting more attention than normal. Theresa May has warned MPs unhappy with her Brexit deal that it is too late for the United Kingdom to go back to Brussels to re-negotiate the agreement. Boris Johnson and DUP Party leader Arlene Foster during the DUP annual conference at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Belfast. In a plea to Foster, Johnson said it was "absolutely vital" the Conservatives and the DUP continue with the confidence and supply arrangement under which the DUP keeps the Tories in power. She also insisted that her party was not looking to campaign against Brexit, and tried to quell fears that if the deal is voted down we will be left with a no-deal. "But if it came to a situation where parliament did decide to back this deal, then obviously we will have to review the confidence and supply agreement", she added. The backstop seeks to avoid customs checks at the border by allowing Northern Ireland closer alignment to the EU's single market while the whole of the United Kingdom stays in a customs arrangement with the bloc. "Some of our past decisions and actions have left a lot to be desired and I know that they have personally hurt and offended many of our members, voters and the public", she said. "Personally there is no question of no Brexit because the Government needs to deliver on what people voted for in the referendum in 2016", she said. "But for us we can not wish away the fact that the draft Withdrawal Agreement contains arrangements that we believe are not in Northern Ireland's long term economic or strategic interests", she said. Mrs May has responded by telling her critics Britain could face a hugely disruptive "no deal" Brexit if it does not take the deal on offer. Pressed on whether a defeat of the European Union deal in Parliament would spell the end of May's tenure as prime minister, Foster said: "That's not a matter for me, that's a matter for her own party". She added: "The reality is that if we are to secure a better outcome than is now on offer then the only option is to look beyond this current draft Withdrawal Agreement and work in the time ahead for an improved outcome". She insisted the deal negotiated by Mrs May in Brussels, endorsed by European Union leaders at an historic summit this morning, clearly breached the red line. It meant that the DUP's 10 MPs voted against the Government on the Finance Bill last week, and abstained on three other occasions. "What we should do is wait to see what develops in that respect". "The choice is not between this deal and no deal, despite what the Government spin machine may say". Despite the turmoil, the Prime Minister again insisted that as far as she is concerned, Brexit will go ahead next year as planned. "My Government will always defend the interests of Spain". "And we should work together to ensure that the whole UK - Northern Ireland included - can seize the opportunities of Brexit". Housing and equality minister Ms Sacramento was standing in for Gibraltar's chief minister, Fabian Picardo. The reactions to the Russian attack against Ukrainian soldiers on the Sea of Azov show that there are still some in Europe who do not want to accept reality even though the situation couldnt be any clearer. In Eastern Ukraine, Russia has tried to operate in disguise and publicly denied participating in the war. Now, however, President Vladimir Putin isnt even trying to cover anything up: 23 Ukrainian soldiers have been arrested by Russian soldiers, and six Ukrainians were seriously wounded in fights. This is a dramatic escalation. I hope that Europe will quickly find a common voice in reaction to this act of war by Russia because we have also been informed that a further Russian military offensive may be imminent. Our intelligence services warn of an increased Russian military presence on the ground. What can Germany do? It must urgently appeal to Putin to immediately release the Ukrainian soldiers. At the same time, it is necessary to talk about new sanctions. After all, its absurd that Germany now supports the construction of a Russian gas pipeline like Nord Stream 2 running in the direction of the Baltic Sea which means that, in the future, it will be possible to transport gas without crossing Ukraine. Auch Interessant With this, Germany is financing the army that is waging war against Ukraine. This is not acceptable. The US ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, is right to keep calling attention to Germanys wrong Russia policy and to argue against the construction of the pipeline. Everyone who is on Ukraines side should join the protest and stop the construction. On this exclusive, members-only event, Bill breaks down what you need to know about The Real Joe Biden. Who is he and how will he directly affect you and your family? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices The 3rd Raffles Dialogue on the Future of Human Well-Being and Security brings together global thought leaders to look at emerging threats and explore strategies to take on these challenges as we future-proof our societies. Healthcare, business sustainability, threats to humanity and healthy longevity in an interconnected future will be examined by leaders across academia, government, healthcare, enterprise and the scientific media to build societies that are adaptable to change. Singapore By 2025, more than half the workforce will be automated. Worldwide healthcare spending will reach $25 trillion by 2040. Globally, 1.6 billion people will be 65 years and over in 2050. Such challenges will impose significant strain on economies, health systems and social structures worldwide. Experts and thought leaders in health, business, technology and sociology will join keynote speakers, The Right Honourable Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former Administrator of the UN Development Programme, and Dr Sania Nishtar, Co-Chair of the High-Level Commission on Non-Communicable Diseases at the World Health Organisation, in addressing key global challenges at the 3rd Raffles Dialogue on the Future of Human Well-Being and Security: Towards Resilient and Empowered Societies. The Raffles Dialogue will open with a discussion on Singapores Role in Global Health. Singapores Minister for Health, Mr Gan Kim Yong, will be part of the panel examining how the region can collectively learn from and tap on each other to reach sustainable development goals in health in the face of global trends and threats (Refer to Annex A for a summary of topics covered). The President of the Republic of Singapore and Chancellor of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Madam Halimah Yacob, will grace the Opening Dinner as the Guest-of-Honour with Rt Hon Helen Clark delivering the first keynote address. Singapore is honoured to serve as a convenor of global events and conversations affecting local, regional and global policies, allowing key opinion leaders from around the world to share their expertise and insights on healthcare, business, economics, innovation and technology and the impact of emerging trends and challenges on our interconnected future, said Professor John Eu-Li Wong, Chairman of the Organising Council for the 3rd Raffles Dialogue, Chief Executive of the National University Health System (NUHS) and Senior Vice President (Health Affairs), NUS. We want to start national and cross-border conversations that will help us advance human well-being and security in the face of these challenges. The 3rd Raffles Dialogue on the Future of Human Well-being and Security: Towards Resilient and Empowered Societies, held from 27-28 November 2018 in Singapore, is jointly organised by the NUHS, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine), NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. It is supported by the NUS Medicine International Council (NIC) and the Ministry of Health. This years Dialogue also coincides with Singapores chairmanship of ASEAN and Singapores top-ranking in the UN health-related Sustainable Development Goals, which was released in a report by The Lancet in late 2017. In the race to get carriers ready for CPaaS 2.0, Telestax has named Paul Doscher as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective October 29. We recently detailed how the company is aggressively courting communications service providers when we interviewed Kevin Nethercott, VP of Business Development. In an interview with new CEO, Paul Doscher, he told us, We want to be the arms dealer allowing carriers to compete with CPaaS. During this next stage of growth, there is no better person to lead Telestax, said Ivelin Ivanov, Telestax Co-founder and Member of the Board of Directors. Paul is a proven leader with whom the founders have built a strong relationship, having relied on his business acumen and counsel over the years. His vision for how RestcommOne will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Telestax needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth. I know that I speak on behalf of everyone at Telestax in thanking Ivelin for his leadership and tireless dedication to the company, said Doscher. I am very excited to assume this new role and for the future of the company. Telestax has an exceptionally talented team that is focused on taking decisive actions to scale the business and to continue to innovate our cloud solution in new and diverse ways that will unlock future growth opportunities. Telestax offers comprehensive cloud communications technology that is capable of bringing new life and opportunity to the communications service provider community (CSP), said Krishna Srinivasan, Telestax Member of the Board of Directors and Founding Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners. The hard work the founding team put into building our platform has resulted in its initial market success. Paul is a leader who will drive the company to the next level by capitalizing on the initial success and turning it into broad market penetration. We are looking forward to taking this journey together. Before joining Telestax, Doscher spent over 25 years in executive roles for noteworthy software companies including Oracle as VP Americas Alliances, Business Objects as General Manager Americas Subsidiary, JasperSoft as President and CEO and Lucidworks as President and CEO. He brings strategy, operations, sales and channels experience to complement Telestax and RestcommONE, a well-engineered and proven CPaaS Enablement platform. Learn everything you need to know about CPaaS, UC and UCaaS at at ITEXPO, January 29-February 1st, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Where Doers & Disruptors Find Communications & Technology Solutions The customer instead received $100 bill but only $20 was deducted for his bank balance. A long line of cars was also seen outside the ATM as people scrambled to get their turn at grabbing a wad of cash. Messages left for North Carolina-based Bank of America weren't immediately returned Monday. A sheet of rare and sought after star notes is seen after the phase of production where the new 100 United States dollars bills are applied with a serial number, a US Federal Reserve seal, are cut and stacked at the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing's Western Currency Facility October 11, 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas. The call went out over social media late Sunday night, that the Bank of America ATM near F.M. 1960 and Interstate 45 was giving away "free money," KPRC reported. Several arguments and even a few fights ensued while people waited in line to make a profit, officials said. The company released the following statement: "This was an incident at a single ATM in Houston caused when a vendor incorrectly loaded $100 bills in place of $10 bills". Authorities didn't immediately say how much money was erroneously dispensed. The first one-of-its-kind initiative by the Government of India, IHIP uses the latest technologies and digital health initiatives. Preeti Sudan, Union Health Secretary did soft-launch of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) segment of Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) in seven states recently. The path-breaking initiative will provide near-real-time data to policy makers for detecting outbreaks, reducing the morbidity and mortality and lessening disease burden in the populations and better health systems. The first one-of-its-kind initiative by the Government of India, IHIP uses the latest technologies and digital health initiatives. Speaking on the occasion, Preeti Sudan stated that the success of this platform will depend primarily on the quality of data shared by the states. Data is power and power is to help people, she said. She urged the state secretaries to be earnest in adopting this platform to strengthen early outbreak detection and informed public health response. She also shared that for effective implementation of the platform, 32,000 people at the block level, 13,000 at the district level and 900 at the state level have been trained. Preeti Sudan, Union Secretary of Health also launched the IHIP vision and a ready-reckoner developed to navigate the platform. Congratulating the government for making this ambitious undertaking a reality, Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India said that it is imperative to collaborate with the private sector to ensure the sustainability of this initiative. For WHO, it has been a privilege to support the development of the platform in collaboration with numerous government stakeholders, he added. Among those present at the launch were Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary; VikasSheel, Joint Secretary, Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director NCDC; Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India; Dr Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Senior Advisor, WHO HQ; Dr Pradeep Khasnobis, Joint Director, IDSP NCDC and senior officials in the Union Health Ministry. Additional Chief Secretaries/Principal Secretaries (Health) and Mission Directors from the seven states (Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh )participated in the launch through video-conferencing. The MoU was signed at a ceremony held in Kerala. Maldicare has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Meitra Hospital, Kerala, to further vision of optimizing health care delivery and the overall health and well-being of patients. The MoU was signed at a ceremony held in Kerala recently. PM Shahul Hameed-Chairman of Janatha HealthCare, India- signed on behalf of MaldiCare while Director Dr. Ali Faizal signed for Meitra Hospital. According to the MoU, both partners would enter into a strategic partnership to promote and carry out health services in Maldives by Speciality doctor consultancies, medical education and patient referrals for further treatment in its Multi-Specialty Hospital at Calicut. Adlux Group will be the infrastructure partner with operations & management support by Apollo Hospitals. Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. (AHEL) has announced their foray into Kerala by signing an Operations and Management contract relating to a 250 bedded super-speciality hospital in the fast developing town of Angamaly, the northernmost suburb of Kochi, with the Adlux Group as infrastructure partners. Apollo Hospitals would be responsible for all operations and management of the hospital. The announcement was made by Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Executive Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group in the presence of the Honble Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan at an event in Trivandrum to discuss new trends in cancer care. Located close to Kochi International Airport, the Apollo Adlux Hospital, scheduled to begin operations in four to six months, would provide world class healthcare services to people of all socio-economic strata in this region. Dr. Prathap C Reddy was speaking at a knowledge session to create an awareness among people on emerging trends and treatments for cancer. Announcing the new hospital, Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, We are happy to enter into Gods own Country, Kerala with this world-class super-speciality hospital in partnership with the Adlux Group. This is indeed a special moment for us and I am confident that Apollo Hospitals will be able to utilise its experience of 35 years to serve the people of Kerala through proven global practices augmented by cutting edge innovation in healthcare. I look forward to the blessings of the people of the state! On the occasion, Apollo Hospitals also announced its support to rebuild the infrastructure of primary healthcare centres (PHCs) damaged as a result of the recent floods in Kerala in collaboration with the Government of Kerala. Under the agreement, Apollo Hospitals would reconstruct the PHC at Kakkodi, Kozhikode District and hand it over to the Government. Commenting on the same, Dr. Prathap C Reddy said, It is our responsibility as healthcare custodians to contribute to the well-being of the people who have faced natures fury this year. This PHC is a small gesture of our support to aid them in their recovery from the natural disaster. Speaking at the event, the Honble Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan said that Kerala is known for high quality of life and has topped the health index as a result of better health infrastructure and services. He said that these advantages are now being challenged by new lifestyle diseases, adding that the threat has to be addressed through joint efforts of all the stakeholders. The hospital is designed as per international standards to ensure smooth patient flow and best in class patient experience. With world class infrastructure and cutting-edge medical technology, internationally benchmarked practices and a team of leading healthcare experts, the Apollo Adlux Hospital will provide high quality patient-centric experience. The hospital is part of the complex which currently hosts the Adlux Groups International Convention and Exhibition Centre, which is the largest in South India. Expressing his passion for healthcare, Mr. Puzhekadavil Sudheesan, Promoter and Director, Adlux Group said, It has always been my desire to give back to the community and I am happy to associate with the Apollo Hospitals Group to bring the best world-class healthcare services to the people of Kerala. Proximity to the airport will be a major factor for the development of medical value tourism, as it will provide easy access, especially to patients from West Asia. The 250 beds Apollo Adlux Hospital will have 50 beds exclusively dedicated for critical care. The hospital will begin services as a tertiary care hospital with an advanced Oncology section planned for the next phase. The hospital will provide 24X7 round-the-clock super speciality treatment with experienced specialist doctors. World class equipment with advanced technology like MRI, 128 slice CT Scan, Cardiac cathlab, mammogram etc. with state of the art laboratory and emergency facilities will position the hospital as one of the best in the region. PET Scan and Linac to be equipped in the next phase will serve to strengthen the services to the patients. Super Speciality department like cardiac care, trauma care, orthopaedics, neurosciences, gastrosciences, kidney, with all affiliated specialities and sub specialities will be the hallmark of Apollo Adlux Hospital. 12 Days before the Brexit referendum in 2016, the German newsmagazine SPIEGEL begged the British people on its cover page: Please dont go. Although the majority of voters taking part in the referendum voted to leave, the Germans continued to hope that Britain will remain in the European Union. Hope is the last to die, as a well-known German saying goes. In October 2018, leading German newspapers reported optimistically that the mood in Britain has changed, and a report from the Peoples Vote March in London for Germanys most popular news programme Tagesschau suggested that there is still hope for a Brexit U-turn. Why is it so difficult for the Germans to accept the result of the 2016 referendum? There are many reasons why politicians, journalists, businesses, and ordinary people in Germany dread Brexit. Two deserve particular attention because they will shape the future relationship between the two countries: unlike in other European countries, the German populations belief in the European project is at a record high. Although many Germans view developments and debates in Brussels with a critical eye, most, including leading politicians, believe that the European Union has helped to create and maintain peace and political stability in the region and that their country benefits from being a member of the European Union. Yet in the face of growing nationalist sentiment across Europe and major disagreements regarding immigration and other issues, even the greatest Euro-enthusiasts had to realise that the EU is vulnerable. In the minds of many Germans, this raises a worrying question: if the UK shows that it can be done without huge economic damage, who will be the next to leave the European Union? Another reason why Germany doesnt want the UK to leave the EU that it wants to maintain close economic, cultural and political ties with Britain. In 2016, the UK was one of Germanys most important trading partners. Business leaders in Germany and in the UK have warned that a no-deal Brexit could have dramatic economic consequences for both countries. But for us Germans, its not just about business. 97.8% of German children learn English in school, and German students love to study at British Universities. The Germans love Shakespeare, Ed Sheeran, and the Royals (almost 7.5 million people in Germany watched live coverage of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle). Angela Merkels response to Brexit reflects the German Brexit Angst. On the one hand, she uses every opportunity to defend the European project and highlights that no country can have the benefits of membership without embracing the duties and responsibilities that this involves. On the other hand, she has warned against a rigid approach to Brexit talks and seeks to minimise the damage for stakeholders in Germany and Britain. At this stage, it is of critical importance that we see beyond these and other official political statements and focus on concrete issues. Businesses, research centres, and expats in both countries have long begun to prepare for the post-Brexit future. A significant rise in applications for permanent residency and citizenship by German citizens in the UK and by Brits in Germany, new research funding schemes and academic partnerships like the Oxford-Berlin partnership, as well as lobbying efforts and contingency plans by business leaders in both countries show that many people dont want to accept that Britains divorce from Europe will destroy cultural exchanges, economic relations, and strategic alliances between the UK and Germany. Now is the perfect time to invest in such relations and alliances, and the Germans are keener to do so than you might think. Microsoft briefly surpassed Apple as the most valuable company in the world Monday as the market cap of Microsoft's stock traded above Apple's. Microsoft shares rose more than 3 percent as US markets and large cap tech stocks shook off recent losses. Apple closed at 828.64 billion, while Microsoft sat at $822.90 billion, according to Bloomberg. Microsoft has jockeyed with both Apple and e-commerce giant Amazon for position among the most valuable companies. As of 1 p.m. its market cap had settled back to $807 billion. Apple's market capitalization overtook Microsoft's in 2010 as the maker of Windows software struggled with slow demand for personal computers, due in part to the explosion of smartphones driven by the iPhone. Global demand for smartphones has slowed in recent years, making it more hard for Apple to increase its revenue. Microsoft dominated in the dot-com era but subsequently lost ground as the Cupertino, California-based Apple launched such iconic products as the iPod and especially the iPhone, which would grow to become its most important product line. While Microsoft hasn't been immune from weakness in the technology sector, it has held up much better, falling just 9 percent from its own all-time high. There could be further difficulty for Apple, as the company warned phone sales might be lower than analyst expectations. The last time Microsoft was bigger than Apple based on market cap was in mid-2010. Rich Ross, a technical analyst at Everscore ISI, said Apple could see another 18 percent slide. That would put it below both Amazon.com, now valued about US$770 billion, and Google-parent Alphabet Inc., which has a market cap of about US$730 billion. UNL journalism students tackle Norfolk stories Three students at the University of Nebraska-Lincolns College of Journalism and Mass Communications are providing stories in todays Daily News as well as the Wednesday newspaper as part of a class reporting assignment. The three students Olivia Book, Peyton Stoike and Haley Heiden spent time in Norfolk earlier this semester and conducted interviews for feature story assignments arranged by the Daily News. The students were each assigned newsroom staff members to work with as part of the class project. The students work was edited by Jill Martin, an assistant professor of practice at the UNL College of Journalism. The goal of the project was to give the UNL students a taste of real-life reporting and writing away from the college classroom setting. This is the second group of university students the Daily News has worked with this semester. Earlier this month, three different students spent a weekend in Norfolk on a series of post-election stories. Todays stories are by Olivia Book and Haley Heiden. In Wednesdays edition, a story on Kate Trindle, a world-traveler and former educator, by Peyton Stoike will be published. Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado Email no valido Nombre requerido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACION PR Newswire LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26, 2018 LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MOTORTREND announced the MOTORTREND award winners of the "Golden Calipers" for Car of the Year, Truck of the Year, SUV of the Year, and Person of the Year, the most prestigious and sought-after honors by the world's automotive manufacturers. Award winners were announced during an exclusive event featuring an audience of industry executives and celebrity guests at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. "This year brought many strong contenders to the table, making our job that much more difficult," says MOTORTREND Editor-in-Chief and SVP of Content Edward Loh. "Rest assured, the awards are being presented to the best of the best in the industry." This year's MOTORTREND awards recipients were evaluated against six key criteria: safety, efficiency, value, advancement in design, engineering excellence, and performance of intended function. Judges for each program come from MOTORTREND staff but also included two special guest judges for Car of the Year, legendary car designer Tom Gale and product development guru Chris Theodore, and one special guest judge for SUV of the Year, automotive engineering expert Gordon Dickie. The details of the awards are: 2019 MOTORTREND Car of the Year Winner: Genesis G70 When evaluating this year's contenders for Car of the Year against the six key criteria, the Genesis G70 was the clear winner for MOTORTREND judges. Hyundai's luxury brand has produced a truly exceptional car the judges describe as "very good at almost everything," and "hitting all the right notes." With only two years in the market, the G70 is jumping into a crowded segmentone where both heritage and perception count. As a result, judges couldn't help but compare the G70 to veterans within the same sector. According to MOTORTREND Road Test Editor Chris Walton, "My attention was rapt. My heart raced. Held to the standard-bearer, a BMW 3 Series, this car out of the gate is better. It's more evolved and more luxurious than the original Infiniti G35, has an edge to it that a Mercedes-Benz C-Class lacks, and feels more alert than an Audi A4." After a week of testing at the Hyundai-Kia California Proving Ground and the roads near the high-desert town of Tehachapi, judges found the Genesis G70 to be "smooth, quiet, fast, upscale, nimble, good-looking, and a great value." In awarding the Genesis G70 its Car of the Year status, MOTORTREND's International Bureau Chief Angus MacKenzie summarizes, "It hits all the right notes: Punchy powertrains and an agile chassis that's a ton of fun, sporty exterior styling with strong graphics, and a well-appointed interior." 2019 MOTORTREND Truck of the Year Winner: Ram 1500 Out of this year's three impressive finalists tested at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' (FCA) Arizona Proving Grounds and the surrounding scorching desert near Kingman, MOTORTREND judges named the Ram 1500 the 2019 Truck of the Year winner. Tested in temperatures that cracked well into triple digits each day, the fifth-generation 2019 Ram 1500 showcases a vehicle that has made significant strides and seems poised to meet the needs of the 21st century pickup truck buyer, with more variety, capability, comfort, convenience, and value than ever before. With its impressive interior, each Ram cabin is outfitted with the tools needed for both work and play. The Ram 1500 features a smooth-riding coil-spring suspension, raised bedrails allowing for increased cargo volume, and an increased towing capacity at 12,750 pounds. Ram also proved its uniqueness within the pickup category by the addition of eTorquethe fullsize pickup segment's first mild-hybrid supplemental electric motors used to improve the 1500's fuel economy and performance. What clinched the title of 2019 Truck of the Year for the Ram 1500 was its ability to achieve a level of refinement and sophistication without straying far from its tough roots. Loh notes, "The styling of the Ram is best-in-class: very sophisticated and well executed without going over the top." 2019 MOTORTREND SUV of the Year Winner: Jeep Wrangler The iconic Jeep Wrangler has undergone an epic evolution for 2019, securing it the title of SUV of the Year. The seven-decades-old design manages to retain its classic style while exhibiting modernized engineering. Rarely do the past and present coexist so beautifully. Testing at Honda's proving ground near Mojave, California, demonstrated that Jeep's Wrangler lineup is comprised of a diverse range of models designed for every need. The Wrangler maintains its go-anywhere abilities, while adding new electrohydraulic steering and a revised suspension for an overall smoother ride off-road and on-pavement. In addition to added space and increased fuel efficiency from the eTorque engine, Jeep offers near-endless customization possibilities. When identifying this year's SUV of the Year winner, our judges agreed that the Wrangler impressed with its overall enhancements made in every area, including build quality. According to MacKenzie, "The Wrangler is a thoughtful, thorough rework of an American original, laser-focused on improving the performance of its intended function, right down to the last nut and bolt." 2019 MOTORTREND Person of the Year Winner: Sergio Marchionne, Chairman and CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ferrari This year's Person of the Year proved a financial powerhouse, altering the fate of Chrysler and Fiat during the Great Recession and saving thousands of endangered jobs around the world. MOTORTREND is honored to recognize Sergio Marchionne, the late Chairman and CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ferrari, as 2019 Person of the Year. Marchionne's financial acumen allowed FCA to pay off its debt, but he also had an exceptional eye for creating compelling and imaginative cars, trucks, and SUVssending designers and engineers back to the drawing board until the product was perfect. His expertise is evidenced by the 2018 Car of the Year Alfa Romeo Giulia, 2019 Truck of the Year Ram 1500, and 2019 SUV of the Year Jeep Wrangler. An intellectual, he shared his vision of the evolving automotive world and was not afraid to be the first to take action. MOTOTREND award PR assets for Car, Truck, SUV, and Person of the Year are available to download for press release, broadcast B-roll, videos, and photos. Additional content is also featured on MOTORTREND's website. About MOTORTREND MOTORTREND, a media brand of MotorTrend Group, was founded in 1949 and is internationally recognized as one of the leading brands in the automotive category. The MOTORTREND brand is composed of Discovery's MotorTrend Network, formerly Velocity; MotorTrend magazine; the award-winning website MotorTrend.com; MotorTrend App subscription video on-demand service; MotorTrend Auto Shows; MotorTrend Audio; MotorTrend en Espanol; MotorTrend India; and the renowned MotorTrend Car of the Year, SUV of the Year, Truck of the Year, Person of the Year, and Best Driver's Car awards programs. About MotorTrend GroupMotorTrend Group is the largest automotive media company in the world, bringing together Discovery's fast-growing MotorTrend Network, formerly Velocity, and a vast automotive digital, direct-to-consumer, social, and live event portfolio, including MOTORTREND, HOT ROD, ROADKILL, AUTOMOBILE, and more than 20 other industry-leading brands. With a cumulative reach of more than 131 million, the company encompasses television's #1 network for automotive superfans, a leading automotive YouTube Channel, and the MotorTrend app, the only auto-dedicated subscription video-on-demand service. Media Contact: Rob QuigleySr. PR and Social Media Manager MotorTrend Group [email protected] 310-363-4086 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/motortrend-announces-its-2019-of-the-year-award-winners-300755552.html SOURCE MotorTrend Group PR Newswire HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 26, 2018 HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Proya (SHA: 603605), the No.1 cosmetics company on China's A-share market, held its 15th anniversary celebration themed "PROYA 15th Anniversary Gala Beautifying the Future" in Hangzhou on November 19. All-star guest lineup heralds the next chapter in Proya's world of beauty Proya's brand ambassadors Li Yifeng and Tang Yan, Proya's friend of the brand Liu Yinglun, Uzero's brand ambassador Barbie Hsu and a star-studded lineup of Chinese celebrities, among them, Harlem Yu, Jane Zhang, Yu Quan, Hua Shao, MoMo Wu, Fu Disheng, Lil Em and Zhou Shen, were present at the celebration. Proya's chairman Hou Juncheng, CEO Fang Yuyou and vice general manager Cao Liangguo made their entrance decked out in "Iron Man" suits, surprising the audience. Cosmetica Italia president, Renato Ancorotti and mayor of the French city of Chartres, Didier Garnier, in addition to authoritative leaders from across the global cosmetics industry, sent their best wishes for Proya's 15th anniversary in many languages. Proya Tower opens, creating a beautiful new landmark in Hangzhou At the celebration, when the fingerprint beams of the three "Iron Men" converged on the big screen, a virtual recreation of Proya Tower at the center of the stage rose slowly, marking the official opening of the building. Construction of Proya Tower, located at the intersection of Xixi and Gudun Roads, started on September 10, 2015. Designed by US-based architectural firm NBBJ, Proya Tower incorporated building materials originating from environmentally responsible sources, in addition to a powerful, culturally-significant design. With 14 floors above ground and 2 floors below, Proya Tower includes six designated buildings and areas within its perimeter: a building housing a beauty complex, a distinctive cosmetics experience hall, a plastic surgery anti-aging center, an art gallery, an open-air music square and a high-end office building, in addition to the main office building. The Spring Bud Plan kicks off: the eternal sincerity for love As the Spring Bud Plan's ambassador of love, Proya's brand ambassador Li Yifeng, together with children participating in the Spring Bud Plan, kicked off public interest events that are part of the Proya & Spring Bud Plan. Since its inception, Proya has been committed to the cause of beauty while making "the spirit of beauty" its social responsibility. Over the years, Proya has been actively participating in public welfare campaigns, including conducting women's public welfare programs in partnership with UN Women, helping to build Hope Primary Schools as part of Project Hope, making donations to earthquake-stricken areas and promoting environmental protection. Following 15 years of rapid, forward-thinking development and growth, Proya has not only given consumers the opportunity to understand the unlimited potential of the company, but also let them feel pride in Chinese-made cosmetics. Looking ahead, Proya plans to continue its efforts in achieving the globalization of China's cosmetics industry, so that the world can see the power of "Beauty of China"! SOURCE Proya Canada NewsWire VANCOUVER, Nov. 27, 2018 VANCOUVER, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - TSX VENTURE COMPANIES GSP RESOURCE CORP. ("GSPR")BULLETIN TYPE: New Listing-IPO-Shares; HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company The Company's Initial Public Offering ('IPO') Prospectus dated October 11, 2018, has been filed with and accepted by TSX Venture Exchange, and filed with and receipted by the British Columbia Securities Commission on October 11, 2018, pursuant to the provisions of the British Columbia Securities Act. The Prospectus was also filed under Multilateral Instrument 11-102 Passport System in Alberta. A receipt for the Prospectus is deemed to be issued by the regulator in Alberta, if the conditions of the Instrument have been satisfied. The gross proceeds to be received by the Company on the closing of the IPO are $805,300, comprising 2,776,500 common shares (including 276,500 common shares issuable pursuant to exercise of over-allotment option) at $0.20 per share ($555,300) and 1,000,000 flow-through common shares at $0.25 per share ($250,000). The Company is classified as a 'Mining' company. Commence Date: At the opening on Thursday, November 29, 2018, the common shares of the Company will be listed and IMMEDIATELY HALTED on TSX Venture Exchange Corporate Jurisdiction: British Columbia Capitalization: Unlimited common shares with no par value of which 10,401,500 common shares will be issued and outstanding on closing of the IPO Escrowed Shares: 6,550,000 common shares subject to escrow Transfer Agent: Computershare Investor Services Inc. Trading Symbol: GSPR CUSIP Number: 36249G109 Agent: Canaccord Genuity Corp. Over-Allotment Option: The Agent has over-allotted the IPO to the extent of 276,500 common shares. The Company has granted an Over-Allotment Option entitling the Agent to purchase a total of 375,000 additional common shares (which includes the 276,500 common shares to be over-allotted at closing of the IPO) at a price of $0.20 per additional common share up to the 30th day following the date of closing the IPO. Agent's Commission: A commission of $64,424 is payable in cash to the Agent. In addition, the Agent will receive 302,120 non-transferable common share purchase warrants ("Agent's Warrants"). One Agent's Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at $0.20 per common share at any time prior to expiry on November 29, 2020. The Agent will also receive a corporate finance fee of $30,000 (half of such amount is payable in cash and the other half is payable by the issuance of 75,000 common shares at $0.20 per share). For further information, please refer to the Company's Prospectus dated October 11, 2018. Company Contact: Simon Dyakowski, CEO Company Address: Suite 1610-777 Dunsmuir StreetVancouver, BCV7Y1K4 Company Phone Number: 604 619 - 7469 Company Email Address: [email protected] ________________________________________ LIVEWELL CANADA INC. ("LVWL")BULLETIN TYPE: DelistBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at the close of business November 28, 2018, the common shares will be delisted from TSX Venture Exchange at the request of the Company. The Company will continue to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange. ____________________________ SILVERCREST METALS INC. ("SIL.WT")BULLETIN TYPE: Correction, Warrant Expiry-DelistBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company CORRECTION: Further to the TSX Venture Exchange Bulletin dated November 26, 2018, the warrants should expire and be delisted on December 6, 2018 instead of December 3, 2018. The Bulletin should have read as follows: Effective at the opening Monday, December 3, 2018, the Share Purchase Warrants of the Company will trade for cash. The Warrants expire December 6, 2018 and will therefore be delisted at the close of business December 6, 2018. TRADE DATES December 3, 2018 - TO SETTLE - December 4, 2018 December 4, 2018 - TO SETTLE - December 5, 2018 December 5, 2018 - TO SETTLE - December 6, 2018 December 6, 2018 - TO SETTLE - December 6, 2018 ________________________________________ NEX COMPANIES DATAWIND INC. ("DW.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Reinstated for TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018NEX Company Further to the TSX Venture Exchange Bulletin dated November 21, 2018, the Exchange has been advised that the Cease Trade Order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission dated November 20, 2018 has been revoked. Effective at the opening, Thursday, November 29, 2018, trading will be reinstated in the securities of the Company. _____________________________________ SPIRIT BEAR CAPITAL CORP. ("SBG.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Stock SplitBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018NEX Company Pursuant to a Special Resolution passed by directors of the Company on November 20, 2018, the Company's common shares will be sub-divided on a one (1) old for two (2) new basis. The common shares of the Company will commence trading on a sub-divided basis at the opening, December 4, 2018. The Company is classified as a 'Capital Pool Company' company. Post - Split Capitalization: Unlimited shares with no par value of which 28,800,012 shares are issued and outstanding Escrow: 2,000,012 Escrowed Shares Transfer Agent: Computershare Investor Services Inc. Trading Symbol: SBG.H (Unchanged) CUSIP Number: 84858B 10 2 (Unchanged) The share split will be conducted by "push-out" and no letter of transmittal will be used. The record date for the share subdivision will be December 4, 2018. In accordance with the applicable rules of the TSX Venture Exchange, the common shares of the company will trade on a due bill basis from Dec. 3, 2018, through Dec. 7, 2018, being the effective date for the share split, inclusively. A due bill is an entitlement attached to listed securities undergoing a material corporate action, such as a share split. In this instance, the entitlement is to the additional common shares issuable as a result of the share split. Any trades that are executed on the TSX Venture Exchange during this period will be flagged to ensure purchasers receive the entitlement to the additional shares issuable as a result of the share subdivision. Ex distribution trading in the common shares on a split-adjusted basis will commence on December 7, 2018, as of which date purchases of the common shares will no longer have the attaching entitlement to the additional shares. The due bill redemption date will be December 10, 2018. ________________________________________ TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins TSX VENTURE COMPANIES AMERICAN CREEK RESOURCES LTD. ("AMK")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced Oct 15, 2018: Number of Shares: 6,000,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.05 per share Warrants: 6,000,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 6,000,000 shares Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.06 Warrant Term to Expiry: 2 Years Number of Placees: 5 Placees 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. ________________________________________ ASCOT RESOURCES LTD. ("AOT")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the following share purchase agreements: ________________________________________ CANALASKA URANIUM LTD. ("CVV")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced Oct 29, 2018: Number of Shares: 1,795,375 shares Purchase Price: $0.32 per share Warrants: 897,687 share purchase warrants to purchase 897,687 shares Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.51 Warrant Term to Expiry: 3 Years Number of Placees: 11 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y / Pro-Group=P # of Shares Aggregate Pro-Group Involvement [1 Placee] P 50,000 Finder's Fee: Haywood Securities Inc. $2,880.00 cash; 9,000 warrants Leede Jones Gable Inc. $1,920.00 cash; 6,000 warrants Finder Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.51 Finder Warrant Term to Expiry: same as subscriber warrants. 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. ________________________________________ CANDELARIA MINING CORP. ("CAND")BULLETIN TYPE: Warrant Price AmendmentBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has consented to the extension in the expiry date of the following warrants: Private Placement: # of Warrants: 5,821,109 Original Expiry Date of Warrants: December 14, 2017 (2,888,888 warrants) January 6, 2018 (2,154,444 warrants) March 13, 2018 (777,777 warrants) Amended Expiry Date of Warrants: December 14, 2018 (2,888,888 warrants) (December 14, 2017) January 6, 2019 (2,154,444 warrants) March 13, 2019 (777,777 warrants) New Expiry Date of Warrants: December 14, 2020 (2,888,888 warrants) January 6, 2021 (2,154,444 warrants) March 13, 2021 (777,777 warrants) Exercise Price of Warrants: $0.60 (Amended on May 17, 2018) These warrants were issued pursuant to a private placement of 11,642,221 shares with 5,821,109 share purchase warrants attached, which was accepted for filing by the Exchange effective on July 14, 2016 and September 13, 2016. Private Placement: # of Warrants: 3,316,666 Original Expiry Date of Warrants: February 18, 2018 Amended Expiry Date of Warrants: February 18, 2019 New Expiry Date of Warrants: February 18, 2021 Exercise Price of Warrants: $0.60 (Amended on May 17, 2018) These warrants were issued pursuant to a private placement of 6,666,666 shares with 3,333,332 share purchase warrants attached, which was accepted for filing by the Exchange effective on September 9, 2016. Private Placement: # of Warrants: 349,462 3,145,161 Original Expiry Date of Warrants: February 18, 2018 Amended Expiry Date of Warrants: February 18, 2019 New Expiry Date of Warrants: February 18, 2021 Exercise Price of Warrants: $0.75 (3,145,161 warrants) $0.60 (349,462 warrants) These warrants were issued pursuant to a private placement of convertible debenture, convertible into 6,989,247 shares with 3,494,623 share purchase warrants attached, which was accepted for filing by the Exchange effective on September 9, 2016. ________________________________________ CINAPORT ACQUISITION CORP. III ("CAC.P") BULLETIN TYPE: New Listing-CPC-SharesBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Reference is made to our bulletin dated November 23, 2018, with respect to the listing of the Company's shares. We have received confirmation that the closing has occurred. Therefore, the common shares of the Company which were listed at the close of business Monday, November 26, 2018, commenced trading at the opening of business on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. The Company has completed its public offering of securities prior to the opening of market on November 27, 2018. The gross proceeds received by the Company for the Offering are $609,500 (6,095,000 common shares at $0.10 per share). ________________________________________ ENABLENCE TECHNOLOGIES INC. ("ENA")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced July 30, 2018: Number of Shares: 20,000,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.05 per share Number of Placees: 1 Placee Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y / ProGroup=P # of Shares J. Zechner Associates Inc. Y 20,000,000 For further details, please refer to the Company's news release dated July 30, 2018. ________________________________________ FIRST LEGACY MINING CORP. ("FLM")BULLETIN TYPE: Remain Halted BULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Further to the TSX Venture Exchange ('TSXV') Bulletin dated November 23, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company will remain halted pending receipt and review of acceptable documentation regarding the Fundamental Acquisition pursuant to Listings Policy 5.6(d) of Exchange Policy 5.3. 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. ________________________________________ GALAXY DIGITAL HOLDINGS LTD. ("GLXY")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 8.25 a.m. PST, November 27, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted pending company contact; 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. ________________________________________ GALAXY DIGITAL HOLDINGS LTD. ("GLXY")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 12.00 p.m. PST, November 27, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ KUTCHO COPPER CORP. ("KC")BULLETIN TYPE: Prospectus-Share OfferingBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective August 10, 2018, the Company's Short Form Prospectus dated August 10, 2018 was filed with and accepted by TSX Venture Exchange, and filed with and receipted by the British Columbia Securities Commission, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Act. TSX Venture Exchange has been advised that closings occurred on August 15, 2018 and September 28, 2018, for gross proceeds of $4,140,000. Agents: Haywood Securities Inc., Cormark Securities Inc., Canaccord Genuity Corp., GMP Securities LP, Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd. Offering: 9,200,000 Flow-Through ("FT") common shares Share Price: $0.45 per FT share Agents' Warrants: 552,000 non-transferable warrants exercisable to purchase one share at $0.45 per warrant share to August 15, 2020 as to 480,000 and September 28, 2020 as to 72,000. Greenshoe Option: Not applicable For further information, please refer to the Company's press release dated August 15, 2018 and its Short Form Prospectus filed on SEDAR. ________________________________________ NORONT RESOURCES LTD. ("NOT")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement closing announcement on November 23, 2018: Number of Shares: 5,349,288 non flow-through shares and 7,688,433 flow-through shares Purchase Price: $0.295 per non flow-through share $0.335 per flow-through share Warrants: 2,674,644 share purchase warrants to purchase 2,674,644 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.35 for a two year period Number of Placees: 23 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y / ProGroup=P # of units Resource Capital Fund V Annex Fund LP Y 3,549,288 units (3,549,288 shares and 1,774,644 warrants) Finder's Fee: An aggregate of 443,306 common shares payable to EMD Financial Inc., Beacon Securities Ltd. and Topleft Securities Ltd. Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company has issued a news release announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period(s). Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term. _______________________________________ ORGANTO FOODS INC. ("OGO")BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for BonusesBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 1,000,000 bonus warrants exercisable for one year at $0.20 in consideration of an unsecured loan totaling US$300,000. The loan has a term of one year and interest is payable at 8% per annum. For more information please see the Company's news release dated April 25, 2017. ________________________________________ PETROTEQ ENERGY INC. ("PQE")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced November 14, 2018: Number of Shares: 20,408 shares Purchase Price: US$0.49 per share Warrants: 20,408 share purchase warrants to purchase 20,408 shares Warrant Exercise Price: US$0.61 for a period of two years Number of Placees: 1 Placee Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company has issued a new release announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period(s). Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term. _______________________________ PROSPERA ENERGY INC. ("PEI")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 6.30 a.m. PST, November 27, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ QUANTUM INTERNATIONAL INCOME CORP. ("QIC")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation relating to an asset purchase agreement (the "Agreement") dated November 21, 2018, between 4 arm's length parties (collectively, the "Vendors") and Lucky Bucks, LLC ("Subco"), an indirect 60% owned subsidiary of the Company. Pursuant to the Agreement, Subco acquired certain assets of Feeling Lucky Amusement, LLC. As consideration, the Company paid US$4,938,434 to the Vendors. For more information, refer to the Company's news release dated November 21, 2018. ________________________________________ QUANTUM INTERNATIONAL INCOME CORP. ("QIC")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation relating to an asset purchase agreement (the "Agreement") dated November 7, 2018, between 2 arm's length parties (collectively, the "Vendors") and Lucky Bucks, LLC ("Subco"), an indirect 60% owned subsidiary of the Company. Pursuant to the Agreement, Subco acquired certain assets of Goldstar Amusements L.L.C. As consideration, the Company paid US$4,439,644 to the Vendors. For more information, refer to the Company's news release dated November 8, 2018. ________________________________________ THE SUPREME CANNABIS COMPANY, INC. ("FIRE") ("FIRE.DB")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation pertaining to a Share Purchase Agreement (the "Agreement"), dated November 12, 2018, between the Company and several arm's length parties, whereby the Company will acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Bayfield Strategy, Inc., communications and stakeholder relations firm. Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company has agreed to acquire all issued and outstanding shares by issuing common shares for a total value of $2,000,000 at a deemed price of $1.86 per share. For further information, please refer to the Company's news release dated November 13, 2018. _________________________________________ WELL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES CORP. ("WELL")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing a Share Purchase Agreement dated November 14, 2018 between the Company and NERD EMR Services Ltd., whereby the Company has acquired all of the issued and outstanding share of NERD EMR Services Ltd. Consideration is $2.55 million, which will be allocated as follows: (i) a payment upon closing of the transaction of $2,071,875 consisting of $1,434,375 in cash and 1,275,000 common shares of the company at a deemed price of 50 cents per share (ii) a time-based earn out of $478,125 payable quarterly over three years. CASH SHARES WORK EXPENDITURES $1,912,000 1,275,000 Nil ________________________________________ WEST HIGH YIELD (W.H.Y.) RESOURCES LTD. ("WHY")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced February 28, 2018: Number of Shares: 1,604,648 common share units ("Units") Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one-third of one common share purchase warrant Purchase Price: $0.35 per Unit Warrants: 534,883 share purchase warrants to purchase 534,883 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.55 for a one year period Number of Placees: 20 placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y /ProGroup=P # of Shares Aggregate Pro Group Involvement P 40,500 [3 placee(s)] Finder's Fee: $29,394 cash and 83,983 finder warrants ("Finder Warrants") payable to P1 Financial Corp. Each Finder Warrant is exercisable for one common share at $0.55 for a one year period. ________________________________________ WEST HIGH YIELD (W.H.Y.) RESOURCES LTD. ("WHY")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced May 31, 2018: Number of Shares: 1,568,569 common shares units ("Units") Each Unit consists of one common share and one-third (1/3) of one common share purchase warrant Purchase Price: $0.35 per Unit Warrants: 522,851 share purchase warrants to purchase 522,851 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.55 for up to 12 months from date of issuance Number of Placees: 17 placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: None Finder's Fee: $5,145 cash and 14,700 warrants ("Finder Warrants") payable to PI Financial Corp. Each Finder Warrant is exercisable for one common share at a price of $0.55 per Share for up to 12 months from date of issuance. ________________________________________ NEX COMPANIES MADEIRA MINERALS LTD. ("MDE.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for DebtBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018NEX Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 1,283,420 shares at a demed price of $0.05 per share to settle outstanding debt for $64,671. Number of Creditors: 2 Creditors Insider / Pro Group Participation: None Warrants: None The Company shall issue a news release when the shares are issued and the debt extinguished. ________________________________________ SUPERIOR MINING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION ("SUI.H") BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018NEX Company Effective at 1.50 p.m. PST, November 27, 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. ________________________________________ SUPERIOR MINING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION ("SUI.H") BULLETIN TYPE: Remain Halted BULLETIN DATE: November 27, 2018NEX Company Further to the TSX Venture Exchange ('TSXV') Bulletin dated November 26, 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. ________________________________________ 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. Princess Lalla Hasnaa, Chairwoman of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, was awarded, Tuesday in Kyoto (Japan), the title of Doctor honoris causa by Ritsumeikan University. During a ceremony at the university campus, attended by several academics and officials, President of the University, Mikio Yoshida, underlined that this honorary degree is a tribute to the considerable efforts and outstanding contribution of Princess Lalla Hasnaa in the field of environment protection, education and sustainable development. Given her interest in education that should come, according to her, before all other means and considerations to foster childrens awareness to environment protection, Princess Lalla Hasnaa also visited Ritsumeikan primary school, where she was briefed on the innovative pedagogical approach followed in the institution. The school boast a library of 37,000 books, one of the largest for a primary school in the country, and spaces of discovery and innovation, including a robotics room. Last Friday, Princess Lalla Hasnaa was awarded in Tokyo the 2018 Goi Peace Award, a prestigious distinction that honors annually a personality or an organization that made outstanding contributions for a peaceful and harmonious world as stated in the Declaration for All Life on Earth. As Chairwoman of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Princess Lalla Hasnaa, is thus recognized for her leadership in promoting the protection of the environment and improving peoples quality of life, particularly through education and advocacy for sustainable development. Actually, Princess Lalla Hasnaa has been involved in activities in the service of Moroccan society, with a particular interest in social, cultural and environmental issues. In 1999, she launched the national campaign to protect the countrys coastline and beaches. To institutionalize this effort, the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection was established in 2001, and Princess Lalla Hasnaa was appointed as president. In this capacity, she initiated various programs and activities for environmental protection and education, and in 2007, she was appointed Coast Ambassador by the Euro-Mediterranean Regional Program for the Environment, backed by the United Nations. Photo: NYM There was lots of fake news. Partisanship was extreme. Media were very biased. Americans reacted politically with extreme emotions and all debates seemed to be full of rancor and bitterness. Thats Tyler Cowen, author of Stubborn Attachments and a professor at George Mason University, describing not the 2010s but the 19th century. On the latest episode of 2038, Cowen predicts that over the next 20 years, this nation will go back to an earlier version of its politics, which were highly dysfunctional. You had plenty of people becoming president who probably should not have been. And yet at the same time we muddled through that era and emerged as modern America. Cowen joined hosts Max Read and David Wallace-Wells to discuss what he sees as our 19th-century future. Click above to listen and subscribe. If were talking about 19th-century politics, theres one event that sticks out. Are we headed for a civil war, or some kind of mass armed conflict between Americans? Although partisanship will go up and debates will continue to become more and more emotional, I dont see any evidence that were headed toward anything like a civil war. The splits are not mainly defined by states or North versus South. Today is a more peaceful era. Police tactics have much improved the riots of the 1960s are very very far away. So I think a lot of the fighting will stay on social media. Do you see that divide playing out geographically as well? Are there going to be parts of the U.S. that are defined as blue America and parts of the U.S. that are defined as red America, with regional rivalries? Or do you see there being some contestation in which the political disputes unfold at a more local level? Well, right now, as you know, its the coastal elite in major cities versus many other parts of the country. But I think that will be in flux. So questions such as, at what rate will former Latino immigrants vote Democratic? Will Asian-Americans defect to the Republican Party in greater numbers? Those are hard to predict. But I dont see the current coalitions as fully permanent. Theres always competition at the margins and the views of the coastal elite have failed electorally in some ways. And I think they will be moderated, and in the last election cycle you saw that. Are we looking at a world where everybody is just kind of constantly on edge about politics? Well, I wouldnt say everyone. The happy people will be those who turn off their smartphones, or who dont put Twitter on them, and who just go about living their lives. And that is, in fact, most Americans, either now or in the future. But I think the intellectual classes people in media will become less and less happy. Theyll be more stressed and every day theyll feel like theyre being put through the wringer. And again this is not the distant future. I think this is America right now. Do you think it means that some people in those classes are going to turn themselves off of electoral politics? They seem to get more and more interested. Its like an addiction. So I find it striking that, say, the reading of fiction has fallen about 50 percent since Trump was elected. You know what fiction can compete with what we see happening in the White House? So I dont see that changing any time. Joining municipal leaders across the province, Mayor Rick Chrest is continuing to push for cannabis revenue. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Joining municipal leaders across the province, Mayor Rick Chrest is continuing to push for cannabis revenue. This despite Premier Brian Pallister telling media on Monday that he is rejecting the idea of sharing cannabis excise duties with municipalities. "Isn't it about time that we had a provincial government that understood that you can't just grow debt, and say yes to everything today, without consequences tomorrow?" Pallister said during the Association of Manitoba Municipalities annual convention in Winnipeg. "There's no profit in cannabis. And there's no proof that there's going to be profit for some time, so don't start asking for a share of profits when there aren't profits. In Winnipeg for this weeks convention, Chrest said that hed heard Pallisters comments about cannabis revenue second-hand, but that he believes there is still room to debate the subject. It kind of comes down to wed certainly be hoping that through AMM that there will be a fulsome conversation with the province on this issue, that well do it respectfully and properly, he said. As it stands, Chrest said that hed vote in favour of an AMM resolution today that would push the province to share cannabis revenue with municipalities. Cannabis buyers are currently paying an excise duty of $1 per gram or 10 per cent of the price, whichever is higher. The federal government has offered to keep 25 per cent of the money and give the rest to the provinces. The resolution would have the AMM lobby the provincial government to provide at least one-third of total annual excise tax revenue collected on cannabis sales to municipalities. Further to that, the resolution would also have the AMM lobby for the province to establish additional funding mechanisms in the event costs incurred by municipalities exceed their share of excise tax revenues. Chrest said that the resolution only makes sense given the dynamics of who is incurring costs related to legalization. Naturally, the effects of cannabis are going to be handled at the local level, he said. The policing and the administration and the like are occurring at the local level where its sold and consumed, and we just feel like we dont have any other revenue stream from this. The Wheat City has seen two cannabis dispensaries open in recent weeks, including Tweed at 2705 Victoria Ave. and Tokyo Smoke at 628 18th St. Treated like any other business in terms of zoning and operation, Chrest said that things have been going smoothly thus far. Its the beginnings of this new sector, so we dont know how its going to burgeon through our community and what effects we might deal with. At least three more cannabis dispensaries have been proposed for Brandon. tclarke@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB McCain Foods is committing $75 million for two Manitoba potato processing plants, including those in Carberry and Portage la Prairie. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us McCain Foods is committing $75 million for two Manitoba potato processing plants, including those in Carberry and Portage la Prairie. A press release from the company says $45 million is earmarked for the Portage la Prairie facility for the purchase of a new high-efficiency potato sorting system, "cutting edge" processing and packaging equipment and new onsite waste water processing. The release also says the facilitys heating and cooling equipment will be upgraded to improve the plants environmental footprint and multiple trucks will be able to unload at once. The Carberry facility will receive $30 million for the installation of auto sampling equipment, a blanching system, improved heating and refrigeration systems for the whole facility and other upgrades. "The investments further strengthen the companys potato processing presence in Western Canada," the release says. A spokesperson from McCain Foods Canada could not be reached for comment by press time on Monday. Keystone Potato Producers Association president Chad Berry said its great news that McCain is working on their plants and implementing improvements to them. "Its great for the province; great for the industry that theyre going ahead and making everything better," he said. "There were upgrades to be made." The investment is a result of demand for frozen and speciality products in retail and food service. The press release says 550 employees work at the two Manitoba processing plants, but Berry said he wasnt sure if it will translate to more jobs at either or both of the plants. Earlier this month, Keystone Agricultural Producers said the Manitoba potato crop had been badly damaged by early snow, which caused large losses. At an advisory council meeting, members were told 5,200 acres of the crop were left in the ground to rot out of the roughly 62,000 acres planted in the province. On average, farmers reap around $3,000 per acre of potatoes harvested. The McCain Carberry plant was affected by the poor crop year and had to import some potatoes from Alberta. Berry said losses were further affected by strict McCain regulations over the colour of the potatoes it accepts. While the companys investment wont fix this years bad crop, he said it gives farmers more confidence to go ahead with their crop next year. "It means (the potato industry)s got a strong and stable future." dmay@brandonsun.com Twitter: @DrewMay_ Look out, Democratic rivals! Beto 2020 is a real possibility. Photo: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images While there remain more than a few practical obstacles to a 2020 presidential run by Texas political sensation Beto ORourke, one is now in the rearview mirror: his earlier pledge not to do just that. Politico reports his change of opinion: Beto ORourke said Monday that he is no longer ruling out a run for president in 2020, a reversal that thrilled his legion of loyal supporters while clouding an already-crowded Democratic primary field Asked if his position on 2020 is different than it was before the November election, when he said he would not run for president, ORourke said, Yeah, yeah it is. While Republicans and those backing potential Democratic rivals will undoubtedly call this a flip-flop, ORourke can plausibly say hes got plenty of time on his hands now that he doesnt have to set up a Senate office and then serve in the Worlds Greatest Deliberative Body. Running for Senate, I was 100 percent focused on our campaign, winning that race and then serving the next six years in the United States Senate, the Texas congressman told reporters after a town hall forum here. Now that that is no longer possible, you know, were thinking through a number of things. And why shouldnt he? The early speculation has already vaulted him over a host of theoretically more qualified potential candidates: A POLITICO/Morning Consult presidential primary poll last week put ORourke in third place among Democratic voters, behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). This has to be profoundly dispiriting to pols who have been climbing the slippery pole to national prominence for many years, and now find themselves looking up in the polls at someone they probably had never heard of two years ago. And polls aside, hes getting noticed in the most important place for 2020 candidates, just 15 months before its caucuses decisively winnow the field: ORourke who raised a stunning $38 million in the third quarter of his race is widely considered capable of raising millions of dollars quickly, according to interviews with multiple Democratic money bundlers and strategists, catapulting him into the upper echelons of the 2020 campaign. Mikal Watts, a San Antonio-based lawyer and major Democratic money bundler, said several donors and political operatives in Iowa, after hearing from other potential candidates in recent days, have called to ask whether ORourke is running, a sign of his impact in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. As Newsweek reports, the Beto Buzz is reminding Iowans of the last Democratic candidate who set that state afire: We would love to host him, Polk County Democratic Chairman Sean Bagniewski told the [Dallas Morning News] in a report published Tuesday. Its real. In Iowa, everybody knows the next person that they want to meet, and by far he is the No. 1 person thats being requested right nowvolunteers, elected officials, our membership base, Bagniewski said. Everybody right now is asking for Beto. Bagniewski called ORourke unapologetically progressive and likened ORourke to former President Barack Obama, who similarly rose suddenly in popularity but whod won a Senate seat first, unlike the Texas congressman. You can make a pretty good argument that it was Obamas 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, delivered when he was a state senator, that made him an instant contender in Iowa four years later not his anticlimactic Senate win over extremist Republican rival Alan Keyes. Beto-mania would have undoubtedly been enhanced by a win over Ted Cruz, a man most Democrats love to hate. But hes already guaranteed himself a hearing on the presidential campaign trail, if he chooses to go that way. Beto could take it a little slower, as Andrew Rice pointed out recently: [T]here is another race ORourke could run in 2020. The other incumbent Texas senator, John Cornyn, is up for reelection, and there are rumors he wants to retire. A year ago, any conversation about a Democrats statewide chances began with the relative unpopularity of Cruz, but now ORourke would start with a base of support, name recognition, a wealth of experience, and that donor list. Smith says that Democrats in Texas had been living in a hope-free universe, but the Beto campaign has transformed their expectations. Youve got a guy who is maybe a once-in-a-generation candidate, he says. Who is able to magnetize the electorate. A once-in-a-generation candidate might just as easily decide to aim high, when his partys supporters will be frantic to defeat Donald Trump, and wary of another non-charismatic champion. Stranger things have happened, including the election that placed the country in its current plight. Australian travel insurer, World Nomads Group (WNG), is to add 60 staff over the next 18 months at its new European headquarters in Cork. The operation, which currently employs 20 people, will directly manage the companys European travel insurance business. It will establish a Managing General Agency (MGA) in Ireland which allow the business to partner with more European-based brands to offer travel insurance to customers. WNG will manage all the functions of a travel insurer to its European customers such as product design, pricing, customer service, claims and emergency assistance. It will partner with specialist organisations to carry the underwriting risk. It is part of the nib Group, a health and travel insurance company based in Australia, and is regulated by the Central Bank in Ireland. WNGs General Manager for Europe, Bernard OSullivan said the establishment of the European base will increase capacity allowing the business to operate in these markets. The MGA will see our business not only distribute and sell travel insurance in Europe, but also provide all claims and insurance services to our travellers. We think this is critical to owning the end-to-end experience and providing great service and assurance to our travellers, he said. "We are currently migrating our European travel insurance arrangements from the UK and continental Europe to our Cork office. We estimate this will involve the transfer of more than 100,000 policies." Tanaiste Simon Coveney said it was "another great day for the Cork economy. It demonstrates the value and attractiveness that Cork and Ireland have to offer to major companies wishing to operate in Europe," he said. This is very important for the Irish economy especially within the context of Brexit. Martin Shanahan, Chief Executive Officer of IDA Ireland also welcomed the announcement. This announcement also shows the market that financial services companies like WNG can establish here quickly in order to service their international and European customers, with minimum disruption post-Brexit," he said. "Ireland has the right mix of regulation, skills, experience and office space to make us an obvious choice for financial services to locate and further demonstrates our importance as a gateway to the European Single Market. Digital Desk A dispute between a property company of former presidential candidate Sean Gallagher and Nokia Ireland over heating and cooling systems for a Dublin premises has opened before the High Court. Nokia Ireland is seeking various orders against its landlord Clyde Real Estate, Blanchardstown Ltd including an injunction preventing Clyde from closing down, demolishing or decommissioning a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) plant pending a full hearing of the dispute. The application, which is opposed, opened before the High Court on Tuesday when Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington heard claims by Nokia that conditions in its office, where 100 people are employed, were described as being "Arctic" and difficult to work in due to the alleged failure to provide proper heating services. In a sworn statement Mr Gallagher, who is CEO of Clyde Real Estate, disputes this claim. He said the temperatures in the Nokia office had been recorded by experts as being quite suitable and acceptable for an office environment pending the installation of a replacement HVAC system in January. Nokia, represented in court by Michael Howard SC and Imogen McGrath Bl, says they had complained about excessively hot and cold temperatures at the premises since 2016. Nokia initiated proceedings in June, when Ireland was experiencing a heat wave, claiming Clyde was in breach of a lease agreement of March 2015 and was required to provide heating, ventilating and air conditioning services in line with the terms of the lease. Opening the case Mr Howard said his clients and its workers had been enduring cold temperatures in the office, far below the accepted 18-23C and Nokia was concerned temperatures could drop to a level where the employees would not be able to work. Clyde's claim the new HVAC system will be up and running early in the New Year was "unstateable", he said. Clyde had not properly informed Nokia about the landlord's ongoing redevelopment works of the building and Nokia maintained such works were being carried out at times to cause major disruption and inconvenience to Nokia's business, he said. Clyde, represented by Ciaran Lewis SC and John Freeman Bl says it is in the process of replacing the former obsolete HVAC system at the premises. The replacement was due for delivery in early January and will be installed as part of ongoing works to the premises. Clyde does not dispute it is required to provide HVAC plant to serve Nokia's premises but claims, the lease agreement means the electricity and gas consumed in operating an HVAC was the responsibility of Nokia as a tenant. Nokia disputes this. In response to Nokia's claims, Clyde says the claims regarding the recent temperates in the building were "difficult to understand" in light of empirically observed temperatures at the Nokia office. Clyde also claims the temporary heating measures which were implemented to deal with perceived low temperatures in the building are sufficient to achieve satisfactory temperatures in the office. It cited the contents of an expert report which states that the lowest recorded temperature in the office on November 20th last was 17.6 C and the highest was 22.8 C. Clyde said its agents have regularly liaised with Nokia and sought to provide it with considerable notice of proposed works. It claims that Nokia ignored its correspondence for several weeks and chose not to respond. Works have been carried out daily at the premises over several months, including the installation of a new fire alarm and new emergency lighting systems, and those works have been carefully planned to cause minimum disruption to Nokia and the other tenants, Clyde also says. The hearing continues. Former Missouri education commissioner Margie Vandeven, who was fired by by the states board of education members last year, was rehired last week. Shes one of the first of several new state chiefs who are expected to be appointed in the coming months as newly elected governers and state board members sketch out their education agendas. Vandeven clashed with former Republican Gov. Eric Greitens over how to handle the expansion of charter schools throughout the state. After being elected in 2017, Greitens began a slow process of appointing state board members he thought would fire her. District administrators and teachers rallied to her side and petitioned to keep her in office, but in December of last year with a majority of the board members having been appointed by Greitens, Vandeven, in a tense meeting, was fired. But then Greitens himself was ousted in a scandal over an extramarital affair. His replacement, Republican Mike Parson, ended up filling several other vacancies on the state board of education. (For several months, the board didnt have enough members to meet quorum.) Last week, after interviewing several applicants, the board decided, in a unanimous vote, to hire Vandeven back to the job. I am grateful to the state board of education for entrusting me with the responsibility of serving as Missouris commissioner of education, Vandeven said, according to the Kansas City Star. It is an honor to return to the department, and I remain committed to doing what is best for the children of Missouri. Dont miss another State EdWatch post. Sign up here to get news alerts in your email inbox. And make sure to follow @StateEdWatch on Twitter for the latest news from state K-12 policy and politics. Farmer Bill Pellett inspects his cattle in Atlantic, Iowa. Photo: Wang Ying/Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images President Trumps trade war has been back in the headlines this week thanks to his threat to impose new tariffs on iPhones and the announcement that General Motors is closing several U.S. plants. But those arent the only industries dealing with the fallout from Trumps trade policies; tariffs may also be contributing to an uptick in Chapter 12 bankruptcies filed by U.S. farmers. Per the Minneapolis Star Tribune: Eighty-four farms filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana in the 12 months that ended in June, according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Thats more than double the number over the same period in 2013 and 2014, and the number of bankruptcies in Minnesota doubled over the past four years from eight to 20. In retaliation for American tariffs on Chinese goods, the Chinese government levied tariffs of their own on American soybeans, pork, and dairy in April. Prices for some American agricultural goods, like dairy, had already dropped by the time Trump announced the tariffs. CNBC reported in June that the number of American dairy farms had dropped by half since 2000, a trend that reflects reduced domestic demand and falling prices. Prices for soybeans have fallen too, as have prices on other animal products, like beef. More broadly, Americas small farmers have been struggling for decades, with agricultural monopolies controlling ever-larger shares of the market. But the crisis now looks more widespread, as tariffs introduce new economic burdens to farmers. As global demand dropped, many U.S. farmers were forced to let their crops rot in their fields. In Louisiana, up to 15 percent of the oilseed crop is being plowed under or is too damaged to market, according to data analyzed by Louisiana State University staff, Reuters reported in a November 21 investigation. Crops are going to waste in parts of Mississippi and Arkansas. Grain piles, dusted by snow, sit on the ground in North and South Dakota. And in Illinois and Indiana, some farmers are struggling to protect silo bags stuffed with crops from animals. Thus, Mondays bankruptcy news had the feel of inevitability to it and it stoked fears of another farm crisis. We are headed for another Farm Crisis and it's gonna be bad https://t.co/dyV4wLo2dK Lyz Lenz (@lyzl) November 26, 2018 During the last crisis, which unfolded during most of the 1980s, debt and depreciating land values contributed to record farm bankruptcies; more than 500 farms closed per week, as Civil Eats reported in September. That financial crisis beget other plagues. A 1991 study by the National Farm Medicine Center found that 913 male farmers died by suicide from 1980 to 1988, at a rate nearly double the national average for white men in some of those years, as the Associated Press explained at the time. Thirty years later, matters arent quite so dire for American farmers at least not yet. But Trumps tariffs offer struggling farmers little hope for a more stable future. And despite his overtures to hard-hit farmers, that may hurt the presidents popularity with rural voters who havent forgotten the 1980s. A Dublin-based life sciences firm said it will create 600 jobs over five years in a 350m investment, while a US tech firm that provides data centre maintenance has said it will create 70 jobs in Cork. Irish life sciences company Genomics Medicine Ireland said its 350m investment for was aimed at making Ireland a major centre for genomics research (the focusing on complete DNA sets) and the development of new disease treatments and cures. Genomics Medicine is joined in the investment by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and WuXi Nextcode, a genomic information company using sequence data to improve health for people around the world. Major Silicon Valley and sovereign wealth funds are part of WuXi Nextcode. Genomics Medicine chief executive Anne Jones said it was a landmark investment for the firm. It will enable us to rapidly scale our study capacity to upwards of 60 disease areas in research sites across Ireland, giving us operational independence backed by global connections and funding, she said. Cleveland, Ohio-headquartered Park Place Technologies, which includes governments and Fortune 500 firms as its clients, said Brexit was a factor in choosing Cork for its engineering base in European as it scales, creating 70 jobs over two years. Park Place Technologies founder and chief executive Ed Kenty said Cork was chosen because of the talent pool, as well as the influence of its senior vice president for advanced engineering and call centre, Cork native Nicola Buckley. He said Brexit was also a factor as the firm expands, with more Cork jobs in the pipeline in the future. We will continue to scale here. A lot of the European operations which started in Canary Wharf will transition to this area over time. Brexit is partially a factor, he said. The former EMC employee said the track record of international technology firms in Cork was also influential. When you see well-established technology companies who have been here 20 years, even though they are competitors, you know this is the right place for us, he said. A High Court challenge brought by a senior employee of the National Museum of Ireland against a decision to suspend him following complaints of sexual harassment won't be heard until the new year. The action has been brought by Dr Andrew Halpin who has brought a number of proceedings arising out of a decision to suspend him from his position as Assistant Keeper of Irish Antiquities following media reports in February 2017 of alleged sexual harassment. The complaints were made against him by former female employees at the museum, the court heard. Dr Halpin denies all the claims against him and has argued the decision to suspend him was unwarranted and unlawful. Dr Halpin says the claims are false and in proceedings against the museum pending before the High Court has sought various declarations from the High Court which if granted will allow him to return to work. Last June, Dr Halpin, of Yellow Meadows Avenue, Clondalkin, Dublin brought a second set of proceedings against the museum for allegedly changing the terms of his suspension. In those proceedings, he seeks orders including an injunction preventing an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment of two female former employees of the museum from proceeding until the full case has been determined. That application was due to be heard before the High Court on Thursday. However, when the matter was mentioned before Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds today the Judge agreed to adjourn the case. The adjournment was granted after the court was told that new information concerning the museum's disciplinary code became known to Dr Halpin's legal team. Oisin Quinn SC for the museum, which opposes the allegations, said that Dr Halpin's legal team had in recent days without any prior notice to his client submitted another sworn statement. Counsel said the contents of that affidavit "fundamentally changed the basis of the case" his client has to meet. In seeking to have the matter adjourned counsel said his client needed time to reply to the sworn statement and the hearing could not proceed later this week. Frank Callanan SC for Dr Halpin said the affidavit contained information concerning the museum's disciplinary code under which his client is being investigated. The statement contains matters that only became known to his client in recent days, and which Dr Halpin had no prior knowledge of, counsel said. Ms Justice Reynolds, who said the situation was unsatisfactory, agreed to adjourn the case. The Judge made directions in regards to the exchange of documents in the case and said that it would not be heard until the new year. The Central Bank has launched a commemorative coin to mark 100 years since Irish women won the right to vote. 1918 was the first time Irish women were permitted to vote and stand in parliamentary elections. Countess Markievicz was the first woman elected as an MP to the UK House of Commons - but never took her seat. Instead, she became the first female TD in the Dail and one of the first women in the world to hold a Cabinet post. Struck in .925 sterling silver, the coin was designed by Michael Guilfoyle and is the first Irish commemorative coin to feature colour since the Special Olympics coin of 2003. The figure of a suffragette stands in the foreground, holding a banner demanding the vote for Irish women. Behind her in silhouette is a procession of women marching forward to represent the progress in equality from 1918 to the present day. They walk along a road painted in the colours of the suffragette movement in Ireland. The Central Bank said the design "celebrates the progression of equality for women in Ireland over the last century." The 15 silver proof coin is on sale from tomorrow for 63. It has an issue limit of 3,000 and can be bought online. - Digital Desk A chef who cut her hand as she shucked an oyster in a restaurant has been awarded 75,000 by the High Court. Mr Justice Kevin Cross said Jennifer Donohue who was opening an oyster with a knife sustained a very deep laceration to her left hand and later had to have surgery and was in a cast for several weeks. Jennifer Donohoe, Mount Olive Road, Kilbarrack, Dublin had sued Dorans On The Pier, West Pier , Howth, Co Dublin as a result of the accident on November 23, 2014. She claimed there was a failure to ensure there were proper tools or knives available for the specific task of oyster shucking and in particular failing to supply such a tool to her. It was further claimed there was a failure to train or supervise adequately or at all the practice of oyster shucking being performed by employees and in particular Ms Donohue. Liability was admitted in the case and it was before the court for assessment of damages only. In his judgement, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said Ms Donohue had worked all her life as a chef and was a head chef at the time in the Howth restaurant. She was cutting up oysters and was holding he said what was accepted by the defendants as an unsuitable knife when she sliced her left hand. The wound was dressed at the chemist but she later went to hospital and she had to have surgery. The judge said the laceration was a deep one and she needed to have 19 stitches and was in a cast for four to six weeks. Mr Justice Cross said Ms Donohoe went back to work and later took a job in another establishment as head chef. He said she was well motivated in relation to work. Her complaints were in relation to lack of sensation around where the injury had been on her left hand and that it also reacts to cold weather. She also, the judge said, had difficulty opening and closing buttons. Ms Donohue he said was not somebody who exaggerated her injuries. The judge granted a stay providing 50,000 was paid out immediately. Twitter says it supports new legislation aimed at cracking down on political advertising online. The social media giant is appearing before the Dail's Communications Committee to discuss a Bill introducing more transparency on who is paying for political ads. The daughter of a man injured when their family hotel was firebombed at the weekend says she could have been attending his funeral. Ciaran McKenna was in the Caiseal Mara Hotel in Moville, Co Donegal in the early hours of Sunday morning last when it was targetted by arsonists. The hotel is due to accommodate up to 100 asylum seekers as a direct provision centre in the coming weeks. Aoife McKenna, 22, revealed how she saw flames coming from the family's hotel as she returned home from a night out at around 4am on Sunday morning last. She told how her father had managed to get to the bedroom window on the second floor of the building as fire spread throughout the hotel. It was all very surreal. I saw a man up at the window and I suddenly realised it was my dad and that the hotel was on fire. "He heard the alarm but the smoke had become so bad that he couldn't get out downstairs. "He was stuck and couldn't get down but he was phoning the fire brigade as he tried to escape," she revealed. Two units of the fire service from Carndonagh and Moville arrived on the scene within minutes and managed to rescue Ciaran as Aoife looked on anxiously. Aoife revealed how friends and family had been due to stay in the hotel but cancelled at the last minute. She said she honestly believes that somebody was looking down on them and that she could have been attending her dad's funeral and perhaps the funerals of other family members. "I firmly believe that somebody was looking down on our family. We could have been holding a number of funerals today," she said. Ciaran was rushed to Letterkenny University Hospital but has since been released from hospital. The scene of the fire at the Caiseal Mara Hotel in Moville . Pic: North West Newspix Before the hotel was confirmed as a direct provision centre, the family did try to sell the house twice but both sales fell through. The McKenna family moved to Donegal from the Cabra and Glasnevin area of Dublin four years ago to start a new life having had friends there. Aoife confirmed that since the news that the hotel was to be used as a direct provision centre, the family received threats in recent weeks. "I can't say too much but we did receive threats through calls and we were being harassed. I felt people were throwing looks at me," she said. However, Aoife said the people of Moville have been so good since the incident and that the family are determined to stay in Donegal. Moville and Donegal is a great place and the vast majority of people here are lovely people. Just because there is one bad apple here does not mean the whole place is rotten. "This has been my home for the past four years since we moved here and I have been coming to Donegal since I was a child. "It's a great place and we will continue to live here," she said. Aoife confirmed that the centre will go ahead and said the arson attack and the damage to the hotel is just a setback." "The centre will go ahead and we will welcome these people who come from war-torn countries. We are giving up our home to welcome these people and I'm sure the ordinary, decent people of Moville will welcome them too," she added. The senator is suing for defamation over the January 2016 newspaper article in the Kilkenny People and has suggested it was the main factor in the loss of his Waterford Dail seat. Sen Coffey is suing Iconic Newspapers, publishers of the paper, over comments from Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan describing a proposal to bring part of the Kilkenny administrative area in Waterford city as "daylight robbery". John Paul Phelan Mr Phelan said there was a "bloodthirsty" 18th-century highwayman in Waterford called "Crotty the Robber" and now "Coffey the Robber" was trying to do the same thing. Sen Coffey says that was defamatory and the publisher denies this. He was his fourth day in the witness box and his third under cross-examination. Rossa Fanning SC, for Iconic, put it to him that the language used in the article was colourful comment in the context of other newspaper articles quoting colourful comments by local politicians about the Waterford/Kilkenny boundary issue. Sen Coffey said other comments were part of political debate but the Kilkenny People article was far more pointed and alluded to some form of malpractice by him in his position as a junior environment minister at the time. It defamed him and his family and was published without giving him the opportunity to respond before it was published, he said. Counsel said he was not the first politician to be compared to fictional or historical characters. They included, he said, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar whose is referred to as "Vlad" in the Phoenix magazine, Roscommon politician Luke "Ming" Flanagan, and former Justice Minister John O'Donoghue who was known as "Bull McCabe" after the central character in John B Keane's The Field. None of those politicians had sued, counsel said. None of those people were called a robber, Sen Coffey said. Counsel suggested to him that this was "part of the rough and tumble of politics" and that when his FG colleague, Mr Phelan, gives evidence, he will tell the jury he is "astonished we are here". Sen Coffey said he has been in politics for 20 years through good and bad times. "And never in my life have I experienced the type of headline in this article published at a vulnerable time in my career". Mr Fanning put it to him he gave a completely different public explanation last month for the loss of his Dail seat when he told the London Times it was due to the controversy over a catheterisation laboratory at University Hospital Waterford. Sen Coffey said the cath lab issue contributed to the loss of his seat, as did the water charges controversy, but the "main factor" was the Kilkenny People article. He accepted there had been a ten per cent drop in the FG vote in 2016 nationally and locally in Waterford from 2011. He also agreed he had the disadvantage that FF's successful candidate in Waterford, Mary Butler, came from his own area of Portlaw. Earlier, he said he was "factually correct" in comments he made in a local radio interview about the boundary commission review months before the Kilkenny People article. He disagreed he gave the impression in the interview he was responsible for the review. The case continues. A man is due to appear before Wexford District Court this morning in connection with an incident which led to a Child Rescue Ireland (CRI) alert being issued yesterday. The man, who is in his 30s, is due to be charged in relation to an incident St Mary's Villa's in Bunclody in the early hours of Monday. Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo: China News Service/VCG via Getty Images Googles Project Dragonfly, a search engine designed around Chinas strict censorship laws, has been contentious since the day its existence became public this summer, following a report from The Intercept. Googles Chinese search app will automatically identify and filter websites blocked by the Great Firewall. When a person carries out a search, banned websites will be removed from the first page of results, and a disclaimer will be displayed stating that some results may have been removed due to statutory requirements, the report explained. This, for obvious reasons, did not sit well with people. Including many at Google, who, on Tuesday, published an open letter opposing the project in conjunction with Amnesty International. From Google Employees Against Dragonfly via Medium: Our opposition to Dragonfly is not about China: we object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be. The Chinese government certainly isnt alone in its readiness to stifle freedom of expression, and to use surveillance to repress dissent. Dragonfly in China would establish a dangerous precedent at a volatile political moment, one that would make it harder for Google to deny other countries similar concessions. Our companys decision comes as the Chinese government is openly expanding its surveillance powers and tools of population control. Many of these rely on advanced technologies, and combine online activity, personal records, and mass monitoring to track and profile citizens. Reports are already showing who bears the cost, including Uyghurs, womens rights advocates, and students. Providing the Chinese government with ready access to user data, as required by Chinese law, would make Google complicit in oppression and human rights abuses. The expanded surveillance powers of the Chinese government referenced in the letter have been well documented. In February, police began using facial-recognition glasses to track criminal behavior. Earlier this year, over a thousand Google employees signed a similar letter which was circulated internally demanding the company not be complicit in aiding a country already actively repressing and surveilling its citizens. (As opposed to the earlier letter, Tuesdays is signed by dozens of Googlers who are listed by name.) Googles CEO Sundar Pichai responded saying Dragonfly was early stages and exploratory. I genuinely do believe we have a positive impact when we engage around the world and I dont see any reason why that would be different in China, Pichai said. Which, sure, if the positive impact youre going for is a giant, previously untapped market for your company at the expense of human rights thats probably true. During Patrick Nevin's trial for sexually assaulting a Brazilian student he met on Tinder at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last winter the jury heard details of text message exchanges between Nevin and the victim. Nevin (37) with former addresses of Mounttown, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin and Castlebellingham, Co Louth, was convicted of sexually assaulting the student when they met for a first date, after matching on the Tinder dating app in July 2014 and was today jailed for five-and-a-half years for the attack. In her direct evidence in the trial, and aided by a courts appointed translator, the woman told the trial that she repeatedly had to use Google Translate during these communications and often misunderstood the meaning of texts sent by Nevin, including references to sex. After exchanging phone numbers on Tinder she and Nevin continued to communicate by exchanging texts and images on WhatsApp. Patrick Nevin. Very shortly into these text exchanges Nevin was asking the woman to send on photos to him and to meet with him. After sending a selfie picture he replied nice, youre sexy, any more pix? She told the trial she didn't understand when he wrote are you a good kisser ha?. He later wrote I will teach you many things about what a man and woman can do together if you want to. She agreed that this suggested that maybe he wanted sex. Her reply to this text was calm, I speak seriously. She told the court that she thought this would be enough to tell him I don't want this, I want to learn. Nevin then texted her well I only want to fuck you and she replied with a sad face. In cross-examination counsel put it to the witness that it was very clear from this text that what this man wants is sex. Asked why she didn't end the conversation then, the complainant said: Because I'm stupid. She replied to Nevin that was rude, I'm a good person, not a whore and he apologised. He then wrote I'm a porn star and later Ive love to kiss you softly and then fuck you hard, deep and fast. The victim said she thought he was joking and being silly. The exchange continued for days with Nevin often texting the woman first thing in the morning and texting her throughout the day. In one exchange she told Nevin that she had cried that day because she was missing her family. He replied : would you like to meet and be friends so. She replied yes but I don't speak English and he wrote no problem I teach you Under cross examination from Nevin's lawyers, the woman said that statements by Nevin to gardai that they were meeting up for sex were completely crazy. Patrick Nevin in 2001 I never said to him I wanted to have sex with him. Not on Tinder. Not on WhatsApp. I was 32. If I wanted sex I wouldn't have said, go for a coffee. I would have said go to hotel or his room. At 32 you don't have sex in cars, she told the court. Paul Flannery SC, defending, put it to her that topless photos of the defendant on his Tinder profile were sexual poses. She said she didn't agree. Counsel also put it to her that photos on her profile have a bit of a sexy look about them. She said they were professional shots of her modelling jewellery. She denied that she was using the Tinder app to get sex. After his arrest Nevin told gardai that he took it that he and the complainant were meeting on the night to probably have sex. During the banter I asked her would she like to star in a film with me and she said 'this interests me very much', he claimed. He said the purpose of meeting her was hoping to have sex with her and to seduce her. He said some women he met would have sex after 20 minutes. He said he drove her to UCD and said that summer he'd met multiple girls off the dating site at that location. He said he knew the campus extremely well from going to college there. Nurses and midwives are asking the Health Minister Simon Harris to protect their freedom of conscience over abortion. Mr Harris will today receive a petition from 'Nurses for Life', who say they do not want to be forced to participate in abortions but are still waiting for reassurance on how the new laws will come into effect. Latest: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has declared that a review of the national broadband process and of meetings over the project shows that the process is not tainted, writes Juno McEnroe. Speaking in the Dail this afternoon, Mr Varadkar faced questions about a report into meetings between former communications minister Denis Naughten and a consortium bidding for the plan. The Smyth review concluded the broadband plan process was not influenced by Mr Naughten or businessman David McCourt, who is leading the consortium bidding for the task to supply broadband to half a million people. The involvement of Mr McCourt and contact with Mr Naughten over the plan was "without precedent", claimed Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin during Leaders Questions. It included five telephone calls and nine dinners, the majority of which were about the broadband plan, the Dail heard. But Mr Varadkar insisted the review's conclusions showed that the process was not tainted. Furthermore, the final bid had been submitted by the McCourt-led consortium on September 18 last and this was being assessed by two independent consultants groups, it was added. Recommendations from these two assessments will be made to government on whether to go ahead with the bid. But Mr Martin wants answers and an explanation on how the make up of the consortium has hey presto changed in one of the final stages of the bidding process. Moreover, explanations over different meetings including over the level of subsidy by the state for plan didn't stack up, said the Opposition leader. He also sought clarity over the breaching of canvassing rules during the meetings as well as what might be the final cost of the project. Parties are due to meet later today to discuss whether to proceed with a special Dail debate on the Smyth review into the project, with TDs pushing for one to be held this Friday. A snails pace progress is being made, despite all the political promises. In the latest report, an exceptional amount of meetings took place between Mr McCourt and The Minister, which is extraordinary for a tendering process. Fianna Fail (@fiannafailparty) November 27, 2018 Report finds broadband tender was not influenced by Minister and David McCourt The Government-commissioned report into the broadband lobbying fiasco has concluded that the project has not been damaged by Denis Naughtens serial meetings with the only bidder in the process. The report by independent expert Peter Smyth was commissioned by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in October in response to concerns over the transparency of the bidding process which threatened to collapse the Government. The concerns specifically involved repeated meetings by then communications minister Mr Naughten and Granahan McCourt chairman David McCourt, whose firm is key to the only bidder still seeking the multi-billion euro project. The review has now been published by Communications Minister Richard Bruton. While Mr Naughten initially claimed that only one meeting took place, over a number of weeks it emerged that he met had Mr McCourt on nine different occasions while the tendering process was underway. Although Mr Naughten rejected any criticism of the meetings, he resigned on October 11 after being told by Mr Varadkar his position was no longer tenable. Today, Mr Smyth's report said: "The fact that the former minister met Mr McCourt or representatives of the other bidders outside the process is not in and of itself a basis for the finding that the procurement process has been tainted. "I am satisfied that neither the former Minister nor Mr McCourt had the opportunity to influence the conduct of the tender process in favour of Granahan McCourt or otherwise. "I also believe that the decision of the former minister to resign, thereby removing himself from the process insulates the process from any apparent bias created by his engagements with Mr McCourt." The review goes on to say that Mr Smyth had to rely on statements from the then Minister and Mr McCourt about their meetings since there were no notes or formal minutes recorded. Minister Bruton said the Government has accepted the findings of the review, which was considered by Cabinet earlier today. Minister Richard Bruton says the Broadband Report shows this process hasnt been undermined by meetings between Denis Naughten and David McCourt pic.twitter.com/9JLHNMccu0 Sean Defoe (@SeanDefoe) November 27, 2018 He said his department is continuing to evaluate the final tender, which will result in a recommendation to Government. The minister added: The Government is committed to providing high speed to rural Ireland... The Government is absolutely committed to reaching the 540,000 premises which will not be reached by commercial operators." Meanwhile, opposition parties have continued criticising the way the plan has been handled. Sinn Fein said the whole process is flawed, and there needs to be a deeper examination into why all the major telecoms companies have pulled out of the running. The Labour Party claims it would be reckless to go ahead with this tendering process, as the cost of it spirals to what could be as much as 3bn. People Before Profit TD Brid Smith has called for the project to be delivered by an existing state company such as the ESB. - Digital Desk The vast majority of people in Ireland believe pay and career progression is skewed in favour of men. However, according to an exclusive gender equality survey of 1,009 adults by Newstalk, one in four were not aware of the #MeToo movement. By Patrick Flynn A transatlantic flight has diverted to Shannon Airport after a woman was reported to be experiencing contractions. British Airways flight BA-292 was travelling from Washington in the US to Heathrow airport in London at the time. The Boeing 787-900 jet was about 50kms south of Ireland when the crew advised air traffic controllers they had a medical situation on board and might need to divert to Shannon. A short time later, after the crew had assessed the situation, the pilot declared a Pan medical emergency and requested clearance to turn around and divert to Shannon. The crew confirmed they had a pregnant woman on board who appeared to be having contractions. The flight landed safely at 10.05am and was met by airport personnel and National Ambulance Service paramedics who quickly boarded the flight. The woman was taken to hospital in Limerick for treatment. A British Airways spokesman confirmed: The flight diverted into Shannon as a precaution for a minor medical reason. The plan is for the flight to continue to Heathrow. Meanwhile, a flight was forced to abort its landing at Dublin Airport because of the windy conditions there. It also diverted to Shannon this morning. Wow Air flight WW-6, from Reykjavik in Iceland to Dublin, performed a go-around after experiencing windshear. The crew had hoped to attempt a second landing but decided to divert to Shannon instead. The flight landed at Shannon at 10.19am where it was refuelled in preparation for its return to Dublin when conditions there improve. Wow Air flight WW-6 returned to Dublin at 11.54am while British Airways flight 292 continued to London at 12.35pm. - Digital Desk If Orange County voters can get fired up about Elizabeth Warren protege Katie Porter, thats good news for progressives. Photo: Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images/Digital First Media via Getty Im On Election Day socially liberal, suburban voters helped Democrats win back the U.S. House of Representatives and that could complicate efforts to shift the party to the left, New York Times posited on Monday: Election outcomes in America have become increasingly correlated with population density, a pattern that also appears in other industrialized countries. Rural areas are now reliably Republican, urban areas overwhelmingly Democratic. The suburbs are lodged in between, with many economically conservative but socially liberal voters who have a foot in each party or for whom neither party is a perfect fit. There is this idea that if all these suburban areas are blue, that will mean theyre automatically more progressive, historian Lily Geismer told the paper, noting that while these voters may support progressive candidates, they also show commitments to a lot of kinds of inequality. Geismers skepticism isnt entirely unwarranted. Orange County may look blue right now, but as the Times notes, California voters also rejected Proposition 10, a rent-control measure backed by a coalition of progressive grassroots organizations and unions, like the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and the California Teachers Association. A successful opposition campaign persuaded voters that rent control would, in the words of one ad, take rental housing off the market, reduce construction of affordable and middle-class housing when we need it most and make it harder to find a place to live. Its hard to imagine an ad better suited to play on the most deeply held fears of suburban homeowners. Similarly, Colorado voters elected a Democratic trifecta the same day they rejected a ballot initiative that would have increased taxes on incomes over $150,000 a year to provide new funding for public schools. For some suburban voters, Democratic candidates were clearly more palatable than progressive policies. Its reasonable to ask whether suburban victories in the 2018 midterms will ultimately backfire for Democrats. But there is no singular answer, partly because the party itself is so fragmented. Fiscally conservative Democrats wont be dismayed by the possibility that suburban voters will vote against increasing taxes to fund expansive welfare programs. But left-wing Democrats may need to reckon with the possibility that a suburban bloc will oppose some of their initiatives. The partys left flank may face significant obstacles in the suburbs, but evidence suggests that these problems are not insurmountable. First, suburban voters arent totally responsible for the Democratic Partys midterm success. Democrat Jared Golden flipped Maines heavily rural Second Congressional District with a platform that included Medicare for All. In other districts with significant rural populations, Democrats like Richard Ojeda lost while improving on Hillary Clintons 2016 performance. Leftward movement is not limited to neighborhoods with Panera Breads, and the party need not pin its hopes entirely to suburban voters. Plus, even within suburbs, political commitments are more complicated than they may initially seem. If the Democratic candidates who flipped suburban districts were all fiscal conservatives, perhaps someone could reasonably argue that suburban voters are categorically opposed to more progressive economic policies. But thats not the case. Democrat Katie Porter, who flipped a seat in Orange County, is a protege of progressive stalwart Elizabeth Warren. And while its true that the election of a Democratic representative does not prove by itself that a suburban congressional district will embrace a full range of progressive economic and social-welfare policies, it is important to remember that suburbs are not monolithic places. Suburban is not a stand-in for white middle class, as Jack Metzgar recently argued in a post at Working-Class Perspectives. An important political shift is happening in suburbs, where half of all voters live, Metzgar wrote, but it is only one part of what generated the blue wave, and these suburbs are much more diverse and complicated places than the punditry allows. In fact, suburbs are diversifying, as Brookings Institute demographer William Frey has noted, and living in a suburb doesnt protect an individual from the effects of certain inequalities. A 2016 study by the Penn Institute for Urban Research found that declines in homeownership have occurred in both cities and suburbs at the same magnitude. Rents, meanwhile, have increased in suburbs, just as theyve increased in urban centers. As explained by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a 2017 study by Zillow Research found that suburban rents increased 2.5 percent while urban rents increased 2.3 percent, a trend that can be linked in part to the lingering consequences of the foreclosure crisis. Rising rents are themselves symptoms of another, underlying trend. Poverty, too, has increased in suburbs at speeds that outpace those documented in cities, a problem that spawns a cascade of burdens. The specters of medical bankruptcy, student debt, and unaffordable child care all trouble suburban households. Suburban inequalities afflict white working-class voters and non-white working-class voters alike, albeit not to the same degree. As tends to be the case, these burdens are borne disproportionately by people of color. The interests of suburban voters are not universally opposed to the interests of the urban poor, or of the rural poor. If the partys base does shift to the suburbs, left-wing Democrats wont necessarily have a policy problem. Low- to middle-income suburbanites dont really have material reasons to oppose a child allowance, for example, or really any policy that increases taxes on wealthier voters. Rather, the partys left flank has a messaging problem. They must convince white suburbanites that they have interests in common with their non-white neighbors, and not the one percent that the precarity they fear is real, and that the prosperity they desire has been hoarded by the wealthy enclaves they aspire to enter. That political task did not spring fully formed from the aftermath of the midterms. A suburban base wont create new problems for progressives as much as it will reinforce old challenges. A pilot is under investigation after falling asleep in the cockpit of a freight plane and overflying his Australian island destination by 46 kilometres (29 miles). Vortex Air said the pilot was the only person aboard the twin-propeller Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain and was flying on autopilot during the flight this month from Devonport city on Tasmania north west to King Island in Bass Strait. The Melbourne-based airline said in a statement that the pilot "unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft". It said: "The issue became apparent when air traffic control was unable to contact the pilot in-flight." The airline said the pilot landed safely on King Island. Air traffic control recordings showed several radio calls were made to the unresponsive pilot, The Australian newspaper reported. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, a crash and risk investigator, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the aviation industry regulator, are investigating the incident and the company's management of pilot fatigue. The bureau confirmed that the plane had overflown the King Island Airport by 29 miles due to the pilot sleeping. It said it would interview the pilot and review Vortex Air's operational procedures before a report on the incident is made public. Vortex Air said the 6.20am flight had been the first on the pilot's first day back at work after taking leave. He continued flying that day. The newspaper said the pilot reported for duty despite having had little or no sleep the previous night due to a personal crisis. "Vortex Air takes the safety of our passengers, crew and pilots extremely seriously and always abides by all safety procedures," the airline said. "This is an extremely rare occurrence, as demonstrated by the company's excellent safety track record," it added. The company said it was assisting the pilot to "safely return to full duties". PA Migrants face tear gas from U.S. Border Patrol agents at San Ysidro. Photo: Tomas Ayuso/Bloomberg via Getty Images A protest on Sunday staged by Central American migrants erupted in violence at the U.S.-Mexico border at San Ysidro. Hundreds scrambled through car lanes and up fences in a rush for California soil. Others threw rocks and bottles. U.S. authorities responded by closing the point of entry for hours, firing tear-gas canisters into Mexico and engulfing the migrants including women and small children not involved in the clashes in clouds of noxious chemicals. Observers condemned the border agents conduct. Border Patrol firing tear gas on asylum seekers, including kids, tweeted Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island. This is not America. President Donald Trump, who orchestrated the violence, was unmoved. Mexico should move the flag waving migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries, he tweeted on Monday. We will close the border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the wall! Trump and his supporters in the Republican Party and conservative media have spent weeks insisting on the threat posed by these migrants, who made their way north by the thousands mostly from Honduras to escape violence, corruption, and economic hardship at home. But the presence of small children among them has undercut the conservative fiction that they are an army of killers and terrorists funded by Venezuela. Critics have highlighted this contradiction, though their pleas have failed to sway the brutalizers. Bum-rushing the border is a choice and has consequences, tweeted pundit Tomi Lahren, in a characteristic retort. Watching the USA finally defend our borders was the highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend. The right has repeatedly made it clear that children are fair game in the administrations violent crackdowns on immigrants, including through Trumps draconian child-separation policy. But contrary to Cicillines claim, and in keeping with Lahrens, such brutality is far from un-American. Committing violence against children is an age-old tactic used by U.S. authorities and their citizen allies to deter the childrens elders from demanding human rights. The most vulnerable to these attacks have frequently been those whose claims to citizenship were precarious, if not under active dispute or being denied outright. Sundays violence continued this dynamic, though American brutality against migrants is not unique to Trump. In 2013, Border Patrol agents pepper-sprayed a group of about 100 who rushed the border at San Ysidro. Obama was president then. But Trumps policies are widely seen as a dramatic escalation, including by standardizing the separation of immigrant children from their parents when they cross the border undocumented. Many observers have pointed out, correctly, that the historical precedent for this includes the sale of enslaved black children taken away from their families in the antebellum South, and the forced separation and enrollment of Native American children in assimilationist boarding schools between the 1870s and 1970s. But attacking children to quell dissent is equally central to U.S. history. During the lynching era, violence against black youth signaled to their communities the perils of challenging the racial order. After allegedly frightening a white woman in 1889, Warren Powell was lynched in East Point, Georgia, at age 14. In 1911, L.D. Nelson, also 14, was lynched in Okemah, Oklahoma, along with his mother Laura, after he was accused of killing a sheriffs deputy. Their bodies were hanged from a bridge over the North Canadian River. A white woman in 1955 lied about 14-year-old Emmett Till making physical advances on her, prompting her husband and brother-in-law to kidnap, beat, mutilate, and shoot the child in the head before tying his corpse to a cotton-gin fan and sinking it in Mississippis Tallahatchie River. All three were warnings to other black would-be transgressors. But the way in which the tactics used against adults were mobilized against children involved in organized dissent finds its clearest parallels in the civil-rights movement. During the first week of May, 1963, several thousand black schoolchildren took to the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, to protest segregation in the citys businesses and public spaces, in what became known as the Birmingham childrens crusade. The demonstration was the brainchild of Reverend James Bevel, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who felt the image of children facing down Jim Crows brutal agents might turn the tide of the movement. He was right. On the first day of the protests, May 2, roughly 500 children were rounded up in paddy wagons and locked in jail, some confined to cells packed with 75 people that were meant to hold eight. The next day, Bull Connor, the citys public safety commissioner, ordered attack dogs and fire hoses unleashed on the children. Rocketing water streams were driven across [their] bodies, lacerating their flesh, tearing clothing off their backs; hitting the elm trees in nearby Kelly Ingram Park, the blasts ripped off the bark, wrote Steven Levingston, author of Kennedy and King: The President, the Pastor, and the Battle Over Civil Rights, in the Washington Post. The children, knocked to the pavement, crawled away; some struggled to their feet with bloody noses and gashes on their faces. The incident drew national attention and is credited with spurring President John F. Kennedys support for civil-rights legislation. It also galvanized new activists. What really sticks in my mind then and sticks in my mind now is seeing a K-9 dog being sicced on a 6-year-old girl, said Andrew Marrisett, a Birmingham local turned SCLC staffer, in My Soul Is Rested, an oral history of the movement. That really was the spark a big, burly, 285-pound cop siccing a trained police dog on that little girl, little black girl. And then I got really involved in the movement. But the costs were steep as well. The 16th Street Baptist Church, from which the childrens crusade was staged, was targeted by Klansmen that September in a bombing attack that killed four young girls Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair. The children in Birmingham then were agitating against a system that refused to treat them as full citizens. The migrants protest and incursion at San Ysidro over the weekend was a response, most immediately, to the U.S. government restricting their avenues for legal entry and potential citizenship. Trump tried earlier this month to render many who enter the U.S. without documents ineligible for asylum, regardless of their claims validity. A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the rule on November 9, pending determination of its legality by a court. But the administration has not stopped signaling its hostility. Trump has treated this latest wave like an invasion, publicly claiming without evidence that the group is full of criminals and unknown Middle Easterners, a dog whistle for terrorists. He has sent thousands of U.S. troops to the border in a show of force meant transparently to evoke siege and drive Republican voter turnout. Last week, a memo signed by Trumps chief of staff, John Kelly, was made public authorizing troops to use lethal force, where necessary. All of this compounds the reasons for the migrants initial flight from home. Amid spiking murder rates and endemic poverty, a 2009 military coup which was later validated by the United States preceded several elections whose legitimacy was disputed by many Hondurans. The first occurred the same year, and took place under military rule after basic civil rights including freedom of speech and the press had been suspended. [The] U.S.s recognition of what many in the country deemed as an illegitimate election, is what some in my family believe is the catalyst for this mass exodus, wrote ABC News Victoria Moll-Ramirez, who is Honduran-American and has dozens of family members still living in Honduras, in October. Facing a dead-end back home and narrowing legal channels to secure rights at the U.S. border, protest has become one of the few options migrants have left. Right-wing insistence that they simply follow the rules to gain entry belies the rules inadequacy for addressing the actual problems they are meant to confront. Death and despair await back home. Mexican cities like Tijuana have proven logistically incapable of housing the travelers long term. Waiting years for asylum claims to be processed is often untenable. Desperation festers under such circumstances. Insisting they have rights, via protests, is among the few logical responses. That the U.S. government sees fit to punish them for it including by tear-gassing their children, or abducting them and locking them in cages casts their claims in stark moral terms. But more than that, it affirms Americans legacy of using violence against the young as a deterrent to agitating adults. Black and Native people have long been kept in line because the alternative was watching their children suffer or die and in the 1960s, it took widely disseminated imagery of that suffering to convince many Americans on which side of history they should stand. The president was among those Americans back then, but in 2018, no such recourse awaits. The president himself is now the primary engine driving the violence. A turning point like what Bevel foresaw in Birmingham is an unlikely prospect today. While many Australians are trying to guess who will be the next star of The Bachelor, the show's host, Osher Gunsberg, has been busy destigmatising mental health. The television presenter's memoir, Back After the Break, was published in August. Since then, he's continued to open up about his struggles with anxiety, panic attacks, depression and psychosis. The former Australian Idol host has now turned his attention to the assumptions people make about workers living with mental health issues. Gunsberg said people are often surprised to learn of his personal struggles, given everything appears fine when he's fronting the cameras for The Bachelor and its spinoff The Bachelortte. He's also pointed out that working was actually good for his mental health because it gave his life structure, shrugging off the assumption that people who live with anxiety or depression are automatically bad at their jobs. Good morning Canberra, We could be in for some wild weather today so hold onto your hats! We're set for a top of 17 degrees and could get up to 40mm of rain. Here are the morning headlines. ACT budget $76 million better due to land sales timing Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has called for more female MPs in the Liberal Party at a conference in Sydney. Credit:AAP The Liberal Party needed more female representatives, former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop said at a conference in Sydney as she expressed her deep sadness by the sudden resignation of Liberal MP Julia Banks from the party. Speaking at a conference on Cockatoo Island on Tuesday, Ms Bishop also called for a national bipartisan approach to energy policy and climate change. She described the Victorian MP as a "strong, sensible woman" and said she would be deeply missed. "The Liberal Party needs more female representatives," she said. The bridge out of Deepwater may be claimed by savage fires, trapping residents inside the inferno zone. Rural Fire Service Gladstone area director Craig Magick has told residents in Rules Beach, Oyster Creek and Baffle Creek to remain vigilant, as their escape route could become compromised. Fires rage at Deepwater in Queensland. Credit:Queensland Fire and Emergency Services "There is a possibility that the bridge out of Deepwater may become impacted and if it does, that area will be cut off from all traffic during that time," Mr Magick told The Observer. "If the bridge gets cut people will be stuck within that area during the fire." The south Brisbane suburb of Salisbury is becoming the new West End, thanks to a grassroots effort to bring genuine community and creativity into the streets. Four Salisbury residents and business owners shared their thoughts on how it happened at a University of Queensland conference on Tuesday, detailing how a street party, a coffee shop, a brewery and a food co-op contributed to the suburbs new life. The intersection of Textile Crescent, Commercial Road and Chrome Street in Salisbury - an unprepossessing industrial area that has become a community hub. Credit:Google Maps Giualiano Perez and his family lived in West End for 25 years before being forced out due to the rising cost of living in the trendy suburb. Searching for a more cost-friendly place, they arrived in Moorooka and opened the Reload Cafe in Salisbury. Likewise, Clare Apelt also lived in West End and left due to the cost, settling in Salisbury thanks to its green and open feeling. Firefighters have fought through the night to protect key central Queensland roads and issued a final warning to residents that time is running out to evacuate as the intense flames close in. As time runs out for locals north of Bundaberg to flee, a new fire threat has emerged 650 kilometres north with residents west of Mackay also told to evacuate on Wednesday morning. Crews continue to battle the flames north of Bundaberg as a new threat emerges inland from Mackay. Credit:Joe Dry - 7 News Brisbane (Twitter) In a matter of hours, the fire service expects it will be "too dangerous to drive" in Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek, which have been under threat for the past few days. The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services warn crews may soon be unable to stop the fire advancing, meaning escape routes may be cut off and lives and property will be under threat. A man has been charged over an attack on the Samoan Prime Minister, which allegedly included meat and eggs being thrown on the floor of a Logan church where the PM was speaking. The incident occurred on November 14 about 7.30pm when a group of people arrived at the church on McCarthy Road in Marsden, south of Brisbane, and tried to disrupt the gathering, police said. Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi. Credit:Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Samoa It will be alleged a man got inside the function room where Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was speaking before yelling abuse, throwing meat and eggs on the floor. According to TV1 Samoa, a pigs head, raw eggs, plastic bag with raw meat and rocks with threatening messages written on them were thrown during the disturbance. People have been pulled from the path of a monster bushfire after refusing to flee from the erratic and dangerous inferno that's destroyed homes and razed thousands of hectares in central Queensland. Hundreds of firefighters are battling more than 80 fires across the state in unprecedented conditions with scorching temperatures predicted for Wednesday. A bushfire in central Queensland is threatening homes in Deepwater and Baffle Creek. Credit:Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Emergency services warn a "horrendous" combination of climate, heat and fire were aligning to create extreme conditions "never seen before in Queensland". QFES Predictive Services Inspector Andrew Sturgess said there was the potential for fire storms and house losses. Note: The Queensland Police Service has, since publication, backtracked on its comments published in this story Queensland Police have cast doubt on Brisbane City Councils explanation of why it appears on a list of public agencies applying to telecommunications companies for access to consumers metadata. Earlier this month, a spokeseman for lord mayor Graham Quirk told Brisbane Times it had only made applications for metadata at the request of the Queensland Police Service to assist police investigations. Queensland police have raised doubts over lord mayor Graham Quirk's office's explanation about Brisbane City Council's use of metadata. Credit:Glenn Hunt/AAP But the QPS has been unable to confirm this, despite making extensive internal inquiries. Were gonna need a change in the political climate. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images In recent weeks, the U.S. governments top scientists found that, absent a drastic reduction in global carbon emissions, climate change will shave trillions of dollars off Americas GDP and condemn tens of thousands of Americans to premature deaths by 2100. Meanwhile, the U.S. governments top diplomats tried to sabotage international cooperation on reducing carbon emissions. Under the terms of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the worlds wealthy countries pledged to provide developing nations with at least $100 billion a year (starting in 2020) in funding to ease the latters transition to renewable energy, and mitigate the harms of climate change. This promise is foundational to the accord. To keep warming under two degrees above preindustrial levels, many of the worlds poorest countries will need to forswear fossil fuels, at some potential economic cost. If the nations that have profited the most from carbon energy and thus, imposed the greatest external, environmental costs on the global South refuse to shoulder some of the financial burden of transitioning developing nations off of fossil fuels, then many of the latter may flout their emissions targets. More concretely, if wealthy countries do not help low-lying, low-income nations like Bangladesh prepare for wrenching climatic changes, millions will be killed or displaced, even if warming is arrested at two degrees. And yet, while the initial Paris Agreement included that $100 billion pledge, it left many details of so-called climate finance up for future negotiation. At talks at Bangkok in September, a group of developing countries, led by Donald Trumps U.S., pushed for rules that would allow developed countries to count commercial loans which developing countries would need to repay with interest toward the $100 billion total. Now, one week before annual climate-change negotiations kick off in Katowice, Poland, Business Standard has revealed that U.S. negotiators sought to undermine climate financing further still, at an October meeting in Bonn, Germany. Specifically, the U.S. which has declared its intention to exit the Paris Agreement, but cannot formally do so until 2020 raised objections to the very concepts of developed and developing countries: The US, at first, demanded that the [2018 Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows] be approved only after inserting a caveat that there was no agreement on the meaning and definition of the phrases developed and developing countries. This meant, it said, one could not map which country belongs to which category when measuring fund flow. By implication, it would have meant that there was no credible way to measure how much funds developed countries are providing to developing countries. When developing countries representatives vehemently argued against this, the US instead asked for scrubbing out all references to flows from developed countries. It asked that the term climate finance providers be used which could imply both developed and developing countries. In other places in the report it insisted that the report cite only hyper-technical terms to classify countries. These terms, such as Countries that are not members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, developing country representatives at the meeting warned, would render the report unreadable. But as the report had to be approved by consensus, developing countries were wary of a US veto and settled for what they considered lesser of the two evils: not explicitly opening the classification of developing and developed countries to review. That would have meant leaving the door open for countries such as the US to wreck parts of the Paris Agreement from the inside out at a later stage. Given the options, it was better to be hyper-technical, avoid opening the phrases to definitional challenge and pay the relatively much smaller price of the report being less reader-friendly, said a developing country negotiator aware of the arguments. The U.S.-mandated revisions will, ostensibly, have little concrete impact on the Paris Agreement. But the fact that the worlds most powerful nation has chosen to signal its hostility to climate finance could embolden other developed countries to shirk their commitments to the global South, while eroding the latters commitment to a rapid transition off of fossil fuels. Which is to say: The deal-maker-in-chief is doing his level best to save the U.S. a few billion dollars in foreign aid in 2020, at a cost of several trillion dollars (and the risk of sending human civilization to a premature death) by centurys end. A far north Queensland avocado company has been fined $200,000 for the electrocution of an overseas worker on a Tolga farm in 2016. Golden Triangle was fined $200,000 in the Cairns Magistrate Court on Friday, with no conviction recorded. The overseas worker died while trimming avocado trees. The Chilean 457 visa worker aged in his late 20s, died when his pruning tool clashed with 22,000 volt powerlines. Cairns Magistrate Kevin Priestly said workers had been given verbal reminders about the powerlines prior to the incident, but this was deemed inadequate, and more suitable safety measures should have been in place. Mr Priestly said simple steps should have been taken to prevent the death, given the potentially catastrophic risks. These steps could have included planting the trees well away from the three-metre powerline exclusion zone. During sentencing, the companys early guilty plea, its great safety record and the communitys support was taken into account. Head of Queenslands Electrical Safety Office Victoria Thomson said rural property owners need to be aware of where powerlines are located. Its imperative that workers and their equipment stay well out of powerline exclusion zones at least three metres in all directions and they always work away and not towards powerlines, Ms Thomson said. Density is not a dirty word, according to Brisbane resident Natalie Rayment who is behind a movement to change the way residents look at development. The YIMBY Yes in My Backyard co-founder said the movement was about getting people to think a different way. The YIMBY Yes in My Backyard movement is about getting residents to think differently about development. Credit:Robert Shakespeare Density might traditionally be a dirty word in some circles but we need to look at density and say you know what, that actually saves the environment, Ms Rayment said. [With density] were not going to have to continue the sprawl out into our vegetated areas or turn into one big city between Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, she said. The man who rammed the Bourke Street terrorist with a trolley has faced a Melbourne court over burglary and theft charges. Michael Rogers, 46, briefly faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday for allegedly stealing a bike and breaking into a cafe and taking cash. Rogers is accused of breaking into a CBD cafe and stealing $500 just a day before the attack that gained him public attention. Michael Rogers leaving the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday after his bail was extended. Credit:AAP The homeless man earned the nickname "Trolley Man" after stepping in harm's way with a shopping cart to fend off Islamic State-inspired attacker Hassan Khalif Shire Ali. Deputy Liberal leader and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has cancelled a planned trip to the G20 economic forum in Buenos Aires this week amid the chaos engulfing the Liberal Party and the Federal Parliament. Mr Frydenberg, the most senior Victorian member of the federal Coalition, is managing the fallout of the Liberals' disastrous showing at the weekend's state election, as well as the defection of former Liberal MP Julia Banks to sit on the crossbench on Tuesday. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Canberra on Tuesday. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer A spokesman for Mr Frydenberg confirmed he would no longer attend the G20 leaders' forum, which starts on Friday. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann - who has attended the past three G20 leaders' summits - will now attend instead. Prime Minister Scott Morrison will also still attend, though he was not on the list of those planned to have bilateral meetings with US President Donald Trump that was announced by the White House overnight. London: The Bank of England has decided to honour a scientist with its next bank note design. One of the nominees? Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Credit:AP Thatcher held power for more than a decade from 1979, reshaping British politics. But she appears on the central bank's initial list of some 800 names because of her time as a research chemist at a food company in the late 1940s, playing a disputed but much-discussed role in the history of ice-cream. The bank plans to introduce a new 50-note the largest and rarest of its regular denominations, worth about $88 in 2020, as part of a program replacing paper bills with sturdier polymer versions. Its bills feature Queen Elizabeth on one side and a historical figure on the other; the current 50 note has James Watt and Matthew Boulton, pioneers of the steam engine. A recent survey has shown a 50-50 split in opinion on whether interest-only loans are a good or a bad thing. According to customer-owned Gateway Banks study, the negative sentiment towards interest-only loans has risen by 2% year on year. It echoes other recent market movements which suggest mortgage holders are moving away from interest-only to principal and interest arrangements early. Gateway said it reflected the current regulatory environment with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) maintaining its 30% cap on interest-only lending despite lifting benchmarks on investor loans in April. Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) also warned that $120billion of interest-only mortgages were due to reach the end of their interest-only period in the next three years. Regardless of the rise in negative sentiment and widespread warnings, this year the number of people who have used or considered an interest-only home loan has increased by 4% year-on-year. Paul Thomas, CEO at Gateway Bank, warned that those on interest-only repayment plans should finalise their financial strategies now to ensure shortfalls in their budget will not become critical. He added, Mortgage holders currently on interest-only repayments should make financial planning and budgeting a core priority well in advanced of the end of their interest-only period. The RBA has estimated that for many Aussies, repayments could be set to rise up to 40% as loans roll over to principal and interest. This is a significant surge that will surely hit hard for families bottom lines so its never too early to start planning for the upcoming increases in repayment obligations. In fact, the earlier the better. Earlier this year, the RBA released a statement on the limitations of interest-only lending, within which it estimated that around 30% of all outstanding national mortgage debt will reset from interest only to principal and interest, increasing the monthly repayments for almost 1.5 million borrowers. While repayment increases will prove to be a challenge for many, Thomas believes it also presents an opportunity for homeowners to begin building equity on their properties. He said, The affordability of an interest-only home loan may be appealing, but Aussies should avoid the trap of extending their interest-only period or refinancing to another interest-only loan as it will distance them further from financial freedom. The earlier you begin to switch to principal and interest repayments, the sooner youll be able to build up equity on your properties and grow your wealth. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC They gobbled Thanksgiving Day away! Some 1,200 Brooklynites in need chowed down on a free feast that more than 30 do-gooders came together to serve at a Coney Island church on Thanksgiving Day. Leaders of the Coney Island Gospel Assembly welcomed hungry guests to the house of worship, along with reps from other host businesses and organizations, without all of whom, this years massive meal would not have happened, according to a rep for a co-organizer. Without the collaboration of the sponsoring businesses, the Thanksgiving feast would not have been possible, said Alexandra Silversmith, the executive director of the Alliance for Coney Island, which staged the annual event with Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Coney Island) and the Gospel Assemblys clergy. The family that owns local Italian eatery Gargiulos donated much of the five-hour feasts food, including 125 turkeys, 750 pounds of potatoes, and 50 pumpkin and apple pies, according to Gargiulos co-owner Nino Russo. And bigwigs at Luna Park donated string-bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and paper plates and utensils, Russo added. The restaurateurs employees spent days preparing the grub, and watching the food put smiles on locals faces as they cleared their plates made every second of effort worth it, he said. Its a lot of work my staffed cooked for three days, Russo said. But its a joy to do it. Other neighborhood institutions that helped put together this years meal included Denos Wonder Wheel, the New York Aquarium, and the Brooklyn Cyclones. And more than two dozen volunteers, including police officers and reps for participating groups, donated their time to serve the grub, according to Alliance spokeswoman Cindy Godla. Reach reporter Julianne McShane at (718) 2602523 or by e-mail at jmcsh ane@c ngloc al.com . Follow her on Twitter @juliannemcshane. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor President Trump and Congressional Republicans celebrate their deficit-increasing tax cut. Photo: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images President Trump has been demanding that his aides draft a plan to reduce the swelling budget deficit while simultaneously ruling out virtually all categories of possible deficit reduction and demanding new deficit-increasing measures of his own. The Washington Post has plenty of hilarious details from the administrations internal fiscal deliberations, such as they are. Trump comes across as possessing every bit as much fiscal acumen as you would expect from a man who managed to bankrupt a casino, required hundreds of millions of dollars in secret cash infusions from his father to stay afloat, and can barely absorb written material of even the shortest length. The Posts account draws heavily from the perspective of Trumps current and former advisers, who treat his buffoonery as the central cause of the administrations fiscal straits. But the reality is that Trump is simply expressing a more ignorant version of standard-issue Republican budgeting. The deficit is the gap between revenue and outlays, and Trump opposes any increase in revenue under any circumstances whatsoever. The story notes that Trump has said no changes can be made to Medicare and Social Security, and has boasted about his increase in spending on defense. Those categories, plus interest on the debt, account for 80 percent of federal spending, and the remaining 20 percent has been targeted by desperate budget-cutters for the better part of three decades. When you refuse to increase the revenue side of the equation (and, indeed, make it worse through tax-cutting), and rule out four-fifths of the spending side of the equation, youve ruled out any reduction to the deficit. Trumps advisers frame this as a story about Trumps ignorance thwarting their efforts to impose sane and good Republican budget policy. Former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn is portrayed as telling his staff not to bother briefing Trump about the deficit because he doesnt care. Current chief of staff John Kelly quizzes Trump about the salary of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the president guesses $5 million. (Actual answer: under $200,000.) It is fair to say that no other Republican president would be quite this ignorant. But in other ways, Trump is indistinguishable from the policies any Republican advocates. Trumps refusal to consider higher taxes is a point of uniform party dogma. In 2012, when the Republican presidential candidates were asked if they might support a budget deal with ten dollars of spending cuts for every dollar of higher taxes, every single one said no. If Trump came out for a tax increase he might literally be impeached and removed from office. The story notes that Trump has said no changes can be made to Medicare and Social Security. But every Republican likewise supports maintaining retirement benefits for workers at or near retirement (meaning age 55 or above). By definition this would rule out even the first penny of budget savings within ten years. And only a handful of Republicans support any cuts to the defense budget. Trump learned most of what he knows about politics by binge-watching Fox News, which has in some ways given him a keener sense of the desires of the party rank and file. Take this anecdote about Trumps hesitation to frontally attack Medicare for All during the campaign: When staffers sought to include an attack on Democrats Medicare-for-all proposals in Trumps campaign speeches this fall, he initially blanched, two administration aides said. Medicare is popular, he said, and voters want it. Eventually, he agreed to the attack if he could say Democrats were going to take the entitlement away. Snickering administration advisers probably see this episode as evidence of either Trumps buffoonery or his harboring of secret big-government instincts. In reality, Republicans understand full well that Medicare and Social Security command deep support even among their own voters. Trumps conclusion that the only safe ground to attack an expansion of the safety net is from the left, as a defense of existing benefits, is the exact same strategy Republicans used against Obamacare. The signature national ad that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan ran in 2012 stated: You paid in to Medicare for years. Every paycheck. Now when you need it, Obama has cut $716 billion from Medicare. Why? To pay for Obamacare. So now the money you paid for your guaranteed healthcare is going to a massive new government program thats not for you. Trumps inherent Trumpiness is not the reason the deficit has increased. The iconic Republican Ronald Reagan cut taxes, jacked up defense spending, and massively increased the deficit, and his presidency is worshipped as a model all subsequent Republicans must follow. Reagans successor, George H.W. Bush, did break from his party in order to reduce the deficit, and conservatives loathed him for it and use his apostasy as a cautionary tale to this day. The next Republican president, George W. Bush, promised to follow Reagans example rather than his fathers, and he delivered, jacking up defense spending and cutting taxes and causing the deficit to spike. Trump has signed onto legislation designed by Republicans in Congress that increased defense spending and cut taxes. The deficit has risen as a result. Thats what Republicans do. The other part of Republican policy is formally denouncing deficits and insisting that the deficit increases their party systematically engineers are not their fault. Trumps comical ignorance of budget policy makes him a useful scapegoat for this purpose. But the reality is that fiscal policy is one area where the presidents complete ignorance is irrelevant to the outcome. A 39-year-old man, who was going to meet Delhi Chief Minister at his residence here, was arrested after a bullet was found in his purse during frisking, police said Tuesday. Mohammad Imran, a caretaker of a mosque in Karol Bagh and resident of Seelampur locality, was arrested when he was going to attend a Janta Darbar (public meeting) at the chief minister's residence on Monday, they said. He is a maujjim at the Masjid Bawli Wali. Last week, a man threw chilli powder at Kejriwal inside the Imran had come to meet the chief minister at the Janta Darbar around 11:15 am, a senior police officer said. He had come with 12 imams and maulvis to discuss the issue of increasing salary of staff working at the Delhi Waqf Board, he said. During the search, a live cartridge of .32 bore was recovered from his purse by security staff deputed at Kejriwal's residence, the officer said. Imran was handed over to the local police and accordingly, a case was registered at the Civil Lines police station under relevant sections of the Arms Act, he said. During interrogation, Imran said he was a maujjin at Masjid Bawli Wali in Karol Bagh and two to three months ago, he found a cartridge in the mosque's donation box. He said he had planed to throw it in the Yamuna river but did not do so and kept it in his purse, the officer said. Further investigation is underway. Gone are the days when you had to remove your laptops, tablets and liquids from handbags for security screening at airports. The Bureau of Civil Security (BCAS), on an experimental basis, has now given permission to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for checking passengers' handbags at Delhi and Mumbai airports without making them take out their laptop and liquid items. "On an experimental basis, BCAS has allowed handbag scanners where laptops, liquids item not to be taken out at Delhi and for security check," BCAS DG Rajesh Chandra told ANI. However, concerned agencies of BCAS and CISF will take the final decision in this regard after proof of concept is cleared by all agencies. If implemented on a permanent basis, this project will lend a hand to both passengers and security forces in saving time and ease up the security procedure. Terming Kartarpur as a "corridor of infinite possibilities", Punjab Cabinet minister said Tuesday that such initiative would promote peace and erase "enmity" between India and Pakistan. Sidhu, who arrived here along with a group of Indian journalists to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the in Narowal, some 120 kms from Lahore, was greeted at the Wagah Border by officials of Pakistan's Punjab province. The 4-km-long corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib Narowal in Pakistan. The corridor will provide visa-free access to the Indian Sikh pilgrims to the gurdwara. Prime Minister will perform the groundbreaking of the corridor on Wednesday. Sidhu thanked Khan for making this corridor possible which he said will help promote peace between the two countries. "This will erase enmity between the two nations," he said. "The seed had sown three months ago has become a plant. It is a happy moment for the that the corridor to reach Kartarpur to get Baba Guru Nanak's blessing without any hassle," he told the media at Wagah. He said the wait of 73 years is over after the opening of the corridor. He termed it as a "corridor of infinite possibilities" and said through such initiatives, peace would be promoted (between the two countries). Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province. It is said that Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years of his life there. The Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara is located on the banks of the Ravi River, about three-four kilometres from the border in Pakistan. On Monday, Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Gurdaspur. This is Zora. It may not look like much more cute toy than futuristic marvel but this robot is at the center of an experiment in France to change care for elderly patients. When Zora arrived at this nursing facility an hour outside Paris, a strange thing began happening: Many patients developed an emotional attachment, treating it like a baby, holding and cooing, giving it kisses on the head. Zora, which can cost up to $18,000, offered companionship in a place where life can be lonely. Families can visit only so much, and staff members are ... 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If you have questions about a specific Interactive Area, please contact us and reference that specific Interactive Area. In addition, you are required to provide certain Personal Data when you submit a job application and supporting materials. Where you submit a job application on behalf of another person, you confirm that you have made that person aware of how we collect, use and share their Personal Data, the reason you have provided it, how they can contact us, the terms of this Privacy Notice and related policies and that they have consented to such collection, use and sharing. You can also choose to submit or we may collect additional information about yourself, such as demographic information (for example your gender, birth date, or zip code) and information about your preferences and interests. Failure to provide any required Personal Data will prevent us from being able to provide the Services you request (e.g., member registration or submission of job application) or otherwise inhibit our ability to provide the Services. Here are examples of User Information we may collect: Contact Data. We collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, and other similar contact data. Credentials. We collect passwords, password hints, and other information for authentication and account access. Demographic Data. We collect demographic information including your age, gender, and country. Payment Data. We collect data necessary to process your payment if you make a purchase, including your payment instrument number (such as a credit card number), and the security code associated with your payment instrument. Profile Data. We collect your username, interests, favorites, and other profile data. Contacts. We collect data about your contacts in order to fulfill a request by you, such as fulfilling a gift subscription. Such functionality is only intended for United States (U.S.) residents. By using this functionality, you acknowledge and agree that both you and your contacts are based in the U.S. and that you have your contacts consent for us to use their contact information to fulfill your request. Content. We collect the content of messages you send to us, such as feedback and product reviews you write, or questions and information you provide to customer support. We also collect the content of your communications as necessary to provide you with the services you use. Resume Data. We collect data to consider you for a job opening if you submit an application to us, including your employment history, writing samples, and references. Survey Data. We may also survey visitors about various topics, including events and experiences, media consumption preferences and how we can improve our Sites and services. Response to our surveys is entirely voluntary. Public Postings. We collect information when you submit something to be displayed on our Sites. Any communication you submit or that may be posted to a publicly viewable area of our Sites, such as a comment on an article or a review, is a public communication and may be viewed by the general public. Therefore, you acknowledge and understand that you have no expectation of privacy or confidentiality in the content you submit to such areas via our Sites, whether or not your submission includes personal information. These submissions would include newsletter sign-ups and any area of our site that requires a login or registration prior to use. If at any time you display your personal information in any communication submitted to such areas, other individuals may collect and use your personal information. We are not responsible for, nor can we guarantee the protection of, any personal information you disclose in a communication submitted to such areas for posting or contained in an email or other communication submitted to us for such posting, and thus, you acknowledge that if you disclose personal information in any such material, you do so at your own risk. Information We Receive From Other Sources We supplement the information we collect with outside records in order to learn more about our users, to better tailor the content and offers we show you, and for other purposes. We receive this information about you from public sources or third parties, including without limitation consumer data resellers, social networks, and advertisers. We combine the information we receive from those other sources with information we collect through the Services. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Notice to the combined information. Information Use We use the information we collect, including Personal Data and Usage Data: - to enable you to use our Services, to create an account or profile, to process information you provide via our Services (including verifying that your email address is active and valid) and to process your transactions; - to provide related customer service and care, including responding to your questions, complaints, or comments and sending surveys and processing survey responses; - to provide you with information, products, or services that you have requested; - offer SMS text message mobile alerts for specific purposes; - offer an Email This feature that allows visitors to email a link to another person to inform them about an article or feature on the Sites. We do not retain telephone numbers or email addresses collected for these purposes after sending the SMS text message or email; - to receive and process job applications for jobs with us; - to provide you with information, products, or services that we otherwise believe will interest you, including special opportunities from us and our third-party partners; - to tailor content, recommendations, and advertisements we and third parties display to you, both on the Services and elsewhere online; - for internal business purposes, such as to improve our Services and content; - to administer and process contests, sweepstakes, promotions, conferences and special events (collectively Events). Information collected through our Sites in conjunction with such Events is also used for marketing additional products, services and events by us and/or by our advertisers, sponsors, and marketing partners. Please see the rules of each individual Event and any applicable privacy policies for those Events for additional information on the choices you may exercise with respect to the use of your personal information collected in connection with that Event. To the extent there is a conflict between this Privacy Notice and the rules or policies applicable to an Event, the rules and policies associated with the Event shall govern.; - to contact you with administrative communications and, in our discretion, changes to our Privacy Notice, Terms of Use, or any of our other policies; - to comply with regulatory and legal obligations; and - for purposes as disclosed at the time you provide your information and as further described in this Privacy Notice. Social Network and Platform Integration The Services contain integration with social networks and other platforms in which information is shared between us and such platforms. For example, if you create or log into your account through a third-party social media site, we may have access to certain information from that site, such as your name, email address, account information, photo and friends lists, and other information in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such social media site. If you visit our Services on a device through which you also interact with social networks or if you interact with us through a social media function such as a plug-in (for example, a Facebook like button) then you permit us to have on-going access to, to use and to store information from your social network profile (such as your name, email address, your friend list, photo, age, gender, location, birthday, social networking ID, current city, and the people/sites you follow) in accordance with this Privacy Notice. If you dont want a social network to collect the information about you as described above, or you dont want a social network to share it with us, please review the privacy policy, privacy settings and instructions of the applicable social network before you visit and use our Services. Our Information Sharing Practices (a) Generally. We share Non-Personal Data, including Usage Data, de-identified Personal Data and aggregated user statistics, with third parties in our discretion. Information collected via the Sites is shared among our affiliates. For example, we may share your information with our related entities including our parent and sister companies for customer support, marketing, and technical operations. We share User Information, including Personal Data, as otherwise described in this Policy, and under the following circumstances. (b) Service Providers. From time to time, we enter into relationships with third parties who provide services to us (for example, analytics and research companies, advertisers and ad agencies, data management and storage services, credit card processing services, merchandise sales facilitators, sweepstakes or contest prize fulfillment). We share your information with third parties for the purposes of facilitating your requests (such as when you choose to share information with a social network about your activities on the Sites) and in connection with tailoring advertisements, measuring and improving our Sites and advertising effectiveness, and other enabling enhancements. We share aggregate information about our visitors with our advertisers, sponsors, and promotional partners, such as how many persons visited a particular page or activity, the average age of our visitors on the Site(s) or page(s), or the likes and dislikes of our visitors, but this information is not specific to any individual visitor. We obtain geographic information such as zip code clustering from other sources, but this aggregate information will not reveal the precise location of a specific visitor. We also obtain other demographic information from third parties to improve our products and services, for marketing purposes or to display more relevant advertising. In those circumstances, we disclose User Information so that such service providers perform those services. These service providers are only permitted to use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to enable them to provide their services to us. They are required to follow our express instructions and to comply with appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Data. And our sites use certain Google analytics and other services, and certain pages use the Google AMP Client ID API, each of which enable collection and sharing of your information (including Personal Data) with Google for further use. For specific information on Google usage and how to control it, please see How Google uses data when you use our partners sites or apps and Googles Privacy Notice. (c) Operational Providers. For your convenience, we may provide the opportunity to purchase certain goods, merchandise and services through the Sites (including, without limitation, retail purchases, print and digital magazine subscriptions and special event tickets). Companies other than Vox Media, its parents, partners, affiliates or subsidiaries may process these transactions. We call these companies that conduct our e-commerce operations, order and contest fulfillment and/or contract services operational providers. They are third parties that perform services on our behalf. If you choose to use these optional services, our operational providers will request your personal information to fulfill your order or request. The voluntary submission of your personal information to these operational providers, including your order or request, will be governed by the specific providers terms of use and privacy policies. To facilitate an order or request from you, we may share your personal information with the provider. The operational provider may also share your personal information and information about your purchases with us. We may store this information in our membership database. In most instances, we request that our operational providers adhere to the provisions in our Privacy Notice and that such providers only share visitors personal information with us, unless necessary to complete a visitors request or order. Operational providers are only permitted to use any personal information for the purpose of conducting the sale or fulfilling your requested service or order. However, you must read an operational providers privacy policy to determine the extent of use and disclosure of your personal information collected online. We are not responsible for the collection, use and disclosure practices of operational providers, nor are we responsible or liable for their services. (d) Events. Our Events and promotions may be jointly managed, sponsored or offered by third parties. If you voluntarily choose to enter or attend an Event, we may share your information with third parties as set forth in the official rules that govern the Event as well as for administrative purposes and as required by law (e.g., on a winners list). By entering a contest or sweepstakes Event, you agree to the official rules that govern that Event, and may, except where prohibited by applicable law, allow the sponsor and/or other parties to use your name, voice and/or likeness in advertising or marketing materials. Some events may be managed wholly by a third party and will be governed by any rules or terms they provide for that event and it is your responsibility to review and comply with those terms. (e) Third-Party Direct Marketing. We may share your information with third parties for our own direct marketing purposes (for example, email blasts, special offers, discounts, etc.). If you have not opted out of us sharing your information with third parties for marketing purposes, we may also share your information (including Personal Data) with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. Please note, messages delivered from a third-party will subject you to the third-partys privacy policy. We may also match your email address with third parties and use such match to deliver custom offers or emails to you on the Services and off the Services. (f) Third Party Features. We may allow you to connect our Sites to a third party service or offer our Sites through a third party service (Third Party Features). If you use a Third Party Feature, both we and the applicable third party may have access to and use information associated with your use of the Third Party Feature, and you should carefully review the third partys privacy policy and terms of use. Some examples of Third Party Features include the following: Liking, Sharing, and Logging-In. You may choose to log in, create an account or enhance your profile on the Sites through the Facebook Login feature. By doing this, you are asking Facebook to send us certain information from your Facebook profile, and you authorize us to collect, store, and use in accordance with this Privacy Notice any and all information available to us through the Facebook interface. After you have connected, Facebook also sends us additional information from your profile that allows us to display a Facebook Friends module on your profile page. The Facebook Friends that are displayed only include your Friends that also have accounts with our Sites. Brand Pages. We offer our content on social networks such as a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Any information you provide to us when you engage with our content (such as through our brand page) is treated in accordance with this Privacy Notice. Also, if you publicly reference our Sites on a third party service (e.g., by using a hashtag associated with us in a tweet or post), we may use your reference on or in connection with our Service. (f) Change of Control. In the event we go through a business transition (such as a merger, acquisition by another company, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process), your Personal Data will likely be among the assets transferred. By providing your Personal Data, you agree that we can transfer such information in those circumstances without your further consent. Should such a business transition occur, we will make reasonable efforts to request that the new owner or combined entity (as applicable) follow this Privacy Notice with respect to your Personal Data. If your Personal Data would be used contrary to this Privacy Notice, we will request that you receive prior notice. (g) Other Disclosure Scenarios. We reserve the right, and you hereby expressly authorize us, to share User Information: (i) in response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish, protect, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; (ii) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person or property; (iii) if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding significant abuse of the Services infrastructure or the Internet in general (such as voluminous spamming, denial of service attacks, or attempts to compromise the security of information); (iv) to protect and defend our legal rights or property, our services or their users, or any other party, and to protect the health and safety of our users or the general public; and (v) to our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us (in which case we will require such entities to honor this Privacy Notice). Anonymous Data When we use the term anonymous data, we are referring to data and information that does not permit you to be identified or identifiable, either alone or when combined with any other information available to a third-party. We may create anonymous data from the Personal Data we receive about you and other individuals whose Personal Data we collect. Anonymous data will include analytics information and information collected by us using cookies. We make Personal Data into anonymous data by excluding information (such as your name or other personal identifiers) that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We use this anonymous data to analyze usage patterns in order to make improvements to our Services. Public Information If you identify any User Information as public, you are authorizing us to share such information publicly. For example, you can elect to make certain of your User Submissions (such as your alias, bio, email or photos) publicly available. Also, there are areas of the Services (for example, message boards, discussion rooms, and other online forums) in which you are able to post information that automatically will be available to all other users of the Services. By choosing to use these areas, you understand and agree that anyone can access, use, and disclose any information that you post to those areas. Users Outside of the United States and Consent to Transfer The Services are operated in the United States. If you are located in another jurisdiction, please be aware that information you provide to us will be transferred to, stored and processed in the United States. By using the Services or providing us with any information, you consent to this transfer, processing, and storage of your information in the United States, a jurisdiction in which the privacy laws are not as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside or are a citizen such as the European Union. You understand that the U.S. government can obtain access to the Personal Data you submit if necessary for investigative purposes (e.g., terrorism investigation). We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Notice. We use appropriate and suitable safeguards for transferring your Personal Data to the U.S. (e.g., standard contractual clauses issued by the European Commission, which can be accessed here). Important Information for California Residents: Your California Privacy Rights These additional disclosures for California residents apply only to individuals who reside in California. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) provides additional rights to know, delete and opt out, and requires businesses collecting or disclosing personal information to provide notices and means to exercise those rights. The words used in this section have the meanings given to them in the CCPA, which may be broader than their common meaning. For example, the definition of personal information under the CCPA includes your name, but also more general information such as age. Notice of Collection Although the information we collect is described in greater detail in Sections 1-6 above, the categories of personal information that we have collected as described by the CCPA in the past 12 months are: - Identifiers, including name, email address, phone number account name, IP address, and an ID or number assigned to your account. - Customer records, billing and shipping address, and credit or debit card information. - Demographics, such as your age or gender. This category includes data that may qualify as protected classifications under other California or federal laws. - Commercial information, including purchases and engagement with the Services. - Internet activity, including your interactions with our Service. - Audio or visual data, including pictures or videos you post on our Service. - Geolocation data, including location enabled services such as WiFi and GPS. - Employment and education data, including information you provide when you apply for a job with us. - Inferences, including information about your interests, preferences and favorites. For more information on our collection practices, including the sources we receive information from, please review the different forms of information collected through various means as described in more detail in Sections 1 6 above. We collect and use these categories of personal information for the business purposes also described in Sections 1 6, as well as our sharing practices described in Section 7. We do not generally sell personal information as the term sell is traditionally understood. However, to the extent sale under the CCPA is interpreted to include advertising technology activities such as those disclosed in the Advertising (Section 13) as a sale, we provide you the option to request that we not sell your personal information. We do not sell the personal information of minors known to be under the age of 16 without affirmative authorization. We sell or disclose the following categories of personal information for commercial purposes: identifiers, demographic information, commercial information, internet activity, geolocation data and inferences. We use and partner with different types of entities to assist with our daily operations and manage our Service. Please review Our Information Sharing Practices in Section 7 above, Advertising in Section 7 below, and our Cookies and Tracking Technologies Policy for more detail about the parties we have shared information with. Right to Know and Delete If you are a California resident, you have the right to delete the personal information we have collected from you and the right to know certain information about our data practices in the preceding 12 months. In particular, you have the right to request the following from us: - The categories of personal information we have collected about you; - The categories of sources from which the personal information was collected; - The categories of personal information about you we disclosed for a business purpose or sold; - The categories of third parties to whom the personal information was disclosed for a business purpose or sold; - The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling the personal information; and - The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you. - To exercise any of these rights, please submit a request through our online form available at voxmedia.com/contact#ccpa_data or email us at vmprivacy@voxmedia.com. In the request, please specify which right you are seeking to exercise and the scope of the request. We will confirm receipt of your request within 10 days. We have a duty as the holder of certain personal information to verify your identity when making requests to know or delete personal information and to ensure that dissemination of that information would not cause harm to you if it were distributed to another person. To verify your identity, we will request and collect additional personal information from you to match it against our records. We may ask for additional information or documentation if we feel it is necessary to confirm your identity with the necessary degree of certainty. We may communicate with you through email, a secure message center, or other reasonably necessary and appropriate means. We do have the right to deny requests under certain circumstances. In such cases, we will notify you of the reasons for denial. We will not provide you with specific pieces of personal information if the disclosure creates a substantial, articulable, and unreasonable risk to the security of that personal information, your account with us, or the security of our systems or networks. In no event will we disclose, if we have collected it, your Social Security number, drivers license number or other government-issued identification number, financial account number, any health insurance or medical identification number, an account password, or security questions and answers. Right to Opt-Out To the extent we sell your personal information as the term sell is defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information by us to third parties at any time. You may submit a request to opt-out of by clicking Do Not Sell My InfoPersonal Information. You may also submit a request to opt-out by emailing us at vmprivacy@voxmedia.com. Authorized Agent You may submit a request through a designated agent. You must instruct that agent that they will need to state that they are acting on your behalf when making the request, have reasonably necessary documentation, and be prepared to provide the necessary personal information to identify you in our database. Right to Non-Discrimination You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of any your rights. Financial Incentives Financial incentives are programs, benefits, or other offerings, including payments to consumers as compensation, for the disclosure, deletion, or sale of personal information about them. We may offer discounted prices to consumers who sign up to be on our mailing lists or join our loyalty programs. Such programs will have additional terms that require your review and agreement. Please review those terms for the details of those programs, how to withdraw or cancel, or to assert your rights specific to those programs. We generally do not treat consumers differently if they exercise a right under California law. However, in certain circumstances, discounted prices will require you to be on our mailing list or a member of our loyalty program. In such circumstances, we may offer a price difference because the price is reasonably related to the value of your data. The value of your data will be explained in the terms of such incentivized programs. Shine the Light Californias Shine the Light law permits customers in California to request certain details about how certain types of their information are shared with third parties and, in some cases, affiliates, for those third parties and affiliates own direct marketing purposes. Under the law, a business should either provide California customers certain information upon request or permit California customers to opt out of this type of sharing. To exercise a Shine the Light request, please contact us at VMPrivacy@voxmedia.com or Vox Media, LLC c/o Legal Department, Vox Media LLC, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 11th Floor, Washington, DC 20036. You must put the statement Your California Privacy Rights in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. In the body of your request, please provide enough information for us to determine if this applies to you. Please note that we will not accept inquiries via the telephone, email, or by facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labelled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information. Important Information for Nevada Residents - Your Nevada Privacy Rights If you are a resident of Nevada, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of certain Personal Data to third parties who intend to license or sell that Personal Data. You can exercise this right by contacting us here or email us at vmprivacy@voxmedia.com with the subject line Nevada Do Not Sell Request and providing us with your name and the email address associated with your account. How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals Internet browsers can be configured to send Do Not Track signals to the online services that you visit. California Business & Professions Code Section 22575(b) (as amended effective January 1, 2014) provides that California residents are entitled to know how Vox Media, LLC responds to Do Not Track browser settings. There currently is no consensus among industry participants as to what Do Not Track means in this context. Therefore, like many websites and online services, the Services do not alter their practices when they receive a Do Not Track signal from a visitors browser. To find out more about Do Not Track, please visit here. Advertising (a) Generally. We use other companies under agreements with us to serve third-party advertisements when you visit and use the Services. These companies collect and use click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over during your visits to the Services and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use tracking technologies to collect this information. Other companies use of their tracking technologies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one. In addition, we share with these third parties any personal information you voluntarily provide, such as an email address, in response to an advertisement or sponsored content link. (b) Targeted Advertising. In order to serve offers and advertisements that may be of interest to our users, we display targeted advertisements on the Services, or other digital properties or applications in conjunction with our content, based on information provided to us by our users and information provided to us by third parties that they have independently collected. (c) Your Ad Choices. Some of the third-party services providers and/or Advertisers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. You can visit here, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and the opt-out procedures of NAI members. You can opt-out of the use of your behavioral data used by DAA members to serve you interest-based advertising on third-party sites here. If you are accessing the Services through an application (i.e., mobile phone or tablet) you can download the AppChoices application from your devices application store (i.e., Google Play, Apple App Store, and Amazon Store). This DAA application allows participating companies to offer an opt-out of customized advertisements that are based on predictions about your interests generated from your application usage. For more information, visit here. Please note opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads while online or on your device. (d) Mobile. We may from time to time offer certain location or pinpoint based services, such as location assisted navigation instruction. If you elect to use such location-based services, we must periodically receive your location in order to provide such location-based services to you. By using the location-based services, you authorize us to: (i) locate your hardware; (ii) record, compile and display your location; and (iii) publish your location to third parties designated by you by means of location publication controls available within the applications (for example, settings, user preferences). As part of the location-based services, we also collect and store certain information about the users who elect to use such location-based services, such as a device id. This information will be used to provide you the location-based services. We use third-party providers to help provide location-based services through mobile systems (unless you opt out of such location-based services with such providers) and we provide the information to such providers to enable them to provide their location-based services, provided that such providers use the information in accordance with our Privacy Notice. Choice/Opt-Out From Communications We offer you the opportunity to manage your communications from us. Even after subscribing to one or more newsletters and/or opting in to one or more offers to receive marketing and/or promotional communications from us or our third-party partners, users may elect to modify their preferences by going to the Communications Preferences page anytime or by following the Communications Preferences and/or Unsubscribe link provided in an email or communication received. You may also be able to change your preferences by updating your profile or account, depending on which of our Services you are using. Please be aware that if you wish to remove yourself from a newsletter and/or other marketing emails from third parties that you consented to through the Services, you must do so by contacting the relevant third-party. Even if you do opt-out of marketing emails, we reserve the right to send you transactional and administrative emails including those related to the Services, service announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy Notice or other Services policies, and to contact you regarding any goods or services you have ordered. Retaining, Modifying and Deleting Your Personal Data You may request access to the information you have provided to us. If you wish to make a request, please contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below. If you would like to update, correct, modify or delete from our database any Personal Data you previously submitted to us, please let us know by accessing and updating your profile through your login. If you delete certain information you may not be able to order services in the future without re-submitting such information. We will comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Also, please note that we will maintain Personal Data in our database whenever we are required to do so by law, for necessary operational reasons, or to maintain uniform business practices. Please note that we need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting such change or deletion (for example, when you enter a promotion, you may not be able to change or delete the Personal Data provided until after the completion of such promotion). We will retain your Personal Data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. EU Data Subject Rights If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have the right to: (a) request access to your Personal Data and rectification of inaccurate Personal Data; (b) request erasure of your Personal Data; (c) request restrictions on the processing of your Personal Data; (d) object to processing your Personal Data; and/or (e) the right to data portability (collectively, EU Requests). We can only process EU Requests from a user whose identity has been verified. To verify your identity, please provide your email address or [URL] when you make an EU Request. For more information about how to get access to Personal Data and for exercising your rights, you can submit a request here by selecting the I am an EU resident and would like to exercise my individual rights option. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. To view additional information about behavioral advertising and manage your preferences, you can do so by visiting: http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/. If you have accepted our use of cookies and other tracking technologies, we will collect your information in accordance with this Privacy Notice based on your affirmative informed consent, which you may withdraw at any time through the methods provided herein. If you have not accepted, then we only collect your personal data based on our legitimate interests. Security We have implemented commercially reasonable and appropriate technical and organizational security measures to help protect your Personal Data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, misuse, or unauthorized access or disclosure; unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your User Information, we cannot guarantee its security. You use the Services and provide us with information at your own initiative and risk. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you have with us has been compromised), please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us using the details in the Contact Us section below. Links The Services contain links to other websites that we do not control, and the Services contain videos, advertising and other content hosted and served by third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party. We may also integrate with third parties who will interact with you under their terms of service. One such third party is YouTube. We use YouTube API Services and by using the Sites or Services, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service located here. Childrens Privacy The Services are intended for a general audience and are not intended for and should not be used by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 16 and we do not target the Services to children under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information without their consent, he or she should contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below. We will delete such information from our files as soon as reasonably practicable. Sensitive Personal Data Subject to the following paragraph, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Data as this term is defined under applicable data protection and privacy laws (for example, social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Services or otherwise to us. If you send or disclose any sensitive Personal Data to us, you consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal data in accordance with this Privacy Notice. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive Personal Data, you must not submit such content to our Services. Changes We update this Privacy Notice from time to time in our discretion and will notify you of any material changes to the way in which we treat Personal Data by posting a notice on relevant areas of the Services. We will also provide notice to you in other ways in our discretion, such as through contact information you have provided. Any updated version of this Privacy Notice will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Notice unless otherwise specified. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of the revised Privacy Notice (or such other act specified at that time) will constitute your consent to those changes. However, we will not, without your consent, use your Personal Data in a manner materially different than what was stated at the time your Personal Data was collected. Contact Us If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please feel free to contact us by email at vmprivacy@voxmedia.com. The on Tuesday ruled that there should be no more protests at the during the ongoing pilgrimage season. It also asked the police to deal properly with the pilgrims, allowed the pilgrims to chant Lord Ayyappa hymns, but refused to lift prohibitory orders in place in and around the temple town. Sabarimala town has been witnessing repeated protests ever since the September 28 verdict of the allowed women of all ages to enter the temple that hitherto banned girls and women aged 10-50. The High Court Devasom bench of Justice P.R. Ramachandran Menon ruled this after hearing around 30 petitions that came up before it. It directed the to submit in a sealed cover what arrangements had been made for women in the 10-50 age group if they desire to pray at the temple. The court refused to interfere on the action of the Kerala Police which on Monday extended Section 144 of CrPC that prohibits assembly of more than four persons in one place till November 30. ALSO READ: District collector extends prohibitory orders in Sabarimala by four days But it asked the police to see that there should be no protests in the temple. And while the police could conduct searches, these should be done in a decent manner. Since the ongoing two-month pilgrimage season opened on November 16, around 85 activists of the Sangh parivar including BJP and RSS have been arrested. Most have secured bail. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government-led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has been trying to implement the top court's order even as the Congress, the and Hindu groups have been up in arms against it. The court also set up a three-member observer panel which will oversee the Sabarimala pilgrimage season. The court ruled that arrangements should be made for women (above 50 years), children and physically challenged pilgrims to rest near the temple. The court, without naming a police official who was reportedly rash with a High Court judge who went to Sabarimala to pray, said had not the judge forgiven the police officer, tough actions would have been taken. The Congress-led UDF on Tuesday announced that it will continue the protests till the Kerala Police withdrew the prohibitory orders enforced in Sabarimala. The decision was conveyed by the United Democratic Front (UDF) Convenor Benny Behanan to the media here, soon after the Liaison Committee of the leadership met here. "We have decided that our protests will continue till the prohibitory orders in the temple town in Sabarimala are lifted. Our protests will be seen both inside and outside the Assembly," said Behanan. The business session of the state assembly begins on Wednesday. The Kerala Police on Monday extended Section 144 of the CrPC that prohibits assembly of more than four persons in one place, till November 30. Sabarimala town has been witnessing repeated protests ever since the September 28 verdict of the that allowed women of all ages to enter the temple that hitherto banned girls and women aged 10-50. The apex court had on November 13 refused to stay its earlier order, three days before the temple opened for a two-month long season. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government-led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has been trying to implement the top court's order even as the Congress, the and several Hindu groups have been up in arms against it. Behanan added that there was "an unholy alliance between the Pinarayi Vijayan government and the BJP/RSS forces". "Vijayan and the Sangh Parivar forces are hand-in-glove and the former has given the chance to the latter to get glorified through their protests and arrests of their leaders. "This is a ploy by the two forces. We have had a consistent stand on the Sabarimala issue. We will not withdraw our protest till the prohibitory order is withdrawn," Behanan added. In a related development Rehana Fathima, who had attempted to visit the Lord Ayyappa temple, escorted by the police on October 19, was arrested on Tuesday. Fathima had faced massive protests from devotees and had to return midway. She was arrested after a had complained to the police that she had made inflammatory comments on her page. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Tuesday termed as "very shameful" and "inhuman" the conduct of Bihar government in not taking appropriate action following the allegations of physical and sexual abuse of children at several shelter homes and favoured a investigation in these matters. A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said the state was "very soft" and "very selective" in registering FIRs against the perpetrators and asked the Bihar government whether these children were not the citizens of this country. The apex court also asked the counsel appearing for the Bihar government as to why FIRs have not been lodged under section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) despite there being allegations that children were sodomised at the shelter homes. "What are you doing? This is very shameful. You may have filed a detailed affidavit (in the court) but if a child is sodomised, you cannot say that it is nothing. How can you do this? This is inhuman," the bench, also comprising justices S A Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, told the state's counsel. During the hearing, Justice Gupta observed, "Every time I read this file, I am hit by the tragedy of the case. It is tragic." The bench said after going through the allegations and the manner in which state police was dealing with them, "We are of the view that the state police is not doing its job as is expected. We would like the to deal with these allegations." The counsel representing the CBI, which is already probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home case in Bihar where several women inmates were allegedly raped and sexually abused, said he would seek instructions on the issue by Wednesday. "You take instructions. You (CBI) will have to investigate all this. It appears there is much more into it," the bench told the CBI's counsel orally and posted the matter for hearing on Wednesday. The counsel appearing for Bihar assured the court that state would take all appropriate action in the matter and said they would rectify all the mistakes. Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade and lawyer Fauzia Shakil, representing the petitioner who has sought lodging of FIRs and court-monitored probe by an independent agency into alleged physical and sexual abuse of inmates in 14 shelter homes in Bihar, claimed that the state was going "soft" in these cases and FIRs have been lodged under less heinous offences. Naphade referred to the report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and said that offence under section 377 of IPC was made out as several children were sodomised in the shelter homes. When Bihar's counsel said provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were there in the FIRs, the bench said, "If a person is dead and the FIR says it is simple hurt, do you think we will accept it". To this, Bihar's counsel said he would ensure that offence under section 377 IPC was added in the FIRs lodged. ALSO READ: Maneka Gandhi expresses concern over sexual exploitation in shelter home The bench told the counsel, "Ask your chief secretary (who was present in the court). We were earlier told that state will look into the matter with all seriousness and this is the seriousness you are showing. This is a tragedy." The court also said it was "unfortunate" that despite the report by TISS indicating financial irregularities in some of the shelter homes, no FIR has been lodged regarding this. "This is the attitude of state of Bihar," the bench said and initially told Bihar's counsel to rectify these issues within 24 hours. Later, the bench was of the view that should probe all these matters as if the state police would continue with the investigation, the truth would never come out. The court also said that as per TISS report, there were 17 shelter homes where the allegations were of grave nature. When the state's counsel said seven shelter homes were found to be in good condition in Bihar, the bench said "Seven out of around 110." "Are we doing any favour to these children? Why cannot every shelter hoem be good. Why you should not do this? Are these children not citizens of this country?" the bench said. The bench, after perusing the affidavit filed by state, asked why FIRs were lodged in matters relating to five child care institutions only when there were nine such institutions. "Your state is very selective. Out of nine, FIRs have been filed in five only. In four, no FIRs have been filed. It is a big secret. Tell us. Either the people there are incompetent or they are cahoots," the bench said. "You see how shocking it is," it said while referring to the allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates. The bench said that as per the report, one of the girls in these shelter homes lost her mental balance as she was not allowed to talk to her parents over phone. The CBI's counsel, while referring to the horrific crimes committed in the shelter home in Muzaffarpur, said these were "offences against the mankind". "If the CBI will do this job (of probing all cases), I will be the happiest person. There cannot be more henious crime than this. These children are our future," he said. He also said that investigation in the Muzaffarpur case was going on and they would file a charge sheet within a week before the competent court. In the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, an FIR was lodged on May 31 against 11 people following the TISS report. The probe was later taken over by the CBI and so far, 17 people have been arrested. Prime Minister Narendra will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. Addressing a conference in Islamabad, Faisal recalled that Prime Minister in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. Prime Minister will be invited to Pakistan for the summit, Faisal was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association The last Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by The 2016 was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances" and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. Nineteen Indian soldiers died in the attack. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative. Lok Sabha MP from Ninong Ering on Tuesday urged Prime Minister to take up several issues involving the state with Chinese President during the upcoming Summit. The next Summit would be held at Buenos Aires, Argentina, from November 30 to December 1. In a letter to Modi, the Congress MP said the relation between India and China is critical from the viewpoint of Arunachal as the state shares border with China. "The issue of China providing stapled visa to the people of is not new and must be brought to their notice tactfully. The Government of India must assert the territorial integrity of India, and convey the feelings of the state people in a firm manner," Ering wrote in the letter. As a policy, China issues stapled visas to people of leading to problems for them. They were prevented from boarding China-bound flights because of this. The MP of Arunachal East constituency also drew the attention of the Prime Minister at several instances in recent time when Chinese troops have tried to enter into the state's territory and build roads. "India must protest against such incidents and ask China to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country for a peaceful co-existence, as envisaged in historical Panchsheel agreement," Ering said. The Panchsheel agreement, or the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, was signed between the Tibet region of China and India in 1954. The MP urged Modi to take up the issues with the Chinese president and stand up to the hopes and aspirations of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. Commerce and Industry Minister Tuesday said he has taken up the issue of declining credit to exporters with the to ensure adequate availability of funds to them. Prabhu said exports are growing and the ministry is taking steps to further accelerate the growth rate. "One of the main challenges for export is finance. There is a decline in (export) finance, so we have taken up the issue with the ..I think, the finance minister is also looking into this (as in) how we can improve the credit flow into the export sector," the minister told reporters here. (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta has time and again demanded augmentation of credit flow to the export sector, as a sharp decline in credit would impact exports growth. The minister has earlier suggested that loans to exporters should be considered as priority sector lending by the banks. As per estimates, outstanding export credit which stood at Rs 28,300 crore as on March 30 has come down to Rs 22,300 crore as on June 22 this year. Prabhu also said that to boost shipments, exporters should explore new markets including in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, south Asia, and the Middle East. He said logistics sector will play a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of Indian goods in the global markets. The ministry along with FIEO is organising 'Logix India' from January 31 to February 2, 2019 here. Speaking on this, Gupta said over 20 countries are sending their delegations to explore logistics partnerships with India in this function. He said the organisation is focussing on logistics solutions for 'difficult to reach markets' and over 100 international delegates are expected to attend Logix India. Since 2011-12, India's exports have been hovering at around USD 300 billion. During 2017-18, the shipments grew to USD 303 billion. Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange. India has extended a $5 million aid to as its assistance for development projects on the Indo- border. India's Ambassador to Myanmar, Vikram Misri handed over a cheque of $5 million to Myanmar's Minister for Border Affairs, Lt General Ye Aung at a ceremony on Monday. Under the 2012 Border Region Development agreement, Indian government is extending $5 million micro development assistance every year for five years for projects on India- border. "Friendship Project|Amb @VikramMisri handed over $4.95 Million Ceremonial Cheque to Union Minister for Border Affairs, Lt. General Ye Aung as India's assistance to Myanmar's Border Area Development Project," Misri tweeted. India and Myanmar signed a Memorandum of Understanding for border development in May 2012, under, which India is to provide a total of $25 million to Myanmar, divided into five tranches of $5 million each. Under the first year project plan, 21 schools, 17 health centres and eight bridges are being built in Chin State and Naga Self Administered Zone of Myanmar through the Myanmar's Border Affairs ministry, according the information available on the website of the Indian Embassy in Myanmar. The Myanmar government is in the process of selecting contractors to execute the second year projects under which five road projects each would be completed in Chin and Naga Self-Administered Zone, it said. Three schools would be also set in Chin state and eight in the Naga Self-Administered Zone, it added. Myanmar shares around 1600 km border with four Northeastern Indian states?Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Photo: Courtesy of the retailers. Finding the perfect holiday gift can be maddening is this the color theyd want? Is it something they already have? Is it so last year? but really, once you have a sense of a persons taste, its not impossible. This season, well be talking to members of various tribes (were calling them the Hard-to-Shop-Fors) to find out exactly what to get that serious home cook, skin-care Redditor, or gamer in your life. Think of it as a window into their brain trust or at least a very helpful starting point. Today, two Skincare Addiction Redditors, krismenco who describes her skin-type as dehydration-prone, fungal acne-prone, sensitive, combination, rosacea subtype 1 and 2 and ver0nikaa whose skin skews extremely dry and sensitive tell us about the skincare gifts theyre looking forward to this year. Were also adding in our own skincare favorites to help round out the list with some buzzy gift ideas that have been talked about this year. Dont miss all of the Strategists holiday gift coverage right here, too. Best skincare gifts Kiehls Midnight Recovery Cleansing Oil $32 If youre shopping for someone in need of a new cleansing oil, you could go the DHC route its a good one but ver0nikaa tells us you might be sleeping on this Kiehls product, which she hopes to re-up on for the holidays. Holy cow, removing my makeup has never been so satisfying, she shares. This product comes out very easily and the smell is so nice and relaxing. I use it first to remove makeup and dirt, and then I use a very gentle gel-based soap to remove any excess or residue. $32 at Sephora Buy Amorepacific Vintage Single Extract Essence $145 Krismencos more of a dedicated K-beauty and J-beauty person. And since shes already a fan of other Amorepacific brands its the parent company that owns Sulwhasoo, Laneige, and Etude House shes been wanting to test this essence from Amorepacifics house line, because the anti-aging main ingredient, Camellia sinensis, sounds promising. This has less than ten ingredients, which is a boon for someone with sensitive skin, she adds. $145 at Nordstrom Buy Vichy Mineral 89 Face Serum $30 For the person whos more into French beauty, ver0nikaa shares that she recently tried and FELL IN LOVE with this booster serum from French pharmacy brand Vichy. Wow, wow, wow, my skincare routine and results drastically changed after I started using it. My skin has never been so soft, moisturized, and glowy, she says. For the holidays, she wants as much of this stuff as she can get her hands on. $30 at Amazon Buy $30 at Dermstore Buy Clarins Pore Control Serum $55 Ver0nikaas also been hearing a lot about this Clarins serum and wants to see if it actually works for minimizing her pores. Now that my skin feels healthy, hydrated, and without any redness, I feel the need to take care of the visible pores. I heard this serum really works and that you can see the results almost immediately. $55 at Ulta Beauty Buy Biossance Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Oil $72 And if youre shopping for someone whos already hip to the benefits of squalane oil, you might get them Biossances squalane rose oil which was popular enough this year to sell out at Sephora for weeks at a time. Its one that krismenco has been eyeing because she likes the concept of using an oil blend with vitamin C in it (a favorite antioxidant of mine) to maximize her skincare results. $72 at Sephora Buy Augustinus Bader: The Rich Cream $170 For the die-hard skincare person whos still looking for the ultimate moisturizer, this one designed by a scientist and physician has made the rounds online (and won over several beauty editors) for its ability to reduce age spots and wrinkles over time. It bills itself as the future of skincare. Ive tried the rich cream, and can agree that the moisturizer is very nourishing but the price is definitely not for the faint of heart. Its just shy of $300 for the full-size version. $170 at Net-A-Porter Buy $170 at Violet Grey Buy New beauty launches Dr. Jart+ Superheroes Skin Transformers $60 And for fans of Dr. Jart+ (which has many passionate followers in the Asian Beauty community for its tiger grass and Ceramidin creams), ver0nikaa tipped us off to this very well-rounded beauty gift set from the brand that just launched at Sephora. I already purchased this for myself and should be getting it in the mail in the next couple of days! $60 at Amazon Buy $60 at Amazon Buy Kiehls Love Oil for Lips $19 Shes also keeping tabs on this lip oil from Kiehls. I learned Kiehls is coming out with a new lip treatment called Love Oil For Lips, which is kind of a tinted oil treatment formulated with coconut and Moringa oil, plus acerola cherry extract. I would like to get this not only for the hydrating treatment, but also because I can use it everyday as a lip tint. Incidentally, it would make a nice stocking stuffer. $19 at Macy's Buy Elizabeth Arden Retinol Ceramide Capsules $48 And for the latest in retinol, theres been some excitement over these Elizabeth Arden retinol serum capsules, which have a twist-tab top for enhanced freshness. Ver0nikaa says shes into the concept because of the packaging and the type of vitamin A used: I havent had any luck with retinol products. They all seem to irritate my face, but Im not giving up on it yet. $48 at Macy's Buy Momiji Brand Mask Kit 6+1 $22 She also recently stumbled upon Korean brand Momiji and is intrigued by their colorful sheet masks and eye patches: Momijis new line of sheet masks is called Sweet Sixteen and has three varieties (brightening/hydrating, anti-aging/firming, and poreless/repair). $22 at Momiji Buy Devices and skincare accessories GloPro Microneedling Regeneration Tool In the realm of skincare devices, krismenco hasnt dipped a toe in derma-rolling yet, but thinks it might be worth trying for her stretch marks: When I saw this one I was immediately intrigued because it combines red LED light with the microneedling tool. It also has all of those cool attachments and Im a low-key sucker for tools that can be used in different ways. Buy at Amazon Buy Buy at Amazon Buy Skin Inc Optimizer Voyage Tri-Light $265 Speaking of LED light devices, heres one of the fanciest ones you can buy on the market. Most use either blue or red light, or both, but this one uses three: a medley of red light (for inflammation), blue light (for acne), and yellow light (for brightening). I own it and think it really helps for making my skin look less flushed. $265 at Sephora Buy Foreo Luna Mini $99 And for those in the market for a facial cleanser, heres one in a mini form that ver0nikaa wants this year. The Cut described it as efficient and good for travel: Its so compact that the entire thing can fit into your pocket, plus it only needs a charge once every five months a big travel bonus. $99 at Amazon Buy $99 at Amazon Buy Dr Dennis Gross Pro Facial Steamer $149 For someone who loves getting facials, Dr. Dennis Grosss steamer would make another good gift. Its supposed to help with clearing your pores and soothing your complexion. Rio tried it already and liked it: The steam pressure is gentle but effective it opens up your pores without being too aggressive and scalding your face off. $149 at Dermstore Buy get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best acne treatments, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, natural anxiety remedies, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. Sangram Singh, an electrician in his early-30s, returned home to Bikaner from a year back. Ever since, he has managed the upkeep of the "museum" at the Karni Mata temple, famous for its thousands of rats, and is grateful to his caste brethren, the Charans, for finding him a steady job. "The salary isn't much, but it is regular. My family invested Rs 50,000 on me and I did a course from Industrial Training Institute (ITI) to become an electrician. However, there was no work in the city," said Singh, in between his eloquent recounting of Karni Mata's life to a group of devotees, who listened spellbound, and confesses to be embarrassed to now return to farming. ALSO READ: Rajasthan polls: Modi can't calm anger against Vasundhara govt, says Pilot The youth complain of lack of jobs, even for those skilled, frequently in Rajasthan. In 2013, the Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised 1.5 million jobs. In addition, the BJP in 2014 had committed to creating 20 million jobs. Last week, four youths jumped to their deaths in front of a train in Alwar. One of them had written to a friend that he was ending his life since he would not be able to do farming, but was tired of hunting for a job. The news made it to the front pages of local Hindi newspapers. The Congress has made lack of jobs, along with agrarian distress, its key election plank in the run-up to the December 7 assembly polls. The BJP has now taken to claim Mudra Bank loans helped 4.4 million youths get self-employed in the last five years. Singh, the caretaker at the Karni Mata temple, claims the bank refused his Mudra loan application. Literacy levels among Charans are above average. They were bards and poets to Rajput kings, and are devotees of Shakti cults. Charans are the authorised priests at temples dedicated to women considered living goddesses when alive, including the 16th century Karni Mata. The Charan community also runs shops outside the temple. Read our full coverage on Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018 Kishan, 19, a first-time voter, and his friends managing one of the shops, are fans of the Prime Minister. "Modi talks of vikas (development). He is the only one with a vision for the youth," said Kishan, convinced that the BJP should get five more years at the Centre. This divide between first-time voters, and those who have already joined the job market, is evident on the outskirts of Udaipur as well. Girwa tehsil has a new skilling centre, a three-storied building run by "V-Mart Retail Limited Skill Development Centre". A board announces it to be the skilling centre under the Centre's Deen Dayal Upadhyayay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), and has a hall equipped with over three dozen computers. A banner promises free of cost training and boarding to students, as well as uniforms, and assured placements. ALSO READ: BJP, Congress make space for defectors in Rajasthan Assembly elections 2018 Ganesh Sahu, who runs a tea stall outside the building, said the building was inaugurated a couple of months back, but has no students. Sahu is from the teli caste. "The same as the PM," he proudly said, offering tea for just Rs 2.50 per cup. "Nobody is willing to pay more. There are no jobs and business has been poor. I am selling tea at the rate Modi ji probably did several decades back," Sahu said, tongue in cheek. Sahu might still vote for the BJP, as would Dinesh Meena, a student in a private institute in Udaipur, who hopes to enroll in the skilling centre. "Modi ji loves the country. I also love my country. That is why I support Modi ji," Meena, 21, said. He said he was keen to get out of his village, and work in the city. According to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje's website, the state has 120 DDU-GKY centres. However, the Centre's website lists 74. It says the state government's Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation has trained nearly 300,000 students. "Demonetisation hurt economic activity. My family feels they wasted the money spent on my training," said Singh, the electrician and Charan caretaker at the Karni Mata temple. Photo-Illustration: Courtesy of the retailers Some of us are proactive and shop early for the big holiday gifts, but its a special type of gift-giver who picks stocking stuffers with months to spare. This year, dont be the person who left stocking stuffers to the last minute, only to wait in line at Starbucks on December 24 to buy whatever remaining gift cards they have in stock. You can squirrel away the little items months in advance, just like you might with this years most coveted gifts. Weve made it even easier to find a stocking stuffer that will look like you put a lot more thought into it than you actually did. Below are 45 great gifts you can give to just about any family member, from a boyfriend who could use some grooming advice to your grandmother battling hot flashes. Theyre all under $25, so they wont break the bank, and all from Amazon, so even if you dont purchase today, theyll arrive in time so long as you purchase at least a couple days before Christmas. For the toddler who loves to scribble For the marathoner with a busy schedule HEAD LIGHTZ Beanie with Light $25 $25 If evenings and early mornings are the only time they can get their training in, this beanie with a built-in light will keep them warm and visible to vehicles when its dark. When you gift it, be sure to mention it also made Oprahs list of favorite things. $25 at Amazon Buy $25 at Amazon Buy For the high schooler wanting a bedroom makeover For the label whore whos also a plant mom For the budding content creator For the fit mom who wants to take her workouts to the next level For the college student trying to make friends in the dorm For your husband who always loses his scarves For your roommate with no space for the Nespresso she really wants Jot Concentrated Coffee $24 $24 If a proper coffee machine is out of the question, our writer Chloe Anello says this instant coffee isnt a bad option. She used Jot in an attempt to recreate her cafe grade coffee at home and says the final product had the exact same color and smell as my beloved latte. $24 at Amazon Buy $24 at Amazon Buy For your mom whos finally giving the flat iron rest For your little sister whos really into graphic liner For your friend who likes the smell of Christmas year-round For your boyfriend who needs to put a little more effort into his date-night look For the grandmother going through the change For your kid who always has a cavity For your sister whos in need of some healing For the person who just stooped a vintage coffee table For your bookish friend who also loves letter writing For your newly engaged friend who is still getting used to her fiancee status For the dog parents who like to take their fur baby on hikes For the wannabe dog mom DuraForce Triangle Ring Dog Toy For your wife who could use five minutes peace For the mom who idolizes Ina Garten For the dad with a touch of absentmindedness For the sibling whos trying to unplug from their devices For the aunt who loves a good Pinot Noir For the uncle whose quarantine beard is now part of his personality For the tween girl obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo For the activist dad concerned about climate change For the mom with a sensitive nose For the college grad starting their first office job For the aunt or uncle who spends Saturdays at the farmers market For the co-worker who loves to bake For the aunt who loves talking about her houseplants For the toddler that cant sit still For the neat-freak dad For the recently retired grandparent For the sibling who puts sriracha on everything For the father-in-law who works with his hands For the niece or nephew whos learning how to read For the cousin whose wallet is a rubber band For the younger sibling who still doesnt know how to properly cook an egg For the camp best friend who turned into your real best friend For your sister-in-law whos really into skin care Esarora Ice Roller $17 $17 This cold gel roller takes the cooling, calming joy of the classic jade roller to the next level. Cool the head in the freezer and roll puffy under eyes and irritated skin bonus: Its big enough to treat sore muscles, too. $17 at Amazon Buy $17 at Amazon Buy The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best womens jeans, rolling luggage, bed sheets, coffee makers, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. The sparring promoters of are inching towards a truce, but there was no clarity late Tuesday over the exact status of the talks with one camp claiming it's at an advanced stage and the other being not on the same page. The Rana Kapoor camp says settlement talks are at an "advanced stage" with the draft consent terms under discussion which speaks of recognising both the groups as "equals", while the Madhu Kapur family maintaining that the "discussions are still on". "It is an over five-year-old battle and it will take time for a consensus to emerge. We are not anywhere near a consensus now," sources close to the Madhu Kapur family told PTI Tuesday evening. Rana Kapoor, the managing director and chief executive till an RBI-mandated January 31, 2019 deadline, and the entities linked to his family own 10.7 percent in the fifth largest private sector bank, while Madhu Kapur, the widow of the founder chairman and the victim of the 26/11 terror attack Ashok Kapur, owns 9.8 percent. The developments come within hours of a rating downgrade by global rating agency Moody's Investors Service citing concerns on corporate governance and a fortnight ahead of the crucial board meeting on December 13, which may recommend a new CEO and non-executive chairman. According to sources close to Kapoor, whose new- three-year term was curtailed by RBI in mid-September, progress has been made following an "exchange of notes" last Thursday with Madhu Kapur. Ten specific pointers have been exchanged, they add. They also say the agreement will include withdrawal of counter-suits filed by both the parties against each other in the But the Madhu Kapur camp has denied any such development saying, "consent terms will have to be finalised first and placed before the court,only after that the suits can be withdrawn." The finer points of a possible agreement are being discussed right now in details, they said and explained that the issue of voting at the December 13 board meet can happen only if an agreement is reached by then. The board meeting may also decide on crucial appointments, including recommending a non-executive chairman and three non-executive directors to fill the vacancies created by the resignations in recent past. If the agreement goes through, it will end a decade- old rivalry between the two promoter families which began after the tragic death of Ashok Kapur in the 26/11 attacks. The matter reached the early 2012, after Kapoor contested the eligibility of Madhu Kapur being a promoter and the court ruled in her favour. He had also removed her name from the list of promoters in the annual report for that year. Sources say as part of the "equal rights" framework, both the parties will jointly recommend the non-executive chairman as well as the managing director and chief executive apart from nominating one board member each and a third non- executive director jointly. The bank had last week officially admitted that the promoters were in talks for a settlement. The talks had reportedly been initiated by Kapoor himself after the RBI turned a second request by the board for a re-look at his continuance in the bank beyond January 31. Since mid-September, when the RBI asked Kapoor to leave the bank on January 31, 2019, stock has lost 55 percent of its value. In two trading days alone after the RBI writ, the stock tanked over 40 percent. On Tuesday, the counter lost 2.55 percent to settle at Rs 183.15 on the against the benchmark closing with 159 points gains. The stock is way off its 52-week high of Rs 404.25 Kapoor was the second top executive at a private sector lender after Axis Bank's to face a the ire of the regulator and lose the job. Though no official reasons were specified for the action, both the lenders were found to have under-reported their non performing assets by over Rs 10,000 crore each for two consecutive financial years ending FY17. Ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina later this week, Monday said that for any trade deal China has to treat his country "fairly". "Here's what the bottom line is: China has to treat us fairly. They haven't been. They have to treat us fairly," Trump told reporters at the White House. He was responding to a question about his meeting with President Xi in Buenos Aires later this week on the sidelines of the annual summit of G-20 leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump said there is a possibility of having a trade deal with China. "I mean, it could happen. We have a good relationship," he said when asked about the likelihood of a trade deal with China. Over the past six months, Trump has imposed import tariffs on Chinese products worth $250 billion and another round of an equal amount is ready to be imposed if there is no trade deal. Trump argues that China has been unfair in its trade practices. If it has been a few years since you have flown through the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, you may notice that a lot has changed. Stories of endless waiting for lost luggage have been replaced with customers receiving their bags at home, and goods being stolen from passengers has become a minor issue. This is thanks, in part, to innovative efforts from executive magistrate Muhammad Yusuf at the Dhaka Airport Magistrate Court, who along with others in his department have begun using YouTube and Facebook to decrease crime and help passengers in Bangladesh's ... Under a merciless sun, a dozen Chinese construction workers survey an empty expanse of desert, preparing to transform it into the heart of a new Egyptian capital. The workers are employed by Chinas largest construction conglomerate through a $3 billion contract from an Egyptian company, with financing from Chinese banks. They are erecting a thicket of 21 skyscrapers, one as tall as the Empire State Building. The presence of Chinese labor and largess on the sands of Egypt is a testament to Chinas global aspirations. After centuries of weakness and isolation, China ... Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Article body Frank Bruni, op-ed columnist for the New York Times, will speak on Journalism, Social Media and Free Speech on College Campuses at Auburn University Wednesday, Nov. 28. Brunis speech, which is being held as part of Auburns ongoing Critical Conversations Speaker Series, will be held at 5 p.m. in 2550 Mell Classroom Building @ RBD Library. Bruni has been an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times since June 2011. In his columns, which appear every Sunday and Wednesday, he reflects on diverse topics including American politics, higher education, gay rights and his own life as a gay man in a close-knit Italian-American family. He joined the newspaper in 1995 and has ranged broadly across its pages. He has been a White House correspondent, the chief restaurant critic, a staff writer for the Times Magazine and the Rome bureau chief. He is the author of three New York Times best sellers, the most recent of which, Where You Go Is Not Who Youll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, was published in March 2015 to widespread acclaim. His previous best sellers were the 2009 memoir Born Round, about the joys and torments of his eating life, and a 2002 chronicle of George W. Bushs initial presidential campaign, Ambling into History. More information on the Critical Conversations Speaker Series is available at http://aub.ie/CriticalConversations. Japan is considering buying up to 100 F-35 stealth fighters from the US for more than $ 8.8 billion as it seeks to counter China's growing military presence in the region, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The reported purchase comes as President pushes Japan to buy more military equipment and other US products, pointing to Washington's huge trade deficit with Tokyo. Japan has already decided to buy 42 F-35 stealth fighter jets from the US and is now considering purchasing as many as 100 more, worth more than one trillion yen ($ 8.8 billion), according to the evening edition of the Nikkei daily. The cabinet is expected to approve the plan in mid-December when the nation's defence programme guidelines are released, the business daily said. A defence ministry spokesman declined to confirm the report, saying only: "Everything related to additional purchases is under consideration." In September, Japanese Prime Minister reportedly told Trump: "Introducing high-spec military equipment, including US equipment, is important to strengthen Japan's defence." Tokyo is also considering upgrading its helicopter carriers so that they can transport and launch fighter jets, Kyodo News reported, quoting a government source. The government is looking to upgrade the Izumo, a flat-top destroyer that currently carries helicopters, to a fully fledged aircraft carrier that is critical in the face of China's maritime assertiveness, the local news agency said. China is deploying its first stealth fighter into military service in the latest milestone highlighting the modernisation of the country's armed forces. Izumo-class 19,500-tonne carriers -- Japan's largest postwar naval vessels -- are 248 metres (818 feet) long and can carry up to 14 helicopters. The plan is also expected to be finalised when the guidelines are published next month, it added. Asked about upgrading the vessels, Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters on Tuesday: "We would like to use them for as many purposes as possible." The move indicates a shift from Japan's defence-oriented policy, the news agency said. Under Japan's pacifist constitution, the nation's military has long been restricted to self-defence and the country relies heavily on the US under a bilateral security alliance. Ever since dozens of royals and business chiefs were detained in November 2017 as part of a declared crackdown on corruption, a growing number of rich Saudis have been trying to move money out of the kingdom or draw up plans to leave, according to interviews with more than 10 people familiar with the matter. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor on Tuesday said has assured that it will provide full security to its citizens and the projects following the recent terrorist attack on its Consulate in and that any attempt to sabotage their friendship would not succeed. Three heavily-armed suicide bombers stormed the Chinese consulate in the Pakistan's largest city on November 23, killing four people including two policemen before being shot dead by security forces which foiled the daring attack in the high-security zone. The attack was soon claimed by the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) which said it would not tolerate "any Chinese military expansionist endeavours on Baloch soil". " has made it clear that they will get to the bottom of this attack, crackdown on the terrorist organisation and enhance the security of Chinese citizens, institutions and the China- Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters here. Praising the swift action by the Pakistan's security personnel in warding off the attack, Geng said, "this attack once again showcased the mutual trust, mutual support and friendship between the two governments and two peoples." He said once again it proved that China-Pakistan relationship is higher than mountains and deeper than the sea. "We stand by each other through everything and we are all-weather strategic partners in every way," he said. "I want to reiterate that no attempt to sabotage our friendship will succeed. We will maintain a close communication with Pakistani side. We believe in their ability to ensure domestic security, stability and in taking tough measures to ensure Chinese interests in Pakistan and ensuring the security of Chinese citizens and institutions there," he said. Also, some institutions and netizens in are collecting donations to help the families of the policemen killed and injured in the attack. Resource-rich is at the heart of the Beijing's ambitious (CPEC). The BLA is opposed to the CPEC, which connects in with China's province, alleging that the project was aimed at exploiting the resources of the province. Sri Lanka's political crisis entered its second month on Tuesday with legislators loyal to former President boycotting parliamentary sessions for a second time, against Speaker Karu Jayasuriya's decision to not recognize them as the legitimate government. Several MPs including Rajapakse, who was appointed as the Prime Minister by President on October 26 after Sirisena surprisingly sacked his then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, said they would boycott sessions till such time the Speaker recognizes them as the ruling party, Xinhua news agency reported. Speaker Jayasuriya, during a parliamentary session last week, said there was no Prime Minister or government any more as Rajapakse and his government had been defeated in a no-confidence vote. "We have clearly said that the Speaker does not have the powers to oppose the decisions of the President and neither does he have the power to select a Prime Minister. We will not recognize the Speaker as the legitimate Speaker any more," Wimal Weerawansa, Leader of the National Freedom Front, a party loyal to Rajapakse, told journalists. He said that Rajapakse's government would continue to call for a parliamentary election in order to resolve the ongoing political crisis. Legislators from ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) informed the Speaker that the purported government had failed to show a majority after it was defeated in two no-confidence motions in Parliament. UNP MP Eran Wickramaratne requested the Speaker to inform President Sirisena to appoint a new Prime Minister and government from the party which had shown its majority in Parliament in order to end the political instability. Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a severe political crisis after President Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed former President Rajapakse as the new Prime Minister last month. The UNP has alleged that the removal of Wickremesinghe was "unconstitutional" and said the new caretaker government could not continue in office as it had been defeated in no-confidence motions. ALSO READ: Sri Lankan Prez Sirisena seeks talks with leaders to end political turmoil Sirisena has rejected the results of the no-confidence votes, saying it had not been conducted in a "constitutional manner" and requested Parliament to conduct the vote again. Sirisena has maintained that the present crisis was not serious and would not affect the daily lives of citizens and that the political unrest would end soon. US President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 per cent from the current 10 per cent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump said it was highly unlikely he would accept Chinas request to hold off on the increase, which is due to take effect on January 1. The only deal would be China has to open ... Oil prices steadied on Tuesday, depressed by record Saudi production but supported by expectations that oil exporters would agree to cut output at an Opec meeting next week. Benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil was unchanged at $60.48 a barrel by 1225 GMT, not far above a 13-month low of $58.41 reached on Friday. US light crude was down 10 cents at $51.53. Oil prices are down by almost a third since early October, weighed down by an emerging supply overhang and widespread financial market weakness. Prices rallied sharply on Monday, with Brent rising almost 2.9 per cent, ... The US military on Tuesday informed that three of its service members were killed by an improvised explosive device near the city of Ghazni, Afghanistan. The US military also informed that three US service members and an American contractor were injured in the blast. According to CNN, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and "completely destroying" a tank. The names of those killed were not immediately disclosed pending the notification of next of kin. The attack was one of the deadliest against US service members in Afghanistan since 2017. In the recent weeks, the Taliban has increased its insurgencies in the areas around Ghazni province in southern Afghanistan. In an immediate effect, the United States has sent additional troops into the region to help Afghan forces retain control of the Taliban dominated areas. CNN quoted a recent report released by the US government's own ombudsman of the war found that the Afghan government now controls only 56 per cent of the districts in the country, down from 72 per cent in November 2015. Insurgent influence or control has risen to 12.5 per cent of districts from just 7 per cent, and approximately a third of Afghanistan is a "contested" area. On Monday [November 26], AL Jazeera confirmed that at least 20 police officers were killed in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan's western Farah province, while the Taliban once again claimed responsibility for the attack. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With Madhya Pradesh going to assembly polls on Wednesday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday promised schemes for the welfare of the state's farmers, women, and youths, while focusing on their plight under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. In a letter address to the people of the state, Rahul said that while he thinks of the state as a symbol of "the farmer's willpower, daughter's self-confidence, youth's hopes and the victory" of the poor, that identity of the state has been heavily damaged in the last 15 years. "Here, farmers are shot in the chest when they demand the right price for their crops. Their expectations are quashed. The youth's opportunities are now in the dark, and girls' future is full of fear," Rahul said in his letter. He highlighted various scams and incidents of misgovernance in the last 15 years under the BJP government, including the 'Vyapam' entrance examination scam, the heightened cases of oppression against women, malnutrition, sand mafia, e-tender scam, and so on. The Congress president further said that the upliftment of the farmers is equal to the upliftment of the economy, adding that the economy will be pushed back on track only if the farmers are financially stable. "I cannot understand why the BJP is against this (farmer welfare). I am pleased that due to the Congress' efforts, the political debates in the country are being shifted towards farmer-issues. We are committed to waiving off farmer loans within ten days of being elected to power. Farmer's children will be given the opportunity to work in agro-industries," Rahul said in the letter. "We will guarantee the right price for crops. We will give Rs 51, 000 as support the marriage of every girl. Their education will be free from school to Ph.D. The dreams of the homeless and the small farmers will be fulfilled. We are committed to fulfilling the promises we make in industrial investment and education. I appeal to the citizens of the state--let's give Madhya Pradesh a better government," the letter concluded. The letter comes a day ahead of the assembly elections on Wednesday when the state's electorate will be electing the representatives of 230 constituencies. The results for the single-phase elections will be declared on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Hoover Police Department has released a report stating that Emantic Bradford Jr, who was mistakenly shot dead inside an Alabama mall, had "brandished" a gun. "Earlier, we stated that Mr. Bradford brandished a gun. To clarify, the word 'brandish' was used because Mr. Bradford had a gun in his hand as police officers responded to the active shooter situation between mall patrons," The Hoover Police Department posted on Facebook. The family had earlier asked the police to release all the videos of the incident and expressed dismay at the fact that the police did not contact the family regarding the post-investigation report. The shooting took place on November 22 on Thanksgiving Day at Alabama Mall. A Hoover Police officer shot Bradford dead and informed the public that they had secured the entire mall. Police had also allegedly injured two people, including a girl, who was later taken to a hospital for treatment. At first, police described the incident as a fight between a teenager and Bradford that turned into the gunfire during which a girl standing nearby was also shot at. Later, the police clarified that they had accidentally shot Bradford. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Veteran politician Sharad Yadav on Monday said that demolition of the Babri Masjid has shaken the very spirit of the Constitution of India. "The day Babri Masjid was demolished, it was not just a structure which was brought down but the Indian Constitution was also brought down along with it. Even the sanctity of the Constitution was also let down," said Yadav. ANI spoke to leaders across party lines on the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute issue. Rashtriya Janata Dal party leader Manoj Jha was of the view that Lord Ram has been made a political instrument before the Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year. He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi led central government of trying to decimate rule of law in its fifth year. On Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Jha criticised the leader for being too vocal about Ram temple construction. "Lord Ram has been made a political instrument. The government is trying to decimate the rule of law in its fifth year. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not want the rule of law to exist in the country. It is a disgrace to see Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh even for a day. He is dangerous and he should be sent back to 'matha (monastery)'," he said. Lambasting the BJP, Tariq Anwar of the Congress said that the issue has been raked up by the Amit Shah-led party as it does not have anything substantive to speak on during the election season. "They do not have any other agenda other than Ayodhya dispute this election season. They have failed to create employment in the country and farmers too are reeling under poverty," he added. The statements from leaders of the Opposition came after BJP president Amit Shah in a statement made yesterday said that Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya. "We believe that a grand Ram temple should be constructed at the place of his birth in Ayodhya only," Shah told ANI during a road show here days ahead of Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. The Babri Masjid, built by Mughal emperor Babur in 1578 in Ayodhya was on December 6, 1992, pulled down allegedly by a group of Hindu activists, claiming that the mosque was constructed after demolishing a Ram Temple. Since then several hearings have been held in the top court to resolve the issue. The Supreme Court in October adjourned the Ayodhya title suit till January 2019 to fix the date of hearing in the matter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has appointed a four-member delegation to take firsthand account of ongoing agitation outside Sabarimala temple in Kerala. "The delegation will also assess the atrocities being committed to Satyagrahis, the indiscriminate arrests being made by police during this agitation and to meet the general public and party workers in particular," an official statement issued on Tuesday read. The members of the delegation are Saroj Pandey, Pralhad Joshi, Vinod Sonkar and Nalin Kumar Kateel. The delegation will submit its report within 15 days to Shah. Kerala witnessed a string of violent protests in October over the Supreme Court's September 28 decision allowing the entry of women of all age groups into the Sabarimala temple. Over 3,505 protesters were arrested and at least 529 cases were filed in connection with the violence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case in the Designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) [TADA(P)] Court here. The accused, a resident of Mumbai, was absconding since 1993 and was arrested on June 1 this year. He is presently in judicial custody. An official statement of the CBI said that a Red Corner Notice was issued against the accused by the Interpol. "The accused was declared a proclaimed offender by Designated TADA (P) Court, Bombay and a Non Bailable arrest warrant was also issued against him on 17.09.1997 (September 17, 1997). Further, in order to apprehend the said accused, a Red Corner Notice was also issued by the Interpol," read the statement. The CBI investigation has revealed that the accused was an active member of the criminal conspiracy in connection with the case. He was in Dubai and working in close association with other prime absconding accused in the blast case. It was also alleged that the accused attended the conspiratorial meeting held there, where he got the training in handling arms and ammunition, making bombs and throwing hand grenades. On March 12, 1993, Mumbai (then Bombay) was rocked by a series of bomb blasts which killed 257 persons, injured more than 700 persons and destroyed property worth Rs. 27 crore (approximately). The case was handed over to the CBI on the request of the state government. A number of accused have been convicted in the case including Mustafa Dossa and Abu Salem. The attacks were allegedly planned by wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and Conference (NC) president on Monday hit out at the Congress party for not conferring former prime minister with the Bharat Ratna. Vajpayee was presented the country's highest civilian award at his residence in 2015, few months after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government came to power. "Vajpayee told me that when he made his 1st speech, Nehru went to him and said Atal you will be the PM of this nation one day. He coming from an RSS background realised that this nation can't be built by one, but by all. Those who built this in the past can't be forgotten. The point I have against Congress is that they should have given him the Bharat Ratna when he was in alive and in good health," Abdullah said at a book launch event in the capital. Abdullah also accused Narendra Modi of not maintaining the dignity of the Prime Minister's Office and credited former prime ministers Rajiv and Indira Gandhi for where the country stands today. "I think it is the quality of the people in the government. It is nothing else. The quality goes down to the level of forgetting what Nehru contributed to this country, what Indira Gandhi gave to this country. She gave her life. Rajiv Gandhi and other Prime Ministers- did they not give their entire time to build this nation? If we are sitting here, it is because of them. But what is he talking about? That his father and mother were abused? Is that the level of the Prime Minister? I have never used my father and my mother in my language. As Prime Minister of this nation, he has to think in a bigger way," he stated. On Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had approached the Election Commission to lodge a complaint against former Union Minister and Congress leader Vilasrao Muttemwar for his remark on Prime Minister Modi's father, and Congress leader Raj Babbar's comparison of the Indian Rupee's devaluation to Prime Minister Modi's 96-year-old mother. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday hit out at the Congress accusing it of playing divisive whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pursues the path of development. Addressing a rally in Alwar's Tijara, Adityanath said: "The Congress only works towards dividing the country. They give poison to people in the name of religion and caste. On the contrary, the BJP works only for good governance." "We want to ask Congress that they have ruled the country for so many years yet people did not get the necessary resources such as gas connection, electricity connection, etc. Even the roads were damaged but as soon as Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, people got gas, every poor got electricity connections," he added. "Unlike the previous government (Congress) we don't offer Biryani to the terrorists, we only offer them bullets," the chief minister added. The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on December 7 and counting of votes will be held on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Launching a scathing attack on the Congress party, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the decades of Congress rule was just to declare "Gandhis as the only royalty of India". Jaitley, in a blog post titled 'What was the Name of Sardar Patel's Father', wrote: "Decades of Congress rule, naming colonies, localities, cities, bridges, airports, railway stations, schools, colleges, universities, stadiums after one family was intended to declare the 'Gandhis' as India's royalty." The blog post comes a day after a senior Rajasthan Congress leader Vilas Rao Muttemwar launched a personal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying that while everybody knows Congress president Rahul Gandhi's ancestors, no one is aware of Prime Minister Modi's father. Jaitley in the blog said, "India of 2019 is different from India of 1971. If the Congress party wants the 2019 elections to be between Prime Minister Modi, who is the son of lesser-known parents and someone who is known only for his parentage rather than capacity, merit and competence, the BJP would gladly accept the challenge." The veteran BJP leader also asked the Congress "what is the name of Sardar Patel's father and his wife, adding that "None of my well-informed friends (Congress) had a definitive answer. This is the tragedy of Congress and its impact on the nation. Sardar Patel's father was Jhaverbhai Patel and his wife's name was Diwali Ba. No photograph of his (Sardar Patel's) wife or her details are available even after extensive research by modern day historians." Talking about Sardar Patel's achievement, Jaitley wrote: "Besides being a frontline leader of the freedom movement, he, as the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, negotiated the transfer of power with the British. He negotiated the integration of India with over 550 rulers. He gave to India, within a short period of few months, its present geography." "Upon Sardar Patel's death in Mumbai, then Prime Minister (Jawaharlal) Nehru requested many of his cabinet colleagues that the best tribute to the Sardar would be to work on the day of his funeral and not go to Mumbai. The then Head of State and several Union Ministers defied the advice," Jaitley said. Stepping up his attack on the Congress party, the senior BJP leader blamed the Opposition party for the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir. "The country pays a price for dynastic policies as we have witnessed in several regions. Three families - two of them in Srinagar and one in New Delhi in the last 71 years have played with the destiny of Jammu and Kashmir. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday adjourned a petition filed by Delhi Government's former chief secretary Anshu Prakash, challenging the fresh breach of privilege proceedings initiated against him by the Assembly, to March 28, 2019. On November 13, Prakash had approached the High Court challenging the fresh breach of privilege proceedings initiated against him on the basis of complaints by two of the four Assembly's committees, Protocol Committee and Question and Reference Committee. On November 14, the court issued a notice to the Delhi government, Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and the four committees of the Assembly. Prakash had earlier contended that proceedings initiated against him are clearly "violative of the Constitution" as well as the Rules of the House and termed them "illegal and unconstitutional". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The longtime agitating Madhesh based party of Nepal, the Rastriya Janata Party- Nepal (RJP-N) will soon decide whether it will continue to support the incumbent Government led by Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, said party's coordinator. Rajendra Mahato, newly elected coordinator of the party on a visit to his constituency in Janakpur made these remarks while replying to a query of reporters about RJP-N's support to the incumbent government. Mahato said "We had supported the government but there has been no positive development from the government's side in the direction of addressing our demands. No discussion has been made on the constitutional amendment, about the release of Resham Chaudhary and other prisoners, withdrawal of the cases lodged against the arrested protestors as well as the issues having a direct impact on the daily life of the people, such as peace, security, and good governance. In this critical phase the Rastriya Janata Party- Nepal (RJP-N) will be holding a meeting over the issues soon and on that meet, we will soon decide over the issue." The current government under the Prime Ministers KP Sharma Oli was formed in mid of February this year after his party secured a majority of seats in federal elections held in two phases. The longtime agitating party RJP-N had supported the government upon being convinced over the addressal of their demands. The amalgam of the Communist Parties of Nepal, the then Left alliance had 174 votes in the 275 members strong House of Representative. The then CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) whose chairman Oli is the current PM of Nepal has 121 seats in the parliament and MC has 53 members. The agitating parties of Nepal the RJP-N and the Federal Socialist Party- Nepal who have 16 and 17 votes in the parliament also voted in favor of PM Oli which made him acieve the desired 207 marks hence completing the majority of two-thirds with 23 votes in addition. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives Abdulla Shahid called on President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday. President Kovind welcomed the delegation led by Shahid and underscored the "uniquely special, close and friendly relationship" shared between India and Maldives. "The government of India's vision of inclusive development also extends to our neighbourhood including Maldives. We are always ready to support the socio-economic development of Maldives," a press release issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan mentioned. Noting the newly-elected Maldives government's 100-day action plan, President Kovind said: "India will support the government of Maldives' efforts and work in alignment with its identified priorities." Shahid's four-day trip to India is his first official foreign trip after assuming office on November 17. On Monday, Shahid met External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj followed by a meeting with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Shahid is scheduled to emplane for the Maldives later today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As destination weddings, International meetings and incentives and film shoots are gaining traction among Indians, the oldest hospitality chain, Hilton has unveiled an innovative programme for its Indian groups. Recognizing that modern India is looking for unique, personalized experiences, Hilton has launched 'Namaste", an exclusive guest offering programme, designed to deliver a truly tailored experience for groups travelling from India to Europe. With the Indian economy on a high, approximately 25 million Indian tourists currently head overseas for professional or personal reasons. Europe commands an estimated market share of about 20 percent of all Indian outbound departures. The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) alone predicts that India will account for 50 million* outbound tourists by 2020. Clearly, it's a huge plus for the hospitality segment and opens an array of prospects for Hotels catering to the Indian groups segment. According to GBTA, the Global Travel Association, India is expected to be the fastest growing travel market over the next five years picking up 11.3% in compound average growth. This market continues to show enormous growth potential. "Huge population, rising incomes, improving infrastructure, among others - offer a strong growth opportunity. India is one of the biggest growth markets, with Indians now preferring luxury and overseas stays with their improving financial status," said Fiona Robson, Senior Director of Sales Operations Europe. "We pride ourselves in understanding the needs of our Indian guests and ensuring that we deliver a truly memorable stay; this precisely is the thinking behind our "Namaste" programme, our uniquely designed programme for group travel," added Fiona Robson. Indians are now inclined to explore offbeat destinations and therefore Hilton is looking to cater to Indian groups opting to travel to destinations like Malta, Budapest, Cologne, Baku, besides frequent destinations like Vienna, Prague, London and others. Hilton Properties are excited to welcome groups from India, being equipped with the best in class services, to ensure they have a memorable stay experience. "Indian companies are interested in bringing their Incentive trips to Barcelona because of the possibility to combine their interest to explore culture and together. Barcelonais known to be a hub for cruises, and the release of Bollywood movie "Zindagi Na MilegiDobara", which was partially shot in Barcelona and Costa Brava, massively increased the interest of clients travelling to Barcelona. The wedding of Shristi Mittal in 2013 reinforced the interest in country making it an ideal destination for wedding business," said Joachim Hartl, General Manager of the Hilton Barcelona Diagonal Mar. "We have great experience in hosting the Indian guests and have built fantastic relationships over the years. We understand the culture, the need for personal relationships, the importance of authentic Indian food and the need to provide flexibility with regards to Visas," said RemcoNorden, General Manager at the Hilton London Metropole. Destination weddings have captured the Indian market in a big way. For any Indian parent, a wedding is much more than mere ceremonies and fancy decorations. It's an emotional investment of a lifetime where you don't collect things but create precious moments. Hilton specializes in ensuring an unforgettable experience for a European destination wedding through Namaste programme which captures this essence, to perfect every detail and create the wedding of your dreams. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister of State Upendra Kushwaha on Tuesday said that he will soon announce his future plans, whether he will remain in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led Democratic Alliance (NDA) or not. The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief who is awaiting a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss seat sharing for upcoming 2019 general elections, will take the decision at a meeting of party office bearers scheduled for early December. After failing to secure a meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah, Kushwaha said, "I am in Democratic Alliance (NDA) but being pushed back. This would be an insult to any party. I tried to meet Amit Shah twice but he was busy. Last option is to meet Prime Minister Modi. Let us see what transpires if I get to meet. Then my party will convene a meet on December 4 and 5 and decide what to do next," Kushwaha told ANI here. Kushwaha had on November 17 had asked the BJP to reach a consensus over seat-sharing agreement. The RLSP chief, while addressing a press conference after the state executive meeting of the party here, said that he would wait till November 30 for the decision on the seats. He said that his party was dissatisfied with the number of seats being offered to him by the BJP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Making a comparison between the immovable foot of Angad- a mythological character- and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) presence in poll-bound Rajasthan, the party's president Amit Shah on Tuesday said that nobody can oust BJP from the state. Addressing a public rally in Jalore, the BJP chief said, "In Rajasthan, BJP is the foot of Angad, nobody can remove it." According to the epic Ramayana, nobody was able to lift Angad's foot in the court of Ravana. Shah added that after 2014, when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, the Congress was dethroned in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat. Comparing the funds given to Rajasthan by the Congress and the BJP governments during their respective tenures, Shah said, "The UPA gave only Rs 1, 09,000 crores to Rajasthan. After Modi became the Prime Minister, he gave Rs 2, 65,000 crores to Rajasthan. Apart from these, Rs 36,000 crore was given through various schemes." Shah also asserted that around 40 lakh people were given gas connections under the Ujjwala scheme, while 13 lakh people were provided houses in the state. Shah charged the previous governments with taking a soft stand towards terrorism. "Earlier, anyone used to come over from Pakistan and spread violence. When terrorists attacked Uri, they forgot it was Modi government. Our forces went inside Pakistan and carried out surgical strikes," the parliamentarian said Continuing his tirade against the Congress, he said that the party is more worried about infiltrators than its own people. "Elect BJP in 2019 again, and we will drive out each and every infiltrator. Our party came to power in the Centre and Assam, and we immediately started the NRC drive to identify infiltrators. The Congress was more worried about infiltrators than its own people," he added. The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on December 7 and counting of votes will take place on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Foreign Minister of Maldives Abdulla Shahid on Tuesday said that India is the "closest and most trusted friend and neighbour" of his country. "We are committed to re-igniting India-Maldives friendship and relationship, reaching new horizons, exploring new avenues while strengthening existing links," Shahid asserted during a press conference here. He also stated that the first official visit of the Maldivian officials and Ministers was to India as the two countries have a close partnership. Talking about the newly sworn-in President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's government, Shahid said, "Our government will not try to play one country against the other. We have a strong India-first policy, but we will also get engaged with all countries and we will be ready to do business with them," He also said that to deal with the monetary constraints which were passed on to them by the previous government of former President Yameen, the south-Asian island nation sought India's help and also received a positive feedback. "We have received a very positive feedback from India. India has given us an assurance they will help us sustain and stabilise the budget. The modalities of the same are being worked out," he asserted. When quizzed about the amount of debt over the Maldives, Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer said that the newly-appointed Cabinet is not yet ready to disclose the debt as the country has incurred a great loss under the previous government. Talking about his visit, Shahid stated that the visit was very fruitful and said that the Maldives is looking forward to India to take lead in engaging with the Maldives on projects related to diversification of the economy. "We want to vigorously engage with Indian business community on the development of Indian economy," he reiterated. Assuring to move the stalled projects with India, the Maldives also recommitted itself to the 1979 visa agreement, with a plan to reviewing it in due course. Shahid also condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed that the Maldives stands with India in combating terrorism. "We also reaffirm our commitment to the peace and security of the Indian Ocean and our neighbourhood. We are committed to keeping the Indian Ocean safe and secure, and to working with India to combat terrorism in all its forms," Shahid said. While talking about deals with China, Shahid revealed that several of those deals were either made in secrecy or were rushed through the Parliament. He further stated that the deals made in secrecy were being reviewed by the South Asian island nation. Talking about the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Maldives and China, Shahid asserted that the deal was rushed through the Parliament. "Free Trade Agreement was rushed through parliament... As Foreign Minister, I have asked my officials to review the document. We will publicly comment on it after the review is complete," the Foreign Minister said. Shahid, along with Maldives Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer and Economic Development Minister Fayyaz Ismail, was on a two-day visit to India to discuss a range of issues including economic, social and defence cooperation. Earlier in the day, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid also called on Indian President Ram Nath Kovind. Shahid's four-day trip to India is his first official foreign trip after assuming office on November 17. On Monday, Shahid met External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj followed by a meeting with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Shahid is scheduled to emplane for the Maldives late on Tuesday night. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An encounter is underway between security forces and terrorists in the Redwani area of Kulgam district in Jammu and Kashmir. The encounter broke out in the wee hours of Tuesday. Two to three terrorists are said to be holed up in the area. Security forces are on the job to restrain their movement. More details of this operation are still awaited. Six terrorists were neutralised by the security personnel in Kapran Batagund area during a gun battle in state's Shopian district on Sunday. On November 22, one civilian sustained injuries during an exchange of fire between terrorists and security personnel in the Kulgam district. The exchange of fire ensued after terrorists fired upon an Army camp in Khudwani area of the district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jason Momoa, Matt Damon and Claire Foy will host the each December episode of 'Saturday Night Live' (SNL). Foy, who recently appeared in Ryan Gosling-starrer biopic 'First Man', is set to make her hosting debut on the show. She will kick-off the month on Saturday, December 1 and will be joined by musical guest Anderson .Paak On the other hand, the 'Aquaman' star will host the show on December 8 alongside musical guest Mumford & Sons, who are returning for their third outing to promote their new album Delta. Damon will host the final new show of 2018 on December 15, with Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus as musical guests. It will be 'The Martian' actor's second hosting stint as he previously appeared on SNL in September to parody then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The official Twitter handle of the show made the announcement saying, "Early present for you. #SNL" . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who crossed Atari-Wagah border on Tuesday to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of Kartarpur Sahib corridor here, said that corridor would act as a "bridge and erase enmity" between India and Pakistan. "I feel that this corridor will be a bridge and erase enmity. It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. It is my belief that there are possibilities in it," Singh said while talking to media here. "This is a corridor of infinite possibilities, peace, and prosperity and would help in opening up of trade relations," he added. Sidhu was invited by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor to be held on November 28. The Indian government on the eve of Guru Nanak Guru Purab, on November 22 approved the building and development of Kartarpur Corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to India-Pakistan International Border. Following this, the Pakistan government announced to open the corridor next year. The Kartarpur route along the India-Pakistan border is three kilometers away from Gurdaspur, Punjab. If opened, it would allow Sikh pilgrims a direct access to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where Guru Nanak died in 1539. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkish police and investigators on Monday searched a villa near Samanli on the outskirts of Istanbul in connection with the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The villa was searched as one of the Saudi nationals allegedly involved in the murder had, investigators believe, contacted a compatriot residing near Samanli on how to dispose-off Khashoggi's body parts, CNN reported. "We believe this contact was about how to dispose of Jamal Khashoggi's body parts following its dismemberment. Therefore, police teams together with the prosecutor's office have carried out searches on November 26," the prosecutor's office said in a written statement. The property is located in Samanli in the Yalova province, about 90 kilometres south of Istanbul city. Last month, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had mentioned Yalova as one of the areas where a group of Saudi nationals scouted before Khashoggi was murdered. The police personnel and the investigators left the villa after a 10-hour search. It is still not clear if they would return to the property again on Tuesday or whether they got any leads during the raid. According to a local national and Turkish pro-government media, a Saudi national had owned the villa. On Monday, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a German daily, Suddeutsche Zeitung, that the government did not believe that Khashoggi's killers acted alone, indirectly pinpointing at Saudi Crown Prince's Mohammed bin Salman's alleged role in the murder, Anadolu News Agency reported. The Turkish minister claimed that many held the Saudi crown prince responsible for the senior scribe's murder while asserting that strong evidence was required before making such accusations. On October 2, Khashoggi was reported missing after he stepped into Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to collect paperwork that would allow him to get married to his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz, who later said that he never appeared from the building. After days of denial, Saudi Arabia later confirmed its role in Khashoggi's killing after facing massive pressure from Turkey over their investigations on the issue. But their contradictory statements have led to international uproar led by Erdogan, who has demanded Riyadh to come clean and accept their role in the scribe's death. Khashoggi, who relocated to the US from Saudi Arabia last year, used to write articles for The Washington Post criticising the Saudi government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Tuesday labeled the proposed Mahagathbandhan (united opposition) a "band of thieves", saying they accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of corruption while in reality it is the Opposition that plundered the nation's wealth in the past through their corrupt governance. Addressing an election rally here, Shah compared the 'Mahagathbandhan' to a band of 40 thieves, who were thrown out of the villages they looted by a newly-appointed 'chowkidar' (Prime Minister Modi). "All of them united and told the villagers that the chowkidar is the thief. The villagers beat them up and banished them from the village. On the one hand, this Mahagathbandhan is a unity of those who loot wealth of the public through corrupt means. On the other hand, there is the Narendra Modi government that has safeguarded the nation," Shah said. Shah further mounted an assault on the Congress, saying that corruption under its rule spanned from outer space to below the earth. "In space they did the 2G scam, in the skies they did the AgustaWestland helicopter scam, on land they did the Adarsh Society scam, the scam involving the purchase of submarines spread their corruption to the seas and they stole coal from below the earth. Their corruption can be seen everywhere, today they are questioning us?" Shah said. The BJP president questioned the Congress for their lack of action when terror activities were rampant during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government. "During his 10-year term, intruders would enter the country from all fronts and carry out their acts of terrorism and no one used to do anything. During Modi ji's government, after terrorists killed and burnt our soldiers alive in Uri, he directed the Army to carry out surgical strikes. Our Army exacted revenge for our soldiers' deaths by carrying out that operation in Pakistan," Shah underlined. Citing the Prime Minister Modi-led government's initiative to introduce the Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that led to over 40 lakh immigrants being recognised as immigrants, Shah said that once the BJP is re-elected to power in Rajasthan and the Centre they will cleanse the entire nation of such "illegal immigrants". He also said that the "double engine" of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Prime Minister Modi has driven the development of the state. "During the Congress' rule, when they implemented the 13th Finance Commission, they sanctioned Rs 1,09,242 crore to the state. Prime Minister Modi, as part of the 14th Finance Commission, gave 2,63,580 crore to the state. Apart from that our government gave an extra Rs 36,000 crore and Rs 30,000 crore for a petroleum refinery in the state," Shah said. The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on December 7 and counting of votes will take place on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Electoral Officer, Madhya Pradesh, VL Kantha Rao on Monday announced that 65,000 polling booths will be set up for the assembly elections, including 2000 booths that would be entirely women-operated. "300,000 government employees including 45,000 women have been deployed on polling duty. 65,000 polling booths are being made in the state. Around 2,000 entirely women-only polling booths would be functional. 160 polling booths will be fully operated by differently-abled personnel," he informed. Rao also announced that the silence period for Madhya Pradesh had begun, prohibiting all forms of campaigning in the state. "With only 48 hours remaining from the end of polling, the silence period has begun for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections and all campaigning is prohibited now onwards. Any advertisement on print, electronic media or social media is prohibited. Campaigning through phone calls or messaging services is also prohibited." Read our full coverage on Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2018 Rao further informed that special arrangements have been made for visually impaired people to help them cast their vote. "Apart from the 300,000 employees from state, 12,000 Central Government Employees will be working as micro-observers at different place. For convenience of visually impaired voters, the commission has issued Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) with Braille inscription". Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections will take place on November 28 to elect members of the 230 constituencies in the state. The result of the polls will declare on December 11. The election will be considered as a direct political battle between the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Congress. While the incumbent Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister government will try to win the post for consecutive fourth term, the Congress will fight for winning the state after 2003. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP won 166 seats in the House in 2013 and elected Chouhan as the Chief Minister. The Congress and BSP bagged 58 and 4 seats respectively. Three Independent MLAs also won the polls. The tenure of 230-member House expires on January 7, 2019. A massive fire broke out in Mumbai's Wadala area after an oil tanker burst into flames after crashing underneath the city's overhead monorail line, resulting in the death of the tanker driver. The incident took place last night around 10:47 pm at the Bhakti Park area. After receiving information, the police immediately cordoned off the area and fire trucks rushed to the spot to douse the flame. "The tanker was filled with methanol and when we reached the spot it had toppled and was on fire. The driver of the tanker was charred to death. The situation is under control now," fire service officer AH Sawant told reporters here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed concerns over a medical report of his brother and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif, which diagnosed the latter with cancer. Shehbaz, who is currently in custody on charges of corruption in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case, was allowed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to meet his elder brother, at the Minister's Enclave in Islamabad. The siblings talked about their well-being and the current political situation in the country. During the meeting, Nawaz was anxious about Shehbaz's medical report, The Express Tribune reported quoting sources. On November 25, Shehbaz underwent a medical examination at a private hospital in the Pakistani capital. The NAB officials brought Sharif to the medical facility, where his blood tests and Computed Tomography (CT) scan were conducted. The Pakistani opposition leader is expected to get his CT scan report on Tuesday, following which doctors would brief him on his medical condition, Geo News reported, quoting sources. Shehbaz's check-up was necessitated a report indicated that the 67-year-old leader was suffering from cancer and his medical test was conducted after he had complained of throat pain. Taking cognizance, doctors had recommended a CT scan to be conducted immediately, sources told Geo News. Shehbaz's check-up was necessitated after he complained of throat pain, following which his medical test was conducted. The report indicated that the 67-year-old leader was suffering from cancer. Doctors then recommended him an urgent CT scan, sources told Geo News. Shehbaz, who was arrested by the NAB on charges of misusing authority and corruption in the Rs 14 billion Ashiana Housing Scheme during his tenure as the Punjab chief minister from 2013 to 2018, has been in custody since October 5. The PML-N chief denies any wrongdoings and dubs the allegations as "baseless". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited for the 20th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit which is to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) announced on Tuesday. The dates of the summit are yet to be finalised. Pakistan FO spokesman Mohammad Faisal, while addressing the Kashmir Conference here, recalled that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two, reported Dawn. "We fought a war with India. Relations cannot be fixed quickly," Faisal asserted. Talking about Kartarpur Corridor, Faisal termed the event of "groundbreaking" as "a great success" for the country. He said that Pakistan has invited Indian media to cover the inauguration ceremony as "we have nothing to hide." "In this century, diplomacy has completely changed. Now policies are made based on citizens' emotions and wishes," he said. It is worth mentioning that India boycotted the 19th SAARC Summit which was scheduled to take place in November 2016 in Islamabad, following the September 18 terror attack on the military base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir. The summit was finally cancelled as several countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also walked out following India's decision to exit the summit to step up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After working together on blockbuster superhero film 'Wonder Woman', Patty Jenkins and Chris Pine are again collaborating for a limited series 'I Am the Night'. An 'excited' Jenkins has treated fans with the first trailer of the mini-series, which also stars India Eisley. She tweeted, "So excited to share this trailer for #IAmTheNight, starring the most amazing Chris Pine and @IndiaEisleyLife. This story was dying to be told and we loved telling it. Can't wait for you all to see! Premieres January 28! @IAmTheNightTNT" 'I Am the Night' is an adaptation of Fauna Hodel's autobiography, called 'One Day She'll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel.' In the trailer, Pine plays Jay Singletary, a would-be reporter looking into the mystery of Fauna Hodel (played by Eisley), a woman who was given away at birth and grew up outside Reno in Nevada. She then comes to L.A. in search of her origins during which she ends up following a sinister trail that swirls closer to a gynaecologist involved in the legendary Black Dahlia slaying. A six-episode series, 'I Am the Night' will premiere on Turner Network Television (TNT) in January 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for a five-day visit to Argentina on Wednesday to attend G20 summit. The summit is slated for November 30- December 1. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale at a press conference said that Prime Minister Modi will hold bilateral meetings with a number of leaders. He will be returning on December 2. "There is always scope in the margins of G20 for a meeting between the BRICS head of states and that meeting is confirmed. The Prime Minister will also meet the President of China Xi Jinping which was decided at the BRICS summit of Johannesburg," Gokhale added. He added at the 10th anniversary of the G20, India expects that the leaders will discuss the achievements of the summit in the past 10 years and the future course of the summit. "At the tenth anniversary of the G20, it is our expectation that leaders will reflect on what has been achieved in past 10 years and what could be done in next 10 years," he said. The Prime Minister will be addressing the summit and will discuss important topics including Ayushman Bharat, MUDRA yojana, JanDahn and GST. Gokhale also revealed that the theme for the 10th G20 summit as decided by Buenos Aires is "building consensus for fair and sustainable development." The meeting is divided into three sections which are 'putting people first', 'building consensus' and 'embracing opportunity'. The Foreign Secretary further said that India will highlight several challenges including the threat posed by oil price volatility which has directly impacted the Indian economy, and the digital revolution, considering how it can lead to employment opportunity. When questioned about a possible meeting between Prime Minister Modi and United States President Donald Trump, the foreign secretary said that India is currently working on various bilateral meetings during the upcoming summit. One of the focal points of the G20 will be a multilateral meeting on Trade Organisation (WTO) and the reforms needed in the organisation in a manner that it serves India's interest. He also reiterated that the summit will not be hijacked by a single issue like 'the trade'. Gokhale further said that India and its delegation will also focus on reformed multilateralism in an attempt to bring together all the nations in G20 to work together towards reform and address issues. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Just days before their wedding, the much-in-love couple Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas stepped out with their gang to kick start the pre-wedding festivities in Mumbai. The groom-to-be shared a picture on his Instagram story in which he can be seen posing alongside his lady love, brother Joe Jonas, his to-be sister-in-law Sophie Turner, and Priyanka's cousin Parineeti Chopra, among others. He captioned the post as "Mumbai nights." Post that, the couple was also spotted at a restaurant in Juhu where they were again accompanied by Joe and Sophie, along with Parineeti and Alia Bhatt. PeeCee's brother Siddharth Chopra was also present at the dinner. Nick's brother Joe Jonas and fiancee, Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner reached Mumbai on Monday. Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra will marry in December in Jodhpur's Umaid Bhawan Palace.The two confirmed their engagement in August during a trip to Mumbai, where their families gathered for festivities, including a Roka ceremony and a big engagement bash. The bride-to-be received a special send-off from 'The Sky is Pink' team members, including director Shonali Bose and producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, in the national capital last week, where she was shooting for the film. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that the reservation for Maratha community in the government jobs and admission in public sector academic institutions would not have any adverse impact on the state's existing quota policy. "Without disturbing 52 per cent reservation we have for the state's OBCs, SCs and STs, we will give reservation to the Maratha community. Our government is committed to this," said Chief Minister Fadnavis amid uproar in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday. Lashing out at the opposition over the reservation issue, Fadnavis asked why the previous government did not give scholarships to Muslim students. "The opposition is dividing the people and they are doing politics on the reservation. They are talking about Muslim reservation for the sake of vote bank politics," he claimed. Only recently, Maharashtra government approved the Maratha Reservation Bill, for which the community has been protesting since 2017. According to the Bill, the government will give separate reservation to Maratha community people under the category called socially and economically backward class or SEBC as per the recommendation of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Paul Manafort "breached" his plea agreement with the Justice Department after he lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the special counsel Rober Mueller. In a new court filing, the prosecutors stated that Manafort lied two months after he started cooperating in the Russia probe, reported CNN. According to a three-page filing signed by both the defence team and the prosecution, the prosecutors alleged that Manafort lied to the FBI and Mueller on various subjects and thereby violated the plea agreement. The special counsel's office says it will provide more details at a later date. Prosecution and defence have urged the judge to move Manafort's case towards sentencing. However, Manafort does not agree with prosecutors' assertion that he has lied. "He believes he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the government's characterisation or that he has breached the agreement," it says. On September 14, United States President Donald Trump's former campaign-chief, Paul Manafort agreed to cooperate with the ongoing Mueller's investigation into accusations of Russian intervention in the 2016 polls after he was found guilty to conspiracy and witness tampering. Earlier in August this year, Manafort was also found guilty on eight charges, including tax fraud by a Virginia. According to CNN, as part of his plea deal, Manafort admitted to committing a host of money laundering and foreign lobbying crimes and fraud, giving the federal prosecutors leverage over him. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US election and alleged coordination with the Trump campaign. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two terrorists affiliated with the proscribed terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba were shot dead and one jawan succumbed to injuries in an encounter here on Tuesday. The encounter began early this morning following a tip-off about the presence of terrorists in Redwani area of this district. The jawan of the Rashtriya Rifles who had sustained injuries in the encounter was rushed to a nearby hospital. However, he eventually succumbed to injuries later. Police confirmed that two personnel of the 163 battalion of the CRPF also sustained minor injuries. "The bodies of the slain terrorists were recovered from the encounter site; the slain terrorists are identified as Ajaz Ahmad Makroo and Waris Ahmad Malik," according to a statement of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Makroo, as per police records, was involved in many terror crimes since 2017. He was a close associate of terrorist commanders Naveed Jat and Azad Dada. Incriminating materials including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of the encounter. The Jammu and Kashmir Police has registered a case. On November 25, six terrorists were shot dead by security personnel in Kapran Batagund area during a gun battle in Shopian district. On November 22, one civilian sustained injuries in a crossfire between terrorists and security personnel in the Kulgam district. The exchange of fire ensued after terrorists fired upon an Army camp in Khudwani area of the district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood's badshah Shah Rukh Khan and wife Gauri Khan never fail to give major couple goals. This time the actor praised his wife for her debut on the list of Fortune India's 50 Most Powerful Women in business this year. Gauri, who is a renowned interior designer, has not only decorated many celebrity homes and popular restaurants but is also known for her tie-up with various International brands and local designers. Supporting her efforts, King Khan took to Twitter and wrote, " On our family list of 'Fortunate' she is the most powerful!." Also, earlier, SRK appreciated Gauri as she appeared on the cover of a leading magazine. He took to Twitter and wrote, "For us, she is the Cover Mother." The couple are parents to Aryan, 21, Suhana, 18, and AbRam, 5. Fortune India's list features some really powerful women who have achieved great heights in their respective fields. Gauri Khan featured in the list for Gauri Khan Designs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday said that his hugging Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was not a Rafale deal. Sidhu, who is in Pakistan to for attending the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, said, "The hug with Pakistan Army Chief was of hardly a second. It was not a Rafale deal." "When two Punjabis meet, they hug each other. Its normal practice in Punjab," said Sidhu while addressing media persons in Lahore. Sidhu on Monday paid obeisance to Kartarpur Sahib from the Indian side of the international border. Sidhu had drawn flak from within the Congress party over his decision to visit Pakistan for attending the ground-breaking ceremony of Kartarpur Sahib Corridor as Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh turned down Pakistan's invitation citing state-sponsored cross-border terrorism by Islamabad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Swedish model, who landed herself in a social media soup after being accused of pretending to be black to attract more followers, has finally come up with some explanation. Emma Hallberg gained popularity on Instagram for her splendid makeup skills and trendy fashion sense. Going by her deep complexion and curly hair, the followers thought either she is black or mixed race. However, that bubble was effectively popped when a photo of Hallberg surfaced on the internet showing her in a much lighter skin tone and straight hair. Shortly after the picture went viral, people started pointing out the stark difference between the two skin tones and accusing her of pretending to be black to gain popularity. "I honestly thought Emma Hallberg was half black," a fan tweeted. "This Swedish White girl is guilty of 'blackfishing,' a term used to describe someone who masquerades as a Black person to deceive others. By extreme tanning, dark makeup & braids, this fraud is exposed!" wrote another fan. After keeping mum for a while, Hallberg had to come out and give an explanation. "Yes I'm white and I've never claimed to be anything else. And by no way, there are no "before" pictures, the pictures that have been spread are just two different pictures taken on two different seasons of the year." In a series of Instagram stories, titled 'Let me explain' Hallberg wrote, "You've probably seen these two pictures besides [sic] each other all over Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, where they are called the 'before & after." "The left picture was taken 2 years ago right before summer with barely any makeup and my hair straightened. The right picture was taken in July, right after I came home from a vacation, with makeup," she continued explaining. The 19-year-old credited her skin tone to spending a lot of time in the sun and thus ending up with the beautiful natural tan. "This is how the sun tans my skin naturally during the summer," Hallberg explained. Explaining the reason behind using a darker makeup for her face she said it matches her face to the rest of her body. "Why my face is less tanned than my body is because I have some acne and scar issues so I use a lot of face scrubs, toners, and peeling products," she wrote. Concluding the series of stories by saying she does not get her sponsorships and work opportunities because of the color of her skin, she gets them because of the way she styles herself. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States President Donald Trump has claimed that the tear gas used against migrants at the Mexico border is "very safe". "First of all, the tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself. It's very safe. The ones that were suffering, to a certain extent, were the people that were putting it out there. Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it's going to be formed. And they are running up with a child," Sputnik quoted Trump as saying. "And in some cases, you know, they are not the parents. They are people. They call them 'grabbers'. They grab a child because they think they are gonna have a certain status by having a child," he added. Trump's decision to use tear gas against the migrants has been widely criticised by national media, with celebrities like Rihanna going as far as branding the act as "terrorism". On November 25, the US Customs and Border Protection closed the border between Tijuana in Mexico and San Diego in California and used tear gas on migrants and refugees, including children, who tried to cross the border fence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tension prevailed at politician Onteru Pratap Reddy's residence here after he attempted to commit suicide following a police raid at his residence. Reddy is contesting the ensuing Telangana polls from Gajwel constituency on a People's Front assembly ticket. Sharing details of the incident, PV Padmaja, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Balanagar, Cyberabad told ANI, "Quthbullapur flying squad asked for the assistance of Petbasheerabad police to conduct checking at the residence of Onteru Pratap Reddy in Alwal area after receiving complaint that some illegal activity of distributing money and liquor is going on. On which petbasheerabad police along with Quthbullapur flying squad went to the residence of Onteru Pratap Reddy which is in the limits of Petbasheerabad police station and conducted checking". "Meanwhile Pratap Reddy along with his supporters came and started misbehaving with officials and Pratap Reddy poured petrol on himself and tried to attempt to commit suicide and created drama. There was nothing found and seized from his residence. If flying squad lodges a complaint action will be initiated on the persons for misbehaving and abusing the officials. Further inquiry is underway," he added. Reddy, however, alleged that the police barged into his residence and tried to kill him by setting him ablaze. Security has been beefed up in the state of Telangana in lieu of assembly elections. Election Commission has directed law enforcement agencies to maintain a strict vigil on all illegal activities. The Telangana Assembly elections are scheduled to be held on December 7 to elect representatives of 119 constituencies. The counting of votes will take place on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who attended the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) said that there should be no such thing as regional film stars, but only Indian film stars. Speaking to the media, the filmmaker of 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' he said that "If there is a star from South India, he is as good an actor, he should be a star in North India also. It would be possible if cross-cultural films and films in several languages are made." He even said that if India does not change its mindset, then Hollywood "will walk over us". Appreciating IFFI, he said that it is the "world's most important festival because India is represented here in the correct manner." He even urged the concerned authorities to follow the footsteps of IFFI, adding that "theatre with four to five screens should be opened" where "films from different destinations" can be showcased. The 49th edition of the IFFI festival will showcase 212 films, including 16 Oscar-nominated films, from over 68 countries. In this edition, Israel is the country of focus. Ten films will be showcased in collaboration with the Consulate General of Israel in Mumbai. The opening film for this section is 'The Other Story' directed by Avi Nesher. A special presentation of Tunisian films will also be showcased. A special package for visually impaired children will also be organised with special screenings with the aid of audio description. The festival will even showcase 'Sholay' and 'Hichki' under this section. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government of ruining the Telangana state. "The TRS government ruined Telangana. The reason is simple - their apprenticeship under the Chandrababu Naidu government when the state was part of Andhra Pradesh and the UPA government," Prime Minister Modi said at a rally here. Calling TRS a xerox copy of the Congress party, the Prime Minister said that both the parties back dynastic politics, casteism and vote-bank "TRS is a xerox copy of the Congress. There is no difference between the two parties. Both the parties back dynastic politics, casteism, vote-bank " Prime Minister Modi said that both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are suffering since the time Congress divided Andhra Pradesh. "Look how Congress divided Andhra Pradesh. Both the states are suffering to date. When Atal Ji divided Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, six states were formed and all of them are rapidly progressing," he said. The Prime Minister held Congress and the TRS responsible for the deplorable conditions of the farmers. "Seventy years of Congress misrule at the Centre and five years of misgovernance of TRS in the state are responsible for the distress farmers are facing," he said. Prime Minister Modi said that Indians would have needed visas to visit Hyderabad had country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel not taken enough action. Polling in Telangana is scheduled to be held on December 7 to elect 119 MLAs. The counting of votes will take place on December 11. The Telangana Assembly was dissolved prematurely in September on the recommendation of the ruling TRS government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump slammed American broadcast network, CNN for portraying the US in an 'unfair and false way' to the rest of the and suggested launching a 'Worldwide Network' to counter CNN's reporting by showing another view on the situation in the country. Sputnik on Monday reported that the American broadcast network and President Trump have long been engaged in a war of words, with the latter accusing the news network of spreading 'fake news', while CNN urges Trump to stop vilifying the media. The president did not elaborate in his official Twitter account on November 26, what this new worldwide network will look like and how will it be different from the 'Voice of America', funded by the US government and broadcasting to the rest of the According to Sputnik, Trump's suggestion has spurred a wide range of reactions across social media. A lot of people supported the president's initiative, confirming that CNN's reporting of the events in the US can often shape the opinion of people abroad. Some even alleged that CNN actually poses a real threat to the US with its news and urged Trump to take action. Not all netizens were positive about Trump's idea, noting it is strikingly similar to practices of dictatorships, Sputnik mentioned in its reports. Others noted that watching CNN abroad was still better than watching Fox News. One Twitterian reminded Trump that the US already has its 'state propaganda' airing internationally in 40 languages. The US president and CNN have been engaged in a long-running feud for a long time now. Trump has slammed the news network on multiple occasions over allegedly spreading 'fake news', claiming it has led to a sharp decline in CNN's domestic ratings. The White House recently revoked a press pass for CNN reporter Jim Acosta, after an incident, where he refused to give up the microphone during a Trump press conference, engaging in a verbal feud with the US president. The news network filed a suit against the Trump administration, demanding the restoration of Acosta's pass. CNN, in turn, has accused Trump of 'continued attacks on the media' and of allegedly inciting violence against journalists by calling media outlets 'the enemy of the people'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States expressed "deep concerns" over the November 25 seizure of three Ukranian ships in the Kerch Strait by Russia and firing from the Russian side that injured Ukranian crewmen. Calling the incident a "dangerous escalation and a violation of international law," US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo condemned the "aggressive" action by the Russian side. "We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, extending to its territorial waters," Pompeo said in an official press release. The State Department's spokesperson, Heather Nauert, further mentioned that the Secretary of State had called Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to reiterate US' support for Ukraine. Poroshenko, in turn, expressed his gratitude for the support while outlining the importance of Western nations remaining united in the face of Russian "aggression". "We call on both parties to exercise restraint and abide by their international obligations and commitments. We urge Presidents Poroshenko and Putin to engage directly to resolve this situation. In that regard, we reiterate our support for the Normandy Four format," the statement underscored. The press release reinforced US' support for Ukraine and sent out a strong message to Russia by saying, "The United States supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, extending to its territorial waters, as well as the right of its vessels to traverse international waters. As stated in our Crimea Declaration, the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea." Pompeo's statements come in the wake of tense relations between Russia and Ukraine over the incidents that took place in the Kerch Strait, leading to the Ukrainian Parliament voting in favour of introducing martial law in the border areas with Russia. The law is slated to be enforced on November 28. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Days after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility of carrying out attack on Chinese consulate in Pakistan's Karachi city, its commander said it will continue the fight against Pakistan and China in Balochistan. In an interview Aslam Baloch, commander of BLA claims the growing Chinese presence in the region is posing a threat to their fight for sovereignty against Pakistan. He said, "For the past 15-20 years, Pakistani occupation in Balochistan has turned volatile since China has become its crime partner. China always remained favourable to Pakistan. But, for the past two decades, China has come on the forefront to become close partner of Pakistan in exploiting resources in Balochistan. China takes the major share, whereas the Punjabis are getting commission to kill the Baloch and destroy the villages. Baloch are facing serious consequences". He added, "China is looting resources in Balochistan in the name of mega projects by calling it CPEC. However, in the wake of these mega projects in Balochistan and Sindh region, both China and Pakistan are strengthening their military power. They are fooling the international community in the name of CPEC". Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has carried out several attacks against Chinese workers engaged in the multi-million dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Balochistan. On August 10 this year, three Chinese engineers working at a Saindak copper-gold project in Balochistan were injured in a suicide bombing where their bus was targeted by a BLA bomber. Aslam said, "In Sindh and Balochistan, China is running over 100 projects which are manned by the Chinese. Now, it has brought its own Army to provide protection to these Chinese workers. They are trying to counter any sort of criticism or opposition against its projects. Our people have carried out several protests against it, but they are unstoppable". He added, "China and Pakistan are strong nations and the Baloch might fail to stop them. However, the Baloch want to tell the that we are against such developments despite facing the atrocities. We have fewer resources, but we stand against their occupation. We have intensified our resistance because of their growing atrocities and occupation on our resources". The chief of Baloch Liberation Front, Dr. Allah Nazar also criticized China for exploiting their resources and growing militarization in the region. In an exclusive video interview Dr Nazar said, "China is working for its own interest and wants to expand its own business. It has now colluded with Punjab (Pakistan) establishment and has been extensively involved in the construction of the Gwadar Port and Saindak Project where the gold and copper is found in abundance. They have been plundering it calling it their prerogative and have been dividing amongst themselves (Punjab and China). The real owners do not have even drinking water". "In the name of CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor), China is now seeking to control the coastal area of Pakistan which forced thousands of people to migrate. They are inviting foreign investors. Whole is aware of the fact that Balochistan has been struggling for its sovereignty and its existence for two decades. We want to convey our message to the foreign investors that Balochistan is a disputed territory and a conflict zone hence the permission for any business won't be granted here". Dr. Allah Nazar sought intervention by international human rights organizations to protect the rights of Baloch people, who have been struggling for seven decades. He said, "We want to appeal to the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights organizations that thousands of Baloch people have been killed, thousands of others are missing; Punjabis are carrying out genocides. So, it becomes the responsibility of the international community to back our struggle and stop the barbarity of Pakistan and if it fails to do so then history won't forgive it". Thousands of Baloch intellectuals, political activists and student leaders are missing, allegedly abducted by the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. According to human rights groups based in Balochistan, many of them have been killed and their mutilated bodies were found in isolated places. Although Balochistan is Pakistan's largest and resource-rich province, the people here are living in poverty and they don't have proper drinking water and electricity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that Blue Economy is very crucial for India's economic development. The Minister left for Nairobi to attend the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference. The conference is being organized by Kenya, with Canada and Japan as co-hosts. India has a strategic location in the Indian Ocean region, and on this basis, it endorses the growth of the Blue Economy in a sustainable, inclusive and people centred manner through the framework of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). He said, India is developing its maritime infrastructure as well as its inland waterways and coastal shipping through the launch of the ambitious Sagarmala Programme which will revolutionize maritime logistics and port led developments in the country. He further said that India's national vision about the sector is clearly articulated in the term SAGAR- Security and Growth for All in the Region coined by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. India's ambitious Sagarmala programme has identified 600 plus projects entailing huge investment of around Rs 8 lakh crore (120 billion dollars) by the year 2020. This will save the country nearly six billion dollars per annum in logistics costs besides creating 10 million new jobs and boosting port capacity by 800 Million Metric Tonne per Annum (MMTPA) to an overall 3500 MMTPA. The Minister said, Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) are being developed under Sagarmala with a proposed investment of 150 Million dollars per location. He said, the CEZs will become a microcosm of the blue economy wherein industries and townships that depend on the sea and contribute to global trade through sea connectivity are envisaged. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The market ended with modest gains backed by firmness in IT pivotals and index heavyweight Reliance Industries. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 159.06 points or 0.45% to 35,513.14, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index rose 57.80 points or 0.54% to 10,686.40, as per the provisional closing data. Pharmaceutical shares witnessed selling pressure. Investors were cautious ahead of the expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday and the release of India's gross domestic product data for the September quarter on Friday. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.32%. The BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.43%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1246 shares rose and 1332 shares fell. A total of 161 shares were unchanged. Infosys (up 2.68%), TCS (up 2.31%), Reliance Industries (up 1.63%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.28%), IndusInd Bank (up 1.26%) and State Bank of India (up 1.26%), were the major Sensex gainers. Hero MotoCorp (down 3.04%), Yes Bank (down 2.82%), Bajaj Auto (down 1.96%), Wipro (down 1.8%), Tata Steel (down 1.73%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.5%) and Tata Motors (down 0.99%), were the major Sensex losers. Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell 3.50%. Sun Pharma announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma Inc. (Pola Pharma), a Japanese pharmaceutical company engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan. The portfolio of Pola Pharma primarily comprises dermatology products. The transaction is expected to close on or before 31 January 2019, subject to completion of closing conditions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. In a separate announcement made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018, Sun Pharma and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The settlements extend to all claims brought by the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs. The terms of the settlements are confidential, Sun Pharma said. On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on 28 November 2018. Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on 7 December 2018. The election to the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly was held in two phases 12 and 20 November 2018. Counting of votes will be held across all the five states on 11 December 2018. Overseas, European shares were mixed as talk surrounding the UK's departure from the European Union continues to rumble on. Meanwhile, Italy's government is seen as upholding its leading 2019 budget goals for now, as it awaits cost analysis on spending measures. Asian shares ended mixed on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump quashed hopes of a trade truce with China, dampening risk appetite across the region. In a media interview, Trump said it is highly unlikely that he would delay an increase in tariffs from 10% to 25% on 1 January 2019. His comments came days before the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is set to meet Xi for trade talks. Many investors and decision makers are hoping that the summit will diffuse trade tensions between the US and China after each country applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports. US stocks closed higher Monday as retail shares rallied on expectations of strong sales as shoppers went hunting for deals on Cyber Monday. Stable oil prices and global equities gains also soothed sentiment after a bruising week of losses. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A centralized electronic platform for processing interest subvention on bank loans to beneficiaries under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) named "PAiSA - Portal for Affordable Credit and Interest Subvention Access", was launched yesterday. The web platform has been designed and developed by Allahabad Bank which is the Nodal bank. Launching the portal, Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said , "PAiSA is yet another effort by the government to connect directly with the beneficiaries, ensuring that there is greater transparency and efficiency in delivery of services. DBT of subvention on monthly basis under DAY-NULM will give the necessary financial support to small entrepreneurs in a timely manner". The portal was launched during the course of a day long National Workshop on Municipal Finance and Urban Planning organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and provided a platform to identify key areas of concern regarding municipal finance and urban planning, and exploring the options available to resolve them by inviting senior officials / experts to shed light on best practices. More than 300 delegates comprising officers from the States, Urban Local Bodies, Town Planning Offices across the country and Banks participated in the workshop. All 35 states / UTs & all scheduled commercial banks, RRBs and Cooperative Banks are expected to be on board the PAiSA portal the year end. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Key equity indices pared gains after hitting fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 63.43 points or 0.18% at 35,417.51. The Nifty 50 index was up 21.95 points or 0.21% at 10,650.55. The Nifty held firmly above the 10,600 mark. Investors are cautious ahead of the expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday and the release of India's gross domestic product data for the September quarter on Friday. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.03%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.28%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1131 shares rose and 1326 shares fell. A total of 151 shares were unchanged. Most realty shares rose. DLF (up 2.68%), D B Realty (up 1.60%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 1.36%), Sunteck Realty (up 1.34%), Godrej Properties (up 1.24%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 0.90%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 0.80%), Sobha (up 0.66%), Oberoi Realty (up 0.41%), Parsvnath Developers (up 0.38%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 0.23%), Phoenix Mills (up 0.22%) and Peninsula Land (up 0.09%), edged higher. Omaxe (down 0.12%), Anant Raj (down 0.14%) and Unitech (down 1.4%), edged lower. Power sector shares were mixed. NHPC (down 0.19%), Reliance Power (down 0.33%), JSW Energy (down 0.67%), Tata Power (down 0.73%), Torrent Power (down 0.94%), Reliance Infrastructure (down 1.24%) and Jaiprakash Power Ventures (down 3.11%), edged lower. CESC (up 2.46%), GMR Infrastructure (up 1.55%), NTPC (up 1.42%) and Adani Power (up 0.30%), edged higher. State-run Power Grid Corporation of India was up 0.94%. State-run Coal India was up 0.86%. On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on 28 November 2018. Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on 7 December 2018. The election to the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly was held in two phases 12 and 20 November 2018. Counting of votes will be held across all the five states on 11 December 2018. Overseas, European shares were trading lower as talk surrounding the UK's departure from the European Union continues to rumble on. Meanwhile, Italy's government is seen as upholding its leading 2019 budget goals for now, as it awaits cost analysis on spending measures. Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump quashed hopes of a trade truce with China, dampening risk appetite across the region. In a media interview, Trump said it is highly unlikely that he would delay an increase in tariffs from 10% to 25% on 1 January 2019. His comments came days before the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is set to meet Xi for trade talks. Many investors and decision makers are hoping that the summit will diffuse trade tensions between the US and China after each country applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports. US stocks closed higher Monday as retail shares rallied on expectations of strong sales as shoppers went hunting for deals on Cyber Monday. Stable oil prices and global equities gains also soothed sentiment after a bruising week of losses. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fresh buying in index pivotals pushed the key benchmark indices to intraday high in afternoon trade. At 13:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 113.37 points or 0.32% at 35,467.45. The Nifty 50 index was up 37.10 points or 0.35% at 10,665.70. Investors are cautious ahead of the expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday and the release of India's gross domestic product data for the September quarter on Friday. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.14%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.33%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1117 shares rose and 1251 shares fell. A total of 140 shares were unchanged. Infosys (up 2.01%), Reliance Industries (up 1.54%), NTPC (up 1.25%), State Bank of India (up 1.17%) and TCS (up 1.15%) edged higher from the Sensex pack. Hero MotoCorp (down 2.09%), Bajaj Auto (down 2.07%) and Asian Paints (down 1.36%) edged lower from the Sensex pack. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries lost 4.89%. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (Sun Pharma) including its subsidiaries and/or associate companies, announced that Sun Pharma has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma Inc. (Pola Pharma), a Japanese pharmaceutical company engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan. The portfolio of Pola Pharma primarily comprises dermatology products. The transaction is expected to close on or before 31 January 2019, subject to completion of closing conditions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. In a separate announcement made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018, Sun Pharma and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The settlements extend to all claims brought by the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs. The terms of the settlements are confidential, Sun Pharma said. Overseas, Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump quashed hopes of a trade truce with China, dampening risk appetite across the region. In a media interview, Trump said it is highly unlikely that he would delay an increase in tariffs from 10% to 25% on 1 January 2019. His comments came days before the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is set to meet Xi for trade talks. Many investors and decision makers are hoping that the summit will diffuse trade tensions between the US and China after each country applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports. US stocks closed higher Monday as retail shares rallied on expectations of strong sales as shoppers went hunting for deals on Cyber Monday. Stable oil prices and global equities gains also soothed sentiment after a bruising week of losses. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Domestic stocks ended with modest gains backed by firmness in index pivotals. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 159.06 points or 0.45% to settle at 35,513.14. The Nifty 50 index rose 57 points or 0.54% to settle at 10,685.60. Investors were cautious ahead of the expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday and the release of India's gross domestic product data for the September quarter on Friday. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.32%. The BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.43%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1234 shares rose and 1333 shares fell. A total of 172 shares were unchanged. Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the S&P BSE IT index (up 1.67%), the S&P BSE Teck index (up 1.36%), the S&P BSE Oil & Gas index (up 0.86%) outperformed the Sensex. The S&P BSE Healthcare index (down 0.9%), the S&P BSE Metal index (down 0.8%), the S&P BSE Consumer Durables index (down 0.2%) underperformed the Sensex. Reliance Industries (up 1.61%), IndusInd Bank (up 1.29%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.27%), State Bank of India (up 1.17%) and HDFC (up 1.14%) were the major Sensex gainers. Hero MotoCorp (down 3.12%), Yes Bank (down 2.55%), Bajaj Auto (down 2.01%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.98%) and Tata Steel (down 1.69%) were the major Sensex losers. IT shares were mixed. Infosys (up 2.53%), HCL Technologies (up 2.48%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.13%), Persistent Systems (up 0.12%), and TCS (up 2.29%) edged higher. Wipro (down 2.18%), MphasiS (down 0.89%), Hexaware Technologies (down 0.6%), Tech Mahindra (down 0.05%) and MindTree (down 1.35%) edged lower. Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell 3.34%. Sun Pharma announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma Inc. (Pola Pharma), a Japanese pharmaceutical company engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan. The portfolio of Pola Pharma primarily comprises dermatology products. The transaction is expected to close on or before 31 January 2019, subject to completion of closing conditions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. In a separate announcement made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018, Sun Pharma and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The settlements extend to all claims brought by the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs. The terms of the settlements are confidential, Sun Pharma said. Unichem Laboratories jumped 5.4%. The company received EIR for post marketing adverse drug experience inspection conducted by the USFDA from June 25-29, indicating closure of inspection. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. IFCI advanced 2.41%. The company said that on account of resolution of Binani Cement through NCLT, IFCI, which is holding 42,16,850 security receipts of the face value of Rs 1000 each has received an amount of Rs 491.84 crore, net of TDS of Rs 30.55 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. Nava Bharat Ventures rose 0.37%. The company and its subsidiary (Nava Bharat Energy (India)) signed contracts with Tata Power Trading for power supply of 25 MW and 100 MW respectively to Telangana State Grid. The contracts commence from 15 January 2019 to 30 April 2019 and are at a net price of Rs 5.75 per unit. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held tomorrow, 28 November 2018. Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on 7 December 2018. The election to the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly was held in two phases 12 and 20 November 2018. Counting of votes will be held across all the five states on 11 December 2018. Overseas, European shares were mixed as talk surrounding the UK's departure from the European Union continues to rumble on. Meanwhile, Italy's government is seen as upholding its leading 2019 budget goals for now, as it awaits cost analysis on spending measures. Asian shares ended mixed on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump quashed hopes of a trade truce with China, dampening risk appetite across the region. In a media interview, Trump said it is highly unlikely that he would delay an increase in tariffs from 10% to 25% on 1 January 2019. His comments came days before the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is set to meet Xi for trade talks. Many investors and decision makers are hoping that the summit will diffuse trade tensions between the US and China after each country applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports. US stocks closed higher Monday as retail shares rallied on expectations of strong sales as shoppers went hunting for deals on Cyber Monday. Stable oil prices and global equities gains also soothed sentiment after a bruising week of losses. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma Inc. (Pola Pharma), a Japanese pharmaceutical company engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan. The portfolio of Pola Pharma primarily comprises dermatology products. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. Nava Bharat Ventures and its subsidiary (Nava Bharat Energy (India)) signed contracts with Tata Power Trading for power supply of 25 MW and 100 MW respectively to Telangana State Grid. The contracts commence from 15 January 2019 to 30 April 2019 and are at a net price of Rs 5.75 per unit. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. Unichem Laboratories received EIR for post marketing adverse drug experience inspection conducted by the USFDA from June 25-29, indicating closure of inspection. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. IFCI said that on account of resolution of Binani Cement through NCLT, IFCI, which is holding 42,16,850 security receipts of the face value of Rs 1000 each has received an amount of Rs 491.84 crore, net of TDS of Rs 30.55 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. GIC Housing Finance's net profit fell 1.01% to Rs 46.20 crore on 11.9% rise in total income to Rs 301.53 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sun Pharmaceutical Industries lost 5.07% to Rs 484.75 at 11:45 IST on BSE, with the stock reversing initial gains triggered after announcing acquisition of Pola Pharma in Japan. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 23.49 points, or 0.07% to 35,330.59 On the BSE, 16.47 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 5.71 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 521.20 and a low of Rs 474.65 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 678.80 on 6 September 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 434.80 on 22 May 2018. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (Sun Pharma) including its subsidiaries and/or associate companies, announced that Sun Pharma has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma Inc. (Pola Pharma), a Japanese pharmaceutical company engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan. The portfolio of Pola Pharma primarily comprises dermatology products. The transaction is expected to close on or before 31 January 2019, subject to completion of closing conditions. Pola Pharma, part of POLA ORBIS Group, has two manufacturing facilities in Saitama with capabilities to manufacture topical products and injectables. It also has R&D capabilities to develop new technologies and formulations. Pola Pharma had annual revenues of approximately US$108 million and net loss of US$7 million for 12 months ended December 2017 on consolidated basis. The equity consideration, on debt free and cash free basis, for the 100% stake in Pola Pharma is approximately US$1 million. In a separate announcement made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018, Sun Pharma and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The settlements extend to all claims brought by the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs. The terms of the settlements are confidential, Sun Pharma said. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries reported consolidated net loss of Rs 108.84 crore in Q2 September 2018 as compared to net profit of Rs 1001.79 crore in Q2 September 2017. Total income rose 5.56% to Rs 7288.78 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017. Sun Pharma is the world's fifth largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company and India's top pharmaceutical company. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has called for United Nations and other Multilateral Organisations to chalk out strategy to extradite economic fugitives. He was addressing the CITI Global Textiles Conclave 2018, organised to commemorate CITI Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The Vice President said that world leaders he had met during his visits to Europe, Latin America and Africa appreciated India's development story and said that it was marching forward with remarkable growth. There was a tremendous interest in India's growth story in the world community, he added. Naidu stressed the need to give major thrust to skill development, up gradation and use of Digital technology and adoption of lean manufacturing systems to remain globally competitive. The Vice President said that India has the unique advantage of combining traditional workmanship with modern methods. The Vice President called for modernization of textile industry by proving requited skill, investment and market to recapture India's past glory in the textiles sector. He said that being the second largest employer after agriculture accounts for 21% employment. Naidu said that UN and the world community must take lead and see that an agreement is made to exchange information on bank accounts. The Vice President said that Accountability and Transparency, Ethics in Business and Standards in Products must be maintained to sustain in the global competitive scenario. He said that India definitely has a competitive advantage in terms of abundant availability of raw material, skilled manpower, manufacturing competitiveness, huge spinning, weaving, processing and garment manufacturing facilities. With the world moving towards 4th industrial revolution based on cyber physical systems, Naidu said that the Indian textile industry must take lead in industry 4.0 in view of the distinct advantage enjoyed by us in the IT sector. He called up on the textile industry to fully tap the potential of IoT cloud, artificial intelligence and big data and analytics. He said that it was high time for the industry to establish textile industry 4.0 learning factory in all the major clusters adopting Hub and Spokes Model with Hub focusing on advance training and spokes focusing on basic training. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Almost two months after Delhi Police failed to locate a missing Air India woman employee, the case has been handed over to the Crime Branch. Sulakshna Narula, 57, went missing from outside her Pandara Road house in the heart of Delhi on September 30, leaving her family in distress. The Crime Branch took over the case on November 22 following Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik's intervention. "My mother went missing from outside our house around 6 p.m. on September 30. We lodged a missing complaint on October 1 and a case of abduction on October 4. But Delhi Police is still clueless," the woman's son Anubhav Narula told IANS. "After our continuous pressure, the case was transferred to Crime Branch last Thursday and their team met us the very next day," Anubhav Narula said. The distraught son expressed the hope that the Crime Branch might be able to trace his mother. A day after Sulakshna went missing, a complaint was filed by the family at Tilak Marg police station. On October 4, an FIR was filed suspecting abduction. The family also contacted all relatives, put up posters on auto-rickshaws and even created a Facebook page in a desperate bid to locate her. Abhinav Narula suspects that his mother may have been locked up at some Ashram as she was a religious person and was facing acute depression since 2007 as her promotion was denied to her even as a junior was made her boss. She was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder -- an illness related to mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs -- on July 24. "She was taking pills to cope with the depression. Because of her problem, we were not letting her go out of the house alone for a few months. The last time she visited her office was the first week of September. On the day she went missing, she left the house without her phone, money and medicines. "I was to take her to Yamuna Ghat. We stepped down the stairs. As I forgot something, I told her to wait for a moment and went up. When I came back, she was missing. It all happened within minutes. I don't know where she went. We tried to search her everywhere," said Abhinav Narula. Sulakshna, a mother of three sons, had been working in Air India as a manager. Her husband S.K. Narula said she had been fighting for her promotion since 2007 when one of the board directors blocked her promotion. "After a new board member was named, she again sought justice. She was promoted but with certain riders. However, some employees made sure that the promotion orders were not issued to her. "But her juniors were granted promotion... This humiliation and stress of working under her juniors hit her hard and she became depressed," the husband told IANS. Asked about the slow pace of investigation, a Crime Branch official told IANS on the condition of anonymity that they would do their best to try and locate the missing woman. --IANS rak/mr/vsc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid controversy over Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan for Wednesday's foundation stone laying function of the Kartarpur Corridor, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said he had asked Sidhu to "reconsider" his decision. "I had asked Sidhu to reconsider his decision to go to Pakistan for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor, but had acceded to his (Sidhu's) request for permission to go since I did not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a personal visit," Amarinder told media on Tuesday. "Sidhu was in Madhya Pradesh when I told him to reconsider his decision. Sidhu told me he had already committed himself. When I informed him of the stand I had taken, he said it was his personal visit but he would get back to me. But I did not hear from him," said the Chief Minister. Amarinder said the minister sent him a request for going and he cleared it. "I do not stop anyone from going anywhere on a private visit. It (Sidhu's trip) is not an official visit," the Chief Minister said. Sidhu, who arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, had on Monday defended his decision to go to Pakistan saying he had the "Chief Minister's permission." Standing by his own decision to decline Pakistan's invitation for the ceremony, Amarinder said he believed in saying what he felt. "I have strong feelings on the issue. I have a strong bond with the Army and cannot stand seeing my people getting killed," he said. The Congress had always stood against terrorism and would never allow anyone to destroy the peace of the country or its people, Amarinder said. Terming the situation in Pakistan as "very uncertain and fluid", Amarinder said nobody knew who was running the government there or what was happening in that country. "If Imran Khan is running the government, then he should rein in (the Pakistan army and the terrorist groups). If he cannot do that, then he obviously has nothing in his hands," the Chief Minister said. "My message is very clear: don't mess with Punjab," declared Amarinder, reiterating his warning to Pakistan against any attempt to disrupt peace in Punjab and India. Vowing not to allow terrorism to return to Punjab at any cost, the Chief Minister said the times had changed now. "Punjab then had a police force of less than 20,000, but now has 81,000 police personnel to keep it safe and protected. However, if things do get out of hand, then there is the Indian Army, which is well equipped and prepared to counter any threat. The Army will not allow them (Pakistan) to create trouble in India," he said. Referring to the Kartarpur Corridor, the Chief Minister said that every Punjabi was very happy with it and that there was no question of it being used by terrorists to infiltrate into India. "No one should worry about that as there would be a high level of security in the corridor," he said. Pointing out that the issue of the corridor was raised by former Prime MInister Manmohan Singh on the 400th anniversary of Guru Granth Sahib in 2004 and he himself had raised the issue with Pakistani leaders Parvez Musharraf and former Pakistan Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, Amarinder said he was completely in favour of the corridor as he wanted peace, backed by increase in trade, with Pakistan. "It is the killing of innocent Indians and Indian soldiers that I cannot tolerate. Kargil had happened during peace talks with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Pakistan could not be trusted in the current circumstances," Amarinder said. --IANS js/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan has promised a monthly unemployment dole of Rs 5,000 and 30,000 government jobs in five years, according to the party manifesto released on Tuesday for the ensuing Assembly elections due on December 7. The manifesto was unveiled by Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Prakash Javadekar and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at BJP's media centre in the state capital. Raje said the manifesto is titled 'Rajasthan Gaurav Sankalp 2018' as her government has "fulfilled 95 per cent" of promises made in the 2013 manifesto. The manifesto promises 30,000 government jobs, with Raje emphasizing 50 lakh additional jobs in the private sector in next five years. Besides an allowance of Rs 5,000 per month to the eligible unemployed youths over 21 years of age, the manifesto also promises a transparent process to strengthen the minimum support price to double farmers' income, Raje said. The manifesto also mentions a rural start-up fund of Rs 250 crore, adding that cooperative agriculture loans worth Rs 1 lakh crore will be given in the next five years. This initiative, Raje said, will help in extending the benefits of cooperative agriculture loans to new members. "The manifesto promises a Yog Bhavan in each district. It also promises to set up Parashuram Board and Rajasthan Vedic Studies Board in the state," Raje said. "All districts will be linked to the four-lane highway in the state. The youths will be trained for jobs in the Army in each sub-division three months before Army recruitment camps are held," Raje added. The Chief Minister said 'happiness index' will be set as a parameter for implementing these policies. Sharing credit for releasing the manifesto ahead of its rival, the Congress, she said: "The BJP has been a leader; it was first in announcing names of candidates and now it is first again in declaring the manifesto." Jaitley said the BJP was also first in announcing the CM candidate, adding that the "biggest factor to influence the Rajasthan assembly elections is the rural outreach programme that has taken place during the BJP tenure in the state." --IANS arc/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accusing the BJP-led central government of not keeping its electoral promises and making the lives of traders and businessmen miserable, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the saffron party will lose the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. "Today, the traders are in trouble. They are scared of the CBI, ED and Income Tax Department. This fear was not there earlier. The people of Rajasthan do not support the BJP-run central government anymore. They will lose big time in Rajasthan. I have heard that their situation is not good anywhere, be it Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan," Banerjee said at a public rally in Purulia. "People are not able to do business freely. Even the money kept in the banks is not safe. The business infrastructure in the country has collapsed after demonetisation. Many small and medium-scale traders are forced to shut their business while a number of big businessmen have left the country," she maintained. The assembly election in Madhya Pradesh will be held on November 28 while Rajasthan will go to polls on December 7. Taking a veiled swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee said a true leader of the nation should be loved and not feared by the people. "The leader of a nation should be loved by its people. But someone cannot be a leader if people are scared of him. Today we have such leaders in the country of whom people are scared. They will not be able to continue for long. They will be dethroned this time," she said. The Trinamool Congress chief said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments have failed to tackle Maoist insurgency in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The West Bengal government, on the other hand, has successfully "eradicated" the Maoists from the state, she said. --IANS mgr/shs/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not being able to provide security to the Delhi Chief Minister, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday questioned Modi's claim of protecting the nation and women. AAP Spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj told reporters that attacks on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are planned by the Bharatiya Janata Party. "Either the attacks are planned by him (Modi) or he is not able to work properly. So, how can the Prime Minister, who is not able to provide security to the Delhi Chief Minister, provide security to the people and women," he said while addressing the media during the special session of the Delhi Assembly called to discuss the attacks on Kejriwal. Calling the attacks on Kejriwal a "serious matter", the AAP MLA requested the Centre to stop and take steps to prevent such attacks. --IANS nks/mag/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gianna Velarde is set to become the first Peruvian woman to compete in the Dakar Rally in the motorcycle category, an enormous challenge she could never have imagined when, at age 15, she rode a motorcycle for the fist time -- and there found the strength to overcome cancer. "The motorcycle gave me a lot of strength, freedom and independence. Discovering all those things at that stage probably makes you a very powerful woman in a few years," Velarde told EFE in an interview. "The motorcycle was my escape valve, my means of feeling strong and above all, feeling that I was a winner," she said. On those two wheels, Velarde was able to withstand the 16 rounds of chemotherapy and 32 radiation treatments she received to eliminate a cancer of the lymph nodes. "I suddenly saw I could zoom up the same hills as the men. With my helmet on, nobody knew I was a woman. I was one more in the pack. And that helped me a lot," she said. Now 24, Gianna still has the character of the cocky girl who disobeyed her mom and learned to ride a motorcycle with her dad, an experience that turned her life around on the sand dunes south of Lima. "With my wig and helmet, I sped around and around, I fell and came out covered in sand, but I came out feeling happy, and that was something I hadn't felt for a long time," she recalled. Similarly, Gianna's parents tried to persuade her not to compete in the 2019 Dakar Rally, but then stopped and are now the first to cheer her on. "The Dakar has really united my family. For me, Dakar is a chance to face my own demons and start a new chapter in my life," Velarde said. "I'm sure the Gianna who finishes this Dakar will be a very different person and that excites me about all the experiences I'm bound to go through," she said. Her first rally was the Inca Challenge last September, when "everything happened to me". At one point overheating and a jammed clutch made her wait for her bike to "cool off so I could continue climbing the dunes", she said. "The second day I ran out of gas and the third day, at 2 km from the finish line, the battery gave out," the Peruvian said. Despite the many accidents, Velarde kept going: "I didn't feel bad physically nor incapable. I navigated well and the times I got lost I was able to get back on track. Aside from any mechanical failures, I can do well at Dakar." Whether she finishes the 2019 Dakar Rally or not, Gianna Velarde promised to keep up her university studies and her volunteer work of teaching motorcycle riding to poor children and those with cancer, to whom she wishes to transmit the same passion and feeling of empowerment that motorcycles give her --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Tuesday cornered Meghalaya's National People's Party (NPP)-led government in the Assembly over the law and order situation and misuse of government machinery. Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma demanded a CBI probe into the murder attempt on frontline women's rights activists Agnes Kharshiing and Amita Sangma, fighting against illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state, voicing doubts about the integrity of the government officials posted in the East Jaintia Hills district. Initiating a discussion on law and order situation, Congress legislator Himalaya Muktan Shangpliang brought to the notice of the Assembly the attack on a Bhutanese coal-laden truck driver by a bodyguard of Social Welfare Minister Kyrmen Shylla besides the arrest of the bodyguard of NPP legislator Ponseng Marak who fired gunshot at Marak's helper. "We should hand over the case (murder attempt on women's activists) to the CBI keeping in mind that the fact today there is a doubt on the integrity of the people posted in those areas (East Jaintia Hills district)," Mukul Sangma said. Home Minister James Sangma said there was no need for a probe by the central agency as the government had instituted an independent fact-finding inquiry to probe into the attacks on the two prominent civil society group citizens. "I don't see a need for a CBI inquiry into the matter," James said. Kharshiing, who is also the President of Civil Society Women's Organisation, and Amita were assaulted by a group of people after they photographed coal-laden trucks on November 8 at Tuber Sohshrieh area in East Jaintia Hills district. The National Green Tribuanl had ordered an interim ban on "rat-hole" coal mining in Meghalaya from April 17, 2014. --IANS rrk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Asserting that bailing out debt-ridden farmers would revive Madhya Pradeshs economy, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday blamed the BJP government for the state's agrarian crises, unemployment and deteriorating law and order. Appealing to the people of Madhya Pradesh on social media, Gandhi said the state in 15 years of BJP rule had been in the news more for Vyapam scam, crime against women, malnutrition and rise of sand mafia. "The farmers are on the streets, youth running from pillar to post looking for jobs, daughters afraid of coming out their houses. The state is known for its tribals but their rights and livelihood are being snatched," said Gandhi on the eve of Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls on Wednesday. Reflecting on Congress' assurance of farm loan waiver, Gandhi said bailing the debt-ridden farmers would revive the economy. "If the farmers are financially stale, then only the economy will come on track. I can't understand why the BJP is opposing this. Because of the efforts of the Congress, the country's is now farmer-centric. Otherwise, (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, for the sake of capitalist cronies, was bringing ordinance one after the other to snatch farmers' land," he added. --IANS and/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) People residing in West Bengal's civic body areas may be forced to cough up fines up to Rs 1 lakh for littering in public places, as per bills passed by the state legislature raising the penalty for violation of its provisions in regions government by the municipal corporations and municipalities. On Tuesday, the state Assembly gave the green light to the final two amended bills thereby completing the legislative process on the issue. The Assembly during the day cleared the West Bengal Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, bringing under its ambit all people living in the municipal corporation areas of the state save Kolkata and Howrah. The Howrah Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, was also passed in order to benefit the people of Howrah. Those littering the places would be slapped with a minimum Rs 5000 and maximum Rs 1 lakh as penalties. On November 22, the legislature had passed an amendment to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (second amendment) Bill, 2018. The penalty for people living in the city was raised first through an amendment to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (second amendment) Bill, 2018, which was passed in the Assembly on November 22. So long, the minimum penalty for garbage dumping was Rs 50 and the maximum Rs 5,000. --IANS ssp/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Attempting to regain the ground from the very rural hamlet where the seeds of their ouster from power after a 34-year rule in West Bengal were sown following peasant protests around a decade back, the Communist Party of India-Marxist's farmer arms would take out a march from Singur in Hooghly district from Wednesday. Around 10,000 farmers, share croppers and agricultural workers will take part in the 'Singur to Raj Bhavan Abhijan' (Singur to Raj Bhavan march) to highlight a series of crises engulfing the agrarian sector in the eastern state and press for a eight-point charter of demands. Singur was the original site for Tata Motors' Nano small car factory as per a pact signed by the state's erstwhile CPI-M led Left Front government in 2006, but following volatile farmer protests, the company decided to shift the plant to Sanand in Gujarat. On the other hand, the then principal opposition Trinamool Congress led agrarian protests turned the state's political dynamics upside down and the party rode to power in 2011 decimating the Leftists in the once impregnable 'red fort'. Since then in election after election, the LF's marginalization has continued unchecked, with the BJP capturing the main opposition space from the Leftists in recent by-elections and rural body polls. But over Wednesday and Thursday, the CPI-M's peasant bodies -- All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) -- would jointly organise the march from Singur where the Trinamool Congress government has returned the land, acquired by its predecessor LF regime for the Nano plant, following a Supreme Court order in 2016. The marchers are expected to be joined by 40,000 others from various parts of the state, who would conduct rallies and campaigns demanding the state's present rulers take initiative to set up industries on lands earlier acquired by the state government for industrialization including Singur. Among other demands of the marchers are work for all, waiver of agricultural debt, end of discrimination among Singur's farmers, peasant and sharecroppers in providing government welfare schemes and implementation of the M S Swaminathan Commission recommendations. The march forms an important part of the all India 'Kisan Mukti March', that will culminate in New Delhi on November 30. The New Delhi farmer mobilisation is being organized by the All India Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an umbrella organization of nearly 180 unions. AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah would inaugurate the march from Ratanpur, Singur, from where 2,500 people will proceed towards Kolkata. On November 29, nearly 16,000 farmers and agricultural workers would start their march towards Kolkata. On the way, they would be joined by rallyists from East & West Medinipur and other districts. They would then proceed towards central Kolkata. "The farmers of Singur are able to cultivate only a paltry 11 out of 997 acres of land acquired by the state government for the automobile manufacturing project. "More than two years ago, this land was 'returned' to land-holders after a Supreme Court order, but the state government failed to hand over the plots in a cultivable condition, as mandated by the court. The landholders and youth of Singur are now in extreme distress, as farming is no longer viable in this area," said AIKS state secretary Amal Haldar. --IANS ssp/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nawaz Sharif met Shehbaz Sharif Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif Monday met his brother and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif here at the latters Ministers Enclave residence, which has been declared a sub-jail by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The two brothers reportedly discussed prevailing political situation in the country as well as ongoing cases filed by NAB against them. The PML-N president was taken to Islamabad earlier in the day to attend a session of the National Assembly as well as undergo medical treatment. The anti-graft watchdog had on Sunday approved PML-N supremos plea to meet his brother and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly. The NAB had arrested Shehbaz Sharif on Oct 5 over alleged corruption in the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme from its Lahore office where he was summoned to record his statement in connection with the Punjab Saaf Pani Company case. Defensa Justicia defeated Tigre 2-1, moving into third place in the Superliga Argentina and closing in on league leader Racing Club. Atletico Tucuman is sitting in second place, with 28 points, and Defensa Justicia, with 26 points, is now in third. Defensa Justicia, the big surprise of the tournament, scored first in Monday night's match, with Paraguayan Matias Rojas putting his club on the scoreboard in the 5th minute, reports Efe news. Tigre's Walter Montillo tied the score 52 minutes into the match, and Nicolas Fernandez made it 2-1 for Defensa 10 minutes before the end of play. Tigre, which is in danger of being relegated to the Second Division, was hurt by the expulsions of Ignacio Canuto in the 67th minute and Sebastian Prediger in the 84th minute. In other action on Monday, Lanus edged Independiente 1-0, reducing the chances that it will be relegated to the Second Division. Racing Club, which played to a 0-0 draw against Banfield on Sunday, has 30 points. --IANS kk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Saturday directed Mandoli Jail in the capital to conduct a correction course through meditation therapy for a man convicted of raping a mentally challenged minor girl. Justice Anu Malhotra directed Superintendent of Mandoli Jail to consider correctional courses through meditation therapy for the convict, Chattu Lal. The court also directed the jail to consider a programme related to educational opportunity, vocational training and skill development programme and shaping of post release rehabilitation programme for the convict. The court direction came with a prospect of rehabilitation and said that "the sentence acts as a deterrent and is simultaneously reformative." The court observation came while upholding a trial court order that sentenced Lal to 15 years rigorous imprisonment after convicting him under the provision of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court also directed jail to keep the convict away from getting associated with criminal elements and conduct adequate counselling to sensitise him and make him to understand why he is in prison. The court also directed to conduct psychometric tests to measure the reformation taking place and allowed him to keep connected with his family members as per the jail rules. The court directed to submit a bi-annual report on the programme related to reformation and rehabilitation of the convict Lal. Lal was facing trial for raping a 12-year-old mentally retarded child in August 2013. --IANS akk/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A series of four digital video installations, on display here, explore the concept of cinema and a seminal text "For an Imperfect Cinema" (1969) by Cuban filmmaker Julio Garcia Espinosa. Created by artist Lallan, who was born in 1986 into a tribe of pastoralists in a valley of the Aravali mountains, the video works are currently mounted at the cultural centre Triveni Kala Sangam, and explore a blend of poetics and cinema. Lallan, who otherwise works with "vivid and varied" documentaries and social films, has titled the four-work show "An Imperfect Cinema", which suit the works he created for the show, he told IANS. But, what is imperfect cinema? Espinosa answers for us: "(It is) the opposite of a cinema principally dedicated to celebrating results, the opposite of a self-sufficient and contemplative cinema, the opposite of a cinema which 'beautifully illustrates' ideas or concepts which we already possess." By that definition, Lallan's works fall into the line of imperfect cinema, something he says is "a personal exploration of just what cinema is, cinema as an existing and evolving form". Put simply, the video works "are not something to be projected in a movie theatre" or "the film that someone would sit and pay for", but a deeper investigation into what constitutes cinema itself. A tool Lallan employs, the cinematic montage, gets highlighted upon viewing of the digital videos. "The concept of montage was introduced back in the Russian Revolution days. Montage was introduced on film. If you look at montage, it's mostly abstract. "If you have to describe a sequence, it's the subject or hints of what the subject is, put all into a processor -- like a food processor, you put all the vegetables in and churn it up. It's a lot of abstract," he explained. "It's just loving montage for the sake of montage, which is not very prevalent. People have some agenda when they're making things. I also have that and it's difficult to free the mind of that agenda," Lallan said. Four of his works, "The Face", "Statis", "A Convolution" and "Toward An Impure Poetry", are on view here till December 15. --IANS sj/mag/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central government will divest 100 per cent stake in Air India's ground handling subsidiary to partially retire the national passenger carrier's accumulated debt. Accordingly, an inter-ministerial panel, Air India Specific Alternate Mechanism, decided on Tuesday to divest the government's stake in Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL). The decision was taken after the panel which is headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met here. It assumes significance as the amount raised from the divestment of AIATSL will be used to retire some of the accumulated debt of Air India. A senior government official said the strategic disinvestment of ground handling subsidiary AIATSL will be done after the ground handling unit is transferred to a SPV (special purpose vehicle). The official told reporters that the EoI (Expression of Interest) document for the subsidiary will be issued after its transfer to the SPV. AIATSL provides ground handling service at most of the airports in India. It was operationalised in February 2013 and in 2016-17 the subsidiary earned a profit before tax of Rs 61.66 crore. Earlier, the inter-ministerial panel had decided to revive the national passenger carrier through sale of land and other assets and to offload its debt to an SPV which has already been incorporated. Prior to the current move, the government had offered to sell 76 per cent stake in Air India. However, the state-owned carrier, which has accumulated losses of over Rs 48,000 crore, failed to attract any bidder. On May 31, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that "no response" was received even during the extended submission deadline for the EOI bids under Air India's divestment process and the "further course of action will be decided appropriately". The government on May 1 had released a detailed document on clarifications sought by interested bidders regarding the divestment process. This had outlined that net current liabilities were Rs 88.16 billion (Rs 8,816 crore) and "these will remain with AI and AIXL (Air India Express) as these have been incurred in the course of business". On March 28, a Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) inviting EOIs for the strategic divestment of AI was issued, along with the airline's shares in AIXL (Air India Express) and AISATS (Air India SATS Airport Services) from private entities including the airline's employees. The Central government owns 100 per cent equity of Air India. --IANS rv-mgu/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central government has decided to go in for a strategic disinvestment of Air India's ground handling subsidiary to partially retire the national passenger carrier's accumulated debt. Accordingly, an inter-ministerial panel, Air India Specific Alternate Mechanism, decided on Tuesday to divest the government's 100 per cent stake in Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL). The decision was taken after the panel which is headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met here. It assumes significance as the amount raised from the divestment of AIATSL will be used to retire some of the accumulated debt of Air India. A senior government official said the strategic disinvestment of ground handling subsidiary AIATSL will be done after the ground handling unit is transferred to a SPV (special purpose vehicle). The official told reporters that the EoI (Expression of Interest) document will then be issued. Earlier, the inter-ministerial panel had decided to revive the national passenger carrier by sale of land and other assets and to offload its debt to an SPV which has already been incorporated. The firm -- AIATSL -- provides ground handling service at most of the airports in India. It was operationalised in February 2013. --IANS rv-mgu/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP-ruled Gujarat government has been collecting data of Muslim students, appearing for Class 10 and 12 board examinations, for the last five years, state Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said here on Tuesday. The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Board (GSHSB), which comes under the Gujarat government's Department, has been collecting this specific data. The data collection is done from the school authorities in the online board examination forms. The information is accessible through a special username and password-protected software for the filling of students' examination forms. When the school authorities fill the forms online, a question is asked whether the student is from the minority community. After being answered "Yes", the user is given only two options, "Muslim" or "Other". This practice has been going on since 2013, the Minister confirmed to IANS. When asked why only Muslims are being separately identified when there are other minority community students in Gujarat as well, Education Minister Chudasama told IANS at his state Secretariat office on Tuesday evening: "To collect data." When repeated why only Muslims, he said the same thing: "To collect data." The Minister parroted this line for every subsequent question, including when asked why is this data being collected. "This is to collect data. We have been maintaining this data since 2013. To date, nobody has ever complained about it," Chudasama said. Asked whether the government will change it, he added: "Why should we change anything?" Asked why no school authorities are questioning this practice when it is continuing since 2013 and there are scores of schools of the minority community in the state, Asif Khan Pathan, Principal of Crescent Higher Secondary School here said: "You see, we already face so many problems of our own; we found this practice unusual, but we never thought of complaining or even questioning the government's motive behind this." "Many of us were not aware," said Kausar Ali Saiyad, the founder of Hamaari Awaaz, an organisation working for the Muslim community. "If the government is really concerned about higher education of Muslim students and is collecting data, I will be glad. But I have not seen this happening in any of the government's policies for post-metriculation scholarships or any other schemes for Muslim students," Kauser Ali said. --IANS amit-desai/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi how he was affected by his beliefs. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief responded to Modi's comments made at an election rally in Nizamabad earlier in the day that he (Rao) was so insecure that he relied on astrologer, 'pooja paath' and 'nimbu mirchi'. "How are you affected by my beliefs? What is your loss if I perform poojas? I will perform 10 yagnams a year. Did I ever trouble you?" asked Rao at an election rally in Mahabubnagar. "I offer food and 'teertham' (holy water) to those believers who attend my yagnams. If you are also a believer, come, attend my yagnam and take holy water. I am a believer. I believe in God. What is your worry?" asked KCR, as Rao is popularly known. The TRS leader also slammed Modi over his opposition to reservation for Muslims saying he (Modi) was afflicted with Hindu-Muslim disease. KCR said since the population of Muslims had gone up to 12 percent in Telangana, his government sent a resolution to the Centre to hike the quota from 4 percent to 12 percent. Exuding confidence that TRS will return to power in Telangana by winning over 100 seats in he 119-member Assembly, KCR urged people to ensure that TRS won all 17 Lok Sabha seats in the next election. "A non-BJP and non-Congress government will come to power at the Centre. This government will follow people's agenda, fulfil their aspirations and understand their emotions," said KCR. The TRS chief defended friendship with Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). He said both TRS and MIM were 'pucca' local parties. He claimed that it was MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi who alerted him about the conspiracy being hatched in Delhi to topple his government and extended the support of his party to foil the designs of the BJP and TDP to impose President's rule. --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and the Maldives enjoy "a uniquely special, close and friendly relationship", President Ram Nath Kovind told Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Tuesday. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Kovind made the remark when the visiting Minister called on the Indian President. Welcoming Shahid and his delegation to India, the President said that New Delhi and Male "enjoy a uniquely special, close and friendly relationship. "The government of India's vision of inclusive development also extends to our neighbourhood including the Maldives. We are always ready to support the socio-economic development of the Maldives," he said. The President noted that the Maldivian government had launched a 100-day action plan that Kovind said was "people-centric and aimed at transforming the lives of the people of Maldives". Kovind stated that India would support the Maldives' efforts and work in alignment with its identified priorities. --IANS mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rome, Nov 28 (IANS/AKI) The Italian government will do all it can to avoid being slapped with billions of euros of European Union fines over its planned 2.4 percent budget deficit in 2019, Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday. "We will do our utmost to avoid the EU's excessive deficit procedure," Salvini said. "We are re-doing all our calculations." Salvini's remarks came after he, deputy premier Luigi Di Maio and premier Giuseppe Conte issued a joint statement on Monday, saying the objectives for the 2019 budget had already been fixed. The European Commission announced last Wednesday that Italy was "sleepwalking into instability" with its big-spending budget which will not cut its massive public debt and which breaches EU borrowing rules. Opening a case against Italy under the eurozone's "excessive deficit procedure" was now on the cards, the EU executive said. Fines under that procedure could start at 0.2 percent Italy's entire economic output (GDP) -- which would measure in the billions of euros. --IANS/AKI kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan believes in peace beyond borders: Imran Khan MIRAMSHAH: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said Pakistan believes in peace beyond borders and will play its role in the Afghan peace process, as peace in the war-ravaged country is critical for achieving an enduring peace in Pakistan. Addressing a jirga of selected elders during his first visit to North and South Waziristan tribal districts after assuming office, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said the nation had fought an imposed war inside the country at a very high cost and vowed that they would not again opt for any such war inside Pakistan. He announced several welfare packages for the area, including induction of tribal districts into the mega Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme and three per cent share to the seven districts of the erstwhile Fata in the National Finance Commission award. During the visit to the tribal borderlands, Mr Khan was accompanied by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and provincial ministers. The jirga was attended by the elders of the Mehsud, Ahmadzai Wazir and Dawar tribes. However, lawmakers Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir representing the tribal areas in the National Assembly were conspicuous by their absence during the PMs visit. Spokesman for the KP government Ajmal Wazir expressed ignorance about their absence when asked about it. I dont know whether they were invited or not. Better to ask the MNAs, he replied when asked about the lawmakers having affiliation with the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement. He said that a large number of elders and maliks representing different tribes were present in the jirga. The PM maintained the status quo of his predecessors, except PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and addressed a gathering of selected elders instead of holding a public meeting. The KP government spokesman told reporters that Mr Khan announced that elections for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and local governments would be held in the seven tribal districts next year. His visit to the area would send a positive message to the people of erstwhile Fata and would end a sense of deprivation among them, said Mr Wazir. According to him, the premier also announced induction of the militancy-affected North and South Waziristan tribal districts into the mega housing scheme and three per cent share to the seven districts of the erstwhile Fata in the NFC award. Earlier, the PM laid a wreath at the martyrs monument and was briefed in detail about the operations conducted, ongoing stability operations, rehabilitation of temporary dislocated persons, socio-economic development projects and fencing along the Pak-Afghan border, said the militarys media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Mr Khan also visited the Ghulam Khan border area and saw the fencing. The army media wing said the prime minister hailed achievements of the security forces and intelligence agencies for their successful operations against terrorists. No other country or their armed forces have done what Pakistan and its armed forces have done in war against terrorism, the premier said in his address. He said the nation had fought an imposed war inside the country at a very heavy cost of sweat and blood with loss to socio-economic fibre and they shall not fight any such war again inside Pakistan. The PM said: We are for peace beyond borders including in Afghanistan. We shall play our role in Afghan peace process along with other stakeholders as peace in Afghanistan is critical for achieving an enduring peace in Pakistan. Paying tribute to the martyrs and their families, he said they had given huge sacrifices for the safety, security and prosperity of Pakistan. He praised the people of the tribal districts and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who bravely faced a very challenging time. Jordan Karem, one of U.S. President Donald Trump's closest aides, plans to leave the White House, multiple U.S. media outlets reported on Monday. Karem, who joined Trump's presidential campaign in July 2015, has been serving as the director of Oval Office operations since March, Xinhua news agency reported. He is expected to leave around the start of 2019, according to The Hill, a U.S. political newspaper and website. "Jordan Karem is great guy who I have gotten to know well over the last several years," Trump said in a statement in response to queries about Karem. "He was with me from the beginning, and I appreciate his loyalty and his commitment to my administration." Karem is the first White House official who meets Trump in the morning and the last to see the president at night and joins the president when he travels. His departure is the latest in a series of shake-ups within the administration since the midterm elections earlier this month, including the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the reassignment of top National Security Council official Mira Ricardel. Trump is also considering ousting Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, according to reports. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mexico deported 98 migrants who were involved in a clash with police in Tijuana when they tried to illegally cross the border into the United States, the National Migration Institute (INM) said Monday. The migrants were deported Sunday night, INM commissioner Gerardo Garcia Benavente explained in an interview with Televisa television, reports Efe news. He said that the 98 migrants -- who have already been deported -- were mostly from Honduras. Garcia Benavente recalled that the INM "has mechanisms of deportation and assisted-return that expel from (Mexican) national territory those foreigners who have violated" immigration laws. He also clarified that the actions of the US Border Patrol, which fired tear gas at migrants who were trying to cross the border, occurred "on the US side" of the boundary. In addition, Mexico's independent National Human Rights Commission demanded Monday that Central American migrants with the caravan "conduct themselves with respect regarding Mexican laws and refrain from causing harm or engaging in misconduct in the different communities through which they pass or where they find themselves". US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Mexico to send migrants trying to illegally cross the US border back to their countries of origin "by any means necessary", claiming that many are "stone cold criminals". He also threatened to "close the border permanently". --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A minor boy was on Tuesday killed and two other students injured in a collision between an overcrowded school van they were travelling in and a speeding auto-rickshaw in north Delhi, police said. Police said the accident occurred around 2.30 p.m when the school van reached a roundabout near Nirankari Sarovar-Timarpur road. The auto was loaded with some goods. "Vaibhav,8, was declared brought dead in a nearby hospital, while two other students received minor injuries. They were later discharged after first-aid," said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Harender Singh. "Vaibhav was a student of class III in Rosary Public school, Model Town. He was the only son of his parents. Vaibhav's father, Vinod Kumar, works with Delhi Police as Assistant Sub-Inspector and is a resident of Wazirabad village," Singh said. "The school van turned turtle after the accident. There were around 20 minor students inside the van. They were returning home from their school," Singh said. "The auto driver, identified as Salman, 21, also suffered injuries. He was later arrested by the local police," the officer said. --IANS sp/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Demanding an inquiry into the alleged deletion of lakhs of voters from the voter list in the national capital, the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution for a door-to-door survey of all the removed names. The resolution, moved by Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj during the special session of Delhi Assembly, was adopted by the House after taking into consideration "the fact that lakhs of names have been deleted from the voter list in Delhi". Presenting the resolution, Bharadwaj demanded: "The Delhi Government should conduct inquiries into all deleted voters who are subsequently found genuine and fix the responsibility of the erring officials and submit a report before this House within a period of three months." He also said that there have been instances where person staying at the same address or in the same locality has been deleted from the voter list without any due procedure. "The officers of Chief Electoral Office (CEO) of Delhi have suo-moto deleted thousands of voters in each Assembly Constituency of Delhi without following the prescribed procedure or due process of law. "The names have been deleted to favour a political party which runs the government at the Centre," he said. Bharadwaj claimed that several attempts have been made by elected members of the Legislative Assembly of Delhi to approach CEO, but "no prompt corrective action has been taken to add the voters who have been illegally deleted from the voters list. "This House resolves that this is a serious matter and directs the CEO, Delhi, to put the complete list of voters that have been deleted after February, 2015 Delhi Assembly Election on its website." He also said a physical copy and a digital copy of all such deleted voters should be provided to all recognized political parties of Delhi. "The CEO should immediately conduct a door to door survey along with representatives from recognised political parties in order to ascertain the veracity of all deleted voters." "Those voters who were found genuine and have been wrongfully deleted should be immediately restored without the need of filing any fresh forms or any further verifications and without the need of issuance of fresh voter cards," he added. He also said this exercise should be completed in such a time that genuine voters are restored in the concerned voter lists before Lok Sabha Election of 2019. --IANS nks/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the wake of Jammu and Governor Satya Pal Maliks assertions of not "looking to Delhi" on government formation in the state, the Congress on Tuesday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "sinister design" to install an illegitimate government in the state. The Congress also accused the Governor of inflicting long-term damage to India's interest in Jammu and In his bid to defend the abrupt dissolution of the state Assembly, Malik had said that "had he looked to Delhi, he would have had to install a government led by Peoples Conference leader Sajjad Lone, and history would have remembered him as a dishonest man. The remarks, that could possibly embarrass the Centre's ruling BJP, were made by Malik on Saturday at an event in Gwalior. "J&K Governor has exposed Modi government's sinister design of installing an illegitimate government by horse trading and coercion. From Goa to Arunachal Pradesh, J&K to Tamil Nadu, this has been Modi's (modus) operandi. PM must answer for the rank political dishonesty," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala reacting to Malik's claims. Addressing a media conference here Congress leader Manish Tewari said the Governor in his attempts to defend was "tying himself up in his knots". "The fact remains what the Governor did was nothing short of a command performance and he did it on the instructions of Delhi. The Governor has done long term damage to India's interest in J&K," said Tewari. "That is a reality which unfortunately will have implications in the future also. "What Governor is trying to do is really emulate his masters in Delhi who have done a Phd in flip-flop, U-turns, somersaults and the reality is that Narendra Modi government has no policy towards J&K," he added. The Governor on November 21, dissolved the Assembly after the Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) staked claim to form a government along with the Congress and with the outside backing of the National Conference. In no time, Lone made a counter claim to power with the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and rebel PDP MLAs. --IANS and/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of his election rallies in Telangana on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought people's support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the December 7 Assembly polls. "Dear sisters and brothers of Telangana, I am eagerly looking forward to being in your state today. I will address a rally in Nizamabad followed by one in Mahabubnagar," Modi said in a tweet in Telugu. "I seek your support and blessings for BJP in the coming polls. Watch the rallies on NM (NaMo) mobile app." The BJP's campaign is set to gather further momentum with the PM's rallies. According to state party leaders, Modi will visit Telangana on December 3 to address a rally in Hyderabad. BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday addressed four public meetings in different parts of the state. He is scheduled to address more meetings on Wednesday and December 2. The BJP is contesting all the 119 Assembly seats on its own. --IANS ms/ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for Argentina on Wednesday to take part in the 13th G20 meeting in Buenos Aires during which he will have several bilateral meetings, including with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In his departure statement, Modi said he will highlight the need for reformed a multilateralism which reflects contemporary realities and can effectively strengthen collective action for global good. He said there is a serious need to strengthen international cooperation and enhance coordinated action against fugitive economic offenders and financing of terrorism. The prime minister said that emerging economies, which played a major role in reviving growth in the global economy after the financial crisis, were today facing unprecedented economic and technological challenges. The summit will deliberate on the present situation of the global economy and trade, international financial and tax systems, the future of work, women empowerment, infrastructure and sustainable development. Modi said G20 has strived to promote stable and sustainable global growth and the objective was of particular significance for developing countries and emerging economies such as India, which is the fastest-growing large economy in the world. He said India's contribution to global economic growth and prosperity underlines its commitment to "Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development", which is the theme of the summit. "I look forward to meeting leaders from other G20 countries to review the work of G20 in the last 10 years of its existence and chart the ways and means to meet the new and upcoming challenges of the coming decade," he said. During the meeting Modi is expected to highlight the risks posed by oil price volatility and urge more countries to join the International Solar Alliance. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters earlier that issues related to constructive reform of the WTO will be on the agenda. He said India's interest is that the G20 summit is not hijacked by the single issue of trade, whether between two countries or otherwise. The summit is also expected to deliberate on agriculture sector reform and the challenges of climate change. Asked about the agenda of the Modi-Xi meeting, Gokhale said the purpose is to build mutual trust and understanding. It will be fourth meeting between the two leaders in the past seven months. On a possible meeting with US President Donald Trump, Gokhale said the External Affairs Ministry was working on various bilateral meetings. He said a meeting between Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron is also being worked out. Modi would also meet the United Nations Secretary General, the presidents of Argentina and Chile, the German Chancellor and the prime ministers of Spain and the Netherlands. --IANS ps/kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Combined works of over 50 regional and international ceramic artists and sculptors, fresh out of a rolling arts residency in the heart of Madhya Pradesh, will greet those who visit the culture centre Triveni Kala Sangam here from Wednesday. Sprawled across its open amphitheatre, over 150 works -- ranging from abstract sculptures to representational art depicting human figures, faces and even cows -- have been commissioned and curated by art commune Art Ichol, located, as the organisers say, in the rural heartland of India. It is the first time they have been exhibited outside the organisation's cultural centre of Ichol, a village located between Khajuraho and Bandhavgarh. "The works have been created over the past three years by artists who come and stay with us as artists-in-residence. Because of the diverse portfolios of the artists, the works on display are equally diverse," Kolkata gallerist and Art Ichol head Ambica Beri told IANS. Beri, who thinks that the arts market has shifted from having more art investors than buyer-collectors, also shared that residencies are relaxed spaces where artists respond to their inner creativity, the instructor's demands and the space. "There was a local farmer who came to us, looking for ways to create animal figurines. We taught him ceramics, and now there's also a significant change in the ways in which he himself perceives his art. He's experimenting, doing square cows," said Beri, who has been running art gallery Sanskriti in Kolkata for 28 years. Among the participating artists are: Anjani Khanna, Saturo Hoshimo, Jacques Kaufmann, Madhvi Subramaniam, Anupam Sud, Laxma Goud, Sandra Black , Ketna Patel , Naidee Changmoh, Beri had previously said in a statement. The residency environment, on a close look, is visible in the plethora of works created in bronze, ceramic, stone and metal. Displaying traditional forms, mediums and glazes, as well as those with relative novelty, the works seem to be fused with an energy that comes with a relaxed space that allows creative freedom, and makes minimal demands. For a collector, buyer or even just a viewer not initiated into the arts, a walk through the pieces of art could prove an exercise in creativity itself. The works will be on view till December 9. --IANS sj/mag/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 39-year-old Muslim cleric has been arrested for carrying a bullet while attending Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Janta Darbar, police said on Tuesday. "The accused, Imran, along with 12 other Imam and Maulavi on Monday had visited the Delhi Chief Minister's Janta Darbar seeking an increase the salary of the Delhi Waqf Board staff," Deputy Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad said. "During frisking a security officer found a bullet in Imran's wallet. He was handed over to the police," Prasad said. At his interrogation, Imran revealed that he lives in Seelampur and worked as a caretaker in the Bawli Wali mosque in Karol Bagh. He told the police he had found the bullet in a donation box three months ago and kept it in his wallet. He intended to throw it away in the Yamuna waters but later forgot. He has been booked under the Arms Act, the officer said. --IANS sp/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NASA's InSight spacecraft touched down safely on Mars on Monday, kicking off a two-year mission to explore the deep interior of the Red Planet. NASA's online live broadcast reported InSight touched down on Mars at approximately 2:54 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Monday, after a six-month, 300-million-mile (480-million-km) journey, Xinhua news agency reported. It will detect geophysical signals deep below the Martian surface, including marsquakes and heat. Scientists will also be able to track radio signals from the stationary spacecraft, which vary based on the wobble in Mars' rotation, according to NASA. InSight is being followed to Mars by two mini-spacecraft comprising NASA's Mars Cube One (MarCO), the first deep-space mission for CubeSats. MarCO attempted to relay data from InSight as it enters the planet's atmosphere and lands. InSight and MarCO flight controllers monitored and cheered for the spacecraft's successful entry, descent and landing from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Launched on May 5, InSight marks NASA's first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in 2012 and the first dedicated to studying the deep interior of Mars. InSight cruised 301,223,981 miles at a top speed of 6,200 mph, while being followed by two cube satellites, CNN reported. "We've studied Mars from orbit and from the surface since 1965, learning about its weather, atmosphere, geology and surface chemistry," Lori Glaze, acting director of the Planetary Science Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, was quoted as saying by CNN. "Now we finally will explore inside Mars and deepen our understanding of our terrestrial neighbour as NASA prepares to send human explorers deeper into the solar system." InSight robotically guided itself through the landing, outside of a few last minute tweaks by the entry, descent and landing team to the algorithm that guided the lander to the surface. "While most of the country was enjoying Thanksgiving with their family and friends, the InSight team was busy making the final preparations for Monday's landing," said Tom Hoffman, InSight's project manager. About 20 minutes before landing, InSight separated from the cruise stage that helped bring it all the way to Mars and turned to position itself for entering the atmosphere. At 2:47 pm ET, the entry, descent and landing phase began, and InSight entered the atmosphere at 12,300 mph. Peak heating of the protective heat shield reached 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit two minutes later. This is when the intense heat caused a temporary drop in the radio signal from the craft. Then, the parachute deployed, the craft separated from the heat shield, deployed its three legs and activated radar to sense how far it is from the ground. After getting that radar signal, it separated from the remaining shell and parachute, firing its descent engines known as retrorockets to help slow it down even more, the CNN report said. InSight then executed a gravity turn to make sure the lander was in the right position before touching down. It slowed down until it reached a consistent 5 mph. Then, it touched down at 2:54 pm ET. Nasa's mission control in California erupted with delight when it became clear InSight was safe on the ground, BBC reported. The probe landed safely on a flat plain known as Elysium Planitia, close to the Red Planet's equator. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Arif Alvi addressed IDEAS 2018 in Karachi 27 November, 2018 Related News Imran Khan distributed loan cheques under Kamyab Jawan Programme PTI govt to face all challenges coming its way: Imran khan More on this View All Top 2021 Accessories We Know You Will Love Types of Casino Payment Methods Tips for Taking Incredible iPhone Travel Photos Best Poker Hands ever played on a Casino Are Slot Developers Important for players? Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry Ways that Players Used to Take Advantage of Slot Sites President Arif Alvi on Tuesday while addressing the opening ceremony of the 10th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2018 in Karachi stressed that Pakistan's weapons are for peaceful intent. The president recalled that at one time Pakistan was home to 3.5 million refugees who had been displaced after the Afghan war. "We owed it to our brothers that they should be here and they're still here, but the world has forgotten about the contribution of Pakistan." He said that Pakistan does not like wars since they bring nothing but "hunger, lack of nutrition and misery". "We want peace, we have been striving for peace in a belligerent neighborhood but we must stay strong," Alvi said, adding "our weapons are for peaceful intent". "We are there to defend our country and that is what IDEAS is all about," he said, adding that Pakistan's weapons will be "for defence, never for offence". The president asserted that when there is conflict Pakistan has ensured that it will be able to defend itself. "When the paradigm is not in our favour, we also have a deterrent to ensure the fact that nobody looks to Pakistan with a bad eye at all." Alvi said that Pakistan, with its population of 200 million people, is a country of will and resolve "which is struggling hard, trying to secure its economy and to forge itself into Naya Pakistan, which the country deserves". The president explained that the security paradigm, which is changing and going beyond just equipment and defence, should be understood in the context of Pakistan "As far as Pakistan is concerned, we should ensure the fact and we have that there should be food security and economic security." He said that security could not be guaranteed unless a country is economically on "solid ground" and "not looking to others for help", adding that is the responsibility of the government to ensure that Pakistan is a "stable economic state". The president claimed that more than the equipment Pakistan had been producing, it was producing "social security" for its people. He said that access to education and healthcare, and poverty alleviation were guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan, and that the government would ensure that they are provided to the people at a grassroots level. "When the people are strengthened, and you have defence as efficient as Pakistan's armed forces, then there is true security which the nation aspires to [in order to] maintain peace and keep on developing and improving the wellbeing of its people," he said. Alvi said that in today's environment it is important to ensure cyber security, so that Pakistan's cyber and information systems, as well as strategic institutions, were also secured. Alvi said that despite instability in the region, Pakistan had continued to work hard and had produced defence equipment, some of which was on display at the expo. This equipment includes the JF-17 fighter jet, the Mushshak aircraft and recently a Naval tanker which was inaugurated by the president himself. The president said that Pakistan's defence production was very high and he was proud of the "small quantum of private research" being conducted, adding that he felt it should be increased since it would give the country a "quantum jump from where we are to the future where we want to be". Alvi said that the "business friendly policies" of the government would go a long way in welcoming people, other countries' governments, and companies to look at and to participate in its production of defence equipment. He invited people from other countries to come and look at the defence equipment produced by Pakistan, which he described as a "beautiful country ... which is changing by the day, and will keep on doing so for the next few years". The president highlighted that Pakistan's strategic location with respect to regional trade was enhanced due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He added that Pakistan was in the neighbourhood of oil-producing countries in the Gulf and also "in the neighbourhood of states which have created conflict as far as Pakistan is concerned". "Issues have to be resolved, war is no option." President Alvi urged India to come to "the peace table and discuss issues rather than staying away with different excuses". Alvi insisted that Pakistan is a peaceful country and added that it would "look forward to resolution of all our disputes in a peaceful manner, but at the same, nations should keep in mind that you cannot suppress people at all." The president also took a moment to appreciate Pakistan's beauty and urged participants to explore the country. The exhibition 522 exhibitors from 50 countries are taking part in the exhibition and will be able to showcase their high-quality arms from today to November 30. Besides trade visitors, more than 262 high-level delegations from 51 countries are also visiting the exhibition. Countries such as China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, USA and host Pakistan are all establishing their exclusive country pavilions at the Expo Centre. For the purpose, the organisers have also added three extra exhibition halls in the form of marquees. The first two days have been earmarked for delegations, trade visitors and for networking activities. The other highlights include an international seminar on emerging global and regional environment and the role of grey hybrid warfare therein from Pakistans perspective. Renowned national and international subject matter experts will also present their scholarly papers on the topic. General public The Karachi Show has been planned specially for the people of the city at Nishan-i-Pakistan, Seaview, on Nov 29. In addition, Nov 30, the fourth day of the exhibition will be exclusively reserved for the general public. The Karachi Show as well as the IDEAS exhibition will be open to those who have taken the trouble to register online. They should also carry their CNICs with them, Brigadier Waheed Mumtaz had told the media last week This is an international event and security of the participants, visitors and guests along with the public, too, cannot be taken lightly, he had added. Traffic plan The traffic plan for the city includes the deployment of 2,300 police personnel and alternative routes to facilitate travelling of the people of Karachi during rush hours. Nepal imported 86 per cent of the country's total mobile sets from China as of the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2018-19 that began in mid-July, the Department of Customs (DoC) said. According to DoC data, Nepal imported a total of 1,173,107 mobile sets from China, accounting for 86 per cent of the total mobile imports, reports Xinhua news agency. The country imported a total of 1,362,331 mobile sets during the period from mid-July to mid-October this year. In terms of value, mobile import from China was worth 5.26 billion Nepali Rupees ($46 million) which is 9.9 per cent of the total import of goods from China. Nepal imported goods worth 53.11 billion Nepali Rupees ($468 million) as of the first three months of this fiscal. Chinese mobile brands like Gionee, Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus are doing brisk business in Nepal, according to importers. Mobile set imports from other countries to Nepal is far lower compared to that from China. Nepal imported the second largest number of mobile sets from India as the Himalayan country imported 114,751 from its southern neighbour followed by 74,198 from Vietnam. Sanjaya Agrawal, chief executive officer of Tele Direct, authorised distributor of Xiaomi mobile phones in Nepal, told Xinhua on Monday that Chinese mobile sets have been popular in Nepal because they have been able to main high quality along with reasonable prices. "Since we took the dealership of Xiaomi about eight months ago, sales have risen by 40 per cent," he said. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government on Tuesday conferred the National Projects Construction Corporation (NPCC) with the status of 'miniratna', empowering it to "taking speedy decisions". Incorporated in 1957, NPCC is a premier construction company "having mandate with creation of infrastructure to provide impetus for economic development of the country," said the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in a statement. "The Corporation is making continuous profit since 2009-10, having positive networth for the last six years and has ambitious business plan with enhanced order book position of Rs. 11,833 crore," it added. -- IANS sp/vn/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Both Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday reacted supportively to Governor Satya Pal Malik's statement that he did not look up to Delhi while deciding to dissolve the state Assembly. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah said on his twitter: "My compliments to Governor Malik for not looking to Delhi & for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & its proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money". PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said it was a welcome departure from the past as the Governor did not take dictation from Delhi and decided on his own to dissolve the Assembly. "Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sb (sic) refused to take dictation from Delhi , rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state ", Mufti said on twitter. Governor Malik while speaking at a function in Gwalior on November 24 had said that had he looked upon Delhi, then he would have had to install Sajad Lone as the chief minister. The Governor also said nobody, including Sajjad Lone and Mehbooba Mufti, had approached him with numbers to stake their claim to form government. --IANS sq/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A meeting of the Joint Committee of Parliament to examine the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 remained inconclusive on Tuesday as the Congress and other opposition parties sought to keep Bangladesh out of the purview of the bill and "delink" it from religion. "The entire issue is because of Bangladesh. If we delete the word the emotional part of that issue and violence that is taking place can be reduced," a member of the committee told IANS. A furore ensued in the meeting and discussion could not take place as members gave their amendments seeking review of the provisions by the government and withdrawal of the bill in its present state, which was opposed by some of the ruling party members, the sources said. One of the members suggested "delinking" the bill from religion and to 'uphold the constitutional value'. "This Bill violates the provisions of the Assam Accord. Also there is a question of constitutionality of the bill as it differentiates between religions. People of a particular religion will be given citizenship while others will be denied," the member told the committee. The opposition members also alleged that BJP members were trying to finalise the report in a "hasty" manner without due consultation. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. Among others, the amendment bill seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. A large section of people, organisations in the Northeast have opposed the bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. The committee has already taken six extensions from the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. It has sought time for the presentation of the report on the "first day of the last week of the Winter Session, 2018". Sources in BJP said that another meeting of the committee is likely to be held during the winter session of Parliament. During the course of its examination and study visits, the committee met a cross section of people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Meghalaya and heard the views of organisations, individuals, experts and others. The committee also heard the views of the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The joint panel has 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. The 2016 bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on July 19. The Act of 1955 provides for various ways in which Indian citizenship may be acquired -- by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and by incorporation of territory into India. --IANS bns/vsc/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Bangladesh court on Tuesday ruled that people who have been jailed for more than two years with their appeals pending, cannot contest the December 30 general elections. The order was passed in response to an appeal seeking a stay order on the imprisonment of five opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders: Amanullah Aman, AZM Zahid Hossain, Wadud Bhuiyan, Md Moshiur Rahman and Md Abdul Wahab, reports bdnews24. As per the Constitution, if a person is sentenced to more than two years in prison, he or she will not be able to participate in elections until an Appellate Division rejects or suspends the verdict, according to the court observation. Tuesday's ruling will prevent BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from contesting the upcoming election as she was awarded a 17-year jail term in two graft cases. --IANS ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot on Tuesday termed the BJP manifesto released today as disappointing and said that it is a copy of the 2013 manifesto of the party. "As the ruling government failed to fulfil its promises made during in the 2013 manifesto, it has again brought the same manifesto by changing its contents a little," Pilot said. Had the ruling government been serious about doubling the farmers' income by bringing transparent MSP policy for them, as mentioned in the manifesto released on Tuesday, it should have done so within its five-year tenure, he said. "The government has promised to generate jobs for 50 lakh people in the next five years, but why has it failed to reveal the names of those 15 lakh beneficiaries who it claims have been given jobs?" he questioned. --IANS arc/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Renowned flautist Pandit Keshav Ginde shall be conferred this year's prestigious Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Lifetime Achievement Award for Classical Music, Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde announced here on Tuesday. The annual award, instituted by Maharashtra, honours maestros in classical music and singing, and carries a cash award of Rs 500,000, a memento and a citation, he added. Born in 1942 in Belgaum, Karnataka, Pt. Ginde hails from a family of musicians and at age six, learnt to play the Mridangam from his grandfather, Pandit Damodar Ginde. He also tried his hands at other instruments like Violin, Sitar, Tabla and Dilruba, but owing to financial constraints, the family could not afford his training. However, his mother brought him a cheap flute which he learnt to play and participated in the prayers of the family deity, Lord Krishna. Even as his mother dreamt he would one day become a master flautist, Ginde became popular in school and started playing the flute on various special occasions like Independence Day and Republic Day. Later, he shifted to Pune and joined the Fergusson College where he acquired lessons in general music before his advanced training under Pt. Haripad Choudhari, and also completed his doctorate in music. Pt. Choudhari was the first disciple and friend of the legendary flautist Pandit Pannalal Ghosh, who was admired by Mahatma Gandhi, and later from his son-in-law, Pt. Devendra Murdeshwar, and was deeply influenced by their styles. Pt. Ginde's flute rendering resembles Pt. Pannalal's style in vocal music, and he is equally adept at Tantkari or Beenkari style of playing. He recited the flute for four decades on All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan. In 1984, he invented and played his creative innovation, the 'Keshav Venu' flute, a 42-inch long flute which can produce 3.5 octaves compared to the maximum 2.5 octaves by regular flutes. This unique flute has been preserved by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in its national archives along with demonstration videos for the benefit of future generations, besides creating various Indian and global records and a mention in the Limca Book of Records and the Guinness World Records. The Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Lifetime Achievement Award for Classical Music has earlier been conferred on maestros like Kishori Amonkar, Pandit Jasraj, Prabha Atre, Pt. Ram Narain, Parveen Sultana, and Manik Bhide. --IANS qn/shs/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is planning to hire over 300 engineers from the (IIT) this placement season to strengthen its Research and Development (R&D) operations in the country, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. Company officials from three R&D centres located in Bengaluru, Delhi and Noida, will visit the IITs at Delhi, Kanpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Varanasi and Roorkie starting December 1. The R&D centres will also hire engineers from the newer IITs at Hyderabad, Dhanbad, Ropar, Indore, Gandhinagar, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Mandi and Jodhpur. "Our R&D centres are focusing on cutting edge technologies, developing innovations for the Indian market as well as for the globe. We will continue to add engineers for research and development in these areas and further our commitment to making a strong research base in India," said Sameer Wadhawan, Head, Human Resources, India. has offered over 200 Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) to students at the IITs this year. "There's a tactical shift that we have made to spot talent early and offer PPOs. This year, we had a slightly longer internship period so that students can spend more time in the company, giving them opportunity to interact with the leaders and managers. "This helps us select bright talents amongst them," said Wadhawan. Apart from the IITs, Samsung will also be hiring from other top engineering colleges such as BITS Pilani, IIITs, NITs, Delhi Technological University, Manipal Institute of Technology and IISc Bangalore. Between the IITs and other engineering colleges, Samsung will hire close to 1,000 engineers. In all it has offered 350 PPOs this year. The Supreme court on Tuesday slammed the Bihar government for being "very selective" in taking action against those accused of being involved in the sexual and other abuses of children and indicated that it would hand over to the CBI investigation into all the cases of child abuse in the shelter homes of the state. "Your state has been very selective...catch this and leave others," said the bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta in the course of hearing of Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case. Asking the counsel for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take instruction on taking over the investigation into nine cases of child abuse at shelter homes in Bihar, Justice Lokur told the counsel for Bihar government: "Let CBI do it. Your police...sorry, can't arrest people, can't file charge-sheet." The court vent its ire and said that all the cases would go to the CBI after it was told that of the nine cases, where the Chief Secretary has expressed "grave concern", FIR has been filed in only five cases. The Chief Secretary was present in the court pursuant to October 12 direction of the court. Pointing to the "widespread mismanagement" of the shelter homes for children, the top court by its October 12 order had directed for the presence of the Chief Secretary to explain what remedial steps were being taken and the effect of those steps. Apparently miffed over the manner in which cases of "grave concern" are being selectively dealt with, Justice Lokur said: "What is the nature of grave concern...definition of grave concern? How you understand this? Tell us, we will also understand." As the counsel for Bihar government Gopal Singh told the bench that in the remaining four cases, it may not constitute an offence, without mincing words, Justice Lokur told the Chief Secretary to know what was happening in the state administration under him. Justice Gupta cited sections 323, 325, 406, 407 of the Indian Penal Code and the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) that were attracted in all the cases of children abuse at shelter homes in Bihar. Justice Gupta wondered how the offences attracting stringent provisions of criminal law were apparently overlooked and the accused were booked for lesser offences. The counsel for CBI, which is investigating the Muzaffarpur shelter home child abuse cases, told the court: "There could not be more heinous crime. Some children in shelter homes are being developed as trained soldiers who are used to punish other children not obeying the dictates of the caretakers of shelter homes." He cited the instance of a child who happened to be good cook but his face was gashed with three-inch wound after he refused to cook food for those running the shelter home. Peeved over the way things were happening in the shelter homes in Bihar, Justice Lokur said: "We expect standards of reasonable person and not higher standards. We don't know what your standards are." The matter is listed for hearing on Wednesday when CBI will tell the court on taking up rest of the shelter home child abuse cases in Bihar. Another counsel Shekhar Naphade said: "There is much more to it than meets the eye." --IANS pk/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senate adopted resolution criticising Indian interference in Balochistan ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution criticising India for its continued interference in Balochistan. The Senate Standing Committee on Interior, headed by former interior minister Rehman Malik, said that the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) had claimed responsibility for the recent attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, pointing out that the BLA was being openly supported by India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government owe an explanation to Pakistan and the international community for their continued support to the BLA and other separatists in Balochistan, the resolution moved by Mr Malik reads. It urges India to immediately halt its covert anti-Pakistan operations. The Senate panel also condemned recent provocative statements of Mr Modi and Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Mr Malik said that RAW on the directive of Mr Modi was carrying out terrorist activities in Pakistan. He said that Prime Minister Modi himself had confessed to his governments involvement in Balochistan and it was no secret that RAW was behind terrorist activities in Balochistan to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The committee through another resolution asked the government to beef up security for Chinese citizens in Pakistan. It noted that the act of terrorism was against both Pakistan and China and was meant to harm the CPEC. The panel also advised the government to revisit the security plan of the high-security red zone and diplomatic enclave and ensure that no breach of security was allowed in the sensitive zone. In another resolution, the government was asked to explain its position on the presence of Daesh [militant Islamic State group] in Pakistan, pointing out that the responsibility of a bomb blast in the Kalaya Bazaar area of lower Orakzai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been claimed by the militant group. The panel also unanimously decided to move a motion in the house for constitution of a committee to examine terms of reference for the reconciliation and truth commission and to revise numerous national issues, including returning of heavy foreign debts, political victimisation and delay in various constitutional reforms. Ahead of the voting to elect a new Assembly in Congress-ruled Mizoram on Wednesday, the authorities on Tuesday sealed India's borders along the northeastern state with Myanmar and Bangladesh, an official said here on Tuesday. A senior Mizoram Police official said that around 11,100 security personnel comprising central para-military and state security forces have been deployed to further tighten the security to foil any attempt to create any trouble during the Wednesday's polling. "In view of the Assembly polls, BSF and Assam Rifles troopers have been asked to seal Mizoram's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar and further intensify their vigil along the international frontiers to prevent any kind of cross-border movements by inimical elements," Mizoram's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Zorammuana told IANS. He said: "Following the directions of the Election Commission, the authorities also asked the security forces to further tighten the security along Mizoram's inter-state borders with Tripura, Assam and Manipur. No movement other than of those associated with the election process would be allowed at the inter-state borders." Mizoram shares 310-km unfenced borders with Bangladesh and 510-km boundaries with Myanmar without any fencing. The Border Security Force (BSF) troopers have been deployed along the Bangladesh borders, while the Assam Rifles, under the Army, have been posted along at the Myanmar borders. Zorammuana said around 7,075 electoral officials have been engaged to conduct the elections from 7 a.m to 4 p.m. Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said here that the electoral officials escorted by security personnel have already reached all the 1,164 polling stations across the state. The Election Commission has set up 15 special polling stations at Kanhmun, a village along the Mizoram-Tripura border, to facilitate voting by Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in Tripura for the past 21 years. Of the over 35,000 tribal immigrants, 11,232 are eligible to cast their votes in the Assembly elections. The CEO said that around 40 all-women managed polling stations have been set up across the constituencies in which the entire polling staff, including the police and security personnel, are women. "The VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines would be used along with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) in all the 40 constituencies to enhance transparency and credibility of the elections," Kundra told the media. Unlike in other states of the country, Church-backed Mizoram People's Forum (MPF) plays a unique role in ensuring free and fair elections in Christian-dominated Mizoram. Started in 2006, it launched an initiative equipped with a mechanism to name and shame any wrongdoing by a candidate or any individual on community loudspeakers for one and all to know. Significantly, the entire exercise is sincerely followed by each member of the deeply religious Mizo society. A total of 209 candidates, 67 higher than in 2013 state polls, are in the fray for the Wednesday's elections to the 40-member Mizoram assembly. Of the 209 candidates, 15 are women. In 2013, only six women had contested and none were successful. Like the previous elections, women voters once again outnumber the men in Mizoram. Of the 768,181 voters, there are 393,685 women and 374,496 men. The five-year term of the Mizoram Assembly ends on December 15. Besides two national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), many regional and local parties have fielded candidates in most of the 40 Assembly constituencies. They include main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF), People's Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM), Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) and Meghalaya-based National People's Party (NPP). However, the main contest is likely to take place between the ruling Congress and the MNF. The Congress has been in power, except for 10 years, since the Mizoram become a full-fledged state in 1987. The MNF, a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), ruled during those 10 years -- 1998-2003 and 2003-2008. Vote will be counted on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chattisgarh. --IANS sc/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to federal investigators in breach of a plea agreement he signed two months ago, Special Counsel Robert Muellers office said in a court filing. Prosecutors working for Mueller on Monday said in the filing that Manafort's "crimes and lies" about "a variety of subject matters" relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement, reports The New York Times. But under the terms of the agreement, Manafort, 69, cannot withdraw his guilty plea. Defence lawyers disagreed that Manafort had violated the deal. In the same filing, they said that Manafort "believes he has provided truthful information". But given the impasse between the two sides, they asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia to set a sentencing date for Manafort, who has been in solitary confinement in a detention centre in Alexandria, Virginia. Striking a plea deal with Manafort in September potentially gave prosecutors access to information that could prove useful to their investigation. But the filing on Monday, a rare step in a plea deal, suggested that they thought Manafort was withholding details that could be pertinent to the Russia inquiry or other cases. A jury in Northern Virginia convicted Manafort of eight counts of financial fraud in August stemming from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. The jury deadlocked on 10 other charges. Faced with a second trial in the District of Columbia on related charges in September, he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and agreed to an open-ended arrangement requiring him to answer "fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly" questions about "any and all matters" of interest to the government. Manafort is scheduled to be sentenced in the Virginia case on February 8, 2019, The New York Times reported. Mueller's investigators have charged a number of Trump's former aides with lying to them. Three former Trump campaign officials or advisers have pleaded guilty to misleading federal investigators: Michael T. Flynn, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, who reported to prison on Monday to serve his 14-day sentence. A Dutch lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, who had business dealings with Manafort, also pleaded guilty to lying to Mueller's office. --IANS ksk/sed (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.) US President Donald Trump lashed out at special counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors accused his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, of violating a plea agreement. In a series of tweets, Trump called Mueller a "conflicted prosecutor gone rogue" who is "only looking at one side" in the inquiry while accusing him of causing "tremendous damage" to the nation's criminal justice system, Xinhua news agency reported. "The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite," Trump said. "Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie." Mueller, who was appointed in May 2017, is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Trump has repeatedly dismissed any collusion between his campaign and the Russians while slamming the Russia probe as a "hoax" and a "witch hunt". Russia has denied the meddling allegations. The US President has recently intensified attacks against Mueller, his team and the investigation but has denied trying maneuvering to shut down the investigation, which has so far led to indictments of over 30 people, most of them Russians. Democrats, who will take control of the House after gaining nearly 40 seats in the midterm elections earlier this month, have said they would use investigative committees to open further probes of Trump's businesses and his alleged connections to Russia. The latest outbursts came a day after a court filing showed that Manafort was accused of repeatedly lying to investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges, violating a plea agreement that he signed two months ago. Manafort said in the same filing that he disagreed with Mueller's claim that he had lied to the FBI and the special counsel's office and "has provided information to the government in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations". Manafort, 69, was convicted in August on eight counts of financial fraud related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. In the trial, the jury also deadlocked on 10 other counts, which were dismissed later. He was the first member of Trump's election team facing trial on charges arising from Mueller's investigation. The President has tried to distance himself from Manafort, who joined the Trump campaign team in March 2016 and spent about two months working as campaign chairman before resigning over exposure of his Ukrainian lobbying work. Another former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, began serving a two-week jail term on Monday as part of his plea deal with Mueller's team. Jerome Corsi, a conservative writer and associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone, told CNN in a phone call on Monday that he's refusing a plea deal offered by Mueller. Corsi said that he had been offered a deal to plea on one count of perjury but that he plans to reject it. Last week, Corsi said that he expected to be charged with lying to federal investigators, though he said at the time that he was innocent of wrongdoing. Mueller's team questioned Corsi as part of an investigation into Stone's connections with WikiLeaks, which publishes secret information, news leaks and classified information provided by anonymous sources. US intelligence agencies have claimed that Russia was the source of hacked material released by WikiLeaks in the weeks ahead of the 2016 election that damaged the campaign of Hillary Clinton, then Democratic candidate for presidency. Mueller's team is reportedly trying to determine whether Stone and other Trump associates had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' plans. The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that Manafort met with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, several times in secret, including the time when he was on Trump's campaign. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump will have a "trilateral meeting" with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday. In a press briefing at the White House, Bolton said that Trump's bilateral with Abe "will transform at some point during that meeting into a trilateral meeting" with Prime Minister Modi. The G20 summit is scheduled for November 30 and December 1. Trump, however, is not expected to hold a formal bilateral meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with Bolton saying that the President's "bilateral schedule is full to overflowing at this point", Xinhua news agency reports. However, he did not exclude the possibility of the two leaders' informal meeting. Bolton also said that Trump, during his stay in the South American nation, is expected to meet with the presidents of Argentina, South Korea, Turkey and Russia. White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said that Trump's "participation in the G20 summit is a key opportunity to reiterate his commitment to domestic and global economic growth and prosperity, cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system that is based on fair economic competition and free, fair and reciprocal trade." Speaking of the prospect of the US-Saudi leaders' meeting, Sanders said she would not rule out any interaction, adding that Trump will also meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. --IANS kk/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons, including a tourist guide, were arrested here on Tuesday for gang raping a young Non-Resident Indian (NRI) in this temple town, police said. The victim, settled in South Africa, had come with a woman friend to Mathura three days back and was allegedly raped in a beauty parlour at Dampier Nagar on Monday. After a friend of the victim lodged a police complaint, the two rapists were arrested. The guide apparently lured the NRI to the parlour in Dampier Nagar, promising her a body massage. She alleged that her drink was spiked and the two raped her. Superintendent of Police Shravan Kumar said the South African embassy in New Delhi had been informed about the crime. --IANS md/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a bid to define the banking industry's role and responsibilities in shaping a sustainable future, the UN Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and 28 banks from around the world have together developed a roadmap for responsible banking to take forward the agenda of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, officials said. The new framework -- Principles for Responsible Banking -- was launched at the UNEP FI's Global Roundtable 2018 for a six-month global public consultation. The 28 banks represent over $17 trillion in combined assets and nine of their CEOs attended the launch, the UNEP said. More than 500 delegates at the first day of the Global Roundtable on Monday saw the launch of four major initiatives that will help mobilise the financing of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate agenda. By committing to the new framework, banks will be aligning their business with the objectives of the SDGs and the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The principles provide the first global framework that guides the integration of sustainability across all business areas of a bank, from strategic to portfolio to transaction level. "The global banking industry is stepping up to the sustainability challenge. I'm optimistic we'll see a realignment of business practice -- one that embraces the fact that green and socially responsible business is the best business," said Satya Tripathi, UN Assistant Secretary-General with UN The first day saw the AXA Group announcing the extension of its pioneering climate policies to its new AXA XL division by divesting its coal policy. The summit heeded the call from UNEP FI's Principles for Sustainable Insurance for its peers in the global insurance industry to form a coalition to commit to decarbonisation and climate resilience in both their insurance and investment activities, and to raise their climate ambition. The other initiatives launched were a new tool to help financial institutions assess economic risks of environmental degradation and the roadmap to set out recommendations for the French market to build upon its leadership position and achieve further progress in mainstreaming responsible investment. --IANS vg/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday urged both Russia and Ukraine to step away from further confrontation at sea. Briefing the Security Council, in the wake of Sunday's confrontation between vessels from the two neighboring countries off the coast of Crimea, DiCarlo urged them "to refrain from any ratcheting up of actions or rhetoric". An "immediate de-escalation" of tensions is needed in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, she said, underlining the importance of "earnest attempts" to find a peaceful resolution to years of simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported. "(We) remind both (Russia and Ukraine) of the need to contain this incident so as to prevent a serious escalation that may have unforeseen consequences," she said. DiCarlo also recalled her previous calls on all parties to avoid any unilateral steps that could deepen the divide or depart from of the spirit and letter of the Minsk Agreements, which set out the necessary steps to restore peace in the eastern regions of Ukraine. DiCarlo noted that the UN fully supports regional efforts to find a peaceful settlement, and that "renewed and constructive action" was needed by all concerned to overcome the apparent impasse in diplomatic negotiations, she added. The Security Council meeting followed a procedural vote rejecting the agenda of the day's first meeting on the issue, requested by Russia, which argued that its borders at sea had been violated by Ukraine. Dmitry A. Polyanskiy, the first deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, argued that Ukrainian naval vessels had "illegally" crossed into Russian territory and did not acknowledge efforts made by Russian ships to warn them off. Such actions were in violation of the UN Charter and norms of international law, he said. He said responsibility was "borne by those people" who gave the Ukrainian crew "the illegal command". Polyanskiy told Security Council members that the Ukrainian ships were being held in Russian ports, pending an investigation. In a second meeting the same day, Volodymyr Yelchenko, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN, informed the Security Council of his country's account of events, stating that what the Russian representative spoke earlier was an "outright lie". On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships -- Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu -- breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US has "slammed the brakes" on a UN Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia. An informed source told CNN on Monday night that the US "has slammed the brakes on", saying that "we can't support a resolution at the moment". The source also said the move was at odds with what US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has been signaling to her counterparts at the UN, since she was supportive of the planned resolution weeks ago. There has been no official comment on the matter by the White House. The draft resolution, crafted by the UK is already seen by human rights groups as disappointingly watered-down: It calls for a ceasefire only in Hodeidah, the principal Red Sea port through which some 80 per cent of humanitarian aid flows. The resolution is not at all critical of Saudi Arabia, and in fact compliments Saudi action; it is critical only of the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and have been fighting Saudi-led coalition forces while maintaining control of the capital, Sanaa. CNN reported earlier this month that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud, "threw a fit" when presented with an early draft of the document, leading to a delay and further discussions among Western allies on the matter. This latest delay comes a week after US President Donald Trump indicated that he would not take strong action against Saudi Arabia or the Crown Prince for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The situation in Yemen is now viewed as the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, with some 13 million Yemenis at risk of starving to death, according to the UN and human rights groups. Save the Children has said that an estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war began. The conflict, which began in 2015 as a civil war, gathered force when Saudi Arabia and allies entered the battle to counter what they saw as Iranian influence. The Gulf coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France, which have also been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. After nearly four years, the war has killed around 57,000 people. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This refers to Problematic mandate (November 26). There is a rising concern with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and it is about more things than one. For starters, 2 per cent CSR was put in as a non-mandatory provision. But it is not infrequent for companies to receive notices or phone calls from various parts of the MCA, putting pressure and making it appear as if a failure to reach the target is a punishable offence. If one considers the CSR for companies to be the same as the constitutional Directive Principles for the government, then it becomes ... Discussion about wargaming and military history, primarily WWII in North Africa. Also discussion about AFV's and artillery. Mocking Rahul Gandhi's poll promise to waive farmers' loans within 10 days of the Congress being voted to power in Rajasthan, Finance Minister on Tuesday said the party is resorting to such slogans as it knows it is not going to come to power. Jaitley said they had made this promise both in Karnataka and Punjab, but reduced the waiving of loans to a "make-believe formality", when they found that they cannot do it in Punjab. The Union finance minister was apparently referring to the partial waiving of farm loans of up to Rs 200,000, taken from cooperative banks only. But waiving the loans even partially resulted in a huge shortfall of funds for developments, he said. Those, who do not have the knowledge of a subject, tend to seek cheap publicity. It needs vision, and not slogans, to run the country," he said. It has become a trend to give slogans to hide ignorance, said Jaitley, adding the slogan-giving custom was started in 1971 with 'Garibi Hatao' but the country is still grappling with the problem. The time of through sloganeering is over now as people's expectations from political leaders are high, he added. In an election campaign rally in Jaisalmer district Monday, Gandhi had said, You are going to make the Congress party's government in the state. Within ten days of the government's formation, the Congress will waive farmers' loans in the state. ALSO READ: Rahul promises farm loan waiver if Congress voted to power in Rajasthan Gandhi said he had made the same promise during Punjab and Karnataka elections and the Congress governments there have waived farmers' loan. Jaitley also hit out at the Congress over making unemployment an election issue, saying it was the Congress which created the problem during 50 years of their rule in the country. Those who created the problem of unemployment are making it an issue today. Has the unemployment been there only for the last two years? Jaitley asked. Read our full coverage on 2018 The Union finance minister said the people across the world used to mock at India for 40 years for its two to three per cent growth rate. It is for the first time that India has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Talking about the Goods and Services Tax and demonetisation, Jaitley said it was an achievement of the government that it could bring 334 commodities under 12 and 18 per cent tax ambit after implementation of VAT and excise collectively had cascading effect and the tax rate was 31 per cent. The BJP government brought 334 commodities under 12 and 18 per cent slab. Those who looted 31 per cent as tax were 'Gabbar' or those who reduced the tax slab? he asked. The Union minister said only 3.8 crore people used to file tax returns when the BJP came to power in the country. After four years of the BJP rule, the tax base has almost doubled. After four years of the BJP rule, 6.86 crore people have started filing tax returns and we hope it would touch 7.6 crore mark by next year, he said. The Congress on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister accusing him of using " of victimhood" in poll campaign to escape accountability and divert public attention from "failures" of his government. The opposition party also accused the prime minister of being solely responsible for lowering the level of public discourse in in the country and asked him to adhere to the advice of his predecessor Manmohan Singh to conduct himself in a manner which is worthy and consistent with his obligations as prime minister. Congress spokesperson said in 2014, the people of the country gave Modi a "full mandate", but instead of fulfilling the promises made to them he is doing " of victimhood". "We want to raise a very fundamental question about the campaign style of the prime minister. We saw this playing itself out in Gujarat and we have seen it in these five states. Why does the Prime Minister of India need to practice the politics of victimhood?" he asked. He said be it Gujarat elections or the ongoing assembly polls, the prime minister has been portraying himself as a victim. "To escape responsibility for the failures of his government and to divert public attention from the failures and non-performance, the prime minister has been playing the politics of victimhood," he alleged. The Congress' response came in the backdrop of Modi launching a scathing attack on the party in his election rallies, accusing it of targeting him for the last 18 years. The prime minister alleged that the opposition party was targeting him for his caste and was not sparing even his mother. Tewari, who is a former Union minister, said as the Prime Minister of India, Modi is fundamentally and primarily responsible for finding solutions to the problems of India, "but one has never heard the prime minister talking about either the challenges which people are facing or the performance of NDA- Government". "We do not hear from the prime minister that when crude is less than $60 per barrel, why is petrol and diesel selling at Rs 85-90 a litre. "We do not hear an explanation from the prime minister on why is the LPG cylinder at Rs 1,000... why the Rupee is at an all-time low. We do not hear a single word from the Prime Minister on the "We do not hear from the prime minister as to why not even 8 lakh jobs employment opportunities could be created against the promise of 100 million jobs. We do not hear from the prime minister on why the autonomy of RBI was attacked," he said. ALSO READ: Rahul promises farm loan waiver if Congress voted to power in Rajasthan He said the "only thing that one hears from the prime minister are various variants of the politics of victimhood" and alleged that there is an attempt on a daily basis to deflect from the real issues of the people as the "government has not performed". He charged Modi with lowering the level of public discourse in the country and alleged that it is the responsibility of the prime minister to ensure that it remains dignified. "If he himself lowers the level of public discourse, it leads others in the to think that this is the new normal," he alleged. Tewari said Modi should take cognizance of the counsel of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that public discourse remains dignified. Singh, during the launch of Tewari's book on Monday, said Modi should exercise restraint when he visits states not ruled by his party and set an example with his conduct which should be consistent with his obligations as the PM. Asked about his advice to the prime minister at a time when the level of public discourse was falling, especially during elections, Singh said whenever he as prime minister used to go to BJP-ruled states, his relations with chief ministers were "very good". He said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would certify his claim that during the UPA government, BJP-ruled states were not discriminated against. "So what I would say is that the prime minister of the country must set an example... he is the prime minister for all citizens of our country and his conduct must be worthy and consistent with that obligation that he has as prime minister," Singh had told the gathering. The CBI has filed a supplementary charge sheet in the 1993 Bombay blasts case against key accused Ahmed Kamal Shaikh, who was part of a conspiracy meeting attended by Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai to execute the deadliest terror attack in India. Shaikh alias Ahmed Lambu alias Khalid Kamal Shaikh, absconding since 1993 and nabbed on June 1, is in judicial custody. The agency filed the supplementary charge sheet against him before the special TADA court. Shaikh was also declared proclaimed offender by the Mumbai TADA court where proceedings of the blasts case were going on. Twenty-five years ago on March 12, the serial blasts claimed 257 lives and more than 700 people were injured. The CBI took over investigation on November 19, 1993 on the request of Maharashtra government. A non-bailable arrest warrant was also issued against Shaikh on September 17, 1997 followed by a Red Corner Notice from the Interpol. "The CBI investigation revealed that the said accused was an active member of criminal conspiracy concerning this case. He was in Dubai and working in close association with other prime absconding accused persons," CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said here Tuesday. He said it was also alleged that he attended the conspiratorial meeting in Dubai which was headed by prime accused Dawood and other masterminds in January or early February 1993. In pursuance of this meeting, on the directions of Dawood, Shaikh along with others went to Pakistan to get training in handling of arms and ammunition, throwing hand grenades, making bombs, and using these bombs in vehicles, he said. Shaikh, who lived in a dormitory in Mumbai, had left the country immediately after the blasts. "He was one of the key accused in the conspiracy to smuggle explosives into India and conduct blasts at the behest of Dawood Ibrahim. Shaikh was introduced to Dawood by Mohammad Dosa (another conspirator)," an officer said. Shaikh was also involved in the landing of RDX on the Raigad coast in Maharashtra, he said. Dawood and Tiger Memon, two alleged masterminds of the blasts, are still absconding, while over hundred others, including gangster Abu Salem, were convicted by TADA court in Mumbai. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal has around 30 lakh jobseekers registered in its employment banks, the state Assembly was informed Tuesday. "There are around 30,92,518 jobseekers registered in the employment banks of the state," Labour minister Moloy Ghatak informed the Assembly in a written reply. Around 1,63,748 people out of the 30,92,518 jobseekers are being given Yuvasree allowance in the state. Yuvasree is a financial assistance under which the West Bengal government gives Rs 1,500 per month to jobseekers enrolled in employment banks to enable them to enhance their employability by undergoing some education or training within the period of assistance. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said Tuesday the state had suffered a loss of Rs 1,600 crore since July 1 this year due to monsoon rains and untimely snowfall in tribal areas that also claimed 343 lives. The chief minister said this while presiding over the meeting of an inter-ministerial central team at Mandi, which is on a state visit to assess the damages caused to the state due to untimely snowfall and heavy rains. Thakur said the Public Works Department (PWD) suffered major losses due to damages to roads and bridges. The total losses on this account have been assessed at around Rs 930 crore. He said 405 incidents of landslides and 34 cloudbursts were reported in the state. The Irrigation and Public Health department suffered losses worth Rs 430 crore while damages to agriculture crops and infrastructures cost Rs 130.37 crore, he added. The chief minister said that 343 people lost their lives due to flash floods, landslides, cloud bursts and road accidents -- all during the monsoon fury. The state government has provided ex-gratia of worth Rs 13.72 crore for the loss of human life, Thakur said. Thakur said that as many as 4,033 people were rescued by different means from Chamba, Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti districts between September 3 to October 1, 2018. He thanked the Union government in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular for providing all possible help to ensure relief and rehabilitation work in the state. It was on the request of the state government, Thakur said, that seven Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters were provided to the state to airlift the stranded people in Lahul-Spiti and Chamba districts. He said that as many as 292 people were airlifted from these districts. The CM urged the inter-ministerial central team to recommend for maximum support from the Centre keeping in view the gravity of losses and damages suffered by the state which were "worst in the last 10 years". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two West Bengal residents were arrested with six rare African spurred tortoises here in Madhya Pradesh, an official said. The arrest and seizure were made duirng a vehicle checking drive Monday night in the Dunda Seoni area of the district, he said. Forest officials said each of the six seized tortoise costs Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh in the international market. Seoni's Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) T S Sulia said these tortoises were found in a car coming from West Bengal and going towards Maharashtra. The rescued African spurred tortoises are of rare species who live up to 150 years, he said, adding they appear to be aged 60-70 years and weigh 12-15 kg each. These tortoises are used in medicines and for witchcraft, the forest officer said. A four-member Special Task Force (STF) of the forest department has reached Seoni from Bhopal for investigation, Sulia said. It is being ascertained if the arrested persons have any links with international smuggling gangs, he added. Dunda Seoni Police Station in-charge Pradeep Balmiki said the duo was travelling from their native Hooghly district to Shirdi in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. He gave their names as Kaushik Das (34) and Balram Naiya (30). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seven people were killed and four others injured when a car crashed into a bus stop in southwest China on Tuesday, officials said. The incident took place near Wangchang village at Leshan in southwest China's Sichuan Province, they said. The car suddenly drove onto a sidewalk before hitting the bus stop, killing seven people and injuring four others, the officials said. The car driver is in police custody and an investigation is on to ascertain the cause of the accident, they said. The injured have been rushed to a nearby hospital, state-run Xinhua agency reported. Tuesday's accident came just five days after a speeding car ploughed into several students crossing a road in front a primary school in China's northeast Liaoning province, killing at least five of them and injuring 18 others. The driver, a 29-year-old unemployed Liaoning resident, was contemplating suicide "due to quarrels" with his spouse before he drove his car into the children, Xinhua reported. In September, a driver of an SUV vehicle deliberately crashed into crowds at a busy public square in central China's Hunan province, killing 11 people and injuring 44 others. The attack injured mostly elderly people who had gathered in the square by the river in Hengdong county. In February, a van packed with gas tanks and petrol bottles caught fire and ploughed into pedestrians in Shanghai, injuring at least 18 people. Attacks on general public, specially students, including the kindergarten children by the disgruntled people, were on the rise in different parts of China. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expressing concern over recovery of a live cartridge from a visitor at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence, the (AAP) on Tuesday asked the Centre to get over "petty politics" and pay attention to the CM's security. Party leaders Saurabh Bhardwaj and Raghav Chadha also slammed the BJP and its government at the centre over what they claimed was a "third attack" on Kejriwal in last one month. "It's a very serious matter that a man carrying a live cartridge managed to reach the Chief Minister at his Janta Darbar. We appeal to the Centre to set aside petty and pay attention to his security," Bhardwaj said. A 39-year-old caretaker of a mosque, identified as Mohammad Imran, was arrested after a bullet was found from his purse during frisking at the residence of the Chief Minister on Monday, police said. Imran was accompanying a delegation of imams and maulvis who had gone to demand increase in salary of Waqf Board staff at Kejriwal's Janta Darbar, where he listens to public grievances. The AAP leaders noted that last week a man had attacked the Chief Minister at the Delhi Secretariat by throwing chilli powder on him. They also alleged that Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari "along with his goons had tried to hurt Kejriwal during inaugural of the Signature Bridge". ALSO READ: AAP govt to convene special Assembly session to discuss attack on Kejriwal Bhardwaj alleged that Delhi Police was not paying attention to the attacks on Kejriwal . He said no charge sheet was filed in an attack on the CM at Chhatrasal stadium. A woman had thrown ink at the Delhi Chief Minister during an event at the stadium in January 2016. Chadha expressed suspicion that a firearm may also have been taken inside Kejriwal's residence as a live cartridge had been seized. The leaders alleged that the BJP was behind the "attacks" on Kejriwal. The Secretariat incident was raised during the Delhi Assembly's special session, with Kejriwal himself demanding the Prime Minister's resignation over the issue. "The Prime Minister should resign if he cannot ensure security of the Delhi Chief Minister," he said on Monday. A resolution was passed by the House, dominated by the AAP, seeking the city government's control over Delhi Police. An absconder, facing rape charges, was arrested here on Tuesday after a year-long hunt, police said. The accused Nitish Kumar, a resident of Mahore, was hiding in a house near Ballini bridge in Nagrota and was apprehended by a special police team from Reasi district, a police spokesman said. He said Kumar was evading arrest for the last one year and had been changing his locations which made it difficult for the police team to nab him. He was wanted in connection with a rape case registered at Reasi police station last year, the spokesman said. He said a co-accused in the same case, Kuljeet Singh of Mahore, was arrested a week earlier. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jamas nos callaran Fisica y culturalmente Nec plus ultra, nec variatur Precio del Brent To get the BRENT oil price, please enable Javascript. Precio del WTI To get the oil price, please enable Javascript. Paginas vistas en total Dolar USA Vs Euro Sin ellas, no seremos Deja vu Nada que celebrar Hasta cuando? Colombia Hoy Para nunca olvidar 'Parasite' painted on a statue of Queen, Elizabeth in Kent, England Sin palabras La UE le apunta a la paz Cada vez mas solo Precio del Oro To get the gold price, please enable Javascript. LULA y su Pueblo Bye Bye Homenaje al genial Quino Fueron ellos Una imagen que resume Tan bajo ha caido que se deja tocar el trasero? Porky y el Nene (archiconocido narcotraficante) Ladrones al poder Asi mira el perrito a su amo Crazy Clamor popular La nueva inquisicion Bolivia Chile Hoy Eso es todo amigos! Piensalo! Pinerachet No More Trump Adios Macri, hasta nunca La Marioneta se desinfla Asi o mas cinico Almugre Mexico en 1794 Mas arrastrado imposible Hasta cuando! La pura verdad Solidaridad con Palestina Serie Capitalismo Espejismos de la clase trabajadora Asi es! Comerciantes o delincuentes No pasaran! Asi es la vida USA HOY 01/01/1959 La avaricia no tiene limites AYUDA HUMANITARIA? Chile Hoy Asi son las cosas Mapa Electoral de Venezuela Patagonia argentina? Un aniversario mas del mayor genocidio de la Humanidad Retrato del franquismo en Espana Visca Catalunya! El Chulo de Madrid Cuando la policia se roba la democracia Una imagen dice mas que mil palabras La purita verdad Asi gobierna la maldita burguesia Mi pobre clase media Como Chavez nadie Comparte La Colmena via twitter Twittear Programa de la MUD Asi o mas clarito Por que Trump no ataco Corea del Norte? Hace 15 anos Por que la OEA no se pronuncio? Una verguenza nacional La luz que nos guia La Union Europea Premio Nobel de la Paz? Feudalismo ayer y hoy Obama, el mentiroso Curiosa coincidencia Un mundo de cerdos No es extrano? La Marioneta Los ricos protestan, los pobres celebran MARICORI Y OBAMA Cuantas muertes este ano? 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Por culpa de Chavez Cerveza Polar Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar Translate LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares? Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano... Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos: Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias. Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera. No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje. En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio. Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida. Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella. Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal. Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista. Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen. Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che? Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio. Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora. Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo. Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo. Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania. No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar. Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga. Alguna duda? Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia. OZ1 OZ2 OZ3 OZ4 Homenaje a Jason Galarraga La Victoria de Samotracia Odalisca Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008 La Sierra Nevada de Merida Nuestro precioso Churum Meru Homenaje a Picasso Autoretrato Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola? La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar. Mi profesion? Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos. Sal en la Coca Cola? A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar. De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla: Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido) azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa) Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas Mucha Cafeina Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja. Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos. Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja. En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero). Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma. La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate. Bebidas Light? Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal. Publicado por loretahur En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina: 1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias. 2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina. 3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard. 4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos. 5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla. 6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos. Ahora... sobre la margarina: 1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) . 2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias. 3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno). 4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer. 5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna. 6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo. 7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina. Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas: * No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo). * No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!! No a la guerra, Si a la Paz Misterios de la ciencia... Los costos de la guerra medicos y capitalismo... Capitalismo... medicos (2) Quien educa a nuestros hijos? Los Medios... Sin Palabras... Chistes feministas - Cual es el problema, Eva? - Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas. - Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas... - Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti. - Que es un hombre? - Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente. - Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente. - Cual es el truco?. - Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion. - Cual? - Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer. Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Ellas... Ellas (2)... Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1 Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije: -Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro. Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria. Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre? -Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa! VENGANZA NUMERO 2 Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris. A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita: - Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!! Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta. La mujer paso quince dias en Francia. El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla. Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es: - Y amor me trajiste mi francesita?? - Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina. VENGANZA NUMERO 3 El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion. - No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo. - Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz. Te quiero confesar algo. - Esta bien, esta bien. Habla! - He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga. - Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!! machismo y cibernetica Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston. -Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide. -Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!. .Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos. Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco. Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas Gol !!!! Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso! Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy! Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's first trip abroad since the killing of Saudi writer will offer an early indication of the repercussions he faces from the gruesome slaying. The prince is visiting close allies in the Middle East before attending the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Nov. 30, where he will come face to face with President Donald Trump, who has defended US ties with the kingdom, as well as European leaders and Turkey's president, who has kept pressure mounting on Riyadh since Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. "It's really going to be about can you travel to the rest of Western capitals for the foreseeable future and expect to sort of shake people's hands, and I'm not sure that that's the case," said H A Hellyer, a scholar at the Royal United Services Institute and Atlantic Council. The trip, aimed at rebuilding his image and reinforcing ties with allies, promises to offer a contrast to the prince's lengthy tour across the United States in April, where he met Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, Disney chief Bob Iger, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Apple's Tim Cook and former President George H. Bush, among many "There's no way he could do that sort of trip right now," Hellyer said. The crown prince's plan to attend the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires "tells me that he feels that he's ridden out the storm, or that in order for him to ride out the storm this is exactly what he needs to do." After denying any knowledge of Khashoggi's death for weeks, Saudi authorities eventually settled on the explanation that he was killed in an operation aimed at forcibly bringing the writer back to the kingdom. Saudi prosecutors say the plan was masterminded by two former advisers to the crown prince and are now seeking the death penalty for five people allegedly involved in the killing. That seems to have settled the matter for Trump, who issued an extraordinary statement last week saying the US would not take further action after sanctioning 17 individuals linked to the killing. has brushed aside assessments by US intelligence and other experts that the crown prince must have been involved in the high-level operation, and said he would maintain close relations with Saudi Arabia in part because of its oil wealth and its multi-billion-dollar purchases of US arms. Trump's contention that "maybe he did, maybe he didn't" order the killing appears to have helped pave the way for the crown prince's return to forums. But even if shakes his hand at the G-20 summit, the crown prince could still remain persona non grata within Washington's beltway, where members of Congress from both parties have demanded stronger action, as well as Wall Street and Silicon Valley. He could also get an icy reception from other leaders at the G-20. In Europe there have been calls to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and Canada could still be smarting from a diplomatic row sparked by Saudi anger at its criticism over human rights in the kingdom. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is expected to attend the summit, was instrumental to the global backlash the prince now faces. Despite the outrage, the crown prince's decision to travel to Argentina signals that he still has the strong support of his 82-year-old father, King Salman, and faces no major threat at home. On his first stop on the tour, in the United Arab Emirates, the crown prince was embraced on the tarmac by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, a close ally who has reportedly served as a mentor to the 33-year-old royal. The crown prince attended the Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, where he was filmed in a VIP box chatting with the former King of Spain Juan Carlos and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. In possible a sign of changes underway, Prince Mohammed embarked on his foreign tour with figures who may take on greater prominence as he redraws his circle of advisers. Those include Minister of State Mohammad Al Shaikh, Chief of General Intelligence Khalid al-Humaidan and royal court adviser Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Fahd, among The two close advisers implicated in the Khashoggi killing Saud al-Qahtani, a royal court adviser who was a friend of the crown prince, and Ahmed al-Assiri, a general whom the crown prince had promoted to a top intelligence post were fired last month. The crown prince himself oversees all major levers of power in the kingdom, including the military and security forces. Saudi analyst Mohammed Alyahya said that over the past two years many state institutions in the kingdom were marginalized in favour of a quicker, ad hoc decision-making process led by people with newfound power. "There's a real understanding, I think, in the kingdom, that there needs to be serious structural change to ensure that something like this can never happen again," Alyahya said. "I think we're going to see definitely some return to institutionalism, some return to a consensus-based decision-making process and commitment to defined procedures." Still, it remains to be seen whether a wider circle of advisers will be consulted, whether they will challenge the crown prince and whether he will listen to them. On the eve of polling, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has, in an open letter to the people of Madhya Pradesh, made a fervent appeal to them to support his party to help provide good governance in the central state. Gandhi alleged that Madhya Pradesh in the last 10-15 years is known across the country more for firing upon farmers asking for their rights, crime against women, various scams like Vyapam and Bundelkhand package scam, rising unemployment, sand mafia and for usurping rights of tribals. "Amid all these disappointment, a new hope among the people of Madhya Pradesh has arisen because of the Congress' promises to them. "Our promise of trust ensures that farmers' loans would be waived, electricity bills would be halved, women will get justice, industry would flourish, youth will get permanent jobs and tribals and the poor will look ahead with hope," he said in the letter. Gandhi said he believes that bringing farmers out of debt would means boosting the economy. "If the farmer is prosperous, then the economy will be back on track," he said. Listing some other promises made by the Congress in its manifesto for Madhya Pradesh, the Congress chief said while granting a farm loan waiver, the party would also guarantee remunerative prices for farm produce and bring the power bills down to half. He said the Congress will provide assistance to every girl child in Madhya Pradesh , including free education from school to Ph.D and Rs 51,000 for their marriage. Besides, the party will fulfil the dream of the poor of get their own house, he said. Madhya Pradesh goes to polls on Wednesday and the results will be out on December 11. The Congress is seeking to oust the BJP which has been in power in the state for the last 15 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ruling AIADMK Tuesday contributed a sum of Rs one crore towards relief and rehabilitation efforts in the wake of cyclone Gaja. AIADMK Coordinator and Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam handed over a cheque for Rs one crore to Chief Minister K Palaniswami, an official release said. Palaniswami is AIADMK Joint Coordinator. Cyclone Gaja hit the Tamil Nadu coast between Nagapattinam and Vedaranyam on November 16, and left behind a trail of destruction, besides claiming 63 lives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration had no plans to have any confrontation with the Sentinelese tribe, who killed an American national recently, and was moving cautiously on its investigation, respecting the existing laws that protected the reclusive islanders from outsiders, a top police officer said Tuesday. Director General of Police (DGP) Dependra Pathak negated the reports of the police calling off or suspending their investigation and efforts to retrieve the body of American national John Allen Chau, killed on North Sentinel Island during the course of his illegal trip to the forbidden piece of land. "It is bereft of truth," the DGP told PTI, negating the reports of the police winding up their operation in the case. "The adminstration has no plans to have any confrontation with the Sentinelese tribe," he said, adding that in the initial stages of the operation, it was decided that the law protecting the Sentineles would be respected and the police continued to do so. "The police are maintaining a delicate balance between carrying on the probe and respecting the existing laws that prohibit outsiders' physical contact with the Sentinel islanders," he said. Chau (27) was killed on November 17, based on the account of the fishermen who had taken him to the island, hiding from the glare of the Navy and the Coast Guard. The fishermen had said they saw a body being buried on the shore on November 17, which, from the clothing and circumstances, appeared to be that of Chau. It was said that the American national was killed possibly with arrows. But, Andaman Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) Jatin Narwal had last week said it was a subject of probe. The access to North Sentinel Island and its buffer zone is strictly restricted under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes (Regulation), 1956 and the regulations under the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Chau had made trips to the island five times earlier too, before this misadventure. He had paid Rs 25,000 to the fishermen for the voyage starting November 14. Giving details of the police action so far, the DGP said the probe team had made three trips to the island to "reconstruct the moment-to-moment movement of the US national on the prohibited island". Besides an aerial survey, the team had gone close to the island twice through water and drawn a "sketch-map of the place of the incident", he added. Pathak said to move ahead, the islands administration was in discussion with anthropologists, academics and the "knowledgable locals" to gather more information about the ways of life of the Sentineles and other related details about them. Contact had been established with T N Pandit, the former head of the Port Blair-based office of the Anthropological Survey of India, who had in 1991 made a trip to the island and had a "happy" interaction with the natives, in course of which he had given coconuts to them, he added. "The police are also scanning the 2006 incident," the DGP said. In 2006, two Indian fishermen, who had moored their boat near North Sentinel to sleep after poaching in the waters around the island, were killed and their boat broke loose and drifted onto the shore. Seven persons -- six fishermen and Chau's contact in Port Blair, Alexender -- arrested in the case were being quizzed regularly, Pathak said. Asked about the mechanism to ensure that such incidents did not occur in the future, he said the checking and patrolling were robust but there was scope for improvement. "Our investigation and the diary written by John said their entire plan to move to North Sentinel Island was camouflaged. He had also mentioned that god had sheltered them from the Coast Guard", the DGP added. Thirteen pages of hand-written notes of the American national, which the fishermen who had ferried him to the island had given to Alexender, had a vivid account of the adventure to the island. Hours before he was killed, Chau had survived an arrow attack by a short-statured tribesman as it hit the Bible he was carrying, the diary of the American has revealed. The hand-written notes of Chau, who was killed when he tried to enter the prohibited North Sentinel Island, also mention that he wanted to acquaint the tribal people with the message of Jesus Christ. Pathak had earlier said Chau "appeared to be a staunch believer" (of Christianity). The Sentinelese people are among the tribes that survived the 2004 tsunami without any help from the outside world. For the 2011 Census, the enumerators could locate only 15 Sentinelese people -- 12 men and three women. However, their population could be anywhere between 40 and 400, according to experts. The natives of the island have a past record of attacking visitors. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a series of rallies Tuesday in poll-bound Rajasthan, BJP chief Amit Shah slammed the Congress over corruption, caste-based and Bangladeshi migrants. Corruption was commonplace when the UPA government was in power at the Centre, he alleged in Pali. From 2G and ISRO scam in space, AgustaWestland chopper scam in the sky, Adarsh Society scam on land, submarine scam underwater and coal mining scam beneath the earth, the Congress did not leave a place where they didn't do a scam, he said. He claimed four generations of a family in the Congress enjoyed power for years but did not work for development. The party has no leadership, policy or principles, he charged. He targeted the Congress leaders for asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's caste, saying that the leaders of the opposition party had stooped low. Shah addressed public meetings in Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Udaipur districts of the state which goes to the polls on December 7. In Jalore, he reiterated that the Bharatiya Janata Party government was committed to sending back illegal migrants. Vote for Vasundhara Raje in 2018 in Rajasthan and vote for Narendra Modi in 2019. We will find intruders and throw them out of the country, one by one, Shah said. The Congress did nothing to address the issue of illegal migrants, he said. The allegation was also made in the manifesto for the assembly polls, released Tuesday by the BJP in Jaipur. Attacking Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he said, "Rahul'baba' asks us to give a report of our four and a half years of performance. He and his family have been in power for four and a half generations. They should be the first one to talk about their performance." He said the Congress lost elections across states in the last four years and it is now difficult to find the party even with binoculars. It is good to dream but the Congress chief is daydreaming to form the government in Rajasthan. I want to say once again that the BJP is going to form the government here, Shah said. He referred to a reported incident in Bikaner where Congress workers raising 'Bharat mata ki jai' slogans were interrupted by 'Sonia Gandhi ki jai' slogans. They are ashamed of chanting slogans for the country," he said. Praising Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for financial management, he said the BJP government increased the state's revenue and put it on the path of growth and development. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Textile-to-retail conglomerate Arvind has invested Rs 350 crore in developing a manufacturing hub in Gujarat with three garment facilities that can push up its revenues by Rs 1,000 crore. Two of the facilities were inaugurated on Tuesday by Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and the third one is expected to commence operations over the next few weeks. They will add a capacity of 3 million garments a month to the company's current operations. These large-scale facilities will employ 12,000 people as operations reach optimal capacity and many more ancillary jobs are expected to be created around them. "These manufacturing facilities, set up with an investment of Rs 350 crore, will further strengthen Arvind's position in the global textiles and garmenting market as an integrated fibre-to-fashion provider and solutions provider to global retailers and brands," its chairman and managing director Sanjay Lalbhai said. Arvind also plans to invest Rs 500 crore per annum for the next 4-5 years with an aim to double revenue from its textile business to Rs 12,000 crore, the company said. Currently, only 10 per cent of the fabrics produced by the company are converted into garments and it aims to convert nearly 50 per cent over the next 5 years. "Bavla (Gujarat) facilities are a step in this direction. These will also contribute to the company's foray into performance and functional wear (active wear) and synthetics. They are one of the several we are planning to create over the next few years," Lalbhai said. He further said that Arvind will develop large garment clusters in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh besides Gujarat. "Each of these clusters will employ over 10,000 workers. Our current manpower of over 45,000 is expected to more than double as these clusters become operational and reach optimal scale," Lalbhai added. Recently, Arvind received the approval from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for its scheme of demerger of its branded apparel and engineering businesses into separate entities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal Assembly Tuesday passed an amendment bill to empower the state government to appoint an administrator of the Howrah Municipal Corporation. The Assembly passed the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 which empowers the government to appoint an administrator in case of election of the HMC not held within the statutory time limit. The term of the present board of the Howrah Municipal Corporation will end next month. If for any reason, it is not possible to hold the general election of the Corporation before expiry of the period of five years, the Board of Councillors shall stand dissolved on the expiration of the said period. Speaking about the Bill, moved by him, state's Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said that if an administrator has to be appointed, he would continue to this post for at least six months. The bill would facilitate to open bank account of Municipal fund into any scheduled bank within or outside the Corporation area. It would also extend the benefit of exemption of property tax to the senior citizen, the minister said. The Bill would also help in the selection of personnel by the West Bengal Municipal Service Commission, he said. Simultaneously, The West Bengal Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, was also passed in the state Assembly Tuesday to extend many such benefits in other Municipal Corporations in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A speeding autorickshaw rammed into a school van from behind, resulting in the death of an eight-year-old boy and severely injuring a girl in north Delhi's Timarpur on Tuesday, police said. The deceased was the son of an assistant sub-inspector in Delhi Police's Crime Branch, they added. The incident took place near Nirankari Sarovar area when the school van was taking back students of a private school in Model Town to their homes at around 2 pm, a senior police officer said. The Maruti Eco van was hit by the autorickshaw carrying goods. An eight-year-old boy, who was sitting behind, sustained severe injuries and was rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to injuries, police said. The impact of the accident was such that both the auto rickshaw and the school van turned sides. The 10-year-old girl was admitted to the Sushruta Trauma Centre in Civil Lines. She is out of danger now, the senior officer said. Others who sustained minor injuries were also taken to a private nursing home nearby where they were given first-aid, he said. Police said the accused driver, however, escaped unhurt. A case has been registered. The accused auto-rickshaw driver identified as Salman (21), a resident of Azadpur Mandi, has been arrested in connection with the incident, he added. Police said there were reportedly 10 students in the van from a school in Model Town. Further investigation is underway. In April this year, a seven-year-old girl was killed and 17 students were injured after a milk-tanker rammed into a private school van near the Kanhaiya Nagar metro station in northwest Delhi, following which the Delhi government ordered a magisterial probe into the incident. The Delhi Traffic Police has issued 6,532 challans to school vans and cab drivers who violated traffic rules this year, almost three times the number of challans issued in the last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bahrain's investment promotion agency Economic Development Board (EDB) has called for closer economic ties with India, as it looks to shore up the tourism sector and establish itself as a financial as well as fin-tech hub in the GCC region. India and Bahrain have a longstanding economic and trade relationship. A large number of Indian businesses have already established operations in Bahrain. Seeking to strengthen and further build economic ties, Bahrain EDB has established international offices in both New Delhi and Mumbai," said EDB Managing Director Simon Galpin. "We are looking at regular visits to India in 2019, starting this December," Simon said. The gulf country is also looking to attract Indian tech companies in financial sector and offers various incentives to them for setting up business in Bahrain. It is also working with some Indian states on cooperation and development of the fin-tech sector and is looking to sign some MoUs either in December or next year. The EDB provides assistance to Indian investors interested in setting up business in Bahrain. Bahrain provides a competitive environment, a simplified licensing process for foreign corporation, taxation incentives, a welcoming environment and an unlimited access to Gulf and Middle Eastern markets, said Bahrain EDB. The gulf country is also aligning its economic policies in order to project itself as cost effective alternative to Dubai and other business-friendly neighbours. It is also looking to create enabling ecosystem for startups, including viable financing options. "We are very keen to tap into not only the early stage startups that are coming out of leading Indian cities, but also scaleups. Bahrain is a great test market for companies which want to diversify outside of India. A lot of Indian entrepreneurs are starting business here. What we are making sure is the right funding options for them...We are looking to bring crowd funding that could be the next step for some entrepreneurs," Simon said. Tourism, on the other hand, was one of the Bahrain's highest potential growth sectors for foreign investors in 2017, constituting around 10 per cent of the total investment flows into the country. On the tourism side, we have great connectivity, lots of flights to Indian cities. We really wish, we should be getting more tourists coming from India, Jerad Bachar, Executive Director of Tourism and Leisure Investment, EDB said. Today, one-third of Bahrain's total population of 1.3 million is Indians, making them the largest expat community in the country. "Due to cultural and geographical proximity, the Gulf provides an attractive option to promote Bahrain to India or Indian sub-continent, Hatim Dadabai, MD, Dadabai Group said. Hatim, whose family migrated from Rajasthan to the gulf nation in early 1900s, also hailed Bahrain's consistent economic policies for conducive business environment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Khaleda Zia, the jailed former prime minister, Tuesday was barred from contesting next month's general elections by a top court, which ruled that a person imprisoned for over two years cannot participate in polls. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the BNP chairperson, who is convicted in two graft cases, cannot contest the upcoming 11th general election on December 30. The 73-year-old ex-premier is now serving jail terms in two graft cases involving charities named after her slain husband Ziaur Rahman. "She is disqualified from taking part in the upcoming elections," Alam told a press conference, hours after the issued a rule saying persons jailed for more than two years even if their appeals are pending with the courts cannot contest the polls. Our company offers UCO with SGS certificate. We have a regular shipment of used cooking oil to various contries in Europe, we can provide UCO in different type grade of FFA. All UCO shipment shipped by container and ISO Tank, oil certificate test lab issued by official company such as SGS, SUCOFINDO and TUV Rheinland. We can supply 1000 MT per month. Specifications: 1.Used cooking oil 2.bulk cooking oil 3.vegetable cooking oil 4.Acid oil 5.Crude Palm oil UCO available in : 1. 1-3 % Free fatty acid 2. 3-5 % Free fatty acid 3. 5-12 % Free fatty acid 4.10 - 20 % Free fatty acid Iodine value: 50 Moisture and inpurity value: 0.1% Packaging: 1) Jerry can: 2L, 3L, 5L, 7L, 8L, 10L, 16L, 18L, 20L, 25L 2) Big mouth jerry can: 10L, 16L, 18L 3) Pet bottle: 1L, 1.8L, 2L, 3L, 5L 4) Tin: 18L , 20L 5) Metal drums: 190KGS & 192KG 6) Poly/HDPE drums: 195KGS 7) Flexi tank: 21,500KGMT West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Tuesday gave his assent to a Bill enabling a non-councillor to become the mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, a top Raj Bhavan official said. After a discussion with state advocate general, the governor gave his assent and the requisite papers were sent to the department, the official told PTI. The state assembly had passed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill 2018 on November 22. The amendment was introduced to appoint Firhad Hakim, the state urban minister, as the mayor after incumbent Sovan Chatterjee resigned from the position on Thursday last. Hakim is not yet an elected councillor. According to the Bill, a non-councillor could be appointed as mayor Kolkata Municipal Corporation, but the person has to get elected as a councillor of KMC within six months. The existing law allowed only an elected councillor to occupy the post of the Mayor. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP rolled out its Rajasthan poll manifesto on Tuesday, promising 30,000 new government jobs every year, 50 lakh employment opportunities over the next five years in the private sector and an allowance for the educated jobless. It also held out a possibility to farmers of doubling their income, helped by a new Rs 250-crore fund to encourage rural start-ups. The manifesto for the December 7 assembly polls said illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Rohingya Muslims would be identified and expelled, and Hindus who had to leave Pakistan offered citizenship. The manifesto unveiled here by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his cabinet colleagues Prakash Javadekar and Arjun Ram Meghwal. The document, called 'Rajasthan Gaurav Sankalp', also mentioned efforts to check cow smuggling in the state. Raje said the Eastern Rajasthan Canal project, which addresses the irrigation and drinking water problem in 13 districts of eastern Rajasthan, will be taken up on priority. The Bharatiya Janata Party promised expansion of cooperative loans for the agriculture sector, saying loans worth Rs 1 lakh crore will be disbursed in the next five years. If the Raje government returns to power, there will be farmers' visits to Israel and other countries to study best practices. It will pick a district in each division to focus on organic farming. Farming of medicinal plants will also be encouraged. Creation of jobs is a big part of the manifesto. Raje promised the enactment of an employment guarantee scheme on the lines of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for urban areas. Apart from creating 30,000 government jobs every year, the manifesto assured 50 lakh job opportunities over five years in the private sector, including through self-employment. Educated unemployed youths above 21 will be given an unemployment allowance of up to Rs 5,000 a month, the manifesto said. It also carried promises for the tribals and Dalits. A Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar pilgrimage fund will be established, Ambedkar Peeth in Jaipur declared a national-level tourist site, Dr Ambedkar chairs set up at government universities and e-libraries introduced in Ambedkar community halls. The BJP announced that the state government will spend about Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years for the development of tribal sub-plan areas. The next BJP government will recommend to the Centre to include 'Meena', along with 'Mina', in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) and will construct memorials to tribal leaders in Dungarpur, Kota, Bundi, Banswara and Jaipur. In the education sector, a private school board or an empowered committee will help the government decide policies and a Vedic studies board will be set up. The party also promised a scheme for providing meritorious students taking admission in government schools with laptops or smartphones. Every government college will get an e-library, the party said. The party said it would set up additional check posts to prevent cow smuggling in the Mewat region. The next BJP government would rope in Akshya Patra Foundation or a similar organisation to manage cow shelters, it said. Promises on industries, tourism, women welfare, social justice, youth and journalists also figure in the manifesto. Chief Minister Raje claimed that her government fulfilled 630 out of the 665 promises made in the 2013 manifesto. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Using the word 'Gorakh Dhanda' to describe unethical practices will be a punishable offence if the BJP is voted to power again in Rajasthan, the party said in its poll manifesto Tuesday. Releasing the manifesto for the December 7 assembly polls, the party said the word hurts the sentiments of the followers of saint Gorakhnath and therefore its use should be stopped. In the election manifesto unveiled Tuesday by Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Prakash Javadekar, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the BJP said a law will be made to ban and punish for using 'Gorakh Dhandha' word which is commonly used for unethical and unfair practices. Explaining the rationale behind the promise, Onkar Singh Lakhawat, member of the manifesto committee, told PTI, "Guru Gorakhnath was a saint and using this word hurts sentiments of followers, therefore, this will be banned." Besides, the party also promised to include the details of Gorakshnath or Goraknath in the textbooks of the Rajasthan State Textbook Board. As per the manifesto, a national memorial of Guru Gorakhnath will be made and Mutt/Aasan of the Nath community will be renovated. A library of Gorakhnath's literature related with Yoga and Tantra will also be set up. In Rajasthan, Jodhpur is the main centre of the Nath community. Gorakhnath was a Hindu yogi and saint who founded the Nath Hindu monastic movement in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Highlighting India's strategic advantages in the Indian Ocean Region, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said the blue economy is crucial for the country's economic development. The minister left for Nairobi on Tuesday to attend the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, organised by Kenya with Canada and Japan as co-hosts. He will address the conference on Wednesday. The Blue Economy refers to sustainable use of ocean resources for growth, jobs and improved living standards, while preserving the ecosystem. It encompasses areas like maritime transport, fisheries, renewable energy, waste management and tourism, according to the World Bank. "Gadkari said India has a strategic location in the Indian Ocean Region, and on this basis, it endorses the growth of the blue economy in a sustainable, inclusive and people-centred manner through the framework of the Indian Ocean Rim Association," the shipping ministry said in a statement. The minister said India is developing maritime infrastructure as well as inland waterways and coastal shipping through the launch of ambitious Sagarmala Programme, which will revolutionise maritime logistics and port-led developments in the country. India's national vision about the sector is clearly articulated in the term 'SAGAR: Security and Growth for All in the Region' coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the statement quoted Gadkari as saying. The Sagarmala Programme has identified over 600 projects entailing an investment of around Rs 8 lakh crore (USD 120 billion) by 2020. This will save the country nearly USD 6 billion per annum in logistics costs, besides creating 10 million new jobs and boosting port capacity by 800 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) to an overall 3,500 MMTPA, the statement said. Gadkari said coastal economic zones (CEZs) are being developed under Sagarmala with a proposed investment of USD 150 million per location, it added. He added that the CEZs would become a microcosm of the blue economy, wherein industries and townships that depend on the sea and contribute to global trade through sea connectivity are envisaged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One of Britain's leading Indian-origin businessmen, who features regularly on the country's annual rich list, has contributed one million pounds to the University of Bristol for a new campus it is building. Bhikhu Patel, himself an architecture graduate from the university, and his wife Shashi, contributed the funds recently towards the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC), which the university said is set to revolutionise teaching and learning. "I fell in love with Bristol the university and city. I couldn't have achieved what I have in my business and personal life without my degree. I've always followed the university and been very proud of its research and teaching successes," said Patel, who graduated from Bristol University in 1973. " is very important to me. I came to the UK from Kenya with virtually nothing and was the beneficiary of a first-class education," he said. After leaving the university, Patel followed a career as an architect before taking on a couple of small businesses with his wife. In the early 1980s, he joined forces with his brother Vijay to work in the pharmaceutical industry and went on to co-found the successful Waymade pharmaceutical group. Patel said, "My father died when I was young, and my mother set up her own business whilst also caring for her family. I learnt self-reliance at a very early age from her as well as a strong belief in philanthropic giving and helping others who are less well off". "I have supported charities overseas in India and Kenya, but I wanted to give something back to Bristol. The new campus will put the university and Bristol on the global map and will bring tremendous benefits to the city and society as a whole," he said. He said the university's new campus will attract the best and brightest from around the world and will be a very stimulating teaching environment, combining the classroom with business and industry. "Entrepreneurship is in my blood and so many modern institutions don't cater for this. TQEC will answer this in a very exciting way. The new campus will also be accessible to the wider communities of Bristol inviting them to be part of university life," he added. As well as supporting the new campus, the Patels are also providing support to students most in financial need. Professor Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor and President, described the Patels' "tremendous generosity" as "essential" to the new campus where business will be co-located with world-class science and engineering research and development. "We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build on our history as one of the world's great civic universities through the transformation of a key site at the heart of our city. Our new campus will be a beacon of collaboration, innovation and opportunity," Brady said. "It will turn a neglected area into a new destination; an open, green, inclusive centre for transformative innovation. It will be relevant to international, national and local communities. It will inspire and connect local people, social enterprises, businesses, academics and students. It will create jobs and celebrate Bristol culture," he said. Steve O'Connor, Director of Development and Alumni Relations, said, "Bhikhu and Shashi's belief in higher and tremendous support for the university will be instrumental in realising our vision for the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus as a beacon of digital innovation and enterprise". "We greatly value the expertise, involvement and philanthropic support of all our alumni and friends which is helping to power our researchers, our academy, our students and our contribution to this great city and worldwide. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A well-known British radio presenter who had been living in Lebanon for years was found dead in his apartment in a mountain town near Beirut on Tuesday after being apparently murdered, Lebanese officials said. Gavin Ford's death led to an outpouring of shock and sadness on social media by people who followed his popular morning program on all-music Radio One station. The 65-year-old Ford had worked for the station since the 1990s, gaining a large number of fans in Lebanon. One official said Ford's body was found Tuesday morning but refused to provide further details about the killing. LBC TV said Ford was strangled and struck on the head, leading to his death. Another official confirmed Ford was strangled, and said security agents are questioning his neighbors for details about who visited him in recent days. Ford's apartment is in the town of Beit Mery, east of Beirut. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. Ford celebrated his birthday on Monday, according to his Facebook page which was filled with posts of people grieving his death. "We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear Gavin Ford, a member of our team for many joyful years," Radio One posted on its Facebook page. Britain's Ambassador to Lebanon, Chris Rampling, tweeted: "I am shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Gavin Ford, one of Lebanon's most popular morning breakfast hosts." "The thoughts of all at the Embassy are with his family, friends and colleagues at this terribly difficult time," Rampling said. In December, British Embassy worker Rebecca Dykes was found murdered on the side of a road near Beirut. The suspected killer, an Uber driver, was later detained and is expected to stand trial. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British academic Matthew Hedges returned to London on Tuesday, his family said, a day after the UAE pardoned his life sentence for spying in a case he described as "very surreal". "After almost seven months of detention, including six months in solitary confinement, British PhD researcher Matthew Hedges has returned safely back to London," his family said in a statement. Concluding an ordeal which stunned Britain, he was welcomed back to Britain by his wife Daniela Tejada and other members of his family. "I don't know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release," Hedges said in the statement. "I have not seen or read much of what has been written over the past few days but Dani tells me the support has been incredible." He thanked the British embassy in the United Arab Emirates, the Foreign Office and especially his wife for their efforts in securing his release. "She is so brave and strong. Seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened," Hedges said. "I thank you all once again. This is very surreal." Britain thanked its Gulf ally after he was among more than 700 prisoners pardoned by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for next month's National Day. The UAE showed footage at a conference in the capital Abu Dhabi in which Hedges purportedly confessed to being an MI6 foreign intelligence agent. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt expressed gratitude to the oil-rich state, which London considers a strategic Middle East ally and supplies with arms. "I am so happy to have my Matt home," Tejada said on Tuesday. "We are overjoyed and exhausted! "Matt and I, as well as his family, really need some time to process everything that we have been through. "No one should ever have to go through what he did and it will take him time to heal and recover. He is very overwhelmed. To say we are happy is an understatement." Hedges, a 31-year-old researcher at Durham University, was detained while researching the UAE's foreign and internal security policies after the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011. He was arrested on May 5 at Dubai airport. He was sentenced to life in jail by a court in Abu Dhabi last week after he was convicted of spying for a foreign country. UAE state minister for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said the pardon allowed the two countries to refocus on developing relations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An abandoned Pakistani boat was seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) near Sir Creek area off the Gujarat coast in the Arabian sea, an official said Tuesday. The fishing boat was found abandoned in the Sir Creek estuary along the Indo-Pakistan border near Kutch off the Gujarat coast Monday night by a BSF patrolling team, he said. No fisherman was found in the boat, the official said. A search operation was launched in the area but no one was found, he said, adding that some fishing equipments were seized from the boat. Pakistani fishermen have several times crossed over to the Indian waters on boats during fishing. In October, the BSF had caught five Pakistani nationals from Indian territorial waters from creek area in the Arabian Sea near border pillar number G-33 close to the Indo-Pakistan border. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress legislator H M Shangpliang on Tuesday took a jibe at the frequent visits of central ministers to the Northeast, saying the 'Look East' Policy has become 'Visit East' Policy. Addressing the Assembly, the MLA said the ministers "enjoy their picnics" at the expense of the state governments. "The Look East Policy turned into 'Act East' Policy under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. The same has now become 'Visit East' Policy. The central ministers stay at good hotels and enjoy their picnics, while the state governments pay their bills," Shangpliang told the House during a special session. Under the direction of the PM, central ministers, since assuming office in 2014, have been visiting the northeast states every fortnight to review the implementation of development schemes. "As they (ministers) come as guests, the state government bears the burden of their food and car rental expenses too," the MLA added. (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 Delhi BJP legislators Tuesday sought a detailed probe into the chilli powder attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to unearth a "conspiracy" by the AAP, which, they said, was playing the "victim card". The MLAs met Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and demanded the arrest of an aide of Kejriwal, who, they alleged, facilitated the entry of the man who threw chilli powder on the chief minister at the secretariat here. "It is surprising that the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and the AAP have not filed a complaint. Do the CMO and the AAP have nothing to do with the safety and security of the chief minister," Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said. Demanding the arrest of an aide of the chief minister, the BJP leader said the aide had allegedly facilitated the entry of the accused, Anil Sharma, into the secretariat. "The high voltage drama by the AAP in Delhi, smells (like) a conspiracy to play victim card over the issue," Gupta said. Sharma threw the chilli powder at Kejriwal outside his office in the Delhi Secretariat last week. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) described the attack as "politically motivated", while asserting that the BJP is hatching a conspiracy in collusion with the Delhi Police to attack the chief minister. On Monday, MLAs of the Kejriwal-led party had slammed the police and the Centre over the attack in the ongoing Special Session of the Delhi assembly. Top party leaders, including Kejriwal, have accused the BJP of having a hand in attacks on him in past three years. Kejriwal himself demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi resign if he cannot ensure a Delhi chief minister's security. Gupta alleged there were "discrepancies in the allegations of the Delhi government, Home department minister Satyendar Jain and the AAP, and still the BJP was being targeted over the issue, although police interrogation of Sharma revealed that he had no affiliation with the (BJP) party." "It is requested that the matter may be taken on top priority to clean the foul air created due to propaganda of Delhi government and the AAP," he said in a memorandum submitted to Patnaik. Gupta was accompanied by his party MLAs OP Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan during the meeting with the police commissioner. Delhi Police has registered a case into the attack on the chief minister with its Crime Branch probing the matter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Siberian unicorn was wiped out about 36,000 years ago due to the reduction in grassland resulting from climate change, rather than the impact of humans, according to a study unveiled Tuesday. The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, sheds light on the origin and extinction of the giant, shaggy Ice Age rhinoceros known as the Siberian unicorn because of its extraordinary single horn. An international team led by London's Natural History Museum, settled a long-standing debate about the relationship of the Siberian unicorn to living rhinos. The researchers revealed that the Siberian unicorn survived much later than previously believed, overlapping in time with modern humans. They found that the Siberian unicorn became extinct around 36,000 years ago. This was most likely because of reduction in steppe grassland where it lived due to climate change rather than the impact of humans, the researchers said. Today there are just five surviving species of rhino, although in the past there have been as many as 250 species, they said. Weighing up to 3.5 tonnes with a single enormous horn, the Siberian unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum), which roamed the steppe of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Northern China, was undoubtedly one of the most impressive. Genetic analyses performed at the University of Adelaide in Australia, have shown that the Siberian unicorn was the last surviving member of a unique family of rhinos. "The ancestors of the Siberian unicorn split from the ancestors of all living rhinos over 40 million years ago," said Kieren Mitchell, who analysed the DNA of the Siberian unicorn. It is the first time DNA has ever been recovered from E sibiricum, said Mitchell. "That makes the Siberian unicorn and the African white rhino even more distant cousins than humans are to monkeys," Mitchell said. This new genetic evidence overturns previous studies that suggested the Siberian unicorn was a very close relative of the extinct woolly rhino and living Sumatran rhino. It had long been assumed that the Siberian unicorn went extinct well before the last Ice Age, perhaps as much as 200,000 years ago. In this study 23 Siberian unicorn bone specimens were dated, confirming that the species survived until at least 39,000 years ago, and possibly as late as 35,000 years ago. The Siberian unicorn's final days were shared with early modern humans and Neanderthals, researchers said. "It is unlikely that the presence of humans was the cause of extinction," said Professor Chris Turney, climate scientist at the University of New South Wales. "The Siberian unicorn appears to have been badly hit by the start of the ice age in Eurasia when a precipitous fall in temperature led to an increase in the amount of frozen ground, reducing the tough, dry grasses it lived on and impacting populations over a vast region," Turney said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bangladeshi nationals including Hindus should not be granted citizenship as proposed in the Citizenship Amendment Bill, opposition members Tuesday suggested saying India is a secular country and nationality should not be granted on the basis of religion, sources said. The suggestion was given by the Congress and other opposition members at a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the bill which is chaired by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, a source who was present in the meeting said. The bill seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. "The members have given various suggestions and the panel will decide in its next meeting which amendments will have to be taken up for consideration. The amendments for the bill have to be passed by the committee through consensus. But if it doesn't happen then we will go for voting," Agarwal told PTI after the three-hour-long meeting. The ruling NDA has maximum members in the 30-member panel. During the meeting, the opposition members moved clause-by-clause amendments and one of them from a Congress MP was to remove Bangladesh from the purview of the proposed legislation, another member who attended the meeting said. Interestingly, a BJP-supported member suggested that Assam, where the bill received strong opposition, should be excluded from the ambit of the legislation. Opposition members from the TMC and the Left parties have claimed victory saying the BJP has "backed off" as it was pushing for concluding the deliberations on the bill by Tuesday itself. Various members from opposition parties asserted that citizenship is a constitutional provision and it cannot be based on religion, as India is a secular nation. Rather than resolving the situation in Assam, this bill is making the situation more volatile in the already-tensed state, a Left party member in the panel said. Echoing similar sentiments, a Congress member said if all the proposed amendments come into force, then the Centre has to nullify the Assam Accord under which anyone entering the state illegally after March 1971, should be declared foreigner and deported. The Joint Parliamentary Committee is set to table its report in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament in December. The bill is receiving vehement opposition in Assam and other Northeastern states. A large section of people, organisations in the Northeast have opposed the bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. The Meghalaya and Mizoram governments have strongly opposed the Citizenship Amendment Bill and adopted resolutions against it. The committee has already taken six extensions from the Lok Sabha Speaker. It has sought time for the presentation of the report on the "first day of the last week of the Winter Session, 2018". During the course of its examination and study visits, the committee met a cross section of people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Meghalaya and heard views of organisations, individuals, experts and others. The committee also heard the views of the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 35-year-old police sub-inspector posted in Mumbai was killed Tuesday after being hit by a train, a day after he was booked in a rape case, in what police suspect is a case of suicide. The incident took place this morning near the Shivajinagar railway station here, said police. The Government Railway Police (GRP) identified the deceased as Sajan Sanap, a native of Nashik in North Maharashtra who was attached to the Amboli police station in Mumbai. GRP officials said they suspect Sanap committed suicide, but the reason was not yet known. "The incident took place between 9.30 and 10.30 am. Some people alerted police after spotting his body on the railway track," an officer said. It has come to light that a case under IPC sections 376 (punishment for rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 354 (d) (stalking) was registered against Sanap in Nashik Monday, he said. "Currently, a case of accidental death has been registered, but we are investigating from all angles, including suicide one," the officer added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court Tuesday asked a complainant to record his evidence in support of his plea seeking registration of an FIR against Union minister V K Singh for his alleged "dog" remark in the wake of the burning of two Dalit children in Haryana three years ago. Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra allowed the complainant, Satya Prakash Gautam, a lawyer by profession, to record his evidence and posted the matter to January 14 next year. "Complainant has filed certificate under section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, along with other documents. Be taken on record. Put up for complainant's evidence on January 14, 2019," the court said. The decision of the court came on a plea alleging that Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, had hurt the sentiments of the Dalit community by his October 21, 2015 remarks made on the murder of two children in Faridabad. Singh had kicked up a storm with his alleged remarks that the government could not be blamed if someone threw a stone at a dog. "If somebody throws a stone at a dog, then the government is responsible. It is not like that," he had allegedly said. The court had earlier allowed Gautam to withdraw his plea, while granting him liberty to file a fresh complaint on the issue. The lawyer had subsequently filed a fresh complaint that came up for hearing Tuesday. Initially, a complaint was filed before a magistrate, who had on December 7, 2015 dismissed it, observing that no criminal offence was "ex-facie" made out against the minister. The police had opposed the plea, saying no cognisable offence was made out against Singh for his alleged remarks on October 21, 2015. Thereafter, Gautam had filed a revision petition, challenging the trial court's order and alleging that the magistrate "has only desperately tried to shield the proposed accused under various pretexts, including those not even on record, like the intention of the proposed accused, while making impugned statements, which were the basis of filing the present complaint". The magisterial court had said that for no reason could Singh's statement be seen as one made to demean any caste or creed and it did not see it as an "analogy drawn between a dog (as an animal) and humans (of a caste or creed)". It had earlier directed the police to file an action taken report (ATR) on the complaint seeking lodging of an FIR against Singh under the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The police, in its ATR, had told the court that Singh had not made any "specific derogatory and humiliating statement", warranting his prosecution on the complaint. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday vacated former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's case against a law that barred him from public office following a tax fraud conviction, at Berlusconi's request. The court in Strasbourg, France, said that Berlusconi requested that the case be struck last July, after an Italian court ruled that the three-time former premier was again eligible for public office. It concluded that there were "no special circumstances relating to respect for human rights," which would require it to continue the case. Berlusconi had petitioned the human rights court in Strasbourg, France in 2013, arguing that his human rights were violated when his political career was sidelined by a 2012 tax fraud conviction. Berlusconi, who had stepped down from his third term as premier nearly a year before the conviction, was sentenced to four years in prison and an Italian law makes anyone sentenced to more than two years ineligible for public office for six years. As a result, he was forced to give up his Senate seat. Berlusconi, now 82, did public service in lieu of jail time. Any court decision would have had no practical effect, as a court in Milan ruled earlier this year that the three-time former premier was again eligible for office due to good conduct. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The opposition CPI(M) MLAs Tuesday staged a walk out in the Tripura Assembly over implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommendations for the state government employees. Replying to a notice on the implementation of the 7th CPC moved by CPI(M) MLA Badal Chowdhury, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, who also holds the Finance portfolio said the BJP-IPFT government decided to implement 7th CPC for over two lakh employees and pensioners of the state from October, this year despite huge fiscal constraint. "Despite huge fiscal constraints, the new government has given 2.57 per cent booster and the employees and pensioners would get at par with the Central government employees," he said. However, Chowdhury wanted to know if the government had implemented the 7th CPC as promised in the partys vision document published before the February 2018 elections. The deputy chief minister said, "In spite of huge financial burden of Rs 1,600 crore, the new government has given new pay scales to the employees and pensioners and some allowances are pending which will be considered later on." But Chowdhury, told the deputy chief minister to reply in yes or No, whether 7th CPC has been implemented in the state. Then Dev Barma said, "You are not a lawyer and I am not an accused. So, you cant get my answer in yes or no." CPI(M) MLA Bhanu Lal Saha said the governments decision to provide 7th CPC to the employees doesnt match to the promise given in the BJPs vision document. Then Health Minister Sudip Roy Barman said that the government has done its best effort to provide 7th CPC benefits. "If 7th CPC is not given to the employees, the state government will not be able to project its non-plan liabilities to the XV Finance Commission. The BJP-IPFT government cannot commit the same mistakes what the Left Front did during XIV Finance Commission," he said. Another CPI-M, MLA Tapan Chakraborty alleged that the BJP-IPFT government did not implement the 7th CPC and what was given is "nothing but an eye wash". The Deputy Speaker Biswabandhu Sen then announced that this discussion would not be allowed any more as it was discussed for long time. Angry with the deputy speakers decision, the opposition CPI(M) walked out of the House. But after 20 minutes they returned to the House and participated in the proceedings of the Assembly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Agri-chemcial firm Crystal Crop Protection Tuesday said it has acquired Swiss-based Syngenta's three brands -- Proclaim, Tilt and Blue Copper, in India. Crystal Crop Protection also plans to launch its IPO to raise an estimated Rs 1,000 crore. This acquisition from Syngenta will enhance Crystal's penetration in the pulses, cotton, rice, wheat, vegetable and grapes markets in India, Crystal Crop said in a statement. Crystal Crop Protection manufactures crop protection products which include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and plant growth regulators and bio-stimulants. "The Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed the divestment of these brands to Crystal while approving the global acquisition of Syngenta by ChemChina. We are confident that Crystal will continue to steward the products for the benefit of the farming communities," Syngenta India's MD Rafael Del Rio said. Commenting on the acquisition, Crystal Crop MD Ankur Aggarwal said this acquisition is in line with the company's vision and philosophy of ensuring growth for all the stakeholders. "Inclusion of high equity brands in our portfolio will strengthen us to provide best in class crop protection solution to farmers and thus increase their farm productivity," he added. This is the company's fourth acquisition in the calendar year 2018. The first acquisition was of the manufacturing facility at MIDC, from Cytec India Specialty Chemicals & Materials Pvt Ltd, the second was the purchase of Indian gram sorghum, pearl millet and fodder sorghum seeds business from Syngenta India, Devgen NV, Belgium and Devgen Seeds and Crop Technology Pvt Ltd. The third was the acquisition of four brands namely Furadan, Splendour, Affinity Force and Metcil from FMC India Ltd. Crystal has made number of acquisitions in the past few years. Crystal signed an agreement with Germany's BASF SE in 2016 to acquire the brand Bavistin for use in India. It also acquired Hyderabad-based company Rohini-Seeds Pvt Ltd and Rohini Bioseeds and Agritech Pvt Ltd in 2011, which has brought its presence in the seeds market. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court Tuesday issued production warrant against former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala for December 7 in over Rs 6 crore money laundering case. Special Judge Sunil Kumar Sisodia took cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate's charge sheet in the case and directed Tihar jail authorities to produce Chautala. He is currently serving a 10-year jail term in a separate case related to teachers' recruitment scam. The final report, filed by ED's special public prosecutor N K Matta, sought Chautala's prosecution under sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED informed the court that disproportionate assets worth Rs 6.09 crore were "illegally generated" by Chautala between May 1993 and May 2006, through corruption and were projected as untainted property by utilizing them in the construction and in acquiring movable assets. Chautala is serving imprisonment for illegally recruiting 3,206 Junior Basic Trained (JBT) teachers in Haryana in 2000. The CBI had on March 26, 2010 charge-sheeted Chautala indicting him for allegedly possessing assets worth Rs 6.09 crore, far exceeding his legal income between 1993 and 2006. The ED had filed a separate case based on the CBI's FIR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The fundamental rights of dalits are not protected under the BJP rule at the Centre and BJD regime in Odisha, state PCC president Niranjan Patnaik alleged here Tuesday. The Congress on the other hand "has always and will always keep fighting for the rights of the dalits", he said at a gathering of dalits here. When the governments at the Centre and the state are talking on development and financial inclusion they do not give priority to the Dalits, he said. "The atrocities against Dalits will increase if these political parties try to end the reservation system and amend the rule," the OPCC president said. Hitting out at the BJD government of Naveen Patnaik, he said that under its 18-year rule the social and financial conditions of the dalits have worsened. "Minus Dalits there can be no development of Odisha," Patnaik said adding the section in Odisha needs social and financial development. "Some political parties like BJP have never raised their issues". Turning to the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, he said it is "anti-dalit". A number of schemes must be prepared and implemented for the dalits with sincerity as only reservation cannot bring them fortune or develop them. Congress appointed B R Ambedkar as the head of Constitution drafting body of India because it wanted to protect the fundamental rights of Dalits as well as every section of the society, Patnaik said. "But RSS opposed the Constitution written by Ambedkar. It does not want that all sections of the society to get equal opportunities and equal status," he said. Prominent dalit leader Jignesh Mewani, who is also a Congress MLA from Gujrat, too criticised both BJD and BJP for their attitude towards the dalits. The Odisha government is silent on the gang rape of a minor dalit girl at Kunduli in Koraput district. A 14-year old girl had alleged that she was raped by four men in uniform in October 2017. The girl committed suicide earlier this year. "It is surprising that the BJD government is not raising its voice against the BJP government at the Centre on the Rafale scam. BJP and BJD are two sides of a coin. They support each other in every act," Mewani alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Assembly Tuesday adopted a resolution asking the chief electoral officer (CEO) to conduct a door-to-door survey to verify names of voters deleted from electoral rolls of the national capital. The resolution also asked the government to initiate inquiries into all "deleted voters" who are subsequently found "genuine" and fix the responsibility of the "erring officials" and submit a report before the House within three months. However, Opposition leader Vijender Gupta slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), saying the ruling party is "misleading" the House and people of Delhi. Participating in a discussion on the resolution which was moved by AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj and later passed with voice of vote, Environment Minister Imran Hussain said that names of around 10.5 lakh voters have been deleted by the poll body. The resolution directed CEO of Delhi to put the complete list of voters that have been deleted after February, 2015 Delhi Assembly Election on its website. A physical copy and a digital copy of all such deleted voters should be provided to all recognised political parties of Delhi. "The CEO should immediately conduct a door-to-door survey along with representatives from recognised political parties in order to ascertain the veracity of all deleted voters," resolution stated. According to the resolution, there have been instances where person staying at the same address or in the same locality has been deleted from the voters list without any due procedure, "The officers of Chief Electoral Office (CEO), GNCT of Delhi have suo-moto deleted thousands of voters in each Assembly Constituency of Delhi without following the prescribed procedure or due process of law," it also stated. For his part, Gupta alleged that as per the latest figures of the Election Commission for the four years during 2015-18, contrary to the claim of AAP MLAs in the House, as many as 3,05,277 names have been added. He also placed the latest figures for record in the House as per record of the CEO. On the basis of these figures, he informed the House that the number of deletion during the period is 10,68,023 due to various factors such as deaths, transfers, change of residents among others as compared to this as many as 13,73,300 names of voters were added due to births, migration to Delhi and various other normal factors. "This has been made possible by technological advancements through ultra modern software whereby duplicacy is eliminated and additions systematically made," Gupta claimed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta and two BJP MLAs staged a walkout from the House Tuesday to register their protest after their requests for discussion on their respective issues were turned down by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel. As the House proceedings of second and the concluding day of the special session began, Gupta demanded an adjournment motion for a discussion in the House on "poor condition of system". Following Gupta's demand, Sharma and Pradhan also made requests for calling attention motion to discuss health and other issues. The session also saw heated arguments between AAP MLAs and the Opposition members. The Speaker asked Gupta to meet him personally before filing such requests. "I had made a request for adjournment motion for a discussion in the House on the poor condition of system in Delhi, but my request was turned down by the Speaker," Gupta told PTI. As Speaker Goel turned down the requests of BJP legislators saying only listed matters would be discussed in the House, they staged a walkout to register their protest. The House proceedings of the Delhi Assembly, which normally begins at 2 pm, were delayed by around half an hour as quorum was not complete. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Peter Mukerjea, an accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, Tuesday moved an application before a special CBI court here seeking permission to operate his bank locker for handing over ornaments belonging to his wife Indrani according to the consented terms of their divorce petition. The application was submitted before special court judge J C Jagdale who is trying the case. Peter and Indrani, who is the prime accused in the 2012 murder case, had filed for divorce in the Bandra family court in September under Hindu Marriage Act. Sheena was the daughter of Indrani out of her previous relationship. According to the consent terms executed by Peter and Indrani, they would mutually settle their dispute and exchange articles belonging to each other, stated Peter's petition. Peter is supposed to hand over articles belonging to Indrani which are currently kept in his locker at a bank in suburban Worli, it stated. Peter requested the court to direct the jail authorities concerned to make a provision for him to visit the bank and operate his locker, it stated. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will file its reply on Peter's petition on November 30, its counsel Bharat Badami said Tuesday. Peter is currently lodged in the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai. According to the prosecution, Sheena (24) was killed allegedly by Indrani with the help of her former husband Sanjeev Khanna in a car in Mumbai in April 2012. A partially-burnt body, believed to be of Sheena, was found in Pen taluka in coastal Raigad district in May 2012. However, the alleged murder came to light only in August 2015 when Indrani's driver Shyamvar Rai spilled beans on the crime during his interrogation for possessing a firearm. Subsequently, police arrested Indrani and Khanna. Later, Peter was also arrested for allegedly being part of a conspiracy to kill Sheena. The prosecution had stated that Indrani was not happy with Sheena's relationship with Rahul, the son of Peter from his previous wife. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eighteen-month-old Hiba Nisar, the youngest pellet victim in Kashmir, has been discharged from hospital after surgery on her right eye but doctors are not sure if her eyesight will be restored completely. Hiba was playing inside her house in Shopian when clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in the wake of an encounter where six militants were killed on Sunday, the infant's mother Marsala Jan said. "The encounter site is quite far from our house but clashes broke out in our neighbourhood. First, there was tear smoke all around us which caused coughing in Hiba and then there was a sudden bang. My daughter was hit in the eye by a pellet fired towards our home," Jan said. Doctors at the SMHS Hospital here said Hiba underwent surgery as she had suffered corneal perforation, an anomaly in the cornea resulting from damage to the corneal surface, due to the pellets. "Like most cases, the kid will be able to see but there is no guarantee that her eyesight will be restored completely," the doctor, who treated Hiba, told PTI. The doctor said the treatment is a long drawn process and Hiba's parents will have to take lot of precautions to ensure that she does not get any complications. "She will have to be brought here for follow-up treatment regularly. Her first appointment is next week," the ophthalmologist said. Two human rights activists have approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to take cognisance of Hiba's injury. In their plea before the rights body, the activists Syed Mujtaba Hussian and Mirza Jahanzeb Beg have sought Rs 10 lakh compensation to the victim. They also sought an independent investigation into the incident and action against the personnel involved in the firing of pellets. Thousands of Kashmiris have been injured due to use of pellet guns as a crowd control non-lethal weapon by security forces during law and order situations. While few deaths have been reported due to use of pellets, a large number of injured persons have lost eyesight in one or both eyes, leading to demands from various quarters for discontinuing the use of this weapon during law and order problems. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hitting back at Prime Minister for his remarks that Nizamabad was grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads, caretaker Chief Minister Tuesday asked him "not to lie for the sake of votes". "How can you say such a lie... You should not lie, being at the responsible post of Prime Minister, for the sake of votes," Rao said addressing an election rally in Mahabubnagar district. Nizamabad is represented by Rao's daughter K Kavitha in the Lok Sabha. "Mr Narendra Modi, there is no power problem in .. don't lie. I am very sorry to say this. You cannot level false allegations against a chief minister. I am not afraid of anyone. I am not (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N) Chandrababu Naidu," Rao said, reiterating that there was a need for a "federal front government" at the Centre. Rao claimed that was the only state in the country where farmers were supplied power 24x7 and asked Modi if the (BJP) ruled states were providing 24-hour electricity to the farm sector. The chief minister further said was at the top spot in implementing welfare schemes, among which were those for women, children and the elderly. Read our coverage on Telangana Assembly Election 2018 "No one can stop TRS from winning and we will again form the government (in Telangana)," Rao said. Modi, while addressing his first election rally ahead of the December 7 polls in Telangana, said the chief minister had once asserted that he would transform Nizamabad into a smart city like London but the city was still grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads. Dowry deaths continue to account for a substantial share of all female homicides in India despite legislation prohibiting it, according to a UN study which says the home is the most dangerous place for women around the world. Around 87,000 women were killed around the world last year and some 50,000 - or 58 per cent - were killed at the hands of intimate partners or family members. This amounts to some six women being killed every hour by people they know, according to new research published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In India the female homicide rate in 2016 was 2.8 per cent, higher than the rate in Kenya (2.6), Tanzania (2.5), Azerbaijan (1.8), Jordan (0.8) and Tajikistan (0.4). Further, in India 33.5 per cent of women and girls aged 15-49 who experienced physical violence (irrespective of perpetrator) at least once in their lifetime and 18.9 per cent in the past 12 months, according to data from 1995-2013. Dowry-related deaths in India continue to be a matter of concern. The study noted that available data on dowry-related killings from the National Crime Records Bureau indicate that female dowry deaths account for 40 to 50 per cent of all female homicides recorded annually in India, representing a stable trend over the period 1999 to 2016. "Despite legislation adopted by the Indian Government in 1961, prohibiting the payment of dowry, the practice continues throughout the country and dowry deaths continue to account for a substantial share of all female homicides," it said. Sorcery accusations also affect some women living in countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania and can be the driver behind gender-related killings. Data from Papua New Guinea and India on homicide resulting from sorcery accusations show that, although in small proportions, this phenomenon still exists. "While data are not sex disaggregated, it is likely that women account for a large share of the victims," it said. The study, released for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, examines available homicide data to analyse the gender-related killing of women and girls, with a specific focus on intimate partner and family-related homicide and how this relates to the status and roles of women in society and the domestic sphere. "While the vast majority of homicide victims are men, women continue to pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality, discrimination and negative stereotypes. They are also the most likely to be killed by intimate partners and family," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said. "Targeted criminal justice responses are needed to prevent and end gender-related killings. UNODC is releasing this research for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2018 to increase understanding and inform action." Looking at the rate of female victims of homicide by intimate partners or family members, the study found that the global rate was around 1.3 victims per 100,000 female population. In terms of geographical distribution, Africa and the Americas are the regions where women are most at risk of being killed by intimate partners or family members. In Africa, the rate was around 3.1 victims per 100,000 female population, while the rate in the Americas was 1.6 victims, in Oceania 1.3 and in Asia 0.9. The lowest rate was found in Europe, with 0.7 victims per 100,000 female population. According to the study, tangible progress in protecting and saving the lives of female victims of intimate partner/family-related homicide has not been made in recent years, despite legislation and programmes developed to eradicate violence against women. The conclusions highlight the need for effective crime prevention and criminal justice responses to violence against women that promote victim safety and empowerment while ensuring offender accountability. The study also calls for greater coordination between police and the justice system as well as health and social services and emphasizes the importance of involving men in the solution, including through early education. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man wanted in several cases of drug trafficking, who also used poor kids and differently-abled people in the illicit trade, was arrested in Gautam Buddh Nagar, the police said Tuesday. The accused, Prakash Sahay, was arrested Monday night. He is also one of the main drug suppliers in the district who went into hiding after his aides were held with 100 kg of cannabis in September here, the police said. "Sahay is a notorious drug trafficker and has several cases registered against him. He would lure, and sometimes force poor people including children and differently-abled into his business of drug supplying," Inspector Manoj Kumar Pant said. Pant, the station house officer of Sector 20 police station, said the accused was held Monday night from a public park in C Block of Sector 10. "He was held with over five kg cannabis from the park where the police had reached on a tip-off," he said, adding that the accused attempted to run away but was overpowered by the policemen. "Police seized Rs 22,300 from the accused's possession and impounded a two-wheeler in the action," Pant said. The official said that Sahayconfessed to procuring cannabis from Delhi and having a network of slum-dwellers including old women, children and differently-abled people working for him. The accused has been booked under theNarcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act,the SHO said. In an early morning action in September, Sahay's aides were arrested by Sector 20 police station team led by Pant while transporting 100 kg cannabis into the city even as he had managed to escape. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Citizens living under all civic bodies in West Bengal may have to shell out a maximum fine of Rs 1 lakh for littering public places, as the state assembly has passed Bills to enhance the penalty for offenders in areas under all municipal corporations and municipalities. The process of amending the laws in this regard was completed on Tuesday after two Bills were passed. For the people living in all the municipal corporation areas of the state except Kolkata and Howrah, the assembly passed the West Bengal Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018. The Howrah Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, was also passed for the people of Howrah. The penalty for people living in the city was raised first through an amendment to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (second amendment) Bill, 2018, which was passed in the Assembly on November 22. The West Bengal Municipal (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 was passed on Monday to raise the fine in areas under all municipality areas. The move came after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her displeasure after finding out the newly inaugurated skywalk for Dakshineswar temple was stained with betel juice. The Bills proposed to impose a minimum fine of Rs 5,000 and a maximum penalty of Rs 1 lakh fine on litterbugs. The earlier law stipulated that minimum penalty for dumping garbage was Rs 50 and the maximum fine was Rs 5,000. Banerjee had formed a 11-member committee earlier to check spitting and littering in public places. Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim who will also take over as the new Malyor of Kolkata, said he would take up a major awareness drive to keep the city clean. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Getting protein from plant sources instead of animals could help meet climate targets and reduce the risk of overshooting temperature goals, scientists say. A study published in the journal Climate Policy has found that livestock sector could use almost half of the 1.5 degrees Celsius greenhouse gas emission budget allowed by 2030. Addressing this should be a key part of the strategy to hit climate targets, researchers said. Helen Harwatt from Harvard Law School in the US proposes a three-step strategy to gradually replace animal proteins with plant-sourced proteins, as part of the commitment to mitigate climate change. The first step is to acknowledge that current numbers of livestock are at their peak and will need to decline. The next step is to set targets to transition away from livestock products starting with foods linked with the highest greenhouse gas emissions such as beef, then cow's milk and pig meat. Finally, assessing suitable replacement products against a range of criteria including greenhouse gas emission targets, land usage, and public health benefits will also help, Harwatt said. She noted that recent evidence shows, in comparison with the current food system, switching from animals to plants proteins could potentially feed an additional 350 million people in the US alone. Previous studies suggested reducing meat and dairy consumption also provides a range of added benefits such as preserving biodiversity and improving human health. The study also found that the current livestock population in the world is around 28 billion animals and constitutes the highest source of two major greenhouse gases -- methane and nitrous oxide. The production of methane in particular is troublesome, as it has 85 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time frame, researchers said. Methane emissions from the livestock sector are projected to rise by 60 per cent by 2030 -- the same time period over which strong and rapid reductions are needed. "Given the livestock sector's significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and methane dominance, animal to plant protein shifts make a much-needed contribution to meeting the Paris temperature goals and reducing warming in the short term, while providing a suite of co-benefits," Harwatt said. "Failure to implement animal to plant protein shifts increases the risk of exceeding temperature goals and requires additional, and unrealistic, greenhouse gas reductions from other sectors," she added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former BJP minister in Gujarat, Sundersinh Chauhan, Tuesday joined the Congress in protest against "anti-farmer" policies of the ruling party. Chauhan had served as an MLA for four terms and also as a minister of state (MoS). He was inducted into the Congress fold by state unit party president Amit Chavda and party in-charge for Gujarat Rajiv Satav. Chauhan had headed Social Justice and Empowerment department and Labour and Employment portfolio as an MoS. He had represented Mahemdabad assembly seat in Kheda taluka for four terms till 2012 when he was defeated by Congress candidate Gautam Chauhan. He was not given a ticket for the 2017 assembly polls. Chauhan was also made a parliamentary secretary by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the past. Chauhan had resigned from the saffron party a few days back. After his induction into the Congress, Chuahan told reporters that he left the BJP because of its "anti-farmer" policies. "I have resigned from the BJP as the party and its government have become anti-farmer," he said, claiming that the ruling party was ignoring him and the entire farming community. Satav said Chauhan's experience will come handy for the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said another former MLA of BJP Lalji Mer, who quit the party recently, would join the Congress Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former President Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday raised serious concerns over growing protectionism which is affecting the outcome of world trade. "I am the signatory to the WTO document and agreement on behalf of India. All of us pledged to create a free market and gradual dismantling of protectionism. Unfortunately, growing protectionism is seriously affecting the outcome of world trade," he said here. Mukherjee, who is also a veteran Congress leader, said this while addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of St Joseph's Institute of Management here. He also said he was the signatory to WTO document and agreement on behalf of India. Mukherjee said any country cannot create artificial barriers through protectionism in the days of global villages. The former President urged students and faculty of St Joseph's Institute of Management to come out with suitable answers to meet the great challenge of protectionism of this generation. India also needs answers as to where its business should invest its energy and its resources, he said. "We also need syllabus that match the needs of the socio-economic environment for its transformation," he added. Mukherjee also urged people to build a conducive atmosphere to achieve socio-economic transformation as ingrained in the Indian Constitution, which is a great Magna Carta. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Experts, gathered in the city for an International smart cities workshop on sustainable urban development, on Tuesday underlined the need for changes in the legislative framework to make the Union governments smart cities mission more effective and successful. The legal experts emphasised that changes in the law are absolutely necessary to take care of the issues that will arise following the use of advanced technology and digitalization. They were speaking at the two-day conference organised by the Heidelberg University of Germany,Observer Research Foundation, Delhi and School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. It was conducted under the aegis of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Kolkata, in collaboration with the IIT Kharagpur, Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), Delhi, University of Calcutta and IGCC with support from Friedrich Naumann Stiftung. Dr. Uday Shankar of IIT Kharagpur, who did a comparative study of the Special Purpose Vehicle Act and the Jharkhands Municipal City Act of 2011, felt the Municipal Act is better framed to deal with issues of urbanisation than the SPV Act of smart cities mission. Dr Shankar said the SPV Act leaves out big gaps on questions of accountability factor, grievance redress system and others. He felt the democratic character of our constitution is missing in the SPV Act. Lawyers Subhadip Biswas and Ranajit Roy of Lex Global, law firm and Trust for SEARCH, said there is a need for a new set of laws to take care of the post construction period. Biswas and Roy said respective laws concerning issues regarding smart cities needed to be amended in accordance with the Article 13 to make implementation of smart city policies in accordance with the smart city mission. Ashok Dhar, Director, ORF Kolkata, delivered the inaugural address in which he focused on the need to find a smart and intelligent solution to the problems of mobility in Indian cities, especially Kolkata. Saying bio-fuels will remain a dominant source in mobility in India, he called for a realistic mix of vehicles in each city according to its requirements. He said lack of clarity among the policy-makers and the ministers would affect investment in the country, especially in the automobile and petroleum sectors. He also felt excessive dependence on Electric Vehicles will only replace our dependence from oil to lithium, which also needs to be imported and whose prices are escalating rapidly. Devi Prasad Karanam, Joint Secretary, West Bengal government, while delivering the keynote address, stressed on better implementation of policies to improve cities. He said earlier plans did not achieve the desired results because of lack of implementation. He pointed out there are 25 municipalities around KMC (Kolkata Municipal Corporation) and there are no uniform policies in these municipalities. He said special emphasis should be given on water, sanitation and solid waste management besides infrastructure. Delivering the special address, Germanys Consul General Dr. Feiner said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done a good starting point by launching the smart city mission. He said we all have the responsibility to leave the cities livable for the next generation. Welcoming delegates, Dr. Des Radu Carciumaru, Resident Representative, Heidelberg University, India (Delhi) Office, said the smart cities workshop series was launched in 2016 and has covered 14 cities across India so far. Saying the common goal of smart cities is to increase the quality of life, whether it is in Germany or India, he said the policy makers should try to avoid the topdown approach for better results. Dr. Rumi Aijaz, senior fellow and head of ORFs Urban Initiative, said India is at the beginning stage of smart cities and stressed the need to use real time data, generated from the use of smart technology, quickly and effectively to take smart decisions in real time. He pointed out smart city initiatives were going on not only in India but also in other developing BRICS countries like China, Brazil and South Africa. Dr. Simon Washington, Head of School of Civil Engineering, the University of Queensland, Australia, however felt that new technologies, like driverless cars, always do not solve issues but instead create more problems in future. He said people gravitate towards new technologies to solve problems, but may end up in more problems. In the two-day workshop, topics like smart governance, inclusive cities, resources management, smart infrastructure and built environment are being discussed by various policy-makers, scholars, practitioners, architects, planners, legal experts and general citizens. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held wide-ranging talks with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu to strengthen ties between the two countries during his four-day visit to India. During the discussions, Swaraj highlighted the constructive cooperation between the two countries on international and bilateral issues, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Swaraj expressed India's commitment towards strengthening of existing bilateral ties and broadening its scope, it said. Melescanu also reaffirmed Romania's support for a permanent seat for India in a reformed UNSC. "The two sides reiterated the need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including its Security Council," the statement said. Romania will take over the Presidency of the European Council in January 2019. The Romanian foreign minister also met the deputy national security advisor during his visit from November 23-27. The two ministers underlined the importance of strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties between the two countries. The bilateral trade turnover currently stands at USD 810 million. During the visit, Romania will formally open its Honorary Consulate in Chennai, the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday accused the TRS and Congress of perpetuating family rule and said the two parties were playing a "friendly match" in the Telangana elections. Reaffirming the BJP's commitment to inclusive growth, Modi, addressing his first election rally in the state, said vote bank has harmed development like "termites". "The chief minister of Telangana and his family thinks they can get away with doing no work like the Congress.... They have adopted the style of the Congress which ruled for 50-52 years without doing anything. But that cannot happen now," he told an election rally in Nizamabad. "TRS and Congress are family-ruled parties playing a friendly match in Telangana polls," he said. Accusing the TRS government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao of not keeping its promises, Modi said the chief minister had once said he would transform Nizamabad into a smart city like London but the place was still grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads. He said Rao did not join Ayushman Bharat scheme under which the Centre would bear medical expenses of the poor to the extent of Rs five lakh a year because of his feeling of insecurity. "This chief minister feels so insecure...he trusts astrologers, does puja, ties nimbu-mirchi (to ward of evil). So when we introduced Ayushman Bharat Yojana, he decided not to join it. He feared people will reject him if Modicare comes into force. He did injustice to the poor people of the state," Modi said. Amid reports that the Congress was preparing a manifesto that would envisage separate schools and hospitals for Muslims, Modi said the only Mantra that the BJP followed was "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" and was against vote bank "BJP has just just one Mantra- Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. We believe in inclusive growth. Vote bank has damaged development like termite," he said. Development, he said, was a casualty wherever vote bank politics and politics of casteism, communalism and nepotism have flourished. He said those who believe in development, building new India and new Telangana trust BJP most. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As Madhya Pradesh gears up for assembly polls on Wednesday, star candidates are a plenty in the fray -- from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to noted royals and from bureaucrat-turned-politicians to doctors. There are several commoners also, as are eunuchs trying their luck for the 230-member state assembly being ruled by the for 15 consecutive years. Chouhan is the BJP's chief ministerial face for the fourth time in a row and is contesting from his traditional Budhni seat in Sehore district. While many stalwarts including former chief minister Digvijay Singh, state President Kamal Nath and Guna MP are not contesting the assembly polls, they also have a lot at stake to ensure their party's victory in their respective bastions. In the case of and a few other stalwarts, their family members are in the fray. Two most prominent self-proclaimed 'farmer-sons' Chouhan and former Madhya Pradesh chief Arun Yadav are pitted against each other in the high-profile Budhni seat from where the present chief minister contested his first assembly election in 1989-90. Though Yadav belongs to Khargone district in Nimar region of the western Madhya Pradesh, he has been fielded by the Congress from Budhni this time to challenge Chouhan on his home turf. Read more: Madhya Pradesh assembly polls 2018 While Chouhan has called Yadav a "scapegoat", the Congress leader is leaving no stone unturned by way of what he calls his expose of tall claims of development in the high profile constituency. "Despite Chouhan being elected four times from the seat, Budhni area remains backward in all spheres," Yadav told PTI. Another stalwart and minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia is contesting from Shivpuri seat for the fourth time, while former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's nephew Anoop Mishra is fighting from Bhitarwar in Gwalior district. Public relations minister (Datia), former IPS officer Rustam Singh (Morena), ex-opposition leader Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi (Bhind) are other prominent candidates. Digvijay Singh's son Jaivardhan is contesting from his forte Raghogarh for the second time in a row, while his brother Laxman Singh is trying his luck from Chanchoda seat. Besides former powerful Congress leader Arjun Singh's son and leader of opposition Ajay Singh is contesting from his traditional Churht seat in Sidhi district. Another relative of and ex-royal of Khilchipur Priyavrat Singh, also a former MLA, is trying his luck again from Khilchipur seat in Rajgarh district. Former Goa Governor and ex-King of Narsinghgarh, late Bhanu Pratap Singh's son and former MLA Rajyavardhan Singh is contesting on ticket from his erstwhile kingdom Narsinghgarh. BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijywargiya's son Akash is contesting his maiden election from Indore-3 seat against the former Congress MLA Ashwin Joshi. This contest has also become prestigious for both the BJP and the Congress. Former union minister, Kantilal Bhuria's son Dr Vikrant Bhuria is contesting his maiden election from tribal Jhabua seat, while another medical practitioner Dr Hiralal Alawa is testing political waters for the first time on a Congress ticket from Manawar seat in tribal Dhar district. Among prominent women candidates, Archana Chitnis is contesting from Burhanpur seat while former Bhopal mayor Krishna Gaur, daughter-in-law of former minister Babu Lal Gaur, is contesting from Gaur's traditional seat Govindpura in Bhopal district. Former union minister and senior Congress leader Suresh Pachouri is pitted against sitting MLA and minister Surendra Patwa in Bhojpur seat of Raisen district. Former union minister Sartaj Singh, who left BJP on denial of party ticket and joined Congress, is contesting against assembly speaker Dr Sitasharan Sharma from Hoshangabad seat. The prestige of the state Congress President Kamal Nath as well as of the state BJP president Rakesh Singh is at stake as both hail from Mahakoushal region. Rakesh Singh is an MP from Jabalpur Lok Sabha seat while Nath is a long time member of the lower house of Parliament from Chhindwara. Former health director Dr K L Sahu is contesting from newly floated outfit SAPAKS Samaj Party from Bhopal South West constituency. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state head and IIT alumni Alok Agrawal is also contesting from Bhopal South West seat. Alok is the chief ministerial face of AAP in Madhya Pradesh. Among six eunuchs contesting the polls, prominent are former MLA Shabnam Mousi is fighting from Kotma seat in Anooppur district and Neha Kinnar from Ambab seat in Morena district. According to the EC data, a total number of 2,907 candidates are in the fray from 230 assembly seats. The highest number of 34 candidates will lock horns in Mehgaon constituency in Bhind district, while the lowest number of four candidates will battle it out in Gunnor seat in Panna district. While the main contest is between the BJP and the Congress, the BSP has fielded 227 candidates and the SP is contesting on 51 seats. Aam Aadmi Party, contesting the Madhya Pradesh election for the first time, has fielded 208 candidates. As per final electoral rolls, the state has 5,04,95,251 voters, including 2,63,01,300 males, 2,41,30,390 females and 1,389 third gender voters. Besides there are 62,172 postal voters. In the last assembly poll, the BJP had won 165 seats, Congress 58, BSP four and independents three. West Bengal Irrigation minister Soumen Mahapatra Tuesday said farmers don't need to worry about lack of water for cultivation of Bodo crops in the state. The amount of rainfall this year has been much lower in several parts of the state, so there is a sense of anguish among farmers about cultivation of Bodo crops in the winter season, Mahapatra said. "We have formed a high level committee comprising of additional chief secretary of Irrigation department and Agricultural department. The amount of accumulated water might be less but we can manage things with this specific amount of water," he said while taking to reporters. If the farmers follow few steps then there won't be any problem. If they change the crop pattern and agricultural pattern a bit then it won't be problem for farmers, he said. "We have also decided to request the Electricity department to provide temporary connection to those who may have defaulted in payment of electricity bills so that the they can continue the irrigation process," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A team of the 15th Finance Commission arrived here Tuesday on a three-day visit to hold talks with Nagaland government, officials said. The 14-member Finance Commission team is led by its chairman Nand Kishore Singh. Meanwhile, interacting with mediapersons, Nagaland Finance secretary, Y Kikheto Sema appealed that the special status granted to Nagaland be upheld alongside the special funding pattern for all round development of the state. Kikheto expressed hope that the Finance Commission will understand the problems faced by the state in all fronts. On Wednesday, the commission will have meetings with Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, his cabinet colleagues and senior state government officials. The Finance commission will hold meeting with representatives of the rural local bodies and urban local bodies of the state. The commission will also hold meeting with representatives of different political parties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons were injured when a fire broke out at a slum in suburban Bandra on Tuesday, a fire brigade official said. Around 15 huts were also gutted in the fire, he said. The blaze erupted around 10.30 am at the slum in Shastri Nagar area, located near the Bandra railway station. Seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot, the official said, adding that the flames were put out by 1.15 pm. "Around 15 huts were completely destroyed in the fire. Some furniture and electrical wires were also charred," he said. The two injured persons were admitted to a nearby hospital where their condition was reported to be stable, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) London-based Foresight Group International plans to invest USD 500 million in India across shipping, port, offshore drilling and LNG sectors, the company said Tuesday. "Foresight Group International, London-based shipping-to-retailing conglomerate plans to invest $ 500 million in India across Offshore Drilling, Shipping, Port and LNG sectors. The family trust owned group is committed to a long term purpose and will be making investments across various sectors in India with a long term growth perspective," the company said in a statement. It said the investment will be done over the next five years. The company has invested USD 600 million in the last three years in offshore drilling division to acquire three new cyber offshore rigs, it said. "The USD 1.85 Billion group has now finalised expansion plan for its shipping division and acquired a VLCC (very large crude carrier) in 2018 which is successfully chartered with oil majors and has decided to add 5 more VLCCs in 2019 focused on India's demand of crude import," the statement said. In addition to Shipping, the Group has decided to invest USD 250 million for the development of LNG & Ports in India as per the Sagarmala project of the Government of India across the 7,500 km coastlines in India for Coastal Shipping, it added. The company said as a first step, the group has strengthened its India HQ in Mumbai and also, the team to lead LNG & Port has come on board under the supervision of Hitendra Solanki, who has joined as the India Head of LNG and Ports. Ravi K Mehrotra, Founder and Executive Chairman, Foresight Group International said, "...We have previously made an investment of around USD 350 Million in cyber rigs which are working with ONGC ... Having this investment done, India will contribute to up to 44 per cent of our global operations...". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) - The rebuke from China was fast and furious. A Chinese scientist who claimed he helped make the world's first gene-edited babies is now under investigation by government bodies and by his own university. He Jiankui, a 34-year-old associate professor based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said his lab used the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR to alter human embryos - leading to the births of twin girls earlier this month, he said. There is not yet independent confirmation of his claim, but scientists and regulators have been swift to condemn the experiment as unethical and unscientific. The National Health Commission on Monday ordered local officials in Guangdong province -where Shenzhen is located - to investigate He's actions. China's state broadcaster, CCTV, reported Tuesday that if the births are confirmed, He's case will be handled "in accordance with relevant laws and regulations." It's not clear if he could face possible criminal charges. He's employer, Southern University of Science and Technology, said in a statement that it was not informed about He's human gene-editing work and has opened an investigation. The school said He's research "seriously violated academic ethics and standards." He also faces probes by the Shenzhen City Medical Ethics Expert Board and the Chinese Academy of Science's academic division. He's research team included his former Rice University adviser, physics professor Michael Deem, who sits on the scientific advisory boards of He's two genetics companies. Rice said it has launched an investigation into Deem's involvement. "So far the main response within China is to condemn and criticize this work," said Jing-Bao Nie, an expert on Chinese bioethics at the University of Otago in New Zealand. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seeking to ensure a united fight to dislodge the ruling BJP from Rajasthan, the state Congress chief Sachin Pilot said Tuesday his party's MLAs will decide on the chief minister post and asserted that securing a "thumping" mandate was far more important than a decision on who will head the government. Pilot said he as well as senior party leader Ashok Gehlot have got enough from the Congress in the past and it was now for the party to decide what role they should have. There have been persisting talks about both Pilot and Gehlot being in race to be the party's chief ministerial face, even as both the leaders have repeatedly rejected any such friction. In an interview to PTI here, Pilot said it was the party's stated policy for the last 70 years to not declare a CM face in the state and the priority was to ensure that Congress candidates win the elections to thwart the BJP's use of "money and muscle power". Asked if a post-poll decision on the CM post may leave either Gehlot or him dissatisfied, Pilot said: "I don't think so. We have both received a lot from the party." "He (Gehlot) has been chief minister twice already and he has got an important position in the party. I am (state) party president and I have been a minister. Both of us have got enough from the party and now it is time that the party decides what role they have in mind (for us)," the 41-year-old leader said. Utimately, the MLAs in the Congress party will take a call as to who will head the government, he said. "But, far more important than that is that we must get a good, clear, thumping majority, a resounding majority, because the message must go across the country that people --, farmers, young people, women, backwards, tribals, everybody -- will not take this kind of arrogant government and will make it accountable," Pilot said. Forming the government is far more important than who will head it, he said. "It is a decision that we have left to the party and it is nothing new for 70 years we have always had the same policy. I don't know why this time it has become so talked about. Every time we fight elections without announcing a CM face, and whenever we win, we elect a leader," Pilot said. The Congress has kept open the issue of its leadership in Rajasthan. It has fielded both Pilot and Gehlot in the December 7 assembly polls. While Gehlot, 67, is a sitting MLA from Sardarpura, Pilot is contesting the state poll for the first time from Tonk. Pilot has been a former MP from Dausa and then from Ajmer. Pilot said the people of Rajasthan were looking at the Congress with hope as it had been "the people's voice" on the streets of Rajasthan in the last five years. The Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief attacked the Vasundhara Raje government, alleging that it was "very arrogant", corrupt, and had betrayed the trust of the state's people. "People have the confidence that the Congress party will not only just win the elections...to be able to form a government of the people, where people feel stakeholders in the collective governance structures and that is something that is very positive," he said. Pilot alleged that there was anger against the Vasundhara government because of "non-delivery" after promising 611 things. On the Vasundhara Raje versus Manvendra Singh contest in Jhalrapatan, he said he had taken out a 'Kisaan Nyaya Yatra' in that area some time back and there the "resentment" against Raje and her government was palpable. "That area is really dissatisfied. Vasundhara ji's tenure is marked with very few successes and multiple failures. People want a change. Manvendra Singh ji is a good strong candidate. It will be an interesting election and I am hopeful that the Congress party will win," Pilot said. Asked if he was satisfied with the Congress's progress under his tenure as RPCC chief, Pilot said he was "reasonably satisfied" with where the party was today. He said five years ago when the party had lost the election and was reduced to 21 out of 200 MLAs, it looked a very "daunting task". "I was given the challenge and the opportunity. I say this because it was challenging times when Modi ji had become PM and Vasundhara ji had become CM and Congress was down and out. "Also, an opportunity because that is the time you can actually work, without attracting much attention, at the grassroots level, connect with workers, start focussing on panchayat elections, zila parishad elections, nagar palika elections, and those really form the bedrock from where you can launch for the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections," he said. Pilot also hailed the state Congress leaders for their cooperation in rebuilding the party "brick by brick". However, he cautioned against complacency saying that they are within "striking distance" of winning and have to stay focussed on the booth management and polling. "Till the last vote is cast, we cannot take our eyes off the target," he asserted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A teenaged girl from Assam has taken on for his tweet mocking the phenomenon of On the mercury dropping to -2 degree Celsius on November 21 in Washington, Trump had tweeted "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to " To it the 18-year old girl, identified as Astha Sarmah from Jorhat in Assam commented "I am 54 years younger than you. "I just finished high school with average marks. But even I can tell you that WEATHER IS NOT CLIMATE. If you want help understanding that, I can lend you my encyclopedia from when I was in 2nd grade. It has pictures and everything." The comment received over 22,000 'likes' from across the world and Twitter users from the USA appreciating the teenager for her reply to the The teenager's tweet was also retweeted 5.1 k times with many praising Astha as "hope of the future". Some people even offered her an internship to study the effects of on the Arabian Sea. The RSS Tuesday demanded an ordinance or a law to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya at the earliest, saying the Supreme Court's decision to defer the hearing in the land dispute case "hurt" Hindu sentiments. The Supreme Court put the case to January next year. They said they have own priorities, said RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar, questioning the apex court's decision. Maintaining that it was a matter of faith for crores of Hindus and justice must not be delayed, Kumar asked, "From whom can we have hope?" "The answer is government," he said, addressing a seminar on Ram Janam Bhoomi Se Anyaay Kyun (Why Injustice towards Ram Janmbhoomi)?" "The government will bring a law or an ordinance and they should do so, but till December 11, the model code is in force (due to the assembly polls in five states). The government's hands are tied till then," he added. "So, at this stage anyone who curses the government for not bringing an ordinance or enacting a law, will also be deemed to support injustice, he said. "The government is preparing to bring the legislation. May be some people will go to the Supreme Court after that to challenge it and may be they will even get a stay, but the people of this nation have decided that temple will be built," he said. "The country will not burn (if Ram temple is built at Ayodhya), we have seen this in the case of Triple Talaq, he said. Refusing to accord an urgent hearing on the Ayodhya land dispute case, the apex court has deferred the politically sensitive matter to the first week of January to fix a schedule for its hearing. The apex court order has triggered a chorus of demands from within the BJP and various Sangh Parivar outfits for promulgating an ordinance, or enacting a law in the Winter session of Parliament, to build the Ram temple before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls without waiting for the verdict. The public is ready, the government is ready, but there will be a few people who will oppose the law. But some miscreants would pose no problem, he said. The RSS national executive member said such an atmosphere should be built in the country that all parties are forced to support it when the government brings an ordinance or law to build the Ram temple. And those who do not support it, must be shown the door by the public, he added. He said the culture of violence was never tolerated in this country and will never be tolerated in future either. Kumar said foreign invaders came to rule and not to develop the country. From Mohammad Bin Qasim to Aurangzeb, none of them wanted to undertake development here, he said. "The sole purpose of those rulers was to push the country, known for its rich civilization, its history and its universities to the brink of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy so that they could freely rule over it," he said. Kumar also justified the Yogi Adityanath government's decision to change the rename Faizabad district as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj and asked its critics where they were when Ayodhya was changed to Faizabad and Prayagraj to Allahabad and if that provided employment or solved the problem of hunger. "You wipe out the history and then raise questions asking if renaming Faizabad to Ayodhya would give employment. Why such questions were not raised when Ayodhya's name was changed? With history you commit rape and injustice. You laugh over it, you don't feel ashamed, he said, slamming the opponents. Kumar asserted that there must be a unique Ram temple in Ayodhya just like a unique Vatican, Kaba and the Golden Temple exist. There may be lakhs of temples, gurdwaras, churches and mosques but there is only one Vatican or the Kaba or the Golden Temple. Similarly, Lord Ram's birthplace is one," he said. There can be lakhs of Ram temples, but the question is if there is one at his birthplace, he asked. Speaking to reporters later, Indresh also hit out at Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for visiting Pakistan to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Sahib corridor on the other side of the border on Wednesday. Equating him with historical character Jai Chand, he said Sidhu was invited in personal capacity as Imran Khan's friend and he should have avoided going to Pakistan. Meanwhile, Indresh said, the RSS' minority outreach wing, the Rashtriya Muslim Manch, will hold a meeting of its activists on December 16 in Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Exuding confidence that the grand alliance or 'Maha Kutami' will form the next government in Telangana, TDP's state chief L Ramana has alleged K Chandrashekar Rao used the opportunity as the first chief minister to benefit his family and the mega tie-up of opposition parties has been formed to save people from his "dictatorship rule". In an interview to PTI, Ramana said that KCR, as the state's first chief minister is popularly known as, has failed on many fronts despite spending Rs 8 lakh crore and borrowing Rs 2.2 lakh crore. "The alliance was formed to save people from the dictatorship rule of KCR. People elected TRS in 2014, but the opportunity given to KCR was used for the benefit of his family. The dictator's rule is not good for welfare of Telangana. Therefore, four parties have come together," he said. KCR is seeking a second term as chief minister after dissolving the assembly in September. KCR's party TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) is fighting in all seats, while TDP (Telugu Desam Party) has joined hands with Congress, CPI and TJS to form a grand alliance. When asked why TDP joined hands with the Congress in spite of bitter rivals in the past, Ramana said, "There has been a change in Congress now. The party has changed its earlier ways of working and attitude and therefore itt made P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh as prime ministers." He added, "In the event of changes seen in the Congress, we have allied with the Congress to form 'Maha Kutami', the grand alliance that comprises two other parties Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) and CPI." On TDP being portrayed as an "anti-Telangana" party, Ramana said, "The NTR Bhavan at the centre of the city (Hyderabad) is an example of where TDP's roots lie. The then TDP government created the Cyberabad region and boosted the service sector, the fruits of which are still available. Our base is here."Claiming that the BJP has a secret pact with KCR and also has friendly ties with Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, Ramana said, "Presently, about 4 crore people of Telangana are feeling as if they are captive. We want to free them by throwing TRS out of power."Ramana said his party's main focus in Telangana would be to increase opportunities to improve the revenue and make a surplus budget state. The TDP won 15 seats in the 2014 state elections, nit 12 of them had defected to the ruling TRS. "I believe one should live in whatsoever situation comes. We need to have faith and be loyal. Our effort is to strengthen the faith and stay united. We remained strong and undeterred when TRS took away our MLAs and MLCs between 2014 and 2015," Ramana said. Asked who would be the chief minister if the grand alliance forms the government, the TDP leader was non-committal and said, "We will take a call in a democratic way after speaking to all MLAs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid criticism over his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan for the inauguration of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said Tuesday he had asked him to reconsider it. But Amarinder said he acceded to Sidhu's request for permission as he did not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a "personal visit". The Chief Minister said Sidhu was campaigning in Madhya Pradesh when he told him to reconsider his decision. Sidhu told me he had already committed himself to going. When I informed him of the stand I had taken on the issue, he said it was his personal visit but he would get back to me. But I did not hear from him, Amarinder said. He added the cabinet minister had sent him a request for going and he approved it. "I do not stop anyone from going anywhere on a private visit. It is not an official visit," said the CM. Notably, Sidhu Tuesday crossed over to Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border to take part in the ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday. Reiterating his stand of not going to Pakistan himself for ground breaking ceremony of the corridor there on Wednesday, Amarinder said in a statement how could he go there when innocent Indian citizens and soldiers were being killed everyday. "I have strong feelings on the issue. I have a strong bond with the Army and cannot stand seeing my people killed," he asserted. Amarinder had earlier declined Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi'sinvitation to attend the foundation stone laying for the Kartarpur Corridor on the other side of the border, citing continued terrorist attacks in Punjab and killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan armed forces. The Congress, he said, had always stood against terrorism, and would never allow anyone to destroy the peace of the country or its people. Terming the situation in Pakistan as very uncertain and fluid, Amarinder said nobody knew who was running the government there or what was happening in that country. "If Imran Khan (Pakistan Prime Minister) is running the government then he should rein in (the Pak army and the terrorist groups). If he cannot do that then he obviously has nothing in his hands, said the Chief Minister. My message is very clear don't mess with Punjab, asserted Amarinder, reiterating his warning to Pakistan against any attempt to disrupt India's peace. Vowing not to allow terrorism to return to Punjab at any cost, the Chief Minister said the times had changed now. In those times, Punjab then had a police force of less than 20,000, but now has 81,000 police personnel to keep it safe and protected, said the CM. "However, if things do get out of hand, then there is the Indian Army, which is well equipped and prepared to counter any threat," said Amarinder, adding the Army will not allow them (Pakistan) to create trouble in the country. On the issue of the Kartarpur corridor, the Chief Minister said every Punjabi was very happy with it and there was no question of it being used by terrorists to infiltrate into India. "No one need worry about that as there would be high level of security at the corridor," he added. Stating that the issue of the corridor was raised by former prime minister Manmohan Singh on the 400th anniversary of installation of holy Guru Granth Sahib and he himself had raised the issue with Pakistani leaders Parvez Musharraf and Parvez Elahi, Amarinder said he was completely in favour of the corridor as he wanted peace, backed by increase in trade, with Pakistan. "It was the killing of innocent Indians and Indian soldiers that he could not tolerate," said the CM, recalling that Kargil had happened during peace talks with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He warned that Pakistan could not be trusted in the current circumstances. Asked about the 'Referendum 2020' (campaign for a separate Sikh state), the Chief Minister said the 'Sikhs For Justice' legal advisor G S Pannun was just a "stooge" of the Pakistan's ISI as the organisation was being funded and managed by the ISI. "It has no takers in India and is being propagated by a handful of anti-socials," he added. Amarinder also criticised Akali leader and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal for raking up the 1984 anti-Sikh riots issue on the historic occasion of the foundation stone laying of Kartarpur corridor at Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district on Monday. He said, "the Akalis were in the habit of exploiting religion for political gains. But the people of Punjab were no longer willing to be misled by their propaganda. The Chief Minister also said the Congress MLAs were rightly aggrieved about the Badals' names being on the foundation stone plaque. The Government of India is making the road and protocol prohibited the inclusion of their names,he stressed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In remarks that could embarrass the Centre, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said had he "looked to Delhi", he would have had to install a government led by Sajad Lone, a claim which the opposition said vindicated its charge he was under pressure to put in place a "BJP-supported government". There was no immediate reaction from the Centre or the BJP to the claim made by Malik, who said history would have remembered him as a "dishonest man" if he had asked Lone, the leader of the People's Conference, to form the government. But the chiefs of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and National Conference --Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, both former chief ministers--complimented the governor for not taking "instructions" from Delhi thereby stopping the installation of a government of the "BJP and its proxies". Malik abruptly dissolved the J and K Assembly on the night of November 21 after the PDP staked claim to form a government with the backing of arch rival NC and the Congress. Mehbooba claimed the support of 57 MLAs in the 87-member Assembly. This was followed by another bid from the People's Conference which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties. The BJP had 25 MLAs while the strength of the People's Conference was 2. "Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jata...(Had I looked to Delhi, I would have had to install a government led by Lone, and history would have remembered me as a dishonest man)." said Malik during a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior on Saturday. "Therefore, I ended up the matter. Whosoever wants to scold, can do so now but I am convinced that whatever I did, was right," he said in his address after noted journalist Ravish Kumar in his speech referred to the faulty fax machine at Raj Bhavan in Jammu on a day of fast paced political developments last Wednesday. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the more the Governor tries to justify his decision to dissolve the assembly the more he is "tying himself up in his knots". The action by the governor was nothing short of a "command performance", Tiwari said, alleging he did it on the "instructions of Delhi". "The Governor of J&K has done long term damage to India's interest in J&K. That is a reality which unfortunately will have implications in the future also," he told reporters in the national capital. "So, what Governor Satyapal Malik is trying to do is really emulate his masters in Delhi who have done a Phd in flip-flop, U-turns, somersaults and the reality is that NDA-BJP Government has no policy towards J&K." Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the governor has exposed Modi government's alleged "sinister design of installing an illegitimate government by horse trading and coercion". Abdullah and Mehbooba took to Twitter to react to the governor's claim. "My compliments to Governor Malik for not looking to Delhi & for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & it's proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money," Abdullah said. "I really don't know what to make of Governor Sahib's revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & it's proxies were desperate to form a government through horse trading & use of money but we've also never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the Centre," he added. Mehbooba said it is good to see that the governor refused to take "dictation from Delhi". "Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sahib refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state." J and K Pradesh Congress Committee(JKPCC) Chief Gulam Ahmed Mir said Malik's "admission" has vindicated the opposition charge that BJP wanted the governor to install a government through defections against all constitutional norms. "As the governor had no option except to invite the single largest party claiming majority to form the government, the governor resorted to dissolving the assembly to prevent the government formation, since he was under pressure to install BJP supported government," he added. He charged that the governor had to resort to unconstitutional act of dissolving the house in haste without exercising the constitutional obligation of inviting the single largest party claiming strength to prove majority on the floor of the house. "But the cat is finally out of the bag now, that Modi government was pressuring governor to install a Chief Minister with backing of BJP by arranging numbers apparently through horse trading," he added. At the Gwalior event, Malik said that without seeking any advice or direction or holding any discussion with Delhi, he took the decision of dissolving the assembly. The governor noted that Lone had been saying he had sent his letter on WhatsApp and Mufti said she tweeted staking claim for government formation. "I never knew that governments were formed on WhatsApp and tweet messages. Staking claim for the formation of the government are not made on WhatsApp,"he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In remarks that can embarrass the Centre, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has said had he looked to Delhi, he would have had to install a government led by Sajad Lone, and history would have remembered him as a "dishonest man". Malik had abruptly dissolved the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly last week after the PDP staked claim to form a government with the backing of rival NC and the Congress. This was followed by another bid from the two-member People's Conference led by Lone which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties. During a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior on Saturday, he said,"Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jata...(Had I looked to Delhi, I would have had to install a government led by Lone, and history would have remembered me as a dishonest man)." "Therefore, I ended up the matter. Whosoever wants to scold, can do so now but I am convinced that whatever I did, was right," he said in his address after noted journalist Ravish Kumar had pointed out in his speech about faulty fax machine. The governor also took a dig at the Congress, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference and said that if they were so keen on forming the government, they could have come to Jammu a day earlier and met him. "It was an Eid holiday and this is an auspicious day. Did they expect the governor to stand by the fax machine and wait for their fax," Malik said. "If PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti and NC leader Omar Abdullah were serious about forming a government (by joining hands) in Jammu and Kashmir, they should have rung me up, or sent me a letter," he said. After dissolving the state Assembly, both NC vice president Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mufti expressed happiness and claimed that this was what they wanted, Malik said. "I returned at 4 PM from Delhi and I got a briefing from intelligence officials about the situation. I found it needless to talk to Delhi, because two days ago I had met them all," he added. The governor said that without seeking any advice or direction or holding any discussion with Delhi, he took the decision of dissolving the assembly. Malik said that as per the state Constitution he did not have to take permission from the president or Parliament. On remarks of the Bharatiya Janata Party that the NC and the PDP attempted to form a coalition government on the direction of Pakistan, he said that he cannot blame Farooq Abdullah and OmarAbdullah because they were children of Sheikh Abdullah, who "chose India" and were nationalists. "Mufti Sayeed was Indian and nobody can suspect his nationalism and no one suspects his daughter's credentials as a nationalist," he added. The governor said Lone had been saying that he had sent me his letter on WhatsApp and Mufti said she tweeted staking claim for government formation. "I never knew that governments were formed on WhatsApp and tweet messages. Staking claim for the formation of the government are not made on WhatsApp," he said. "I was watching this all for past 15days. I was confident that no one had majority. If I would have called one side, there would have been a major drama. There would have been use of money and it would have created a chaos," Malik added. Governor's rule was clamped in the state on June 19 for a 6-month period following the collapse of the PDP-BJP coalition government after the saffron party withdrew support. The state assembly was also kept in suspended animation so that political parties could explore the possibility of forming a new government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union minister Harsh Vardhan Tuesday slammed AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal for his "objectionable" reference to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. He also asked Kejriwal to stop attacking the central government for the latter's "failed" and "dirty" Speaking at the foundation day of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday, the Delhi chief minister had claimed that the man who attacked him at the Secretariat with chilli powder was sent by the Centre. Referring to a phone call from the home minister after the incident, Kejriwal had said, "I said either you are worthless or colluding". Vardhan expressed displeasure over the AAP leader's choice of words. "Kejriwal ji what is this style to address Rajnath Singh? Why are you trying to demean the Home Minister of the fourth most powerful country in the world?" he tweeted in Hindi. The BJP leader also asked Kejriwal to realise his responsibilities as the chief minister and stop abusing the Centre for his own "failed" (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Calcutta High Court Tuesday directed the Centre to release freedom fighter pension to two widows, whose husbands had fought for the right since 1981. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Debasish Kargupta and Justice Sampa Sarkar ordered the central government to start paying them pension, as admissible to widows of freedom fighters, within three months of receiving a copy of the order and to pay arrears since 1981. It was stated before the court that Ekadashi Bhowmick and Tapan Karmakar had participated in an uprising against the British Raj from 1942 to 1943 when an independent government was established at Tamluk in undivided Midnapore district of West Bengal. The independent government, named Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar, existed for 18 to 19 months from 1942, their lawyer Ramdulal Manna said. The government had raised two forces - Bidyut Bahini and Bhagini Nivedita Bahini - members of which destroyed all official records of the British Raj at Tamluk. The Government of India had introduced a Freedom Fighter Pension Scheme in 1972 for those who had an annual income of less than Rs 5,000, Manna said. In 1981, a liberalised pension scheme 'Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension' was introduced, which did not impose any bar on annual income to receive the honorarium. According to the scheme, records of incarceration or case files would act as proof, in the absence of which a certificate by another freedom fighter, whose records were approved, could also act as proof, the lawyer submitted. The district magistrate of Midnapore had said in 1981 that no official records of the period from 1930 to 1946 were found, Manna said. A freedom fighter, Rabindranath Giri, certified for Ekadashi that he had taken part in the freedom struggle during 1942-44 at Tamluk and he applied for the pension on September 29, 1981. The central government rejected the prayer of Bhowmick and Karmakar who had also applied under similar circumstances, which they challenged before the Calcutta High Court. Karmakar died on December 4, 1988, Manna said. In 2002, the high court directed the Centre to grant pension to Bhowmick and also to the widow of Karmakar on similar grounds. Their applications were again rejected for erroneous documents. This was challenged by Bhowmick and Renubala Karmakar again before the high court. In the meantime, Bhowmick died on September 6, 2010. Bhowmick's widow Tulsi Rani and Karmakar's widow Renubala had substituted them as petitioners to fight the case. On March 24, 2017, the high court set aside the rejection orders and directed formation of a committee comprising an official each of the central and the West Bengal government to look into the issue. Challenging the formation of the committee, Tulsi Rani and Renubala moved an appeal before the chief justice's court. During pendency of the appeal, the committee submitted a report contending that records of the said period was available, but the names of Bhowmick and Karmakar did not appear in those. On November 11 this year, Chief Justice Kargupta directed the SP of East Midnapore district to be personally present in the court with the said records on November 27. SP Solomon Nesa Kumar informed the court Tuesday that no official record could be found for the period from 1930 to 1946, Manna said. Having found that the contention of the petitioners were right that the records were not available, the division bench directed the Centre to release the pensions of Bhowmick and Karmakar to their widows. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On the failure of the CBI director to furnish the progress report pursuant to its earlier order asking him to hold a probe in connection with the selection procedure pertaining to 68,500 assistant basic teachers in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High court has expressed displeasure over the dilly-dallying attitude of the central agency. The Lucknow bench of the court, in its order, Monday said, "The CBI director holds a very responsible post. He should understand the seriousness of the order passed by this court and act promptly to serve the nation in these serious matters." The remark was made by Justice Irshad Ali in the course of the hearing of a bunch of petitions, which was fixed for perusing the progress report on the probe. Justice Ali had, on November 1, directed the CBI director to hold the probe into the alleged anomalies within six months and had summoned the progress report Monday. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel Bireshwar Nath told the court, "The CBI director is not able to decide as to which branch of the agency will investigate the issue involved in the recruitment process of assistant teachers in 2018." At this, the court expressed anguish and warned the CBI director for coming up with such a reply. It then posted the matter to December 10 and directed the CBI director to submit the progress report on that date. Meanwhile, a division bench of justices Vikram Nath and Manish Mathur deferred the hearing of a special appeal filed by the state government challenging the November 1 single-judge order passed on bunch of writ petitions. The bench asked the state counsel to serve a copy of the special appeal to as many as 42 candidates, on whose petitions the single judge had passed the order. On behalf of the state, Advocate General Raghvendra Singh stressed that the single judge's suo motu order for a CBI inquiry was unwarranted as the state government had itself instituted an inquiry and that the said order should be set aside. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court has rejected a man's plea against the excise department's move to direct the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd to shift his liquor shop from his premises here. The department had issued the directions on the ground of safety of women and children, and traffic congestion on a main road in Brahampuri area. Justice Vibhu Bakhru dismissed the petition last week, saying the man has no ground to challenge the excise department's order as the licence for the liquor vend was not issued in his favour, but in that of Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporations (DSCSC) Ltd. Refusing to interfere with the department's order, the court also said the question whether the DSCSC was entitled to a licence was between the excise department and the corporation. The man had challenged the November 12 order of the excise deputy commissioner directing the DSCSC to shift the liquor vend from the premises in Brahampuri area in northeast Delhi. The court said the DSCSC has not objected to the order of the department and has accepted it, and the direction was issued following various alleged complaints against the liquor vend. It noted that an inquiry was conducted by excise officials to ascertain the views of the residents and other stakeholders regarding the complaints and their demand for shifting the liquor vend from the location. "It is stated that during the public enquiry, local residents expressed their grievances on the ground of safety of women and children as well as traffic congestion. "They also complained that there was nuisance and open drinking around the said liquor vend. Keeping the view of the majority of the persons at the said enquiry, the department has passed the impugned order," the court said. The court termed as "unmerited" the man's contention that he has ground to challenge the department's order since he and the DSCSC had entered into a revenue sharing arrangement, and closure of the liquor vend would affect stream of revenue. The man had said he was aggrieved by the order because as per the agreement, he was entitled to 15 per cent of the gross profits earned by the DSCSC from the sale of liquor from the vend which was operated from his premises. The court said, "It was also important to note that the order sought for by the petitioner would in effect not only mean that the excise department is compelled to continue the licence in favour of the DSCSC but that the DSCSC is also compelled to continue with the liquor vend. Plainly, the said cannot be accepted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court Tuesday sentenced a man to 15 years imprisonment for raping a differently-abled minor girl five years ago. The man, Chattu Lal, was arrested after the incident in August 2013 and has been in jail for last over five years. The high court upheld a trial court's verdict holding the man guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl and awarding him 15 years in jail. Justice Anu Malhotra said there was no infirmity in the verdict of the trial court convicting the man for the offence of penetrative sexual assault on the child under the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court also passed a slew of directions for the man's remaining jail term so that the sentence "acts as a deterrent" and is simultaneously reformative with a prospect of rehabilitation. It directed the concerned superintendent of jail, where the convict is lodged, to "consider ensuring an appropriate correctional courses through meditation therapy, educational opportunity, vocational training and skill development programme to enable a livelihood option and an occupational status". The superintendent shall consider a programme for shaping of post release rehabilitation programme for the convict well in advance before the date of his release to make him self-dependent and ensuring his protection from getting associated with antisocial groups, agencies of moral hazards like gambling dens, drinking places and brothels and with demoralised and deprived persons, the court said. It said adequate counselling be provided to him to be sensitised to understand why he is in prison and to conduct psychometric tests to measure the reformation taking place and that he be allowed to meet with his family members as per the jail rules. An FIR was lodged on the complaint by the victim's mother that on August 14, 2013, her two daughters were playing outside the house and after sometime, she noticed that the victim was not there. While searching for the minor, the woman found her daughter crying outside the shop of the accused and she was bleeding. The man tried to flee but he was caught by the public. The man had claimed that he was not present at the spot at the time of the incident and as one of his arms was amputated, it was not possible to commit the alleged act with such a disability. The trial court had recorded that the girl was deaf and mute and her IQ level was very low and that her statement could not be recorded even with the aid of an interpreter. According to a doctor, it was found that the social age of the victim was about twp years and seven months. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) If missing children can be traced by using Aadhaar biometrics, why cannot the same system be used to identify dead persons is a question raised in a plea moved in the Delhi High Court Tuesday. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao asked the Centre and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to respond to the application by February 5, the next date of hearing. The application was moved by social activist Amit Sahni, also a lawyer, in his main petition seeking a direction to the Centre and UIDAI to utilise Aadhaar biometrics to identify the unidentified dead bodies. On the last date of hearing, the UIDAI had told the court that it was technically not possible to match the fingerprints of an unidentified body with the biometrics of 120 crore people stored in its database. It had claimed that matching of biometrics, including fingerprints and iris, was done on a 1:1 basis and the Aadhaar number was required for it. Sahni, in his application, has referred to some recent reports, in which the UIDAI has claimed to have traced more than 500 children by using Aadhaar biometrics. He has also placed before the court pamphlets purportedly circulated on the social media by the UIDAI regarding Aadhaar's benefits, including tracing of missing children. The application contends that the reports and the pamphlets "falsify the stand of the UIDAI that dead persons cannot be identified by using Aadhaar". The main petition has sought a direction to the Centre, UIDAI, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the states to scan the biometrics of the unidentified bodies and process them with the Aadhaar portal to trace any pre-existing biometric details. Sahni, in his petition, has also sought directions to the Centre and UIDAI to share the pre-existing Aadhaar details, if any, without any delay with the NCRB and the states for the identification of dead bodies. A similar plea was earlier filed by the petitioner before the Supreme Court, which had asked him to approach the Delhi High Court, where he has already filed a petition for using Aadhaar biometrics for the purpose of tracing and re-uniting missing and mentally-challenged persons with their families. Thereafter, he withdrew the plea from the top court. The plea says despite registering the biometrics and scanning more than 122 crore citizens at the Aadhaar portal, the database is not being utilised for identifying bodies. It adds that thousands of unidentified bodies are recovered in the country every year. A five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court had on September 26 declared the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid but had struck down some of its provisions, including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions. The bench had held that while Aadhaar would remain mandatory for filing Income Tax returns and allotment of the Permanent Account Number (PAN), it would not be compulsory to link it with bank accounts and that telecom service providers cannot seek its linking for mobile connections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and Auckland University have signed an MoU to foster academic exchange and research collaboration, faculty exchange and student mobility. The institutes will typically explore opportunities for research in healthcare technologies, new materials, cyber security and Artificial Intelligence, an IIT Kharagpur statement said Tuesday. This is the first strategic partnership of University of Auckland with a higher educational institution in India. "The SPARC programme of India is of specific interest to us. There are several research areas which are of mutual interest to both institutions and we would be deciding on the detailed areas of work leading to exchange of faculty and students," the statement quoted Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Strategic Engagement at University of Auckland, Prof Jenny Dixon as saying. The MoU also involves the scope of outreach centers at IIT KGP and Auckland representing various prestigious higher educational institutions of both countries. "We are the nodal institution for New Zealand for the Ministry of Human Resources Development. We can co-ordinate with other institutions in the country through a joint research centre, specifically a New Zealand Centre at IIT Kharagpur and an India Centre at Auckland," IIT KGP Director Prof P P Chakrabarti said. The two institutes will further explore possibilities of a Dual Masters and Doctoral programmes and a collaborative B Tech - M Tech Programme. "At IIT Kharagpur, we have been striving hard to ensure global exposures to gain in-depth knowledge in core disciplines as well as expertise across disciplines are offered in collaboration with leaders in various areas of academia," Dean, International Relations, IIT KGP Prof Baidurya Bhattacharya said. At present Indian students form the third largest student community in New Zealand's academic field with enrolments mostly in science, engineering and business. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a first, Islamabad traffic authorities issued a driving licence to a transgender, 15 years after she first started driving a car, according to media reports. Laila Ali, a leader of the transgender community who is listed as Mohammad Ali on her national identity card and driving licence, spoke to the police chief and informed him of the issues and problems, including victimisation by police, faced by the community members in the national capital, the Dawn reported. During the discussion, the police chief assured her to address the grievances of the transgenders and offered to issue her a driving licence after he got to know that she has been regularly driving without a licence for 15 years now, according to a Geo TV report. Laila, who is the president of the Rawalpindi-based Awaz Shemale foundation, learnt driving from her father in 2000, it said. The Islamabad Police issued her the licence after administering all practical driving tests, the report said. This was the first time that police has issued a driving licence to a transgender person in the capital city. Pakistan has an estimated population of 5,00,000 transgenders. In May, Pakistan Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, which established broad protections for the community members. Earlier in March, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police issued driving licences to 30 transgenders, Geo TV reported. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of Chinese importers is visiting India as part of New Delhi's efforts to promote Indian grapes in China and tap the country's huge market. Export of Indian grapes to China almost doubled from USD 3.5 million in 2016 to USD 6.7 million last year. However, this is just one per cent of total grapes imports in China of around USD 630 million and two per cent of India's total exports of the fruit of USD 300 million, an Indian Embassy statement said on Tuesday. In order to tap this huge market, Indian embassy in Beijing and its consulates in Guangzhou and Shanghai have taken up steps to promote Indian Grapes in China, which include organising a buyer-seller meet with support from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), an agency under the Government of India's Department of Commerce, in Mumbai. "Around 23 importers from China and over 100 Indian exporters participated in the Buyer Seller Meet which also laid an exhibition of products by the exporters," the statement said. The APEDA will also take the Chinese exporters to Nashik, also known as grapes capital of India, contributing almost half of India's grapes export. The agriculture produce trade between India and China has witnessed a renewed focus with Chinese authorises clearing access to Indian Non-Basmati Rice in June and Rape seed meal in September, it said. Following the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, India and China are exploring opportunities to step up Indian exports to China to address over USD 51 billion trade deficit. Two Chinese teams will be visiting India next month for inspection of pomegranate and soya bean meals. It is expected that these two products will be cleared for imports from India to China by the Chinese authorities at the earliest, it said. India has also pitched for access to various other products like soya bean, okra, banana, sapota, papaya, maize, sorghum etc. The Indian embassy along with other government agencies have organised promotional events for various products like rice, sugar, oil meals, tea during the past few months which has helped in establishing contacts between Indian exporters and Chinese importers. Recently, during a bilateral meeting with China's Vice Minister of MOFCOM Wang Shouwen, Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan emphasised that India can emerge as a major source for many of the agriculture products needs for China, the release said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese tech giant is betting on India to play a key role in achieving its global target of shipping 200 million smartphones this year. The company, which has shipped close to 100 million units in the first half of the year, Tuesday also unveiled its premium smartphone 'Mate 20 Pro' in India for Rs 69,990. "India is integral to Huawei's global strategy of achieving the 200 million shipments globally by the end of 2018," Consumer Business group Senior Product Marketing Director Wally Yang said. ALSO READ: Huawei to launch wireless charging in India with its Mate 20 Pro next month According to research firm IDC, shipped 52 million smartphones in the July-September 2018 quarter globally, ranking second after Samsung (72.2 million) and ahead of Apple (46.9 million). Talking about its latest product, Yang said the Mate 20 Pro is "powerful and intelligent". "India is a key market for us and it is our constant endeavour to create value for our Indian customers, offering the most innovative smartphone technology and luxury design as a differentiator in the market," he said. The company has partnered brands like Leica, Microsoft and Dolby to deliver some of the premium features on the smartphone. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is equipped with a 40MP main camera, a 20MP ultra wide angle camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera. It has a 6.39-inch curved display and 4,200 mAh battery. The device would compete with handsets from the stables of like Samsung and Apple. In the above Rs 30,000 category (considered as the premium segment), China's OnePlus continued with its leadership with 30 per cent share in India during the July-September 2018 quarter. Samsung was the second largest premium brand with 28 per cent market share, followed by Apple (25 per cent), as per data from research firm Counterpoint. Indonesian investigators are expected Wednesday to release a preliminary report into the Lion Air plane crash last month that saw all 189 on board killed when the nearly new jet slammed into the sea. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, crashing into waters off Indonesia's northern coast moments after it had asked to return to the capital. The findings are not expected to pinpoint a definitive cause of the accident, but may shed more light on why one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes fell from the sky. So far, investigators have said the doomed aircraft had problems with its airspeed indicator and angle of attack (AOA) sensors, prompting Boeing to issue a special bulletin telling operators what to do when they face the same situation. An AOA sensor provides data about the angle at which air is passing over the wings and tells pilots how much lift a plane is getting. The information can be critical in preventing an aircraft from stalling. The APA, a US airline pilots union, said that carriers and pilots had not been informed by Boeing of certain changes in the aircraft control system installed on the new MAX variants of the 737. The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee has retrieved one of the plane's black boxes -- the flight data recorder -- but is yet to locate the cockpit voice recorder. Black box data showed the plane had an airspeed indicator issue on multiple earlier flights, investigators said. Concerns have been raised by that Lion Air kept putting the plane back into service despite repeatedly failing to fix the problem in the days leading up to the fatal flight. While Boeing has come under fire for possible glitches on the 737 MAX -- which entered service just last year -- the accident has also resurrected concerns about Indonesia's poor air safety record, which until recently saw its carriers facing years-long bans from European Union and US airspace. Lion Air Flight JT610 plunged into the Java Sea less than half an hour after taking off on a routine flight to Pangkal Pinang city. Authorities have called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash, with 125 people officially recognised after testing on human remains that filled some 200 body bags. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A new Indonesian government app that lets the public report suspected cases of religious heresy is drawing fire as rights groups warn it could aggravate persecution of minorities in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation. Users of the app can report groups practicing unrecognised faiths or unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's six officially recognised religions, including Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism. "Smart Pakem", which was launched Sunday and is available for free in the Google Play store, was created by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, which said it would help educate the public and modernise the current reporting process. The app will also list religious edicts and blacklisted organisations and will allow users to file complaints instantaneously, instead going through the often cumbersome process of submitting a written accusation to a government office. "The objective...is to provide easier access to information about the spread of beliefs in Indonesia, to educate the public and to prevent them from following doctrines from an individual or a group that are not in line with the regulations," Nirwan Nawawi, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, told AFP in a statement. However, rights groups fear the application could be misused by increasingly powerful hardline Islamic groups and widen divisions in a country where harassment of religious and other minorities is not uncommon. "This is going from bad to worse -- another dangerous step to discriminate religious minorities in Indonesia," said Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono. Bonar Tigor Naipospos, vice chairman of rights group Setara Institute, added: "This is dangerous because if mainstream society doesn't like (a group) they'll report them through the application -- this will create problems." Hundreds of thousands of people across the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago who adhere to non-recognised animist and mystical faiths have long suffered discrimination and limited access to public services. This year an angry mob rampaged through a small community of the Ahmadiyya Islamic minority on the island of Lombok, destroying homes and forcing dozens of members to flee. The religious sect has been declared heretical by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI). Indonesia, a 17,000 island archipelago nation, is often touted for its diversity and religious tolerance, but it has a wide-ranging blasphemy law that has sparked a backlash. Criticising religion -- particularly Islam, which is followed by nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 260 million citizens -- can land offenders in jail. This summer, an ethnic Chinese Buddhist was jailed for insulting Islam after asking her neighbourhood mosque to lower its sound system during the daily call to prayer because she found it too loud. Her jailing was widely criticised. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday nudged the DRDO, the in-house R&D branch of the Defence Ministry, to "introspect" and be more "nimble" towards innovation. The Defence Research Development Organisation has to play an active role in R&D, the minister said at the launch of Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti, a Defence Ministry programme focussed on enhancing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) culture. "The DRDO should, in a way, introspect to make themselves more nimble towards innovation," the defence minister said at the event attended by top officials of the DRDO, the defence ministry and the three services. R&D is a "difficult area" which requires attention and has a long gestation period, Sitharaman noted. She asked the DRDO to "refocus" its attention on R&D and "be on its toes" to exploit the opportunity and support extended by the government. The minister said it is necessary to invest in R&D in a big way and the government is willing to do that. According to Sitharaman, it is "critical to identify, motivate and support" people who are capable of innovating, fabricating and manufacturing in-house. She also asked her ministry to break traditional barriers to innovations in defence sector by bringing in transparency and bridging existing gaps Sitharaman called upon all stake holders to step up as more is needed to nurture innovation in the defence sector and translate it into commercially viable solutions. DRDO chairperson G Sateesh Reddy said there has been a steep rise in the filing of IPRs by the organisation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Southern Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia is the only organised crime group operating on all of the world's continents, and is spreading, an Italian magistrate said on Tuesday. "The 'Ndrangheta is the only mafia present on all continents: western Europe, North America, Central and South America, Africa and now it's spreading to Eastern Europe" and Asia, Nicola Gratteri told journalists in Rome. Gratteri, 60, has been under police protection since 1989 and is currently the prosecutor in Catanzaro in Calabria, from where the 'Ndrangheta hail. He was on Tuesday presenting his book "The Secret History of the 'Ndrangheta", co-authored with mafia expert Antonio Nicaso, who teaches in the US and Canada. "The 'Ndrangheta is present wherever there's money and power to manage. They're not (politically) right or left," said Gratteri. "As long as Europe isn't convinced of the 'Ndrangheta's structural presence in their countries" then progress in the fight against them will be difficult, he said, as they keep an increasingly low profile. "The 'Ndrangheta does two things in Europe: They sell cocaine and then they use the money to buy whatever is for sale," he said. "But watch out, today that means cafes, pizzerias or hotels, but tomorrow it could be shares in television channels or newspapers, so that they can influence public opinion," Gratteri said. Co-author Nicaso warned that the fight against terror was taking precedence over the fight against the mafia. "They (mafia) used to seek out tax havens, now they seek out judicial havens," where there isn't yet specific anti-mafia legislation, he said. The fight against organised crime requires using intelligence services, which are instead preoccupied with terrorism. "Terrorist activity is a big cause for concern to society but not mafioso activity. So we fight terrorism but we should be fighting both at once," Nicaso said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In its effort to reach out to the people of the state, Jammu and Kashmir government Tuesday directed all deputy commissioners to keep aside at least one day of the week for disposal of public grievances. An order was issued in this regard by Principal Secretary (Grievances) Rohit Kansal, an official spokesperson said here. "All deputy commissioners shall keep aside at least one day of the week for disposal of public grievances and submit a report on pre-decided format to the project director, Project Management Unit (PMU) regularly," the official said quoting the order. He said the principal secretary to the governor would continue to monitor and supervise all grievances as are referred to the Raj Bhawan. He would also, wherever needed, continue to hold review to monitor the disposal of public grievances, the spokesperson said. He added that subject to any stipulation, the principal secretary, planning, development and monitoring department (PD&MD), would be overall in-charge for the functioning of the grievance cell. The Governor's Grievance Cell would continue to be serviced by the PMU headed by a project director. "Project director PMU shall hold regular review meetings with all nodal officers to monitor the disposal of public grievances by different departments. He shall also submit a fortnightly department-wise report on the progress of the departments in disposing of public grievances on the pre-decided format to the principal secretary to governor as well as principal secretary, PD&MD," the spokesperson said. He said all administrative departments would hold fortnightly reviews along with their heads of departments and subordinate offices concerned to dispose of all pending public grievances. Meanwhile, the government issued the revised schedule for weekly public hearings to be conducted by the advisers to the governor in the twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu. Advisers B B Vyas, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai and K K Sharma would hear the public grievances every Monday, Thursday and Friday from 11 am to 1 pm at the JK Governor's Grievance Cell, Church Lane, Srinagar, respectively, the spokesman said. Similarly, Vyas, adviser K Vijay Kumar, Ganai and Sharma would hear public grievances every Friday, Thursday, Monday and Tuesday from 10 am to 12 noon at Banquet Hall, Canal Road, Jammu, respectively, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Federation of Industries Jammu (FOIJ) Tuesday demanded opening of new cross-LoC routes in the state for achieving dual goals of economic development and peace building using a market development intervention. "We request Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state's Governor Satya Pal Malik to explore the possibilities for the opening of new cross-LoC routes for trade," FOIJ chairman Lalit Mahajan said. Suggesting opening of Suchetgarh route along the international border here for trade of goods with Pakistan on the pattern of Wagah border to explore new market for local industry, Mahajan said the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector in the state is suffering due to location disadvantages and shallow market avenues. "It is difficult for us to sell products in the neighbouring states and if an opportunity is provided to the unit holders to sell their products through cross-LOC trade, it will boost the confidence of the industrial unit holders and will also ensure overall economic development of the state," he said. He said the FOIJ strongly suggest that all goods being manufactured in Jammu and Kashmir be brought under the ambit of cross-LoC trade besides the opening of new routes close to border like PallanwalaChhambh, Nowshehra-Mirpur and Suchetgarh. Mahajan appreciated the steps taken by the previous PDP-BJP government to explore the market avenues by opening new routes for cross-LoC trade to provide relief to the MSME sector and said the local MSME sector is producing the quality products including ferrous and non-ferrous products, pharma and healthcare items, food products, etc. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Jonathan Majors is in negotiations to star in director Aaron Sorkin's political drama "The Trial of the Chicago 7". The film will narrate the story of the 1969 trial in which anti-war activists such as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Tom Hayden were accused of conspiracy, inciting to riots and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War protests in Chicago, Illinois, on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. If the deal is finalised, the 29-year-old actor will take on the role of Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Earlier, Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne and actor Sacha Baron Cohen were in talks to star in the film. Their casting has not yet been confirmed. Redmayne, 36, is being eyed to play play Tom Hayden, the co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society. Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and radical intellectual activist in the 1960s. Cohen, 47, is in talks for the role of Abbie Hoffman, the anarchic co-founder of the Youth International Party, who came to be known as Yippies. Sorkin has penned the screenplay. Earlier, veteran director Steven Spielberg was planning to helm but a writers' strike forced him to delay the film. After the success of his directorial debut "Molly's Game", Sorkin officially assumed the directing duties of the new film. "The Trial of the Chicago 7" will be produced by Marc Platt. Majors is will be next seen in Yann Demange's "White Boy Rick", which also features Matthew McConaughey. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Tuesday said it would not like to come in the way of the Kartarpur Corridor created by Pakistan to facilitate Sikh pilgrims from India to visit Gurdwaras across the border, but cautioned the Centre in dealing with the neighbouring country. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the Kartarpur Corridor issue was "extremely sensitive" even as he said Pakistan had not acted against the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks even after a decade. "Kartarpur corridor has been a long standing demand of the Sikh community in Punjab and other places which goes back almost 25 years...if there is something happening on Kartarpur, we would not like to stand in the way but in our dealing with Pakistan, you have to be extremely careful and extremely calibrated," he told reporters. "The difficulty with the NDA government has been that they have swung from sublime to the ridiculous in their policy towards Pakistan over the past 53 months," he said. The 4-km-long Kartarpur Corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib Narowal in Pakistan. The corridor will provide visa-free access to the Indian Sikh pilgrims to the gurdwara. Tewari also talked about the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and how the neighbouring country had failed to bring the perpetrators to book. On November 26, 2008 Mumbai was attacked by 10 terrorists of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. In the mayhem that followed for the next three days, 166 people, including 18 police officers and two NSG commandos, were killed while 308 people were injured. "The fact remains that Pakistan has not acted against the perpetrators of 26/11. That is the reality that we must be cognizant about," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : The Kerala Assembly Tuesday paid rich tributes to sitting MLA, P B Abdul Razak, who passed away recently. The homage was paid on the opening day of the 13th session of the House. Sixty three year-old Razak, who represented Manjeshwaram constituency in the House, died of a heart attack at a private hospital in Kasaragod on October 20. The members of the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and opposition Congress-headed UDF paid homage to the Indian Union Muslim League legislator and recalled his contributions. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Razak was a leader approachable to any ordinary citizen any time. Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala, minister Kadakampally Surendran and MLAs O Rajagopal, Anoop Jacob, K B Ganesh Kumar and P C George were among those who shared memories of the IUML legislator. The House was adjourned for the day after it observed silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul. The business session, scheduled till December 13, will begin Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Leader of Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) K Krishnankutty was Tuesday sworn in as the new Water Resources Minister of Kerala. State Governor P Sathasivam administered the oath of office and secrecy to Krishnankutty, Chittur MLA, who replaced Mathew T Thomas, a senior JD (S) leader in the cabinet. The JD(S) national leadership had during its meeting in Bengaluru last week decided to replace Thomas with Krishnankutty. The opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) boycotted the swearing-in ceremony as part of its decision to intensify the agitation against the government on the Sabarimala issue. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cabinet ministers were present at the brief ceremony. The JD(S), headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, has three MLAs in the Kerala Assembly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Madhya Pradesh is all set to vote on Wednesday to elect a 230-member assembly, with 1.80 lakh security personnel deployed on duty to ensure peaceful polling in the state, where the ruling BJP and opposition Congress will vie for supremacy. The BJP is eyeing a fourth straight term in office, while the Congress is hoping for a comeback in the state which was once its stronghold. The battle of ballots in Madhya Pradesh is just months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls slated in the first half of 2019. As many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray for the 230 seats, but the main contest is between the Congress and BJP - the Big Two of MP politics. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Addressing a press conference Tuesday, State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V L Kantha Rao said, "All preparations for the Wednesday polling have been completed. All polling parties have left for their respective booths and most of them have reached their destination". He said polling will be held from 8 am to 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three assembly segments in Naxal-affected Balaghat district - Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar - voting time will be from 7 am to 3 pm. Rao said 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, have been deployed on poll duty across the state, where 65,341 polling stations have been set up. The CEO said 17,000 of these polling booths have been declared 'sensitive' and additional vigil will be maintained there. As many as 1.80 lakh security personnel, including those drawn from central paramilitary forces, have been deployed to ensure free and fair poll, Rao said. "Special measures have been taken for sensitive booths. Webcasting will be held from 6,500 polling stations, while videography will be carried out at 4,600 booths," he said. Rao said 78,870 EVMs will be used during the poll. He said physically challenged employees will manage 160 booths, while 3,046 polling centres will have all-women staff. "As many as 40,487 vehicles, including 9,600 buses and 8,500 mini buses are being used in the polling process," Rao said. Among the 2,899 candidates, 250 are women and five are from the third gender, the CEO said. "The candidates include 1,794 from general category, 591 from Scheduled Castes and 514 from Scheduled Tribes. The highest number of seven female candidates are contesting from Chhatarpur, where 16 candidates are in the fray," Rao said. The highest number of candidates - 34 - are in the fray in the Mehgaon constituency in Bhind district, while the lowest - 4 - is at Gunnor in Panna district," he said. According to the final electoral roll, the state has 5,04,95,251 voters - 2,63,01,300 males, 2,41,30,390 females, 1,389 third gender and 62,172 postal electors. The BJP is contesting all the 230 seats, while the Congress has fielded 229 candidates, leaving one seat, Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for its ally - Sharad Yadav's Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in office since 2005, is seeking re-election from Budhni in Sehore district. The BSP has fielded 227 candidates, while the SP is contesting on 52 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), contesting the Madhya Pradesh elections for the first time, has fielded 208 candidates. In reply to a question, Rao said so far Rs 100 crore, out of the Rs 411 crore budget, has been spent on the polling process. In the last assembly polls, the BJP had won 165 seats, the Congress 58, the BSP four and the independents three seats. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court adjourned on Tuesday the anticipatory bail plea of A R Murugadoss, the director of Vijay-starrer 'Sarkar', to November 28 for further hearing. The Tamil Nadu government insisted in the court that the director must give an undertaking stating that he would not criticise the policies of the government in the movies he makes in future. Public Prosecutor A Natarajan made the submission while opposing the anticipatory bail application moved by the director. Recording it, Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan asked counsel for Murugadoss whether he was willing to give such undertaking. As the counsel sought time to get instruction from the director, the court adjourned the plea to November 28 for further hearing. AIADMK workers staged protests against the film, released earlier this month, after several ministers took exception to scenes in the film criticising welfare schemes and an reference to former chief minister late J Jayalalithaa. Counsel for the director earlier informed the court that the objectionable portions had already been removed from the film. On November 9, apprehending arrest in connection with the issue, Murugadoss moved the court seeking anticipatory bail. Admitting his plea, the court, as an interim relief, restrained the police from arresting the director till November 27. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra Legislative Council Tuesday witnessed uproar as the government and opposition faced off over farm relief and the Maratha quota issue. Soon after the House assembled for Question Hour, the Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde said the government has not disbursed financial aid to farmers whose crops have been damaged by pink ballworms. "I challenge the government to show us a single farmer who has received full compensation of Rs 34,500 for the losses. If you do that, I am ready to resign from the post of opposition leader," Munde said. He further demanded that the government table in the House the State Backward Class Commission report on Maratha reservation as well as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences report on reservation for the Dhangar community. In response, state Revenue Minister and Leader of the House Chandrakant Patil said the state government has submitted a proposal to the Centre demanding compensation for crops affected by pink bollworms. However, no financial aid has been received as yet, he informed the House. "The government has released Rs 3,360 crore as compensation and also filed cases against crop insurance companies for claims worth Rs 1,100 crore," said Patil. Responding to opposition demands over the issue of Maratha reservation, the revenue minister said this is the 52nd report of the SBCC and none of the previous reports were tabled in the House. "We are committed to giving reservation to the Maratha community and will place the ATR (Action Taken Report) (in the House) before tabling the bill," said Patil. He went on assure the House that the government would not touch the existing 52 per cent quota for various communities and said a special category would be created for the Maratha community. "We will table the Maratha reservation bill in the current session. However, there are some people who do not want the community to get reservation," he alleged. Patil's statement triggered a backlash from the opposition benches which in turn led to those from the Treasury benches shouting slogans against the opposition. The Council chairman then adjourned the House for the day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court Tuesday sent 39-year-old man, arrested with a bullet at the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal here, to two weeks judicial custody. The court sent Mohammad Imran, a caretaker of a mosque in Karol Bagh and resident of Seelampur locality, after he was produced before it. Imran, who was going to attend a Janta Darbar (public meeting) at the chief minister's residence, was arrested on Monday after a bullet was found in his purse during frisking, police said. He is a muezzin, a man who calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret of a mosque. He had come at the CM's residence with 12 imams and maulvis to discuss the issue of increasing salary of staff working at the Delhi Waqf Board. During the search, a live cartridge of .32 bore was recovered from his purse by security staff deputed at Kejriwal's residence. Imran was handed over to the local police and accordingly, a case was registered at the Civil Lines police station under relevant sections of the Arms Act, police said. During interrogation, Imran said he was a muezzin at Masjid Bawli Wali in Karol Bagh and two to three months ago, he found a cartridge in the mosque's donation box. He said he had planed to throw it in the Yamuna river but did not do so and kept it in his purse, police said. Last week, a man threw chilli powder at Kejriwal inside the Delhi Secretariat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man was arrested here Tuesday for allegedly stalking a woman journalist on social media and threatening her of abduction, police said. The man, identified as Gulshan Kashyap, a resident of Gurgaon in Haryana, was held near the Sab Mall in Sector 27 after raids were conducted to find him, they said. "The man would stalk her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and keep sending her offensive messages and posting comments. When blocked, he would create a new profile and repeat troubling her," Inspector Manoj Pant said. "Kashyap threatened to abduct her and also warned her against having any man in her life except him," he said. Pant, station house officer at Sector 20 police station, said the woman, a anchor with a private TV channel, had approached police on November 6 after which a case was registered. The mobile phone used in the crime was also seized from Kashyap after his arrest, he said. The accused has been booked under the Indian Penal Code Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication), police said. Charges under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act have also been pressed against him, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan Tuesday accused Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of interpreting the rules of the State Backward Class Commission as per his own convenience in connection with the report on Maratha reservation. The state government and the opposition are at loggerheads over the tabling of the SBCC report on Maratha reservation in the legislature. While the opposition has demanded that the report be tabled in the legislature, the state government is keen to place only the Action Taken Report (ATR) along with the bill to provide reservations to the Maratha community. Speaking to reporters, Chavan said SBCC rules in Marathi specify that the "report" needs to be tabled along with the ATR in the House. However, he added, the English translation of these rules state that the "annual report" and the ATR needs to be tabled. "Fadnavis has conveniently chosen to use this loophole (difference in terminology in the two languages) in the rules for his own benefit. As per the Marathi translation of the rules, the word is 'report' and the state government, therefore, should table the report on Maratha reservations in the House," Chavan told reporters. He said the Bombay High Court's order on November 14, 2014, staying the then Congress-NCP government's decision to provide 16 per cent Maratha quota, had also stressed the need for tabling such reports in the legislature. The High Court, in its order at the time, had observed that the state government had not tabled the reports on Maratha reservation, prepared by the Bapat Committee and the Rane Committee, in the House. "What does the chief minister want to hide by not tabling the report in the legislature? I fear the report could be rejected by the High Court," Chavan claimed. Earlier in the day, Fadnavis rejected the opposition's demand to table the SBCC report on Maratha reservations in the state legislature. "In Section 14 (of SBCC rules) it is stated that the annual report and ATR (Action Taken Report) on recommendations be placed before the House. The government is committed to giving reservation to the Maratha community and we will place ATR before tabling the (Maratha reservation) bill," Fadnavis said Tuesday. On Monday, state Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil had said that the bill for providing reservations to the Maratha community will be introduced in the legislature on November 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The marquee clash between reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin and P V Sindhu will mark the beginning of Vodafone Premier Badminton League on December 22. The fourth season of PBL will begin its journey from Mumbai. Left-hander Marin, who will turn out for new team Pune 7 Aces, will open the campaign against her old team Hyderabad Hunters, which boasts of Sindhu now. Marin had helped Hyderabad hunt down the title last year. The badminton extravaganza would witness 30 ties being played including seven double headers this season. Each city will be hosting one double header though Pune and Ahmedabad will see two double headers. Syed Modi International champion Sameer Verma led Mumbai Rockets will open their campaign from Mumbai on December 23. The Pune leg will witness yet another marque clash between PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal when Hyderabad Hunters meet North Eastern Warriors on the New Year's Day. This contest would be as keen for both the top-ranked Indians as well as their followers. Former world champion Viktor Axelsen led Ahmedabad Smash Masters will start their home campaign against Awadh Warriors and later play against the defending champion, Hyderabad Hunters. The 23-day event will witness nine teams with Delhi Dashers, Ahmedabad Smash Masters, Awadhe Warriors, Bengaluru Raptors, Mumbai Rockets, Hyderabad Hunters, Chennai Smashes, North Eastern Warriors and Pune 7 Aces slugging it out for a prize purse of Rs 6 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turning down the opposition's demand for a CBI probe into the recent attack on an RTI activist, Home Minister James K Sangma said Tuesday the government has decided to form a fact-finding committee to carry out an independent investigation into the incident. RTI activist Agnes Kharshiing and her aide Amita Sangma were assaulted near a coal mining site in East Jaintia Hills district on November 8. Kharshiing, who received serious head injuries in the attack, is currently undergoing treatment at North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences here. "I would like to state that the government has ordered a fact-finding inquiry into the matter. I do not see the need for a CBI inquiry because an independent committee is in the process of getting instituted," Sangma told a special session of Assembly here. Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Mukul Sangma, had pitched for a probe by the central investigation agency, citing "complete lawlessness" in the coal mining belts of the state. Congress MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh, who heads the Assembly committee on women empowerment, tabled a preliminary report on the incident in the House, expressing her dissatisfaction at the pace of progress in the case. In the report, Lyngdoh also recommended reassessment of the compensation paid to the two victims by the district administration. Kharshiing and Sangma were paid Rs 12,700 each as compensation by the East Jaintia Hills district administration, last week. Sangma, on his part, assured the House that the inquiry will be conducted in a fair manner, free from any interference. The home minister's statement came a day after the cabinet approved an independent inquiry, likely to be headed by a retired high court judge. He urged the lawmakers to have faith in the administration. "Six persons have been arrested till date in the case. The law will take its own course and justice will be delivered," he said, adding that police have to exercise caution to ensure that innocent persons do ot get "victimised". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A miffed Tamil Nadu Tuesday demanded that the Centre withdraw its permission to Karnataka for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a proposed balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project at Mekedatu across the Cauvery. Reacting to the neighbouring state's demand, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy asserted that the project has to come into effect. "No need to panic, Mekedatu project has to come into effect," Kumaraswamy said in response to a question about Tamil Nadu writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue. Speaking to reporters here, he said, "The State government within the framework of law....how it plans to implement the project by petitioning the central government... we will share with you in the days to come." Kumaraswamy's comments come amid reports that the Central Water Commission (CWC) has given its go-ahead to Karnataka for preparing a DPR. Bringing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's notice that the Central Water Commission has this month given its go-ahead to Karnataka for preparing a DPR, Tamil Nadu chief minister Palaniswami said Tamil Nadu had already opposed a feasibility report in the matter. The CWC, without considering the genuine and justifiable objections of Tamil Nadu, has given permission to Karnataka to prepare the DPR for the Mekedatu project, he said in a letter to Modi. The CWC's action has caused apprehension among people as its decision will affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers who depend on the Cauvery water, he added. "I request you to kindly...instruct the CWC to forthwith withdraw the permission given to Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd of Karnataka for preparation of the DPR for Mekedatu project," Palaniswami said, adding that he expected an immediate and positive reply. Karnataka Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, without sharing much details, said, the issue will be discussed in the meeting of former chief ministers and former water resource ministers called by the state government on December 6. Meanwhile, state BJP Chief B S Yeddyurappa has complimented Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Water Resources minister Nitin Gadkari and CWC members for "according clearance" to the Mekedatuproject meant to provide drinking water to hundreds of villages and Bengaluru. He said the project was hanging in the balance since long and the state government should without any alibis go ahead with the project work including preparation and submission of DPR besides starting the construction works. "The state government should consider this as a special case and allocate funds on priority basis to complete this project in a time bound manner," he said. The previous Siddaramaiah government had decided toimplement the Rs 5,912 crore Mekedatu Multipurpose (drinking and power) project across the Cauvery, which involves building a balancing reservoir with a capacity of about 66 tmcft, near Kanakapura in Ramanagaram district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Melania Trump and Karen Pence are helping to assemble military comfort kits for troops deployed overseas at the American Red Cross in Washington, DC. The first lady said Tuesday the packs are "one small way that we can say thank you and honour the sacrifices that members of the military make year-round." She adds, "Our prayers remain with all those serving overseas and for the families who wait for them to come home." Trump then joined Pence, cabinet secretaries' spouses, military families, Elizabeth Dole and other volunteers to assembling the packages. The packages contain snacks such as popcorn and peanuts, playing cards and toiletries including bottles of hand soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and tissues. They will be sent to troops deployed in Iraq, Poland, Djibouti and Kuwait. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mexico deported scores of Central American migrants arrested after hundreds forced their way through a Mexican police blockade and headed for the United States but were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Around 500 men, women and children, part of a caravan of roughly 5,000 mainly Hondurans who have been trekking toward the US for weeks, scrambled over a rusted metal fence and surged into a concrete riverbed toward San Diego on Sunday. The group was stopped by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire and US Border Patrol agents firing tear gas and rubber bullets. At least one man was wounded. Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott told CNN that "numerous" migrants -- mainly men -- had made it across, however, and 42 of them were arrested. Mexico's National Institute of Migration Commissioner Gerardo Garcia confirmed the 98 arrests on his country's side, saying there were "instigators" in the migrant caravan pushing people to illegally cross the border. The incident was the most serious flashpoint in a weeks-long crisis that US President Donald Trump used to drum up support in this month's midterm elections. Trump hit out again by threatening a permanent closure of the frontier, and defended the use of tear gas by US border patrol, saying it was "very safe." "They had to use (it) because they were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas and here's the bottom line: nobody's coming into our country unless they come in legally," Trump told reporters. "The tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself. It's very safe," he later added. Mexico sent a diplomatic note requesting that US authorities "conduct a thorough investigation of the events during which non-lethal US weapons were used in Mexico." Trump also claimed, without providing evidence, that some people at the border he dubbed "grabbers" clutch unrelated children to make it safer for themselves and increase their chances of getting into the US. "They grab a child because they think they'll have a certain status by having a child. You know, you have certain advantages in terms of our crazy laws that frankly Congress should be changing," he said. Most of the migrants stumbled back into camp in the northwestern Mexican city of Tijuana, dirty, scared and with ripped clothes. "We're here with broken hearts and hopes," said Andy Colon, a 20-year-old woman who traveled from Honduras with her sister and two children. "We were deluded into believing that we had already reached the United States, and that they would grant us asylum," Colon told AFP. The San Ysidro border post across from Tijuana -- the busiest crossing on the US-Mexico border -- was closed to traffic and pedestrians for several hours following the incident. Trump, who for weeks has been condemning the caravan, lashed out once more. "Mexico should move the flag waving migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries," he tweeted. "Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" Trump said, referring to his central election pledge to build a wall across the US-Mexico border. Many of the migrants say they are fleeing violence and poverty in Honduras in search of asylum north of the border. Around 1,000 migrants, including women and young children, had been holding a peaceful midday demonstration in Tijuana when half of the group bolted toward the border. The sudden rush overwhelmed the Mexican police, who were deployed with full riot gear. Several hundred made it over the first barrier, with video clips posted on Twitter showing crowds of people dashing across a shallow concrete riverbed toward the United States. When they neared the second fence, US border agents fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them as helicopters buzzed overhead. People covered their faces to protect themselves from the acrid gas, as mothers clutched their young children and fled back to Mexico for safety. "We were told that if we crossed (the first barrier) they would give us asylum, because we were already in the United States," said Flor Jimenez, a 32-year-old Honduran woman who was among those who turned back along with her husband, sister and young daughter. "But now it seems that they want to kill us, and we got very scared." US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen accused the migrants of seeking to harm US border patrol personnel "by throwing projectiles at them." But one Honduran man, who did not give his name, told AFP that American officers had "got upset because we were close to the border." "The alarm went off and they began throwing tear gas at us. A lot of people started to go down. A person got hit and lots of kids fainted. So some people got rocks and threw them because many kids were fainting," he said. Another Honduran who gave his name as Wilmer said "they started throwing tear gas and they hit a journalist in the head." A third man, who requested anonymity, showed AFP what he described as injuries from rubber bullets. He had two fresh round bruises in his abdomen. Trump has deployed nearly 6,000 troops to the border, on top of more than 2,000 members of the National Guard, but Scott said the Department of Defense was not involved in Sunday's engagement. To enter the US legally, migrants must apply for asylum, but the wait for those requests to be processed can last up to a year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Arunachal Pradesh minister Honchun Ngandam Tuesday called for reforms in the sector to ensure fundamental changes at all levels of operation. Addressing vice-chancellors and college principals, at the inaugural session of a workshop here, he said the fundamental changes require greater accountability, transparency, and morality. "Time has come to create a wave of institutional building and of excellence in the fields of higher education, research, and capability with enhanced capacities," he said. The minister said that the challenge of quality with globalisation as an opportunity calls for change in the mindset of all the stakeholders. Higher Education institutions (HEIs) should foster their link with their community at the local, national and regional levels, to answer societys needs, Ngandam said. The minister said quality in technical education is an indication of the quality of society and country and its economic growth and the quality should be imparted in all aspects of a technical institute. He called for a holistic approach to design the quality of an academic organisation. Terming the workshop as important, Bangalore-based National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) advisor Dr M S Shyamasundar said that NAAC reviews the institutional quality procedures on a regular basis in order to safeguard the quality of HEIs. Out of the 56 higher education institutions in the state, only one university and seven colleges have been accredited by the NAAC. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil Tuesday called on Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and sought his party's support for the Maratha reservation Bill. Patil, a senior BJP leader, met Thackeray at the latter's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra as part of the government's efforts to drum up support for the Bill in the legislature that is currently having its winter session in Mumbai. The minister said Thackeray has assured the support of his party, a member of the BJP-led ruling coalition in the state, for the Bill that the government proposes to bring to pay the way for quota for the Marathas in jobs and education. Speaking to reporters after an hour-long discussion with Thackeray, Patil said he has been meeting with state chiefs of all political parties to seek their support for the Bill. "I've met (state Congress chief) Ashok Chavan and (NCP president) Sharad Pawar in the last few days. I, therefore, mer Uddhav Thackeray today and spoke about the Maratha reservation Bill. "I have asked for his support for the Bill and he has assured me of his party's support," Patil said. He added that the BJP-led government was committed to providing reservation to the Maratha community. Meanwhile, a Sena source said Thackeray has assured the senior BJP leader of his support to the Bill. "Uddhav ji told Chandrakant Patil not to test the patience of the community and that the Bill should be such that it stands scrutiny of the courts," he said. The source said Thackeray sought immediate enforcement of the Bill and asked the government to ensure the existing quota for various communities is not disturbed. The Sena source said Thackeray also asked Patil to pursue with the Centre the demand of the Dhangars for quota and resolve the grievances of other communities. The Dhangar (shepherd) community has been pressing for reservation under the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. Patil had Monday said the government will introduce the Bill Thursday to provide reservation to the Maratha community in jobs and educational institutes under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category. However, Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savara said Tuesday the cabinet sub-committee working on the Maratha quota Bill wants to ensure it stands legal scrutiny and that it was yet to finalise the quantum of reservation. He said there was a "possibility" that the Bill could be introduced in the assembly Wednesday itself. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An eight-year-old boy was killed and a girl injured after an autorickshaw hit their van from behind in north Delhi's Timarpur on Tuesday, police said. The Maruti Eeco van carrying school children was hit by the autorickshaw carrying goods. The impact was so severe that an eight-year-old boy succumbed to injuries, police said. The girl has been admitted to the Sushruta Trauma Centre in Civil Lines, police said adding that there were reportedly 10 students in the van from a school in Model Town. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday lacerated Telangana's ruling TRS and the Congress for perpetuating "family rule" and pursuing "vote bank" politics that harm development like "termites". Calling the two parties two sides of the same coin, Modi recalled caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's "apprenticeship" with the Congress, and claimed they were playing a "friendly match" in the assembly polls. He invoked Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to claim had the political titan not been there Indians would have needed Pakistani visa to visit Hyderabad, the present-day capital of Telangana. Patel was widely credited for the annexation of the princely state of Hyderabad whose Muslim ruler did not want to join the Indian union. "The chief minister of Telangana and his family think they can get away with doing no work like the Congress.... They have adopted the style of the Congress which ruled for 50-52 years without doing anything. But that cannot happen now," Modi told an election rally in Nizamabad, as he took the poll battle to Rao's turf. Rao's daughter K Kavitha represents Nizamabad in the Lok Sabha. "Congress and TRS are two faces of the same coin. Both parties are competing against each other on who tells more lies. "TRS and Congress are family-ruled parties playing a friendly match in Telangana polls," he said, adding it was a "big joke" that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi assailed the TRS for being a "family party" at an election rally last week. Modi sought to appeal to "Telangana pride" when he referred to AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi's recent remark that whoever became the chief minister of Telangana or undivided Andhra Pradesh had to bow before his party. "A leader recently said whoever became the CM of Andhra Pradesh-Telangana had to be at his feet (kadmon ke neeche). You fought for Telangana for your self-respect. Will you want a CM who bows at the feet of some leader instead of the people of Telangana?" the prime minister told another rally at Mahbubnagar. K Chandrasekhar Rao's TRS has friendly ties with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. While accusing Rao of "destroying" Telangana through his government's policies and not fulfilling his promises to people, Modi targeted the Congress for silencing the aspirations of the state for two decades with "bullets". "Take a pledge in the memory of the martyrs to Telangana's cause...don't let those who fired bullets for two decades (to quell the agitation for separate Telangana). Don't allow them to enter the state. Not one Congress candidate should win. You take this vow for the sake of Telangana martyrs," Modi told the Mahbubnagar rally. Amid reports that the Congress was preparing a manifesto that would envisage separate schools and hospitals for Muslims, Modi said the only Mantra that the BJP followed was "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" and was against vote bank politics. "BJP has just one Mantra- Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. We believe in inclusive growth. Vote bank politics has damaged development like termite," he said. Development, he said, was a casualty wherever vote bank politics and politics of casteism, communalism and nepotism have flourished. "Both Congress and the TRS are two sides of the same coin. Both indulge in vote bank politics, both do casteist politics. Congress makes brothers fight brothers, Hindus fight Muslims, villages fight towns. TRS does the same thing. "TRS's talk of (raising) Muslim reservations is vote bank politics which the Congress has been doing for a long time," Modi said. Referring to the plight of farmers, Modi again invoked Patel to say had the the "son of a farmer" been India's first prime minister the condition of farmers would not have been so bad. "The Congress and TRS talking about farmers does not suit them. The 70 years of Congress rule and five years of TRS government are responsible for the present plight of farmers," he said, and asked "Naamdaar" (Rahul Gandhi) not to shed "crocodile tears" for agriculturists. He said Telangana under Rao did not join Ayushman Bharat scheme under which the Centre would bear medical expenses of the poor to the extent of Rs five lakh a year because of his feeling of insecurity. Read our full coverage on Telangana Assembly Elections 2018 "This chief minister feels so insecure...he trusts astrologers, does puja, ties nimbu-mirchi (to ward of evil). So when we introduced Ayushman Bharat Yojana, he decided not to join it. He feared people will reject him if Modicare comes into force. He did injustice to the poor people of the state," Modi said. Modi noted Rao had once said he would transform Nizamabad into a smart city like London but the place was still grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads. Rao took strong strong exception to the prime minister's comments, saying "How can you tell such a lie...I challenge you...being in the responsible position of the prime minister you should not lie for the sake of votes." Addressing an election rally in Mahabubnagar district Rao said, "Mr Narendra Modi, there is no power problem in Telangana....don't lie...I am very sorry to say this. You cannot make false allegations against a chief minister. I am not afraid of anyone...I am not (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N) Chandrababu Naidu."The Congress and TRS are "parivarvadi (family-centric) parties engaged in "WWF style wrestling" in Telangana polls, Modi said, suggesting the contest was fake. Attacking Rao, Modi said,"He got initial training in undivided Andhra Pradesh when he was an apprentice in the Chandrababu Naidu government (as minister). Later he went to Delhi and took apprenticeship in Madam's (Sonia Gandhi's) government (UPA). A person who did apprenticeship under such gurus will definitely destroy Telangana." The prime minister once again lamented Congress leaders dragging his mother and late father into the electoral discourse, and asked whether elections were fought on such issues. The prime minister said 40 centrally-sponsored projects worth Over Rs 300 billion were being executed in Telangana. Prime Minister will travel to Argentina from November 28 to December 2 to participate in the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires during which he will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of other participating nations, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday. Modi will also highlight the risks posed by oil price volatility and raise the issue of combating terror financing and money laundering, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said. One of the issues that will be discussed is strengthening of the WTO, he told reporters. The meeting is being held amid the ongoing trade war between the US and China. "Our interest is two-fold that the G20 issue is not hijacked by the single issue of trade, whether it is between two countries or otherwise. "And secondly how we can constructively reform the WTO which serves India's interest and which is multilateral. That is going to be one of the focal points of this G20 meeting, or certainly of India's position at the G20 meeting," Gokhale said. He said the G20 Summit must cover the entire gamut of economic issues, including the agricultural sector reform, the challenges climate change poses and health-care issues faced by the world. The theme of the G20 Summit is 'Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development'. Detailing Modi's visit, Gokhale said the prime minister will make a lead intervention in a session on 'Putting People First' that is essentially on the global economy. The second session is on talks of building consensus which will deal with trade, finance, taxation, sustainable development and climate change. The third session will be on 'Embracing Opportunities' and these are related to energy infrastructure, sustainable food security. The prime minister will be making subsidiary interventions in the other two sessions, Gokhale said. There will be a number of bilateral meetings during the visit. When asked the agenda of the Modi-Xi's visit, Gokhale declined to go into details, but said the purpose of the meeting is to build a mutual trust and understanding. He noted that the meeting will be fourth between the two leaders in last seven months. "It was decided in (the) Wuhan (Summit between Modi and Xi) that they would take the opportunity whenever and wherever they could meet. They could discuss issues on either leader's mind or issues of mutual concern," Gokhale said. When asked about a possible meet with the US President Donald Trump, Gokhale said the ministry was working on various bilaterals. The foreign secretary said Modi will also meet United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Mauricio Macri, the President of Argentina; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He will also meet the prime ministers of Spain, Jamaica, the Netherlands and the president of European Union and European Council. A bilateral meeting between Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron is also being worked out, Gokhale said. The prime minister, he said, will also speak on his flag programmes like the Jan Dhan Yojana, the Mudra scheme, Ayushman Bharat, soil health card in the G20 Summit. The prime minister will also make a pitch to countries who are not in the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn to join the International Solar Alliance. Gokhale said the issue of disaster relief infrastructure will also be discussed. There is a space of major countries, particulary the G20 nations, to have some kind of informal arrangement where they can share capacity building, technical know-how with countries hit by disasters, Gokhale said. India has shared a concept paper with the G20 countries and it has received a positive response, he added. The uncle of 'Baby Moshe', who as a two-year-old miraculously survived shelling and gunfire during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, says the boy will become a rabbi (Jewish religious teacher) like his father. Moshe's nanny saved his life when terrorists attacked the five-storeyed Jewish centre Chabad House, now renamed as Nariman Light House, killing nine, including his father Rabbi Gavriel and mother Rivka, who was pregnant. Moshe Holtzberg, who lives in the Israeli city of Afula with his maternal grandparents, visited Mumbai with them and Israel's prime minister in January this year. "We hope to see Baby Moshe grow up, become a big rabbi like his father and continue in his parents foot steps," said the late rabbi's younger brother, also named Moshe Holtzberg. "My nephew will be groomed to be the chief rabbi," the senior Moshe told PTI from New York, where he lives. "Yes, he will be shown the way by his (paternal) grandparents Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg and Frieda Holtzberg, and Rabbi Israel Koslovski, the chief Rabbi of Mumbai," he said. He said Baby Moshe was a "beacon of light and hope" for Mumbai, India and the world. The boy has "everlasting memories of the barbaric action" of terrorists, which will always serve to denote the contrast between good and evil, he added. "I was with my brother two months before the Mumbai terror attack. My brother and his wife were so kind and heart warming. They didn't just feed Jewish people who came to the (Nariman) House, but gave food to the poor people in Colaba market. Their house was open for everybody. I will never forget them," he said. Holtzberg said 10 years after the worst-ever terror attack in India, none of the main perpetrators, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Hafiz Saeed, are in jail. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of cross-party MPs on Tuesday called on the UK government to adopt a new definition of Islamophobia to help tackle the increasing problem of anti-Muslim prejudice in the country. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims concludes in Islamophobia Defined', a report following a six-month inquiry involving evidence from a range of Muslim organisations, academics and experts, that it is not just British Muslims who are impacted by Islamophobia, but British society at large. "Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness," the report says the new definition of the term should be. According to latest UK Home Office figures released last month, a majority of religious hate crime 52 per cent was directed at Muslims. "Islamophobia is a form of racism and it is growing in our society. To tackle it, Islamophobia must be accurately and fully defined and that's why this inquiry centred around the discussion on a working definition," said Labour Party MP Wes Streeting, Co-Chair of the APPG on British Muslims. His group's report found that "prevalent" Islamophobia was driving division, hate crime and even terror attacks and that because there is no commonly agreed definition of Islamophobia, it has been allowed to "increase in society to devastating effect". "The detectable shift from overt to subtler or respectable, manifestations of Islamophobia the normalisation of the prejudice to the extent it is rendered almost invisible to many warrants a definition that can arrest and reverse its present trajectory," the report notes. "There has been no attempt to adopt a definition of Islamophobia by government despite recognising the significant impact the problem has on British Muslim communities," it adds. In an attempt to preempt criticism from far-right and extremists groups, the APPG report concludes that the definition does not aim to curtail free speech or criticism of Islam as a religion. "From hate crimes motivated by anti-Muslim feeling, buttressed by stereotypes and racist caricatures prevalent in social and media discourse, to policies which perpetuate discriminatory outcomes for Muslims, a definition of Islamophobia is vital," it said. A UK government spokesperson said that hatred directed against British Muslims and others because of their faith or heritage was utterly unacceptable. "We know that some have suggested establishing a definition of Islamophobia could strengthen efforts to confront bigotry and division. Any such approach would need to be considered carefully to ensure that this would have the positive effect intended," the spokesperson said. The government had launched an Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group recently and said it plans to work with various groups to tackle the problem as part of a wider Hate Crime Action Plan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday visited the Sri Ramanathaswamy temple here and offered prayers ahead of his daugther's wedding scheduled next month. He was accompanied by his son, Anand and was accorded a welcome by the executive officer Mangayarkarasi. After offering prayers, Ambani placed the wedding invitation card of his daughterIsha at the feet of the presiding deity. Later, the Reliance Industries chairman said he was impressed by the temple's architecture. Ambani donated Rs 55,000 to the temple. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 19-year-old collegian was killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district after they accused him of being a police informer, a senior official said Tuesday. A group of armed Naxals Sunday night entered Dipak Farsa's house in Ingum village in Jangla area and assaulted him with stones and sharp-edged weapons, killing him instantly, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Mohit Garg told PTI. Villagers have said the Naxals who attacked Farsa had accused him of working for the police, Garg said. Garg, however, categorically denied that Farsa was an informer or had any association with the police, adding that he was a first-year student in a college in Bhairamgarh. A search operation has been mounted in the region to nab Farsa's killers, Garg added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the Ministry likely to come out with a national action plan to combat pollution next month, experts Tuesday said it was a highly ambitious initiative and all the state and local governments should get involved in the massive task in equal measures. They also said when the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is launched, it should have legal binding and interim milestones. A senior Ministry official had told PTI earlier this month that the NCAP, proposing multiple strategies to combat air pollution, would be launched in December. The key components of the NCAP include specific air pollution abatement action plans for over 100 polluting cities of the country, increasing the number of monitoring stations, data dissemination, public participation in planning and implementation among a host of other measures. Sunil Dahiya, Clean Air Campaigner, Greenpeace India, said it was good to hear that the final version of the NCAP might be released this week but the Ministry's ambition seemed to be reducing, compared to its earlier stand on reduction of pollution levels by 35 per cent in three years and by 50 per cent in five years. "It is also important that the NCAP, when announced, should have legal binding and interim milestones. It has taken almost a year since the announcement, the lives of millions and our economy are at stake due to this crisis. We hope the government shows enough seriousness to fight the public health crisis," he said. Professor S Tripathi, heading the Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering in IIT Kanpur, said the NCAP was a highly ambitious initiative and if implemented timely, could make our cities and towns "breathable and the skies blue again". "It is a massive task and all the state and local governments should join it in equal measures for a healthy future generation," he said. Lauri Myllyvirta, Lead Analyst, Greenpeace Global Air Pollution Unit, said in China, strong emission standards for power plants and industries reduced coal consumption and a much strengthened enforcement of regulations achieved an approximately 30 per cent reduction in PM2.5 levels from 2013 to 2017 -- in just four years. "It is an excellent sign that India is moving to set meaningful targets to reduce air pollution. Key learnings from China's experience are -- the importance of having an unwavering support from the highest level of leadership, implementing measures to reduce emissions in all key emitting sectors, including power plants, industry, transport, agriculture and households, without delay among others," Myllyvirta said. The other key learnings, Myllyvirta said were addressing pollution at the regional level rather than only in individual cities and investment in clean energy solutions that delivered both a better air quality and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The Environment Ministry has prepared the draft NCAP with an objective to come up with a comprehensive plan for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution, and to augment the air quality monitoring network across the country. Various green groups have submitted their recommendations to the ministry on the draft. In February, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan had said the ministry hoped to bring down air pollution in around 100 non-attainment cities by 50 per cent in the next five years under the NCAP. Ashutosh Dikshit, CEO, URJA, said the NCAP came in a series of several such plans and welcome as it was, it would remain an intellectual exercise if steps were not taken to implement it. "India is a nation of the young and a whole generation has been facing a silent health crisis. The public needs to see a demonstrable intent from the government which is so far missing. "The essence is implementation as well as statutorily recordable mechanisms to monitor the delivery of this massive plan. It will also be important for the states and cities to take ownership and find a way to include air quality management in their plans for the NCAP to be effective," he said. On India's air pollution, Michael H Bergin of the Duke University said the particulate matter concentrations right now were more than 10-fold the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines to protect human health. "So, the air is toxic and I think most citizens know that. There is no doubt that the air is also influencing mental health and I am sure that Indian students are having their test scores substantially lowered by the impacts on both physical and mental health. "I also think that local trash and refuse burning is a huge source of air pollutants and this needs to be addressed in order to improve the air quality," he said. Bergin maintained that the poor-quality air was ruining several monuments in India, including the Taj Mahal. "Worst of all, it is costing roughly USD 1 billion per year in lost solar energy production. So, cleaning the air not only has huge health cost savings but also great benefits to cultural heritage and renewable energy production," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan Tuesday urged that there is a need for a judicial complaints authority on the lines of Lokpal to deal with complaints against judges. Speaking at the launch of a book, 'Loose Pages', by Sourya Majumdar and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Bhushan said to build a fair system, all political parties and candidates contesting elections, should be made to go cashless. "All donations should be through banking channels but that has not been done but opposite has been done by introducing non-transparent thing called electoral bond through which anonymous donations could be made," he said. He said there is also a need for a judicial complaints authority on the lines of Lokpal called Judicial Lokpal. "Impeachment system is bogus and not practical and instead we need a full-time complaints authority to deal with complaints against judges," he said at the launch of the book which give details of the court cases 'that could have shaken India'. Former Union minister Arun Shourie, who was also present at the event, said everyone in India is part of a nexus. "We are also part of the same nexus as journalists and there is a nexus at every level, every institution, every region, it cuts across political party, it cuts across profession and by 1970 it was clear that people can grow in India only by nexus to state," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Waste management solutions firm Blue Planet Environmental Solutions Tuesday said State Bank of India-backed Neev Fund has made an investment in the company. The investment was made to further mandate the fund, which aims to provide capital to portfolio entities, to achieve long-term capital appreciation while promoting sustainable development, Blue Planet Environmental Solutions said in a statement. However, the company did not disclose the quantum of the investment made. "We believe that our partnership with the Neev Fund will give us additional impetus as we aggressively scale up the business in the waste management space," Blue Planet Environmental Solutions CEO and founder Prashant Singh said. Neev Fund is an infrastructure-focused private equity fund that was created as a partnership between SBI and the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID), the company said. "Blue Planet has demonstrated a unique advantage in the waste management business by successfully introducing global waste management technologies in India," Neev Fund CEO Manav Bansal said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday unveiled a contribution-based social security scheme for formal sector workers that will cover health and medical facilities, safe motherhood, accident and physical incapacity, security to dependent family members and security at old age. "It was important to strengthen the system in which the state is accountable to its people. This scheme has been introduced to address that issue," Oli said unveiling the scheme at a function here. The scheme will compulsorily be applied for formal sector workers and the government will soon launch it for informal sector workers as well, according to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security. Oli said people of all ages and categories would be included in the scheme. As per the scheme, which will come into effect from May 22, private sector employees will have to mandatorily contribute 11 per cent of their basic salary to the social security fund (SSF), while employers will have to contribute another 20 per cent of the employees' basic salary. Once these contributions are made, employees will be entitled to compensation if they lose a job or cannot attend workplace because of pregnancy, illness or accident. Of the total fund collected, SSF will allocate 3.22 per cent for medical treatment, health and maternity security, and 4.52 per cent for accident and disability security. Likewise, it will allot 0.87 per cent for dependent family security and 91.39 per cent for old age security. Both employers and employees will have to mandatorily deposit their installment for the scheme and it is applicable for all types of workers. The scheme is in line with the contribution-based Social Security Regulation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Employees of NLC India Limited, a public sector enterprise, Tuesday contributed a day's salary amounting to Rs 3.79 crore towards cyclone relief and rehabilitation activities. Besides, the management of the company contributed Rs 3 crore for the cause, a press release said. Chairman and managing director of the company Rakesh Kumar handed over a cheque for Rs 6.79 crore to the Chief Minister K Palaniswami at his office here, it said. NLCIL said it has dispatched a team to carry out the relief operations in the cyclone-hit areas. The cyclone crossed the Tamil Nadu coast between Nagapattinam and Vedaranyam on November 16, and left a trail of destruction claiming 63 lives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) K Unnikrishnan, father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was killed in 26/11 attack, Tuesday said no government has so far been sincere in dealing with terrorism and rued that India does not have a "stern" policy to deal with it. "If you are totally against terrorism, then you have to be sincere in that. No government so far has been sincere in dealing with terrorism or cross-border terrorism," he told PTI in an interview here. Major Unnikrishnan had lost his life while battling the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists during the 26/11 attack on Mumbai in 2008. He was leading a team of NSG commandos to flush out terrorists from the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai when he was fatally wounded. He was conferred the Ashok Chakra, the country's highest peacetime gallantry award, on January 26, 2009. K Unnikrishnan said India does not have a "stern" policy on terrorism and lamented parties joining hands with "destructive forces" for political gains. "India does not have a stern policy on terrorism. I can easily say that BJP should not have joined hands with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir. If you are totally against terrorism, then you have to be sincere in that," he said. Similarly, it was also bad to support destructive forces like Afzal Guru, who had masterminded the Parliament attack and later was hanged, the father of the deceased Major said. "At that time, many people and politicians felt Afzal Guru should not be hanged. How can we expect this? He was the mastermind of the Parliament attack. Parliament is the nerve-centre of India," Unnikrishnan said. "If he (Afzal) is a culprit, you cannot say he is a scholar and has a very good brain and then he should not be punished. That is very bad. If you have a good brain, then you should use it for benefit of humanity. You cannot support such a person," he added. Asked if he was happy with the Narendra Modi government's steps to tackle terrorism, Unnikrishnan said he does not want to give credit to any government, but added that vigilance has increased a lot. Unnikrishnan praised Modi, calling him a good Prime Minister and added he was satisfied with his good intent. "There are loopholes in any system, but I can tell you that we have a good Prime Minister. His concern for the nation is totally satisfying," he said. "There were a lot of Prime Ministers. I have not seen such a person in my lifetime. I have also seen Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, but was not mature to understand then," he added. Unnikrishnan, however, was critical about Modi government's demonetisation move. He also said the Kashmir dispute can only be solved by India and Pakistan amicably without the latter bringing religion into it. "I have an idea, why they (India and Pakistan) cannot solve the Kashmir issue amicably? Why is Pakistan bringing religion into it?" he asked. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kerala High Court Tuesday ordered that no protests or demonstrations should be held at Sabarimala, holding that it was not a place for such activities. The court also set aside the 'unilateral' restrictions imposed by police on the devotees in Sannidhanam (temple complex) and appointed a three-member team as its observers there during the ongoing Mandala-Makaravilakku festival season. Considering a batch of petitions on the Sabarimala issue, a division bench comprising justices P R Ramachandra Menon and N Anil Kumar said that no protests or demonstrations should be held at the Sannidhanam as it was not a place for such activities. The court also modified the restrictions imposed on chanting Ayyappa mantra as well as a ban imposed on halting at the Sannidhanam. It said that women, children and the physically challenged can halt at the complex. The hill shrine had been witnessing protests by devotees and right wing groups against the government's decision to implement the September 28 Supreme Court verdict, permitting women of all age groups to pray at the temple. Tension, frequent protests and restrictions imposed by police at the complex and surroundings had kept pilgrims away from Sabarimala, but their numbers have slowly picked up. The Advocate General Tuesday handed over a sealed cover to the court on the proposed modalities to ensure smooth and safe pilgrimage for women of the prohibited age group. The court said retired high court judges P R Raman and Siri Jagan and senior IPS officer A Hemachandran would be its observers at Sannidhanam in the Mandala-Makaravilakku season. The court made it clear that prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC shall prevail at Sabarimala. It came down heavily on an IPS officer for his 'excesses' on devotees, including obstructing a High Court judge during his pilgrimage to the hill shrine recently. The Court observed that the broad mindedness of the judge who was "insulted" should not be construed as a weakness. It was only due to the request of the judge that action was not initiated against the officer, the court said. The Chief Justice was also aware of the incident, it said. The court observed that some IPS officers were crossing their limits and bringing a bad reputation to the police. However, it expressed faith in police and hoped that the force would discharge their duties more efficiently. It also removed restrictions imposed by police for plying round the clock KSTRC bus services between the Nilackal base camp and the Sannidhananm. Since the apex court verdict, no women in the 10-50 age group has succeeded in offering prayers at the shrine, where the deity is "Naishtika Brahmachari" (perennial celebate). The Ayyappa temple was opened on November 16 for the over two-month-long pilgrimage season amid tension. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japanese technology firm NTT Data Tuesday announced acquisition of a controlling stake in 63 Moons-owned payments services provider Atom Technologies for USD 9.24 million, marking its entry into the country's growing payments market. It will be investing another USD 1.5 million as growth capital for the company, which was promoted by the scam-tainted Jignesh Shah's Financial Technologies, which was renamed as 63 Moons following the controversy. NTT will take a 55.35 per cent stake in Atom for USD 9.24 million and invest USD 1.5 million in primary equity to take its total holding in the company to 60 per cent, 63 Moons' managing director and chief executive, S Rajendran, told reporters here. He said the infusion of USD 1.5 million, along with debt support, will be sufficient for the growth requirements of the company for three years. NTT Data's senior vice-president, Isao Arima, said his company did not take a full ownership of Atom as it considers it better to have a local partner in the venture. Atom Technologies is into payment processing for merchants and installation of point of sale machines at merchant establishments, its chief executive Dewang Neralla said, adding it has a network of 1.5 lakh merchants. The company reported a revenue of Rs 79 crore in fiscal year 2017-18 and a loss of Rs 6 crore, he added. As part of the acquisition, the two partners have agreed on milestones under which the company has to start delivering profits, Rajendran said, adding this will be the primary responsibility for Neralla who will hold 5 per cent in the venture along with some other investors. It will take up to 150 days for the deal to get necessary clearances and NTT may also rename Atom. Rajendran said there is also a possibility of NTT investing into other businesses of 63 Moons, and outlined that there are various areas holding a potential for partnerships. He said the company had been looking for a strategic partner in Atom since 2014 because of "lot of problems in doing business" and "uncertainty around us (63 Moons)". There is a need for the "clouds" surrounding the company to clear before it starts working on the other deals, Rajendran said. He, however, exuded confidence that all the matters in which 63 Moons is stuck right now will be resolved by the end of the year. He welcomed the Bombay High Court order earlier this year that de-freezed accounts of 63 Moons which were frozen by the investigative and law enforcement agencies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The governor of Okinawa in southern Japan said Tuesday the region will hold a referendum on February 24 over an unpopular project to move a US airbase. The symbolic, non-binding vote may draw renewed attention to the plight of Okinawans, who have fought against the Japanese-US joint plan to close the US Marines' Futenma Air Station in an urban area and move it to a sparsely populated part of the island region. It comes also after years of local protests against heavy US military presence have fallen on deaf ears in Tokyo and Washington. Governor Denny Tamaki, elected in September after campaigning against the relocation plans, said the referendum will be an opportunity for local residents to voice their views publicly. "It is significant as it will serve as an extremely important opportunity for local residents to articulate their wishes. I will encourage as many people as possible to participate in this exercise," Tamaki told local journalists in Okinawa. A vote against the proposed relocation could pile fresh pressure on the central government, which has argued that the plan is the best way to ensure Japan's national defence while reducing the current burden on Okinawa. Okinawa accounts for less than one per cent of Japan's total land area, but hosts more than half of the approximately 47,000 American military personnel stationed in Japan. Noise, accidents, and crimes committed by military personnel and civilian base employees have long angered local residents, as has the perceived refusal of other parts of the country to share Okinawa's burden. But the archipelago's location near Taiwan has long been viewed as having huge strategic importance for US forward positioning in Asia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 10 kg of heroin, worth more than Rs 50 crore, has been seized from a J&K-based couple who had smuggled in the contraband from Pakistan and were bringing it to supply in Ludhiana, police said Tuesday. Acting on a tip-off, the Special Task Force (STF) of Ludhiana nabbed Mohammad Arbi (48) and his wife, Jamila Begum (36), on Monday when they were transporting the 10.25 kg heroin in a car, they said. The accused, residents of Jalallabad Sunjama village falling under the Bathindi police station in Jammu, had hidden the contraband in a bag of walnuts, officials said. According to them, during preliminary investigation, the couple revealed that the contraband was smuggled in from across the border and they were to supply it in Ludhiana. "The heroin was supplied by a Pakistan-based supplier through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to his contacts in J&K. Then it was sent to Punjab through drug couriers," Punjab Director General of Police (STF) Mohd Mustafa said Tuesday. Both the accused had earlier supplied drugs in Punjab, police said, adding that more information about their supplies and other associates would be known during detailed questioning. Besides, the STF in Patiala also seized 45,500 tablets of drugs like tramadol and arrested two people in this regard. The Punjab government had set up the STF last year to tackle the problem of drugs in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Tuesday wondered why his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao was criticising him though he never did any injustice to Telangana. Addressing a public meeting here, Naidu said he was "pained" by KCR's repeated attack on him while campaigning for the December 7 Telangana assembly election. "I am unable to understand why KCR is criticising me. I did no injustice to Telangana. In fact, I am in the front row (of Chief Ministers) who developed Telangana. I never abused him but he is abusing me," Naidu said. The Telugu Desam Party chief is set to begin campaigning on behalf of the Congress-TDP-TJS-CPI 'Peoples Front', in Telangana Wednesday by addressing two public meetings in Khammam and Hyderabad city along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. "KCR says I am claiming credit for building Hyderabad. I never did. I built a brownfield city Cyberabad that contributed to the development of Hyderabad, built by Quli Qutub Shah. Now, I am building a greenfield city Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh," Naidu said. Hyderabad grew into an IT hub because of his sustained efforts, he claimed, adding major infrastructure like Outer Ring Road, new international airport and others were developed only because of him. "I have established several schools, colleges, engineering colleges in Hyderabad and across Telangana. The TDP, hence, has every right on Telangana," Naidu added. He questioned what was KCR without the TDP. "Has not KCR emerged as a leader from the TDP? Would he have been in without NTR (late N T Rama Rao) forming the TDP," Naidu asked. Lashing out at YSR Congress and Jana Sena, the TDP chief said the two parties were supporting TRS, by not contesting the assembly elections, as they were afraid of KCR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan on Tuesday lodged a strong protest with Bangladesh over a burglary at its high commission in Dhaka. Unidentified burglars broke into the consular section of Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka and took away computers, the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement. "We have lodged a strong protest with the Bangladesh's authorities, both in Dhaka and in Islamabad, over this incident," the FO said. The burglary in Pakistan High Commission, located in a highly secure diplomatic area, is a matter of grave concern, it said. "It has been underscored that as a host, it is the responsibility of the Bangladesh government to provide full security to the Pakistan High Commission premises," the FO said. The theft, which took place on Thursday last week, was immediately reported to Bangladesh's police and an FIR was lodged. Bangladesh's Foreign Office was also informed and strengthened security was requested. The Bangladesh authorities have been requested to carry out a thorough investigation, share a detailed report with Pakistan and bring the culprits to justice, the FO said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Pakistan-born woman has pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State (ISIS) by participating in a scheme under which she wired over USD 150,000 to individuals and shell entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for the terror group. Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, of Brentwood, New York, pleaded guilty before US District Judge Joanna Seybert, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers said. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal last December, Pakistan-born Shahnaz was a naturalized US. citizen. She had come to the US using a family-based immigration system, under which she had got the US visa because of her family ties. According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, between March 2017 and the date of her attempted travel to Syria on July 31, 2017, Shahnaz engaged in a scheme to defraud numerous financial institutions. Specifically, Shahnaz obtained a loan for approximately USD 22,500 by way of materially false pretenses, representations and promises. She also fraudulently applied for and used over a dozen credit cards, which she used to purchase approximately USD 62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies online. She then engaged in a pattern of financial activity, culminating in several wire transactions totalling over USD 150,000 to individuals and shell entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for the ISIS. During the time she was committing bank fraud and laundering money overseas, she was accessing ISIS propaganda online, including violent jihad-related websites and message boards, and social media and messaging pages of known ISIS recruiters, facilitators and financiers. Additionally, she conducted numerous internet searches for information that would facilitate her entry into Syria, but ultimately was intercepted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at John F Kennedy International Airport while attempting to board a flight with a multi-day layover in Istanbul a common point of entry for individuals travelling from Western countries to join the ISIS in Syria, prosecutors said. As part of her plea agreement with the government, Shahnaz admitted to defrauding numerous financial institutions and laundering the stolen proceeds out of the country with the intent to support a specified unlawful activity, namely the provision of material support to ISIS, after which she attempted to leave the United States and travel to Syria. Shahnaz faces up to 20 years in prison, as well as restitution, criminal forfeiture and a fine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's weapons are a deterrent to ensure that nobody looks at it with a "bad eye" as the country is facing a "belligerent neighbourhood", President Arif Alvi said on Tuesday. Alvi was addressing the opening ceremony of the 10th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2018 here. "We want peace, we have been striving for peace in a belligerent neighbourhood but we must stay strongOur weapons are for peaceful intent," he said, without naming any country. "We are there to defend our country and that is what IDEAS is all about," he said. Pakistan's weapons will be "for defence, never for offence", he said without mentioning the country's nuclear capabilities. "When the paradigm is not in our favour, we also have a deterrent to ensure the fact that nobody looks at Pakistan with a bad eye at all." Alvi also appreciated the sacrifices of the Pakistan Army in the fight against terrorism and bringing peace in the country. Over 262 companies from from China, Russia, USA, France, Germany, Turkey, Poland and South Korea have established their pavilions at the EXPO Center to display their products, according to Radio Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council and the Government of Tamil Nadu honoured Parvathy Hospital with the coveted 'Orthopaedic Emergency & Trauma Care Award' for its contribution to the healthcare sector. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789991/Parvathy_Hospital_Awards.jpg ) The award under 'Specialty Medicine' category was presented to Parvathy Hospital at TANCARE (Tamil Nadu Health Care), the Flagship Healthcare Conference of FICCI, on Tuesday, 27 November 2018 at Hotel ITC Grand Chola, Guindy, Chennai. Dr. C. Vijaya Baskar, Hon'ble Minister for Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu along with Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Tamil Nadu participated in the event. Sujay Sambamoorthy, Chief Executive Officer, Parvathy Hospital, received the award on behalf of the hospital. Mr. Ar Rm Arun, Chairman, FICCI TNSC & Chairman, Valingro Group; Mr. Ruban Hobday, Head, FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council; Dr. V. Balaji, Convener, Healthcare Panel, FICCI TNSC and other top dignitaries were present at the event. Commenting on Parvathy Hospital being selected for the honour, Sujay Sambamoorthy said, "It gives us immense happiness to receive this award from FICCI and the Tamil Nadu Government. This shows the good work done by Parvathy Hospital in the healthcare segment and this recognition will motivate us further to achieve more in the field. The entire team at Parvathy Hospital is elated and proud." About Parvathy Hospital:Parvathy Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital specialises in Bone and Joint care based in Chromepet, Chennai. It was founded by Dr. S. Muthu Kumar. It is fully accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare providers. The hospital always serves the patients with best care, state-of-the-art technology, systems and the best talent India has to offer - medical or managerial. Its constant focus on clinical excellence and in attracting and retaining clinicians has become the cornerstone of its success. For more information, please visit http://parvathyhospital.com/ . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Any person who takes part in terrorist attacks or any acts of violence should be brought to justice, the UN has said as India marked the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. About 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the terror attack carried out by 10 LeT terrorists over a period of three days. Nine of the attackers were killed by the police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was captured and hanged after he was handed down death sentence by an Indian court. "As a matter of principle, we always believe that those who are responsible for violence..random violence for acts of terrorism should be brought to justice," Spokesperson for Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric said at his daily press briefing Monday. Dujarric was responding to a question by PTI on the 10th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks and the US State Department announcement to offer a five million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual who was involved in planning or facilitating the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Spokesperson for President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Monica Grayley also said that any person or persons who take part in terrorist attacks or any acts of violence "should be held accountable and they should be brought to justice." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the "barbarity" of the Mumbai terror attacks had "shocked" the entire world, adding that it is an affront to the families of the victims that, after ten years, those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted for their involvement. "We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to uphold their UN Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and its affiliates," Pompeo said in his message. He added that the US is committed to seeing that those responsible for this attack face justice. The Department of State Rewards for Justice (RFJ) Program is offering a new reward for up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual who was involved in planning or facilitating the 2008 Mumbai attack, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday sought to appeal to Telangana pride when he referred to AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi's recent remark that whoever became the chief minister of Telangana or undivided Andhra Pradesh had to bow before his party. Addressing a poll rally at Mahbubnagar, Modi asked the people whether they would vote for someone who bows at the feet of some leader. "A leader recently said whoever became the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh-Telangana had to be at his feet (kadmon ke neeche). You fought for Telangana for your self-respect. Will you want a CM who bows at the feet of some leader instead of the people of Telangana," he asked. Owaisi made the remarks during an election rally here Friday. Seeking re-election from Chandrayangutta segment, he had said (previous) chief ministers have always sought the support of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the party would be the kingmaker again in the upcoming elections. "Whoever becomes the chief minister... does (that) CM bow his head before us or not?" Owaisi had asked his supporters at the rally. "Right from (Y S) Rajasekhar Reddy to Kiran Reddy and even KCR (TRS chief)... all of them listen to us...," he had claimed. "Certainly I am not the king, but the kingmaker and I can make anyone sit (on the throne)... This is AIMIM... the world will watch on December 11," he had said. K Chandrasekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi has friendly ties with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduduin Owaisi. Telangana assembly elections are scheduled to be held on December 7 and the results would be declared on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A candidate from the Gajwel constituency, who had reportedly gone missing since filing his nomination papers on November 22 for the Telangana Assembly polls, was produced before the Hyderabad High Court Tuesday, a day after it had directed police to produce him. A division bench comprising Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy had on Monday directed police to produce K Dinesh Chakravarthy, contesting on a Samajwadi Forward Block Party ticket, before the court by 2.15 pm on Tuesday. Accordingly, police produced Dinesh. He informed the court that he had neither gone missing nor had anyone abducted him and added that he was safe. The candidate further said he had voluntarily withdrawn his nomination papers and that his party was aware of it. However, he added that there apparently was some communication gap over the matter. After hearing him, the court closed the case. The Samajwadi Forward Bloc party, represented by its national president L Muralidhar Rao, had filed a petition in the court, complaining that party candidate Dinesh's whereabouts were not known since the filing of nomination papers. The constituency is represented by TRS leader and caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : With the deadline for the ban on plastic items inching closer, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Tuesday appealed to nearly 3,000 large and medium-scale industries to take up various initiatives on shunning plastic and submit a report to the board by mid-December. Among the initiatives, the board has asked the firms to form committees of top, middle and lower-level officials to create awareness among employees and public around a 10-km radius on the ban. Coinciding with International Day, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had, on June 5, said the state would ban the use of plastic items, including non-biodegradable carrybags, from January 2019 to 'gift a plastic-free' to future generations. The restriction on manufacture, sale, storage and usage of plastic paper, cups, water sachets, straws and carrybags would come into effect from January 1, 2019, Palaniswami had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior party leader and Union minister Jual Oram Tuesday said Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister will be the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Odisha. He was speaking to reporters here after former Odisha-cadre IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi joined the saffron party in the presence of party president Amit Shah in Delhi Tuesday. The announcement came amid rumours in the political circle that the BJP would project Sarangi as its chief ministerial candidate for the state assembly elections next year. ALSO READ: Air Odisha loses contract to fly in 3 states for poor show in UDAN scheme " will be the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP in Odisha. We will fight the forthcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections under his leadership. Our aim is to unseat from power and put an end to the rule of the non-Odia bureaucrats in the state," Oram said. Asked about Sarangi's joining the BJP, the Union tribal affairs minister said she has joined the party as a primary member. On speculations of resignation of two senior party leaders - Rourkela MLA Dilip Ray and party's executive member Bijay Mohapatra - from the BJP, Oram said it will be a "major loss" for the party if they quit. However, the BJP will try its best to compensate the loss if it happens, he added. ALSO READ: Why investment promises at Make in Odisha summit are not quite a juggernaut Ray had recently hinted at his resignation from the party as he alleged the central government had not taken steps for the development of Rourkela city. "I do not think Ray will quit the party on the issue of development, rather due to political reasons," Oram said. The minister said his personal relationship with Ray was very good. "It is the personal matter of a leader to decide whether to remain in a party or quit," he said. Ray is reportedly unhappy with the Central government as no progress was made in the construction of the second bridge over Brahmani river and upgradation of Ispat General Hospital (IGH) in Rourkela. Oram "blamed" the BJD-led state government for the "delay" in sanction of the bridge work. He claimed the state was yet to give the documents for environment clearance for the project. However, the process to upgrade the IGH as a super speciality hospital has already started, he added. On the eve of Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, the longest-serving chief minister of the state is unfazed by talk of anti-incumbency. In an interview to PTI Tuesday, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said pro-incumbency and not ant-incumbency, is at play in the central Indian state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and BJP chief Amit Shah were among the leaders who addressed poll rallies in the state, where voting for all the 230 Assembly seats is scheduled Wednesday. "What is at work here is pro-incumbency and not anti-incumbency," said the 59-year-old BJP leader, whose party has been in power in the state since 2003. Chouhan exuded confidence that his party will win the election with a "comfortable majority". "The difference this time around, compared to the 2008 and 2013 polls is that we drew more crowds, especially the poor, in our public meetings," he said. Asked if demonetisation and GST will adversely affect the BJP in the state polls, Chouhan said they wont "come in way" of the partys victory. The two initiatives will prove to be a boon for the country in the long run, he said. Calling Modi as "Gods blessing to India", Chouhan said Gandhi has lowered the "standard" of campaigning. "Nobody doubts Modi jis honesty in the country. He is an honest and upright person," he added. "Rahul wrongly targeted my son in the Panama Papers leaks and levelled baseless allegations against me," Chouhan said. "He also called Modi ji a chor (thief) in the Rafale deal. He has stooped too low. This is unbecoming of a leader," he said, adding Gandhi has no political understanding." The prime minister is the pride of the country and there should be decency while referring to him, Chouhan said. The Congress chief raised Parliament (level) issues in Madhya Pradesh, he said. Nobody knows about them in rural parts of the state, he added. Chouhan termed as a "bundle of lies" the claim by Randeep Singh Surjewala, in-charge of the AICC communications department, that a whopping 90 per cent residents of his native village Jait in his Budhni constituency are living below the poverty line. "The Congress has lowered the standard of campaigning in Madhya Pradesh and this is very disturbing and unacceptable in a democracy," Chouhan said. "The Congress even dragged Modi ji's parents in the elections. This is very bad and highly condemnable," he added. He said the Congress' poll campaign portrayed Madhya Pradesh in a bad light, especially with regard to women. Madhya Pradesh was the first state to bring in a law providing for capital punishment to those who rape girls below 12 years, he said. After this, trial courts awarded the death penalty to 15 rapists, he said, adding the High Court upheld the death sentence of a rapist. Chouhan said his government's decision to launch a slew of welfare schemes has paid off. "We pulled Madhya Pradesh out of the 'BIMARU' tag by making it a developed state," he added. The acronym BIMARU was coined to refer to the economic condition of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. In recent years, these states have reported progress on many human development indicators. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prof Punyasloke Bhaduri of the Indian Institute of Science, and Research Kolkata was awarded the prestigious Swarnajayanti Fellowship by the central government for 2017-18, an IISER Kolkata said in a statement. Under this scheme, scientists are provided with generous support to pursue research in the frontier areas of science and technology, the statement said Monday. It is awarded for a period of 5 years. Bhaduri belongs to the department of Biological Science and Centre for Climate and Environment Studies at the IISER Kolkata. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Tunisia on Tuesday after hundreds of protesters there rallied against his visit, urging justice over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The arrival of Saudi Arabia's de facto leader was announced by the Tunisian presidency, hours after demonstrators gathered in the capital Tunis. "Go away assassin!" protesters shouted in the second rally in as many days against the Saudi crown prince. Demonstrators held placards with slogans including "The people want Bin Salman to be judged", "No to the killer of Yemeni children" and "You're not welcome". Prince Mohammed's stay in Tunisia is part of a regional tour, which comes as Khashoggi's murder leads to increased scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's devastating war. "It's inhuman to see an Arab leader killing his brothers in Yemen, and the murder of a journalist is the icing on the cake," said Basma Rezgui, a teacher brandishing a red-stained saw. Saudi Arabia has faced intense global criticism over the killing of insider-turned-critic Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate on October 2. He was reportedly dismembered in what Saudi Arabia said was a "rogue" operation, but CIA analysis leaked to the US media pointed the finger at Prince Mohammed. The crown prince's visit is the first by a Saudi royal to Tunisia since the 2011 revolution deposed longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia. Political analyst Youssef Cherif said the protests against Prince Mohammed were a sign that post-revolution Tunisia "is one of the rare Arab countries where one can take such a stand". The Saudi crown prince has also held talks in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt on his first foreign tour since the Khashoggi affair erupted. In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised the "unshakable strategic alliance between Egypt and Saudi Arabia" during Prince Mohammed's visit there, the state daily Al-Ahram reported Tuesday. "The stability and security of Saudi Arabia is an integral part of Egypt's security," Sisi was quoted as saying. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One person was arrested from Delhi on Monday in connection with the killing of a woman here on November 21, Pune police said. Ekta Bhati (37) was shot dead on the stairs of her residential complex in the city's Chandannagar area allegedly by a father-son duo identified as Shivlal and Mukesh Rao, police said. A Pune police official Tuesday said the 33-year-old woman, arrested from Delhi, was in a relationship with Ekta Bhati's husband Brijesh. The arrested woman had also filed a rape case against Brijesh earlier, the official added. "It seems that the arrested woman gave a contract to the father-son to kill Ekta in order to take revenge," the official said, adding that there was some monetary dispute between the accused woman and the family of the deceased. She was produced in court on Tuesday and has been remanded in police custody till December 7, he said. While seeking custody, police Tuesday told court that the three accused had visited the deceased's family in the past and threatened them. Earlier, the father-don duo, after allegedly killing Bhati on November 21, had gone to Pune railway station to board an outstation train. On seeing a Pune police team closing in on them, Shivlal opened fire injuring Crime Branch Inspector Gajanan Pawar. While Shivlal was overpowered by other policemen, accused Mukesh managed to board a train before being apprehended at Daund railway station, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed "serious concern" over Ukraine's decision to impose martial law, the Kremlin said Tuesday, after a confrontation at sea between the two countries. In a phone conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin also said he hoped the German leader could intervene to rein in Kiev. Putin "expressed a serious concern over Kiev's decision to put its armed forces on alert and to introduce martial law," the Kremlin said in a statement following the call. He also said he hoped "Berlin could influence the Ukrainian authorities to dissuade them from further reckless acts," it added. A fresh crisis unfolded on Sunday when Russian forces boarded and captured three Ukrainian ships, with Moscow accusing the vessels of illegally entering Russian waters off the coast of Crimea in the Sea of Azov. The surge in tensions prompted the Ukranian parliament to vote Monday in favour of martial law in border areas for 30 days. Martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and top officials Tuesday night reviewed the situation in Assam in the wake of strong protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the state, sources said. Sonowal and his ministerial colleague Himanta Biswa Sarmah briefed the home minister about the continuous protests against the Bill in Assam, they said. The proposed amendment to the Citizenship Bill of 1955 seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they do not possess proper documents. A large section of people, organisations in the Northeast, particularly in Assam, have opposed the Bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971 as the cut off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain and others attended the meeting. The home minister held the meeting hours after a joint parliamentary committee discussed the Bill where some opposition members sought exclusion of Bangladesh under the purview of the proposed legislation. A BJP supported member suggested that a provision should be brought in the Bill so that it does not come into effect in Assam, sources added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said Tuesday there was literally "Ram Rajya" in the state jails, a day after a video showing inmates having alcohol went viral on social media. "As the CM (Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath) has become a star campaigner of his party in other states, 'Ram Rajya' has come in UP jails. He intends to bring such 'Ram Rajya' in the state, in which all the facilities are available to inmates inside jails. This is the biggest example of 'sabka saath sabka vikas!" Akhilesh said. The video of a Raebareli jail had gone viral on social media, which purportedly shows one of the inmates calling someone using a mobile phone to order liquor and another threatening a person to get money. Six jail officials have been suspended for failing to check the clandestine entry of liquor and firearms inside the prison. "After assuming the charge of the state, the CM had said that criminals would either leave the state or go to jail. They (criminals) never left the state and are involved in incidents of loot, murder and abduction," the SP chief said. Yadav accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being insensitive towards the people and not serious about UP's development, underlining that the state ministers were involved in all other activities that have nothing to do with the state's progress. The state government has spent 20 months. It will be asked from them what they are doing on the development front, Yadav said. "The CM is using terror tactics to get the work done from the officers. The people of the state are repenting their decision to elect the BJP and are awaiting the 2019 (Lok Sabha) elections to give a befitting reply...," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) Tuesday submitted a memorandum to the state Governor Satya Pal Malik, as it seeks to drum up support for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. A VHP delegation led by its state president Leela Karan called on Malik at the Raj Bhavan here and submitted the memorandum, an official spokesman said. He said the delegation conveyed on behalf of Hindus of the state that a law should be passed by the central government for construction of the temple at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya and submitted a memorandum in this regard. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a bid to encourage more companies to raise money overseas, the RBI has relaxed the mandatory hedging requirement for funds raised through the external commercial borrowing route. Now, the hedging is required only for 70 per cent of the total funds raised through that route whereas earlier it was 100 per cent. Reduction in hedging requirement is likely to bring down cost of borrowing from overseas markets as companies would find it less expensive to manage risks associated with exchange rate fluctuations. The move also comes against the backdrop of rupee witnessing significant depreciation in recent months. In a notification, the central bank said that companies raising External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) with maturity periods of 3 to 5 years would now require only to provide hedging for 70 per cent of the fund raised as against full exposure earlier. "On a further review of the extant provisions, it has been decided, in consultation with the Government of India, to reduce the mandatory hedge coverage from 100 per cent to 70 per cent for ECBs raised under Track I of the ECB framework..." the notification, dated November 26, said. Funds raised through ECBs prior to the relaxation would have to mandatorily roll over their existing hedge only to the extent of 70 per cent of their outstanding ECB exposure. According to the RBI, Track I refers to medium-term foreign currency-denominated ECB with a minimum average maturity of 3-5 years. Atul Pandey, Partner at law firm Khaitan & Co, said the change in norms is in continuation with the relaxations introduced by the RBI in the ECB space, including reducing minimum average maturity requirement for such borrowings in the infrastructure sector from 5 to 3 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Resident doctors of various government hospitals in the national capital will hold a 'Free health camp for farmers' who would be gathering at the Ram Leela Ground on November 29 to press for their long-pending demands. Resident doctors from hospitals like AIIMS, Safdarjung, RML, Hindu Rao and Lok Nayak, among others will provide essential healthcare support to the protesting farmers. "We all know that farmers are struggling for their livelihood, in the past 20 years around 3 lakh farmers have committed suicides but all governments have turned deaf ears towards them. It is utterly shameful for all of us that the farmers who grow food are dying of starvation," said Harjit Singh Bhatti, president of RDA at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The organising doctors have appealed to their medico colleagues and non medico friends to volunteer for the noble cause and have sought contributions for arranging medicines and other essential items. "For AIIMS we have placed a big box with security guards near hostel 7 entrance, Please donate medicines or through cash," read the note issued by Bhatti. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Human Rights Watch has urged Argentine prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is due to join world leaders in Buenos Aires this week for the G20 summit. The New York-based rights group said it had filed a submission with Argentine prosecutors calling on them to invoke the country's universal jurisdiction statute to prosecute the crown prince for alleged war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. "Argentine prosecutorial authorities should scrutinize Mohammed bin Salman's role in possible war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in Yemen," HRW director Kenneth Roth said. "The submission also highlights his possible complicity in serious allegations of torture and other ill treatment of Saudi citizens, including the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi," the rights group said in a statement. Bin Salman is the kingdom's de facto ruler and defense minister. Argentina's constitution recognizes universal jurisdiction for war crimes and torture. That means its judicial authorities "can investigate and prosecute crimes no matter where they were committed, and regardless of the nationality of the suspects or their victims," HRW said. Argentine press reports said the prosecutor with responsibility for the case, Ramiro Gonzalez, has yet to decide whether to open an investigation. The crown prince is scheduled to attend the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on Friday and Saturday. He has travelled to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt in recent days, and was expected Tuesday in Tunisia -- where unions and human rights organizations have called for protests against his visit. The tour comes weeks after the murder of Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh initially claimed Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed on October 2, before ultimately admitting he was murdered in what officials said was a "rogue" operation. The US Central Intelligence Agency has concluded the crown prince was behind the killing. Saudi Arabia has been put under intense international pressure over the killing and has brought charges against a number of suspects, while denying the crown prince was involved. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ace director Alfonso Cuaron will be honoured with Sonny Bono Visionary Award at the 30th Palm Springs International Film Festival. The Oscar-winning director is currently enjoying critical acclaim for "Roma", his most personal project till date, and there is a strong buzz for the film to rake in multiple trophies in the upcoming award season. The film follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young domestic worker for a family in Mexico City's middleclass Roma neighbourhood. The filmmaker has drawn inspiration from his own childhood to create a vivid and emotional portrait of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst Mexico's political turmoil of the 1970s. Sonny Bono Visionary award is named after the festival's founder and former Palm Springs Mayor. It is bestowed upon a filmmaker that breaks boundaries in the work. The festival chairman Harold Matzner said Cuaron is being honoured for his "ability to take on many roles and for his expert storytelling" in his films. "Alfonso Cuaron's latest feature Roma is a masterful achievement in filmmaking. Drawing upon his childhood memories, Cuaron has created an emotionally driven story about a family growing up in 1970s Mexico City. A film he not only directed, but also was a writer, producer, cinematographer and editor," he said. "For his ability to take on many roles and for his expert storytelling of this subject matter, the festival is proud to present Alfonso Cuaron with the Sonny Bono Visionary Award," he added. The organisers had earlier announced that actors Glenn Close and Rami Malek will be presented with the Icon Award and the Breakthrough Performance Award, respectively, during the festival. Actor Melissa McCarthy will be receiving the Spotlight Award for her acclaimed portrayal of the troubled author Lee Israel in Marielle Heller's dramedy "Can You Ever Forgive Me?". Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali-starrer "Green Book" is set to receive the Vanguard Award at the festival. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The rupee depreciated by 15 paise to 71.02 against the US dollar in early trade Tuesday at the interbank foreign exchange, after US President Donald Trump suggested a tariff hike on Chinese goods. The domestic unit opened weak in line with other Asian currencies after Trump Monday said that for any trade deal China has to treat his country "fairly". "Here's what the bottom line is: China has to treat us fairly. They haven't been. They have to treat us fairly," Trump told reporters at the White House. At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened lower at 70.91 and declined further to quote at 71.02, showing a fall of 15 paise over its previous close. The rupee Monday fell by 18 paise to close at 70.87 against the US dollar. Forex dealers said fresh demand for the American currency from importers amid marginal rise in crude prices weighed on the domestic unit. The international benchmark, Brent crude was trading higher by 0.28 per cent to USD 60.65 per barrel. Traders said, fresh foreign inflows restricted the decline in the local unit. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made fresh purchases worth Rs 62.74 crore Monday, as per provisional data. Meanwhile, the 30-share Sensex was trading 27.28 points, or 0.08 per cent, lower at 35,326.80. The NSE Nifty too witnessed similar movement, and was trading 18.70 points, or 0.18 per cent, lower at 10,609.90. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Samsung India plans to hire over 1,000 graduates from top engineering colleges across the country with over 300 of them coming in from various IITs, a top company official Tuesday said. Speaking to PTI, Samsung India Head (Human Resources) Sameer Wadhawan said Samsung will visit IITs in Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Guwahati, BHU and Roorkie, starting December 1 for hiring. He added that overall, more than 1,000 students will be hired from premium engineering colleges from across the country. Hiring process will also include the newer IITs in Hyderabad, Dhanbad, Ropar, Indore, Gandhinagar, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Mandi and Jodhpur as well as other premium engineering colleges like BITS Pilani, IIITs, NITs, Delhi Technological University (DTU), Manipal Institute of Technology, and IISc Bengaluru. Wadhawan said most of the new hires will work in cutting-edge domains of artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, natural language processing, camera technology and 5G networks. Samsung had said last year that it will hire a total of 2,500 engineers for its R&D operations over the next three years. In 2017, Samsung spent over USD 15 billion on R&D globally. In August this year, the company had announced that it will invest USD 22 billion globally on four emerging technologies artificial intelligence, 5G, automotive electronics components and biopharmaceuticals over the next three years. In India, Samsung has three R&D centres in Delhi, Noida and Bengaluru. These units contribute to Samsung's global products portfolio as well as work on developing India-specific innovations. The company's R&D centres have filed over 2,900 patents in the country so far. The Bengaluru R&D centre, which was the company's first R&D centre in India set up in 1996, has a specialised in-house team that conducts company-wide systematic patent creation training. In all, Samsung has offered 350 pre-placement offers (PPOs) to students at the IITs this year. "There's a tactical shift that we have made to spot talent early and offer PPOs. This year, we had a slightly longer internship period so that students can spend more time in the company, giving them opportunity to interact with the leaders and managers. This helps us spot a bright talent amongst them, Wadhawan said. He added that the company will continue to add engineers for R&D in cutting-edge technologies, developing innovations for the Indian market as well as for the globe. "R&D for us has become a key differentiator and we continue to leverage India's intellectual capital and rapidly grow our reputation as the most innovative company in the areas which we operate," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Tuesday allowed K M Shaji, Kerala MLA of Indian Union Muslim League who was disqualified by the High Court for making communal remarks during 2016 assembly polls, to take part in the house proceedings without voting rights and salary. A bench headed by Justice A K Sikri admitted for hearing the appeal of the MLA challenging the Kerala High Court verdict. "Admit. The appellant shall be allowed to participate in the proceedings in the Legislative Assembly and sign the Register but not allowed to vote as well as financial benefits," said the bench, which also comprised Justices Ashok Bhushan and M R Shah. The top court considered the submission of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for the IUML leader, and said that the plea of the lawmaker would be listed for final hearing in the last week of January. Shaji, who had won the elections from Azhikode Assembly constituency in 2016, was disqualified for six year by the high court on November 9. The high court had directed the Kerala Assembly Speaker and the Election Commission to take appropriate action in pursuance of its decision to disqualify the MLA from the membership of the assembly. The high court had given the judgement on a plea filed by LDF candidate M V Nikesh Kumar, who had unsuccessfully contested the election against Shaji. IUML is a partner of the Congress-led opposition UDF in the state. In his petition, Nikesh Kumar had alleged that Shaji secured a win by a margin of 2,287 votes using corrupt practices. He had accused Shaji of having violated norms prescribed under various sections of the Representation of the People Act to win the elections. Nikesh had alleged that an appeal was made to voters by Shaji, who belongs to the Muslim community, his agents and other persons to vote for the UDF candidate on grounds of his religion. He had also charged that pamphlets were circulated in the constituency urging people not to vote for a candidate who is not a believer of the Islamic faith. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Tuesday declined urgent hearing on a PIL seeking directions for common electoral rolls for Parliament, assembly and local body polls as also the use of 'totaliser' for counting of votes to save public money and manpower. A totaliser is a device which allows votes cast in 14 polling booths to be counted together. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi refused to list the plea, filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, for urgent hearing. "Nothing urgent about it," said the bench, also comprising Justices K M Joseph and Ajay Rastogi. Besides seeking preparation of common electoral rolls for all elections, the PIL sought direction to the authorities to take steps to use 'totaliser' for counting of votes. It had referred to the provisions of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, under which votes in the EVMs are to be counted polling station-wise, and said this led to situations where voting pattern in various localities or pockets become known to everyone. The plea also said the electors of a particular area who did not vote for the winning candidate may be victimised by the lawmakers later after the polls and hence, the use of totaliser was needed for counting the votes. The Centre had on March 11 filed its response on the petition opposing the use of totaliser machines for counting of votes of several polling booths together, and had said that it does not serve any larger public interest. The Ministry of Law and Justice had informed the apex court that it had taken a final view on the basis of the recommendation of a "team of ministers". The team led by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had recommended that the use of totaliser does "not serve" any larger public interest and there was "no justification" for its introduction at this juncture. It was of the view that the instance of intimidation or victimisation of voters as apprehended may not occur on a large scale in the era of media activism, the affidavit said. The Centre had said the issue of totaliser was under consideration by the apex court in the case of Yogesh Gupta vs Election Commission of India and therefore this be deleted from the present petition as it would result in multiplicity of proceedings. The Centre had also sought dismissal of Updhyay's plea saying that the issue of common electoral rolls, holding of election on Sundays, use of post offices as registration centres are the concerns of the Election Commission of India. The apex court had on October 13 last year sought the response of the Centre and the Election Commission on the plea, filed by Upadhyay. The PIL has also proposed that post offices be used as the nodal agency for voter registration and verification, saying it will not only help overcome the issue of duplication and confusion but also save huge public money and manpower. The plea sought that elections be held on a Sunday, like in several other countries, to enable maximum voter turnout. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Chhattisgarh government to apprise it of the status of investigation in the murder case registered against social activist and Delhi university professor Nandini Sundar and others in three weeks. The top court asked the state government to enumerate steps it propose to take in the case against Sundar and others. The Chhattisgarh police registered the case against Sundar and others in November 2015 for the alleged criminal conspiracy and murder of a tribal man in Sukma district of the state. Besides Sundar other accused in the case include JNU professor Archana Prasad, political activists Vineet Tiwari and Sanjay Parate. A bench of Justices M B Lokur, S A Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta issued notice to Chhattisgarh government and sought its response on the plea filed by Sundar in three weeks. Sundar in her plea has sought deletion of her name from the FIR saying that Chhattisgarh government has done nothing in the case registered against her in past two years. She said that they have not been questioned even once in past two years. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Chhattisgarh government said that they have made progress in the case and have recorded statements under section 164 CrPC of various persons. "Issue notice returnable in three weeks. The state government should file an affidavit on the point that why no action was taken for the past two years and what steps it proposes to take in the immediate future," the bench said. Mehta opposed the plea of Sundar and said that the FIR cannot be quashed as certain progress has been made in the case. "We have intention to investigate the case. We will satisfy the court on the point of progress made in the case," he said. Senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for Sundar said that state has not taken any action in past two years on the FIR lodged against her in connection with some incident. He said that state government has just kept the FIR pending and despite direction of the court that four weeks advance notice should be given to Sundar before questioning her in connection with the case. Desai said his client faces problem whenever she has to go abroad as it has to be mentioned whether any FIR is pending against her or not. To this, the bench told Desai, "Eliminating names from the FIR virtually means quashing of FIR and FIR cannot be quashed exparte without hearing the other side". It told Chhattisgarh government, "It cannot be like this. You have not done anything for past two years. You cannot just wake up one fine day and say you are investigating the case. You cannot keep the sword of FIR pending against anyone for indefinite period. It will be better if you file a report". The bench then listed the matter for further hearing immediately after three weeks. On November 15, the apex court had asked the Chhattisgarh government to give advanced notice of four weeks to Sundar and others before proceeding against them in the case. The apex court had taken on record the assurance given by the state government that Sundar and others, who have been booked for the alleged murder, will not be arrested or interrogated as of now. It had granted liberty to Sundar and others to approach the court if any notice of arrest or interrogation is served upon them. The court, however, had refused to entertain Sundar's plea that the state should first take permission from the court before arresting or interrogating her and other activists in the case. The court had earlier observed that the state should find a peaceful solution to the Naxal problem and adopt a "pragmatic" approach towards life. Police had claimed that alleged armed Naxals had killed the villager, Shamnath Baghel, with sharp weapons on the night of November 4, 2015 at his residence in Nama village under Kumakoleng gram panchayat in Tongpal area, around 450 km from Raipur. Baghel and some of others were spearheading protests against Naxal activities in their village since April. An FIR was lodged against Sundar, Archana Prasad (JNU Professor), Vineet Tiwari (from Delhi-based Joshi Adhikar Sansthan), Sanjay Parate(Chhattisgarh CPI-M State Secretary) and others for the murder of Baghel based on the complaint of his wife, the state police had said. They were booked under section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 and 149 of IPC at Tongpal police station. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A three-day "Param Dharma Sansad" was held in Varanasi, where seers opposed the Uttar Pradesh government's proposal to install a 221-metre statue of Lord Ram on the bank of the Sarayu river in Ayodhya. Terming the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) "Dharma Sabha", organised on November 25 in Ayodhya, as a "politically-motivated event", Dwarka-Sharda and Jyotish Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati said Lord Ram should not be politicised, adding that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could only erect statues, but not build a Ram temple in Ayodhya. "The government can only erect statues, not build the temple," he said, addressing the gathering at the event held at Seer Govardhan from November 25 to 27. He said the government erected a huge statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat, but there was a need to build a temple for Lord Ram, not erect his statue as he was not a human being. Opposing the Yogi Adityanath government's proposal to install a 221-metre statue of Lord Ram on the bank of the Sarayu, the Dwarka Peeth seer said it was an inappropriate step which was also against people's faith. Advocating the cause of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Saraswati claimed that no mosque ever existed at Lord Ram's birthplace in Ayodhya and that the structure demolished by "karsevaks" in 1992 was a temple and not a mosque. He said it was a propaganda that the Babri Masjid existed at the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site. He even said that he had seen with his eyes that a Ram temple existed in Ayodhya. Saraswati claimed that the Muslim community had failed to furnish any proof in the high court to confirm the existence of a mosque on the disputed site. The Dwarka Peeth seer said no political party would ever build the Ram temple but politicise the issue. He also claimed that the government was preparing to bring a law to encroach upon religious sites. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Police issued 6,532 challans to school van and cab drivers for traffic violations this year, almost three times the number of challans issued last year. An eight-year-old boy was killed and a minor girl injured after an autorickshaw hit their school van in north Delhi's Timarpur on Tuesday, police said. In a similar incident in April, a seven-year-old girl was killed and 17 students injured when a milk tanker rammed into their private school van near Kanhaiya Nagar Metro Station in northwest Delhi. A senior traffic police officer said, "The lives of children are precious. It has been observed that school vans and cabs are often driven rashly, risking the lives of children. We have held meetings in schools and requested the principals to create awareness among parents. We have also spoken to parent-teacher associations about it." While the Delhi Traffic Police issued 6,532 challans this year till November 15, in the same period last year 2,183 challans were issued. As many as 2,090 challans were issued to drivers for not using seat belts as opposed to 869 last year. As many as 882 vehicles were challaned for improper parking as opposed to 497 vehicles getting challaned last year. Police said 291 drivers were prosecuted for dangerous driving, while 124 were prosecuted for the same last year. According to the police, 396 vehicles were challaned for permit violations this year, in comparison 109 such prosecutions were made last year. Seventeen drivers were prosecuted for drunk driving in 2018, while seven were prosecuted for the same offence last year. In 2017, no challans were issued for playing music while driving, for having pressure horns, stopping without bus stop, carrying goods in passenger vehicles, using private vehicles as taxis and smoking while driving. However, this year saw prosecutions under these offences. In July, the Delhi government had issued fresh guidelines to schools for ensuring students' safety, with a special focus on the security of pupils travelling to schools by private vans. Early in July, the Delhi government had directed all schools to discourage parents from hiring private vans to ferry their wards, claiming most of the vehicle operators were illegal and that they posed a threat to the lives of children. The schools were asked to maintain a register about children traveling in private vans. Further, the school principals had been asked to conduct meetings with parents every six months to discuss the safety of children in private vehicles. However preventive measures notwithstanding, the police said parents choose private vans and cabs over regular school-registered buses as they are "inexpensive options". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of next year's Lok Sabha election, a forum campaigning for the rights of single women stressed on the need to build political will to take up the issues faced by single women. The National Forum for Single Women's Rights organised a meeting in Delhi, where over a 100 single women from 11 states gathered to discuss issues faced by them. They also discussed their concerns with Women and Child Development Secretary Rakesh Srivastava. The forum said they had prepared a charter of demands that would be presented to politicians, said a representative from the forum. All low-income single women in India should be assured of a monthly pension, at least no less than half of the minimum wage. In 2018, this amount is Rs 3,000 per month, said the charter. The charter added that the government should have schemes and programmes in place for children of single women and other vulnerable children. In Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, there are such schemes in place. All women, regardless of their caste, religion, class or community should have equal rights to property, as men, both in their natal and marital homes, the charter said. Parul Chaudhary speaking on behalf of the forum said the WCD Ministry should study the Rajasthan government's Palanhar scheme, which provides direct benefit transfer (DBT) to households with children growing in vulnerable circumstances -- including children of single women; and launch a similar scheme for the entire nation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two sisters were killed when the two-wheeler they were travelling on was hit by a tractor-trolley on Lucknow-Faizabad Highway here, police said Tuesday. The deceased were identified as Farheen Bano (18), Sabreen (20). The incident occurred on Monday when the two sisters, along with a third companion, Afreen, were travelling on the highway on a two-wheeler, they said. All three were rushed to a hospital, where Farheen and Sabreen were declared brought dead. The police have seized the tractor-trolley and launched a manhunt to nab the absconding driver. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A senior Sri Lankan lawmaker Tuesday urged Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to direct the media not to refer controversially appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime as the lawful government of the island nation. Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the main Muslim minority party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, urged Speaker Jayasuriya that "the print and electronic media are continuing to recognise MP Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. Please issue an order that the media should not give recognition to an illegal government". Jayasuriya has officially conveyed that the House does not recognise Rajapaksa as the legal prime minister until he proved his majority in the House. The island nation is witnessing a political crisis since President Maithripapala Sirisena's controversial move to sack prime minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe and install Rajapaksa in his place on October 26. Sirisena later dissolved Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and ordered snap election. The Supreme Court overturned Sirisena's decision to dissolve Parliament and halted the preparations for snap polls. Both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa claim to be the prime ministers. Wickremesinghe says his dismissal is invalid because he still holds a majority in the 225-member Parliament. Rajapaksa's government continued to boycott the assembly sessions for the second consecutive day Tuesday. Nimal Siripala de Silva, a minister in the disputed government, has said that the government would not recognise Jayasuriya as the assembly speaker. "He says there is no government, no prime minister then how can the parliament function," Silva said. Sirisena's subsequent order to sack parliament in order to hold a snap election on 5 January 2019has been temporarily stayed by the Supreme Court. The final ruling is to be issued early next month. As many as 122 parliamentarians of Wickeremesinghe's United National Party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance last Friday filed a petition in the Court of Appeal challenging Rajapaksa's authority as the prime minister. Chief Justice Nalin Perera appointed a seven judge bench which decided to take up the petition for consideration on November 30 and December 03. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A policeman who the CBI claims was part of the team that allegedly shot Sohrabuddin Shaikh in a "fake" encounter in November 2005 told a special court here Tuesday that he was innocent and had been wrongly listed in a charge sheet. Abdul Rehman, an inspector with Rajasthan Police at that time, recorded his statement under section 313 before special CBI judge S J Sharma. Under this provision, after examination of witnesses, a final chance is given to an accused to record his statement. Rehman, according to the CBI charge sheet, was one of the police personnel who had fired at Sohrabuddin during the alleged encounter. "The charge sheet against me was prepared based on false witnesses. I'm innocent. I have not participated in any police encounter," he said. "I have not fired from the weapon seized by the probe agency during investigation and I have not visited Ahmedabad during that period," he told the court. He said he had nothing to do with the alleged illegal detention of Sohrabuddin or his wife Kauser Bi. Rehman also refuted the CBI's charge that he was part of the conspiracy to kill Tulsiram Prajapati. "I had no knowledge of Tulsiram Prajapati's whereabouts. I did not give any information to anyone about it. I was twice part of the escort team that took Prajapati from Udaipur Jail to Ahmedabad to produce him in court. Other than this, I had no connection with him. I have been falsely implicated in this case," he said. Rehman added he was not part of the escort team when Prajapti escaped from police custody. Prajapati, according to police, had escaped from their custody near Himmatnagar police station when he was returning to Udaipur in a train. "The agency prepared false witness against me and also pressured police officials to make false statements against me," Rehman told court. The investigation agency compelled police officials to state that Prajapati was arrested on November 26, 2005, though, Rehman said he was arrested on November 29, 2005. Rehman also told court that he wanted to examine defence witnesses. Besides Rehman, six others police officials of Gujarat and Rajasthan and one private person recorded their statements Tuesday. So far, nine out of 22 accused in Sohrabuddin-Prajapti fake encounter case have recorded their statements in court. Most of them submitted before the court that they were innocent and had been falsely implicated, and claimed the case was due to political rivalries and enmity between senior police officials. Himanshu Singh Rajawat, a sub-inspector with Rajasthan Police at that time and who was also allegedly part of the team that killed Sohrabuddin, said, "The case is because of rivalry between senior officers of Gujarat and facts were twisted. It was fuelled further because of prevailing political scenario." Another official, Balkrishna Chaubey, then an inspector with Gujarat ATS, said, "I was never part of any such operation in ATS, more specifically the Sohrabuddin case. I was falsely named in the charge sheet. I never did anything wrong. This is a false case prepared and foisted on me with ulterior political motive because of rivalry of senior officers." Sohrabuddin, a suspected gangster with terror links, was shot dead on November 26, 2005 while he was in the custody of Gujarat Police in an alleged fake encounter. His wife Kausar Bi was allegedly killed later. Prajapati, an aide of Shaikh who was said to be a witness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by Gujarat and Rajasthan police personnel at Chapri in Gujarat's Banaskantha district in December 2006. Of the 38 people charged by the CBI for the alleged fake encounters, 16 persons, including BJP chief Amit Shah (who was minister of state for home in Gujarat then) and all senior police officials, have been discharged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- AACSB International (AACSB) announced that the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) has earned accreditation. Founded in 1916, AACSB is the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools, and the largest business network connecting students, educators, and businesses worldwide. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/676830/SPJIMR_Logo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789919/AACSB.jpg ) "AACSB Accreditation recognizes institutions that have demonstrated a focus on excellence in all areas, including teaching, research, curricula development, and student learning," said Stephanie M. Bryant, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB International. "We congratulate the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research and Dean Ranjan Banerjee on earning accreditation, and applaud the entire team - including the administration, faculty, directors, staff, and students - for their roles in earning this respected honor."Synonymous with the highest standards of quality, AACSB Accreditation inspires new ways of thinking within business globally and, as a result, has been earned by only 5 percent of the world's schools offering business degrees at the bachelor level or higher. Today, 831 institutions across 54 countries and territories maintain AACSB Accreditation. Furthermore, 187 institutions maintain a supplemental AACSB Accreditation for their accounting programmes. "We thank our mentor, the PRT team and the AACSB team for their support through the process. We are on a journey of self-improvement and innovation, and AACSB processes have helped us significantly in moving towards our goals," said Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, dean of S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). "There has been significant learning for the institute through the accreditation process." AACSB Accreditation provides a framework of 15 international standards against which business schools around the world assess the quality of their educational services. These standards ensure continuous improvement and provide focus for schools to deliver on their mission, innovate, and drive impact. AACSB-accredited schools have successfully undergone a rigorous review process conducted by their peers in the business community, ensuring that they have the resources, credentials, and commitment needed to provide students with a first-rate, future-focused business education. "The S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research's commitment to earning accreditation is a true reflection of their dedication - not only to their students, alumni network, and greater business community, but to the higher education industry as a whole," said Bryant. "Today's students are tomorrow's business leaders, and the addition of SPJIMR to the network of AACSB-accredited business schools will have a lasting positive impact for their institution, both locally and globally." AACSB International also announced that the Business School at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, ESCA Ecole de Management, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Jyvskyl University, Macquarie University, National Chung-Hsing University, the School of Accounting at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Troy University, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Universidade de Lisboa, and the University of Mary Washington have earned accreditation in business. About SPJIMR S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) (http://www.spjimr.org) is a constituent of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and is ranked among the top ten business schools in India. As a premier school of management, SPJIMR is noted for pedagogic innovations and pioneering programmes, which have helped the institute stand out for its unique and distinctive path in management education. SPJIMR's mission is to 'influence practice' and 'promote value-based growth'. The institute currently operates from its 45-acre campus in Andheri, Mumbai, and a campus in New Delhi. To avoid confusing us with any other institution, look for the five strokes logo and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan association. About AACSB International As the world's largest business education alliance, AACSB International (AACSB) connects educators, students, and business to achieve a common goal: to create the next generation of great leaders. Synonymous with the highest standards of excellence since 1916, AACSB provides quality assurance, business education intelligence, and professional development services to more than 1,600 member organizations and over 800 accredited business schools worldwide. AACSB's mission is to foster engagement, accelerate innovation, and amplify impact in business education. The global organization has offices located in Tampa, Florida, USA; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Singapore. For more information, visit aacsb.edu . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi government Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it has taken steps to rejuvenate 201 water bodies in the national capital, and earmarked such pilot projects in two areas. Its submission followed a report, filed earlier by the court-mandated monitoring committee on sealing of unauthorised constructions in Delhi, which had said that several water bodies in the national capital had dried up and were being encroached upon. The government told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta that they have taken steps to tackle the issue and would get desired results in pilot project. Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said a total of 1,011 water bodies have been identified but the Delhi government has talked about rejuvenation of only 201. "They have not said anything about 910 water bodies. No time line has been given in the affidavit (filed by Delhi government). Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has not filed an affidavit in this regard. Delhi government's affidavit is as vague as it can be," he said, adding that "this affidavit should not be accepted". The counsel representing the Delhi government said that they have identified 201 water bodies in the first step. "We cannot take 1,000 plus water bodies at one go. It is not practical. We are making a beginning. The whole object is to rejuvenate all the water bodies," he said. During the hearing, the bench asked whether the special task force (STF), which was constituted on April 25 following the court's order to oversee enforcement of laws on illegal constructions here, was doing any work. "They (STF) have not given any report to us," the bench said, adding, "This is rather unfortunate". The court said STF was supposed to file report every 15 days. The counsel appearing for Delhi Development Authority said that STF has prepared a report and they would file it in the court in next few days. The bench also dealt with the issue of other courts and state consumer forums entertaining petitions on sealing issue. "We may reiterate that no courts or tribunals will entertain these matters till this is pending before this court," the bench said. On the issue of encroachment of forest land in Delhi, the bench asked forest department to file a fresh status report. The bench also asked the DJB to file an affidavit on the issue of water bodies and said the board should indicate the steps taken to prevent flow of sewage into water bodies. The bench has posted the matter for hearing on January 9 next year. The apex court had earlier taken serious note of the encroachments in Delhi and had said it was a "matter of great distress" that 2,280.43 kilometres of roads, streets and footpaths were encroached upon in the national capital. The observation by the bench had come after it was informed that 844.33 km, 811.01 km and 601.2 km of encroached roads and streets were cleared by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and those in South and East Delhi respectively as on August 31. The top court is dealing with the issue related to validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent legislations which protect unauthorised construction from being sealed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 32-year-old transwoman activist, who is contesting the the December 7 Telangana Assembly elections, has allegedly gone missing Tuesday, following which a missing case was registered, police said. Chandramukhi M, who is contesting on a CPI(M)-led Bahujan Left Front or BLF ticket from Goshamahal constituency in the city, went missing from her home. She is pitted against senior Congress leader Mukhesh Goud and BJP leader T Raja Singh. Friends from the transgender community, who arrived to help her with campaigning were unable to locate her all day, the police said based on a complaint. "She has been unreachable and her mother has been in a state of extreme despair. She is feared to be kidnapped," the complaint filed by Chandramukhi's followers with the Banjara Hills Police Station, said. "Following the complaint, a missing case has been registered," Banjara Hills Police Station Inspector R Govinda Reddy told PTI. As an activist with 'Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti' Chandramukhi had protested atrocities upon members of the transgender and hijra communities, and had always been an outspoken voice at many rallies and public events upholding the self-respect of transgender people, her followers said. Her decision to contest was also a decision that she felt would help the entire community, they said. "We fear for her safety and condemn the lack of safety measures organised for her and for other women and transgender candidates, which acts as a strong force that dissuades transgender people and women from joining politics," they said. Chandramukhi's campaign kicked off just one day before she went missing, her supporters said and demanded that police act immediately to trace her. Reports of Chandramukhi going missing come even as a candidate from Gajwel constituency, who had reportedly gone missing after filing his nomination papers on November 22, was produced before the Hyderabad High Court Tuesday, a day after the court directed the police to produce him before it. The Samajwadi Forward Bloc party, represented by its national president L Muralidhar Rao, had filed a petition in the court complaining that the party candidate K Dinesh Chakravarthy's whereabouts were not known after he filed his nomination papers. The constituency is represented by Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thai princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on Tuesday paid a visit to a Shaivite place of worship in Tripura's Unakoti district, about 178 km from here, amid heavy security arrangements, an official said. Sirindhorn, who arrived in Unakoti around 11am, took a tour of the rock carvings at the eighth-century pilgrimage site, accompanied by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and a high-level delegation from her country, he said. "The princess was received by MLAs Bhagaban Das and Sudhangshu Das near Unakoti, where her copter landed. Assistant Director of Archaeological Survey of India, Sujit Nayan, guided her as she toured the rock carvings and stone idols of Raghunandan Hills," he said, Sirindhorn left for Imphal around 4.15pm, he added. The chief minister, after her brief meet with the princess, told reporters that she has expressed her willingness to visit 'Chhabimura and Neermahal' too. "Sirindhorn appreciated the grandeur and artistry at Unakoti and expressed her desire to visit other tourist places in the state such as Chhabimura and Neermahal," Deb said. Chhabimura, on the banks of river Gomati, is a historical site with rock carvings dating back to the 11th century, while Neermahal, on Rudrasagar Lake, is the summer palace of Tripura's last Manikya king, Maharaja Birbikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur. The CM also said that his government was working hard to develop the tourism prospects of the state. "We are making all efforts to develop the tourism industry in the state. The industry got a boost with the visit of the Thai princess today (Tuesday)," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari Tuesday slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that the latter summoned a special session of the Vidhan Sabha over non-issues while ignoring problems faced by Delhi like pollution, water crisis and poor condition of hospitals. Addressing workers at a monthly meeting held at the Delhi BJP office, Tiwari alleged that Kejriwal called the special session for his personal motive and was wasting the hard-earned money of the people of Delhi. Organisation general secretary Siddharthan said all members of the Delhi BJP were working together with enthusiasm to make the party stronger. "We should promote Namo Merchandise campaign among each and every person in our related areas so that we can clear the path of selecting Narendra Modi as PM in the upcoming 2019 elections. Delhi BJP workers should consider their responsibilities and should make their party proud," he said. Union Minister Vijay Goel, along with Pradesh general secretaries Kuljeet Singh Chahal and Rajesh Bhatia, thanked Tiwari and his team for their efforts in opposing the sealing drive in Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tamil Nadu police has banned officials below the rank of a sub-inspector from using mobile phones while on work, saying it "distracts" them from discharging official duties. A recent circular issued by the office of Director General of Police (DGP) TK Rajendiran, particularly pointed out at the men in uniform using the mobiles to surf the social media. "It is noticed that police personnel deployed on important bandobust (security) duties, frequently use phones for Whatsapp etc, and this distracts them from discharging official duties, particularly at sensitive and critical times," it said. Henceforth, only officials above the rank of sub-inspector can use mobile phones while on duty even as it is "used only for official purpose," while on important duty, it said. "Hence, cell phones should not be used by other ranks during important duties such as Law and Order, VVIP bandobust, temple and festival bandobust," it added. The circular further said the unit officers may decide on the time and specific places where the restriction would be in place and directed them to ensure that the instructions were communicated down the line by way of a circular, besides reading them out during the daily roll-call. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A tribal organisation has appealed to Mizoram's powerful Presbyterian Church to support Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla in the Assembly election, describing him as a "prominent Christian leader" in the country. The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHRT) -- a Manipur-based organisation of the Kuki tribe -- has alleged that the current political climate was promoting religious intolerance and affecting the Christians. In his letter to Rev. Lalrinnunga, the moderator of Mizoram synod of the Presbyterian Church of India, KOHRT chairman T Lunkim said he considered Thanhawla as a prominent Christian leader in the country. Thanhawla is also considered to be a conscientious and inclusive leader for all the Kuki, Chin, Mizo people across the globe, Lunkim said. He alleged that money power was being used in the northeastern states, terming it a great shame to any state where the larger population follows Christianity." The Kuki leader, however, did not say who was promoting religious intolerance or using money power in the northeastern region. When contacted, state Congress spokesperson Lallian Chhunga alleged that the religious factor was a major issue in this election because of a "secret understanding" between the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party. "They (KOHRT) have rightly said that Thanhawla is a good Christian leader. We can even say that the church is now supporting us at the last moment of the campaigning," Chhunga said. Mizoram goes to polls on Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump on Monday said security forces had to use tear gas at the Mexican border because they were "being rushed by some very tough people" but it was not used on children. Trump was replying to reporters' queries at the White House over US Border Patrol authorities using tear gas at the Mexican border to repel caravans of illegal immigrants trying to enter the United States. "We didn't. We don't use it (tear gas) on children," he said. "They had to use because they were being rushed by some very tough people, and they used tear gas. And here's the bottom line: Nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally," Trump asserted. Over the past few weeks, Trump has asserted that no foreign nationals would be allowed to enter the country illegally and they would have to come to the US through legal process. He has deployed several thousand additional forces on the south western border with Mexico to prevent them from entering the country. The caravan of illegal migrants are mostly from three Latin American countries Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. But it also includes people from South Asia including India and Bangladesh, local media reports said. Trump said he has asked Mexico not to let them cross the border. "Mexico wants to see if they can get it straightened out. But we've, during certain time, closed the border. They're not coming into the United States. They will not be coming into our country," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said Tuesday. The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings Trump would have later this week on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in The annual meeting is being attended by leaders of the top 20 economies of the world. However, all eyes are expected to be on two meetings that Trump would have with the Chinese President and his Russian counterpart Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that Trump will also have meetings with President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, President Moon Jae-In of South Korea, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Bolton said the Trump-Abe bilateral meeting would expand into a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister No other details were immediately available. US President Donald Trump will hold over half a dozen bilateral meetings on the sidelines of this week's Group of 20 summit in Argentina, including with Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping, the White House said Tuesday. "While at the G20 the president and delegation will interact with many leaders, including bilateral meetings with the president of Argentina, the president of Russia, prime minister of Japan and the chancellor of Germany, and a working dinner with the president of China," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told a White House briefing. Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton added that Trump would also meet the leaders of India, South Korea and Turkey. Asked whether Trump planned to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- who the CIA reportedly believes authorized the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- Sanders said an informal meeting remained a possibility. "I wouldn't say we've ruled out any interaction," she said, although she stressed that "the president's schedule is pretty packed" and that no formal bilateral was planned. Trump has doubled down on his partnership with Saudi Arabia, calling it an indispensable ally, despite the Central Intelligence Agency's reported conclusion that Prince Mohammed authorised the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia has sharply increased its military presence on the border with Ukraine, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on television on Tuesday, warning of the threat of "full-scale war." "The number of (Russian) tanks at bases located along our border has tripled," Poroshenko said in an interview, adding that "the number of units that have been deployed along our border -- what's more, along its full length -- has grown dramatically." He said that the military buildup meant that the country is "under threat of full-scale war with Russia." Poroshenko didn't give Russian troop numbers but said the information on the military buildup was based on intelligence reports. He said that numbers of Russian troops in Crimea had tripled since Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. Russian forces on Sunday fired on and captured three Ukrainian ships and their crews off Crimea, sparking the most dangerous crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbours in years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US bombers are no longer conducting flights over South Korea after Seoul asked for such missions to be paused, a US general said Monday. General Charles Brown, who heads the US Pacific Air Forces, told Pentagon reporters that the break was to help create space for ongoing diplomatic efforts to address North Korea's nuclear activities. "As we're going through the diplomatic aspect, we don't want to actually do something that's going to derail the diplomatic negotiations," Brown said. "So that's part of the reason why we're not doing (flights) over Korea." As part of its so-called "Continuous Bomber Presence Mission," the US Air Force has kept B-1Bs, B-52s and B-2s on the US territory of Guam since 2004. It routinely conducts flights over the region, often with partners including Japan, South Korea and Australia, as a way of training and exerting a strong military presence against North Korea and other potential adversaries. Brown said despite not flying over the Korean peninsula, the overall number of bomber flights has not changed. The US and South Korea have scaled back or scrapped several joint military drills since a historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in Singapore in June. At the meeting, Trump announced the US would stop holding joint exercises with the South, calling them expensive and "very provocative." US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last week said the US and South Korea are reducing the scope of "Foal Eagle," a joint drill scheduled for spring 2019. Foal Eagle is the biggest of the regular joint exercises held by the allies, and has always infuriated Pyongyang, which condemned it as preparations for invasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States is not happy about Russia's use of force against Ukrainian ships, President Donald Trump said on Monday amidst the Ukrainian allegations that Russia seized its three navy ships in the Black Sea close to Crimea a day before. "We're not happy about it at all. Not at all. We've let our position be known, and we're not happy about it," Trump told reporters at the White House Monday afternoon when asked about the incident a day earlier. "We do not like what's happening either way. We don't like what's happening. And hopefully, it will get straightened out," he said in response to another question. "I know Europe is not -- they are not thrilled. They're working on it too. We're all working on it together," he said. Trump remarks came as the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, slammed Russia of taking "outlaw action" against Ukrainian ships. "The United States will maintain its Crimea-related sanctions against Russia. Indeed, further Russian escalation of this kind will only make matters worse," Indian-American Haley said during an emergency meeting of UN Security Council in New York. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expressing solidarity with the innocent victims of the 2008 attack, President has said the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice and will never let the terrorists win. A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the terror attack on November 26, 2008 carried out by 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists over a period of three days. Nine of the attackers were killed by the police while lone survivor was captured and hanged after he was handed down the death sentence by an Indian court. "On the ten-year anniversary of the terror attack, the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice," Trump tweeted. "The attack killed 166 innocents, including six Americans. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning!" he said. The president's comments came days after he defended his administration's decision to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to for not doing enough to curb terrorism and criticised Islamabad for offering a hideout to slain al-Qaeda chief bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad. "We give USD 1.3 billion a year... (bin Laden) lived in Pakistan, we're supporting Pakistan, we're giving them USD 1.3 billion a year -- which we don't give them anymore, by the way, I ended it because they don't do anything for us, they don't do a damn thing for us," Trump said. Kia Scherr, whose husband and a 13-year-old daughter were killed in the terror attack, thanked President Trump for his tweet. "May this day serve to remind us that love overpowers hate. This is the strength no bullet can kill. This is our true power. Thank you," she said. At a solemn event 'in memory of the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks' at the here, a top American counterterrorism official called on to bring LeT operatives and other terrorists to justice. "We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to do their parts in bringing the perpetrators to justice. All countries must uphold their obligations to take action against this UN sanctioned terrorist group and its leaders," said Nathan Sales, State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism in his brief remarks. Noting that a day earlier, the State Department announced a new reward of USD 5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of those involved in the carnage, Sales said, "With this, we remind the world that we have not forgotten those who perished 10 years ago and we will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice." It is an absolute affront to the victims and their families that after 10 years those who planned these despicable acts have still not been convicted for their crimes, Sales said, echoing the statement of Secretary of State made a day earlier. "Our citizens died together. So we must all work together to end the scourge of terrorism. We must prevent the terrorists who committed this act of barbarism, LeT from ever threatening our people again," Sales said. In his remarks, Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Singh Sarna, paid tributes to the innocent lives lost during the attack. He condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and urged the community to call upon Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist attack to justice. Sarna thanked the State Department for instituting a "Rewards for Justice" programme announcing a bounty for any information leading to arrest or conviction of any individual involved in planning or facilitating the attack. To honour the memory of the victims, a moment of silence was observed by the attendees followed by lighting of candles. Extracts from an article written on this occasion by Scherr, the co-founder of a charity 'One Life Alliance', was also read out. The event concluded with the screening of the HBO documentary on 26/11 Mumbai attacks, titled 'Terror in Mumbai'. The event among was attended by Basant Sanghera and Jennifer Whethey, Director in the US National Security Council at the Rabbi Levi Shemstov, Executive Vice President, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) recounted his personal experience when he desperately tried to save his friends and colleagues in Mumbai and talked with one of the terrorists over phone. Congressman Eliot L Engel, Ranking Member of the powerful House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said 10 years ago, the world watched in real time as a horrific terrorist attack unfolded over the course of 60 hours in Mumbai. "I join the friends and families in remembering the 166 victims, including the six American citizens killed during the attack, and I stand in solidarity with the people of India who have demonstrated their resilience in the face of such violence," he said. "It remains imperative, as it was 10 years ago, to bring the perpetrators of such heinous and senseless violence to account," said Engel, who is expected be the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee next year. "Ten years ago the people of India fell victim to a heinous terrorist attack in Mumbai. Today we remember the victims and stand with India in the fight to end violent Islamist extremism," Congressman Ted Yoho said in a tweet. Uttarakhand was adjudged the best state at the 38th India International Trade Fair, New Delhi, which showcased reconstruction work done at Kedarnath in recent months besides steps taken by the state government to boost tourism and promote local products like organic honey. Director Industries Sudhir Chandra Nautiyal received the award on behalf of the state government from Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu on the concluding day of the fair held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, an official release here said Tuesday. Kedarnath reconstruction work, Home Stay scheme initiated by the Department of Tourism, nutraceutical products based on mountain grains, handloom products and handicrafts were displayed at the Uttarakhand pavilion of the fair whose theme this year was rural MSME. Marketed under the brand name of Himadri, organic honey produced in the state was high on demand at the fair, it said. The state's potential to emerge as a premier film shooting destination in the country and its possibilities in the Ayush and wellness sectors were also exhibited at the event, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought response of the Centre and the ED on a plea by a woman director of two Dubai-based firms to set aside a trial court's order summoning her as an accused in a money laundering case related to the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper scam. A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal issued notice to the Centre and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking their stands on the petition. The plea also sought the quashing of money laundering complaint against Shivani Rajiv Saxena as well as the third supplementary charge sheet, or prosecution complaint, filed by the agency in the case. The court listed the plea for December 14, when it would also hear a similar petition by lawyer Gautam Khaitan who has also sought setting aside of the trial court's order summoning him as an accused in the money laundering case. Saxena, represented through senior advocate Geeta Luthra, has also sought the court to declare the offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as non-cognisable. A cognisable offence is one for which a person can be arrested by a police officer without needing a warrant. In case of a non-cognisable offence, a police officer requires a warrant to make an arrest. The plea, filed through advocates Prateek Yadav and Shivani L Lohiya, has also challenged the power of arrest under Section 19 of the PMLA. Saxena, director of Dubai-based UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings, was arrested by the ED on July 16 last year and was granted bail by the high court on December 15, 2017. She was nabbed by the ED from Chennai. She and the companies have been charge-sheeted by the ED under various sections of the PMLA. Saxena and her husband Rajiv Saxena are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The charge sheet contains her name and that of her husband, who is also a director in the two firms. The ED has alleged that the two Dubai-based firms and Shivani Saxena were the ones through whom "the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/ shares among others". It has claimed that its probe found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks. The ED, in this case, had also arrested Khaitan, also a Delhi-based businessman, who is currently out on bail. On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore paid by the firm for securing the deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) IBPS clerk prelims admit card 2018: The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection has released the call letter or admit card for the IBPS clerk preliminary examination 2018 (CWE Clerk VIII). NEW DELHI: The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection has released the call letter or admit card for the IBPS clerk preliminary examination 2018 (CWE Clerk VIII). The admit card will be available for download until December 15. IBPS plans to fill up more than 7, 260 clerical posts throught this recruitment exam. The examination would be held in two phases: preliminary and main. Those who clear the preliminary examination will be eligible to appear in the main. Those who pass the main exam will be provisionally allotted to one of the participating banks. The preliminary examination will be held on December 8, 9, 15 and 16. The results of the preliminary examination will be declared in December 2018/January 2019. The main examination will be held on January 20, 2019. The provisional allotment of banks to successful candidates will be made in April 2019. All these dates are tentative. The preliminary examination will be of one-hour duration, with three sections carrying 100 marks for 100 questions. Candidates will get one hour to solve them. To be successful, one needs to qualify in each of the three sections by securing the cut-off marks set by the IBPS. The main examination will have four sections carrying a total of 200 marks for 190 questions, and candidates will get two hours and 40 minutes to solve them. There will be a penalty for wrong answers in objective tests pertaining to the preliminary and the main examinations. One-fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted for each wrong answer. There is no penalty for leaving questions unanswered. A criminal, wanted in 20 cases of auto-lifting and other offences, was shot in the leg during an encounter with police here after which he was arrested along with an accomplice, police said. The gunfight took place Monday night, they said. During routine checking, at around 10:30 pm a police team tried to intercept two bike-borne men who were arriving towards Tronica City from Sonia Vihar in Delhi, Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Agarwal said. Instead of halting, the bikers opened fire on the police party, he said, adding that a bullet hit the windscreen of the police vehicle. The police team also fired in retaliation during which one of the two accused suffered bullet injury in his leg. Police overpowered the duo and arrested them. The arrested accused were identified as Sartaj, a resident of Gokul Puri in Delhi and Anil of Pooja Gate colony in Tronica City, the SSP said. As many as 20 criminal cases are lodged against Sartaj in Gokul Puri and Khajoori Khas of Delhi and two cases against Anil at Tronica City police station. According to the SSP, this was the fourth encounter in a fortnight. Six criminals have so far suffered injuries during the string of encounters with police in Ghaziabad in the last 15 days, he added. Two country-made pistols and four live cartridges were recovered from the possession of the two accused Monday. The injured criminal was admitted to a private hospital for treatment, the SSP said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not highlight his government's achievements in the Parliament. "Why doesn't the prime minister speak about the achievements in the Parliament? Why is he highlighting the achievements in desert areas? Because lies cannot be said in Parliament and there is no one to verify his claim in the desert," Azad told reporters at the Congress office here. He said Modi was the first prime minister of the country who did not present the account of his foreign visits in the House. "Whenever a prime minister returns from a foreign visit, he briefs the Parliament about the visits and his meetings... But Modi never tells that to the Parliament. Parliamentary traditions are being broken," the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said. Azad said Modi did not reply to any questions in the Parliament. "If he works so much, they why doesnt' he speak in the Parliament?" On the other hand, the Congress targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its manifesto for the Rajasthan Assembly election, saying it was a document of illusion. "The BJP has just presented an illusion. Instead of this, the party should have presented the reality of the 665 promises made in the 2013 elections," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said. He termed Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley a "blog minister" and said the public had already rejected Vasundhara Raje as chief minister. Surjewala also released facts related to the agriculture sector in the state, saying 62 per cent of the farmers' families were debt-ridden. He wondered if Jaitley and Raje could waive off Rs 2.63 lakh crore of a handful of industrialists, then why not the debt of farmers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari Tuesday said he would bring a private member Bill in the Lok Sabha for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya if need arose. During a meeting with the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders, Tiwari said he will "strongly advocate" a law for constructing a Ram temple at Ayodhya within the Lok Sabha and the party. A delegation of the VHP met North-East Delhi MP and Delhi BJP chief Tiwari at his residence and presented him a memorandum on the Ram Temple. "If need arose, I will also be at the forefront to bring a private member Bill in the Parliament," Tiwari told PTI. The VHP, which is spearheading a movement for a law to pave way for construction of a Ram temple, will meet Parliamentarians across the country to seek their support. The outfit has announced that it would hold gatherings in every Lok Sabha constituency till December 6 to garner support for building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. "Starting from this month, from today itself, VHP will conduct 547 sabhas (gatherings) in all Lok Sabha constituencies and meet respective MPs, and order them to support the law for Ram temple as asked by people," Kumar had said in a rally in Nagpur last Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Foo Yun CheeBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Telecoms companies and investors hoping that unconditional EU approval of Deutsche Telekom's Dutch deal could signal a softer regulatory stance towards mergers in the sector would do well to be cautious.Shares in the European telecoms sector index gained more than 3 percent on Monday after Reuters reported that the European Commission would clear Deutsche Telekom's deal without demanding any concessions unlike some major cases in recent years.Deutsche Telekom's shares gained as much as 2 percent on Monday while Tele2, which is selling its Dutch business, ... By Geert De Clercq and Bate FelixPARIS (Reuters) - France is considering restructuring state-owned utility EDF and plans a steady reduction to the country's reliance on nuclear power, the government said on Tuesday.In a long-awaited speech on energy strategy, President Emmanuel Macron said France would reduce the share of nuclear in the power mix to 50 percent by 2035, down from 75 percent today, rather than the total phasing out planned by neighbour Germany.The fate of EDF, long a symbol of French industrial might and a world leader in nuclear technology, is a politically sensitive issue in ... By Hugh Bronstein, Cassandra Garrison and Tom PolansekBUENOS AIRES/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Argentina is on the verge of signing a deal with the United States that would allow two-way trade of fresh beef for the first time in nearly two decades, the South American country's international trade secretary, Marisa Bircher, said.The agreement, expected to be signed within days, would simultaneously open beef imports to both countries, Bircher told Reuters in an interview."We are negotiating the reopening to happen over the days ahead," she said. "All the technical and administrative questions have ... By Foo Yun CheeBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom will win unconditional EU antitrust approval to buy Tele2's Dutch business, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, sending telecoms shares higher on hopes of more flexible regulation on consolidation.The European telecoms index spiked higher, with Tele2 shares jumping 9 percent for their best day in more than four months. Deutsche Telekom shares recovered from negative territory to a 1 percent gain.The telecoms industry has long called on the European Commission to take a broader view of mergers aimed at boosting revenue and ... MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's natural rubber imports in October jumped 63 percent from a year ago to 62,047 tonnes, the state-run Rubber Board said on Tuesday, as local consumption surged amid drop in overseas prices.The country's consumption jumped 14.6 percent to 102,000 tonnes in October, while production rose 8.1 percent to 67,000 tonnes, the Board said in a statement.India imports natural rubber mainly from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Rashmi Aich)(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a ... JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo expressed pessimism on Tuesday that the United States and China will resolve their trade dispute when the leaders of the world's two biggest economies meet at the G20 summit in Argentina at the end of this week."I'm hoping for a miracle during the G20 meeting, that they will come together, but my feeling is they won't," he said.Washington and Beijing, represented by Vice President Mike Pence and President Xi Jinping, respectively, were hostile during meetings at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in Port Moresby last ... TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese chat app operator Line Corp announced a tie-up with China's Tencent Holdings to offer mobile payment services, and plans to set up a bank with Mizuho Financial Group Inc, sending its shares up 13 percent on Tuesday.Japanese retailers offering Line Pay services will be able to process payments from the growing numbers of Chinese tourists using Tencent's WeChat Pay from early next year, Line said. Line also plans to establish a bank with Mizuho Financial Group Inc, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters, declining to be identified because the plan is not yet ... By Stephanie KellyNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday, in conjunction with sagging stock markets after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs on Chinese imports ahead of the coming G20 summit.Brent crude futures fell $1.00 to $59.48 a barrel, a 1.7 percent loss, 12:53 p.m. EST (1753 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 84 cents to $50.79 a barrel, a 1.6 percent loss.Prices fell to their lowest since October 2017 last week - Brent at $58.41 and WTI at $50.15. U.S. stock markets declined after President Donald Trump's threat ... By Christopher JohnsonLONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Tuesday, depressed by record Saudi production but supported by expectations that oil exporters would agree to cut output at an OPEC meeting next week.Brent crude oil was up 10 cents a barrel at $60.58 by 1445 GMT, not far above a 13-month low of $58.41 reached on Friday. U.S. light crude was up 10 cents at $51.73.Oil prices are down by almost a third since early October, weighed down by an emerging supply overhang and widespread financial market weakness.Prices rallied sharply on Monday, with Brent rising almost 2.9 percent, but ... By Stephanie KellyNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Tuesday, supported by expectations that crude exporters would agree to cut output at an OPEC meeting next week, but weighed down by signs of increased global production.Traders also said any upside was being capped ahead of a meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 nations (G20), the world's biggest economies, on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, with the trade war between Washington and Beijing top of the agenda. With the top three crude producers - Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia - all present, oil policy is expected to be ... By Henning GloysteinSINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil markets were trading cautiously on Tuesday, with mixed signals coming from top exporter Saudi Arabia ahead of an OPEC meeting in Austria next week. International Brent crude oil futures briefly dipped below $60 per barrel before rising back to $60.50 at 0416 GMT, 2 cents above their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $51.48 per barrel, down 15 cents. Saudi Arabia raised oil production to an all-time high in November, an industry source said on Monday, pumping 11.1 million to 11.3 million barrels per day (bpd) ... By Manolo Serapio Jr and Muyu XuMANILA/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese steel producers ran up losses for the first time in three years this month as prices slid into a bear market on weak demand and near-record supply, ending years of solid profit margins.And with the world's No. 2 economy cooling and facing increased risks from a growing trade war with the United States, China's steelmakers are likely to feel more pain unless Beijing launches fresh stimulus measures, traders and analysts say.Amid tumbling prices, Chinese mills - which make half the world's steel - are reining in costs by ... TORONTO (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings which were marginally below expectations and said it planned to exit nine countries in the Caribbean as part of a shake-up of that business.The bank, which has operated in the Caribbean since 1889, said that it would refocus its business in the region by selling its insurance operations in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago to Sagicor Financial Corporation, with whom it will partner to sell insurance products in those countries.Scotiabank said it planned to sell its banking operations in Anguilla, Antigua, ... (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said on Tuesday it launched its generic version of Mylan NV's EpiPen at the wholesale price of $300 for a pack of two auto-injectors - the same price as Mylan's generic version of the emergency allergy shot. The Israeli drugmaker said its generic EpiPen is now available in limited supply in the United States. It said that additional supply, as well as a generic version of the lower-dose EpiPen Jr., will be available next year.Teva declined to say how many of its devices were currently on the market. Spokeswoman Kelley Dougherty said it only ... By David Shepardson and Nick CareyWASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co on Monday pulled the plug on the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant that builds it, both examples of a costly gamble that is not paying off. GM's widely touted factory of the future, forced on a town desperate for jobs and hailed decades later by former President Barack Obama, is set to wind down over the next few years, leaving beleaguered Hamtramck wondering what happened.Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference Monday that he told GM chief executive Mary Barra Monday ... By David ShepardsonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to eliminate subsidies for General Motors Co in retaliation for the automaker cutting U.S. jobs and plants, and the automaker also took fire from Canadian political and labor leaders for cutbacks there."The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including ... for electric cars," Trump said on Twitter.Trump did not explain what "subsidies" he was referring to. GM electric vehicles are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit under federal law, ... By Bertil Lintner The Night Train to Kathmandu, a 1988 surrealistic American movie set against the backdrop of the Himalayas, mixed fantasy and reality as a young woman traveled from India to the Nepalese capital in search of a non-existent city above the clouds. Of course, at that time there were no railroads in Nepal apart from a few, short tracks across the Indian border into the famously mountainous countrys southern lowlands. Now, however, Kathmandu will for the first time in its history soon have a rail connection over the Himalayas in the north linking to China. In 2005, China completed the construction of a 1,956-kilometer railroad connecting Xining in northwestern Qinghai province with Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region that borders on Nepal. In 2014, an extension to Xigaze, 270 kilometers to the southwest of Lhasa was opened. In June this year, China and Nepal signed several agreements, including one to extend the same railroad an additional 270 kilometers from Xigaze to Kathmandu. Construction is expected to start after a survey is conducted and the line completed by 2024. There are also talks about extending the envisioned railroad further south to the Indian border. Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha in southern Nepal, has been mentioned as a symbolic final station for the proposed track. But a railroad reaching from Tibet in China to southern Nepal on the Indian border would be more symbolic and significant than simply providing more convenient travel for Chinese tourists, traders and pilgrims to Nepal. Beijings long-term plan under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) appears to link up with Indias railroads to reach Bangladesh and its ports on the Bay of Bengal. That may be a non-starter given Indias concerns about Chinas grand designs for the region, but is nonetheless on Beijings drawing board. The ambitious scheme, outlined in a detailed report published in October by the Observer Research Foundation think tank, has alarm bells ringing in New Delhi. For even if the final phase of the railroad fails to happen, New Delhis traditional hold on Nepal is clearly slipping. In May 2017, Nepal signed an agreement to be part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings trillion-dollar BRI, of which the trans-Himalayan railroad will form a vital link. The agreement also outlined cooperative initiatives in transit, roads, trade, aviation and hydroelectric power stations. Nepal-China relations have grown over the past decade, facilitated in part by the communist parties that have come in and out of power in Kathmandu in recent years. In May this year, the countrys two main communist parties, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninists) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center), merged to become the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). One of the merged partys two chairmen, Khadga Parsad Sharma Oli, now serves for the second time as prime minister. Even if Nepals reformed communist party has abandoned revolutionary ideology for a more pragmatic parliamentary approach to Nepals entrenched problems, Chinas Communist Party also reformed and now embracing free-market policies is still viewed as a role model. The proposed railway extension is only one of several China induced headaches for India. While India has served as Nepals traditional military partner and supplied the Nepalese armed forces with most of its weapons, Kathmandu has nonetheless recently held two joint exercises with China, the first in April 2017 and second in September this year. In the lead-up to the second exercise, Nepal informed India that it would not participate in the first BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, a loose regional grouping comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan to be held in Pune, India that same month. Nepal is a member of the group, but nonetheless declined to participate in the military exercise. The joint exercises with China, known as Sagarmatha Friendship, are named after the Nepalese word for Mount Everest, which straddles the border between Nepal and China-controlled Tibet. To facilitate cultural ties, China recently opened a Confucius Institute at Kathmandu University, which offers free Chinese-language classes to local Nepalese. Beijing also supports several local organizations established in recent years to promote closer people-to-people relations between China and Nepal. At the same time, China has also strengthened its relations with the Nepalese army by supplying it with heavy military vehicles and military transport planes. Those procurements have been consistent with Kathmandus known desire to mitigate its dependence on India. The ongoing integration into the Nepalese armed forces of 20,000 former Maoist guerrillas who waged a bloody guerrilla war against the state from 1996 to 2006 is a sensitive issue within Nepals military establishment one China will also have to contend with as it bid to strengthen ties with Nepals army. Many the ruling NCPs leaders took part in that insurgency, including Olis partner as chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known under his nom de guerre Prachanda, or the fierce one, who also served as prime minister from 2008 to 2009 and again from 2016 to 2017. So far only 1,400 former Maoists have been accepted into the regular Nepalese army, which has caused resentment among many former guerrillas who believe they have been sold out by their leaders. But the Nepalese army, which was staunchly loyal to the monarchy that was abolished in 2008, has a new leadership that it is balancing its old relations with India with its new ties to China. The current chief of staff of the Nepalese army, General Purna Chandra Thapa, although educated in India, is seen by some Indian observers as being more pro-Chinese than his predecessors. In October this year, China pledged to provide 150 million renminbi in assistance to the Nepalese army over a period of five years for what official statements say are for the procurement of humanitarian and disaster relief equipment. More than 150 Nepalese soldiers have been trained in China since 2014, and military analysts in New Delhi say China is now encouraging Nepal to cooperate militarily with Indias arch rival Pakistan. From Chinas perspective, the BRI has to be pushed through the Himalayas and down to the Indian subcontinent to be viable. According to a military analyst in New Delhi, another major Chinese concern is the presence in Nepal of 20,000 Tibetans who fled from their homeland after a 1959 uprising against Chinas annexation of their homeland and the descendants of those refugees. China is known to fear their cooperation with the Tibetan government in exile in India and other activities by the refugees Bejing sees as anti-Chinese in nature. China wants to create a sort of cordon sanitaire along Tibets southern border, and that is a major reason why China is investing economic and human resources in Nepal, a New Delhi-based military analyst told Asia Times. For Nepal, it is important to find other trade routes outside of India, which significantly were closed by the Indians in March 1989 after Nepal had purchased anti-aircraft guns from China. That blockade lasted until April 1990 and caused immense hardships for Nepal. Another blockade imposed in 2015, officially initiated by people of Indian origin in southern Nepal, caused similar problems, including an acute shortage of petrol and diesel. New Delhi has denied that it was behind the 2015 blockade, but many in Kathmandu believe it tacitly supported a move that sparked a rise in anti-Indian sentiment among the Nepalese public. But can China really upstage India in Nepal? Chinese trucks delivered some fuel to Nepal during the 2015 blockade, but long lines of communications and severe weather conditions on the Tibetan plateau made it an extremely difficult undertaking. Today, most of Nepals foreign trade runs through the Indian port of Kolkata, situated less than 1,000 kilometers away. The nearest Chinese ports, at Tianjin, Shenzhen, Lianyungang and Zhanjiang, all of which were mentioned when Chinese and Nepalese officials discussed in September ways to break Indias monopoly over Nepals trade routes, are situated over 3,000 kilometers away. The open border between India and Nepal means that tens of thousands of Nepalese travel freely south in search of jobs. On the other hand, Nepalese citizens who want to visit China need visas, which can be a long and cumbersome process. Most Nepalese also speak a language that is related to Indian ones while both share large numbers of Hindu adherents. There are also tens of thousands of Nepalese who currently serve as soldiers in the seven Gorkha Rifles of the Indian army and the paramilitary Assam Rifles. Oli and other communist leaders have tried to restrict the recruitment of Gorkhas into the Indian military, but their remittances, pensions and other social welfare benefits for retired soldiers are a significant source of national income. For better or worse, Nepal is more closely tied to India through economic, cultural and ethnic links that China will find difficult to decisively upset or sever. But with a China-built railroad soon to be blasted through the Himalayas, Nepals geopolitical position is quickly changing. Literally squeezed between rocks and hard places, Kathmandu will soon find itself at a new frontline of China and Indias intensifying regional rivalry. This article originally published in Asian Times WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Tuesday indicated President Donald Trump may announce specific ramifications for General Motors Co's plans to cut thousands of jobs and potentially close some of its North America plants."I'm going to leave that to him," Kudlow said when asked if Trump has consequences in mind for the major auto maker. "You may find additional announcements coming on that topic."Kudlow, the National Economic Council director, said that while the White House was disappointed with GM's plans he did not think the shutdowns will affect the ... By Roberta RamptonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to hike tariffs on Chinese imports if there is no breakthrough on longstanding trade irritants during a Saturday night dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday.Days ahead of the high-stakes dinner, it was unclear whether the two sides had agreed on a formal agenda for the leaders' meeting after the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, and Kudlow said there were no scheduled talks on the ground for their advisers.The White House sees the dinner, which Kudlow hinted ... Anil Bandawane, a farmer living outside Pune, India, was fed up with the poor advice he was getting from the governments national hotline for agricultural queries. Life as a farmer in India can be isolating, and he felt cut off from his peers. So he started a WhatsApp group called Baliraja (which roughly means farmer king in the Marathi language). The group, which allows his fellow farmers across the country to exchange expertise and support on the popular messaging platform, gained so much traction that Mr. Bandawane has created more than a dozen different ... Kishore Biyani's Future Retail Limited (FRL) - the company that owns Big Bazaar, Foodhall, Nilgiri's and now Foodworld, among others - has been in Amazon's crosshairs for a while now, but the latest buzz is that the ecommerce giant is now negotiating a wider agreement. People aware of the discussions told The Economic Times that both sides are drafting a call and put option in their share purchase agreement that will allow Amazon to call for Biyani's stake in FRL over the long term - perhaps even 8-10 years - subject to Indian laws. In other words, Amazon wants the option of buying out Biyani and taking over the company in the future. "Amazon is betting that with gradual FDI relaxation in food processing and single-brand retail over time the current freeze will be removed," an official told the daily. "Meanwhile, a clear realignment involving global players is happening in Indian retail and Biyani, too, would want to capitalise on that." While foreign retailers were allowed to hold up to 51% stake in local stores, subject to approval of state governments, under the UPA regime, the Modi government ordered a freeze on fresh FDI in the retail sector when it came to power in 2014. However, the norms allow a single foreign portfolio investor (FPI) to hold up to 10% in multi-brand retail companies. Hence, Amazon has, so far, made all its investments in brick-and-mortal retail through a registered FPI owned by it. The same is true for the deal being cooked up with FRL. According to the daily, in the first leg of the agreement - which is close to being finalised and is expected to be announced in December - the Seattle-headquartered retailer will buy up to 9.5% stake in FRL through the FPI route. Biyani and his family members own 46.51% of the company, of which 40.3% was pledged as per September 2018 filings. The current market cap of FRL is Rs 26,543.15 crore. Citing sources the report added that Amazon is likely to give a significant "control" premium of around 25-30% for their right to call upon the shares, and the granularities of the agreement are being hashed out. According to experts, put/call option clauses are governed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) circular of October 2013 and the Reserve Bank of India's foreign exchange regulations. "It is further subject to Sebi's block deal/bulk norms and Sebi takeover regulations (based on the percentage of shares being bought). As per RBI norms, if a foreigner is buying from an Indian person, then the price at which the shares will be sold by the Indian person would need to be at or higher than the fair market value prevalent at the time of the sale as per Sebi pricing norms," Suhail Nathani, managing partner of law firm ELP, told the daily. Besides FRL, Biyani controls three other listed entities, namely Future Consumer, Future Lifestyle Fashions and Future Supply Chain Solutions, collectively boasting over 80 consumer product brands. So Amazon and the Future Group are reportedly also inking agreements across the fashion and FMCG verticals to leverage on the network effect. Furthermore, plans to streamline the payment options of both players - Amazon Pay and Future Pay - to create a bigger eco-system are also being explored. A deal with FRL will give Amazon access to the former's pan-India footprint. The retail network boasts over 2,000 stores in 355 cities and towns in every Indian state except Arunachal Pradesh. Each of these stores can act as a primary distribution points for a digital player like Amazon, allowing it to extend food and grocery deliveries within a 2-3 hour time frame. Also read: Google, Paytm Mall may join hands to buy stake in Kishore Biyani's Future Retail Similarly, Amazon stands to leverage Future Lifestyle Fashions' clothing and footwear brands, including Lee Cooper, Converse, Sketchers, Indigo Nation and Scullers, by creating exclusive digital storefronts for them on its portal. Amazon could also create exclusive digital store fronts for company-operated chains such as Central and Brand Factory. Amazon's interest in FRL comes against the backdrop of increased competition in the retail landscape, which is expected to mushroom by 60% to reach US$ 1.1 trillion by 2020, on the back of factors like rising incomes and lifestyle changes by middle class and increased digital connectivity. The ecommerce giant has, in fact, been looking at strategic investments in top brick-and-mortar chains as the focus increasingly switched to the omnichannel format. In September, Amazon, along with private equity firm Samara Capital, bought Aditya Birla Group-owned 'More' retail chain. Previously, it had picked up a 5% stake in Shoppers Stop. The buzz is that it is now eyeing a minority stake in Spencer's Retail. Meanwhile, FRL nurses omnichannel ambitions, too, and that's where Amazon fits in. Last November the company unveiled a 30-year vision, Retail 3.0, to chart its course to becoming Asia's largest integrated consumer retailer by 2047 with revenue of in excess of $1 trillion. This blueprint was reportedly modelled on Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma's "New Retail" theory, which seeks to redefine ecommerce by enabling seamless engagement between the online and offline world. Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal News LATEST Corporate Kartarpur Corridor: Sidhu arrives in Pakistan for groundbreaking ceremony; here's all you need to know Feedback Kartarpur Corridor: Sidhu arrives in Pakistan for groundbreaking ceremony; here's all you need to know Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will lay the foundation stone of the project on Wednesday. He has invited Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu to take part in the ceremony. In what is a rather welcoming news for engineering graduates, South Korean mobile giant Samsung is planning to hire around 1,000 engineers from India's top colleges. The company will be looking for new talent in 2019 to boost its research and development (R&D) facilities in India. This move is perhaps part of Samsung's proposal to hire around 2,500 engineers by 2020. Samsung hopes to strengthen its market position by developing new solutions and services as competition from players like Xiaomi mounts. Samsung is looking at areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, biometrics, 5G, natural language processing analytics as they are planning to build a strong research base in India, as mentioned by Sameer Wadhawan, head of Human Resources at Samsung India. "The new recruits will work on cutting-edge technology at our three R&D centres in Bengaluru, Noida and Delhi, which have evolved as centres of expertise," he added, as mentioned in a report in The Economic Times. Students across streams such as electronics and communications, electrical engineering, computer science, information technology, mathematics, computing and instrumentation will be hired by the company. Samsung has already hired 1,000 engineers from the class of 2018 as part of their campus recruitment. The company hired talent for R&D across top institutes like National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and BITS University. Samsung has also rolled out pre-placement offers at the IITs and will be part of their final placements, starting December 1. Not only the older IITs at Delhi, Mumbai, Roorkee, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati and BHU, Samsung is also scouting talent at the new IITs. One-third of the total hires are expected to be from the IITs. Samsung's R&D centres in India mostly work on technology that is centred on the Indian customers' user preferences and experiences. They also contribute to global products. More than 8,000 people are employed at these centres. Tech magnate and philanthropist Azim Premji will be conferred the highest French civilian award this month. Premji will receive the Knight of the Legion of Honour or Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur from Ambassador of France to India, Alexandre Ziegler. The renowned entrepreneur will be bestowed with this distinction for his contribution to developing the IT industry in India and his economic outreach in France. A statement mentioned: "The award comes in recognition of his outstanding contribution to developing the information technology industry in India, his economic outreach in France, and his laudable contribution to society as a philanthropist through the Azim Premji Foundation and University." Indian recipients who have received this prestigious award include Shah Rukh Khan as well as Bengali actor Soumitra Charrerjee. The Ambassador of France will be in Bengaluru on November 28-29 to attend the Tech Summit. He will also meet representatives of more than 30 innovative companies from the French technology business community. The gathering will see a mix of early-stage and large technology companies specialising and developing digital solutions in artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, cyber security, connected devices, machine learning and super-computing, as mentioned in the statement. This will also provide an opportunity to further boost the partnership between France and India in areas of information technology and innovation. "This meeting will be an opportunity to initiate the development of a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem that draws inspiration from the French Tech movement, a growing global community made up of a new generation of entrepreneurs, investors, engineers and innovators gathered under one banner," the statement said. Large French digital companies already have a strong footprint in India, employing over 1.3 lakh people at their R&D centres and facilities. "I am looking forward to meeting sectoral French companies, which are creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem to foster and support innovation and partnerships between France and India. It will be a privilege for me to confer the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honour on renowned tech magnate and philanthropist, Shri Azim Premji," Ziegler said. Ziegler will also visit the Infosys campus and attend a leadership meeting. (With PTI inputs) If you are a customer of State Bank of India (SBI) you will not be able to access your bank account via internet banking if you do not link your phone number with your bank account by November 30. After this date, net banking services will be blocked. "As per RBI advisory, it is mandatory to register your mobile number to avail internet banking services. Please register your mobile number by 30.11.2018, failing which your internet banking access will be deactivated/blocked w.e.f from 01.12.2018," SBI informs its customers on its website. After December 1, if you want your net banking rights back then you need to do visit your nearest branch and request the linking of your mobile number with your SBI bank account. According to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular dated July 6, 2017, banks must ask their customers to register for SMS alerts for electronic banking transactions. Electronic banking transactions include internet banking, mobile banking, and so on. SBI account holders can themselves check whether their account is linked to their phone number or not by logging on to the SBI website. Here are the steps: Log on to the internet banking services Click on My Accounts and visit the Profile tab Click on Profile and go to Personal Details/Mobile Enter the Profile password If the phone number is linked then the it will be displayed on the screen. If the number is not registered then visit the nearest branch On a related note, SBI has also informed its customers that it will be exchanging older magstrip debit cards with the newer EMV (named after its original developers Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip ones at no cost. Magstrip debit cards are easier to clone and could be used for fraudulent transactions. A WhatsApp group administrator was arrested for adding a woman to the group and sending pornographic videos. The woman told the police the group members shared obscene content after she was added to the WhatsApp group. The accused has been identified as 24-year-old Mustaq Ali Shaikh, a native of West Bengal. The police said the group admin's arrest could serve as a precedent for others to remain cautious while sharing such content and adding people on the messaging platform. The suspect now faces up to five years of jail term for adding a woman to the group without her consent. In her complaint to the police, the woman, who is a housewife, said her number was added to a group named 'Triple XXX' in September, reported Times of India. Police said the woman earlier thought it was a prank by her friends. To her shock, she started receiving several obscene videos in the group. She immediately lodged a police complaint, stating not even a single number in the WhatsApp group was known to her. The Mumbai police lodged the complaint and traced the administrator's mobile number from West Bengal. As per the report, the police had prepared a team to arrest the accused from the state. However, the mobile operator informed the cops that the number was on roaming in the Mumbai area. The accused has been sent to police custody under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections and Sections 67 and 67-A of the IT Act for outraging the modesty of a woman. During the police interrogation, the accused apologised and said the woman might have been wrongly added to the group. The accused also said he didn't know the woman. He said he added it, thinking it was his brother-in-laws' mobile number. One of his friends had formed the WhatsApp group, he said, assuring it had no woman members. Meanwhile, Mustaq Ali Shaikh's mobile phone was seized. Forensic teams have been gathering data from his mobile phone to interrogate the matter. Police said they are also contacting other group members who could become a witness in the case. Police said Shaikh could get up to five years' of jail under the IT ACT, 2000. Edited by Manoj Sharma Also Read: 5 WhatsApp settings you should change right now LUSAKA , Nov 27: Britains Prince Harry on Monday offered Zambia support with boosting the countrys dwindling elephant population, as he began a two-day working visit without his pregnant wife Meghan. The Duke of Sussex, 34, was received at Lusaka airport by dignitaries and colourfully-dressed traditional dancers, later holding a closed-door meeting with Zambian President Edgar Lungu and his ministers. As president of animal conservation charity African Parks, Harry offered to bring elephants from neighbouring Botswana. Prince Harry told the president during closed-door talks that African Parks will help move between 500 and 1,000 elephants from Botswana into Zambias Kafue National Park, Lungus spokesman Amos Chanda said. He said this should help boost Zambias tourism and create jobs, especially for the youth. African Parks manages national parks on behalf of governments to help protect animals targeted by poachers, including elephants and rhino. Botswana has the highest population of elephants in Africa, while Zambia struggles to pull in the same crowds to its more rundown safari parks. Harry is a frequent visitor to southern Africa for his conservation work and holidays. Harry and Meghan have enjoyed romantic getaways together in Botswana. New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) Newly-elected Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will be on his first foreign visit to India next month to further strengthen the bilateral ties with the country, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said Monday.A ministerial delegation from Maldives, including Shahid, Minister of Finance Fayaaz Ismail, Minister of Economic Development Ibrahim Ameer and Minister of State for Foreign affairs Ahmed Khaleel, is currently on a visit to India.Shahid said the visit of Solih aims to strengthen the bilateral ties with India, which, he asserted has always come to the aid of the island nation whenever it needed."The new Maldives government considers India such an important partner that President Solih would be making his first foreign visit to India next month on December 17," he told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club."We want to assure India that we are back in business and we would not hide behind scourge of corruption," he said.Maldives Finance Minister Ismail said the new government is seeking budget support from India in a number of areas, including health care.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended Solih's oath-taking ceremony on November 17 in Male.Solih, as the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party's candidate, had a surprise victory over strongman Abdulla Yameen in the presidential election held on September 23.India-Maldives ties had deteriorated significantly under Yameen, who was perceived to be close to China. Some decisions by Yameen, including imposition of restrictions on work visas for Indians and signing of a new Free Trade Agreement with Beijing, also did not go down well with New Delhi.Relations between India and the Maldives slumped further after Yameen imposed emergency on February 5 this year, which lasted for 45 days.India had criticised his decision and asked his government to restore the credibility of the electoral and political process by releasing political prisoners. PTI UZM TDS KJKJ New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) Maldives on Monday conveyed to India that it will be sensitive towards New Delhi's security and strategic concerns as the two countries vowed to bring back momentum in their ties which came under severe strain during the previous government in Male.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held talks with her Maldivian counterpart Abdulla Shahid here and asserted that India attaches highest importance to its relationship with the Maldives. She told the visiting minister that New Delhi stands ready to "fully support" the new government in Male.A joint statement issued after the talks said Shahid reiterated his government's "India First" policy and conveyed that his government looked forward to working closely with India on all issues. It said President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will visit India on December 17 and both the ministers held wide consultations to lay the groundwork for the trip.India-Maldives ties deteriorated significantly under rule of Abdulla Yameen who was perceived to be close to China and there were concerns in India over growing Chinese influence in Male.Solih, as the opposition candidate, had a surprise victory over Yameen in the presidential election held on September 23. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Solih's oath-taking ceremony on November 17."Abdulla Shahid reiterated his government's 'India First' policy and said that his government looks forward to working closely with the government of India on all issues," the joint statement said It said he reaffirmed Maldives' special, close and friendly relations with India and also reiterated that the government of Maldives will be sensitive towards India's security and strategic concerns.On her part, Swaraj reiterated that India attaches highest importance to its relationship with Maldives which is marked by trust, transparency, mutual understanding and sensitivity. "She said that that in line with Government of India's Neighbourhood First policy, India stands ready to fully support the Government of Maldives in its socio-economic development," the statement said.The two sides also discussed security and defence matters including ongoing projects and new areas of cooperation. They agreed to hold the next meeting of the defence cooperation dialogue next month."They also discussed ways and means to expand and diversify the bilateral economic and commercial relations. In this regard, they agreed that the private sector needs to be encouraged to play a leading role," said the statement.In the talks, officials said, India assured Maldives of support in implementing its development priorities and in ensuring fiscal and budgetary stability.External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar described the meeting between Swaraj and Shahid as "warm and productive" and said it focused on bilateral cooperation and ensuring peace and security in the region.In the meeting, Swaraj welcomed Maldives' decision to rejoin the Commonwealth and expressed India's support for it. The Maldivian foreign minister invited Swaraj to pay a bilateral visit to his country to which she agreed. PTI MPB RT New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said on Monday the world must come together in fighting terrorism, especially financing of terror-related activities and create conditions which do not encourage such acts.At an interactive session at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) here, he also said Romania "strongly supports" India's proposal in the UN for a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT)."We have to take measures to reduce and restrain different activities related to terrorism, especially financing of terrorism in different counties. And secondly, I believe we have to do our best to create conditions which would not encourage terrorism," Melescanu said."In the meantime, we have to adopt a general agreement on fighting terrorism. There is an Indian proposal at the UN (on counter-terrorism) and we are strongly supporting it," he said at the session titled 'Going Global or Staying Local: Romania's Agenda as a Connector between Europe and Asia'.India had proposed to the UN a draft document in 1996 on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT). The event, hosted by the think-tank, coincided with the 10th anniversary of the horrific 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai in which 166 people, including 18 security personnel and two NSG commandos were killed, besides damaging property worth crores.Melescanu, after his address, also fielded question on state-sponsored terrorism and multiple other issues, including the European Union, Brexit, Syrian crisis, Israel-Palestine issue and Indo-Pak relationship."What we say as a priority, we need to look into the roots of terrorism, what is creating it, whether due to financial issues, religious issues, whatever they may be we need the address root causes of it," the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania said.On the India-Pakistan issue, he said the two sides are "neighbours, like brothers" and the issue is "extremely important" for both the countries."I also believe that Pakistan can play a very important role in finding a solution to situation in Afghanistan," he said. "I believe you have to demonstrate a lot of goodwill, possibly to find a dialogue with the Pakistani authorities. Both countries have a serious level of knowledge, including in the nuclear field, and must try to find a solution, kind of dialogue for it," the minister said.Melescanu, who is currently visiting India, also met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after the event and the two leaders held wide-ranging talks to strengthen ties between the two countries."Romania's economic dynamism and favourable business climate finds suitable match in India's ever-growing economic trends opening to the world. We are aware of the economic and social policies of PM (Narendra) Modi in expanding India's economic power through ambitious investment programmes while stimulating employment and welfare of the people," he said.The Romanian foreign minister said his country "fully shares this vision"."India's international reputation in education and Romania's growing profile in education and research and development fields should enlarge our bilateral perspectives. We are highly interested in effectively harnessing such possibilities," Melescanu said earlier in his address.On the European Union-related issues, Melescanu said Romania will take over the EU's rotating presidency from January next year and "we would like the Brexit to happen in an orderly way"."The UK contributes about 14 per cent to the GDP of the EU, and so, it exit will have immediate implications. Second, they (the UK) will be absent from general strategy of defence and foreign affairs of the EU. And the UK has an important role in that...So, our vision even after Brexit is that we keep Great Britain as closely as possibly to EU," he said. PTI KND KJKJ New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid Monday alleged that former president Abdulla Yameen had tried to play India against China as a "puppet master" and said the new government was looking into the deals made with China to assess the debt accumulation. Maldives knows the importance of India as it was an "important" partner, said Shahid who was on his first visit to India after assuming charge as the foreign minister of Maldives. The visit assumes significance as the ties between both the countries were severely strained under the previous government in the island nation. Maldivian Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, who is also part of a delegation of minister visiting India, also said the new government had identified a number of projects undertaken with China that were bought at an "inflated price" and it was in the process of assessing how much debt was accumulated. The remarks of both the foreign and finance ministers of Maldives assume significance as reports suggest that China had been trying to expand its influence over the island nation. Ameer said, "The Chinese portion of investment is taking long in assessment because all these deals took place in secrecy." Shahid targeted former president Abdulla Yameen, alleging he tried to play India against China. "Former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen tried to play India against China as a puppet master but we know the importance of India as an ally which has always come to the aid of Maldives," he told reporters at a gathering of Foreign Correspondents Club here. He said Maldives considered India such an "important partner" that new Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih would be making his first foreign visit to here on December 17. Shahid, however, said that on the 'Belt and Road Initiative', the country would continue their cooperation with not only China but with other countries too. Ameer said they have identified a number of projects which were bought at an "inflated price" from China. These projects are China-Maldives Bridge, port development project and a project involving construction of around 1,000 housing units, he said. "We believe most of these projects have been bought at an inflated price and we are looking into them. But you have to understand that all these projects are now completed and we cannot renegotiate them. "In going forward, our main objective would be to reduce the cost of these infrastructure projects," Ameer told reporters. Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail said the island nation was trying to get past instability that was witnessed in the last couple of years. "We are trying to put past last five years of instability in the Maldives and we will try to resolve all differences between Maldivian and Indian investors. "In that regard, we are hoping to strengthen our bilateral trade. We are hoping to enter into a bilateral treaty with India on increasing investment," he said. He also said they were planning to ease visa norms so that Indian investors could travel to Maldives for business. Ameer said Maldives was mainly seeking budget support in healthcare projects among others. Shahid said Maldives had requested India to give it a Dornier aircraft and the External Affairs Ministry had "promised that it would be delivered soon". "During Yameen's time, Yameen ditched the Dornier gifted by India to get aircraft from Pakistan as Pakistan was giving it as loan and they prefer loan so they could get commission from it. But we will prefer a gift and we want to continue working with the Indian government," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on November 17 in Male. Solih, as the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party's candidate, had surprising victory over strongman Abdulla Yameen in the presidential election held on September 23. India-Maldives ties had deteriorated significantly under Yameen who was perceived to be close to China. Some decisions by Yameen, including imposition of restrictions on work visas for Indians and signing of a new Free Trade Agreement with Beijing, also did not go down well with New Delhi. Relations between India and the Maldives slumped further after Yameen imposed emergency on February 5 this year. India had criticised his decision and asked his government to restore the credibility of the electoral and political process by releasing political prisoners. The emergency lasted for 45 days. PTI UZM TDS AAR General Motors Co said on Monday it will cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce because of a declining market for traditional gas-powered sedans, shifting more investment to electric and autonomous vehicles. GM's actions add up to the biggest restructuring for the U.S. No. 1 carmaker since its bankruptcy a decade ago, and mark a turning point for the North American auto industry. U.S. automakers have enjoyed nearly a decade of prosperity since the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the government bailouts of GM and the former Chrysler Corp. GM's announcement immediately drew criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, highlighting the political risks facing GM. He demanded the automaker find a new vehicle to build in Ohio and added that he had told GM Chief Executive Mary Barra he was unhappy with her decision to cut production at an Ohio factory. Ohio will be a key state in the 2020 presidential campaign. "I have no doubt that in the not too distant future, they'll put something else. They better put something else in," Trump, who has pushed for more manufacturing jobs throughout his almost two years in office, said. GM did not immediately comment on Trump's remarks, but the company noted it has other facilities in Ohio including a transmission plant in Toledo and metal centre in Parma. GM and its rivals are facing rising bills for technological transformation, increased risks from U.S. trade policy and investors reluctant to fund their traditional product strategies. Barra on Monday portrayed the decision to put five North American factories on notice for potential closure and cut nearly 15,000 jobs as necessary to keep the company strong as it ploughs money into new technology and new businesses such as robo-taxi services. "This industry is changing very rapidly," Barra said during a press briefing. "These are things we are doing to strengthen our core business." GM shares rose as much as 7.8 percent following the announcement, and were nearly 6 percent higher at $37.97 in midafternoon trading. Shares of Detroit rivals Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV also rose, outpacing the broader market. GM plans to halt production next year at three assembly plants: the Lordstown small-car factory near Youngstown, Ohio; the Detroit-Hamtramck complex in Detroit; and the Oshawa, Ontario, assembly complex near Toronto. It will also stop building several models now assembled at those plants, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, the Cadillac CT6 and the Buick LaCrosse. The Cruze compact car will be discontinued in the U.S. market in 2019, although GM may continue building it in Mexico for other markets, Barra said. Plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and the suburban Detroit community of Warren, Michigan, both of which make powertrain components, have no products assigned to them after 2019 and are at risk of closure, GM said. The company said it will also close two unidentified factories outside North America. "We are right-sizing capacity for the realities of the marketplace," Barra said. GM is also moving to cut capital spending overall, even as it says it will double the resources dedicated to electric and self-driving vehicles over the next two years. GM last year promised to launch a fleet of 20 new battery electric vehicles in North America by 2023, along with at least 10 new electric vehicles in China by 2020. The expenditures to bring those vehicles to production will start to hit with new batteries and body architectures designed to generate profits. GM also is ramping up hiring at its GM Cruise autonomous vehicle unit, pushing to overcome technical challenges and make good on a plan to launch a robo-taxi service next year. Even with the higher spending on electric and autonomous vehicles, GM plans to reduce overall annual capital spending to $7 billion by 2020 from an average of $8.5 billion a year during the 2017-2019 period. The automaker has come under pressure from investors to return more cash in the form of share buybacks and dividends. Cost pressures on GM and other automakers and suppliers have increased as demand has waned for traditional sedans. The company has said tariffs on imported steel, imposed earlier this year by the Trump administration, have cost it $1 billion. Barra did not link Monday's cuts to tariff pressures, but said trade costs are among the "headwinds" GM faces as it deals with broader technology change and market shifts. GM's actions provoked anger from political figures on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, and from its main North American unions. The United Auto Workers, which represents U.S. workers, vowed to fight the cuts. "General Motors' decision today ... will not go unchallenged by the UAW," said Terry Dittes, the union's vice president in charge of negotiations with GM. Some UAW workers could land jobs at other GM factories, but many will face uncertain futures unless GM reverses course. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with Barra and expressed "deep disappointment." In the United States, Trump's economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was scheduled to meet with Barra on Monday. GM said it will take pretax charges of $3 billion to $3.8 billion to pay for the cutbacks, but expects the actions to improve annual free cash flow by $6 billion by the end of 2020. SMALLER WORKFORCE GM's North American salaried workforce, including engineers and executives, will shrink by 15 percent, or about 8,000 jobs. The company said it will cut executive ranks by 25 per cent to "streamline decision making." Even as GM is moving to lay off salaried staff, the company is hiring. At GM's Detroit headquarters on Monday, there were signs directing people to a "new hire orientation" meeting. Barra said GM can reduce annual capital spending by $1.5 billion and increase investment in electric and autonomous vehicles and connected vehicle technology because it has largely completed investing in new generations of trucks and sport utility vehicles. Some 75 percent of its global sales will come from just five vehicle architectures by the early 2020s, which means GM can reduce the people and capital required to keep its product portfolio updated. Unlike Japanese automakers Nissan Motor Co Ltd, Honda Motor Co Ltd and Toyota Motor Corp, which rely on a more flexible system where they make multiple vehicles at a single plant, GM has too many factories that make just a single model. The collapse in sales of compact and midsize sedans has hit certain GM models harder than rival Japanese brands. Sales of the Honda Civic are down 11 percent through the first 10 months of 2018. But sales of the Chevrolet Cruze are off 22 percent. The Hamtramck and Lordstown assembly plants are currently operating on one shift. A rule of thumb for the automotive industry is that if a plant is running below 80 percent of production capacity, it is losing money. GM has several plants running well below that, and Barra said North American operations overall were operating at 70 percent capacity. Consultancy LMC estimates that Lordstown operates at just 31 percent of production capacity in 2018. Through the UAW, workers at Lordstown have worked to improve quality, cut the number of union locals to make it easier for GM to negotiate and agreed to the outsourcing of some jobs, in a bid to persuade the automaker to add more models to its factory line. Trump won Ohio in 2016 campaigning on bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. "So far, President Trump has been asleep at the switch and owes this community an explanation," U.S. Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Lordstown, wrote on Twitter. At the same time, many of GM's plants producing its higher-margin trucks and SUVs are running on three shifts, with some running six and sometimes seven days a week to keep up with demand. Some displaced GM car plant workers could find jobs at truck factories, GM officials said. Rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler have both curtailed U.S. car production. Ford said in April it planned to stop building nearly all cars in North America. Fiat Chrysler moved even earlier to discontinue most of its sedans. Maruti Suzuki India's (MSI) premium hatchback model Swift, now in its third generation, has just achieved a new milestone. The company announced today that the Swift has crossed the 20 lakh sales mark in the country, 13 years after its launch in May 2005. The model had raced past the 5 lakh sales milestone in September 2010. Then, in September 2013, two years after the launch of the second generation car, it crossed the 10 lakh sales mark followed by the 15 lakh mark in March 2016. "Swift achieving two million sales milestone is a proud moment for all of us at Maruti Suzuki India. Brand Swift has consistently featured among the top five best-selling cars in India for more than a decade," MSI Senior Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) R.S. Kalsi said in a statement. The model posted a sales growth of 36% with a market share of 29% in the April-October period of the current fiscal. According to the data compiled by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), MSI's premium hatchback Swift stood at the first position with sale of 22,228 units in September as against 13,193 units, a year ago. The company claims that the auto gear shift (AGS) technology variant of the model now contributes over 20% of Swift sales. Kalsi added that the company would like to reinforce its commitment towards customers with increased output aimed at reducing the waiting period. So MSI increased production of the model to 1.39 lakh units over April-October, up 45% over the same period of the previous fiscal, thereby reducing the waiting period. It's turning out to be a good year for MSI. In June, India's largest car maker achieved accumulated automobile production of 20 million units. Significantly, where its Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corp took 45 years and 9 months to get to this point, the Indian subsidiary managed it in a record 34 years and 5 months. With PTI inputs Edited by Sushmita Agarwal Global Australian travel insurer, World Nomads Group (WNG), today announced the launch of its European operations and headquarters in Cork to support its international expansion strategy. The new Cork-based operation will directly manage the companys European travel insurance business with the establishment of a Managing General Agency (MGA) in Ireland. WNG is part of the nib Group, a leading health and travel insurance company based in Australia. nib is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: NHF) with a market capitalisation of approximately AUD$2.5 billion and more than 1,500 employees in eight countries around the globe. WNGs General Manager for Europe, Bernard OSullivan said the establishment of the European base and MGA capability will significantly increase capacity allowing the business to operate in these markets. WNG will manage all the functions of a travel insurer to its European customers such as product design, pricing, customer service, claims and emergency assistance. It will partner with specialist organisations to carry the underwriting risk. The MGA will also allow the business to partner with more European-based brands to offer travel insurance to their customers. "We are currently migrating our European travel insurance arrangements from the UK and continental Europe to our Cork office," O'Sullivan said. "We estimate this will involve the transfer of more than 100,000 policies. We have already employed more than 20 high-quality staff in Cork to support our operations. We expect this to increase to more than 80 staff over the next 18 months." Source: www.businessworld.ie U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump said it was "highly unlikely" he would accept China's request to hold off on the increase, which is due to take effect on Jan. 1. "The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States," Trump told the Journal. "As far as other countries are concerned, thats up to them." Trump, who is due to meet Xi on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, said that if negotiations were unsuccessful, he would also put tariffs on the rest of Chinese imports. "If we dont make a deal, then I'm going to put the $267 billion additional on," at a tariff rate of either 10 percent or 25 percent, Trump told the Journal. A Chinese official told reporters last week that the two leaders would look to set guidelines for future talks. "The main issue is how to settle down the trade war," the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of preparatory negotiations. "I am conservatively optimistic that can be done," he added. At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated China's hope that both sides could work towards a "positive outcome" from the meeting between the two leaders, citing a "consensus" they reached during a Nov. 1 telephone call. Trump said the next round of tariffs could also be placed on laptops and Apple Inc's iPhones imported from China, which are part of that $267 billion list of goods not yet hit by tariffs. Cell phones and computers, among China's biggest exports to the United States, have been spared as the administration has sought to minimize the impact on U.S. consumers. The Journal said the administration has been worried about a consumer reaction to such levies. "Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is," Trump said, referring to the possibility of tariffs on mobile phones and laptops, according to the Journal. "I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily." Shares in Apple fell in after-hours trading after the interview was published. An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries. Apple CEO Tim Cook has personally pressed the issue of tariffs with Trump, telling the president that while there are valid concerns about U.S.-China trade relations, tariffs are not the best way to resolve them. Despite using contract manufacturers to make most of its products overseas, Apple has also sought to emphasize its contribution to the U.S. economy, saying it plans to spend about $55 billion in 2018 with its U.S.-based suppliers. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie KABUL (Reuters) - Three U.S. service members were killed and three wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on Tuesday near the central Afghan city of Ghazni, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement. Tang Ning, Founder and CEO of CreditEase, delivered a keynote speech at China-Lithuania Economy and Fintech Cooperation Summit on November 6, 2018 during the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The summit was hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the People's Republic of China and China Association for International Economic Cooperation (CAFIEC) under Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China. Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania, Guo Yongle, Vice Chairman of CAFIEC, and Marius Jurgilas, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania attended the summit and also delivered speeches. Complementary advantages and win-win cooperation: Several suggestions on fintech cooperation between China and Lithuania Tang Ning, Founder and CEO of CreditEase November 06, 2018 Distinguished President Dalia Grybauskaite, distinguished government officials, financial institutions and business representatives from Lithuania and China, distinguished guests and friends: Good morning! I am very honored to be speaking as an entrepreneur representative of China's fintech industry. I look forward to discussing with the Lithuanian delegation about the opportunities for economic cooperation, especially in the field of fintech, at this important import expo for international exchanges and cooperation. The tide of fintech has spread across the world, and technology has made finance better. We have a great opportunity to use science and technology to solve financial inclusion problems that could not be solved in the past, including better financial services for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, better support for scientific and technological innovation, and more effective worldwide allocation of resources through exchanges and cooperation between countries, so as to promote the development of all mankind. China and Lithuania have a strong foundation for multi-dimensional cooperation opportunities as China is one of the world's largest and leading fintech markets and Lithuania is an attractive and rapidly growing fintech market. There have been many good reports on the status of fintech in the two countries and I would like to propose some specific ideas for cooperation between the two countries in the field of fintech. Chinese fintech enterprises "go abroad" in the following three ways: registering companies and carrying out business independently in the target market; establishing joint ventures with local enterprises to complement each other's strengths; and obtaining minority interest in excellent fintech enterprises in the target market through venture capital and industry investment. In my view, all three ways are feasible for the development of Chinese fintech enterprises in Lithuania because Lithuania has a good business environment, a supportive fintech regulatory environment, high quality fintech engineering talent, and a number of fintech enterprises that have already achieved early stage success. Conversely, for the fintech enterprises from Lithuania who wish to develop in China, I believe that China's fintech market will continue to develop rapidly and healthily in the coming decades, and there are good opportunities for all forms of investment and cooperation. Lithuania's fintech enterprises are different from the Chinese ones as they do not have a huge domestic market, but many of them have built their businesses based on models that can be deployed regionally within the European Union and even beyond that globally. Their excellent experience in thinking globally from the beginning and internationalization can be a very beneficial learning for the Chinese fintech professionals. Lithuania's fintech industryhas a large proportion of consumer payment and online lending companies, which is very similar to the Chinese market. In the past decade, payment and online lending have witnessed massive growth as two key fintech verticals in China, while insurance technology, wealth management and asset management, applications using artificial intelligence and blockchain technology have also witnessed strong development. Fintech companies are using technology and innovation in online lending to solve the worldwide problem of access to credit for tens of millions of individuals as well as small and micro enterprises in urban and rural areas. In this regard, the fintech companies have benefited from the rapid adoption of smartphones and several digital solutions by small and micro enterprises. Restaurants, hotels, hairdressers and beauty salons, delivery services and other industries are rapidly becoming digital. The farming and cattle breeding industries in the rural areas are also changing and benefitting through use of sensors and mobile apps that provide useful information about weather data, market prices of their goods, and tips on how much water and fertilizer to use for optimal results. Fintech enterprises can make better and faster credit decisions by using the new types of innovative digital data to get better operational and transactional information about small and micro enterprises at a low cost, making what was impossible in the past possible today. I am very confident that in the next ten years, China's online lending industry will make an important contribution to solving the financing bottleneck for small and micro enterprises in China and even in the world. We are also looking forward to more exchanges and discussions with Lithuanian fintech experts in areas of digital inclusive finance for individuals and small and micro enterprises. The proven big data and credit risk control capability that has been established by China's online lending platforms over many years can also be used by Lithuania through partnership and cooperation. CreditEase, founded by me in 2006, is one of the world's most active fintech investors and has established cooperation with fintech enterprises throughout the world. While exploring investment and cooperation opportunities in Europe, we noticed that Lithuania's domestic market, although relatively small, has the strategic advantage of providing access to the whole European market. We are very interested in having more in-depth exchanges with fintech enterprises there. In addition to direct investment in fintech enterprises, we also invest in the fintech industry in the form of investments in venture capital firms through our Fund of Funds. Whether in China or overseas, our FoF has invested in some of the best fintech investment funds in the United States, China and globally.. We provide them with long term,, patient and value-added capital over a 10-year period so that they can better support the early growth of fintech industry. I am very interested in establishing contacts and negotiating cooperation with Lithuania's fintech venture capital funds that invest in Lithuania or Europe. As part of this collaboration, we not only can provide funds, but also provide value-added services, such as our "AI+FoF", an FoF investment management tool based on big data and AI technology, which is used in China by local government's science and technology innovation guidance funds and by financial institutions such as banks and insurance partners. China and Lithuania's fintech regulatory authorities, universities, think tanks, industry and trade associations also have a huge opportunity for cooperation. Technology is neutral and has no ethics. It does not represent trust and may be used to violate laws and regulations. Financial supervision is critical to the development of a strong fintech industry and consumer trust. Trade associations, training technology talent , research institutions, etc. also play an important and indispensable role in the fintech ecosystem. I am honored to hold posts in National Internet Finance Association of China, Internet Finance Association of Beijing and other industry associations, and work with colleagues in the industry to promote the healthy development of the industry. Over the past few years, we have organized many international exchange activities themed "Go Out and Come In". We look forward to various forms of cooperation with the Lithuanian Association of Financial Technology in the future. Here, I would like to invite Your Excellency the President and Lithuanian friends to the Beijing FinTech Summit 2018 during November 16 and 17, which is an international top-level industry event with participation from financial regulators, universities, think tanks, industry associations, fintech enterprises and investment institutions from all over the world. I believe that you will have a rewarding trip. Finally, we look forward to moving forward with these collaboration ideas in the future, and promote complementary strengths and win-win cooperation between China and Lithuania in the field of fintech. Thank you very much! Taiwans midterm local elections ended with a landslide defeat of the independence-leaning ruling party and a severe blow to its top-elected official Tsai Ing-wens re-election prospects in two years. She resigned as party chief but will continue as Taiwan leader. Candidates of the main opposition Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), claimed victory in mayoral races in the key cities of Kaohsiung and Taichung as well as races for top officials in several counties traditionally seen as strongholds of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The biggest blow to Tsai and the DPP came in the southern city of Kaohsiung, where the mainland-friendly KMT candidate Han Kuo-yu surprisingly trounced the DPPs Chen Chi-mai. It made the unconventional Han, who promised to make Kaohsiung great again, one of the KMTs most promising stars in the Internet era of politics. The so called nine-in-one elections held over the weekend were the first island-wide elections of city mayors, township heads and county and city council members since Tsai took office in May 2016. The result is thus seen as a vote of no confidence in the Taiwan leader. Tsai took the blame and announced her resignation as head of the DPP at a hastily called news conference in Taipei Saturday night, though she stays as Taiwan leader until 2020. I hereby announce my resignation as chairwoman and shoulder responsibility, she said. We have learned a lesson and must reflect on ourselves as, obviously, voters have a higher expectation of us. Taiwans executive head Lai Ching-te had offered to take responsibility for the partys defeat by stepping down, but Tsai rejected his resignation. At a news conference Monday, Lai said he decided to remain as premier to help advance the governments policies. The election results showed that many people in Taiwan are unhappy with the governments performance, Laid said. But the country needs continuity of government policy, so I will stay on to ensure political stability. Han Kuo-yu, 61, is a politician-turned businessman. After an eight-year stint as a legislator in the 1990s, he ran a bilingual school in Yunlin county. In 2012, he was appointed by the Taipei municipal government as general manager of government-funded Taipei Agriculture Products Marketing Corp., foreshadowing his return to the public sector. In 2014, after Ko Wen-je was elected mayor of Taipei, the new major retained Han as general manager, giving him the opportunity to make intense rhetorical attacks on DPP council members through social media. Ko, an independent candidate, also won re-election by a small margin over the weekend. Han often calls himself a bold-headed vegetable vendor. He won support from local farmers and fishermen. That put him in contrast with other KMT candidates who have eminent political or academic backgrounds but are out of touch with grassroots voters. In 2017, Han resigned from the agriculture company to run for the KMT chairmanship. He lost to Wu Den-yih by large margin but gained island-wide recognition. After that defeat, Han was appointed director of the KMT chapter in Kaohsiung. That set the stage for his run for mayor, though he was initially seen a certain loser. When nominated in May to run for mayor, Han received no money or resources from the KMT. But he pursued an underdog strategy, pledging to campaign with just a bottle of water even if the party could support him with only one bowl of rice. In his campaign speeches, Han followed a populist style, using simple, straightforward words rather than spinning long, scholarly speeches like other, more traditional KMT candidates. Kaohsiung incumbent DPP Mayor Chen Chu was re-elected in 2014 with an overwhelming 68%. That margin made Kaohsiung look like an almost certain lost battlefield for the KMT. One factor that helped Han was the DPPs factional splits in the primaries. His opponent, Chen Chi-mai, eventually won the party nomination but wasnt considered the ideal candidate by many, including Mayor Chen Chu. During the two decades the DPP ruled Kaohsiung, the port city has struggled with industrial transformation. With Taiwans slowdown in growth, Kaohsiung ports rankings in regional and global freight shipping volume declined. In the past 20 years, Kaohsiung has seen a continuous outflow of young population and stagnant wage growth. It was once the second-most populous city in Taiwan, but recently lost that title to Taichung. In his campaign, Han bluntly charged that Kaohsiung has turned poor and old, overturning the happy city image the ruling DPP government has long tried to build. His make Kaohsiung great again promise won the support of people disappointed with the economy under the DPP government. Although Han did not directly comment much on mainland-Taiwan relations during the election, he emphasized plans to enhance exchanges between Kaohsiung and mainland cities such as Shanghai and Xiamen, as well as Singapore and South Koreas capital Seoul. The comments have been seen as indirect criticism of current tensions between Beijing and Taipei under Tsais administration. In his victory speech, Han said he didnt feel the slightest joy after the victory, because he needs to roll up my sleeves and start working. Contact editor Wu Gang (gangwu@caixin.com) By Coco Feng / Nov 27, 2018 02:23 PM / Business & Tech Chinas online-payment behemoths are moving deeper into Japan. Tencents WeChat Pay said Tuesday it is partnering with Tokyo-based chat app Line to offer mobile payment services for small Japanese retailers. Alibaba, meanwhile, recently announced a tie-up with Yahoo Japan and Softbank Group for a rival service. The Tencent-Line partnership will equip Japanese merchants with an integrated system that combines Line Pay and WeChat Pay, facilitating shopping by both local buyers and Chinese tourists. WeChat Pay and Alipay are rapidly expanding overseas, paving the way for easy shooting for the hordes of outbound Chinese tourists. Both digital payment tools now have presence in markets including Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Support independent journalism from China. Subscribe to Caixin Global. 1. Chinese Owner Forces Out Kuka CEO Till Reuter Till Reuter, German robotics company Kuka AGs chief executive of almost 10 years, announced this week that he will terminate his term in December. Kukas Chief Finance Officer Peter Mohnen will succeed him and become the new CEO. According to Financial Times, Reuter had his contract extended last year until 2022, but Kukas supervisory board chairman Andy Gu, who was appointed by Chinese appliance-maker Midea Group Co. Ltd., asked Reuter to depart early. In 2016, Midea spent over $5 billion to acquire Kuka and now owns about 95% of its shares. Kuka has not performed well recently and has cut its 2018 sales forecast from 3.5 billion ($3.96 billion) to 3.3 billion. The stock price is also down nearly 55% in the past 12 months. (Official announcement, FT) 2. Trump Threatens to Place Tariffs on iPhones and Laptops In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he could place tariffs on Apples iPhones and laptops imported from China, if negotiations between China and the U.S. dont work out at this weeks G20 summit. He said that U.S. consumers may be willing to withstand the tariff, as long as its around 10%, and added that he is likely to move ahead with increasing tariff levels on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from the current level of 10% to 25%. The comment prompted Apple stocks to fall 2% in the after-hours market. (WSJ) 3. Chinas Baby Gene-Editing Breakthrough Claim Slammed A Chinese-led research team that claims to have helped create the worlds first genetically edited human babies has been criticized for allegedly breaching medical ethics and possibly the law. The newborn twin girls whose DNA were edited to allegedly bestow immunity to HIV had a father with the disease and a mother without it, according to an Associated Press report that cites research-team leader He Jiankui. However, Shenzhens Southern University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTC), a school He Jiankui is affiliated with, distanced itself from He in a statement that said the researcher had been on unpaid leave since February and the school was unaware of the experiment. The academic board of SUSTCs biology department has deemed that the project seriously violated academic ethics and norms. Chinas National Health Commission has also ordered a thorough investigation into this matter. (Caixin) 4. Alibaba Reorganizes to Focus on Cloud and Retail E-commerce giant Alibaba Group has announced a restructuring of the company hot on the heels of Singles Day. Alibaba Cloud will be upgraded to become Alibaba Cloud Intelligence business group, and Alibaba Chief Technology Officer Zhang Jianfeng will replace Hu Xiaoming as its head. Alibaba also set up a New Retail Technology business group, led by Wu Zeming, an executive from the companys e-commerce site Tmall. The new group will provide technical support for Alibabas push into the offline retail space. Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said the reorganization is intended to build a strong foundation for the company for the next five to 10 years. (Caixin, link in Chinese) 5. Tencent Partners with Line to Promote WeChat Pay in Japan Chinese social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has formed a partnership with Tokyo-based chat app operator Line to provide Tencents WeChat Pay service to Chinese tourists travelling to Japan. Line will provide small Japanese retailers terminals that are compatible with WeChat Pay starting in December and start the service in 2019. Previously, Yahoo Japan, a subsidiary of Japans SoftBank Group, partnered with Tencents Chinese rival Alibaba Group to provide Alipay in Japan. According to the Japanese government, about 7.35 million Chinese individuals visited Japan in 2017, triple the number from three years earlier. (Nikkei Asian Review) 6. Papua New Guinea Plans to Uphold Deal with Huawei to Lay Internet Cable Papua New Guinea says it will uphold its agreement with Huawei Technologies Co. to build the countrys internet infrastructure, despite pressure from the U.S. and Australia to abandon the Chinese company. Its about honor and integrity; once you enter into a deal and an arrangement you go with it, the countrys minister for public enterprise and state investment William Duma told Reuters. Huawei promised in 2016 to build a 5,457 km network of submarine cables to link the 14 coastal towns of Papua New Guinea. (Reuters) 7. As Bitcoin Falls, Chinese Miners Start Turning Off Their Machines As the price of bitcoin continues to tumble, Chinas cryptocurrency mining industry one of the worlds largest has come under pressure with some miners suspending operations. Since mid-November, the cryptocurrency market led by bitcoin has been caught in a cycle of sharp sell-offs. At its most recent low, bitcoin was down almost 80% from its all-time high of $19,000 at the end of last year. The mining of cryptocurrencies requires computers that use vast amounts of processing power and electricity to solve the mathematical puzzles that support a cryptocurrencys network. Some miners in China have halted operations as the price of bitcoin has dropped below the shutdown price, said a source close to the matter who preferred anonymity. (Caixin) 8. Game Publisher Makes IPO During Industry Crackdown Tencent-backed game publisher iDreamSky Technology Holdings Ltd. said on Monday it aims to raise up to HK$990 million ($126.5 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), as it becomes the latest Chinese firm to seek a higher valuation by re-listing in Asia after privatizing from New York. The offering will provide a litmus test of investor sentiment towards Chinas online gaming industry, as it becomes one of the sectors first since Beijing launched a major clampdown earlier this year. The listing has attracted Japans Sony Corp. and Chinas e-commerce titan JD.com Inc. as cornerstone investors. (Caixin) Compiled by Zhang Erchi KAPILVASTU, Nov 27: The Coordination Meeting between the border security officials from Nepal and India has concluded at Aligarwa of Siddhartha Nagar district in India. The meeting attended by the representatives of the Armed Police Force (APF) of Nepal and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), India have signed an agreement for taking measures for enhancing coordination and cooperation, and exchange of information from both sides, according to APF Superintendent of Police (SP), Deepak Adhikari. The meeting held discussion on security situation in the no man's land as well as all the issues prevailing in the bordering areas. They also dwelt on the ideas to address these issues and agreed to resolve the issues such as human and drug trafficking, goods and arms smuggling in the bordering areas in mutual understanding and joint efforts. "Both the sides would inform about the issues prevailing in the bordering areas to their Central offices," said SP Adhikari, informing that the meeting suggested setting up an Indian Customs Office at Chakarchauda in Indian bordering area. The Customs Office would facilitate the tourists coming to Aligarwa to enter Nepal to visit the nearest religious sites-Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha and Tilaurakot. The Indian side commended the efforts of APF of Nepal for their role in controlling crimes in the bordering areas. Kathmandu, Nepal: the government has on Tuesday decided to impose odd-even system for the vehicles starting from November 29 till December 2 on the name of easing the traffic pressure in the Kathmandu valley during the Asia Pacific Summit (APS). The Metropolitan Traffic Police Division has issued a circular by issuing a statement stating that this system will be applicable for two wheelers and four wheelers vehicles of all governmental and private vehicles including the diplomatic mission. news, latest-news Leading bell experts have come to Canberra from Britain to prepare for the restoration of the Carillon bells. The National Capital Authority has brought specialists from John Taylor and Co, the worlds largest bell factory and the Carillons original maker, to plan the instrument's restoration. After 48 years of ringing on Aspen Island and being played weekly by carillonneurs at recitals and events, the bell is in need of wear and tear repair. Due to repeated striking, the points of contact on the cast iron bell clappers have become flat, making the sound more of a "clang" than a deep "bong", the National Capital Authority says. The clappers can be "revoiced", but after this is done a number of times they become lighter, which reduces the rings tone and volume. Eventually, they must be replaced. The Carillons 55 bronze bells themselves are still in good condition and will remain the same. The Carillon will be cross-checked against the original drawings and an improved design will be developed. The clavier will be built to the new World Carillon Federation standards, which means new, larger and heavier bell clappers will be installed to strike the bell with a more direct blow. The project is due to be completed by 2020 to mark 50 years since the bell was gifted to Australia by Britain in 1970. The work is estimated to cost $500,000. Chief executive of the National Capital Authority Sally Barnes said Aspen Island's Carillon had become an instrument - and landmark - that resonated with visitors and locals alike. With such an iconic building and with the instrument itself one of only a few in the world, it is important that the sound the Carillon produces is first class," she said. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/38b08c4b-e563-4d2a-a07e-0a1258069f93/r0_295_5568_3441_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news It's the tiny insect that's had a big impact on several Canberra developments. It's also got a particularly fascinating story. Imagine living for just five days, not being able to eat anything and having to produce up to 300 babies. Plus, the number of places you can live keeps shrinking. That's the whirlwind life of the golden sun moth, the critically endangered insect that calls Canberra home. Late November is peak sun moth season as the gold and black-winged creatures leave their underground homes and emerge to mate. But ACT Parks and Conservation ecologist Brett Howland said there's a catch. They only have between three and five days to secure a mate and breed before they will die of starvation. The golden sun moth lives for years as a larvae underground, feeding on the roots of certain native grasses, primarily varieties of wallaby grass. However when they emerge as fully grown moths they have no mouths. They cannot feed and must rely on their fat stores which run out in a matter of days. Dr Howland said the moth had become critically endangered because of a lack of suitable habitats, with the larvae thriving in grasslands with short grasses meaning appropriate grazing management was crucial. At least three high profile developments in Yarralumla and Barton have hit hurdles in past because they are proposed on land which is home to the sun moths. The moths only appear under very certain conditions during late November and early December, he said. It must be a hot day, with no rain or wind and they'll only fly roughly between 10am and 2pm. "They really make it hard for them to find each other," Dr Howland said. The females are the more attractive of the species, Dr Howland said, boasting the big golden wings from which they derive their name. They tend not to fly, preferring to perch on the ground as the, primarily black, males will fly in search of a suitable mate. "When you see them they look determined," Dr Howland said. "They're just searching for one thing, definitely on a mission." According to Dr Howland, one quirk that had evolved from the lack of native wallaby grasses is that the moths discovered Chilean needle grass, an introduced species. He said it was a unique situation where a native species had adapted to thrive on a weed, but the only issue was Chilean needle grass is incredibly destructive to native flora. Another problem with the moth is that people often dispute its status as an endangered species. "This species in its natural habitat, you can have so many they'll be bouncing off your windshield," Dr Howland said. "What we have to remember is they've lost 90-95 per cent of their habitat and then they are only in certain spots where they do have suitable habitats. "So they're common where they're found but they aren't found commonly." A spokeswoman for the National Capital Authority advised the three developments - Yarralumla's Canberra Brickworks, the proposed Bangladesh High Commission and Barton's proposed Department of Finance building - were still without approval. The brickworks development requires both NCA and ACT government approval and has not progressed beyond geotechnical surveys. No application has been made regarding construction of the Bangladesh High Commission and a decision on the finance department's application to remove vegetation has not yet been made. Dr Howland said if you wanted to spot the golden sun moth around Canberra the next two weeks would be the time to do it. He suggested Mulanggari and Crace grasslands in Gungahlin, Jerrabomberra grasslands and Jarramlee offset area west of Macgregor as good spots to find the moths. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/fab7414d-cc97-4bb3-aecc-c5b2afcf012b/r0_1486_3024_3195_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg comment, editorial Residents of the nation are no strangers to Canberra-bashing. It's generally easy to shake off inaccurate criticisms, but in the past week the Nationals have continually used bashing the capital as a way to play to marginal seats and distract away from the mess that is their decentralisation policy. On Monday, Agriculture Minister David Littleproud crowed about the success of the controversial move of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to Armidale in NSW, the electorate of his predecessor Barnaby Joyce. "The Nationals have taken heat over decentralisation from narrow minded Canberra-bubble types and we couldnt care less. Decentralisation is the right thing to do," Mr Littleproud said. "The Canberra Times can run distortionary stories about us and decentralisation all it likes. The fact is rural and capital city Australians are both keen as mustard for government jobs in the country." The move is almost complete, with the permanent office set to open in the new year. If the measure of success is job applications, the APVMA has plenty. According to the minister, 79 applications from scientists from all over the country, including those from capital cities, for 19 jobs, is a sign that many people want to move to the regions. The agency had received almost 300 applications for between 15 and 40 jobs, with 110 coming from Armidale and surrounding areas. While the numbers sound impressive, it glosses over the fact that around half the agency's headcount will have turned over by the time the move is complete. Of the more than 50 staff already in Armidale, just eight have moved from Canberra, with six more by the end of the year, and another eight to move from the capital by June. That's 22 staff confirmed to move, with another 14 still to make up their minds - in the end, less than a quarter of the 190 staff will move to Armidale. Around 40 staff will stay in Canberra, with those remaining who haven't already quit the agency to be offered redundancies or redeployment. The agency has been torn apart and built up again in order to meet a political objective. The agency's own boss Chris Parker told a Senate inquiry last week the move had positives, but that it had been disruptive and the departure of staff had affected the agency's productivity. On Friday when the Nationals announced a new Australian Maritime Safety Authority office would be opened in Coffs Harbour, again in a marginal electorate, the party's leader Michael McCormack sang from the anti-Canberra play book. While Mr McCormack said he hadn't seen any boats or ships in Canberra, his announcement showed the party had in part learnt from the lessons of the disruptive APVMA move. Instead of forcibly moving people from Canberra to a new city, the majority of the jobs to be at the new regional headquarters will be new roles. The decentralisation policy has been expensive, with little more than 1000 jobs moving to various non-metro parts of the country. It is not distortionary to interrogate the costs and benefits of a policy which impacts the effectiveness of our government's ability to develop policy, regulate and deliver services. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/6ca3c100-9983-4cdd-9d47-8521b37ec065/r0_46_900_554_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news The Australian War Memorial expects to begin procurement for its $498 million redevelopment before the year is out or in early 2019 as the major overhaul progresses. The redevelopment is still in its infancy but has generated strong reactions from supporters and detractors since it was unveiled. Some historians have called into question the extravagant figure slated for the redevelopment while other major cultural institutions make do with existing funding. Many former military personnel have said the funds could be better spent supporting veterans. Memorial director Brendan Nelson said he was "completely unapologetic" about the amount of funding given to the memorial and said the redevelopment was aimed at honouring the "Invictus generation". A spokesman for the war memorial said the immediate priority for the institution was to recruit an executive project director and establish a project team before going out to tender in coming months. He said the first construction activity was expected to begin in 2020. The total project is expected to be completed over nine years. A spokeswoman for the National Capital Authority confirmed the war memorial had not lodged a works approval for the redevelopment which would be necessary as it is a designated area under the National Capital Plan. She said the usual timeframe for an approval decision was 15 business days but given the complexity of the the redevelopment it would likely take longer. She added that public consultation would also be necessary prior to any redevelopment works and while also typically taking 15 business days when the matter was of particular national interest it would likely be extended. Prior to a works approval being granted, she said, the project would need to be approved by both houses of parliament and a referral from the Department of Environment and Energy would be necessary. Both the government and the Labor Party have publicly provided support for the project. One element that forms part of the works approval process is to address moral right implications. The moral rights holders of Anzac Hall, which is proposed to be demolished, is architect firm Denton Corker Marshall. The firm and the Australian Institute of Architects have been vocal in their opposition to the demolition and ACT chapter president Philip Leeson criticised the lack of consultation with both the public and the industry. "It was revealed that work on these redevelopment plans had been secretly underway since 2015," Mr Leeson said. "Surely such a development within the public realm requires large scale community and stakeholder consultation. "Perhaps this secrecy was connected to the potential for community backlash against the wasteful demolition of an award-winning building 17 years young which holds the memories of Australians who served our nation." Anzac Hall is the building directly behind the stone memorial. It houses major artefacts from the memorial's collection such as the Lancaster bomber G for George and the Japanese midget submarine. It opened in 2001 and was awarded Australia's most prestigious award for public architecture, the Sir Zelman Cowan award, in 2005. The Australian Institute of Architects have launched a campaign to save Anzac Hall from being demolished in the hope of garnering enough public support against demolition while the redevelopment is still at an early stage. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/ede955ec-9304-4339-af5d-ab63154ae98a/r159_0_3982_2160_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, act-politics The ACT Labor Party and the Greens have voted down an Opposition censure motion brought against Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday morning. Opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne tabled the motion in the Assembly, arguing Ms Fitzharris had failed users and employees of Canberra's health system on a raft of matters ranging from bullying and cultural problems to growing waiting lists for surgeries. Mrs Dunne said the motion was a rebuke of Ms Fitzharris' performance at the territory's health minister, arguing it was unprecedented that the Assembly's standing orders should not be suspended to allow debate on the motion. She said it was imperative the matter was put to bed one way or another, and for the sake of the Ms Fitzharris, the government address the litany of failures detailed in her motion. She also argued Ms Fitzharris had failed to address poor management in the ACT Health system, a high churn of staff since the announcement in March of a major restructure, failures in delivering infrastructure at Canberra Hospital and delays to the delivery of a $500 million new building at the hospital promised in 2016. But Chief Minister Andrew Barr rejected suspending standing orders to allow the motion to be formally debated, saying the Assembly had too much on its agenda to allow a 90-minute debate on the motion. He said instead, he was happy to allow a debate on the motion on Wednesday, during private members' business day. Manager of government business Mick Gentleman said the motion was straight out of Tony Abbott's playbook, and with six bills to consider and nine more on the agenda, there was more important business for the Assembly. Similarly, Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur rejected the motion, saying it was a ridiculous piece of theatre and there was really nothing more to say than that the Greens did not support it. But Opposition Leader Alistair Coe asked the Assembly what in the motion, such as that Ms Fitzharris had overseen a directorate rife with bullying allegations, was not actually true. The Opposition is expected to again bring forward the motion for debate on Wednesday. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/870304ca-9c56-4fbe-9e01-e57ab7772ce9/r0_101_3991_2356_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Deputy General Manager. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. The application fee costs INR 500. The shortlisted candidates will be selected on the basis of an interview. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 2,20,000 per month. The last date to apply for this government job is 15 December 2018. BEL Recruitment 2018 For Deputy Engineer BEL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Deputy General Manager Organisation Bharat Electronics Limited Educational Qualification Graduate degree in electronics engineering Experience 12 to 18 years Job Responsibilities Preparation and finalisation of command and control system requirements Skills Required Managerial skills Job Location Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh Salary Scale INR 70,000 to INR 2,20,000 per month Industry Electronics Application Start Date November 21, 2018 Application End Date December 15, 2018 BEL Recruitment 2018 For 16 Contract Engineers How To Apply For BEL Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for BEL Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to BEL official website. Step 2: Hover over the Careers tab. Step 3: Select Recruitment - Advertisements. Step 4: The list of notifications will be displayed on the screen. Step 5: Select Application Form against Application for the post of Dy. Gen. Manager / Manager (DCCS) for Ghaziabad Unit. Step 6: The application form will open. Save it to your computer and take a printout of it. Step 7: Complete the application form and send it to BEL. BEL Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of Deputy General Manager" and send it to: Dy. Gen. Manager (HR&A), Bharat Electronics Limited, Sahibabad Industrial Area, Ghaziabad - 201010. Follow the link - http://bel-india.in/Documentviews.aspx?fileName=iaccs_web_advt_dgm-201118.pdf to read the detailed official notification. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Environment Associate. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. The engagement of employees will be on a contract period for one year. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 40,000 per month. The last date to apply for this government job is 30 November 2018. For queries, you may reach out to richards@indianoil.in. IOCL Recruitment 2018 For 307 Apprentices IOCL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details BEL Recruitment 2018: Become A DGM And Earn Up To INR 2,20,000 CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Environment Associate Organisation Indian Oil Corporation Limited Educational Qualification Graduate degree in any field Experience 10 to 20 years Job Responsibilities Liaise with forest and environment authorities and obtain necessary clearances or fulfilling statutory requirements Job Location Rajkot (Gujarat) Salary Scale INR 40,000 per month Industry Oil Application Start Date November 20, 2018 Application End Date November 30, 2018 How To Apply For IOCL Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for IOCL Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to the IOCL official website. Step 2: Scroll down and select Latest Job Openings under Careers. Step 3: The list of vacancies will be displayed on the screen. Step 4: Click the file against Notification for the post of Environment Associate on Contract Basis at WRPL. Step 5: The detailed advertisement will open. Read the details carefully. Step 6: Scroll down to find the application form. Step 7: Save it to your computer and take a printout of it. Step 8: Send your applications to IOCL. IOCL Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of Environment Associate" and send it to: General Manager (Human Resource), Western Region Pipelines, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., P.O. Bedipara, Gauridad, Rajkot (Gujarat)-360003. Follow the link - https://www.iocl.com/download/Website-Notification_Environment-Associate(WRPL).pdf to read the detailed official notification. SNc Channels: Search About Salem-News.com Nov-27-2018 00:21 TweetFollow @OregonNews Fortieth Anniversary of Jonestown Tragedy There isn't anything extraordinary about Jones power. It was pure politics. Jim Jones, founder and leader of the Peoples Temple cult. (SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) - November 2018 marks the fortieth anniversary of the mass murder and suicide of 918 in Jonestown, Guyana, by religious cult leader Jim Jones. About two-thirds of the victims were African-Americans. Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which in 1971, established a permanent facility in an old San Francisco building that used to be the Albert Pike Memorial Scottish Rite temple at 1859 Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. Jones had first started building Jonestown, formally known as the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project", several years before an expose of human rights violations by the Peoples Temple appeared in the New West Magazine. As his power waned, Jones began moving his followers to Jonestown where the mass deaths by cyanide-laced Flavor Aide occurred. There isn't anything extraordinary about Jones power. It was pure politics. Jones could deliver what politicians want, which is power. And how do you get power? By votes. And he could deliver the votes with time and resources. Jones also forged alliances with the media to extol the Peoples Temples virtues. The people who warned about Jones were ignored, intimidated, or marginalized. In November 2008, on the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, a one-time Jones supporter, wrote in his Willie's World column in the San Francisco Chronicle: "What happened in Guyana was just horrible for us. We were obviously embarrassed at our lapse of judgment, our lapse of objectivity, our lapse of due diligence. We had no explanation for how stupid we were. We couldn't even be responsive to all these relatives whose folks had died." Forty years after Jonestown, we should ask yet again why do people put their lives in the hands of a charismatic and mentally unbalanced person? As Jonestown shows, cult of personality can be a dangerous game. _________________________________________ Politics | History | Religion | Most Commented on Articles for November 26, 2018 | Articles for November 27, 2018 | Articles for November 28, 2018 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the posts of Air Safety Officer, Assistant Director, Deputy Director and Scientist. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates can earn up to level 11 pay matrix. The last date to apply for this government job is 13 December 2018. TNPSC Recruitment 2018 For Engineers: Apply Before Dec 24 UPSC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Air Safety Officer, Assistant Director, Deputy Director and Scientist B Organisation Union Public Service Commission Educational Qualification Master's degree in chemistry for Scientist B and graduate degree in relevant engineering for the others Experience 3 to 5 years Skills Required Technical skills Job Location India Salary Scale Level 10 to level 11 pay matrix Industry Civil services Application Start Date November 26, 2018 Application End Date December 13, 2018 Maximum Age Limit: 35 years Also Read: BEL Recruitment 2018 For Deputy Engineer How To Apply For UPSC Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for UPSC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to the UPSC official website. Step 2: Click on the link that reads, ONLINE RECRUITMENT APPLICATION (ORA) FOR VARIOUS RECRUITMENT POSTS. Step 3: Click New Registration. Step 4: The registration form will open. Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 5: Enter the captcha code. Step 6: Click Submit and complete the registration process. Step 7: Go back to the ORA page. The list of vacancies will be displayed on the screen. Step 8: Click Apply Now against the post you want to apply for. Step 9: Submit your credentials on the user login page and follow the subsequent pages to complete the application process. Follow the link - http://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/AdvtNo-21-2018-Engl_1.pdf to read the detailed official notification. The weather is getting colder day by day! After celebrating International Students Day and Thanksgiving Day, international students might pack their bags to leave the United States of America for the winter break after completing their midterm exams. Many international students in the United States might have drafted their vacation plans for this winter. What they have to remember is studying and packing should be carefully planned before leaving the country. A few things international students need to work on before they leave and upon their return to the USA. Explore the tips and resources below! A Meeting With The DSO If an international student in America wants to travel to any other country or home during the holiday season, he/she is advised to check the same with their Designated School Official (DSO) before leaving the US. While meeting up with the DSO, one should ensure that the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is up-to-date and active. Students should also take the most up-to-date contact information besides a daytime telephone number at the school and the 24-hour emergency phone number. What To Bring To US Ports Of Entry Whenever an international student enters the United States, he/she will arrive at the port of entry and meet with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers for the inspection. This inspection can be primary and rarely a secondary inspection. The important documents that the CBP officers may ask for are as follows: Passport. Student visa. Form 1-20, "Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Status." International students are advised to hand-carry these items and not to put them in the checked baggage. What Is Secondary Inspection? If the CBP officer finds difficulty in verifying the information or you do not have all the required documents, then a CBP officer may instruct you for an interview known as ''secondary inspection.'' This is an additional research with regards to verifying the information. Know About The Form I-515A As an international student, one has to be more cautious about the procedure while entering the US. If anyone fails to produce the required document, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer may deny the entry. As an alternative, the officer has the discretion to issue a Form I-515A which allows you to enter the United States but only for 30 days. Obtaining a Form I-515A is not advised because it may affect your F or M visa status. 7 Myths That Put You Down During The United States F1 Visa Interview Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's first trip abroad since the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi will offer an early indication of the repercussions he faces from the gruesome slaying. The prince is visiting close allies in the Middle East before attending the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Nov. 30, where he will come face to face with President Donald Trump, who has defended U.S. ties with the kingdom, as well as European leaders and Turkey's president, who has kept pressure mounting on Riyadh since Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. "It's really going to be about can you travel to the rest of Western capitals for the foreseeable future and expect to sort of shake people's hands, and I'm not sure that that's the case," said H.A. Hellyer, a scholar at the Royal United Services Institute and Atlantic Council. The trip, aimed at rebuilding his image and reinforcing ties with allies, promises to offer a contrast to the prince's lengthy tour across the United States in April, where he met Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, Disney chief Bob Iger, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Apple's Tim Cook and former President George H. Bush, among many others. "There's no way he could do that sort of trip right now," Hellyer said. The crown prince's plan to attend the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires "tells me that he feels that he's ridden out the storm, or that in order for him to ride out the storm this is exactly what he needs to do." After denying any knowledge of Khashoggi's death for weeks, Saudi authorities eventually settled on the explanation that he was killed in an operation aimed at forcibly bringing the writer back to the kingdom. Saudi prosecutors say the plan was masterminded by two former advisers to the crown prince and are now seeking the death penalty for five people allegedly involved in the killing. That seems to have settled the matter for Trump, who issued an extraordinary statement last week saying the U.S. would not take further action after sanctioning 17 individuals linked to the killing. Trump has brushed aside assessments by U.S. intelligence and other experts that the crown prince must have been involved in the high-level operation, and said he would maintain close relations with Saudi Arabia in part because of its oil wealth and its multi-billion-dollar purchases of U.S. arms. Trump's contention that "maybe he did, maybe he didn't" order the killing appears to have helped pave the way for the crown prince's return to international forums. But even if Trump shakes his hand at the G-20 summit, the crown prince could still remain persona non grata within Washington's beltway, where members of Congress from both parties have demanded stronger action, as well as Wall Street and Silicon Valley. He could also get an icy reception from other leaders at the G-20. In Europe there have been calls to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and Canada could still be smarting from a diplomatic row sparked by Saudi anger at its criticism over human rights in the kingdom. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is expected to attend the summit, was instrumental to the global backlash the prince now faces. Al Khalij to start oil well cement production 27 November 2018 Al Khalij Cement Company (AKCC), part of Qatari Investors Group, has announced that its Umm Bab plant will produce oil well cement (OWC) Class G at Grade (s) HSR, having received a certification from the American Petroleum Institute (API). The API awarded AKCC a three-year licence to apply the API monogram on its products. With this certification, AKCC joins a select list of 11 companies in the Middle East and will be the only oil well cement producer in Qatar. OWC Class G at Grade (s) HSR is a high-specification cement, designed to withstand extreme temperatures and pressure to secure metal casings and liners in wells out of which oil and gas will eventually flow. OWC can also be used for sealing water wells, waste disposal wells and geothermal wells. Published under A Chattanooga gang member who served one federal prison sentence, then got into trouble again after his release, has been sentenced by Judge Sandy Mattice. Ronald Crumsey was given 33 months on the new violation. He got a two-year sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release. Chattanooga Police on Nov. 22, 2017, found Crumsey in a house with other gang members. Crumsey was among those who tried to flee. He was seen tossing a baggie that had over eight ounces of cocaine in it. Crumsey also had a small bag of marijuana and $877 cash on him. Both convictions were in felony drug cases. A South Pittsburg car dealership that has been in the same family since 1932 is changing hands. Employees at Gentry Chevrolet, Buick, GMC were told that the dealership will be changing hands. The new name is set to be Riverside Chevrolet, Buick, GMC. Jim Gentry has long operated the dealership that was started by his father. It is one of the oldest single-family car dealerships in the South. It is set to be sold to a group from New Bern, N.C., with the closing set for Dec. 10. The dealership is located on Battlecreek Road. There was an intriguing story in the Nashville Tennessean yesterday that said a growing number of California companies are transferring operations to Nashville, just as others around the country have fallen in love with Tennessee. Mondays story revealed three San Francisco-based companies have chosen Nashville for an expansion location in the past four months: Wonolo, KeepTruckin trucking logistics firm and pet food company NomNomNow. Go back to 2014 and the list includes Eventbrite, Google, Lyft, Postmates and Houzz. Now let me tell you the real reason. Dr. Ron Martinelli wrote an opinion piece this spring that has appeared in a growing number of newspapers and other publications. Now it has gone viral on the Internet. Reasons include a capable work force, a better time zone, friendly and gentle people all the sugarcoated, feel-good stuff.Now let me tell you the real reason.Dr. Ron Martinelli wrote an opinion piece this spring that has appeared in a growing number of newspapers and other publications. Now it has gone viral on the Internet. Dr. Martinelli is a nationally recognized forensic criminologist specializing in police/corrections practices, who is also an adjunct professor of Forensic Science at an accredited university and holds a number of current certifications in forensics and law enforcement. He has based his life on facts, hearsay has no place in criminal forensics, and I am of the mind every American should read it and wonder out loud where do we go from here. ** * THE DEMISE OF CALIFORNIA, written by Dr. Ron Martinelli. I sit in the LAX terminal after concluding business in downtown Los Angeles for the past two days, I cannot help but reflect upon my journey from once a California native to a new resident of the Great State of Texas and why. You see, in my personal and professional opinion, the once great State of California has in essence become a third world country. Third World Country The concept of the third world has evolved to describe countries that suffer from low economic development, high levels of poverty and little to no ability to utilize natural or economic resources. --attributed to French demographer Alfred Sauvey, 1952 While the reasons for Californias ever-spiraling downwards status from 1st World economic prominence and prosperity to near 3rd World malaise are many; I will assert that when you combine uber-liberal politicians, with rich elitist Hollywood celebrities, dotcom CEO billionaires, disengaged millennials and illegal aliens; you in effect create the circumstances where your city or state becomes a 3rd World environment. The process of Californias demise from the Golden State to 3rd World status has been slow but steady; supported and enabled by the aforementioned actors. While much of the legislated changes for the worse have been designed and voted in by politicians in Sacramento; municipal politicians and a complicit uninformed, naive and entitled voting public must also share blame. After all, when 51% of those on some type of government subsidy out-vote the 49% of the money earning and tax paying citizenry, any state is doomed to failure. With California now a Sanctuary State and their libtard Democratic state legislature pushing for voting rights for illegal aliens, the state will never recover. My thoughts exactly. California is finished. My observations during my short visit to Los Angeles underscored many of the problems Californians are facing as they follow like lemmings their Governor Jerry Moonbeam Brown, their Democratic legislators and urban mayors like Eric Garretti off the economic cliff. Literally nothing substantive is good about L.A. An ever-growing homeless subculture populates the downtown area. The intoxicated, drug influenced, mentally impaired and criminals are everywhere. They literally surround Civic Center, federal buildings and courts the so-called foundations and protectors of the Rule of Law and society. How ironic to be surrounded by the failures these very systems, liberal politicians and judges have created. Isnt karma interesting to watch in real time? The homeless, numbering in the thousands, sleep in the shadows of immense, gleaming edifices owned by multi-billion dollar international conglomerates and dotcom corporations. Business executives in Brioni suits and workers quickly pass by the unwashed masses, while holding their noses to screen out the stench of urine and feces. The obvious health and safety hazards to the public are too many to count. Interconnecting Los Angeles city roadways and state highways designed to transport the commuting, tax paying public to their job sites are a debacle. The ribbons of roadways are a mess of potholed, weed infested, trash laden, graffiti vandalized passages filled with vehicles lined up bumper-to-bumper going nowhere fast. These are your tax dollars at work. While California voters grumble and groan, in the end they just seem to accept their fate as one of the prices to pay for living the California dream. You see, the working public has no time to get out and protest the outrageous and constant increases in taxes on gas, municipal services, vehicle registrations, rapid transit and a bullet train going to nowhere. Only the unemployed, government subsidized masses have time to demonstrate in the streets to ensure that their subsidies continue. Since the liberal politicians in Sacramento know this dynamic and their power base all too well, the taxation without representation continues. I was staying at a hotel near LAX and my mileage commute to downtown L.A. was a mere twelve miles. However, it took me every bit of one hour and twenty minutes to arrive at my destination. I then paid $20 for the privilege of parking my car in a public lot. Of course, this was after I paid $30 a day to park my rental car at my hotel. Nice. Im seriously considering Uber next time. Since I frequently travel throughout California on business, I will tell you that Los Angeles is a mirror image of all of the other large urban cities in the state. I have observed similar and even worse depressed and dysfunctional urban environments in the San Francisco Bay Area, Orange County, San Diego and a number of other cities. California is rapidly becoming a two-tiered society of the very rich and the very poor, similar to the 2nd and 3rd World countries I regularly visit. The middle class, small business owners and the retired are either being pushed out of state and/or escaping in droves to such tax free, business friendly and less crime ridden states such as Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Florida. Lame duck Gov. Moonbeam and the states liberal Democratic legislature know this. They just dont care because their power base is now assured. Just ask any of their castrated, powerless Republican colleagues. There will never again be a Republican administration in California. The days of Ronald Reagan have long passed. The candidates lining up for the governors race in 2018 were Open Borders and Sanctuary State advocates Anthony Villaraigosa and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. (NOTE: Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom Won a landslide victory with 61.3% of the vote, the biggest victory in a gubernatorial race in California since 1950, and the first time Democrats have won three consecutive gubernatorial elections in California history. Here are just some of things Californians have done in recent years to turn their state into a 3rd World mess. Passed Proposition 47 which has since freed tens of thousands of felons from state prisons and county jails back into communities. Prop. 47 also eviscerated the parole enforcement agency and created a system where police on the streets cant even enforce outstanding felony and misdemeanor warrants anymore. Police no longer arrest people for being under the influence of dangerous drugs. What would be the point; its just a misdemeanor. They have reduced the crime of auto theft to a citable misdemeanor. Steal a car; get caught and get a ticket. Commit non-violent crimes, get arrested and you are out the same day with a promise to appear in court that will not ever be enforced. No warrant enforcement, remember? Amazing! Californias new Sanctuary State status supports and enables its Open Borders mentality. Police in a number of cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles are ordered not to assist ICE with border enforcement. Remember the Kate Steinle murder case where her five-time convicted criminal and deported illegal alien was acquitted? Well, thats the political mentality that created that circumstance. This is also an excellent example that liberal politicians in California are willing to sacrifice the innocent to demonstrate that they support violent illegal alien criminals. What happens in Californias larger cities filters down to its medium and small sized cities as well. I recently wrote about the city of Salinas, CA that experienced an incredible 150% increase in its homicide rate from 2014 2015. Salinas rated as one of the nations 30 most violent cities. Fifty percent of all of their murders were gang and drug related, with the predominate gang members being illegal aliens. I can only wonder how Silicon Valley dot-commers who are paying over half a million bucks for a home and commute over four hours a day to San Jose like living in that violent environment? Which brings me back to why my successful business-owner wife and I escaped to Texas. The state loves us. No commute problems, no state taxes and we live in an area where there is little to no crime. Our area just outside of San Antonio has some of the best school districts in the U.S.; high employment, great people and lots of fun things to do. My wife and I live a great life on a ranch with a river in our backyard where we can fish, swim, kayak and BBQ with family and neighbors anytime we want. The price? Less than you would pay for a one bedroom studio condo in any of the cities in California Ive mentioned. New home buyers only need three percent down to purchase a home and veterans make no down payments. If you are a younger middle-classer, a small business owner or retired, youd be nuts to remain in California. With California over a trillion dollars in debt and 30% of their budget going to subsidizing illegal aliens at the expense of hard-working, taxpayers who have little to no voice on how their state is run, the state and the majority of their citizens are doomed. Thats what a two-tiered society eventually creates. One heck of a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY! The truth is blatantly obvious... and yet the left STILL turns a blind eye. I say let this Titanic sink People need to wake up * * * Did you catch that? One trillion dollars in debt with no possible way to repay it, certainly not with a whopping 30 percent of the states budget financing illegals, and above all else, a wacky group of politicians who think illegals should have a right to vote. I checked Snopes, Google, Truth or Fiction for Martinelli and could find no entries affirming or debunking this paper the man allegedly wrote. But I believe, based on the anguish and disappointment his story brought out in California, it rang true. What sold me were the heavy comments made, and justified by signature. There people have no reason to circumvent or alter the truth, but every good and wholesome reason to assure that the truth be heard. The Tennessee legislature has accomplished much during the past 8 to10 years and the state has a solid financial base, Senator Bo Watson told members of the Pachyderm Club. The recipient of the 2018 Tennessee legislator of the year award highlighted the accomplishments as well as the expectations for the 111th general assembly. He also spoke of the Republican landscape of the future. Tennessee is in good financial shape with over $851 million in the rainy day fund, the largest it has ever had, he said. The states policy is to pay itself first and to put money in the bank. There is now enough in reserve to operate the state for two to three months. Senator Watson said the states number one priority is to pay its obligations and it ranks second in the country in funding the state pension plan. He said each year 10 to 15 percent of the states income funds the pension plan. Tennessee is also the lowest indebted state in the country with zero debt. An example is that when roads are being built, they have already been paid for. This has earned a AAA bond rating for the last three years from all three rating agencies.Tennessee is the second state nationwide to repeal an income tax - the Hall Income tax on investments. The reduction in income taxes is intended to keep as much money in the hands of the residents as possible, who will spend it if it is in their pockets. Because Tennessee relies on sales taxes, this should keep the money in the state, said Senator Watson. Despite reducing the taxes by $1 billion, Tennessee now has the largest budget ever, he said.The buzzword to describe what to expect from the 111th general assembly is a lot of change, said Senator Watson. There will be a new governor, Bill Lee, who has no elected experience in working with legislators who all work for the best interests of the constituents that elected them, not for the governor. It is hard to get 132 people to agree, he said. There will also be 32 new House members, or 30 percent, who have no experience and there will be a learning curve of working together, he said. This will slow the process down, but it will also create the opportunity for good change, he said. In Tennessee, it only takes a simple majority to override the governor, so the governor must learn to work with the legislators. There will also be a new speaker of the house, new majority leader and a new caucus leader.The Senate is more stable, he said, with only five new members. Three are Democrats and two are Republicans. Most leadership in the Senate stays intact.The speaker said Republicans had a good election day on Nov. 6, and at this moment, Chattanooga is solidly Republican. Senator Watson noted that the mission of the Pachyderm Club is to promote and engage in active citizen involvement. He said, "This means that you are part of the process." Looking forward to 2020, he said that the Republican Party must not become complacent in order to remain in the majority. We have to keep our message front and center or the public will quit listening, and strategic and financial preparation must start now, he told club members. The party must look at ourselves in the mirror, and face the brutal facts that Republicans are mostly old and mostly white. There is a need to become more attractive to a younger and a more diverse audience. The near term looks great for Tennessee Republicans, but not so good for the long term, he said. The Stonewall Youth Group of Red Bank United Methodist Church will be sponsoring their Annual Holiday Market on Saturday in the Churchs Christian Activity Center (Gym) from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. This is a major fund raiser that the youth group has sponsored for 17 years. Forty vendors will be set up with a wide variety of items for sale. Some vendors will be representing direct selling companies and many will be offering special one of a kind items ranging from food items to homemade Christmas decorations, home decor, childrens clothing, jewelry, pet items and more. "We will also have free photos with Santa for your child or pet. A great way to finish up your Christmas list, avoid crowds at the malls and help a very worthwhile organization," officials said. Monies raised help with the youth groups outreach and mission activities. Some of these activities over the past year are: visits to local nursing homes, community Easter egg hunt, winter survival kits for the homeless, church cleaning projects, community Trunk or Treat, Cookies to Heroes (local police, fire department and ER personnel), Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, carnival games at the Bethlehem Centers Halloween Block Party and spending a week in Wilmington, NC working with Walking Tall Wilmington. "We hope you will join us at The Holiday Market, where you can find That One of a Kind Gift for That One of a Kind Person,'" officials said. Jeff Bishop has been named Law Enforcement Captain of TWRA District 32. Mr. Bishop, previously a lieutenant for the district, has been with TWRA for 27 years. He started his career as a wildlife officer in Hamblen County in 1991 and transferred to Polk County in 2003. He held a sergeants position before being promoted to lieutenant in 2012. As captain, Mr. Bishop will be responsible for officers covering land and water in 12 of Region IIIs counties. His role will include partnering with Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) for nuclear drills. Major C.J. Jaynes said, Jeff has experience in all aspects of the law enforcement program. His understanding of all facets of law enforcement and the region will provide great leadership in the district and beyond. Mr. Bishop said, I am grateful to serve with men and women committed to protecting wildlife. Im thankful for those that helped me learn and supported my work, including my wife. This career often takes us away from our families during the holidays and weekends. Calls come in late at night and at inopportune times. Melissa, my wife, has been supportive and encouraging throughout my career. Mr. Bishop, a native of Bradley County, was involved with wildlife restoration early in his career, including turkey and otter. His commitment to Tennessees resources is evident. Mr. Bishop said, I have always enjoyed working with hunters and anglers, teaching hunter education classes and watching different generations come to enjoy the outdoors. I look forward to this new role and continuing my career. Find out more about the TWRA mission statement and law enforcement at tnwildlife.org. Rev. Charles Ray Marler, 88, entered heaven to meet his Savior whom he had served long and faithfully on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. He was surrounded by his family just prior to his homegoing. He was preceded in death by his parents, Ray Cuthbert Marler and Charlie Pearl Snodgrass Marler, his grandparents, and his sister, Mary Bates. Born in Georgetown, Tn., Ray was a graduate of City High School and Union University. He worked for the Electric Power Board and pastored the Ashport Baptist Church and the Ramhurst Baptist Church. In 1954 he and his wife, Martha, went to Nigeria, West Africa, as missionaries with the Sudan Interior Mission. Upon their return to Chattanooga in 1963, he worked for the Holt Employment Agency and the Volunteer Ammunition Plant before becoming business manager of Tennessee Temple Schools, a position which he held for 18 years. He spent the next 15 years as Personnel and Safety manager of the Chattanooga News Free Press. After his retirement, he worked part time for Chattanooga Funeral Home. A long-time member of Highland Park Baptist Church and currently Ridgedale Baptist, he served as deacon, Sunday School teacher, president of the Men's Bible Class, and in any other position asked of him. He also conducted Sunday services at the East Ridge Retirement Home for many years and served as counselor with Hamilton County Baptist Association mission. He was a member of the Downtown Optimist Club where he served a term as president and was chosen Optimist of the Year. He was also active in the News Free Press Retirees. In August 1948, Ray married his high school sweetheart, Martha Nell Patty. They recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. He is survived by his wife; three children: Patty Ray Hawkins (David), Rick Marler (Joy), and Jennell Marler; grandchildren, Eric Hawkins (Holly), Jenny Hawkins, Kate Duggan, and Aimee Floyd (Seth); great-grandsons, Graeme Duggan and Gavin Ozborn. Baba, as he was known to his family, was kind and loving and possessed a warm sense of humor. Above all, he was concerned about being a positive testimony for his Lord, always concerned about pointing others to faith in Jesus Christ. Visitation will be held on Friday, Nov. 30, from 3-7 p.m. at the funeral home. Funeral services will be held at the East Brainerd Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, 8214 East Brainerd Road at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1, with Dr. Bill Owens and Dr. Clarence Sexton officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery with Dr. Doug Plumlee officiating. Active pallbearers will be Eric Hawkins, Seth Floyd, Kris Passons, Doyle Pope, Dan Card, Luther Allin and Tom Scott. Honorary pallbearers will be the Friendship Sunday School Class of Ridgedale Baptist Church and Chattanooga Times Free Press Retirees. Special thanks to our friends at Home Comforts and Hospice of Chattanooga for their loving care. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to a charity of ones choice. Most of us are aware that Kate Middleton went to and graduated from St. Andrews University in Scotland. In fact, thats where she first met her future husband, Prince William. But many have questioned if she is the only woman in the royal family who attended college. Heres the answer to that plus a little bit about what the now-duchess was like back in her college days. Middletons college days Before Middleton headed off to St. Andrews she spent a gap year in Chile and then attended the British Institute of Florence in Palazzo dello Strozzino in Florence, Italy, where she studied Art History. During her time there, Middletons friend revealed that she did go out drinking and clubbing but wasnt a big partier saying, She would like a glass of wine but couldnt really handle her drink. Shed get giggly and silly after a few glasses, so then she would stop. She was never interested in getting really drunk. She never ever let herself get out of control. In 2001, Middleton began attending St. Andrews University and started out as a psychology major before settling on History of Art which is what her degree is in. The University Herald noted that the Duchess of Cambridge is the first royal bride who received a university degree but is she the only one and what about the ladies born into the royal family? Princess Beatrice Prince Andrew and Sarah Fergusons oldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, also attended college. She went to Goldsmiths, University of London, and studied history and history of ideas. Today, the princess is the vice president of partnerships and strategy for Afiniti, which is a U.S.-based technology company. Beatrice was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and is a patron for the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre. She also supports Springboard for Children, which is a literacy project for young children with learning difficulties. Princess Eugenie Beatrices younger sister, Princess Eugenie, is a college graduate as well. She attended Newcastle University in the U.K. where she studied art history, English literature, and politics. In 2012, Eugenie graduated with a degree in English literature and art history. She currently works as an associate director at Hauser & Wirth, a contemporary gallery in Mayfair, London. Zara Tindall Queen Elizabeth IIs oldest granddaughter, Zara Tindall, also opted to go to college. She attended the University of Exeter in South West England and majored in physiotherapy. Tindall is also an accomplished equestrian and has an Olympic medal in the sport. Meghan Markle Like Middleton, Prince Harrys wife, Meghan Markle, went to college before marrying her prince charming. The former Suits star took up theatre and international studies at Northwestern University. Markle, of course, went on to become a full-time actress before she retired to focus on her royal duties and has continued to work with charities and support humanitarian causes. Read more: Who Were Kate Middletons Boyfriends Before She Met Prince William? Follow The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Require Bible publishers to add 'anti-semitic' warnings to New Testament, Jewish groups say Christian Post Contributor | 26 November, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov Christian and Islamic scripture, including the New Testament of the Bible, should start carrying warnings for passages deemed "anti-semitic," a coalition of Jewish groups has asked. The European Jewish Congress, which represents several Jewish groups, asked for such changes in its Catalogue of Policies to Combat Antisemitism, released last week. "Holy Writ such as the New Testament or the Qur'an, as well as the writings of authoritative religious authors, doctrinal texts and religious laws need to be scrutinized for antisemitic contents," the document states. "In Christianity, such texts would include the writings of saints like Ambrose of Milan or reformers like Martin Luther, the dogmatic tradition, church law and teaching. In Islam, such texts would include different parts of Hadith and Sira. Only when the antisemitic contents in the religious memories of Christianity and Islam are properly identified, will it be possible to combat antisemitism inside the various denominations, groups, and organizations of these two religions." Later on in the recommendations section, the groups ask: "Translations of the New Testament, the Qur'an and other Christian or Muslim literatures need marginal glosses, and introductions that emphasize continuity with Jewish heritage of both Christianity and Islam and warn readers about antisemitic passages in them." "While some efforts have been made in this direction in the case of Christianity, these efforts need to be extended and made consistent in both religions," they add. The relationship between Christians and Jewish people remains complex, though Christian leaders have insisted that there is no room for hatred and violence against the latter. Following the massacre of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in October by a man who quoted the Bible online among rantings against Jewish and Muslim people, several high-profile Christians said in no uncertain terms that such hatred is un-Christian. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said at the time that "if you hate Jews, you hate Jesus." "As Christians, we should have a clear message of rejection of every kind of bigotry and hatred, but we should especially note what anti-Semitism means for people who are followers of Jesus Christ," he added. Megachurch pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel Worship Center in Georgia meanwhile warned that "anti-Semitism is sadly still a very real and dangerous ideology that plagues every corner of the globe." "I also pray that everyone, no matter their political persuasion, will put aside their differences and help combat this and try to turn the tide," he said. Read more about "Require Bible publishers to add 'anti-semitic' warnings to New Testament, Jewish groups say" on The Christian Post. If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). Scientists: 'superheated blast from the sky' destroyed Dead Sea cities, pointing to Sodom in Bible Christian Post Contributor | 26 November, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov Scientists have found that a "superheated blast from the skies" destroyed cities near the Dead Sea 3,700 years ago, which biblical analysts are saying echoes the destruction of Sodom. Science News reported that the new findings were revealed at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research last week by archaeologist Phillip Silvia of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The scientists discovered radiocarbon dating and unearthed minerals that instantly crystallized at high temperatures at what used to be cities and farming settlements north of the Dead Sea, suggesting that a massive air-burst, possibly by a meteor, destroyed communities in a 15-mile-wide circular plain. Silva said that following the cataclysmic event, people did not return to the region for 600 to 700 years. Researchers have been studying five large sites in Middle Ghor in present day Jordan, which are believed to have been continuously occupied for at least 2,500 years, until they suddenly collapsed at the end of the Bronze Age. Some of the strongest evidence for a low-altitude meteor explosion was found at the remains of the city of Tall el-Hammam, where radiocarbon dating shows that the mud-brick walls of nearly all structures were suddenly wiped out 3,700 years ago. Other remarkable finds show that the outer layers of pieces of pottery seemed to have melted into glass, as a result of extremely high temperatures. The Times of Israel pointed to other archaeological research, such as a 2013 Biblical Archaeology Review article by TeHEP co-director Dr. Steven Collins, revealing that the Tall el-Hammam site offers evidence it could have been the Biblical city of Sodom. The fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is famously depicted in Genesis 19 of the Bible, which says that "God destroyed the cities of the plain," with "dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace." The Biblical account also mentioned that God overthrew "all those living in the cities" along with "the vegetation in the land." Collins said in his article back then that he witnessed similar destruction first-hand. "The violent conflagration that ended occupation at Tall el-Hammam produced melted pottery, scorched foundation stones and several feet of ash and destruction debris churned into a dark gray matrix as if in a Cuisinart," he stated at the time. He suggested that the event "was preserved in the Book of Genesis and ultimately incorporated into a traditional tale that, drawing on the layer of ash that covered the destruction of one of its major cities, remembered a place consumed by a fiery catastrophe." Read more about "Scientists: 'superheated blast from the sky' destroyed Dead Sea cities, pointing to Sodom in Bible" on The Christian Post. Split the Baby! Christian Examiner Contributor | 27 November, 2018 by Mark Klages The life of a Christian is not without challenges. Sometimes we think, now that I'm saved, now that I'm sanctified, now that I'm baptized in the Holy Spirit, that the difficulties will go away, that we will live a completely blessed life. But that's not often the case. We still struggle with addictions, with un-Christian-like thoughts, and with our own faith. Why then, do we Christians believe our lives should be any better than our fellow Earthbound sinners, and how should we act when those challenges hit close to home? First, thinking that life should be "easy street" for Christians is not entirely folly. All throughout scripture we have examples of God-fearing men and women whose lives immediately improved once they were consecrated and dedicated to the Lord. The books of the Kings and Chronicles go so far to name those kings whose reigns were blessed because of their worship of God, and those whose reigns were cursed for their abject failure to recognize God's deity or their outright rejection of Him as the one true God. We know the story of David, but we also read of Hezekiah and Uzziah who were completely dedicated to the Lord. And we hear of kings named Amaziah and Jothan, for example, who knew the Lord but did not follow Him completely. From these stories and more in the Old Testament we learn that complete allegiance to God led to successful monarchies while incomplete allegiance or rejection of God led to troubles. So, it isn't without precedent that Christians believe we should live blessed lives, but here is the thing that most Christians miss David still faced challenges. Jehoshaphat still fought wars and still faced challenges despite his wealth, power, and providence. What we may ignore is that successful monarchies are built one success at a time. And to be frank, how many struggles has God kept from us because of our worship of him we'll never know. Given that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Rom 3:23) how do we, as Christians, face challenges and remain true to God in them? Let's consider a hypothetical situation. Say you have a contract with your local Fitness center and the center changes up its services but still charges your weekly fee because the language in the contract gives them that privilege. They may have sold you on the specific service they no longer provide, but we all know those contracts are sufficiently broad to favor the business over the patron. How should we, as Christians, react? Or maybe something a little more festive, considering the time of year? You and your friends have gotten up ungodly early on a Friday. You have fought traffic, the weather, and untold number of heathens to buy one specific gift for your child because the ad said it would be available and at an amazing price. When you reach the store you find they had that gift as advertised and at the price you saw online, but they only had a handful of them and you are not the first patron in the store. However, if you really like that toy, you can order it at full price, mind you and come back in a week to pick it up. What do we do? Are we in the right to lose our minds for the inconvenience or in response to outright lies? God knows we can inflict monetary damage as payback for their unscrupulousness just by telling our story on one of the many social media platforms. But is any of that right? If we are at all considerate of our witness for God, we should first pray, (Or be "prayed up" before we even get there?) then trust God and seek His wisdom, and never, ever, lose our temper. For those who have not been in similar situations, let me tell you, maintaining your witness in these challenging times is not easy. But the Bible gives us clear guidance whenever we are facing challenges, and those challenges need not be direct assaults on our faith to be worthy of prayer and praise. They can be challenges to our good nature, or our sanity, or our wallet even, and God still wants us to seek His face first and remember that even when the trainer misrepresents the company's services, or the Black Friday ad misrepresents the availability of the toy, God is still in control. "Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thes 5:15-18, NIV) "And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us allhow will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies." (Rom 8:27-33, NIV) Ok, so I've been a little tongue-in-cheek with my examples, but if you have ever been there you know it is too easy to lose our temper and in turn lose our witness. While these challenges are nothing compared to those faced by the recent fires in California or the threat of stoning for being a Christian in Pakistan, they are challenges to our witness nonetheless. King Solomon was by God's own word, the wisest man in the history of men, yet after twenty years building the temple he still faced daily challenges from his own people. While few of us will ever have to utter the words, "Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other" (1 Kings 3:25, NIV), our own daily challenges can be sufficiently daunting. So, my challenge to us all during this wonderful, Christmas holiday is to keep ourselves "prayed up" and be alert for Satan's attacks on our witness and our faith. Don't lose your mind and your witness all at the same time. Instead, seek first the Kingdom of God and trust that he is truly working all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Mark Klages is an influential contributor, a former US Marine and a lifelong teacher who focuses on applying a Christian worldview to everyday events. Mark blogs at https://maklagesl3.wixsite.com/website under the title "God Provides where Hate Divides," with a heart to heal social, political, relational, and intellectual wounds through God's divine love and grace. Mark can also be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-klages-04b42511/. Taiwan votes against legalizing gay marriage, goes against growing trend Christian Post Contributor | 26 November, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov Voters in Taiwan chose to preserve the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, going against the growing worldwide trend. The results from Saturday's referendums are not legally binding but are likely to have a big effect on legislators who had discussed amending the definition of marriage in the territory. There were as many as 10 referendums on the ballot, with one, backed by a number of conservative Christian groups, calling for the preservation of the current definition of marriage. It gained seven million votes. Another proposal suggesting that same-sex unions be regulated under a separate law garnered six million votes. A third option suggested giving same-sex couples equal marriage rights, but it received only three million votes. The Coalition for the Happiness of our Next Generation, one of the main pro-family groups that had argued in favor of preserving marriage between one man and one woman, said that the win was a "victory of all people who treasure family values." Read more about "Taiwan votes against legalizing gay marriage, goes against growing trend" on The Christian Post. Tony Perkins, The Friendly Atheist spar over science and gender, importance of religion Christian Post Contributor | 26 November, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov Conservative Christian Tony Perkins and Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist sparred over survey findings that Americans value family over religion, along with the definition of gender. Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council, appeared with Mehta in a Fox Newssegment on The Ingraham Angle on Friday, where the two gave their opposing views on a number of controversial topics. Segment host Raymond Arroyo brought up a survey by Pew Research Center from September 2017, re-released last week, that found that 69 percent of Americans say that they find a sense of meaning in family. Only 20 percent voted for the "Spirituality and faith" category in the open-ended question, below those who pointed to money, at 23 percent, and careers, at 34 percent. Arroyo asked Perkins whether the results show that America is indeed seeing a dwindling of faith, to which the conservative leader replied: "Actually I'm thrilled by this, that family is so high ranked in this survey, that people say that family is where they get their sense of meaning. That's actually a positive revival of family if you will. I think if you look at how the United States economy is doing; the unemployment is low; it's not surprising that religion actually drops down lower. He added: "In this list it's still 4th. That's actually still pretty good, considering what's happening in other industrialized nations. When there's a downturn in the economy, when things start to fall apart, that's when people turn to religion." Perkins insisted that "from a sociological standpoint, I think this (survey) is accurate, [but] from a theological standpoint it is a bit troubling." Mehta agreed that the results should indeed be "troubling for religion." "It doesn't surprise me one bit that people find meaning in family. What actually surprised me the least about this is when they looked at young people specifically, I think faith became less of a meaningful experience for people who were younger than the age of 30." The Friendly Atheist blog-runner continued: "So it shows that faith has a lot of trouble moving ahead in the future, regardless of what the economic situation or our social situation is." Perkins agreed with Arroyo that a number of other studies show that faith usually comes later in life for people, however. "What Jesus taught in Matthew [chapter] 6 was 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you.' That's what I was referring to from a theological standpoint, because when you set your eyes on the things on this earth you miss the bigger things, and as you live for those things that are transcendent, then all the other things fall in a place." The FRC president positioned that people often start turning toward religion when they consider what happens after life, and want to "make sure they make the right decision." Mehta argued, however, that it is a "very optimistic spin that has no merit" to claim that young people who already find more value in family will resort to religion later in life. Arroyo then turned over the discussion to the transgender rights debate in America, and questions on how gender is to be defined. He pointed out that the prestigious Nature magazine came out with an editorial in October against U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Health and Human Services proposing to define gender legally based on the type of genitals someone is born with. "The proposal on which HHS officials have refused to comment is a terrible idea that should be killed off. It has no foundation in science and would undo decades of progress on understanding sex a classification based on internal and external bodily characteristics and gender, a social construct related to biological differences but also rooted in culture, societal norms and individual behaviour," the editorial argued at the time. "Worse, it would undermine efforts to reduce discrimination against transgender people and those who do not fall into the binary categories of male or female." Mehta positioned that the Trump administration "has shown us since day one [that] they don't care what science experts have to say about anything involving science." "They would rather trust people like Tony who base their entire knowledge of science on the Bible," he claimed. Perkins hit back by saying that "this is what happens when people can't defend their position. They begin attacking the opposition." Read more about "Tony Perkins, The Friendly Atheist spar over science and gender, importance of religion" on The Christian Post. Four tourists in Malaysia have been arrested for distributing Christian materials at a resort island. Two women and two men, all from Finland, were taken into custody last week after police received complaints about the group. During the arrests, the police seized 47 pens with Bible verses and 336 notebooks that had Bible texts. The tourists will be investigated for allegedly causing disharmony and violating their visa status. According to the Associated Press, the group will be deported and they will be barred from returning to Malaysia. Langkawi police chief Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim said the attorney generals office in Malaysia will also send a letter to Finlands embassy condemning the groups actions. The tourists have not been identified, but their ages range from 27 to 60. One of the couples is married. Trying to convert Muslims to other religions is against the law in Malaysia. Muslims make up about two-thirds of the countrys 31 million people. Photo courtesy: Izuddin Helmi Adnan/Unsplash The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to bypass lower courts and take up a case involving the militarys proposed ban on most transgender military members. The militarys proposed policy would prohibit service by those who require or have undergone gender transition, according to NPR. Opponents of the ban, including GLAD and Lambda Legal, filed suit in federal court seeking to have the proposed ban blocked. The military, under the Obama administration, changed rules to allow transgender personnel to serve. This is simply one more attempt by a reckless Trump administration to push through a discriminatory policy, Jennifer Levi, the Transgender Rights Project director at GLAD, said in a statement. The policy flies in the face of military research and dozens of top military experts. But the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to fast-track the suit because current policy -- adopted during the Obama administration -- harms the military. [T]he military has concluded [the policy] poses a threat to readiness, good order and discipline, sound leadership, and unit cohesion, which are essential to military effectiveness and lethality, the request to the high court reads. Concerns over privacy also are an issue, the Department of Justice argues. The military maintains separate berthing, bathroom, and shower facilities for each sex, the departments petition reads. The Department was concerned that allowing individuals who retained the anatomy of their biological sex to use the facilities of their preferred gender would invade the expectations of privacy of the other servicemembers sharing those facilities. Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com. Photo courtesy: Etereuti/Pixabay 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. About 130 Iraqi Christians detained last year and slated for deportation will be back home with their families in Detroit for Christmas. Last week, a federal district court in Michigan ruled that the government has a month to release the detainees still awaiting unlikely repatriation to Iraq. Many of them are members of the Chaldean Church who were taken into custody during US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in June 2017 and face persecution if returned to their homeland, where the small Christian community was nearly wiped out by ISIS. The Michigan federal judge presiding over the case, Mark Goldsmith, had previously halted deportations based on a nationwide preliminary injunction requested by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and ruled in January that the detainees had the legal right to bond hearings. About half of the detainees were released on bond, according to the ACLU, and the rest will be eligible to return home under the latest order. The law is clear that the Federal Government cannot indefinitely detain foreign nationals while it seeks to repatriate them, when there is no significant likelihood of repatriation in the reasonably foreseeable future, reads the Hamama v. Adducci court order, which condemns the extended jail time as unconstitutional. About 121,000 Chaldean Catholics live in Michigan, making it the faith traditions largest concentration of members outside of Iraq. More than 100 of them, who faced deportation due to criminal records dating back as far as three decades, were detained by ICE a year and a half ago, unsettling their families, communities, and churches. Families have been shattered, Goldsmith wrote in the order, blaming the government for acting ignobly for not releasing them sooner. Your big brother is coming home, texted lawyer and community activist Wisam Naoum to the family of one of the detainees following last Tuesdays decision. The gov has 30 days to release your brother. He should be home for Christmas unless they can show justification in court to keep him. OMG WISAM ARE YOU SERIOUS, the family member responded, according to a screenshot posted by Naoam, who helped coordinate legal aid for fellow Chaldeans after the raids. The Chaldean News called the court ruling a huge victory for the community, but noted that the fight is not over. Former detainees will have to continue to defend their cases from home after being released. Christian leaders from local Chaldean priests to evangelist Franklin Graham had urged the Trump administration to reconsider its plans to deport the detainees under a new provision that required Iraq to repatriate nationals from the US if the nation was removed from the temporary travel ban list. So far, the country has declined to accept nationals deported from the US against their will. Last Tuesdays ruling agreed that Chaldeans risked persecution, torture, and possibly death if returned to Iraq. Goldsmith criticized the governments insistence on keeping the Iraqis detained and continuing to work toward their deportation over the past year. The government has acted ignobly in this case, by failing to comply with court orders, submitting demonstrably false declarations of Government officials, and otherwise violating its litigation obligations. NPR reported on at least one case of a Detroit detainee who said he was coerced into agreeing to his deportation on false pretenses and ended up being put on a flight to a country he hadnt lived in since he was 2. Naser al-Shimary said since being deported to Iraq in February, he has been attacked and fears being discovered as an English speaker from the US. Last month, CT covered additional US funding pledged to the Nineveh Plains region of Iraq, where about 40,000 Christians have returned and hope to rebuild, years after being forced out by ISIS. Luis Palau reveals he's defying the odds, shares cancer update and future plans for ministry Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment World-renowned evangelist Luis Palau shared an update about his health on Thursday as well as information about upcoming plans for his ministry work throughout the world. At the top of the year, the beloved minister made the unexpected announcement that he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. In his Thanksgiving Day update, however, Palau testified about how he's defying the odds and doing much better than doctors had anticipated. For Pat and me, this has been a year unlike any other. Frankly, if you had asked me early in the year what Id be doing right now, I would have told you Id be celebrating with the Lord in Heaven. But clearly, He has different plans, Palau wrote in the post shared on his website. Diagnosed with lung cancer in January, I was told Id be gone by Christmas. Probably sooner. Get your life in order, the doctor said. It was a sobering reality, he added. Yet here I am, quite well actually, and writing to you about plans for the months ahead! Its a testimony of Gods goodness. I believe its also a challenge. In March, Palau shared that after two months of chemotherapy, the doctors were amazed at the results of his CT scan and blood work. All tumors had shrunk by one-third and there was no new growth of the tumors. The results were so uncommon for someone with stage four cancer that Palau said the doctors were stunned. Whether the Lord gives me a few months or a few years ... I have no regrets. Evangelism has been my life. And theres nothing I want more for you than to have the same deep satisfaction in knowing you are obeying the Lord and investing in eternity, the Argentinian native wrote. He revealed that the Luis Palau Association has multiple campaigns set for the months ahead with endless opportunities. The initiatives are arranged for the Ivory Coast, China, the U.K., Latin America, South Africa, and several cities in the United States. Right now, however, their focus is set on Madrid, Spain. The Lord has used our team in a unique way in Spain over the last 15 years. And now the local leaders are asking us to return for a major evangelistic festival in the capital city, the 83-year-old Christian leader said. He concluded his post by boldly asking for financial help during the Christmas season. Your giving to evangelism has a deep, eternal, multiplying effect. I pray you know that. And Im excited to tell you we have a matching challenge you can take advantage of before the end of the year, Palau ended. Every monetary gift given, from now until Christmas, up to $250,000 will be met dollar-for-dollar. On Nov 23, global Christian television network TBN celebrated Palaus ministry and legacy by airing a special titled, Luis Palau: Ambassador of the Good News. The special journeyed throughout the last fifty years of Palaus soul-winning evangelism. The Palau Association has collaborated with thousands of churches in hundreds of cities around the world. He has led millions into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in over 75 nations. This reporter was in attendance in 2015 as he rallied 1,000 New York City churches together to make history in the Big Apple. It was one of the biggest evangelical moves in New York City as approximately 60,000 people gathered to hear the Gospel and worship at just one of the outreach events held in Central Park. The Palau Association has coordinated hundreds of citywide campaigns just like it in dozens of nations, including major evangelistic festivals on all five continents. To stay up to date on Luis' condition and ministry, go to Palau.org. Rachel Held Evans apologizes for implying Jesus was racist for calling woman a dog Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christian author Rachel Held Evans has offered an apology and said that she didn't mean to imply that Jesus Christ was racist for calling a Canaanite woman a dog. "I should have crafted this thread more carefully. I apologize. To clarify: I dont think Jesus sinned, and I dont think Jesus was racist. This is a difficult text, but Id like there to be room for interpretations in which Jesus is genuinely moved & influenced by the woman, Evans posted in a tweet on Saturday. She had wrote last week: It's fear of Jesus' humanity, I think, that keeps us from interpreting the story of the Syrophoenician/Canaanite woman as a story about a man changing his mind about his racial bias when confronted with the humanity (and chutzpah!) of another person. But that's a tricky one. The Biblical passage in question refers to Matthew 15:21-28, where Jesus' disciples inform Him that a Canaanite woman is pleading for her demon-possessed daughter to be helped. Although the disciples advise Him otherwise, Jesus agrees to meet with the woman. When she asks Him for help while kneeling on the ground, He replies: It is not right to take the childrens bread and toss it to the dogs. After the woman shows faith, Jesus agrees to help her daughter. As Australian theologian and New Testament scholar Michael F. Bird wrote on his blog on Saturday, in a response to Evans, there is a lot of context to consider behind the passage, however. Bird quoted from Jesus and the Origins of the Gentile Mission, his PhD thesis on the topic, where he explains: The pejorative insult dog is frequent in Israels sacred traditions and second-temple Jewish literature. Such dogs in the Jewish view were not domesticated pets but wild, unclean scavengers. In a midrash on Psalm 4, Gentiles are compared to dogs at the eschatological banquet, where the dogs get to eat, but do not dine as sumptuously as the invited guests. Bird later summarizes that Jesus rejected her (the Canaanite womans) request because of who she was, a Gentile. Yet if one examines the saying in its narrative context (assuming the saying and narrative historically go together), it reflects more of an ironic quip, in which Jesus harsh words may have been designed to invite the womans witty reply (e.g. Mk. 7.29: because you have said this). He acknowledges the validity of the womans reply that Israels blessings can, even in limited ways, extend to Gentiles, a theme found elsewhere in the Jesus tradition (e.g. Lk. 4.25-27), Bird adds. Evans, who in 2014 announced she is leaving evangelicalism, in part due to her support for same-sex marriage, engaged in a conversation with several others on Twitter on the topic, and positioned on Sunday that the passage remains open to interpretation. I know Jesus used questions in a teaching manner often, a la the rhetorical conventions of second temple Judaism; not 100 percent sure thats whats happening here but it was obviously a mistake to tweet my half-baked thoughts on the passage, the author wrote. 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. This Week in Christian History: Luis Palau Born, Pope Attacked, Thanksgiving Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christianity is a faith with a long and detailed history, with numerous events of lasting significance occurring throughout the ages. Each week brings the anniversaries of great milestones, horrid tragedies, amazing triumphs, and everything in between. Here are just a few things that happened this week, Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, in Church history. They include the birth of Luis Palau, an attempted assassination of Pope Paul VI, and the first national observance of Thanksgiving. 1 2 3 4 Next Who were the Gentiles in the Old Testament? Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The story of the Jews throughout Hebrew Scripture is one where God sets them apart for His purposes that they would be light to the nations, particularly those peoples known as "Gentiles." The term Gentile refers to someone who is not Jewish. It's an identifier about who a person is not, not his or her specific ethnicity. Derived from the Latin gentilis, the word literally means belonging to a tribe or clan, a non-Jewish one. In the English Bible, the word is used to distinguish peoples from the Israelites since the original Greek and Hebrew words used apply to Israelites and non-Israelites. While the Gentiles are often people groups and tribes that practiced many things offensive to God and His people were instructed not to adopt their ways nor intermarry with them Scripture is punctuated with notable Gentiles, non-Israelites who were followers of Yahweh, and the prophets foretold a time when salvation would come to them. As Biola University theology professor Charlie Trimm noted in a 2014 post, examples of such persons include Jethro, the Midianite father of Moses; Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute who helped the spies in Jericho as told in the book of Joshua; Jael, the Kenite women who killed Canaanite commander Sisera in the book of Judges; Naaman, a Aramean commander who washed in the Jordan River seven times to be cleansed per the instructions of the prophet Elisha; and Obed-Edom, the Gittite whose tent housed the Ark of the Covenant for three months following the death of Uzzah, who had touched the Ark while attempting to steady it in 2 Samuel 6. The Gentile sailors who threw Jonah overboard into the sea after he had disobeyed God's command to go to Nineveh also feared God, as did the people of Nineveh when Jonah finally went and preached there. Other Gentiles seem to fear God like the Samaritans in 2 Kings 17 yet still worshiped other deities. The Queen of Sheba, who was amazed by King Solomon in all his splendor, also appears to have some recognition of God, Trimm notes. Although some were noble, repeatedly throughout the Old Testament God condemns the idolatry of the Gentiles and ultimately judges those who persist in them, including his own people. The captivity of the southern kingdom of Judah was as a direct result as explained in 2 Kings 22 of the Israelites forsaking God and worshiping false gods. Yet as to the salvation of the Gentiles, perhaps most famously, Isaiah prophesied that "the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the LORD to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer." God's house of prayer would be one for "all nations," the prophet declares, Israelite and nonIsraelite alike. And in Jesus the prophetic foreshadowing and promises are revealed and fulfilled. 4 myths about white evangelical voters Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment There are four common myths today about trends among white evangelicals that arent backed up by data, a Pew pollster has detailed. Alan Cooperman, the director of religion research at the Pew Research Center, spoke earlier this month with journalists at the Faith Angle Forum held in Miami Beach, Florida, hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Ethics & Public Policy Center. Speaking during a panel discussion on Americas Religious Vote: Midterms and New Trends, Cooperman outlined what he says are straw men arguments, or myths, that he hears being asserted in political discussions today. Four of those myths involve some common misconceptions about white evangelical voters. Myth 1: Evangelicals are turning liberal or turning against Trump While there certainly are some white evangelicals who are staunch in their opposition to President Donald Trump, he doesn't see any rise in their numbers in Pew data. Citing aggregated Pew Research Center data compiled from 2017 to 2018, Cooperman stated that there is a lot of stability when it comes to Trumps approval ratings among self-identified white evangelical or born-again Protestants. Right up before the election, aggregated data from our polls over the last several months [showed] 71 percent approval rating for the president [among white evangelicals], Cooperman said. If anything, party ID among white evangelical Protestants is trending more Republican. This notion that white evangelical Protestants are turning liberal, I dont see. I dont see it anywhere. According to annual totals of Pew Research Center survey data, 77 percent of white evangelical registered voters identified as Republican or leaned toward the Republican Party in 2017. Myth 2: Younger evangelicals are more liberal and are turning Democratic Within this notion that evangelicals are becoming more liberal, he said, is the notion that it is not evangelicals as a whole that is turning liberal, it's the young ones. They are [saying] the youth and young evangelical Protestants are much more liberal than their elders, he continued. That is true on some issues. It is especially true for homosexuality and same-sex marriage. [But] its not true on abortion, and it is not true in terms of party identification. Citing data from the 2014 Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Study, Cooperman stated that 66 percent of millennial white evangelicals identified as Republican or said that they "leaned Republican," while 65 percent of older white evangelical Protestants said the same. Aggregated Pew data from 2017 and 2018 shows that 77 percent of millennial white evangelical Protestants are Republican or lean Republican, while 16 percent said they are Democrat or lean Democrat. By comparison, just 51 percent of white millennial mainline Protestants and 11 percent of black Protestant millennials identified as Republican or leaned Republican. Now you will see looking on things like environmental regulations, young evangelicals are more liberal on that, he said. They are less antagonistic towards immigration. They are less likely to oppose same-sex marriage. But on abortion, the younger evangelicals are just as strongly, or even more strongly, opposed to abortion than older evangelicals. Again, no difference in terms of party ID. The 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that 75 percent of millennial white evangelicals think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, while just two-thirds of older white evangelicals said the same. Cooperman said that some may think that if millennial evangelicals or Catholics are more liberal on certain issues than older evangelicals or Catholics, it could mean that they will gradually move their religious groups to the left" politically. I dont have a crystal ball so I dont know. It is true that younger folks, on the whole, are more liberal, left-leaning. [But] I think there is a reason to be cautious that that possibly they are not going to move their religious groups to the left as a whole, he said. Citing Pew data that breaks down each religious group in the U.S. by generation, Cooperman said that he doesnt see a clear line in which the younger generations are more Democratic-leaning than the older generations. It is not true among white evangelicals. It is not true among white mainline. Its not true among black Protestants. Its not true among white Catholics. Its not especially true among Hispanic Catholics, he stated. The one major group in which millennials are clearly more Democratic-leaning than older generations is the religiously unaffiliated a rapidly growing category. 1 2 Next At World Visions Give-Back Gift Shop, a tree full of hopes and prayers and a push from Sadie Robertson Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment NEW YORK - There were scores of them scribbled on neat little postcards dangling quietly on a Christmas tree in the middle of the outdoor pop-up shop hopes and prayers. I pray that hatred, intolerance & bigotry will stop. That all creatures of this planet will have enough to eat, said one note. Lord, please bless my family, friends, our city and our world. Help us to live for you and let our light shine, another said. The tree full of hopes and prayers is a special feature of global Christian humanitarian organization World Visions interactive pop-up shop inside Bryant Park's Winter Village. I think thats really special. I love analogies. I love visuals and so this is a great visual to tell kids, what do you hope for for kids around the world? and bring this hope into this tree and show that when you hope for something it lights up this tree, Sadie Robertson, actor and former reality television star known for the A&E show "Duck Dynasty," told The Christian Post. Robertson who began working with World Vision this year after they became sponsors of her Live Original Tour, said she was inspired to support the organizations Give-back Gift shop after learning about the many projects World Vision works on at home and abroad to improve the lives of those in need. Its a great analogy for kids to see when you start to hope for people around the world it lights up the world this is just a great example of the holiday season, this is what we really want kids to start doing, to keep praying, keep writing letters, she said about the hopes and prayers. For the second year in a row, through their Give-back gift shop, World Vision is giving New York Citys urbane crowd a chance to offer more than just thoughts and prayers to those in need around the world. Through a number of options in the organization's 2018 holiday gift catalogue, people can donate different kinds of gifts that would help families in the developing world get better access to clean water or empower them economically with the purchase of a goat or some chickens or even commit to sponsoring a child. The pop-up shop with a donkey, sheep and other farm animals on display brought many of these gift ideas to life. I had the privilege of raising 12 children. I have four natural children and I had the privilege of raising 12 additional children. Six of them were Native Americans. I tell you that because I believe that God placed a burden for children on my heart. So now I have the privilege of being part of World Vision which is huge for children and giving children the opportunity to be all that God created them to be, said Dee Billing of New Jersey, who has sponsored 12 children over her lifetime rough World Vision and influenced about 250 other people to become sponsors. I encourage other people. The people that become sponsors in my opinion are a special kind of people. Ill sit at a booth for hours and people pass by, but when that one person comes up, they are the ones. They put their finger on that child and they sponsor that child and make that childs life better, Billing said. Last fall, World Vision featured a 5-year-old girl from Kenya named Cheru as a part of the shop's water walk activity, designed to give people a taste of what it's like for a child who walks hours a day to collect water in the developing world. This year, officials reported that Cheru and her village now all have access to clean water and they no longer have to walk for miles to get a drink of water. Cheru is now attending school. Now shes able to go to school because sometimes her journey for water would be so long she cant make it to school. Its a beautiful thing, said World Vision staffer Wendy Pinero-DePencier. Peter Habyarimana, another World Vision staffer who said he got help as a child as a result of World Visions work in Uganda was happy to be promoting the water walk experience at the shop because it is a story he knows all too well. Thats what I did every day. I travelled four miles to get drinking water and I travelled one mile to just get dirty water for washing dishes, he said. When it comes to the issue of access to clean water, Robertson believes it is an issue that many in the developed world find it difficult to understand. The water [issue] is really crazy. I think for us its the hardest concept to get we have water. At our house we have bottled water and its very accessible for us. People dont realize that kids in other countries not only do they have to walk so long, but that water weighs as much as a microwave in your house [and they have to carry it for long periods], Robertson said. The former Duck Dynasty star says she has been impressed the multi-faceted approach World Vision has taken to helping people in need through providing clean water, child sponsorships and providing Hope Kits for women who have been victims of trafficking in the U.S. and overseas. I am so thankful that they have this especially for women being trafficked in the U.S. Honestly, not everybody knows that its in the US. Sometimes people think of it as something thats outside of the U.S. but its happening right here, Robertson said. Through their work this year, Robertson said World Vision has helped to shed light on the issue of trafficking and also given people an opportunity to help victims. I know a lot of people that work in trafficking in the U.S. and have been a part of many rescues so Im able to know the impact that a toothbrush has, the impact that all of these things have. For us we have all of these things but for them its oh wow, we get back to this normalcy just with our brush and our toothbrush, she said. On top of that the first thing they see is a letter from somebody here [at World Vision] that takes the time to say you know what? Tomorrow is going to be a better day and I love you and Im with you. Imagine being a person in that situation and receiving this little Hope Kit, thats going to lift their spirit so much. I think its very timely for this year for that to be happening. Its awesome that World Vision is getting behind that and seeing the need and responding to it and we get to be a part of it too, she said. Robertson is now hoping that people who want to make a difference in the world will turn their hopes and prayers into action and unite to make America and the world a better place. I think that a lot of times we say [things like] we want to be the generation that ends world hunger, we want to be the generation that stops sex trafficking and slavery and its like if you want to be that generation, then youve got to do it. Youve got to get behind it and give. Give of your time, give of your money, selflessly, in love, she said. The Give-back Gift Shop's last day of operation will be on Nov. 27 from 11 a.m. 8:30 p.m. 'Barbaric': 4 Catholic Priests Ambushed, Kidnapped by Armed Gunmen in Nigeria Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Nigerian officials are condemning the kidnapping of four Roman Catholic priests by armed gunmen earlier this week. Benue State Gov. Samuel Ortom called the abduction of the priests in Delta State on Tuesday "barbaric, dehumanizing, and shameful." PUNCH Metro identified the clergymen as the Rev Fr. Victor Adigboluja of the Ijebu Ode diocese; Anthony Otegbola, Abeokuta Diocese; Joseph Ediae, Benin Archdiocese; and Emmanuel Obadjere, Warri Diocese. They were reportedly all returning from a class marking their 10th priestly ordination when the gunmen, whose identities are yet to be confirmed, ambushed and kidnapped them, spraying their vehicles with bullets. Andrew Aniamaka, a spokesperson for Delta State, confirmed the incident with AFP. "They were abducted on their way to Ekpoma, Edo state, from Delta for an event," Aniamaka said, adding that police are hunting for the suspects. The incident comes less than three weeks after five Catholic nuns were also kidnapped in the state, but were released two weeks later. Vatican News noted that church officials are asking the faithful to pray for the clergymen's release. Ortom meanwhile speculated that the kidnappers could be Fulani attackers under the cover of herdsmen. Fulani radicals have massacred thousands of Christians in what some church officials have described as a genocide of believers. Benue State suffered a tragedy earlier in 2018 when two priests and 17 worshipers were killed by the Fulani in Mbalom, Gwer East Local Government Area. The latest kidnapping comes as U.S. State Department officials visit Nigeria this week, in the wake of continued killings of Christians and other civilians by Islamic radicals. Emeka Umeagbalasi, board chair of the Int'l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law, told The Christian Post that October was one of the deadliest months of the year, resulting in the deaths of 260 Christians and 100 Muslim, at the hands of both Fulani and Boko Haram extremists. "The killings, perpetrated in the name of 'Islam,' are done with reckless abandon despite heavy presence and deployment of soldiers in all the 36 States of Nigeria and the Abuja," the monitoring group said in an October report on the killings. "The continuation and escalation of the killings mostly targeted at members of the Nigerian Christian Faith are also politically motivated whereby those perpetrating same and their backers in the corridors of power who brazenly aid and abet them are hailed among largely illiterate Muslim population in the North as the 'true defenders of Allah and Islamic Faith,'" it added. President Donald Trump's State Department said it will be looking into what progress the Nigerian government has made in its fight against extremists, given its purchase in April of 12 fighter jets from the U.S. government. Birth of world's first genetically edited babies 'rewriting blueprint of life' stirs major debate Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment News that the worlds first first genetically edited babies have been born in China has stirred debate over the ethical implications. The Associated Press reported on the claims of a Chinese researcher, who announced that twin girls were born with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. He Jiankui of Shenzhen, the researcher, says that he altered the DNA of a number of embryos for couples during fertility treatments, with a goal to increase resistance to possible future infection with HIV. He did not provide details of who the parents of the twin girls are, and AP clarified that his work has not been published in a journal, which would allow other experts to vet it. I feel a strong responsibility that its not just to make a first, but also make it an example, He said. Society will decide what to do next with such science, the researcher continued. Talking about the twin girls, the Stanford University-educated scientist added: The girls are safe and healthy as any other babies. The MIT Technology Review provided further details of the gene-editing tool, CRISPR, which looks to eliminate a gene called CCR5. Hopes are that removing the gene would make babies resistant to HIV, smallpox, and cholera. The embryos reportedly have their DNA modified before they are transferred into womens uteruses, resulting in permanent changes to the gene pool. Trial listing data has shown that genetic tests have been carried out on fetuses at 24 weeks, or six months. Beside He's claim of the birth of the twin girls, it is yet to be confirmed whether the other embryos he worked on have been aborted, or are also due to be born. Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal, was one of many experts to question Hes work. Its unconscionable ... an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible, Musunuru said. Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, added that such DNA editing is far too premature. Were dealing with the operating instructions of a human being. Its a big deal, he said. Others, such as Harvard Universitys George Church, said that HIV is a major and growing public health threat which would justify such attempts, however. The Guardian reported that news of He's work has prompted an investigation by Chinese health authorities. Chinas National Health Commission said late on Monday that it will seriously investigate and verify the work that has been done. Orthodox Christian author and political commentator Rod Dreher warned on Sunday on The American Conservative website that the technology could be quickly exploited by the rich and powerful to create an elite class of Ubermenschen [super humans] who are far more mentally and physically stronger than the masses, who will be progressively reduced to a servant class and even under Chinese-style authoritatian technocracy turned into dalits, or untouchables. The amelioration of inequality under that scenario will depend on the broad-mindedness of the elites. Good luck with that. Moreover, if you can genetically engineer humans with traits that make them smarter, you can do the same to make them more docile, he said. Science fiction writers have known this for a long time. But its not fiction anymore. Canadian church threatened with losing charity status for revoking woman's membership over same-sex relationship Canadian church threatened with losing charity status for stripping membership from woman in same-sex relationship Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Activists in Canada are petitioning the government to remove a church's tax-exempt status because it removed a woman from its membership roll after learning that she's in a same-sex relationship. Kimberley Mills lost her membership at Calvary Baptist Church in Oshawa, Ontario, after it was discovered that she was in a relationship that was, according to a letter quoted by local media, in disobedience to the Scriptures. After hearing about the church's actions toward Mills, Mac Moreau, a political activist in Oshawa, launched a letter-writing campaign to the Canada Revenue Agency earlier this month demanding that the government entity review Calvary Baptists status as a charity. Charities that allow their resources to be used for activities that promote hate and intolerance shouldnt receive benefits from the Canadian government benefits that all Canadians contribute to, stated Moreau on Facebook. Calvary Baptist Church sent The Christian Post a statement on Monday explaining that while they love and care for everyone church membership is based on a voluntary association of like-minded individuals who share a commitment to the teachings of the Bible. Those who choose to become members of Calvary Baptist Church share our theological and doctrinal beliefs and agree to live in accordance with those beliefs, church leadership said. When an individual ceases to hold those beliefs or live in accordance with them, as has recently happened, that individual may be removed from membership but always remains welcome to attend our services and other programs. Some viewed the news of Calvary Baptists membership decision regarding Mills and the possibility of the church losing its charitable status over the decision as further evidence of Canadas growing hostility toward churches that oppose homosexuality. Justin Trudeaus Liberal government has already placed an ideological litmus test (which includes LGBT issues as well as abortion) as a prerequisite for gaining access to the Canada Summer Jobs Program, and soon enough LGBT activists will turn their attention to those churches (and other religious institutions) that still hold to the traditional biblical teaching on sexuality, a LifeSiteNews blog argued last week. LGBT activists will soon demand that governments strip charitable status from any church or institution that disagrees with their ideology of sexuality, and will accuse any politician who declines to do so of being a homophobe or a transphobe. Dany Morin, spokesperson for the CRA, emailed CP on Monday explaining that due to confidentiality provisions in the Income Tax Act, the agency cannot comment on whether a particular charity is or is not being audited. The CRAs actions can only be made public when an audit results in a charity being revoked, annulled, suspended, or penalized, Morin explained. The CRA posts such cases in its list of charities. This provides transparency to Canadians regarding the decisions of the CRA with respect to charities. Morin also explained to CP that if a charity restricts access to its premises or its programs in any way, the nature of the restriction must be clearly linked to the benefits provided by the charity. For example, a charity operating a womans shelter would be justified in restricting access to its programs and facilities to women; while a charity operating a community center would generally be required to make its facilities open to the public at large, noted Morin. If the CRA identifies noncompliance as a result of an audit, it uses an education-first approach where possible. This means the CRA will generally give a charity the chance to correct its noncompliance through education or a compliance agreement before it resorts to other measures such as sanctions or revocation. Its important to note that the facts of the charitys case will determine which compliance approach the CRA will take. Ex-imam explains what Muslims get wrong about Jesus, details family's persecution for following Christ Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Correction appended A former Nigerian imam-turned-pastor who says Islams holy book helped confirm to him that Jesus Christ is the son of God, has detailed the persecution his family has endured because of their Christian faith. The pastor, who for security purposes will be referred to as John, recently spoke with The Christian Post for an hourlong interview about his familys ordeal in which one of their sons was murdered after they were forced into hiding in different states across Nigeria before traveling to the United States this year to seek asylum. John was born to a Hausa Fulani family in the Kaduna state of Nigeria and grew up to become a banker and a congregational prayer leader at his mosque. John also met a Christian woman whom he was able to convert to Islam and marry. His wife, however, eventually reclaimed her Christian faith after she had an encounter with Jesus in a dream. Her reconversion to Christianity was condemned by their community and Johns family, and she was considered an apostate. John faced pressure from his family to divorce his wife because of her faith as many in the community wanted her dead. But John was confident that God would give him the wisdom to convert his wife back to Islam because God gave him the wisdom to do it the first time. But John would prove to be wrong. And in 1995, John was presented with a theological reality that he says is present both in the Bible and in the Quran. This reality came to him when he drove his wife to a church crusade about 45 minutes away from where the couple were living at the time. John dropped his wife off and on the first two nights of the crusade he didnt stick around for the event. On the third night, however, John dropped his wife off and listened to the proceedings from the parking lot of the outdoor venue. I sat on the trunk of my car and I was listening on the trunk of my car to this man preaching about Jesus Christ, John explained. In the middle of this preaching, he was saying that Jesus was arrested, Jesus was crucified, and Jesus died and rose from the dead and they killed the Prince of Peace. And the Prince of Peace rose after the third day, and the Prince of Peace ascended back to Heaven. When he heard this, John said that a passage from the Quran came to his mind specifically Surah 19:33. In that passage, Jesus (who is considered a prophet in Islam) declared: Peace be upon me the day I was born and the day I will die, and the day I will be raised up alive. His preaching was confirming for me what is in the Quran but he was preaching from the Bible, John recalled. The things he was preaching, these things are written in the Quran. But the Muslims are translating it the other way around. For instance, the Quran said that the day Jesus was arrested, allah took the image of Jesus and put the image of Jesus on the face of an innocent Jew, he continued. The Jew was arrested and crucified instead of Jesus and allah took Jesus alive to Heaven. John said he thought it was weird that God would need to deceive His own people in order to save His prophet and messenger. As I was asking myself that question, the man made an altar call after he prayed for a deaf and a dumb girl. He prayed for those who are sick, John said. Before my eyes, I saw a deaf boy and dumb girl. The girl that was dumb, she spoke. The boy that was deaf heard. I was celebrating with them that this is a miracle. I know that in the Quran, Jesus performed miracles. This is something that we dont go about preaching. The Muslims dont go about preaching it at all. John explained that Muslims claim that Jesus will die for the first time when he comes back again and at that point, Surah 19:33 will be fulfilled. "I saw that as an error. An error in the sense that if allah took Jesus alive for himself without Him first dying, then it is a violation of that Scripture in the Quran," John said. "If the Quran said, Peace shall be upon Jesus the day He was born, peace shall be upon Jesus the day He will die, peace shall be upon Jesus when He was raised from the dead and peace shall be upon Jesus they day allah takes Him, then allah will have violated that Scripture for taking Him up without him dying or without him raising up from the dead. This was my conviction." John didn't formally give his life to Christ that night. Instead, he went home to analyze the text of his wifes Bible and his Quran. Over the course of the following three weeks, John examined the scriptures at night after he got home from his day job. After 21 days, John knew that he needed to come to Christ and announced to his wife the discovery he'd made. So I was now asking myself if Jesus is the word of God, if Jesus is the spirit of God in the Quran, what am I doing as a Muslim? John said. John went to church with his wife that Sunday and agreed to become a Christian if he could be convinced during the service that Jesus is the Son of God. As the pastor was preaching, God was giving me answers to the questions I was to ask that man, he said. As he led altar calls, I went and give my life to Christ. Following this decision in November 1995, John said he stopped going to the mosque where he was an imam. But John said it didnt take long before people from his mosque came looking for him at his home. The first day the group came John was at work. So the group of Muslims killed the familys dog and came back the next morning at 4:45 a.m. When they came back to the house, all they did was tell me to leave that house immediately, John said. They came with their sticks and their knives. I kept quiet and I didnt tell them anything because the worst would have happened at that time. John, his wife and six children fled their home. The church his wife was attending provided the family with a room to take refuge in. John was not only let go from his job because of his newfound faith, but was also nearly ambushed by a group of Muslims as he was driving to work. Fortunately, John said he received a tip off about the planned ambush and was able to turn around before he was in danger. He was also told that there was an announcement made about him at the mosque demanding that he leave Kaduna. Facing death threats, John decided it was best to flee Kaduna and go to the Rivers State in southern Nigeria. In 1999, John attended First Bible Institute in Port Harcourt in the Rivers State. After John passed through pastor training he went on to become a pastor in Borno state in northeast Nigeria. There, John faced harassment from Muslims while he preached. He said Muslims even threatened to kill his 11-year-old son. Following those threats, John and the family moved to Taraba state. It was there that Johns 11-year-old son was killed by a Muslim man who ran over him with a car and left him for dead in September 2000 because of the familys faith in Christ. Six months after his sons death, the church John was preaching at was demolished by a Muslim mob. The family then moved again to Abuja, John said. However, Muslims from Taraba and Kaduna eventually discovered where John was living, so the family was again forced to move, he added. Even though John and his wife ended up being embedded within a Christian community in yet another state, they felt it was best to scatter their children at boarding schools across the country. I have to hide myself and my family, John said. I was in hiding all the months until I arrived in the U.S. John and his wife arrived in the U.S. earlier this year on a six-month visa. They have retained immigration attorneys and plan to apply for asylum in the U.S. Their children, meanwhile, remain scattered throughout Nigeria, hopeful that asylum will be granted by the U.S. All we are looking for is help, John said. Back home, our government cannot help us. Our government cannot do anything. An earlier version of this article reported that John's 11-year-old son was shot and killed by a Muslim man. His son was not shot, but was the victim of a hit-and-run perpetrated by a Muslim man who left him to bleed to death, his father said. HOA opposed family's Christmas display because it might offend atheists, attract Walmart 'riff-raff' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An Idaho family that won a four-year legal challenge against its neighborhood over its elaborate Christmas decoration was targeted because of their faith, details from the trial revealed. A North Idaho jury awarded Jeremy and Kristy Morris $75,000 in their lawsuit against the West Hayden States First Addition Homeowners Association at the U.S. District Court in Coeur dAlene. The HOA engaged in religious discrimination, violating the federal Fair Housing Act, the jury ruled. Details that emerged during the trial, which took place late October, have highlighted the extent of the religious discrimination the family faced. The Morris family is known for putting on extravagant, five-day Christmas celebrations, consisting of bright lights, hymns, decorations, live music, animals and actors who perform the Nativity. The couple, who pay for the entire presentation themselves, have said that theirs is a message of faith. With free food and drinks, the show attracts thousands of visitors each year and raises money for local charities, including for children battling cancer. Jeremy Morris told the Couer d'Alene Press that the trouble began after the family decided to move to a new home in Idaho in 2015. The family had been open about their intention to continue with their big Christmas celebrations which he called his "ministry" to the public but received a letter from the HOA board that cited neighborhood rules about lighting, traffic, sound. The letter also addressed religion: "I am somewhat hesitant in bringing up the fact that some of our residents are non-Christians or of another faith and I dont even want to think of the problems that could bring up we do not wish to become entwined in any expensive litigation to enforce long-standing rules and regulations and fill our neighborhood with the hundreds of people and possible undesirables. The Couer d'Alene Press obtained an earlier draft of the letter that was discovered during the trial, which contained more anti-religious undertones. That particular draft read: "I am somewhat hesitant to bring up the fact that some of our residents are avowed atheists and I dont even want to think of the problems that could bring up we do not wish to become entwined in any expensive litigation to enforce long-standing rules and regulations and fill our neighborhood with the riff-raff you seemed to attract over by WalMart Grouse Meadows indeed!!! We dont allow those kind in our neighborhood. The letter was written by a number of people on the HOA board, Morris said. The father-of-three, who is a lawyer, proceeded with the lawsuit on the grounds that the family's religious freedom rights were being obstructed. A neighbor, Angie Cox, had also testified, according to Couer d'Alene Press, that when she asked Jennifer Scott, who was heading the HOA, whether the matter was really about the Morris family breaking rules or not wanting the family in the neighborhood, Scott responded, "We just dont want him here." Spokesman-Review columnist Shawn Vestal criticized the family and "Christians picking fights over imagined minor slights." He argued, "Morris victimhood was planned and plotted, right down to his intentions to call in air strikes from the conservative medias grievance machine." The Morrises, who have been harassed, have insisted that their purpose is to live out their faith, however, and following their lawsuit victory, said that they could consider living in another HOA neighborhood. Our family will live wherever we want to live to spread the message of Jesus Christ and the birth of our savior, Morris said. Were looking forward. Were positive. Were excited. HOA, which filed counterclaims in the case, said through attorney Peter Smith that it is looking forward "to seeing the final result once this case works its way through the court system. At a recent award ceremony in Hanoi, Iijima Isao, Special Advisor to the Japanese Cabinet, said the 49-year-old academician is the youngest awarded with the order since 1875.As Chairwoman and CEO of the AIC, Nhan has supported the Japanese eloquence contest over the past 16 years, creating opportunities for 700 Vietnamese students to visit Japan.Her company has hosted cherry blossom festivals in many cities and provinces across Vietnam, thus boosting Vietnamese peoples understanding about Japan and their sentiments towards the nation, as well as Japanese investment in Vietnam.A Vietnam-Japan investment conference annually held by AIC has attracted the participation of hundreds of Japanese businesses and witnessed the signing of numerous memoranda of understanding on cooperation in the fields of tourism, health, education, environment and hi-tech agriculture.Nhans tireless efforts over the past five years have been reflected through Japanese businesses investment results in Vietnam, said Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeda Kunio, citing data from the Japanese Government as saying Japan poured 9.1 billion USD in Vietnam in 2017 and 6.5 billion USD in the first half of this year, ranking first among countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.He expressed wish to continue receiving Nhans assistance to further develop the ties between the two countries.Earlier this year, Nhan received the worlds best smart nation concept and model award at the Global Smart Cities Contest London 2018. Vietnamplus Midterm Elections: White Evangelicals Boost Republicans, Who Gain in Senate, but Lose House Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Evangelical voters backed Republican candidates for Congress, according to exit polls in the 2018 midterm elections, as the Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate, but lost the House of Representatives. Both House and Senate seats were still being declared early Wednesday morning, following the nationwide vote on Tuesday, but Democrats had already secured 222 House seats to 199 for Republicans, guaranteeing control of the lower chamber for the first time in eight years. The CNN count added that Republicans gained seats in the Senate, however, and secured a majority of 51 to the Democrats' 45, with projections that the GOP will even strengthen its hold over the upper chamber. An ABC News exit poll found that white evangelical Christians are voting 75-25 in the House vote in favor of Republicans, or near their typical level. In total, evangelicals made up 27 percent of the voters, according to preliminarily projections. An NBC News exit poll added that a majority of white evangelical women have also stood behind Trump and the Republicans, though in lower numbers than white evangelical men. As many as 57 percent of white evangelical women said that they strongly approve of Trump, with another 17 percent somewhat approving. Only 20 percent said, on the other hand, that they strongly disapprove of the president, with another 6 percent somewhat disapproving. In some states, evangelicals doubled-down on their support for GOP candidates. In the Missoury Senate, Republican Josh Hawley defeated incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill. The latter won as much as 35 percent of white evangelical Christian support in 2012, but that number was back down to 27 percent on Tuesday. In one of the most-watched Senate challenges, rising Democratic star Beto O'Rourke narrowly lost against Republican Ted Cruz in Texas. In the gubernatorial races, Democrat Andrew Gillum lost in Florida to Republican Ron DeSantis. In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams lost with 48.6 percent of the vote but has not yet conceded to Republican Brian Kemp. U. S. President Donald Trump apparently called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. on Tuesday night to congratulate her party on winning back the House. On Twitter, he struck a victorious tone over the good performance of the Republicans in the Senate. "Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all," the president wrote. He then quoted author Ben Stein of The Capitalist Code, where the latter said: "There's only been five times in the last 105 years that an incumbent President has won seats in the Senate in the off year election. Mr. Trump has magic about him. This guy has magic coming out of his ears. He is an astonishing vote getter & campaigner." The quote continued: "The Republicans are unbelievably lucky to have him and I'm just awed at how well they've done. It's all the Trump magic Trump is the magic man. Incredible, he's got the entire media against him, attacking him every day, and he pulls out these enormous wins." Elsewhere, a record number of women were elected to the House. CNN projected that 96 women in total would hold House seats when all the results come in, beating out the previous record of 85. Seventy-six of those are from the Democratic party, and 11 from the Republicans, the numbers showed. My Pillow guy Mike Lindell invests $1 million in pro-life film 'Unplanned' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Mike Lindell, the founder and CEO of My Pillow, has invested $1 million in the production of the pro-life film Unplanned. I'm pro-life and I'm happy to do it, said Lindell in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Lindell has a small role in the film where he bulldozes a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. The millionaire businessman is known to many Americans as the "My Pillow guy," which he's described as in the TV commercials he appears in to promote his product My Pillow. Lindell previously served as executive producer of Church People, a Christian comedy film starring Stephen Baldwin. Scheduled for release in March 2019, Unplanned is based on the life of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood abortion clinic director-turned-pro-life activist. In May, The Christian Post visited the set of "Unplanned" which chronicles how Johnson left Planned Parenthood following conversations with 40 Days for Life intercessors who were praying outside her clinic. Johnson told CP in an interview earlier this year that she prays for former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards fervently, every single day. I know that her heart is there, that she believes she is being compassionate. Because she's hearing it from all these other women saying things like Planned Parenthood 'saved my life,' said Johnson. So I would just want [Richards] to know my desperate prayer for her is that I want her to be lavished in God's mercy and to know Him. Last year, Johnson wrote an opinion piece for The Federalist in which she said that pro-life protesters will not convince pro-choice women to join them "by screaming at them." I do not believe we will ever win hearts through intimidation or illegal tactics. We won't be able to help women if we scare them, wrote Johnson in 2017. I have seen women literally run into the abortion facility because someone was yelling Bible verses at them or pushing a graphic image in their faces. I recognized that they saw us, the abortion clinic, as a safe haven. A former drug addict who eventually became a born-again Christian, Lindell founded My Pillow in 2004 and is a successful businessman said to be worth $300 million. He's also a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, having spent last Easter with the commander in chief at Mar-a-Lago. Michael was a supporter of ours right from the beginning, which I really appreciate, President Trump once said of Lindell, according to The Daily Wire. New scientific discovery supports Bible's Adam and Eve story, science writer says Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A "provocative and misunderstood" scientific study published this year supports the Bible's Adam and Eve story by demonstrating that all humans are descended from a common mother and father, a prominent science writer and public speaker claims. Author Michael Guillen, president of Spectacular Science Productions, who has taught physics at Harvard and was a science editor for ABC News, commented on the scientific discovery from May regarding human ancestors in a Saturday op-ed for Fox News. Summarizing the discovery, announced by a team of U.S. and Swiss scientists, Guillen wrote that "all humans alive today are the offspring of a common father and mother an Adam and Eve who walked the planet 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, which by evolutionary standards is like yesterday." "Moreover, the same is true of nine out of every 10 animal species, meaning that nearly all of Earths creatures living today sprang into being recently from some seminal, Big Bang-like event," he added. As Mark Stoeckle at Rockefeller University and David Thaler at the University of Basel explained back in May, they based their findings on analysis of DNA bar codes of 5 million animals from 100,000 different species. Experts have interpreted low genetic variation among living humans as a result of our recent expansion from a small population in which a sequence from one mother became the ancestor for all modern human mitochondrial sequences, Thaler said back them. Our paper strengthens the argument that the low variation in the mitochondrial DNA of modern humans also explains the similar low variation found in over 90 percent of living animal species we all likely originated by similar processes and most animal species are likely young. Thaler later added: Scholars have previously argued that 99 percent of all animal species that ever lived are now extinct. Our work suggests that most species of animals alive today are like humans, descendants of ancestors who emerged from small populations possibly with near-extinction events within the last few hundred thousand years. Responding to the resurfacing of the study, Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, affirmed that when God spoke, there was a big bang, which he said was Creation itself. This is really just science confirming what the Word of God tells us, Graham said on Facebook in response to the research. Even though science points to the truth of Scripture, they still want to give it an evolutionary spin. God created the first man and the first woman Adam and Eve. He created the Heavens and the Earth, and everything in it. Gods Word is true from cover to cover! he added. Ken Ham, a Young Earth Creationist who heads Answers in Genesis, meanwhile urged scientists to accept that the Genesis account of Creation is true. To find out the truth about speciation and how observational science confirms the Bible's account of created kinds as per the biblical timeline, people need to read some up-to-date research that devastates the millions of years/evolutionary account, he added on Facebook, before linking to an AiG article from July, providing an analysis of the mitochondrial DNA tests. In his Fox News op-ed, Guillen suggested that there are two main ways in which Stoeckle and Thalers study lines up with the Bible. First, it affirms that we and our fellow creatures on Earth arose from a recent and profound Creation event, orchestrated by some unknown mechanism. And second, the DNA bar codes reveal that species are quantized, he said. Instead of there being a continuum of animal varieties, as one might expect from millions of years of gradual evolution, creatures fall into very distinct, widely separated populations what the Bible describes as kinds, from the Hebrew word min. Trump Admin. Reopens Asylum Cases of Indonesian Christians Facing Deportation Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Trump administration has reopened the asylum cases of nearly three dozen Indonesian Christian immigrants who face the possibility of deportation back to a country where they could be persecuted. New Hampshire Public Radio reports that 44 of the 51 Indonesian Christians named in a class action lawsuit over their deportation orders last year received notice on Wednesday that their asylum requests are now being reconsidered by the U.S. government. The decision came from the Justice Department's Board of Immigration Appeals and comes after a judge had previously ruled that the government could not deport the Christians while they seek to have their cases reheard. "The kind of abrupt nature in which the government sought to deport these people really was an issue," attorney Nathan Warecki told NHNPR. "We're happy that the Department of Justice agrees and is reopening their cases." The ethnic Chinese Christians in the case have lived illegally in New Hampshire for decades after they fled persecution and violence in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country which ranks as the 38th-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution. "I'm very relieved for New Hampshire's Indonesian community. This is the right decision," U.S. Sen Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said in a statement Thursday. "I hope further progress can be made to grant permanent asylum to these families and will do all that I can to provide assistance towards this goal." Sandra Pontoh, pastor of the Madbury Maranatha Indonesian United Church of Christ who has been an outspoken advocate for the group, also praised the Justice Department's decision. "I told them, 'this is good news, congratulations to everyone, but you know, you cannot stop working hard,'" Pontoh said, referring to the fact that the group of asylum seekers still need to do their part to ensure that their applications are accepted. According to SeacostOnline.com, an order from the Board of Immigration Appeals shows that at least one of the Christians in the group appealed the previous dismissal of his case on grounds of "changed country conditions for Christians in Indonesia." William Hahn, an attorney who represents 10 of the Indonesians who faced with deportation, told SeacostOnline.com that one of his clients argued that his application should be reevaluated "on the basis of escalating violence and intolerance directed toward Indonesian Christians." His client fears radical Muslim groups will persecute him if he's sent back to Indonesia. In her statement, Shaheen warned that deporting these Christian immigrants back home where they could be persecuted is "not consistent with American values." "These individuals learned our language, found employment and became contributing members of our community and shouldn't have to live under constant threat of removal to a hostile land," she said. Shaheen has been vocal in her advocacy for the Indonesian Christians and has questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on the issue. Trump defends the faith, has admitted his faults, says Franklin Graham Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Prominent evangelical leader the Rev. Franklin Graham has reiterated his support for President Donald Trump, explaining in recent comments that the commander-in-chief defends the faith. In a recent interview with Axios on HBO, excerpts of which were posted online on Sunday, the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association talked about various topics including President Trump. Now people say 'Well Frank but how can you defend him, when he's lived such a sordid life?' I never said he was the best example of the Christian faith, said Graham. He defends the faith. And I appreciate that very much. Trump has admitted his faults and has apologized to his wife and his daughter for things he has done and said. And he has to stand before God for those things. Graham also rejected concerns that American Christianity, including evangelicalism, was becoming too closely associated with the Republican Party. I'm going to support politicians that are going to support the Christian faith whether they're Democrats, Republicans, independents, continued Graham. Politicians that are going to guarantee my freedom of worship. And I appreciate the president has appointed now two conservative judges that are going to defend religious freedom, so amen to that. Graham has periodically been criticized, sometimes even by fellow social conservatives, for his strong support of Trump, even amid revelations of moral failings on the presidents part. For example, Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank, took to Twitter in January to criticize Grahams defense of Trump regarding the Stormy Daniels pornstar payoff controversy. Watching Franklin Graham do all he can to yet again shield Trump from criticism, after having done the same thing on behalf of Roy Moore, is painful, discouraging and corrosive to the Christian witness, wrote Wehner. The best you can say is he's blind to the damage. Julie Roys, conservative Christian author and former host of Moody Radios Up For Debate, took to social media on Monday to say that she partly agreed and partly disagreed with Graham's comments. Like Graham, I appreciate that Donald J. Trump defends Christians and religious liberty, wrote Roys on her official Facebook page. Trump has been a faithful supporter of policies near and dear to evangelicals and for that, I am grateful. But I disagree with Graham that Trump's treatment of women is a moot point simply because he apologized to his wife and daughters. Has he apologized to the women he abused and tried to make restitution? Hardly. Roys added that she wished that we evangelicals could praise our current president for what he does right, yet hold him accountable when he does wrong. I think we'd maintain a lot more credibility with the public if we did that. Plus, I think that's what Jesus would do. I can't see Him giving blanket support to any candidate, Roys added. White Evangelical Turnout Was Record-Setting in 2018 Midterm Election: Ralph Reed Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment WASHINGTON Despite the Republicans losing control of the House of Representatives, white evangelicals and other conservaitve Christians turned out to vote in record capacity to help Republicans win in key gubernatorial and Senate races. The national conservative evangelical grassroots organization Faith & Freedom Coalition, which knocked on over 2 million doors across 21 states in their voter turnout efforts this year, announced Wednesday that the 2018 election marked the "highest share of the electorate made up of conservative Christians in a mid-term election in the modern era." Faith & Freedom Coalition President Ralph Reed, a longtime conservative activist who served as the executive director of the Christian Coalition during the 1990s, told reporters Wednesday morning that he is "pleased" with the result of the midterms as Republicans added to their majority in the Senate. While it is true that the Republicans will no longer control the House and will give up control in a number of state legislatures, Reed stressed that increased white evangelical turnout in states like Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Missouri helped Republicans edge out their Democrat challengers in highly competitive races. "We had an astonishing level of evangelical voters cast their ballots," Reed said at a press conference at the National Press Club. "This is the most ambitious and the most effective voter education, get-out-the-vote program directed at the faith-based vote in a midterm election in modern political history." Faith & Freedom Coalition, which expected to more than triple its spending from the 2014 midterms to 2018, commissioned a post-election survey from Public Opinion Strategies that found that white evangelicals comprised 26 percent of the electorate while conservative Christians more generally made up 35 percent of the electorate. About 86 percent of conservative Christians said they voted for Republican candidates for Congress, while 12 percent voted for Democrats. As 80 percent of white evangelical voters said they voted for Republicans in congressional races, about 76 percent of non-white evangelicals voted for Democrats for Congress. The poll surveyed over 800 voters Tuesday and has an error margin of 3.46 percentage points. "Essentially, if you are a new Republican senator or governor, white evangelicals, conservative Christians and white Catholics are a significant reason that you won your election," Public Opinion Strategies principal researcher Glen Bolger said during the press conference. In his remarks, Reed cited available exit polling data to argue that evangelical turnout in certain states played an important role in the outcome. In Florida where former Republican Gov. Rick Scott looks to have narrowly defeated incumbent Bill Nelson in the Senate race and where Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis narrowly edged out Democrat Andrew Gilliam Reed says that white evangelicals accounted for 30 percent of the vote in the state. By comparison, evangelicals comprised just 21 percent of the electorate. Florida white evangelicals voted 80 percent to 20 percent in favor of DeSantis and Scott, Reed explained. "So, the number of evangelicals who voted yesterday [in Florida] was higher by about 50 percent as a share of the electorate as it was two years ago in Florida," Reed said. With the gubernatorial race so close, Nelson has called for a recount. In Georgia where Democrat Stacey Abrams is hoping for a runoff as she appears to be trailing Republican Brian Kemp in the state's gubernatorial race Reed said that white evangelicals made up 36 percent of the electorate. Eighty-nine percent of Georgia's white evangelicals voted for Kemp. "They are the reasons that Kemp is the governor-elect of the state of Georgia," Reed said. "We believe he will be so without a runoff." Reed said that should there be a runoff in Georgia, his home state, Faith & Freedom Coalition will resume its get-out-the-vote efforts. In Missouri where Republican challenger Josh Hawley knocked off incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill in the Senate race Reed said that the white evangelical vote increased from 35 percent of the electorate in 2016 to 38 percent in 2018. In 2018, 75 percent of the white evangelicals voted for Hawley, Reed added. As for Indiana where Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly has lost to Republican challenger Mike Braun evangelical turnout increased from 37 percent of the electorate to 40 percent in 2018, Reed detailed. "In Indiana, [white evangelicals] voted 71 percent for Mike Braun and only 23 percent for Joe Donnelly," he stated. Reed stressed that it wasn't just the white evangelicals supporting Republicans. According to the Public Opinion Strategies survey, GOP candidates also had the backing two-thirds of mass-attending white Catholics, which comprised 16 percent of the electorate. "If you add to the self-identified evangelical number, the frequently mass-attending pro-life Catholic number, you are now talking about 42 percent of the entire electorate," Reed stressed. Tim Head, the executive director of Faith & Freedom Coalition, said in a statement that "voters of faith turned out in record numbers and gave Republicans in key states a margin of support that provided the difference in nearly every key race." "At a time when some were writing the political obituary of the conservative religious vote, it showed its effectiveness yet again," Head stated. "Republicans cannot win without it, and Democrats would be wise to find a way to appeal to these voters of faith." Reed concluded that although control of the House has been lost to Democrats, it was "not a bad night" given the fact that it was a "midterm election for a party controlling the White House." "If I were Donald Trump compared to Bill Clinton in 1994 or [Barack] Obama in 2010 or Lyndon Johnson in 1966, I'd be feeling pretty good," Reed explained. "He would obviously like to do much better. But given what could have happened, it was a mixed bag to a split ticket." Abortion rate hits historic low, but over 630,000 babies still aborted in US every year Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the number of abortions in the U.S. has hit a historic low, according to a report released on Wednesday. "Among the 49 areas that reported data every year during 20062015, decreases in the total number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions resulted in historic lows for the period of analysis for all three measures of abortion," the report said. The CDC report found that 638,169 abortions were reported from 49 states for 2015, which comes out to 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 1544 years, "and the abortion ratio was 188 abortions per 1,000 live births." In total, the abortion rate decreased 2 percentage points from 2014, and as much as 24 percent from 2006. The statistics showed that women in their 20s had the highest abortion rates, namely 31.1 percent for those aged 20-24, and 27.6 percent for those in the 25-29 age group. A major drop was also reported when it comes to teenage abortions. Those aged 15-19 accounted for 9.8 percent of all reported abortions in 2015, which is a decrease of 41 percent from 2006. The CDC did not comment on the decline, though both pro-life and pro-choice groups are taking credit. Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, told Reuters: That is due, in a significant way, to pro-life legislation that seeks to provide life-affirming solutions to abortion, combined with pro-life efforts that educate Americans about the effects of abortion and the humanity of the unborn child." Rachel Jones, research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion, argued that the increased use of contraceptives can be credited. "Affordable access to the full range of contraception and family planning options is critical for people deciding if and when theyd like to become parents, develop their careers, plan for their futures and manage their health, Jones said. The CDC's statistics showed that the abortion rate among non-Hispanic white women and non-Hispanic black women was the highest in the country in 2015, at 36.9 and 36.0 percent respectively. Looking at marriage status, only 14.3 percent of all women who underwent an abortion were married, compared to 85.7 percent who were unmarried. In the Discussion section of the report, the CDC noted that the big maternal age differences played an important factor in the observed abortion trends. Because of the high rate and proportion of abortions that occurred among women in their 20s, women in this age group have contributed substantially to overall changes. Conversely, during 20062015, women aged 40 years had consistently low abortion rates and accounted for a limited percentage of abortions (3.7 percent); therefore, they have had a much smaller contribution to overall abortion trends, the government report explained. Nonetheless, among women aged 40 years, the abortion ratio continues to be higher than among women in their mid to late 20s and 30s, it added. Because of the limited proportion of abortions that are performed later in gestation among women aged 40 years, which might be completed for maternal medical indications or fetal anomalies, the continuing high abortion ratio among these older women suggests that unintended pregnancy is a problem that women encounter throughout their reproductive years. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Your babies are likely to be born blind, deaf, or with brain bleeds or worse if they are born right now, the perinatal specialist told my husband and me after I was admitted to the hospital for preterm labor with our triplets at just 23 weeks gestation. I unmistakably heard God in that moment yell NO! inside my head and kindly asked the doctor to leave my room. The doctor was doing his job, but it was time for my God to do His job protecting the lives of our unborn children. When youre pregnant with triplets, the question is not if your babies are going to be premature but how premature they will be. Thousands were praying for us, a reality show was covering our story of three miscarriages followed by becoming pregnant with triplets, and we had seen God moment by moment reassure and comfort us. I had felt God carry me every step of the way, and I knew He wasnt going to suddenly stop. Faithful He had been and faithful He would be. Fifty days of confinement to a hospital bed, while being let out once a week for 20-minute wheelchair ride dates with my husband, turned what I thought would be unbearable into one of the sweetest times in our lives. Not knowing what the future held, we held on to one other, and God held onto us. While fear threatened our faith, the opportunity of seeing the God fight for our family was an experience I wouldnt trade for the world. God heard our prayers, and our babies were delivered by emergency c-section at 30 weeks and 4 days. We were so excited to meet our newborn triplets and so glad this season was over, or so we thought. There is nothing quite like not being able to hold your newborn child. Seeing the baby or babies, in my case, you have loved for the past 7 months whisked away by strangers followed by being told what you can and cant do for your own infants by doctors and nurses is hard and honestly, its unnatural. I remember bawling when I found out a well-meaning nurse had given our baby girl a pacifier before I had been able to. This may seem like an odd thing to be upset about, but so much is taken from you as a parent of a preemie that you cherish anything and everything that you are able to do for your baby. Almost instantly, false guilt, real guilt, mom guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, and isolation flooded in like a tidal wave. Where was the spiritual closeness I had felt while on bedrest? Where was this great NICU comradery I had read about online? I didnt feel spiritual. I felt terrified. I felt alone. After sleepless days, I would finally fall asleep out of exhaustion in their hospital room, only to be awakened up by alarms signaling their heartrates were dangerously low and even witnessing one of our sons resuscitated. Motherhood was not supposed to be this way. All of what we experienced pales in comparison to my friends who never took their premature babies home. This is the reality for 1 million new moms a year and for many of my moms of multiples friends. It is a heartbreak I cannot fathom. A Few Facts: According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 15 million babies are born too early every year. That is more than 1 in 10 babies. Approximately 1 million children die each year due to complications of preterm birth. Globally, prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5 years. New studies are showing that NICU parents are exhibiting signs of PTSD similar to those of soldiers in war as a result of the constant exposure to death, sirens, illness, uncertainty, and fearful situations. Many parents are caught in the confusing pull of rejoicing in the birth of their new child or children, while mourning the loss of another child or mourning the loss of a normal birth and parenting experience. For people wanting to help: There is so much loss in being a parent of a premature baby. Remember that no matter how put together a new mom seems, this is the hardest season of her life. She needs your encouragement, she needs your prayers, she needs to hear that you remember her. With the pressure for a dad to be the pillar of strength for the family little room is left for him to express his fears and sadness. Moms usually get permission to feel; dads usually dont get that permission from society. One of the most practical ways our church family helped us was by taking care of our lawn for the months we lived in the hospital. We were extremely blessed! To premature parents: This will most likely not be your favorite year of marriage. Seeing premature babies struggle to breathe, eat, and survive is horrifying, humbling, and traumatic. But this will not always be your reality as a couple or as a family. Please find someone to whom you can bare your souls and voice your feelings. Your babies need a mom and a dad to come home to. Remember, you were given this life because youre strong enough to live it. God has promised in Hebrews 13:5, Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. While premature birth is usually viewed as an undesirable medical emergency, how comforting to know no baby is born a second before God has ordained them to be born! Psalm 139:16 affirms, Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Going from Your babies probably wont make it to Your babies are going home today was a joyful and confusing journey. The biggest lesson I learned during this time was the incredible comfort we have in knowing nothing surprises God. Our babies low birth weights, medical complications, my emergency c-section, and even the week of gestation our children were born were all sifted through Gods perfect plan for our lives. Almost a year later, Im figuring out how to do this important time in our life justice, while moving on and enjoying a normal life whatever a normal life with 1-year-old triplets is supposed to look like! With the new vantage point of motherhood comes the ability to see Gods desire to love and protect His children. From the NICU days to the normal days let us continue to pray, Hold me, Jesus, as I hold them. Julia Jeffress Sadler is the Girls Ministry Director at the 13,000-member First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas and a licensed professional counselor. She is also a professional speaker for Just Say Yes-Youth Equipped to Succeed. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released U.S. abortion data for 2015. The new data indicate that the U.S. abortion rate decline, which began in 1980, continues at a steady pace. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of abortions declined by 2 percent, and the abortion rate declined by about 4 percent. The decline was fairly consistent, as 38 of the 46 states that reported abortion-rate data for the past two years saw their abortion numbers decline. This is well worth celebrating. The new data also demonstrate the weak abortion-reporting requirements in the U.S. The CDC doesnt have the authority to compel states to report abortion numbers and as a result, unsurprisingly, the data are incomplete. California, Maryland, and New Hampshire all failed to report abortion data for 2015. In fact, California has not reported any abortion data to the CDC since 1997. Whats more, while the CDC has already released 2017 data on a range of public-health topics, its abortion numbers are far behind; there is almost always a lag of more than two years before abortion data is released. Much of the media coverage of these new statistics, however, has failed to include commentary from either pro-life activists or pro-life organizations, and several stories have primarily credited increases in contraception use for the abortion-rate decline. In reality, a key factor behind the 50 percent abortion-rate decline since 1980 is the fact that a smaller percentage of unintended pregnancies now result in an abortion. Data from the Guttmacher Institute indicate that between 1981 and 2011, the percentage of unintended pregnancies that resulted in an abortion fell from 54 percent to 42 percent. This suggests that pro-life legislative, political, and educational efforts have had a measurable positive effect. This new abortion data from the CDC should hearten pro-lifers across the country and give them some encouragement to continue their lifesaving work. Originally posted at nationalreview.com Whats the point of being winsome if people still hate, ridicule, and condemn us for our convictions, and even call us bigots? Early this month, Saturday Night Live hit a new low in our countrys already abysmal political discourse. Just before the midterm elections, SNL comedian Pete Davidson made the awful decision to mock some of the winners over their appearance. Among his targets was former Navy SEAL and Texas Congressional candidate (now Congressman-elect) Dan Crenshaw, who lost an eye to an IED in Afghanistan. Davidson cracked an obscene joke about Crenshaws eye patch and flippantly described the explosion that caused his injury as waror whatever. This was a week before Veterans Day. If anyone in our outrage climate has a right to be outraged, its Lieutenant Commander Crenshaw. Instead, he chose a different reaction. In the Washington Post, Crenshaw explained why he didnt demand an apology from SNL or call for Davidson to be fired. Reacting with outrage, he writes, only perpetuates outrage culturethe effort to destroy peoples lives over bad jokes, gaffes, and political disagreements. Crenshaw thinks average Americans find this whole charade exhausting, and I think hes right. His winsome response paid off. SNL realized they crossed a line, invited Crenshaw on the show, and Davidson apologized to him on-air. He then let Crenshaw get in a few jokes of his own. The two also found common ground. It turns out Davidsons father was an emergency responder who died on 9/11. Crenshaw closed by remarking that Americans can forgive one another. We can remember what brings us together as a country and still see the good in each other. Crenshaw did the right thing, and this time it turned out well. But, of course, being winsome doesnt always get you off the hook of being called a bigot or a hater in todays political climate. Consider Isabella Chow, a student senator at the University of California, Berkeley. She was recently kicked out of her own party, and now faces pressure to resign over an abstention vote. The daughter of Malaysian-Cambodian immigrants and a devoted Christian, Chow refused to support a symbolic student senate bill rejecting the, at the time, not-yet-existent executive order on transgender rights. She was the only senator to do so. Shes been labeled homophobic and transphobic. Shes faced protests filled with angry classmates calling for her to be recalled. One UC Berkeley student newspaper that fiercely attacked her wont even print her defense. Chow told Fox News, If I dont represent the Christian perspectivethe minority perspectivethere wont be anyone to represent these views. And throughout the ordeal, shes repeatedly emphasized her love and respect for those who identify as LGBT. Chow is obviously a gentle spirit by nature. Rod Dreher said that he didnt think anyone could have handled the situation more carefully than she has. And yet the backlash and intolerance could derail her academic career. Standing up for her beliefs and speaking the truth with grace has only led to her being punished, misrepresented, and attacked. This illustrates, as Ive said before on BreakPoint, that winsomeness is not a strategy. We dont love our enemies, or pray for them, or turn the other cheek, or season our speech with salt because they work. We do these things because theyre right. Jesus both commanded and modeled that we treat people this way. Sometimes, as Proverbs says, a soft answer turns away wrath. Other times, our political and ideological opponents vent wrath no matter what. It is precisely thenwhen winsomeness does not win us any earthly points, when our ideological enemies dont deserve itthat our allegiance to a different kingdom and a different way of doing things is proven. Be winsome. Dont stoke the outrage. Show the kind of grace under fire Crenshaw and Chow have. But remember, Jesus predicted how wed be treated, and still said, Blessed are you when it happens. In the era of Industry 4.0, experts in the conference predicted that new advanced technologies would have great effects on various fields. Thus, Vietnam should boost its research to master this new knowledge, especially the one related to robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI). According to Associate Professor Dr. Le Hoai Quoc, Head of the Management Board of SHTP, many businesses in this park are now bonding closely with scientists in several projects on manufacturing automation with robots. In addition, SHTP is launching the cooperation program with Japan and the Republic of Korea to apply AI into agricultural production. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Japan Technology Training Center is speeding up its investment process while finishing and organizing training classes for human resources with international standards to meet the demands of hi-tech companies. In the framework of the conference, the exhibition on Robotics Applications and AI was held, with the display of many impressive products. New Ocean Company, sited in Ward 4 of Tan Binh District in HCMC, attracted international manufacturing plants in Vietnam thanks to its automation solution and machine vision via the process of industrial images captured from cameras in the assembling lines. It is expected to be widely popularized in the upcoming time. Mitsubishi Electric introduced its e-F@ctory a factory for the future which consists of force sensor and image sensor robots. These robots are supposed to turn very complicated manufacturing processes into reality while continuously reporting data for analysis and task improvement. They also help to save installation time into a huge assembling line. Particularly, thanks to an integrating Internet connectivity, e-F@ctory allows manufacturers to control and monitor their plants remotely via smart devices. It is noticeable that in HCMC, there are many organizations researching and implementing the technologies of robots and AI into developing the economy and society. VietnamPost announced its application of EMIEW3 robots into its trading activities. According to this post company, thanks to the smart communication ability, the robots are able to welcome and serve customers effectively. They can also avoid direct crash into objects with sudden movements. In the medical field, Binh Dan Hospital is the pioneer in implementing robotics technology into performing endoscopy operations to treat certain diseases like prostate cancer or colorectal cancer. Scientists of the Institute for Computational Science and Technology under the HCMC Department of Science and Technology are now researching on a system to monitor and predict health via the analysis of pollution effects on health of each individual as well as the whole society. This will help them actively deliver timely warning on health hazards to the public. By GIA QUANG Translated by Yen Nhi American evangelicals give $58K to save persecuted Muslim family; US still denies asylum Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Afghan interpreter Muhammad Kamran said he felt like he was part of a brotherhood when he aided the United States military in its fight against terrorism in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. Kamran, a Muslim father of four and a teacher, served as a mission interpreter who helped recruit and train other Afghan nationals to interpret and translate for U.S. troops as they fought to eradicate al-Qaeda and the Taliban. As a 19-year-old at the time he began, Kamran felt called to assist the Americans as they fought the radical extremists he considered to be the enemy of humanity. They were calling me brother, Kamran said of U.S. soldiers during his 10 years of service aiding various branches of the U.S. military and the United Nations. They were another nationality and another culture. I was from another country and of another religion but there was no difference for us. We were living with each other. We were eating with each other. We were sleeping in one room. There was no problem for us. But four years later, Kamran is among thousands of Afghan translators struggling to receive help from the U.S. government and the international community as they face death threats and violence for aiding the fight against terror. As for Kamran, his wife and four girls, they have been forced into hiding and are living as illegal immigrant refugees trapped in neighboring Pakistan because of his decision to aid the U.S. a sacrifice that he says he is proud of despite the fact that it has cost him his home, his cars, his wealth, and nearly his life. Because he aided the U.S. mission, the Taliban is looking to kill Kamran. The Sunni radical terror organization that calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan spread lies throughout Kamrans community in the Nangarhar Province that he's a Christian looking to convert Muslims to Christianity a charge that put a large target on his back inside his home village. Today, the Kamrans live under the constant threat of Pakistani military and police raids. If Kamran is caught, advocates fear, he risks being killed by the Pakistani military or turned over to the Taliban. Despite this, Kamran and his family were denied asylum by the very government he risked his life to assist. Even though a generous American evangelical Christian family has spent over $58,000 to help keep the Kamran family alive over the last couple of years and offered to shelter the family at their California farm, a request for the Kamrans to receive even a one-year humanitarian stay was denied last November by the Department of Homeland Security. The denial comes as tens of thousands of Afghan and Iraqi citizens are on a waitlist for Special Immigrant Visas designed to allow translators and interpreters who worked with the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan to seek refuge in the U.S. Yet, preliminary State Department data indicates that there was a slowing in Special Immigrant Visas issued for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters in 2018. The number of Afghan SIVs issued in fiscal year 2018 is nearly 9,000 fewer than in 2017, and about 500 more than the number of Afghan SIVs issued in fiscal year 2015 under the Obama administration, and about 1,800 fewer than the Afghan SIVs issued by the Obama administration in 2014. Kamran's case was first denied under the Obama administration in 2016 and the ensuing appeal and application for humanitarian parole have been denied by the Trump administration. The Kamran family was denied humanitarian parole by the U.S. government without a thorough review of the case or an explanation as to what the governments security concern with his family is, according to the familys advocate, Kristy Perano, who along with her parents and brother have financially sacrificed to help keep the Kamran family alive. I have worked 10 years for the security of the people," Kamran said. "I did not care about the religion. I work for every religion. I work for every human and every country. But now, they say we are a security problem and I dont know why. How did I become security problem? I dont know this still. Fighting the war against terror Shortly after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. got involved in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan in which the U.S. sought to push the Taliban from power. Being strictly against terror, Kamran began helping the U.S. Army in 2004. He worked out of the Kabul Military Training Center, where he helped interpret for Army troops in charge of training recruits for the Afghan National Army. My English was very good and the American people liked me a lot, Kamran recalled. They decided that they should push me to the missions and I should become a mission interpreter. So they gave me a good post and also make me mission interpreter. In 2006, Kamran began working with the U.S. Navy at Camp Lightening in Gardez Province where he worked on many training and humanitarian missions. One of those was an assignment to assist the Navy in its efforts to institute a training program to teach the Afghan recruits to drive trucks. It was during this time that Kamran worked a lot with former Navy Lieutenant Karsten Daponte, who spent six months stationed in Gardez. He and I spent hours and hours in the truck and having some laughs, Daponte, who retired from the military and now works in the energy sector, told CP. Being in the front of the truck with Muhammad there with me, it was a shared experience and I will never forget that in my life. Also in 2006, Kamran was transferred to the Jalalabad Air Base in his home province of Nangarhar. There he worked with different branches of the U.S. military and went on night missions with U.S. Army 10th Mountains teams to arrest Taliban insurgents. I come to my province and I knew all the places that were [bad] and which were [good], he explained. I was providing information to the U.S. troops and U.S. Army. They were doing the operation and I was participating in that. The people know me very well. Taliban got a lot of information about me. Kamran said that over time he was becoming a little famous within the Taliban. The 'enemy of Islam' The terrorists, he said, would frequently call his phone and threaten him. He was even forced to change his number and block callers. They were trying hard and hard to find me and get me, Kamran explained. They were asking people [in my community] to help them. [Muslim clerics] told them that they should announce me as a Christian not only a Christian but a dangerous Christian who is converting the people from Islam to Christianity, Kamran said. These people accepted it. Kamran said that the Taliban eventually began threatening people by telling them that if they have any relationship with him, they will be killed. They announced all our family as Christians and that our family should be killed. They would say, They are Christian and their son is also Christian, and he is converting people to Christianity. He is the enemy of Islam and enemy of Muslims, Kamran recounted. They directly announced me as the enemy of Islam. They sent letters to the mosque and said that I killed a lot of Taliban. I did not do that but they were blaming me a lot and they were making a lot of problems for me. Kamran said that the most dangerous time for his family began in 2014 after most U.S. troops had been withdrawn from Afghanistan. He said that people in his village and even people who he helped tutor were no longer friendly with him anymore. The Americans had gone and the job had gone and everything was finished, Kamran explained. Although there were around 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan at one point, that number now stands at over 14,000 even after President Donald Trump's troop increase. They (U.S.) did not care about me because they left Afghanistan. Then, my house got burned. [The Taliban shot] my brother. My two friends were killed. One man who I trained, they killed him also. The other friends who took a job as an interpreter, they arrested him, break his hand and feet and take all his money, his home and his car. Now he is a U.N. refugee in Canada, I think. I dont have any contact with him. Finally, my dad and my mom told me that you dont have to stay here anymore. Kamran turned to the government for help. He went to the district governor who offered him little help other than telling him to seek help from the United States. Fleeing Afghanistan With their lives in danger in Afghanistan, Kamran and his family fled Afghanistan on a five-day journey to Pakistan in 2014. According to Kamran, his family went without food for two days and only had dirty water to drink. I was walking in the mud for five days without boots and without shoes, he said. At that time, one of my daughters was only 6 months [old]. In different places, I got arrested but I was giving a bribe and I was giving the [officers] money. Although Kamran said that he feels fortunate to have fled Afghanistan, the situation in Pakistan is rough. My home has been raided by the police and by the military. Whatever I had here, the police took that from me, he detailed. I could not even buy one tablet when my kid got sick. I did not have the money to pay the rent of my house. Kamran has to regularly flee his house because of frequent immigration and anti-terrorism raids. Through connections, Kamran is tipped off when there is going to be a raid in his area. In some instances, Kamran has been caught by authorities but has paid officers with bribes so he wont be processed and they wont learn his identity. At one point, Kamran and his family were kicked out of their home by a landlord because they couldnt pay the rent. The Kamrans cant leave their house out of fear of being arrested. This means that Kamran isn't able to work and make a living. The Kamrans initiated a refugee case with the U.N. in July 2014 and the case was referred to the U.S. in March 2015. In February 2016, the Kamran family was denied asylum by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for discretionary reasons. Later that month, the Kamrans filed a request for the agency to review the denial of his case, which was eventually denied without review. It was in a very critical situation I was in, Kamran said. There were a lot of problems I was facing. Then I met Kristy. The Perano family Perano, a 29-year-old Cornell University Ph.D candidate from California, has dedicated her time and money to aid the Kamran family over the last couple of years. Perano has teamed up with her parents (Ken and Susan Perano) and her brother and sister-in-law (Tim and Julianne Perano) to provide money to the Kamran family to pay rent, legal fees, food, and living costs. Because the Kamrans cant work, the Peranos pay for nearly everything. For food, the Peranos pay a friend of Kamran who buys groceries and delivers them to the family. The Peranos have also paid for a doctor to come provide emergency surgery when Kamran was stabbed by thieves and seriously wounded when he fled the house during a military and police raid. As an illegal immigrant, Kamran could not go to a hospital. Split nearly three-ways between the family, the Peranos have aided the Kamrans with over 18 months' worth of living expenses and medical bills. Should the Kamrans ever be allowed to come to the U.S., the family would live on the Perano family's farm in Jackson, California. Now residing in Ithaca, New York, for school, Kristy Perano has dedicated her time to advocating on the Kamran familys behalf as she completes her degree in biological and environmental engineering. She initially heard about the Kamran familys ordeal through her volunteer work with the organization No One Left Behind, an advocacy nonprofit founded by a military vet whose life was saved by an Afghan interpreter who was denied asylum. Perano was able to get connected with Kamran after learning more about his situation. She tracked down an immigration attorney who specializes in refugee cases to take on Kamrans case at a reasonable cost. For me, I see it as a fight for justice. There is a repeated theme in the Bible about fighting for justice for oppressed people, Perano, who attends Bethel Grove Bible Church in Ithaca, said. I am spending 30 percent of my income on this now and 10 percent is kind of a traditional guideline but not a cap. If we stop, they are going to die and we know that, Perano added. We have gotten to know them well. Muhammad isnt a Christian but has a high opinion of Christians. I dont have the expectation that he is going to convert to Christianity, but I also have a belief that he deserves to live in a free society that Jesus would want [us] to protect and not leave [the Kamran family] to be murdered by the Taliban. Perano has created a GoFundMe online fundraising page to assist the Kamran family. Filed for humanitarian parole With the help of Seattle-based attorney Danielle Rosche, the Kamran family filed for humanitarian parole in August 2017. Humanitarian parole is a discretionary authority that allows for the temporary entry of individuals into the U.S. for urgent humanitarian reasons or for significant public benefit. The program enables citizens to submit an application on behalf of someone who is outside of the U.S. and has an urgent need to enter the country. We are asking USCIS to let them just come here on this temporary basis and we can kind of re-evaluate the asylum claim at our leisure, Perano explained. We tried that and USCIS just denied the case. First, they lost it for a few weeks and then they denied it after two days of consideration. The case was denied last November over discretionary security concerns that have not been disclosed by the agency. Perano said that she was somewhat optimistic when they retained Rosche because the attorney had past success in getting humanitarian parole for interpreters and family members who were previously denied asylum. After the denial, they pressed USCIS Humanitarian Affairs Branch Chief John Bird to see if Muhammad's young daughters could be allowed to enter the U.S. to live with an aunt and uncle who have received asylum. However, Bird claimed last November that the children were also a security concern. The case was closed, Perano said. That just depressed a lot of people in Congress. As far as I know, that is the only time that USCIS put in writing that they were denying a one-year visa to a 2-year-old child on the basis that she was a security concern. The agency said that since their cases were denied before, they were denying it again because they have security concerns, she added. Our lawyer pushed back and said, What are your security concerns? They said, We will actually have to go review the refugee case to answer that question. They admitted that they hadnt bothered [to review the case]. They denied the humanitarian case because he had been denied before without even reviewing the original denial themselves. Because the denial was discretionary, the agency isnt legally required to reveal its reasons for thinking that Kamran and his family are a security concern. Perano lobbied members of Congress to sign a bipartisan letter sent in July to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen demanding to know more about why Kamrans asylum and humanitarian parole cases have been denied and to voice concern with the fact that the case was denied on a discretionary basis. The 38 Congress members are also seeking information on how many interpreter cases have been denied for discretionary reasons and how many refugee cases overall are denied for discretionary reasons. Despite giving the agency a mid-August deadline, DHS has yet to respond to the congressional inquiry, Perano said. The Christian Post reached out to USCIS for comment on the congressional inquiry and was told that the agency does not offer public comment on Congressional correspondence and will respond as appropriate. A source with knowledge of the issue told CP that USCIS explained last month that it was still waiting on additional information from the State Department before responding to the letter. Perano explained that if the agency doesnt respond by January when the new Congress starts, then Congress will take further action to get answers from USCIS. Perano launched a Change.org petition calling on USCIS Humanitarian Affairs Director John Bird to re-open and approve the Kamran familys case. Over 50,000 people have signed the online petition. As she has had success getting humanitarian parole for interpreters under the Obama administration, Rosche couldnt say whether denials for humanitarian parole for interpreters who worked with the U.S. government or military were more common under the Trump administration. [These discretionary denials] seem nonsensical and random to me, Rosche told CP. I have worked on cases like Mr. Kamrans. I have worked cases of elderly Christian women from Mosul who have fled ISIS who were denied refugee status as a matter of discretion. Daponte is also perplexed by the situation that the U.S. government has put the Kamran family in. They really were putting a lot on the line in good faith to help us help them, he said of Afghan interpreters. If we treat people in this circumstance this way and basically cut them loose in a sense, that is a really bad signal to send to our partners whether current or future. Partners and allies might second guess working with us. Slowing of visas The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program was created through the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009 to provide visas to Afghans who worked at least one year as a translator or interpreter for or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan in order to allow them to resettle in the U.S. A similar program was created in 2008 for Iraqis working on behalf of the U.S. forces in Iraq. Preliminary State Department data indicates that the number of Afghan SIV visas issued were cut in half during fiscal year 2018 even though as many as 17,000 Afghans are on an SIV waiting list. In fiscal year 2018 (Oct. 1, 2017 - Sept. 30, 2018), only 7,234 Afghan SIVs were issued with 1,649 being principal applicants and 5,585 being dependents. By comparison, 16,170 Afghan SIVs were issued in fiscal year 2017 (4,120 being principal applicants) and 12,086 Afghan SIVs were issued in fiscal year 2016. In future conflicts, if the United States cannot show that we have protected our interpreters and local aides in the past, when we go into future conflicts, we are going to receive less aid from locals, Rosche told CP. From a national security perspective, that is very dangerous for our soldiers going into our future. Its a moral aspect of helping [them] because [they] helped us but there is also the point that for future conflicts we need our local people to be able to rely on our word. Advocates have raised concern about how the National Defense Authorization Act for 2019 passed without the inclusion of additional Afghan SIVs because of budget constraints. In June, the Trump administration voiced its disappointment with the fact that the bill does not include a provision allowing for 4,000 additional Afghan SIVs in the fiscal year 2019. Without allocating additional visas, there will be no authority to fully address the current pipeline of eligible individuals estimated at approximately 16,700 or any further eligible individuals who apply before the December 2020 deadline, a June 26 statement from the White House Office of Budget and Management reads. Activists and lawmakers have called for a measure authorizing an additional 4,000 Afghan SIVs to be included in the fiscal year 2019 State, Foreign Operations and Relations Programs appropriations bill that funds the State Department. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., sent a letter in August to the leaders in the Senate Appropriations Committee asking for the measure to be included in the legislation. Additionally, a group of veteran organizations sent a letter to Congress in September also calling for the allocation of 4,000 Afghan SIVs for 2019. Advocates are unsure what will happen in the final weeks of the bills negotiations. The group Veterans for American Ideals is continuing to lobby Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby, D-Ala., and others on the committee. Since both the House and Senate subcommittee reports deemed the SIV program critical, we're optimistic that it's going to happen, Christopher Plummer, senior media relations associate with nonprofit organization Human Rights First, told CP. This is a lifeline for our Afghan allies many whose lives are at risk for their service to us so the committee needs to step up. In August, military leaders reportedly spoke out about the drop in admission of Iraqi interpreters admitted under the Direct Access Program, which replaced the SIV program, during a closed-door meeting at the White House on Iraq, according to Reuters. According to the State Department data, only 152 Iraqi SIVs were granted to principal applicants and 372 were granted to their dependents in the fiscal year 2018 for a total of 524. In fiscal year 2017, a total of 2,134 Iraq SIVs were issued. Other nations turning asylum seekers away In the midst of a global refugee crisis, Western European countries have seemingly taken a harder stance against Afghan asylum seekers in recent years. According to The Washington Post, Western European nations have rejected hundreds of thousands of Afghan asylum applications in the last two years and deported thousands of Afghan immigrants back to Afghanistan even though the Taliban still controls much territory. Having been denied asylum by the U.S., Kamran said that he has asked the U.N. to refer his case to another Western nation. They told me that it was my fault because I emphasized them to give my case to the U.S. They said that You worked for U.S and even your brothers are not accepting you, he recalled. They said that if they give my case to Canada or Australia or another country, they will ask this question: This person worked for the Americans for about 10 years and they are not accepting him. Why should we accept this person? Abandoned What makes the situation even more perplexing to Kamran is the fact that other members of his family have been granted asylum in the U.S. in the past several years. I dont know how my brother and my sister and my nephew were cleared and I was not cleared, he explained. I was one of the most important persons for the Americans. As I told you before, they were not calling me by my name. They were calling me brother. They were telling me that I was their brother but now I am a security issue. Kamran said that it was he who trained his brother, brother-in-law and many other Afghan nationals when they were assisting the U.S. government. The government, the friends and family everybody has left me alone, Kamran explained. If I go back to Afghanistan, they will take revenge from me and I will not be alive. West 'turning a blind eye' as religious hatred, violence punishes Christians, minorities: report Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A comprehensive report by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need has blamed Western countries for turning a blind eye to the violence Christians and other faith minorities are facing. The Religious Freedom in the World 2018 Report analyzes all 196 countries around the world and the dangers that faith minorities face, both at the hands of the government and hardline or terror groups. The biannual report found some positive developments, such as the defeats and loss of power suffered by the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria, but at the same time warned that ultra-nationalism around the world is causing a rise in hatred against minorities. Nationalism especially from governments became increasingly aggressive, with profoundly disturbing consequences for minority faith groups. This development, which can be termed ultra-nationalism, is especially significant because it is now dominant in China, Russia and India, world powers with growing influence around the world, ACN says in its summary. Other governments are increasingly ultra-nationalist in their hostility to minority groups, notably the regime in Burma whose violence against the Rohingya Muslims has shocked human rights observers the world over. This publicity is the exception to the prevailing trend; a cultural curtain has fallen, behind which religious minorities suffer as the religiously illiterate West turns a blind eye, it adds. It warns that Europe and other Western countries have failed to initiate an agenda to defend religious liberty, and are displaying apathy toward the importance that people place on religion around the world. The Catholic charity has also blamed Western media for failing to cover the dangers and consequences of Islamic extremism, other than the focus on IS and its affiliated groups. It accuses media of having ignored the spread of militant Islam in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Two countries examined by the report, namely North Korea and Saudi Arabia, were found to have such a bad record on religious freedom that it could hardly get worse. Two other nations, Russia and Kyrgyzstan, were among those where religious freedom was deemed to be getting worse in the two-year period of analysis. The report warned that Christians and other believers continue being subjected to violence, with danger from terrorists at an universal, imminent and ever-present level. Religious Freedom in the World 2018 further argued that Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are on the rise in the West. Aggressive ultra-nationalism be it by hard-line governments or violent extremist groups means many minority faith groups feel like aliens in their own country. They are easy targets in a new era of ignorance and intolerance, said Editor-in-Chief John Pontifex. True, there are some like the Rohingya Muslims, whose plight has received due attention in the West, but so many others such as Christians in Nigeria, Ahmadis in Pakistan and Bahais in Iran feel abandoned by the West where religious freedom has slipped down the human rights priority rankings, he added. Back in July, the United States State Department hosted its first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, which included numerous testimonies from people of faith about the persecution they suffer in their countries. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed at the time that the ministerial would be "more than just talk," and would lead to concrete steps of action. 1m mission project to create small worshipping communities across Manchester The Church of England is investing 1m into the pioneering of small worshipping communities across Manchester. The Antioch Network is being launched on Thursday with the mission of bringing more young people to faith. The new mission drive will see 16 worship communities established in mostly economically deprived areas in Manchester that also currently have the lowest church attendance. The project is to benefit from a 1m cash injection from the Church of England's Strategic Development Fund. The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Dr David Walker, said: 'This is a very welcome venture, which will help us to live out the love of Jesus Christ in places and communities that the Church has historically struggled to reach.' Heading up the network is the Rev John Brett, former curate at Trinity Community Church, Rusholme, and the Rev Ben Woodfield, currently pioneer curate at St Paul's, Astley Bridge. Both men have experience in building small church communities and will be licensed by the Bishop of Manchester at a service on Thursday. The Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Rev Mark Ashcroft, who is overseeing the setup of the Antioch Network, said it would complement the work of the city's traditional parish churches. 'I believe we are seeing a move of God's Spirit that will revitalise our Church and communities,' he said. Other parts of the Church of England are also investing in new church-planting initiatives. The Diocese of London recently announced the creation of 19 'resource churches' that will act as centres for growth and church-planting across the capital. The resource churches will be used to train up a 'planting curate' for three years, before releasing them to either plant their own new worship community or help to revitalise an existing church. Freed Iranian Christians find healing from horrors of prison Iranian Christians who endured horrific conditions in prison for their faith were helped in their healing journey by a recent gathering in Turkey. Open Doors hosted the ex-prisoner training session, which brought together 30 Iranian Christians living in Turkey as refugees since being freed from prison in their home country. One of the participants, named only as Wahid, was a former house church pastor in Iran and now leads a congregation of 200 in Turkey. He said that healing from his experiences in the Iranian prison system is a 'painful process' but the training event had given him the chance to open up with others who knew firsthand what he had gone through. 'In the training, I met people who went through the same experience as me,' he said. 'We understood each other, and we learned from each other. I cried a lot, but I was also comforted a lot.' He continued: 'As a former Iranian prisoner, I have often felt alone and thought nobody cared about me. This training proved me wrong. You showed me I'm not alone. 'In daily life, I find it difficult to talk about my time in prison, it's a horrible story. 'And, as a leader, it's a big temptation to pretend you are stronger than you actually are.' Another former house church leader, Mojtaba, initially found it hard to deal with the traumatic memories of his time in prison. The stress even manifested itself in physical ways, causing him to suffer from dizziness. This was particularly the case when he started to counsel fellow ex-prisoners. The training has taught him how to create a 'safe space' between himself and his own memories as well as the painful stories being shared with him by the people he is counselling. 'Now, I have learned to keep a certain distance. In the long run, this will mean I can do more for them,' he said. He added: 'Sharing about my prison time also reminded me about the lesson God taught me there: "Be silent, I will be close to you." I try to apply that lesson to my life again.' Despite what he has gone through, he said he is not seeking recognition from other people. 'I don't want others to see me as an important person because I spend time in prison for my faith,' he said. 'I am no more than any other Christian: I need God just as all of us do. And I need Him now too. So I try to focus on Him first.' 'God meant it for good': A Jewish reading of Joseph's story At the end of the book of Genesis Joseph reassures his brothers that he does not bear them a grudge for their horrific treatment of him when they were all younger. As children he was their father's favourite and they were jealous. So they threw him down a pit full of scorpions and sold him to Arab merchants. Later Joseph becomes chief minister to Pharaoh and is in a position of power over his brothers. But when they express their fear of him he tells them not to worry about repercussions as a result of their former behaviour. The reason he gives is: 'Although you intended me harm, G-d intended it for good' (Genesis 50:20). But Joseph does not say that he is 'reconciled' with his brothers. In fact, there does not appear to be any Hebrew word for reconciliation, the nearest in modern Hebrew being 'pius', a loan-word meaning 'appeasement'. This is because the Bible and Jewish life have taught us that no two people are really equal in a relationship and the whole of life is about accommodation and coming to terms with things. In our own day there are many groups claiming that they have a monopoly on suffering, but no group has suffered as much as the Jewish people in both breadth of time and depth of experience. So Jews have had to manufacture ways of dealing with this suffering. The story of Joseph and his brothers has inspired many great writers, artists and musicians. But this is just one of many such biblical stories, which together with later rabbinic teachings, instruct on ways of coping with the fall-out from Jewish suffering in our imperfect world. Many remedies are suggested in order to help the Jewish people to survive on an everyday basis. Here are just a few injunctions with which we have been brought up from cradle to grave. Keep your head down and pretend you don't exist. Do good deeds and G-d will look after you. Integrate but don't assimilate. Don't engage in dialogue with other religions, ethnic groups or philosophies. Do engage in dialogue with other religions, ethnic groups and philosophies. Don't attend university where you might get beaten up just for being Jewish or worse. Do attend university, because although everything points to the contrary, you are not a second-class citizen. Meditate daily and the world will just pass you by. Become socially active. Engage the anti-Semites. Don't become socially active. Don't engage the anti-Semites. Study Torah and pray all day. Only interact with your immediate family or local Jewish community. Don't be narrow-minded: this is our problem. Don't be tribal make a point of engaging with non-Jewish people (especially our 'enemies') and constantly explain yourself to them. If they get nasty, avoid confrontation and just turn the other cheek (yes, this one is an original Jewish injunction, I'm afraid). If they get nasty, report the incident to the police. If the police get nasty? Then just turn the other cheek. And then if all has failed, either leave the Jewish religion and convert, or emigrate to Israel (this latter suggestion is of course a positive mitzvah in itself, but more and more people from my area are packing up and going out of fear). Many examples could be given of individual Jews and Jewish groups trying to carry out the above, often contradictory injunctions. But apart from emigration to Israel, none of these remedies actually works. The reason why the other scenarios simply don't work in the long run is there in the Bible, specifically in Exodus 3. In Exodus 3, G-d is asking Moses to take the Jewish people out of Egypt into the Promised Land of Israel. Moses is apprehensive about encountering the divine. 'An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from amid the bush.' The bush is later identified as Mount Sinai, and indeed the word for 'bush' in Hebrew is similar to the word Sinai. But the words bush and Sinai in Hebrew also mean 'hatred'. What G-d is telling the Jewish people through Moses is that the hatred that has been the Jewish experience throughout history is actually endemic in human nature and will never be quenched. But (and it is a big but), Moses should also tell the people that He is not only the G-d of their ancestors, but also Eyeh asher eyeh. Tell the children of Israel that 'Eyeh has sent me to you.' There is no verb 'to be' in the present tense in Hebrew and the phrase means 'I will be that I will be'. This passage which has been shamefully mistranslated into other languages as 'I am' is interpreted in Judaism as meaning: 'I will be with the Jewish people in their present grief and sorrow and I will also be with them in their future subjugations by other kingdoms.' In other words, G-d is not simply watching over the Jewish people. He is not only going to accompany them in all their troubles, but he is actually there in the midst of their suffering, and is in fact suffering with them. G-d is there in the midst of the hatred, suffering with his Jewish people and will never forsake them. This message is what has kept the Jewish people going for 4000 years. The Joseph stories are always read around the Jewish festival of Chanuka, the winter festival of commemoration and dedication. Chanuka retells the story of the first major attempt to prevent the Jewish people from adhering to their specific and often peculiar habits and customs. These include circumcision of baby boys, the practice of shechita and eating kosher food. Attempts were also made by the original Syrian Greeks and their many emulators throughout history to prevent Jewish adherence to Shabbat and festivals. So, throughout the ages, games are played and other tactics employed to prevent the powers-that-be (and especially the Christian world) from interfering in the free expression of the Jewish religion, as is happening again today and especially in some of the most libertarian countries in the western world. So, as we remember the story of Joseph which appears to turn out well in the end, and as we light the Chanukah candles in memory of the miracle of Chanukah, which takes place this year during the first week of December, let's finish with a modern story. Eight years ago, my first grandchild was born in the Laniado Hospital, Netanyah, Israel. The Laniado Hospital was built from scratch by the Klausenberger Rebbe. The Klausenberger Rebbe was married with 11 children when the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern Europe struck Hungary where he lived. The Rebbe survived the Holocaust in a number of concentration camps, but his entire family were murdered. Eventually, the Rebbe arrived in the new State of Israel and dedicated himself to building a hospital that would particularly help new mothers and babies. He who had lost everything started again and never complained. This is an account of his reaction when informed that his eleventh and youngest child had just died of severe illness in concentration camp, having managed to survive the war. 'The Rebbe was in the hospital in Displaced Persons camp when he received the news of his son's death. He rose from his sickbed, recited the full blessing with great emotion and announced in a voice that could be heard from one end of the hospital to the other that he did not harbour any complaints against G-d's judgment and that he accepted all of His decrees with love.' So this is what Joseph meant when he told his brothers that 'G-d had intended it for good'. And that is why so many people regard the Shoah, in which the religious Jews of Europe were mostly wiped out, as the beginning of the Messianic redemption. Huge and seemingly inexplicable suffering from our point of view may have reasons on the Divine plane which we cannot understand. And this is why the creation of the State of Israel which was fought for against all the odds by its tiny, beleaguered population (including people who had just arrived as human skeletons from the concentration camps of Europe) was and still is an integral part of this equation, as exemplified by the work being done by Laniado Hospital and many other Israeli institutions. Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic, author and translator who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible. 'No room for Christianity': American evangelist is refused entry into Turkey An American-Canadian evangelist has been barred from entering Turkey in an apparent breach of an official undertaking that he would be able to rejoin his family there. David Byle has lived in Turkey for 19 years and was arrested and detained on October 13, the day after Pastor Andrew Brunson was released. He was given 15 days to leave the country but was told that a re-entry ban would not be issued. However, according to International Christian Concern, when he flew last week from Stuttgartt to Istanbul, he was refused entry. He said: 'At the passport control, the policeman checked my documents, put his entry stamp on a page in my passport and slowly pressed down on it, with his eyes fixed to the computer screen in front of him.' He continued: 'The entry stamp was put in my passport, but his eyes didn't leave the screen, and a frustrated look spread over his face. He picked up the phone, and shortly thereafter another policeman arrived to take me to their office. 'I overheard them saying, "We need to cancel this entry stamp; there's an entry ban on the guy!" 'My fears were proven true: an entry ban, and not a three-month or one-year ban, but a permanent one,' he said. Byle remained in a detention centre before leaving Turkey. During his residence in the country he has faced a number of short-term detentions and interrogations as well as attempts to deport him. He intends to contest the ban but is not hopeful of success. Claire Evans, ICC's regional manager, said: 'Turkey is making it increasingly clear that there is no room for Christianity, even though the constitution states otherwise. It is no coincidence that Turkey decided to initiate this process the day after Brunson's release from prison and that, in doing so, the authorities ignored a court order. We must keep the Byle family in our prayers during this period of difficult separation.' Philippines president Duterte tells people to worship God at home, not church Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte has told the faithful they are better off worshipping God in their own homes as he branded members of the clergy 'idiots' in his latest standoff with the Catholic Church. Duterte said in a speech on November 26 that Catholics should build a chapel in their own homes instead of paying 'idiots' at church to conduct important services like baptisms and funerals. 'When someone is baptized, you have to pay...when someone dies, you have to pay,' president Duterte said, according to Rappler. 'Build your own chapel in your own house and pray there. You don't have to go to church to pay for these idiots.' The Philippines is predominantly Roman Catholic but the Church has found itself under frequent attack from the president after criticising his brutal crackdown on drug traffickers. The president sparked anger across the Philippines earlier this year when he called God 'stupid' for allowing Adam and Eve to be tempted. 'You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work,' he said. In August, he threatened violence against members of the clergy, telling a meeting of business leaders, 'Is there any bishop here? I want to kick your a**.' Then in comments on All Saints' Day on November 1, he again courted controversy by suggesting Catholics put his picture on the altar instead of that of 'drunkard' saints. 'Just stay with me. I'll give you one patron saint so you can stop searching for one. Get hold of a picture of mine and put it on the altar - Santo Rodrigo,' he said. Theresa May accused of blocking Asia Bibi asylum offer British newspapers are reporting that the UK did not offer asylum to Asia Bibi after Theresa May refused the appeals of Cabinet ministers. Reports in The Daily Mail and The Sun accuse the Prime Minister of rejecting the plea of Home Secretary Sajid Javid to grant the Pakistani Christian mother asylum over fears that it would compromise the safety of British diplomats in Islamabad and stoke tensions among British Muslims. The Prime Minister and UK Government have not formally commented on whether Britain is offering asylum to Bibi. However, the Catholic Herald reports that Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Prime Minister's special envoy on freedom of religion and belief, last week suggested that doing less may be the best approach. 'It is entirely appropriate that maybe less is more,' he said. 'But in saying that, it does not mean that we are not doing anything. We are doing a great deal. 'We are working both with Pakistani authorities and like-minded countries so that whatever Asia Bibi and her family chooses to be, however that can be supported, that the British Government will continue to extend its support in that regard.' Britain has come under pressure to offer the mother-of-five asylum after repeated threats to her life since her release three weeks ago. Bibi spent the last eight years in prison on death row before the Pakistani Supreme Court acquitted her of blasphemy charges at the end of October. Radical hardliners have staged angry protests calling for the acquittal to be reversed, and threatened to kill Bibi and the judges who granted her freedom. Her lawyer also fled to the Netherlands out fear for his life. Bibi and her family are now in hiding but there are reports that they are being hunted door to door by Islamic hardliners. John Pontifex, of Aid to the Church in Need UK (ACN), told the Guardian he had been in regular touch with the family since Bibi's release and that they were fearing the worst. 'They have told me that mullahs had been reported in their neighbourhood going from house to house showing photos of family members on their phones, trying to hunt them down,' he said. 'The family have had to move from place to place to avoid detection. Sometimes they can only operate after sundown. They have had to cover their faces when they go out in public. They have had to remove the rosary that hangs from their car rear-view mirror for fear of attack.' He added: 'They say that if they are not allowed to find a future outside Pakistan, the fear is that sooner or later something terrible might happen to them.' Britain's silence on Bibi comes despite numerous high-level ministers voicing support for an offer of asylum. Conservative Party Vice Chairman and the Prime Minister's trade envoy to Pakistan, Rehman Chishti, resigned from both positions earlier this month over Britain's failure to offer Bibi asylum. In his resignation letter, Chishti called on May to personally intervene in the case to 'ensure that a morally right decision is finally made which takes into account our core values, irrespective of the position that any other country may take on this'. 'What I found shocking, is that the British Government is failing to put into practice the core values that our country stands for; religious freedom, justice, morally doing the right thing, and that when we see injustice where an individual's life is in clear danger and they have been persecuted for their faith, we do all that we can to help them,' he wrote. 'The Government should not wait to see if another country offers sanctuary, we should have had the conviction to lead on this matter and offer sanctuary ourselves straight away.' Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has also urged the British Government to make an offer of asylum in a letter to Home Secretary Sajid Javid. 'I am well aware, as a former Foreign Secretary, of the constant threat to our overseas missions, but we cannot allow the threat of violence to deter us from doing the right thing,' he said, adding that Bibi had suffered 'appalling treatment' for her faith and had an 'overwhelming claim for compassion from the British government'. Keep your money, says the mega bank that accidentally gave out $100 bills in place of $10 bills. A Bank of America ATM near the intersection of FM 1960 and Interstate 45 distributed the bounty on Sunday evening, drawing a line of vehicles and pedestrians after word of its malfunction spread. The bucks stopped with the Harris County Sheriffs Office, which sent deputies to break up the line and block anyone else from accessing the ATM by 10:30 p.m. No arrests were made near the machine on Sunday. This was an incident at a single ATM in Houston caused when a vendor incorrectly loaded $100 bills in place of $10 bills, Bank of America said in a statement. We have resolved the matter. Customers will be able to keep the additional money dispensed. It is unclear how many people profited on Sunday or how much was withdrawn from the ATM. Malfunctioning ATMs that hand out too much cash arent uncommon, said Jason Spencer, a spokesman for the sheriffs office, but its unusual for a machine to do so for multiple consecutive transactions. Typically, when a bank notices that a client has overdrawn from an ATM accidentally or otherwise it sends a letter demanding repayment of the extra funds. Before Bank of Americas announcement, Spencer said he expected the bank to follow that procedure. If someone overdraws from an ATM and fails to respond to the bank or repay the money, the sheriffs office has the option to open a theft investigation, he said. But that shouldnt be an issue since Bank of America is feeling the holiday spirit. Heres a little something extra to go under your tree, Houstonians. Chronicle reporter Andrea Leinfelder contributed to this story. emily.burleson@chron.com [November 27, 2018] Koyo Brand Bearings Launches Online Catalog of Configurable 3D CAD Models built by CADENAS PARTsolutions CINCINNATI, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JTEKT North America's Koyo Brand Bearings launched its brand new online configurator of over 1,000 products on its website. Built by CADENAS PARTsolutions, the interactive product catalog makes it easier for Koyo's customers to access 3D CAD models and product information instantly without leaving its website. As a global manufacturer of automotive components, machine tools, bearings and other components, provides precision OEM and aftermarket products for several industries, including automotive, industrial, electric motor, food processing, mining, aerospace, and steel producers. To meet the needs of their diverse North American customers, JTEKT sought an online solution for its Koyo Brand Bearings that improves the digital customer experience by providing richer product content. Now, they can find, customize and download 3D CAD models of newly-released bearings in over 100 native file formats and versions directly from Koyo's brand page on JTEKT's North American website. "Having the CAD files on the site is helping us better provide the product content our customers want," said Tom Maher, Marketing Manager, JTEKT North America, "We continually work to improve the customer experienceon our website and this program is a major step forward for us." With easy-to-download CAD models and on-the-spot product configuration, the online catalog also saves the engineer's valuable design time. In doing so, Koyo provides its customers with a productive digital experience without sacrificing accuracy or quality. About JTEKT North America: JTEKT North America Corporation, a part of JTEKT Corporation, is a global company combining modern technology with a rich heritage of quality. With more than 6000 associates and 25 facilities, including 15 manufacturing sites, 2 Technical Centers and 5 Distribution Centers, JTEKT North America manufactures a broad range of products under three solid brands: JTEKT Automotive Systems, Koyo Brand Bearings and Toyoda Machine Tools. For more information visit https://jtekt-na.com/ About CADENAS PARTsolutions CADENAS PARTsolutions is a leading provider of next generation 3D part catalog management and sales configuration solutions. For large manufacturers, CADENAS PARTsolutions provides centralized 3D parts libraries making it easy for global design teams to find, reuse, and control standard and proprietary parts. For component manufacturers, CADENAS PARTsolutions provides 3D product catalogs with digital CAD download technology, helping businesses increase sales lead generation and to ensure that components get "designed in" to OEM products. For more information visit PARTsolutions.com Media Inquiries CADENAS PARTsolutions Adam Beck Marketing Manager 400 Techne Center Dr., Ste. 301 Milford, OH 45150 USA Phone: (513) 453-0453 Fax: (513) 453-0460 adam.beck@partsolutions.com www.partsolutions.com @partsolutions View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/koyo-brand-bearings-launches-online-catalog-of-configurable-3d-cad-models-built-by-cadenas-partsolutions-300751551.html SOURCE CADENAS PARTsolutions [ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ] Chevron Corp. New projects in the Gulf of Mexico are expected to reverse nearly 20 years of declines in offshore natural gas production, a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows. Offshore natural gas production in the U.S. waters of the gulf has steadily been declining since 2001. However, new field starts are expected to slow or reverse that long-term trend. Children misbehaving for the umpteenth time this month? Perhaps a threatening note from Krampus, the half-goat, half-demon, is what they need. "I love to punish the naughty little children" Krampus will write to disobedient children. "I first like to spank them with bird switches, oh how I love to hear them squeal out in terror. But that is just the beginning. The really naughty children, well let's just say, I like to have them for dinner..." The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston, 5601 South Braeswood, will host a citywide clothing, toy and food drive from 7 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2. Participating in the drive with the center are Bnai Brith, Edward M Gardner PC CPA and Temple Sinai Brotherhood. Hurricane Harvey has put a strain on our community and items are still needed to help those who have flooded and who are in need, said Ed Gardner, CPA Project chairman and project founder. The community is asked to bring non-perishable food, clothing and toys that will be donated to the Star of Hope. Donations will be collected in an 18-wheel truck at the center. Holidays are a time of joy, giving and love with our families, said Gardner. There are a lot of individuals in our community less fortunate than us. Receipts will be issued for those who want to take a deduction for tax purposes. Last year the project helped approximately 12,000 people. The goal this year is 20,000 plus. For the last 37 years, we have helped approximately 354,000 fellow Houstonians, said Gardner. Many families still need help. Help us help our neighbors. For those in West Houston, Temple Sinai at 13875 Brimhurst Drive in Houston, will collect items from 9 a.m.-noon. People who would like to volunteer are asked to call Gardner at 713-942-1040. He said volunteers are needed to collect items from donor cars and put them in the trailer. Accepted items: Clothing-gently used or new- men, women and childrens - Clean and free of stains and tears Pairs of shoes: clean, gently used or new New undergarments: men, women and children Bras and panties Mens boxer shorts Socks and T-shirts Winter coats, sweaters, jackets, etc. Hygiene Productsnew/unopened shampoo, deodorant, lotion, soap toothpaste and tooth brushes toilet paper and feminine napkins cotton balls and facial tissue diapers, pull-ups and wet wipes Bibles and educational books Paper goods: plates, bowls, napkins, forks, spoons & knives Linens-Clean, gently used or new: Sheets and pillow cases Bath towels and wash clothes New blankets (no bedspreads) Bottled water; canned goods (regular and bulk sizes) Unexpired, non-perishable foods Over the counter medicationsnew/unopened, New toys and games (no bicycles) Alarm clocks Not Accepted items: To ensure the health and safety of clients, as well as make best use of limited storage space, the following items cannot be accepted: Boomtown Coffee, a small-batch specialty roaster with locations in the Heights and downtown, will join the lineup of tenants in downtown's Capitol Tower in 2019. The Houston-based coffee shop will be part of Understory, the 35,000-square-foot community hub and culinary market at Capitol Tower, according to Skanska, developer of the 35-story building at 800 Capitol. Houston is the best country for expats in the U.S., ranking it high for career opportunities, cost of living, friendliness and housing in a list of 72 international cities, according to a survey carried out by global expatriate networking website InterNations. Houston listed number 31 overall. Miami at 42 was the U.S. city closest to Houston on the list. Montreal at number 12 and Mexico City at number 19 were the only cities in the Western Hemisphere listed above Houston. Regarding local career opportunities, only Prague beat Houston 79 percent of respondents here voiced satisfaction. "Houston has a very active economy ... it is a city with a high concentration of brain power and quantitative intelligence," an expat from Lebanon was quoted as saying. READ MORE: Data study ranks Houston among best cities to find a job Houston was ranked number eight for finance and housing. Eighty-six percent of respondents said they found housing easy to find, compared to 52 percent of respondents globally. Whereas 37 percent of respondents globally found housing affordable, in Houston that figure was 67 percent. Local cost of living was ranked fourth by expats in Houston, with 76 percent approving. Expatriates surveyed also listed Houston fourth for friendliest local residents. Other rankings were low for Houston, however. The city ranked lowest globally for transportation, with 61 percent of respondents dissatisfied compared to 19 percent worldwide. At number 67 on the list, Houston was the worst ranked U.S. city for quality of urban living. Oil closed a volatile day back in negative territory, weighed down by uncertainty over OPEC's appetite for curbing output as the rising dollar and renewed trade tensions diminished crude's appeal. Futures settled down 0.1 percent on Tuesday in New York after dipping close to a 13-month low earlier in the session. Crucial supply and demand questions will come to the fore at a pair of key gatherings over the next two weeks: the Group of 20 meeting in Argentina and an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries event in Vienna. "Oil traders are very nervous right now," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. "The market's been beat up so bad and the big question is can we hold $50? We are definitely in a downtrend." EARLIER: Crude gains most in two months on optimism over end to glut U.S. President Donald Trump added to fears about slackening demand, saying in a Wall Street Journal interview that he'll likely go ahead with plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods if negotiations with Chinese leader Xi Jinping fail to produce a trade deal. "In this trading environment where all the moves that we see are exacerbated, the idea that the oil market has found a bottom doesn't seem to be taking hold yet," said Gene McGillian, senior analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. America's unexpected sanctions waivers for Iranian oil, record Saudi output and rising trade tensions have sent crude into a bear market. While Saudi Arabia wants a production cut to support prices, the market is abuzz with talk that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman may not be able to defy Trump's calls for lower prices, especially after the White House supported the Saudi price following the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. PUMPING IT: Saudi daily oil output surpasses record 11 million barrels West Texas Intermediate crude for January settled down 7 cents to $51.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, losses extended to 2.6 percent, bringing the contract within 20 cents of the 13-month low touched on Monday. Brent for January settlement sank 27 cents to $60.21 on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark traded at an $8.65 premium to WTI. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained as much as 0.3 percent on Tuesday, weighing on investors' appetite for commodities priced in the greenback. Meanwhile, crude stockpiles in the U.S. probably rose by 700,000 barrels last week, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The industry-backed American Petroleum Institute is scheduled to announce its tally of stockpiles on Tuesday, with official numbers from the U.S. Energy Department due on Wednesday. 2018 Bloomberg L.P. WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans moved ahead the nomination of Bernard McNamee, a former attorney with the Texas Attorney General's Office, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday, despite protest from Democrats he was a cheerleader for the fossil fuel industry. Last week a video gained publicity showing McNamee, who currently serves as policy director at the Department of Energy, denigrating wind and solar energy, saying because they are reliant on weather "it screws up the whole physics of the grid." "There's an organized propaganda campaign against fossil fuels," McNamee said. "You talk to millennials. You talk to housewives. You talk to people in corporate boardrooms now. They're all buying into this." Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski defended McNamee Tuesday, saying it was"one speech from an event 10 months ago, his second day in a new job" at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Austin. "Based on the conversations with Mr. McNamee, I think he understands FERC must be an independent agency," she said. "I will expect that he be fuel neutral and not a champion for one resource over another." The committee voted 13-10 Tuesday to move McNamee's confirmation to the Senate floor for a final vote, with the West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin the only Democrat to vote in favor of McNamee. Democrats had called for a delay in the vote, to allow McNamee to respond to the video, but Murkowski elected to move ahead. "I would have liked to take Mr. McNamee at his word, but after the video surfaced, I find it hard to believe he's the impartial reviewer of these issues," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, ranking member on the energy committee. "He was speaking as a private citizen and his words revealed a strong bias for fossil fuels." Since 1982, a group of local women have served the community with a simple mission statement: Making a difference in the lives of children, families and the elderly. The Cypress-Woodlands Junior Forum is a nonprofit community organization of women serving around the northwest Houston area. CWJF is a branch of the Houston Junior Forum, which was founded in 1946. CWJF is located 16000 Stuebner Airline Road, # 20, in Spring. CWJF participates in several volunteer, philanthropy and service roles throughout the northwest Houston area, including several flagship programs like Forum Friends, a program for nurturing and developing large groups of senior citizens; and BookSmart, a program that incentivizes children to read and also gives them copies of books. Carol Brushwood, current president of CWJF, said the organization runs on the dedication of its members. We have about 300 members total, including our sustainers, and about 175 actives and provisionals and pre-sustainers that actually do volunteer currently, she said. We work with reading incentive programs in the schools and we work with a lot of senior citizens in different venues around the area. CWJF works with several organizations in the area including Reach Unlimited, TOMAGWA Healthcare Ministries and school districts in the northwest Houston area, Brushwood said. According to Cheryl Faust, past president and adviser for CWJF, the organization has given more than $1 million in scholarships to students. Over the years, the Houston Junior Forum had to expand to cover more areas. Donna Soape, vice president of service for CWJF, said the CWJF coverage area, which spans from U.S. 290 to I-45, was not receiving the service it needed before the group arrived. I think it is important to us because the geographic area that we are serving had been underserved, she said. Because we concentrate on the Cypress area, Magnolia, The Woodlands and Montgomery County, that gives us an area that is really large and really diverse. CWJF participates in more than 20 programs serving the elderly, and children citizens in need. Examples include members assisting on the Humanitarian Peanut Butter Canning Project assembly line, working at the Interfaith Ministries resale shop, and the organizations signature program: Baxter the Bookworm, where a member dresses as the titular character before reading the book and giving copies to children. Although CWJF wants corporate sponsors and more members, Soape said the spirit of the organization alone is enough to keep members wanting to come back. For example, Beverly Fennessy, admissions chair for CWJF, found out about the organization while taking her dog to the vet, she said. Other members came into the organization after being approached by a friend or other member, Soape said. Each year, new members begin the process together in order to foster a sense of belonging and teamwork, Soape said. This has become a part of me, she said. I am a forum member. I think you realize just how gratifying it really is. This is [my] sixth year. Part of the success CWJF has with loyal members and service hours is partially due to the ease of signing up online and making ones own schedule, but is mostly because of the members the need to serve, Brushwood said. The beauty of our organization is we tend to attract women that have a heart for service and that would be excited about getting to know other women that have that same interest, she said. I believe that that is a draw, it's just getting our name out there and letting women find out about us. We tend to work under the radar a lot. Prospective members of CWJF can join throughout the year. The organizations Grease Lightning Gala, which is their main form of fundraising, will occur March 30, 2019. chevall.pryce@chron.com The city of Friendswood will host a Dec. 11 meeting to inform residents of the plan to transition its emergency medical response in January from a free service funded by donations and taxes to an insurance billing model. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Kenneth Camp Fire Stations training room at 1610 Whitaker Drive. City officials and representatives from Friendswood Volunteer Fire Department Emergency Medical Services and the Fire Marshals Office will attend the meeting, as well as representatives from Dallas-based Emergicon Emergency Medical Consultants, which will handle billing services for the EMS. Previously, EMS expenses was covered through revenue from property taxes and through voluntary donations, which werent covering the cost, City Councilman Steve Rockey has said. The EMS arm of the fire department costs the city around $2 million per year to operate. The citys firefighting services is funded by $1.8 million included in the citys annual budget, according to a statement from the city. Residents will still be able to make $6 donations to the fire department and the EMS through their water bill money that city officials say is needed to buy vehicles and equipment. Mayor Mike Foreman said the new model that will bill insurance companies puts the majority of the cost of the service where it belongs. This just relieves property tax revenue on our residents, Foreman said. Cost of EMS service varies, according to the citys statement, depending on a patients medical coverage and level of need when an ambulance is called. For example, if EMS transported a person needing the lowest level of care to a hospital seven miles away, insurance would be billed $1,730, according to the statement. The citys previous practice has been not to charge Friendswood residents for ambulance services except when all Friendswood EMS units were busy and an outside unit was dispatched to the call, such as from Alvin or Pearland. Neighboring cities charge for ambulance services to Friendswood residents, but Friendswood EMS units did not charge for services in those neighboring cities. That practice was one factor that has caused Friendswood EMS to lose money over the years, City Manager Morad Kabiri said. Another cause was certified emergency medical technicians demand to be paid a salary, he said. On the EMS side, its become a paid staffing, Kabiri said. Weve found fewer and fewer people willing to volunteer their time. Kabiri said about 92 percent of Friendswood residents have medical insurance. In cases where insurance companies deny claims or a patient does not have insurance, Foreman said the city would not ride our residents hard for payment. jaimy.jones@chron.com Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on November 27, 2018 2018/11/27 At the invitation of the Mexican government, President Xi Jinping's Special Envoy and Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Shen Yueyue will travel to Mexico City for the power hand-over ceremony of the Mexican President on December 1. Mexico is a major country in the Latin American region as well as an important emerging market. China and Mexico are comprehensive strategic partners which enjoy frequent high-level exchanges and strong political mutual trust. We have continuously advanced practical cooperation across the board and maintained in-depth communication on international and regional affairs. President Xi Jinping sending a Special Envoy to attend the presidency handover ceremony in Mexico demonstrates the great importance China attaches to its ties with Mexico. China looks forward to making joint efforts with the new Mexican government to build on the past achievements to promote the steady and all-round development of bilateral ties, deliver greater benefits to the two countries and two peoples and inject more positive energy into the international community. Q: Last Friday, you told us some preliminary information right after the Chinese Consulate-General in Karachi was attacked. Could you give us any updates? What does the Chinese side think of the nature of this incident? What is your comment on Pakistan's response? A: According to the investigation and notification of the Pakistani side, the attack on the Chinese Consulate-General in Karachi on November 23 is a terrorist attack, which killed two Pakistani police officers and injured one security guard. Two civilians were also killed and all the three militants were shot dead. After the incident happened, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sent a message of condolences to the Chinese Consul General by phone. Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi had an emergent telephone conversation with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during which he informed the Chinese side of the relevant situation and condemns the terrorist act. The Governor and the Chief Minister of Sindh Province, together with the senior officials of the Pakistani military police, visited the Consulate General to express condolences. The Pakistani people from various sectors have expressed sympathy to the Chinese side through different channels. The Pakistani side said that they will do their utmost to solve the case, firmly crack down on the organization who is responsible for the attack and redouble their efforts to ensure the safety of the Chinese institutions and the Chinese citizens in Pakistan and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The UN Security Council has also issued a chairman's press statement to condemn the attack in strongest terms. The Chinese side expresses heartfelt thanks to the Pakistani police for the swift and decisive actions they have taken to effectively safeguard the security of the staff of the Chinese Consulate-General. We deeply mourn for the Pakistani security personnel who lost their lives in the attack and express sincere sympathy to the injured. In order to pay tribute to the heroic deeds and sacrifice of the Pakistanians in defending the Chinese Consulate-General, the officials of the Chinese Consulate-General visited the injured security staff in the hospital and offered solatium to them and the bereaved families. Besides, many Chinese institutions and people in Pakistan, Chinese netizens and the Chinese around the world have made charitable donations on a voluntary basis. When dealing with this incident, the Chinese and Pakistani governments and the two peoples firmly trust each other, support each other and show friendliness towards each other. The facts once again prove that the friendship between China and Pakistan is higher than mountains and deeper than oceans and that our two peoples share weal and woe. China and Pakistan deserve the title of all-weather strategic cooperative partners. I would like to stress that any attempt to undermine the friendship between China and Pakistan is doomed to fail. China will maintain close communication with Pakistan on the follow-up matters. We are convinced that the Pakistani side is capable of upholding domestic security and stability and taking firm measures to earnestly safeguard China's interests in Pakistan and protect the Chinese citizens and institutions there. Q: Can you comment on the recent Iranian media reports that China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is taking over Total's stake in South Pars Phase 11 gas projects in Iran? Does this mean that CNPC has secured an exemption from the US sanctions? A: I am not aware of the specific situation you mentioned. What I can tell you is that China and Iran maintain normal cooperation in various areas and that the cooperation is open, transparent, legitimate and legal. Q: US President Donald Trump yesterday said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that it is highly unlikely for him to accept China's request that the US hold off on the planned increase in tariffs. He also said that China has to open up to the competition from the US. He added that if his meeting with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit was not successful, the US would put additional tariffs on another $267 billion of Chinese imports. What is your response to his remarks and what is your expectation for the upcoming China-US summit? A: The Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that the China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. China is willing to resolve the trade issues though negotiations on the basis of seriousness, equality and good faith. Meanwhile, we will firmly safeguard our own legitimate rights and interests. Not long ago, President Xi Jinping and President Trump talked by phone, during which they had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and issues of mutual interest. The two heads of state agreed to seek a solution which is acceptable to both sides on the trade issues. Now the economic teams from the two countries are in contact to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state. The China-US summit is just around the corner. We hope that the US can meet China halfway and follow the consensus reached by the two leaders at the telephone conversation to strive for positive outcomes of this summit. Q: According to reports, Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez reiterated at the Philippine Development Forum on November 25 that the estimated debt of the Philippines to the Chinese government by the end of 2018 will be about 0.65 percent. Even by 2022 when most of the financing for their infrastructure building program are accessed, the share of loans from China will only account for 4.5 percent of the Philippines total debt. Therefore, there is no danger of the Philippines being drowned by Chinese debt. What's your comment on this? A: We appreciate relevant remarks by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez. Indeed, China's loans only account for a very limited share of the Philippines' foreign debts. It's impossible for the Philippines to fall into the so-called "debt trap" due to these loans. China has financed relevant infrastructure projects at the request of the Philippines, which meets the needs of the Philippines' economic and social development. We believe the relevant projects will further improve the livelihood and boost economic growth of the Philippines, providing new impetus for its national development. China and the Philippines are close neighbors facing each other across the sea. In recent years, the China-Philippines relations have continued to improve and brought tangible benefits to the two peoples. No long ago, President Xi Jinping paid a successful state visit to the Philippines, during which the two sides signed around 30 cooperation agreements in the fields of infrastructure, energy, agriculture, etc. Following the consensus reached by the two leaders, the two sides will continue to deepen practical cooperation in various areas to achieve common development and deliver benefits to the two countries and peoples. Q: A group of 278 scholars from dozens of countries have called on countries to hit China with sanctions over the mass detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. What is your comment? A: Regarding the Xinjiang-related issue that you are interested in, China has made clear its position many times. We have also released a white paper and I would like to refer you to that. Here I want to stress that Xinjiang now enjoys social stability and economic growth, and the people there live a happy life. The relevant measures taken by China aim to combat terrorism. We are firmly opposed to any foreign force meddling in Xinjiang-related affairs and China's domestic affairs. Q: What is your take on the genes-modified babies in China? A: This is not a diplomatic question. I believe you may have noted that China's National Health Commission has made an official statement. Q: Could you just clarify what is the nature of the consensus reached between President Xi Jinping and President Trump? A: Like I just said in my previous reply, during their telephone conversation on November 1, the two heads of state agreed to seek a solution which is acceptable to both sides on the trade issues. According to my understanding, the two heads of state have also instructed their economic teams to enhance communication. Now the economic teams from the two countries are indeed following through on the consensus reached by the two heads of state. Q: Do you have any data or any evidence that the crackdown on the production and distribution of illicit fentanyl is working? A US Congressional panel has issued a report saying that China has failed to contain the distribution of illegal fentanyl and remains the biggest exporter of fentanyl to the US. What is your comment? A: Your question involves a professional matter. I just have some materials at hand provided by the relevant department, and I believe I can give you a fairly detailed reply. China has always attached high importance to the trafficking and abuse of fentanyl-like substances and proactively taken effective measures to handle the issue. First, we have strengthened the management and control of fentanyl-like substances and their precursors. Although there is no abuse of fentanyl-like substances in China, we have actively taken measures to list and control them. By far, China has included 25 fentanyl analogues and two precursors into its list of controlled substances. Second, we have enhanced intelligence sharing with other countries. At a meeting on drug control intelligence sharing between China and the US in October last year, China offered the US over 400 pieces of intelligence regarding the purchase of fentanyl. As to the leads for fentanyl selling provided by the US, the Chinese law-enforcement agencies have also proactively sought verification of them and given feedback to the US in a timely manner. Third, we have stepped up the search and seizure endeavour in law-enforcement. Local authorities are instructed to intensify their efforts to collect and analyze suspicious samples. They also join efforts with the customs and post services to strengthen the check and seizure of suspicious postal parcels that are sent to the US at key ports and tighten supervision over logistics and delivery services in a bid to detect and crack down on illegal activities in a timely manner. Fourth, we have reinforced the management and regulation of nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to effectively address the issue of fentanyl manufacturing and selling. As such equipment is mainly produced by manufacturers in the US, we hope the relevant US authorities will actively cooperate with the Chinese side and offer us relevant information on a regular basis. I would like to point out here that the issue involving the fentanyl-like substances and other psychoactive substances is an international one. Most of the psychoactive substances are "designed" in the laboratories of such developed countries as the Europe and the US, and their further processing and consumer markets are mainly in these countries. The abuse of fentanyl-like substances in the US at this point results from many factors. The US government surely has a bigger role to play in reducing the demand. In addition, the US has time and again accused China of being a key source of the fentanyl-like substances at home, but never submitted any accurate statistics or effective evidence to the Chinese side, and the intelligence and leads they've offered are very limited. I would like to again call on countries around the globe to jointly study and vigorously address this international problem of the management and control of psychoactive substances with the principle of comprehensive, balanced and shared responsibility. Last but not least, I shall stress that the drug issue, including fentanyl-like substances, is a global problem. The anti-drug cooperation is an international consensus. The Chinese government attaches high importance to the collective global management of the drug issue and actively cooperate with the US and other countries within the framework of United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and its domestic laws. The anti-drug cooperation also makes a highlight and model of China-US law enforcement cooperation. We stand ready to continuously strengthen our communication and cooperation with the US in this area. An hour before serving was set to start for the eight annual Katy Thanksgiving Feast, a nearly block-long line formed outside the Family Life Center. Were excited and honored to host this years event, said Richard White, senior pastor of Katy First United Methodist Church, one of a dozen congregations participating in this years event on Nov. 22. This Thanksgiving Feast had a great response from volunteers from all congregations. Were thankful that we can do this for our community, said White. FUM hosted the Thanksgiving Feast three years ago. Kathy Fraser, who helped to enlarge a Thanksgiving program started by Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in 2003, said hosting changes every year. We wanted it to rotate around so its not any one churchs outreach but its the community. White said the community had donated 300 coats from which attendees could select. In the back parking lot, Clothed by Faith had tables of clothing in bags sorted by gender and age to give to attendees, also. Last year, the nonprofit served about 500 people. Other participating nonprofits included Katy Christian Ministries, Christ Clinic and the Pregnancy Help Center. Donations to the event included nonperishable canned goods and diapers, which people who attended the Thanksgiving Feast could take home with them, said White. Church volunteers opened two serving lines of food to accommodate the guests. Many people take food to go to celebrate with their families, said White. The program also delivers meals to shut-ins, and Tina Hatcher, director of Home Impacts, which serves the homeless, also makes sure people her Katy nonprofit serves receive food. Organizers planned on this years Thanksgiving Feast serving 1,200 people. White said 1,400 attended last years Thanksgiving Feast, which he attributed to the impact of Hurricane Harvey. A lot of people still are displaced, he said. Theres just a lot of people still hurting. White opened the 11 a.m. Thanksgiving Feast with a prayer. He then listed the 12 participating 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. Peters United Methodist Church and Trinity Baptist Church. karen.zurawski@chron.com State and local officials are seeking solutions to remove the notorious Kingwood mouthbars a large buildup of sand and sediment deposited at least partly by Harvey that could contribute to flooding. Houston City Councilman Dave Martin has been meeting with Governor Greg Abbott's Executive Staff, and other state and federal officials to talk about sediment buildups. Martin said it is important to get the project funded soon because about 25 to 30 percent of dredging costs goes to setting up the needed equipment during Facebook Live chat on Wednesday with the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce. Martin met with Abbott's staff, FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Austin in October to discuss ways to remove the mouthbar after the current dredging project in the San Jacinto River is complete by the end of April 2019. "Our point in going back to the governor on Oct. 11 with a team of folks was to plead to the governor and the Texas Department of Emergency Management that while we have the equipment in the water why can't we use some additional dollars that (Houston) Mayor (Sylvester) Turner helped us with along with the resources that the State of Texas and Governor Abbott and continue this dredging project and take it from the West Lake Houston Bridge into the lake where the mouthbars are," Martin said. The officials are still determining how much needs to be removed from the San Jacinto River to limit the possibility of flooding, he said in a statement on Nov. 23. There will be approximately 500,000 cubic yards of additional sediment that needs to be removed from the mouthbar, he said in the statement. The estimate of how much sediment needs to be removed from the mouthbar is based on a recent Light Detection and Ranging study conducted by the ACOE. The study uses light in the form of pulsing lasers to measure the distance from the water's surface to the bottom of the river and Lake Houston. A media release from Martin's office states the LIDAR study allows the city to map changes in shoreline as well as make digital elevation models. It is this data that is assisting the City and ACOE in determining the amount of sediment that needs to be removed from locations along the West Fork of the San Jacinto River like the mouthbar that is located just south of the Deerwood Country Club, he said. "Most recently the Texas Water Development Board has completed the bathymetry study of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River for the City of Houston. Data from this study has been given to the ACOE to determine the amount of sediment that resulted from Hurricane Harvey. This information is useful because this study identifies underwater topography allowing the City to understand where the additional sediment brought in by Hurricane Harvey has been deposited in the river and lake as well as changes in depth," the media release states. The media release mentioned that FEMA agrees the additional sediment from the mouthbar qualifies as debris resulting from Hurricane Harvey, but 500,000 cubic yards is not directly associated with Harvey. The City of Houston currently does not have data that would provide information of how much sediment resulted from Harvey. The city is currently waiting on results from the LIDAR study. "The removal of the mouthbar cannot begin until the existing emergency dredging along the West Fork of the San Jacinto River is completed," the media release states. "Since this is a reality the city is doing all that it can to be proactive in securing land as well as permits for the mouthbar's removal once the existing project is completed by the ACOE in April. This will allow the ACOE to keep equipment and crews in place without the need for demobilization and remobilization, saving roughly $18 million." The councilman said 300,000 cubic yards of sediment have been removed from the river and the City of Houston has removed 65 tons of vegetative and other types of debris from the West Fork. "We're probably not even a third of the way there. So we have a lot more work ahead of it; the dredging companies are doing a phenomenal job and hopefully we'll have the ability to look back on it and say it was a very successful program as it's been so far since they started in September," Martin said. Lake Houston gates Martin said one of the top priorities for the 2019 is the construction of 10 additional gates to the Lake Houston Dam. Martin mentioned the City of Houston now has $265 million in their Hazard Mitigation Fund. Money from the Hazard Mitigation Fund will be used to construct the additional gates. "It's probably a three to seven year project. You just can't build the gates there, you have to study the existing dam. How you would build gates to an existing structure that's there. Will you compromise the dam in any way which you can never do because then you would flood everybody downstream from us. So there's going to have to a lot of good engineering studies to come from that," Martin said. kaila.contreras@chron.com Two months after the city of Houston amended its sexually oriented business ordinance to block a sex doll rental shop, Montgomery County and Conroe officials are looking to strengthen local ordinances in a pre-emptive strike against similar businesses. In October, Houston City Council members updated its rules on sexually oriented businesses, instituting changes that would bar plans for a store that allows customers to try out sex dolls on the premises from opening near the Galleria. Toronto-based KinkySdollS had planned to open a Houston branch where it would sell adult love dolls constructed of synthetic skin and highly articulated skeletons. The company intended to sell the human-like dolls, and rent them out so customers could use them in private rooms at the location. While Conroes ordinance already prohibits businesses that would provide a sexual encounter, Montgomery County does not. However, obtaining a permit for such a business is highly regulated in the unincorporated areas of the county. ROBO BAN: Harris County adopts new SOB rules to preempt 'robot brothels' Assistant County Attorney B.D. Griffin said counties have less ordinance making ability than cities. There are things cities can prohibit that we cannot, he said. We are looking at whether (the ordinance) needs to be strengthened at all. Conroe Director for Community Development Nancy Mikeska said Conroe council members will consider changes to its ordinance during its December meeting. City, county regulations In Montgomery County, the sexually oriented business must be permitted and the ordinance gives the sheriff the power to regulate, investigate, deny, suspend or revoke SOB permits. In fact, in May 2017, Montgomery County Sheriffs Office officials worked with the County Attorneys Office to tighten restrictions on sexually oriented businesses, specifically illegal massage parlors. Sheriff Rand Henderson said the county first developed its SOB ordinance in the 1990s at the request of the sheriffs office. Henderson said at that time the county wanted to get ahead of the curve on such businesses. While there are currently no SOBs in Montgomery County, Henderson said several unpermitted businesses have opened in the county in the past but were quickly closed by authorities. It doesnt happen very often, he said noting Montgomery County is one of only a few counties in Texas that have SOB ordinances for its unincorporated areas. (The ordinance) is more than mere lip speak, its criminally enforceable. Henderson said because of the countys strict stance on sexually oriented business, there isnt a local culture for such businesses. They are not welcome here, our population doesnt want them here, Henderson said. COMMUNITY RESPONSE: Oak Ridge North tweaks ordinance in effort to ban sex robot brothels, businesses Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack, who asked the County Attorneys Office to review the SOB ordinance, echoed Henderson adding Montgomery Countys reputation as a place to live, work and play has set standards that the community does not support sexually oriented businesses. Making sure our sexually oriented business ordinance is as strong as possible is an important step in protecting our community, Noack said. Its important for government to review policies and procedures to make sure they are current and able to address issues as they arise. This is a good time to sharpen our pencil and make sure we are protecting Montgomery County. In Conroe, Mikeska said, city officials consider a business that allows the rental sex dolls a sexual encounter. That, she added, is prohibited in the city. In these types of enterprises, typically, a person goes to the business and rents a robot that performs a sex act with them, Mikeska said. The place of business is for the purpose of the sexual encounter and currently we consider that prohibited, whether it is a robot or otherwise. Conroe Councilman Duane Ham agrees it is important to keep ordinances and regulations current. The city has regulated sexually oriented businesses for many years, Ham said. It is important to stay current on these things as new technology and wording can put an ugly wrinkle in preventing these types of businesses. Core values are still very strong in Conroe. Robots performing sex acts is something we do not need in our city. The exceptions While ordinances do stop some sexually oriented businesses, there are some that are not prohibited. Both the city and county have several stores that offer some sexually oriented merchandise. Those are not considered SOBs because their primary business is something besides services or devices meant for sexual stimulation, Mikeska said. These types of businesses are specifically inspected and comply with the city ordinance. Additionally, Mikeska said, the city does not completely prohibit strip clubs or bars with nudity. However, the city requires these types of enterprises to register with the city as a sexually oriented business. The citys extensive registration process and an inspection must be done annually. HOUSTON PULLS THE PLUG: Social media reacts to Houston's sex robot brothel ban Conroe would allow a strip club, as long as it was registered and complied with all of the requirements, which means no total nudity, Mikeska said. Specific areas of the body must be opaquely covered. Conroes ordinance also stipulates sexually oriented businesses must be a minimum of 1,500 feet from any child care facility, school, dwelling, hospital, public building, public park, church, or place of worship. At this time, the city does not have any sexually oriented businesses registered. Conroe is still a very conservative city and our ordinances reflect that view, Mikeska said. I am sure the time will come when a business comes in that will comply with all of the requirements and they could open, but when that happens it will be regulated. To read the citys ordinance, visit www.cityofconroe.org. For the countys ordinance, visit www.mctxcao.org. cdominguez@hcnonline.com A Harris County deputy says a former neighbor sent him disturbing Facebook messages threatening him and his family. Jason Keith Walden, 45, was arrested Sunday and charged with felony stalking after the Precinct 4 deputy recognized him in a voicemail. Two weeks ago, Walden allegedly contacted the officer using three fake Facebook profiles, listed as Alisha Will, Alisha Will, and Gucci Man, according to court records. Over the course of three days, Walden used the fake profiles and Facebook messenger app to call the deputy more than 100 times and leave threatening voicemails. The officer said one or more of the voicemails were about killing him and eating his children. On Nov. 18, Walden allegedly left the following voicemail transcribed in court documents: "Motherf**** when you wake up in the morning I'm going to be waiting around the corner, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to pull you over you little constable and I am going to drag you out of your car and I am going to smush your head on the concrete because you're so ugly, okay? As you leave this morning, watch out, all the way on your way to work, better be careful okay? Say goodbye to your family. Bye bye." Court documents say Facebook was able to confirm the fake accounts were create using the same phone number, belonging to Walden. Stalking is a third-degree felony in Texas. If convicted, Walden may face a sentence between 2 to 10 years. He is currently in custody in a $5,000 bond. ICYMI: Special needs son given Confederate flag hat by coach, Texas mom says Fernando Ramirez is a digital reporter for Chron.com and Houstonchronicle.com. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. Follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93 or email him at Fernando.ramirez@chron.com. Two men identified by friends and family as up-and-coming Houston rappers were shot to death Tuesday morning in a car outside a west Houston strip club. The younger brother of Nicholas Esene, who performed as Ghost Magneto, said the musician was killed alongside his pal Kenyon Tennessee in the Club Onyx parking lot in the 3100 block of Bering near Richmond Avenue. "His music was out there. There were kids singing my nephew's songs. That was a shock to me," said Tennessee's aunt, Skylar Tennessee-Allen, a parole officer. Both men were fatally shot in what Houston police Lt. Larry Crowson said may have been a targeted attack orchestrated by at least two suspects who fled the scene. No arrests have been made. A witness heard gunshots ring out in the strip club parking lot at around 4 a.m., according to authorities, but a security guard was unable to find where it was coming from. About a half hour later, both men were discovered dead in a silver Mercedes-Benz, Sgt. Thomas Simmons said. Wrong place at the wrong time, Esenes brother, Christian Gadison, said. The motive behind the double slaying remained unclear Tuesday night as Gadison expressed fears his 24-year-old brother got tangled up with a bad crowd. He found out about his brothers death from his grief-stricken mother, who booked a flight back to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia to be with her child. Esene, a graduate of Seven Lakes High School in Katy, has a toddler daughter that Gadison said he will now help care for. The other aspiring wordsmith, Tennessee, who performed as Kenny Lou. Just last week, he released the Dont Get It music video with Enzo, another Houston-based artist. Since then, more than 14,700 people have watched Tennessees last performance on YouTube. Hours before the shooting, the two rappers attended the Texans game, according to Tennessee's aunt, Skylar Tennessee-Allen. She expressed pride in Tennessee's budding music career that was landing him concerts and young fans. Tennessee-Allen used her experience as a parole officer to warn her nephew away from a life of crime, and his recent rise in musical success appeared to be helping. "I told my nephew, 'you don't want to go down this road. You don't want to report to a parole officer every month. You don't want to be apart of that,'" she said. She can't say the same for the men responsibly for slaying her nephew in what she could only describe as "cold blooded." "You jeopardize your life for killing someone else? Because when you get caught, you'll have to do time. Your families will suffer as you're behind bars. Two families will suffer. Their families and our families," she added. As of late September, Tennessee was out on bond after being arrested for a single count of felon in possession of a weapon. After he takes office in January, Harris County Precinct 2 commissioner-elect Adrian Garcia says that one of the issues he will focus on is holding industry accountable for environmental abuses while at the same time supporting the economic base it provides the region. I am not against the refineries; I am not against the petrochemical industry, said Garcia, 57. I support and applaud and am grateful for what they contribute to our economy, but none of that is permission to make the community sick. Its important that we sit at the table together and make a commitment to recognizing that we have among the highest rates of cancer in children and adults in Texas. I dont think it is a coincidence that you have that and then you have the refineries. Garcia, a Democrat who defeated two-term Republican incumbent Jack Morman in November, has a list of other priorities, including staging regularly scheduled town hall meetings and other community events and taking a fresh look at flood control. Youve got to be from another planet if you take office in this community not realizing that Houston and Harris County floods and as a result, (that) should be a priority on Day One, said Garcia, who previously was a Houston City Council member and Harris County sheriff. In addition to traditional measures such as building more detention basins, Garcia said he wants to challenge the status quo in addressing flood protection systems. Our society has given birth to more innovative and brighter engineers that have a different perspective on this issue, and I want to bring that creativity to the table, he said. Garcia believes that decisions made by the federal government, which controls much of flood protection funds, do not benefit lower-income areas. Residents in low-income neighborhoods, he said, are the most vulnerable to disasters, particularly in the region along the Houston Ship Channel and near the petrochemical industrial complex, where flooding can pose the threat of toxic spills. During the campaign, Garcia said that Morman should have criticized Gov. Greg Abbott for suspending environmental regulations for companies in the seven months after Harvey. Precinct 2 includes the Houston Ship Channel, where 460,000 gallons of gasoline spilled during the storm. Garcia said only a brief suspension, given the magnitude of Harvey, was appropriate. Plans for town hall meeetings Garcia said that conducting community events and regular town hall meetings will set him apart from Morman, who Garcia claimed became complacent during his term. Precinct 2 encompasses a sizable portion of east Harris County including Deer Park, South Houston, Webster, Clear Lake, La Porte and much of the city of Pasadena. The Precinct 2 commissioner controls more than $150 million in funds and represents a precinct of more than 1 million residents. Garcia also said he would focus on after-school, job-training and early education programs. Whatever public investment we make in our communities has to be tied to our schools, Garcia said. It has to be tied to the local economy, and you have to make sure that people are participating in the revitalization and redevelopment in our own communities. For Garcia, many issues, like criminal justice reform and equity, go back to a strong educational foundation and begin with questions on how to reach people before its too late. Garcia said the black cowboy boots he wears every day remind him about the importance of education and positive influences. These particular boots arent manufactured by Lucchese, Tony Lama or Old Gringo, but handmade as a gift from a death-row inmate while Garcia was sheriff. The boots serve as reminders to me that here was a guy who could have been making a lot of money with these type of boots with his skill, and yet he was sitting in a prison system, Garica said. What could we have done for him early on that would have kept him from taking that route? Hispanic representation Precinct 2 has a large Hispanic population. Pasadena has a population of over 60 percent Hispanic according to U.S. Census data from 2017. Garcia was born to Mexican immigrant parents and grew up not speaking English. While he said he doesnt believe that only a Hispanic can represent a Hispanic constituency, he added that elected officials must work to understand those residents experience. You dont have to look like people to effectively represent them, but if you dont, then you sure as hell work your ass off to do it. When you do (look like them), you work your ass off even more, Garcia said. If I have any legacy, I want it to be that a kid like me who grew up in a tough neighborhood, who is a product of public schools, who didnt get a college education, took on a blue-collar career and did some of the hardest work, like patrolling the streets of Houston, can grow up to be the commissioner of the one of the most significant geographies in our country, he said. I want kids to say that I can do that, so can they. Pasadena City Councilman Cody Ray Wheeler said he is looking forward to the change in representation Garcia brings to Precinct 2. Ive always said that its important for elected officials to be reflective of the population they represent, he said. Thats not to say that you have to be a certain race or ethnicity, but I think its important to share backgrounds and values to fully understand a community. I think were going to see a lot more of our county commissioner now that Adrian Garcia has taken office, Wheeler said. Garcia will be the first Hispanic and the first Democrat to represent in the Precinct 2 seat since Sylvia Garcia, who was ousted after two terms by Morman in 2010. Adrian Garcia was part of a Democratic surge in Harris County that flipped the Republican stronghold in key positions held by Morman, former Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and others. During the campaign, Morman, a Deer Park resident, inferred that Garcia was running to use the Precinct 2 office as a stepping stone to seek higher office. Garcia spent 23 years with the Houston Police Department. He was elected to Houston City Councils District H in 2004 and served six years as sheriff. He left that position in 2015 to embark on an unsuccessful mayoral run. In 2016, Garcia ran unsuccessfully to unseat longtime U.S. Rep. Gene Green. Garcia said he is ready to represent by meeting his constituents where they live. Ive always believed in campaigning at the voters door so that I could understand the issues in the respective neighborhood Baytown, Galena Park, Pasadena or Deer Park, he said. I wanted to make sure that I have a good understanding because seeing the challenges people face helps digest the issue and helps me develop a plan on how to respond. Garcia lives with his wife, Monica, in Precinct 2s Lindale Park. yorozco@hcnonline.com Any kid ready for Christmas knows in order to make it onto the "Nice List" you have to be on Santa's good side. But "naughty" kids wanting to get a word in with Santa before the holidays will have the perfect chance to do so thanks to a new fundraising event hosted by a local youth police program. The Pearland Police Explorers Post #237 will host a "Mug Shots with Santa" photo op event this Friday, Nov. 30. Pearland Police Explorers is a youth police training program for high school students and young adults through age 21 that are interested in law enforcement careers, said community outreach officer for the Pearland Police Department Ryden Cohen. Cohen said the program is supplemented through fundraisers the students hold, including ones like the "Mug Shots with Santa" event. "Also every year we generally pick a family in need during the Christmas season and a portion of this fundraiser will go toward purchasing gifts for that family," Cohen said. DAZZLING LIGHTS: The best spots around Houston to see holiday lights in 2018 This is the first year the Pearland Police Explorers Post has organized the event. On its first day last Saturday, Cohen said about 200 people came out to take their mugshots with Santa, and over $2,000 was raised for the program. "We were actually pretty surprised and happy with the number that we did get," Cohen said. "We didn't think we would make $2,000 on the first day, maybe in total, but on day one to hit that number we were pretty impressed and pretty happy with that." All ages are welcome to take photos, which run $10 for the first person in the photo and $5 per additional person, with a four-person limit due to space restrictions. Attendees can chose the crimes that get kids on the naughty list by choosing from booking signs ranging from stealing the covers, to refusing to nap, or being a Dallas Cowboys fan. Santa and a few of his elves will also be on deck to take photos with children and, yes, adults too. "If it's anything like day one on the next two days, [expect] roughly 30-45 minutes to work your way through the line," Cohen said. Cohen said due to the success of day one, he thinks the event will become an annual tradition. "I can tell you now this will probably be something that becomes an every year type of thing, we might switch the concept up," Cohen said. WINTER TO DO LIST: The most magical Houston-area events to get into the holiday spirit Naughty or Nice, families, children and even grown adults will have two more chances to get their mugshots with Santa: 5:30-8:30 Friday, Nov. 30 and Wednesday, Dec. 5 at the Pearland Police Department located at 2555 Cullen Parkway. Cohen said families can have the photos taken on a cell phone for immediate results or by program volunteers which are sent via email. Cash and credit cards are accepted. Do you plan on taking your mugshot with Santa? Send us your best mugs to rebecca.hennes@chron.com with the subject line "Mugshots with Santa." 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 Animal Rescue Kingdom / Animal Rescue Kingdom Animal Rescue Kingdom is looking for a family to adopt Ted, who was found as a stray in the Houston area. He is 5 to 7 years old and is easygoing and calm. He gets along with other dogs. The Dachshund mix weighs about 20 pounds. Email animalrescuekingdom@gmail.om or call 832-267-5777. Adoption fee applies. A Sugar Land man has escaped jail time following a driving while intoxicated conviction in Fort Bend County Richard Robert Bryant, 44, was convicted after a jury deliberated for less than half an hour on Nov. 15. Bryant was then sentenced to probation in an agreement with prosecutors. As part of his plea agreement, Bryant waived his right to appeal. According to the County District Attorneys Office, Bryant was arrested during an accident investigation by the Stafford Police Department in November 2015. Lead prosecutor Tristyl McInnis reported that Stafford Police Officer Cadena responded to a major accident on Highway 59 in Stafford around 3:40 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2015. After making contact with Bryant and the other parties involved in the accident, Officer Cadena noticed several indicators that Bryant might be intoxicated. The defendant admitted to drinking earlier in the evening and agreed to perform the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. The defendants poor performance during the evaluation resulted in his arrest for Driving While Intoxicated. Bryant also agreed to provide a breath sample. Bryant reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.149. The legal limit in the state of Texas is .08. This defendants attorney argued that the defendant had a concussion which caused the indicators of intoxication, McInnis said, but a concussion cant explain the 0.14 alcohol content. He was intoxicated. Bryant was tried in County Court at Law No. 2 before Presiding Judge Jeffrey McMeans. Driving While Intoxicated in this case is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and/or a fine up to $2,000. The District Attorneys Office reported that Bryant was sentenced to 12 months probation, including a $500 fine, 60 hours of community service, a DWI education class, and attendance at a victim impact panel where offenders hear from DWI victims who survived to tell their story. Assistant District Attorneys Tristyl McInnis and Drew Kwartler prosecuted the case. rkent@hcnonline.com Police are looking the shooter responsible for critically wounding a teen outside his home in The Woodlands Monday evening, according to authorities. He was shot along North Timber Top Drive around 6:30 p.m. in the Tall Forest subdivision. He was rushed to Memorial Hermann Woodlands with two gunshot wounds, one of which the Montgomery County Reporter said was to the chest. 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. A Montgomery County court allowed an appeal to go forward in the case of a Spring couple accused of animal cruelty to their more than 200 cats. Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Edie Connelly ruled on Monday that David and Faye Spencer would be allowed to continue fighting to regain custody of the 231 cats seized from their home on Oct. 24 without having to put up a bond of more than $104,000. The case will be tried de novo meaning no evidence from the original hearing will be admissible by County Court at Law 2 Judge Claudia Laird and a jury, should the couple choose to have one. Connelly ordered the Spencers on Oct. 31 to surrender ownership of 231 the cats, who were found in varying states of illness, to the care of the Houston SPCA after officials found that several of the animals were in poor health. All of the cats showed symptoms of upper respiratory infections and one was euthanized due to its illness shortly after arriving at the HSPCA. At the same Oct. 31 hearing, Connelly ordered the couple be held responsible for the more than $52,000 accrued in veterinary bills and court fees since the original seizure of the cats on Oct. 16. The couple was first required to put up twice that amount as bond to appeal the decision, a total which was waived by Connelly on Monday. RELATED: Hundreds of cats seized from Spring home On Nov. 13, in a closed session with Connelly, Montgomery County Assistant County Attorney Ronald Chin and officials from the HSPCA, the Spencers testified that they were unable to afford the bond amount, leading Connelly to delay ruling until she received documents pertaining to their financial situation. The couple stated in the documents that their only income came from social security and disability benefits and listed a $40,000 truck as their only asset of value. The couple claims that they cared for the cats with the help of donations made through a non-profit organization called Dave and Fayes Cat Sanctuary, a registered Texas domestic corporation founded in June 2017, according to state records. Connelly had originally given the couple until Nov. 20 to submit financial documentation on the non-profit the exact tax-exemption status of the organization, as well as how much money theyve raised through it, is unclear. The couple maintains a website and Facebook page for their sanctuary, which has a link to a Paypal donation site that states it is managed in conjuction with WoodForest Bank. There was also a GoFundMe page set up for the couple, which showed several hundreds of dollars in donations from 15 donors. Laird has 10 days from the order being handed down to set a hearing date for the Spencers. mrincon@chron.com The Lone Star College System announced last week that a federal audit determined it gave out $13.8 million of financial aid to ineligible students over a four-year period. The announcement came after college officials received a final program review from the Department of Education: the millions of incorrectly awarded aid was in the form of Pell Grants, Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants and federal loans and made up about 2 percent of the almost $663 million awarded from 2012 to 2016. LSC Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Mott said that the students who incorrectly received the funds would not be responsible for paying the almost $14 million back the college would shell it out from its reserves. This is not something we want to happen, but this is why for a couple of years now we made building up our reserves a priority so we can deal with this or Hurricane Harvey and still continue operations, Mott said. WHOOPS: Federal audit finds Lone Star College wrongly distributed $14 million in grants, loans Regardless, Mott said she plans to file an appeal of the findings, which would be due Dec. 7. First, they need to review records, she said. Out of the 17,000 records the system handed over to the Department of Education, more than 6,000 of them were found to be linked to students who were deemed ineligible for financial aid because they either attended ineligible high schools or did not meet the satisfactory academic progress requirements, which include a minimum GPA, their completion rate and total number of credit hours. In total, that makes up about 6,300 students across the four audited years. Mott said while some of those students may not have met the academic criteria at a glance, they may have filed an appeal showing that they still qualify for financial aid due to extenuating circumstances. If we granted (the students) an appeal, then they can still receive financial aid, Mott said. Mott said college officials have pulled boxes of documents from storage to review and search for the proper documentation. CY-FAIR: An interview with the president of Lone Star College If we are able to find documentation that the students were correctly given financial aid, then hopefully we can remove those amounts from the $13.8 million, Mott added. The federal audit process began in August 2016 when the Department of Education notified LSC system officials that they would be conducting an off-site review. That summer, the college hired a consulting firm to conduct an audit of their financial operations. In February 2017, the Department of Education issued a program review report where the department identified the systems areas of noncompliance. It was then that Lone Star officials had two responses in which they provided documentation and detailed their plan to make the necessary changes. This October, college officials received the final program review determination of the systems liabilities from the Department of Education. Mott said that even before they received the reports, the system was making changes and addressing policies and procedures to rectify the issue. Such changes included hiring a new executive vice chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs, part of whose duties are to oversee the financial aid office, the creation of an Office of Governance, Audit and Compliance to ensure audit concerns are addressed. Mott also took over the financial aid office in March. CAMPUS UPDATE: Lone Star College renovations help campuses with repairs, modernization As an institution, we have 99,000 students. For every one of those who applied for financial aid, every semester, we have to process it. To some extent, part of our challenge is the sheer volume we have to get through, Mott said in regard to their procedures. Mott was realistic about that picture: even if theyve made the necessary corrections and are now operating as they should be, they still have to settle the bill with the Department of Education. Having this liability doesnt mean that we havent corrected anything. If we did historically give incorrect funding, we still owe back the funds, Mott said. jane.stueckemann@chron.com Santa Claus with his little red kettle and ringing bell is a welcome sight in the community, signaling the start of the holiday season. But, not every charity solicitation is as benevolent and innocuous, officials warn. As the busiest shopping season of the year gets up to full speed, crime and scams are right behind it. Its the old adage of If its too good to be true, it probably is, said Marian Leck, The Woodlands Townships director of Law Enforcement Services. Shenandoah Assistant Chief of Police Barry Gresham said that following the busiest shopping weekend of the year, residents often extend that spending mantra to charitable giving donating funds on Giving Tuesday. Even as the day comes and goes, the scams and potential crime for shoppers peaks at the end of the year, he added. There arent any major scams to be wary of in the area as of yet, but the staff at the city of Shenandoah were alerted to one potential fraud last week emails alleging to be from Republic Waste, the citys trash service provider, targeted staff members, saying they were behind on their trash bill and provided a link to get current. The only problem, Gresham said, is that residents in Shenandoah dont receive a trash bill. Just be smart, he said. Do your research. In addition to online, mail or telephone scams, shoppers at The Woodlands Town Center, various area malls, or at Shenandoahs Portofino Shopping Center, face victimization by criminals who could follow them as they shop and break into their cars when they take a break. We often see an increase of burglaries of motor vehicles around this time, Gresham said. It usually picks up in the month of December. How to avoid holiday scams Tips from the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston and South Texas on how to avoid getting scammed this holiday season - Watch out for fake charities. Often scammers will set up scams with names similar to well-known and respected charities in an effort to fool people into donating. Dismiss aggressive telemarketers. Though some charities do solicit donations over the phone, any aggression from the other side of the line is a major red flag. Avoid on-the-spot donation solicitations. Scammers might try to pressure you into giving on-site. Unless it's certifiable that it's a real charity, it's a safe bet to go home and donate through the proper channels. Beware of emotional appeals. It's the most charitable time of the year, but beware of emotional exploitation. Look out for less-that-legit transactions. Verified charities often accept donations through secure and approved websites. Beware of solicitations through wire transfer, gift cards or pre-paid cards and sketchy email solicitations. See More Collapse The Woodlands saw a slight increase in car break-ins in December 2017, as opposed to November, going from 46 to 51 motor vehicle burglaries and one to two robberies, according to township law enforcement reports. Leck said the best way to avoid becoming a victim is to be aware and be educated. Like every year before, Montgomery County sheriffs deputies have ramped up security patrols in The Woodlands through the first of the new year but, the threats arent always out in public. Leck suggests donating to local, well-known organizations and to avoid clicking on unfamiliar links or sites that ask for money. Criminals today are much more savvy, Leck said. Its not necessarily just knocking on your door you can be victimized through social media or over the phone. You need to do your homework. mrincon@chron.com A candidate who was removed from the ballot for the Nov. 6, 2018 election of the Board of Directors for The Woodlands Township has had his appeal of the removal rejected by state officials. Luis Granados, who was initially set to challenge incumber Board of Directors Member John Anthony Brown, had filed an appeal in late October over his removal from the Nov. 6 ballot with the Texas Secretary of State office. The Secretary of State probes any election-related appeals before recommending whether or not the issue needs to be investigated by the state Attorney General. According to a letter The Villager obtained from the state through a open records request, Granados was informed on Nov. 15 that after investigating his claims, the Secretary of State office was not recommending any action on the allegation. The letter was signed by Keith Ingram, the director of elections for the Texas Secretary of State. Our office has reviewed each of your concerns, but none of the facts that you have presented to us in your complaint appear to involve criminal matters under the election code, the letter states. Therefore, our office is not referring this matter to the Texas Attorney General for investigation. Granados, who has been out of the country due to a family emergency, said he was not surprised by the rejection of his appeal and said when he returns to the country, he plans to appeal the latest decision at the Secretary of State office. What a surprise. The oligarchy protects its members, Granados said in an email. The (Secretary of State ) has a pre-printed letter that they use over and over to dismiss complaints. Very soon the elections in Texas will equate the ones in a banana republic. The issue dates to August, when the candidate filing period opened for the four positions on the township board that were up for election in 2018. Granados, who had previously run unsuccessfully for a position on the Lone State College Board of Trustees, filed his paperwork to contest Brown, who was seeking re-election to the board for his second term. However, two blank spaces on the candidate filing form Granados submitted that ask a candidate to detail their length of residence of The Woodlands and the state of Texas were left blank. The two boxes are mandatory and cannot be left blank. In a letter to Granados dated Aug. 29, township employee Karen Dempsey an assistant to township President Don Norrell informed Granados that he had been removed from the Nov. 6 ballot because he had left the residency boxes blank. Brown, who eventually was placed on the ballot as the sole candidate, won re-election with 100 percent of all votes cast. The results of the election were canvassed and approved on Nov. 9. In his appeal, which cited Norrell as the responding party, Granados claimed that when he turned in the candidate forms at the township offices, he did indeed leave the residency boxes blank. However Granados alleges that he asked for help from an employee identified as a notary public about whether or not he did need to list his time as a resident and claims the person told him it was not relevant. He said he then turned in the form without answering his residency questions. Granados claimed that after the confusion, Dempsey contacted him and said after consultation with attorneys from both the township and the Texas Secretary of State, she had been informed that Granados would have to be removed from the ballot. At the time of the incident, township spokesperson Nick Wolda denied the township or any employee had given the alleged advice Granados claimed he received. Wolda also said township officials were merely following state election laws and guidance from This is outrageous and a clear manipulation to favor the candidate they can work with, representing to a large local and influent (sic) resident Huntsman Corporation, Granados wrote in his appeal to the state. Once again, the good old boys are on the Board of Directors of The Woodlands Township making decision (sic) affecting our living conditions. Brown is set to begin his second two-year term on the Board of Directors in January, and he said he had no role in the issue involving Granados candidate form being rejected. I was informed by (township) staff that an application filed with The Woodlands Township for a place on the ballot was rejected based upon guidance from the Texas Secretary of States office and accordingly (Granados) name would not appear on the ballot for the election, Brown wrote in an email to The Villager. Per the Secretary of State's Office, (Granados) did not provide all filing information on the submitted application for as required by the State election code. Brown also said that his, or anyones, employer has no relevance on how the Texas Secretary of State's Office makes, Its judgment regarding a completed or incomplete application. jeff.forward@chron.com On a brisk Wednesday morning the day before Thanksgiving, more than 100 people gathered in the parking lot of the South County Community Center in The Woodlands. Mostly, it was mothers and their children who came together in anticipation of an annual event taking over the Montgomery County Meals on Wheels routes for the day to deliver food and cards to homebound senior citizens. (The seniors) have become accustomed to and enjoy seeing the children come and visit during this day, said LaQuita Carter, who serves as president for the group: The Woodlands chapter of Jack and Jill of America. The group is an black organization of mothers who aim to nurture and strengthen their childrens leadership skills through community service and philanthropic giving during the many community programs they facilitate. There are almost 50 mothers involved in The Woodlands chapter, and they meet monthly from September through May to plan those activities for their children. To work alongside that many mothers volunteering their time, talents and treasures for the community at large is truly what community is about, Carter said. I sit in a room monthly with ladies who are not just concerned about whats happening in their own homes, but also in their communities. This year, the chapter is celebrating their 30th year here in The Woodlands, being established in 1988. However, the national organization has a birthday, too. As it was founded in 1938, the national organization is celebrating 80 years of operations. Carter said that being part of the chapter in The Woodlands allows mothers and their children to get involved in things they might not be able to do on their own. Some programs they run include cleaning up a road through the Adopt-a-Highway program and participating in peer mediation learning programs in addition to age-appropriate activities for different children. They also raise money for scholarships and charities such as the March of Dimes. Were pretty busy, but its for fruitful reasons. When I think about our group, we want to go together to make an impact thats born from faith and friendship, Carter said. Its not only the mothers who are involved in programming teenagers are elected as future leaders in the chapter. Maya Monroe serves as the teen leadership president for the organization. She said that its an impactful organization, allowiung her to gather with others and experience things she wouldnt have had the opportunity to otherwise do. The teen leadership vice president, Samone Knight, has been a member with her mother for years. You start to value it when you get older, Samone said. That insight is a little piece of the larger goal for Jack and Jill. Carter said they expect the children to take what theyve learned throughout the years and apply it when they get older. They have experiences they can take with them that will set them up to be leaders in society, Carter said. jane.stueckemann@chron.com (DV) On Nov. 27, 1978, former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White assassinated Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Milk had been elected in 1977 and, once on the Board of Supervisors, was able to pass a gay rights ordinance that protected people from being fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation. At the time, Californias legislature was debating a law that would have banned gays and lesbians from becoming teachers. Milk is remembered as one of the first openly gay people elected to public office. According to Harveys nephew Stuart Milk, Harvey predicted his own death saying, May the bullets that enter my brain smash through every closet door. In Dallas, we can claim Milk as one of our own. He moved to San Francisco from Dallas, a city he hated. Milk lived in Dallas twice. The first time was in 1958. Although he was a teacher in New York, in Dallas he had trouble finding a job and worked as an assistant credit manager for a local department store. That stint in Dallas only last four months. In 1967, Milk was transferred to Dallas from New York, where he was a financial analyst for Bache & Co. His Dallas office was in the Mercantile Building, which is now apartments and known simply as the Merc. He lived on Charming Lane in Oak Lawn, which is directly across whats now the Katy Trail from the Dallas Theatre Center, between Blackburn and Haskell avenues. In 1968, he moved to 2521 Turtle Creek Blvd. at Turtle Creek and Maple avenues, the same complex where Resource Center founder John Thomas lived. A year later, he was living in a different apartment in the same complex. From Dallas, Milk moved to San Francisco where he opened a camera shop on the Castro. That building is now preserved by Human Rights Campaign in memory of Milk. (WB) On November 26, a panel discussion was scheduled at the Heritage Foundation in Washington titled, Identity Politics Is a Threat to Society. Is There Anything We Can Do About It At This Point? The online description of the all-white, mostly male panel begins as follows: Identity politics directly threatens the achievements of the Enlightenment, the Founding and the Civil Rights Movement, from freedom of speech to freedom of association and conscience. By partitioning America into ethnic, racial and sexual groups with antagonistic demands and grievances, Identity Politics returns us to the Plessy decision legalizing separate but supposedly equal treatment and it recalls the Dred Scott era of some Americans being less than citizens. I am writing this before the event, but do not plan to attend because I consider its premise prejudicial and its non-diverse composition paternalistic. Such criticisms would doubtless be met by the organizers with rolled eyes and the observation that ensuring broader representation would be capitulating to the very identity politics they explicitly oppose. Thats convenient. Heritage proposed the ideas that became the basis for RomneyCare and ObamaCare. They have subsequently disavowed their paternity, essentially conceding that anything Democrats could accept is not radical enough. But let a hundred think tanks blossom. I am more concerned about the threat to our society from Trumps appeal to white nationalism, not from the historically oppressed groups usually associated with the term identity politics. As I wrote to one of the panelists, Andrew Sullivan, there would be less call for identity politics were it not for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. People organize around these categories in response to discrimination. Why does Heritage not organize a panel declaring resurgent bigotry a threat to society? The answer, it does not require deep sleuthing to discover, is old-fashioned privilege blindness. Any serious examination of identity politics ought to begin with the worst offender: Trump. Aside from acting like a slacker jerking off in the back of the class (his Thanksgiving remarkswere mainly about thanking himself), his entire presidency consists of saying, Look at those terrible people (Mexicans, blacks, low-IQ women) over there. It is awfully brazen amid his ceaseless bile to criticize his targets for defending themselves. Trump has asked the Supreme Court to let him implement his ban on transgender military service. The only basis for it is prejudice. He is simply driving a political wedge. He does the same thing when he demeans a judges Mexican heritage, tear-gasses refugee families fleeing violence and poverty, or encourages police to rough-up arrestees. It takes gall for white conservatives to criticize minorities considering the presidents sewer pipe of pathologies and the proliferation of white people calling the police on black people for going about their lives. Nancy Pelosis consolidation of support in her highly diverse caucus after the Democrats midterm victory reveals Heritage Foundations dire talk of balkanization for what it is: another deflection to distract us from the GOPs thwarting of the popular will through gerrymandering and voter suppression, themselves marinated in nativist identity politics. Republicans real objection is to others organizing. Nine Democrats, members of the billionaire-backed Problem Solvers Caucus, are withholding support from Pelosi unless she accepts what Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) dismisses as their GOP-friendly rules that will hamstring healthcare efforts from the get-go. The smart money is on Pelosi. Embedded narratives in our cultural environment can be nurturing or stifling, empowering or embittering. Trump pushes an ugly narrative that betrays our founding ideals, undermines our institutions, and pits us against one another. In contrast, voices that reflect the actual diversity of our population can allow us to see through the eyes of others and help us reconnect. Our demagogic president stokes white fears by inflating and often fabricating darker peoples transgressions. The proper response is not to fetishize those fears in a privileged circle of wankery, but to do as House Democrats are preparing to do: subject the demagogue to proper oversight while pursuing a legislative agenda that will serve the entire population instead of just the wealthiest one percent. If Trump is truly concerned about American carnage, he can stop denying climate change. An armed man died Tuesday morning after shooting into a restaurant and sparking a SWAT scene at a game room near Alief, police said. The man was pronounced dead around 5:30 a.m. Its unclear whether he was hit by a Houston police officers gunfire, or whether he died of a self-inflicted wound. The incident began around 12:47 a.m., when officers were dispatched to a shooting call at a restaurant in the 12300 block of Bellaire Boulevard. The man, who had been denied entry into the same restaurant the day before for carrying a gun, fired a round and grazed an employee in the head, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said. The employee is expected to survive. Witnesses told officers that after the shooting, the man fled to an adjacent game room, Acevedo said. The officers cleared the game room and found the gunman hiding upstairs in a tight, attic-like area between two air conditioning units. They gave him commands to show his hands, and he refused to comply, according to the chief. A shot suddenly rang out, and the officer, thinking that he was being fired at, returned several rounds of gunfire, Acevedo said. Officers werent able to make contact with the man again. They approached him and found him shot in the head, with a pistol in his left hand, around 5:30 a.m., the chief said. There's a "high probability" that the man killed himself after being confronted by the officers, Acevedo said. His identity is unknown at this time. He's believed to be in his mid to late 20s. The officer who fired at the man has been with HPD for two years and will be placed on administrative leave, as is customary, Acevedo said. He was wearing a body-worn camera at the time. The chief said it's possible that illegal activity was happening at the game room. "We have a problem in this area with game rooms," Acevedo said. "They attract crime, they attract a criminal element, and we believe that illegal gaming is part of what's going on at this establishment." The game room will be investigated. Several people were detained on the scene and are being questioned. "You look around here you see these buildings have more cameras than a bank, so that's kind of a clue if you ask me," the chief said. "I don't think that people who are just selling Vietnamese food or cuisine worry about having that many cameras in a building." Marcelite Jordan Harris a Houston woman who became the first African-American woman to serve as a major general in the U.S. military will be buried in February in the Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Harris, who died unexpectedly on Sept. 7 on a cruise from Cuba, was 75. She broke barriers. She opened doors, her daughter, Tenecia Harris, 37, said. She made history because she was herself. Although best known for her groundbreaking advancement in the military, Harris was a beloved sister, mother and friend who never lost her devotion to her loved ones or her country. Born Jan. 16, 1943 in Houston, Harris graduated from Kashmere High School where her mother, the late Marcelite T. Jordan, worked as a librarian. She graduated from Spelman College and the University of Maryland University College. She later received an honorary doctorate of letters from Spelman. During her tenure in the U.S. Air Force, she was the first woman aircraft maintenance officer and one of the first two women air officers commanding at the U.S. Air Force Academy. She also served as a White House social aide and personnel staff officer under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Former President Barack Obama appointed her to the board of visitors of the Air Force Academy, where she served until 2016. Her historic promotion to major general came while working at the Pentagon, where she managed a workforce of more than 125,000 technicians and managers and maintained the $260 billion Global Reach-Global Power aerospace weapons system inventory, according to her published obituary. Longtime friend Vera Whisenton of Galveston met Harris during their freshman year at Spelman. She had just finished calling her parents from a phone booth one day when she noticed a girl in a ponytail and bright braces waiting outside. Im Marcelite and Im from Houston, Whisenton remembered her saying. Their friendship lasted for more than 50 years a lifetime of parties, phone calls and memories. Whisenton remembers the time they got lost for 20 minutes in an Atlanta parking garage. She recalls Harris dream to move to New York or Los Angeles to become an actress. She knew how hard it was for Harris to find a job after college before she signed up for the Air Force. Harris once told Whisenton that she joined the Air Force because the uniforms are pretty. Tenecia Harris said her mother never stopped being herself, even as she moved up the ranks. She knew what she liked and she worked hard, she said. Harris raised two children, Tenecia and her brother, Lt. Col. Steven Harris, managing to achieve what her daughter calls true work-life balance. She decorated the house for Christmas according to color schemes, loved all types of line dancing, once taught her classmates how to do the Macarena, and loved oatmeal raisin cookies. Growing up for me, she was my mother, she said. It wasnt until she was in high school that she realized the significance of her mothers military accomplishments. The accolades were many: the Trailblazer Award by the Black Girls Rock Foundation, Women of Legacy Award by Black Enterprise, Living Legacy Patriot Award by the Womens International Center, Woman of the Year by the National Organization of Tuskegee Airmen, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. To say Im proud is such an understatement, her daughter said. Harris died at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Her sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and Richard Johnson, as well as her longtime companion and travel partner, retired Lt. Col. David D. Branch, were with her. She will be buried on Feb. 7 at Arlington National Cemetery alongside her husband, Lt. Col. Maurice Harris. ileana.najarro@chron.com A teen girl's plea to Mayor Sylvester Turner demanded that he make good on his pledge to stop campus violence after the third gun-related death of a Lamar High School student in a month. The email from 17-year-old Elizabeth Nelson-Fryar landed in the mayor's inbox hours after De'Lindsey Mack was gunned down a block from their River Oaks campus. The Nov. 13 note recalled the "emotional and mental pain" caused by the feared gang-related slaying of De'Lindsey Mack and the deaths of Lamar students Pierce Schwartz and Samuel Yeargain in an apparent murder-suicide that rocked the school less than a week earlier. "I was at the student walkout at city hall last year where you spoke to us," Nelson-Fryar wrote, referencing the March for Our Lives rally that protested the lack of gun control after the Parkland High School massacre in Florida. "You told us we needed change, we deserved change. Where is that change, sir," she added. "We waited. We waited, and more kids, our friends and peers, died because of the wait. This is not the world we want to live in." The letter drew Turner's attention and on Tuesday led to a sit-down with Nelson-Fryar and about a dozen other student leaders to discuss how to make Houston ISD schools safer. One of the solutions Turner offered during the meeting was that the Houston Police Department had agreed to boost supplemental patrols to 10 HISD campuses, including Lamar the second largest school in its district. "We do care and we do hear you, and we are concerned about your safety," the mayor said. Turner spoke to the students for about 15 minutes before asking members of the media to leave the conference room so he could speak to the students alone. What the mayor said during that sequestered portion of the meeting, which lasted another half hour, was not immediately known. During the first part of the meeting, and in a letter he sent to Nelson-Fryar last week, he said the Commission Against Gun Violence he created after the Parkland shooting was still working to make their safety recommendations anonymous reporting, increased police presence, more mental health resources a reality. "We are working with elected, school and community officials on finding ways to implement these recommendations, and we realize that we must move quickly," he wrote in his Nov. 21 response. The Commission is slated to compile another report detailing unspecified "substantive changes" at the state and federal levels, Turner added. Even though the changes may not happen until after Nelson-Fryar leaves Lamar, she wrote in her email she was worried for her mother, who is a teacher, and her brother, who is studying to become an educator as well. After the meeting, Nelson-Fryar said she is worried for everyone. "I would like to have everybody in schools feel safe, whether that is the teachers, the students, the staff," she said. "I think it's really important for everybody to not be afraid to go to school, to walk home." For the River Oaks-area high school, November was deadly. The death of three students in less than a week left parents and their children on edge. Just days after Mack's death, worried parents met with district leaders to address security issues, and administrators promised heightened security efforts through the end of the school year. Recent crime statistics for the Lamar campus, for both all of last school year and since the beginning of this school year, were not available. In the 2016-2017 school year, however, the district reported 318 total incidents at the campus, according to the district's most recent disciplinary report released in January. Three of those incidents involved the use or possession of a firearm, and 32 involved fighting. Seventeen involved assault against non-employees or volunteers. The large majority involved violations of code of conduct and possession of a controlled substance, according to the report. Houston ISD interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said the district police department, which is currently understaffed, is working with HPD to pool resources and that new security measures would be implemented, without elaborating on what those precautions would be. In addition to Lamar, nine other schools will receive supplemental patrols, she said. She did not identify the other schools. "This not just an issue for Lamar High School," Lathan said. "It's a city issue." Mack's slaying has driven much of the conversation that is prompting the changes. The shooting occurred during the school day and caused a lengthy lockdown at Lamar and the nearby St. John's School. Mack was leaving school around 12:15 p.m. when three people, including a masked gunman, confronted him and a 15-year-old girl with him. His assailant opened fire on him next to the Bethany Christian Church parking lot, police said. After he collapsed, his assailant stood over him and fired more shots. The gunmen fled in a four-door, black Subaru with paper license plates and a plastic bag covering the back passenger side window, according to police. No known arrests have been made. The probability that gang activity was a factor in the slaying was high, Chief Art Acevedo said, although he wouldn't completely confirm that was the case. Acevedo, meanwhile, pointed to two gangs that are feuding in the South Side as a major source of violence in the city. "They're either going to have to start getting along better, or we're going to be flies on stink and they're not going to like it," Acevedo said. "It's coming." Mack's father and pastor both said that Mack himself wasn't a gang member. Instead, he cultivated a persona on social media that portrayed himself to be in a gang, leading to his death, they said. Police reports obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that Mack's mother lodged two complaints that her son was being threatened once in 2016 and once in April of this year. The earlier complaint referenced a gang member. samantha.ketterer@chron.com Twitter.com/sam_kett nicole.hensley@chron.com Harris Countys rich courthouse lore, the criminal trials that Houstonians talk about over breakfast, has for the past 24 years been on full view almost exclusively in the courtroom of state District Judge Jim Wallace. The judge, who is retiring at the end of the year, spent his judicial career with the doors to his court wide open to let photographers take pictures, TV producers fit lawyers with small microphones and news crews turn witness rooms into makeshift recording studios. Unlike any other judge in Harris County, he even allowed reporters with just cell phone cameras take photos and videos. Wallace said it seemed natural to let reporters keep the public informed not only about the handling of Harris Countys notorious crimes, but the judges who are making decisions that affect many lives. Theres too many judges down here who people dont know who they are, Wallace said. By opening the doors to the courtroom, it gives people the opportunity to learn more about the judge. But the veteran judge is retiring in an era when access to the courts is being limited, not expanded, with some judges who have been open in the past prohibiting laptops and not allowing photos. The problem, experts say, is that the Texas legislature has provided limited guidelines on the operation of state and county courts. In Harris County, the openness of proceedings allowed in Wallaces court is hardly the norm, with other courts not only prohibiting reporters from bringing cell phones, tape recorders or laptop computers into the court but even blocking taking photos though windows while standing outside the courtroom. Those limitations are because of the discretion of judges, not because of the law that prohibits photos or recordings. There are issues when it comes to public access, but the law is generally pretty favorable, said Joe Larsen, a Houston attorney who specializes in open government. Theres actually a rule of procedure when it comes to cameras in the courtroom and it allows cameras, in civil cases. We could use something like that on the criminal side. The rule, he said, sets out parameters for judges to consider, so they have some guidance. Otherwise, judges can have a tendency to just say no to anything that hasnt traditionally been part of trials. The Texas legislature, he said, can add those rules and parameters to the code of criminal procedure as well. We can all agree that there has to be some control, Larsen said. On the other hand, the more access the better and the court should always use their discretion to allow more access. Jaime Zamora, a retired photojournalist who covered courts for KTRK for 30 years said many of Harris Countys 38 criminal court judges have gotten comfortable with having a single pool camera capture opening statements, closing arguments and verdicts in big trials, but few have allowed the sort of extensive coverage of testimony that Wallace permitted. Wallace was, without a doubt, the most open-minded judge when it came to media coverage, he said He allowed us to set cameras up all over his court, even hidden in bookshelves next to the bench. In some of those trials, crews even set up remote cameras in the middle of Wallaces court disguised as courtroom equipment to capture different angles during trial. The camera operator and sound crew were stationed in a witness room nearby editing hours and hours of testimony. In Wallaces courtroom, as it is in every Houston courtroom, photos or video of the jurors is always forbidden. When cases are in Wallaces court, Houstonians are treated to close-ups on suspects or witnesses, Zamora noted. Those photos and videos, which can bring the experience to life for viewers, sometimes happen in other judges courtrooms but not often. In 2004, Wallace allowed television and still photographers to capture every moment of Susan Wrights murder trial. It became the one of Houstons most infamous cases because of video footage of former Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler tying her co-counsel to a bloody mattress in the middle of the courtroom, climbing on and re-enacting Wright fatally stabbing husband. Zamora said the attorneys all wore microphones and the bench as well as the witness stand was wired for sound. In other cases, he said, Wallace would let reporters and photographers sit in the jury box to get a better view of what was happening at the bench. Doug Murphy, president of Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said courts are mandated to be open, and its largely for the best. But, he said, sometimes lawyers and judges play to the cameras instead of focusing on their work. Some prosecutor or a defense lawyer or a judge may more play to the camera than what their main responsibility is to the public, to the client, and to justice and to law, he said. Brian Wice, a noted appellate attorney who handled Wrights appeal, disagreed. The notion that cameras are somehow anathema to the integrity of the trial process because lawyers or witnesses may change their tenor, tone, character or demeanor is a bunch of b.s. he said. I have never found that to be true. Theatrical behavior, he said, is just part of some trial attorneys DNA. The drama would happen with or without cameras because, at the end of the day, the lawyers are always focused on convincing the jury. Wice noted that he has worked as a legal analyst for Court TV since 1994 and has often listened to opponents to open courts use that argument. However, he said he has never seen media coverage affect a trial. Wice also railed against other judges prohibiting reporters from taking photos, tweeting from the courtroom, and using laptops during the proceedings. Ive covered trials all over the country, and I can see surrendering your cell phone if youre a civilian, he said. But to require that a working journalist give up the tools of the trade, its just wrong from here to there. Wice was also involved in the high-profile domestic violence trial of the late hand surgeon Michael Brown in 2011, in Wallaces court. The trial was the talk of Houston as reporters tweeted out the details of the infamous surgeons lavish lifestyle and bizarre behavior. Brown was also defended by legal legend Dick DeGeurin and was found not guilty. Brown later died in Florida. One of the most high-profile cases recently includes the trial of failed doctor Leon Jacob. He along with his girlfrienda prominent Montrose veterinarian - were charged with attempting to hire a hitman to kill their respective exes. Jacob was sentenced to life in prison for solicitation of capital murder. His girlfriend leaped to her death from the balcony of her condo before trial. Part of the reason that trial was the talk of Houston in the spring of 2018 was because of unfettered press access to the proceedings. There were daily updates by the Houston Chronicle and nightly stories by most television news stations. It also became a primetime episode of Dateline. Wallace said as long as it doesnt disrupt the court, as long as its set up ahead of time, go for it, said Zamora, the cameraman. There was no judge that came close to giving us the type of access that Judge Wallace did. Proponents of open courts praised Wallace for his career of access for reporters. When a judge goes that extra mile and ensures that he public and the press have easy access, it serves everyone well, said Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. Some of the most important decisions in peoples lives occur in the courtroom, whether its civil or criminal, and making sure that the public can really see and understand whats happening is essential. She said publicity around the courts, whether the trial is exciting or mundane, educates the public and keeps them engaged in the process. It helps people see that even though it may be theatrical and very interesting, its not always like it is on TV, she said. It helps them understand how our court system works. Wallace said it was important to him to help the public understand who is working at the courthouse, as well as what is happening. You would hope that after John Q. Public sees that name a sufficient number of times, he still may not know a lot about the judge, but they know that person has been a judge for a while, he said. So I dont know why you would ever block access to the public to have that opportunity to educate themselves as to who actually is a judge and how the system really works. Wallace, like most judges, regrets that Texas makes judges run in partisan political elections. Texas is one of 39 states that hold some type of elections for trial court judges, but only one of eight states that require judges to run in partisan elections, according to the American Bar Association. Its a great job except that you have to run for re-election, he said. The problem with that is that it has nothing to do with what kind of job youre doing, its just that somebody wants your job. He decided earlier this year to retire at the end of the year and did not run in this election cycle. State District Judge Maria Jackson, who became the countys senior felony judge after this months election swept out every Republican, is also known for allowing cameras to set up in her court. That includes a crowded docket that she presided over in the basement of the Harris County jail in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. The courts belong to the people, she said. And the courthouses should be transparent. brian.rogers@chron.com (AP) The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that a ban on LGBT rallies in Russia violates the human rights of those wishing to march. The court based in Strasbourg, France, called Tuesday on Russia to introduce "systemic measures" to remedy the violations of the European Convention of Human Rights, to which Russia is a signatory. Russian authorities have been putting obstacles on LGBT rallies for years, turning down LGBT permit requests. The court said Russia's refusal to hold public LGBT events couldn't be justified by public disorder concerns and breached the rights to freedom of assembly and "not to be discriminated against." In a perceived bid to legalize a permanent ban on gay rights gatherings, in 2011 Russia adopted legislation on "gay propaganda" that outlaws LGBT gatherings near children. A Texas woman photographing a wedding last weekend was accused of having sex with a man at the venue, urinating on a tree and yelling drunken threats at deputies who were arresting her, according to WFAA-TV and the arrest report. Katherine Leigh Mehta, 26, was arrested and charged with obstruction or retaliation and public intoxication last Saturday at the wedding located in Weatherford. She was booked into Parker County Jail and released the same day after posting bond. RELATED: The weirdest, most bizarre reasons people have been arrested in Texas in 2017 The affidavit did not say whether Mehta was supposed to be documenting the ceremony, but multiple news outlets, including WFAA in North Texas, identified her as the wedding's photographer. The arrest report obtained by Chron.com said Parker County Sheriff's Office deputies were initially dispatched to a disturbance at the venue around 9 p.m. Two off-duty officers who were working the wedding briefed them about the situation. The wedding party told the off-duty deputies that Mehta was found having sexual intercourse with a man, the report said. When someone kicked her out of the room and told her it was inappropriate, she starting yelling near a water fountain outside the building, the report said. GALLERY: Infamous crimes in the Houston area The off-duty officers said they smelled alcohol on her breath so they escorted her out and asked her to leave. That's when she began urinating on a nearby tree, the report said. "The defendant appeared to be intoxicated to the point where she had lost all her mental and physical faculties," the report said. The off-duty officers had arrested the woman on the intoxication charge when Parker County deputies arrived. On the way to the jail, the arrest report said Mehta yelled threats at the officers through the partition in the squad car, including "Y'all won't see y'alls daughters, cause y'all are going to die" and "Y'all families will be dead by Christmas." Police charged the woman with felony obstruction after the threats. They also found a prescription bottle of Alprazolam on her at the jail, the report said. The medication, which was prescribed in her name, is used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. Police said she likely mixed that with the alcohol at the venue. Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message Beto ORourke didnt completely shoot down the idea of running for president on Monday during a town hall meeting in El Paso. While far from a declaration hell do it, ORourkes first public refusal to completely reject the idea represents a major victory for supporters who were calling on ORourke to build a campaign for the White House even before he lost his bid for the U.S. Senate. Just four weeks ago, ORourke told reporters in Houston that he would not be a candidate for president no matter if he won or lost the U.S. Senate race. But in the town hall meeting in El Paso Monday that was streamed on Facebook, the 46-year-old congressman had a new answer when asked by an audience member if he is running for president in 2020. For nearly a minute and a half, ORourke talked without saying no. ORourke said he and his wife Amy are focused on being together as a family and making sure I deliver everything that I can to the people I represent until the third of January. Then Amy and I will think about what we can do next to contribute to the best of our ability to this community. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz beat ORourke on Nov. 6 by an estimated 219,000 votes, according to unofficial election results. But even with that loss, ORourkes presidential stock has been rising. Both CNN and the Washington Post have the El Paso native among the top 10 potential Democratic contenders heading toward 2020. ORourkes narrow defeat in such a Republican-dominated state, plus his ability to raise record amounts of money as a U.S. Senate candidate, have put him on a short list of prospects that includes former Vice President Joe Biden, former presidential contender Bernie Sanders and U.S. Sens Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. ORourke used a big part of his Monday town hall to decry the border crisis in California, where tear gas was used on asylum seekers at the border. ORourke said the images of families carrying infants as they tried to escape tear gas was hard to comprehend. There are moments for which we are ashamed afterwards when we didnt do the right thing, ORourke said. ORourke then referenced a German ocean liner that was turned away from U.S. shores in 1939 with over 900 Jewish refugees on board. He also addressed the aylum seekers in a mass email to supporters early Monday. Lets do this the right way and follow our own laws, ORourke wrote. Allow asylum seekers to petition for asylum at our ports of entry. They must do so peacefully and follow our laws; but we must also ensure the capacity to effectively and timely process those claims. jeremy.wallace@chron.com Des dizaines de personnes arretees a Jerusalem dans le cadre de la repression "israelienne" contre l'Autorite palestinienne A member of the Palestinian security forces stands in front of a poster President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, 26 September (AFP). Palestinians now protesting the arrest of PA Jerusalem governor Adnan Geith. Earlier Israeli police arrested Gaith from his home in Silwan pic.twitter.com/BT2pFxQhxZ 25 novembre 2018 Israel's military police on Monday morning arrested dozens of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, in a crackdown against members of the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority's security forces.Israeli forces arrested 32 Palestinians, after breaking into their homes, and seized cash, documents, photos, Palestinian police-issued credentials, uniforms and ammunition.The detainees will be investigated by a unit in the Jerusalem District Police on charges of serving in the PA's security forces.Israel is escalating against the Palestinian Authority's presence after the US moved its emabssy to the city- Ziad Hammouri, Jerusalem's centre for social and economic rightsZiad Hammouri, director of Jerusalem's centre for social and economic rights, told Middle East Eye that the arrest campaign was part of Israel's attempts to fully control East Jerusalem, which international law regards as an occupied territory."Israel is escalating against the PA's presence after the US moved its embassy to the city. The PA presence in Jerusalem isn't new, and residents of the city working in the PA's security forces are well-known and no one tried to hide it," Hammouri said.He said that the Israeli authorities in the city wanted to cut any ties between the PA and East Jerusalem."The PA's presence in Jerusalem manifests itself in helping the residents in cases against the Israeli authorities, whether demolished houses, paying for lawyers, solving disputes between Palestinians in the city, and attending symbolic ceremonies by PA officials and the Jerusalem governor," Hammouri said.The arrests come after Israeli police arrested Adnan Ghaith, the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem, on Saturday for the second time in recent months, leading Palestinians to demonstrate in Salah al-Deen Street in East Jerusalem against this move.The Israeli magistrate court in Jerusalem extended Ghaith's detention until Thursday at noon.Judge Chavi Toker was presented with secret evidence and said the reason for his arrest was "an unlawful" collaboration with the PA's security forces, which Israel says violates the Oslo accords of 1993.No further details were given."Israel is doing two things now: demographically, it's pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem by any means, and second it is escalating the Judaisation of Jerusalem, especially after Trump gave them the green light," Hammouri said.In a statement, the spokesperson of Palestinian security forces, Adnan al-Dumairy, condemned the arrests, saying the will of Palestinians in Jerusalem would stay strong.Property saleOn 20 October, Gheith was detained for two days of questioning before being released, with Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency saying it was over "illegal activity by the PA in Jerusalem".He was also taken for questioning a number of times in recent weeks and his office was raided on 4 November.The PA's Jerusalem affairs minister, Adnan al-Husseini, has also been given a three-month travel ban by Israeli authorities, according to Palestinian officials.Israeli media have reported that authorities have been investigating the governor following the PA's arrest of a man in October accused of being involved in selling property in East Jerusalem to a Jewish settler buyer.Read more Sales to Israeli settlers are considered treasonous among Palestinians.But among Israelis, there have been calls for authorities to free the man, Issam Akel, arrested by the PA over the sale.Akel is a US citizen and Palestinian national who was detained in Ramallah for allegedly selling an apartment in the Old City to a Jewish buyer. The new History Channel documentary on the Watergate scandal may not be great art, but it is timely as heck. It describes (and, unfortunately, re-enacts) the downward spiral of Richard Nixons administration into paranoia, criminal conspiracy, self-delusion and ruin. Ken Burns it is not. But the problem is not the actors; it is the script. When Nixons words are placed in someone elses mouth, they seem like a bad writers version of a political villain. I want it implemented on a thievery basis, Nixon says. And: We are going to use any means. And: We have not used the power in this first four years. We havent used the Bureau and we havent used the Justice Department. But things are going to change now. It is hard to repeat such dialogue without rubbing your hands together and letting out a cackle. But the Trump era offers many such examples of life imitating melodrama. Recently The New York Times reported that President Trump pressured White House counsel Don McGahn to pressure the Justice Department to start a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton and James Comey. (McGahn, to his credit, warned that such an action could lead to impeachment.) Other reports indicate that Trump repeatedly asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Matthew Whitaker, who was then chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, how the Justice Department was progressing in its investigation of Clinton. The examples pile up. Remember that Trump knowing that his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had lied to the FBI allegedly asked then-director of the FBI, James Comey, not to prosecute Flynn. When Comey resisted, Trump fired him. Then the president asked Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers to publicly affirm there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. (They, to their credit, did not comply.) All this is Nixonian by any measure. Both Trump and Nixon share the same ideology of power a belief that, since their enemies are ruthless, they must be more ruthless still. Both men share an obsession with hidden enemies that actually produces more hidden enemies. And both men share a view of the executive branch involving the total subservience of every public official who reports to the president. The last point is perhaps the most significant. America has generally been blessed by having a strong executive branch, which has been a necessary source of adaptation and leadership. In the normal course of events, however, a president appoints officials who will join him in the faithful application of the law and the defense of the Constitution. The goal is not to appoint men and women willing to serve him outside those boundaries. So, just as it is not appropriate for Trump to order his director of national intelligence to be his personal valet at the White House, it is not appropriate to ask his DNI to provide political cover during an ongoing FBI investigation. (This is exactly the kind of thing that brought Nixon to the verge of impeachment.) The Justice Department is a case in point. The attorney general and the director of the FBI report to the president. But this does not mean the president can order investigations to start and stop for corrupt reasons. Federal law enforcement officials have public duties. They do not owe personal fealty. How is this principle enforced? The integrity of our political system has always depended on principled public servants willing to say no to great power. During the Watergate scandal, Judge John Sirica did it. When Nixon fired the special prosecutor, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned. By one count, five senior officials in the Watergate-era FBI for a variety of motives leaked material damaging to the Nixon administration. Ultimately, the health of our republic depends, not only on political systems, but on flawed people who reach the limit of accommodation. There are many reasons for pessimism about our fractured politics including the general cowardice of elected Republicans in the face of presidential corruption and abuse of power. But will special counsel Robert Mueller who spent a decade building the reputation and independence of the FBI really be silenced or outwitted by the clownish caricature of Nixon who occupies the Oval Office and issues a fusillade of smoking guns? Not likely. Rosenstein has managed to give Mueller the time to put down on paper the strongest case against a president without ethics or honor. And it is beyond Trumps power to erase. Gersons email address is michaelgerson@washpost.com. On Saturday evening, three small Ukrainian naval vessels left the Ukrainian port of Odessa and headed for the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. Along the way, they had to pass through the Kerch Strait, a sliver of water that lies between the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula and the Russian mainland. The Ukrainian ships were well within their rights to be there - a similar group of ships went through the strait just a month ago, and a 2003 treaty guarantees the rights of both nations to use those waters. But this time, in a carefully arranged provocation, Russian ships fired on the Ukrainian ships - and then seized them, along with 23 crew members. In a certain sense, these events are no surprise. Though many have found it convenient to forget, the war between Russia and Ukraine still rumbles on. Those who are doing the fighting have long been braced for a Russian acceleration of the conflict. The only surprise is the timing: Why now? Maybe there is no special reason. There have been a number of clashes in the waters around Crimea recently, ever since the Russians built a bridge to the peninsula; this may simply be Russias periodic reminder that it will not end its illegal occupation. The attack on the Ukrainian navy would also fit well into a bigger regional project: the long-term pressure on the port of Mariupol as well as a long stretch of Ukrainian coast that could be cut off from the rest of the Black Sea by the closure of the Kerch Strait. But this is also an interesting moment in Russian domestic politics. This little military escapade comes in the wake of wide protests against changes to Russian pension laws, and is accompanied by wide frustration with the slow economy. As news of what was described, of course, as a Ukrainian provocation broke in Russia, the countrys most prominent opposition activist, Alexei Navalny, immediately observed that recent polls showed a drop in the popularity of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Expect to hear more on television, he wrote sarcastically, about the aggressive Kiev military, supported by hawks from the Potomac. The timing might also have been chosen with an eye to the political calendar in Ukraine, which is gearing up for a presidential election next March. Perhaps the Russians want to inject a polarizing element into an already divided society; perhaps this is an answer to the Ukrainian Orthodox Churchs decision to break away from Russia; perhaps they want to provoke a postponement of the election altogether. In a narrow sense, they may already have succeeded in changing the political atmosphere. At a late-night meeting Sunday, President Petro Poroshenko - now far behind in the polls - called for a period of martial law in part of the country, and parliament voted Monday to impose it. Its not clear yet what this means. It seems just to include military mobilization - Poroshenko has said there will be no restrictions on media or public gatherings, and no postponement of the election - but accusations of election meddling are already flying. Finally, the timing may be linked to international politics. Britain, one of the countries that has been most adamant about sanctions on Russia, is right now turning inward for a monumental battle over its withdrawal from the European Union; there isnt much political bandwidth in London to worry about Ukraine. President Donald Trumps administration is divided, distracted and preparing to contend with Democrats in the upcoming House majority who will, among other things, investigate his past ties to Russia. The EU, Canada and even Poland came out with official statements condemning the Russian actions long before anything was heard from the United States. On Monday evening Kiev time, the State Department had still not reacted to the events in the Kerch Strait. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haleys denunciation of Russias outlaw actions came many hours after the other statements. Whatever the other motives for this staged attack, this kind of passivity may well be what the Russians are counting on. This is the modus operandi they have followed in the past: Take a few steps forward; wait for a reaction. If there isnt one, move farther. If there is one, wait for the emotions to die down - and then move farther. This incident may or may not end here, but consider it a warning: If we dont have a broader strategy for ending this war, that will be the pattern for years to come. Charity regulators have opened a consultation on how to reform the process for developing the Statement of Recommended Practice, the set of rules which govern charity accounting. The SORP oversight panel, comprising of representatives from the charity regulators in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, England and Wales, launched the consultation yesterday. Over the last 18 months there has been mounting pressure for reform of the exisiting process. Joe Saxton resigned from the SORP committee in autumn 2017, saying the process was "technical and full of jargon". Similarly, Nigel Davies, head of accountancy services at the Charity Commission, and Laura Anderson, head of professional advice and intelligence at OSCR, said in an article for Civil Society Voices this year that charity accounting is not best served by its current focus on cash flow and surplus. The panel, chaired by Professor Gareth Morgan, is looking for suggestions to ensure the SORP best serves the needs of those seeking information about charities as well as the sector itself. It will use the responses, alongside feedback collected from events and discussions, to help it to decide how the SORP is developed in future and what reforms are needed. The consultation will run until 4 February 2019, with a summary of responses published no later than 30 April. 'Transparency is critical' Morgan said: The way in which the SORP is developed is crucial. That is why I am delighted that the four charity regulators in the UK and Ireland have, for the first time ever, established this panel to review the governance processes in the development of the SORP and to make recommendations for the future. Sarah Atkinson, director of policy, planning and communications at the Charity Commission for England and Wales said: Charities need to demonstrate that they meet the legitimate expectations of the public in everything they do. Transparency about the work they carry out and how their money is spent is critical to maintaining public trust. It is therefore vital that the process for developing the accounting framework inspires confidence and enables charities to report clear, reader-friendly information. Charities Aid Foundation has today launched #GivingTuesday 2018 in the UK and said that over 2,600 charities have signed up as partners to the event. Today is the fifth #GivingTuesday since the Charities Aid Foundation helped launch the annual day of giving in the UK in 2014. Since then, charities in the UK have raised hundreds of millions of pounds and, last year, #GivingTuesday broke a world record for the most money raised online for charity in 24-hours globally. CAF said that this year more than 2,600 UK charities and for-profit companies have signed up to take part on the day; including Barnardos, Marie Curie, Cancer Research UK and the RSPCA. A number of major companies and brands have also signed up; including Thomson Reuters, PwC, Dixons Carphone, Argos and ITV. The Department for International Development has also signed up and promised to match public donations made on the day to three charities: Village Water; Street Child UK and War Child. In 2017 #GivingTuesday was the top trending item on UK Twitter throughout the day, and made over 882 million impressions worldwide. The #GivingTuesday is currently the top trend on Twitter in the UK. It also raised over 214m around the world last year. On the fifth anniversary of the launch of #GivingTuesday in the UK, Ben Russell, director of communications at CAF, said: This is a milestone for Giving Tuesday in the UK; five years in and the campaign just gets bigger and better every year, helping more and more people to give to the causes they cherish. Small Charities Coalition launches first digital fundraising campaign The Small Charities Coalition have chosen #GivingTuesday to launch its first every digital fundraising campaign, in conjunction with fundraising platform GoFundMe. The umbrella organisation for small charities in the UK is aiming to raise 10,000 on the day to fund a mentoring programme matching skilled volunteers with small charities; set up a support line and online resources; provide free or affordable training and events and be a voice to champion small charities at a national level. As of the time of publication, the page has raised 2,258. Angela Style, interim chief executive of the Small Charities Coalition, said: Lots of people on #GivingTuesday will want to give to small charities. As an umbrella body for small charities in the UK, every donation given to us will help support thousands of small charities. We want people to see our GoFundMe page and make this connection that giving to our small charity means that a huge number of small charities across the UK will benefit. John Coventry, head of communications, Europe at GoFundMe, said: Were delighted that the Small Charities Coalition will be launching their fundraising page with GoFundMe on #GivingTuesday and thrilled that we can help further the work they do in supporting small charities across the UK. Virgin Money Giving has today announced a new feature that will allow for donors to cover the 2 per cent flat fee which it currently charges charities. The new feature, which Virgin Money Giving are calling Donor Covers Fee, has initially been made available for donors to ten major charity partners, but a spokesman said it would be rolled out to all charities on the platform by the end of the year. The spokesman said the change was made following response to feedback from our charity partners who expressed a desire for us to introduce this, as it has had a positive impact with other platforms. The platform currently charges charities a 2 per cent fee to help fund our running costs and allow us to keep developing our service to find new and better ways to help charities maximise their fundraising. The news that Virgin Money Giving is changing its fee structure comes on the back of similar changes being made this year by two of its main competitors in the digital fundraising platform space. GoFundMe announced in April that it would be dropping all of its platform fees, bar card processing, in favour of a tips model; a move followed that same month by JustGiving which launched its own Donation Boost feature. In October, following intense pressure from a number of national newspapers and MPs from both the Labour and Conservative parties, JustGiving also announced it would be scrapping all fees on its crowdfunding platform, as well as on charity fundraising pages set up in the event of a major disaster or terrorist attack. VMG to sign up with regulator within a matter of days The spokesman for Virgin Money Giving also told Civil Society News that the platform was a matter of days away from signing up to the Fundraising Regulators Code of Fundraising Practice, making it the first of the big four platforms to do so. In October, Gerald Oppenheim chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator, told Civil Society News that JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving, GoFundMe and BT MyDonate had all promised to register with it by the New Year. At the time, Oppenheim said the major platforms needed to make quite a number of system changes to comply with the Code of Fundraising Practice, and the questions of transparency that raised. In terms of all digital fundraising platforms in the UK, Oppenheim said that probably nine, possibly ten had signed up to the regulator. Jo Barnett, executive director at Virgin Money Giving, said: We are delighted to become one of the first major fundraising platforms to sign up to the Fundraising Code of Practice. "We believe it is an important commitment at a time when the sector is being scrutinised and some practices are being called into question. As one of the leading brands in the sector, it is important to take the lead and make sure that charities and fundraisers understand our commitment to continue to operate at the highest standards. As a not for profit business, backed by Virgin Money, our low charges mean we dont make a profit from the generosity of charity supporters. Our fees only cover the cost of running our business. Our Donor Covers Fee feature will give fundraisers the option to pay our fee on behalf of charities, which will mean that even more money goes to those charities. "Donors can be sure that the fee they pay for using Virgin Money Giving only covers our costs, unlike other fundraising sites, who profit from the fees they charge. In addition, we dont charge a fee on the Gift Aid collected on behalf of charities as we strongly believe that 100 per cent of Gift Aid should reach the charities. 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. On Sunday, November 25, thousands of migrants, most from Central America, tried to enter the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry between Tijuana and San Diego. Along the border wall runs the Tijuana River; the group crossed, and about a hundred turned left, reaching a razor wire fence. There, they turned back toward the bed of the river, where two men tried to dig under the fence. As the rest waited, US Customs and Border Protection officers closed the Port of Entry to all comers and sprayed tear gas into the crowd, including at young children. At the White House on Monday, Trump said that border agents involved in the incident were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas. But Kim Kyung-Hoon, a Reuters photographer new to the American immigration beat, had been with the travelers for the last 700 miles of their journey, and he captured the suffering of a young Honduran family struggling to escape the tear gas. His photos of a mother and two of her young children have been published worldwide. CJR spoke with Kyung-Hoon on the phone from Tijuana about his experience following the family. His words have been condensed for length and clarity. Im Korean, but Im based in Japan. Ive been working for Reuters for over 15 years, since 2002. I was assigned by my editor to cover the story of the migrant group. I arrived in Mexico City on November 14th. I met the group that day in Navojoa. There were large numbers, many thousands, moving toward Tijuana. ICYMI: How a problematic NYT article shows how newsrooms are out of touch with the communities they cover Sign up for CJR 's daily email On Sunday, the migrants staged a march from their shelter in Tijuana to the borderline. I followed them from their shelter. They were stopped by Mexican police at the bottom of the bridge leading to the entry. The police formed a line to make them stop. Some of the migrants suddenly started running towards the border wall. They broke around the end of the police line. Others followed, many thousands, running towards the borderline. They reached the bank of the Tijuana River. They climbed down the river bank and crossedtheres not much water at the moment, its not difficult. Then they began to climb the other side. When they reached the top of riverbank, most made a right turn and tried to reach the place of entry. A small group of maybe 20 or 30 made a left turn instead. I dont know why, maybe they could see the border wall, maybe to try to breach it. I just followed them. Soon 100 people gathered there on top of the riverbank. There was razor wire there, and, behind that, US border control members. I followed. The riverbank also had a razor wire fence that went down to ground level of the river. The migrants stood there, walking around. I saw a couple of men trying to dig out the ground under the fence, one with his bare hands and one with a plastic basket. I checked my pictures later to see what time they were taken. Just one or two minutes after I captured the guys digging, border patrol fired tear gas. The migrants start running away. The family in the pictures was very close to me then. The woman tried to hold her children with her two hands. They were running away. I checked my pictures later, I took many. At first the one girl was wearing beach shoes, and the the other was barefoot. After they were running, that chaos, the second girl was also barefoot. From the beginning, the girls didnt wear pants, just diapers. They ran over the muddy field of the river, climbed up the river bank to run towards downtown Tijuana. I kept shooting and climbing the riverbank. At the top, I found the woman and the girl who lost her shoes. That girl was crying. I cant speak Spanish, but I saw her gesture to her mother that she had hurt her feet. We found the family the next morning, my colleagues had been searching for them. They got back to the shelter. That woman has five kids, they are all living in the shelter. They are trying to get to the father living in Louisiana. The two girls wearing diapers in the photos are twins. They are 5 years old. ICYMI: Newspaper investigates after veteran reporter accused of making up sources Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Amanda Darrach is a contributor to CJR and a visiting scholar at the University of St Andrews School of International Relations. Follow her on Twitter @thedarrach. At one time, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma was at the forefront of press freedom in Indian Country. In 2015, the National Council passed legislation to protect Mvskoke Mediaa newspaper, radio, and broadcast outlet funded by the tribefrom financial and political influence. Within weeks of the bill being passed, Mvskoke Media reporters were producing investigative stories; since then, they have covered everything from massive deficits in the nations department of health budget to mismanagement of the tribes housing program. But with a recent, chilling attack on press freedom, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has made clear that independent journalism has no home in the fourth largest tribe in the US. Recently, the national council introduced and passed legislation to repeal the free press act, which was signed into law by Muscogee (Creek) Principal Chief James Floyd within 24 hours. The bill dissolves the outlets editorial board which has served as an intermediary between government officials and reporters, places the Department of Commerce in charge of approving content, and puts Mvskoke reporters under the nations employee policies, which include the right to monitor employees computer systems, chat groups, and emails. ICYMI: Indian Country Today returns. Can it protect its editorial independence? The legislations passage prompted Mvskoke Medias manager, Sterling Cosper, to resign. Chief Floyd, who was not available for comment on the law, said in a written public statement, I have never interfered or influenced the reporting of Mvskoke Media. I pledge to continue to support the principles of free press, while also safeguarding our sovereignty and our primary goals of preserving our culture, honoring our elders, and supporting our youth. Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project The elimination of press protections for Mvskoke Media is an alarming attack on journalists covering the day-to-day activities of their tribal government, and a stunning back-pedal for a nation once viewed as a leader in free expression. It makes me dizzy to hear leadership say that and take actions that are contrary to that pledge, says Cosper, referring to Chief Floyds comments. I feel terrible for my colleagues and real bad for the citizens too. Requests for comment by Mvskoke Media reporters were referred to the nations public relations manager, who said such requests cant be approved at this time. Of 573 tribal nations, its estimated that nearly three-quarters explicitly or implicitly support free press in their constitutions, articles of incorporation, or other organic documents. But that support comes with a hitch: Creating good journalism is expensive, and in many Indigenous communities the only entity that can, or will, put up money for a newspaper is the tribal government. Non-Indigenous journalists dont usually report on tribal affairs; non-Indigenous newsrooms dont set up initiatives to support rural, tribal outlets; and philanthropic organizations rarely support Indigenous media makers. Tribal governments support for Indigenous journalism has developed a rich media landscape consisting of more than 200 Indigenous news outlets, which are often the only source for accurate information on tribal affairs. In a survey conducted this year by the Native American Journalists Association, Indigenous journalists identified a lack of financial resources and a lack of editorial control as the two greatest threats to tribal media. To be clear, that means tribal governments own and operate some of the only media outlets that reach Indigenous audiences. In order to address government oversight, a handful of nationsThe Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, The Cherokee Nation, The Navajo Nation, and the Osage Nationhave passed laws to build firewalls between reporters and officials. But that legislative support is the exception, not the rule. In a survey conducted this year by the Native American Journalists Association, Indigenous journalists identified a lack of financial resources and a lack of editorial control as the two greatest threats to tribal media. (I serve as the president of NAJA.) Tribal journalists said that nations economies impacted outlets abilities to be financially independent, and disclosed that government officials and political interests often determined media content. Respondents also rated editorial and journalistic freedom at tribal outlets as extremely low. In other words, while tribally-run media outlets sometimes run like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, more often they fall on the Russia Today end of the spectrum. Indigenous journalism has a rich history in the Americas. The Cherokee Phoenix was first published in English and , the Cherokee language, in 1828. (By comparison, The New York Times was founded in 1851.) The tradition extends beyond newspapers. The Settan yearly calendar, named after its creator, is one of many pictograph calendars that document and preserve events important to my tribe, the Kiowa. Drafted by one of antiquitys great historians, the Settan calendar is an important journalistic document; it laid groundwork for future Kiowa storytellers and reporters. Oral histories record events and ceremonies for future generations. Totem poles carry information like data banks. These story forms reflect the interests, values, and priorities of their communities. They are the journalistic and historical traditions that form the foundation of Indigenous self-determination and tribal sovereignty. They are the same traditions inherited by Mvskoke Media, and imperiled by the Muscogee (Creek) National Councils vote. Tribal governments must adopt stronger free press protections, but the burden cannot be on Indigenous communities alone. For more than 500 years, Indigenous people have been seen almost exclusively as sources of labor, profit, and knowledge. In journalism, this often plays out in the production of stories about Indigenous people, by non-Indigenous people, for non-Indigenous peoplean extraction of information that very rarely offers any benefit to the communities it comes from. Support for Indigenous reporters and outlets from journalism organizationsin the form of hiring, training, funding, or partneringis one step toward righting that historical relationship. In Indian Country, journalism is the forerunner of justice, self-determination, and tribal sovereignty. Indigenous journalists strive to ensure the free exchange of information that is culturally accurate, fair, and thorough. Most importantly, Indigenous reporters descend from a tradition in which information is used to enlighten, protect, and serve communities. As governments work to stamp out independent reporting, a free press in Indian Country is needed more than ever. Responsible nations recognize the value, and history, that Indigenous journalists represent. From the archives: Using true crime to teach Indigenous history Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Tristan Ahtone is president of the Native American Journalists Association and associate editor for tribal affairs at High Country News. The Lion Air pilots whose plane nosedived into the Java Sea in October, killing all those aboard, were battling multiple malfunctions almost as soon as the doomed flight began, according to a trove of new data released by Indonesian investigators. They faced a cacophony of warnings that started seconds after takeoff and continued for the remaining 11 minutes before the crash. The alerts included a so-called stick shaker a loud device that makes a thumping noise and vibrates the control column to warn pilots theyre in danger of losing lift on the wings and instruments that registered different readings for the captain and copilot, according to data presented to a panel of lawmakers in Jakarta Thursday. The data also showed that in the final seconds, as they struggled to pull the Boeing Co. 737 Max 8 out of a dive that was being commanded by the planes flight computers, the pilots were pulling back on the control column with a force of as much as 100 pounds of pressure. However, the data indicated that the plane was controllable the pilots had kept it under control for about 10 minutes before the final plunge and records from the previous flight of the same jet showed another set of pilots had an identical set of failures and landed safely. There are so many questions its sort of hard to put in one short statement, said Roger Cox, a retired investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and a former airline pilot. I would be very interested in knowing why one crew was able to cope with this stick shaker and trim anomaly, and why the next crew could not, Cox said. And Id want to know why Lion Air could not or would not repair the problem. Lion Air Flight 610 crashed on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people aboard. The jet was knifing through the air at about 500 miles (805 kilometers) per hour, or more, in its final seconds as it neared the water, according to the planes crash-proof flight recorder. In a statement, Boeing deferred comment to the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee. The manufacturer has sent two updates to operators of the Max jet since the crash, which include reminders that there are existing emergency procedures for such situations. We are confident in the safety of the 737 Max. Safety remains our top priority and is a core value for everyone at Boeing, the company said. Preliminary findings may be released on Nov. 28, Soerjanto Tjahjono, the Transportation Safety Committees chairman, told lawmakers in Jakarta on Thursday. In the past week, Boeing has stepped up its response by pushing back on suggestions that the company could have better alerted its customers to the jets new anti-stall feature. The three largest U.S. pilot unions and Lion Airs operations director, Zwingly Silalahi, have expressed concern over what they said was a lack of information. As was previously revealed by investigators, the planes angle-of-attack sensor on the captains side was providing dramatically different readings than the same device feeding the copilots instruments. Angle of attack registers whether the planes nose is pointed above or below the oncoming air flow. A reading showing the nose is too high could signal a dangerous stall and the captains sensor was indicating more than 20 degrees higher than its counterpart. The stick shaker was activated on the captains side of the plane, but not the copilots, according to the data. MCAS Activated Also as a result of the erroneous sensor reading, a new safety feature on the Max called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which automatically tries to lower the planes nose to prevent stalls, apparently was activated. The planes trim system, which makes adjustments that pitch the aircrafts nose up or down, moved more than 30 times during the flight. The pilots repeatedly countered the planes attempt to lower the nose by trimming it in the opposite direction. Doing so halts MCAS, but only temporarily. The pilots at the same time were pulling back on the control yoke, which also raises the nose. While the plane was gaining and losing moderate amounts of altitude, it remained in stable flight until the final dive. In that last period of about 30 seconds, the data seems to show that the pilots werent countering the nose-down trim as aggressively. The plane lost about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) in about 20 seconds as it plunged downward. The data indicate that it became harder to pull the control column back and raise the nose during the dive. While the data parameters dont specify why, the 737 has a separate safety component that makes it harder to pull back if the planes instruments indicate its in a stall. At higher speeds, the onrushing air also makes it difficult to pull. Cockpit Recorder Cox cautioned that the flight data doesnt tell the complete story. A cockpit recorder, which would help indicate what pilots were thinking about the malfunctions, hasnt been recovered yet. And while the situation of conflicting instruments and alarms could have been confusing, he said hed seen a lot worse in other investigations. Its reasonable to ask why the pilots didnt shut off the trim system during the roughly 10 minutes they were assessing the planes behavior, he said. A decades-old emergency procedure teaches pilots to flip two switches to cut power to the motor that was pushing the nose down. Even more vexing is why the plane exhibited the same malfunctions it had on the previous flight after it was supposedly repaired overnight. On a flight from Bali to Jakarta on Oct. 28, the planes stick shaker on the captains side of the plane was active for almost all of the roughly 90-minute flight and the angle of attack readings had the same errors, the data shows. Number one, why did the previous crew continue that flight? Cox said. Number two, did they or did they not make an appropriate write-up? The third question is how come you signed this thing off to fly the next day. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Texas Mutual Names Gates Vice President of Houston Region Texas Mutual Insurance Company, a provider of workers compensation insurance in Texas, has named longtime insurance industry leader Peppia Gates as its vice president for the Houston region. Gates, who has served the companys Houston claim office for five years, will oversee all of the companys insurance operations, community involvement, agent relationships, and talent development for the Houston area. Gates joined Texas Mutual in 2013 in Houston as a senior manager of regional claims. Last year, she received a leadership award from Texas Mutual for her commitment to enhancing employee growth and for developing a customized approach to meet the needs of employees in each department of the Houston region. Prior to joining Texas Mutual, Gates served at CorVel Company and SeaBright Insurance Company. She has nearly 30 years of experience in the workers compensation insurance industry. Gates has also shared her time and talent as a volunteer with several charitable organizations, including the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF). This past year, Gates led the Texas Mutual Houston offices efforts for IICFs Week of Giving, an industry-wide volunteer initiative bringing insurance professionals together for service projects with neighborhood and community nonprofit organizations. ICW Group Names VonDohlen Vice President of Data Analytics ICW Group Insurance Companies, a group of property and casualty carriers, announced the appointment of Eric VonDohlen as vice president of Data Analytics, effective immediately. VonDohlen will oversee the companys data analytics operations and provide strategic guidance on the curation, maintenance and management of new and existing data solutions. He will be based in the ICW Group corporate headquarters in San Diego and report directly to John Novak, ICW Groups chief operating and strategic execution officer. VonDohlens passion for data analytics and decision science spans a 20-year career in the financial services sector. Prior to joining ICW Group, he served as chief analytics officer at Elevate Credit, a fintech leader in the non-prime lending space. In this position, he was responsible for all underwriting, account management, collections and fraud models for U.S. and U.K. product lines. During his tenure, he led a team of 25 data scientists and engineers and helped increase revenue 20 percent year-over-year. VonDohlen was also previously chief analytics officer at Triton Management Associates. Employers Names Brown, as EVP, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel Employers, a small business insurance specialist, named Lori A. Brown as executive vice president, chief legal officer and general counsel effective January 1, 2019. Brown joined Employers in January 2006 and served as vice president, deputy general counsel until March 2015 when she was promoted to senior vice president. As part of her responsibilities,Brown currently serves as a director of Employers Group Inc., is the assistant corporate secretary to Employers Holdings, Inc. and is the corporate secretary to all of the Companys subsidiary companies. She replaces Lenard Ormsby in the position upon his retirement. Prior to joining Employers, Brown was senior legal counsel of DHL Worldwide from May 1996 to April 2005. Brown brings over 25 years of experience as an attorney primarily in the areas of labor and employment, corporate governance and SEC compliance. She will be based in Reno, Nevada. PG&E Corp., suspected of starting Californias deadliest wildfire, may soon get help from state lawmakers just not the help it most wants. As early as Dec. 3, a lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that would give the states largest utility owner a way to pay off billions of dollars in potential liabilities it faces from the Camp Fire, the deadliest in state history. But lawmakers appear unlikely to give PG&E and the states other utilities the relief they have sought for a year: a change to rules that automatically hold the companies responsible for any fire damage tied to their equipment. Assemblyman Chris Holden, the Democrat who plans to introduce the measure for the 2018 fires, said hes currently unconvinced legislators need to review the rule, known as inverse condemnation, since theyve earlier passed a package that addresses blazes starting next year. We laid out a 2019 strategy and we need to see how well that works, if and when we ever get back to a place of thinking we need to revisit inverse condemnation, he said by telephone. And as legislators grapple with the threat increasingly frequent fires pose to the state, the utilities are about to lose their most powerful ally in Sacramento, Governor Jerry Brown. His successor, Gavin Newsom, will be sworn in Jan. 7. A bill introduced next week would need to be signed by the new governor, because the legislature will spend almost all of December and the first week of January on break. Newsom has given no indication of his view of the legislation. A spokesman for the Democrat didnt respond to emails requesting comment. Governor Browns cachet is limited now, so I dont know if his arm-twisting would make a difference at this point, said state Senator Jerry Hill, who has become a fierce PG&E critic since one of the companys natural gas pipelines exploded in his district in 2010. It would have to be Gavins wish to get it done. PG&E shares have plunged roughly 50 percent since the start of the Camp Fire, which killed at least 85 people and torched more than 13,600 homes. The stock has stabilized after news of Holdens bill, first reported by Bloomberg, and comments by the states utility regulator that it doesnt want the company to go into bankruptcy. The shares gained 3.4 percent Monday to $24.64 at 12:10 p.m. New York time. State fire investigators blamed PG&Es equipment for starting at least 17 of the wind-driven wildfires that tore through Northern California in 2017, leaving 44 people dead. Barraged by lawsuits that could cost the company more than $17 billion, PG&E and its chief executive officer, Geisha Williams, lobbied hard in Sacramento for a fix to inverse condemnation. Under that legal doctrine, California utilities can be held liable for economic damages from wildfires sparked by their equipment even if they followed all applicable safety rules. PG&E and the other utilities argued that the system makes them the insurers of last resort in a state whose fire season, once confined to a few dry summer months, now seems to extend year-round. The wildfire bill that emerged SB901 let PG&E use bonds to pay off the costs of settling 2017 fire lawsuits. But it didnt address inverse condemnation. A bill being drafted by Holdens office would allow PG&E to use bonds for Camp Fire costs as well. But lawmakers interviewed by Bloomberg said they sense little interest among their colleagues in tackling inverse condemnation. Although the utilities want the system changed, insurance companies and lawyers dont. No Appetite And after the trauma of the last two fire seasons, many politicians fear being seen as doing the utilities bidding. Lawmakers only passed SB901 in the final hours of the last legislative session, after days of intense closed-door negotiations. There was really no appetite for changing inverse condemnation this year, and that was a fairly bipartisan view, said state Senator Scott Wiener, who represents PG&Es hometown of San Francisco. So Id be surprised if we went back and did it next year. He said hes open to Holdens bill but wants to see the language before deciding whether to back it. PG&E emphasizes that the cause of the Camp Fire remains under investigation. It has said, however, that one of its power lines near the fires suspected ignition point unexpectedly went dark 18 minutes before the flames were first reported. State fire investigators have also taken possession of equipment on a second, smaller PG&E line that experienced an outage 12 minutes after the fire began. Holden said he plans to introduce his bill Dec. 3, the swearing-in date for newly elected lawmakers and the only day the legislature is scheduled to be in session next month. Brown who backed changes to inverse condemnation and has relied on the utilities as allies in the fight against climate change could work behind the scenes in December to line up support, and several lawmakers said they expect him to do so. But it would be up to Newsom to sign the bill, if it passes the legislature. Holden said he would like to see this happen by the first quarter of 2019. PUC Role Longer-term legislation would come next, while the California Public Utilities Commission will explore whether to restructure the company. The topic could come up Thursday when the commission is scheduled to approve a series of safety-related changes at PG&E that grew out of the agencys investigation of the 2010 explosion. Holden anticipates that the legislature will work with the PUC, and that depending on the number of bills on the matter, the committee that worked on SB901 exclusively could be extended, or the governor could even call a special session. While investors may like to see swift action from Sacramento, Assemblyman Marc Levine, who voted against SB901, said theres time for more thoughtful legislation. He noted that the deadline to introduce new bills is in late February. One thing is for sure: I am not focused on PG&Es stock price at the moment, he said. Im focused on how we help these communities recover. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. AKRON, Ohio - Akron City Council is expected next week to approve tax-increment financing for redevelopment of the Mayflower Manor, once one of Akron's most celebrated structures. Upon passage of the legislation, the city plans to acquire the lease for the 16-story, 233-room hotel-turned-apartments at 263 South Main St. from Mayflower Manor Apartments LLC and transfer it to developer Mayflower Manor Apartments Ohio LP. Under the plan, the Mayflower will continue offering subsidized housing, but be geared for seniors over 55-years old. The development company, which paid $6.6 million for the property, will benefit from Akron's 15-year residential tax abatement program. The company has said it plans to invest $10 million in the project, which will include creating community spaces and a fitness area. The stores on the ground floor also will be redeveloped. A social coordinator is expected to be on staff, the developer said in March. According to Akron's Capital Planning Manager Helen Tomic, rent would be dictated by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations, which limit rents to 30 percent of the resident's income. Work is expected to begin in one year, and take at least a year, because existing residents won't be displaced during the project, said City Chief of Staff James Hardy. Tomic told City Council's Planning Committee the units will be renovated one by one. Tenants will be asked to leave for the day, and will return home to a new kitchen, new floors and newly painted walls. Residents who meet the HUD criteria will be able to rent the renovated units as existing tenants move out or are evicted, Hardy said. The city plans to monitor the eviction rate to ensure the building owner complies with the terms of the agreement. The Mayflower Manor is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the South Main Street Historic District. The development company has said it plans to restore the historical character of the building inside and out. That includes keeping the phone booth in the hotel lobby from which Bill W. is said to have made the now famous call to Dr. Robert Smith, aka "Dr. Bob," which led to the launch of Alcoholics Anonymous. Hundreds of people each year visit the Mayflower in June during Akron's Founder's Day weekend. Redeveloping the building aligns with the Akron Vision & Redevelopment Plan to revitalize downtown. During public meetings on the plan, residents consistently communicated that they want more downtown housing. In 2013, the city proposed a controversial deal to buy the property for renovation with the help of a $14.5 million HUD loan. The deal would have required relocating roughly 230 tenants to HUD-approved housing and turning the hotel into offices and housing. The project was estimated to cost more than $38 million and generate nearly 300 jobs. The project lost momentum after the abrupt resignation of then-mayor Don Plusquellic, who had championed the project as vital to the vibrancy of the downtown business district. When the original deal was presented to the previous city administration, City Council Vice President Jeff Fusco said he worked with the existing building owner to ensure the Mayflower residents were supported. Many are veterans or seniors who have lived there for years, and who have said they favor the location, in part, because it's on the bus line. "It's time for a new owner and new life and a new beginning for the Mayflower," Fusco said. "I'm hoping some positive steps are in store for people who live there and for downtown Akron." Mayor Dan Horrigan supports continued use of the Mayflower for subsidized housing, Hardy said. "All of us were really happy the community didn't push back," he said. "Downtown needs to be for everyone." The Mayflower opened in 1931 to serve business people visiting the city. Akron was a booming manufacturing town, but lacked proper accommodations for visiting executives, according to a news report on the opening. The story called the hotel a "monument to civic energy and cooperation," and reported that several local businessmen and bankers had come together to create a board of directors and see the hotel built. The hotel included banquet and convention space, and was equipped with contemporary HVAC, fire protection, elevator and phone systems. The ground floor retail area contained a dress showroom and a hat store, both owned by women. The day-long celebration was attended by executives from around the country, who flew into Cleveland and then were flown to the Akron Airport by Firestone's tri-motored Ford, known as the "Tin Goose." Planes and other airships flew over dropping roses onto the Mayflower's roof, then known as the "Zeppelin Observation Roof." The hotel created a nearly 50-page booklet titled, "The Official Souvenir of the Opening of the Mayflower Hotel," which included the hotel newsletter, "Fore and Aft of Mayflower Hotel." The booklet, attached below, includes drawings of the hotel, from kitchens to dance halls and the main ballroom. Also included are portraits of the directors of each service area within the hotel and a listing of all contractors involved, many from Akron, along with photos of the construction progress. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. AKRON, Ohio - Summit County Historical Society will host holiday-themed tours and events at Perkins Stone Mansion through Dec. 29. Holiday tours at the mansion, which was built in 1837 for the family of Colonel Simon and Grace Perkins, are scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Each room features its own holiday theme and colors. New trees donated by volunteers Jack and Mary Schifano also will be on display throughout the house. Holiday tour admission is $10. The historical society will host a free community open house from 1 to 3 p.m. on Dec. 9. An evening tour that includes hors d'oeuvres is scheduled for 5 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 19. Admission is $20. The historical society will host the Reliving Christmas through Music sing-along program at the Carriage House on the Perkins Stone Mansion property at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 20. The program is free for society members and $10 for non-members. Coffee, hot cocoa and cookies will be served. The historical society's Winter Solstice paranormal program is scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 21. Tickets are $10 and include a walk through the house with only holiday lights lit and stories of paranormal experiences. Volunteers will offer demonstrations using divining rods and pendulums and angel reader and psychic Laura Lyn will offer 15-minute readings for $30. Reservations are required for readings and can be made by calling the historical society at 330-535-1120. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. CLEVELAND, Ohio A federal lawsuit says the city of Cleveland miscalculated the overtime rate paid to at least one Emergency Medical Service employee, which led to her to get less pay than she actually earned. The lawsuit, filed Monday, says city officials improperly left out longevity pay, or pay based on how long an employee had worked for the city, when calculating the overtime rates of the EMS worker going back to at least 2015. It also says the city did not properly calculate overtime as it pertained to shift differential pay, or pay for time employees worked outside of normal business hours. The lawsuit was filed by Margerita Noland-Moore, an EMS captain who has worked at the city since 1992. She says she received at least $700 in longevity pay each year between 2015 and 2018, yet that was not included in the overtime calculation. She found similar problems for overtime calculated based on her shift differential pay, according to the lawsuit. Noland-Moore and her attorneys are seeking class-action status. The lawsuit says her problems are typical of claims that could be made by others, and there may be more than 300 current and former EMS employees who could be affected by the alleged miscalculation. Defendants illegal pay practices were the result of systematic policies applied throughout the City of Clevelands Division of Emergency Medical Service, the lawsuit states. The suit says the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and Ohios overtime laws. A spokesman for the city of Cleveland did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge John Adams in Akron. Click here to read the lawsuit on a mobile device. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- On the first Thanksgiving, Native Americans thankfully shared a meal with the caravan of Mayflower migrants, instead of tossing tear gas at them, like President Trump's troops did to migrant asylum seekers during the 2018 Thanksgiving weekend. Trump has gone from caging migrant kids to tear-gassing them. The administration's self-manufactured border crisis escalated when border security agents tossed tear gas at migrant men, women and children rushing to the border to apply for legal asylum. Trump defended the use of tear gas when asked about images, like the viral photo taken by Reuters photojournalist Kim Kyung-Hoon, showing a mother clutching her two diaper-wearing daughters as they ran from the tear gas. "First of all, the tear gas is a very minor form of tear gas itself. It's very safe," Trump claimed. "But you really say, why is a parent running up into an area where the know tear gas is forming? And it's going to formed and they're running up with a child," Trump asked reporters, with his arms folded in the defensive position. A "minor form of tear gas"? Does Trump mean like candy-flavored vaping? The head of U.S. Border Security said there is only one form of tear gas. Maria Meza, the mother in the Reuters' photo, told NBC News the image makes her cry. She said she wasn't crossing the border illegally when the photo was taken, but trying to reach it to legally seek asylum. Why is a mother and children there? Trump wondered to reporters. Maria Meza and her children are there because they walked over a thousand miles, one child barefoot, the other in flip-flops, in a desperate attempt to flee violence in Central America only to be hit with Trump tear gas, indifference and re-election scheme. Think about how dire the living conditions must be in Central America that mothers feel they have no other option but to walk with their children for over a thousand miles to the United States. Americans who opposes the migrants march, should keep in mind that those migrants are fleeing drug gangs and narco-states that were created and still sustained by U.S. drug demand. Instead of troops, barbed wire and tear gas, what's needed is more immigration Judges, asylum processors and ultimately true immigration reform. The lack of a properly staffed system to process asylum seekers more quickly is by design of the Trump administration, specifically Trump immigration policy architect Stephen Miller. Trump and Miller really don't want any asylum seekers or immigration at all. They've set upon a strategy to stymie both illegal and legal immigration. Sending troops to the border and the use of tear gas isn't really for border security, it's to provide graphic, fear mongering images to bait the Trump base for the 2020 elections. If Trump is really concerned with border security, how come the U.S. still doesn't have an ambassador to Mexico? What is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doing to help address the issues in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala that are causing migrants to flee for their lives from those countries and walk a thousand miles to the U.S. border? Trump has been criticized for not visiting troops in a combat zone. A reader suggested he could do that by visiting the combat zone he created at the border where Trump troops are tear-gassing toddlers. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The way Tomi Lahren tells it, everything in her young, yet consistently controversial career in TV has led her to this moment: the launch of Fox Nation. The $5.99 a month digital offshoot of Fox News goes online Tuesday. Lahren, whose fiery takes on everything from feminism to Colin Kaepernick made her a social media star a few years ago, is one of the streaming services featured personalities. I joined the Fox family primarily to be a part of this new project, said Lahren, 26, who joined the network about a year ago. That is why I am so passionate about it. I was one of the first-- if not the first -- people to get on board and have been working toward this big launch for quite a while. We wanted to put the time and energy into getting this right. Lahren will appear on Fox Nation twice daily, delivering her signature no-holds-barred, unapologetic, equal opportunity offending brand of commentary on First Thoughts 9:30 a.m. and Final Thoughts at 6 p.m. I go for the jugular because I am sick and tired of liberals being given a pass to say whatever they want while conservatives sit back and play dead, Lahren said. I will never play dead. I will also never say anything I dont mean. The fledging network will eschew breaking news coverage and, instead, rely heavily on original, opinion-based programs featuring Fox News personalities like Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Britt McHenry and Tyrus. Primetime stars Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Britt Hume as well as the Fox & Friends cast will pop up regularly, too. There will also be a variety of long-form programming and docuseries. cleveland.com recently caught up with Lahren over email to talk about her career and the launch of Fox Nation. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. Tomi Lahren will deliver her commentaries twice daily on Fox Nation. Q: In just about every article Ive read about you, they refer to you as conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren. How do you feel about that label? A: I dont mind being called a conservative firebrand. It is important to note that my commentaries and the way in which I see the world isnt always textbook conservative. Some may call me a walking contradiction but truth is, we all are. We dont fill every check mark of the box others place us in- or at least we shouldnt. I am most proud of the fact I am attacked by both the left and the right. It means I think for myself. Q: Fox Nation launches today. How would you describe the channel? A: Fox Nation is the home for our Fox News super fans. That is something our channel has that no other channel or network does- a loyal and diehard fan base. If you love Fox News, youll love Fox Nation. It is also my goal to bring in even more millennial viewers to this platform. It is completely on-demand which makes it perfect for tech-crazy young people as well those who crave something to watch while on-the-go. Q: Who do you think is the target audience for Fox Nation-- is it strictly for Fox News fans or is there something that that might appeal to people on all sides of the political spectrum? A: It is my goal to surprise those on the other side of the political spectrum. I crave those conversations across party, racial, religious, and ideological lines. That is something I will bring to Fox Nation. After all, Ive done it before with people like Chelsea Handler, Bill Maher, Trevor Noah and rapper Master P. Its going to be edgy, unfiltered, authentic and civil. This platform gives us the opportunity to go beyond the five-second sound bite and dig deeper. Q: Talk about what we can expect on First Thoughts and Final Thoughts and some of the other things you might be doing on the new network. A: Those who know and love (or hate) my commentary are about to hit the jackpot! I will now be sounding off on the controversies of the day, twice a day. This gives me the opportunity to go all-in on important topics with nothing off the table. In addition to my First and Final Thoughts, I will also be doing sit-down interviews and in-the-field specials. I am most excited about debuting my trip to the U.S.-Mexico border. I had the honor of spending the week with our U.S. Border Protection Agents and got to see it all. Q: You were fired by your previous employer for expressing support for abortion rights. Do you ever get any pushback about what you can/cannot say at Fox News? A: My Fox family knows me and knows that I am going to say what needs to be said and tell it like it is. Luckily, the Fox Nation platform gives me even more freedom to express myself. Those who know me know that I am never going to sugar coat or suppress my opinions to fit in any box. Thankfully, I dont have to. Q: Youve said some controversial things that have gone viral over the last few years. Is your commentary 100 percent Tomi Lahren or are you sometimes playing a persona? A: I may inspire, offend, anger, or delight people but I will never lie to them. I am 100 percent Tomi and what you see, is what you get. There is no persona. There is no smoke and mirrors. This is me. Yes, I do have different sides to my personality. I am not on 10 at all times. That is something else you will see on Fox Nation-- more aspects of my personality. I can promise you that every side of me is authentically me. MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The owner of the Wingstop restaurant at Cedar Center North in South Euclid is planning to open a location in Mayfield Heights. Gaurav Aggarwal -- who owns four Wingstop franchises in Greater Cleveland, including one that is soon to open in Parma -- was granted on Monday a parking space variance that will allow his fifth such eatery to open in a space, tentatively set for a building at 6641-49 Mayfield Road, near Master Pizza. "The location is good, and there's a lot of traffic that passes through that area," Aggarwal said of the Mayfield Heights location. "There are multiple demand generators in the area, the hospital and other things, that bring people to that part of Mayfield Road," added Bobby Benjamin, of Goodman Real Estate Services Group, which is serving as tenant broker for the property's owner, MA Mayfield LLC. "Especially in the evening, when (Wingstop) will do most if its business." Benjamin said 75 percent of Wingstop's business is done between 7 p.m. and midnight. Wingstop, founded in Texas in 1994, is a growing national chain that has more than 1,000 restaurants. It offers chicken wings and french fries in 1930s and '40s-style, pre-jet aviation-themed restaurants. "The restaurant in South Euclid (13963 Cedar Road, at Cedar Center North) has been very successful," Benjamin said. That restaurant opened in 2014. Nationally, Benjamin said of Wingstop, "It's ranked among the top 50 quick-service restaurants. "The wings are cooked to order; they're not made ahead of time, so you have to wait 15 to 17 minutes for your order," Benjamin said. "It's a public company," Aggarwal said. "It's biggest in Texas and California." Aggarwal, who has been a Wingstop franchise owner for five years, is planning to spend $350,000 in updating and on decor additions at the Mayfield Heights site, if lease negotiations are finalized with the building's owner. There are two buildings at the site and, according to city code, 47 parking spaces are required for the four businesses that now operate there. With the addition of a restaurant, a 48th space would be needed. The buildings only have a combined 23 spaces, but the city had at one time already allowed for a variance of the code-required spaces. Wingstop's request merely increased that previous variance from 24 spaces to 25. City Council approved the variance Monday without opposition. By doing so, it backed a recommendation made by the Mayfield Heights Board of Zoning Appeals on Nov. 13. Aggarwal said that, if all goes as he hopes, he would like to open the Mayfield Heights Wingstop sometime in the first quarter of 2019. Public open house is Dec. 5 Mayor Anthony DiCicco announced that a public open house would take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Ross C. DeJohn Community Center, 6306 Marsol Road. The topic of the open house is the Mayfield Heights Connectivity Study, which was recently conducted by the firm AECOM with funding from a Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency (NOACA) Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative grant. "It's for greenway trails and biking paths within the city," DiCicco said of the study's focus. AECOM will discuss the project's feasibility and possibilities for funding. DiCicco invites all residents to attend the meeting to give suggestions and discuss the opportunities and challenges of walking and biking in Mayfield Heights. Those who can't attend the meeting, but still want to give input, can fill out a 10-question survey at surveymonkey.com/r/MayfieldConnect. Expect delays DiCicco also announced Monday that Dominion East Ohio will be doing gas line work on Mayfield Road beginning Nov. 29. The work will extend on Mayfield Road westbound from the Gates Mills Place apartments, 6807 Mayfield Road, to the Eastgate Shopping Center back driveway (the one furthest from S.O.M. Center Road). "They're hoping to close only one lane, but it may be two," DiCicco said. At least one westbound lane will be maintained. The work is expected to take eight to 10 days to complete. With its ruby red status now confirmed, Ohio joins states such as Alabama and North Dakota in being really and truly second rate. Lets have stand-your-ground and heartbeat lawstheyll only add to the growing number of reasons millennials and Gens X and Y wont consider moving here. At a time when they clearly want something progressive (as in progress), Ohio continues to take huge leaps backwards. That means fewer 21st Century jobs coming here, since there will be no workforce to fill them. Ohio will only get older, poorer, less educated, and more backward. How Cleveland and NE Ohio will flourish in such a retrograde environment remains to be seen. Renee Lewin, Cleveland Heights The oil industry of Ohio has a problem. The problem is Ohio citizens who dont want to live in a state overwhelmed by fracking wells and pipelines. They now have a bill before the Ohio Senate, SB 250, that they hope will destroy this resistance. The bill takes misdemeanor offenses that can frequently happen in protests such as trespass and puts them on the same felony level as assault and sexual offenses. The bill penalizes any organization that supports a protest with ruinous civil penalties. This shut up and shut down law demolishes the rights to free speech, to protest and to dissent. It sends a very clear message to those who dont bow down before the oil industry in Ohio. Oppose us and we will crush you. It must be rejected. Write your senators and representatives and tell them to vote no to this dangerous legislation. Randy Cunningham, Cleveland CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The National Weather Service in Cleveland issued a winter weather advisory for Ashtabula and Geauga counties in effect from 7 p.m. Tuesday until 4 a.m. Thursday. Light lake-effect snow is expected Tuesday afternoon, but will transition into heavier lake-effect snow as a low-pressure system crosses Northeast Ohio Tuesday night into Wednesday, NWS said. Additional snow accumulations of 4 to 7 inches is expected, NWS said. Chardon in Geauga County was hit the hardest with snow Monday night, accumulating seven inches, NWS said. South Russell and South Madison both accumulated five inches, NWS said. Monroe Center in Ashtabula County received 6.2 inches of snow, according to NWS. Lenox Center, Pierpont and South Madison each accumulated about five inches, NWS said. Cuyahoga County only received a few inches of snow. Shaker Heights led the county with 4.5 inches, followed by Cleveland Heights, Lyndhurst and Garfield Heights at about three inches. Winds will gust to 35 mph Tuesday and continue at about 30 mph through Wednesday, NWS said. Travel could be difficult, NWS said. Hazardous conditions might impact morning or evening commutes. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kent State University won an award this year from the Ohio History Connection for efforts to preserve the memory of the May 4 shootings. The school is preparing for the 50th anniversary of the event. On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a group protesting the bombing of Cambodia. Four students were killed and nine were wounded, sparking demonstrations across the country. Several schools in the state closed as a result. Kent States dedication to preserving the actual site of the shooting, the campus May 4 visitors center and education on the shooting set the school apart, said Barbara Powers, department head for inventory and registration at the Ohio History Connections State Historic Preservation Office. The university dedicated the site of the shooting as a National Historic Landmark in May 2018, one of only 76 locations in Ohio at the time. The site is also in the National Register of Historic Places. (Kent State) serves as an example to other communities, other organizations, other places that have the challenge of recognizing and memorializing a negative piece of history, Powers said. I think these efforts do that in an honorable and respectful way. The 50th anniversary year of remembrance will begin in the fall of 2019 and end on May 4, 2020. Kent State launched a website and Facebook page for updates on the commemoration. Those interested can sign up for email updates on the webpage. Watch President Beverly Warren speak about the May 4 shootings in the YouTube video at the top of this post. CLEVELAND, Ohio - People often complain that big decisions in Cleveland are made by a select few. Well, heres a chance for a lot of you to be heard. And on something really big. On Monday, Dec. 3, up to 1,000 people will be able to participate in a digital focus group by clicking here and to vote on the best ways to improve Clevelands economy. The exercise is designed to build something approaching consensus. Have ideas for how Cleveland can thrive? You're invited to join a live digital focus group happing now, led by Chris Quinn, editor and president of cleveland.com and Dan Moulthrop, CEO of City Club. What ideas for the economy would you like to see come out of the session? Posted by cleveland.com on Monday, December 3, 2018 The online forum will be made possible by software developed by Remesh, a company that exemplifies why a community dialogue on economic development is necessary. Remesh started in Cleveland, but moved to New York to access investment capital, be closer to a larger customer base and to attract more tech talent. Cleveland.com, The Plain Dealer and The City Club of Cleveland are sponsoring the online focus group. The event will begin at noon with Chris Quinn, editor and president of cleveland.com, and Dan Moulthrop, CEO of the City Club, asking questions for about an hour. They also will conduct a Facebook Live conversation at the same time. The push for Cleveland to adopt a more robust economic development strategy has been evolving since lawyer Jon Pinney delivered a speech at the City Club in June calling out local leaders for their lack of attention to the regions struggling economy, including its relatively poor job creation. Moulthrop said the questions to be asked during the Remesh session are designed to solicit input and ideas around growing our regional economy. Moulthrop and Quinn will ask about 15 to 20 questions. An example would be, Whats holding us back from a thriving regional economy? Moulthrop said. Other questions might be more specific, seeking suggestions for improving Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, for example, or the participants' views on immigration. Participants in the online focus group will get to vote on one of two possible responses to each question. After participants choose what they believe is the best response, each participant will then be presented with two more responses to choose from, and so on. The more popular responses wont exactly represent a consensus, Moulthrop said, but will indicate which ideas are resonating with the public. The Remesh question-and-answer session will use artificial intelligence to poll the participants and tabulate the responses in a meaningful way. Participants will be asked to provide demographic information so that the results can be put into better context, but individual responses will be anonymous. Moulthrop said he is hoping for a large turnout, but the current Remesh technology will limit the focus group to about 1,000 participants. Moulthrop used Remesh software earlier this year to obtain feedback on The Two Tomorrows, a report by the Fund for Our Economic Future, but the participants were primarily those in attendance at the City Club. Its expected that the results from the Dec. 3 forum will help guide the various organizations that are beginning to discuss how best to address the struggling local economy. One of those groups is holding a planning session next month to prepare for an inclusive community summit on economic development next year. The group will be centered around the Appreciative Inquiry methodology developed by Case Western faculty members David Cooperrider and Ron Fry. Appreciative Inquiry, which has been used by many organizations from the U.S. Navy to Boeing Corp. to transform themselves, allows for a group discussion that focuses on answers, not problems. Please consider The City Club of Cleveland for #GivingTuesday, which is Nov. 27. LORDSTOWN, Ohio -- General Motors plans to slash 14,000 jobs, including more than 1,400 here as it ends production of the Chevrolet Cruze compact car in March, dealing a devastating hit to an already battered Mahoning Valley. The Detroit-based automaker announced Monday that it will idle its Lordstown assembly plant, along with similar operations in Detroit and Ontario, as it moves away from its once top-selling line of cars toward a greater emphasis on SUVs and trucks. GM also plans to cease operations at transmission plants outside of Baltimore and Detroit. The decisions, and broader corporate cost-cutting, will put thousands of blue-collar workers in peril and even more salaried positions on the chopping block. Though GM will drop production of the Cruze in Lordstown, the company isnt officially closing the plant - a glimmer of hope for workers and politicians who believe something else could be built there in the future. But Mondays news was hardly good. It came as yet another blow to Trumbull County, which has lost 20,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. The Lordstown plant downsized from three shifts to one over the last two years, eliminating more than 3,000 jobs and raising concerns about the 6.2 million-square-foot factorys future. "This is brutal,'' said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat who represents this slice of Northeast Ohio. "General Motors, the very company bailed out by American taxpayers, is screwing its workers. There isnt a neighborhood in the Mahoning Valley that wont be affected by this.'' Chevy Cruze will disappear During a conference call with analysts and investors, Mary Barra, GMs chief executive officer, characterized the announcements as part of the automakers drive to become more agile, resilient and profitable." She said changing consumer preferences are behind the companys shift away from cars and toward crossover vehicles, SUVs and trucks a move that echoes similar production cuts, and job reductions, announced by Ford Motor Co. earlier this year. Barra confirmed that, sometime after production ceases at Lordstown on March 1, the Cruze will disappear from U.S. showrooms. Dhivya Suryadevara, the companys chief financial officer, said GM is phasing out slower-selling, lower-margin vehicles in favor of more profitable products. The company expects to save approximately $6 billion by the end of 2020 between idling the plants and cutting jobs, including 8,000 salaried and executive positions. GM anticipates that it will quickly recoup its up-front spending, which the company will fund by adding onto an existing line of credit. We are very focused on executing with speed to transform the company so were well-prepared not only for tomorrow but into the future, Barra said during the conference call. Hope for Lordstown, or a ghost town? At 9:30 a.m. Monday, company officials told workers that the Lordstown plant will stop making the Cruze, a car once emblematic of GMs rebound from the Great Recession and its 2009 bankruptcy. Officials said the plant would be in a "non-allocated status,'' meaning it would sit idle without a new product. "We really dont know anything else,'' said Bob Ward, a Warren resident and 20-year employee at the plant, after his shift ended Monday afternoon. "We knew all along that changes needed to be made to the plant. But we thought that the Cruze would still be built for a few more years. Were trying to be optimistic.'' Christina DeFelice of Poland also said she would try to be optimistic. But she admitted that the past year has been hard. She worked for GM and a supplier for 22 years but was laid off in June from the Lordstown plants second shift. "This is devastating,'' DeFelice said of the production shutdown. "Without GM, this area would be a ghost town.'' Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, agreed: "This is one of the darkest days weve seen here.'' GM stock gets a boost As employees and union representatives bemoaned the news, investors cheered it. Trading of GMs shares was briefly halted Monday morning after reports trickled out about the job cuts and production stoppages. After trading resumed, GMs stock ended the day up 4.8 percent, at $37.66, its highest level since August. That irked Ryan. "The biggest crock is that GMs stock is up 5 percent,'' Ryan said, reading from his cellphone shortly after 1 p.m. in the union hall. "First, it gets a government bailout, then it gets tax breaks, and now it gets an increase in its stock. Tell me this economy works for normal people.'' Ryan said the company has been unfair to taxpayers and its workers. In late 2008, as the automaker teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, the federal government said it would step in with a bailout. The Bush and Obama administrations spent roughly $50 billion to boost the companys bottom line, a move that saved more than 1 million jobs. The government sold off the last of its GM shares in late 2013, reporting a $10 billion-plus loss to taxpayers. Trump wants GM to stay in Lordstown On Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he is putting pressure on GM. He said the country has been good to the automaker, and he said he told Barra that the company needs to "get a car that is selling well and put it back'' into the Ohio plant. He said he believes that could happen soon. "You better get back in there soon; that's Ohio,'' Trump told reporters. But Ryan blamed Trump for many of Lordstowns problems. "He needs to put his damn Twitter account down and roll up his sleeves and get to work,'' Ryan said. "He campaigned here. He said he would open the steel mills and open the coal mines. He needs to pay attention to what is going on.'' Ryan said GM has yet to offer plans on the future of the plant or the possibility it will bring another product here. He said the idling not only will affect Lordstown but also will hurt 30 suppliers to the plant from across the state. In the UAW hall Monday, away from the crowd, Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill served up a positive spin. He said his village is prepared for the economic hit it will face, but he also refuses to believe that this will be the end of manufacturing at the 52-year-old facility. "Theyre saying they are ceasing production of the Chevy Cruze,'' Hill said. "No one has said theyre shuttering the plant. Im holding on to that.'' Plain Dealer reporters Michelle Jarboe and Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story. Rotunda Rumblings Gut punch: General Motors announced Monday it was "ceasing production" on the Lordstown-made Chevy Cruze as part of 14,700 employee layoffs across the country. Local officials and community members reacted with alarm at the possible loss of the factory, which has lost 3,000 jobs since the beginning of 2017, per The Vindicator. Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, told The Plain Dealer's John Caniglia the closure was "one of the darkest days we've seen here." Lordstown reaction: Lawmakers were dismayed at the news of the plant possibly closing, per cleveland.com's Sabrina Eaton. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown called the closing "corporate greed at its worst" while Niles-area Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan described it as "a new Black Monday in the Mahoning Valley." Republican Gov. John Kasich called the closure "painful." Trump's promise: President Donald Trump promised to pressure GM to "get back into Ohio and soon," Eaton reports. The president, who guaranteed jobs would return to the Mahoning Valley during a visit in 2017, said the closure had nothing to do with his tariffs. Political fallout: The Washington Post's Philip Bump examined the heavy swing in Trumbull County toward Trump during the 2016 election. As Bump points out, the once reliably Democratic area shifted 30 points in favor of Trump - who promised jobs would come back to the area. Some good news: Dayton has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic, but times are looking better, according to The New York Times. Overdose deaths have declined more than 50 percent, with the Times calling Dayton's opioid plan a possible blueprint for how to combat the problems. Buckeye Bitcoin: Ohio has become the first state to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for state taxes, cleveland.com's Emily Bamforth and Andrew Tobias write. For now, only businesses can pay using OhioCrypto.com, but Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel said his hope is that individuals eventually could pay their taxes using Bitcoin and even other cryptocurrencies. That's Rich: Former Treasurer Richard Cordray said he didn't expect the Bitcoin announcement to last. "It sounds very strange to me and I expect it will quickly be reversed by the next Administration, if not this one as well," Cordray told Capitol Letter. Mandel moment: The Bitcoin announcement marked the end of a period of public silence from Mandel, who went dark after he dropped out of the U.S. Senate race in January. In an interview, Mandel said he'd been in touch with State Rep. Robert Sprague, the incoming Republican state treasurer. Sprague visited the treasurer's office and addressed the staff there the week after winning the Nov. 6 election. "I had a personal one-on-one sit-down with him. It was a very positive conversation," Mandel said. Asked about his political future, Mandel said: "It's all TBD." Escape artist: The House Ethics Committee delayed its hearing into Wadsworth GOP Rep. Jim Renacci until after Renacci leaves office, Eaton reports. Since Renacci will be gone from the Capitol, the committee will likely be barred from imposing any sanctions on him. Green juice: A legislative panel studying Lake Erie's health decided on Monday to not recommend any bills to the full General Assembly. Instead, they want the agricultural community to meet with other stakeholders to find a solution to the algae blooms, cleveland.com's Laura Hancock writes. It's worse than we thought: A new report from Auditor Dave Yost found the problems with ECOT, the online charter school that bilked the state out of millions of dollars, are worse than previously thought, per the Dispatch's Jim Siegel. The new audit found problems with the internal investigations and a lack of securing data, among other issues. Purge-atory: Secretary of State Jon Husted reinstated the mass voter purges last week, but his successor, Frank LaRose, wants to find a different method, the Columbus Dispatch's Darrel Rowland reports. "I think we can come up with something better ... that makes it easier for people to get registered and stay registered to vote, keep their address information updated and work to encourage people to stay active in the elections process so that we don't have people that sit out six elections," LaRose told reporters before Thanksgiving. Tax-free toys: The Cincinnati Reds don't have to pay "use" tax on bobbleheads and other promotional items given to attendees at some games, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled. However, this decision can't necessarily be applied to promotional items from other teams and organizations, cleveland.com's Laura Hancock writes. Snapshot: In Ohio, 37,515 residents selected plans using HealthCare.gov from Nov. 1-17, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said. The number does not include customers who are automatically re-enrolled into a plan. Open enrollment for 2019 under the Affordable Care Act continues through Dec. 15. Dever down: Democrats appear likely to flip another Ohio House seat, as the final vote count in House District 28 shows Democrat Jessica Miranda ahead of GOP incumbent Jonathan Dever by a mere 56 votes. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer's Scott Wartman, Hamilton County elections officials are conducting an automatic recount, but few expect it will change the outcome. What Dever's loss means: If Miranda's lead holds, HD-28 would be the sixth Republican-held Ohio House seat Democrats flipped this year, giving them a net gain of five seats and reducing the House GOP's majority to 61-38. Dever also supports Larry Householder for House Speaker next session, so his loss would increase Speaker Ryan Smith's chances of holding onto the speaker's gavel next year. Driverless semi? Kasich has pontificated on how truckers will soon be out of work with autonomous semi technology. Cleveland.com's Laura Hancock checked out that claim - and shot video - at a company working on the technology. Seeing red, feeling blue: Despite little hope for Democrats following the midterm election results, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley isn't ready to move Ohio in the Republican column just yet. In a New York Times op-ed, Whaley said Democrats in the state have to follow the lead of Sen. Brown, the lone high-profile Democrat with statewide success. It's my party: Criticism of the Democratic Party poured in after the election, with some thinking Chairman David Pepper's position may be in jeopardy. Some wanted Brown to take over the party since he was the only Democrat with some success. But in an interview with BuzzFeed News' Henry Gomez, Brown said he was fine with Pepper as chairman. "I always have concerns about everything in a political party, but we're talking to David, and David will remain chairman," Brown said. Deja vu: It feels like we've done this before, but Brown and Kasich were both on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday mulling about possible presidential bids. Tax blunders? Business owners who avoid paying state income taxes are using a loophole in the tax code to take tax credits meant for low-income people, the Columbus Dispatch's Jim Siegel reports. That's the result of tax cuts by the Legislature, which allows for people making more than $150,000 in business income to take tax credit designed for those making $30,000. Anti-abortion beginnings: John and Barbara Willke are often credited as two of the founders of the anti-abortion movement in America. With Roe v. Wade in the crosshairs of conservatives after taking control of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Cincinnati Enquirer's Dan Horn looked at the couple from the Queen City that got the ball rolling on one of the defining political movements in America. Ohio's Constitution on display: After two months' of renovations, the Ohio Statehouse Museum is set to reopen Wednesday with a new exhibit displaying Ohio's two state constitutions. The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, Capitol Square Foundation and the Ohio History Connection will preview the improvements to the media on Tuesday afternoon. The times they are a changin': Republican Gov.-elect Mike DeWine gave a lengthy interview to the Washington Court House Record-Herald about his upcoming ascension to the governor's office. DeWine told the paper the first change he noticed was on election night when the highway patrol security detail showed up. Still giving thanks: Thanksgiving may be over for most people, but not the Cleveland Club of Washington, D.C. or the National Honor Society at Strongsville High School. The organizations are teaming up today for a joint volunteer day where the Washington group prepares ingredients for meals at DC Central Kitchen while the Strongsville students sort and repack food at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. A spokesman for the Washington group estimated 60 Northeast Ohioans would participate. On the Move Gov. John Kasich appointed John Cortlett, director of the Cleveland health care think tank Center for Community Solutions to the Ohio Advisory Council for Aging for a term ending Nov. 21, 2021. Longtime TV talk show host Jerry Springer is heading to the bench. Springer, who is active in Ohio Democratic politics, will get his own television court show in 2019. Birthdays State Sen. Kevin Bacon State Sen. Joe Uecker Straight from the Source "Let me tell you folks in Ohio and in this area, don't sell your house. Don't sell your house. We're not selling. We're going to get those values up. We're going to get those jobs coming back and we're going to fill up those factories or rip them down and build new ones. That's what's going to happen." --President Donald Trump during a 2017 rally in Youngstown where he promised supporters in the Mahoning Valley that jobs were coming back to the area. COLUMBUS, OhioIn the most unlikely victory of Ohios 2018 campaign, Democrat Tina Maharath was certified Tuesday as the winner of a Republican-held state Senate seat in Franklin County, overcoming a troubled past, an avalanche of attack ads, and abandonment by her own party. Maharath, a 27-year-old financial analyst from Canal Winchester, won Senate District 3 over veteran Republican lawmaker Anne Gonzales by 705 votes, according to final results from Franklin County elections officials. Thats a margin of 0.53 percent, just barely above the threshold of one-half of one percent of the total vote to trigger an automatic recount. It was an outcome that many didnt expect or, frankly, want to happen. Even Maharath, in an interview late Tuesday afternoon, said she was absolutely surprised and thought there was no way she would win "unless hell froze over. But on a snowy day in Central Ohio, Maharath triumphed through a combination of luck, opponents mistakes, perseverance, and (perhaps most importantly) running in an increasingly blue-leaning district in a year favorable to Democrats. These are typically low-visibility races, and I doubt that many people knew a lot about her, despite all the Republican spending to try to point out what her record was like, said Paul Beck, a political scientist at Ohio State University. With Republican Sen. Kevin Bacon term-limited, Democrats considered Senate District 3 to be their best chance at flipping a GOP-held Senate seat for the first time in 12 years. But when Maharath filed to run in February, party officials were skeptical at best about her chances to win. Not only did she have no prior campaign experience, but a Google search of her name revealed a past that included being arrested for selling alcohol to minors, a bankruptcy stemming from a divorce and an incident where she hit a dead man with her car (she was absolved of blame in the latter case). But the man Franklin County Democrats backed for the seat, Gahanna attorney Nathan Dowds, didnt submit the 50 valid petition signatures he needed to run. The county party then endorsed their former executive director, Katherine Chipps, as a last-minute write-in candidate, but Maharath won the May primary easily as the only Democrat on the ballot. Even as the Democratic nominee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Franklin County Democrats refused to endorse Maharath and didnt give her campaign any money an unusual move, especially for a candidate in a competitive race. But as Election Day neared, Republican polling showed that Gonzales was in trouble. The Ohio Senate Republicans campaign arm spent nearly $750,000 on TV ads highlighting Maharaths past, according to political ad tracker Medium Buying. As of late September, Maharaths campaign only raised $5,264, less than 1/40th of the $212,606 raised by Gonzales. Instead of ads, she said, she focused on door-to-door campaigning around the district. Maharath also said the Republicans' attack ads backfired, as they motivated her shocked family and friends to start a word-of-mouth voter turnout campaign for her. It was as if the smear ads were actually positive ads for me, she said. Unofficial vote totals showed Gonzales with a 329-vote lead on Election Night. But when the provisional and outstanding absentee ballots were counted, Maharath pulled ahead for good. Maharath said that, as a senator, she plans to push for expanding Ohios anti-discrimination laws to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer people. The daughter of refugees from the southeast Asian nation of Laos, Maharath also intends to seek the creation of a state commission for Asian-Americans, similar to ones already set up for Latino and black Ohioans. Such a commission, she said, would help to educate Asian-Americans in Ohio about issues like health care. Although the Ohio Senate Democrats' campaign caucus didnt support her campaign, Maharath said she plans to caucus with the Senate Democrats. Even with Maharaths victory, Republicans will continue to hold a 24-9 supermajority in the Ohio Senate, as the GOP won a Democratic-held Senate seat in the Youngstown area. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story inaccurately stated that Ohio Senate Republicans spent $1.5 million on TV ads against Maharath. The correct total is $748,794. STRONGSVILLE, Ohio -- Foundation Software Inc., a Strongsville seller of software and payroll services targeting the construction industry, will move its headquarters into the former Medical Mutual of Ohio building off Ohio 82, across from SouthPark Mall. The company will become part of Royalton Collection, a proposed office-retail development by Somera Road Inc., a New York-based firm. "This is a homerun, to backfill that vacant office space," Brent Painter, Strongsville's economic development director, told City Council Nov. 20. "Foundation Software is one of the fastest-growing software-development firms in Northeast Ohio." Last week, City Council awarded Foundation Software a Job Creation Grant for relocating its headquarters while staying in Strongsville. The company, which now employs 300, plans to add 40 to 50 new fulltime jobs by 2019. The grant, given annually for 10 years, will equal 30 percent of Foundation Software's new payroll, according to Fred Ode, company owner and CEO. According to Foundation Software's grant application, the company will add $2.2 million to its existing $17.4 million payroll, but Painter said that amount applies only to the first year of the grant agreement. "Each year that number grows, and the company anticipates adding over $13 million in new payroll within the next five years," Painter told cleveland.com in an email. Under the city's Job Creation Grant guidelines, a company already in Strongsville must, within three years, create at least 30 new full-time jobs and generate at least $6 million in new payroll to qualify for a grant. The three-story, 125,000-square-foot office building has been vacant since 2016, when Medical Mutual relocated to another site in Strongsville. Foundation Software is buying the building. Foundation Software officials said Tuesday they expect the property sale to close over the next two days or so. Ode said his company will invest more than $3 million in renovating the office building. Improvements will include a new fitness center, recreation and locker rooms; heating, ventilation and air conditioning system; boilers; lights; carpet; paint; and roof. Total investment is expected to reach $11.5 million, including the property purchase, according to Foundation Software's grant application. Meanwhile, Foundation Software will keep operating its existing 48,000-square-foot headquarters on Foltz Parkway as a second Strongsville location. The company, according to its website, also has offices in Phoenix; Charleston; Austin, Texas; and Fort Meyers, Florida. Ode said Foundation Software will likely let go a third Strongsville building on Drake Road. Ode said the company needs more office space because its revenues have grown by 18 percent to 20 percent annually for seven consecutive years. He said the Medical Mutual site became more attractive when the lot was split into three parcels, which lowered the price. Somera Road owns two of the parcels, while Foundation Software will own the third. So far, Royalton Collection has two known occupants -- Foundation Software and Panera Bread, which will relocate about 1,400 feet west from its existing location at 17090 Royalton Road. Ian Ross, founder and principal of Somera Road Inc., said he has signed additional retail tenants for Royalton Collection, but wasn't ready to identify them Tuesday. Earlier this year, Ross said construction of Royalton Collection was scheduled to start in August or September 2018. That timeframe has been changed to early 2019. Joe LeMense, vice president of asset management with Somera Road, said his firm was excited that Foundation Software is part of Royalton Collection. "They bring an energy that aligns perfectly with the live, work and play environment we seek to foster at the center," LeMense said. "Their decision to expand in Strongsville is a huge win for the community and we are pleased to be a small part of their growth." Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with former British Prime Minister David Cameron in Beijing Tuesday, saying China stands ready to work with Britain to strengthen bilateral ties in order to benefit both countries and peoples. During their meeting at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing, Li spoke highly of Cameron's contribution to China-Britain ties when he served as British prime minister. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) holds talks with former British Prime Minister David Cameron in Beijing on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. [Photo: gov.cn] China attaches great importance to its relations with Britain, Li told Cameron, saying that China is ready to work with Britain to consolidate political mutual understanding, enhance cooperation in key areas such as the economy, trade and finance and further tap potentials of investment to make bilateral cooperation yield more win-win results and better benefit both peoples. Noting that the world has paid a lot of attention to the agreement between Britain and the European Union (EU) on the Brexit deal at present, Li said China is glad to see a peaceful, stable, prosperous and open Britain and EU as both of them are China's important partners. China will continue to promote the healthy and steady development of China-Britain and China-EU ties and would like to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade and realize mutually beneficial cooperation, said Li. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with former British Prime Minister David Cameron in Beijing on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. [Photo: gov.cn] Cameron said with both sides' efforts, Britain-China relations entered into a golden era while he was in office. Hailing the enhanced bilateral cooperation and increasing growth of two-way investment and trade, Cameron said Britain will firmly support rules-based multilateralism and free trade as always. If Apple ultimately decided to move production of its iPhone from China to the United States, it would be a "massive" undertaking, venture capitalist Gene Munster told CNBC on Monday. The tech giant is facing potential tariffs as a result of the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. On Monday, President Donald Trump suggested in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he could place a 10 percent levy on iPhones and laptops imported from China. Munster, managing partner of technology-focused firm Loup Ventures, said he was surprised by the president's statement. "[Apple CEO] Tim Cook has done a great job of trying to be in the good graces of Trump," he said on "Closing Bell." But if things escalated and Apple were to think about leaving China, Munster said, "it is probably easier to move the moon off its orbit than it is to shift iPhone production back to the U.S." Trump has been pushing Apple to make its products in the U.S. instead of China. In September, he tweeted that prices may increase because of "massive tariffs" and urged the company to "start building new plants now" in the U.S. TWEET However, Munster said it is easy to talk about but extremely hard to do. "We're talking about something that would take five-plus years to do. There's near a million people, even with the cuts at Foxconn, that work on Apple products in China," he said. In September, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said iPhone prices would rise significantly if the smartphone were assembled domestically. In a note to clients, analyst Wamsi Mohan said under the "most likely" scenario in which Apple moves 10 percent of its iPhone assembly to the U.S., the average selling price of the iPhone would rise by 9 percent. If it shifts 50 percent or 100 percent to the U.S., iPhone prices would increase by 14 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse for a hearing on June 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. The filing notes that Manafort's alleged breach maintains all of his obligations under the deal, but relieves the special counsel of its own duties "including its agreement to a reduction in the Sentencing Guidelines for acceptance of responsibility." Manafort, meanwhile, "believes he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the government's characterization or that he has breached the agreement," according to the filing. "After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement," prosecutors said in the document, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Special counsel Robert Mueller alleged Monday that former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort lied to investigators, violating his plea agreement, according to a court filing. The special counsel and Manafort both asked the judge to sentence the former Trump campaign chairman. The filing did not mention what Manafort is specifically alleged to have lied about. It was also not clear whether Mueller will file new charges against Manafort in light of the allegations. A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment beyond what is in Monday's filing. This is not the first time Manafort has been called out by the special counsel for breaching the terms of his deals with them. In June, Manafort was sent to jail pending his then-upcoming trials after investigators accused him of witness tampering. The decision in the U.S. attorneys' favor from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson revoked Manafort's $10 million bond. Mueller is investigating Russia's attack on the 2016 election as well as potential ties between the Kremlin and President Donald Trump's campaign. Trump has repeatedly denied that his campaign colluded with the Russians to undermine the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton. Manafort had faced prosecution by Mueller in two separate cases, one in Washington, D.C., the other in Virginia. In September, Manafort cut a deal with Mueller's team and agreed to plead guilty to charges related that he was engaged in a conspiracy involving money laundering, tax fraud, failing to report foreign bank accounts, violating rules requiring registration of foreign agents, lying and witness tampering. The deal came a few weeks after a jury in Virginia found him guilty on several counts of financial fraud. The charges lodged by Mueller's team largely relate to Manafort's work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, which he performed years before he joined the Trump campaign. Manafort was also one of the Trump campaign officials to attend a June 2016 meeting with Russian government-connected operatives at Trump Tower in New York, which was coordinated by Donald Trump, Jr. in the hope of hearing what was claimed to be damaging information about Clinton. Trump's son-in-law and current senior advisor Jared Kushner also attended that meeting. On Monday, prosecutors said that under the terms of the plea deal, Manafort was required to be "fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly" cooperative with the government. The filing said that agreement stipulated that if Manafort failed to meet his obligations, the government would be relieved of its obligations. That would include its agreement to reduce sentencing guidelines in exchange for acceptance of responsibility. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, lawyers for Trump said they had submitted the president's written answers to the special counsel. "The questions presented dealt with issues regarding the Russia-related topics of the inquiry," said Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's lawyers and a conservative radio host. Neither the specific questions nor the answers have yet been made public, and it remains unclear whether Mueller's team plans to send follow-up questions to Trump or request that he sit down for an in-person interview. Below is the full text of the status report: The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center stands in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 14, 2018. WASHINGTON Alerts about an active shooter at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland caused patients and a U.S. congressman to fear the worst on Tuesday, but the Pentagon said they were part of an "exercise." Lt. Col. Audricia Harris, a Pentagon spokesperson, told CNBC on Tuesday that the reports of an active shooter were part of a drill. The U.S. Navy later tweeted that it was an "ad hoc drill." "CONFIRMED: No active shooter at Naval Support Activity Bethesda," the Navy said in the post. "Was ad hoc drill by tenant command." Navy tweet But shortly after the Navy statement, NSA Bethesda, which is home to the hospital, posted a series of messages on Twitter saying that it had investigated the incident and concluded it was not a scheduled drill. "Around 2 p.m. today, Tuesday, Nov. 27, a call came into security at NSA Bethesda with the report of an active shooter situation in the basement of Bldg. 19 at Walter Reed Bethesda," the military installation wrote. "After investigating the call and the origin, NSA Bethesda has determined that this was a false alarm and not part of a scheduled drill as has been reported." Jeremy Brooks, a spokesperson for NSA Bethesda, said an investigation is continuing but "it was determined that [the false alarm] wasn't meant maliciously." "Somebody has the wrong information," he said. Walter Reed is the largest joint military medical center in the country and has a staff of approximately 7,000, according to its website. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., was one of the individuals holed up in the hospital after alerts were sent out. In a post on Twitter, he wrote that he was safe and in a conference room with around 40 other people. Half an hour after the initial tweet, another message apparently posted by his staff said that the congressman remained in a back room at the hospital, where the mood was calm. "Has not been given any additional details but does not believe this to be a drill," the message said. Jaime Lennon, Ruppersberg's communications director, said "if it was a drill, it would be a surprise to congressman Ruppersberger." Ruppersberger tweet Later, a tweet from Walter Reed described the situation as a "Code White." Here's how the hospital's core competency guidelines describe a Code White drill: A.I. is still far from human. Even as technological processes get smarter and cloud computing delves into data collection and analytics, Artificial Intelligence still has a long way to go before it can replicate a human brain, said an executive who oversees Alibaba Cloud's A.I. projects. "As of today, nobody in the A.I. programming world is capable of doing that, even to an entry-level approach," Min Wanli, chief machine intelligence scientist at Alibaba Cloud, told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal. "We have to learn how to coordinate multiple dimensional capability to get there." Min, who oversees artificial intelligence projects at Alibaba Cloud, was speaking at CNBC's three-day East Tech West conference in Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. He enrolled in college at the young age of 14 and has a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Chicago. A bigger fear with automation is perhaps the loss of human jobs at factories and industries equipped with power technology such as sensors and devices to collect and analyze data. Min said their goal was to make workers as smart as power machines. "I wouldn't call it a job loss, it's a job transformation," Min said. A champion of pattern predictions and data intelligence, Min has used a data machine in the past to predict the winner of a Chinese reality TV show called "I Am Singer." He also helped Hangzhou city planners to optimize traffic lights to reduce congestion. "We are the first ones to really deliver a system which can cut down travel time of an ambulance by more than half," Min said. Alibaba Cloud gets an upgrade Jack Ma reacts during a session at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 on April 9, 2018 in Boao, China. Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has been a member of China's Communist Party since the 1980s, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC on Tuesday. The person asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the subject. A report by state-backed People's Daily released a list of people on Monday that the Communist Party wishes to honor for "their contributions to the reform and opening up." Ma was among the names mentioned, which drew questions about when he had joined the country's ruling party. Ma's Communist Party membership status had long been a question. Although Chinese-language websites as early as 2015 said he was a party member, those had not been widely noticed by the international community. This week's news, however, revealed that the man reported to be China's richest is also a long-time member of a group that can trace its roots to Karl Marx. State-run Chinese media on Tuesday reported on a social media post from someone claiming to be a former classmate of Ma's, who said that they joined the Communist Party while in university. "We all joined the party around the second or third year of university. Back then, joining the party meant not just that you were a good student, but also that you had integrity, organizational ability, enthusiasm and idealism," the post said, according to a translation that matched a screenshot of the post seen by CNBC. The news comes after Ma announced plans to step down as chairman of Alibaba in September. There had been speculation for some time that Ma was a member of the party but nothing had been confirmed until the recent report. But the person familiar told CNBC that Ma has indeed been a Communist Party member since his university days in the 1980s. Alibaba, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on Ma's party membership history. Two other top leaders of China's non-governmental technology sector were also mentioned on the People's Daily's list of people who have helped open up China, although both are "non-partisan" and not party members: Tencent CEO Pony Ma and Baidu CEO Robin Li. Correction: Pony Ma and Robin Li were not listed as Communist Party members on the People's Daily list. Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an Apple launch event in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., October 30, 2018. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Ivanka Trump, advisor to President Donald Trump, will visit Idaho's Wilder School District on Tuesday, the White House said. The Idaho Statesman first reported on the visit. Ivanka Trump confirmed the visit early Tuesday, when she posted about the trip on Twitter. "Looking forward to visiting the Wilder School District tomorrow with Apple CEO and #STEM education champion Tim Cook," the president's daughter said. "Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump is traveling to Idaho as part of her ongoing workforce development and STEM initiatives and will visit the Wilder School District with Apple CEO Tim Cook," the White House confirmed in an email to CNBC. tweet It follows a similar trip Ivanka Trump made in March to the Waukee Innovation and Learning Center in Iowa, which Cook recommended she take. The Wilder School District was accepted into Apple's ConnectEd program in the 2015-2016 school year and two schools, Wilder Elementary and Wilder Middle-High School, received part of a $100 million grant from Apple that helped the schools issue iPads to all students. Teachers received MacBooks and iPad minis, Apple said when it highlighted the progress of the program earlier this year. Wilder has a large population of high-poverty families that otherwise weren't able to afford advanced computing equipment, such as iPads. Apple provides ConnectED grants to a total of 114 schools in the United States. Apple partnered with the Trump White House and Ivanka Trump in 2017 in an effort to focus on best practices for computer science and science, technology, engineering and math education in the United States. Apple was not immediately available to comment on the visit. The stock market may be in for an unexpected move higher, strategist Brian Belski told CNBC on Tuesday. "People are so negatively disposed with respect to President Trump and the tariff situation that we believe that there's going to be some sort of surprise and the market is not prepared for it," the chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets told CNBC's "Power Lunch." Stocks have traded lower on trade war fears, only to change course when positive news comes out. U.S. equities initially dropped on Tuesday on comments from President Donald Trump that cast doubt on a trade deal being struck between the U.S. and China. The president told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that it is "highly unlikely" the U.S. would delay increasing tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods. Trump also suggested the U.S. could impose a 10 percent levy on iPhones and Apple laptops imported from China. However, on Tuesday afternoon, top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said the Trump administration has restarted talks with the Chinese government "at all levels." That caused stocks to edge higher. Belski, who called himself "unabashedly bullish," said his reasoning is just common sense since Trump is following the same script he has used during past negotiations. Both Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be among the world leaders participating in this week's G-20 summit and are expected to meet on the sidelines. Belski said that while the "tariff tantrum" may be causing some people to start talking about a recession in 2019 into 2020, he thinks that is way too early. BMO's base case for next year has the hitting 3,150. Its bull case predicts the index can hit 3,400 if there is stronger-than-expected economic growth. Belski is also expecting the market to rally into the end of this year. "The stock market is a market of stocks, and there are great companies here in America that can be bought that will outperform the market," Belski said. "That's how we're going to be positioning into the Santa Claus rally, which we believe will happen," he added. A so-called Santa Claus rally typically occurs the last week of December through the first two trading days of January. CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report. Disclaimer U.S. government debt yields held steady on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida stressed the importance of policymakers being "data dependent" and more cautious about further rate hikes. The Federal Open Market Committee's newest member said the Fed's monetary policy is "much closer" to a so-called neutral level that is neither stimulative nor restrictive than it was when it began its latest hiking cycle back in December 2015. "A monetary policy strategy must find a way to combine incoming data and a model of the economy with a healthy dose of judgment and humility! to formulate, and then communicate, a path for the policy rate most consistent with our policy objectives," Clarida said in prepared remarks. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was largely unchanged at 3.066 percent at 11:58 a.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was up at 3.32 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices. Recent economic data including strong GDP and employment prints have prompted Fed's policy-making arm to defend its three increases to the overnight rate this year. Both the Fed and markets anticipate a fourth rate hike in December. The current federal funds rate rose to 2.25 percent when the FOMC voted to bump the rate on September 26, 2018. Clarida's speech "was kind of mixed, and my general feeling is that this Fed is really not going to change very much," said Tom di Galoma, head of Treasury trading at Seaport Global Holdings. "I do think the Fed is going to be a bit more data-dependent, but I don't see any reason for them to hesitate in lifting rates in December or back off rate hikes in both March and June." Clarida's comments come a day before Chair Jerome Powell is due to participate in luncheon at the Economic Club of New York, which will be closely watched by investors to see if he comments on the state of monetary policy. A fundamental difference in the mindset of Chinese citizens, compared to people in other major economies, means that artificial intelligence (AI) could see significant success in the Asian powerhouse, Edith Yeung, head of 500 Startups' China unit, told CNBC Tuesday. Speaking to CNBC's Eunice Yoon, Yeung described how technology consumers were starting to want more protection for their data from large-scale platforms, namechecking the EU's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force earlier this year. But in China, Yeung described a different view on data protection. "Chinese people are aware of it (data protection) but in general if you talk to most of the normal people they understand there could be big platforms that have access to their data but they're OK with it because of the national pride of wanting to help to be the number one in AI for the whole of China. That mindset is even greater then 'hey I just want to protect my data'," she said at East Tech West in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. "China is so interesting because there is so much data," she added, suggesting that this willingness from the Chinese public will aid data-hungry firms who are looking to enhance and launch new AI projects. "I think there are a lot of Chinese citizens really proud of the fact that we're actually big enough to even be able to compete with the U.S. in terms of AI. And I think it is just a really exciting time to be in China." Cai Chaolin, party secretary of CPC Nansha Committee, speaks at CNBC East Tech West at LN Garden Hotel in Nansha, Guangzhou on November 27, 2018. The Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, has the potential to become a "city where dreams are realized," said a politician in the world's second-largest economy. Guangzhou is one of the 11 cities that form the Greater Bay Area. The area registered a gross domestic product of $1.6 trillion in 2017 and is home to major transport nodes. Cai Chaolin, the party secretary of the Communist Party of China's Nansha committee, said the Greater Bay Area has the potential to become a major economic and business hub in the world. Nansha, situated in the heart of that region, is poised to benefit. Speaking at the opening of the CNBC East Tech West conference, Cai said there are a number of initiatives to attract technology companies and talent to Nansha. Nansha is now home to a number of firms in the artificial intelligence space, such as self-driving car start-up Pony.ai, said Cai, whose speech in Chinese was translated by CNBC. The party secretary also spoke about an initiative that now allows companies based in certain locations outside Nansha to complete the formalities for business registration in one day. In addition, the city also is focused on attracting needed talent. "Nansha is a city where dreams are realized. It is a city of opportunity, a city to start a business and a very dynamic city," Cai said. The world's second-largest economy remains on track to be one of the fastest-growing globally, according to Jing Ulrich, managing director and vice chairman for Asia Pacific at J.P. Morgan Chase. "The important thing to note is the Chinese economy may be bending. It is not breaking," Ulrich said Tuesday at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. She said the firm expects China's economy to slow from 6.6 percent to 6.1 percent next year. Beijing's efforts to reduce reliance on debt for growth, an increase in uncertainty among consumers and an investment slowdown in areas such as real estate are all contributing to the slowdown, Ulrich said. However, a growth rate above 6 percent would still mark one of the fastest in the world, and would top the U.S., which grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter. Ulrich added she expects the U.S. economy to slow next year, as corporate profit growth slows and the stimulative effects of tax cuts wear out. The Union Flag flies near the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, June 7, 2017. Three-quarters of multinational corporations failed to disclose how they engaged with U.K. politicians last year, with Nissan, Disney and Huawei among the least transparent, according to a report published Monday. Campaign group Transparency International's 2018 Corporate Political Engagement Index assessed 104 international businesses on their openness with political engagement in Britain. The index looked into areas such as donations to political parties and lobbying of those in power. Researchers found that almost 75 percent of firms were failing to adequately disclose how they engaged with politicians. Four in five companies had poor standards in disclosing their lobbying of politicians, while a quarter had no public information available on their political involvement. According to Transparency International, the companies in the index attended at least 736 meetings with U.K. lawmakers last year. The report acknowledged that corporate political engagement was a legitimate activity but raised concerns that "when done in the shadows it can be a serious corruption risk." The average grade given to companies across all categories was an E, signaling poor transparency standards. Companies awarded the average grade included Amazon, P&G, Facebook and BP. Firms given an overall F grade the lowest score included Samsung, Disney, EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young), Huawei and Nissan. A spokesperson for Nissan told CNBC via email: "Nissan is committed to responsible political engagement and has clearly defined internal protocols governing our political operations. We are reviewing TI-UK's recent analysis of the information that companies publish on their political engagement to identify any improvements to our communications in this area." Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was the only company in the index to receive an A grade. GSK names transparency as one of its core values, and registers all lobbying costs on the EU Transparency Register last year, it spent $4.18 million on lobbying activity in the U.S. The company declined to comment directly on the report. A spokesperson for PwC, which was given a grade D, told CNBC via email: "We welcome this research as it shines an important spotlight on how business engages with policymakers. We believe transparency is important for stakeholders to better understand how our business operates and we will continue to reflect on how we can better report on our activities in the future." German industrial firm Siemens improved its transparency as the index was being collated, Transparency International told CNBC, bringing its final grade to a B. A Siemens spokesperson told CNBC via email: "As a global business, addressing policy challenges such as clean energy, smart mobility and healthcare, we think it is right to engage in discussions with policy-makers. But we also recognize the need to do so in an open and transparent way. The TI report is a welcome initiative, which allowed us to audit and improve what we already do in this area. We are encouraged by our assessment and hope to keep the transparency level high." Kathryn Higgs, director of Transparency International U.K.'s business integrity program, said the findings were a cause for concern. "Businesses must be far more transparent in how they engage with politicians or they risk damaging their reputations with the public and in the long run will lose out," she said in a press release published Monday. "There is a strong business case that companies who are open in how they operate are more trusted by customers, deliver higher shareholder returns, avoid damaging scandals and are more attractive for investment." Amazon and EY declined to comment on the findings. Spokespersons for P&G, Facebook, BP, Samsung, Disney, and Huawei were not available for comment when contacted by CNBC. All assessed companies were invited over a nine-month period to submit evidence. During that time a third of the firms actively strengthened their political engagement policies, while 17 percent pledged to improve their political transparency, Transparency International said. Transparency International has launched an online tool with the index to allow users to search for meetings between U.K. government ministers and lobbyists. GM's current CEO Mary Barra took some heat from U.S. President Donald Trump , who said Monday that the automaker should put another factory in Ohio, where it plans to wind down production of one plant after 2019. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was disappointed the company will no longer produce vehicles at a plant in Ontario. The United Auto Workers labor union also said it will fight GM's decision. General Motors ' decision to essentially stop production at five factories in North America and eliminate roughly 14,700 jobs wasn't a political one, despite pressure from leaders in Washington and Canada to reverse course, said former CEO Dan Akerson. The shares dipped in afternoon trading Tuesday after Trump said he was looking at cutting all of GM's subsidies. It's shares were down by 2.9 percent. But GM is simply doing what it can to maximize its efficiency and prepare for a still uncertain future in the automotive industry, Akerson said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Tuesday. Its choice to shift production away from factories that make cars and to make better-selling and more profitable SUVs, trucks and crossover vehicles is simply responding to market forces. Car sales have dropped, in just five or six years, from representing 50 to 60 percent of the market to 20 to 30 percent of the market. "This isn't a choice that is being made in the Oval Office or the board room or on the factory floor. They are being made around the kitchen table," said Akerson, who served as GM's CEO from 2010 to 2014. "Fundamentally, the industry is oversupplied right now. GM's plants are running at about 70 to 71 percent capacity. You can't make money and produce cash to fund future ambitions, moves that I think are necessary to position the company for the long term." In the past, the company was far more reluctant to make these tough choices to secure its future, and suffered for it, he said. "These decisions weren't made back in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the inevitable came to pass, and the company went into bankruptcy," he said. Now a new generation of consumers is becoming more influential in the market, and they appear to have different buying habits and an unprecedented interest in other types of mobility products and services, such as ride-sharing. "Right now, GM is trying to change," he said. "They're looking for a couple more cards, trying to show more flexibility, trying to free up cash flow in the future so they can play the electric game, so they can play the shared ownership game, and it is critically important that the company position itself while it is healthy, not in a crisis." Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has been unfriended. Facebook has asked Hyde-Smith to refund its $2,500 in campaign contributions because of the Mississippi Republican's recent comments about being willing to attend a "public hanging" and being in favor of voter suppression. The social media giant's move came only after a number of other big companies requested a refund of their contributions for the same reasons. Critics have called her remarks tone-deaf or worse given Mississippi's long, ugly history of lynching and suppressing the voter rights of African-Americans. "The recent public comments made by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith do not reflect the values or mission of Facebook," a company spokesman said. "Our PAC [political action committee] contribution was made before these comments were made, and we have asked the Hyde-Smith campaign to return our campaign donation." The refund request first was reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday. The senator, who was appointed to replace ailing Sen. Thad Cochran earlier this year, is facing a runoff election Tuesday against Democratic nominee Mike Espy, an African-American who previously served as U.S. Agriculture secretary and as a congressman from Mississippi. Hyde-Smith's comments have turned that race, once seen as a slam-dunk for Republicans, into a potential nail biter that required a last-minute campaign visit by President Donald Trump, as a slew of corporate contributors backed away from her. Google revealed Monday that it had previously, and privately, asked Hyde-Smith for a refund. Other companies that have asked for their money back include Walmart, Ernst & Young, AT&T, Amgen, Boston Scientific, Leidos, Pfizer and Union Pacific. The Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball also has asked for a refund. However, former Facebook President Sean Parker has not requested a refund of the at least $250,000 he contributed to a group that's supporting Hyde-Smith. Parker's spokesman has said the money was donated earlier this year specifically to defeat another Republican candidate in the Senate race, Chris McDaniel, who is tied to the neo-Confederate movement. The flurry of refund requests has come as the news site Popular Information has highlighted contributions to Hyde-Smith by big corporate donors. Popular Information's stories on the contributions in turn were sparked by her recent comments. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Hyde-Smith had said during an appearance that if a supporter of hers "invited me to a public hanging, I'd be in the front row." She later said her comment had been "twisted," and also said that if anyone was offended by it "I certainly apologize." At another event, Hyde-Smith said she thought it would be "a great idea" to make it more difficult for some people to vote. Her campaign later said that remark was a joke. Last week, a photo Hyde-Smith posted on Facebook in 2014 resurfaced, showing her wearing a Confederate army cap and holding a rifle during her visit to the presidential library and museum of Jefferson Davis, who led the South during the Civil War. Also last week, the Jackson Free-Press newspaper reported that Hyde-Smith had attended, as a girl, a private school that was founded to flout the Supreme Court's rulings that ordered the desegregation of schools that had previously kept blacks and whites from studying together. And Hyde-Smith's daughter later attended a private school that had just one black student out of 392 students, in a town that is 55 percent black. Despite the controversy, polls indicate that Hyde-Smith will likely eke out a win in the state that went for Trump by double digits in 2016. The absence of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at a hearing attended by lawmakers from nine countries doesn't look great, an executive at the company admitted Tuesday. "Not great," was the phrase Richard Allan, Facebook's vice president of policy solutions, used to describe how Zuckerberg's no-show at the hearing looked when asked by a lawmaker. Allan is also a member of the parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords. "I think it's important we have this kind of engagement but I also have a role supporting my company as it tries to grapple with the issues that we're talking about today," he said. Allan added: "And I understand as we're trying to work out where senior officers of the company should be that we should work this out." The Facebook executive was faced with a grueling session of questioning from international politicians in the British parliament on Tuesday around how it handles user data and privacy. Lawmakers from Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, Latvia, Argentina and Singapore questioned Facebook's policy head. A seat was left vacant beside Allan with a card reading Zuckerberg's name, highlighting the lawmakers' visible frustration with the company for not sending its boss. Tweet "We don't have Mr Zuckerberg here today which is incredible unfortunate, and I think speaks to a failure to account for the loss of trust certainly across the globe with respect to Facebook and Facebook's users," Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, vice chair of the standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics in the lower house of Canada's parliament, told Allan at the hearing. He added: "In the Canadian context, it wasn't until recently that you started to notify Canadian users that their information was shared in the Cambridge Analytica context. And that sense of corporate responsibility particularly one of the immense power and profit of Facebook has been as empty as the chair beside you." Facebook began notifying users whether their data had been wrongly shared with Cambridge Analytica back in April. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify following a break during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee joint hearing about Facebook on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. A former Facebook employee accused the company of having "a black people problem" in a note published publicly on Tuesday on the social network. Mark Luckie, who is black, said Facebook's population of black employees is not representative of its black user base. "There is often more diversity in Keynote presentations than the teams who present them," Luckie wrote in the note, which he originally shared with Facebook employees on Nov. 8. "In some buildings, there are more 'Black Lives Matter' posters than there are actual black people. Facebook can't claim that it is connecting communities if those communities aren't represented proportionately in its staffing." Luckie's note provides an inside look at what it's like to be black inside of Facebook, but it is not the first time Facebook's lack of diversity has been exposed. "You can build something that works, that people want to use, but you can't actually make all the right decisions if among the builders there's not enough diversity and perspective," Facebook's head of diversity Maxine Williams told CNBC in July. Facebook refused to entertain the idea of antitrust regulation of during a hearing in the U.K. on Tuesday with representatives from nine governments. Canadian representative Charlie Angus concluded the hearing with a fiery exchange with a Facebook vice president, and suggested the company get to what he saw as the heart of the issue Facebook's dominance in social media. CEO Mark Zuckerberg declined to attend the hearing, despite the representatives' repeated insistence. Instead, Facebook's vice president of policy solutions, Richard Allan, showed up to answer questions next to an empty chair with Zuckerberg's name on a placard. "What we're regulating ... are the symptoms," said Angus, vice chairman of the House of Commons' standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics. "Perhaps the best regulation would be antitrust." Angus said the problem lies in the fact that people who want to use a social media platform other than Facebook often only have the option of another Facebook-owned service like WhatsApp or Instagram. He said the lack of competition allows Facebook to shy away from accountability for its platforms. Angus suggested breaking up the company or even making it like a public utility. In response to the question of whether Facebook would entertain discussion of antitrust regulation, Allan said, "It depends on the problem we're trying to solve." "The problem is Facebook," Angus replied. Allan responded, "Unless you're going to turn off the internet, I'm not confident that people, the people we serve, you serve, would be better off, in a world where Facebook is not able, however imperfectly, to offer services where we spend 15 years learning how to do it." Angus said he was not suggesting to turn off the internet, but that antitrust may be a way for governments to hold Facebook to corporate accountability standards. The Canadian representative also brought up Facebook's dominance over the news cycle and its failure to deliver accurate metrics in the earlier days of its video product. "You are the arbiter right now of the news cycle around the world because of your video metrics," Angus said. "And what we learned in 2014 you became aware they were highly inflated and did nothing. Now you can say you're on a learning path and a journey and you might get back to us. I would consider that corporate fraud on a massive scale." Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Jocko Willink faced intense challenges as a U.S. Navy SEAL serving in one of the most highly decorated special operations units of the Iraq war. While he experienced stress, he also learned two key ways to manage it. Used correctly, these tips can even turn your worry into fun, says Willink, co-author of the book "The Dichotomy of Leadership" and the founder of management consulting firm Echelon Front. He shares his two key tips with CNBC Make It. 1. Let go of what you can't control When confronting your stress, Willink recommends asking yourself, "Am I stressed about something that I can control or is it something that I cannot control at all?" The key to moving forward, Willink tells CNBC Make It, is acceptance of what you can't change and moving forward with what you can. "Every moment that you spend worrying about something that you have no control over is taking away the energy that you could put into the things that you actually can control," he says. 2. Attack your weaknesses One of the first investors in China's biggest search engine said Tuesday that Google has "a chance" of making it in China. Speaking at the CNBC East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, the managing partner of venture capital firm GGV, Jixun Foo, said the U.S. search engine may have to adjust to local demands in China to become a success. "There is always a chance (of a return) ... The market is big enough but there is a regulatory factor that Google has to adjust itself to, or any foreign companies have to adjust itself to. There is also the fact that you have to localize your service," he told CNBC's Deirdre Bosa. Jixun Foo's first investment as a venture capitalist was in Baidu, China's biggest search engine and a potential rival to Google should the U.S. tech giant return to the Chinese market. He is adamant that Google could successfully make a comeback in China, eight years after it pulled out of China, by following Baidu's own localized strategy. "When Baidu launched its search engine, it localized its service with specific needs of the consumer. At the time of 2003, it launched an MP3 search. That was something the consumer wanted to have. If Google has the will, there's a way," said Jixun Foo. Google closed its internet search engine service in mainland China in 2010, saying it was no longer willing to censor search results. It instead redirected users to an unfiltered search engine from Hong Kong. China, at the time, called Google's move to stop censoring results "totally wrong." However, a reversal from the Silicon Valley giant is reportedly on the cards as U.S. tech firms look to enter the world's second-largest economy. CNBC Presents East Tech West - Day 1 NANSHA, CHINA - NOVEMBER 27: Wang Dong, Deputy Mayor of Guangzhou, speaks during Day 1 of CNBC East Tech West at LN Garden Hotel Nansha Guangzhou on November 27, 2018 in Nansha, Guangzhou, China. (Photo by Dave Zhong/Getty Images for CNBC International) The number of companies in high-tech industries in the Chinese port city of Guangzhou has leaped in the last few years, a government official said on Tuesday. The city in southern China, an evolving tech hub, has seen its number of tech firms swell from 1,919 in 2015 to more than 8,600 at the end of 2017. That number looks to test 11,000 by the end of this year, said Wang Dong, deputy mayor of Guangzhou at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou. That surge underscores the rapid changes and development of Guangzhou, which is also a port city and a major manufacturing hub of the world's second-largest economy. Today, it is a vibrant and dynamic tech city, Wang said in a welcome address at the invite-only retreat. A picture of Katelyn McClure, right, Mark D'Amico, center, and Johnny Bobbitt Jr. is displayed during a news conference in Mt. Holly, N.J., Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. Authorities say a New Jersey couple and a homeless man, Bobbitt Jr., made up a "feel good" story about the man helping them so they could raise money through an online fundraiser. If a crowdfunding campaign is part of your charitable plans for #GivingTuesday or later in the holiday season, take care to make sure your act of kindness doesn't have unintended consequences. More than 1 in 5 consumers (22 percent) have pitched in for at least one such project, which raises money toward a common aim via small contributions from a large number of people, according to a 2016 report from Pew Research Center. Of those contributors, 68 percent have given to a campaign to help a person in need. But, as with other kinds of giving, it's smart to scrutinize the cause before you pull out your wallet. Earlier this month, prosecutors charged a New Jersey couple and a homeless man with second-degree theft by deception, alleging they worked together to perpetuate a scam that raised more than $400,000 on GoFundMe. Last year, the couple Mark D'Amico and Kate McClure created a "Pay It Forward" campaign to benefit Johnny Bobbitt Jr., claiming Bobbitt had given McClure his last $20 to help her get home after her car ran out of gas. "The entire campaign was predicated on a lie," Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina told reporters at a news conference, according to NBC. GoFundMe told CNBC that donors to that "Pay It Forward" campaign will receive a full refund under the site's refund policy. Spokesman Bobby Whithorne said such misuse is rare accounting for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all campaigns but that "one fraudulent campaign is one too many." "We have a zero tolerance policy for fraudulent behavior," Whithorne said. "If fraud occurs, donors get refunded and we work with law enforcement officials to recover the money." The Line application seen displayed on a Sony smartphone on October 23, 2018. Line shares jumped as much as 17 percent on Tuesday after the Nikkei business daily reported the Japanese chat app operator would tie-up with China's Tencent to offer mobile payment services. Line will offer mobile payment services to small to mid-sized Japanese restaurants and stores targeting Chinese tourists via leased terminals compatible with Tencent's WeChat Pay starting next year, Nikkei said without citing sources. A Line spokeswoman declined to comment. Tencent was not immediately available to comment. The news provided some relief for Line's flagging stock price which is down 20 percent year-to-date as, with user numbers for its eponymous flagship app stagnating, Line expands services in areas like payments and Bitcoin. Line shares were later trading up 7.8 percent at 0235 GMT, compared with flat trading in the benchmark index. Tencent's shares were up 0.5 percent. Its shares are down more than 25 percent this year, hammered by a prolonged regulatory crackdown on its core gaming business in China. With growing numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Japan the country is becoming increasingly attractive for China's tech titans, with Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial and Didi Chuxing announcing services in recent months. Japan has been slow to move to cashless payments, with a rush of new entrants like SoftBank backed PayPay and Line Pay looking to encourage consumers to use QR code payments, which have become widespread in countries like China and India. The Trump administration has restarted talks with the Chinese government "at all levels" ahead of a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Tuesday. The heads of the world's two largest economies are set to meet on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, where world leaders will convene on Friday and Saturday. Trump and Xi will talk trade as a mounting series of tariffs levied by Washington and Beijing contribute to concerns about slowing global economic growth. The two leaders will have dinner on Saturday. Washington and Beijing have re-engaged about a path toward a trade agreement, and the summit offers "an opportunity to break through what has been disappointing discussions" in recent months, Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday. At the G-20, Trump will focus on issues including alleged Chinese theft of intellectual property, ownership of American companies in China and tariffs and non-tariff barriers, the National Economic Council director said. "We're having now a lot of communication with the Chinese government at all levels," Kudlow said. "We were at a total standstill. Nothing was going on." President Donald Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands while walking at Mar-a-Lago estate after a bilateral meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, April 7, 2017. Carlos Barria | Reuters Since taking office, Trump has pushed China to address what he calls unfair trade practices and reduce its trade surplus with the United States. As part of his effort to force China to negotiate, the president has slapped tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods. The moves prompted retaliatory duties on U.S. goods that have hit certain American businesses, particularly in the agriculture industry. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Trump said he plans to increase the tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent at the beginning of 2019, as planned. He again threatened to put duties on an additional $267 billion in Chinese goods if Washington and Beijing cannot reach a deal after the talks in Argentina. Trump sees a "good possibility" that the U.S. and China can reach a deal at the dinner Saturday, Kudlow told reporters later Tuesday. Asked if more duties will harm the U.S. economy if the sides fail to reach a deal, Kudlow called the goods affected "a fraction of our economy" but noted there would be "winners and losers in that game." He contended that the U.S. is in "better shape to weather this than the Chinese are." In his earlier comments, Kudlow said imposing additional tariffs is a "presidential decision" that Trump "will make following the talks." Beijing "ought to" take Trump seriously, as "the policies are not going away," Kudlow added. "President Xi has the opportunity to change the tone and the substance of these talks. President Trump has indicated that he is open," Kudlow said. He contended that Beijing "must do more" to address U.S. concerns. With seven Copernicus Sentinel missions in orbit delivering an almost unimaginable amount of freely-available data about our planet, the potential of tapping into this incredible resource to better the lives of citizens is almost limitless. A new publication that collects 99 stories from European public authorities highlights how we are all benefiting from Copernicus. Launched yesterday at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, The Ever Growing Use of Copernicus across Europe's Regions offers a glimpse into how Copernicus supports a broad range of public policies. Twenty years since its conception, Copernicus is the largest provider of Earth observation data in the world. The various services offered through Copernicus help address some of today's toughest environmental challenges such as food security, rising sea levels, natural disasters, urbanisation, diminishing polar ice, and the overarching issue of climate change. While the European Union is at the helm of Copernicus, ESA develops, builds and launches the dedicated Sentinel satellites. ESA also operates some the missions and ensures the availability of data from third party missions. Produced by the Network of European Regions Using Space Technologies (NEREUS), ESA and the EC, this latest publication showcases 99 stories from public authorities, research institutes and industry. The stories are diverse, both in terms of geographic origin and subject - from brownfield mapping in Wallonia, Belgium, to public utility management in Milan, to farmland monitoring in Lithuania. The Head of Space Data for Societal Challenges and Growth Unit at the EC, Andreas Veispak, said, "The publication shows the wide-ranging potential of Copernicus data in addressing local needs. We are proud to see the fast growing use of Copernicus over the last years and have set up a series of measures to accompany and encourage this trend. "We believe this is only the start and that we are just at the very beginning of a change of society." NEREUS Vice-President and regional politician, Bernard Plano, added, "These user-stories will definitely help us to learn more about the different Copernicus realities across Europe, but also how we can make them a reality in our respective territories." Examples of stories describe, for example, how the Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar mission was used to map groundwater flooding in Ireland. Traditionally, flooding from groundwater was not recognised as posing a significant flood risk in Ireland. However, attitudes have changed in the last decade, partly because of the introduction of the EU Floods Directive and also because of two major groundwater floods in 2009 and 2016. Thanks to Copernicus, flood data can be gathered on a scale that was previously thought unachievable, and provided to the relevant authorities and local communities in a timely manner. One of the 99 stories highlights how Estonia used Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data country-wide to check whether farmers follow mowing requirements for agricultural subsidies under Common Agricultural Policy. Helping to reduce false payments, the economic impact in Estonia alone is estimated to be almost 500 000 a year. Another story describes how Copernicus has helped monitor the risk of eutrophication in coastal waters in the Epirus region in Greece. Here, the fishing community has benefited directly as they need information of water quality to make informed decisions for their production. Speaking at the European Parliament event, Director of ESA's Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, said, "It is very exciting to see how Copernicus Sentinel data are being increasingly used by public authorities to provide better services for European citizens. "Europe has not only developed a world-class Earth observing system from space, but is also leading the take up of space-based services at local, regional, national and European level. "The event highlights how Europe works at its best when pooling its expertise and resources." Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to stand firm against "thugs" who have carried out countrywide protests over a recently-introduced fuel tax. In a speech Tuesday, Macron vowed that violence would not force him to back down over his government's energy policy that has caused upset and division across France. "I do not confuse citizens and their demands with thugs," Macron said during the televised speech in which he announced new climate and energy policy measures. In a translation provided by Reuters, Macron added: "I will not concede anything to those who want destruction and disorder." For nearly two weeks, thousands of protestors have blocked roads and caused huge traffic jams to vent their frustration over taxes on both diesel and petrol that were introduced in 2017. The Interior Ministry said on Thursday that the unrest had left two dead and 606 injured in France. The authorities attempted to quell the protests using water cannons and tear gas. More than one hundred people have been arrested. President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd of supporters during a campaign rally at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Nov. 5, 2018. Carlos Barria | Reuters President Donald Trump held two campaign rallies and one roundtable event in Mississippi, part of an 11th hour swing through the state aimed at boosting Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who faces former Rep. Mike Espy, D-Miss., in a Senate race runoff on Tuesday. The race has drawn national attention ever since Hyde-Smith made a joke about attending a "public hanging." Critics said it was racially insensitive, given Mississippi's history of lynching black people and the fact that Espy is African-American. Hyde-Smith insists she meant no "ill will" by the phrase and has repeatedly dodged media questions about it. Trump defended Hyde-Smith several times during his visit on Monday, telling reporters, "her heart is good," and noting that she has issued a public apology. Hyde-Smith has said she made the remark in jest and that she was sorry if people were offended by them. The backlash extended to corporate America, as several major companies and organizations, such as Google and Walmart, asked the Hyde-Smith campaign to refund their donations. There was no indication the donations would be given back, however. Watch: Who really won the midterms? The controversy didn't end there. Hyde-Smith also talked about how suppressing voter turnout would be a good idea. Then, earlier this month, a 2014 Facebook post featuring an image of Hyde-Smith wearing a Confederate hat at the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library with a caption saying "Mississippi history at its best!" resurfaced. Davis was president of the Confederacy. Despite the controversies, however, polls indicate that Mississippi will elect Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to replace GOP Sen. Thad Cochran after his resignation earlier this year over health concerns. Trump carried the state by 18 points in 2016. Regardless of the result, the GOP will maintain its majority in the Senate. If Hyde-Smith wins, the Republicans will hold a 53-47 edge in the chamber. Even as Trump defended Hyde-Smith, he also used the rallies to attack Espy, who was Agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton. During his first rally in Tupelo, Trump said of Espy, "How does he fit in with Mississippi? I mean, how does he fit in?" Espy is a former three-term congressman who was born and raised in Mississippi. Trump links Hyde-Smith to his agenda Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith speaks during a campaign event in Meridian, Mississippi, November 25, 2018. Jonathan Bachman | Reuters Mississippi voters head to the polls Tuesday in the final Senate election of the 2018 midterms, a contest shaped by racial issues that will determine how wide the Republicans Senate majority will be in January. GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith hopes to fend off an upset from Democratic former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy in the red state. Republicans aim to avoid their second shocker in the Deep South within the last year, after Democratic Sen. Doug Jones won a Senate special election in deep red Alabama in December. The winner of Tuesday's Senate special election runoff will serve the remainder of retired GOP Sen. Thad Cochran's term, which extends through 2020. Hyde-Smith was appointed to replace the ailing lawmaker earlier this year. But her remarks that evoked Mississippi's history of racist violence and criticism that she did not properly explain or apologize for them have made the contest in the conservative state more competitive than Republicans would like. President Donald Trump offered some last minute help to Hyde-Smith on Monday with rallies in Mississippi, a state he carried by about 18 percentage points in 2016. He defended the GOP senator for her comments that surfaced earlier this month about attending a "public hanging," which awakened memories of lynchings in the state and prompted numerous Hyde-Smith campaign donors to ask for a refund. Espy, who is black, has said her comments gave the state "another black eye that we don't need" and "rejuvenated old stereotypes." An Espy campaign ad that targets Hyde-Smith's comments also says that "we can't afford a senator who embarrasses us." Senate candidate Mike Espy takes an interview with media during a news conference in Jackson, Mississippi, November 26, 2018. Seth Wenig | Reuters During his stops in the state Monday, Trump told reporters that he knows "where [Hyde-Smith's] heart is, and her heart is good." He also noted that the senator apologized for her remarks. At a debate earlier this month, Hyde-Smith claimed the comment was "twisted," and she apologized to "anyone who was offended." But she has not answered repeated media questions about the remarks since. On Tuesday morning, Trump took to Twitter to again urge Mississippians to vote for Hyde-Smith. He has a serious interest in the GOP keeping the seat: A victory would give Republicans a 53-47 majority in the Senate, which would help him to confirm conservative judicial nominees and push for pieces of his economic agenda in Congress. Democrats will have control of the House in the next Congress, which will make it tougher for Trump to pursue his policy goals. Political experts in the state have said Espy likely needs Democrats to turn out in significantly larger numbers than Republicans to win. While Hyde-Smith's remarks may motivate Democrats, particularly the black voters who make up about a third of the state's electorate, Trump's visit may help to even the enthusiasm gap. Sixty percent of likely voters in Mississippi approve of the president, including 93 percent of Republican likely voters, according to an NBC News/Marist poll last month. Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort strongly denied a report Tuesday that he had secretly met with Julian Assange several times in the WikiLeaks founder's refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in recent years. Manafort, in a statement through his spokesman, called the article from The Guardian "totally false and deliberately libelous." "I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him," said Manafort, who is in jail waiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy charge in September. "I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter," Manafort said. "We are considering all legal options against the Guardian who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false." WikiLeaks later said that Assange has told his lawyers to sue The Guardian for libel, and has created a legal fund to pay for that court action. Tweet The statements capped a headspinng series of stories related to Manafort and Assange in recent days. On Tuesday, The Guardian newspaper, citing sources, reported that Manafort secretly visited Assange several times inside Ecuador's embassy in London between 2013 and 2016. Then, CNN reported that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating a meeting last year between Manafort and the president of Ecuador, and that Mueller was particularly interested in whether the two men talked about the document disclosure group WikiLeaks and Assange. Ecuador's president, Lenin Moreno, said last November that he met with Manafort in the nation's capital Quito in May 2017. Moreno said the meeting included representatives of a Chinese company who wanted to privatize a state-owned electric company. The meeting occurred before Manafort was indicted by a federal grand jury at the request of Mueller's office. "Moreno ... didn't say if other issues were discussed," the Associated Press reported in a November 2017 article about the meeting. The last of those alleged visits came around March 2016, several months before WikiLeaks released a trove of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee by members of Russian intelligence, according to The Guardian. The newspaper noted that Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, has said that the theft of those email contributed to her defeat in the presidential election. Mueller was already known to be eyeing the WikiLeaks dump of the emails. On Monday night, Mueller's office told a federal judge in Washington, D.C. in a court filing that Manafort had violated a plea agreement and broken the law by lying to FBI agents and prosecutors during interviews conducted after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy related to his past work for politicians in Ukraine. That work predated his tenure with the Trump campaign. Both Mueller and Manafort's lawyers, who disputed the special counsel's claim, asked the judge to set a sentencing date for Manafort. Mueller's spokesman declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. Manafort's lawyers have not responded to request for comment from NBC News. The Ecuadorean embassy in London declined to comment. Assange's lawyer in the United Kingdom, Jennifer Robinson, told NBC News in a text messsage, "No such meetings happened. Total fabrication. Wikileaks has put out denial." WikiLeaks tweeted its denial: Tweet Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London under a grant of asylum since August 2012 after jumping bail in the United Kingdom England, where he had unsuccessfully fought an extradition request from Sweden, where he was being investigated for alleged rape. Two weeks ago, a court filing by U.S. federal prosecutors in an unrelated case in Virginia that mentioned Assange came to light. That filing said"due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged." That filing was the first time that American authorities had said Assange has been criminally charged, or that they were preparing to charge him. Prosecutors on Monday objected to an effort to unseal whay made be a sealed criminal complaint against Assange. Reed Hastings attends Reed Hastings panel during Netflix 'See What's Next' event at Villa Miani on April 18, 2018 in Rome, Italy. Netflix is pushing further into kids content with a new deal to animate popular Roald Dahl books. The company announced Tuesday that it plans to roll out "animated event series and specials" based on books like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "The BFG," "Matilda" and "The Twits." The company will focus primarily on TV series but has the option to make feature-length movies. "Immersing ourselves in the extraordinary worlds of Roald Dahl stories has been an honor and a massive amount of fun," Netflix's vice president of kids and family content, Melissa Cobb, said in a blog post. "We have great creative ambition to reimagine the journeys of so many treasured Dahl characters in fresh, contemporary ways with the highest quality animation and production values." Netflix touts its award-winning original programming like "Stranger Things" and "Black Mirror" as competition in streaming heats up. Hulu, Amazon and Apple are all upping content spends in an effort to claim some of Netflix's market share. Disney's kid-friendly streaming service, Disney+, is set to launch at the end of 2019. The full list of Dahl titles under the Netflix agreement includes "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator," "George's Marvellous Medicine," "Boy Tales of Childhood," "Going Solo," "The Enormous Crocodile," "The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me," "Henry Sugar," "Billy and the Minpins," "The Magic Finger," "Esio Trot," "Dirty Beasts" and "Rhyme Stew." Production on the first of the animated series will begin in 2019, Netflix said. An offshore drilling and production platform. Gary Tramontina | Corbis | Getty Images A deal Shell and Eni brokered with the Nigerian government in 2011 is set to cost the African nation $6 billion in lost revenue, a report claimed Monday. The report, published by campaign group Global Witness, said the allegedly corrupt deal's terms would stop Nigeria accessing its share of the profits from oil extracted from its offshore block. Shell and Eni were accused of bribery last year over a $1.3 billion payment that secured an exploration licence for the block, known as OPL 245, in 2011. It was alleged that although the funds were paid to the Nigerian government, the money actually went to Malabu Oil and Gas a company linked to former oil minister Dan Etete. Global Witness claimed that a term granting Nigeria a share of the oil production profits was negotiated out of the 2011 deal by former Nigerian ministers, who it alleges took bribes from the oil giants. It said the clause was replaced with a back-in option that required Nigeria to pay more towards the exploration costs than it could afford. Shell and Eni along with some of their former employees are facing charges relating to the payment, with Italian prosecutors alleging there was awareness the funds would be pocketed by individuals. All of the defendants have denied any wrongdoing. 'No case against Shell' In a statement emailed to CNBC, a Shell spokesperson said: "Since this matter is before the Tribunal of Milan it would not be appropriate for us to comment in detail. We maintain that the settlement was a fully legal transaction with the federal government of Nigeria and Eni and, based on our review of the prosecutor of Milan's file and all of the information and facts available to us, we do not believe that there is a basis to convict Shell or any of its former employees." Shell's Executive Vice President Frans Everts wrote to Global Witness ahead of the report's publication to reiterate the company's position. In the letter, seen by CNBC, Everts questioned the methods used in Global Witness' research. "We dispute your characterization of the facts, your allegations of criminality and the legal conclusions you reach," he said. "The statements in your letter are based on faulty methodologies which do not meet adequate qualitative standards. They fail to take into account elements that are typically used by the industry misconstrue the terms of the 2011 settlement and even reference legislation which has not been passed." Nigeria's back-in right New York Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen sent a message Tuesday on CNBC to critics hoping to curtail $1.5 billion in tax incentives used to lure Amazon's so-called HQ2 to the city: "This deal is not going to get stopped." When asked on "Squawk Box" about New York officials, such as Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have come out against the move, Glen said the community would be engaged in the process. "I can guarantee you five years from now all New Yorkers will be thanking us for having brought them," she said. There has been some outrage buzzing from politicians who say residents of Long Island City, the Queens borough neighborhood where the internet giant is looking to plant new roots, would not benefit from the new development and that the tax breaks could be used to address other community issues. But Glen called the deal "job growth plays" that would generate $12.5 billion in tax revenues. "A lot of that initial reluctance will burn off and people will realize what a great deal this is for New York City, because it's an endorsement of who we are as a city: innovative, diverse, open and that's exactly why Amazon chose to come here to begin with," Glen said. Glen, who heads up Mayor Bill de Blasio's housing and economic development department, explained that the online retailer is using New York's real estate and employee tax subsidy programs designed to "stimulate more job creation" outside of Manhattan. Amazon could receive as much as $500 million in exemptions from the Industrial & Commercial Abatement Program and $3,000 per new job over 10 years from the Relocation and Employment Assistance Program, Glen said. If the tech company brings the 25,000 jobs it has promised, that could amount to $750 million. Amazon was also offered incentives from New York state, which could sum up to $1.5 billion. "This was not a deal that was designed for Amazon," Glen stressed. "These are our basic economic development tools and it again continues to diversify our economy into the five boroughs, which is actually the smart thing to do." Worried that the new headquarters would jack up the price of living in the Queens neighborhood, Ocasio-Cortez is skeptical of Amazon's relocation. Ocasio-Cortez has argued the plan doesn't correlate with the community's interests and would price out many working-class residents in the Queens neighborhood. The Democrat will represent parts of the borough in Congress when her term starts in January. But Glen brushed off those concerns, promoting New York City's affordable housing program. The city is notorious for high rental and real estate costs. "We have the largest affordable housing plan in the country, by miles," she said. "We have 300,000 units that are in the process of being preserved or constructed, and that's just on the affordable housing." The Seattle-based company earlier this month chose New York City and Arlington, Virginia, as sites where it plans to invest a total of $5 billion and create 50,000 jobs. The Arlington project will reportedly get $573 million in subsidies. Shares of Amazon are up more than 35 percent year to date. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is getting advice from one of former President Barack Obama's campaign leaders in New Hampshire as he considers a run for the White House in 2020, CNBC has learned. Jim Demers, a co-chairman of Obama's New Hampshire campaign organization in 2008, is becoming known as Booker's "tour guide" within the state. "I have told Cory if he runs, I plan to support him," Demers said in an email to CNBC. He noted that he assisted Booker during his trip to New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago and plans to do the same in December when Booker attends the New Hampshire Democratic Party's midterm victory celebration. "I have introduced him to multiple elected officials in N.H.," Demers added. Booker's engagement with top political operatives in New Hampshire, a state that holds one of the earliest contests of the presidential election season, shows he is surrounding himself with people who could help him mount a formidable campaign for the Democratic nomination. The development also comes after CNBC learned that Booker was developing relationships with top-tier campaign strategists in Iowa, which holds its stage-setting caucuses earlier than New Hampshire's primary. Demers expressed his support for a Booker run early on. "I have been watching this guy for several years now. He has got, I think, that 'it' factor," the New Hampshire political operative told The Washington Times in February. He did not say at the time that he would become one of Booker's top advisors. A spokesman for Booker declined to comment. Kathy Sullivan, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, is one of the influential people Booker met through Demers. Sullivan was a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. "My husband and I had dinner with Senator Booker and a few other people just before the midterms when he was in New Hampshire," Sullivan told CNBC. "Jim Demers was really the one acting as a tour guide." The conversation focused on the midterms, but it also turned into what Sullivan described as a "getting-to-know-you meeting." The New Hampshire primary is one of the early hurdles for any presidential candidate, although it isn't always a must-win. Obama lost the state's 2008 primary to Hillary Clinton by just under 3 percentage points. Clinton fell in the same primary in 2016 when she was in a surprisingly tough race for the nomination against Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Sanders trounced Clinton by over 20 points, but she went on to capture the Democratic Party nomination that year. Then-candidate Donald Trump won the state's Republican primary and later defeated Clinton in the general election. Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera aka 'el Chapo Guzman' (C), is escorted by marines as he is presented to the press on February 22, 2014 in Mexico City. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to sanction lawyers for accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman because his wife allegedly used a cellphone in the New York courthouse where he is on trial. Guzman has previously twice escaped custody in Mexico. Prosecutors claimed in a letter that an unnamed person or persons "appear to have used cellular telephones in concert with an attorney visit to the defendant following two trial days last week to facilitate unauthorized and [under special security rules] impermissible contact between" Guzman and his wife, former beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro. U.S. Marshals at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, in reviewing security footage from Nov. 19, "observed Ms. Coronel using a cellular telephone inside the courthouse," said the letter to U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan. That was a day after courthouse staff "had observed Ms. Coronel using a cellular telephone inside the courthouse." Prosecutors noted they had mentioned the use of that phone during sidebar conferences with Cogan and defense lawyers at Guzman's trial Monday, out of earshot of the jury in the case. Cellphones are not allowed to be brought into that courthouse beyond the security screening area by individuals who are not lawyers or are authorized to carry electronic communication and recording devices. Cogan earlier this month had rejected a request by lawyers for the escape-prone Guzman to allow him to give Coronel a brief hug before his trial began. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., attends her swearing-in ceremony in the Capitol's Old Senate Chamber after being sworn in on the Senate floor on April 9, 2018. Voters in Mississippi on Tuesday will decide a U.S. Senate special election runoff marked by racial controversy and capped by a last-minute visit by President Donald Trump to shore up the beleaguered Republican incumbent. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a white former state lawmaker who was appointed to the seat in April, is still favored over black Democrat Mike Espy in the reliably Republican state, which has not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1982. But she has been engulfed in a political storm since a video surfaced showing her praising a supporter at a Nov. 2 public event by saying: "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." The comment caused an uproar in Mississippi, a deep South state with a history of racism and violence against blacks, including lynchings. Several businesses, including giant retailer Walmart, demanded that she return their donations. Hyde-Smith was also shown on another video joking about suppressing liberal student votes, and photographs have surfaced of her posing with Confederate artifacts in 2014. Espy, a former congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary, gained new momentum from the furor in a state where 38 percent of residents are African-American. "She is still the front-runner, but she is a wounded front-runner. She's not the sure thing she was a few weeks ago," said Nathan Shrader, a political science professor at Millsaps College in Jackson, the state's biggest city. Hyde-Smith, who initially refused to apologize for the hanging remark, said last week she was sorry "for anyone that was offended" and accused Espy of twisting her words for political gain. The Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the robotic arm of NASA's InSight lander, took this picture of the Martian surface on Nov. 26, 2018, the same day the spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet. The camera's transparent dust cover is still on in this image, to prevent particulates kicked up during landing from settling on the camera's lens. This image was relayed from InSight to Earth via NASA's Odyssey spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA's InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals, which were received on Earth at about 5:30 p.m. PST (8:30 p.m. EST). Solar array deployment ensures the spacecraft can recharge its batteries each day. Odyssey also relayed a pair of images showing InSight's landing site. "The InSight team can rest a little easier tonight now that we know the spacecraft solar arrays are deployed and recharging the batteries," said Tom Hoffman, InSight's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which leads the mission. "It's been a long day for the team. But tomorrow begins an exciting new chapter for InSight: surface operations and the beginning of the instrument deployment phase." InSight's twin solar arrays are each 7 feet (2.2 meters) wide; when they're open, the entire lander is about the size of a big 1960s convertible. Mars has weaker sunlight than Earth because it's much farther away from the Sun. But the lander doesn't need much to operate: The panels provide 600 to 700 watts on a clear day, enough to power a household blender and plenty to keep its instruments conducting science on the Red Planet. Even when dust covers the panels -- what is likely to be a common occurrence on Mars -- they should be able to provide at least 200 to 300 watts. The panels are modeled on those used with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, though InSight's are slightly larger in order to provide more power output and to increase their structural strength. These changes were necessary to support operations for one full Mars year (two Earth years). In the coming days, the mission team will unstow InSight's robotic arm and use the attached camera to snap photos of the ground so that engineers can decide where to place the spacecraft's scientific instruments. It will take two to three months before those instruments are fully deployed and sending back data. In the meantime, InSight will use its weather sensors and magnetometer to take readings from its landing site at Elysium Planitia -- its new home on Mars. About InSight JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission. A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES and IPGP provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB) supplied the wind sensors. For more information about InSight, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/ Larger image Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Google employees are calling on the company to cancel Project Dragonfly, an effort to create a censored search engine in China. "Many of us accepted employment at Google with the company's values in mind, including its previous position on Chinese censorship and surveillance, and an understanding that Google was a company willing to place its values above its profits," an open letter signed by Google employees published Tuesday on Medium says. "After a year of disappointments including Project Maven, Dragonfly, and Google's support for abusers, we no longer believe this is the case." Eleven Google employees had signed the letter as of its posting, and the number of signatures quickly grew, amounting to more than 100 several hours after it published. By 5 p.m. West Coast time, the letter had 300 signatures. Project Dragonfly has drawn criticism from human rights groups and U.S. politicians since The Intercept first reported details about the internal effort this summer, and in August, thousands of Google employees signed a letter saying that it raised "urgent moral and ethical issues." Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded by saying publicly that the company is "very early" in its plans but that its experiments found that it could "serve well over 99 percent" of search queries in China. Meanwhile, Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy said last week that doing business in China requires compromising "core values." In their open letter, the Google employees wrote that "leadership's response has been unsatisfactory" so far, and called for "transparency, clear communication, and real accountability." They published the letter in alignment with a petition and day of protests from campaign group Amnesty International. Google originally withdrew its search service from China in 2010 due to increased concerns about cyberattacks and censorship. Since then, the Chinese government has increasingly curtailed what its citizens can or and can't do online by blacklisting websites and access to information about certain historical events like the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square and requiring people who use online forums to register with their real names. Google's Chinese search app would have reportedly complied with demands to remove content that the government ruled sensitive and linked users' searches to their personal phone numbers. Critics say that by cooperating with the Chinese government, Google would have violated principles of free expression as well as users' privacy rights. "We object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be," the letter says. "Dragonfly in China would establish a dangerous precedent at a volatile political moment, one that would make it harder for Google to deny other countries similar concessions." A Google spokesperson said in a statement the company's work on search has been exploratory and that it's "not close" to launching a product out of Project Dragonfly. Two of the original signers of the public letter were among a core group of organizers behind an international walkout of Google employees earlier this month. In the past year, the tech industry generally and Google employees in particular have shown an unusually high level of labor organizing, with employees sounding off about multiple workplace issues, including diversity and controversial company business contracts. Google made changes to its sexual harassment and misconduct policies after employees staged massive walkouts earlier this month (though the company ignored several of the organizers' demands like adding an employee representative to Alphabet's board) Here's the full letter from Google employees: Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Robinhood just got one step closer to an initial public offering. The stock-trading platform hired Amazon veteran Jason Warnick as its first-ever chief financial officer, Robinhood announced in a blog post. The company had been looking to fill the role as part of its long-term strategy to go public, Robinhood co-CEO Baiju Bhatt said in September. Being a public company "closely aligns" with Robinhood's mission and is something its executives think "is very much in the future," Bhatt said on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. He said an IPO would not be in the immediate future but it's "something we're thinking about." Warnick joined Amazon in 1999 and was most recently serving as vice president of finance and chief of staff to the e-commerce giant's CFO Brian Olsavsky. "I'm thrilled to join the amazing team at Robinhood and look forward to advancing our mission to democratize America's financial system," Warnick, who starts at Robinhood next week, said in a blog post. Menlo Park, California-based Robinhood is known for its zero-fee trading platform that rolled out about three years ago. It's mostly used by millennials age 18 to 35, and also offers ETFs, options and, as of February, cryptocurrency trading. In October, it launched an independent clearing system that allows Robinhood to independently clear and settle transactions and provide custody for assets. Its brokerage account growth has skyrocketed this year: Total accounts jumped to 6 million in October, up from 5 million in August and 4 million in May, according to the company. Investors in its latest $363 million fundraising round included Google's venture capital fund Capital G, Sequoia, DST Global and Iconiq, boosting its valuation to $5.6 billion. Banking giants like J. P. Morgan are also moving into the no-fee territory. But Robinhood executives say they're looking to expand into the territory of some of those legacy firms. "We have an ambitious long-term vision to become a full-service financial services company over the next couple of years," Robinhood Co-CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC in August. WATCH: Amazon is so much more than online shopping here's how big its become Small, agile and digitally-savvy local companies are shaking up China's fast-growing market for personal care and home goods, according to the latest report by consulting firm Bain & Company. With names like Pechoin, Marie Dalgar, Three Squirrels and One Leaf, the companies are little known outside China, highlighting how they have emerged amid the transformation of the Chinese retail sector by focusing on local needs and tastes. Such businesses are taking advantage of lower barriers to entry offered by the rise of the digital economy, Bain said in the report on Chinese shopping trends, co-written with consultancy Kantar Worldpanel. Other factors leading to that growth are major changes to the retail sector, an increase in consumers' desire for lifestyle, health and wellness products, and a willingness to pay a premium for them. "These brands have a clear vision and an entrepreneurial mission to fulfill unmet needs for Chinese consumers, whether it is for healthy, lifestyle or eco-friendly products," the report said. "They take a distinctly Chinese approach to building their brands and make their record-setting gains by moving at Chinese speed," it added. That means focusing on factors including innovation and branding and a targeted message to consumers, the report said, citing the success of YunNan BaiYao's flavored toothpastes. Authorities in China have been trying to transform the world's second-largest economy into one where consumer spending drives growth rather than the debt-fueled, big ticket infrastructure model of the past. Tesla's head of global security, Jeff Jones, is no longer working with the company after just 11 months on the job, according to one current and one former Tesla employee. These people said that Jones was dismissed from the electric vehicle maker in mid-November, but the circumstances around his departure were not publicized. Tesla told employees only that Jones' "position was no longer needed," they said. In September, Tesla hired Karl Wagner, a former executive manager and senior CIA operations officer, as a senior director of global security, according to his LinkedIn profile. It's not clear how Wagner's and Jones' jobs overlapped, or if Wagner replaced Jones. The company declined to comment on Jones' departure. Jones did not immediately respond to a request for more information. As a senior director and head of global security, Jones joined Tesla after a tumultuous couple of years at Uber. He reported directly to Elon Musk, and managed security teams at Tesla's major facilities including its Fremont, California car plant and battery factory near Reno, Nevada (Gigafactory 1). During Jones' eleven-month tenure, a former Tesla employee named Karl Hansen filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC alleging, among other things, that the company suffered and hid the theft of raw materials, worth tens of millions of dollars, from investors. Tesla embarked on broad restructuring back in June, slashing its work force by at least 9 percent. In addition to those it has fired or laid off, a string of executives have moved on from Tesla in 2018, including former engineering leader Doug Field, supply chain vice president Liam O'Connor, and legal vice president Phil Rothenberg, among others. WATCH: How taxpayers have boosted Elon Musk and Tesla Teva Pharmaceutical said on Tuesday it launched its generic version of Mylan's EpiPen at the wholesale price of $300the same price as Mylan's generic version of the emergency allergy shot. The Israeli drugmaker said its generic EpiPen is now available in limited supply in the United States. It said that additional supply, as well as a generic version of the lower-dose EpiPen Jr., will be available next year. There has been a shortage of Mylan's EpiPens, which dominate the allergy market, since at least May. The company has blamed manufacturing issues at a Pfizer plant, which supplies the EpiPens, for the shortage. The FDA approved Teva's version of EpiPen in August. EpiPen autoinjectors deliver a dose of epinephrine in the event of severe allergic reaction, such as to bee stings or exposure to peanuts. WATCH: This is what Medicare does and doesn't cover Dear Work It Out, I've had a state job with a university for over seven years. It's a small office, and the boss is pretty hands-off as long as we are doing what we need to. His deputy, the one who covers when he's out, is a cold snake. If she ever became the actual boss, I would walk out on the spot. The good news is that she is going to a different department soon, but our boss found out about it through an email and is angry at her. The office is tense now. He won't talk to her, and she waits until he's gone to make snide criticisms. She is not allowed to leave until she is replaced, and the process is dragging on. It is very unpleasant to be around her when the boss is out. Should I push back on her directly when she makes these comments? Not to defend him, but to say, 'I don't want your hate and venom in my workplace'? I'd rather avoid conflict and let it go, but there is no end in sight! I have a good relationship with the boss and spoke to him about addressing his issues with her directly, but he honestly admitted the cut is too deep for him to get over. What do you think I should do? Yikes! That sounds uncomfortable. Small offices can often feel like families, and unfortunately yours is a rather dysfunctional one. Mommy and Daddy are fighting, and you're caught in the middle. It's a difficult position to be in. Whenever you're dealing with a toxic coworker, you really only have two choices: to confront the person or to ignore them. Many people might opt for the latter, and it's not a bad idea. She isn't directing her ire at you; you're just collateral damage. If you go this route, the secret to maintaining your sanity is to practice emotional detachment. You want to establish a barrier between you and your coworker's negativity. If you do not guard yourself against the intense emotions that are flying around, you will certainly fall victim to them. Stanford professor and organizational psychologist Robert Sutton has a useful mental trick for keeping your emotional distance: Pretend you're a scientist studying a foreign environment and its strange inhabitants. Observe how she acts and speaks and how others respond. "What a bizarre and fascinating way of communicating," you might think. If you approach your coworkers like an anthropologist, you will be less likely to take what they do or say personally. You may even gain a greater understanding of them and their possible motives. The other option, of course, is to address the person's behavior directly. Most people hate this idea because, well, it sounds confrontational, and we tend to think all confrontations are bad. I happen to believe that tackling the issue head-on, even if it is uncomfortable in that moment, can save you a lot of strife in the long run. For one, people will treat you however you allow them to. If you accept someone's constant complaining and negativity and never challenge it, they will assume you are okay with it. You are responsible for setting your own boundaries. Second, I'm continually amazed at how little self-awareness most people have and how frequent miscommunications can be. (In fact, my latest life and management hack is to use the simple clarifying phrase, "What do you mean by that?" You'd be surprised at how quickly it clears up any confusion or suspicion of ill will.) Your coworker may be fixated on her own office drama with the boss, and might not realize the impact it's having on you. If you address it, be sure not to blame her, since that would instantly put her on the defensive. Instead, point out the specific behaviors and why they are problematic for you. For instance, the next time she makes a snide remark, considering saying something like: "I know you probably don't mean to, but when you say things like that, it puts me in an awkward position. I like working here, and I don't want to take sides." At the very least, confronting your coworker in a reasonable way gives them the opportunity to understand and respond. At best, they may even respect you for it. Whatever you do, make sure you're taking care of yourself and not letting the office turmoil get to you. Focus on your work, your health and your life outside the zoo and remember to laugh at all the rare, wild species that you encounter there. Have a pressing career concern or question? Email me anonymously at workitout@cnbc.com. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. Don't Miss: How your name and email address affect your chances of getting hired Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube! The president's attacks also highlight lingering questions about the possibility of Trump granting presidential pardons to some of the people targeted by the special counsel a notion that Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared to entertain Tuesday. The former New York City mayor suggested that Mueller's probe may be going too far when NBC News asked him whether the president plans to offer Manafort a pardon. "Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie," Trump tweeted Tuesday. "The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other." As he pilloried the special counsel, Trump echoed the salvos against the investigation recently launched by right-wing conspiracy monger Jerome Corsi , who claimed Monday that he rejected a plea deal offered by Mueller. Corsi had said that he would "rather sit in prison and rot" than say he lied to Mueller. Hours after former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was accused of lying to federal investigators in violation of his plea deal, President Donald Trump fumed against special counsel Robert Mueller, claiming his probe is "ruining lives" and suggesting that he had inside information about the investigation. "Is it conceivable that [Manafort] and Jerome Corsi, who is saying Mueller's people are pressuring him to lie, are telling the truth and the special counsel in their zeal to get the president may be going too far?" Giuliani told NBC. Trump began his trio of tweets Tuesday morning by again labeling the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election a "Phony Witch Hunt." The president complained that Mueller's team was "only looking at one side, not the other," appearing to refer to his former political opponent Hillary Clinton, who he has long claimed broke the law through her use of a private email server. Trump tweet 1 Trump tweet 2 Trump tweet 3 The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's inquiries about Trump's tweets. The special counsel declined to comment. On Monday night, Mueller accused Manafort of breaching the terms of his plea agreement by lying "on a variety of subject matters" to investigators. The allegation, revealed in a filing in Washington, D.C., federal court, did not say what Manafort is specifically accused of lying about, but said that the government would "file a detailed sentencing submission to the Probation Department and the Court in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies, including those after signing the plea agreement herein." The filing also said the alleged breach relieves the special counsel of its own obligations under the plea agreement, which was reached on the eve of Manafort's second trial. Those obligations included agreeing to reduce Manafort's prison sentence "for acceptance of responsibility." The charges lodged against Manafort related mostly to work he performed years before joining the Trump campaign, when he was working for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. Trump has shown sympathy for targets in the Russia probe before. After Manafort was found guilty on eight criminal counts in a trial in Virginia brought on charges lodged by Mueller, Trump tweeted that he feels "very badly" for Manafort and his family. Trump tweet very badly Trump has also avoided a straight yes-or-no answer on the possibility of a pardon for Manafort in the past. Trump's suggestion that Mueller is "ruining lives" of people for "refusing to lie" has been floated by other individuals targeted by the special counsel. Corsi, one of the leading proponents of the false "birther" conspiracy theory which alleged that former President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., said Monday that he was offered a plea deal on one count of perjury. But the former Infowars bureau chief, who also proliferated the much-criticized "Swift Boat" campaign against 2004 Democratic presidential frontrunner John Kerry, said he would "rather sit in prison and rot" than say he lied. Corsi did not immediately respond to CNBC's questions about Trump's tweets. Trump latched on to the birther conspiracy theory in 2011 and quickly became among the loudest public crusaders for the narrative, which has been widely condemned as racist. Trump finally acknowledged that Obama was born in the U.S. in September 2016, just before the 2016 election. Meanwhile, former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, the first person to be charged in Mueller's probe, was incarcerated in Wisconsin federal prison Monday. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators in October 2017. After working throughout the day securing the US-Mexico border members of the U.S. Military stand in line for a drill near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, California on November 15, 2018. The Trump administration is spending at least $72 million to send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border as a caravan of migrants arrives to seek asylum. That's nearly double what the White House requested for the entire 2019 fiscal year to hire additional immigration judges to hear the massive backlog of court cases. Earlier this month, several thousand Central American migrants arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, which borders San Diego. The migrants, fleeing poverty and gang violence, will likely spend months in limbo there as they await their asylum hearings due to the bottleneck in the courts. Chaos broke out on Sunday as Customs and Border Protection personnel used tear gas to repel some migrants trying to enter the U.S. The Trump administration wants migrants to remain in Mexico while awaiting an asylum decision, which could take months or even years. The Pentagon estimated that the $72 million will cover the 5,900 troops amassed at the border until Dec. 15. If the mission continues after that date, the costs will increase. The troops are in addition to Border patrol forces, but Trump recently authorized them to use force to protect the agents if necessary. By contrast, the federal budget allocated just $39.8 million to the Executive Office for Immigration Review for the full fiscal year, which started in October, to hire new judges and support staff, a decrease of 47 percent from the previous year and just 55 percent of what the government is spending to deploy troops to the border for roughly a month and a half. In the past, Trump's Department of Justice has temporarily deployed immigration judges from other parts of the country to the border. It has not announced such a policy in response to the migrant caravan. Several lawmakers have criticized the administration's spending decisions. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York City Democrat who was recently elected to the House of Representatives, called out the "financial recklessness" of the administration on Monday. "What if instead of sending 5k troops to the border, we had sent 5k caseworkers to review + process visa applications?" she tweeted. "In addition to averting moral crisis, it also would've saved enormous amt of resources." AOC tweet Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said in a tweet earlier this month that the president should send more officials to process asylum claims "instead of wasting taxpayer dollars by sending military troops to border." There are currently 411 judges on staff to adjudicate a backlog of nearly 800,000 pending immigration cases, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review. In addition to troops, President Trump is also pushing Congress to approve $5 billion in in funding for a border wall by Dec. 7, threatening a government shutdown. "Congress, fund the WALL!" he wrote on Twitter Monday. WATCH: The economic cost of immigration detention U.S President Donald Trump pauses while speaking to members of the media before boarding Marine One for Florida on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. President Donald Trump on Monday warned that the agreement allowing Britain to leave the European Union could endanger a future U.S.-U.K. trade deal. His comments come at a time when British Prime Minister Theresa May is urgently looking to rally enough lawmakers to back her proposed Brexit deal in order to get it through Parliament in two weeks' time. A daunting task given the broad criticism it has received. Nonetheless, May has repeatedly insisted the terms in which the U.K. is set to leave the bloc at the end of March next year delivers for all of the British people. When asked about the agreement between Westminster and the EU's other 27 heads of state on Monday, Trump replied: "Sounds like a great deal for the EU." "I think we have to take a look seriously whether or not the U.K. is allowed to trade because right now if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "And that wouldn't be a good thing. I don't think they meant that," he added. In response, Downing Street said it is "very clear" Britain will be in a position to sign trade deals with countries around the world post-Brexit. Seized Ukrainian military vessels are seen in a port of Kerch, Crimea, on November 26, 2018. - Kiev and Moscow faced their worst crisis in years on November 26, 2018 as Ukraine and its Western allies demanded the release of three ships fired on and seized by Russia near Crimea. Russian forces boarded and captured the ships on Sunday, with Moscow accusing the vessels of illegally entering Russian waters off the coast of Crimea in the Sea of Azov. Russia seized three Ukrainian ships on Sunday but the Kremlin has said Ukraine is guilty of "provocations." Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian Navy vessels, and 23 crew members, in the Kerch Strait (a channel that separates the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, to the south of Ukraine and Russia) on Sunday has provoked international criticism and concern. But Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that President Putin would announce his stance on the situation in the next few days and that "it would be wrong to underestimate the significance and danger of such provocations," Russian news agency TASS reported. Ukraine called the seizure an "act of aggression" and said the incident violates a 2003 treaty between the countries that enshrines shared access to the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov. Russia said the ships were illegally in its territorial waters in the Black Sea and said they were "performing dangerous maneuvers." Russia also says that the ships did not respond to the demands of the Russian Federal Security Service (the FSB, Russia's intelligence agency) border directorate and the Black Sea Fleet to stop. Chinese customers visit an Apple Store in Hong Kong. Marcio Rodrigo Machado | S3studio | Getty Images Technology companies including semiconductor giants and iPhone maker Apple have the most to lose from further U.S.-China trade tensions as world leaders gather at the Group of 20 summit later this month, according to Citigroup. Though Citi researchers' base case is that the two economic powerhouses will reach a "preliminary understanding" on trade at the Buenos Aires meeting, the analysts also expect President Donald Trump's administration to continue to impose more trade and investment restrictions on China. Specifically, Citi says it's likely the White House will crack down on certain U.S. exports, with an extreme scenario including a ban on sales of U.S. semiconductor components to China. That could have an outsized impact since China is one of the largest end markets for U.S. semiconductors, generating about 30 percent of total revenue for the industry. "The U.S. Department of Defense considers China a rising strategic competitor, and according to the U.S. Trade Representative, China has conducted industrial espionage and other market-distorting practices," Citi's Cesar Rojas and Catherine Mann wrote Tuesday. "The temporary impact on the semiconductor sector of a total ban on U.S. product to ship in to China would be devastating to the industry, as much of the largest end market products for semiconductors (PCs, cell phones, consumer electronics) are manufactured in China." Such a decision could send shock waves across the sector, including San Diego's Qualcomm and Boise's Micro, which generate 65 percent and 57 percent of their revenue from China, respectively. Semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers which build and sell machines used in electronic devices could also take a hit. Rojas and Mann highlighted the negative impact trade restrictions have had at Ichor Holdings and Applied Materials, which have both lost nearly one-third of their market value in 2018. But additional trade barriers could also spell more trouble for the largest U.S. company, Apple. The iPhone maker's stock has rallied and retreated over the past year, tracking dovish and hawkish trade comments between Washington and Beijing. Apple's stock fell Tuesday, for instance, after Trump suggested he could place a 10 percent tariff on iPhones and laptops imported from China and said it's "highly unlikely" that he would delay an increase in tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on Jan. 1. Apple's products are currently exempt from the tariffs. It previously announced that the tariffs would affect the Apple Watch, AirPods and other products, but these were spared when the tariffs were announced. While iPhones are assembled in China, several parts required to make the smartphones are imported from the U.S. [The stream is slated to start at 1 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is set to take questions Tuesday in the White House briefing room for the first time this month, as President Donald Trump lashes out against special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, General Motors and immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The morning after a court filing revealed that Trump's ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was accused of breaking his plea deal by lying to investigators, Trump wrote in a trio of bellicose tweets that "Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue." The special counsel is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as potential coordination between Trump campaign-related figures and the Kremlin. Trump has denied any such collusion, and has repeatedly slammed the Mueller probe as a "witch hunt." A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment on Trump's tweets. Trump had been in Mississippi on Monday night hosting rallies for GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who faces a heated runoff election against Democrat Mike Espy. The race drew national media attention after Hyde-Smith made a joke about attending a hypothetical "public hanging." Trump defended Hyde-Smith's comments as part of his 11th-hour push. That same day, Trump spoke out against General Motors after the auto giant announced it would end production at multiple plants in the U.S. and Canada in 2019 as part of a huge restructuring plan. One of the plants scheduled to be "unallocated," as GM put it, is in Ohio a move that could have political implications for Trump. "They better damn well open a new plant there very quickly," Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. "I love Ohio," Trump said. "I told them, 'you're playing around with the wrong person,'" he added, according to the newspaper. Trump also doubled down on his calls for the so-called caravans of Central American migrants not to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump tweet Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL! Migrants made a run for the U.S. border on Sunday, prompting U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to fire tear gas at them, The New York Times reported. Chinese start-up Pony.ai is trying to take on Google's Waymo by taking a measured approach toward autonomous-vehicle technology. Speaking at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, Pony.ai Chief Operating Officer Hu Wen said companies should not "hurry" to win the race for self-driving cars amid safety concerns. "You have to ensure the whole safety system is there and you have to pace yourself," he told CNBC's Everett Rosenfeld Tuesday. Pony.ai is a self-driving vehicle start-up with offices in China and Silicon Valley. In February, the company secured approval to offer autonomous car rides to members of the public within a 1.7 mile-route in Guangzhou. Hu said Pony.ai is gradually building up its vehicle fleet with nearly 50 self-driving cars offering ride-hailing services in the district. China's autonomous vehicle market is racing to keep up with the U.S. industry which includes big players like General Motors and Google parent company Alphabet. Last month, Alphabet's driverless vehicle unit Waymo became the first company to secure approval to test driverless cars on public roads in California. "Google is definitely still the world's number one in autonomous driving," Hu said. Winston Churchill once said that the British are "the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst." In these turbo-charged political times, I would take it one step further and say that the Brits not only like to be told the worst, but to expect the worst. We are probably at peak Brexitmania. There's irate anger over the withdrawal agreement coming from all sides no one seems to like the deal because it's, well, pick your poison: not soft enough, not hard enough, not concrete enough. The financial community has started readying itself for the deal to be shot down in Parliament in early December before alternative options are considered (remember the U.S. TARP Troubled Asset Relief Program deal anyone?). As one trader put it to me, it's only once politicians stare down the barrel of a no-deal Brexit that the possibility of passing a deal becomes higher. In other words, things have to get worse before they get better. But that is not the point of this story. Perhaps writing this on the heels of a week's staycation holiday has influenced my view and brushed off some of my pessimism. Long walks in the country, quaint old pubs and reading a book by the fire can do wonders for the mind. But it also made me appreciate again just how much this country has to offer. I was born in the U.K. and it never dawned on me until recently how privileged I am to have the passport. It opened up doors for me in my career that likely would not have been available otherwise (and would most likely be almost impossible for me to obtain now). Most bosses know a good night's sleep will drastically improve their staff's job performance. But how many would bet good money on it? Here's one: Kazuhiko Moriyama. The CEO and founder of Crazy Inc, a Japanese wedding organizer company, so strongly believes that well-rested workers are good for business that he pays employees to get a full night's rest, according to a Bloomberg report. Workers who sleep at least six hours a night, for at least five days a week, are awarded points by the company. Each night's rest is tracked through an app that takes data from sensors in a special mattress for those who opt into the program. Points can be exchanged for food in the company's cafeteria, worth up to 64,000 yen annually (around $570 USD). Japan's labor shortage and exhaustive work hours have made the country notorious for a phenomenon that Bloomberg dubs "death-from-overwork." With more than 92 percent of Japanese people over the age of 20 reporting that they aren't getting enough sleep, Moriyama is leading the charge to prioritize sleep in Japan. "You have to protect workers' rights, otherwise the country itself will weaken," he tells Bloomberg, adding that happier lives lead to improved work performance. "We want to show that companies of all types need to be better," Moriyama adds in OZY. "We are a creative industry and we are creating a new business standard." Though individual needs vary, research suggests that the average adult needs at least seven hours of sleep for optimal health. Those who get less can find themselves struggling to focus and unable to think creatively. Sleep deprivation could even shave years off one's life. Given the adverse effects of insufficient sleep on health and productivity, Moriyama's investment in his employees' well-being isn't too far-fetched. Poor sleep costs the U.S. economy around $411 billion a year, while Japan loses out on an estimated $138 billion annually, according to a 2016 Rand Corp analysis. Besides the sleep stipend, Crazy Inc. also offers incentives that promote nutrition and exercise, along with child support for employees. "I eventually want to reach a million employees," explains Moriyama. "I want to do something that other people will think is crazy." Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook. Don't miss: Why Amazon pays employees $5,000 to quit The Reserve Bank of India is examining Yes Banks exposure to non-banking finance companies Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd (DHFL), Indiabulls Group, and Sudhir Valia-promoted entities Fortune Financial Services India Ltd and Suraksha ARC, Mint reported, citing sources. The central bank's banking supervision team is inspecting all the statements since the sanction date of the loans to these accounts, internal and statutory auditor observations and disclosures terms, among others, the report said. The examination is a follow-up to the letter that the top bank wrote to Yes Bank last week which sought detailed statements on these exposures, the paper said. RBI is trying to see the interconnectedness between Yes Bank and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) against the backdrop of the IL&FS crisis, sources told the paper. These investigations are different from the annual inspection, as they are quick and targeted in nature. However, there is nothing unusual. 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. Musical Rhythm made a triumphant return to the Preferred Trot on Monday evening (November 26) at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The six-year-old Ben Baillargeon trainee pulled off a 9-1 upset over six rivals in the $34,000 top class. A rainy Monday led to sloppy conditions for the evenings card of harness racing. Dunbar Hall was the talk of the field, as he entered on a two-race win streak in the Preferred. Dancer Hall, who finished second in the last two editions of the Preferred, powered to the early lead and posted a :28.3 opener before catching a :30 breather in the second quarter. B Yoyo moved out from fourth and came first-up, which allowed Musical Rhythm and driver Mario Baillargeon to follow from fifth and sit second-over on the far turn. Dancer Hall maintained the lead to three-quarters in 1:27.4, with B Yoyo pressuring first-up and Musical Rhythm in a perfect second-over spot. Dunbar Hall got away third and rather than coming first-up, he stayed in and was buried fourth turning for home. In the stretch, B Yoyo immediately trotted by Dancer Hall and took the lead, but it was short-lived, as Musical Rhythm powered by for a three-length score in 1:57.1. Free Willy Hanover finished second, while B Yoyo was third and Dunbar Hall fourth. A son of Cantab Hall, Musical Rhythm was returning to the Preferred after dropping down and gaining confidence at lower levels. The Baillargeon trainee registered his ninth career Preferred victory and first since last October. Musical Rhythm now has two wins and $43,780 earned in eight starts this season for owners Santo & Nunzio Vena, Claude Hamel and Ben Baillargeon. Mondays victory increases his career numbers to 29 wins and $680,228 earned. A $2 win ticket on Musical Rhythm paid $20.50. Live racing resumes Thursday evening at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Post time is 7:10 p.m. To view Monday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Monday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park. (With files from Woodbine Mohawk Park) Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday. Types of obituaries The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries family obituaries and life stories. A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries A life story is a closer look at a person's life and involves a reporter contacting family and friends. Life stories are based on newsworthiness and consent of the family. Life stories. 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 Great Western Harness Racing Circuit President Darryl Mason has commented on the Manitoba Governments recently announced short-term plan for the provincial horse racing industry. News broke late last week (click here, here and here) that the Province of Manitoba has now opted to pay out five years of a court-ordered legal settlement with the Manitoba Jockey Club over a three-year period. The decision was made in order to allow more capital to be available to sustain the industry while the government works on a long-term plan. The MJC operates Thoroughbred racing at Assiniboia Downs. "We have to support (the horse racing industry) in some way or fashion, Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler has been quoted as saying. It's a $34-40 million income tax return for government. It creates about $112 million a year through tourism and raising revenue, 1,100-1,200 jobs. It's a big business for Manitoba." The announcement of the revised three-year payment structure has come shortly after the government released the final report from an external review of Manitobas horse racing industry. The review focused on the long-term and short-term sustainability of the provincial industry. For more on the report, click here. In addition to the $34-40 million income tax return for government and the 1,200 jobs that the industry produces, the report came to the conclusion that Manitoba horse racing has an economic impact that falls somewhere within the range of $125 - $142 million. While in discussion with Discover Westman, Mason stated that "The new report included Red River Ex, and it would have included extra days. So now, staying status quo means we're not losing anything, but we're actually not gaining what we had hoped, either. We will continue to work with them the best we can to make it successful." Mason went on to say that he currently doesnt know what the newly-announced deal looks like, and he took the opportunity to clarify how the Great Western Harness Racing Circuit currently receives its funding. "It's not a grant that we get from the province, Mason explained, but we get a portion of what is bet at Assiniboia Downs. So it's actually coming from horse racing in the province." (With files from the CBC and Discover Westman) In about 400 days, Windows 7 will get the support guillotine. Microsoft has set the end of general support - the kind that's free to all, and at this point exclusively patches to quash vulnerabilities - as Jan. 14, 2020. Customers have known that for years, what with Microsoft's once-traditional support policy. But what happens before that date? Or after? Computerworld used the year or so prior to Windows XP's retirement - that OS was Windows 7's predecessor as an enterprise linchpin - to assemble definite, likely and possible events on 7's calendar. Pencil these dates and return here frequently; Computerworld will be updating this timeline as Microsoft makes further proclamations about Windows 7's demise. Early 2019 POSSIBLE Microsoft may reprise a 2013 deal by discounting a combination of Windows 10 Pro and Office 2019 and pitching the offer to small- and medium-sized businesses. About a year before Windows XP's end-of-support date, Microsoft offered a package deal - Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 Standard - at a 15% discount. That deal had a cap of 100 licenses for each of the two products. In a couple of months, Microsoft could repeat the offer with the comparable OS and Office - Windows 10 Pro and Office 2019 Professional - or some other deal, perhaps a discounted Microsoft 365 E3 subscription plan, as an incentive for laggards to move on migration. April 9, 2019 DEFINITE Windows 7 PCs will not receive security fixes after this date unless they have been modified to accept updates signed with the SHA-2 algorithm. Microsoft, like other software vendors, digitally "signs" updates before they are distributed via the Internet. SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1), which debuted in 1995, was declared insecure a decade later; it was retained for backward-compatibility reasons, including for Windows 7. But at this late date in 7's life, Microsoft wants to ditch SHA-1 and rely only on the more-secure SHA-2. Starting with the February 2019 monthly updates, Microsoft will introduce support for the replacement SHA-2 to Windows 7. That support will be included in the March updates as well for those who skipped the month prior. July 9, 2019 DEFINITE Enterprises using WSUS 3.0 (Windows Server Update Services) SP2 must have added SHA-2 support by this date to continue delivering updates (of any kind, to any Microsoft software) to employees' PCs. WSUS 3.0 SP2 harks from 2009 and was associated with Windows Server 2008 R2, the server software slated to slide into retirement alongside Windows 7 in January 2020. Since 3.0's introduction, Microsoft has released WSUS 4.0 (with Windows Server 2012) and WSUS 5.0 (Windows Server 2016). Dec. 14, 2019 POSSIBLE Microsoft may start forcing Windows 7 to show users an on-screen nag reminding them of the upcoming Jan. 14, 2020, retirement deadline and urging them to upgrade to Windows 10. The company did just that with Windows XP, beginning a month before that operating system's last-patch date. If Microsoft repeats this for Windows 7, the message will return to the screen on the 14th of every month thereafter, unless disabled by the user. Jan. 14, 2020 DEFINITE Microsoft will deliver the final free security update to Windows 7 PCs on this date. The retirement will presumably be the last of its kind: the demise of a widely-adopted version of Windows, a cornerstone of enterprise computing, after a decade of support. (Microsoft has repeatedly dubbed Windows 10 the "last Windows," since, in theory, it will never really be retired. Instead, its lifecycle will be extended again and again by new feature upgrades. Call it the "Immortal OS" - or the "Undead OS.") It's very unlikely that Microsoft will renege on the January 2020 end-of-support deadline. There were calls for the company to do that for Windows XP. Microsoft ignored the pleas. After Jan. 20, 2020 DEFINITE Microsoft will continue to craft security patches for Windows 7 after the operating system's retirement date. Those fixes will not be offered to the general public or for free to corporate customers. Rather, Microsoft will sell what it calls "Windows 7 Extended Security Updates" (ESU) to businesses running Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Enterprise, and then only if those OSes were obtained via a volume licensing deal. Microsoft has not disclosed the cost of the ESU but has said the post-retirement patches will be sold in one-year increments for no more than three years, or until early 2023. April 13, 2021 LIKELY Microsoft will probably rehash a move it made with Windows XP after Windows 7's public support expires: Continue to provide antivirus (AV) signatures for its home-grown Security Essentials software. Three months before XP bit the dust, Microsoft announced that it would keep churning out Security Essential signatures for 15 months after the operating system's retirement, or until July 2015. "To help organizations complete their migrations, Microsoft will continue to provide updates to our anti-malware signatures and engine for Windows XP users through July 14, 2015," the company said at the time. That was a reversal from what the firm had said the year before, when it declared signatures would stop at Windows XP's April 2014 end. Security Essentials, a free consumer-grade AV program that launched in 2008, was replaced by Windows Defender with the launch of Windows 8 in 2012. Since then, Defender has been baked into each succeeding version of the OS, including Windows 10. If Microsoft retraces the Security Essentials step with Windows 7, it would distribute AV signatures to the operating system until April 13, 2021. January 2022 LIKELY Google will almost certainly produce security updates for Chrome after Microsoft stops servicing the OS. (Millions of machines running the browser could be vulnerable to exploitation otherwise.) Chrome received updates, including bug patches, on Windows XP until April 2016, or two years after Microsoft quit. "We know that not everyone can easily switch to a newer operating system," a Chrome director of engineering said in 2015 when Google announced its own XP retirement. Originally, the extension was to run about 21 months; it was later expanded to 24 months. Google stopped upgrading Chrome on Windows XP when that OS powered approximately 12% of all Windows PCs worldwide. While it's impossible to know the status of Windows 7 two years after its retirement, current signs indicate that it will be several percentage points higher than XP's. Google will want to wait until Windows 7 accounts for a relatively small portion of the total PC pie before it pulls the plug on Chrome. In other words, Computerworld feels confident Google will support Chrome on Windows 7 until early 2022, if not later. Deal or No Deal 1) Number 10 works to woo Labour MPs The PM is ramping up her PR blitz to win backing for her hugely controversial deal after more than 90 mutinous Tory MPs vowed to vote it down. She is sending in her trusted lieutenants Cabinet minster David Lidington and chief of staff Gavin Barwell to schmooze Labour MPs at a private briefing tonight. But Tory MP and leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, lashed the meeting saying its smacks of desperation. He has previously warned Mrs May would increase the risk of the Tory Party splitting if she tries to get her deal through Parliament on Labour votes. It comes amid growing signs the Brexit civil war rocking the Tories is sparking bitter in-fighting in Labour as the crunch vote looms in just a fortnights time. Meanwhile, Labours shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer today suggested Brexit could be delayed as fresh negotiations are held. Daily Mail >Today: >Yesterday: Deal or No Deal 2) May wants TV debate with Corbyn to be on 9th December Theresa May today challenges Jeremy Corbyn to a live Brexit TV debate, set for December 9 the night of the Im A Celebrity final. The PM uses an interview in The Sun to lay down the gauntlet to the Labour leader.She wants to expose what she insists is the Opposition Leaders failure to offer any workable alternative to hers for leaving the EU. The primetime TV clash will now be the climax of Mrs Mays titanic two week fight to win MPs support to save her controversial divorce deal. She told The Sun last night: I am going to be going out and round the country. I am going to be talking to people. I am going to be explaining why I think this deal is the right deal for the UK and yes, I am ready to debate it with Jeremy Corbyn. The Sun >Today: Henry Newmans column: Mays deal could be saved with prompt improvements such as a Stormont lock >Yesterday: ToryDiary: May v Stuart. Now that would be a proper Brexit TV debate. Deal or No Deal 3) Lewer becomes the 27th MP to publicly submit his letter to Brady Andrew Lewer has become the 27th Tory MP to put in a letter to the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, calling for Theresa May to step down as Prime Minister. The Northampton South MP said yesterday he had decided to submit the letter now that the full scale of the appalling mismanagement of the negotiations led by Mrs May had become apparent. The move will fuel fears in Downing Street that more MPs could put in letters in the run-up to the Commons vote on the deal on December 11th after momentum stalled earlier this month. The rebels need to submit 48 letters to Sir Graham Brady, the 1922 chairman, to trigger a vote of no confidence in Mrs Mays leadership. Daily Telegraph >Yesterday: Deal or No Deal 4) Trump says it is a great deal for the EU which will stop the UK trading freely with the US Asked for his view of the agreement struck by the EU and Britain, Mr Trump said at the White House: Sounds like a great deal for the EU. I think we have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade because right now if you look at the deal they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldnt be a good thing. I dont think they meant that. I dont think that the prime minister meant that and hopefully shell be able to do something about that. But right now as the deal stands they may not be able to trade with the US and I dont think they want that at all that would be a very big negative for the deal. A Downing Street spokesman said the political declaration agreed with the EU was clear we will have an independent trade policy. The Times Mays mistake was thinking Brexit was all about immigration The Sun Says She has apologised for saying EU nationals jump the queue Daily Mail Its hard enough for us to understand her surrender, without having to explain it abroad Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail Hollingbery says the UKs first trade deal will be with Asia-Pacific nations The Sun Poland backs down in court fight with Brussels FT Mueller tells US court of Manafort lies and lies The Guardian Thatcher makes the shortlist for a scientist to feature on the new 50 note She is up against Hawking, Turing and Franklin Daily Mail Carney will make the final decision The Times New bank stress tests to be released FT Margaret Thatcher has been included on the Bank of Englands list of candidates who might be pictured on the new 50 note, which will celebrate the UKs contribution to the field of science. In its public search for people to feature on the polymer note, the bank said it had received 174,112 nominations and the the former prime minister was on the list of about 800 eligible names published on Monday. The late Baroness Thatcher spent her early career as a research chemist, including a period working for the food company J Lyons on emulsifiers for ice-creams. A campaign was mounted by the rightwing Guido Fawkes blog to put Maggie on the new 50 before the Bank said it was looking for someone from the field of science. The Guardian Gauke questions Javids planned knife-crime clampdown Plans to tackle knife crime are being blocked amid fears over the cost of jailing offenders. In a bid to tackle a surge in stabbings, Home Secretary Sajid Javid is proposing to use Asbo-style powers against thugs. Breaching these knife crime prevention orders would be a criminal offence, potentially punishable by prison. But Mr Javids colleague David Gauke, who is responsible for jails, has questioned the plans, saying they could accelerate the criminalisation of young people. Daily Mail Dont lock up children exploited by drug gangs, Zahawi urges Daily Mail Police bear cost of mental health issues GPs and other agencies cannot manage The Times Officers stood by as man drowned, after being ordered not to enter water The Times Call to protect police drivers who knock criminals off mopeds The Times Council offered jailed rapist a chance to see his victims child The Times Major drive to recruit volunteers to help in the NHS New help for homeless people to access Universal Credit The Sun Women are the big financial winners from going to university while some men risk earning less than those without a degree Millions of patients will be pressed to volunteer in the NHS under plans set out by health chiefs who predict that hospitals will become reliant on unpaid help. All hospitals have been urged to support a campaign encouraging people leaving hospital to give up some time in future to help vulnerable patients, keep them company and assist them with paperwork. As part of a ten-year plan for the future of the health service, NHS England is backing a campaign to be launched by Helpforce, a charity that aims to boost volunteering in hospitals. Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett, who runs the charity, is asking all NHS organisations to let him know where they need help in preparation for a big expansion of volunteering next year. A Christmas advertising campaign will highlight NHS volunteers, of which there are about 74,000 at present, to encourage the public to step forward. The Times Data from tax returns showed that women earned more regardless of what they studied, whereas men who had degrees in the creative arts, English literature or philosophy all earned less by the age of 29 than men who went straight into work. The premium comes at a price, however. The average student graduates with 50,000 of debt in tuition fees and loans. The system is under review and the 9,250 a year tuition fee could be reduced to 6,500. The gender difference is partly explained by the better-paid semi-skilled jobs chosen by men without degrees but with good GCSEs in subjects such as engineering or mechanics. Many women without degrees end up in low-paid jobs in retail or childcare. The Times At some universities, the average graduate ends up earning less The Sun A third of English male students are left worse off FT Education wont work if snowflakes arent made to do any Celia Walden, Daily Telegraph Ukraine readies itself for a possible further land invasion by Russia Putin is a menace to us all The Times Leader He has no regard for international law Daily Telegraph Leader Russia is a rogue state give NATO more muscle The Sun Says A dangerous escalation FT Leader Feuding Russian oligarchs fight in the British High Court The Times Student freed from UAE Ukraine will be placed under martial law tomorrow after warning that Russia had moved to a new stage of aggression and could even be planning an invasion. It followed a dramatic skirmish on Sunday in which Russian warships opened fire on Ukrainian gunboats before special forces seized the vessels and their 24 crew members. President Petro Poroshenko said martial law the introduction of a military government would be imposed for 30 days from tomorrow, a move approved by the Kiev parliament last night. He said the escalation was needed to keep his country safe, claiming to have intelligence reports indicating a build-up of troops by Moscow close to the border. Addressing the nation on television yesterday, Mr Poroshenko said: Russia has been waging a hybrid war against our country for five years. But with an attack on Ukrainian military boats it moved to a new stage of aggression. Reconnaissance data suggest an extremely serious threat of a land-based operation against Ukraine. Daily Mail A British academic pardoned from a life sentence in the United Arab Emirates has thanked his brave and strong wife for helping secure his release after he landed back on UK soil this morning. Matthew Hedges thanked everyone involved in securing my release this morning as he landed at Heathrow Airport. He was welcomed by his wife, Daniela Tejada, and members of his family. Mr Hedges said both he and his wife are overjoyed and overwhelmed as he told her I couldnt have done it without you. I dont know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release. I have not seen or read much of what has been written over the past few days but Dani tells me the support has been incredible. Thank you so much to the British Embassy and the FCO for their efforts in ensuring I arrived safely back home. Daily Mail He should have been exonerated, not merely pardoned The Times Leader News in Brief Sir Richard Aikens is a former member of the Court of Appeal, former Vice-President of the Consultative Council of European Judges, and a member of the Briefings for Brexit Advisory Committee. Dr Anna Bailey is a political scientist and editorial consultant for Briefings for Brexit. Over the past few days, we have been made aware of some extremely dubious arguments being made to try and convince wavering Conservative MPs to vote in favour of the draft Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the EU (hereafter: the deal). The decision to vote for or against the deal is the most important constitutional decision that parliament will make since it passed the European Communities Act in 1972. We therefore considered it imperative to subject these claims to rigorous legal fact-check and academic analysis. We urge all MPs to acquaint themselves fully with the legal facts on both EU withdrawal and UK parliamentary elections before voting. Argument made to Leave-supporting MPs: If you vote down the deal we will stay in the EU because there is no majority for No Deal. Not true. Or more accurately, the we will stay in the EU part is untrue. It is true that there is not a majority of MPs in the Commons who favour a No Deal outcome. But the crucial point is that a No Deal outcome does not require the passing of legislation. It is the default legal position under Article 50. In the absence of a deal passed by both UK and EU parliaments, a No Deal exit on 29th March 2019 occurs automatically. Argument made to Remain-voting MPs: If you vote down the deal we will end up with No Deal. Possible. (NB: note how directly contradictory things are said to different MPs!) As detailed above, a No Deal outcome is the default legal position unless a Withdrawal Agreement is approved by both the UK Parliament and the EU Parliament. Theoretically, the UK and EU could hold emergency renegotiations to try and meet the rebels concerns, but realistically time is tight, and the EU may well be unwilling to renegotiate. An off-the-peg option of temporary UK membership of the EEA during the transition period is possible as a simple emergency compromise. However, it is not clear if there would be a parliamentary majority for this either. Finally, much depends on what one means by No Deal. A so-called managed No Deal i.e. no overall Withdrawal Agreement but several ad hoc side-deals concluded on critical issues such as air services is more likely than no deals on anything whatsoever. If you vote down the deal there will be a general election. Not true. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 prevents the Government from unilaterally calling a general election: parliaments must last for a statutory five-year term. The Act provides two and only two ways of triggering an early general election: The first is for the Government to be defeated on a motion of confidence. In that case, a general election results if the Government or an alternative administration e.g. one headed by another Conservative prime minister, or Labour with the support of others does not win a fresh confidence vote within 14 days. The second is for a super-majority of the Commons (two-thirds of MPs) to vote in favour of an early election (as happened in 2017). So the mere fact of the Government being defeated on the deal is insufficient to trigger a general election. It is possible that the Prime Minister could react to defeat on the deal by submitting a confidence motion to the Commons. Labour, the Lib Dems, and the SNP would undoubtedly vote no confidence in the Government. But those Conservative and DUP MPs who voted against the Withdrawal Agreement would most likely vote for the confidence motion, since a general election now is not in their interests. The only way the Government could realistically be defeated on a confidence motion is if a handful of Tory ultra-Remainers voted no confidence in a calculated bid that bringing down the Government could stop Brexit. This would be a huge personal risk for those MPs concerned, particularly those representing Leave-voting constituencies (such as Anna Soubry and Phillip Lee) who would be in especial danger of losing their seats. The only other way a general election could result is if the Government created a super-majority for an election by whipping Conservative MPs to vote for it. This scenario is unthinkably bizarre at a time when the Conservatives are behind Labour in the polls, as there is a high likelihood the Government would fall from power. If you vote down the deal, the Government will lose the support of the DUP and therefore there will be a general election. Unlikely. (In fact, the Government is more likely to lose the support of the DUP if the deal passes the Commons.) If, as expected, the DUP votes against the deal, this would constitute a breach its confidence and supply agreement. But this is not sufficient to trigger a general election under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act (see above). Given that No Deal is the default legal position if the deal does not pass, the DUP would likely continue to support the Government on all other key legislation in order to avoid a confidence vote and resultant general election. If the deal is passed by the Commons, the DUP would most likely tear up its confidence and supply agreement entirely, and vote against all government legislation as an act of revenge, paralysing the business of government. This is the situation most likely to lead to a vote of no confidence in the Government, and subsequent general election. There is a pause mechanism in Article 50 if you vote down the Withdrawal and Implementation Bill the Government will just pause the withdrawal process. Not true. There is no pause mechanism in Article 50. The two-year Article 50 period can be extended, but only by the agreement of the UK and the unanimous agreement of the European Council (i.e. every government of the EU27). It is unlikely that EU27 would unanimously agree to extend Article 50, for reasons laid out by the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee. There is a current legal challenge as to whether the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50. The European Court of Justice is due to hear this case on 27th November 2018. The European Commissions position is that Article 50 cannot be unilaterally revoked by the UK. The Government has repeatedly said that it has no intention of revoking Article 50. Given the precedent of the Supreme Court case R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017], the Government could neither extend nor revoke Article 50 without parliamentary approval. Revocation of Article 50 would require an Act of Parliament. Extension would at the very least require affirmative resolutions of both the Commons and Lords to alter the exit date in the 2018 Act, but it may arguably require a full act of parliament. Extension without a full act of parliament would be open to legal challenge. In short, leaving the EU on 29th March 2019 (deal or no deal) is automatic. Dr Dan Boucher was the Conservative candidate in Swansea East at the 2017 General Election. It has not been a great year for Facebook: the Cambridge Analytica scandal, accusations about conveying disinformation and fake news, and the refusal of Mark Zuckerberg to appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee have done nothing for its reputation. Such is the level of frustration that representatives from nine different parliaments have come together to form an international grand committee to call on Zuckerberg to give evidence. He has again refused to attend, sending instead a representative, Richard Allan, Vice President of Policy Solutions, Facebook. Allan will be cross examined by the committee in Westminster today. One of the central challenges relating to the growing power and influence of social media providers is how they use our data. The interim Disinformation and Fake News report of the DCMS Select Committee looked at, among other things, the definition, role and legal liabilities of social media platforms. The report expresses real concerns about privacy, and says that social media companies give users the illusion of having freedom over how they control their data, but they make it extremely difficult, in practice, for users to protect their data. Complicated and lengthy terms and conditions, small buttons to protect our data and large buttons to share our data mean that, although in principle we have the ability to practise our rights over our data in practice it is made hard for us. At the root of this lack of effective control over our data is the fact that the business model in question is predicated on assumptions associated with the re-emergence of what in practice is barter economics. I well remember that on the occasion of my very first A-Level economics lesson, my teacher briefly observed that early models of economic transactions were based on barter before we moved to a money-based economy. In two years of economics teaching, he never returned to the subject and I cant recall it coming up at university even once. This lack of regard for the barter economy now seems strangely misplaced. At first glance, the fact we can all access social media services free of charge seems like a great boon for the consumer. It isnt very often we can get something for free! Of course, there has to be a catch and the catch is that in return for the free service, social media providers get to harvest our data, which then enables them to target advertising at us from which they make a lot of money. The service user thus effectively trades his or her data with the company in return for use of the social media platform in question. How should Conservatives respond to this re-emergence of barter economics? In wrestling with this question, one inevitably turns to the historic approach of Conservative social reformers to barter. Although the sense I got from my very first economics lesson was that barter was replaced by money many hundreds of years ago, the truth is that it was actually a feature of economic life even during the nineteenth century through the truck system. That great Conservative social reformer, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, was particularly critical, observing that barter tended to result in transactions that favoured the powerful (the employer) over the weak (the employee), the employer providing things in return for labour that under compensated the employee. He spoke out passionately against this system and, when he acceded to his title in 1851, immediately prohibited its use on his estates. As we reflect on the need to develop an effective regulatory system for dealing with the challenges presented by social media today, it is well worth reflecting on this past Conservative approach to barter. If we do so in the context of upholding another key Conservative value choice one way forward that immediately commends itself is legislation requiring social media providers to present UK consumers with an ongoing, highly visible, simple, unavoidable choice either: i) to access the service in question in return for allowing the social media company to use their data for specified money-making purposes, or ii) to access that service for a monetary fee on the basis that the company would then not use the persons data as a means of making money. To this some might respond by saying that legislating for the internet is not possible, but that tired old assumption has been shown to be completely without foundation, not least by the Digital Economy Act 2017. Of course, we want to keep legislation to a minimum, but limited legislation to underwrite choice in the context of the threat of more drastic legislation banning barter outright, which could then be held over the heads of social media companies if they dont start treating people and their data with greater respect, would provide an interesting place to start. Social media is an important part of our lives. It needs a strong foundation going forwards and this depends, crucially, on affording better protections for the consumer. This constitutes a key policy challenge and one in relation to which we as Conservatives must lead the way. We must examine the challenge from every angle, including from the perspective of the Conservative critique of barter economics and what it shows about the impact of that system on the rights of users of social media platforms. Wilf Lytton: Ten years of the Climate Change Act. We need a new target to get net emissions down to zero. Wilf Lytton is Senior Researcher at Bright Blue. It has been ten years to the week since the UK signed the 2008 Climate Change Act into law. It remains, as then, a historic and forward-thinking Act of Parliament that has delivered economic prosperity and a safer future for the people of the UK. The Climate Change Act committed us to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent in 2050, compared to 1990 levels. Since then, a great deal of progress has been achieved to reduce the impacts of human activity on the climate. UK greenhouse gas emissions have continued to fall since 2008 and were now over halfway towards meeting our existing target. Decarbonising our economy has also brought about significant economic benefits. Earlier this month, Greg Clark described how green energy is, increasingly, [becoming] cheap energy. Furthermore, the UK is at the forefront of developing low carbon technologies and is now a major exporter of electric vehicles. Our knowledge of climate change has evolved markedly since 2008. Two new lines evidence have emerged, giving us clearer understanding of the consequences the UK and international community face if we fail to keep global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees relative to pre-industrial levels, and the solutions that are needed to respond to that threat. Last months report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes clear that bringing greenhouse gas emissions down to net zero before 2050 is necessary for meeting the below 1.5 degree target agreed by the international community at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. It also spells out the risks of exceeding that target: higher incidences of extreme weather; environmental degradation; mass extinctions; and, disruption to the economy and supply chains. The IPCCs latest report removes any doubt that upholding the Paris Agreement is in the UKs interests. Indeed, yesterday, Michael Gove said that climate-related natural catastrophes are on the rise. In our recent report, Hotting Up, Bright Blue called for Government to adopt a new legal net zero emissions target to be delivered by the middle of this century at the latest, based on the overwhelming evidence that deeper decarbonisation is urgently needed in the decades ahead. New modelling by Vivid Economics tells us that the goal of staying within 1.5 degrees of warming is possible if we determinedly pursue all available options for reducing emissions. This includes taking steps to rapidly eliminate emissions from heat, transport and land use which have, historically, been slow to decarbonise. Unlike the previous 80 per cent emissions reduction target, a net zero emissions target requires all sectors of the economy to have reached virtually zero emissions before 2050. Next year, when the Committee on Climate Change publishes its advice to the Government on the UK adopting and meeting a new, legal net zero emissions target, there will be an opportunity for the UK to once again be a global leader in deep decarbonisation. Despite the initial scepticism, it is worth reminding ourselves of the changes the 2008 Climate Change Act has brought about over the course of just ten years, whether thats through providing jobs in the green economy, improving air quality, or creating new opportunities to export low carbon products to the rest of the world. Many daunting challenges lie ahead for the UK in reaching net zero emissions but, if a decade of experience in reducing emissions has proved anything, its that embracing those challenges will pay dividends for the UK for years to come. Henry Newman is Director of Open Europe. Last week, I set out how the Prime Minister should seek improvements to the Brexit deal before Sundays Brexit summit. She got halfway there. On the Political Declaration, she succeeded in substantially improving the document achieving a clear choice between a Canada plus arrangement, and a closer Chequers minus plan, with Canada plus as the default. However, she did not secure changes to the Withdrawal Agreement. The ineluctable problem she now faces is that when Parliament rejects her deal on the 11th December she will have a tough choice: seek further changes in Brussels or prepare for No Deal. Both the UK and EU will be extremely reluctant to change agreed texts, but they may be left with little alternative if Parliament says no. We have been here before David Camerons deal worked in the theory of Brussels, but fell apart on contact with Westminster politics. Theresa Mays deal is actually better than I had expected in various ways. Yet even in areas where she has secured victories, Downing Street is failing to cut through noisy cries of betrayal. And because MPs have begun to doubt her motives, the Prime Minister faces an uphill battle to explain how the deal would work. The most egregious part of the deal remains the Northern Ireland backstop. Yet the only path to a Brexit which certainly avoids a backstop is not Norway plus or Super Canada but No Deal. Those demanding that the Prime Minister simply insist that she wont accept a backstop havent paid enough attention to Brussels. And its far from clear that changing Prime Minister would make anything easier. It would probably further radicalise the Commission against softening its position. But without changes the deal seems certain to fail in the Commons. Since the Cabinet meeting which first approved this divorce deal on the 14th November, there has been disagreement amongst Mays inner circle as to whether to seek further changes. Her senior team tell me that the EU is not going to start the negotiations all over again. Yes. But thats not quite the same as saying that, in extremis, modest but material changes are off the table. European diplomats have no real plan B, but then neither does the Government other than No Deal. One of the changes Ive proposed to the backstop is a Stormont lock a mechanism for consulting the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive, the institutions of the 1998 Belfast (or Good Friday) Agreement, about new regulatory barriers within the UK. Back in December both the UK and EU agreed a Joint Report, paragraph 50 of which noted that in the backstop the United Kingdom will ensure that no new regulatory barriers develop between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, unless, consistent with the 1998 Agreement, the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly agree that distinct arrangements are appropriate for Northern Ireland. For some reason, this dropped out of the final text. It should be re-introduced. How would a Stormont lock work? The purpose would be to create a mechanism to question new EU acts it would specifically address the flow of new rules, not the stock. It would only apply if the UK was in the backstop, and if the Assembly was restored. It could be designed so it gave an option to vote against a new rule, rather than requiring affirmative votes on every new rule. You could require a strong majority vote to trigger the lock (although that could entail reforms to the petition of concern process). There are already areas where there are different rules in Northern Ireland compared to the rest of the United Kingdom for example on same-sex marriage and abortion (although Northern Ireland could choose to align with Great Britain in those areas). In future, if the backstop was in place, there might be areas where it made sense for Northern Ireland to choose to diverge from Great Britain, and instead align with EU rules covering the rest of the island of Ireland. This would likely be the case, for example, on rules affecting the single energy market or agricultural standards. What is not acceptable is for new rules and regulations to be imposed over the heads of Northern Irelands elected representatives without an ability to say no. Thats not devolution, and its not democratic. And its not clear how imposing rules on Northern Ireland would be compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights. The landmark Matthews v United Kingdom (1999) case found that people have to have representation in a legislature enacting laws. Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, recognises concerns about the backstop, saying rules in Northern Ireland cannot change without rules changing either here in Westminster or Stormont. They cannot be automatically changed by another third party [i.e. Brussels]. So what would happen if Stormont voted against a new EU rule? The issue would be referred to the Joint Committee comprised of UK and EU representatives. Under the existing terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, the Joint Committee already has to agree every new EU act which would apply to Northern Ireland. So under Theresa Mays deal the UK can already resist new regulations, directives and decisions from the EU which would have to be applied in Northern Ireland. But an explicit role for Stormont should be added. If the Stormont lock was engaged the Joint Committee could take several possible steps. One would be just to not apply the new act in Northern Ireland (nor, of course, in the rest of the United Kingdom) while working to resolve any issues this created. Another option would be, with the consent of the UK Parliament, to apply the act across the whole UK (meaning Westminster voting to keep the UK in step with the EU). A third option could be for the the Irish Republic to decide to seek a derogation from the EU for that new act. There are already existing EU precedents for this for example, Malta has provisions limiting the purchase of second homes. We are now in the unhappy position where the current deal has satiated the concerns of the nationalist community and the Irish Republic (who nonetheless remain opposed to Brexit), but has left Unionists (the DUP, the UUP, and others) unhappy. This is highly problematic because the deal could put at risk the principle of consent which was at the heart of the Belfast Agreement precisely the agreement that the EU was claiming to be so concerned to protect by creating the backstop in the first place. A Stormont lock would go some way to addressing these concerns. James Frayne is Director of Public First and author of Meet the People, a guide to moving public opinion. Can Theresa May sell her proposed deal with the EU to the public? This isnt the only question that matters at the moment or indeed the most important question; what Government colleagues and MPs think is more important. However, the Prime Minister has indicated that she is prepared to speak directly to voters about the merits of the deal. And with the possibility of another close election never far from peoples minds, politicians will be thinking hard about what their behaviour means for their own and their partys (re)election chances. So, what are her chances? If you look at the small number of published polls to date, things dont look good. YouGovs last poll on this, a week ago, showed the public opposed the draft deal by 45 per cent to 23 per cent (with the rest saying dont know). Remain voters opposed the deal by 50 per cent to 22 per cent and Leave voters by 47 per cent to 28 per cent. Furthermore, YouGovs latest tracker on the Governments handling of exit negotiations showed people think they are handling it badly by a massive 75 per cent to 14 per cent. And if you look at the media coverage, things dont look good either. While the Daily Mail has generally been very supportive of the Prime Minister and her negotiating strategy and record, both the Telegraph and The Sun have come out against the deal. What, and how, these papers report on Brexit issues clearly makes a difference to public opinion. So theres no question she starts from a difficult place. But all is not lost, for her. There are five reasons why May stands at least a chance of moving opinion somewhat in her favour. Lets deal with the first and most obvious of these: the fact no one really knows much about the proposed deal at all. The Brexit debate has become so polarised that many people will say they oppose it, purely because it makes our exit inevitable. And many Leave voters will say they oppose it purely because they think two years of opaque negotiations amid Leave politicians criticism must have ultimately delivered a bad result. While its a mistake to think that Governments can always move the polls by closing the knowledge gap, as opposition campaigns also have that opportunity, it is nonetheless an encouraging starting point for the Prime Minister. The second reason is that most voters are scared or bored or both. May has been saying loudly that the public just want the issue settled. While some in the media and outside have reacted badly to this as if shes patronising voters the reality is she is entirely in tune with the public. Ive been running focus groups that have touched on Brexit and the negotiation process for the last two years, and its clear people are at the outer edges of their patience on the issue. Unrealistic as it may have been, the public thought wed be out soon after June 2016. Its only been a couple of years but voters are completely mystified as to why negotiations have dragged on for so long. The delay has brought about a mix of exasperation and boredom when will it all end? but also real fear. Minds are being concentrated that maybe things werent ever that simple in the first place. Dangling a deal in front of them where things will finally be settled could be very attractive. Thirdly, most Leave voters are primarily immigration voters and May can claim this deal delivers on border control. Leave-minded politicians dont like hearing it for some reason, and it emphatically doesnt make Leave voters racist, but immigration was clearly these voters top issue. While polls have shown that they wanted to take back control above all, what they wanted was to take back control of borders and Vote Leaves late stream of effective ads on border control amplified these concerns. Had David Cameron done better initially with his negotiations and secured greater restrictions on welfare to new arrivals, plus having demonstrably reduced immigration from outside the EU, theres a reasonable chance he would have won the referendum. By saying that she has secured border control for the UK at last, May can claim she has delivered for Leave voters. Fourthly, Leave voters arent driven by national prestige. The point here is that those campaigning against the deal by saying that its a national humiliation and that well be a vassal state, and so on, are forgetting why people voted Leave in the first place. Again, in two years of speaking to huge numbers of Leave voters, I cannot recall a single one that talked about how Brexit would bring about a national revival. Leave voters and the overwhelming majority of voters nationally couldnt care less about themes like influence, power, national self-esteem, or the idea of playing a global role. Most would sooner we never fought a foreign war again or intervened in foreign disputes and many are sceptical about the benefits of foreign trade. They voted leave for entirely parochial reasons like quicker access to GP appointments. As such, appeals to their patriotism in this way are doomed to fail. This strengthens Mays hand in talking about the basic delivery of practical victories. Fifthly and finally, Brexiteers have failed to unify to offer a credible alternative. While there have been credible and interesting publications on an alternative approach to the Governments, Brexiteers have ultimately been divided on the best approach and they havent been able to unify behind a candidate. Had Boris Johnson left much earlier and set out his stall, things might have been different but his time has now come and gone. This gives this Government the advantage that successive Governments have enjoyed over Eurosceptics for decades: this is our plan, whats yours? There are clearly many, many things that could go wrong for the Prime Minister. Allies in the US might start repeating President Trumps concerns about our ability to do a deal with the US, for example; this could have a negative impact on public opinion one of the things people actually care about. There might be further resignations. Conservative activists might make a more formal intervention. But, as it stands this morning, Conservative strategists will at least be thinking that they can work with public opinion. And if they can work with the public with voters then they will think they might start persuading vote hungry politicians that they ought to listen. It might be a long shot but its something. Standardbred horseman Robert B. Cottrell passed away on Thursday, November 22 at the age of 84. He was blessed to spend recent days and Thanksgiving with those who meant the most to him, family. He is survived by his loving wife, Sally; children, Dr. Timothy (Lisa) and Tracy (Joseph) Ilvento; grandsons, Connor, Sean and Alex Ilvento; and dear sister, Joan Light. He will be missed by many longtime friends, many of whom worked with him in equestrian training and harness racing. He was one of the leading trainer/drivers at Buffalo Raceway, Batavia Downs and Vernon Downs during the late 1950s through the 1970s. Some of his memorable horses were New York Sire Stakes winner Gentlewoman; open pacers G I Grattan, Tuxedo Bill and Frosty Paige; and open trotters Tarport Lou, Sona Ross and Farmington. His favourite, the last one he campaigned, was Rocket Red. Father Joseph McCaffrey and Dr. Daniel Brockway will conduct funeral services at Fowler Funeral Home Inc., 340 West Ave., Brockport, at 11 a.m. on Saturday (Dec. 1) with calling hour prior to the service from 10-11 a.m. Interment, spring time 2019. Memorial contributions may be made to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Brockport First Baptist Church, P.O. Box 378, Brockport, NY 14420. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Robert Cottrell. (USTA) Dear Julian, Youll be aware that in recent years a series of prizes involving Cabinet Ministers have been auctioned off at the Partys Black and White Ball in order to raise funds. For example, a bidder reportedly paid 12,500 at this years event for a home-cooked dinner with Michael Gove and his wife at their London residence. My humble suggestion is that this practice be adapted to increase support among colleagues for the Prime Ministers Brexit deal. May I float the use of a sliding scale as follows? Supportive tweet quoting the Prime Minister . Reward: Special one-off Ghost Train Project Fear Halloween-Style Ride with Gavin Barwell and Robbie Gibb. Complete with scary tales of lost medicines and water shortages. Midnight stop-off at the London Dungeon. Trickor trick? Will make your flesh creep! . Reward: Special one-off Ghost Train Project Fear Halloween-Style Ride with Gavin Barwell and Robbie Gibb. Complete with scary tales of lost medicines and water shortages. Midnight stop-off at the London Dungeon. Trickor trick? Will make your flesh creep! Supportive letter to Association Chairman . Reward: Ten day fact-finding one-person Parliamentary delegation to the Seychelles to assess tourism opportunities. . Reward: Ten day fact-finding one-person Parliamentary delegation to the Seychelles to assess tourism opportunities. Supportive open letter to constituents . Reward: Special Forces-type personal security training. Endure 24 hours of non-stop interrogation techniques overseen by Tom Tugendhat and Johnny Mercer. Vitamin substitutes provided. Fully ECHR compatible. Rescue by Gavin Williamson an optional extra. . Reward: Special Forces-type personal security training. Endure 24 hours of non-stop interrogation techniques overseen by Tom Tugendhat and Johnny Mercer. Vitamin substitutes provided. Fully ECHR compatible. Rescue by Gavin Williamson an optional extra. Full info to whips office from ERG WhatsApp Group . Reward: Relief road in constituency funding announcement. . Reward: Relief road in constituency funding announcement. Full briefing to whips office from ERG meeting . Reward: Free colonic irrigation treatment session, personally administered by the Health Secretary. Broadcast live via the Matt Hancock App! Complete with emergency medical back-up from his assistants Drs Phillip Lee and Sarah Wollaston. (Informed consent required.) . Reward: Free colonic irrigation treatment session, personally administered by the Health Secretary. Broadcast live via the Matt Hancock App! Complete with emergency medical back-up from his assistants Drs Phillip Lee and Sarah Wollaston. (Informed consent required.) Supportive question in 1922 Committee meeting . Reward: Hospital upgrade in constituency funding announcement. . Reward: Hospital upgrade in constituency funding announcement. Supportive question in the Commons . Reward: Know your Northern Ireland quiz at Hillsborough Castle. Host: Karen Bradley. Comes complete with fully regulatory-aligned tour of the UK-Ireland land border, as compliant with the Good Friday Agreement, North-South co-operation and the all-island economy. . Reward: Know your Northern Ireland quiz at Hillsborough Castle. Host: Karen Bradley. Comes complete with fully regulatory-aligned tour of the UK-Ireland land border, as compliant with the Good Friday Agreement, North-South co-operation and the all-island economy. Supportive speech in the Commons . Reward: Capita-enabled HS2 bypass tunnel in constituency. (Cost as estimated by provider: 15 million. Cost as confirmed by National Audit Office: 1.7 billion.) . Reward: Capita-enabled HS2 bypass tunnel in constituency. (Cost as estimated by provider: 15 million. Cost as confirmed by National Audit Office: 1.7 billion.) Supportive speech against second referendum . Reward: Mystery dinner with Philip Hammond at Dorneywood. Menu to be forecast by Treasury experts. A truly frictionless experience! P.S: guests are advised to bring their own sandwiches. . Reward: Mystery dinner with Philip Hammond at Dorneywood. Menu to be forecast by Treasury experts. A truly frictionless experience! P.S: guests are advised to bring their own sandwiches. Supportive speech for second referendum . Reward: Promotion to PPS to a Minister of your choice. . Reward: Promotion to PPS to a Minister of your choice. Supportive or unsupportive speech on Norway option, as required . Reward: One-off luxury cruise of the fjords masterminded by your host, Kaptein Michael G ve, and his batman, Sjefsleder Nicholas B les. A smorgasord of delights. Canadian leg of voyage postponed. L ykke til! . Reward: One-off luxury cruise of the fjords masterminded by your host, Kaptein Michael G ve, and his batman, Sjefsleder Nicholas B les. A smorgasord of delights. Canadian leg of voyage postponed. L Suppportive vote against second referendum . Reward: Promotion to Under-Secretary of State at department of your choice. . Reward: Promotion to Under-Secretary of State at department of your choice. Supportive vote for second referendum . Reward: Dance the Lambada Strictly-style with Jeremy Hunt at Chevening. Practice sessions to be conducted in Chinese. Or Japanese I forget which. As may he. Warning: Craig Revel Horwood is the sole judge. A complete dance disaster! . Reward: Dance the Lambada Strictly-style with Jeremy Hunt at Chevening. Practice sessions to be conducted in Chinese. Or Japanese I forget which. As may he. Warning: Craig Revel Horwood is the sole judge. A complete dance disaster! Supportive or unsupportive vote on Norway Option, as required . Reward: Promotion to Minister of State at department of your choice (plus privy councillorship). . Reward: Promotion to Minister of State at department of your choice (plus privy councillorship). Supportive speech in debate on meaningful vote . Reward: Enjoy the cannabis oil full-body massage experience, applied in person by Sajid Javid. No holds barred! Only recently legalised. Free towel and loofah provided. Hurry, hurry while Home Office stocks last. . Reward: Enjoy the cannabis oil full-body massage experience, applied in person by Sajid Javid. No holds barred! Only recently legalised. Free towel and loofah provided. Hurry, hurry while Home Office stocks last. Supportive vote in debate on meaningful vote . Reward: Promotion to the Cabinet at department of your choice (subject to negotiation). Plus: option to take the David Lidington University Challenge. Beat the maestro and win a knighthood! And replace Ian Liddell-Grainger in the order of succession. I greatly regret the non-availability of certain colleagues for this Parliamentary tree of promises, due to non-availability, resignation from Government, or both. So it comes about that you will be unable to offer, say, judo with Dominic Raab, Sext with Jacob Rees-Mogg or sky-diving with Steve Baker (parachute optional). Finally, you will see that none of these suggestions involve the provision of honours, though you are welcome to discuss any that do with myself and Lady, sorry, Mrs Prufrock at a secure location, the address of which is to be determined by yourself and myself. Ever, J.Alfred We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome! Farms run by Japanese Americans once numbered around 200 on the Peninsula. Now, Rancho Palos Verdes will evict the last such farm next summer. In June, the Lyttelton Port Company broke ground on its cruise berth development project. Pile driving work is underway and expected to continue until early 2020. The berth is due for completion in late 2020 and will be ready for the 2020-2021 cruise season, according to Simon Munt, marketing manager. This coming season, the New Zealand port is set to host 19 cruise vessels, double the number of last season. The outlook is positive, helping support the investment in a dedicated cruise facility. The new cruise berth will be the first custom-built cruise ship facility in New Zealand designed to accommodate the worlds largest cruise vessels. The new berth will be complemented by the existing facilities that can accommodate smaller cruise vessels so we will be able to accommodate two ships on any particular day, said Munt. "The berth is part of our long-term plan to ensure the port can serve the regions future needs, he continued. This new facility will provide an attractive arrival experience for visitors and a boost for Canterburys tourism industry as well as retail businesses in Christchurch. Lyttelton was unable to host cruise ships immediately after the 2011-2012 earthquakes in Christchurch, and the ships called at Akaroa instead. Smaller cruise vessels returned to Lyttelton in 2012. The beginning of the new berths construction phase signals a significant step in the return of larger cruise ships to the port. While the Vidanta Elegant continues to be refurbished in Naples, Italy, Grupo Vidanta is now busy hiring crew for the ship. Declining to comment on any specifics, the Mexico-based hotel operator has been busy recruiting crew through a vessel management company. Hirings include senior officers to medical staff for the new cruise brand with immediate embarkation. The ship, meanwhile, continues to be under the knife in a significant refurbishment in Italy that should be completed in 2019. Its the second yard that has done work on the 1990-built ship that most recently sailed as the Voyager for all Leisure Group. Following the demise of the British brand, Grupo Vidanta acquired the vessel and moved it to Spain for a refit. While an inaugural season on the Mexican Riviera was expected for the 2018-2019, the new cruise brand now has made port bookings at various destinations on the Mexican Riviera for the 2019-2020 season. Australias only dedicated polar expedition cruise agency, iExpedition.com, won the Tours and Transfers Small Business Category in the 2018 Sunshine Coast Business Awards, after only its first year in business, according to a statement. iExpedition offers an online expedition cruising platform to search and book from the largest collection of cruises to Antarctica and the Arctic available online, the company said. Ben Alexander, Director of iExpedition.com commended his team of supporters and the local business community on the win and the success of the past 12 months. "This achievement is a testament to our focus and determination to deliver a specialised expedition cruising platform to the Australian market, as well support we've received from business mentors, local Chamber groups and the Peregian Digital Hub. The Sunshine Coast has such a high standard of businesses and this year there were more entries than ever before, he said. Winning this award coupled with our impressive first-year results where we eclipsed our sales targets by a massive 165%, reaffirms our belief that iExpedition.com's specialised focus on niche cruising product is what Australian travellers are looking for. We are redefining the way travellers and travel agents search for and book Arctic and Antarctica cruises. Remote-working plans are growing in popularity across the country, according to the recently released results of a survey by Stamford-based job site Indeed. Employees and employers see many upsides, including higher productivity and contentment for workers and increased recruiting power for businesses. But the arrangement has its skeptics and must be carefully managed to make it successful, according to management experts and Indeed officials, whose survey polled about 500 workers and the same number of employers across several industries. If you can put together the right formula and understand what remote working would look like to engage your workforce, it can improve the level of talent you can consider and make a big difference in your organization, said David Lewis, founder and CEO of Norwalk-based HR consulting and outsourcing firm Operations Inc. Some 55 percent of surveyed employers allow remote working. Such policies are most common in mid-size companies, with 200 to 500 employees; two-thirds of them permit out-of-office working. Small businesses, with five to 20 employees, are the least likely to offer remote working. About 40 percent in that group support the option. Among employees allowed to work from home, 75 percent said the arrangement has improved their work-life balance. More than half said the scenario has reduced stress, absences and sick days and improved morale. Nearly 60 percent of remote workers said they were more productive when they work from home. Almost 40 percent said they were equally productive at home as they were in the office. More than half of Operations Inc.s employees work remotely all or some of the week, according to Lewis. He cited the option as a powerful tool for recruiting workers in a tight labor market, with 3.7 percent national unemployment, and a strategy for mitigating long commutes for out-of-area staff. You significantly improve your chances of filling open positions with top talent by thinking out of the box and allowing people to work remotely or flexibly, versus only thinking about people who can commute every day to your office, Lewis said. At the same time, demand has grown significantly for co-working centers used for individual or group offices. Indeed officials surmise that many employees do not perform as well in traditional offices because of features such as open-floor plans. They pointed to research showing distractions linked to open plans which are used by almost 70 percent of U.S. companies, according to some measures. Almost one-third of remote workers said they would consider looking for another job if their companies were to eliminate the remote option. Slightly more than half of those who work for companies without remote working said they wish they could work from home. Some of the countrys largest employers have embraced remote working. Dell has reported saving about $12 million annually on real estate by supporting employees work from home. The company aims to have 50 percent of its employees work at home at least a few days a week by 2020. Some big companies, however, are more skeptical of remote working. IBM reversed its policy in 2017, by bringing thousands of workers back to the office. The company cited the need for teams to be in the same space to be effective. Many workers also express misgivings. Nearly 40 percent at companies that allow remote work said operating from home could make them less visible and reduce their access to executives. The challenge with managing people working remotely is figuring how to engage and include them, without getting overly paranoid about their productivity, Lewis said. Employers also have to answer the question as to whether people who work remotely have a path to advancement and promotions within the organization. There have to be clear metrics and standards with remote work. pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter; @paulschott BRIDGEPORT - The former bookkeeper for a Shelton company, accused of stealing more than $300,000 from the company, was sentenced Monday to 33 months in prison. Miriam Dubay, now of Purcellville, VA, , who pleaded guilty in June to one count of wire fraud, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill to 33 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. BRIDGEPORT A Superior Court judge on Monday refused to issue a temporary order blocking the Secretary of the State from certifying the results of Stratfords contested state house election. Judge Barbara Bellis denied the motion for a temporary injunction brought by James Feehan, who in a recount lost to Phil Young in the contest for the 120th District by 13 votes. However, the judge denied the order without prejudice, meaning Feehan can again ask the judge to impose the order on Friday if he and his lawyer find additional legal support for their motion. Voting for both the 120th district and the 122nd assembly district was held at Bunnell High School. But around midday Nov. 6, a voter for the 120th district noticed he had been handed a ballot for the 122nd. Young, the incumbent Democratic candidate and Feehan, the Republican challenger, were not on the ballot for the 122nd. It was determined that a packet of ballots for the 122nd district had been given out to voters for the 120th. After the election, the Registrar of Voters discovered that in the 120th district, 1,575 voter names had been crossed off the official checklist but only 1,499 ballots had been processed, a difference of 76 fewer ballots than voters, according to court papers. In the checklist of the 122nd, 952 names had been crossed off the official checklist, but 1,031 ballots were processed, a difference of 79 more ballots than voters. Feehans lawyer, Proloy Das, asked Bellis to throw out the results and order the state and the town to hold a new election for the district. But Youngs lawyer, William Bloss, contended that Bellis does not have jurisdiction to hear the case: Under the state constitution, only the House of Representatives can decide if an election for a house seat was done fairly. In the meantime, Bellis ordered both sides to come up with a list of questions on the legality of her hearing Feehans legal challenge of the election that would be presented to the state Supreme Court if needed. In her ruling denying the temporary order, Bellis said the Secretary of the States certification on Nov. 30 would not be the end of Feehans case. Bellis asked both sides to shortcut the case and prepare questions directly for the states highest court. This is new territory here, the judge said. Its becoming more and more apparent this case is going to end up in the Supreme Court, I am just a stepping stone. Either way you are going to have an appeal. The judges decision makes sense, Young said later. Thats exactly what we have been stressing and what we thought was right, that allowing the results to be certified would not prejudice the case. Feehan was hopeful the judge will reconsider if she gets more information. Its not about me, he said. There are 76 voters that have been disenfranchised. Those 76 could swing the election one way or another. Connecticuts dairy farmers, who were caught in the middle of President Donald Trumps trade wars with other countries this year, have received little money from a federal mitigation program meant to compensate them for losses. They are hoping for more. Its a drop in the bucket, said Seth Bahler, co-owner of Oakridge Dairy Farm in Ellington, of the mitigation payments. Were hoping to get something. But right now, its like me giving you a dollar. The nations dairy farmers say the new tariffs the Trump administration has imposed on Mexico, China and Canada have cost them more than $1 billion in profits since May. The U.S. tariffs provoked those nations to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farm products, which hurt exports. So the U.S. Department of Agriculture tried to come to the aid of those farmers with a new $4.7 billion trade mitigation program that has issued subsidy checks to make up for lost sales. But only about $127 million was allocated for dairy farmers, an amount that makes up less than 13 percent of the industrys losses to date, according to the National Milk Producers Federation. According to information obtained by the Environmental Working Group, Bahlers Oakridge Dairy Farm received $26,964 from the USDA, the largest trade mitigation payment made to any farm in Connecticut. Some farm owners in the state have received less than $50. Mitigation payments to all Connecticut farmers in the first round of subsidies, which the USDA began to disburse in August, totaled a mere $121,798. The states dairy farmers have been hurt by years of low milk prices. Dairy prices were projected to rise this year, before the Trump administration issued new tariffs on aluminum and steel from Mexico, China and Canada, provoking those nations to counter with tariffs on U.S. goods. Projected gains began to evaporate, said Alan Bjerga of the National Milk Producers Federation. Joseph Cook, senior dairy analyst for Informa Economics, said the tariffs were imposed at a time when U.S. milk margins have remained at the lowest levels seen in years. The impacts of the tariffs will continue to exacerbate lower margins for an industry seeing a high rate of retirement from small dairy farms, Cook told FOX Business. Bahler said his farm and most of the other dairy farms in Connecticut sell their products locally. But, as a whole, the U.S. dairy industry exports more than 17 percent of its product. Mexico was the largest importer of U.S. cheese. China was the biggest importer of U.S. whey. Now exports are down, producing a glut of milk and other dairy products on the U.S. market and driving down prices, Bahler said. The loss of the overseas market has hurt all dairy farmers, he said. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the National Milk Producers Federations chairman Randy Mooney, who is also a dairy farmer, said the first round of subsidies has done little to help the nations dairy farmers. We applaud your desire to aid farmers through USDAs tariff mitigation program, Mooney wrote. However, our members are greatly concerned about the level of aid that was provided in the initial effort Perdue has promised the nations farmers a second round of trade mitigation payments before the end of the year. Amanda Freund, a third generation dairy farmer in East Canaan, called the trade mitigation program exceptionally disappointing. Her family milks 300 Holsteins at Freund Farms, which has received $3,918 in trade mitigation payments. That is less than the 12 cents-per-hundredweight of milk promised to dairy farmers, Freund said. She said she hopes a second round will bring the payments closer to what was promised. With milk prices at $16.50 to $16.80 per hundredweight, the help the USDA is offering isnt much, she said, especially in states like Connecticut where the cost of production is high and may exceed the price farmers receive for their products. Were on thin ice, she said. You get to a point as a dairy farmer where you just think that you may have to cut your losses. Bjerga said he is hopeful there will be more money for dairy farmers in the second round of USDA payments, but isnt sure there will be. You would expect something a little more in line with their losses, he said. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, who represents many of the states dairy farmers, signed a bipartisan letter that will go to Perdue this week asking for more compensation for the industry. The second payment must better account for the significant damages dairy farmers have incurred and should exceed the $127 million payment made earlier this fall, the lawmakers letter said. Contributed Photo / Watertown Police Department / Contributed Photo NEW HAVEN - A federal grand jury has indicted a Bridgeport man for five robberies in the area. Alvin Robertson, 55, was indicted on three counts of bank robbery and two counts of interference with commerce by robbery. BRIDGEPORT - The GraTaTa Guy is on his way home. State prosecutors nolled or dropped the domestic violence case against social media sensation Bryan Silva on Tuesday on the condition that he return to his native Virginia. Senior Assistant States Attorney Stephanie Damiani had told a judge that there didnt appear from the police report evidence that Silva had done anything except get punched in the mouth by his wife, Melissa Barney, after she claimed she found evidence on Silvas cell phone that he was cheating on her. Barney is charged with disorderly conduct and must return to court on Dec. 21. Silva, 27, a body builder and rapper, known as the GraTaTa Guy for the machine gun sound he made in his last rap video, was arrested outside the Easton home of his wifes parents on Thanksgiving night. In October 2016, Silva was sentenced in Virginia to more than a year in prison for an armed standoff with Charlottesville police. It was while he was in a Virginia prison that he met his 23-year-old wife. On Thursday, police said Silva came to his wifes parents Easton home to reunite with his bride of less than a year. But police said things did not go well. After the traditional turkey dinner, police said Silva fell asleep. While he was out his bride decided to go through his cell phone and discovered what she believed to be evidence that he was cheating on her. Police said Barney became so enraged that she punched her sleeping husband in the mouth. She claimed he then punched her in the head. At any rate, police said Silva then grabbed his suitcase and was heading out the door when his wife called 911. Barney stated that she loves Silva and didnt want him to leave so she called police, police related. When officers arrived, on the call of an assault, they confronted Silva who was kneeling in the driveway trying to close his suitcase, police said. They said they saw blood on Silvas mouth. Police said Silva told them he never really knew what his wife was like and was now thinking of divorcing her. Both Silva and Barney were charged with disorderly conduct. She was previously released on a promise to appear. Imagine trying to succeed as an entrepreneur after experiencing a big failure. Your entire industry just crashed. Your highly anticipated product launch was a total flop. Your biggest client or affiliate ditched you. Your funding fell through and you can't make payroll. Your right-hand person just quit. You just suffered a massive data breach and your online reputation is tarnished. Related: 10 Ways Leaders Fix Mistakes Without Making It Worse Sounds stressful, right? The above is just a small list of the many major failures I've experienced in my journey as an entrepreneur. But, I didn't let any of that stop me from turning $600 in starting capital (all the money I had at the time) into the eight-figure business I run today. Here are my five best insights that came from failing my way to success. 1. Reputation is worth more than money. I'll never forget when my first boss, just after I'd graduated college, asked me to put together a proposal to win a lucrative contract for his business. He asked me to load up the proposal with lots promises that would considerably drive up our operational costs but would greatly improve our service. The client was so impressed with our proposal they awarded us the contract on spot. I left that meeting feeling very proud and excited. When we left, I asked my boss "Should we get started on making all the improvements right away?" and he responded, "That was just to win the contract, we're not actually going to do them." I was devastated. To me, we made a promise, and that promise needed to be honored. But, I looked up to my boss because he was my mentor, so over time I began to normalize that behavior and started saying or doing whatever it took to make a buck. After many years of overpromising and underdelivering, I had earned myself a well-deserved reputation of being a fraud. That damaged reputation cost me a lot more than whatever money I made from my short-term thinking, and it took me many years to reverse the damage I had caused myself in order to succeed today. The lesson: Money doesn't always last, but your reputation does. A good reputation takes a long time to build. Its foundation is laid by consistent performance, not promises. If built correctly, your reputation will be the best investment you can make, and it will always pay long-term dividends. Related: 5 Ways Failure Can Help Your Career 2. Don't build a minimum viable product. Most entrepreneurs have heard of the lean startup technique called "minimum viable product" or MVP. The idea is to create a product that's just good enough to launch and improve as you go. I took this MVP approach to create an online makeup school. I partnered with some of the top beauty influencers on Instagram and YouTube to teach the content. Instead of getting hung up on developing the best learning platform, my idea was to roll out an early product to get feedback from students and to improve it as we went along. The launch was a huge success. Sales were astronomical. But, they were short-lived. We got buried by negative online reviews from students disappointed with the learning platform. Even as we improved, the reviews stuck with us, and eventually we had to shut down the product and pivot to an entirely different concept. After that experience, we've been taking our time to build quality products, and the results have been outstanding. The lesson: It's important to take time to build the right product. Products may be easy to improve but online reputation isn't. Negative reviews can carry with you for a long time. And in a digital world where online reviews and word-of-mouth are everything, they can quickly destroy a business. 3. Nail it before you scale it, In 2010, I launched what CNN dubbed "The Walmart of Weed." It was a 15,000-square foot "marijuana superstore" that sold all of the cultivation supplies needed to grow medical marijuana. The grand opening drew so much attention across the globe that my inbox was full of thousands of emails from entrepreneurs wanting to franchise the concept. Related: The Best Way to Win Is to Know When to Quit Excited by the interest, I got so focused on rolling out the concept nationally that I forgot to make sure the business worked locally. I succeeded in opening many stores, but what I didn't anticipate is as each new store opened, the last store closed. After numerous store closings, I had to pivot from a retail business to a consulting business just to stay afloat. The lesson: It took Sam Walton 25 years to go from one dime store to 38 Walmart stores. Today, Walmart has over 8,500 stores worldwide. That's because it takes time to dial in a successful business model. Focus on building a strong foundation before even thinking about the empire you'll build on top of it. 4. Practice radical transparency. I grew up in a conservative Indian household where there wasn't always a lot of open communication. The lack of communication often created division, and it was uncomfortable telling my family what I was really thinking or what was happening in my life. What I didn't realize was that I was letting those same patterns of closed communication from childhood spill over into my businesses. I learned this when I decided to do an anonymous company poll to get a pulse on how my team was feeling. A few people responded saying they felt there was a general mistrust within the team and that they felt in the dark as to what was happening around them. Those sentiments echoed exactly how I felt growing up. I was guilty of building a company culture that stemmed from my family culture without even knowing it. Today, I communicate openly about our finances, failures, short-term goals, long-term plans and much more. Almost nothing is considered sacred. Since adopting this policy of radical transparency, the entire team feels so much more comfortable discussing issues openly and working together as a team. The lesson: If you're not transparent with your team about everything, it will create mistrust and eventually lead to division. The best leaders are radically transparent with their team members. They inspire employee loyalty and honesty by being an example of those qualities. Related: 6 Common Decision-Making Blunders That Could Kill Your Business 5. Don't fake it until you make it. In my late twenties, I had gained a lot of notoriety on social media as an "Instagram baller." I was driving around in flashy cars and living in a four-story Hollywood Hills mansion. I had a decent amount of money, but nowhere near the rate I was spending it. My thinking was that if I could just keep up with the high-flying image long enough, soon business opportunities would come pouring my way. The exact opposite happened. People thought I was so rich that I didn't need the money. Instead of wanting to partner with me, they wanted to profit from me. I was spending so much trying to keep up my image that I couldn't sustain it and ended up going broke. After losing it all, I decided to be honest and open about my story. The market rewarded me ten-fold and my engagement with my audience deepened considerably. The lesson: Today, information travels so quickly that it's impossible to keep up a facade. The market will see right through it. People value authenticity. Keep it real with others and you'll accomplish your goals much quicker. Related: My Big Failures Cost Me My Reputation and My Business. Here's What I Learned -- and How I've Bounced Back. 7 Hidden Signs You'll Ultimately Be CEO 10 Ways Leaders Fix Mistakes Without Making It Worse Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Nokia announced that it has signed a patent license agreement with OPPO. Under the agreement, OPPO will make payments to Nokia for a multi-year license period. Maria Varsellona, Nokia Chief Legal Officer and President of Nokia Technologies, said, OPPO is one of the leaders in the smartphone industry and we are pleased to welcome them as a Nokia licensee. This agreement further validates our global licensing program. The terms of the agreement remain confidential between the parties. @Technuter.com News Service As the temperatures plummet across the region, it may inspire homeowners to consider the comfort, air quality and energy efficiency of their dwellings. Radiant heat is one way to supplement or complement a homes heating system and increasingly the technology is being built into new construction or installed during renovation work on existing or older homes. The United States Department of Energys website explains, Radiant heating has a number of advantages. It is more efficient than baseboard hearting and usually more efficient than forced-air heating, because it eliminates duct losses. People with allergies often prefer radiant heat because it doesnt distribute allergens like forced-air systems can. Radiant systems come in three types of designs: Radiant air, electric radiant or hot water radiant, otherwise known as a hydronic system. Radiant-air systems are said to be the least efficient and not well suited to residential applications, while hydronic systems are reported to be the most popular and cost-effective option for residential installations, according to the Department of Energys guide. At 267 Riverside Ave., the master suites bathroom is always warm and inviting even on the chilliest of winter mornings, thanks to radiant heat incorporated into the flooring brilliantly laid out in a herringbone pattern. The master suite is one of six bedrooms at the 2016-built shingle-style colonial in Riverside. The 0.54-acre property is listed for $4.495 million by Jared Randall, listing agent with Houlihan Lawrences Greenwich office. The best reason for radiant floors is comfort, Randall said. We are seeing more and more houses equipped in bathrooms and sometimes garages. Todays buyers want comfort from location and proximity to the train, to spaces that evoke feelings of family and fun to the comfort of radiant floors. The master bath at 267 Riverside Ave. clad in marble complements the master bedroom, which has two walk-in closets. The radiant-heat flooring is just one of many thoughtful details incorporated into the architecture and decor, ensuring a comfortable environment. There are also fireplaces in the living room, dining room and out on the terrace. The home has a tidy mudroom an invaluable organizational choice and a laundry room on the second level, so its convenient to most of the homes bedrooms. Radiant heat for floors and more Radiant-heat floors are integral to the design of both the master bath and entry foyer at 13 Chieftans Road in Greenwich, a four-bedroom Dutch colonial on 0.92-acre lot in the Chieftans estate enclave. The property is listed for $3.195 by Barbara Zaccagnini of Coldwell Banker Global Luxury. Radiant heat feels great on your feet and is a second source of heat, which can cut down on energy costs, Zaccagnini said. The master bath is special, because it has radiant heat, a bidet, two sinks and a steam shower. Although [radiant heat] is quite customary, it is still a luxury. Though radiant technology has been available to the residential market for decades and steadily gained in popularity, there are some examples of radiant systems that truly distinguish a property. Take, for example, 607 Riversville Road, a French Provincial Great Estate with seven bedrooms, located on a gated lot that spans a breathy 4.76 acres. Julianne Ward, executive director of sales for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, New England Properties, is representing the seller. Yes, lots of homes have radiant heat thats used when the floor is tile, Ward acknowledged, but noted that the radiant heat is handled a little different at this property. This home has radiant heat in the floors and ceilings throughout the house. In fact, the radiant systems here were installed back in the 1950s when the home was built, Ward pointed out. It was a luxury back then, she marveled at the ahead-of-its-time application. The appeal is that the whole room has a warmth and comfort that you dont have when heat is blowing into a room from an air duct, Plus, there are the added benefits of tempering energy costs derived from other heat sources. Today, it can be efficient if you have forced air and radiant [systems, but] sometimes all you need is the radiant, she said. A public open house is planned for 607 Riversville Road from 1 to 3 p.m. Dec. 2. WINSTED Police have identified the two Winsted residents killed a crash on southbound Route 8 crash in Winchester late Monday. The driver - Kayla Lombardo, 19, of 11 Central Avenue - and the front passenger - Ryan Cote, 26, 98 Meadow Street - were pronounced dead at the scene. At 11:35 p.m., the Winchester Police Department received a 911 call concerning a one- car motor vehicle accident on Route 8, south of Riverton Road (Route 20) with possible injuries. The vehicle, 2000 Honda Civic was traveling southbound, when the operator lost control of vehicle, crossing the center line of travel, driving off the northbound side of North Main Street into a tree., police said in a release. Three passengers - all Winsted residents - seated in the rear of vehicle were also injured. One of the injured passengers, 17-year-old female, was ejected from the vehicle located and sustained severe injuries. Another female, identified as Abigail M. Passini, 18, sustained severe injuries and another Tyler Godfrey, 22, received minor injuries A gofundme page (https://www.gofundme.com/funeral-for-ryan-anthony-cotes-family) has been created to help pay for Cotes funeral expenses. Nearly $3,000 has been raised in the $8,500 campaign. The Connecticut State Police Accident Investigation team responded to assist in the investigation. The investigation as to cause is continuing. OPPO the Selfie Expert today unveiled its latest mid segment smartphone the OPPO A7. The A series has been among OPPOs best-selling smartphones since its launch in India. The A3s created headlines with its huge battery while the A5 introduced more fashionable features with its diamond-shaped texture. The new OPPO A7 comes with two interesting features that customers value most a 13+2MP dual rear cameras and 16MP front camera packed with a 4230mAh battery. The OPPO A7 also introduces something entirely new to the A series; a unique Waterdrop screen along with 3D artistic texture on the back cover. OPPO A7 will come in two beautiful color options Glaring Gold and Glaze Blue. The screen occupies almost all of the OPPO A7s display except for a small droplet which is why it is called a Waterdrop Screen, inspired by a water drop that is about to fall. Natural and less obtrusive, the Waterdrop Screen has been widely accepted as the most beautiful notch type smartphone in the market. The tiny water drop contains a 16MP front camera and sensors that makes OPPO A7 the phone with the highest screen to body ratio of the OPPO A series. With the 6.2-inch HD+ Incell Screen, the screen to body ratio of OPPO A7 is 88.4%, providing a more immersive user experience no matter if youre playing games or watching videos. The OPPO A7 also applies Corning Gorilla Glass, providing greater resistance to scratches. The OPPO A7 is designed to be a piece of art and our designers considered every detail including materials, crafts, textures, and even the colors on the back cover. The OPPO A7 is thin, light and comfortable because of its 3D thermally bent sheet which is modified to perfection. With the glass-like cover; the consumers would be able to feel the fine and smooth texture with the Grain pattern. Another carefully crafted detail is the middle frame; frosted and in contrast to the grain texture of the back cover, it makes the OPPO A7 look even more graceful. To showcase a high-end and fashionable look, OPPO selected two colors, Glaring Gold and Glaze Blue to create a color solution that subtly shifts depending on the light. With these beautiful designs and colors, OPPOs key focus lies on the smartphone aesthetics. The OPPO A7 is equipped with 13+2MP dual rear camera. The front camera is enhanced to 16MP with F2.0 aperture, which gives an outstanding selfie experience. Moreover, OPPO A7 has a wide-angle front camera, which can contain more scenes when taking photos, especially when taking group photos in a narrow space. AR Stickers is another new feature of OPPO A7 that allows more personalization, adding to the fun of exchanging pictures. At OPPO, our image engineers test shooting activities in various locations, under different light conditions to achieve outstanding portraits and selfies. OPPO engineers also consult popular professionals including professional photographers and makeup artists from their experiences and skills. The OPPO A7 comes with a 4230mAh battery, which frees you from the concern of your battery draining during the day. Adding to that, the thoughtful AI battery management freezes inactive apps and reduces excess caching to save more power. Pricing and availability Available at a price of INR 16,990 the OPPO A7 will be the first ever phone to have a water drop screen in the A series and can be purchased with easy EMIs of INR 1416 per month. The phone will be available on platforms like Flipkart, Amazon and PayTM Mall. PayTM Mall is offering a Rs. 1500 cashback voucher. Apart from this, customers can get a 5% cashback using an HDFC debit or credit card and with Paper Finance EMI 0-down payment option. Jio is giving free 3.2 TB data and additional benefits of upto RS. 4900. @Technuter.com News Service I admit it. I used to be a climate-change skeptic. I was one of those conservatives who thought that the science was inconclusive, that fears of global warming were as overblown as fears of a new ice age in the 1970s, that climate change was natural and cyclical, and that there was no need to incur any economic costs to deal with this speculative threat. I no longer think any of that, because the scientific consensus is so clear and convincing. The Fourth National Climate Assessment, released Friday by the U.S. government, puts it starkly: "Observations collected around the world provide significant, clear, and compelling evidence that global average temperature is much higher, and is rising more rapidly, than anything modern civilization has experienced, with widespread and growing impacts." The report notes that "annual average temperatures have increased by 1.8F across the contiguous United States since the beginning of the 20th century" and that "annual median sea level along the U.S. coast . . . has increased by about 9 inches since the early 20th century as oceans have warmed and land ice has melted." The report attributes these changes to man-made greenhouse gases and warns: "High temperature extremes, heavy precipitation events, high tide flooding events along the U.S. coastline, ocean acidification and warming, and forest fires in the western United States and Alaska are all projected to continue to increase, while land and sea ice cover, snowpack, and surface soil moisture are expected to continue to decline in the coming decades." The U.S. government warnings echo the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In October, it released a report that represented the work of 91 scientists from 60 countries. It describes, in the words of the New York Times, "a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040." The wildfires are already here. The Camp Fire blaze this month is the most destructive in California history, charring 153,000 acres, destroying nearly 19,000 structures, and killing at least 85 people. The second-most destructive fire in California history was the one last year in Napa and Sonoma counties. The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies notes that climate change has contributed to these conflagrations by shortening the rainy season, drying out vegetation and whipping up Santa Ana winds. Massive hurricanes are increasing along with wildfires - and they too are influenced by climate change. It's time to sound the planetary alarm. This is likely to be the fourth-hottest year on record. The record-holder is 2016, followed by 2015 and 2017. A climate change website notes that "the five warmest years in the global record have all come in the 2010s" and "the 10 warmest years on record have all come since 1998." Imagine if these figures reflected a rise in terrorism - or illegal immigration. Republicans would be freaking out. Yet they are oddly blase about this climate code red. President Trump, whose minions buried the climate change report on the day after Thanksgiving, told Axios: "Is there climate change? Yeah. Will it go back like this, I mean will it change back? Probably." And, amid a recent cold snap, he tweeted: "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?" By this point no one should be surprised that the president can't tell the difference between short-term weather fluctuations and long-term climate trends. At least he didn't repeat his crazy suggestion that climate change is a Chinese hoax. Yet his denialism is echoed by other Republicans who should know better. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told CNN on Sunday: "Our climate always changes and we see those ebb and flows through time. . . . We need to always consider the impact to American industry and jobs." We do need to consider the impact on U.S. jobs - but that's an argument for action rather than, as Ernst suggests, inaction. The National Climate Assessment warns that global warming could cause a 10 percent decline in gross domestic product and that the "potential for losses in some sectors could reach hundreds of billions of dollars per year by the end of this century." Iowa and other farm states will be particularly hard hit as crops wilt and livestock die. Compared with the crushing costs of climate change, the action needed to curb greenhouse-gas emissions is modest and manageable - if we act now. Jerry Taylor, president of the libertarian Niskanen Center, estimates that a carbon tax would increase average electricity rates from 17 cents to 18 cents per kilowatt-hour. The average household, he writes, would see spending on energy rise "only about $35 per month." That's not nothing - but it's better than allowing climate change to continue unabated. I've owned up to the danger. Why haven't other conservatives? They are captives, first and foremost, of the fossil fuel industry, which outspent green groups by 10 to 1 in lobbying on climate change from 2000 to 2016. But they are also captives of their own rigid ideology. It is a tragedy for the entire planet that America's governing party is impervious to science and reason. The past two months have been a maelstrom for Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when the two were in high school. Before the hearings, Ford lived a life devoid of national attention. She was a professor of psychology at a small university in Palo Alto, where she lived on a quiet street with her husband and two children. The film of her security and privacy was peeled off after the hearings, and continued long after Kavanaugh was confirmed. Ford said she had to move at least four times to escape death threats, and had to hire a security detail to protect her and her family. On Nov. 21, Ford opened up about her experience over the last few months in a GoFundMe post, thanking those who contributed donations, letters, and acts of support. Tens of thousands of people donated to the campaign to surpass its $150,000 goal. Currently at $647,610, Ford announced she was closing the account to further donations. "Your tremendous outpouring of support and kind letters have made it possible for us to cope with the immeasurable stress, particularly the disruption to our safety and privacy," Ford wrote in the statement. "Because of your support, I feel hopeful that our lives will return to normal." Ford said the donations through GoFundMe went toward a security service, a home security system, and temporary housing during their frequent moves. "Dr. Ford and her family have tremendous gratitude for the generous crowdfunded contributions they have received," her lawyers told NPR. "These funds have been used exclusively for necessary costs of physical security and housing occasioned by coming forward about her sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh." Ford also wrote that any funds that did not go toward security would be given to organizations that support trauma survivors. "Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty," Ford wrote. Read Annie Vainshtein's latest stories here. Email her at avainshtein@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @annievain Broadband India Forum (BIF) along with Phimetrics (a leading independent telecom audit and analytics company) released a first-of-its-kind study that tested the operational variances of smartphones across the premium, mid-range and low-priced categories across multiple markets including India. The report shows a variance of +/- 27% range for data and +/- 0.5% range for voice for India suggesting a serious implication for overall customer service. The testing was done under similar network conditions to highlight these operational variances and these were then compared to similar variances in global markets. The variance in operations in India across all phones was in the region of +/- 27% while the global benchmark for such operational variance is seen to be in the region of only +/- 10%. The significantly higher difference in Indian smartphones highlights that the models in India differ significantly from global peers. Smartphone variance was measured across 4 key operational parameters (i) Download Speeds; (ii) Upload Speeds; (iii) Video Buffer Time and (iv) Web Browsing Delay. The report highlights that almost 38% of Indias top selling models vary as much as +/- 30% thus impacting customer experience significantly. In the case of premium handsets, the operational variance seen was in the rage of +/- 15% and most handsets were within the +/- 10% range only which is very close to global benchmarks. Thus, these handsets did not impact customer experience greatly. However, devices in the low-mid range showed the highest variance, typically around +/- 30% across all KPIs. The report also highlighted that operational issues have a direct impact in terms of delays and potential loss to the internet economy. Total delays experienced due to poor performing devices was seen to be 25,000 man-years and the potential loss to the internet economy (2020 projections) is estimated to be around US$30 Billion. Since the report only tested the top selling smartphones across price-points, the variance impact is likely to be higher when all devices are considered. The highest variance has been seen in the low-device segment which is also the highest selling (number of units) thereby maximising the impact in terms of man-hours lost and the financial impact on the economy. A country variance of +/- 27% suggests serious implications on overall customer experience. Mr. Kartik Raja, Founder and Chairman, Phimetrics Technologies Pvt Ltd said, This first ever customer experience study on the Indian smartphone market is quite an eye-opener on several counts. It is a quantitative assessment of the impact of smartphones on the networks. It highlights the performance of Indian smartphones and points out some serious operational variances across all price-bands which in turn adversely affects the internet economy in terms of man-hours lost as well as having a negative financial impact. Most customers being unaware of these variations end-up buying handsets based on vanity metrics that has no correlation with operational excellence, as the key performance indicators are not provided for their consideration and evaluation. Simplifying a consumer purchase decision with a simple star rating mechanism may be the need of the hour and will be helpful for customers to make informed decisions. Mr. T. V. Ramachandran, President, Broadband India forum said A wide variety of factors, both at the network level as well as device level contribute to the overall mobile experience. While not previously unaddressed, differences in performance between devices and their effect on the user experience are rarely examined in a public policy context. The timing of this report is fortuitous, given the near-term migration to next generation 5G networks. Its an aspect that may have been missed but is a critical determinant of accelerated mobile adoption. Customer Experience Variance across parameters Download Speeds Variance band in the premium segment is upto 30% whereas in the low-tier and mid-tier segments the variance band ranges from 2% 59% Overall download speed variance band is 26% Average range of speeds on acceptable devices: 9.1 Mbps 11.3 Mbps Average range of speeds seen on inconsistent devices: 4.6 Mbps 8.9 Mbps Upload Speeds Variance band in the premium segment is upto 22% whereas in the mid-tier segment it ranges from 17% 34% and in the low-tier segment it ranges from 6% 53%. Overall upload speed variance band is 25% Average range of speeds on acceptable devices: 2.6 Mbps 3.2 Mbps Average range of speeds seen on inconsistent devices: 1.6 Mbps 2.5 Mbps Video Interruption Delay Variance band in the premium segment is upto 26% whereas in the low-tier and mid-tier segments the variance band ranges from 3% 59% Overall video interruption delay variance band is 25% Average range of delays on acceptable devices: 5.7 secs 6.8 secs Average range of delays seen on inconsistent devices: 6.9 secs 9.0 secs Web Browsing Delay Variance band in the premium segment is upto 21% whereas in the mid-tier segment the variance band ranges from 16% 34% and in the low tier segment it ranges from 3% 58% Overall web browsing delay variance band is 30% Average range of delays on acceptable devices: 3.8 secs 4.5 secs Average range of delays seen on inconsistent devices: 4.8 secs 6.0 secs Interruptions During Audio Calls Variance band in the premium segment is upto +/- 0.2% whereas in the mid-tier segment the variance band ranges from +/- 0.27% to +/- 0.97% and in the low tier segment it ranges from +/-1.06 % +/-1.0%. Overall interruptions during audio call variance band is 0.5% Average range of interruptions on acceptable devices: 0.06% 2.0 % Average range of interruptions seen on inconsistent devices: 0.27% 1.5% @Technuter.com News Service With the simple click of a mouse, credit union members and employees can make a difference in the lives of sick and injured children in their community. Tuesday kicks off the annual Credit Unions for Kids Vote for Miracles promotion. Through Dec. 18, credit unions and the general public are invited to cast their votes to support their favorite Childrens Miracle Network Hospital. At the conclusion of the promotion, the top five hospitals will receive a share of a $100,000 donation on behalf of Americas credit unions, compliments of CO-OP Financial Services. This years goal is to reach one million votes, an increase over last years vote count of more than 600,000. We are so appreciative of all that credit unions have done for our member hospitals for more than 20 years, said John Lauck, president/CEO, Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals. We are delighted that we can use Vote for Miracles to not only raise much-needed funds for our hospitals but also tell the amazing story of credit unions generosity through the Credit Unions for Kids program. Russian Hackers Have New Weapons The same hacker crew that the US has blamed for the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee is back with a new weapon at its disposal, cybersecurity researchers have warned. The so-called Fancy Bear group, alleged by American intelligence to be an arm of the Russian government, has been spotted launching fresh attacks on the West, just as a closely linked unit, dubbed Cozy Bear, has gone on a mini-espionage rampage. Fancy Bear has started using new malware called Cannon, cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks said recently. While new, it uses old techniques. Namely, its using email as a way of transferring data from infected targets. Those hacked organisations are based in North America, Europe and a former USSR state, Palo Alto Networks researchers said, without revealing more specifics. The Russian crew, also known as APT28 and Sofacy, has been sticking to its tried and tested email phishing attack methods. In the latest spate of hacks, emails promised information on the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX plane in the sea off Indonesia on October 29, in which all 189 on board died. Its been the subject of much contention, as plane manufacturer Boeing has been criticised for not providing enough information to pilots about certain safety features of the aircraft. Boeing has said the information was in flight manuals. Fancy Bear has jumped on the news, using it to target a government organization dealing with foreign affairs in Europe with a malicious Microsoft Word document entitled crash list(Lion Air Boeing 737).docx, the researchers said. Its pretty common for Sofacy to use lures that are timely and in the news, said Jen Miller-Osborn, deputy director of threat intelligence at Unit 42. Miller-Osborn wasnt sure why Fancy Bear had reverted to using the old technique of email communications, but noted it could be an attempt to avoid detection. It can also be used to upload more malware to infected computers. She said the group had been busy in recent months. But it was conspicuously quiet around the midterm elections in November, compared to the 2016 Presidential election where it caused so much carnage. Posing As State Department Dignitaries Meanwhile, the Cozy Bear group, also linked by cybersecurity researchers to Russia, launched a phishing blitz on Wednesday, November 14. According to cybersecurity company FireEye, its Cozy Bears first outing in a year. In their malicious email, the hackers posed as a public affairs official at the US Department of State, Susan Stevenson, the principal deputy assistant secretary for that branch of government. To make their attacks appear even more legitimate, the hackers commandeered the email server of a hospital and the website of a consulting company from which to send their messages. Though they looked like they contained secure communications from the State Department employee and an official internship document, they were in fact laced with malware designed to snoop on targets. FireEye said recently Cozy Bears latest hit list included at least 20 of its customers across multiple industries including think tanks, law enforcement, media, US military, imagery, transportation, pharmaceuticals, national government and defense contracting. New Russian Hacking Tool is Extra Sneaky Russian hackers also have a newly discovered tool in their arsenal to access your computer. It's a piece of malicious software dubbed "Cannon" by researchers at Palo Alto Networks, who wrote about the hacking tool recently. Once the malware is on your computer, it takes screenshots of your homepage and then uses your email account to send the images to the hackers, all without your knowledge. The Cannon software essentially becomes a spy camera living on your computer. According to Palo Alto Networks, the hackers behind this are part of the Russian military spy agency better known as Fancy Bear, the same group behind the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee. And who are these notorious Russian hackers targeting now? They have Cannon poised at U.S. and European governments, of course. Naturally, this scheme all started with a few successful phishing attempts. The Russian hackers sent emails to their targets with blank Word documents attached. The blank documents didn't catch the attention of security software, but once the targets clicked to open them, they also unknowingly downloaded a remote template featuring malicious code. If this sounds scary, there are a few ways you can protect yourself and your networks by avoiding the phishing bait. Here's how to spot a phishing attempt and how to deal with it: Prevent Security experts may sound like a broken record at this point, but to prevent phishing attacks altogether, make sure to beef up password security and enable two-factor authentication, especially on email and financial accounts. Tech users should also have external or cloud backup in place, so if they do fall victim to a phishing attack, their data won't be lost entirely. When checking your email, always think twice before clicking any link, especially if it has a URL shortener, or downloading an attachment, even if it's from a friend. Why shouldn't you trust a friend? Your friend's email account could have been compromised. If you're unsure of anything, get on the phone with your friend or colleague to verify they did send that message. And of course, never wire transfer money without extra, verbal verification, Cidon warned. Spot Many phishing attempts often create urgency and in a panic get you to click. These psychological tricks get you to act without thinking. If you get a strange email saying your account is overdrawn, stop, take a breath and check a few key things before proceeding. First, try to verify the sender. Hackers will often disguise the email to make it look like it's from an established source, like a friend or a company. But click to find out the details, and you might see a slightly altered email address, Cidon said. Sometimes, hackers will gain access to a legitimate email account and alter the reply-to email address. If something is suspicious, like your boss is urgently asking you to send company security information or wire thousands of dollars of company money to, find out what the email address is that you would reply to with the information. React If you were unfortunately duped, maybe you clicked that link that said your PayPal account was going to be closed, there are steps you can take. First, immediately reset the password on all of your accounts, especially any financial accounts. You should also call your bank to let them know you've had a security breach and you have not authorised any money transfers. If this was a phishing attempt on your work account, immediately report it to the appropriate channels. Some users might want to wipe endpoints and format the computer and reinstall programs, Cidon cautioned. Ultimately, being aware of the risks posed by phishing is a good step. Educating people about these threats is important, so they know what's possible and how to prepare for it. NextGov 1: NextGov 2: PaloAlto Networks: Forbes: You Might Also Read: Spy vs Spy - Cozy Bear Hackers Hacked: Just Who Are Russia's Cyber Warriors?: Pa. election audit: Private company vows to protect voters' information The company contracted by state Senate Republicans pledged to be fair and protect voters' sensitive information in its election, but didn't elaborate. About me I'm Avi Green From Jerusalem, Israel I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best. My profile Archives - Archives - July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 January 2011 February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013 January 2014 February 2014 March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 December 2014 January 2015 February 2015 March 2015 April 2015 May 2015 June 2015 July 2015 August 2015 September 2015 October 2015 November 2015 December 2015 January 2016 February 2016 March 2016 April 2016 May 2016 June 2016 July 2016 August 2016 September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 January 2017 February 2017 March 2017 April 2017 May 2017 June 2017 July 2017 August 2017 September 2017 October 2017 November 2017 December 2017 January 2018 February 2018 March 2018 April 2018 May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 August 2018 September 2018 October 2018 November 2018 December 2018 January 2019 February 2019 March 2019 April 2019 May 2019 June 2019 July 2019 August 2019 September 2019 October 2019 November 2019 December 2019 January 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020 September 2020 October 2020 November 2020 December 2020 January 2021 February 2021 March 2021 April 2021 May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 WALLACE Firefighters battled a house fire Sunday night. Firefighters responded to the 200 block of Barneston Road in Wallace Township at 7:09 p.m. Sunday for the report of a dumpster fire. Upon arrival, Glen Moore Fire Chief Jeff Sesse reported that the fire in a trash container, placed up against the rear of the house, had spread into the home and he requested the building fire assignment. Firefighters quickly knocked down the fire in the back of the home and transitioned into an interior attack. He said fire spread into the attic space. The home, valued at $300,030 had an estimated $130,000 in damages, according to Sesse. The fire was ruled accidental. Elverson-Honey Brook area EMS checked a female resident at the scene and released her. No other injuries were reported. Firefighters remained on-scene for about 3.5 hours. Twin Valley, East Brandywine, Honey Brook and Ludwigs Corner fire companies assisted Glen Moore. The new History Channel documentary on the Watergate scandal may not be great art, but it is timely as heck. It describes (and, unfortunately, re-enacts) the downward spiral of Richard Nixons administration into paranoia, criminal conspiracy, self-delusion and ruin. Ken Burns it is not. But the problem is not the actors; it is the script. When Nixons words are placed in someone elses mouth, they seem like a bad writers version of a political villain. I want it implemented on a thievery basis, Nixon says. And: We are going to use any means. And: We have not used the power in this first four years. We havent used the Bureau and we havent used the Justice Department. But things are going to change now. It is hard to repeat such dialogue without rubbing your hands together and letting out a cackle. But the Trump era offers many such examples of life imitating melodrama. Recently The New York Times reported that President Trump pressured White House counsel Don McGahn to pressure the Justice Department to start a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton and James Comey. (McGahn, to his credit, warned that such an action could lead to impeachment.) Other reports indicate that Trump repeatedly asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Matthew Whitaker, who was then chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, how the Justice Department was progressing in its investigation of Clinton. The examples pile up. Remember that Trump knowing that his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had lied to the FBI allegedly asked then-director of the FBI, James Comey, not to prosecute Flynn. When Comey resisted, Trump fired him. Then the president asked Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers to publicly affirm there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. (They, to their credit, did not comply.) All this is Nixonian by any measure. Both Trump and Nixon share the same ideology of power a belief that, since their enemies are ruthless, they must be more ruthless still. Both men share an obsession with hidden enemies that actually produces more hidden enemies. And both men share a view of the executive branch involving the total subservience of every public official who reports to the president. The last point is perhaps the most significant. America has generally been blessed by having a strong executive branch, which has been a necessary source of adaptation and leadership. In the normal course of events, however, a president appoints officials who will join him in the faithful application of the law and the defense of the Constitution. The goal is not to appoint men and women willing to serve him outside those boundaries. So, just as it is not appropriate for Trump to order his director of national intelligence to be his personal valet at the White House, it is not appropriate to ask his DNI to provide political cover during an ongoing FBI investigation. (This is exactly the kind of thing that brought Nixon to the verge of impeachment.) The Justice Department is a case in point. The attorney general and the director of the FBI report to the president. But this does not mean the president can order investigations to start and stop for corrupt reasons. Federal law enforcement officials have public duties. They do not owe personal fealty. How is this principle enforced? The integrity of our political system has always depended on principled public servants willing to say no to great power. During the Watergate scandal, Judge John Sirica did it. When Nixon fired the special prosecutor, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned. By one count, five senior officials in the Watergate-era FBI for a variety of motives leaked material damaging to the Nixon administration. Ultimately, the health of our republic depends, not only on political systems, but on flawed people who reach the limit of accommodation. There are many reasons for pessimism about our fractured politics including the general cowardice of elected Republicans in the face of presidential corruption and abuse of power. But will special counsel Robert Mueller who spent a decade building the reputation and independence of the FBI really be silenced or outwitted by the clownish caricature of Nixon who occupies the Oval Office and issues a fusillade of smoking guns? Not likely. Rosenstein has managed to give Mueller the time to put down on paper the strongest case against a president without ethics or honor. And it is beyond Trumps power to erase. Michael Gersons email address is michaelgerson@washpost.com. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group Facebook's billionaire boss Mark Zuckerberg sent his cat to an international committee hearing in Westminster. To send your cat, we learned from Belgian politician Nele Lijnen, was a Flemish way of saying fail to show up. Canadas Charlie Angus was less poetic. Mr Zuckerberg had decided to blow off the meeting. The 23-strong committee contained parliamentarians from Britain, France, Argentina, Canada, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, Singapore and Latvia and was asking about disinformation and fake news at Facebook. They made the most of Mr Zuckerbergs non-attendance. It gave them something to huff and puff about, something everyone could understand. So much else in the internet- data world is double Dutch and the Dutch were one of the few nations not represented at the long, U-shaped committee table. Few had expected Mr Zuckerberg to appear, yet a little plastic panel bearing his name had been placed at the witness table Few had expected Mr Zuckerberg to appear, yet a little plastic panel bearing his name had been placed at the witness table. This allowed an empty chair photograph to be taken at the start of the meeting. The committee immediately posted this on the internet to give the impression that Bad Zuck had done a runner at the final moment. Hmm. That was arguably a little fake-newsy in itself. Mr Zuckerbergs cat was Lord Allan (Lib Dem), who works for Facebook. Lord (Richard) Allan was once an MP but vacated his Sheffield Hallam seat for a certain Nick Clegg, who now also works for Facebook. Lord Allan is Cleggs John the Baptist. The sight of Lord Allan sitting alone at the witness table, facing this massed international panel, had two effects. Lord Richard Allan (pictured) was once an MP but vacated his Sheffield Hallam seat for a certain Nick Clegg, who now also works for Facebook It accentuated global concern about Facebook and social-media companies; it also made the fixture look a little one-sided. Sun Xueling, of the parliamentary committee on deliberate online falsehoods from Singapore (that, ahem, hotbed of free speech), explained that she had crossed the world to show how concerned people were about the damage social media can do to national security, racial harmony, social cohesion and trust in national institutions. Lord Allan thanked her for making her journey. He was like that, Allan. Terribly diplomatic. He hunched and twisted his shoulders to convey Uriah Heepish umility. He waved his hands to emote, so much so that at one point the top of his pen went flying. Duck, lads! He rounded his eyes and lent his voice American uplift to convey his pain-sharing. The international delegates glowered a Benetton advert in a jolly bad mood. Facebook's billionaire boss Mark Zuckerberg sent his cat to an international committee hearing in Westminster The committee had complaints about: Facebook flogging off its customers data, not respecting their privacy settings (Lord Allan pronounced privacy in the US fashion), not making proper checks on associates and allowing the publication of dodgy material which could influence election results and foment discord. Lord Allan, speaking of the Facebook community, kept apologising. This or that should not have happened. Greater efforts would be made in future to prevent their recurrence. You realised how serious these matters were when we heard that a Facebook post in Sri Lanka urged the murder of Muslims. Lord Allan said Facebook was assembling a dictionary of hate-speech terms. Was the event in some ways over-theatrical? Yes. But the social-media giants do wield enormous clout. In front of me, a heavy-eyed Argentine, Leopoldo Moreau, kept joking with his interpreter, a young man with shaky hands and a wonkily-gelled hairdo. When his chance for questions came, the interpreter did much of the verbal fencing with Lord Allan. The committees chairman, publicity-prone Tory MP Damian Collins, grumbled about Russians using Facebook to influence western democratic elections. It may or may not be worth noting that Mr Collins is a Remainer. He was displeased when Lord Allan volunteered Facebooks help in writing regulatory frameworks. That should be up to parliaments to decide, snapped Mr Collins. An Irish MP, Eamon Ryan, was working on a laptop which suddenly started making strange noises. Unable to shut it up, he took it out of the room. See? If only Mark Zuckerberg had been there, he would have known which button to press. On more than one occasion over the past few months I must confess I have thought to myself: if I had known then what a nightmare it was going to be, I might never have done it. Like 17 million other Britons many of them readers of this newspaper I voted in 2016 to leave the European Union. Dont get me wrong, I havent changed my mind about leaving. If anything, the intransigence of Brussels in negotiating Britains exit deal has only strengthened my view that being out is the only place to be. As for the relentless campaign on behalf of influential Establishment figures in favour of Remain to overturn the democratic wish of the British people at any cost, I have nothing but contempt for their condescending arrogance and grotesque sense of entitlement. We had a democratic vote it should be respected. Sarah Vine (left) with husband Michael Gove said she salutes Prime Minister Theresa May (right) It is because of the hugely powerful vested interests of the above that this entire process has been so impossibly fraught. Add in an opportunistic Labour Party that cares about nothing but gaining power, a far from impartial civil service (lets tell the truth and shame the Devil for once, shall we?) and a hard Brexit contingent who just want to crash out at all costs and its little wonder weve ended up with an imperfect deal. In fact, its a miracle we have any kind of work-able deal on the table at all. And if we do, its not despite Mrs May, as so many have argued and will no doubt continue to argue. Its because of her. Ill be honest, Theresa May was not my first choice as successor to David Cameron. She wasnt even my second, third, fourth or fifth. And when she got the job, she didnt exactly go out of her way to make friends. Not only did she fire my husband from his post as Lord Chancellor, she fired anyone associated with the Cameron regime, which was both a tad ruthless and very short-sighted, since many of them were actually rather good at their jobs and might have been quite useful to her. Her actions in some ways, though, were understandable: every new leader wants to build a loyal team, and she needed to impose her authority. What happened next, however, was straightforwardly misjudged. First, she triggered Article 50 thus initiating the formal notice period for securing a deal before any serious due diligence had been done by government departments on what a good deal would look like. It meant Britain entered the negotiations ultimately disadvantaged. Prime Minister Theresa May (left) and Environment Secretary Michael Gove (right) arrive at the launch of the Government's 25-year environment plan at The London Wetland Centre in South West London. Sarah Vine, who is married to Michael Gove said she salutes the Prime Minister's grit And she called that disastrous General Election, which lost her the Governments already slim majority and elevated Jeremy Corbyn to cult status. Neither was a good idea, and both have contributed significantly to the Governments woes. But we are where we are. Politics, as a wise man once said, is nothing if not the art of the impossible. And what more impossible task could there be than extricating Britain from a European Union whose very existence depends on keeping us in. The truth is, even the most experienced politician would have struggled against the might of Brussels. Cameron, of course, understood that, which is why he campaigned so hard for Remain in the first place, and why, ultimately, he resigned when Leave won. May chose to fight and has borne the brunt of Brussels fury because of it. Did she have any inkling of how vicious it was going to be? Who knows. But the fact remains that she has put up with their jibes, their tricks, their lies and their arrogance, all the while battling incessant opposition at home. And I, for one, cannot help but admire that in her. Perhaps its just that, woman to woman, I recognise only too well the feeling of being a lone female in the face of unrelenting male condescension. The fact that she has not given up, not run away, but just kept on going. Because, ultimately, there is no other choice and someone has to do it. That is something all women understand. And at the end of the day, she has brought back a deal that, while not perfect, nevertheless allows us to control migration, to stem the flow of new EU legislation and exonerates Britain from future membership contributions. And even if you doubt that or dont care, the fact remains that all the alternatives are either softer, unworkable or no deal at all. The Prime Minister (centre) has recently announced the new environment plan and met with Martin Spray, the CEO of the WWT (left) and Michael Gove (right) Most people in her shoes would consider this a significant victory. But for a woman such as May a 62-year-old suffering from a serious medical condition that would sap even the youngest and fittest persons energy it represents a truly superhuman achievement. That infamous electoral slogan of hers strong and stable that once drew so much mockery now finally starts to ring true. Today, she stands as a beacon of calm sanity in a sea of hysterical, egomaniacal voices. Her focus, perseverance and dogged determination have, with this voter at least, finally earned her the respect she tried and failed to impose by force at the start of her premiership. Speaker Bercow (pictured above) had displayed a 'Boll***s to Brexit' car sticker Even if she now fails to get this deal through Parliament as seems probable when the House votes on it on December 11 she will have shown the country what she is made of. What she truly is. A leader who, at no small personal and political cost, has done everything within the constraints placed upon her to guide the nation through one of the most testing times in its history. And if I had not begun to feel this already over the course of the past few weeks, as the voices of those determined to exploit the weakness of the deal to further their own leadership agendas have become increasingly shrill, Mondays debate in the Commons was a turning point. The chamber of the House of Commons is, by necessity, a brutal environment. But on Monday, the atmosphere tipped from civilised debate into the political equivalent of a bare-knuckle fight. Aided and abetted by Speaker Bercow he of the Boll***s to Brexit car sticker who all but strung her up from the ceiling of the chamber as a punchbag, the gloves were truly off, no holds barred. They set upon her, each one hoping to deal that fatal blow that would bring her down. And yet they couldnt. Time and again she fought back, responding each time with renewed vigour, even as the debate wore on and the chamber began to empty. She was up on her feet and on her brief, battling with every ounce of her strength, batting away questions, from the facetious to the fiendish, with a fierce energy I would not have credited her with. I saw then in May something I have not seen in a politician for a long while: true grit. Someone prepared to stand up for something she believes in. To put her neck on the line for a deal that, whatever its flaws, gets Britain out of the European Union as per the wishes of the British people and, perhaps just as importantly, will allow the country to move forward out of this interminable, divisive and toxic political limbo. We will have a Brexit at last. Mrs May still has a long road ahead of her. It will take every ounce of determination and strength to survive the next few weeks. I have no idea how she is going to do it, but I really hope she does. Because one thing is certain: she will not walk away from her duty, however unrewarding it may be, however stark the choices she faces. And that is exactly the kind of Prime Minister this country not only needs, but also deserves. The mother of a high school senior who was tragically killed in a prom night car crash has celebrated her daughter's legacy by meeting with the group of people she saved with her organ donation. Kaylie Jackson, a 17-year-old student from Monroe, Ohio, was headed to dinner with her boyfriend, Tanner Allford, and two friends before prom when the teen driver lost control of her Tesla and hit a telephone pole. Months after Kaylie's death and subsequent organ donation, the web series Dispatches from the Middle captured the bittersweet moment her mother, Amanda Garcia, met the six people her daughter had saved. Scroll down for video Tragedy: Kaylie Jackson, 17, from Monroe, Ohio, died after a tragic prom night car crash. She is pictured with her mother, Amanda Garcia, the night of her prom Bittersweet: Months after Kaylie's death, her mom met the six transplant recipients her daughter had saved with her organ donation The teen, who planned on studying pre-med at Ohio State University, was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the backseat of the car. 'When I was in the hospital, I just kept on thinking, let her just at least talk to me one more time and say I love you one more time. That's all I wanted,' Tanner recalled. While Kaylie's boyfriend and friends survived the crash, she died three days later. Kaylie was the perfect candidate for organ donation, and her friend Tara Morris explained it was something she had always wanted to do. 'All of her close friends knew she wanted to become an organ donor because she wanted to save as many lives as she could whether it be saving them herself or being able to give apart of herself to save them,' she said. Gift of life: The transplant recipients stood together while they waited to meet Amanda Saving lives: Kaylie's liver was divided into two: one part went to a three-year-old boy, Yaseen Shalash (left), and the rest was given to grandmother Veronica Richardson (right) Grateful: Yaseen's mother presented Amanda with a bouquet of flowers when she walked in Dr. Shimul A. Shah, Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said 'it's amazing how many lives can be touched' when a healthy person's organs are donated. When Kaylie was a child, her grandfather had two kidney transplants, and her uncle Andrew Garcia said it was a blessing for their family. 'I know that we got 13 good years from somebody else's gift, and I hope that the gifts that Kaylie is giving will give somebody 13, 15, 20, 25 years if not more,' Andrew said. Although the family suffered a horrific loss, Kaylie's mom, Amanda, was 'really excited' to meet the recipients of her daughter's organs. 'I dunno. There's not really words for it,' she said. INspiration: Kaylie's kidney and pancreas went to Jennifer Fawns, a high school teacher whose students are now signing up to be organ donors because of the late teen Accident: Kaylie was headed to dinner with her boyfriend, Tanner Allford, and two friends before prom when the teen driver lost control of her Tesla and hit a telephone pole Kaylie's liver was divided into two: one part went to a three-year-old boy, Yaseen Shalash, and the rest was given to grandmother Veronica Richardson. When Amanda and her family walked into the room to meet the transplant recipients, Yaseen's mom presented her with a bouquet of flowers. Veronica came up to Kaylie's mom and gave her a big hug, saying: 'I got 75 per cent of her liver, and I just want to thank you.' Kaylie's kidney and pancreas went to Jennifer Fawns, a high school teacher whose students are now signing up to be organ donors because of the late teen. 'I feel like I have a duty to make her proud, so I just thank you guys a lot for wanting to meet us,' Jennifer said tearfully. Heartbreak: While Kaylie's boyfriend and friends survived the crash, she died three days later Goals: The teen planned on studying pre-med at Ohio State University. Kaylie's friend Tara Morris said she had always wanted to save lives Kaylie's final gift Kaylie Jackson's life came to a tragic end on her prom night, but her generous soul carries on in the lives of dozens of complete strangers. Posted by Hometown Tragedy on Friday, November 16, 2018 Alexis Rogers, a reporter at WLWT, told Dispatches from the Middle host Alexandra Stone that Kaylie gave eight organs that saved six lives, and her other donations such as tissue donation impacted more than 50 people. 'Kaylie has touched people that she had no idea she was even going to touch and that's beautiful at 17 years old she was able to do that,' she said. Alexis explained that the transplant recipients developed an 'eclectic familial sense' during their first meeting. 'All different people from all different places with one thing in common, and that's the fact that their lives got saved by someone who was gracious enough to think about them without even knowing them,' she said. Alexis admitted that Kaylie's grieving mother asked her why she had to meet the recipients just months after her daughter's death because she and the rest of her family were just drained from the loss. Healing: Although the family suffered a horrific loss, Kaylie's mom, Amanda, was 'really excited' to meet the recipients of her daughter's organs Grieving: Kaylie's parents have filed a lawsuit against the 17-year-old driver of the 2013 Tesla involved in the fatal crash and her parents 'They still understood that there was such a bigger purpose out there for this story and for Kaylie and that Kaylie did not die in vain,' the reporter said. 'Her favorite song was You Are My Sunshine and that was the epitome of Kaylie, and they felt like this is what she would have wanted. She would have wanted her family to buckle up, be strong, and be someone else's sunshine at the end of the day.' Kaylie's parents have filed a lawsuit against the 17-year-old driver of the 2013 Tesla involved in the fatal crash and her parents, and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $25,000. The teen driver has been charged with two counts of vehicular assault and one count of vehicular homicide. According to the crash report, speed was a factor in the accident, and Kaylie's parents say the teen driver was operating the vehicle in a 'malicious, reckless, wanton and willful manner' while demonstrating a 'reckless and conscious disregard for the rights and safety' of their daughter. The teen driver's criminal trial is set to begin December 3. They have been battling swirling rumours about a separation in recent weeks, after New Idea reported that the Danish royal couple are feeling the strain. But Crown Princess Mary and Prince Frederik showed no signs of feeling any extra pressure on their 14-year marriage this week, when they presented the Crown Prince Couple's Prizes 2018. The doting pair looked as loved up as ever as they smiled into each other's eyes, and announced the prize recipients in Denmark. Crown Princess Mary watched on smiling, while Prince Frederik later helped to give a welcome speech. Crown Princess Mary and Prince Frederik (pictured) showed no signs of feeling any extra-marital pressure on their 14-year marriage this week, when they presented a prize The doting pair (pictured) looked as loved up as ever as they smiled into each other's eyes, and when they announced the prize recipients in Denmark For the occasion, the ever-stylish Princess Mary wore a beautiful ivory and gold cocktail dress, called the 'Esther', by Maria Fekih. The dress retails for $4,379 and features folded pleats at the waistline as well as a bodice, statement sleeves and gold glitter applique dots. She paired this with her favourite Cartier love bracelet, a Judith Leiber clutch bag and Gianvito Rossi metallic glitter pumps. Princess Mary finished off her festive outfit with a Prada coat to battle the Danish winter, and Dulong Fine Jewelry Kharisma Supernova earrings. For the occasion, the ever-stylish Princess Mary (pictured) wore a beautiful ivory and gold cocktail dress, called the 'Esther', by Maria Fekih Princess Mary paired this with her favourite Cartier love bracelet, a Judith Leiber clutch bag and Gianvito Rossi metallic glitter pumps (left) - she and Frederik (right) shared the prizes 'The Crown Prince Couple's Prizes' has been handed over by the couple (pictured) since 2004 in collaboration with Bikuben Foundation 'The Crown Prince Couple's Prizes' has been handed over by the couple since 2004 in collaboration with Bikuben Foundation. They present these prizes to honour both foundations, organisations, upcoming designers and artists. This week, four prizes were handed out during the show. The Crown Prince Couple's Social Prize was given to the Association of Greenlandic Children. Author Kim Leine received the Crown Prince Couple's Culture Prize. The Crown Prince Couple's Cultural Stardust Prize went to film director Annika Berg, while Fundamentet in Aarhus was given the Crown Prince Couple's Social Stardust Prize. In recent weeks, Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary have been battling split rumours after an unnamed insider said: 'There are a lot of rumours of tension between Mary and Fred' However, the couple - who have been married for 14 years - showed no sign of strain this week, however (pictured) In recent weeks, Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary had been battling split rumours after an unnamed insider told New Idea magazine: 'There are a lot of rumours of tension between Mary and Fred'. 'There are whispers running wild of a divorce or possible split and it's become very stressful for the whole palace trying to work out what's going on,' the insider continued. 'The truth is that like any married couple, Fred and Mary are having a tough time of it at the moment.' The 46-year-old Tasmanian-born royal was rumoured to be feeling the strain after picking up additional royal duties since her father-in-law Prince Henrik passed away earlier this year. Prince Frederik, 50, has also been recovering from a back surgery he had in September, while body language experts have cited the couple have become 'disinterested' looking in their duties of late. Advertisement Australian bride Stephanie Agnew, 32, married the love of her life, Robbie Campbell, in a ceremony that looked similar to hundreds of others across the country on Sunday - until you took a look at the assembled guests. Instead of watching the ceremony in Maleny, Queensland, unfold, the 54 guests were asked to wear blindfolds so they could experience each moment just like the bride - without sight. Ms Agnew and her mother both have Cone-Rod Dystrophy - the condition leaving Ms Agnew only able to see some light and dark shapes and her mother completely blind. 'The staff were amazing and spent a lot of time with Steph describing the visual features of the whole venue. They were instrumental during the day by helping her feel the tactile elements that were a part of the ceremony and reception,' Mr Campbell told FEMAIL. Australian bride Stephanie Agnew, 32, married the love of her life, Robbie Campbell, in a ceremony that looked similar to hundreds of others across the country on Sunday - until you took a look at the assembled guests Instead of watching the ceremony in Maleny, Queensland, unfold, the 54 guests were asked to wear blindfolds so they could experience each moment just like the bride - without sight 'We chose the venue as it was on the same road as Steph's great aunt's house. It had the same amazing view over the Glasshouse Mountains that she remembers seeing as a child when she had sight. She was able to picture the view on the day.' Each part of the ceremony was carefully thought out, with Ms Agnew's bouquet made up of fragrant flowers that staff took the time to describe to her thoroughly. They also had an owl from Raptor Vision fly down the aisle, land on Ms Agnew's arm and deliver the rings and all guests wore blindfolds during the vows. 'The blindfolds were received well by the guests as they were experiencing that moment in the same way Steph and her mum, who is also blind, were experiencing it,' Mr Campbell said. 'I couldn't control my emotions as she walked down the aisle - she looked like a true princess bride in the dress,' Mr Campbell said of his bride Ms Agnew and her mother (left) both have Cone-Rod Dystrophy - the condition leaving Ms Agnew only able to see some light and dark shapes and her mother completely blind The couple's photographer, James Day, added to the tactile element by giving Steph different pieces of fabric infused with different essential oils so that she could be reminded of different parts of the day in the future. 'It is a moment I will never forget,' Mr Day said of the wedding. Ms Agnew said she felt absolutely beautiful and the moment she walked down the aisle in her breathtaking dress, Mr Campbell couldn't hold back his emotions. 'I couldn't control my emotions as she walked down the aisle - she looked like a true princess bride in the dress,' Mr Campbell said. The celebrant, Jarrad Bayliss, also made sure the ceremony was special and memorable with his unique and personal touches. He knew how important the day was and went above and beyond to ensure the ceremony was more than just 'visual'. The couple's photographer, James Day , added to the tactile element by giving Steph different pieces of fabric infused with different essential oils so that she could be reminded of different parts of the day in the future Ms Agnew met Mr Campbell in October, 2016, after living next door to him for 18 months 'I've never seen him. I know his build - he is six foot four and I am five foot four so he is a lot taller than me - and I know he has broad shoulders but other than that I have to rely on descriptions,' Ms Agnew said What is Cone-Rod Dystrophy? The condition characteristically leads to early impairment of vision. An initial loss of color vision and of visual acuity (due to loss of cone function) is followed by nyctalopia (night blindness) and loss of peripheral visual fields (due to loss of rod function). There are, currently, no proven or effective cures for cone-rod dystrophies. Advertisement 'All of our vendors put in special efforts to make sure that Steph could appreciate all of the sensory elements that made the day especially the videographer, Lemon Tree Film House, who is putting together a film with extra audio descriptions from the day so Steph can experience it audibly instead of visually,' Mr Campbell said. Ms Agnew met Mr Campbell in October, 2016, after living next door to him for 18 months. 'We had been living 1.5 metres apart but because I was in real estate and he was a policeman we never really crossed paths,' Ms Agnew told FEMAIL. 'We met that October at a drinks function our building was hosting and we didn't really get off on the right foot - he was almost too much - but then he wooed me and a month later we went on a date and it was fantastic. 'I've never seen him. I know his build - he is six foot four and I am five foot four so he is a lot taller than me - and I know he has broad shoulders but other than that I have to rely on descriptions.' Ms Agnew said she felt absolutely beautiful and the moment she walked down the aisle in her breathtaking dress, Mr Campbell couldn't hold back his emotions The celebrant, Jarrad Bayliss, also made sure the ceremony was special and memorable with his unique and personal touches. He knew how important the day was and went above and beyond to ensure the ceremony was more than just 'visual' Just over a year later on Christmas Day, 2017, Mr Campbell proposed. 'We had spoken about marriage and I said if he ever proposed I would want my family there or involved somehow,' Ms Agnew said. 'We were all there and I felt the box and he had given me an Apple TV but apparently my face dropped because it wasn't a ring box but then he surprised me and got down on one knee and did a little speech. 'I was so thrilled and it was just a beautiful, surprising moment.' Photographer James Day, a long-term friend of Ms Agnew, joined the couple on their romantic journey on day one and was asked to capture the moment she selected her dream wedding dress back in April. Ms Agnew asked him to capture every moment of the wedding process in the hope that one day she may be able to relive these moments if medicine progresses and they are able to restore her eye sight. Each part of the ceremony was carefully thought out, with Ms Agnew's bouquet made up of fragrant flowers that staff took the time to describe to her thoroughly 'My mum was diagnosed with Cone-Rod Dystrophy when I was 18. At first they thought she had a brain tumour but it was this retinal dystrophy that leads to blindness,' Ms Agnew said Ms Agnew, who stayed in real estate for 11 years despite her condition, said she has 'completely accepted' her vision loss and has been thankful to have her mum by her side as a role model 'My mum was diagnosed with Cone-Rod Dystrophy when I was 18. At first they thought she had a brain tumour but it was this retinal dystrophy that leads to blindness,' Ms Agnew told FEMAIL at the time. 'They thought it was a new gene mutation as we had no family history but I was diagnosed a year later when I was 19 and now three out of four of us [my siblings and I] have been diagnosed. 'I gave in my licence when I was 23 which was really hard as I was a property manager and my sight then stabilised as it was for a while before deteriorating very quickly between the ages of 27 and 30. I'm now left with light and dark perception and can see some shapes and shadows.' Ms Agnew, who stayed in real estate for 11 years despite her condition, said she has 'completely accepted' her vision loss and has been thankful to have her mum by her side as a role model. 'If they don't find a cure I'll be okay. I'd love them to, I really would, but I'll be okay,' she said. Ms Agnew hopes that by sharing her experience she can inspire and help others who are losing or who have lost their sight 'Everyone has hurdles so it's important to dig deep within yourself and understand that life can be hard but there are always ways to deal with things,' Ms Agnew said Ms Agnew hopes that by sharing her experience she can inspire and help others who are losing or who have lost their sight. 'When people tell you that you can't do something you can't let that affect you,' she said. 'It has pushed me to want to succeed even more.' 'I was really unsure about the whole bridal process to the point where I wanted to just go to the registry because I didn't think I could deal with it. But it's been such an enjoyable process. 'Everyone has hurdles so it's important to dig deep within yourself and understand that life can be hard but there are always ways to deal with things.' James Day shares his work on his website and Facebook page. A PhD student has become an overnight celebrity thanks to his theatrical facial expressions on University Challenge. Manchester contestant Joe Hanson won viewers' hearts with his quirky mannerisms - including jumping out of his seat each time the buzzer went off - during Monday night's second round match. Hanson, from Gravesend, Kent, was visibly tense as his team battled it out against Hertford College Oxford for a place in the quarter-finals of the BBC Two quiz show. At one point the postgrad student, who is studying Data-Intensive Science at the University of Manchester, flinched dramatically when a rival contestant pressed the buzzer for the ten point starter question. Overnight celebrity: Joe Hanson, pictured, has won viewers' hearts with his quirky mannerisms - including jumping out of his seat each time the buzzer went off - last night Manchester student Joe Hanson (bottom right) was visibly tense as his team battled it out against Hertford College Oxford for a place in the quarter-finals of the BBC Two show Host Jeremy Paxman had asked what astronomical bodies had a nucleus of dust, frozen water, ammonia and methane according to US astronomer Fred Whipple's 1950 hypothesis. Hertford's Page correctly guessed the answer was comets, with the sound of his bell making Hanson jump dramatically. His performance did not go unnoticed by viewers at home, with one fan declaring Hanson her 'spirit animal' and others remarking on his 'pure fear of the buzzer'. One tweeted: 'I am snorting at University Challenge, when Hanson jumped at the buzzer. He is me when I wake up every morning, remembering I'm alive.' Expressive: The postgrad student, who is studying Data-Intensive Science at the University of Manchester, flinched dramatically when a rival contestant pressed the buzzer for the ten point starter question Star of the show: Hanson, from Gravesend, Kent, was visibly tense as his team battled it out against Hertford College Oxford for a place in the quarter-finals of the BBC Two quiz show Joe Hanson was visibly nervous during last night's show. Fans joked the 'jumpy' contestant must have been stocking up on Haribo and Red Bull prior to his appearance on the episode Hanson's mannerisms won comparisons to Cambridge academic Eric Monkman, who shot to fame on the quiz show and has since carved out a career as a TV and radio personality Twitter fame: Joe Hanson's performance did not go unnoticed by viewers at home, with one fan declaring Hanson her 'spirit animal' and others remarking on his 'pure fear of the buzzer' Twitter user Paula P. added: 'Transfixed by young Mr #Hanson on #UniversityChallenge. His reactions while the questions are being read out make the lovely, much missed Monkman look reserved.' It was just one of several comparisons to Cambridge academic Eric Monkman, who shot to fame on the quiz show and has since carved out a successful career as a TV and radio personality. Others joked the 'jumpy' contestant must have been stocking up on Haribo and Red Bull prior to his appearance on the show. Hanson won several comparisons to Cambridge academic Eric Monkman, who shot to fame on the quiz show and has since carved out a successful career as a TV and radio personality Hanson's team ultimately secured a comfortable victory, beating their Oxford rivals 185 to 115 and sailing through to the quarter finals. Luckily, Hanson saw the funny side and retweeted several posts about his UC appearance during Monday night's episode, apologising for his 'sleepless and anxious' performance. Earlier this month, King's College London student Liam Tsang left viewers laughing out loud when he flinched in shock at the sound of the buzzer. The Duchess of Cambridge was left in tears after Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid dress fitting ahead of Meghan's wedding, sources have claimed. Kate, 36, - who had just given birth to Prince Louis at the time - was said to be 'feeling quite emotional', according to an insider. It comes amid rumours of a rift between Meghan, 37, and Kate, who are described as being 'very different people' who 'don't really get on', following the announcement that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be moving away from Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage. Meanwhile, Prince Harry and Meghan are said to have 'upset' Princess Eugenie by not attending her and Jack Brooksbank's evening wedding reception, following the ceremony at St George's Chapel. The Duchess of Cambridge was left in tears after Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid dress fitting ahead of Meghan's wedding, sources say. Pictured are Kate and Charlotte outside St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in May The Telegraph's Camilla Tominey reported that two sources have told the newspaper that Kate was 'in tears' following three-year-old Charlotte's bridesmaid dress fitting earlier this year. An insider told the publication: 'Kate had only just given birth to Prince Louis and was feeling quite emotional'. Since the announcement that Meghan and Harry would be moving away from Kensington Palace, there have been reports of 'unease' between Kate and Meghan. Over the weekend, a source told the Mail On Sunday: 'Kate and Meghan are very different people. They don't really get on.' It comes after rumours of a rift between Kate and Meghan (above on her wedding day), following the announcement that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are moving away from Kensington Palace Meanwhile, sources have told the Daily Mail's Rebecca English that that new duchess, has been 'an acquired taste' and one that, perhaps, isn't to the Duchess of Cambridge's liking. One insider claimed 'the royal lifestyle and constraints are taking a time for Meghan to get used to'. They said: 'She's woman who has lived life into her 30s in her way, she's been a relatively successful actress, has her own humanitarian interests and her own circle of friends. 'She is very self-sufficient. Understanding the Palace way, the deference, the politics and the fact that there's a pecking order, is taking a while for Meghan to get her head around.' 'She is quite opinionated and Harry has got very dictatorial of late, which hasn't made things easy at times.' The Duke and Duchess of Sussex is also said to have left Princess Eugenie 'upset' after not attending the evening reception of her wedding last month Eugenie, 28, and Jack Brooksbank, 34, (above, leaving for their evening reception) hosted an evening reception at the Royal Lodge, following their wedding ceremony However, the insider insisted that there has been no big falling out between the sister-in-laws. 'While there are some tensions behind the scenes, Kate is pretty unflappable and nothing has become bad enough to make Harry and Meghan want to move out. People are genuinely pleased to see them so happy,' the source said. 'The truth is that there simply isn't enough room at Kensington Palace for them and I know they have been looking at Windsor as a possibility since before the wedding.' Meanwhile, another source insisted there was no acrimony between Kate and Meghan, or William and Harry. 'The idea of the two of them as "the boys", the brothers doing everything together and living in each other's pockets, has been pushed with good intentions, but hasn't really existed for some time,' they said. 'The truth is that they have both just grown up. They are rare in that they live together and work together, but there has been a stepping back. Insiders have previously suggested there has been no acrimony between the Cambridges and the Sussexes (pictured at a service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey earlier this month) Kensington Palace announced over the weekend that Harry and Meghan will be moving away from Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage (above) 'They are still incredibly close, closer than most siblings, but now Harry has married and is about to become a father, so it's a good time for him to be planning his own future. There is no acrimony.' It had been widely speculated that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would move into Apartment 1, at Kensington Palace, next to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges' 22-room home. While there have been rumours of a rift between the Cambridge and Sussexes, Harry and Meghan are also said to have left Princess Eugenie 'upset' by not attending the evening reception of her wedding. She and Jack Brooksbank had an evening bash at the Royal Lodge in Windsor on the Friday following the ceremony at St George's Chapel. Harry and Meghan had previously been expected to miss the second day of wedding celebrations, ahead of their flight to Australia on the Sunday. The couple also raised eyebrows after they told members of the royal family that they were expecting their first child together at Eugenie's wedding. MailOnline has contacted Kensington Palace for comment. A Kim Kardashian super-fan who nearly died after contracting a flesh-eating bug during a botched 'bottom lift' has undergone a second surgery to look like his idol. Jordan Parke, from Dudley, West Midlands, spent two months battling necrosis after his first 8,500 procedure in Istanbul, Turkey. But after finally recovering, he flew out to another Turkish clinic in Izmir - the same one where British mother, Leah Cambridge, died in August after suffering three heart attacks following a botched Brazilian butt lift - and paid another 5,000 to enlarge his bum using his own body fat. The plastic surgery addict, 27, has spent 130,000 on more than 80 cosmetic procedures over the past eight years including three nose jobs, chin implants, and Botox. Jordan is determined to have a derriere just like Kim Kardashian's and says he will stop at nothing to achieve it - despite the complications leaving him in 'unbearable' pain. Scroll down for video Jordan Parke, from Dudley, West Midlands, has travelled back to Turkey for a second 'bottom lift' surgery - despite nearly dying after contracting a flesh eating bug the first time round (pictured after his first surgery) The Kim Kardashian super-fan, pictured after his first surgery, is determined to have a bum as big as the reality star - and has forked out a further 5,000 for surgery at the same Turkish clinic in Izmir where British mother, Leah Cambridge, died in August Jordan spent two months after surgery battling necrosis which left him with a huge hole in his right bum cheek (pictured) which was oozing with puss. He could even see the implant inside He said: 'The first time I had the surgery a huge hole appeared on my right bum cheek that was full of pus and flesh. 'The pain was unbearable and despite being told everything was normal at first, I was later diagnosed with necrosis, a flesh eating bug, and was given antibiotics. 'I'd chosen to have liposuction on my stomach so I could have the fat transferred into my bum along with the implants. But I could have died as the infection I caught after surgery is life threatening. 'It didn't put me off having more surgery, I just ensured I booked with another clinic for my second bum lift this time. 'I'm a huge fan of Kim Kardashian and her bum and I'll stop at nothing to ensure mine is as big as hers. Jordan, who identifies as a gay man but will shop for clothes in both the male and female sections, has spent 130,000 on more than 80 cosmetic procedures over the past eight years including three nose jobs, chin implants, and Botox Pictured: Jordan after his first surgery. Jordan said: 'I'd tell anyone thinking about having BBL surgery to think about the risks first, I did and my life was worth risking both times' Pictured: Jordan after his second surgery. The complications from his first surgery, which left him in 'unbearable' pain, did not stop Jordan's quest for a bigger bottom 'Now I'm back from having my second surgery I couldn't be happier so far. I had more fat transferred into it so give it a better more perky shape.' He claims no UK clinic would make his bottom as large as he wanted - so he turned to options abroad. He added: 'What happened to Leah at the clinic in Turkey was awful but it does have a good reputation and that's why I chose it. 'Thankfully I was one of the lucky ones.' Jordan is now eight days post surgery and is so far happy with his results - and hopes to eventually have a bum to rival his idol's. He said: 'My aim is to one day have a bum that Kim K is jealous of. I have no intention of stopping anytime soon with perfecting my body. 'I run my own business called The Lip King Aesthetics so it's important that I take care of my appearance too. Jordan runs his own business called The Lip King Aesthetics. He had his first surgery when he was just 17 years old Jordan's first surgery (left) cost 8,500, while his second (right) cost 5,000. He chose to visit the same clinic in Turkey as Leah Cambridge because it has a 'good reputation' Jordan added: 'I woke up covered in leaking fluid from my bum and soon after a large hole (pictured) appeared and I could actually see the implant inside. I'm just so lucky that I had no lasting damage' Death of Leah Cambridge at same surgery in Izmir Leah Cambridge, 29, died in August following complications from her 3,000 'bottom lift' surgery. The mother-of-three, from Leeds, had travelled to the Elite Aftercare Clinic in Izmir, Turkey, for the operation. She suffered three heart attacks before dying on the operating table at the clinic which is favoured by stars from The Only Way Is Essex. Her partner of ten years Scott Franks, 31, believes Leah's procedure went wrong after fat was deposited into her blood stream and her oxygen levels dropped. Scott also believes Leah wanted the surgery because she was paranoid about the size of her stomach after having three kids. Advertisement 'I'm currently happy with my bum now but that's not saying I won't have more lifting surgery. 'I'd tell anyone thinking about having BBL surgery to think about the risks first, I did and my life was worth risking both times.' Jordan had his first surgery when he was just 17 and says nearly every part of his face has been tweaked. He added: 'I identify as a gay man but I'll shop in both the male and female sections. 'I'd always hated my bum but I knew no clinics in the UK would give me the 500c implants I wanted and that's why I went to Turkey. 'It was a total disaster the first time around, it took just five days before I realised something was going wrong. 'I woke up covered in leaking fluid from my bum and soon after a large hole appeared and I could actually see the implant inside. 'I'm just so lucky that I had no lasting damage.' The news that John Malkovich will assume an English accent in the iconic role of detective Hercule Poirot has already ruffled feathers among fans. And Today show presenter John Humphrys added further fuel to the fire this morning when he referred to actors who have previously taken on the role, saying that Malkovich would not be using a 'Ustinov or Suchet dodgy French accent'. Fans were not impressed by his claim that Poirot has a 'slightly strange French accent', taking to Twitter to point out that he is in fact Belgian. 'Can't believe that John Humphrys claims that Poirot speaks with a French accent. He's bloody Belgian,' one wrote. Others took issue with Malkovitch's claim that Poirot should speak with an English accent as he lived in England for 20 years, according to the books, and made a concerted effort not to sound like a foreigner. Changes: Poirot's John Malkovich revealed on Monday that he WON'T be using character's signature Belgian accent in favour of English twang... despite his worry that fans will 'hate' it John Humphrys angered fans of the fictional detective when he referred to the character having a French accent on this morning's Today programme, despite the fact he's Belgian Poirot fans were not impressed when John Humphrys referred to Poirot's 'strange' French accent, pointing out that he is actually from Belgium and the accent sounds very different The actor, 64, who is set to play the fictional detective in BBC 1 drama The ABC Murders, revealed to the Radio Times on Monday: 'In our version, Poirot has lived in England for 20 years and has made a very long and laborious effort not to seem too much like a foreigner and to speak English like an Englishman.' 'Has he actually read any of the books?' one commented. 'On more than one occasion Poirot pretends a poor grasp of English and uses it to his advantage to throw suspects off guard. 'Very, very often he utilizes Belgian French words and phrase. This makes me queasy. 'Perhaps my favorite literary character of all time is going to be butchered.' Others are not happy with Poirot's switch from speaking with a Belgian accent to an English one, claiming it's not authentic to the character in the much-loved Agatha Christie books In another departure from tradition, the actor will also be sporting a goatee beard instead of a waxed moustache, a feature which has been synonymous with the Belgian detective. Speaking about the changes, John was honest as he admitted: 'Poirot and Christie fans may just hate all this, I have no idea.' The character's new look was partly a decision by director Alex Gabassi, who wanted the new version of the character to match Malkovich's style from a photo shoot where he was bald and sported a beard. Iconic: John is following in the footsteps of David Suchet, who personified the character from 1989 to 2013 in 70 episodes which aired over 13 seasons He explained to the publication: 'I said "sure, that's the way I normally look, if that's what you want, then fine".' Of the changes, the actor continued: 'There was a certain amount of convincing the Agatha Christie estate about this version, and I was involved in some of those conversations. 'There was never anything unpleasant or difficult. But obviously this is a very known and loved character, and there may have been some worries that we weren't, as it were, saluting that.' The TV mini-series, which will be aired over Christmas, has been adapted by Sarah Phelps, who previously worked on Christie's The Witness For The Prosecution and And Then There Were None. Another take: The most recent portrayal of the character was by Kenneth Branagh in the 2017 film Murder On The Orient Express, which he also directed More: Read the full interview in Radio Times, which is out now John is following in the footsteps of David Suchet, who personified the character from 1989 to 2013 in 70 episodes which aired over 13 seasons. The actor, 72, earned international acclaim for his take on the character, and was given the role after he was recommended for it by Christie's family. David, being a method actor, prepared for the role by reading every single book and short story starring the Belgian detective, and keeping detailed notes on the character's description and his mannerisms. His take on the character is widely believed to be the most accurate interpretation of the character, with 25 actors from around the world taking on the role over the years. Sarah Ferguson has claimed that Princess Eugenie would have been 'put in an asylum and locked up' if she had been born with scoliosis in a different country. The Duchess of York, 59, was speaking at a glitzy party celebrating her charity Street Child's tenth anniversary this weekend when she made the remarks about her daughter's spinal condition. Eugenie, 28, had major surgery to correct her curved spine at the age of 12, and made headlines around the world last month when she showed off her scars in a backless wedding gown. Addressing a packed room full of guests at Kensington Palace, mother Fergie said: 'I was never more proud to see my tall, beautiful, upstanding daughter full of courage. 'She had scoliosis. In other countries in the world she would be put in an asylum and locked up.' She also praised her son-in-law Jack Brooksbank for 'trying to tame the lion, which is my daughter', according to Hello! magazine. Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York has spoken about her daughter's scoliosis struggle at a charity event (pictured together at the Art Antiques Fair, London in 2014) Princess Eugenie, 28, had major surgery to correct her curved spine at the age of 12 and shared images of her X-rays for the first time on Instagram earlier this year to mark International Scoliosis Day (pictured, Eugenie holding up the scans against a window) Eugenie grew two inches as a result of the operation in October 2002 to correct scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine. The Queen's granddaughter had 12in metal rods inserted into her back in the operation at The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in north London. Eugenie, who shared the X-ray pictures in Instagram earlier this year for International Scoliosis Day, is patron of a 15m appeal to build a new ward block for the hospital at Stanmore, north London. The insertion of metal rods is one way of treating children with the condition in which the spine is curved too much; they are lengthened as the child grows and removed when they reach adulthood. In an interview with the Mail on Sunday at the time, Fergie said: 'We thought it was a small curvature but it was mammoth. Fergie also recently spoke of her 'pride' over Eugenie after she chose to 'bravely' showcase her scar from her scoliosis (pictured on her wedding day at Windsor Castle, 12 October) The Duchess of York has opened up about becoming mother-in-law to Jack Brooksbank who married her youngest Eugenie last month. Pictured: The newlyweds exchanging rings Sarah Ferguson (pictured on the day of the wedding) described having a son-in-law as a 'blessing' and said that the 'beautiful man' looked like James Bond on his wedding day 'Her bones had oscillated to such a degree that by the time she reached 18 she would have been a hunchback. It was horrendous. 'My little girl was in that operating theatre for seven hours, but she is straight and she will stay straight.' Fergie has not been shy when it comes to sharing details of her daughter's wedding, opening up about her pride during an interview with Good Morning Britain last week. 'I loved every moment of it, I was so proud,' she said during the interview. 'The love between them is enormous, its twin flames and they are meant to be together. 'To see Eugenie blossom like she has and to be so brave with her scoliosis.' Prince Andrew's ex-wife also spoke of the inspiration behind the unusual hat that she wore on the big day. Sarah recently appeared on Good Morning Britain where she said that Jack and Eugenie 'are meant to be together', and she has heaped praise on Mr Brooksbank once again this week The 59-year-old wore a wide-brimmed titfer by Jess Collett, featuring two straw 'wings' coming out of the side - leading to comparisons with the golden snitch from Harry Potter. But Sarah said she didn't mind the jokes as she 'loves the golden snitch' when questioned about her eye-catching headgear, but admitted she 'hadn't realised' the resemblance at the time. The Duchess said that she had wanted the 'Argentine look' to pay tribute to her mother Susan Barrantes. Susan caused a stir after eloping to Argentina with a professional polo player when Fergie was a child. She later died in a car accident in Buenos Aires at the age of 61. The mother-of-two, who turned 59 on October 15, recently sent out thank you letters to those who had wished her daughter Princess Eugenie congratulations following her wedding to Jack Brooksbank last month. Sarah Ferguson, who turned 59 on October 15, also sent out thank you letters to those who had wished her daughter Princess Eugenie congratulations following her wedding to Jack Brooksbank last month. Pictured: She chose this official portrait to accompany the letter In the card she described the bride as 'so beautiful' and the groom as 'so handsome'. And speaking to Hello! magazine this week, Fergie likened Jack Brooksbank to James Bon She opted for the same photo that the couple had issued in their own thank you cards - the portrait of the newlyweds taken by photographer Alex Bramall in Windsor Castle's White Drawing Room. In the card Sarah wrote: 'Thank you so much for your congratulations and warm wishes for the future happiness of Eugenie and Jack. 'Their wedding was the most fabulous day. Eugenie looked so beautiful and Jack so handsome; the wedding service was a wonderful celebration of their love. 'We are so happy to welcome Jack into our family, he is the most marvellous person and enriches Eugenie's life. They are such a devoted couple. 'Thank you for your kindness and loyalty over the years.' Passionate vegan and former Made In Chelsea star Lucy Watson clashed with a turkey farmer on This Morning today - questioning him 'what is a humane slaughter, exactly?' Lucy, 27, grilled farmer Matt Carter over the practices adopted at Greendale Farm, near Exeter, during the tense debate on the programme. Matt, 35, caused controversy earlier this month after his farm shop offered its customers the chance to name and look after their turkey for two months before it is slaughtered. After his Facebook post went viral, he began receiving angry messages and phone calls from militant vegans - while the words 'Murder! Go vegan' were sprayed on the doors. Passionate vegan and former Made In Chelsea star Lucy Watson (above) clashed with a turkey farmer on This Morning today Matt Cater, 35, (above) caused controversy earlier this month after his farm shop in Exeter offered its customers the chance to name and look after their turkey for two months before it is slaughtered On This Morning today, Lucy began questioning Matt after he described how his farm looks after animals in an 'ethical' way. The reality star asked 'What do you mean by ethical exactly?', to which the farmer responded: 'Being well looked after, they're free-range, they're slaughtered humanely, and looked after in the best way possible' Lucy then shot back: 'What is a humane slaughter, exactly?'. Matt replied: 'In the most stress-free way possible.' She questioned 'And what does that entail?' to which the farmer said 'Well, it entails killing the turkey. There's no other way of getting you your Christmas dinner on the table without killing the turkey.' During the debate, Lucy, who is a committed vegan, questioned Matt: 'what is a humane slaughter, exactly?' Lucy also questioned Matt (right) looks after his animals in an 'ethical' way, to which he replied 'Being well looked after, they're free-range, they're slaughtered humanely' The reality star admitted she thought Matt's offer for customers to name and look after their Christmas turkeys was 'psychotic at first', because it was 'treating them like pets' Lucy then questioned 'Out of interest, how do kill the turkey?', to which Matt replied: 'You slit the turkey's throat'. During the debate, Lucy admitted she thought Matt's offer for customers to name and look after their Christmas turkeys was 'psychotic at first', because it was 'treating them like pets'. She continued: 'Obviously, I disagree with the killing of animals full-stop. 'But I've thought about it and in a way I think it's good, because I want people to have a connection with animals. 'They have souls, they feel pain, they're gentle creatures that mean no harm to us.' Greendale Farm Shop's post earlier this month (above) quickly garnered thousands of comments from outraged vegans The words 'Murder! Go vegan' were painted on the front doors of the farm shop in response Responding to Lucy's comments, Matt said: 'If vegans are going to target anymore, I don't think a small farm shop is the best place to start.' Describing the abuse he's received from vegans, he added: 'It just stared with keyboard warriors, Then we started getting a few phone calls, then we had graffiti on the doors. 'Then a few of my own staff have been targeted on social media.' Explaining why he decided to make the offer to customers, he said: 'I'm a father, and I want my children to know where their meat comes from, what it's about being a farmer. '[I want them] to know that their food doesn't just come straight out of the packet from a supermarket.' Matt also revealed that turkey sales at his farm have doubled thanks to the publicity his shop has received this month. This Morning airs on weekdays from 10.30am on ITV. Charles couldn't resist indulging in a tipple as he browsed the Ely market on Tuesday afternoon. He and Camilla, who had spent their mornings separately, reconvened at the historical market to explore the stalls. At one point the Prince of Wales paused to enjoy a glass of red wine at one of the vendor's tables which appeared to get the royal's approval. He could later be seen admiring an array of chocolaty treats on display from a local bakery before joining the Duchess of Cornwall on a walkabout. The Prince of Wales indulged in a tipple during to a visit to a local market in East Anglia on Tuesday Joined by the Duchess of Cornwall, Charles sampled a local red wine at one of the stalls at Ely market this afternoon The couple were met by hundreds of well-wishers all hoping to be introduced to the royal pair. One group of school children assembled to present a delighted Camilla with a bunch of flowers. Charles and Camilla arrived earlier on Tuesday for their whirlwind visit to East Anglia where they will conduct a busy day of engagements. The royal couple will visit the areas of Cambridge, Ely and Wisbech before returning home this evening. The couple took part in a walkabout where lucky Camilla was presented with several bunches of flowers by local school children Charles could later be seen admiring an array of chocolaty treats on display from a local bakery The pair split up initially with the Duchess of Cornwall's first stop being the Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge. While there the 71-year-old met with patients who have benefited from the hospital including George Vinnicombe, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, and his sister Ava. The adorable pair beamed as they posed for photos with Camilla while wearing their JDRF sweatshirts, a charity that funds research towards diabetes. She later met with Professor Roman Hovorka where she looked fascinated as she was shown an artificial pancreas connected to a mobile phone. The duchess looked typically elegant for her engagement today, wearing a navy blue wool dress and a matching coat which she paired with knee-high black boots to keep out the chill. The Duchess of Cornwall today visited the Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge where she met George Vinnicombe, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, and his sister Ava Meanwhile her husband Prince Charles had a rather windswept arrival at Ely Cathedral He received a warm welcome from well-wishers with one seen leaning forward to plant a kiss on the prince's cheek Elsewhere her husband the Prince of Wales made a rather windswept entrance to Ely Cathedral. Despite the gusty weather Charles, who recently turned 70, appeared to be in high spirits as he waved to locals who had gathered to catch a glimpse of the royal. He received a warm welcome from well-wishers with one seen leaning forward to plant a kiss on the prince's cheek Camilla later met with Professor Roman Hovorka (pictured) where she looked fascinated as she was shown an artificial pancreas connected to a mobile phone The duchess looked typically elegant for her engagement today, wearing a navy blue wool dress and a matching coat which she paired with knee-high black boots to keep out the chill Charles was then lead inside the cathedral where he was shown the stained glass exhibition on display. The royal is patron of the the Stained Glass Museum and is visiting today to mark its 40th anniversary. Earlier today he paid a visit to the Thomas Parsons Charity almshouses of which he is patron. The Prince met with resident June Hewes in her home. The Charity was founded by Thomas Parsons, an Ely resident, in 1497. It owns and operates 27 Almshouses across the City of Ely. Meghan Markle was still relatively unknown to the British public when she and Prince Harry stepped out hand-in-hand as a newly-engaged couple, exactly a year ago. And now, experts have revealed how the former actress has gone from being Prince Harry's 'in-love' fiancee to showing her strengths as a confident public speaker and empathetic Duchess over the past 12 months. Body language expert Judi James explained how Meghan presented herself and Harry as 'the new Hollywood-esque power couple on the block', as they posed for photographs outside Kensington Palace this time last year. She described how the Duchess has since developed from a royal 'newbie', joining the Queen on an engagement in Cheshire just a month after her wedding, to a 'passionate' and effective campaigner in her own right. Here, Judi - author of the Body Language Bible - tells FEMAIL what Meghan's body language has revealed about her over the past 12 months... Body language expert Judi James has revealed how Meghan has transformed herself from 'in-love' fiancee to fully-fledged royal in the space of twelve months. The couple are pictured at their engagement photocall at Kensington Palace exactly a year ago Meghan (above, at the Invictus Games in Sydney last month) has shown herself to be a confident public speaker, who often doesn't use the barrier of a lectern, Judi explained The Duchess of Sussex has also shown herself to be empathetic, as seen during her visit to the Hubb Community Kitchen in west London last week COUPLE IN LOVE Meghan, 37, and Harry, 34, looked every inch the loved-up couple when they walked out of Kensington Palace holding hands, shortly after their engagement was announced. Judi explained: 'Meghan used a lot of face-gazing appreciation signals with Harry and the kind of loving smiles that were in keeping with the couple's unveiling as the new Hollywood-esque power couple on the block.' This continued with the Duke and Duchess's 'sultry' official engagement photographs, taken by fashion photographer Alexi Lubomirski in the grounds of Frogmore House. 'Their photos took royal sexiness to a new level, with Meghan sitting between Harry's legs leaning back onto his torso or clutching at his arm looking beautiful enough to be in a perfume ad,' Judi said. Meghan, 37, and Harry, 34, looked every inch the loved-up couple when they walked out of Kensington Palace holding hands exactly a year ago (above), shortly after their engagement announcement The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also showed plenty of PDA during their first engagement in Nottingham, last December (above) Judi explained how Meghan's underlying confidence was already clear at this point. The Duchess is pictured here patting Harry's hand while in Nottingham (above) However, the body language expert revealed that even at this early stage, Meghan's underlying confidence was clear. 'The clues to the Meghan we are now seeing more of though came in the way she used subtle tie-sign taps and arm-rubs to both steer the choreography during their photo-call or to signal reassurance to a prince that we had never before seen as being lacking in ego and performance confidence,' she explained. 'One minute she was flirting with Harry, the next she was using quasi-maternal gestures to control and dominate. 'Her small pats on his back while they were out in public showed high levels of confidence.' ROYAL NEWBIE While Meghan was already an accomplished actress, she still had to make the transition to full-fledged royal. This was particularly evident when the Duchess joined the Queen for a day of engagements in Cheshire in June, just a month after the royal wedding. 'We saw Meghan the newbie, following the Queen around for a day to learn the ropes and looking sweetly childlike and submissive as she did so,' Judi explained. Judi explained how Meghan went through the stage of being a royal newbie, looking 'sweetly submissive' during a joint engagement with the Queen in Cheshire in June (above) The Duchess of Sussex was seen mirroring the Duchess of Cambridge when they attended the Wimbledon women's singles finals in July 'Of course, she has immersed herself in the royal protocol, learning how to sit with her legs and arms crossed demurely.' Meghan was also seen learning from Kate when they attended the Wimbledon women's singles final together in July. Judi told FEMAIL: 'She could be spotted watching her sister-in-law Kate like a hawk or mirroring her at events like Wimbledon in a bid to pick up tips from one of the most consummate body language performers in the royal family.' PASSIONATE PUBLIC SPEAKER Since then, Meghan has quickly established herself as a confident public speaker and passionate campaign. She gave several polished speeches while on her first major royal tour Down Under, championing causes close to her heart. Commenting on public speaking skills, Judi said: 'I expected her to be good but she was phenomenal. Her words were perfectly pitched and crafted for maximum impact. Meghan (above in Fiji last month) has also quickly shown off her skills as a confident public speaker, delivering several speeches during her tour Down Under Judi explained how Meghan (speaking at her cookbook launch at Kensington Palace in September) often works without the barrier of a lectern, and is able to create empathy with her audience 'She created empathy with her audience to create rapport and she used congruent gesticulation to make her message authentic and memorable. 'She often works without the barrier of a lectern, sometimes with just a hand-held mic. She never performs the cute, submissive body language displays that even experience business pitchers frequently do in a bid to ward off criticism.' Judi added: 'The point with Meghan is that her body language works as a public speaker because she obviously believes her own messages and is passionate about getting them across. 'Meghan's body language shows all the hallmarks of her being campaigning world speaker in the future.' EMPATHETIC DUCHESS As well as showing her strength as a public speaker, Meghan has also shown her ability to connect with members of the public during official engagements. 'The other side of Meghan that is slowly emerging is her ability to create real bonds of empathy with the public she wants to help', Judi said. 'Watching her muck in with the women of Grenfell in their kitchen venture it could have been easy to imagine she was performing the kind of "sight bite" that politicians use, dropping in to hug and work for long enough for the press to get their shots and the story to reach the public. Meghan has also shown her ability to connect with members of the public during official engagements, including at her visit to the Hubb Community Kitchen in west London last week (above) Judi explained how Meghan is able to create 'real bonds of empathy with the public she wants to help', including through her use of eye contact 'But Meghan was doing more than just hugging and helping.' Judi also described how the body language of the women she met at the Hubb Community Kitchen in west London last week demonstrated the impact that Meghan's had on the group. 'When she went back it was them instigating the hugs with her, using the kind of intense eye contact you get with good friends and even holding her arm in a spontaneous signal of affection long after the greeting rituals were over,' the body language expert explained. 'They weren't in awe and they weren't treating her as a royal, more as a good friend.' Queen Maxima of the Netherlands stunned in a red cape as she arrived at an awards ceremony in Amsterdam today. Maxima, 47, kept the cold at bay with the scarlet number which she paired with brown suede stilettos. The Dutch royal was attending the Erasmus Prize ceremony of which her husband, King Willem-Alexander, is a patron. Keeping her blonde locks in a chignon, Maxima was able to show off her chunky statement earrings. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands stunned in a scarlet cape as she arrived at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam today The Dutch royal, 47, wore her blonde locks in a chignon to show off her chunky statement earrings She coordinated her heels with a matching brown suede clutch bag, and kept the all eyes on her stylish earrings by keeping the rest of her jewellery to a minimum. Maxima, who showed off her hazel eyes with a simple smoky eye and neutral lipstick, happily waved and smiled as she arrived at the Royal Palace for the event. This year's Erasmus Prize, which had the theme 'The Power of Investigative Journalism', was awarded to American journalist and writer Barbara Ehrenreich. She has written a number of books including Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, where she spoke about her efforts trying to survive from unskilled work, and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. Maxima coordinated her brown suede bag with her stilettos for the Erasmus Prize ceremony, of which her husband, King Willem-Alexander, is a patron The Erasmus Prize event was held at the Royal Palace. It was awarded to Barbara Ehrenreich for her investigative journalism Writing on the Erasmus Prize website, the judges explained their decision by saying: 'Barbara Ehrenreich is commended for her courage in putting herself on the line in her journalistic work. 'By leading the life of people in precarious situations, she gives a voice to groups in society that would otherwise remain unheard, and she lets us see life as people on the underside of society live it.' Barbara, 77, joked with her Twitter followers about the ceremony earlier today, saying: 'In Amsterdam to receive Erasmus Prize (google it) in the royal palace from the king of the Netherlands himself. Members of the Dutch royal family gathered at the high-profile event. Queen Maxima (third right), Barbara Ehrenreich (fourth right), King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (Middle)and Princess Beatrix (fourth left) Maxima look in high spirits as she joined her husband and mother-in-law at the ceremony, where they posed with Ms Ehrenreich 'You can still call me Barbara but I probably wont be consorting with commoners much anymore.' Maxima has had a busy few weeks, presenting this year's Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds award to conductor and composer Reinbert de Leeuw yesterday. She wore a colourful blue frock featuring red, yellow and pink stripes with a ruffle hem. Maxima (pictured with Ms Ehrenreich and another guest) kept the cold at bay with the scarlet number which she paired with brown suede stilettos The group laughed while they posed for photos at the event, which was held at the Royal Palace and happens every year King Willem-Alexander gave a speech at the glittering awards ceremony (pictured), which was held at the Royal Palace He then joined his with Maxima in the audience (pictured) and mother Princess Beatrix to watch the ceremony Barbara Ehrenreich (far right) received a standing ovation from the king and other guests at the event King Willem-Alexander looked in high spirits as he appeared to congratulate the journalist on her work Last week she joined her husband to welcome the Singaporean President Halimah Yacob to the Netherlands. She also met the President of Austria during his state visit this month, despite falling ill with a suspected intestinal infection. Last month, Maxima and Willem-Alexander enjoyed a state visit to the UK, where they attended a state banquet hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. LTD by Lizzie Tisch, an experiential style venture that focuses on exclusive, limited-edition designer collaborations, held a VIP preview for its first annual holiday shopping event last night (November 26). The elegant affair was hosted by the company's founder, Lizzie Tisch, and took place at The Regency Hotel in Manhattans Upper East Side. Notable guests included Brooke Shields, Martha Stewart, Ali Wentworth, Fern Mallis, Alicia Quarles, Dennis Basso, Daniel Benedict, and many more A-listers. The highly curated market is a one-stop shop for unique finds for the gift-giving season and is open today and tomorrow (November 27 and 28). Hostess with the mostess: LTD by Lizzie Tisch held a VIP preview for its first annual holiday shopping event last night (November 26) Boss ladies: The elegant affair was hosted by the company's founder, Lizzie Tisch, and took place at The Regency Hotel in Manhattans Upper East Side. Pictured: Lizzie (left) and media mogul Martha Stewart Fashionistas: Dressed to impress (from left to right) were BJ Topol, comedian and author, Ali Wentworth, actress Brooke Shields, and Lizzie While guests like O Magazine's Adam Glassman and Daily Mail TV's Alicia Quarles shopped the incredible curation of holiday giftables, they sipped on spirited cocktails featuring Pinhooks Bourbon and Rye. Looking incredible, Lizzie donned a luxurious cashmere sweater by Le Lion (one of the night's vendors) and posed for pictures with friends and fans. Dylan Lauren of Dylan's Candy was on hand giving out Lizzie's favorite sugary snacks from the celeb-adored confectionery emporium, while Gigi Burris-O'Hara of Gigi Burris Millinery gave a live hat making demonstration. A true experiential event, attendees were given exclusive access to sign up for a year free with Clear, a hassle-free check-in service at the airport. Let's just say, Lizzie knows how to throw a party! The event is by RSVP, click here to get on the list. Visionaries: Lizzie posed for a pic with world renowned fashion designer, Dennis Basso, Creative Director at O Magazine, Adam Glassman, and event planner and CEO of David Monn, LLC, David Monn The beverage: While guests shopped Lizzie's curation of holiday giftables, they sipped on spirited cocktails featuring Pinhooks Bourbon and Rye Yummy: Dylan Lauren of Dylan's Candy (right) was on hand giving away Lizzie's favorite sugary snacks from the celeb-adored confectionery emporium Seriously popular: Daily Mail TV's co-host Alicia Quarles (left) and Daily Mail's Style Director Pandora Amoratis mingled with Martha Stewart Lizzie's curation of vendors: Aurelia Demark Modern heirloom jewelry handcrafted from 18k yellow gold with precious stones Barrie Knitwear Scottish premium cashmere from the renowned historic manufacturer known for its outstanding traditional expertise Blushington Skincare and beauty products from both emerging female-founded brands and the worlds most iconic beauty institutions Bunny Eyez Functional modern reading glasses which enables wearers to put their spectacles on in the traditional way or flip the temples for an entirely new experience Clear A biometric check-in service that takes care of identity verification, so you can walk straight up to security without any hassle House of Fluff Very stylish jackets made of ethical, faux fur developed in Italy or sourced directly around the globe Dylans Candy Bar The world's largest confectionery emporium Gigi Burris Millinery Handmade, modern millinery produced in New York City Kilometre Paris A collection of hand embroidered clothes and accessories made by Indian and Mexican craftsmen, inspired by destinations around the world Le Lion Sweaters and accessories made of the finest Italian yarn personalized with whimsical monograms and zodiac constellations Maisonette The best in childrens products from around the world including clothing, furniture, decor and toys MUSE X MUSE Fine jewelry and accessories from independent jewelry designers at a number of price points Paravel Italian-made luggage made of a lightweight, waterproof and wipeable "worry-free" canvas. Custom hand painting will be available on site Sage & Salt Energetically aware home and body goods Pictured: Gigi Burris-O'Hara of Gigi Burris Millinery (left), Sisters and Founders of Bunny Eyez, Jenny Hutt and Stacy Fritz Pictured: Blushington's CEO Natasha Cornstein (left) and Jennifer Shanker of Muse X Muse Pictured: Offerings from Maisonette (left) and Sage & Salt Pictured: House of Fluff's Kym Canter (left) and Le Lion's Laura Gelfand The Prince of Wales has paid a touching tribute to his 'wonderful' wife in a new video. Charles, who visited East Anglia alongside Camilla on Tuesday, made a trip to the Ely Cathedral where he spent time speaking to well-wishers who had assembled outside to greet him. In the video, which was shared on Twitter by local Michelle Larbey, sees the 70-year-old prince make his way along the church wall, before waving at the camera. He says: 'You're all waving down the road.' A woman who had been waiting to see Charles wastes no time in telling him 'you have a wonderful wife.' Prince Charles said he 'couldn't agree more' when a bystander told him he had a 'wonderful' wife at Ely Cathedral A beaming Charles then replies: 'You're very kind, I know, I couldn't agree more.' His words are meant by cheers from the locals before they break into laughter as a pushchair becomes squashed in the crowds prompting Charles to say, 'You haven't squashed the baby?' Michelle, whose tweet has since amassed almost 1,000 views, reassured the prince later writing 'Dont worry Your Highness No baby was squashed, it was an empty pram you saw!' Charles had been viewing the stained glass exhibition on display inside the cathedral this morning. The royal is patron of the the Stained Glass Museum and is visiting today to mark its 40th anniversary. The couple were visiting East Anglia together today where they took part in various engagements Later today, he and Camilla, who had spent their mornings separately, reconvened at the historical market to explore the stalls. At one point the Prince of Wales paused to enjoy a glass of red wine at one of the vendor's tables which appeared to get the royal's approval. He could later be seen admiring an array of chocolaty treats on display from a local bakery before joining the Duchess of Cornwall on a walkabout. The couple were met by hundreds of well-wishers all hoping to be introduced to the royal pair. One group of school children assembled to present a delighted Camilla with a bunch of flowers. Charles and Camilla arrived earlier on Tuesday for their whirlwind visit to East Anglia where they will conduct a busy day of engagements. The royal couple will visit the areas of Cambridge, Ely and Wisbech before returning home this evening. The Prince of Wales indulged in a tipple during to a visit to a local market in East Anglia on Tuesday Joined by the Duchess of Cornwall, Charles sampled a local red wine at one of the stalls at Ely market this afternoon Charles could later be seen admiring an array of chocolaty treats on display from a local bakery The pair split up initially with the Duchess of Cornwall's first stop being the Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge. While there the 71-year-old met with patients who have benefited from the hospital including George Vinnicombe, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, and his sister Ava. The adorable pair beamed as they posed for photos with Camilla while wearing their JDRF sweatshirts, a charity that funds research towards diabetes. She later met with Professor Roman Hovorka where she looked fascinated as she was shown an artificial pancreas connected to a mobile phone. The duchess looked typically elegant for her engagement today, wearing a navy blue wool dress and a matching coat which she paired with knee-high black boots to keep out the chill. The Duchess of Cornwall today visited the Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge where she met George Vinnicombe, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, and his sister Ava Meanwhile her husband Prince Charles had a rather windswept arrival at Ely Cathedral He received a warm welcome from well-wishers with one seen leaning forward to plant a kiss on the prince's cheek Camilla later met with Professor Roman Hovorka (pictured) where she looked fascinated as she was shown an artificial pancreas connected to a mobile phone They're both married to powerful men, but tonight they discovered they had a shared sense of style too. Queen Letizia of Spain, 46, met with the Chinese president's wife Peng Liyuan, 56, at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid on Tuesday and both women opted to wear royal blue for the occasion. They were joined by their respective husbands King Felipe VI, 50, and President Xi Jinping, 65, to mark the start of the politician's four country tour, which started in Spain today. Queen Letizia of Spain, 46, (right) met with the Chinese president's wife Peng Liyuan, 56, (left) at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid on Tuesday The occasion was to welcome President Xi Jinping, 65, on his visit to Spain, as part of his four country tour. Pictured left to right: Peng Liyuan, President XI, 65, King Felipe VI, 50, and Queen Letizia The two women appeared to be getting along famously as both wore broad smiles and Letizia put an arm around Peng Letizia dazzled in a mid-length blue dress that had a sleeveless design and a lace hem. She wore a matching pair of blue stilettos and accesorised with a diamond bracelet on her left wrist. The mother-of-two wore her bobbed brunette tresses loose around her shoulders and opted for a smoky eye and nude berry lipstick. Peng Liyuan wore an oriental style dress in navy that complimented Letizia's own outfit perfectly. Both women looked resplent in blue dresses, with Peng wearing a traditional Chinese dress and Letizia wearing a sleeveless number Letizia wore a large pair of blue earrings (right) while Peng wore a simple pair of studs for the occasion Letizia's dress was mid-length and had a lace hem, while Peng's sat on the knee. Letizia posed alongside her husband King Felipe (second picture) The group posed for several photographs at the welcoming ceremony. Pictured left to right: Peng Liyuan, President XI King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia Peng, dubbed China's First Lady by the Chinese press, wore her hair in a chignon and sported a pair of matching heels. Spain and China are expected to sign around 20 intergovernmental and business agreements on Wednesday, including rules to avoid double-taxation and a deal to export on-the-bone legs of Iberian ham to China. Both countries will also explore joint bids in infrastructure, energy and telecommunications projects in Africa and Latin America, a Spanish top official told the Associated Press. Xi arrived Tuesday at a private terminal in Madrid's airport accompanied by China's first lady, Peng The couple are in the country as part of their four country tour, which will end in December The two women appeared to be enjoying each other's company as they smiled while entering the room for the photocall Letizia and Peng walked in sync as they left the room, and both wore very similar pairs of blue stilettos with their blue dresses But the official, who was not authorized to be named, emphasized that Xi and Spain's Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, will also upgrade their countries' 'strategic framework relationship' to reflect Beijing's greater influence in world affairs since the last state visit, in 2005. That move also aims to respond to the uncertainty raised by trade tensions between Beijing and Washington and a stricter European Union approach to Chinese investment since the bloc's parliament approved a new screening scheme to shield strategic sectors in its member states. Xi arrived Tuesday at a private terminal in Madrid's airport accompanied by China's first lady, Peng Liyuan, as well as Chinese entrepreneurs and other Communist Party officials. Peng wore her hair in a chingnon, while Letizia wore her bobbed brunette tresses loose around her shoulder at the event Letizia married King Felipe ten years ago at Cathedral Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena in Madrid and they have two daughters together. Pictured: Peng (left) and Letizia (right) at the photocall in Madrid tonight President Xi (front left) and King Felipe (front right) entered the photocall together side by side, with their wives Peng (back left) and Letizia (back right) following behind them The two leaders President Xi (second left) and King Felipe (second) appeared to be getting along well as they posed for photographs On Wednesday, he will be welcomed with a lavish ceremony at the Royal Palace in central Madrid and will be treated to a state banquet by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain. The mayor of Madrid will give Xi the keys of the Spanish capital and the Chinese leader will deliver a speech in the Spanish Senate. The Chinese delegation is scheduled to fly on Thursday to Buenos Aires, to attend the G20 leaders' summit in the Argentinian capital. Xi's tour ends on Dec. 5 after stops in Panama and Portugal. President Xi and King Felipe left the photocall first while their wives followed close behind Letizia appeared to be sharing a joke with Peng as she giggled and fixed her hair while they left the event The Chinese delegation is scheduled to fly on Thursday to Buenos Aires, to attend the G20 leaders' summit in the Argentinian capital. Xi's tour ends on Dec. 5 after stops in Panama and Portugal On Wednesday, he will be welcomed with a lavish ceremony at the Royal Palace in central Madrid and will be treated to a state banquet by the royal couple Queen Letizia is mother to Princesses Leonor, 12, and Sofia, 11, with husband King Felipe, 50, who ascended to the Spanish throne in 2014. Letizia married King Felipe ten years ago at Cathedral Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena in Madrid. The relationship began in November 2002 and in 2003, just months after she had been promoted to the position of anchor on the national news channel, she quit her job and days later the royal engagement was announced. A world-first drug trial for Ebola has begun in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid a killer outbreak. Researchers have begun studying the effects of four pioneering medications being given out in the African nation, where 236 people have died already. More than 160 people there have already been treated with the drugs, and the way people are treated won't change, but scientists will now be able to compare them. The announcement came after a devastating week, when 13 cases were confirmed on Wednesday a one-day record and officials confirmed even newborn babies are catching the virus. Some 236 people are believed to have died of Ebola in the Democratic of the Congo outbreak, which began in August 189 deaths are confirmed to have been directly caused by Ebola Health workers must be covered from head to toe at all times because Ebola spreads through contact with infected people pictured, medics carry a bible to a patient in Butembo The World Health Organization yesterday announced scientists would begin a multi-drug trial as the epidemic rages on. Four experimental drugs are being used to try and combat the disease mAb 114, ZMapp, Remdesivir and Regeneron. Patients will get one of the four, but researchers won't know which they were given until after the study. By comparing how well these work, scientists will be moving towards curing the disease and slashing the death tolls in future outbreaks. 'While our focus remains on bringing this outbreak to an end, the launch of the randomised control trial is an important step toward finally finding an Ebola treatment that will save lives,' said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The Ebola outbreak in DRC began in August and, since, is believed to have infected 412 people and killed 236. Some 365 of those cases and 189 of the deaths are confirmed. Because the data collected in the North Kivu epidemic is unlikely to be sufficient for a complete study, the country's health ministry said the clinical trial may extend over a five-year period to cover Ebola outbreaks in other countries. 'Our country is struck with Ebola outbreaks too often, which also means we have unique expertise in combatting it,' said DRC's minister of health Dr Oly Ilunga Kalenga. 'These trials will contribute to building that knowledge, while we continue to respond on every front to bring the current outbreak to an end.' The outbreak has been plagued by security problems, with health workers attacked by rebels in districts where the virus has been spreading. Hundreds of health workers are stationed around the city of Beni in Democratic Republic of the Congo to try and contain a deadly Ebola outbreak (pictured, health workers at the Doctors Without Borders treatment centre in Butembo) Health workers had to be evacuated from their hotel after it was hit by a shell in a nearby armed rebel attack earlier this month. Some 16 World Health Organization staff were taken out of the city of Beni, where most of the outbreak is happening. The organisation's director general said he heard 'heavy gunfire' over the phone, and a shell hit the workers' hotel but didn't explode. Violence is common in the central African country and has made it difficult to stop the Ebola outbreak earlier in the same week eight United Nations peacekeepers and 12 local soldiers died in an ambush. People thought to have Ebola are quarantined in medical treatment centres like the one, pictured, run by Doctors Without Borders in the city of Bunia, 200km from Beni Armed groups have kidnapped and killed people trying to treat the sick, and ongoing conflict has made locals suspicious of official health workers. Dr Ghebreyesus added: 'We honour the memory of those who have died battling this outbreak, and deplore the continuing threats on the security of those still working to end it.' Another factor making it harder to combat the outbreak is the widespread use of pop-up unofficial medical centres. People are seeking help in makeshift clinics, some of which are just rooms in people's houses which don't have running water and reuse needles. 'Those facilities, we believe, are one of the major drivers of transmission,' said Peter Salama, the WHO's emergency response chief. Ebola causes a fever and severe weakness pictured, health workers carry a patient through an Ebola treatment centre in Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on November 3 'Probably more than 50 per cent of cases in Beni have been driven from these tradi-modern health care facilities, and the fact that hygiene and injection practices in these areas are relatively unsafe.' Experts realised the way the disease was spreading had changed in October, when unprecedented numbers of children started becoming infected. Health workers found these were children being treated for malaria in the unofficial health centres they believe people are confusing the two diseases because early symptoms, including fever, weakness and vomiting, are the same. HAS THE DRC HAD AN EBOLA OUTBREAK BEFORE? DRC escaped the brutal Ebola pandemic that began in 2014, which was finally declared over in January 2016 - but it was struck by a smaller outbreak last year. Four DRC residents died from the virus in 2017. The outbreak lasted just 42 days and international aid teams were praised for their prompt responses. The new outbreak is the DRCs tenth since the discovery of Ebola in the country in 1976, named after the river. The outbreak earlier this summer was its ninth. Health experts credit an awareness of the disease among the population and local medical staff's experience treating for past successes containing its spread. DRCs vast, remote geography also gives it an advantage, as outbreaks are often localised and relatively easy to isolate. Advertisement Officials in the country this month said they have never seen such a devastating outbreak. 'No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing,' said Dr Oly Ilunga Kalenga, the DRC's health minister. Having started on August 1, it is the 10th outbreak in the country since the disease, which causes extreme fever, bleeding and diarrhoea, was first discovered there 42 years ago. 'This epidemic remains dangerous and unpredictable, and we must not let our guard down,' said Dr Kalenga. 'We must continue to pursue a very dynamic response that requires permanent readjustments and real ownership at the community level.' He added: 'Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping. 'Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack.' Dr Kalenga said teams responding to the outbreak are violently attacked, on average, three to four times a week. In October, militants killed 11 civilians and a soldier in Beni, a city with a population of around 230,000 people where the outbreak is thought to have started. Despite facing resistance from people who don't want health workers treating them, the government has managed to vaccinate more than 27,000 people. Those who are known to have come into contact with others who had the disease have been targeted by the vaccination programme. Of the 366 people thought to have been infected with Ebola during the DRC's outbreak, 319 of those have been confirmed pictured, medical workers at the Doctors Without Borders treatment centre in Butembo help a patient whose illness has not been confirmed An unusually high number of children have been infected in this outbreak, officials say pictured, a worker carries a swaddled four-day-old baby thought to have caught the virus Unusually, children are being badly affected because they're catching the virus while in medical clinics for other reasons, experts say. Jessica Illunga, a spokesperson for the health ministry in DRC said in October: 'There is an abnormally high number of children who have contracted and died of Ebola in Beni. 'Normally, in every Ebola epidemic, children are not as affected.' Dr Peter Salama, emergency response chief at the World Health Organization (WHO), last month warned the current Ebola outbreak would only get worse. The combination of rebel violence and pre-election unrest is creating a 'perfect storm' for an even worse epidemic, he said. An electric probe stuck up the nose could be an unlikely new treatment for dry eyes. The gadget works by zapping a nerve in the bridge of the nose with a mild electric current to stimulate the production of tears easing the dryness that causes eyes to become sore, red and inflamed. At the press of a button, the hand-held device, called TrueTear, triggers the release of tears, coating the eye surface and soothing irritation. The rechargeable zapper is not a cure for dry eyes, but research suggests that, used twice a day, it can significantly improve symptoms. Result: The rechargeable zapper is not a cure for dry eyes, but research suggests that, used twice a day, it can significantly improve symptoms In trials, it more than doubled the volume of the water, mucus and oil that make up the tears that coat the eyeball to keep it healthy. Dry eye syndrome develops when the eyes dont make enough tears, or the tears they do produce evaporate too rapidly. Symptoms include gritty, sore and red eyes, which tend to worsen as the day goes on. Current treatments include over-the-counter drops designed to mimic the effects of tears, or an ointment to lubricate the eyes. But many sufferers dislike using drops because of the discomfort of putting them in, or they lack the co-ordination to administer them without spilling the liquid down their face. The TrueTear, which has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, could be a more popular alternative. It stimulates the trigeminal nerve, located at the top of each nostril near the bridge of the nose. This is one of the largest nerves in the skull, and stimulating it activates a process called nasolacrimal reflex the automatic generation of tears to lubricate the eye. Game-changer? Current treatments include over-the-counter drops designed to mimic the effects of tears, or an ointment to lubricate the eyes To use the TrueTear, the patient must unwrap a sterile, two-pronged tip from a sealed pack and plug it on to two tiny sockets on the top of the hand-held unit. The matchstick-size prongs, made of metal and covered in silicone, are inserted deep into the nose, one in each nostril, so the tips are as close as possible to the top of the nostril. This means inserting the prongs as far as possible and then tilting them towards the front of the nose, so they press on the tissue where the trigeminal nerve is located. The patient then presses the button and a mild, painless electric current then passes through the prongs and stimulates the trigeminal nerve. The device should be held in place until tears start to form. The tip must be replaced after two days of use because a gel coating on the prongs, which helps to transmit the current into the nerve, starts to dry up. The manufacturer, Allergan Inc, claims regular stimulation gradually encourages the production of tears even between treatments. Tests on 97 patients over a six-month period at Virginia Medical School in the U.S. showed the nose zapper on average doubled tear volume easing dryness. But one in ten experienced nasal pain and 5 per cent had a nose bleed after inserting the device. Melanie Hingorani, a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, said the nose probe might help some patients, but there is no certainty that the effects are prolonged or maintained, or proof the health of the eye is helped by it. A paraplegic bride has walked down the aisle three years after the car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Ally Grizzard was driving down a country road in Bowdon, Georgia, in January 2015 when she saw a hay truck driving in the wrong lane towards her. The truck crashed head on into her car and the then-20-year-old was ejected from her vehicle and landed on the side of the road. In the hospital, doctors told her that her spine was shattered during the horrific accident and she would likely never be able to walk again. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Ally Grizzard, 23, who was left paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident three years ago walked down the aisle on her wedding day. Pictured: Grizzard walking down the aisle with her father and stepfather holding her up Grizzard was driving her dog to the veterinarian in January 2015 when a truck hit her head on. She was ejected from the vehicle and landed on the side of the road on her back. Pictured: Grizzard training to walk down the aisle, left and right Grizzard says she remembers feeling her back shattering before she lost consciousness. At the hospital, doctors told her she was paralyzed and that she would never walk again. Pictured: Grizzard on her wedding day Grizzard, now 23, remembers that she was driving her dog Lily to the veterinarian that day, but not much else. 'All I remember is seeing a hay truck coming at me, head-on, in my lane,' she told Fox 5 Atlanta. A driver in a stolen truck hit Gizzard's car as she tried to swerve to avoid an accident. 'I just remember flipping end over end, and I flipped for about 75 yards,' Grizzard said. Grizzard says she remembers feeling her back shattering as she landed on the ground before she lost consciousness. Neighbors dialed 911 and Grizzard was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. 'When I got to Grady, I had no pulse, no blood pressure, no nothing,' Grizzard told the news outlet. Doctors told her parents she had collapsed lungs, internal bleeding, and a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down. In addition to her spinal cord injury, Grizzard had collapsed lungs and internal bleeding. She spent seven months at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta undergoing intense physical therapy. Pictured: Grizzard in the hospital in January 2015, left, and in February 2015, right After her then-boyfriend Amos proposed in 2017, Grizzard was determined not to use a wheelchair at her wedding. Pictured: Grizzard and Amos during her training 'She wrote me a note: "My nursing career is over",' her mother, Lisa Pope, told 11 Alive. 'And I said: "No, it's not. Why would you say that?" And she said: "Because I can't feel my legs".' Grizzard spent seven months at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta undergoing intense physical therapy to regain her independence. 'I really struggled with going out in public and really worried about what people thought of me,' she said. After her then-boyfriend Amos proposed in 2017, she was determined not to use a wheelchair at her wedding. 'The night that we got engaged, I texted my therapist with a picture and said: "Are you ready to train me to walk down the aisle?"' she told 11 Alive. 'And he said: "Yeah, let's do this".' She spent a year-and-a-half training and, on her big day, Grizzard walked down the aisle with leg braces and her father on one side and her stepfather on the other. Pictured: Grizzard and her husband during their first dance Grizzard even danced with her new husband to Ed Sheeran's Thinkin' Out Loud for their first dance. She says she hopes other people with disabilities have hope when they watch the video of her walking down the aisle. Pictured, left and right: Grizzard on her wedding day She spent a year-and-a-half training and, on her big day, Grizzard walked down the aisle using leg braces and with her father and stepfather on each side of her. 'It was my very first time walking on grass and uphill, and it was really tough,' she told Fox 5. 'It was a struggle, but I made it down the aisle. It happened, I was determined.' Grizzard even danced with her new husband to Ed Sheeran's Thinkin' Out Loud for their first dance. She says she hopes other people with disabilities are inspired when they watch the video of her walking down the aisle. 'Even on the bad days to keep going, you can still have a normal life, you can still get married, you can still have kids and do everything you used to do, just do it in a different way,' she said. Within three weeks last year, I became completely bald, losing my eyebrows, lashes and moustache. A blood test indicated a low testosterone reading and I was prescribed a 2 per cent Tostran gel and Regaine hair-loss treatment (Ive delayed using these in the hope it would regrow naturally). Ive been using shampoos purporting to strengthen the hair roots, too. Could stress have brought on the condition? Will my hair regrow? I am in my 80s. Name and address supplied. I am sorry that you have been affected in this dramatic way. The condition from which you suffer is a version of alopecia areata with this, the hair follicles come under attack from your own immune cells, causing intense inflammation that damages the follicles and the hair production process. Did you know? At least 10 per cent of patients with alopecia areata also develop symptoms affecting the nails pitting or separation from the nail bed, known as onycholysis This common type of hair loss can occur at any age, in men and women. Typically, the condition presents with disc-like patches of baldness of variable sizes on the scalp (although hair elsewhere, such as the beard, eyebrows, eyelashes and on the body and limbs, can be affected). At least 10 per cent of patients with alopecia areata also develop symptoms affecting the nails pitting or separation from the nail bed, known as onycholysis. In about one in ten people, the condition progresses either to alopecia totalis, loss of all scalp hair, or alopecia universalis, the complete loss of all hair from the scalp, face and body. In your case, what you describe is the most advanced form of alopecia universalis. Why the immune system should commence this attack, often suddenly, over just a few days or weeks, is uncertain. There are genetic factors: around 20 per cent of those with the condition have a first-degree relative who is affected. Other factors such as stress are less well confirmed. Alopecia areata may co-exist with other autoimmune diseases, too. Vitiligo where the pigment cells in the skin are destroyed in some areas, leading to white patches psoriasis, thyroid disease (ensure your doctor has done blood tests to check for this) and allergic rhinitis are all more common in patients with alopecia areata than in the general population. Adjust: Taking practical steps to protect the head is important so wear sunscreen when you are exposed to the sun and a hat to protect the head, or to keep it warm in winter If there are just small patches of hair loss on the scalp, around half of cases spontaneously recover within a year, although there may be further episodes of hair loss in the future. If the hair loss lasts for longer than a year, and if the nails are affected, or you have allergies or a family history of alopecia, none of the treatments youve used so far is likely to be of any benefit, because this is an issue of the immune system and there is currently no cure. Similarly, the Tostran and Regaine wont help, as they wont tackle the underlying problem (they are intended for male pattern hair loss, caused by hair follicles that shrink with age, and work by extending the growth phase of hair follicles which means there must be actively growing hairs for them to be effective). It will take some time for you to adapt to the change in your appearance, but Im afraid that is what you must do. Taking practical steps to protect the head is important so wear sunscreen when you are exposed to the sun and a hat to protect the head, or to keep it warm in winter. Following repeated stiffness and pain in my neck, an X-ray has revealed degeneration in discs five and six. Ive also had headaches, which seem to come from the base of my neck. I have taken ibuprofen and paracetamol, but am loath to take either on a regular basis. A. E. Haywood, Newport. THE neck is a vulnerable structure it has seven vertebrae that are articulated to allow it considerable mobility, yet which must also carry the weight of the head: about 5kg. The greatest wear and tear occurs between the fourth and seventh vertebrae (the first being at the top, articulating with the skull). Most people over 30 would show degenerative changes in the neck if you X-rayed them, but there is little correlation between what a scan indicates and whether the individual experiences pain. Some people with X-rays showing much wear and tear may experience little pain, and vice versa. In some cases, degeneration in the neck may contribute to muscular tension, which may explain your headaches. Write to Dr Scurr To contact Dr Scurr with a health query, write to him at Good Health Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email drmartin@dailymail.co.uk including contact details. Dr Scurr cannot enter into personal correspondence. His replies cannot apply to individual cases and should be taken in a general context. Always consult your own GP with any health worries. Advertisement I agree that taking painkillers is not a good long-term strategy they should be kept for times when symptoms are more severe (options include prescription medications, such as low-dose antidepressants, including duloxetine and venlafaxine). Your treatment must include physiotherapy the physiotherapist can help by showing you how to sit and stand, to ease muscle tension. They will also help to modify your sleep position for instance, not using too many pillows. Other specialist interventions include cognitive behavioural therapy, to help with chronic pain. Id also recommend trying acupuncture as a first step although this will not be available on the NHS, a review of studies found it effective in treating neck pain. Another alternative I would recommend is Qigong, a Chinese technique involving slow movement, meditation and breathing exercises (Tai Chi is a form of Qigong). I have found two studies confirming the benefits in relieving persistent neck pain, one reported in the Journal of Pain. These two techniques may help by unlocking tension, correcting faulty postural habits and increasing awareness of our bodys response to our emotions. Finding a suitable class should not be difficult and there is much to gain and little to lose. More than 17,000 British people needlessly die of cancer every year because it is not picked up quickly enough, experts have warned. Delays in diagnosis means the UK lags behind the rest of Europe on cancer survival rates, with no sign the gap is closing. Millions more people need to be sent for testing if Britain is to catch up, according to a major report on NHS cancer policies. Yet GPs are being pressured to become 'gatekeepers' and reduce scan referrals. More than 17,000 British people needlessly die of cancer every year because it is not picked up quickly enough, experts have warned. Stock photo Report author Sir Mike Richards, Britain's former national cancer director, said thousands of deaths could be avoided if the system was improved. 'This is the equivalent to a jumbo jet of people falling from the sky every two weeks,' he said, referring to Office for National Statistics figures which showed 17,375 people died every year from 'treatable' cancers between 2014 and 2016. The 130-page report, published by the Health Foundation think-tank, emphasised that speed of diagnosis is key. The chance of surviving breast cancer, for example, is nearly doubled if a woman is diagnosed after being sent for rapid testing by her GP rather than arriving at A&E with symptoms. Sir Mike said many more patients need to be tested. At the moment 8 per cent of the 2million people sent for hospital testing each year are diagnosed with cancer. But NICE guidelines suggest GPs should be sending anyone with a 3 per cent chance for testing meaning more than twice as many should receive a test. The chance of surviving breast cancer, for example, is nearly doubled if a woman is diagnosed after being sent for rapid testing by her GP. Stock photo In reality, Sir Mike said, cash-strapped hospitals often reject GPs' referrals. 'The gate is shut too tight at the moment,' he said. 'You have difficulty seeing your GP, and GPs are being told not to refer so many patients.' Dr Rebecca Fisher, a GP in Oxford and fellow author of the report, said: 'I would challenge you to find a GP who has not had a cancer referral rejected.' Last year a Cancer Research UK report said 45 per cent of patients found it hard to make an appointment. More fast-track testing systems, which do not involve GPs, could help, but a lack of equipment holds Britain back, the report said. The UK ranks 35th out of 37 countries for availability of CT scanners, and 31st out of 36 for MRI scanners. An NHS England spokesman said: 'Cancer survival rates are at their highest ever and further work to ensure earlier diagnosis and treatment is under way.' Would you want to swallow a pill that hadnt been subjected to rigorous tests? Or use a prescription cream that hadnt undergone strict trials? Of course not. And yet for years patients have been undergoing surgery with implants everything from hip joints to mesh for incontinence some of which have had only the most basic testing, and in some cases, havent been subject to tests on humans. Its a scandal, and one thats had an enormous impact, because as with all experiments and this is a mass experiment things can go wrong. And they have. Implantable devices can cause immune reactions, often leading to pain and other adverse effects. Unlikely: Would you want to swallow a pill that hadnt been subjected to rigorous tests? Or use a prescription cream that hadnt undergone strict trials? Ive heard of women whove had the Essure contraceptive device which is placed in the fallopian tubes, where it stays and helps form scar tissue as a form of sterilisation whove needed hysterectomies because of what the device has done to them. And as the Mail has highlighted, some women given vaginal mesh to treat incontinence have been left crippled by pain, needing a number of operations to remove fragments of the mesh that had splintered into their tissues. Often the damage cant be undone simply by removing the device. The patient may need another operation, and in some cases these faulty devices have led to deaths. As the BBCs Panorama reported last night, new freedom of information requests have found that the UK regulators the Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) received more than 62,000 adverse incident reports relating to implants between 2015 and 2018 yet the number of these cases the MHRA referred on for investigation has actually slumped. Tragically, more than 1,000 people died, according to the MHRA. I think thats an underestimate. But even if you think about that MHRA figure some of these people will have been having routine operations to fix health conditions that in no way could be considered life-threatening. PIP breast implants are a particular example. They were withdrawn from the UK market in 2010 after they were found to contain industrial-grade silicone. Be careful: Implantable devices can cause immune reactions, often leading to pain and death So what is going wrong? Its largely a commercial problem. The implant industry is big business, worth 300 billion globally. Obviously, when companies come up with a new device, they want it to be better than what is already out there. Vaginal mesh was supposed to be a quicker, less intrusive surgical method of fixing incontinence. Metal-on-metal hip implants where both the ball and socket were made of metal were going to last longer than the ceramic ones used before. However, after they were introduced here in the Nineties with little data, it transpired they had a far higher failure rate than the ceramic implants they replaced. The problem is that the device manufacturer isnt paid for the work that goes into getting the device to market it is paid for the number of implants it sells. So the system encourages them to get their device on sale as quickly as possible. As I discovered when I started investigating implants ten years ago, getting a device to market requires none of the rigorous testing we expect from medicine. I became interested in how implants were regulated when I was asked what I knew about their regulation, and specifically the metal-on-metal hip joints. It was the first time I had looked at the regulation of medical devices and I was genuinely shocked. As a GP, I was used to the approval system for drugs, which involves years of clinical data showing there is a clear benefit above and beyond a placebo. Patient safety is our highest priority. No effective medical intervention is completely free of risk. As a regulator, our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgments to make sure that the benefits justify any risks. Before any implant is put into a patient, the clinician responsible should consider why that implant is appropriate, and discuss the potential risks. In the case of a new implantable device, part of this discussion should highlight what is known about the long-term safety and performance in the body. An MHRA spokesperson With implants, there is no such demand for test data. Some were approved under whats called the equivalent rule. This means the manufacturer of a new product can claim its so similar to existing devices that it does not need to provide clinical evidence of its effectiveness in humans. As a result, devices that will be left inside a patient for life are waved through without any long-term human data: but this is vital, as many of these do very well in the short term, but it is the longer term, by which I mean more than a year, that is so important. About 18 months ago, we here at Oxford University looked at 61 mesh devices a mixture of vaginal and other surgical meshes and found all had been subject to only basic tests: they might have been tested in a rabbit or a mouse for about five days. The data on the products efficiency is effectively provided courtesy of the unwitting patients these devices are put into. And to whom do these companies have to submit the evidence that their devices work? Well, this is to what are known as notified bodies, of which there are four in the UK. But who funds these bodies? The industry itself. So although the MHRA is supposed to audit its decisions, in theory implants can come to the market without the MHRA knowing about it. Its a ridiculous situation. Furthermore, as private companies, these notified bodies can work without any commitment to transparency and can bat away queries such as freedom of information requests that might question any of their decisions. The fact is, no one can tell you what evidence was used to get a device onto the market, because in Europe it is judged to be commercially sensitive information. The U.S. has a more transparent system, with more published data about whats going on. New regulations were put in place in April last year, which should put more burden on manufacturers to provide more technical data, among other things. There will be a three-year transition period before this is enforced. But I think the language used is so vague it will have little impact. I would like to see a national registry that keeps lifelong data about patients with implants. That way we can identify patterns and safeguard patients. It is also time that we have safeguards with the MHRA so that an outside agency decides when an investigation into a device is warranted. At the moment the MHRA in effect decides when to investigate its own decisions. I would also like to see more people and it is mainly women whove been affected by these devices who are suffering terribly as a result of harm brought by a device, to have a full apology. Professor Heneghan was speaking to Lucy Elkins. Zapping the back with electrical currents reduces pain from a slipped disc more than steroid jabs, research suggests. Just 10 minutes of the non-invasive procedure, which involves applying pulses of energy to nerve roots near the spine, eases discomfort by 40 per cent more than steroid injections. Scientists believe it offers hope for the thousands battling lower back pain that have not been given any relief from conventional treatments. Left shows a scan of a patient's herniated disc before treatment and right one month later. The images show the gap between the slipped disc and nerve root had started to narrow Illustration shows the muscles contracting in response to pulses of energy to the lower back Italian researchers tested pulsed radiofrequency (pRF) on 128 patients with a slipped disc who had experienced no relief from conventional treatments. The novel therapy works by 'stunning' painful nerves in the spine via an electrical probe. The participants' symptoms were then compared a year later to a group of 120 'control' patients who were given a steroid injection. The scientists, led by Dr Alessandro Napoli at Sapienza University in Rome, found zapping the patients' backs for 10 minutes was the more effective treatment. 'The effect of pulsed radiofrequency is fast and without adverse events,' Dr Napoli said. WHAT IS A SLIPPED DISC? A slipped disc occurs when a soft cushion of tissue between the bones in the spine pushes out. Also known as a prolapsed or herniated disc, this can be painful if it pushes on the nerves. In the UK, around a third of adults suffer from lower back pain, of which less than one in 20 have a slipped disc. Symptoms can include: Lower back or neck pain Numbess or tingling in the shoulders, back, limbs, hands or feet Difficulty bending or straightening the back Muscle weakness Pain in the buttocks, hips or legs if the disc presses on the sciatic nerve - known as sciatica Back pain is rarely a sign of anything serious and is often due to a sprain or strain. Other causes can include overexercising, lifting heavy objects incorrectly and being inactive or overweight. A slipped disc usually gets better in time by staying active and taking painkillers, if necessary. If painkillers are ineffective or discomfort lasts longer than a month, a GP may prescribe stronger analgesics, a steroid injection or a muscle relaxant. Surgery is usually not required but may be necessary if other treatments do not work or if a patient suffers muscle weakness. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement 'Today, therapy for spine disorders allows for definitive treatment of symptoms and conditions using different techniques and technologies. 'Of the different therapies available, pulsed radiofrequency is among the least invasive. 'Treatment lasts 10 minutes and one session was enough in a large number of treated patients.' Not only did the pRF patients have greater improvement in pain and disability, they also reported a faster rate of perceived recovery. Nearly 95 per cent of the volunteers in the pRF group thought they had recovered - compared with just 61 per cent in the injection group. The electrical treatment also reduced the need for surgery, which is often a last resort when other therapies have failed. Dr Napoli said: 'Pulsed radiofrequency creates a nerve modulation, significantly reducing inflammation and its associated symptoms. 'The results of the study are superior to those typically reported for usual care strategies and injections, and may help a substantial number of patients with sciatic disk compression to avoid surgery.' The scientists say pRF could even be given alongside steroid injections to maximise patients' outcomes. 'We learned that when pulsed radiofrequency is followed by steroid injection, the result is longer lasting and more efficacious than injection only,' Dr Napoli said. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), held in Chicago. Image shows the non-invasive probe laid over the top of the nerve root at the base of the spine Slipped discs, also known as lumbar disk herniation, are common and leave many sufferers in agony. They occur when a soft cushion of tissue between the bones in the spine pushes out. Herniated disks are often the source of sciatica - pain that radiates down from the lower back into the leg. Treatment often revolves around over-the-counter painkillers, as well as steroid injections, which can have nasty side effects, including muscle weakness and wasting, weight gain and diabetes. Surgery is required in some cases, with severe incidences even requiring the entire disc be removed and the vertbra then fused together. Around a third of adults in the UK suffer from lower back pain, but a slipped disc is responsible in less than one in 20 cases. Age and smoking are linked to the condition due to them making discs less flexible. While heavy lifting can also lead to a slipped disc. An anthrax outbreak in the African country of Namibia has struck at least 52 people who have handled or eaten dead goats. The disease, which is rare in people, can make people vomit blood and is often fatal if not treated quickly. It is usually caught from animals which have died of the bacterial infection, either by handling their carcasses or eating their meat. The World Health Organization warned 'the likelihood of more human cases is high' because people in the region have so much contact with potentially sick animals. At least 52 people are reported to have been infected with anthrax in the Opuwo region in the north-west of Namibia. People are thought to have caught the infection from goats, cattle and donkeys which picked up it up while grazing anthrax spores can remain in soil for years In the Opuwo District of Namibia, where the current outbreak is taking place, most people work as goat farmers and 98 animals have died of unknown causes. The goats, donkeys and cows which have died mysteriously since August are believed to be responsible for transmitting the infection to people. No people are known to have died in the current outbreak, but 138 people have been given antibiotics after coming into contact with dead goats. The disease can kill within a couple of days if caught by eating meat, but around 75 per cent of people survive cases transmitted to the skin, which respond well to antibiotics. Officials say the current outbreak, taking place in the far north-west of the country, began in an 11-year-old boy in October, and early cases have affected people's skin. In general, anthrax spores are found in the ground and infect grazing animals, so do not spread on their own, but could be transported in meat or animal products. The WHO report said: 'The likelihood of more human cases is high, given the outbreak in goats and the common risk practices such as slaughtering sick animals and/or skinning and consuming meat from animals that have died of unknown causes.' It added: 'Collective cross-border approach with Angola is needed to control the event and prevent further infections.' Anthrax is rare in developed countries and even rarer in humans there are about 2,000 cases a year worldwide, mostly in Africa but it can be extremely deadly. 'If people eat meat from infected animals they can die within a couple of days,' said Professor David Mabey from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. But, he told MailOnline, because the earliest cases of the outbreak showed skin infections, people are less likely to die. 'If animals get infected they can die pretty quickly,' he added. 'So the idea of there being an epidemic among goats isn't really a concern here. 'Anthrax spores can survive in soil for decades. Animals get infected when they swallow spores, usually at the end of the dry season when they are down to the grass roots.' Professor Mabey said the key to controlling this outbreak would be to urge people not to eat the goat meat. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anthrax is one of the most likely chemicals to be used in a bioterrorism attack. In 2001, just a week after 9/11, letters containing anthrax spores killed five people and infected 17 others when they were sent to Democratic senators in the US in an act of slaughter which was never fully solved. But most of the few people who develop the illness will get it from contaminated farm animals. In 2016 there were 16 reported animal anthrax cases in the European Union, with nine in Hungary, four in Spain, two in Romania and one in Greece. Two cows on a farm in Westbury, Wiltshire, were infected with the bacteria in 2015, which was believed to be the first UK outbreak since 2006. And there was an outbreak of the disease in Namibia last year which resulted in the death of more than 109 hippos. A baby is one of just five people in the UK to suffer from a condition that caused him to be born with back-to-front legs and no buttocks. Tracy Fletcher gave birth to Baron last month. He has caudal regression syndrome (CDS), which has also left him with clubbed feet and no control over his lower body. Ms Fletcher, 39, from Cheltenham, was advised to abort her pregnancy after the rare condition was picked up at a 20-week scan. Despite being warned Baron would never walk, as well as suffer severe kidney, bowel and bladder problems, Ms Fletcher continued with the pregnancy. 'We've accepted that if he's disabled we'll help as much we can. We don't want him brought up any differently to any other baby,' Ms Fletcher said. Baron was born last month with his legs back to front due to a rare condition that affects just five people in the UK. Although his parents Tracey Fletcher and Edward were aware of what was coming, she described his legs as being 'almost parallel with his shoulders' Baron will never be able to walk and is set to suffer severe bladder, bowel and kidney problems Ms Fletcher and her partner Edward, whose last name is unknown, first discovered something was wrong during a routine scan. The care assistant said: 'After the 20-week scan we immediately started wondering what quality of life he would have and if he'd have a chance of life at all. 'The doctor said he'd be severely handicapped, would never walk and would have kidney problems, bladder and bowel problems. 'But in the end, we decided to continue and to bring our child into the world.' The youngster was delivered by two surgeons four weeks early. 'After I came round they asked if I wanted to see him,' Ms Fletcher said. 'As they lifted the screen up, the full reality hit home of what we had to face. He looked a lot worse than we thought, his legs were almost parallel with his shoulders. 'It was a very difficult moment and the first time I held him it was quite scary. A nurse said that in all of her 25 years she'd never come across a baby with the condition.' The youngster was immediately put into an inducted coma after his lungs filled with fluid and was only able to go home three weeks later. 'While he was intensive care I was with him every single day and he just looked so alone and helpless,' Ms Fletcher said. Although Baron is now home from his stint in hospital, the family still face challenges every day. 'We can't dress him properly because of the position of his legs and he can't kick them,' Ms Fletcher said. 'He has no feeling in his legs or across the lower part of his body but has recently started to move in some areas. 'He's making so much progress each and every day but we're unsure what quality of life he'll have. In spite of everything he's happy all the time.' The rare disorder also means Baron has a clubbed foot. The newborn is pictured in an induced coma, which he stayed in for three weeks, after being delivered with fluid filling his lungs Ms Fletcher found holding Baron (pictured left after waking from his coma) for the first time 'scary'. While in intensive care (right) she said he looked 'so alone and helpless' Pictured in a coma, Baron's parents were advised to terminate the pregnancy after the disorder showed up on a 20-week scan. Deciding to persevere, the newborn was delivered by C-section four weeks early before immediately being rushed to intensive care Writing on their GoFundMe page, Ms Fletcher claims Baron will require surgery on his hips, legs and spine in the future. She is fundraising 850 for a specialist car seat. His parents are determined to give Baron the best life they can and insist he will be treated no differently from any other child. 'He'll definitely be in a wheelchair. We've accepted that if he's disabled we'll help as much we can,' Ms Fletcher said. 'We want to give him the best possible life, he's loved by everyone. He's got a lovely, heartwarming smile. 'Despite everything he's been through and what he has to face on a daily basis, he's turning into the most wonderful little boy.' Now home, Baron has started to make progress and surprised people with his movement Pictured in hospital, Baron's parents are determined to give him the best quality of life possible Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) A subsidiary of TierOne Communications -- a member of the SEAR Telecom business venture -- is planning to file a case against the Mislatel consortium for franchise-related claims. "Yes your honor, DigiPhil ang magfa-file," Luis Chavit Singson, whose group of companies is part of SEAR Telecom, said in a Senate hearing on the third major telecommunications (telco) player Tuesday. TierOne's subsidiary DigiPhil, Singson insisted, has existing exclusive ties with Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company (Mislatel) which is part of the consortium declared as the provisional winner. This was the basis of their motion for reconsideration at the National Telecommunications' Commission (NTC), saying that Mislatel had engaged in fraudulent practices which are the subject of their disqualification. NTC disqualified SEAR Telecom for not having all the participation certificates of members in their consortium. Mislatel was chosen as the country's provisional third major player. Department of Information and Communications Technology Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said the selection committee will follow court ruling. "We will abide by the decision of the court. And I think in this particular case, the decision of the court will only be in damages," Rio said. Senator Chiz Escudero then asked if the decision comes two years after which effectively disqualifies Mislatel. "If that were the decision of the court, we will also disqualify Mislatel and come up with another bidding procedure," Rio added. The DICT chief also clarified the status of Mislatel. "Ang award lang po sa kanila ay [The only award to them is] they are the new major player. Provisional. Pero until they have the authority to operate, and the frequencies, they cannot operate," he said. Mislatel is expected to roll out its services by mid-2019. Three more students have been diagnosed with adenovirus at the University of Maryland where one immunocompromised student died of the illness earlier this month, Fox45 has reported. Adenovirus is a common and typically non-life-threatening virus, but it has proven deadly for people with weakened immune systems this year, including 11 children at a New Jersey care facility, and 18-year-old University of Maryland freshman, Olivia Paregol. The university came under fire after Paregol's family in Glenwood, Maryland, said the school failed to inform both her and her parents of her diagnosis and revealed that her dorm had been infested with mold. Some students have blamed mold for Paregol's death, but fungus does not cause viral infections and the University of Maryland is assuring its campus community and the public that it is taking precautions. So far, none of the additional students with adenovirus have needed to be hospitalized, and will likely recover on their own as the virus poses little danger to healthy adults. Another three students at the University of Maryland (pictured) have been diagnosed with adenovirus, the illness that killed one of their immunocompromised classmates last week A little more than a week ago, Paregol died after contracting adenovirus, which she was more vulnerable to because she suffered from the autoimmune condition, Crohn's disease. Last Tuesday - two days after Paregol's death - the University of Maryland (UMD) announced her death to its campus community and notified students, faculty and staff that five additional students had also been diagnosed with adenovirus. The school had gone on 'high-alert' for the virus after discovering that one student (not Paregol) had one of the most dangerous strains, adenovirus 7. Now, another three UMD students have tested positive for adenovirus. At the beginning of the school year, in September, mold was discovered in several UMD dormitory buildings, forcing the school to move hundreds of students out temporarily. Paregol's father alluded to the mold problem when discussing his daughter's death and her roommate, Jessica Thompson told CBS that mold was growing on their clothes and shoes in the dorm, and that she believed it made both girls sick. Ian Paregol later clarified in an interview with CBS: 'It didn't help the illness. I think that's a really fair statement. We don't know that there's causation, yet, but it didn't help things.' Respiratory symptoms from mold exposure are not dissimilar to those typical of adenovirus infections - coughing, sneezing, runny nose - mold cannot directly cause the virus, though it certainly could exacerbate symptoms. Olivia Paregol, an 18-year-old freshman, died a little over a week ago after contracting adenovirus. The illness was likely more dangerous to her because she had Crohn's disease Adenovirus does spread easily in communal living areas, however, so dorms may be providing a convenient environment to the virus. Its symptoms have subtle differences from those of mold exposure, and also include fever, sore throat and bronchitis, as well as pink eye, bladder infection, or diarrhea in some cases. UMD is urging its students to keep an eye out for these symptoms and has alerted its own health center and those in the surrounding area of the outbreak to encourage testing. Though it acknowledges the tragedy of Paregol's death, the school is also asking students not to panic in light of these new cases of adenovirus. 'None of these new cases has required hospitalization to our knowledge,' University Health Center director David McBride told Fox45. 'Please remember that adenoviruses are common causes of colds and are normally found in significant numbers of people at this time of year. 'There are strains that can cause more serious illness, but not every individual with an adenovirus infection will follow a complicated course.' A family has described their race against time to find a cure for their two-year-old son suffering from a rare fatal disease dubbed 'Parkinson's mixed with Alzheimer's for kids'. Deborah and Antoine Vauclare told the New York Post in an exclusive interview that they knew something was wrong with Leo from age one. He was having trouble waking and balancing and, soon enough, his speech regressed and he reverted to crawling. After months of doctors' vists and various tests, Leo was diagnosed with Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy, which causes muscle weakness, uncontrolled rapid eye movement, and a loss of vision, speech and cognitive skills. It is referred to as a childhood disease because most patients never reach adulthood. There is no treatment once symptoms appear or cure. Leo Vauclare, two, from Paris, France, was diagnosed with a rare, genetic disorder called Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy (INAD) in June. Pictured: Leo with his father, Antoine There were signs from age one that Leo (left and right) was developing more slowly compared to his peers. He was delayed in walking - eventually reverting to crawling - and his speech regressed Deborah, who is from New York, told the Post she met native Frenchman Antoine in 2010 after she moved to Paris to accept an internship at his architectural firm. They eventually married and their son Leo was born in April 2016. Neither knew they were carrying a copy of a nonworking gene that leads to the debilitating disease. Leo stopped hitting developmental milestones at around age one when he was delayed in learning how to walk. 'We thought he would walk by his first birthday but it wasn't until 14 months that he started to take his first steps alone,' Deborah told the Post. 'He would take five or six steps, then he'd fall. When he was still doing that at 18 months, we were concerned.' Leo's pediatrician diagnosed him with global developmental delay, which is when a child takes longer to reach certain development milestones than other children their age. But then Leo stopped speaking and reverted to crawling. In April, Antoine and Deborah visited a geneticist who performed blood tests In June, Leo was diagnosed Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy (INAD). INAD is caused by a mutation in the PLA2G6 gene, which provides instruction to make an enzyme that helps break down iron and certain fats known as phospholipids. INAD is a rare, genetic condition in which the body is unable to break down certain fats and iron that keep cell membranes intact and functioning properly. Pictured: Leo diagnosed with a family friend Metabolism of phospholipids and iron helps keep cell membranes intact and functioning properly. Symptoms usually appear between six and 18 months old. Children will be delayed hitting developmental milestones including crawling and speaking and, in some cases, lose skills already acquired. According to the Genetic Home Reference, children with INAD have muscles that are first weak and then become stiff. Eventually the child loses the ability to see, speak and think cognitively. Death usually occurs between ages five and 10. INAD has no cure and there is no treatment to stop the progression of symptoms. The National Organization for Rare Disorders estimates that it occurs in about one to two children per million. At the time, Deborah was seven months' pregnant with the couple's second child, Eva, and doctors told them there was a 25 percent chance she would develop the disease. 'It's just crazy to think that I went all the way to France and found someone that I fell in love with, and we were both carriers of this rare genetic mutation,' Deborah told the Post. Geneticists ran in utero tests and, five days later, Eva's results came back negative. However, the Vauclares were horrified as they researched INAD and learned of its devastating effects. There is currently no treatment or cure. Over time, Leo (pictured) will lose his speech, vision and cognitive skills. Death usually occurs between ages five and 10 This month, Leo was enrolled in a clinical trial at a New Jersey hospital to receive a medication that could delay the onset of his symptoms. Pictured: Leo with parents Antoine and Deborah '[I remember thinking] I have to reset my brain,' Antoine told the Post. 'Leo was only going to be with us for five, six, seven, 10, 11 more years. That's it. There's no hope.' The couple soon started a campaign called Bisous For Leo (Kisses For Leo) to raise funds for research for INAD treatments and cures. So far, they've raised more than $100,000 toward their goal of $558,000. They also joined the INADcure Foundation, a US-based nonprofit that works to raise awareness and money for research. Antoine and Deborah were put into contact with doctors who are developing clinical trials involving gene editing and enzyme therapy replacement. Earlier this month, Leo was enrolled in a clinical trial at Goryeb Children's Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey. He's receiving a drug known as RT0001, which, doctors told The Post, will regulate Leo's iron buildup if successful. 'We're trying to push the urgency to these scientists, doctors and researchers because we are on a time crunch,' Deborah told the newspaper. 'Otherwise, Leo is not going to live.' A six-year-old girl who was born with malformed fingers can finally brush her hair after getting a 'robot hand'. Leah Sweeney, of Castletown, Sunderland, has peromelic symbrachydactyly, which prevented the fingers on her left hand from forming properly. The youngster received the 3D prosthetic last Friday; just over a year after her parents Kelly Doran, 43, and Mark Sweeney, 36, sent off the youngster's hand measurements. The charity Team UnLimbited made the artificial hand for free and even customised it in the theme of her favourite Disney princess Ariel. Leah's parents hope the prosthetic will further boost the youngster's confidence, with her already being able to ride a bike and play on the monkey bars. Leah Sweeney, six, can finally brush her hair after being given a custom made 'robot hand' Pictured with her parents Kelly Doran, 43, and Mark Sweeney, 36, Leah was born with peromelic symbrachydactyly, which prevented the fingers on her left hand forming properly Leah's parents contacted UnLimbited last year, with the finished product arriving last week while the youngster was off school with a stomach bug. 'Trying to explain to a child that it takes time to build and they're making it for lots of other children too was tough - children have a different level of patience so she was always asking when it was coming,' Mr Sweeney said. 'It's an early Christmas present for her.' Just days later, she can already pick up small objects and brush her hair. 'She loves it. Just to be able to pick something up she's so happy about it. It is just amazing to see, it changes her life really,' Ms Doran said. 'Team UnLimbited have helped her so much, I can't thank them enough. It was all very emotional.' Her parents hope the artificial hand will help boost Leah's confidence. 'There's very little she can't do. She rides a bike, she plays, she can do the monkey bars and she goes to school like everyone else,' Mr Sweeney said. 'The hand gives her a little bit more confidence and a story to tell. I'd like to think someday she'll see that she doesn't even need one.' Leah's parents hope this will boost her confidence, with her already being able to ride a bike The youngster received the 'early Christmas present' last Friday after waiting more than a year WHAT IS PEROMELIC SYMBRACHYDACTYLY? Symbrachydactyly defines a hand anomaly that affects one of the upper limbs and is present at birth. There are many different types with 'peromelic' occurring when the fingers are 'nubbins' or small lumps. It affects around one in every 32,000 births. Symbrachydactyly's cause is unknown but may be related to the interruption of the blood supply to the developing arm between four and six weeks of pregnancy. There is nothing a pregnant woman can do to prevent the disorder, which is not hereditary. Most children use their unaffected hand as their dominant one, with the other hand just assisting. Surgery aims to upgrade the affected hand', which can often still grip. Many patients adapt well to their condition, however, some may struggle to use a zip, ride a bike, eat with cutlery, use scissors or play an instrument. There is also the option of prosthetics, which can be used alongside surgery. Artifical hands or limbs are often just given for cosmetic purposes. Source: Great Ormond Street Hospital Advertisement Team UnLimbited is a collaboration between Drew Murray and Stephen Davies, who design, build, fit and deliver 3D printed hands and arms for free. It has built around 100 devices for people between four and 70 years old in the UK since its 2015 launch. Mr Davies said: 'Leah requested a rainbow Ariel hand. 'We try to make it a special occasion for the children, something that makes them feel special and to boost their moral and give them self confidence. 'It's all about ability not disability. He added: 'The importance of building our devices to a requested theme makes these arms not a thing, but an actual extension of self. 'It turns children who are quite often picked on for their disability into the cool kid with the iron man or frozen arm. 'The psychological effect of this is not to be underestimated. 'I have walked in their shoes, I know how this feels being born with one hand myself.' Leah's family has set up a fundraising page to raise 200 for Team UnLimbited. Symbrachydactyly defines a hand anomaly that affects one of the upper limbs and is present at birth. There are many different types with 'peromelic' occurring when the fingers are 'nubbins' or small lumps. It affects around one in every 32,000 births. Her mother (pictured) described the prosthetic hand as 'life changing' and said receiving it was 'very emotional'. Also pictured are Leah with her father and siblings Holly and Jay Antibiotics may hold promise in extending your life - and not by ridding you of killer infections. Researchers claim the drugs may cull older cells that have lost the ability to divide and are linked to age-related disorders. The senescent cells are thought to be the root cause of diseases including cancer, heart disease and even dementia. Salford University scientists made the discovery using azithromycin, which treats infections ranging from gonorrhoea to Lyme disease. The antibiotic azithromycin was found to 'cull' old cells that can no longer divide The study comes amid fears of antibiotic resistance, driven by the unnecessary doling out of the drugs, which has fueled once harmless bacteria to become superbugs. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously warned if nothing is done the world is heading for a 'post-antibiotic' era. The researchers, led by Professor Michael Lisanti, exposed both normal cells and 'old' ones from human skin and lung tissue to a DNA-damaging agent. They then added the antibiotics azithromycin and roxithromycin to compare their ability to remove the older cells. Results showed that a single low-dose of azithromycin killed 97 per cent of the old cell. And the healthy cells still thrived. 'We may have unearthed a very inexpensive and readily available method of eliminating ageing cells that are toxic to the body,' Professor Lisanti said. 'It was an astonishing result and one that got us thinking about the implications for treating or preventing a variety of ageing-associated diseases. WHAT IS ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE? Antibiotics have been doled out unnecessarily by GPs and hospital staff for decades, fueling once harmless bacteria to become superbugs. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously warned if nothing is done the world is heading for a 'post-antibiotic' era. It claimed common infections, such as chlamydia, will become killers without immediate solutions to the growing crisis. Bacteria can become drug resistant when people take incorrect doses of antibiotics or if they are given out unnecessarily. Former chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies claimed in 2016 that the threat of antibiotic resistance is as severe as terrorism. Figures estimate that superbugs will kill 10 million people each year by 2050, with patients succumbing to once harmless bugs. Around 700,000 people already die yearly due to drug-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria across the world. Concerns have repeatedly been raised that medicine will be taken back to the 'dark ages' if antibiotics are rendered ineffective in the coming years. In addition to existing drugs becoming less effective, there have only been one or two new antibiotics developed in the last 30 years. In September, the WHO warned antibiotics are 'running out' as a report found a 'serious lack' of new drugs in the development pipeline. Without antibiotics, C-sections, cancer treatments and hip replacements will become incredibly 'risky', it was said at the time. Advertisement 'Azithromycin is a relatively mild antibiotic that has been proven to extend lifespan in cystic fibrosis patients by several years. 'Originally, the thinking was azithromycin is killing harmful bacteria in cystic fibrosis patients but our tests now shed a new light on what might be actually going on. 'Our new interpretation is the antibiotic is probably eliminating the senescent cells that are normally associated with ageing.' Senescent cells may drive inflammation, with CF being associated with chronic inflammation in lung tissue, which shortens a sufferer's lifespan. Azithromycin is thought to force old cells to 'kill themselves' and shut off their energy supply. The results, published in the journal Aging, further suggested roxithromycin killed 70 per cent of the senescent cells by working in the same way as azithromycin, but also targeted some of the healthy ones. 'If we consider our results and then we also consider what results have been achieved in clinical trials with cystic fibrosis patients, we are probably looking at the same mechanism(s), whereby antibiotics are removing inflammatory senescent cells and boosting healthy ones,' co-lead author Professor Federica Sotgia said. 'Undoubtedly, our results have significant implications for potentially alleviating or reversing tissue dysfunction and slowing the development of many ageing-associated diseases.' Inflammation caused by senescent cells may be associated with the onset of cancer, as well as the disease's recurrence and spread, the researchers wrote. Previous studies have shown azithromycin removes cells that cause lung inflammation in mice who have been exposed to radiation. While roxithromycin - which treats tonsilitis and pneumonia - is associated with hair regrowth. This may involve removing nearby old cells. Cells are thought to age due to the accumulation of so-called senescent cells. These are older, deteriorated cells that do not function as well as they should and spread such effects to the cells that surround them. Cells are thought to become senescent due to DNA damage or inflammation, as well as an inability to turn genes on and off at the right time. Health chiefs have warned of an 'unacceptably high' number of new HIV cases in Europe. Nearly 160,000 people were diagnosed across the continent with the virus that can lead to AIDS last year, figures show. The majority were in the east, which faced its worst ever year for cases of the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has now urged governments to 'scale up your response now' to keep on track for eliminating AIDS. MailOnline has today sifted through the data, released by the body, to reveal the rates of HIV across all the countries in Europe. Some 160,000 people were diagnosed with HIV for the first time in Europe last year, with 130,000 of the new cases in the east of the continent, while rates are falling in the EU Ukraine had the highest rate of new HIV infections, with 37 per 100,000 people far higher than any other country and a total of 15,680 people. This was followed by Belarus, with 26.1 cases per 100,000, Moldova with 20.6, and Latvia with 19. The countries with the fewest new cases were Liechtenstein, which didn't have a single diagnosis, and Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which both had fewer than one per 100,000. The UK had 4,363 new cases second only in the EU to France which works out at 6.7 per 100,000 people. 'It's hard to talk about good news in the face of another year of unacceptably high numbers of people infected with HIV,' said the WHO's Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab. THE COUNTRIES WITH THE MOST NEW CASES OF HIV Ukraine (37 per 100,000 people) Belarus (26.1) Moldova (20.6) Latvia (19) Luxembourg (16.7) Estonia (16.6) Kazakhstan (16.6) Georgia (16.1) Portugal (14.2) Kyrgyzstan (13.9) Advertisement THE COUNTRIES WITH THE FEWEST NEW CASES OF HIV Liechtenstein (0) Kosovo (0.2 per 100,000 people) Bosnia & Herzegovina (0.3) Slovakia (1.3) Slovenia (1.9) Macedonia (2.1) Hungary (2.3) Czech Republic (2.4) Croatia (2.5) Serbia (2.5) Advertisement 'While efforts to prevent new HIV infections are gradually showing signs of progress, we are not on course to meet [our] targets by the 2020 deadline. 'My call to governments, ministers of health and decision-makers is bold: scale up your response now.' Around 81 per cent of these new cases were among people in eastern Europe the highest number ever for a single year. And of the 130,000 cases in eastern Europe, 59 per cent came from heterosexual transmission, according to the patients. But on the flipside, the number of new diagnoses in the EU went down, driven by a 20 per cent fall in infections among gay men. Across the whole continent, men are by far the worst affected gender 70 per cent of new HIV diagnoses are in men. Gay and bisexual men are most susceptible to catching HIV because anal sex carries a 10 times higher risk of infection than vaginal. This is due to cells in the anus being more susceptible to HIV, as well as fluid in semen and the anus' lining carrying more HIV than vaginal secretions. The rate at which the disease which is most often spread by unprotected sex or sharing drug needles is spreading is not as fast as in the past. The annual increase has dropped from 6.9 per 100,000 people in 2008 to 6.2 in 2017. But experts say late diagnosis is a key reason for struggling to contain the virus around half of patients are already in an advanced stage of the disease by the time they find out. WHAT IS HIV? HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is an incurable sexually-transmitted disease which attacks the immune system. If untreated, it completely destroys the immune system. HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE IT? HIV has killed about 35 million people since the 1980s. Approximately 35 million people in the world currently have it. HOW DOES IT WORK? HIV is a virus that damages the cells in the immune system and weakens the ability to fight infections and disease. Without treatment, HIV can turn into AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), which is a syndrome (or, a set of symptoms) not a virus. In layman's terms, AIDS has been referred to as 'late-stage HIV'. A person has AIDS when their immune system is too weak to fight off infections. AIDS cannot be transmitted from one person to another; HIV can. WHAT IS THE PROGNOSIS? Those diagnosed with HIV need to be on medication for life to prevent it turning into AIDS, which is often fatal. A decade ago, people who were HIV positive were given a shorter life expectancy because the medication, suppressing the immune system, made patients highly vulnerable to fatal infections. Today, HIV drugs are much more sophisticated. They allow for people who are HIV positive to live as long as anyone else in good health. They can also suppress the viral load to such an extent that it is undetectable and untransmittable, meaning it's possible to have intimate relationships without passing it on. Advertisement 'Despite our efforts, HIV still damages the lives of so many people,' said the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis. '[It] causes not only much suffering and illness, but also discrimination and stigmatization. 'A lot of progress has been made, but there is still much more we must do. 'We must overcome the stigma of HIV infection and treatment and continue our efforts in dispelling false beliefs about how HIV and AIDS are spread. 'It is important for our public health services to support easy and affordable access to testing and medical care for vulnerable groups at risk of HIV infection.' Though HIV cases continue to rise, the number of people developing AIDS when HIV causes the immune system to fail fatally is falling. The number of AIDS cases in the region fell by seven per cent between 2012 and 2017. In the EU in 2017, 89 per cent of AIDS cases were diagnosed within just 90 days of a HIV diagnosis, which emphasises the need for early intervention, experts say. Gay and bisexual men are most susceptible to catching HIV because anal sex carries a 10 times higher risk of infection than vaginal. This is due to cells in the anus being more susceptible to HIV, as well as fluid in semen and the anus' lining carrying more HIV than vaginal secretions. UNAIDS warned earlier this year the fight in controlling AIDS was at a 'precarious point' and that the AIDS epidemic risks resurging and spiraling out of control. HIV infections must be limited to 500,000 per year globally by 2020 to achieve the UN goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Nearly half of US businesses say that the opioid epidemic is affecting their offices and work sites, a new study suggests. Nearly one in three Americans knows someone struggling with an opioid addiction. That person might be a friend, a family member, or a co-worker. The addiction crisis is not isolated to the shadows and most vulnerable populations in the US. It is widespread and increasingly affecting homes and workplaces alike. A survey by The Hartford, an insurance company, found that in addition to the half of companies not already feeling the effects of opioid addiction another third expect that they will in the future. Half of HR personnel say that opioid addiction affects the workers they interact with - but only a quarter know how to spot the warning signs or how to help struggling co-workers And companies are already bracing for the financial impact that two-thirds of HR professionals believe opioid addiction is having or will have on their businesses. Last year, 72,000 people died of drug overdoses, driven by jaw-dropping rates of opioid misuse. Prior to 2017, 2016 held the record for the highest number of fatal drug overdose (64,000). That year, 217 people died of overdoses on on the job - a one-third increase over the previous year. Given the findings of The Hartford's survey of more than 2,500 workers, companies are much aware of this issue, but employees and human resources professionals are unsure how to identify people struggling with addiction, much less how to help them. Of the 2,000 workers, just 18 percent felt confident that they would recognize the signs of opioid addiction. Human resources professionals felt a little more confident, with one quarter responding that they would know addiction if they saw it. But, overall, under 20 percent of both groups felt capable of reducing opioid addiction risks for themselves and their colleagues. If simply being concerned for the well-being of their employees isn't enough, the National Safety Council (NSC) provides some financial motivations for employers to reduce these risks, as well as tips for how to accomplish this. In total, the opioid epidemic is estimated to cost the US economy some $40 billion a year (that's not including the cost of other addictions). And the NSC says that employers have to spend three times more on healthcare costs for employees with substance abuse disorders than they do on other employees. Cutting these costs - and protecting the health of their employees requires both preventative and reactive measures. The NSC urges employers to maintain strong policies against drug use, screen for opioids specifically and train employees to recognize warning signs that someone may be misusing or at risk for misusing opioids. 'A lot of this is just being close to someone, so you can recognize changes in behavior or relationships or missing more work, or longer unexplained breaks,' says Shannon Hartley, chief marketing officer at Shatterproof, an addiction advocacy group that is partnering with The Hartford to help educate employees. On the other hand, 'we don't want to create a culture where colleagues are trying to diagnose one another.' Instead, employees should be taught to encourage their co-workers - gently and non-judgmentally to seek help. We don't want to create a culture where colleagues are trying to diagnose one another Shannon Hartley, chief marketing officer, Shatter Proof advocacy Employers, in turn, need to be sure that they work closely with healthcare providers to establish plans for their workers that give equal coverage to mental health and misuse issues as they do to other diseases. And not only equal monetary coverage, but in terms of the type and duration of treatment. Employers need to make sure they provide 'benefits that really support the chronic nature of disease, helping patients not only through not only acute addiction but through recovery support, behavioral support and medications,' said Hartley. 'Addiction is not treated in a 28-day stay and employers need to make sure that benefits are providing equal treatment for mental health and substance abuse as they are for other services, so that that doesn't become a barrier to treatment itself.' It is required by law that insurers cover substance abuse treatment and mental health services, but 'that hasn't always been implemented,' said Hartley. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers aren't allowed to deny someone coverage based on a 'preexisting condition.' That includes addiction and addiction treatment - for the moment. Of course, no one wants their employees to get to that point in the first place, so Hartley says prevention is clear. There have been many horror stories, for example, of people injured on the job, whose pain pills were covered by their insurance - but who then got addicted and returned to work while high or in withdrawal, or even overdosed while at work. For this reason, employers have an obligation to teach their employees to advocate for themselves, too, fighting back if a doctor tries to over-prescribe. Instead, employers need to help ensure that their workers have access to pain management alternatives and, if they should be developing a substance issue, 'be able to recognize it in themselves and go seek help,' Hartley said. 'We see outstanding results [from addiction treatment], just like we do from treatment for so many other chronic diseases,' she added. 'Addiction is not about bad choices, bad character, or bad people. It's about a disease, and we need to treat it as such.' After paying 180 to a letting agent to secure a new home, 29-year old Jamie Pratt was excited to move into the house in Bristol with his friends Rory, Wayne and George. But before he could pay his deposit and move in, Jamie received some devastating news. The 29-year-old discovered that he had a brain tumour and needed to move closer to his family in Leicester for treatment. This meant the group of friends could no longer move into the property, but when they asked for a refund of the money they had paid to secure the house, they claim the letting agent ignored their request. Jamie's story is just one of the many that highlight why renters across the country are eagerly awaiting the tenants fee ban, which two years after it was first announced is still yet to arrive. While scanning Jamie's head for a concussion doctors found a tumour on the side of his brain Last December, Jamie got a concussion after banging his head. While in hospital for a scan, the doctors found he had a low grade glioma on the left side of his brain. In the weeks before Jamie was due to move in, the doctors told him it the tumour had grown. Jamie decided to move back to his family home in Leicester, to be closer to the hospital where he was receiving treatment and his family. Not being able to pull together the money to cover Jamie's deposit and afford to live there without him, his three friends felt they had to pull out and find somewhere else. But getting back the money he had put down wasn't simple. After what Jamie and his friends claim were repeated ignored requests to Bristol letting agent Be Streets Ahead for a refund, they had all but given up hope. 'Knowing that because I couldn't move, my friends who were moving with me also lost their admin fees because they couldn't afford to cover the cost of a fourth person was disheartening,' said Jamie. After being contacted by This is Money, Be Streets Ahead agreed to refund Jamie's holding fee on compassionate grounds. His three friends lost their fees however. For two years renters have been waiting for the government's promised ban on agent fees to materialise but in the meantime some letting agents continue to charge high fees. Jamie and his friends had paid a non-refundable fee, so were not entitled to it back, however, they believe common sense should have prevailed and an exception made due to the medical emergency that meant they could not move in. Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a tenants fees ban in his 2016 Autumn Statement 'I know it doesn't seem like much, but Jamie could use that 180 on hospital parking fees,' said Jamie's friend George. Jamie says that he tried and failed to get a refund and so contacted This is Money for help. When we contacted the letting agent, Be Streets Ahead denied it had been contacted with a request for a refund. Richard Manning, director at Be Streets Ahead, said: 'No further emails have been received from any of the group so their claim that they have requested a refund is simply not the case. 'We would of course be happy to refund in full, on compassionate grounds, Jamie's application fee. 'We made every effort to accommodate this group and we at Streets Ahead feel that our policies are fair, certainly more so than the vast majority of letting agents in our industry.' This is Money has seen emails chasing up Be Streets Ahead from Rory's mum dated from last month which specifically request a refund, but the letting agent claimed they were addressed to an outdated email address. This is Money tried emailing the address and did not receive a bounce back. 'I feel that speaking up about the situation does help,' said Jamie. 'Agency fees are non-refundable no matter your situation, and for young adults trying to make a go at moving to a new city and bettering themselves it's a hefty price to pay.' Jamie is having a consultation with his doctors next month for the biopsy surgery he will have to undertake. Government looks to ban tenant fees outright Be Streets Ahead is not legally required to offer a refund as a clause in the application form specifies that the fee is non-refundable. What extra fees do renters usually face? There is evidence that fees paid by tenants have increased significantly in recent years. Citizens' Advice found that 64 per cent of tenants experience problems paying letting agents' fees, and 42 per cent have to borrow money to cover the cost. Meanwhile a report from the charity Shelter found that nearly one in four people in England and Wales feels they have been charged unfair fees by a letting agent. Letting agencies typically charge tenants 337 in fees to rent a home and many tenants in London are forced to pay over 400. This has led to concerns that costs are being ramped up rather than passed on. Credit checks, for example, can cost as little as 3 but many letting agents charge tenants in excess of 50 for them. In other instances, tenants can be charged for admin work, such as tenancy renewals and inventories, when these should be covered by the letting and management fees already being charged to landlords. According to comparison site Letting Fees UK, as of April 2016 a two-person household paid an average 386 in letting fees, with fees charged ranging from 40 to up to 780. But these types of charges are on the Government's radar, and a Bill is currently going through Parliament looking to ban excessive tenant fees outright. On top of banning fees, the Bill also proposes capping the deposits renters pay at the beginning of their tenancy to the equivalent of six weeks' rent. Government analysis suggests tenants will on average save around 300 every time they move house as a result of the ban. Minister Rishi Sunak MP said: 'Tenants across the country, whatever their income, should not be hit with unfair costs by agents or landlords. 'The Tenant Fees Bill will make renting fairer and more transparent for all.' Campaign group Generation Rent, along with Shelter and Citizens Advice, has called for the Tenant Fees Bill to be tightened up. As it stands the Bill would not entitle Jamie and his friends to a refund of their application fee. Hannah Slater, policy and public affairs manager at Generation Rent, said: 'This case shows that letting agents will seek to impose unfair charges through holding deposits and default fees, even where tenants are evidently not at fault and the charges are morally questionable. 'The Tenant Fees Ban will help most renters but it will be a missed opportunity if the Bill isn't tightened up so that some renters aren't still tied into paying unfair charges on top of high rents. 'It's also a concern that agents charging unfair fees may be able to get away with it if local authorities aren't resourced properly to enforce the ban, and tenants don't feel able to recoup it themselves through the courts.' Around 177m was wiped off the value of Melrose after reports its takeover of GKN may not be going to plan. Melrose took over the engineering group in a controversial 8 billion hostile deal earlier this year, promising to make the business more efficient. The company specialises in reviving the fortunes of underperforming industrial firms, but critics believe that by taking on GKN it has bitten off more than it can chew. Stuck on the launch pad: Melrose took over the engineering group in a controversial 8 billion hostile deal Simon Peckham, chief executive, had hoped to sell GKN's Powder Metallurgy arm for 2 billion. But the initial bids have come in significantly below that, at around 1.6 billion, according to Sky News. Shares in Melrose fell 2 per cent, or 3.65p, at 178.2p. The battle to take over GKN sparked fears Melrose would bring the curtain down on its proud history. GKN traces its roots back more than 250 years to the Napoleonic Wars, when it made cannonballs for the Duke of Wellington's armies. It also helped produce Spitfires during the Second World War. Investors have also protested against the large rewards to Melrose's four top bosses, who each took home 42m last year. The quartet could share in 285m in bonuses if they make a success of the GKN takeover. Business Secretary Greg Clark had said he would look into whether ministers should block the deal on national security grounds because of GKN's Ministry of Defence contracts. In a bid to ward off a Whitehall block of the takeover, Melrose agreed it would tell the Government early on if it received bids for parts of the business that might have national security implications. It also agreed to give the Government a veto over the disposal of defence assets and pledged that it would not sell GKN's aerospace arm which makes parts for the US Black Hawk military helicopter until 2023. It only just succeeded in its bid for GKN in March, winning 52.4 per cent of a shareholder vote. Reports of the disappointing offers led to speculation that Melrose may put on hold the sale of Powder Metallurgy, which makes components for the car industry. Private equity firms Apollo and PAI Partners are understood to be among those who tabled bids last week. Analyst Mark Fielding at RBC Capital Markets said that Melrose is 'unlikely to sell' if it feels that 'uncertain market conditions' have pushed down the bids. Melrose declined to comment last night. Italy's stock market rallied yesterday as hopes grew that its coalition government will back down in a row with Brussels over spending plans. The Milan exchange rose 2.5 per cent on reports that officials would be willing to trim its 2019 deficit target to around 2 per cent of its annual economy. Euro vision: The Milan exchange rose 2.5 per cent on reports that officials would be willing to trim its 2019 deficit target In September it announced plans to run a budget deficit of 2.4 per cent next year a major increase on this year's deficit target of 1.6 per cent. It sparked fears Italy will be unable to repay its debts, and was in breach of European Union rules. Ministers were due to meet last night to discuss the move. A rethink could mean Rome avoids disciplinary action from the EU, but it is unclear if the downward revision would be enough to satisfy the European Commission. The nation's anti-establishment ruling coalition was elected on pledges of a big spending boost, prompting analysts to worry the country will be living far beyond its means. A downturn in Italy would reignite fears over the future of the euro. A vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline could also be used to treat gonorrhoea and give a significant sales boost to the British pharmaceutical giant. The sexually transmitted disease is becoming harder to clear as resistance grows to traditional antibiotic treatments. But GSK is now in talks with regulators about how Bexsero, its vaccine against a form of meningitis, could be expanded to include gonorrhoea after research in New Zealand suggested the drug could work on the disease. Boost: GSK is now in talks with regulators about how Bexsero, its vaccine against a form of meningitis, could be expanded to include gonorrhoea GSK is also considering whether to develop a specific vaccine to target gonorrhoea. Emmanuel Hanon, head of research and development at the company's vaccine unit, said: 'We have all the knowledge and technology to make a real gonorrhoea vaccine.' Cases of the illness have been rising in England. Data published in the British Medical Journal shows 44,676 people were diagnosed last year, a 22 per cent rise on the year before. A House of Commons report last month said the UK has seen cases of the disease for which no standard therapy currently exists. The ultimate decision on whether a vaccine will be developed will lie with GSK's chief executive Emma Walmsley, who has vowed not to embark on new development projects without obvious commercial potential. Budget airline Flybe has soared higher after more than a month in the doldrums. Reports that British Airways owner IAG might join Virgin Atlantic in bidding for the troubled business gave shares a lift. After climbing 71.3 per cent on Friday when it confirmed it was in talks with Virgin, Flybe shot up another 33.5 per cent, or 5.55p, to 22.1p as weekend reports cited industry sources saying IAG may make an offer. IAG and Flybe declined to comment. Flybe put itself up for sale earlier this month, just weeks after a profit warning wiped 29m off its market value. The company told investors that full-year losses were expected to reach 22m, far higher than analysts had predicted. A bidding war for Flybe would reignite old tensions between Virgin Atlantic's Sir Richard Branson and IAG's boss Willie Walsh. The two business titans have previously traded verbal blows, with Walsh placing a bet back in 2012 that Virgin would not exist in five years. When that period came to an end last year, Branson called on Walsh to pay 1m to Virgin's crew. Southend Airport's owner Stobart Group (up 1.5 per cent, or 3p, to 202p) is also rumoured to be considering a bid, potentially with the help of a private equity firm. Easyjet (up 2.6 per cent, or 31p, to 1238p)has ruled itself out. The FTSE 100 edged up 1.2 per cent, or 83.1 points, to 7036 after Theresa May's Brexit deal was approved by the rest of the EU. The agreement helped lift shares in companies which generate most of their earnings in the UK, as a deal for leaving the EU would put the UK's economy on firmer footing. But Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the rise was not large enough to suggest that investors are now hungry for UK stocks after a long downbeat period. He added: 'The fact that EU leaders have agreed the UK's exit deal ultimately isn't enough to convince the market that Brexit will be conducted smoothly. 'Getting the deal approved by Parliament is the real hard task, so UK equities are likely to remain volatile until the vote in mid-December.' On the FTSE 250, Premier Oil was the largest riser as the price of oil edged up slightly and investors grew hopeful that it may become a bid target. Shares climbed 11.2 per cent, or 7.3p, to 72.1p. Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank owner CYBG rose 10.5 per cent, or 20.3p, to 213p as it recovered from a slump last week. The banking group's shares had plummeted 16.9 per cent on Tuesday as it revealed it had taken a bigger hit than expected from mis-sold payment protection insurance. Telecoms company TalkTalk edged up as its executive chairman, Sir Charles Dunstone, bought 379,593 shares in the company for 117.4p each. The businessman, who is also raking in cash from US burger chain Five Guys, which he brought to the UK, now owns a 28.6 per cent stake in Talk Talk, worth 397m at yesterday's closing price, which had risen 2.5 per cent, or 3p, to 121.1p. On London's junior market AIM, confectionery company Cake Box crept up 2.6 per cent, or 4.5p, to 180.5p on the back of its first half-year results as a listed company. The cake-making franchise, which charges bakeries to use its name and product know-how, saw revenue jump 44 per cent to 8.3m for the six months ending in September. Pre-tax profits, disregarding the costs of its stock market float in June, jumped 34 per cent to 2m. Pharmaceuticals company Vectura, on the other hand, dropped 10.2 per cent, or 7.95p, to 69.65p as its treatment for severe asthma failed a late-stage test. The firm said it would write-down the value of the treatment to zero, which will hit full-year profits by 40m. An Ohio man charged with killing a woman during the Charlottesville white nationalist rally plans to argue that he believed he was acting in self-defense when he drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters. James Alex Fields Jr., 21, of Maumee, Ohio, was one of hundreds of white nationalists who travelled to Charlottesville, Virginia to attend the 'Unite the Right' rally on August 12, 2017. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed when a car authorities say was driven by Fields plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, and more than two dozen people were injured. Afterward, President Donald Trump enflamed racial tensions when he said 'both sides' were to blame, a comment some called a refusal to condemn racism. 'Self defense': James Alex Fields Jr., 21, is charged with first-degree murder over the death of Heather Heyer, as well as hit-and-run charges and eight counts of causing serious injury, after allegedly driving his car into a group of protesters in Charlottesville last August The Dodge car allegedly driven by James Fields into counter-protesters at a the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville Yesterday, a lawyer for Fields, who has also been described as a neo-Nazi, offered a glimpse of the defense strategy as jury selection began in Charlottesville General District Court. Fields' attorney, John Hill, told a group of prospective jurors Monday the jury will hear evidence that Fields 'thought he was acting in self-defense.' The 21-year-old is charged with first-degree murder over the death of Heyer, as well as hit-and-run charges and eight counts of causing serious injury with his black Dodge Challenger during the 'Unite the Right' protest. Killed: Heather Heyer, 32, died when she was run over by a car at the Charlottesville white nationalist rally He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Fields was photographed hours before the attack with a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that participated in the rally, although the group denied any association with him. One of Fields' teachers has said he was fascinated by Nazism and admired Adolf Hitler. Pretrial hearings have offered few insights into Fields. A Charlottesville police detective testified that as he was being detained after the car crash, Fields said he was sorry and sobbed when he was told a woman had been killed. Fields later told a judge he is being treated for bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and ADHD. During jury selection Monday, Fields glanced several times at the crowd of prospective jurors in the courtroom and answered 'Yes, sir' when asked introductory questions by Judge Richard Moore. In this courtroom sketch, James Alex Fields Jr., second from left, appears along with his attorneys, Denise Lunsford, left, and John Hill, front right, as Judge Richard E. Moore, top right, reads charges during jury selection in Fields' trial in Charlottesville General District Court Evidence of hate: Just hours before the attack which saw Ms Heyer killed and dozens injured, Fields was photographed with a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that participated in the rally American hero: A man holds a photo of Heather Heyer on Boston Common at a 'Free Speech' rally organized by conservative activists, in Boston last August Television crews do stand up in front of court for the trial of James Alex Fields Jr., in Charlottesville General District Court in Charlottesville, Virginia After asking general questions of prospective jurors, the judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors questioned individual jurors privately. By 2:30 p.m., only about nine people out of a group of 28 had been questioned. Moore acknowledged the process is 'slow going.' 'We're trying to be as careful as we can for both sides of the case,' Moore said. Fields' lawyers had asked to move the trial out of Charlottesville, arguing that an unbiased jury could not be picked in the city so deeply affected by the violence. Moore did not grant the motion, but indicated it could be revisited if finding an impartial jury in Charlottesville proved difficult. Star Peterson, whose right leg was virtually crushed by the car, has had five surgeries and still uses a wheelchair and cane. She sat quietly in the courtroom Monday watching the proceedings as a friend comforted her. Peterson declined to comment. Moore said 12 jurors and four alternate jurors will be chosen. The trial is expected to last about three weeks. A woman has spoken publicly for the first time about how her dream holiday with her fiancee turned to disaster when he allegedly tried to throw her off the side of a luxury cruise ship. The alleged victim, known as Kim, and her partner David James Fysh boarded the Radiance of the Seas for a five-night cruise from Sydney to Tasmania on October 16. Less than 48 hours later, an argument erupted inside their cabin - sparking a confrontation that would see Fysh charged with attempted murder. The 46-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Kim claimed to A Current Affair that Fysh locked her on the balcony before he grabbed 'the back of my arms' and allegedly tried to throw her overboard. Kim's (left) partner David James Fysh (right), 46, is accused by police of trying to throw her off the edge of a luxury cruise ship The pair had planned to enjoy a five-night cruise from Sydney to Tasmania starting on October 16 on board the Radiance of the Seas (pictured) Kim, who was wearing a silky robe, claims she freed herself after she 'slipped out of his grip like a ninja'. She alleges that she then locked him on the balcony and called cruise staff, who detained Fysh below deck. Kim claimed her relationship with Fysh had always been volatile. Kim claimed Fysh locked her on the balcony before he grabbed 'the back of my arms' and allegedly tried to throw her overboard The Radiance of the Sea luxury cruise liner is operated by Royal Caribbean. A spokesperson for the company told Daily Mail Australia a 'domestic disturbance was reported between two guests'. 'Our security staff responded to the incident and Tasmania Police were notified and attended the ship on arrival in Hobart,' the spokesperson said. 'Royal Caribbean is co-operating fully with authorities. At Royal Caribbean, the safety and security of our guests and crew is our highest priority.' Police allege Fysh tried to throw Kim from a balcony on the boat by grabbing her under her arms following an argument at 3.30am Fysh was arrested and charged with attempted murder after the 'Radiance of the Seas' docked in Hobart 'We have a zero tolerance policy to any form of violence or crime onboard our ships.' Fysh pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted murder at Hobart Magistrates Court on Friday October 19. He was refused bail and committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court on February 4. A 13-year-old girl has been arrested after stealing a minivan and leading police officers on a 100mph late-night car chase in eastern Iowa. The driver and five other young people in the van, all aged 13 to 18, were taken into custody early Sunday after the minivan was stopped on the west side of Davenport. The lone adult in the stolen vehicle, 18-year-old Dramya Holt, was arrested on theft and attempted burglary charges and remains in custody. Arrested: The driver and five other teenagers who were in the van, including Dramya Holt, 18, (pictured) were taken into custody after the minivan was stopped in Davenport, Iowa The other passengers, aged 13 to 15, have been released to parents with pending charges, Blue Grass Police said in a statement. The driver, a 13-year-old female from Davenport, was arrested and placed into the Scott County Juvenile Detention Center. Blue Grass Police Chief Garrett Jahns says the chase began in Blue Grass after the minivan was spotted by an officer checking a report of vehicle break-ins. Jahns says Scott County sheriff's deputies stopped the minivan by using deflation devices to puncture all four tires. Holt, pictured at previous arrests, is facing charges in a similar incident, involving a group of teenagers being caught in a stolen car Jahns say the minivan was stolen in Rock Island, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Davenport. Holt remains in Scott County Jail on an $11,000 bail. She is already facing theft charges following her arrest in June in a similar incident, when she was a passenger in a stolen car along with two males aged 12 and 14, and two girls aged 13 and 16. State and federal investigators are trying to find out who hung seven nooses in trees outside the Mississippi Capitol early Monday, a day before a U.S. Senate runoff that has focused attention on the state's history of racist violence. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety says the nooses were accompanied by handwritten signs referring to Tuesday's election as well as to lynchings - most of them in the state's turbulent past, but also one recent case that remains under investigation, of a black man whose body was found hanging in central Mississippi. The department posted photos of the signs on social media and sought information about them from the public. One sign referred to the Tuesday runoff between appointed Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is white, and Democrat Mike Espy, who is black. State and federal investigators are trying to find out who hung seven nooses in trees outside the Mississippi Capitol early Monday. The image above shows one of the nooses in Jackson The Mississippi Department of Public Safety says the nooses were accompanied by handwritten signs referring to Tuesday's election The Mississippi Department of Public Safety says the nooses were accompanied by handwritten signs referring to Tuesday's election as well as to lynchings The sign above references Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who apologized 'to anyone offended' by her remarks about going to public lynchings. Critics have charged that the apology was not sincere The sign above refers to the case of Willie Jones Jr, a black man who was found hanging from a tree earlier this year. Authorities believe it was suicide, but family and friends reject this. Instead, they say it was linked to his relationship with a white woman with whom he had a child The sign above references Mississippi's history of racial terror in which African Americans were killed by white mobs The sign above references Tuesday's runoff election between Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy, the Democrat The sign above references Emmett Till, who in 1955 was lynched in Mississippi by a white mob after he had supposedly offended a white woman in a grocery store. Till's killers were acquitted The sign also read: 'We need someone who respects the lives of lynch victims.' Another sign read: 'We're hanging nooses to remind people that times haven't changed.' Hyde-Smith has drawn fire for a 2014 photo showing her wearing a replica hat of a Confederate soldier, and a video from last month showing her praising a supporter by saying, 'If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row.' She said the hanging remark was an 'exaggerated expression of regard' for the supporter, but the remarks drew sharp criticism in a state with a 38 per cent black population. She apologized 'to anyone that was offended.' One sign referred to the Tuesday runoff between appointed Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is white, and Democrat Mike Espy, who is black. Hyde-Smith is seen right with President Donald Trump in Biloxi, Mississippi on Monday - a day before the runoff Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has come under fire for a 2014 Facebook post that shows her wearing a Confederate Army hat Espy is trying to become the first African-American U.S. senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction. At a midday event, before the content of the signs was disclosed, Espy said he knew nothing about the nooses or signs. He said it would be 'unfair' to make any connection between the items and Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith campaign spokeswoman Melissa Scallan later condemned the nooses by saying: 'Obviously, this behavior is offensive and has no place in a civilized society.' Chuck McIntosh, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees the Capitol, said the nooses and signs were found starting shortly before 8am Monday outside the Capitol in downtown Jackson. The matter is under investigation by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Mississippi Capitol Police and the U.S. attorney's office. 'With our law enforcement partners, we are actively looking into these acts of hate and intimidation,' U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst said in a statement. 'Let me be perfectly clear - there is absolutely no place in our state for these unacceptable symbols or tactics to intimidate others. 'If we find evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that a federal crime has occurred, these criminals will be swiftly prosecuted.' Espy (seen above Monday at a church in Jackson) is trying to become the first African-American U.S. senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has an office in the Capitol, called the nooses and signs 'reprehensible.' Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings. The NAACP website says that between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States, and that nearly 73 per cent of the victims were black. It says Mississippi had 581 lynching during that time, the highest number of any state. Civil rights activists were also beaten and killed in Mississippi as they pushed for African-Americans' voting rights, particularly from the end of World War II until the 1960s. President Donald Trump has finally released his tax return - for his charitable foundation. The 2017 filing shows that the group made no donations last year, a sharp break from the 2016 election year when it gave away millions of dollars and drew a lawsuit alleging the charity was acting as a quasi-political group. The Donald J. Trump Foundation took in no new money from outside groups last year and donated nothing, according to a 2017 tax return posted online Monday. President Trump had promised before taking office to dissolve the foundation to avoid conflicts of interest with his duties as president. The foundation gave away $3.1 million in 2016, more than it did in the prior three years combined. Much of the money donated that election year went to veterans' groups. Trial: The 2017 tax return for The Trump Foundation reveals that the group gave away zero dollars last year, and their loan donation came from the Trump Organization (Trump above on Sunday) President Trump and his three oldest children are being sued by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood for allegedly using its money to settle business disputes, help with his presidential campaign and pay for personal items. The suit argues that the foundation should be dissolved only under court supervision. The suit seeks $2.8 million in restitution plus penalties, the foundation's disbandment and a 10-year ban on Trump running any charities. Trump's lawyer has said the suit is politically motivated and should be dismissed, but a New York judge ruled Friday that it should go forward because there is no basis for finding 'animus and bias were the sole motivating factors' for the litigation. In 2016, the foundation took in more than $2 million from several groups and individuals, including $1 million from Phil Ruffin, Trump's business partner in a Las Vegas tower bearing the president's name. By contrast, the foundation last year raised money from only one source, the Trump Corporation, according to tax returns posted Monday by the nonprofit monitoring website GuideStar. The president's company donated $502,400. Trump drew criticism during the campaign after news organizations raised questions about his foundation's use of funds and reported that he often did not follow through on promised donations. The Washington Post reported that records showed Trump made $8.5 million in pledges to charitable groups in the 15 years before his campaign but paid out only about $2.8 million. The New York attorney general's suit alleges the foundation was tapped for $258,000 to help settle lawsuits involving the president's properties in Florida and New York and to pay for a 6-foot (1.8-meter) painting of Trump. The suit also alleges that the foundation coordinated with Trump's campaign staff to make big donations on the eve of the 2016 Iowa caucuses - Trump presented giant checks at political rallies there - to help boost his political fortunes. Charities are prohibited by law from giving money to political campaigns. Trump has called the suit 'ridiculous', and has tweeted, 'I won't settle this case!' Trump's lawyer Alan Futerfas has said that donations went to people 'most in need' and that he is confident the president will prevail in court. Australians may soon have the option to select from several different gender labels on their official documents under a draft proposal by the Labor Opposition. Omnigender, neutrois and demigender are among 33 labels that will be discussed at the party's upcoming national conference and could soon be seen printed on passports and birth certificates, according to The Daily Telegraph. The radical proposal, if accepted by the party, would enforce a review of document requirements which affect various genders. The proposal argues that transgender and intersex people would be able to enjoy 'equal human rights without discrimination' with the additional gender options. The party will also look at promoting options beyond 'binary male and female'. Australians may soon have the option to select from several different gender labels on their official documents under a draft proposal by the Labor government (stock) 'Labor will ensure people obtain identification options that match their sex characteristics and/or gender identities, as preferred,' the draft read. Previously, Bill Shorten rejected the idea of supporting the removal of gender from birth certificates, indicating that Labor 'had no plans to change' birth certificates. Tasmania is on the verge of abolishing gender from birth certificates so transgender people don't have to 'out themselves'. Last week, the Tasmanian Labor and Greens successfully passed a law in the lower house which include parents having to 'opt in' to have a baby's sex recorded on birth certificates. According to Daily Telegraph omnigender, neutrois and demigender were among the 33 genders which would be discussed for the official documents. An ALP spokeswoman reiterated Mr Shorten's previous comments that he still had no plans to change the gender laws. Health Minister Greg Hunt called on the Opposition leader to detail their plan which would significantly increase the minimum 12 labels used to a maximum of 33 labels. 'We (the Morrison government) have a clear commitment to our existing gender identity laws,' he told Sky News. 'They want to adopt a standard which has a minimum of 12 different forms of identity which people can adopt or nominate,' Mr Hunt said. A woman who spotted a banana bread loaf covered in mould and past its best before date at Woolworths has shared a photo of the find online. The disgusted customer said she was shopping inside the Haymarket Metro store in Sydney's CBD when she discovered the discounted loaf. 'Friendly reminder to always check the reduced stuff before you buy it,' she wrote after uploading the image to Reddit. 'I couldnt help but look back at the times I previously have bought groceries that were reduced like this and feel slightly disgusted with the thought' the woman told Daily Mail Australia. A woman spotted a mouldy banana bread loaf on sale inside a Sydney Woolworths store The banana bread, which was spotted nestled in between other reduced loafs on Monday, was only 90 cents cheaper than its usual price. 'Greedy super markets should never be selling expired items, in the first place,' one angry Reddit user commented. Another said the find had put them off shopping at Woolworths. 'Their prices are so high for old bread or dead fruit and veges - I find myself going to independent grocers all the time now,' they wrote. According to Food Standards Australia, foods that have a best before date can legally be sold after that date provided the food is fit for human consumption. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Woolworths for comment. Radio broadcaster Alan Jones claims that children today wouldn't be able to answer five simple questions about Australian history. The 2GB radio host said students were the real 'losers' in a failing education system. 'Where did it go off the rails? I'm surprised parents aren't marching the streets,' he told his listeners on Tuesday morning. Broadcaster Alan Jones claims today's children wouldn't be able to answer five simple questions about Australian history He highlighted five questions he believed Australian children would be unable to answer these days (answers below). How did Sydney get its name? How did Brisbane get its name? How did Melbourne get its name? How did Macquarie Street, Sydney get its name? What river is Mackay on? 'Kids have got to be told and taught why Brisbane was called Brisbane,' Jones said. The conservative radio host, 77, said he asked an 11-year-old what they were being taught at school and that he was shocked at their response. 'Is Donald Trump going to blow up North Korea?' he was told. He also said similar topics had sidelined useful lessons taken from literature. That was thanks, in part, to 'teachers who aren't capable of teaching them'. Jones compared language to driving, in that drivers have to understand the basics of the car before starting out. By that reasoning, students should know the basics of language and know the difference between a full stop and apostrophe. He even went so far as to compare river pollution to education, in that teachers were 'polluting the minds of young people'. The 2GB radio host said students are the real 'losers' in a failing education system, news.com reported Alan Jones said topics like 'Is Donald Trump going to blow up North Korea?' sidelined useful lessons taken from literature On whether the matter could be changed, Jones said advocates were powerless against the tremendous force of political correctness. Jones' comments came at the launch of Dr Kevin Donnelly's book 'How Political Correctness is Destroying Education and Your Child's Future'. The pair said today's education system was a far cry from its glory days, with Jones stating that Australia is no longer ranked in the 'top 20 in the world'. They also pointed out Aboriginal and Toress Strait Islander history had pushed out lessons on western culture. Jones put a call out for inspectors to be returned to the classroom so schools could be held to account. Surveyor General John Oxley discovered the Brisbane River (pictured) in 1823 and named it after then-New South Wales Governor, Thomas Brisbane. The city itself was around before the state of Queensland came into being What was originally named the Mackay River (pictured) was changed to Pioneer River to avoid confusion with another river that flowed into Rockingham Bay. The new name came from the Government survey ship, HMS Pioneer ANSWERS TO THE FIVE QUESTIONS 1. How did Sydney get its name? Commander of the First Fleet, Captain Arthur Phillip, set out to look for fresh water after he landed in Botany Bay in January 1788. He found water a short way north and wanted to call the area Albion, but decided to name the bay Sydney Cove instead, in honour of the Secretary of State for the Home Office, Lord Sydney. The name later spread to the entire settlement that sprang up around the water and later became known as Sydney Town. 2. How did Brisbane get its name? Surveyor General John Oxley discovered the Brisbane River in 1823 and named it after then-New South Wales Governor, Thomas Brisbane. The city was established before the state of Queensland came into being. 3. How did Melbourne get its name? Melbourne took on the name Batmania, after one of its founders, John Batman. However, in 1837 Batmania was granted a seal of approval and Victoria was established in 1851. The state drew its name from the reigning English monarch Queen Victoria. The main town, Melbourne, took its name from Queen Victoria's most dedicated prime minister, William Lamb, Lord Melbourne. 4. How did Macquarie Street, Sydney get its name? Macquarie Street was named in honour of New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie. He had a deep interest in town planning and overlooked the construction of state roads. 5. What river is Mackay on? What was originally named the Mackay River was changed to the Pioneer River, to avoid confusion with another river that flowed into Rockingham Bay. The new name came from the Government survey ship, HMS Pioneer. Advertisement A forensic search is underway to locate the body of missing mother-of-two Roxlyn Bowie who disappeared 36 years ago. Police launched an excavation of a rural dam in Walgett, New South Wales, to search for Mrs Bowie's remains. The search was expected to take several weeks and a forensic anthropologist was on standby in case any human traces were found. The dam at the intersection of Wee Waa Street and Wareena Street in Walgett, northern New South Wales, was close to Mrs Bowie's former home. Scroll down for video A forensic search is underway for missing woman Roxlyn Bowie, who disappeared 36 years ago A dam and an industrial site has been under examination by authorities since Monday Roxlyn Bowie (pictured) was reportedly missing from her family home on Saturday, June 5 1982 An industrial site was also being examined by investigating officers. The State Crime Command's Robbery and Serious Crime Squad's Strike Force Maluka was carrying out an excavation of both areas. Police were acting on new information about the disappearance of Mrs Bowie, who was 31 at the time of her disappearance. Mrs Bowie went missing from her family home on Saturday, June 5 1982, following a dispute with her husband John Bowie. She was seen hanging her clothes on the line in the afternoon and was seen leaving her house at about 6pm. Mrs Bowie had left a note behind addressed to her husband, which said she was 'leaving him with the kids for good' and not to find her because she 'would never come back'. She was reported missing by her husband the next day. A 2014 coronial inquest in September into the disappearance of the mother found she was most likely dead but was unable to determine how she died. Mrs Bowie left a note behind addressed to her husband John Bowie (pictured left saying she 'would never come back'. A formal finding said she died on or around the night she disappeared but a place, manner or cause of death was not determined. Mr Bowie moved to Bankstown in Sydney six days after his wife's disappearance, where he met and remarried another woman, Anne Bowie. He now lives in Toowoomba, Queensland. Mrs Bowie's daughter, Brenda Boyd, urged the public to assist investigators with information about her missing mother so they could 'finally have justice for Mum'. 'It's been 36 long years without my mother there for birthdays, holidays and special milestones,' she said. Brenda Boyd was just six years old when she mother disappeared. Her brother Warren, who had passed away, was one week away from his second birthday when his mother went missing. The New South Wales government was offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the discovery of Mrs Bowie's body or a murder conviction. Robbery and Serious Crime Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty urged anyone with information to contact Serious Crime Squad's Strike Force Maluka. Two men have been detained after they landed at a British airport without passports early this morning. The men, who claimed to be Iranian nationals, were onboard a Flybe flight from Alicante, Spain, which landed at Exeter Airport in Devon. When they landed in Exeter the two men were said to have 'pretended to faint' as they went through Border Control and admitted not having passports. Two men, claiming to be Iranian nationals, landed at Exeter Airport (pictured) today but were found not to have identity documents on them by Border Force officers A man in his 20s, who was on the early morning flight but didn't want to be named, claimed that two men went through Border Control separately. He told DevonLive: 'The first man kind of pretended to faint and then the second one did the same thing.' The passenger praised Flybe's 'reassuring' staff and claimed that they had told his sister they had found a 'ripped up passport.' Another passenger Justin Woodcock tweeted about the incident, saying: '@flybe any chance you can find out why there were two unknown, undocumented individuals on flight BE4322 Alicante to Exeter landed recently and then admitted having NO PASSPORTS at Exeter immigration?' Passenger Justin Woodcock tweeted Flybe about the two men on the Alicante to Exeter flight The airline responded to a second tweet from Mr Woodcock about the early morning incident Flybe later responded to a second tweet sent by Mr Woodcock. They said: 'Be assured all passengers in possession of boarding cards must pass through the relevant countrys immigration checks at their airport of departure to ensure they are in possession of the relevant documentation.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'Two passengers who arrived at Exeter Airport on a flight from Alicante presented themselves to Border Force officers at passport control without identity documents. 'They claimed to be Iranian nationals and their cases will be dealt with in line with the UK's immigration rules.' Flybe has been contacted by MailOnline for comment. Shocking CCTV footage has captured the moment four masked men traumatised a 17-year-old service station employee during an overnight robbery. Four thieves dressed in dark clothing, gloves and masks, entered the SPAR Express store in Brisbane at 7.45pm on Monday. One of the men was seen pointing a knife at the stunned male employee while demanding an undisclosed sum of cash and cigarettes. Two members of the group ransacked the stock, while the other two jumped over the counter and shoved the teen to the ground. Despite attempts by witnesses to capture the offenders, they managed to flee the scene in a red hatchback. Police were appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the incident or have dashcam footage to contact Crime Stoppers. Two members of the group are seen ransacking the stock, while the other two jump over the counter and shove the teen to the ground (pictured) Advertisement A Northern California sheriff says the death toll from the Camp Fire has risen to 88 and 203 people remain missing. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said nobody else was found dead Monday but that three separate sets of human remains discovered actually contained the remains of more than one person. Honea said Monday that 203 names remain on the list of those unaccounted for after the Camp Fire swept through the rural area 140 miles north of San Francisco. The blaze that ignited November 8 destroyed more than 13,000 homes. Officials said the blaze was fully contained Sunday. Honea said he has no regrets publishing an inaccurate list of people reported missing. He said Monday that he decided it was better to have as much information made public than 'work to perfection' by releasing only the names of residents who were confirmed missing. A Christmas decoration sits among the burned ruins of a store in Paradise, California on Monday Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue surveys the damage during a tour of Paradise on Monday A Northern California sheriff says no additional remains were found Monday, but the wildfire's death toll rose to 88 after investigators determined that three separate sets of human remains contained remains for more than one person. The image above shows a car dealership consumed by flames in Paradise on November 8 Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Monday that 203 names remain on the list of those unaccounted for after the Camp Fire swept through the rural area 140 miles north of San Francisco. Vehicles and homes are destroyed by the fire in Paradise on November 8 The blaze that ignited November8 destroyed more than 13,000 homes. Officials said the blaze was fully contained Sunday. Firefighters are seen above trying to save a building on November 8 Any message the department received with the name of someone believed to be missing was added to the list. He said some on his staff were concerned that releasing the list would cause confusion and an unmanageable influx of calls from concerned loved ones. Authorities in charge of relief efforts after a wildfire swept California wine country last year didn't release the names of the missing for those reasons. Honea says publishing the list led to significant help from the public in locating people. Meanwhile, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was back in Northern California on Monday to tour wildfire damage and says fire recovery costs will likely be in the billions. He said he'd rather spend that money on other public services, such as improving visitor experiences at Yosemite National Park or building more boat ramps on public lands. Zinke said he's been astonished by the devastation caused by the Camp Fire. The image above shows a home burning as it is consumed by the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 8 This Jack In The Box fast food restaurant was also destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 8 Winds were a major factor in helping the Camp Fire spread quickly. The image above from November 10 shows fire east of Highway 70 near Yankee Hill, California The image above taken on November 10 shows the Camp Fire as it burns near a home atop a ridge near Big Bend, California A flag that reads 'hot buys' is displayed on a car at a car dealership that was destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 8 Firefighter Jose Corona sprays water as flames consume from the Camp Fire consume a home in Magalia on November 9 Flames consume a home as the Camp Fire tears through Paradise on Thursday, November 8 U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue joined Zinke in visiting the town of Paradise, which was incinerated. He suggested donating timber from the Plumas National Forest nearby to re-build Paradise. Two brothers from Chicago who wanted to help drove more than 2,000 miles to deliver hay, grain, dog food and batteries. Kari Wheeler of Wheeler Ranch and Feed told San Francisco Bay Area television station KTVU that brothers Arek and Danny Zachara arrived at her ranch Friday. It's been a volunteer command post for North Valley Animal Disaster Group that's helped rescue and care for animals affected by the blaze. Wheeler says the brothers spent a few hours unloading their trailer at her ranch in Briggs. They then drove to nearby Magalia to donate the rest of their gear to a woman and her animals. Wheeler says people from Idaho, Utah and Oregon also have made donations to help hundreds of affected animals. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed more than $20 million in assistance for people displaced by California's deadliest wildfire. Alameda Countty Sheriff Coroner officers search for human remains after the Camp Fire tore through Paradise on November 12 The torched skeleton of a car is seen above at what is left of a gas station near Pulga, California on November 11 Burnt out vehicles are seen on the side of the road in Paradise after fire ripped through the area on November 10 Rescue workers search an area where they discovered suspected human remains in a home destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 16 Power lines are seen above resting on cars that were destroyed by the Camp Fire on November 10 in Paradise The above image shows the smoldering ruins of a business that was wiped out by the fire in Paradise on November 9 Chris and Nancy Brown embrace while looking over the remains of their burned residence in Paradise on November 12 The above images shows an aerial view of four rows of houses that were destroyed by the wildfire Sheriff's deputies recover the remains of a victim of the Camp Fire in Paradise on November 10 FEMA spokesman Frank Mansell said Monday that $15.5 million has been spent on housing assistance, including vouchers for hotel rooms. He says the disaster response is in an early phase but many people will eventually get longer-term housing in trailers or apartments. FEMA has also distributed $5 million to help with other needs including funeral expenses. About 17,000 people have registered with the federal disaster agency, which will look at insurance coverage, assets and a variety of other factors to determine how much assistance they are eligible for. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested the creation of a new global television news network one run by his administration to counter what he sees as CNN International's 'unfair and false' portrayals of the United States. CNN's global brand, ubiquitous in overseas airport lounges and hotel rooms, hasn't drawn as much fire from the president as its U.S. network, the TV channel he most loves to loathe. 'While CNN doesnt do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of the U.S. they have very little competition,' Trump tweeted. 'Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way.' 'Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!' The U.S. government already runs a global broadast network, Voice of America, employing 1,000 people and spending $235 million last year alone to create programs in 40 languages. Donald Trump blasted CNN International on Monday, saying the network has 'very little competition' and portrays the U.S. 'in an unfair and false way' The president also floated the idea of starting a new network that sounded like Voice of America, which his administration already spends $235 million to operate eash year CNN International is a mainstay in airports and hotels overseas, and in some countries is the main source of news about the United States Former Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren hosts one of its shows. Some news reports before the 2016 election quoted people close to then-candidate Trump saying that he was preparing to launch a name-branded TV network if he lost to Hillary Clinton. This doesn't appear to be a reincarnation of that effort, a White House official said Monday afternoon, quipping that 'normally, POTUS would put his name on a toothpick if it would sell, but this is about the country.' Trump has engaged in a longstanding battle with CNN, including banning one of its White House correspondents from the building for nine days this month. A court ruling forced his press staff to let reporter Jim Acosta back in. Trump ally Newt Gingrich said in October that 'there's no more anti-American network than CNN International,' which effectively produces Russia-friendly propaganda to hurt the White House The president's attack on CNN International came nearly a year and a day after his last broadside against the global network. He tweeted after Thanksgiving 2017 that '@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly.' 'The outside world does not see the truth from them!' he said then. CNN's public relations team fired back on Twitter at the time: 'It's not CNN's job to represent the U.S to the world. That's yours. Our job is to report the news.' Last month in Washington, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that 'if you're overseas and you watch CNN International, you know the Russians don't have to run any propaganda television.' 'There's no more anti-American network than CNN International,' he charged. Trump blasted CNN International a year ago, saying its on-screen talent 'represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly' CNN's public relations arm fired back, mocking him for saying it was their job 'to represent the U.S. to the world' Trump wasn't always aligned against CNN International; the network featuerd him during a 2010 broadcast Trump is right about the CNN's domestic ratings: Of the top 10 cable news programs in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2018, six belonged to Fox News and four to MSNBC. CNN had none, acording to ADWEEK. Fox News has been the highest-rated cable news network for each of the past 67 quarters. Nielsen Media Research reports that in October, Fox News's audience was three times the size of CNN's, and also more than CNN's and MSNBC's combined. On Monday CNN International featured two major stories about the Trump administration. One was a political analysis of the military crisis developing between Russia and Ukraine, headlined: 'Donald Trump's silence on Ukraine could make a bad situation worse.' The other was a news package about the migrant caravan massaing on the Mexican side of the southern U.S. border. On Sunday Border Patrol officiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at migrants who rushed the border fence. The CNN International story noted in the 12th paragraph that the migrants had been throwing rocks and bottles at the agents. Trump wasn't always a staunch opponent of CNN International. In February 2010 the network's 'Connect the World' show featured him as its 'connector' of the day. The story noted that he trademarked his 'You're fired!' catchphrase from 'The Apprentice,' and became one of the highest-earning TV stars in the world with a $3 million paycheck per episode. It also called his Miss Universe pageant 'a sexist throwback.' Sheryl Sandberg appeared distressed Monday as she arrived at a heliport in New York City amid criticism over her handling of Facebook's recent crises. The 49-year-old Facebook chief operating officer was pictured wearing comfortable attire, a tie-dyed top underneath a grey fleece and black sweatpants, as she prepared to board a flight after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with her family. Sandberg, formerly of the Clinton administration and Google, came out of a New York Times report this month as an unscrupulous marketing tactician. Facebook has stumbled from one mess to another this year, as it grappled with continuing fallout from Russia's use of the platform to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. In late September, they disclosed a massive data breach which affected 50million users - including those of Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Sandberg. That bombshell came after the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which user data was harnessed in a bid to help Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. Zuckerberg has defended Sandberg, who he initially blamed for the fallout surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal which sparked consumer fears over whether or not they could trust the company. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appeared distressed Monday as she arrived at a heliport in New York City The 49-year-old sported a tie-dyed top underneath a cozy grey fleece and black sweatpants as she prepared to board the flight after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with her family Zuckerberg said in an interview that aired on CNN last Tuesday that Sandberg's job would be secured. 'She has been an important partner for me for 10 years. I am really proud of the work we have done together and hope we work together for decades more to come.' A spokesperson also recently repeated comments Zuckerberg made during a press call where he praised her by saying: 'Overall, Sheryl is doing great work for the company. 'Shes been a very important partner to me and will continue to be. Shes leading a lot of the efforts to improve our systems. 'Were making a lot of progress, and a lot of that is because of the work that shes doing.' Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed Sandberg for the PR disaster which encircled the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March, according to sources, and left her fearing for her job Zuckerberg left, Dan Rose, vice president of partnerships and platform marketing at Facebook Inc. and Sandberg, walk the grounds after the morning session at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 12, 2018 Facebook has stumbled from one mess to another this year, as it grappled with continuing fallout from Russia's use of the platform to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. Facebook's Zuckerberg, Rose and Sandberg are pictured in July 2018 in Idaho The Wall Street Journal cited several unnamed sources who claim Zuckerberg blamed Sandberg for her handling of the scandal. Sandberg, who joined Facebook from Google in 2008, was entrusted with heading up the company's Communications strategies. According to the sources, Zuckerberg did not respond well to how she handled the breach which involved Cambridge Analytica, a firm which helped shape the Trump campaign and has been linked to Brexit, buying the data of 51million Facebook users without them knowing about it. It took Zuckerberg five days to respond to the scandal when it erupted in March this year. Zuckerberg is also at odds with Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom who left Facebook earlier this year after a difference of opinion over where to take the app. There were specific fears over users' privacy and whether or not their location should be available to Facebook He and Sandberg issued coordinated statements saying they regretted it but which stopped short of apologizing for it. According to the Journal, Sandberg feared for her job afterwards and told friends she thought Zuckerberg might fire her over it. In recent months, he has taken on a more combative leadership approach which is reminiscent of how he behaved in the company's infancy, the insiders claim. The mantra he has returned to, they say, is: 'Move fast, break things'. 'The change in attitude is down to his feelings that Facebook is 'at war' with the media which, the sources say, is who Zuckerberg blames for his scandal-ridden year. What's App co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton also left the company over concerns surrounding privacy Facebook's stock continues to struggle and is a long way from its July 2018 maximum In the last year, Zuckerberg's opinions have driven the co-founders of Facebook-acquired apps including Instagram and What's App out of the company. There has also been rising speculation over the company's role in the spread of fake news and questions over the integrity of its business after it emerged they were, inadvertently or not, misrepresenting the number of video views to advertisers. Zuckerberg, who plans to remain as chairman of the social media giant, further defended his company against the broader wave of flak it has taken this year. 'A lot of the criticism around the biggest issues has been fair, but I do think that if we are going to be real, there is this bigger picture as well, which is that we have a different world view than some of the folks who are covering us,' Zuckerberg said in a statement to CNN. 'There are big issues, and I'm not trying to say that there aren't... but I do think that sometimes, you can get the flavor from some of the coverage that that's all there is, and I don't think that that's right either.' Thousands of partying teenagers have flooded social media with selfies on their hotel balconies as they celebrate the end of their schooling. More than 22,000 graduates flocked to the Gold Coast, Queensland to let their hair down and celebrate with classmates. For some of the teenagers, aged between 17 and 18, the journey to the beachfront party strip will be their first holiday away from family. The Schoolies obsession with balconies - from precariously hanging over railings to flashing onlookers below or posing for a snap with drinks - has continued into 2018. Scroll down for video More than 22,000 graduates flocked to the Gold Coast, Queensland to let their hair down and celebrate with classmates (pictured are two Schoolies revellers on a balcony) The Schoolies obsession with balconies - from precariously hanging over railings to flashing onlookers below or posing for a snap with drinks - has continued into 2018 Max Doyle, Managing Director of Hello Social told Daily Mail Australia that the craze is driven by a desire to brag and the need to fit in like a 'cool kid'. 'Social media tends to reward outrageous behaviour - the wilder your actions, the bigger the bragging rights,' he said. 'Its a quick moving, impulsive environment, and the fear of losing out for those who arent engaged in it is real. 'This pressure can impede rationality, and stop teenagers from thinking about the potential risks and consequences of their actions. 'What they focus on instead is that if a cool kid did it and got hundreds of likes and comments, they could too.' Experts say that the craze is driven by a desire to brag and the need to fit in like a 'cool kid'. Pictured above is a young reveller on a Gold Coast balcony Thousands of partying teens have flooded social media with selfies on their hotel balconies Max Doyle, Managing Director of Hello Social, said the obsession with engaging in risk-taking behaviour on balconies was often driven by online peer pressure Balcony Safety Dont sit on, lean over, climb or hang off the side of balconies. Accidents happen you could slip and fall. Never room hop from balcony to balcony. One wrong move could prove fatal. Avoid overcrowding. Take it inside or head down to the beach party. Dont throw objects Advertisement Mr Doyle explained that social media is temperamental in nature and it's not exclusively an online experience but an offline one. 'This encourages risky behaviour as teenagers vie for the top spot of who is the biggest risk-taker; the most out-going, out of all of their friends - not just those who are nearby,' he said. He also said that it was difficult to know which challenges or trends would be the next big thing. 'Some teenagers are also attracted by fame and the possibility of becoming viral social media stars. There is a disturbing trend for high-risk selfies as they try and outdo each other in the race for likes, comments and shares.' Teenagers are encouraged to engage in risky behaviour as they compete with each other online. Pictured are high school leavers posing topless on a balcony in 2017 Pictured on the left is one boy who posed nude on the balcony of his Surfer's Paradise hotel room, while on the right is a young teenage boy putting out his arms on his balcony In 2016, A 17-year-old boy was taken to hospital with a fractured pelvis after falling from his second-floor balcony at 3am. The year before, two 17-year-old boys were charged with committing an unregulated high-risk behaviour and taken to court after climbing between floors of their hotel. Balcony-hopping, or 'ledging', was an even bigger problem in 2013, with countless teenagers photographed jumping across into other apartments. The Queensland Government has issued warnings to all those who risk their lives while behaving irresponsibly on balconies. Other snaps include teenagers photographed surrounded by empty bottles, drinking out of beer funnels, young male teens donning dresses and passing out on the streets of the most popular Schoolies hotspots. A Liberal senator has angrily accused the ABC of bias after the host of Q&A implied he had conspired to knife former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Former cabinet minister Eric Abetz evoked laughter from the studio audience in Sydney when he claimed right-wing MPs had 'no idea' Mr Turnbull would be calling a leadership spill in August. 'We had no idea Malcolm was going to spring that leadership vote on without any notice to the membership of the parliamentary party,' the Tasmanian senator said on Monday night. Scroll down for video Liberal senator Eric Abetz (right) has angrily accused the ABC of bias after Q&A host Tony Jones (left) implied he had conspired to knife former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull Q&A moderator Tony Jones then retorted: 'Before you had the chance to do it yourself.' As the ABC host tried to steer the discussion towards another panellist, Senator Abetz accused the national broadcaster of left-wing bias, evoking boos from the audience. 'Tony, that is the sort of bias that unfortunately gets the ABC into strife,' he said. During a Q&A special on November 8, Mr Turnbull appeared solo on the ABC show and accused nine Liberal 'insurgents' of destroying his leadership. They included Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who challenged Mr Turnbull for the Liberal leadership in August, and former PM Tony Abbott. Ministers Greg Hunt, Mathias Cormann, Mitch Fifield, Steve Ciobo, Michaelia Cash, Michael Keenan and Angus Taylor were also named. Former cabinet minister Eric Abetz evoked laughter from the studio audience when he claimed right-wing MPs had 'no idea' Mr Turnbull would be calling a leadership spill in August Mr Turnbull, however, did not name Senator Abetz, who was dropped from the ministry in September 2015 after he had knifed Mr Abbott as a first-term PM. 'In relation to the unseating of Malcolm Turnbull, can I give a lesson to everybody here? Don't ask for a vote of confidence if you don't know what the result's going to be,' Senator Abetz said. 'Malcolm was unfortunately the architect of his own demise.' Senator Abetz appeared on Q&A as a last-minute replacement for right-wing New South Wales Liberal senator Jim Molan, who at the weekend was relegated to the unwinnable fourth spot on the Coalition Senate ticket for the next federal election. 'What happened to Jim Molan was most unfortunate,' Senator Abetz said of the former Army major general. Malcolm Turnbull (left) appeared on a special episode of Q&A on November 8 and accused nine 'insurgent' Liberal MPs of destroying his leadership Senator Abetz said Malcolm Turnbull (pictured on August 24 delivering his last media conference as prime minister) was the 'architect of his own demise' 'It reflects, yet again, on some of the decision making and endorsements that are coming out of New South Wales, it's not a good look for the Liberal Party. 'When you've got such a highly decorated individual, as Jim Molan I've got a funny suspicion if the Liberal Party, Australia-wide, were to choose an Australia-wide Senate ticket, chances are Jim Molan would be leading it because he's such a popular, capable and well-credentialed figure.' Senator Molan, the father of Nine Network personality Erin Molan, was beaten by public servant Hollie Hughes and former same-sex marriage campaigner Andrew Bragg. As an Opposition frontbencher in 2009 Senator Abetz and Mr Turnbull, in his first stint as Liberal leader, publicly claimed Treasury official Godwin Grech had seen an email which demonstrated then Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd had given special treatment to a Queensland car dealer. That email didn't exist, with the political blunder contributing to Mr Turnbull losing the party leadership to his nemesis Tony Abbott weeks before Christmas. A father who was allegedly bashed by a violent intruder who jumped his fence while on the run says his young son hasn't been the same since. The Perth father wants tougher new laws to protect home owners and said witnessing the alleged incident had left his four-year-old boy traumatised. 'It's not good, it's not good, he's not the same, he's not the same kid,' the man, who asked for his identity not to be revealed due to safety concerns, told Nine News. A father who was bashed by a violent intruder, who allegedly jumped his fence while on the run from police, says his son hasn't been the same since he witnessed the attack 'In about two seconds someone wanted to destroy my life, try kill me, kill my son, destroy my property.' The homeowner said he wants more protection from the law and that it doesn't adequately protect homeowners. 'The government needs to change the law and stuff like that for when someone is broken into the property, I think the law is not protecting enough,' he said. The 21-year-old intruder allegedly led police on a chase through suburban Perth at about 6.30pm on Saturday. He allegedly crashed his car in Balcatta in the city's north before jumping the fence of the man's home and attempted to hide in the roof. An onlooker who tried to help the man and his four-year-old son was also assaulted, police allege. The 21-year-old intruder allegedly led police on a chase through suburban Perth at about 6.30pm on Saturday, eventually attempting to hide in the roof of the man's house The 21-year-old was charged with breach of bail, car theft, reckless driving to escape police, failing to stop, driving without authority, reckless driving, common assault, aggravated common assault and criminal damage or destruction of property. In Western Australia it is legal for property owners to defend themselves against intruders, however, the public is encouraged to leave anything of this nature up to police. 'It is allowable under law to use some reasonable force to defend yourself but I'd caution people against that generally and rely on police,' WA Police Minister Michelle Roberts said. The state opposition said the problem was that the man should not have been allowed to get to the man's home in the first place. 'What we need is better policing, adequate resources so the police can get these guys before they create home invasion,' opposition police spokesman Peter Katsambanis said. Miguel Angel Martinez, a former pilot for El Chapo, told a jury Monday he nearly killed the Mexican drug lord in a plane crash in 1987. Miguel Angel Martinez, who was employed as Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's pilot in the late 1980s and early 1990s, testified that his boss and his bodyguard were aboard the plane when the landing went awry. He had been made a cartel administrator helping oversee the Colombian shipments and bribery. Martinez said in a court statement: 'When I went to land the plane, the propeller hit the ground.' The jury chuckled when the pilot recalled from the life-threatening incident: 'Mr. Guzman told me I was a really bad pilot.' Back when business was starting to boom, Guzman took delight in seeing massive cocaine shipments arriving by air from Colombia, occasions he code-named 'parties' that made him so rich he could pay multimillion-dollar bribes to a powerful police commander. Pilot Miguel Angel Martinez (third from right) sits next to El Chapo (second from right) in this undated photo. Martinez testified Monday that he nearly killed the Mexican drug lord in a crash in 1987 Authorities escort Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, New York in January 2017 The largest shipment ever seen at that time was carried by a fleet of 10 planes, each hauling hundreds of kilos, that landed one day on a hidden airstrip. At the time, Guzman 'was very happy,' Martinez said. He added Guzman told him, 'Compadre, now it's a great party.' Martinez, testifying in the trial's third week, also told the jury that the Sinaloa cartel paid $10 million in drug money bribes at least twice to Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, a top law enforcement official in Mexico City. In exchange, Calderoni tipped off the cartel about investigations and offered other protections that helped keep Guzman from getting caught. Calderoni was known in that era for helping solve the slaying of a drug enforcement agent by drug dealers in Mexico in 1985. He also was accused of corruption and torture before slipping out of the country to live in McAllen, Texas, where he was gunned down in a suspected hit in 2003. This undated handout photograph obtained from Brooklyn federal court on November 26 shows a photo of El Chapo shown to the jury during his trial The accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (second from right), appears with defense attorneys A. Eduardo Balarezo (left) and Jeffrey Lichtman (right), in this courtroom sketch in Brooklyn federal court in New York on November 19 Guzman was extradited to the United States last year to face drug-trafficking charges accusing him of running a cartel known for greed and violence. His lawyers say he is being framed by cooperators like Martinez, whose witness protection status remains unclear. To show that Martinez actually knew Guzman, prosecutors entered into evidence a photo they said shows him sitting next to Guzman at a social gathering sometime in the early 1990s. The prosecutors had the face of Martinez obscured because they say having images of him go public could put his life in danger. Last week, another former cartel member who has pleaded guilty and is behind bars testified that a high-level security chief in Mexico and a second law enforcement official who once worked under the country's new president-elect took millions of dollars in bribes in the mid-2000s. He said that he and Guzman became so close that Guzman became the godfather of his son. He described how Guzman was born into poverty in a part of the Sinaloa countryside known for growing marijuana and poppies for heroin. He testified that the future kingpin told him he went into the drug trade because 'he didn't have anything to eat.' A man who went hang gliding for the first time had to cling onto a metal bar for more than two minutes when his pilot forgot to hook him onto the glider, heart-stopping footage has shown. The terrifying clip from Chris Gursky's first day on holiday in Switzerland has been shared by the YouTuber - after the fun activity turned into a 'near death experience'. The auto-parts manager and photographer from Florida had to 'hang on for his life' during the ride he videoed, and later named 'Swiss Mishap'. After taking off from a 4,000 ft mountain edge Gursky had to hang on for two minutes and 14 seconds as the pilot desperately trying to steer with one hand to get him safely to the ground. 'I was just trying to stay calm, trying to hold on for dear life,' Gursky told Good Morning America. 'I looked down once and I thought to myself: "This is it, I'm going to fall to my death. I'm a goner."' Heart-stopping video shows Chris Gursky's brush with death when he went hang-gliding in Switzerland but wasn't strapped in properly and had to hold on for dear life Seconds after the pair takes off Gursky makes the shocking realization that he isn't attached Gursky clings to the metal bar as the pilot attempts to land the aircraft without success The heart-stopping video shows Gursky, who is wearing a checked shirt and white helmet, realizing he is not attached just seconds after the pilot took off. 'I just locked on and held on as long as I could,' he said. Gursky tightly grips a metal bar with his left hand in the video and holds onto the instructors back with his right as they glide over trees and fields. The pilot tries his best to bring them down but is having trouble controlling the glider. As they fly over more trees the craft goes higher and the pilot desperately grabs onto his passenger with his left hand. 'I didn't have much grip left in me, my hand was opening, I was slipping. I had his pant leg and that's about it,' Gursky said. Gursky described his near-death experience in an interview with Good Morning America The glider continued to gain altitude above tall trees as Gursky fought to hold onto the bar Gursky described the horror gliding experience minute-by-minute in a YouTube video At one point the pilot grabs onto Gursky's hand to help him hold on as he dangles in the air while the terrified passenger clings to his pant leg The pilot attempted to being Gursky close to the ground as quickly as possible in case he fell When they finally came in for the landing after two minutes of terror, Gursky let go of the bar and fell to the ground as the pilot reached the ground safely As they begin their descent Gursky clings to the pilot's leg but starts to lose his grip on the metal bar. Eventually he was close enough to the ground to let go in what appears to be footage filmed in Interlaken, Switzerland. Gursky tore his left bicep tendon and had to have surgery on his right wrist after it suffered a distal radius fracture from the impact of dropping to the floor. Gursky posted a video describing the horror hang-glide on YouTube. 'I remember looking down and thinking, this is it,' he said. 'I was losing grip with my right hand, that was holding onto a strap on the pilot's right shoulder. He was trying to make a bee line to the landing field as he knew what the situation could bring. 'My left hand was on the cross bar that was ultimately the landing gear, with a wheel on each side. As we were going down for a hot landing I was slowly losing my grip with my right hand as I was swinging in the wind with the glider. 'The pilot grabbed my hand, but like in the movies it was a slow motion slipping of the grip until my right hand slipped off and I grabbed another strap on his left side for a bit but this slipped off also. 'I ended up holding on bar with the left hand and the lower part of his leg with the right when we were nearing the ground. I looked down to see my feet hit first, which ripped me off at about 45 mph as it was a hot landing and I was under the landing gear. 'I would guesstimate the total flight time was about 5 minutes. When I sat up I knew something was wrong and saw that my wrist was broken. 'For two min. 14 seconds I had to hang on for my life! The landing was a rough one, but I lived to tell the story. 'Upon impact my right wrist suffered a distal radius fracture, which required surgery. 'A titanium plate and seven screws were installed and I was released the following afternoon. I also tore my left bicep tendon from holding on for so long. It beats the alternative.' Gursky took off and discovered the instructor had failed to attach him to the glider. He sustained a fractured wrist upon landing and a torn bicep Gursky fractured his wrist and a tore his bicep tendon from hanging on the whole time Gursky is pictured with his wife Gail, who was with him on the Switzerland vacation in October Despite his terrifying ordeal, Gursky praised the pilot and even said he'd try hang gliding again. He said: 'While the pilot made a critical error in our pre-flight set up by not attaching me to the glider, he did all he could to get me down to the ground as quickly as possible while grabbing onto my harness and flying with one hand. 'I will go hang gliding again as I did not enjoy my first flight.' YouTube viewers were stunned by the footage and called Gursky 'superman'. Dustin Blanchard said: 'Holy s*** man I was on the edge of my seat the whole video... glad you're ok... 'I've always wondered what would happen if you didn't clip in... now I know.' The #1 killer of hang glider pilots is forgetting this. Nelson's Wings added: 'You have amazing, superhuman grip strength! You had great focus and will to live. 'Wonderful you survived. Not sure if it would have helped, but there are two tricks climbers use to desperately cling to things. One is to hook an elbow over the bar, and use the other hand to lock the elbow. The other is to get a leg up on a hold, that takes about half the weight off your arms.' However, some were furious with the pilot and said he should be banned from flying. Zoran Allen said: 'Pilot should have crash landed IMMEDIATELY, end of story. Literally any other person would've slipped, fallen, and died. 'Passenger performed a two minute long dead hang with equipment and against heavy winds. It's a miracle to say the least.' Peter Donker said: 'Just for your info. I know you're happy the pilot saved your life. But the error is inexcusable. It's like the guy offering bungee jumps but forgets to check the cord. Flying is not that hard. He had but one task: to check you were hooked in. 'The #1 killer of hang glider pilots is forgetting this. IMO he should have a really hard look at himself in the mirror and ask himself if he should be doing this.' Gursky said he was out of hospital the same afternoon with no cast. He also said he is not mad at the pilot. 'I am past that phase,' he said to Cross Country Magazine. 'He did all he could and more. He is a good guy.' Grabbing, groping and grinding are more socially acceptable behaviours for women than men in nightclubs, a new Australian study concludes. Both genders were more accepting of the 'grab, grope and grind' if women were the perpetrators rather than men. 'This could be a weird distortion of the #metoo movement,' said Edith Cowan University researcher Aimee-Rose Wrightson-Hester. Grabbing, groping and grinding are more socially acceptable behaviours for women than men in nightclubs, a new Australian study concludes The 'rise of feminism' and 'women's sexual liberation' were the two key factors, which explained the conclusions But men and women admitted the sexual behaviours were generally unacceptable outside of the nightclub scene. Researchers surveyed 381 Australians aged 18-30 for the study titled 'Nightlife Patrons' Personal and Descriptive Norms Regarding Sexual Behaviors'. Ms Wrightson-Hester said 'it was difficult to explain why it is more acceptable for females' to engage in these behaviours. '... especially as it seems to differ from traditional gender values that women should be chaste in public environments,' she said. 'Secondly, the idea that perhaps men are more likely to cause harm than women.' A significant score of both men and women said it was unacceptable for men to make sexual advances on women in nightclubs, Ms Wrightson-Hester confirmed to Daily Mail Australia. She said 'the rise of feminism' and 'women's sexual liberation' were the two key factors, which explained the conclusions. 'When women perform these behaviours, they are less likely to be sanctioned and more likely to be seen as progressive,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'Men may now think that as women are sexually liberated they are more welcoming of these kinds of behaviours.' Women who perform sexual behaviours in nightclubs are more likely to be seen as 'progressive' But men and women said they were less likely to react or intervene if the behaviour took place in a nightclub setting. 'The question of consent is far less clear in the highly eroticised setting of a nightclub,' said Ms Wrightston-Hester. 'So people say they largely turn a blind eye because you can't be sure whether an individual's sexual behaviour is welcomed or not.' Ms Wrightson-Hester said non-consenting recipients of sexual behaviour may feel degraded, threatened or even traumatised during nightclub encounters. The research concludes people will step in to prevent the 'unacceptable' sexual behaviour in settings such as the workplace but won't do so in a nightclub due to the perception 'it's somehow normalised'. 'That's a dangerous perception,' said Ms Wrighston-Hester. A young man has baffled speech experts after making his stutter completely disappear using one unlikely trick. Nick Prosser, from Rotorua, New Zealand, suffered from low confidence due to a speech impediment he'd had his entire life, but after playing a simple game with a friend - his life changed forever. The 28-year-old, who is also a keen rapper, was experimenting with his voice when he discovered his stutter disappeared the second he imitated an Irish accent. 'I tried (the accent) and then next thing we are having a long conversation with no stuttering.' Mr Prosser told the Rotorua Daily Post. 'I couldn't believe it. I had been to so many speech therapists and doctors and they never suggested this technique.' Nick Prosser, 28, (pictured) was playing a simple game with a colleague when he discovered his accent disappeared when he spoke in an Irish accent Mr Prosser (pictured) found himself by himself in social gatherings as it was a lot harder for him to contribute just a few words in conversations Mr Prosser spoke of how his stutter had left him with low confidence and acted as a serious barrier as he struggled to find jobs and fit in at social occasions. But since taking on the accent, Mr Prosser says he is a new man. Even though he has never visited Ireland, Mr Prosser brings the remarkable cure down to his heritage, as his mum is a descendant from the country. He urges people who suffer from a stutter to try out different accents from different countries, particularly if they have ties to it. Despite Mr Prosser's cure, speech specialists are still not confident it has longevity. 'This is something that works for him and that's fine. But in six months time, if it is still working I would be saying 'wow, that's amazing'.' Rotorua speech specialist Annette Stock told Stuff. His friends and family, however, aren't worried about how long it'll last - they're just ecstatic to see that his confidence has lifted. Since making the discovery, Mr Prosser (centre) now has more confidence in social gatherings This is the tear-jerking moment a then-17-year-old boy from a Catholic Sydney school told a packed assembly hall he was gay. Finn Stannard made the revelation in June this year during a Key Note Address to around 1,500 of his male peers from St Ignatius College Riverview. 'Announcing yourself to the world is pretty terrifying, because what if the world doesn't like you?' he began. Mr Stannard explains that it took him a year and a half after realising he was gay to tell his parents, he says in footage released by SBS News. 'Even though I knew my parents loved me, there is always a fear of telling those you love something important, and I was afraid of changing myself in their eyes - life was easier living as a straight, older son,' he said. Mr Stannard's heart-warming speech spoke of inclusion and acceptance and he urged his peers to accept other for 'exactly who they are', adding that 'no amount of school or tests can teach us to love and accept ourselves'. Finn Stannard (pictured) made the revelation in June this year during a Key Note Address to around 1,500 of his male peers from St Ignatius College Riverview 'Announcing yourself to the world is pretty terrifying, because what if the world doesn't like you?' Mr Stannard asked his audience 'Being different, whether it's being gay or being part of another minority group can be challenging, but it does not have to be scary or isolating,' he said. At the end of Mr Stannard's speech, the assembly hall broke into rapturous applause as the crowd gave him a standing ovation, and students and teachers on stage gave him encouraging pats on the back. St Ignatius College Riverview is one of Australia's most prestigious private schools, with yearly fees for tuition and boarding ranging from $42,800 to $48,000. Mr Stannard has been in a relationship with boyfriend Thomas Moiso since October last year, according to his Facebook page, and Mr Stannard told SBS they went to the school formal together. 'I think the best part was seeing all these other people with their dates, but not feeling any different,' he said. 'Being different, whether it's being gay or being part of another minority group can be challenging, but it does not have to be scary or isolating,' Mr Stannard said At the end of Mr Stannard's speech, the assembly hall broke into rapturous applause as the crowd gave him a standing ovation Mr Stannard's announcement comes at a crucial time for the LGBTQ community following the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year, and continued debate over whether religious schools can discriminate against gay students and staff. Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce previously attended St Ignatius College Riverview and both were high profile opponents of same-sex marriage in the lead up to the equality vote last year. School Principal Dr Paul Hine, however, said sexuality is not something anyone chooses, and therefore people need to be open and accepting to enable 'communities of inclusion'. Of Mr Abbott and My Joyce, Dr Hines said they were both 'very respected alumni in their own right'. 'But they wouldn't necessarily be the spokespeople for the school on this issue because there would be others that would hold views equally as strongly in another direction,' he said. An abandoned prison once home to murderers, rapists and hardened criminals might not be the obvious choice for a festival. But ShishaFEST 2018 have announced that this year's event will be held at the notorious Paramatta Gaol, in Sydney. Revellers will be able to play at being inmates, surrounded by abandoned cells, razor wire fencing and high sandstone walls. Scroll down for video A popular smoking festival will breathe new life into a disused and antiquated prison site The iconic Paramatta Gaol in western Sydney will be the backdrop to the ever-growing Shishafest In a promotional video for Shishafest 2018 Locked Up, a man draped in black is seen smoking a shisha in a dingy cell and coolly breathing the plume of smoke through the cell door 'Keeping the gaol theme, festival goers can get hair cuts, work out, purchase buy-up and get a temporary tattoo,' the ShishaFEST steering committee said. In a promotional video for ShishaFEST 2018 Locked Up, a man draped in prison green is seen smoking a shisha in a dingy cell, blowing a plume of smoke through the cell door. The exposed metal frames in the hallways and bleak prison staircases promises to add a gritty charm to the festival. 'Food and shisha will be more than 10 meters from each other as per legislative requirements,' the committee said. 'There will also be meat, vego, vegan, dessert and coffee offerings to satisfy attendees.' Aside from the expected shishas on offer, a live DJ, food trucks and sunset cinema will also bring the abandoned courtyards to life. This year will mark the second time the shisha festival has been held, on the back of a successful inaugural year in 2017. The exposed metal frames in the hallways and bleak staircases in the prison no doubt adds a gritty charm to the festival 'After starting off with a warehouse party in Waterloo in 2017 and catering for 500 shisha enthusiasts. 'The search was on to find a location in western Sydney to host 1000 people.' The gaol has been used as the setting for other festivals, such as the Red Bull Music Festival in April, earlier this year. Organisers approached the custodians of the land the Deerubbin Aboriginal Local Land Council who are working with them on the event. Anyone interested in tickets to the December 15 festival can head to the festival's webpage. Aside from the expected shishas on offer, a live DJ, food trucks and sunset cinema will also be set up bringing the abandoned courtyards to life The gaol has been used as the setting for other festivals, such as the Red Bull Music Festival in April this year A Utah health teacher has been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing her ex-husband's girlfriend in front of the former couple's twin daughters. Police said Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, went to her ex-husband's Salt Lake City apartment on Sunday night to give one of their three-year-old twins cold medicine. Cook allegedly locked herself in a bathroom when her ex-husband Travis Cook asked her to leave. Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, was arrested on Sunday night in Salt Lake City for allegedly shooting dead her ex-husband's girlfriend Courtesy: FOX13 She eventually came out of the bathroom and grabbed a gun from her coat, according to police. Cook then allegedly fired the gun multiple times at 26-year-old Lisa Vilate Williams while her daughters were watching. The victim was shot twice in the torso and fell back onto the couch. Her ex-husband told police that Cook sat in a recliner chair near their daughters and watched as he tried to help his injured girlfriend. When she got up and tried to get her coat, her ex-husband pinned her to a wall until police arrived. Police said Cook came to her ex-husband's Salt Lake City apartment on Sunday night to give one of their three-year-old twins cold medicine but refused to leave Her ex-husband Travis told police that Cook sat in a recliner chair near their daughters and watched as he tried to help his injured girlfriend Williams was pronounced dead when she was rushed to hospital. Cook, who was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder, taught health class at Skyridge High School. She is also currently facing separate domestic violence charges related to an incident in October to which she has pleaded not guilty. The charging documents in that case are sealed but it is related to abuse in front of children. No attorney was immediately listed for her in court documents. Former Bletchley Park codebreaker Baroness Trumpington has died, aged 96. The Tory peer, who sat on the red benches for nearly four decades, served as an agriculture minister under both Margaret Thatcher and Sir John Major. But the former Bletchley Park code breaker was thrown into the public consciousness seven years ago when she was caught on camera sticking a V-sign at a fellow peer in the chamber. Scroll down for video The Tory peer, who sat on the red benches for nearly four decades, served as an agriculture minister under both Margaret Thatcher and Sir John Major Baroness Trumpington, when she was 89, uses an eloquent two-finger gesture to show Lord King of Bridgewater just what she thinks of colleagues making reference to her age During the war, Baroness Trumpington worked at Bletchley Park as a cipher clerk on the team dedicated to cracking German naval codes She took exception after her friend, Lord King of Bridgewater, joked that veterans of World War Two had 'started to look pretty old as my noble friend, the Baroness reminds me'. Baroness Trumpington immediately looked up, glared at him sharply and raised two fingers. Within hours footage of the encounter had become an internet sensation. Afterwards, she blamed 'those bloody TV cameras' for bringing what was meant to be a private joke to the public's attention. Lady Trumpington was born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris on October 23, 1922 and educated privately in England and France. LADY TRUMPINGTON'S TOP FIVE MOMENTS Flicking the V-Sign: Baroness Trumpington gave a two-fingered salute to her colleague in a debate in the Lords in 2011 after he mentioned her age. Have I Got News For You: The Conservative peer appeared don the hos in 2012 and joked about enjoying a cigar after sex. Hotel dates: During a debate on equality, she sent peers into fits of laughter by revealing that booking into a hotel used to give a 'certain frisson' as her late husband had to use a different name. Lloyd George: She worked as a Land Girl on the former PM's estate during the Second World War and recalled how he would line her up and take her measurements. Asked if he ever tried it on with her, she said: 'No. He wouldn't have dared.' Desert Island Discs: When she was a guest on Desert Island Discs, she chose the Crown jewels as her luxury item, in order to maximise her chances of being rescued. Advertisement During the war, Baroness Trumpington worked as a Land Girl on Lloyd George's estate. She said: 'I hated being a land girl. There were only old men there. The young men had joined up. And it was all apples - no animals.' A talented linguist fluent in French and German, she later joined the top secret team at Bletchley Park who cracked Hitler's code - helping to win the Second World War. Afterwards she went to the United States to work for an advertising agency, setting off with 5 in her pocket and subsisting for the first few weeks on cocktail snacks until her first pay cheque came through. On her return to England she married Alan Barker, a Cambridge don, who was to become headmaster of the Leys School. But politics was in her blood and she tried unsuccessfully to be selected as a Conservative candidate in East Anglia. Undaunted by this rebuff, she threw herself into local government. Before entering Parliament, Lady Trumpington was a Cambridge councillor, rising to become mayor in 1971. In 1980, to her surprise and delight, she was awarded a life peerage and took her title from the name of a Cambridgeshire village. She quickly became a character in the House of Lords, as well as a forthright and controversial speaker. She once enraged thousands of animal-lovers who sent her letters of abuse after she had suggested that Falklands sheep should be used as sacrificial mine detectors. She said: 'My point was that sheep could be put out of their misery and eaten, whereas men could not.' Unimpressed by this explanation, one correspondent referred to her as a 'fat, old scrubber', a description she always recounted with relish. Baroness Trumpington (pictured right) with her husband, son Adam and their boxer dog Bumble She also had a loud and public row with British Rail, who refused to refund half her return ticket. Incensed by their demand for 'documentary proof', she promptly accused them of calling her a crook. Less controversially, she sponsored measures to allow Sunday trading and was an advocate of dog-owners cleaning up after their pets. After three years she was made a whip, to ensure that Tory peers could not leave the Palace of Westminster when there was a critical vote. She became known as the 'Keeper of the Gate' as she sat by the most popular exit, deterring escaping Lords by her imposing stature and ringing voice. Baroness Trumpington retired from the Lords last October, on the day after her 95th birthday. Tributes came from across the political spectrum after her son Adam Barker announced that the former Conservative minister died on Monday afternoon. Mr Barker announced her death on Twitter. He wrote: 'She had a bloody good innings.' International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt also paid tribute to Lady Trumpington. She said: 'Deepest sympathies to all who knew and loved this incredible woman. Socialite, mother, Bletchley Park code breaker, Baroness, Minister, trailblazer, heroine and an utter joy. Thank you Jean Barker, BaronessTrumpington' Baroness Sayeeda Warsi added: 'She always had time to deliver a good telling off, give advice or pay a compliment. I had the privilege of being at the receiving end of all three! A huge inspiration.' James Cleverly, an MP and deputy chairman of the Conservative party, tweeted: 'So sad to hear that code breaking, two finger wagging, Baroness Trumpington has passed away. Ma'am, we salute you.' Tim Farron, MP and former Liberal Democrat leader, said she was 'admirable, decent and unique'. Lady Trumpington had a wide range of outside interests and hobbies. In her time she had been President of the Heads of Independent Schools, Steward of Folkestone Racecourse, Hon Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, a prison visitor, member of the Airline Users Committee, and United Kingdom representative to the United Nations Status of Women Commission. Former heroin addict Anya Weti-Safwan, 36, (pictured) is pleading not to be deported from Australia back to New Zealand after almost two decades of crime A mother who beat a crippling heroin addiction has begged not to be deported to New Zealand after chalking up a string of criminal convictions in Australia the past two decades. Anya Weti-Safwan, 36, has called Australia home since the age of three. She is facing deportation due to a number of criminal convictions, mainly for shoplifting and theft charges stretching back to 1997. After serving a sentence of nine months in prison in 2006, her visa was cancelled and Weti-Safwan was sent to Sydney's Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. After three years in detention, she was handed a bridging visa. While she was locked up at Villawood, she met her future husband Gehad. The couple went on to have a daughter who was taken away to be cared by other family members. Weti-Safwan's criminal offending worsened following her release from jail for a second time. Weti-Safwan (pictured right with husband Gehad) fears her family will fall apart if she is deported from Australia The young mother was hit with a string of charges from 2010 to 2015, and after serving another three months in prison, she was sent back to an immigration detention centre. Weti-Safwan then finally began to make serious changes in her life. She took part in Narcotics Anonymous and completed a methadone program. 'My daughter - I knew that was my one and only chance and I had to do the right thing,' she told stuff.co.nz. The decision to have her deported was overturned in 2016 by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia. In her decision, Tribunal chair Dr Louise Bygrave acknowledged Weti-Safwan had a substantial criminal record. But a psychological assessment found her record was 'limited to relatively minor' offending.' 'Excluding her driving offences, her offending has always been a function of her heroin use,' the assessment found. The assessment found she was capable of turning her life around if she was surrounded by the right people and seeked proper treatment for her addiction. Anya Weti-Safwan (pictured) is likely to be deported from Australia after chalking up a string of criminal convictions stretching back to 1997 Nearly a year later, Peter Dutton, the former Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, left Weti-Safwan reeling after concluding she was an 'unacceptable risk of harm to the Australian community' and wanted her deported. 'I've done the right thing,' Weti-Safwan said. 'But he (Dutton) kicked me in the face.' Weti-Safwan then took her case to the Federal Court of Australia. In a decision released earlier this month, Justice Jayne Jagot said she couldn't find anything unreasonable in Dutton's decision. Weti-Safwan now appears destined to be kicked out of Australia, and fears for her future as she has no family or employment prospects in New Zealand. A literature student who spent thousands of pounds on his degree is now working for Deliveroo and earning less on average than those who didn't go to university. Kieran Hughes, 28, graduated with a degree in literature and media at the University of Brighton before completing a masters at the University of Sussex. It comes as a report reveals men who study art, English or philosophy at university earn on average less at the age of 29 than those without a degree. 99 per cent of women attend a university which provides positive returns on average at age 29, as do 67 per cent of men. Kieran Hughes, 28, pictured, studied literature and media but now works for Deliveroo and earns less on average than a man of the same age who did not go to university How much men earn by subject at aged 29 with a degree compared to no degree Mr Hughes works as a Deliveroo rider and a drum teacher and last year earned 9,500 but has debts of around 27,000. He said many people like him only went to university because their friends did and never thought about their earnings. If students were motivated by future earnings, he added, they needed to think about what degree they chose because of a surplus of graduates. Mr Hughes said: There is an argument that degrees have been devalued because so many people do them. Anyone with an education should be able to support themselves. For the first time, data exposes how many arts and humanities courses produce negative returns even though they cost up to 9,250 a year. The worst return is for men studying creative arts. They earn on average 14 per cent less than non-graduate peers while for English it is 7 per cent less and for philosophy it is four per cent less. There are better returns for women but only because they are disadvantaged in the labour market in general. The report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) will reignite the debate over whether some degree courses are worth the time and effort. It comes as a Government-appointed panel prepares to release the results of a Higher Education Review, which will make recommendations about value-for-money and student fees. The study of 1,400 courses also showed that within subjects, there is large variation between institution. Every subject for men, and most subjects for women, have at least one institution that offers a negative return and one with a positive return. And although creative arts on average have a low return, the very best ones are producing a salary premium of 79 per cent for women. This suggests that within subject areas, some universities may be underperfoming compared with others. Responding to this point, universities minister Sam Gyimah said the new data will mean courses failing to provide 'value for money' will have to 'improve or delist' as it will become clear to students whether they are worthwhile. He stressed that society needs creative arts and individuals will always want to study them, even though the financial rewards are less. But he said some lower quality courses may not be delivering any of their graduates into the fields they claim to be training people for. He said if people are studying creative arts, they will want to be sure that their course actually leads to a creative arts job. In addition, he said fields like nursing and social work were deeply important to society and that students must be encouraged to enter these areas despite the poorer financial returns. For the first time, data exposes how many arts and humanities courses produce negative returns even though they cost up to 9,250 a year. File photo And the Office for Students (OfS) regulator vowed to intervene where universities provide poor outcomes with sanctions including fines and closure. The IFS study links degree information with Whitehall tax data, taking a snapshot of annual earnings of 29-year-old graduates and non-graduates. Among both groups, it examined only those with five GCSEs graded A* to C. The study found that overall, a degree does produce a premium of 6,200 a year for women and 2,000 for men. Similarly, 99 per cent of women see a positive return on their degree, as do 67 per cent of men an average of 85 per cent overall. But this means a significant minority are seeing a negative effect from going to university. The effect is worse for men because men who do not go to university tend to do better than women in the labour market. Male-dominated trades which do not require a degree such as plumbing and construction can be lucrative Male-dominated trades which do not require a degree such as plumbing and construction can be lucrative. The researchers calculated what a person would have earned had they not gone to university adjusting for the fact that some subjects attract more affluent or more able students. A man studying creative arts could expect to earn 25,900 14 per cent less than the 30,110 he would be earning if he had not gone to university. Men doing English could earn 30,700 7 per cent less than the estimated 33,029. And men doing philosophy could earn 37,000 4 per cent less than the estimated 38,581. At the other end of the scale, men with economics degrees earn 33 per cent more than those who did not attend university. Mr Gyimah called on the OfS to crack down on courses which do not add value. He added: It is clear that there are a clutch of courses at certain universities which are not delivering financial outcomes for students. We have got to put [the data] out there to let prospective students know, and force the university to either delist the course or actually improve the course. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the OfS, said: Universities should scrutinise this data carefully, and some will need to ask themselves tough questions about how well they are preparing students for life after graduation. . . . but its good news for female students Women have a much higher salary return from a degree at the age of 29 than men, and almost always benefit in cash terms from attending university, the study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed. Researchers found that a degree increases average earnings by 26 per cent for women, but only 6 per cent for men. In addition, in contrast to men, women see a salary premium for every subject even ones which produce low earnings. Women studying creative arts earn 9 per cent more than those who have no degree, while those studying social care earn 14 per cent more. Women have a much higher salary return from a degree at the age of 29 than men, and almost always benefit in cash terms from attending university. File photo Experts say the trend can be explained by the vastly different paths men and women take if they do not go to university. For women, not going to university often means having children earlier and therefore they are more likely to be working part-time or not at all by the age of 29. There is also the issue of women choosing poorly paid non-graduate paths, such as beauty or childcare. In contrast, men who do not go to university are more likely to choose male-dominated lucrative trades such as plumbing or construction. Those with some years experience can earn 40,000 or more much higher than many graduates. The calculations for salary premiums took into account additional factors, such as the different levels of affluence and ability of people attending university. The study also found the gender pay gap between men and women who have been to university is narrower than that of men and women who have not. Examining the raw earnings only, the average salary at age 29 for a university-educated man is 36,000 while for a university-educated female it is 30,000 a difference of 6,000. For non-university-educated men it is 30,000, and for women it is 21,000 a difference of 9,000. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the OfS, said: Of course, better financial prospects are only one reason why people go to university. Higher education also delivers important social and educational benefits to individual students and society as a whole. There are also many rewarding careers that may not attract high salaries, especially early in someones career. But universities should scrutinise this data carefully, and some will need to ask themselves tough questions about how well they are preparing students for life after graduation. Universities and other higher education providers registering with the OfS must meet a number of conditions around the quality of their provision, including on the outcomes they help deliver for students. Where they fall short of our expectations, we will not hesitate to intervene. Desiree Boltos, 37, of North Richland Hills was in court on Monday for the start of her trial in Tarrant County, Texas A Texas woman is due to stand trial for allegedly swindling older people out of $1.6million by pretending to fall in love with them. Desiree Boltos, 37, of North Richland Hills was in court on Monday for the start of her trial in Tarrant County, Texas. She stands accused of engaging in organized crime and theft, according to KXAS-TV. Prosecutors say Boltos engaged in a so-called sweetheart swindle. Boltos is alleged to have conned five men and one woman between 2012 and 2017. Authorities allege that she married one of the victims, even though she was legally married to another person at the time. Jury selection was due to end on Monday. Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday. Sweetheart swindles are scams in which con artists prey on people - usually who are elderly and widowed - with whom they then form a relationship. The swindler claims to love their targets, who are then asked to pay money in order to help them. After the relationship progresses to a point where the swindler has extracted enough money from their targets, the swindler then flees. Elderly people are considered a convenient target since they are in many cases alone and seeking companionship. They also likely have money saved up in retirement accounts. A traumatised woman who was raped by a member of a grooming gang and became pregnant with his child was left 'extremely distressed' after social workers tried to help him get in contact with her son. In the 'perverse' decision by the unnamed local authority, staff approached a jailed sex attacker and offered him help to be involved in his son's upbringing, without notifying his mother. An investigation by The Times found the council notified the man he could seek visits from his child in jail and could apply for his family to have custody of the boy. Campaigners said the offer could 'retraumatise' his victim who lives in Northern England. Details over her location have been withheld to protect the mother whose case featured in the trial of several men of Pakistani origin were found guilty of dozens of sex offences. The mother and her child were involved in court proceedings when she was told the man who raped her was being given the chance to be involved in proceedings Baroness Newlove, the victims' commissioner for England and Wales, has criticised the local authority The Ministry of Justice is investigating whether or not this was a systematic failing - or an error by a social worker after the father was told he could see the child he conceived through rape The victim told The Times she was informed she may have to face him in court next year. Her case came to light when her son, who has complex needs, was at the centre of a case in which the council sought a care order - with approval of his mother. Ordinarily anyone with parental rights over the child would be contacted - but the man was never named on the child's birth certificate and was jailed for the attack. 'I was gobsmacked,' the victim said. Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley and Shadow Policing Minister said there was potential for the man to 'retraumatise his victim' 'The council knew what he did to me and to other vulnerable girls. They knew he was behind bars and a risk to my son, who wanted nothing to do with him, but they bent over backwards to include him in the case. I felt angry and scared for my son.' The decision has been met with fury and will be investigated. Baroness Newlove, the victims' commissioner for England and Wales, said: 'This appears to be a case in which a victim of the worst sexual violence faced the prospect of continuing to be abused by her perpetrator, this time via the family courts.' Louise Haigh, the shadow police and crime minister, said: 'They handed him an invitation to retraumatise his victim. No man who has fathered a child through abuse or rape should have the right to apply for custody or visitation rights in the family courts.' The boy's father was listed as a 'respondent' in the case, despite having in no contact with the parental family and the child himself not indicating an interest in knowing his father. The Ministry of Justice is investigating whether or not this was a systematic failing - or an error by a social worker. Advertisement A migrant mother photographed running with her daughters from tear gas at the U.S.-Mexico border said she never expected the U.S. Border Patrol to fire gas canisters at children and families. After traveling north from Honduras and spending a week in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, Maria Meza, 35, set out on Sunday with her five children to claim asylum at the U.S. border crossing. She and hundreds of other Central American migrants were blocked by Mexican police and staged a protest in front of the border, some rushing the U.S fence. Three tear gas canisters shot from the U.S. side landed around Meza and her children, who range in age from toddlers to teenagers, she said in an interview at a Tijuana migrant shelter. Maria Meza, 35, runs from tear gas with her twin five-year-old daughters Saira ad Cheili by the hand. Her 13-year-old daughter Jamie is behind her in a black sweatshirt Maria and her daughters were part of a large group of migrants who had run close to the border fence in Tijuana. US Border agents on the other side fired the tear gas Cheili tripped over her flip flop as the family ran away from the gas. Her mother said she did not think the agents would fire the gas in their direction if they had children with them Cheili was pictured crying hysterically as they ran away from the tear gas. Her mother said she did not think the border agents would fire gas since there were so many children on the other side of the fence 'The first thing I did was grab my children,' said Meza. A photo of her clutching the hands of twin five-year-old daughters Saira and Cheili, as her 13-year-old daughter Jamie runs alongside, has gone viral and sparked angry reactions from some lawmakers and charities. 'I was scared, and I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas,' said Meza. Her young son James nearly fainted when a canister landed near him. Meza fell and struggled to get up amidst the gas. A young man gave her his hand and pulled her to her feet. 'We never thought they were going to fire these bombs where there were children, because there were lots of children,' said Meza, sitting in view of the rusted-steel U.S. border fence. 'It wasn't right, they know we are human beings, the same as them,' said Meza. The family is now in a shelter in Tijuana They left Honduras weeks ago in search of a better life. Maria says it was the country's violence that prompted them to leave Maria and the twins are pictured. She said that while she is still hopeful they will get into the US, they will stay in Mexico and hopefully be given legal status there if Trump closes the border Maria picked up the canister of tear gas once it had stopped streaming and brought it back to the shelter with her The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were struck by projectiles thrown by the migrants. Around 5,200 people who traveled in a caravan across Mexico are packed into the shelter in a stadium in Tijuana, living in makeshift tents. President Donald Trump has taken a hardline stance against the migrants, who have made their way north from violent and impoverished Central American countries. On Monday, he said Mexico should send them back to their home countries. He has also denied that border agents are throwing gas at children. The U.S. Border Patrol said most of those assembled at the border were economic migrants who would not qualify for asylum. 'I came here for one reason, and that's because there is a lot of violence in Honduras,' said Meza, as her children played with empty tear gas canisters shot by the Border Patrol. The United States shut the crossing for several hours on Sunday and Trump has threatened to close the border entirely. 'If they close the border I ask God that here in Tijuana, or in another country they open doors to us, to allow me to survive with my children,' said Meza. President Donald Trump accused the special counsel of ruining lives a day after George Papadopoulos started his two-week prison sentence for lying to investigators and Paul Manafort was accused of breaking his plea agreement for similar behavior. Trump claimed that Robert Mueller had 'gone rogue' and he's the 'exact opposite' of a saint. The president alleged that Mueller's prosecutors are punishing witnesses for refusing to say that they colluded with the Russians, even if they didn't. 'Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie,' Trump said in an admission that the conduct he's accusing them of is not based on publicly available information. The president himself is not expected to face criminal charges as a result of the special counsel probe, but he has ramped up his rhetoric against its head honcho in anticipation of Mueller's final report dropping. President Donald Trump accused the special counsel of ruining lives a day after George Papadopoulos started his two-week prison sentence for lying to investigators and Paul Manafort was charged with breaking his plea agreement for similar behavior The former Trump campaign manager had made a deal with Robert Mueller (above) to turn on President Trump and help the special counsel with his Russia investigation Trump claimed that Robert Mueller had 'gone rogue' and he's the 'exact opposite' of a saint. The president alleged that Mueller's prosecutors are punishing witnesses for refusing to say that they colluded with the Russians, even if they didn't His report may not be made public - a decision that could rest with Trump's new acting attorney general - but the president is already preparing for it to include claims that could politically, if not criminally, be 'devastating' to his administration, as one ally of the president put it. On Monday, Trump declared once again that his campaign is innocent of alleged Russian 'collusion' and insisted that it's Democrats who committed 'crimes' in a pre-buttal of Mueller's report. Trump said if anyone is charged, it should be Democrats such as Tony Podesta, a lobbyist whose brother chaired Hillary Clinton's last presidential campaign. He asked, 'When Mueller does his final report, will he be covering all of his conflicts of interest in a preamble, will he be recommending action on all of the crimes of many kinds from those on the other side(whatever happened to Podesta?), and will he be putting in statements from hundreds of people closely involved with my campaign who never met, saw or spoke to a Russian during this period? 'So many campaign workers, people inside from the beginning, ask me why they have not been called (they want to be). There was NO Collusion & Mueller knows it!' the president said in a pre-buttal of the report on Monday morning. George Papadopoulos is seen here in October. On Monday he started his short stint in prison after admitting he lied to Mueller He ignored a question from DailyMail.com about Mueller that afternoon as he left the White House then continued to rage on Twitter on Tuesday morning. 'The Phony Witch Hunt continues, but Mueller and his gang of Angry Dems are only looking at one side, not the other. Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie. Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue,' Trump charged. 'The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite.' Trump claimed that Mueller is doing 'TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other' and predicted that the special counsel wouldn't be among the 'heroes' that comes out of the probe. 'Look at their past, and look where they come from. The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and theyve got nothing but ruined lives. Where is the Server? Let these terrible people go back to the Clinton Foundation and Justice Department!' he said. Mueller is expected to wrap up his probe in short order, now that the president's written responses have been submitted. Politico noted that he could be stymied next week in any case in the event of a partial government shutdown. If Trump deems his investigation non-essential to the government, he won't be able to conduct official business until the president and Congress arrive at a spending agreement. Trump has suggested that he'll allow the government to fall into default next week unless he gets the money he's demanding for this border wall. When Mueller's report does come, attorney Alan Dershowitz says it is likely to be 'politically very devastating' for Trump, even though a criminal referral against the president is not anticipated. Dershowitz told ABC News,'I think the report is going to be devastating to the president and I know that the president's team is already working on a response to the report. 'The president will say, "ah look, it's political. There's their account and there's our account". And the American public will have to judge the credibility.' He clarified: 'When I say devastating, I mean it's going to paint a picture that's going to be politically very devastating. I still don't think it's going to make a criminal case, because collusion is not criminal.' The emeritus Harvard Law professor also suggested that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker may withhold the report from being published. 'At some point when the report's made public - and that's a very hard question considering the new attorney general who has the authority to decide when and under what circumstance to make it public - it will be made public probably with a response alongside,' he stated. He said that Trump's legal team is already working out how to spin Mueller's report, as evidenced by the president's tweets this week accusing the special counsel of ignoring Democrats' bad acts. Mueller meanwhile charged former Trump campaign manager, Manafort, with violating his plea agreement by lying to the FBI and his team in their investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election. But Manafort denies doing so and both sides want a federal judge to sentence him immediately. Mueller's office, in court documents filed Monday evening, claimed Manafort 'committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters.' 'After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement,' prosecutors wrote. They asked 'in light of recent developments' the court 'schedule sentencing in this matter.' They did not elaborate on what Manafort lied about. They argued this leaves Manafort exposed to the possibility of a more severe prison sentence under federal guidelines. Manafort's defense team said in response: 'He believes he has provided truthful information' and tried to 'live up to his cooperation obligations.' They also requested a sentencing date. 'Given the conflict in the parties' positions, there is no reason to delay the sentencing herein, and he asks the Court to set a sentencing date in this matter,' they said. The stunning development on Monday evening leaves questions about the state of Mueller's investigation. Manafort, 69, was thought to be a star witness in the probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, given his knowledge of President Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Trump has repeatedly denied collusion of any kind. Manafort, who has remained in jail throughout this, has met with prosecutors at least nine times but Monday's filing indicates that - despite those hours with him - investigators may not have been able to garner any information they could verify. He entered a plea agreement in September in the hope of shaving time off his prison sentence for tax and bank fraud. He pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy - allegations that Manafort lied to the Department of Justice about his work for a foreign government and that he obstructed justice by attempting to influence potential witnesses in the case. Prosecutors dismissed bank fraud charges as part of the deal - charges that could possibly be refiled. As part of the plea deal, Manafort agreed to provide information on a 'broad' array of topics in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence in his August conviction in Virginia on bank and tax fraud. He was convicted on eight counts of bank fraud and tax fraud in August and then made a deal with prosecutors to avoid a second trial in Washington D.C. on additional charges. Prosecutors filed new documents in the case on Monday night Manafort's plea agreement was supposed to cap his prison sentence to 10 years. Manafort's plea deal stipulates: 'If prosecutors determine that Manafort had failed to cooperate fully, has intentionally given false, misleading or incomplete information or testimony, he will not be released from his pleas of guilty but the Government will be released from its obligations.' As part of his plea agreement, Manafort also agreed to forfeit five properties he owned in New York, including his apartment at Trump Tower and his sprawling estate in the Hamptons. In addition, he will give up a brownstone he owned in Brooklyn, New York, his SoHo, Manhattan, condo, and an apartment in Chinatown. He must also forfeit two bank accounts at Federal Savings Bank and an account at Capital One. The latest development could indicate a set back for Mueller's investigation if Manafort had not been cooperating. Manafort served as President Donald Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort knew about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin The former Trump campaign manager knew about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Manafort himself and a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin who claimed to have dirt on Trump's presidential rival Hillary Clinton. President Donald Trump has denied he knew about the meeting ahead of time and repeatedly called Mueller's investigation a 'witch hunt.' That gathering at Trump Tower had become a central focus of Mueller's look into what role Russian played in the 2016 presidential election. John Bercow was under fire last night after allowing a string of Theresa May critics to have the first go at savaging her Brexit deal in the Commons. The Speaker has total discretion over which MPs to call to question the Prime Minister when she makes a statement to the House. Yesterday, he waited more than an hour before allowing former education secretary Nicky Morgan to become the first MP to speak in support of the PMs Brexit deal giving the impression that no-one backed it. One senior Tory source described Mr Bercows conduct as outrageous, adding: He seems to be trying to break his own record for how long he can wait before he can call someone supportive. Nailing his colours: Anti-Brexit sticker on windscreen of John Bercows car One senior Tory source described Mr Bercows conduct as outrageous, adding: He seems to be trying to break his own record for how long he can wait before he can call someone supportive In the first hour of Mrs Mays statement, Mr Bercow called 11 members of the hardline European Research Group (ERG), which has vowed publicly to kill off her Brexit proposals. Those called to open the questioning included the ERGs chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg, former chairman Steve Baker and deputy chairman Mark Francois, all of whom have published letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister in the last fortnight. Mr Bercow, who voted Remain and has a car windscreen sticker that says B******s to Brexit, also called Eurosceptic former Cabinet members Boris Johnson, David Davis, Owen Paterson, Iain Duncan Smith and John Redwood before considering more supportive former ministers such as Mrs Morgan and Caroline Spelman. In between he called a number of diehard Tory Remainers who are known to oppose the deal and want a second referendum, including former ministers Justine Greening, Anna Soubry and Jo Johnson. The only previously neutral Tory called in the first hour was former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, who also spoke out against the deal. Rebecca Lynn Phelps, 31, was arrested by police near Tampa for grabbing her boyfriends genitals [while] wanting to have sex on Thanksgiving night A Florida woman has been arrested for allegedly beating up her boyfriend after he spurned her sexual advances. Rebecca Lynn Phelps, 31, was arrested by police near Tampa for allegedly 'grabbing her boyfriends genitals [while] wanting to have sex' on Thanksgiving night, according to The Smoking Gun. Phelps shares a home with the victim, who is unnamed, and their child in Land O'Lakes, Florida. This is the second time in the last 14 months that Phelps has been arrested for allegedly beating up a man who did not want to have sex with her. Police say that her boyfriend was sleeping when an intoxicated Phelps walked into the bedroom and indicated she wanted to have sex. Phelps allegedly groped her boyfriends genitals, but instead he said no and went back to sleep, police said. She then left the room, only to come back and start tapping his leg, police said. In September 2017, Phelps was arrested after she smacked [a man] so hard on the right side of his face it left redness. The man did not want to have sexual relations with Phelps, who got angry in response, according to police Phelps shares a home with the victim, who is unnamed, and their child in Land O'Lakes, Florida. A copy of the arrest report is seen above The victim pretended to be asleep to ignore the defendant who is intoxicated, investigators said. Phelps then allegedly grew angry and scratched the victim on his left eye causing it to swell and turn black and blue, according to the arrest report. When police arrived, Phelps denied touching the victim. She was booked on misdemeanor domestic battery charges. She was released on Sunday morning after she posted $100 bond. Phelps has been ordered by a judge not to have any contact with the victim. In September 2017, Phelps was arrested after she smacked [a man] so hard on the right side of his face it left redness. The man did not want to have sexual relations with Phelps, who got angry in response, according to police. She then attacked the man, scratching him with her right hand and causing his skin to break and the victim to bleed, according to police. Prosecutors declined to pursue charges against Phelps. It is unclear if the victim in September 2017 is the same man in the current case. Shocking footage has emerged of a roadside brawl involving a motorcyclist, a ute driver and a metal pole in Melbourne. A local homeowner's CCTV captured the incident on Mickleham road, Tullamarine, close to Melbourne airport, at around 8pm on Monday evening. The footage shows a white ute pull off the main road, followed by a man on black motorbike who dismounts. The homeowner, a man called Jan, told 3AW radio station he was 'staggered' when he looked back at the material. A man was seen getting out of the white ute, wielding a thick metal pole and walking towards the motorcyclist. The men appear to be arguing and within a few seconds, the motorcyclist has grabbed the metal pole from his opponent and started swinging it ferociously at his legs. Eventually, the motorcyclist throws the weapon aside and moves to get back on his vehicle, but the ute driver then picks up the metal pole. A local homeowner's CCTV captured the incident on Mickleham road, Tullamarine, close to Melbourne airport, at around 8pm on Monday, which involved two men and a metal pole After grabbing the metal pole from the ute driver, the motorcyclist ferociously swings it at him The two men are seen shoving each other and the ute driver makes several attempts to swing at the motorcyclist. Further conflict ensues but the view is obstructed by a street light and a few moments later the motorcyclist drives away. Jan told 3AW's Neil Mitchell his wife was home during the incident and she heard 'a lot of screaming and shouting'. 'You don't expect anyone to be driving around with a 2x4 metal bar in easy reach in a van,' he said. Later, the ute driver regains possession of the metal pole and swings it at the motorcyclist 'It's staggering that could actually happen.' It does not appear that anyone was hurt in the incident. Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia they are aware of the incident but are still confirming full details. olice are using up an average of three hours on each mental health incident Police are having to ignore crimes to look after vulnerable people as they 'pick up the pieces' of a 'broken mental health system', a damning report has found. Officers are being swamped by calls about mental illness, with the country's biggest force receiving one such call every four minutes, inspectors said. Forces are bearing the 'intolerable burden' of a 'national crisis' in mental health care as GPs, social workers and community health workers go home at 5pm and leave officers to deal with their patients. Figures from forces show 97,796 crimes and 431,060 incidents were flagged as involving mental health concerns in the year to June 2017, but inspectors said this was just the tip of the iceberg [File photo] Police are using up an average of three hours per mental health incident for example, ferrying people to hospital or waiting in accident and emergency for them to get help, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services found. The scale of the problem is illustrated by the fact that the Metropolitan Police the UK's largest force sends an officer to respond to a mental health call every 12 minutes. It cost Scotland Yard around 14,000 just to answer the calls of a single person who rang 999 more than 1,000 times in the space of a year. The force spent 70,000 answering a total of 8,655 calls in a year from five of its worst repeat callers, who all had mental health concerns. Officers are being swamped by calls about mental illness, with the country's biggest force receiving one such call every four minutes, inspectors said. Forces are bearing the 'intolerable burden' of a 'national crisis' in mental health care, a report claimed [File photo] HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham warned yesterday that the knock-on effect was that forces were able to attend and investigate fewer crimes. She said: 'There are many instances where police officers, two at a time, are sitting with patients in A&E awaiting assessment or beds.' The report found that half of mental health patients are transported to a place of safety by police, not the ambulance service. The peak time for calls to forces is between 3pm and 6pm Monday to Friday, when GP surgeries, social care and community mental health teams close. Miss Billingham said other services 'need to stop relying on the 24/7 availability of the police'. The scale of the problem is illustrated by the fact that the Metropolitan Police the UK's largest force sends an officer to respond to a mental health call every 12 minutes [File photo] Figures from forces show 97,796 crimes and 431,060 incidents were flagged as involving mental health concerns in the year to June 2017, but inspectors said this was just the tip of the iceberg. Miss Billingham concluded: 'Too often the police are left picking up the pieces of a broken mental health system. It is placing an intolerable burden on police officers and staff at a time of escalating demand in areas like knife crime, serious sexual offences and domestic abuse.' A Government spokesman said: 'We are investing 2billion in mental health services, including in A&E departments, and community crisis services.' NSW Corrections Minister David Elliot (pictured) vowed to prevent a paedophile who raped and murdered a toddler from being released on parole A remorseless paedophile who raped and murdered a toddler could be freed from jail as government officials scramble to keep him locked up Douglas James Wade was jailed for 36 years for murdering his girlfriend's 22-month-old daughter while he was babysitting her in Tumut, in southern New South Wales, in 1988. The State Parole Authority on Tuesday deferred a decision on the 55-year-old's release until January. NSW Corrections Minister David Elliot vowed to use every legal avenue to prevent a release, even appealing to the Supreme Court. 'The State Parole Authority considers a range of factors when determining whether an offender should be released to parole, with community safety at the forefront of that decision making,' he said. 'The CSNSW Commissioner will be opposing parole for this offender. 'If the offender is granted parole, I will seek urgent legal advice to determine if SPA's decision can be challenged in the Supreme Court of NSW.' Wade is already allowed outside prison on day release, wearing an ankle monitor, so he can work part time. He continues to protest his innocence and has shown no remorse. He was denied parole in 2014, 2015 and 2016 after appealing his conviction in 2000. If the former shearer was released he would be subject to 'strict conditions and supervision', Corrective Services NSW said. However, the victim's family was concerned that he planned to live at a rural property about 20 kilometres from Tumut. Their lawyer Howard Brown would argue at the parole hearing that the house was close to where unaccompanied schoolchildren waited for a bus. NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman admitted the public had been let down by other convicted sex offenders being released on bail There were also concerns about how police would monitor him in such an isolated location, and whether his ankle tracker would have reception. Despite the well-publicised lead-up to the parole hearing, NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman embarrassingly knew nothing about it. 'I'm not familiar with this case. If it's as you described, it's deeply concerning,' he said when asked for an update about it on 2GB radio on Tuesday morning. Mr Elliott's vow to deny Wade parole came in the wake of another convicted rapist being released on parole and then allegedly attacking a young girl. Mr Speakman admitted the public had been let down by this and other recent cases. 'The system has taken a couple of hits. Pretty bad hits. We have the tightest bail laws in Australia but obviously they're not foolproof,' he said. 'These incidents are isolated but of course, if the allegations are correct, they're devastating.' Wade was originally jailed for life but in 2013 asked for a fixed sentence under new legislation and was given 36 years with a non-parole period of 26 years. Mr Elliott vowed to use every legal avenue to prevent Wade from being released on parole, even appealing to the NSW Supreme Court (pictured) Justice Megan Latham at the time said Wade presented a relative low risk of reoffending and had a strong, supportive family. 'It's understandable that they would wish for the lifelong incarceration [of Wade] given that they have forever been deprived of a daughter, sibling and granddaughter,' she told the NSW Supreme Court at the time. The court heard the mother, who can't be named, left her daughter with Wade while she went out with friends and returned half an hour later to find her dead. 'Get in here quickly... I hit her and she hit her head on the floor,' Wade told her when she arrived back at her home. Wade claimed he only struck the toddler once with a 'backhand' blow because she disobeyed him, and he didn't intentionally kill her. However, a post-mortem found numerous injuries on the toddler's body including bruises to her vagina and abdomen. The court heard in the months before her death the girl had visible bruises on her stomach, face, thighs and vulva. The Prime Minister has ruled out the Norway option for Brexit amid concerns that it would keep Britains borders open to EU citizens indefinitely. Tory former minister Nick Boles yesterday said he had been contacted by four Cabinet members about his plan to join the European Free Trade Association (Efta). Membership would allow the UK to remain within a common market area with the EU and continue existing customs arrangements, while pulling out of agricultural and fishing policies but critics say it would mean accepting freedom of movement for EU citizens. The Prime Minister has ruled out the Norway option for Brexit amid concerns that it would keep Britains borders open to EU citizens indefinitely The four current Efta members are Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland. Mr Boles had initially proposed that Britain adopt Norway for now before moving to a trade deal with the EU. However, yesterday he admitted that the country would have to join Efta on an indefinite basis. He said: Good to see that people are taking Norway Plus seriously as a Plan B. But important to note that it is very unlikely that Efta states will accept temporary membership. If we join it will need to be an indefinite commitment. Norways prime minister Erna Solberg has previously said it would be difficult for Efta members to accept an application to join by a country that has made clear it would want to leave soon afterwards. In the Commons chamber yesterday, Mrs May repeatedly dismissed the idea of joining Efta. Tory former minister Nick Boles yesterday said he had been contacted by four Cabinet members about his plan to join the European Free Trade Association (Efta) Tory MP Anna Soubry urged the Prime Minister to offer the Commons a Plan B as she claimed her Brexit deal would be voted down. She asked: What is the Prime Ministers Plan B is it Norway, plus the single market, the customs union, which some of us have been arguing for? Mrs May joked: People have said to me it wasnt possible for me to negotiate a deal with the EU. No sooner do I, then people are saying well, whats the next thing youre going to negotiate. Asked again if Britain could join Efta, Mrs May replied: That option does not deliver on the vote of the British people. A Queensland evangelist exploited his leadership position at a Brisbane Pentecostal church to allegedly rape young choir girls in this care, a court has heard. Shartiel Nibigira, 43, has pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to 18 charges, including six counts of rape. Crown prosecutor Natalie Lima told Nibigira's trial that his alleged victims were aged between nine and 11 years and were abused at his house or while he was driving them home after choir practice between 2011 and 2013. Shartiel Nigigira, evangelist of Free Pentecostal Church of Australia has pleaded not guilty to rape charges The Queensland evangelist has pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to 18 charges, including six counts of rape 'The defendant's house was used for choir practice and other church activities. He regularly drove children to and from choir practice and other activities,' she said. The defendant abused the girls before, during and after choir practice, Ms Lima said. During an excursion to a swimming pool, the defendant took one of his victims on a side trip to a nearby shopping centre. Nibigira raped her twice in the front seat of his vehicle, only stopping when she cried. 'The real issue for this trial is whether these events happened as the children described,' Ms Lima said. The trial is expected to take 10 days. Scott Morrison's minority government is now on life support with Liberal MP Julia Banks quitting the party and threatening the Prime Minister's hold on power. The backbench member for Chisholm in Melbourne told the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon she could no longer support the government, as her former boss hinted at a May election and three days after the Coalition was flogged at the Victorian election. 'To continue to put the people before the party and act in the nation's interest authentically and constructively, effective immediately I will serve as a member of this House of Representatives as an independent representative,' she said shortly after midday. The former lawyer's resignation from the Liberal Party makes her one of seven crossbenchers in the lower house of Parliament, who could bring down the government if they all voted with Labor to make Bill Shorten prime minister. Scroll down for video Prime Minister Scott Morrison 's minority government has been thrown into chaos with a Liberal MP Julia Banks (pictured) quitting the party 'I intend to give the government my assurances to confidence and supply,' she said. 'In the New Year, I will make a decision about my future career path.' The first-term member of Parliament was the only Liberal candidate at the July 2016 federal election to win a seat off the Labor Party, giving the Turnbull Government a one-seat majority. She fell out with the Liberal Party in August, after former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was challenged for the leadership, and accused Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's supporters of bullying. In her speech announcing her resignation from the Liberal Party, the MP from the moderate side of conservative politics blamed right-wing elements in the party for her decision to quit the government. Julia Banks (left) is now one of seven crossbench MPs in the House of Representatives alongside Cathy McGowan, Kerryn Phelps and Rebekha Sharkie (left to right) The backbench member for Chisholm in Melbourne told the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon she could no longer support the government 'The Liberal Party has changed. Largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right-wing who talk about and talk to themselves, rather than listening to the people,' she said. 'The aftermath of those dark days in August then acutely laid bare the major parties' obstructionist and combative actions and internal games - all for political point scoring rather than for timely, practical, sensible decisions on matters which Australians care about.' Ms Banks also slammed the Coalition's paltry female representation, with the Liberal and National parties having just 19 women in both houses of Parliament, making up just 18 per cent of government MPs. 'Mr Speaker, equal representation of men and women in this Parliament is an urgent imperative which will create a culture change,' she said. 'There's the blinkered rejection of quotas and support of the merit myth. 'But this is more than a numbers game. Across both major parties, the level of regard and respect for women in politics is years behind the business world.' Julia Banks (pictured with fellow crossbenchers Kerryn Phelps and Cathy McGowan) blamed right-wing elements in the party for her decision to quit the government Julia Banks (pictured in October with former Liberal deputy Julie Bishop) slammed the Coalition's paltry female representation, with the Liberal and National parties having just 19 female members in both houses of Parliament, making up just 18 per cent of government MPs Ms Banks previously sat next to former Liberal deputy Julie Bishop in the House of Representatives, after she quit as foreign minister upon receiving just 11 votes in the Liberal Party's August leadership ballot. The Morrison Government lost its one-seat majority in October after high-profile doctor and independent candidate Kerryn Phelps won Mr Turnbull's former Sydney eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth, which had been in conservative hands since 1901. Ms Banks is now one of seven crossbenchers in the House of Representatives, alongside Greens MP Adam Bandt, Centre Alliance member Rebekha Sharkie, maverick north Queenslander Bob Katter and independents Andrew Wilkie, Cathy McGowan and Dr Kerryn Phelps. Nationals MP Kevin Hogan now sits on the crossbench but he still attends party room meetings. Julie Banks (left) quit the Liberal Party as her former boss Scott Morrison (right) hinted at a May election, following an April budget surplus House of Representatives now Coalition 74 Labor 69 Crossbench 7 Adam Bandt (Greens) Bob Katter (Katter's Australian Party) Cathy McGowan (Independent) Kerryn Phelps (Independent) Rebekha Sharkie (Centre Alliance) Andrew Wilkie (Independent) Julia Banks (Independent) Total 150 seats (Also of note: Nationals MP Kevin Hogan sits on the crossbench but attends Nationals party room meetings.) Advertisement With Labor having 69 seats in the lower house, Bill Shorten could become PM if all of seven crossbenchers backed the Opposition in a no-confidence motion against the government. Realistically, only Mr Bandt or Mr Wilkie would be likely to support a Labor no-confidence motion, with both MPs representing previously traditional Labor electorates in inner-city Melbourne and Hobart. Ms Banks sensationally quit the Liberal Party on Tuesday, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the government would deliver a budget surplus on April 2 before going to an election. The PM needs to call an election for the House of Representatives and half the Senate by May. 'You do the maths ... to have a half-Senate and House of Representatives election, that would have to be conducted by the 18th of May,' Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra. Julia Banks made her bombshell announcement as Prime Minister Scott Morrison (right with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg) hinted an election would be held in May 'It is absolutely our intention to have the budget before the election and to deliver a surplus budget, a surplus budget that we promised to deliver.' Australia has not had a May federal election since 1974 when Gough Whitlam, seeking a second term as Labor prime minister, called a double dissolution election over the introduction of universal health care. To the chagrin of her former Coalition colleagues, Ms Banks has also hinted she would support a motion to introduce a federal Independent Commission Against Corruption. 'There is also a clear need for an independent and whistle-blower system as found in many workplaces to enable reporting of misconduct of those in power without fear of reprisal or retribution,' Ms Banks said. Her resignation from the Liberal Party has occurred three days after Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews's government was re-elected in a landslide, with Labor picking up a series of previously safe Liberal Party seats in Melbourne's south-east. The new crossbencher (left) was the only Liberal candidate to win a seat off Labor at the 2016 election and argued her constituents had wanted a moderate Liberal leader as PM Ms Banks (pictured on the backbench in September) has also hinted she would support a motion to introduce a federal Independent Commission Against Corruption Former election-winning Victorian Liberal premiers Jeff Kennett and Ted Baillieu have both accused their party of being too right-wing for the electorate, after the Liberal Party was reduced to just 15 seats in the 88-member lower house of state parliament. Ms Banks echoed that sentiment on Tuesday, arguing her constituents in 2016 had wanted a moderate Liberal government led by Malcolm Turnbull and his party deputy Julie Bishop. 'Both visionary inspiring leaders of sensible centrist liberal values with integrity and intellect and with significant support from my local community and across Australia as leaders of our nation,' she said. Her federal electorate of Chisholm, in Melbourne's south-east, overlaps with the affluent state seats of Burwood, Box Hill and Mount Waverley, which Labor picked up from the Liberal Party on Saturday with strong swings of more than six per cent. An American woman has been caught allegedly attempting to import 13 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed inside children's toys through Sydney airport. The 37-year-old arrived in Australia on Sunday morning on a flight from San Francisco where her bags underwent a routine check. A total of 25 packages were found hidden in four boxes of children's toys, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, Australian Border Force officers will allege. An American woman has been caught allegedly attempting to import 13 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed inside children's toys (pictured) through Sydney airport A total of 25 packages (pictured) were found hidden in four boxes of children's toys, Australian Border Force officers will allege The packages presumptively tested positive for the potent stimulant drug methamphetamine but further forensic testing by AFP officers will determine the exact weight and purity of the substances. AFP officers arrested the woman and took her to Mascot Police Station where she was charged with importing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs. 'ABF officers have the skills, training and technology to detect these dangerous drugs at the border, no matter how criminals try to hide them,' ABF Regional Commander NSW Danielle Yannopoulos said. The packages (pictured) presumptively tested positive for the potent stimulant drug methamphetamine 'With our partner agencies we will do everything in our power to stop illicit drugs from reaching our shores and shut down the criminal syndicates responsible for trying to bring them here.' Authorities are always on the lookout for anyone using unusual methods to import illicit drugs into Australia, AFP Sydney Airport Police Commander Superintendent Peter Mullins warned. 'The fact criminals are willing to use children's toys to smuggle such harmful drugs into this country demonstrates the importance of continued vigilance at our borders,' he said. The woman appeared in Central Local Court on Monday. Advertisement This pair of male lions appear to be roaring with laughter after sharing a 'private joke'. With their noses scrunched up and tongues out, the big cats looked like they were having a hearty chuckle as they strolled through the Masai Mara in Kenya. Rose Fleming, 49, was on a gamewatchers safari in the Olare Motorigi Conservancy when she spotted the duo having a giggle. The textile designer said she has never seen such funny behaviour from lions before, describing the experience as 'freakin awesome'. Rose Fleming, 49, was on a gamewatchers safari in the Olare Motorigi Conservancy when she spotted the pair of male lions seeming to be having a giggle at a private joke The textile designer said she has never seen such funny behaviour from lions before, describing the experience as 'freakin awesome' Ms Fleming, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA, said: 'We came upon these two male lions who were out on the Mara looking for some lionesses. 'They caught a trail of pheromones, simultaneously took a whiff and had these looks on their faces when they picked up their heads. 'Their faces look as if they were sharing a private joke that made them crack up laughing. 'It was absolutely freakin' awesome. I have never seen that kind of behaviour before - not even on Nat Geo. We watched the pair for a couple of hours.' While this was her first trip to Kenya, Rosie, who has been taking photos for 'as long as she can remember', would love to return to photograph the lions again. An Instagram model has detailed how she had to be evacuated from Bali twice after catching dengue fever and being run over by a motorcycle. Emily Gurr - who has more than 116,000 followers on the social media platform - had to be airlifted from the popular holiday spot twice due to medical emergencies. Ms Gurr told news.com.au she was lucky she took out travel insurance before going on her trips to Indonesia. Just weeks ago, Ms Gurr suffered an ankle injury after being hit by a motorcycle only to have it misdiagnosed by doctors in Bali. Emily Gurr (pictured) - who has more than 116,000 followers on the social media platform - had to be airlifted from the popular holiday spot twice due to medial emergencies Ms Gurr told news.com.au she was lucky she took out travel insurance before going on her trips to Indonesia 'We were walking to dinner, completely sober, and he came up on the bike lane and lost control and his bike fell on my ankle and smashed it,' Ms Gurr said. Doctors told her she had a a minor sprain of her ankle, but after being in 'absolute agony' she flew home for a second opinion. X-rays showed she had actually broken it in four places and needed urgent surgery. Just over two years ago, aged 21, Ms Gurr fell dangerously ill with dengue fever which she contracted from a mosquito bite in Vietnam a week before arriving in Bali. She woke up with what she thought at the time was a bad hangover - but quickly began feeling like a 'bus had hit' her. 'I didn't know what it was but by the night time it was excruciating,' she said. Just weeks ago, Ms Gurr suffered an ankle injury after being hit by a motorcycle only to have it misdiagnosed by doctors in Bali She spent 10 days in hospital before she was flown from Bali to Darwin for treatment - at a cost of $52,000. 'I don't think the [ankle injury] was quite as expensive but it would have been up there. Without travel insurance I would have been bankrupt for sure,' she said. Travel safety expert for 1Cover Richard Warburton said Ms Gurr's double-disaster was 'literally a one in 100,000 event'. 'In our 15-year history, our team have never seen a customer needing to be evacuated out of a destination twice for two completely different medical claims,' he said. Thousands of Australian high school students who plan on walking out of school this Friday to go on strike for climate change action have been told to get back to class. Scott Morrison delivered a blunt response to students demands that politicians start taking serious action on climate change. 'Kids should be in school. We don't think schools should be turned into parliaments,' the Prime Minister said during Question Time in parliament on Monday. Scroll down for video Thousands of Australian high school students staging strike for climate change action have been told to get back to class Students across Australia are planning a strike to demand politicians start taking serious action on climate change 'We want more learning in schools and less activism in schools,' he said in response to Greens MP Adam Bandt who asked if he supported the School Strike 4 Climate Action movement. 'We want more learning in schools and less activism in schools,' Scott Morrison (above) said in parliament on Monday The response drew criticism from politicians and students alike. 'He's still debating whether or not its a real issue,' Melbourne-based high school student and protester Jagveer Singh told Daily Mail Australia. 'His [Scott Morrison's] comments yesterday showed that he has no interest at all in listening to young people. 'He doesn't want to listen to us and this fires me up even more to be at the Climate Strike and make our voices heard. 'His comments yesterday showed that he has no interest at all in listening to young people,' Melbourne student and protester Jagveer Singh (above) said 'He has have failed to represent us, he has failed to stand up to the climate deniers in his party and he has failed to show courage.' Prime Minister Morrison prefaced his response in parliament by saying climate change is a 'very real and serious issue' that demands attention. He said the government was acting on climate change through initiatives such as the emissions reduction fund and the renewable energy target. 'We are committed to all of these things, but I will tell you what we are also committed to - kids should go to school,' he said. However, 14-year-old Sydney student and protester Jean Hinchliffe said students would not have to put away the books for a day if politicians 'listened to the science'. 'Kids should be in school. We don't think schools should be turned into parliaments,' the prime minister said during question time in parliament on Monday The School Strike 4 Climate Action movement has argued the prime minister is out of touch and has failed to represent them 'We're sick and tired of politicians playing politics with our futures. We're striking to say enough is enough. People's lives are on the line,' she said. Mr Bandt agreed and backed the students involved, saying: 'These students want a leader to protect their future, but they got a hectoring, ungenerous and condescending rebuke from someone even worse than Tony Abbott.' 'The PM is unbelievably out of touch with young people, not only in Australia but around the world,' Greens MP Adam Bandt (above) said 'The PM is unbelievably out of touch with young people, not only in Australia but around the world,' he said. Students are meeting across all capital cities along with about 20 regional areas to converge on MP offices and parliaments this Friday. Events are planned in all capital cities, along with about 20 regional areas on Friday. Australian Youth Climate Coalition spokesperson Laura Sykes said Mr Morrison had shown 'irrational outrage' to students who care about their education. 'It was shocking see our prime minister condemning students as young as eight, who are sacrificing a day of schooling to stand up for a safe climate future,' Ms Sykes said. 'When young people try to have a voice in politics, Scott Morrison is shutting them down, yet he's happy to listen to the coal lobby and big corporations who continue to profit from making climate change worse.' Police pursued the vehicle along the Monash Freeway (stock pictured) and lost sight of it shortly after 1pm A major manhunt is underway after a man allegedly assaulted his pregnant partner and a 10-month-old baby before kidnapping the child, who he has threatened to do further harm. A high-speed police chase was sparked when the man took off in an aqua-green Toyota Yaris in Mentone, Melbourne's south-east, on Tuesday afternoon. Police pursued the vehicle along the Monash Freeway and lost sight of it shortly after 1pm. 'It is believed a man has assaulted his pregnant partner and a 10 month old child,' Victoria Police said in a statement. 'The man has left the scene... stating he is going to harm the baby and himself.' Witnesses said several police cars followed the vehicle along the Monash Freeway. 'It looked like they're chasing a car because there's a little car zigzagging in and out of traffic,' one told 3AW Radio. Another told the station: 'I'm right behind them. My heart's really pumping at the moment... They've got to catch him real soon or there will be an accident.' Anyone who sights the vehicle, with WJQ334 registration plates, is urged not to approach it and to call 000. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Petrol prices have taken a massive plunge after hitting decade-high prices last month, but experts are warning that it won't last long. In October, petrol in Sydney reached an eye-watering $1.75 a litre, Melbourne hit a 10-year high, and Adelaide motorists forked out an average of $1.67 a litre. But a global increase in oil production, coupled with a strong Australian dollar has seen petrol prices plunge to as low as $1.12 a litre in Sydney. On Tuesday, petrol in Sydney dropped to an average of $1.25 a litre, Melbourne to $1.30 a litre, and Queensland to $1.34 a litre. These record-high prices has led to an extraordinary 14.6 per cent fall from in November, allowing motorists to give their wallets a break (stock) On Tuesday, petrol in Sydney has dropped to a sweet $1.25 a litre, Melbourne a cool $1.30 a litre, and Queensland at $1.34 a litre (stock) CommSec chief economist Craig James told Fairfax that motorists were saving $69 a month with the cheap petrol prices and that motorists should expect prices to continue falling. 'Compared with the highs for petrol prices in October...it equates to a quarter per cent rate cut on a $450,000 mortgage over a 25-year term,' he said. 'The national pump price has only fallen by just under 23 cents, implying a further fall of around 3 to 5 cents a litre over the next fortnight, subject to the vagaries of the retail petrol price discounting cycle.' Prices in Sydney have been on a downfall for 46 days in Queensland, 38 days in Sydney, and 33 days in Melbourne. The sudden drop in fuel prices comes after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia increased the output of oil supplies to the rest of the world, the publication reported. Motorists are now saving $69 a month with the fall in petrol prices across the nation (stock) Motorists are encouraged to fill up and be wary of petrol prices as it could spike at any moment. Mr James warns fuel prices will soar as we head closer to Christmas and the holiday period, and asks motorists to remain vigilant. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) the best days to fill up is Monday, Wednesday or Friday. There are also calls for the country to publish their fuel prices in real time. NSW is currently the only state where fuel prices are published in real time. Queensland and South Australia have expressed interest in trialling a similar scheme. Prices are also published on the state government's website and the motoring group's mobile phone app, which has been downloaded close to 840,000 times since its launch in May. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) the best days to fill up is Monday, Wednesday or Friday (stock) Prime Minister Scott Morrison is also facing pressure from Coalition MPs to slash the $12 billion a year fuel excise. Liberal MP Craig Kelly has called on Mr Morrison to 'substantially reduce' the crippling fuel tax, which adds an extra 40 cents to the cost of every litre. The fuel tax is levied by the federal government and used to repair roads and fund infrastructure projects. Mr Morrison put the soaring fuel prices on notice and is pressuring the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner (ACCC) Rod Sims, to take action. 'I want some answers out of the ACCC,' Mr Morrison told K Rock 95.5. 'They're the cop on the beat, they're the ones we fund to go out there and monitor why prices are moving up and down and how they're timed.' A man accused of murdering a home invader with a samurai sword on a Sydney street has been granted bail, with his parents agreeing to provide almost half a million dollars as security. Blake Davis, 29, whimpered and shook throughout his NSW Supreme Court hearing on Monday when Justice Stephen Rothman granted him bail on strict conditions including a curfew, daily police reporting, electronic monitoring and $493,000 surety. The judge said he found it 'pathetic' the Crown could not provide any evidence to the court that Mr Davis would commit another murder or serious offence beyond the single charge against him. Blake Davis (pictured), 29, whimpered and shook throughout his NSW Supreme Court hearing on Monday when Justice Stephen Rothman granted him bail on strict conditions Davis and his girlfriend Hannah Quinn (pictured), 24, are each charged with the murder of 30-year-old Jett McKee Davis and his girlfriend Hannah Quinn, 24, are each charged with the murder of 30-year-old Jett McKee, who was found dead in the middle of a Forest Lodge road in August 2018 with a balaclava and replica pistol nearby. Prosecutor James Ly was unable to answer why Mr Davis was a risk to the community, the ABC reported. 'What evidence [is there] that he'll commit another murder?' Justice Rothman asked. 'Just that he's been charged,' Mr Ly replied. 'Frankly I find that pathetic. I do not accept there is a risk of a failure to appear in court, or to commit a serious offence,' Justice Rothman said. Mr Davis' lawyer Philip Strickland said his client had mental health issues that could impact on his ability to present at trial. Police have alleged Mr Davis and Ms Quinn were at home in their Forest Lodge granny flat when Mr McKee broke in and demanded money from them. Mr McKee was allegedly wearing a balaclava and armed with pepper spray, a fake gun and knuckledusters. 'I will shoot you. There's lots more people like me who will shoot you,' he allegedly told Ms Quinn. Mr McKee (pictured) was allegedly wearing a balaclava and armed with pepper spray, a fake gun and knuckledusters Resident Lynn Charlesworth's car (pictured) was covered in blood from the victim as he tried to escape Police claim Mr McKee then punched Mr Davis in the face and stole his girlfriend's bag before running away down the street. Ms Quinn allegedly tackled Mr McKee before Mr Davis killed him with a samurai sword. Mr Strickland argued his client acted in self-defence and was protecting his girlfriend during the scuffle. Mr Davis' bail conditions require that he stays at least 100m away from an airport or the suburbs of Redfern, Forest Lodge or St Peter's. Ms Quinn has already been granted bail, and Mr Davis will face Central Local Court in January. A groom's buck's party went 'horribly wrong' after he refused to leave a freezing lake on New Zealand's South Island. Taylor Graeme Ryan, 25, arrived in Queenstown on November 21 for 'a good time' but ended up waist deep in Lake Wakatipu. Mr Ryan, a tiler from Perth who had been drinking prior to the incident, became involved in an altercation by the waterfront and decided to wade into the lake to 'avoid contact'. But he refused to come out despite the water being around 7C, the New Zealand Herald reports. Taylor Graeme Ryan, 25, arrived in Queenstown on November 21 for 'a good time' at his buck's party - but on Monday, the tiler from Perth was fined for resisting police, assaulting police and court costs at Queenstown District Court (stock image) Concerned for his safety, police entered the water to try and persuade Mr Ryan to leave but he punched one officer in the chest. Police were forced to use pepper spray on the tiler, who was due to be married three days later, in order to get him back on dry land. Mr Ryan, admitted three charges, including resisting and assaulting police, when he fronted Queenstown District Court on Monday. Ryan was fined $300 for resisting police and ordered to pay $130 court costs. He was fined another $400 and ordered to pay additional court costs of $130 for assaulting police and was convicted and discharged for disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence. Mr Ryan had started drinking at Lake Wakatipu (pictured) on the eve of his arrival when police were called due to reports of an altercation Judge John Brandts-Giesen told Mr Ryan that entering Lake Wakatipu was 'not a very good idea' and reprimanded him for putting both himself and others at risk in doing so. 'You're lucky that you were put into the paddy wagon rather than a hearse,' the judge said. 'The police have a job to do their job shouldn't be made any harder than it is and this court will protect the police when they are acting within the course of their duty.' Defence counsel Paige Noorland called the incident 'a stag do gone horribly wrong'. Mr Ryan is thought to have got married on Saturday and his fine was due to be paid by noon on Monday. A married couple have put plans to sell their home on hold after they pocketed $1.3million prize money from Saturday's TattsLotto draw. Instead, the husband and wife intend to to purchase a new car and book a dream trip to Europe. The pair held one of three winning tickets, and took home a division one prize of $1,364,143.36. A married couple have put plans to sell their home on hold after they pocketed $1.3million prize money from Saturday's TattsLotto draw (stock image) While that amount of money is certain to make anyone's eyes water, the emotional husband and wife from Moonee Ponds in Melbourne admitted they had shed so many tears their children thought a member of the family had passed away. 'The kids thought someone had died after the reaction we both had,' the wife said. The win came as a 'bit of a shock' for the wife, who received the life-altering news when her husband went to grab a coffee and check his ticket on Sunday, Yahoo7 reported. 'He rang me in tears and I said "what's happened?" and he said "are you sitting down? Can you please sit down?" and he was crying,' she said. 'I thought "oh my god, what's happened?" and he told me "we've won $1.3 million"!' While the odds of claiming the jackpot were 1 in 8,145,060 the couple believed they had a good luck charm and gave credit to the neighbours' 'lucky cat', which was spotted outside their home on the way to purchasing the winning entry. The winning numbers were 10, 20, 24, 7, 29 and 37, while the supplementary numbers were 32 and 42. A lifeguard has saved the life of a shark that washed up on Bondi Beach by picking him up and placing him on his board - before paddling him out to the open ocean to fight another day. The video shows two lifeguards carefully rescuing a Port Jackson shark in North Bondi, Sydney, that was struggling to get back out to sea on Tuesday just after midday. The shark had already negotiated the beach's nets and had somehow found himself almost on the shore. (Pictured) A lifeguard has saved the life of a shark that washed up on Bondi Beach by picking him up and placing him on his board - before paddling him out to the open ocean to fight another day The guard places the shark on his board, and then paddles out to sea (pictured) With the help of a colleague, the guard picks up the shark in the shorebreak, places the shark on his board and then paddles out to sea. The lifeguard's caring act on a busy day is met with the approval of the crowds with beachgoers cheering on . 'Only in Australia,' one woman said. 'That's fantastic,' another replied. After returning to shore, the lifeguard can't contain his joy from saving the shark. The guard's caring act on a busy day is met with the approval of the crowds with beachgoers cheering on the lifeguard The lifeguard said: 'That was one of the most unreal things I've ever done' Port Jackson sharks The Port Jackson Shark is a blunt-headed shark with harness-like markings which cross the eyes They can grow up to 1.65m in length They're found in Southern Queensland, Tasmania and the central coast of Western Australia Advertisement 'That was one of the most unreal things I've ever done,' the lifeguard said. When another lifeguard asked what happened, he said, 'He [the shark] just went down. Then I went out.' Videographer Steve Holland told Daily Mail Australia the lifeguard had to paddle a 'fair distance' with the shark. 'He paddled out about 200-300m and then dropped the shark back into the ocean. 'There was a crowd of about 20 onlookers who were cheering him on back on the beach. It was great.' One man picks up the shark as the lifeguard holds the board steady (pictured) With the help of a colleague, a guard picks up the shark in the shorebreak (pictured) A Melbourne man who drowned his ex-lover in the bathtub claims he didn't murder the young mother and insists the pair had forged a pact to take their own lives. Murat Davsanoglu, 43, is standing trial in the Supreme Court for murdering Ozlem Karakoc, 34, in July last year. If Davsanoglu can prove to the jury his actions were part of a suicide pact, rather than murder, he can instead be found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter. Murat Davsanoglu, 43 (pictured), is standing trial in the Supreme Court for murdering Ozlem Karakoc, 34, in July last year Crown prosecutor Diana Piekusis told the jury on Tuesday that at the time of her death, Ms Karakoc was looking forward to her upcoming marriage to another man, Ozden Gonullu. She said Ms Karakoc had bipolar disorder and been hospitalised a few months before she died, but had indicated her desire to continue caring for her daughter. Ms Piekusis said Davsanoglu visited Ms Karakoc on July 13, 2017, and killed her the next morning. 'He firmly held her under the water in the bath, preventing her from surfacing,' she said. Ms Piekusis said Davsanoglu then partially dressed Ms Karakoc's body, put her in the boot of his car and drove to South Australia, where he later said he planned to throw her into the ocean. However, he returned to Victoria a few days later, placing Ms Karakoc's body in an empty garage in suburban Lalor, and later handing himself in to police. Police investigators found no evidence of a suicide pact in the pair's communications. Crown prosecutor Diana Piekusis told the jury on Tuesday that at the time of her death, Ozlem Karakoc (pictured) was looking forward to her upcoming marriage to another man, Ozden Gonullu Defence barrister John Desmond said it was a 'tragic case' involving 'two people who are in love' who saw no way out of their situation other than to kill themselves. 'It was an agreement between Murat and Ozlem that they would both die,' he told the jury on Tuesday. 'He killed her, drowned her, pursuant to that agreement.' The trial continues. Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467. Mourners of a New York politician who died suddenly just weeks after he was ousted from his state Senate seat turned away the opponent who defeated him after she came to pay her respects. Senator-elect Jessica Ramos, 33, was not allowed Monday into the wake of late Senator Jose Peralta, the man she defeated in Septembers Democratic primaries. You are not welcome! You are not welcome! mourners are reported to have told Ramos when she walked into the Farenga & Sons Funeral Home in Astoria. Ramos confirmed to the New York Post that she was indeed not permitted inside. I came to pay my respects to the senators family and loved ones, said Ramos, who will succeed the 47-year-old Peralta as the representative of the 13th district in the New York State Senate. New York State Senator-elect Jessica Ramos (left), 33, was not allowed Monday into the wake of late Senator Jose Peralta (right), the man she defeated in Septembers Democratic primaries Peralta, who served four terms in the State Senate after four terms in the State Assembly, died tragically on Thanksgiving eve. He suffered from septic shock that eventually led to organ failure, his widow, Evelyn Peralta, said. Sepsis occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection and releases chemicals into the blood that create widespread inflammation. The 13th district encompasses the Queens neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and parts of Astoria and Woodside. Ramos, who once worked for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, said she holds no hard feelings about not being allowed to attend the wake. Its unfortunate, she said. Ive known the senator since I was a teenager. Despite our differences in ideology the past few years, I can respect his love for this community. We just disagreed on how to love it. The primary campaign was a bitter one during which Ramos called Peralta a 'turncoat' and a 'traitor' to the Democratic Party, according to the Queens Chronicle. He suffered from septic shock that eventually led to organ failure, his widow, Evelyn Peralta, said. The couple is seen above with their 13-year-old son Ramos was among those to pay tribute to him after news of his death emerged In the New York State Senate, Peralta was one of eight Democrats who formed the Independent Democratic Conference, a breakaway group that made an alliance with the Republican Party. After President Donald Trump's election, the liberal wing of the Democratic Party mobilized to defeat the IDC. Six of the eight members of the IDC lost in September's party primaries. Ramos defeated Peralta by a margin of 10 per cent - 12,181 votes to Peraltas 10,021. Peralta was the first-ever Dominican-American elected to the New York State Senate in 2010. The first of four family members charged with killing eight people from another Ohio family has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges in what could end up being a death penalty case. Edward 'Jake' Wagner, 26, on Tuesday was led in handcuffs and shackles into Pike County Common Pleas Court, where over the course of an hour he acknowledged each of the 23 counts against him but said little else. He is being held without bond. The arraignment was attended by nearly two dozen relatives of the deceased, some of whom comforted one another during the proceedings, while others sat quietly. Scroll down for video Edward 'Jake' Wagner is escorted by police into the holding area in the Pike County Common Pleas Court in Waverly, Ohio, for his arraignment Tuesday The 23-year-old is the first of four family members charged with the 2016 shootings of seven adults and a teenager from the Rhoden family Wagner acknowledged the 23 counts against him but said little else during Tuesday's arraignment Authorities suspect a custody dispute between Jake Wagner and his ex-girlfriend was a possible motive Wagner, his parents, 47-year-old Bill Wagner and 48-year-old Angela Wagner, and his brother, 27-year-old George Wagner IV, are charged in the 2016 shootings of seven adults and a teenager from the Rhoden family. Hannah Rhoden, the 19-year-old mother of Jake Wagner's toddler daughter, was shot multiple times while sleeping with her newborn baby An attorney who's represented the Wagners has said they'll be vindicated. Authorities say a legal dispute between Jake Wagner and his ex-girlfriend, 19-year-old Hannah Rhoden, over the custody of their two-year-old daughter was a possible motive. On Tuesday, Judge Randy Deering imposed a gag order at the request of the defense and the prosecution, prohibiting anyone involved from publicly discussing Wagner's case. George Wagner's arraignment is scheduled to take place Wednesday, followed by his mother's on Thursday and his father's on December 4, reported Cincinnati.com. The victims in the April 2016 execution-style killings that rocked the village of Piketon were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his ex-wife Dana Rhoden, 37; their three children, Clarence 'Frankie' Rhoden, 20; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; and Hanna Rhoden, 19; Frankie Rhoden's fiancee, Hannah Gilley, 20; an uncle, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and a cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38. These images released by the Ohio Attorney General's office, show, top row from left, George 'Billy' Wagner III and Angela Wagner, and bottom row from left, George Wagner IV and Edward 'Jake' Wagner Three children were found unharmed at four different homes were the murders took place. Jake Wagner and Hannah Rhoden's daughter, Sophia, was not with her mother that night. Autopsy reports suggested the murders were calculated and brutal with the coroner saying all but one of the victims was shot more than once. Christopher Rhoden Sr. is the only victim who was believed to have been awake when they were shot. The father-of-three sustained nine gunshot wounds in his forearm, torso and cheek. Sharing a trailer with Christopher Sr. was his brother Gary, who was shot twice in the head and a third time in the face. His autopsy report says a 'muzzle stain' was left on his head, suggesting at one point a shot was fired while the gun was pressed against him. Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, his ex-wife Dana Rhoden, 37 (left), and their 16-year-old son, Christopher Jr (right), were among those killed in April 2016 in Piketon in southern Ohio Clarence 'Frankie' Rhoden, 20, and his fiancee, Hannah Gilley, 20, were shot dead while sleeping with their child Christopher Rhoden Sr.'s brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44, (left) and a cousin, Gary Rhoden (right), 38, were also shot dead. Dana Rhoden was carefully shot four times around her head and a fifth time from under her chin. She was sharing a trailer with Christopher Jr. and Hanna who were both shot in the head multiple times. Hanna was in bed with her five-day-old child at the time. Frankie Rhoden and Hannah Gilley were also shot in the head, but their six-month-old child, who was sleeping between the couple, was spared. Hannah was shot five times in total, with one shot hitting her left eye. Kenneth Rhoden was shot only once, with the bullet entering his right eye. The Wagners, who lived nearby in Peebles, moved to Alaska after being questioned over the killings multiple times.They took Jake's daughter's with them. The entire family were arrested two weeks ago following a massive and prolonged investigation by more than 20 law enforcement agencies. Jake Wagner is due back in court on December 20 and then again in early January 2019. Releasing a paedophile who raped and murdered a toddler on parole to his sister's house would be like giving him the keys to a 'candy shop', a victims advocate claims. Douglas James Wade was jailed for 36 years for murdering his girlfriend's 22-month-old daughter while he was babysitting her in Tumut in southern NSW in 1988. The 55-year-old faced the State Parole Authority on Tuesday for his fourth tilt at parole in five years, with the decision deferred until January 22. Douglas James Wade was jailed for 36 years for murdering his girlfriend's 22-month-old daughter while he was babysitting her in Tumut (pictured) in southern NSW in 1988. Wade applied to live at his sister's rural property about 20km from Tumut, which Howard Brown, advocate for the victim's family, argued was unsuitable. Mr Brown said not only were Wade's young niece and nephew living at the home, but children waited for school buses along the country road it was on. 'Letting him out to live there would be like giving him the keys to a candy shop,' Mr Howard told Daily Mail Australia after the hearing. 'Many of these homes are more than a kilometre apart and these children could be at real risk with no one else around.' Mr Brown was also concerned about how police would monitor him in such an isolated location, and whether an ankle tracker would have reception. 'No one has physically gone out to examine the property and see if it's suitable for Wade to live there,' he said. 'The Parole Authority seems to have just decided it's acceptable because it's not near schools, swimming pools, or other places children congregate.' Howard Brown (pictured), advocate for the victim's family, argued Wade should be denied parole at his hearing on Tuesday, a decision on which was deferred until January 22 Mr Brown also said proposed visits to a psychologist every two weeks and police every 12 weeks left far too much time for him to reoffend or abscond. He pointed to the recent example of another convicted rapist who was let out on parole, only to allegedly sexually assault a child. Mr Brown said both Wade and the other rapist were classified as low to medium risk, and questioned whether the criteria used to classify them was accurate. As a result of his classification, Wade is allowed outside prison on day release, wearing an ankle monitor, so he can work part time. NSW Corrections Minister David Elliot (pictured) vowed to prevent Wade from being released on parole Wade continues to protest his innocence and has shown no remorse. He was denied parole in 2014, 2015 and 2016 after unsuccessfully appealing his conviction in 2000. Mr Brown said Wade should at very least not be granted parole until he owned up to everything he has done. 'How can you claim to be rehabilitated if you are still denying your guilt?' he said. Mr Brown said Wade could be held infinitely past when his sentence expired in 2024 under High Risk Offenders legislation. Efforts to keep Wade behind bars have strong support from NSW Corrections Minister David Elliot, who vowed to take the case to the NSW Supreme Court if he was granted parole. 'The State Parole Authority considers a range of factors when determining whether an offender should be released to parole, with community safety at the forefront of that decision making,' he said. 'The CSNSW Commissioner will be opposing parole for this offender. 'If the offender is granted parole, I will seek urgent legal advice to determine if SPA's decision can be challenged in the Supreme Court of NSW.' If the former shearer was released he would be subject to 'strict conditions and supervision', Corrective Services NSW said. NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman admitted the public had been let down by other convicted sex offenders being released on bail Despite the well-publicised lead-up to the parole hearing, NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman embarrassingly knew nothing about it. 'I'm not familiar with this case. If it's as you described, it's deeply concerning,' he said when asked for an update about it on 2GB radio on Tuesday morning. Mr Elliott's vow to deny Wade parole came in the wake of another convicted rapist being released on parole and then allegedly attacking a young girl. Mr Speakman admitted the public had been let down by this and other recent cases. 'The system has taken a couple of hits. Pretty bad hits. We have the tightest bail laws in Australia but obviously they're not foolproof,' he said. 'These incidents are isolated but of course, if the allegations are correct, they're devastating.' Wade was originally jailed for life but in 2013 asked for a fixed sentence under new legislation and was given 36 years with a non-parole period of 26 years. Mr Elliott vowed to use every legal avenue to prevent Wade from being released on parole, even appealing to the NSW Supreme Court (pictured) Justice Megan Latham at the time said Wade presented a relative low risk of reoffending and had a strong, supportive family. 'It's understandable that they would wish for the lifelong incarceration [of Wade] given that they have forever been deprived of a daughter, sibling and granddaughter,' she told the NSW Supreme Court at the time. The court heard the mother, who can't be named, left her daughter with Wade while she went out with friends and returned half an hour later to find her dead. 'Get in here quickly... I hit her and she hit her head on the floor,' Wade told her when she arrived back at her home. Wade claimed he only struck the toddler once in the abdomen with a 'backhand' blow because she disobeyed him, and he didn't intentionally killer her. However, a post-mortem found numerous injuries on the toddler's body including bruises to her vagina and abdomen. The court heard in the months before her death the girl had visible bruises on her stomach, face, thighs and vulva. A man who was left for dead after being struck over the head by a couple he had just met at a remote campsite has made an urgent plea to help find his attackers. Malcolm Woodford, 45, was camping alone when he was struck over the head with a shovel at a Glenaire campsite near Apollo Bay, on Victoria's south coast, on April 20. The father-of-two managed to escape after fleeing from the scene in his ute with blood pouring from his head, only to crash into an embankment and pass out. Now, eight months after the terrifying ordeal, he is hoping someone will come forward with information so police can catch the pair who tried to kill him. Malcolm Woodford, 45, (pictured) was camping alone for first time when he was struck over the head with a shovel at a campsite in Glenaire, near Apollo Bay in southwestern Victoria on April 20 Mr Woodford, was left with severe bruising and had to get ten stitches across head (pictured) after blacking out at the scene Mr Woodford remembers very little about the attack, but does recall meeting a couple, in their 20s or early 30s, who set up camp beside him. They all shared a few drinks around the campfire, one including a homemade port the couple had brewed themselves,. Before he passed out next to the fire, he remembers them asking what he used to protect himself, to which he replied: 'a tomahawk and a shovel.' From here on in, Mr Woodford only remembers fragments. First, an 'almighty clunk on the head', then the pain and blood that streamed down his face and the couple who he had just shared drinks with screaming at him. 'He was telling me to stay down...she was screaming 'stop, stop',' Mr Woodford told The Age. After another blackout, the next thing Mr Woodford remembers was sitting in the driver's seat as his crushed 4WD sat almost vertical in an embankment. 'I assume what I thought I needed to do was get away from there to save my life,' he said. After another blackout, Mr Woodford remembers sitting in the driver's seat as his crushed car sat almost vertical in an embankment (pictured) The couple fled the scene but left their entire campsite unpacked (pictured) Despite Mr Woodford's state, he still managed to a call triple zero in his crushed car who then sent out emergency services. He was rushed to hospital where he had to endure ten stitches across his head. While police scoured the couple's abandoned campsite, they found the tomahawk and the shovel belonging to Mr Woodford. Local police from Apollo Bay have chased several leads but all have ended up dead ends. Mr Woodford's tomahawk and shovel (pictured) were both found at the couples campsite, the shovel believed to have been used to strike him Mr Woodford, still in pain from the attack, wants to find his attackers and move on. Police are urging anyone with any information to come forward. The man has been described as thin, about 173cm, with an Italian accent and had a distinctive eye twitch. The woman had long brown hair with an olive complexion. The pair had told Mr Woodford that they were from Melbourne's outer-west and seemed to be in a relationship. Anyone with any information on the attack is urged to contact Crime Stoppers. Pauline Hanson has praised an isolated southern Asian island tribe which killed an American missionary. The One Nation leader has moved a Senate motion commending the Sentinelese people for their 'strict zero-gross' immigration policy. The indigenous tribe, from the North Sentinel Islands in the Bay of Bengal, last week reportedly fatally attacked U.S. Christian evangelist John Allen Chau, 26, with bows and arrows. Scroll down for video Pauline Hanson (pictured) has praised an isolated southern Asian island tribe which killed an American missionary The One Nation leader will next week move a Senate motion commending the North Sentinelese people (pictured) for their 'strict zero-gross' immigration policy Days after police identified the area where the American was killed, Senator Hanson defended the tribe on the Adaman Islands for protecting their unique culture. 'The Sentinelese people of the remote North Sentinel Islands are likely the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world, and possess a unique culture and way of life that should be cherished and protected,' the motion planned for Tuesday said. 'Even small levels of migration would have a devastating and irreversible effect on the beautiful and unique culture and way of life of the Sentinelese people.' The Sentinelese people live on their own small forested island and are known to resist all contact with outsiders, often attacking anyone who comes near. The indigenous tribe, from the North Sentinel Islands, last week reportedly fatally attacked U.S. Christian evangelist John Allen Chau (pictured) with bows and arrows Senator Hanson's praise of an indigenous tribe is ironic, considering that she has previously criticised Australian Aborigines for relying on welfare and affirmative action. The former businesswoman, now praising an indigenous southern Asian tribe, in 1996 told the House of Representatives Australia was 'in danger of being swamped by Asians'. The Queensland senator in more recent times has praised nationalist world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Senator Hanson tweeted the motion, questioning whether the Senate would support the 'proud' Sentinelese people's strong border protections Senator Hanson tweeted the motion, questioning whether the Senate would support the 'proud' Sentinelese people's strong border protections or condemn their 'intolerant immigration policies' and 'lack of diversity'. 'We'll have to wait and see,' the One Nation leader posted to her 44,100 followers on Tuesday. Unlike the major parties, One Nation wants Australia's net annual immigration rate to return to the 20th century average of 70,000 a year and has called for a ban on Muslim immigration. A drink with humble origins on the NSW central coast has been dubbed the next espresso martini - and it's already made a splash across the world. Former designer Tom Baker teamed up with Erina based distiller Philip Moore in 2013 to create Mr Black - and the craft liquor quickly developed a cult following with customers. 'As soon as I had that first sip, I knew we were on to something quite special,' Baker told Daily Mail Australia. Mr Black (pictured) has been a hit with customers across the globe after it was created in 2013 Co-founder Tom Baker (pictured) helped create a product on the craft liquor market incorporating two of Australia's great loves - coffee and alcohol 'Philip (Moore) spent nine months working on it, we like to think of Mr Black as caffeinated boozy heaven. 'We didn't have a business plan or anything like that - we just made bulk amounts and then started offering it to a few Sydney pubs and things blossomed from there.' Mr Black is now sold in major Australian bottle shops such as Dan Murphy's and BWS, as well as being stocked in a handful of trendy bars in the United Kingdom and the US. Baker said the essence of the product is fairly simple - it was about creating a craft liquor in a bottle combining two of Australia's greatest loves - coffee and alcohol. 'In recent years you have seen the rise of the espresso martini - it is virtually part of our national identity, it resonates with people,' he said. 'Coffee has always been incredibly popular in Australia, so effectively creating espresso martini in a bottle has turned out fairly well for us.' Baker said starting out in a local distillery in Erina, and to now being the employer of staff in three countries, has been an incredible journey. The men behind Mr Black - Tom Baker (pictured left) with co-founder Philip Moore Mr Black has become a popular option for craft liquor drinkers of all ages (stock image) 'We don't take anything for granted, everyone associated with Mr Black is blown away by our success,' he said. 'I suppose it was equal parts hard work and good luck - and we make sure never compromise on the product. 'The way I look at things, we are all backing a winning horse, providing a product which people love to drink. 'Our aim is to be the shining light in boozy coffee in Australia.' An eager fisherman has almost been pulled overboard while trying to reel in an impressive catch. Steve Baker was fishing out of his small tin boat on the Maria River at The Hatch, about 15km north of Port Macquarie, when he felt a familiar tug on his line. Trying desperately to reel in repeatedly tried to reel in his catch without success, it became obvious he had hooked something out of the ordinary. Mr Baker's friend Stuart sent in a picture of the 2.5 metre bull shark that was reeled in The ensuing struggle between man and beast almost capsized Mr Baker's boat, but he was eventually able to reel in the monster. Mr Baker's friend Stuart sent picture proof to the Ray Hadley radio show, saying it took his mate 'a fair bit of time' to capture 'Jaws'. News of the monster catch comes just days after a four-metre shark was spotted at Maroubra Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs. At the time, Randwick Council lifeguards were quick to take action and close the beach while Surf Life Saving NSW and an offshore rescue boat patrolled the waters. After thoroughly searching the area, air patrol service Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopters later confirmed on Twitter there had been no more sightings. Saturday's sighting was the second monster shark to be spotted within a matter of days, after another 4.6 metre great white was hauled in from the same beach. Following the spate of shark attacks around the country, Dr Barbara Wueringer from Sharks and Rays Australia, has warned swimmers to remain vigilant as the summer season heats up. 'Sharks are really far roaming predators so you will find them anywhere in the ocean but there must be some reason why these animals are biting people in that area,' Dr Wueringer told Daily Mail Australia. Melbourne terror attack 'hero' Michael Rogers - aka the Trolley Man - has told a court he will 'do his best' to comply with strict bail conditions keeping him out of jail. The 'Trolley Man' fronted the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday on charges of burglary and stealing a bicycle. Rogers became a worldwide sensation after video of him attacking the Bourke Street terrorist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali with a shopping trolley went viral. Trolley Man hero Michael Rogers enters the Melbourne Magistrates' Court The 46-year old was supported in court by Donna Stolzenberg, from the National Homeless Collective, who set up a GoFundMe page for Rogers, which raised more than $140,000. The court heard Rogers was released on bail ten days ago on the condition he comply with the conditions of a Court Integrated Services Program. Magistrate Julie Grainger warned Rogers that he needed to attend all of his appointments associated with the court program or he risked arrest. Police allege Rogers broke into a cafe and took $500 from the cash drawer the day before the terror attack on November 9. In a separate incident, police allege Rogers stole a $2000 custom-made bicycle from a St Kilda Rd apartment block in October. Rogers has made no secret of his extensive criminal history, which has seen him live the majority of his life on the streets. 'I'll try my best,' he told the court. His lawyer Melinda Walker said Rogers had an appointment with a psychologist tomorrow and was still in the process of considering his position on the charges. The matter was adjourned to next month. Outside court, Rogers maintained he was determined to comply with his conditions of bail. Michael Rogers has been told to try and cut back his appearances in the media Michael Rogers enters the Melbourne Magistrates' Court with Donna Stolzenberg He was pursued by a large media pack as he made his way out of the court. He had avoided it on the way in, but was caught when he had to return. 'I slipped past the first time,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Rogers entered court holding what appeared to be his lunch and a bottle of orange juice, which he was forced to leave at the security gate. Last week, Ms Stolzenberg told Daily Mail Australia Rogers had hoped to avoid the media spotlight and enter rehab. 'We certainly need to make sure we find the best place to suit Michael in his current situation,' Ms Stolzenberg said. 'With rehab you are there with many like-minded people and we don't want to set him up to fail,' she said. Rogers had only been free from jail for five weeks when he heroically took on the terrorist, who was shot dead by police. Talking to Daily Mail Australia after the attack, Rogers admitted he faced a real challenge to turn his life around. 'I've truly got no friends. I've got a lot of bad associates, but no good friends,' he said. Police shoot dead terrorist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali on Bourke Street this month Michael Rogers goes to the help of police on Bourke St armed with a trolley 'It's not going to be "bang" tomorrow and I'm not going to do anything and I'm not going to do this and I'm not going to do that.' 'But with support... I wanna be a good guy. Take things as they come. I'm not going to go out of my way to do anything too much different but I just want to be a good guy.' Down the street, away from the media spotlight, Rogers smiled and took a swig from his bottle of orange juice. 'I got it back,' he said. Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is among the world's richest people. But he has now emerged as a member of another club: China's 89-million-strong Communist Party, whose founding principle was the equality of wealth among citizens. The billionaire's Communist bona fides were revealed by the People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China's development. Jack Ma's membership of China's Communist Party had not been known until now as China's richest man had previously suggested that he preferred to stay out of politics Billionaire Jean: Mega-rich Jack Ma, a former English teacher, loves Western culture. Pictured, the founder of Alibaba group showcases his Michael Jackson dance routine to his employees during the company's annual party in Hangzhou last September Chinese property titan Xu Jiayin and Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin are also members of the nation's Communist Party. In China, company chiefs need the backing of the Communist Party - which is headed by Xi Jinping (pictured) - in order to achieve business success Ma, 54, is not the first nor likely the last Chinese super-rich capitalist to join the party, which counts property titan Xu Jiayin and Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin among its billionaire members. Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, has been revealed as a Communist Party member But Ma's membership had not been widely known until now as China's richest man had previously suggested that he preferred to stay out of politics. Ma, a former English teacher and the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, returned to the top spot on this year's Forbes China Rich List with a net worth of $34.6 billion (27.18 billion). Just two weeks ago, his company raked in 213.5 billion yuan (23.8 billion) within 24 hours in sales revenue during China's annual digital shopping extravaganza, known as the Singles Day. In Monday's article, the People's Daily said Ma was a party member who has played an important role in pushing China's Belt and Road global trade infrastructure initiative - a pet project of President Xi Jinping. He has also been honoured as one of the 'outstanding builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang Province', where Alibaba is based, the daily said. Joining the party can be helpful to private businessmen and women in the country as they navigate a complicated business environment where the state-led economy dominates many industries and private business can be unwelcome. In China, company chiefs need the backing of the Communist Party to get rich, but they also need it to survive. It is a relationship that - when the political winds change - can hang them out to dry, experts say. Microsoft founder Bill Gates talks with Jack Ma during the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre on November 5 in Shanghai Jack Ma co-founded Alibaba, one of the world's largest e-commerce companies, in 1999 Party membership did not prevent the abrupt fall of oil tycoon Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy, who disappeared from public view this spring and is thought to be under investigation in China. Ma's business rivals, Tencent CEO and Chairman Pony Ma and Baidu's Robin Li are not affiliated with any party, the People's Daily said. Xi has renewed a push to expand the Communist Party's influence in private business, requiring any company with more than three party members to set up a party cell, or lacking numbers, join with nearby firms. Just two weeks ago on November 11, Jack Ma's Alibaba raked in 213.5 billion yuan (23.8 billion) within 24 hours during China's annual shopping extravaganza Singles Day A delivery company courier sorts packages in Beijing on 13 November after the Singles Day Three in four private companies already host party organisations. 'We must do a good job in the education and management of party members and guide them to play an active role,' Xi told officials in Shanghai earlier this month, noting the increase in private employment and new types of employment. Xi is pushing to further intertwine the party and business, with the latest rewrite to the rules for party organisations published Sunday by official news agency Xinhua. In private companies party cells should 'guide and supervise the enterprise to strictly abide by national laws and regulations,' the draft order says, according to Xinhua. Ma did not reveal his Communist Party membership in paperwork filed for Alibaba's 2014 initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. It is not known if Ma was a member at the time. A spokeswoman for Alibaba declined to comment. Real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin (pictured), who is worth $22.7 billion (17.8 billion) according to Forbes China Rich List, is also a member of the Communist Party of China Ma's business rivals, Tencent CEO Pony Ma (pictured), is not affiliated with any party Alibaba bought Hong Kong's English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), in 2015 and controversies have swirled over the editorial slant of its coverage since the purchase. Ma told the paper he wanted to offer a 'fair chance to readers' to understand China when Alibaba purchased it. 'The political affiliation of any Alibaba executive will not impact or influence SCMPs editorial or operational decisions,' SCMP spokeswoman Andrea Leung told AFP in an emailed statement. Despite being known for its in-depth coverage of China, the paper had yet to publish a story on the party membership of China's top capitalist by Tuesday evening. Ma - who announced in September that he would step down as head of Alibaba next year - has previously indicated he preferred to keep the Chinese state at arm's length. 'My philosophy is to be in love with the government, but never marry them,' he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2007. But party members must hold up their right fist and recite an oath upon joining. 'Be loyal to the party, work actively, fight for communism all one's life, always be prepared to sacrifice everything for the party and people, and never betray the party,' they recite. A married massage therapist who earns a living by cuddling lonely men at her family home has revealed the tricks she uses to build intimacy. Sharleen Orlando from Western Australia has been a massage therapist for 30 years and decided to offer this new service after completing a course on the subject. 'When I first [told my daughters] they were like, 'Mum that's just sick, that's just crazy'. No one understands what it is. Everyone puts cuddles to sex,' Mrs Orlando told Nine News. A married massage therapist who earns a living by cuddling lonely men inside her family home reveals her strange tricks to build intimacy Sharleen Orlando, from Western Australia, has been a massage therapist for 30 years and decided to offer this new service after completing a course on the subject 'It's not like that. The people that I cuddle are usually broken. Some of the people are just lonely. Some people don't get touched,' Mrs Orlando said. 'Touch is such an important thing in life. We just don't get enough touch and now that phones have come in, we are getting more separated.' Mrs Orlando has been in the cuddle business for two years and works from her home where she had previously operated her massage business. The 51-year-old says working from home allows her to earn money while still attending to domestic needs like washing and cooking. Mrs Orlando has been in the cuddle business for two years and she works from her home where she had previously operated her massage business The clients are made to sign a legal agreement before the session saying that they understand her terms and conditions, and she also talks with her clients beforehand to make sure they are there for the right reasons. After this she says she typically starts the sessions with spooning and generally at some point she likes to cuddle face-to-face to increase the intimacy. Session prices may seem steep at $70 an hour, but research has shown that cuddling does have significant physical and mental health benefits. Researchers in 2013 found that 'even fleeting forms of touch may have a powerful impact on our emotional and social functioning.' A British academic who was dramatically pardoned from a life sentence for alleged spying in the United Arab Emirates kissed his wife after landing back in the UK today. Matthew Hedges was pictured back with wife Daniela Tejada after being flown into Heathrow Airport this morning and praising her for her 'brave and strong' support. Ms Tejada tweeted a photo with the message: 'Thanks for collectively helping me to bring back my husband. Weve been through hell and back and would really appreciate having some space to catch up on much-needed rest.' The Durham PhD student said both he and his wife are 'overjoyed and exhausted' as he told her: 'I couldn't have done it without you'. 'I don't know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release,' he said. 'I have not seen or read much of what has been written over the past few days but Dani tells me the support has been incredible.' He added: 'Thank you so much to the British Embassy and the FCO for their efforts in ensuring I arrived safely back home.' Matthew Hedges, newly released from a prison in the Emirates, was pictured kissing his wife, Daniela Tejada, after he flew back to Britain today, following his pardon Ms Tejada tweeted her thanks to everyone who has supported them, saying they had been 'to hell and back' Matthew Hedges is pictured arriving at Heathrow Airport this morning following his release yesterday Mr Hedges says that he is 'overjoyed and exhausted' after his wife helped to secure his release from the UAE His arrival back on home soil comes after he used knowledge gained from his Middle Eastern Studies doctorate to send what appears to have been a covert distress code to UK secret service operatives. In what the United Arab Emirates claimed was a confession video, Mr Hedges says he is an 'MI6 captain'. Defence experts and a friend of Mr Hedges believe the phrase was what is known as a duress code because there is no such rank as captain in the Secret Intelligence Service, whose officers regard 'MI6' as a slang term. Matthew Hedges (pictured with wife Daniela Tejada in Thailand) has praised his 'brave and strong' wife after landing at Heathrow Airport Duress codes are used by agents to send signals to their colleagues on the outside world if they find themselves being filmed by captors. But it is thought that the student used the phrase to tell secret service operatives that he was being forced into making a false confession after he read up on techniques used in similar situations at university. Chatham House fellow Kristian Ulrichsen, a friend of Mr Hedges, told The Times that claims he was a captain was him probably trying to hint he was under duress. This morning UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted his delight at Mr Hedges' safe arrival after he intervened to negotiate with the UAE. 'Welcome home Matt Hedges!' he wrote. 'The whole country is relieved and delighted to have you home. Thanks to @PatrickMoodyFCO and the FCO team in the UAE for your tireless work behind the scenes to make today possible.' Mr Hedges was welcomed by his wife, Daniela Tejada, and members of his family. Ms Tejada said: 'I am so happy to have my Matt home. Thank you once again for the overwhelming support we have received, especially from the Embassy in the UAE and the Foreign Office in ensuring that Matt was safely returned home. We are overjoyed and exhausted. 'Thank you once again as well to the international community and the international media who were very supportive from the beginning. 'I hope you can all understand that Matt and I, as well as his family, really need some time to process everything that we have been through. 'No one should ever have to go through what he did and it will take him time to heal and recover. He is very overwhelmed. To say we are happy is an understatement.' He was freed on Monday after a high-profile battle with the Gulf state ally, but officials persisted in calling him an MI6 spy - a claim denied by family and colleagues. The student, originally from Exeter, landed at about 6.40am, it was reported on Good Morning Britain. Matthew Hedges (pictured with his wife Daniela Tejada) has reportedly landed back in the UK at Heathrow Airport this morning One former British intelligence officer said that the UAE's government may have intentionally told Mr Hedges to state a falsehood in order to pass a message on to the secret service in the UK in the so-called confession tape. He explained that such a tactic may have been employed in order for the government to warn UK intelligence chiefs to lessen any current activities in the UAE. 'They're saying to the real operators: 'We know what you're up to and you'd better stop',' he told the Daily Telegraph. 'It's a message: 'Just calm it down a bit'.' Isle of Wight MP and former soldier Bob Seely says that servicemen are trained to say things that are factually inaccurate in order to signal that you don't believe what you are saying. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has this morning tweeted to welcome Matt Hedges home after securing his release Matthew Hedges elated wife, Daniela Tejada, 27, tweeted this picture of the couple with the words: 'I've been brought back to life' The British academic's delighted wife celebrated the news on Twitter saying she had been 'brought back to life' by Mr Hedges' release Mr Hedges' wife, Daniela Tejada, mounted a campaign to free the 31-year-old and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt personally discussed the case with UAE leaders. Yesterday she said: 'It's the kind of thing no one prepares you for. We were just starting our lives and I'm so glad that opportunity has been given back to us.' Ms Tejada's father, Hugo Tejada Torres, spoke of his joy at Mr Hedges' release, but expressed concern for others who have been wrongly detained. The 65-year-old from Exeter, Devon, said: 'We are very happy that he's home and grateful to the authorities who released him but still concerned for others who have been unjustly detained.' Asked if anyone else had been detained in connection with Matthew's case he said 'no'. He said he hadn't spoken to his son in law or his daughter since his return to the UK. He was sentenced on Wednesday after being arrested at Dubai Airport as he tried to leave on May 5. Matthew Hedges (pictured right) and his wife Daniela Tejada posing on their wedding day in Dartmoor President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan approved the family's appeal for clemency during a traditional tranche of pardons for the state's national day. Ms Tejada said news of the pardon brought her family's 'nightmare' to an end, and Mr Hunt described it as 'fantastic'. At a news conference on Monday in Abu Dhabi, officials showed a video of Mr Hedges describing himself as a captain in MI6 during what appeared to be a court hearing. However, MI6 - the foreign intelligence service - is not known to use military ranks. An official told reporters in Abu Dhabi that Mr Hedges was '100 per cent a full-time secret service operative' who was in the country 'to steal the UAE's sensitive security national secrets for his paymasters'. He said the Briton's pardon came in response to a letter from his family appealing for clemency and due to the historical close ties between the UK and UAE. Mr Hedges was branded a spy by the United Arab Emirates, who announced that he would be pardoned yesterday Jaber Al Lamki, executive director of media and strategic communication of national media announces the release of Matthew Hedges yesterday 'His highness has decided to include Mr Matthew Hedges among the 785 prisoners released,' he said. 'Mr Hedges will be permitted to leave the country once all the formalities are complete.' The UK takes a 'neither confirm nor deny' approach to allegations of intelligence service membership, but Mr Hunt has previously said he has seen 'absolutely no evidence' to suggest Mr Hedges is a spy. Following the pardon, Ms Tejada, from Bogota in Colombia, said: 'The presidential pardon for Matt is the best news we could have received. 'Our six-plus months of nightmare are finally over and to say we are elated is an understatement. 'That he is returning home to me and the rest of his family is much more than I was ever expecting to happen this week. I thank you all for your support.' Ms Tejada credited media coverage, support from British diplomats, Mr Hunt, academics and members of the public across the world for helping her husband's cause. She continued to reject the accusation that he was a spy, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'In my heart I know that he isn't.' Mr Hedges' release was confirmed after a family representative initially contradicted UAE officials who said he had been freed. Mr Hunt said the UAE had made a 'very important gesture' in pardoning Mr Hedges but described it as a 'bittersweet moment' given that Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe remains detained in Iran, also accused of spying. He told Today: 'In a way it's a bittersweet moment as in Iran, another country in the region, we have Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an innocent woman who is still in prison for nearly three years now. 'Indeed, there are other British citizens and other citizens from other countries also wrongly imprisoned in Iran also. 'So, you know the wonderful news about Matthew is also making us remember there are other people who are in a terrible state right now and we must never forget them either.' Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt welcomed news that Matthew Hedges had been given a presidential pardon after he was imprisoned for spying UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said the pardon would allow the two countries to 'return our focus to the underlying fundamental strength of the UAE-UK bilateral relationship', the WAM Emirates news agency reported. Dr Gargash said: 'It was always a UAE hope that this matter would be resolved through the common channels of our longstanding partnership. 'This was a straightforward matter that became unnecessarily complex despite the UAE's best efforts.' New bid to help Briton jailed in Iran Matthew Hedges' campaigning wife Daniela Tejada now hopes to help another Briton in a foreign jail, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe (pictured, below), 40, has been in an Iranian prison since being arrested in April 2016 as she and her daughter prepared to return to Britain. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe and Miss Tejada have been in contact during the campaign she waged to secure Mr Hedges's release. Now Miss Tejada wants to work to help him get his wife back from Iran. Mr Ratcliffe said last night: 'Daniela has had a really strong and clear campaign that has done great things to bring her husband home. 'I was very impressed with the clarity, honesty and strength she brought to the campaign. I welcome this offer.' He added: 'What's really important is also the shared experience that you can't explain to other people. It would be good for us to organise an event together in the future, but first she needs to catch up with her husband. 'It's such a great day for them, but also for us, because it's the hope.' Advertisement Professor Stuart Corbridge, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said staff were 'absolutely delighted' to learn of the news. 'It is paramount that he is now allowed to return home to Daniela and his family as quickly and safely as possible,' he said. Ms Tejada told Sky News she wanted to arrange a 'winter barbecue' for her husband, which had been postponed from Spring due to his detention. As he prepared to fly back to the UK this morning, his elated wife, Daniela Tejada, 27, tweeted a picture of the couple with the words: 'I've been brought back to life'. Her husband was arrested on May 5 in Dubai on his way home from a two-week research trip for his PhD thesis into the security policies of the Gulf. He was held in solitary confinement for five months before being jailed for life. Miss Tejada insisted her husband is not a spy. She thanked the media for highlighting his case and said: 'That he is returning home to me and the rest of his family is much more than I was ever expecting to happen this week. 'It's taken me by surprise and I'm just so happy and so relieved and really incredulous that it is happening finally. It has been an absolutely nightmarish seven months and I just can't wait to have him back. 'We are absolutely elated at the news. In my heart, I know what Matt is, he's a PhD researcher. His colleagues know it, and his family know it and hundreds of academics round the world know it. The most important thing now is that we will have him back home.' After Mr Hedges' shock life sentence last week, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt demanded the UAE release him or face 'serious consequences'. Britain has strong defence and trade ties with the Gulf state and hundreds of thousands of UK tourists holiday in Dubai every year. Yesterday the UAE's rulers announced that a request for clemency by Mr Hedges' family had been 'graciously granted'. But government spokesman Jaber al-Lamki stressed he was not going home an innocent man, declaring: 'Mr Hedges has been found guilty of espionage. He was here to steal the UAE's sensitive national security secrets for his paymasters.' To back up his point, he showed a ten-minute film of video clips of Mr Hedges 'confessing' his MI6 mission. The first showed a judge in a courtroom asking Hedges his rank and he answers: 'It is Captain.' Although MI6 is Britain's overseas spying operation, its intelligence officers do not hold military ranks. The clip moved to what appeared to be an investigation room and Mr Hedges wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt, and he said: 'I have an active field role...' In another clip, he says he was gathering information not from the 'top top top' leadership of the UAE, but from officials. 'I approached them as Matthew Hedges the PhD student and when I got the information it becomes MI6,' he says, snapping his fingers. When asked about the information he gathered, he said: 'What new technologies are they looking into, what do they see as a security threat and then there is the military of course.' When the investigators asked if anyone knows about him or his job, he said: 'No...no one else knows. No one but you guys.' The video clips were grainy and garbled, and jumped around to different locations suggesting they were edited together without any context or continuity. The short clip about him being an MI6 'captain' was set in a courtroom, suggesting it was filmed recently and could even have been the final 'price' Mr Hedges had to pay for being set free. Independent scrutiny is impossible because journalists at the hastily-convened Press conference were not allowed to film the video footage and the government has not released it. Last night a friend of Mr Hedges and his wife branded the video confession 'an embarrassment' to the UAE, saying: 'They are just trying to save face with their own people. 'They are laughable, the accusations they have given. They have a video, but we all know the coercion that has gone into it. It wouldn't stand up in any court. It's completely ridiculous.' But the Emirati spokesman claimed: 'The information Mr Hedges collected went far beyond standard academic practice. In fact, Mr Hedges took advantage of the openness granted to academic researchers in this country. 'During the investigation, it emerged that Mr Hedges has been using two different identities to gather information from his targets. In one he was Matthew Hedges the PhD researcher, in another one he was Matthew Hedges the businessman. He was part time PhD researcher and part time businessman but he was 100 per cent a secret service operative.' The state-run WAM news agency alleged Mr Hedges sought information for British intelligence on weapons systems, economic data, details about the UAE's war in Yemen and 'sensitive information on key government figures, including members of the UAE ruling families and their networks'. The Emiratis have denied a claim that Mr Hedges was forced to sign confessions in Arabic after weeks of brutal interrogation without a lawyer or access to consular assistance from the British embassy. Yesterday Mr Hunt said Britain did 'not agree' with the UAE's insistence that Mr Hedges is a spy. He said: 'We've seen no evidence to support these accusations.' A man accused of assaulting his pregnant partner and a 10-month-old baby before kidnapping the child has been arrested - with police saying the infant was 'safe and well'. The 25-year-old sparked a police manhunt after he took off in a car in Mentone, Melbourne's south-east, on Tuesday afternoon. A high-speed police chase was sparked and police pursued the vehicle along the Monash Freeway but lost sight of it shortly after 1pm. A 25-year-old man accused of assaulting his pregnant partner and 10-month-old baby before kidnapping the child has been arrested by police Witnesses said several police cars followed the vehicle along the freeway. 'It looked like they're chasing a car because there's a little car zigzagging in and out of traffic,' one told 3AW Radio. Another told the station: 'I'm right behind them. My heart's really pumping at the moment... They've got to catch him real soon or there will be an accident'. Police had alleged 'The man has left the scene... stating he is going to harm the baby and himself'. The vehicle was later discovered abandoned in Cranbourne West but neither the man or the child were to be seen. The man had swapped vehicles, with police catching up with the new car he was travelling in - with the baby onboard - at the Hume Highway near Donnybrook on Melbourne's northern fringe. A 10-month-old baby who was with the man 'was located safe and well', police said 'About 6pm police arrested a 25-year-old man in relation to the earlier incident in Mentone,' a statement from police said. 'The 10-month-old baby, who was still with the man, was located safe and well. The Wodonga man was arrested on the Hume Highway, near Donnybrook. 'He is now assisting police with their enquiries.' 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has launched a blistering attack on male politicians over 'slut shaming and bullying' in a Julia Gillard-esque speech in parliament. The Greens senator said females from all sides of politics were sick of 'the disgusting slurs and attacks coming from a particular group' in parliament. She named four male senators - Barry O'Sullivan, Fraser Anning, Cory Bernardi and David Leyonhjelm - in her speech, saying they are 'not fit to call yourselves men'. Greens leader Richard Di Natale had earlier spoken out against Senator O'Sullivan, calling him a 'pig' during a fiery exchange over Senator Hanson-Young. 'As the person in this chamber whom the reprehensible and disgusting comments were directed to by Senator O'Sullivan, I want to make it very clear that I am thankful to Senator Di Natale for standing up and calling them out,' Senator Hanson-Young said in parliament on Tuesday. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (pictured) has launched a blistering attack on male politicians in federal parliament 'That is what real men do. Real men don't insult and threaten women, and they don't slut-shame them and they don't attack them and make them feel bullied in their workplace. 'I have sat in this chamber for weeks and weeks months and heard the disgusting slurs and attacks coming from a particular group in this place. 'And I, for one, am sick of it, and I know many of my female colleagues on all sides of politics are sick of it, too. 'And I will name you because you are not fit to be in this chamber, you're not fit to represent your constituents and you're not fit to call yourselves men: Senator O'Sullivan, Senator Anning, Senator Bernardi and Senator Leyonhjelm.' Senator Di Natale was suspended from federal parliament after refusing to withdraw calling Senator O'Sullivan a 'pig'. The fiery exchange had broken out in the Senate chamber when Senator O'Sullivan said there was a 'bit of Nick Xenophon in' Senator Hanson-Young. Greens leader Richard Di Natale (pictured) was suspended from federal parliament on Tuesday Senator Di Natale (pictured leaving the Senate chamber) was suspended after refusing to withdraw calling Nationals senator Barry O'Sullivan a 'pig' 'We have endured on this side days of sexist filth coming from that man. He is a pig and he should consider and reflect on the standards he is adopting in this chamber,' a furious Senator Di Natale shouted in parliament. Senator O'Sullivan insisted he meant because Senator Hanson-Young didn't show up to an inquiry, saying he didn't mean it to be a double reference. 'I did not make an imputation on to Senator Hanson-Young in the manner they have described,' he later said. Senate President Scott Ryan gave Senator Di Natale multiple opportunities to withdraw his remarks but he refused. He was booted from parliament for the rest of Tuesday. The president said the rare power to suspend senators had not been used for more than 15 years. A fiery exchange had broken out in federal parliament when Senator Barry O'Sullivan (pictured) said there was a 'bit of Nick Xenophon in' Senator Hanson-Young Senator Cory Bernardi (pictured) came under attack from Senator Hanson-Young in federal parliament on Tuesday Senators David Leyonhjelm (pictured left) and Fraser Anning (pictured right) were also called out by Senator Hanson-Young One Nation leader Pauline Hanson described Senator Hanson-Young as a 'great actress' after saying she saw nothing sexist about Senator O'Sullivan's comments. 'I see this as crocodile tears,' Senator Hanson said. 'Using this sexist tag because she's a female doesn't wash with me and a lot of other people.' In October 2012, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard was lauded after she spoke out against misogyny in federal parliament. She slammed then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, saying 'I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. And the Government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever'. A father says he's facing eviction after teenagers gate-crashed his son's party and trashed his his home causing 5,000 of damage. Yobs smeared blood on walls, punched holes in the ceiling, ripped out the light fittings, stained the carpets, and smashed every painting, mirror and photo in the house. Bobby Thomson, of Invergowrie, Perthshire, called the damage 'unbelievable and shocking' and said the first he knew about the party was when he received a call from the police. Mr Thomson said: 'My landlord has told me I am to be evicted because of the party and the damage. Bobby Thomson called the damage to his home in Invergowrie, Perthshire, 'unbelievable and shocking Mr Thomson has now been told by his landlord that he will be evicted after the party. Pictured left: Floor panels damaged in the bathroom. Right: stains on the walls Every mirror, painting and photograph frame was destroyed during the party at the weekend 'I am totally disgusted at the mess caused and I want those responsible punished. 'He's grounded for a month.' His son Ben, 15, took a set of keys to the house and organised a party while he was away at a concert in Glasgow on Saturday night. He only planned on having four boys and four girls, but it with the invite went up on Facebook and Snapchat, and 40 people turned up. Mr Thomson, a plasterer, said: 'It just got completely out of hand, with more and more teenagers arriving. 'It got to the point there was nothing Ben could do to stop them. Mr Thomson (left) says his son (right) is now grounded for a month. Mr Thomson says he wants those responsible for the damage to be prosecuted Walls in the property were also badly damaged, with a number of holes punched into them 'He has told me he was desperately trying to stop them wrecking the house but they were totally out of control. 'Dozens of youths aged about 15 to 18 just kept arriving and proceeded to make a total mess of my house. 'Blood has been smeared on the walls, several holes have been punched in the walls and ceiling and every light fitting has been ripped out. 'They have also destroyed pictures and photographs. The carpets are stained with drink and their stuff has been smeared on the walls. Everywhere you look, damage has been done.' Blood was also smeared on to the walls (left) and light fittings were ripped out of the ceiling Mr Thomson said that a neighbour had alerted the police because she became concerned about the noise coming from his house. He said: 'I want these youngsters caught and punished. Their parents also need to be told what they have done to my house.' A spokesman for Police Scotland said: 'Officers attended an address in Invergowrie around 11pm on Saturday in response to reports of a disturbance. 'A number of young persons left on the arrival of the police and no complaints were made to the attending officers.' A Russian beauty queen has become the first lady of Malaysia after marrying the country's king. Oksana Voevodina married Malaysia's Muhammad V of Kelantan, 49, in a lavish royal wedding ceremony in the Russian capital after reportedly converting to Islam earlier this year. The 25-year-old doctor's daughter, who won the title of Miss Moscow in 2015, has worked previously as a model in China and Thailand. She is 24 years younger than the sultan, who is known as Yang di-Pertuan Agong and referred to as 'Your Majesty'. The groom's full name is Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra ibni Tengku Ismail Petra. Oksana Voevodina (right) married Malaysia's Muhammad V of Kelantan (left), 49, in a lavish royal wedding ceremony in the Russian capital after reportedly converting to Islam earlier this year The wedding was alcohol free and all food was halal. The king was dressed in Malaysian national clothes, and the bride wore a white wedding dress Russian beauty queen Oksana Voevodina (pictured) has become the first lady of Malaysia after marrying the country's king The ceremony took place on November 22 in a concert hall in the upscale Moscow suburb of Barvikha, reported Islam News. The Malaysian ruler - an elected monarch who has been on the throne since 2016 - has not disclosed how the couple met. Before becoming a royal bride Voevodina said: 'When I was at school I was a kind of bandit. 'I liked some skaters, bikes, VMX, guys who took part in competitions. I love riding a bike too.' She said: 'I think that the man must be the head of the family and of course shall not earn less than a woman.' The wedding was alcohol free and all food was halal. The king was dressed in Malaysian national clothes, and the bride wore a white wedding dress. She took the Muslim name Rihana and a picture of her in a hijab was posted on Twitter. The ceremony took place on November 22 in a concert hall in the upscale Moscow suburb of Barvikha, reported Islam News The Malaysian ruler - an elected monarch who has been on the throne since 2016 succeeding his father - has not disclosed how he and the model (pictured) met One message read: 'The people are grateful and proud to receive Queen Agong. Long live the king!' Malaysian news portal rakyatku.com said that the former beauty queen converted to Islam on April 16, 2018. Little is known about Voevodina apart from her victory in the Miss Moscow contest three years ago when her vital statistics were given as 33-23-35. She is believed to be a graduate from the Faculty of Business at the elite Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. It is unclear if she has been married before since she has used the surname Voevodina during her glamour career - but is now evidently reverting to her father's surname Gorbatenko. Reports in Kuala Lumpar say she will be known in future as Rihana Oxana Gorbatenko. Andrey Gorbatenko is an orthopaedic surgeon from Rostov-on-Don believed to be in his late 50s. He is seen hugging her in a picture taken on a boat near the Kremlin as she wears her crown after her beauty pageant victory. She said at the time that he helped her overcome her nerves in the final. 'When I was performing [at the contest] there was my father sitting in the hall and he was like a reference point for me,' she said. Voevodina (right) is 24 years younger than the king (left), who is known as Yang di-Pertuan Agong and referred to as 'Your Majesty'. They are pictured on their wedding day Malaysian news portal rakyatku.com said that the former beauty queen converted to Islam on April 16, 2018 Little is known about Voevodina apart from her victory in the Miss Moscow contest three years ago when her vital statistics were given as 33-23-35 Reports in Kuala Lumpar say she will be known in future as Rihana Oxana Gorbatenko 'I was watching only him and performing only for him. Because I knew if I do something wrong, papa is papa, he would never say anything and he would not ever condemn. 'He would just smile and say: "It's OK, just get up and go on." 'So I felt strong support from his side.' She claimed she only realised the power of her looks when she went to university. 'I was the tallest in my class (at school) and the most slim, and I was a bit worried about that,' she said. 'Only when I was at university, did I realise that this was my strong side. 'Young guys started to pay attention and I realised that they looked at me more often than at fat and not very tall girls.' At the time she won Miss Moscow, she insisted she did not have a boyfriend because she hadn't found the right man. 'I do not have a boyfriend,' she said. 'And I think that it would be harder for me to win, if I had. 'Because every boyfriend, if he let his girl go to the beauty contest, she won't be his girlfriend anymore. It is unclear if she has been married before since she has used the surname Voevodina during her glamour career - but is now evidently reverting to her father's surname Gorbatenko Her mother was a beauty contestant in a local contest in Penza in the early 1990s soon after the collapse of the USSR Voevodina said in earlier interviews that she had ambitions to be a fashion designer 'Because she will get lots of attention, secondly she doesn't have any time for a private life and finally I think it will be a distraction. 'I will have the relations when my heart will tell. So far it is silent.' After winning her Miss Moscow title she said: 'My hobby is the design of female clothes and swim suits. I sew women's clothes by order, too.' Her mother was a beauty contestant in a local contest in Penza in the early 1990s soon after the collapse of the USSR. Voevodina said in earlier interviews that she had ambitions to be a fashion designer. She made a collection of swim wear - some of which was worn by beauty pageant contestants. The Malaysian head of state was educated at Oakham School in Rutland, England and St Cross College, Oxford University. Later he attended the European Business School in London. His heir is currently his younger brother Tengku Muhammad Faiz Petra. This is the dramatic moment migrants were told 'help is coming' as border force officials and the coast guard rescued two crews of nine, including a three-year-old. The girl was clinging to her mother as one of four children in the dinghy bobbing about 'helplessly' in the ocean swell after travelling 15 miles from Calais. They crossed over into the English side of the Channel before making a 999 call at about 4.30am today, and minutes later a second crew of nine were rescued, meaning that 141 have attempted the perilous journey this month alone. The Border Force brought the dinghy abroad this morning in the Dover dock after nine people were rescued off the coast including a three-year-old girl This dinghy - which is designed to carry just three people - had nine crammed into it in the early hours of this morning Some of the men were captured walking onto the shore following this morning's dramatic rescue in the Channel The migrants were seen wrapped in blankets as they were brought into the country this morning Minutes after the first crew of nine were rescued, a second alert went out for a boat in trouble, carrying nine migrants, off the coast of Dover The Royal National Lifeboat Institution recovered the second crew, bringing the total number rescued has risen to 141 for this month alone The French Maritime Prefecture said that its vessels intercepted nine migrants before dawn Tuesday and took them to the port of Dunkirk. A statement said that minutes later a second alert went out for a boat in trouble, carrying nine migrants, off the coast of Dover. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution recovered them. The three-year-old girl's crew were found by Good Morning Britain reporter Jonathan Swain. Footage shows him at the scene as he tells the stranded migrants that help is coming. 'We were on the water out in the channel since midnight,' he said. 'We had reports of there being a distress and may day out there. We raced towards them we could see them flashing a torch light. 'When we got there it was just an incredible sight it really took my breath away ... to see people floating in the ocean in a dinghy made for three people in a river.' He said it was particularly painful to see the three-year-old girl being held by her mother in the vessel. Mr Swain warned that migrants are setting out to get as far as the British side of the Channel from places such as Calais, France, then alerting the emergency services. A spokeswoman for the Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said: 'We are currently assisting Border Force with an incident off the Kent coast.' She said the incident was being handled by the Border Force. The coast guard can be seen dragging migrants off the boat after they cross the Channel this morning Migrants were - including four children - were found bobbing helplessly in the Channel this morning as were brought safely to the UK by emergency services The crew found nine people in the Channel travelling in a dinghy that was built for just three people this morning An historic village on the Adriatic coast is charging tourists a five euro entry fee at the turnstiles to enter its cobbled centre. Critics are outraged and say the Christmas spirit of goodwill has been tarnished by commercialism. The Mayor of Polignano a Mare says he would have the turnstiles up regardless to help with crowd safety during the festive period. Italian police stand on the other side of the turnstiles which block the entrance to winter wonderland in the Adriatic town of Polignano a Mare The mayor, Domenico Vitto told The Republic: 'I would have had the turnstiles installed even if there had not been the entrance fee.' He also said he had worked with Bari police to ensure that there would not be a repeat of the crushes in Turin. Over 1,500 were injured and a woman died when a stampede erupted after firecrackers went off during a screening of the Champions League Final in the centre of Turin in June 2017. But speaking to The Telegraph, Cesare Veronico, head of the local music festival said: 'The fundamental point is that you cannot restrict access to a public place, which everyone should be allowed to see.' The town which is part of the city of Bari is an attraction throughout they year and at Christmas time with its winter wonderland. In its first weekend, The Republic reported 12,000 visitors had gone through the turnstiles. If those were all visitors they would have netted just over 52,000. The blue waters of Polignano a Mare are famous for their diving spots and its massive cliffs have been part of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Tour since 2015 The historic commune which is part of the metropolitan area of neighbouring Bari has been inhabited since the time of the Ancient Greeks The 'GCard' required for entry into the stunning piazza is paid by any non-resident of the town and that includes children over six years old, according to the Italian paper. By the end of the Christmas period they stand to make hundreds of thousands. The coastal town has been inhabited since the times of the ancient Greeks but this is the first time visitors will be charged to enter. Its steep cliffs back onto the blue waters of the Adriatic and are a renowned diving spot in the summer months. The move follows a decision by Venice to install turnstiles to cope with huge number of tourists who flock its streets each year, The Telegraph say. It is a strange sight a conga-line of revellers dancing to music only they can hear via headphones, rather than it booming from speakers and upsetting the neighbours. But these so-called silent discos are at risk of being banned in Edinburgh for being too noisy. The events are being reviewed by city council officials amid claims that participants notably hen parties are making too much racket. They have been handed a report which looks at an increase in complaints involving pavement obstruction and noise nuisance. Revellers in Edinburgh may think no-one can hear the music in their headphones but that doesn't stop locals being aware of their 'whooping and screaming' Conservative councillor Jo Mowatt said: Silent discos are not silent. There is a lot of whooping and screaming, especially when you have 40 women on a hen party. There is also the safety aspect as who is going to have to step in the road due to the groups taking up the pavements? I have been contacted by many of my constituents regarding silent discos, while the Old Town Community Council has been raising this issue for around nine months. Concerns have also been raised about the safety of revellers saying there is a risk to attendees if they walk into traffic or fail to hear vehicles. A Street Trading Licence is required for anyone carrying out a service for money in a public place. However, it is believed that a large number of traders are taking bookings and payment exclusively online or in a retail premises, meaning they avoid needing a licence. Silent discos - where music is shared via headphones rather than being boomed out into the air - have taken off in recent years In Edinburgh the concept has morphed into conga lines, often of tourists or hen parties, dancing through the streets led by a brightly dressed dance leader Local councillors have pointed out other pedestrians have to step out into the road due to large groups taking up the pavements The council has advised traders that it is best practice to seek a licence to guard against the risk of action if one-off payment is received in the streets. But the current legislation leaves local authorities with limited power to take action against silent discos. Organisers of one silent disco tour, which operates all year round in Edinburgh, have called for guidelines to be created by the city council to stop ad-hoc tours popping up. Jay Feeney, marketing director of Silent Adventures, said: We are the only operators in Edinburgh all year round. During the Fringe there were about four tour operators running I feel this is a bit of a punishment from the aftermath of the Fringe. Some of them looked a bit out of control.We have always had a big focus on safety and we run tours with absolute control. Mr Feeney said that the tours are organised to focus on the Royal Mile and Princes Street, and there is one guide per 25 people. People from the ages of five to 85 have taken part, including many Edinburgh residents. He added: I did worry during the Fringe period that some of the other groups would get us all in trouble. I feel there should be standards across the board, and Ive contacted the council. One well-established silent disco tour is calling for guidelines to be created by the city council to stop ad-hoc tours popping up In 2016, the Swiss city of Lausanne banned outdoor 'silent' discos due to noise complaints - pictured above, people clapping laughing and dancing in one 'silent' disco tour of Edinburgh If they look at the way we operate they will be pleasantly surprised. It would be a huge shame for the city if there was a ban. We are completely aligned with some of the concerns raised. In 2016, the Swiss city of Lausanne banned outdoor silent discos due to noise complaints. Now local politicians have written to the Scottish parliament and the Scottish Government to update officials on the issue. Miss Mowatt feels there may be legislation available to use, but it is a matter of finding it. She added: I am always wary of introducing new legislation. I feel there may be something in the legislation box already at our disposal and I think we need to double our efforts to see if there is something that already exists which we can use. Theres not a lot we can do at the moment in the never-never land of licensing. The current legislation does not serve the residents of the city who never get a break from activity such as this. Last night, a city council spokesman said: A report detailing the powers available to the council to regulate silent discos and similar activity will be discussed at this evenings South East Locality Committee, though there are no plans to ban such walking tours. A Spanish comedian has appeared in court after blowing his nose on the national flag as part of a TV sketch. Dani Mateo appeared before a judge in Madrid after a police union denounced his joke as an 'affront to Spain (and) its symbols'. It is the latest case to raise fears for freedom of expression in the country. 'As a citizen of this country, I'm worried because we're bringing a clown before a judge for having done his job,' Dani Mateo told reporters after appearing before a judge probing his case in Madrid. 'That worries me a lot for the image it gives of my country and my flag.' Dani Mateo (pictured) appeared before a judge in Madrid after a police union denounced his comedy routine as an 'affront to Spain (and) its symbols' The joke, broadcast on popular satirical television show El Intermedio, saw Mateo sneeze and blow his nose on the Spanish flag, before ironically apologising profusely, saying he hadn't wanted to 'offend the Spanish, the king or the Chinese who sell these rags.' A police union made an official complaint after his sketch on October 31. The joke, broadcast on popular satirical television show El Intermedio, saw Mateo sneeze and blow his nose on the Spanish flag, before ironically apologising profusely, saying he hadn't wanted to 'offend the Spanish, the king or the Chinese who sell these rags.' In a subsequent tweet, the Guardia Civil police force retorted that the flag 'symbolises the union of a people.' 'Respect it. Not doing so isn't humour, it's gratuitously offending those who are proud of it and those who gave their life and efforts for the values of peace and freedom that it represents.' The latest case is just one of a string of cases of artists being probed or jailed in Spain which have raised concerns about freedom of expression. The latest case is just one of a string of cases of artists being probed or jailed in Spain which have raised concerns about freedom of expression. Mateo is pictured outside court Several Twitter users and rappers have been tried for glorifying terrorism or insulting the king for comments or lyrics. Rapper Valtonyc this year fled to Belgium to avoid a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for glorifying terrorism, insulting the king and issuing threats in his lyrics. In September, actor Willy Toledo was questioned by a judge over a July 2017 Facebook message in which he defended three women charged with blasphemy for staging a mock-religious procession wielding a giant vagina. In profane language, Toledo expressed contempt in his post for God and the Virgin Mary, and was himself accused of blasphemy. Amnesty International said the legal actions amount to 'repression' of freedom of expression. The Undead Archives I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham slammed Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for comparing the Central American migrant caravan to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany during the Second World War. GOP South Carolina senator, Graham, told the newly-elected New York Democrat congresswoman to 'take a tour of the Holocaust Museum' to understand the difference between the persecution of Jewish people and the migrant caravan. Graham was responding to a tweet sent by Ocasio-Cortez, in which she compared refugees such as Jews fleeing persecution in WWII and Rwandans fleeing genocide in the 1990s, to the current migrants who arrived at the Mexico border from Central America at the weekend. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday afternoon: 'Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn't a crime. Sen. Lindsey Graham criticized Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for comparing Central American migrants to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany during the Second World War 'It wasn't for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn't for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn't for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn't for those fleeing violence in Central America.' But Graham did not agree with her comparison and did not believe the Central American migrants are asylum seekers. He replied: 'I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC. Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana.' Ocasio-Cortez responded to Graham's criticism in another tweet yesterday in which she said: 'The point of such a treasured museum is to bring its lessons to present day. Newly-elected New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said 'asking to be considered a refugee and applying for status isn't a crime' 'This administration has jailed children and violated human rights. Perhaps we should stop pretending that authoritarianism + violence is a historical event instead of a growing force.' Tensions on the border escalated on Sunday with U.S. Border Patrol agents firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at a group of migrants on Sunday, including families with young children, as hundreds of people swarmed the border. Trump threatened to permanently close the U.S. border with Mexico, saying he'll take the drastic action if members of the swelling migrant caravan are not deported back to Central America. Ocasio-Cortez was criticized for comparing Central American migrants to Jewish and Rwandan refugees fleeing from persecution Graham claimed there was a 'difference between' those in the migrant caravan and refugees fleeing the Nazis and war-torn regions But Trump yesterday denied that border patrol agents fired tear gas on children over the weekend during a confrontation with a group of migrants, despite pictures showing mothers running through clouds of smoke carrying infants. He claimed that so-called 'grabbers' were snatching children up at the border to get special treatment and to avoid being confronted by Border Patrol. That was how he explained images that showed children fleeing tear gas during a confrontation between some illegal immigrants and Border Patrol a day before. Trump asked why adults claiming to be the toddler's parents were anywhere near the tear gas in the first place. Maria Lila Meza Castro, a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, running away from tear gas with her five-year-old twin daughters Saira Nalleli Mejia Meza (left) and Cheili Nalleli Mejia Meza (right) in front of the border wall between the U.S and Mexico, in Tijuana on Sunday 'And, in some cases, you know, they're not the parents. These are people, they call them grabbers. They grab a child, because they think they're going to have a certain status by grabbing a child,' he claimed. Ocasio-Cortez, who is the youngest ever Congresswoman elected to the House at 29 when she won her seat earlier this month, complained of sexism when she was mistaken for an intern and directed to the spouse areas during her first week. Graham angrily defended Brett Kavanaugh, who he is pictured alongside in his Twitter profile picture, during his Supreme Court nomination in September when the judge was accused of sex assault by Dr Christine Blasey Ford. A wife in China who was thrown out of the car's window during a high-speed crash has survived. The woman was sent flying through the air after her husband, suspected to be drink driving, accidentally crashed the car during a row with her, reported local media. She was taken to the hospital by paramedics and were found to have non-life-threatening injuries, reports said. The woman who was thrown out of the window of the car and sent flying in the air has survived the accident. Reports say she and her husband, the driver, had been arguing before the crash The accident occurred on Friday in the city of Kaili in Guizhou province, according to China's Kan Kan News, citing the Guizhou Public Channel. The car rammed into the side of the road, flipped in the air before the momentum of the crash tossed the woman out of the passenger seat, as CCTV footage shows. Dashcam footage released by the TV station shows a man yelling in the car 'what are you' and 'how much money does your father give me' seconds before the crash. It is believed that he was arguing with his wife at the moment. Li Zhenglin, a traffic policeman from the Kaili Public Security Bureau, told the press that officers found two victims, a man and a woman, after they arrived at the scene of the accident. Dashcam footage shows a man yelling in the car 'what are you' and 'how much money does your father give me' seconds before the crash in Kaili, China, last Friday According to the police, the car was seriously damaged when they arrived at the scene Officer Li said the car had been seriously damaged and the windscreen had been broken completely. The female victim was taken to the hospital and the male victim who was bleeding on the head was given first aid, said the policeman. The male victim, identified as Pan by police, had been driving the car. A breath test showed that he had been drink driving. Police suspected that the female victim had not been wearing the safety belt. Officer Li told the press: 'Luckily the road fence is wooden and flat at the top. If it had been metal or had had sharp tops, the victim would have been wounded worse.' Driver Pan was taken to the hospital for a blood test to confirm whether or not he had been drunk. The police are waiting for the blood test results. Further investigation of the case is underway. Dr Gurjeet Jutley, 37, pictured, stole 370 in cufflinks and ties from a Hugo Boss shop at Heathrow Airport A consultant eye surgeon stole 370 of cufflinks and ties from an airport Hugo Boss after struggling to cope when his wife had a miscarriage and then became terminally ill. Dr Gurjeet Jutley, 37, was arrested by police in the departures lounge at Heathrow Airport after shoplifting just before he was about to a board a flight to Armenia to attend a medical presentation. The surgeon, who works at Oxford Eye Hospital, blamed his actions on being a 'human in distress' at a disciplinary tribunal where he apologised for his actions but begged to keep his job. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester was also told he left his phone number with the shop after asking if they could secure a jacket in his size moments before the theft. Staff at the store in Terminal Four discovered the items missing when Dr Jutley left - then played back CCTV and watched as he sneaked the goods into his travel bag after draping his jacket over a display. The expert on glaucoma and complex cataract surgery, later accepted a police caution after he admitted theft but claimed he was going through a 'difficult period' over his wife's health problems. He also claimed he was on anti-depressants at the time although his GP later said he wasn't taking any medication. Dr Jutley, of Barnet, North London, apologised for his dishonesty but urged a disciplinary panel to let him off with a warning. The incident occurred on October 30 last year as the doctor, who is also a lecturer at the University College London, had been trying on coats in the designer shop ahead of him visiting the former Soviet state to learn about new medical equipment. Rebecca Vanstone, lawyer for the General Medical Council said: 'He was looking to purchase a jacket and while he tried one on placed his own jacket on the display. The consultant eye surgeon, who works at Oxford Eye Hospital, apologised for the crime at a disciplinary hearing and said it happened because he was a 'human in distress' The hearing was told Dr Jutley, who is also a lecturer at University College London, was struggling after his wife had a miscarriage and was diagnosed with a terminal illness 'The store assistant said they didn't have the correct size so they contacted another store in the airport to see if they had the correct size. 'He left his mobile phone number with the assistant who said she would call him when the jacket in the correct size arrived in the correct store. 'But after he left he store, the assistant noticed ties and cuff links were missing. Later when Dr Jutley returned to the store to collect his size and whilst he was being served, the manager watched CCTV and told the assistant he was the person taking the items. 'The assistant left the store straight away and stopped two police officers and showed them the CCTV. The police searched the lounge of the airport and found Dr Jutley. He said he had taken the cuff links without paying for them and handed them over.' Ms Vanstone added: 'He was asked about taking the other items to which he replied: "No". 'But when searched for the Hugo Boss ties, they were found on him and he he then admitted to the police he had taken them. 'He was arrested and he explained in his interview that he had put the items in his bag. But he could not explain why he had done it. He told the police of his wife's health problems.' Giving evidence, Dr Jutley said: 'I am sorry for what happened but my recollection is hazy. Last year I was a human being in distress who also happened to be a doctor. 'I have tried to reflect on events of that day, I was saying that my memory is usually quite good, but at the time my memory was suffering and my mood was quite low. The doctor, pictured at Wimbledon, says he cannot remember the incident but has 'flashbacks' 'I had to write things down and I can put my hand in my heart and say looking back I dint remember anything. 'I have flashbacks, I have prompts to go through it, I have been through the situation with a fine tooth comb but I say I cannot exclude intent at that time. 'There was no premeditation. I didn't plan this thinking I am going to take something. 'I love what I do, I love my job and I love having the ability to help people with their sight, it's something I cherish, irrespective of what I was going through at the time. 'After my wife and I were married we went through a miscarriage. By January 2017 I had started losing weight and I was losing enjoyment in my hobbies.' He added: 'I don't think this affected my ability to work or function at work - and in fact I had to step up my role as a consultant and that was fine. 'But on that day I was worried about the impending death of my partner and my immediate thought was her. During that day I had left my phone charged at home and the taxi had to go back and get it. 'I didn't have the correct jacket with me, I didn't realise what the temperature was like in Armenia and I wanted to purchase a coat. 'I was going for a presentation and I had a phone call prior to making the purchase which led to me feeling disappointed and confused. 'After I had the phone call, I started trying on jackets, I have got a poor recollections if events. 'I do have flashbacks and prompts but I just can't piece it together. I have no recollection after that phone call and it's something that haunted me. 'I sincerely can't remember picking up the cuff links or ties. I don't recall paying with cash or credit cards. I spoke to my GP about saying I was on antidepressants during my police interview and I have never been on them - I do not know why I said the things I said. 'I am a fiercely spiritual and deep human being and a respect honesty in my life. This has fallen below the standards I set for myself. 'Personally, I am deeply apologetic. I am very sorry about the circumstances and I am sorry about how I find myself in this position. I understand the impact and I am ashamed. I fully understand the impact on my patients.' Dr Jutley, left at the hearing in Manchester and right in his job, had even left his contact details with the shop after asking about getting a jacket in his size Dr Jutley also said the incident prompted him to seek therapy and sparked a 'positive change' in his life. He said: 'For me this was a catalyst to change. I appreciate I was distressed at the time and I got help and I did a lot of things to ensure that I have help going forward so I won't find myself in a position like that again. 'I have used this event in a positive way. I have arranged talking sessions about mental health at work and I have seen two psychiatrists to help with getting to grips with events. 'I can't say I remember that weekend and it fills me with great shame. I cannot say I didn't take items knowingly. 'I feel shame when I think back to it. Despite what I was going through, I accept responsibility for it. 'A reasonable member of the public would feel let down and they would feel more than disappointed. A rational person would feel devastated.' He added: 'I understand at that time I was having multiple issues of distress, I have true to reflect on that and I have been taking an active step. At the time of that day my one thought was my partner. I had no motive. 'I still am apologetic and I am sorry for the events of that day and I cannot fathom how I got there. I can never get more responsibility than by apologising for my dishonesty.' Dr Jutley's lawyer David Morris said: 'This seemed to be an irrational act and he had not knowingly taken those items. This was an unequivocal display of dishonesty and he has a selfless desire to be punished. 'His actions were driven by bad decisions. He takes full responsibility and understands the damage done to public confidence. A suitable punishment would be a warning.' The hearing continues. Advertisement These are the haunting mugshots of Victorian teenage offenders - when 13-year-old criminals could face six months of hard labour for stealing corn. The recently unearthed photographs reveal the brutal punishments that were dealt to Victorian teens for petty offences - which would barely warrant a police caution in Britain today. The images, which originate from Oxford Gaol, Oxford were taken between April 1872 to May 1873 when the concept of photography was still relatively new. The fascinating collection show brothers George and Joseph Green - aged twelve and fourteen respectively - who were given one months hard labour for stealing a bag containing bread and butter. The fascinating collection show brothers George (right) and Joseph Green (left) - aged twelve and fourteen respectively - who were given one months hard labour for stealing a bag containing bread and butter Alice Dawson, 13, (left) was sentenced to seven days hard labour at Oxford Gaol for stealing an umbrella, July 12, 1872. Amy Foy, 16, (right) was sentenced to 21 days hard labour for stealing a bodice The siblings were also sentenced to four years in a reformatory school - a nineteenth century juvenile prison where stiff discipline was enforced with frequent beatings. Most of these teenage criminals were arrested for stealing seemingly trivial items. Poignant shots show thirteen-year-old Alice Dawson who was sentenced to seven days hard labour for stealing an umbrella - and sixteen-year-old Amy Foy who was handed 21 days of hard labour for stealing a bodice. Also pictured is Jim Westbury, 13, who was given a whopping six months of hard labour and five years at a reformatory school for stealing corn and hay. Jim Westbury, 13, was sentenced to six months hard labour and then given five years at reformatory school for stealing corn and hay on November 24 1873. Robert Henry Hanly, 13, (right) was sentenced to six weeks hard labour as well as 24 strikes of the cane, for stealing a knife, 13th April, 1872 Matilde Birchley, 14, (left) was sentenced to 14 days hard labour at Oxford Gaol for stealing ham and broth, on November 30, 1872. When was the first police mugshot taken in the UK? The process of taking mugshots was first utilised by Belgian officers in 1843. It came 43 years after photography's inception in 1800 by British inventor Thomas Wedgwood. In the UK, the first crook was snapped by Birmingham police in 1853. The photos were taken at the Moor Street public office in the 1850s and 1870s and were accompanied with scrawled notes about their crimes. William Smith was one of Britain's earliest murderers who posed for a mugshot after he was charged with killing his wife in August 1866. His charge sheet simply read: 'Murder of wife in Hurst Street'. Advertisement Meanwhile thirteen-year-old Robert Henry Hanly was sentenced to six weeks hard labour as well as 24 strikes of the cane for stealing a knife. The collection provides a fascinating snapshot of child poverty in the Victorian era - a problem that is still rife today with the latest government figures revealing around 4.5million children are living below the breadline. In the 1800s, children and teenagers were often imprisoned for what now would be considered minor offences and no distinction was made between criminals of any age. Accordingly, teens were sent to an adult prison like Oxford Castle Prison for example. There are even records of a child aged twelve being hanged for petty theft and murder in 1829. In 1854, Reformatory Schools were set up for offenders under 16 years old. These were very tough places, with stiff discipline enforced by frequent beatings. John Hoare, 15, (left) was sentenced to three months hard labour for stealing a sheepskin. John Wheeler, 13, (right) was sentenced to three months hard labour at Oxford Gaol for stealing a 100lbs of coal, on October, 26, 1872 Joseph Hawkes, 18, (left) was sentenced to two months hard labour for stealing horse hair on September 14 1872. Alfred Blackwell, 16, (right) was sentenced to three months hard labour for stealing six lbs of Australian meat, 21st October, 1872 Emily Harris, 16, was sentenced to two months hard labour at Oxford Gaol for stealing clothes, on October 8, 1872. Alfred Clack, 18, (right) was sentenced to six weeks hard labour at Oxford Gaol and two years of reformatory school for stealing a tame rabbit, 8th April, 1873 Young people were sent there for long sentences - usually several years. However, a young offender normally still began their sentence with a brief spell in an adult prison. There was a perceived rise in juvenile delinquency in the early 19th century. Whereas in a rural economy very young children could gain paid employment doing tasks such as bird scaring and stone gathering these opportunities were not available in the cities. Youngsters were very visible on the streets of Britain - and begging and vagrancy was rife. Jacob Griffin, 13, (left) was sentenced to one months hard labour for stealing wood, on November 1, 1872. On January 4 1873, Edward Hutton, 14, was sentenced to 14 days hard labour for stealing a pair of gloves Ellen Hayes, 17, (left) was sentenced to 21 days hard labour at Oxford Gaol for stealing two studs and a waistcoat, on May 24, 1873. Flora Gammon, 19, (right) who stole half a pound of butter, was sentenced to 28 days hard labour at on April 8 1873 Ian Hitchen, 12, (left) was sentenced to 21 days hard labour and three years reformatory school for stealing three shillings and a piece of cotton, on November 1, 1872. Charles Lovefry ,15, (right) was sentenced to three months hard labour for stealing a rabbit on March 13, 1873 The Victorians were very worried about crime and following the development of the camera, police realised they could use the new technology to their advantage and took images of repeat offenders. The police released the photos to warn the public when the criminal was to be released from prison. As the use of cameras became more common taking mugshots became the norm until it was made compulsory for everyone to be photographed after they were arrested. It was not until the 1908 Children's Act that changes were made to the way child offenders were punished. Juvenile courts were introduced and children could no longer be placed in adult prisons or executed for capital crimes - however minors could still be whipped. A mother's quick thinking saved her baby from death but the young girl is set to lose her toes, fingers and possibly her legs after contracting Meningococcal W strain. Western Australian mother Chelsea Cocking woke at 4am to the sounds of her eight-month-old daughter Tahlea struggling to breath and with a high fever, 9 News reported. She rushed Tahlea to the Geraldton hospital before she was airlifted by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Perth Children's Hospital. Eight-month-old Tahlea Cocking will lose her fingers, toes and possibly her legs due to contracting Meningococcal W strain but it could have been worse if not for her mother Upon her arrival Tahlea's condition was so bad that Ms Cocking was told to say goodbye to her daughter. 'It was out of the blue, really scary to watch this happen to your happy, healthy child and it took the innocence out of her and I don't want this to happen to anyone else's kids,' she said. Tahlea will spend up to half a year at the children's hospital so the Cocking family will relocate to Perth during her recovery. On average there are between 10 and 20 cases of meningococcal disease in WA each year and children up to five-years-old have the highest risk of developing the disease. The disease is a result of a bacterial infection of the blood and/or the membranes that line the spinal cord and brain. The Government of Western Australia's Department of Health released a health warning and fact sheet about the disease. On average there are between 10 and 20 cases of meningococcal disease in WA each year and children up to five-years-old have the highest risk of developing the disease (file photo) It was also announced on Tuesday that the state government would be extending its meningococcal vaccine program for children aged one to four years to 2019 'In very rare cases, if left untreated, Meningococcal infection can result in death and, while low, MenW has twice the rate of death of other strains,' the statement read. 'It is important that people with the symptoms seek medical advice early. The disease is serious and can be life-threatening, but most people recover completely with early antibiotic treatment.' SYMPTOMS IN BABIES Fever Rapid breathing or panting Vomiting or difficulty feeding Irritability Lethargy (extreme tiredness) or difficult to wake Unusual crying or moaning Rash Source: Government of Western Australia Department of Health Advertisement The Western Australian government currently offers free meningococcal vaccination programs for children aged 12 months to five years, 15 to 19-year-old adolescents and certain remote Aboriginal communities. It was also announced on Tuesday that the state government would be extending its meningococcal vaccine program for children aged one to four years to 2019. In Western Australia, 55 per cent of children aged one to four have received a meningococcal ACWY vaccine. However, 45 per cent remain unprotected. The state-funded program will also be extended to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged from six weeks. A doting father-of-three was found dead after 'struggling to cope with everything' when his wife tragically died, an inquest has heard. Christopher Baynes was found collapsed lying next to a syringe on his bathroom floor after taking a fatal cocktail of drugs. Mr Baynes' mother, Carol Baynes, described her son as a 'doting father who would do anything for his kids'. Christopher Baynes, 45 and from Hull, was found collapsed lying next to a syringe on his bathroom floor after taking a fatal cocktail of drugs on May 18 But she said the 45-year-old 'struggled to cope with everything' following the tragic death of his wife, Jennifer, six years ago. Mr Baynes, who was born in Hedon and grew up in Hull, had got involved with the 'wrong crowd' in his late teens and had started taking ecstasy and going to raves, his mother told an inquest into his death at Hull Coroner's Court. But, after he had successfully became drug free at the age of 21 following a rehabilitation programme in South Shields, he met and moved in with his future wife. The pair then moved to Newcastle where they had two children, Gemma, now 24, and Connor, 15. Following the birth of their second child, the family relocated to Aberdeen after Chris had got a job at a hotel, but returned to Hull as 'there was no money in the hotel industry'. They had their third child, Summer, now aged 12, and moved to another house. But tragedy struck the family when, in March 2012, Jennifer passed away due to ongoing health issues, and this had a terrible impact on Chris. Mr Baynes suffered from depression and insomnia and 'would regularly stay downstairs all night by himself', according to his partner, Lyn, whom he started dating in September 2015. His mother had noticed that he was starting to become more withdrawn and said there was a change in his behaviour from 2016. His partner admitted that on some occasions he would stay out for five to six hours at a time. On the morning of his death on May 18, his partner had woken just after 3am and could not see Mr Baynes downstairs. She noticed that the bathroom light was on and that the tap was running. When Mr Baynes did not respond to her, she unlocked the door with a coin andentered to find him collapsed on the floor lying next to a syringe. Humberside Police confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances to the cause of death. Consultant histopathologist Dr Laszlo Karsai concluded that the combination of drugs were the most likely cause of Mr Baynes' death. At the inquest, Coroner Rosemary Baxter concluded: 'I am satisfied that this is drug related and this is the conclusion that I make. 'I therefore formally record that the death of Christopher Baynes was caused by drug poisoning.' For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org for details. Argentina is considering charging Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman with war crimes if he shows up to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week. Advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote to a federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should prosecute him under Argentinian law. Specifically HRW asked that he be charged for mass civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led coalitions campaign in Yemen, and for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month. Scroll down for video Chief negotiators of the G20 countries, known as 'sherpas', meeting in Buenos Aires on Monday four days ahead of the summit The writ presented by Human Rights Watch was received at the court of federal judge Ariel Lijo, who forwarded it to federal prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez. It is currently being considered by Argentine lawmakers and the prosecutor is now trying to decide whether Bin Salman is covered by the 'universal jurisdiction' mentioned in the country's constitution. Judicial sources within Argentina's legal system said bringing a case against the Crown Prince would be 'very difficult'. Lawmakers said the case would rely on both the Prince's alleged connection to war crimes in Yemen as well as the Khashoggi killing. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a meeting in Egypy on Monday afternoon 'Since March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has carried out scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes on civilians and civilian objects in Yemen, hitting homes, schools, hospitals, markets, and mosques,' an HRW statement said. 'Many of these attacks if carried out with criminal intent indicate possible war crimes. 'The coalition has also imposed and maintained a naval and air blockade on Yemen that has severely restricted the flow of food, fuel, and medicine to civilians. Millions of civilians face hunger and disease.' A source from President Mauricio Macris office Monday declined to comment on the request for Mohammed bin Salmans arrest should he land on Argentinian soil. 'We can make no comment on that. All we can say is that Mohammed bin Salmans attendance remains confirmed, we have received no contrary information so far,' the source told the Guardian. A passenger who stole a truck whilst its driver was under arrest in Massachusetts is now being sought by police. The opportunistic thief, who is wanted on multiple charges, was recorded on security footage at a Home Depot store just before the incident on Sunday. A security guard at the store in Wilbraham initially contacted police saying he was being threatened by the driver of the truck, who he claimed had been shoplifting. The thief (pictured) had offered the driver of the truck drugs in exchange for a ride, and the two did not know each other before, police said A security guard at Home Depot in Wilbraham called the police, but while they were arresting the driver of the black dodge pickup truck (pictured), the passenger jumped into the driver's seat and sped off But Police Sgt. Jeff Rudinski said when officers arrived at the Boston Road store at about 4pm, they found the suspects had fled the scene. They managed to track down the black Dodge pickup truck and pulled over the driver, MassLive reported. But while he was being arrested, one passenger jumped out of the back of the truck and sprinted away on foot, while another climbed into the driver's seat and commandeered the vehicle. The man on foot was found soon after on Boston Road and arrested, Rudinski said. But the passenger and the pickup truck have not been recovered, and police are trying to track down the suspect. Police are now trying to trace the passenger, whose name has not been released, and have asked anyone with information to get in touch He is wanted on multiple charges after police learned he was hitching a ride from the truck driver in exchange for narcotics. The two did not know each other prior to the incident, Rudinski said. Wilbraham Detectives ask anyone with information to get in touch or send a private message on Facebook. The suspects names have not been released, but one is from Agawam and the other Springfield. Natasha Abrahart was only 20 when she was found dead in her flat on April 30 this year. A pre-inquest review yesterday heard how she had the university's Student Health Service of her issues A student who became the 12th to kill herself at a university in two years was deemed high risk by a uni GP - who did not inform student welfare services, an inquest has heard. Second-year physics student Natasha Abrahart was only 20 when she was found dead in her flat on April 30 this year. A pre-inquest review yesterday heard a GP at the university's Student Health Service had seen her on February 20, a day after she attempted to kill herself. The GP deemed her to be 'at high risk of suicide' but her family are calling on doctors to explain why they did not alert student welfare services at the university. In the February she also wrote an email to a member of staff at the School of Physics that the 'last few days have been hard' and she was having 'suicidal thoughts', it was said. Ms Abrahart was the 10th of 12 students at the university believed to have taken their own lives since October 2016. Representing the family, barrister Tom Stoate said they had questions about why the GP, Dr Caroline St John Wright, had seen Natasha but not alerted the university's student welfare service. Ms Abrahart (pictured left and right) was the 10th of 12 students at the university believed to have taken their own lives since October 2016. Her family, from Nottingham, want to know why a GP she had confided in did not alert the university's student welfare service 'We set out that on February 20, she attended an appointment with Dr St John Wright,' Mr Stoate said. 'She wrote: 'My impression of her was that she was in a state of distress and at high risk of ending her life given her presentation.' 'The family thinks it's important to explore why it appears Dr St John Wright did not seek consent to speak to the Student Welfare Service or the School of Physics or make contact with her to seek consent.' Natasha was also in the care of Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP) NHS Trust in the weeks leading to her death. Mr Stoate said an internal analysis by AWP also showed Natasha received 'inadequate care' and asked for another Root Cause Analysis to be done. She is one of 11 students at the University of Bristol who have died suddenly in the past two years (pictured The Wills Memorial Building at the University of Bristol) Natasha had been due to sit for a physics exam on the day she died, the court was told, and that a similar exam had caused her chronic social anxiety to worsen. The 20-year-old's family, who are from Nottingham, want to know if the university did anything to help her with her anxiety. A spokesman for the university said after the hearing: 'The evidence submitted in advance of today's pre-inquest review shows that every effort was made to assist and support Natasha, both from within her school and by the University's pastoral support services. 'We are committed to fully assisting the coroner with her investigation into Natasha's death and to ensure any lessons learnt are built into the support we provide our students. The Samaritans charity has raised concerns at the potential impact of news of Mr Elsmore's death and has urged anyone affected to contact them if they wish. For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org for details. A group of vegan activists who stormed a Brighton steakhouse and played sounds of cows being slaughtered were shouted down by a stag party who sang back at them 'stand up if you love meat'. The group responded after demonstrators from Direct Action Everywhere entered Touro Steakhouse in Brighton and waved around signs and placards. Most of the diners at the Brazilian-themed restaurant appeared unmoved by the protest and carried on talking and eating, even when the activists played the noise of a cow being killed and shouted 'It's not meat, it's violence' repeatedly. Members of the stag party, including a 250 'Oompa Loompa impersonator', started chanting back at them and even persuaded fellow diners to join in. A group of vegan activists stormed a steakhouse in Brighton, pictured, and played the sounds of cows being slaughtered to the customers After the group started shouting an anti-meat chant, a stag party stood up and sang back 'Stand up if you love meat' as members danced around, pictured left and right Some customers appeared to be laughing, pictured, as the protest carried on around them Protesters also waved placards with anti-meat messages, left and right, and remained at the restaurant for around 20 minutes When the activists eventually left, diners shouted 'You're not singing anymore', pictured Two members of the stag do are seen in this video still taken during the incident on Saturday Several videos have since emerged from the incident on Saturday night, with some filmed by the activists and others by bystanders. A person filming one of the activists' video - who is a vegan - can be heard saying: 'This smells horrible, look at all the flesh.' But as a spokeswoman attempts to give a speech about the benefits of veganism, patrons can be heard jeering and one mimics a cow mooing. Waiters are also seen arguing with the demonstrators and trying to get them to leave. But their chanting only provoked a loud reaction from the stag party, who rose from their seats and started shouting back at them before beginning their song. Dan Holmes, 30, who was part of the stag party, told MailOnline the activists were shouting for about 10 minutes before his group lost patience and started singing back. He said: 'We felt they had said what they wanted to say and now it was time for them to go away and let people eat. We came up with some fun chants and the whole restaurant stood up when we sang 'Stand up if you love meat'. 'A protest is fine, but they overstayed their welcome and were becoming annoying. If they had just had signs then that's one thing, but playing sounds of animals being killed was going over the top. One of the protesters read out a speech that said 'no good person' could eat an animal and not think of their suffering The group posted about their demonstration on Facebook, pictured, and said they were highlighting the 'mass killing of innocent animals' in a 'public and non violent way' Staff were seen trying to carry on as normal, pictured left and right, as the protesters moved around the restaurant One of the protesters held up a sign with a cow on it with the slogan 'I want to live' A spokeswoman for the group attempted to make a speech, left, but customers seemed unmoved and more interested in taking pictures and videos of the incident Staff at the steakhouse, pictured, said police were called but did not attend Who were the activists who stormed steakhouse? How animal rights protest group with branches across UK was founded in San Francisco Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is an animal rights protest group that was originally set up in San Francisco in 2013. Its mission is to achieve 'total animal liberation' and the creation of a law requiring 'species equality'. Associated groups then spread throughout the US, protesting against conditions at farms used by Whole Foods and organising sit-ins at Chipotle restaurants against animal violence. By December 2014 the organisation had spread across the globe, with groups established in 90 cities in 20 countries, and in the present day it has organised protests in 217 cities in 43 countries. In the UK it has branches in Liverpool, Brighton, Bristol, Coventry, London, Birmingham, Portsmouth, Cambridge, north east England, Belfast and Scotland. DxE pledge to take non-violent direct action but its disruptive demonstrations have been branded bullying. Members in the US have previously been charged with burglary and theft after raiding farms and stealing livestock. Advertisement 'One of them was going round this table filming people eating and getting in their faces.' Behind the camera, a voice said: 'They're letting us protest but they're eating the flesh of animals in front of us.' The protestors remained in the popular steakhouse for 20 minutes before departing to stand outside. As they left, disgruntled diners are again heard booing, whistling and chanting 'you're not singing anymore' at the departing group. Mr Holmes, who came down with friends from Ampthill in Bedfordshire on a package stag party weekend in Brighton, added the protest continued for an hour outside after they left. He added: 'It didn't spoil anything for us, and in fact our Whatsapp group has been going mad ever since so it added to it if anything. 'The most perfect bit was we just blindfolded the groom and handcuffed him to the Oompa Loompa so the timing was great!' Mr Holmes added the manager of the restaurant even gave them free shots after the protesters left. A spokeswoman for Direct Action Everywhere Brighton said: 'In a time where we are experiencing mass environmental destruction, largely due to our unsustainable and unethical food choices, it is paramount that we put our egos and selfishness aside and accept that we are all connected, we are all animals. 'We can no longer ignore the suffering and pain we cause. We are not the only sentient beings that inhabit this planet.' Direct Action Everywhere Brighton also told the customers it was 'paramount we put our egos aside' and 'accept we are all animals' When the group left unimpressed customers, pictured, jeered them and chanted 'you're not singing anymore' The demonstration continued outside the restaurant, pictured, and the manager said it was 'annoying' because it 'disrupted everyone' Sussex Police said it attended with community support officers but found the group 'protesting peacefully' outside, pictured left and right Madsu Sudan Galtam, manager at Touro, told the Brighton Argus: 'They came in and started shouting about animals and holding some signs. 'They didn't do anything aggressive but it was a bit annoying because it disrupted everyone. 'We did make a phone call to the police but they never arrived.' Sussex Police said it sent to community support officers to the restaurant but found the demonstrators protesting outside and not committing any offences. A spokesperson said: 'We received a report of a protest by a group of 20 people at the Touro steakhouse in West Street, Brighton, on Saturday at 7.10pm. They were said to be animal rights activists. 'Two police community support officers attended and found the group were protesting outside the restaurant. 'They were not committing any offences and were allowed the right to peaceful protest.' It is estimated that the number of vegans in the UK has quadrupled to 650,000 since 2011. Now direct action groups are on the rise as animal liberation activists team up with vegan protestors. Direct Action Everywhere have protested at a number of restaurants serving meat as well as supermarkets. The grassroots group, which was founded in the US in 2013, now has several branches across Britain. One of the activists posted on Facebook 'we will not be silent so you can be comfortable' The demonstrators were shouting 'It's not meat, it's violence' throughout the evening This is the moment a wedding guest readying herself to catch the bouquet was unexpectedly handed it by the bride - before her boyfriend dropped on one knee and proposed. Teaching assistant Kirsty Frayne, 29, jostled with other female guests as she prepared to try and catch the flowers following the ceremony at the Carlyon Bay Hotel near St Austell, Cornwall. But she was left stunned when the bride simply turned round and handed her the bouquet instead. This is the moment a wedding guest readying herself to catch the bouquet was unexpectedly handed it by the bride - before her boyfriend dropped on one knee and proposed Kirsty's partner Joe Booker, 28, then appeared behind her and got straight down on one knee and asked her to marry him. The couple were attending the wedding of Joe's cousin Ben Lavell, 36, an estate agent, and his bride Natalie. The elaborate proposal plan was hatched during the stag do. Joe said: 'I was at Ben's stag do in Krakow when, after a few drinks, he said he thought it would be a good idea for me to propose to Kirsty at his wedding. When Kirsty turned around, clutching the bouquet, her boyfriend Joe was on one knee The couple were attending the wedding of Joe's cousin Ben Lavell, 36, an estate agent, and his bride Natalie. The elaborate proposal plan was hatched during the stag do 'I was not sure at first as I didn't think about getting married yet as we are just about to emigrate to Australia, but then I thought it doesn't get much more romantic than proposing at a wedding.' Thankfully, Kirsty - who is originally from Perth in Australia - immediately said yes before bursting into tears in front of delighted guests. Ben said: 'We thought it was be a lovely thing to see and celebrate before they left for Australia, plus Kirsty is desperate to get a married and have babies and was sure Joe was never going to do it. Kirsty - who is originally from Perth in Australia - immediately said yes before bursting into tears in front of delighted guests 'Joe is quite shy to so we didn't think he'd do it. So Natalie came up with the idea of instead of throwing the bouquet to give it to her and Joe would be there waiting. 'His family didn't know either, apart from his dad.' Ben and Natalie, of Cannon Downs, Cornwall, are currently honeymooning in Bali. Natalie, added: 'About a month ago he said he'd do it as long as we were sure it wouldn't steal our thunder.' Kirsty and Joe, from Bognor Regis in West Sussex, are now preparing to move Down Under in two weeks and start planning their wedding. Politicians from around the world today said they are 'deeply disappointed' at Mark Zuckerberg and posted a picture of his empty chair on the internet when he refused to appear before them at the UK Houses of Parliament. The Facebook boss was 'empty chaired' when he snubbed a special meeting of politicians from nine different countries who want to grill him on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, privacy breaches and the spread of disinformation. Mr Zuckerberg refused to appear before the committee despite being invited six months ago, and sent British Facebook executive and peer Richard Allan in his place. And during the hearing of the 'grand committee' at the Commons, British politician Damian Collins revealed a Facebook engineer in 2014 warned bosses that Russians were harvesting three billion bits of data a day. The revelation, which was contained in an internal Facebook email within a cache of secret documents seized by the committee last week and still under seal in the US, raises fresh questions about the firm's privacy breaches. After exposing the previously unreported data harvesting operation, Mr Collins asked if Facebook had taken any action. He said: 'An engineer at Facebook notified the company in 2014 that an entity with Russian IP addresses had been using an API key to pull over three billion data points a day...was that reported to any external body at the time?' The politicians from nine different countries today posted this photograph of Mark Zuckerberg's empty chair (pictured) on Twitter after being left furious at the Facebook boss' refusal to give evidence to them in the UK Parliament today The Facebook boss sent Richard Allan, a Lib Dem peer and senior Facebook executive, in his place to face the furious politicians (pictured) There had been speculation that Mr Collins would release more form the seized documents including external Facebook communications - but that was the only portion he revealed. But Mr Allan dismissed the allegations of a huge Russian data gathering operation as 'misleading' after they were obtained by lawyers acting for Tom Kramer, a developer suing Facebook, and handed to the committee after being dramatically seized from Mr Kramer by UK authorities. Facebook also said after the hearing that the claims were investigated and no evidence of Russian activity was found. Lord Allan also admitted to the committee looked 'not good' to the outside world that the Facebook CEO snubbed the request. The move sparked fury among politicians from countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Latvia and Singapore, who had travelled to the UK for the grilling. Charlie Angus, a politician from Canada, said 'we are deeply disappointed' at MR Zuckerberg's no show and demanded to know why he decided to 'blow off this meeting'. Where do the Six4Three Facebook papers come from? The documents seized by Collins and his committee stem from a court case being heard in California between app developer Six4Three and Facebook. Ted Kramer, who owns the developer, launched a suit against Facebook after the tech company restricted to data that one of his apps - Pinkini - could access. The app was designed to identify bikini photos among albums posted by friends on Facebook, and the restrictions effectively killed it. As part of the lawsuit, Kramer accuses Facebook of encouraging developers to build apps based around access to data that it then withdrew. He also alleges that Zuckerberg sold expensive ads to developers in return for long-term access to the data. This form of access was later exploited by Cambridge Analytica in an attempt to affect elections. As part of his case, Kramer got his hands on documents - said to include confidential emails between senior executives, and correspondence with Zuckerberg - apparently showing they knew about issues around the privacy of user data. Facebook fought for months to keep the documents secret, and was ultimately vindicated when a California judge ruled in its favor. But now Collins is threatening to publish the documents because he is outside of US jurisdiction and protected in his role as a minister heading up an investigation. Advertisement He added: 'Mr Zuckerberg's decision to not appear here speaks volumes. 'When he says that the plan was, to move fast and break things, and that breaking may have involved our Democratic institutions, does he not think or not believe that parliamentarians will push back?' His colleague Bob Zimmer said: 'In this room we represent over 400 million people, and to not have your CEO sit in that chair is an offence to all of us in this room, and our citizens as well.' Lord Allan said Facebook would 'very much welcome' tighter regulations to clamp down on fake news and foreign interference in elections, saying new laws would be 'extraordinarily helpful'. But Lord Allan, a Lib Dem peer in the UK, admitted Mr Zuckerberg's refusal to show up looks 'not good' to the outside world. He added: 'I also have a role supporting my company as it tries to grapple with the issues it faces today. 'I am proud of the fact that we have answered thousands of questions and appeared in front of many committee hearings around the world.' Lord Allan also admitted that trust in Facebook has plummeted in the wake of a series of scandals, saying: 'We recognise through our own actions and external events that we are not in a good place in terms of trust.' Today's hearing comes after British MP Mr Collins used his parliamentary powers to seize a cache of secret documents linked to the Cambridge Analytica Facebook privacy scandal. He sent a House of Commons Serjeant at Arms to personally demand documents from the founder of a company called Six4Three, a controversial app that allowed people to find pictures of friends in bikinis. The papers - said to include confidential emails between senior executives, and correspondence with Mr Zuckerberg - are under orders to be kept secret by a US court. What are the accusations against Facebook? Facebook is facing allegations from all over the work that it has been used to spread 'fake news', interfere with elections, and peddle hate. It is also facing hugely damaging revelations of privacy data breaches among its accounts. Here are some of the controversies it has been embroiled in: 'Fake news' and Russia Facebook has come under the spotlight amid claims that Russian accounts used the platform to spread 'fake news' during the 2016 Brexit referendum. In America, Russians accounts have been accused of using Facebook to harm Hilary Clinton's prospects of being elected over Donald Trump. In the UK, some have claimed that misleading information was used to promote Brexit in the run up to the 2016 referendum. Cambridge Analytica Scandal: The data of around 87 million Facebook users was harvested by the company Cambridge Analytica (CA). It has been claimed CA used the information to assess peoples' personalities and come up with political strategies to sway voters to back Brexit and Donald Trump. Spread of extremism and hate Facebook has been repeatedly criticised for not being quick enough to take extremist content down from its site. Critics have warned that Facebook has become a safe haven for extremists who peddle hate and try to recruit jihadis to kill and maim. Advertisement The Tory MP said he would not be publishing the documents - but did reveal that they suggested Russia had been using the social networking site to get access to massive amounts of information. He said: 'An engineer at Facebook notified the company in 2014 that an entity with Russian IP addresses had been using an API key to pull over three billion data points a day...was that reported to any external body at the time?' But Lord Allan downplayed the claims - saying it was from a 'hostile litigant' adding: 'Any information is at best partial, or at worst misleading.' He said he will look into the claim and write to the committee to explain what the firm's position is. The hearing is the first time politicians from around the world have taken part in such an international hearing in the British Parliament since 1933. They have travelled to hold a special session of the inquiry, which was set up to investigate fake news on Facebook after the 2016 EU referendum but widened following revelations about Cambridge Analytica and claims Russia used the social network to spread disinformation and sow chaos. Lord Allan was challenged over whether Facebook poses a threat to democracy. He said: 'What we want are free and fair elections.' He said that Facebook did spot attempts to interfere in the US elections, but downplayed the impact it had on the outcome. He said: 'In an election campaign there is a huge amount of legitimate activity carried out by all the parties we did spot this activity that was wrong, shouldn't have happened, but we think that if you look at what changed the outcome, it's the main point.' But Mr Zimmer accused him of 'downplaying' the role of Facebook and its impact on elections. He said: 'You seem to deflect and deflect, and at the same time you are collecting billions of dollars.' In a later part of the hearing, the UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham (pictured at today's committee) told the politicians she would have fined Facebook more than 500,000 over the Cambridge Analytica scandal if she had the power to do so Mr Angus slammed Facebook a scandal which saw the company overestimate how long users watched videos for, and he suggested Facebook should be broken up. He said: 'I would consider that corporate fraud, on a massive scale...and the best fix is anti-trust. Data watchdog says she is 'disappointed' in Facebook failures The Information Commissioner told MPs from eight countries today that she was 'disappointed' in Facebook's failure to follow data laws. In a second part of the unprecedented grand committee, Elizabeth Denham said Facebook was one of the most 'innovate companies in the world' but had failed to apply its talents to protecting users. Ms Denham, who fined Facebook 500,000 over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, said she would have imposed harsher punishment on the firm if she had powers to do so. She told the committee there needed to be a 'new set of standards' to deal with internet harms and insisted they could be regulated. But Ms Denham said Facebook's behaviour had proven it would not do so voluntarily. Advertisement 'The simplest form of regulation would be to break Facebook up, or treat it as a utility, so that we can all be sure that we're counting metrics that are accurate or true. 'To allow you to gobble up all the competition is not good.' He added: 'I am not saying we are turning the internet off, I am saying that Facebook in its unwillingness to be accountable to the international body and legislators around the world, maybe anti trust would be something that would help us be able to get credible, democratic responses from a corporation.' To make sure we get credible Alessandro Molon, from the Brazilian Parliament, said the internet poses one of the biggest threats to democracy. He said: 'The internet doesn't respect borders, which poses a challenge to national legislation.' Edwin Tong, a politician from Singapore, challenged Lord Allan about posts put up on Facebook in Sri Lanka fueling tensions within the Muslim community there. But he said that despite the fact that it breached the company's hate speech rules, it was not taken down until Facebook was blocked in the country. He said: 'This is a very egregious mistake - it goes completely against your own policy to take down immediately...Facebook cannot always be trusted to decide what can appear on its platform.' Lord Allan said: 'As an employee of Facebook I am ashamed that these things happen, and they do and they shouldn't.' Nele Lijnen, from the Belgium Parliament, also lashed Mr Zuckerberg for refusing to give evidence today. Turning to Lord Allan, she said: 'Do you know what the expression send your cats in means? I am from the Flemish part of Belgium and in my language it means not showing up. 'So we can say colleagues that Mark Zuckerberg sent his cat to us today to Canada, Singapore, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, he sent his cat.' The fiery grilling came days after Mr Collins deployed rarely-used parliamentary powers to seize documents linked to Facebook from the app developer Six4Three. Facebook has demanded the Six4Three papers are handed back without being opened by MPs or published. Six4Three are the makers of the controversial app Pinkini, and is suing Facebook for restricting the app's access to users' data. As part of its case, Six4Three's lawyers were handed internal Facebook documents - including executives' email correspondence with Mr Zuckerberg - but they were 'sealed' by a court in California, meaning they are kept secret. It believed the documents show how the firm created and effectively drew attention to a privacy loophole later used by Cambridge Analytica to collect the data of millions of users. Six4Three managing director Ted Kramer gave the documents to British authorities after being warned he could be banned from leaving the UK if he refused. In an extraordinary sequence of events, he ignored three demands for the emails before being personally served by a Serjeant at Arms and meeting Mr Collins in his Commons office. Charlie Angus, a politician from Canada,(pictured) lashed Mr Zuckerberg for not bothering to show up to the committee, saying 'we are deeply disappointed' MPs drew up the 'unprecedented' order to seize the documents after discovering that Mr Kramer was due to visit the UK. Mr Kramer has claimed in court documents he 'panicked' while in the meeting with Mr Collins and his staff, meaning he copied documents from his cloud storage and onto a USB stick. But after seizing the documents, Mr Collins said: 'Under UK law and parliamentary privilege we can publish papers if we choose to. 'As you know we have asked many questions of Facebook about its policies on sharing user data. 'I believe these documents may contain important information.' In a statement issued after the committee hearing today, Facebook said of the claim that an engineer had flagged concerns about Russians trawling the site for data: The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity.' Who is grilling Facebook at today's hearing? Politicians around the world are separately investigating Facebook and its role in fake news. Many have demanded evidence from Mark Zuckerberg personally - but have been rebuffed as he only agreed to speak to the US Senate and European Parliament. Britain's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chaired by Damian Collins MP set up an international hearing to try and persuade the Facebook founder to come. He refused again but committee will meet today anyway. It includes: Leopoldo Moreau, Chair, Freedom of Expression Commission, Chamber of Deputies, Argentina Nele Lijnen, member, Committee on Infrastructure, Communications and Public Enterprises, Parliament of Belgium Alessandro Molon, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil Bob Zimmer, Chair, and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Charlie Angus, Vice Chairs, Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, House of Commons, Canada Catherine Morin-Desailly, Chair, Standing Committee on Culture, Education and Media, French Senate Hildegarde Naughton, Chair, and Eamon Ryan, Deputy Chair, Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Parliament of Ireland Dr Inese Libina-Egnere, Deputy Speaker, Parliament of Latvia Pritam Singh, Edwin Tong and Sun Xueling, members, Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, Parliament of Singapore. Advertisement Mr Collins is attempting to hold Facebook to account over data breaches that affected more than 87 million Facebook users in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. An app called ThisIsYourDigitalLife harvested the data of millions of Facebook users, largely without their knowledge, then sold it on to now-defunct political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The firm then used the data to target political advertising at users during both the US elections in 2016 and the Brexit referendum when it worked on behalf of Donald Trump's campaign and Leave.EU. The documents were seized after Mr Zuckerberg was forced to defend his job over revelations that Facebook knew about Russian election interference despite denying it and used lobby firms to smear critics. It was revealed last week that Facebook deliberately misled the public about what it knew about the Kremlin's 2016 election tampering. The tech giant also employed a 'research firm' to smear protesters by linking them to George Soros and a lobby firm to brand critics anti-Semites. When asked today if would consider stepping down as chairman Mr Zuckerberg told CNN Business 'That's not the plan.' He was critical of the use of lobby and research firms to attack opponents. 'I wasn't particularly happy about that piece of it. And that's certainly a lot of what made me want to look into this more deeply,' he said. 'The intention was never to attack an individual but there are lobbying groups out there who are out to attack, it's fine to push back on them.' He also criticised the decision to link critics to George Soros. 'George Soros has been the target of a lot of really horrendous attacks and I think that that is terrible and I certainly wouldn't want anyone who is associated with our company to be a part of that,' he said. 'A lot of the critique that folks have had about our company, I read and I think a lot of it is fair and we need to do better and learn from but at the same time I don't think all of it is fair.' Facebook's share price has been tanking since it became embroiled in the data scandal, and took a particularly sharp nose-dive in recent weeks. The social network is down almost 20 per cent in this quarter compared to last, with shares selling at $134.82 last week. On July 25, Facebook was selling at $217.50 a share. Lord Allan has also urged Mr Collins not to reveal the documents. He warned Collins yesterday in an email that the documents are 'sub judice before a court in California' and are 'sealed'. Lord Allan is a Liberal Democrat peer and unlike previous Facebook witnesses at the House of Commons is an expert in Parliament's procedures. He spent eight years as MP for Sheffield Hallam and was succeeded by Nick Clegg, who has since been hired by Facebook since he lost the seat last year. A US judge in California had ordered the files, obtained from Facebook via a legal discovery process, could not be revealed to the public earlier this year. Mr Zuckerberg has repeatedly refused to attend the UK Parliament saying that he has already testified to Congress in the US and before the European Union. 'It is not possible for Mr Zuckerberg to be available to all parliaments,' the firm said. Facebook said after the documents were seized: 'The materials obtained by the DCMS committee are subject to a protective order of the San Mateo Superior Court restricting their disclosure. 'We have asked the DCMS committee to refrain from reviewing them and to return them to counsel or to Facebook. 'We have no further comment.' Turkish police searching for Jamal Khashoggi's body spent ten hours inspecting a villa belonging to a 'close friend' of the Crown Prince. Forensics were seen swooping drones and leading sniffer dogs through the property and an adjacent villa in Samanli village, in the northwestern Turkish province of Yalova, yesterday. Mohammed Ahmed al-Fawzan is described by Hurriyet as a 'close friend' of Mohammad bin Salman (MbS). Khashoggi, 59, was butchered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month, sparking international outrage. The writer's body has yet to be found. Scroll down for video Turkish forensics teams carry evidence out of the property as the large portraits of MbS and King Salman can be seen on the interior wall Mohammed Ahmed al-Fawzan's villa; he is a Saudi national who built the property in 2014 A second villa (right) was also searched which belonged to a businessman named Omary Tourism Gida, DHA agency reported. In a video shared on Hurriyet's website, large portraits of MbS and King Salman could be seen hanging on a wall inside al-Fawzan's villa. The police scrutinised the drainage system at the property as reports claim the Washington Post columnist was cut up and dissolved in acid. The second villa belonged to a businessman named Omary Tourism Gida, DHA agency reported. Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered by a team of 15 Saudi officials after he went into Riyadh's Istanbul consulate on October 2. His remains have not been found although police have searched the consulate, the consul general's residence and a forest in Istanbul. Pro-government media has said acid traces had been found in the consulate's drains. A large forensic crew worked for ten hours into the evening yesterday as they sought to gather evidence relating Khashoggi's death Turkish police believe that one of the Saudi agents allegedly involved in the assasination, Mansour Othman Abahussain, contacted the villa's owner the day before Khashoggi was killed Authorities believe that one of the Saudi agents allegedly involved in the murder, Mansour Othman Abahussain, called the villa's owner on the day before the killing, the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office said. Al-Fawzan is a Saudi national who was given the codename 'Ghozan', it said. He had purchased the property, near Yalova on the Sea of Marmara in 2014. Turkish media said earlier that he was outside of Turkey at the time of the killing and had not returned in the past two months. Mr Khashoggi was a critic of the Crown Prince and there are claims the royal knew about the plan to kill the journalist. Turkish police searching for Jamal Khashoggi's body have inspected a drain (pictured) at a luxury villa, two months after he was butchered at the Saudi consulate Framed pictures of Saudi King Salman and his son, the kingdom's de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, could be seen on the wall of the house Forensics were pictured removing a box of evidence from the property during their search yesterday Forensics arrived at the property, in Samanli village in the northwestern Turkish province of Yalova, yesterday Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month by a Saudi hit squad, sparking international outrage. The writer's body has yet to be found The focus of yesterday's search was a well on the grounds of a first villa, which was being drained of water with special equipment brought to the scene. A Turkish official said the house in Samanli was being searched after fresh intelligence showed one of the Saudi agents involved in the killing had called the property's owner a day before the attack. The call on October 1 was reportedly made by Abahussain, a member of the 15-man hit squad, the Washington Post reports. Mansour Othman M. Abahussain (pictured), one of the Saudi agents involved in the killing called the property's owner a day before the attack, a Turkish official said He is said to have 'placed a call from his personal cellphone' to the Saudi owner of a 'farm' on the coast of the Sea of Marmara, the official said. Reuters reported last month that investigators had widened their search to Yalova and a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul for the remains of the journalist. Officials in Turkey have previously carried out inspections at the kingdom's consulate and the consul general's residence in Istanbul as part of the investigation. Saudi Arabia has been facing intense global criticism over the killing of insider-turned-critic Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate on October 2. The murder of the journalist who wrote for The Washington Post has tipped the kingdom into one of its worst crises. He was killed and reportedly dismembered in what Saudi Arabia said was a 'rogue' operation, but CIA analysis leaked to the US media pointed the finger at Prince Mohammed. An armed Turkish police officer guards a gate at the luxury villa during the search for Jamal Khashoggi's body yesterday Officers are searching a property in the Samanli village of the Termal district in the northwestern Turkish province of Yalova Investigation: A fire brigade officer is pictured carrying a ladder into the property this morning Saudi Arabia has warned criticism of the crown prince is a 'red line'. Last week Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that calls for the crown prince to be held accountable for the grisly killing would not be tolerated. And on Saturday, a senior Saudi prince cast doubt on the reported CIA findings, saying the agency could not be counted on to reach a credible conclusion. 'The CIA is not necessarily the highest standard of veracity or accuracy in assessing situations. The examples of that are multitude,' Prince Turki al-Faisal, a senior member of the royal family, told journalists in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The CIA has concluded that Prince Mohammed ordered the operation to kill Khashoggi and briefed other parts of the U.S. government on its findings, sources told Reuters last week. U.S. President Donald Trump has disputed that the agency reached a conclusion on the murder, saying instead 'they have feelings certain ways.' A Turkish newspaper also reported on Thursday that CIA director Gina Haspel signaled to Turkish officials that the agency had a recording of a call in which the crown prince gave instructions to 'silence' the journalist. Inspection: Forensics are pictured at the scene this morning during a search for Khashoggi's remains Drones and sniffer dogs were also being used in the search, according to reports in Turkey. Police are pictured inspecting drains at the property Armed police were stationed at the property as the search was being carried out yesterday A Turkish official said the house in Samanli was being searched after fresh intelligence showed one of the Saudi agents involved in the killing had called the property's owner a day before the attack Turkish police, aided by sniffer dogs, searched two adjoining villas in northwestern Turkey on Monday as part of an investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, officials and news reports said Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 in an operation that Turkish authorities have said was ordered by the highest level of Saudi leadership, prompting the kingdom's biggest political crisis in a generation. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said Khashoggi was killed and his body dismembered after negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. The kingdom's public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for five suspects charged in the murder, but has said Prince Mohammed had no prior knowledge of the operation. They call themselves 'Moolies' - helicopter mums who have gatecrashed Schoolies celebrations in Bali - and they are determined to keep their children out of trouble. More than 6,000 school leavers have descended on the Indonesian island for the annual rite of passage. Multiple mothers have also been spotted among the chaos, ready to step in when the party spirals out of control. And after flying all the way to Kuta to keep an eye on their kids, they are also planning to have some fun of their own. 'I'm here with the other mums, we're Moolies - that's ''Mums of Schoolies'',' Danielle told A Current Affair, borrowing from the word Toolies which refers to older revellers crashing the party designed for Year 12 students finishing school. 'We're here to make sure no one gets arrested or ends up in hospital, that's about it.' Multiple mothers flew to Bali to keep an eye on their kids, but some were there to party as well An out-of-control brawl was captured on video in Bali (pictured) as Schoolies partygoers show no regard for safety while their celebrations escalate Teenagers are riding bikes without wearing helmets in Bali during recent Schoolies celebrations (stock image) Packs of young men were filmed spitting at one another before a violent brawl spilled out onto the streets of Kuta in the early hours of Saturday morning. Shirtless men were seen falling over in the road, throwing wild kicks and punches as traffic was forced to a standstill and shocked onlookers stared in disbelief at the chaos. Shocking figures have revealed that a large number of party-goers have been heading overseas without travel insurance with as many as one in five voyaging while uninsured. 'We're not worried about our kids doing the wrong thing, we're worried about the wrong thing happening to our kids,' Danielle said. Multiple mothers have been caught crashing the party during schoolies in Bali over the weekend - with a mother named Danielle (right) insisting they're only there to make sure 'no one gets arrested or ends up in hospital' End-of-year revelry wasn't just reserved for the teenage school leavers - these women were keen to have a good time too A group of teenagers stop by a stall off the main drag in Kuta, Bali during Schoolies celebrations (stock image) What is Schoolies? Schoolies is a graduation festival celebrated by Year 12 school leavers after exams and graduations in mid-November The festival sees thousands of teenagers flood places such as the Gold Coast in Australia and Bali in Indonesia for a week of parties and events While Schoolies is predominately for recent school graduates, there are no rules in place for 'Toolies', party-goers who have already graduated and join in the festivities Advertisement Another mother said she was there to make sure her kids behaved. One young man, who has type 1 diabetes, needs to watch his sugar intake especially with his drinking, so his mother was there just in case. However, some other parents were there for a party as well. 'Show the young ones how to do it,' one woman said. The chaos wasn't restricted to just Bali this week, with Queensland seeing its fair share of mayhem as well. More than 22,000 graduates also flocked to the Gold Coast, to let their hair down and celebrate with classmates. For some of the teenagers, aged between 17 and 18, the journey to the beachfront party strip will be their first holiday away from family. Some Schoolies revellers chose to mark the occasion with tattoos. These two posed for a photo that showed off their matching 'stay wild' ink Tattoo parlours on the Gold Coast once again enjoyed a booming trade as revellers rushed to mark the annual frivolities with body inkings Destinations like the Kuta nightclubs in Bali are infamous for cheap alcohol and all-night parties (stock image) A man (pictured) urinates into a flower pot in Bali during Schoolies celebrations (stock image) Police arrested 18 male school leavers overnight on Friday and a further 18 non-schoolies. Sixty-nine charges were made throughout the week, three more than last year. Drug offences, public nuisance, obstructing police and contravening a requirement were some of the misdemeanors. The annual celebration around Australia has not been without its less-than-memorable moments. The wild antics of Schoolies along the Gold Coast were captured on video and uploaded to social media. Rowdy teenagers were caught balancing precariously on apartment balconies and bashing each other over the head with glasses, among other senseless dares. Schoolies revellers were captured in a moment of passion on the dance floor An 82-year-old cancer patient was forced to wait seven hours before being seen in an accident and emergency despite her being sent there over fears she had suffered a heart attack. Olive Keers was pictured with her head slumped on a table after being sent to A&E when she told staff during a chemotherapy session she'd suffered chest pains the night before. Her daughter Susan Keers, 51, from Wrexham, praised the 'caring and professional' staff at Glan Clwyd Hospital near Rhyl but blamed government cuts for the situation and said she will be making an official complaint. Olive Keers was pictured with her head on the table as she slumped over in pain while waiting to be seen as her daughter blamed government cuts on the long wait Mrs Keers is currently receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the hospital after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in August. During her chemotherapy session on Friday, November 23, she mentioned the chest pains and was sent to A&E as staff feared she'd had a heart attack. Her daughter, who was with her at the time, said: 'We have the most caring and professional nursing staff and doctors in the world, but the treatment of my mum was disgusting. Olive Keers (pictured) was sent to the hospital because of fears she was having a heart attack 'On Friday, I took her for her final chemotherapy treatment of that week and arrived at 1:30pm. 'She informed the nurse that she had been feeling unwell due to chest pains and he immediately put her on an ECG machine which came back as irregular. 'He sent us straight down to A&E and told us a crash team was available if she was in fact having a heart attack. 'We arrived at A&E at 5pm and, after two hours, I asked how long we would be waiting for, as mum was starting to feel unwell. 'A doctor apologised for the delay and said we had been forgotten about! 'We were then taken to a side ward to wait for a chest X-ray and mum was sat in a reclining armchair rather than a bed. 'By now, we'd been here for seven hours and mum was absolutely exhausted after a week of chemo and she was feeling unwell. 'At midnight, she was finally sent for an X-ray before being sent back to sit in the armchair to wait for a bed. 'A nurse then informed us that there were no beds available and mum would have to stay in the armchair all night. 'Obviously, I was unhappy with this, so I explained her condition and the nurse kindly agreed to put mum in a room just off A&E and make a bed up. 'Before she had the chance, we were told that a bed had become available so we walked down to the ward only to be told it had now gone and we were sent back to A&E. A doctor at the hospital (pictured) told the cancer sufferer that she'd been forgotten despite her attending over fears that she had suffered a heart attack 'A bed was eventually made up at 12:35am and I left the hospital, but I heard the next day that, after an hour in that room, mum was moved again to another bed. 'The nursing staff were very kind and the delays were not their fault - they are run ragged from all the government cuts - but I will be making a formal complaint. 'I don't think mum should even have been in A&E with her immune system being so low due to the cancer treatment.' A spokesperson for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said: 'We're sorry to hear this account of the care provided in our hospital. 'We would like the opportunity to investigate this formally, and urge Ms Keers to contact us directly so that we can look into her concerns.' A poll has revealed one in three Europeans know just a little or nothing about the Holocaust. The survey also found one in 20 across the continent have never even heard of the Nazi regime's mass murder of six million Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. Anti-Semitism campaigners have described the findings as 'appalling' and 'frightening'. Some 7,000 people were interviewed for the survey, carried out by pollster ComRes for CNN across Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Sweden. A poll has revealed just one in three Europeans know a little or nothing about the Holocaust. Pictured: The 'Gate of Death' at Auschwitz concentration camp where more than a million people were killed In Austria, Adolf Hitler's country of birth, 12 per cent of young people said they had never heard of the Holocaust while the country had the highest number of people who knew only 'a little' about the Second World War atrocity. But lack of Holocaust knowledge was particularly prevalent among the young in France. One in five in France aged between 18 and 34 said they had never heard of the mass slaughter of Jews during the war. The poll found 34 per cent of the Europeans questioned knew just a little or had never heard of the Holocaust. Half of all respondents across the seven countries said they had a 'fair amount' of knowledge of what happened. Just under a third said commemorating the Holocaust 'distracts from other atrocities and injustices today', CNN reports. Some 40 per cent said Jews were at risk of racist violence in their countries and half said commemorating the Holocaust helps combat anti-Semitism today, according to the survey. Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt told CNN the poll demonstrated in 'frightening detail, how traditional anti-Semitic motifs persist in Europe.' The survey also found only one in 20 across the continent have never even heard of the Nazi regime's mass murder of six million Jews in the 1930s and 1940s The director of the Auschwitz Memorial, Piotr M. A. Cywinski, highlighted the importance of education in tackling anti-Semitic views. 'The anti-Semitic or xenophobic ideologies that in the past led to the human catastrophe of Auschwitz seem not to have been erased from our lives today,' Cywinski told CNN. Hitlers Final Solution, known as Shoah in Hebrew, six million Jewish men, women and children died in ghettos, mass-shootings, in concentration camps and extermination camps. More than a million people were killed at the Third Reich's largest concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Around 90 per cent were Jewish and the rest were a mix of Romany people, Soviets and Poles. In April, a separate survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day found 31 per cent of Americans and 41 per cent of millennials believed two million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The New York Times reported that 41 per cent of Americans could not say what Auschwitz was. A Russian Vogue model has opened up about a horrific incident of domestic abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. Kira Dice, who has graced the covers of some of the world's most famous magazines and walked the runway at Russian Fashion Week, shared shocking pictures of her bruises and cuts in an emotionalFacebook post on Sunday. She claims she was left with with two black eyes and had to be admitted to hospital in the alleged domestic violence incident and said her ex also tried to rape her. According to Kira, the abuse occurred two months ago in Moscow and she had been afraid to reveal her ordeal until now. Kira Dice at hospital after the alleged domestic violence and attempted rape incident at the Moscow apartment Kira has modelled for some of the world's most famous fashion houses and appeared on catwalks around the globe Kira said she was about to leave her apartment in Moscow for a modelling job in China when her boyfriend attacked her out of jealousy. 'He threw a chair at me then brutally beat me up,' her post read. 'He tore off my underpants trying to rape my battered body with his fingers. After that, he stuffed a banknote into my mouth forcing me to chew it. 'He smashed furniture in my apartment shouting at me and calling me a whore.' Kira said it was only when she lost consciousness that her attacker called an ambulance. The police then arrived and she was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with concussion and severe bruising. The model took to Instagram to share photos of her two black eyes in emotional posts over the weekend The model said she still has scars on her legs from the alleged attack and was her bruises only started to heal after two weeks Pictures taken by Kira in the hospital show her with her with two black eyes after the alleged domestic attack and she reportedly spent two weeks recovering in hospital. 'I was standing in the hospital in a home dress, without panties, in blood and with a swollen face,' Kira added, 'It was embarrassing and scary.' Kira said she continued her relationship with her partner despite the abhorrent incident after he persuaded her not to report him to the police and swore never to hurt her again. But two months later she split up with him and decided to reveal the details of her ordeal publicly. She said it was only after two weeks that the severe bruising on her face started to heal and she still has scars from cuts on her legs. Kira has modelled in campaigns for Gucci, Keds, Intimissimi, Zara, H&M, Tous jewellery and others. Her pictures were published in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan among others. On top of her black eyes Kira suffered serious swelling on her forehead and was diagnosed with concussion when taken to hospital Three assistant principals and a security chief have been axed over failures to prevent the Parkland mass shooting which saw 17 people massacred. The staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida are being reassigned over failings in the way the shooting was handled. The Stoneman Douglas Commission cited a number of failures in school security procedure as well as missed opportunities to stop the killer, Nikolas Cruz, after he was seen searching guns on a school computer. Toilet doors being glued shut and a lack of 'hard corners' meant students had fewer options to to safely hide as the gunman shot pupils and staff. President Trump also intervened shortly after, calling sheriff's deputy, Scot Peterson, who was assigned as campus security, a coward for not going inside the building as the shooter roamed the school halls. A number of failures by the school or district were raised by the commission, including communication breakdowns between police and school staff during the massacre on February 14. Students being lead out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting at the school in February Assistant Principals Winfred Porter Jr (left) and Jeff Morford (right) have been reassigned by the Broward County school district Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz during an earlier court hearing. He is accused of killing 17 people during the massacre in Florida These also included the school's 'Code Red' or active shooter procedures as well as bathroom doors being locked due to drug problems, which prevented students from being able to find a hiding place. The school also had not enacted 'hard corners', or classroom corners where students could take cover during a shooting. Assistant Principals Jeff Morford, Winfred Porter Jr, and Denise Reed, plus security specialist Kelvin Greenleaf have all been reassigned to other administrative positions in the county public school system, the district said in a statement. The district would not say whether the moves were permanent or where they have been moved to. Former Captain with the Broward County Sheriff's Department, Jan Jordan, and Parkland District Sargent, Brian Miller, were placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an internal review of his response to the shooting at the school, the department said. Assistant Principal Denise Reed (left), who oversaw special needs students, was criticized in an independent report after the Parkland shooting (right) Then-Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, who was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during February was accused of failing to go into the building during the shooting. He is pictured on the day of the massacre alongside security specialist Kelvin Greenleaf who has now been reassigned The Stoneman Douglas Commission cited a number of failures in school security procedure as well as missed opportunities to stop the killer The commission hearings also heard that a student reported Cruz's weird behavior, such as researching guns on a school computer and saying how he liked to 'see people in pain', to Morford. According to the student, Morford told him he should Google the word 'autism' and promised that Cruz was being withdrawn from the school, but the assistant principal denied this conversation took place. Porter, who was named the district's assistant principal of the year a few days before the shooting, oversaw some of the school's security measures and brought a consultant in to review security at the school but these were not put into action before the shooting. Reed is the assistant principal who oversaw special needs students, which was also criticized by an independent report for Cruz's lack of counseling services in the 14 months leading up to the killings. Lisa Maxwell, who represents the three administrators through the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, told the Sun Sentinel that the school district is violating its employee discipline policy by not telling them why they are being investigated and that the assistant principals did nothing wrong. Members of the panel investigating the high school massacre called the sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson, who was assigned to guard the campus 'a coward' for hiding and not rushing inside in an attempt to stop the shooter. Scot Peterson was branded 'a coward' by members of the Stoneman Douglas Commission for hiding and not rushing inside in an attempt to stop the shooter President Trump called Peterson a coward soon after the massacre, saying, 'he trained his whole life. But he certainly did a poor job. Theres no question about that' President Trump also intervened, calling Peterson a coward for not intervening, when he said, 'he trained his whole life. But he certainly did a poor job. Theres no question about that'. Security video shows Peterson arrived outside the three-story building where the killings happened shortly after the shooting began, about the same time the gunman finished slaying 11 people on the first-floor. Peterson drew his handgun, but retreated to cover next to the neighboring building. The video shows Peterson never left that spot for 50 minutes, even after other deputies and police officers arrived on campus and went inside. Panel members have said they believe Peterson's inaction allowed Cruz to climb to the third floor, where five students, including Jamie Guttenberg, and one teacher were killed. Shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted. Cruzs lawyers say he would plead guilty to murder and attempted murder charges in exchange for a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that deal They believe if Peterson, 55, had confronted Cruz, who authorities say was armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and engaged him in a shootout he could have killed him or given others more time to reach safety. Peterson resigned soon after video emerged of him waiting outside the building during the shooting. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was killed in the massacre after Cruz was allowed to climb to the third floor, called the move 'seven months overdue'. He told the Sun Sentinel: 'We have been communicating all of this for almost nine months, as soon as we learned everything. 'It was only after they couldn't ignore the video that they took action. None of it brings our children back. None of it. Today Cruz is facing a series of court hearings over procedural motions, which could see him face the death penalty if convicted. Cruzs lawyers previously said he would plead guilty to murder and attempted murder charges in exchange for a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that deal. No trial date has been set for Cruz, who is also charged with assaulting a corrections officer in the jail where he is being held without bail. The one-week-old baby girl whose remains were found in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast in June was murdered, police have said. The dead infant, nicknamed 'Baby June' was spotted off Boynton Beach, on June 1 by a local off-duty firefighter who was out fishing and mistook the floating infant for a doll. Authorities in Palm Beach County Police have now launched a murder investigation, after medical examinations ruled her death a homicide. Mystery: The body of 'Baby June', seen here in a forensic drawing, was found off the coast of Florida, and examinations have now determined the cause of death to be homicide Baby June was between four and seven days old when she was found some 100ft off shore, and had been in the water for six to 18 hours. She wore no clothes and was of healthy weight, but police have yet to reveal if there were any signs of abuse. A DNA test found that she had no known relatives in the local police database, and that she was of 'unusual' heritage. It found that Baby June was half Central Asian, half African, a rare genetic composition usually found in Barbados, Trinidad or Jamaica. 'We hate seeing this and we want to get to the bottom of what happened,' Palm Beach County Sheriff's Capt. Steven Strivelli said according to Fox News. The child was found 100ft off the Boynton Beach coast by a local firefighter who mistook her for a doll 'We're not going to stop here. This case is not going to close until we get completion.' Capt. Strivelli said evidence such as a clipped umbilical cord and a heel prick in the foot indicates that Baby June was most likely born in a hospital or birthing centre. However all babies born withing the date range in the Palm Beach and Broward counties have been checked. Authorities in Florida are offering a $10,000 reward for information which can lead to an arrest. Baby June was found by Boynton Beach firefighter Chris Lemieux as he was fishing with two friends. He drove his boat towards the child, which he at first thought was a doll. He said the child looked dead when he found her. 'It just blows my mind that you see stuff like that ... you think how the heck could somebody do something? I don't know the situation, but you go through it in your mind: How'd it happen?' Lemieux said to ABC. Finding a new flatmate who's clean and tidy, has similar interests and doesn't have any bad habits can often be a tall order. But one woman advertising on SpareRoom.com had some very specific requests about the type of person she wanted to apply for a room in her north London flat. In her listing the woman, named only as Anna, says that 'no privileged millennials' should apply - despite stating her age as 27-35 - which makes her a millennial. She also said that 'party animals' or people who 'like to Skype their family a lot' would not be welcome in the 650-a-month room at a flat near Finsbury Park. But she does warn that a prospective roommate would have to be happy sharing with her 'cutie' iguana. In her listing (pictured) for the 650 room in the three-bed flat Anna says that 'No privileged millennials' should apply for the advert She also said that party animals should not apply or new tenants are not allowed to Skype their family'. Picture shows Anna's Iguana and is taken from the advert Anna even demands 'flatsharing experience' on applicants' CVs. The third floor apartment, listed in the vibrant Finsbury Park area of London last week, boasts a spacious kitchen and living area, bathroom and bedrooms for three flatmates. In her very specific ad, Anna's ideal flatmate would be a 'mature' non-smoker who is 'quiet, considerate and clean' and with no cats or dogs. Despite claiming the flat was 'cosy with a pleasant vibe', interested applicants would also have to bend around the picky flatmate's stipulations on noise and socialising. Guests would only be welcome in the flat 'occasionally' as 'home is home' - while Anna and her other flatmate would only be up for dinner or a drink themselves 'if schedules allow'. Anna also stated that the flatshare would 'not suit someone working from home a lot' or those who need to practise instruments 'for hours each day'. Any potential applicants would also have to be okay with their flatmate's 'cutie' iguana living in her bedroom, which 'won't give you allergies', as Anna stated with certainty. Anna, who states her age as 27-35 and therefore is also a millennial, even demands 'flatsharing experience' on applicants' CVs. Left: Anna is seen in her SpareRoom.com profile pic. Right: The very specific requests she made in the advert Anna's original advert said: 'The room is for one person only so in total there would be three of us. The flat is cosy, with a pleasant vibe. 'I'm looking for someone quiet, considerate and clean, experienced in flat sharing. No privileged millennials, please. 'We don't have a cleaning lady so you should be up for a bit of weekly cleaning. 'This is not a place for party animals. Home is home, and guests are welcome occasionally but we tend to socialise outside. 'We have our own lives but we like friendly atmosphere and we're not saying no to a drink or dinner together if our schedules allow. 'The landlord is a helpful, no nonsense guy, and the neighbours are nice and quiet too. There are no troublemakers in the building [...]. 'I have a young green iguana that lives in his cage in my room. He doesn't make any noise and he won't give you allergies. 'He's clean and 100% vegetarian, which means no weird pet food in the fridge. He's a little cutie and he easily wins people over. 'Mind you, this place will not suit someone working from home a lot or someone who spends evenings talking on Skype or phone for hours. 'Everyone needs to keep in touch with their loved ones but if that's all you do in your free time, you won't be a good fit for us. Anna declined to comment and deleted the advert over the weekend after being contacted. Pictures show the kitchen and her flat and were included in the advert The fully furnished third floor flat is two minutes from Finsbury Park station, nearby to a gym and park and comes with a 'huge wardrobe' for storage. The living room is seen in the picture which was included in Anna's advert 'If you play an instrument, we're fine with that as long as you don't practise for hours each day.' The fully furnished third floor flat is two minutes from Finsbury Park station, nearby to a gym and park and comes with a 'huge wardrobe' for storage. However in order to be successful, the applicant must also have plenty of flatsharing experience already - and living with family or friends just won't cut it. Anna said: 'Age preference for the new flatmate - 25-45 (my new flatmate must be someone mature and they must have flatsharing experience that extends beyond living with family and friends. 'Minimum stay - four months (but long-term preferred). Regarding pets - cats and dog aren't allowed in the building but we may be able to accommodate other species [sic].' Anna also warned that it was a non-smoking flat but she 'doesn't mind' if the successful applicant smokes outside. She stipulated that it was not suitable to cyclists who wanted to store their bikes in their room either. Anna declined to comment and deleted the advert over the weekend after being contacted. Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, said: 'Choosing the right person to live with is so important, as is being up front about what you're looking for. 'But you can take that a bit far, especially when you focus more on what you're not looking for. 'Aside from anything it's a tough one to enforce. Whose definition of privileged do you use? 'What if someone comes to view the flat who's privileged but not a millennial? Is that OK? 'Better to stick to what you do want in your new flatmate, not what you don't.' (CNN) Jackie Chan's estranged daughter, Etta Ng, is now married to Canadian social media influencer Andi Autumn. Nineteen-year-old Ng posted a photo of the pair wearing white on Instagram, along with the caption "Love always wins. Always..." "Back to Hong Kong as wife & wife," reads the caption for an image on Autumn's account. "With this love, comes unbelievable strength and confidence to ignore our own pain, shut down our ego, and know exactly who we are and what we want," it continued. Ng is the daughter of movie star Chan and former beauty queen Elaine Ng, who had an affair in the late 1990s. Chan has been married to Taiwanese actress Joan Lin since 1982. In May, the pair posted a video to YouTube in which they discussed being homeless in Canada, blaming "homophobic parents." "We pretty much slept under a bridge and other things," said Ng. "We've been to the police, hospitals, food banks and LGBTQ community shelters, and all of them just don't give a s**t." CNN has attempted to contact both Chan and Elaine Ng for comment on the allegations. Things now appear to be looking brighter for the newlyweds. The pair were married in Toronto but have since returned to Hong Kong, where same-sex marriage is not currently legal. In July, the government announced that it would recognize overseas same-sex partnerships when assessing visa applications. LGBT rights are subject to heated debate in Asia, and discrimination against the LGBT community is deepening in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. In mainland China, where homosexuality is legal but prejudice and discrimination against LGBT people are widespread, an author of same-sex erotic fiction was sent to jail for 10 years in November. Then, on November 25, Taiwanese voters rejected same-sex marriage in a referendum, dealing a blow to the LGBT community and allies who hoped the island would become the first place in Asia to allow same-sex unions. This story was first published on CNN.com "Etta Ng, Jackie Chan's daughter, marries Canadian girlfriend" Eight former employees of a day care centre in Shanghai have been sentenced to prison for child abuse that included rubbing wasabi into children's mouths. The workers each received sentences ranging from a year to 18 months, with reprieve periods, according to a statement released by Shanghai Changning People's Court today. Three of the convicted are not allowed to work in care-taking roles in the five years following their jail terms. The incident sparked a public outcry in November last year after disturbing videos showing toddlers being mistreated at the nursery emerged. Eight former employees of a day care centre in Shanghai have been sentenced to prison for child abuse that included rubbing wasabi into the children's mouths (pictured) In one of the videos, a female staff member is seen wrenching a schoolbag from a girl before pushing her. The toddler is seen stumbling backwards and hitting her head on a chair The heaviest sentence of one year and six months was handed out to Zheng Yan, the centre's manager. The day care centre, set up by online travel agency Ctrip, is located at the agency's headquarters in Shanghai and is operated by a third-party provider. The centre has since been shut, according to reports. The staff members have been accused of purchasing wasabi and force-feeding the children the spicy green paste, wiping them on their hands or forcing them to smell the pungent condiment. Photo of the sentencing at Shanghai Changning People's Court today. The heaviest sentence of one year and six months was handed out to Zheng Yan, the centre's manager The teacher's abusive behaviour has been recorded on camera and viewed by school parents Other forms of abuse include shoving, pushing, hitting or spraying the children with an unidentified liquid, the court statement added The court's statement accused the staff of using wasabi as a form of intimidation against the children, who were believed to be under the age of three. Other forms of abuse include shoving, pushing, hitting or spraying them with an unidentified liquid, the statement added. In one of the videos, a female staff member is seen wrenching a schoolbag from a girl before pushing her. The toddler is seen stumbling backwards and hitting her head on a chair. In a second clip, a boy is seen crying after being fed with a paste from a tube, which parents later discovered was wasabi. One of the employees apologised during a meeting with the parents on November 7 last year The nursery held a press conference where furious parents attacked one of the female workers and tried to take revenge by forcing what appeared to be wasabi into her mouth Six of the employees were arrested by the police in November after a parent viewed the surveillance footage. Two of them turned themselves in afterwards. The nursery later held a press conference where furious parents attacked one of the female workers and tried to take revenge by forcing what appeared to be wasabi into her mouth. Ctrip is China's biggest online booking site for air, rail and other travel. It bought British flight search app Skyscanner for US$1.7 billion (1.3 billion) in 2016. Advertisement A fairytale island castle which WB Yeats was desperate to buy could now be yours for just 80,000 as it stands ruined and decayed. McDermott's Castle, the site of which has been occupied for over 800 years, enjoys a stunning location in the middle of an Irish lough and is steeped in legend and folklore. But today the island is overgrown and the castle has been damaged by ivy which covers its walls. Yeats - who won a Nobel Prize for his literature in 1923 - famously tried and failed to buy the castle and half an acre of land in 1899, with a desire to transform it into a lasting monument for Irish culture and heritage. On December 7, the designated Irish National Monument goes on auction with a guide price of 90,000 euros. The present castle, on Castle Island, Lough Key, County Roscommon, is a folly built about 200 years ago by the King family and is now in a dangerous state of disrepair. Whoever is prepared to bid into the tens of thousands when it goes to auction will have to part with many more thousands if they ever wish to make the island habitable again. McDermott's Castle on the island in Lough Key in County Roscommon, in Connaught, in the Irish Republic; it has been occupied for over 800 years and its present castle is a folly which was built by the King family nearly 200 years ago The castle ruins have become overgrown with ivy crawling up its walls and overgrown vegetation causing degradation which has made it dangerous The folly was built on the ruins of a castle which dated back to the 12th century; the Annals of Loch Ce mention a lightning bolt which caused a fire in 1184 Property auctioneers, Bidx1, state that: 'The property is arranged to provide a castle ruin and island. The island is set within Lough Key Forest and Activity Park. Total site area extending to approximately 0.22 hectares (0.54 acres).' The castle is closed off to members of the public as the island is private ground, despite being a designated Irish Monument The island has had a number of different structures built on it, dating back to the 12th century. The Annals of Loch Ce mention a lightning bolt that struck and caused a fire in 1184. The McDermott clan owned the island up until the 17th century, when it was given to the King family of England under the Cromwellian settlement. The folly house was then built in the early 19th century. The King family kept the property with the purpose of hosting parties and events, but it has since fallen into ruin, and is now in a dangerous state. Tourists can view the property from the safety of the lake by using the local boat tour operators, which run during the summer. The new owner will have the island and ruin to themselves as tourists are not permitted to set foot there. Bob Geldof visited the island in 2016 for a BBC documentary on Yeats. He revealed that Yeats fell in love with the castle and island, particularly the folklore and legends that exist to this day. Yeats attempted to buy out the castle from the King family, with the desire to turn it into a monument for Irish culture and heritage. His attempts failed and the folly castle remained, turning into the ruin that remains. The property is steeped with folklore and local legends. The Legend of Una Bhan is most associated with the island castle. The legend says that Una Bhan, a daughter of a McDermott chief, lived on Castle Island. She fell in love with a young boy who her father would not permit to see. The island is referred to in the Legend of Una Bhan which describes the daughter of a McDermott chief falling in love with a boy she was forbidden from seeing who would swim over to the island to see her, but who one day he drowned in the lake and Una Bahn died of grief and was buried under an old twisted oak tree on the island The castle seen through trees on the shore, looks like a mythical scene as it rises from the waters of Lough Ce Whoever is prepared to part with at least 80,000 to acquire the property at auction will have to part with substantial sums to repair the property which is dilapidated and would only serve as a crude shelter at best A boat can be seen cruising around the castle's island which lies in the southeast corner of Lough Key; the lough is believed to be named after a mythical figure from Irish folklore named Ce The McDermott clan owned the island up until the 17th century, when it was given to the King family of England under the Cromwellian settlement. Irish poet WB Yeats - who won a Nobel Prize for his work in 1923 - wanted to buy the site in 1899 to turn it into a national heritage site but was refused by the King family He would swim over to the island to see her, but one day drowned in the lake. Una Bhan subsequently died of grief and both lovers are said to be buried under an old twisted oak tree on the island. WB Yeats was famed for his poetry, but was also an essayist and firm believer in the Irish nationalist cause. His early poetry included themes of love and mysticism while his later works focused on politics and social commentaries. He was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood as a young man but distanced himself from the group as the group staged the Easter Rising in 1916 which would lead to Ireland's freedom from Great Britain. In 1922 he was appointed as a senator of the newly founded Irish state. The four male politicians 'named and shamed' by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in a blistering attack in parliament are no strangers to controversy. Senator Hanson-Young called out Fraser Anning, Barry O'Sullivan, Cory Bernardi and David Leyonhjelm in a speech in which she lashed slut shaming and bullying. 'I will name you because you are not fit to be in this chamber, you're not fit to represent your constituents and you're not fit to call yourselves men,' Senator Hanson-Young said in parliament on Tuesday, before naming the quartet. 'I have sat in this chamber for weeks and weeks months and heard the disgusting slurs and attacks coming from a particular group in this place. Scroll down for video Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (pictured) used a speech in parliament on Tuesday to lash slut shaming and bullying by politicians 'And I, for one, am sick of it, and I know many of my female colleagues on all sides of politics are sick of it, too.' Senator Hanson-Young said she had enough of being on the receiving end of 'disgusting comments'. 'Real men don't insult and threaten women, and they don't slut-shame them and they don't attack them and make them feel bullied in their workplace,' she said. Here, Daily Mail Australia takes a look at some of the four senator's biggest recent controversies. Senator David Leyonhjelm (pictured) was called out by Senator Hanson-Young in her Tuesday speech David Leyonhjelm Senator Leyonhjelm, of the Liberal Democratic Party, had a massive run-in with Senator Hanson-Young in parliament earlier this year. In late June, Senator Hanson-Young became involved in a confrontation with Senator Leyonhjelm during a debate in parliament about whether women should be allowed to carry pepper spray or tasers to defend themselves. Senator Leyonhjelm believed he heard Senator Hanson-Young say words to the effect of 'all men are rapists' in parliament - which she denies. Senator Leyonhjelm told her to 'stop shagging men' in response. Senator Hanson-Young later accused him of 'slut shaming' her and using 'sexist slurs' in parliament. She has launched legal action against Senator Leyonhjelm. He then sparked outage in July for refusing to apologise to television host Angela Bishop after calling her a 'bitch'. Senator Leyonhjelm had appeared on Studio 10 where he called the veteran journalist a 'bigot' and refused to apologise several times when prompted by co-host Sarah Harris. Senator Cory Bernardi (pictured) was also targeted by Senator Hanson-Young, in the speech in which she claimed he and three other male senators were 'not fit to call yourselves men' Cory Bernardi While a member of the Liberal Party in 2012, Cory Bernardi was forced to resign as a parliamentary secretary to then-opposition leader Tony Abbott over comments he made linking same-sex marriage with bestiality and polygamy. 'The next step, quite frankly, is having three people or four people that love each other being able to enter into a permanent union endorsed by society - or any other type of relationship,' Senator Bernardi had said. 'There are even some creepy people out there... [who] say it is OK to have consensual sexual relations between humans and animals.' Senator Bernardi would go on to quit the Liberal Party in early 2017. In November 2017, he endured the wrath of Senator Hanson-Young after putting forward a motion to 'oppose Medicare funding for the termination of pregnancy, where it occurs on gender grounds'. The motion was defeated but managed to garner almost two dozens votes. 'You bunch of misogynistic... This is about rape victims having access to safe and legal abortion. That's what you just voted against,' Senator Hanson-Young had said. In February this year, Senator Bernardi came under fire for comments he made about women serving in combat roles. 'I don't believe incorporating women into combat units is in the best interests of Australia's national security,' Senator Bernardi had said. Senator Fraser Anning (pictured) was named by Senator Hanson-Young in her attack on male politicians who she claimed were 'not fit to represent your constituents' Fraser Anning The Queenslander was first elected to parliament in November 2017 as a member of One Nation after Malcolm Roberts was found to be ineligible to sit in the Senate. He later defected to the Katter's Australia Party. His maiden speech to parliament in August - in which he attacked Muslim migrants and called for a plebiscite on immigration - sparked outrage. Senator Anning said 'the final solution to the immigration problem is of course a popular vote'. The term 'final solution' was used by the Nazis as part of their plan to murder the entire Jewish population of Europe which resulted in mass genocide. Senator Anning denied making a deliberate reference to Nazi Germany and refused to apologise for his choice of words. 'Good men died for our right to say whatever we wanted to say and use whatever words we want to use. If people want to take it of context that is entirely up to them,' he said. He called for an end to Muslim immigration and a program that favours 'European Christian' values and also claimed a majority of Australian Muslims live on welfare and do not work. Senator Derryn Hinch slammed the speech as 'one of the most disgraceful, racist, homophobic, divisive, misogynist, spiteful, hateful speeches I've ever heard'. Senator Barry O'Sullivan (pictured), who was also mentioned by Senator Hanson-Young, this month declared himself to be a woman Barry O'Sullivan The Queensland LNP Senator this month declared himself a woman, arguing to the Senate the change was made so that 'you'll no longer be able to attack me'. Senator O'Sullivan said those 'attacks' were being made by other parliamentarians because of his religious views and anti-abortion stance. 'They attacked me the other day for my religious basis, using words like rosary beads, because I had the audacity to raise issues around late-term abortions,' Senator O'Sullivan said in parliament. 'I'm going to declare my gender today, as I can, to be a woman.' In May, during a Senate Estimates hearing, Senator O'Sullivan had asked if he could 'go into the ladies' loo, if I choose to, if I've declared myself a female'. In November last year, Senator O'Sullivan was urged to apologise after he said Australia's banks had displayed an 'almost autistic disregard' for the law. Trish Garikayi (pictured outside Central London County Court) was given a Porsche and a 100,000 bracelet by Wisdom Penfold. She flung down her engagement ring in court after being ordered to repay him more than 100,000 A 'kept woman' who was showered with luxury gifts by her fiance flung down her engagement ring in court after being ordered to repay him more than 100,000. Nurse Trish Garikayi, 37, said she was a given a Porsche 911 and a 100,000 diamond bracelet from Aspreys by love-struck businessman, Wisdom Penfold, 58. But Mr Penfold claimed their relationship turned sour after he caught her in bed with another man. They pair ended up locked in a bitter court battle over money. And a judge at Central London County Court has ruled that she 'misappropriated' money Mr Penfold entrusted to her when blinded by love. Miss Garikayi has been ordered to repay him 116,000, lawyers' bills, plus a 20% share of her 340,000 home. She earlier claimed to be a 'kept woman' and insisted that the money, like the luxury goods he lavished upon her, was a non-returnable gift. But Judge Alexander Hill-Smith said she had her 'eyes firmly on winning the case' and 'unhesitatingly preferred' Mr Penfold's account of events. After the judge announced his decision, Miss Garikayi hurled her 2,500 engagement ring across the courtroom towards her ex-fiance. Mr Penfold calmly picked up the discarded diamond band and handed it to his solicitor. Earlier he accused her of spending over 200,000 of his money, which was supposed to go towards a home for the loved-up couple. And now a judge has ruled that she 'misappropriated' money Mr Penfold (pictured outside Central London County Court) entrusted to her when blinded by love. They met in a hospital cafe in 2009, but Mr Penfold claimed the 'perfect' relationship came to an end in 2015, when he caught her with another man. He came home unexpectedly to find his younger lover with a doctor in the house, he told the judge. The tree importer and exporter, of Lydia Park, Cranleigh, said the relationship was a 'happy one' for years and they got engaged in 2013. But the weeping businessman was so shaken up by his 'completely shocking discovery' that Miss Garikayi had to take him to A&E, the court heard. She claimed they split up earlier, in June 2015, because he had got together with another woman, with whom he now has a child. Mr Penfold was still married to another woman when he first started seeing Miss Garikayi, but he said the marriage had 'not been close'. His wife was 'comfortable' with his new relationship, and Mr Penfold said: 'I've never been unfaithful to anyone in my life'. The court heard 218,000 had been paid into Miss Garikayi's account after Mr Penfold sold two investment properties. Insisting the money was a gift, she said that, throughout the relationship, 'if I wanted something, I would get it'. 'As far as the discussion I had with Wisdom, they were gifts to me,' she told the judge. 'We were in love, the relationship was strong at that point. So there was no need for me to question or query.' Her solicitor, Chike Ezike, added: 'The nature of the relationship was one where Mr Penfold bestowed and showered Miss Garikayi with lavish gifts.' Treating her as a 'kept woman', he gave her a Porsche, a BMW and a Mercedes and the 100,000 bracelet, the court was told. And they enjoyed high-end holidays together to Paris, Spain, Indonesia and Dubai, he added. Mr Ezike claimed that Mr Penfold also 'regularly gave her large sums of money' with no expectation that she would ever pay him back. But, denying that he had been so generous, Mr Penfold said: 'I think if I gave 100,000 for a bracelet I would quite remember it. 'I think it would be welded in my brain for the rest of my life.' He accepted that he brought Miss Garikayi everything from 'the little pink pigs out of M&S' that she liked, and a Burberry coat and Jimmy Choo shoes. But he told the judge that he 'did not give her large sums of money' and had 'never bought her a car'. The 218,000 was placed in Miss Garikayi's account as a sign of the 'seriousness of their relationship', said his barrister, Richard Alford. They were looking to start a family together, but it was 'implausible' that Mr Penfold would give her 'such a large gift', he added. He raised the cash with a view to buying a family home and 'she indicated that he should pay the money into her account to demonstrate his trust for her.' 'He did as requested, instructing her that the funds were to be held in the account and not used unless he said so,' added Mr Alford. But instead she spent some of the money on herself and used 91,000 to buy a property in Harare, Zimbabwe, without his permission, the barrister claimed. Mr Penfold also claimed he was entitled to a share in a property in Chaucer Court, Guildford, Miss Garikayi bought for 275,000 in 2015. He said he had paid the 35,000 deposit as well as refurbishment costs and two mortgage payments. She denied they had ever planned to buy a property together and said she bought her home on her own with 'no involvement whatsoever' from Mr Penfold. But Judge Hill-Smith ruled: 'I unhesitatingly prefer the evidence of Mr Penfold...he gave his evidence in a careful way.' 'His written statement is thorough and comprehensive and presents a coherent account of what occurred.' The judge said he was 'very much in love' with Miss Garikayi and 'as far as he was concerned it was a perfect relationship'. 'I find his account of the break-up of the relationship, his returning to the house, his reaction to it, going to A&E and being badly affected, compelling. 'Her account of the breakdown of the relationship was very unspecific,' the judge added. 'It lacked the human qualities that one would find in a breakdown of a long-term relationship like this.' Miss Garikayi had her 'eyes firmly on winning the case' and the judge said: 'I do not find her to have been consistent in her defence'. 'The documentary evidence, I find, supports the account of Mr Penfold and not Miss Garikayi.' The judge ruled that the cash paid into her account, far from being a gift to a kept woman, was 'held on trust' by her for Mr Penfold. She spent 91,000 on the Zimbabwe property 'in breach of trust' and the judge ruled she had also 'misappropriated' 25,000 of his money. He accepted that Mr Penfold had contributed 35,000 towards the Chaucer Court deposit, as well as paying for refurbishments and two mortgage payments. That came to a total of 60,000, entitling Mr Penfold to a 20% stake in Miss Garikayi's home, now valued at 340,000. 'I do find as a fact that the parties were intending this as a joint home together,' the judge said. 'I have accepted Mr Penfold's evidence and essentially found for him on all the financial issues.' Miss Garikayi was given six months to buy him out, or her home would be sold and the proceeds divided. Mr Penfold's lawyers say they will be seeking 62,000 in costs against Miss Garikayi, and the judge ordered her to pay 30,000 of that within 21 days. Uber has been fined 385,000 for failing to protect customers' personal information during a cyber attack. A series of 'avoidable data security flaws' allowed the personal details of around 2.7 million UK customers to be accessed and downloaded by attackers, the Information Commissioner's Office said. This included full names, email addresses and phone numbers, exposing people to an 'increased risk of fraud'. The records of almost 82,000 UK drivers - including details of journeys made and how much they were paid - were also taken during the incident in October and November 2016. Customers and drivers affected were only alerted when Uber made an announcement in November 2017. A series of 'avoidable data security flaws' allowed the personal details of around 2.7 million UK Uber users to be accessed and downloaded by attackers, the ICO found Hackers obtained personal details of a total of 57 million Uber customers and drivers worldwide from a cloud-based storage system operated by the ride hailing app firm's US parent company ICO director of investigations Steve Eckersley said: 'This was not only a serious failure of data security on Uber's part, but a complete disregard for the customers and drivers whose personal information was stolen. 'At the time, no steps were taken to inform anyone affected by the breach, or to offer help and support. That left them vulnerable.' Hackers obtained personal details of a total of 57 million Uber customers and drivers worldwide from a cloud-based storage system operated by the ride hailing app firm's US parent company. Customers and drivers affected were only alerted to the hack when Uber made an announcement in November 2017 Uber paid the attackers responsible 100,000 US dollars (78,000) to destroy the data they had downloaded. Mr Eckersley added: 'Paying the attackers and then keeping quiet about it afterwards was not, in our view, an appropriate response to the cyber attack. 'Although there was no legal duty to report data breaches under the old legislation, Uber's poor data protection practices and subsequent decisions and conduct were likely to have compounded the distress of those affected.' Uber was also handed a separate 600,000-euro (532,000) fine by the data protection authority in the Netherlands. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens said 174,000 Dutch citizens were affected by the hack. In June, a judge granted Uber a short-term operating licence in London after its permit was initially not renewed over safety concerns. The firm conceded it had made 'serious mistakes' and Transport for London was correct in its renewal decision, but told an appeal hearing it had made 'wholesale' reforms. A spokesman for Uber said: 'Were pleased to close this chapter on the data incident from 2016. 'As we shared with European authorities during their investigations, weve made a number of technical improvements to the security of our systems both in the immediate wake of the incident as well as in the years since. 'Weve also made significant changes in leadership to ensure proper transparency with regulators and customers moving forward. 'Earlier this year we hired our first chief privacy officer, data protection officer, and a new chief trust and security officer. We learn from our mistakes and continue our commitment to earn the trust of our users every day.' Parking inspectors have been granted extra power to dock points from drivers' licences for poor parking. Motorists in Sydney could be stung with more than just a parking ticket from now on if they break the rules. Under new laws, drivers who break the most serious parking rules can be docked up to two demerit points. Parking inspectors have been granted extra power to hand out demerit points for poor parking Sydney drivers could be stung with more than just a parking ticket from now on if they break the most serious parking rules Serious breaches include parking too close to pedestrian crossings, parking too close to an intersection or parking in a disabled car spot without a valid permit. These breaches can also result in a $337 fine. Some motorists have called the new penalties 'over the top'. 'We know that it's a high risk when you park illegally and block the line of sight for the traffic,' Bernard Carlon from the NSW Centre for Road Safety told 7news. There has been a grace period for drivers over the past few months, with parking rangers handing out demerit points at their discretion. But that is now over and drivers have been urged to be wary about where they park from now on. There has been a grace period for drivers over the past few months, with parking rangers handing out demerit points at their discretion Advertisement The latest batch of Hugh Hefner's treasured possessions to be unveiled as auction items include his famous pipe, Playboy branded slippers and his trademark red dressing gown. The items to be sold off for charity also include the late publisher's cashmere sport coat, a carved briar pipe with custom Playboy Bunny logo and Playboy rabbit head symbol slippers. One of the more bizarre pieces in the collection is a black patina bronze statue of Farrah Fawcett's torso, presumed to be made by the actress. He also had a canceled United States passport issued on April 9, 1976, as well as a more recent travel document. Late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's black and silver patterned robe with green silk lining is displayed as part of Julien's Auctions upcoming sale of his belongings in Beverly Hills, California A painted resin statuette of a Playboy bunny with a drink on the tray from the collection of late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner One of the items includes a black patina bronze statue of Farrah Fawcett's torso, presumed to be made by the actress and given to Hefner Hefner's Hollywood Walk of Fame Star from his mansion is one of hundreds of items displayed as part of the auction lots A white captain's hat and Gucci sunglasses, a painted resin statuette of a Playboy Bunny, his master bedroom comforter, plus the magazine mogul's slippers and bespoke red silk pajamas are all up for sale. A pair of bespoke Dunhill slippers with gold thread embroidered 'HMH' monogram with quilted red satin insoles and his collection of damask smoking jackets are also to be lots. Hefner's Hollywood Walk of Fame Star from his mansion will also be auctioned off at the end of the month. With its unique blend of luxury and tackiness, it is the bedroom that could only have belonged to Hefner. The tycoons boudoir in the Playboy mansion has been revealed ahead of an auction of his belongings, showing off where he entertained three wives and dozens of Playboy bunnies. Hugh Hefner's bespoke red silk pajamas are displayed. Items from the personal collection of the American publishing icon will be sold at auction November 30 to December 1 Hefner's bespoke smoking jacket (right) and other clothing items including a white jacket and a black satin dressing gown Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's Playboy rabbit head symbol slippers (left) and carved briar pipe with custom Playboy Bunny logo (right) Hef had an array of different slippers and footwear, which will be auctioned off as part of the sale in Beverly Hills, California The questionable taste of the Playboy founder, who died last September aged 91, is on full display. Hefner put a Betty Boop statue by the fireplace, a monster head above it and a painting of a nude woman above them both. One wall is covered with photos of himself with women. Auctioneers Juliens hope Hefners style will be a hit when dozens of his personal items go under the hammer on November 30 in Beverly Hills. Hugh Hefner's master bedroom at his Playboy mansion in Beverly Hills includes many of the trinkets he collected over his long-life in publishing Hugh Hefner and wife Crystal Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. All his belongings are to be sold at auction at the end of the month As well as bespoke clothing, Hef also had designer Gucci sunglasses and a white captain hat which will all be sold for charity Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's scarlet silk damask smoking jacket with shawl collar which will be auctioned at the end of the month Among the lots is a eight inch tall vintage painted ceramic ashtray with a female nude, valued at $75 to $150 (59-78). His singular taste is apparent is a fishnet-stockinged lamp with a fringed shade, valued similarly. Furniture includes a carved oak chair valued at $400 to $600 (313-469) and a tiger print sofa, valued at $1,500 to $2,000 (1,174-1,565). Others lots include his signature scarlet silk smoking jacket a style also worn by third wife Crystal Harris which is expected to reach between $3,000 and $5,000 (2,348-3,913). A selection of his captains hats is up for sale for between $300 and $500 (234-391) and there is also a pair of his monogrammed scarlet Dunhill slippers, size nine-and-a-half, for $400 to $600 (313-469). A painted resin statuette of a Playboy bunny. Others lots include his signature scarlet silk smoking jacket a style also worn by third wife Crystal Harris which is expected to reach between $3,000 and $5,000 Hugh Hefner's master bedroom comforter with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. The auction also features Hefner's first edition copy of Playboy magazine which has her on the front Hef's personalized damask smoking jacket. His signature tailoring will also be on sale, including his bespoke smoking jacket, worth $5,000 and his silk pajamas, which are valued at $2,000 This eight-and-a-half inch vintage painted ceramic ashtray of a naked woman is expected to fetch between $75 to $150 Hef's 44-inch fishnet stocking leg lamp in high heels which sat in his mater bedroom is thought to be worth between $100 to $200 His carved briar pipe with custom Playboy bunny logo. Hefner's complete personal set of bound Playboy volumes is anticipated to be the most lucrative sale, with estimates at $40,000. Hefner's first edition copy of Playboy magazine was discovered earlier this month after 65 years and is set to make thousands for charity. The 1953 publication, which famously featured Marilyn Monroe on the cover, has recently been unearthed by the late publisher's children, following his death last year. They have decided to sell the rare magazine along with a number of his other possessions to raise money for charity. A visitor photographs a portrait of late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner and other items displayed as part of Julien's Auctions upcoming sale Hefner's cashmere sport coat and Playboy covers shirt. Hefner, who was extremely well read, also owned a first edition copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' and large folio volumes of Slavador Dali's 'Biblia Sacra', worth more than $15,000 United States passports issued to Hugh Hefner, one from April 9, 1976, as well as a more recent travel document Late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's Hollywood Walk of Fame Star from his mansion is displayed as part of Julien's Auctions upcoming sale of his belongings Hefner's personal copy of the first issue of Playboy magazine which featured featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover in 1953, it has an estimated value of $3,000-$5,000 Hef's personalized Dunhill slippers with gold thread embroidered "HMH" monogram and quilted red satin insoles Hefner's famous sailor cap will also be on sale, along with his Playboy logo cuff links and carved briar pipe also featuring a Playboy logo Hefner's signature red smoking jacket which is expected to fetch up to $5,000 The first edition is to go under the hammer with Julien's Auctions in Los Angeles who are expecting offers up to $5,000. The magazine remains in fantastic condition and depicts a smiling Monroe in a revealing black dress on its cover. It cost just 50 cent to buy at the time and boasts on the cover that the publication offers the 'famous Marilyn Monroe nude' in full colour for the first time in any magazine. The infamous Monroe nude which sold out in 1953 when the screen siren was at the peak of her fame The auction will take place on November 30 and December 1 at Julien's Auctions with all proceeds going to the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation The first centrefold: a Monroe print from the 1953 first edition will also be on sale in the vast collection. The first edition copy of Playboy magazine that belonged to Hugh Hefner was uncovered after 65 years Chauvinistic: Showing the times that were 1953, the magazine's introduction says: 'If you're somebody's sister, wife or mother-in-law and picked us up by mistake, please pass us along to the man in your life and get back to your Ladies Home Companion' Inside, the pages also remain well kept, including a nude pinup shot of the blonde bombshell, which acts as the centrefold. The edition completely sold out at the time and went on to sell more than 50,000 copies. It launched Playboy into the the public consciousness and soon celebrities were queuing up to pose for the magazine. His signature tailoring will also be on sale, including his bespoke smoking jacket, worth $5,000 and his silk pajamas, which are valued at $2,000. Custom 1974 Playboy Monopoly game in a wooden box marked "Monopoly Parts for HMH" with an estimated value of $6,000-$8,000 The Monopoly board game includes a pipe smoking Hefner and Playboy Bunny, among other mansion regulars, custom Hefner Monopoly money, houses and hotels In January 1952 Hefner quit his job at Esquire after he was refused a five dollar raise and began taking out loans to start his own magazine, also on sale is his Underwood Standard Portable typewriter worth $500 Hefner's 2016 passport will also be on sale in the massive haul set to make thousands for his civil rights focused charity at the end of the month Hefner's complete personal set of bound Playboy volumes is anticipated to be the most lucrative sale, with estimates at $40,000. Hefner, who was extremely well read, also owned a first edition copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' and large folio volumes of Slavador Dali's 'Biblia Sacra', worth more than $15,000. Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions, said: 'We are honoured to present this extraordinary auction event that celebrates a pop culture icon, whose life and legacy truly embodied the American dream.' Hefner's vintage 1946 coin-operated Wurlitzer jukebox programmed by Hefner and from his game house. It contains 24 original 78 rpm record albums by artists such as Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra, Harry James, Johnny Mercer and Lena Horne. The auctioneers estimate $10,000 to $20,000. A playboy photo shoot print; Hefner's 2007 Playboy Legacy Collection Gold, features a set of 48 chromogenic and gelatin silver prints by various photographers in a wooden case and could sell for $30,000 Christie Hefner, his daughter, added: 'Whether it was building his company into one of the most recognizable global brands in history or standing up for social, sexual and civil rights causes, my father lived an extraordinary life as a publishing, social and cultural pioneer.' All proceeds will be donated to the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation, which was established in 1964 to support efforts in defense of civil rights, with emphasis on First Amendment rights and rational sex and drug policies. Hefner's iconic Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles was sold in May 2016 to Daren Metropoulos, the co-owner of Hostess Brands, for $100 million. Hefner continued to live in the mansion until his death at the age of 91 from natural causes in September 2017. The auction will take place on November 30 and December 1 at The Standard Oil Building in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. A new Indonesian government app allows users to report suspected cases of religious heresy with a tap of their finger. It has drawn fire as rights groups warn it could aggravate persecution of minorities in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation. Users of the app can report groups practising unrecognised faiths or unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's six officially recognised religions, including Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism. 'Smart Pakem', which was launched on Sunday and is available for free in Google's Play store, was created by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, which said it would help educate the public and modernise the current reporting process. A user demonstrates Smart Pakem, whereby users can report religious crime, which was launched by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office The app will also list religious edicts and blacklisted organisations and allow users to file complaints instantaneously, instead of going through the often cumbersome process of submitting a written accusation to a government office. 'The objective...is to provide easier access to information about the spread of beliefs in Indonesia, to educate the public and to prevent them from following doctrines from an individual or a group that are not in line with the regulations,' Nirwan Nawawi, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, told AFP in a statement. However, rights groups fear the application could be misused by increasingly powerful hardline Islamic groups and widen divisions in a country where harassment of religious and other minorities is not uncommon. 'This is going from bad to worse - another dangerous step to discriminate religious minorities in Indonesia,' said Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono. Bonar Tigor Naipospos, vice chairman of rights group Setara Institute, added: 'This is dangerous because if mainstream society doesn't like (a group) they'll report them through the application - this will create problems.' Hundreds of thousands of people across the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago who adhere to non-recognised animist and mystical faiths have long suffered discrimination and limited access to public services. The Smart Pakem app (left and right) will allow users to report crimes against religion and also stay aware of false faiths proscribed by the government This year an angry mob rampaged through a small community of the Ahmadiyya Islamic minority on the island of Lombok, destroying homes and forcing dozens of worshippers to flee. The religious sect has been declared heretical by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI). Indonesia, a 17,000 island archipelago nation, is often touted for its diversity and religious tolerance, but it has a wide-ranging blasphemy law that has sparked a backlash. Criticising religion - particularly Islam, which is followed by nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 260 million citizens - can land offenders in jail. This summer, an ethnic Chinese Buddhist was jailed for insulting Islam after asking her neighbourhood mosque to lower its sound system during the daily call to prayer because she found it too loud. A husband who put his wedding rings up for sale after his wife took off with another man days after her 30,000 Mexican wedding has revealed they are back together and 'testing the waters'. Andy Mitchell caused a sensation in June when he posted his wedding rings for sale, publicly accusing his new wife - dubbed the 'fajita cheater' - of being unfaithful on her hen night. But it has now emerged that despite their bitter and very public split, Andy and Meaghan Mitchell are 'testing the waters' of married life at their home in Kelty, Fife. Andy Mitchell (left) and wife Meaghan Mitchell (right) are back together despite her running off with another man just days after their 30,000 wedding in Mexico While the couple were split, Mr Mitchell had the words 'fajita cheater' tattooed on the back of his neck. The inking proved a big hit with friends, including Reesy Corbett who wrote: 'Love it' The taxi service manager wanted 400 for the wedding bands on Facebay Fife. At the time he also posted images of texts he claims were swapped between Meaghan and her new man Ryan Nelson (left and right with his partner) allegedly embarked on an affair with Mr Mitchell's wife weeks before their wedding And Andy, 40, even has the phrase 'fajita cheater' tattooed on the back of his neck as a permanent reminder of their early marital troubles. Andy married Meaghan, 21, also from Kelty, in a lavish wedding ceremony in Cancun on June 3. But he posted their wedding bands for sale for 400 just six days later, claiming she had been unfaithful on her hen night. Meaghan denied being unfaithful before the wedding but admitted she had met and run off with another man. To the amazement - and amusement - of Kelty locals, it has emerged the couple got back together in early October after spending four months apart. Andy said today: 'We're seeing where it takes us. She made a mistake. She knows she made a mistake. I make mistakes. So does everyone. 'I'm not going to hold it against her. I've done lots of stupid things and made decisions that I wish I hadn't.' Andy and Meaghan Mitchell married in Akumal Bay Beach Resort, Mexico, at a lavish wedding attended by friends and family - but split just days later Meaghan, 21, admitted she had left Mr Mitchell (pictured together) for another man but insisted they had not slept together until after the wedding Photos of the wedding on Facebook show the pair frolicking on the beach. The couple have recently been posting images from their wedding on social media once again Mr Mitchell recently updated hi s Facebook profile picture to one of him and his wife on their wedding day. He captioned the change: 'wait for it, blah, blah, blah' Friends of the couple were quick to react to the news (above and below), with both Mitchells commenting on the post He added: 'And if it happens again, it happens again. Then it's my fault for getting back with her. 'We just want to move on and see what happens. We're testing the waters. If it works it works. If it doesn't it doesn't. 'If it doesn't work out then at least I don't have to look back and think, 'I wish I'd given it a proper go'. 'I don't want to look back in ten years' time with regret, thinking, 'Oh no'.' Remarkably, Andy now boasts a tattoo on the back of his neck which reads: 'Fajita cheater.' He appears to have got the tattoo while they were still separated. The inking proved a big hit with friends, including Reesy Corbett who wrote: 'Love it.' Dean Chappell wrote: 'F****** legend.' Andy responded: 'Sure I'll regret it one day but no as much as I'll regret ever meeting the wee tramp.' The couple enjoyed a lavish 30,000 wedding ceremony at the Akumal Bay Beach Resort in Mexico. But just days later, Meaghan ran off with another man Just six days after their wedding, Andy Mitchell (left) discovered his new wife Meaghan Mitchell (right) was having an affair Since their reconciliation the couple have also posted pictures to Facebook from their wedding, and made comments underneath confirming that they are giving their relationship another try. Andy has changed his profile picture to a photograph of the two dressed for their wedding, smiling and nestling into one another. Above the caption he wrote, 'Wait for it, blah blah blah', followed by a smiley face and a middle finger. Below, Charlie Louise commented: 'All the best.' Andy responded: 'Thanks pal. If it works it works, and if not then it doesn't. Simple really. 'Regardless of how long we've been together/married, most couples go through hard times, even worse than ours and some make it and some don't. 'I've got it in me to keep it going, time will tell the rest.' Mr Mitchell's post about the sale of his wedding rings was shared thousands of times across social media, and was at the time been met with a wave of support Pictures of the wedding on Facebook show the apparently happy couple posing for the camera David Winiarski also wrote in the comments below the picture: 'Aww you back with her, didn't ken that.' Andy replied: 'Well u ken now.' Meaghan was not available for comment but she responded to Andy's Facebook page 4 weeks ago writing: 'You're an amazing dad and person. The couple have been posting images of themselves (pictured) from their wedding since news of their re-coupling emerged 'Keep doing what your doing. I love you so much and I'm proud of you.' Andy then jokes for her to bring his coffee cop. She writes responds: 'Ok big bhoy, as long as you're as good as last night.' Andy writes further down: 'Hate sex is best.' On October 8, Meaghan changed her Facebook profile picture to a photo of the two on a beach together. A week later she changed her profile picture to a shot of the two kissing on their wedding. She subsequently posted more pictures of the two together in happier times. One picture posted on November 15 shows a message, 'Andrew + Meaghan', followed by a loveheart, drawn into sand on a beach. Andy and Meaghan Mitchell married in Akumal Bay Beach Resort, Mexico, at a lavish wedding attended by friends and family on June 3 - on which they personally spent approximately 6,000. A inscription in the sand on the Mexican beach where they were married is just one of the images the couple have recently posted on Facebook Photos of the wedding on Facebook show the apparently happy couple frolicking on the beach with their well-dressed guests. Barely a fortnight later Andy posted on Facebay Fife, advertising the rings: 'Hi, recently I got married in Mexico on the 23rd of June and this was the wedding set I used while Meaghan Mitchell said her marriage vows. 'However, six days later I found out she started having an affair on her hen night and it carried on for eight weeks through our dream wedding.' Meaghan denied having an affair on her hen night at the time, though had admitted that she cheated after the wedding. The US military says three American service members have been killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province. The military says three other service members were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on Tuesday near the city of Ghazni, the provincial capital. One American contractor was also wounded. Hostile territory: Three soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing on Tuesday in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province (three recent attacks above) This attack comes on the heels of two Taliban attacks on Monday which left 30 dead and close to 100 injured in the country. Taliban members killed 20 officers when the group ambushed a police convoy in the western Farah district and 10 troops in the northern Faryab province at an army check point. The identities of the American casualties were not provided, pending notification of their families. Lt. Ubon Mendie, a spokesman for the U.S. forces, says the wounded service members and contractor were evacuated and are receiving medical care. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Taliban have an extremely active presence in Ghazni province and attempted to take over the capital in August. Ghazni was the only province that did not hold parliamentary election in October. The Taliban view the US-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it. The protesters in western Kabul were rallying to denounce the arrest of Abdul Ghani Alipoor, a Shiite militia leader in western Ghor province. The Afghan intelligence service accuses Alipoor of leading an illegal armed group that is behind extortion and other mafia-like behavior in the region. On Sunday, hundreds clashed with police during a similar Shiite protest in Kabul. In that demonstration, three policemen were shot and wounded and 20 were injured by stones thrown by protesters who also torched two police checkpoints. Beside Kabul, there were also protests on Monday in northern Balkh and central Bamyan provinces but no reports of violence there. A family who were forced to take their grandmother's body to the doctor in a panel van to have her declared dead are pushing for a change in the law to prevent others from suffering their indignity. Elizabeth O'Kane, a grandmother of 29, died peacefully at her daughter's home near Maitland in the NSW Hunter Valley late on Tuesday night, just as she wanted to. But when her family tried to have someone come to verify the 71-year-old's death, they were told it was not possible, and they would need to bring her body to the doctor's surgery instead. Doctors lean inside a panel van to inspect the body of Elizabeth O'Kane, 71, and formally declare her dead (pictured) while the vehicle is parked outside a shopping centre after her family were told no doctor would make a home visit to sign off on her death An undertaker had to drive Ms O'Kane's body to the nearby medical centre where she was declared dead, just metres from a highway and across the road from an ALDI as onlookers tried to get a peek at what was going on. Driven by their harrowing experience, the grandmother's family has asked their local MP Jenny Aitchison to help push through a change in state law - who has taken their case to NSW Parliament. Speaking to A Current Affair, Ms Aitchison said Ms O'Kane's case was 'the most shocking and abhorrent thing I have ever heard'. The family matriarch (left), who had terminal lung cancer, died peacefully in her daughter Anne's (right) home on November 6, but not declared dead until November 7 An undertaker had to drive Ms O'Kane's (left) body to the nearby medical centre where she was declared dead, just metres from a highway and across the road from an ALDI as onlookers tried to get a peek at what was going on She added: 'It's not the right way to treat those who have passed. We should make sure we honour family's loved ones and not just toss them aside.' In another shocking admission, Michael McKay from the NSW Funeral Directors' Association told the programme he saw 7-8 deceased people a week treated the same way as Ms O'Kane. Her grandson, Josef Krausert-O'Connor, told Daily Mail Australia watching his beloved grandmother die was hard, but the ordeal that followed was even more distressing. Another family member described the scene to A Current Affair as something out of 'Weekend at Bernie's' but this time they were unable to laugh. The family had arranged for Ms O'Kane's doctor to come over when she died and verify her death. Mr Krausert-O'Connor said the practitioner was the only one at the practice who made home visits, and they were left stranded when they discovered he was hours away in Sydney for the next few days - and the practice said they would not send someone else. The distraught family tried to call another doctor's office, but when the receptionist learned Ms O'Kane was not a patient, they were 'abrupt', Mr Krausert-O'Connor said, and told him they could not help. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Market Place Medical Centre in Rutherford (pictured) for comment The funeral parlour tasked with putting Ms O'Kane to rest offered to help have her verified, and picked her up in a panel van to take her to the doctor. While Ms O'Kane's relatives were not happy with having to move the family matriarch in such an undignified way, they were even more upset at what happened next. Ms O'Kane was not brought into the practice, and the van was forced to park on the street at a local shopping centre - across the road from a skate park, and in full view of curious rubberneckers. Driven by their harrowing experience, the grandmother's family has asked their local MP Jenny Aitchison (pictured) to help push through a change in state law - who has taken their case to NSW Parliament One doctor walked out of the practice and climbed into the van to begin verifying Ms O'Kane's death. The practitioner said he heard a heartbeat, and called out a second doctor to be sure. 'We were 20 metres from a highway, 13 hours after her death,' Mr Krausert-O'Connor said. 'And he thought he heard a heartbeat.' 'If this is a standard practice, where families are left traumatised watching their loved ones in the back of a van being verified like cattle, something needs to change,' he said. As the doctor examined his grandmother, Mr Krausert-O'Connor said he was unable to stop himself from sharing his anger at the situation. '"How would you feel if that was your mother, that was your loved one and you had to do that? Would you feel that was dignified?" I asked him,' he said. '[The doctor] didn't answer.' Her grandson, Josef Krausert-O'Connor (top right) is determined to change the NSW health care directive to ensure no other family goes through what his did Mr Krausert-O'Connor says he is not alone in his experience, and dozens of locals have stepped forward to say they have been in a similar situation. 'This isn't an uncommon thing,' he said. 'We've heard about people waiting days to be verified, doctors refusing to go to funeral parlours to verify people. 'Is it about money? Have we lost the heart in healthcare? 'All we asked is she have the final stages between death and being laid to rest be dignified, and this is what we got.' After Ms O'Kane was legally declared dead, he began to research, and found their ordeal could have been much easier, if only he had known - and if only more medical practitioners had known. Under NSW Health policy, Ms O'Kane could have been verified by a registered nurse, a midwife or a qualified paramedic - though Mr Krausert-O'Connor acknowledges she would still have to be verified by a medical practitioner within 48 hours. Despite this, Mr Krausert-O'Connor says his grandmother's death should have been handled with more empathy and she should have been afforded more dignity. He said reception staff were not accommodating of his family's needs, and 'were far from sympathetic or empathetic'. 'They said the only way to get it sorted was to bring her up,' he said. 'So the funeral director drove less than 5km, parked, and had a doctor come out to verify nan's death. 'There was no thought to empathy, sympathy or professionalism.' Mr Krausert-O'Connor now wants to see the NSW Health directive for the verification of death overhauled, for there to be clear guidelines as to who can verify a death and in what manner that should occur. Where a body needs to be transported for verification, he also wants to see proper transportation provided, which would have allowed his grandmother to escape her ordeal in the back of a panel van. Mr Krausert-O'Connor said his grandmother was at a disadvantage because she chose to die at home. His state MP, Jenny Aitchison, says the area needs more palliative care resources The directive should also be communicated clearly to all parties. Not only was Mr Krausert-O'Connor unaware of any contingent procedure, but the health specialists he spoke with appeared to be equally as naive. With the support of Ms Aitchison, he has launched a petition to see the directive changed so people who want to die at home are not disadvantaged. 'It's really important we do everything possible to support families who are providing palliative care for their loved ones,' Ms Aitchison told Daily Mail Australia. 'Part of that has to be equipping them to deal with the death of their loved ones - which means making sure they have access to proper verification procedures, and making sure everyone knows what to do when it comes time to say goodbye. 'Ms Aitchison said she wants to see more resources directed towards end of life care, particularly in cases where a patient chooses to die at home, not a hospital. 'The resources are not there,' she said. 'We had a palliative care doctor resign last year because she was promised extra resources and never got them. 'There is only one palliative care nurse after hours.' The MP said it was a 'great tragedy' that Ms O'Kane's relatives would be forced to remember their ordeal as their last moment with her, and urged anyone who had found themselves in a similar position to get in contact with her. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the medical centre for comment. A driver in central China has narrowly escaped death after a heavy overhead metal bar collapsed on his vehicle. The SUV was travelling along a road in Xiangyang, Hubei province last Friday when a large lorry travelling in the opposite lane rammed into the height restriction barrier, causing it to collapse. The man remained trapped in the heavily damaged vehicle for 15 minutes before being taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Chinese media reported. The SUV was travelling along a road in Xiangyang, Hubei province last Friday when a lorry travelling in the opposite lane rammed into the height restriction barrier, causing it to collapse The driver (circled) remained trapped in the heavily damaged vehicle for 15 minutes before being taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Chinese media reported Shocking video footage shows the moment the top of the lorry's trailer clipping the overhead bar, causing it to break and fall on the oncoming white SUV at about 12:53pm. Photos of the accident's aftermath shows the mid-section of the vehicle's roof completely crushed, narrowly missing the driver's seat. The lucky driver was seen pinned to his seat by the metal frame, unable to move. He appears conscious as he awaited to be rescued. The top of the lorry's trailer had clipped the overhead bar, causing it to collapse on the SUV Photos of the accident's aftermath shows the vehicle's windshield completely crushed The driver remained conscious as he awaited to be rescued by firefighters on scene Rescuers on scene had to use wooden planks to secure the position of the car to prevent any further damage, according to Hubei Daily News. Using special tools, they were finally able to dismantle the back seats of the SUV and free the driver. The cause of the incident is being investigated by police. Rescuers were finally able to dismantle the back seats of the SUV and free the driver An investigation into the disappearance of a young woman has been renewed after police admitted they destroyed evidence that could have helped solve the case. Western Australian woman Julie Cutler, 22, disappeared in 1988 and is believed to have been murdered, 9 News reported. Shortly after her disappearance Ms Cutler's Fiat sedan was found dumped on its side in the surf at Cottesloe Beach, 12km west of Perth. Police searched the area but only came away with the car as evidence. Scroll down for video Possible evidence in the 1988 disappearance of Julie Cutler, 22, (pictured) was destroyed by police after it was found on the beach eight years after she was last seen After realising the evidence could have been critical Western Australia Police renewed their search of Cottesloe Beach with the hopes of uncovering further evidence in the cold case But it was a member of the public who found a diary and a woman's purse buried in the sand dunes and handed them into police eight years after Ms Cutler's disappearance. However the two potentially vital pieces of evidence were never forensically tested and police today were forced to admit they destroyed the purse and diary. After the items were handed to police they were eventually dismissed by police because people close to her didn't recognise them at the time. Detective Sergeant Gailene Hamilton said when police don't believe a piece of evidence relates to a specific case then it is protocol to destroy it. 'Part of policy is when we look at items, if we don't link them to current or previous crimes then as part of policy the items are either returned to owners or destroyed,' she said. Photos of the destroyed items were again shown to some of Ms Cutler's family members recently and they said they did believe they belonged to her. As a result police admitted their fault and relaunched a search of the area around Cottesloe Beach where the items and Ms Cutler's car were found. 'As a result of our investigation some items that were dismissed in 1997 as not being Julie's, we found they may possibly be Julie's,' Detective Hamilton said. At the time of her disappearance Ms Cutler's Fiat sedan (pictured) was found dumped on its side at Cottesloe Beach, 12km west of Perth Police have returned to the location where the car, diary and purse were found with the hopes they may uncover more evidence into Ms Cutler's disappearance DNA and more advanced forensic testing were still in their infancy at the time of Ms Cutler's disappearance and it's believed if the items were never destroyed they could have been a 'treasure trove' of forensic evidence. Ms Cutler was last seen at a staff function at Juliannas Nightclub in Perth on June 19, 1988 before leaving in her car at about 12.30am. She was never seen again. June marked 30 years since Ms Cutler's disappearance and police announced a $250,000 reward for anyone providing evidence that leads to the conviction of the killer. A married couple who were allegedly caught having sex in the water at Florida beach in front of children first tried to claim that the wife lost her bathing suit in the water, before telling police 'we're all human' as they were arrested. Tiana Maranville, 26, and her husband Alexander Maranville, 27, were arrested on Sanibel Island near Fort Myers on Saturday after horrified witnesses called police to report them walking around naked and having sex in the water. When police arrived, Tiana admitted to going into the waves topless but claimed she 'accidentally' misplaced her bikini bottoms in the water. Tiana Maranville, 26, and her husband Alexander Maranille, 27, were arrested on Sanibel Island near Fort Myers on Saturday after being seen 'having sex' in the water The incident happened at Sanibel Beach on Sanibel Island (pictured) near Fort Myers, Florida, on Saturday at 4pm Her husband then argued with cops, according to WPTV, claiming they had every right to go nude and shouting: 'We're all human!' They claimed they did not know it was illegal to be naked at the beach because they were on vacation from Vermont - which does not have a law against public nudity. They were both charged with indecent exposure and were released from custody the following day after posting $1,500 bonds. Florida has one clothing optional beach in Miami-Dade County but Sanibel Island is not home to any. It is not clear if the Maranvilles had children with them when they were arrested. The married couple from Vermont told police they did not think it was illegal to swim naked A terminally-ill motor neurone disease sufferer who wants 'a peaceful and dignified death' has been refused permission for an appeal over the law on assisted dying. Supreme Court justices rejected a bid by Noel Conway to appeal against an earlier ruling in his battle against legislation which prevents him from being helped to die. The 68-year-old, from Shrewsbury, says that being forced to choose between 'unacceptable options' to end his life is 'barbaric'. Justices rejected a bid by Noel Conway to appeal against an earlier ruling in his fight over current legislation which prevents him from being helped to die. The 68-year-old, from Shrewsbury, says that being forced to choose between 'unacceptable options' to end his life is 'barbaric' He wants help to die which the law prevents when he has less than six months left to live, still has the mental capacity to make the decision and has made a 'voluntary, clear, settled and informed' decision. Mr Conway lost a Court of Appeal challenge in June against an earlier High Court rejection of his case that the 'blanket ban' on assisted dying was an unjustified interference with his human rights. He sought to challenge that at the Supreme Court and justices took the unusual step of considering his case at a hearing last week. During that hearing, Mr Conway's lawyers told the court the retired lecturer does not accept that withdrawal of his 'non-invasive ventilation' (NIV), which he needs 23 hours a day, would be an acceptable way for him to end his life. But Lady Hale, Lord Reed and Lord Kerr declined permission for an appeal. Giving reasons for their decision in a joint statement, they said: 'No-one doubts that the issue is of transcendent public importance. 'It touches us all. We all have to experience the death of people about whom we care. We all have to contemplate our own death.' The justices added: 'Ultimately the question for this panel is whether the prospects of Mr Conway's succeeding in his claim before this court are sufficient to justify our giving him permission to pursue it, with all that that would entail for him, for his family, for those on all sides of this multi-faceted debate, for the general public and for this court. 'Not without some reluctance, it has been concluded that in this case those prospects are not sufficient to justify giving permission to appeal.' Mr Conway, pictured here in April 2018 with his wife Carol, suffers from motor neurone disease and has to use a ventilator for 23 hours a day In a statement, Mr Conway said: 'Today's decision is extremely disappointing. 'It means that I will not be able to have my arguments heard by the highest court in the land. Dying people like me cannot wait years for another case to be heard. 'I am particularly disappointed that the courts have instead listened to the arguments of doctors who have never met me but think they know best about the end of my life. 'I have no choice over whether I die; my illness means I will die anyway. The only option I currently have is to remove my ventilator and effectively suffocate to death under sedation. 'To me this is not acceptable, and for many other dying people this choice is not available at all.' Mr Conway with wife Carol and local supporters outside Telford County Court, Shropshire, May 1, 2018 Mr Conway added: 'All I want is the option to die peacefully, with dignity, on my own terms, and I know that the majority of the public are behind me. 'It is downright cruel to continue to deny me and other terminally-ill people this right. 'This is the end of the road for my case, so we must now turn our attention back to Parliament. 'I hope that MPs will listen to the vast majority of their constituents and give people like me a say over our deaths.' Mr Conway, who is supported by the campaign group Dignity In Dying, was too unwell to travel to London for the Supreme Court hearing. He is now dependent on a ventilator for up to 23 hours a day and only has movement in his right hand, head and neck. Mr Conway at an earlier court appearance with wife Carol (left), stepson Terry McCusker (centre back) and Sarah Wootton, CEO of Dignity in Dying (right) in March 2017 Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which supported Mr Conway's case, said: 'This decision is a grave injustice for dying people across the country who want to have a say in how and when they die. 'Despite the Supreme Court saying in 2014 that the current law on assisted dying could be in breach of dying people's human rights, MPs failed to address these issues in 2015. 'After opening the door with its judgment in the Nicklinson case, the Supreme Court has declined to follow through, which will come as a bitter blow to those who want control over the manner and timing of their deaths.' Ms Wootton added: 'We will now turn our attention back to Parliament and demonstrate to our MPs the strength of feeling on assisted dying. 'Last time around, MPs failed in their duty to represent the views of their constituents. 'Next time, we hope they will stand up for a safer, more compassionate law that benefits dying people.' In an interview with Sky News earlier this year, he told how when he was diagnosed he said he 'felt like a condemned man awaiting execution on a date yet to be determined.' He said: 'I became aware of how agonising it must be to be someone on death row for years and years not knowing when the order will come.' He told Sky News: 'As my condition has continued to deteriorate and I have become more aware of what will happen, I have become increasingly focused on end-of-life concerns and what options are (or aren't) available to me.' 'Absurdly, the only way terminally ill people can extend our end-of-life choices is, where it is practicable, to take our own life alone at home, or rely on a loved one to help us at the end by accompanying us, if we have the means, to travel to Switzerland.' He told the broadcaster the other option 'would give me the opportunity, in my final months, to decide when the time is right for me to go and to leave this world swiftly and with dignity.' Tired of seeing their holy texts used to justify the subjugation of women, a group of feminist theologians from across the Protestant-Catholic divide have joined forces to draft 'A Women's Bible'. As the #MeToo movement continues to expose sexual abuse across cultures and industries, some scholars of Christianity are clamouring for a reckoning with biblical interpretations they say have entrenched negative images of women. The women we know from translations and interpretations of Bible texts are servants, prostitutes or saints, seen dancing for a king or kneeling to kiss Jesus' feet. But while many feminists have called for The Bible, Christianity and religion altogether to be cast aside, an eclectic group of theologians instead insists that if interpreted properly, the Good Book can be a tool for promoting women's emancipation. Geneva theology professor Lauriane Savoy holds an edition of 'A Women's Bible' which was published last October 'Feminist values and reading the Bible are not incompatible,' insisted Lauriane Savoy, one of two Geneva theology professors behind the push to draft 'Une Bible des Femmes' ('A Women's Bible'), which was published in October. The professor at the Theology Faculty in Geneva, which was established by the father of Calvinism himself in 1559, said the idea for the work came after she and her colleague Elisabeth Parmentier noticed how little most people knew or understood of the biblical texts. 'A lot of people thought they were completely outdated with no relevance to today's values of equality,' the 33-year-old told AFP, standing under the towering sculptures of Jean Calvin and other Protestant founders on the University of Geneva campus. In a bid to counter such notions, Savoy and Parmentier, 57, joined forces with 18 other woman theologians from a range of countries and Christian denominations. The scholars have created a collection of texts challenging traditional interpretations of Bible scriptures that cast women characters as weak and subordinate to the men around them. Parmentier points to a passage in the Gospel of Luke, in which Jesus visits two sisters, Martha and Mary. 'It says that Martha ensures the 'service', which has been interpreted to mean that she served the food, but the Greek word diakonia can also have other meanings, for instance it could mean she was a deacon,' she pointed out. Professors Elisabeth Parmentier (left) and Lauriane Savoy came up with the idea after noticing how little most people knew or understood of the biblical texts They are not the first to provide a more women-friendly reading of the scriptures. Already back in 1898, American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 other women drafted 'The Woman's Bible', aimed at overturning religious orthodoxy that women should be subservient to men. The two Geneva theology professors say they were inspired by that work, and had initially planned to simply translate it to French. But after determining that the 120-year-old text was too outdated, they decided to create a new work that could resonate in the 21st century. 'We wanted to work in an ecumenical way,' Parmentier said, stressing that around half the women involved in the project are Catholic and the other half from a number of branches of Protestantism. In the introduction to the 'Women's Bible', the authors said that the chapters were meant to 'scrutinise shifts in the Christian tradition, things that have remained concealed, tendentious translations, partial interpretations.' They take to task 'the lingering patriarchal readings that have justified numerous restrictions and bans on women,' the authors wrote. Savoy said that Mary Magdalene, 'the female character who appears the most in the Gospels', had been given a raw deal in many common interpretations of the texts. 'She stood by Jesus, including as he was dying on the cross, when all of the male disciples were afraid. She was the first one to go to his tomb and to discover his resurrection,' she pointed out. The two Geneva theology professors say they were inspired by American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 'Woman's Bible' which was published in 1898 'This is a fundamental character, but she is described as a prostitute, ... and even as Jesus's lover in recent fiction.' The scholars also go to great lengths to place the texts in their historical context. 'We are fighting against a literal reading of the texts,' Parmentier said, pointing for instance to letters sent by Saint Paul to nascent Christian communities. Reading passages from those letters, which could easily be construed as radically anti-feminist, as instructions for how women should be treated today is insane, she said. 'It's like taking a letter someone sends to give advice as being valid for all eternity.' The theologians' texts also approach the Bible through different themes, like the body, seduction, motherhood and subordination. The authors say they consider their work a useful tool in the age of #MeToo. 'Each chapter addresses existential questions for women, questions they are still asking themselves today,' Parmentier said. 'While some say that you have to throw out the Bible to be a feminist, we believe the opposite.' U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said late Monday night that some migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have been using women and children as 'human shields' in clashes with federal agents, confirming what U.S. Border Patrol officers and their labor union claimed hours earlier. And she said hundreds of convicted criminals including rapists and child abusers are known to be among the 'predominantly male' convoy of Central Americans who have set up camp in Tijuana, waiting to cross into California. 'It appears in some cases that the limited number of women and children in the caravan are being used by the organizers as human shields when they confront law enforcement,' Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook. President Donald Trump claimed Monday evening in Mississippi that some of the adults trying to cross the border illegally aren't related to the children who accompany them. He called them 'grabbers.' Nielsen also increased DHS's count of known convicts in the 'organized' caravan, saying: 'This is serious.' '[A]t this point we have confirmed that there are over 600 convicted criminals traveling with the caravan flow,' she said. 'This includes individuals known to law enforcement for assault, battery, drug crimes, burglary, rape, child abuse and more.' Homeland Security Secretary Kinstjen Nielsen said Monday in a lengthy statement that the mostly male migrant caravan is using women and children as human shields, and that at least 600 criminal convicts included rapists and child abusers are among them Nielsen says there are 'few' women and children in the caravan; news photographers have often focused on them Reports emerged Monday that the men throwing rocks at border patrol agents on Sunday pushed women and children in front of them to protect themselves Most media coverage about the caravan has emphasized some migrants' claims that they are fleeing violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Slavador, and plan to seek asylum status in the United States. But President Trump's top Homeland Security official said only a tiny proportion of them, about 10 per cent, will pass muster. 'Most of these migrants are seeking jobs or to join family who are already in the U.S. They have all refused multiple opportunities to seek protection in Mexico or with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency,' she said. But the result of simmering tensions and uncertain futures has driven some to 'entirely predictable' violence against the uniformed border agents whose job is to keep them on the Mexican side of border fences, according to Nielsen. 'I refuse to believe that anyone honestly maintains that attacking law enforcement with rocks and projectiles is acceptable. It is shocking that I have to explain this, but officers can be seriously or fatally injured in such attacks. Self-defense isnt debatable for most law-abiding Americans,' she said. President Trump said Monday in Gulfport, Mississippi that some 'grabbers' among the caravan migrants are taking children who are not theirs and using them as pawns to make their entry into the U.S. easier Nielsen's full statement was posted Monday night on Facebook U.S. Border Patrol helicopters flew overhead on Sunday while officers in California held vigil on foot beyond the wire fence; they fired gas canisters and winds blew the fumes southward toward the advancing crowd Nielsen's statement came hours after the top U.S. Border Patrol agent in the San Diego region, and the leader of the agents' union, both warned about 'human shield' tactics among caravan migrants as they hurled rocks and debris at officers. 'Several agents were actually struck by rocks,' Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott said in a CNN interview. 'What we saw over and over yesterday was that the group the caravan, as we call them would push women and children to the front, and then begin, basically, rocking our agents,' he claimed. Scott said three Border Patrol agents and several vehicles were struck. Agents responded with rubber bullets and canisters of pepper spray. In an afternoon Fox News interview, National Border Patrol Council president Brandon Judd backed up Scott's view that migrant men are using women and children as shields while they hurled projectiles at uniformed agents. 'The way these people rushed the border was absolutely monstrous,' Judd said. 'They pushed women and children up front. And then behind those women and children, they started throwing rocks, cement bricks, they started throwing bottles at our Border Patrol agents,' he recalled. Rodney Scott, the chief border agent in San Diego Sector Border Control, said Monday that most of the people in the migrant caravan that has reached the U.S.-Mexico border are job-seekers, not genuine asylum-seekers A caravan migrant, one of thousands traveling from Central America to the U.S. border, was photographed hurling a rock toward U.S. border patrol on Sunday National Border Patrol Council president Brandon Judd said it was 'absolutely monstrous' for caravan men to shove women and children to the front while they attacked border guards A migrant woman and her children famously captured on film fleeing tear gas in front of the Tijuana-San Diego border wall may be an example of defenseless Central Americans put in harm's way by rock-throwing men who gambled that Border Patrol wouldn't retaliate if females and minors were present Carla Provost, the chief of U.S. Border Patrol, said in a Fox News Channel interview that a large group of migrants 'were throwing rocks and bottles at my men and women, putting them in harm's way as well as other members of the caravan.' President Trump said hours later during a political rally in Tupelo, Mississippi that his administration will continue to take a hard line on migrants who try to fight or harm border guards. 'We will not tolerate any form of assault or attack upon our border agents, like happened yesterday,' he said, 'or any attempt to destroy federal property, overrun federal authorities or bring chaos and violence to American soil.' 'And if you look at what's happening along the border, you see what's happening. The mayor of Tijuana, he said, these are tough people. These people fight when you talk to them. These are tough people.' Scott claimed also on Monday that most of the migrants now waiting in Tijuana won't qualify for asylum in the U.S. because they're job-seekers, not legitimate refugees. Border Patrol chief Carla Provost, told the Fox News Channel on Monday that 'our agents were being assaulted' as video played of a caravan member hurling a rock toward the border fence An estimated 7,000 migrants have traveled 2,000 miles through the length of Mexico from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The Trump administration is defending the southern California border and insisting Mexico deport anyone trying to sneak across. Media reports have described the migrants as refugees seeking escape from repressive regimes and drug cartels. But Scott said on CNN that 'I do not believe that is true.' 'The vast majority of those, from what we call the northern triangle, they are economic migrants. They don't meet the qualifications to get asylum here,' he said. Scott acknowledged that 'they can still apply.' But the Department of Homeland Security is processing only about 100 asylum applications per day. A Honduran migrant in the caravan held a sign as he crossed from Guatemala into Mexico reading: 'Donald Trump, we are not criminals, we are workers who want to work' President Trump has commented on the frequent sight of Honduran flags among the migrants, defying conventional wisdom that they are trying to escape persecution in their home countries Applicants have to persuade an interviewer that they have a 'credible fear' of harm if they return to their homelands. The Refugee Act of 1980 lays out other criteria: They must have experienced persecution or have a reasonable expectation of persecution 'on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.' They are also expected to request asylum from federal agents when they reach U.S. soil, whether they arrive by land, air or sea. As a group of hundreds of caravan migrants stormed border fences on Sunday, dozens made it through. Scott said they evaded Border Patrol. 'What I saw on the border yesterday was not people walking up to Border Patrol agents and asking to claim asylum,' he said. Agents arrested 42 border-jumpers, including some in a group who 'passed 10 or 15 marked Border Patrol units' that were walking along the fence. 'They were chanting, waving a Honduran flag, and throwing rocks at the agents,' Scott said. 'If they were truly asylum seekers, they would have just walked up with their hands up and surrendered. And that did not take place.' Scott said Monday on CNN that migrants who managed to jump the border on Sunday tried to evade patrols, rather than turning themselves in and asking for asylum Asylum applicants must persuade American officials that they have a 'credible fear' of returning to their own countries, a task made harder when they wave those nations' flags President Donald Trump threatened to 'permanently' close the U.S.-Mexico border if members of a migrant caravan who stormed the heavily guarded fences near Tijuana aren't sent back to their Central American countries President Donald Trump has expressed doubts about the migrants' motives, underscoring on social media that people who claim to be fleeing their home countries are waving those nations' flags at the U.S.-Mexico border. 'Isnt it ironic that large Caravans of people are marching to our border wanting U.S.A. asylum because they are fearful of being in their country - yet they are proudly waving their countrys flag,' he tweeted ten days ago. 'Can this be possible? Yes, because it is all a BIG CON, and the American taxpayer is paying for it!' Trump threatened to permanently close the U.S. border with Mexico on Monday, saying he'll take the drastic action if caravan members are not deported back to their Central American homelands. Border Patrol officers fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at a group of migrants Sunday, including families with young children, as hundreds tried to storm the border. Scott told CNN that when the migrants approached border fences, they 'immediately started throwing rocks and debris at our agents, taunting our agents.' 'And once our agents were assaulted and the numbers started growing you know we had two or three agents at a time facing hundreds of people at a time they deployed tear gas to protect themselves and protect the border.' Trump has expressed doubts in the past about media reporting that framed the migrant caravan as a large number of asylum-seekers eager to leave their native countries behind The president waved as he arrived back to the White House with first lady Melania Trump on Sunday night following his Thanksgiving holiday in Palm Beach, Florida; he's taking a far tougher line than his predecessor, President Barack Obama U.S. Border Patrol officers were pelted with rocks and bottles on Sunday, and responded by firing pepper spray canisters whose output blew toward the advancing crowd Carla Provost, the chief of U.S. Border Patrol, told the Fox news Channel that 'our agents were being assaulted. A large group approached the area and they were throwing rocks and bottles at my men and women, putting them in harm's way as well as other members of the caravan.' The confrontation produced chaos and new dangers that prompted U.S. officials to close the crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, stopping everyone in their tracks including thousands travelling legally between the U.S. and Mexico. The border reopened Monday morning, but Trump tweeted a stern warning to Mexico: Deport the migrants, a horde that includes 'stone cold criminals,' or see the economically critical crossing sealed permanently. He called for Congress to fund his border wall with Mexico at a time when congressional Democrats are counting down the final weeks before they take over the House of Representatives. 'Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A.,' Trump tweeted. 'We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!' The president's ultimatum played on TV screens worldwide Monday morning, alongside images of children screaming and coughing in Sunday's mayhem at the San Ysidro Port of Entry as Border Patrol officers tried to push the surging mass of people back. A Dutch church has provided a round the clock service for asylum seekers as authorities are unable to enter during prayers. The Tamrazyan family from Armenia have been provided with over 700 hours of sanctuary by the Bethel Church in the Hague since October 26. Husband Sasun and wife Anousche and their children, Hayarpi, Warduhi, and Seyran fled the former Soviet republic nine years ago, according to Eternity News. Worshippers participating in the non-stop service which protects the Tamrazyan family Hayarpi, 21, (right) - a member of the family facing deportation - stands alongside one of the pastors during a communion service The asylum seekers had been living in special accommodation before a Dutch court ordered their deportation in September. They reached out to local congregations to help them and fled to the Bethel Church, saying they felt vulnerable to deportation at their asylum centre. Hayarpi Tamrazyan, 21, has been active on social media in rallying support for her family and has uploaded many pictures with the congregation, including local councillors. In one of her tweets last month she said: 'I can not and do not want #kinderpardon between my study and my family.' This refers to the potential 'kinder pardon' she could have applied for as a young person studying in the country, but she refused to be separated from her family. Two church leaders pass the relay candle to each other as one takes over the other in leading the service A picture has been placed on the altar where the congregation can light candles and write prayers for the family Pastors from around the Netherlands are giving sermons at the church and passing a relay candle onto each other so that the service continues. Joost Schelling, a pastor who has been helping at the church, wrote on Facebook: 'I think it is good that the churches make a statement in their own way for a fairer and also faster asylum procedure.' On Saturday Theo Hettema, who is the chairman of the Protestant Ministers' Council according to Euro News, appealed to all 'night owls' to join in the service as it begins its fifth week: 'I hope that you will be able to help us, the family and the children who are in the Netherlands who should fall under the kinderpardon.' Armenia is locked in conflict with Azerbaijan over their border and skirmishes are common; a violation of a 1994 ceasefire agreement. Although, the British Foreign Office advises against travel into this border region the rest of the country is thought to be relatively safe for tourists. A Florida man allegedly punched and squeezed a newborn baby until she died 'out of frustration' while changing her diaper. Artem Eydelman, 29, was charged with first degree murder of seven-week-old Gwendolyn Eydelman. Officers with the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office were called to a report of an unresponsive child at home in the 12000 block of 117 Street North in Largo, on November 17. Artem Eydelman (left) was charged with first -degree murder of Gwendolyn Eydelman (right) Eydelman is seen cradling baby Gwendolyn (above) in a picture he uploaded to his Facebook post a number of weeks ago Gwendolyn was not breathing when deputies arrived. Paramedics took her to John Hopkins All Childrens Hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to a statement from the sheriffs office. Doctors later told detectives that Gwendolyn had a severe skull fracture 'consistent with high-force impact', bleeding on her brain and several rib fractures which were consistent with compression. Gwendolyn was removed from life support and tragically died from her injuries on November 19, according to the sheriffs office. Eydelman, 29, was caring for Gwendolyn while her mother was at work on the day he allegedly killed her. Deputies said that while he is not Gwendolyns biological father, he signed her birth certificate when she was born. Gwendolyns 26-year-old mother told detectives that she met Eydelman when she was three months' pregnant. The suspect initially told detectives that he fed Gwendolyn and put her down in her bassinet before falling asleep in his bed. Gwendolyns mother Mariah Salmon (left) was at work when the infant was seriously assaulted Mariah Salmon is seen (above) cradling her baby at Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital where she died after sustaining life-threatening injuries Harrowing images of the infant (above) in ICU were posted on the page of a Gofundme account set up to help her mother Mariah meet costs for her memorial, cremation and other bills Detectives say Gwendolyns bassinet was located in Artem and Samons bedroom. He claimed that he returned about 15 minutes later and found Gwendolyn in her bassinet unresponsive and not breathing. Eydelman said he alerted a family member in the home and called 911. Doctors informed detectives that Gwendolyn had suffered a severe skull fracture consistent with high force impact, bleeding on the brain, and numerous rib fractures consistent with compression trauma. During the investigation, detectives said that they identified several inconsistencies in Artems statements. During the investigation, detectives said that they identified several inconsistencies in Artems statements. Through various investigative techniques, detectives learned that Artem struck Gwendolyn in the head and squeezed the childs midsection prior to the child losing consciousness on November 17, 2018. Detectives interviewed Artem at the Sheriffs Administration Building on November 26. Gwendolyn (above) suffered a severe skull fracture and numerous rib fractures Artem admitted to detectives he struck Gwendolyn in the head with a closed fist 'out of frustration' while changing her diaper on November 17, according to a police statement. He also admitted to shaking the child and squeezing the childs midsection prior to calling 911. Detectives arrested Artem and transported him to the Pinellas County Jail without incident. He was charged with one count of first degree murder, one count of Violation of Probation- Robbery by Sudden Snatching, and one count of Violation of Probation- Dealing in Stolen Property. Mariah and Eydelman are seen with baby Gwendolyn in a picture he uploaded on Facebook Mariah Salmon (right) told cops she first met the suspect when she was three months pregnant Mariah informed detectives she first met the suspect when she was three months pregnant with Gwendolyn. Artem signed Gwendolyns birth certificate when she was born. A Gofundme account has been set up to help pay for Gwendolyns memorial , cremation, future attorney bills , and the mothers household bills. Family members wrote: 'Gwen was so loved and we are so devastated. Gwen was 7 weeks old. She loved to be held, rocked, kissed on her tiny feet and bath time. 'Her favorite song was you are my sunshine, baby shark and hush little baby. She was the best baby a family could ask for. 'We never thought it would happen to us and to someone we all held so dearly to our hearts However, unfortunately it did. 'Our world has been tilted on its axis and our faith is being tested. Gwendolyns mother and is being so strong'. Jordan Douherty, 15, pictured, died after being 'kicked, stamped on and stabbed' when he was attacked by a gang outside a girl's birthday party, a court heard A 15-year-old drill rapper was kicked, stamped on and stabbed to death in an attack filmed on Snapchat at a girl's birthday party. Jordan Douherty died after being knifed while defenceless on the ground, suffering a 'catastrophic' injury. He had been chased by a group of youths outside North Romford Community Centre after the celebration, which had been 'swamped' by teenagers. The Old Bailey heard invitations to the party had also been spread by Snapchat, leading to a crowd 'far too large' attending, leading to the centre being closed. Jordan, who performed drill music under the name Young Valenti, was among those invited but was confronted by a gang outside. Jurors heard that the stand-off resulted in Jordan being chased down Clockhouse Lane before he fell over and was attacked by two 16-year-old boys and a 17-year-old, who cannot be named. Duncan Atkinson QC, prosecuting, said From this large group, a smaller number of young males surrounded Jordan at a time when he fell to the ground. The members of that smaller group proceeded to inflict punches and stamps on him.' Jurors heard the youngest of the three could be seen on CCTV making repeated stamping motions as Jordan lay helpless. The court heard one of the 16-year-olds took matters significantly further' and stabbed him twice with a knife while he was prone on the ground Mr Atkinson added: 'During the course of this group attack on the defenceless and prone Jordan Douherty, he was stabbed. At that time, Jordan posed no threat to anyone, and the use of a knife was wholly without even the beginning of a justification. The victim was knifed twice including a catastrophic wound to the heart proving quickly fatal, as well as another chest wound which made his death inevitable. Jordan, pictured, was stabbed while laying prone on the ground in Romford That significant escalation in the violence, from the taking of steps to cause serious harm to taking of steps that caused death, arose all too suddenly in the context of spontaneous group violence, Mr Atkinson said. It was the action only of the person who wielded that knife and used it to kill Jordan. Jurors heard only one of the 16-year-olds denies murder, while the other two are charged with conspiring to cause GBH to Jordan by punching and kicking him during the same attack. Mr Atkinson said: These events unfolded suddenly, unexpectedly and at considerable speed. Pictured: Forensic teams at the scene of the stabbing in Romford They were witnessed by a number of persons connected with the party, and a number of others who happened to be in the area looking out from their homes or going past. Members of the public, therefore, having to make sense of fast and shocking events, that were unfolding without any warning right in front of them. They were witnessed also by a number of police officers who had attended to disperse the large crowd that had attended the community centre. Conscious of the growing police presence and immediately realising the enormity of what he had done, jurors heard the older boy handed the knife to his friend William Nayya-Welly, 20, who the court heard has since admitted handling the alleged murder weapon. All three defendants deny playing any part in the attack on June 23. A four-year-old girl has died after falling underneath a Santa Claus float at an annual Christmas parade in Nova Scotia, eastern Canada. She had been running alongside the float during the annual Christmas Parade of Lights in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, when she ended up underneath one of them. The girl, named locally as MaCali Cormier, was rushed to hospital, but later died as a result of her injuries, officials said. Heartbreaking: The four-year-old ended up underneath one of the floats during the annual Christmas parade in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (stock image) Tragedy: The organisers of the Christmas Parade of Lights wrote on Facebook that 'we, along with the community, mourn the family's loss' Yarmouth is a port town located in southwestern Nova Scotia and has a population of some 6,500 people. The incident took place just before 7pm on Saturday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. 'She was not on the float. She was running alongside of the moving float when she fell underneath the float,' Nova Scotia RCMP Cpl. Dal Hutchinson told CBC News. 'A very tragic incident, very traumatic for everyone who was involved with the parade and at the scene,' he added. 'Words fail': Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that he had reached out to the local community in Yarmouth and offered his condolences Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had reached out to the mayor of Yarmouth to offer his condolences 'to the entire community'. 'As a parent, words fail at times like this,' The Prime Minister tweeted. 'Our thoughts are with the family of the young victim, and with everyone affected.' The organisers of the Christmas Parade of Lights wrote on Facebook that 'we, along with the community, mourn the family's loss and are praying for everyone affected. 'The focus is on coming together as a community and helping this family through a very difficult time.' A Texas wedding photographer has been arrested after she allegedly had sex with a guest at the ceremony and then urinated on a tree near the reception. Katherine Leigh Mehta, 26, has been charged with public intoxication and obstruction/retaliation. Wedding guests allegedly found Mehta, who moonlights as a bikini model, having sex with a guest in a room at the Springs Event Venue in Weatherford on Saturday. Scroll down for video Texas wedding photographer Katherine Leigh Mehta, 26, has been arrested after she allegedly had sex with a guest at the ceremony and then urinated on a tree near the reception Mehta, who moonlights as a bikini model, claims she was given spiked drinks while working at the wedding The wedding party informed an off-duty sheriff's deputy, who was working security for the ceremony, and Mehta was told her behavior was inappropriate. Mehta, who works under the professional name Max McIntyre and said she was the second place finalist for this year's Maxim Cover Girl, then allegedly went to a water fountain and began yelling at guests. When officers told her to leave the venue, she allegedly began urinating on a nearby tree. Authorities arrived at the scene around 8pm and put Mehta in a patrol car, where they said she began to threaten the officers inside. After the wedding party reported Mehta to a security officer, she was told her behavior was inappropriate and was asked to leave Mehta, who works under the professional name Max McIntyre, then allegedly went to a water fountain and began yelling at guests before urinating on a tree Authorities arrived at the scene around 8pm and put Mehta in a patrol car, where they said she began to threaten the officers inside 'Y'all families will be dead by Christmas, y'all's daughters are dead,' she told the cops, according to the Star-Telegram. 'My dad is going to find out about this, and y'all are (expletive) dead. D-E-A-D,' she continued. Officers found a prescription bottle of Xanax in Mehta's jacket and believe she mixed it with alcohol (file photo) After they arrived at Parker County Jail, officers found a prescription bottle of Alprazolam - sold under the trade name Xanax - in Mehta's jacket pocket. The prescription, which is used to treat anxiety and panic disorders, was in her name. Investigators said they believe Mehta mixed the Xanax with accohol. She was released on Sunday after she posted $10,738 bail. Mehta's sister said the photographer claims she fell ill while working at the wedding after she was unknowingly given spiked drinks. 'She said she went outside, and she said these two men tried to approach her and do inappropriate things,' Mehta's sister told WFAA. 'And she said she was yelling and trying to get help, and things got turned around in a negative way.' Mehta's sister said the photographer claims she fell ill while working at the wedding after she was unknowingly given spiked drinks The death of a U.S. Army Ranger from Washington killed over the weekend while fighting al Queda in Afghanistan was likely the result of an accidental friendly fire by Afghan partner forces, according to military officials. In a statement to ABC News by the NATO-led training mission, Resolute Support, an initial review of Sgt. Leandro Jasso's death found he 'was likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force.' 'There are no indications he was shot intentionally,' the statement added of the 25-year-old's death. The November 24 incident occurred in Nimroz Province, in western Afghanistan, during a joint U.S-Afghan assault on al Qaeda positions. Jasso was struck by small arms fire and was immediately evacuated to the nearest medical treatment facility. He later died of his wounds. Army Sgt. Leandro A.S. Jasso, 25, (pictured right in uniform, and with friend, Paige Robertson left) was killed during combat operations in Afghanistan on Saturday. It was his third tour in the country since 2012 'The loss of Sgt. Jasso is felt by his family and loved ones, by all who served with him and by all on this mission to protect our country and our allies,' said General Scott Miller, the commander of Resolute Support and United States Forces in Afghanistan. 'Early interviews indicate the tragic accident occurred when the partnered force became engaged in a close-quarter battle during an assault on one of multiple barricaded al Qaeda shooters,' the statement added. 'Sgt. Jasso was killed defending our nation, fighting al Qaeda alongside our Afghan partners,' Gen. Miller added. Washington Governor Jay Inslee released a statement regarding the Leavenworth native's death, 'we are profoundly grateful for his service and sacrifice.' Members of the U.S. military carry a transfer case covered with an American flag during a dignified transfer for fallen service member, Army Ranger Sgt. Leandro Jasso in Dover, Delware According to the Department of Defense, Jasso, 25, of Leavenworth, Washington, died November 24 during combat operations fighting al Qaeda in Helmand province, Afghanistan According to the United States Forces, Jasso's death was accidental. Washington Governor Jay Inslee released a statement regarding the Leavenworth native's death, 'we are profoundly grateful for his service and sacrifice' 'Sgt. Jasso was a humble professional who placed the mission first, lived the Ranger Creed and will be deeply missed,' said Lt. Col. Rob McChrystal, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. 'All of us, and throughout our coalition of 41 nations, recognize the threats posed by groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS and are determined to fight them here, Gen. Miller added. He was on his third deployment to Afghanistan after enlisting in the Army in 2012. As news of Jasso's death spread through Leavenworth, former teachers and friends recalled a quiet young man who enjoyed the discipline and experiences the Army provided, the Seattle Times reported . They said everyone seemed to have a connection to the soldier in the Chelan County city of about 2,000 people. 'You hear the stories of kids enlisting and going off to war and then losing their life, but it really hits home with us, being a small town,' said Elia Ala'ilima-Daley, principal of Cascade High School, where Jasso graduated in 2012 just before he headed off to Afghanistan. 'Everybody knows everyone.' Andrea Brixey, a Cascade High teacher, had Jasso in her seventh-grade English class and said he liked to challenge the norms but never in a disrespectful way. She got an initial taste of that when, on the first day of school, he called her 'Andrea' instead of 'Ms. Brixey.' 'He wasn't busy being a ringleader and trying to torment me. That was just how he rolled,' Brixey said. 'He was never disruptive or difficult, but he always questioned authority on every level. But once he got the answers, he was the best kid to have on your team.' Army spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer said Sunday that Jasso (pictured in 2012) was wounded by small arms fire and was immediately treated and evacuated to the nearest medical treatment facility, where he died of his wounds Jasso enlisted in August 2012, about three months after graduating high school. Brixey said he told her it seemed like the smartest option with the most benefit. He was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, before his assignment to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and deployments. The Army seemed to suit him, according to Ala'ilima-Daley and Brixey. He liked traveling and meeting people from other parts of the world. But he didn't talk about his time in war. 'He didn't speak overtly about being in dangerous situations, but if you asked, he would make significant, unblinking eye contact,' Brixey said. 'The things he didn't say spoke volumes.' Cascade High School will hold a moment of silence Monday. City leaders also are considering other ways to honor Jasso, Ala'ilima-Daley said. 'We are in mourning, but we want to bring our community together,' he said. A popular Chinese news aggregation app is offering cash rewards of up to 3,000 yuan (338) to writers who debunk fake news and rumours. Jinri Toutiao, whose name means 'Today's Headlines', launched the project on Monday. The campaign aims to clean up its platform from information deemed inappropriate amid Beijing's ongoing industry-wide crackdown on Internet content. The 'clean-up' campaign, named '100', targets any content deemed inappropriate, including vulgarity, pornography, gambling, religious proselytising and rumours. The initiative will reward 100 best articles that quash rumours, Toutiao said. The Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. headquarters stands in Beijing. It developed Chinese news aggregation app Jinri Toutiao, which means 'Today's Headlines'. Toutiao has launched a 'clean up' campaign where writers who debunk fake news and rumours are rewarded with cash Using machine learning, the Toutiao app gathers information from media outlets and recommend its 120 million daily readers content in a variety of formats such as texts, images, videos, microblogs based on their locations, click and browser history. 'We would like to invite our society and platform users to serve as supervisors and participate in the governance of internet platforms,' the Beijing-based platform said in an article on Monday. The rewards range from 300 yuan (34) to 3,000 yuan (338). Toutiao is owned by ByteDance Technology, a developer of a suite of popular content apps including video-sharing platform TikTok. The news app has garnered 120 million daily active users, who spend an average of around 70 minutes a day on the app, according to a previous China Daily report. Zhang Yiming, founder and CEO of Jinri Toutiao previously said the news app would 'correct the flaws' in its algorithms and expand its vetting team from 6,000 to 10,000 people China keeps the internet under tight control and has cracked down on 'harmful' information In April, Toutiao was temporarily banned from listing on app stores for three weeks due to hosting 'obscene content'. In a public apology, chief executive Zhang Yiming previously said the app would 'correct the flaws' in its algorithms and expand its vetting team from 6,000 to 10,000 people. It will also permanently ban creators whose content was 'against community values'. China keeps the internet under tight control and has been cracking down on a range of illicit and 'harmful' information. Earlier this month, the media regulator said people can be rewarded with up to 600,000 (67,000) yuan for reporting pornographic and 'illegal' publications - online or print, starting December 1. What counts as 'illegal' content in China is broadly defined, but includes work that 'endangers national unity', 'leaks state secrets', and 'disturbs social order' - umbrella terms that are also sometimes used when authorities punish or silence Chinese dissidents and rights campaigners. China is raising its reward to encourage citizens to report pornographic content (file photo) The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it had 'cleaned up' 9,800 accounts on Chinese social media platforms which it accused of spreading 'politically harmful' information and rumours. Authorities announced in September that they had bust a live-streaming pornography platform hosted in Cambodia and said to have more than 3.5 million registered users. A postgraduate student in Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi Province, was interrogated by police and given a 200 yuan (22) fine after using software to view 'overseas' website. Beijing has blocked a number of popular western websites - including Google, Facebook and YouTube - in mainland China using the so-called the 'Great Firewall' as part of its effort to censor media content. Welsh Assembly member Carl Sargeant, 49, was found hanged at the family home in Connah's Quay, North Wales, last year A politician who was found hanged amid sexual misconduct claims had told a friend the allegations were not true after he was sacked from the Welsh government, an inquest has heard. Carl Sargeant, 49, was found dead at the family home in Connah's Quay, North Wales, by his wife Bernadette on November 7 last year, four days after he was sacked from his role as cabinet secretary for communities and children by Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones. A note Mr Sargeant left next to his body, addressed to his wife, children and family and friends, apologised for letting them down and said they did not deserve 'adverse publicity'. An inquest into his death today heard he had spoken to Stephen Jones, a former researcher and special adviser, shortly after his sacking. Stephen Jones said in a statement that Mr Sargeant had texting him, saying he needed to speak about 'bad s***'. Mr Jones said: 'Carl then rang me. He had been sacked from the government because of allegations relating to inappropriate conduct made against him by women. 'He told me he did not know what the allegations were about, nor who they had been made by.' Mr Sargeant's wife Bernie and his son Jack have been attending an inquest into his death In a second call, Mr Jones said Mr Sargeant had told him: 'Carwyn told him not to go public about his sacking, they would handle it over the weekend.' Mr Jones asked his friend if there was 'any truth' in the allegations. His statement continued: 'He said quite emphatically "No". He said he did not know what he, Carwyn, was alleging.' The inquest at Ruthin County Hall heard evidence that Mr Sargeant had been told not to speak about the reasons for his sacking in the Welsh Government cabinet reshuffle. But after being relieved of his government job, Mr Sargeant had tweeted about the allegations against him and vowed to clear his name. Mr Jones's statement said the day after Mr Sargeant's death he had a conversation with Ken Skates, a Welsh Assembly Member, about the First Minister's reaction to Mr Sargeant speaking publicly about the reasons for his sacking. Mr Jones's statement read: 'Ken said he, Carwyn Jones, was f****** furious.' The inquest was told that Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones was 'furious' about Mr Sargeant's public statement following his sacking Coroner for North Wales, John Gittins, told the court he had received an email from Mr Skates in which he said he had seen Mr Jones's statement and that he had been named and quoted, and he was 'concerned about the accuracy'. In a statement from Mr Skates read to the hearing, he said he was a colleague and friend of Mr Sargeant. It went on: 'I had a sense there was something wrong with his mental health for years. I had worked out from the way he was acting that he was struggling. 'Carl started asking me more and more about dealing with mental health issues. I came to believe Carl's emotional health was not right. 'He told me he had taken up knitting as a form of mindfulness. 'From working with Carl, I believe Carl had been struggling mentally for a long time before his death and had not been able to resolve his issues.' The inquest continues. For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See Samaritans.org for details. Dr Ashu Joshi, 46, (pictured) is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl, getting her pregnant and exchanging nude photos and videos with her on social media A 46-year-old Missouri doctor arrested last month on child pornography charges, was in a relationship with the 16-year-old daughter of a patient who he had got pregnant and was planning to marry. US attorneys office investigator Donya Jackson said during a detention hearing that suspended SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital internist Dr. Ashu Joshi met the victim while treating her mother. The 16-year-old Kentucky resident originally wanted to talk to Joshi about pursuing a career in medicine in the future. She then became his babysitter before the two began having sex. Jackson told the court on October 26 that the girl's mother was aware they were 'dating' but did not want them having sex. The 16-year-old admitted to police that her mother's doctor 30 years her senior was the father of her unborn baby, and that he had proposed marriage to her. A transcript of the hearing was made public November 15, when Joshi was released from jail after posting $10,000 bail and agreeing to have no contact with the teen, reported St Louis Post-Dispatch. The SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital internist (left and right) was arrested in October after investigators were tipped off by Facebook about his exchanges with a minor He has pleaded not guilty to charges of producing and receiving of child pornography and transporting a minor across state lines for sex. Joshi was arrested in early October after Facebook contacted the FBI saying the 16-year-old girl had sent 333 files to Joshi via private messages. The social media giant then turned over that content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. During a police investigation, Joshi was reportedly found to be in possession of hundreds of pornographic images and videos of the minor some of which depicted the two of them together in the nude. Their online conversations also include discussions concerning marriage and sex, according to the lead investigator's testimony. When interviewed by police, the 16-year-old reportedly said she and the doctor had sex inside his apartment in St Louis County on two separate occasions. Joshi was released from jail earlier this month after posting $10,000 bail and agreeing to have no contact with the teen According to the US News and World Report, Joshi earned his medical degree from Ghandi Medical College in India and completed his residency at SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn. He has a board certification and has been practicing medicine for more than 20 years. SSM Health last month released a statement calling the allegations against Joshi 'shocking' and pledging cooperating with the authorities. SSM Health holds the health and safety of our patients as our top priority and we take matters like this very seriously, the statement read. Bakari Henderson, 22, (pictured) was savagely beaten to death by the group of men in Laganas on the party island Zakynthos in 2017 Greek prosecutors have ordered the retrial of seven men who were last week cleared of murdering an American tourist in 2017 despite being filmed beating him to death in a sickening attack that started when he took a selfie with a waitress. Bakari Henderson, 22, was savagely beaten to death by the group of men in Laganas on the party island Zakynthos in 2017. Six of the men are Serbian and one is Serbian with British citizenship. They attacked him after watching him take a selfie with a Serbian waitress in a bar. Moments before chasing him out of the night club to beat him in the street, one of the men asked the woman: 'There are a lot of Serbs in the bar. Why are you talking to a black guy?' Last week, the six Serbian men were convicted of assault but none were convicted of murder over Henderson's beating death. Instead, the men currently face sentences of between five and 15 years for the assault charges. Scroll down for video Three of the six men who were convicted over his death last week in Patras, Greece. None of their names have been released. They were all convicted of assault, not murder, and were given sentences of between five and 15 years imprisonment Another of the two men are shown being escorted into the courtroom in Patras, Greece, last week. They high fived when they were given their lenient sentences The sixth suspect is pictured being led into court by two Greek police officers. Moments before the attack, one of the men asked the waitress Bakari had been speaking to why she was talking to a black men when there were so many Serbs in the bar at the time. She was Serbian Henderson's family, who had traveled from their home in Austin, Texas, to attend the proceedings in Patras, denounced the verdict and said afterwards that it proved a man's life 'meant nothing in Greece'. Now, a prosecutor has called on a more senior panel of judges to pursue murder charges against the seven men. None of them have ever been named publicly. After last week's verdict, they high-fived and smiled. The British man who has Serbian heritage was jailed for 15 years. One of the Serb suspects was sentenced to 10 years, three received seven-year sentences and one other a five-year sentence. This is the moment that Henderson was attacked by the group of Serbian men outside the restaurant The court dropped charges against three other suspects, including the Greek barman who had been accused of blocking Henderson's escape route but not of participating in the beating. 'I don't feel that it was justice for a murder,' Bakari's mother Jill said afterwards 'It was more than a simple beating that killed a man and they killed him brutally. They kicked him several times in the head. 'You do not kick a person in the head and in the torso if you don't intend to kill them,' she said. The Hendersons' lawyer, Andreas Patsis, said the family viewed the outcome as too lenient on the perpetrators. 'It's a decision that shocked the family. Because, according to our opinion and the prosecutor ... the sentences handed out weren't proportionate to the brutality of the act,' Patsis said. His mother, Jill Henderson, said: 'You should not be able to chase a man down and beat him to death and not go to jail.' The men punched and kicked him repeatedly for 20 seconds until a woman passer-by stepped in and told them to stop. Bakari's parents Jill and Phil Henderson flew to Greece to attend the hearings. They were dismayed by the outcome and said the men should have been convicted of murder Bakari, shown left in yellow and right, with a female friend, was a college graduate and aspiring fashion designer who had gone to Greece for a photo shoot which he hoped would kick start his career The barman was released from prison, where he had been held in pretrial detention since his arrest last year. The other two whose charges were dropped had been released on bail and had returned to Serbia. Henderson was an aspiring fashion designer and graduate of the University of Arizona in Tucson where he studied Business Finance and Entrepreneurship. His family said at the time that he had gone to Greece for a photo shoot which he hoped would kick start his career. After being repeatedly kicked and punched in the head for around 20 seconds, the mob left Henderson bleeding in the street. He was taken away on a stretcher five minutes later and was pronounced dead in hospital not long afterwards. Bode Miller has opened up about the six month anniversary of his toddler daughter's drowning death which coincided with the arrival of his son Easton. Miller's one-year-old daughter Emmy drowned in their neighbor's swimming pool in June. His wife, Morgan Beck, was pregnant with their fourth child at the time. On October 5, she gave birth. The baby weighed 9lbs and 9oz and was nameless for three weeks until his parents finally came to a decision. On Tuesday, Olympic star Miller, 41, revealed the name - Easton Vaughn Rek Miller - and spoke openly about how the joy his birth has brought to the family has helped he and his wife cope with the agonizing grief of losing Emmy. He told Today: 'If there's one thing that can kind of help to heal and fill that spot in your heart it's a baby and he's a special one so it's been, besides the lack of sleep, it's been a really nice process to be able to go through. Scroll down for video Bode Miller (left with his daughter Emmeline who died in June) revealed on Tuesday how the recent birth of his son, Easton Vaughn Rek Miller, on October 5th (right), had helped his family heal Miller, 41, said on Tuesday that Easton's arrival helped 'fill that spot in your heart' and had brought joy back to the family since Emmy's death 'There is a blessing to being so busy in a way. Your days go by really slow because they're just, a lot of stuff and the kids and that kind of emotional strain is still there but then the months just fly by. 'I think any parent can relate to that. 'It's just unbelievable, it's been six months since we lost Emmy and at the same time seven weeks already for Easton and it's, we see the path forward a little bit, it's just keeping going and trying to stay positive. 'It's not easy, I don't think it gets that much easier,' he said, adding that his other children still talk about their late sister 'all the time'. Miller and Beck have one other son together, a three-year-old called Nash. They also have custody of his five-year-old son Sam who was born in 2013 and whose mother is Miller's ex-girlfriend Anna McKenna. The skier also has a 10-year-old daughter, Neesyn, with Chanel Johnson, another former girlfriend. Sam and Nash live with him and Beck in the Coto de Caza home where Emmy lived. New joy: Miller said Easton, who was named after the New Hampshire town he grew up in, was a 'special baby' Miller's wife Morgan Beck was five months pregnant with Easton when Emmy died in June. They are pictured together, left, days before the toddler drowned Beck shared this heartbreaking photograph on Instagram earlier this year when Emmy died. She has since told how she did not know how she would bring another baby into the world while mourning her daughter Miller and Beck have been open about Emmy's death in an effort to educate other parents about the dangers of drowning 'The kids talk about her all the time which I think is really good but obviously hard too, I mean we have to. 'She is everywhere in our house, you notice it. You feel the loss but she's still a part of our family,' he said. Easton was born at home and was nameless for three weeks, his father revealed. 'We got all kinds of criticism for it but it's just kind of the way. 'If you go in the hospital, you can't leave [without a name] but home birth you can do whatever you want to so all the kids were going to school and everyone's like, "what's his name?" and we were like, "we don't really have one we just call him baby brother." 'It just kind of took us three weeks but I think once we got to know him it was really clear,' he said. He is named after the town of Easton in New Hampshire where Miller grew up. His mother is not a fan of his two middle names, Rek, but allowed Miller to 'push it through', he said. Beck shared this photograph of an ultrasound of Easton earlier this year and said she thought it showed a 'guardian angel' - Emmy - in the frame She also shared this photograph of Easton after his birth in October but at the time he had no name Since their daughter's death, Miller and Beck have campaigned avidly to increase awareness of water safety. One of the things he is most eager to boost is the amount of information given to parents by pediatricians about how quickly young children can drown. 'We wanted to try to affect change, all statistics won't probably reflect the right stuff for years but we definitely noticed just the awareness. 'My call to action was always for people to address it with their pediatricians, that was the missing link. 'I'd never heard about it from a pediatrician and I'd gone to so many...It was a little bit ridiculous that the number one thing had never been brought up. 'Just bring it up,' he said. Beck previously said she thought Emmy was watching over Easton like a guardian angel. When she shared photographs from his birth in October, she included one of an ultrasound which she said showed Emmy's presence. An Indiana man charged with neglect in the death of a malnourished nine-year-old boy suffering from cerebral palsy has reached a plea agreement in the case. Hubert Kraemer, 58, one of Cameron Hoopingarner's legal guardians, was expected to go on trial in October on nine charges, including neglect of a dependent resulting in death. He is now scheduled to appear on December 14 in Vigo Superior Court. Under the conditions of the agreement with the prosecution, Kraemer will plead guilty to lesser counts, among them neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. Hubert Kraemer, 58 (left), has agreed to plead guilty to less charges in the 2017 starvation death of Cameron Hoopingarner (right), the special-needs boy in his wife's care Hubert's wife, Robin Kraemer, Cameron's primary caregiver, is serving more than 36 years in prison after being convicted in September 2017 (pictured outside of court) The plea deal does not specify the length of his sentences for each count, but they all must run concurrently, according to The Tribune-Star. Kraemer also will receive credit for time served in jail since his February 2017 arrest. The victim, Cameron Hoopingarner, was blind and weighed less than 15lbs when officers found him at the family's home near Fontanet, Indiana, on February 21. Police and paramedics, responding to reports of a cardiac arrest, rushed him to hospital but the little boy died a few hours later. Kraemer's wife, 54-year-old Robin Kraemer, the boy's primary caregiver from the time he was three days old, is serving more than 36 years in prison after being convicted of neglect of a dependent resulting in death in September 2017. The Kraemers' adult son. Chad (left), and the son's girlfriend, Sarah Travioli (right), earlier pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent in Cameron's death Guardians: Robin Lee Kraemer (left), 53, and Hubert Kraemer (right), 56, were both charged in Cameron's death An autopsy report showed that Cameron had trace amounts of methamphetamine in his system, likely from second-hand smoke, when he went into cardiac arrest and died. A pathologist testified during Robin Kraemer's trial last year that Cameron was malnourished but wasn't dehydrated, didn't have bedsores and his teeth had been regularly cleaned. Sheriff Greg Ewing described the neglect case as 'beyond terrible' and compared photos of the emaciated child to images of Holocaust victims at the Auschwitz death camp. It makes me mad that somebody could do this to a child, let alone a child that has physical handicaps and is blind, who was given to a guardian to take care of, he told reporters. And this is how he gets treated? This is what he deserves? To be starved to death? What kind of animals are they? Chad Kraemer is seen with Travioli and the woman's two children (pictured above) The child's primary caretaker testified in her own defense that she felt 'over her head' looking after the severely disabled, non-verbal boy, which entailed giving hims daily massages, and admitted to smoking methamphetamine days before he died. The Kraemers' adult son, Chad, earlier pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent and failure to report child abuse. He is set to be released from prison in 2021. Chad's girlfriend, Sarah Travioli, also pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent. Her release date is listed at August 2019. Chad Kraemer and Sarah Travioli's two children, a 5-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, who were found inside the home were taken into protective custody, reported the station WTHI-TV. In photos shared on the couples Facebook pages, both children appear healthy and well fed. To their family and friends, Michelle Avila and Christian Kent seemed like a walking advertisement for the perfect Orange County couple. They were Newport Beach natives, with the sun-kissed blonde hair and surfing skills to prove it. But then one morning Michelle, 23, and Christian, 20, were found dead from a drug overdose in her childhood bed. Their shocking deaths have shattered their families and highlighted the growing problem of opioid addiction in the affluent beach community. Michelle Avila, 23, and Christian Kent, 20, were found dead from a drug overdose in her childhood bed in the affluent Orange County community of Newport Beach Michelle and Christian's shocking deaths have shattered their families and highlighted the growing problem of opioid addiction in the affluent beach community On the night before their death on October 14, the couple had been at a party at a friend's house. Her parents said Michelle didn't 'party too much', choosing instead to spend her time with Christian and their close group of friends in the area. Michelle and Christian had both been sick with a cold and were taking antibiotics. She told her parents Paulo and Adriana Avila that she didn't plan to drink that night. After they came back home around 12.30am, Michelle wished her mother good night and laid out her clothes for a 6am shift at a Newport Beach coffee shop where she worked. When Adriana came home from work at 4pm that day, she found the couple dead in bed. 'Two beautiful kids,' Paulo told Coast Report Online. 'It was like Romeo and Juliet.' 'They both died and they were hugging each other.' It will take months for Michelle and Christian's toxicology reports to be completed, but Paulo is certain they died from a drug overdose after talking to police and experts. On the night before their death, the couple (pictured here on a vacation) went to a party before wishing her parents good night. Hours later, her mother found them both dead in bed It will take months for Michelle and Christian's toxicology reports to be completed, but Michelle's family is certain they died from a drug overdose after talking to police and experts Still, he told the Orange County Register that right now he has more questions than answers. 'What happened to those kids?' he asked. 'What did they do? What happened to get to that point?' Paulo and Adriana moved Michelle and her sister to Newport Beach when they were young, thinking it would be a safer place for their girls then Los Angeles. Michelle had been a star student growing up, once even receiving a letter from President George W Bush to honor her achievements. She had spent the last few years traveling across Bali, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Japan and Brazil before she began modeling and studying communications at Orange Coast College and moved back to her parents' home to save money. Paulo said Michelle and Christian planned to transfer to California State University, Long Beach together after the spring. She dreamed of being a journalist Michelle's father said the couple tragically died in each other's arms 'like Romeo and Juliet' Paulo said she and Christian planned to transfer to California State University, Long Beach together after the spring. She dreamed of being a journalist. 'She was going to follow her sister,' he said. 'She loved writing, she loved to write, she loved speech.' 'She was an old soul,' her mother added. 'Always with her coffee, her writing, poems, her pictures, her words.' Michelle was known for writing down lyrics or phrases that caught her eye. She was especially drawn to the phrase 'life is a gamble', which was tattooed on her arm and written in her Instagram bio. Michelle had been a star student, once even receiving a letter from President George W Bush to honor her achievements, and traveled across the world after graduating high school Family said that Michelle and Christian fell in love quickly, dating for a year before he moved to San Diego for college Family said that Michelle and Christian fell in love quickly after they first met at a coffee shop where she worked, dating for a year before he moved to San Diego for college. Michelle frequently posted photos of the couple on Instagram, sharing their various trips together and frequent outings to the beach. 'Today I had to say goodbye for now, to my best friend and partner in crime,' Michelle wrote in a loving tribute to her boyfriend on Instagram in August. 'I remember the day you came into my work, smiled at me with those eyes and asked me for my number. You found me at just the right time, andlife has been one hell of a ride since!' 'It's crazy how two souls can connect so deeply and quickly. You are so special and smart and gonna kill it at university!' Michelle had laid out her clothes for a 6am shift at the Newport Beach coffee shop where she worked on the night she died Michelle died just a month shy of her 24th birthday. She was modeling and studying communications at the time of her death 'Can't wait for some more amazing memories to be made.' A month before they died, Michelle posted another tribute to Christian. 'Waking up next to you is such a good feeling,' she wrote. 'Like all my worries and problems have drifted far away, and the only thing that matters is being in your arms and enjoying the moment as much as I can, because I know it won't last.' 'Something I have learned is how to enjoy the now, because nothing in life lasts.' Now it is loved ones who are writing tributes to Michelle and Christian. 'I wish I could yell at you and tell you how hard it has been,' Michelle's sister Nicole wrote on what would have been her 24th birthday. Michelle frequently posted photos of the couple on Instagram, sharing their various trips together and frequent outings to the beach A month before they died, Michelle posted a tribute to Christian. 'Like all my worries and problems have drifted far away, and the only thing that matters is being in your arms' OPIOIDS IN AMERICA: BY THE NUMBERS Opioid prescriptions are going down across the US, but overdoses are not. Last year, the rate of opioid overdose deaths hit a record high, with around 200 Americans dying every day, according to new figures, published by the DEA in July. US Health Secretary Alex Azar insists the tide has turned this year. However, doctors warn the boom in prescriptions flooded the market with unused pills, some of which may have made it onto the black market. An in-depth analysis of 2016 US drug overdose data shows that America's overdose epidemic is spreading geographically and increasing across demographic groups. Drug overdoses killed 63,632 Americans in 2016. Nearly two-thirds of these deaths involved a prescription or illicit opioid. Overdose deaths increased in all categories of drugs examined for men and women, people ages 15 and older, all races and ethnicities, and across all levels of urbanization. The Orange County Health Agency found that there has been an 88 percent of drug overdose deaths between 2000 and 2015. Half of those deaths were due to accidental prescription drug overdoses. Seven out of every 10 overdose deaths between 2011 and 2015 involved opioids. Source: CDC, Orange County Health Agency Advertisement 'You're supposed to care for what God gave you, and she was God's gift,' Paulo said. 'That's what's eating me, from inside out. How come I failed? It just destroys me.' Andeaux Borunda said that Christian was a 'genuine' soul who was always there to lend a helping hand 'in times of worry'. 'In the moments when you felt the world was spinning backwards, he would help you move forward,' Brounda wrote in a tribute for What Youth. 'He roamed the coast in a '72 baby blue Volkswagen Squareback. Girls would whistle, and he would howl back. So, the thing actually solved more problems than it had. He was "The Boy."' 'At his house he sat down and played a vintage, blonde Stratocaster whose fingers who could tell a million stories. He was the guitar man.' 'You're supposed to care for what God gave you, and she was God's gift,' Paulo Avila said of his daughter. 'That's what's eating me, from inside out. How come I failed? It just destroys me' Andeaux Borunda said that Christian was a 'genuine' soul who was always there to lend a helping hand 'in times of worry' The Orange County Health Agency found that there has been an 88 percent of drug overdose deaths between 2000 and 2015 The Orange County Health Agency found that there has been an 88 percent of drug overdose deaths between 2000 and 2015. Half of those deaths were due to accidental prescription drug overdoses. Seven out of every 10 overdose deaths between 2011 and 2015 involved opioids. 'Parents need to know their kids are not safe,' Paulo said. 'This is the proof that what looks perfect, is not perfect.' Michelle's sister has since started a GoFundMe campaign, and Paulo hopes to use the funds to start a program to educate young people about drug use. 'My mission is to send a message,' he said. 'To show how beautiful people can go through something like that.' 'You're protected by nothing.' 'Parents need to know their kids are not safe,' Paulo said. 'This is the proof that what looks perfect, is not perfect' A British radio presenter was murdered and found with his hands tied behind his back at his apartment in Lebanon, according to sources in the country. Gavin Ford, who hosted a popular radio show on Radio One Lebanon, was discovered dead at his apartment in the mountainous town of Beit Mery, just outside Beirut on Tuesday morning. A police source confirmed to the Daily Star Lebanon that he had been murdered and his body was found covered in blood and his car was stolen. Annahar reported Ford's hands were bound behind his back when he was found by officers. An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media, said Ford's body was found Tuesday. LBC TV said Ford was strangled and struck on the head. According to posts on his Facebook Mr Ford celebrated his birthday on Monday - the day before he was found dead. Gavin Ford was famous as the host of 'Gavin Ford in the Morning', said to be Lebanon's most listened to breakfast show 'Massage, Moroccan bath and scrubbing. The perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday': Gavin Ford last posted on his Instagram three days before he was found dead Mr Ford - a former pirate radio DJ - was celebrated across the country for his breakfast radio show. He was found dead on Tuesday After failing to show up to work on Monday, his concerned colleagues contacted the police who then entered his home and found him bound. Ford had lived and worked in Lebanon for over 20 years and had been hosting his daily slot for over a decade, having joined in 1996. Radio One Lebanon confirmed his death in a statement on the station's Facebook page on Tuesday. 'We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear friend and colleague Gavin Ford,' the post read. 'The management and team express our deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues. May his soul rest in peace.' Police said Ford's body was discovered at his apartment in the suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday morning Ford had lived in Lebanon for decades having first moved there in the 1990s after working on a radio ship Under Ford's leadership, his Radio One show was said to have transformed into 'Lebanon's most listened to breakfast show'. Ford joined the network in 1995, hosting his popular breakfast show 'Gavin Ford in the Morning'. He graduated from the National Broadcasting School in London and had his first job at a tourist station in Italy. He then went on to work at Radio Caroline, one of Britain's famous radio ships, presenting The Breakfast Show; he quit because of the 'constant storms.' The radio host then moved to Normandy, France, to join Contact 94; and on to Galaxy Radio in Bristol, England, and then Napa FM in Cyprus. It was later that he joined Radio One in Lebanon, where he presented Gavin Ford in the Morning, 'Lebanon's most listened to breakfast show.' The British Embassy in Beirut told the Daily Star 'staff are providing assistance to his family'. A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We are in contact with the Lebanese authorities following reports of the death of a British man in Beirut, and our staff are providing assistance to his family'. Radio One Lebanon confirmed his death in a statement on the station's Facebook page on Tuesday A pharmacist searched online for how long it takes to die from strangulation before he murdered his wife when she refused to have a baby he wanted to raise with his gay lover, a court heard. Mitesh Patel, 37, of Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, strangled his wife with a Tesco bag for life after she said she didn't want to go through with IVF because she knew he was being unfaithful with men, it is alleged. Giving evidence today, Patel admitted that he should never have married his wife Jessica, 34, because his feelings for other men were so strong. Despite that he was desperate to have a baby with her - but was planning to murder her once the child was born and collect a 2million life insurance payout, jurors were told. It is alleged that he then planned to leave the UK with the child to be with his lover Amit Patel, a doctor living in Sydney, Australia. Mitesh Patel, 37, of Middlesbrough, strangled his wife (pictured together) with a Tesco bag for life after she said she didn't want to go through with IVF However he brought forward his plan to kill Jessica when she refused to be implanted with two fertilised embryos the couple had frozen in a fertility clinic, Teesside Crown Court was told. A jury heard how Patel gave Amit Patel notice of when he planned to kill her, telling him in an imessage: 'Hi baby. Ten days.' In the days leading up to strangling his wife with a ligature on May 14 this year at their home, Patel watched a video on YouTube entitled: 'How long does it take to a person to die from strangulation.' Prosecutor Nicholas Campbell has previously told the jury that Patel planned for Jessica to have their child and to murder her, asking his lover in a message: 'Will you love it as your own?' It is alleged that Patel (right with his wife) planned to leave the UK with the child to be with his lover Amit Patel, a doctor living in Sydney, Australia. Pictured left: Jessica Patel But as Patel took the stand in his own defence, Mr Campbell suggested Mrs Patel refused to complete their fourth cycle of IVF because she did not want to bring up a child with a man she knew was being unfaithful with men. Mr Campbell said to Patel: 'The night when you and Jessica last spoke about IVF she had told you 'Mitesh I am no longer going ahead with having a child with you because you have not changed your ways and there is no way I am going to have a child by you.' That is what I suggest your wife said to you.' Patel replied: 'No that is not true.' Mr Campbell went on: 'I suggest from that time onwards the plan you had already made up in your mind to kill her was brought forward.' On May 2 Patel messaged Amit in Australia at 5.47am and told him: 'Hi baby. Ten days.' The couple's home in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, where Jessica was found dead The prosecution say that is when he intended to kill Jessica, who in fact was murdered 12 days later on May 14. Mrs Patel, who had known Patel since childhood from the West Yorks Hindu community they were both raised in, knew of his relationship with Amit Patel from as far back as 2012. She was also aware of him meeting men for casual sex through the Grindr dating app. In July 2017 she had previously refused to go through with their third cycle of IVF because he was having sex with men. She eventually relented under pressure from her husband but the attempt failed. Patel said that he and his wife had watched the strangulation video together on March 6, two months and eight days before she was strangled to death in exactly the same way. The Roman Road pharmacy in Middlesbrough where the couple worked He told the jury: 'I have sat for six and a half months every day in that prison cell and thought among many many things, 'how ironic is this that we did look at that and the cause of Jess's death was that? 'Anyone sitting there would be thinking what on earth is going on here?' At around the same time Patel was searching, 'Can 3mm of insulin kill?' which he claimed was related to his work in the Roman Road pharmacy he and Jess ran near their home. He also searched 'How to complete a coroner's report,' which he claimed was in relation to the death of his grandmother two months earlier. He accepted under questioning that his grandmother's death did not involve a coroner however. He also searched 'Hindu funerals for a murdered woman' and was looking at properties for sale and rent in Australia. He claimed that he and his wife had discussed moving there, although no similar searched were found on her devices. Patel told the court that he should not have gone through with his wedding to Jessica in 2009 because he knew he was having feelings for other men. He told the court that he met Amit Patel through Grindr in 2012 and that they had a sexual relationship which became a 'close friendship' following Amit's marriage, subsequent divorce and his move to Australia. Patel admitted: 'I should have been honest with myself and I should not have married her.' Mrs Patel brought up her fears about his sexuality with Patel's brother Namesh and he was asked how that made him feel by Mr Campbell. He answered: 'I cannot explain how I felt. It was the fear of being exposed as an Asian gay man, that was one thing and the other was that I was not going to let Jess down. I had married Jess and all her dreams were going to come to a crashing end.' He accepted Mr Campbell's suggestion that his wife did not want her baby to be brought up in a household where he was having regular casual sex with men on Grindr. Mr Campbell said: 'She had concerns you may still be continuing down the same road with your men friends and she did not want to raise a child in that situation. Is that fair?' Patel answered: 'Yes.' He denies murder, saying that his wife was bound with duct tape by her wrists and ankles and strangled to death by an intruder while he was out walking and getting a takeaway pizza. He later accepted he lied when he told police he had been for a walk. Patel told the court he had been leading a 'double life' but he still wanted a baby with his wife. He said: 'I grew closer and closer towards Amit therefore I did not give Jess as much attention as I should have done and it turned into, like, a double life, but we still shared the same dream, we still wanted to have children together.' Patel described his wife's death as 'sad' when asked whether he regretted coming between her and her family. He said: 'It is sad Jess is not here any more, I will miss her, her family will miss her, I get that, but once we married we were getting on with our own things. 'We were open 100 hours a week we had business commitments.' As he began his evidence Patel told the jury he accepted he had told some lies about her death on social media, but he insisted: 'One thing that is true that is that I had nothing to do with killing Jessica.' The trial, expected to finish next week, continues. The camera is shaky and there is no clear view of a suspect as the lens focuses on the open front door of a neat suburban home in Uniontown, Ohio. It's a dark night in July 2017, and Sgt. David White and his partner, Officer Brian Duman, know that an armed man has threatened family members inside - even shooting in their direction. They initially don't know how many people - or how many children - are at risk inside the home, and they're not sure just how armed and ready to fire the suspect might be. But they approach the two-story house anyway, guns drawn; White eventually sees a motorcycle fall over in the open garage and a weapon that appears to have been forefeited. He shouts to the suspect inside not to touch the gun, and he inches closer, hoping that perhaps he can tase the agitated individual. Then the man in the garage opens fire - and the situation becomes a nightmare. From the comfort of their own living rooms, viewers will see everything from the same vantage point as the officer himself. Its a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat situation to witness from afar; it was equally upsetting for the cop, who was trying to make split-second, life-or-death decisions as his body camera filmed it all - including White being hit by four bullets. That footage has been incorporated into a new show, a television program with a different spin on cop call-outs and evolving situations. Body Cam premieres tonight on Investigation Discovery and in the midst of such a polarizing atmosphere regarding law enforcement across the United States the channel and the team behind the show hope it prompts discussion, awareness and a deeper understanding of police work challenges around the country. The firsthand footage brings something new to the story, says Nick Metcalfe, executive producer of Arrow Media, which created the show. New series Body Cam - which airs footage from the body cameras of police officers around the US - premieres tomorrow night on Investigation Discovery - giving people watching at home a firsthand view of what officers see while responding to a variety of calls The show includes body camera footage from a domestic disturbance response in Uniontown, Ohio, in July 2017, when an armed man was threatening relatives inside a suburban home; the suspect shot at Sgt. David White, hitting him four times; in this photo, Sgt. White's body camera records as his partner, Officer Brian Duman, left, tries to help Sgt. White was gravely injured, and viewers follow the incident and rush to save him from the same vantage point as White and the other officers; they also hear him call his family to say he loves them and tell him that he's injured before he's taken away in an ambulance These are not stories told through dramatic recreation; these are the real events as captured by cameras that were there then, he tells DailyMail.com. You cant get much closer than that and if you fold in the officers, and occasionally other witnesses who were there, who can talk about these things, you are getting closer and closer to the reality. Series producer Stuart Pender who, like Metcalfe, is British and based outside of the US adds: Historically, body cameras have had maybe negative connotations; whenever you see body cam clips in the press, its usually officers doing something wrong This is a series that highlights the bravery and the split-second decision-making that officers have to go through. Use of Body Cameras in U.S. Law Enforcement Nearly half of the all state and local law enforcement agencies in America have body cameras for their officers, according to a report published this month by the U.S. Office of Justice Programs. Of the 15,328 police and sheriffs departments across the country, 47 percent had purchased body cameras as of 2016, the most recent data available. In addition, 69 percent had dashboard cameras and 38 percent had personal audio recorders. Among those using body cameras, 93 percent require officers who have the devices to use them during traffic stops. Roughly 85 percent require officers to record officer-initiated citizen contact and the execution of arrest or search warrants. The survey found that the top reasons for investing in body cameras included: officer safety, improving evidence quality and the reduction of civilian complaints as well as agency liability. Advertisement Body Cam, however, is not a series set up to defend the police, says Metcalfe, adding: If policemen ever do something unlawful, youve got to hope they will be held accountable by due process of law. The show includes examples from different police departments across the country, and the situations to which they respond vary drastically. Theres everything from domestic disturbances and robbery to a traffic accident which escalates into double homicide and attempts to serve warrants that equally spiral. The body camera footage often snippets from the cameras of different officers responding to the same scene is complemented by later interviews with officers about what happened and what was going through their minds, in addition to various eyewitness accounts. Somewhat unnervingly, the footage also gives viewers the same vantage point of officers when they are threatened, attacked, and even shot in some of the stories included; the storytelling technique often leaves viewers unaware of the injured officers fate until far later in the episode. Officer Quincy Smith, for example - serving in small-town Estill, South Carolina on New Year's Day 2016 - is wearing a pair of camera glasses while on duty when he receives a call about a store robbery. Within minutes, he stops a suspect nearby - and viewers get a front-row seat as the man, when told to show his hands by Officer Smith, instead quickly turns around and opens fire. They look down at the officer's bloody hands just as he does, hearing the same calls for help as he drags himself to his cruiser and the same responses from dispatch - in addition to the cries of Smith's hysterical cousin, who hears the commotion on the local police scanner and comes running. 'One bullet struck him in the chin, went down the side of his neck and clipped his jugular vein - and the bullet lodged in his back,' Chief Mark Collins says in the show. 'The second bullet hit him in his left arm in the forearm, shattered the forearm; and the third bullet hit him in his side.' The television program also offers glimpses of community cooperation and compassion; as Officer Smith waits for help to arrive, gasping with three bullet wounds - viewers can even see his pained reflection when in the window of the police cruiser - a local man who'd been at the store arrives on the scene. He'd heard the shots and assumed it was the policeman who had fired the gun - that he'd come up on the scene of 'right being done.' Instead, he finds Officer Smith gravely wounded. 'When I saw the wound on his neck, I knew it was very serious,' John Tompkins says in the show. 'I was not confident that I was gonna be able to do CPR properly for the length of time.' He stays with Smith until help arrives from a town 15 miles away and the wounded officer is carted off to an area hospital. The incident shows how a police officer's day can turn dangerous in an instant; not long before the robbery callout, Officer Smith - who grew up in the area - had light-heartedly joined a street ball game with some local youths. Similarly, further north in Ohio, Sgt. White - after being shot four times - calls for help and calls his family, and Duman eventually tries to stem the flow of blood; when medical aid arrives, he gets into the ambulance with his partner. The suspect, 28-year-old Ryan Probst - who has a history of police confrontations - is shot dead during the incident; White continues to recover and has retired from the department. Body cameras are meant to provide accountability and, while such footage oftentimes faces public scrutiny, we hope that this series will shed some further light on the dangers that officers regularly face in their daily effort to keep us safe, said Henry Schleiff, Group President of Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, American Heroes Channel and Destination America. Indeed, by showing actual footage of these harrowing encounters, Body Cam not only offers an intimate and intense look at law enforcement, but also provides the viewer with a visceral sense of what life is like for those who must, on occasion, risk their lives to protect ours. Sgt. White continues to recover from his extensive injuries and has retired from the Ohio force Nick Metcalfe, executive producer of Arrow Media, the company behind Body Cam, tells DailyMail.com: I have been struck by how often the policing decisions that these officers have to make in the instant are very difficult ones. They have to decide to do things that put their own lives at risk; they have to do things that will try to contain people who are very often dangerous and they have to do these things without causing further danger to the public' The man who attacked Ohio Sgt. White, left, in July 2017 was identified as 28-year-old Ryan Probst, right, who had a history of confrontations with police and was fatally shot during the encounter, which began when Probst threatened his family with a gun Officer Quincy Smith was patrolling in Estill, South Carolina on New Year's Day 2016 when he responded to a report of a store robbery and approached a suspect pointed out by witnesses; he ordered the man, pictured above, to show his hands, only for the suspect to quickly turn around and open fire on Smith Officer Smith, left, was wearing cam glasses that showed him being shot three times; the officer's cousin, right, had been listening on the local police scanner and rushed to the scene Series producer Stuart Pender tells DailyMail.com that the series should help viewers 'realize how normal these officers are and they are normal, everyday people. They dont know what call theyre going to. Metcalfe, meanwhile, says that Body Cam is not serving someones agenda, political or otherwise people who hate the police, people who like the police. Its just showing the reality of it and showing that theyre human beings doing a very difficult job; in this still from the show, Sgt White - and the viewer - catches a glimpse of the suspect hiding in a garage who proceeds to shoot the officer four times Metcalfe tells DailyMail.com that, after working on the show, he doubts that he, personally, would ever be able to serve as a police officer. I have been struck by how often the policing decisions that these officers have to make in the instant are very difficult ones, he tells DailyMail.com. They have to decide to do things that put their own lives at risk; they have to do things that will try to contain people who are very often dangerous and they have to do these things without causing further danger to the public. And Im just in awe of the bravery and commitment to public service of a lot of these officers they do things and Im thinking, Crikey, you do not know whats on the other side of that door youre about to go through. You do not know if somebody is standing there with a gun, waiting to ambush you. We actually have one story where officers are called for a 911 call and they suspect strongly that theyre being called to an ambush and yet, because its a 911 call, they still have to respond, Metcalfe says. They come under fire and the story just grows and escalates, and its extraordinary they still have to continue to respond [to] somebody armed, lethally armed, wanting to shoot police officers somebody who it later turns out is shot dead by the police. He has cop killer tattooed across his knuckles. But the point of the show is not just to offer a glimpse into the dangerous, split-second decisions that face officers, Pender tells DailyMail.com. You get a glimpse of this almost brother and sisterhood of police officers afterwards, he says. Theyre sort of patting each other on the shoulders, checking each other is okay; theyre having adrenaline dumps. Literally, their legs are shaking because of the ordeal theyve gone through. Through this series, you realize how normal these officers are and they are normal, everyday people. They dont know what call theyre going to. The stories, he says, start with a 911 call, and the viewer finds out the information as the officers do, as well thats why youre on the edge of your seat, because you dont know whats happening and you feel like youre experiencing that at the same time as the officers. While they agree that the show is being broadcast during a time of politics and a lot of division, Metcalfe tells DailyMail.com that Body Cam is not serving someones agenda, political or otherwise people who hate the police, people who like the police. Its just showing the reality of it and showing that theyre human beings doing a very difficult job. Pender jumps in to add that he believes its important that the public see this material and should be reassured there are many, many more officers than are on this series that are doing the same job on a daily basis putting their lives on the line to protect the public. And that is a hugely positive thing. Paul Manafort allegedly visited Julian Assange on several occasions and paid a final visit around the time he was hired by Donald Trump as campaign manager. Manafort, 69, visited the Wikileaks founder at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up since 2012, on three occasions in 2013, 2015 and 2016, The Guardian reports. WikiLeaks has denied the claims, saying it is willing to 'bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange'. However, The Guardian claims sources have revealed that Manafort visited Assange. They also quote a document written by the Ecuadorian intelligence agency SENAIN which lists 'Paul Manaford [sic]' as a 'well-known guest' of Assange. Allegations: Paul Manafort, 69, reportedly visited WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on at least three occasions in 2013, 2015 and 2016 Hitting back: WikiLeaks tweeted that the Guardian's sources were 'serial fabricators' and that they would 'bet the Guardian a million dollars that Manafort never met Assange' Manafort's final visit took place 'around March 2016', just a few months before WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of Democrat Party emails hacked by Russian intelligence, according to the paper. But Manafort has denied that he ever met Assange - and says he has never been contacted by 'anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly.' WikiLeaks revealed on Twitter that Assange 'has instructed his lawyers to sue the Guardian for libel over fabricated Manafort story and launched a legal fund to boost the action.' Manafort, who was hired by President Trump on March 29, 2016, branded the Guardian report as 'totally false and deliberately libelous.' He also says the Guardian published the story after being told by Manafort's representatives that it was false. 'This story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him,' Manafort said in a statement. 'I have never been contacted by anyone connected to Wikileaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or Wikileaks on any matter. 'We are considering all legal options against the Guardian, who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false.' Manafort's statement came one day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office told a federal judge that Manafort had breached his plea agreement by lying repeatedly to the FBI despite pledging to cooperate with the probe. Leaker: Assange's WikiLeaks released thousands of emails which had been obtained by Russian secret service operatives by hacking the Democrat Party Manafort was jailed this year and was thought to have become a star cooperator in Mueller's inquiry. The claims were published as an apparent criminal complaint against Assange which is the subject of a federal court hearing in Virginia. Free-press advocates want a judge to unseal the complaint after prosecutors in an unrelated case inadvertently mentioned charges against Assange. Prosecutors oppose the motion, arguing that the public has no right to know whether a person has been charged until there has been an arrest. The government also says the accidental reference to charges against Assange does not mean he has actually been charged. Complications: Manafort's final visit reportedly took place 'around March 2016', the same month he was hired by President Donald Trump Meanwhile, special counsel Robert Mueller is accusing Manafort of violating his plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators, an extraordinary allegation that could expose him to a lengthier prison sentence - and potentially more criminal charges. The torpedoing of Manafort's plea deal, disclosed in a court filing Monday, also results in special counsel Robert Mueller's team losing a cooperating witness from the top of Trump's presidential campaign who was present for several key episodes under investigation. That includes a Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer he was told had derogatory information on Democrat Hillary Clinton. The move signals a return to the acrimonious relationship Manafort has had with the special counsel's office since his indictment last year. Before his plea agreement, Manafort aggressively challenged the special counsel's legitimacy in court, went through a bitter trial and landed himself in jail after prosecutors discovered he had attempted to tamper with witnesses in his case. In the latest filing, Mueller's team said Manafort 'committed federal crimes' by lying about 'a variety of subject matters' even after he agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation. Prosecutors said they will detail the 'nature of the defendant's crimes and lies' in writing at a later date to the judge. Through his attorneys, Manafort denied lying, saying he 'believes he provided truthful information' during a series of sessions with Mueller's investigators. He also disagreed that he breached his plea agreement. Still, both sides now agree they can't resolve the conflict, and U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson should set a date to sentence him. Special counsel Robert Mueller is accusing Manafort, pictured, of violating his plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators Manafort, who remains jailed, had been meeting with the special counsel's office since he pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He cut that deal to head off a second trial after being convicted last summer of eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from the IRS in offshore accounts. Both cases stemmed from his Ukrainian political work and undisclosed lobbying work he admitted to carrying out in the U.S. in violation of federal law. As part of his plea agreement, Manafort pledged to 'cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly' with the government 'in any and all matters' prosecutors deemed necessary. That included his work on the Trump campaign as well as his Ukrainian political work, which remains under investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors there are looking into the conduct of longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig and former Republican congressman and lobbyist Vin Weber to determine whether they violated federal law by failing to register as foreign agents with the Justice Department. None of the men has been charged with any crimes. As part of his plea deal, Manafort also forfeited many of his rights as well as his ability to withdraw the plea if he broke any of the terms. In return, prosecutors agreed to not bring additional charges against him and to ask a judge for a reduction of his sentence if he provided 'substantial assistance.' But with prosecutors saying he breached the agreement, Manafort now faces serious repercussions such as the possibility of prosecution on additional charges including the 10 felony counts prosecutors dropped when he made the deal. Manafort already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his plea agreement. In his separate Virginia case, Manafort's potential sentencing under federal guidelines has not yet been calculated, but prosecutors have previously said he could face as much as 10 years in prison on those charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced in that case in February. His co-defendant, Rick Gates, who spent a longer time on the campaign and worked on the Trump inaugural committee, has not had a sentencing date set yet. He continues to cooperate with Mueller. A senior Ukip MEP has quit the party in protest at leader Gerard Batten's decision to employ 'thug' Tommy Robinson as an advisor. Patrick O'Flynn, 53, attacked the decision to employ Mr Robinson, suggesting the Ukip leader, 64, had 'an apparent and growing fixation' with the co-founder of the English Defence League. He said that under Mr Batten the party had become 'an impediment to the Brexit campaigning that I have energetically pursued for many years'. Patrick O'Flynn (pictured), 53, has quit Ukip and expressed anger at the decision to employ Tommy Robinson, a co-founder of the English Defence League, in a role advising Mr Batten on rape gangs and prison reform Gerard Batten (left), 64, has employed Tommy Robinson (right) - real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - as an advisor. He said that he is 'looking forward to working with him' Mr O'Flynn, a former political editor of the Daily Express, said that he was quitting to join the Social Democratic Party having represented the East of England since 2014. His departure follows criticism by ex-leader Nigel Farage of the decision to hire Mr Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, in a role advising Mr Batten on rape gangs and prison reform. Mr Farage denounced Mr Robinson as a 'thug'. Last week he told Radio 4's Today programme: 'Well, I'm appalled. The NEC of the party voted overwhelmingly last week not to have a ballot of members to let the man, potentially, join the party. 'But Gerard Batten has got this, sort of, fixation with Tommy Robinson and discussing Islam, and dragging Ukip into a direction of effectively being a, sort of, street activist party.' In a statement on his website Mr O'Flynn attacked the decision to align with Mr Robinson, including in an upcoming Brexit protest, saying: 'Without any mandate from the membership or the party's elected ruling body to go down this path, Gerard is transforming what Ukip stands for and offers to voters. 'Many long-standing party members have already left as a result. 'Today I am joining them because I have reached the sorry conclusion that Ukip under its current direction and at this decisive moment has become an impediment to the Brexit campaigning that I have energetically pursued for many years.' Nigel Farage (pictured), a former leader of Ukip, has expressed concern over the hiring of Mr Robinson. In an interview with Radio 4's Today programme last week, he said he was 'appalled' at the decision Robinson (centre) surrounded by supporters at City Thameslink railway station in September. He was in May jailed for 13 months for contempt of court in relation to his activities filming defendants in grooming trials. His sentence was quashed and the case referred to the Attorney General The MEP went on to say that the move would put people off voting for Ukip, and leave moderate Brexit voters without a viable option. He said: 'The key question in British politics now is which party are millions of sensible, moderate Brexit voters betrayed by establishment parties but wishing no tie-up with Tommy Robinson supposed to vote for? 'The answer, alas, is clearly not Ukip.' Last week Mr Farage said he would write to Ukip's ruling National Executive Committee to demand a vote of no confidence to remove Mr Batten as leader, saying he was damaging both the party and the Brexit cause. He described Mr Robinson as 'a man who's done four prison sentences, lives under a pseudonym and wherever he goes there's violence'. But Mr Batten defended his decision, describing Mr Robinson as 'courageous'. The decision was announced shortly after Ukip's NEC voted not to stage a ballot on whether to allow Mr Robinson to join the party. Mr Batten denied moving Ukip to the extremes or opening its doors to racists, and told the BBC Mr Robinson would help him turn the party into a 'mass movement ... a party for ordinary people'. Americans like to donate their money and time to charity, with the U.S. ranking fourth most-generous nation in the world - but not all states give equally. Minnesota is ranked the most charitable state in the nation, while Nevada came in dead last in a new analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance site. Experts analyzed and scored how each state performed in two areas: volunteering and charitable giving. They broke down those categories along 18 different metrics to analyze each state based on factors, such as: the number of volunteer hours per capita; the share of income donated; the share of the population donating money; and food banks per capita. This map illustrates the ranking of all 50 states based on how generous their residents are based on an analysis by WalletHub of 18 different metrics of giving and volunteering Minnesota performed well largely due to coming in first in the category of volunteering, as well as ranking fourth on charitable giving. 'It really comes down to how many hours people are volunteering and when those values are instilled in people,' said Jill Gonzalez, a senior analyst for WalletHub. 'A lot of the states that do well actually have community service requirements in high school and those values really remain with people throughout their lifetimes.' Utah was the second most-generous state in the nation, coming in fourth on volunteering and fifth on charitable giving. New York followed, ranking first for charitable giving, but in 21st for volunteering. A lot of the states that do well actually have community service requirements in high school and those values really remain with people throughout their lifetimes. - Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub Maryland ranked fourth, followed by Connecticut, Virginia and Georgia. Washington State came in eighth place, while New Hampshire was ninth and Wisconsin was 10th place. Politics was a key unifying trend among the most generous states, Gonzalez told DailyMail.com. 'Especially when it comes to giving money, we see that blue states tend to be more generous than red states,' she said. 'Blue states, on average, rank 21st out of all 50 states, red states average was more like 28th.' At the less generous end of the spectrum, Nevada ranked 46th in volunteering and 49th on giving, making it (overall) the least charitable state in America. Rhode Island was the second-least generous state in the nation, thanks to coming in 50th on volunteering and 33rd on charitable giving. Arizona was next, ranking 37th on volunteering and 50th on donations, followed by Louisiana, Hawaii and New Mexico. Montana was the seventh least-generous state, followed by Texas, Kentucky and Indiana. When it came to volunteering, Utah had the highest rate of volunteers in the nation, while Florida had the lowest. Utah also had the highest percent of the population who donated their time to a good cause while Kentucky had the lowest percentage. Utah also tied with Georgia for having residents with the highest percentage of donated income, while West Virginia came in last for that category. Overall, donors in the U.S. gave away more than $410 billion in 2017, with the majority (70 percent) of donated funds coming from individuals, according to the National Philanthropic Trust. In addition, nearly 63 million people volunteer each year in the U.S. for an annual total of 7.9 billion hours the equivalent of $184 billion man hours. Many Americans save their donation of time and money for the last few months of the year a period known in the non-profit community as 'giving season.' A 2012 survey by GuideStar found that 50.5 percent of U.S. nonprofits said they received the majority of their contributions from October-December. Advertisement Two of the RAF's F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jets today took part in an exercise over the North Sea alongside aircraft from the US and French air forces, forming part of an 'insurance policy' against global threats. The supersonic aircraft, based at RAF Marham in Norfolk, were among more than 40 planes participating in the Point Blank training exercise off the east coast of England. Aircraft from the three air forces, including the French Rafale fighter and US F-15, worked as a team against 'threats' in the training environment an RAF officer warned of the challenges Russia posed to international order. An RAF F-35B Lightning, a USAF F-15 Strike Eagle and a French Rafale fly over The English Channel in formation during today's Point Blank exercise, after taking off from RAF Mildenhall. The Rafale's flight marks the first time that the French have joined the exercise which has, until now, only included U.S. and RAF aircraft An RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jet flies off the wing of a United States Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker over the English Channel today during Operation Point Blank, which was described as an insurance policy designed to establish whether the three countries can combine as a force if necessary A United States Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle pilot signals that he is refuelling from a KC-135 Stratotanker during Operation Point Blank, which featured aerial capabilities from the RAF, United States Air Force and French Air Force taking to the skies today in a show of strength comprising more than 40 planes This picture shows an RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jet swooping over the English Channel as part of Operation Point Blank today as the air forces of three countries took to the air in a joint exercise designed to show whether the forces can rely on one another to unite should the situation demand It is the first time the French air force has been involved in Point Blank, which is led by the US Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk. Aircraft took off from bases around the country, and the number involved has almost doubled this year. Air Commodore Jez Attridge, of the RAF, described the air force as an 'insurance policy'. 'We always consider what the environment is,' he said. 'The point of the air force, the first point of an air force is to be able to defend the country so you have to recognise the threats out there. A pair of United States Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets are pictured over the English Channel during Operation Point Blank today. The exercise saw the RAF's F-35B Lightning stealth jets participate in their first operational exercise as they continue their progression to initial operating capability Two RAF F-35B are pictured high above the clouds over the English Channel during today's Operation Point Blank after the aircraft took off from RAF Mildenhall. The operation is designed to sure up an insurance policy against global threats to protect the UK, US and France A Rafale becomes one of the first French aircraft to take part in Operation Point Blank. The country has joined the annual exercise, which took place today, alongside its American and British allies in an attempt to sure up defence against possible threats to all three across the world Supersonic RAF F-35B fly over the North Sea today in Operation Point Blank. The aircraft has been hailed as a 'huge milestone' after the jets first touched down at RAF Marham in June this year An RAF Typhoon fighter jet flies off the wing of a United States Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker today over the English Channel as the two countries' military forces flew alongside French jets in Operation Point Blank Two United States Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle jets fly off the wing KC-135 over the English Channel today in Operation Point Blank as the French, US and UK joined to show their military might in the joint exercise 'We can see the environment is changing, we can see the challenge that Russia is giving to the international rules-based order so we are the insurance policy and we are recognising that through the scenario that we've got, the non-permissive environment, and our ability to operate with our allies, the French and the Americans, is paramount.' 'It really is a case of us staying ready so that we can be used if we need to,' he added. 'It's a great insurance policy.' He described the inclusion of the two F-35s as a 'huge milestone' which 'really shows the progression that Lightning Force is making'. The first four F-35s touched down at RAF Marham in June, and five more arrived in August. Wing Commander John Butcher, the officer commanding 617 squadron, said: 'This particular exercise is different than any ones that we've done previously because of the threats that are out there. 'It's the first time we've done a peer exercise and that we've worked alongside French and US partners.' He said 'things are progressing well' towards declaring initial operating capability for the F-35s before December 31. The Tony Award-winning actress who lost her four-year-old daughter and unborn baby in a gruesome crash in New York City appeared in court on Monday as a judge dismissed the case against the driver, who committed suicide last month. Ruthie Ann Miles, 35, was seen using a cane leaving the court in Brooklyn alongside her friend Lauren Lew, who also lost her one-year-old son after they were mowed down by a woman who ran a red light on March 5. The driver, 44-year-old Dorothy Bruns, was found dead of an apparent suicide just three weeks ago at her home in Staten Island. A judged dismissed the manslaughter case against Bruns during the hearing on Monday. Scroll down for video Ruthie Ann Miles, a Tony Award-winning actress who lost her four-year-old daughter and unborn baby in a horror crash in New York City in March, attended court on Monday as a judge dismissed the case against the driver, who committed suicide last month. Miles (left) was accompanied by her friend Lauren Lew (right), who also lost her one-year-old son in the crash Miles, 35, was seen using a cane as she left Brooklyn court with her attorney. She lost her unborn baby at 39 weeks as a result of the severe injuries she sustained in the crash Miles' four-year-old daughter Abigail (right) was killed when driver Dorothy Bruns suffered a seizure and ran a red light on March 5, hitting the mother and child on a Park Slope crosswalk Lew (right) and her son Joshua (left) were also struck, and the one-year-old did not survive The horror crash that shook the Brooklyn community of Park Slope occurred after Bruns, who had multiple sclerosis, suffered a seizure behind the wheel. She plowed through a red light and struck Miles and Lew who were in the middle of a pedestrian crosswalk on 9th Street and Fifth Avenue with their young children. One-year-old Joshua Lew and four-year-old Abigail Blumenstein were both killed. Miles was 39 weeks pregnant at the time and lost her baby, Sophia, as a result of her severe injuries. 'The pain suffered by Ruthie and [husband] Jonathan Blumenstein is nearly impossible to fathom,' lawyer Ben Rubinowitz told the New York Daily News when announcing the unborn baby's death in May. Bruns, 44, was found dead in her Staten Island home by a friend on November 6 Though it was an accident, Bruns was charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, assault and reckless driving because she was not supposed to drive due to her history of seizures and heart problems. 'She took the lives of two innocent babies, injured three pedestrians, their mothers,' Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. 'And it was tragic, but it was solely due to her selfish decision to drive.' Bruns was facing 15 years behind bars and was released on $75,000 bond in September after entering a tearful plea of not guilty. She was found dead on November 6. A suicide note and prescription pills were found at the scene. Miles and Lew were in the middle of a pedestrian crosswalk on 9th Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope with their young children when Bruns' white Volvo sped through a red light Though it was an accident, Bruns (second from left in court) was charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, assault and reckless driving because she was not supposed to drive due to her history of seizures and heart problems Moments before the crash, the two kids and their mothers had just gotten off the bus and were crossing the street when Bruns who was driving a white Volvo sped through the intersection at 9th Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, striking the families. One witness described to the New York Post how Lew tried to save her son immediately after the tragedy unfolded, but it was too late. 'The mom was sitting there next to him screaming,' said Andrew Macaluso, 26, who is a fourth-year medical student. It was tragic, but it was solely due to her selfish decision to drive. 'She was just kind of [saying]: "Oh, God, this can't be happening. Tell me this isn't happening. What's going on?"' Macaluso said. 'I said: "Are you the mom?" and she said: "Yeah,"' he continued. He went on to detail their efforts over the next several minutes, as they tried to revive her little boy. 'The child had blood on his face,' Macaluso said. 'She wipes off his face and gives him air while I'm giving him chest compression.' Miles is a Broadway star who won a Tony Award for her role in The King and I. She also has a recurring role in the hit television drama The Americans. Both mothers are pictured leaving the Brooklyn courtroom after the charges against Bruns were dropped on Monday, three weeks after the driver committed suicide in Staten Island Moments before the crash, the two kids and their mothers had just gotten off the bus and were crossing the street when Bruns who was driving a white Volvo sped through the intersection The trial of a Thai billionaire construction tycoon charged with poaching an endangered black panther and other animals in a wildlife sanctuary began on Tuesday after months of delay. Premchai Karnasuta, the president of Italian-Thai Development PLC, appeared at the provincial court in Kanchanaburi in western Thailand to hear witnesses in the case against him. Premchai was arrested last February after park rangers found him with three of his employees surrounded by guns and animal carcasses, including that of an endangered black panther. They had brazenly set up camp at the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a UNESCO world heritage site. The skin of a black panther allegedly slain by Thai construction magnate Premchai Karnasuta Premchai Karnasuta sits in his campsite with a scoped rifle laid down on a tarpaulin sheet in front of him Park rangers measure the skin of an endangered black panther which was killed in the country's Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary Premchai Karnasuta has been the managing director of Italian-Thai Development PLC since the 1980s after studying in the United States for his MBA According to the Bangkok Post the area has been ravaged by poachers for years. The paper said that Premchai and three co-defendants Yong Dodkhruea, Thanee Thummat and Ms Nathee Riamsaen, face charges of illegal gun possession, hunting in a protected wildlife sanctuary, hunting without licenses, possessing animal carcasses without licenses and collecting materials from a protected forest without permission. The general public are sceptical that justice will be done in a country that has seen the privileged prevail in high-profile cases. Wildlife activists concerned about the case have worn masks of the slain big cat as a symbol of protest on several occasions and environmentalists have pledged to keep up pressure. In February, Premchai appeared before police and was granted bail after he said that he did not kill the panther. Italian-Thai Development sits down as his campsite is busted by a large force of park rangers deep in the protected forest The entrails of some of the animals shot by the hunting party sits on top of a table as the park rangers gathered evidence against the tycoon A court statement said Tuesday's hearing was to hear testimony from three prosecution witnesses, including a deputy police chief and the park ranger who had discovered the hunting group. The statement also said that the 64-year-old Premchai had requested that the trial be conducted in his absence, with his lawyer to represent him. He argued that the court would allow this because the maximum penalty in the case would add up to less than 10 years imprisonment. A shiny gold Smart Car car was among a fleet of gilded motors seen today outside a five star hotel. Supercar-spotters have seen a similar-looking cavalcade in the capital in previous years - they are not exactly hard to spot - including two Rolls Royces, a McLaren, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. But these do not belong to Saudi billionaire Turki Bin Abdullah. They have been purchased at a cost of 1.5m by a new ride-hailing firm looking to compete with Uber, and the company says it will buy more as demand grows. Miwhip, which launched today, says it will allocate one of its fleet of gold supercars for every 100th journey booked, at no extra charge for the custoemrs. The cars were photographed side by side outside the exclusive Park Lane hotel The Dorchester today earlier. Scroll down for video... How does a billionaire park in central London's tight spaces? In a golden Smart Car, of course The Smart was spotted with its shiny stablemates (from left to right) a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, a Rolls Royce and a McLaren outside The Dorchester in Park Lane earlier today Gold supercars in London have caused problems for the authorities in recent years by parking on double-yellow lines without registration plates against which London boroughs could issue fines. It is not suggested that Turki Bin Abdullah whose cars all have plates has caused any such parking problems or been involved in any wrongdoing. But these vehicles, which include a Laborghini Aventador, a Ferrari 488, and a McLAren 720S, will all be fully licenced by the time the service launches in full in six to eight weeks' time. Another change from photographs of a golden fleet seen in London in previous years is the miwhip insignia of a four-colour stripe on each car. Even on Park Lane it isn't every day you can photograph one Rolls Royce over the bonnet of another, but rarer still that they should both be bright reflective gold Ride-hailing company miwhip, which launched today, says it will add to its golden fleet as demand for its services grows The firm, founded by the family behind the Crep Protect shoe cleaning brand, is named after stret slang for an expensive car. Director and co-owner Nohman Ahmed said: 'The app will never say the make of the car coming to pick you up. 'We want the open-mouthed reaction when you see it come round the corner and it is a supercar.' The green, yellow, black and red insignia runs from bumper to bumper down the centre of each vehicle. The 200mph miwhip supercar fleet will be available to ride in, but not to drive Miwhip may have taken their inspiration from young billionaire Turki Bin Adbullah. Mr Bin Abdullah has regularly been seen, from London to Dubai, in his gold supercars which include many almost indistinguishable from today's photographs apart from the coloured stripes. Since arriving in London in March 2016 the Saudi billionaire, now 25, has made headlines an extravagant - and some say gaudy - display of wealth which includes: a custom 350,000 Aventador, a 370,000 six-wheeler Mercedes AMG off-roader, a 350,000 Rolls Phantom Coupe, a 220,000 Bentley Flying Spur and a 180,000 Lamborghini Huracan They are all painted a uniform shade of gold and imported from the Middle East. His exploits, much-publicised online, have included racing a camel across the desert in a gold supercar and strapping a cheetah into the driving seat of another. Those who drive, or are driven, in one of this new fleet of gilted vehicles may not be able to enjoy all the trappings of being a Saudi oil billionaire - but they may be able to feel like one, briefly. Advertisement Nigel Farage today denied putting Donald Trump up to slating the Brexit deal - but admitted he could have inspired the President's outburst. Mr Trump added to Theresa May's woes last night with an extraordinary attack on the package she has negotiated with Brussels. He jibed that the deal was 'great for the EU' - and warned it would hit trade with the US. The intervention - which was pounced on by Tory Eurosceptics - immediately sparked speculation that Mr Trump might have been listening to Mr Farage, whom he once backed as a candidate for US ambassador. The former Ukip leader appeared on Fox News, known to be Mr Trump's favourite news channel, condemning the Brexit deal on Sunday and hours before Trump's comments yesterday. He branded the deal the 'worst in history' which would hamper trade with the US, and suggested it was a good package for Brussels - seemingly foreshadowing the president's remarks. Mr Trump often watches Fox News and then tweets about what he sees - which can cause major diplomatic repurcussions. On the same page: Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage appeared on Fox News, known to be Mr Trump's favourite news channel, condemning the Brexit deal on Sunday and Monday (left). Hours later, the President (right) trashed May's Brexit plan from the White House lawn. His comments echoed those made by his ally Mr Farage and speculation is rife that they are connected Mrs May appeared to be enjoying herself despite the rain and her Brexit woes at the Royal Welsh Fair in Powys today. She is touring the country to make the case for her Brexit deal, and will later visit Northern Ireland for meeting with the DUP Speaking on Fox News yesterday morning, Mr Farage said: 'It's a bad deal, it is the worst deal in history... 'It's a bad deal because it traps us in something we cannot leave. How Trump appeared to take Farage's lines on the Brexit deal What Nigel Farage said on Fox News on Sunday: 'When the unelected bureaucrats are happy then something must be wrong.... 'It prevents us for the foreseeable future from having a better, deeper trade deal with the United States of America.' What Mr Farage said on Fox News on Monday morning: 'It's a bad deal, it is the worst deal in history... 'It's a bad deal because it traps us in something we cannot leave. 'It means the prospects of a trade deal between us and the USA have been kicked way, way into the future. We are not taking our opportunities.' What Donald Trump said on Monday night: 'I think we have to take a look seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade,' he said. 'Because right now if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us. And that wouldn't be a good thing. I don't think they meant that.' Advertisement 'It means the prospects of a trade deal between us and the USA have been kicked way, way into the future. We are not taking our opportunities.' Mr Trump later emerged to tell reporters at the White House that it looked like a 'great' deal for the EU - an institution he has accused of being a protectionist cartel. 'I think we have to take a look seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade,' he said. 'Because right now if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us. And that wouldn't be a good thing. I don't think they meant that.' The President said he hoped Mrs May would be able to address the problem. 'I don't think that the Prime Minister meant that,' he said. 'And, hopefully, she'll be able to do something about that.' Asked today whether his appearance might have influenced Mr Trump he told MailOnline: 'Who knows?' He joked: 'Nothing to do with me guv.' Mr Farage said Mr Trump's comments on the deal were 'just a statement of fact, and it would be at least six years after Brexit before there was any chance of a Transatlantic trade pact being sealed. 'It's a mistake to think just the States will be upset about this.' Amid the fallout from Mr Trump's incendiary remarks today, Downing Street said there were 'no plans' to hold talks with him at the G20 summit this week. Asked if Mrs May would try to explain the situation to Mr Trump at the gathering in Argentina, the PM's spokesman said she would hold bilateral talks with other leaders, but had 'none planned' with the US commander-in-chief. What happens now the Brexit deal has been signed off in Brussels? Theresa May passed a milestone in the Brexit process by agreeing a package with the EU. But there is still a long way to go. This is what the next steps are: December 11: The meaningful vote itself. This is the absolutely crucial moment and could make or break the Prime Minister and her deal. MPs will vote after a debate that could last as long as five days. If the vote carries, Mrs May survives and Brexit is on track as she plans. If she loses, she could resign. December 13-14: The next EU summit. If the deal has been rejected by MPs, Mrs May could use this to try and secure new concessions. January 2019: The European Parliament is due to vote on the deal - but will only do so if it has been agreed in the House of Commons. March 29, 2019: Exit day. This is written in law so unless there is a dramatic shift Britain will leave the EU, deal or no deal. Advertisement 'It is not something that we have requested,' the spokesman said. 'The Prime Minister's diary is agreed in advance and she is meeting with a number of world leaders to discuss issues like trade and security. 'We have met with the president on a number of occasions in recent months and the bilaterals that are agreed for the G20 are done so in advance, and they don't include the US president.' Senior Tories and Eurosceptics have seized on the extraordinary barbs from the White House with glee - saying it could not be 'brushed off' and Mrs May must reopen negotiations with Brussels. Jacob Rees-Mogg said Mr Trump was stating an 'obvious' fact. On a visit to a winter fair in mid-Wales today, Mrs May flatly dismissed Mr Trump's attack, saying the package thrashed out with Brussels was 'very clear we will have an independent trade policy'. 'If you look at the political declaration that sets out the future framework for our relationship with the European Union, it clearly identifies we will have an independent trade policy and we will be able to negotiate trade deals with countries around the rest of the world,' she said. 'As regards the United States, we have already been talking to them about the sort of agreement that we could have in the future. 'We have a working group set up and that is working very well, has met several times and is continuing to work with the US on this.' A welter of Tory rebels pounced on Mr Trump's remarks to bolster their case. Jacob Rees-Mogg told TalkRadio the president was right. 'He has pointed something out that is obvious from reading the withdrawal agreement, that is we won't be able to make trade deals with other countries because we'll be bound into the EU customs union,' he said. 'This agreement, or proposal at this stage, limits the government's ability to trade with the rest of the world freely because we'll be tied into the inefficient, protectionist European system.' A particularly stinging assault came from former Cabinet minister Sir Michael Fallon, a long-term loyalist. He said Mrs May's deal was 'the worst of all worlds' and warned it seems 'doomed'. 'It's no use us just brushing that off, saying 'no, no we can do a deal with America', he's the President of the United States, and if he says it's going to be difficult, then it certainly looks like it's going to be difficult. Snub: Amid the fallout from Mr Trump's incendiary remarks today, Downing Street said there were 'no plans' to hold talks with him at the G20 summit in Argentina this week 'This is not a good deal and we need a better deal. If it's possible to get a better deal, to send the negotiators back to Brussels for two or three months, to postpone the actual leaving date for two or three months, I still think that in the long term that would be in the best interest of the country. 'We have to get this right.' However, Sir Michael did give Downing Street a glimmer of hope by insisting he did not think Mrs May should stand down if she loses the vote next month. Tory backbencher Michael Fabricant, another MP who has refused to join the Eurosceptic coup attempt against Mrs May, tweeted: 'Trump is spot on. It's a great deal for the EU.' Former sports minister Tracey Crouch has also come out against the pact, in a sign that moderate opinion in the party is swinging against the PM. But a No 10 spokesman said: 'The political declaration we have agreed with the EU is very clear we will have an independent trade policy so that the UK can sign trade deals with countries around the world including the US.' Mr Lidington said Mr Trump's intervention was 'not unexpected', insisting the UK would be free to do trade deals around the world after Brexit. But he also seemed to pour cold water on the idea of a deep Transatlantic agreement, saying: 'I think it was always going to be challenging to do a deal with the United States. 'The United States is a tough negotiator, President Trump's always said very plainly 'I put America first'. Ministers accused of U-turning on their pledge to publish legal advice on the EU Withdrawal Agreement Ministers were today accused of U-turning on their pledge to publish the full legal advice on the EU Withdrawal Agreement. Labour set down a 'Humble Address' motion earlier this month to make the legal advice given by Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to the Cabinet public, while the agreement is being debated over the next two weeks. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said the Government's position had been set out by David Lidington in the Commons two weeks ago. The spokesman said on Tuesday: 'This is for a full reasoned position statement laying out the government's political and also legal position on the proposed Withdrawal Agreement and attached protocols. 'The commitment remains as set out a couple of weeks ago.' But Labour's Brexit chief Sir Keir Starmer has written to ministers demanding the information is published soon. He said: 'It's completely unacceptable for Number 10 to point-blank refuse to publish the full legal advice on the withdrawal agreement. 'Parliament was very clear in what it was demanding - and that view was shared by MPs from all sides of the House. The Government didn't oppose what it knew to be a binding motion. 'If ministers continues to dig-in, then Labour will use all the mechanisms available to force this information to be published.' Advertisement 'Well, I'd expect the British Prime Minister to put British interests first, but it's going to be a very tough negotiation.' Digital minister Margot James retweeted a message from an FT journalist saying that Mr Trump is 'openly gunning for a no-deal Brexit' and wanted a 'populist like Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg to finish off Theresa May'. Mrs May received a hostile reception last night as she told the House of Commons her Brexit deal 'delivers for the British people', and warned that rejecting it would put the UK on the path to division and uncertainty. She was loudly barracked by MPs as she insisted that no better deal was available than the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration on future relations endorsed by EU leaders in Brussels on Sunday. Labour MPs were invited to attend a special briefing in the Commons with her chief of staff Gavin Barwell and Mr Lidington - but only around 20 bothered to turn up. Tory MP and leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg criticised the meeting, saying its 'smacks of desperation'. Most critics expect that Theresa May's Brexit deal will be defeated in the Commons on December 11. However, Mrs May's allies are already laying the ground for her to bring the package back to Parliament for a second vote. They are said to be hoping she can survive losing a first Commons showdown scheduled for December 11 - as long the margin can be kept below 100 MPs. Speaking on her visit to Northern Ireland today, Mrs May said: 'We have been resisting many of the things the European Union had wanted to put. 'When you negotiate neither side gets 100 per cent of what they want, it is about compromising, but you have to be clear about what your vital interests are and we have protected those vital interests, and that includes protecting the interests of the people of Northern Ireland.' Cabinet Office minister David Lidington sent a stark message to mutinous Conservative MPs that the public will punish them for 'squabbling' over how to leave the EU. And he insisted the PM will not need to quit if her package is defeated - saying switching leader would do nothing to change the 'fundamental' problem facing the country. More moderate Conservatives broke cover overnight to condemn the deal, with former ministers Sir Michael Fallon and Tracey Crouch making clear they will not support it. A New York town mayor who called people who vote for Democrats 'retarded' is defying calls to step down. Denis Langlois, mayor of the 6,500 residents of Fort Ann, has faced a backlash after posting controversial remarks on Facebook on Election Day. In the post he wrote: 'If anyone that I know vote [sic] for a Democrat on Tuesday you should sign yourself into the Mental Health unit at your local Hospital because you are retarded and need help, Vote Republican and 'Keep America Great'!' Denis Langlois caused fury when he called people who vote for Democrats 'retarded' Langlois said people misunderstood what he posted and insists that he will run for reelection in March. He told The Post-Star: 'Im not a quitter, and I wont quit for no reason at all,' he said in a phone interview Monday. 'No one will make me quit. I wont quit. I took a job, and Ill complete my job. Langlois said on Monday that he wrote the message not as the mayor but as a person, adding that 'most people dont even know Im the mayor'. He first said that some people believed he used the word 'retard' and not 'retarded'. Langlois used 'retarded' to mean 'youre foolish, or youre downright dumb,' he added. He said he did not intentionally mean to hurt anyone and admitted he used a poor choice of words. Langlois added: 'I still believe what I want to believe in. I shouldnt have used the words mental health and retarded. Denis Langlois, mayor of 6,500 residents in Fort Ann, said he will not step down following his controversial remarks and will run for reelection in March 'I should have said if somebody chooses a direction to go, its not what I would do. I think that would have been better'. Fort Ann resident Katelyn White, who wrote a letter to the newspaper after Election Day, said Langlois should consider broadening his vocabulary and that he doesn't represent the town. She wrote: 'Mayor Langlois should not only consider broadening his vocabulary, but also resigning from office. 'People outside of Fort Ann should take note that he does not represent the town of Fort Ann and the good people there'. The Ruderman Family Foundation, an organization that supports disability inclusion, says Langlois' statement shows again how US leaders fail to understand how such slurs impact people with disabilities and their families. Langlois removed the post after screenshots of it were circulated online, according to WNTY. Sex worker Nora Es-Sadki Boughima has been jailed for starting a fire which led to the death of a hotel janitor A prostitute who was furious at only being paid half of her 300 fee has been jailed for manslaughter after setting fire to hotel bed, sparking a blaze which killed a janitor. Nora Es-Sadki Boughima, 19, was angry after a man who had agreed to pay her 300 only left 150 before he slipped out of London's Paddington Park Grand Court Hotel following a night together in January. The 19-year-old set fire to a bed in the room, sparking a blaze which hotel janitor Richard Staley and a colleague desperately tried to put out, the Old Bailey heard. Mr Staley, who was just one day from retirement, collapsed and died from a heart attack while battling the flame and Boughima was charged with manslaughter. The arsonist, who was living in a flat near Edgware Road, central London at the time, today admitted the charge and was jailed for six years. Detectives found Boughima had asked a receptionist for a lighter just 20 minutes before the fire started. Nora Es-Sadki Boughima set fire to a bed after being paid only half her 300-a-night fee Analysis of CCTV revealed that Es-Sadki Boughima, a sex worker, had spent the night of 29 January with a man in a room at the hotel. Her client said he had met her in a nightclub the previous evening and agreed to pay her 300. But he only paid her 150 before leaving the room at about 8.30am, while she was sleeping. Richard Staley was only one day from retirement when he collapsed from a heart attack and died after tackling the blaze CCTV from the hotel showed that Es-Sadki Boughima left the room minutes before the fire alarm went off at about 14.50hrs. Following her jailing today, Detective Constable Mike Reilly, of Westminster borough, said: 'As a result of her anger at not being paid, Es-Sadki Boughima sought her revenge by deliberately setting fire to the bed in the hotel room. This was a reckless act that endangered the lives of people in the hotel and neighbouring properties. 'Mr Staley, who tragically was just one day away from his retirement, bravely tackled the blaze with a fire extinguisher. Shortly afterwards, he collapsed and later died in hospital. The fire was established as a direct cause of his death. 'Mr Staley had worked at the hotel for 18 years and was a very popular member of staff. His colleagues have been left deeply upset at his death. 'I am glad that Es-Sadki has now shown some remorse by pleading guilty to manslaughter. The sentence reflects the serious consequences of her actions.' A sorry-looking Christmas tree has been branded Britain's worst by disappointed residents. Rebecca Rowland, 36, posted a picture on Twitter of the dowdy tree in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, decorated with around five baubles and an unremarkable star on the top. In her post, she wrote: 'Tyldesley's 2018 tree. If there's a worse one in the country I'll sit on the top myself.' Rebecca Rowland, 36, posted a picture on Twitter of a limp tree in Tyldesley Wigan council have been told to only decorate the fencing around the tree, but no plans have been had to add decorations to the empty looking tree. However it said it would be working with traders to decorate the tree before the town's Christmas light switch-on In her post Rebecca (pictured) wrote: 'Tyldesley's 2018 tree. If there's a worse one in the country I'll sit on the top myself.' Other Twitter users agreed with her comments and slammed the tree. Wigan Council responded by saying it would be working with traders to decorate the meagre 8ft tree. Council bosses told how it isn't a purpose-bought Christmas tree, it is a living tree, and the reason it looks the way it does is because it hasn't quite finished growing. The 'living tree' was installed as part of the guided busway improvements to Tyldesley Market Square in 2015. Wigan Council said it would be working with traders and the local community to finish off the tree in time for the Christmas switch-on, which takes place in Market Square at 6pm on Saturday. Rebecca took to Twitter to vent her frustration about the tree Council bosses told how it isn't a purpose-bought Christmas tree, it is a living tree, and the reason it looks the way it does is because it hasn't quite finished growing. Other Twitter users agreed with Rebecca's comments and slammed the tree The fence surrounding the tree will also be decorated. Coun Stephen Hellier, local ward councillor, said: 'We are working together as a community in Tyldesley to make the town centre look festive and welcoming to residents and visitors. 'The tree is a living tree and yet to grow to its full height. We will be decorating it later this week and we are looking forward to welcoming the people of Tyldesley to a successful switch-on event on December 1.' A Guatemalan migrant attempting to enter the US illegally with her two young children last week was impaled by pieces of rebar after falling from a border fence. According to Border Patrol agent Tekae Michael, the 26-year-old woman was injured near the San Ysidro Port of Entry at 8.25pm on Friday and landed on pieces of rebar that pierced her one side of her body and her buttocks. Responding border agents administered first aid to the woman and requested paramedics and the San Diego Fire Department for assistance. Scroll down for video Border Patrol agents are seen administering first aid to a 26-year-old Guatemalan mother who impaled herself scaling a border fence in San Diego with her children Friday The migrant was then transported to a local hospital and is currently being treated for non-life threatening injures. The womans children, ages three and five, were not hurt. They were evaluated at a hospital and subsequently released back into Border Patrol custody. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the Guatemalan national told federal agents she was not part of the migrant caravan that traveled from Central America to the Mexican border city of Tijuana. This video shows an ambulance carrying the injured woman arriving at a hospital. A girl believed to be her daughter is pictured in another person's arms The mom-of-two is seen above being wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher Entering our country illegally, particularly over our walls, is not only dangerous, but also very foolish, San Diegos Chief Border Patrol Agent Rodney Scott said Saturday. This woman placed her own life and her childrens lives in peril. She could have easily died if not for the quick response by our agents and EMS. The rebar is part of ongoing work to replace 14 miles of decades-old fencing. Its not related to the American militarys recent mission to fortify the fence in response to the caravan. Hundreds of Tunisian protesters marched through the capital Tunis in opposition to a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, urging justice over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The demonstrators shouted 'Go away assassin!' and held placards with slogans including 'The people want Bin Salman to be judged', 'No to the killer of Yemeni children' and 'You're not welcome'. It was the second protest in as many days against the de facto Saudi ruler, who flew into Tunis from Egypt today for talks with President Beji Caid Essebsi as part of a regional tour. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi (right) shakes hands with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) upon the latter's arrival at the presidential palace in Tunis The de facto Saudi ruler flew into Tunis from Egypt today for talks with President Beji Caid Essebsi as part of a regional tour Saudi Arabia has faced intense global criticism over the killing of insider-turned-critic Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate on October 2 (pictured: The Tunisian President receives Saudi Arabia's Crown Prine at the presidential palace in Carthage, Tunis) Tunisians demonstrate with poster showing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S President Donald Trump, Tuesday November 27, 2018 Tunisians demonstrate with placards in Tunis reading: 'You are not welcome' showing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman A protester holds up a placard with an inscription reading in Arabic: 'Tunisians against Saudi Crown Prince visit' in the Tunisian capital Tunis today Two protesters hold up a red-stained saw amid international concern about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi Khashoggi's murder inside Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate on October 2 has led to international scrutiny of the gulf kingdom, its human rights record and its war in Yemen It comes as Khashoggi's murder leads to increased scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's devastating war. 'It's inhuman to see an Arab leader killing his brothers in Yemen, and the murder of a journalist is the icing on the cake,' said Basma Rezgui, a teacher brandishing a red-stained saw. Saudi Arabia has faced intense global criticism over the killing of insider-turned-critic Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate on October 2. It was the second protest in as many days against the de facto Saudi ruler, who had previously visited Egypt as part of his regional tour (pictured: The Crown Prince with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sissi) Some 200 protesters gathered in central Tunis on Monday night to protest the Saudi prince's Tuesday arrival Mohammad bin Salman arrived today in Tunis from Egypt for talks with President Beji Caid Essebsi as part of a regional tour Tunisian women hold up saws and signs showing pictures of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a caption below reading in Arabic 'no welcome, Tunisians against the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince to Tunisia' Tunisian protesters holding placards with inscription reading in Arabic 'Tunisians against Saudi Crown Prince visit' shout slogans during a protest in Tunis Khashoggi's remains have not yet been discovered. He was reportedly dismembered in what Saudi Arabia said was a 'rogue' operation, but CIA analysis leaked to the US media pointed the finger at Prince Mohammed. Despite this, US President Donald Trump has said he will not punish the Saudis for the murder of the Washington Post columnist. Trump said last week in a statement that drew both domestic and international criticism: 'The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region.' The crown prince's visit is the first by a Saudi royal to Tunisia since the 2011 revolution deposed longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia. Tunisians gathered to protest against the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MbS, who is on a regional tour before attending the G20 summit in Argentina Khashoggi was reportedly dismembered in what Saudi Arabia said was a 'rogue' operation, but CIA analysis leaked to the US media pointed the finger at Prince Mohammed A poster depicting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a chainsaw and inscription reading in Arabic 'no to the desecration of Tunisia, the land of the revolution' on the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists headquarters in Tunis This was the second protest in as many days against the de facto Saudi ruler, who was expected to fly into Tunis from Egypt today The Saudi crown prince has also held talks in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt on his first foreign tour since the Khashoggi affair erupted. In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised the 'unshakable strategic alliance between Egypt and Saudi Arabia' during Prince Mohammed's visit there, the state daily Al-Ahram reported Tuesday. 'The stability and security of Saudi Arabia is an integral part of Egypt's security,' Sisi was quoted as saying. Tunisian protesters hold placard with inscription reading in Arabic 'If it were not for Saudi Arabia, Israel would have been in trouble' Tunisians demonstrate with saws and placards reading 'You are not welcome' showing Mohammed bin Salman's face Tunisians demonstrate with poster saying 'Bin Salman is a war criminal' as Argentina is reportedly considering charging him when he arrives there this week A writ issued by HRW to an Argentinian federal prosecutor cites the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and alleged incidents in Yemen war as reasons why Saudi Arabia's crown prince should face war crimes charges Meanwhile advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote to a federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should prosecute the crown prince under Argentinian law when he arrives there later this week. The G20 conference gets underway in three days time in Buenos Aires, and Argentina is reportedly considering charging Mohammed bin Salman with war crimes. The writ issued by HRW to a federal prosecutor cites the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and alleged incidents in Yemen war, but it is unclear whether there is enough evidence to charge him at this moment in time. A two-year-old British girl was allowed to walk out onto a Tunisian beach alone, as the hotel's kids' club did not notice she was missing. Ella Bryson, two, was found by a fellow tourist with tears streaming down her face after she went missing from the Sahara Beach Aquapark Resort in Monastir a month ago. Billy and Claire Bryson, her parents from Angus in Scotland, were horrified to discover the hotel was not even aware Ella had escaped. 'It's a parent's worst nightmare. The nightmares I've been having since have been terrible,' Claire told the Scotsman. Two-year-old Ella Bryson (pictured with her parents) was allowed to walk out onto a Tunisian beach alone as the hotel's kids' club did not notice she was missing 'This is something none of us should have had to deal with.' The 32-year-old mother and her husband Billy, 30, dropped their child off only for her to appear with another holidaymaker in hysterics just 20 minutes later. Billy told the paper: 'Somebody could have grabbed her on the beach or she could have gone into the water and drowned. 'If somebody had picked her up, how were security going to know that she wasn't just crying for her mum?' The father confronted the kids' club worker who was completely taken aback by his telling her he had just discovered his own daughter. Ella's parents stated that even now when they go shopping their daughter has anxiety over getting lost and hangs onto her parents' hands tightly. Ella went missing from the Sahara Beach Aquapark Resort (above) in Monastir a month ago Ella Bryson (pictured with her mum Claire, dad Billy and two sisters Ruby and Billie) with her was found by a fellow tourist with tears streaming down her face They have complained to Thomas Cook since returning. Claire wrote on Facebook: 'Shame on you Thomas Cook. We COULD have lost our beautiful baby girl. 'Our youngest daughter went missing from kids club on our recent holiday to Tunisia and Thomas Cook could not care less.' Ella's parents say their daughter has anxiety over getting lost and hangs onto her parents' hands tightly when they go out She claimed in the post on Saturday that all the hotel had done was offer them a free meal. Claire said they would be taking legal action and would not be returning to the hotel or booking through Thomas Cook again. The Sahara Beach Aquapark is an all-inclusive three-star hotel with three large swimming pools and a children's paddling area. There are four restaurants - one of which serves local cuisine - bars and nightclubs, from 53 a night. Thomas Cook provided a statement to MailOnline saying: 'Customer safety is our first priority, so we were very concerned to hear of this incident and we understand how distressing it must have been. 'We are urgently investigating with the hotel to get to the bottom of what happened and make any changes needed.' There are still large swathes of the north African country that the Foreign Office advise against travelling to over terrorism fears. In 2015, 38 people including 30 British citizens were gunned down as they lay on the beach in the resort of Port El Kantaoui near Sousse. A former Connecticut special education teacher could face up to five years in prison after she admitted to having sex with two of her students. Laura Calladio Ramos, 32, pleaded no contest on Monday to sexually assaulting two special education students and violating a protective order. Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin told Ramos on Monday that he would sentence her to a maximum five years in prison when she is sentenced on January 25. Former special education teacher Laura Ramos, 32, has pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting two of her students and violating a protective order Ramos, a former teacher at Central High School in Bridgeport, could have faced up to 25 years in prison if she was convicted during trial. 'Do you think the state has sufficient evidence that it does expose you to the risk of being convicted,' Devlin asked Ramos, according to the Connecticut Post. 'Probably,' she replied. Ramos was first arrested after an 18-year-old special education student told police he had sex with his teacher between December 2016 to April 2017. The teacher told police she had sex 'a handful of times' with this student, most frequently in her car. A second special education student then told police that he had sex with Ramos, who resigned following her first arrest, multiple times. The student told police that he had gone to a restaurant with Ramos in April 2017 for dinner before they had sex in her car in the parking lot. Ramos was first arrested after an 18-year-old special education student told police he had sex with his teacher between December 2016 to April 2017, mostly in her car That same month, the student said Ramos took him to a restaurant after telling him that her husband - who has since divorced her and won custody of their two-year-old son - didn't want to have sex with her. The student said he and Ramos then went into the restaurant's 'electrical room' and had sex. Ramos later sent him a text saying it was the best sex she had ever had, the student told investigators. The teacher was arrested a second time after she was pulled over by police while driving her first victim to the beach. An officer had initially stopped the teacher, who had been ordered by the court not to have any contact with her victims, because he saw her talking on her cell phone. Ramos resigned from her teacher position at Central High School in Bridgeport (pictured) following her arrests 'Honestly, what is going on here?' Devlin asked Ramos in court during a hearing in July. 'You were going to the beach with a boy who was a subject of your case. That is completely reckless.' Devlin declined the prosecutor's motion to revoke Ramos' bond but raised it from $50,000 to $250,000. She was also ordered to wear a GPS tracking anklet and could only leave her home to make her shifts as a waitress at a local restaurant. Ramos remains free on bond. Her attorney plans to comment for a lesser prison sentence. 'We look forward to resolving this very difficult case,' Edward Gavin said at the Fairfield County Courthouse on Monday. 'The court is giving us the opportunity to address an appropriate sentence and we will do so at the sentencing in January.' Mississippi's Senate race - the final contest of the 2018 midterm election - comes to a close Tuesday amid a cloud of racial tension that has permeated the match-up between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic candidate Mike Espy. Both sides have pushed their star power into the contest after Democrats looked to capitalize on mistakes by Hyde-Smith, who said she would attend a public hanging if invited and was seen wearing a confederate soldier cap in a photo. President Donald Trump held a double set of rallies for her on Monday night, less than 24 hours before voters head to the polls, he's defended her comments, and tweeted his endorsement. President Donald Trump has defended Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith Democrats hope their candidate, Mike Espy, can flip Mississippi's Senate seat Espy, meanwhile, has touted the backing of former Vice President Joe Biden and he's brought in rising Democratic stars Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker to campaign for him amid Democrat hopes that high African American turnout can push their candidate over the top. 'Democrats hope that Hyde-Smith's missteps will energize African-American and non-Republican white voters and that these two groups will turn out in high enough numbers to topple Hyde-Smith. Sound familiar? It should as it is the same proposition that Democrats used to win the special election in Alabama in December of 2017,' writes Jennifer Duffy of the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Indeed, Democrats are using their Alabama playbook in Mississippi in the hopes of flipping one final Senate seat. Espy got 94 percent of the Black vote on Election Day, but African American voters only make up 33 percent of the state's electorate. And Democrats and independents are only another 16 percent of the electorate. The math puts Espy's path to winning through turning out the African American vote, winning the non-Republican vote, and hoping that enough Republicans simply don't vote in Tuesday's runoff. A similar formula propelled Democrat Doug Jones to victory in Alabama in December. But Hyde-Smith, while dealing with controversy, is no Roy Moore, the Republican candidate in Alabama accused of inappropriate behavior with teenage girls. She has led in the polls with the RealClearPolitics polling average showing her up by 10 points. The controversy began earlier this month when Hyde-Smith was caught on camera praising a cattle rancher at a Nov. 2 campaign event in Tupelo by saying: 'If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row.' Her campaign seemed to defend her comment in the aftermath but, at last week's debate between the candidates, she turned tactics and apologized. 'For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize. There was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statement,' she said. She also came under fire when a 2014 post on her personal Facebook page about her visit to Beauvoir in Biloxi, Mississippi, the last home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, featured her wearing the cap of a confederate soldier. Hyde-Smith was the state agriculture commissioner at the time. The post was labeled 'Mississippi history at its best' and had four photos, including one of Hyde-Smith holding a rifle and wearing a Confederate military cap. 'I enjoyed my tour of Beauvoir. The Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library located in Biloxi,' she wrote on the post. Racial tensions have clouded the contest since then in a state with a dark history of lynching and racial violence. And, on Monday, seven nooses were found hanging in trees outside the Mississippi Capitol. The nooses were accompanied by handwritten signs referring to Tuesday's election. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety says the nooses were accompanied by handwritten signs referring to Tuesday's election as well as to lynchings The sign above references Tuesday's runoff election between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy, the Democrat Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has come under fire for a 2014 Facebook post that shows her wearing a Confederate Army hat One sign read: 'We need someone who respects the lives of lynch victims.' Another sign read: 'We're hanging nooses to remind people that times haven't changed.' Republicans are taking nothing to chance in the deep-red state, sending in hundreds of staffers to work on get-out-the-vote operations on the ground, and having the president hold a two-punch set of rallies Monday night. 'The Tuesday after Thanksgiving is about the worst time you can have for a runoff regardless of party,' Lucien Smith, the state GOP chairman, told Politico. 'People just naturally aren't going to be focused on an election. Having the president come in the night before is fantastically helpful.' Trump has repeatedly defended Hyde-Smith. 'I know her. And I know she apologized. And she misspoke. But I will tell you. I've known her for a period of time now as a senator. She's been an excellent senator. She's done a great job. She's somebody that's respected in the Senate,' Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday before he left for to campaign with her. And he urged voters at his rallies Monday night not to be complacent but get out the vote as he tries to shore up the GOP majority in the Senate, which will act as a firewall for the president when Democrats take control of the House next year. 'I think it'll be a very big day for Cindy, but don't take any chances,' Trump said at his Tupelo, Miss., rally. 'That's happened many times before. That never works out well, just assume you have to vote.' 'If we win tomorrow, we'll be at 53-47 seats, which is substantially more than we had,' he noted. He also made an appeal to African American voters, asking them: 'What the hell do you have to lose' by supporting Republicans? 'African-American unemployment has reached the lowest rate ever recorded,' Trump said. 'African-American poverty is at an all-time low. Remember what I used to say: What the hell do you have to lose?' More than 100 Republican operatives and field staff are in the state. Sen. Kamala Harris, right, has campaigned for Mike Espy, center President Trump held a double set of rallies for Hyde-Smith on Monday night The Republican National Committee has more than 100 staffers on the ground and the National Republican Senatorial Committee has sent in reinforcements, Politico reported. Democrats are making a hard final push too. Espy's campaign has knocked on 100,000 doors and volunteers have made more than 650,000 phone calls, the news website reported. Trump's job rating in the state sits at a high 59 percent, according to exit polls on Election Day. He won the state by 18 points in 2016. Hyde-Smith and Espy each received about 41 percent of the vote when four candidates were on the ballot Nov. 6 and both then proceeded to the runoff. Hyde-Smith was appointed in April to fill Thad Cochran's seat when he stepped down for health reasons. She is the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress. Espy is a former congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary, is seeking to become the state's first African-American senator since Reconstruction. Polls close in Mississippi at 8:00 pm ET. 'Fox and Friends' a favorite news show of President Donald Trump was revealed in government emails to have shared interview questions and a politically loaded introduction in advance of a segment featuring former EPA chief Scott Pruitt. In one exchange, from May 2017, former EPA press secretary Amy Graham pitched an interview to talk about how Pruitt wanted to help communities 'poorly served by the last administration.' She exchanged messages with producer Andrew Murray, who in turn forwarded them to producer Diana Aloi. At one point, Aloi ran an introductory script by Pruitt's office, asking: 'Would this be okay as the setup to his segment'? according to emails obtained by the Daily Beast. DRAIN THE SWAMP: Pruitt, who promoted a deregulatory agenda, discussed Superfund sites during the segment Her proposed language bashed the Obama administration and gave Pruitt a slow pitch to tout his own agenda. 'There's a new direction at the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trumpand it includes a back-to-basics approach,' the proposed intro said. 'This after the Obama administration left behind a huge mess more than 1,300 super-fund sites which are heavily contaminatedstill require clean-ups. So why was President Obama touted as an environmental savior if all these problems still exist?' 'Yes perfect,' Graham of Pruitt's EPA responded. 'Great thank you,' Aloi responded. The emails set up an interview where Pruitt faulted the Obama administration for Superfund cleanups that have lingered in some cases for decades WALK IN THE PARK: The show's producers let Pruitt's office see in advance an introduction that bashed President Obama and said there was 'new direction' at EPA Pruitt left the administration while facing a slew of investigations During the segment that aired, the Fox hosts stuck to what was agreed to in advance. 'President Trump trying his best to drain the swamp and much of that draining happened at the Environmental Protection Agency after the Obama administration left behindget thisa huge toxic mess,' said cohost Brian Kilmeade on air. 'More than 1,300 superfund sites that are heavily contaminated still require clean up,' chimed in co-host Ainsley Earhardt. Co-host Steve Doocey added: 'The press made president Obama out to be the environmental savior' a term that was also part of Pruitt's talking points later in the interview. An EPA official called the proposed intro 'perfect' The emails show behind-the-scenes communications to set up a show appearance 'When you look at the environmental left, they look at the past administration as an environmental savior,' said Pruitt. Pruitt got to make his case with virtually no pushback. 'This president is a doer, he's an action-oriented leader,' said Pruitt. 'The past administration talked a lot. This administration's actually taken steps to do things to clean up the environment ... They want leadership and this president's providing leadership in so many areas,' added Pruitt, who was forced out while facing more than a dozen investigations, including an unusual living arrangement that had him paying $50 per diem to stay in a room at the home of an energy lobbyist. 'This is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved,' a Fox News channel spokeswoman told DailyMail.com when asked for comment. Other emails Daily Beast obtained show Pruitt seeking to get on air with top rated primetime host Sean Hannity. EPA press secretary Lincoln Ferguson wrote in April 2018 pitching a sit-down. and said Pruitt had 'really been wanting to make this happen.' Pruitt's team even offered to fly with Hannity aboard a private jet to Pruitt's home state of Oklahoma to meet with a rural family and talk about the Obama administration's water policy. Hannity didn't bite. 'Unfortunately it doesn't look like we can make it work this week with Sean's schedule, a producer responded. 'Please keep us posted for other opportunities! A 24-carat jewel worn by Marilyn Monroe as she performed the iconic song Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend in the 1950s has been sold for more than 1million. The Moon of Baroda, unearthed from a mine in India in the 15th century, went under the hammer today at Christie's in Hong Kong. The late Hollywood actress wore the canary yellow diamond while promoting the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Diamonds are a girl's best friend: The Moon of Baroda was worn by Marilyn Monroe while promoting the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Bling: The yellow 24.04 carat diamond worn by has been sold at auction for 1million It can be seen around Monroe's neck on a leather choker in several photographs from the campaign. Its gorgeous! Monroe is said to have gasped when she first laid eyes on the bright yellow diamond. The Moon of Baroda was originally owned by Indian royalty, after being found in the legendary Golconda mines, the source of the Koh-i-Noor diamond which is part of the British Crown Jewels. Christie's, who facilitated the auction in Hong Kong today, says the gem was bought by Samuel H. Deutsch, the president of a distinguished firm of diamond cutters in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1944. What a gem: A signed photo of Monroe wearing the diamond was also up for auction at Christie's Hong Kong today Ancient history: The Moon of Baroda was unearthed from a mine in India in the 15th century Showing off: Monroe reportedly gasped when she first laid eyes on the diamond, which can be seen around her neck in several photographs from the 1953 promotional campaign It was sold to a jeweller in Detroit Michigan in 1953, and more than 35 years later, in 1990, it was sold by Christies in New York for $297,000 (233,205). The buyer at today's auction has not been revealed. 'I think the buyer bagged a bargain today,' said Tobias Kormind, managing director of celebrity jeweller 77Diamonds.com. 'Hollywood magic and royal associations still bestow a special halo effect on jewellery prices but not always. 'I expected the necklace for US$2million (1.57million) given it is a piece of history.' Vice President Mike Pence will be President Trump's running mate in 2020, a senior official in his office confirmed to DailyMail.com on Tuesday. Trump asked Pence publicly on Nov. 7 if he would be his number-two a second time. The vice president was seen nodding his head, but Roll Call reported Monday that he never answered the question. The Capitol Hill newspaper also floated a list of seven potential replacements, including five women. But Pence's senior aide said that 'yes he accepted when the President asked him in the East Room,' a statement that should end speculation. Four more years? A senior official in Vice President Mike Pence's office confirmed Tuesday that he will be President Dona'd Trump's running mate a second time in 2020 The Trumps and Pences celebrated at the close of the Republican National Convention in July 2016 When a reporter surprised President Donald Trump on Nov. 7 with a question about his 2020 re-election ticket, Trump put Pence on the spot; the veep nodded wordlessly, creating speculation about his intentions News cycles about the press conference quickly became overwhelmed with stories about CNN reporter Jim Acosta refusing to yield the floor after a tense battle of words with Trump. But a more enduring moment could be another journalist asking the president: 'Do you want to lock down your ticket right now, sir? Will the Vice President be your running mate in 2020?' Trump, off guard, responded: 'Well, I haven't asked him, but I hope so.' 'Mike, will you be my running mate?' he asked the veep, who was seated in the front row. He joked that Pence should stand and raise his right hand to reply. 'The answer is "yes." Okay?' Trump announced after seeing Pence rise and nod. Pence stared down Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit this month in Singapore The pair entered and exited the East Room together. The vice president walked a half-step behind Trump on the way out. Pence has taken on a direct role this year as a White House emissary on diplomatic and trade trips that conflict with Trump's schedule. He stared down Vladimir Putin at a summit in Singapore this month, and warned the Russian president not meddle in America's elections. The two spoke on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference, also discussing arms control. After the Nov. 7 press conference, Pence exited the East Room of the White House with Trump, walking a half-step behind him After the summit, Pence told reporters that Trump plans to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un a second time in 2019 to push for concrete steps toward ending the hermit nation's nuclear arms ambitions. A few days later in Papua New Guinea, he traded barbs with Chinese President Xi Jinping about trade policy in a pair of dueling speeches. The U.S., he said, 'will not change course until China changes its ways,' Pence said, accusing Beijing of intellectual property theft, dramatic subsidies for state-owned businesses and 'tremendous' barriers to foreign companies entering its giant markets. The vice president has had his off-moments too. A few days before the midterm congressional elections, he told a TV interviewer that Democrats wouldn't gain control of the House of Representatives. 'I think we're going to expand our majority in the United States Senate, and I think we're going to hold our Republican majority in the House of Representatives,' Pence said. Republicans lost 40 House seats, setting the stage for a Democratic majority in 2019. Britain's only giant pandas will now not be unable to breed after the male had both his testicles removed after zoo experts discovered tumours. Yang Guang (Sunshine), who arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in 2011, had been hoped for a number of years to breed with female panda Tian Tian (Sweetie). But on Saturday, November 17 both of Yang Guang's testicles were removed following the recent discovery of tumours. Yang Guang (pictured) has lived at Edinburgh Zoo since 2011. Zoo experts had hoped he and female panda Tian Tian would breed, but nothing came of it. The pair of giant pandas were given to the zoo on a ten-year loan as part of a conservation breeding programme and collaborative research work between China and the UK The surgery was carried out following a group consultation involving British and Chinese giant panda specialists. The zoo said the tumours developed recently and have not been a factor in Yang Guang and female panda Tian Tian not having had a cub. Edinburgh Zoo will now look into future breeding opportunities. Darren McGarry, head of living collections at the zoo, said: 'We are pleased Yang Guang is recovering well. 'Testicular tumours have previously been reported in giant pandas. 'The tumours we removed developed recently so they have not been a factor in Yang Guang and Tian Tian not having had a cub. 'We will discuss next steps, including future breeding possibilities, with our partners in China over coming weeks.' Zoo experts had been hoping Yang Guang and Tian Tian (pictured) would breed, but since they arrived in 2011 it has not happened. Tian Tian has had cubs in China but not in the UK Male giant panda Yang Guang (pictured) and female giant panda Tian Tian arrived on loan from China in December 2011. Since their arrival, they were due to arrive in the country for a decade The black and white bears arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and are due to remain at Edinburgh Zoo for a decade. Tian Tian has had cubs in China but not in the UK. The zoo tried natural breeding in 2012 and has attempted artificial insemination each year since 2013. Earlier this year, RZSS said no efforts to breed the pair would take place in 2018. Ian Austin (pictured at a fringe event at the Labour party conference in Liverpool in September), whose grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust, told Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery the failure to tackle anti-Semitism was a 'bloody disgrace' and the party had become a 'sewer'. Labour has finally dropped its investigation into former frontbencher Ian Austin for confronting party chiefs over their failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis. Mr Austin, whose grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust, told Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery the failure to tackle anti-Semitism was a 'bloody disgrace' and the party had become a 'sewer'. But furious party bosses angrily denied the claim, made in July, and placed Mr Austin under formal investigation. The move sparked fury among Labour backbenchers who accused Jeremy Corbyn's office of dedicating more time and effort into going after its own MPs than stamping out the racism. Mr Austin, the MP for Dudley North and former Gordon Brown aide, said it was 'appalling' that the probe was allowed to drag on for four months. He said: 'I make no apologies for being upset about anti-Semitism - I think every Labour Party member ought to be angry about racism and the failure to deal with it properly. 'But I did not scream abuse as was alleged, so I am pleased the Labour Party have dropped its threat to hold an investigation. 'Frankly, they should never have threatened this in the first place. The way this whole issue has been handled is unacceptable and the time it has taken is appalling.' Mr Austin, whose adoptive parents were Czech Jewish refugees, said the party has failed to tackle anti-Semitism properly - and pledged not to be cowed in speaking out against racism. What is the timeline of anti-Semitic scandals which have erupted under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership? Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) has been accused of failing to tackle the racism among his supporters The anti-Semitism scandal has dogged Labour since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015. Here is a timeline of the controversies: April 2016: Labour MP Naz Shah is suspended for anti-Semitic posts - including one in which she appeared to endorse calls for Israelis to be deported to the US. She apologised and was given a formal warning. Ken Livingstone goes on the radio to defend Ms Shah - but sparks fresh controversy by claiming that Hitler supported Zionism. He is suspended by Labour but refuses to apologise and has repeated the claim many times. He eventually quits Labour two years later, saying his suspension has become a distraction. June 2016: A two-month inquiry by civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti finds that Labour is not overrun by anti-Semitism. But the launch is overshadowed when Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth flees it in tears after being accused by Corbyn supporter Marc Wadsworth of colluding with the press. Critics accuse the report of being a whitewash and Ms Chakrabarti is widely criticised for accepting a peerage from Jeremy Corbyn shortly afterwards. October 2016: The Home Affairs Select Committee says Labour is guilty of incompetence over its handling of anti-Semitism and of creating a safe space for people with 'vile attitudes towards Jewish people'. March 2018: It is revealed that Jeremy Corbyn defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural and said the offensive art should be removed. He apologises saying he did not properly look at the picture before he made the post. Jewish leaders take the unprecedented step of holding a demonstration outside Parliament protesting Mr Corbyn's failure to tackle anti-Semitism. Several Labour MPs address the crowds. April 2018: Marc Wadsworth is expelled from Labour after being accused of anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, Labour Jewish MPs tell of the anti-Semitic abuse they have suffered in a powerful parliamentary debate - and round on their leader for failing to tackle it. July 2018: The Labour leadership sparks fresh anger by failing to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism Peter Willsman, a strong ally of Jeremy Corbyn, is secretly taped ranting that 'Jewish Trump fanatics' invented the anti-Semitism storm engulfing Labour. In an angry diatribe at a meeting of Labour's ruling executive committee, he said he was 'amazed' there was evidence party members hated Jews. He claimed 'some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump they are Trump fanatics' before shouting: 'So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.' August 2018: Jeremy Corbyn issues a video insisting he is committed to tackling the racism - but it is panned by Jewish leaders. Corbynistas mount a social media campaign to get deputy Labour leader Tom Watson to quit after he criticises the party's handling of anti-Semitism. The Daily Mail exclusively publishes photos of Jeremy Corbyn holding a wreath at a ceremony where a terrorist linked to the Munich massacre was honoured. The Labour leader insists he was there to honour others killed - but faces fresh calls to quit over the scandal. Advertisement He said: 'One of the reasons I joined the Labour Party as a teenager in Dudley 35 years ago was to fight racism. 'I believe that just as passionately now as I did then and I will not be deterred from speaking out about anti-Semitism and racism in the Labour Party. 'The Labour Party's priority ought to be dealing with the outstanding cases of anti-Semitism and doing everything it can to win back the trust of the Jewish community, not investigating people like me for complaining about their failure to tackle antisemitism properly. 'It is a good job they finally adopted the standard internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism and this must not now be reopened, rewritten or watered down. 'They still haven't responded properly to the reasonable requests made by the Jewish Leadership Council, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Labour Movement back in the spring. 'Most of all, they need to boot people responsible for racism out of the Labour Party.' He said it is 'shocking' that he had to enlist the services of a leading lawyer to take on his own party just for speaking out on racism. Labour MP Pat McFadden said the decision was 'long overdue'. He said: 'Ian Austin should never have been put through this. 'Instead he should be commended for taking a strong stand against anti-Semitism and defending the long anti racist tradition in the Labour Party A Labour Party spokeswoman said: 'The Labour Party takes all allegations of abusive behaviour extremely seriously. These are fully investigated in line with Party rules and procedures.' A Labour Party source said: 'Ian Austin was given a formal reprimand by the Chief Whip and a formal warning against repeated similar behaviour. 'The Chief Whip made clear to him that shouting aggressively is not acceptable behaviour by a Labour MP.' Under Mr Corbyn's leadership, Labour has been dogged by accusations it has allowed anti-Semitism to fester and go unchallenged among his suporters. One of his own MPs, Luciana Berger, had to be given police protection at her own party conference in Liverpool this year after receiving threats. Ms Berger, who has complained of anti-Semitic abuse, last week said Labour had not told her or the police about a 'physical threat'. The rebuke is thought to relate to a party dossier of abuse allegations that was leaked earlier this year. She wrote: 'If my family and I could work, live and go about our business like everyone else we gladly would. 'That so many people are so keen to attack/deny/smear/obfuscate and I have to talk about my personal safety is indicative of a serious problem.' This month the Metropolitan Police confirmed it was investigating a claim that someone had referred to Miss Berger online as a 'Zionist Extremist' who was 'about (to) get a good kicking'. The threat was reported to Labour but the party did not pass it on to the police, who only found out when handed a leaked dossier. Miss Berger tweeted: 'That the same people who are having a go have literally NOTHING to say that our party withheld (from me and the police) details of a physical threat against me is particularly galling. 'I thought I joined a movement that believes in solidarity for all. Clearly not.' Mr Corbyn and his aides have repeatedly insisted that Labour is committed to stamping out the abuse. And the Labour leader used his flagship speech at the party's annual conference in Liverpool in September to condemn the racism. But Jewish leaders and many of his own MPs have lashed him for failing to meaningfully tackle the abuse and racism when it is dished out by his own supporters. And Mr Corbyn has been personally embroiled in anti-Semitism scandals several times. In August, MailOnline exclusively revealed that a video showed Mr Corbyn accusing British 'Zionists' of having 'no sense of English irony' despite having 'lived in Britain all of their lives'. The remarks were made in 2013, when Mr Corbyn was giving a speech alongside prominent British extremists, at a London conference promoted by the propaganda website of terror group Hamas. The Labour leader said: '[British Zionists] clearly have two problems. One is they don't want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don't understand English irony either.' He added: 'They needed two lessons, which we could perhaps help them with.' And in March this year it was revealed that Mr Corbyn defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural and said the offensive art should be removed. He apologised saying he did not properly look at the picture before he made the post. But the row caused Jewish leaders take the unprecedented step of holding a demonstration outside Parliament protesting against the Labour leader's failure to tackle anti-Semitism. Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in the Commons yesterday) has been accused of failing to stamp out anti-Semitism among his supporters Daniel Lingham, 65, from Norfolk, was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison for collecting more than 5,000 birds eggs, many of them from endangered species. In 2005 he was sentenced to ten weeks for a similar crime A 'compulsive' collector who illegally amassed thousands of the UK's rarest birds eggs was put behind bars today. Daniel Lingham, 65, dressed in camouflage from head to toe to swipe the eggs which had fallen from the nests of wild species at nature reserves around Norfolk, a court heard. But after being caught by police with a wooden catapult, binoculars and tree climbing 'crampon-style' boots, he told them: 'I've been a silly man, haven't I?' When he was searched by officers at Cawston Heath, Norfolk on May 21, they found nine linnet eggs he said he had picked up from the ground. After searching his home in Newton St Faith, Norfolk they found 5,257 more eggs from various species stashed in rooms throughout his house. These included eggs from rare birds such as nightingales, nightjars, turtle doves, chiffchaffs, little-ringed plovers, woodlarks and kingfishers. The eggs were from 298 different birds, 53 of which were classed as 'schedule one species', meaning they were highly endangered. Speaking at Norwich Magistrates' Court today, prosecutor Colette Harper said the eggs could have been taken from up to 134 locations across Norfolk. At an earlier hearing, Lingham admitted five offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. After Lingham's arrest the RSPB said it is 'very rare that an egg collection of this magnitude comes to light these days' At Lingham's home in Newton St Faith, Norfolk, police found 5,257 eggs from species including nightingales, nightjars, turtle doves, chiffchaffs, little-ringed plovers, woodlarks and kingfishers. The court heard that Lingham was convicted of similar offences in 2005 when he was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison for illegally collecting more than 3,000 eggs. Speaking after the conviction, RSPB Senior Investigator Mark Thomas told MailOnline: 'Some of the species Mr Lingham has targeted are on the brink of extinction in the UK. 'We have less than 10% of the turtledoves we had just two decades ago, the species is in serious trouble across Europe and one we invest almost 200,000 a year in trying to save, and yet Mr Lingham has deliberately and spitefully targeted it in some of the few places you can still find them in the UK. 'Or the nightjar which is down to just 4,600 males every egg stolen from the wild pushes us closer to losing the species entirely. 'He also stole eggs from marsh harriers, a bird rarer than the golden eagle in the UK. 'His actions have single-handedly attempted to undermine the work of the RSPB and other organisations along with a huge number of volunteers all trying to save species from extinction so that future generations can continue to enjoy them in our skies.' Lingham, pictured here arriving for court in 2005, was sentenced 13 years ago to ten weeks in prison for a similar offence involving 3,000 eggs Today prosecutor Mrs Harper said aggravating factors in Lingham's case included his prior conviction and 'a lack of full and frank admissions at the time'. She described the egg collecting as 'totally unnecessary and damaging', causing 'not only local but regional decline'. James Burrows, defending Lingham, said his client had completed at least six sessions with a psychological therapist to deal with his 'obsessive compulsive disorder', which was driving 'an addiction to collecting wild bird eggs'. Mr Burrows said Lingham had 'a difficult relation' with his father as a boy, adding: 'The only way his father would give him praise was if he collected rare eggs. 'It has somewhat snowballed from there over all these years.' Chairman of the bench Darren Gilkes sentenced Lingham to 18 weeks in jail, nine of which will be served in custody. He was also handed a 10-year Criminal Behaviour Order. Mr Gilkes: 'If you break this CBO, you could be put in custody for five years.' Mr Gilkes ordered the destruction of the catapult, binoculars and tree climbing boots. The court also heard the eggs would be given to the Natural History Museum. Talking of Lingham's egg-collecting, Mr Gilkes said: 'That is damaging for the whole community. They [the eggs] can never be recovered.' Disgraced former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has been accused of moving $15 million of personal losses to the car company's accounts. The former chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi is alleged to have shifted losses he made on his own investments to his employer in 2008. His sacking as chairman of Nissan last week was over claims he allegedly swindled large sums of money from the company over several years. Mitsubishi Motors executives ousted the 64-year-old as chairman yesterday following his arrest for alleged financial misconduct amid suggestions he under-reported his salary by as much as $71 million. Prosecutors are looking into allegations he conspired with another executive, American Greg Kelly, to understate his income by around $44 million between June 2011 and June 2015. Scroll down for video. Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn allegedly moved $15 million of personal losses to the car company's accounts Mitsubishi Motors Chairman and CEO Osamu Masuko announced yesterday the company was removing Ghosn as chairman Brazilian-born Ghosn is believed to have had a flat in a Paris suburb bought for him by Nissan and spent 13.3 million ($17.8 million) on homes in Rio de Janeiro and Beirut, it was alleged. One luxurious 2.7million penthouse apartment of Ghosn's was raided by police after the Nissan chairman was arrested for alleged financial misconduct last Wednesday. But today it emerged the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) was aware of Ghosn's alleged derivatives trading misconduct and notified the bank involved in the transaction. Japanese media reported that Ghosn shifted personal investment losses incurred during the 2008 financial crisis to Nissan to avoid millions of dollars in losses for himself. The SESC told the Japan Times there is a possibility that he committed an 'aggravated breach of trust' and that he admitted not including part of the total payment he was set to receive when he retires in securities reports. Nissan took on losses during the global financial crisis in 2008 after Ghosn could not secure adequate collateral, a sources to the Japan Times. Newspaper Asahi Shimbun said yesterday that authorities are planning to re-arrest Ghosn on charges of understating his income by a further three billion yen - for a total of $71 million - for the following three fiscal years. It also emerged today Ghosn is suspected of using one of Nissan's business jets for private trips, allegedly travelling aboard one of Nissan's leased planes for personal journeys. 'Huge sums' were said to have been spent on homes for Ghosn in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Paris and Amsterdam. He is understood to have a penthouse in this apartment block in Tokyo Carlos Ghosn is pictured, left, with his first wife, Rita, in 2008 and, right, with his second wife, Carole, in 2017 The jet was set aside for use solely by Ghosn, who flew to countries where the car-maker has no major offices or factories. But these destinations including Beirut, where Ghosn had a bolt hole, are said to have been paid for by the car giant. This same Gulfstream jet was being used by Ghosn when he touched down in Tokyo from Lebanon yesterday afternoon, where he was met by an elite unit of prosecutors. A white van pulled up onto the tarmac and a line of investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in dark suits rushed up the steps to interrogate the businessman. Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa, who was known as one of 'Ghosn's children', described at a press conference last night his 'resentment and dismay' at the allegations and lashed out at what he called 'the dark side of the Ghosn era'. Carlos Ghosn (left) and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Chairman and CEO Osamu Masuko pictured together in October 2016 Carlos Ghosn, left, speaks as then Mitsubishi Motors Corp. President Osamu Masuko in 2014 The future of the 19-year alliance, one of the biggest automotive groups in the world, has been thrown into doubt after the arrest and subsequent ousting of Ghosn as chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors. Ghosn is the architect of the alliance and its chairman. He also remains CEO and chairman of Renault. Senior executives at Mitsubishi Motors Corp said today its alliance with Nissan Motor and Renault SA can survive the management upheaval. A seven-person Nissan board decided unanimously on Thursday to jettison the once-revered leader 'based on the copious amount and compelling nature of the evidence of misconduct presented', said a company spokesman. Meanwhile, further claims continued to leak out in the Japanese media of Ghosn's alleged misconduct. Under Japanese law, suspects can face additional arrest warrants, which can result in heavier penalties. The current allegations could see Ghosn facing 10 years behind bars and/or a 10-million-yen fine. Separately, Kyodo has reported that Nissan paid $100,000 annually since 2002 to Ghosn's sister for a non-existent 'advisory' role. And the Mainichi Shimbun reported on Monday that Ghosn used Nissan's corporate money to pay a donation to his daughter's university and also charged family trips to the company. Both Ghosn and Kelly have reportedly denied the allegations. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Chairman Osamu Masuko reveals the decision to dismissed Carlos Ghosn as chairman on Monday The firm's CEO Osamu Masuko told reporters it was 'heartbreaking' to propose ousting Ghosn but in the end it was a unanimous decision. The 64-year-old Brazil-born Ghosn rode to Mitsubishi Motors' rescue in 2016 when the firm was battered by a fuel efficiency cheating scandal, tying it to his Nissan-Renault alliance and turning its fortunes around. Together, the three-way alliance is the world's top-selling car group, with some 10.6 million vehicles rolling off the production line. It employs around 450,000 people worldwide. But the future of the tie-up is now uncertain as the talismanic Ghosn was seen as the glue binding together a fractious Franco-Japanese alliance with headquarters 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) apart. 'We (have) had two years of the alliance and there were positive parts... and parts that needed to be revised a little from Mitsubishi Motors' point of view,' said Masuko. A seven-person Nissan board, the parent company of Mitsubishi, decided unanimously on Thursday to jettison the once-revered leader Nissan's current CEO Hiroto Saikawa told staff on Monday he was 'shocked' at his former mentor's alleged misconduct. At a 45-minute meeting attended by hundreds of staff at the firm's Yokohama HQ and broadcast internally to other sites, Saikawa stressed that the scandal should not affect day-to-day operations. Saikawa, who rose through the Nissan ranks under Ghosn's wing, has already spoken of his 'great resentment and dismay' at the allegations. According to Japanese media, Nissan formed a 'secret' cell within the firm to look into the alleged financial misdeeds. Executives accelerated the probe amid concerns Ghosn was working on a fully fledged merger between Nissan and Renault, Kyodo News said without naming its sources. The 64-year-old Brazil-born Ghosn rode to Mitsubishi Motors' rescue in 2016 when the firm was battered by a fuel efficiency cheating scandal Renault is the dominant partner in the alliance, holding 43 percent of the shares in Nissan, but the Japanese firm outsells its French counterpart - sparking concern in Tokyo about the balance of power. Renault, which is 15-percent owned by the French state, has decided to stick by Ghosn for now, appointing Thierry Bollore as interim boss while the current CEO and chairman is 'incapacitated'. France's economy minister Bruno Le Maire has urged the Japanese firm to share 'quickly' whatever evidence it has gathered and stressed Ghosn will stay at the helm of Renault 'until there are tangible charges.' However, Le Maire has said he did not believe in a 'conspiracy theory' amid talk of a so-called 'palace coup' within Nissan to prevent Ghosn merging the firm with Renault. The difficulty now will be to find a replacement to lead the three-way alliance, whose statutes require Renault to appoint the CEO and Nissan to choose the deputy. A source close to the case in Paris told AFP: 'The reality is that they are already looking for a replacement. Not to do so would be irresponsible. It needs to be someone palatable to the Japanese and the French.' Investors appeared to be recovering from the initial shock of the arrest, which sent shares in all three firms tumbling. At the Tokyo close, Nissan was up nearly two percent and Mitsubishi Motors enjoyed an even sharper bump - up more than three percent just ahead of the board meeting. At the beginning of 2018 Britain was battered by the Beast from the East, and it looks like the country will see the year out with more bad weather as Storm Diana brings with it freezing fog and 80mph gales. The Met Office has issued several severe weather warnings for areas including the North West and South West of England as well as West Midlands and Scotland. Dan Harris, deputy chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: 'It now looks very likely that we will see a major change in the UK's weather early in the week ahead.' Last week, snow blasted into parts of North England, falling over the Pennines, Derbyshire and the Herefordshire-Welsh border. Temperatures dropped to lows of -7C in South Newington, Oxfordshire on 22nd November, leading many to wonder whether it will snow even more in the UK this week. Britain will be hit by Storm Diana this week, bringing with it heavy rain and strong winds Will it snow in the UK this week? In its look at the week ahead, the Met Office has said that the cold easterly winds that blew through the UK last week will not continue but instead will give way to milder air from the west. It went on to say that Monday, 26th November was to be the last frosty night in the recent cold spell and they will now rebound back to between 6C-10C. A look even further ahead suggests this trend will continue as the Met Office forecasts milder than average temperatures at the start of December. It will be turning much #milder across the UK over the next 24 hours. Here is a comparison of today's and tomorrow's temperatures pic.twitter.com/0EadD11IVR Met Office (@metoffice) November 27, 2018 What this means is that the likelihood of snow is low. Snow forms when ice crystals get stuck together in the clouds, becoming snowflakes. If enough crystals stick, the snowflake will become heavy enough to fall down to the ground. However, snowflakes will only fall as that, and not precipitation, if temperatures are below 2C. Over that and it will fall as sleet, or if the temperatures are high enough, as rain. With the Met Office saying temperatures are expecting to push into the teens, its unlikely there will be snow in many parts of the UK, including the south of England, in the final week of November. The latest satellite shows a deep area of low pressure winding itself up over the Atlantic. This will bring a spell of wet & #windy weather across the UK on #Wednesday pic.twitter.com/fTFS8xT8zo Met Office (@metoffice) November 27, 2018 UK Weather forecast However, mild temperatures do not mean mild weather. Storm Diana will hit the UK this week, bringing with it 80mph gales, freezing fog and flooding fears. The Met Office issued a 36-hour warning for between 3am Wednesday and 3pm on Thursday, including 'danger to life' conditions in areas including Devon, Cornwall, and the north west of Scotland and Wales. 60-70 mph #wind gusts look likely to affect many northern and western areas tomorrow, now including western Scotland. 50mm of #rain is still possible across parts of central Scotland too. Further warnings are also in force for Thursday - https://t.co/WY4LqgJfBr pic.twitter.com/DuOTc1HT4Z Met Office (@metoffice) November 27, 2018 Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Dan Harris said: Wet and windy weather will sweep across the UK during Wednesday; with the strongest winds expected along coastal areas in the west, Northern Ireland, and the far northeast of Scotland, where gusts of 60-70 mph, locally 75 mph are likely. These winds will also bring rough seas and some large waves, potentially causing coastal impacts too. Storm Dianas UK appearance could also see as much as 80mm of rain in western parts of the country. Geraldo Rivera made an emotional plea on behalf of migrants trying to enter the United States during an appearance on Fox News' The Five on Monday night. 'I refuse to deal with this as a media issue because it is far too important. This goes to to my soul. Fulfilling my role as the designated pinata on Fox News, I am ashamed,' stated Rivera, whose father was born in Puerto Rico and mother is of Russian Jewish descent. 'We treat these refugees as if they are zombies from The Walking Dead. We arrested 42 people, eight of them were women with children. We have to deal with this problem humanely and with compassion. These are not invaders. Stop using these military analogies. This is absolutely painful to watch.' He continued: 'We are a nation of immigrants. These are desperate people. They walked 2,000 miles. Why? Because they want to rape your daughter or steal your lunch? No. Because they want a job. They want to fill the millions of unfilled jobs we have in the agriculture sector, they want to wash dishes, the want to deliver the pizzas. For goodness sake.' Rivera then stated in closing out his thoughts: 'I fear it's because they look different.' Scroll down for video Speaking out: Geraldo Rivera said he was 'ashamed' after seeing border patrol agents fire tear gas at migrants over the weekend (Rivera above on Fox News) Hear no evil: His speech managed to fall on deaf ears, with all four hosts choosing to respond by defending the actions at the border ( l to r: Kennedy, Rivera, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld) Rivera then watched as that plea fell of dead ears, with the four other Fox News hosts on the program all responding by defending the actions on the border. 'The problem with this, they are playing upon the emotions of people. These may be good people, I agree but they are being used,' said Greg Gutfeld. 'The only way a president can respond is with law or you encourage more of it.' Rivera responded to that by stating: 'Of course there has to be a process but we need a process that recognizes that they are part of our continent. We can pay attention to our neighbors for goodness sake. How have we destabilized these governments over the decades?' Rivera again said this should not be a 'media' story, prompting Jesse Watters to state his opinion on the matter. 'With all due respect, if you're going to be a good neighbor on one side of the border, you need to be a good neighbor on the other side of the border,' said Watters. 'You have people throwing rocks that border patrol agents and there's about 100 of them climbing the wall, taunting, trying to breach and you have three or four border patrol agents on the other side. De-escalation tactics call for you to disperse a little tear gas to de-escalate the situation.' He added: 'This is law enforcement 101. They are not doing anything illegal.' Kennedy was next up, stating: 'The people throwing rocks and bottles and putting children's lives at risk, as individuals, they should be ashamed of themselves. 'What's going to happen, it's going to justify the hard-line immigration tactics that members of this administration would like to impose. That's a very, unintended consequence of that behavior.' And in what has been a key talking point for Fox News hosts across the network, Dana Perino responded by making reference to Barack Obama's deportation of migrants. Obama-era border patrol agents did not release tear gas on migrant women and their children during his presidency. Two Afghan men are alleged to have held down and raped a 15-year-old girl in the state of Brandenburg last Tuesday. Police arrested one man on Friday evening but are still searching for his accomplice, reportedly a refugee who entered Germany as an unaccompanied minor. A 21-year-old man identified only as Mohammad F. and an acquaintance, 18, are said to have followed the victim and dragged her into the public toilet at a playground in Konigs Wusterhausen, a few kilometers outside Berlin. There, Mohammad F. is accused of raping the girl while his accomplice pinned her down. The alleged rape took place last Tuesday in Konigs Wusterhausen, Brandenburg, just a few kilometres outside Berlin (pictured) According to the police, the teenager came to the police station to report the crime on Thursday afternoon, two days after it took place. The victim was said to have been so traumatized that the questioning had to be stopped and resumed the following day. In the second interrogation, the girl told police the name of the main offender. On Friday night, investigators arrested Mohammad F. and he has since remained in custody. According to the German news outlet BILD, the accomplice is an 18-year-old friend of the suspect. He is said to be an Afghan who came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor refugee, but is already known to the police for assault charges. The two men are said to have followed the victim into a public toilet, where she was raped by Mohammed F. and his accomplice pinned her down According to the head of the refugee centre where the teenager is housed, the 18-year-old is currently on 'holiday' in another state. Responding to the question of why the public was not told of the incident, a police spokesman said to BILD: 'At the time (Friday), it would have made no sense to issue a press release because we could not have named the offender.' However, the newspaper quoted an anonymous police source as saying: 'The incident was kept under lock and key by the city and police, because they fear another reaction like what happened in Freiburg.' The source was referring to an incident in the south-western city of Freiburg last month, in which an 18-year-old girl was gang raped in an attack allegedly orchestrated by a 22-year-old Syrian man. The suspect, known as Majd H., is said to have targeted the girl after drugging her in a nightclub on October 14 and enlisting several other men to partake in the brutal four-hour assault. Majd H. had been a suspect in two prior sex crimes and was known to police. BILD reported that at the time of the incident, there was already a warrant out for his arrest. Last month's incident sent shockwaves through Germany, particularly after it was reported in local newspapers that Majd H., who came to the country in 2014, had links to a Kurdish militia and had posted pictures of himself posing with a machine gun on social media. Benjamin Whitehead, 46, pleaded guilty to rape and aggravated burglary and was jailed for nine years and ten months at Nottingham Crown Court today A rapist has finally been brought to justice 30 years after a terrifying knife-point attack on a young woman in her bedroom. Advances in DNA revealed Benjamin Whitehead as a suspect from six million profiles on the police national computer. As part of the investigation a 1980s-style laboratory was even set up to see if new DNA samples would match those obtained three decades ago. Whitehead pleaded guilty and was jailed for nine years and ten months at Nottingham Crown Court today. The charges, of rape and aggravated burglary, dated way back to September 1988. Whitehead was just 16 years old when he appeared in the bedroom of his young victim wearing a stocking mask. She shouted 'get out' but, in a calm voice, Whitehead told her to 'shut up'. He disappeared onto the landing of her home in Hyson Green and reappeared armed with a long, sharp knife. He pointed it upwards towards the woman. She told him to take whatever he wanted and to leave her alone. But Whitehead said, 'I'm gonna take you first', removed a clear plastic cover from the blade, and thrust it towards her. The knife nicked her right finger. 'At that point she realised she was, at the very least, she was going to be raped,' said Gordon Aspden, prosecuting. 'He raped her at knife-point. She was quite petrified throughout.' The defendant told her that unless she said she was enjoying what he was doing to her, he would cut her throat. Afterwards, he made her stand on her bed while he stole jewellery, bank cards and a clock. Mr Aspden added: 'He pressed the point of the knife against her neck and told her'if she moved he would come back and kill her.' After she had tiptoed downstairs, and saw the back door was open and her attacker had gone, she summoned the courage to call police and her uncle. A rape investigation was launched. Meanwhile, the woman never returned to her two-bedroom semi-detached. The house was sold and she spent time with her parents before emigrating. Police were relentless in their efforts to trace her attacker, but it was not until recently that DNA work matched his profile and he was traced. Portsmouth-born Whitehead, now 46, from Bulwell, near Nottingham, was arrested and initially denied the rape. But on the day of his trial yesterday, November 26, he pleaded guilty. He listened in the dock in a packed courtroom to victim impact statements read out from the victim and family. The woman said she fled her house, quit her job and moved. 'I missed out on the last years of my parents being alive and on my sisters having their children and growing up,' she said. Whitehead pleaded guilty and was jailed for nine years and ten months at Nottingham Crown Court (pictured) today Convicted burglar Whitehead, who had lived in Hyson Green, in Nottingham, at the time of the rape, was said to be at a loss to explain his actions that night. His barrister, Nicola Merrick, said: 'He accepts that his behaviour was utterly abhorrent, and I will ask the court to consider it an aborration. He committed burglaries beforehand. He had never done anything like that'. Detective Inspector Justine Wilson, who oversaw the investigation, said: 'This was an extremely complex DNA investigation which involved re-creating a laboratory as used in the 1980s - which the University of Leicester commissioned - the same laboratory that DNA was discovered under Sir Alec Jeffreys. 'The investigation team flew [abroad] to see the victim and ultimately break the news that some 30 years later we had a DNA profile of the suspect. 'Detective Constable Ellie Langthorne and Detective Constable Karl Aram deserve recognition for their meticulous file submission which left no road for the defendant other than to plead guilty - and for their care and professionalism with the victim and witnesses in this case. 'I would also like to recognise the good work by Victim Support who kept close contact with victim and witnesses and the co-ordination and management which facilitated in the victim flying back to the UK to give evidence at the trial. 'We have worked closely with the Crown Prosecution Service and the forensic science service Eurofins, and it was through good working relations that this case was successful. 'Although the defendant pleaded guilty at the eleventh hour, he has spent the last 30 years knowing that he committed this horrendous crime.' The University of Leicester's Dr Celia May, who worked with Sir Alec Jeffreys for 18 years before his retirement, explained the university's involvement in the investigation. She said: 'We had to track down relevant equipment and materials, and then using fresh blood samples taken from the people originally fingerprinted alongside the crime-scene sample back in 1988, went about re-establishing the lab tests. 'It took several months to get to a point where we could replicate as closely as possible the patterns of the victim and others on the original fingerprints, and only then did we test the new suspect for the first time. As soon as we developed the result it was immediately clear that we had a match.' Melania Trump packed care packages for U.S. troops at the Red Cross on Tuesday and expressed her sorrow for soldiers killed in Afghanistan - gestures of comfort that come amid questions about when President Donald Trump will make his first overseas visit to the troops. 'Today's tragic news out of Afghanistan only drives home the need to support the men and women in our military and their families. We lift up the families affected by this terrible loss,' she said. Three U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday in Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing that resulted in the largest loss of American lives there this year. Melania Trump packed care packages for U.S. troops at the Red Cross She was joined by second lady Karen Pence and Cabinet spouses The packages contain snack food and toiletry items 'Our continued prayers remain with all our troops as we come together this morning to support our Armed Forces,' Melania Trump said. 'I am very thankful for the men and women in uniform who sacrifice daily to protect not only the American people but our freedoms and way of life,' she noted. 'To the mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, and sisters who will be away from home as they answer duty's call- we thank you for your service,' the first lady said. President Trump is said to be mulling his first visit to a war zone as he's coming under increased scrutiny for not yet visiting troops stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Trump hinted to reporters on Thanksgiving Day his first visit could come soon. 'We're going to do some interesting things. We'll be doing some very interesting things,' he said. But when asked by reporters when he was going, the president replied: 'I do. But I can't tell you. You're the last people I can tell.' While the White House mulls travel plans, the first lady joined second lady Karen Pence and other wives of Cabinet members to pack up care packages on Tuesday morning. Melania dressed casually for the occasion, donning a $350 cashmere sweater by British designer Madeleine Thompson, a navy piece that featured red and white stripes on the shoulders and neck. Karen Pence praised the first lady for her caring nature. 'Melania ... has a natural gift of being kind and loving to others,' Pence (left) said Karen Pence, Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern, and Melania Trump pack packages for troops The first lady places a toiletry item for troops in a bag Military spouses joined the first lady in packing the care kits She paired the designer piece with red pants and a pair of simple red flats, and opted for her signature smokey eye and voluminous hair look. The first lady smiled and chatted with volunteers as she packed the blue bags filled with snacks like popcorn and easy Mac along with toiletry items like tooth paste and shaving cream. The packages will be sent to troops stationed in Iraq, Poland, Kuwait and Djibouti, according to the first lady's office. Contents of care packages for soldiers Popcorn Easy Mac Brownie mix Hot chocolate (two packages) Rice crispy treat Powdered Gatorade (two packages) Peanuts Playing cards Tissues Hand soap Deodorant Shaving gel Toothpaste Toothbrush Washcloth Lotion Razor Shampoo Comb Advertisement Karen Pence praised the first lady for her caring nature. 'Melania ... has a natural gift of being kind and loving to others,' Pence said. 'I believe that today's service project will mean more than we will ever know,' Pence said, noting how she was a Blue Star Mother. Her son Michael Pence is in the Marines. Helping the first and second lady assemble the kits are cabinet spouses, spouses of military service members and veterans, as well as Red Cross leadership. The Cabinet spouses in attendance included: Susan Pompeo (wife of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo), Marsha Coats (wife of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats), Mary Ruff Perdue (wife of Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue), Jan Acosta (wife of Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta), Jennifer Azar (wife of Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar), Candy Carson (wife of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson), and Hillary Ross (wife of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross). An assembly line of items was spread out at two large tables. The kits also featured a card signed by Melania Trump and Karen Pence. 'This kit was packed with care by the spouses of President Donald J. Trump's Cabinet and spouses of military service members who volunteer with the American Red Cross. We joined these spouses at the Red Cross Hall of Service in Washington D.C. to pack this kit as a way to honor your service. It is a token of appreciate from home during this Christmas season and an expression of our country's deep respect and gratitude for your military service. Karen Pence and Melania Pence share a hug before they pack care packages for troops The blue bags will be sent to troops in Iraq, Poland, Kuwait and Djibouti The first lady's gesture came as President Trump mulls his first overseas visit to troops The packages contain a card signed by Melania Trump and Karen Pence We stand with you and extend our wishes for a joyous Christmas and happy New Year,' the card read with the signatures of Melania Trump and Karen Pence at the bottom. The first lady encouraged all Americans to join in volunteer activities. 'These comfort kits are one small way that we can say thank you and honor the sacrifices that members of the military make year around, and I encourage people everywhere to consider participating in acts of service such as volunteering during this holiday season,' she said. She also mentioned she and President Trump had unveiled the White House Christmas decorations on Monday and held a reception that night for the volunteers who decorated 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Melania Trump chatted with volunteers as they packed up the packages The first lady asked all Americans to remember the troops this holiday season Red Cross President Gail McGovern welcomes Karen Pence and Melania Trump In her remarks, the first lady encouraged all Americans to participate in a service project over the holidays 'As many of you may have seen, the President and I unveiled the Christmas decorations at the White House yesterday and held the first of many holiday receptions to thank volunteers,' she said. 'This is such a wonderful time of year and we are honored to open the White House to the public so that families from all over the country can enjoy the decorations,' she added. 'As we begin this Christmas season, which traditionally means spending time with loved ones, I believe we should also take time to remember all that we are thankful for as a Nation.' A suspected sex shop thief had a humiliating and very public arrest after a live TV cop show caught up with her while she was half naked and watching porn. Camera crews from A&E's Live PD were doing a ride along with deputies from the the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, when they served an arrest warrant on 23-year-old Storm Wisener. When deputies arrived at Wisener's Columbus home, in Ohio, some unusual noises were blasting from the bedroom's television. During A&Es broadcast of 'Live PD' 23-year-old Storm Wisener was one of the suspects apprehended on live television This sheriff's deputy gives the camera a dead stare after they heard what was potentially the climax of the scene as the room starts to scramble to turn the TV off The deputies give a chuckle as they turn off the TV and the emanating porn They allowed Wisener a moment to put on some clothes before they take her to the station After searching the home, officers found Wisener, hiding behind some boxes under a staircase, according to NBC4. They ordered her to put her shoes and a shirt on, as the distracting movie played on in the background. Wisener was charged with both felony and misdemeanor theft and other charges Moans can be heard emanating from the television, with a woman's voice giving out a loud 'Ahhh f***'. Once that particular note in the pornography blares out to the cameras, the deputy who was speaking to Wisener gives a look at the camera. His detainee also looks a bit embarrassed as well, as another deputy asks for someone to turn the TV off. Weisener was arrested for for misdemeanor theft charges after she allegedly stole $383 in cash from a box in the manager's office of Cirilla's adult store on Polaris Parkway in April. In the warrant she was indicted on felony charges of breaking and entering and possessing criminal tools and another misdemeanor theft charge in relation to the sex shop incident. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office tweeted this out during the arrest to warn parents It is unclear if the pornography she was watching was stolen from the sex shop. As deputies spoke with her she admitted to overdosing on heroin twice in the past. They suggested to her that some time behind bars may help her get clean. As the incident was unfolding, the sheriff's office tweeted 'Cover your eyes children... I don't think Storm was watching 'Live PD.' Advertisement Chicago is still digging out from one of the worst November snowstorms in the city's history after more than 13 inches fell in the city and up to a foot in the northwest suburbs. With winds gusting up to 50 mph at times, the storm downed powerlines and knocked down trees leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power. Hundreds of flights were also cancelled as passengers struggled to travel at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Chicago is still digging out of a historic snowstorm that canceled flights and closed schools. A wintry storm brought blizzard-like conditions to parts of the Midwest early Monday grounding hundreds of flights and causing slick roads for commuters The storm took down powerlines and trees which required specialists to come along to deal with the cleanup Delays at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were for several hours. Crews are shown de-icing an American Airlines plane at O'Hare International Airport on Monday in Chicago 7.4 inches of snow fell at Chicago OHare International Airport during the storm which is the fifth highest total ever recorded during a November snowstorm. Downtown Chicago was less badly affected with only an inch or two settling onto the sidewalks. But even by Tuesday morning, some 43,000 homes and businesses in the northwest area of the city were still without power. Commuters walk by Wrigley Field toward a train station as snow falls on Monday Commuters wait underneath heat lamps for a CTA Brown Line train at the Paulina station during Monday's winter storm The disruption began early with snow and wind causing havoc at Chicagos airports on Sunday. More than 800 flights were canceled at OHare and Midway airports resulting in long lines as passengers struggled to work out their options. Incredibly, no major accidents were reported as a result of the storm. Roads were slick and icy on Monday making it a difficult journey for many after the long holiday weekend Electric crews had no end of callouts as they deals with hundreds of down powerlines Kansas City International Airport got 5.3 inches of snow, and at least 7 inches fell in Rockford, Illinois, the National Weather Service said on Sunday; A plow removes snow at an entrance of the Kansas Turnpike near Lawrence, Kansas on Sunday More than 750 flights headed to or from, or within, the US were canceled on Monday An electronic board shows flight delays and cancellations at O'Hare International Airport after an early winter snowstorm left more than 7 inches of snow at the airport on Monday The storm hit Indiana and Michigan on Monday, but both states avoided the worst for the most part; Patrick Kaczmarek of South Bend, Indiana clears snow off of his car on Monday President Donald Trump believes Americans can 'very easily' handle paying an extra 10 per cent for Chinese electonics including iPhones and laptops, if he targets Chinese-made electronics with his next round of tariffs. Those products are part of a $267 billion list of goods that Trump has spared, so far, from his tariffs. The administration has tried to soften the impact on U.S. consumers, carving out tariff exemptions for consumer goods from brands like Lenovo, Apple and Huawei. But Monday during a Wall Street Journal interview, he suggested Americans' reactions might not be severe if they had to pay more for smartphones and notebook computers. 'Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is,' Trump said. 'I mean, I can make it 10 per cent, and people could stand that very easily.' President Donald Trump says Americans can handle paying 10 per cent more for consumer electronics made in China if he levies new tariffs on the products The new iPhone Xs is assembled in China and start at $999, meaning a new tariff could cost a purchaser $100 or more Apple CEO Tim Cook has personally pressed the issue of tariffs with Trump, telling the president that while there are valid concerns about U.S.-China trade relations, tariffs are not the best way to resolve them. White House economic guru Larry Kudlow told reporters Tuesday that new tariffs are definitely coming 'if we can't get something done. And things have been moving very slowly between the two countries.' And addressing the prospect of 'winners and losers' in a new tariff game, he predicted that America is 'in far better shape to weather this than the Chinese are.' Trump 'realizes the ramifications' of levying tariffs, he said. Despite using contract manufacturers to make most of its products overseas, Apple has also sought to emphasize its contribution to the U.S. economy, saying it plans to spend about $55 billion in 2018 with its U.S.-based suppliers. Trump told the Journal that he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China. The frank talk came four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina. Trump said it was 'highly unlikely' he would accept China's request to hold off on the increase, which is due to take effect on Jan. 1. 'The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States,' Trump said. 'As far as other countries are concerned, that's up to them.' Lenovo notebook computers like this one could cost more in retail stores and online if Trump expands his tariffs to cover them Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, pictured last year, will meet in Argentina this week for a working dinner where trade policy will be on the menu Trump, who is due to meet Xi on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, said that if negotiations were unsuccessful, he would also put tariffs on the rest of Chinese imports. 'If we don't make a deal, then I'm going to put the $267 billion additional on,' at a tariff rate of either 10 percent or 25 percent, Trump told the Journal. A Chinese official told reporters last week that the two leaders would look to set guidelines for future talks. 'The main issue is how to settle down the trade war,' the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of preparatory negotiations. 'I am conservatively optimistic that can be done,' he added. At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated China's hope that both sides could work towards a 'positive outcome' from the meeting between the two leaders, citing a 'consensus' they reached during a Nov. 1 telephone call. Last week, Washington proposed stepping up scrutiny over technology exports in 14 key high-tech areas including artificial intelligence and microprocessor technology, a move many analysts believe was directly aimed at China. 'If the United States does not buy Chinese products and U.S. technology is not forthcoming, would that really benefit U.S. companies?' said Xu Nanping, China's vice minister of Science and technology. 'We can buy from Japan and South Korea or develop our own. What would the United States do?' Xu told a small group of reporters in Beijing on Tuesday, adding that China accounts for at least half of the market for many U.S. listed companies. Technology controls would also be a double-edged sword, so in the long term it would not be a win-win situation, but a lose-lose one, Xu said. 'In the manufacturing chain, China occupies the low end and middle section, while the United States is on the middle to high end. Once the chain is broken, the United States would be affected too.' Mathew Law, 50, was found guilty of plotting to rape a seventh month old baby at Bristol Crown Court today A man who formed part of a paedophile ring has been found guilty of plotting to rape a seven-month-old baby. Mathew Law, 50, became an integral member of the group who used encrypted communication including TOR and the dark web to evade detection. He is the eighth person to be convicted as part of a wider investigation led by the National Crime Agency (NCA) following a two-week trial at Bristol Crown Court. Law, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to rape a child under the age of 13, first began communicating with a prominent member of the paedophile ring, Christopher Knight. Ringleader Knight, 38, who was employed in the tourism industry, was jailed for 24 years in 2015 after being convicted of rape of a child under 13, conspiracy to rape a child under 13, sexual assault of a child under 13 and possessing indecent images of children. The paedophile group also communicated using regular lines of communication, including phone calls, texts and Skype messaging. Ringleader Knight, 38, (pictured left) was jailed for 24 years in 2015 after being convicted of rape of a child under 13. Adam Toms, 37, (pictured right) was sentenced to 16 years for rape of a child under 13 This enabled officers to link them together and unravel their plans. Luke Phillips from the NCA said: 'Mathew Law is the eighth individual to be jailed since this investigation began in 2014. 'Today's conviction shows how determined the NCA is in its fight against those with a sexual interest in children and will leave no stone unturned in the relentless pursuit of offenders. John Denham (pictured left) formerly named Ben Harrop, 53, was sentenced to 12 years in jail for conspiracy to rape a child under 13. Matthew Stansfield, 38, was jailed for 14 years for conspiracy to rape a child under 13 'If you are engaging with people online and watching and, or sharing indecent images of children, you will be identified and brought to justice.' Law was remanded into custody to be sentenced at a later date. In September 2015 the other seven members of the gang were convicted of 29 child sex abuse offences. At the time of the trial the jury were told they would hear evidence that would 'take you into a world you wish did not exist.' They also used a term investigators had not come across before, nep, which referred to nepiophile, someone sexually attracted to babies and toddlers. The paedophiles exploited women in their own social circles to achieve access to children they could abuse. In some cases, they contacted other members of the gang who would drive long distances to join in. One offender got up at 4am to cross the country to abuse a child before driving home and making it to work on time. Matthew Lisk, (pictured left) 36, was sentenced to seven years for conspiring to engage in sexual activity with a child under 13. David Harsley, 55, (pictured right) was sentenced to two years for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child under 13 One baby was raped and sexually abused by three of the gang over nine months. The others watched on live internet feeds. A second victim, a four-year-old boy, was forced to watch as one of them committed sex acts and others watched from a hotel room. The gang photographed one of the victims holding a piece of paper with the password necessary to access the online broadcast. The men in the gang appeared to lead regular lives and among them were an IT expert, entrepreneur and a youth football coach. Among other convicted members of the paedophile ring are Robin Hollyson who was thought to be an IT contractor, 34, who was found hanged in jail three months into a 24-year jail term. Hollyson admitted filming himself raping a three-month-old baby in what the judge at the time called one of the most horrific abuse cases on record. John Denham, a former actor and youth football coach, formerly named Ben Harrop, 53, was sentenced to 12 years in jail for conspiracy to rape a child under 13, conspiracy to sexually assault a child under 13, distributing indecent images of children and extreme pornography. Matthew Stansfield, 38, who ran a website offering advice to help students revise and owned a site dedicated to healthy living, was jailed for 14 years for conspiracy to rape a child under 13, breach of Sex Offenders Prevention Order (SOPO) and making/possessing indecent images of children. Robin Hollyson, 34, (pictured) was found hanged in jail three months into a 24-year jail term. Hollyson admitted filming himself raping a three-month-old baby in what the judge at the time called one of the most horrific abuse cases on record Matthew Lisk, 36, was sentenced to seven years for conspiring to engage in sexual activity with a child under 13 and distributing indecent images of children. David Harsley, 55, was sentenced to two years for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child under 13. Adam Toms, 37, was sentenced to 16 years for rape of a child under 13, sexual assault of a child under 13, administering a substance and possessing indecent images of children. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is willing to allow inspectors into the country's main nuclear complex, according to a senior diplomatic source. The dictator is believed to have made the comments to South Korean President Moon Jae-in at their summit in September. 'I understand that Chairman Kim told (South Korean) President Moon (Jae-in) during their summit in September that if the U.S. took corresponding steps he would not only be willing to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facilities but also allow verification,' South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted the source as saying. Kim Jong Un (seen in an undated photo visiting a glass factory) is willing to allow inspectors into North Korea's The source said Moon passed the message on to US President Donald Trump when the two met during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, also in September. Kim had earlier expressed openness to shutting down the site if Washington took 'corresponding' measures, but no offer to allow inspectors in to verify had been reported. The United States has stressed the importance of verification as it negotiates with the North about the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Heart-wrenching photos show General Motors workers wiping tears away after the company laid more than 14,000 people off without warning and just before the holidays. In a massive restructuring, the auto giant announced Monday that it will cut 15 per cent of its workforce to save $6billion and adapt to 'changing market conditions'. 'You're going right into Christmas. You're looking for celebration and that's not there now,' one GM worker told Today. Another employee said through tears: 'I'm just kind of hurting right now.' One worker spoke of a workplace where people 'were bawling their eyes out. I've never seen anything like it and we can't get any answers'. The moves include shuttering seven plants worldwide as the company responds to changing customer preferences and focuses on popular trucks and SUVs and increasingly on electric models. The job cuts from GM's current 180,000-strong work force will be particularly stinging in politically crucial areas of Ohio and Michigan, a region President Donald Trump has promised to revive. Workers at the Ontario plant staged a wildcat strike to protest the closure. Scroll down for video Heart-wrenching photos show General Motors workers (pictured, in Canada) wiping tears away after the company laid more than 14,000 people off without warning and just before the holidays In a massive restructuring, the auto giant announced Monday that it will cut 15 per cent of its workforce to save $6billion and adapt to 'changing market conditions' The moves include shuttering seven plants worldwide as the company responds to changing customer preferences and focuses on popular trucks and SUVs and increasingly on electric models The job cuts from GM's current 180,000-strong work force will be particularly stinging in politically crucial areas Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the Canadian labor union, said he 'will vigorously fight again to maintain these good-paying auto jobs'. Huston-Rough said the job cuts will be accomplished through 'a combination of retirements, layoffs and work relocations'. The job cuts will include a 25 per cent reduction in executive-level employees to 'streamline decision making,' the company said. The plants will be officially closed by the end of 2019, but workers will gradually lose their jobs along the way, some as soon as the new year. According to reports, the five North American plants concerned employ nearly 7,000, including 3,000 workers in the Ontario plant. One woman said that she worries for 'all of the people who have put in so many years of their lives and they don't know what's going to happen tomorrow'. As workers continue to demand answers from GM, the company's CEO, Mary Barra, said in a statement: 'The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future. 'We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success.' Two workers of Oshawa's General Motors plant embrace before their meeting with Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the union representing the workers at the plant in Oshawa, Ontario One employee (pictured) said through tears: 'I'm just kind of hurting right now' Another worker spoke of a workplace where people 'were bawling their eyes out' and some walked out after hearing the news This 2017 photo shows General Motors CEO Mary Barra with Trump Trump expressed dismay at the plan and said he was 'very tough' with Barra when they discussed the reorganization. 'I spoke with her when I heard they were closing and I said, "You know, this country has done a lot for General Motors. You better get back in there soon,"' he told reporters at the White House. 'They better put something else in.' THE FIVE PLANTS GENERAL MOTORS PLANS TO CLOSE Detroit, Michigan - 1,500 workers Warren, Michigan - 645 workers Oshawa, Ontario - 2,500 workers Lordstown, Ohio - 1,600 workers Baltimore, Maryland - 645 workers Advertisement Barra also met at the White House with Trump's senior economic adviser Larry Kudlow, in what officials said was a previously scheduled meeting. Trump's aggressive trade policies have been aimed specifically at saving manufacturing jobs, including the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took aim at rules governing auto trade to favor the US industry. Still, GM will shutter three North American auto assembly plants next year: the Oshawa plant in Ontario, Canada; Hamtramck in Detroit, Michigan and Lordstown in Warren, Ohio. In addition, GM will close two US propulsion plants -- which produce batteries and transmissions -- in Baltimore, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan, as well two unidentified plants outside of North America. Workers (pictured) at the Ontario plant staged a wildcat strike to protest the closure Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the Canadian labor union, said he 'will vigorously fight again to maintain these good-paying auto jobs'. GM employees staged a wildcat strike on Monday The company already had announced plans to cease operations at its Gunsan, South Korea plant. While the company said in its quarterly earnings late last month that it saw costs jump by $400million due to Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum, a spokeswoman said the latest decisions 'are not related to any recent trade or tariff decisions'. The president threatened to punish GM following the company's decision. 'Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China,' Trump tweeted Tuesday while a televised White House press briefing was going on. 'The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including.... for electric cars,' he continued. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, lambasted GM's move as 'corporate greed at its worst' and also took a swipe at the 2017 tax cut favored by Trump which was touted as a jobs winner. 'The company reaped a massive tax break from last year's GOP tax bill and failed to invest that money in American jobs,' Brown said on Twitter. In Canada, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau expressed 'deep disappointment' with the plant closure. The job cuts from GM's current work force will be particularly stinging in politically crucial areas of Ohio and Michigan, a region President Donald Trump has promised to revive Wall Street cheered the actions, while US and Canadian leaders expressed outrage. GM shares jumped after the announcement, closing up 4.8 per cent on the day. Analysts were generally upbeat about the news. 'In contrast to times past, General Motors under CEO Mary Barra is trying to get ahead of a potential crisis by making cuts now,' Michelle Krebs of Autotrader said in a client note. While GM has been increasing its focus on highly popular trucks and SUVs, the company said it would also prioritize investment in 'next-generation battery-electric architectures.' In an investor call, Barra said some GM cars would no longer be available in North America, including the Chevrolet Cruze. The closures also drew sharp criticism from the US and Canadian labor union representing GM workers, which accused the company of shifting production overseas at the expense of North American workers. GM will shutter three North American auto assembly plants next year: the Oshawa plant in Ontario, Canada; Hamtramck in Detroit, Michigan and Lordstown in Warren, Ohio (pictured) Unions representing workers (file image) in the US and in Canada have vowed to fight back against GM's decision UAW, the autoworkers union, blasted GM's decision, saying the company was just looking for cheaper workers, and vowed to fight back. 'This callous decision by GM to reduce or cease operations in American plants, while opening or increasing production in Mexico and China plants for sales to American consumers, is, in its implementation, profoundly damaging to our American workforce,' said UAW vice president Terry Dittes. China has become an increasingly important market for the automaker and in the first nine months of 2018, it sold 2.7 million cars in China compared to 2.6 million in all of North America. However, spokeswoman Julie Huston-Rough denied the charge, telling AFP that 'these products will not be manufactured in other locations for the North American market.' She also said the company remains committed to its facilities in Ohio, despite the closure of the Lordstown plant, with six other locations and 4,000 employees, as well has hundreds of suppliers and dealers. President Donald Trump has a packed schedule of meetings with foreign leaders when he's at the G20 in Argentina later this week but one person not making the list is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the White House announced on Tuesday. 'No,' said National Security Adviser John Bolton when asked if the president would meet with the prince. 'The bilateral schedule is full to overflowing.' Trump said last week he was opening to sitting down with MBS - the crown prince is known by his initials - after he has repeatedly defended the prince against allegations MBS ordered the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. National Security Adviser John Bolton said President Trump will not meet with the Saudi Crown prince at the G20 President Trump has defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman against allegations MBS ordered the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi But officials on Tuesday released the president's schedule for his two days at the G20 in Buenos Aires and MBS did not make the cut, although several other world leaders will get face time with Trump. His schedule contains meetings - or bilaterals as they are known - with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Argentina President Mauricio Macri, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The president will also have a working dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two nations tussle in a trade war. Erdogan, whose government has led the charge against MBS for the murder of Khashoggi, is expected to use his G20 meeting to use as a platform to demand accountability for the journalist's killing. Trump said on Thanksgiving Day that the CIA has not 'concluded' the Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi's murder. 'Whether he did or whether he didn't, he denies it vehemently,' Trump said of the prince to reporters after he spoke on the phone with U.S. troops. 'The CIA doesn't say they did it. They do point out certain things, and in pointing out those things, you can conclude that maybe he did or maybe he didn't.' 'The CIA points it both ways. And as I said, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I will say very strongly that it's a very important ally,' he noted of the oil-rich Saudi Arabia. His statement contradicts reports the spy agency has determined with 'high confidence' that MBS - the crown prince is known by his initials - ordered the assassination, which contradicting the Saudi government's claims that MSB was not involved. The president has repeatedly defended Saudi Arabia as a 'strong ally' who has invested billions of dollars into the United States. One of the president's most closely watched meetings at the G20 will be with Putin. The two leaders will talk about security issues, arm controls issues, and regional issues including Middle East, Bolton said. Trump and Putin spoke briefly in France when both men were present for celebrations celebrating the 100th anniversary of the armistice ending World War I but they have not had a formal sit down since their July summit in Helsinki, where Trump made news for backing Putin's assertion Moscow did not meddle in the 2016 presidential election, contradicting conclusions from U.S. intelligence agencies. The president later walked back his remarks. Another meeting that will be closely monitored is dinner with Xi, which comes amid back-and-forth tariffs each nation is imposing on the other. It will be the first time the two have met since Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports and China responded with import tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump has threatened another round of billions in tariffs if China can't make a trade deal His sit-downs with world leaders includes one with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will not meet with Trump in Argentina Trump has threatened another round of billions in tariffs if China can't make a trade deal. 'If we don't make a deal, then I'm going to put the $267 billion additional on' at a tariff rate of either 10 percent or 25 percent, he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. But Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow said Tuesday the president is optimistic both sides can come together for a deal. 'In his view there's a good possibility that a deal can be made and that he is open to that,' Kudlow said a press briefing. He said China would have to come to the table with resolutions for issues on intellectual property theft, and forced technology transfers. He added that tariff and non-tariff barriers have to be solved along with issues of ownership. 'We want a world ideally of zero tariffs, zero non tariff barriers and zero subsidies,' Kudlow said. 'If China will come to the table - in this case the dinner table - with new ideas, new attitudes and new cooperation, the president has said he's open to it,' Kudlow said of the possibility of a deal. President Trump will have a working dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping Trump will also sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow said the president is optimistic the U.S. and China can come to an arrangement on a trade deal Kudlow indicated the U.S. would use its economic might to strong arm China into an agreement. 'The United States is coming to the summit in very good shape,' he noted, adding that 'most observers believe China to be in a slump where as the United States is in very strong position.' He noted additional tariffs on China is not the United States' 'first choice.' 'I think we are in far better shape to weather this thing than the Chinese are,' Kudlow added. 'There is broad base support for America's position that China should change its practices,' he said. Bolton also sounded an optimistic note about the dinner between the two world leaders. 'I think President Trump has developed a very positive relationship with President Xi,' he said. Trump said on Thanksgiving Day he was well prepared for his meeting with Xi. 'It's not like, 'Oh gee, I'm going to sit down and study.' I know every ingredient. I know every stat. I know it better than anybody knows it. And my gut has always been right. And we're doing very well. And I will tell you China very much wants to make a deal,' he said. James Wilson (pictured above) had refused to put down a rifle in South Shields The death of a man who was shot by a firearms officer after telling police to 'go for it' at police as he clutched an air rifle was a lawful killing, an inquest jury has ruled. James Wilson had been hit with a plastic bullet and then a round from a police rifle after the 24-year-old had refused to put down an air rifle in South Shields in March 2016. Northumbria Police firearms officer PC Perry Lisle had feared that he and others had been at risk and had 'acted in self-defence'. Mr Wilson died three days after the incident. Mr Wilson had called Northumbria Police in the early hours of March 29 2016 to demand armed response officers come to see him, saying he had a 9mm handgun and would shoot officers who arrived. Haunting audio taken by a call handler who tells Mr Wilson that armed police are on their way reveals his response was to tell them 'go for it'. 'Let them come,' he tells the handler, who responds: 'They will be.' When he responds 'aye that's okay' the phone operator asks him: 'You not gonna be peaceful?' Mr Wilson says: 'Am I gonna be peaceful? I'm gonna shoot the c**** you daft man.' He repeats the threat then says: 'Bring armed response, bring anyone you want, go for it go.' It was heard that armed officers had shouted 'seven times' for him to put down the gun he was carrying before they fired first a plastic bullet then, five seconds later, a round from a rifle which hit him in the chest. PC Lisle who has now retired, told the jury he had 'honestly believed' he had been acting in self-defence and had worried that someone could have been killed or injured during the incident. PC Lisle, who has a police career spanning over 26 years, also added that it was the first time a weapon had ever been directly pointed at him. PC Lisle, who has since retired, told the jury he feared if he did not act someone could be injured or killed. The inquest heard that Mr Wilson, had been warned seven times to lower the weapon before police took action. James Wilson was shot dead on Frenchman's Way (pictured above) and had been taken to hospital for treatment Mr Wilson had confronted police officers in Frenchman's Way on 29 March 2016 and the inquest had earlier heard that his father Carl Wilson, had told Newcastle coroner Karen Dilks that he thought his son had wanted to 'use the police to commit suicide'. The inquest also heard that Mr Wilson had shared 48 bottles of beer with a friend in the hours leading up to his death. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) undertook an investigation into the shooting and found that the response of Northumbria Police had been correct. Tributes had been left for James Wilson on Frenchman's Way following the incident in 2016 In a statement the IOPC said: 'We found Mr Wilson had made a number of calls to Northumbria Police from the early hours of 29 March and was considered to be emotionally and mentally distressed. 'He made threats to police, confirming that he was in possession of 'a gun' and would shoot any police officers who approached him. 'Our thoughts remain with Mr Wilson's family and friends and all those affected by this tragic incident.' James Wilson's former girlfriend Kayleigh Reay (pictured above) had attended the inquest into his death After the hearing, Mr Wilson's mother Tracy Todd said: 'All I've got to say is that I was right all along, my son didn't commit suicide, and that's it.' The inquest had previously heard audio of Mr Wilson shouting 'go for it' at firearms officers, and saying 'ah cushty' after the round of rubber bullets was fired. In the minutes before the confrontation, Mr Wilson repeatedly asked the police call handler when the armed response officers were coming and had made threats. Mark S Luckie, a black former Facebook executive, has accused the company of racial discrimination both within its Silicon Valley campus and on the social media platform in a scathing memo sent to colleagues company-wide just before his departure this month A black former Facebook executive has accused the company of racial discrimination both within its Silicon Valley campus and on the social media platform in a scathing memo to colleagues just before his departure. Mark S Luckie claims a lack of representation and agency of black people within Facebook's organization is directly affecting how black people are treated on the site. In the memo shared publicly on Tuesday, Luckie writes: 'Facebook has a black people problem. 'One of the platform's most engaged demographics and an unmatched cultural trendsetter is having their community divided by the actions and inaction of the company. This loss is a direct reflection of the staffing and treatment of many of its black employees.' As Facebook's Strategic Partner Manager for Global Influencers focused on Underrepresented Voices, Luckie said he's been 'uniquely exposed to the issues surrounding the internal and external representation of black people here'. The lengthy memo goes on to outline those issues in more depth, with Luckie citing formal meetings and personal conversations alike. Luckie claims a lack of representation and agency of black people within the Facebook organization is directly affecting how black people are treated on the site He applauds the fact that Facebook has increased its number of black employees from two percent in 2016 to four percent in 2018, but says that's not enough given that black people are far outpacing other demographics in terms of engagement. 'Although incremental changes are being made, the fact remains that the population of Facebook employees doesnt reflect its most engaged user base,' Luckie writes. 'There is often more diversity in Keynote presentations than the teams who present them. In some buildings, there are more "Black Lives Matter" posters than there are actual black people. 'Facebook cant claim that it is connecting communities if those communities arent represented proportionately in its staffing.' Luckie goes on to describe hearing stories from fellow black staffers whose managers and colleagues have called then 'hostile' or 'aggressive' when their share their thoughts on a topic. 'A few black employees have reported being specifically dissuaded by their managers from becoming active in the [internal] Black@ group or doing "Black stuff", even if it happens outside of work hours,' he writes. That attitude was reflected in the campus-wide culture, Luckie asserts. 'Too many black employees can recount stories of being aggressively accosted by campus security beyond what was necessary,' he writes. Facebook cant claim that it is connecting communities if those communities arent represented proportionately in its staffing. 'On a personal note, at least two or three times a day, every day, a colleague at MPK [Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park] will look directly at me and tap or hold their wallet or shove their hands down their pocket to clutch it tightly until I pass. 'To feel like an oddity at your own place of employment because of the color of your skin while passing posters reminding you to be your authentic self feels in itself inauthentic.' He adds that turning to the Human Resources department is a 'dead end'. 'We often find that our experiences are rationalized away or were made to believe these disheartening patterns are a figment of our imagination,' he writes. 'It becomes clear that the conversations with HR are more often than not meant to protect the manager and the status quo of Facebook, not support the employee.' According to Luckie, the discrimination within the walls of the Facebook organization has a direct effect on the experiences of black users, who have felt increasingly disenfranchised by the site. Luckie also described feeling marginalized on the Facebook campus (pictured), saying that colleagues often acted as though he was going to mug them and that many fellow black staffers had experienced unusually-aggressive run-ins with security Luckie told USA TODAY of his analysis: 'I wish I didn't have to write it. I was determined to stay there and build.' 'I had to write what all the black employees are saying and feeling and we dont feel empowered to speak up about.' Several black staffers responded to the post after Luckie shared it internally, one of them writing: 'It was tough reading this post, agreeing and nodding my head.' Another commented: 'This truly resonated with me and flooded me with emotions and sadness that I am sure that plenty of us are all too familiar with from experiencing many of the examples you provided.' Others noted that they hope Luckie's post 'does not fall on deaf ears'. Luckie tagged Facebooks Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in the post, but said that they never responded. In an emailed statement, Facebook spokesperson Anthony Harrison told USA: 'Over the last few years, weve been working diligently to increase the range of perspectives among those who build our products and serve the people who use them throughout the world. 'The growth in representation of people from more diverse groups, working in many different functions across the company, is a key driver of our ability to succeed.' The embattled social media giant is no stranger to sharp scrutiny, having come under fire for its censorship and privacy policies a number of times over the past several years. Wendy Martinez, 45, was declared dead at the scene in her Bronx apartment after taking the bullet to the head A mother who was at home with her 15-year-old in the Bronx and was killed by a bullet shot through her front door peephole stopped her son from answering the door on Saturday night. Wendy Martinez, 45, went to the door in her Concourse Village apartment sometime around 9.45pm when she was shot in the head by a masked gunman. Her insistence on opening the door as opposed to her teenage son, likely saved the youngster's life. 'He was there with her at that moment,' the boy's godmother Karla Rodriguez told the Daily News. 'He was going to open the door, but she said, 'No, I'll go open the door.' That's when she got shot in the face.' Her boy Alexander Angulo remains 'devastated' by the Saturday night slaying, Rodriguez said. Martinez, a hospital worker at Lincoln Medical Center, was killed after a gunman shot through her peephole at her apartment door in the Bronx Angulo, described by family friends as a straight-A student and outstanding athlete, called 911 from a closet to alert authorities, but his mother was pronounced dead at the scene. Martinez, an employee at Lincoln Medical Center and Red Sox fan living in the Bronx, likely was not the intended target, according to police. 'She was a very hardworking lady. She would do anything for her kids,' Maris Valdez, a coworker for more than 20 years with Martinez, said to the New York Daily News. 'He was there with her at that moment,' the boy's godmother Karla Rodriguez, pictured, said. 'He was going to open the door, but she said, 'No, I'll go open the door.' That's when she got shot in the face.' Sources say that the shooter was likely after Wendy's older son, 25-year-old Brian Solano who is accused in the murder of Willie Lora. He allegedly fired a gun into an apartment building lobby, striking and killing Lora on December 8, 2014. Lora, 21, was the brother of a high-ranking member of the Trinitarios gang, according to the News. Solano spent three years on Rikers Island and a month in Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, New York, before he was freed from jail in 2017. A private investigator submitted new evidence in the case prompting a retrial. Solano was apparently not home at the time of Saturday's incident although he did live at the apartment block. 'That's a gang-related hit,' a source told the New York Post. 'This is street justice. Everyone on the streets knows that Solano killed that kid.' 'The Edenwald Gang, affiliated with the Bloods,' said private detective Manuel Gomez, 'actually killed this mother.' Gomez, the private detective who found the possible evidence that could ultimately get Solano's murder charge dropped, was clear about the nature of the shooting of Wendy Martinez. 'This was a retaliation killing,' he said to PIX11. 'Solano is devastated,' Gomez continued. 'The whole family is devastated. They're beyond words. They called me crying.' The shooting of Martinez at he Concourse Village apartment in the Bronx may not have been intended for her Martinez was shot and killed through her apartment peephole. She stopped her 15-year-old son from answering the doorbell when the killer rang that night The murder suspect's family had received repeated death threats in the years since the killing. Neighbors in the Bronx apartment building were shocked and saddened by the violent incident. 'It's such a quiet building and nothing ever happens,' Juan Sanchez, 54, a building resident for over 25 years told the Daily News. 'It's like in the movies.' Whoever carried out the brutal act managed to concealed their identity. The gunman used his umbrella to shield his face from at least two different cameras located in the building. The slain mother's family is making arrangements for Martinez's burial in her native Dominican Republic, according to Rodriguez. The family friend stressed that Martinez did not come from a 'family of criminals.' Martinez's brother 'is an airplane mechanic and served in the Air Force,' said Rodriguez. 'Wendy has worked at Lincoln Hospital for a long time. Barbara, her mother, used to work taking care of patients. We are talking about working people and good people. We're not in gangs.' A GoFundMe page has been set up to help raise money for the family following the mother's murder. The brother of a Navy Seal officer alleged to have killed an injured ISIS prisoner of war in Iraq has accused those investigating the case of trying to advance their own careers. Edward Gallagher is currently being held in a military prison in California amid accusations he repeatedly plunged a knife into the wounded body of a young ISIS fighter and fired sniper rounds at innocent civilians in Iraq. Now his brother Sean Gallagher has criticized the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, saying they are trying to advance their own careers. Edward Gallagher is said to have stabbed a teenage ISIS fighter in the neck and body before posing with the boy's body Sean Gallagher (right) said his brother Edward is innocent of any crime and can be described as a 'modern day' war hero who has served as a Navy Seal for 19 years His remarks come as a military judge this week is preparing his recommendations on what charges Edward should face. Edward Gallawyer, is a married father-of-three and a highly lauded special warfare operator who has racked up numerous awards during his eight tours of duty. Sean Gallagher told Fox and Friends: This investigation is not about justice and the truth, its about a win. A SEAL is a shiny, golden nail where if you take them down it makes you look good, he added. 'My brother represents what is best about this country. He fulfilled a family tradition that we have of joining the service. 'If you were to imagine or create what a modern day war hero would be, it would be Eddie'. Edward was in the process of transitioning to a non-combat advisory role for the Navy SEALs when he was taken into custody in September, according to his brother. Gallagher was planning to retire in the spring. If convicted , Gallagher could face life in prison and it is expected that a trial will begin in 2019 Edward Gallagher, seen here with his wife Andrea, is currently in a military prison in California and his three children had to visit him there for Thanksgiving Prosecutors argued that Gallagher was detained for trying to intimidate witnesses to the crimes he is alleged to have committed. However Sean tells Fox News claimed that his brother was expressing opinions in text messages to his friends, some who were contacted by the NCIS regarding the allegations against his brother. The Navy has charged Chief Gallagher with premeditated murder, attempted murder and nearly a dozen other offenses, including obstruction of justice and bringing 'discredit upon the armed forces'. If he is convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Sean claimed that Navy seals serving under his brother 'fabricated stories' because they weren't combat ready. After his latest tour, fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq, he was named the top platoon leader in SEAL Team 7 and nominated for the Silver Star, the militarys third-highest honor. Sean Gallagher (left) said 'disgruntled' seals serving under his brother 'fabricated stories' because they weren't combat ready and his brother (right) was a high He fought in Iraq and Afghanistan several times and has been a Navy Seal for 14 years. A preliminary hearing was held last week at Naval Base San Diego to help determine whether the case will head to a trial. Prosecutors presented accounts from several other SEALs in Chief Gallaghers platoon describing his behavior as reckless and bloodthirsty. They said he fired into civilian crowds, gunned down a girl walking along a riverbank and an old man carrying a water jug, and threatened to kill fellow SEALs if they reported his actions. In May last year, Iraqi forces in Mosul caught an Islamic State fighter aged in his teens, who was left battered and bloody from the combat. nvestigators allege while the teen was receiving medical treatment from SEAL medics, Gallagher walked up and stabbed him in his neck and side with a knife, killing the fighter. Then, they say, he posed for photographs with the fighters body, holding his head in one hand and his blade in the other and sent one of the images to a fellow SEAL with the caption: 'I got him with my hunting knife'. Edward was charged in October with multiple crimes in connection with the 2017 stabbing death of a detainee in Iraq Some platoon members were so distraught by the chiefs actions, investigators said, that they tampered with his sniper rifle to make it less accurate, and fired warning shots to scare away civilians before the chief had a chance to shoot them. 'They said they spent more time protecting civilians than they did fighting ISIS', Special Agent Joe Warpinski of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service told the military court, according to a report in The New York Times. His lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, said the charges were baseless. He said the only evidence that the chief had killed anyone came from accounts offered by a few SEALs who were disgruntled because they could not meet their leaders demanding standards. 'I promise you, we will call many more SEALs who will say none of his ever happened,' Stackhouse was quoted as saying by The New York Times. The purpose of the hearing, known as an Article 32 hearing, was to determine whether the case should proceed to a trial. Both sides have indicated that they believe the trial will proceed in 2019. In the hearing Navy prosecutor, Chris Czaplak, said the chief had done damage beyond murder and had undermined the values of the Navy Seals. 'Does the public still believe we are the good guys, because Chief Gallagher decided to act like the monster the terrorists accuse us of being?', he said. 'He handed ISIS propaganda manna from heaven. His actions are everything ISIS says we are'. Parkland mass shooter Nikolas Cruz was back in court today while protests erupted at the school after four faculty members were axed over their handling of the massacre that saw 17 people murdered. More than 50 teachers chanted 'bring them back' outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Tuesday morning, after four assistant principals and a security specialist were reassigned to other administrative positions in the county public school system. Meanwhile 20-year-old Cruz was back in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom later in the day on Tuesday for issues dealing with procedural motions. Defense lawyers asked Judge Elizabeth Scherer to keep the Broward County jail records about Cruz's mental condition sealed to protect his privacy. Cruz is currently on suicide watch and is listed as having an 'altered mental state.' Parkland gunman Nikolas Cruz, 20, was back in court Tuesday as his lawyer argues to keep prison records about his mental condition private Cruz is on suicide watch and is listed as having an 'altered mental state,' as his lawyer argues to keep his prison record on his mental condition private Faculty demanded the four administrators be returned to the school after they were transferred out over the handling of the massacre The judge did not immediately rule on the request, while the Broward Sheriff's Office argues the reports are not done by medical professionals and are not the same as medical records. Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted of the Valentine's Day massacre. Cruz's lawyers say he would plead guilty to murder and attempted murder charges in exchange for a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that. The faculty that was reassigned includes assistant Principals Jeff Morford, Winfred Porter Jr, and Denise Reed, plus security specialist Kelvin Greenleaf. The protesting teachers are demanding the return of four administrators who were reassigned, according to the Miami Herald. Broward County Public Schools announced Monday that the three assistant principals and one security specialist were being placed in other administrative jobs. The statement didn't say why they were being reassigned. The decision followed the latest meeting of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission. The school district said it is using material from the commission to improve school safety and student services. The head of an association that represents three of the four administrators said they'll sue the district to halt the reassignments. Lisa Maxwell, executive director of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, said the administrators haven't been told the reason for their reassignments, and that's a violation of their due process rights. The Stoneman Douglas Commission cited a number of failures in school security procedure as well as missed opportunities to stop the killer after he was seen searching guns on a school computer. Toilet doors being glued shut and a lack of 'hard corners' meant students had fewer options to to safely hide as the gunman shot pupils and staff. President Trump also intervened shortly after, calling sheriff's deputy, Scot Peterson, who was assigned as campus security, a coward for not going inside the building as the shooter roamed the school halls. A number of failures by the school or district were raised by the commission, including communication breakdowns between police and school staff during the massacre on February 14. Students being lead out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting at the school in February Assistant Principals Winfred Porter Jr (left) and Jeff Morford (right) have been reassigned by the Broward County school district These also included the school's 'Code Red' or active shooter procedures as well as bathroom doors being locked due to drug problems, which prevented students from being able to find a hiding place. The school also had not enacted 'hard corners', or classroom corners where students could take cover during a shooting. The district would not say whether the moves were permanent or where they have been moved to. Former Captain with the Broward County Sheriff's Department, Jan Jordan, and Parkland District Sargent, Brian Miller, were placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an internal review of his response to the shooting at the school, the department said. Assistant Principal Denise Reed (left), who oversaw special needs students, was criticized in an independent report after the Parkland shooting (right) Then-Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, who was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during February was accused of failing to go into the building during the shooting. He is pictured on the day of the massacre alongside security specialist Kelvin Greenleaf who has now been reassigned The Stoneman Douglas Commission cited a number of failures in school security procedure as well as missed opportunities to stop the killer The commission hearings also heard that a student reported Cruz's weird behavior, such as researching guns on a school computer and saying how he liked to 'see people in pain', to Morford. According to the student, Morford told him he should Google the word 'autism' and promised that Cruz was being withdrawn from the school, but the assistant principal denied this conversation took place. Porter, who was named the district's assistant principal of the year a few days before the shooting, oversaw some of the school's security measures and brought a consultant in to review security at the school but these were not put into action before the shooting. Reed is the assistant principal who oversaw special needs students, which was also criticized by an independent report for Cruz's lack of counseling services in the 14 months leading up to the killings. Lisa Maxwell, who represents the three administrators through the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, told the Sun Sentinel that the school district is violating its employee discipline policy by not telling them why they are being investigated and that the assistant principals did nothing wrong. Members of the panel investigating the high school massacre called the sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson, who was assigned to guard the campus 'a coward' for hiding and not rushing inside in an attempt to stop the shooter. Scot Peterson was branded 'a coward' by members of the Stoneman Douglas Commission for hiding and not rushing inside in an attempt to stop the shooter President Trump called Peterson a coward soon after the massacre, saying, 'he trained his whole life. But he certainly did a poor job. There's no question about that' President Trump also intervened, calling Peterson a coward for not intervening, when he said, 'he trained his whole life. But he certainly did a poor job. There's no question about that'. Security video shows Peterson arrived outside the three-story building where the killings happened shortly after the shooting began, about the same time the gunman finished slaying 11 people on the first-floor. Peterson drew his handgun, but retreated to cover next to the neighboring building. The video shows Peterson never left that spot for 50 minutes, even after other deputies and police officers arrived on campus and went inside. Panel members have said they believe Peterson's inaction allowed Cruz to climb to the third floor, where five students, including Jamie Guttenberg, and one teacher were killed. Shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted. Cruz's lawyers say he would plead guilty to murder and attempted murder charges in exchange for a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that deal They believe if Peterson, 55, had confronted Cruz, who authorities say was armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and engaged him in a shootout he could have killed him or given others more time to reach safety. Peterson resigned soon after video emerged of him waiting outside the building during the shooting. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was killed in the massacre after Cruz was allowed to climb to the third floor, called the move 'seven months overdue'. He told the Sun Sentinel: 'We have been communicating all of this for almost nine months, as soon as we learned everything. 'It was only after they couldn't ignore the video that they took action. None of it brings our children back. None of it.' Navy officials said that an 'ad hoc drill by a tenant command' was mistaken as a real active shooter at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, causing widespread panic as agencies rushed to investigate. Maryland Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger took to his Twitter at approximately 2.30pm on Tuesday to share that he was 'safe' after being told that there was an active shooter on the scene at the Bethesda, Maryland, facility. 'I am currently at Walter Reed Medical in Bethesda where we've been told there is an active shooter,' he said in the tweet. 'I am currently safe in a conference room w/ approx 40 others.' Scroll down for video Montgomery County Police said that officers received a call at 2.27pm about the possible shooter Montgomery County Police told the Baltimore Sun that officers received a call at 2.27pm about the possible shooter. The spokeswoman for the police added that the reports were unconfirmed and that officers were on the scene to 'support and assist.' At around 2.55pm, the Naval Support Activity Bethesda said that base security cleared the area in the basement where the reports originated. They asserted that there was 'no indication so far of an active shooter.' Maryland Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger shared at approximately 2.30pm on Tuesday that there was an active shooter at Walter Reed hospital Navy officials later confirmed it had just been an 'ad hoc drill by a tenant command' Public affairs officer Jeremy Brooks told AP by phone that all traffic had been stopped in or out of the facility. The all clear was given about an hour later, after security found no shooter Public affairs officer Jeremy Brooks told AP by phone that all traffic had been stopped in or out of the facility. The all clear was given about an hour later, after security found no shooter. The Navy tweeted that there was no active shooter at the base, but an 'ad hoc drill by tenant command.' Videos on social media showed various armed personnel storm the facilities. Mary Lock, a nurse at Walter Reed, said she and other employees remained locked down in a second-flood clinic for an hour after hearing this repeated announcement over a loudspeaker: 'Active shooter, this is not a drill!' Lock, 58, said they have had drills for events like this, so she didn't panic. They asserted that there was 'no indication so far of an active shooter.' At around 2.55pm, the Naval Support Activity Bethesda said that base security cleared the area in the basement where the reports originated 'It is nerve-wracking as all get out,' she said with a laugh as she left work to catch a bus. Walter Reed is the nation's largest military hospital and according to its website, is among the first stops in the continental United States for troops wounded in combat. NSAB oversees operational support for its major tenants at the base, including Walter Reed. Karl Stefanovic took aim at the Liberal Party and labelled it a 'boys' club', but insisted he 'doesn't believe in gender quotas' in parliament during a fiery exchange with Today co-host Georgie Gardner. The heated discussion on the Channel Nine program on Wednesday came less than 24 hours after Julia Banks sensationally quit the party amid allegations of bullying within the government. 'It's a male-run, male-dominated, effectively male-owned party. Increasingly, though, it looks an old-school, males-only boys' club,' Stefanovic said. Gardner acknowledged the pair had previously clashed over gender quotas, but argued it was 'the only way to go'. 'The people in positions of power are making [preselection] decisions based on merit - and ultimately they are men,' she said, before asking if Stefanovic had 'changed his thoughts'. Karl Stefanovic has been involved in a fiery exchange with Today show co-host Georgie Gardner (pictured together in Sydney last month) over gender quotas in parliament 'No, I haven't ... Women need to be attracted to these positions and need to want to go into parliament. Why would you want to go into it when it is so male-dominated?' Stefanovic replied. 'If they look at the broad range of women who are out there, I think they will find that there are very, very good candidates.' Gardner interjected: 'But that's my point. At preselection level, the people making those decisions are still men.' 'I still don't believe in quotas,' Stefanovic insisted, prompting Gardner to question: 'Do you believe in targets?' Gardner acknowledged the pair had previously clashed over gender quotas in government He said: 'I think if they look now, they will find there are plenty out there. There are plenty of women out there more than capable.' Gardner asked: 'But why isn't that happening, then?' 'Because the males who decide it are not doing it,' Stefanovic responded. 'But that's my point. If you had a target to aim for... Why do you think it is working in the Labor Party?' she asked. 'I think the Labor Party still have issues as well... Yes, they do a better job of it but it is still male-dominated... anyway.' The conversation ended abruptly as newsreader Sylvia Jeffreys suggested the 'heated discussion' would continue later in the program. The conversation abruptly ended as newsreader Sylvia Jeffreys suggested the 'heated discussion' would continue later in the program KARL STEFAVOVIC ON THE LIBERAL PARTY 'BOYS' CLUB' 'Through all the chaos and leadership changes a real change is happening within the Liberal Party. Stefanovic took aim at the Liberal Party and labelled it a 'boys' club' after Julia Banks sensationally quit the party For a long, long time women - for a variety of reasons - haven't been heard. They've had no real, tangible and effective voice - unless it complied with the male dominated leadership power base. The Liberal Party has more than a perception problem. It's a male run, male dominated, effectively male owned party. Increasingly though, it looks an old school, males-only, boys' club - the kind of thing that went out of fashion in the 80s. Well, it's going out of fashion, quickly. As we saw yesterday with Julia Banks and Julie Bishop, the women in that club have had enough. They want a voice, they want to be heard, they want change and I believe this morning change is coming. It started with a whisper in the corridors and it is building into a roar. The women inside the party have nothing to lose now, so watch this space.' Advertisement Poor female representation in Liberal ranks resurfaced after August's leadership spill, following accusations of bullying and intimidation tactics waged against women MPs by some of their male peers. Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also lamented the pitifully low percentage of federal Liberal Party politicians after stepping down from the front bench. Less than a quarter of federal Liberal MPs are women, compared to almost half of Labor politicians. Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists gender quotas are not the way to help women advance in Parliament. 'I believe in any political organisation it should be a matter of one's own effort and exertion and credibility,' he said in September. 'I don't believe quotas are the way you remove obstacles. It's a matter of supporting women throughout the pre-selection process. 'Then when they get into parliament, ensure they're getting the support they need to do the job.' Idaho high school students walked out of class on Tuesday to protest a visit from Ivanka Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook, it has been revealed. Cook and Donald Trump's daughter visited an elementary school in the low-income Idaho district of Wilder, where Apple donated an iPad to every student and teacher in 2016. But a group of students at the high school next door were less than impressed with the donations. Students complained that the iPads offer self-guided lessons that have almost completely eliminated their interaction with teachers. Idaho high school students walked out of class on Tuesday to protest a visit from Ivanka Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured at Wilder Elementary School) Cook and Ivanka visited an elementary school in the heavily Hispanic low-income Idaho district of Wilder, where Apple had donated an iPad to every student and teacher Students complained that the iPads, which were donated to every student in 2016, offer self-guided lessons that have almost completely eliminated their interaction with teachers Ivanka looks back at protesters and supporters as she enters Wilder Elementary School The only time they do interact with their educators is when it's time to unlock quizzes and advance to the next learning sections, the students said. Shortly after Apple's donation to the Wilder School District in 2016, Superintendent Jeff Dillon said it would help students 'own their learning'. 'We are going to shift from traditional education, where teachers own the learning, where the teacher does the thinking and students consume information,' he told the Idaho Statesman. Dillon said the district wanted an education system based on a 'mastery of subjects' rather than 'hours spent in a classroom'. 'The plan will do away with regular class periods as students use their devices to guide their education and teachers become more like mentors,' he added. Wilder School District was recently named one of the most innovative school systems in the country. While some students were on hand to protest Ivanka (pictured) and her father, others were there against Apple About 30 people also gathered outside the school to protest Trump's immigration policies The protesters mixed with about a dozen Trump supporters (pictured), who could be heard chanting 'We love Trump!' Ivanka, who arrived at Wilder Elementary with Cook around 10.15am, took to Twitter to discuss her visit. 'Visiting the Wilder School District today with Tim Cook to learn firsthand how they are preparing Americas future workforce using @Apple technology to transform the learning environment and personalize students' educational experiences based on their unique needs and strengths!' she tweeted. Dillon told parents that Ivanka and Cook would visit with students to 'learn more about how our district uses technology to enhance student learning and support our personalized learning model'. Wilder, one of southwestern Idaho's poorest, was among 114 low-income schools in 29 states to receive iPad donations from Apple as part of its ConnectED program. Apple worked with districts where the low-income student population was at least 96 percent. Parents were told that Ivanka and Cook would visit with students to 'learn more about how our district uses technology to enhance student learning Ivanka, who arrived at Wilder Elementary with Cook around 10.15am on Tuesday, took to Twitter to discuss her visit Ivanka took to Instagram to share a number of photos of her and Cook interacting with the school's students She posted an image of some of the students writing Welcome with their donated iPads Virtually all of the city's elementary students meet low income guidelines to receive free or reduced cost lunches and a majority of the district's students are Hispanic. Wilder has a population of less than 2,000 and has been largely Hispanic for decades. Many residents work seasonal jobs harvesting onions and other crops, and others have full-time jobs at a meat processing plant. The students, who said they expected to be suspended, weren't the only ones protesting Ivanka's visit. Ivanka applauds the work of Nancy Vega, who programmed a Sphero, an app-enabled robotic ball, to go through a maze Wilder, one of southwestern Idaho's poorest, was among 114 low-income schools in 29 states to receive iPad donations from Apple as part of its ConnectED program About 30 people also gathered outside the school to protest Trump's immigration policies. Trump has deployed thousands of troops to the Mexican border, saying a caravan of migrants is a threat to US national security. Mothers with their children were among those who were hit by tear gas at the border on Sunday. 'When babies at the border are under attack, what do we do?' protester Estefania Mondragon asked a crowd of about 30 people. 'Stand up, fight back!' they responded. They also screamed 'stop gassing babies!' A dozen of Trump supporters were also on hand at the elementary school, frequently screaming 'We love Trump!' A skydiving instructor who mysteriously became separated from his student during a tandem jump in September is believed to have committed suicide. Maine State Police said Brett Bickford, 41, of Rochester, New Hampshire, apparently loosened his harness in the air while sharing a parachute with a student. The student survived the ordeal, and search crews found Bickford's body a day after the incident in Lebanon, Maine. 'State Police interviews with other skydivers and industry officials concluded that no experienced skydiver would loosen a parachute harness by mistake,' police said in the statement to NBC. Skydiving instructor, Brett Bickford (left), 41, who mysteriously became separated from his student during a tandem jump in September committed suicide, Maine police said Tuesday 'State Police interviews with other skydivers and industry officials concluded that no experienced skydiver would loosen a parachute harness by mistake,' police said in a statement. Bickford is pictured with a different student 'Investigators concluded that Bickford (pictured during a different jump) loosened his harness in midair and it was an intentional act,' the press statement read 'Investigators concluded that Bickford loosened his harness in midair and it was an intentional act.' Authorities said that Bickford's family members and Skydive New England officials have been notified of the investigation's conclusion. It's unclear what led Bickford and his student participated in the jump around 2pm on September 27 near Skydive New England in Lebanon. The student immediately alerted Maine State Police after safely landing, concerned that he was the only one with the parachute in the landing. Ryan Scutt, a skydiving instructor in Vermont, said instructors and students both wear harnesses on jumps. He said the main parachute and a backup in the harness is attached to the instructor. Authorities said that Bickford's family members and Skydive New England officials have been notified of the investigation's conclusion Bickford (pictured) and his student participated in the jump around 2pm on September 27 near Skydive New England in Lebanon The instructor and student are usually connected by four metal buckles and it would be nearly impossible for them to become detached accidentally, Scutt told the Global Dispatch at the time. 'The idea of the instructor not being in the harness anymore or falling out is essentially unheard of,' he said, and the pair 'can't become disconnected once they are connected'. Cpl John MacDonald, the spokesman for the Maine Warden Service, said at the time that a search team found Bickford's body about 750 feet from the Lebanon Airport runway. Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said investigators determined the instructor and student became separated about a mile above the ground. McCausland said the instructor didn't have a backup parachute. In September a Skydive New England spokesperson said the freefall was 'uneventful' and that the only incident was that the instructor went missing. Bickford and his student participated in the jump around 2pm on September 27 near Skydive New England in Lebanon (pictured) Search crews (pictured) found Bickford's body a day after the incident After incident, Ryan Scutt, a skydiving instructor in Vermont, said instructors and students both wear harnesses on jumps. The instructor and student are usually connected by four metal buckles and it would be nearly impossible for them to become detached accidentally According to News Center Maine, Skydive New England has experienced several incidents over the past couple of years with skydivers getting injured and one person dying in 2002. A spokesperson clarified that the incidents are small in comparison to the 20,000 skydives the company completes a season. Police are still investigating the incident and trying to figure out how the skydivers became separated in the first place. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-800-273-8255) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A council was last night criticised as ridiculous and perverse after it offered a prison inmate access to a son he fathered by raping a teenage girl. Arshid Hussain, 43, the ringleader of the notorious Rotherham grooming gang, was not named on the boys birth certificate and had no parental responsibility for the child, who was born after his mother was raped, aged just 14. Despite this, Hussain, who is serving 35 years in prison for multiple rape offences against nine victims some as young as 11 was contacted last year by officials from Rotherham Council, who said he had a right to see the boy. Last night the boys mother, Sammy Woodhouse, 33, waived her anonymity to identify herself as a rape victim, as she revealed she was left 'scared and angry' by the council. A gobsmacked Miss Woodhouse, a mother-of-two, said she was campaigning for a change in the law to prevent convicted sex abusers gaining access to children fathered as a result of their crimes. She said: This story is about myself, about my son and about the man that raped me... and the fact that Rotherham Council have offered him to apply for parental rights over my child. Sammy Woodhouse was left 'scared' when she found out she could have to face her rapist in court after he was told he could have access to her son Ms Woodhouse was a teenager when she was groomed by her rapist Arshid Hussain known as 'Mad Ash' Sammy Woodhouse was raped as a teenager and gave birth to her son aged fifteen - but the baby's father was only jailed in 2016 Ms Woodhouse has gone on to campaign for the rights of women who have been raped This is happening all over the country and it needs to stop. Children are being removed, being given to rapists, to murderers, for their families to have access rape victims are having to go to support centres to share access. Hussain, who is of Pakistani origin, opted not to get involved with the boy. But the South Yorkshire councils decision to contact him was criticised as perverse and ridiculous by victims charities and campaigners. Nazir Afzal, former chief crown prosecutor for the North-West, said: They (councils) think they are doing the right thing because they are told it is important the child has access to both parents, but it is wrong. By following the letter of the law they are lacking judgment they are applying a tick-box approach when it is plainly a ridiculous thing to do. Rapists have no right to the child born of that rape. Ms Woodhouse who now campaigns on behalf of sex assault victims was plied with drugs, abused and threatened at gunpoint by Hussain and his gang. In 2016, Hussain and his two brothers were jailed at Sheffield Crown Court for sexually assaulting, grooming and raping young girls. The brothers were also convicted of forcing a dozen girls into prostitution. Louise Haigh, the shadow police and crime minister, who is backing Miss Woodhouses campaign to change the Children Act 1989, told The Times that the councils decision was appallingly insensitive. They handed him an invitation to re-traumatise his victim, she said. No man who has fathered a child through abuse or rape should have the right to apply for custody or visitation rights. Baroness Newlove, the victims commissioner for England and Wales, said the decision was perverse, adding: This appears to be a case in which a victim of the worst sexual violence faced the prospect of continuing to be abused by her perpetrator, this time via the family courts. It is understood the Ministry of Justice is investigating whether the decision to involve the serial rapist was the result of a social workers error or systemic failings. In a video on Facebook Ms Woodhouse told followers she was planning to fight for women who are told their rapist can have a say in their children's lives Baroness Newlove, the victims' commissioner for England and Wales, has criticised the local authority Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years after being convicted of raping Ms Woodhouse and assaulting young girls The Ministry of Justice is investigating whether or not this was a systematic failing - or an error by a social worker after the father was told he could see the child he conceived through rape The decision was taken last year when the council applied, with the consent of Miss Woodhouse, to take her teenage son into care. She was struggling to cope with his complex needs. By law, councils are obliged to notify all respondents of such proceedings. Despite acknowledging in documentation that Hussain had no parental responsibility for the boy and that Miss Woodhouse had been emotionally, sexually and physically abused by him, the council named him as a respondent. Officials informed him of his rights and promised to keep him informed of all court proceedings. At first, Ms Woodhouse says her son was 'seduced' by the idea of meeting his father, who Rotherham Council agreed to keep informed over the court proceedings. She said her son was 'catapulted into a dreamworld' by the thought of a relationship with his jailed father. However, he later changed his mind. The traumatised mother also told of how she once had to detail the rape to authorities when she applied for a passport for her son. Authorities said her son's father must sign the documentation before they would allow the passport to be created. Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley and Shadow Policing Minister said there was potential for the man to 'retraumatise his victim' Rotherham Council was widely criticised and declared not fit for purpose over its handling of child exploitation following a damning report in August 2014. The review estimated that 1,400 girls were abused by men of predominantly Pakistani heritage in the town during a 16-year period to 2013. The council said it had a duty to comply with Family Court practice directions, which included a requirement to give notice of proceedings to every person whom the applicant believes to be a parent without parental responsibility for the child. But a Government spokesman said: Existing court rules are very clear that applicants in care proceedings should only ever notify people who have parental responsibility for the child. Conservative peer Jean Trumpington was a splendid, life-affirming old bag of contradictions. That may sound an ungallant thing to say about a great parliamentarian who has just died, but she most assuredly would not have minded. Lady Trumpington was posh but unstuffy, a traditionalist who loved to disrupt. She was the one-time health minister who was a chain-smoker. At a public school speech day in the Sixties, where as the headmasters wife she had just handed out the prizes, she decided the event needed livening up, so she jumped into the school swimming pool. Fully clothed. Having just had her hair done. Seven years ago, footage showing Baroness Trumpington (above) making a V-sign at a fellow Tory over what she saw as a rude remark about her age went viral online My husband didnt talk to me for three weeks, she recalled. What a woman. What a tonic she was in our so often sterile, monochrome public affairs. Through much of her long life, which ended on Monday when she died in her sleep aged 96, she was dutiful yet impish, public-spirited yet joyously unpredictable. If there was one thing she could not abide it was an excess of pomposity. If she suspected everyone was becoming too sombre, she would poke out her tongue or wiggle her hips to raise morale. Some onlookers, seeing her bullet-proof tweeds and swept-back curls, presumed this doughty shires matron must follow orthodox Tory theories about social order. Yet Lady Trumpington was a firm believer in the legalisation of brothels. As a local politician she combined liberal enlightenment with good Conservative common sense. It is largely thanks to her, for instance, that the historic centre of Cambridge where she became mayor has such a vibrant, car-free market. This is the woman who, infamously, flicked a V-sign in jest in the Lords in 2011 at her friend Lord King. He had just said the World War II generation her generation was getting on in years. The moment was caught on TV and she became a national hit and nicknamed Baroness Battleaxe. A more kindly battleaxe you never met, even if she was prone to littering her conversation with booming profanities. The language that flew off her! Eff this, bugger that, dont be such a bloody fool. The same Jean, when reading Scott of the Antarctics letters, would dissolve into tears. At chi-chi diplomatic drinks parties she invariably made a beeline for the loneliest-looking person in the room. And although she once had raging rows with her party leader Margaret Thatcher, she helped look after the other Lady T in her dwindling years. In the World War Two, she worked in naval intlligence at Bletchley Park Trumpingtons vocabulary owed something to a regimental sergeant-major and the timbre of her voice was not unlike that of It Aint Half Hot Mums Windsor Davies. All those cigs had coated her larynx like a lorrys exhaust pipe. On the telephone she was regularly mistaken for a man. It was a joy to hear that voice in the Lords, cutting through the trilled political cliches. Smack! A few sentences from Trumpers (as I never dared call her) would soon remind the House of the real world beyond Westminster. Born in 1922 to a Chicago household paints heiress and a feckless British Army officer called Campbell-Harris, young Jean survived and was perhaps shaped by an unhappy childhood. Her private education was haphazard. She left at 15 without having troubled the examiners. Her parents mixed in royal circles and left much of the child-rearing to a succession of nannies who were not always gentle. She loved dance lessons at Madame Vacanis in Knightsbridge and for a while she took her tutu to the Ballet Rambert. But by the time she had reached 5ft, with feet and hands like a frogmans flippers, she was too big for any balletic future. One of her childhood friends was a delicate boy called Jeremy Thorpe. It is fair to assume Jean bossed around her little playmate. Her mother lost much of her fortune in the 1929 Wall Street Crash. The family moved to a mouldy but enormous house in Kent. Yet her mothers idea of economy, when in London, was to ride to the Ritz by bus. Baroness Peerless had worked at Bletchley Park (pictured above) as a code breaker The Crash meant Jean would have to work her passage through life. It was the making of her. When the war started, the well-built teenager was despatched to the Land Girls, who sent her to work for former PM David Lloyd George. He was a lusty old goat and insisted on taking out a tape-measure to record her vital statistics on a regular basis. She survived his groping and later went to work at Bletchley Park as a code-breaker, using her finishing-school German to translate U-boat messages. On leave in town, Jean and her Bletchley friends used to chuck buns across the Claridges dining room. Disorder! Disorder! as she liked to say when discussing parliamentary politics. She smoked a pipe. She was not allergic to champagne. She would narrow her eyes and call you old cock. She was sheer heaven. At school she had been a tomboy and had spent much of her time in woods with boys smoking, not snogging. At finishing school in Paris she became known as Mademoiselle Ne Touchez Pas (Miss Dont Touch Me), and this possibly contributed to her mastering the art of humorous asides, brushing off shyness with a jest. Lady Trumpington only bowed out from the House of Lords, where she was celebrated as one of Parliament's most colourful characters, last year She was no prima donna, no princess. She regarded men as blokes, nothing more or less. Later in life it made her an ideal housemasters wife at Eton, and then the headmasters wife at The Leys school, Cambridge. She spent the start of the Fifties in New York, working in an advertising agency by day and living a high life by night. Rich Manhattan marvelled at her cut-class accent, ripe humour and work ethos. There was an American boyfriend, though she never disclosed his name. Lady Trumpington (pictured above) was a firm believer in the legalisation of brothels She might have stayed in the U.S. for ever had she not met an English schoolmaster, William Barker. In the peerless memoirs which she produced in 2011 she referred to him simply as Barker. Before her 1954 wedding, she lost a lot of weight and as she and Barker walked down the aisle she heard someone say what a waist! before realising that it may have been what a waste. Galumphing? A self-caricature? Outspoken? Lady Trumpington could be these. But she was fun, and most of all she was true to herself, and we could all see that behind her exaggerated joviality there lurked mercy and great decency. She topped up the family finances by winning prizes in TV quizzes and antiques-dealing on the side. Lovejoy in a Barbour and twinset. After Barkers death in 1988, this former mayor of Cambridge who joined the Lords in 1980, turned her energy to serious politics, encouraged by Willie Whitelaw, an old friend. She became a whip and later a minister happily absorbing ministerial briefs (she would say the word with a Frankie Howerd leer) at Health and Agriculture. She never joined the Cabinet but maybe she was too good for that. Too honourable. Too normal. A peer for 37 years, she became a fixture, peering at the Order Paper through a magnifying glass so enormous, it could once have served duty at the Royal Observatory. She retired only last year. Once, when a peer was boring the House, Jean interrupted to advise members that this might be a good time for anyone to go to the loo. Thats what was so great about her. She was my pomposity-pricking pin-up. On the day Lady Thatcher died, Jean was in a TV studio preparing to go on Have I Got News For You. She realised they were preparing some disobliging references to her dead friend and she walked off the programme. She will be remembered not as a politician but as a public character, someone who lived life to the full whenever I got the chance, as she said. Her son Adam said yesterday it had been a bloody good innings. Too right. We should applaud her all the way to the pavilion. Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has denied meeting with Julian Assange, calling reports that he secretly visited the Wikileaks founder 'totally false.' Manafort, 69, released a statement on Tuesday, hours after The Guardian published a story alleging that the two met at least three times, including once in 2016 around the time he was hired by the president. 'This story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him,' Manafort said through a spokesman. 'We are considering all legal options against the Guardian, who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false.' The news outlet claimed Manafort allegedly visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up since 2012, on three occasions in 2013, 2015 and 2016, citing anonymous sources. They also quoted a document written by the Ecuadorian intelligence agency SENAIN which lists 'Paul Manaford [sic]' as a 'well-known guest' of Assange. WikiLeaks has denied the claims, saying it is willing to 'bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange'. Allegations: Paul Manafort, 69, reportedly visited WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on at least three occasions in 2013, 2015 and 2016 Hitting back: WikiLeaks tweeted that the Guardian's sources were 'serial fabricators' and that they would 'bet the Guardian a million dollars that Manafort never met Assange' Manafort's final visit took place 'around March 2016', just a few months before WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of Democrat Party emails hacked by Russian intelligence, according to the outlet. Manafort, who was hired by President Trump on March 29, 2016, was jailed this year and was a key person in the Mueller probe. The claims were published as an apparent criminal complaint against Assange in the subject of a federal court hearing in Virginia. Free-press advocates want a judge to unseal the complaint after prosecutors in an unrelated case inadvertently mentioned charges against Assange. Prosecutors have opposed the motion, arguing that the public has no right to know whether a person has been charged until there has been an arrest. The government also says the accidental reference to charges against Assange does not mean he has actually been charged. Leaker: Assange's WikiLeaks released thousands of emails which had been obtained by Russian secret service operatives by hacking the Democrat Party Complications: Manafort's final visit reportedly took place 'around March 2016', the same month he was hired by President Donald Trump Meanwhile, special counsel Robert Mueller accused Manafort on Monday of violating his plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators, an extraordinary allegation that could expose him to a lengthier prison sentence - and potentially more criminal charges. The torpedoing of Manafort's plea deal, disclosed in a court filing Monday, also results in special counsel Robert Mueller's team losing a cooperating witness from the top of Trump's presidential campaign who was present for several key episodes under investigation. That includes a Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer he was told had derogatory information on Democrat Hillary Clinton. The move signals a return to the acrimonious relationship Manafort has had with the special counsel's office since his indictment last year. Before his plea agreement, Manafort aggressively challenged the special counsel's legitimacy in court, went through a bitter trial and landed himself in jail after prosecutors discovered he had attempted to tamper with witnesses in his case. In the latest filing, Mueller's team said Manafort 'committed federal crimes' by lying about 'a variety of subject matters' even after he agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation. Prosecutors said they will detail the 'nature of the defendant's crimes and lies' in writing at a later date to the judge. Through his attorneys, Manafort denied lying, saying he 'believes he provided truthful information' during a series of sessions with Mueller's investigators. He also disagreed that he breached his plea agreement. Still, both sides now agree they can't resolve the conflict, and U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson should set a date to sentence him. Manafort, who remains jailed, had been meeting with the special counsel's office since he pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He cut that deal to head off a second trial after being convicted last summer of eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from the IRS in offshore accounts. Both cases stemmed from his Ukrainian political work and undisclosed lobbying work he admitted to carrying out in the U.S. in violation of federal law. Special counsel Robert Mueller is accusing Manafort, pictured, of violating his plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators As part of his plea agreement, Manafort pledged to 'cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly' with the government 'in any and all matters' prosecutors deemed necessary. That included his work on the Trump campaign as well as his Ukrainian political work, which remains under investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors there are looking into the conduct of longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig and former Republican congressman and lobbyist Vin Weber to determine whether they violated federal law by failing to register as foreign agents with the Justice Department. None of the men has been charged with any crimes. As part of his plea deal, Manafort also forfeited many of his rights as well as his ability to withdraw the plea if he broke any of the terms. In return, prosecutors agreed to not bring additional charges against him and to ask a judge for a reduction of his sentence if he provided 'substantial assistance.' But with prosecutors saying he breached the agreement, Manafort now faces serious repercussions such as the possibility of prosecution on additional charges including the 10 felony counts prosecutors dropped when he made the deal. Manafort already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his plea agreement. In his separate Virginia case, Manafort's potential sentencing under federal guidelines has not yet been calculated, but prosecutors have previously said he could face as much as 10 years in prison on those charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced in that case in February. His co-defendant, Rick Gates, who spent a longer time on the campaign and worked on the Trump inaugural committee, has not had a sentencing date set yet. He continues to cooperate with Mueller. It never rains... Mrs May in Wales yesterday Britain could be forced into a permanent customs union if Parliament rejects Theresa Mays Brexit deal, allies of the Prime Minister warned last night. Mrs May has come under fire from Eurosceptic MPs for agreeing a controversial Irish backstop, which critics claim could leave the UK locked in a customs union indefinitely. With more than 90 Tory MPs threatening to join forces with Labour to vote down the deal, Mrs May faces an uphill task to win the crunch Brexit vote on December 11. But a senior Whitehall source said Brussels had warned privately that it would try to push Britain into a customs union if Mrs Mays deal is heavily defeated. The insider said: Some people seem to think that if the deal is defeated the EU will just roll over and give them what they want. In fact theyve been very clear that this is the best deal on the table. They are not going to reopen the talks. The truth is that they would try to push us into the customs union its very easy for them. I think people here need to understand that is their Plan B. Membership of the customs union would allow the UK to trade tariff-free with the EU but would prevent us from striking our own trade deals with countries outside. The UK would not have to accept free movement of people but would have to continue accepting EU rules on goods and farm products to avoid regulatory checks at the border. Ministers also fear that MPs could amend the Trade Bill to require the Government to pursue a customs union with the EU. Theresa May is greeted by President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University, Professor Ian Greer, as she arrives at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland Tory MP Gary Streeter (left) warned that by opposing Mrs Mays deal, Brexiteers were putting at risk the whole project they had campaigned for (right: EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier) One source said: On any customs union amendment, we wont just lose. We will lose by more than 40 votes. Tory MP Gary Streeter warned that by opposing Mrs Mays deal, Brexiteers were putting at risk the whole project they had campaigned for. It is ironic that those who might be scuppering Brexit are the ones who wanted it in the first place, he said. Secrecy storm over No 10s legal advice on backstop Downing Street put itself on a collision course with the House of Commons last night after refusing to publish the complete legal advice it was given on Brexit. The Commons voted unanimously this month for a Labour motion demanding to see the full advice presented to the Cabinet by Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox. After the motion was carried, Commons Speaker John Bercow said it must be published in full. But No10 said yesterday it would only publish a summary. Pro-Brexit MPs want to see the complete advice amid rumours that Sir Geoffrey may have warned of risks concerning the Irish backstop, reportedly calling Mrs Mays agreement an Ugly Sister of a deal. Labours Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer wrote to Cabinet Office minister David Lidington last night demanding that it complied with the Commons motion, saying MPs must be given the necessary information to know precisely what has been agreed to before voting on the deal next month. But justice minister Lord Keen said there would only be a summary, adding: The Government recognises the legitimate desire in Parliament, from members on all sides and both Houses, to understand the legal implications of the final withdrawal agreement. The Government will therefore make available to all members of Parliament a full, reasoned position statement, setting out the Governments agreed legal position on the agreement, including the Irish backstop proposals. Advertisement Brexiteers last night accused ministers of preparing for a fresh round of Project Fear, with the Treasury and Bank of England both due to publish fresh analysis of the Brexit options. Chancellor Philip Hammond will publish a 150-page document this morning setting out the impact of a range of scenarios on the economy. These will include Mrs Mays Chequers deal, the so-called Norway option, the Canada Plus model favoured by Brexiteers and a no-deal exit. The analysis is expected to show a no-deal Brexit would have a dire impact on the economy, although all four options are expected to have a negative impact compared with remaining in the EU. Later today, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will publish his own analysis. He is expected to repeat his warning that a no-deal Brexit could lead to a 35 per cent slump in house prices. Mrs May yesterday embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the UK to promote her Brexit deal, visiting Wales and Northern Ireland. Today she will travel to Scotland, where she will hold talks with Nicola Sturgeon, whose government claimed yesterday that the Brexit proposals would leave Scottish families an average 1,600-a-year worse off. DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose party props up Mrs Mays Government at Westminster, accused the PM of giving up. She told the BBC: The disappointing thing for me is that the Prime Minister has given up and she is saying this is where we are and we just have to accept it. Former Cabinet minister Sir Michael Fallon said: My fear is that this deal gives us the worst of all worlds no guarantee of smooth trade in the future and no ability to reduce the tariffs that we need to conclude trade deals with the rest of the world. So, unless the House of Commons can be persuaded somehow that those are possible, then I think, yes, the deal is doomed. He suggested the PMs future would then be up to colleagues. Pundit Meghan McCain said Tuesday that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort should 'rot in hell' for hiding his lucrative advocacy for wealthy Russian elites. Manafort is awaiting sentencing for a list of financial crimes unrelated to his 2016 work with President Trump. Legal analysts expect him to receive a minimum of 10 years behind bars. McCain, a co-host on 'The View' and daughter of the late Republican Sen. John McCain a longtime foreign policy hawk said that's not enough. Meghan McCain said Tuesday that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort should 'rot in hell' for hiding his lucrative advocacy for wealthy Russian elites Manafort, a former chairman of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign organization, was convicted on 8 federal counts and willbe lucky to spend less than 10 years in prison 'One of the things that got him in jail was that he was an unregistered foreign agent. And he was a conduit between Russian oligarchs within Putin's inner circle ... and the Ukraine,' McCain recalled. 'People who do blood money dealings like this,' she added, 'he should rot in jail and then he should rot in hell, as far as Im concerned with Paul Manafort.' As applause rang out, co-host Joy Behar quipped: 'She means that in a nice way, though.' 'No, I don't,' McCain shot back, recoiling also at the idea that President Trump could one day issue a pardon to Manafort. As audience applause rang out Tuesday for McCain, 'The View' co-host Joy Behar quipped: 'She means that in a nice way, though.' McCain shot back: 'No, I don't' Manafort (left) has been in jail for more than five months and isn't expected to see freedom for more than a decade 'The idea he could be pardoned ... I dont even it would enter us into a new level of insanity in this country,' she said. Presidential clemency is an unlikely outcome for Manafort. Many of the federal crimes on his charging sheet are also crimes in the states where he's accused of committing them. Being pardoned from a federal conviction doesn't change the outcome of future state trials, and U.S. presidents are powerless to issue pardons in those cases. 'He was a bad dude to begin with,' McCain said. 'He never should have been on a presidential campaign.' Ruthless people smugglers are charging desperate migrants up to 13,000 each to cross the Channel by inflatable dinghy. One family of would-be asylum seekers was charged 40,000 for the dangerous night-time sea crossing in the world's busiest shipping lane. As rising numbers of migrants from as far as Iran attempt to reach the UK by boat, MPs last night warned that lives will be lost without urgent action. It came after a three-year-old girl and three other children were among a group rescued from a dinghy in the Channel in the early hours of yesterday. In other developments last night, Home Secretary Sajid Javid suggested a Border Force cutter could be recalled from the Mediterranean to patrol the British coast after the spike in migrant crossings. It also emerged that the number of migrants plucked from the Channel while attempting to make the perilous crossing reached at least 123 this month alone. Families at a squalid makeshift camp in Calais, France, seeking the chance to reach the UK The Mail last night found a group of up to 60 migrants, including young children, in a makeshift camp just one mile from the former site of the notorious Calais 'Jungle'. One, who gave his name as Wahid, said: 'It is 45,000 euros (40,000) for my whole family to cross but we don't have a problem with money, we have a problem with the situation in Iran.' The 36-year-old, who spent two months travelling across Europe, said his wife and 11-year-old son were taken across the Channel a month ago by a smuggler who had demanded 15,000 euros per person. The former iron factory worker's family were now waiting for him in Preston, Lancashire. 'We are waiting for a smuggler to call us,' he said. 'We can't get over without help.' So-called 'agents' have already charged families to reach the French coast. Many fly from Iran to countries such as Serbia or Turkey, before being smuggled across borders to make overland journeys across Europe. A group of up to 60 migrants, including young children, are living in a makeshift camp just one mile from the former site of the notorious Calais 'Jungle' People traffickers then demand a further fee to get them to British soil. Individuals pay as much as 13,300 a head (15,000 euros) to board rubber dinghies for the freezing night journey. Francois Guennoc, a volunteer for aid group L'Auberge des Migrants, said smugglers charge different fees depending on which country their clients were from. 'Iranians are charged more than Afghans, for example, because they have more money generally,' he said. In the camp, a father called Bahador, 38, said he had been a successful furniture salesman in Ahwaz, Iran, but had to flee with his wife and children due to religious persecution after he converted from Islam to Christianity. His children, Maryam, five, and two-year-old Briyamin played with Barbie dolls next to a fire made from scraps of wood from pallets as he explained how he was tricked into handing over 8,000 euros. 'It was all we had left and thought they would take us to England, but we never saw them again.' A three-year-old girl and three other children were among a group rescued from a dinghy in the Channel in the early hours of Tuesday Arshia, a 32-year-old tailor from Shiraz in Iran, said he flew to Serbia with wife Maheobeh, 31, two months ago, then travelled across Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and France by a combination of walking and hitch-hiking before arriving at the camp a week ago. They had paid an 'agent' 2,000 euros to help them pass through various borders. 'We saw bears and wolves as we walked through Bosnia,' he said. 'We had no tent and had to just sleep in sleeping bags. I don't know what we will do now. We do not have money to get to England.' Another migrant, Zakari, 37, said he hoped to join his wife of three years in Stockport before Christmas. He had flown to Serbia before travelling to northern France curled up in the back of a lorry. Coastguard crew bring the inflatable alongside their boat in the English Channel Yesterday morning, a group of nine suspected migrants four children, two sets of parents and another man were dramatically filmed by a TV crew from Good Morning Britain during their 4am rescue. Matt Coker, a fisherman who took the camera crew out into the Channel, said: 'It was about 3am when we got a mayday alert from the coastguard about a small vessel which was in distress. 'It didn't have a position because it had no navigation equipment but we knew it was in the Channel. They could be heard shouting and they were waving they clearly needed help and that became obvious even before we got closer to them.' The 38-year-old added: 'As we got closer it became overwhelming and quite emotional to see. There were nine people on a 3m boat it was really dangerous. 'The children looked worse for wear. They looked traumatised. They were in a state of complete shock. They had just been through a terrible ordeal. 'They must have been numb to the bone. These were the most desperate people I had ever seen in my life. It's a complete miracle they survived.' The group of nine Iranians, including four children, in the three-metre inflatable dinghy they were found in yesterday morning And still they try... another group of migrants in a boat intercepted by French officials Charlie Elphicke, the MP for Dover and Deal, added: 'People are still willing to risk crossing the English Channel in the middle of the night in winter even with such a young child on board. 'The Home Office urgently need to set out a detailed plan on how they are going to put a stop to this crisis. 'The French cannot just turn a blind eye and say this is a problem for Britain. Lives will be lost if this trafficking network is not stopped in its tracks.' Earlier this month a report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration found that illegal immigrants may be exploiting staff shortages at sea ports. Border Force managers at Dover, Southampton and Portsmouth said they were understaffed in 2017/18, with inspector David Bolt saying the service was 'resourced to fail'. A Home Office spokesman said: 'Nobody should put their life at risk attempting to smuggle themselves into the UK across the Channel. 'We are working closely with the National Crime Agency to investigate recent incidents and are in regular contact with the French authorities as we work to identify and dismantle the organised crime groups that facilitate illegal immigration.' Is Serbia to blame for the surge? A calamitous immigration policy introduced 1,200 miles away in Belgrade has been blamed for the spike in migrants trying to cross the English Channel. The scheme, which granted Iranian passport-holders visa-free travel to Serbia, was supposed to boost tourism between the two nations and attract business investments. It was also said to be a reward for Iran's refusal to recognise the Republic of Kosovo, Serbia's former province, as an independent country. But the gesture has resulted in an unprecedented number of Iranians claiming asylum in Serbia or using the country as a gateway into western Europe. Direct flights were arriving in Belgrade full but returning empty to Tehran, local media reported. The Iran-Serbia agreement came into force in August last year but was withdrawn last month after the EU raised concerns it was being abused. By the time the scheme was rescinded on October 17, about 40,000 Iranians were said to have flown to Serbia, with authorities estimating as many as 12,000 failed to return. Many have attempted to make the journey from eastern Europe to Britain, resulting in 123 migrants, mostly Iranian, being rescued from the Channel this month. They said they hitchhike from Serbia or stow away in lorries through Bosnia, Croatia and into Slovenia. From Slovenia they can go to France without having to show a passport thanks to the EU's border-free Schengen Area. The most recent Home Office figures show the UK's largest proportion of applications for asylum came from Iranians. In the year to June, Britain received 27,044 asylum applications. Of these, Iranians accounted for 2,440 or 9 per cent. This figure was down 14 per cent on the previous year. Miodrag Cakic, chief executive of Refugee Aid Serbia, which monitors migration through the Balkans, said: 'I think the Serbian government's intentions were good to create more tourism in Belgrade but it meant many Iranians came over and never returned home or dispersed to other nations.' President Trump says he still has not received convincing intelligence that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia knew about Jamal Khashoggi's murder. 'Maybe he did and maybe he didnt,' Trump told the Washington Post on Tuesday as he prepared to travel to Argentina for Group of 20 summit. 'But he denies it. And people around him deny it.' Trump danced around an assessment that Mohammad bin Salman almost certainly knew about the assassination by saying, 'The CIA did not say affirmatively he did it.' 'Im not saying that theyre saying he didnt do it, but they didnt say it affirmatively,' he stated. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says he had nothing to do with with the death, but the CIA has confidentially assessed that couldn't plausibly be the case President Trump says he still has not received convincing intelligence that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia knew about Jamal Khashoggi's murder, even though he admitted that the CIA never told him that bin Salman did not do it The president had previously been called out for his claims about the CIA by Democrats including the ranking member of the House Intelligence committee. Rep. Adam Schiff said that Trump was being 'dishonest' when he claimed that the CIA offered no assessment on the crown prince's involvement. Trump has been dogged by the claims that resurfaced on Tuesday at the White House during a briefing for reporters in advance of his trip to Buenos Aires. His national security adviser admitted that he had not listened to an audio tape provided to the American government by Turkey that allegedly documents the Washington Post columnist's final moments. 'Why do you think I should? What do you think I'll learn from it?' he testily told a reporter. 'Unless you speak Arabic, what are you going to get from it?' John Bolton also claimed in the briefing that the White House was not preventing CIA Director Gina Haspel from attending a briefing for senators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Only the defense secretary and secretary of state are attending the meeting that Haspel has reportedly been barred from. The president is leaving Washington on Thursday for Buenos Aires, where the Bolton says he'll sit down with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan but not bin Salman. Bolton cited a busy scheduled at the Group of 20 summit as a reason he would not sit down with the crown prince face to face after repeatedly professing his supposed innocence in the Khashoggi murder. Trump has been insisting for weeks that he is right not to condemn Saudi Arabian leaders for Khashoggi's death and continued to claim Tuesday that the nation's crown prince may have been in the dark about the attack. Trump has been insisting for weeks that he is right not to condemn Saudi Arabian leaders for Khashoggi's murder and continued to claim Tuesday that the nation's crown prince may have been in the dark about the attack 'Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event maybe he did and maybe he didn't!' Trump said in a statement a week ago that irked Republicans and Democrats. Trump claimed 'we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi' and therefore the U.S. 'intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region.' The Saudis have seized upon Trump's refusal to condemn bin Salman as evidence that the CIA's point connecting him with the murder is incorrect. 'What we've heard is the president say that the CIA report is not what people say it is and so we have to go by this,' Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir told CBS News. 'If you have any evidence, or any government has any evidence that it would like to make available to the Saudi courts, I'm sure the courts would be pleased to receive it.' Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi officials initially denied his death was murder. They later conceded he'd been killed but called it a 'rogue operation' without the knowledge of bin Salman. The CIA has confidentially assessed that couldn't plausibly be the case. It's unlikely that the de facto ruler of the kingdom was unaware of what was happening inside the consulate where Khashoggi was tortured and then murdered. Speaking to that point, Schiff said Sunday on CNN that while he could not disclose the contents of the CIA's report on the Khashoggi killing, 'I can say that I think the president is being dishonest with the American people. 'It would be one thing if the president were leveling with the American people and saying, OK, this is what happened, this is what we know, this is what took place, but, nonetheless, we need to maintain a relationship with the kingdom. But that's not what he's doing. 'And I just think that it causes our standing in the world to plummet. It telegraphs to despots around the world they can murder people with impunity, and that this president will have his -- their back, as long as they praise him, as long as they do business with him, potentially. And that cannot be the guiding principle behind our foreign policy,' Schiff said on 'State of the Union' as he lectured the president. Donald Trump insisted he was right not to condemn Saudi Arabian leaders for journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder after harsh criticism of his pronouncement that the crown prince may have been in the dark, because of the low cost of oil prices Trump has held the declining price of oil, of which Saudi Arabia is the top exporter, as a reason for maintaining a positive relationship with the kingdom without explicitly saying that's why he's letting bin Salman off the hook. 'Theyre keeping the oil prices low. I see that yesterday, one of the papers, I was blamed for causing traffic jams because I have the oil prices so low. Well, I have the oil prices low because Im jawboning them and others all the time to keep them low. Nobody ever did that,' Trump proclaimed on Thanksgiving Day. The president claims that Russia and China would sweep in and take Saudi investments for themselves if America introduced tough new sanctions on the oil-rich nation. 'Theyre buying their equipment from us. And remember this: They dont have to buy it from us. They can buy it from Russia and they can buy it from China,' he asserted. Trump's original position entirely ignored the CIA's findings that MBS had to be aware of the killing. His comments prompted an immediate backlash from prominent senators. 'I never thought I'd see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,' Sen. Bob Corker tweeted. But as Trump on the White House's South Lawn had explained a day before: 'It is all about America first - it is America first. 'We're not going to give up hundreds of billions of dollars of orders and let Russia, China, everybody else have them,' he said. The president has claimed a $110 billion investment from the Saudis in defense equipment that would disappear if the U.S. sanctioned the nation's military sector. 'If you think I'm going to let Russia have that money or those things, if you think I'm going to let China make the military equipment hey, China and Russia would love to make a hundred billion dollars worth of military equipment from Saudi Arabia. We have the contracts. They wanted those contracts,' he said last Tuesday. 'That would be a big fat beautiful gift to Russia and China. They are not going to get that gift.' If he were to act against the kingdom, Trump suggested there would be a global economic meltdown. 'Right now we have oil prices in great shape. I'm not going to destroy the world economy, and I'm not going to destroy the economy for our country by being foolish with Saudi Arabia.' He added, 'I think the statement was pretty obvious what I said. It's about America First.' Trump's stunning remarks came as he was departing the White House for a family holiday at Mar-a-Lago. And it was just days after the president admitted he had not listened to an audio tape provided by the Turkish government of Khashoggi's murder, because it was too gruesome. 'It was very violent, very vicious and terrible,' Trump told told Fox News. Trump said then that he didn't know if MBS was lying to him when he told him that he had no knowledge of the murder. In the interview for Fox News Sunday the president replied: 'Well, will anybody really know? All right, will anybody really know? But he did have certainly people that were reasonably close to him and close to him that were probably involved. 'You saw we put on very heavy sanctions, massive sanctions on a large group of people from Saudi Arabia. But at the same time we do have an ally and I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good,' he explained. The president says he is still open to sanctions that could be imposed by Congress in the lame duck session but would only support them if they were in the United States' national security interests. He insisted, 'The crime against Jamal Khashoggi was a terrible one, and one that our country does not condone.' Yet, the U.S. president said he would take no further action because the United States' relationship with Saudi Arabia is too valuable. 'That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,' he again asserted. His statement, sent early Tuesday afternoon, claimed, 'They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran. The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region.' Members of Congress, including Schiff, were incredulous. 'It is true that our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, not just its Crown Prince, and that must factor into our response. But to suggest 'maybe he did and maybe he didn't' or that we are incapable of finding out the truth, or that knowing the truth our silence can be bought with arms sales, undermines respect for the Office of the Presidency, the credibility of our intelligence community and America's standing as a champion of human rights,' Schiff responded. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, another California Democrat, said, 'I'm shocked that President Trump said there will be no punishment for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.' 'I plan to vote against any future arms sales and appropriation to Saudi Arabia. I also believe that the United States should consider sanctions against the crown prince and that the Saudi ambassador to the United States should not be allowed to continue in that role,' she insisted. Vice President Mike Pence had told reporters while he was in Australia that the U.S would hold 'all of those who are responsible' for the murder accountable. 'The murder of Jamal Khashoggi was an atrocity. It was also an affront to a free and independent press and the United States is determined to hold all of those accountable who are responsible for that murder,' Pence told reporters traveling with him on Saturday. Trump then released a puzzling statement defending the Saudis and the crown prince. 'King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,' he again pointed out. It was more love than MBS was getting from inside the royal family. Sources close to the royal court told Reuters that princes and cousins from inside the Al Saud family are asking for a change in the line of succession. They acknowledged that the 82-year-old king is unlikely to ditch his son, however. Irish backstop What MPs dont like: The single biggest reason given by those opposing the deal is the backstop, a temporary measure to make sure the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland remains open. It would mean the UK (or possibly just Northern Ireland) continuing to follow all the rules and regulations of the EU single market and customs union. MPs say this will effectively keep the whole of the UK in the customs union until an agreement between the EU and Britain is reached. What Mrs May says: The Prime Minister accepts the backstop is not perfect. She points out that neither side is entirely happy with it and the EU has committed to use best endeavours to secure a future trade deal in order that it is never needed. In any event, it is an insurance policy that will only be used if no other solution can be found. Crucially, she says it is in the EUs interest not to have it. Trade deals What MPs dont like: Hardline Brexiteers say Mrs Mays deal will kill off any prospect of major trade deals around the world because it will keep us tied to EU rules and regulations. Like President Donald Trump, they say the agreement makes it impossible to do a US deal or to open up markets in other countries and create a Global Britain. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May reacts during her visit to Queen's University in Belfast. What Mrs May says: As the Prime Minister points out, the political agreement which sets out the likely shape of the future relationship states explicitly that the UK will have an independent trade policy. For the first time in 40 years Britain will be able to do deals, and will have much flexibility on services which dominate our economy. Yes, deals will be limited in scope because the UK will by and large follow EU tariffs and regulations. But the choice Mrs May has made is at least in the short term to protect exports to our biggest single trading partner. Leap of faith What MPs dont like: MPs on all sides have claimed the future political framework deal is not binding, unlike the withdrawal agreement, so the EU cannot be held to the pledges it has made. What Mrs May says: Downing Street officials argue that the framework gives the UK a strong deal, and one thats more than any other non-EU country enjoys, in particular a guarantee of tariff and quota-free trade. An end to free movement is guaranteed, and security arrangements go further than other non-members have. Looser language could also be a plus for Brexiteers. The declaration does not set out in detail how close the future trading relationship will be, leaving open the prospect of the looser deal they aspire to. Fishing What MPs dont like: On Sunday French President Emmanuel Macron suggested the EU could demand access to UK fishing stocks as the price of a future deal, sparking claims fishing communities would be sold out. What Mrs May says: As fishing groups testify, the UK will leave the Common Fisheries Policy and become an independent coastal state after Brexit, giving power to the Government over allocating quotas for the first time in decades. This was seen as a major victory for the UK. Many observers saw Mr Macrons posturing as an attempt to distract from riots at home. In truth, some kind of deal on fishing is inevitable, as the UK fleet is in no position to handle the entire catch. Money What MPs dont like: 39billion for what? is a constant refrain of the deals critics, who argue that the UK has no legal obligation to pay anything to Brussels. What Mrs May says: The idea the UK could walk away without paying its share of future budget obligations including pensions for EU officials and expect to maintain a good relationship is for the birds. Around half the cash pays for a 19-month transition period in which the future trade deal will be negotiated. Fatal flaws of Plan B The Norway option This would see the UK joining both the European Free Trade Association (alongside Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) and the European Economic Area. These countries are not in the EU but pay in to the budget and accept single market rules in return for market access. Some Brexiteers claim a deal could act as a staging post for moving to a looser arrangement. But Norway doesnt want the UK in Efta, especially on a temporary basis. Norway would also require the UK to accept free movement of people. Mrs May has said this would not uphold the result of the referendum. Canada plus For Brexiteers who cling to the dream of a global Britain, the existing EU-Canada trade deal with various additions on security cooperation and defence is seen as potential model. They point out that EU negotiators have offered the UK such a deal, but ignore two important points. One is that it would mean a great deal more friction at the border and could damage EU trade. But the greatest obstacle is that the EUs Canada offer is for the UK only. To prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland, the EU would insist on Ulster staying in the customs union and single market, meaning a trade border down the Irish sea, something Mrs May says amounts to breaking up the UK. World Trade Organisation rules For some Brexiteers like Jacob Rees-Mogg, pictured, moving to trade on WTO terms without an EU trade deal - would be an immediate economic boon. In full control of its tariffs, the UK could slash red tape and regulations and start negotiating trade deals around the world at the end of March next year. But even the most pro-Brexit ministers see this as optimistic. In the Treasury the prospect of a no deal cliff edge is regarded with horror which officials fear would badly damage EU trade and investment, and lead to a swift exodus of car firms who rely on moving parts swiftly across borders. The impact of imposing customs checks on goods moving between Dover and Calais could be particularly harmful, with lorries facing long delays. ... And why all the outcomes if she loses the votes are worse No deal If the deal is rejected, this becomes the default option on March 29, although Remain MPs think it can be stopped. Across Whitehall, where contingency planning is incomplete, it is painted as a nightmare. Consequences could include flight delays, food shortages and a run on the pound. General election If she loses, Mrs May could put her deal to the country and call a general election. She would need a two-thirds majority in the Commons. But it would be an almighty gamble and open the door to a Corbyn government. Michel Barnier at the end of the European Council meeting in Brussels Leadership challenge If Mrs May loses by a large margin, she would face huge pressure to quit as Tory leader. More backbenchers could send in no confidence letters and take the total over 48, leading to a vote. If Mrs May won a majority she would survive but if large numbers voted against her it could fatally wound her. A new Tory leader would face all the same tough Brexit choices, take weeks to appoint and split the party in two. Second referendum Mrs May has ruled this out. Would require the extension of Article 50, meaning Brexit is delayed while the UK is plunged into another brutal campaign. Would no deal be on the ballot alongside Remain and Mrs Mays deal? If the result was 1-1, would that lead to a decider? What would it actually achieve? Permanent Customs union Labour has called for the UK to stay in a permanent customs union with the EU. If the deal falls though, one high risk gambit would be for No10 to move closer to Labours position in an attempt to peel off opposition MPs, or even try to win backing from the Labour front bench. At a stroke, this would kill off any hope of an independent trade policy. Agriculture and farming produce huge quantities of greenhouse gases but eradicating dairy and meat is not enough to reach climate change targets. A study from a Harvard academic has found that if all people on Earth turned vegan we would still be less than half way to the lofty climate change targets set by the Paris Agreement These targets state that global temperatures should be limited to a 1.5C (2.7F) increase by 2030. Methane and nitrous oxide are produced in huge quantities by livestock and are significant contributors to global warming. Animal rights activists, scientists and conservationists have long petitioned for a reduction in the worldwide consumption of meat and dairy products to reduce the impact on the environment. Although it is not enough to reach climate change targets on its own, the livestock sector still has a key role to play in helping to reach the ambitious targets, scientists have urged. Scroll down for video Methane and nitrous oxide are produced in huge quantities by livestock and are significant contributors to global warming. Animal rights activists, scientists and conservationists have long petitioned for a reduction in the worldwide consumption of meat and dairy products (stock) Experts say it won't be possible to achieve the Paris Agreement's global warming targets without addressing over consumption of meat and dairy products. The Paris Agreement is an international initiative that was signed by 195 states and regions in 2015. The US made a high-profile withdrawal from it last year under the leadership and direction of President Trump. Trump is a notorious climate change refuter and once called it a hoax, despite leading the nation which is responsible for the second most greenhouse gases of all countries, behind China. He has also recently compared the complex phenomenon of climate change with the weather. Previous studies suggested reducing meat and dairy consumption also provides a range of added benefits such as preserving biodiversity and improving human health. The current livestock population in the world is around 28 billion animals and constitutes the highest source of two major greenhouse gases - methane and nitrous oxide. The production of methane in particular is troublesome, as it has an 85 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time frame. Methane emissions from the livestock sector are projected to rise by 60 per cent by 2030. Getting protein from fruit, vegetables and grains instead of animals would drastically reduce the risk of failing to reach temperature goals, researchers have said. Dr Helen Harwatt, a farmed animal law and policy fellow at Harvard University, said businesses can spearhead these efforts. She has devised a three-step strategy to put this into practise in the food service sector in her role as Sustainable Food Policy Adviser to Humane Society International UK (HSI). The charity run the Forward Food programme providing free plant-based culinary training for British chefs. Dr Harwatt and other experts can assess food-related greenhouse gas emissions at the institutional level and apply her action plan. This will identify opportunities for emissions reductions through peak purchases of animal products, tackling the 'worst first' and replacing them with best available foods. Dr Harwatt said: 'The food sector is already making progress on these issues and demonstrating it is commercially viable to incorporate animal to plant protein shifts.' A study from Harvard found that if all people on Earth stopped eating the animal-derived products the drop in greenhouse gas emissions globally would be insufficient to reach the 1.5C increased in temperature by 2030 as outlined by the Paris Agreement (stock) WHAT IS THE THREE-STEP PLAN TO REPLACE ANIMAL PROTEINS WITH PLANTS? Acknowledging that current numbers of livestock are at their peak and will need to decline (peak livestock). Set targets to transition away from livestock products starting with foods linked with the highest greenhouse gas emissions such as beef, then cows milk and pig meat (worst-first approach). Assessing suitable replacement products against a range of criteria including greenhouse gas emission targets, land usage, and public health benefits (best available food approach). Advertisement Described in the journal Climate Policy, the strategy involves gradually replacing animal with plant-sourced proteins as a commitment to mitigating climate change. Switching from animals to plants proteins could potentially feed an additional 350 million people in the US alone, the researchers said. Dr Harwatt added: 'Given the livestock sector's significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and methane dominance, animal to plant protein shifts make a much-needed contribution to meeting the Paris temperature goals and reducing warming in the short term, while providing a suite of co-benefits.' 'Failure to implement animal to plant protein shifts increases the risk of exceeding temperature goals and requires additional, and unrealistic, greenhouse gas reductions from other sectors. 'The current revision of national contributions to meeting the Paris Agreement from 2020 onwards should ideally integrate animal to plant-protein shifts. 'As a next step, the COP24 in December this year provides an excellent opportunity for policy makers to start this important conversation.' 'We need policy makers to enable the creation of Paris-compliant food systems on a much larger and faster scale and animal to plant-protein shifts play a key role.' Over the last few years Arctic scientists have reported a surprising finding: large areas of the Arctic are turning brown. This is in part due to extreme events linked to winter weather, such as sudden, short-lived periods of extreme warmth. These events are occurring as the climate warms, which is happening twice as fast in the Arctic compared with the rest of the planet. Dead and brown vegetation on a heathland in Norway. A Sheffield researcher had warned the browning is happening at an alarming rate, with increasingly severe effects that is causing widespread death and damage to planets. THE TWO KILLERS OF THE ARCTIC THAW 'Frost drought' occurs when the insulating layer of snow which usually protects plants from the harsh Arctic winter is melted, typically by unusually high winter temperatures. If plants remain exposed to cold, windy conditions for long enough, they continually lose water and are unable to replace it from the frozen soil. Eventually, they succumb to drought. The second effect is 'extreme winter warming' a sudden burst of high temperatures during winter which melts the snow and tricks evergreen plants into preparing for spring by shedding their cold tolerance. When the warm period is over, the return of cold temperatures usually kills the plant. Advertisement Extreme events are therefore happening more and more often, with increasingly severe effects including widespread damage and death in Arctic plants. This 'browning' of plant communities has happened over thousands of square kilometres or more. However, until recently we knew very little about what this might mean for the balance between carbon uptake and release in Arctic ecosystems. Given that the Arctic stores twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, this is a pressing concern. Now, our study has shown that extreme climatic events can significantly reduce the ability of Arctic ecosystems to take up carbon with implications for whether the Arctic will help combat climate change, or accelerate it. To understand how extreme events are affecting Arctic heathlands, we travelled to the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway where coastal, sub-Arctic plant communities act as a bellwether for future climate change in the far north by exhibiting the effects of warming in the region first. Here we found the effects of two extreme winter weather events. First, 'frost drought' had caused extensive plant dieback. Frost drought occurs when the insulating layer of snow which usually protects plants from the harsh Arctic winter is melted, typically by unusually high winter temperatures. If plants remain exposed to cold, windy conditions for long enough, they continually lose water and are unable to replace it from the frozen soil. MELTING ICE CREATES NEW ARCTIC SHIPPING ROUTE Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world's biggest shipping group, has said one its cargo vessels has successfully passed through the Russian Arctic on a one-off trial journey as a result of melting sea ice. Palle Laursen, Maersk's chief technical officer, said 'the trial allowed us to gain exceptional operational experience'. Mr Laursen adding the Venta Maersk and all systems aboard performed well in the unfamiliar environment. Melting ice in the Central Arctic Stefan Hendricks/Alfred Wegener/PA) The world's largest shipping company is trialling a 'shortcut' trade route through the Arctic as global warming thaws open the infamous Northeast Passage. Mr Laursen said the ship arrived in St Petersburg on Friday, after leaving Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok on August 22. The vessel passed through the Bering Strait on September 6. The Northern Sea Route could be a shorter route for journeys from East Asia to Europe than the Northwest Passage over Canada because it will likely be free of ice sooner due to climate change. Advertisement Eventually, they succumb to drought. The second event was 'extreme winter warming' a sudden burst of high temperatures during winter which melts the snow and tricks evergreen plants into preparing for spring by shedding their cold tolerance. When the warm period is over, the return of cold temperatures usually kills the plant. In this case, however, we found something unexpected. Heathland plants had survived this extreme winter warming event, but were showing evidence of severe stress, visible as a deep, persistent dark red colour in shoots and leaves. Deep red pigmentation indicates that this plant is under stress from the unpredictable climate. We measured how much carbon dioxide was being taken in and released by the plants in three vegetation types: damaged heathland (where the dominant evergreen species had been killed by frost drought), stressed heathland, and healthy, green heathland which had escaped the effects of either extreme event. This was done in three measurement periods across the growing season. We found that these extreme winter conditions reduced how much carbon was absorbed in heathland ecosystems by up to 50% across the entire growing season. This is a huge reduction in the ability of a widespread Arctic ecosystem to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Surprisingly, this was the case both in damaged heathland, where a large part of the vegetation had been killed, and in stressed heathland. Although the processes driving this change were different in each type of heathland, this clearly shows that we need to consider the role of plant stress in limiting plant carbon uptake to fully appreciate the consequences of extreme climatic events. The more traditional Artic tundra What does this mean for the Arctic? We now know that extreme climatic events could significantly reduce the ability of Arctic ecosystems to take up carbon and combat climate change. This is especially concerning as the impacts of browning are in stark contrast to those of a better understood response of Arctic ecosystems to climate change: 'Arctic greening', or the tendency for plants to become taller and more productive as Arctic summers warm. Instruments measuring carbon uptake and release at the test site. Many climate models currently assume arbitrary levels of greening across the Arctic, and therefore that Arctic ecosystems will take up more carbon in the future slowing climate change. The scale of the browning we've seen in recent years combined with the negative impacts on carbon uptake reported here suggests that the reality may be more complex, calling into question our understanding of the role of the Arctic in the Earth's climate. What does this mean for us? The impact of extreme weather events in the Arctic has global consequences. It is clear that our current efforts to tackle climate change are dangerously inadequate, but ambitious action now could cut how much the Arctic is expected to warm by as much as 7C. This is critical to minimising the impacts of climate change both in Arctic ecosystems and worldwide. More than 100 scientists, most of them in China, have condemned a geneticist's claim that he altered the genes of twin girls born this month as 'crazy' and unethical. In an open letter circulating online, the scientists said the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit the genes of human embryos was risky, unjustified and harmed the reputation and development of the biomedical community in China. The Southern University of Science and Technology, where He Jiankuiholds an associate professorship, said it had been unaware of the research project and that Dr He had been on leave without pay since February. China's National Health Commission added that it was 'highly concerned' and had ordered provincial health officials 'to immediately investigate and clarify the matter'. In videos posted online, Dr He has defended what he claimed to have achieved, saying he had performed the gene editing to help protect the babies from future infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Scroll down for video More than 100 scientists, most of them in China, have condemned a geneticist's claim that he altered the genes of twin girls born this month as 'crazy' and unethical. In videos posted online, scientist He Jiankui (pictured) defended what he claimed to have achieved HOW DID DR HE DESCRIBE THE WORK? 'The gene editing occurred during IVF, or lab dish fertilisation. 'First, sperm was 'washed' to separate it from semen, the fluid where HIV can lurk. 'A single sperm was placed into a single egg to create an embryo. 'Then the gene editing tool was added. 'When the embryos were three to five days old, a few cells were removed and checked for editing. 'Couples could choose whether to use edited or unedited embryos for pregnancy attempts. 'In all, 16 of 22 embryos were edited, and 11 embryos were used in six implant attempts before the twin pregnancy was achieved.' Advertisement The DNA of twin girls was altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life, Dr He says. He claims the babies, named LuLu and Nana, were born a few weeks ago and have a resistance to infection with HIV, the AIDS virus. A US scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States due to risks that altered DNA will warp other genes. These potentially dangerous changes may then be passed down to future generations. Gene editing is banned in Britain, the US many other parts of the world, and researchers said that, if Dr He's claims are true, the 'monstrous' experiment was 'not morally or ethically defensible.' 'The biomedical ethics review for this so-called research exists in name only. Conducting direct human experiments can only be described as crazy,' said a copy of the letter posted by the Chinese news website The Paper. 'Pandora's box has been opened. We still might have a glimmer of hope to close it before it's too late,' said a letter written in Chinese and signed by about 120 scientists. Yang Zhengang, a Fudan University professor, said he signed the letter because gene editing is 'very dangerous.' The government's medical ethics committee in the city of Shenzhen, in southern China, said it was investigating the case, as was the Guangdong provincial health commission, according to Southern Metropolis Daily, a state media outlet. Limited use of genetic editing in adults - solely for the purposes of treating serious diseases - has shown that it can have unintended consequences. Professor Julian Savulescu, a bioethicist with Victoria's Murdoch Children's Research Institute says that if He's claims are proven, he's engaged in 'monstrous' conduct. 'These healthy babies are being used as genetic guinea pigs. This is genetic Russian roulette,' he says. 'Gene editing itself is experimental and is still associated with off-target mutations, capable of causing genetic problems early and later in life, including the development of cancer.' This image shows a microplate containing embryos that have been injected with Cas9 protein using the controversial gene editing tool Crispr. The image was taken at Dr He's laboratory in Shenzhen last month Associate Professor Darren Saunders is a gene technology and cancer specialist in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of NSW. He shares Professor Savulescu's concerns and worries that Dr He's claims could set back the study of gene editing by decades. 'Most scientists think that the safety concerns around gene-editing in humans are still too big to outweigh any potential benefit,' he said. But he said it was possible the world had just seen 'a huge leap towards editing the human book of life'. 'Some might even suggest this is a step towards eugenics,' he said, referring to a movement that advocates improving the genetic composition of the human race.' CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that allows scientists to essentially cut-and-paste DNA, raising hope of genetic fixes for disease. Dr He said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have - an ability to resist infection with HIV. He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and would not say where they live or where the work was done. There is no independent confirmation of Dr He's claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts. He announced the research on Monday in Hong Kong to an organiser of an international conference on gene editing. 'I feel a strong responsibility that it's not just to make a first, but also make it an example,' he told the AP. In recent years scientists have discovered a relatively easy way to edit genes, the strands of DNA that govern the body. The tool, called CRISPR-cas9, makes it possible to operate on DNA to supply a needed gene or disable one that's causing problems. The DNA of twin girls was altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life, Chinenese researcher Dr He Jiankui says. Pictured id Dr He (left) with fellow researcher Zhou Xiaoqin at a laboratory in Shenzhen It's only recently been tried in adults to treat deadly diseases, with all edits confined to that person, meaning they cannot be passed down to their children. Editing sperm, eggs or embryos is different - the changes can be inherited. The US scientist who worked with him on this project after Dr He returned to China was physics and bioengineering Professor Michael Deem, who was his adviser at Rice in Houston. Professor Deem also holds what he called 'a small stake' in - and is on the scientific advisory boards of - Dr He's two companies. The Chinese researcher said he practiced editing mice, monkey and human embryos in the lab for several years and has applied for patents on his methods. Dr He said he chose to try embryo gene editing for HIV because these infections are a big problem in China. He sought to disable a gene called CCR5 that forms a protein doorway that allows HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to enter a cell. Northern parts of Britain will respond better to climate change than the south thanks to ancient glaciers that covered much of the country during the last Ice Age. The vast swathes of ice stretched as far south as Cardiff and froze the land until around 11,700 years ago. This prolonged period of cold squashed the land and when the glaciers retreated the land rebounded to a higher elevation than before - this may protect the North from future sea level rises. Areas in the south of England that were exposed during the Ice Age are up to four inches (10 cm) worse off and are now more vulnerable to the rising tide. Scroll down for video During the last Ice Age most of Britain, not just Ben Nevis and the Scottish highlands (pictured) was covered in glaciers and snow. This stretched down to Norwich and Cardiff and when the glaciers retreated (file photo) Ice up to three miles (five km) thick crippled the land and forced it into a state of compression. The loss of the dense ice then completed the land's recovery via a geological process known as isostatic rebound. Dr Jessica Johnson, Lecturer in Geophysics at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: 'This process is the rebounding of the Earth's crust from emplacement or removal of mass. 'For example, the British Isles are currently rebounding from when the glaciers melted. 'When an eruption deposited extra mass on top of the island it will over time sink to adjust for that as the mass sits on top of a deforming mantle. 'It is like if an iceberg had a lot of weight added and removed would sink and rise accordingly.' Sea levels affecting London, where the Thames Barrier is expected to be in use until 2070, could rise by up to 3.7ft (1.1m) by 2100 if emissions continue to climb, with similar rises in Cardiff. Belfast and Edinburgh will see increases of around 3ft under the worst-case scenario. Even if the targets set by the Paris Agreement are met, southerly regions can expect to see sea level rises of up to 27 inches (70 cm) Areas of the north are faced with a vastly different fate as places such as Edinburgh are only facing a rise of between three and 19 inches (8cm and 49cm). The forecasts are made in the Met Office's UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) report, which is the biggest update to how climate change could affect Britain in almost a decade. Professor Stephen Belcher, Met Office Chief Scientist said, according to The Telegraph: 'Sea level is a pervasive aspect of climate change. We have seen sea levels rise continuously through the 20th century. 'There is a strong contrast between the south of England and the north of England and Northern Ireland, roughly a factor of two thirds of an increase in sea level in the north and Scotland. 'The reason for that is slightly the melting of sea ice where warming occurs but also because of a rebound of the land in the United Kingdom. 'In the last Ice Age the land was weighed down by ice and what we're seeing now is rebound more in the north than in the south and that gives us less sea level rise in the north of England.' WHAT IS ISOSTATIC REBOUND? Ice or other materials on land for long periods of time can force it into a state of compression. If this is eventually lost or removed the land underneath can recover over time. It also means it elevates the land to a higher altitude than it would be if it had not been covered in the first place. This geological process is known as isostatic rebound. Dr Jessica Johnson, Lecturer in Geophysics at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: 'This process is the rebounding of the Earth's crust from emplacement or removal of mass. 'For example, the British Isles are currently rebounding from when the glaciers melted. 'When an eruption deposited extra mass on top of the island it will over time sink to adjust for that as the mass sits on top of a deforming mantle. 'It is like if an iceberg had a lot of weight added and removed would sink and rise accordingly.' Dr Jessica Johnson, Lecturer in Geophysics at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: 'This process is the rebounding of the Earth's crust from emplacement or removal of mass' Ice or other materials on land for long periods of time can force it into a state of compression. If this is eventually lost or removed the land underneath can recover over time Advertisement The findings of the study also revealed that by 2070, average summer temperatures could reach 24C (75F) an increase of 5.4C (9F) on today. This is similar to conditions in the south of France and other parts of the Mediterranean, with hot UK summers like this year's becoming the norm. The climate will be drier too with half as much rainfall in summer as now within 50 years, although winters could be around 35 per cent wetter. There are fears such extremes would lead to increased flooding in winter as well as arid heat and droughts in summer. And those who live in areas where there is a high risk of severe flooding may have to be moved away, the government has warned. Professor Jason Lowe of the Met Office warned: 'As we go through the century, we expect from UKCP18 to see increasing numbers of summer days in the South of England above 40C (104F). This is a temperature we have not yet experienced in the UK.' Winters will be around 4.2C (7.5F) warmer while sea levels will rise around one metre higher (3.2ft) if the effects of global warming cannot be prevented. Summers as hot as this year's the joint warmest on record could become common, with a 50 per cent chance of occurring every year. This is up from a 5 to 10 per cent chance now. Last month the UK's Committee on Climate Change warned that by 2080 up to 1.2million homes may be at increased risk of flooding. Launching the new report into how climate change will affect the UK, the first of its kind in almost a decade, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said no-one could predict the future with absolute certainty. THE PARIS AGREEMENT: A GLOBAL ACCORD TO LIMIT TEMPERATURE RISES THROUGH CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION TARGETS The Paris Agreement, which was first signed in 2015, is an international agreement to control and limit climate change. It hopes to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2C (3.6F) 'and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C (2.7F)'. It seems the more ambitious goal of restricting global warming to 1.5C (2.7F) may be more important than ever, according to previous research which claims 25 per cent of the world could see a significant increase in drier conditions. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change has four main goals with regards to reducing emissions: 1) A long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels 2) To aim to limit the increase to 1.5C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change 3) Governments agreed on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognising that this will take longer for developing countries 4) To undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science Source: European Commission Advertisement At a speech launching the report at London's Science Museum today, Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, will call for urgent action to tackle the warming climate (file photo) In his first major speech on climate change, Mr Gove - who during the EU referendum claimed the public has 'had enough of experts' - backed the scientists who had produced the projections. 'In producing this first major update of climate projections for nearly 10 years, they have given governments, local authorities, land managers, national infrastructure bodies and other businesses an invaluable set of tools with which to assess the nature and scale of challenges, and take decisions accordingly,' he said. The Environment Secretary said the UK was already feeling climate-related extremes, including record wet winters in 2013-2014 and 2015-2016, which caused flooding, and this year's heatwave, which led to wildfires and damage to agriculture. He said that in the UK: 'Climate change will manifest itself most acutely when it comes to water - the intense rainfall of the winter, the arid heat of the summer and rising sea levels will be how we experience climate change most immediately in our everyday lives.' He told the audience at the launch event at the Science Museum that officials were already factoring projected sea level rises into planning for flooding. Mr Gove said a new long-term approach would be needed on dealing with flooding, warning 'it will not always be possible to prevent every flood, we cannot build defences to protect every single building or reinforce every retreating coastline'. Amnesty International are holding protests across the globe today calling for an end to Googles plan of censoring their search engine in China. Demonstrations will take place outside Googles HQ's in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia,Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, The Netherlands and Spain. It was revealed that Google secretly built the censored search engine, code-named Dragonfly, to blacklist certain words such as 'human rights' and 'student protest'. Amnesty have launched a petition to stop works on the 'dystopian' platform which are said to launch in China between January and April 2019. The human rights group say that the move would 'set a dangerous precedent for tech companies enabling rights abuses by governments.' Scroll down for video Amnesty International have launched a petition to stop Google censoring their search engine in China. Activists hold a giant dragonfly-shaped balloon with a banner reading 'Google, do not censor in China, no to the Dragonfly project' during a protest outside the firm's Madrid HQ Google CEO Sundar Pichai, pictured here, defended his vision for the move by saying Google is 'compelled by our mission [to] provide information to everyone, and [China is] 20 percent of the world's population' (file photo) The platform would link search records to people's mobile phone numbers and share them with Google's Chinese partner company, 265.com. The records would in turn be accessible by authoritarian governments to identify and make arrests of communist party critics and activists, The Intercept reported. In August, Amnesty and thirteen other human rights organisations wrote to Google to say that moving forward with the plan would 'directly contribute to human rights violations'. The groups are said to have received an 'unsatisfactory response' which did not address their concerns. Google CEO Sundar Pichai at first tried to calm the backlash by portraying Dragonfly as an 'experiment.' He then defended his vision for the move by saying Google is 'compelled by our mission to provide information to everyone, and China is 20 per cent of the world's population.' Amnesty International activists hold a giant dragonfly-shaped balloon during a protest outside the Google headquarters in Madrid. Google secretly built the censored search engine, code- named Dragonfly, to blacklist certain words such as 'human rights' and 'student protest' Protesters hold a banner outside the Google offices in Madrid. US senators are calling for more information on the project Dragonfly, calling it 'deeply troubling' as Mike Pence has called for an immediate end to the platform's development Amnesty have said that such a plan would 'irreparably damage internet users trust in the tech company'. 'This is a watershed moment for Google,' said Joe Westby, Amnesty International's researcher on technology and human rights. 'As the world's No. 1 search engine, it should be fighting for an internet where information is freely accessible to everyone, not backing the Chinese government's dystopian alternative.' In recent months, 1,400 employees have written a letter to say that the new plan should be subject to an ethics review and a senior research scientist quit the company in protest. Amnesty will hold demonstrations outside the tech giant's buildings in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and other countries. They say the plan would 'set a dangerous precedent for tech companies enabling rights abuses by governments' US senators are calling for more information on the project Dragonfly, calling it 'deeply troubling' as Vice President Mike Pence has called for an immediate end to the platform's development. A spokesperson for Google told Mail Online: 'We've been investing for many years to help Chinese users, from developing Android, through mobile apps such as Google Translate and Files Go, and our developer tools. 'But our work on search has been exploratory, and we are not close to launching a search product in China.' Google is being accused of tracking user locations by seven consumer groups from different countries who have filed complaints with their national watchdogs. They say Google is tracking the location of its users and gets people to tun on their location settings with a combination of manipulative techniques. Google uses location tracking on its Android operating system to improve search results and the location history is stored once a person activates the feature. The complaints say complexities and a lack of transparency when setting up an Android device, hidden default settings, misleading and unbalanced information are all contributing to the issue. The groups across the EU are claiming the firm is in breach of data protection rules brought in this year as part of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Scroll down for video Seven consumer groups accused Google of using 'various tricks and practices' and the organisations are complaining to their national data protection watchdogs. They say Google is tracking people's location with tricks to get personal data (stock) Seven consumer groups representing Norway, the Netherlands, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland and Sweden accused Google of using 'various tricks and practices' to track people's location while not giving straightforward information about what it entails. The organisations are submitting complaints to their national data protection watchdogs. It is believed by the groups that location data can reveal personal details, breaching the GDPR, which was introduced six months ago to give consumers greater control over how their data is handled. 'Google's data hunger is notorious but the scale with which it deceives its users to track and monetise their every move is breathtaking,' said Monique Goyens, director general of the European Consumer Organisation, umbrella group for the organisations. 'Google is not respecting fundamental GDPR principles, such as the obligation to use data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner. 'Thanks to the GDPR, users should be in control of their personal data. Google's deceptive practices are in breach of the spirit and the letter of this regulation. 'We need strong, coherent, enforcement of the rules. We can't have companies pretending to comply but de facto circumventing the law.' A Google spokesman said: 'Location History is turned off by default, and you can edit, delete or pause it at any time. 'If it's on, it helps improve services like predicted traffic on your commute. If you pause it, we make clear that - depending on your individual phone and app settings - we might still collect and use location data to improve your Google experience. 'We enable you to control location data in other ways too, including in a different Google setting called Web & App Activity, and on your device. 'We're constantly working to improve our controls, and we'll be reading this report closely to see if there are things we can take on board.' These 'unfair practices leave consumers in the dark about the use of their personal data' which could be used to reveal a person's religious belief based on going to places of worship, political leanings if they attend a demonstration, or sexual orientation by visiting a gay bar, the groups said. The groups claim the company does this by using manipulative techniques when setting up an Android device. Location History is turned off by default, and you can edit, delete or pause it at any time (stock) WHAT IS THE EU'S GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION? The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a data protection law that entered into force on May 25, 2018. It aims to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU). This means cracking down on how companies like Google and Facebook use and sell the data they collect on their users. The law will mark the biggest overhaul of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet. Under GDPR, companies are required to report data breaches within 72 hours, as well as to allow customers to export their data and delete it. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new data protection law that entered into force on May 25 Part of the expanded rights of data subjects outlined by the GDPR is the right for data subjects to obtain from the data controller confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning them is being processed, where and for what purpose. Further, the controller must provide a copy of the personal data, free of charge, in an electronic format. This change is a dramatic shift to data transparency and empowerment of data subjects. Under the right to be forgotten, also known as Data Erasure, are entitled to have the data controller erase their personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties halt processing of the data. The conditions for erasure include the data no longer being relevant to original purposes for processing, or a data subject withdrawing their consent. This right requires controllers to compare the subjects' rights to 'the public interest in the availability of the data' when considering such requests. Advertisement A survey of 1,000 UK consumers also found that GDPR is worryingly misunderstood by the general public. Six months on from the legal implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a third of consumers have admitted they still aren't confident that the companies they interact with comply with the regulation. The study from Thales eSecurity also found that more than two thirds of consumers say they would consider legal action against a company which failed to manage their personal data. Since the implementation of GDPR, one third (33 per cent) of UK businesses have contacted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to check the severity of a data breach, while just less than half (49 per cent) of German organisations have done the same with the Data Protection Commissioners. Police in the UK could soon thwart violent crimes before they happen. This is the aim of a Minority Report-style CCTV surveillance system that is set to use AI to predict whether an individual might be about to commit a crime. Individuals that are flagged by the system, which is being led by the West Midlands Police, could be given counselling to stop them from carrying out crimes. The project's researchers are planning to release a prototype by the end of March next year - but experts say the proposal has 'serious ethical issues'. Scroll down for video Police in the UK could soon thwart violent crimes before they even happen. This is the aim of a Minority Report-style CCTV surveillance system that is set to use AI to predict whether an individual might be about to commit a crime (stock image) According to an exclusive report by New Scientist, the National Data Analytics Solution (NDAS) system uses AI and statistics to work out the chance of an individual committing gun or knife crime. It can also work out the chance of someone being a victim to crime or modern slavery. Iain Donnelly from West Midlands Police who is leading the project says local health and social workers could be alerted. They could then offer counselling to an individual that has mental health issues which could deter them from committing the crime. Victims could also be contacted by social services, Mr Donnelly said. One difficulty, however, is knowing whether the individual's marked out by the AI system would have actually gone on to offend without intervention . Sandra Wachter at the Oxford Internet Institute said: 'How would I know that this actually makes the right decision? Thats something that is very hard to measure.' Based on a novel by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise (pictured) is a thriller set in 2054 when police use psychic technology to arrest and convict people before they commit crimes Researchers on the project have access to the records of five million people who have been stopped and searched or committed crimes in the UK. The AI is able to find patterns in criminal activity. For example if a number of crimes have been committed in an individual's social group that increases the chance of them committing a crime themselves. In total they found 1400 indicators which could be used to ascribe a risk score to each individual on the data base. According to a report written by the Alan Turing Institute in London that was seen by New Scientist, there are 'serious ethical issues' with the proposal. The report, which is published next week, questions whether it is ethical to intervene if an individual has not yet committed a crime. The UK is not the only country looking into predictive policing. WHAT ARE PREDICTIVE POLICING SYSTEMS? Predictive policing systems can forecast when and where crimes occur using based on prior crime reports and other data. Palantir Technologies has licensed its predictive policing software with local and international governments. Most ingest vast amounts of data, including geography, criminal records, the weather and social media records. From that, it makes predictions about individuals or places that are likely to be involved in a crime, according to the Verge. There are other predictive policing systems out there that are being utilized, many of them are different. The Los Angeles Police Department, New York Police Department, Chicago Police Department and, now, the New Orleans Police Department use predictive policing. File photo Chicago's police department uses a notorious 'heat list,' which is an algorithm-generated list that singles out people who are most likely to be involved in a shooting. However, many experts have identified issues with Chicago's heat list. The government-funded RAND Corporation published a report saying that the heat list wasn't nearly as effective as a standard wanted list. It could also encourage a new form of profiling that draws unnecessary police attention to people. Another academic study found that the heat list can have a 'disparate impact' on poor communities of color. A California startup called PredPol also built predictive policing software that's been utilized by law enforcement officials, including the LAPD. In 2016, researchers conducted a study where they reverse engineered PredPol's algorithm and discovered that it replicated systemic bias against communities of color that were over policed. It also found that historic data isn't a good indicator of future criminal activity. The NYPD also had an agreement with Palantir Technologies to use its predictive policing systems. Advertisement An Israeli security and AI research company will soon use AI to analyse the terabytes of data streamed from CCTV cameras in public areas in India. The partnership has been formed between Tel Aviv-based company Cortica Best Group in India, according to an article by Digital Trends written in April. The company will analyse 'behavioural anomalies' to spot when someone might be about to commit a crime. This kind of citizen-monitoring technology is already in use in 40 local governments in China. The technology will monitor individuals by looking for small twitches that might mean they are about to do something illegal. Co-founder and COO of Cortica, Karina Odinaev, said the technology could identify movements often overlooked by security teams, potentially making cities safer. She said 'unsupervised learning' is required for the software to learn what to spot, which is why they want to train it on security cameras. Like humans, this technology needs to see something multiple times before it learns to recognise key warning signs. If the system makes a mistake, programmers can find out which file was responsible for the dodgy call and re-teach it. The technology could be used for different types of surveillance and could also monitor passenger behaviour using footage obtained from drones and satellites. Google is removing gender pronouns from the predictive text feature found in its Gmail platform. The feature will no longer suggest pronouns that indicate a specific gender such as 'he', 'her', 'him' or 'she' for fear of suggesting the wrong one and causing offence. Google staff have revealed the technology will not suggest gender-based pronouns because the risk is too high that its 'Smart Compose' technology might predict someone's sex or gender identity incorrectly. Scroll down for video The California-based firm's Smart Compose feature is found in Gmail which has 1.5 billion users around the world. Google staff have revealed the technology will not suggest gender-based pronouns because the risk is too high of incorrect suggestions (stock) Gmail product manager Paul Lambert said a company research scientist discovered the problem in January. He wrote: 'I am meeting an investor next week and Smart Compose suggested a possible follow-up question: "Do you want to meet him?" instead of "her".' Consumers have become accustomed to embarrassing gaffes from auto-correct on smartphones but Google is being cautious around such a sensitive topic. Gender issues are reshaping politics and society, and critics are scrutinising potential biases in artificial intelligence like never before. 'Not all "screw ups" are equal,' Mr Lambert said. Gender is a 'a big, big thing' to get wrong, he added. Getting Smart Compose right could be good for business as demonstrating the ability to understand the nuances of AI better than competitors is part of the company's strategy. Google hopes to build affinity for its brand and attract customers to its AI-powered cloud computing tools, advertising services and hardware. Gmail has 1.5 billion users, and Mr Lambert said Smart Compose assists on 11 per cent of messages worldwide sent from Gmail.com, where the feature first launched. Smart Compose is an example of what AI developers call natural language generation (NLG), in which computers learn to write sentences by studying patterns and relationships between words in literature, emails and web pages. Men have long dominated fields such as finance and science, for example, so the technology would conclude from the data that an investor or engineer is 'he' or 'him' and the issue persists for many tech firms, not just Google. Mr Lambert said the Smart Compose team of about 15 engineers and designers tried several workarounds, but none proved bias-free or worthwhile. They decided the best solution was to limit coverage and implement a gendered pronoun ban. It affects fewer than one per cent of cases where Smart Compose would propose something. 'The only reliable technique we have is to be conservative,' said Prabhakar Raghavan, who oversaw engineering of Gmail and other services until a recent promotion. Google's decision to play it safe on gender follows some high-profile embarrassments for the company's predictive technologies. Google is removing gender pronouns from the predictive text feature found in its Gmail platform. The feature will no longer suggest pronouns that indicate a specific gender such as 'he', 'her', 'him' or 'she' for fear of suggesting the wrong one and causing offence (stock) WHY ARE PEOPLE SO WORRIED ABOUT AI? It is an issue troubling some of the greatest minds in the world at the moment, from Bill Gates to Elon Musk. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk described AI as our 'biggest existential threat' and likened its development as 'summoning the demon'. He believes super intelligent machines could use humans as pets. Professor Stephen Hawking said it is a 'near certainty' that a major technological disaster will threaten humanity in the next 1,000 to 10,000 years. They could steal jobs More than 60 percent of people fear that robots will lead to there being fewer jobs in the next ten years, according to a 2016 YouGov survey. And 27 percent predict that it will decrease the number of jobs 'a lot' with previous research suggesting admin and service sector workers will be the hardest hit. As well as posing a threat to our jobs, other experts believe AI could 'go rogue' and become too complex for scientists to understand. A quarter of the respondents predicted robots will become part of everyday life in just 11 to 20 years, with 18 percent predicting this will happen within the next decade. They could 'go rogue' Computer scientist Professor Michael Wooldridge said AI machines could become so intricate that engineers don't fully understand how they work. If experts don't understand how AI algorithms function, they won't be able to predict when they fail. This means driverless cars or intelligent robots could make unpredictable 'out of character' decisions during critical moments, which could put people in danger. For instance, the AI behind a driverless car could choose to swerve into pedestrians or crash into barriers instead of deciding to drive sensibly. They could wipe out humanity Some people believe AI will wipe out humans completely. 'Eventually, I think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this,' DeepMind's Shane Legg said in a recent interview. He singled out artificial intelligence, or AI, as the 'number one risk for this century'. Musk warned that AI poses more of a threat to humanity than North Korea. 'If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea,' the 46-year-old wrote on Twitter. 'Nobody likes being regulated, but everything (cars, planes, food, drugs, etc) that's a danger to the public is regulated. AI should be too.' Musk has consistently advocated for governments and private institutions to apply regulations on AI technology. He has argued that controls are necessary in order protect machines from advancing out of human control Advertisement The company apologised in 2015 when the image recognition feature of its photo service labelled a black couple as gorillas. In 2016, Google altered its search engine's autocomplete function after it suggested the anti-Semitic query 'are jews evil' when users sought information about Jews. Google has banned expletives and racial slurs from its predictive technologies, as well as mentions of its business rivals or tragic events. The company's new policy banning gendered pronouns also affected the list of possible responses in Google's Smart Reply. That service allow users to respond instantly to text messages and emails with short phrases such as 'sounds good.' Google uses tests developed by its AI ethics team to uncover new biases. A spam and abuse team pokes at systems, trying to find 'juicy' gaffes by thinking as hackers or journalists might, Mr Lambert said. Workers outside the United States look for local cultural issues. Smart Compose will soon work in four other languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French. AI experts have called on the companies to display a disclaimer and multiple possible translations. Microsoft's LinkedIn said it avoids gendered pronouns in its year-old predictive messaging tool, Smart Replies, to ward off potential blunders. Warnings and limitations like those in Smart Compose remain the most-used countermeasures in complex systems, said John Hegele, integration engineer at Durham, North Carolina-based Automated Insights Inc, which generates news articles from statistics. 'The end goal is a fully machine-generated system where it magically knows what to write,' Mr Hegele said. 'There's been a ton of advances made but we're not there yet.' A scale model of a flying drone-car mashup has been unveiled which could provide a preview of future taxis. The 'Pop.Up Next' prototype drone was driven and hovered across an Amsterdam exhibition hall. It is made in partnership with aviation giant Airbus, automaker Audi and Italdesign design house. The revolutionary design is is made up of three separate modules - a chassis with wheels, a two-seat capsule for passengers and a four-rotor drone. Scroll down for video A scale model of a flying drone-car mashup has been unveiled which could provide a preview of future taxis. The 'Pop.Up Next' prototype drone was driven and hovered across an Amsterdam exhibition hall The concept has been shown before, but a one-quarter size scale model made its maiden public flight Tuesday at the Amsterdam Drone Week convention. Just don't plan on hailing such an airborne ride any time soon. Airbus executive Jean Brice Demont estimates it will take more than a decade for a large-scale rollout of such a service. The concept has been shown before, but a one-quarter-size scale model made its maiden public flight at the Amsterdam Drone Week convention. First, the drone flew across the hall and landed on a black parking spot. Then a small car drove itself underneath the drone and its passenger capsule was lifted up to latch onto the underside of the drone. The revolutionary design is is made up of three separate modules - a chassis with wheels, a two-seat capsule for passengers and a four-rotor drone The concept has been shown before, but a one-quarter-size scale model made its maiden public flight at the Amsterdam Drone Week convention 'Once the two were docked, the drone lifted off again and flew back to its starting point, where the capsule was lowered onto another set of wheels to continue its journey. The model's test flight went off without a hitch, but don't plan on hailing such an airborne ride any time soon. 'There are several steps to be taken before the Pop.Up Next, or a future iteration of the drone, is ready for commercial use. 'For this we need to tick a list of boxes - -the vehicle is one, safety is the overarching one, infrastructure is one, acceptability is another one,' said Airbus executive Jean Brice Dumont. The model's test flight went off without a hitch, but don't plan on hailing such an airborne ride any time soon Uber unveiled an artist's impression a year ago of a sleek machine it hopes to start using for demonstration flights in 2020 and to have in service in 2023. Uber's battery-powered aircraft looks like a cross between a small plane and a helicopter, with fixed wings and rotors 'I think it will take more than a decade until a real significant, massive deployment of an air taxi system' is ready. One serious competitor plans to be ready even earlier. Uber unveiled an artist's impression a year ago of a sleek machine it hopes to start using for demonstration flights in 2020 and to have in service in 2023. Uber's battery-powered aircraft looks like a cross between a small plane and a helicopter, with fixed wings and rotors. Meanwhile, a Dutch company has developed its own flying vehicle called the PAL-V Liberty that is a three-wheeled, two-seat car and gyroplane rolled into one. At the Amsterdam convention, European regulators also are discussing how to keep the continent's airspace safe as more and more drones take to the skies. European Union rules are expected to come into force next year harmonising drone regulations across the 28-nation bloc. 'As this industry is rapidly expanding, it is important for us to anticipate market developments and be prepared for change,' said Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Aviation Safety Agency. BT has launched a new home broadband system it claims 'guarantees' a strong, reliable connection in every room of the home. The communications company says that it hopes to put an end to Wi-Fi blackspots and ledges a strong, reliable Wi-Fi signal with 'wall-to-wall coverage'. The new technology, called BT Plus Complete WiFi, pairs the new BT Smart Hub 2 router with up to three Wi-Fi discs, which pair to extend network coverage throughout the home. The discs act like wifi extenders, bouncing the signal around your home. Scroll down for video BT has launched a new home broadband service that it says will bring an end to domestic Wi-Fi blackspots. BT will guarantee its customers a strong, reliable Wi-Fi signal in every room of their house, using Wi-Fi discs to power its Complete Wi-Fi service (file photo) Households in the UK are still lumbered with poor Wi-Fi with Ripon in North Yorkshire the worst affected region for poor Wi-Fi. Routers can struggle to get good Wi-Fi signal to certain areas of your home hampered by signal-blocking thick walls and distance. The new system differs from other Wi-Fi extender products because the new router contains seven antennae, positioned to maximise power and deliver faster broadband speeds. It says any customers who cannot get a strong signal in every room with up to three discs will be refunded 20. The telecoms firm says the technology in use enables it to be the first broadband provider in the world to guarantee 'wall-to-wall coverage' free of any signal black spots The company say that customers should aim to position the disc somewhere in between your hub and the area which has poor signal. It says any customers who cannot get a strong signal in every room with up to three discs will be refunded 20 The system will be first made available to existing BT Plus customers for an extra 5 a month, starting from today. Marc Allera, chief executive of BT's Consumer business, said the package was designed to the growing connectivity needs of the average UK household. 'Strong, reliable Wi-Fi has never been so important in the home, with families using even more connected devices and wanting to make the most of every room in the home,' he said. Alongside its announcement, BT-commissioned research suggests attitudes of increasing reliance on internet connectivity, with 43 per cent of families feel their Wi-Fi connection restricts what they do throughout the home. More than half said they would be put off buying or living in a home that had Wi-Fi black spots. Less than 4,000 years ago, Antarctica was hit by whats thought to be the largest volcanic eruption on the continent since the last Ice Age. Scientists say the massive event launched roughly as much rock and ash as the eruption of Indonesias Mount Tambora in 1815, which killed nearly 90,000 people and brought on whats become known as the year without summer. While it was previously thought the explosive event happened as far back as 8,300 years ago, a new study suggests it was much more recent, and gave rise to one of Antarcticas most active calderas. Scroll down for video Scientists say the massive event launched roughly as much rock and ash as the eruption of Indonesias Mount Tambora in 1815, which killed nearly 90,000 people and brought on whats become known as the year without summer. It created a depression nearly 6 miles wide The Deception Island eruption 3,980 years ago caused the upper part of the volcano to collapse suddenly, creating a depression nearly 6 miles wide (10km). This is what gives the island its characteristic horseshoe shape. Though the researchers originally set out to explore the climatic history of the region, unexpected findings in the sediment cores prompted them to further investigate the islands deposits. The initial objective of the study was purely climatic, since we wanted to reconstruct the climate fluctuations of this region for the last 11,700 years using different proxies found in the sediments of the Byers Peninsula lakes, about 40 kilometers north of Deception Island, says co-author Sergi Pla, researcher at CREAF. However, the presence of a different sediment layer in all lakes and of the same age after a thick layer of tephra surprised us. The team studied sediment core samples extracted during the HOLOANTAR project, between 2012 and 2014. The sediments suggest the area experienced an eruption 3,980 years ago. When the magna chamber emptied, the sudden pressure drop and resulting collapse spurred a seismic event that was recorded in sediments at the bottom of 4 lakes in Antarcticas Byers Peninsula. Less than 4,000 years ago, Antarctica was hit by whats thought to be the largest volcanic eruption on the continent since the last Ice Age. The team studied sediment core samples extracted during the HOLOANTAR project, between 2012 and 2014 Later geochemical and biological analyses indicated us that these sediments had terrestrial origin and were deposited abruptly in the lakes bottom, said Santiago Giralt, researcher at ICTJA-CSIC. These results suggested the occurrence of a major earthquake that affected all this area; put us on the track that, perhaps, we were not facing a common earthquake but the one generated by the collapse of the caldera of the Deception Island volcano. From here on, we pulled the thread. The team was able to narrow down the date of the eruption through several geochemical, petrological, and paleolimnological techniques conducted on the sediment cores. When the magna chamber emptied, the sudden pressure drop and resulting collapse spurred a seismic event that was recorded in sediments at the bottom of 4 lakes in Antarcticas Byers Peninsula (yellow star in map above) The recovered sedimentary records showed a common pattern: first the volcanic ash from Deception Island eruption, overlaid by a sediment layer almost one meter thick composed by material dragged from the lakes shoes to their bottom due to the large earthquake and, finally, the common lake sediments, which are characterized by an alternation of clays and mosses, Giralt says. Using this methodology, we were able to estimate the depth of all studied samples and to determine if they were part of the same magma and eruptive episode, said Antonio Alvarez Valero, researcher from the University of Salamanca (USAL) and co-author of this study. The Deception Island caldera is one of Antarcticas most active, and has birthed over 20 eruptions in the last 200 years. HOW CAN RESEARCHERS PREDICT VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS? According to Eric Dunham, an associate professor of Stanford University's School of Earth, energy and Environmental Sciences, 'Volcanoes are complicated and there is currently no universally applicable means of predicting eruption. In all likelihood, there never will be.' However, there are indicators of increased volcanic activity, which researchers can use to help predict volcanic eruptions. Researchers can track indicators such as: Volcanic infrasound : When the lava lake rises up in the crater of an open vent volcano, a sign of a potential eruption, the pitch or frequency of the sounds generated by the magma tends to increase. : When the lava lake rises up in the crater of an open vent volcano, a sign of a potential eruption, the pitch or frequency of the sounds generated by the magma tends to increase. Seismic activity : Ahead of an eruption, seismic activity in the form of small earthquakes and tremors almost always increases as magma moves through the volcano's 'plumbing system'. : Ahead of an eruption, seismic activity in the form of small earthquakes and tremors almost always increases as magma moves through the volcano's 'plumbing system'. Gas emissions : As magma nears the surface and pressure decreases, gases escape. Sulfur dioxide is one of the main components of volcanic gases, and increasing amounts of it are a sign of increasing amounts of magma near the surface of a volcano. : As magma nears the surface and pressure decreases, gases escape. Sulfur dioxide is one of the main components of volcanic gases, and increasing amounts of it are a sign of increasing amounts of magma near the surface of a volcano. Ground deformation : Changes to a volcano's ground surface (volcano deformation) appear as swelling, sinking, or cracking, which can be caused by magma, gas, or other fluids (usually water) moving underground or by movements in the Earth's crust due to motion along fault lines. Swelling of a volcano cans signal that magma has accumulated near the surface. Source: United States Geological Survey Advertisement But, the episode 4,000 years ago may be its most extreme to take place in the current geological epoch. The colossal episode of eruptive caldera collapse ejected between 30 and 60 cubic kilometers of ash, comparable in volume to the eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815, an event that is attributed to a global temperature cooling that resulted in a series of bad harvests in Europe, in what is known as the year without summer, explains Adelina Geyer, ICTJA-CSIC researcher and co-author of the study. It is very important to be able to date the type of eruptions that allow us to understand the climatic changes caused by volcanic eruptions, in this particular case at high austral latitudes. Jack Dorsey, Twitters founder and CEO, was recently reported to have questioned how the site 'incentivizes people to want (the number of likes on their posts) to go up.' He also said that 'he was not a fan of the heart-shaped (like) button and that Twitter would be getting rid of it soon. Twitter has since released a statement indicating that there are no immediate plans to remove the 'like' button. Whatever the future of Twitters 'like' button may be, as a scholar of social media and religion Id argue that the cute little heart-shaped button on Twitter and Facebook is far more impactful than it appears. Scroll down for video Twitter is considering killing off the 'like' button on its platform. CEO Jack Dorsey has spoken out at length about how it may contribute to negative behavior on the site WHY IS THE LIKE BUTTON EVIL? Many studies have shown that the 'like button' on social media platforms has tangible effects on users' mental health, leading to negative social comparisons. In particular, the like button has been found to increase envy and depression. The like button fuels two types of envy: benign envy and malicious envy. Benign envy mostly concerns us comparing ourselves to other people and feeling jealous, while malicious envy results in not just jealousy, but also the desire to harm someone. Researchers found that 'the closer the relationship, the more a Facebook user will experience benign envy.' Advertisement The 'like' button is not there by accident. Instead, this one-click feature exists as an intentional design decision. Like most big tech companies, Twitter has an entire department dedicated to understanding users. Every feature and font, based on their research, is there to maximize the overall user experience. The design decisions furtively influence users feelings and behaviors. Chris Nodder, a user experience researcher and the author of 'Evil by Design,' explains how designers must always ask the question: 'How do we influence behavior through the medium of software?' In other words, design decisions are made not only to improve a users experience but also influence their behaviors. The 'like' button is one example. While the heart-shaped button is seemingly only for expressing appreciation for the content of a social media post, researchers have determined that people use the button for many other reasons. A team of researchers, for example, found that users in the United States often chose to like something for bonding purposes rather than simply liking the content. Another study of Facebook users found that the 'like' button is used to maintain relationships with existing friends or to develop new relationships. A team of researchers, for example, found that users in the United States often chose to like something for bonding purposes rather than simply liking the content. A study of Facebook users found the 'like' button is used to maintain relationships or to develop new ones IS TWITTER KILLING OFF THE LIKE BUTTON? Twitter could soon kill off the 'Like' button. The social media giant said it's in the 'early stages' of considering whether or not to remove the like button, which appears as a heart icon, as part of an overall redesign of the platform. It comes after CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly said that he would get rid of the heart-shaped button 'soon.' Some have noted that Twitter may get rid of the like button and, in its place, emphasize the 'Bookmark' feature rolled out earlier this year. Twitter has gradually introduced new features to its platform while phasing out others, as it works to improve the 'health' of its platform. The firm continues to face big concerns around the proliferation of hate speech, harassment and other toxic user behavior on the site. Advertisement People may use the 'like' button as a way to publicly show closeness to another person, or even as an effort toward dating someone. The point being that the 'like' button does far more than just express how much a person likes a particular picture or post. Research has also shown that the 'like' button is not entirely harmless. While social networking sites are powerful tools for building relationships, research has shown that certain social media features can adversely affect users. For instance, a study found that impersonal gestures such as the one-click 'like' communication may not promote user well-being. According to Facebook researcher Moira Burke and Robert Kraut, an emeritus professor at Carnegie Mellon University, 'simply reading about friends, receiving text communication from weak ties, and receiving one-click communication did not affect well-being.' On the other hand, more personal and direct communication such as a direct message or personalized comment can have an impact on user well-being. A particularly harmful byproduct of the 'like' button is found in the way social networking sites foster negative social comparisons. A review of research on the topic has found that social media use correlates with measurable increases in envy and depression. These feelings of envy can take two different forms: malicious envy and benign envy. Malicious envy involves resentment and a desire to harm the other person. Benign envy involves admiration and a desire to obtain what the other person possesses. A byproduct of the 'like' button is found in the way social networking sites foster negative comparisons. Research has found social media is linked with increases in envy and depression HOW CAN SOCIAL MEDIA HARM USERS' HEALTH? Twitter isn't the first social media giant to look into how its platform affects users' health. Facebook admitted in December that the site could be damaging to people's health if used the wrong way. The company recommended that people use Facebook in an active, rather than passive, way, by communicating with friends, instead of just scrolling through their feed. Facebook said it consulted with social psychologists, social scientists and sociologists to determine that the site can be good for users' well-being if used the right way By interacting with people when you use Facebook, it can improve your well-being, according to the company. The report came after a former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya said Facebook 'destroyed how society works'. Facebook went on to say that while there were some downsides to social media, that by and large it has the potential for benefits if it's used correctly. In January, Facebook also acknowledged that social media can harm democracy. Advertisement One of the studies in the review involved 194 college-aged Facebook users in Germany. In this study, researchers found that 'the closer the relationship, the more a Facebook user will experience benign envy.' These digital showrooms allow people to present the best version of themselves for everyone else to see. Often, people use the number of likes to judge others and themselves. That little heart-shaped button becomes a publicly quantifiable measure of social support. According to this research, the 'like' button works as a 'mechanism to compare oneself with others.' The number of 'likes,' make social support quantifiable. It can then be easily viewed for making social comparisons. Given the impact of social networking sites on the feelings and behaviors of billions of users, I believe there needs to be an ethical component to designing these technologies. As Twitter is busy 'rethinking everything,' the company would do well to think about how the platform is shaping the feelings and behaviors of its users. Michigan Tech humanities scholar Robert Johnson, in his book, 'User-Centered Technology,' writes how technologies have 'ripple effects' that 'shape culture in defining ways.' The same argument is true for social networking sites. As such, every design feature even that little heart-shaped button must be carefully scrutinized. Google employees are again speaking out about the company's plans to build a censored search engine in China, otherwise known as 'Project Dragonfly.' In the new letter, penned by more than 275 managers and engineers, they rail against Google's Project Dragonfly for its potential to 'enable state surveillance' and 'aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable.' The letter urges Google to cancel Project Dragonfly and says the firm's response to their demands has so far been unsatisfactory. It comes as Amnesty International is hosting protests across the globe today calling for Google to end the controversial project. Scroll down for video In a new letter, managers and engineers rail against Google's Project Dragonfly for its potential to 'enable state surveillance' and 'aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable' WHAT IS GOOGLE'S DRAGONFLY PROJECT? Recent reports have suggested Google plans to build a censored version of its search engine in China, as part of a project called 'Dragonfly.' The app would have to comply with China's rigid censorship laws, which would mean restricting access to content that government officials consider unfavorable. Search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be blocked from the app. Linking searches with a user's phone number would allow officials to easily track activity on the platform, potentially allowing them to target political activists, journalists and dissenters. Advertisement The letter warns that if Google moves forward with Project Dragonfly, it has the potential to set a dangerous precedent, enabling other oppressive governments to request similar technology to spy on their citizens. When the letter was first released Tuesday morning, it had only nine signatures. But by midday, the letter had racked up more than 275 signatures by Google employees - many of which are senior engineers and managers. 'Our company's decision comes as the Chinese government is openly expanding its surveillance powers and tools of population control,' it explains. 'Many of these rely on advanced technologies, and coming online activity, personal records, and mass monitoring to track and profile citizens. '...Providing the Chinese government with ready access to user data, as required by Chinese law, would make Google complicit in oppression and human rights abuses,' the letter continues. It goes on to say how Project Dragonfly would likely be used by the Chinese government to 'silence marginalized people and favor information that promotes government interests.' Amnesty International have launched a petition to stop Google censoring their search engine in China. Activists hold a giant dragonfly-shaped balloon with a banner reading 'Google, do not censor in China, no to the Dragonfly project' during a protest outside the firm's Madrid HQ Google has said little about its plans for Project Dragonfly, aside from an Aug. 31 letter to six senators made public in October. In it, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said the company was 'thoughtfully considering a variety of options for how to offer services in China in a way that is consistent with our mission.' The firm said it was 'unclear' if it would move forward with a search engine in China, and that it was 'not in a position to be able to answer detailed questions.' Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on Friday he was 'really disappointed with Google's response,' through the letter, to questions from senators about the company's plans in China. In the letter published Tuesday, Google employees said Project Dragonfly contradicted with what they believed were the firm's original values. Google has said little about its plans for Project Dragonfly, aside from an Aug. 31 letter to six senators made public in October. In it, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said the company was 'thoughtfully considering a variety of options for how to offer services in China 'Many of us accepted employment at Google with the company's values in mind, including its previous position on Chinese censorship and surveillance, and an understanding that Google was a company willing to place its values above its profits,' the employees wrote in the letter. 'After a year of disappointments including Project Maven, Dragonfly, and Google's support for abusers, we no longer believe this is the case. 'This is why were taking a stand,' they added in the letter. The letter follows an earlier one signed by more than a thousand Google employees in August, which also protest Project Dragonfly. The Amnesty International protests are slated to take place outside Googles HQ's in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia,Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, The Netherlands and Spain. Amnesty have launched a petition to stop works on the 'dystopian' platform which are said to launch in China between January and April 2019. The human rights group say that the move would 'set a dangerous precedent for tech companies enabling rights abuses by governments.' Google is currently wrangling with what is arguably the toughest period in the company's 20-year history. Thousands of high-paid engineers and other Google staff walked out of their offices in protest last week over over the company's male-dominated culture (file photo) CHINESE INTERNET CRACKDOWN While China is home to the world's largest number of internet users, a 2015 report by US think tank Freedom House found that the country had the most restrictive online use policies of 65 nations it studied, ranking below Iran and Syria. But China has maintained that its various forms of web censorship are necessary for protecting its national security. It has cracked down on VPNs after the passing of a controversial cybersecurity bill last November that tightened restrictions on online freedom of speech and imposed new rules on service providers. Since the regulation took effect this June, authorities have closed dozens of celebrity gossip blogs and issued new rules around online video content to eliminate programmes deemed offensive. Advertisement The search engine would have to comply with China's rigid censorship laws. It would reportedly link users' activity to their personal phone number, while search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be blocked from the app. Dragonfly is also designed to replace weather and air pollution data with information provided by an unnamed source in Beijing, the Intercept reported. The search engine has already been 'essentially hardcoded to force [Chinese-provided] data,' the Intercept added. Researchers who discovered superbugs were living aboard the International Space Station have called for urgent research into how space affects their development. Scientists at NASA discovered that five different varieties of Enterobacter were found in the ISS's toilet and exercise area. Previous studies have shown that when exposed to conditions in space, bacterial mutation can become 'supercharged' as they adapt to their new environment. Scroll down for video Scientists at NASA have discovered that five different varieties Enterobacter, a bug similar to that found in hospitals, have been found infesting the International Space Station HOW SPACE CAN MUTATE BUGS One recent study in research in NPJ Microgravity found that one bacteria acquired well over a dozen mutations when exposed to space, and that these changes make it better at reproduction. Astronauts on board the ISS have already encountered thick biofilms of bacteria on their equipment that are growing faster than normal. Advertisement NASA experts have called for urgent research into the bugs. 'Given the multi-drug resistance results for these ISS genomes and the increased chance of pathogenicity we have identified, these species potentially pose important health considerations for future missions,' said Dr. Nitin Singh, first author of the paper. 'However, it is important to understand that the strains found on the ISS were not virulent, which means they are not an active threat to human health, but something to be monitored.' However, according to computer modelling, there is a 79 per cent probability that they will develop into a human pathogen, and cause disease. On Earth, some strains of Enterobacter can infect immunocompromised patients in intensive care wards - and they have high resistance to antibiotics. The JPL researchers compared their antibiotic resistance to that of the three clinical strains, and found that the space Enterobacter were resistant to cefazolin, cefoxitin, oxacillin, penicillin and rifampin, and had varying degrees of resistance to others. They also found that, while the space station Enterobacter strains aren't currently human-pathogenic, they have 112 genes in common with the clinical strains, associated with virulence, disease and defense. Microbiologists with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory regularly analyse microbe samples collected from the space station to see if the space environment affects their populations in any way - and also to see if they are posing a hazard either to the health of the astronauts, or the delicate equipment. 'To show which species of the bacteria were present on the ISS, we used various methods to characterise their genomes in detail. 'We revealed that genomes of the five ISS Enterobacter strains were genetically most similar to three strains newly found on Earth,' said microbioligist Kasthuri Venkateswaran. 'These three strains belonged to one species of the bacteria, called Enterobacter bugandensis, which had been found to cause disease in neonates and a compromised patient, who were admitted to three different hospitals (in east Africa, Washington state and Colorado).' The samples were collected in 2015. 'Whether or not an opportunistic pathogen like E. bugandensis causes disease and how much of a threat it is, depends on a variety of factors, including environmental ones,' Venkateswaran said. 'Further in vivo studies are needed to discern the impact that conditions on the ISS, such as microgravity, other space, and spacecraft-related factors, may have on pathogenicity and virulence.' Manila (CNN Philippines Life) What happens in the ER, stays in the ER. Although doctors walk through hospital hallways saving one life after the other, they also bear witness to some of the most unusual occurrences. From just their daily grind in the emergency rooms, to the day-in, day-out interaction with their patients, doctors have not only proven to solve illnesses, but also to rescue us from downright bad luck and bad decisions. Six doctors have chosen to share some of the most bizarre things theyve encountered during their medical journey and how they were able to solve it. *** The patient was walking home after a long day when all of a sudden he felt something flapping near his ear. Turns out, two flying ipis were 'fighting' or happened to fly across him. One flew away while the other flew into his ear. This was literally out of nowhere. Then, it just stayed there. They cannot crawl back so the ipis just kept moving forward. He went to the ER immediately. We had to extract it immediately or else it wouldve tried to scratch and claw its way deeper, even through the eardrum. A bit hazy na in my memory, but I remember a case of a patient who claims to be having difficulty pooping so he reportedly tried to stand up and use his finger to relieve the pressure, but he said that his legs gave way in the process and suddenly fell butt first on a shampoo bottle. Dex Galban, Medical Clerk, Ateneo School of Medicine & Public Health We do see insects in ears. Some of them are still alive so they cause a lot of distress to the patient. Anonymous There was a four-year-old girl that had a sampalok seed in her nose for months. The mom noticed that it already had a foul smell but decided not to go to a doctor until the nose started to bleed. Another one is a little girl who inserted a battery in her nose. The removal shouldve been done in the operating room but because they lacked funds, I did it in the clinic. We used verbal anesthesia. The girl was shouting Dora's (the Explorer) name all throughout. Dr. Chilen Licaunan-Lodronio, ENT head and neck surgeon at Unihealth Paranaque, Las Pinas Doctors Hospital and UERM We were doing a colonoscopy procedure on a 70- to 80-year-old woman with bloody stools to assess if there are masses present in the intestine since the CT scan findings indicate considering a mass. Expecting a tumor or a mass, we were surprised to see a huge moving ball, coiling and wriggling around itself, its face greeting the camera of the scope. It turned out to be a huge roundworm living in the intestines of the patient. It looked like big udon noodles. Via Roderos, Medical Clerk, Ateneo School of Medicine & Public Health If there's anything 'weird' that I have encountered since I started practicing medicine, I could only recall exorcism by a priest at the medical ward on a patient who's having delirium due to systemic infection, but is deemed by her family as possessed. Anonymous Well some of my more interesting stories would be a six-year-old boy coming in because he swallowed the letter O magnet from his ref. His mom was doing chores and noticed the O was missing so when she looked at her son, he pointed to his mouth. They gave him a banana and rushed him to the ER. At least when he got to the ER, the magnet was already in his tummy so all that was left was for him to poop it out. Kristina de la Paz, Medical Clerk, Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Advertisement What does it mean to be British today? Maybe these photographs hold the answer. From sunbathing on the Blackpool beach in the summer to enjoying a cup of tea in a cafe in Bradford, these fascinating images show the diversity and uniqueness of life in Britain's towns and cities. They are all shortlisted entries for the MyTown competition, the biggest outdoor exhibition of street photography in the UK. The shortlist, made up from entries across the UK, features the glorious British summer, with scorched skin, seagulls and seafronts. There are also moments of party and pity, culture and colour, love and loss, sitting alongside the juxtaposed lives of society in modern Britain. The competition, now in its second year, received 2,100 entries that were whittled down from a shortlist of 12 by judges Dougie Wallace, Linda Wisdom and Ronya Galka, who are all world renowned street photographers. Returning judge Dougie Wallace said: 'It was difficult to narrow down the entries to the shortlist each provoked discussion and debate about what it means to be British today.' Judge Linda Wisdom said: 'We avoided all of the British cliches, but a number of themes kept coming through a certain unique aesthetic runs through all of the entries. The shortlisted 12 should be exceptionally proud.' A selection of the entries will be showcased across Clear Channel's national network of over 3,000 screens and also displayed at a pop-up exhibition at Carousel: Next Door in central London, on December 5, where the winner will be announced. Scroll down to see the 12 shortlisted images... Photographer Gisela Szlatoszlavek captured this image during a sunny day on Blackpool beach, which she called Blackpool in Union A woman enjoys a cigarette and a hot drink in a cafe in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in a snap taken by Craig Philip Szlatoszlavek. He called it, simply, Bradford Cafe Photographer Brunel Johnson captured this gritty image in London at the end of the annual Notting Hill Carnival A seagull makes off with a chunk of bread supplied by a bread-wielding man on the Liverpool waterfront. It was taken by photographer Andy Allchurch, who called the image Don't Feed The Birds Photographer Josh Edgoose captured a humourous image of a woman's clothes matching the art at the Tate Britain Gallery in London, left. Pictured right is a man carrying a red chair down a street in London in an image shot by Johnathan Sharp Photographer Alan Warriner captured this unusual image as people sheltered from the rain while waiting for a bus in Newcastle. He called the picture Support The Hove promenade twinkles in the background as a man sits on a bench while enjoying a cigarette and looking at his phone. The picture was snapped by Fabrizio Oppes, who called it My Seafront Photographer Steve Ullathorne took a charming image on Portobello Road in London of a man called Ron, with his dog Mitzi sitting on his shoulder, left. Pictured right is an image called The Break Up, taken by Stevert Honorio in London A woman suns herself on a bench in Brighton in a shot by photographer Leah Sinclair, who called the image Baking Hot Thomas Cook lost a third of its value on Tuesday after the holiday operator cut its full-year profit forecast for the second time in two months and suspended its dividend following the hot British summer. The oldest travel company in the world, Thomas Cook has been hammered in recent months by the heatwave that gripped northern Europe this year, deterring holiday makers from booking lucrative last minute deals. Shares in the company were down 31 per cent at 0824 GMT, at six year lows. Shares in rival TUI Group fell eight per cent. Thomas Cook lost a third of its value on Tuesday after the holiday operator cut its full-year profit forecast for the second time in two months and suspended its dividend following the hot British summer Thomas Cook warned in July and September that the weather had hit demand in the most profitable part of the summer season and hurt winter trading, and the latest downgrade on Tuesday took its shares down 70 per cent in the past 12 months. 'After a good start to the year, we experienced a larger-than-anticipated decline in gross margin following the prolonged period of hot weather in our key summer trading period,' Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser said. Bringing forward its results by two days, the company on Tuesday said underlying operating profit had fallen to 250 million ($320 million) for the year to the end of September, down 58 million on the previous year. In September it had predicted an operating figure of 280 million. Thomas Cook warned in July and September that the weather had hit demand in the most profitable part of the summer season and hurt winter trading, and the latest downgrade on Tuesday took its shares down 70 per cent in the past 12 months Sunseekers in July enjoying the scorching weather in Brighton Thomas Cook makes all its profit in the summer when its customers in northern Europe, including Britain, Germany and Scandinavia go on holiday, mainly to warmer destinations in southern Europe such as Spain, Turkey and Greece. Part of the hit came from 28 million worth of legacy and non-recurring charges, due to transformation and disruption costs, and unpaid historic hotel bills. 'The UK was particularly hard hit with very high levels of promotional activity coming on top of an already competitive market for holidays to Spain,' the company said. Thomas Cook recently came under fire, meanwhile, from animal rights campaigners for offering rooms in a Chinese hotel that has captive dolphins and beluga whales displayed at on-site attractions. The dolphins have been sourced from a 'drive fishing' hunt in Japan described by a leading marine mammal scientist based in Washington DC - Dr Naomi Rose - as 'horrific' and 'wildly cruel'. The same scientist described dolphin and beluga captivity as 'fundamentally inhumane'. The UK-based Dolphin Freedom pressure group has been calling upon Thomas Cook to cut its ties with the hotel the Atlantis Sanya in Hainan province. It argues that the deal with this hotel renders the travel company's recently trumpeted animal welfare policy regarding marine attractions, in which it announced a move away from them, as disingenuous. Its campaign has included demonstrations outside Thomas Cook offices and the circulating of a #dropthedolphins hashtag on Twitter. Thomas Cook said: 'We are the first major holiday company to take action based upon a programme of independent audits, and the first to announce that we are going to stop selling excursions which keep Orcas in captivity. When we introduced our policy, we recognised that customer expectations were changing when it comes to animal attractions and we are committed to maintaining an animal welfare policy which is in line with our customers' expectations of us.' Advertisement Embraer, you have our attention and everybody elses, it would seem. The aircraft manufacturer sent one of its new E190-E2 jets, nicknamed the 'Shark Profit Hunter', on a world tour to show off its capabilities and guaranteed it would turn heads by giving it a jaw-dropping shark livery. The aircraft will be in Dublin on Thursday on the final leg of its tour, having already visited the US, Africa and China. Embraer sent one of its new E190-E2 jets on a world tour to show off its capabilities and guaranteed it would turn heads by giving it a jaw-dropping shark livery. It's pictured here in China The aircraft will be in Dublin on Thursday on the final leg of its tour, having already visited the US, Africa and China Embraer claims that it burns 17 per cent less fuel than its predecessor, the E190. This, it says, makes it the most efficient single-aisle aircraft on the market. One of the most significant plus points for passengers is that the cabin configuration is always 2-2, meaning the dreaded middle seat is never on the cards. The E190-E2 has been in commercial operation with Norways Widere since April of this year. Three jets have already accumulated close to 2,000 flight hours achieving schedule reliability of more than 99 per cent, Embraer said. The E190-E2 is currently in commercial operation with Norways Widere, since April of this year. The 'Shark Profit Hunter' is pictured here at the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai city, in Guangdong province Embraer forecasts 2,820 commercial aircraft up to 150 seats to be delivered over the next 20 years to European and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States former USSR republics) operators. The aircrafts main rival is Airbuss A220. This model is flown by Swiss, AirBaltic, Korean Air and, from 2019, Delta. The Brazilian company was founded in 1969 and says that it transports about 145 million passengers a year. It is the worlds third-largest aircraft manufacturer with around $6billion (4.7million) in sales. It offers a range of civil and military aircraft as well as business jets. Jaws-dropping: Embraer's shark plane looks menacing in this atmospheric night-time shot One of the most significant plus points for passengers aboard the E190-E2 (flight deck pictured) is that the cabin configuration is always 2-2, meaning the dreaded middle seat is never on the cards It looks like a pair of globetrotting friends have set a new world record by travelling 1,600 miles to visit nine capital cities in the space of 24 hours. Adam Leyton, 41, from Blackhall, Edinburgh, and Chris Fletcher, 38, took seven trains, five buses, and two flights to stake a claim the record. The duo travelled through London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna and Budapest. Adam Leyton, left, and Chris Fletcher, right, pose outside Gare du Nord station in Paris. The globetrotting friends appear to have set a new world record by travelling 1,600 miles to visit nine capital cities in the space of 24 hours The duo took seven trains, five buses, and two flights to stake a claim the record. They are pictured here in the Czech capital, Prague Adam and Chris snap a selfie beside the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The German capital was the fifth stop on their journey Adam takes a selfie on the train platform after arriving in Amsterdam from Brussels Business partners Chris and Adam almost missed out on the record, arriving at their final destination with only ten minutes to spare. But they didn't hang around to enjoy the tourist hot spots, spending only four minutes in Bratislava and ten minutes in Brussels. Their exhausting trip, to raise money for a stillbirth and neonatal charity, began in London on Sunday when they took the Eurostar to Paris. Their voyage almost came to an end in France when a suspicious package was found on a train platform, delaying their connection to Brussels. From Belgium the pair got a train to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, where they ran 'like a pair of mad men' to make their flight to Berlin. After reaching Germany, they took a night bus to Prague and then caught a plane to Bratislava in Slovakia. Their final journey through the air saw them travel to Vienna, where they caught a train to Budapest, arriving on Sunday morning. Adam and Chris didn't spend long in the cities and only stayed in Brussels for 10 minutes before carrying on their journey The pair, who co-own a digital marketing agency called CEE Digital, are now awaiting their certificate from Guinness World Records. They are pictured here in Bratislava Adam then flew back to his home in Edinburgh and Chris travelled back to Leeds, West Yorkshire. The pair, who co-own a digital marketing agency called CEE Digital, are now awaiting their certificate from Guinness World Records. The current record for capitals visited in a day stands at eight. Chris said: 'We thought the first half of the trip was going to be quite leisurely but it turned out to be a nightmare of stress and panic. 'We didn't think we were going to get through the gate at Amsterdam but we got lucky in the end. The duo stand on the platform of a railway station in the Austrian capital, Vienna, while trying to set the new world record The trip began in London, pictured, when the pair took a Eurostar train to Paris 'The trip basically involved all the worst bits of travelling without any of the enjoyable things, like sightseeing and having a drink. 'Fortunately the second half of the journey went quite smoothly, although we only got into Budapest with ten minutes to spare. 'It was such a relief in the end, we were both exhausted and ecstatic.' The whistle-stop tour was organised to raise almost 1,000 for stillbirth and neonatal charity Sands. The two men made it to their last stop, Budapest, pictured, with just 10 minutes to spare The cause is close to Adam's heart after his sister Gemma, lost her baby daughter just five days before she was due to be born. Adam said: 'Sands is a brilliant charity providing support for families who suffer the same kind of loss as my sister. 'It's great to raise some money for them and get some exposure.' British Airways has bid farewell to its Boeing 767s, marking the end of an era that lasted 28 years. Video footage that may be a tear-jerker for aviation enthusiasts shows the aircraft that made the final commercial 767 flight for BA - G-BZHA - touching down at MOD St Athan in Wales, where it will rest before being sold on. And here we present another potentially emotional shot for fans of the model - a picture of the very first commercial BA 767 flight taking off from London Heathrow on February 19, 1990, en-route to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The aircraft that made the final commercial 767 flight for BA - G-BZHA - comes in to land at MOD St Athan in Wales on Monday Two 767s were taken to St Athan in Wales (one is pictured there above) on Monday and both will be sold on, but neither will fly again, BA said The first ever BA 767 service from London Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris takes off on February 19, 1990 The final BA 767 flight was from Larnaca in Cyprus to Heathrow and took place on Sunday. The plane that operated it was then flown to St Athan by Jonny Lutton, who tweeted: 'Today [Monday] I have the privilege of commanding the last ever @British_Airways #767 flight. @aston_adam and I will deliver #ZHB to St Athan, bringing 28 years of safe and efficient 767 operations to a close. This is the end of an era.' Since British Airways operated its first 767 the fleet of aircraft has completed over 425,000 commercial flights. Frankfurt was the route where enthusiasts could spot the 767 most frequently, with the aircraft completing nearly 15,000 flights to and from the airport, but the aircraft has also been used to serve routes from Abu Dhabi, to Calgary and New York. While it was initially used for long-haul, in recent years it has been reconfigured for use on short-haul, including to Athens and Larnaca as well as on some domestic routes. The plane that operated the last ever commercial 767 flight for BA touches down in Larnaca, Cyprus, before making the end-of-an-era return journey to Heathrow The retirement comes as British Airways looks to the future of its fleet. Just days ago, the airline took delivery of its 30th Boeing 787 Dreamliner the newest aircraft in its fleet. Not only is the Dreamliner around 40 per cent quieter than other aircraft it also uses 20 per cent less fuel than similarly sized aircraft. This means a reduction in carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. But it's not just the 787 that's being added to British Airways' fleet. Later in the year the airline will take delivery of another pioneering aircraft - its first Airbus A350, part of the airline's 4.5bn investment for customers over the next five years. The crew of the last 767 to fly a commercial service for BA pose by the plane in Cyprus before it returns to Heathrow for the final time The flight crew that would be operating the historic final BA 767 journey pose by the aircraft in Cyprus before it heads back to the UK capital On the 767 retirement, British Airways Director of Flight Operations, Captain Al Bridger, said: 'The 767 has been a brilliant part of our fleet, flying some of our most popular routes and giving customers what was an industry-leading service in its time. 'It's fitting that as the final 767 leaves the fleet, we take our 30th delivery of another industry-leading aircraft, the 787, which offers customers an exceptional experience in the skies.' One other 767 was retired to St Athan on Monday and will be sold, along with G-BZHA, but not to another airline. The flight deck of the 767. Frankfurt was the route where enthusiasts could spot the 767 most frequently BA said that neither plane will fly again, but didn't comment on the identity of the buyer (s). G-BZHA first flew in 1998 and has flown an estimated 23 million miles. It has visited Larnaca 900 times in its life, but its most popular route is actually to Athens, where it's completed 1,275 round trips. It is estimated that this aircraft has carried around four million customers across nearly 23,000 flights. Karl Stefanovic and Jasmine Yarbrough are legally married. A source close to the couple has confirmed they signed a marriage license in front of a Justice of the Peace ahead of their wedding in Mexico on December 8. 'They don't want to make a big deal out of it but this is a legal declaration of marriage,' the insider told Daily Mail Australia. 'They don't want to make a big deal out of it': Karl Stefanovic and Jasmine Yarbrough ALREADY married in front of a Justice of the Peace ahead of their upcoming Mexican ceremony, Daily Mail Australia can reveal. Pictured last year in Melbourne Signing the document means Karl and Jasmine are recognised as legal spouses in Australia, according to the Attorney General's Department. The source added: 'You have to sign it, it's a legal document and it has to be with a Justice of the Peace, in accordance with information on births, deaths and marriages. 'It's just a technicality. It's not a big deal and they're looking forward to the actual wedding in Mexico.' Ceremony: Signing a marriage license document means Karl and Jasmine (left) are recognised as legal spouses in Australia. Nonetheless, they are excited to celebrate their union in front of friends and family at the One&Only Palmilla Resort (right) in San Jose del Cabo next month Karl and Jasmine will exchange vows on December 8 in a picturesque chapel at the One&Only Palmilla Resort in San Jose del Cabo, where they'll also be staying. They have booked two villas - one priced at $11,600 per night, and another at $15,000 per night - for the three-day celebrations. The guest list reportedly includes Jasmine's Mara & Mine business partner Tamara Ingham and her sister, as well as James Packer and his girlfriend Kylie Lim. Lavish: They have booked two villas - one priced at $11,600 per night, and another at $15,000 per night - for the three-day celebrations Also rumoured to be attending are Richard Wilkins and his girlfriend Virginia Burmeister, and Karl's longtime manager Sharon Finnigan. It comes after Karl revealed several details about his upcoming nuptials. 'I'm marrying a Queensland girl, there are going to be a few Queensland elements to the wedding. It's a really important thing for us,' he told The Courier-Mail recently. Love Island Australia's Grant Crapp recently hinted he will appear on the UK version of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Outta Here! Now, the Canberra-based electrician has reignited speculation - but this time fans are wondering if he will appear on the Australian version. In a farewell post shared to Instagram on Monday, the 23-year-old hinted he's heading to the South African jungle to commence filming on the 2019 season of the Channel Ten series. Scroll down for video 'Are you off to the jungle?' Fans speculate if Love Island Australia's Grant Crapp could appear on I'm A Celebrity after farewell post The muscular hunk shared a photograph of him bidding adieu to his beloved dog as he posed with his passport and luggage outside his ACT residence. 'Protect home boy. Where am I off too?' Grant captioned the snap alongside both a airplane and cheeky-face emoji. Fans immediately took to the comments section of Grant's mysterious post to predict his final destination. 'Are you off to the jungle?' one fan commented. In an Instagram post on Monday, the 23-year-old reality television star (pictured) appeared to drop a major clue he might be heading to the South African jungle to commence filming on the 2019 season of the Channel Ten series Moments later another fan got involved in the jungle fever, commenting: 'the jungle?!' While another Instagram follower wrote: 'Please be celebrity.' Meanwhile one fan hinted Grant might be heading to Fiji to star in the upcoming season of Bachelor In Paradise, which commenced filming earlier this month. 'You're off to........Fiji?' Meanwhile one fan hinted Grant might be heading to Fiji to star in the upcoming season of Bachelor In Paradise, which commenced filming earlier this month 'You're off to........Fiji? one user wrote on the photo-sharing app. While it is unclear whether Grant will camp out in the jungle alongside a slew of celebrities, he has previously expressed interest in doing another reality television show in the near future. Earlier this year, Grant hinted he will appear on the UK version of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Outta Here! UK. In an Instagram post in late September, Grant shared a shirtless selfie and made reference to 'the jungle' - but did not specifically mention the show. 'I hope the jungle has this food': Grant previously hinted that he will appear on the UK version of I'm A Celebrity 'Do you think you could out eat me #ihopethejunglehasthisfood,' he captioned the shot, which showed him eyeing a table of food. In the comments section, suspicious fans instantly began to speculate. 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here??? Is this your next adventure perhaps,' one follower wrote. It's back! The eighteenth season of I'm A Celebrity UK returned earlier this month The eighteenth season of I'm A Celebrity UK returned earlier this month and is usually filmed in Murwillumbah, New South Wales. Grant was crowned winner of Love Island Australia in July, along with model Tayla Damir and they shared the $50,000 prize money. The pair split just days after returning to Australia after it was revealed that Grant had a secret girlfriend. She has just weeks to go until she welcomes her second child with husband Sean McEwen. And on Monday, heavily pregnant Australian star Tammin Sursok shared her sweet gender reveal with fans. Taking to Instagram, Tammin, 35, shared a clip of herself squealing with excitement as their doctor told them they're having another daughter. 'I'm going to pass out!' Heavily pregnant Tammin Sursok can't contain her excitement during her sweet gender reveal... so can you guess what she's having? (pictured left is her doctor) 'Sean and Tammin, you're having a girl,' the doctor says in the clip, which appeared to be taken earlier in her pregnancy. 'Are you kidding? Are you sure?' Tammin says, clearly shocked and overjoyed. She added: 'I'm going to pass out! Oh my God!' Shocked: 'Sean and Tammin, you're having a girl,' the doctor says in the clip, appeared to be taken earlier in her pregnancy Thrilled: Sean (pictured) and Tammin shared a hug and he joked to the doctor: 'You just saved me a lot of money on clothes, we're going to pass those clothes right down!' The coupe shared a hug and Sean joked to the doctor: 'You just saved me a lot of money on clothes, we're going to pass those clothes right down!' It comes after the former Home and Away star recalled her devastating miscarriage, which she suffered in December last year. Last week Tammin took to Instagram to share a picture of herself, Sean and their daughter Phoenix, five. 'Last year on Thanksgiving I was pregnant': It comes after the former Home and Away star recalled her devastating miscarriage, which she suffered in December last year (pictured is their daughter Phoenix, five) Bumping along nicely! Earlier this year, she took to social media to open up about having jitters over her second pregnancy 'Last year on Thanksgiving I was pregnant. I've actually been pregnant for a VERY long time (more on that later) but this year looks different. And I'm so grateful that our tears have turned to smiles. Remember... "The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it." She added: 'Happy Thanksgiving my loves.' She's rumoured to be expecting her first child with boyfriend Matty Johnson. And on Monday, Laura Byrne did little to dispel the rumours when she was spotted awkwardly covering her stomach with a box of apples. The former Bachelor star cut a casual figure as she strolled through Sydney's Paddington, where owns a jewellery store. Blessed be the fruit? The Bachelor's Laura Byrne awkwardly covered her stomach with a box of apples in Sydney's Paddington on Monday, following rumours she is pregnant Something to hide? The ToniMay designer appeared to go makeup-free for the outing, and wore a loose-fitting green shirt, black jeans and boots The ToniMay designer appeared to go makeup-free for the outing, and wore a loose-fitting green shirt, black jeans and boots. She styled her brunette hair away in a messy bun and accessorised with dark sunglasses. Laura appeared in high spirits on the day, smiling and laughing as she ran errands. Blissful: Laura appeared in high spirits on the day, smiling and laughing as she ran errands Back to work! Laura and Matty have just returned from a romantic weekend away to a winery in South Australia's McLaren Vale Rumours: Their trip followed rumours that Laura is pregnant with the couple's first child Hmm! The speculation began after the pair attended the Australian Fashion Laureate in Sydney last week, and onlookers noticed Laura (pictured with Matty) wasn't drinking alcohol and was dodging questions on the red carpet Laura and Matty have just returned from a romantic weekend away to a winery in South Australia's McLaren Vale. Their trip followed rumours that Laura is pregnant with the couple's first child. The speculation began after the pair attended the Australian Fashion Laureate in Sydney last week, and onlookers noticed Laura wasn't drinking alcohol and was dodging questions on the red carpet. The businesswoman also appeared to be sporting a slight 'bump', prompting some fans to speculate that she may be pregnant. She's glowing! If Laura is pregnant, fans will be delighted as she and Matty are considered the 'golden couple' of the Bachelor franchise Smitten: Matty and Laura fell in love on the fifth season of The Bachelor, less than 12 months after he was left heartbroken by Georgia Love in The Bachelorette 2016 finale Her glowing appearance even prompted one eagle-eyed follower to comment on Instagram: 'Pregnant.' Matty and Laura fell in love on the fifth season of The Bachelor, less than 12 months after he was left heartbroken by Georgia Love in The Bachelorette 2016 finale. While the couple are not yet engaged, they reached a major milestone in their relationship earlier this year by moving in together in Sydney's Bondi. She's not shy when it comes to showcasing her taut physique in skimpy bikinis for her social media followers. And Chantel Jeffries was at it again when she enjoyed a day out on a boat during her enviable Mexican vacation on Monday. The 26-year-old DJ ensured nothing was left to the imagination while drawing attention to her ample surgically enhanced breasts. Chantel opted for a brown colored risque two-piece that only just kept her modest. She teamed the top with matching bikini bottoms while ensuring all eyes were on her toned stomach. The beauty videoed herself dancing around on the yacht and opted to go makeup free. Busting out: Chantel opted for a brown colored risque two-piece that only just kept her modest Popular choice: She completed her look with a set of various gold chains and a longer medallion necklace that she's been wearing in a variety of her photos Chantel's brunette locks were left out and styled back effortlessly for the adventure. She completed her look with a set of various gold chains and a longer medallion necklace. Her latest trip comes after she's spent the past few weeks living in bikini's while on exotic islands. Island girl: Her latest trip comes after she's spent the past few weeks living in bikini's while on exotic islands Girl's trip: Earlier this month, Chantel was on hand to watch Shanina and the other models at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York City One of her most recent trips was to Jamaica alongside Vogue model Shanina Shaik and WAGS star Nicole Williams. Earlier this month, Chantel was on hand to watch Shanina and the other models at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York City. The brunette hit the pink carpet post-show at Pier 94 rocking an eye-catching lacy ensemble. Chantel donned a black bra with matching thong bottoms with a sheer patterned lace dress on top. Coronation Street viewers were furious after Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor) was found guilty of fraud, money laundering and bribery on Monday night's episode. The former major of Weatherfield collapsed when she heard the decision, as her husband Tim and daughter Sophie were left in tears. Mayor Sally had previously been tricked into handing a council grant over to Duncan over the summer, under the false impression that he ran a charity. Coronation Street: Fans have blasted soap and threatened to BOYCOTT it after Sally Metcalfe was found guilty on Sunday night's episode Viewers have been waiting with baited breath to hear about the trial verdict, and it seems that her sister Gina may have sealed her fate as she admitted to the jury that she wasn't 100 percent sure that she wouldn't have cheated. During the trial, Sally begged the jury to believe her, as she said: 'I have never stolen any money. I have never had an affair. I love my husband. I would never cheat on him. He is everything to me!' But alas it was to no avail, as they named her guilty, and all Sally could do was cry out 'I didn't do it' as she was taken back to prison. Shock: Sally begged the jury to believe her, but alas it was to no avail, as they named her guilty, and all Sally could do was cry out 'I didn't do it' as she was taken back to prison Fans have likened the unfair trial to Deirdre Barlow and her false imprisonment, as well as the historic 'Free the Weatherfield One' campaign of the 1990s. With many calling for the show to 'free Sally', some even went so far as to blast the showrunners' decision to present the justice system in such a way. One wrote: '#Corrie The Sally guilty storyline is so horrible, that I am boycotting Coronation Street until Sally is released!' Outraged: Fans have likened the unfair trial to Deirdre Barlow and her false imprisonment, as well as the historic 'Free the Weatherfield One' campaign of the 1990s Another user added: 'So glad I only watch #ClassicCorrie now. Where it's 1992 & young Sally has just given birth to Rosie. Life was better back then.' While another slammed: 'I'm so bloody fed up of Corrie having innocent people being found guilty in court all the time. It happened with Anna, now it's happened AGAIN with Sally. We NEED to see justice PREVAIL. Anything else is just an unsatisfactory end to a court battle storyline.' One Twitter user said: 'Shows how British society has deteriorated. 20 years ago the nation demanded justice for Deirdre, now poor Sally is rotting away in prison and no one gives a damn. While she is going to prison, Sally won't be leaving the show as viewers can expect to find out the length of her sentence, as well as see her life behind bars. She sensationally quit The Bachelor when Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins refused to commit to her. But now Brooke Blurton has found someone to go on dates with that always puts her first - herself. Posting to Instagram on Tuesday, the 23-year-old shared a photo of herself drinking a cup of coffee and asked fans if it was 'sad' she went on so many dates by herself. Scroll down for video Who needs The Honey Badger? Brooke Blurton has revealed she is 'dating' someone amid rumours she left Bachelor in Paradise early... herself 'How many single, alone, by yourself coffee / brunch dates can you go on before it comes across as very sad?' she asked. Brooke then asked her followers to vote on whether she needed to 'find friends' or 'be independent.' The brunette beauty may be embracing the single life after she hinted she failed to find love on second season of Bachelor in Paradise. Brooke shared an emotional poem, which alluded to being faced with a painful situation. Yet to find her match? Brooke shot to fame on Nick 'Honey Badger' Cummins' recent season of The Bachelor and instantly became a fan favourite The cryptic post wasn't the first clue she had given fans that she's already left Fiji before filming wraps up. As the show continues to film overseas, Brooke recently shared a sexy bikini selfie while also clicking to follow fellow Paradise contestant Alex Nation online. While the network could be uploading old pictures to throw fans off the scent, Brooke's account following Alex, who she would have met in Fiji, is a very telling sign. As the show continues to film overseas, Brooke recently shared a sexy bikini selfie while also clicking to follow fellow Paradise contestant Alex Nation online.As the show continues to film overseas, Brooke recently shared a sexy bikini selfie while also clicking to follow fellow Paradise contestant Alex Nation online. Back from Paradise already? Brooke recently shared a sexy bikini selfie while also clicking to follow fellow Paradise contestant Alex Nation online Despite there being no official confirmation, Brooke's social media activity certainly suggests she has once again struggled to find a match at the hands of Network Ten. In late October, Network Ten confirmed Brooke and her Bachelor co-star Cassandra Wood joined the cast of Bachelor In Paradise. From Peter Ustinov to David Suchet, they've all tried to get the accent right. But John Malkovich has revealed that he will ditch the Belgian twang altogether in the latest incarnation of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. The actor, 64, who is set to play the fictional detective in BBC 1 drama The ABC Murders, revealed to the Radio Times on Monday: 'In our version, Poirot has lived in England for 20 years and has made a very long and laborious effort not to seem too much like a foreigner and to speak English like an Englishman.' Changes: Poirot's John Malkovich revealed on Monday that he WON'T be using character's signature Belgian accent in favour of English twang... despite his worry that fans will 'hate' it But that's not all, as the actor will also be sporting a goatee beard instead of a waxed moustache, a feature which has been synonymous with the Belgian detective. Speaking about the changes, John was honest as he admitted: 'Poirot and Christie fans may just hate all this, I have no idea.' The character's new look was partly a decision by director Alex Gabassi, who wanted the new version of the character to match Malkovich's style from a photo shoot where he was bald and sported a beard. Iconic: John is following in the footsteps of David Suchet, who personified the character from 1989 to 2013 in 70 episodes which aired over 13 seasons He explained to the publication: 'I said "sure, that's the way I normally look, if that's what you want, then fine".' Of the changes, the actor continued: 'There was a certain amount of convincing the Agatha Christie estate about this version, and I was involved in some of those conversations. 'There was never anything unpleasant or difficult. But obviously this is a very known and loved character, and there may have been some worries that we weren't, as it were, saluting that.' The TV mini-series, which will be aired over Christmas, has been adapted by Sarah Phelps, who previously worked on Christie's The Witness For The Prosecution and And Then There Were None. Another take: The most recent portrayal of the character was by Kenneth Branagh in the 2017 film Murder On The Orient Express, which he also directed More: Read the full interview in Radio Times, which is out now John is following in the footsteps of David Suchet, who personified the character from 1989 to 2013 in 70 episodes which aired over 13 seasons. The actor, 72, earned international acclaim for his take on the character, and was given the role after he was recommended for it by Christie's family. David, being a method actor, prepared for the role by reading every single book and short story starring the Belgian detective, and keeping detailed notes on the character's description and his mannerisms. His take on the character is widely believed to be the most accurate interpretation of the character, with 25 actors from around the world taking on the role over the years. They are in the midst of looking for their first home together. Yet Lily James, 29, and Matt Smith, 36, took a break from house hunting to enjoy an evening supporting the National Youth Theatre Annual Gala at Cafe Royal on Monday. The showbiz couple, who fell in love on the movie set of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, both looked chic as they stepped out in monochromatic ensembles. Chic: Lily James and Matt Smith stepped out in co-ordinated monochrome ensembles at the National Youth Theatre gala at the Cafe Royal on Monday Lily looked fierce as she power-dressed in a sleek black blazer, which she wore over high-waisted white trousers and a black top that had a plunging neckline. The actress boosted her height in pointed heels, while she kept her accessories simple by wearing an array of gold necklaces. She pulled her brunette curls back into a tight bun, and wore a natural palette of make-up to accentuate her pretty features. Stunning: Lily looked fierce as she power-dressed in a sleek black blazer, which she wore over high-waisted white trousers and a black top that had a plunging neckline Handsome: Matt looked dapper as he kept warm in a black longline coat, which he teamed with a white shirt, black jumper and matching tie Stunning: Lily pulled her brunette curls back into a tight bun, and wore a natural palette of make-up to accentuate her pretty features (pictured with Paul Roseby OBE, and Dawn Airey) Matt looked dapper as he kept warm in a black longline coat, which he teamed with a white shirt, black jumper and matching tie. The Doctor Who star looked sharp as he completed his look in black trousers and matching brogues for a chic flourish. His chocolate brown locks were styled into his signature textured quiff, and he stayed close by Lily's side as they enjoyed their night together. Looking good: The Doctor Who star looked sharp as he completed his look in black trousers and matching brogues for a chic flourish (pictured with Gwendoline Christie and Giles Deacon) Dressed up: His chocolate brown locks were styled into his signature textured quiff (pictured with Dawn and Jacquie Lawrence) Talkative: The pair spoke with a number of guests, including Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex Advice: Prince Edward gave an uplifting talk for the guests at the gala Aspiring actors: Prince Edward met with a group of young actors after their performance Stylish: The actress boosted her height in pointed heels, while she kept her accessories simple by wearing an array of gold necklaces Lily's date with Matt comes after she admitted she is considering slowing down to focus on her relationship with her actor beau. The actress stressed she finds it difficult to strike the perfect work-life balance and she confessed she misses 'so much' because of working. 'You have to trust that things wont go away if you stop for a bit,' she told Marie Claire. 'I havent really stopped, and I dont think thats a feasible way to work. For me, eventually, thats not the lifestyle I want. ''Thats not only with regards to my relationship with Matt, but with my friends and family. Theres so much you miss. Thats why I know I cant keep working at this intensity. I finish a job; Matt starts one. Glowing: Sophie Ellis Bexter covered up her blossoming baby bump in a floral gown Working hard: Sophie stepped out on stage to give a performance that enraptured the crowd Giving it her all: The singer gave a powerful performance during the night Glamorous: Sophie looked stunning as she sang with all her might Smitten: Lolita Chakrabarti and Adrian Lester looked loved-up as they attended the gala Glittering: Beverley Knight dazzled in a multi-coloured sequinned mini dress Great performance: Beverley also stepped out on stage to sing for the crowd Excitable: The crowd loved every second of Beverley's performance Rocking out: Dan Gillespie Sells, of the band The Feeling, also performed on stage Stunning: Lucy Verasamy looked sensational in a green velvet wrap-front dress Elegant: Daisy Lewis looked esquisite in her form-fitting white gown Lily also revealed that they are in the process of buying a place together as they take their relationship to the next level. I used to go to work to Downton Abbey at 5am, and everyone would still be partying. It was like Vegas,' she said. 'Id be like, Keep going, Ill be back in ten hours! Despite taking the decision to slow down, Lily is set play the lead role in a film remake of Daphne du Mauriers classic gothic novel Rebecca. Alfred Hitchcocks cult 1940 adaptation of the psychological thriller, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won an Oscar for best picture. Now Mamma Mia star Lily will follow in Hollywood royaltys footsteps by playing the naive narrator, who marries brooding and wealthy widower Maxim de Winter. Icon: Sir Derek Jacobi was also at the event to support the gala Dapper: Channel 4 presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy donned a striped blazer over a white shirt and denim jeans Demure: Gina Miller looked chic in her blue textured co-ord suit Striking: Lauren Lyle (L) and Ellise Chappell (R) were sure to stand out in their stunning outfits Dressed up: David Lammy wore a blue velvet jacket over a white shit and blue jeans Just a few days after the first trailer for Disney's live-action/photo-real animation remake of The Lion King was released, a new character has been revealed. Comedienne Amy Sedaris has signed on to play a brand new character, who wasn't featured in the original 1994 animated classic, according to Variety. While the character's name wasn't revealed, Sedaris, 57, is playing an 'elephant shrew,' a tiny animal which has a nose that resembles an elephant's trunk. New character: Amy Sedaris has come aboard to voice a brand new character in Disney's remake of The Lion King, who wasn't in the original 1994 animated classic The minuscule animal is native to Africa and known for its incredible speed, one of the fastest small animals reaching nearly 18 miles per hour. How Sedaris' character will fit into the story remains to be seen, but she joins a very impressive voice cast. Donald Glover voices young Simba, while James Earl Jones reprises his role from the 1994 original as his father Mufasa, the king of all animals that inhabit Pride Rock. Voice cast: How Sedaris' character will fit into the story remains to be seen, but she joins a very impressive voice cast Chiwetel Ejiofor voices the villainous Scar, Mufasa's brother, while Billy Eichner voices Timon, Seth Rogen voices Pumbaa and Beyonce voices Nala. The trailer released on Thanksgiving showcased one of the original animated movie's most iconic scenes, where young Simba is introduced to the Pride Rock animals. The footage ended with the first glimpse of Mufasa as well, seen roaring over his kingdom. New king: The trailer released on Thanksgiving showcased one of the original animated movie's most iconic scenes, where young Simba is introduced to the Pride Rock animals The trailer was viewed 224.6 million times in the first 24 hours, the second most-watched trailer in its first day. The current record is held by yet another Disney movie, Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War, which amassed 238 million views. Disney has set a July 19, 2019 release date for The Lion King, which as of now is by itself on that weekend, falling between 20th Century Fox's Stuber on July 12. 2019 and Sony's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on July 26, 2019. Photo-real Mufasa: The footage ended with the first glimpse of Mufasa as well, seen roaring over his kingdom Sedaris will reunite with director Jon Favreau on The Lion King, after she starred in his 2014 indie comedy Chef. The actress, perhaps best known for starring in the Comedy Central series Strangers With Candy, is no stranger to voice work, voicing numerous characters in Netflix's Bojack Horseman. She currently stars on the CBS All Access series No Activity with Tim Meadows, Patrick Brammell and Jason Mantzoukas. Pride Rock: The trailer released on Thanksgiving showcased one of the original animated movie's most iconic scenes, where young Simba is introduced to the Pride Rock animals She reportedly spent Thanksgiving with her beau Chris Martin as well as his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow and their two kids Apple, 14, and Moses, 12. And following the blended family engagement, Dakota Johnson was spotted out solo on her way to the gym in Studio City, Los Angeles. The 29-year-old actress kept things casual in sweats and appeared to be makeup free. Having some well deserved alone time: Dakota Johnson stepped out for a solo gym session on Monday, after she spent Thanksgiving on the East Coast with her boyfriend Chris Martin, his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow Dakota opted for an oversized Harvard sweatshirt and a pair of capri leggings that hugged her trim physique. She completed her look with slip-on checkerboard Vans and accessorized with a pair of tinted shades. The Fifty Shades beauty had her brunette locks styled out naturally and carried her keys in her mouth while using her hands for an iced coffee. Morning Joe: The Fifty Shades beauty had her brunette locks styled out naturally and carried her keys and an iced coffee Dakota's solo outing comes after she reportedly spent Thanksgiving on the East Coast with her boyfriend of over one year, Chris Martin, his kids, as well as his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow and her new husband Brad Falchuk. 'They're a total modern family and had a great time celebrating together,' a source told People magazine. Speaking to Catt Sadler on her website theCATTWALK last week, Gwyneth confessed she was hosting the annual holiday at her Hampton's residence. She's part of the family now! Dakota's solo outing comes after she reportedly spent Thanksgiving on the East Coast with her boyfriend of over one year, Chris Martin, his kids, as well as his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow and her new husband Brad Falchuk 'I'm very excited,' she said. 'It's my favorite holiday, and I'm very excited to make food. My kids really are specific about me making things, so I will be making things for them. And we have a bunch of family coming from all different sides, and it should be really fun. Gwyneth continued: 'It's my favorite holiday, you know? Because it's not based on religion, so there's nothing to argue about, there are no presents. It's just about gratitude, it's just about togetherness, and eating and drinking too much, and having fun. I just love it. I'm so excited. Isn't it the best?' Gwyneth on Thanksgiving: 'It's my favorite holiday, and I'm very excited to make food. My kids really are specific about me making things, so I will be making things for them. And we have a bunch of family coming from all different sides, and it should be really fun' Love: Dakota was first linked to the Goop founder's ex-husband Chris, 41, in October 2017 Dakota was first linked to the Goop founder's ex-husband Chris, 41, in October 2017. The actress daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson told Tatler recently that while she wouldn't talk publicly about her romantic life, she was 'very happy.' While she's been tight-lipped, her famous actress mother hasn't hesitated to sing the UK hitmaker's praises. 'I adore him!' Griffith told PEOPLE. 'But she is very private about her life and I respect that.' At age 13, she became the youngest-ever Best Actress Oscar nominee after her performance in the 2002 film Whale Rider. But what happened to Keisha Castle-Hughes following her first brush with fame? The 28-year-old, who is now starring in SBS series On The Ropes, told Daily Mail Australia her life has changed significantly since landing her breakout role. Whatever happened to Keisha Castle-Hughes? How the youngest-ever Oscar nominee went from being the 'Kiwi Lindsay Lohan' and a teenage mother to living the dream as a film producer in Los Angeles. Pictured in 2002's Whale Rider In addition to acting, she has branched out into producing films and has also relocated from Auckland to Los Angeles. 'I just started producing in the last year-and-a-half, and it's been a natural shift,' the New Zealander explained. 'I was really scared to do something different, I'm nervous too. I've been acting for 17 years so I was definitely nervous to make any sort of change.' New career move: The 28-year-old, who is now starring in SBS series On The Ropes, told Daily Mail Australia her life has changed significantly since landing her breakout role 'I didn't know if I had the skills to be a producer,' Keisha added. 'I've just finished producing my first feature film earlier this year, it's been exciting to change it up and sit on the other side and see how things work.' She also shared her excitement about her new role in the 'sexy' and 'gritty' four-part SBS drama On The Ropes. Keisha plays boxer Jess O'Connor, who fights in a professional debut match thanks to her Iraqi-Australian trainer Amirah (Nicole Chamoun). Fight club: Keisha plays boxer Jess O'Connor in the 'sexy' and 'gritty' SBS drama On The Ropes 'It was a really exciting show to make in a sense that it was completely women-led, which was really cool and really unique,' she said. 'I honestly don't think it should be as rare as it is. It was created and directed by all women, and I'm really proud to be a part of it.' While Keisha is enjoying a career resurgence today, she was once considered a 'troubled teen' in the mid- to late- 2000s Making a comeback: While Keisha is enjoying a career resurgence today, she was once considered a 'troubled teen' in the mid- to late- 2000s. Pictured in On The Ropes She was even nicknamed 'New Zealand's Lindsay Lohan' by the tabloid press. At the age of 14, following the global success of Whale Rider, Keisha became the breadwinner of her family. But under the pressure of it all, she began smoking, drinking alcohol and developed an eating disorder. Troubled times: At the age of 14, following the global success of Whale Rider, Keisha became the breadwinner of her family. But under the pressure of it all, she began smoking, drinking alcohol and developed an eating disorder. Pictured in 2002's Whale Rider 'By the time I was 14, I'd become the breadwinner for my whole family. Everything was about Keisha it took me a long time to realise I was having my own problems,' she said back in 2012. 'That was really hard for [my parents] to understand. Why I was having this seemingly charmed life while they were all at home not knowing if there was enough money for dinner? It tore my family completely apart.' In 2010, Keisha told the New Zealand Woman's Weekly that she had quit drinking, after previously being pictured leaving a support meeting for alcoholics. Motherhood: Three years after being nominated for an Oscar, Keisha became pregnant with her first child aged just 16. Keisha's daughter Felicity (left) is now 11 and lives with her father 'All my dirty laundry has now been aired and I am free to just get on with my life,' she said at the time, adding that the publication of the photos was 'a huge blow' but also 'very liberating'. In 2011, it was reported that Keisha was involved in a 'bar fight' at an Auckland nightclub after a patron recognised her and made a 'derogatory' remark. She later claimed she was not drinking on the night. Family first: 'She's just like a regular 11-year-old which is all a parent could hope for,' Keisha said Three years after being nominated for an Oscar, Keisha became pregnant with her first child aged just 16. Keisha's daughter Felicity is now 11 years old and lives with her father. 'We co-parent her, and she's awesome. She's just like a regular 11-year-old which is all a parent could hope for,' she said. 'She doesn't really have any kind of desire or want to get into acting, which excites me a lot!' While Keisha is busy pursuing a career behind the scenes, she remains committed to acting and has appeared in shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. 'I've worked consistently in acting since I started my career, and I'm not slowing down any time soon,' she said. SBS' new drama series On the Ropes premieres 28 November at 8.30pm Australian actress Rose Byrne has opened up about working with disgraced comedian Louis C.K. in one film her fans may never get to see - I Love You, Daddy. C.K.'s film, about a prominent TV producer-writer grappling with his teenage daughter's relationship with a much older director and rumoured paedophile, was shelved after five women accused the comedian of masturbating in front of them. Rose starred in the film as Grace Cullen, a pregnant movie star who falls for C.K.'s character. 'It's too soon': Australian actress Rose Byrne has opened up about working with disgraced comedian Louis C.K. in one film her fans may never get to see - I Love You, Daddy The 39-year-old told The Sydney Morning Herald that although she had a 'very respectful experience' working on the film, she agrees with the decision to not release it. 'I think it will be a while before that film can be seen, and I think that's right,' she said. The Sydney-born star said she stood firmly with the women who came forward, and that it was too soon for the disgraced comedian to be making his controversial comeback. 'I think it will be a while before that film can be seen' Rose starred in I Love You, Daddy as Grace Cullen, a pregnant movie star who falls for C.K.'s character (pictured is a still from the film) 'It's too soon for him to have a surprise one, that's for sure. I think if he's going to show up, just let everybody know so then they can make a decision, like, "I don't want to see this guy I'm out",' she said. C.K. made a surprise appearance at a Manhattan comedy club in August. The comedian opened his set at the West Side Comedy Club by telling the crowd it had 'been a weird year' and that he lost '$35million in an hour' during the scandal. Controversial return: C.K. made a surprise appearance at a Manhattan comedy club in August He also joked about getting booed on the streets and said everyone hated him, referring to the fallout that came after he admitted to masturbating in front of women without their consent last year. His controversial return to stage sparked international debate as people argued over whether it was too soon for the comedian to be making a comeback. Rose is currently stars opposite Mark Wahlberg in the family comedy-drama 'Instant Family.' I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star Emily Atack used to feel awkward standing next to her ex-boyfriend, Jack Vacher, because of how handsome he was. In an unearthed interview from 2016 about her former live-in boyfriend, the actress, 28, revealed: 'It's nice to look at a photo of my boyfriend Jack, hes rather handsome. Sometimes I dont want to stand next to him for that reason. Hes a model so is used to celeb events. I struggle getting ready for things.' Too cute? I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star Emily Atack used to feel awkward standing next to her ex-boyfriend, Jack Vacher, because of how handsome he was At the time, Emily was referring to a snap of them at the Dad's Army premiere - the film version of the iconic BBC comedy series, in which she starred alongside the likes of Catherine Zeta Jones, Sarah Lancashire and Bill Nighy. She attended the event on the arm of Jack, 24; but the pair split a year ago, after five years together. She opened up about this last week in the jungle. 'Im soul searching, I had a difficult start to the year. I had a break-up after being with someone for five years,' she told Noel Edmonds. 'Id got into the habit of needing that security, love and acceptance from a guy to make me happy.' Meanwhile: The Sun also reports that ITV bosses have been hoping Emily would strike up a romance with fellow campmate Nick Knowles Self-conscious? In an unearthed interview from 2016 about her former live-in boyfriend, the actress, 28, revealed, 'It's nice to look at a photo of my boyfriend Jack, hes rather handsome. Sometimes I dont want to stand next to him for that reason' Amicable: Emily's own social media is still littered with images of the pair together, hinting at an amicable split Jack is a part-time model, has worked for Abercrombie & Fitch, and also has a career in real estate; and notably, his Twitter page still features a header image of Emily herself. The bottle blonde beauty is seen cosying up to her ex as they pose for a romantic couples' snap in the photo, despite Jack reportedly having a new girlfriend named Madison Ellen, who he started dating in February (according to The Sun). Emily's own social media is still littered with images of the pair together, hinting at an amicable split. Emily went on to reveal that speaking about her romantic life was 'daunting', but insists she's an 'an open book'. 'I'm an open book and talk openly about my feelings and I'm sat here with no make up on, I know that sounds vain but in here I'm not worried, I'm carefree.' Old account: The Inbetweeners actress, 28, still features prominently on 24-year-old Jack's Twitter profile - as the header image Candid: This comes after Emily revealed she's yet to find The One during an intimate chat with Noel Edmonds She also admitted that she was apprehensive about leaving alcohol behind while appearing on the programme. 'I'm a bit of a boozer on the outside and I thought coming in here without booze I'd be really quiet and shy but I don't need it at all. 'I'm nearly 29 and want to look after myself and who I am, the fact that I have freckles and no eyebrows', she added. Lending some wisdom to the Dad's Army star, Noel said: 'When you are 100 per cent comfortable with yourself, shortly after that you will find that person because your positive energy radiates and you can only attract other positive energy.' Focusing on herself: The Inbetweeners star, 28, insisted she's focusing on 'soul searching' at the moment She said of her split with Jack: 'I'd got into the habit of needing that security, love and acceptance from a guy to make me happy' Meanwhile, The Sun also reports that ITV bosses have been hoping Emily would strike up a romance with fellow campmate Nick Knowles. A source said: 'Producers think Nick and Emily getting together would make good telly. Nick has a type and Emily fits the bill. And she hasnt minded a famous boyfriend in the past. 'Everyone is watching closely and hoping for a proper spark. Theyve had a couple of moments on screen that producers thought was a good sign. Theyre seeing how things develop.' I'm A Celebrity continues on weeknights at 9pm on ITV. Advertisement Rachel Weisz attended the annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in NYC on Monday night. The 48-year-old actress, who gave birth to a baby girl in August, dazzled in a beaded, floral-print gown which showcased her toned figure as she walked the red carpet. It was a successful night for the Oscar-winning actress who scooped the Special Jury Award Ensemble Performance for her new film The Favourite, which she will share with co-stars Emma Stone and Olivia Colman. Guest of honor: Rachel Weisz attended the annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in NYC on Monday night, where she scooped the Special Jury Award Ensemble Performance for her new film The Favourite Delight: The star looked over the moon as she picked up the award, as actress Cynthia Nixon looked on Along with Williem Dafoe, the brunette beauty received the Film Tribute Award for her continued support of the independent film industry. Weisz, who wore her hair in a low ponytail, teamed her floor-length dress with a black clutch. Her glam for the evening included a bold brow, feline flicks of liner and a muted pink lip. Hotly anticipated: Rachel stars in the film as Queen Anne's advisor and lover Sarah, who faces a battle for the monarch's (Colman) affections when her younger cousin Abigail (Stone) arrives at the royal court Showstopper: Weisz, who wore her hair in a low ponytail, teamed her floor-length dress with a black clutch. Her glam for the evening included a bold brow and a muted pink lip Flying solo: Absent from the event was Rachel's husband and fellow actor, Daniel Craig Honoree: Michael Sheen sang Weisz's praises before presenting her with the Film Tribute Award for her continued support of the independent film industry Happy: The two hugged as she made her way onstage at the glitzy show Victorious: Rachel looked beautiful on a banner night at the Big Apple-based award show Absent from the event was Rachel's husband and fellow actor, James Bond star Daniel Craig, 50. Rachel stars in the film as Queen Anne's advisor and lover Sarah, who faces a battle for the monarch's (Colman) affections when her younger cousin Abigail (Stone) arrives at the royal court. The film is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and is 'a bawdy, acerbic tale of royal intrigue, passion, envy and betrayal' set in the court of Queen Anne in early 18th century England, according to Fox Searchlight Pictures. Representing: Weisz brought cardboard paddle with cutouts of co-stars Olivia Colman and Emma Stone in accepting the honors Cute: The actress joked at the show, 'Considering that Im the only one to turn up, I think I might be the favorite!' Star in style: The redheaded beauty, fresh off her gubernatorial campaign, wore an all-black ensemble with silver highlights Gal pals: Rachel and Cynthia posed on the red carpet following the award show Stunning: The New York staple, involved in both entertainment and politics, beamed as she spoke from the podium Michael Sheen sang Weisz's praises before presenting her with the Film Tribute Award. 'I'm so proud to be getting this award,' she said in her acceptance speech. 'I'm deeply moved and humbled. I want to thank all the independent filmmakers who have ever given me a job.' Rachel added: 'I really love and admire the courage and the strength it takes to make independent films. They tell stories that are radical and difficult, they don't follow the herd, they challenge the audience, and they show humanity.' Lovebirds: Laura Prepon and husband Ben Foster walked the red carpet arm in arm So chic: The 38-year-old actress looked pretty in a floral wrap dress and nude heels Laura Prepon and husband Ben Foster walked the red carpet arm in arm. The 38-year-old actress dazzled in a floral frock, while Foster, also 38, looked dapper in a pinstripe suit. Ben's role in Leave No Trace landed him a Best Actor nomination. Exquisite: New Jersey native Mj Rodriguez, of Pose fame, appeared at the luxe gathering Leading ladies: Twilight's Elizabeth Reaser stunned on the red carpet in a cutout brown dress and suede pumps. She was followed by Bad Moms' Kathryn Hahn, who looked flawless in an off-the-shoulder navy dress Hollywood legend: Glenn Close looked radiant in a floor length black gown and dangling red earrings. The 71-year-old actress landed a Best Actress nomination for her role The Wife Shine bright: Regina Hall sparkled in a glittery, off-the-shoulder princess gown Twilight's Elizabeth Reaser stunned on the red carpet in a cutout brown dress and suede pumps. She was followed by Bad Moms' Kathryn Hahn, who looked flawless in an off-the-shoulder navy dress. Hahn is nominated for Best Actress for her role in Netflix's Private Life. Master of his craft: Ethan Hawke looked every bit the leading man as he accepted the honors for Best Actor for First Reformed Hopeful: Hawke, flanked by Alessandro Nivola, could emerge as a key contender in a crowded Best Actor Oscar field that's expected to include A Star Is Born's Bradley Cooper and Vice's Christian Bale Movie men: Kiernan Culkin looked handsome in a black suit and ombre tie, while Star Wars' Adam Driver donned a fitted brown suit Dressed to impress: Nick Kroll arrived in a double breasted pinstripe suit Glenn Close looked radiant in a floor-length black gown and dangling red earrings. The 71-year-old Hollywood legend landed a Best Actress nomination for her role in The Wife. Kiernan Culkin looked handsome in a black suit and ombre tie, while Star Wars' Adam Driver donned a fitted brown suit. Driver scored a Best Actor nomination for his role in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman. Netflix fame: Orange Is The New Black's Taylor Schilling and Uzo Aduba were also present at the award show. Schilling stunned in a silk gown, while Aduba wowed in a plunging, navy dress with a thigh-high slit Co-stars: Taylor and Uzo posed together ahead of dinner at the awards show Date night: Keegan-Michael Key attended the award show with wife Elisa Pugliese Strike a pose: Patricia Clarkson looked chic in a plunging, patterned gown and sky-high pumps Recognized: The New York City Mayors Office of Media and Entertainment's commissioner Joana Vicente (L) and Deputy Mayor Julie Menin were feted for their contributions Orange Is The New Black's Taylor Schilling and Uzo Aduba were also present at the award show. Schilling stunned in a silk gown, while Aduba wowed in a plunging, navy dress with a thigh-high slit. Spider-Man's William Dafoe, presented with the Film Tribute Award, attended the soiree with wife Giada Colagrande. Elsie Fisher, who looked pretty in a pink pantsuit, won Breakthrough Actor for her role in Eighth Grade. Film Tribue Award: Spider-Man's William Dafoe attended with wife Giada Colagrande Stalwart: Willem Dafoe was in great spirits as he held his Gotham Tribute Awards trophy, flanked by the multi-talented Laurie Anderson Lights, camera, action! Dafoe said at the show, 'A little bird told me that I have made over 100 films - thats a lot - but really, I feel like Im just starting, or Im not half done' Lauded: The actor, 63, has garnered three Oscar nominations in his four-decade career in front of the cameras Pretty in pink: Elsie Fisher won Breakthrough Actor for her role in Eighth Grade Fast-rising: The 15-year-old actress was presented with the honors by gorgeous star Regina Hall Stylish: The talented teen wore a magenta A.L.C. pantsuit to the glam gathering Number one: Eighth Grade director Bo Burnham, 28, won breakthrough director for the film She's the host and head judge of Top Model in Poland. And Joanna Krupa showed off her supermodel qualities as she hit the runway ahead of the live final on Warsaw on Monday. The 39-year-old TV personality was a vision of beauty on the evening as she graced the stage in a stunning tulle skirted ballgown. Stunning: She's the host and head judge of Top Model in Poland. And Joanna Krupa showed off her supermodel qualities as she hit the runway ahead of the live final on Warsaw on Monday Showcasing her model figure, the garment featured a strapless grey bodice which highlighted her ample cleavage and small waist. A black tulle skirt then flared out to full length, accentuating her hourglass curves and billowing behind her as she stormed the runway. Joanna finished off the look by styling her glossy golden locks in a sleek centre parting to frame her pretty features. Dressed to impress: The 39-year-old TV personality was a vision of beauty on the evening as she graced the stage in a stunning tulle skirted ballgown Also representing the best in Polish model talent was Anja Rubik, who was dressed to turn heads in a plunging red and white striped mini dress. The blonde bombshells killer pins were on full display, with a pair of black barely there heels boosting her statuesque frame even further. Anja's look was completed by framing her eyes with a thick line of kohl and styling her glossy golden locks in loose waves. Glamorous: Showcasing her model figure, the garment featured a strapless grey bodice which highlighted her ample cleavage and small waist Hug it out: Joanna showed her support for Katarzyna Szklarczyk Whilst Joanna has been hard at work on Top Model, she has also been working on another project close to her heart - animal rights. She recently asked the owners of Forever 21 to stop selling wool products in a passionate letter she wrote to the company. 'As a passionate advocate for animals, I urge you to take your company's cruelty-free position one step further and recognize the naked truth of the wool industry: that every year, millions of sheep are handled in horrific, abusive waysand please end your sale of wool,' she wrote. Legs eleven! Also representing the best in Polish model talent was Anja Rubik, who was dressed to turn heads in a plunging red and white striped mini dress Blonde bombshell: Anja's look was completed by framing her eyes with a thick line of kohl and styling her glossy golden locks in loose waves 'I recently participated in a PETA ad campaign that is meant to help expose that sheep are beaten, mutilated, and killed for wool' 'And because information about the systemic abuse of animals in the industry has been met by your company with silence, a wallscape billboard can now be seen mere blocks from Forever 21's Times Square location and will remain there through the holiday season.' 'The good news is that Forever 21 has a prime opportunity to be a leader for its conscious consumer demographic and to show mercy to gentle animals by becoming the first major brand to end the sale of wool.' Nigella Lawson showed off her wild side when she stepped out in Sydney on Tuesday. The 58-year-old British cookbook author was seen leaving the Channel Seven studios in an ankle-length leopard-print shirt-dress. The body-skimming dress showed off the star's incredible figure, and she completed her sexy ensemble with a pair of nude-coloured block-heel pumps. Scroll down for videos Cougar alert: Nigella Lawson showed off her wild side when she took to the streets of Sydney on Tuesday Nigella appeared to have been in high spirits as she made her way to a chauffer-driven car. She was seen carrying a garment bag and smiling widely as she strolled down the bustling city street. Nigella is Down Under ahead of her Australian tour, which is set to kick off at the end of January in Perth. An Evening With Nigella Lawson will allow fans to interact with the culinary star, while also hearing stories about her illustrious career. Animal instincts: The 58-year-old British cookbook author was seen leaving the Channel Seven studios in an ankle-length leopard-print shirt-dress Stylish: The body-skimming dress showed off the star's incredible figure, and she completed her sexy ensemble with a pair of nude-coloured block-heel pumps In an interview with Sunrise earlier in the day to promote her upcoming tour, Nigella revealed she tries to avoid reading media stories about herself. 'I don't read any of it, because I think that if you believe the good stuff, you become a monster, and if you believe the bad stuff, you wouldn't never be able to leave the house ever again,' she told the TV program. 'It's not good for your mental health. You should always be a subject in your life looking out, you should never be an object. I don't really pay attention to any of it.' Ride on: Nigella appeared to have been in high spirits as she made her way into a chauffer-driven car On tour: Nigella is Down Under ahead of her Australian tour, which is set to kick off at the end of January in Perth She was also asked how she stays in such amazing shape when surrounded by food, prompting the star to simply laugh, claiming she doesn't consider herself 'fit'. 'I feel that because I'm not trying to maintain an unhealthily thin physique, I can eat quite a lot to maintain this amount of flesh,' she joked. But she admitted she does exercise. 'You have to after a certain age. I do yoga. I do more stretchy type exercise. I don't like jumping up and down. I do yoga and I walk quite a lot,' she added. The unofficial start to awards season got underway with the 28th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York City on Monday. Among those on hand to recognize the best in independent film was Best Actor nominee Ben Foster and his wife Laura Prepon, who are both 38. And the newlyweds packed on the PDAs when they hit the red carpet before the ceremony kicked off. In the spotlight: Laura Prepon and Ben Foster were at the Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York City on Monday The That '70s Show alum looked elegant, but not overstated, in a black floral dress that came complete with a plunging neckline. It also had fabric that tied around the waist that acted as a belt to showcase her figure. She paired the ensemble with brown heels and wore her raven tresses long and with a part in the middle. Keeping stride in the fashion department, Foster went with a dark blue pinstriped two-piece suit, with a white dress shirt and brown leather boots. Strike a pose: The That '70s Show alum looked elegant on a clack floral dress, while her new husband opted for a dark blue pinstripe suit Honored: Foster was nominated for Best Actor for his role in the drama Leave No Trace Foster was nominated for Best Actor for his role in the drama Leave No Trace. The story follows a military veteran (Foster) with PTSD who lives in the forest in Oregon with his 13-year old daughter (Thomasin McKenzie). They live in almost total isolation until his arrest, which sets off the struggle of whether to live within society or back in the woods. McKenzie was also up for Breakthrough Actor for her performance. By night's end, it was revealed that Ethan Hawke won the Best Actor award for his role in First Reformed, and Elsie Fisher got the nod for Breakthrough Actor. Foster first gained mainstream success in the critically acclaimed HBO drama Six Feet Under (2003-2005). His lengthy film credits include: The Punisher (2004), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), Thirty Days Of Night (2007), The Messenger (2009), Lone Survivor (2013) and The Program (2015). She spent Thanksgiving with her ex-husband Ben Affleck in Montana. And back in Los Angeles and her daily routine, Jennifer Garner was spotted spending some quality time with her youngest child, son, Samuel, six, on Monday. The 46-year-old and her little man were skipping along the streets as she picked him up from school. Scroll down for video She's not a regular mom, she's a cool mom! Jennifer Garner was seen skipping with glee when she picked up her son Samuel, six, from school on Monday Jennifer was dressed in a black long sleeved top with an olive colored vest over the top. She teamed the look with form-fitting denim jeans and a pair of black lace-up shoes that had a slight platform on them. The actress styled her brunette locks out and natural and appeared to be wearing no makeup for the pickup run. Family time: The 46-year-old and her little man were skipping along the streets as she picked him up from school School run: Jennifer was dressed in a black long sleeved top with an olive colored vest over the top Comfort: She teamed the look with form-fitting denim jeans and a pair of black lace-up shoes that had a slight platform on them Gorgeous: The actress styled her brunette locks out and natural and appeared to be wearing no makeup for the pickup run Samuel was dressed in a green T-shirt and a pair of shorts. The pair's outing comes after Jennifer and her family recently returned back to Los Angeles, after spending Thanksgiving without her new boyfriend John Miller but with her ex-husband Ben Affleck in Montana. While Jen, Ben and their three little ones, Violet, 12, Seraphina, nine, and Samuel, six, reportedly spent some family time in Montana, Miller was solo in LA. School kid: Samuel was dressed in a green T-shirt and a pair of shorts Back to school: Jennifer Garner was all smiles as she got back school drop-offs on Monday in Los Angeles after spending the weekend with ex-husband Ben Affleck and leaving her new beau alone 'Jen, Ben and the kids were in Montana for Thanksgiving,' a source recently told People Magazine. This was long planned,' according to the insider, who also added, 'They always celebrate big holidays together as a family.' 'The family all spent Thanksgiving together and they all cooked,' continued what the outlet called 'a friend of the former couple.' Ben and Jennifer finalized their divorce in October, after being separated for over three years. The Alias actress had been quietly dating the CaliBurger head honcho for a few months but waited to go public with their romance until divorce papers were signed. Catelynn and Tyler Baltierra agreed to temporarily separate on Monday's episode of Teen Mom OG as they discovered she is pregnant with their third child. They made the decision to live apart after returning from couple's therapy in Sedona, Arizona, as they found out they were expecting a baby girl. 'Getting pregnant was very unexpected since we still have a lot of work to do on our relationship,' said Catelynn, who gave up her first girl with Tyler to adoption. Temporary separation: Catelynn and Tyler Baltierra agreed to temporarily separate in a bid to save their marriage on Monday's episode of Teen Mom OG 'I know Tyler has been frustrated in our marriage for a while and has been seeing a therapist. 'He decided he wanted to try living separately for a month. I was devastated, at first, but now that I've started my own therapy, I'm more comfortable with the idea,' she said. Catelynn, 26, then explained the situation to an MTV producer, Kerthy. 'All I want to share with the cameras is that me and you learned that we have been together for so long that it's like who are you as a person by yourself?',' she said. Not happy: Tyler admitted that he was not happy in his marriage with Catelynn Tyler said he told Catelynn during the retreat that he wanted them to live apart. 'Am I jumping of joy for it? No. In that moment it did trigger me, it did bring up wounds, it was scary, it was sad, it was hurtful. The things that I've been through, when people saying they want to separate and leave, it seriously does feel like somebody died,' Catelynn said. 'It's like bringing up the old wounds from my miscarriage, it is traumatic,' she added. Tyler said he knew 'it was the worst possible thing you could hear.' New addition: The couple also were coping with an unexpected pregnancy Couples therapy: Tyler and Catelynn during couples therapy in Arizona discussed separating Gender reveal: Catelynn recruited daughter Nova to help her with gender reveal party cupcakes Catelynn admitted that the idea of dealing with the pregnancy and raising three-year-old daughter Nova while living apart was stressful for her. 'In my mind, it makes it harder for a mom to do that, and take care of a three-year-old and being pregnant it is just a lot of stress,' she told Tyler. 'I know, I get it,' he told her. Got it: Tyler assured Catelynn that he understood her point of view about the separation The couple then got ready for a gender reveal party as MTV producer Kiki asked: 'There's never been any discussion of, ''Lets go see other people?'' 'No, we've had that discussion where we're both like, ''We don't want to see other people'',' said Catelynn. 'We're not getting a divorce or anything. I was getting super triggered form my childhood trauma stuff. Feeling like he was going to abandon me. Other people? MTV producer Kiki asked Catelynn if they discussed seeing other people 'I even texted him and asked him ''Is there somebody else?'' He said ''What the f***? Do you think that I would cheat on you?'' 'In my heart of hearts, no, but it was just so blindsiding. Like what the f*** is going on?,' she said. 'I feel like the separation thing is going to be hard but it'd be good for me in a way. Then I have time to really focus on me and Nova. It's always just been like Cate and Ty, Cate and Ty, Cate and Ty. It gives each of us some room to grow on our own,' Catelynn said. Half full: Catelynn said the temporary separation would give her time to focus on Nova Later at the party it was revealed they were having a girl together. Catelynn's grandmother then asked her how she was coping with the pregnancy and her earlier miscarriage. She told her she had dug into her childhood trauma and had made progress with her therapist. Making progress: Deborah asked her granddaughter Catelynn how she was coping Tyler's mom, Kim, asked him what the plan was and he told her they would continue marriage counseling and she would see a new therapist. 'I'll work at my stuff and she will work at her stuff,' said Tyler. 'After the month Catelynn can come home to a brand new house, nice and fresh,' he added. The plan: Tyler told his mother Kim about their plan to continue marriage counseling Elsewhere, Maci Bookout told her friend Katie that she was looking for land to build a permanent home on and it would be her final move. She eventually saw a home on seven acres and decided to put in an offer to buy it. Amber Portwood was back in Indiana and motivated for MMA workouts to help with her bi-polar depression. Catching up: Maci Bookout went to her former home to catch up with friend Katie Last move: The reality star told Katie that she was looking for a permanent home preferably with a large pantry Working out: Amber Portwood resumed fight training to help with her bi-polar depression Gary Shirley meanwhile went in for a vasectomy consultation as the doctor assured him it would be a straightforward procedure and later went under the knife. 'I think it was as bad as I thought it was going to be exactly,' he said after it was over and told Kristina he was glad he did it so they would not have to go through any more miscarriages. Bristol Palin returned to Alaska and went fishing with sisters Willow and Piper and her friends and told them she was relieved to be officially divorced. Vasectomy consultation: Gary Shirley went to see a doctor for a vasectomy consultation 'It feels so good, it feels like a huge weight off my chest. I don't think I will ever get remarried. My parents have been married 30 years and it would be so incredible to have that, but my thoughts on it have changed so much,' said Bristol. She added she felt judged for being a single mom with Tripp but told her friends she was not ready to date. 'I have only dated one guy not from Alaska and look what happened,' laughed Bristol. Great outdoors: Bristol Palin returned to Alaska and went fishing with sister Willow and friends Officially divorced: Newly divorced Bristol said she wasn't ready to date She later told friend Marina that she did not want to get married to Dakota Meyer in the first place and she hated the way he had treated her during their marriage. Cheyenne went back to Detroit with Cory and their daughter Ryder so she could have time with his friends and family, including ex-girlfriend Lauren. 'I'm excited to meet Cory's friends but I'm a little worried about who will be there,' admitted Cheyenne. Marriage talk: Bristol told her friend Marina that she didn't want to marry Dakota Meyer in the first place Road trip: Cheyenne took Ryder to Detroit so she could meet Cory's family and friends Cory's friends told him he should make it work with Cheyenne but he told them 'Nah, we got something good going on.' Meanwhile his female friends told Cheynne that they had never seen Cory respect another woman as much as her. Cory told her he was 'irritated' with hearing how nice Cheyenne was and told her that he was tired of being asked why they were not together. Family time: Ryder was held by her father Cory as he introduced his daughter to family and friends Constant question: Cory told Cheyenne that he was tired of people asking him why they were not togeter Cheyenne then told him that he had to understand the sacrifices she made to keep him in her life and she had to pick her relationship with him over her ex-boyfriend. They each then told the other they would choose them over a boyfriend or girlfriend if forced to for the sake of Ryder. Teen Mom OG will return next week on MTV. She's currently starring on Broadway in the play American Son. But on Monday night, Kerry Washington spent her evening off hosting a special screening of the movie If Beale Street Could Talk in New York City. And the Scandal beauty, 41, brought along her husband Nnamdi Asomugha, 37, in a rare public appearance as a couple. Date night: Kerry Washington, 41, and her husband Nnamdi Asomugha, 37, made a rare public appearance as a couple at a screening of If Beale Street Could Talk in NYC Monday night Washington looked lovely in a beige sweater and blue jeans. She wore her shoulder-length hair loose and added drop earrings and glossy red lip color. Asomugha also kept it casual wearing a gray sweatshirt with black trousers and a dark winter jacket. The couple have been married for five years and share two children. Couple goals: Washington, who is currently starring on Broadway, looked lovely in a beige sweater and blue jeans. The couple have been married for five years and share two children Special screening: The Scandal star and her husband posed for photos with the film's stars KiKi Layne and Stephan James and the director Barry Jenkins Washington and Asomugha posed for photos with the film's stars KiKi Layne, who wore a bold yellow dress and dazzling Kate Spade New York earrings, and Stephan James. The movie is directed by Barry Jenkins who directed the Oscar-winning Moonlight and who was also on hand for the event. In the romantic drama, Layne plays a pregnant woman from Harlem who frantically tries to prove that her fiance, played by James, is innocent of a crime ahead of the birth of their first child. It will be released in theatres on Christmas Day. Big break: Layne, 26, makes her movie debut in the romantic drama and she showed off her funky style in a mustard yellow knit maxi dress that she paired with white lace-up shoes Rising star: Canadian actor James, 24, is best known for his portrayal of Olympic sprinter Jessie Owens in the 2016 film Race Walt Disney Pictures has released two songs from the highly-anticipated Mary Poppins Returns, with Emily Blunt singing one of them solo and joined by Lin-Manuel Miranda. This movie marks the second time Blunt will be belting out tunes on the big screen, following her turn playing the Baker's Wife in Disney's Into the Woods, which was also directed by her Mary Poppins Returns director, Rob Marshall. The first song, 'The Place Where Lost Things Go' is performed by Emily Blunt, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Blunt and other cast members singing 'Trip a Little Light Fantastic.' Blunt's husband John Krasinski told Vanity Fair that he wept when he first heard his wife sing, in an interview with Vanity Fair. The songs were both released through Disney Music Vevo YouTube, although there is no footage to accompany them. 'The Place Where Lost Things Go' is a sentimental ballad by Blunt while Trip a Little Light Fantastic is more of an ensemble song with Blunt, Miranda and a number of the 'lamplighters.' The tracks are two of the nine new tracks by composer/co-lyricist Marc Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman. Lamplighters: 'The Place Where Lost Things Go' is a sentimental ballad by Blunt while Trip a Little Light Fantastic is more of an ensemble song with Blunt, Miranda and a number of the 'lamplighters' The soundtrack also includes songs such as (Underneath the) Lovely London Sky by Lin-Manuel Miranda, A Conversation by Ben Whishaw, who plays the adult Michael Banks, and The Royal Doulton Music Hall by Blunt, Miranda, Pixie Davies (Annabel Banks), Joel Dawson (Georgie Banks) and Nathanael Saleh (John Banks), Michael's kids. Other tracks include A Cover Is Not the Book by Blunt, Miranda and others, Turning Turtle by Meryl Streep and Nowhere to Go But Up by Angela Lansbury. Original Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke returns on the Trip a Little Light Fantastic (Reprise) with Blunt and Miranda. New Mary: Blunt stars as Mary Poppins, who returns to the Banks family in their time of need, after a personal loss, along with the lamplighter Jack (Miranda). Blunt stars as Mary Poppins, who returns to the Banks family in their time of need, after a personal loss, along with the lamplighter Jack (Miranda). Emily Mortimer stars as the adult Jane Banks, with Julie Walters as Michael's housekeeper Ellen and Colin Firth as William Weatherall Wilkins, president of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. The all-star cast is rounded out by Meryl Streep as Mary's eccentric cousin Topsy, Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Dawes Jr. and Angela Lansbury as The Balloon Lady. Poppins soundtrack: Other tracks include A Cover Is Not the Book by Blunt, Miranda and others, Turning Turtle by Meryl Streep and Nowhere to Go But Up by Angela Lansbury The story is set in 1930s London, the same time period used in the original novels by P.L. Travers. Disney has set a December 19 release date for Mary Poppins Returns, which comes two days before Paramount's Bumblebee, Warner Bros.' Aquaman and Universal's Welcome to Marwen. The original motion picture soundtrack also includes a number of instrumental tracks by Marc Shaiman, when it debuts December 7. They've always been as close as their sister moms Kim and Kourtney Kardashian. And Kim, 38, shared a sweet throwback post of her daughter North West, five, and cousin Penelope Disick, six, on social media on Monday. The young duo posed for the shot with North dressed in orange and Penelope in black. Scroll down for video Cousin love: Kim Kardashian shared a sweet shot of her daughter North, five, and niece Penelope Disick, six, on Monday And while their moms share a strong Armenian look, it wasn't long before fans commented that all they could see was their dads, Kanye West and Scott Disick shine through. 'All I see is Kanye and Scott,' commented one with others also adding how similar they looked to their famous fathers. And while many continued to gush over how adorable the close cousins were, others opted to lash out at Kim for allowing her five-year-old to wear makeup. Just like their dads: And while their moms Kourtney and Kim Kardashian share a strong Armenian look, it wasn't long before fans commented that all they could see was their dads, Kanye West and Scott Disick shine through Their spitting image: 'All I see is Kanye and Scott,' commented one with others also adding how similar they looked to their famous fathers 'D**n that kids wearing makeup, let her enjoy her childhood. Shes too beautiful for makeup,' commented one. Another wrote: 'She wont be a baby long if you keep putting eyeshadow on her a little too early. I don't see P with no shadow on.' And it's not the first time Kim's come under fire for allowing North to experiment with beauty products. Their father's daughters: Fans were quick to recognise North and Kanye as well as Penelope and Scott's resemblances Mommy shamers: And while many continued to gush over how adorable the close cousins were, others opted to lash out at Kim for allowing her five-year-old to wear makeup Earlier in the year, the KKW Beauty entrepreneur revealed she had applied makeup onto North as a bribe to get her to leave the home. 'North wearing shade #6 in the new Classic Blossom Collection,' she began. 'Relax Mom Shamers it's coming off in a few mins. I needed a bribe to get out of the door... you feel me?!?!?' Too young? Earlier in the year, the KKW Beauty entrepreneur revealed she had applied makeup onto North as a bribe to get her to leave the home Hint of makeup: The photo saw Penelope fresh faced with North wearing an orange eyeshadow Sweet shot: Haters were at it once again on another occasion this year, when her first-born was seen out with straightened hair Haters were at it once again on another occasion this year, when her first-born was seen out with straightened hair. While Kim posted a sweet photo of the naturally curly brunette kissing her dad Kanye, others were more concerned over her straightened tresses. 'She is allowed twice a year, on her birthday and birthday party! This pic was taken back in June on her bday,' Tweeted out Kim. It's less than a month until Christmas. And Tara Reid certainly looked to be in the holiday spirit as she was spotted heading to celebrity hot spot Craig's on Monday night. The 43-year-old actress bundled up in a chic, dark fur coat while heading into the West Hollywood eatery. Chic: Tara Reid certainly looked to be in the holiday spirit as she was spotted heading to celebrity hot spot Craig's on Monday night The Sharknado star juxtaposed the classy jacket with flashy red ankle boots. She matched the shoes to her a red blouse and a large purse that she carried around her right wrist. Tara wire skintight black jeans underneath and accessorized with a gold heart necklace. Her long blonde tresses were pulled into a tight ponytail and she painted her lips a robust red. Seasonal: The 43-year-old actress bundled up in a chic, dark fur coat while heading into the West Hollywood eatery Contrast:The Sharknado star juxtaposed the classy jacket with flashy red ankle boots. It has been a tough couple of months for Tara, who shared the devastating news that her mother Donna Reid had passed away. She took to Instagram to reveal her mother's passing with a throwback photo of her parents on their wedding day. 'Today has been one of the most heartbreaking days of my life,' Tara began the caption. 'My mother Donna Reid just passed away. My heart breaks - who am I gonna call everyday, what do I do?' Night out: Tara wire skintight black jeans underneath and accessorized with a gold heart necklace The unsettling news came just two years after Tara had lost her father Thomas Reid. The blonde beauty continued to stress that though she's heartbroken by the passing of her mother, she assures herself that Donna can finally be reunited with the socialite's father. '2 yrs ago I lost my father and I never felt such a pain.' 'Now I just lost my mom. But the one thing I know is they are together again. Mom & Dad, I love you! RIP, your baby girl Tara.' She's spent the past week soaking up the sun on a girls' trip to Dubai. And Jess Wright hit the town just hours after returning home as she attended the OK! Beauty Awards at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London on Monday night. The former TOWIE star, 33, looked stunning in a midnight blue plunging sparkle wrap dress complete with a sexy slit to showcase her holiday tan. Dressed to impress: Jess Wright hit the town after returning home from her girls' trip to Dubai as she attended the OK! Beauty Awards at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London on Monday The reality TV personality completed the look with strappy sandals and glammed up with plenty of sultry eye makeup. Hours earlier, the brunette beauty took to Instagram to share a stunning snap of herself in Dubai, wearing in a green cutaway bikini. She gave her 1.4 million fans a glimpse of her gym honed body as she enjoyed the sun in the Middle East before 'driving home for Christmas'. Jess' appearance at the beauty awards came as she spoke out why she confronted her Strictly professional dancer ex-boyfriend Giovanni Pernice, 28, at the Pride Of Britain Awards last month. Work it: The former TOWIE star, 33, looked stunning in a midnight blue plunging sparkle wrap dress complete with a sexy slit to showcase her holiday tan Holiday blues: Hours earlier, the brunette beauty took to Instagram to share a stunning snap of herself in Dubai, wearing in a green cutaway bikini (pictured with pal Shani Chalpin, left) Speaking to OK! Magazine, the former TOWIE star explained: 'We hadn't seen each other since we split. I didnt choose to bump into him that night. 'I definitely wasnt shouting, I was just being passionate, as I always am when Ive got an opinion.' In the video of the clash, Jess was seen screaming at the Strictly star in a shocking row in which she branded him 'full of s**t', before she was heard saying: 'You broke my heart, you lied to me'. While Giovanni and various others tried to diffuse the row, Jess raged: 'I got in a cab and I never saw you again for six months, you're talking s**t. You used me... publicity, fame. No-one who loves someone drops them. Party time: The reality TV personality completed the look with strappy sandals and glammed up with plenty of sultry eye makeup Explosive: Jess' appearance came as she spoke out why she confronted her Strictly dancer ex-boyfriend Giovanni Pernice, 28, at the Pride Of Britain Awards last month 'You're jealous of everything. We were together six months, you never cared about me. I want to know why - you left me!' Jess and Giovanni were first romantically linked in December 2017 when they were spotted on a date. The lovebirds enjoyed a cosy drink at London's Soho House before they went onto watch West End production Dream Girls. In April however, things came to a crashing close when a source told The Sun: 'He was really into Jess and did want to make a go of it, but he struggled with the attention she gets and her popularity.' The ex factor: Jess and Giovanni were first romantically linked in December 2017 when they were spotted on a date (pictured in March) 'Theyve tried to keep things amicable and told people they have both agreed to go their separate ways, but he was the one who first suggested things were going to end. 'She has been really upset by this. Its a real shame but hopefully things will stay civil.' While her romance with Giovanni was not to be, since the split Jessica has been linked to Olly Murs, 34, in October. Of the rumours, the reality star told OK! Magazine: 'Ollys a lovely guy and has loads of charisma. Lets leave it at that! I'm dating but I'm not dating Olly!' She is set to star alongside hunky Milo Ventimiglia in the new movie, Second Act. And Jennifer Lopez showed off her famous curves as she arrived in style at the New York special screening of Peter Segal's rags-to-riches rom-com on Monday. The multi-talented performer, 49, wowed in a striking two-toned satin dress which showcased her phenomenal legs to perfection. Eyes on her! Jennifer Lopez, 49, showed off her famous curves as she arrived at the New York special screening of Peter Segal's rags-to-riches rom-com Second Act on Monday The blue and black dress boasted wrap detailing, which cinched in her tiny midriff before falling in a sexy thigh-high split. Jennifer teamed the long-sleeved number with a pair of strappy caged black heels which featured sparkling silver detailing. The mother-of-two stuck to the colour scheme with a chic black clutch and accessorised with a chunky bracelet. Jennifer lived up to her beauty icon reputation with a sexy blowdry and a glamorous coat of bronzed make-up. Babe: The multi-talented performer wowed in a striking two-toned satin dress which showcased her phenomenal legs to perfection Sexy style: The blue and black dress boasted wrap detailing, which cinched in her tiny midriff before falling in a sexy thigh-high split - with producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas Fashionista: Jennifer teamed the long-sleeved number with a pair of strappy caged black heels which featured sparkling silver detailing - with Arianna Huffington The World of Dance judge produces and stars as Maya in the movie Second Act, which hits US theatres December 21 and UK theatres January 25. The Manhattan-set flick also features her real-life BFF Leah Remini, Milo Ventimiglia, Vanessa Hudgens, Charlyne Yi, Treat Williams, and Dave Foley. Meanwhile on the personal front, Jennifer is loved-up with Alex Rodriguez and the pair have been dating for 18 months. Work it: The mother-of-two stuck to the colour scheme with a chic black clutch and accessorised with a chunky bracelet Gorgeous: Jennifer lived up to her beauty icon reputation with a sexy blowdry and a glamorous coat of bronzed make-up New venture: The World of Dance judge produces and stars as Maya in the movie Second Act, which hits US theatres December 21 and UK theatres January 25 However, there are reports that Jennifer reportedly 'inserted herself' into Alex and his ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis' child-support negotiations over daughters Natasha, 14; and Ella, 10; during a September 13 mediation in Miami. A source told Page Six on November 10: 'The legal proceeding quickly devolved when Lopez insisted that Rodriguez should only have to pay $10K (rather than $115K) a month in child support.' Rodriguez divorced his 45-year-old ex in 2009, while the two-time Grammy nominee divorced her third husband Marc Antony (with whom she has 10-year-old fraternal twins Emme & Max) in 2014. Star cast: The Manhattan-set flick also features her real-life BFF Leah Remini, Milo Ventimiglia, Vanessa Hudgens, Charlyne Yi, Treat Williams, and Dave Foley Happy: Meanwhile on the personal front, Jennifer is loved-up with Alex Rodriguez and the pair have been dating for 18 months She resigned from Celebs Go Dating back in September, uploading a poignant quote on Instagram saying she didn't care if she had to quit showbiz altogether. But Nadia Essex made sure all eyes were on her as she took to the red carpet at the OK! Beauty Awards at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London on Monday evening. The 36-year-old put on a racy display, flashing her purple plunging bra underneath a dazzling sequin co-ord. Racy display: Nadia Essex made sure all eyes were on her as she took to the red carpet at the OK! Beauty Awards at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London on Monday evening Nadia opted to shun the cardinal legs-or-cleavage rule as she flaunted her ample curves and mid-section in the lacy lingerie and triangle crop top. Meanwhile, the matching mini-skirt featured a thigh-high side split, highlighting her tanned pins. Keen to add more glamour to her eye-catching outfit, the dating guru casually shrugged a faux fur coat over her shoulders and accessorised the look with a silver sequin studded bag and gladiator sandals. Risque: The 36-year-old put on a racy display, flashing her purple plunging bra underneath a dazzling sequin co-ord Nadia added a few sequins into the parting of her slick blonde bun and finished off the look with a black smoky eye and magenta lip. The Chelsea native mingled with a host of reality stars at the bash, stopping to kiss TOWIE star Jon Clarke on the cheek after strutting down the red carpet. Nadia quit E4 reality show Celebs Go Dating back in September after it was claimed she had created fake Twitter accounts in order to troll social media users. In her element: The Chelsea native mingled with a host of reality stars at the bash, stopping to kiss TOWIE star Jon Clarke on the cheek after strutting down the red carpet The alleged trolling came after stories of feud between her and axed host Eden Blackman came out, for which Nadia received daily abuse and death threats on the micro-blogging site. The love expert previously told MailOnline she was not 'trolling', merely 'defending herself against trolls' and that Celebs Go Dating producers at Lime Productions left her no other choice after they 'watched her like a hawk' following Eden's exit. Elaborating on reports Eden had allegedly struck up dalliances with participants on the series, Nadia told us in her latest statement: 'I saw [Eden's] WhatsApps during filming [before he left the show] and got continually more concerned that his behaviour was inappropriate and putting our credibility and the whole show in jeopardy. 'I was extremely concerned about how it would affect me professionally. I went to Lime and expressed more concern for women taking part on the show that I thought were being taken advantage of. 'I found the reaction from the producers utterly shocking as I was told I was fabricating the incidents and if I didnt stop with the accusations my job was at risk.' The TV star has, meanwhile, taken the experience and decided to launch a charity based on the situation. 'I never want anyone to feel as bullied, as low and as worthless as I felt filming with Eden,' she added. 'I never want anyone to have to lose or walk away from their dream job because they vented on social media because they thought it was their only way. 'This has cost me my job. So I am in the process of starting a charity. I want women supported much more in terms of knowing their employment rights, knowing they dont have to put up with a hellish working environment and even if their employer wont do anything to help there is another way venting online. MailOnline approached representatives for Celebs Go Dating and Eden for comment at the time. He was rushed to A&E after a cockroach burrowed deep into his ear during an Extra Camp trial, but was left upset when doctors were to unable to remove the critter. And two days after the incident, Joe Swash returned to hospital to see if the creepy crawly could be retrieved. The I'm a Celebrity... Extra Camp host, 36, took to Instagram during his appointment on Tuesday to document his ear getting syringed by a specialist, grimacing as a pair of long tweezers were placed down his canal. Uncomfortable: Joe Swash squealed as doctors removed a 'huge' cockroach from his ear on Monday... two days after critter burrowed deep inside canal during Extra Camp trial He told his 435k followers: 'You can actually smell cockroach. I'm at hospital, hopefully today is the day I can get rid of the little squatter who has been in my ear for two days.' As the procedure began with a camera being placed inside his ear, Joe caught a glimpse of the cockroach and squealed: 'Oh my god, s**t, it's huge'. After a tense few minutes, the doctor managed to retrieve the dead cockroach, placing it in a capsule which the ex-EastEnders star proudly showed off. He said: 'This little fella is the squatter that was in my ear... oh em gee.' Scared: As the procedure began with a camera being placed inside his ear, Joe caught a glimpse of the cockroach and squealed: 'Oh my god, s**t, it's huge' Nightmare: The Extra Camp presenter, 36, took to Instagram to document his ear getting syringed by a specialist, grimacing as a pair of long tweezers were placed down his canal Trophy: After a tense few minutes, the doctor managed to retrieve the dead cockroach, placing it in a capsule which the ex-EastEnders star proudly showed off It comes after The I'm a Celebrity... Extra Camp star revealed he had suffered every campmates' worst nightmare on Sunday after the termite plotted up inside his ear canal, shortly after Joe had wrapped up filming the live spin-off show. Joe was left horrified when Australia doctors told him he would have to wait an additional 24 hours to see a specialist because they were unable to retrieve the insect. Despite the hellish ordeal, Joe seemed relatively upbeat as he documented his hospital trip on Instagram Stories. He enthused: 'So, we're just on the way to the hospital to get a cockroach sucked out of my ear. All the perks of this job, eh!' With the shock slowly setting in, Joe shared a follow-up clip in which he bemoaned: 'Just walking up to the hospital. Still can't quite believe that I've got an animal that's living in my ear-roll. Something's bugging Joe! Joe was rushed to A&E after discovering a cockroach had burrowed itself in his ear on Sunday Nightmare! The I'm a Celebrity... Extra Camp host admitted he'd spent ages waiting to be seen before being told he would have to see a specialist the following day 'Don't make yourself at home son, because you're coming out!' And after telling fans he had endured a long wait in the hospital before being seen, his misfortune continued as he revealed doctors were unable to remove the insect and referred him to see a specialist the following day. He explained: 'Just got out the hospital. Doctor said they can't get the cockroach out my ear. I've got to see a specialist tomorrow so they can use some special equipment on it.' Ear to stay: While Joe didn't divulge how the insect got inside his ear, entomologists have previously explained that the orifice provides the perfect living conditions for the bugs While Joe didn't divulge exactly how the insect managed to sneak into his ear, entomologists have previously explained that the orifice provides the perfect living conditions for the bugs - who are also attracted to the scent of earwax. Once the cockroach makes its way inside the ear, people instinctively scratch the area, subsequently pushing the roach in deeper inside the ear canal. Some cockroaches can survive the scratching, with species such as the German cockroach able to live for about a week without food and water. However, it's more common for the scratching to squish the bug, which can be even more dangerous as their ruptured bodies are full of bacteria that can cause infections. Their marriage has been far from smooth sailing since they tied the knot back in 2013. But Amir Khan and wife Faryal Makhdoom looked closer than ever as they made a rare public appearance at the OK! Beauty Awards in London on Monday. The boxer, 31, and his make-up brand owner wife, 27, were the picture of marital bliss as they cosied up on the red carpet, proving their union is stronger than ever following a temporary split last year. Stronger than ever: Amir Khan and wife Faryal Makhdoom looked closer than ever as they made a rare public appearance at the OK! Beauty Awards in London on Monday Faryal teased her cleavage in a stunning monochrome gown, which featured a plunging ivory bodice, overlaid with sequinned tulle fabric. Cinching in at the mother-of-two's slender waist, the lower half of the gown featured a black satin skirt with a split. Her chestnut tresses were styled sleek, straight and parted in the middle, while a rich palette of make-up including fluttery lashes, liner, bronzer and a candied pink lipstick adorned her pretty features. Olympic silver medallist Amir looked proud as he wrapped an arm around his wife, while putting on a dapper display in a black suit and bow tie. On the up: The boxer, 31, and his make-up brand owner wife, 27, were the picture of marital bliss as they cosied up on the red carpet, proving their union is stronger than ever following a temporary split last year Faryal and Amir welcomed their new bundle of joy, daughter Alayna on April 24, a sister for their firstborn Lamaisah, now four. The pair have been together for six years and they tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in 2013. Their relationship has been marred by rumours of infidelity and they split last year, while Faryal was pregnant. Amir, who is worth 23million, had announced the couple's split in August 2017 in a tweet that read: 'So me and the wife Faryal have agreed to split. I'm currently in Dubai. Wish her all the best'. Showstopping: Faryal teased her cleavage in a stunning monochrome gown, which featured a plunging ivory bodice, overlaid with sequinned tulle fabric Knockout: Olympic silver medallist Amir looked proud as he wrapped an arm around his wife, while putting on a dapper display in a black suit and bow tie Family: The couple, who wed in 2013, share two daughters, including firstborn Lamaisah, now four (above) Weeks later, Faryal revealed she was expecting their second child. He said in a Snapchat video on 8 September 2017: 'So me and Faryal are not together. I have filed for a divorce. 'I hear she has just announced she is pregnant. She didn't tell me. I had to read it on social media.' In a public war of words this summer both accused the other of cheating and Faryal accused Khan's Pakistani parents of bullying her for not being a good Muslim. But in November the pair announced their reconciliation with a cosy Instagram snap and now appear to be stronger than ever. Aquaman will be released to the public in the coming weeks, but the film has already garnered positive reactions from impressed critics. The superhero film follows the story of Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), who, as a half-human half-Atlantean, reluctantly assumes the underwater kingdom throne of Atlantis. Following the movie's world premiere at Leicester Square's Cineworld in London on Monday, critics took to Twitter to describe the film as the 'most ambitious DC movie to date', and praised the leading actor's 'great' performance. Impressed: Aquaman will be released to the public in the coming weeks, but has already garnered positive reactions from critics Aquaman also stars Justice League actress Amber Heard, who portrays Princess Mera, the romantic interest of the 37-year-old's titular character. Boasting an A-list line-up, award-winning screen star Nicole Kidman takes on the powerful role of Aquaman's mother Queen Atlanna in the motion picture. Audiences got their first peek at Aquaman when he appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, but this is the protagonist's first standalone film. Hotly-anticipated: The superhero film follows the story of Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), who, as a half-human half-Atlantean, reluctantly assumes the underwater kingdom throne of Atlantis (pictured with Amber Heard) 'Aquaman is better than expected. Feels like a Marvel phase one movie, in a good way. Its at its best when its having fun and not taking itself too seriously', said Slash Film's Peter Sciretta. Touching on the character's performance and the film's visuals, he continued: 'Black Manta [Yahya Abdul-Mateen II] is great villain that comic book fans will love. Some truly spectacular one shots and good action.' Erik Davis of Fandango echoed the positive evaluation of the film as he explained: '#Aquaman is the most ambitious DC movie to date - a big, sprawling visual spectacle that is gorgeous, crazy, stuffed with terrific action, and a lot of fun to watch.' Exciting: Aquaman also stars Justice League actress Amber Heard, who portrays Princess Mera, the romantic interest of the 37-year-old's titular character He also praised the direction of the film: 'James Wan, in my opinion, is the true star - he elevates the material, makes it entertaining and conquers it.' Taking place in the wake of 2017's Justice League, the main character must take sides in a brewing conflict between the surface dwelling populace that poses a serious risk to his people and the world's oceans and the denizens of Atlantis, who urge him to take action and invade the Earth's surface in order to ensure their survival. Commending Momoa's stint, Game Spot's Mike Rougeau gushed: 'Saw #Aquaman before thanksgiving and had a week to think about it... Momoa and Patrick Wilson are absolute gems. Most of all, the movie is just flat out insane.' Matriarch: Boasting an A-list line-up, award-winning screen star Nicole Kidman takes on the powerful role of Aquaman's mother Queen Atlanna in the motion picture While admitting the the film is 'flawed but fun', he added: 'I can't believe how big, creative, and crazy it gets. Gotta see it again!' Paul Shirey of JoBlo.com agreed: 'Short & sweet reaction to #Aquaman is that I loved it. Its a comic book movie through & through with great action, iconic moments & visual spectacle to spare. 'Momoa makes the character his own & Wan honors the traditional aspects, but elevates it to the modern era. Its a blast.' Worth a watch: 'Saw #Aquaman before thanksgiving and had a week to think about it... Momoa and Patrick Wilson are absolute gems', Game Spot's Mike Rougeau gushed Star of the show: 'Momoa makes the character his own & Wan honors the traditional aspects, but elevates it to the modern era. Its a blast', Paul Shirey of JoBlo.com agreed He added: 'Ill take some heat for this, but #Aquaman is the best Marvel movie that DC has made. That doesnt mean its exactly like that formula, but it feels like a film that knows what it is, what its selling and who its selling to. Theres no identity crisis here.' CinemaBlend's Events Editor Eric Eisenberg also shared his thoughts on the upcoming movie: 'Excited I can now say how much I enjoyed #Aquaman! It's a cool adventure built on some tremendous action sequences and set pieces, with a great hero arc/performance from Jason as the glue. There's fun world building, and it looks wonderful. A great step for the DCEU. The movie is set to be released in the UK on December 14, hits US theaters on December 21 and will reach Australian and New Zealand audiences on December 26. Exciting: The movie is set to be released in the UK on December 14, hits US theaters on December 21 and will reach Australian and New Zealand audiences on December 26 (Jason and Amber pictured with Patrick Wilson and Dolph Lundgren at the London premiere) The body of celebrated Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci has been pictured in an open coffin in Rome just 24 hours after his death at the age of 77 on Monday. Stirring images showed mourners gathering to pay their respects at his casket on Tuesday after it was placed in a church on Rome's Capitol Hill earlier in the day. The Oscar-winning film-maker, whose accolades include controversial 1972 drama Last Tango In Paris, passed away in Rome surrounded by friends and family following a battle with cancer, his publicist confirmed on Monday. Bertolucci had been out of the public eye for more several years after unsuccessful surgery on a herniated disc in 2003 left him confined to a wheelchair. The open coffin of Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci is seen at Rome's Capitol Hill on Tuesday Earlier in the day on Tuesday Bertolucci's coffin was carried into a church in Rome's Capitol Hill Tragic: Celebrated Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci died aged 77, his publicist confirmed on Monday His last film, Me and You, premiered at the 65th Cannes Film Festival in 2012. The director enjoyed a hugely successful career, during which he won two Academy Awards for directing and co-writing 1988 biographical drama The Last Emperor. But it was his work with Hollywood star Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider on the provocative Last Tango in Paris that would win Bertolucci notoriety due to its lurid depictions of sex. Mourners have been flocking to the church to pay their last respects to the renowned director Droves of people could be seen filing past his coffin on Tuesday afternoon as he lay in state Much of the film's controversy centered on the suggestion of anal rape, with Brando's character - expatriate hotel owner Paul - using butter as a lubricant in one of its most notorious scenes. The movie was banned in Italy just after its release in 1972, and was not released again until 1987. The case went back and forth in the courts until the high criminal court banned the film in 1976 and ordered all copies confiscated and destroyed. Bertolucci, Brando and Schneider, as well as the producer Alberto Grimaldi, were sentenced to two months in jail and a fine of $40 each - although the jail terms were suspended. Surgery: Bertolucci had been out of the public eye for more several years after unsuccessful surgery on a herniated disc in 2003 left him confined to a wheelchair Bertolucci, a self-professed Marxist, also did not shy away from politics and ideology, as in The Conformist, which some critics consider his masterpiece. Despite working with A-list international stars, the director always defended his own filmmaking style against what he said was the pressure of the US film industry. 'When it comes to commercial cinema, I have the strange pleasure of feeling that I'm from another tribe, an infiltrator,' he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in 1990. He was honored for lifetime achievement at the Cannes film festival in 2011. Success: Bertolucci won two Oscars at the 60th Annual Academy Awards for his work on The Last Emperor Bertolucci's movies also bore the imprint of the director's own experiences in psychoanalysis. He always said that making films was his way of communicating with the audience. 'Maybe I'm an idealist, but I still think of the movie theater as a cathedral where we all go together to dream the dream together,' he said upon receiving an award from the Director's Guild of America for The Last Emperor. That movie handed Bertolucci his greatest success. In 1988 it won all the nine Academy Awards that it had been nominated for - including best movie and best director. Outrage: Last Tango In Paris was banned in Italy just after its release in 1972, and was not released again until 1987 Bertolucci was married to the English writer and director Clare Peploe. They had no children. Peploe is the sister of Mark Peploe, a screenwriter and close friend of Bertolucci's who worked with the director on a number of projects. It's understood that funeral plans are not yet finalized but that it expects a ceremony in the next few days. They were in London to attend the Ralph Breaks The Internet premiere this weekend. And Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly were making the most of their trip to the English capital, squeezing in a visit to the Chiltern Firehouse on Monday. The comedienne, 47, was casually clad for her outing, braving the cold in a pair of denim cut-off shorts and fishnet tights. Hitting the town: Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly were making the most of their trip to the English capital, squeezing in a visit to the Chiltern Firehouse on Monday Sarah donned a simple grey T-shirt and a mustard yellow cardigan, adding a quirky touch to her outfit with shiny burgundy brogues. The dressed down star - who is reprising her role as Disney princess Vanellope in the Wreck-It Ralph sequel - accessorised with a pair of stripy socks and a long pendant necklace. John was looking impossibly dapper in a smart jacket and grey chinos, topping off his look with a trilby hat. Low-key: The comedienne, 47, was casually clad for her outing, braving the cold in a pair of denim cut-off shorts and fishnet tights The pair appeared to have had a fun night out, with Sarah pulling a cheeky face as they called it a night. On Sunday evening, Sarah had donned a Gothic ensemble for the film's premiere at the Curzon Mayfair in the capital. The actress looked striking in her dark attire as she donned a black tank top over a chiffon maxi-skirt. Alternative: On Sunday evening, Sarah had donned a Gothic ensemble for the film's premiere at the Curzon Mayfair in the capital She kept warm by wearing a black blazer, while she added a rocker flair to her ensemble with a pair of statement boots. Sarah styled her raven locks into a loose waves, while she kept her make-up simple as she wore a slick of black eyeliner and nude lipstick. The star added a glittering touch to the look by accessorising with an array of silver necklaces, one of which dangled low over her ensemble. Sarah was joined at the event by her fellow leading actor John, who looked sharp in a chequered yellow, red and green suit. Striking: Sarah kept warm by wearing a black blazer, while she added a punk chic flair to her ensemble with a pair of statement boots Stunning: Sarah styled her raven locks into a loose waves, while she kept her make-up simple as she wore a slick of black eyeliner and nude lipstick The pair reprised their roles as now-BFFs Ralph and Vanellope in the sequel to Disney's Wreck It Ralph animated movie. Ralph Breaks the Internet takes place six years later when the duo discover a wi-fi router in their arcade which leads them on an exhilarating adventure. Stars for animated movies often record on their own and rarely meet their co-stars until they join forces to promote the film on the red carpet. However, John was insistent on recording his lines in the same booth as his co-star Sarah to ensure they forged a close bond which they could bring to their characters. Supportive: Sarah was joined at the event by her fellow leading actor John, who looked sharp in a chequered yellow, red and green suit They're back! The pair reprised their roles as now-BFFs Ralph and Vanellope in the sequel to Disney's Wreck It Ralph animated movie During his Good Morning America appearance earlier this month, the actor gushed over his co-star saying she was both 'fun' and 'creative'. He said: 'I figured if you're gonna work with someone as fun and as creative as Sarah Silverman, why not have them in the room there with you? 'A lot of the time actors go in for animated movies they're just alone, they're playing someone's best friend but they never lay eyes on them, and I thought, "We gotta be in the room together so we can find stuff and improvise". 'Sarah and I definitely did a lot for this movie, so I think this movie has an extra soulful quality because we're actually in there looking at each other, talking to each other. We riffed like crazy!' Kiki Morris was one of the most memorable contestants from Richie Strahan's season of The Bachelor. And while the 31-year-old has steered clear of reality TV since, she's now hinted that she could make a return to the small screen on the second season of Bachelor In Paradise. On Tuesday, she shared a bikini-clad photo of herself to Instagram along with the caption: 'Follow me to Paradise.' 'Follow me to paradise!' Kiki Morris hinted that she could make a return to the small screen on the second season of Bachelor In Paradise in a cryptic Instagram post However, in other posts the blonde beauty appears to be at home in Sydney, so if she has filmed for Bachelor In Paradise then it's likely that she's already been eliminated and has since returned home from Fiji, where the series is shot. On Monday, Bachelor reject Elora Murger was seen arriving in Sydney airport after filming Bachelor In Paradise in Fiji for a mere two days. Other stars confirmed for the reality series include Cat Henesy, Florence Alexander, Bill Goldsmith, and Cass Wood. Flashback: Kiki Morris was one of the most memorable contestants from Richie Strahan's season of The Bachelor Last month, Kiki celebrated her 31st birthday in lavish style. She wore a sizzling co-ord with a metallic pleated skirt that she teamed up the skirt with a matching gold midriff top that did little to cover her ample cleavage. The dazzling set is by Aussie designer label Alice McCall and worth approximately $AUD800. Golden girl! Last month, Kiki celebrated her 31st birthday in a pricey Alice McCall ensemble Kiki initially shot to fame by appearing on season four of The Bachelor in 2016, vying for Richie Strahan's heart. Since then, she has remained in the limelight thanks to her large Instagram following. The sultry stunner is also known for her modelling achievements, having won Miss Australia, Miss Yacht Model and RALPH Australian Swimsuit Model of the Year. She topped the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard on Saturday after earning 39 points for her paso doble routine. And Stacey Dooley beamed as she headed to rehearsals in London on Tuesday, hours after announcing she would be one of the first celebrities on the 2019 Strictly Come Dancing Live UK Arena Tour. The presenter, 31, went for a casual look in baggy navy tracksuit bottoms and white trainers to go with her grey hoodie. Looking confident: Stacey Dooley looked relaxed as she headed to rehearsals in London on Tuesday after topping the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard with her sizzling paso doble She covered up against the London weather in a nude coat while showing off her style with a Louis Vuitton handbag and matching suitcase. Stacey's flame red hair was scraped back into a low bun and she showed off a pair of chunky gold hoop earrings ahead of her Musical Week practice. The outing comes as Stacey, along with fellow celebrities Dr Ranj Singh and Joe Sugg are confirmed to take part in the UK tour. Stellar: The BBC journalist, 31, sailed through to next week after wowing judges with her dance routine alongside partner Kevin Clifton on Strictly Get your dancing shoes on: Hours earlier Stacey announced she would be on of the first celebrities on the 2019 Strictly Come Dancing Live UK Arena Tour Natural look: Stacey's flame-red hair was scraped back into a low bun and she showed off a pair of chunky gold hoop earrings Her pro partner Kevin Clifton confirmed he won't part of the show but Stacey has been partnered with dancer Aljaz Skorjanec. The BBC journalist's said: 'Im loving this experience so much. I know people always say that, but its so true. 'To be able to go on tour and perform for the fans all over the UK is such an honour. Im so excited! I will miss Kev, but I am looking forward to putting Aljaz through his paces.' Time of her life: The BBC journalist's said: 'Im loving this experience so much. I know people always say that, but its so true' Excited: She continued: 'To be able to go on tour and perform for the fans all over the UK is such an honour. Im so excited! I will miss Kev, but I am looking forward to putting Aljaz through his paces.' Striking: Over the weekend, Stacey turned heads with her semi-sheer ensemble, teamed with a slick ponytail Stacey and Kevin are favourites to win the BBC dancing show after their sizzling performance on Saturday which scored them 39 points. Judge Darey Bussell commended them on their skills: 'Stacey you look amazing oh my goodness you tore up the dancefloor, it was dramatic, powerful, brilliant'. Last week a Betfair spokesperson said: 'It's Stacey Dooley who goes from strength to strength each week and is the 11/8 favourite to win the series ahead of Joe Sugg who is 11/4 and Faye Tozer at 7/2.' Also confirmed to join host and former Strictly winner Ore Oduba on the tour are pro dancer Janette Manrara as well as judges Craig Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell, Shirley Ballas and Bruno Toniolo. She's become a spokesperson for women everywhere, broaching topics like gender inequality and victim-shaming. And Amber Heard has been chosen as the cover girl for Glamour's January issue, discussing her sexuality, activism and using her platform to help domestic abuse survivors in the candid new interview. The actress, 32, went through a very public divorce with Johnny Depp in 2016 after allegations of domestic abuse, which were contested by the actor. Speak up: Amber Heard covers Glamour 's January issue, discussing her sexuality, activism and using her platform to help domestic abuse survivors in the candid new interview Although she doesn't mention the Hollywood veteran by name, she discusses the stigma surrounding women who come forward with stories of abuse. She declared: 'When a woman comes forward, she will be met with skepticism, hostility, and shame. 'All a man has to do is point to an incentive. He will. Or society will.' The LOreal Paris global ambassador stars in superhero flick Aquaman, the latest film in the DC cinematic universe. After feeling like she was only being offered roles that play to her sex appeal, the actress said she'd done the best she could without the 'luxury of being picky'. Read all about it: The US Glamour cover girl has become a spokesperson for women everywhere, broaching topics like gender inequality and victim-shaming Amber explained: 'Theres an implicit apology expected of me for my participation in feminine beauty, but I cant play into this false narrative that my sexuality is mutually exclusive from my power 'My sexuality, my femininity, in whatever way I want to express it, is mine and my own.' Amber went on to say that more needed to be done about the gender pay gap in Hollywood. 'We get paid less as women, and we end up spending more time on set, because of hair and makeup demands... Were working in an inherently flawed system', she said. The star also discusses confronting Senator Jeff Flake in the in-depth profile. Claims: The actress, 32, went through a very public divorce with actor Johnny Depp in 2016 after allegations of domestic abuse, which he denied. Although she doesn't mention the Hollywood veteran by name, she discusses the stigma surrounding women who come forward Heard joined Rise, a national civil rights nonprofit aimed to help people pen their own civil rights into existence. In 2018 she and a group of survivors joined the organization in D.C. to appeal to Senator Jeff Flake for an FBI investigation in the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. 'I took a moment for him to realize I did not want a selfie with him,' she recalls about meeting the Arizona senator. 'I thanked him. I told him that in my life I have done the unpopular thing, go up against a powerful system. 'It takes grace and bravery; it can feel lonely and terrifying.' Read the full feature with photos by Jason Kibbler and words by Phoebe Reilly in Glamour magazine. The January issue is on stands November 27. I'm A Celebrity bosses are said to be spending 'a fortune' in maintaining Holly Willoughby's vast entourage while she resides Down Under. The extent of the This Morning frontwoman's team was revealed over the weekend yet insiders now claim ITV are paying thousands to keep a host of staff affiliated with the star including stylists, make-up artists, skin experts and tutors. Sources detailed to the Mirror how the costs are racking up to accommodate the aides to the star, who has just been joined by her parents Down Under, following her successful new role as host in place of embattled Ant McPartlin. Hold it down: I'm A Celebrity bosses are said to be spending 'a fortune' in maintaining Holly Willoughby's vast entourage while she resides Down Under Holly's turn as presenter comes after Ant's battles with addiction and subsequent drink-driving arrest, led to the sidekick of Declan Donnelly pulling out of hosting the show for the first time in its 16 year history. She has been praised for her work however attention was turned away from her on-screen presence and on to her extensive and glamorous posse. Scooping her role on the show cost bosses a reported 63,000 as she would not sign on the dotted line until it was agreed that her husband Dan Baldwin and kids Harry, nine; Belle, seven, and four-year-old Chester could join her in Oz. To accommodate the family, bosses have spent thousands on flights to Australia while also putting the group up in a 1,770-a-night room in the Palazzo Versace Hotel. Hard worker: The extent of the This Morning frontwoman's team was revealed over the weekend yet insiders now claim ITV are paying thousands to keep a host of staff affiliated with the star including stylists, make-up artists, skin experts and tutors Her one and only: The star's beloved parents Linda and Brian have joined the star's family, as Holly took to Instagram to share a duo of snaps of the pair Representatives for I'm A Celebrity and Holly declined to comment when approached by MailOnline. Some of the huge line-up includes Holly's stylist Angie Smith, who has made her name for creating Holly's well-known and flawless ensembles. Her manager Emily Page has also joined the star on her trip. Holly's make-up artist Patsy O'Neill has been sharing images of herself while Down Under and between snapping the stunner's make-up looks. Beaming: She is overjoyed to be joined by her dad as she hit the Golden Coast Outback: Holly's make-up artist Patsy O'Neill (pictured) has been sharing images of herself while Down Under and between snapping the stunner's make-up looks The star's beloved parents Lynn and Brian are in tow, as Holly took to Instagram to share a duo of snaps of the pair as the endeavoured into the jungle to explore. Sharing the images with her 4.5million followers, she left many fans scratching their heads as she claimed they were entering the jungle - with many baffled as to who they were in the long-distance shots. Work commitments mean Holly's TV executive husband Dan Baldwin is only going to join her for five days out of the five weeks she is in Oz. She said: 'It's the longest we've been apart; it's rubbish.' Shock: Although they are young, the children will be missing around three weeks of school, so arrangements have been made for them to keep up with school work via tutors as Holly says they have 'loads to do' Although they are young, the children will be missing around three weeks of school, so arrangements have been made for them to keep up with school work via tutors as Holly says they have 'loads to do'. Holly can rely on the services of two senior ITV publicists, Ben Webster and Gary Smith, while in Australia. The pair are looking after Holly and the show as a whole. ITV provides security for the presenters, and a small detail met her at Gold Coast Airport after she took a short internal flight from Sydney... Her driver and guard have been at her side ever since. Co-presenter Dec and his wife Ali who have brought out their infant daughter Isla get the same treatment. She is often seen sporting saucy ensembles at the beach or on the red carpet. Yet Lady Victoria Hervey moved her scanty looks into her professional life in a recent photoshoot for fashion designer Grace Chen where she was seen posing on a stunning yacht with the envy-inducing Monaco backdrop. The 42-year-old blonde beauty looked sensational as she slipped down to a racy fringed bikini with a billowing white cover-up before showing off her lithe physique in exquisite ballgowns and flirty party dresses. Woah! Lady Victoria Hervey moved her scanty looks into her professional life in a recent photoshoot for fashion designer Grace Chen where she was seen posing on a stunning yacht with the envy-inducing Monaco backdrop Ensuring she looked picture perfect, Lady Victoria put on a jaw-dropping display as she preened and posed on the yacht ALTAVITA in the stunning two-piece. Highlighting her taut abs, the fringing on the bikini tickled her stomach in length while her bottoms were also perilously low-slung to further highlight her best bits Another dazzling snap saw the star pose in a mint green gown with draped detailing and a racy slash extending the length of her staggering pins. Victoria made the most of her jet-set summer by flying off to the hottest destinations including Mykonos, Cannes and Italy so far. Feeling mint! Another dazzling snap saw the star pose in a mint green gown with draped detailing and a racy slash extending the length of her staggering pins Open and honest: Although she has been travelling all over the world, she recently discussed her future plans to settle down and become a mum after realising her dream for a baby Although she has been travelling all over the world, she recently discussed her future plans to settle down and become a mum after realising her dream for a baby. She revealed to The Mail On Sunday that she started freezing her eggs in a fertility clinic which cost her 11,000 after letting years of partying slip away. While she is well known for her sizzling style, Lady previously told Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare that English women struggle to be sexy. Shocker: While she is well known for her sizzling style, Lady previously told Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare that English women struggle to be sexy All white: Victoria added that she still leads by example, sporting an array of sheer ensembles at parties recently, she said: 'Its empowering to dress provocatively' She said: 'Women in London are too conservative and dont have the courage to wear sexy outfits. Its an English thing. I grew up in the South of France so I have a much more international approach.' Victoria added that she still leads by example, sporting an array of sheer ensembles at parties recently, she said: 'Its empowering to dress provocatively'. Her body confidence put her in good stead during her modelling career, which saw her work for the likes of Christian Dior. All white: Her body confidence put her in good stead during her modelling career, which saw her work for the likes of Christian Dior She recently revealed the impressive results of her non-surgical bum-lift, but it was Danielle Lloyds clear complexion that caught the eye as she stepped out in Birmingham on Tuesday. The former glamour model went make-up free for a trip to a local supermarket, where she was accompanied by infant son Ronnie, the youngest of her four children and first with fiance Michael ONeill. Always the doting mother, Danielle, 34, cradled the 14-month old as she prepared to pick up some groceries. Looking good: She recently revealed the impressive results of her non-surgical bum-lift, but it was Danielle Lloyds clear complexion that caught the eye as she stepped out in Birmingham on Tuesday In keeping with her low-key setting the brunette opted for a relaxed ensemble, with a loose grey T-shirt worn over casual black leggings. Matching black Balenciaga trainers gave the look a designer flourish, while a fluffy winter jacket rounded things off. On a chilly day in the Midlands Ronnie was appropriately dressed in a thick quilted jacket and woolen hat as his mother placed him in the seat of her shopping trolley. Natural appearance: The former glamour model went make-up free for a trip to a local supermarket, where she was accompanied by infant son Ronnie, the youngest of her four children and first with fiance Michael ONeill My boy: Always the doting mother, Danielle, 34, cradled the 14-month old as she prepared to pick up some groceries Her latest appearance comes after she unveiled the incredible results of her non-surgical bum lift treatment. The model said she opted for the procedure to re-tighten her bum and stomach, adding that she wanted get back into shape after giving birth to four children. It comes after Danielle previously admitted she felt 'disgusted' by her body following a slew of cosmetic surgery complications, as she went under the knife in 2012 for a breast enlargement. Transformed: Danielle recently unveiled the incredible results of her non-surgical bum lift New look: The model said she opted for the procedure to re-tighten her bum and stomach, adding that she wanted get back into shape after giving birth to four children Danielle's peachy posterior was on full display as she opted to transform her derriere with the non-evasive procedure, going against the norm having been a fan of cosmetic surgery in the past. The mother-of-four was seen heading to the Liverpool clinic in a sensational leopard print jumpsuit on Saturday. Speaking out about her choice to have the treatment, Danielle said: 'After my first session I can already see a difference in the shape, it looks and feels rounder and tighter already'. Getting to work: 'After my first session I can already see a difference in the shape, it looks and feels rounder and tighter already,' she said She explained her decision to undertake the procedure, saying: 'After reading about those women who died after having Brazilian bum lifts there's no way I'd put myself in that kind of danger, so I was interested to see if a non-surgical version could work as well. 'Like a lot of women, even though I exercise regularly I still do need a bit of help with some areas, especially after having four children.' The former Miss Great Britain also had a skin tightening treatment on the skin around her stomach. In 2017 Danielle said she was 'disgusted' by her body following a series of complications related to botched breast enlargement procedures, having enlarge her breasts in 2012 from a B cup to a D cup. Danielle has sons Archie, eight, Harry, seven, and George, five, with her ex-husband Jamie O'Hara, and son Ronnie with fiance Michael. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a veteran of stage and screen. But the toughest 10 seconds the 39-year-old has ever experienced were for his upcoming movie Mary Poppins Returns, he said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. He shared that 'there's, like, one scene in this movie where I light a lamp, ride a bike, steal an apple from a cart, throw it to an orphan child, all while singing in a Cockney accent,' He added, 'That moment is the hardest 10 seconds of my life.' Strain on the job: The toughest 10 seconds the 39-year-old has ever experienced were for his upcoming movie Mary Poppins Returns, he said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Ellen noted that his job was made tougher by the fact 'you have to actually toss the apple in the right place, not to mention the other things you're talking about.' 'I'm sure there are takes of me just absolutely whacking poor orphan children, just throwing apples too hard,' quipped Hamilton icon Lin-Manuel. He heaped praise on the film's leading lady Emily Blunt, saying: 'She's absolutely perfect in this movie, and it is not hard to pretend to be having fun with Mary Poppins on these amazing adventures. It was one of the best jobs of my life.' Lin-Manuel and Emily's movie is Disney's sequel to its iconic 1964 film Mary Poppins, which starred Julie Andrews in an Oscar-winning turn as the titular magic nanny. Hard at work: The toughest bit was 'one scene in this movie where I light a lamp, ride a bike, steal an apple from a cart, throw it to an orphan child, all while singing in a Cockney accent' While Emily has taken on Julie's old role, Lin-Manuel will be seen as her best pal Bert, whom Dick Van Dyke played in the 1964 film. Lin-Manuel told Ellen that Mary Poppins Returns, out December 19, 'actually takes place about 20 years after the original - 25 years - so the Banks children have grown up, and Mary Poppins comes back into their lives, and you think she's there to take care of Michael's kids, but I think she's there to take care of all the Banks children.' While on the morning chat show, the dashing Broadway star played a game of 'Tastebuds' with Thanksgiving leftovers. Making it all work: Ellen noted that his job was made tougher by the fact 'you have to actually toss the apple in the right place, not to mention the other things you're talking about' Ellen blindfolded her guest and had him taste different foods, then correctly guess what he had just eaten, in order to raise money for Puerto Rico. The original 1964 Mary Poppins earned Oscars in five categories, including for its score and its original song Chim Chim Cher-ee. Robert Stevenson was nominated for best director and the film was up for best picture, losing out to the adaptation of the stage musical My Fair Lady - which Julie had starred in on Broadway, only to be replaced by Audrey Hepburn for the movie. Brave man: While on the morning chat show, the dashing Broadway star played a game of 'Tastebuds' with Thanksgiving leftovers For a cause: Ellen blindfolded her guest and had him taste different foods, then correctly guess what he had just eaten, in order to raise money for Puerto Rico Walt Disney himself asked Julie to star in Mary Poppins, and she initially felt she had to decline the role because she was pregnant, but he replied: 'Thats OK, we can wait,' Julie told the Sunday Post early this year. Mary Poppins Returns is directed by Rob Marshall, who helmed the Oscar-winning 2002 adaptation of the Broadway musical Chicago. This new movie also stars Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth, Emily Mortimer, Ben Whishaw and Julie Walters alongside Emily and Lin-Manuel. In addition to playing Bert in the original film, Dick featured as bank director Mr. Dawes Sr. - and has portrayed his son for Mary Poppins Returns. She's been playing Arya Stark in Game Of Thrones since she was 14. And despite wrapping up filming for the show's final season, Maisie Williams admitted she is yet to put her feet up and relax. The British star, 21, visited St John's College in Cambridge University on Tuesday to speak to students about her life and career. Speaking out: Maisie Williams visited St John's College in Cambridge University on Tuesday to speak to students about her life and career and the 'crazy opportunities' she has been offered She dressed for the event in an oversized leopard print coat dressed down with a black turtleneck jumper, tracksuit bottoms and Converse trainers. The actress left her hair loose around her shoulders and wore a pair of wide-rimmed glasses. She appeared at Bath University on Monday where she told students: 'You can either live your life and think "what if" or you can take these crazy opportunities...if you dont really try, youll never really know'. Keeping it casual: She dressed for the event in an oversized leopard print coat dressed down with a black turtleneck jumper, tracksuit bottoms and Converse trainers Natural: The actress left her hair loose around her shoulders and wore a pair of wide-rimmed glasses The wise words come as Maisie is touring UK universities to promote her app, Daisie. The social networking app was founded in August with Maisie's friend Dom Santry and aims to bring 'creative people' together. After listening to the actress talk fans took to Twitter to share their support for Maisie and called her 'an inspiration' and said the actress is 'paving the way for future creativity'. Stepping away from the camera? Maisie is touring UK universities to promote her app, Daisie Inspiring: Fans took to Twitter to share their support from Maisie saying she is 'paving the way for future creativity' In October Maisie spoke to The Guardian about the impact on her life since giving up mainstream school to be taught at home while starring in Game Of Thrones: 'I gave up a huge part of my adolescent life. I'm still petrified of my peers, because I just didn't spend a lot of time with them.' Among other projects the actress recently starred in her first stage performance in I And You and will star alongside Nina Dobrev and Asa Butterfield in Then Came You set to release in 2019. He's had a series of terrible car crashes and suffered severe head injuries during his motoring presenting career. But that didn't stop Richard Hammond, 48, from living life on the edge as he drives along on a rickety bridge in the upcoming third season of Amazon Prime's The Grand Tour. In a trailer clip for the hotly-anticipated show, fellow host Jeremy Clarkson, 58, takes on his most bizarre drive yet as he rides on a manhood-shaped course. Tense: Richard Hammond continued to live life on the edge as he drives along on a rickety bridge in the upcoming third season of Amazon Prime's The Grand Tour Strange: In a trailer clip for the hotly-anticipated show, fellow host Jeremy Clarkson takes on his most bizarre drive yet as he rides on a manhood-shaped course Set to keep viewers on the edge of their seats, former Top Gear star Richard struggles to keep his flame print Jeep on a tiny bridge over a steep canyon in Colombia. Richard trembles with fear as he screams: 'Oh Jesus, I'm shaking all over. I think I might be sick.' Taking on a very strange task in Sweden, broadcaster Jeremy joins racing driver Abbie Eaton, 26, as they speed along a manhood-shaped course in the snow. Eek: Set to keep viewers on the edge of their seats, former Top Gear star Richard, 48, struggles to keep his flame print Jeep on a tiny bridge over a steep canyon in Colombia Tense: Richard trembles with fear as he screams: 'Oh Jesus, I'm shaking all over. I think I might be sick' The cast are also joined by co-host James May, 55, who cheekily tows a sculpture of Jeremy. The new series sees the trio visit Detroit, Nevada and Scotland as they take on epic challenges in their true comedic fashion. Meanwhile, Jeremy recently revealed that daredevil Richard damaged his brain after a series of car crashes. Richard was in a coma for two weeks after he suffered severe head injuries after crashing a jet-powered dragster at 288mph near York while filming Top Gear in 2006. Racing through: Taking on a very strange task in Sweden, broadcaster Jeremy, 58, joins racing driver Abbie Eaton, 26, as they speed along a manhood-shaped course in the snow He was driving a jet-powered Vampire dragster when the front-right tyre burst leading the vehicle to spin out of control during a stunt at Elvington airfield near York. Clarkson told the Sunday Mirror: 'Well it's not his fault , it is because he cannot drive and he went upside down and damaged his brain. 'He has no capacity for remembering anything and some of it is because he is not interested in anything and some of it is because he has brain damage.' Cheeky: The cast are also joined by co-host James May, 55, who tows a sculpture of Jeremy Exciting: The new series sees the trio visit Detroit, Nevada and Scotland as they take on epic challenges in their true comedic fashion In June last year, fans were left terrified again when Richard was airlifted to hospital following his accident in June after flipping a 2million electric supercar which then burst into flames as he filmed The Grand Tour. But he miraculously escaped the fireball horror with little more than a fractured knee and was 'conscious and talking' after freeing himself from the vehicle His Grand Tour colleagues May and Clarkson were 'staggered' he survived because there was 'nothing left' of the vehicle. Uh oh: During their adventure, the hosts are left shocked as a helicopter bursts into flames Upcoming: The Grand Tour returns to Prime Video on 18th January 2019. Series 1 and 2 are available to stream only on Prime Video now Richard, nicknamed 'Hamster', later revealed how he struggled 'mortally with depression' and spoke regularly to a psychiatrist following the incident in 2006. The duo still have a great time working together - with Jeremy previously stating: 'There are moments where I laughed so much, you know that dangerous laughter when you think, "If I do not breathe I'll suffocate.'" The Grand Tour returns to Prime Video on 18th January 2019. Series 1 and 2 are available to stream only on Prime Video now. Kirsten Dunst looked like she stepped out of a time machine from the nineties on the set of her latest project. The actress is currently filming in Louisiana for her new YouTube Premium television series On Becoming a God in Central Florida. Teased and hairsprayed bangs were a 'thing' back then and the 36-year-old revived them for her character to shoot a scene on Monday. Retro vibes: Kirsten Dunst was ready to party like it was 1999 while on set for her latest television series in Louisiana on Monday Kirsten, dressed as her character Krystal, wore a yellow Rebel Rapids T-shirt, which is presumably the name of the water park where she works in the show. The wardrobe department emphasized nineties style with cuffed high rise denim shorts, white sneakers and scrunched purple socks. No retro look would be complete without thick gold hoops, which Kirsten displayed with style. It was the Jumanji star's teased and sprayed bangs that really brought the vintage look to life. The small screen: The actress is currently filming in Louisiana for her new YouTube Premium television series On Becoming a God in Central Florida which is set in the nineties Photographers snapped the New Jersey native taking a break between scenes and holding her lunch as she walked around the set. Last week, cameras captured the blonde beauty shooting a high energy scene for the series that required her to channel her Bring It On days and bust out some silly dance moves at a swimming pool. Kirsten was rocking some peak nineties garb with a pair of acid washed jean shorts and a black V-neck one piece swim suit that was edged with huge multicolored plastic gems. Dark comedy: The new show centers on a water park employee who works her way up to the top of a pyramid scheme The new dark comedy will see the Spider-Man star playing a character who is 'a dirt poor, very fierce young woman who is relentless in her pursuit of the American dream,' according to Deadline. 'It centers on Krystal Gill, a minimum-wage-earning water park employee who will eventually scheme her way up the ranks of Founders American Merchandise: the cultish, flag waving, multi-billion dollar pyramid scheme that drove her family to ruin.' The 10 episode season is slated to stream on YouTube Premium in 2019. Next year: Kirsten's new show will stream on YouTube Premium in 2019 It was reported in 2017 that AMC was developing the production but the following year it was announced that the production had moved to YouTube Premium which had given it a series order. Dunst is a busy woman these days in between working and raising her new baby. In May, the Fargo actress gave birth to her first child, a son named Ennis, with fiance Jesse Plemons. She and Plemons made their first post-baby public appearance together in September while attending the 2018 Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Ariel Winter switched up her style to attend a couple of press appearances on Tuesday. The actress, who is usually clad super casually when home in Los Angeles, was the epitome of city chic as she was pictured in New York. A vision in a luxurious navy blue coat, the 20-year-old star stopped to sign autographs on the sidewalk. Elegant: Ariel Winter was glowing as she stepped out in New York on Tuesday in a chic ensemble Ariel was glowing as she sported her raven locks glossy and straight in a center parting. Her stylish outfit consisted of a velour turtleneck top and leather mini and she layered on a wool robe-style coat with belt cinching in her waist. Ariel finished off her ensemble with some towering sexy blue satin heels. The Modern Family actress was spotted signing autographs on the sidewalk before heading into the SiriusXM offices. During the outing she also made an appearance on Live! With Kelly and Ryan alongside fellow guest, Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones. Greeted by fans: Ariel Winter signed autographs as she arrived at the Sirius Radio offices as well Live with Kelly and Ryan Winter chic: Ariel's outfit consisted of a velour turtle neck top and a leather skirt. She layered on a robe-style navy coat Ariel was seen without beau Levi Meaden, 31, with whom she celebrated two years of dating earlier this month. Meanwhile, Ariel opened up about the death of a character on the current season of Modern Family. Shelley Long's character DeDe Pritchett met her demise on the shows Halloween episode after weeks of speculation about who was going to leave the show. Ariel revealed she first found out a character was going to be killed off when the news hit headlines in October. Early morning appearance: Ariel posed with hosts Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa 'We got the table draft like 10 minutes later and I opened it and Im like, "Oh my God, its me, Im done. They fired me," she told Variety. 'And then I'm like, "Its not me, thank God," but also sad because we no longer have Shelley Long.' Ariel said it was new ground for the ABC show which is known for its lighthearted subject matter. 'Weve never really talked about death before on the show,' she said. 'Its a very sad topic, but I think we tried to make it as lighthearted as possible to just show how everybody deals with death differently. Grieving is not always the way you think it is, so I think its important.' She broke her silence on the explosive row she had with her Strictly Come Dancing ex Giovanni Pernice. Yet Jess Wright put the furious fight out of her mind as she made the most of the sun on her girls' break on the beach outside Le Royal Meridien, in Dubai in recent days. The former TOWIE star, 33, flashed a glimpse of her fitness-honed figure in the sexy cut-outs of her neon green swimsuit. The (W)right look! Jess Wright exhibited her gym-honed abs in a bright cutout costume in Dubai after she dropped a bombshell about fiery row with Strictly ex Giovanni Pernice Jess displayed her ample cleavage in the revealing neckline of her bright one-piece and she accessorised with a cross necklace for a hint of sparkle. The fitness fan looked carefree as she giggled and splashed around in the sea which proved her ex Giovanni was the furthest from her mind. As she topped up on her tan under the scorching sunshine, Mark's sister added shades to her look and she wore her raven locks loose to her shoulders. Saucy looks: The former TOWIE star, 33, flashed a glimpse of her fitness-honed figure in the sexy cut-outs of her neon green swimsuit Sunny stroll: As she topped up on her tan under the scorching sunshine, Mark's sister added shades to her look and she wore her raven locks loose to her shoulders Fresh from her Dubai break, Jess wasted no time in hitting the town just hours after she arrived on home turf in London. Mark's sister brought her holiday glow to the OK! Beauty Awards at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge on Monday night. The former TOWIE star looked stunning in a midnight blue plunging sparkle wrap dress complete with a sexy slit to showcase her holiday tan. Take the plunge: Jess displayed her ample cleavage in the revealing neckline of her bright one-piece and she accessorised with a cross necklace for a hint of sparkle Great fun: Jess enjoyed the charming company of her brunette bombshell pal in a scarlet bikini Dressed to impress: Fresh from her Dubai break, Jess wasted no time in hitting the town just hours after she arrived on home turf in London The reality TV personality completed the look with strappy sandals and glammed up with plenty of sultry eye makeup. Hours earlier, the brunette beauty took to Instagram to share a stunning snap of herself in Dubai, wearing in a green cutaway bikini. She gave her 1.4 million fans a glimpse of her gym honed body as she enjoyed the sun in the Middle East before 'driving home for Christmas'. Jess' appearance at the beauty awards came as she spoke out why she confronted her Strictly professional dancer ex-boyfriend Giovanni Pernice, 28, at the Pride Of Britain Awards last month. Work it: The former TOWIE star, 33, looked stunning in a midnight blue plunging sparkle wrap dress complete with a sexy slit to showcase her holiday tan Holiday blues: Hours earlier, the brunette beauty took to Instagram to share a stunning snap of herself in Dubai, wearing in a green cutaway bikini (pictured with pal Shani Chalpin, left) Speaking to OK! Magazine, the former TOWIE star explained: 'We hadn't seen each other since we split. I didnt choose to bump into him that night. 'I definitely wasnt shouting, I was just being passionate, as I always am when Ive got an opinion.' In the video of the clash, Jess was seen screaming at the Strictly star in a shocking row in which she branded him 'full of s**t', before she was heard saying: 'You broke my heart, you lied to me'. While Giovanni and various others tried to diffuse the row, Jess raged: 'I got in a cab and I never saw you again for six months, you're talking s**t. You used me... publicity, fame. No-one who loves someone drops them. Party time: The reality TV personality completed the look with strappy sandals and glammed up with plenty of sultry eye makeup Explosive: Jess' appearance came as she spoke out why she confronted her Strictly dancer ex-boyfriend Giovanni Pernice, 28, at the Pride Of Britain Awards last month 'You're jealous of everything. We were together six months, you never cared about me. I want to know why - you left me!' Jess and Giovanni were first romantically linked in December 2017 when they were spotted on a date. The lovebirds enjoyed a cosy drink at London's Soho House before they went onto watch West End production Dream Girls. In April however, things came to a crashing close when a source told The Sun: 'He was really into Jess and did want to make a go of it, but he struggled with the attention she gets and her popularity.' The ex factor: Jess and Giovanni were first romantically linked in December 2017 when they were spotted on a date (pictured in March) 'Theyve tried to keep things amicable and told people they have both agreed to go their separate ways, but he was the one who first suggested things were going to end. 'She has been really upset by this. Its a real shame but hopefully things will stay civil.' While her romance with Giovanni was not to be, since the split Jessica has been linked to Olly Murs, 34, in October. Of the rumours, the reality star told OK! Magazine: 'Ollys a lovely guy and has loads of charisma. Lets leave it at that! I'm dating but I'm not dating Olly!' She's an advocate for body confidence who's never afraid to show off her incredible curves. And Iskra Lawrence dared to bare once again on Tuesday, as she slipped into 11 different swimwear ensembles during a sun-soaked photoshoot for Aerie in Key Biscayne, Florida. The British model, 28, was seen playfully showcasing her incredible curves in a hot pink bikini, before flaunting her peachy behind in a skimpy blue striped number. Making a splash: Iskra Lawrence dared to bare on Tuesday, as she slipped into five different bikinis during a sun-soaked photoshoot for Aerie in Key Biscayne, Florida The blonde beauty certainly turned heads in her first outfit, a pink two-piece that featured a sporty halter neckline. Letting her statement swimwear do all the talking, she framed her features with minimal make-up and styled her golden tresses in beachy waves. She then dazzled in a series of other bikinis, including the blue printed number, a green bandeau bikini and an orange and yellow floral creation. Despite her cheery display on the beach, things took a sour turn for Iskra later that day when she was forced to hit out at a skinny-shaming troll. Simply stunning: The British model, 28, was seen playfully showcasing her incredible curves in a hot pink bikini, before flaunting her peachy behind in a skimpy red number Beating the blues: The blonde beauty also flaunted her generous cleavage in a blue printed two-piece with a plunging top Oh dear: Despite her cheery display on the beach, things took a sour turn for Iskra later that day when she was forced to hit out at a skinny-shaming troll Not impressed: She shared a photo of the bully writing: 'Gain some weight. Be a plus-size model,' to which she replied: 'Gain something better than commenting on people's weight smh followed by a string of laughing face emojis' She shared a photo of the bully writing: 'Gain some weight. Be a plus-size model,' to which she replied: 'Gain something better than commenting on people's weight smh followed by a string of laughing face emojis.' Iskra posted the exchange to her Instagram Stories and captioned it: 'It's always #clapbackseason.' Iskra is currently starring on one of the 21 covers of the fifth issue of the bi-annual issue of Herring & Herring magazine. Turning heads: The blonde beauty certainly turned heads in her first outfit, a pink two-piece that featured a sporty halter neckline Natural beauty: Letting her statement swimwear do all the talking, she framed her features with minimal make-up and styled her golden tresses in beachy waves Having a whale of a time: Iskra frolicked and made heart gestures at the camera during the fun-filled shoot Candid: The model has long been an activist for body diversity and authenticity on social media, and wanting to be a 'real' role model for her fans The issue also features appearances from Olivia Munn, Seal, Winnie Harlow, Laverne Cox, Mandy Moore, Skai Jackson, Meghan Trainor, and Wiz Khalifa. Writing about the magazine on Instagram, the photography brand stated: 'Each person we photographed represents what beauty means to us; not only by their physical appearance, but equally by their kind humanitarian actions, and their spirit.' The model has long been an activist for body diversity and authenticity on social media, and wanting to be a 'real' role model for her fans, she recently shared a snap of herself crying while revealing she had suffered an 'emotional breakdown'. Casual footwear: The catwalk star rocked a pair of gold flip flops during the shoot Golden glow: Iskra boasted an all-over sunkissed glow during the beachside shoot Hard-working model: Lawrence later rocked a revealing striped number and a coral scalloped edge bikini Say it in stripes: The runway star beamed as she showed off her next ensemble, a multi-coloured bandeau number Come on down: The blonde beauty appeared to be in great spirits during the sizzling shoot Iskra shunned her usual bikini-clad snaps for a more sensitive upload and in her photo, the Instagram star could be seen teary-eyed, as she revealed her 'internal struggle' to ensure her page on the social media platform is as 'real' as possible. The starlet revealed she had been upset over 'personal issues' and a recent incident that occurred. While she didn't give details, Iskra did tell fans that she wanted to share her upset online in order to raise awareness of mental health and show others it is 'OK to cry'. Honest: She recently shared a snap of herself crying while revealing she had suffered an 'emotional breakdown' Insta-reality: Iskra shunned her usual bikini-clad snaps for a more sensitive upload and in her photo, the Instagram star could be seen teary-eyed, as she revealed her 'internal struggle' to ensure her page on the social media platform is as 'real' as possible Tough times: The starlet revealed she had been upset over 'personal issues' and a recent incident that occurred Mental health: While she didn't give details, Iskra did tell fans that she wanted to share her upset online in order to raise awareness of mental health and show others it is 'OK to cry' Opening up: She shared a lengthy statement alongside her emotional post that read: 'It's still an internal struggle to post absolutely everything...' She shared a lengthy statement alongside her emotional post that read: 'It's still an internal struggle to post absolutely everything... 'I felt like a mess, and felt like I looked a mess and my emotions were shook after something that happened yesterday and a combination of other personal issues that I think lead to this emotional breakdown... 'I try and commit to showing you ALL the realness, even though I do feel more comfortable posting the "best bits" which there is nothing wrong with but I'm hoping this post can make at least one person feel better with not being OK.' Struggling: 'I felt like a mess, and felt like I looked a mess and my emotions were shook after something that happened yesterday and a combination of other personal issues that I think lead to this emotional breakdown...' Sharing all: 'I try and commit to showing you ALL the realness, even though I do feel more comfortable posting the "best bits" which there is nothing wrong with but I'm hoping this post can make at least one person feel better with not being OK' she concluded Green with envy: Iskra certainly took centre-stage during the shoot, working her angles in an emerald-hued strapless swimsuit All white on the night: The flaxen-haired later rocked an ivory strapless number Dog The Bounty Hunter's wife Beth Chapman has been rushed to an LA hospital for emergency surgery to remove a life-threatening blockage in her throat according to a new report. The 51-year-old television personality was brought to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning after it was difficult for her to breathe overnight according to TMZ on Tuesday. The publication reported that doctors had found a large mass in her throat, which doctors later determined to be the return of throat cancer. Tough times: Dog The Bounty Hunter's wife Beth Chapman has been rushed to an LA hospital for emergency surgery to remove a life-threatening blockage in her throat according to a new report The family is currently evaluating future treatment options. TMZ's source revealed on Tuesday afternoon just after 2pm that the surgery had ended as she was been taken into recovery. 'Her family will have a better idea of how the procedure went shortly,' they added. The publication's sources revealed earlier in the day that Chapman was just put under anesthesia within the half half-an-hour and her emergency surgery began straight after that. The family's attorney, Andrew Brettler, told TMZ that Beth's condition is serious and all parties involved are hoping for the best outcome. The source also said that reality star Dog is by her side at the hospital and they have more family on their way to the facility. On-the-go: No doubt the news may come as a shock to many as Beth and her husband - real name Duane Chapman - were spotted leaving celeb-favorite Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood just hours earlier on Monday evening Better times: She looked in good spirits as she had a big smile on her face while leaving the American restaurant Just last year the American-Italian bounty hunter had underwent surgery to have a cancerous tumor removed from her neck but was found to be cancer-free shortly thereafter. No doubt the news may come as a shock to many as Beth and her husband - real name Duane Chapman - were spotted leaving celeb-favorite Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood just hours earlier on Monday evening. She looked in good spirits as she had a big smile on her face while leaving the American restaurant. Lovely couple: Beth was dressed casual cool as she sported a white jacket over a black top with a cat face graphic on it with black jeans and leather booties Beth was dressed casual cool as she sported a white jacket over a black top with a cat face graphic on it with black jeans and leather booties. It has been an interesting time for the couple as just two weeks ago Dog was in the news as he dramatically rescued Tiger Woods' former mistress Jamie Jungers from a Sin City drugs den where she admitted to having sex with high-profile business executives in exchange for heroin and speed. The former stripper, 35, appeared flushed in the face, frail and fatigued late Tuesday when Dog and a team of armed men saved her from the drug house and placed her in handcuffs before she was turned over to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Hero: It has been an interesting time for the couple as just two weeks ago Dog dramatically rescued Tiger Woods' former mistress Jamie Jungers from a Sin City drugs den where she admitted to having sex with high-profile business executives in exchange for heroin and speed Sad story: The former Tiger Woods mistress blamed the pro-golfer for her problems Lost and found: Chapman tracked the former lingerie model - pictured in February 2010 - down after the fugitive skipped bail in Kansas RadarOnline spoke to Dog - whose real name is Duane Lee Chapman - about his encounter with the fugitive, who skipped bail in her home state of Kansas where she has been charged with fraud and theft. Chapman said: 'She was 88 pounds when we got her and the handcuffs wouldnt even go on her wrists because they were so skinny... she was going to die in the next few weeks. 'These guys were holding her in a house where she was giving sexual favors for drugs. She told me she was trading drugs for sex with guys at four or five houses.' Dynamic duo: Dog and Beth rose to fame on A&E series Dog The Bounty Hunter which aired for eight seasons from August 2004 to May 2012. Dog and Beth rose to fame on A&E series Dog The Bounty Hunter which aired for eight seasons from August 2004 to May 2012. They then moved on to spin-off Dog and Beth: On the Hunt which aired for three seasons from April 2013 to August 2015. The family returned in November 2017 with a two-hour special Dog And Beth: Fight For Their Lives which documented Beth's fight with throat cancer. While he wasn't seen in the first trailer for Vice that surfaced in October, new photos reveal Tyler Perry's transformation into former Secretary Of State Colin Powell. The actor is very convincing as the retired four-star general. Unlike most of the other stars in Vice, Perry actually got Powell's blessing to play him, which director Adam McKay explained at a SAG-AFTRA screening in New York City on Sunday. So real: Tyler Perry, left, looks very much like Secretary of State Colin Powell, right in 2012, in the upcoming movie Vice Flashback: During his military career, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (19871989), as Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (19891993), holding the latter position during the Persian Gulf War; seen in 1993 McKay joked during the screening that, 'Only Tyler Perry could just be like, "Im calling Colin Powell." I mean, that just cracked me up right away,' McKay said at the screening (courtesy of Vulture). 'The whole idea of Tyler Perry, I was told the idea, and then he came by my office, and I have never met anyone with more presence in my entire life,' the director added. 'Like, the guy has gravitas, and instantly I was like, "Oh yeah, hes Colin Powell." So yeah, he talked to Powell,' McKay said. Slide me The makeup artists knew how to do it: The actor has similar features to the military man War room: McKay joked during the screening that, 'Only Tyler Perry could just be like, "Im calling Colin Powell." I mean, that just cracked me up right away,' McKay said A GQ profile of Quincy Jones in January revealed that Powell was 'annoyed' with Perry, best known for his cross-dressing Madea character, playing him, but that wasn't entirely true. The Washington Post reached out to Powell's office, with his assistant clarifying that Powell reached out to Jones to connect him to Perry. 'He and Mr Perry had a nice conversation and even exchanged copies of their recent books and General Powell offered his services to Mr Perry, if he needed any or had any questions,' Powell's rep said. Bale as Cheney: Perry was the only cast member to have the luxury of speaking to the person they are portraying, with Christian Bale (pictured) telling The Hollywood Reporter that he would have loved to have spoken with Dick Cheney McKay added that he reminded Perry that this, 'isnt one of Powells best stories from his life,' which Perry said he told to Powell. 'And to Powells credit, he acknowledged that, as well But ultimately to Powells credit, I guess that was it. It was a quick exchange.' Perry was the only cast member to have the luxury of speaking to the person they are portraying, with Christian Bale telling The Hollywood Reporter that he would have loved to have spoken with Dick Cheney. Sam as George: The cast includes some Hollywood heavy-hitters, including Sam Rockwell, who plays President George W Bush 'I would greatly have liked to have met with him, if only to have him insult me and kick me out of his house,' Bale said. 'To me, thats honorable.' 'I spoke with some [of Cheneys] friends who would say, "Lets get Dick on the phone," and they would call,' Bale added. 'And the phone would be ringing and I would be thinking, "Im about to speak with Dick Cheney," and then it would go to voicemail. And then, unfortunately as is the case with everything, lawyers ruined it. The cast includes some Hollywood heavy-hitters, including Sam Rockwell, who plays President George W. Bush. The cast also includes LisaGay Hamilton as Condoleeza Rice, Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld and Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, with Annapurna Pictures setting a December 25 release date for Vice. She has been going steady with Sean Penn for more than two years. And Leila George D'Onofrio made a rare red carpet appearance at the World Premiere of Mortal Engines at Cineworld Leicester Square, in London on Tuesday. The Friends actor's younger girlfriend, 26, looked exquisite in her strapless ballgown with its seasonal velvet bodice drawing attention to her cleavage. Not going together? Sean Penn's girlfriend Leila George D'Onofrio, 26, stunned at glitzy World Premiere of Mortal Engines as she made a red carpet appearance without her beau, 58 Mortal Engines star Leila hit the red carpet on her own, not seeming to mind her love Sean was no where in sight. The couple were last spotted together canoodling on the scorching golden sands of Hawaii on their romantic break over the summer. Prints of unicorns, owls and flowers were scattered across the impressive skirt of the gown in vibrant colours to catch the eye. The Hollywood actor's girlfriend teased a glimpse at her legs in her steep stilettos thanks to her ruffled ballgown. Strength of character: Mortal Engines star Leila hit the red carpet on her own, not seeming to mind her love Sean was no where in sight Bust-ing out: The Friends actor's younger girlfriend, 26, looked exquisite in her strapless ballgown with its seasonal velvet bodice drawing attention to her cleavage Leila accentuated her envy-inducing waist as she wrapped a velvet tie belt around her figure and tied it in a bow. Mortal Engines tells the story of a mysterious young woman who joins forces with a dangerous outlaw and an outcast to lead a rebellion. Leila plays a minor role in the movie, Katherine Valentine, but the details of her character have remained tightly under wraps. Simply stunning: Prints of unicorns, owls and flowers were scattered across the impressive skirt of the gown in vibrant colours to catch the eye Hera Hilmar takes up the baton for the leading lady Hester Shaw in the movie. Aside from movies, Leila is preoccupied with her ever-flourishing romance with Hollywood hunk Sean. The long-term couple, who previously worked together, grabbed the attention of headlines again while they holidayed in Hawaii over the summer this year. Pin-credible storytelling: The Hollywood actor's girlfriend teased a glimpse at her legs in her steep stilettos thanks to her ruffled ballgown Fantasy: Mortal Engines tells the story of a mysterious young woman who joins forces with a dangerous outlaw and an outcast to lead a rebellion Impressive looks: Hera Hilmar was every inch the leading lady in her sequinned black mini dress with sexy tassels framing her legs As well as having an actor beau, Leila is the daughter of Law & Order vet Vincent D'Onofrio, 57, and stunning Eighties actress Greta Scacchi, 58. The actress confessed she initially resisted the acting world out of 'embarrassment' in a honest interview. However, Leila revealed it was her actor dad Vincent who spurred her on to chase a career in acting and follow in his footsteps. Movie picture: Leila plays a minor role in the movie, Katherine Valentine, but the details of her character have remained tightly under wraps On appearances: Peter Jackson and Katie Jackson joined the glittering World premiere of the Mortal Engines Looking good! Katrina Greenwood and Hugo Weaving were dazzling on arrival at the star-studded premiere of the movie Chilly times: New Zealand screenwriter Philippa Boyens kept warm in style in her emerald green coat She told WWD in November: 'Because of my parents, people would always ask me if thats what I was going to do. 'Maybe out of embarrassment or feeling annoyed that it was expected, I would just be like, No, no! she says. And I always thought I was going to direct instead because then I could boss my parents around. 'I remember sitting in this tiny shoebox room that I had in Sydney on Bondi Beach and I called my dad. He said, "What are you afraid of most in the world?" And I said, Acting. And he said, "I think thats what you need to do".' Trendy to a T: Jihae showcased her seasonal style with a faux fur coat worn over her elegant black dress, teamed with a dramatic silver Margaux necklace and archive pieces by Dannijo Spotted: Colin Salmon and Fiona Hawthorne stood out from the crowd when they posed together on the red carpet She always turns heads on the red carpet. And Sandra Bullock didn't disappoint as she attended the European premiere of her new movie Bird Box at Zoo Palast cinema in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday. The 54-year-old actress was a vision of beauty on the night as she turned out in an ethereal mint green Alberta Ferretti gown with sparkling silver detailing. Stunning: Sandra Bullock didn't disappoint as she attended the European premiere of her new movie Bird Box at Zoo Palast cinema in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday The glamorous gown was one shouldered and clung to her hourglass curves, flaring out into a full length skirt. With the mint green complementing her tanned complexion, the dress also featured splashes of silver beading across the bodice. Sandra kept her accessories simple for the outing, donning a pair of delicate chandelier earrings and styling her hair in a chic chignon to properly showcase the jewels. Dressed to impress: The 54-year-old actress was a vision of beauty on the night as she turned out in an ethereal mint green gown with sparkling silver detailing by Alberta Ferretti Bird Box - released on November 12 in the US and December 21 in the UK - concerns a mysterious force that is decimating the world's population, when only one thing is certain: if you see it, you lose your mind and take your own life. Facing the unknown, Sandra's Malorie must flee with her two young children (played by Julian Edwards and Vivien Lyra Blair) down a treacherous river to the one place left that may offer sanctuary. But to survive, they'll have to undertake the perilous two-day journey blindfolded. Sassy in silver: With the mint green complementing her tanned complexion, the dress also featured splashes of silver beading across the bodice Brunette beauty: Sandra kept her accessories simple for the outing, donning a pair of delicate chandelier earrings and styling her hair in a chic chignon to properly showcase the jewels Recently, The Humane Society of Ventura County thanked Sandra for her generosity when the Hollywood superstar dug deep for animals affected by the California wildfires. 'Our efforts for rescuing and caring for evacuated animals from the Hill and Woolsey fires had caught her attention and her team reached out to the shelter to show their support,' the organization wrote on their Facebook page. 'Sandra Bullock and her family have reached out to other nonprofit organizations both during this incident and in the past.' 'However, this time she wanted to contribute to those on the frontline rescuing animals in peril and hope others will choose to do the same.' Two's company: Sandra posed on the red carpet alongside Bird Box's director Susanne Bier Loving life: The ladies seemed in high spirits as they larked around together on the red carpet, sharing jokes and holding on to one another One to watch: Bird Box concerns a mysterious force that is decimating the world's population, when only one thing is certain: if you see it, you lose your mind and take your own life Netflix cancelled a scheduled AFI FEST red carpet event for the film 'out of respect to the victims', reported Deadline. In a statement, the streaming giant wrote, 'Our hearts are with the victims, families and brave first responders for both the Borderline shooting and California Wildfires.' 'In light of these tragedies, we will be cancelling tonights AFI FEST red carpet coverage for BIRD BOX. The screening will continue as planned.' 'We thank you in advance for understanding and encourage you to support one of the many organizations who are helping those impacted.' Tony and Cherie Blair own 38 properties worth 33 million, so they know all about the challenges of home ownership. Now I can reveal Cherie is going into battle on behalf of a hereditary peer Richard Bethell, the 6th Lord Westbury, a former Scots Guards and SAS officer who was evicted earlier this year from his 9 million, six-bedroom home in Cyprus where he has lived since 2004. Its a lovely villa, says one of Westburys old military friends of the property, which looks out over the Mediterranean. The case is being taken to the European Court of Human Rights by Cherie Blairs firm, Omnia. Cherie Blair is going into battle on behalf of a hereditary peer Richard Bethell, the 6th Lord Westbury, a former Scots Guards and SAS officer Im told that Westbury took a three-year lease on the house in 2004, signing a contract with its female owner which stipulated that he had the right to buy at a fixed price, at the end of the three years. But when, three years later, Westbury announced his decision to buy the property, he received a rude awakening. She tried to evict him, so Richard took it to the court in Cyprus, which ruled in his favour, says the friend. But the owner then appealed and the Cyprus Supreme Court recently voted, by a 2-1 majority, in her favour. Rose Bethell with her father Lord Westbury at The Hero Inside Book by Gill Shaw Launch in Aid of Help For Heroes at the Guards Museum at Wellington Barracks in Westminster, London What was worse, the Supreme Court said that, because it was a lease-to-buy agreement, he was to pay about 2.7 million (3 million euros), and ruled that he was to be evicted in 60 days. However, Westbury, who was decorated for service in the Falklands War in 1982, is disinclined to surrender hence his alliance with Cherie when he takes the battle to the European Court of Human Rights. The 68-year-old Westbury, founder of the Hart Group, which provides specialised security services around the world, was unavailable yesterday, while Omnia says that it never discusses clients cases. Nigel Farage was on fiery form, badmouthing fellow guest Russell Brand at the British Curry Awards in Battersea.Ghastly man, said Farage. Someone with a sense of humour put me on the same table as Vince Cable but thats different, you can have a difference of opinion and be civil. That is not what you get with Brand. Brand labelled Farage a pound shop Enoch Powell when they shared a panel on Question Time. Ive never forgotten it, shivers Farage. A man so vain he had two make-up artists just to attend to his chest hair. Most people would be thrilled to have a six-figure salary, but BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson, who is paid up to 200,000 annually, has been left wanting. Netflix pour money into their shows and its very hard to say no to that, he tells me at the launch of his novel, Moscow, Midnight, at Daunt Books in Marylebone. I say grandly, of course Id carry on working for the BBC, but if Netflix came to me and offered me millions upon millions, Id probably work for them. Simpson, 74, whose salary was revealed last year, adds: It would have been better if the BBC didnt disclose the top salaries simply because it just makes it easy for competitors to cherry-pick the best performers. Hint, hint? Ian Paisley Jr: I turned down I'm A Celeb's 100k It seems notoriety pays for Ian Paisley Jr, who was suspended from Parliament for 30 sitting days earlier this year over unregistered free jaunts to Sri Lanka. I was offered over 100,000 to do Im A Celebrity . . . the MP for North Antrim tells me at the William Hill Sport Book awards at BAFTA, but my wife said: You can go but me and the kids wont be here when you come back. Id have loved to do it the jungle cant be worse than West Belfast. And its not like theres any pressing Commons business . . . All Smiles: Meghan's aide who quit Palace The Duchess of Sussexs closest aide who quit suddenly just six months after the American actress married into the Royal Family became good friends with her previous employers, the pop star Robbie Williams and his wife, Ayda Field. Here is Melissa Touabti, whose full identity I revealed yesterday, pictured near left, on a day out with Ayda, a fellow judge on The X Factor with Williams. Ayda Williams (left) with Melissa Touabti. In a sign of their closeness, Melissa, a 39-year-old French woman, has her right arm around Ayda, also 39 In a sign of their closeness, Melissa, a 39-year-old French woman, has her right arm around Ayda, also 39. Aydas daughter with Williams, Theodora, who was a bridesmaid at Princess Eugenies wedding, plays just out of shot by their side. When the Diary disclosed earlier this month that Melissa had resigned as Meghans PA, a Palace source said: Its a real shock. Why would she want to leave such a prestigious job so soon? Even though TV historian Dan Snow is married to Lady Edwina Grosvenor, daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster, he has no intention of giving up the day job. No one in my family ever retires, he says. My dad [former Newsnight presenter] Peter is still writing and my grandad, who was a doctor, worked into his 80s. Adds Dan, whose latest book is On This Day In History: I know some historians who write their best works in their 70s and 80s so hopefully the best is yet to come. Tuxedo Royale ... Prince and the Bond producer Prince Edward, was delighted to meet James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli (pictured right) at the National Youth Theatre Gala Prince Edward, who worked for Andrew Lloyd Webbers Really Useful Group for two years after leaving the Royal Marines, has always hankered to be a thespian. So he was delighted to meet James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli at the National Youth Theatre Gala at the Cafe Royal in London this week. Some guests joked that Edward, 54, sporting a debonair black tuxedo and bow tie, might be sneakily auditionning for the role of the fictional spy. After all, Broccoli, 58, is still said to be scouting for a new 007 . . . Conservationist Damian Aspinall and his wife, Burberry executive Victoria, are mourning the death of their beloved gorilla, Babydoll, aged 57, at Howletts Park in Kent. Babydoll was Britains oldest gorilla and hand-raised in Howletts, where she built a close bond with the entire Aspinall family, especially Damian, who is only a year older. I have had to make a horrible decision and let Babydoll be put to sleep, said animal-lover Aspinall yesterday. Babydoll (pictured) was Britains oldest gorilla and hand-raised in Howletts, where she built a close bond with the entire Aspinall family Damian Aspinall comforts dying Babydoll, who died aged 57, at Howletts Park in Kent I have many memories of her from my childhood to now and will never forget her. Victoria said: Although she was too old to release, her offspring have successfully lived to be set free. We will all miss those gorilla gurgles, her love for apple blossom and cheddar cheese. 'Always warm and welcoming, a kind old lady with an enormous appetite. So much so, Damian and I named the new Italian restaurant in her honour. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are requesting more time to settle their custody battle. The duo, who have been locked in divorce negotiations over their six children, have asked for more time with their private judge so they can come to an agreement. The Blast is reporting that Jolie has filed a stipulation to extend the appointment of Honorable John Ouderkirk who is overseeing the custody part of their divorce. Grueling process: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have requested more time with the private judge they hired for their custody battle as they try to come to an agreement before it goes to trial Ouderkirk was hired by the actors privately and Jolie reportedly wants to make sure he handles the potential private custody trial as well as pre-trial motions and requests. Documents filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday show that Jolie has asked that Ouderkirk, who also officiated the couple's wedding in 2014, be retained until December 31st 2019, extending his time on the case by six months. It seems the former couple are trying their best to get the custody battle resolved before it goes to trial. It was reported last week that they want to avoid taking it to trial as they 'realize the ongoing fight is only hurting the children.' More time: The Blast is reporting that Jolie has filed a stipulation to extend the appointment of Honorable John Ouderkirk who is overseeing the custody part of their divorce For the kids: It's been reported that the 54-year-old actor and 43-year-old actress are trying to wrap things up because, they 'realize the ongoing fight is only hurting the children.' According to the outlet's sources, the 54-year-old actor and 43-year-old actress aim to 'wrap up negotiations before the private custody trial begins.' Despite Jolie fighting for Pitt to receive minimal custody, the new agreement is likely to include a 'substantial amount of time given to the World War Z star.' Once the custody part of the divorce is out of the way next up will be their finances. It remains unclear how the two will divide up their millions of dollars in cash and property. The couple did not sign a prenup when they wed on August 23, 2014 in France. According to US Weekly reports last week, Pitt had reached out to his estranged wife asking to settle out of court. The A River Runs Through It actor hoped 'persuade' her that a 'hearing will cause lasting psychological damage' to their kids, the outlet's source revealed. They are parents to six children: Maddox, 17; Pax, 14; Zahara, 13; Shiloh, 12; twins Knox and Vivienne, 10. US Weekly's insider added: 'There will be no winners, no matter what the judge decides.' No trial: According to the report, their goal is 'to wrap up negotiations before the private custody trial begins' The couple got engaged in April 2012, and married on August 23, 2014, after nine years together. Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt on September 19, 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. Just days before the filing there was an alleged 'altercation' that involved Brad and Maddox aboard a private jet that was heading from Nice, France to Los Angeles, California. Brad was cleared of any wrongdoing. A teenage learner driver in Melbourne has been arrested and his car impounded after he allegedly rammed a police vehicle. Officers spotted a car with no number plates in Craigieburn about 12.20am on Wednesday and attempted to intercept it but the vehicle sped away. When officers tried to intercept the car a second time after it entered the drive-through of a fast food restaurant, the driver allegedly rammed the police car. A 17-year-old boy from Roxburgh Park was arrested at the scene and is currently assisting police with their inquiries. His female passenger, a 16-year-old Glenroy girl, was released without charge. The teen's car was impounded at a cost of $939. Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), hold a military parade during the funeral of a fellow fighter, killed during a military mission, in the northeastern Syria on November 11, 2018 US-backed fighters in Syria suffered record fatalities in an assault by the Islamic State group, a war monitor said Monday, as holdout jihadists kept up a fierce defence of their last Syrian redoubt. It said a total of more than 200 people have been killed since around 500 IS fighters burst out of the fog shrouding the area in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq to launch their deadly assault on Friday. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 92 of the dead were fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led ground units that have spearheaded the US-backed fight against IS in Syria. At least 61 jihadists and 51 civilians, mostly their relatives, also died in the violence which saw US-led coalition air strikes help the SDF recover positions it had briefly lost. The jihadists used suicide bombers, suicide commandos and sleeper cells in the countryside around their bastion of Hajin to inflict maximum damage, it said. Syria "It's the largest number of SDF fighters killed (by IS) in a single battle since it was founded" in 2015, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman. The SDF, an alliance of fighters from the main Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People's Protection Units and anti-jihadist Arab fighters, rarely releases full casualty figures. - Mounting toll - Abdel Rahman said the latest deaths brought to 452 the number of SDF fighters killed since the start of their offensive on the Hajin pocket on September 10. The jihadists have been putting up fierce resistance from their remote Euphrates strongholds, the last rump but also the hard core of a once sprawling "caliphate" that straddled Iraq and Syria. Most of their recent forays and their deadliest attacks have come as a result of weather conditions hampering the coalition's ability to launch air strikes. The coalition said in a statement on Saturday that its strikes had been limited due to the weather. Coalition forces and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at their operation room near the village of Susah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the Syrian border with Iraq Abdel Rahman said local tribal fighters opposed to IS also helped the SDF take back the positions they had lost on Friday. The Observatory, which relies on a vast network of local sources, said the death toll continued to soar on Sunday as many bodies were discovered. The IS propaganda agency Amaq had released a statement Saturday claiming to have killed 60 enemy fighters and captured 30. According to the Observatory, a total of 284 civilians have been killed since the start of the attacks on the IS pocket two and half months ago. Most of them have died in air strikes, the Britain-based group says. The coalition usually only admits to a fraction of the civilian deaths it is believed to have caused. The SDF is fighting to retake areas which have no Kurdish presence even as Turkish forces attack its own heartland further north. - IS heartland - Resentment over the failure of their US ally to stop Turkish military action has slowed their advance against IS, whose eradication is proving long and costly. "The area is mixed between desert and smaller cities like Hajin which makes it tremendously difficult to isolate and contain IS fighters," said Syria analyst Tore Hamming. A file picture taken on October 29, 2018 shows a fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces attending the funeral of a commander, killed a day earlier in the town of Hajin during battles against the Islamic State group He said IS units there could not be surrounded as easily as they were during operations last year against more confined areas like the city of Raqa. The jihadists have more knowledge and local support than the Syrian government or the Kurds, Hamming said. He said most IS fighters there were seasoned fighters made even more dangerous by the knowledge they were making a last stand. "They know that they will either be killed by an airstrike or captured and put into prison if not sentenced to death," said Hamming from the European University Institute. Kurdish media reported the capture a day before the IS attack of the organisation's second-in-command, but the Observatory could not say if there was any link. An SDF spokesman contacted by AFP declined to comment on the reported capture of a man named as Osama Abu Zeid and described as IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's deputy. An off-duty South African policeman shot his wife and her brother in the regional magistrate court building in Durban as the court heard the couple's annulment case An off-duty policeman opened fire inside a divorce court in South Africa on Monday, killing his estranged wife and her brother during a tea break in legal proceedings. The incident in South Africa's southeastern port city of Durban occurred on the eighth floor of the regional magistrate court building as the court heard the annulment case between the couple. "At around 11:00 am... the suspect shot at the wife and her brother and both died at the scene," police spokeswoman Colonel Thembeka Mbele told AFP, adding that the hearing had been about to resume after the break. The two victims suffered several gunshot wounds, she said. The suspect, 32, turned the gun on himself but survived. "He tried to commit suicide and has been taken to hospital where he is in a critical condition," she said. Mbele confirmed the suspect was an off-duty police officer. Local reports said that the two victims were in the court's public gallery when the shooter tried to talk to them before opening fire. South Africa's TimesLive online paper said visibly shaken court staff, including clerks and interpreters, were escorted from the building. Security is usually tight at South African courts where visitors and workers pass through metal detectors and bags are X-rayed. Police officers are allowed to go in with their firearms if they are on duty. Juan Antonio Hernandez, the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, is accused of being involved in trafficking drugs to the United States US prosecutors said Monday they have charged Juan Antonio Hernandez, the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, weapons offenses and making false statements. The former Honduran congressman, who also goes by the name Tony, was arrested in Miami on Friday, the day after the US public holiday of Thanksgiving, and appeared in Miami federal court Monday. US prosecutors said Hernandez was a large-scale drug trafficker who worked from 2004 to 2016 with other drug traffickers in Colombia, Honduras and Mexico, to import cocaine into the United States. In Manhattan, where the charges were unveiled, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman accused the 40-year-old of being "involved in all stages" of trafficking tons of cocaine through Honduras destined for the United States. "Hernandez allegedly arranged machinegun-toting security for cocaine shipments, bribed law enforcement officials... to protect drug shipments and solicited large bribes from major drug traffickers," said Berman. The charges run to four counts. If convicted, he faces anything from five years to life in prison. Hernandez allegedly had access to cocaine laboratories in Honduras and Colombia, where some of the cocaine was stamped "TH" for his initials. He is accused of meeting Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, the former leader of the country's Cachiros cartel, agreeing to help facilitate Honduran government payments to cartel front companies and pocketing $50,000. US prosecutors have aggressively pursued current or former Honduran public officials and their relatives over drug trafficking. In July, the United States charged in absentia another member of congress in Honduras, Midence Oqueli Martinez Turcios, with accepting more than $1 million in kickbacks to help fund his political career. In 2017, Fabio Lobo, son of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, was sentenced to 24 years in a US prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine. That same year, a US judge sentenced Yani Rosenthal, a two-time former presidential candidate and an ex-congressman from Honduras, to three years in prison for laundering drug proceeds from the Cachiros cartel. US President Donald Trump is warning that the Brexit deal struck with the European Union could hamper trade between London and Washington President Donald Trump warned Monday that the deal taking Britain out of the European Union may inadvertently hamper trade between London and Washington. "Sounds like a great deal for the EU," he said at the White House, before adding that "we have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade." "You know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn't be a good thing," he said. "I don't think they want that at all. That would be a very big negative for the deal." He expressed hope that Prime Minister Theresa May will "be able to do something about that." The British leader on Sunday closed 17 months of complex talks with Brussels by sealing Brexit arrangements with the 27 other EU heads of state and government. However, May faces a difficult task getting parliamentary approval for the deal. Sri Lanka's ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, right, looks on as members of President Maithripala Sirisena's party boycott the parliamentary session Allies of Sri Lanka's embattled president Maithripala Sirisena boycotted parliament Tuesday as the country drifted into a second month of political turmoil. Sirisena loyalists refused to show up at parliament in Colombo, where last week opposing MPs scuffled and threw objects across the chamber, forcing the legislature to adjourn. The island has been politically paralysed since October 26 when Sirisena sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapakse. Parliament has twice voted against the former strongman president but he has refused to back down. Wickremesinghe, who holds a majority on the floor, has also not stepped aside. The speaker of parliament has not recognised either man -- leaving the country adrift with rival factions claiming to command a government. Sirisena allies have accused the speaker of bias. "We will not attend parliament until the speaker agrees to act impartially," said Nimal de Silva, an MP from Sirisena's United People's Freedom Alliance. Their opponents taunted the president, who has ruled out reimposing Wickremesinghe even as Sri Lanka remains locked in a power vacuum. "Usually you see opposition (parties) boycotting," Eran Wickramaratne, a Wickremesinghe loyalists, told parliament Tuesday. "But in Sri Lanka you have the unique situation where a party which claims to be the government is staying away from parliament." The ousted prime minister's United National Party plans to move a motion in parliament Friday to block any new spending by Sirisena's administration. Sri Lanka risks entering 2019 without parliament having approved a budget for the year. Moody's recently downgraded Sri Lanka's credit rating amid warnings the island could default on its considerable foreign debt. Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno stands alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the first day of his "historic" visit on November 25, 2018 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he will travel to Chad soon to announce the reestablishment of diplomatic ties after a first-ever visit by the central African nation's president. Netanyahu held a second meeting with Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno on Tuesday before his departure. The two leaders held a first meeting after Deby's arrival on Sunday and security issues were expected to be high on the agenda. A statement from Netanyahu's office said he will travel to Chad soon and make a joint announcement with Deby on the resumption of diplomatic relations after a decades-long rupture. It did not specify a date. "The leaders discussed common threats and the fight against terrorism, as well as increasing bilateral cooperation" in areas including agriculture, counter-terrorism, technology, solar energy, water and health, the statement said. Both leaders called the visit "historic" as they met in Jerusalem on Sunday, with Netanyahu's office describing the trip by the leader of the Muslim-majority nation as the result of hard-won diplomatic efforts. The two leaders have declined to comment on whether their talks have included arms deals. Chadian security sources say the country has acquired Israeli equipment to help battle rebels in the country's north. Chad is also one of several African states engaged in Western-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State group jihadists. Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state. But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of cooperation in fields ranging from security to technology to agriculture, to improve ties on the continent. Diplomatic relations between Israel and Chad, a country of some 15 million people, were severed in 1972. Deby is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders. He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016. Niger has one of the highest maternal mortality rates and the highest fertility rate in the region, the charity says Niger has ordered the closure of two centres run by British charity Marie Stopes International on grounds it was illegally performing abortions, the health minister told AFP on Tuesday. "We have decided to close this charity on grounds of a 2006 law which bans abortions," said Health Minister Idi Illiassou. "Our inquiries have shown that this non-governmental organisation is enabling the voluntary interruption of pregnancy" but the partnership agreement with Niger "does not authorise this," he said. The charity, which operates in 37 countries and has been working in Niger since 2014, offers contraception and advice on managing unplanned pregnancies, including safe abortion services, its website says. "The voluntary interruption of pregnancy should never be considered as a method of contraception, in any case," reads the closure order relating to the two centres run by Marie Stopes in Niamey, the capital, and in Maradi, the country's economic hub. Niger allows abortion only in cases where the pregnancy endangers the mother's life. The charity was not immediately available for a response on the issue. According to Illiassou, the British charity was terminating pregnancies through a method of "manual vacuum aspiration for a fee of 30,000 CFA francs (46 euros/$52)", saying the government would take legal steps against those involved. A source at the health ministry told AFP that police were currently searching for the charity's "Nigerien accomplices" who had fled. According to the charity's website, it began assessment visits in 2013 "at the request of the Nigerian Ministry of Health" and began delivering contraceptive services a year later. Its first centre opened in Niamey in 2016. Figures relating to Marie Stopes' work in Niger say 12,472 unintended pregnancies were prevented in 2017, and 4,748 unsafe abortions were prevented. Nigerian troops have come under increasing attack from Boko Haram militants in the past few months, which have left scores of soldiers dead or missing Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari will visit troops on the frontlines of the Boko Haram conflict on Wednesday and is to dispatch his defence minister to Chad following a jump in attacks. The presidential visit comes after months of deadly raids by the IS-affiliated jihadists on military bases which have left scores of troops dead or missing in the volatile northeast. The 75-year-old former general, who is running for re-election in February presidential polls, is under pressure over claims the nine-year Islamist insurgency was close to defeat. In a posting on Twitter on Monday, presidential spokesman Bashir Ahmad said Buhari would attend an army conference in Maiduguri as well as address troops to boost their morale. "President Muhammadu Buhari has cancelled his planned official visit to Benin, Edo State tomorrow, to visit Maiduguri, Borno State on Wednesday," he wrote. Also this week, Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali will hold talks with his Chadian counterpart General Daoud Yaya over "strengthening the operations" of the Multinational Joint Task Force fighting Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region. AFP has reported at least 17 attempts to overrun army bases since July. Many of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram. - A change in strategy - In the latest attack on November 18, militants raided a base in Metele village near the border with Niger leaving at least 43 soldiers dead, although troops who survived put the death toll at more than 100. "There is need for a change in the war strategies. Our troops should be more proactive rather than reactive," said security consultant Don Okereke to AFP. "We have to find out why the insurgents have more superior firearms than our soldiers. What has happened to our huge defence budget?" When he was elected in 2015, Buhari pledged to end the insurgency and has used military successes against the militants as a sign of his administration's progress. But the recent assaults have underscored the continued threat Boko Haram poses to the impoverished region. More than 27,000 people have died since the start of the insurgency in Nigeria's remote northeast in 2009 and 1.8 million are still homeless after fleeing the violence. US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the decision raises questions about Hungary's "commitment to law enforcement cooperation" The US State Department on Tuesday slammed a Hungarian decision to extradite two Russian suspected arms dealers back to Russia instead of sending them to the United States. The US had sought the extradition of father and son Vladimir Lyubishin Sr and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr under an extradition treaty with Hungary. But Budapest denied the request and sent the suspects to Russia, "where it is unclear whether they will face trial," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. "The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia," she added. "Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this decision raises questions about Hungary's commitment to law enforcement cooperation." Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs responded on Twitter that the decision was based on a court ruling and "relevant international agreements." He noted that over the last five years, Hungary had sought extraditions on nine occasions from the US. "Eight of those were rejected," Kovacs wrote. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is one of the few European leaders to have praised President Donald Trump, and relations between the two NATO nations are usually good. The Lyubishins had been living in Hungary for several years. According to the Hungarian news website Direkt 36, Hungarian counterterrorism police arrested them in 2016 in an operation conducted with US authorities. "The United States had a strong case, built in cooperation with members of Hungarian law enforcement," Nauert said. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has promised that the next elections, which are scheduled for 2020, will be "free and fair" Ethiopia's prime minister on Tuesday met with dozens of opposition parties to discuss reforming the electoral system ahead of national elections planned for 2020. Since taking office in April, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has unveiled an aggressive reform agenda that has included a promise of "free and fair" elections after previous polls were marred by allegations of fraud. Last week, Abiy appointed former opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa to lead the electoral commission after she returned from exile earlier this month. During the 2015 elections, Abiy's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its allies won every seat in parliament. Tuesday's talks with representatives of 81 political parties aimed at laying the foundation for negotiations that Birtukan will preside over. "The consultation focuses on highlighting the reforms required to ensure the upcoming election is free and fair, and the shared responsibilities of all," Abiy's office wrote on Twitter. In power since ousting the Derg military junta in 1991, the EPRDF has been accused of using threats and arrests to suppress Ethiopia's political opposition. Abiy took office after the surprise resignation of his predecessor Hailemariam Desalegn, whose tenure was rocked by more than two years of anti-government unrest that contributed to his downfall. Seeking to mollify the protesters, Abiy has released jailed dissidents since taking office, prompting many key opposition figures to return to Ethiopia from exile abroad. The Guardian cited sources as saying Paul Manafort went to see Julian Assange, pictured in May 2017, in 2013, 2015 and then in the spring of 2016 Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort held secret talks with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, including around the time the lobbyist joined Trump's bid to win the presidency, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. Manafort went to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2013, 2015 and then "around March 2016" to meet Assange, whose organization is accused of leaking thousands of emails allegedly stolen by Russian hackers from Hillary Clinton's rival campaign, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources. The Guardian cited a separate internal document written by Ecuador's Senain intelligence agency which listed a "Paul Manaford" as one of Assange's guests at the embassy. WikiLeaks denied the report, tweeting that it was "willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange." Manafort chaired the Trump election campaign from March until August 2016, initially charged with organizing the all-important battle to win over delegates to the Republicans' national convention. The Guardian said it was unclear why Manafort visited Assange, who has been living at the embassy since he sought refuge in 2012 over a Swedish sexual assault case that was later dropped. Assange also fears extradition to the US over WikiLeaks' release in 2010 of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables. In July, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign team and Russia, charged 12 Russian spies with conspiring to hack Democratic National Committee computers, stealing data from the organization and publishing those files in an effort to sway the election. One of the indictments referred to WikiLeaks, described as "Organization 1," as the platform the Russians used to release the stolen emails. Earlier this month US prosecutors inadvertently disclosed the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange, in an unrelated case. But it was not clear what charges Assange would face. On Monday prosecutors said in a court filing that Manafort had lied to investigators, in violation of a plea agreement he made in September. Manafort had agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe after pleading guilty to financial fraud charges related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. After a month in hospital in Riyadh, Gabon's President Ali Bongo will be transferred to Rabat for a period of convalescence Gabon's Ali Bongo, who has spent a month in treatment at a Saudi hospital, will on Wednesday be transferred to Rabat to continue his recovery, his wife said on Tuesday. Bongo, 59, was rushed to hospital in Riyadh on October 24 after falling ill at an economic forum. After an extended period of silence, the Gabonese presidency eventually admitted he was "seriously ill" and had undergone surgery, while insisting he was on the mend. "Tomorrow, Wednesday 28 November... Ali Bongo Ondimba, my husband, will leave the King Faisal hospital in Riyadh," wrote his French-born wife Sylvia on Facebook. He would arrive in the Moroccan capital on the same day, she said. On November 23, a presidential source told AFP he would be transferred to Morocco "next week" to undergo "a period of convalescence and rehabilitation". "The doctors think he is up to travelling, even for such a long trip... he is breathing normally and communicating in a coherent manner," the source said at the time, describing the Gabonese leader as "making good progress." Over the past month, the Gabonese presidency has only released two statements on Bongo's health, first saying on October 29 that he had been taken to hospital "suffering from severe fatigue". Then on November 11, Bongo's office admitted he was "seriously ill" and had undergone surgery. Lack of official news -- along with memories of the secrecy-shrouded death of Bongo's father Omar Bongo in 2009 after decades at the helm -- had sparked numerous rumours, including speculation he was incapacitated or even dead. Earlier this month, a foreign source close to Bongo and his French-born wife Sylvia told AFP the Gabonese president had had a stroke. MOSCOW (AP) - The Latest on tensions between Russia and Ukraine (all times local): 12:05 a.m. President Donald Trump says the U.S. doesn't approve of escalating violence "either way" between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking publicly for the first time after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula raised tensions anew in the volatile region, Trump is not specifically calling out Russia's behavior. Says Trump, "We do not like what's happening, either way, we don't like what's happening and hopefully it will get straightened out." His comments come hours after outgoing U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged Russia to "immediately cease its unlawful conduct" in the Black Sea. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gestures during a parliament session in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukraine's president on Monday urged parliament to impose martial law in the country to fight "growing aggression from Russia," after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of this week's G-20 summit in Argentina. ___ 11:15 p.m. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has told lawmakers that the martial law introduced in the country will only affect regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Moldova's breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester. Ahead of the parliamentary vote that overwhelmingly supported his motion for a 30-day period of martial law, Poroshenko said martial law will only affect ten of Ukraine's 27 regions. The regions picked are the ones that he identified as potentially in the front-line of any Russian strike. Tensions between the two countries escalated Sunday when Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels and their crews. Poroshenko also pledged to respect the rights of Ukrainian citizens. Martial law will include a partial mobilization and strengthening of the country's air defense. The measures before parliament also included vaguely worded steps such as "strengthening" anti-terrorism measures and "information security." ___ 10:45 p.m. Ukraine's parliament has voted to support the president's motion to impose martial law in the country for 30 days. Martial law will include a partial mobilization and strengthening of the country's air defense. The measures before parliament also included vaguely worded steps such as "strengthening" anti-terrorism measures and "information security." President Petro Poroshenko asked lawmakers earlier to back his motion to impose martial law in the wake of Sunday's incident near Russia-occupied Crimea when Russian borders guards opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels before seizing the ships and their crews. Parliament voted overwhelmingly for the motion following five-hour debate. ___ 10:40 p.m. Some 200 protesters waving Ukrainian flags and anti-Russia slogans have demonstrated outside the Russian Embassy in Poland over the latest standoff between Russia and Ukraine. Most present were members of the Ukrainian community in Warsaw, protesting against Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian vessels off the disputed Crimean Peninsula. After the protest they threw containers of yellow and blue paint, Ukraine's national colors, in the direction of the embassy. Some also briefly clashed with the police. According to Polish government figures, some 1.6 Ukrainians live in Poland. Some are in the country after fleeing the conflict in the east of their country against Russia-backed rebels. ___ 9:40 p.m. Ukraine's Ambassador to the United Nations is warning that rising tensions with Russia "constitute a clear threat to international peace and security." Volodymyr Yelchenko told a United Nations Security Council meeting Monday that Russia's claim that Ukrainian ships violated Russia's borders "is an outright lie." Russia traded barbs Monday with representatives from the United States and Ukraine at a Security Council meeting held after Russian ships fired on Ukrainian vessels Sunday near Crimea. Russia accused Ukraine of provoking the attack by violating Russia's borders and demanded their sovereignty be respected. Tensions have grown between Ukraine and Russia since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. Questioned by reporters after the UNSC session, Yelchenko said he hopes more sanctions would be imposed on the Russian leadership. Sanctions, he said, "do bite." ___ 9 p.m. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Ukraine's president has assured him that should martial law be introduced in the country it would not have a negative impact on next year's presidential election. Stoltenberg said Monday that President Petro Poroshenko told him over the phone that "the introduction of martial law will not hinder the working of the democratic institutions" in Ukraine. The imposition of martial law could curb certain freedoms and rights, and result in the scrapping of the presidential polls. Poroshenko on Monday proposed imposing martial law for 30 days in the wake of Russia's seizure of Ukrainian navy vessels and their crews near Russian-occupied Crimea. ___ 8:35 p.m. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is warning Russia of consequences after the Russian coastguard fired on and seized Ukrainian ships in the Crimea region, wounding sailors and increasing tensions. Speaking Monday after chairing an emergency meeting of NATO and Ukraine ambassadors, Stoltenberg said that "Russia has to understand that its actions have consequences." He did not say what those consequences might be, but recalled that NATO has launched its biggest military buildup in Eastern Europe since the Cold War in recent years in response to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Stoltenberg says that Russia's action "is escalating the situation in the region." While noting that the incident on Sunday "is serious," Stoltenberg also underlined that it is important "to work for de-escalation, for calm and restraint." ___ 8:20 p.m. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley is calling on Russia to "immediately cease its unlawful conduct" in the Black Sea near Crimea during a United Nations Security Council meeting Monday. The Ukrainian navy says Russian ships fired on and seized three of its artillery ships Sunday. The incident sharply escalated tensions that have been growing between the two countries since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Anne Gueguen, the French deputy permanent representative at the U.N., urged the release of the sailors and the vessels. She said Sunday's incidents show the need for de-escalation and a long term resolution to the dispute over Crimea. Russia, meanwhile, called Ukraine's actions "dangerous" and said the three Ukrainian vessels illegally crossed into Russian waters. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council the weekend incident was another example of Ukrainian leaders trying to provoke Russia for political purposes. He claimed Porschenko needed a war ahead of the March election to gain support from the public. ___ 7:20 p.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has talked by telephone with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to express her concerns over the standoff with Russia around Crimea. Merkel's office said Monday that the chancellor emphasized the need for de-escalation and dialogue and said she would work to help bring both about. The two leaders agreed to stay in close contact. The Ukrainian navy says six sailors were wounded when Russian coast guards opened fire on three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait Sunday. ___ 7:10 p.m. Ukraine's biggest state-run bank says an arbitration court in Paris has ruled that Russia must pay $1.3 billion in damages for property seized in the annexation of Crimea. The press service of Oshchadbank said Monday the court ruled in the bank's favor, and the bank will now take "all possible measures" to get the money back from Russia. That could include seizing Russian assets around the world, the bank said. The announcement came amid new tensions between the neighbors over Ukrainian naval ships seized by Russia near Crimea. Bank official Andriy Pyshnoho encouraged other Ukrainian companies to seek international arbitration "to restore justice" over property seized in Crimea. Russia did not immediately respond to the ruling. ___ 6:45 p.m. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has halved his proposal for martial law in the country to 30 days, an apparent concession to opponents. The reduction means that Ukrainian authorities can call the presidential election at the end of December, giving enough time for it to take place at the end of March as expected. Poroshenko said in a televised address that he has decided to cut the suggested timeframe from 60 days. His original proposal was criticized by opponents as an attempt by Poroshenko to scrap the elections at a time when his own approval ratings are low. The proposal comes in the wake of Russia's seizure of Ukrainian navy vessels and their crews near Russian-occupied Crimea. The Ukrainian parliament is expected to vote on Poroshenko's motion later. ___ 6:05 p.m. Three former Ukrainian presidents have joined forces to oppose the motion to impose martial law in the country in the wake of Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships and their crews. Ukraine's first president from 1991-1994, Leonid Kravchuk, read out a letter signed by him and two other former leaders, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko, objecting to the imposition of martial law. Earlier, current President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill to impose martial law. The Ukrainian parliament is due to vote on the issue later in the day. The debate has yet to begin as some lawmakers from the opposition are seeking amendments. In their letter, the former presidents said martial law would pose a "threat to democracy" because it will scrap the presidential vote scheduled for next year. ___ 5:40 p.m. Britain is accusing Russia of an "act of aggression" in seizing Ukrainian vessels and sailors near Russian-occupied Crimea. Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman, James Slack, says the incident is "further evidence of Russia's destabilizing behavior in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity." He says "Russia must not be allowed to use force to exert greater pressure on Ukraine." Britain is urging all parties to show restraint. The Ukrainian navy says six sailors were wounded when Russian coast guards opened fire on three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait - the only outlet for Ukrainian vessels to the Black Sea - and then seized them. Ukraine is demanding the release of the ships and crewmen. Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a tense tug-of-war since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. ___ 5:35 p.m. Spain and Germany are joining European Union calls on Russia to release Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in a Sunday standoff around Crimea that sharply escalated tensions between the two countries. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell says that his country supports the EU's official position and that both sides should reduce tension. "We have to stop the escalation and extension of the conflict to levels of intensity that would be dangerous," Borrell said on Monday in Madrid, where he welcomed his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, for bilateral talks. Maas welcomed Russia's move to dissolve the blockade in the Kerch Strait, but called the developments in the Sea of Azov "worrying." "We must end this war that is going on in our neighborhood," Maas told reporters. ___ 4:40 p.m. The French government said Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships and their crew is not justified and urged their release immediately. In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry urged restraint on both sides and expressed "extreme concern" about the standoff around Crimea. In the statement, France appears to give little credence to Russia's claims that the Ukrainian ships had violated maritime rules. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame over the incident, in which Russian coast guard ships fired on Ukrainian navy vessels near the Kerch Strait and Ukrainian seamen were injured. The French government said the standoff stemmed directly from Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, which France doesn't recognize and considers a violation of international law. ___ 4:35 p.m. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill to impose martial law in the country in the wake of Russia's seizure of three ships and their crews. The bill has to be approved by parliament for it to go into force. The Supreme Rada is due to vote on the issue later Monday. Poroshenko proposed imposing martial law in the country after Russian border guards opened fire on three Ukrainian military vessels in the Sea of Azov. The bill that was published by Poroshenko's office Monday afternoon calls for martial law to be imposed for two months. The emergency measures will, if adopted by lawmakers, include a partial mobilization, a strengthening of the country's air defense as well as a plethora of vaguely worded steps such as the "strengthening" of anti-terrorism measures and "information security." ___ 4:25 p.m. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says the Ukrainian seamen captured by Russia in Sunday's incident off Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea should be treated as prisoners of war. Klimkin told reporters in Kiev that the government is in talks with the Red Cross to make sure the seamen are treated as prisoners of war. Six Ukrainians were injured after Russian border guards opened fire on three Ukrainian military vessels in the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The vessels and the crews were captured by the Russians. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether the Kremlin considers them prisoners of war. ___ 4:20 p.m. An aide to Polish President Andrzej Duda says sanctions on Russia should be stepped up following its seizure of Ukrainian navy ships. Krzysztof Szczerski said Russia's recent actions against Ukraine's vessels were an "open violation" of international law and was "another attempt to destabilize the region." Szczerski said Poland sees the need to "take into consideration and discuss among allies the stepping up of sanctions on Russia." He said Duda has spoken over the phone with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko about the naval standoff in the Black Sea. The Russian coast guard fired on three Ukrainian ships Sunday near the Kerch Strait and then seized them along with the crews. International sanctions were imposed on Moscow after it annexed the Crimea Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine's neighbor and ally Poland also borders Russia. ___ 4 p.m. Ukrainian protesters have burned a Russian flag and hurled flares at the Russian consulate in the eastern city of Kharkiv over the seizure of Ukrainian navy ships. The Unian news agency reported that the protesters demanded Ukraine cut off diplomatic relations with Russia and nationalize Russian business on Ukrainian soil. They also said Ukraine should stop respecting a 2003 agreement with Russia on sharing the Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and Azov Sea that is at the core of the standoff. In the capital Kiev, protesters from far right party National Corps waved flares outside the Ukrainian parliament. They brandished yellow-and-blue flags with the Ukrainian national symbol, the trident, and a huge white banner reading "Don't Back Down!" As Ukraine mulls imposing martial law, National Corps protester Rodion Kudryashov said the measure shouldn't last more than 30 days because it shouldn't disrupt elections planned for March. He also said it should be accompanied by a "termination of relations" with Russia. ___ 3:15 p.m. Moldova's foreign ministry says regional security is being threatened by "acts of aggression and provocations" in the Crimea naval standoff between Ukraine and Russia. A statement said Moldova reiterated its support "for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and its right to use international waters," adding it was "deeply concerned" about tensions around the Kerch Strait and the Azov Sea. Ex-Soviet republic Moldova shares a 1,222-kilometer (764-mile) border with Ukraine. The Ukrainian navy said six of its seamen were wounded when Russian coast guards opened fire Sunday on three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait and then seized them. Russia said that three Ukrainian sailors received light injuries and were given medical assistance. ___ 3 p.m. European Union chief Donald Tusk is calling on Russia to stop provoking Ukraine and is urging the authorities to return any Ukrainian ships or sailors it is holding amid a naval standoff in Crimea. The European Council President said in a tweet Monday: "I condemn Russian use of force in Azov Sea." He added that "Russian authorities must return Ukrainian sailors, vessels and refrain from further provocations." He said he has discussed developments with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and will meet the Ukrainian leader's representatives later on Monday. Tusk added: "Europe will stay united in support of Ukraine." The Russian coast guard fired on three Ukrainian ships Sunday near the Kerch Strait, then seized them along with the crews. ___ 2:40 p.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman is calling on Russia to release Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in a naval standoff near Crimea. Steffen Seibert on Monday urged both sides on Monday to open a dialogue quickly to clear up the case and calm tensions. He said that Sunday's incident raises "serious questions, above all regarding the use of military force by Russian forces for which, on the basis of the facts known to us so far, no justification is apparent." The Russian coast guard fired on three Ukrainian ships Sunday near the Kerch Strait and then seized them along with the crews, increasing tensions and drawing international concern. Seibert said Germany is "in contact with both sides." Foreign ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said a previously scheduled meeting in Berlin Monday of foreign ministries' political directors from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine will now serve to discuss the standoff. ___ 2:15 p.m NATO says its ambassadors and Ukraine's envoy will hold emergency talks in Brussels later Monday over the naval standoff between Ukraine and Russia near Crimea. The military alliance said the meeting was called at the request of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko after he held talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. NATO says Stoltenberg expressed the U.S.-led military alliance's "full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law." The Russian coast guard fired on three Ukrainian ships Sunday near the Kerch Strait and then seized them along with the crews. ___ 1:50 p.m. Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas has called on an extraordinary meeting of the government's security committee to discuss the Russian action against Ukraine in the Black Sea and nearby areas. Ratas says that "what took place in the Kerch Strait is a serious violation of international law," adding the meeting would be held later Monday. After Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, Estonia - like its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania - fear that they and other former Soviet republics could be next. Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser on Monday called the events off Crimea "a conscious act to escalate tension," while Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite tweeted it was "another blatant violation of international law and Russia's own commitments." ___ 1:45 p.m. Russia's foreign minister says Ukraine has violated international law and provoked Russia by sending its navy vessels through the Kerch Strait without permission. The Russian coast guard fired on three Ukrainian ships Sunday and then seized them along with the crews. The Ukrainian navy said six of its sailors were wounded, while Russia said that three Ukrainian seamen received light injuries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov charged Monday that Ukraine violated international legal norms by failing to obtain authorization for its vessels. Ukraine accused Russia of aggression, saying it had ignored a notification sent by the ships. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Russian news agencies on Monday the incident was a "dangerous provocation" by Ukraine "which deserves special attention and careful investigation." A 2003 treaty designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, but Russia has sought to assert greater control over the passage since the 2014 annexation of Crimea. ___ 1:10 p.m. Dozens of far-right protesters are burning tires outside the Russian consulate in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to protest the seizure of Ukrainian ships off Crimea. The protest Monday was organized by the National Corps party, which also called for a demonstration in front of President Petro Poroshenko's office in the capital, Kiev. The group argues Poroshenko isn't aggressive enough against Russia. The group is small but can put pressure on the president. In addition to the Lviv protests, far-right group C14 published photos on Facebook of a car with Russian diplomatic plates on fire in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev. The European Union and NATO called for restraint from both sides after the Russian coast guard fired on Ukrainian navy vessels near the Kerch Strait and then seized them. The Ukrainian navy said six of its seamen were wounded. Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the incident. ___ 12:50 p.m. Ukraine's president is demanding that Russia immediately release Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in a standoff in the Black Sea. Petro Poroshenko said at a meeting of Ukraine's national security council Monday that "we demand that they are urgently turned over to the Ukrainian side" and called for a "de-escalation" of the crisis around Crimea. Later Monday, the Ukrainian parliament is set to consider a presidential request for the introduction of martial law. Ukraine's navy said six Ukrainian seamen were wounded when Russian coast guards opened fire on three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait and then seized them late Sunday. The two nations traded blame over the incident. It aggravated tensions that have soared since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. ___ 11:55 a.m. NATO is calling on Russia and Ukraine to show restraint after the Russian coastguard fired on Ukrainian navy vessels, wounding six seamen. Ukraine says the ships were respecting international maritime rules as they headed to the Sea of Azov. Russia says they failed to obtain permission to pass through the Kerch Strait separating Crimea from the Russian mainland. Tensions between NATO and Russia have escalated since 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said "we call for restraint and de-escalation." She said NATO supports Ukraine's "navigational rights in its territorial waters" and calls on Russia "to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea, in accordance with international law." NATO headquarters declined to say Monday whether its ambassadors would meet to discuss the incident, but the alliance is in contact with Ukrainian authorities. ___ 10:50 a.m. A senior German official is calling on Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate tensions after Russian coast guard ships fired on Ukrainian navy vessels. Michael Roth, a deputy foreign minister, told Deutschlandfunk radio Monday that the matter is "very dangerous - the last thing we need is a further escalation in relations between Russia and Ukraine." Roth said he didn't have any information of his own on the incident "but it is clear that Russia, in accordance with international law, must ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian harbors in the Sea of Azov." He added that "both sides must now de-escalate" and avoid a spiral of tensions that "could ultimately lead to terrible consequences." Moscow and Kiev are trading blame over the incident that further escalated tensions that have soared since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014. ___ 10:20 a.m. The Ukrainian parliament is set to consider a presidential request for the introduction of martial law in Ukraine following an incident in which Russian coast guard ships fired on Ukrainian navy vessels. Ukraine's navy said six Ukrainian seamen were wounded when Russian coast guards opened fire on three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait and then seized them late Sunday. The two nations traded blame over the incident that further escalated tensions that have soared since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine said its vessels were heading to the Sea of Azov in line with international maritime rules, while Russia charged that they had failed to obtain permission to pass through the narrow Kerch Strait separating Crimea from the Russian mainland. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gestures during a parliament session in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukrainian parliament has voted to impose martial law for 30 days in wake of Russian seizure of Ukrainian vessels. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, center, gestures during a parliament session in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Petro Poroshenko has halved his proposal for martial law in the country to 30 days, an apparent concession to opponents. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gestures during a parliament session in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukrainian parliament has voted to impose martial law for 30 days in wake of Russian seizure of Ukrainian vessels. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gestures during a parliament session in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukrainian parliament has voted to impose martial law for 30 days in wake of Russian seizure of Ukrainian vessels. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Ukrainian lawmakers argue between each other during a parliament session in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukrainian parliament has voted to impose martial law for 30 days in wake of Russian seizure of Ukrainian vessels. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Ukrainian Ambassador the the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko speaks during a security council meeting about the escalating tensions between the Ukraine and Russia at United Nations headquarters, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Russian border guards opened fire on three Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait near the Russia-occupied Crimean peninsula, raising the prospect of a full-scale military confrontation. The incident comes on the back of a four-and-a-half year long proxy conflict in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talks to journalists during a press conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Stoltenberg is warning Russia of consequences after its coastguard fired on and seized Ukrainian ships, wounding a number of sailors. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) Ukrainian lawmakers listen to former Prime Minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, center, during a parliament session in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill to impose martial law in the country in the wake of Russia's seizure of three ships and their crews. The Supreme Rada is due to vote on the issue later Monday for it to go into force. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) A volunteer with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Some hundreds of protesters from far-right party National Corps brandished yellow-and-blue flags with the Ukrainian national trident symbol, and a banner reading 'Don't back down!" (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Volunteers with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Some hundreds of protesters from far-right party National Corps brandished yellow-and-blue flags with the Ukrainian national trident symbol, and a banner reading 'Don't back down!" (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) A Ukraine army soldier stands on duty with his heavy machine gun at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukrainian lawmakers were set to consider a presidential request for the introduction of martial law in the country on Monday following an incident in which Russian coast guard ships fired on Ukrainian navy vessels. (AP Photo/Alexander Shulman) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov looks on during a signing ceremony with his Dominican Republic counterpart Miguel Vargas following their talks in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko leads the National Security and Defence Council meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Russia's coast guard opened fire on and seized three of Ukraine's vessels Sunday, wounding two crew members, after a tense standoff in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula, the Ukrainian navy said. (Mykhailo Markiv, Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) A ship under the the Kerch bridge blocks the passage to the Kerch Strait near Kerch, Crimea, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded accusations over an incident at sea Sunday near the disputed Crimean Peninsula, increasing tensions between both countries and prompting Moscow to block passage through the Kerch Strait. (AP Photo) Former Ukrainian soldiers bring tires during their rally in front of the embassy of Russia in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Russia's coast guard opened fire on and seized three of Ukraine's vessels Sunday, wounding a few crew members, after a tense standoff in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula, the Ukrainian navy said. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) A protester throws a smoke grenade during a rally in front of the embassy of Russia in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Russia's coast guard opened fire on and seized three of Ukraine's vessels Sunday, wounding two crew members, after a tense standoff in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula, the Ukrainian navy said. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) A protester shouts slogans during a rally in front of the Russian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Russia's coast guard opened fire on and seized three of Ukraine's vessels Sunday, wounding two crew members, after a tense standoff in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula, the Ukrainian navy said. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) A Ukraine army APC moves toward on position at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Ukrainian lawmakers were set to consider a presidential request for the introduction of martial law in the country on Monday following an incident in which Russian coast guard ships fired on Ukrainian navy vessels. (AP Photo/Alexander Shulman) THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The global chemical weapons watchdog is considering sending inspectors to investigate an alleged poison gas attack by rebels in Syria that wounded dozens, its director-general said Monday. Syria's state-run SANA news agency said the suspected chemical attack late Saturday was carried out by "terrorist groups positioned in Aleppo countryside" that fired shells containing toxic gases on three neighborhoods in Syria's largest city. Syria has asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to launch an investigation and officials at the Hague-based watchdog have been in touch with U.N. experts "to assess the security situation on the ground for a possible deployment" of a fact-finding mission, Director-General Fernando Arias told a meeting of the organization's member states in The Hague. Arias said that different sources put the number of wounded at between 50 and 100. The OPCW's fact-finding mission is tasked with investigating alleged chemical attacks in Syria and reporting back to the organization and the United Nations. It has probed several attacks in Syria blamed on both government forces and rebels. The OPCW also has recently been empowered - against the wishes of Syria and its ally Russia - to apportion blame for chemical attacks. In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows medical staff treating a boy following a suspected chemical attack on his town of al-Khalidiya, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018. Some 50 civilians were being treated following a suspected poison gas attack by Syrian rebel groups on the government-held Aleppo city in the country's north, according to Syrian state media. (SANA via AP) "The OPCW experts will continue to work independently to verify all allegations of use of chemicals as weapons in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic," Arias said. Following the alleged attack, Russian warplanes attacked rebel-held areas in northern Syria for the first time in weeks on Sunday. The rebels, who deny carrying out any poison gas attacks, accused the government of trying to undermine a truce reached by Russia and Turkey in September. Russian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that Russian warplanes destroyed militant positions in northern Syria linked to the alleged gas attack. The announcement in the Hague came shortly before President Bashar Assad reshuffled his Cabinet, replacing nine officials including the minister in charge of internal security. Cabinet reshuffles like the one announced Monday are not uncommon in Syria and have occurred on several occasions since the civil war began seven years ago. It was not immediately why Assad replaced longtime Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar, who was wounded in a 2012 bombing that killed four top security officials. Al-Shaar was replaced by Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khaled Rahmoun, who headed the powerful Political Security Directorate, one of the main intelligence agencies in the country. The U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on Rahmoun, 61, last year. Other ministers changed include those of tourism, education, public works, telecommunications and industry. In eastern Syria, meanwhile, four days of fighting between U.S.-backed forces and Islamic State militants have left scores dead on both sides, opposition activists said. The latest round of fighting broke out Friday when IS took advantage of fog to launch an offensive from the last area they control in Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 92 members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and 61 militants have been killed since. Omar Abou Leila, who monitors the war in Deir el-Zour from Europe, said Monday that dozens of SDF fighters were killed. SDF fighters launched an offensive on Sept. 10 under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition to liberate the last pocket held by IS near the Iraqi border. They have made little progress since then. ____ Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed. In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a man receiving treatment at a hospital following a suspected chemical attack on his town of al-Khalidiya, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018. At least 41 civilians were being treated following a suspected poison gas attack by Syrian rebel groups on government-held Aleppo city in the country's north, according to Syrian state media. (SANA via AP) In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a man receiving oxygen through respirators following a suspected chemical attack on his town of al-Khalidiya, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018. Some 50 civilians were being treated following a suspected poison gas attack by Syrian rebel groups on the government-held Aleppo city in the country's north, according to Syrian state media. (SANA via AP) In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows people receiving treatment at a hospital following a suspected chemical attack on his town of al-Khalidiya, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018. At least 41 civilians were being treated following a suspected poison gas attack by Syrian rebel groups on government-held Aleppo city in the country's north, according to Syrian state media. (SANA via AP) In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a woman receiving oxygen through respirators following a suspected chemical attack on her town of al-Khalidiya, in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018. Some 50 civilians were being treated following a suspected poison gas attack by Syrian rebel groups on the government-held Aleppo city in the country's north, according to Syrian state media. (SANA via AP) TOKYO (AP) - A French-American man has given up his attempt to swim across the Pacific Ocean after a storm broke the mainsail of his support ship, organizers said Monday. Ben Lecomte, who had completed about 1,500 nautical miles (2,780 kilometers) of the 5,000-mile (9,260-kilometer) journey, called the premature end to the swim a deep disappointment. "We've faced treacherous winds, rain and ocean swells that have forced us to alter our course, and the irreparable damage to the sail is an insurmountable blow," he said in a news release. The announcement was made by Seeker, a San Francisco-based online science publisher that partnered with Lecomte and has been documenting his attempt. Lecomte, of Austin, Texas, set out on June 5 from Japan's Pacific coast and was swimming an average of eight hours a day. Violent storms had already forced him to interrupt the swim after 500 nautical miles and return to Japan in late July. The mainsail broke on Nov. 10. The damaged ship and Lecomte are slowly making their way to Hawaii. They are collecting data on plastic pollution in the ocean, one of the scientific aims of the swim. DETROIT (AP) - Even though unemployment is low, the economy is growing and U.S. auto sales are near historic highs, General Motors is cutting thousands of jobs in a major restructuring aimed at generating cash to spend on innovation. The GM layoffs come amid the backdrop of a trade wars between the U.S., China and Europe that likely will lead to higher prices for imported vehicles and those exported from the U.S. CEO Mary Barra said the company faces challenges from tariffs but she did not directly link the layoffs to them. President Donald Trump, who has made bringing auto jobs back a big part of his appeal to Ohio and other Great Lakes states that are crucial to his re-election, said his administration and lawmakers are exerting "a lot of pressure" on GM. Barra headed for Washington after the news broke to speak with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow in what was described as a previously scheduled meeting. Trump said he was being tough on Barra, telling the company that the U.S. has done a lot for GM and that if its cars aren't selling, the company needs to produce ones that will. At a rally near GM's Lordstown, Ohio, plant last summer, Trump told people not to sell their homes because the jobs are "all coming back." GM announced Monday that it will cut as many as 14,000 workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure. Members of Unifor, the union representing the workers of Oshawa's General Motors assembly plant, stand near the entrance to the plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. General Motors will lay off thousands of factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. General Motors is closing the Oshawa plant. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press via AP) At the factories, around 3,300 blue-collar workers could lose jobs in the U.S. and another 2,600 in Canada, but some U.S. workers could transfer to truck or SUV factories that are increasing production. The cuts mark GM's first major downsizing since shedding thousands of jobs in the Great Recession. The reductions could amount to as much as 8 percent of GM's global workforce of 180,000 employees. The cuts include about 8,000 white-collar employees, or 15 percent of GM's North American white-collar workforce. Some will take buyouts while others will be laid off. The restructuring is part of a shift by GM as it abandons many of its car models and focuses more on autonomous and electric vehicles. It's the new reality for automakers that are faced with the present cost of designing gas-powered cars and trucks that appeal to buyers now while at the same time preparing for a future world of electric and autonomous vehicles. Barra said as cars and trucks become more complex, GM will need more computer coders but fewer engineers who work on internal combustion engines. "The vehicle has become much more software-oriented" with millions of lines of code, she said. "We still need many technical resources in the company." The restructuring also reflects changing North American auto markets as manufacturers continue to shift away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. In October, almost 65 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. were trucks or SUVs. That figure was about 50 percent cars just five years ago. GM is shedding cars largely because it doesn't make money on them, Citi analyst Itay Michaeli wrote in a note to investors. "We estimate sedans operate at a significant loss, hence the need for classic restructuring," he wrote. The move to make GM get leaner before the next downturn likely will be followed by Ford Motor Co., which also has struggled to keep one foot in the present and another in an ambiguous future of new mobility. Ford has been slower to react, but says it will lay off an unspecified number of white-collar workers as it exits much of the car market in favor of trucks and SUVs, some of them powered by batteries. GM doesn't foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts "to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong," Barra told reporters. Factories that could be closed include assembly plants in Detroit and Oshawa, Ontario, and Lordstown, Ohio, as well as transmission plants in Warren, Michigan, and near Baltimore. The company also said it will stop operating two additional factories outside North America by the end of next year. The announcement worried GM workers who could lose their jobs. "I don't know how I'm going to feed my family," Matt Smith, a worker at the Ontario factory, said Monday outside the plant's south gate, where workers blocked trucks from entering or leaving. "It's hard. It's horrible." Smith's wife also works at the plant. The couple has an 11-month-old at home. Workers at the Ontario plant walked off the job Monday but were expected to return Tuesday. Most of the factories to be affected by GM's restructuring build cars that will not be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. Their futures will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year. The Detroit-based union has already condemned GM's actions and threatened to fight them "through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership." Bobbi Marsh, who has worked assembling the Chevrolet Cruze compact car at the Ohio plant since 2008, said she can't understand why the factory might close given the strong economy. "I can't believe our president would allow this to happen," she said Monday. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said the move will be disastrous for the region around Youngstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland, where GM is one of the area's few remaining industrial anchors. "GM received record tax breaks as a result of the GOP's tax bill last year, and has eliminated jobs instead of using that tax windfall to invest in American workers," he said in a statement. GM, the nation's largest automaker, will stop producing cars and transmissions at the plants through 2019. In all, six car models were scrapped, leaving the company with nine remaining car models for its four brands, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC. Among the cars that won't be made after next year is the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable gas-electric hybrid. When introduced a decade ago, the Volt was meant to be a bridge to fully electric cars, the company said. It has a small battery that can take it about 50 miles, then it switches to a small gasoline engine. But since it was introduced, battery technology has improved dramatically, GM said. Now the full-electric Chevrolet Bolt can go up to 238 miles on a single charge. The United Auto Workers promised to fight any plant closures and criticized GM for cutting U.S. jobs while building full-size pickups in Mexico. It also recently announced that a new Chevrolet Blazer SUV will be built there. Also, GM imports the Buick Envision midsize SUV from China. ___ Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. Members of Unifor, the union representing the workers of Oshawa's General Motors assembly plant, stand near the entrance to the plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. General Motors will lay off thousands of factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. General Motors is closing the Oshawa plant. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press via AP) Workers of Oshawa's General Motors car assembly plant, listen to Jerry Dias, president of UNIFOR, the union representing the workers, at the union headquarters in Oshawa, Ont. on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press via AP) FILE - In this Tuesday, June 15, 2010, file photo, workers at General Motors' Lordstown Assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, put the final touches on Chevy Cobalts. One of the last industrial anchors in what was once the heart of manufacturing in Ohio is now on life support after General Motors announced Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, it will stop small-car production at its Lordstown assembly plant and consider closing it for good. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File) FILE- In this July 27, 2011, file photo, assembly worker Julaynne Trusel works on a Chevrolet Volt at the General Motors Hamtramck Assembly plant in Hamtramck, Mich. GM announced Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, that it will lay off thousands of factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. Among the possibilities are the Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant, which makes the Buick LaCrosse, the Chevrolet Impala and Volt, and the Cadillac CT6, all slow-selling cars. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File) FILE- In this July 27, 2011 photo, assembly worker Julaynne Trusel works on a Chevrolet Volt at the General Motors Hamtramck Assembly plant in Hamtramck, Mich. GM announced Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, that it will lay off thousands of factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. Among the possibilities are the Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant, which makes the Buick LaCrosse, the Chevrolet Impala and Volt, and the Cadillac CT6, all slow-selling cars. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File) FILE- In this Dec. 11, 2017, file photo General Motors Chairman and CEO, Mary Barra, is interviewed by Cox Automotive's Michelle Krebs during an Automotive Press Association event in Detroit. GM announced Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, that it will lay off thousands of factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. GM doesn't foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts "to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong," Barra told reporters. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File) Jerry Dias, president of UNIFOR, the union representing the workers of Oshawa's General Motors car assembly plant, speaks to the workers at the union headquarters, in Oshawa, Ont. on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press via AP) Jerry Dias, president of UNIFOR, the union representing the workers of Oshawa's General Motors car assembly plant, speaks to the workers at the union headquarters in Oshawa, Ont. on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press via AP) A legal challenge over Brexit is due to be heard at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). A cross-party group of politicians launched the action to determine whether the UK can unilaterally revoke its Article 50 request to leave the European Union. Those bringing the case believe the UK Parliament could halt the Brexit process if MPs vote down the final deal, while the UK Government argues the case is hypothetical as it has no plans to revoke Article 50. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Luxembourg in a bid to determine whether the withdrawal process triggered under Article 50 can be halted by the UK on its own, without prior consent of the other 27 EU member states. The ECJ is the highest court in Europe regarding EU law. The hearing was fixed after the highest court in the UK, the Supreme Court, last week rejected the UK Governments application to appeal against the ruling made by Lord Carloway at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in September to refer the question to the ECJ. A Brexit legal challenge will be heard at the the European Court of Justice (Stefan Rousseau/PA) The case was launched in February by a cross-party group of politicians: Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, Joanna Cherry MP and Alyn Smith MSP of the SNP, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project. Under pressure, the Govt has finally published the text of its (failed) application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. What is significant is that the Govt formally recognises MPs can simply direct it to revoke the Article 50 notice. https://t.co/vCjTlvvlXV pic.twitter.com/iBpjCyU03M Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) November 26, 2018 In June, Lord Boyd refused their request to refer the case to the ECJ, ruling the question was hypothetical and the conditions for a reference had not been met. The September judgment of Lord Carloway, Scotlands most senior judge, overturned this ruling. He said the European court would not be advising the UK Parliament on what it must or ought to do but instead merely declaring the law as part of its central function and how Parliament chooses to react to that declarator is entirely a matter for that institution. He added: It seems neither academic nor premature to ask whether it is legally competent to revoke the notification and thus to remain in the EU. The matter is uncertain in that it is the subject of a dispute; as this litigation perhaps demonstrates. The answer will have the effect of clarifying the options open to MPs in the lead up to what is now an inevitable vote. No judgment is expected at Tuesdays hearing and it is understood the European court will issue a written judgment later. In its ruling, the Supreme Court stipulated the Court of Session will have to reach a judgment on the matter after the ECJ has given guidance. Mr Wightman is among those travelling to Luxembourg and said he is looking forward to the hearing. He added: The question as to whether MPs can unilaterally revoke Article 50 is vital, as the chaos around Brexit shows no sign of being resolved. The UK Parliament must be fully informed of all of its options. A UK Government spokesman said: It remains a firm matter of policy that we will not be revoking Article 50. Politicians need to know all their options on Brexit, including whether the UK can unilaterally halt the process, a lawyer has argued in the European Court of Justice. Aidan ONeill QC is representing a cross-party group of politicians who launched the action to determine whether the withdrawal process triggered under Article 50 can be halted by the UK on its own, without prior consent of the other 27 EU member states. Those who brought the case argue unilateral revocation is possible, while legal representatives for the UK Government said the case is inadmissible as it deals with a hypothetical situation. The court also heard from lawyers representing the Council of European Union and from the European Commission, who both argue revocation is possible but would require unanimous agreement from all member states. Brexit: Hearing in Case C-621/18 Wightman on the possibility to revoke Article 50 has started. Full Court hearing the arguments. pic.twitter.com/pZYT83sskZ EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) November 27, 2018 Giving evidence at the court in Luxembourg, Mr ONeill said it is fundamental to the treaties of the EU that an individual member state can unilaterally revoke the decision to withdraw. He said: It cannot be in the interest of the union as a whole to force a member state to leave the union against the wishes of the people. Article 50 Brexit case hearing at the European Court of Justice (Laura Paterson/PA) The unions wider interest lies with member states remaining in the EU when their peoples wish to do so. He accused the Council of the European Union and the European Commission of inviting the court to act unconstitutionally and in contravention of the rule of law by reinterpreting the treaties. Mr ONeill said the commission misunderstands and the UK Government misinterprets UK constitutional law. He said the politicians who brought the case, need to know the options for revocation, which are open to withdrawing member states now, to allow them, properly and in a fully informed way, to carry out their duties as democratically elected representatives, accountable to the people. Advocate General for Scotland Lord Keen QC, representing the UK Government, argued the question of whether or not Article 50 can be unilaterally revoked should be ruled inadmissible as it is a hypothetical validity challenge and asked the court not to open this Pandoras box. He said the UK Government does not intend to revoke Article 50 and later confirmed it has no position on revocation. Mr Keen said what those bringing the case seek is political ammunition to be used in and to pressure the UK Parliament. It was brought forward in February by a group Scottish politicians Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, Joanna Cherry MP and Alyn Smith MSP of the SNP, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project Lord Keen added: In short, they seek to co-opt this court into their ongoing political campaign in regard to an issue of almost unparalleled political controversy and sensitivity. He said this would be a constitutional anathema that would pose an unprecedented threat to parliamentary privilege. So to summarise at #CJEU no one has argued that #Art50 cant be revoked. The argument is whether it can be done unilaterally or only with permission. UK Govt threw its toys out of the pram & refused to address the substantive question #StopBrexit #PeoplesVote Joanna Cherry QC (@joannaccherry) November 27, 2018 Hubert Legal, representing the Council of the European Union, said allowing unilateral withdrawal could lead to disaster, of which the main victim could be the European project altogether. He said Article 50 is not ambiguous, adding: The prerogative of acting alone will have been exhausted by putting the notification letter on the councils table. The ECJ is the highest court in Europe regarding EU law and a written judgment on the case is expected in the coming weeks, with the president of EJC saying it will happen quickly. Scotlands most senior judge Lord Carloway ruled in September to refer the question to the ECJ after the case was heard at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotlands highest civil court. UK Government attempts to appeal against this ruling were rejected by the Court of Session and the Supreme Court. In its ruling last week, the Supreme Court stipulated the Court of Session will have to reach a judgment on the matter after the ECJ has given guidance. Alyn Smith MEP said the court would provide important clarity which only they can give and he is very optimistic about the outcome. He said: I think it paves the way for other ways out. I think the Peoples Vote is one of those things. A second EU referendum, a meaningful vote in the House of Commons instructing Theresa May to revoke Article 50 letter theres other ways in which this could be fixed, its not about a false choice between Mrs Mays deal or chaos. There are other ways out this. What this ruling will give when we see it, and I think today was very positive for that, will be identifying the road map out of Brexit. Prime Minister Narendra Modis speech at Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh on Monday, November 27, in the closing overs of BJPs campaign in the state was, perhaps, the most definitive. Some may argue it came a little late in the day. But Modi always works on a strategy. So, this too must have been as per plan. Yet as per popular projections, BJP is unlikely to win Vidisha notwithstanding the captains knock by Modi. Still a message was transmitted to the larger electorate probably targeted at the fence sitters on the eve of polling. Modi was as direct as he could get. I have come to tally accounts, he thundered. Compare the work done by my government in the last four years, Shivraj Singhs in 15 years and Congress over 55 years before that. He reminded people of the condition of roads during the Congress regime and kilometres of highways constructed in the last four years. Modi mocked Congress for not fielding Digvijaya Singh in the campaign given his poor record as chief minister. He poked fun at Rahul Gandhi for promising mobile phone factories wherever he went without knowing how many mobile phone factories have actually come up in India over the last four years. It was vintage Modi at his best. Modi had a word for Congress cheerleaders as well. He pointed out picking state after state from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha how Congress after being booted out of power has seldom made a comeback if a viable alternative existed. In a somewhat unkind dig, typical of Modi, he said Bihar preferred even a Lalu over Congress. This last statement was a telling comment on national politics that the astute observer will not miss. Now, with Congress beginning to look more and more like the B team of BJP with its new-found love for Hinduism, Brahmanical chauvinism and temples, the future alternatives will necessarily come from a third direction. While that might be premature to discuss in the context of the coming Madhya Pradesh elections, it has great significance for the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. While BJP and Modi carefully calibrated the narrative as the campaign progressed, Rahul Gandhi finished the last lap on the same stroke freestyle attack on Modi. The only thing that changed was the size of the red tika on his forehead. Other than that Rahul would deserve a prize for consistency. As a devotee of Lord Shiva, Rahul Gandhi visited Pitambara Peeth in Datia with senior party leaders. Rahuls speeches were so Modi centric it would appear that he was campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections. Shivraj Singh and the performance of the Madhya Pradesh government were almost incidental in Gandhis scheme of things. Having exhausted all his ammunition against Modi, one wonders if Rahul will have any new material to speak against Modi in 2019. However, on another plane, Team Rahul has been very impressive. It has displayed rare discipline and unity of command that has been missing in Congress for a long time. Much credit for this must go to Kamal Nath, who has been working tirelessly bringing in remarkable strategic inputs and maturity to the campaign. Jyotiraditya Scindia has to be complimented for playing in tandem with Kamal Nath without trying to upstage him as Congress scions are wont to do. Finally, Rahul too deserves to be congratulated for keeping Digvijaya Singh under control ever since the latter returned from his self-imposed exile along the holy trail of the Narmada river. Kamal Naths real contribution lies in reviving a near defunct Congress organisational machinery in the state that had almost gone into coma. To retrieve it to a working condition overcoming the multiple power axes of Madhya Pradesh Congress was no mean task. Kamal Nath managed the backend. A man of detail, an experienced administrator and hands-on politician and administrator, he took care of the nuts and bolts of the campaign. As some of the leaked videos revealed he was the man working on the arithmetic of electioneering and behind the scene machinations. On the other side, Scindia took upon himself the task of arranging the public appearances of Rahul, especially the photo-ops at temples. His own royal aura helped mobilise the crowds for Rahul, especially in the Malwa, Gwalior and Guna belt and other parts of north and east Madhya Pradesh such as Chitrakoot and Rewa. Overall, it was refreshing teamwork on display that one had stopped expecting from the Congress. The BJP, on its part, never underestimated its challenge of anti-incumbency. It was acutely aware of the shortcomings of Shivraj Singhs rule, especially in the last five years. Therefore, it had the twin task of damage control as well as recovering lost ground. Starting as an underdog in some ways, BJP went into a mission mode almost a year ahead of the elections. Like a well-oiled army, BJP launched its campaign in waves. First, central government programmes like PMGAY were stepped up into top gear. Secondly, sops were granted in terms of higher MSPs, cap on electricity charges, rapid disbursement of crop insurance to assuage farmer disenchantment. This was followed by massive outreach at the ground level in the rural areas by party cadres and RSS volunteers. Modi and Shivraj too complemented each other in style. They understood that both need to win and, therefore, have to join forces without holding anything back. This chemistry was visible through the campaign much more than what has been seen in Chhattisgarh or Rajasthan so far. Modi and Shivraj too complemented each other in style. (Source: PTI) Modis direct contact with booth workers via video-conferencing is also believed to have had a positive impact on the sagging morale of party workers. Unlike Karnataka and even UP, where Modi had gone on a campaign blitzkrieg, in Madhya Pradesh, Modi addressed only 10 election rallies. Here, BJP appeared to have focused more on micro-management at the ground level keeping the carpet bombing for the last phase. So far the battle seems to be evenly poised. Views are divided on how BSP and SP going alone would impact the outcome. Some feel BSP would nullify some of the advantage BJP was hoping to get from the SC/ST legislation. Others are not so sure it will benefit the Congress. Will SP take away some of Congress minority votes? Unlikely, given that SP drew a blank in the 2013 elections. Congress is hoping that rebel candidates and the Sapaks (Samanya, Pichhda, Alpsankhyak) party may play spoilsport for BJP by cutting into its traditional upper caste vote bank. But, that is something the BJP would leave for Amit Shah to handle. Finally, as campaigning ended and the troops moved to the polling stations, the nation is holding its breath perhaps even more than the voters of Madhya Pradesh. In recent memory no other state elections has generated so much suspense and anticipation. But, all indications suggest it will be a nail-biting finish. Also read: Why BJP will win upcoming Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh Assembly polls It has now become a popular social media joke that millennials dont know they can fly in and out of a city, without posting a message on social media. In the post-9/11 time, this sounds funny until this social media frenzy takes recourse to hijack scares, delaying flights for hours. But are we sacred by such news? Are we amused? No. We just nonchalantly turn the newspaper page over. In such a normal occurrence, a 21-year-old male passenger of a Kolkata-Mumbai Jet Airways plane was recently taken into custody after he covered his face with a handkerchief to pose as a terrorist and send out that photo on WhatsApp. According to reports, he had a cheesy caption ready as well: Terrorist on flight. I destroy womens hearts. Clearly, the person was quite sure about his targets. Just the medium and the method to reach those were ghastly. We dont know whom to blame more social media addiction, too much frivolousness, or Bollywood movies for teaching us that a handkerchief is enough to become a terrorist! Such hijack scares in fact abound. No, a plane hijack is not a joke. (Reuters photo of the Indian Airlines Kandahar hijack, 1999) Earlier this month, a pilot of a Kandahar-bound Ariana Afghan Airlines plane pressed the hijack button by mistake, as it was taking off from Delhi. The name of the destination was enough to bring back memories of the 1999 hijack of Kathmandu-Delhi Indian Airlines Flight 814. The hijackers had forced the aircraft to then Taliban-controlled Kandahar in an attempt to pressure the Indian government to release Islamist militants held in India. The hostage crisis went on for seven days. In the following years, of course, the trauma of 9/11 changed air travel the world over. With painful memories of the hijacked American flights, global travellers submitted to intensive security checks and even managed their language on board better. But now 17 years later hijack is apparently a joke in India, thanks to our callousness, indifference to our surroundings and our constant need of social media validation. In July this year, a passenger aboard an IndiGo airlines Chandigarh-Srinagar flight was detained for shouting out aloud that passengers should not untie their seat belts as the flight had been hijacked. In 2017, Kerala television personality Clince Varghese sent the crew of a Kochi-Mumbai Jet Airways into a tizzy when he was uploading a selfie-video on his social media account, with a voiceover that he was going to hijack the plane with happy vibes. Reports said that the security staff heard his voiceover while he was recording the video and mistook happy vibe as happy bomb. If you think that such flights of fancy are confined to young persons or first-time fliers, you are totally wrong. What mid-air misadventures look like. (Photo: ANI) Last year, Birju Kishore Salla, a frequent flier on Jet Airways, reportedly kept a note in the toilet of a Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight, claiming that the plane was covered by hijackers. Flight No 9W 339 is covered by hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to PoK. 12 people on board. If you put landing gear, you will hear the noise of people dying. dont take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bomb and wl blast if you land Delhi. Allah is great (sic). After the note was discovered, the plane had to make an emergency landing in Ahmedabad. According to reports, Salla was a jewellery businessman and was travelling on a business class ticket. It's time we curbed our flights of fancy. (Photo: Reuters) There was also an incident of a flier calling up the Mumbai cops and saying, There is a hijack-like situation. It was not a prank. It was just an expression of disgust as the flight concerned was delayed by three hours and the best solution, according to that gentleman, was to report it to the police, with a tint of vivid imagination though. In 2015, a Hyderabad man was arrested after he threatened to hijack the plane as an airhostess rejected his request to take a selfie together. The rules are not lax. Birju Kishore Salla was put on a no-fly list. In 2012, Jitender Kumar Mohla, a chartered accountant, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a New Delhi court for triggering a hijack scare in 2009. In a Goa-Delhi Indigo flight, he had claimed that he was one of the accused in the 1999 Kandahar hijack, and was carrying infected needles and a gun. It's soon going to be 2019. We really can't afford to act so foolish on air. Or, anywhere else, for that matter. Also Read: This is how cheap air tickets are cheating passengers Paris, TX (75460) Today Cloudy skies with showers and a possible thunderstorm late. Low near 45F. S winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Cloudy skies with showers and a possible thunderstorm late. Low near 45F. S winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said he has taken up the issue of declining credit to exporters with the Finance Ministry to ensure adequate availability of funds to them. Prabhu said exports are growing and the ministry is taking steps to further accelerate the growth rate. One of the main challenges for export is finance. There is a decline in (export) finance, so we have taken up the issue with the finance ministry...I think, the finance minister is also looking into this (as in) how we can improve the credit flow into the export sector, the minister told reporters here. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta has time and again demanded augmentation of credit flow to the export sector, as a sharp decline in credit would impact exports growth. The minister has earlier suggested that loans to exporters should be considered as priority sector lending by the banks. Prabhu also said that to boost shipments, exporters should explore new markets including in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, south Asia, and the Middle East. He said logistics sector will play a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of Indian goods in the global markets. Flames of hate speech on social media and the failure to limit the influence of money in political campaigns are symptomatic of the fact that the system is losing it In April of 2019, the European Union (EU) proposes to bring into force a regulation that requires companies operating in the EU to adopt slogans that are accurate, failing which, such companies will face fines up to two per cent of their global revenue. The BJP must be counting its lucky stars then because this past week, it was reported by the Broadcast Audience Research Council that the party was the most advertised brand on television in the run-up to the Assembly elections, beating many corporate heavyweights in the advertising space, such as Netflix. Funnily, in late August this year, we also saw the BJP to be the only party at the all-party meet organised by the Election Commission to reject the idea of a cap on election-related expenses by political parties. This article will examine how these statistics only show that this is a smoke and mirrors a Government that spends more time in ensuring that its marketing campaign stays on point; rather than delving into complicated questions concerning the country. Ever since the BJP won the 2014 election, its go-to strategy has been to use marketing and advertising to paper over the cracks that have emerged during its governance. With the state of the economy, the state of jobs and the fact that Indias premier security agency is currently engulfed in a full-blown crisis that is unfolding each day in the Supreme Court, the BJP has its hands full. So one cant blame them for trying it is harder to keep everyones attention away from the facts on the ground and use its money power to do so. On the influence of money in an election, ever since it came to power, the BJP has displayed a singular focus not on limiting the influence of money in elections but letting it run amok. It has set the example itself by not only beating huge corporates in branding but also by failing to change the system in place or to check such influence. Take, for example, the introduction of electoral bonds. As I have examined previously in these columns in The Pioneer, the electoral bonds scheme recently introduced by this Government permits any person who is a citizen of India or is an entity incorporated/established in India to purchase an electoral bond in favour of certain political party. Compared to other forms of funding, disclosure requirements for these bonds were made minimal by this Government. For example, under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (RP Act) political parties are required to prepare a report of all contributions received in excess of Rs 20,000 from a person or a company in a financial year. They are required to submit this report to the Election Commission. After the introduction of the electoral bonds scheme as also, amendments introduced under the Finance Act, 2017, the RP Act now creates an exemption to this reporting requirement for contributions made in the form of electoral bonds to political parties. These amendments follow the same ethos as the BJPs political strategy in dealing with specific criticisms that are thrown at it, ie obfuscation over transparency. Another change that was introduced by the BJP was a cap on spending for companies under the Companies Act, 2013. Prior to this, Indian companies were restricted from spending more than 7.5 per cent of their average profits towards funding political parties. Now such a cap has been done away with. These changes inarguably allow for greater influence by corporates in our political discourse. During its tenure, the BJP has had to also defend itself against a number of allegations of promoting crony capitalism. Whether its the Rafale controversy or the BJPs ineptness in failing to check economic offenders like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi from fleeing the country with public money etc, the BJP cant seem to shake this image. The major problem I foresee with this unabated rise of corporate influence on the political process is that there is no such thing as free lunch and the influence of such funding, whether through electoral bonds or otherwise, is inevitably at the cost of other stakeholders, whether it is an NGO advocating for environmentally friendly policies or tribals fighting for their land. We must be wary and guard against such fate. Another reason why genuineness and transparency in our political discourse have taken a back-seat is the problem of fake news. The buck here, too, must stop with Prime Minister Modi. Fake news has skewed our political discourse by making it almost impossible to determine what the true picture is. While a responsible Government should take steps to check the influence of fake news, this Government has singularly failed to tackle an issue that has risen unabatedly since 2014. Last year, for example, at least 30 Indians lost their lives due to rumours that were circulated on WhatsApp. However, rather than taking ownership of the matter, the Government entrusted the responsibility of tackling this problem to the intermediary. The problem has been exacerbated by the Government not only because of its lack of seriousness in approaching the matter but also because of the signalling that the Prime Minister and the BJP engage in. A recent BBC study bolstered the stand of the Opposition and victims of vicious trolls, that there is a systematic effort in subverting democracy that is in operation by trolls online who spread fake news and aim to discredit actual facts. The BJP, however, has turned a blind eye to it. As per the report, Many more of the Twitter handles that have published fake news sit in the pro-BJP cluster than in the anti-BJP cluster. This is not news to me. Within minutes of a post on Twitter criticising the Government, Prime Minister Modi or the BJP, there is almost an immediate outflow of abuse and vitriol that one is subjected to. Such systematic targeting suggests that there is a committed mass that has been hired to do just this. The fact that the Government has taken no action against this form of online attack is at the very least shameful but borders on complicity. It is especially disheartening that a number of these trolls and vitriol-spewing people are followed by the Prime Minister wear this as a badge of honour. The Prime Minister would do well to disassociate from such entities and their hateful abuses. Perhaps, though, this may be too much to expect from a politician who has himself rarely shown restraint and insulted family members of Opposition leaders and then turned around and played victim when he is criticised for doing so. To end this piece, one might ask what the Government must do to answer these uncomfortable questions on limiting the influence of money and fake news. The answer is not complicated. For one, the Government and especially the Prime Minister should come out specifically against hate and abuse that trolls spread and clamp down on any such action within its camps. For another, it can just agree on a cap to election spending. I wouldnt hold my breath on either though. Lucky for the BJP then, who competes with big corporate entities on advertising but is outside the ambit of the laws of the EU, that I mentioned at the beginning of this piece. If the BJP did have to similarly comply to such regulations, a change in branding would be deemed necessary: Suit-Boot Ki Sarkaar, for example, has a nice ring to it and may be more authentic than Na khaaonga, Na khaane doonga. (The writer is Jharkhand PCC president, former MP and IPS officer. Views are personal) The Ram Temple mobilisation this time around, however, reeks of desperation rather than resolve In an interview in the late 1990s to a weekly magazine, the progenitor of the Ram Temple as a socio-political movement symbolising cultural nationalism, LK Advani, was honest enough to share his concern that the lumpen element which had attached itself to the movement was a cause of serious worry for him as the head of the BJP. The burden of his song, as it were, was that while he was proud of having played a role in bringing the Ram Temple and allied issues to the forefront of national discourse to expose the pseudo-secularism of the Congress and Leftist parties, which had reached its apogee with the overturning of the Shah Bano verdict by a Congress-majority Parliament in the previous decade, the virulence and violence which accompanied the agitation were unacceptable. The current BJP leadership, however, in perpetual election mode, seems to have no such qualms. That is a tragedy not just for the country but also for the big tent contours of the Ram Temple movement its original vocaliser sought to bestow upon it. For the party itself, it is a moment of truth. Yes, the Supreme Court could have expedited the hearing of the appeal preferred by the Muslim parties against the Allahabad High Court judgement but, in its wisdom, it did not. The BJP may not like it, but it has to either lump it or bring in a law/ordinance to build a Ram Temple at the Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya and seeing where that takes it. As far as political strategy goes, that is the bottomline and everything else is just smoke and mirrors. There is no place for a discourse of hate-mongering and the till now verbal violence which is increasingly prevalent on the ground and threatens to spill into the kind of confrontation and conflagration India can ill afford. Of course, the BJP, RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena and many others, whether individuals or organisations, have an unalienable right to agitate for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. They also have a right and given their passionate support for the demand over the decades and duty to try and fashion a mass movement on the issue. Responsibility for ensuring the movement is non-violent and intimidation has no place in it also rests on the BJP leadership just like it did with Advani two decades ago. On the evidence of the results of the mobilisation over the past few months, though, the traction of the 1980s and 1990s is missing. In fact, even the last time the Sangh and its affiliates attempted to up the ante on the Ram Temple in 2002, they were not very successful. This time around, too, the response has been far from electrifying. Which leaves us with the only conclusion it is possible to draw the BJP is focussing on Ayodhya, especially in Uttar Pradesh, to try and counter the effect of a putative Opposition grand alliance in that State and is not averse to seeing if Lord Ram helps it consolidate its support base and deflect public attention from its performance in the ongoing Assembly polls in five States. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the BJP is the only option before Telangana as both family parties the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti have destroyed the State over the last six decades and caused misery and sufferings to them. Addressing two election rallies in Nizamabad and Mahbubnagar, Modi also urged the people of Telangana not to allow the Congress to re-enter the State and follow the example of States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal and Tamil Nadu where the Congress could not return to power even after 40 years. If you elect the BJP in the State and we already have a BJP Government at the Centre, you will get double Kamal Chhap (Lotus symbol) engines and we will take Telangana far off on the path of development, he said. The Chief Minister of Telangana and his family think they can get away with doing no work like the Congress.... They have adopted the style of the Congress which ruled for 50-52 years without doing anything. But that cannot happen now, Modi told an election rally in Nizamabad, as he took the poll battle to Raos turf. Raos daughter K Kavitha represents Nizamabad in the Lok Sabha. Congress and TRS are two faces of the same coin. Both parties are competing against each other on who tells more lies. TRS and Congress are family-ruled parties playing a friendly match in Telangana polls, he said, adding it was a big joke that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi assailed the TRS for being a family party at an election rally last week. Modi sought to appeal to Telangana pride when he referred to AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisis recent remark that whoever became the Chief Minister of Telangana or undivided Andhra Pradesh had to bow before his party. A leader recently said whoever became the CM of Andhra Pradesh-Telangana had to be at his feet (kadmon ke neeche). You fought for Telangana for your self-respect. Will you want a CM who bows at the feet of some leader instead of the people of Telangana? the Prime Minister told another rally at Mahbubnagar. K Chandrasekhar Raos TRS has friendly ties with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. While accusing Rao of destroying Telangana through his Governments policies and not fulfilling his promises to people, Modi targeted the Congress for silencing the aspirations of the State for two decades with bullets. Ridiculing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Raos promise of developing Nizamabad into London, the Prime Minister said, Let him first ensure drinking water supply to the people. Even basic facilities are not available here, he said. He also targeted the Chief Minister for his belief in mantr and tantr (religious rituals). It was Modis first election tour since the campaign for the December 7 State Assembly elections began in the State. In his typical acerbic style Modi targeted both the Congress and the TRS and charged them with having a secret understanding. While his entire firepower was concentrated on the Congress and the TRS, surprisingly he did not made any reference to his friend-turned-foe Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu. Did KCR (Chief Minister) not destroy the State after the formation of Telangana? he asked the gathering. The reason was that his apprenticeship and training was in the Congress. If he has destroyed the State so much, if those who have done PhD in the destruction come to power they will cause hundred times more destruction, he said urging the people to give an opportunity to the BJP in the State. Dont allow even one Congress candidate to win. Otherwise they will never learn. State after the State has wiped out the Congress as it had destroyed the country, he said. Trying to raise the regional sentiments of the people he reminded them that the Congress Government is responsible for killing hundreds of youth in firing who had raised the demand for separate State in the past. Will you allow such Congress to come back to power in the State, he said. Modi praised Telangana as a land where the people bravely stood up against the repression of Razakars, referring to the militia active during Nizams rule. He also lashed out at the Congress for making personal attacks on him in the campaign. Instead of talking of the issues of development they are asking what is the caste of Modi, what is the age of Modis mother and what is the name of Modis father. Is it the way of running a campaign? he asked. Modi contrasted the performance of his own Government at the Centre saying he was able to change the lives of the poorest of the poor through various welfare and development schemes. Out of the six crore free gas connections given to the poor families in the country, six lakh connections were given in Telangana alone, he said. Under the Saubhagya Yojna four lakh households were given electricity connections in the State. Holding the Congress responsible for the rich and powerful businessmen looting the nationalised banks during the UPA rule, he promised that the wealth of the businessmen who had fled the country will be seized and the looted wealth of the people will be recovered. After I came to power the gates of looting of the banks were closed, the PM said. State BJP leaders said the successful rallies of Modi had given a shot in the arm to the their campaign across the State. The BJP, which had only 5 assembly seats in 2014, all in Hyderabad, had largely concentrated its campaign to the State capital till now. Nizamabad and Mahbubnagar were among the districts where the BJP is now hoping to break fresh ground and win a couple of Assembly seats. With less than 10 days left before the campaign comes to an end, Modi was expected to undertake another round of campaign in the State and addressing a meeting in Hyderabad. Contradictory voices emanating from within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on holding the Assembly session at Gairsain, the opposition Congress has ramped up pressure on the State Government to clarify its stand on the emotive issue. Taking a swipe at the perceived gulf between the stands taken by the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and the state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt on the Capital shift issue, the State Congress chief Pritam Singh said on Tuesday that the State Government now must clear its position on Gairsain, shedding its ambivalence. Singh said that the stand of his party on the matter has been clear all through. The Assembly session was held at Gairsain for the first time during the Congress rule while BJP has done nothing on Gairsain expect engaging in rhetorical verbosity, he said. Launching a scathing attack on the BJP on the matter, the State Congress vice- president Surya Kant Dhasmana said that BJP has been exposed on the issue of Gairsain. Talking to the media persons at the State party office on Tuesday, Dhasmana said that the statement of the State BJP chief was the collective view of the saffron party. It is now crystal clear that BJP is not interested in the least to make Gairsain the Capital of the State. The party has never been serious on the matter. Had the party been serious the first Government of the State helmed by BJP would have taken initiatives in the direction, he said. He claimed that Gairsain had been brought into limelight in 2012 during the Congress rule when the first cabinet meeting had been held in a makeshift tent there. Besides, the construction of the Vidhan Sabha and the secretariat building at Gairsain also started during the Congress rule. Despite enjoying a mammoth majority in the Assembly, BJP has not even placed a single brick at Gairsain. It is now clear to the people that the Congress alone can translate the dream of Gairsain being the Capital of the State into reality, the Congress leader added. More BJP ministers jump into Gairsain row The Gairsain debate within the ruling BJP has gained steam further on Tuesday when senior Cabinet Minister Prakash Pant said that a session of the State Assembly should be held at Gairsain every year. The State Forest Minister Harak Singh said that he was not in favour of holding Assembly session at Gairsain till all facilities were made available there. He clearly said that it was not proper to hold session to win some brownie points. Notably, the row had been sparked after the State BJP chief Ajay Bhatt said that he was against Assembly session being held at Gairsain till infrastructural was put into place, a statement which prompted the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to say that holding Assembly session was a prerogative of the State Government and not the party. Holding divergent views from his Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu who reached Lahore on Tuesday on visiting Pakistan for Kartarpur Corridor groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh made it clear that his visit is personal. Capt Amarinder, who had aggressively declined Paks invite for the ceremony, said that he had asked Sidhu to reconsider his decision to go to Pakistan for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor but had acceded to his request for permission to go since I do not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a personal visit. Sidhu was in Madhya Pradesh when he told the Minister to reconsider his decision. Sidhu told me he had already committed himself to going. When I informed him of the stand I had taken on the issue, he said it was his personal visit but he would get back to me. But I did not hear from him, said the Chief Minister during an informal chat with mediapersons. He added that the Minister sent him a request for going and he approved it. I do not stop anyone from going anywhere on a private visit. It (Sidhus trip) is not an official visit, he said. Standing by his own decision to decline Pakistans visit, the Chief Minister said that he believed in saying what he felt. I have strong feelings on the issue. I have a strong bond with the Army and cannot stand seeing my people killed, he asserted. The Congress had always stood against terrorism, and would never allow anyone to destroy the peace of the country or its people, he said. Terming the situation in Pakistan as very uncertain and fluid, Capt Amarinder said that nobody knew who was running the government there or what was happening in that country. If Imran Khan is running the government, then he should rein (the Pak army and the terrorist groups). If he cannot do that, then he obviously has nothing in his hands, he said. My message is very clear Dont mess with Punjab, declared Capt Amarinder, reiterating his warning to Pakistan against any attempt to disrupt Indias peace. Vowing not to allow terrorism to return to Punjab at any cost, the Chief Minister said that the times had changed now. Punjab then had a police force of less than 20,000, but now has 81,000 police personnel to keep it safe and protected. However, if things do get out of hand, then there is the Indian Army, which is well equipped and prepared to counter any threat, said Capt Amarinder, adding that the Army will not allow them (Pakistan) to create trouble in India. NO QUESTION OF CORRIDOR BEING USED BY TERRORISTS On the issue of the Kartarpur Corridor, the Chief Minister made it clear that every Punjabi was very happy with it and there was no question of it being used by terrorists to infiltrate into India. No one need to worry about that as there would be high level of security in the corridor, he added. Pointing out that the issue of the corridor was raised by Dr Manmohan Singh on the 400th anniversary of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and he himself had raised the issue with Pakistani leaders Parvez Musharraf and Parvez Elahi, Capt Amarinder said that he was completely in favour of the corridor as he wanted peace, backed by increase in trade, with Pakistan. It was the killing of innocent Indians and Indian soldiers that he could not tolerate, said the Chief Minister, recalling that Kargil had happened during peace talks with then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Pakistan could not be trusted in the current circumstances, said Capt Amarinder. SFJS PANNUN JUST AN ISI STOOGE Asked about the Referendum 2020, the Chief Minister said that the Sikhs For Justice legal advisor GS Pannun was just a stooge of the ISI and the organisation was being funded and managed by ISI. It has no takers in India and is being propagated by a handful of anti-socials, he added. WRONG OF HARSIMRAT TO RAKE UP 1984 ISSUE To another question, Capt Amarinder said that it was wrong of Akali leader and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal to rake up the 1984 issue on the historic religious occasion of the foundation stone laying of Kartarpur Corridor at Dera Baba Nanak yesterday. The Akalis, he said, were in the habit of exploiting religion for political gains. But the people of Punjab were no longer willing to be misled by their propaganda, he added. The three-day workshop on scientific research, leadership in health care and patient safety concluded at AIIMS Rishikesh on Tuesday. The experts deliberated on the challenges faced due to changes in the healthcare system, the need of team building for efficient health care and other relevant subjects. Organised by the department of medical education, the post-graduate level students, the doctoral students and the professors participated. The director, AIIMS Professor Ravikant said that the institute is working to develop the leadership quality in the students to ensure that the patients are helped in the best way possible. He said, We are striving to provide hi-tech global modern medicinal facilities so that the common man is benefitted. He further said that if the patient is unable to come to the hospital for treatment he must not be deprived of the medical facility at home. We are developing such a system to reach the facilities right to the patients at their homes, he added. Invoking the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the director AIIMS said that he had thought of providing world class health facilities to the people of the country. That is why AIIMS came into existence, he said. He also remembered the role played by the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in spreading the health care system network across the country. The same is continuing now under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is working hard to reach the health care system to the common men, he said. Professor Parag Singhal associated with the University of South Wales, United Kingdom and Professor Devendra Sandhu of Bahrain University shared their experiences on the matter of leadership in the realm of healthcare. They spoke of the present challenges and trends in healthcare leadership. Both the professors admitted that it was not an easy task to bring about the changes but through taking little steps, the mission could be achieved. Professor Tamoris Ole spoke on the importance of team building. He stressed on the need of forming experienced teams to bring about a change in the system. The head of department of medical education of the premier facility Shalini Rao said in his speech that the patient safety was the key area and the hospital was doing everything possible to provide it. Congress candidate for Gajwel assembly constituency, Vanteru Pratap Reddy allegedly made a futile self-immolation bid after a search was conducted at his house in Kompally here following a complaint that cash meant for distribution to voters was hidden there, police said Tuesday. A flying squad comprising election officials reached Reddy's house late Monday night along with police, but he and his supporters prevented themfrom discharging their duty leading to some tense moments. During the search, Reddy immediately doused himself with petrol and tried to set himself on fire, but the police thwarted the bid, they said. "Reddy along with his supporters misbehaved with the officials on duty and also with police," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Balanagar Zone) P V Padmaja told PTI adding nothing was found during the search. The official said a case of attempted suicide, obstructing public servant in the discharge ofduty and other charges under relevant IPC sections were registered against Reddy and his supporters. On Sunday evening, Reddy had held a sit-in protest at the office of the Election Returning Officer in Gajwel, the constituency represented by caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, even as police evicted him. He had alleged that his phones were being tapped and that his supporters were being harassed. Telangana assembly elections are scheduled to be held on December 7. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine against any reckless acts on Tuesday after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscows seizure of three of its navy vessels. The Ukrainian parliament late on Monday voted in favour of President Petro Poroshenkos request for the introduction of martial law in parts of the country for 30 days. The decision came as Ukraine and Russia face their most dangerous crisis in years after Russian forces fired on, boarded and captured Kievs ships on Sunday off the coast of Crimea. The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the countrys east. It has raised fears of a wider escalation -- in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 -- and prompted international calls for restraint and offers of mediation. Martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas. Moscow has accused Kiev of planning Sundays confrontation as a provocation aimed at drumming up support for Poroshenko ahead of elections next year and convincing Western governments to impose further sanctions on Russia. In a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin expressed serious concern over the introduction of martial law, the Kremlin said in a statement. Putin said Kievs actions were clearly taken in view of the election campaign in Ukraine. He said he hoped Berlin could intervene with Ukrainian authorities to dissuade them from further reckless acts. Aquila Services Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides specialist housing, sport, and educational and treasury management consultancy services to housing associations, local authorities, government agencies, multi academy trusts, and other non-profit organizations in the United Kingdom, Europe, and internationally. 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Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. 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Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc., ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics. iShares MSCI Spain ETF's stock was trading at $22.48 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWP shares have increased by 17.7% and is now trading at $26.46. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of JinkoSolar: Canton Best Limited, Jiangxi Photovoltaic Materials Co. Ltd., Jinko PV Material Supply Sdn. Bhd., Jinko Solar (Malaysia) SDN BHD., Jinko Solar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Australia Holdings Co. Pty Ltd., Jinko Solar Canada Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Denmark ApS, Jinko Solar Import and Export Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Japan K.K., Jinko Solar Korea Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Technology SDN.BHD., JinkoSolar (Chuxiong) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Chuzhou) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Shangrao) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Sichuan) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Switzerland) AG, JinkoSolar (U.S.) Inc., JinkoSolar (U.S.) Industries Inc., JinkoSolar (US) Holdings Inc., JinkoSolar (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Yiwu) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar GmbH, JinkoSolar Hong Kong Limited, JinkoSolar International Development Limited, JinkoSolar Investment Limited, JinkoSolar LATAM Holding Limited, JinkoSolar Middle East DMCC, JinkoSolar Technology (Haining) Co. Ltd, JinkoSolar Trading Private Limited, Jinkosolar Household PV System Ltd., Poyang Ruilixin Information Technology Co. Ltd., Rui Xu Co. Ltd., Wide Wealth Group Holding Limited, Xinjiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Yuhuan Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., and Zhejiang Jinko Trading Co. Ltd.. Editor's note: The views expressed in this piece are the author's. Manila (CNN Philippines Life) Recently, the Philippine National Police (PNP) accused The Center for Women Resources (CWR) for spreading fake news. This is after CWR released their record of at least 33 cases of violence against women attributed to police officers since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in 2016. CWR records 16 rape cases that involve police officers from Cebu City; Binangonan, Rizal; Balayan, Batangas; Calamba, Laguna; Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo; Iligan City; Jaro, Iloilo; Marilao, Bulacan, and Manila. PNP, however, denies these claims. CWR responds with We, in the Center for Womens Resources (CWR), maintain that it is a legitimate research institution that has been publishing local, regional, and even international research studies on different womens issues including violence against women, for 36 years now. Last October, a video of Director Guillermo Eleazar remonstrating Police Officer 1 Eduardo Valencia went viral. Valencia was arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl in exchange for her parents freedom. People online debated over PO1 Valencias statement. In handcuffs, men escorted Valencia in front of Director Eleazar who was surrounded by cameramen and news reporters. As he was approaching Eleazar, he said Sir, hindi na po bago sa ating mga operatiba ang ganoon. Kapag may nahuli po tayong mag-asawang drug pusher, sir. Eleazar replied with Mismong bata, positive sa laceration Iyang kalokohang ginagawa mo, kaya tayo nasisira dahil sa inyo. Some online users insisted that the police officer would not further incriminate himself by admitting that rape culture is common in their field. They were quick to correct that PO1 Valencias statement pertains to the rape accusations against policemen, and that parents usually makeup stories against them in order to be released. Rape victims such as comfort women, peasant women, sex-for-freedom victims, urban poor and even female police officers share the same narrative. They are women who were harassed by people of authority. Do we really need to argue over the statement? We should be outraged by the fact that one or two police officers use their power to harass and commit crimes. It is not how small the number of officers committing these isolated cases is, but how great the damage is to the victim. The fact that it exists and criminals get away with it represents the culture of impunity in our country. CWR based the number of cases on media reports since July 2016. Policewomen even fall victim to their fellow officers. PO3 Jernie Ramirez of Puerto Princesa City Police Office allegedly raped a rookie policewoman. He was arrested and detained the following day. Five days before that, two Quezon City cops were arrested for palit-puri or sex-for-freedom case. Police Officer 1 Severiano Montalban III allegedly agreed to release a woman who was caught for gambling in exchange for sex. The woman was then asked by Police Officer 1 Jayson Portuguez to do another sexual act. Portuguez was arrested while Montalban surrendered. *** The international campaign called One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. Women, headed by organizations such as Gabriela and National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan), gathered at the Rizal Park last Nov. 25 for this. It was a call to action based on the fact that 1 in every 3 women on the planet is beaten or raped during her lifetime. This is equivalent to one billion women and girls. PNP is supposed to be part of this campaign, protecting women and children from all forms of abuse. Yet, with the series of arrests, we uncover a truth that has long been there. We deny that there is rape culture from the national police yet the news reports say otherwise. Both police and military forces commit violence and human rights abuse. Militarization in the country has triggered mass trauma, affecting the psychological and physical health of peasant women and children. This has generated abuses such as threats, rape, sexual harassment consistent with military presence in communities. We expect President Duterte to condemn these acts yet we only hear speeches brewing with machismo. This further enables violence against women. We cannot expect a person coming from an institution which consistently fails to respect human dignity and uphold peoples rights to lead an agency which envisions empowerment, improved quality of life and social protection, Zen Soriano, Chairperson of the National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan) says. The rape cases attributed to the Philippine National Police are but a reflection of the system of an agricultural country abused by the state. We must condemn all forms of violence and abuse. These human rights violations perpetrated by officials who are supposed to be in charge of citizens safety stem from the macho-feudal and macho-fascist system that still exist. Victims are coming out and bravely reporting their experience. However, many are still afraid. The actual number of rape cases and sexual abuse attributed to PNP may be twice or thrice the number of recorded reports. This is mainly because justice and police protection have always been for the rich and people with connections. People of authority further oppress the poor. In Nueva Ecija, a peasant woman under the name Lorena allegedly incurred minor injuries after being shot by a hired goon. She went to the police station to show her wounds, the policemen replied with, The shooters were not sharp enough because youre still alive. *** Policemen still view women as rewards and objects because this is how the President refers to women, says Faye Cura, a feminist and writer. She recently launched a book entitled Umaalma, Kumikibo, an anthology of essays on violence and women that includes narratives of women farmers, widows of EJK victims, and comfort women. Olivia Ahn, advocate of interpersonal communication through queer sexual and reproductive justice, also says that comfort women survivors unto this day are seeking reparations from their respective countries, still struggling with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, intergenerational trauma, social stigma, and severely affected reproductive, sexual, and other health conditions (early hysterectomies being most common due to untreated sexually transmitted infection and diseases in the compounds and physical trauma). Rape victims such as comfort women, peasant women, sex-for-freedom victims, urban poor, and even female police officers share the same narrative. They are women who were harassed by people of authority. They are victims of the patriarchal, macho-feudal system that is prevalent in a country where rich landlords enjoy legalized land grabbing in the name of business. In a macho-fascist country, a plunderer remains at-large while 80 percent of Filipinos suffer from the effects of Rice Tariffication, TRAIN Law, and importation of goods. Minimum-wage earners fall prey to scams, even resort to stealing food and milk formula and are of course, immediately arrested and jailed while Imelda Marcos, guilty with seven accounts of graft, walk freely. This is how we are continually harassed by the justice system. The rape cases attributed to the Philippine National Police are but a reflection of the system of an agricultural country abused by the state. Armed men have been abusing and raping women as recorded by the narratives of our comfort women. This will keep happening unless we recognize that such a system exists. This will keep happening until we rise and put an end to this violence. The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund, Inc. is a closed ended fixed income fund launched and managed by Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. The fund invests in fixed income markets of emerging market countries across the globe. It primarily invests in debt securities of government and government-related issuers, of entities organized to restructure outstanding debt of such issuers and debt securities of corporate issuers in or organized under the laws of emerging countries. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Global Index. Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Debt Fund, Inc. was formed on May 6, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Anglo African Oil & Gas. 3.9 Community Rank Outperform Votes Anglo African Oil & Gas has received 44 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Anglo African Oil & Gas has received 32 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Anglo African Oil & Gas has received 57.89% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Anglo African Oil & Gas and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe AAOG will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe AAOG will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Tableau Software, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides business analytics software products. It offers Tableau Desktop, a self-service, powerful analytics product with data; Tableau Server, a business intelligence platform for organizations; Tableau Online, a hosted software-as-a-service version of Tableau Server; Tableau Prep, a data preparation product for combining, shaping, and cleaning data; and Tableau Public, a cloud-based platform for analyzing and sharing public data. In addition, it offers Visual Query Language (VizQL) for databases, which is a computer language for describing pictures of data, including graphs, charts, maps, time series, and tables of visualizations; Live Query Engine that interprets abstract queries generated by VizQL into syntax understandable by database systems; and Hyper, an in-memory data engine technology that helps customers to analyze a range of data sets by evaluating analytical queries directly in the transactional database. Further, the company provides support, maintenance, training, and professional services. It serves organizations in various industries, including business services, energy and telecommunications, financial services, life sciences and healthcare, manufacturing and technology, media and entertainment, public sector, and education, as well as retail, consumer, and distribution industries. The company sells its products directly, as well as through indirect sales channels, such as technology vendors, resellers, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendor, and distributors in the United States, Canada, and internationally. Tableau Software, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Read More Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. engages in the operation of senior living communities. The firm manages independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers. It operates through the following segments: Independent Living Assisted Living & Memory Care, CCRCs, Health Care Services and Management Services. The Independent Living segment is primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service. The Assisted Living & Memory Care segment offer housing and 24-hour assistance with ADLs to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents. The CCRCs segment offers a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health. The Healthcare Services segment provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs, to residents of many communities and to seniors living outside communities. The Management Services segment composes of communities operated by the company pursuant to management agreements. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Brentwood, TN. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, 2nd Road Pty Ltd., ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Ltd, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Innovation Singapore Holdings Pte, ?What If! Limited, ?What If! Shanghai Co. Ltd, ?What If! USA LLC, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD Dialeto Agencia de Publicidade SA, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Beijing) Mobile Technology Co Ltd, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co Ltd, Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (South Africa) Pty Limited, Accenture (UK) Ltd, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Azerbaijan Ltd, Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BV, Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A, Accenture CAS GmbH, Accenture Canada Holdings Inc., Accenture Capital DAC, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd., Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SAS, Accenture Customer Services Limited, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Delivery Poland sp. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital France Holdings SA, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance (Gibraltar) III Ltd, Accenture Finance GmbH, Accenture Finance GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II GmbH, Accenture Finance II GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II Ltd, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services Srl, Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Ghana Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Ltd., Accenture Global Services Ltd, Accenture Global Solutions Ltd, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services Ltd, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc., Accenture Holding GmbH, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holding GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SAS, Accenture Holdings plc, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazylym Cozumleri Limited irketi), Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazlm Cozumleri Limited Sirketi), Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture Insurance Services SAS, Accenture Insurance Services SpA, Accenture International BV, Accenture International Capital SCA, Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture International Sarl, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea BV, Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Managed Services SpA, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Middle East B.V, Accenture Middle East BV, Accenture Minority I BV, Accenture Minority III Ltd, Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi (Pty) Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Newco LLC, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations Sp. z o.o., Accenture Outsourcing SRL, Accenture Outsourcing Services, Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations BV, Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru S.R.L, Accenture Peru S.R.L., Accenture Post Trade Processing SAS, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process Ltd, Accenture Product Lifecycle Services, Accenture Properties, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture S.A., Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture SAS, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sendirian Berhad, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Ltd, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.r.l., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services Sp. z o.o., Accenture Services Sp. z.o.o., Accenture Services and Technology Srl, Accenture Services fur Kreditinstitute GmbH, Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Servicos Administrativos Ltda, Accenture Servicos de Suporte de Negocios Ltda, Accenture Solutions Co Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Sp. z o.o., Accenture Sp. z.o.o., Accenture SpA, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc., Accenture Sub Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag KFT, Accenture Technologia, Accenture Technologia Consultoria e Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Technology Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions SAS, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn. Bhd., Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures BV, Accenture Technology Ventures S.P.R.L., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co., Accenture Vietnam Co. LTD, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Limitada, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Customer Insight Limited, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Agave Consultants Limited, Agilex Technologies Inc., Allen International, Allen International Consulting Group Ltd, Alnova Technologies Corporation S.L., AlphaBeta Advisors, Altima, Altima Asia Ltd., Altima SAS, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Appaloosa Technology SAS, Arca, Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Avanade, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade (Thailand) Co Ltd, Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Denmark ApS, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Ltd, Avanade Europe Services Ltd, Avanade Federal Services LLC, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SAS, Avanade GZ Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd. (SH), Avanade Guangzhou, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy SRL, Avanade KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Netherlands BV, Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland Sp. z o.o., Avanade Poland Sp. z.o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain SL, Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Ltd, Avanade do Brasil Limitada, Avanade Osterreich GmbH, AvantBiz Consulting Limited, Avenai, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Benext, Bionic, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Boomerang Pharmaceuticals Communications Ireland Limited, Bow & Arrow, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brand Learning LLC, Brand Learning Ltd, Brand Learning Partners Limited, Brand Learning Pte Limited, Bridge Energy Group LLC, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CadenceQuest Inc., Capable Marketer Limited, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc., Certus Solutions Consulting Services Ltd, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cimation UK Limited, Cirruseo, Cirruseo SAS, Clarity Insights, Clearhead, Clearhead Group, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas (SN) (PTE.) Limited, Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Ltd., Cloud Talent Limited, Cloudsherpas, Cloudsherpas Inc., Cloudworks, Codagenic Pty. Ltd., Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda., Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda., Context Information Security, Coritel S.A., Corliant Inc., CreativeDrive, CustomerWorks Europe SL, Cutting Edge Solutions Ltd, D5 Global Holdings LLC, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd., DMA Solutions Limited, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (Australia) PTY LTD, DayNine Consulting (Deutschland) GmbH, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting France SAS, DayNine Consulting Japan K.K., DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings, Declarative Holdings LLC, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digiplug SAS, Digital Consulting & Software Services LLC, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Ltd., Duck Creek Technologies, Duck Creek Technologies LLC, Deja Vu Security LLC, ESR Labs, Elcurator SAS, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting L.P., End-to-End Analytics, Energuia Web, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Ltd., Energy Quote Private Ltd., EnergyQuote JHA, EnergyQuote JHA Ltd., EnergyQuote Trading Ltd., Enimbos, Enkitec, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V. , Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enterprise System Partners PR LLC, Enterprise System Partners S.A.S., Entropia, Epylon, Ethica Consulting Group, Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Exton Consulting, Fairway Technologies Inc, Fairway Technologies LLC, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, First Annapolis International, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Focus Group Europe Limited, Formicary, Formicary Holdings Limited, Formicary Limited, FusionX, FutureMove Automotive, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, Genfour Limited, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gestion Altima Canada Inc., Gevity, Global Public Firm S.L., GlobalView SAS, GoodFilm GmbH Filmproduktion Stuttgart, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Hytracc Consulting UK Limited, Hytracc Holding AS, I-Faber S.p.A., IBB Consulting, IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INCAD, INSITUM, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Imagine Broadband (USA) Ltd, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Industrie&Co, Infoman AG, Infoman Schweiz AG, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Infusion Development Inc., Infusion Development UK Limited, InfusionDev LLC, Innoveer Solutions India Pvt Ltd, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria Brasil LTDA, Insitum Consultoria Colombia SAS, Insitum Consultoria Europa SL, Insitum Consultoria Peru SAC, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., Intrepid, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Advertisement (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inventor Technology Limited, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, Javelin Group (Bulgaria) EOOD, Javelin Group Limited (UK), Javelin Group SASU, K Comms Group Limited, KCS.net AG, KCS.net AG West, KCS.net Deutschland GmbH, KCS.net Holding AG, KCS.net Osterreich GmbH, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Ltd, Kogentix Singapore Pte. Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kunstmaan NV, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon UKI, Kurt Salmon UKI Ltd., Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LabAnswer, LabAnswer Government, LemonXL Limited, Logistics Market Place Limited (UK), Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Corporation, Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte. Ltd., Mackevision UK Ltd, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd., Maihiro, Matter, Matter Llc, Maud Corp Pty Limited, Maxamine International, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing Corporation, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mindtribe Product Engineering LLC, MobGen, MobGen Technology S.L, Moonrise NV, Mortgage Cadence, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, N3 LLC, NBS Marketing Inc., NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile, Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Chile SpA, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda., New Energy Aborda, New Energy Associates Ltd, New Energy Group, New Energy S.r.l., NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage China Ltd., NewsPage Pte Ltd, Nice Agency Limited, Northstream, Northstream AB, Northstream Holding AB, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology LTDA, Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Octo Technology SPRL, Octoman SAS, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Openmind, Openminded, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium Consulting Ltd, Orbium GmbH, Orbium Holding AG, Orbium Inc., Orbium International AG, Orbium International sp. z o.o., Orbium Licences AG, Orbium Limited, Orbium Pte. Ltd., Orbium Pty Ltd, Orbium Services sp. z o.o., Orbium Sarl, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PCO Innovation Canada Inc., PCO Innovation EURL, PIXO PUNCH Limited, PLM Systems S.r.l, POC Holdings, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, Pach Invest SARL, Pach Invest SAS, PacificLink Group, PacificLink iMedia Ltd., Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald Inc., Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Partners Technology Mexico Holdings BV, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production K/S, Perseroan Terbatas. Accenture, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Ltd, Pragsis Technologies S.L, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Ltd, Procurian Germany GmbH, Procurian Inc., Procurian International I LLC, Procurian International II LLC, Procurian LLC, Procurian Singapore Pte. Ltd., Procurian Switzerland GmbH, Procurian USA LLC, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co Ltd, Radiant Services, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Limited, Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (Asia) Pte Ltd, Redcore (India) Private Limited (India), Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Renacentis IT Services, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Rothco, Rothco Holdings Designated Activity Company, Rothco Unlimited Company, S.C. EnergyQuote S.r.l., S3 TV Technology Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SEC Servizi, SEC Servizi S.p.A., SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Sagacious Consultants LLC, Salt Solutions, Sanchez Capital Services Pvt Ltd, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Airline Planning Group, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, Seabury Aviation Consulting LLC, Seabury Cargo Advisory B.V., Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Human Capital LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Seabury Structured Finance LLC, Search Technologies BPO, Search Technologies BPO Inc., Search Technologies GmbH, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LATAM, Search Technologies LATAM S.A., Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Sente Partners LLC, Sentelis, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Shackleton, Shackleton Barcelona S.L., Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton Madrid S.L., Shackleton S.A., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., Silveo, Simian Pty Limited, SinnerSchrader, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Commerce GmbH, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., SinnerSchrader Swipe GmbH, Sistemes Consulting S.L., Solutions IQ, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Storm Digital, Storm Digital B.V., Structure Consulting Group, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Systor AG, TQuila Limited (UK), Tadata Creative Unlimited Company, Tara Insurance DAC, Tara Risk DAC, TargetST8, TargetST8 Consulting LLC, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica Ltd., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Limited, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Total Logistics Supply Chain Consultants Limited, Tquila, Trivadis AG, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Verax Solutions, Verax Solutions Corporation, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong, Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd., Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, Weblinc Pty Ltd, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wire Stone Sarl, Wolox, Workforce Insight, Yesler, Zag, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines, Zenta Global Philippines Inc., Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc., Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, and solid-serVision.com GmbH. FedEx Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of a portfolio of transportation, e-commerce, and business services. It operates through the following segments: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Services, and Corporate, Other & Eliminations. The FedEx Express segment consists of domestic and international shipping services for delivery of packages and freight. The FedEx Ground segment focuses on small-package ground delivery services. The FedEx Freight segment offers less-than-truckload freight services across all lengths of haul. The FedEx Services segment provides sales, marketing, information technology, communications, customer service, technical support, billing and collection services, and certain back-office functions. The Corporate, Other & Eliminations segment includes corporate headquarters costs for executive officers and certain legal and finance functions, as well as certain other costs and credits not attributed to the firm's core business. The company was founded by Frederick Wallace Smith on June 18, 1971 and is headquartered in Memphis, TN. Read More By Azernews By Leman Mammadova The implementation of the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) that will provide delivery of Azerbaijani gas to South East Asia has already been settled. It is an irreversible process. This was stated by Energy Minister of Bulgaria Temenuzhka Petkova at a round table on Risks and prospects for the energy security of South-Eastern Europe. The construction of the IGB is an irreversible process, since all the key government procurement for the project has already been launched, said Minister adding that the project is of great importance for the diversification of sources of supply of natural gas, not only for Bulgaria, but also for the entire region she noted. She recalled that European Commission identified the project as one of the top seven energy priorities. European Commission has already confirmed that the IGB project complies with European Union guidelines for State Assistance. The measures approved by the Commission will support the construction and operation of a cross-border gas interconnector (called IGB) between Greece (Komotini) and Bulgaria (Stara Zagora). The gas interconnector is designed to transport 3 billion bcm per year of natural gas from Greece to Bulgaria by 2021. Later, the capacity may reach 5 bcm per year. The IGB project was supported by Greece and Bulgaria governments within Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2009. The 185 kilometer interconnector is designed to transport 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Greece to Bulgaria by 2021. One billion cubic meters of gas produced by Shah Deniz in 2020 will be delivered to Bulgaria per year via IGB. Bulgargaz EAD signed 25-year agreement gas purchase in September 2013 within Shah Deniz-2. The total investment cost for the realization of the IGB interconnector amounts to 240 million euros. The European Union attaches great importance to this project and has allocated 46 million euros for its funding. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will also provide a loan of 110 million euros to BEH (and subsequently passed-on to ICGB AD). As many as 39 million euros will come as a direct financial contribution from the Bulgarian State budget via the Bulgarian Operational Programme "Innovation and Competitiveness" 2014-2020 (OPIC). Bulgaria through Bulgargaz EAD company has already concluded a contract with the Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR for the delivery of 1 billion cubic meters per year from the second phase of Shah Deniz gas field. These volumes represent about 25-30 percent of the consumption of natural gas that Bulgaria expects by 2020 in our country. IGB is a gas pipeline which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP, to create an alternative source to Russian gas flowing to Bulgaria. TAP in turn is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor which provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc.. Mettler-Toledo International, Inc. is a supplier of precision instruments and services. The firm manufactures weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, packaging, logistics, and food retailing applications. It also manufactures several related analytical instruments and provides automated chemistry solutions used in drug and chemical compound discovery and development; and also, metal detection and other end-of-line inspection systems used in production and packaging and provides solutions for use in certain process analytics applications. Its operations are conducted by the following segments: U. S. Operations, Swiss Operations, Western European Operations, Chinese Operations and Other. The U.S. Operations segment represents certain of the company's marketing and producing organizations located in the United States. The Swiss Operations segment includes marketing and producing organizations located in Switzerland, as well as extensive R&D operations that are responsible for the development, production, and marketing of precision instruments, including weighing, analytical, and measurement technologies for use in a variety of industrial and laboratory applications. Th Read More iShares MSCI Hong Kong ETF's stock was trading at $21.67 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWH stock has increased by 13.1% and is now trading at $24.51. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Sysco: 2234829 Alberta ULC, 2234842 Alberta ULC, A. M. Briggs Inc., A.M. Briggs, Almacen Fiscal Frionet Caldera S.A., Almacen Fiscal Frionet Limon S.A., Appert's Foodservice, Arnotts (Fruit) Limited, Asian Foods, Bahamas Food Holdings Limited, Bahamas Food Services Limited, Brake Bros, Brake Bros Foodservice Ireland Limited, Brake Bros. Foodservice Limited, Brake Bros. Holding I Limited, Brake Bros. Ltd., Brakes Foodservice NI Limited, Buchy Food Service, Buckhead Beef Co., Buckhead Meat & Seafood of Houston Inc., Buckhead Meat Company, Buckhead Meat Midwest Inc., Buckhead Meat of Dallas Inc., Buckhead Meat of Denver Inc., Buckhead Meat of San Antonio LP, Buzztable Inc., CAKE Corporation, Central Seafood Co., Christys Wine & Spirits Limited, Clafra Aktiebolag, Colorado Boxed Beef Co - Specialty meat-cutting division, Corporacion Frionet Sociedad Anonima, Crossgar Foodservice, Crossgar Foodservice Limited, Crown I Enterprises Inc., Cucina Acquisitions (UK) Limited, Cucina Finance (UK) Limited, Cucina French Holdings Limited, Cucina Fresh Finance Limited, Cucina Fresh Investments Limited, Cucina Lux Investments Limited, Curleys Quality Foods Limited (Third Party), Davigel Belgilux S.A., Davigel Espana S.A., Desert Meats & Provisions, Distagro, Doerle Food Service, Doughtie's Foods Inc., Dust Bowl City LLC, Eko Fagel Fisk o mittemellan AB, Enclave Insurance Company, Enclave Parkway Association Inc., Enclave Properties LLC, European Imports, European Imports Inc., Figg Inc., Freedman Meats, Freedman Meats Inc., Freedman-KB Inc., Fresh Direct (UK) Limited, Fresh Direct Group Limited, Fresh Direct Limited, Fresh Holdings Limited, FreshPoint, FreshPoint Arizona Inc., FreshPoint Atlanta Inc., FreshPoint California Inc., FreshPoint Central California Inc., FreshPoint Central Florida Inc., FreshPoint Connecticut LLC, FreshPoint Dallas Inc., FreshPoint Denver Inc., FreshPoint Hawaii LLC, FreshPoint Inc., FreshPoint Las Vegas Inc., FreshPoint North Carolina Inc., FreshPoint North Florida Inc., FreshPoint Oklahoma City LLC, FreshPoint Pompano Real Estate LLC, FreshPoint Puerto Rico LLC, FreshPoint San Francisco Inc., FreshPoint South Florida Inc., FreshPoint South Texas Inc., FreshPoint Southern California Inc., FreshPoint Tomato LLC, FreshPoint Vancouver Ltd., Freshfayre Limited, Fruktservice i Helsingborg AB, GHS Classic Drinks Limited, Gilchrist & Soames Inc., Gilchrist & Soames UK Limited, Guest Packaging LLC, Guest Supply, Guest Supply Asia Limited, Guest Supply Singapore Pte. Ltd., International Food Group, Isakssons Frukt & Gront AB, J & M Wholesale Meats, J. Kings Food Service Professionals, J. Kings Food Service Professionals Inc., Kent Frozen Foods, Les Ateliers Du Gout, Liquid Assets Limited, M&J Seafood Holdings Limited, M&J Seafood Limited, Manchester Mills LLC, Mayca Autoservicio S.A., Mayca Distribuidores S.A., Menigo Foodservice AB, Mitshim Etatu Supply LP, Newport Meat Company, Newport Meat Northern California Inc., Newport Meat Pacific Northwest Inc., Newport Meat Southern California Inc., Newport Meat of Nevada Inc., North Star Holding Corporation, North Star Seafood, North Star Seafood Acquisition Corporation, North Star Seafood LLC, PFS de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Palisades Ranch Inc., Pallas Foods, Pallas Foods Farm Fresh Unlimited Company, Pallas Foods Unlimited Company, Pauleys Produce Limited, Promotora del Servicios S.A. de C.V., Restaurangakdemien AB, Restaurant of Tomorrow Inc., Rohan Viandes Elaboration SAS, SMS Bermuda Holdings, SMS GPC International Limited, SMS GPC International Resources Limited, SMS Global Holdings S.a.r.l., SMS International Resources Ireland Unlimited Company, SMS Lux Holdings LLC, SOTF LLC, SYY Netherlands C.V., SYY Panama S. de R.L., Serca Foodservice, Servicestyckarna I Johannes AB, Servicios Ameriserve S.A. de C.V., Shenzhen Guest Supply Trading Co. Limited, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Bianchi Montegut, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Boiseau, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Garcelles, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) J.D. Lanjouan, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Le Dauphin, Specialty Meat Holdings LLC, Stockflag Limited, Stockholms Fiskauktion AB, Supplies on the Fly, Sysco Albany LLC, Sysco Asian Foods Inc., Sysco Atlanta LLC, Sysco Autoservicio S.A., Sysco Baltimore LLC, Sysco Baraboo LLC, Sysco Bermuda Partners L.P., Sysco Boston LLC, Sysco Canada Holdings S.a.r.l., Sysco Canada Inc., Sysco Central Alabama LLC, Sysco Central California Inc., Sysco Central Florida Inc., Sysco Central Illinois Inc., Sysco Central Pennsylvania LLC, Sysco Charlotte LLC, Sysco Chicago Inc., Sysco Cincinnati LLC, Sysco Cleveland Inc., Sysco Columbia LLC, Sysco Connecticut LLC, Sysco Corporation, Sysco Corporation Director's Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Employee's 401(k) Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Executive Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Good Government Committee Inc., Sysco Corporation Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Executive Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Plan Trust, Sysco Detroit LLC, Sysco Disaster Relief Foundation Inc., Sysco EI VI S. s.r.l., Sysco EU II S.a.r.l., Sysco EU III S.a.r.l., Sysco EU IV Capital Unlimited Company, Sysco EU IV S. s.r.l.., Sysco EU V S. s.r.l., Sysco Eastern Maryland LLC, Sysco Eastern Wisconsin LLC, Sysco Foundation Inc., Sysco France Holding SAS, Sysco France SAS, Sysco George Town II LLC, Sysco George Town Limited S. s.r.l.., Sysco Global Finance LLC, Sysco Global Finance LLP, Sysco Global Holdings B.V., Sysco Global Resources LLC, Sysco Global Services LLC, Sysco Grand Cayman Company, Sysco Grand Cayman II Company, Sysco Grand Cayman III Company, Sysco Grand Rapids LLC, Sysco Guernsey Limited, Sysco Guest Supply Canada Inc., Sysco Guest Supply Europe Goods Wholesalers LLC, Sysco Guest Supply Europe Limited, Sysco Guest Supply LLC, Sysco Gulf Coast LLC, Sysco Hampton Roads Inc., Sysco Hawaii Inc., Sysco Holdings II LLC, Sysco Holdings LLC, Sysco Indianapolis LLC, Sysco International Food Group Inc., Sysco International Inc., Sysco Iowa Inc., Sysco Jackson LLC, Sysco Jacksonville Inc., Sysco Kansas City Inc., Sysco Knoxville LLC, Sysco Labs Europe Limited, Sysco Labs Pvt. Ltd., Sysco Leasing LLC, Sysco Lincoln Inc., Sysco Lincoln Transportation Company Inc., Sysco Long Island LLC, Sysco Los Angeles Inc., Sysco Louisville Inc., Sysco Memphis LLC, Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Canada Inc., Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Inc., Sysco Metro New York LLC, Sysco Minnesota Inc., Sysco Montana Inc., Sysco Nashville LLC, Sysco Netherlands Partners LLC, Sysco North Central Florida Inc., Sysco North Dakota Inc., Sysco Northern New England Inc., Sysco Philadelphia LLC, Sysco Pittsburgh LLC, Sysco Portland Inc., Sysco Raleigh LLC, Sysco Resources Services LLC, Sysco Riverside Inc., Sysco Sacramento Inc., Sysco San Diego Inc., Sysco San Francisco Inc., Sysco Seattle Inc., Sysco South Florida Inc., Sysco Southeast Florida LLC, Sysco Spain Holdings SLU, Sysco Spokane Inc., Sysco St. Louis LLC, Sysco Syracuse LLC, Sysco Technologies Cayman Ltd., Sysco Technologies LLC, Sysco UK Holdings Limited, Sysco UK Limited, Sysco UK Partners LLP, Sysco USA I Inc., Sysco USA II LLC, Sysco USA III LLC, Sysco Ventura Inc., Sysco Ventures Inc., Sysco Virginia LLC, Sysco West Coast Florida Inc., Sysco Western Minnesota Inc., The SYGMA Network Inc., Upsys, Victua SAS, Walker Foods Inc., Waugh Foods, and Wild Harvest Limited. iShares S&P 400 MidCap ETF's stock was trading at $158.41 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IJH stock has increased by 80.8% and is now trading at $286.45. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. By Trend Chairman of the Russian Union of Journalists Vladimir Solovyov has shared his impressions of the meeting with President Ilham Aliyev during his visit to Azerbaijan on November 20. Solovyov said he witnessed how well President Aliyev understands what is happening in the media of Russia and Azerbaijan. He said that during the conversation, President Aliyev mentioned the names of many journalists from different countries, including Russia. I felt that he is well informed about the news daily, Solovyov said. It is noteworthy that he watches and reads western news in English, ours in Russian, Turkish in Turkish. He has no problems as he knows these languages very well. Solovyov also stressed similar features in the characters of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia. They have incredible political views, he said. Other presidents are unlikely to be at such a level. iShares MSCI Mexico ETF's stock was trading at $35.82 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWW stock has increased by 28.5% and is now trading at $46.03. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 211 E. Russell Road LLC, Air-Relief, Belliss & Morcom Brasil, Belliss and Morcom, Boardwalk Enterprises, Charm Merger Sub Inc., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Canada, CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir Holman Ltd, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., CompAir UK Ltd, CompAir USA, Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Emco Wheaton, Emco Wheaton GmbH Branch, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton UK, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Propriety Limited (South Africa), GD Aria Holdings #2 Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First UK Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings, GD Global Holdings II, GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Ltd., Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Ltd. - US Branch, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Ltd., Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Ltd. - US Branch, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SA, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Services Ltd, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Hoffman, Gardner Denver Holdings, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica, Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd. Branch, Gardner Denver International, Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Intl Ltd Middle East Regional Rep Office, Gardner Denver Investments, Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan, Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd South Africa, Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd. Branch (Ireland), Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co, Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oberdorfer Pumps, Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Petroleum Pumps, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia, Gardner Denver SudAmerica S.r.l., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas, Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH, Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver UK, Gardner Denver Water Jetting Systems, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, Indonesia Foreign Trade Representative Office, LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MP Pumps Inc., Mako Compressors, Nash, Nash Elmo, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Robuschi, Rotary Compression Technologies, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Syltone, TCM Investments, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, TODO AB, Tamrotor Marine Compressors AS, Thomas Industries, Thomas Industries Inc., Tri-Continent Scientific, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, and Zinsser NA. Mandom Corporation manufactures and sells cosmetics, perfumes, and quasi-drugs in Japan, Indonesia, and internationally. The company offers a range of products, including men's everyday grooming products, as well as general fashion items, such as hair styling, skin care, and body care products; and hair coloring, scalp care, and face care products under the Gatsby and Lucido brands. It also provides a range of women's grooming and fashion items comprising hair styling, body care, and beauty products that include make-up and skin care items, as well as hair coloring and treatment products under the Bifesta, Pixy, Lucido-L, and Pucelle brands. In addition, the company offers professional-use products and technologies to hair salons through distributors. Further, it provides insurance agency, travel, and general services. The company sells its products to drug stores and convenience stores through distributors. The company was formerly known as Tancho Corporation and changed its name to Mandom Corporation in April 1971. Mandom Corporation was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Osaka, Japan. Read More By Azernews By Abdul Kerimkhanov Spain supports peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of international law, Charge d'affaires ad interim of Spanish embassy in Baku Ignacio Sanchez Taboada told Trend on November 27. Spain supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs for the solution of the conflict, he said. The diplomat noted that Madrid Principles represent the guidelines for solving the conflict and also the stance of Spain regarding to it: pacific solution of the conflict (non-use of force), respect of territorial integrity and international law and right to return for displaced persons. He went on to say that Spain and Azerbaijan have important ties not only in the bilateral arena but also within the framework of multilateral relations. Spain is a party to the European Union and is very involved in the European Eastern Partnership in which Azerbaijan also participates. The Council of Europe and OSCE are of great relevance for Spain as they are also for Azerbaijan, and a great part of our international relations takes place in the framework of these European institutions, said Taboada. The diplomat pointed out that Spain and Azerbaijan share the values and principles of the United Nations and have traditionally cooperated within its institutional framework (General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, etc.). We have supported each other very recently to be present in different bodies of many international organizations, like the World Tourism Organizations or the International Telecommunications Union. Azerbaijan and Spain enjoy very healthy political relations. We do not have any contending topic in our bilateral agenda. Not bilateral disputes. We have provided each other mutual support in different international fora. We have a reasonable framework of international agreements which regulates our relations and cooperation, in a great variety of topics: education, sports, science, double taxation, etc., he added. 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. As a result of Armenia's armed invasion into Azerbaijan's legal territory, the two neighboring countries have remained locked in a bitter territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Armenia-backed separatists seized from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the early 1990s. 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. Despite Baku's best efforts, peace in the occupied lands remains a mirage in the distance as Armenia refuses to comply with international law. Toyota Motor Corp. engages in the manufacture and sale of motor vehicles and parts. It operates through the following segments: Automotive, Financial Services, and All Other. The Automotive segment designs, manufactures, assembles and sells passenger cars, minivans, trucks, and related vehicle parts and accessories. It is also involved in the development of intelligent transport systems. The Financial Services segment offers purchase or lease financing to Toyota vehicle dealers and customers. It also provides retail leasing through lease contracts purchase by dealers. The All Others segment deals with the design and manufacture and sale of housing, telecommunications and other businesses. The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda on August 28, 1937 and is headquartered in Toyota, Japan. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of 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. China Telecom Corporation Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireline and mobile telecommunications services primarily in the People's Republic of China. It offers wireline voice services, including local wireline telephone services and long distance wireline services; CDMA mobile voice services, such as local calls, domestic and international long distance calls, intra-provincial roaming, and inter-provincial roaming and international roaming; wireline Internet access services comprising dial-up and broadband services; wireless Internet access services; and wireline, Internet, and mobile value-added services. The company also provides Best Tone information services; and information technology-based integrated solutions, such as system integration and consulting, outsourcing, special advisory, information application, knowledge, and software development services. In addition, it offers managed data services that include digital data network, frame relay, and asynchronous transfer mode services for government agencies, large corporations, and institutions; and leased line services, as well as sells, repairs, and maintains customer-end equipment. Further, the company provides international telecommunications services, including network, Internet access and transit, Internet data center, and mobile virtual network services in various countries, including the Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, South America, and North America; and music production and related information, instant messenger, finance leasing, capital and financial management, and e-commerce services, as well as sells telecommunications terminals. As of December 31, 2019, it had approximately 336 million mobile subscribers; 153 million wireline broadband subscribers; and 111 million access lines in service. The company was incorporated in 2002 and is based in Wanchai, Hong Kong. China Telecom Corporation Limited is a subsidiary of China Telecommunications Corporation. Read More By Azernews By Abdul Kerimkhanov Armenian Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's position on many issues is far from the ideal, but his unwillingness to save his own citizens, about whom he should care first, is nothing but an egoism. After using the services of saboteurs to commit provocations against Azerbaijan, Armenian authorities abandon them as soon as they receive an adequate response from Baku. Detained on December 26, 2014, while attempting to carry out a provocation on the contact line of troops in Azerbaijans Aghdam district, Armenian soldier Bagdasaryan Arsen Eduardovich, convicted on May 5, 2015, sent an appeal to acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The appeal was sent in connection with the issue of exchange of hostages discussed in the media on the principle of all for all. In this appeal, Baghdasaryan asks the Armenian authorities to take serious steps in the salvation and liberation of their people. He also noted the importance of reaching a general consensus with opponents from Azerbaijan in the release of suffering people of two countries and stressed that Armenian people are tired of this war which brought nothing to the people except sorrow and suffering. However, Armenian authorities most likely to ignore this appeal. Recently, Pashinyan, in particular, stated that Armenia refuses the proposal of Azerbaijan to exchange prisoners of war. In response to a protest action organized by the family of another Armenian saboteur Karen Ghazaryan captured by the Azerbaijani military, Pashinyan literally dismissed this action. He stated that the requirement to solve the issue at any cost does not meet the interests of Armenia and expressed doubt that the society would treat such actions with understanding. Pashinyan stressed that there are many hostages in Azerbaijan and it would be wrong to focus on one or the other person and holding actions with regards to this is meaningless. But in that case, Pashinyan disproves himself by this statement. If he really cares so much about the prisoners of war, then the question arises, why Azerbaijans peace proposal to exchange prisoners with a formula of all for all was rejected? Although before the upcoming parliamentary elections in December, Pashinyan can take this step and show the people that he is supposedly for peace. Anyway, if Armenian hostages will be released, they are unlikely to stay in Armenia. Either they will run away to the western countries to ask for political asylum, or return back to Azerbaijani prison, because Azerbaijan, in contrast to the aggressor state of Armenia, is humane even in relation to prisoners of war. According to official data, three Armenian citizens are in captivity in Azerbaijan: Arsen Baghdasaryan, Zaven Karapetyan and Karen Ghazaryan. In July 2014, Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov and Azerbaijani citizen Shahbaz Guliyev was taken hostage by Armenian soldiers while attempting to visit their fatherland in Kalbajar, while Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov was shot dead. Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev was sentenced to 22 years in prison under the illegal "court" of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Bank of America Corp. is a bank and financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking and nonbank financial services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth and Investment Management, Global Banking, Global Markets, and All Other. The Consumer Banking segment offers credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses. The Global Wealth and Investment Management provides client experience through a network of financial advisors focused on to meet their needs through a full set of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. The Global Banking segment deals with lending-related products and services, integrated working capital management and treasury solutions to clients, and underwriting and advisory services. The Global Markets segment includes sales and trading services, as well as research, to institutional clients across fixed-income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity businesses. The All Other segment consists of asset and liability management activities, equity investments, non-core mortgage loans and servicing activities, the net impact of periodic revisions Read More Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Read More HSBC Holdings plc provides banking and financial products and services worldwide. The company operates through Wealth and Personal Banking, Commercial Banking, and Global Banking and Markets segments. The Wealth and Personal Banking segment offers retail banking products and services, such as current and savings accounts, mortgages and personal loans, credit and debit cards, and local and international payment services for ultra high net worth individuals; and wealth management services, including insurance and investment products, global asset management services, investment management, and private wealth solutions. The Commercial Banking segment provides credit and lending, treasury management, payment, cash management, commercial insurance, and investment services, as well as commercial cards, and international trade and receivables finance services; and foreign exchange products, and capital raising and advisory services to small and medium sized enterprises, mid-market enterprises, and corporates. The Global Banking and Markets segment is involved in the provision of financing, advisory, and transaction services, including credit, rates, foreign exchange, equities, money markets, and securities services, as well as principal investment activities to government, corporate and institutional clients, and private investors. The Global Private Banking segment provides a range of services to high net worth individuals and families with complex and international needs. HSBC Holdings plc was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. engages in the development and manufacture of s beryllium-aluminum alloys and specialty copper alloys. It operates its business through the following segments: Copper Alloys, Engineered Materials, and Corporate. The Copper Alloys and Engineered Material segments manufacture and distribute beryllium copper, Beralcast, and other specialty alloy products. The Corporate segment oversees and administers the operating divisions. The company was founded on December 11, 2002 and is headquartered in Franklin, IN. Read More By Trend The recent statement by Armenia's acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, repeating the already expressed groundless idea of participation of the illegal regime, created in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, in the negotiations, even though aimed for internal consumption in the pre-election period, undermines the already fragile settlement process and demonstrates the true intention of Armenia to consolidate the fait accompli situation created as a result of the use of force against Azerbaijan, said Leyla Abdullayeva, the acting spokeswoman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry. Abdullayeva said that if Pashinyan is interested in the settlement of the conflict he would not create obstacles to the negotiations ongoing under the aegis of OSCE Minsk Group, where the direct participants are Armenia and Azerbaijan, as it is clearly determined by the 1992 CSCE (OSCE) Helsinki Ministerial Council decision. "The controversial and unfounded statements of Armenian acting prime minister are an indicator that he would not go far from his predecessor in designing the better future for people of Armenia, and this raises doubts on the sincerity of Armenia in the run-up to the bilateral meeting discussed during the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' visit to the region," Abdullayeva added. 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. Invesco Senior Loan ETF's stock was trading at $20.75 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, BKLN stock has increased by 5.8% and is now trading at $21.95. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF's stock was trading at $108.64 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IWD shares have increased by 52.4% and is now trading at $165.62. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. SunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank that provides various financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Wholesale. The Consumer segment provides deposits and payments; home equity and personal credit lines; auto, student, and other lending products; credit cards; discount/online and full-service brokerage products; professional investment advisory products and services; and trust services, as well as family office solutions. This segment also offers residential mortgage products in the secondary market. The Wholesale segment provides capital markets solutions, including advisory, capital raising, and financial risk management; asset-based financing solutions, such as securitizations, asset-based lending, equipment financing, and structured real estate arrangements; cash management services and auto dealer financing solutions; investment banking solutions; and credit and deposit, fee-based product offering, multi-family agency lending, advisory, commercial mortgage brokerage, and tailored financing and equity investment solutions. This segment also offers treasury and payment solutions, such as operating various electronic and paper payment types, which comprise card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, check, and cash; and provides services clients to manage their accounts online. The company offers its products and services through a network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, mobile, and telephone banking channels. As of December 31, 2018, it operated 1,218 full-service banking offices located in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. SunTrust Banks, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF's stock was trading at $36.70 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWT shares have increased by 79.0% and is now trading at $65.69. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Millrock Resources Inc. engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. It deposits for gold, copper, porphyry, silver, and other metals. The company holds an interest in the Liberty Bell property covering an area of approximately 6,151 hectares; 64North Gold project covering an area of approximately 1,860 hectares; Chisna DragonSlayer project; and Apex El Nido covering an area of approximately 315 hectares located in Alaska. It also holds an interest in the El Batamote project covering a surface area of 5,796 hectares situated in Mexico. Millrock Resources Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Read More By Trend Iran's proposal to establish a joint venture will be reviewed and the country's transport infrastructure development will be supported, the Chairman of the International Union of Railways (UIC) Regional Assembly for the Middle East Isa Apaydin said on Tuesday, IRNA reports. At the 22nd meeting of the UIC Regional Assembly for the Middle East, Saeed Mohammadzadeh, the managing director of Iran's railways, proposed to form a joint railroad venture with the member states. In an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in the Iranian central city of Isfahan, Isa Apayd?n said, 'The proposal should be examined carefully and we will review it at the next meeting held in Jordan in May.' Referring to Iran's efforts to develop rail transport network, Apayd?n said, 'Iran has major plans to develop rail infrastructure and we will support its plans in this regard.' Apayd?n who is also the managing director of Turkish railways went on to say Turkish railway does its utmost to cooperate with the regional countries, including Iran, and it has the longest railway network with Iran. 'We plan to make arrangement to connect Iran's railway to Turkey's Van Province and we will make efforts to connect Iran's railway network to other Turkish cities as well,' Apayd?n added. He went on to say goods transported to Europe have to pass through Iran, therefore this country enjoys a unique position in transit of goods. The three-day meeting kicked off on Monday morning with the aim of expanding cooperation between the member states. Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Oman, Qatar and the UAE are the member states of the union. 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 con[email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. BRP Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, distributes, and markets powersports vehicles and marine products worldwide. It operates in two segments, Powersports and Marine. The company offers all-terrain, side-by-side, and three-wheeled vehicles; seasonal products, such as snowmobiles and personal watercraft; and engines for jet boats, outboards, karts, motorcycles, and recreational aircraft. It also provides parts, accessories, and apparel, as well as other services. The company sells its products through a network of independent dealers and distributors, as well as to original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as J.A. Bombardier (J.A.B.) Inc. and changed its name to BRP Inc. in April 2013. BRP Inc. was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Valcourt, Canada. Read More There is not enough analysis data for OPG Power Ventures. 4.9 Community Rank Outperform Votes OPG Power Ventures has received 227 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes OPG Power Ventures has received 76 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment OPG Power Ventures has received 74.92% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about OPG Power Ventures and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe OPG will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe OPG 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 BlackRock: Acero Cooperatief U.A., Acero Holdings I B.V., Amethyst Merger Sub LLC, AnalytX Hosting LLC, AnalytX LLC, AnalytX Software LLC, Aperio, Aperio, Aquila Heywood, Asia-Pacific Private Credit Opportunities Fund I (GenPar) Ltd., BAA Holdings LLC, BFM Holdco LLC, BLK (Gallatin) Holdings LLC, BLK SMI LLC, BR Acquisition Mexico S.A. de C.V., BR Jersey International Holdings L.P., Beijing eFront Software Company Limited, BlackRock (Barbados) Finco 1 SRL, BlackRock (Channel Islands) Limited, BlackRock (Luxembourg) S.A., BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V., BlackRock (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco II Pte. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco Pte. Limited, BlackRock (Singapore) Limited, BlackRock AP Investment Holdco LLC, BlackRock Advisors (UK) Limited, BlackRock Advisors LLC, BlackRock Advisors Singapore Pte. Limited, BlackRock Alternative Advisors GP Holdings LLC, BlackRock Alternatives Management LLC, BlackRock Argentina Asesorias Ltda., BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Deutschland AG, BlackRock Asset Management International Inc., BlackRock Asset Management Investor Services Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Ireland Limited, BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Schweiz AG, BlackRock Asset Management UK Limited, BlackRock Australia Holdco Pty. Ltd., BlackRock Brasil Gestora de Investimentos Ltda., BlackRock Cal 1 Investor LLC, BlackRock Canada Holdings LP, BlackRock Canada Holdings ULC, BlackRock Capital Holdings Inc., BlackRock Capital Investment Advisors LLC, BlackRock Capital Management Inc., BlackRock Cayco Limited, BlackRock Cayman 1 LP, BlackRock Cayman Capital Holdings Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 3 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay IV Limited, BlackRock Cayman Z Limited, BlackRock Channel Islands Holdco Limited, BlackRock Chile Asesorias Limitada, BlackRock Colombia Holdco LLC, BlackRock Colombia Infraestructura S.A.S., BlackRock Colombia SAS, BlackRock Company Secretarial Services (UK) Limited, BlackRock Corporation US Inc., BlackRock Delaware Holdings Inc., BlackRock Enterprise Management Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Europe Development Management Limited, BlackRock Execution Services, BlackRock Finance Europe Limited, BlackRock Financial Management Inc., BlackRock Finco LLC, BlackRock Finco UK Ltd., BlackRock First Partner Limited, BlackRock France SAS, BlackRock Fund Advisors, BlackRock Fund Management Company S.A., BlackRock Fund Managers Limited, BlackRock Funding International Ltd., BlackRock Funds Services Group LLC, BlackRock Germany GmBH, BlackRock Group Limited, BlackRock HK Holdco Limited, BlackRock Holdco 2 Inc., BlackRock Holdco 3 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 4 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 6 LLC, BlackRock Hungary Kft, BlackRock Index Services LLC, BlackRock Infrastructure Management I LLC, BlackRock Institutional Services Inc., BlackRock Institutional Trust Company National Association, BlackRock International Holdings Inc., BlackRock International Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Dublin) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Korea) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Investment Management (Taiwan) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management Ireland Holdings Limited, BlackRock Investment Management LLC, BlackRock Investments LLC, BlackRock Japan Co. Ltd., BlackRock Japan Holdings GK, BlackRock Jersey Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Latin America Holdco LLC, BlackRock Latin American Holdings B.V., BlackRock Life Limited, BlackRock Lux Finco S.a r.l., BlackRock Luxembourg Holdco S.a r.l., BlackRock Mexican Holdco B.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura I S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager S de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Operadora S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, BlackRock Mortgage Ventures LLC, BlackRock Niagara LLC, BlackRock Operations (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., BlackRock Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock PC Holdings LLC, BlackRock Pensions Limited, BlackRock Peru Asesorias S.A., BlackRock Property Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Property France S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Lux S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., BlackRock Realty Advisors Inc., BlackRock Saudi Arabia, BlackRock Scale Holdings LLC, BlackRock Services India Private Limited, BlackRock Singapore III Pte. Ltd., BlackRock Slovakia s.r.o., BlackRock Strategic Investors GP LLC, BlackRock Strategic Investors LP, BlackRock Trident Holding Company Limited, BlackRock UK (Alpha) Limited, BlackRock UK (Beta) Limited, BlackRock UK (Delta) LP, BlackRock UK (Gamma) Limited, BlackRock UK (Sigma) Limited, BlackRock UK 2 LLP, BlackRock UK 3 LLP, BlackRock UK 4 LLP, BlackRock UK A LLP, BlackRock UK Holdco 2 Limited, BlackRock UK Holdco Limited, Blackhawk Investment Holding LLC, CIE Automotive, Cachematrix Holdings, Cachematrix Holdings LLC, Cachematrix Integrations Private Limited, Cachematrix Software Solutions LLC, Cachematrix UK Limited, FutureAdvisor Inc., Glass Mountain Pipeline, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Advisors LLC, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure II Advisors LLC, Grosvenor Alternate Partner Limited, Grosvenor Ventures Limited, HLX Financial Holdings LLC, MGPA (Bermuda) Limited, MGPA (Exec) Limited, MGPA Limited, Mercury Carry Company Ltd., Mercury Private Equity MUST 3 (Jersey) Limited, Object Capital Technology Inc., Phoenix Acquisition B.V., Phoenix Acquisitions Holdings LLC, Portfolio Administration & Management Ltd., Prestadora de Servicios Integrales BlackRock Mexico S.A. de C.V., SVOF/MM LLC, St. Albans House Nominees (Jersey) Ltd., State Street Research & Management, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tlali Acero S.A. de C.V. SOFOM ENR, Trident Merger LLC, eFront, eFront, eFront (Jersey) Limited, eFront DMLT Holdings LLC, eFront DMLT Holdings S.R.L, eFront DR S.R.L, eFront Do Brasil Solucoes Informaticas Para Sistemas Financeiros Ltda., eFront FZ-LLC, eFront Financial Solutions Inc., eFront GmbH, eFront Holding II SAS, eFront Holdings SAS, eFront Hong Kong Limited, eFront II SAS, eFront Kabushiki Kaisha, eFront Ltd, eFront SAS, eFront Singapore Pte. Ltd, eFront Software Luxembourg S.a r.l., eFront Solutions Financeieres Inc., eFront d.o.o. Beograd, iShares (DE) I Investmentaktiengesellschaft mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, and iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC. Boursa Kuwait is playing a vital role in supporting the ambitious Kuwait 2035 strategy to establish the country as a regional financial centre, said its chief executive officer Khaled Abdulrazzaq Al Khaled. He was participating as a keynote speaker at the first Economic Forum in Kuwait, where he highlighted the companys sustained commitment to contribute to the growth and development of the national economy. The forum, which opened today (November 27) and will run until November 29, at the Salwa Sabah Al Ahmad Hall in Kuwait, under the patronage of HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. In his speech under the theme, Securities Markets Empowerment, Al Khaled highlighted the importance of stock markets in shaping the economies of countries around the world. He also explored why capital markets are a central part of the banking system and regarded as a platform for the public and private sectors to participate in the economic development process and create employment opportunities for youth. Al Khaled said: Our participation in the Economic Forum enables us to gain deeper insights into the impact of new capital markets regulatory reform in Kuwait. The forum discussed the effects of the latest legislation on local and regional companies and explored how the new laws will help create an attractive environment for local and foreign investors. In addition, the forum shed light on the role of local stock exchanges in the GCC countries and the wider region under the visions of decision makers in transforming capital cities into financial centres, strengthening the private sector, and increasing its contribution to GDP, he said. The event also provided us with an excellent opportunity to tackle challenges facing us as we strive to take our stock market to the global level, which in turn will promote the economic growth of Kuwait, he added. He also stressed that the stock exchange has come a long way to strengthen its position as an attractive platform for issuers at the regional level by expanding the investor base, increasing and diversifying products, and improving the business environment to match the highest international standards. Furthermore, in his speech, Al Khaled highlighted the outstanding achievements of Boursa Kuwait over the past years that contributed in restoring investor confidence following the global financial crisis of 2008, which negatively impacted capital markets in the region. In addition, he shed light on the companys third phase of the market development plans, in which Boursa Kuwait seeks to introduce a number of new products, such as short selling, margin trading, REITs, and over-the-counter (OTC) market, among many others. The agenda of the Economic Forum included discussions on several topics, including the impact of Basel III standards on regional banks, as well as the importance of listing on stock exchanges and how companies benefit from this to achieve profits and increase growth. TradeArabia News Service First BanCorp (Puerto Rico) is a holding company, which engages in the provision of personal, commercial, and corporate banking services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Commercial and Corporate Banking, Consumer (Retail) Banking, Mortgage Banking, Treasury and Investments, United States Operations, and Virgin Islands Operations. The Commercial and Corporate Banking segment consists of the company's lending and other services for large customers represented by specialized and middle-market clients and the public sector. The Consumer (Retail) Banking segment includes consumer lending and deposit-taking activities conducted mainly through FirstBank's branch network in Puerto Rico. The Mortgage Banking segment focuses on the origination, sale, and servicing of a variety of residential mortgage loan products and related hedging activities. The Treasury and Investments segment deals with treasury and investment management functions. The United States Operations segment represents all banking activities conducted by FirstBank on the United States mainland. The Virgin Islands Operations segment includes all banking activities conducted by FirstBank in Read More HFF, Inc. provides commercial real estate and capital market services to the consumers and providers of capital in the commercial real estate industry in the United States. The company offers debt placement services, such as construction and construction/mini-permanent loans, adjustable and fixed rate mortgages, bridge loans, entity level and mezzanine debts, forward delivery loans, and tax exempt and sale/leaseback financing to the owners of various properties comprising office, retail, industrial, hotel, multi-housing, student housing, self-storage, nursing homes, condominiums and condominium conversions, mixed-use properties, and land, as well as senior, independent, and assisted living facilities. It also provides investment advisory services to commercial real estate owners; and equity placement, as well as assists clients in the sale of their commercial real estate debt note portfolios. In addition, the company offers private equity, investment banking, and advisory services, including equity capital to establish joint ventures relating to identified properties or properties to be acquired by a fund sponsor; structured finance; institutional marketing and fund-raising services for public and private commercial real estate fund sponsors; advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, sales and divestitures, management buyouts, and recapitalizations and restructurings; and private placements of preferred securities. Further, it provides loan sales and commercial loan servicing to life insurance companies. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Dallas, Texas. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of IDEX: ADS Corp., ADS Environmental Services Pty Limited, ADS Environmental Technologies Inc., ADS LLC, AEGIS Flow Technologies, AEGIS Flow Technologies L.L.C., AWG, AWG Fittings GmbH, Abel Pumps, Advanced Thin Films, Advanced Thin Films Inc., Airtech Group, Akron Brass, Akron Brass Company, Alfa Valvole, Alfa Valvole S.r.l., Band-It Clamps (Asia) Pte. Ltd., Band-It Company Limited, Band-It-IDEX Inc., Banjo Corporation, Banjo Europe S.r.l., BarbIDEX International SRL, CIDRA Precision Services, CVI Laser, CVI Laser LLC, CVI Laser Limited, CVI Melles Griot, Corken Inc., ERC, Eastern Plastics, FAST & Fluid Management S.r.l., FM Delaware Inc., FM Investment Inc., FMD Distribution and Service LLC, FMD Fabrication Services LLC, FTL Seals Technology Limited, Fast & Fluid Management B.V., Fast & Fluid Management Eastern Europe Sp. Z O.O., Fast and Fluid Management Australia Pty. Ltd., Flow Management Devices, Flow Management Devices LLC, Fluid Management Canada Inc., Fluid Management Inc., Fluid Management Operations LLC, Gast Group Ltd, Gast Manufacturing Inc., Godiva Limited, Godiva Products Limited, Hale Products Europe Limited, Hale Products Inc., Hurst Jaws of Life Inc., IDEX Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., IDEX Dinglee Technology (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., IDEX Europe GmbH, IDEX Health & Science KK, IDEX Health & Science LLC, IDEX Holdings GmbH, IDEX Holdings Inc., IDEX India Private Limited, IDEX Italy S.r.l., IDEX Japan GK, IDEX Korea Ltd, IDEX Leasing GmbH, IDEX MPT Inc., IDEX Mexico S.A. de C.V., IDEX Middle East FZE, IDEX Pump Technologies (Ireland) Limited, IDEX SAS, IDEX Service Corp., IDEX Sourcing Corporation, IDEX Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., IDEX Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, IDEX UK Investment Ltd, IDEX UK Ltd., IDEX do Brasil Servicos e Vendas Ltda., IETG, Isolation Technologies, KNIGHT LLC, KVT-Koenig Holding Limited, Knight (Canada) Limited, Knight Inc., Knight UK Ltd, LUKAS Hydraulik GmbH, Liquid Controls, Liquid Controls LLC, Matcon, Matcon (R&D) Limited, Matcon Group Limited, Matcon Limited, Melles Griot B.V., Melles Griot GmbH, Microfluidics, Microfluidics International Corporation, Micropump Inc., Nova Technologies, Nova Technologies Corporation, Novotema, Novotema S.p.A, OBL, OBL Srl, Oil & Gas Process Solutions LLC, PP AWG GmbH, PPE International LLC, PPE LLC, Precision Photonics, Precision Polymer Engineering Limited, Project Gold Acquisition Corp., Pulsafeeder Inc., Quadro Engineering Corp., RV Acquisition Corp., Richter Chemie-Technik, Richter Chemie-Technik GmbH, Richter EP (Nanjing) Co. Ltd., Richter Pumps & Valves Inc., Roplan AB, Roplan GmbH, Roplan Holding AB, Roplan Ltd, Roplan Machinery (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., Roplan Machining AB, Roplan Sales (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., Roplan Sales AB, Roplan Sales Inc., Roplan Trading AB, S.A.M.P.I. S.p.A., SFC KOENIG, SFC KOENIG Flow Control (Suzhou) Co. Limited, SFC Koenig AG, SFC Koenig Beteilgungs GmbH, SFC Koenig GmbH, SFC Koenig LLC, Scivex, Seals Limited, Semrock, Steridose Sales AB, The Fitzpatrick Company, Toptech Systems, Toptech Systems Inc., Toptech Systems NV, Trebor International Inc., Velcora, Velcora Holding AB, Vetter GmbH, Viking Pump Inc., Viking Pump of Canada Inc., Warren Rupp Inc., Wright Flow Technologies Limited, XAM Swiss Holding I GmbH, iPEK, iPEK International GmbH, iPEK Spezial TV GmbH, thinXXS Microtechnology, and thinXXS Microtechnology AG. The following companies are subsidiares of TransUnion: Accupost Corporation, AppLock Limited, Auditz, Autolocator (Pty) Ltd., Beheer en Beleggingsmaatchapij Stivaco B.V., CIFIN S.A.S, [email protected] plc, Callcredit Data Solutions Limited, Callcredit Information, Callcredit Lead Generation Limited, Callcredit Marketing Ltd., Callcredit Public Sector Limited, Callcredit Spain S.L.U, Centro de Informacion y Estudios Estrategicos Empresariales S.A., Centro de Operaciones Servicios de Informacion Estrategica S.A., CheckMend Ltd., Coactiva Limited, Collection Africa Ltd., Confirma Sistemas de Informacion S.L., Credit Bureau of Carmel & Pebble Beach Inc., Credit Information Services Limited, Credit Information Systems Company Limited, Credit Reference Bureau (Holdings) Limited, Credit Reference Bureau Africa (Pty) Ltd., Credit Reference Bureau Africa Ltd., Credit Reporting Services Limited, Credit Retriever LLC, Crivo, Crown Acquisition BidCo Ltd., Crown Acquisition Consumer Ltd., Crown Acquisition MidCo Ltd., Crown Acquisition MidCo. 2 Ltd., Crown Acquisition TopCo. Ltd., DMWSL 617 Ltd., DMWSL 618 Ltd., DMWSL 619 Ltd., DMWSL 620 Ltd., DataLink Services, Datalink Services Inc., Decision Systems Inc., DecisionMetrics Limited, Diversified Data Development Corporation, Drivers History Inc., Drivers History Information Sales LLC, FT Holdings Inc., FactorTrust, FactorTrust Inc., GMAP Japan KK, GMAP Marketing Consulting Shangahi Co. Ltd, Healthcare Payment Specialists, INSDEC LLC, IS Resources Inc., Immobilise.com Limited, L2C Inc., L2C Inc., Link Marketing Inc., Link2credit Inc., Moussoro Participacoes Ltda., RTech, RTech Healthcare Revenue Technologies Inc., Recipero, Recipero Inc., Recipero Limited, Regional Data Systems Limited, RentPort, Rubixis, Rubixis Inc., Rubixis Technologies Private Limited, STS Vail Beheeren Administracion S. DE. R.L. DE C.V., Servicios y Asesoria S CO BC SA de CV, Signal, Soluciones de Informatica de Centroamerica (SICE) S.A., Source USA Insurance Agency Inc., Tenant ID Limited, Title Insurance Services Corporation, Trans Union Central America S.A., Trans Union Chile S.A., Trans Union Content Solutions LLC, Trans Union Costa Rica S.A., Trans Union Guatemala S.A., Trans Union Honduras-Buro de Credito S.A., Trans Union International Inc., Trans Union LLC, Trans Union Nicaragua S.A., Trans Union Real Estate Services Inc., Trans Union Software Services Private Limited, Trans Union de Puerto Rico Inc., Trans Union of Canada Inc., TransUnion (Mauritius) Limited, TransUnion (Proprietary) Ltd., TransUnion Africa (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Africa Holdings (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Analytic and Decision Services (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Asia Ltd., TransUnion Auto Information Solutions (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Baltics UAB, TransUnion Brasil Sistemas em Informatica Ltda., TransUnion CIBIL Limited, TransUnion Colombia Ltda., TransUnion Consumer Solutions LLC, TransUnion Credit Bureau (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Credit Bureau Namibia (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Data Solutions LLC, TransUnion Digital LLC, TransUnion El Salvador S.A. de C.V., TransUnion Exchange LLC, TransUnion Financing Corporation, TransUnion Global Holdings LLC, TransUnion Global Holdings LP, TransUnion Global Technology Center LLP, TransUnion Healthcare Inc., TransUnion Holding Cyprus Ltd., TransUnion ITC (Pty) Ltd., TransUnion Information Group Limited, TransUnion Information Services Limited, TransUnion Information Solutions Inc., TransUnion Information Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., TransUnion Intelligence LLC, TransUnion Interactive Inc., TransUnion Intermediate Holdings Inc., TransUnion International Holdings LLC, TransUnion International UK Limited, TransUnion Kenya Limited, TransUnion Limited, TransUnion Ltd., TransUnion Marketing Solutions Inc., TransUnion Netherlands I B.V., TransUnion Netherlands II B.V., TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions Inc., TransUnion Reverse Exchange S de R.L. de C.V., TransUnion Risk Advisory Inc., TransUnion Risk and Alternative Data Solutions Inc., TransUnion Rwanda Limited, TransUnion S.A., TransUnion Soluciones de Informacion Chile SA, TransUnion Soluciones de Informacion S de R.L de C.V., TransUnion Teledata LLC, TransUnion UK Holdings Ltd., Tru Optik, TruSignal, TruSignal Inc., TrueLink, Trustev, Trustev Limited, Vail Holdings UK Ltd., Vail Systemen Groep B.V., Verifacts LLC, Visionary Systems Inc., Worthknowing Inc., eBureau, eBureau LLC, iovation Inc., iovation Ltd., and process benchmarking limited. Vermilion Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of petroleum and natural gas in North America, Europe, and Australia. It owns 81% working interest in 642,300 net acres of developed land and 87% working interest in 376,700 net acres of undeveloped land, and 613 net producing natural gas wells and 3,034 net producing oil wells in Canada; and 96% working interest in 248,900 net acres of developed land and 91% working interest in 222,100 net acres of undeveloped land in the Aquitaine and Paris Basins, and 325 net producing oil wells and 3.0 net producing gas wells in France. The company also owns 49% working interest in 930,000 net acres of land and 51 net producing natural gas wells in the Netherlands; and 36,900 net developed acres and 965,900 net undeveloped acres of land, and 61 net producing oil wells and 8 net producing natural gas wells in Germany. In addition, it owns offshore Corrib natural gas field located to the northwest coast of Ireland; and 100% working interest in the Wandoo offshore oil field and related production assets that covers 59,600 acres located on Western Australia's northwest shelf. Further, the company holds 138,000 net acres of land in the Powder River basin, and 136.6 net producing oil wells in the United States; and 951,200 net acres of land in Hungary, 244,900 net acres of land in Slovakia, and 2.4 million net acres of land in Croatia. Vermilion Energy Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Read More iShares MSCI Canada ETF's stock was trading at $23.42 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EWC shares have increased by 67.8% and is now trading at $39.31. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Xylem: Aanderaa Data Instruments AS, Beijing United Gas Meters Co. Ltd., Bellingham & Stanley Ltd., Bombas Flygt de Venezuela S.A., CMS Research Corporation, EmNet LLC, FARADYNE Motors LLC, Faradyne Motors (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Flow Control LLC, Flowtronex PSI LLC, Fluid Handling LLC, Godwin Holdings Ltd., Goulds Water Technology Philippines Inc, Grindex AB, Grindex Pumps LLC, HYPACK Inc, Heartland Pump Rental & Sales Inc., IMT b.v., Jabsco Marine Italia s.r.l., Jabsco S. de R.L. De C.V., Lowara UK Ltd, Lowara Vogel Polska SP ZOO, Lowara s.r.l., MJK Automation ApS, MultiTrode Inc., Multitrode Pty Ltd, Nova Analytics Europe LLC, O.I. Corporation, PCI Membrane Systems Inc., Pension Trustee Management Ltd, Pims Pumps, Portacel Inc., Pure Technologies, SELC Electronics Ltd, SELC Group Ltd., SELC Ireland Ltd, Safe Sea Services FZC, Sensus, Sensus (UK Holdings) Ltd., Sensus Australia Pty Ltd, Sensus Canada Inc., Sensus Chile SA, Sensus Espana SA, Sensus France Holdings SAS, Sensus France SAS, Sensus GmbH Hannover, Sensus GmbH Ludwigshafen, Sensus Italia SRL, Sensus Japan Kabushiki Kaisha, Sensus Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Sensus Maroc S.A.., Sensus Metering Systems (Fuzhou) Co. Ltd., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 1) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 2) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 3) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 4) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 5) S.A R.L, Sensus Metering Systems IP Holdings Inc., Sensus Polska sp. zoo, Sensus Precision Die Casting (Yangzhou) Co. Ltd., Sensus SPA, Sensus Services Deutschland GmbH, Sensus Slovensko a.s., Sensus South Africa (Proprietary) Ltd., Sensus Spectrum LLC, Sensus UK Systems Limited, Sensus USA Inc., Sensus de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Sensus metrologicke sluzby s.r.o._Slovakia, Sensus Ceska republika spol. s r.o., Sentec Limited, Smith-Blair Inc., Texas Turbine LLC, Tideland Signal Corporation, Tideland Signal EMEA B.V., Tideland Signal LLC, Tideland Signal Limited, Tirinstal Investments Ltd, UGI Global Limited, Valor Water Analytics, Visenti Pte. Ltd, Water Asset Management Inc., Water Process Limited, Watercompany, Xylem (China) Company Limited, Xylem (Hong Kong) Limited, Xylem (Nanjing) Co. Ltd, Xylem Analytics (Beijing) Co. Ltd, Xylem Analytics Australia Pty Ltd., Xylem Analytics France S.A.S., Xylem Analytics Germany GmbH, Xylem Analytics IP Management GmbH, Xylem Analytics IP Management SCS, Xylem Analytics LLC, Xylem Analytics UK LTD, Xylem Australia Holdings PTY LTD, Xylem Brasil Solucoes para Agua Ltda, Xylem Canada Company, Xylem Delaware Inc., Xylem Denmark Holdings ApS, Xylem Dewatering Solutions Inc., Xylem Dewatering Solutions UK Ltd, Xylem Europe GmbH, Xylem Financing S.a.r.l, Xylem Germany GmbH, Xylem Global S.a.r.l, Xylem Holdings S.a.r.l., Xylem IP Holdings LLC, Xylem IP Management S.a.r.l, Xylem IP UK S.a.r.l., Xylem Industriebeteiligungen GmbH, Xylem Industries S.a.r.l., Xylem International S.a.r.l., Xylem Lowara Limited, Xylem Luxembourg S.a r.l., Xylem Management GmbH, Xylem Manufacturing Austria GmbH, Xylem Manufacturing Middle East Region FZCO, Xylem Middle East Water Equipment Trading & Rental LLC, Xylem Russia LLC, Xylem Saudi Arabia Limited, Xylem Service Hungary Kft, Xylem Service Italia Srl, Xylem Services Austria GmbH, Xylem Services GmbH, Xylem Shared Services Sp. Z.o.o., Xylem Technologies & Partners S.C.S, Xylem Technologies GmbH, Xylem Water Holdings Limited, Xylem Water Limited, Xylem Water Services Limited, Xylem Water Solutions (Hong Kong) Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Argentina S.R.L., Xylem Water Solutions Australia Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Austria GmbH, Xylem Water Solutions Belgium, Xylem Water Solutions Chile S.A., Xylem Water Solutions Colombia SAS, Xylem Water Solutions Denmark ApS, Xylem Water Solutions Deutschland GmbH, Xylem Water Solutions Espana S.A., Xylem Water Solutions Florida LLC, Xylem Water Solutions France SAS, Xylem Water Solutions Global Services AB, Xylem Water Solutions Herford GmbH, Xylem Water Solutions Holdings France SAS, Xylem Water Solutions India Private Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Ireland Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions Italia S.R.L, Xylem Water Solutions Korea Co. Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions Magyarorszag KRT, Xylem Water Solutions Malaysia SDN. BHD., Xylem Water Solutions Manufacturing AB, Xylem Water Solutions Metz SAS, Xylem Water Solutions Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Xylem Water Solutions Middle East Region FZCO, Xylem Water Solutions Muscat LLC, Xylem Water Solutions Nederland BV, Xylem Water Solutions New Zealand Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Norge AS, Xylem Water Solutions Panama s.r.l., Xylem Water Solutions Peru S.A., Xylem Water Solutions Polska Sp.z.o.o., Xylem Water Solutions Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Xylem Water Solutions Rugby Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Singapore PTE Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions South Africa Holdings LLC, Xylem Water Solutions Suomi Oy, Xylem Water Solutions Sweden AB, Xylem Water Solutions U.S.A. Inc., Xylem Water Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Xylem Water Solutions UK Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Zelienople LLC, Xylem Water Solutions(Shenyang) CO. Ltd, Xylem Water Systems (California) Inc., Xylem Water Systems Hungary KFT, Xylem Water Systems International Inc., Xylem Water Systems Japan Corporation, Xylem Water Systems Philippines Holding Inc., Xylem Water Systems Texas Holdings LLC, Xylem Water Systems U.S.A. LLC, YSI (China) Ltd., YSI (Hong Kong) Ltd., YSI (UK) Ltd., YSI Incorporated, YSI Instrumentos E Servicos Ambientais Ltda., YSI International Inc., YSI Nanotech Limited, and ylem Analytics Germany Sales GmbH& Co. KG. Greif, Inc. engages in the production of industrial packaging products and services. It operates through the following segments: Rigid Industrial Packaging and Services, Paper Packaging and Services, Flexible Products and Services, and Land Management. The Rigid Industrial Packaging and Services segment involves the production and sale of rigid industrial packaging products, such as steel, fibre and plastic drums, rigid intermediate bulk containers, closure systems for industrial packaging products, transit protection products, water bottles and reconditioned containers, and services, such as container life cycle services, blending, filling and other packaging services, logistics and warehousing. The Paper Packaging and Services segment involves the production and sale of containerboard, corrugated sheets, corrugated containers and other corrugated products to customers in North America. The Flexible Products and Services segment involves the production and sale of flexible intermediate bulk containers and related services on a global basis and the sale of industrial and consumer shipping sacks and multiwall bag products in North America. The Land Management segment involves the ma Read More Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) House national defense and security committee chair Rep. Ruffy Biazon said he is "cautious" about calling for a congressional probe on China as it may turn "political." "We are all politicians there, we have different agendas and I think relations with other countries should be limited, or at least, the first move that we do is through the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs). Where there is the expertise on international relations," Biazon told CNN Philippines' The Source on Tuesday. "We must keep the discussions sober because the actions of the government as far as international relations is concerned will go beyond the current administration, But if we let politics play a dominant role, there might be some consequences that we do not want to happen," he said. However, Biazon filed in May a resolution directing his committee to conduct a probe on the reported deployment of missiles in the Spratlys Island by China. His resolution for an investigation is only one of at least four resolutions calling for a probe on China's reported incursions in the West Philippine Sea, an area in the South China Sea within the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. "There is an immediate need to verify these reports soonest, and if proven true, take direct action to protect our territorial and sovereign rights and interests," read Biazon's resolution. The House has only conducted one probe on China's actions in the West Philippine Sea, while the Senate is yet to act on the numerous resolutions pending in its defense and foreign relations committees. On Monday, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she dislikes resolutions calling for investigations in aid of legislation as "only harassment" happens. Article VI, Section 21 of the Constitution gives the Senate and the House of Representatives and any of its committees the power to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation. Senate President Tito Sotto previously said conducting a probe on China may "open books" which should not yet be known. Protest China's barring of TV crew China's militarization of the West Philippine Sea continues, with the Asian giant recently installing weather stations in the area a move experts say could be a smokescreen for the upgrading of Beijing's military facilities on artificial islands it built there. A Filipino TV crew was also reportedly told off by a Chinese coast guard that they could not conduct an interview on Scarborough Shoal-which is within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone-without permission from the Chinese government. READ: Senators want PH to protest supposed harassment of TV crew in Scarborough Biazon echoed some senators' position on the issue, calling on the government to protest China's latest display of aggression in the West Philippine Sea. "I think, dapat we make a stand on that. Sabihin natin na 'Hindi. Hindi namin tinatanggap na sabihin niyo lang na hindi kayo pwedeng mag-film dito,'" he said. [Translation: I think, we should make a stand on that. We should say, 'No. We do not accept that you would just tell us that we cannot film here.'] Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Monday, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said the incident with the TV crew is an example of why the Philippines should be wary of China in its dealings, especially on the memorandum of understanding to pursue talks on joint oil development. [LINK: ] For his part, Biazon said the Philippines should "proceed with caution" and primarily consider the benefit Filipinos would get from an oil deal with China. He added that he would like Manila to get a much bigger share in joint oil exploration compared to the frequently floated 60 percent and 40 percent split, where China takes the smaller cut. The MOU signed on Nov. 20 by the two countries during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping merely lays the groundwork for future talks on oil development and does not specify how profits from such venture would be split. It also delegated the task of determining which sea areas would be the subject of the oil and gas exploration to the Inter-governmental Joint Steering Committee which the agreement established. Terex Corporation, a global manufacturer of lifting and material processing products, has announced several key senior appointments at its global brand Genie for the EMEAR (Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia) region. Under the leadership of Matt Treadwell, new vice-president of parts and services, supporting the Genie brand, Terex AWP has aligned its global parts and services strategy. Nominated by Treadwell, Ryan Lusso has been appointed to the newly created position of senior director (global parts). Lusso has formulated a new commercial strategy that will measurably improve the Terex AWP customer relationship and experience with the Genie brand worldwide, with immediate effect also in the EMEAR region, said a statement from Terex. Backing this initiative, effective since July, the company has appointed Dominique Luijckx and Rene Reniers to the newly created positions of regional parts manager. The aim of these new roles focuses on customer uptime, increased urgency and improved processes to ensure parts availability, as well as expedited service support and diagnostics for Genie Genuine Parts across the EMEAR region, it added. In her new role, Luijckx will support customers in Central, Eastern, Southeastern and Southern Europe, Middle East, North and South Africa, Russia and Ukraine, while Reniers holds responsibility for Genie customers in Benelux, Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GAS), Poland, Baltic States, Czech Republic and Nordic countries. Both will report to Phil Taylor, Genie senior parts manager, Terex AWP for EMEAR who remains responsible for customers in the UK and Ireland. From a medical background, for which she holds a degree, Luijckx comes to the Genie brand from Terex AWP logistics partner Ceva, where she worked for the past five years and most recently as transport supervisor (Terex Cranes) and assistant supervisor for Terex AWP. After a degree in Applied Sciences from the University of Avans Breda and a diploma in sales management in The Netherlands, Reniers joins the Genie brand from Tractel (manufacturer of lifting, handling, height safety and access equipment), where he held the position of sales manager for Benelux and Denmark. Welcoming the trio, Taylor said: "These new appointments are a big step forward in taking our parts and services organisation to a new level." "I have every confidence in the hands-on experience of Luijckx and Reniers in setting the foundations for greater satisfaction and building long-term business partnerships with our Genie customers in the EMEAR region," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Residential and infrastructure projects are driving the growth of Dubais construction sector and this trend is expected to gain momentum in the lead up to Expo 2020, according to a new analysis released by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The analysis, based on recent data from Dubai Statistics Centre and Haver Analytics, found that the residential segment accounts for 43 per cent of total projects in the pipeline in Dubai over the 2014-2022 period. According to the findings, Dubais construction sector contributed an estimated 6.3 per cent to the emirates GDP in 2017, as work on several government-led projects commenced during the year, including expansions to public transport and logistics infrastructure, in addition to building works for the Expo site in Dubai South. In addition, considerable growth in the number of off-plan transactions and real estate investment trusts was observed over the same period. Key findings of the analysis were presented during a business briefing hosted earlier today at Dubai Chambers premises on the sidelines of the Big 5 exhibition in Dubai. The annual briefing, attended by 60 participants from nine countries, provided an ideal platform for visiting delegates and industry stakeholders to learn more about Dubais economy, business environment and construction market. The gathering also offered an opportunity for delegates to network with the local business community and get a glimpse of new projects in the pipeline. Addressing delegates during the event, Hassan Al Hashemi, the director of International Relations at Dubai Chamber, noted that the strong participation at the briefing and The Big 5 exhibition, reflected growing international interest and confidence in Dubais economy and construction market. "The UAEs commitment to Vision 2021 and diversification are key factors which are expected to maintain strong growth in the construction market over the next few years," . "With Expo 2020 just two years away, the timing is ideal for foreign contractors to take advantage of new business opportunities and expand their footprint in this dynamic market," said Al Hashemi. As the region's largest and most influential event for the construction industry, the 2018 edition of The Big 5 exhibition in Dubai has attracted the participation of 2,600 exhibitors from 64 countries. Over the years, the trade show has evolved in line with Dubais maturing and expanding construction market.-TradeArabia News Service Turkish Airlines has placed an order for three Boeing 777 freighters as the flag carrier of Turkey continues to soar on record financial results and double-digit passenger and cargo growth. The order adds more of the long-range freighter to Turkish's fleet as the airline pursues its goal of becoming the world's largest cargo carrier. Based on the 777-200LR (Longer Range), the 777 Freighter can fly 4,900 nautical miles (9,070 kilometres) with a full payload of 112 tons (102 metric tonnes or 102,000 kg). The long range means fewer stops and associated landing fees, less congestion at transfer hubs, lower cargo handling costs and shorter delivery times. "We are excited to expand our efficient cargo fleet with the 777 Freighter. This aircraft has contributed greatly to Turkish Cargo, Turkish Airlines' successful sub brand, becoming the fastest-growing air cargo carrier in the world. The additional aircraft will provide us more flexibility to serve even more destinations as we continue to grow our global freight network," said M Ilker Ayc, Turkish Airlines chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee. The new order comes days after Turkish Airlines posted record profits for the first nine months of 2018 on strong passenger and cargo demand. The carrier's air freight business saw a 25-per cent tonnage increase and a 29-per cent revenue increase compared to the same period a year ago. The results extend the airline's success in recent years as Turkey has become one of the largest and fastest-growing aviation markets. In line with the rapid growth, Turkish Airlines has steadily expanded its current and future fleet. Last January, the carrier announced the order of three 777 Freighters. Two months later, Turkish finalized an order for 25 787-9 Dreamliners and five options to prepare for growing demand at Istanbul's third airport, named "Istanbul Airport" by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during its official opening last month. Over the past few months, Turkish has begun taking delivery of new 737 MAX airplanes to refresh its single-aisle jets. In all, the airline's fleet of Boeing jetliners has grown to more than 160, with nearly 100 additional jets on order. "Turkish Airlines has achieved significant success over the past decade. In addition to introducing innovations that have powered the growth of Turkey's commercial aviation sector and anchored a new state-of-the art airport, the airline is delivering outstanding results and rising in the ranks of elite airlines. We are extremely honoured that Turkish Airlines has placed its trust and confidence in Boeing's flagship airplanes: the 737 MAX, the 777 and the 787 Dreamliner," said Kevin McAllister, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. With more than 30 777s in its fleet, Turkish Airlines is among the top 10 operators of the wide-body jet in Europe and the Middle East. "We continue to expand our commitment to grow in Turkey, together with Turkey. Our new engineering centre and our growing cooperation in so many areas with the Turkish aerospace sector reflect our confidence in the country's capabilities," said McAllister. TradeArabia News Service Boeing is jointly hosting the debut Boeing Business Challenge in partnership with Injaz Al-Arab in Kuwait, which will be a specialised aviation-focused part of its Regional Young Entrepreneurs Competition. Injaz Al-Arab is a non-profit organisation that believes in the limitless potential and creation of viable opportunities for young people in the Arab world. The two-day regional competition which kicked off today (November 27) in Kuwait City at the Jumeirah Messilah Hotel, and will bring together over 80 students from 11 countries to compete for an award based on aviation-themed business challenges. All of the invited students will have participated in Injazs flagship entrepreneurship education programme, The Company Program. The regional competition in Kuwait is only open to students who successfully competed in the national-level competition in their home countries. The students proposed solutions to the aviation business challenges will be judged on a set of rigorous criteria by Boeing representatives from throughout the Middle East. The winners will be recognised with a prestigious award from Boeing at the Awards Ceremony on November 28. Bernie Dunn, president of Boeing Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said: The Boeing Business Challenge will encourage students to solve problems creatively and work together collaboratively. Boeings continued partnership with Injaz Al-Arab is a testament to our focus on the regions youth and the Boeing Business Challenge is a specialised extension of this commitment. Our aim is to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit for the aviation industry and this is a strong step towards inculcating that in the regions youth, he added. Akef Aqrabawi, president and CEO of Injaz Al-Arab, said: Boeing has been a strategic partner for Injaz. As leaders in the aviation industry, they know how to cultivate young talent. We value their continued support, and we are looking forward to partnering with them at the regional competition to execute the first-ever Boeing Business Challenge, he added. Boeings sponsorship of this signature Business Challenge continues its long-standing collaboration with Injaz Al-Arab, with Boeing employees frequently serving on Injaz judging panels at the national-level competitions for the Company Program. This year and for the second time, Boeing representatives will judge the competition at the regional level in Kuwait as well. Boeing previously funded Injaz Al-Arabs Start Up program for Arab youth, which aims to hone their entrepreneurial talent into registered, operational ventures. Since its creation, Start Up has impacted nearly 700 students across the region and established more than 60 businesses. During the 2016-2017 academic year alone, Start Up fostered 23 businesses through incubation and acceleration support. TradeArabia News Service The GCC chemical industrys performance has improved on all fronts, including in revenue, employment, production capacity and export, marking a key step in its journey towards transformation, according to a recent report. This was revealed in the annual Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) Facts and Figures report, which was released during the 13th Annual GPCA Forum held which kicked off yesterday (November 26) and will conclude on tomorrow (November 28) at the Madinat Jumeirah, in Dubai, UAE. The reports findings reflect on this years forum theme Executing Transformation and Investing in Growth, said a statement. During the forum, Dr Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, secretary general of GPCA, announced that production capacity in 2017 reached 166.8 million tonnes, up by 7 per cent YoY, with expectations of further growth in 2018 to 170.9 million tonnes. GCC overseas production capacity reached 18.6 million tonnes with facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. The GCC chemical industrys revenue grew by 17 per cent YoY in 2017, reaching $84.2 billion, the fastest rate since 2011, indicating the industrys move towards higher value products. Saudi Arabia and the UAE significantly lifted the region posting 19 per cent and 17 per cent increase in revenue respectively. Supported by the upturn in global demand growth and higher commodity prices during the same year, GCC chemicals trade rebounded significantly, generating $55.6 billion in revenue in 2017. In volume terms, chemicals export reached 70.3 million tonnes. Dr Al Sadoun said: In keeping with this years forum theme of transformation the GCC chemical industry is reaching new milestones in both the short and long-term projections. With 20 new products to be added over the next 10 years, the chemical sector will be integral to the regions diversification efforts and the creation of new industries as regional governments aspire to construct competitive economies that are diversified away from hydrocarbons. The current trend strongly indicates that GCC players are increasingly investing in growth outside the region and this is impacting positively on their competitiveness in the international arena, he added. The chemical sector is one of the leading sources of direct and indirect employment in the GCC, accounts for 3 per cent of total employment in the region. The industry supports up to 880,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs, i.e. for every job created in the chemical industry, five new jobs are stimulated elsewhere in the economy. The chemical industry has also proved to be a leader for the integration of national citizens within the private sector, with GPCA member companies boasting a high nationalization rate of 58 per cent in total workforce. GPCA continues to lead the industrys efforts in this regard by hosting the 9th edition of Leaders of Tomorrow on November 26 at the Annual GPCA Forum in Dubai. In total 140 STEM students from universities across the six GCC states were sponsored by 14 GPCA member companies to attend the forum and network with senior industry executives. The GPCA Leaders of Tomorrow programme places strong emphasis on the chemical sector and the impact it has as a leading source of direct and indirect employment in the GCC region, consequently, empowering future talent. Expressing his satisfaction at the manner, in which the chemical sector is preparing itself for the next major leap forward, Dr Al Sadoun concluded: We realise our responsibility not just as leaders in the industry but also as a major employer in the region and for the integral socio-economic impact we create. Our sector will continue to be a key driver for economic diversification and job creation moving forward, he added. TradeArabia News Service Blacklane, a premium mobility provider, has opened its Middle East office in Dubai. This is the companys third office, after the Berlin headquarters and Asia-Pacific office in Singapore. The company said the Dubai team has three key priorities: * Support Emirates airline's complimentary chauffeur-drive service. Emirates provides First and Business Class passengers with chauffeured airport transfers. Blacklane exclusively supplies these rides for Emirates in India, Italy and Sweden. * Add new cities across the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Blacklane serves 21 cities in 10 MEA countries. In the coming months, Blacklane will add dozens of additional cities across the region. * Build corporate business and partnerships across the region. The Dubai team will increase the number of Blacklane guests originating from the Middle East. As the centre of travel in the Middle East and the headquarters of Emirates, Dubai is perfect for Blacklanes office expansion, said Jens Wohltorf, CEO and co-founder of Blacklane. Emirates means quality, and were proud to provide that on the ground, online and in our customer service for Emirates guests. AlFahim Group is a proud investment partner for Blacklane. Our combined knowledge of innovative world-class services and technology is a recipe for success in this ever-changing region. With AlFahim Groups expertise in the premium segment and a diverse portfolio, along with Blacklanes reinvention of the professional driver industry, we are transforming the future of premium transfers, stated Khaled Abdul Karim Al Fahim, board director of AlFahim Group. Nicolas Soucaille will lead the Dubai team as head of Middle East and Africa. He relocated from Blacklanes Berlin office, where he was head of driver operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before joining Blacklane, he worked in Dubai with Sony Electronics as deputy general manager, head of operations for MEA. Blacklane serves more than 300 cities and 60 countries with chauffeured rides. Blacklane Pass, its airport concierge service, reaches more than 500 airports worldwide. -TradeArabia News Service Leading industry pioneers from around the world gathered today (November 27) at a high-profile summit in Dubai held as part of The Big 5 construction expo to highlight the growing importance of solar solutions in the urban sector. The Global Solar Leaders Summit was held under the topical theme Solar Solutions for Construction, on the sidelines of The Big 5 Solar, which concludes on November 29. It brought together industry decision makers and thought leaders to assess the future of solar in the GCC region. The second edition of The Big 5 Solar which opened in Dubai brings solar solutions to construction. Showcasing solar technologies from leading PV manufacturing countries, it is a premier event for solar industry professionals to network, learn and do business in the Middle East. Etihad Esco CEO Ali Mohammed Al Jassim, Masdar Clean Energy Director (Business Development) Yousif Al Ali, Dubai Supreme Council of Energy (Director) Demand Side Management Faisil Rashid; Acwa Power Chief Investment Officer Rajit Nanda and Dubai Carbon, Centre of Excellence CEO Ivano Ianelli were among the many high profile speakers at the event. In his opening remarks, Chris Kilbee, the senior VP at dmg events, said: "Much of the energy consumption in the region is driven by urban spaces: The residential sector is responsible for the consumption of almost 47 per cent of the GCCs total energy, against a global average of 25 per cent." "If we consider that there are more than 23,000 active construction projects in the GCC right now, we understand that it is extremely important for the solar and the construction industries to join forces, address current challenges and harness the immense opportunities that lie ahead," he added. Al Jassim said: "Today, Etihad Esco is leading the region in energy efficiency. We saved Dubai Dh40 million in 2016/17 through retrofitting and our success story has made an echo around the globe." "We have a plan and target to retrofit 30,000 buildings - a target of 2,000 per year. No other city has put such a challenging target but we have a path, a goal, a plan. The target is 30 per cent by 2030; its just a matter of time," stated the top official. "We are also talking about building labeling. Every building that has been retrofitted and achieved savings should be recognized. We are working on the operational plan and it will be made public in 2019/20," he added. To celebrate achievements towards a more sustainable and efficient urban footprint through solar solutions, dmg events presented two awards at the summit. The Global Green Ambassador Award to Obaid Amrane, Member of the Management Board, Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN), and the Global Solar Leaders Award to Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO, Masdar. Belen Gallego, CEO and co-founder at ATA Insights (Spain), and one of the speakers at the Global Solar Leaders' summit said: It has never been more important for the solar and construction industries to come together, as distributed solar markets are raising through the ranks to be an important part of the climate change solution." "This event is a great opportunity for these two industries to meet, discuss and do business," she added.-TradeArabia News Service Based on a new platform called Premium Transverse Architecture Available with petrol and diesel engines and mild-hybrid tech from launch Will also receive a PHEV (with a 3-cylinder engine) variant 12 months later Land Rover has unveiled the second-gen Evoque after teasing the SUV on the streets of London. The new generation Evoque comes 8 years after the first-gen model debuted back in 2010. So, let's compare the new Evoque with its predecessor and find out what all has changed. Dimensions At 4,371mm X 1,996mm X 1,649mm, the new Evoque is 11mm longer, 6mm wider and 14mm taller than its predecessor. The wheelbase has also gone up by 21mm and now stands at 2681mm. This increase in dimensions doesnt mean that the new Evoque is more capable that the old one, at least on paper. It has a lower approach, departure and breakover angle compared to its predecessor. However, the water wading depth has gone up by 100mm. First-gen Evoque (India-spec) Second-gen Evoque (UK-spec) Water wading 500mm 600mm (+100mm) Approach Angle 23.2 degree 22.2 degree (-1 degree) Breakover Angle 22 degree 20.7 degree (-1.3 degree) Departure Angle 33 degree 30.6 degree (-2.4 degree) Design The second-gen Evoque borrows a lot of design cues from the larger Velar, thanks to which it looks less bulky than its predecessor. Like the Velar, the new Evoque gets horizontally stretched twin-pod LED headlamps. The front grille is also new, but its not as large as the Velars. The new bumper features a central air dam, like before, and side air dams with horizontal slats, unlike the outgoing model which had pentagonal side air dams and a sleeker central air dam. On the side, the overall silhouette with the sloping roofline and the flared wheel arches do remind us of its predecessor but the pop-out door handles are similar to the Velar. At the back, its features sleek twin-pod tail lamps (like the Velar), instead of the single-pod units of the predecessor. These also emphasise the increased width of the new Evoque. Interior & Features The cabin layout of the new Evoque appears less cluttered than its predecessor, especially when you factor in the controls on the central dashboard between the front seats. The interior also looks modern thanks to the touch controls on the steering wheel and digital instrument cluster, which are not present on the first-gen Evoque. The new Evoque also features JLR Groups Touch Pro Duo infotainment system that consists of two screens: one 10-inch unit for infotainment that sits on the dashboard and supports Apple CarPlay, while the second unit holds controls for other onboard features like climate control, ventilated seats and terrain management system. Like the exterior, theres influence from the Velar on the inside as well. The new Evoque debuts Land Rovers transparent bonnet concept which was previewed on the Discovery Vision concept. It uses cameras in the front grille and on the door mirrors to project a feed onto the central touchscreen that shows what is ahead of and underneath the front of the Evoque with a virtual 180-degree view. Land Rover claims it allows good visibility when negotiating extreme terrains as well as high kerbs (speed breakers). Then theres the ClearSight Rear View tech. In this, with the touch of a button the interior rearview mirror displays feed from the camera mounted above the rear window, providing an unobstructed 50-degree view of the cars coming from the back, just in case youre carrying a big object that obstructs rear vision. None of these features were a part of the Evoques equipment list before. Engine The first-gen India-spec Evoque gets a 2.0-litre 240PS/340Nm petrol engine and a 2.0-litre 180PS/430Nm diesel motor. Both engines are mated to a 9-speed automatic gearbox. Similarly, the new Evoque is also powered by the Ingenium family of petrol and diesel engines. In the UK, where it has been launched, it is powered by the 2.0-litre diesel engine that is available in 150PS, 180PS and 240PS power outputs with automatic transmission and mild-hybrid tech. It can also be had with a manual transmission but it is limited to the 150PS iteration only. In the petrol avatar, the Evoque gets a 2.0-litre engine with an automatic transmission only with three power outputs: 200PS, 250PS and 300PS. The petrol Evoque is available with mild-hybrid tech as standard. Launch and Price The second-gen Evoque is now on sale in the UK, where it is priced from Rs 31,500 to 49,550 (Rs 28.55 lakh to Rs 44.91 lakh, approximately). It is expected to launch in India by mid-2019. Here it is expected to be priced at a slight premium over the current model, which is priced from Rs 52.05 lakh to 61.93 lakh (ex-showroom pan-India). When launched, it will renew its rivalry with the likes of the Mercedes-Benz GLC, BMW X3, Audi Q5, Volvo XC60 and the Lexus NX 300h. Also Read: New Land Rover Defender To Arrive In 2020 Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho. Forex dealers said fresh demand for the American currency from importers amid marginal rise in crude prices weighed on the domestic unit. Mumbai: The rupee depreciated by 15 paise to 71.02 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday at the interbank foreign exchange, after US President Donald Trump suggested a tariff hike on Chinese goods. The domestic unit opened weak in line with other Asian currencies after Trump Monday said that for any trade deal China has to treat his country "fairly". "Here's what the bottom line is: China has to treat us fairly. They haven't been. They have to treat us fairly," Trump told reporters at the White House. At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened lower at 70.91 and declined further to quote at 71.02, showing a fall of 15 paise over its previous close. The rupee on Monday fell by 18 paise to close at 70.87 against the US dollar. Forex dealers said fresh demand for the American currency from importers amid marginal rise in crude prices weighed on the domestic unit. The international benchmark, Brent crude was trading higher by 0.28 per cent to USD 60.65 per barrel. Traders said, fresh foreign inflows restricted the decline in the local unit. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made fresh purchases worth Rs 62.74 crore Monday, as per provisional data. Meanwhile, the 30-share Sensex was trading 27.28 points, or 0.08 per cent, lower at 35,326.80. The NSE Nifty too witnessed similar movement, and was trading 18.70 points, or 0.18 per cent, lower at 10,609.90. Actor Aari has lashed out at various film bodies including Tamil Film Producers Council, Distributors Association, exhibitors etc. He did not spare the state government also while freely criticising its liqour policies. He criticised the movie industry associations and theatres for not supporting small films. The Maya actor, who took a short break from Cyclone Gaja relief work, was present at the audio launch of Dhoni Kabbadi Kuzhu and he said, I appreciate producer Nandhakumar for making a film based on a sport belonging to Tamil culture and tradition. Earlier, actor Appu Kutty said that its nice to see the trailer of Dhoni Kabbadi Kuzhu without a single shot of liquor in a scene. I am happy that the makers of this film didnt bank on such scenes. After a pause, he added sarcastically, But Tamil Nadu Government is not shutting down TASMAC, because they depend on its huge income (smiles). A wheelchair user who was stopped from drinking alcohol at a wine tasting event over "safety" concerns is seeking compensation in a Japanese court. The man in his 50s is demanding 1.7 million yen ($15,000) in damages from both organisers and Seibu Department Store in Tokyo, where the event was held in August, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported Thursday. During the trial's first day on Wednesday, the manual wheelchair user whose name was withheld told the Tokyo district court that he was asked to stop drinking after two glasses of wine, the daily said. Staff gave him a written statement which said: "To customers coming to the store with manual and electric wheelchairs, please refrain from tasting." He told organisers that he was not heavily drunk and the instruction was unreasonable, but he was ousted from the venue. His complaint noted that the act was "unjust discrimination" against him and violated the nation's disability discrimination law, the newspaper said. "Accidents and troubles inside the store are not always caused by wheelchair users," his lawyer told the court, saying the defendant treated wheelchair users as "a nuisance." But a lawyer of the department store, run by Seibu & Sogo, told the court that the instruction was "necessary to secure safety," the daily said. The legal team added that there were minor accidents between an electric wheelchair user and customers when the store held a similar wine tasting event two years ago. In Japan, both manual and electric wheelchairs are mostly categorised as "pedestrians" under law, while police strictly instruct electric wheelchair users not to roll them after drinking. Nagaraj continued to harass his sister-in-law and family. On Sunday he assaulted them and is currently absconding, along with his two sons. (Representational Images) Bengaluru: The Srirampura police have registered a case of assault and criminal intimidation against former BBMP corporator and rowdy V. Nagaraj for allegedly assaulting his sister-in-law over a property row. Police said that the incident took place last Sunday. Nagraj, who was staying with his wife and children in Swatantrapalya in Srirampura, had a property dispute with his brother. However Nagaraj continued to harass his sister-in-law and family. On Sunday he assaulted them and is currently absconding, along with his two sons. The family had earlier filed harassment complaint against Nagaraj with the Srirampura police and the police had summoned and warned Nagaraj to stay away. Police further said that Nagraj was arrested in May last year for running a demonetized currency exchange racket. Based on the complaint filed by his niece, the Srirampura police have registered a case and begun investigation. The officer said as the searches were going on, militants fired on the forces, who retaliated. (Photo: ANI | Twitter) Srinagar: Three unidentified militants and a soldier were killed while two jawans were injured in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam and Pulwama districts on Tuesday, police said. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the Redwani area of Kulgam district in south Kashmir around midnight, a police official said here. The operation was launched after receiving information about the presence of militants in the area, he said. Read: Encounters break out between militants, security forces in J&K's Kulgam, Pulwama The officer said as the searches were going on, militants fired on the forces, who retaliated. Two militants were killed in the ensuing gunfight and three soldiers were injured, he said, adding that one of the injured soldiers later succumbed at a hospital. The official said arms, ammunition and other incriminating materials were seized from the encounter site. In another operation at Hafoo area of Tral in Pulwama district, an unidentified militant was killed in an encounter with security forces, he said. The identity and the group affiliation of the slain militants is being ascertained, the official said. With 130 pre-placement offers (PPOs) this year (2018-19), the institute recorded a 20 per cent increase in PPOs. Chennai: IIT Madrass placement season looks promising this year as the number of companies registered for recruitment has increased to 326, an increase of 20 per cent compared to last year. During 2017-18, 270 companies visited the IIT Madras campus for recruitment. Besides traditional recruiters like Microsoft, Qualcomm, Goldman Sachs and General Electric, prominent companies including Bain and Company, Nomura, Ather Energy and Jaguar Land Rover will visit the campus for the first time to hire students. The first phase of campus recruitment will be held from December 1 to 8 with a break of one day on December 5. More than 1,300 students have registered for placements across different streams this year. As many as 23 companies have advertised international profiles for positions in Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan along with the US. The increase in the number of recruiters coming to the campus is clearly an indicator of the growing perception about the quality of students coming from IIT Madras, said professor Manu Santhanam, advisor, training and placement, IIT Madras. The companies have offered 490 job profiles for phase 1. The number of job profiles for data analytics has increased to 59 this year, reflecting the current trend in the industry, he said. This year about 34 per cent of the recruiters are from core engineering and research and development sector and 21 per cent from finance, analytics and consulting sectors. Among the recruiters, 32 per cent are from the IT sector. Over 50 start-ups also expressed interest in recruiting the IIT Madras students. With 130 pre-placement offers (PPOs) this year (2018-19), the institute recorded a 20 per cent increase in PPOs. Similar to last year, IIT Madras will not have the Graveyard Slot which begins the early hours of Day One (December 1) from 12 midnight to 6 am, IIT Madras said in a release. Around 30 students have opted for deferred placements as they are either pursuing start-up ventures or planning to apply for higher studies. Dubais Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has joined hands with the Jumeirah Group in support of their conservation efforts across the emirate. In an event that took place on the beach in front of Jumeirah Al Naseem on November 15, Jumeirah conservationists, with the support of Dubai Tourism, released 50 rehabilitated turtles back into the sea. Dubai Sustainable Tourism (DST), an ongoing initiative by Dubai Tourism to promote a more environmentally-friendly, greener future, supported the event as part of the ongoing Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Programme. Under the programme, more than 50 critically endangered loggerhead, green and hawksbill turtles found injured on beaches around the UAE were nurtured back to health in Dubai. This included VIP turtle, Hope, who weighed over 120kg. Hope is a young green turtle that arrived with serious injuries to her carapace (shell) and over the last two years the team of dedicated marine biologists at the Burj Al Arab Aquarium have worked to return her to her natural habitat. Rehabilitating more than 1,600 turtles to date, the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project (DTRP) looks after turtles handed in by animal enthusiasts after they are found washed up on the beach, often injured with some facing minimal chances of survival. Speaking at the turtle release day, Ahmad AlFalasi, chief executive officer, corporate services and investment, Dubai Tourism, said: Working in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform Dubai into a sustainable environmental destination, the Dubai Sustainable Tourism initiative is a key driver for ensuring the continual development of the sector, enabling hotels and hospitality establishments to take stock and evaluate their processes. An essential aspect of ensuring the realisation of our sustainable tourism strategy is the strength of Dubais public-private sector partnerships which have paved the way for successful initiatives, the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project is an example of how Jumeirah Groups ongoing efforts are feeding into this vision. Introduced to improve the sustainability of the tourism sector, DST contributes to the broader clean energy and sustainable development targets that Dubai has set out to achieve also extending its support to conserving the emirates wildlife. This includes the ongoing partnership with Emirates Nature-WWF, the leading non-profit organisation established to conserve the nations natural heritage. Peter Stubbs, Jumeirah group director of health, safety & environment, said: As we continue with our commitment to the Turtle project, we would like to thank members of the Dubai and wider UAE community for their continued support. We would also like to thank our hotel guests, who show such heartfelt interest in the great collaborative work that is done to support the project and the turtles of the gulf region. The DTRP is currently the only project of its kind in the Middle East and Red Sea region. Founded by Warren Baverstock, aquarium operations manager at the Burj Al Arab, in collaboration with Dubais Wildlife Protection Office, the DTRPs aim is to help boost the number of turtles in the wild and research their movements by tagging them with satellite tracking devices. TradeArabia News Service Navjot Singh Sidhu crosses the Attari-Wagah border to Pakistan to attend the ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor tomorrow. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) Lahore: Terming Kartarpur as a "corridor of infinite possibilities", Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said Tuesday that such initiative would promote peace and erase "enmity" between India and Pakistan. Sidhu, who arrived here along with a group of Indian journalists to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor in Narowal, some 120 km from Lahore, was greeted at the Wagah Border by officials of Pakistan's Punjab province. The 4-km-long corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib Narowal in Pakistan. The corridor will provide visa-free access to the Indian Sikh pilgrims to the gurdwara. Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the groundbreaking of the corridor on Wednesday. Sidhu thanked Khan for making this corridor possible which he said will help promote peace between the two countries. "This will erase enmity between the two nations," he said. "The seed Imran Khan had sown three months ago has become a plant. It is a happy moment for the Sikh community that the corridor to reach Kartarpur to get Baba Guru Nanak's blessing without any hassle," he told the media at Wagah. He said the wait of 73 years is over after the opening of the corridor. He termed it as a "corridor of infinite possibilities" and said through such initiatives, peace would be promoted (between the two countries). Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province. It is said that Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years of his life there. The Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara is located on the banks of the Ravi River, about three-four kilometres from the border in Pakistan. On Monday, Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Gurdaspur. Bhopal: For Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, 65,000 polling booths will be set up, including 2,000 booths that would be entirely operated by women, Chief Electoral Officer, Madhya Pradesh, VL Kantha Rao announced on Monday. "Three lakh government employees, including 45,000 women, have been deployed on polling duty. 65,000 polling booths are being made in the state. Around 2,000 entirely women-only polling booths would be functional. 160 polling booths will be fully operated by differently-abled personnel," he informed. Rao also announced that silence period for Madhya Pradesh had begun, prohibiting all forms of campaigning in the state. "With only 48 hours remaining from the end of polling, the silence period has begun for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections and all campaigning is prohibited now onwards. Any advertisement on print, electronic media or social media is prohibited. Campaigning through phone calls or messaging services is also prohibited." Rao further informed that special arrangements have been made for visually impaired people to help them cast their vote. "Apart from the 3 lakh employees from state, 12,000 Central Government Employees will be working as micro-observers at different places. For the convenience of visually impaired voters, the commission has issued Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) with Braille inscription". Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections will take place on November 28 to elect members of the 230 constituencies in the state. The result of the polls will be declared on December 11. The election will be considered as a direct political battle between the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Congress. While the incumbent Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan government will try to win the post for the consecutive fourth term, the Congress will fight for winning the state after 2003. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP won 166 seats in the House in 2013 and elected Chouhan as the Chief Minister. The Congress and BSP bagged 58 and 4 seats respectively. Three Independent MLAs also won the polls. The tenure of 230-member House expires on January 7, 2019. Former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti (R) and Omar Abdullah (L) on Tuesday praised Governor Satya Pal Malik for stopping BJP and its 'proxies' from forming government in the state. (Photo: PTI) Srinagar: Two former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah on Tuesday praised Governor Satya Pal Malik for stopping Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its proxies from forming government in the state. While Abdullah, who is vice president of National Conference (NC), said that he compliments the Governor for not looking to Delhi and for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP and its proxies, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mufti termed Maliks step as unprecedented. The Governor had in his speech at the pre-convocation academic conclave at ITM University in Gwalior, earlier during the day on Tuesday said that Sajad Gani Lone of the Peoples Conference (PC) would have become chief minister of J&K had he sought the opinion of New Delhi before dissolving the state assembly last week. I want to reiterate it that I would have had to form a government of Sajad Lone had I looked up to New Delhi but I didnt want to go down in the history as a dishonest man, he claimed. Reacting to the Governors statement, Abdullah wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter, I really dont know what to make of Governor Sb revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & its proxies were desperate to form a government through horse trading & use of money but weve also never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the centre. In another tweet, he said, My compliments to Governor Malik for not looking to Delhi & for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & its proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money. Mehbooba Mufti also chose Twitter to express herself on the issue. She said, Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sb refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state. Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on the evening of November 21 after the PDP leader Mufti and her arch rival Lone staked claim to form a government in the state. Both had claimed support of the required number of the MLAs. Mufti had in her letter to the Governor informed him that NC with 15 members and Congress 12 members in the state Assembly have decided to extend their support to her party to form a government, taking their collective strength to 56. On the other hand, Lone had claimed the support of BJP and more than 18 other MLAs which, he had said, was more than the required number of members (44) making a majority in the 87-member House. Various mainstream political parties barring BJP had termed the Governors move of dissolving the assembly as undemocratic and unconstitutional. Meanwhile, a Raj Bhavan spokesman in Jammu on Tuesday evening sought to clarify that the Governor while taking the decision to dissolve the assembly acted in an objective and impartial manner. There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter and some news Channels are misinterpreting Governors statement and putting them out of context to convey that there was pressure from the Central government, the spokesman said in a statement. Students should not be asked to bring additional books, extra materials and the weight of a school bag should not exceed the prescribed limit, the order added. (Representational Image) New Delhi: The Education Ministry on Monday issued new directives to schools to not give homework to students of classes 1 and 2 ensure that the weight of schoolbags does not exceed a certain limit. According to the official order, the education ministry has "instructed all the states and Union Territories to formulate guidelines to regulate the teaching of subjects and weight of school bags in accordance with the Government of India instructions". As per these instructions, which the schools have been asked to comply with, institutions cannot assign homework to students of classes 1 and 2. "Schools should not prescribe any other subjects except language and mathematics for classes I and II and language, EVS and mathematics for classes III to V students as prescribed by the NCERT," the order said. Students should not be asked to bring additional books, extra materials and the weight of a school bag should not exceed the prescribed limit, the order added. The weight of school bags for students of classes 1 and 2 should not exceed 1.5 kg, while the school bag of students of class 3 to 5 should weigh between 2 kg to 3 kg. The school bag of students of classes 6 and 7 should not be more than 4 kg, while weight of school bags of classes 8 and 9 students should not be above 4.5 kg. The school bag of a class 10 student should not weigh above 5 kg, the order said. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that lack of political action on the part of the BJP-led central government had led to disquiet at the border and an alarming security situation. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Congress on Monday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he criticised the party on issues of terrorism and Naxalism, alleging he was playing politics on matters of national security and had "compromised" the country's interests. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that lack of political action on the part of the BJP-led central government had led to disquiet at the border and an alarming security situation. He said that "16 major terror strikes" were held on security installations during the last 54 months. The Congress' attack came after PM Modi said at a poll rally in Bhilwara, Rajasthan that the party, which was in power when 26/11 Mumbai attacks took place, had questioned the BJP government's surgical strikes in Pakistan. Read: Cong in power when 26/11 took place, questions our surgical strikes in Pak: Modi PM Modi said when terrorists struck the country's financial capital 10 years ago, the country was governed by "madam" through remote control, an oblique reference to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Condemning PM Modi's remarks, the Congress spokesperson alleged that "one person who played despicable politics during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was Shri Narendra Modi". "Politicizing of national security and sacrifice of our jawans is intrinsic to BJP," he said. "The truth is - Modi Government has compromised our national security and in the last four and a half years. Lack of political action and policy has led to a disquiet border and an alarming internal security situation," Randeep Surjewala alleged in a statement. "Even as our soldiers fought inside and the nation was united in battling its consequences, the then chief minister of Gujarat, was standing outside at one of the attack sites, addressing the media and blaming the then UPA Government for the attack," he alleged. He said the BJP released "blood-stained ads in newspapers for Delhi elections, opportunistically politicizing the sacrifice of our soldiers". "Today in a public rally in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, PM Modi turned history on its head and said that he never played politics on national security. We condemn and reject the utter falsehood...," he said. The Congress leader alleged that the prime minister and the BJP have always used the "blood and sacrifice of our jawans as a vote garnering tool". He alleged that BJP President Amit Shah dishonoured the valour of the armed forces on October 7, 2016 by "disregarding the supreme sacrifices made in the five wars and numerous surgical strikes". Surjewala said the BJP went to the extent of organizing events felicitating the prime minister in Agra and Lucknow and said, "It is intriguing and disappointing that Modi Government did not celebrate the first anniversary of surgical strike and started limited celebrations only in the second year". Surjewala asked a set of 15 questions, including whether "it is true that in last 54 months of Modi Government, in Jammu and Kashmir alone, 426 jawans have been martyred and 278 civilians have lost their precious lives, in Pakistan sponsored terrorism". "Is it not true that 16 major terror attacks have taken place on our security installations that include CRPF Camps, Army Camps, Air Force Station and Military Stations- Pampore, Uri, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amarnath Yatra attack, Sunjwan Army Camp, where scores of our precious lives have been lost?" he asked. "Is it not true our jawans like Shaheed Mandeep and Shaheed Narender Singh were beheaded and bodies mutilated by Pakistan, as Modi Government remained a mute spectator," he asked. Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that there is 500 per cent increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan, since May 2014. "Where is the '56-inch chest' missing as Pakistan commits more than 3,000 ceasefire violations at the LoC and International border," the Congress spokesperson asked. "Why did PM Modi invite the rogue ISI to investigate the Pathankot terror attack on March 27, 2016," he asked. Supreme Court says, 'if we find that there were offences under section 377 IPC and POCSO Act and you did not register FIR, we will pass an order against the government.' (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up Bihar government for failing to register the appropriate criminal cases in connection with the alleged physical and sexual abuse of inmates in 17 shelter homes in the state as highlighted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The Supreme Court was hearing a separate case of multiple rapes at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur when it found faults in the way the Bihar government has been handling sodomy cases. Supreme Court says, 'if we find that there were offences under section 377 IPC and POCSO Act and you did not register FIR, we will pass an order against the government.' What are you (Bihar govt) doing? Its shameful. If the child is sodomised you say its nothing? How can you do this? Its inhuman. We were told that matter will be looked with great seriousness, this is seriousness? Every time I read this file its tragic, the top court added. The top court gave the state government 24 hours to it add the charges under section 377 (rape) IPC and POCSO Act in the FIR. The court will resume hearing on Wednesday. Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami will leave by train to Tiruvarur on Tuesday night to personally inspect the damage caused due to cyclone Gaja. He would also visit Nagapattinam district. The Central team which has been deputed by the Centre to assess the damage caused by the cyclone has completed its visit to the affected coastal districts on Monday and the panel would wrap up the visit by holding a meeting with the Chief Minister at the Secretariat here on Tuesday. Later, Mr Palaniswami would leave for Tiruvarur by train. From there he would visit the affected areas by road and interact with the people. Thereafter he would proceed to Nagapattinam. The CM could not cover both these districts during his personal assessment of the devastation earlier. Last week, while touring the cyclone-hit areas in Pudukottai, Mr Palaniswami had to abruptly call off the visit owing to heavy rains. He however made an aerial survey of the destruction caused by the cyclone. Following his visit, the CM met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and briefed him about the destruction caused by the cyclone and sought over Rs. 15,000 crore for compensation and rehabilitation work. The CM had deputed senior ministers and officials to oversee the relief and restoration work in the affected districts and had even ordered the release of Rs 1,000 crore for relief activities. The police and Army officials said that two LeT militants identified as Aijaz Ahmed Makroo and Waris Ahmed Malik were killed in an encounter with the security forces in Redwani Bala village of southern Kulgam district. (Photo: Representational/File) Srinagar: Two Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) militants and another belonging to Al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar Ghuzwat-Ul-Hind and an Army jawan were killed in two separate fire fights in Kashmir Valley on Tuesday. Two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men were injured in one of these clashes. The police and Army officials said that two LeT militants identified as Aijaz Ahmed Makroo and Waris Ahmed Malik were killed in an encounter with the security forces in Redwani Bala village of southern Kulgam district. They said that Makroo who had a long history of terror crime records since 2017 was a close associate of Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzalla and Azad Ahmed Malik alias Dada, two top LeT commanders. Jutt is a Pakistani national from Sahiwal (Multan) who had on February 6 this year escaped after killing two J&K policemen who were escorting him to a hospital in Srinagar for medical check-up from a city prison and is since known to be active mainly in south Kashmir. Malik was among six militants killed in a gunfight with security forces in Anantnag district on Friday. As the searches were going on, the search party was fired upon by the terrorists. The fire was retaliated leading to a gunfight, a statement of the police said. The police said that the fighting broke out at Redwani Bala during a cordon-and-search operation launched by the security forces after receiving credible input about the presence of militants in the village. As the searches were going on, the search party was fired upon by the terrorists. The fire was retaliated leading to a gunfight, a statement of the police said. It also said that in the initial fire of the holed up militants a jawan of 1 Rashtriya Rifles was injured. He was evacuated to the hospital where he succumbed. Two jawans of the CRPFs 163 Battalion were injured in the encounter, the police said. While the gunfight was underway, large number of local youth took to the streets to chant pro-freedom slogans. They soon clashed with the security forces, a report from Kulgam said adding that scores were injured as the security forces lobbed tear smoke and fired live ammunition to quell the protesters and stone-pelting mobs at Redwani Bala and its neighbourhood. An AGH militant identified as Shakir Hassan Dar was killed in an encounter with the security forces in Hafoo Reshipora village of Tral area in Pulwama district. Later during the day, thousands of people attended the funeral of Dar in his native village Rathsuna, witnesses said. He was a part of Zakir Musa group of terrorists and had a long history of terror crime records since 2015, the police said. It added that Dar was wanted by law for his alleged involvement in series of terror crimes including attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities. The police also said that huge quantities of arms and ammunition including rifles were recovered from the encounter sites in Tral and Kulgam. Meanwhile two Junior Commissioned officers (JCOs) of the Army were wounded in a landmine blast along the Line of Control (LoC) in Mankote area of Poonch district on Tuesday. The Army sources said that JCOs Dhareej Kumar and Rajender Singh of 5 Mahar Regiment were injured when they accidentally stepped on a mine while patrolling along LoC in Mankote sector. They were immediately evacuated to an Army hospital in neighbouring Rajouri, the sources said. Khammam: I could not get an appointment of caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his son K.T. Rama Rao for the last two years. I am vexed with their attitude and have decided to leave the TRS, said by Budan Ali Baig, TRS district president and chairman of the Telangana Industrial Development Corporation. Baig will join the TD in the presence of AP Chief Minister N. Chandra-babu Naidu, who is coming to Khammam to address an election rally along with AICC president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday. He said the leaders who wanted to maintain their self-respect, could not continue with the TRS. He said Mr Rama Raos attitude was highly deplorable because he used to claim that he would be the next CMevery discussions. Expressing dissatisfaction over the restrictions at Sabarimala, the court said the early closure of annadanam and prasadam counters was not right. Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday upheld the prohibitory orders imposed on Sabarimala sannidhanam under Section 144 and banned any protests at the place. In an interim order, a division bench appointed a three-member committee of observers comprising two retired judges of the High Court and Fire and Rescue Services DGP to monitor the situation. The division bench stated that the police was free to examine the pilgrims in a decent and dignified manner. Retired Justice P.R. Raman and Justice S. Sirijagan and DGP A. Hemachandran are members of the panel to observe the situation at Sabarimala during the current Mandala-Maka-ravilakku pilgrimage season. Expressing dissatisfaction over the restrictions at Sabarimala, the court said the early closure of annadanam and prasadam counters was not right. It said there should be facilities for the aged, children and physically challenged persons to take rest at the nadapandal. The court called for round-the-clock services of KSRTC buses and availability of drinking water. It quashed the unilateral orders of the police, including a ban on namajapam at sannidhanam. However, the court allowed the police to erect barricades to separate those resting at the nadapandal and others coming for darshan. In an oral observation, the court lambasted the attitude of certain IPS officers without naming them and expressed anger over the insulting behaviour against a High Court judge. A suo motu case is not being taken as the judge concerned has declined to pursue the matter. This should not be seen as weakness of the court, the court warned. The advocate-general had earlier made a detailed statement about the steps taken by the government at Sabarimala in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict. Stating that the measures taken by the government and other agencies were for the safety and security of the devotees, the AG said the government cannot act against the Supreme Court verdict. He also submitted a detailed plan in a Kochi: ... sealed cover for women to have safe darshan in case they came on a pilgrimage. The court accepted the cover with the remark that they have confidence in the police and said the matter should be handled in an appropriate manner. Quoting from the Supreme Court judgment, the AG submitted that the police were empowered to issue prohibitory orders if they apprehended a law and order problem. The police force alone was capable of speaking about the possibility of law and order. The AG explained that not a single young woman was able to enter the temple due to the protests. He also read out from the report of the special commissioner on the violence at Sabarimala. The government also submitted that the recommendation of the special commissioner for action against leaders of the political party involved in violence at Sabarimala should be implemented. The criminal background of those involved was submitted before the court. He also explained the practice of those fighting the police indulging in chanting Ayyappa hymns to masquerade as devotees. AccorHotels, a multinational hospitality company, is aiming to double its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) between 2017 and 2022, to reach 1.2 billion ($1.36 billion), its chairman and CEO said. AccorHotels has gone through a major transformation over the last few years. This was evidenced by numerous acquisitions of brands and new ancillary business activities, the strengthening of our digital platforms, and the shift to an asset-light model with the sale of a majority stake in AccorInvest, explained Sebastien Bazin. These major steps behind us, we are now focused on executing on our strategy to unleash the Groups full potential. Our targets are ambitious yet achievable. AccorHotels is more agile, more profitable, and more global, with a well-balanced brand portfolio. These assets are unique in the industry. Combined with a rigorous management, this will enable the Groups to create sustainable value for our shareholders, our clients and our employees, he added. Bazin explained that the Groups target to double its EBITDA by 2022 will be driven by: The integration and ramp-up of recent acquisitions Solid revenue growth, reflecting both sound business levels in the Groups key markets and the continued increase in development, supported by the upscaling of its brand portfolio Operating margin improvement, thanks to strict control of central costs Operating performance enhancement, combined with stable CAPEX will lead to sharp increase in recurring cash-flows, and hence the Groups dividend per share. In the context of its Capital Market Day to be held in Paris today (November 27), AccorHotels reaffirmed the key components of its strategy and presents its midterm targets for value creation. As the Groups transformation into an asset-light model comes to completion, AccorHotels now builds on many strengths: The richest portfolio of iconic brands in the industry, covering all segments & niches Leading positions in the highest-potential markets, with number one position in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle-East & Africa and Latin America Accelerating development pattern, with an increasing share of upscale and luxury hotels, delivering a continuous 5 per cent net system addition per annum, among the industry highest State-of-the-art distribution tools, with emphasis on personalization, usage and loyalty. The execution of this strategy will be fostered by two initiatives: The public tender offer for 47 per cent of the share capital of the Polish company Orbis that AccorHotels does not own today, with a view to replicate of the active asset management strategy implemented by AccorHotels for several years The alignment of the Groups support functions with its new economic model, notably in Europe, in order to better serve partners and clients, while optimizing central costs, expected to remain stable over the midterm. TradeArabia News Service In her police complaint, the victim alleged that Karan had sexually assaulted her repeatedly and also forced her to abort the child. Bengaluru: A 24-year-old junior artiste from Kannada film industry has been accused of sexual assault, blackmail and threatening a woman, after he lured the victim under the pretext of teaching her dance and music. The Jnanabharati police are on the lookout for a 24-year-old accused Karan Mahadev Manjunath. In her police complaint, the victim alleged that Karan had sexually assaulted her repeatedly and also forced her to abort the child. Investigation reveals that the accused had befriended her two years ago on Facebook and forced her to have physical relationship under the pretext of teaching her dance and singing. The accused had claimed that he had high-level contacts in the Kannada film industry and would help her get a break in films. When the victim conceived, the accused took her to a private hospital near his house and forced her to undergo abortion, stating that bearing the child would hamper her career. The victim later realised that he was using her and distanced herself, the statement read. However, his harassment didnt stop. In November, when the complainant got engaged, Karan approached the prospective groom's family and allegedly cast aspersions on her character, following which the engagement was called off. The victim also told the police that the accused later threatened to upload private videos and forced her to resume their relationship. According to police, the victim on Friday approached Jnanabharthi police and based on her complaint they registered an FIR against Karan. He has been charged with rape, criminal intimidation and also under Section 315 (Act done with intent to prevent child being born alive or to cause it to die after birth) and various section of IT Act. Panaji/ New Delhi: After the ongoing Assembly polls process in five states gets over the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to replace Goa chief minister Manohar Parikkar on health grounds. The party feels that due to the chief ministers prolonged illness, replacing Mr Parrikar was a requirement. Amid speculation that the BJP-led government in the state was on the verge of a crisis, several senior leaders have reportedly embarked on pushing their case for the position. Among the political leaders vying for the post are Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, Goa Assembly speaker Pra-mod Sawant and Ramkri-shna Sudin Dhavalikar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. Though the BJP has maintained that Parrikar will continue at the helm the search for a suitable replacement acceptable to all allies has already begun. It is learnt that the BJP wants to thwart any attempt by the Congress to dislodge its government in Goa before 2019 Lok Sabha polls as it would affect the saffron outfits image adversely. It is learnt that BJP chief Amit Shah had held a one-on-one meeting with key allies and BJP aspirants in Delhi on last month. However, sources stated that a decision on change in leadership is likely to be announced only after the ongoing Assembly poll process is completed on December 11. Sources in the BJP stated that the need for replacement was felt due to the health situation of Parrikar. The chief minister is battling advanced pancreatic cancer and has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and New Delhi for nearly nine months. The health situation of Parikkar has taken a toll on governance in the state, a charge that has been levelled by the opposition Congress repeatedly. He returned from New Delhis All-India Institute of Medical Sciences on October 14 and has reportedly restricted his official engagements ever since. The Goa Assembly has a strength of 40 legislators. Bringing a major reform to the revaluation process, Anna University has decided to conduct the revaluation of answer scripts in the presence of students for its four campuses. (Representation image) Chennai: Bringing a major reform to the revaluation process, Anna University has decided to conduct the revaluation of answer scripts in the presence of students for its four campuses. This has been decided in the wake of the revaluation scam that hit the university. An expert committee consisting of a minimum three members course instructor, subject expert and head of the department (HOD) or his nominee - will review the answer scripts in the new system. The expert committee shall clarify the doubts of students after reviewing the answer scripts. Any change in the marks, has to be entered on the backside of answer scripts and all committee members should sign on each answer script, the circular from the additional controller of examinations to all heads of departments said. It also mandated to provide justification for difference of marks exceeding 15 after revaluation in the prescribed forms. The modified revaluation process is coming into effect from the current semester exams itself. Though the revaluation scam unearthed by DVAC in Anna University is not related to any of its four campuses, the university has introduced a major change to ensure transparency in revaluation. The existing revaluation pattern has been viewed as cumbersome and time-consuming. In the present system, if the difference in marks is over 15 after revaluation, then the heads of departments have to nominate a third evaluator to review the answer scripts. It can go up to four evaluations. The marks need to be consistent at least in two evaluations to award more marks to the students after revaluation, professors explained. Over 6,000 students from four campuses including College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) and Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet and Alagappa College of Technology are appearing for every semester exam. Anna University will evaluate around 30,000 answer scripts every semester and students will seek revaluation to a minimum of 3,000 answer scripts. The open day system will reduce the time taken for revaluation drastically while clearing the doubts of students directly. It is a new system developed by Anna University to ensure transparency in the revaluation, said Professor S. Srinivasalu, Additional Controller of Examinations (ACOE), Anna University. Under the new system, the ACOE will send answer scripts to concerned heads of departments and will announce the schedule for the open day evaluation. Students who sought revaluation will also be informed on the day of their answer scripts to be reviewed. Some professors said the new changes in the revaluation process will make the system robust as the expert committee also held accountable as they have to justify the difference of over 15 marks after revaluation. Hubballi: Farmers in the twin districts of Bagalkote and Vijayapur are regularly short of water for irrigation although they sacrificed acres of their land for the construction of the Almatti dam, which unfortunately, has not been able to meet their needs always. When the reservoir filled to the brim this monsoon, the drought -hit farmers felt their troubles were over, but their cheer was shortlived as they are once again short of water for their Rabi crop. Fed up, the farmers are now pitching for an increase in the height of the dam to allow it to store more water, regretting that the government has done nothing about this although the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal had allowed it to raise the dam's height to 124 meters eight years ago. Built across the river Krishna, the Almatti dam has a storage capacity of 123 tmc ft of water. Last year, the officials had managed to supply abundant water from it to the farmers even in the Rabi season, but this year with most of the dam's water being used for the Kharif season, it has little left for the Rabi. "The officials increased the total command area of the Almatti reservoir assuming that the inflow of water would continue for at least two or three months after the monsoon. But their calculation has gone wrong and the farmers have no water this season. They are suffering due to the negligence of the government," complained farmer leader, Basavaraj Kumbar. Minister Shivanand Patil, who is also irrigation consultative committee chairman, says it will take over Rs 1 lakh crore to raise the height of the dam, and the money may have to be raised through public bonds. The pastor and the woman, who claimed to be from the US, conversed on the social media platform for some time and that is when the stranger told him that her mother passed away and she had huge debts. (Representation image) Hyderabad: A pastor from the city has been targeted by cybercrooks, who collected Rs 5 lakh from him towards various clearances from government agencies to release a gift parcel from abroad. According to police, the pastor living under Rachakonda police commissionerate limits, lodged a complaint stating that a woman, whom he met on Facebook duped him to the tune of Rs 5 lakh. The pastor and the woman, who claimed to be from the US, conversed on the social media platform for some time and that is when the stranger told him that her mother passed away and she had huge debts. The pastor told his friend that he would perform some prayers for the betterment of her life. Weeks later, the woman messaged him that her problems had been solved and she sent him a gift as a token of gratitude. The police said that the pastor received a call from another stranger who claimed to be a customs official informing that he received a parcel from abroad containing huge amounts of dollars, for which he has to pay taxes to release the gift parcel. Rachakonda cyber crime ACP S Harinath said, Believing the caller, the victim transferred about Rs 5 lakh into the bank accounts provided to him. As calls were later unattended and the Facebook friend also stopped responding, he realised cheating and lodged a complaint. Hyderabad: Caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of blatantly lying and contradicted him about there being no power in Nizamabad. He challenged the PM to stay in Nizamabad while he heli-hopped there for a face to face on the development of the state. Mr Rao got prickly about the PMs allegations at his Nizamabad public meeting that the CM had promised to make Nizamabad like London, but there is no power, road or water in the district. The Chief Minister ticked him off, saying, Mr. Prime Minister there is no power problem in Nizamabad, dont lie just for the sake of votes. While addressing the public meeting at Mahbubnagar Mr. Rao It is incorrect. You are blatantly lying. You said there was no power; I challenge you to prove it. You are the Prime Minister of a nation. You cannot make such wild allegations against a Chief Minister. The Central Electricity Authority that works under you declared that Telangana is number one in the country in per capita power consumption. Mr Rao, who has by and large ignored cracks about his rituals and superstitions, was stung when the PM said he was paying more attention to pujas and yagnas. He said it was his personal choice and that he was a believer and Modi could also come and take teertham after his puja. He said, I am not afraid of Modi. I am not Chandrababu Naidu to be afraid of Modi. Modi is spreading lies in Telangana. Speak responsibly as a PM. Referring to the criticism of BJP chief Amit Shah against the TRS government, Mr Rao said that he would resign if he failed to prove the allegations of the BJP president. Mr Rao said, I am confused. On one side, the Congress is alleging that the TRS and BJP are two sides of a coin and on other side, Modi is now linking the TRS with the Congress. Nizamabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised Chief Minister K. Chandra-sekhar Rao for destroying the spirit of the newly formed Telangana state. If the Congress comes to power, it would be a hundred times loss to Telangana state, he warned. He said TRS and Congress are two sides of the same coin. Both parties believe in family rule and vote bank politics. Mr Modi began his campaign in the Government Giriraj Degree College grounds after flying in by helicopter from Nanded on Tuesday. Me Modi said Mr Rao had said he would transform Nizamabad into another London, but it lacks roads, water and infrastructure. He said that four lakh electricity connections under the Sowbaghya scheme were provided to Telangana state, including 15,000 connections in Nizamabad district. He said that Congress ruled the country for 55 years from galli (street) to Delhi over four generations, but had lost credibility. Whenever we pointed out the misrule of the Congress, they diverted attention with unnecessary issues, he said. In Telangana, the situation remains the same, he added. The Congress granted Telangana state after prolonged agitations and sacrifices of youths. Will you pardon the party (for that), Mr Modi asked. He said that health and education were worst affected in Telangana. The Prime Minister mentioned mountaineer Malavath Poorna and international boxer Husamuddin, who belong to Nizamabad. Starting his speech with a few lines of Telugu, he introduced the contesting candidates-Endala Laxminarayana (Nizamabad urban), G. Anand Reddy (Nizamabad rural), G. Venkata Ramana Reddy (Kamareddy), Banala Laxma Reddy (Yellareddy), Aruna Tara (Jukkal), Naidu Prakash (Banswada), Aljapur Srinivas (Bodhan), Swarna Reddy (Nirmal), Rama Devi (Mudhole), and Venkat (Korutla). Police were deployed in large numbers at the venue of the meeting. Vehicular traffic was stopped on the by-pass road in the town. The audience comprised people from Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts. There were chants of Modi...Modi which interrupted the speech of the PM. Hyderabad: Gajwel Congress candidate and former MLA Vanteru Pratap Reddy has thrown a challenge at caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao who is also contesting from the same constituency that both should not campaign there and let us see who will win the people over. He said that in Gajwel, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao would even lose his deposit. He said that caretaker minister T. Harish Rao had camped at Gajwel for fear that the CM would be defeated. Speaking to the media along with TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday, Mr Vanteru alleged that 24 false cases were booked against him. He claimed that the police were acting on behalf of Mr Chandrasekhar Raos family members. He said that Mr Harish Rao was spending crores of rupees in Gajwel and the police were not taking any action when he made complaints with evidence. He said that on Monday night, police came in four jeeps which had no nameplates and were not even in uniform. He said they came directly to his house and searched everything. According to him, they asked him how he had dared to contest against the CM. Asking whether I brought money from Amaravati, they abused me in filthy language, he alleged. Meanwhile, TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy said the atmosphere in Gajwel was not conducive to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. He added that Mr Chandra-sekhar Rao was harassing Mr Vanteru and was lodging false cases against him. Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Mr Vanteru was getting threats to withdraw from contesting against the CM. He alleged that even the Election Commission was not taking action after he lodged complaints. Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw permission granted to Karnataka for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposed balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project at Mekedatu across the Cauvery river. Bringing to Mr Narendra Modis notice that the Central Water Commission (CWC) in November 2018 has conveyed its decision to the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd., Karnataka to go ahead with the preparation of DPR for the Mekedatu project, Mr Palaniswami said in a Demi-Official letter to PM, that the CWC has given the nod without considering the genuine and justifiable objections of Tamil Nadu. Referring to his earlier letter dated September 4, he said he had requested the PM to instruct the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation to direct the CWC to stop forthwith further processing of the feasibility report of Karnataka to construct the Balancing Reservoir at Mekedatu and not to give any consent to any projects in the Cauvery river without obtaining prior concurrence of Tamil Nadu and other co-basin States. I also reiterated the same in the Memorandum presented to you on October 8. The Government of Tamil Nadu has already conveyed its decision to the Government of India that the feasibility report of Karnataka for its Mekedatu project is not acceptable and also furnished detailed comments to the feasibility report, Mr. Palaniswami said. The proposal for reservoir is not just for drinking water alone as claimed by Karnataka, but to increase the extent of irrigation, which is in clear violation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal Award as affirmed by the Supreme Court, the CM contended. The CWC without considering the genuine and justifiable objections of Tamil Nadu has given permission to Karnataka to prepare the DPR for Mekedatu project. The action of the CWC has caused great alarm and apprehension among the people of Tamil Nadu as it will affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers who depend on Cauvery water, he stressed. He requested Mr. Modi to kindly direct the Union Water Resources Ministry, to instruct the CWC to forthwith withdraw the permission given to Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd., for preparing the DPR. Hyderabad: A transgender candidate from Bahujan Left Front party from Goshamahal Assembly constituency was reported missing from her residence in Krishnanagar in Banjara Hills since Tuesday morning. According to the Banjara Hills ACP K. Srinivasa Rao, Chandramukhi Muvvala was reported missing on Tuesday morning by her colleagues. A complaint was lodged at the Banjara Hills police station by her colleagues on Tuesday morning. On Monday, Chandramukhi, a well-known face in Hyderabads trans community, spoke to her mother Ananthamma over phone for an hour between 8 am and 9 am, police sources said. On Tuesday morning, the other occupants of the building found her missing, and alerted Anathamma who came to Krishnanagar and approached the police station to give a complaint, said the ACP Banjara Hills. Her WhatsApp last seen was stuck at 7.48 am and her number was not reachable. The Banjara Hills Police are making efforts to trace her. Goshamahal, the constituency where Chandramukhi is contesting from, comprises seven divisions Dattatreya Nagar, Begum Bazar, Gunfoun-dry, Mangalhat, Goshamahal, Begum Bazar and Jam Bagh. By TCN News Chandramukhi, the very first transgender to contest elections for the seat of MLA from Goshamahal constituency has been missing since today morning. She was in contact with friends and other party members of BLF (Bahujana Left Front) till 8 am over phone. After that her phone is switched off and there is no trace of Chandramukhi, who lives alone in Indranagar, Hyderabad. Chandramukhi, encouraged by various political parties like CPI (M), MBT, Lokshattha, other social organisations, friends and well wishers from the trans community, had filed her nomination to fight the elections from BLF because she felt strongly that there should be a representative from their community also in the assembly as the transgender community has been neglected from a very long time. And, she had disclosed in conversation with TwoCircles.net that nobody really bothers to raise the concerns of the trans community. Support TwoCircles But her motive is not just upliftment of the trans community but also of the many families from the constituency where she was contesting from, who are below poverty line, she said. Though pitched against a powerful BJP leader, Raja Singh, Chandramukhi was confident that she had a strong chance because in the last five years, the MLA had hardly done any development work, she pointed out. She wanted to change all that and work towards the upliftment of all the poor sections. The reason behind Chandramukhis confidence was the warm reception from the residents of Goshamahal, who not only appreciated the fact that someone from the trans community was contesting but they also believed that transgender persons are selfless and have no hidden motives. But for the last 10 hours, Chandramukhi has been missing and all her friends and well-wishers have tried all possible places to search for her. A complaint has been filed with the PS at Banjara Hills. The police are investigating the case. Hyderabad: TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy asserted that budgetary allocation would be provided for the minorities in the state and special attention would be paid for the development of the Old City by providing infrastructure, civic amenities and metro train facility. Interacting with the media in the Meet the Press organised by the Telangana Urdu Journalists Federation, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy reiterated that equal opportunities would be provided for the development and welfare of minorities in the state if voted to power. The problems of young professionals opting for jobs in Gulf countries had been studied by the party as it was found that there were many fraudulent placement agencies and they would look at facilities to guide the youth seeking job opportunities in these countries. The NRIs would be provided Rs 5 lakh insurance and would be partly covered by the government stated Mr Reddy. Nizamabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that he would not permit anyone to loot public money in the country. We will not spare the financial offenders who looted public money from the banks, he declared. The NDA government will confiscate the assets of the accused either in India or abroad, he said. Mr Modi began his election campaign in Telangana state in Nizamabad on Tuesday. He said that only 12 persons in the country had looted public money from banks with the connivance of the then UPA government. During 2008-2014, the richest persons in the country destroyed the banking sector, he said. Reframing the laws, we successfully prevented the looters and some of them fled away from the country fearing stringent action, he claimed. He said the people of Telangana state must not entertain the Congress party in the ensuing Assembly elections. Congress had failed to get re-entry in UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Gujarat, where it was wiped out decades ago. Mr Modi said that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was a minister in the UPA government and he is playing a friendly match with the Congress, believing in family rule and vote bank politics. Mr Rao is too insecure to implement the Ayushmanbhava scheme in Telangana as it may credit PM Modi, he said. The TRS government has failed to fulfil the aspirations of Telangana people. If the BJP is voted to power in Telangana, simultaneous development will be possible like double engine force. The Prime Minister criticised the Congress for destroying India on all fronts and now they (Congress leaders) are pointing out my caste, age of my mother and name of my father. Are these the issues for election debate in the country he asked. Mr Modi said the Centre has taken up Pancha Tatva formula to implement welfare schemes. I knew the pain of poverty. My mother used to cook food on a chullah, which is harmful to health of women, the Prime Minister said. Preventing irregularities in LPG connection, we seized 6 crore bogus connections and saved Rs 90,000 crore public money. Mr Modi said that people should vote for BJP and its candidates for good and transparent governance in Telangana. Union minister Hansraj Gangaram, MP Bandaru Dattatreya and others were present. Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not spare caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao during his public meeting on Tuesday. He said the ruling party was similar to the Congress and the Telugu Desam. KCR was a political intern with Sonia Gandhi and earlier with Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, so his rule remains the same, he said. Mr Modis public meeting in the MVS Degree College grounds in Mahbubnagar on Tuesday was part of his campaign for the Telangana Assembly elections. He tried to establish that the Congress and the TRS are one and the same. He compared the fight between the Congress and the TRS with the fake fighting of WWF (now WWE) wrestling. He said, There are many similarities between the Congress and TRS. Both parties follow family rule, caste politics, and vote bank politics. Both parties create disputes among brothers, Hindu-Muslims, villages and cities. They also come up with the same promises. The TRS is promising reservations to Muslims and Congress is also doing the same for many years. Mr Modi zeroed in on dynastic politics in the two parties. The people of Telangana had fought for development and now it is completely stalled with family rule in the state. After Indepen-dence, a family has ruled the country for four generations and after Telangana state was formed a family is doing the same thing. Is Telangana meant for one single family? The biggest joke is Sonia Gandhi with her son beside her on the same stage giving a call to end family ruling in Telangana. The Prime Minister concentrated on the failures of the TRS and said there is no development in the state. Did the dreams of Telangana come true? Was the future of Telangana safe? Definitely not. Because the rule of KCR is similar to that of the Congress and Telugu Desam, as he was a political intern in Chandrababu Naidus government and later a political intern in the remote controlled government of Sonia Gandhi. So his rule will not be much different, when compared with them. If the TRS is voted to power again then there is no value for the sacrifices made by the Telangana martyrs, Mr Modi said. He gave a call to defeat each and every candidate of the Congress. He said, No Congress candidate should win in the elections that will be held on December 7. The BJP has formed three new states with no disputes. But the Congress did the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in such a way that the states are still fighting with each other. The farmers were also betrayed by Congress governments. He said that the Centre is keen on Telanganas development even if there is a TRS government in the state. More than Rs 30,000 crore worth of projects are ongoing in the state. Metro rail, which was opened in Hyderabad, is an example of the dedication of the BJP government to Telangana. The BJP government is also working for the houses for the poor by 2022 and by the same 2022 we are working hard to double the income of farmers. People of Telangana gave a chance to everyone and should give BJP one single chance. Vote BJP on December 7 to see development of the state. For the survivors and family members of those who died in the November 26-28, 2008 terror attack on Mumbai, a decade gone by does not make the trauma any less nightmarish. They will continue to cope with the senseless loss it has created and the sorrow it has left behind. There have been instances of family members who have lost their dear ones overcoming the sense of hatred against the perpetrators. Sorrow sometimes has this rare quality of providing extraordinary catharsis when in the face of the ultimate fact of death, everything else seems a futile assertion except love and forgiveness. Remembering the night of November 26 is something very different for the survivors, and no amount of empathy can help bridge that gap between those who were caught in it and those who have not been in it. All that one can do is to respect the painful experience of those who have gone through that fateful night, from ordinary people to the local police and other emergency personnel, to the commandos who were caught up in it. There will be some who would want to understand the motivations of those terrorists who entered the city and unleashed death all around them in a strange metropolis before they died. The lone survivor, Ajmal Kasab, did not really reveal much on what it was to be an agent of destruction. His mind remained inscrutable as he sat impassively through the trial and as he walked to the gallows. The psychology of the terrorists is not of much use when one is fighting them. The only way to deal with terrorists is to defeat the terrorists. But there are questions, and they are complicated questions, which remain unanswered even after a decade. It is necessary for the others to ask these questions and to seek answers to them. A key question is whether the Pakistan government recognised the real dangers of an organisation like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), masterminding the terror attack in Mumbai. A terrorist organisation operating from its territory poses as much threat to Pakistan as it does to India. There is no such recognition on the part of the Pakistani establishment though that country has been subject to terrorist attacks in its own territory, such as the gruesome attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, in which 139 schoolchildren were killed. The Pakistan Army has been fighting a ruthless war against rebels in the Waziristan area, and it is a pitched battle between the rebels and the government. But Islamabad has not yet made its commitment to fight terrorism in an unqualified sense. The fight against terrorism in India, the United States and other democratic countries is to defend democracy and the basic freedoms of the people. It is an ideological battle between those who believe in democracy and the anti-democratic terrorists. The loophole in Pakistans commitment against terrorism is that Pakistans Army does not have any kind of commitment to democracy. Pakistani politicians look to democracy as an expedient, but there does not appear to be any burning belief in the sacredness of freedom. The people of Pakistan desire freedom just like people anywhere else, but it appears that Pakistans political establishment does not transform that desire of the people for freedom into a principle and a basis of the Pakistani State. There is a brave and dedicated section in Pakistan which is committed to the cause of human rights, but unless safeguarding rights become the raison detre of the State, terrorism cannot be fought effectively and successfully. The strengthening of the cause of freedom and democracy in Pakistan is important for India. As far as India is concerned, the challenge of terrorism emerges from the territory of Pakistan. The Pakistan government can claim that it has no control over the non-state actors living in its territory. This alibi simply does not pass muster. The poisonous ideology of terrorism will spread in Pakistan itself, and the view that when terrorism is directed against India it should not bother Pakistan is counter-productive. There is a belief, which is strong among the right-wingers in India, that terrorism poses a threat to the State, and to defend the State it is acceptable to adopt counter-terrorism measures which are not very different from that of the terrorists themselves. This view has no place for democracy and freedoms. Consequently, any society which defends itself against terrorists on these terms becomes infected with the value of ruthlessness displayed by the terrorists. Victory over terrorists should not be at the price of reducing oneself to the level of the terrorists. It is necessary to posit a higher political ideal and that ideal is democracy. There is need for a South Asia League for Democracy, which should necessarily involve the citizens of all countries in the neighbourhood, and which should be critical of all the governments across national borders. Governments are authoritarian by nature and there is a need for a constant critique of that tendency. In the 1980s, when the Italian government had appeared helpless, it was the ordinary people of Sicily and some heroic judges who came out against the Mafia, and literally overcame the menace. There are some signs in Pakistan that people are getting tired of terrorism. What people in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan need to do is extend support to the people of Pakistan to stand up to the terrorists. And the government in each of these countries must be made to recognise they cant support terrorists who are fighting neighbouring governments in the guise of realpolitik. The investigation of the Mumbai terror attack still remains inconclusive. The terror trail has not been laid bare. The role of David Coleman Headley remains unclear, and the Americans have not been forthright about it. There is a thread of conspiracy in that attack which has not been revealed. There is much work to be done on that front. The price weve been paying since 26/11 ten years ago is greater vigil against terrorism. Regardless of whether we are better prepared or not to tackle such planned and coordinated attacks on soft targets in big cities, the fact remains that, as with 9/11, the world changed after 26/11. The US has not forgotten or forgiven Pakistans tardiness in legal action against the masterminds and is even today offering rewards for information. The sticking point in the aftermath of pinning the blame on those who orchestrated this attack is Pakistans treatment of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Laskhar-e-Tayyaba and JuD. He has been a free man for a year now. Doubts were voiced over our level of preparedness on the long coastline as observation posts with thermal binoculars and satellite phones are yet to be set up around Mumbai, the metropolis on the west coast more likely to be targeted. There has, however, been a greater sense of alertness in a three-tier security ring involving the maritime police, Coast Guard and the Indian Navy since 2008. The nature of our open society and the difficulty of establishing control 24/7 over the coastline make the vigilance harder. What 26/11 did was to present an urban attack model that ISIS terrorists replicated to target European cities. What is needed most is effective counterattack plans with sharpshooters moving to terror spots quickly in the event of coordinated or lone wolf attacks. The burden of eternal vigil against terrorism will of course be ours to live with. The fundamental issue that has the effect of vitiating the national atmosphere is the mobilising of thousands of people in the famous temple town for a deeply political purpose. (Representational Image) Saffron-robed leaders of the myriad minor sects within Hinduism, who are mistakenly described in the English-language media as seers and saints, are a common quantity in northern India. Many have been patronised by the RSS-linked Vishwa Hindu Parishad for some two generations, and are in reality a hardcore political cadre by now, partially analogous to similar pseudo-religious outfits in some of our neighbouring countries. Their large-scale well-organised gathering in Ayodhya by the VHP on Sunday for a so-called Dharam Sansad, or religious assembly, to pronounce on the deeply controversial subject of building a Ram Mandir at the site of the destroyed Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, is a regrettable attempt to give a deep communal colour to national politics while the process of important state elections are on in key BJP-ruled states and in the runup to next years Lok Sabha elections. The effort is to force the Narendra Modi governments hand in passing a law sanctioning the construction of a temple in Ayodhya even while the matter is before the Supreme Court and while well-meaning efforts are made from time to time for an amicable settlement outside the judicial framework to reach a workable accord between those who are litigants in the title suit at Ayodhya for the land where the Babri Masjid once stood. In this setting, the Shiv Sena leadership has also played a provocative role in mocking the Modi governments record in remembering the issue only before elections and doing nothing about it over the past four-and-a-half years. It is yet to be seen how the government rises to the challenge posed by the Sena, which is also urging it to bring an ordinance. The fundamental issue that has the effect of vitiating the national atmosphere is the mobilising of thousands of people in the famous temple town for a deeply political purpose. It is against such mobilisations that former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar had spoken about in Parliament in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid (at a time when he was not the PM). He had spoken of the absence of wisdom of the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in not preventing the gathering of large crowds at a sensitive location. On that occasion, a Supreme Court-monitored supervisory arrangement had also utterly failed. The Modi government has similarly failed. Any act of provocation by communally charged crowds could be beyond the capacity of the UP government or the Centre to stop. This is the question today. Something untoward in Ayodhya in a febrile atmosphere could impact social cohesiveness. Q&A with Prakash Ambedkar The Maharashtra government has declared it would provide 16 per cent reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs. The decision was taken after the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, appointed by the state government, suggested that the community is a socially and educationally backward class (SEBC). AMEY TIRODKAR speaks to Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar, a former Member of Parliament and the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, on the ramifications of the move. What is your view on the Maharashtra governments decision? It is an opportunistic decision, because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had assured the Dhangar (Shepherd) community of reservation in the first Cabinet itself if it was voted to power. What happened to that? The Maratha community launched a strong agitation against the BJP government and people took to the streets in lakhs. Just before the elections, the state government came up with the decision. So it is politically motivated and opportunistic to the core. From the legal perspective, the last government had given the educationally and socially backward class status to the Maratha community. This government has termed it a socially and educationally backward class. Will this stand in court? Its just a play on words. We must understand that the Bombay high court has given a stay on the Maratha reservation that was granted by the earlier government. These people (the government) went to the Supreme Court. But that too has rejected the case. So, what new thing did this government do which could stand in court? Frankly, it has done nothing new. So, whatever it may say in the public domain, the court will continue the stay. It wont be lifted. But the state government is suggesting that it had formed a commission and established the backwardness of the community. Earlier, there was only a committee of ministers. Dont you think this may help the state government in court? See, there have been three commissions till now. The earlier two commissions were formed by consecutive governments: the Bapat Commission and the Saraf Commission. Both commissions rejected reservation for Marathas. So in that case, it is two against one. Also, we must note that both the chairpersons of the commissions were also high court judges. The Rane committee (a special committee headed by then-industry minister Narayan Rane to study the quetion of Maratha reservation in educational and jobs sectors) was not a commission. So you think the commissions findings wont be of much help to the state government while arguing in court? To get a clear picture, we need to see the exact provision in the Constitution. The Supreme Court has said that the while appointing the judges, the President shall consult the Chief Justice of India. The meaning of consult is also decided. That goes through a consortium. So the states different commissions shall be constituted in consultation with the state government. Thats why chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the government would consult with lawyers about the commissions report. All these legal angles will be debated before the court and the state government will have to come up with satisfactory answers. Do you support the idea of Maratha reservation? I would suggest that the Maratha community should introspect. For the past 70 years, there were Maratha chief ministers, and ministers and all political positions were occupied by people from the Maratha community only. Not just that, Members of Parliament were also Marathas in large numbers. So the Maratha community should introspect as to why such a leading community in the state lagged behind. But you agree that there are people from the community who are economically weak, and they support the demand for reservation? See, I agree that there is a disparity in the Maratha community. There are two sections in the community. I call one section Nizami Marathas. They had been rulers for ages. The other section is Shivajis Marathas. This section is poor. Now, Nizami Marathas continued in their positions of power for a long time and received all its benefits. But poor Marathas have been left behind. Thats why I suggest that they should introspect. They should say that reservation should be given to these poor Marathas. This will help them while earning the support of other communities. Otherwise, they will fall into the trap of OBCs versus Marathas, which is sponsored by this government. Do you say a conflict between OBCs and Marathas is sponsored by the state government? Yes. There were press conferences of a number of OBC leaders in a few districts. See, the category that is now being given to Marathas SEBC is an existing category that is equal to OBC. So this decision will indirectly push Marathas into the OBC category. This means this government has intentionally created a permanent rift between Marathas and OBCs. But OBCs have been the backbone of the BJP. So will there be a backlash against the party? Certainly. Now OBCs will move politically. Till now, they were with the BJP. But now hey will go against the BJP for sure. The OBC community will have to stand on its own. That is the only way ahead for it now. But who will be benefit from this the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)? I dont think so. Both parties are under Maratha and that too Nizami Maratha leadership. I dont know where these OBCs will go, but they are unlikely to move towards the Congress and NCP. There are similar demands of other castes in Haryana and Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Do you think this Maratha reservation decision will have an impact on those demands? There will be impact for sure. But in what way? That I cant predict right now. Because the caste proportion in those different states are different than in Maharashtra. The situation is also not matching everywhere. So, the leaders of their agitations will cite the Maratha reservation process in their protests, but I dont see any further impact as of now. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk died 80 years ago this month a month that sees Pakistan caught in a mercifully less acerbic controversy on the priceless utility or the pusillanimous strategy of a U-turn. The Father of Turks comes in handy here because he had some insightful remarks to make about Der Fuehrer and the victor of the battle of Austerlitz, the two personalities mentioned by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. History and the vast war literature tell us there is a world of difference between Napoleon and Hitler in terms of the Russian invasion. Napoleon had no opportunity to make a U-turn, because unlike Hitler he had taken Moscow with ease, the czar refusing to give battle. It was the Russians scorched-earth policy and his retreat in winter that destroyed the Grande Armee. In contrast, Hitler had a chance to make a U-turn. Hitlers Wehrmacht offensive had indeed come to a halt on the gates of Moscow, but if his racist fanaticism hadnt stood in the way he could have extracted a honourable peace with a Stalin who was at his wits end. After all, virtually entire European Russia was under German control. If he had shown flexibility, he could have imposed a diktat on Russia and secured vast territorial concessions in Ukraine, Poland and along the Baltic. This defeat at the hands of Asiatic barbarians shook his confidence with disastrous consequences for him and his people. Ataturk had read Mein Kampf and was appalled by the madness of Hitlers ideas. His (Ataturks) dictatorship, he said, had freed an enslaved people, but Hitlers had enslaved a free people. In foreign policy, Ataturks behaviour was in sharp contrast to other European dictators of his age. He believed in minimising casualties for units under his command, and took Istanbul by bluff. His motto was Dont fight a battle you cannot win. Military victories didnt go to his head, as for instance his refusal to advance further into the Balkans after he had driven the Greeks out of Anatolia and Asia Minor and secured eastern Thrace and the Straits Zone. He refused when his elated colleagues pressed him to advance toward Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia. He asked them to build on what they had achieved, warning that a further push into the Balkans would unite Europe on the half-a-millennium-old war cry, The Turks are coming! He was a Macedonian, he said, but he didnt believe in reckless adventures. Ataturk had seen Hitler on the march the takeover of Rhineland, his denunciation of the Treaty of Versailles, his refusal to pay reparations or to accept restrictions on German rearmament, his withdrawal from the League of Nations, his military support to Franco in the Spanish civil war, peaceful Anschluss and the 1938 Munich ignominy. He predicted that war would break out in the spring of 1940, and though he went wrong by about six months, he had made up his mind to keep Turkey out of it. A cool-headed general and statesman, Ataturk had come to the conclusion that Turkey must develop an understanding with the former enemy, Britain, for whose navy he had respect. Consequently, he never pressed for a solution to the Cyprus issue and thought a British naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean was in Turkeys interest. To ensure against British hostility, Ataturk astounded his colleagues by saying Turkey must sign a secret military pact with the former enemy. As his health deteriorated because of excessive drinking, Ataturk thought his first job was to win over Ismet Inonu, the Prime Minister angry over Ataturks lifestyle and the consequent impact on governance. He won over Inonu by accepting all his demands, with both agreeing to retire or transfer to less sensitive posts pro-German officers in the army and foreign ministry. He also asked Inonu to visit Moscow to gauge what Stalins intentions were and to sign if possible an economic cooperation agreement. He died a few weeks later, but Inonu remained true to his legacy and steered the country out of historys most destructive war despite immense pressures from both sides. Ataturk was Napoleons admirer as a general but, as quoted by Lord Kinross in his biography, Ataturk, he said Napoleon started with his country and ended with himself. Though an excellent general, he thought, Napoleon was without a sound political idea, more concerned with his ambition for world conquest than with the national interest of France. According to Kinross, Ataturk liked to compare Napoleons invasion of Russia with the Ottoman push on Vienna at the expense of the countrys internal welfare. He was aware of Napoleons remarks, I just go ahead and my progress is the result of my movement. Ataturk commented: Those who just go ahead finally knock their head against the rock of St. Helena. By arrangement with Dawn It was not clear what the list represented, but some of the groups such as Gafatar have been outlawed. Indonesias national human rights agency said on Monday it was concerned about the launch of a mobile application by the Jakarta Prosecutors Office, which allows members of the public to report religious beliefs they consider misguided. Indonesia has no state religion but has traditionally required citizens to register as Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist or Confucian, though last year the Constitutional Court affirmed the rights of faiths outside official religions after a challenge by some indigenous faiths. Nonetheless, there remain concerns about rising intolerance in the worlds biggest Muslim-majority country as well as the use of strict blasphemy laws against minorities and the targeting of Islamic sects such as the Ahmadiyyah. The app, called Smart Pakem, features a list of groups including Ahmadiyyah as well as Gafatar, which the countrys highest Islamic council considers a deviant sect. It was not clear what the list represented, but some of the groups such as Gafatar have been outlawed and the app has a link that allows members of the public to report organisations deemed harmful. The app could have a dangerous consequence by causing social disintegration, said Amiruddin Al-Rahab, a commissioner at the National Commission on Human Rights. When neighbours are reporting each other, that would be problematic, Al-Rahab told Reuters. Despite facing a backlash from human rights groups, the free app was available for download on Google Incs Google Play store on Monday afternoon. Al-Rahab said since the apps features were not running in full it was unclear whether the prosecutors office would include detailed guidance on the kind of organisation categorised as harmful or beliefs deemed as misguided. Dont leave the people in confusion, if people are confused they will take matters into their own hands, he said, adding that the app could also contravene the Constitutional Courts ruling last year on the rights of devotees of faiths outside the state-recognised religions. The Jakarta Prosecutors Office could not immediately be reached for comment. Yulianto, an official at the Jakarta Prosecutors Office, was quoted as saying by the news site Kompas.com that the app aimed to educate people and to increase the transparency of the reporting process. Indonesias attorney generals office has the authority under the law to monitor religions in case beliefs are deemed a threat to the community and can establish teams to examine such claims. 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. With growing numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Japan the country is becoming increasingly attractive for Chinas tech titans. (Photo: AFP) Line Corp shares jumped as much as 17 percent on Tuesday after the Nikkei business daily reported the Japanese chat app operator would tie-up with Chinas Tencent Holdings Ltd to offer mobile payment services. Line will offer mobile payment services to small to mid-sized Japanese restaurants and stores targeting Chinese tourists via leased terminals compatible with Tencents WeChat Pay starting next year, Nikkei said without citing sources. A Line spokeswoman declined to comment. Tencent was not immediately available to comment. The news provided some relief for Lines flagging stock price which is down 20 percent year-to-date as, with user numbers for its eponymous flagship app stagnating, Line expands services in areas like payments and Bitcoin. Line shares were later trading up 7.8 percent at 0235 GMT, compared with flat trading in the benchmark index. Tencents shares were up 0.5 percent. Its shares are down more than 25 percent this year, hammered by a prolonged regulatory crackdown on its core gaming business in China. With growing numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Japan the country is becoming increasingly attractive for Chinas tech titans, with Alibabas financial affiliate Ant Financial and Didi Chuxing announcing services in recent months. Japan has been slow to move to cashless payments, with a rush of new entrants like SoftBank Group Corp backed PayPay and Line Pay looking to encourage consumers to use QR code payments, which have become widespread in countries like China and India. 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. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) President Rodrigo Duterte revealed he has accepted the resignation of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza. In a speech during the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport Tuesday, the President said he regrets having done so. "I am very sad that I accepted the resignation of Secretary Dureza," he said. Duterte, however, did not reveal the reason for Dureza's resignation. In the same speech, the President said he also fired Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Undersecretary Ronald Flores and Assistant Secretary Yesther Donn Baccay. The OPAPP website lists Flores as the Undersecretary for Support Services and Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) National Program Management Office. Baccay, meanwhile, was Assistant Secretary of Support Services and PAMANA Concerns. "Nagkalat itong dalawang ito [These two created a scene]," Duterte said. In a statement posted on social media after the President's speech, Dureza said he was taking full responsibility for corruption at OPAPP. Dureza said he reported the problem with the fired officials and tried gathering evidence to terminate both should it be needed. "After talking to some local officials whom we personally knew for sometime now, I was able to validate some reports but they declined to be officially quoted, for obvious reasons," Dureza said. Jesus Dureza: I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY IN CORRUPTION AT OPAPP "I am sad because despite my efforts to be compliant with your strong advocacy against corruption, I failed... I truly am sad that OPAPP, as an institution which I head, had to suffer publicly due to the acts of a few," he said. "Nonetheless, I take full responsibility and apologise for all this. I am voluntarily tendering my resignation to pave the way for the needed reorganisation that Your Excellency may wish to undertake at OPAPP," he added. Flores and Baccay have yet to comment on the President's revelation and Dureza's statement. Duterte previously said he would be firing an undersecretary because of corruption. Flores and Baccay are the latest government officials to be fired under the administration's drive against corruption. Duterte also revealed that another undersecretary was set to be fired. "I'm still going to fire another one, baka [maybe] tomorrow. I'll not talk about it anymore. Tapos na tayo nag-usap diyan [We're done talking about it]," he said. Duterte did not give any hint on who it was going to be, only saying "malikot, malikot 'tong mga 'to [they're troublesome]." He dismissed on November 23 Falconi Millar, former Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council secretary-general, over alleged irregularities in the agency. Over the past five years, Russia has introduced tougher internet laws that require search engines to delete some search results. Russia has launched a civil case against Google, accusing it of failing to comply with a legal requirement to remove certain entries from its search results, the countrys communications watchdog said on Monday. If found guilty, the US internet giant could be fined up to 700,000 roubles (USD 10,450), the watchdog, Roscomnadzor, said. It said Google had not joined a state registry that lists banned websites that Moscow believes contain illegal information and was therefore in breach of the law. A final decision in the case will be made in December, the watchdog said. Google declined to comment. Over the past five years, Russia has introduced tougher internet laws that require search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services, and social networks to store Russian users personal data on servers within the country. At the moment, the only tools Russia has to enforce its data rules are fines that typically only come to a few thousand dollars, or blocking the offending online services, which is an option fraught with technical difficulties. Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday that Russia planned to impose stiffer fines on technology firms that fail to comply with Russian laws. The plans for harsher fines are contained in a consultation document prepared by the administration of President Vladimir Putin and sent to industry players for feedback. The legislation, if it goes ahead, would hit global tech giants such as Facebook and Google, which - if found to have breached rules - could face fines equal to 1 per cent of their annual revenue in Russia, according to the sources. 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. A Raebareli jail video showing inmates having drinks inside the barrack went viral on social media on Monday, bringing to focus clandestine entry of liquor and firearms in prisons, months after the sensational killing of an imprisoned mafia don inside the Baghpat jail. After local TV news channels repeatedly telecast the latest footage showing one of the inmates calling someone using a mobile phone to order liquor, and another threatening someone displaying a weapon to extract money, the authorities suspended six officials, including a senior jail superintendent. The Uttar Pradesh government also shifted the four inmates seen in the video to other jails, Principal Secretary Home Arvind Kumar said. An FIR has been lodged against them under various sections of the IPC and Prisons act, he said. Kumar also said that as soon as the video came to light, the jail premises was checked by the administration and local authorities and four mobiles and a SIM card were recovered. Those suspended included senior jail superintendent Pramod Kumar Shukla and three jail warders, he said. The jail authorities in Uttar Pradesh had faced a lot of flak after imprisoned mafia don Munna Bajrangi was shot dead by his rival inside the Baghpat jail in July. Jails in the state are already plagued by problems such as over-crowding, staff shortage and porous security, with frequent reports of liquor, weapons and mobile phones getting sneaked inside. In many jails, CCTV cameras, metal detectors and manual scanners do not function properly, a committee set up to probe the state of affairs in UP prisons had state noted. The fresh incident was reported at a time when the jail administration was in the process of upgrading prisons with multi-level security system and installation of machines to check clandestine entry of illegal weapons - both firearms and sharp edged weapons to end the bloody battles in jails and inmates being killed while being taken to court for hearings. It was found that CCTV cameras - the third eye - were not functioning when gangster Prem Prakash alias Munna Bajrangi was shot by a co-prisoner seven times. A pistol, two magazines and 22 cartridges were recovered from a drain inside the Baghpat jail. Bajrangi's murder had triggered insecurity among a dozen gangsters lodged in various jails across UP. Notorious gangsters Atiq Ahmed, Mukim alias 'Kala', Udaibhan Singh alias 'Doctor', Titu alias Kiranpal, Rocky alias 'Kaki', Alam Singh and others have alleged threat to their life and urged to be placed in jails located in their "areas of influence". A senior police officer said although, the dons were lodged in jails, their gangs continued to indulge in crimes like murder, kidnapping, dacoity and extortion. A muscleman's call from jail is enough to terrorise businessmen, contractors and even government officers. Those who refuse to follow their diktats are threatened, attacked or killed, he said. After the BJP came to power in UP in March last year, over 100 criminals were shifted from one jail to another to make their crime machinery ineffective. DUI on the Pike Officers from the Northern Delaware County DUI Taskforce conducted a sobriety checkpoint in the 400 block of Baltimore Pike in Springfield at 8 p.m. Nov. 21. Two arrests and six citations were issued. Retail Theft at Springfield Mall A 37-year-old male resident of Dauphin, Pa was arrested and charged with Retail Theft after Target at the Springfield Mall security observed him select and conceal $110 worth of store merchandise on Nov. 19 at 1:28 p.m. Two females from Delaware came to the Target at the Springfield Mall at 3:22 p.m., Nov. 19., and began loading shopping carts with merchandise. As they pushed the carts outside without paying for what was inside they were stopped by security. A 31-year-old woman from Wilmington and a 25-year-old woman from Newark were arrested and charged with Retail Theft. Two females entered the Target store at the Springfield Mall and quickly selected numerous items from the womens department and placed the items in shopping carts. They went to another department and concealed the items inside purses they were carrying. They attempted to leave the store on Nov. 20 at 7:49 p.m., with the shopping cart and concealed merchandise. Target security was able to recover the shopping cart but the females got away with the purses and fled in a vehicle. Det. McCarthy is investigating. Theft in Springfield A resident of the 100 block West Ave. reported on Nov., 19 at 7:25 p.m., that his unlocked vehicle had been entered overnight and a quantity of coins were taken. Two unlocked vehicles were entered overnight one on Hawarden Rd. and one on Indian Rock Dr. A small amount of change was reported stolen at 8:17 a.m., Nov. 23. Delco Sheriffs Office offers telephone scam warning The Delaware County Sheriffs Office, Courthouse-Park Police and Jury staff recently received reports about scam phone calls originating from unknown phone numbers, or possibly a spoofed number, appearing to be that of the sheriffs office. The scammers are representing themselves as employees, or sheriffs deputies. The scammers tell the target there is a warrant for their arrest, or they are subject to arrest for failing to appear for jury duty. People should be aware that there are several versions of this scam. The scammers will request payment of some type, often MoneyPak, GreenDot, or some other type of prepaid money, or gift card as payment to avoid arrest. They may ask you for personal, social security and bank account information. If you receive this type of call, you are urged to hang up immediately. Do not give anyone any personal information, bank account numbers, a money order, or purchase any type of money card, or gift card if requested to do so over the telephone. The Delaware County Sheriffs Office, or Jury Services will never contact anyone by telephone and ask them for personal or account information, or payment of any kind to avoid jury duty or arrest. Anyone who receives a call like this should immediately contact the Sheriffs Office at 610- 891-4296. Delco DA reminds shoppers to be safe during the holiday season While for most, the holidays bring out kindness and a giving spirit, for criminals, it can be a season of opportunity. The Delaware County District Attorneys Office is reminding residents to be safe and smart during this holiday season when making their store and online purchases with some simple tips from the Delaware County District Attorneys Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Economic Crime Unit. The District Attorneys safety tips include: Customer reviews are not always what they seem and are sometimes false, so take your time and do your research on multiple websites. Create new and strong online passwords for your shopping, email, and bank accounts. Stay off public Wi-Fi or unsecured accounts for shopping or online purchases.] Keep your receipts, record your purchases, and track your deliveries. Protect private information online and make sure you only purchase from reputable retailers. Watch out for false Go Fund Me accounts and scammers posing as charities. If you are going to download an app, make sure it is from a reputable source and read user reviews before you enter your personal and financial information. Ensure phone and app software is up to date, as banks are often fixing bugs to improve banking security. The holiday season is busy for us all, so be vigilant about where you put your purse and wallet, and avoid carrying large sums of cash. Lock your car doors, even if youre just going to be gone for a few minutes, and dont leave money, phone charging cords, bags or expensive items in clear view. Put purchases and valuables in the trunk. Read your bank and credit card statements thoroughly for unauthorized transactions, especially during the months of December and January. As an additional safety precaution, contact one of the three credit reporting agencies and ask for a fraud alert to be placed on your credit report. You only need to call one agency because all three companies share fraud alert requests: Equifax: equifax.com or 1-800-525-6285; Experian: experian.com or 1-888 397-3742; and Transunion: tuc.com or 1-800-680-7289. To report crime or any fraudulent behavior, residents are encouraged to call their local police or the Delaware District Attorneys County Criminal Investigation Division at 610-891-4700. Call it a changing of the guard. Politics is a little like sports. When the losses start piling up, its not the players who go. Its the manager. Just ask the Delco GOP. Andy Reilly, who has led the Delaware County Republican Party since 2009, when the inimitable Tom Judge Sr. stepped down, is leaving his post as county chairman This comes as news to just about no one. Reilly is taking a position he has been lining up for awhile now. He steps down at a time when the party is down as well, licking their wounds from a second straight drubbing at the polls. In fact, the county GOP in general is in a most unfamiliar position looking up at Democrats. So, just as in sports, changes are being made. The avuncular Judge continued one of the longest winning streaks in politics or in sports. But he had something that was for the most part taken for granted. That would be the GOPs dominance in voter registration. At one point it approached a 3-1 edge in the county when it comes to registered voters. The party rode those numbers and a well-oiled ground fleet that made sure voters got to the polls to win after win in the county. But the county is changing. The answer lies in a shifting demographic. It started in the eastern end of the county. Mario Civera saw it coming. Thats why he gave up a seat he held in the state Legislature for three decades in favor of running and winning a seat on County Council. That 164th seat promptly fell to the Democrats. It would soon have company. But first Democrats had to do something they had not done in decades. They needed to put a dent in the fortress of the local GOP the Media Courthouse. They accomplished that in stunning fashion last November, ousting a popular incumbent councilman while taking both seats up for grabs on the countys ruling body. Democrats also swept all three row offices up for grabs, again showing a popular incumbent sheriff the door. This November it only got worse for Delaware County Republicans. They lost that reconfigured new 5th District seat in Congress that had been held for years by Rep. Pat Meehan, who resigned back in April amid reports that he used taxpayer dollars to settle a harassment suit filed by a former staff member. The old 7th District seat had been gerrymandered to the point where it became Exhibit A Goofy Kicking Donald Duck in a legal battle seeking to toss out the congressional borders. The courts agreed, and redrew the districts. This time it was Republicans crying foul, first claiming the courts had usurped authority that belongs to the Legislature, then making the same claim Dems and others had, that the court created a district that now favored Democrats. The courts rejected the claim, but the GOP view proved prophetic. Mary Gay Scanlon rolled to an easy win over Republican Pearl Kim. Shell be joined by three other Democratic women from southeastern Pennsylvania who won seats in the newly configured Congressional districts. It only got worse for the local GOP at the local level. They lost big time in a crucial state Senate race, with incumbent Sen. Tom McGarrigle, R-26 of Springfield, falling. He was joined by Springfield Rep. Alex Charlton, R-165. The bleeding in Upper Darby continued, where another popular incumbent, Rep. Jamie Santora, lost his bid to be re-elected in the 163rd. Consider for a moment that those three state House seats, the 163rd, 164th and 165th, which were held for three decades by GOP icons Civera, Nick Micozzie and Bill Adolph, all went Democrat. So changes needed to be made. Reilly and some other Republicans believe they know where to look when it comes to the blame for a second straight thrashing at the polls. They say their candidates paid the price for an incredibly unpopular President Donald Trump. Reilly admits that there is a demographic shift rolling across Delaware County, a tectonic shift that is tilting local races toward Democrats. But he also bemoaned the Trump factor, and the state high courts decision to remake those congressional districts in ways that clearly helped Democrats. In my view 95 percent of Democrats and 25 percent of Republicans came out to send a message to the president, Reilly said. His critics see other factors at work. They see their fear coming to roost, a belief that the party has largely forgotten the common man such as local committee men and women, along with courthouse workers who long formed the backbone of the partys election day ground troops. They see a party dominated by lawyers, whose financial connections with corporations and county business seems to be intertwined and have made them very wealthy people. Andy Reilly had a good run after taking over from the avuncular and seemingly invincible Judge. But clearly he saw what was coming, and what is to come. Times have changed in Delaware County politics. Democrats now have rolled up two impressive election days. Next up is what promises to be a battle royal for control of County Council. But someone else will be leading that fight for the Delco GOP. Andy Reilly hit a losing streak. And when that happens, just as in sports, changes need to be made. SALT LAKE CITY Jim Gaffigans new tour is titled The Fixer Upper. It begs the question: Is Gaffigan doing the fixing, or is he the one being fixed? Talking to him over the phone recently, the answer is perhaps a little of both. Gaffigan brings The Fixer Upper tour to Vivint Arena hes not sure hes pronouncing Vivint right for two shows, on Dec. 1 and 7. He told us about his last special (Noble Ape), his wife Jeannies brain tumor (removed), and how much his 7-year-old son can vomit (so, so much). This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Deseret News: Hey Jim. Good to talk to you. Hows everything? Jim Gaffigan: Crazy, but its all good. Last night, I guess it was 1 in the morning or something, and my 12-year-old came up to me and goes, Hey, Michael threw up. And my 7-year-old had just thrown up all over his bed. So I did that until about 3 in the morning. But every parent has dealt with that. DN: Any vomit removal tips youd give to new parents? JG: Well, first of all, I let my wife Jeannie sleep, and I tried to do it myself. So I got him up, took all the clothes and put them in a plastic bag. And my son who threw up is sleeping through all of it. So I carry him into the tub, I start cleaning him because hes caked in it its just amazing what can come out of a little kid. About halfway through, my wife woke up. And shes like, Stop, youre going to do it wrong. Thanks, but youre going to do it wrong, and Im going to have to do it anyway. DN: You know, its funny youre successful, you have your own career and your own things going on, but your kids will just do what they do. Vomit is the great equalizer. JG: Here we are in winter, and you forget that when you have kids, when theyre sick, how itll just run through the house. The question is, is it going to go two rounds? It sounds kind of disgusting, but its just the life of a big family. DN: I noticed youre playing two shows here, but a week apart. Is that normal? JG: No, that is not normal at all. But were doing the Vivint Im sure Im mispronouncing that. DN: Nah, youve got it right. JG: Well, you dont expect that youre going to do more than one show. There is something very unique about Salt Lake City. Its one of those places that for me, I wish there were, like, eight more metropolitan areas like Salt Lake City. And its not just because people like my stand-up. I think theres also an appreciation for the type of comedy I do. We live in an age where people have a tendency toward outrage, but theres a trust that the audience in Salt Lake has with me like, We know hes not a jerk. We know that its not constructed on shock. And sometimes as a comedian youll do something just to see how the audience responds. And some of my friends do it in a larger, more dramatic way. But I dont peddle in that. Im not the shock guy. DN: It seems like whenever you do interviews with news outlets in Utah, the interviewer always wants your take on various Utah things. But do you have any questions about Utah that you want answered? JG: Well, I dont have anything specific. But some of that might be that I was up till 3 cleaning a bedroom or, well, more like standing in the back and watching my wife clean it. DN: Speaking of Jeannie: Shes become this regular interview topic for you since last year, when she had a brain tumor removed. I dont want to focus too much on that Im sure youre tired of talking about it but how has she felt about being kind of thrust into the spotlight? Shes always been your creative partner, but this last year altered that dynamic between the two of you, at least publicly. JG: You know, shes a performer, so its not necessarily foreign for her to get put in the spotlight. Weve always done things together, from The Jim Gaffigan Show to the books to the stand-up. So in some ways its great. But its like anything else: Youve got to be careful what you wish for. The big discovery was how ... we feel horrible when someones sick, we pray for them and we want them to get better. But then once theyre better, were just kind of like, Youre good, right? Jim Gaffigan DN: It seems like theres been this outpouring of support for the two of you since the brain tumor announcement. Has Jeannies diagnosis/surgery/recovery changed your relationship with your fans at all? JG: I know that we live in an exhibitionist and voyeuristic era on social media. But I would say generally, my stand-up over the course of my career has become far more autobiographical. In Noble Ape, I talk about Jeannies brain tumor and that experience in the hospital. And it was very insightful to realize that we all have that family emergency in the hospital, weve all spent two weeks just staring, lost. My instinct was not to be as autobiographical. Because I was raised to not talk about myself. The show Im doing now is all new material, and theres part of me that believes its got to be funny because if its just me talking about myself, or just my opinion on something, thats just vanity. Thats just me talking in the mirror. Stand-up is not just a point of view, its also sharing but it has to be really funny. DN: Are there things youve found funny about Jeannies health scare that maybe you wouldnt have expected to be funny? JG: When you have a life-threatening brain tumor, its not just over in a couple weeks. Like, my son threw up last night; hes fine now. Whereas Jeannie had a brain tumor a year ago, and theres still a little bit of slur in her speech. The recovery is ongoing. The big discovery was how as humans, we feel horrible when someones sick, we pray for them and we want them to get better. But then once theyre better, were just kind of like, Youre good, right? It was really fascinating, when I started touring with the new material, to see how it touched people. Because, like I said, weve all spent those two weeks in the hospital, in these life-or-death situations, these moments of fear and awkwardness. And we cant live in those moments of fear forever. Defense mechanisms take over. DN: Getting ready for this interview, I went on YouTube and did a Jim Gaffigan deep dive. I realized youre constantly being interviewed, and that puts this interesting mechanism in place for you to continually test new material. JM: Its fascinating. Initially a life experience will arise. For instance, getting my appendix removed. Or going on a hike and seeing a bear. Or watching TV with your wife on your anniversary if youre commemorating your marriage, you shouldnt necessarily be watching TV; it doesnt have to be another wedding, but you shouldnt be sitting there watching Dateline. For me, its sometimes those initial ideas. They dont even come out as jokes. They just come out as, you know, awkwardness. Kind of like a pebble in my shoe. And my writing, theres nothing consistent about it, but it starts very basic and then itll grow. Like, I have jokes on horses that are now eight minutes long. Introducing an idea youll see this with any comedian theres a certain preparatory thing to it. Its like setting a table for a meal. Once you set the table, you can have a salad, you can have dinner and then you can have dessert. You only have to set the table once. DN: The dinner metaphor seems spot on, given all the bits youve done about food youve sort of become its de facto spokesman. But that might bring some weird pressure, too, to always have opinion. When someone asks you a food question, do you ever just think, I dont know, I dont care? JG: I havent covered all food, but a lot of it. I would say over the past two hours of stand-up that Ive written, theres definitely some food in there. I talked a lot about the fry sauce last time I was in Utah. Maybe Ill kind of touch on it, just because its something I can only do in Utah. But its interesting theres an unspoken agreement that youre going to show up with new stuff. People are like, We understand your point of view. We know your old material. Even if people want to hear old stuff, the relationship I have with them is that theyre going to want the new stuff. Its not just about people paying for a ticket. Its about their time. Being a father of five, getting someone to come out on a Friday or Saturday night, its not just the price of the ticket. Its the favor of having someone babysit your kids, its driving there, its convincing your spouse that thisll be the activity youll do for that week or that month. Or if youre a teenager, its like, This is what Im going to bother my parents about. Peoples time is precious. DN: Well, you should know that fry sauce is still a hot topic here. Heinz recently announced theyre going to start selling fry sauce in stores nationwide. People in Utah practically lost their minds, though, because Heinz isnt calling it fry sauce, or giving Utah credit for it. JG: Well, I remember from talking about it before that there are different types of it. Its like wine: Some people prefer a Chablis not that I know anything about wine and some people prefer a chardonnay. But I understand the anger. Its like stealing their culture, you know? DN: Weve been appropriated. JG: Thats right. If you go What: Jim Gaffigan, The Fixer Upper tour When: Dec. 1 and 7, 8 p.m. Where: Vivint Arena, 301 W. South Temple How much: $32.75-$56.75 Web: vivintarena.com OGDEN The Rev. France Davis, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, will speak at Weber State Universitys 152nd convocation on Friday, Dec. 14. The Rev. Davis will address graduates in the Jerry and Vickie Moyes College of Education at 8 a.m. in the Dee Events Center. He will also speak to the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts and Humanities at 1 p.m. in the Val A. Browning Center Austad Auditorium. His prerecorded remarks will be played at other college convocation ceremonies held throughout the day. The Rev. Davis has been the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church for 44 years. He was licensed as a minister in 1966 and was ordained 1971. He came to Salt Lake City in 1972 as a teaching fellow and graduate student at the University of Utah. He served as assistant pastor at Calvary Baptist while he was in school. In 1974, he became the churchs full-time pastor. He was involved in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.s civil rights campaigns, including the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. He served four years as an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force. After his time in the service, he decided to go into the ministry. Weber State awarded the Rev. Davis an honorary degree in April for his lifelong commitment to education. He holds multiple degrees, including two masters degrees in mass communication from the University of Utah and masters degree of ministry from Northwest Nazarene College. He served on the Utah State Board of Regents from 2008 to 2017. He retired from the U. in 2014 as an adjunct associate professor. Five scholarships have been established in his honor. SALT LAKE CITY Tim Allens The Santa Clause has become a holiday staple across the country. But the family-friendly film originally had a much darker ending. What happened: Allen appeared on The Tonight Show Wednesday and opened up about how The Santa Clause originally had a darker twist than what ended up appearing on-screen, USA Today reports. Heres what Allen said: The original Santa Clause is a little darker, written by two comedians, and I actually shot and killed Santa. He fell off the roof because I thought he was a burglar. He gives me the card, the whole movie starts. The kid actually starts, You just killed Santa. And I said, He shouldnt have been on the roof when he wasnt invited.' What really happened: Of course, in the actual film, Allen spooked Santa Claus, who was on the roof. The jolly old elf fell off the roof and disappeared. Allens character then put on the suit and become Santa. Why not?: Allen said Disney wouldnt let it slide. Im laughing so hard, but the head of Disney at the time, (Jeffrey) Katzenberg said, Well, we cant start a movie like that, and I said, Why not?" Allen recalled. "And he said, We cant start a Disney movie with you murdering Santa.' The worst Santa?: Allen said he wouldnt make a great Santa, according to Fox News. SALT LAKE CITY It's official the 2018 election is finally over in Utah. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and the other elected officials who serve on the Utah Board of Canvassers certified the statewide and multidistrict results from the Nov. 6 general election in a brief meeting Monday. The highlight of the hefty report was the 75.55 percent voter turnout, unheard of for a nonpresidential election year, Cox told reporters after the formalities were concluded. "Voter turnout was extraordinary. We're very excited," said the lieutenant governor, whose office oversees elections. He said the turnout number was among active voters and was about 50 percent for all eligible voters. "Which isn't a great number, but it's a really, really good number for the state of Utah right now," Cox said, moving the state up from 39th in voter turnout nationally to 21st place. Proposition 2, a ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana, primarily pushed people to the polls, he said. The proposition passed but will be replaced by new legislation during a special session of the Utah Legislature beginning Monday. "If you look at it, there's no question that Prop. 2 was a big driver. It got the highest total vote count," he said, even more than the statewide U.S. Senate race won by Mitt Romney, the former GOP presidential nominee. There were other propositions, amendments and a nonbinding question that also helped turnout, Cox said, as well as the 4th Congressional District race between now outgoing Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, and Rep.-elect Ben McAdams, a Democrat. That race, the most competitive in the state, saw McAdams beat Love in her try for a third term by just 694 votes in the district that includes portions of Salt Lake and Utah counties as well as Sanpete and Juab counties. But Cox said such competitive races weren't the only reason so many Utahns cast ballots, suggesting President Donald Trump is also behind more people going to the polls around the country. "I think it's just the political atmosphere," he said. "Certainly, having a president that's so controversial and every day is tweeting and getting people involved for better or worse, whichever way you look at that, definitely that's driving things." Trump, who's "getting people more engaged than they'd normally be" in a midterm election year, could see an even bigger turnout in two years, Cox said. That's when the president is expected to be on the ballot for a second term. "We will see this carry over, especially now that we have a divided Congress," the lieutenant governor said. "I think you will see more controversy, more interest. I would be very surprised if we saw low voter turnout in 2020." Voter turnout hit 82 percent in 2016, the last presidential election year, when a record 1.15 milion votes were cast. This year, nearly 1.1 million Utahns voted, the second-highest number ever. State Elections Director Justin Lee told the board that the voter turnout was the most for a midterm election since 1962, when just over 77 percent of Utahns went to the polls. SOUTH SALT LAKE Police on Monday arrested a man in the weekend killing of a South Salt Lake police officer. Jeffrey Don Black, 43, of Taylorsville, was arrested for investigation of murder, burglary, obstruction of justice and other charges, police said. Saturday night, officer David Romrell, 31, who had been with the department for 11 months and previously served several tours of duty as a U.S. Marine, was killed while investigating a burglary in progress. Felix Anthony Calata, 32, of West Valley City, intentionally hit Romrell with his car as he attempted to get away, according to police. South Salt Lake police detective Gary Keller said Romrell's widow was shocked when Black was released from custody Sunday after questioning. Based partially on her pleas, police gave the case another look and collected more evidence, Keller said. Unified police collected additional, undisclosed evidence that placed Black in the car at the time Romrell was hit. Unified's violent crimes unit made the arrest. As officers Monday evening escorted Black, his hands cuffed behind his back, from Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, Black told reporters he feels sorry for the slain officer. "I didn't know it was a cop. I thought it was a mail box," Black said when officers stopped him outside the building, giving reporters a chance to ask questions. Black said he had first met Calata two or three days before the incident. At the time of the alleged robbery, the two had been trying to "make some money" from a person who allegedly owed Calata, Black said. Calata was shot and killed by police. It was unknown whether Romrell fired any of the shots that struck Calata before being fatally wounded. Earlier Monday, South Salt Lake police officers returned to duty for the first time since Romrell's death, passing the car of their fallen brother in blue, which has now been turned into a memorial. Grid View Brianna Hermansen ties a blue ribbon around a pillar to honor South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Flowers are left in honor of South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Flags fly in honor of South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell was killed in the line of duty Saturday night, Nov. 24, 2018. South Salt Lake Police Department Brianna Hermansen ties a black ribbon around a tree to honor South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Brianna Hermansen, left, Kimberly McDonald and Laura Leetham help tie black and blue ribbons around trees to honor South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Brianna Hermansen ties a blue ribbon around a tree to honor South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Flags fly in honor of South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Brianna Hermansen, left, and Corey Thomas tie blue and black ribbons around a pillar to honor South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News The American flag flies at half-staff outside South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Flags fly in honor of South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Brianna Hermansen ties blue nad black ribbons around a tree to honor South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell at the South Salt Lake City Police Department on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Romrell died Saturday evening after he was struck by a vehicle during a confrontation with two burglars. Qiling Wang, Deseret News John Reed talks to the media at South Salt Lake City Police Department in Salt Lake City on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. Qiling Wang, Deseret News Felix Anthony Calata, 32, of West Valley City, was shot and killed by police Saturday night investigating a burglary call. Calata hit South Salt Lake officer David Romrell, 31, with his car, Romrell later died from his injuries. Salt Lake County Jail South Salt Lake police officers were given Sunday off to mourn. Officers from several surrounding agencies handled the department's calls that day. On Monday, the city's officers resumed their regular patrol duties at 6 a.m. Parked in front of the department is Romrell's patrol car, which has now become a memorial. A framed picture of Romrell was placed in the windshield and a blue ribbon wrapped around the hood. Members of the community on Sunday left flowers at the police department, hung blue ribbons on the trees outside and lined the curb with American flags to show their support for Romrell and the department. About 9 p.m. Sunday, Romrell's body was moved with a police escort from the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office to Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple, where it will remain until his funeral. An honor guard will watch over his body around the clock until he is buried. Funeral plans were expected to be confirmed Monday night. A funeral will likely be held next week, according to police. Romrell is survived by his wife and a 4-month-old son. The Utah 1033 Foundation announced it would be delivering a check for $25,000 to Romrell's widow. The 1033 Foundation, named after the Utah police code for "officer needs help immediately," was established in 2011. Families of officers or firefighters killed in the line of duty are presented with $25,000 within 24 hours of that officer's death. "We know that this is a difficult time for the family. We encourage everyone to do all they can to support them and to honor officer Romrell and his memory," said Dave Kaufman, the foundation's president. A GoFundMe campaign was set up Sunday to help raise money for Romrell's family. Court records show Black has faced several criminal charges in Utah dating back to 2001. In August, Black was charged with possession or use of a controlled substance, driving on a suspended or revoked license based on a prior conviction, along with other misdemeanor charges. In 2006, Black pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a financial card or ATM. In 2011, Black pleaded guilty to possession or use of a controlled substance. In 2001, Black pleaded guilty to attempted forgery and was sentenced to serve one year in jail. SALT LAKE CITY Beset by homelessness by age 11, Stephanie Stephens says she has "lived a life of betrayal, addiction, mental abuse" and "not knowing that I mattered." In her "need to be needed," Stephens recalls, she used to seek validation in unhealthy ways that kept her in a destitute state. That was until she started using the services of the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake in recent years a decision she says restored her dignity and helped her live a productive life. "Finding them was amazing and helped me understand the self-gratification that I was doing that kept me in my addiction. They really want to help you, they really want to let you know that you matter, and knowing that you matter is a big thing for somebody coming from an addict (life) and a street life," Stephens said. It is people like Stephens who the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation and Shelter the Homeless had in mind as they made a holiday season push Monday to encourage Utahns to donate to homelessness service providers through home4change.org. That fundraising effort is a matching campaign put on to equal the $10 million that Gail Miller, business giant and owner of the Utah Jazz, pledged last year to give from the Miller Family Foundation to help fund the services offered at three new homeless resource centers expected to replace the Road Home shelter in downtown Salt Lake City when it closes in June 2019. The promised funds from the Miller Family Foundation are donated on an even dollar-for-dollar basis to match whatever is donated through www.home4change.org, explained Preston Cochrane, executive director of Shelter the Homeless. So far, about $1.6 million in public donations has been raised through the website, he said. Shelter the Homeless is the nonprofit that owns the homeless shelter properties in Salt Lake City and Midvale, as well as the properties of the three new resource centers, none of which have been completed yet. Making such a donation is more effective in alleviating the suffering of Utah's homeless than giving to a panhandler, according to Cochrane. "Everyone who's experiencing homelessness needs help in different ways, and the contributions and donations that come into homelessness services can be put to (good) use," Cochrane said. "Giving a dollar to a service provider can go a lot farther than if you just give it to someone who's on the street." The Miller family is renewing its push for matching donations from the public on the eve of Giving Tuesday, a campaign launched in 2012 to support charitable causes during the holiday season. On Monday, flanked by Gail Miller and others at the site of the homelessness resource center going up at 131 E. 700 South in Salt Lake City, Stephens told reporters that she knows firsthand just how much of a difference donations make. "A lot of (homeless) people's excuses are they can't afford it they can't afford to go to counseling," Stephens said. "The donations (help) us (so that) we don't have to worry about numbers. All we have to worry about is time, and digging deep and understanding not being afraid not being afraid to ask for help. "The donations matter because it lets us know we matter, and honestly it's this thing that saved my life." Zane Miller, an official with the Larry H. Miller Group and the grandson of Gail and Larry Miller, said donating is a way for Utahns to become personally invested in combatting homelessness and avoiding any sense of helplessness about it. "Whether it's a house placement, job placement or any other needs, that's what these resource centers are providing an opportunity for each person that's on the street, whether its an 11-year-old, a 16-year-old, a 40-year-old, a 60-year-old, it's there to provide an opportunity for people to get educated on the needs that they're missing," Zane Miller said. "This is a great opportunity for the community to get involved and have their footprint in helping make a remedy to the homelessness, and (improve) the abilities of those people that can't provide on their own to get the education to be able to provide for their own." Every small effort counts in supporting those who help the homeless, Zane Miller said. "Whether it be a penny, 10 cents, a couple bucks, (or) a lot of money however much you've got to give, we will match any bit of that." SALT LAKE CITY Federal prosecutors have filed more charges against two biodiesel executives with ties to a northern Utah polygamous group who are accused of running a half-billion dollar tax credit scheme. Washakie Renewable Energy CEO Jacob Kingston and Washakie Chief Financial Officer Isaiah Kingston face five new money laundering charges, according to a 25-count superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court last week. Jacob Kingston is also charged with five additional charges of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return. The Kingston brothers and California businessman Lev Aslan Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, were originally charged in August with a total of 15 counts of money laundering and filing false tax returns. Federal prosecutors allege the men created fake records from 2010 to 2016 in order to obtain the federal tax credits totaling $500 million, then laundering the money. The company at the time billed itself as a premier producer of biodiesel and chemicals. The Kingstons and Dermen have pleaded not guilty. A hearing in the case is scheduled for next Tuesday. All three men remain behind bars pending trial, which is set for February 2019. Prosecutors argued to keep the men in jail because they were a risk to flee to Turkey, where they allegedly do business and own a mansion or hide in homes or offices associated with the polygamous group they belong to. The Kingstons are members of the Davis County Cooperative Society, or the Kingston Order, which practices polygamy. Editor's note: A portion of this was previously published on the author's website_._ Around Christmas time, an icy invader from the depths of the solar system may become visible to the unaided. But whether Comet Wirtanen 46P really is visible and whether it's a dud or astonishing is uncertain. Comets are notoriously unpredictable, as a review of the last few decades shows. The following are stories of some comets I've observed. Comet Halley The 1910 appearance of Halley, the most famous comet, was breathtaking. When it returned in 1986, we were sad that my wife Cory's grandfather, Henry William Hansen, born in 1893, wasn't here to see it because he had been impressed by it in 1910. He passed away in 1980 and we had hoped he would enjoy its return. The most recent apparition was a bust though. From my journal entry of April 19, 1986: "The three of us saw Halley's Comet yesterday, finally. With much grumpiness and confusion, finding boots and cameras, filling a thermos with coffee, we went out to Stansbury Park (Tooele County, Utah). Cory drove. There several hundred people were gathered at the small grassy park-like area where the Salt Lake Astronomical Society was having a 'star party.' As soon as we got out someone told us where to see the comet, and Cory tried to pull the caps off her binoculars to see it. But it wasn't convenient there in the parking lot so we made our way toward the noisy and crowded area around their telescope dome. Finally we saw it. It was invisible to naked eyes, but through binoculars it was a fuzzy ball, bigger and dimmer than the stars. We could not see the tail because of the bright moon. Sky (our son, 6) and I also took a look through a good-sized reflector telescope someone from the astronomical society had set up the eyepiece lens on it must have been less powerful than Cory's binoculars because the comet seemed smaller through it. It was also much brighter. 'You're looking at the nucleus,' its owner said. I definitely saw the tail, like a light crease in space pointing downward and a little to the right. I asked what direction the tail was supposed to be pointing, and he said straight up but quickly added that the telescope reversed everything and turned it upside down too. Anyway, we both saw it. Someone said it was much brighter in March, and the tail could be seen with the naked eye." Maybe Halley's Comet will make a better impression next time around, in 2061. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 We did not see the actual comet, which was broken into a chain of fragments, but were delighted to see their impacts on the planet Jupiter. Pieces slammed into Jupiter's cloud layers for six days in July 1994. We watched through telescopes the night of July 21, waiting while vast dark smears the impact sites rotated into view. The observing location was Little Mountain near Salt Lake City. Members of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society provided views through telescopes, hot chocolate and cookies. The air remained steady through the early evening until about 10 p.m., so we saw the large impact sites above Jupiter's south pole. We could see four dark blotches at once in the southern hemisphere, below the planet's most prominent bands. A single hole had been drilled through the clouds on the trailing side of one of the larger smears. The spots, though 475 million miles away, were so clear that we saw distinct edges with lighter material around them. Comet Hyakutake My friend (the late) Conrad Bert and I were determined to see the comet at its closest approach, the night of March 25-26, 1996. But cloudy weather ruled out any nearby spot, so I kept driving south and west. By the time we gave up, we were in Nevada. We camped at Valley of Fire State Park. From my journal of March 26, 1996: "Conrad called me out of my tent, as he had awakened and discovered that not only had the moon set, but the haze and clouds had cleared. There was the comet, stunning in its brightness and size. Before I hit the sack it was so bright that it looked like another huge star burning through the clouds and changing the look of the Big Dipper. After I got up, though, I was dumbfounded by its beauty and scariness. It was filmy but quite distinct, the head bright, a bit of a fan just beyond that, and then the tail stretched straight out toward the east as wide as the nucleus and around 20 degrees long two fists. Maybe if I studied the tail where it faded out, I could have seen that it was 2 fists long altogether." Comet Hale-Bopp Hale-Bopp, lighting up the sky just a year after Hyakutake, was the most beautiful comet I've seen so far. Its closest approach to Earth was on March 22, 1997, and I was able to see it without astronomical aid from Feb. 18 until May 5. I studied it more than a dozen times. The night of March 9-10, 1997, Conrad, Cory Maylett and his wife, Rhonda, and I camped at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park near Kanab, southern Utah, and had a glorious view. At first, Hale-Bopp was a fuzzy spot on the horizon, behind clouds, at nightfall. In the morning it rose in the northeast but then swung eastward as it climbed. "Tonight the tail seemed wider and longer than before and through the binoculars the central column of the tail was more pronounced than I'd seen it before," I wrote in my journal of March 26, 1887. "It is wonderfully bright. Last night after we watched it on the porch, I opened the living room drapes and lay down on the carpet with the lights out, and looked at it through the window glass using the binoculars." Comet McNaught Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) was an ordinary streak when it appeared in the skies above the northern hemisphere early in 2007. But it turned into one of the greatest comets once it dipped into southern skies toward the end of January. It unexpectedly sprouted a gigantic, smoky tail of more than a dozen streaks. The finest views available in the United States were from Hawaii, where the peacock tail projected above the horizon at sundown. Comet Holmes In October 2007, this usually ordinary comet underwent a dramatic expansion, its coma of material around the head suddenly becoming a million times brighter. In terms of distance across the airy coma, it was the largest object in the solar system. Comet Holmes was so large that I couldn't get all of it in a single telescopic image. With my gear set up in our front yard, I took 357 exposures of 5 seconds each and combined many of them into snapshots of an exploding comet. I jotted in my journal: "Some cute ladies dropped by to ask me what I was doing and I was able to point out the comet to several people. Its visible to the naked eye and easy to find, in Perseus." SALT LAKE CITY Unified police have arrested two people in connection with a cold case homicide. Jerah Jean Santos Ramirez, 29, of Las Vegas, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail over the weekend on warrants for aggravated murder, murder and obstructing justice, according to jail records. Victoria Nancy Clown, 28, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was booked on the same charges on Nov. 17. The two are accused in connection with the 2009 death of Lester Lloyd Janise in Midvale. According to the Unified Police Department's cold case web page, Janise "was a spiritual leader among the Native Americans" as well as a Vietnam War veteran who earned a Purple Heart. Though Janise lived alone, he had company from out of state stay with him shortly before his death, according to police. "Officers responded to a call and found Lester dead in his apartment at 7895 S. Candlestick Lane (80 E.) on the afternoon of Jan. 13, 2009," police stated. Investigators believe he had been dead, however, since the end of December 2008. "The cause of death was ligature strangulation," police stated. All court documents regarding the details of their arrests have been sealed. A press conference with Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera and District Attorney Sim Gill was scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at which time more details of the case are expected to be released. SALT LAKE CITY As Utah leaders took more steps Monday to secure Salt Lake City's place in the global trade market, the critics continued to fight back now with concerns that the Utah Inland Port will be a "dirty energy" port. Ahead of the Utah Inland Port Authority Board's meeting Monday, members of a Utah inland port opposition group, the Coalition for Port Reform, issued statements expressing concerns about indications that the future Utah global trade hub will transfer and store fossil fuels, even though the port authority is only now getting up and running. A Utah inland port envisioned to create new rail, truck and air connections in Utah's global economy, as well attract major manufacturing companies and high-paying jobs is considered potentially the largest economic development project in Utah's history. "For months, members of the Coalition for Port Reform have been assured that we should not worry about the transfer and storage of fossil fuels at the inland port," said the group's statement, issued by Deeda Seed, a vocal inland port critic and a campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity. However, Seed noted that in the port board's October meeting, several board members "successfully lobbied for the inclusion of three entities with fossil fuel interests" on a new "technical committee." The port board's chairman, Derek Miller who is also CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber proposed creation of a technical committee so experts could advise the port board on technical issues such as economic, transportation and environmental issues. Miller suggested entities on the committee include the Utah Department of Transportation, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, and the Wasatch Front Regional. But board member Rep. Francis Gibson, who was selected by outgoing House Speaker Greg Hughes to serve in his place, suggested representatives from the "extraction and mining industry" and from rural Utah to also serve on the committee. But Gibson and board member Stuart Clason, Salt Lake County's regional economic development director, successfully lobbied for entities to be included on the board, including representatives from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining; the Community Impact Fund Board, which provides loans and grants to areas impacted by mineral resource development on federal lands; and the state's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, which uses school trust lands to promote development and manages lands containing a wide variety of mineral resources. The inclusion of those entities on the committee is "excessive" and "frankly, it raises a few concerns and perhaps suspicion on my part that the intention might be to slowly put a thumb the scale of the work so that certain interests are favored," David Scheer, a coalition member, told the board during its public comment period on Monday. "The bias on the technical committee is of extreme concern and at least leaves the appearance the board is trying to push the project in a certain direction," Scheer said. But prior to Monday's meeting, Miller said in a meeting with the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards he's not sure whether a future port would transfer or store fossil fuels, and that would depend "on what the market would accommodate." "I think we recognize there are going to be people, in fact, they've said as much, that they're opposed to the port and they'll do anything or say anything to make sure that it doesn't happen," Miller said. "The job of this authority, this board, that we take very seriously, is to make sure that we move forward in a prudent way, that we're not rushed and that everything we do is based on fact, not fear." Miller added that he would have "a hard time imagining that Carbon and Emery county would find it economical to ship their coal north in order to have it sit in Salt Lake City, and then shipped south." "I just don't understand how the economics of that would work," Miller said. "I can understand the concern with it, the fear of it. I can't understand why it would be economical to do it." However, Miller also didn't rule it out. He noted that he's "a free market guy," and he doesn't foresee the port board "banning" anything "because of a political agenda." "As long as it can be done in an environmentally safe way why would we say yes or no?" Miller said. Seed referenced a September 2018 video recording of the Uintah Basin Energy Summit, in which Jeff Hartley a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry discussed how the state's legislation creating the Utah inland port "was written so that there can be extensions running out to the Uintah Basin and to Carbon County and elsewhere so that we can move our goods to foreign markets." Hartley is also the brother of Greg Hartley, Hughes' chief of staff. Brian Moench, board president of the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and a port critic, said in a statement "the more we learn about this, the more our worst fears about it are confirmed." "It's a scheme to process, store and ship more fossil fuels in and out of Salt Lake City," Moench said. "The intent is to exploit our natural resources for the benefit of a very few, and the rest of us will pay for it. This is a 'dirty energy' inland port." In the hall during the port board's closed session discussing possible hires, Seed confronted Jeff Hartley about whether the port will store and transfer fossil fuels. Jeff Hartley told her, "None of these decisions are up to me," noting that while he advocates for the industries, the Utah Inland Port Authority Board has the decision-making power. "There's no conspiracy here," Jeff Hartley told Seed. "We want this information out in the public, because I'm here to tell you right now if you've got big fossil fuel plans for something in Salt Lake City, you're in for a fight," Seed told Jeff Hartley. Hartley then said he has "enormous" fossil fuel plans for Utah's inland port. "Alright," Seed said. "It's on. Because you know what, Salt Lake City residents are not going to stand for that." Hartley rebuked, "I didn't just say Salt Lake City." In an interview with Deseret News after his discussion with Seed, Hartley said he thinks fossil fuels should be exported out of Utah, noting that there's "no purpose" in having an inland port unless exports can clear customs in a timely manner. He noted other ports that have customs clearance have long wait times. "There's a way to mitigate all concerns with (moving) fossil fuels," Hartley said, noting that technology exists including electric trucks to help address air quality concerns. "You'll never convince people who hate fossil fuels that they shouldn't hate fossil fuels, so I won't try to do that, "Hartley said. "But in Utah, the extractive industries oil, gas, coal are a huge part of our economy, and in rural Utah, they provide tremendous jobs that pay really well." SALT LAKE CITY As the migrant caravan descended on the border this weekend, the Trump administration announced a potential solution that would require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims move through U.S. courts. The plan echoes a proposal Utah Sen. Mike Lee floated earlier this month in a visit to Mexico. But the status of the proposal is now up in the air. On Saturday, the Washington Post reported Mexico had agreed to the plan. But Mexican officials pushed back shortly after the article was published, denying they'd signed off on the agreement. That could be because the incoming presidential administration, which does not assume office until Saturday, may not yet have the legal authority to conduct business with another country, says Stephanie Leutert, Director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. The proposal closely resembles a plan Lee said he discussed in early November with officials in the administration of Enrique Pena Nieto, the president of Mexico, and those in the incoming administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the countrys President-elect. Lee said he met with Olga Sanchez Cordero, the incoming interior minister, during his recent trip. "We discussed several possible remedies, including a safe third country agreement and the idea of requiring asylum applicants to remain in Mexico while their applications are pending," Lee told the Deseret News Monday. "Developing personal relationships and engaging in meaningful dialogue around principled policy is critical to developing lasting solutions to international challenges. Such an agreement already exists between the United States and Canada. Lee told the Deseret News in an interview on Nov. 9 from the airport in Mexico shortly after his meeting with Cordero that the White House was aware of his visit, but did not elaborate on whether or not the visit was part of a broader Trump administration policy strategy. The plan, known as Remain in Mexico, would end a practice Trump has called catch and release, which he says has allowed those seeking refuge to wait in the U.S. while their asylum claims make their way through the courts. Instead, the plan would require asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their asylum status is granted. This agreement would change long-standing U.S. policy and would place a strong barrier in the path of Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States "fleeing violence and harm," says David Leopold, past president of the American Immigration Layers Association, based in Washington, D.C. Some experts say that Mexico may not be a safe place for those fleeing persecution in other countries. The plan could put migrants at risk, says Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants Rights Project. We have not seen any specific proposal, what we do know is that leaving asylum seekers stranded in Mexico can put them in danger, Gelernt said. The Trump administration should focus on providing a fair and lawful asylum process in the U.S. rather than seeking more ways to undermine it. Lee told the Deseret News earlier this month that a "safe third-country agreement" could help sort out those who need help from those who present a national security risk. Only those that had been granted asylum in Mexico would then be admitted to the United States, without overwhelming our system with the need to process thousands of asylum claims on American soil. Leutert said asylum seekers are prime targets for kidnappers in Mexico, where capturing migrants and demanding ransom from their family members has become a lucrative business. According to a July 2017 report by Human Rights First, migrants and refugees face acute risks of kidnapping, disappearance, sexual assault, trafficking and other grave harms in Mexico. Leutert says the plan may also present issues associated with asylum seekers constitutional right to due process -- such as how asylum seekers will be guaranteed access to legal representation in Mexico, and whether they will have to cross the border in order to attend to court hearings in the United States. SALT LAKE CITY Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and the FBI asked a federal judge Monday to toss out Mark Shurtleff's $60 million civil rights lawsuit. Gill, FBI agents Michelle Pickens and Jon Isakson, and public corruption task force officer Scott Nesbitt say in separate court filings that they are immune from being sued for doing their jobs. They also contend the four-year statute of limitations bars Shurtleff's civil rights claims. Shurtleff, a former three-term Utah attorney general, along with his wife and two children, filed a lawsuit against the district attorney and the FBI agents in June, alleging they falsely charged and maliciously prosecuted him for public corruption in 2014. Throughout late 2013 and early 2014, investigators executed fraudulent and perjured search warrants to illegally seize Shurtleff's personal property, texts, phone records and emails, according to Shurtleff's lawsuit. Agents wearing body armor and wielding assault rifles and other automatic and semi-automatic weapons used excessive force when they raided his Sandy home on June 3, 2014, knowing Shurtleff was not there, his lawsuit says. The FBI argues that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Utah in its jurisdiction, has yet to find a single instance where deploying a SWAT-like team to execute a search warrant was an excessive use of force under the Fourth Amendment regardless of the nature of the crime being investigated. Gill's motion for dismissal says Shurtleff's lawsuit describes at length his disagreement with the investigative and prosecution decisions that led to his July 2014 arrest and criminal charges against him. Shurtleff is so focused on expressing "personal outrage" the he failed to realize most of his claims are barred by the statute of limitations and fall "squarely within the scope" of Gill's prosecutorial functions, according to Gill's court filing. Gill eventually turned the prosecution of Shurtleff over to Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings. Rawlings dropped the charges against Shurtleff in July 2016, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made it more difficult to prosecute bribery, inability to obtain key evidence from a federal investigation and concerns about whether the former attorney general could get a fair trial in the high-profile case. Shurtleff's co-defendant in the original criminal case, former Attorney General John Swallow, was acquitted after a jury trial last year. Both have pending lawsuits seeking reimbursement for more than $1 million in legal fees. SALT LAKE CITY Unified police detective Ben Pender said when he confronted Victoria Blackcrow Clown about what she knew about the death of Lester Lloyd Janise, she seemed relieved to finally talk. "As (the interview) went on and on, I could see it had been weighing on her. I actually showed her a picture of Lester, and that was kind of the turning point. Once she was shown that photograph of Lester things kind of changed," he said. On Tuesday, Pender, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced that two women had been charged and arrested for the 2009 killing of Janise, 62, a man described as "a spiritual leader among the Native Americans." "Today is a really good day for us," Rivera declared. Jerah Jean Santos-Ramirez, 29, of Las Vegas, and Clown, 28, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, were charged Nov. 5 in 3rd District Court with murder, a first-degree felony, aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. Arrest warrants for $1 million were issued for each woman. The warrants were sealed, however, as detectives had to travel out of state to arrest the two women. "Law enforcement believes that the element of surprise may make it safer" when the warrants are served, according to the motion to seal the charges. Ramirez was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail over the weekend. Clown was booked on Nov. 17, according to jail records. Pender said multiple trips were made to Georgia, South Dakota and Las Vegas to make the case come together. It was his trip to Georgia on Oct. 26 when he had a four-hour interview with Clown that sealed the investigation. Clown, who Pender said was a friend of Janise and looked up to him, was in a place in her life where she was ready to talk. "I think in these cases time is on our side sometimes, and this is one of those cases where it was on our side," he said. Janise, a member of Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, "was a spiritual leader among the Native Americans," Rivera said. He also served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and earned two Purple Hearts, one after being injured by a land mine explosion that nearly killed him, according to his family, the sheriff said. "That's important. This guy went and fought for us," Rivera said. Janise's elderly sister, when told the news of the arrests, was pleased her brother, who served his country, would receive justice, the sheriff said. "She's very happy that we solved this. But she's also a little bit hurt he fought in a war and this is how his life was taken," Rivera said. On Jan. 13, 2009, police were called to 7895 S. Candlestick Lane (80 East) to perform a welfare check after apartment managers hadn't heard from Janise for a while and noticed newspapers were collecting on his porch, according to charging documents. "Upon making entry into the apartment, officers noticed the strong smell of decomposing flesh and found the body of Lester Janise slumped over on the couch. There were two belts around Mr. Janise's neck" the charges state. Investigators believe Janise had been dead since about the end of December 2008. Family members told police that Janise had traveled to South Dakota to attend his brother's funeral in December 2008 and returned to Utah with two women, as well as the women's children, according to the charges. Clown and Santos-Ramirez are sisters, police said. Janise was a friend of their mother when he lived in South Dakota. When they all got back to Janise's Midvale apartment, Santos-Ramirez disappeared for four days, leaving her four children in the care of Janise and Clown, charging documents state. The children ranged from a newboren to about 5 years old, police said. When she returned, Santos-Ramirez and Janise got into an argument for over an hour regarding the abandonment of her children, according to court documents. Santos-Ramirez then told Clown that she "needed a ride out of there" and "had an idea to knock Mr. Janise out," but she was afraid he would call police after he woke up, the charges state. Not long after that conversation, Clown said, she heard "scuffling and fighting noises coming from the living room," the charges state. Santos-Ramirez then told Clown they needed to leave. As the women and their children were leaving, Clown saw Janise lying on his side on the couch, according to court documents. Detectives with the former Midvale Police Department interviewed Clown and Santos-Ramirez in February 2009 in South Dakota. They told investigators that Janise had given them permission to take his van and drive it back to South Dakota, the charges state. Both women claimed Janise was alive when they left his apartment on Christmas Day. No arrests were made at that time. But after Midvale police became part of the Unified Police Department, Pender started looking at the case again in 2014. He started collecting results from the State Crime Lab that weren't available in 2009 and interviewed new people. By the time he questioned Clown in October, Pender said he already had a good idea of what had happened. When asked if he believed Clown's story that she was in another room when Santos-Ramirez managed to allegedly strangle Janise with two belts, Pender said most of her statements have been consistent, though she may have left out some information. "I don't think she's being 100 percent honest, but I think she confirmed a lot of the things we already knew in the case," he said. As for a motive in the case or why the women didn't just leave the apartment, police did not have an answer on Tuesday. Gill said additional evidence would be revealed at trial. Gill praised the work of Pender and the cold case unit, saying fresh eyes and a fresh perspective helped break the investigation. And solving cold cases like this is important for the victims' families, because when they remain unresolved, "They leave an open wound for the victims' families, and they provide no opportunity for closure to our community when that violence occurs." LAYTON A 16-year-old boy accused in the killing of a man at a Layton mobile home actually suffered a gunshot wound himself during the confrontation, recently unsealed court documents reveal. The new information is the latest twist in a case that has already had several. The investigation began Sept. 27 after Anthony Child, 26, was shot in a trailer at 2500 N. Lane at Lakeview Estates in Layton. But rather than go to a local hospital, he made his friends drive him to a hospital in Preston, Idaho, allegedly to hide the marijuana and psychedelic mushroom growing operation in the trailer, according to police. Child died shortly after arriving at the hospital. Police say he had been shot twice in the back after a gunman fired 13 rounds from a rifle. Angel Christopher Abreu, 22, of Ogden, was charged in 2nd District Court with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary, all first-degree felonies. He is also charged with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. Later, 16-year-old Brandon Martin Hinojosa was charged as an adult with murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated kidnapping, all first-degree felonies. He was also charged with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. Then in another twist, criminal charges were filed against two of Child's roommates, one for allegedly helping to arrange the attempted robbery. Kevin Wener Content, 35, who was seen in surveillance video talking to the alleged gunmen outside the trailer before the shooting, was charged with murder, while Devon Allan Miller, 22, was charged with drug-related crimes. Abreu called Content after the shooting and told him to clean up the crime scene before police arrived, according to court documents. Now, in a new search warrant affidavit filed in 2nd District Court, it was revealed that Hinojosa also suffered a gunshot wound in his leg. Hinojosa was taken by friends to McKay-Dee Hospital, where he told police he was walking down the street when he was shot. "Brandon was not cooperative during his interview with law enforcement on how he really was shot in the leg," the warrant states. Later that night, after Abreu was arrested, he told investigators that he and Hinojosa went to the trailer to rob the occupants of drugs and money, according to the warrant. It was a plan that Content helped to set up, police say, adding that he even provided the pair with hand-written maps of the trailer. "Angel reports Kevin Content planned the burglary as a way of paying back Angel $8,000 owed to him," the warrant states. Wearing silver "devil style masks," the two entered the trailer. While Hinojosa was duct taping one of the occupants of the trailer, Abreu told police he thought he heard three shots, the affidavit states. "Angel states Brandon was shot one or two times, and in retaliation to Brandon being shot, he fired many rounds towards Anthonys bedroom, heard someone fall, and heard a male's voice groan or moan as if they had been shot," according to the warrant. Layton police said Monday they had not confirmed how Hinojosa was shot or whether he possibly shot himself. Abreu then took Hinojosa to his apartment to treat the gunshot wound before the teen went to the hospital, the warrant states. Detectives later searched Hinojosa's Facebook page and found a picture he sent to a friend of a person wearing the devil mask with the message "'Bout to hit a stain," which police say is a gang term for robbing someone of drugs or money, according to the affidavit. The second photo is a pair of bloody pants with the message: "I jus got shot wish ya boi some luck," according to the warrant. Hinojosa is scheduled to be back in court on Friday, Content is scheduled to be in court Dec. 4, and Abreu is scheduled to be back in court Dec. 17. Telcos must reimagine their businesses as customers turn to digital channels. Download this FREE Report from 451 Research NOW to find out how... As empowered customers turn to digital channels, Telcos must reimagine their business to address their customers increased expectations for more control and convenience. 451 Research believes that the best way forward is to create a new digital IT stack that yields meaningful improvements to the experience. Download FREE Report from 451 Research Now. Why fast-track digital transformation models are gaining traction How Telcos are using the MVP methodology to go live in as little as six months Examples of rapid deployment from Ooredoo Oman and a North American Carrier Sponsored by Matrixx Software. To receive a FREE copy of this new Report please fill the form below and click Download. Sorry this form is not published Nokia and mobile operator Smart Communications are collaborating with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) to bring innovative technology like LTE-connected drones and a portable network into areas struck by disaster. The collaboration was unveiled at the inauguration of the non-profit Nokia Saving Lives (NSL) solution, which PRC will now incorporate into their toolkit for demanding search and rescue activities. The NSL solution integrates into Red Cross teams, combining a high-capacity mobile broadband network with drones and on-site computing power to support Red Cross emergency operations effectively. Aerial insights and data analytics improve situational awareness and help the incident commander prioritise resources for people in distress. NSL provides a critical communication channel in remote areas where there is no network coverage, or when disaster destroys existing network infrastructure. The collaboration with PRC and Smart is the first deployment of the Nokia Saving Lives concept. The NSL solution is comprised of a portable LTE network (which connects to drones equipped with cameras, sensors or speakers), a high-performance server, and analytics applications. A team of 25 Nokia employees have been trained to become technical experts to serve as volunteers in the Red Cross organisation. In addition to the technical training, these volunteers have thus far contributed 1,000 man-hours to the Red Cross disaster preparedness education in support of Nokia's commitment to the UN Sustainable Development goals. Ramon R. Isberto, group head/FVP, Public Affairs, Smart Communications, said: "We are proud to be part of this program that provides support to response teams in times of disaster. As we continue to improve our network to ensure the availability of our services, we also work with partners to develop and support technologies that can ultimately result in better lives for all." Richard J. Gordon, chairman & CEO, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), said: "With the help of Nokia Saving Lives, the volunteers and the collaboration with Smart we are better equipped to provide emergency assistance to the people of the Philippines in a timely and efficient way." Christina Cabrera, head of Nokia Technology Center Philippines, said: "Dedicated industry collaboration can truly leverage technology for humanitarian benefit. In addition to our financial and technological contribution, I'm also particularly proud of our engineers' expertise and engagement. Likewise, we are grateful to the GSMA Disaster Response Innovation Fund, which has provided partial funding for the Nokia Saving Lives project." The government of Russia has proposed a substantial increase to the amount that it would be able to fine any international tech firms that breach domestic laws. The law currently in place obliges search engines to deliver filtered results and stipulates that messaging services must provide encryption keys. Companies that violate these laws are fined no more than a few thousand dollars, which is ineffective as a deterrent. Offences can cause sites and services to be blocked, but these bans can be circumvented by using a virtual private network. However, Reuters reports that President Vladimir Putins administration is now proposing that if global companies such as Facebook or Google violate Russian law, they should be fined as much as 1% of their locally generated revenue. Companies could be issued a fine for each time they are found to have violated the law. Tech companies have been sent copies of the proposals and invited to provide feedback. Googles Russian unit brought in revenue of $687 million in 2017; a Reuters sourced noted that 1% of this would constitute a significant amount notably higher than the current maximum penalty of $10,595. However, it would be challenging for the government to enforce a penalty on a company that has no legal entity in Russia. A law passed three years ago obliges tech firms active in Russia to store user data on local servers; Facebook has still not complied with this directive and is negotiating with the Russian authorities. What do you do when you meet your heroes? Let alone one of the most popular superheroes of all time? Sure, sitting across a table from Christian Bale had been a life long dream and hearing him describe his acting process was a far fetched hope, but all that came to pass when I met Bale ahead of the world premiere of Netflixs Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle in Mumbai, India. Armed with a copy of my collectors edition Blu-Ray of The Dark Knight trilogy, I walked into a tiny hotel room where the knight in black himself sat awaiting none other than me. Fandom aside, Bale is one of the few actors I truly respect for the way he transforms himself for each character he plays. Be it the the bony factory worker in The Machinist to the Brute and muscular Batman, From Empire of the Sun to The Prestige, Bale has time and again proven that he can transform himself into almost any character he please to play. To my surprise, he sat there telling me that hes never had any formal training as an actor. I make up my process for every different film. I am not a trained actor. I have no particular technique. People often call me a method actor, but to be a method actor, you must have been trained in a method style of acting. I had no training. I went to YWCA for a couple of weekends. Thats it, thats where my training finishes. So, its more of a make it up as you go along method. I look for diversity, I look for different challenges. You always have to take that risk of people laughing at you and not with you and Im quite addicted to that, Bale said describing his process as an actor. Talking about donning the role of Bagheera, the Black Panther in Netflixs Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Bale told me that he is in fact very familiar with the writings of legendary author Rudyard Kipling. I had read the Jungle Book as a kid in school. I was never a very good student, didnt really pay much attention. So, when Andy came to me, I did know primarily that my preference was the Disney animated film, the musical and Bare Necessities and floating down the river on Baloos tummy. I loved that film. Ive known Andy since I was about 19 years old. Hes become the pre-eminent go-to actor when it comes to performance capture. I feel like its a story that lends itself to multiple interpretations. You can equally love Disneys and this interpretation. Its fascinating to me that how the same source material can end up in such vastly different style of film. While Disneys version is warm and fuzzy, this one is a fantasy adventure, Bale told Digit.in. My Kids have not seen any of the Batman films - Christian Bale The actor went on to tell me how Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is one of his first movies that his children were able to see. I was really thankful that its one of the first films Ive made that my children were able to go and see. My wife specifically told me that not only does she really like Andy, but that this is something that we can all go and see together, Bale said totally skipping the fact that he made three of the most popular superhero movies to date that, perhaps, children around the world have watched not once, but a bunch of times. To my utter shock, maybe because Bale in my opinion is the best Batman to date, his kids have never seen any of the movies where he plays the caped crusader! Christian Bale as Bagheera the panther in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle Given that his latest stint as Bagheera the panther involves a lot of play with motion capture, I asked Bale if wearing the mocap suit actually made his life more difficult as an actor. What you might not notice when you finally watch the film is the fact that almost all of Bagheeras movements, the way he carries Mowgli on his back, the way he scratches and jumps on all fours, are actually performed by Bale in real life wearing a face and motion capture suit. The animation data gathered from the suit was then mapped to a 3D model of Bagheera, making the character perform the same actions as the actor. Initially you feel a little lost doing this. Youre not sure whats important and whats not important. Andy was able to communicate that to me very quickly. Its not just the voice, thats what a lot of people misunderstand, because you are actually interacting, you are acting, you are moving. Its not more demanding, just demanding in a different way. Whenever you act there are lots of distractions and you have to try to ignore them. What you see, the positions we all are sitting in, were the positions that I chose and they then adapted them to turn me into a panther, explained Bale. Its a new age of what becomes possible in film, he added. At the end of my 5 minutes with this iconic actor, to my disappointment, he said that he will not be doing any more Batman movies. But yes, he did sign my Blu-ray copy of the Batman trilogy. Also Read: Behind the scenes of Netflix's Mowgli with Director Andy Serkis After years of waiting, Spotify may finally launch in India in the next six months, if a report by Variety is to be believed. The report also states that Spotify, when it launches in India, will offer an extended free trial period which will be longer than 30 days. Under the free trial, Indian users will get full-access to Spotify Premium which the Swedish streaming giant offered in Vietnam and South Africa when it launched earlier this year. A Swedish publication Di Digital reported that Spotifys plan to buy an Indian competitor fell through and the streaming platform will enter the Indian market on its own. Spotify recently launched in a bunch of international markets including the Middle East and North Africa. It now offers services in 78 markets globally. Spotifys India plans have been years in the making. The company opened an office in Mumbai in March and even got publicly listed, hiring 300 people. Variety reported that insiders in the Indian team are optimistic that the service could launch in India as soon as in the next six month. Spotifys phenomenal growth since its launch in 2008 has been well-document. However, even though it raked in new subscribers exponentially, its operating costs also rose rapidly. Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek believes that increasing the subscriber count will lead to more profits for the shareholders. However, even though the music streaming platform reported 83 million premium subscribers in July 2018, its net loss nearly doubled to $461 million. Spotify is also facing decreasing stock price and tough competition from the likes of Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music, Spotifys plan to enter the Indian is hardly surprising. It seems Spotify needs India more than India needs Spotify. The Indian market for music streaming is now in its consolidation phase. Homegrown service Gaana surpassed 80 million subscribers and raised $115 million funding from Chinese giant Tencent and Bennett Colemans Times Internet, while Saavn merged with JioMusic in a $104 million deal. There is also Hungama, Airtel Wynk and others, apart from the services from American giants Apple Music, Google Play Music and Amazon Prime Music. According to the reported, Spotify was eyeing to acquire either Gaana or Saavn to bolster its plans for the Indian market. Spotifys plans to launch in India was further impeded by the companys plans to bypass the record labels and license acts directly. The move reportedly made major music labels in India threaten to spoil Spotifiys progess in the region by blocking its licenses. Although, the report states multiple sources claim the hurdle has been cleared with Daniel Ek downplaying the rumours during Spotifys earnings call in July. When Spotify eventually launches, it will also have to take into account Indias vast linguistic diversity. With 1.33 billion people speaking a variety of dialects, Spotify will have to work hard to cater to everyone. Although, in markets like Indonesia, Africa and in the Middle East, Spotify played by the books and introduced playlists and recommendations in regional languages. There will also be the question of converting the free users to paying subscribers and the company should hope than an extended period of free trial will seal the deal. 5G or the fifth generation of network technology has been in testing for the past few years and looks like 2019 will finally see smartphone manufacturers launch devices that can hook up to ultra-fast 5G networks. 5G is expected to bring lower latency to networks, which means online gaming, for one, will become much more faster. Streaming will become a breeze and connectivity in general will improve dramatically. 5G phones are expected to support super speeds of up to 10 Gbps and the network is touted to be 100 times faster than 4G. So naturally, 5G smartphones are all the rage right now and a race of sorts has emerged in the smartphone industry as to who will launch the first 5G-ready device in the market. Throughout 2018, weve been hearing from smartphone OEMs about their plans to launch 5G devices. Here, we compile that list of upcoming 5G smartphones, ones that you can also expect to land in India. Take a look. OnePlus 7 Pro 5G The OnePlus 7 Pro is the company's most premium phone manufactured to date, and the flagship smartphone also has a 5G variant that will be launched this year in the UK in partnership with EE, the telecom provider that is supposedly introducing 5G connectivity in Europe in 2019. The company is yet to disclose the official pricing and availablility of the 5G flagship, and neither do we know if there's any change in hardware (although you can't go beyond 12GB RAM presently which the OnePlus 7 Pro already comes in. EE is gearing up to provide 5G coverage in 16 UK cities including London, Cardiff, Manchester, and the likes. Huawei Mate X Huawei is one of the biggest proponents of 5G technology. The company has been perhaps the biggest names when it comes to the development of 5G network equipment and chips, with hundreds of engineers dedicated towards the efforts. Its first 5G ready smartphone is the foldable Huawei Mate X, which was launched at MWC and is expected to come to India by the end of 2019. Huawei has also conducted 5G trials in India, in partnership with Airtel. Huawei and Bharti Airtel successfully conducted 5G network trials under a test set-up in India. The 5G trial was conducted at Airtel's Network Experience Centre in Manesar (Gurugram). During the test trial, a user throughput of more than 3Gbps was achieved. Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G Xiaomi launched its first 5G smartphone in the form of the Mi Mix 3 5G. The smartphone features Qualcomms Snapdragon X50 5G modem and runs on the Snapdragon 855 chipset. It is priced at 599 euros. You can read more about the Mi Mix 3 5G here. Oppo Reno 5G The Oppo Reno flagship smartphone that launched in China earlier this month has a 5G variant as well. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 855 processor paired with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem. The phone's highlight however, is the 10X zoom the triple-camera unit can achieve. It also has a cool shark-fin pop-up unit that houses the front camera. The Oppo Reno 5G will be available in select European countries and 5G service will be delivered by a partnership with EE. Nokia In February, Qualcomm announced that it has partnered with 18 OEMs, including HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, to launch 5G-ready smartphone in 2019. The 5G smartphone from Nokia will be running on the Qualcomms X50 5G modem. In a demo of the X50 5G modem, Qualcomm was able to establish a 5G connection with greater than gigabit per second download speeds. We dont know much about which Nokia phone will get 5G support first, but we do know that Nokia is testing the technology internally. Vivo Vivo also recently fitted the Qualcomm X50 modem in the Nex S smartphone. According to Vivo, the test completed the first phase of protocol. The company now needs to develop an actual 5G phone and it says its goal is to launch the first batch of commercial 5G devices by 2019. According to the company, China Mobile and Qualcomm have been key partners in the 5G rollout so China could be the first country to get 5G smartphones. But given the China trickle down effect, we expect the 5G smartphone to come to India as well. HTC HTC is not done with the smartphone business just yet. Even though the company has considerably reduced staff, according to its Senior RF designer Kevin Duo, HTC is also sampling the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 and the Snapdragon X50 5G-ready modem. This means that the company could be looking to launch a 5G smartphone as well next year. Lenovo and Moto Lenovos Vice President, Chang Cheng recently claimed that the company is ahead of the others on the 5G curve. The executive has claimed on Chinese micro-blogging website Weibo that the worlds first 5G phone will be from the house of Lenovo and it will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset. However, that did not happen since Samsung already launched the Galaxy S10. If Lenovo is readying a 5G smartphone, it is safe to assume that Moto is also working on a 5G device too. In fact, Motos 5G Moto Mod with the built-in Snapdragon X50 5G modem has already been successfully tested. However, we highly doubt that the two companies will be first to bring the tech to market. Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and Galaxy Fold Samsung launched two 5G phones at mwc 2019 - The Galaxy S10 5G and the foldable Galaxy Fold smartphone. Both phones run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 platform paired with the companys X50 modem. While there is no information on whether the devices will make it to the Indian shores, if they do, they are is most likely to run on the company's Exynos 9820 SoC, which might be again paired with the X50 modem. LG LG launched its V50 ThinQ at MWC 2019. The phone not only offers 5G connectivity but also supports a second screen. It is powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC coupled with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem for 5G connectivity, the V50 ThinQ is the companys first smartphone with 5G connectivity that is slated to be launched in select markets. The device features a 6.4-inch QHD+ OLED display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and HDR10 support. It sports pogo pins to which one can attach a secondary display thats sold separately as a case. Reliance Jio is known for gifting its users with free data on occasions like during the festive season and when it turned two years old. TelecomTalk now reports that the telecom operator is at it again and is crediting 2GB of high-speed 4G data to its users, for free. As per the report, Jio subscribers are getting 2GB of free data and one can check it out by heading over to the My Plan section of the MyJio app. This data gift to Jio users is said to be an extension of the Jio Celebrations Pack and it should be listed in the users My Plan section by the same name. Jio was offering the same benefits for four days under its Celebrations Pack last month as well, a month handing out free data after its anniversary celebration. However, it credited a total of 8GB data, which was broken down to 2GB per day. Back in Diwali, the telco also introduced the Rs 1,699 postpaid plan that offers unlimited local and voice calling, 1.5GB of daily data, and 100 SMS per day with a validity of 365 days. The company has not introduced any new recent plans but its rival Vodafone also came up with a 100 percent cashback offer, which is quite similar to Jio. The offer can be availed from the My Vodafone app which will credit the cashback to a user in form of Rs 50 vouchers. Do note that only Rs 399, Rs 458 and Rs 509 plans are eligible under this offer. In other Jio news, the company might soon be rebranding its JioMusic app to JioSaavn and remove it the list of free apps. As per a recent report, the telco is planning to plans to implement some major changes to the JioMusic app and this includes merging with the Saavn app. With this, the company might be introducing paid plans for the app's users but also offer 90 days of free pro subscription to Jio users. The same will reportedly be implemented for free users of the Saavn music streaming app, who will have a choice to switch to the paid model for availing premium services. Back in March, Jio announced that it will be merging its JioMusic audio streaming app with Saavn after acquiring a partial stake in Saavn for $104 million. At the time, Reliance claimed that the upcoming combined music streaming service will be one of the largest media streaming platforms in the country and it seems that the company might finally be making its move towards realising this goal. Subscriber content preview By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON Britain and the European Union have signed their divorce papers, but that's not the end of the 45-year relationship. It's just the start of a British political battle over the separation. Now the deal must be approved by the U.K. Parliament, where no party has a majority and lawmakers range from burn-the-bridges Brexiteers to reconciliation-seeking supporters of the EU. Legislators on both sides hate the deal, a compromise that keeps Britain outside the EU with no say but still subject to the rules and the obligations of membership at least until the end of 2020 while a permanent new relationship is worked out. . . . Fast ferry begins Kingston service SEATTLE (AP) After a year of promising that fast ferry service between Kingston and Seattle would begin in 2018, Kitsap Transit has delivered. KING-TV reports the official first sailing will leave Kingston at 5:25 a.m. Monday, bound for downtown Seattle. Like Bremerton, Kingston's fast ferry will begin on a winter commuter schedule with six roundtrip sailings daily three in the morning and three in the afternoon. The earliest leaves Kingston at 5:25 a.m. and arrives in Seattle at about 6:04. For now, the latest sailing from Seattle is 6:45 p.m. Kitsap Transit plans to add sailings on Saturdays and later in the evening when it transitions to a summer schedule next year. The projected 39-minute crossing time allows riders to avoid the hassle of driving to Bainbridge Island or catching the state ferry to Edmonds to get to Seattle. Subscriber content preview SPOKANE (AP) Idaho public utility officials are raising questions about Spokane-based energy company Avista Corp.'s sale to a Canadian utility, and their concerns have the potential to unravel the $5.3 billion deal. The Spokesman-Review reports staff members from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission say the Ontario government's influence on Toronto-based owner Hydro One Ltd. make them uneasy. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE (AP) A team of Washington utility workers is helping to restore power to families affected by the recent wildfire in Northern California. KIRO-TV reports about 20 Snohomish County Power Utility Districts, or PUD, workers are traveling south to assist Pacific Gas and Electric Company workers in California to help rebuild the electrical infrastructure lost in the fire, which is now 100 percent contained. . . . Subscriber content preview PUYALLUP (AP) A homeless center in Puyallup is asking a judge to overturn conditions that the city has placed on its business license. Officials with the New Hope Resource Center say conditions were imposed without due process. They're seeking judicial review in Pierce County Superior Court. . . . Punjab CM warns Pak army chief against cross-border attacks Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday warned Pakistan against attempts to disrupt peace in the region, blaming Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa for the attacks in Pathankot and Amritsar, even as his minister Navjot Singh Sidhu accepted an invite to attend a function in Pakistan in connection with the opening of a corridor to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur across the LoC in Pakistans Punjab. I would like to ask Pakistan army chief Qamar Bajwa something, as a soldier. Which army teaches to violate ceasefire and kill jawans on the other side? Which army teaches to send people to attack Pathankot and Amritsar? This is cowardliness, said Singh. I am warning you (Pakistan Army chief), we are also Punjabis, you will not be allowed to enter here and vitiate the atmosphere, he added. Singh was speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor to connect the Dera Baba Nanak Gurudwara in Gurdaspur to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur across the LoC in Pakistans Punjab. Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu, along with Singh, laid the foundation stone for the corridor. Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Nitin Gadkari were also present. Backing Singhs comments, Naidu said killing of innocent people will not be tolerated. I must tell what Punjab CM said, that we can't allow terrorism and can't let innocents die, this isn't going to help, it's not the way; it must be understood. Thats why, let this be the start of this great event, he said. Singh on Sunday had declined Pakistan's invite to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor on the other side of the border, even as his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu accepted the request. In a letter to Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Singh said though it was a historic occasion, he regretted his inability to be present, citing terror attacks in his state and killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan troops as the reason. First, not a day passes when Indian soldiers are not killed or wounded on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Rather than moving towards normalcy, these incidents are escalating, he said. Secondly, the chief minister had claimed that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has started its nefarious activities in Punjab. "Since March 2017, the state has neutralised 19 ISI-armed and controlled modules, apprehended 81 terrorists and seized 79 weapons, numerous grenades of the HG-84 type made in Pakistan's Ordnance factories with Austrian know how, and some IEDs," the chief minister claimed. India to press for better deal with China at RCEP negotiations India, which has built up a huge trade gap with China over the years, has sought to limit zero duty market access to a lesser number of Chinese goods compared to other members participating in the negotiations for the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) mega trade deal. India will press for better trade deal with China as part of the ongoing negotiations for the proposed mega trade deal, which is slated to be concluded next year, official sources said. India is also seeking more time to eliminate duties on Chinese goods as part of the deal. The proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement being negotiated by 16 countries, including 10 Asean members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six free trade agreement partners - India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, since November 2012. On the other hand, members participating in the RCEP want India to remove tariffs or customs duties on about 90-92 per cent items that it trades with the Asean countries, with which it has a free trade agreement, and Japan. With the other countries - China, Australia and New Zealand - discussions are on for eliminating duties on 80-86 per cent of the products. India has asked for 20 years to remove these duties. But, with China, it wants more time for elimination of tariffs. With China, however, India is clear that given the trade deficit, China should give yield more than India and take a longer staging period. Lowering or eliminating duties for China will flood Indian markets with Chinese goods, especially in products like steel and other metal, electronic goods, processed food and a host of other goods, and domestic industries and government departments are raising concerns over the presence of China in the RCEP group. India has a trade deficit with 10 countries in this grouping. The trade gap with China, Korea, Indonesia and Australia increased to $63.12 billion, $11.96 billion, $12.47 billion and $10.16 billion, respectively, in 2017-18. It was $51.11 billion, $8.34 billion, $9.94 billion and $8.19 billion in the previous financial year. The commerce ministry will undertake a study on the implications of the agreement for Indian industry. The ministry will also undertake intense negotiations with the partner countries, other departments, industry and concerned stakeholders. Since almost all rounds of negotiations are to be based on bilateral discussions, the ministry now plans to intensify negotiations bilaterally on a give and take basis in services and goods. In the service sector, India is pushing for business visitor commitment for smooth movement of professionals. India will focus on boosting its exports to the US and other global markets as Chinese shipments become unattractive amid a trade war between the world's biggest economies, trade minister Suresh Prabhu said. Govt launches `Paisa' portal for affordable credit and interest subvenion access The government on Monday launched a centralised electronic platform for processing interest subvention on bank loans to beneficiaries under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM), called `Paisa. PAiSA, or `Portal for Affordable Credit and Interest Subvention Access, is a web platform designed and developed by Allahabad Bank, which is the nodal bank. All 35 states/union territories and all scheduled commercial banks, RRBs and cooperative banks are expected to be on board the `Paisa portal the year-end. Launching the portal, Durga Shankar Mishra, secretary, ministry of housing and urban affairs, said `Paisa is yet another effort by the government to connect directly with the beneficiaries, ensuring that there is greater transparency and efficiency in delivery of services. DBT of subvention on monthly basis under DAY-NULM will give the necessary financial support to small entrepreneurs in a timely manner, he said. The portal was launched during the course of a day-long National Workshop on Municipal Finance and Urban Planning organised by the ministry of housing and urban affairs and provided a platform to identify key areas of concern regarding municipal finance and urban planning, and exploring the options available to resolve them by inviting senior officials/experts to shed light on best practices. Sensex ends 159 points higher, Nifty at 10,685; Infosys up 3% Market at Close: Its a green close for the market on Tuesday, with the Nifty ending well above 10,650-mark. A rally among PSU banks, energy names as well as IT boosted the market. In the broader market, the Nifty Midcap index ended over half a percent higher. At the close of market hours, the Sensex ended up 159.06 points or 0.45% at 35513.14, while the Nifty was higher by 57.00 points or 0.54% at 10685.60. The market breadth was narrow as 1238 shares advanced, against a decline of 1320 shares, while 161 shares were unchanged. Infosys, TCS, and BPCL were the top gainers, while Sun Pharma and Hero MotoCorp lost the most. Zydus Cadila gets USFDA approval: Zydus Cadila has received the final approval from the USFDA to market Baclofen Tablets, 10 mg and 20 mg. It will be manufactured at the groups formulations manufacturing facility at Baddi. Monte Carlo Fashions buyback: A meeting of the Board of Directors of the company is scheduled to be held on November 30 to consider and approve the buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the company. Lupin gets EIR from USFDA: The company has received EIR (Establishment Inspection Report) on the completion of an inspection by the USFDA (United States Food & Drug Administration) at its facility in Tarapur, Maharashtra. USFDA approves ANDA filed by Granules Pharma: The US Food & Drug Administration (US FDA) has approved the Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) filed by Granules Pharmaceuticals, Inc., subsidiary of Granules India Limited, through its US agent First Time US Generics LLC, for Methylphenidate Hydrochloride Extended-Release Tablets USP, 10 mg and 20 mg. Deutsche Bank of Siemens: shares fell half a percent in morning on Tuesday after global investment firm Deutsche Bank slashed price target to Rs 1,120 from Rs 1,130 earlier. The research house also reduced its EPS estimates by 2/5 percent for FY19/FY20 as power and transmission & distribution segments growth should slow. Market open: It is a flat start for the market on Tuesday morning, with the Nifty holding 10,600. Among sectors, IT and pharma are trading in the green, while metals have continued to be weak. The Nifty Midcap index is trading flat. The Sensex is up 6.72 points or 0.02% at 35360.80, while the Nifty is lower by 8.90 points or 0.08% at 10619.70. The market breadth is positive as 282 shares advanced, against a decline of 135 shares, while 38 shares were unchanged. Yes Bank and Sun Pharma are the top gainers, while Vedanta, SBI, and JSW Steel have lost the most. Market at pre-open: Benchmark indices are trading higher in the pre-opening session with Nifty is around 10,650 level. At 09:01 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 92.65 points or 0.26% at 35446.73, and the Nifty up 20.90 points or 0.20% at 10649.50. Yes Bank, Sun Pharma gained more than 4 percent. Crude Update: Oil markets opened cautiously on Tuesday, with many traders reluctant to take on large new positions ahead of the G20 gathering in Argentina this weekend and the OPEC meeting in Austria next week. Asian markets trade mixed: Asian shares battled to extend a global rebound on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump seemed to quash hopes of a trade truce with China, dampening risk appetite across the region. SGX Nifty: Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India, a fall of 57 points or 0.54 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 10,590-level on the Singaporean Exchange. Nathan Boyle has become the first player to agree a new deal with Finn Harps ahead of the new 2019 Premier Division campaign. The 24-year-old took to social media on Monday evening to reveal that he has decided to stick with the Donegal club for the new season. The striker had been linked with a move back to Derry City after impressing with Harps last season. Boyle rejoined the Ballybofey side in July on a short-term deal after falling out of favour at Brandywell. Delighted to have signed back with Finn harps for the 2019 season https://t.co/KCg06G2jvp Nathan Boyle (@nathanboylee16) November 26, 2018 His goals were vital as Harps stormed to a second place finish in the First Division. And he was among the goals again, scoring in the two play-off matches against Drogheda United before scoring the second in Harps' 2-0 win in Limerick at the beginning of November. That victory completed a 3-0 aggregate win and sealed the team's promotion back to the top division. Young Donegal man Jason Hanlon is to undergo surgery in Dublin today which is hoped could save his life. Jason, who suffers from a severe intellectual disability, is due to be operated on in Dublin for scoliosis, a genetic disorder that causes curvature of the spine. Recent weeks have seen a huge fundraising campaign locally which culminated in a concert at the Waterfront Hotel in Dungloe on Friday night. Jason was admitted to Tallaght Hospital in Dublin yesterday for the long-awaited procedure which is due to take place today. Since October last year Jasons condition has deteriorated and in March it was decided that the solution was a major operation to attempt to realign the curvature of his spine. His mother Elizabeth said she, her husband Patrick, and Jason's siblings - Aine, Lizzie, Patrick, Robert, Adrian, and Damien - are all positive that the operation will go well. While the operation is high-risk the mother of nine says without the operation Jasons condition will deteriorate and he runs the risk of losing his life to infections or pneumonia. The operation is his only hope, she said. I am keeping positive, she told the Donegal Democrat/DPP. We're going forward with it because God is good and there are people all over the world praying for Jason. I think he will come out the other end of the operation. I think Jason is strong and he has the whole world behind him - friends, cousins, people in Australia, Scotland, America. I can't explain it but the support that has been shown is just unbelievable. Jason is facing at least ten or 12 days in postoperative recovery in Dublin, Elizabeth said. Elizabeth expressed huge gratitude to everybody that has been involved in the fundraising. She also thanked Fr Aodhan Cannon and everyone who attended a special Mass that was held for Jason in Dungloe on Friday morning. The committee and Pat the Cope and all the support we have got has been great, I just can't thank them enough. They are all brilliant and they have been there for me 27-seven. To date, Dundalk man Eric Beggs - a long standing supporter and champion of Fighting Blindness - and friends, have raise an incredible 136,089 through the annual Cooley Mountain Trek and other community events. This has helped pave the way for future treatments and cures for blindness. Last week, Fighting Blindness ambassadors Victoria Smurfit and her daughter Evie joined forces with Eric and the organisation - who are grateful for the support. Evie is living with the condition Stargardt disease, which leads to reduced central vision. As yet, there is no treatment or cure. As it is a rare condition, Evie had to really fight to get a diagnosis. The diagnosis was life-changing for the whole family, but they were determined to try to create something positive from it. As her mum, Victoria did her best to empower Evie, not to let her condition define her. Victoria said, In March of 2017 I was fighting with the local optician, as despite endless trips to them and the highest tech glasses, Evie still couldnt see the board at school. "How could she possibly have the correct prescription? After insisting, the optician agreed to have photos taken of the back of Evies eyes. It was a Friday at 5pm when the call came in from the optician saying that Evie had to go to a specialist. When she said macular dystrophy, it meant nothing. The last thing she said to me on the phone was dont Google it, so of course I did. It said that there was no cure and that it would lead to central blindness. "I sat on my bedroom floor and hyperventilated as quietly as I could so the kids couldnt hear me downstairs. I booked us all in for the Monday to find out. It was a long weekend. "At this point nothing was said to Evie. I will never forget the look on the consultants face as he scanned Evies eye pictures. It was an imperceptible shift that changed everything. The diagnosis was life-changing for the whole family, but they were determined to try to create something positive from it. As her mum, Victoria did her best to empower Evie, not to let her condition define her. For Evie, and thousands of children like her living with sight loss, there is hope for the future. Thanks to the kindness of supporters like Eric and the Dundalk community, Fighting Blindness can fund cutting edge research to develop treatments and cures for sight loss conditions, including Stargardt disease. 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. Some 74 schools in Louth will receive a Minor Works Grant payment over the coming days for small-scale works and improvements, a Fine Gael Councillor has said. Councillor John McGahon said the Department of Education is advising all school authorities to use the grant to prioritise fire safety prevention works. Cllr. McGahon said "I am delighted this grant will be paid to 74 schools across Louth over the next number of days. This follows a commitment under Project Ireland 2040 that the Minor Works Grant will be paid on an annual basis to all primary schools. All primary schools will receive a flat rate Minor Works Grant of 5,500 plus 18.50 per mainstream pupil and 74 per special needs pupil attending a special school or special class. The grant is worth 6,425 for a 50 pupil school and over 11,000 for a 300 pupil school. While schools have discretion under the Minor Works Grant Scheme in relation to the nature of small-scale works and improvements to be carried out to their school buildings, the Department is advising all school authorities to use the grant in the first instance to prioritise fire safety prevention works. The key outcomes from the Department-led programme of fire safety assessments on 55 schools that was initiated last year highlights the need for a strengthened focus on fire safety housekeeping, maintenance and, where necessary, remedial works. The Department will be developing guidance for all primary and post-primary schools on the key issues identified from the fire safety assessment programme. This will focus on the importance of managing and prioritising fire safety particularly in the context of funding provided under the Minor Works Grant to all primary schools. It is envisaged that this guidance will be provided to schools in Q1 2019 and the Department will be consulting with the school management bodies before finalising the guidance. Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh said: I am pleased that there is now more certainty for schools in relation to the Minor Works Grant and that this will enable schools to have more effective maintenance programmes in place. A key priority is to ensure that any fire safety matters are addressed. Employers and employees across Australia are in full preparation mode to celebrate a year of hard work with a Christmas party or social function. As well as making sure everyone has a good time, employers and their staff need to be aware of some of the risks that can arise through social interaction outside the usual work environment, particularly when a drink or two is involved. We encourage employers to host a Christmas party or end of year function for employees to celebrate their achievements, says Senior Employment Relations Adviser from Employsure, Jessica Lestrange. They just need to consider the risks that can come about in these situations. Many owner-managers dont realise, but a lot of the legislation which they have to adhere to during the working day applies just as equally to Christmas parties, and ignoring it could lead to costly and time-consuming legal issues, she said. Even if employees decide to kick on with an after party, Lestrange says, Employers need to be vigilant in meeting their duty of care. Sexual harassment. If the work Christmas party is organised and paid for by the employer, the obligations generally remain the same as though it was in the workplace. Employers are therefore advised to clearly outline what is inappropriate behaviour and what the repercussions can be if misconduct takes place, she said. The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says that the definition of the workplace and therefore what constitutes workplace sexual harassment has become broad due to the increase in digital technology, such as email and social media, which means our working hours are no longer limited to 9-5pm. Inappropriate sexual behaviour can be a major issue when people are drinking, Touching people inappropriately on the dancefloor is a classic example, she adds. Consumption of alcohol (or drugs). The festive atmosphere also means there is a high chance of alcohol in the mix, which brings with it additional challenges for employers. For health and safety purposes and in an attempt to reduce the chances of inappropriate conduct, Lestrange says employers should ensure the service of alcohol is responsible and employees have plenty access to water and food, You might also consider an early cut-off time for the service of alcohol. Employers need to apply the same zero tolerance approach about the use of illegal drugs. Being under the influence also includes illegal drugs; so, your drugs and alcohol policy needs to be clear on this, defining what under the influence means to your business and making this clear from the outset. Getting home safe. The potential consequences for employers found to be negligent should not be underestimated. If an employee is injured on their way home from the function, the employer could be faced with a workers compensation claim. The seriousness of these issues should be enough to encourage employers to take proactive steps to educate and supervise their team. Making appropriate transport arrangements is a highly effective way to minimise the risk: If someone gets too intoxicated, send them home safely straight away. Dont let them get behind the wheel. Ruined reputations. Professional and business reputations are at risk. Imagine the difficulty a boss would have managing their team if they drunkenly share inappropriate information about their love life. Other examples might include bumping and grinding on the dancefloor or a solo attempt on the karaoke microphone. Another good policy to refer to is the Social Media policy to avoid any inappropriate posts from your employees. Final word of advice. The Christmas party is supposed to reward staff for their hard work, and business owners should stress that before laying down the law, Dont kill the fun remind employees it is an enjoyable celebration, and that employees who do not adhere to the policy or code of conduct, spoil the party for everyone, she said. Careful and thoughtful planning can help eliminate the risks in advance and ensure everyone has a safe and enjoyable time. For employees, Lestrange says the bottom line is: No matter how much fun youre having, youre still officially at work. Jessica Lestrange, Senior Employment Relations Adviser, Employsure. Enterprise IT Lead Generation Services Fuel Your Pipeline. Close More Deals. Our full-service marketing programs deliver sales-ready leads. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! Learn more. Digital transformation has become a prime focus for retailers these days. In order to grow, brick-and-mortar stores realize they must use their digital touchpoints to enhance their customers' in-store experiences. Online retailers recognize they need to separate themselves from the pack through faster and more informative shopping experiences. And omnichannel sellers and brands are aware they need to provide their customers with a seamless, cross-channel experience. To meet the exigencies of digital transformation, retailers have been turning to business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce suites to automate their merchandising, streamline operations, and boost the impact of their business teams on the experience of their customers. However, choosing such a platform can be difficult. "It's a very competitive space. Differentiation is challenging," said Thad Peterson, a senior analyst with the Aite Group, a global research and advisory firm based in Boston. "It's a maturing market, but some aspects of it are growing faster than the market as a whole," he told the E-Commerce Times. "The home mobile side is growing more quickly -- and in the developing world, it's growing much, much more quickly." Hands On or Hands Off? How much the business should be involved in the technical implementation and operation of the platform is one of the first questions a commerce platform shopper should consider, Gartner analyst Mike Lowndes suggested in a research note on digital commerce platform architecture. Gartner, a research and advisory company, is based in Stamford, Connecticut. "If the business will be less involved, then a more packaged or single-vendor solution may be appropriate," he wrote. "However, if IT organizations are to be involved in more than governance, leaders need to understand the high-level approaches available to make the best decision for the business." When examining a new digital commerce venture or replacing a legacy platform, organizations often search first for a digital commerce platform vendor before considering the impact of the vendor's product architecture on their business and future needs, Lowndes wrote. "Alternatively, this decision is placed in the hands of a development partner or system integrator on behalf of the business," he added, "sometimes with unforeseen consequences to flexibility, future-proofing and fit for purpose." Big Versus Small When shopping for a B2C e-commerce suite, the size of the purchaser is an important consideration. "If you're a sophisticated e-commerce provider with an IT group that does a lot of your Web development, then you don't need a turnkey solution. You just need good cloud-based functionality and a good, secure platform that's flexible so you can do what you need to do," Aite Group's Peterson explained. "If you're a small organization, you may need Web services, Web design and a lot of other things," he continued. "If you're smaller, you're ceding more control to the provider. If you're larger, you're keeping more control to yourself." A recent Forrester Wave report on B2C commerce suites notes, for example, that SAP Commerce Cloud is a suite suitable only for organizations with deep technical skills or a strong partnership with a system integrator. "SAP commerce cloud is a best ft for companies looking for an industrial-strength full-function commerce platform in wide use across several industry verticals," the report points out. IBM's Watson Commerce is another suite that requires technical chops to deploy, and IBM is also in the process of modernizing the solution's architecture. "IBM is a good fit for large enterprises with the budget, resources, and willingness to bet on the company's ability to execute on its modern platform vision. Less mature organizations will likely find this suite too cumbersome," Forrester concludes. What to Look For At the start of the shopping process for a B2C suite, an organization has to evaluate what it sells. Is my product complex or is it simple? "There are solutions that are better for selling simple products than complex products," said Gartner Vice President Penny Gillespie. Where a product is being sold is another important consideration. "Some platforms do better selling locally and regionally than globally," Gillespie told the E-Commerce Times. For example, in Forrester's report notes that Digital River's commerce suite is a good fit for companies looking to expand globally and to outsource the transactional overhead of doing business internationally. Forrester offers three general recommendations when shopping for a B2C suite: Make sure the suite contains the core set of features that drive a customer's online experience -- including search, personalization and promotions, and the analytics to tie those three elements together. The ability to target content and products with consumer incentives across the consumer's shopping journey is essential to giving the consumer a differentiated shopping experience. Make sure the suite is agile enough to give business users the tools they need to rapidly change content. Business users need a 360-degree view of their customers, along with a promotions and campaign engine they can control, so they can attract customers and induce them to make purchases. Make sure the suite incorporates operational efficiencies that reduce costs and provide an upgrade process that requires little regression testing and no recoding. A containerized approach to upgrades that manages versions and automates scaling is critical to simplifying the upgrade cycle, as is the use of an abstracted API layer to isolate the commerce runtime from store customizations. Transformation Versus Optimization When purchasing a B2C suite, a buyer should understand the difference between a solution that's going to optimize an organization's performance and one that can transform it. A transformational solution is one prepared to deal with the future of e-commerce. Just a scant six years ago, optimization was the driving force behind digital commerce investments, but that isn't the case anymore, Gartner research shows. "In 2012, customers were investing in digital commerce for cost savings. In 2017, it was about transformation and delivering great customer experiences," Gillespie said. "When I think about delivering a great customer experience, I think about delivering a personalized customer experience," she continued. "And when I think about delivering a personalized customer experience, I think of content being relevant, my process being easy and seamless, and content that resonates with me." One characteristic of transformation is putting commerce in context. For example, the app for a furniture store will be able to show a consumer how a piece of furniture will look in a home, or a clothing store app will display how an item will look on the consumer. Another characteristic is shifting from being reactive to a consumer's wants to being proactive or anticipatory of them. "Today, 99.99 percent of all transactions are initiated by customers," Gillespie explained. "In the future, we're going to see more and more transactions by merchants or suppliers based on what they know about the customer." Make a Road Map Commerce platform shoppers should create a road map for digital commerce and manage technologies based on the digital commerce technology ecosystem, Gillespie recommends. "This will lead to a complete digital commerce solution, maximizing the value of both the commerce platform and the corresponding digital commerce ecosystem applications," she said. "Organizations underestimate the requirements of a digital commerce solution. As a result, they deploy incomplete solutions that impede their journey to success." It's important to scrutinize an IT vendor's digital commerce platforms to ensure they match the road map and requirements, Gillespie advised, and to identify requirements delivered natively. "This can reduce unplanned spending on additional technology and lower integration costs." Create a Short List Commerce suites need to provide customers with more than just access to a company's goods, observed Hayward, California-based Charles King, a principal analyst with Pund-IT, a technology advisory firm. "It also needs to highlight and reinforce a company's brand and go-to-market strategy," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Customization, search, personalization and support for company promotions are all critical parts of that process," King added. "I'd also add that mobile transaction support and optimization is a critical issue for many, if not most, retailers -- especially those in consumer markets." After performing its initial analysis, suite shoppers will need to create short list of prospects. When making that list, "first and foremost, invest time and effort in determining what your own organization hopes to accomplish with online commerce, along with developing realistic budgets and timelines," King recommended. "Then take a long and close look at primary vendors, along with whatever strategic partners -- banks, hosted service providers, designers and such -- are working behind the scenes," he continued. "That includes examining a vendor's existing sites, and arranging discussions with those customers." If a suite shopper operates in a particular industry, platform providers that focus on that industry should be good candidates for a short list of finalists. "You need to understand your vertical," said Aite Group's Peterson, "and identify players with expertise in that vertical, so you don't have to explain to them what you're doing or adapt their technology to what you're doing." Keep Your Eye on the Ball As a shopper works down the list of candidates for a suite deployment, sales pitches can start to fog the shopper's focus, but it's crucial to keep what needs to be accomplished front and center, King advised. However, "companies also need to determine how flexible or willing to compromise they can be on specific points," he added. "Realistically, it will be difficult to find a commerce vendor that's a perfect 100 percent fit for your situation," King continued, "but considering and remaining focused on your organization's core requirements will go a long way to determining which B2C partners are worthy of serious consideration." John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. AMSTERDAM As part of a continued and coordinated effort to breath new life into the Bangladesh Accord on worker safety, several leading European NGOs involved in the ethical fashion sector have together appealed to Bangladesh government to allow the Accord to continue its work on safety in the countrys garment sector. A joint letter sent to the government by the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile (AGT), Fair Wear Foundation, Fair Labor Association, the Ethical Trading Initiative and Amfori, among others, says there is still more to be done to complete the remediation at factories covered by the Accord, despite the creation of an independent Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC) to regulate safety in the ready-made garment sector. The signatories claim that fewer than half of all Accord factories completed the necessary structural refits. The move follows on from other recent efforts to help to prop up the initiative. By Marlene Cimons An individual tree has roots and, of course, it doesn't move. But trees, as a species, do move over time. They migrate in response to environmental challenges, especially climate change. Surprisingly, they don't all go to the Poles, where it is cooler. As it turns out, more of them head west, where it is getting wetter. Sure, some species, such as evergreens, are heading to the Poles to escape the heat. But others, like certain oaks and maple, are going west in search of rain. For the most part, "tree migrations are moisture related," said Songlin Fei, associate professor at Purdue's University's department of forestry and natural resources, who has studied this phenomenon in recent years. "Precipitation has a stronger near-term impact on species shift than temperature." Both trends are a consequence of climate change, which is producing more heat and heavier rainfall, fueling deforestation. This is worrisome, as forests soak up carbon from the atmosphere, and recent evidence suggests that soil is exhaling carbon dioxide faster than trees can take in. The migration of trees may help preserve individual species, but also threatens to destabilize forest ecosystems. An oak tree. Pixabay Fei analyzed the movement of 86 tree species from across the Eastern United States between 1980 and 2015 using using field data from obtained from the U.S. Forest Service. He found that 73 percent of tree species shifted to the west, while 62 percent moved poleward. "The majority of the species move westward are broadleaf species that can better handle flood and drought, and have a large seed mass, which improves the seedling's ability to survive," he said. "One example of westward shift species is Scarlet Oak. Miss Scarlett 'gone with the wind,' but Scarlet Oak is 'gone with the rain.'" A Scarlet Oak. Katja Schulz Researchers compared the distribution of trees in 1980 and 2015, calculating the distance and direction of the trees' movement. During the more than three decades covered by the study, the mean annual temperature in the eastern United States, where they collected the data, rose around 0.3 degrees F on average, Fei said. The northern areas of that region saw among the largest temperature increases, he added. Precipitation patterns in the regions also changed during those years, as increasing heat spurred in widespread droughts, another reason for trees to gravitate toward the rain, he said. The scientists' initial findings appeared in a study published in the journal Science Advances last year. Fei and his team currently are working to update the earlier results, hoping to publish their new findings soon. The researchers have concluded that changes in rainfall and temperature have put "the resilience and sustainability of various forest ecosystems across eastern United States in question," Fei said. Changes in temperature and precipitation between the recent past (19511980) and the study period (19812014) across the eastern United States. Science Advances To be clear, the study focused only on the eastern half the country, meaning tree species didn't move to, for example, California, Oregon or Washington. In fact, the transition was gradual. "Species, on average, moved about 10 miles per decade, or about one county during the study period," Fei said. The trees have picked up on the trends driven by climate change, moving from regions getting less rainfall than in the past to those that are getting more. Even though the Southeast still gets more rainfall than the Midwest, it's been receiving less in recent years than its historical average, Fei said. At the same time, rainfall has been increasing in the Midwest. "Reduction of moisture in the Southeast and increase of moisture in the Midwest is one of the major reasons caused the shift of species," he said. Fei said it helped that the team could use real-world data for its analysis, and that they did not need to rely on traditional computer modeling. "It is not future predictions," he said. "Empirical data reveals the impact of climate change is happening on the ground now. It's in action." Reposted with permission from our media associate Nexus Media. When former charter school executive Marshall Tuck called Assemblyman Tony Thurmond to concede in the hotly contested race for state schools superintendent, it marked another defeat for charter-school advocates in California. Thurmond was elected Californias top education official in the wave that led more liberal-leaning voters to cast ballots. Although both are Democrats, Thurmond had the partys endorsement in the nonpartisan state chiefs election. He also was backed by teachers unions, who were outspent more than two-to-one. Independent groups supporting Tuck spent more than $36 million this cycle. Frequent political donor Bill Bloomfield, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and philanthropist Eli Broad also were among the biggest contributors to those efforts. Tucks official campaign raised another $5 million. Despite the jobs limited power, the race attracted more than $50 million in outside spending. It was the most expensive state superintendent contest in U.S. history , according to an analysis by The Associated Press. The group of people who have provided significant funding to candidates that are associated with a charter-friendly agenda have proven that they dont have the ability to capture statewide offices, said John Rogers, an education policy expert at UCLA. Its only the latest big loss the pro-charter school movement has suffered in California. In June, many of the same donors were disappointed when their chosen candidate for California governor, Antonio Villaraigosa, didnt make it out of the primary despite their more-than $20 million effort to bolster him. Tuck also ran for schools chief unsuccessfully in 2014, when incumbent Tom Torlakson beat himagain with support from the teachers unions. The California Teachers Association provided most of the more-than $16 million independent effort supporting Thurmond. His campaign raised more than $3 million. Labor unions and the California Democratic Party were among the biggest donors for both Thurmonds campaign and the independent efforts supporting him. Limited Power The state superintendent of public instruction oversees the California Department of Education and chairs the State Board of Education. The office doesnt have much direct control over education policy in California, although its seen as an influential position. Thurmond, a member of the state Assembly, opposed diverting money from traditional public schools into public charter schools. I intend to be a champion of public schools, Thurmond said in a statement announcing his victory. All students, no matter their background and no matter their challenges, can succeed with a great public education. Tuck, meanwhile, emphasized giving parents more choices in where to send their children, including nonprofit charter schools. He also advocated for directing more money to teachers in schools with high populations of low-income students, English-learners, and children in foster care. Both opposed for-profit charter schools. The campaign spending illustrates tensions between factions of the Democratic Party more aligned with labor unions and others more aligned with business, especially in Silicon Valley, Rogers said. Those who were engaging in this funding wanted to communicate a message about their importance and the weight that they carried in statewide politics, he said. You would never expect an election for state superintendent of public instruction to get this much attention. There will be a new cast of characters overseeing state education policy in 2019and many of them will be looking to shake things up to deliver on the many promises they made on the campaign trail in this years midterm elections. New governorsmany of them Democratsare expected to propose ambitious budgets with new ways of funding their K-12 systems. The fresh crop of governors and state board members is likely to lead to big turnover of state schools superintendents in places where theyre appointed. And states where one party or the other has new control of both the legislature and governorship, such as Democrats in Colorado, may use that momentum to push school accountability and other changes at a time when the Every Student Succeeds Act gives them greater policy authority. States are going to be more important than ever before, said Kristen Amundson, the president and CEO of the National Association of State Boards of Education. There is less likelihood that there will be a single message from the feds to states. But state by state, youll see important education policy decisions being made next year. Democratic Gains Democrats picked up seven governors seats and seven legislative chambers in this years elections. In January, 23 states will have Democratic governors and 27 states will have Republican governors. Eighteen states legislatures will be completely controlled by Democrats, 30 state legislatures will be controlled by Republicans, and only one state legislatureMinnesotaswill be split. (Nebraskas legislature is nonpartisan.) Amundson predicted there will be almost two dozen new appointed and elected state education chiefs taking charge in the next six months. Already in recent weeks, winners of the 2018 election were preparing for the new year when the legislature gets into full swing. Budgets were being crafted, staff hired, and many senior legislators were jockeying to be placed on high-profile education committees. The biggest changes, following the many strikes this past spring over teachers pay and working conditions, will likely come in the ways that schools are funded. While the economy is thriving overall, schools in some states are still financially struggling, the result of ballooning pension costs, outdated school funding formulas, and limited revenues. Kansas Gov.-elect Laura Kelly told local media shortly after her upset victory over Republican Kris Kobach, the secretary of state, that she will push to reinstate teachers rights to due process before getting fired, a measure former Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, eliminated in 2014. She will also be tasked with coming up with as much as $100 million to answer a state supreme court decision that the states K-12 spending leaves its schools inadequately funded. (The state is predicting a $300 million increase in revenue next year.) Taking the Reins Wisconsins governor-elect, Tony Evers, will be looking to pass a $1.4 billion budget that provides tens of millions more for that states public school districts, many of which are losing hundreds of students a year. Evers said shortly after being elected that he will wait until the last minute to resign his post as state superintendent so that he will be able to appoint his own predecessor. In Colorado, Jared Polis, a Democratic congressman who just won that states gubernatorial election, received some heat from several teachers in the state after he appointed Jen Walmer, director of Democrats for Education Reform, to his transition team. The group was denounced during the state Democratic Partys convention this year for its full-throated support of charter schools. Colorados teachers union backed his opponent in the primary, specifically for Polis previous support for charter schools and vouchers. During this years election season, Polis also refused to take a stance on controversial Amendment 73, whichhad it passedwould have raised the states income tax on some residents in order to bring $1.6 billion annually to the states public schools. In his victory speech, he said he will work to find a solution to the public school systems chronic funding crisis. That will be made easier now that the state is fully controlled by Democrats (the states legislature has been divided since 2010), though any new revenue stream will have to be approved by voters. Other states could also attempt to exploit new single-party control of their state legislature. Education policy saw some of its most sweeping changes in 2016 when Republicans in 32 states had full control of both chambers and the governors seat. In New York, for example, many are predicting the states legislature, which as of January will be fully controlled by Democrats for the first time in several years, will attempt to reign in that states charter school growth. Legislative Control In other states, Democrats could use legislative control in order to change their states accountability system. New Mexicos teachers have long pushed to make fundamental changes to their evaluation and school accountability systems, but were stymied by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and her appointed secretary of education, Hanna Skandera, who pushed for rapid change in the way the state holds schools accountable. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democrat who won this years election for governor, promised on the campaign trail to make wholesale changes to the way that state funds schools and holds them accountable. Gone are the days where anyone talks about New Mexico not being in first placegone, Lujan Grisham said in a rousing acceptance speech, according to local reports. Were going to transform our public education system. In other states, though party control wont change, legislatures will look to make change because of agitated teachers and district superintendents. Texas district superintendents over the last two years have been complaining about a letter-grade accountability system that they say oversimplifies school quality in the state. The legislature could finally put that debate to rest during its 2019 biennial session. And Tennessees district superintendents have been complaining for years about the states botched testing system, which its teacher evaluation and school ranking systems rely on. Bill Lee, the Republican who just won the states gubernatorial election, said he will use feedback given to outgoing Gov. Bill Haslams statewide listening tour in order to find a replacement testing system next year. Not there to oversee whatever the state legislature decides will be Candice McQueen, who resigned her post as education commissioner shortly after the election. McQueen is likely to be one of the first of several high-profile education chief turnovers in the coming months. In Arizona, Kathy Hoffman, a Democrat last week eked out a win against Republican candidate Frank Riggs. While Hoffman will have to report to a governor-appointed board, her stance on accountability, standards, and teacher accountability will differ dramatically from her predecessor Diane Douglas, a Republican. And in California, Tony Thurmond, a Democratic state assembly member backed heavily by the states teachers union, declared victory over charter school-backed Marshall Tuck in that states hotly contested state superintendent race. Thurmond will immediately be tasked with redesigning that states report card, which got heavy push back from data transparency advocates for being incomprehensible. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos has asked the Sandiganbayan to forward her graft case to the Supreme Court, where she plans to question her conviction. She filed a notice of appeal before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, which comes a little over two weeks after the court handed out a guilty verdict in her graft case. "Wherefore, Accused Imelda R. Marcos hereby files this Notice of Appeal, and requests that the records of the instant case be forwarded to the Supreme Court for further proceedings," the motion filed on November 26 reads. The anti-graft court on November 9 promulgated a guilty verdict against the former first lady of late President Ferdinand Marcos for using her position in government to maintain Swiss bank accounts during the Marcos regime. Marcos earlier asked for a "leave of court" to allow her to pursue post-conviction remedies, including posting bail while she appeals the conviction. She was granted temporary bail in the amount of P150,000 while the court decides on her motion for leave of court. But it seems the 89-year-old Marcos can no longer wait for that decision. "To date, Motion for Leave filed by the Accused has not yet been resolved. With due respect, the Accused submits that the decision convicting her is contrary to facts, law and jurisprudence," her latest motion reads. Typically, a decision by the Sandiganbayan is appealed through a Motion for Reconsideration first before the division that rendered the judgement. When this motion is denied, then the accused can elevate the case to higher courts. Motion premature The Fifth Division, however, said Marcos motion is premature. In a statement, the division said it cannot act on the said motion. The Notice of Appeal filed by Marcos is premature as the Court has not yet resolved her Motion for Leave to avail of post conviction remedies. Therefore the Court cannot take action on the same. Santiago, Nov 26 (epa-efe).- The Anef union representing 350,000 Chilean public employees said that 90 percent of the membership took part in the strike that was called Monday to demand a pay increase and protest a "wave of layoffs." In a rally in front of La Moneda palace, hundreds of workers turned out on Monday morning to demand a 3.5 percent pay increase, while the government has offered 3.1 percent. "We have been negotiating for two months and the government of (President) Sebastian Pinera has been unable to make proposals that allow us to advance on the agreement regarding these matters," Anef chief Carlos Insunza told EFE. Insunza added that this national strike is being conducted within the framework of the annual negotiations that the workers undertake to adjust the pay and working conditions of the public sector. "Also, our demands are focused on the wave of dismissals that the installation of the government of Sebastian Pinera entailed this year. More than 2,700 workers have been fired," he added. Workers' representatives are due to meet later on Monday with the ministers of labor, Nicolas Monckeberg, and finance, Felipe Larrain. After this meeting, "we are going to determine whether to continue or end the mobilization, but that depends exclusively on the government's proposals," Insunza said. Miami, Nov 27 (epa-efe).- Colombian Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez said Tuesday in Miami that "the entire hemisphere" bears responsibility for "the dictatorship that was installed in Venezuela" and, therefore, the task of addressing the "humanitarian tragedy" there must be undertaken by everyone. Ramirez talked with reporters before speaking at a conference - The New Government of Colombia: Challenges and Opportunities - organized by The Miami Herald and headed by columnist and author Andres Oppenheimer. The vice president stressed that Colombia has amply demonstrated its generosity with Venezuelans fleeing their country, but she added that the situation is a regional problem that must be dealt with using "regional strategies." In her opinion, the funds that are pouring in to help those Venezuelans are completely insufficient and all countries and multilateral organizations must contribute to an emergency fund. For Ramirez, all the countries in the hemisphere bear responsibility for the situation in Venezuela. She stressed that Colombia cannot continue to accept many more Venezuelans - there are about 1 million in the country already - and said that just as when someone jumps into the sea to help another person "they can both end up drowning." In response to the claim of a World Bank official who spoke at the conference that the massive migration of Venezuelans can also be seen as an opportunity for the countries who welcome them, Ramirez stressed that that was indeed the situation during the "initial stage," when people with resources and education emigrated. Now, however, the people who are leaving the country are the ones in precarious economic conditions, Ramirez said. "The best situation would be Venezuela's return to democracy" and it must be "the commitment of everyone to exert pressure" and achieve that, she said. According to UN figures, 3 million Venezuelans have left their country to escape the worsening economic, political and social crisis, and of this number, 2.4 million are in Latin American countries. 'Europe has to pay their fair share for Military Protection' Back from his last European trip, Donald Trump tweeted against European countries for supporting a strengthened European security cooperation. The army crisis between the US and Europe continues. US President Donald Trump on Twitter said that Europe should pay NATO before they consider creating a European army. "EU DOESN'T LIVE UP TO ITS COMMITMENT" Trump hit European partners with a Twitter attack over NATO burden-sharing: The European Union, for many years, has taken advantage of us on Trade, and then they dont live up to their Military commitment through NATO. Things must change fast!" The large and violent French protests dont take into account how badly the United States has been treated on Trade by the European Union or on fair and reasonable payments for our GREAT military protection. Both of these topics must be remedied soon. he tweeted. Israeli forces injured 3 Palestinians in a gunfire Three Palestinians were injured on Monday by Israeli army gunfire while taking part in anti-occupation rallies along the Gaza Strips northern coast. According to Gazas Health Ministrys statement, three demonstrators had been struck and injured by Israeli army gunfire northwest of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. The ministry statement went on to describe the injuries as moderate. PROTESTERS DEMAND TO END ISRAEL'S BLOCKADE On Monday evening, dozens of Palestinians staged a protest march along the Gaza Strips northern coast, during which they approached the Gaza-Israel maritime border to demand an end to Israels decades-long occupation. Since March 30, protesters in Gaza have demanded the right to return to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel. They also demand an end to Israels 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclaves economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities. Turkey and Qatar are each other's friends during hard days, says Erdogan President Erdogan said Monday that Turkey and Qatar have supported one another in hard times, and proved to be a true friend many times. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Al-Thani hold 4th meeting of Turkey-Qatar High Strategic Committee in Istanbul. The meeting held at the Vahdettin Pavilion was jointly presided over by Erdogan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. The Turkish nation showed intense efforts to break the blockade and sanctions targeting its Qatari brothers, Erdogan said during the meeting. Erdogan added that Doha was the strongest international supporter of Turkey after July 15, 2016, the defeated coup attempt by Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured. "QATAR HAS STOOD WITH US" Erdogan also said he was proud by the level of cooperation between the two countries on the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Qatar has stood with us in front of the speculative initiatives targeting our economy in the recent months, he said and thanked Qatar on behalf of the Turkish nation and himself. Al-Thani, for his part, also voiced pleasure for the level of bilateral relations and expressed his will to boost cooperation in every field. Following the meeting, Turkish and Qatari ministers signed a strategic cooperation protocol in the fields including transportation, culture, trade and economy. Ben-Gurion University Cyber Security Researcher to Present Medical Equipment Hacking and Defensive Solutions to the Radiological Society of North America CHICAGO...November 27, 2018 - As internet connectivity of medical imaging equipment in hospitals increases the potential for malicious cyberattacks, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researcher Tom Mahler will present his team's approach to solutions using artificial intelligence (AI) at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Meeting on November 27 at 3:00 p.m. in Chicago. The internet has been beneficial for health care--radiology included--improving access in remote areas, allowing for faster and better diagnoses, and vastly improving the management and transfer of medical records and images. Medical imaging devices such as X-ray, mammography, MRI, and CT machines play a crucial role in diagnosis and treatment. But as these devices are typically connected to hospital networks, they can be potentially susceptible to sophisticated cyberattacks, including ransomware attacks that can disable the machines. During his presentation, "CTrl-Alt-Radiate?" Tom Mahler, BGU Ph.D. candidate and researcher in Cyber@BGU, demonstrated how a hacker might bypass security mechanisms of a CT machine in order to manipulate its behavior. Because CT uses ionizing radiation, changes to dose could negatively affect image quality, or--in extreme cases--pose harm to the patient. Hacking a system is the first step in determining vulnerabilities and creating solutions. "In the current phase of our research, we focus on developing an anomaly detection system using advanced AI methods to train the system with actual commands recorded from actual equipment," says Mahler. "Our system will monitor scan protocols to detect whether outgoing commands are malicious before they are executed and will alert or possibly stop if it detects an issue." While other solutions have focused on securing the entire hospital network, the goal of this device-focused approach is to be the last line of defense for medical imaging devices to prevent as many attacks as possible. The BGU model learns to recognize typical imaging scan protocols and to predict if a new, unseen command is legitimate or not. If an attacker sends a malicious command to the device, the system will detect it and alert the operator before the command is executed. Mahler notes that the system is not yet finished, but that the results are a significant milestone on the path to securing medical imaging devices. "The medical information device development process, from concept to market, takes three to seven years. Cyber threats can change significantly over that period, which leave medical imaging devices highly vulnerable," Mahler says. "If health care manufacturers and hospitals take a proactive approach, we can prevent such attacks from happening in the first place." The next step in this process is to collect more scans from different devices and sites to create a more accurate model. RSNA is an association of over 54,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and related scientists that promotes excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. ### The "CTrl-Alt-Radiate?" research team includes Prof. Yuval Shahar, M.D., Ph.D., head of BGU's Medical Informatics Research Center and a member of the BGU Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering; Prof. Yuval Elovici, Ph.D., director of the Telekom Innovation Labs@BGU, director of Cyber@BGU, and a member of the BGU Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering; and Dr. Erez Shalom, Ph.D., senior researcher at BGU's Medical Informatics Research Center. Other collaborators include: Arnon Makori, M.D., M.H.A., director of Imaging Informatics in Clalit Health Services; Prof. Ilan Shelef, M.D., Ph.D., director of the imaging department in Soroka University Medical Center and a member of the BGU Faculty of Health Sciences; and Israel Goldenberg, chief information security officer in the Data Protection and Cyber Security Department, Clalit Health Services. About American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision: creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. As Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) looks ahead to turning 50 in 2020, AABGU imagines a future that goes beyond the walls of academia. It is a future where BGU invents a new world and inspires a vision for a stronger Israel and its next generation of leaders. Together with supporters, AABGU will help the University foster excellence in teaching, research and outreach to the communities of the Negev for the next 50 years and beyond. Visit vision.aabgu.org to learn more. AABGU, which is headquartered in Manhattan, has nine regional offices throughout the United States. For more information, visit http://www.aabgu.org. Five early-career science journalists have won the 2019 EurekAlert! Fellowships for International Science Reporters, as the program celebrates its 15th anniversary and the contributions of its alumni to science journalism. The winners, from China, India, Slovenia, and Egypt, will receive travel support to attend the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting, Feb. 14-17, in Washington, D.C.. Two 2018 Fellowship winners, Vijay Shankar Balakrishnan (India) and Haonan Liu (China) will also attend the Meeting. Mohammed Yahia, a 2008 EurekAlert! Fellowship recipient and current president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, highlights the need for more opportunities for science journalists in developing countries. "Being a science journalist in developing regions is tricky because there are very few formal education opportunities available," said Yahia, a co-founder and vice-president of the Arab Science Journalists Association and executive editor of partnership and custom media at Nature Research. "At the same time, there is a growing need to cover science, and there is growing demand, especially with science being integral to the development of these regions. We need more and better science journalists who can play this important part, and to deliver stories that are relevant to their audiences. "I was one of the recipients of the fellowship early in my career and it made a huge difference to me," Yahia added. "The AAAS [Annual Meeting] was by far the biggest science conference I'd ever been to, and it was exciting to have some of the best scientists and researchers in the world in one place." Federico Kukso, a 2011 EurekAlert! Fellowship recipient from Argentina and current board member of the World Federation of Science Journalists, said the fellowship gave him the opportunity to travel outside "the bubble" of Latin America and learn from scientists and science journalists from other regions. "In an era dominated by fake news, anti-vaccine movements, climate change deniers, flat-earthers and promoters of magical thinking, it is more important than ever to communicate science. And to do it well," said Kusko. "For this reason, fellowships such as the EurekAlert! fellowship are important: they help young science journalists from the farthest corners of the planet to improve their skills and give them the unique opportunity to participate in important scientific meetings where they can get to know the debates around the main scientific topics of the moment," said Kukso. Yahia and Kukso are among 68 other journalists who have received the fellowship. Other winners who have gone on to enjoy successful and respected careers in science journalism include Gan Xiao (2014), now a senior reporter with China Science Daily, and Dalia AbdelSalam (2008 and 2010), now chief editor of For Science and former board member of the Arab Science Journalists Association. AbdelSalam is also a judge in this year's competition. The 2019 winners are: Mohamed Elsonbaty Ramadan, freelance (@ElsonbatySciCom) Egypt Spoorthy Raman, Research Matters India Jyoti Singh, India Science Wire (@ashajyoti11) India Lea Udovc, Slovenian Press Agency (@LeaUdovc) Slovenia Li Zheng, freelance (@elise901) China Mohamed Elsonbaty Ramadan, a scientist-turned-freelance journalist based in Brussels, Belgium, focuses his writing on areas such as global health, science and technology, and has reported for outlets such as the Scientific American Arabic Edition, SciDev.Net MENA Edition, MIT Technology Review Arabic Edition and the Scientific Arabi magazine. Ramadan says he is eager to network with policymakers and fellow journalists at the Annual Meeting. "Winning the EurekAlert! Fellowship and attending the AAAS Annual Meeting in 2019 will give me the opportunity for exposure to world-class science and science journalism," said Ramadan. The last fellowship winner from the Middle East was Nadia El Dakroury in 2011. Mico Tatalovic, chair of the Association of British Science Writers and a judge for the 2019 fellowship program, echoes the importance of providing more opportunities to science reporters in developing economies like the Balkans. "Scientific research and science reporting have long been dominated by a small number of mainly Western countries. Science is now becoming ever more global and we need journalists in developing regions to make sense of it all to local audiences. "This is why opportunities such as this fellowship are so crucial as a stepping stone for young science reporters, and as a validation of their hard work, perseverance and striving to get into this difficult but important business of reporting on science and technology," said Tatalovic. The EurekAlert! Fellowship program expanded to the Balkans last year and applications from the region doubled this year. Among them, Lea Udovc was selected for her work with the Slovenian Press Agency (STA). She covers science, technology, and innovation and has authored interviews and stories on topics ranging from microbiology and zoology to astrophysics. Udovc was recently nominated for the European Science Writer of the Year Award 2018, which is coordinated by the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW). "Winning the EurekAlert! Fellowship has implications beyond my personal interests and benefits," said Udovc. "I believe this fellowship has an important role in promoting and encouraging good science journalism in the Balkan region, which has been largely left out of from the global science journalism map." Li Zheng, a freelance journalist with Guokr.com, a new media news platform in China, is the third winner from that outlet in the last four years. With a background in international politics and sociology, she focuses her writing on the societal and human aspects of science and technology. She has written in-depth reports about algorithms, technology ethics, and gender in science and technology. "It is truly a great honor to be representing the science communication field in China and to showcase what we have - a vibrant community with loads of new ideas as well as deep, reflective thinking," said Zheng. "The applications from China this year reflect an impressive sense of cosmopolitanism," says Jane Qiu, an award-winning science writer in Beijing and a judge of this year's program. "Their works are original and capture the cutting edge of science and technology and its societal implications." The 2019 fellowship program received partial support from Johns Hopkins Medicine. "At Johns Hopkins Medicine, we work towards the goal of increasing the public understanding of science across the globe. We are thrilled to support international science journalism and enable a journalist from China to travel to the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting," said Audrey Huang, director of media relations and director of marketing and communications for research and education at Johns Hopkins Medicine. For the fourth year in a row, the EurekAlert! Fellowship program will support two early-career journalists from India. "India is a developing country and there are lots of issues that need to be addressed and science can help," said 2019 Fellowship winner Jyoti Singh, a journalist with India Science Wire (ISW) who writes about chemistry, healthcare, mathematics and nuclear energy. "Science is essential for progress in any country. International events like the AAAS Annual Meeting give an opportunity to journalists to learn from these platforms." Spoorthy Raman, a managing editor with Research Matters, began a career in information technology before switching paths. Raman, who reports on physics, engineering, ecology, geology, and environmental disciplines, hopes to gain greater exposure to global scientific advances at the AAAS Annual Meeting. "Personally, I am happy to have gained international recognition," said Raman. "When I quit my high-flying career as an engineer, little did I know the possibilities in science writing. When I look back, I feel lucky to be doing what I love and making a career out of it." About the Fellowships Established in 2004 with a seed grant from the William T. Golden Endowment Fund for Program Innovation and sponsored by EurekAlert!, the AAAS-operated science-news service, the EurekAlert! Fellowships for International Science Reporters support early-career science reporters from emerging economies by providing them with opportunities to cover the latest research and network with peers from around the world at AAAS Annual Meetings. The 2019 program is supported in part by Johns Hopkins Medicine. Applicants must have five years or less of professional science journalism experience, meet EurekAlert!'s longstanding reporter-registrant eligibility criteria, and submit a complete application including published writing samples, a letter of recommendation, and an original essay. Past Fellowship winners have represented the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, India and China, and for the first time in 2018, the Balkan region. For more information about the 2019 Fellowship winners and their Meeting coverage, as well as a list of all EurekAlert! Fellowship recipients since 2004, visit: http://www.eurekalert.org/fellows. Biographies of 2019 Fellowship Winners (in alphabetical order) Mohamed Elsonbaty Ramadan (@ElsonbatySciCom) Mohamed Elsonbaty Ramadan is a freelance science journalist from Egypt. He received his Bachelor's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Alexandria University in 2011, before obtaining a Master's degree in Science Communication and Public Engagement from the University of Edinburgh in 2016. Since 2014, Ramadan has worked as a freelance science journalist where he has published articles in outlets such as Scientific American Arabic Edition, SciDev.Net MENA Edition, MIT Technology Review Arabic Edition and the Scientific Arabi magazine. In addition, he was the author of a series of articles for children about homemade scientific experiments titled "The Young Arabi Laboratory," published in The Young Arabi magazine. As a previous science communication consultant and trainer, Ramadan helped implement various science communication and engagement projects with organizations such as the British Council, 1001 Inventions, and the American University in Cairo. In 2017, he was selected as the first winner of the Mijbil Al-Mutua Award for young science communication professionals in the MENA region. According to FameLab 2010, Ramadan is one of Egypt's top 10 Science Communicators. Additionally, Ramadan has received several grants and fellowships that have allowed him to attend international events such as the Lindau Nobel Laureates meeting 2017, Falling Walls Conference 2017 and EuroScience Open Forum 2018. He is a member of "Public Communication of Science and Technology" (PCST) network. Spoorthy Raman Spoorthy Raman is a science writer based in Bangalore, India. After spending her early years in Mysore and Bangalore, she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Information Technology. She worked in the software industry for a few years before deciding to pursue science writing as a profession. Over the past three years, Raman has focused her writing on a wide range of topics, spanning physics, engineering, ecology, geology and environmental disciplines. Her articles have been published in many media outlets, including Deccan Herald, FactorDaily and American Geophysical Union blogs. In addition to participating in several workshops and panels, Raman had the opportunity to appear on the "Last Word" on BBC Radio 4. She was the recipient of the Merit Prize in the Asian Scientist Writing Prize in 2017 and currently works as the Managing Editor at Research Matters. Apart from writing, she loves photography, reading, nature, wildlife and just being out in the sun. A learner for life, she loves to dabble with anything new, whether it is a technology, skill, or a hobby. Jyoti Singh (@ashajyoti11) Jyoti Singh is a science journalist and social media manager at the India Science Wire (ISW). ISW, a science news and feature service funded by India's Department of Science and Technology, was established to promote science, technology, health and environment coverage in Indian media. Singh, a science communicator, journalist and science enthusiast, has work published in newspapers, magazines and e-portals like The Hindu, Scroll, Deccan Herald, Outlook, Down to Earth, Firstpost, Meghalaya Guardian, Indian Science Journal, and Invention Intelligence. She has contributed material for books, brochures, documentary films and radio jingles on topics such as nuclear energy. In addition, Singh has written science serials for All India Radio on various topics like chemistry, grass root innovations and mathematics. These serials have been translated into 19 languages and telecast from all the regional radio stations of India. Singh has a Master's degree in Mass Communication (Science and Technology). Lea Udovc (@LeaUdovc) Lea Udovc is a journalist at the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), the leading Slovenian provider of media content for domestic and foreign audiences. She started her journalism career as a presenter and editor at Souvizija, a web-based student TV network and Radio Student, an independent radio station. Since 2017, Udovc has been a full-time employee of the STA, focusing mainly on science, technology, and innovation. She has produced several dozen interviews and stories on different scientific topics ranging from microbiology, zoology, astrophysics, nuclear and theoretical physics, climate change, material science, genetics, neuroscience, and more. She is the author of a series of multimedia stories on the work of Slovenian scientists and researchers, and an author of a multimedia series of articles and video interviews with exceptional and outstanding personalities from Slovenia. Udovc has attended several international excursions and summer schools for science journalists and was nominated for the 2018 European Science Writer of the Year Award, which is coordinated by the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) and supported by Johnson & Johnson. Li Zheng (Elise) (@elise901) Li Zheng (Elise) is a freelance journalist with Guokr.com. With a background in international politics and sociology, Zheng transitioned her career to science journalism at Guokr.com after finishing her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Peking University and London School of Economics. As a science writer, she focuses her writing on sociology and the human aspects of science and technology. She connects recent discoveries and cutting-edge technologies with the life of individuals and communities in the fast-changing society of China and around the globe. She has written in-depth reports about algorithms, technology ethics, and gender in science and technology. To promote public understanding of science to the public, she would journey through universities, institutions and museums, telling the inside stories of science and technology and how it is connected to the human intellectual world. Over the last few years, she has lived in China and the U.K., and was a volunteer at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum in London. Zheng is currently pursuing a degree in Science and Technology Studies at Georgia Tech while freelancing for Guokr as a staff writer. In her free time, she enjoys learning languages, visiting museums and strolling in random urban streets. 2019 EurekAlert! Fellowship Judges Dalia AbdelSalam is an award-winning journalist based in Cairo, Egypt. She currently works for Springer Nature as a chief editor of - For Science , the Arabic Edition of Scientific American. For 22 years, she was the Environment and Water Editor at Al Ahram Hebdo Newspaper, an Egyptian weekly newspaper in French language. AbdelSalam was a board member of the Arab Science Journalists Association (ASJA) from July 2009 to June 2011 and she co-directed the 7th World Conference for Science Journalists held in Doha, Qatar, in 2011. She also acted as a media consultant for national, regional and international organizations and as an environmental reporting trainer.Since 2006, AbdelSalam has been acting as coordinator for Northern Africa for the African Network of Environmental Journalists (ANEJ) and was chosen in October 2015 to represent the Middle East and North African region in the Orientation Council of "L'Institut de la Francophonie pour le Developpement Durable" (IFDD), based in Quebec City, Canada. Nehal Lasheen is the deputy editor of the Arabic edition of SciDev.Net for the MENA region. She is the president of the Arab Science Journalists Association and was a mentor in the World Federation of Science Journalists' mentoring project for science journalism SJCOOP2. She has a background in science journalism especially on the Internet and was the Health & Science Editor at IslamOnline.net Arabic website for several years. Malathy Iyer is a senior editor (health) with The Times of India, Mumbai, with over 20 years of experience. When not chasing the big outbreaks of bird flu and swine flu or tracking the emergence of total drug-resistant tuberculosis, she focuses on issues of urban health care systems and women and children with special needs. Milica Momcilovic is a science journalist, author, and TV anchor at Radio Television of Serbia. She holds the position of editor in science programming and writes science articles for Politika, the oldest daily newspaper in Serbia. As a journalist in TV and print media, she has developed a special interest in establishing partnerships with scientists and their institutes as one of the models for successful reporting on science and mutual capacity building. She is the Vice-President of the World Federation of Science Journalists. T. V. Padma is a Delhi-based science journalist, who has written extensively on science policies in India, South Asia, and developing countries. She currently writes for Nature, Nature India, New Scientist, Physics World, Chemistry World, BioWorld and The Wire. Padma began her career as a science correspondent at the Press Trust of India, where she reported on science daily and handled the production of the fortnightly PTI Science Service bulletin. She later ran development communication projects at the South Asia office of Panos Institute. In 2005, she joined SciDev.Net as its first South Asia Regional Coordinator to set up the first South Asian network of science writers. She was part of SciDev.Net's award-winning team in 2005 that won the Association of British Science writers prize for best science reporting on the web, for their coverage of the Dec 2004 Asian tsunami. She is also a recipient of the FAO's World Food Day prize for best reporting on health and nutrition issues in India. Jane Qiu is an award-winning independent science writer in Beijing, regularly contributing to publications such as Nature, Science, Scientific American, and The Economist. A recipient of many prestigious fellowships and travel grants, she has covered a wide range of topics from the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the peaks of the Himalayas. She is passionate about the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain ranges -- a vast area half the size of the US known as the Third Pole because it boasts the largest stock of ice on Earth outside the polar regions -- and strives to highlight its increasing fragility and pressing environmental issues. Qiu has won awards for her writings from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of British Science Writers, the South Asian Journalists Association, and the Asia Environmental Journalism Awards. She recently completed the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-- the world's premier mid-career fellowship program for science writers, editors, and multimedia journalists. Dr. Zixue Tai is an associate professor in the School of Journalism & Media at the University of Kentucky, where he is the Sequence Coordinator of the Media Arts and Studies program. His primary area of research pertains to the various aspects of the social, political, and cultural ramifications of the blossoming new media sector, as well as social media activism and collective action in China. The author of The Internet in China: Cyberspace and Civil Society (Routledge, hardcover released in 2006 & paperback published in 2012), Dr. Tai has published in journals such as the Journal of Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, New Media & Society, Psychology & Marketing, Sociology of Health & Illness, International Communication Gazette, and Tobacco Control, among others. Additionally, he has contributed numerous chapters to edited volumes focusing on various aspects of new media and Chinese society. Mico Tatalovic is a science journalist from Rijeka, Croatia (European Capital of Culture 2020). He was a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT in 2017/2018. Before that, he worked as a news editor at New Scientist and SciDev.net. He is the chairman of the Association of British Science Writers and sits on the board of the Balkan Network of Science Journalists. ### The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science as well as Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances, Science Immunology, and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For more information, visit http://www.aaas.org. About EurekAlert! Founded by AAAS in 1996, EurekAlert! is an editorially independent, online science-news service. Thousands of reporters around the globe use EurekAlert! to access news and resources from the world's top academic journals and research organizations. For free access to EurekAlert!, visit http://www.EurekAlert.org. Public protests are a vital, common tool for expressing grievances and creating communities. The political and social aspects of protests have been extensively studied, but little attention has been paid to the physical spaces in which they take place. The Design of Protest, a new book by Prof. Tali Hatuka of Tel Aviv University, addresses the crucial role of place in influencing both the dialogue between institutions and participants and the dynamics among the participants themselves. In her study, published in August by University of Texas Press, Prof. Hatuka presents the first extensive discussion of protest-as-design -- a planned event in a space whose physical geometry and symbolic meaning are used and appropriated by its organizers to different ends. "The book is about the ways in which protesters envision their actions and plan them in a specific space," says Prof. Hatuka, Head of the Laboratory of Contemporary Urban Design at TAU's Department of Geography and Human Environment. "Protesters often develop spatial strategies to both help achieve their goals and to overcome any potential organizational, legal and/or social challenges. They create displays that allow them to express their beliefs and ideas. It's important to understand what kind of dynamic they create and what kind of opportunities they open. The book investigates the details of specific events as aesthetic manifestations as well as political tactics." Prof. Hatuka explores "spatial choreography," or protest tactics, from case studies around the world: Tiananmen Square in Beijing; the National Mall in Washington, DC; Rabin Square in Tel Aviv; the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires; and more recent protests in the United States, the Middle East and South America. The spatial choreography tactic she calls "theater," for example, refers to the most common type of protest, characterized by a static performance and a hierarchical relationship between protest leadership and its captive audience. "Synchronicity," another common spatial choreography tactic, is an orchestrated, rhythmic spectacle that takes place in multiple locations, as did the 2003 protests in around 800 cities worldwide against the Iraq War. Another kind of spatial choreography Prof. Hatuka delineates is "city design," which focuses on territorial claims as a display of power, exemplified by the Poor People's Campaign, led by Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, in which people settled on the National Mall in an encampment called "Resurrection City." "I tried to emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of the various spatial choreographies involved and the limits of contemporary forms of protest," says Prof. Hatuka. "Varied choreographies may be useful in terms of getting an image into the newspaper, but they don't guarantee lasting change." For her book, Prof. Hatuka conducted archival research on the sites and events in question; physical and architectural analyses of the sites; interviews with key figures in the cities; and interviews with the activists involved in the protests. "The performance of protest and dissent is a creative task, and contemporary activists today face numerous challenges," she says. "First, the dynamics between the citizens/residents, municipalities, and state and global powers have dramatically changed -- many local concerns today stem from global dynamics. A second challenge is the normalization of protests. Protests are not rare or unique events anymore. Instead, they've become a 'normal' communicative practice. Finally, another challenge is the power of social and traditional media, which enhances the supremacy of images, sight and visibility over text, meaning and processes." Prof. Hatuka is continuing to research protests relating to the refugee crises in Israel and Germany. "There is no compatibility between the design of contemporary protests, which tend to be diffused and open, and the structural, often closed, system of political power," concludes Prof. Hatuka. "To a certain extent, this is a comfort to political powers because contemporary protests don't pose a real threat to their security or ideology." ### American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #43 in the world. ALEXANDRIA, VA, November 27, 2018 - 21 leaders from the US agricultural community, including two former US Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief scientists and undersecretaries of agriculture for Research, Education and Economics (REE) today sent a letter to Congress expressing concern about the decision to relocate two USDA research agencies outside Washington, DC. The Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) would be affected by the move, and ERS--a statistical agency--would be realigned outside the REE mission area to a policy-supporting office, threatening its role as a policy-neutral agency. These two agencies are indispensable sources of agricultural and food research as well as objective national data and analysis for the $1 trillion food, agriculture and rural economies. "The proposed restructuring is a major disruption in the USDA research arm that provides invaluable support for American food and agriculture," said Gale Buchanan, former USDA chief scientist and undersecretary for REE. "The decades of planning and adjustments that have optimized the work of REE will be dismantled in a matter of months if this proposal is carried out as planned. Congress should block such an upheaval of our nation's food and agriculture enterprise support system." The letter outlines numerous risks associated with relocating NIFA and ERS outside the Washington, DC, area. Among them are the following: The loss of direct engagement with the broader scientific funding research community, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) The undermining of USDA funding of research, which has stagnated for the last 40 years The weakening of the coordination of NIFA and ERS with their sister REE agencies, the ARS and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) The full impact has not been thoroughly examined, according to the signers of the letter who are urging Congress to intervene. "The USDA did not consult stakeholders, Congress or the scientific community prior to this decision, and it is unclear what problems the USDA seeks to address with the relocation of these agencies," said Catherine Woteki, also a former USDA chief scientist and undersecretary for REE. "The high quality of work that these agencies produce will be jeopardized by the substantial staff loss that will occur as a result of the relocation. In addition, moving ERS out of REE to a policy-supporting office is likely to jeopardize the policy-neutral work of the agency." The group, along with the American Statistical Association (ASA) and others, is calling on Congress to protect ERS and NIFA as independent statistical agencies so they maintain the quality, credibility and integrity of their research and statistical programs. "The ASA is supporting the efforts of these agriculture experts and leaders in the broader food, agriculture and rural community who whole-heartedly oppose these ill-conceived changes to the USDA's research structure and function," said Ron Wasserstein, the ASA's executive director. "The integrity of the work being done by these highly specialized and experienced professionals is at risk, and the community as a whole is standing up in their defense." Milo Shult--vice president for agriculture emeritus, University of Arkansas, and a signer of the letter--added, "Since the birth of our nation, there have been certain things that our central government must provide. In addition to a strong military, it is critical that we have a system that provides the food security necessary for the health and quality of life for the nation's citizens. The system has grown, of necessity, to a multidisciplinary nationwide effort cutting across agricultural science, food science, medical science, social science, environmental science, and further. We are the envy of the world in those programs. We are highly concerned that the removal of NIFA and ERS from the location in our nation's capital could be the beginning of a dismantling of our agricultural progress." Signers of the letter to Congress include the following: Gale Buchanan, Former USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics; Dean and Director Emeritus, University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Catherine E. Woteki, Former USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics Daniel Arp, Dean Emeritus, College of Agricultural Sciences, Oregon State University Kathryn J. Boor, Robert P. Lynch Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University Daniel Bush, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, Colorado State University Neville Clarke, Director Emeritus, Texas Agricultural Experiment Director; Former Executive Director, Southern Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors; Chair, Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy (ESCOP) Helene Dillard, Dean and Professor, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Davis Dan Dooley, Former Vice President, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California Robert Easter, President Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois John D. Floros, President, New Mexico State University Alan L. Grant, Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech Bret W. Hess, Interim Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Director, Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Wyoming Cathann A. Kress, Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Dean, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University Michael D. Lairmore, Dean and Distinguished Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis Daryl Lund, Former Dean of Agricultural and Natural Resources, Rutgers University and Cornell University; Former Executive Director of the North Central Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Stations Bobby Moser, Former Vice President, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University Jack Payne, Senior Vice President, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida Thomas L. Payne, Vice Chancellor and Dean Emeritus, College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, University of Missouri Gene Sander, President Emeritus, Former Vice President, and Dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona Milo Shult, Vice President for Agriculture Emeritus, University of Arkansas Lynn Wooten, Dean, The Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University ### Identical versions of the letter were sent to the congressional appropriators and the authorizers: https://www.amstat.org//asa/files/pdfs/BuchananWotekiBlueRibbonPanel.pdf and https://www.amstat.org/asa/files/pdfs/BlueRibbonLetterAgCmtes.pdf. Contacts: Elaine Joseph, EJoseph@stantoncomm.com, 202-851-2475 Steve Pierson, spierson@amstat.org, 703-302-1841 About the American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association is the world's largest community of statisticians and the second-oldest continuously operating professional society in the United States. Its members serve in industry, government and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare. For additional information about the American Statistical Association, please visit the ASA website at http://www.amstat.org/. As part of the ASA's commitment to support the importance of government statistics for evidence-based policymaking, it created Count on Stats. In partnership with more than a dozen organizations, the initiative is designed to educate and inform the public about the critically important nature of federal data. Without federal agencies' data collection and analysis, we would not have key insights into nutrition, economic trends, community issues, public safety, agriculture and countless other facets that are vital to our society. For additional information, please visit the Count on Stats website at http://www.countonstats.org. (WASHINGTON, DC, November 27, 2018) -- Venous thromboembolism (VTE), a term referring to blood clots in the veins, is a highly prevalent and far-reaching public health problem that can cause disability and death. Despite effective new options for prevention and treatment, VTE remains a threat underappreciated by the general public, causing up to 100,000 deaths annually in the United States alone. VTE includes deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot that typically forms in the deep veins of the leg, and pulmonary embolism (PE), a life-threatening condition that occurs when a blood clot breaks free and becomes lodged in the arteries of the lung. Blood clots can affect anyone - from the healthy to the chronically ill - in a variety of settings, including pregnant women, children, and people who are hospitalized, meaning that the burden of effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment falls on a broad range of physicians. The American Society of Hematology, the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders, has long recognized the need for a comprehensive set of guidelines on the treatment of VTE to help the medical community better manage this serious condition. In partnership with the McMaster University GRADE Centre, a world leader in guideline development and an authority on thrombosis, ASH brought together more than 100 experts including hematologists, other clinicians, guideline development specialists, and patient representatives to tackle this challenge. Today, ASH announced the results of their collective efforts - the 2018 ASH Clinical Practice Guidelines on Venous Thromboembolism - in a press event timed to the publication of the first six chapters in the Society's peer-reviewed journal Blood Advances. Four more chapters are in development. "In recent years, a tremendous body of evidence has been generated to guide prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of VTE, yet approaches are often applied inconsistently. The 2018 ASH guidelines took the latest evidence into account to make recommendations that in some instances will reinforce existing best practices and in other instances will change practice," said Adam Cuker, MD, MS, Chair, ASH VTE Guidelines Coordination Panel and HIT Panel and Clinical Director of the Penn Blood Disorders Center and Director of the Penn Comprehensive and Hemophilia Thrombosis Program, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "ASH believes it is essential to provide updated treatment guidelines that reflect this increased knowledge and can help the medical community better prevent, diagnose, and treat VTE." The 10 evidence-based clinical guidelines chapters cover VTE through a number of lenses, in areas in which there is currently uncertainty and variation in clinical practice: Prophylaxis for hospitalized and non-hospitalized medical patients Diagnosis of VTE Optimal management of anticoagulation therapy Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia VTE in the context of pregnancy Treatment of pediatric VTE Treatment of deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (anticipated in 2019) VTE in patients with cancer (anticipated in 2019) Thrombophilia (anticipated in 2019) Prevention of VTE in surgical patients (anticipated in 2019) The 2018 ASH guidelines were developed using state-of-the-art methodology to ensure they meet the highest standards for trustworthiness and transparency. The panels were explicit about how recommendations were determined and open about the quality of the evidence that factored into the final decision-making process. "McMaster University is the birthplace of evidence-based medicine and is an international leader in guideline methodology," said Holger Schunemann, MD, PhD, Vice-Chair, VTE Guidelines and Lead Investigator, Systematic Review and Methods Team and Chair of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence & Impact at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "In this partnership with ASH, we applied advanced methodology to ensure the production of guidelines that meet the highest standards for rigor and credibility that would be useful for clinicians and would improve the quality of care received by our patients." ASH is well-positioned to convene a varied set of clinical experts in VTE, as well as patient representatives, who serve together on the guideline panels. "Hematologists are not the only medical professionals who diagnose and treat VTE," said Dr. Cuker. "This is why we felt it so important to collaborate with a broad cross-section of physicians from other disciplines who also serve on the front lines of improving VTE outcomes. Their perspectives and those of our patient representatives were critical to this process." The 2018 ASH guidelines are the first of a larger guideline development initiative for ASH, which includes a commitment to the timely update of existing guidelines and the development of new ones on a range of hematologic conditions. ### Visit http://www.hematology.org/VTE for more information about the guidelines, including key takeaways from each chapter. The American Society of Hematology (ASH) is the world's largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. For more than 50 years, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. ASH publishes Blood, the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field, which is available weekly in print and online. In 2016, ASH launched Blood Advances, an online, peer-reviewed open-access journal. A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has developed a novel strategy to develop new high-strength alloys which are extremely strong and yet also ductile and flexible. The strategy overcomes the critical issues of the strength-ductility trade-off dilemma, paving the way for developing innovative structural materials in future. Multiple-principal element alloys, generally referred as high-entropy alloys (HEAs), is a new type of materials constructed with equal or nearly equal quantities of five or more metals. They are currently the focus of attention in materials science and engineering due to their potentially desirable properties for structural applications. Yet most of the alloys share the same key detrimental feature: the higher the strength of an alloy, the less the ductility and toughness, meaning that strong alloys tend to be less deformable or stretchable without fracture. Recently, however, a research led by Professor Liu Chain Tsuan, University Distinguished Professor of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at CityU, has found a breakthrough solution to this daunting decades-long dilemma-- by making high-entropy alloys both strong and yet also very ductile through massive precipitation of nanoscale particles. This cutting-edge research has just been published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Science, titled "Multicomponent intermetallic nanoparticles and superb mechanical behaviours of complex alloys". Solving strength-ductility trade-off "We are able to make a new high-entropy alloy called Al 7 Ti 7 ((FeCoNi) 86 -Al 7 Ti 7 ) with a superior strength of 1.5 gigapascals and ductility as high as 50% in tension at ambient temperature. Strengthened by nanoparticles, this new alloy is five times stronger than that of the iron-cobalt-nickel (FeCoNi)-based alloy," says Professor Liu. "Most conventional alloys contain one or two major elements, such as nickel and iron to manufacture," he explains. "However, by adding additional elements of aluminium and titanium to form massive precipitates in the FeCoNi-based alloy, we have found both the strength and ductility have significantly increased, solving the critical issue of the trade-off dilemma for structural materials." Moreover, high-strength alloys usually face plastic deformation instability, known as the necking problem, meaning that when the alloy is under a high strength, its deformation would become unstable and very easily lead to necking fracture (localized deformation) with very limited uniform elongation. But the team has further found that by adding "multicomponent intermetallic nanoparticles", meaning complex nanoparticles made of different element atoms, it can greatly strengthen the alloy uniformly by improving the deformation instability. Tackling "necking problem" And they have found the ideal formula for these complex nanoparticles, which consists of nickel, cobalt, iron, titanium and aluminium atoms. Professor Liu explains that each of nanoparticle measuring 30 to 50 nanometres only. The iron and cobalt atoms which replace some of the nickel components helps to reduce the valence electron density and improve the new alloy's ductility. On the other hand, replacing some of the aluminium with titanium largely reduces the impact of moisture in air to avoid induced embrittlement in this new strong alloy. "This research opens up a new design strategy to develop superalloys, by engineering multicomponent nanoparticles to strengthen complex alloys to achieve superb mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures," says Professor Liu. He believes that the new alloys developed with this novel strategy will perform well in temperatures ranging from -200C to 1000C. Hence they can act as a good base to further develop for structural use in cryogenic devices, aircraft and aeronautic systems and beyond. ### Professor Liu is the corresponding author of the paper, and Yang Tao, his PhD student and current senior research associate at CityU's Department of Materials Science and Engineering is the first-author. Other co-authors include Chair Professor Kai Jijung, Assistant professor Dr Alice Hu, post-doc fellows Zhao Yilu, Tong Yang, Wei Jie and PhD student Chen Da from CityU's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Advanced Structural Materials; together with Dr Jiao Zengbao, Assistant Professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Professor Han Xiaodong and Dr Cai Jixiang from the Institute of Microstructure and Property of Advanced Materials of Beijing University of Technology; Professor Lu Ke, Director of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Professor Liu Yong from the State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, who is also the director of Powder Metallurgy Research Institute at Central South University. Philadelphia, November 27, 2018 - Postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is a common complication, affecting one quarter to one half of all patients following cardiac surgery. It can result in heart failure, stroke, and longer hospital stays, resulting in an increased cost of care. HeartRhythm, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society and the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, reports promising results from two clinical trials using botulinum toxin (BTX) injections to suppress POAF. BTX, a potent inhibitor of neural transmission, is best known for its use in temporarily reducing facial wrinkles. The global cosmetic market for BTX was estimated at US $3.4 billion in 2015. It is also used to treat some neurological disorders including excessive sweating and eye muscle disorders. In a randomized placebo-controlled longitudinal study of 60 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, patients who received BTX injections during surgery showed a sustained reduction in the incidence and overall burden of atrial fibrillation (AF) over three years of follow-up, accompanied by a reduced need for hospitalization. BTX was injected into each of the epicardial fat pads near each pulmonary vein. Senior investigator Jonathan S. Steinberg, MD, of the Heart Research Follow-up Program, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA, explains, "This study tested the hypothesis that interruption of cardiac neural traffic by BTX could undermine the pathologic processes that promote AF after cardiac surgery. In two previous publications, the study group has shown significant reductions in early postoperative AF up to 30 days, but also sustained reduction of AF out to one year." In the current study, AF events were captured by implantable cardiac monitors in all patients. The incidence of AF was reduced by 64 percent in patients who received BTX. Further, the overall burden of AF was reduced five- to nine-fold in each year of follow-up. Over three years, the number of patients who required hospitalization for AF, the total number of hospitalizations, and the need for drug therapies or additional procedures were all reduced in the BTX group. "The results of our studies suggest a new approach to treatment of AF," says Dr. Steinberg. "The sustained reduction of AF, now demonstrated over three years, was notable and a bit of a surprise. We believe that autonomic remodeling was interrupted and the predisposition to AF was reset as a result of BTX injection." The BTX concept could also be tested in non-postoperative patients in future studies, extending the treatment paradigm of neuromodulation as a stand-alone or supplemental antiarrhythmic strategy, which may potentially be applicable to the many other clinical contexts in which AF appears. According to Dr. Steinberg, this is potentially an important and impactful breakthrough if confirmed in larger trials. If postoperative AF is reduced, there may be significant reduction in the utilization of health care resources, an important goal for healthcare systems under stress because of high costs. There may also be long-term clinical and financial benefits. In the second trial reported in this issue, Nathan H. Waldron, MD, MHS, of the Department of Anesthesiology, and colleagues at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA, randomized 130 patients to receive an injection of either 250 units of botulinum toxin type A (BoNTA) or saline in epicardial fat pads containing autonomic ganglia after the start of cardiopulmonary bypass, but before the surgical procedure. They assessed the occurrence of POAF with continuous telemetry during postoperative hospitalization. There was no increase in complications after cardiac surgery, but the procedure did not result in a statistically significant reduction in the risk of POAF. The investigators consider this may be due to inadequate power to detect a modest, but clinically meaningful, impact of BoNTA. "While we did not observe a statistically significant reduction in the occurrence of POAF, patients receiving epicardial botulinum toxin had shorter initial episodes of POAF and a trend toward less hemodynamically significant POAF," notes Dr. Waldron. "The patients treated with toxin had an 11 percent lower risk of post-operative AF that did not meet statistical significance, so a larger, adequately powered trial is something that is needed to provide a clearer picture," adds senior author Jonathan P. Piccini, MD, a member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), Durham, North Carolina, USA. In an accompanying editorial, Joris R. de Groot, MD, PhD, of the Department of Cardiology, Heart Center, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, examines the different outcomes of the two studies and points out some key differences. For example, the first study included only coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients, whereas the second study also included patients undergoing valve or combined surgery. The atrial sizes were also different between these studies. "Studies with botulinum toxin type A injection into the ganglion plexi remain confined to patients undergoing open-chest surgery, and a larger scale clinical trial with botulinum injection into the ganglion plexi in CABG patients is on the way," Dr. de Groot comments. "For AF treatment or suppression in patients not undergoing thoracotomy, nonthermal ablation appears a promising approach that proved tissue-specific, and merits further clinical investigation." ### Ground-breaking computer models that simulate the workings of individual patients' hearts could boost treatment of a common cardiac condition that affects a million people in the UK and countless more worldwide. With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and in collaboration with St Thomas' Hospital, a team at King's College London has taken the first steps in developing models designed to optimise a procedure that corrects atrial fibrillation, a condition which causes abnormal heart rhythms. The new personalised computer models aim to increase the effectiveness of this procedure (which is known as 'catheter ablation') by making it possible to explore, in advance, different strategies for its use geared to the specific needs of individual patients. They could potentially save the NHS over 20million a year by reducing procedure times and cutting atrial fibrillation recurrence rates. Atrial fibrillation reduces blood supply, leading to dizziness, breathlessness and fatigue, and increases the risk of a stroke. Every year, around 10,000 people in the UK have a catheter inserted in order to treat the condition using radiofrequency energy. But the procedure is not always effective, there is a small risk of it causing a stroke or death, and the condition often recurs. Developed using skills in computational modelling, software development and image processing, and based on detailed data about the patient's heart obtained through medical imaging, the models depict tissue condition and blood flow, and enable simulation of around 10 cardiac cycles lasting a few seconds in total. Dr Adelaide de Vecchi of King's College London, who has led the project, says: "The really important thing is that these new personalised models show the heart working as a whole 'system'. They allow different catheter ablation strategies to be assessed for each specific patient - for example, with regard to the precise area of the heart to target - and therefore enable the very best option to be pinpointed, maximising the prospect of improving the patient's quality of life." The models have been tested in collaboration with Dr David Nordsletten, Dr Oleg Aslanidi and Dr Des Dillon-Murphy from King's, using clinical data from patients under the care of Professor Mark O'Neill at St Thomas'. The aim is now to enhance and extend the models in terms of the number of cardiac cycles they can depict and apply them to larger cohorts of patients. Once this is achieved, it is anticipated that full clinical trials will be undertaken. Dr de Vecchi says: "Subject to further development, we believe our models have the potential to enter routine clinical use within a decade, improving treatment of a condition that is especially common among older people. The models are very much in step with the drive towards personalised medicine, better cardiac care and improved management of our ageing population." ### For media enquiries contact: Dr Adelaide de Vecchi, King's College London, tel: 0207 848 9562, e-mail: adelaide.de_vecchi@kcl.ac.uk; or the EPSRC Press Office, tel: 01793 444404, e-mail: pressoffice@epsrc.ukri.org Notes for Editors: The EPSRC-funded project Personalised Thermal-Fluid Models for Planning Catheter Ablation Therapy for Atrial Arrhythmia ran from February 2017 to July 2018 and received just over 93,000 in EPSRC support. Atrial fibrillation affects the left atrium (or upper chamber) of the heart. Catheter ablation is a minimally invasive, non-surgical procedure used in cases where atrial fibrillation cannot be controlled well by medication. It aims to terminate unwanted electrical impulses and thus prevent them travelling from the pulmonary veins to the left atrium and causing fibrillation (irregular or abnormal heart rhythms). The current risk of catheter ablation resulting in a disabling stroke is 1 in 500 and the risk of death is 1 in 1000 (see this link for more information). Estimated NHS cost savings are based on around 16,000 catheter ablation procedures being performed in the UK per year at an average cost of 5500 (2016 figures), amounting to a total cost of around 88million per year. Cutting procedural times and recurrence rates by 25 per cent as a result of using the new models would therefore lead to an annual saving of over 20million. This would be even higher in the US and EU, where costs are considerably higher. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK. By investing in research and postgraduate training, we are building the knowledge and skills base needed to address the scientific and technological challenges facing the nation. Our portfolio covers a vast range of fields from healthcare technologies to structural engineering, manufacturing to mathematics, advanced materials to chemistry. The research we fund has impact across all sectors. It provides a platform for future UK prosperity by contributing to a healthy, connected, resilient, productive nation. King's College London is one of the UK's top ten universities (QS World University Rankings 2018/19) and the fourth-oldest university in England. Located in the heart of London, it has over 31,000 students (including over 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries. Fields in which King's has a distinguished reputation include medicine, nursing and psychiatry, and the university has influenced many of the advances that shape modern life. St Thomas' Hospital is part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust located in London. This Trust is part of King's Heath Partners, an academic health sciences centre that provides pioneering capabilities in health research as well as high-quality teaching and education. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's latest findings on cancer immunotherapies, CRISPR for blood disorders, stem cell transplantation and insights on the immune system and cancer will be featured at the 60th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, which will be held Dec. 1-4 in San Diego. See highlights below. ASH PRESS BRIEFING This year's ASH press program will include a press briefing, "CAR T-Cell Therapies: New Research and Updates from Pivotal Trials," featuring Fred Hutch research on a combination therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (more details below). The briefing will take place at 11:30 a.m. PST, Saturday, Dec 1, in Room 23 of the San Diego Convention Center. It is open to all media registered to attend the meeting. More details will be available in an ASH press release to be distributed at the briefing. CAR T-cell combination therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Dr. Jordan Gauthier will describe how patients with relapsed, refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treated with the drug ibrutinib before, during and after CAR T-cell therapy may experience fewer side effects and may be more likely to see their cancer go into remission compared with patients who received CAR T alone. Gauthier calls the results promising, though he cautions that at this point the study is small (fewer than 20 patients in each group). Ibrutinib is a small-molecule drug that keeps CLL cells from growing, and the CAR T-cell therapy targeted the CD19 protein on leukemia cells. Gauthier is a Fred Hutch senior research fellow and clinician working in the lab of Dr. Cameron Turtle. The study to be presented at ASH is an extension of the team's 2017 study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that showed how the CD19 CAR T-cell therapy led to durable molecular remissions in CLL patients who had failed other treatments. CAR T-CELL THERAPY With the success of CAR T-cell therapies for some blood cancers, Fred Hutch physician-scientists are taking a closer look at characteristics and outcomes of patients who have received the therapy with the aim of making the therapy work better for more people. Other CAR T-cell therapy work featured at this year's meeting includes taking a deep dive into how the cells behave and early findings on a new CAR T for multiple myeloma. Factors impacting survival in adults treated with CD19 CAR T-cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Dr. Kevin Hay, a Fred Hutch research fellow and clinician working in the Turtle lab, will present data on characteristics of patients who have a lasting remission following CD19 CAR T-cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He found that disease-related factors, pre-CAR T-cell conditioning and hematopoietic cell transplantation performed after CAR T-cell therapy impacted survival. The findings from about 50 patients contribute to emerging evidence that CAR T-cell therapy can be used to get patients with difficult-to-treat disease into remission and that subsequent stem cell transplantation may enable them to survive longer without their disease returning. When CAR T-cell therapy fails: Treatment strategies in lymphoma. CD19 CAR T-cell therapy has shown promise for patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas, a population with historically poor outcomes and few treatment options. But up to 60 percent of patients do not achieve long-term remission after the therapy and there is no clear standard of what treatments to pursue when CAR T-cell therapy does not work. Dr. Victor Chow, a senior Hematology-Oncology fellow working with Dr. Ryan Lynch, an assistant professor and clinician at Hutch's clinical care partner, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and University of Washington, examined patient outcomes for a group of about 60 patients treated in the past five years whose disease progressed after CD19 CAR T-cell therapy. Chow will report on how the disease progressed following the failed therapy. While most of the patients who went on to receive additional treatment lived longer, their outcomes were still poor. The physicians hope these data will generate new ideas and inform future clinical trial strategies for this population without clear treatment options. Profiling the anti-cancer behavior of CD19 CAR T cells. Little is known about the gene signatures of the engineered CAR T cells after they've been infused into patients. Dr. Alyssa Sheih, a postdoctoral researcher working in the Turtle lab, will speak about how she used TCR sequencing to track how the cells changed in patients who received the 1:1 ratio of millions of CD4 and CD8 CAR T cells. She compared the gene signatures of CAR T cells from the infused product and from blood samples from patients at different time points after receiving the therapy. Sheih discovered patterns of gene expression that corresponded with cells that expanded more than others after infusion. The researchers are using the proof-of-principle study to gain insight into strategies to improve CAR T-cell immunotherapy. Early results from a new CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma. CAR T cells targeted to a protein called BCMA on multiple myeloma cells is an emerging treatment strategy for this typically incurable blood cancer. Dr. Damian Green, a physician-scientist at Fred Hutch and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance will present early findings from a phase 1 first-in-human clinical trial which showed that all patients who had not responded to frontline therapies responded to the lowest dose of the experimental BCMA CAR T-cell therapy administered in a 1:1 ratio of engineered CD4 and CD8 cells. Green describes the findings as showing early promise; the therapy could be safe and effective and may represent a treatment option that improves the long-term prospects for patients with multiple myeloma. GENE THERAPY CRISPR-edited cells persist, effectively boost fetal hemoglobin in genetic blood disorders. Dr. Stefan Radtke, of Fred Hutch's Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Program led by Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, will discuss CRISPR editing in a specialized subset of blood stem cells identified in 2017 by the Fred Hutch team as capable of repopulating the entire blood and immune system. The approach reduces by 90 percent the amount of reagents needed to carry out the gene modification (currently a bottleneck in the field) and has the potential to make gene therapy faster and safer. The ASH presentation, of work led by Dr. Olivier Humbert, a staff scientist in the Kiem Lab, is a first proof-of-principle that the edited cell subset persisted for at least a year in a large animal model and was able to increase fetal hemoglobin to counteract the defective hemoglobin produced in the genetic blood disorders sickle cell and beta thalassemia. Humbert and colleagues presented preliminary findings earlier this year. STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION Bone marrow transplantation in older, frail adults with acute myeloid leukemia. Survival rates continue to improve for patients treated for AML, but treatment options for older and more frail patients have been limited, and these patients are often left out of clinical trials due to comorbidities. Dr. Mohamed Sorror, a Fred Hutch blood cancer physician and outcomes research scientist, is an expert in identifying patients in this demographic who would fare well - or not - in hematopoietic cell transplantation, which is considered the standard curative treatment for the disease. He will present on survival differences among some 700 patients enrolled on a multicenter trial. ON THE HORIZON Other notable experts and newsy topics being presented at ASH: Regenerating immune function in the thymus. The thymus is a gland in the chest that acts like a boot camp for T cells, training them to identify and kill foreign invaders. The gland wears out with stress, infection and age, and finding ways to boost its productivity could help sustain human health. Dr. Jarrod Dudakov, a Fred Hutch immunologist, studies the signaling pathways of the thymus, and he and members of his lab will present the latest chapter in his quest to find master regulators that could be targets for helping the thymus to repair itself. In this video, Dudakov talks about how the thymus degenerates and the cells and molecules involved in repairing it, a mechanism he described earlier this year in Science Immunology. The role of the microbiome in recovering from stem cell transplantation. The population of gut microbes changes when patients go through blood stem cell transplants as a result of antibiotics and other agents they receive as part of the life-saving treatment. Fred Hutch researchers are investigating how the microbiome interacts with immune cells in hopes of better understanding and treating graft vs. host disease, a common side effect of transplantation that occurs when the newly transplanted immune system attacks healthy tissue. Dr. Alyssa Sheih, postdoctoral fellow working in the Turtle Lab, will present a poster on how a common type of T cell called MAIT cells is linked to the populations of different microbes in stool samples of patients before, during and after stem cell transplantation. She says that the regrowth of MAIT cells -- which can comprise up to 10 percent of T cells -- accompanies the presence of gut bacteria species that are linked to not developing GVHD. The project is part of the Fred Hutch Microbiome Research Initiative, which is led by infectious disease expert Dr. David Fredricks. Cord blood transplantation for cancer and other blood disorders. Transplantation of blood stem cells from umbilical cord blood can treat blood disorders in patients who have not been able to find a suitable match among other donor sources, which is particularly difficult for patients of mixed ethnicity. Dr. Filippo Milano is associate director of Fred Hutch's Cord Blood Program, and he cares for patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. He will be available at the ASH meeting to discuss cord blood transplantation for cancer and other blood disorders. He was lead author of a 2016 New England Journal of Medicine study which found that high-risk leukemia patients who received cord blood transplants had a lower risk of relapse. He will lead a newly funded clinical trial for HIV-positive patients with leukemia, which has the potential to treat both cancer and HIV by using donor cells that are resistant to the virus. Long-term outcomes for patients receiving stem cell transplantation. Dr. Stephanie Lee, vice president of ASH, is a physician-scientist at Fred Hutch who cares for stem cell transplant patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. She will become president of ASH in 2020. Lee is an expert in chronic graft vs. host disease and long-term survivorship following transplantation. ### Note: Fred Hutch and its scientists who contributed to these discoveries may stand to benefit from their commercialization. See links above to ASH abstracts for more details on individual researchers' disclosures. The clinical trials referenced above involve investigational products and/or therapies that have not been approved for commercial marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other regulatory authority. Results may vary and encouraging results from early stage clinical trials may not be supported in later stage clinical trials. No conclusions should be drawn from the information in this report about the safety, efficacy, or likelihood of regulatory approval of these investigational products and/or therapies. Media Contact: Molly McElroy O: 206.667.2210 M: 206.941.8146 mwmcelro@fredhutch.org 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 Hutch's 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 nation's first National Cancer Institute-funded cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Women's Health Initiative and the international headquarters of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Published today in the open-access journal GigaScience is an article that presents the genome of the tegu lizard, which has mastered a trick that is highly unusual in the reptile world: it can turn on its own heating system. Most reptiles are not able to control their body temperature like mammals do and instead must rely on its environment, such as available sun and shade, to attain an optimal body temperature. The tegu, Salvator merianae, however, has taken a step towards being full-blown warm-blooded: It can raise its own body temperature by up to 10C above its surroundings. Another, but more negative, aspect of the tegu is that is an invasive species and poses a serious threat to endangered species. Although it is a native of South American rain forests and savannas, the charismatic nature of the tegu-- and that it can even achieve some level of house training, makes it an extremely charming pet that is much beloved by reptile aficionados. Unfortunately, international trade in exotic pets are one of the primary reasons that species enter new environments where they can become a menace to the native species. Given the tegu's unique biological characteristics and its potential peril to the environment, the availability of an extremely high-quality genome sequence of this large lizard serves as a rich resource for identifying and analyzing the underlying molecular basis of these aspects. The tegu genome sequence, provided by a team of researchers led by Michael Hiller at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden (Germany), is of unprecedented quality. To accomplish this the researchers used state-of-the-art technology to read the tegu's DNA and assemble its genome sequence. The newly released genome sequence of S. merianae is more than two billion DNA letters long and contains more than 22,000 genes. It is the most complete assembly of any reptile genome so far and will also aid scientists to study other lizards and snakes. By using so called "long read" (Pacific Biosciences) sequencing technology, the researchers were able to overcome some of the challenges of assembling reptile genomes. Hiller and first author Juliana Roscito explain: "Similar to other reptiles, a large portion of the tegu genomes consists of repetitive sequences, which occur many times in the genome. Repeats are a main problem when assembling a genome, especially when repeats are longer than the length of the sequenced DNA fragments, which results in gaps (breaks) in the assembly." The tegu is emerging as an interesting model species in its own right. One of the motivations for the authors to sequence the tegu genome actually related to their interest in another group of reptiles: snakes. The authors explain what they had in mind: "We were interested in studying limb loss in snakes and other reptiles. Since limbless reptiles had ancestors with fully developed limbs, we needed a well-assembled genome of a lizard with fully developed limbs as a reference." Given that there are few reptiles with sequenced genomes, the authors decided to produce this themselves. Another component of the article, especially given that reptiles are under-represented among. the vertebrates with sequenced genomes, the authors also provide a whole-genome alignment between the tegu and 16 other species. "We hope that these resources facilitate comparative reptile genomics to understand how unique morphological features evolved in this group of species and how vertebrate genomes evolve in general", Michael Hiller and Juliana Roscito conclude. ### In keeping with the journal's goals of making the data underlying the analyses used in published research fully and freely available, all data from this project are available under a CC0 waiver in the GigaScience database, GigaDB, in a citable format (Roscito, J.G. Supporting data for "The genome of the tegu lizard Salvator merianae: combining Illumina, PacBio, and optical mapping data to generate a highly contiguous assembly." 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100529) and the sequence data is available in under the project accession number: PRJNA473319. Annotated genes, the multiple-genome alignment, and conserved element datasets are also available at https://bds.mpi-cbg.de/hillerlab/TeguGenomeData/ Further Reading: Roscito, J.G. The genome of the tegu lizard Salvator merianae: combining Illumina, PacBio, and optical mapping data to generate a highly contiguous assembly. 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giy141. Funding: This work was supported by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, FAPESP (2012/013198, 2012/23360), and Klaus Tschira Stiftung Contacts: GigaScience: Dr. Scott Edmunds Executive Editor, GigaScience, BGI Hong Kong Tel: +852 3610 3531 Cell: +852 92490853 Email: scott@gigasciencejournal.com Authors: Dr. Michael Hiller Max Planck Institute Tel: + +49 351 210 2781 Email: hiller@mpi-cbg.de Sharing on social media? Find GigaScience online on twitter @GigaScience; Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GigaScience/, and keep up-to-date with our blog http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/. GigaScience is co-published by BGI and Oxford University Press. The journal covers research that uses or produces 'big data' from the full spectrum of the life sciences. It also serves as a forum for discussing the difficulties of and unique needs for handling large-scale data from all areas of the life sciences. The journal has a completely novel publication format -- one that integrates manuscript publication with complete data hosting, and analyses tool incorporation. To en-courage transparent reporting of scientific research as well as enable future access and analyses, it is a requirement of manuscript submission to GigaScience that all supporting data and source code be made available in the GigaScience database, GigaDB, as well as in publicly available repositories. GigaScience will provide users access to associated online tools and workflows, and has integrated a data analysis platform, maximizing the potential utility and re-use of data. ATLANTA--Early detection of the most common form of epilepsy in children is possible through "deep learning," a new machine learning tool that teaches computers to learn by example, according to a new study that includes researchers from Georgia State University. Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECT), one of the most frequent epilepsies, accounts for 15 to 25 percent of pediatric epilepsy syndromes and attacks children 4 to 13 years old. Most BECT patients self-heal in puberty, but the disease can cause verbal dysfunction, attention deficit and language impairment in 18 to 25 percent of patients. Studies have shown that drug treatment could improve language skill and normalize centrotemporal spikes in electroencephalograph (EEG) tests, so it's important to distinguish epilepsy patients from healthy people. While studies have found that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are promising for differentiating BECT patients from healthy people, these imaging techniques are mainly based on a doctor's knowledge and diagnostic ability, and hence also have limitations such as low accuracy. Few studies have focused on developing machine learning methods that can recognize BECT patients. This study proposed a novel classification method that combines the predictions of three different types of brain imaging data: handcrafted features (51 brain characteristics associated with the disease) from MRI, MRI and fMRI. The researchers passed the imaging data respectively through three different machine learning methods, including two specially designed deep neural networks, and then combined the outcomes into a final decision-making neural network to determine whether a patient has BECT. They suggest that merging data from multiple views could provide complementary information and improve the diagnosis of this common form of epilepsy in children. The research team used data from West China Hospital in Chengdu, China, which included 40 BECT patients and 40 healthy people. They applied the existing deep learning algorithm but modified it to fit the needs of this study. The findings are published in the journal IET Computer Vision. "Deep learning could assist with early detection of benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, which improves the patient's overall outcomes and reduces suffering," said Dr. Yi Pan, corresponding author of the study, Regents' Professor of Computer Science and chair of the Department of Computer Science at Georgia State. "Early detection means early treatment. Early treatment means better health for these children." ### Co-authors of the study include Ming Yan, lead author and visiting Ph.D. student from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China; Ling Liu of West China Hospital at Sichuan University; and Sunitha Basodi, a computer science Ph.D. student at Georgia State. Chinese scientists shed light on the meteorological conditions responsible for the rate of icing growth on electric power transmission lines. Having a clearer understanding of what promotes icing on transmission lines during cold surges can help us better forecast and mitigate against crippling power outages caused by these events. Their findings were published on Nov 18, 2018 in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. The journal is sponsored by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published by Springer. "Wire icing can significantly impair the normal functioning of electric power transmission lines, negatively impacting productivity and everyday life," says Shengjie Niu, professor at the School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, and corresponding author of the paper. The impact of power outages resulting from transmission wire icing can disrupt business activity and have other negative spinoffs. For example, "from January to February in 2008, four large-scale freezing rain and snow weather events in southern China caused huge economic losses, causing widespread concern in the research community" explains Professor Niu. Power disruptions and the resulting economic losses associated with icing have captured the attention of researchers around the world, and many scientists are now working on this issue, said Niu, noting that a clearer understanding of the mechanism responsible for icing accumulation can significantly help us improve forecasting that will in turn enable us to provide an early warning of freezing disasters. For this study, the researchers monitored the icing process of agglomerate fog, an event where massive amounts of fog come together, at the Lushan Meteorological Bureau Observatory, in Southeast China during a cold surge that occurred from the 20th-25th January 2016, which lasted for 102 hours. Situated between Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River, Lushan has abundant moisture resources which contribute to the formation of ice during cold surges. The duration, frequency and droplet spectrum distribution of agglomerate fog were analyzed, together with the effect that rain, snow and supercooled fog -- essentially a supercooled cloud containing water droplets in liquid form at temperatures below zero degrees celsius that forms just above the Earth's surface -- had on the rate of icing growth on wires laid out at two different heights: 10 meters (on an observation tower) and 1.5 meters (on an observation icing frame located underneath the tower). They found that during this timeframe 218 agglomerate fogs, which lasted on average around 10 minutes, as well as snow and rain, contributed to the icing process. Ice accumulated on the wires rapidly during the freezing rain phase, but the rate of icing growth was much lower during the dry snow phase. However, certain meteorological conditions -- the presence of supercooled fog, lower temperatures and increased wind speed -- helped fuel the rate of icing growth during the dry snow phase. The researchers observed significant differences in the thickness and density of the accumulated ice, as well as the mechanism that contributed to icing growth and the duration of the icing at the two different heights. "The differences in temperature and wind speed were the main reasons for the differences in thickness, duration, density, and growth mechanism of icing at the two heights," said Niu, "which indicated that the icing thickness, duration, density, and growth mechanism were all closely related to height." In order to make observation results closer to that of icing observed on actual high-voltage transmission lines, the authors suggest that the height of icing observation frames should be raised, and that more comparative observation studies of the relationship between different heights and icing growth should be conducted. "Further observational results show that the sticking efficiency of snow particles has a significant impact on icing growth rate, which will be considered in the next wire-icing numerical simulation," said Professor Niu, who also hopes to establish methods to forecast wire icing in the future. ### A new specialist programme at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) has been shown to significantly reduce the rate of hospital readmissions for people with bipolar disorder, in an early-stage audit funded by the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. The findings have been published in BJPsych Bulletin today. Bipolar disorder is a condition in which an individual experiences recurrent episodes of mania, hypomania and depression. Bipolar disorder is fairly common: one in 50 adults will be diagnosed with the condition. An initial three-year audit of admissions at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust showed that there were approximately 500 hospital admissions of people with bipolar disorder each year. Two-thirds of these were re-admissions in that three year period, and approximately 150 people were admitted more than once a year. This audit strongly evidenced the need for a strong focus on effective preventative strategies in service users' recovery programmes. The OPTIMA Mood Disorders Service was established in 2015 to address this need. The Core Programme is an intensive, specialist programme for people who have recently had frequent hospital admissions for manic or depressive episodes. At the time of the audit, 30 people had been through the OPTIMA programme. The average rates of hospital admission and home treatment for these 30 patients, over the three years prior to them beginning the programme, were calculated using their electronic health records. These were compared to the average rates of admission for the patients over their post-programme period (an average of 9.5 months). The average rate of hospital readmission post-OPTIMA was substantially lower than the average rate over the three years pre-OPTIMA. The finding provides initial evidence that the treatments provided by the OPTIMA programme are successful in reducing hospital readmissions for frequently admitted patients. The core programme is designed to consolidate recovery. It involves a range of treatments tailored to the individual, including frequent psychiatric review, expert pharmacotherapy (therapy using pharmaceutical drugs), specialist nursing interventions, occupational therapy and individual and group psychoeducation. Psychoeducation helps people with bipolar disorder gain more control over their illness. It sensitively looks at the past course of illness to identify episode triggers and early warning signs of mania or depression. By recognising that an episode is just beginning and accessing help early, the development of full episodes can be prevented. Pragmatic planning on when and how to access help in a developing crisis is essential. The programme also offers occupational therapy, which helps service users find a balance between rest, work and leisure activity when building their functional recovery following a bipolar episode. Senior author, Professor Allan Young, Director of the Centre for Affective Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, said: "It is extremely encouraging to see that our specialist OPTIMA programme is successfully helping people with bipolar disorder, resulting in fewer readmissions to hospital. However, this early-stage audit does have some limitations. It examines a relatively small number of patients and a relatively short period of time post-programme, a more extensive study is required to confirm these benefits." First author, Dr Karine Macritchie, Lead Consultant Psychiatrist at OPTIMA said: "The period immediately following hospital admission for bipolar depression or mania is often a very vulnerable time for people struggling with this illness. Our early results show that this period offers a valuable opportunity to optimise on-going treatment and to prevent loss of recovery, episode recurrence and re-admission. "People with bipolar disorder can be given appropriate treatment, frequent support and a greater sense of agency over their condition at the time when they need these things the most. OPTIMA shows the very positive results that can be achieved when a flexible, responsive service is offered in a timely and targeted way." ### New study shows that the genetic makeup of northern Europe traces back to migrations from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago and that, as recently as the Iron Age, ancestors of the Saami lived in a larger area of Finland than today. Researchers from the Max-Planck-Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Helsinki have analyzed the first ancient DNA from mainland Finland. As described in Nature Communications, ancient DNA was extracted from bones and teeth from a 3,500 year-old burial on the Kola Peninsula, Russia, and a 1,500 year-old water burial in Finland. The results reveal the possible path along which ancient people from Siberia spread to Finland and Northwestern Russia. Researchers found the earliest evidence of Siberian ancestry in Fennoscandia in a population inhabiting the Kola Peninsula, in Northwestern Russia, dating to around 4,000 years ago. This genetic ancestry then later spread to populations living in Finland. The study also found that people genetically similar to present-day Saami people inhabited areas in much more southern parts of Finland than the Saami today. For the present study, genome-wide genetic data from 11 individuals were retrieved. Eight individuals came from the Kola Peninsula, six from a burial dated to 3,500 years ago, and two from an 18th to 19th century Saami cemetery. "We were surprised to find that the oldest samples studied here had the highest proportion of Siberian ancestry," says Stephan Schiffels, co-senior author of the study, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The other three individuals analyzed for the study came from a water burial in Levanluhta, Finland. Levanluhta is one of the oldest known burials in Finland in which human bones have been preserved. The bodies were buried in what used to be a small lake or a pond, and this seems to have contributed to exceptionally good preservation of the remains. Siberian ancestry persists today The study compared the ancient individuals not only to each other, but also to modern populations, including Saami, Finnish and other Uralic language speakers. Among modern European populations, the Saami have the largest proportion of this ancient Siberian ancestry. Worldwide, the Nganasan people, from north Siberia, have the largest proportion of ancient Siberian ancestry. "Our results show that there was a strong genetic connection between ancient Finnish and ancient Siberian populations," says Thiseas Lamnidis, co-first author of the study, "suggesting that ancient populations from Siberia may have also shared a subsistence strategy, languages and/or cultural behaviours with Bronze Age and Iron Age Finns, despite the large geographical distance." Ancient Finnish populations possibly lived a mobile, nomadic life, trading and moving over a large range, with far-reaching contacts to other populations. People found in Levanluhta, Finland, most resemble modern-day Saami The researchers found that the population in Levanluhta was more closely related to modern-day Saami people than to the non-Saami Finnish population today. "People closely related to the Saami inhabited much more southern regions of Finland than the Saami do today," explains Kerttu Majander, co-first author, of the University of Helsinki and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Interestingly, a recent linguistic study suggested that the place names around Levanluhta trace back to Saami languages. "This is the first exploration of ancient DNA from Finland and the results are very interesting," states Schiffels. "However more ancient DNA studies from the area will be necessary to better understand whether the patterns we've seen are representative of Finland as a whole." The study was conducted as a collaboration between the SUGRIGE-project (Universities of Helsinki and Turku), and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The archaeological materials and expertise were provided by the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) and the Levanluhta-project with the Finnish Heritage Agency. ### An international research team has begun patient enrollment in a clinical trial testing multiple investigational Ebola therapies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The randomized, controlled trial is enrolling patients of any age with confirmed Ebola virus disease (EVD) at a treatment unit in the city of Beni operated by The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), a medical humanitarian organization. The trial, which will expand to additional DRC districts, is organized through an international research consortium coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is led and funded by the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), part of the DRC Ministry of Health, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and also involves several additional international partners. "Combatting Ebola requires a comprehensive response that draws on the strengths of all areas of public health. Biomedical research can lead to critical new tools, such as potentially life-saving therapies," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci., M.D. "Through scientifically and ethically sound clinical trials, we hope to efficiently and definitively establish the safety and efficacy of these investigational Ebola treatments, offering new ways to save lives." On August 1, 2018, the DRC Ministry of Health declared the country's 10th outbreak of EVD. As of November 25, 2018, 240 deaths out of 419 confirmed and probable cases of EVD have been reported in the northeastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. Under the leadership of the DRC Ministry of Health, the WHO has coordinated the outbreak response with several international partners. NIAID, along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other U.S. government partners, have provided guidance and support to the multi-sectoral outbreak response. "We urgently need a safe and effective treatment for this deadly disease," said DRC Minister of Health Oly Ilunga Kalenga, M.D., Ph.D. "As we face a 10th outbreak of Ebola, we hope this clinical trial will give us more information about how best to treat patients." The trial aims to compare mortality among patients who receive one of three investigational Ebola drugs with a control group of patients who receive the investigational monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment ZMapp, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc. The therapies being tested include: mAb114, a single monoclonal antibody developed by NIAID, with early support from the INRB; and remdesivir (also known as GS-5734), an antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. The trial has been approved to begin enrolling patients in these three groups, and plans are underway to amend the trial to include REGN-EB3 (also known as REGN3470-3471-3479), a monoclonal antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The participating Ebola treatment units will continue to provide all participants with supportive care for EVD. Ebola care includes supportive oral and/or intravenous fluids, electrolyte replacement, maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure, and pain management. The investigational treatments have varying levels of data to support their use from testing in the laboratory, animals, and humans. However, none has been approved for treating EVD. ZMapp is the only investigational treatment previously tested in a randomized, controlled efficacy trial. Results from that study, conducted in the U.S. and West Africa during the 2014 to 2016 outbreak, suggested that ZMapp appeared to be beneficial, but as the outbreak waned, the trial ultimately could not enroll enough participants to definitively establish the drug's efficacy. The investigational treatments also have been administered to most of the Ebola patients in the current outbreak in the DRC under an ethical framework developed by the WHO called Monitored Emergency Use of Unregistered and Investigational Interventions (MEURI). However, this emergency-use mechanism cannot yield generalizable evidence on how well the treatments work. "A randomized, controlled clinical trial is necessary to obtain reliable data about the safety and efficacy of investigational Ebola treatments," said H. Clifford Lane, M.D., director of NIAID's Division of Clinical Research. "It is possible to conduct rigorous clinical research in an outbreak setting, and we anticipate this trial will provide useful data." Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, M.D., Ph.D., director-general of the INRB, and Richard T. Davey, Jr., M.D., deputy director of NIAID's Division of Clinical Research, are co-principal investigators for the study. Trial participants will be randomly assigned to receive one of the investigational treatments by intravenous infusion. Site clinicians will monitor patients' symptoms and take blood samples for laboratory tests. Patients will remain in the Ebola treatment unit until they fully recover from the disease. They will be asked to return to the clinic approximately two months after receiving treatment for a check-up and to provide additional blood samples for laboratory tests. Plans are underway to expand the trial beyond the ALIMA site in Beni to additional Ebola treatment units operated by medical humanitarian organizations, including International Medical Corps. The trial also may be adapted to continue across more than one outbreak and in several countries. The number of participants enrolled in the trial ultimately will depend on the evolution of Ebola outbreaks. The study is designed to enroll 112 patients per arm, potentially over multiple outbreaks. "This clinical trial marks a significant and important step forward for the DRC and our international partners," said Dr. Muyembe. "We are eager to learn more about each of these investigational treatments as we continue to work tirelessly to identify new cases, trace contacts and control the spread of disease." ### An independent data and safety monitoring board will regularly review the study data. For more information, visit ClinicalTrials.gov and search identifier NCT03719586. Read the related Questions & Answers. NIAID conducts and supports research--at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide--to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website. About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. Research beneath the Archbasilica of St John Lateran reveals appearance of world's first cathedral and the remarkable transformations that preceded its construction. Supported throughout by the British School at Rome the team - drawn from Newcastle University, UK, the universities of Florence and Amsterdam and the Vatican Museums - have been able to bring the splendour of successive transformations of the ancient city to life. The church, the Pope's own cathedral, was originally built in the 4th century AD by Constantine - the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Positioned on the Caelian Hill, the church would have dominated the Roman skyline at the time. As research reveals, however, the site had already been in use for centuries. To build his magnificent cathedral, Constantine had swept away the Castra Nova (New Fort), the lavish headquarters of the imperial horseguard constructed over a century before by the Emperor Septimius Severus. In much the same way, Severus had previously destroyed the palatial houses of some of Rome's most powerful residents to make way for the horseguards' impressive new home. This ongoing process of construction on the site meant that over hundreds of years layers of Roman history were laid down, much of it reflecting the changing fortunes and priorities of the Empire. Working far beneath the modern streets of Rome, the team on the Lateran Project have brought to life the first ever holistic picture of hundreds of years of Roman history by using digital mapping, ground penetrating radar and 3D visualisation techniques. Working with some of the world's leading visualisation specialists, the team has reconstructed the splendour of the buildings. It is one of the first projects in the world to have used terrestrial laser-scanning over such a large area to drive archaeological research. The work has also permitted study of how the different buildings that occupied the site evolved, how different elements relate to one another and has given a sense of the scale the four-hectare site covers. The work carried out by the Lateran Project is featured in the latest edition of Current World Archaeology. Talking exclusively to the publication, Professor Ian Haynes, Co-Director of the Lateran Project and Professor of Archaeology at Newcastle University, UK, said: "There is a large area of space underneath the Lateran that it is possible to walk or crawl through. "The archaeology is at varying levels below - at the deepest we were 8.5m below modern ground surface. To access some of the spaces we worked with a group called Roma Sotteranea who specialise in working on buried sites and use exactly the same equipment and techniques as potholers. In some places, it was necessary to rotate the teams on a half hourly basis because otherwise it just becomes stifling." The construction of the cathedral was a pivotal moment marking the start of the major Christian buildings that came to define Rome and is a potent symbol of the military making way for religion. In AD312 Constantine's army fought the Battle of Milvian Bridge, after which the old Horse Guards base and several nearby buildings were destroyed. The land was given to the Church and provided the perfect spot for Constantine to set out his new vision for Rome. Professor Haynes told Current World Archaeology: "The land may have been given to the Church within weeks of the battle. A decision was certainly taken pretty soon afterwards and work on the Lateran started some years before it did on St Peter's. "The cathedral was rebuilt in the 1650s but there is still original Constantine fabric in the walls, while the original foundations are exposed beneath the church. "There have been various efforts to reconstruct it since then, so we wanted to pull together all of this information to create a digital cathedral that you can walk around. "Working with colleagues at the University of Amsterdam and Newcastle-based visualisation specialists, New Visions, we've incorporated information from earlier excavations. We also created a simpler model to test the acoustics and to try to understand how sounds would have worked in the basilica." ### SMU professor Priscilla Lui and co-author find that 'Americanization' of alcohol use afects women more than men DALLAS (SMU) - Higher rates of alcohol use and drinking consequences are found among Hispanic American adolescents and adults who are more "Americanized," according to a new study authored by Southern Methodist University (SMU) professor Priscilla Lui and her colleague, Byron Zamboanga, at Smith College. Using scientific research accumulated over the past 40 years, Lui and Zamboanga analyzed data from over 68,000 Hispanic Americans - including first-generation immigrants and native-born individuals. Lui's research has found that people in this group who are more "Americanized" are more likely to: be drinkers, consume alcohol at greater intensity, experience more negative consequences associated with alcohol use, and affect women more than men. Hispanics are the largest ethnic group in the United States. Similar results were found in the Asian ethnic group, which is the fastest-growing U.S. ethnic group. Those who are considered acculturated or "Americanized" tend to have adapted to the political, cultural, or communal influences in the mainstream America, and assimilated to its customs and institutions. "This research means that, for Asian and Hispanic men, being more 'Americanized' may not be associated with substantial changes in their drinking behaviors and consequences," said Lui. "For Asian and Hispanic women, however, cumulative data show that there's something about the American way of life that may be making them more likely to drink, and drink more intensely and hazardously. According to Lui, existing research has suggested two theories: "Either people are socialized to adopt more permissive and favorable drinking culture in the U.S., or their experiences with cultural stresses, such as the pressure to become 'American' or racial discrimination, are making people use alcohol to cope." Lui is currently conducting further studies to better test these two theories, and to understand risk and protective factors of alcohol use. Associations between alcohol use and the acculturation process are a focus of Lui's research in her Acculturation, Diversity, and Psychopathology Team (ADAPT), where she is the principal investigator. Lui is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department in the Dedman College of Humanities & Sciences at SMU. The study, "A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of the Associations between Acculturation and Alcohol Use Outcomes among Hispanic Americans," is published in the October issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. ### This study was made available online in July 2018 ahead of peer-review and publication in the October 2018 print version. The study by Lui and Zamboanga are being published just as new research from the medical journal, The BMJ, revealed that more Americans, particularly young people, are dying from liver disease and cirrhosis as a result of alcohol consumption. SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU's alumni, faculty, and nearly 12,000 students in seven degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities, and the world. An innovative new project has discovered that animal footprints contain enough DNA to allow for species identification. Scientists have traditionally relied on snow-tracks and camera traps to monitor populations of rare carnivores, like Canada lynx, fishers and wolverines. These traditional techniques can tell part of, but not the entire story of an animal population, and are sometimes difficult to validate species identification. The study, led by the USDA Forest Service, collected snow samples within animal tracks from known locations of collared or photographed animals. DNA was extracted from these samples and analyzed with cutting-edge genomic tools and newly developed molecular genetic assays to identify each species. They found these assays positively detected the DNA of each species in various snow samples and outperformed traditional lab techniques on previously undetectable genetic samples, which suggests that this method could revolutionize winter surveys of rare species by greatly reducing or eliminating misidentifications and missed detections. "It was the craziest thing, we were talking about how we use environmental DNA to detect aquatic species and thinking, maybe we could do the same in snow, since it is just water after all," said Thomas Franklin, a scientist with the USDA Forest Service National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, who is lead author on the study. "This study shows that thinking outside the box and collaborating with researchers from other disciplines can pay real dividends in terms innovation and scientific advances." Monitoring for rare carnivores in the winter, using traditional methods, can be time intensive, expensive, and dangerous. "This new technique has the potential to make track misidentifications a thing of the past," said Jessie Golding, a study co-author and scientist with the USDA Forest Service. What this means for managers is gained efficiency and accuracy, and that better information will be available to help conserve these species of concern. ### The study, "Using environmental DNA methods to improve winter surveys for rare carnivores: DNA from snow and improved noninvasive techniques," published this week in Biological Conservation, was conducted by a team of scientists from the USDA Forest Service's National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, Rocky Mountain Research Station, and Rocky Mountain Region; the Woodland Park Zoo; MPG Ranch; and, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. A short film, Tracking Snow, showcases this project. The film was created by the International Wildlife Film Festival Filmmaker Labs and is hosted by the National Geographic Short Film Showcase: https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/00000167-1874-d265-a9ff-7df5863c0000 Citation: Franklin, T.W., K. S. McKelvey, J. D. Golding, D. H. Mason, J. C. Dysthe, K. L. Pilgrim, J. R. Squires, K. B. Aubry, R. A. Long, S. E. Greaves, C. M. Raley, S. Jackson, P. Mackay, J. Lisbon, J. D. Sauder, M. T. Pruss, D. Heffington, and M. K. Schwartz. 2019. Using environmental DNA methods to improve winter surveys for rare carnivores: DNA from snow and improved noninvasive techniques. Biological Conservation 229:50-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.11.006 Atherosclerotic disease, the slow and silent hardening and narrowing of the arteries, is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, responsible for more than 15 million deaths each year, including an estimated 610,000 people in the United States. Now, researchers may know one more reason why some people are more prone to develop the disease. In a paper published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of physicians, geneticists and biologists -- including members of the University of Arizona -- describe a previously unknown genetic effect that either can raise or reduce the risk of coronary artery disease or ischemic stroke. "People with the beneficial version of the genetic factor we discovered have less inflammatory, or less activated, cells lining the blood vessels," said Casey Romanoski, PhD, an assistant professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the UA College of Medicine - Tucson who co-authored the study. "It basically means they will be more resistant to building up plaque in their blood vessels." In collaboration with researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center, the team found that a common sequence variant in regulatory DNA -- known as rs17114036 and located on chromosome 1p32.2 -- benefits the vascular endothelium, the cells that line the interior of blood vessels. The endothelium helps smooth and speed blood flow through complex vascular intersections, places where branches or bifurcations disrupt the flow from an artery to two smaller vessels. When the flow is smooth and in one direction, the endothelium is calm; when the flow is disturbed, it leads to chronic local inflammation and formation of atherosclerotic lesions that cause heart attacks and strokes. The research team found that rs17114036 modifies how blood flow patterns impact inflammation, which can change an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease. However, only about 5 percent of the population has the protective genetic factor. These people "have won the genetic lottery," said Yun Fang, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study. For the other 95 percent of the population, things are slightly worse. Like 19 out of 20 people, "I carry the risk allele," Dr. Fang said. "It increases endothelial response to blood flow disturbance, raising the risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke." The PNAS study demonstrates that a genetic variant can influence important endothelial function and that genetic variants contribute to individual variation, such as coronary artery disease susceptibility. For the University of Chicago researchers, the next step may be the development of nanoparticles, or ultra-small particles that can replicate the benefits of rs17114036. "Atherosclerosis happens where there is disturbed (blood) flow," Dr. Fang explained. "If we can make endothelial cells feel like they are exposed to unidirectional flow, there should be less atherosclerosis." Dr. Romanoski, who specializes in genetics and genomic analysis and is a member of the UA BIO5 Institute, plans to continue linking genetics to various diseases, particularly those associated with the heart and lungs. ### The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. Additional UA College of Medicine - Tucson authors were Michael Whalen, MS, research specialist, and doctoral student Lindsey Stolze, BS. Dr. Romanoski is also affiliated with the UA Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine and the UA Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center. About the UA College of Medicine - Tucson The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson is shaping the future of medicine through state-of-the-art medical education programs, groundbreaking research and advancements in patient care in Arizona and beyond. Founded in 1967, the college boasts more than 50 years of innovation, ranking among the top medical schools in the nation for research and primary care. Through the university's partnership with Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country, the college is leading the way in academic medicine. For more information, visit medicine.arizona.edu Five UCSB professors are named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Five UC Santa Barbara professors join the ranks as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for 2018. Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers for "their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished." "I am thrilled to join together with our campus community in congratulating our five colleagues on their election to the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science," said UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "This proud recognition by one's own peers is a testament to our honorees' frontier research and strong leadership, and their distinction within their respective fields." Joining 411 other new AAAS fellows from universities, laboratories and research institutions across the country for 2018 are: Craig A. Carlson -- "For distinguished contributions in the field of microbial oceanography, particularly for advancing our understanding of the roles of oceanic dissolved organic matter in microbial dynamics and the global carbon cycle." A professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology (EEMB), Carlson focuses his research on somewhat still mysterious physical processes that connect microbes and dissolved organic matter in the ocean. He joined the UCSB faculty in 2001, currently serves as vice chair of EEMB and also is a member of the campus's Marine Science Institute. Ram Seshadri -- "For distinguished contributions to the domain of structure-property relations in crystalline inorganic materials, particularly associated with developing predictive understanding of polar, magnetic and luminescent materials." Seshadri has been a professor in UC Santa Barbara's departments of chemistry and biochemistry and materials since 2008. The Fred and Linda R. Wudl Professor of Materials Science and director of the Materials Research Laboratory, his research centers on compositional control of structure-property relations in complex functional inorganic materials and enlarging the toolkit of techniques that enable such control. Bruce P. Luyendyk -- "For pioneering work on vertical-axis crustal rotations within the Pacific-North American plate boundary, and on the tectonic history of Antarctica." Luyendyk, now a professor emeritus of marine geophysics, has concentrated his research on geologic processes in rather remote places, such as ocean basins, tectonic plates and Antarctica, where a mountain summit has been named in honor of his decades of work in the area. He joined the UC Santa Barbara faculty in 1973, and in addition to his research he also became the founding director of the Institute for Crustal Studies (now the Earth Research Institute) and served as chair of the Department of Geological Sciences and as associate dean of the Division of Mathematical, Life and Physical Sciences. Oran R. Young -- "For important contributions to the study of environmental governance, with special attention to issues relating to climate change, marine systems and the polar regions." A Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, Young is a renowned Arctic expert and a world leader in the fields of international governance and environmental institutions. His scientific work encompasses both basic and applied research, with the former focusing on collective choice and social institutions, and the latter on issues pertaining to international environmental governance and the Arctic as a region. He is a co-director of the Bren School's Program on Governance for Sustainable Development. Trevor W. Hayton -- "For creative contributions to the synthesis of actinides, lanthanide and transition metals complexes and nanoclusters." Hayton joined the UCSB Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2006. His research aims to address a wide range of problems in energy science, nanochemistry and nuclear fuel clean-up through the synthesis and study of transition metal, lanthanide and actinide complexes as well as metal nanoclusters. Each new AAAS Fellow will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin at the AAAS Fellows Forum on February 16 during the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1848, the American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world's largest general scientific society. AAAS includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of sciences, serving 10 million individuals. ### Bacteria can become insensitive to antibiotics by picking up resistance genes from the environment. Unfortunately for patients, the stress response induced by antibiotics activates competence, the ability of cells to take up and integrate foreign DNA, in microorganisms. Microbiologists from the University of Groningen (UG) and the University of Lausanne now describe a new mechanism by which Streptococcus pneumoniae can become competent, and why biofilms may be important in this process. Their results were published in Cell Reports on November 27. UG Ph.D. student Jelle Slager already described a mechanism by which bacteria can increase their ability to take up DNA from their surroundings, known as competence, four years ago. Subsequently, his colleague Arnau Domenech, a team member from the Veening lab at the University of Lausanne, who is the first author of the Cell Reports paper, screened a large number of clinically relevant substances for their ability to induce competence. Two drugs stood out: aztreonam and clavulanic acid, which are both used to fight infections. 'But when we looked closer, they didn't affect competence through a known mechanism', says Slager. 'So we investigated what was going on.' Cell division Competence is induced through the release of the so-called competence stimulating peptide (CSP). Cells secrete this peptide when they experience stress, for example when they are challenged with certain antibiotics. Only when the CSP concentration around them reaches a certain threshold do the cells become competent. 'This is a process called quorum sensing, it elicits a response once enough cells are affected.' As CSP is secreted into the environment, all cells become competent at more or less the same time. However, something different happened with the Streptococcus pneumoniae cells used in this study. Slager: 'As these cells divide, they normally form mother-and-daughter pairs. But in response to these two drugs, they start forming longer chains, as the cell division mechanism is affected by the drugs. When cells in these chains secrete CSP, the local concentration is higher than when pairs of cells swim freely in the medium. This means the local threshold for quorum sensing will be reached sooner for the cells in these chains. Biofilm Slager: 'Through this mechanism, groups of cells become competent at different times. So rather than a synchronized 'pulse' of competence in all the cells, which we normally see, we now have competent cells present for an extended period of time.' An interesting aspect of this finding is that bacterial cells do not freely float in the body, as in these laboratory experiments, but are usually incorporated within a biofilm. Bacteria produce these biofilms by excreting sticky molecules, which provide them with protection against the immune system, for instance. 'In these biofilms, the cells are packed much more closely together, which means that competence is probably regulated by local quorum sensing, just like in our experiments', says Slager. 'In fact, as was recently discovered, a gene that stimulates biofilm formation is activated together with other competence-induced genes.' The first conclusion from this study is that standard laboratory experiments in which free-swimming bacteria are grown in flasks full of culture medium are different from the clinical situation, in which they would grow in a biofilm. Furthermore, drugs that, like aztreonam and clavulanic acid used in this study, lead to chain formation will thereby increase the spread of antibiotic resistance genes. Implications Will this have any clinical implications? Not directly, says Slager: 'This study primarily increases our fundamental knowledge about the spread of antibiotic resistance genes. And it tells us more about how cells communicate through quorum sensing. But maybe, in the long run, this knowledge could be used to disturb this communication and perhaps reduce the development of resistance.' ### Reference: Domenech Pena, A. et al. (2018) Antibiotic-induced cell chaining triggers pneumococcal competence by reshaping quorum sensing to autocrine signaling. Cell Reports, 27 November 2018. Researchers at University of Helsinki, Finland, and University College London have found evidence that children with hearing impairment and cochlear implants can benefit from hobbies involving music and especially singing. The results published in Music Perception show that the auditory skills of hearing impaired children are connected to the amount of singing and music in their everyday lives. In the study, University lecturer of logopedics Ritva Torppa, PhD, from University of Helsinki measured auditory skills, perception of speech in noise, singing skills, and brain responses to changes in musical sounds in children with cochlear implants. Some children took part in regular singing and other musical activities while others did not. "Hearing impaired children with cochlear implants who sing regularly have better perception of speech in noise compared to children who don't sing. This is an important skill in day care or school where children discuss and receive instructions in noisy conditions," Torppa points out. She stresses the importance of the result for the children's future. "Communication skills and especially the ability to perceive speech in noise have a vital importance in education. All children, but especially children with a hearing impairment, should have the possibility to learn music and especially singing." The results also imply that parental singing is important. Together with the Lindfors foundation, Torppa has been involved in the development of speech-music play school activities where hearing-impaired children, their parents, and their siblings learn to use music in everyday life in a way that specifically develops language and communication skills. University of Helsinki's Professor of Educational Sciences Minna Huotilainen, who supervised the research, thinks that musical hobbies are important but not available to all. "We have amazingly high-quality children's music culture in Finland with a wide variety of different musical hobbies. Speech-music play schools are not available everywhere yet but hearing-impaired children can also benefit from traditional Finnish musical play school and music-making and singing at home," Huotilainen says. She thinks that the result should be taken into account also in day-care and schools. "In my opinion, the best option is that day-care and school use music and singing every day as a means to support learning. This gives all children the possibility to enjoy music, singing, and the benefits they bring." ### Although hybrid-electric cars are becoming commonplace, similar technology applied to airplanes comes with significantly different challenges. University of Illinois aerospace engineers are addressing some of them toward the development of a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels to power airplanes. "Jet fuel and aviation gasoline are easy to store on an airplane. They are compact and lightweight when compared to the amount of energy they provide. Unfortunately, the actual combustion process is very inefficient. We're harnessing only a small fraction of that energy but we currently don't have electrical storage systems that can compete with that," said Phillip Ansell, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. Ansell said adding more batteries to fly farther may seem logical, but it works against the goal to make an aircraft as lightweight as possible. "That's one of the big barriers we run into when designing battery-powered electrified aircraft. The current technology has very significant range disadvantages. But strong fuel-burn advantages." He, along with former aerospace undergraduate student, Tyler Dean, and current doctoral student Gabrielle Wroblewski, utilized a series of simulations to model the performance of hybrid-electric aircraft. "We started with an existing twin-engine aircraft and looked at how we might create a hybrid-electric drivetrain for it using existing off-the-shelf hardware," Ansell said. "We wanted to know how well it would perform. If I used a certain set of drivetrain components, I want to know how far the aircraft could fly, how much fuel does it burn, how fast can if climb--all of the overall flight performance changes." A flight-performance simulator was created to accurately represent the true flight performance of a Tecnam P2006T on a general mission to include take off, climb, cruise, descent, and landing, along with sufficient reserves to meet FAA regulations. Transition segments were incorporated into the simulation during climb and descent where the throttle setting, flap deployment, propeller rotation rate, and all other flight control variables were either set to mimic input from a typical pilot or prescribed in accordance with the aircraft flight manual. After configuring the simulator to collect baseline performance data, a parallel hybrid drivetrain was integrated into the simulation. The researchers compared the sensitivity of range and fuel economy to the level of electrification, battery specific energy density, and electric motor power density. The same sensitivities were studied with a series hybrid-electric drivetrain. Ansell said that, overall, a hybrid-electric drivetrain can lead to substantial improvements in fuel efficiency of a given aircraft configuration, though these gains depend strongly on the coupled variations in the degree of drivetrain electrification and the required mission range. Both of these factors influence the weight allocation of battery and fuel systems, as well as the weight scaling imposed by internal combustion engine and electrical motor components. In general, to obtain the greatest fuel efficiency a hybrid architecture should be used with as much electrification in the drivetrain as is permissible within a given range requirement. The fuel efficiency improvements were shown to particularly shine for short-range missions, which is a good thing since range limitations serve as one of the key bottlenecks in hybrid aircraft feasibility. Though, through this study the changes in the range capabilities of the aircraft were also able to be forecast with advancements in hybrid component technologies. "For example," Ansell said, "the propulsion system today could be configured to have 25 percent of its propulsive power come from an electric motor. However, it would only be able to fly about 80 nautical miles. Fast forward to projections for lighter battery technologies for roughly the year 2030 and the same aircraft could fly two and a half to three times as far. The range increase is nonlinear, so the largest improvements can be seen for the most immediate improvements with battery specific energy density, with gradually diminishing returns for that same proportional increase in specific energy." "One interesting and unexpected result we observed, however, came about when comparing the parallel and series hybrid architectures. Since the parallel architecture mechanically couples the shaft power of the engine and motor together, only one electrical machine is needed. For the series architecture, a generator is also needed to convert the engine power to electrical power, along with a larger motor than the parallel hybrid configuration to drive the propulsor. Unexpectedly, this aspect made the parallel architecture more beneficial for improved range and fuel burn almost across the board due to its lighter weight. However, we did observe that if significant improvements are made in maturing electrical motor components in the very long term, we may actually someday see better efficiency out of series-hybrid architectures, as they permit a greater flexibility in the placement and distribution of propulsors." The team chose to model the Tecnam P2006T using a series of performance variables found in published articles by the aircraft manufacturer. They selected that particular aircraft, in part, because NASA has been working on their X-57 aircraft, which has leading-edge propellers for high lift. "This study was being conducted for NASA, and use of this aircraft also allowed our results to be better applicable to the X-57 concept vehicle," Ansell said. "Using our data, they will be able to have at least a ballpark idea about how the hybrid system will perform without the other distributed propulsion modifications." Ansell said propulsion electrification is still very much an unknown in terms of how a vehicle should be built, engineered, flown. "Our study helps inform those discussions. We looked only at battery storage systems though there are many more that can be implemented, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. This study allowed us to look at what types of advancements need to be made in motor technology, in battery technology, etc." ### The study, "Mission Analysis and Component-Level Sensitivity Study of Hybrid-Electric General Aviation Propulsion Systems," was conducted by Tyler Dean, Gabrielle Wroblewski, and Phillip Ansell. It appears in the Journal of Aircraft. This project was supported by NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center under Small Business Technology Transfer in collaboration with Rolling Hills Research Corporation. The approach, called Karyomapping, was originally designed to detect and screen for single gene and chromosome disorders simultaneously in human IVF embryos. Now the application of the same technique to cattle IVF - involving screening at the embryo stage rather than when a calf is born - will allow decisions on best quality genetic stock to be made earlier. The latest research, led by Professor Darren Griffin of the University's School of Biosciences, will allow for better quality genetics to be introduced more rapidly into the breeding herd. Moving genetically screened embryos around the country, and around the world, rather than live animals, is also more biosecure, environmentally friendly and means that they can be delivered to breeding farms in a more efficient manner. Professor Griffin said: 'In-vitro produced embryos are used widely in the cattle breeding industry but this is the first time they have undergone a whole genomic screen beforehand. We have used Karyomapping to screen for genetic merit, as well as the incidence of chromosome disorders, which could significantly reduce the chances of the embryos developing into live-born calves.' The researchers report the birth of the calves to be born following use of the technique, including the first named Crossfell Cinder Candy, born on a farm near Penrith. ### The study, entiled Karyomapping for simultaneous genomic evaluation and aneuploidy screening of preimplantation bovine embryos: The first live-born calves also involved Dr Kara Turner and Dr Giuseppe Silvestri at the University of Kent, working in collaboration with a team from the University of Nottingham and the Paragon Veterinary group in Cumbria. See: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2018.11.014 For more information or interview requests contact Martin Herrema at the University of Kent Press Office. Tel: 01227 816768 Email: M.J.Herrema@kent.ac.uk News releases can also be found at http://www.kent.ac.uk/news University of Kent on Twitter: http://twitter.com/UniKent Notes to editors 1. The original Karyomapping research, announced in the paper Karyomapping: a novel molecular karyotyping method based on mapping crossovers between parental haplotypes with broad applications for preimplantation genetic diagnosis of inherited disease, was carried out by a University of Kent-related team, including Professor Griffin and Professor Alan Handyside. It was published in the Journal of Medical Genetics. 2. Established in 1965, the University of Kent - the UK's European university - now has almost 20,000 students across campuses or study centres at Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome. It has been ranked 22nd in the Guardian University Guide 2018 and in June 2017 was awarded a gold rating, the highest, in the UK Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2015-16, it is in the top 10% of the world's leading universities for international outlook and 66th in its table of the most international universities in the world. The THE also ranked the University as 20th in its 'Table of Tables' 2016. Kent is ranked 17th in the UK for research intensity (REF 2014). It has world-leading research in all subjects and 97% of its research is deemed by the REF to be of international quality. In the National Student Survey 2016, Kent achieved the fourth highest score for overall student satisfaction, out of all publicly funded, multi-faculty universities. Along with the universities of East Anglia and Essex, Kent is a member of the Eastern Arc Research Consortium. The University is worth 0.7 billion to the economy of the south east and supports more than 7,800 jobs in the region. Student off-campus spend contributes 293.3m and 2,532 full-time-equivalent jobs to those totals. Kent has received two Queen's Anniversary prizes for Higher and Further Education. CAMBRIDGE, MD (November 27, 2018)--Dr. Jacqueline Grebmeier of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. She was cited for providing "new and sustained insights on the ecological responses of Arctic continental shelves to climate change and extraordinary leadership in scientific program development." "Jackie Grebmeier has made exceptional and sustained contributions to the understanding of the Arctic throughout her career," said Peter Goodwin, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "This honor from such a prestigious scientific society underscores her achievements and her global scientific leadership role in understanding this rapidly changing part of the world." A research professor and biological oceanographer, Grebmeier has been working for more than 30 years to understand how Arctic marine ecosystems respond to environmental changes, particularly the importance of biological systems living on the bottom of Arctic seas. She has participated in more than 45 oceanographic expeditions on both U.S. and foreign vessels, many as Chief Scientist. She was the overall project lead scientist for the U.S. Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions project, which was one of the largest U.S. funded global change studies undertaken in the Arctic. She has played a national and international leadership role in Arctic research, including leading an international team of scientists to establish a Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) in the North American Arctic with support through the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other U.S. agencies. She continues to coordinate DBO researchers through the Pacific Arctic Group that includes members from Japan, Korea, China, Canada, Russia, and the United States to systematically track the biological response to sea ice retreat and the resulting environmental changes in the Bering and Chukchi Seas to the west and north of Alaska. "To understand the Arctic biological system requires interdisciplinary and international collaborations to track status and change in the marine ecosystem," said AAAS Fellow Jacqueline Grebmeier. "I am grateful to all collaborators and funding entities that have supported our time series and process-oriented research over the years." She was the U.S. delegate to and a vice-president of the International Arctic Science Committee and served as a member of the U.S. Polar Research Board of the National Academies. In 2000, President Clinton appointed her commissioner to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission in recognition of her exceptional contributions to Arctic marine research, particularly in the areas of benthic ecology and marine ecosystem dynamics. She has contributed to other coordinated international and national science planning efforts, including service on the steering committee for U.S. efforts during the International Polar Year, a collaborative effort to research the polar regions. Her leadership on the recently completed Pacific Marine Arctic Research Synthesis is considered a watershed contribution to the Arctic science community and the dialogue about Arctic development. She has written more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and she has served as editor of several books and journal special issues. In 2006, Grebmeier and her colleagues published the seminal paper, "A major ecosystem shift in the northern Bering Sea" in Science, a major step forward in synthesizing and explaining basic research on how the marine ecosystem was evolving in response to climate change. This year 416 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New Fellows will be officially recognized during the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in February. ### UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science leads the way toward better management of Maryland's natural resources and the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. From a network of laboratories located across the state, UMCES scientists provide sound evidence and advice to help state and national leaders manage the environment, and prepare future scientists to meet the global challenges of the 21st century. http://www.umces.edu BALTIMORE, November 26, 2018 - In new pre-clinical research, scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), led by Scott Thompson, PhD, Professor of Physiology, have identified changes in brain activity linked to the pleasure and reward system. The research, published in the journal, Nature, provides news insights into how the brain processes rewards, and advances our understanding of addiction and depression. The research, which was conducted by Tara LeGates, Ph.D., a Research Associate in the Department of Physiology, discovered that the strength of signals between two brain regions, the hippocampus and the nucleus accumbens, is critical for processing information related to a rewarding stimulus, such as its location. "These two parts of the brain are known to be important in processing rewarding experiences," said Dr. Thompson." The communication between these regions is stronger in addiction, although the mechanisms underlying this were unknown. We also suspected that opposite changes in the strength of this communication would occur in depression. A weakening of their connections could explain the defect in reward processing that causes the symptom of anhedonia in depressed patients." Anhedonia is the inability to enjoy normally pleasurable experiences, such as food, being with friends or family, and sex. This research uncovered a key circuit in the brain of mice that is important for goal-directed behaviors and shows that the strength of the signals in this circuit are changeable, a process referred to as plasticity. Reward circuits and the molecular components that underlie their plasticity represent new targets for development of treatments for disorders like addiction and depression. Using Light-Sensitive Proteins To activate or inhibit this connection, researchers used special light-sensitive proteins introduced into specific neurons in the brains of the mice. In mice with the light-sensitive protein that stimulated the neurons, just four seconds of light exposure not only activated this hippocampus-to-nucleus accumbens pathway while the light was on but persistently reinforced the strength of the signals along this pathway, creating an artificial reward memory. A day later, the mice returned to the place where the artificial memory was created, even though they never experienced an actual reward there. Researchers then used light to silence the same pathway in mice with the light-sensitive protein that inhibited the neurons and found that this pathway is required for associating a reward with its location. The mice no longer showed a preference for the place where they had interacted with another mouse. The researchers also examined this circuit in depressed mice. This pathway could not be enhanced using the stimulating light-sensitive protein. After receiving anti-depressant medication, the researchers could enhance this pathway using the light-sensitive protein and create artificial reward memories in the mice. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Whitehall Foundation, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD Young Investigator Grant). "These exciting results bring us closer to understanding what goes wrong in the brains of clinically depressed patients," said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor. ### About the University of Maryland School of Medicine Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 43 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs; and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished recipient of the Albert E. Laser Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget of more than $1 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically-based care for more than 1.2 million patients each year. The School has over 2,500 students, residents, and fellows, and more than $530 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total workforce of nearly 7,000 individuals. The combined School and Medical System ("University of Maryland Medicine") has an annual budget of nearly $6 billion and an economic impact more than $15 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine faculty, which ranks as the 8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity, is an innovator in translational medicine, with 600 active patents and 24 start-up companies. The School works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu/ Sociedad Los Testigos de Jehova se reunen con Bolanos y agradecen la acogida en Espana de miembros de su confesion perseguidos UPDATE: As Pound Sterling exchange rate traders await the key economic analysis for various Brexit outcomes published today, analysts at Lloyds noted "Markets will be looking for hints from Fed Chairman Powell on the pace of monetary policy tightening next year and beyond after the expected increase to 2.5% in December. "Meanwhile, sterling markets will continue to focus on the build-up to the meaningful vote in the House of Commons on 11 December. "GBP/USD has fallen to around 1.2750, although that is partly a reflection of general US dollar strength." UPDATE: The British Pound (GBP) has fallen to 1.12657 against the euro (EUR) and $1.27579 the US dollar (USD) after currency markets ignored positive UK data in favour of Brexit fears. Exchange rate analysts at Scotiabank commented "The CBI reported better retail trends in its Nov survey but sterling ignored the data and remains soft amid Brexit worries and following the verbal intervention of President Trump in the Brexit debate yesterday (great deal for the EU, UK might not be able to strike a trade deal with the US). "We expect the GBP to remain under pressure ahead of the Dec 11 parliamentary vote on PM Mays deal and, with the risk of parliamentary rejection of the plan (at least on the first go) high, we expect GBP to remain subject to downside pressure." PREVIOUSLY: The British Pound (GBP) continued to struggle against the euro (EUR) and US dollar (USD) on Tuesday as Brexit uncertainty grows. The Japanese Yen (JPY) sold off, with the Ruble (RUB) and Mexican Peso (MXN) on a good day for US stocks and the USD. Analysts at ING believe that it might not be worth trading GBP exchange rates given how much volatility there is. A possible TV debate between Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May is also possible, while the most significant event now confirmed will be the vote on the Withdrawal Deal on December 11th in the coming weeks. Pound Sterling Today: GBP exchange rates unplayable given volatility? It was a bright start to the week for Equity markets on Monday, as Europe and the US were generally higher. General Motors slashed its workforce, including a quarter of executives in a streamlining process and investors cheered the news seeing a sizeable bump in the share price. Europe, and in particular Spain and Italy enjoyed a decent day and Oil also rose as risk sentiment improved. Some early gains for the British Pound were tempered as a vote was scheduled for the withdrawal deal. With the date set for December 11th, it seems the UK Parliament will deliver on its promise to get a vote through before the Parliamentary recess over Christmas. The Pound to Dollar exchange rate (GBP/USD) thus retreated back to 1.28, on a generally encouraging day for the US Dollar. The US Dollar Index (DXY) rose amid some notable weakness in the Mexican Peso (MXN) and Japanese Yen (JPY). The Peso is possibly coming under pressure as tensions at the US border are being ratcheted up, and President Trump appears at odds with the incoming administration over how best to deal with migrant asylum seekers. The lack of risk reaction from the confrontation in Russia and Ukraine was interesting, as although the Ruble felt pressure even with rising Oil prices, markets appear relatively unconcerned. If things were going to deteriorate there is a definite possibility that markets could take note, and so this is an interesting storyline to keep an eye on moving forward. ING suggest steering clear of the Pound As both the upside and the downside risks become more apparent for the British Pound, each development is going to be closely watched as we move closer to the December 11th vote. Analysts at ING reported that Mays tactic may now be to try and demonstrate support for her deal amongst the people and thus garner MP support through a demonstration of that support, After securing the withdrawal deal with EU leaders yesterday, it now looks like UK Prime Minister Theresa May is taking her deal to the people. Having written an open letter, theres now talk of a TV debate with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, trying to curry favour with the electorate and win over more MPs before the crucial vote in parliament. In response to how wild a ride it has been for the Pound, analysts at ING are suggesting that it might be impossible to take a position on the uncertainty and volatility ravaged British Pound, This is going to be an exceptionally noisy period for the pound. With 1m traded volatility now at 14%, uncertainty makes GBP unplayable. The drama looks set to pick up from here, the prospect of a debate is intriguing. Interestingly the area that Corbyn and May might be the most closely aligned on is Brexit, with Corbyn actually deep-down arguably more anti-EU than May who has had Leave foisted on her. Sterlings response could be extremely unpredictable, but as odds are rising as high as 2-1 on a second referendum the bullish tail risk we have been talking about for some time is now looking closer even if the no-deal scenario is also more likely as well. After eccentric ex-journalist Nikol Pashinyan came to power in Yerevan, becoming the leader of the Armenian revolution by a twist of fate, the situation in the smallest and poorest republic of the South Caucasus remains unpredictable. A number of external and internal factors indicate that, despite a predicted confident victory of Pashinyans 'My Step' bloc in the upcoming parliamentary elections, the internal political situation in the country will remain turbulent in the foreseeable future. With regard to aspects of Pashinyans foreign policy in the first seven months of his rule, we should note the emerging negative trends in relations with the country's allies in the CSTO - Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Under Pashinyan, the relations with Astana, and especially with Minsk, were sharply aggravated by the CSTO Secretary General issue. Armenia, probably in the very near future, will finally lose this post due to the imprudent policy of the Armenian revolutionary leader, who placed his internal political interests above the image of the Russian military bloc. Moreover, the overt challenge of young and inexperienced in international affairs Pashinyan to the heavyweights of the post-Soviet politics - Lukashenko and Nazarbayev - risks reducing the level of interaction in the CSTO and EEU. This is evidenced by Pashinyans de facto refusal to attend the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on November 27 in Minsk. The acting Armenian Prime Minister's supporters, who are still in a revolutionary euphoric state, consider this to be a "strong diplomatic move," but in fact, by doing this, Yerevan brings further discredit on itself in the eyes of its still allies. In relations with Russia, Pashinyan and his appointees are much more cautious, since they realize the critical degree of the country's dependence on military and economic support from Moscow. But even in relations with the Kremlin, the new Armenian authorities take "liberties," strange for the Russian side. For example, shortly after Pashinyan came to power, he sharply said that Russia should adapt to the new realities in Armenia. The Armenian President's advisor Tevan Poghosyan already admits that Armenia may decide to withdraw from the CSTO, if it corresponds to the interests of the country. It is noteworthy that Pogosyan made this statement against the background of the crisis in the organization provoked by Armenia. At the same time, Nikol Pashinyan declared an amnesty for Sasna Tsrer terrorists, who oppose the Russian "colonial policy". Zhirayr Sefilyan, the most furious opponent of the Russian presence in Armenia, was granted a citizenship by the acting Prime Minister. Moreover, Pashinyan created the conditions for Sasna Tsrer, who killed police officers and breaking an ATM on the territory of the seized police station, to form a full-fledged party and take part in early elections. The group's leader Lebanese-born Armenian Jirair Sefilyan, in turn, threatens to sweep away the existing separatist authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh, as a result of which the unrecognized entity's leader Bako Sahakyan rushed to Moscow. Sasna Tsrer, which recently swore allegiance to the "people's PM," have started to contradict him. While Pashinyan declares unconditional support for the ruling Nagorno-Karabakh regime, Sefilyan demands his early resignation. If Pashinyan expects that a practically "hand-raised" parliament, elected on December 9, will complete the full term, then Sefilyan insists on holding new elections in two years. Time will tel whether this is a pre-agreed game between them or the first signs of the coming conflict. It is only clear that the presence of terrorists on the country's political scene does not contribute to stabilizing the domestic political situation. Finally, one must acknowledge the negative tendencies caused by Pashinyans maniacal desire to crack down on his political opponents. First of all, ex-president Robert Kocharyan, who possesses significant political and economic resources, which Nikol Pashinyan sees as the main danger to his power in the medium term. On November 27, the Criminal Court of Appeal will consider the complaint related to the cancellation of remand in custody as a preventive measure for the second president of Armenia on the basis of his immunity. Moscow also does not like Pashinyan's attempts to put Kocharyan in jail by all means, about which he directly instructed high-ranking security officials, and even put pressure on the judiciary (despite his own revolutionary slogans). After Kocharyan was arrested for the first time this summer, the Russian Foreign Minister openly criticized the practice of political vendetta in Armenia, which went against Pashinyans earlier promises. After Kocharyan was released, the Kremlin press service told about Vladimir Putins call to Robert Kocharian on the occasion of his birthday. The hint was more than clear, but Yerevan was clearly unwilling to understand it. Pashinyan's position on the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement also does not look very constructive. His demand to involve the Nagorno-Karabakh separatists as an equivalent party to the negotiations is categorically unacceptable to Baku and destroys the established and approved negotiation format within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. The period of calm on the Karabakh front line, which has been observed in recent months, cannot be long-term in the absence of real progress in the peace talks. Pashinyans sharp refusal to exchange all the war prisoners also undermines hopes for creating an atmosphere of trust between the parties, which emerged after an agreement Finally, the geopolitical situation surrounding Armenia does not bode well for it. Political scientist Andrei Areshev recalls that the port of Kavkaz-bound service will be stopped on January 1. "It turns out that all four Armenian borders, if not blocked, then transport service is hampered there. We understand why it happened with the Iranian one. And with the Georgian border too. We all know about the Karabakh settlement and pressure in connection with Boltons visit and other events. If we try to solve problems from time to time, a situation may arise when it is impossible to solve them," the expert believes. Armenian citizens' current exaggerated optimistic hope for positive changes is a dangerous phenomenon for Nikol Pashinyan and his team, since nothing beats the rating harder than unjustified expectations. The Pashinyan team is still not able to provide systemic answers to the challenges confronting the country. Hopes that the West and the diaspora will start allocating enormous funds to the new, supposedly "democratic" Armenia under the leadership of Nikol Pashinyan, fall short. The investment attractiveness of blockaded Armenia for the West will remain low, while the Armenian diaspora this year, to Pashinyan's surprise, collected a record low amount of donations - more than $11 million. That is, Armenia managed to raise more funds from the diaspora under the corrupt RPA government, than under "democrat" Pashinyan's rule. Under the prevailing circumstances, it is vital for Yerevan to seek ways to solve its pressing economic problems and take real steps to get out of the blockade. Otherwise, Armenia may enter a state of permanent domestic political instability, which would be a disaster for the country. Upper band of a linear regression channel continues to hold as support. Bullish reversal pattern. Linear Regression Channel Tested Above: Upper regression band holding as support. A linear regression channel that was formed off the most recent swing high of 1.1815 on September 24th the first swing low of 1.1431 on October 9th. This channel continued to act as a bearish move until price broke above the upper band of the regression channel and then closed at 1.1417 on November 16th. Prices have so far remained above this channel, however, short sellers continue to pressure the upper regression band as support. It has been tested on November 20th, November 21st, November 23rd and again today. The resistance to a higher move may be the result of a combination of resistance zones in Ganns square of 12. There is an important Gann angle in that square (red diagonal line above price) sitting above the current daily candlestick at 1.1427, and another major angle (green down trending line) at 1.1496. If prices maintain and hold support at the upper band of the regression channel, price test a bigger move towards the 1.15 zone. Inverse Head and Shoulders Pattern The right shoulder of an inverse head and shoulders pattern looks to have been formed last Friday (November 23rd), with a further test of that low during todays trading sessions. Any head and shoulders pattern is only valid and should only ever be traded once price has moved beyond the neckline, in this case, it would be near the 1.1416 level the same Gann angle resistance discussed in the above paragraph. It is very probable that prices will begin a slow rise to this zone before experiencing a strong breakout. And a strong breakout is necessary because there are too much resistance and too many resistance zones that are back to back. Risk on traders will enjoy these current conditions, while more conservative traders may want to wait for not only for a breakout but a breakout and then a retest of prior resistance. Brexit continues to weigh in on markets After years and months of speculation and unknowns, some progress has been made between the EU and Britain. Lloyds Bank reports that the Saturday meeting of the EU-27 endorsed the proposed Withdrawal agreement overcoming at least one major hurdle. There was some concern over Gibraltar and it appears further clarification may be needed. The biggest hurdle now resides with Prime Minister May rallying enough support to back the current deal. Regardless, this news failed to generate any major response during Mondays trade but traders should expect some major moves depending on how the British Parliament will vote on the Brexit deal. CAD to suffer if Trump-Xi negotiations break down, Brexit continues to present downside risk for GBP Citibanks Weekly FX Insight paints a picture of developing global politico-economic uncertainty in the near-term with the price of oil, the Trump-Xi face-off expected in a matter of days and continuing political turmoil in the UK as the dominant driving factors for their associated currencies exchange rates in the week ahead. Canadian Dollar Outlook: Strong Domestic Data overshadowed By 11% Drop in Oil With rising retails sales of 0.2% and a year-on-year CPI rise of 2.4%, the domestic economic data suggest the Canadian economy is doing well. Couple this weak US data in the form of -4.4% durable goods orders and you could well expect the US to Canadian Dollar exchange rate to be struggling. However, given the alarming slump in oil, with oil related exports being a primary factor for the Canadian economy, the CAD has remained constrained amid concerns regarding oil-associated export income. Despite the direct effect of a breakdown in the Trump-Xi negotiations in undermining the USD, Citibank predict the indirect effect could further hamper the Canadian Dollar, If Trump-Xi negotiations break down, we expect the US to further implement trade and investment restrictions, which may make markets more volatile and undermine CAD. U.S. Dollar Outlook: Monetary Policy to Hamper USD as Fiscal Stimulus Fades For the U.S., in the near-term the focus is on the upcoming Trump-Xi negotiations, expected at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. With Trump reaffirming his commitment to impose increased tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods at the start of 2019, investors will be keen to see if its all talk. In the mid-term, the easing back of fiscal stimuli may curtail some of the USDs growth weve seen, our view is that the fiscal support to growth eventually fades in the US and tighter monetary policy starts to bite Fading USD yield advantage may undermine USD. Pound Sterling Outlook: Political Uncertainty Continues to Pose Downside Risks Four the Pound Sterling the dominant factor in the near and mid-terms remains the ongoing political uncertainty surrounding Brexit, Political uncertainty may cause significant downside risks. It seems likely that the draft UK-EU withdrawal agreement will be voted down by the Meaningful Vote in the House of Commons. Therefore, the probability of a market friendly transition arrangement are falling fast. The UK is facing completely unchartered waters on economic and political spectrum. Whats cheap can certainly get cheaper. GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Tumbles Almost a Cent as Brexit Chaos Continues The Pound Sterling Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate has slumped over the morning, as Theresa May faces opposition to her Brexit Withdrawal Act. The GBP/AUD exchange rate is currently sitting at AU$1.7615, falling from a previous high of AU$1.7756. The Aussie was able to reverse earlier losses due to the drop in iron ore prices as the doubt that surrounded Mays ability to get the Withdrawal Act through Parliament heightened. With it also being noted by Downing Street that May is ready to defend her deal in a television debate with Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The AUD Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence index figures were released yesterday evening, showing an increase from a previous 117.8 to 118.6, which could have also aided the AUD in pushing back against the Pound this morning. Further tensions have arisen today, as US President Donald Trump has commented on Theresa Mays deal, stating that the agreement sounds like a great deal for the EU and that it could mean the UK will be unable to trade with the United States. GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Starts Strong Against the Australian Dollar The GBP/AUD exchange rate started the beginning of the weeks session strong, with Sterling pushing back at the Aussies gains. Theresa May has faced opposition from Parliament throughout her entire Brexit negotiations with the European Commission, and this continues, and is unlikely to cease. Mays major opposition comes from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), as leader Arlene Foster has said that this Act to withdraw from the EU goes against everything they had been promised as it treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the United Kingdom. She has also called Mays Act worse than no deal, which goes against advice from business leaders who are pushing for support for the Act, as a no-deal will cause more damage to the UK economy. GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Rallies as Iron Ore Prices Plummet The Pound Australian (GBP/AUD) exchange rates were strengthened at the start of the session as Australias most valuable export goods, iron ore spot prices tumbled between 8.3% and 9.1% across the major grades. This was the largest decline in iron ore prices reported in over a year, and in some instances it is reported that the falls were the largest on record. The Aussie also suffered as Australian house prices have been reportedly falling over the past year, with the prices in Melbourne being dented, falling 0.4% over the past week, extending the decline to 0.8% for November. The US-China trade war tensions have also not been too kind to the Aussie, as it remains likely the US are going to continue on their path to hit Chinese imports with a higher tax in the new year, despite the perceived cooling between the superpowers. GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Volatile Due to Brexit in the Week Ahead Wednesday will see the release of the Australian figures regarding the construction work done for the third quarter, and if the figures are as predicted, the fall in construction work could cause the Pound to push back against the Aussie. Wednesday will also see the release of the UKs financial stability report and stress test results released by the Bank of England (BoE), and if the Banks tone is hawkish in the report, it is likely that the UK currency could claw back some of the gains the AUD has made on the currency over this morning. The private capital expenditure for Australia is due to be released on Thursday, and if the figures increase as the forecast is suggesting, the Aussie could continue to rally against the Pound towards the end of the weeks session. It seems likely the Pound is going to remain volatile against the Australian Dollar over the course of the next two weeks as May attempts to push her deal through Parliament, with any sign May could be successful to cause the Pound to rally against the Aussie. 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. From: Stevanne Auerbach -- Dr. Toy's Guide San Francisco , CA Monday, November 26, 2018 San Francisco, CA (November 26, 2018) The Dr. Toy's Best Picks Children's Products Awards Report 2018 is now available to parents, teachers, and others in the online magazine, Dr. Toy's Guide. The Dr. Toy Best Picks Children's Products Award Program was developed by noted play and child development authority, Stevanne Auerbach, PhD, (a.k.a. Dr. Toy) as a service to consumers who desire to purchase safe, affordable, educationally oriented, stimulating new smart toys and play products for children. The Best Picks Award began in 1992 by Dr. Toy in cooperation with the national publication, Early Childhood News, to recognize outstanding educational play products that deserve consideration and use at home and in school. "As a childhood development, play, toys and learning specialist," says Dr. Toy, "I have seen the continuous, essential need for more year-round diverse resources for consumers to identify and choose the most appropriate, safe, and engaging learning and fun products for all children." Dr. Toy reports that since the innovative online magazine Dr. Toy's Guide (the first website on toys on the Internet) has been available, "millions of visitors from around the world have easy access to our timely valued information." The website was the first online resource on the world wide web to inform about and evaluate toys, games, and children's products. The report, "Dr. Toy's Best Picks for 2018," is being released to encourage parents and teachers to focus on the value of play as essential to the learning process." Dr. Auerbach adds, "Smart play products selected from many excellent companies across the U.S.A., Canada, and other countries, provide children with exciting new developmentally appropriate tools to help them do better in school, and also provide more constructive activities after school." Dr. Toy believes "parents, grandparents and teachers need help to gain a head start locating new, diversified products that children will enjoy while increasing skills, enhancing instruction, and expanding imagination." The products selected are balanced among large and small companies and range from low to high tech for "hours of active, creative, educational, and stimulating fun." "Children learn best through play," says Dr. Auerbach, "and these toys, games and products encourage children to maximize their potentials. This is a good time to 'take stock' and do an inventory of what your child is using for play, what is not used, and what is needed next for continued development." adds Dr. Toy. Dr. Toy's Guide offers excellent ideas for choosing new products for use in learning, after school play, and during the holidays ahead. Dr. Toy's Best Picks were carefully chosen as worthy of attention from among hundreds that the Dr. Toy Team has reviewed at toy fairs, in catalogs, and through many other sources, and by using the extensive criteria Dr. Toy has developed over many years. Among the criteria used are: safety, age-appropriateness, design, durability, lasting play value, ecological, cultural and ethnic diversity, good transition from home to school, educational value, learning skills, creativity, improvement in the understanding of the community and the world, good value for price, and, naturally, fun. For complete information about these smart toys and products read the 2018 full report at www.drtoy.com. Dr. Toy selects products that include toys, active products, audio/visuals-video tapes/CDs/DVDs, creative products, educational products, games, socially responsible products, CD-ROMs, high tech, culturally relevant products, and more. Winning products are manufactured by established and new, large and small companies from around the world, including: Animoodles, Aurora World, b.dazzle, Banana Panda, Bizybeez, Bobby Susser Music, Candygrams, Cooperative Games, D & L Co., E-Blox, Golden Bell Studios, Green Toys, Griddly Games, Hansa Creations, Heroes Will Rise, Itty Bitty City, Kangaroo Mfg., Kellytoy, Kitki, Laser Pegs, Looney Labs, Maple Landmark, Miao Kids, NSI Int'l, OWI, Piccoli Horses, ReadySetz, Rival 5 Game, Serabeena, Sharingland, SmartFelt Toys, SmartLab Toys, Square Panda, Teknikio, Think Tank Scholar, Tralala Limited, Turing Tumble, Two Tons Media, and Whistlefritz. These products were selected for additional recognition for their added value: 10 Best Toys: Animoodles (Animoodles), Aurora World (Little Pitter Pattern-Pup Rattle & Swaddle), b.dazzle (Cupcakes Scramble Squares Puzzle), Banana Panda (Match the Baby Puzzles), E-Blox (Circuit Blox 115 Project Set), Green Toys (Tide Pool Bath Set), Kangaroo Mfg. (Pop-Oh_Ver Stove Set), NSI Int'l (Fuzzy Wubble), ReadySetz (Space Base Playset), Sharingland (Cardboard Playhouse Sets). 10 Best Educational Products: CooperativeGames.com (Baby Beluga Game), Golden Bell Studios (Keys to Capitals Board Game), Griddly Games (Just Add Sugar), Kellytoy (Squishmallows), Looney Labs (Pyramid Arcade), NSI Int'l (Smithsonian Robo Spider), OWI (Dodeca 12-in-1 Solar Hydraulic Robot), SmartLab Toys (Tiny Science), Square Panda (Square Panda Home Ed.), Whistlefritz (French Collection). 10 Best Gifts: Bobby Susser Music (Green Light), D & L Company (Junior Glow Stomp Rocket), Hansa Creations USA (Giraffe Medium), Heroes Will Rise (Rigamajig Junior), Itty Bitty City (Magnetic Wooden Blocks, 30-Pc), Laser Pegs Ventures (Mars Rocket), Maple Landmark (Rainmaker Rattle), SmartFelt Toys (My Little House), Teknikio (Activating Origami), Turing Tumble (Turing Tumble) The Dr. Toy's Best Picks Award Report includes company customer service number, website URL, age range, price, full description of each product, and more. The award-winning, online magazine, Dr. Toy's Guide, features full color photos of each product, links to companies to learn more, interviews with and articles by Dr. Toy, plus hundreds of currently available products including: 100 Best, Best Classic, Best Vacation, and Best Green products. Over 6,000 outstanding products have been selected, evaluated and bestowed with Dr. Toy's Best Children's Product Awards since 1992. Dr. Toy's Best Picks (and the 10 Best Toys, 10 Best Educational Products, 10 Best Gifts) for 2018 are now available for play and learning at www.drtoy.com Interact with Dr. Toy on social media through Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest Interviews regarding recommended Dr. Toy's Best Picks 2018 can be arranged through Greg Walsh, Walsh PR (203-292-6280) greg@walshpr.com Additional Points : Dr. Toy's Guide lists resources on play, toys and parenting. Dr. Toy presents the newest products to parents and teachers around the world. Dr. Toy writes, speaks, and shares insights about the importance of toys, play, and learning. All evaluated toys are donated to children. Products and guidance information are available online. Dr. Auerbach is the author of the 4 th Edition of Dr. Toy's Smart Play/Smart Toys: How to Select and Use the Best Toys and Games (Regent Press), which provides useful tools to parents to enhance their child's P.Q (Play Quotient). The book, published in China, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the USA, will soon be available in other countries. Edition of Dr. Toy's Smart Play/Smart Toys: How to Select and Use the Best Toys and Games (Regent Press), which provides useful tools to parents to enhance their child's P.Q (Play Quotient). The book, published in China, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the USA, will soon be available in other countries. Interviews with and about Dr. Toy have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and TV across the USA, and in Canada, and abroad in Dubai, Germany, Japan, Spain, and others. About Dr. Toy: Dr. Auerbach, a long-time resident of San Francisco, originally from New York City, lived in Washington, D.C., while working as a teacher, and then for the Department of Education where she approved the first proposal for "Sesame Street," evaluated Title One Programs, and established the first daycare center for children of federal employees. In San Francisco, she established the San Francisco International Toy Museum, the world's first "hands-on" toy museum visited by over 50,000 children. The author of 16 books, including The Toy Chest, Toys for a Lifetime, The Whole Child, Choosing Child Care, Confronting the Child Care Crises and hundreds of interviews and articles on toys and play. She is the only PhD in Child Development evaluating toys and children's products with extensive training, background, and over 50 years of experience evaluating, writing and speaking about toys and children's products. Dr. Auerbach is trained in child development, education, child psychology, and special education. She is an educator, consultant, parent, and playful grandparent. Her book, Dr. Toy's Smart Play/Smart Toys: How to Select and Use the Best Toys and Games (4th edition), published in 13 countries, may be obtained through Amazon and at other book/toy stores. Dr. Toy is a registered trademark of Dr. Toy LLC/Stevanne Auerbach, PhD. Stevanne Auerbach (2018). All rights reserved. Alphabetical Listing of Award-Winning Companies and Products DR. TOY'S 2018 BEST PICKS CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS Selected by Stevanne Auerbach, PhD (Dr. Toy) # Company Product Name, Type, Top10 Age Price CustServ# URL 1 Animoodles Animoodles AE CH CO TY 1 0-3 $25.00 650-542-9332 theanimoodles.com 2 Aurora World Little Pitter Pattern ID CH UN TY PL 1 0-6 mos $20.00 888-287-6722 auroragift.com 3 b. dazzle Cupcakes Scramble Squares CP ES PZ 1 4-12 $12.99 800-809-4242 b-dazzle.com 4 b. dazzle Hearts Scramble Squares CG CT PZ SR 4-12 $12.99 800-809-4242 b-dazzle.com 5 Banana Panda Match Baby Puzzles CO ES BG TY PZ 1 18 mos-3 $16.99 856-720-0580 bananapanda.com 6 Banana Panda Suuuper Size Memory Game NO ES BG 2-5 $21.99 856-720-0580 bananapanda.com 7 Banana Panda Way I See It Flash Cards CH ES BO CG 0-12 mos $16.99 856-720-0580 bananapanda.com 8 Bizybeez MagStix CH CO ES SC SA 3-8 $69.99 801-895-4838 bizybeez.com 9 Bobby Susser Music Green Light AE CH DD ML MM 3 2-8 $12.97 516-466-6040 bobbysusser.com 10 Candygrams Candygrams ES LA GE 7-12 $24.99 571-263-4511 candygrams.com 11 CooperativeGames.com Baby Beluga Game UN ES GG SA GN 3 3-10 $34.95 800-328-1050 cooperativegames.com 12 D & L Co. Dueling Stomp Rocket AE HO ES SA TY 6-12 $21.00 800-632-8869 stomprocket.com 13 D & L Co. Junior Glow Stomp Rocket AE ES SA TY 3 3-12 $14.99 800-632-8869 stomprocket.com 14 D & L Co. Stomp Rocket Stunt Planes AE HO SA TY 5-12 $29.99 800-632-8869 stomprocket.com 15 E-Blox Circuit Blox 115 Project Set CO ES 1 8-12 $32.99 855-693-2569 myeblox.com 16 Golden Bell Studios Keys to Capitals Board Game ES GG SR 2 7-12 $24.95 855-271-6621 goldenbellstudios.com 17 Golden Bell Studios Marshfellows Stuffed Toys AE CH CP PL 0 mo-12 $24.95 855-271-6621 goldenbellstudios.com 18 Golden Bell Studios Movie Buff Card Game CP AR GE CE MM 10-12 $24.95 855-271-6621 goldenbellstudios.com 19 Golden Bell Studios Pretending to Grownup Game CP CG CE 12-12 $29.95 855-271-6621 goldenbellstudios.com 20 Green Toys Tide Pool Bath Set EC GN SR PT 1 6 mo-12 $19.99 877-412-7467 greentoys.com 21 Griddly Games Just Add Sugar CP ES SA SR EC 2 8-12 $24.95 604-249-5020 griddlygames.com 22 Hansa Creations Giraffe Medium AE CH SR TY PL 3 3-12 $195.00 844-888-0694 HansaCreationUSA.com 23 Heroes Will Rise Rigamajig Junior AE EQ CO CP ES 3 5-12 $395.00 202-464-6088 rigamajig.com 24 Itty Bitty City Magnetic Wood Blocks30 Pc CO SA WT 3 3-5 $49.99 417-202-2025 ittybitty.city 25 Itty Bitty City Magnetic WoodenCat/Dog CO SA WT 3-5 $19.99 417-202-2025 ittybitty.city 26 Kangaroo Mfg. Pop-Oh-Ver Counter Top Set AE FP TY 3-12 $39.95 480-566-8686 kangaroomfg.com 27 Kangaroo Mfg. Pop-Oh-Ver Stove Set AE CH AS FP TY 1 3-12 $39.95 480-566-8686 kangaroomfg.com 28 Kellytoy Squishmallow AE CH FP PL 2 0-12 $2.99 323-432-5800 squishmallows 29 Kitki Three Sticks ID CP CP GE BG 8-12 $35.00 +91 7382717816 kitki.in 30 Laser Pegs Fire's Fury CO EL ES FP SA 6-12 $44.99 941-371-0909 laserpegs.com 31 Laser Pegs Mars Rocket CO EL ES FP SA 3 7-12 $69.99 941-371-0909 laserpegs.com 32 Looney Labs Get the MacGuffin GE CG SR CT EC 8-12 $10.00 301-441-1019 looneylabs.com/edu 33 Looney Labs Nanofictionary ES BO LA SA GE TR 8-12 $16.00 301-441-1019 looneylabs.com/edu 34 Looney Labs Pyramid Arcade CP ES MA SA BG 2 8-12 $77.00 301-441-1019 looneylabs.com/edu 35 Maple Landmark Rainmaker Rattle SR EC GN OR TY 3 0-2 $17.50 800-421-4223 maplelandmark.com 36 MiaoKids MiaoKids Smart Kit ES SA EG TC EL 2-8 $79.00 +86 18518208646 http://miaokids.com 37 MiaoKids MiaoKids Wonder Math ES SA EG AA TC 2-8 $0.01 +86 18518208646 http://miaokids.com 38 NSI Int'l Fuzzy Wubble AE CH NO PL TY 1 4-12 $17.99 888-425-9113 nsi-intonline.com 39 NSI Int'l Laser X Fusion AE EQ FP EG TC EL 6-12 $79.99 888-425-9113 nsi-intonline.com 40 NSI Int'l Smithsonian Fingerprint Kit AE HO ES SA 6-12 $14.99 888-425-9113 nsi-intonline.com 41 NSI Int'l Smithsonian Robo Spider FP CO SA TC 2 6-12 $14.99 888-425-9113 nsi-intonline.com 42 OWI Dodeca SolarHydraulic Robot HM CO CR 2 8-12 $33.95 310-515-6800 owirobot.com 43 OWI OWI-893 KIKO.893 HO CO SC SR 8-12 $43.95 310-515-6800 owirobot.com 44 Piccoli Horses Piccoli Horses FP ES LA MM PL 3- 12 $30.00 859-469-4343 piccolihorses.com 45 ReadySetz Space Base Playset AE FP EC SR DH 1 3-12 $65.00 949-429-8687 readysetz.com 46 ReadySetz Urban Playset 2.0 AE FP SR EC DH 3-12 $65.00 949-429-8687 readysetz.com 47 Rival 5 Game Number Strategy Game CP MA SA BG 9-12 $39.99 717-917-5471 rival5game.com 48 Serabeena Bracelet Making Kit HM HO AC TY 4-8 $19.99 00 852 8191 5577 serabeena.com 49 Sharingland Cardboard Playhouse Sets FP CO SA 1 3-8 $99.99 513-808-5588 sharingland.com 50 SmartFelt Toys My Little House AE CH ES TY 3 2-5 $34.99 818-822-5269 smartfelttoys.com 51 SmartLab Toys Tiny Science CP EQ ES SA SC 2 8-12 $19.99 425-822-1950 smartlabtoys.com 52 Square Panda Square Panda Home Ed. ES AA EG TC 2 2-8 $59.95 877-807-2632 squarepanda.com 53 Teknikio Activating Origami UN CO CP ES SA 3 8-12 $24.00 718-773-8301 teknikio.com 54 Think Tank Scholar 500+Sight Words Flash Cards ES LA CG 3-9 $25.00 310-801-4959 thinktankscholar.com 55 Tralala Limited LalaBoom Educ.Beads AE CO ES SR TY 10 mos-3 $29.95 0085269085698 lalaboom.toys 56 Turing Tumble Turing Tumble CO ES SA BG PZ 3 8-12 $69.95 651-231-0617 turingtumble.com 57 Two Tons Media Reindeer in Here CH FP ES BO PL 1 mo-10 $29.99 310-308-6810 reindeerinhere.com 58 Whistlefritz French Collection ES LA MM CT ML 2 2-7 $89.99 301-466-3937 whistlefritz.com DR. TOY'S 2018 BEST PICKS BY CATEGORY Selected by Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D. (Dr. Toy) 10 BEST TOYS Company Product Type Age Price CustSrv www. Animoodles Animoodles AE CH CO TY 0-3 $25.00 650-542-9332 theanimoodles.com Aurora World Little Pitter Pattern Pup Rattle & Swaddle CH UN TY PL 0-6 mos $20.00 888-287-6722 auroragift.com b. dazzle Cupcakes Scramble Squares Puzzle CH CP ES PZ 4-12 $12.99 800-809-4242 b-dazzle.com Banana Panda Match the Baby Puzzles CO ES BG TY PZ 18 mos-3 $16.99 856-720-0580 bananapanda.com E-Blox Circuit Blox 115 Project Set CO ES 8-12 $32.99 855-693-2569 myeblox.com Green Toys Tide Pool Bath Set EC GN SR TY PT 6 mo-12 $19.99 877-412-7467 greentoys.com Kangaroo Mfg Pop-Oh-Ver Stove Set AE CH AS FP TY 3-12 $39.95 480-566-8686 kangaroomfg.com NSI International Fuzzy Wubble AE CH NO PL TY 4-12 $17.99 888-425-9113 nsi-intonline.com ReadySetz LLC ReadySetz Space Base Playset AE FP EC SR DH 3-12 $65.00 949-429-8687 readysetz.com Sharingland Cardboard Playhouse Sets AE CS FP CO SA 3-8 $99.99 513-808-5588 sharingland.com 10 BEST EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTS Company Product Type Category Age Price CustSrv# www. CooperativeGames.com Baby Beluga Game UN ES GG SA GN 3-10 $34.95 800-328-1050 cooperativegames.com Golden Bell Studios Keys to Capitals Board Game CH ES GG BG SR 3-10 $34.95 800-328-1050 cooperativegames.com Griddly Games Just Add Sugar CF ES SA SR EC 8-12 $24.95 604-249-5020 griddlygames.com Kellytoy Squishmallows AE CH FP PL 0-12 $2.99 323-432-5800 squishmallows Looney Labs Pyramid Arcade CP ES MA SA BG 8-12 $77.00 301-441-1019 looneylabs.com/edu NSI Int'l Smithsonian Robo Spider FP HO CO SA TC 6-12 $14.99 888-425-9113 nsi-intonline.com OWI Dodeca 12-in-1 SolarHydraulic Robot HM CO CR ES EC 8-12 $33.95 310-515-6800 owirobot.com SmartLab Toys Tiny Science CP EQ ES SA SC 8-12 $19.99 425-822-1950 smartlabtoys.com Square Panda Square Panda Home Ed. ES LA AA EG TC 2-8 $59.95 877-807-2632 squarepanda.com Whistlefritz French Collection ES LA MM CT ML 2-7 $89.99 301-466-3937 whistlefritz.com 10 BEST GIFTS Company Product Type Category Age Price CustSrv# www. Bobby Susser Music Green Light AE CH DD ML MM 2-8 $12.97 516-466-6040 bobbysusser.com D & L Company Junior Glow Stomp Rocket AE HO ES SA TY 3-12 $14.99 800-632-8869 stomprocket.com Hansa Creations USA Giraffe Medium AE CH SR TY PL 3-12 $195.00 844-888-0694 HansaCreationUSA.com Heroes Will Rise Rigamajig Junior AE EQ CO CP ES 5-12 $395.00 202-464-6088 rigamajig.com Itty Bitty City, LLC Magnetic Wooden Blocks 30 Pc CH CO ES SA WT 3-5 $49.99 417-202-2025 ittybitty.city Laser Pegs Ventures Mars Rocket CO EL ES FP SA 7-12 $69.99 941-371-0909 laserpegs.com Maple Landmark Rainmaker Rattle CH SR EC GN OR TY 0-2 $17.50 800-421-4223 maplelandmark.com SmartFelt Toys My Little House AE CH ES TY 2-5 $34.99 818-822-5269 smartfelttoys.com Teknikio Activating Origami UN CO CP ES SA 8-12 $24.00 718-773-8301 teknikio.com Turing Tumbler Turing Tumbler CO ES SA BG TY PZ 8-12 $69.95 651-231-0617 turingtumble.com Key: AA = Application, App AC = arts & crafts AE = active AS = accessories, decorations AT = audio/audio tape BA = bath BG = board game BO = book CE = children's entertainment CG = card game CH = children's product CO = construction CP = creative product CR = computer-related CS = costume, other accessories CT = cultural DD = digital disc DH = doll house DO = doll EC = eco-friendly EG = electronic game EL = electronic product EQ = equipment ES = educational FP = fantasy play GE = game GG = geography GN = green HM = hand-made HO = hobby ID - indoor LA = language MA = math ML = musical MM = multimedia NO = novelty OP = outdoor play PL = plush PT = pool toy PZ = puzzle SA STEM/STEAM SC = science SR = socially responsible SW = software TC = technology TR = travel TY = toy UN = unique WT = wooden toy 10 BEST PICKS CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS CATEGORY: 1 = Toys 2 = Educational Products 3 = Gifts The issue of fiscal implications of green economic transition for some oil-dependent economies is in the air at the moment, especially in the days before the COP24 global climate gathering in Polands coal region of Katowice next month. The issue has been raised by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the IMF and the OECD. In 2015, the EBRD also explored the topic in a report Government assets: risks and opportunities in a changing climate policy landscape. Financial Times reports in its article Kazakhstan has a decade to prepare for green transition that the scenario of a full global switch to low-carbon economic growth should mean that we warm the planet by well below the maximum of 2C that the Paris Agreement calls for. As countries become greener, economic activity and global markets will change, including what we consume and the way we produce goods. This shift will create opportunities in clean energy, low-carbon transport and energy-efficient manufacturing. However, countries that rely most heavily on fossil fuels are likely to face the highest risks of this transition, due either to their significant dependence on fossil fuel-related revenues or to their reliance on energy-intensive and energy-emitting industries. In a world where the future of fossil fuels is increasingly uncertain, as the latest IEA World Energy Outlook indicates, countries that own large reserves may face the risk of such assets becoming stranded. This is a particular concern for national governments, for three reasons: many of the assets related to fossil fuels (such as oil and gas reserves but also related infrastructure) are in the hands of the state rather than the private sector; most nations that rely heavily on fossil fuels struggle to diversify their economies and hence their fiscal revenues (the so-called Dutch disease); and many political forces in those countries create pressure to continue investing in fossil fuels, worsening their dependence. According to our simulations, a worldwide shift to a greener economy and the consequent decrease in demand for fossil fuels could lead to depletion of Kazakhstans national savings from oil as soon as a decade from now. If oil prices were about $65 over the course of the next 20 years or so, our simulations indicate that export revenues might fall due to lower volume exports and lower prices by up to 40 per cent over that period, potentially leading to unsustainable levels of public debt unless there is a change of course in public spending. The EBRD report offers four recommendations, which are applicable to other emerging markets that find themselves in a similar predicament. Diversify revenue sources. Structural transformation that supports growth in the non-oil economy will reduce reliance on fossil fuels, building resilience to the fiscal risks of commodity price movements. But diversification is easier said than done, particularly when it comes to promoting stronger exports outside the energy sector. Resource-rich countries in Kazakhstans region need to spend more on built infrastructure and education to drive growth, as the World Bank has shown. Manage oil revenues more effectively. Kazakhstan has built up large savings from oil in its sovereign wealth fund, which the country should now avoid depleting through current consumption. It should follow examples (including those from Norways and Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth funds) of investment in sectors that are not correlated with oil prices. Explore opportunities to raise revenues through fiscal policies that can stimulate economic development and cut wasteful expenditure. As an example, distortionary fossil fuel subsidies could be reduced. Plan public finances over the medium and long term, rather than the short term. The government has already introduced legislation to allow for a medium-term budget framework, but could also consider developing tools to help manage its expenditure more effectively in the medium and long term. The good news is that the most significant fiscal impacts are projected to occur in the late 2020s, leaving a window of opportunity of around a decade in which Kazakhstan could take action to address these impacts. As oil markets are notoriously volatile, taking action will be beneficial anyway, regardless of the worldwide transition to a green global economy a point well understood in the long-term economic strategies of Kazakhstan. Indeed, the EBRDs enhanced partnership with Kazakhstan focuses on this issue. The fact that there will be some losers from decarbonisation of the global economy cannot deter us from this path: even those countries are already being hit by climate-related events (Kazakhstan, for example, is experiencing desertification and extreme weather). The recent report by the IPCC shows that we must continue to push for urgent action; and this week another report, by the Energy Transitions Commission, shows that even in hard-to-abate sectors decarbonisation is economically and technically possible. The new EBRD report makes clear that there are realistic ways to prepare the public finances of oil exporters for the global green transition. San Antonios quest to host the signing of the revised North American Free Trade Agreement looked short-lived Monday as plans gelled to have the pact signed when the three nations leaders join the Group of 20 summit meeting this week in Argentina. U.S. Reps. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, Will Hurd, R-Helotes, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, in an October letter urged President Donald Trump, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sign the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, in San Antonio. The current NAFTA agreement was signed here in 1992. OnExpressNews.com: Cornyn talks new NAFTA pact, tariffs on Toyota anniversary visit But Pena Nieto and Trudeau in a Nov. 23 phone call agreed to sign the USMCA on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday Pena Nietos last day in office. Signing the agreement then keeps it from falling under the administration of incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The Office of the U.S. Trade Administration did not respond to a query as to whether Trump had formally agreed to the signing. Cuellar in an email said he was disappointed but encouraged to see the agreement move forward. It was our hope that all three countries would continue the tradition, begun with the original NAFTA, of signing the trilateral agreement in San Antonio, he said. Nevertheless, after a year of intense negotiations, I am encouraged to see that all three countries have come to an agreement and will sign the new, trilateral USMCA later this week. This is a welcomed step forward in advancing our current trade relations and is certainly a win for Texans and the American people. OnExpressNews.com: Reworked NAFTA deal brings relief to Texas businesses Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a Democrat who was San Antonios mayor at the time of the original NAFTA signing, said the citys hopes of hosting another gala signing ceremony had little chance considering leaders thumbed their noses at the GOP national convention. I was told right away, Well, you guys wouldnt even bid on the Republican convention, Wolff said. All three nations still must ratify the USMCA, and its unclear how it will fare when put in front of a newly Democrat-dominated U.S. House of Representatives in 2019. When Leo Zappala and Lance Williamson first set eyes on the home they now live in at 315 Club Drive, they almost couldnt set eyes on it. Thats because the front yard was so overgrown with trees, shrubs and other vegetation it was all but hidden from the street. Worse, there was a beehive in the front window, vines were growing into the house and, during the first night they slept there, they heard what they assume were rodents scuttling about. City Public Service also had failed to turn on the electricity, so they were literally in the dark until a kindly neighbor ran an extension cord to their place to supply them with power. It was like camping in our own living room, said Williamson, who hesitated before continuing. The toilet was broken, so we peed in the bathroom sink. Working five to six days a week for about 18 months, the couple completely renovated the three-bedroom, two-bath Mediterranean-style house. It will be one of six featured in the Monticello Park Holiday Home Tour on Dec. 2. On ExpressNews.com: High-end laundry rooms now double- or triple-duty rooms Monticello Park Holiday Home Tour 2018 The home tour will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 2. Tickets cost $15 in advance and can be purchased at monticelloparkna.com. They also can be purchased for $20 on the day of the tour at Jefferson United Methodist Church, 758 Donaldson Ave. In addition, there will be a Christmas Market where local artisans will sell jewelry, woodwork, paintings and other crafts. The market will be at Jefferson United Methodist Church, 758 Donaldson Ave., where the 1920s-era chapel will also be open for viewing. The other homes on the tour: 230 North Drive: This cozy, Tudor cottage was part of a 1920s development called English Village. It features a spiral staircase leading up to the master suite. Local artists live here, and that's evident from the works on display. The garage has been converted into their art studio. 401 North Drive: Designed by architect N. Straus Nayfach, this two-story home has a limestone exterior and balcony that runs almost the length of the front. It has been extensively renovated with an open-concept first floor featuring a gourmet kitchen and high-end finishes. 207 Club Drive: Built in the late 1920s, this two-story, three-bedroom, two-bath brick home has its original wood floors, wood stairs with a wrought-iron handrail and graceful arched entrances between the living and dining areas, and the entry hall to the living area. The front door is original down to the speak-easy window. 2115 West Kings Highway: This two-story brick home built in 1936 retains original moldings, built-ins and arches. The bathrooms have the original deco-era color palette with a combination of original and one-of-a-kind reproduction tiles created by the homeowners. 342 Quentin Drive: An early ranch home that has been remodeled to open the floor plan for entertaining. It has three bedrooms, two baths and large walk-in closets. The original garage was converted by a previous owner into living space and now serves as a media room. See More Collapse The 1,380-square-foot house isnt the first Zappala and Williamson have renovated together. They prettied up an apartment in New York City and refurbished three condos in Argentina (where Zappala is from), two houses in Houston and two more in the King William Historic District. The pair bring distinct talents to the task. Zappala is the perfectionist his best friends, teases Williamson, are plumb and level while Williamson is the one who gets things done, trolling the internet for the best deals on period pieces like bathroom and kitchen tile and cabinet hinges. The renovation took much of the house, built in 1926 or 27, down to the studs, restoring where possible, replacing where necessary. The half-moon windows in the guest bedroom, for instance, were saved and rebuilt while the transom was too rotted and had to be replaced with new wood. Despite the decrepitude, there were still many valuable details left in the house. Most of the interior doors, for example, have the original glass doorknobs, and many of the doors themselves have several concentric borders like the matted frames of a painting or print. All Zappala and Williamson had to do is restain them to return them to their former glory. The original master bedroom sits just to the right of the open-air entryway. While the room is physically attached to the rest of the house, theres no way to get from one to the other without walking outside again. So Zappala and Williamson have moved the master bedroom to the back of the house, which has the added advantage of being quieter. On ExpressNews.com: The top trends for luxe bathroom sinks But not everything remained. The rounded entryway between the living and dining rooms is flanked by two smaller, narrower openings the couple suspects once held decorative iron screens. All that remains of them, however, are several small brackets that held them in place. That front room is now a guest room with a bathroom renovated with vintage bathroom tiles Williamson found on eBay. They came individually wrapped in newspaper and each one had a penny inside, he said. I suppose to mark the year they were made, perhaps. The couple brought their own sensibilities to the project, most notably in the small kitchen. They bought a tall, narrow refrigerator, painted it a light almond and replaced the original door handle with a tapered, futuristic-looking one purchased in Argentina. They also installed a circa-1920s or -30s Roper stove bought in New York that Williamson said is probably similar to the homes original model. It looks its age, but we fixed it up and well be able to cook Thanksgiving dinner in it, he said several weeks ago. It took weeks, but he tracked down sheets of six-sided tiles to replace parts of the countertop that had deteriorated beyond repair. We wanted it to look like it was when it was new, he explained, If you look closely, you can see the edges of the tiles in the new portions arent beveled like the original ones are. But the heart of the home is an inner courtyard where they like to take their morning and afternoon coffee. At the center is a low tiled pool thats home to a family of bright orange koi. Theyre survivors, those fish, Williamson said. They survived on their own for at least six months while the house was unoccupied and before it was sold. When we moved in, the pond was overgrown, just like the front yard. And, like the front yard, a little love and care revealed the pool as a hidden gem. Richard A. Marini is a features writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini Prosecutors with Special Counsel Robert Mueller said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement, accusing President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to them in their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Manafort denied doing so intentionally, but both sides agreed in a court filing that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia should set sentencing immediately. The apparent collapse of Manafort's cooperation agreement is the latest stunning turnaround in his case, exposing the longtime Republican consultant to at least a decade behind bars after he pleaded guilty in September to charges of cheating the Internal Revenue Service, violating foreign-lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice. The filing also indicated that Mueller's team may have lost its potentially most valuable witness in Manafort, a top campaign official present at discussions at the heart of the special counsel's mission to determine if any Americans conspired with Russia's efforts to sway the U.S. election. Still, prosecutors may know more about Manafort's interactions than he realized, allowing them to catch him in alleged lies. More for you Stone associate Jerome Corsi says he is rejecting plea deal from special counsel Separately Monday, conservative author Jerome Corsi, who has ties to a longtime Trump adviser, said he rejected a deal offered by Mueller to plead guilty to one count of perjury because, he said, he did not intentionally lie to investigators. It was not clear what the men already have told investigators or whether their lack of cooperation would mark a significant setback for Mueller's investigation. As part of his plea agreement, Manafort promised to tell the government about "his participation in and knowledge of all criminal activities." Prosecutors did not elaborate on areas where they contend Manafort lied or what evidence led them to that conclusion. A Mueller spokesman declined to comment. "After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement," prosecutors wrote. "The government will file a detailed sentencing submission to the Probation Department and the Court in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies." Manafort disputes that characterization. His attorneys write in the joint filing that he "has provided information to the government in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations." A Manafort spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Manafort pleaded guilty Sept. 14, on the eve of jury selection for his trial in Washington, to two charges - conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice - admitting to years of financial crimes related to his undisclosed lobbying work for a pro-Russian political party and politician in Ukraine. Under the agreement with prosecutors, Manafort faced a maximum prison sentence of 10 years in the District case, not counting a sentence for his August conviction in Virginia for bank and tax fraud. The longtime lobbyist also was ordered to forfeit an estimated $15 million he hid from the IRS but was permitted to keep some property held with relatives. In return for his cooperation, he hoped to have prosecutors recommend leniency, possibly slicing years off his term of incarceration. If he is found to have breached the deal, he would lose any sentencing credits for acceptance of responsibility, prosecutors said. Evidence of other crimes could also subject Manafort to an increase in the seven-to-10-year sentence he faces in Virginia. He is set to come before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis of Alexandria, Virginia, for sentencing in February. Before his plea, Manafort vigorously fought the charges. His defenders had long insisted that he would not cooperate with Mueller and that he did not have information that would incriminate the president. But in plea papers, Manafort agreed to cooperate "fully and truthfully" with the investigation by the Office of Special Counsel, including participating in interviews and debriefings, producing any documents in his control, testifying, and agreeing to delay sentencing until a time set by the government. Monday's filing came after Manafort talked in detail to prosecutors before his plea, and despite numerous visits by him and his lawyers since to prosecutors' offices. Kevin Downing, an attorney for Manafort, said at the time of the plea that it included a full cooperation agreement. "He wanted to make sure his family remained safe and live a good life," Downing said outside the courthouse. "He has accepted responsibility." --- The Washington Post's Matt Zapotosky and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: Before he joined the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort made a name for himself in the D.C. lobbying world, but his past caught up with him. (Dalton Bennett , Jon Gerberg, Jesse Mesner-Hage/The Washington Post) Embed: --- Video Embed Code Video: Before he joined the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort hadn't been seen around Washington in a while. He had made a name for himself in the D.C. lobbying world, but he made a fortune overseas, advising strongmen and doing business with oligarchs. Then his past caught up with him.(Dalton Bennett ,Jon Gerberg,Jesse Mesner-Hage/The Washington Post) Embed code: San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said Tuesday that his department is ready to start citing rather than arresting people accused of some low-level misdemeanors, including possession of small amounts of marijuana. The next step is for newly elected District Attorney Joe Gonzales to finalize a cite-and-release policy after he takes office Jan. 1. He has said it is a priority. Such a policy could allow a person to take a class, pay a fine or do community service instead of going to jail or having an arrest on their record. It would be similar to a traffic ticket. To McManus, the change would free up limited law enforcement resources. It will save officers a ton of time if they are allowed to cite-and-release versus arrest, he told the City Council public safety committee. We are ready on the front end. Under a 2007 state law, 10 offenses, all Class A or B misdemeanor crimes, are eligible for cite-and-release, including criminal mischief, theft, graffiti and driving with an invalid license. Misdemeanor offenses eligible for cite-and-release Class A possession of marijuana 4 ounces or less Class A possession of synthetic marijuana 4 ounces or less Class A graffiti Class B possession of marijuana 4 ounces or less Class B possession of synthetic marijuana 2 ounces or less Class B graffiti Class B criminal mischief Class B theft Class B theft of service Class B driving with an invalid license See More Collapse San Antonio police made a total of 30,626 arrests for those 10 offenses since 2014, according to the department. An officer spends an average of 90 minutes to process an arrest for one such offense. That amounts to about 45,939 hours of officer time over the last four and a half years. Officers have the discretion now to cite offenders for Class C misdemeanors. Almost a year ago, District Attorney Nico LaHood announced his own cite-and-release plan, but it was marred by problems from the beginning. Gonzales, who defeated LaHood in the primary election and then won election this month, said he wants to figure out how to make it work. Were going to start anew. Lets work together, he said shortly after his election. McManus said he met with Gonzales on Monday to discuss what is needed to make the program successful. They will meet again in December to nail down the details. In the interim, the police department is preparing. It has updated the departments general manual to allow officers to use discretion for specific misdemeanors. The department also plans to provide officers with additional training. About two dozen supporters of cite-and-release attended Tuesdays meeting. Robert Phillips told the committee he called 911 in July 2010 to tell dispatchers that his ex-wife was leaving the county with his daughter, an apparent violation of their custody arrangement. He said the dispatcher hung up on him, prompting him to call back several times. Police were later dispatched to Phillips home, where he was arrested and charged with making abusive calls to 911, a Class B misdemeanor. A judge later released him on a personal recognizance bond. Under such a bond the defendant is not required to pay but must agree to appear in court as required. The charge was dismissed a year later, according to court records. While abusing calls to 911 services is not one of the eligible offenses under a possible cite-and-release program, Phillips said his case shows how an arrest for a simple misdemeanor can disrupt a persons life. If they had come out and cited me, I could have gone to the courts and I could have aired out this whole situation, Phillips said. I could have let (them) know Hey, I wasnt trying to abuse 911 services. Pilot program launches McManus said the police department began talking about the possibility of such a cite-and-release program with LaHood in September 2017. But there were no further discussions about how it would work. About the same time, the Texas Organizing Project, a state organization that works on behalf of low-income and working-class families, began to push for cite-and-release locally. Organizers met with city and county officials, as well as City Council members, to discuss what needed to be done. In September, LaHood called a news conference to say he planned to adopt cite-and-release. Flanked by Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar and County Judge Nelson Wolff, he said officials were still finalizing the programs details. On ExpressNews.com: Some offenses, such as possession of pot, will be handled like traffic violations McManus, who was not at the news conference, said then that the department would work with the district attorneys office to iron out the details. In January, LaHood announced the official launch of a cite-and-release pilot program. But just two days before, officials in his office were still working to finalize policies, according to records obtained by the Express-News. LaHood, who was running for re-election at the time, said then that he had spoken with residents and law enforcement officials throughout the county about it and that the response has been overwhelming positive. But officials at five local police departments, after being contacted by the San Antonio Express-News, said they didnt know the program existed or hadnt received any documentation about how it works. The pilot program was rolled out in partnership with the Bexar County Sheriffs Office. At the time, the district attorneys office said that within two months, it intended to provide guidelines to the dozens of other law enforcement agencies in Bexar County that might be interested in using it. For most of the program's first two months , the district attorney's office did not have a specific ticket or citation that a law enforcment officer needed to hand out, records showed. As time passed, many department chiefs said they still had not received any guidance about it. In total, 31 citations were issued during the pilot program. In April, after the pilot ended, it remained unclear if or when other law enforcement agencies would start using cite-and-release. Support and concerns Gonzales has said he did not know exactly what went wrong with the policy under his predecessor. He has not yet outlined how his new program would work. On ExpressNews.com: Four initiatives Joe Gonzales plans to prioritize as district attorney The role of his office is to determine the penalties for the misdemeanors a fine, community service, a class or some other option and oversee the programs overall implementation. McManus said he and Gonzales agree that offenders who are cited under the new policy would not be eligible a second time. Most members of the public safety committee including District 2 Councilman William Cruz Shaw, District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval and District 9 Councilman John Courage lauded the departments support for cite-and-release. Shaw said such a policy would do more than just save taxpayer dollars. He said it would help the citys most vulnerable residents, many of whom dont have the resources to get out of jail when they are arrested for minor misdemeanors. We cant disenfranchise people who cant afford to get out of jail, Shaw said. This is a class issue more than it is anything else. When we put someone in jail, they lose opportunity. Is that true justice? People sitting in jail waiting for a trial? One member, District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, expressed reservations. Before supporting such a measure, he said he would want to review results from places that have similar policies already. My number one priority is safety and security, Perry said. In other cities that have done this, has there been an increase or decrease in crime rates? What about repeat offenders? Later, in a statement, Perry said he might support the policy for some misdemeanors, such as possession of small amounts of marijuana and driving with an invalid license, but not necessaraily for others, such as property damage or theft. To issue a ticket for $600-worth of property damage or theft seems counterintuitive to deterring future property damage or theft from occurring to the same individual, Perry said. A ticket brings no peace of mind for the victim involved, and they are still stuck with the bill of rectifying anothers actions. If a policy is enacted, McManus said the department plans to monitor the citys crime rate. But he said a decrease in crime is not his main priority in supporting the change. The purpose on my end is to save officers time from doing paperwork, he said. It is crystal clear that it would save time. Emilie Eaton is a criminal justice reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eeaton@express-news.net | Twitter: @emilieeaton A San Antonio judge has ruled that President Donald Trumps appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general is valid and constitutional. The ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra, made public at midday today, came in the case of Luis Valencia, an area man who wanted federal charges dismissed in his Eagle Ford Shale oil-theft case. The ruling is the first court test in the country over Whitakers controversial appointment, and is likely to be viewed as a win for President Trump, who has come under fire by critics who accuse him of wrongly appointing a loyalist to block an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. In his 20-page ruling, Ezra wrote that Whitakers appointment is valid under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, and constitutional under the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. RELATED: Judge sends Sutherland Springs conspiracy theorist to psych ward Ezra also said that, even if it had been invalid under the Attorney General Succession Act, there still would be Justice Department lawyers who have the authority to continue Valencias prosecution. Valencias lawyer, Donald Flanary of San Antonio, filed a motion on Nov. 12 to dismiss the federal governments case against Valencia, one of five Texas oil field workers accused of selling nearly $2 million of oil stolen from companies in the Eagle Ford Shale. In court papers and in a hearing Monday before Ezra, Flanary argued that charges against Valencia should be dismissed because Whitaker was not lawfully confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as the Constitution requires. Flanary also argued that federal prosecutors in the San Antonio-based U.S. Attorneys Office have no jurisdiction to proceed against his client. Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general on Nov. 7, saying he was leaving at the request of Trump, who had repeatedly criticized him. The president immediately named Whitaker, who was Sessions chief of staff, as acting attorney general, and Trump tweeted that a search for Sessions permanent replacement would be ongoing. RELATED: Oil and gas businessman loses bid to get back all of his seized property Several lawyers in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere have filed similar motions, calling into question Whitakers appointment and the authority of the Justice Department to act in other legal matters including a challenge to the federal health care law. Three Senate Democrats also sued last week, arguing that Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, should have the acting attorney general job until Trump nominates and the Senate confirms a permanent successor. No judges have issued rulings in any of those other cases. Flanary plans to appeal Ezras ruling. This article will be updated. Guillermo Contreras covers federal court and immigration news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland A federal trial began Monday in San Antonio for an area man charged in an investigation into what was considered the worlds largest child pornography web site. Andrew Morgan Weathers of Seguin is one of a handful of people charged locally as part of the FBIs investigation into Playpen, a site that operated on the dark web. The site was shut down in 2015 after the FBI secretly took control of it to identify visitors. At its height, Playpen had more than 150,000 users, the FBI said. Weathers is charged with one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography. His lawyer told jurors on Monday that he confessed to protect a family member. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson told jurors in opening arguments that theyll hear evidence that the FBI searched the Seguin home that Weathers shared with a girlfriend, now his wife, and two juveniles. RELATED: Police: Woman shot after driving into a man, dragging him through a parking lot Agents seized a Dell computer and spoke to Weathers, who said he saw child pornography but thought it was result of popups or a computer virus. He then confessed he had used the computer to access child porn on the Playpen website and others. He told agents he wanted to speak candidly, and that he had been accessing child porn for a while, Thompson said. The agents will testify that Weathers detailed he liked prepubescent girls and boys, but preferred young girls that self-produced child porn, took pictures of their own body parts, and that he was particularly interested in incest and bestiality. Weathers also told agents where the child porn could be found under his password-protected account in a folder with the name of a video game, Zelda. And thats where they found hundreds of child porn images and bestiality, Thompson said. Weathers interest in child porn started as early as age 18 or 19 and that he has struggled with sexual interest in children throughout his life, Thompson said. Youll hear about how he has urges to act on sexual interest in children, and when he does, he accesses child porn so he does not act out on a child. ...Youll hear about the sexual fantasies hes had about certain family members and how he deals with those. RELATED: NSA employees can get UTSA degrees through new program Weathers lead lawyer, David K. Sergi, said it was not Weathers who accessed the child porn. What youll hear from our side is a very simple explanation as to why my client falsely confessed because there was a resident who actively accessed that Web site and he was protecting that child, Sergi told jurors. Stupid? Yes, but youll hear an explanation about why he was compelled to make the statements he gave. The long and short of this case boils down to who sat down behind the computer, Sergi argued. Youll also hear from his wife, who will tell you about the issues they have with her son, juvenile probation problems, sexually-involved that led her to suspect this (user) was not her husband. Guillermo Contreras covers federal court and immigration news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland Russian drama theater opens its branch abroad for the first time in history. Starting from 2018/2019 season, the "School of Modern Drama" will regularly perfrom plays from its repertoire on the stage of the Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin. In addition, joint performances with participation of Russian and German artists are also planned. It's believed that this will contribute to promotion of traditions of Russian theater in Europe, as well as attract German public - both Russian-speaking diaspora and German-speaking audience - to modern Russian theater art. As Artistic Director of this theater, People's Artist of Russia, Iosif Rayhelgauz, said, theater will celebrate its 30 anniversary this year, and it has been touring abroad all these years: In recent years have we performed in Vienna, Geneva, and Paris. We have close relations with Berlin. There's a small theater in which Russian German artists peform. In addition, we regulardy hold tours there, I perform there. When I spoke to Pavel Aleksandrovich Izvolsky, who came to this Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin, I proposed to open a branch there. He immediately agreed. My friend Mikhail Shvydkoy, supported this idea. Then we gained support of the Department of Culture and Rossotrudnichestvo." According to him, Berlin branch will be opened on December 1, tickets are already on sale. New plays will be shown there every month. Pavel Izvolsky insisted that we must attract not only Russian-speaking audience, but also Germans. This is absolutely correct approach. Today, when Russia is isolated, cultural and human ties are among the things we're obliged to preserve no matter what." WASHINGTON Debate over border policy sharpened on Monday after U.S. authorities fired tear gas at members of a Central American migrant caravan trying to force their way across the border near Tijuana over the weekend. The incident, which briefly shut down part of the border in California to all traffic, provided political fodder to both sides as lawmakers face a Dec. 7 deadline to fund President Donald Trumps proposed border wall. Trump told reporters Monday that border officials had to use tear gas Sunday. They were being rushed by some very tough people, he said. Heres the bottom line: No one is coming into our country unless they come in legally. Trump took an even more aggressive line on Twitter earlier in the day. Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries, Trump tweeted. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL! A number of Texas Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke who fell short in his bid to unseat Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz this month, sharply criticized the use of gas on migrant protesters. For subscribers: Government funding, border wall await lame-duck Congress It should tell us something about her home country that a mother is willing to travel 2,000 miles with her 4-month-old son to come here, ORourke said in a statement through his campaign organization. It should tell us something about our country that we only respond to this desperate need once she is at our border. So far, in this administration, that response has included taking kids from their parents, locking them up in cages, and now tear gassing them at the border. Some immigration hard-liners from Texas portrayed the border skirmish as a sign of an escalating crisis. Thousands of Additional Migrants Headed to U.S. Border, wrote U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Tyler Republican, in a tweet linking to a Breitbart news account of new migrants joining the estimated 5,000 who have arrived in Tijuana in recent days. Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, noted on Twitter that the Mexican government has increased security since Sundays melee, which saw women and children choking on tear gas that the U.S. had lobbed onto the Mexican side of the border. The rush on the border took place after Trump suggested in a tweet Saturday that migrants at the southern border will stay in Mexico until their claims are individually approved in court. Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S. No longer), Trump tweeted on Sunday. Dems created this problem. No crossings! Authorities in the incoming Mexican administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent mixed signals about whether any deal had been reached or whether they would cooperate with Trumps plan. However, Mexicos Foreign Relations Department said it had presented a diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy asking for an exhaustive investigation of the use of nonlethal force. Related: As new Mexican president takes office, experts foresee rocky relations with U.S. Refugees International President Eric Schwartz urged the governments of Mexico and the United States to suspend any discussion of an agreement that would force asylum seekers to remain in Mexico pending a determination of their U.S. asylum claims. The Trump administration is asking the government of Mexico to facilitate and endorse abusive policies that will harm individuals fleeing persecution, Schwartz said in a statement. The proposed agreement flies in the face of international refugee law and policy to which the United States and Mexico have long been committed. Mexico should not be bullied into doing this. Meanwhile lawmakers and activists on both sides of the immigration issue expressed growing alarm over the border fracas, which began as a small group of migrants attempted to climb fences and run through car lanes to reach the U.S. State Sen. Sylvia Garcia of Houston, one of one two Latinas newly-elected to Congress from Texas, retweeted a statement by the nonprofit group Catholic Democrats saying there is no bottom when it comes to the current occupant of the White House and his party. He will do things like use tear gas on poor, hungry, exhausted little children. It is up to us to name such a shameful practice and do what we can to stop it. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, condemned the actions of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other U.S. authorities on the border, which has been militarized with federal troops in recent weeks by the Trump administration. The decision to gas asylum seekersincluding many women and childrenwas cruel, unnecessary, and inconsistent with who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation, said Castro, who also serves as first vice chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Some conservative groups, noting that some CBP officers had been pelted with rocks and bottles, appealed to a sense of rising danger long fostered by Trumps call for a border wall. In an email to supporters, Judicial Watch spokesman Carter Clews cited mounting tension as thousands of militant, illegal alien invaders storm our border. The Trump administration is currently in court defending a new plan to limit asylum requests only to migrants who present themselves legally at U.S. ports of entry. The migrant protests appear to have been fueled by a sense of desperation as thousands wait in camps in Tijuana, where authorities say they can only process about 40 to 100 cases a day. ORourke, who on Monday said he was no longer ruling out a 2020 presidential bid, proposed that U.S. authorities set up an orderly process to handle claims more expeditiously in the United States. Lets do this the right way and follow our own laws, ORourke said. Allow asylum seekers to petition for asylum at our ports of entry. They must do so peacefully and follow our laws. But we must also ensure the capacity to effectively and timely process those claims. Those who have a credible fear of returning to their home country (as determined by a U.S. judge) will be able stay until their full asylum request has been determined. It is unlikely that President Donald Trump doesnt privately agree with U.S. intelligence conclusions that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the slaying of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last month. This then, the president suggests, is a matter of realpolitik. Wanting to keep Saudi Arabia as an ally is what motivates the presidents head-in-the-sand act when it comes to holding the prince accountable for this heinous act. The president last week asserted publicly that we may never know whether the prince was responsible a smoke screen to protect the bet this administration has made on the man who is the kingdoms de facto ruler. Its a bad bet. Yes, we do know. The CIA has told us with high confidence. The president indicates he doesnt want to jeopardize some $450 billion in arms sales and other investments he claims the Saudis are going to make. But those figures are figments of the presidents imagination. And our values in exchange for profit is a bad bargain in any case. This is a regime that brutalizes its own people for exercising basic rights and is even now waging a merciless war in Yemen that is threatening millions with starvation and disease. Trump is doing this ostensibly to prop up a bulwark against Iran in the region. There are better allies, and the plain truth is, now that this country has overtaken Saudi Arabia as a global oil producer, the kingdom needs the U.S. more than we need it. Khashoggi was a respected Washington Post columnist who criticized his countrys regime on those pages. He entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for minor paperwork and never exited. The CIA has concluded that Salman ordered his brutal murder. Trumps reasoning suggests that the U.S. would suffer without Saudi Arabia as an ally. That doesnt stand up even under mild scrutiny. The U.S. Treasury Department has already sanctioned some Saudis thought to be involved. Congress must now do the same with Salman and other higher-ups, and weigh other sanctions against his country. The president is repudiating U.S. principles and has further diminished the nations standing in the world. Almost 20 years ago, 10 doulas in San Antonio wanted to create a healing space for women. They wanted to start a nonprofit focused on womens health care and empowerment a place that would grow and change with the East Side community. Thats how the Martinez Street Womens Center was founded, and its still providing essential services to some of the most vulnerable people in the community. Thats why were here, and we love the work that we do, said Jasmine Marshall, grants and development specialist. The center, a staple of the East Side, is located in a cylindrical stone building at 801 N. Olive St. in Dignowity Hill. Inside, the walls are painted purple and blue and decorated with inspirational posters and sayings. Each week, about 15 people who have become homeless or are going through financial difficulties turn to the center for basic hygienic and health needs, such as toothpaste or deodorant. The centers open central space, circled by desks and sofas, is used for community gatherings, such as coffees with city council members or health screenings. But for the most part, the centers employees and volunteers work offsite in schools, community centers and other public places to reach as many people as possible, Marshall said. Many of the centers clients live below the poverty line and lack high school or college degrees. Some earn less than the minimum wage but cant quit their jobs. Were serving individuals who need us the most, Marshall said. Girl Zone is perhaps the centers best-known program, operating in 11 San Antonio Independent School District schools and some charter schools. The after-school program seeks to empower girls to learn about nutrition, media literacy, stress management, sex education and other subjects. Each year, about 300 girls ages 8 to 18 participate. Marshall said the Girl Zone curriculum includes basics such as knowing ones body and sexual health as well as group discussions of school shootings and other matters that weigh on young peoples minds. Last year, we saw that our kids were being affected by all of the school shootings that were happening. We have to adjust our curriculum to understand and really home in on why theyre feeling this way, she said. Having a brave space for them to open up is what we find (works) best. The centers Woman Zone program, launched about a year ago, brings women together to learn about basic automobile maintenance, home improvements and budgeting. Marshall said the center focuses on women because they are often the people in charge of child care and finances. Women are the key in the household, she said. As the Dignowity Hill neighborhood has become more gentrified, the center has a reduced demand for its services from East Side residents. Demand is rising from communities on the South, West and Southeast sides of San Antonio. Marshall said the organization welcomes donations. Among its needs is a replacement for the bus the center once used to transport girls and women to after-school programs and educational activities. The bus broke down in August and would cost more to replace than to repair, Marshall said. As the Christmas season approaches, the center also wants to give gifts to all the girls in its after-school program. Marshall said the center also needs diapers, toothpaste, deodorant and new clothing. Those interested in making donations, hosting an event on behalf of the center, or volunteering should contact Marshall at jasmine.dev@mswomenscenter.org or go to the centers website, http://mswomenscenter.org/. Though there are two dozen cats in the room, Sherry Pfau can name them all and tell you from where they came. Theres Newton, who lost one of his front legs to an injury but gets around just fine on his three remaining limbs. Theres Mr. Kitty, whos at least 17 years old and whose tongue always sticks out. Reggie, rescued from a hoarding situation in Missouri, has entropion, a condition that caused his eyes to scar. All are in the care of Wayward Whiskers Cat Rescue, which saves the lives of stray cats battling medical conditions or injuries and cares for them until they get adopted no matter how long it takes. RELATED: Tougher animal tethering law could be coming in 2019 The San Antonio nonprofit takes special-needs felines off the streets and from local shelters, such as Animal Care Services, the Animal Defense League of Texas, the San Antonio Humane Society, Palm Valley Animal Center in the Rio Grande Valley and smaller shelters. Wayward Whiskers is one of the only rescues in South Texas willing to accept stray cats diagnosed with feline immunodeficiency virus. FIV, as the virus is commonly known, suppresses the immune system, but a cat can live a normal life span with the condition and may not experience any complications. Pfau, the executive director, started Wayward Whiskers in 2013 with a mission to provide the most unfortunate cats better lives and loving homes. I know that if I didnt get involved and if I didnt intervene that they would not be alive, Pfau said of the animals she helps. And they probably would have died a really horrible death. Theyre little sentient beings and they suffer and they feel pain and they hurt. If I can do something to alleviate that, then its worth it. Wayward Whiskers wouldnt survive without donations, Pfau said. The organizations annual budget last year was $76,000, and nearly all its funding comes from individual donors. The nonprofits website notes that Wayward Whiskers doesnt receive any city or government funds. The group was awarded a $15,000 grant a first by the San Antonio Area Foundation earlier this year. The nonprofit doesnt take in cats surrendered by their owners, but accepts felines facing hopeless situations, such as strays who are blind, have suffered a broken leg or been hit by a car, are being bullied on the street by other cats or are diagnosed with FIV. Some of those cats come to the groups attention through reports from the public. Wayward Whiskers website allows visitors to submit intake requests, along with a description and photos of a cat in distress. Other cats the nonprofit helps come from local shelters. Our main focus is just the special-needs cats that nobody else really wants to take or deal with, Pfau said. RELATED: San Antonios Animal Care Services pantry program in need of supplies Wayward Whiskers doesnt impose a time limit for how long they keep cats awaiting adoption. We dont euthanize for space or because a cat cant get adopted, Pfau said. We just hold on to them until the right person comes along. All the cats the nonprofit offers for adoption can be found online. Wayward Whiskers recently took in Chase, a cat who was found in McAllen with severe damage to his face. How he was hurt was a mystery, but Pfau said it was possibly due to a severe eye infection. Chase underwent surgery and lost one of his eyes, but hes healed nicely. He also tested positive for FIV, so he was placed into the nonprofits FIV+ Sanctuary. In October, he became available for adoption. The nonprofit also took in two cats from Kuwait in October Georgina, who had intentionally been set on fire, and Pippen, who had been attacked by a dog. Both cats have made a full recovery. Were a private rescue, Pfau said. Were limited in space and manpower, so we have to pick and choose what cats we actually can take in. As of late October, Wayward Whiskers was caring for around 50 cats. About half of them 29 in all were residing at the nonprofits FIV+ Sanctuary, at Pfaus home in the San Antonio area. The remaining cats were housed in the groups adoption room at Pfaus home, on display at the nonprofits adoption center inside PetSmarts Westover Hills store or going through quarantine periods that each cat is required to clear. Wayward Whiskers also aims to educate the public about FIV. Cats with the virus can be adopted and live successfully in the same household with other cats who dont have the condition as long as they dont fight or bite each other, Pfau said. Theres a lot of misconception about it, Pfau said of the illness. A lot of people think its highly contagious, and its not. Wayward Whiskers typically adopts out around 90 to 100 cats each year. But the nonprofit is getting more exposure this year through the adoption center it launched in February inside the PetSmart store at Loop 410 and Texas 151. The group has placed at least 140 cats with forever families since Jan. 1. Adoption fees vary. A cat diagnosed with FIV can be adopted for $35. At the groups PetSmart adoption center, adult cats without FIV can be adopted for $75 each, while kittens free of FIV can be adopted for $100 each. Every Wayward Whiskers cat is spayed or neutered, gets vaccinated and microchipped, and undergoes testing for FIV and feline leukemia before it gets adopted. There are advantages to adopting from a smaller, private rescue, Pfau said. We know the cats, we know their personalities, we know their likes and dislikes ... so we can give you a better idea what kind of cat youre getting, she said. Wayward Whiskers serves a need in the community, said Clayton Cox, 19, a Cibolo native and College Station resident who adopted two cats from the nonprofit and fostered five other cats in the groups care in the past year. Not a lot of places are going to take on that kind of expense, that commitment, Cox said, noting the group helps animals that would otherwise be overlooked by other organizations. Peggy OHare is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare STAMFORD A city man who was involved in a domestic incident two years ago has been accused of withholding medical treatment in what police have described as the suspicious death of a 36-year-old woman. Hector Collazo-Lopez, 42, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the womans death at the Southwood Square apartment complex on the citys West Side. The womans identity was not immediately released, pending the notification of her next of kin. Lt. Thomas Scanlon said the Stamford Police Departments Major Crimes Unit is investigating the incident and the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is expected to conduct an autopsy on Wednesday. Police declined to describe the relationship between Collazo-Lopez and the victim and would not say how the woman died. Collazo-Lopez, who is being held on a high bond, was arrested for a domestic incident in October 2016. Police said Collazo-Lopez punched his sister and ripped her clothing during an argument at their Pequot Drive home in the Southwood Square complex on Oct. 8, 2016. Collazo-Lopez was charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct and risk of injury to a child. There is no public record of the disposition of that case. His mother, Mercedes Collazo, was charged with interfering with police who said she tried to stop officers from looking for her son. If the medical examiner determines the recent incident was a homicide, it will be the fourth Stamford murder this year and the second in the Southwood Square complex. A 17-year-old boy was fatally shot in September outside one of the 12 buildings owned by the city housing authority. The complex, which has a history of violence, was built in the early 2000s to replace the old Southfield Village, a federal housing project, which was razed after decades of neglect permeated by shootings. The village was torn down in 1993 soon after a 7-year-old girl was killed amid crossfire during an outdoor birthday party. Anyone with information about the recent incident or about Collazo-Lopez can call Sgt. Christopher Broems at 203-977-4420. Servicemen from Ukrainian warships detained in the Kerch Strait are held in good conditions, human rights ombudswoman in Crimea Lyudmila Lubina said. "I know that all servicemen are held in good conditions - in warmth and with enough food," the human rights ombudswoman said, adding that they have not received any complaints from servicemen and their relatives yet. They are accused of a state crime of violating territorial integrity. Investigators will decide their fate: who is guilty - the whole crew or only the ship's captain, who gave orders," TASS cited her as saying. "There is a Ukrainian law that states that orders that violate the law can be ignored," Lubina explained, adding that all servicemen are currently in the status of suspects. On November 25, three warships of the Ukrainian Navy violated the rules of passage through Russia's territorial waters en route from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea. The Russian side had to use weapons to compel the ships to stop. Three Ukrainian servicemen were lightly wounded. They received medical assistance. The ships were detained and escorted to the port of Kerch. A criminal case was initiated on border violation charges. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the incident as a provocation. 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 Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. is an early-stage contract research company, which provides essential products and services to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, government agencies and academic institutions. It operates through the following segments: Research Models & Services, Discovery & Safety Assessment and Manufacturing Support. The Research Models & Services segment comprises of the production and sale of research models, and also offers services designed to support its client's use of research models in screening non-clinical drug candidates. The Discovery & Safety Assessment segment offers discovery and safety assessment services, both regulated and non-regulated, in which it include both in vivo and in vitro studies, supporting laboratory services, and strategic preclinical consulting and program management to support product development. The Manufacturing Support segment provides endotoxin and microbial detection, avian vaccine and biologics testing solutions. The company was founded by Henry L. Foster in 1947 and is headquartered in Wilmington, MA. Read More Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged to solve the Kerch Strait conflict through dialogue. "At some point, it looked as if the situation in the Black Sea had calmed down, but recently the conflict flared up again, which upset us," the Turkish leader said in parliament. His speech was broadcast by Turkeys NTV television news channel. "Both countries, Russia and Ukraine, are our close friends. We want the Black Sea to be the sea of peace," TASS cited him as saying. Erdogan called on Russia and Ukraine to solve the existing problems through dialogue, stressing that Turkey would be "glad to see Russia and Ukraine working shoulder to shoulder" instead of being hostile to each other. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and services medical devices and software products for treating cancer and other medical conditions worldwide. It operates through Oncology Systems and Proton Solutions segments. The Oncology Systems segment offers hardware and software products for treating cancer with radiotherapy, fixed field intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiotherapy, artificial intelligence based adaptive radiotherapy, and brachytherapy, as well as quality assurance equipment. Its products include linear accelerators, brachytherapy afterloaders, treatment accessories, and quality assurance software; and information management, treatment planning, image processing, clinical knowledge exchange, patient care management, decision-making support, and practice management software. This segment serves university research and community hospitals, private and governmental institutions, healthcare agencies, physicians' offices, medical oncology practices, radiotherapy centers, and cancer care clinics. The Proton Solutions segment designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services products and systems for delivering proton therapy for the treatment of cancer. The company has a strategic agreement with McKesson Corp. to supply treatment delivery systems and planning, services, and radiotherapy information system solutions to its U.S. Oncology Network and Vantage Oncology affiliated sites of care; and a strategic partnership with Siemens AG to represent Siemens diagnostic imaging products to radiation oncology clinics in the United States and other select markets. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. was formerly known as Varian Associates, Inc. and changed its name to Varian Medical Systems, Inc. in April 1999. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Read More Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services to institutional, retail, and high net worth investors. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, balance sheet management, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 1,400 bank branches and 4,800 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Dominion Energy: 96WI 8me LLC, Alamo Solar LLC, Align RNG Arizona LLC, Align RNG Arizona-Snowflake LLC, Align RNG California LLC, Align RNG California-Corcoran LLC, Align RNG Grady Road LLC, Align RNG LLC, Align RNG Magnolia LLC, Align RNG North Carolina LLC, Align RNG North Carolina-Bowdens LLC, Align RNG Utah LLC, Align RNG Utah-Milford LLC, Align RNG Virginia LLC, Align RNG Virginia-Waverly LLC, Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Azalea Solar LLC, BOE Holdings Inc., Blackville Solar Farm LLC, Blue Ocean Energy Marine LLC, BrightSuite Home LLC, BrightSuite Inc., BrightSuite Solar CT Inc., BrightSuite Solar SC Inc., BrightSuite Solar VA Inc., Buckingham Solar I LLC, CEA Americus LLC, CEA CO-Fort Morgan LLC, CEA Clovis LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Colorado LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Georgia LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Idaho LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Nevada LLC, CEA Dairy RNG New Mexico LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Texas LLC, CEA Greely LLC, CEA Mason LLC, CEA TX-Dimmitt LLC, CID Solar LLC, CNG Coal Company, CNG Power Services Corporation, Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation, Catalina Solar 2 LLC, Clean Energy Asset USA LLC, Clean Energy Enterprises Inc., Clipperton Holdings LLC, Consolidated Natural Gas Company, Correctional Solar LLC, Cottonwood Solar LLC, Cove Point LNG LP, Cove Point LNG Limited, DE Arlington Solar LLC, DE Fluvanna Solar LLC, DE Hanover Solar LLC, DE Henrico Solar LLC, DE King William Solar LLC, DE Louisa Solar LLC, DE Newport News Solar LLC, DE Powhatan Solar LLC, DE Virginia Beach Solar LLC, DECP Holdings Inc., Dairy RNG Holdings LLC, Dairy RNG NY LLC, Dairy RNG NY-Curtin LLC, Dairy RNG OH LLC, Denmark Solar LLC, Dominion ACP Holding Inc., Dominion Alternative Energy Holdings Inc., Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Dominion Capital Inc., Dominion Cogen WV Inc., Dominion Energy Fuel Services Inc., Dominion Energy Gas Distribution LLC, Dominion Energy Generation Marketing Inc., Dominion Energy Inc., Dominion Energy Kewaunee Inc., Dominion Energy Marketplace LLC, Dominion Energy Nuclear Connecticut Inc., Dominion Energy Overthrust Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Payroll Company Inc., Dominion Energy Questar Corporation, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline Services Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings II Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings Inc., Dominion Energy Services Inc., Dominion Energy Solar CA LLC, Dominion Energy Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc., Dominion Energy Southeast Services Inc., Dominion Energy Technical Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies II Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies Inc., Dominion Energy Terminal Company Inc., Dominion Energy Wexpro Services Company, Dominion Equipment III Inc., Dominion Equipment Inc., Dominion Fairless Hills Inc., Dominion Fowler Ridge Wind LLC, Dominion Gas Projects Company LLC, Dominion Generation Inc., Dominion Greenbrier Inc., Dominion High Voltage Holdings Inc., Dominion High Voltage MidAtlantic Inc., Dominion Investments Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline Holdings Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline LLC, Dominion MLP Holding Company III Inc., Dominion Mt. Storm Wind LLC, Dominion Nuclear Projects Inc., Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration & Production Inc., Dominion Person Inc., Dominion Privatization Florida LLC, Dominion Privatization Georgia LLC, Dominion Privatization Holdings Inc., Dominion Privatization Kentucky LLC, Dominion Privatization Maryland LLC, Dominion Privatization Pennsylvania LLC, Dominion Privatization South Carolina LLC, Dominion Privatization Texas LLC, Dominion Privatization Virginia LLC, Dominion Products and Services Inc., Dominion Projects Services Inc., Dominion Resources Capital Trust III, Dominion Retail Gas Holdings Inc., Dominion Solar Construction and Maintenance LLC, Dominion Solar Gen-Tie LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings I LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings II LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings III LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings IV LLC, Dominion Solar Projects A Inc., Dominion Solar Projects B Inc., Dominion Solar Projects C Inc., Dominion Solar Projects D Inc., Dominion Solar Projects I Inc., Dominion Solar Projects II Inc., Dominion Solar Projects III Inc., Dominion Solar Projects IV Inc., Dominion Solar Projects V Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VI Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VII Inc., Dominion Solar Services Inc., Dominion State Line LLC, Dominion Voltage Inc., Dominion Wholesale Inc., Dominion Wind Development LLC, Dominion Wind Projects Inc., ESCT-SA-Suffield LLC, Eagle Holdco Solar LLC, Eagle Solar LLC, Eastern Shore Solar LLC, Enterprise Solar LLC, Escalante Solar I LLC, Escalante Solar II LLC, Escalante Solar III LLC, Four Brothers Solar LLC, Fremont Farm LLC, Granite Mountain Holdings LLC, Granite Mountain Solar East LLC, Granite Mountain Solar West LLC, Greenbrier Marketing Company LLC, Greenbrier Pipeline Company LLC, Greensville County Solar Project LLC, Hardin Solar Energy LLC, Hecate Energy Cherrydale LLC, Hecate Energy Clarke County LLC, Hope Gas Inc., Imperial Valley Solar Company (IVSC) 2 LLC, Indy Solar Development LLC, Indy Solar I LLC, Indy Solar II LLC, Indy Solar III LLC, Innovative Solar 37 LLC, Iron Springs Holdings LLC, Iron Springs Solar LLC, Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas, Maricopa West Solar PV LLC, Moffett Solar 1 LLC, Moorings Farm 2 LLC, Mulberry Farm LLC, Mustang Solar LLC, PSNC Blue Ridge Corporation, PSNC Cardinal Pipeline Company, Pavant Solar LLC, Phone House, Pikeville Farm LLC, Prairie Fork Wind Farm LLC, Public Service Company of North Carolina Incorporated, QPC Holding Company LLC, Questar Corporation, Questar Energy Services Inc., Questar Field Services LLC, Questar Gas Company, Questar InfoComm Inc., Questar Southern Trails Pipeline Company, Questar White River Hub LLC, RE Adams East LLC, RE Camelot LLC, RE Columbia Two LLC, RE Kansas LLC, RE Kent South LLC, RE Old River One LLC, Richland Solar Center LLC, Ridgeland Solar Farm I LLC, SBL Holdco LLC, SCANA, SCANA Communications Holdings Inc., SCANA Corporate Security Services Inc., SCANA Energy Marketing LLC, SCANA Pharmacy LLC, SRFI LLC, Scana Corporation, Scott-II Solar LLC, Seabrook Solar LLC, Selmer Farm LLC, Siler Solar LLC, Sol Madison Solar LLC, Somers Solar Center LLC, South Carolina Fuel Company Inc., South Carolina Generating Company Inc., Southampton Solar LLC, Summit Farms Solar LLC, Sussex Drive Solar Project LLC, TA - Acacia LLC, TWE Myrtle Solar Project LLC, The East Ohio Gas Company, Trask East Solar LLC, Tredegar Solar Fund I LLC, VP Property Inc., Virginia Electric And Power Company, Virginia Power Fuel Corporation, Virginia Power Nuclear Services Company, Virginia Power Services Energy Corp. Inc., Virginia Power Services LLC, Virginia Solar 201 Projects LLC, Wakefield Solar LLC, Wexpro Company, Wexpro Development Company, Wexpro II Company, Wilkinson Solar LLC, Wrangler Retail Gas Holdings LLC, and Yemassee Solar LLC. iShares MSCI Finland ETF's stock was trading at $31.15 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EFNL stock has increased by 49.2% and is now trading at $46.48. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Ormat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV. Read More Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) The tiff between President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Antonio Trillanes is far from over -- with the country's leader revealing an ongoing investigation into the government dealings of the senator's parents. "We are looking into the papers, you know that we're investigating quietly 'yung mga deals sa panahon ng tatay pati 'yung involved 'yung nanay [the deals in the time of his father and those involving his mother]," Duterte said in his speech at the groundbreaking of the Davao City Bulk Water Supply Project Monday. Duterte earlier brought up the supposed transactions in September, during his televised interview with Presidential Spokesperson Sal Panelo. "Ang problema kay Trillanes is that he is crucifying Bong Go for entering into business with government," the President said in September. "Ang tatay niya nasa serbisyo pa. Ang --- siya nasa serbisyo na, sundalo na siya. Ang transaction 'yung karamihang supply sa Navy, ang nanay niya. Kung ayaw niyong maniwala, tanungin niyo 'yung Navy." [Translation: The problem with is that he is crucifying Bong Go for entering into business with government. His father was in service. He was in service, he was a soldier already. His mother was involved in the transactions of most of the Navy's supply. If you don't believe me, ask the Navy.] Trillanes earlier slammed Duterte for dragging his 84-year-old mother into their word war, saying that she has Parkinson's Disease. But the senator said Wednesday he welcomes the probe. "In fact, I'll raise the ante. If he finds anything anomalous, again, I would voluntarily walk into any detention facility kahit sa Davao pa [even in Davao]," Trillanes said. However, the senator said Duterte should direct his attention to the multi-billion peso drug shipments which slipped through the Bureau of Customs. The President's son, Paolo, has been linked to the 6.4 billion methampetamine (shabu) shipment which entered the country in May 2017. "In the meantime, magpanggap man lang sana siya na galit sya at ipahanap kunyare 'ung drug lord na nagpasok ng 6.4 billion peso at 11 billion peso shabu shipments. Napaghahalataan tuloy na sya nga ang nasa likod ng mga shabu shipments na 'yan," he said. [Translation: In the meantime, he should pretend to be angry and order the search of the drug lord who shipped 6.4 and 11 billion pesos worth of shabu. It gets obvious that he's behind the shipments.] The President's statements comes after he voided the amnesty granted by former President Benigno Aguino III. Duterte then said Trillanes should have just gotten himself killed in the Manila Peninsula siege on November 2007, where he led the Magdalo mutineer officers. "'Yan ang sundalo ninyo? Ayan, pabilib-bilib kasi na --- pabandera diyan sa Makati sinira yung Peninsula tapos nag-surrender. Anak ng Tapos matapang daw siya. Sus! Trillanes amoy kita. Naghinambog ka lang naman, nagpakamatay ka sana na doon," Duterte added on Monday. [Translation: That's your soldier? He's standing proud. He went to Makati, destroyed the Peninsula, and then surrendered. And he says he's brave? I can smell you, Trillanes. You're just bragging, you should have gotten yourself killed there. The Peninsula incident was one of Trillanes' acts against government. Trillanes, a former naval officer, was also involved in the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003, the Marines' standoff in February 2006 - which were all against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The delegation of the German parliament will visit Crimea next year, the head of Die Linke party group of the Quakenbruck parliament, Andreas Maurer, said at the meeting with Russian upper house member Olga Tomofeyeva. "Andreas Maurer told that the Bundestag's delegation plans to visit Crimea next year," the Russian upper house's press service said. According to him, "representatives of the Bundestag will have the opportunity to witness the changes taking place on the peninsula and form an objective picture" of the situation. Maurer said that many German politicians condemn Russia's position, but often do not even know the content of the Minsk agreements. The senior research fellow at the European Research Centre of the International Relations Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Olenchenko, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that such visits directly benefit the Russian-German relations. "In order to form an opinion, you need to familiarize yourself with the situation, talk to people, see what is happening there with your own eyes. This is a normal international practice, when a delegation from one country comes to another and sees on the spot the things which may be in the focus of media attention or the subject of political issues. We know that negative assessments of Crimea prevail in the Western media. Such visits will benefit us, since there will be more German politicians with their own representation of Crimea," he explained. The deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association, Andrey Baklanov, assessed the value of the upcoming visit even more highly. "The visit of Crimea by German MPs is especially important, since Berlin traditionally takes a very clear position on the complex legal issue of the relationship between sovereignty and the will of the people, including in territorial terms," he recalled. "In the German tradition, both legal and political, there is recognition of the priority of the people's will, and this is exactly what happened in Crimea. Therefore, based on its own case law, Berlin should respect the will of Crimea and perhaps be the first among Europeans to recognize the peninsula as part of Russia. Gradually, Europe will realize the fact that the annexation of the Crimea is a solved issue. One can accept it or not, but it will change nothing," Andrey Baklanov concluded. Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. provides marine transportation, oil production, storage, long-distance towing and offshore installation, and maintenance and safety services for the oil industry. It operates in six segments: Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO); Shuttle Tanker; Floating Storage and Off-Take (FSO); Unit for Maintenance and Safety (UMS); Towage and Offshore Installation Vessels; and Conventional Tanker. The company serves customers in offshore oil regions of the North Sea, Brazil, and the East Coast of Canada. As at December 31, 2018, it had a fleet of 35 shuttle tankers, 2 chartered-in vessels, 1 HiLoad dynamic positioning unit, 8 FPSO units, 6 FSO units, 10 long-distance towage and offshore installation vessels, 1 UMS, and 2 chartered-in conventional oil tankers. Teekay Offshore GP L.L.C. serves as the general partner of Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. The company was founded in 2006 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. is a subsidiary of Brookfield TK TOLP L.P. Read More 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.. by CD Hill | Suns Correspondent | Tue, Nov 27th 2:28am EST In Utah's 122-88 loss to the Pacers, Jae Crowder sported nine points (shot 2-for-9 from the field, 2-for-5 from beyond the arc and 3-for-6 from the line), grabbed five boards, dished out four assists and had one steal in 21 minutes. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by head of Russia's Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, according to the message posted on the presidential website. The Red Meat Benchmarking deadline is fast approaching and Welsh farmers are being encouraged to complete the forms as soon as possible to receive 1,000. The initiative is an opportunity for eligible farmers to gain a better understanding of how their business is performing and help create a confident red meat sector for future generations. Farmers who complete the questionnaire will receive 1,000 and a bespoke assessment of their own business data. Red Meat Benchmarking is being delivered by Hybu Cig Cymru Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) with support from Farming Connect, and eligible businesses have until 10 December to complete it. It is available to 2,000 businesses who keep sheep and suckler cows, but farmers must be aware of the number of animals needed to be able to participate. Farmers have also been told to remember that participation is on a first come, first served basis. John Richards, Industry Development Manager at HCC said: This is a red meat producers opportunity to increase their understanding of their costs of production and the performance of their farm business. With Brexit just around the corner, it is crucially important that our businesses are financially fit. Mr Richards added: There will be direct benefits for farmers who take time to participate in the project; not only will they receive 1,000 but they will also be armed with knowledge to make informed changes to their businesses, leading to improved productivity and efficiency. This could result in more confident and competitive businesses in the future. More information and the eligibility criteria can be found on the HCC website. Farmers must meet specific eligibility criteria, and register their business with Farming Connect. Community ownership of land should become a routine option for rural communities across Scotland, according to a new report. Community ownership should become a normal and realistic option for communities to acquire land and assets, the report's recommendations highlight. The report, prepared for Ministers by the Scottish Land Commission, follows a review of existing community right to buy mechanisms and community ownership in Scotland. It makes a number of recommendations for the future, in particular that community ownership should become a routine option for communities, so it is planned and proactive rather than reactive. The report recommends that there needs to be a clear vision for how community ownership can become a mainstream way to deliver development and regeneration in rural communities. Informed by research by a team led by Scotlands Rural College (SRUC), the report considered the experience of community ownership in Scotland over the last 25 years. The Commission will now work with Scottish Government t shape the policy tools and specific interventions needed to deliver the recommendations in the report that include: Embedding community land and asset ownership into local place planning Ensuring that targets for community ownership reflect the outcomes sought in both rural and urban communities Ensuring support for community ownership transfers is provided across the whole geography of Scotland Considering longer-term sources of financial support for both capital costs and post-acquisition development Supporting negotiated transfer of land as the norm, whilst streamlining right to buy processes Speaking about the report Lorne Macleod, Scottish Land Commissioner, commented that community ownership and right to buy has developed significantly over the last 20 years. He said: Community ownership is now seen as integral to regeneration and sustainable development in both rural and urban contexts in Scotland. It should be seen as normal and routine, as it is internationally, for a community to acquire and own land that could provide local housing, business development, community facilities, recreation facilities, greenspace, as a fundamental way to create more vibrant communities and regional economies. The Scottish Land Commission is now undertaking work looking at international experience of community land ownership to inform the long-term vision and delivery. A drive to develop new business outside of its traditional European markets is paying dividends for the Welsh red meat industry amid Brexit uncertainty. Demand for lamb in Asia is projected to grow quickly due to rising affluence, tourism and a growing population. According to figures, the market in the region could grow by 2% a year, and Wales' Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths has reinforced the message that exports were crucial to the future prosperity of the Welsh red meat industry. The investment in building new exports in Asia has been supported by the Welsh Governments Enhanced Export Programme, which has enabled the meat industry to undertake more work in emerging markets alongside supporting existing customers in the UK and Europe. For example, Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) Welsh Lamb is now a firm favourite of Singaporean retailer Sashas Fine Foods. Sashas Fine Foods, in partnership with Hybu Cig Cymru Meat Promotion Wales (HCC), have been working on Welsh Lamb promotions around the Diwali festival in November to raise awareness of the brand in the Singapore market. Sasha Conlan, founder and director of Sashas Fine Foods, said: Coming from the UK, I am always looking for more great quality products from home, so I had no hesitation in taking up the opportunity to sell Welsh Lamb here in Singapore. The quality and taste of Welsh Lamb is in a league of its own and as it is not readily available in Singapore, it is an excellent addition to our range. The Welsh Government is investing 1.5 million over three years in helping HCC and Welsh processors to build on red meat export trade and support the industry through the uncertainty of Brexit. Global patterns of demand show Asia is likely to be a more important market over the coming years for UK farming businesses. Landowners can help prevent flooding by planting trees in upland areas to act as a buffer and slow down the flow of water, but will need more help in doing so, a report says. To protect the UK from major resource issues with water, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is calling on Government to readdress how the UK manages water to future proof the UK's resources. As part of the shift to a new regime of farm payment schemes and an increased focus on public goods RICS highlights the role that land managers can play in the prevention and mitigation of serious flooding incidents. Located mainly in rural areas, such flood prevention methods include tree planning, managing and storing water with the creation of ponds and ditches, and increasing soil infiltration through planting spongey bog moss. Although rural landowners can help divert and slow flood water, they will need more Government support to do so, the RICS report says. The report's release follows almost 200 surveying professionals coming together at the inaugural RICS Water Conference to debate the challenges the future of UK water faces and to highlight the role chartered surveyors working in the natural environment play in water management. Climate change and growing populations increase the UKs risk of flooding. Chartered surveyors are uniquely placed to witness the human and economic impact of flooding and RICS has on Government to invest in holistic flood prevention and management. The Met Office has warned of significant changes to temperature and weather patterns in its first major update on climate change in almost 10 years. Using the latest science, the UK Climate Projections illustrates a range of future climate scenarios until 2100. The new data shows that increasing summer temperatures, more extreme weather and rising sea levels are all on the horizon. It calls for urgent international action. Summer temperatures could be up to 5.4C hotter by 2070, while winters could be up to 4.2C warmer, the projections highlight. The chance of a summer as hot as 2018 is around 50% by 2050, and average summer rainfall could decrease by up to 47 per cent by 2070. Defra Secretary Michael Gove spoke at the Met Offices launch of the UK Climate Projections on Monday (26 November). For the farming industry, he said the Agriculture Bill will be used to reward farmers who mitigate and adapt to climate change on their land. He also highlighted that farmers have the opportunity to play an even more important role in global food production. NFU Deputy President, Guy Smith said Mr Gove's speech on the UK Climate Projections served to highlight that a balance between producing food and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is going to be vital in the years ahead. Climate change is already putting pressure on food production globally and, as Mr Gove outlined, British producers could have an even more important role to play in feeding the world, he said. As we anticipate changes in weather patterns, measures must be put in place which support businesses in managing volatility, encouraging investment and building resilience. When it comes to UK food security in a world where food production will be increasingly challenged by more volatile weather, Government should ensure it has the right policies in place to enable home food production, and the British farming industry, to achieve its potential. The NFU Deputy President said is it encouraging that Mr Gove emphasised the importance of the Agriculture Bill in rewarding farmers for climate mitigation and adaption, but the NFU wants this to go further. The Bill must enable farm businesses to become more productive, profitable and progressive so they can play their part in producing affordable and quality food while meeting the climate change challenge, Mr Smith added. Scottish hill farmers and crofters are being reminded that the deadline for applying to the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme closes on Friday 30 November 2018. The scheme (SUSSS) gives direct support to help maintain sheep flocks in farm businesses reliant on poorer quality rough grazing found in Scotland. It has an annual budget of 8 million. Payments in sterling will depend on the exchange rate in force at the time. SUSSS opened for applications on Saturday 1 September earlier this year. Following a temporary change to the deadline last year, NFU Scotland pushed for a permanent change to SUSSS going forward, extending the application period to 30 November. The union is also pointing out to applicants that Friday 30 November is a public holiday and local area offices will be closed. However, paper applications hand delivered or posted in time to reach the area office mailbox on 30 November will still be accepted. Applications completed online must be submitted by midnight on Friday 30 November. Payments for ewe hoggs through SUSSS delivers vital support that underpins the viability of many hill farming and crofting businesses. NFU Scotland Policy Manager, Jenny Brunton said: Many applicants to the 2017 SUSSS will be aware of the permanent extension to the application deadline to 30 November. However, scheme deadlines can often slip the mind. There are indications that, with just a few days to go, almost a quarter of expected applications to the scheme are outstanding. Given the importance of this funding stream to hill farmers and crofters, we urge all those who are eligible to crack on with their applications. They need to also be aware that the deadline coincides with a public holiday. Paper applications hand delivered or posted in time to reach the area office mailbox on 30 November will still be accepted, she said. 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. Ruissian mobile operator MegaFon does not carry out any illegal activity in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Russia's Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Konstantin Noskov said at the meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ramin Guluzade. At the meeting, the ministers discussed the Azerbaijan-Russia cooperation in information technologies, post and telecommunications, information security, control over the quality of mobile communications, reduction of tariffs for international roaming and other topics. The parties decided to sign an agreement on cooperation in international postal communication between Azerpost LLC and Russian Post. They also discussed the participation of Russian companies in the 24th Azerbaijan International Exhibition-Conference of Telecommunications, Innovations and High Technologies "Bakutel-2018", which will be held in Baku, December 4-7. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has cleared the loans of over one thousand farmers in Uttar Pradesh. He took to his Twitter handle on Monday and tweeted, "Cleared the loans of farmers from Uttar Pradesh... select few were booked by me on train from Varanasi, and given OTS ('OTS: One Time Settlement with Bank Of India'). He also personally met some of them to give them their bank letters."And then the meeting with the farmers from UP and the giving of the OTS certificates to a select few from the 1398. Let the Laxmi of the house, the daughter give them that. Laxmi the goddess of wealth. Shweta, the daughter, the Laxmi of the house," he wrote. H also shared his photographs with Shweta on the blogpost. Have a look at his tweet here- T 3007 - Cleared the loans of 1348 farmers from UP .. select few were booked by me on train from Varanasi, and given OTS .. OTS ; - ! pic.twitter.com/cOTTd4NC2M Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) November 26, 2018 Amitabh completed the OTS process and invited 70 farmers to Mumbai by blocking an entire train compartment for them to personally give away the bank letters. Earlier in 2017, the Piku star helped over 350 farmers by paying off their debts and helping the families of 44 Maharashtra soldier who died in combat. He had then handed over the amount to the farmers and the soldier's families along with his wife Jaya. On the work front, Amitabh Bachchan will be next seen in Ayan Mukherji's Brahmastra which stars Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Mouni Roy. (Inputs from IANS) Priyanka- Nick Requested For Police Protection For Their Wedding As per a TOI report, Priyanka and Nick requested for police protection from Umaid Bhawan to Mehrangarh Fort. They had asked for the local police force's help as well, apart from having hired a private security agency. The Reason Behind The Change In Plans The report further states that the Jodhpur police has refused to provide them protection because of the upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan. Thus, the couple had to shift their sangeet venue to Umaid Bhavan. 'NickYanka' To Perform A Puja On 28th November A Filmfare report quoted a source as saying, "Priyanka and Nick are very excited for their wedding celebrations and just before they begin mehendi and other ceremonies, they will have a small puja for everything to start on a good note." One Of The Most Awaited Weddings Buzz is that the couple is spending a whopping Rs 3.93 crore on their stay and pre-wedding ceremonies. The wedding festivities will begin from 29th November and will continue till 3rd December. Ambareesh, the much loved star of Kannada cinema, was cremated with full honours yesterday (November 26, 2018) at Kanteerava Studio. Before that, the mortal remains were kept in Mandya and fans and followers were allowed to pay honours to the big star. Meanwhile, reports had surfaced that the fans were unhappy with the fact that Ramya, who is the former MP of Mandya, didn't come to pay the honours. Earlier, Ramya had expressed her grief through a tweet that she sent across upon hearing about Ambareesh's demise. Now, reports have been doing the rounds which possibly hints the reason why she couldn't attend the funeral event or pay honours to the Rebel Star Ambareesh. Reportedly, Ramya had underwent a surgery in the month of October for the removal of a tumour from her leg and has been advised rest. Back in the month of October, the actress-turned-politician did take to her Instagram page to reveal about the same and had also sent out a photo of her leg that underwent the surgery. She had also mentioned that her leg would remain so for the next few weeks. Take a look at the Instagram post of Ramya here.. Now, the social media users as well as various other reports have inferred that this could be the reason why Ramya couldn't come in person to pay the last respects to Ambareesh. It is no secret that Saturday(November 24, 2018) was a black day for those who are fond of Kannada cinema. The legendary Ambareesh passed away in Bengaluru shortly after being admitted to a private hospital due to respiratory issues. Needless to say, this created a buzz in the industry and left movie buffs as well as those in the political fraternity heartbroken. Yesterday(November 27, 2018), the 'Rebel Star' was cremated with state honours and brought marked the end of a glorious chapter in Sandalwood. Now, just hours after his funeral, a clip from Ambareesh's final film Kurukshetra is going viral. In it, Ambi can be seen as Bheeshma as he gets set to bid adieu. This will most probably be his final scene on the big screen. The clip is bound to leave fans teary-eyed and make the wait for Kurukshetra even more difficult. In case you did not know, Ambareesh had acted in over 200 films during the course of his career and become the heart and soul of Sandalwood. He made his debut with the 1972 cult classic Naagarahaavu and added a new dimension to his career Thereafter, he acted in numerous films and won hearts because of his screen presence and stylish mannerisms. He will be missed big time. Did Sudeep Skip Ambareesh's Funeral In Order To Avoid Darshan? NV Prasad Producer and distributor, NV Prasad thanked the trio for accepting the invitation and gracing the event at a very short notice of just one hour. He assured that the movie would elevate the standards of Indian cinema and 2.0 would remain as an Indian pride. He urged fans and audience to celebrate Deepavali on 29th as the experience of festival of lights would be provided by the visual extravaganza. Shankar Starting his speech with decent Telugu, Shankar apologized for any grammatical mistakes in the movie. The perfectionist lauded Thalaiva for his hard-work despite his ill-health during the climax which was a testimonial of his commitment and dedication. Shankar stated that Akshay has donned make-up of a lifetime and characterization would be terrific. Thanking Subashkaran for being a director's producer and Rahman for rendering what he needed, Shankar claimed to be a happy man at the end of the day with the movie's output post the failure of quality delivery from the first VFX company. Shankar also requested media to support a movie of this genre and level as the same would uplift Indian market overseas and a confidence would be generated within the country to churn out more movies of this magnitude. Akshay Kumar The Bollywood Khiladi called Shankar as the principal while his entire experience of being in the sets of 2.0 was similar to being school. He remarked that his takeaway from 2.0 was more than all his experience put together in these 28 years of his total cinema career. He claimed that the satisfaction level was at its pinnacle for having being punched by the biggest Indian superstar, Rajinikanth. Rajinikanth The love of Thalaiva towards Telugu people and vice versa is always special and adorable. The Indian superhero opened up his speech that Telugu people are always loved by all and their food is world famous. He was shocked to witness Shankar speaking in Telugu as the same director accepted the fact that he was weak with the language during the audio launch of Robot, 8 years ago. Superstar and Shankar had plans of converting a part of Robot to 3D while the latter assured to walk up to the Superstar with a formidable script to make a movie in complete 3D. The 68-year-old legendary actor was convinced when Shankar approached him with a subject three years ago and there was never an iota of doubt about the technical capabilities of the director. Rajinikanth drew comparison between 2.0 & Baahubali as he said that the success of Rajamouli's grandeur was due to a strong subject backed by technical brilliance and 2.0 was also in the same path. He sounded super confident about the product and assured that the audience themselves would market the movie through word of mouth. LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 26, 2018 / Oragenics, Inc. (NYSE American: OGEN), a leader in the development of new antibiotics against infectious diseases and effective treatments for oral mucositis (OM) today announced that it will be presenting at the 11th annual LD Micro Main Event on Thursday, December 6th at 9:30 AM PST, 12:30 PM EST. Dr. Alan Joslyn, Chief Executive Officer of Oragenics, Inc. will be presenting and meeting with investors. "Internally, our entire year leads up to the Main Event. It has become the 'one thing' everyone in the small and micro-cap world knows us for. Also, free mints" stated Chris Lahiji, while enjoying a mint. "Even though LD has emerged as one of the largest and most influential organizations in the space, our focus has never deviated from showcasing some of the most interesting businesses in the world to our ever growing community." The LD Micro Main Event will take place December 4th, 5th, and 6th, in Los Angeles at the Luxe Sunset Bel Air Hotel, will feature 250 companies, and will be attended by over 1,200 individuals. Profiles powered by LD Micro - News Compliments of Accesswire About Oragenics, Inc. We are focused on becoming a leader in novel antibiotics against infectious disease and on developing effective treatments for oral mucositis. Oragenics, Inc. has established two exclusive worldwide channel collaborations with Intrexon Corporation and its subsidiaries. The collaborations allows Oragenics to accelerate the development of much needed new antibiotics that can work against resistant strains of bacteria and the development of biotherapeutics for oral mucositis and other diseases and conditions of the oral cavity, throat, and esophagus. For more information about Oragenics, please visit www.oragenics.com. About LD Micro LD Micro was founded in 2006 with the sole purpose of being an independent resource in the microcap space. What started out as a newsletter highlighting unique companies has transformed into several influential events annually (Invitational, Summit, and Main Event). In 2015, LDM launched the first pure microcap index (the LDMi) to exclusively provide intraday information on the entire sector. LD will continue to provide valuable tools for the benefit of everyone in the small and micro-cap universe. For those interested in attending, please contact David Scher at david@ldmicro.com or visit www.ldmicro.com for more information. CONTACT: Oragenics, Inc. Corporate: Michael Sullivan, 813-286-7900 Chief Financial Officer msullivan@oragenics.com or Investors: CORE IR John Marco, 310-819-2948 Managing Director johnm@coreir.com or Media: CORE IR Jules Abraham, 917-885-7378 julesa@coreir.com SOURCE: Oragenics, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/528993/Oragenics-Inc-to-Present-at-the-11th-Annual-LD-Micro-Main-Event SINGAPORE, November 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Russian State Corporation Rostec and the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) have signed an agreement aimed at promoting Russian high-tech products in Southeast Asia. The document, which has been developed with the active participation of the Russia-Singapore Business Council (RSBC), will enable more than 3000 SMF member companies and more than 700 Rostec enterprises to expand opportunities for cooperation and joint production. The contract manufacturing market of the EAEU and the ASEAN is approaching 4.5 billion US dollars in terms of volume, with a development trend that is exceeding the production growth rate. Southeast Asia is one of Rostec's most important partners with which the State Corporation intends to expand foreign economic relations. "The signed agreement on cooperation opens up new horizons for mutually beneficial bilateral technology transfer, and also the exchange of industrial, engineering and research competencies. I am confident that, in conjunction with other tools and formats for cooperation and promotion, Rostec's agreement with the SMF will lead to qualitative changes in the positions of our enterprises, both in Singapore and in Southeast Asia as a whole," said Nikolay Volobuev, Chairman of RSBC and Deputy CEO of Rostec. The agreement, among other things, includes the use of RSBC infrastructure, such as the Singapore-based Centre for Foreign Promotion of Russian High-Tech Companies and the Presentation of Investment Projects established at the initiative of the Council and with the support of Rostec. "Today, the SMF is an advanced federation serving the industrial community through the introduction of digital data processing, innovative productivity, business transformation and internationalization in order to increase the competitiveness of its member companies. Recently, we have begun to actively develop contacts with major partners in the former Soviet Union. The Russian market is undoubtedly of particular interest to Singaporean partners, and Rostec State Corporation is the largest industrial association of Russian enterprises. I am confident that the signed agreement will lay a solid foundation for expanding and strengthening cooperation between SMF members and Rostec enterprises," said Douglas Foo, President of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation. Rostec continues to implement a large-scale program for promoting high-tech products of its enterprises abroad in accordance with its approved Strategy-2025, the main goals of which are to increase the share of civilian products in the revenue to 50%, improve operational efficiency and enter fast-growing global markets. Bright Pattern Partner Program provides an immediate path to revenue to value-added resellers (VARs) and solution providers with the only cloud-first omnichannel contact center solution in the industry SAN BRUNO, California, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bright Pattern, leading provider of omnichannel cloud contact center software, today unveils its partner program designed to drive new business opportunities and increase profits for value-added resellers (VARs), offering up to 50% higher margin than other contact center providers. The next-generation enterprise-class software was created by some of the top leaders and engineers that helped build Genesys for the enterprise. And now it is available to companies of all sizes in a single easy-to-use platform. By providing ongoing support and access to internal resources and documentation, the Bright Pattern Partner Program helps partners discover new opportunities, earn new business, deploy profitable solutions, and develop the expertise required to excel in the customer experience industry. "We're thrilled to partner with Bright Pattern to deliver best-in-class cloud contact center solutions to businesses of all sizes," said Jitender Singh, Senior Vice President of Cloud Sales and Solutions at Conduit Global. "This partnership gives our clients true digital channel management." Benefits of the Bright Pattern Partner Program: Higher Margin - Grow your business and make more money by partnering with the vendor delivering the highest margin for partners in the industry. - Grow your business and make more money by partnering with the vendor delivering the highest margin for partners in the industry. Cloud-First - The Bright Pattern Contact Center Solution was built on a single unified microservices architecture and designed to help businesses deliver seamless omnichannel customer experiences. - The Bright Pattern Contact Center Solution was built on a single unified microservices architecture and designed to help businesses deliver seamless omnichannel customer experiences. Fast Time to Value - Because the Bright Pattern platform can be deployed in weeks instead of months, partners and customers save time and money. - Because the Bright Pattern platform can be deployed in weeks instead of months, partners and customers save time and money. Truly Omnichannel - Bright Pattern offers omnichannel support that allows customers to seamlessly move across channels while speaking with the same agent. No context is lost when switching channels, so the customers never need to repeat themselves. Agents can also operate in a true omnichannel environment by handling multiple types of interactions in a single platform. - Bright Pattern offers omnichannel support that allows customers to seamlessly move across channels while speaking with the same agent. No context is lost when switching channels, so the customers never need to repeat themselves. Agents can also operate in a true omnichannel environment by handling multiple types of interactions in a single platform. The Brighter Partners - Because partners are Bright Pattern's primary channel, we deliver continuous support and offer zero channel conflict. "Bright Pattern gives Waterfield Technologies the ability to provide a consistent and seamless experience across all channels with real-time visibility into channel performance," said Howard Leary, Vice President of Solutions Consulting at Waterfield Technologies. "We are excited to partner with Bright Pattern to deliver a cost-effective option for customers looking to migrate or implement a cloud-first contact center." "The Bright Pattern Partnership Program is ideal for partners serving midsize and enterprise customers with a focus on digital transformation and omnichannel support," said Brian Hays, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Bright Pattern. "Bright Pattern partners receive valuable incentives aimed to grow pipe, increase margins, and expand their business. These incentives include joint promotional opportunities, webinar and trade show participation, and access to our library of branded content to use in demand-generation activities." Visit the Bright Pattern Partner Program Page for more info or to sign up to become a partner today! About Bright Pattern Bright Pattern provides the most simple and powerful contact center for midsize and enterprise companies. With the purpose of making customer service brighter, easier, and faster than ever before, Bright Pattern offers the only true omnichannel cloud platform that can be deployed quickly and nimbly by business users. Bright Pattern allows companies to offer an effortless, personal, and seamless customer experience across traditional channels like voice, text, chat, email, video, messengers, and bots. The company was founded by a team of industry veterans who pioneered the leading on-premises solutions and today are delivering an architecture for the future with an advanced cloud-first approach. Bright Pattern's cloud contact center solution is used globally in over 26 countries and 12 languages. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/634980/Bright_Pattern___Logo.jpg Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has used sailors, detained in the Kerch Strait incident, as a bargaining chip in his political game, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper. According to him, Ukrainian navy sailors became a bargaining chip in the political game President Poroshenko and his associates play. "However, as is known, the chances are low under the current circumstances," TASS cited the Russian Security Council Secretary as saying. Patrushev said that the Kerch Strait provocation points to Poroshenkos plans to build his election campaign around fake threats. Yesterday morning three ships of the Ukrainian Navy Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu had been seized after violating the Russian state border. The Ukrainian boats did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them and made dangerous maneuvers, the FSB said. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the incident involving Ukrainian navy ships was a very dangerous provocation on the part of Kiev. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 26, 2018) - IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG) ("IAMGOLD" or the "Company") announced today that the Company has filed a National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report ("NI 43-101") supporting the Feasibility Study ("FS") for the Cote Gold Project (the "Project") in Northern Ontario, reported in the Company's news release dated November 1, 2018. During the report compilation process, there was a minor re-classification adjustment between the Proven and Probable categories. While Total Reserves remain unchanged, 376,000 ounces were re-classified from Proven to Probable. The table below shows the updated Reserves statement: Mineral Reserves - July 26, 2018 Classification Tonnes (millions) Grade (g/t Au) Contained Ounces (000) IMG Attributable Contained Ounces (000) Mineral Reserves within Base Case Mine Plan Proven 134.3 1.03 4,440 2,875 Probable 68.7 0.88 1,950 1,263 Proven & Probable 203.0 0.98 6,391 4,138 Total Mineral Reserves (supporting the Extended Mine Plan) Proven 139.2 1.04 4,640 3,004 Probable 93.8 0.88 2,644 1,712 Proven & Probable 233.0 0.97 7,284 4,716 Attributable calculated as 64.75% IAMGOLD, 27.75% SMM, and a 7.5% interest. Numbers presented in this table may not add up to the totals provided due to rounding. Received today, in conjunction with the filing of the NI 43-101, was the final cash payment from Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. ("SMM") to IAMGOLD of $95 million related to SMM's purchase of its 30% interest in the Project. The FS was completed jointly by IAMGOLD/SMM and Wood Canada Limited (formerly Amec Foster Wheeler) with inputs from technical studies completed by other specialist consultants and has an effective date of November 1, 2018. The NI 43-101 can be found on the Company's website at www.iamgold.com or under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. QUALIFIED PERSONS The Mineral Reserve estimate contained in this news release has been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The Qualified Person responsible for the Mineral Reserve estimate is Antonio Peralta, P. Eng., of Wood Canada Limited, an independent Qualified Person. He is considered a "Qualified Person" for the purposes of NI 43-101 with respect to the mineralization being reported on. The technical information has been included herein with the consent and prior review of the above noted Qualified Person. The Qualified person has verified the data disclosed, and data underlying the information or opinions contained herein. For a full list of Qualified Persons and Data Validation relating to the Cote Gold FS, please refer to the IAMGOLD news release dated November 1, 2018. The information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Craig MacDougall, P.Geo., Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD. Mr. MacDougall is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About IAMGOLD IAMGOLD (www.iamgold.com) is a mid-tier mining company with four operating gold mines on three continents. A solid base of strategic assets in North and South America and West Africa is complemented by development and exploration projects and continued assessment of accretive acquisition opportunities. IAMGOLD is in a strong financial position with extensive management and operational expertise. For further information please contact: Ken Chernin, VP Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation Tel: (416) 360-4743 Mobile: (416) 388-6883 Laura Young, Director Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation Tel: (416) 933-4952 Mobile: (416) 670-3815 Martin Dumont, Senior Analyst Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation Tel: (416) 933-5783 Mobile: (647) 967-9942 IAMGOLD Corporation Toll-free: 1 888 464-9999 info@iamgold.com Please note: This entire news release may be accessed via fax, e-mail, IAMGOLD's website at www.iamgold.com and through Newsfile's website at www.newsfilecorp.com. All material information on IAMGOLD can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov. Si vous desirez obtenir la version francaise de ce communique, veuillez consulter le http://www.iamgold.com/French/accueil/default.aspx The Company has been made aware of an application titled "Tether Wallet" on Apple's App Store falsely claiming to have been developed by FORK. Further, several individuals have contacted the Company claiming that they have been defrauded as a result of using this application. This application is not affiliated with FORK in any way, and the Company is pursuing recourse action with Apple. Those who have been victimized by this application are encouraged to contact their local authorities. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 26, 2018) - GLOBAL BLOCKCHAIN MINING CORP. (CSE: FORK) (OTC Pink: GBCHF) ("FORK" or the "Company") is issuing a cautionary warning to its investors and the general public, as it has come to the Company's attention that an iOS smartphone application in Apple's App Store titled Tether Wallet has been made available claiming that its developer is FORK. This application is not affiliated with FORK in any way, and the Company is presently in the process of pursuing this matter with Apple to seek removal from the App Store. The Company has also received inquiries from several individuals claiming that they have been defrauded as a result of using this application. With the knowledge that illicit activity is occurring under FORK's brand name, the Company advises the public to exercise caution in verifying the integrity of any application or product that handles sensitive information such as financial details, as well as to diligently authenticate any claim that an application or product is affiliated with either FORK, or any of its related entities such as Global Blockchain Technologies Corp. ("BLOC"). Any genuine products or offerings of FORK or its related entities will be listed on the website of its respective entity. Individuals who have been victimized by Tether Wallet should be sure to retain all records relating to their use of the application and contact Apple and their local authorities to lodge a complaint. Further, individuals who have knowledge of other instances of the names of FORK or its related companies being used illegitimately should contact the Company immediately. "We are appalled to discover that our Company's name and goodwill has been misused for fraudulent purposes, and we are actively investigating this, with the immediate priority being the removal of this application from the App Store, to ensure no additional persons are defrauded," said Shidan Gouran, President and CEO of FORK. Gouran continued, "It is worth noting that if Apple used blockchain technology for its App Store and WOT (Web of Trust) for authentication and identity management, this would curtail the growing issue of illegitmate applications on the platform. This is yet another case that proves how secure decentralized platforms are, as this misuse of the Company's name would not have been possible on such a platform." For clarity, the Tether Wallet application's page on Apple's App Store can be seen at the link below. This link is provided for reference purposes only. As this application is not affiliated with FORK, and FORK has received multiple reports of persons who claim to have been defrauded as a result of using this application, individuals are instructednot to download or use this application: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tether-wallet/id1440070347?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Canadian victims of fraud in connection with the use of this Tether Wallet application are advised to contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerincident/index-eng.htm Victims in the United States are advised to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): https://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx On behalf of the Company: Shidan Gouran, President and CEO info@globalblockchain.io For more information please contact: Global Blockchain Mining Corp. Investor Relations ir@globalblockchain.io About Global Blockchain Mining Corp. Global Blockchain Mining Corp. is a technology company that is engaged in the business of mining blue-chip cryptocurrencies through the deployment of hardware and associated infrastructure to mine these coins. Investors, through their investment in the Company, are provided with exposure to these cryptocurrencies without the lengthy, and complicated process that interested investors must undergo in order to gain exposure to these cryptocurrencies. The Company is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") and its common shares trade under the ticker symbol "FORK". Additional information relating to the Company is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, the CSE at www.theCSE.com as well as on the Company's website at: www.forkcse.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Forward-Looking Information: This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "would", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this News Release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. 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. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 26, 2018) - Debut Diamonds Inc. ("Debut Diamonds" or the "Company") today announced a series of transactions, including the engagement of KWG Resources Inc. (CSE: KWG) ("KWG") as its exclusive agent to source buyers for its various diamond mineral resource properties, changes to its board of directors, a proposed private placement, a proposed conversion of debt into common shares of the Company ("Common Shares"), and the sale by KWG of all of the Common Shares that it previously held in Debut Diamonds (collectively, the "Transactions"). The Transactions are each described in further detail below. Sales Agent Agreement The Company has executed an Exclusive Sales Agent Agreement with KWG effective as of November 25, 2018 (the "Sales Agent Agreement"). Under the terms and conditions of the Sales Agent Agreement, KWG will actively market the Company's interests in various diamond mineral resource properties (collectively, the "Properties") to arm's-length buyers. If a buyer introduced by KWG to the Company acquires one of the Properties, then the Company will pay a commission to KWG of 5% of the net sales price applicable to such Property. In addition, KWG has agreed to assume all of the Company's obligations and liabilities in relation to the Properties, and will indemnify the Company from any losses it may suffer as a result of any matter respecting the Properties. Following the sale of all of the Properties, Debut intends to declare a dividend to its holders of Common Shares of record as of November 23, 2018 equal to approximately the aggregate net sales price of the Properties, exclusive of KWG's commission and related fees and taxes. KWG is considered a "control person" of the Company under applicable securities laws. Accordingly, the Sales Agent Agreement is considered a "related party transaction" under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). However, the execution of the Sales Agent Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby are exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the services anticipated to be provided by KWG under the Sales Agent Agreement, nor the fair market value of its anticipated commission thereunder, is expected to exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. Changes to Board of Directors The Company also announces that Douglas M. Flett has resigned as a director of the Company, and that Greg Wilson and Michael Minas have been appointed as directors. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Flett for his service over the years. Mr. Wilson is an entrepreneur and corporate finance strategist with more than 20 years' experience advising and structuring capital market financings for start-up and emerging growth enterprises. In 2005, Mr. Wilson co-founded Paramount Gold & Silver Corp., a precious metals exploration company that was sold to Coeur Mining for over $200 million in late 2014. Mr. Wilson is currently Executive Vice President, CR Advisory Services and was a founding Director of CannaRoyalty Corp. Mr. Wilson also sits on the Board of Directors of BlackShire Capital Corp., a private cannabis focused investment company based in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Minas is an experienced capital markets professional, and brings with him 20 years of financial sector exposure in currency markets, fixed income, and Canadian, US, and global equities. Early on in Mr. Minas' career, he was selected, at a top client's request, to relocate to Wall Street, and spent over two years working with Cantor Fitzgerald. He followed this by acting as Executive Director of Canadian Institutional Sales Trading at CIBC World Markets from 2001 to 2005. Subsequently, Mr. Minas was instrumental in launching the NYC office of Genuity Capital Markets, where was a Partner from 2006 to 2010. Mr. Minas then relocated back to Canada, where he was a Director of Canadian Equity Trading of Canaccord Genuity from 2010 to 2013, and the Managing Director of Jacob Securities in 2015. Private Placement and Debt Conversion The Company also announces that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of up to $600,000 (the "Private Placement") and to settle outstanding debts of up to $90,000 (the "Debt Conversion"). Under the Private Placement, the Company intends to issue units ("Units") at a price of approximately $0.003 per Unit, or $0.05 per Unit after adjusting for the Consolidation (as defined below) (the "Issue Price"). Each Unit will be comprised of one (1) Common Share and one half of one (1/2) Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"), each whole Warrant being exercisable into one Common Share at the Issue Price for a period of five years following closing of the Private Placement. Under the Debt Conversion, the Company intends to issue Common Shares at a deemed price equal to the Issue Price in settlement of certain outstanding debt. The Private Placement and Debt Conversion will be subject to the prior approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "Exchange"), as the Issue Price is less than $0.05. The Company has obtained conditional approval of the Exchange to the Private Placement and Debt Conversion, but will be required to provide to the Exchange as a condition to Exchange's final acceptance of the Private Placement and Debt Conversion, written confirmation from shareholders holding not less than 50% (or such lesser amount as may be acceptable to the Exchange on a case by case basis) of the Company's issued and outstanding Common Shares (as to be constituted post-Private Placement and Debt Conversion) that they will vote in favour of a consolidation of the Company's outstanding Common Shares on the basis of one new post-consolidation Common Share for each 16.667 outstanding pre-consolidation Common Shares (the "Consolidation"). Sale of Control In addition, KWG wishes to announce that, effective November 25, 2018, it has sold an aggregate of 122,448,500 Common Shares and $25,000 in debt to four purchasers in private transactions for aggregate consideration of $500,000 or approximately $0.004 per Common Share (collectively, the "Share Sale"). As a result of the Share Sale, KWG's shareholdings in the Company were reduced from 122,448,500 Common Shares to nil Common Shares. In connection with the Share Sale, Marc Lustig of West Vancouver, British Columbia, has acquired 36,734,550 Common Shares, representing approximately 17.98% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and partially diluted basis, being that the Company has no outstanding convertible securities. Prior to the Share Sale, Mr. Lustig did not beneficially own, or exercise control or direction over, any securities of the Company. Mr. Lustig acquired these securities for investment purposes and may, from time to time, acquire additional securities of the Company or dispose of such securities as Mr. Lustig may deem appropriate. In connection with the Share Sale, Greg Wilson of Ottawa, Ontario, has acquired 36,734,550 Common Shares, representing approximately 17.98% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and partially diluted basis, being that the Company has no outstanding convertible securities. Prior to the Share Sale, Mr. Wilson did not beneficially own, or exercise control or direction over, any securities of the Company. Mr. Wilson acquired these securities for investment purposes and may, from time to time, acquire additional securities of the Company or dispose of such securities as Mr. Wilson may deem appropriate. In connection with the Share Sale, Jason I. Goldman Professional Corporation, an Ontario incorporated holding company, of Toronto, Ontario, has acquired 36,734,550 Common Shares, representing approximately 17.98% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and partially diluted basis, being that the Company has no outstanding convertible securities. Prior to the Share Sale, Jason I. Goldman Professional Corporation did not beneficially own, or exercise control or direction over, any securities of the Company. Jason I. Goldman Professional Corporation acquired these securities for investment purposes and may, from time to time, acquire additional securities of the Company or dispose of such securities as Jason I. Goldman Professional Corporation may deem appropriate. Copies of the respective early warning reports that will be filed by Mr. Lustig, Mr. Wilson, and Jason I. Goldman Professional Corporation may be obtained on the Company's SEDAR profile or by contacting the Company at 416 642-3575. Additional Information For additional information on Debut Diamonds Inc.: Please visit the company's website at www.DebutDiamonds.com or contact Bruce Hodgman at (416) 642-3575, or at info@debutdiamonds.com About Debut Diamonds Inc.: Debut Diamonds has both joint-ventured and wholly-owned diamond exploration properties that include the previously discovered MacFadyen and Good Friday kimberlite pipes contained in a claim block contiguous to the DeBeers claim block containing the Victor Diamond Mine and other prospective diamond bearing kimberlite pipes, west of James Bay on Ontario's Attawapiskat River. In addition, Debut Diamonds has an interest in the diamond bearing Kyle kimberlite pipes about 100 kilometers to the west. About KWG: KWG is the Operator of the Black Horse Joint Venture ('JV') after acquiring a vested 50% interest through Bold Ventures Inc ('Bold') from Fancamp Exploration Ltd ('Fancamp'). KWG funds all JV exploration expenditures and Bold is carried for a 20% interest in KWG's interest. KWG also owns 100% of Canada Chrome Corporation which has staked claims and conducted a surveying and soil testing program, originally for the engineering and construction of a railroad to the Ring of Fire from Aroland, Ontario. KWG subsequently acquired intellectual property interests, including a method for the direct reduction of chromite to metalized iron and chrome using natural gas and an accelerant. KWG subsidiary, Muketi Metallurgical LP, has received a patent for the direct reduction method in Canada, South Africa and Kazakhstan and is prosecuting remaining patent applications in India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and the USA. It has also received a USA patent for production of low carbon chromium iron alloys and a corresponding Canadian patent application is expected to issue soon. For further information, please contact: Bruce Hodgman, Vice-President: 416-642-3575 ~ info@kwgresources.com Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws including statements regarding the terms and conditions of the sale of one or more of the Properties under the Sales Agent Agreement, the proposed issuance of Units and Common Shares under the Private Placement and Debt Conversion, respectively, the Company's intention to obtain approval from the Exchange to the Private Placement and Debt Conversion, and the Company's intention to obtain shareholder approval for the Consolidation. Although the Company believes in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate, that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risk that the Exchange will not grant its approval to the Private Placement or Debt Conversion, the failure to obtain the requisite shareholder approvals, and the Company being unable to complete the Consolidation. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Asia's first electronic Chinese girl group, SING,will release the English-language version of "Moonlight Thoughts", the best-selling song on China's music charts, this month, in the expectation of expanding the appeal of Chinese style electronic dance music exemplified by the iconic Red and White Fan Dance which is often performed to the song. Since starting its climb up the charts in 2017, the song has been streamed over 100 million times on China's music platforms, while its music video has been viewed more than 50 million times on video platforms. The popularity of the song has moved beyond China's borders into other markets. The original as well as versions in several languages have been widely shared. The music video has been viewed more than 6 million times on YouTube. Many foreign fans, who have professed a love for Chinese culture, have submitted video clips of their own attempts at the dance routine, in which, they are waving the emblematic red and white fan. The English version of the song presents a portrait of a modern, fashionable and vibrant China to the world. SING is Asia's first electronic Chinese style music girl band formed in 2015 by Qigu Culture, a producing agency owned by Tencent Music Enterainment Group, with members Lai Meiyun, Jiang Shen, Xu Shiyin, Qin Yu, Lin Hui, Wu Yao, Chen Li and Bian Li in the current lineup. With its own unique style and an expanding fan base, the band has rising commercial value, becoming the new favorite in the mobile game and animation industry and releasing some dozen songs in collaboration with several games, including Fantasy Westward Journey and King of Glory. This year, the band teamed up with popular Chinese animation series Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation to release the song "Bu Xian", which had more than 10,000 comments immediately following its release on KuGou and quickly swept the major authority list within a week. The release of "Moonlight Thoughts" is important for the girl band. The band members all said that they will continue releasing even more appealing electronic Chinese style tunes, doing their best to give more listeners around the world an opportunity to know SING and become more acquainted with what Chinese culture has to offer. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789890/SING_English_version.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789889/SING_Chinese_girl_group.jpg Dana Group International Investments Ltd - Final Results for the Year Ended 30th June 2018 Dana Group International Investments Limited and its subsidiaries (the "Group" or the "Company") Consolidated Financial Results for the Year Ended 30thJune 2018 Chairman's Statement On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to present the Group's consolidated, audited financial statements for the financial year ended 30thJune 2018 together with the notes thereto. The period under review was challenging for the regional economy owing to the macroeconomic, structural and geopolitical influences across the region. These factors, along with supply and demand trend, have softened the real estate sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Despite such challenges, the UAE's real estate sector is maturing and the Directors believe it is poised for growth in the longer term, following the flurry of business-friendly reforms in recent months, improved regulations, solid macroeconomic fundamentals, transparency and highly developed infrastructure. While the external environment may provide constant challenges, the Directors perceive that the gradual recovery of oil prices and the diversification of the economy will encourage more foreign direct investments in the region. Business-friendly policy reforms supporting the building of a sustained and integrated economy should pave the way towards increased business activities and confidence across all sectors, including real estate. Meanwhile, the UAE is preparing for Expo 2020, which will be hosted by the Emirate of Dubai, and is progressing well with numerous initiatives to become a global hub for the development and deployment of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, 3D printing etc. This should enhance the UAE's prestige and support the core real estate, transport and tourism sectors. In turn, this should provide an opportunity for the Company to develop a well-focused and diversified investment strategy in the real estate sector. Board Changes During the year under review, Mr. Khaled (Nicholas) Majdalani stepped down from the Board and the following new Directors were admitted: Mr. Ahmad Abdulla Aljaziri Altamimi - Director Mr. Mustafa Saifuddin - Director and CEO - Director and CEO Mr. Khaled Moh'd Ahmad Owaidat - Director Financial Results The comprehensive loss for the financial year ended 30thJune 2018 was USD 33.92 million (2017: comprehensive income of USD 8.14 million) and the net loss for the year was USD 3,567 (2017: net loss of USD 215,329), giving rise to a basic loss per share of 0.001 US cents (2017: basic loss per share of 0.086 US cents). The Company has posted the revenue of USD 108,000 from consultancy services. The net loss for the year reduced by USD 211,762 from the comparable period. This reduction was attributable to reduced operational costs during the year under review. As at 30thJune 2018, the Company's net assets standing at USD 51.90 million (2017: USD 85.82 million); or US cents 21 per share (2017: US cents 34 per share). The decrease in the Group's net assets by USD 33.92 million or 40 per cent is attributable to fair value changes as measured at the year-end in the value of investments held by Bonyan International Investment Group (Holding) LLC ("Bonyan"), in which the Company holds a 21.68 per cent interest. The change in fair value arose mainly from over-supply and softening demand in the real estate sector in the UAE, marked by the declines in real property asset prices and values of real property assets of between 10 and 15 per cent on average during the year under review. During financial year 2017-2018, an investee company (the "Investee Company" as defined in the Directors' Report in the Annual Report for the financial year 2017-2018) of Bonyan underwent capital restructuring which resulted in the dilution of Bonyan's shareholding in the Investee Company to 19.68 per cent (30 June 2017: 40 per cent). The dilution arose from the issue of new share capital by the Investee Company to incoming shareholders. Further information on this and on the Post- Balance Sheet Event discussed below is provided in the Directors' Report appearing in the Group's Annual Report. Post-Balance Sheet Events Subsequent to the end of the last financial year, the shares of Bonyan's Investee Company were listed on the ADX Secondary Market in Abu Dhabi. The listing provides a continuous, independent pricing and valuation mechanism for Bonyan's significant investment within a stable regulatory environment which enforces high standards of disclosure and transparency. The Directors' Report explains how, since the listing, this has affected the valuation of the Company's indirect exposure, through its investment in Bonyan, to Bonyan's Investee Company's shares. Further, Mr. Muin El-Saleh retires by rotation and has decided not to offer himself for re-election, owing to his external commitments. Muin was appointed as the CEO & Executive director of the Company in July 2011 and had stepped down from the CEO position in December 2017. Muin has played a key role on matters concerned with corporate development. He has also been the motivating force behind implementing an improved financial reporting and IT support system in the Group. The Board would like to thank Mr. Muin for his significant contribution and service to the Company. Current Trading Trading from 1stJuly 2018 to date remains consistent with the Directors' expectations at the beginning of the current financial period. Recommendation The Directors believe that all the proposals to be considered at the AGM, notice of which will be posted with the Annual Report, are in the best interests of the Company and recommend shareholders to vote in favour of them as they intend, where relevant, to do in respect of their own beneficial shareholdings. Conclusion The restructuring of Bonyan's investment should benefit the Group as prospects of expansion and the involvement in distinguished and unique projects in the field of real estate development and other various areas of investments should increase returns from sustainable sources; these are expected to improve the Company's overall value. As the current financial year progresses, the Directors will remain dedicated to exploring and grasping opportunities for further business development. Finally, I would like to extend my wholehearted gratitude to my fellow members of the Board and to our valued shareholders who continue to place their trust in us. On behalf of the Board, we pledge to continue doing our best to achieve success. Firas Baba Chairman, Dubai, 26 November 2018 Consolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income for the year ended 30thJune 2018 30 June 2018 30 June 2017 Notes USD USD Revenue 108,047 190,395 ------------- -------------- Employee costs (146,464) (418,522) Other operating expenses (90,233) (117,990) Legal and professional expenses (94,753) (94,132) Depreciation (702) (4,444) Other income 222,228 ------------ 202,439 -------------- Operating loss (1,877) (242,254) Finance (expense)/income (1,690) -------------- 26,925 -------------- Loss for the year (3,567) -------------- (215,329) -------------- Other comprehensive income Items that are or may be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss Fair value changes in available for sale financial assets 2 (33,916,203) 8,354,786 ________ ________ Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the year (33,919,770) ======== 8,139,457 ======== Loss per share attributable to the owners of the parent during the year Basic loss per share for the year 1 (0.00001) (0.00086) ====== ====== Consolidated statement of financial position as at 30thJune 2018 30 June 2018 30 June 2017 Notes USD USD ASSETS Non-current assets Property and equipment - 702 Available for sale financial assets 2 52,620,087 86,536,290 --------------- ---------------- Total non-current assets 52,620,087 86,536,992 --------------- ---------------- Current assets Loans and advances - 4,700,000 Prepayments, advances and other receivables 42,054 541,140 Cash and cash equivalents 14,481 --------------- 42,531 --------------- Total current assets 56,535 --------------- 5,283,671 --------------- Total assets 52,676,622 ======== 91,820,663 ======== LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Share capital 3 2,010,490 2,010,490 Share premium 83,862,586 83,862,586 Available for sale fair valuation reserve (25,561,417) 8,354,786 Accumulated losses (8,408,513) ---------------- (8,404,946) ---------------- Total capital and shareholders' equity 51,903,146 ---------------- 85,822,916 ---------------- LIABILITIES Non-current liabilities Provision for employees' end of service benefits 25,540 ---------------- 32,658 ---------------- Total non-current liabilities 25,540 ---------------- 32,658 ---------------- Current liabilities Trade and other payables 747,936 ---------------- 5,965,089 ---------------- Total current liabilities 773,476 5,965,089 --------------- ---------------- Total liabilities and shareholders' equity 52,676,622 ======== 91,820,663 ======== The consolidated financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors on 26thNovember 2018. _____________________ Mustafa Saifuddin Director Consolidated statement of changes in equity for the year ended 30th June 2018 Share capital USD Share premium USD Available for sale fair valuation reserve USD Accumulated losses USD Total USD At 1st July 2016 2,010,490 83,862,586 - (8,189,617) 77,683,459 Total comprehensive income for the year Loss for the year - - - (215,329) (215,329) Other comprehensive income for the year - - 8,354,786 - 8,354,786 -------------- --------------- -------------- -------------- --------------- At 30th June 2017 2,010,490 83,862,586 8,354,786 (8,404,946) 85,822,916 ======== ========= ======== ======== ========= At 1st July 2017 2,010,490 83,862,586 8,354,786 (8,404,946) 85,822,916 Total comprehensive income for the year Loss for the year - - - (3,567) (3,567) Other comprehensive loss for the year - - (33,916,203) - (33,916,203) ------------ -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------- At 30th June 2018 2,010,490 83,862,586 (25,561,417) (8,408,513) 51,903,146 ======= ======== ======== ======== ========= Consolidated statement of cash flows for the year ended 30thJune 2018 30 June 2018 30 June 2017 USD USD Cash flow from operating activities Net loss for the year (3,567) (215,329) Adjustments for: Finance income - (422,099) Finance cost - 383,726 Balance payable written back (251,598) - Depreciation 702 4,444 Provision for employees' end of service benefits (7,118) 23,101 ---------- -------------- Operating cash flow before working capital changes (261,581) (226,157) Working capital changes: Prepayments, advances and other receivables 499,086 374,151 Trade and other payables (4,965,555) 4,562,117 Finance income received - 179,500 Finance cost paid - (159,268) ---------- -------------- Net cash used in operating activities (4,728,050) 4,730,343 ---------- -------------- Cash flow from financing activities Loans and advances 4,700,000 (4,700,000) ---------- --------------- Net cash flow from financing activities 4,700,000 (4,700,000) ---------- --------------- Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents (28,050) 30,343 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the year 42,531 12,188 --------- -------------- Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year 14,481 42,531 ===== ===== Basis of preparation These consolidated financial statements have been prepared for the 12 months year ended 30thJune 2018, whereas corresponding figures were extracted from the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended 30thJune 2017 for comparative purposes as explained above in the chairman's statement. These consolidated financial statements as at 30thJune 2018 comprise the Company and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as "the Group") and the Group's interest in equity accounted investees. The financial information does not constitute the Group's consolidated financial statements for either the year ended 30thJune 2018 or the year ended 30thJune 2017, but is derived from those accounts. The Group's non statutory accounts for 2018 are available from the Company's website from 27thNovember 2018. The auditor's reports on both the 2018 and 2017 accounts were unqualified; did not draw attention to any matters by way of an emphasis; and did not contain any statement in regard to matters reported on by exception. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The consolidated financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, except for investment properties and available for sale investments which are stated at fair values. The accounting policies used are consistent with those applied in the 2017 consolidated financial statements and those that were applied in the 2018 consolidated financial statements. 1. Loss per share Basic Basic loss per share is calculated by dividing the loss attributable to owners of the parent by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year. 30 June 2018 30 June 2017 Loss attributable to the owners of the parent (USD) (3,567) ======== (215,329) ======== Weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue (No.) 249,289,747 ========== 249,289,747 ========== The company has no diluted instrument at the reporting date. 2. Available for sale financial assets 2018 2017 USD USD Balance at the beginning of the year 86,536,290 78,181,504 Change in fair value (33,916,203) 8,354,786 ------------- ------------- Balance at the end of the year 52,620,087 ======== 86,536,290 ======== The Group holds 21.68% interest in Bonyan International Investment Group (Holding) LLC ("Bonyan"). Bonyan is engaged in the property development business in the UAE. The Group assessed the investment in Bonyan at its fair value. The fair value of Bonyan was determined by an independent professional valuer by using discounted cash flow model. During the financial year 2017-2018, an Investee Company of Bonyan underwent capital restructuring which resulted in the dilution of Bonyan's shareholding in the Investee Company to 19.68% (30thJune 2017: 40%). The dilution arose from the issue of new capital by the Investee Company to incoming shareholders. Subsequent to the year under review, the Investee Company's shares were listed on the ADX Secondary Market in Abu Dhabi. 3. Share capital and share premium Movement in share capital during the year Number of shares Ordinary Shares Share Premium Total USD USD USD At 1st July 2016 249,289,747 2,010,490 83,862,586 85,873,076 Shares issued during the year - --------------- - ------------ - -------------- - -------------- At 30th June 2017 249,289,747 ========= 2,010,490 ======= 83,862,586 ======== 85,873,076 ======== At 1st July 2017 249,289,747 2,010,490 2,010,490 2,010,490 Shares issued during the year - --------------- - ------------ - -------------- - -------------- At 30th June 2017 249,289,747 ========= 2,010,490 ======= 83,862,586 ======== 85,873,076 ======== As at 30thJune 2018, Bonyan holds 64,936,640 shares (26.05%) (30thJune 2016: 61,669,915 shares (24.74%)) of the Company. Share warrants No new share warrants were issued by the Company during the year. This announcement has been made after due and careful enquiry; the directors of the Group accept responsibility for its content. Enquiries: Dana Group International Investments Ltd: Contact: tel: +971 (0)4 430 9355; e-mail: ir@dana-investments.com; further information on Dana Group International Investments Limited is available from the Company's website: www.dana-investments.com Keith, Bayley, Rogers & Co. Limited: Graham Atthill-Beck: tel: +44 (0)20 7464 4091; mobile: +971 (0)50 856 9408/+44 (0)750 643 4107; e-mail: Graham.Atthill-Beck@kbrl.co.uk; blackpearladvisers@gmail.com Brinsley Holman: tel: +44 (0)20 7464 4098; e-mail: Brinsley.Holman@kbrl.co.uk Copies of the Annual Report for the year ended 30thJune 2018 are available during normal business hours for a period of one month from the date of this announcement, by arrangement, from the offices of Keith, Bayley, Rogers & Co. Limited, No. 1 Royal Exchange Avenue, London, EC3V 3LT; telephone: +44 (0) 20 7464 4090. A soft copy of the Annual Report is also downloadable from the Company's website: www.dana-investments.com/. News release from Vestas Mediterranean Madrid, 27 November 2018 Vestas has received an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) order for the 52 MW Tafila wind park in Jordan. The order was placed by Daehan Wind Power, a special-purpose company co-invested in by the South Korean utility Korean Southern Power (KOSPO) and Daelim Energy. The contract includes the supply, transport, installation and commissioning of 15 V136-3.45 MW turbines and it is Vestas' fourth EPC contract for utility-scale wind parks in the country. "This comprehensive EPC contract reinforces our leadership in the Jordanian wind energy market and demonstrates our project management expertise and broad range of auction capabilities. We are grateful to partner with Daehan and we are pleased to increase our contribution to Jordan's transition to renewable energy sources", highlights Rainer Karan, General Manager of Vestas Mediterranean Eastern Cluster. The order includes a 20-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement for the operation and maintenance of the wind park, while turbine delivery is planned for the third quarter of 2019, whilst commissioning is expected in the first quarter of 2020. Byung-hee Min, Vice President of Overseas Business Department of KOSPO and Chairman of Daehan Wind Power Company, said "Thanks to the Vestas' cooperation, we took a first step into the Jordanian renewable energy market and KOSPO will be able to demonstrate the know-how accumulated in the construction and operation from domestic wind power plants". In-Gyu Kim, Vice President of Daelim Energy and Vice Chairman of Daehan Wind Power Co., said "To take a first step into a new market is always challenging, and in this project we had to negotiate with a wide range of stakeholders. I am pleased that Daelim Energy has made this project successful with our partners. We will do our best to advance into overseas markets such as South America, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa". Vestas pioneered wind energy in Jordan in 1996 and remains the market leader with more than 55 percent of the country's total wind capacity. For updated Vestas photographs and videos, please visit our media images page on: https://www.vestas.com/en/media/images. For more information, please contact: Irene Rodriguez Alvarez Marketing Manager Vestas Mediterranean Tel.: +34 91 362 81 13 Email: IRRAL@vestas.com About Vestas Vestas is the energy industry's global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 97 GW of wind turbines in 79 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 82 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas' more than 24,300 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future. We invite you to learn more about Vestas by visiting our website at www.vestas.com and ollowing us on our social media channels: www.twitter.com/vestas (http://www.twitter.com/vestas) www.linkedin.com/company/vestas (http://www.linkedin.com/company/vestas) www.facebook.com/vestas (http://www.facebook.com/vestas) www.instagram.com/vestas (http://www.instagram.com/vestas) www.youtube.com/vestas (http://www.youtube.com/vestas) Attachment AMSTERDAM, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Venture fund focuses on supporting early stage healthcare and tech companies INKEF Capital (INKEF), the Dutch venture capital fund focused on technology and healthcare, announces the appointment of Roel Bulthuis as Managing Director and Head of Healthcare Team. He will co-manage the INKEF fund alongside Robert Jan Galema, Head of Technology Team. Roel Bulthuis joins INKEF from M Ventures, where he established and led Merck KGaA's corporate VC fund. Over the last 10 years M Ventures built a portfolio that was highly driven by seed stage investments and company creation. This portfolio has now reached a level of maturity where it counts amongst the most exciting collections of healthcare assets in Europe. Robert Jan Galema, Managing Director of INKEF, said: "We are very pleased to welcome Roel to INKEF which marks the ambitious next stage of our fund. His vision and ambition are closely linked to INKEF's mission to help early stage companies reach their full potential. We back mission-driven entrepreneurs who are ready to take the next step to grow their business. Roel's significant expertise and track record in creating and building successful companies will be invaluable in our mission to be the leading venture capital investor in Europe." Roel Bulthuis, Managing Director of INKEF, said: "The translation of visionary ideas into sustainable companies that can have a lasting impact on the world we live in requires patient and committed capital. INKEF's ambition is to build a leading platform to help establish innovative new global healthcare and tech companies from Europe. That ambition comes with a level of resources and a fund structure that is geared towards building world class, sustainable companies. I look forward to working with the team at INKEF to build a community of entrepreneurs and talent that gets the support and resources to turn their ideas into reality." Prior to setting up M Ventures, Roel was a Director in the Biotech Investment Banking Team at Fortis Bank, where he was responsible for the origination and execution of a wide range of financing and strategic transactions in the biotech sector based out of Amsterdam and New York. Before joining Fortis Bank, Roel worked at Devgen NV in Gent, Belgium. Roel holds a Msc. in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and an MBA in Finance from the Helsinki School of Economics, Finland. Roel is a Kauffman Fellow and has been named among the top 100 leaders on the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist for 3 consecutive years since 2016. About INKEFCapital INKEF Capital is an Amsterdam-based venture capital firm that focuses on long-term collaboration and active support of innovative healthcare and technology companies. INKEF Capital was founded in 2010 by Dutch pension fund ABP and with 500 million under management it is one of the largest venture capital funds in the Netherlands. INKEF focuses on investment opportunities in Healthcare, Technology, IT/New Media & FinTech. For more information: http://www.INKEF.com LONDON, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Head of Consulting, Experian EMEA and General Manager of Visa Central & Eastern Europe - Steven Parker, is appointed as CEO of Crypterium , the the world's first cryptobank. Steven Parker has held leadership roles in blue-chip companies across the globe where he led business development, product innovation, marketing, customer analytics, and strategy functions. Steven has considerable expertise in innovation and technology (Visa, Experian) and worked broadly across retail financial services (HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered), strategic consulting (Booz-Allen) and hospitality (Holiday Inns). He has also advised leading banks, telecoms, and other services companies on how to manage and use data for risk-based customer engagement in a multi-channel, digital world. During his career, Steven has lived in 12 countries in different parts of Europe (the UK, France, Russia, etc.); the Middle East; Africa; Asia (including Hong Kong and Singapore), and Australia. "Navigating people and businesses through periods of complex change, to help deliver improved performance is my passion, and that's what makes my new role at Crypterium such an attractive challenge for me," Steven says. "The cryptocurrency market is a really exciting space at the moment. I believe it is going through a very interesting time, coming out of a speculative environment and maturing, letting serious players continue to build attractive customer propositions," he explains. "Steven is a proven leader with strong expertise in multinational businesses. His vast experience in the global financial industry will strengthen our company's position and be a great asset as Crypterium expands its global presence," says Crypterium COO and co-founder Austin Kimm. Former Crypterium CEO Marc O'Brien and the company's Board of directors have mutually agreed to separate as of November 2018. The decision reflects the company's transition into the next phase of growth, Austin explains. "Crypterium experienced significant growth under Marc's leadership. He was instrumental in leading our strategy and bringing us closer to building the world's first cryptobank. We are grateful for his service," he adds. About Crypterium Crypterium is building the mobile app to meet the banking needs of the "Cryptocurrency Era". The goal is clear: whatever individuals can do with traditional money, they should be able to do with cryptocurrencies. Learn more at https://crypterium.com/ The UK Biobank is a groundbreaking international health resource with more than 1.5 petabytes of data planned for collection and analysis: medical records, genomic data, imaging, and measurements donated by 500,000 UK citizens. Paradigm4's newly launched REVEAL Translational Informatics Platform with its PheGe Browser enables bioinformaticians and scientists to readily work with the scale and diversity of public and proprietary multi-omics, behavioral, clinical, health outcomes, and environmental data generated today. Built on Paradigm4's scientific data computational engine for complex data analysis and machine learning, REVEAL accelerates integrative, multi-modal, longitudinal, population-scale data science exploration and discovery. Alnylam, a global leader in RNAi therapeutics, has selected Paradigm4 as its partner to exploit the power of the UK Biobank data. Paradigm4's REVEAL and PheGe software will help Alnylam to identify patient cohorts based on medical records combined with advanced phenotype technologies such as imaging and wearables to uncover genetic and metabolic drivers of disease. "The absolute scale and diversity of the data in the UK Biobank will drive transformational GWAS/PheWAS research," said Paradigm4's CEO Marilyn Matz. "Our aggressive timelines provide Alnylam-along with our other top biopharma customers-with best-in-class performance and services to rapidly mine this valuable data set." "The UK Biobank dataset redefines our view of Real World Evidence to support active clinical development projects where new insights into cohort selection for recruiting or stratifying patients are very valuable," added Zachary Pitluk, Ph.D., V.P. of Life Sciences. "The UK Biobank data in REVEAL is a unique resource for in-silico trial simulations with its ease of data selection and support for optimizing machine learning parameters. Enabling customers with a truly private analytical environment offers a distinct advantage in a competitive market like drug development." About Paradigm4 Paradigm4, a scientific information solutions provider, advances scientific and engineering insights by enabling scientists and data scientists to take full advantage of the scale, resolution, and diversity of public and proprietary scientific data to accelerate their research. Leading Life Sciences, IoT, instrument, and research institutes use Paradigm4's REVEAL discovery engine for collaborative, reproducible research. The company was founded by renowned database researcher, Turing Award laureate MIT Professor Michael Stonebraker. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005106/en/ Contacts: Zachary Pitluk, Ph.D., V.P., Life Sciences and Healthcare zpitluk@paradigm4.com 203-848-0930 Marilyn Matz, CEO mmatz@paradigm4.com 781-718-3999 The Ile-de-France Paris Region supports the development of this new lab, located in Les Clayes-sous-Bois (Yvelines), which positions the region as a strong technological hub Les Clayes-sous-Bois (Yvelines), November 27, 2018 - Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, today officially launches the start of the construction of its new global Research & Development Lab in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, in Yvelines. The new 8,000 m2 lab will be built on Atos' existing R&D site. It will provide a modern space dedicated to research in quantum computing, closely connected with the high-performance computing and cybersecurity research programs of the Group. Built within Atos' site at Les Clayes-sous-Bois which employs almost 1,000 people, the future lab will host Atos' R&D teams with around 350 highly qualified engineers. Atos' quantum computing research program benefits from an investment of 5,000,000 from the Ile-de-France Paris Region as part of its 'Smart Industry' strategy, adopted in July 2017. Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony with Valerie Pecresse and Thierry Breton The opening ceremony, which took place before an audience of Atos employees and academic and industry partners, saw Valerie Pecresse, President of the Ile-de-France Paris Regional Council and Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos lay the first foundation stone. "I welcome this key step in the development of the industry of the future in Ile-de-France, a strong signal for the attractiveness of our region. We are thus reaffirming our commitment to making the Ile-de-France Paris Region an innovation territory, a leader in digital transformation. This approach is in line with our ambition to promote the implementation and development of strategic technologies in the Ile-de-France Paris region. Quantum computing is one of them and will have major impact, particularly in terms of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence" said Valerie Pecresse, President of the Ile-de-France Paris Regional Council. "I am delighted to launch today the start of the construction of our R&D Lab, which will house our ambitious quantum computing program, driven in partnership with the Ile-de-France Paris Region" saidThierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos. "Our future lab, rich in more than 50 years of research work carried out at the historic site of Clayes-sous-Bois, will develop strategic technologies which will shape the future of computing for decades to come. It is on this historic site that Atos researchers will work on the first quantum accelerators and, in conjunction with the intensive computing R&D program, on future hybrid supercomputers. Their world-class work will benefit our clients, our academic partners and the international reputation of the region." Atos Quantum: a global program The future R&D lab will accommodate the research work done as part of the Atos Quantum program, the first major quantum industry program in Europe (https://atos.net/en/2016/press-release_2016_11_06/atos-launches-atos-quantum-first-quantum-computing-industry-program-europe), launched by Atos in 2016. This program aims to develop and market quantum computing solutions, as well as quantum safe cyber security products. Atos researchers developed the Atos Quantum Learning Machine (Atos QLM), the world's highest-performing commercially available quantum simulator (https://atos.net/en/2017/press-release/general-press-releases_2017_07_04/atos-launches-highest-performing-quantum-simulator-world), already marketed to the world's most prestigious universities and research centers. The program's future work will focus on the development of quantum accelerators, which will benefit future hybrid supercomputers developed in parallel by Atos' high-performance computing teams and researchers. This new R&D Lab is expected to be officially open in summer 2020. ### About Atos Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 120,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of 13 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions through its Digital Transformation Factory, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across all business sectors. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Syntel, Unify and Worldline. Atos is listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index. Press contacts: Atos: Laura Fau | laura.fau@atos.net (mailto:laura.fau@atos.net) | +33 6 73 64 04 18 | @laurajanefau (https://twitter.com/laurajanefau) Region Ile-de-France : Laureen Favier | laureen.favier@iledefrance.fr (mailto:laureen.favier@iledefrance.fr) | +33 7 84 14 65 83 Click here for PDF (http://hugin.info/143359/R/2227032/874200.pdf) This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: ATOS via Globenewswire Seven members of the UN Security Council have voted against Russia's agenda of the emergency session dedicated to the violation of Russias borders by Ukrainian military vessels, while China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Bolivia voted in favor of it. Four more countries have abstained from the vote. The UN Security Council will still discuss the situation in Ukraine during the session called at the US initiative under Kievs agenda, TASS reported. According to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), on Sunday morning, three ships from the Ukrainian Navy - the Berdyansk, the Nikopol and the Yany Kapu - illegally crossed Russias border. They ignored legitimate demands to stop issued by vessels belonging to the FSB Border Service and the Black Sea Fleet and continued to perform dangerous maneuvers. In order to stop the Ukrainian ships, the Russian forces had to use weapons and detain the three vessels. Three Ukrainian military servicemen suffered light wounds and were provided with medical assistance. A criminal investigation has been opened into the border incident. The FSB said that evidence proving Kievs plans to carry out a provocation in the Black Sea would soon be made public. ASHTEAD GROUP PLC - Notice of Results Ashtead Group plc 27thNovember 2018 ASHTEAD GROUP PLC Announcement of Q2 Results Ashtead Group plc announces that its second quarter results for the period ended 31stOctober 2018 will be announced on Tuesday 11th December 2018.The results will be available on the Company's website www.ashtead-group.com from 7.00 am that day. A live video webcast of the analyst and investor presentation will be broadcast from 9.00 am on the morning via the investor centre on the Company's website. Further enquiries: Ashtead Group plc Will Shaw 0207 726 9700 Maitland James McFarlane 0207 379 5151 Frankfurt/Julich (ots) - The headquarters building of Fraport AG, the operating company of Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt, is a state-of-the-art facility equipped with modern technology. Nevertheless, it was possible to reduce the building's energy cost by 19 percent - thanks to a digital solution from German Proptech MeteoViva. For this accomplishment, both companies have received the prestigious Energy Efficiency Award from the German Energy Agency (dena). In the Energy Efficiency category, they were recognized for using data in an intelligent way so that building technology can be operated even more efficiently. Carbon emissions were also reduced by 20 percent within the first two years of operation. A rather surprising achievement, considering that the Fraport office building was awarded DGNB Platinum certification. "The fact that we managed to achieve such significant savings in a building constructed according to already excellent environmental standards demonstrates the potential of our predictive approach," emphasizes Dr. Stefan Hardt, Managing Director of MeteoViva. For Fraport, the award affirms its commitment to sustainability. Fraport intends to reduce the Group's carbon emissions almost by half until 2030. "Reflecting our corporate responsibility, this goal represents a significant part of our contribution to climate protection", explains Dr. Stefan Schulte, Executive Board Chairman of Fraport AG. "The cooperation with MeteoViva is an important milestone in our endeavors to further improve the energy efficiency of our buildings, facilities and processes." Fraport plans to implement the MeteoViva system in additional buildings. The dena award recognizes projects that make a special contribution to energy transition. A total of 104 international companies submitted entries in 2018, of which 14 were nominated by the jury. Originaltext: MeteoViva GmbH digital press kits: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/132957 press kits via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_132957.rss2 Contact: MeteoViva GmbH Katja Korehnke Media Relations Email: presse@meteoviva.com Phone: +49 173 532 0909 Fraport AG Yi-Chun Sandy Chen Media Relations Email: y.chen@fraport.de Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de SAN DIEGO, Nov. 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Invivoscribe is pleased to announce FDA approval of both the LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay and the Astellas drug, XOSPATApatients in the US. Further, the Japanese MHLW has confirmed national reimbursement for the LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay in Japan. Invivoscribe developed the LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay in partnership with Astellas as the companion diagnostic to predict patient responses to Astellas Pharma's AML drug XOSPATA (gilteritinib fumarate). This approval complements Invivoscribe's prior regulatory approvals of this LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay as the companion diagnostic for RYDAPT (midostaurin) for Novartis (United States and Europe), and XOSPATA (gilteritinib fumarate) for Astellas (Japan). This CDx was also recently submitted to the PMDA in Japan and the US FDA as the CDx for predicting response to the Daiichi Sankyo drug, quizartinib hydrochloride. This milestone further establishes the LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay as the international gold standard for comprehensive FLT3 assessment for critically ill AML patients as this CDx identifies both ITD and TKD mutations (including large internal tandem duplications), is available worldwide, and generates standardized signal ratios for both ITD and TKD mutations. "Invivoscribe welcomes opportunities to use our Streamlined CDx program to partner with global pharmaceutical companies interested in developing and commercializing companion diagnostics, whether their therapies are targeting hematologic diseases or solid tumors," said Jeffrey Miller, Invivoscribe's CSO and CEO. About the Invivoscribe LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay The LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay is a PCR-based, in vitro diagnostic test designed to detect internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations and tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) mutations D835 and I836 in the FLT3 gene in genomic DNA extracted from mononuclear cells obtained from peripheral blood or bone marrow aspirates of patients diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. This globally standardized test includes software that interprets data, generates mutant/wildtype signal ratios for ITD and TKD mutations, and predicts response to both gilteritinib fumarate and midostaurin. This extensively validated assay helps standardize the detection of genetic mutations in the FLT3 gene as one of the most important driver mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). The LeukoStrat test is available as a test menu service through the Invivoscribe subsidiaries, LabPMM LLC (San Diego, CA, US), LabPMM GmbH (Martinsried, Germany) and LabPMM GK (Kawasaki City, Japan). LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay kits are currently distributed in Europe, will be available in Japan in 2018, and are planned for distribution in the United States, and China in the future. About Invivoscribe Invivoscribe is a privately held biotechnology company dedicated to Improving Lives with Precision Diagnostics . For nearly twenty-five years, Invivoscribe has improved the quality of healthcare worldwide by providing high quality, standardized reagents, tests, and bioinformatics tools to advance the field of precision medicine. Invivoscribe has a successful track record of partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies interested in developing and commercializing companion diagnostics, and provides expertise in both regulatory and laboratory services. Providing distributable kits, as well as clinical trial services through its globally located clinical lab subsidiaries), Invivoscribe is an ideal partner from diagnostic development, through clinical trials, regulatory submissions, and commercialization. HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The advertisement "Miracles in China, Commerce in Yiwu" recently aired in Times Square in New York City, showcasing Yiwu, China at the "Crossroads of the World". Along with the country's reform and opening-up, the county-level city in the center of east China'sZhejiang Province has seized all opportunities to continuously develop and innovate its economy. In 2017, Yiwu's small commodity market was ranked first in the national professional market for 26 consecutive years, with a market area of more than 6.4 million square meters, 75,000 business stores, and more than 1.8 million products sold to 210 countries and regions around the world. Even when the e-commerce once considered a crisis for the market-place emerged, Yiwu managed to turn the situation around by deploying e-business as the engine for a new round of transformation. The city launched a program of training 300,000 e-commerce talents in two years, established e-commerce industry guidance fund, set up e-commerce parks and worked to establish e-commerce platforms that could connect third party platforms such as Alibaba, Amazon and eBay. In 2017, Yiwu's e-commerce transactions hit 222 billion yuan, up 25.3 percent. Of that, cross-border e-commerce amounted to 22.1 billion yuan, up 38.2 percent. Yiwu is also applauded for its active participation in the Belt and Road construction in recent years. So far, nine freight rail routes have been launched from Yiwu to Central Asia, London and Spain, influencing 34 countries and regions, covering about 2,000 kinds of commodities and hardware tools that are made in China. In 2017, particularly, a railway link between Yiwu and Madrid carried Chinese exports to 35 countries. The Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe line, 13,052 kilometers in length, is the longest train route in the world. Yiwu has now become the world's gateway for commodities trading with China, and it has balanced itself on imports and exports to position as both an international seller and buyer. Yiwu brought in 1,854 types of imported goods from 121 countries and regions worldwide in the first nine months of 2018, up 35.23 percent on year. WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading middle-market private equity firm The Halifax Group ("Halifax") announced today it has sold Pirtek Europe (the "Company") to PNC Riverarch Capital ("PNC"), a US-based private equity firm. Pirtek Europe is a leading on-site provider of hydraulic hose replacement and associated services across Europe. Transaction terms were not disclosed. Pirtek Europe's management team, including CEO Alex McNutt, will remain in their executive roles with the Company and are committed to maintaining the Company's best-in-class service and operations. Halifax acquired a majority stake in Pirtek Europe in February 2015. Mr. McNutt said, "Over the last few years, we have expanded our mobile unit and service center footprint, strengthened our relationship with franchisees, made significant technology investments, and completed a strategic acquisition in Sweden. Halifax has been an exceptional partner in supporting and guiding us in these accomplishments and providing Pirtek Europe with insightful strategic and operational guidance. Going forward, we are excited to partner with PNC to further enhance our market position and offer industry-leading service levels." Scott Plumridge, Partner at Halifax, added, "It has been an honor to serve as the stewards of the Pirtek Europe brand for close to four years. Alex and his team have done a tremendous job to improve the opportunity set for our dedicated and highly-skilled group of franchisees. The Pirtek Europe system is offering its best-in-class service to more customers than ever and continues to expand its pan-European coverage. We're grateful for the effective collaboration with both management and the franchise system to drive these results, and we wish the team great continued success." Duff & Phelps served as the exclusive financial advisor and Mayer Brown served as a legal advisor to Pirtek Europe and The Halifax Group. About Pirtek Europe Founded in 1988, Pirtek Europe has grown to become the leading franchised provider of on-site hydraulic hose replacement and associated services in Europe. Specializing in hydraulic hoses, pipe fittings and couplings, the Company has operations in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. With over 185 service centers and 750 mobile units, Pirtek Europe offers a rapid response hose service, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. About The Halifax Group The Halifax Group is a private equity firm that partners with managers and entrepreneurs to recapitalize and grow lower middle-market businesses with total enterprise values generally between $50 million and $300 million. Halifax invests across a variety of industries, including health and wellness, education, outsourced business services, franchising and infrastructure. The firm maintains offices in Washington, D.C.; Dallas, TX; and Raleigh, NC. For more information, please visit www.thehalifaxgroup.com. Contact: Caroline Luz Owen Blicksilver Public Relations, Inc. 203-656-2829 caroline@blicksilverpr.com LONDON, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shortlist announced for the UK's only award for creative educational writing The Society of Authors and the Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2018 Educational Writers' Award, the UK's only award for educational writing which stimulates and enhances the learning experience. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/711933/ALCS_Logo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790045/The_Society_of_Authors_Logo.jpg ) The five outstanding books for readers aged 11-18 years on this year's shortlist explain the importance of sanitation, demystify coding, chart the history of painting, and illuminate the lives and minds of migrants, and LGBTQ+ people. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790042/Loos_Save_Lives.jpg ) LOOS SAVE LIVES: How Sanitation & Clean Water Help Prevent Poverty, Disease & Death Author: Seren Boyd (Publisher: Wayland) Packed full of stats and facts about water and waste, this is a book about the importance of the humble loo, published in association with Toilet Twinning (toilettwinning.org), a charity that empowers people in low income countries to build proper toilets and help make their communities healthier, safer and more prosperous. Visiting some of the places the charity has worked in, it explains why children who have access to a safe, clean loo at school are more likely to stay in education, get better jobs and escape poverty. Our judges said: Managing to be both light-hearted and serious, this is an unusual and taboo-breaking book about a very real problem faced by the 2.4 billion people who don't have somewhere safe to go to the toilet.It provides an inventive and exciting way to engage children with issues surrounding hygiene and clean wateracross Africa, Asia and parts of South America. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790040/How_to_Think_Like_a_Coder.jpg ) HOW TO THINK LIKE A CODERWithout Even Trying! Author: Jim Christian Illustrator: Paul Boston (Publisher: Batsford) Computers are all around us, from traffic lights to cash machines - it just takes a little common sense to work out what makes them tick, says this bright illustrated guide, which shows that you don't need to have computing experience to know how to code. Full of puzzles and exercises suitable for all ages that will help you think logically, work within constraints and deconstruct problems, it turns everyday situations into opportunities for coding. Our judges said: This step-by-step guide for absolute beginners does exactly what it says on the cover, introducing key concepts in a very straightforward and accessible way. Offering a fine balance between information and fabulous illustrations, this colourful book provides a wonderful, rather substantial taster to a subject on the rise. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790041/From_Prejudice_to_Pride.jpg ) FROM PREJUDICE TO PRIDE: A History of the LBGTQ+ Movement Author: Amy Lame (Publisher: Wayland) An illuminating account of the rise and achievements of the LGBTQ+ movement for equal rights: the various communities and pioneers that have emerged, and the stories of heartbreak and courage that have unfolded alongside it, by London's Night Czar. From the trial of Oscar Wilde and the Stonewall riots, to the AIDS crisis and same-sex marriage, it gives insights into shifting attitudes that have challenged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, which also help us understand what it is to be LGBTQ+ today. Our judges said: This gripping history of different communities and their stories of persecution, courage and determination is a brilliant introduction to LGBTQ+ issues, offering young people the chance to ask questions about sexuality and gender and to learn about movements around the world which work to protect rights and freedoms of expression. A much-needed reference on a topical subject, especially in the light of recent research by Stonewall which indicates that homophobic bullying remains an issue in schools. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790043/The_Story_of_Paintings.jpg ) THE STORY OF PAINTINGS: A History of Art for Children Author/Illustrator: Mick Manning & Brita Granstrom (Publisher: Franklin Watts) This imaginative introduction to art history for children takes readers on a journey through time from Stone Age cave art to the graffiti-inspired work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. It takes in Rembrandt, Picasso, Turner, Frida Kahlo, Kalan Khan, Laura Knight and many others along the way, telling the stories behind the paintings and their creators. Our judges said: This ambitious and inspiring large-format book focuses on paintings that the authors themselves love and their enthusiasm infuses this personal and rich introduction to art history. Beautifully constructed and visually appealing, each double page spread provides readers with an opportunity to delve into a new time period and a new style of artwork. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790044/Far_From_Home.jpg ) FAR FROM HOME: Refugees and Migrants Fleeing War, Persecution & Poverty Author: Cath Senker (Publisher: Franklin Watts) This richly illustrated book examines the root causes of mass migrations of people due to war, extreme poverty and persecution, explaining some of the specific conflicts, political situations and cultural issues that dominate the headlines surrounding refugees and migrants in the 21st century. It includes first-hand accounts of everything from life in refugee camps to finding a new home in safe countries. Our judges said: This heart-breaking and powerful book takes a thoughtful and relevant look at a subject we all need to understand and care about. Never giving in to media stereotypes, it providesa clear and compassionate start to discussions about the plight of refugees, highlighting individual experiences and presenting different viewpoints in an impeccably non-judgmental way. Now in its eleventh year, the Educational Writers' Award was established in 2008 by the Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Society of Authors (SoA) "to celebrate educational writing that inspires creativity and encourages students to read widely and build up their understanding of a subject beyond the requirements of exam specifications". The 2017 winner was The Book of Bees, written by Wojciech Grajkowski, illustrated by Piotr Socha, and translated by Agnes Monod-Gayraud. The 2018 Award focuses on books for 11-18-year-olds, published in 2016 & 2017. This year's judges are: Philip Arkinstall, a curriculum leader for History in a Wiltshire secondary school; Elspeth Graham, a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction for children; and Oceane Toffoli, a senior school librarian and Vice-Chair of CILIP YLG London. Further information about each judge appears below. The winner of the 2018 Educational Writers' Award will be announced at the All Party Writers Group (APWG) Winter Reception at the House of Commons on Tuesday 4th December. The winning author/illustrator will receive a cheque for 2000. EWA18 EDITOR'S NOTES The Society of Authors (SoA) The Society of Authors is a trade union for all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators, and has been advising individuals and speaking out for the profession for more than a century. The SoA administers many other prizes for poetry, the short story, fiction and non-fiction, including the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction. It distributed more than 575,000 in prizes and grants in 2018 societyofauthors.org The Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit organisation for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers' work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity, ensure they receive fair payment, and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. Today ALCS represents almost 100,000 members, and since 1977 has paid out almost 500 million to writers. alcs.co.uk The 2018 Judges Philip Arkinstall is Curriculum Leader for History at Hardenhuish School, Wiltshire. He has taught for twelve years in three secondary schools and has acted as an external examiner for AQA and Edexcel for the same number of years. Alongside teaching, he has written for Teaching History and Hodder Education and presented on teaching pedagogy for organisations including the Schools History Project, Historical Association and Keynote Educational. Elspeth Graham grew up in Northumberland and despite studying Law at University never became a lawyer. Instead she began writing books for very young children with her husband Mal Peet. They wrote many books together, primarily for educational publishers, before Mal went on to become an award-winning writer of young adult and adult fiction. Elspeth continued to write her own fiction and non-fiction books for younger children, and to work on picture books with Mal until his death in 2015. Elspeth lives in Devon with her dog Pedro. Oceane Toffoli is the Senior School Librarian at Wimbledon High School, GDST. She has worked in libraries in France and the UK for many years, in both the public and academic sectors. She is committed to two major British Library associations, being the current Vice-Chair of CILIP YLG London and an active committee member of the SLA London group. Oceane is passionate about reading, the learning environment and culture. JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Delegations from Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) visited Bio Farma in Bandung, accompanied by Indonesia's National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) representatives. President Director of Bio Farma M. Rahman Roestan said, "This is a strategic visit. We are honored by their visit to Bio Farma and they have expressed keen interest in our vaccines. The delegation represents pharmaceutical industries and drug regulatory authorities from the respective OIC member countries. The drug regulatory authority has a vital role in ensuring that drugs including vaccines meet standard quality." Mr Abdunur Sekindi, representing the OIC member countries delegation, said in his address that the Vaccine Manufacturing Group (VMG), a group within the OIC, has high regard for Bio Farma's vaccines. "Bio Farma, a pioneer in vaccine manufacture, has collaborated with Arabio, a vaccine manufacturer based in Saudi Arabia. Bio Farma has also interacted with other manufacturers like in Morocco and Tunisia in sharing experience and knowledge in the field of vaccines." "Particularly with Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey with the aim to strengthen one another in achieving vaccines self-reliance among OIC member countries," said Sekindi. M. Rahman Roestan added, "We praise Allah that Bio Farma is one of a few vaccine manufacturers that has acquired WHO prequalification for its products. Among 100 vaccine industries globally, only less than 30 are WHO prequalified; one of them being Bio Farma, Indonesia. From 57 OIC member countries, only two countries are WHO prequalified. Apart from Bio Farma, the other is in Senegal where its Yellow fever vaccine is WHO prequalified and procured particularly throughout Central Africa and West Africa." "Till this day, there are 12 vaccines produced by Bio Farma that support national immunization programs globally. We have distributed our vaccines to more than 140 countries. The delegation wants to be assured that the production and control process meet WHO standards. To ensure self-reliance in vaccines, we are open to share our experience and knowledge to our friends that have visited us." In previous meeting, in Jakarta, harmonization of halal medicines among OIC member countries have been discussed among others. Bio Farma fully supports cooperation among OIC member countries to achieve self-reliance in medicines and vaccines production. For further information please contact: Niagara Falls, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) - EnerDynamic Hybrid Technologies Corp. (TSXV: EHT) ("EHT") along with its joint venture partner Unified Construction and Investments Limited ("UCI"), and in conjunction with the Government of Ghana and the Ministry of Works and Housing (Ghana), are pleased to announce the first 200-acre site to build the first 10,000 houses has been selected. EHT and UCI advise that title to the 200-acre site will be transferred to the joint venture (which was initially announced September 10, 2018) in order to underpin the funding for Phase1. This step provides security to the joint venture during the build period. The project remains on target to start construction in the second quarter of 2019, as previously announced. The joint venture plans to build 10,000 house units per year, after an initial ramp up period. The houses will be built across the 10 regions of Ghana. The Ghanaian Ministry of Works and Housing will be responsible for the final design of the houses, providing the land and ensuring the sites have access to water, electricity and roads. This ministry will also assist EHT in providing all import permits, licences and documentation required. UCI, a Ghanaian company involved in the design, engineering and construction of housing, infrastructure works and financing, will provide the construction of the houses in Ghana with EHT providing the ENERTEC system of housing construction material and solar integrated roof system. EHT will also bring the project to its Ghanaian partner, the GN Groupe, which will be able to provide offtake mortgages to the projected homeowners. EHT will also work with its partners Elevate Finance and EDC to provide the additional capital required to build out the project on a phase by phase basis. The project is slated for 60,000 2-bedroom units and 40,000 3-bedroom units. The 2-bedroom units will sell for US$33,600 and the 3-bedroom for US$42,000. The EHT/UCI joint venture currently estimates a net margin of 7.5%-12% (approx. US$2,520-US$4,032 per each 2-bedroom unit) and will provide future updates as the project progresses. Initial building for this project is scheduled to commence in the 2nd quarter of 2019. John Gamble, CEO of EHT, commented "We are very pleased to be able to announce the project, the largest in the history of the ENERTEC product line, is on schedule which demonstrates the level of commitment of all parties to get this project done. The transfer of land title will facilitate the financing, and critically the cost of financing, of this project during build. The Government of Ghana will acquire the finished units from the joint venture and then sell them to the consumer." About EnerDynamic Hybrid Technologies EHT delivers proprietary, turn-key energy solutions which are intelligent, bankable and sustainable. EHT's expertise includes the development of its ENERTEC module structures with full integration of smart energy solutions. Using a proprietary skin and foam core that is stronger than traditional wood or steel structural insulated panels, EHT provides exceptional thermal energy efficiency in modular homes, cold storage facilities, residential/commercial out buildings and emergency/temporary shelters. EHT works with its partners worldwide to erect the buildings on-site utilizing EHT staff and local crews. In addition to traditional support to established electrical networks, ENERTEC buildings excel where no electrical grid exists. About ENERTEC The EHT advanced ENERTEC Modular Wall and Roof System uses a proprietary skin and foam core that is stronger and more energy efficient than traditional wood or steel structures providing the highest ratings for energy efficiency. EHT works with its partners worldwide to erect the buildings on-site utilizing EHT staff and local crews. After installation, each structure can be furnished and finished to meet the customer's requirements including siding, tile, kitchens and bathrooms or segregated commercial rooms. The finished wall product can be shipped on pallets and delivered via rail, truck or water in standard formats. At the core of the ENERTEC product line is the ENERTEC Embedded Solar Roof Module. Solar cells can be embedded in a proprietary fire proof skin resulting in substantial cost savings by eliminating heavy glass panels and aluminum racking required for traditional solar panels. Two barriers to greater adoption of solar energy are weight limitations of the roof on which solar panels could be deployed and onerous shipping and labour costs. A lighter product at a better price point will open a larger market for solar due to the faster return of capital investment especially for rural and remote users looking to go off-grid. Furthermore, the entire EHT embedded solar roof becomes a massive solar panel capable of producing significantly more energy than the home requires, allowing the structure to then become an important source of power for the local micro grid or large battery storage systems. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements.Forward-looking information relating to sales of the products (the "Opportunities") involves risk, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects, for the Opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although EHT believes that the assumptions used in preparing the forward-looking information on the Opportunities outlined in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. EHT disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: John Gamble Director (289) 488-1699 jgamble@ehthybrid.com info@ehthybrid.com Website: www.ehthybrid.com The global medical robots market research report by Technavio predicts the market to post a CAGR of more than 21% during the period 2019-2023. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005429/en/ Technavio has released a new market research report on the global medical robots market for the period 2019-2023. (Photo: Business Wire) A key driver for the global medical robots market will be the advantages of robot-assisted training in rehabilitation therapy. Robotics is an innovative technology for the rehabilitation of patients with motor disorders caused by stroke or spinal cord diseases. In the past few decades, the research on robot-assisted therapy in stroke rehabilitation has increased rapidly. Rehabilitation robots can be categorized into therapeutic robots and assistive robots. Robot-assisted therapy provides advantages such as delivering high-dosage and high-intensity training in stroke rehabilitation. This global medical robots marketresearchreportalso provides an analysis of the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook during the period 2019-2023. Technavio classifies an emerging trend as a major factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline. This report is available at a USD 1,000 discount for a limited time only: View market snapshot before purchasing In this report, Technavio highlights the development of robots to assist the elderly population as one of the key trends in the global medical robots market: Global medical robots market: Development of robots to assist the elderly population The need for elderly care robots has increased due to the rapid growth in the elderly population and shortage of technicians. According to the NCBI, the number of people across the globe aged 60 years and above is expected to increase from 962 million in 2017 to 2.1 billion by 2050. Some of the countries are facing a shortage of caregivers for the elderly population. Therefore, the vendors have been increasingly concentrating on developing robots to assist the aging population. "Around 20% of the current population in Japan is 65 years or above. Therefore, Japanese companies are focusing on the development of carebots. The carebots are precisely designed to assist elderly people. For instance, Honda's ASIMO robot is an autonomous, humanoid robot that assists elderly people by getting them food or doing other household chores. The growth in the geriatric population creates issues such as lack of healthcare centers and healthcare professionals, which increases the need for robots to meet the requirements of elderly people and improve their quality of life," says a senior research analyst at Technavio. Global medical robots market: Segmentation analysis This medical robots market analysis report segments the market by product (instruments and accessories and robotic systems), application (laparoscopy, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, and others), and geography (the Americas, APAC, and EMEA). The instruments and accessories segment held the largest medical robots market share in 2018, accounting for over 58% of the market. This product segment is expected to dominate the global market throughout the forecast period. The Americas led the market in 2018 with more than 58% of the market share, followed by EMEA and APAC respectively. The Americas is expected to dominate the market throughout the period 2019-2023. Looking for more information on this market? Request a free sample report Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Some of the key topics covered in the report include: Market Landscape Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market size and forecast Five Forces Analysis Market Segmentation Geographical Segmentation Regional comparison Key leading countries Market Drivers Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Competitive scenario About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 10,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005429/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 www.technavio.com Dunnedin to Host a Webinar on Friday November 30th @ 11:00am PST/2:00pm EST Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) - Dunnedin Ventures Inc. (TSXV: DVI) (the "Company" or "Dunnedin") provides an update on the diamond exploration progress at its 100% owned Kahuna Diamond Project in Nunavut, Canada ("Kahuna"), and outlines its strategic plans for both its diamond and copper-gold assets. Kimberlite Pipe Exploration Update Dunnedin expects results shortly for diamond recoveries from approximately 150 kilograms of kimberlite from pipe KH10-11 which was newly discovered this summer In the near future Dunnedin will also receive initial diamond indicator results from the till sampling program completed in the Josephine Target Area ("JTA") this autumn. These results will assist with the prioritization and selection of drill targets in the JTA, which will be the main focus of the Company's next drill program The JTA has been identified by Dunnedin's advisor Dr. Charles Fipke as the most prospective area of the Kahuna Project with an abundance of high-quality diamond indicator minerals ("DIM") implying multiple undiscovered diamond-bearing sources Dunnedin has narrowed down the main target area at JTA to 10 square kilometres and expects to continue testing for kimberlite pipes with core drilling in the new year High Grade Kimberlite Dike Resource Update Further evaluation is planned to determine the best course for expanding and progressing the existing inferred diamond resource of 4 million carats in two diamondiferous kimberlite dikes, Kahuna and Notch. In its 2018 exploration program, the Company's drilling successfully extended the strike of two other diamondiferous dikes, PST and 07KD-24 (see news releases dated May 10 and July 11, 2018). PST and 07KD-24 are not in the current inferred resource and demonstrate the opportunity to add additional resources on the project The Company is currently processing geophysical results from test surveys covering kimberlite dike targets that were completed during the winter and summer 2018 drill campaigns, and will provide an update when this work is complete As Dunnedin reviews its dike resources, the Company also plans to study development concepts Claudia Tornquist, President of Dunnedin, said, "Dunnedin's maiden drill program in 2018 tested a selection of kimberlite targets, with many more remaining to be drilled, particularly high priority pipe targets with exceptional DIM chemistry in the Josephine Target Area. We are pleased with the successful extensions at PST and 07KD-24 during the 2018 program which highlighted the potential of additional high-grade, near-surface, steeply-dipping kimberlite dikes at Kahuna. Future exploration will continue to focus on the discovery of kimberlite pipes but in parallel, we will also study the potential to grow and advance our maiden resource." Copper-Gold Porphyry Strategy While Dunnedin is fully committed to the diamond potential at the Kahuna Project, the Company believes current market conditions are favourable for discovery-stage porphyry copper-gold projects, and will now begin to unlock the value of its 100% owned Trapper Project to the benefit of shareholders. Dunnedin is considering strategies to advance this project and realise its value, including active exploration during the 2019 field season and various transaction alternatives such as a spin-out, combination with other copper assets, farm-in/joint venture and sale. A technical review of all drilling, geophysical and geochemical data is now underway to inform management. Decisions are expected to be announced over the coming days. Chris Taylor, CEO of Dunnedin said, "I began my career working at copper porphyry mining projects in British Columbia, and have seen the impressive economic value of these projects through the discovery process first-hand. Our Trapper Project is one of these systems and is not currently driving value for our shareholders. The long-term fundamentals of the copper market are excellent, and copper porphyry systems are some of the most sought-after deposits by major mining companies. There is substantial market interest for high-quality copper opportunities, and recent discoveries in the Golden Triangle region have highlighted the potential of this region of northern BC, where Trapper is situated." About the Trapper Copper-Gold Porphyry Project 100% owned, 37.5 square kilometre land package located in the northern "Golden Triangle" region in British Columbia, covering a gold-rich copper porphyry complex Circular mineralized "ring zone" with over 10 kilometres of strike surrounding a porphyry centre, with associated surface copper showings and gold-rich polymetallic mineralization drilled over 2.2 kilometres 42 drill holes (8,581 metres) completed in 2011. Drill results include visible-gold in drill core flanking copper porphyry, including 34.1 metres of 1.71 g/t gold Copper porphyry exposures discovered on surface are drill-ready. Targets include a large, 800 metre by 1,200 metre chargeability anomaly with 0.15% to 0.42% copper in outcrop, and four areas with highly elevated copper coincident in stream sediment, talus and outcrop Also hosts a polymetallic mineralization system with drill-indicated high-grade gold plus silver, zinc, lead and copper Highlights of 2011 drill intersects are shown in Figure 1, along with a geophysical representation of the main porphyry centre, and copper results from grab samples across the project Refer to news releases of October 26, 2016 and March 27, 2017 for a summary of exploration results at Trapper Figure 1: Map of Trapper Copper-Gold Porphyry Project showing locations of 2011 drill holes and widespread copper samples surrounding an interpreted copper porphyry centre To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3803/41274_41a5eb08a404c919_002full.jpg Board of Director Appointment The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Steven Krause, CPA, CA, ICD.D as director and chair of the audit committee. Mr. Krause is the co-founder, president and a director of Avisar Chartered Professional Accountants. He has worked extensively with mining, mineral exploration and development stage companies in North and South America. Mr. Krause is also the former chairman of Luna Gold, where he was chairman until the successful merger of Luna Gold and JDL Gold to form Trek Mining, in a $360 million merger. He is currently the CFO of Viva Gold Corp. and the former CFO of Bear Creek Mining Corporation. Mr. Krause holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Trinity Western University and received his Chartered Professional Accountant designation in 1997. He also holds a Certified Public Accountant designation in the state of Illinois, USA and is a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Director's Education Program (ICD). Webinar Dunnedin will host a webinar to discuss the Company's recent news and future exploration plans. The webinar will take place on Friday, November 30th at 11:00am PST/2:00pm EST. Management will be available to answer questions following the presentation. Online access and dial-in numbers are as follows: Readytalk Platform (access at the time of event): * http://www.readytalk.com/join * Access code: 5147677 Dial-In Numbers: * Canada: +1-647-722-6839 * United States: +1-303-248-0285 * Access Code: 5147677 Jeff Ward, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release. For further information please contact Mr. Knox Henderson, Investor Relations, at 604-551-2360 or khenderson@dunnedinventures.com. On behalf of the Board of Directors Dunnedin Ventures Inc. Chris Taylor Chief Executive Officer Claudia Tornquist President About Dunnedin Ventures Inc. Dunnedin Ventures Inc. (TSXV: DVI) is focused on its 100% owned, advanced-stage Kahuna Diamond Project in Nunavut which hosts a high-grade, near surface inferred diamond resource and numerous kimberlite pipe targets. The Company holds diamond interests in 1,664 km2 of mineral tenure located 26 kilometres northeast of Rankin Inlet and adjacent to Agnico Eagle's Meliadine gold mine. The Kahuna Diamond Project has an Inferred Resource Estimate of 3,987,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.01 carats per tonne, totalling over 4 million carats of diamonds (+0.85 mm) (see news release dated March 31, 2015). Dunnedin's drilling is aimed at the discovery of diamondiferous kimberlite pipes, and the Company is working with advisor and largest shareholder Dr. Chuck Fipke to define and prioritize drill targets based on an extensive historic data set, and diamonds and indicator minerals recovered from a series of kimberlite and till samples over four seasons of field work. Dunnedin also holds a 100% interest in the Trapper Porphyry Project near Atlin in the northern "Golden Triangle" region of British Columbia. The Trapper Project is interpreted to overlie a gold-rich copper porphyry complex having a surface geochemical, geophysical and regional alteration signature of over 15 square kilometres. Based in Vancouver, Dunnedin is backed by a world-renowned team of exploration experts with decades of combined exploration experience and significant capital market strength. 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. Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. 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, except as required by applicable securities laws. Ukraines Verkhovna Rada voted to back a proposal by President Petro Poroshenko to introduce martial law for a period of 30 days since November 28. After several hours, the Rada split 272-30 in favour of the presidential edict, but only after being presented major concessions. Poroshenkos initial suggestion of martial law lasting 60 days was curtailed to 30 days. An original proposal to cover all of Ukraine was reduced to just ten border territories, the Independent reported. Yesterday morning three ships of the Ukrainian Navy Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu had been seized after violating the Russian state border. The Ukrainian boats did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them and made dangerous maneuvers, the FSB said. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the incident involving Ukrainian navy ships was a very dangerous provocation on the part of Kiev. New native mobile app adopted by more than 100,000 customers within three months of release OutSystems, provider of the number one low-code platform for rapid application development, today announced that the UK-based postal and financial services retailer, Post Office, is using OutSystems to power innovation. As part of the company's strategic investment in new technology to help modernize its business, Post Office engaged OutSystems to help deliver an initial application use case: a new B2C native mobile app for Android and iOS to promote the company's financial products for travel. The new app allows customers to buy and manage a Travel Money Card and to take out Travel Insurance at the same time. In just four months, the new team completely developed, tested, and released the app-an achievement almost unheard of for financial services products. These products are subject to numerous regulations and controls, which the team managed to swiftly navigate. "As a commercial organization, our challenge as a company is always to innovate more quickly and with more agility," said Henk Van Hulle, Managing Director Group Digital and Innovation at the Post Office. "We needed a development platform that offered advanced security, code reusability, and allowed for greater data insight to help us get to market faster. We are always striving to build our products and services around our customers-not just today's, but tomorrow's, too-and so we want our employees to feel empowered to find and use the solutions that help them do that. OutSystems lets us develop innovative and necessary products and get to market faster, while enabling integration with complex back-end systems." The addition of OutSystems as the company's new development front-end creates a foundation for the Post Office's future digital roadmap, one that will create new revenue streams and channels that it can leverage at its more than 11,500 branches to serve the millions of Post Office customers across the UK. The new native mobile app has been adopted by more than 100,000 customers within three months of release. Nick Pike, Regional Vice President of Sales at OutSystems, worked closely with Post Office throughout the initial project. "What this newly created Post Office team delivered in such a short time is a testament to what an agile and dedicated team can do with a robust, full-stack, low-code development platform. With the help of OutSystems, Post Office is revitalizing its socially-conscious portfolio of products and services and building new revenue streams with low-code as the cornerstone for the delivery of their digital strategy," he says. OutSystems recently hosted its annual NextStep events for IT professionals in Boston and Amsterdam, unveiling OutSystems 11, the company's newest version of its low-code development platform. In June, OutSystems announced a $360 million investment from KKR and Goldman Sachs to help the company change the face of low-code development and enable enterprises to digitally transform and become more business efficient. About OutSystems Thousands of customers worldwide trust OutSystems, the number one low-code platform for rapid application development. Engineers with an obsessive attention to detail crafted every aspect of the OutSystems platform to help organizations build enterprise-grade apps and transform their business faster. OutSystems is the only solution that combines the power of low-code development with advanced mobile capabilities, enabling visual development of entire applications that easily integrate with existing systems. Visit us at www.outsystems.com, or follow us on Twitter @OutSystems or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/outsystems. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005081/en/ Contacts: Media Contacts: Ann Conrad, OutSystems (US) +1 404-994-2614 ann.conrad@outsystems.com or Katelyn Campbell (US) +1 617-502-4300 outsystems@pancomm.com or Laura Rijks (Netherlands) +31 (0)35-5822730 laura.rijks@marcommit.nl or Catia Gil (Portugal) +351 213 026 150 catia.gil@corpcom.pt or Michael Bartley (UK) +44 (0) 1189 497736 michael@c8consulting.co.uk or Melinda Ilagan (Singapore) +65 6303 0567 outsystems@preciouscomms.com or Julia Schreiber (DACH) +49 3731 2070915 outsystems@moeller-horcher.de Vancouver, BC, Nov 27, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - via NEWMEDIAWIRE - Lucky Minerals Inc. (TSX.V: LKY) (OTCPK: LKMNF) (FRA: LKY) ("Lucky" or the "Company") announces the results of an on-going geological mapping survey conducted on its Fortuna Project located approximately 60 km south-east of Town of Cuenca, Ecuador.Surface prospecting has defined a mineralized Porphyry system that displays an ovoid shape being 1.2 km long, with an estimated width of 800 metres. This structure is trending north-west and lies on the junction of two regional NNE and NW structures. Main lithologies are a porphyritic dacite surrounded by a coarse-grained granodiorite. The porphyritic dacite is of light green colour having 5% phenocrysts within a fine feldspar matrix. The granodiorite is of white-green colour containing 30% white quartz crystals, 45% potassic feldspar and 25% biotite. Both rocks exhibit strong hydrothermal alteration and mineralization (Pyrite, Chalcopyrite and Molybdenite).In addition, two mineralized hydrothermal breccias were also mapped with abundant pyrite. The breccia consists in porphyritic clasts within an oxidized matrix. These breccias have, respectively, a minimum dimension of 400m by 50m, and 200m by 50m. Lucky's exploration team believes that this current mapping programme has defined a large-scale Porphyry system that will subject to detailed mapping in the coming weeks. 50 mineralized samples have been sent rush for assaying.NEXT STEPSStarting early 2019, an airborne geophysical survey will be undertaken. Improvement of the existing dirt road and trails to an all-weather 14 km gravel road will be undertaken upon social approval. Aggressive grid-style sampling will continue on Fortuna 3 as well as regional prospecting on the 40 km major regional NNE structure. Other major regional NNE trending structures observed on the property will also be mapped and sampled.This may be followed by a drilling program later in 2019. Fortuna 3 is one of 12 contiguous concessions which make up the Fortuna Property. Virtually no exploration has been done on these highly prospective concessions. Considerable potential exists for finding significant porphyry and epithermal Cu-Au mineralization throughout the Fortuna concessions."Our Field teams have been doing an incredible amount of high quality effort to progress the Fortuna 3 concession. The initial indications are extremely positive and we couldn't be more pleased. We will continue to move forward with aggressive sampling and mapping for the remainder of the year," said CEO John Mears.About LuckyAn exploration and development company targeting large-scale mineral systems in proven districts with the potential to host world class deposits.The Fortuna ProjectLucky Minerals holds a 100% interest in Fortuna, a 550 km2 property in the heart of a proven and highly mineralized mineral district in Ecuador but which has seen only limited exploration and has never been drilled. Evidence of significant hydrothermal alteration & breccias, geochemical anomalies and placer mining supports potential for Cu/Au porphyry systems and epithermal Au deposits similar to numerous multi-million-ounce Au and bulk tonnage Cu deposits ~40km away.This press release has been prepared by Alain Moreau, P.Geo., VP-Exploration at Lucky Minerals Inc., a "qualified person" as defined by NI 43-101 instrument. For further information, please consult Lucky's website or contact: Tel: 866 924-6484, info@luckyminerals.com www.luckyminerals.comON BEHALF OF THE BOARDJohn MearsChief Executive OfficerFurther information regarding the Company can be found on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com.Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from targeted results. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in Lucky's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Lucky from time to time with securities regulatory authorities.We seek safe harbor.John Mears866-924-6484jmears@exreservices.comSource: Lucky Minerals Inc.Copyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Hamburg (ots) - Hamburg Chamber of Commerce head Tobias Bergmann emphasised to 450 guests Hamburg's great significance as part of the New Silk Road at the closing lunch of the China Summit, which was held in the chamber's Commerce Hall. "Hamburg will have a key role as terminus and hub of the land and marine Silk Road routes in Europe," Bergmann said. In his welcoming address, Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher highlighted that Hamburg was in possession of unique conditions in Europe as Germany's centre of expertise for modern maritime logistics and with its rail links. "Up to 30 trains a week are already currently making the trip between Hamburg and 27 Chinese cities," Tschentscher said. Reciprocal investment was a route to closer cooperation along the New Silk Road and was at the focus of the initiative, he said. In his opening speech, the chief executive of the First Eastern Investment Group in Hongkong, Victor L.L. Chu, had earlier highlighted the added long-term economic and cultural value. "We must not forget that by enabling greater mobility and connectivity between various regions through infrastructure developments, trade, investment and cultural exchanges will naturally follow," Chu said. Conference Co-Chairman Robert Lorenz-Meyer believes Hamburg is on the right road: "Hamburg is a positive example for how European and Chinese businesses work together successfully to stimulate innovation and sustainable growth." The presence of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He underlined the significance that China's government attached to the Chamber of Commerce conference, Lorenz-Meyer said made clear. And participation by European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager showed that Europe was extending its hand to China for integration within a rules-based international order, he said. "Europe and China have a shared interest in strengthening the rule-based international system for a global level playing field and fair competition. I hope that our meeting today will confirm these shared objectives to help address concerns within the global rules and avoid unilateral measures," underlined EU-Commissioner Vestager in her keynote speech. In addition, Lorenz-Meyer paid express thanks to German Transport Minister Scheuer: "His participation in the conference shows that German-Chinese trade relations are currently of great importance to both countries," he said. You will find up-to-date reports, background information and image material on the Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe 2018 at www.hamburg-summit.com. Originaltext: Handelskammer Hamburg digital press kits: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/63073 press kits via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_63073.rss2 Contact: Dr Michaela Olschlager, Hamburg Chamber of Commerce press office, Tel: 040-36138-202, Fax: 040 36138-460, email: michaela.oelschlaeger@hk24.de, www.hk24.de Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de MedX Health Corp. ("MedX") (TSX-V: MDX) announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a consortium of Dutch companies that will be launching an easy-access skin scanning/assessment program in the Netherlands, using MedX's SIAscopy and DermSecureTM technologies. The consortium will integrate DermSecureTM with their existing platforms, which includes a suite of software applications used by a large majority of general practitioners in the Netherlands, and will build awareness campaigns through established healthcare initiatives and programs. "The Dutch team is impressed with SIAscopy's unique scanning technology, and the ability to seamlessly integrate our DermSecureTM platform into their suite of medical software applications that are used by more than 4,500 physicians in the Netherlands makes it a natural fit," noted Scott Spearn, MedX's President and CEO. "The broad reach of telemedicine from this many potential locations, with DermSecureTM providing the highest quality tools for the assessment by a team of trained Dermatologists, and the awareness built through their marketing relationships can enable the group to meet their objective of a truly national scanning/assessment program in the Netherlands, where there is a focus on cancer prevention and early screening." Pieter Severijns, Director of IvPG, one of the partners in this project and a company involved in programs and initiatives to improve healthcare in the Netherlands through the internet, noted "We have the ability through our programs to make people aware about the risks of melanoma, and allow those with higher risk or suspicious moles to easily access skin scanning and assessment by our top Dermatologists using DermSecureTM, through the large network of scanning centres that will be available to them." MedX will be working during the coming months to integrate its platform with those of its partners, while physicians are recruited to include DermSecureTM and MedX's SIAscopy devices in their practices, and selected Dermatologists trained to provide timely assessment. About MedX MedX, headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, is a leading medical device and software company focused on skin cancer with its DermSecure telemedicine platform, utilizing its SIAscopy technology. SIAscopy is also imbedded in its products SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate, which MedX manufactures in its ISO 13485 certified facility. SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate include hand-held devices that use patented technology utilizing light and its remittance to view up to 2 mm beneath suspicious moles and lesions in a pain free, non-invasive manner, with its software then creating real-time images for physicians and dermatologists to evaluate all types of moles or lesions within seconds. These products are Health Canada, FDA (US), ARTG and CE cleared for use in Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and Turkey. MedX also designs, manufactures and distributes quality photobiomodulation therapeutic and dental lasers to provide drug-free and non-invasive treatment of tissue damage and pain. www.medxhealth.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This Media Release may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005308/en/ Contacts: Scott Spearn, President and CEO MedX Health Corp 905-670-4428 ext 229 Media Relations Deborah Thompson dthompson@medxhealth.com 416-918-9551 Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today expanded its Renesas Synergy S1 microcontroller (MCU) series with the introduction of the S1JA MCU Group. The ultra-low power S1JA MCUs feature the 48 MHz Arm Cortex-M23 core and integrate best-in-class programmable analog and security functions for high-accuracy sensor signal acquisition and conditioning. The S1JA MCUs target cost sensitive and low power Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensor applications such as flow control meters, multisensor systems, headless medical monitors and instrumentation systems, and single-phase electricity meters. The S1JA Group include five MCUs with up to 256 KB flash memory, up to 32 KB SRAM memory, and a wide operating voltage range of 1.6V to 5.5V. Each MCU integrates a sensor-biasing unit that supplies accurate power to the external sensor, and a highly configurable analog fabric that processes complex algorithms to maximize signal conditioning and precise analog measurements. On-chip analog components include a high accuracy 16-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), 24-bit sigma-delta ADC, fast response 12-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC), rail-to-rail low-offset operational amplifiers, and high-speed/low-power comparators. The S1JA MCUs enable advanced analog configurations from basic functions to more complex analog blocks. As a result, embedded designers are able to reduce BOM cost and PCB size by eliminating several external analog components. Access to capacitive touch enable pins allows designers to develop touch button HMI interfaces, and the S1JA's memory mirror function enables over the air updates with little software overhead. Ultra-low power allows the S1JA MCUs to extend battery life for battery-operated portable and battery backup applications. Their best-in-class software standby mode consumes a mere 500nA to enable 20-year battery-operated applications that spend extended periods in sleep mode. In addition, the S1JA's integrated AES cryptography accelerator, True Random Number Generator (TRNG) and memory protection units provide the fundamental blocks to develop a secure system that connects to the cloud. The Renesas Synergy Software Package (SSP) supports the S1JA MCUs with HAL drivers, application frameworks and RTOS. The SSP also includes six new modules that simplify interconnecting the configurable internal analog blocks. Embedded system designers can use either of the Renesas Synergy development environments--e studio or IAR Embedded Workbench--to build and customize their designs. "The S1JA is the first MCU in the Renesas Synergy Series to offer rich analog features," said Daryl Khoo, Vice President Product Marketing, IoT Platform Business Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation. "Offering superior programmable analog capabilities gives customers the upmost MCU flexibility to explore algorithms that maximize performance and achieve design goals without adding significant overhead to BOM cost and board space." The S1JA Group MCUs can be combined with the ultra-low noise ISL21090B25 precision voltage reference and ISL32485E 5V differential RS-485/RS-422 transceiver to create high precision, ruggedized industrial sensor applications. About the Renesas Synergy Platform The Renesas Synergy Platform is a fully supported software/hardware platform that accelerates time to market and removes the obstacles engineers face designing IoT products. By enabling development to begin at the application programming interface level, Renesas reduces the complexity with designing security-aware connected devices and HMI systems with graphical user interfaces and capacitive touch.The Synergy Platform consists of integrated software, development tools and scalable Arm Cortex-M-based Synergy MCUs fully accessible through the software APIs. There are no upfront licensing fees or back-end royalties everything is included in the purchase price of the MCU. Availability The Renesas Synergy S1JA MCU Group and TB-S1JA Target Board Kit are available now from Renesas Electronics' worldwide distributors. The low-cost TB-S1JA target board allows customers to start their system design by configuring the analog capabilities and programming the MCU. S1JA Group MCUs Package R7FS1JA783A01CFJ 32-pin QFP R7FS1JA782A01CBT 36-pin BGA R7FS1JA783A01CNF 40-pin QFN R7FS1JA783A01CNE 48-pin QFN R7FS1JA783A01CFM 64-pin LQFP Renesas is demonstrating the new S1JA MCUs in Booth 130 (Hall 10.1) at SPS IPC Drives, November 27-29, 2018 in Nuremberg, Germany. About Renesas Electronics Corporation Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live-securely and safely. A global leader in microcontrollers, analog, power, SoC products and integrated platforms, Renesas provides the expertise, quality, and comprehensive solutions for a broad range of Automotive, Industrial, Home Electronics, Office Automation and Information Communication Technology applications to help shape a limitless future. Learn more at renesas.com. (Remarks) Renesas Synergy is a trademark of Renesas Electronics Corporation. Arm and Arm Cortex are registered trademarks of Arm Limited in the EU and other countries. IAR Embedded Workbench is a registered trademark of IAR Systems AB. All other names of products or services mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005310/en/ Contacts: Americas Mark Alden Renesas Electronics Corporation + 1-408-546-3402 mark.alden.eb@renesas.com Reno, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) -Scandium International Mining Corp) is pleased to report on select aluminum casting trial results undertaken by Eck Industries Inc.employing scandium provided by SCY. SCY previously announced on May 3, 2018 that it signed a Letter of Intentwith Eck, who agreed to conduct the testing on cast alloys at its Manitowoc, Wisconsin, USA facilities. Eck is an industry leader in sophisticated casting systems and high-performance aluminum casting materials, making this group an ideal candidate to explore applications for scandium as an alloying agent in castings. Customer segments include commercial aircraft parts, automotive and trucking cast parts, military drivetrain casings, marine propulsion system castings, and military aerospace components. Recently David Weiss (VP Engineering/R&D for Eck) gave a presentation at the Materials Science and Technology ("MST") conference in Columbus, Ohio (October 18 -24th , 2018) on the results of preliminary tests with scandium, as part of a larger study of continuing work in castable aluminum-cerium alloys, specifically tuned for high temperature applications. HIGHLIGHTS OF RESULTS RELATING TO SCANDIUM: Both high temperature performance and inter-granular corrosion resistance were materially improved with cerium additions to cast alloys, which were further improved with additions of scandium. Heat-working tolerance improvements were particularly noteworthy for combined Ce-Sc systems, exhibiting 100% recovery (strength retention) after exposure to temperatures of 350C for 100 hours. Strength improvements from scandium additions were also noted under ambient temps. Conclusion from MST Conference Presentation - "The Al/Ce/Mg/Sc system is a promising alloy path for very high-performance applications". This work at Eck Industries represents successful exploration of a novel and unique castable alloy system, using scandium in concert with cerium, as a replacement for typical silicon additions in most common casting alloys. The material improvements in both high temperature performance and resistance to corrosion apparent in this new alloy system opens up expanded applications in places where these critical performance parameters are required in thermally difficult environments. More published data and results are expected from Eck Industries on this work in coming months, and the effort is anticipated to represent patentable intellectual property for Eck Industries as well. George Putnam, CEO of Scandium International Mining Corp. commented: "The aluminium casting sector represents an attractive target for the introduction of scandium. Casting applications are particularly well suited to experimentation by innovative groups, and we are pleased to see Eck Industries has found useful and commercially valuable improvements from scandium additions, in areas particularly aligned with their current product market opportunities." ABOUT SCANDIUM INTERNATIONAL MINING CORP. The Company is focused on developing its Nyngan Scandium Project, located in NSW, Australia, into the world's first scandium-only producing mine. The project owned by our 100% held Australian subsidiary, EMC Metals Australia Pty Limited, has received all key approvals, including a mining lease, necessary to proceed with project construction. The Company filed a NI 43-101 technical report in May 2016, titled "Feasibility Study - Nyngan Scandium Project". That feasibility study delivered an expanded scandium resource, a first reserve figure, and an estimated 33.1% IRR on the project, supported by extensive metallurgical test work and an independent, 10-year global marketing outlook for scandium demand. Willem Duyvesteyn, MSc, AIME, CIM, a Director and CTO of the Company, is a qualified person for the purposes of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical content of this press release on behalf of the Company. For inquiries to Scandium International Mining Corp, please contact: Edward Dickinson (CFO) Tel: (775) 233-7328 George Putnam (CEO) Tel: (925) 208-1775 Email: info@scandiummining.com For inquiries to Eck Industries, Inc., please contact: Dr. David Weiss, VP Engineering/R&D, (Manitowoc) Phone: 920-682-4618 Email: David.Weiss@eckindustries.com Website: www.eckindustries.com This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Company and its business. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and include, but are not limited to statements regarding any future development of the project. The forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by forward looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, without limitation: risks related to uncertainty in the demand for scandium, the possibility that results of test work will not fulfill expectations, or not realize the perceived market utilization and potential of scandium sources that may be developed for sale by the Company. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the Company's management at the time they are made, and other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements if those beliefs, opinions or expectations, or other circumstances, should change. DENVER, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabisnewswire News Commentary Canada became the first country in the G8 to legalize recreational cannabis. With all the buzz surrounding Canada's cannabis boom, savvy investors have begun to assess the U.S. market, focusing on companies such as Chemistree Technology, Inc. (CSE:CHM) (OTC:CHMJF) (Profile), which in July 2018 purchased a suite of physical assets, currently under lease to Sugarleaf Farm LLC, a I-502 Tier 3 licensee located in Sedro Woolley, Washington. This moved was fueled by movement north in Canada, including large Canadian cannabis companies such as Origin House (CSE:OH)(OTCQX: ORHOF) and Namaste Technologies (TSX.V:N) (OTC: NXTTF), which are already seeing major success as their products continue to sell well across the country. While newer entrants in the cannabis industry such as CannTrust Holdings (TSX:TRST) (OTC:CNTTF) and iAnthus Capital (CSE:IAN) (OTC:ITHUF) are creating their own product lines and playing catch up with major brands that consumers are already familiar with. To view an infographic of this editorial, click here. Establishing Brands Early Large-scale cannabis legislation has never existed to the extent that it now does in Canada. With major Canadian companies creating brands that resonate with cannabis consumers. The legal U.S cannabis market is worth an estimated $8.5 billion, claiming 90 percent of the entire $9.5 billion global market. Of that, sales of legal marijuana in Washington State have climbed up to $1.3 billion in the fiscal year 2017, up from $786 million in fiscal 2016, and $259 million the year before. The Canadian market was worth only 6 percent of that $9.5 billion total in 2017. In Canada, competition is heating up as the larger cannabis companies battle for their share of the market. They are relying on their brands and name recognition to help them achieve success. However, the U.S. cannabis market is shaping up differently. Due to cannabis being federally illegal in the United States, cannabis companies are unable to ship their products across state lines. The unique state-by-state approach to legalization has provided Chemistree Technology, Inc. (CSE:CHM) (OTCQB:CHMJF) with an ideal environment to build its brands through the production and sale of premium cannabis in California and Washington. It has also shielded American companies from an influx of foreign product. Chemistree is another company that is focused on establishing quality brands. The company originally acquired Sugarleaf's assets in Washington in order to augment its product line with a desirable premium brand. Sugarleaf is already featured in over 50 dispensaries within the state, with estimates suggesting that it will penetrate over 100 stores by 2018 and as many as 200 stores by 2019. Sugarleaf's signature White 99 strain has a THC level that registers between 28-32 percent. This is incredibly high even when compared to some of the premium cannabis strains that are being grown in Canada. Sugarleaf's master grower, Jason Flynn, is one of the many reasons Chemistree chose to acquire the brand. Flynn and his team have won two consecutive cannabis cup competitions for their strains, including the 2014 People's Choice (Presidential Kush) and 2015 People's Choice (White 99). Chemistree also managed to purchase property in the middle of California's cannabis-friendly Desert Hot Springs for a reasonable $1.23 million. The site is large enough to support up to 205,000 square feet of greenhouses spread out across three facilities. Once fully operational, the company could produce nearly 50,000 pounds of cannabis per year. Desert Hot Springs is a popular cannabis region where there are 3.78 dispensaries for every one thousand people, which is the second highest pot shop density in the state. Premium Cannabis is the Real Asset The demand for premium products exists as cannabis enthusiasts desire THC-rich strains in order to achieve a vivid sensory experience. Growing high-quality cannabis at scale is a challenge that many large producers struggle with as it costs more to produce, and the margin of error is higher. Health Canada predicts that nearly 2.2 million pounds of cannabis will be consumed within Canada in 2018 alone. The majority of that cannabis will be low- and mid-grade quality, which wholesales for a lot less. Premium cannabis, while more difficult to grow, does provide companies that can grow it with higher profit margins. According to Deloitte, high-quality cannabis could sell for up to 12 percent more than lower quality flower. The majority of the provinces have supply agreements in place with various licensed producers in the industry. These supply agreements were established in order to provide additional premium cannabis to those provinces. Demand Will Only Increase The U.S. cannabis sector is currently in its formative stages. Established companies within the industry that are preemptively laying the framework before the federal government legalizes recreational cannabis should have the ability to build brand recognition and scale them as the floodgates open. Grand View Research predicts that the global cannabis market could be worth $146.4 billion by 2025. Companies such as Chemistree may be ideally positioned to take advantage of a larger global market because of its focus on building long-term brands that appeal to cannabis users. Major Players in North American Cannabis Origin House (CSE:OH) (OTCQX: ORHOF) is focused on creating global brands. It currently holds more than 50 brands including Bhang[TM], Soul Sugar Soul Kitchen and Green Rock Botanicals, among others. The company has a distribution network of 4500plus dispensaries across the United States. With a suite of established brands across key markets in North America, Origin is actively developing infrastructure to support the proliferation of its brands internationally, initially through its acquisition of Canadian retailer 180 Smoke. CannTrust Holdings (TSX:TRST) (OTC:CNTTF) is a relatively new Canadian cannabis company specializing in medical cannabis products including CBD- and THC-infused capsules and oils. CannTrust recently partnered with Breakthru Beverage Group's subsidiary company Kindred to secure distribution through the Canadian adult consumer market. Namaste Technologies (TSX.V:N) (OTC: NXTTF) operates the largest global cannabis e-commerce platform with more than 30 websites in 20 countries under various brands. The company product offering through its subsidiaries - such as CannMart Inc., VapeBR, VaporSeller, etc. - includes vaporizers, glassware, accessories, CBD (cannabidiol) products and medical cannabis in the Canadian market. iAnthus Capital (CSE:IAN)(OTCQB:ITHUF) is a U.S.-based licensed producer and cannabis retail company. iAnthus currently owns a 200,000-square-foot facility in Lake Wales, Florida, and a 4,500-square-foot dispensary in Palm Beach County, Florida. It is also planning to scale to more than 30 locations throughout the state in the coming years. For more information on Chemistree Technology, Inc., please visitChemistree Technology, Inc. (CSE:CHM) (OTCQB:CHMJF).Please also read and review the following article, With Cannabis Now Legal in Canada, Investors Are Turning South to the Largest Emerging Cannabis Market in the World . About CannabisNewsWire CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. CNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today's market, CNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. CNW is where news, content and information converge. Receive Text Alerts from CannabisNewsWire: Text "Cannabis" to 21000 For more information please visit https://www.CannabisNewsWire.com and or https://CannabisNewsWire.News Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer DISCLAIMER: CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is the source of the Article and content set forth above. References to any issuer other than the profiled issuer are intended solely to identify industry participants and do not constitute an endorsement of any issuer and do not constitute a comparison to the profiled issuer. 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"Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and CNW and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements. CannabisNewsWire (CNW) & NetworkNewsWire (NNW) are proud to be affiliated partners of the Investor Brand Network (IBN) About IBN Over the past 10+ years we have consistently introduced new network brands, each specifically designed to fulfil the unique needs of our growing client base and services. Today, we continue to expand our branded network of highly influential properties, leveraging the knowledge and energy of specialized teams of experts to serve our increasingly diversified list of clients. Please feel free to visit the Investor Brand Network (IBN) http://www.InvestorBrandNetwork.com Corporate Communications Contact: CannabisNewsWire (CNW) Denver, Colorado http://www.CannabisNewsWire.com +303-498-7722 Office Editor@CannabisNewsWire.net Media Contact: FN Media Group, LLC NNW@FinancialNewsMedia.com +1-(954)345-0611 DENVER, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CannabisNewsWire Editorial Coverage Recent changes in Washington, D.C., are good news for the U.S. hemp industry. The recent departure of Jeff Sessions from the Attorney General's Office may make it easier for states to enforce their own laws in relation to cannabis and hemp legalization. from the Attorney General's Office may make it easier for states to enforce their own laws in relation to cannabis and hemp legalization. The Democratic majority in the House may ease the passage of the delayed Farm Bill. These changes could improve the prospects for hemp and cannabis producers. Marijuana Company of America Inc. (OTC:MCOA) (MCOA Profile) is a pioneer in the hemp industry, with trial cultivation operations under way in Washington and a range of hemp-derived products on the market. Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. (OTC:CWBHF) (CSE:CWEB) is also focused on hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products and recently raised its profile through TV coverage. Even before the prospect of reform, CV Sciences, Inc. (OTC:CVSI) was seeing record profits this year and increased its profile by becoming a sponsor for the Hemp Industry Association's 25th anniversary conference. Isodiol International, Inc. (CSE:ISOL) (OTC:ISOLF) is benefiting from changes not just in the United States but in Mexico, where new regulations will support its sale of diverse CBD products. The first publicly traded U.S. cannabis company, Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC:MJNA) is also seeing growth, with record sales and a continuing high profile. To view an infographic of this editorial, click here. A United Group within a Divided Nation This November's Congressional elections have been some of the most divisive in U.S. history. Bitterly fought campaigns have culminated in knife-edge results, featuring recounts to settle tiny vote margins amid loud accusations of cheating from both sides. While the election results and their aftermath have been mixed for both Democrats and Republicans, they have been overwhelmingly positive for one group - hemp producers. A Democratic majority in the House of Representatives may finally bring an end to months of bickering over this year's Farm Bill renewal, leading to the expected federal legalization of hemp farming in the process. And the forced resignation of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which President Donald Trump pushed once the elections were over, has removed one of the biggest stumbling blocks the industry faced. How Sessions' Departure Affects Hemp The resignation of Jeff Sessions was welcomed with relief by companies in the hemp sector, including Marijuana Company of America Inc. (OTC:MCOA), just as his arrival was greeted with disappointment two years before. During his election campaign, Trump had supported medical cannabis and states' rights to legalize their own industries. This was good news for hemp companies, which expected to function as the primary producers of medical cannabis. Hemp, which does not get users high and is useful for a variety of purposes, was banned by the sweeping laws of drug prohibition decades ago. Recent state-level reforms have allowed the establishment of projects such as MCOA's hemp project in Scio, Ore, in conjunction with their joint venture partner Global Hemp Group Inc. But tension has existed for years between state-level legalization and the continuing federal prohibition on all forms of cannabis. Trump's offer of reform appeared to be a solution. Then Sessions came into office. As the government's top law enforcement officer, he had the power to clamp down on all things cannabis related. And as a vociferous opponent of cannabis, that was exactly what he promised to do. Though Sessions was not able to launch a new escalation of the war on drugs, his stance on the subject frustrated cannabis proponents. Even as brands such as MCOA's hempSMART brought a state-legalized flood of hemp-derived products to the health and wellness markets, Sessions' presence threatened to stifle the fast-growing industry. However, the cannabis trade and surrounding industries continued to grow despite Sessions' presence. MCOA is a shining example of an industry-savvy company that has recognized opportunities for growth and development in an industry that reached an estimated value of $9 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach over $47 billion by 2027. The company developed a distinct hemp derived CBD brand - hempSMART- and established high yielding hemp cultivation farming projects in the United States and Canada while also investing in Moneytrac Technology, a business providing financial and support services for the cannabis industry. However, federal restrictions have created uncertainty for companies. By this fall, the White House was hinting at taking a more liberal stance. While this could be seen as a political ploy to balance Sessions' presence in the minds of cynical cannabis-conscious voters, it also hinted at divisions within the government. It's hardly surprising with a populist president like Trump. With 64 percent of Americans supporting legalization of cannabis and 74 percent supporting states' rights to legalize, Sessions was up against the popular view on a widely discussed issue. Though both his appointment and his departure were driven by other factors, his absence opens the way for cannabis reform. And in fact, cannabis companies' stocks initially rose when the news was announced. But Sessions' departure wasn't the biggest issue for hemp companies such as MCOA. These companies are also closely watching what is happening in the House. Passing the Farm Bill The 2018 Farm Bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation the hemp industry has ever seen. A wide-ranging bill covering U.S. agricultural and food policy, it includes provisions that would legalize the large-scale cultivation of industrial hemp. Under the previous Farm Bill of 2014, such cultivation became legal on a limited scale for purposes of research and trial crops. This led to hemp crop development, such as the cultivation harvested by MCOA this fall at its Oregon site, but not wide-scale production. The hemp provisions in the 2018 bill are set to change that. Given their potential to offer a profitable new crop for struggling farmers in Republican-held districts, the provisions have gained cross-party support and ensured a place in the bill. Unfortunately, other provisions have been more controversial. Arguments over how to allocate federal food assistance and how to deal with illegal immigration stalled the bill earlier in the year, and arguments over who will benefit most from the funds have prevented compromise in the months that followed. The future of hemp companies such as MCOA has been in limbo thanks to issues that have nothing to do with hemp. With the Democrats about to gain control of the House, that appears likely to change. The biggest hurdle to passing the bill is House Republicans' desire to set tougher controls for allocating food stamps. But neither Democrats nor Senate Republicans favor these strict rules, so a Democratic majority in the House and the Republican-majority Senate could break the impasse and pass a bill. This has also given Republicans more incentive to pass the bill while they still have power to shape its outcome in the House. Greater Opportunities for Cannabis Companies This change is great news for MCOA. As an industrial hemp company, its operations have so far been limited by the provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill and legalization in specific states. The legalization of hemp will allow it to expand its existing cultivation, set up new operations and more easily sell its products into markets across the country. Plenty of hemp and cannabis companies across the United States will be seizing opportunities created if federal prohibition ends. Many of these companies, such as Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. (OTC:CWBHF) (CSE:CWEB), are focused on products using CBD. Its widespread use in health and wellness products has propelled these companies into the limelight, with Charlotte's Web CEO Hess Moallem appearing on CNBC to talk about the growth of CBD and cannabis businesses in the country. Politicians' willingness to change their stance on hemp is unsurprising given the growing momentum behind the industry. The Hemp Industry Association is throwing its 25th anniversary convention this year. The milestone event, sponsored by CV Sciences, Inc. (OTC:CVSI), marks two-and-a-half decades of revival for a once-powerful industry. The sponsorship opportunity has been hugely beneficial for CV Sciences, which saw record sales and gross profits in the third quarter of 2018. Isodiol International, Inc. (CSE:ISOL) (OTC:ISOLF) is another company focusing on CBD. Its products cover a wide spectrum of uses, including sleep aid, pain management and skin needs. While the political changes in the United States appear positive for Isodiol, the company has also been closely following events in Mexico, where it has distribution agreements with several companies specializing in pharmaceuticals. At the end of October, Mexican authorities published new regulations covering CBD products. These allow hemp to be used in cosmetics, food supplements and herbal products, as well as in medicines. Based on these changes and its established agreements, Isodiol expects to start sales in Mexico in early 2019. Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC:MJNA), the first publicly traded cannabis company in the United States, continues to go from strength to strength. Its subsidiaries have been exhibiting at events across America this year as it continues to develop its profile. Like CV Sciences, it has recently seen record sales as the cannabis and CBD markets grow across North America and beyond. The hemp industry is growing around the world but, with change in the cards in Washington, America appears set to stay at the forefront of the industry. For more information about MCOA, please visit Marijuana Company of America (OTC:MCOA) . About CannabisNewsWire CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. CNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today's market, CNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. CNW is where news, content and information converge. Receive Text Alerts from CannabisNewsWire: Text "Cannabis" to 21000 For more information please visit https://www.CannabisNewsWire.com and or https://CannabisNewsWire.News Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer DISCLAIMER: CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is the source of the Article and content set forth above. References to any issuer other than the profiled issuer are intended solely to identify industry participants and do not constitute an endorsement of any issuer and do not constitute a comparison to the profiled issuer. FN Media Group (FNM) is a third-party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated with CNW or any company mentioned herein. The commentary, views and opinions expressed in this release by CNW are solely those of CNW and are not shared by and do not reflect in any manner the views or opinions of FNM. Readers of this Article and content agree that they cannot and will not seek to hold liable CNW and FNM for any investment decisions by their readers or subscribers. CNW and FNM and their respective affiliated companies are a news dissemination and financial marketing solutions provider and are NOT registered broker-dealers/analysts/investment advisers, hold no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. The Article and content related to the profiled company represent the personal and subjective views of the Author, and are subject to change at any time without notice. The information provided in the Article and the content has been obtained from sources which the Author believes to be reliable. However, the Author has not independently verified or otherwise investigated all such information. None of the Author, CNW, FNM, or any of their respective affiliates, guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any such information. This Article and content are not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action; readers are strongly urged to speak with their own investment advisor and review all of the profiled issuer's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before making any investment decisions and should understand the risks associated with an investment in the profiled issuer's securities, including, but not limited to, the complete loss of your investment. CNW & FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE. This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and CNW and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements. CannabisNewsWire (CNW) & NetworkNewsWire (NNW) are proud to be affiliated partners of the Investor Brand Network (IBN) About IBN Over the past 10+ years we have consistently introduced new network brands, each specifically designed to fulfil the unique needs of our growing client base and services. Today, we continue to expand our branded network of highly influential properties, leveraging the knowledge and energy of specialized teams of experts to serve our increasingly diversified list of clients. Please feel free to visit the Investor Brand Network (IBN) http://www.InvestorBrandNetwork.com Corporate Communications Contact: CannabisNewsWire (CNW) Denver, Colorado www.CannabisNewsWire.com +1-303-498-7722 Office Editor@CannabisNewsWire.net Media Contact: FN Media Group, LLC NNW@FinancialNewsMedia.com +1-(954)345-0611 CHICAGO, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Cannabis Market by Product Type (Flower, Concentrates), Compound (THC-Dominant, CBD-Dominant, and Balanced THC & CBD), Application (Medical and Recreational), and Region (North America, South America, Europe, and Row) - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Cannabis Market is expected to grow from USD 10.3 billion in 2018 to USD 39.4 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30.7% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the cannabis market include the growing medicinal application of cannabis and the increasing legalization of cannabis. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg ) Don't miss out on business opportunities in Cannabis Market. Speak to Our Analyst and gain crucial industry insights that will help your business grow: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=201768301 The flower segment is estimated to be the dominant segment in 2018. The cannabis market, by product type, is estimated to be dominated by the flower segment in 2018. The dominance of this segment is largely attributable to its wider availability and its method of delivery, as smoking or vaping the cannabis flower has a quicker effect and is preferred for fast-acting relief by medical and recreational cannabis consumers. Additionally, in comparison with concentrates, flowers are able to retain a higher degree of flavor and aroma, which could be beneficial for a stronger consumer appeal. Additionally, flowers contain a higher degree of THC compounds, as they are the most unprocessed and raw form of a plant. This makes them extremely appealing for recreational purposes. These factors are expected to help the flower segment maintain a potent market share during the forecast period as well. Browse in-depth TOC on"Cannabis Market" 76 - Tables 44 - Figures 149 - Pages View more detailed TOC @https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cannabis-market-201768301.html The recreational segment, by application, is projected to grow at a faster rate during the forecast period. The recreational segment is projected to be the faster-growing segment, by application, during the forecast period. The recreational cannabis market is projected to remain mainly concentrated in the US and Canada. Despite its low availability in various countries, the consumption and demand levels remain equivalent to that of medicinal cannabis; due to this, the demand for recreational cannabis is projected to surpass the demand for medical cannabis. For instance, medical cannabis is legalized mainly across 33 states of the US. However, only 10 states in the country have legalized recreational cannabis, and its consumption level is almost equivalent to the consumption level of medical cannabis across the 33 states. Therefore, the legalization of recreational cannabis across other regions could translate into a larger market share for this segment. Request for Free Sample Report @https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=201768301 Europe is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Europe is projected to be the fastest-growing region in the cannabis market from 2018 to 2023. The market in Europe is majorly driven by the increasing legalization of medical cannabis in the region, coupled with the healthcare system present in several European countries that covers the health expenditure of most patients in these regions. Further, to meet the increasing domestic demand for medical cannabis products, these countries majorly depend on imports from Canada, Israel, and Australia. However, to increase the supply, the governments in these countries are increasingly granting import and cultivation licenses to other players. Major companies in the cannabis market include Canopy Growth Corporation (Canada), Aurora Cannabis Inc. (Canada), Tikun Olam (Israel), Cannabis Science Inc. (US), Aphria Inc. (Canada), Maricann Group Inc. (Canada), Tilray Inc. (Canada), VIVO Cannabis Inc. (Canada), Medical Marijuana, Inc. (US), STENOCARE (Denmark), Cronos Group Inc. (Canada), Terra Tech Corp. (US), and MedMen (US). Browse Adjacent Markets @Food Ingredients Market Research Reports & Consulting About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/cannabis-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Turkcell (NYSE:TKC) (BIST:TCELL), only Turkish company listed in the New York Stock Exchange, successfully represented Turkey in the 8th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Turkcell, as the private sector representative, took part at the forum held under the leadership of United Nations Alliance of Civilizations which was established in 2005 by the then-Prime Minister of Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's initiatives. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005506/en/ Ahmet Akca, Chairman of the Board of Turkcell, at the 8th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. (Photo: Business Wire) The forum held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 19-20 November 2018, and Mevlut Cavusoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, represented Turkey. Also, Ahmet Akca, Chairman of the Board of Turkcell, attended "Partnerships that Work: Leveraging the Private Sector and Civil Society in Peacebuilding Efforts" session and gave information about the company's community and human oriented projects. Starting his speech by underlining that Turkey is one of the founders of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, Akca stated that respecting the right to live is the most important point of peacebuilding. Akca expressed: "Today, Turkey allocates the highest budget in the world for humanitarian support and Turkcell continues working on projects that suit these merits. We take part and give support at every stage of education from primary school to doctorate degree. We set aside one percent of our annual revenues for student scholarships, building schools and university collaborations for social benefit-oriented projects. We open technology classes at schools, serve our Syrian guests with our technological infrastructure and digital services and we support entrepreneurship." Akca pointed out that they carried out projects aiming to create equality in opportunity for the disadvantageous groups of the society and the secret for the success of corporate social responsibility projects was to 'institutionalize goodness'. "Today's world struggles with complicated problems that cannot be solved only by governments taking on responsibilities. In this sense, private sectors all over the world have important duties. Acting in this sense of responsibility, we established the Turkcell Foundation to scale up our projects to become more powerful, efficient, transparent, beneficial and to 'institutionalize goodness'. We will continue to serve our country and humanity with Turkcell Foundation, backed by the strength of and trust invested in the Turkcell brand," said Akca. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005506/en/ Contacts: Ali Karakaya Turkcell Corporate Communications Manager ali.karakaya@turkcell.com.tr +90 532 210 00 23 Burak Mergen Turkcell Corporate Communications burak.mergen@turkcell.com.tr +90 532 210 60 20 Bugra Kaya Turkcell Corporate Communications bugra.kaya@turkcell.com.tr +90 532 210 19 75 Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / ("Prospera" or the "Corporation") (TSX-V: PEI; FRA: OF6A) Effective as of November 26, 2018, Sarshar Ahmad has resigned as the Corporation's Vice President of Exploration and Development. The Corporation expresses its appreciation to Mr. Ahmad for his past services and wishes him success in his future endeavours. Mr. Ahmad will continue to assist the Corporation on a consulting basis. About Prospera: Prospera is a Canadian natural resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and exploitation of oil and gas properties in Western Canada. For further information: Burkhard Franz, President and Chief Executive Officer Email: admin@prosperaenergy.com Tel: (403) 457-9010 Website: http://www.prosperaenergy.com Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Prospera Energy, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529086/Resignation-of-an-Officer Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) - Nicola Mining Inc. (TSXV: NIM) (the "Company" or "Nicola") is pleased to announce that it has repaid its entire senior secured debt obligation and interest to Waterton Global Value, LP ("Waterton"). The Company paid Waterton $663,062 in principal and interest on the senior secured debt obligation, which was the final payment obligation to Waterton. Waterton has also liquidated its equity position in Nicola. On November 24, 2014, the Company announced that it had completed $7.0 MM in debt financing (the "Debt Financing") and implemented the announced restructuring of its debts and obligations under the Company's Plan of Compromise and Arrangement dated August 8, 2014 (the "Plan"). The repayment to Waterton is the final obligation under the Plan, as the Company successfully exited the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act of Canada on, as announced on December 9, 2015. The Waterton senior secured debt facility was the Company's final obligation under the Plan and releases all security held by Waterton over the Company's assets. In addition to releasing security over all assets, Waterton releases its aggregate 2% net smelter returns royalty with respect to production from Nicola's Treasure Mountain Silver Mine. The 2% net smelter returns royalty transfers to the investors in the Debt Financing. Peter Espig, Chief Executive Officer commented, "The final repayment of Waterton's senior secured debt facility marks one of the Company's greatest milestones since I took the helm as CEO. Management inherited a company with superior assets under great financial distress. The ability to grow and increase the value of our assets can only be achieved by a total team effort and we are grateful to our employees. We are also grateful to our investors that continue to support us and recognize the great potential of the Company. We are also fortunate that eighty five percent of the Debt Financing is held by insiders and affiliated parties that are also major shareholders." The Company also announces that is has closed $743,000 of the $900,000 non-brokered private placement financing (the "First Tranche"), announced on November 21, 2018. The private placement has been met with strong investor demand and the Company has already received $925,000 in commitments. All securities issued in connection with the First Tranche will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after closing of the First Tranche. Completion of the First Tranche is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"). Any participation by insiders in the Offering will constitute a related party transaction under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") but is expected to be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101. About Nicola Mining Nicola Mining Inc. is a junior mining company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and is in the process of recommencing mill feed processing operations at its 100% owned state-of-the-art mill and tailings facility, located near Merritt, British Columbia. It has already signed four mill profit share agreements with high grade gold producers. The fully-permitted mill can process both gold and silver mill feed via gravity and flotation processes. The Company also owns 100% of Treasure Mountain, a high-grade silver property, and an active gravel pit that is located adjacent to its milling operations. About New Craigmont The New Craigmont Project (the "Property") is a wholly-owned copper property with an active mine permit (M-68), located within the world-class Highland Valley porphyry district. It benefits from excellent infrastructure. The Property is at the corner intersection of the Nicola and Guichon batholiths, of which the latter is the precursor to mineralization at Highland Valley. In November of 2015, Nicola became the first group in decades to consolidate ownership of the Property and has been actively conducting mineral exploration since. There are currently no mineral resource estimates on the Property. Historical "non-NI 43-101" resource calculations are recorded in internal memos and geological reports for Placer Development. An internal memo written by J.F. Bristow on October 30, 1985 to Craigmont Mines Ltd. reported a zone known as Body No. 3 containing a historic estimate of 1,290,000 tons (1,170,268 metric tonnes) of copper grading 1.53% copper. * This estimate assumes a 0.7% copper cut-off and a 20-foot mining width between drill sections 6565E and 8015E. The material in Body No. 3 contains mineralization primarily in silicate-rich rocks. Additionally, J.F. Bristow reported in an internal memo on July 22, 1985 to Craigmont Mines Ltd., a rough calculation of +60,000,000 pounds (1.6 million short tons or 1.45 metric tonnes) of +1.5% copper from an original ore estimate of 27,754,000 short tons (25,178,005 metric tonnes) of copper grading 1.79% copper left behind in the sub-level cave. The material is from the previously mined out No.1 Body and No.2 Body. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Peter Espig" Peter Espig CEO & Director For additional information contact: Peter Espig Telephone: (778) 385-1213 Email: peter@nicolamining.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. ARNPRIOR, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Plaintree Systems Inc. (Plaintree, traded on CSE under the symbol NPT). Plaintree announced today that it has released its un-audited consolidated financial statements and related management discussions and analysis for the second quarter ending September 30, 2018 as well as cumulative performance year to date for the six months ending September 30, 2018. During the three and six months ended September 30, 2018 of fiscal 2019, Plaintree realized revenues of $7,456,053 and $12,236,366 respectively, up from $4,212,319 and $7,712,248 for the same periods of fiscal 2018. Net income increased to $1,234,786 and $1,355,407 in the three and six month period ending September 30, 2018 as compared to net income of $576,315 and $929,079 for the same periods a year earlier. "Needless to say, we are very pleased that our innovation and investment in our companies is continuing to generate strong results. It has been a hurdle to increase production by 58% and yet keep our quality and delivery up to our expected high levels, but the amazing teams at Plaintree were up to the challenge." said David Watson CEO. "Despite the investment and effort spent on 9366920 Canada Inc., trading as Madawaska Doors, it has not performed as expected and the Board has determined to cease operations in December 2018." About Plaintree Systems Inc. Plaintree has two diversified product lines consisting of Specialty Structures and Electronics. The Specialty Structures Division includes the former Triodetic Group with over 40 years of experience, is a design/build manufacturer of steel, aluminum and stainless steel specialty structures such as commercial domes, free form structures, barrel vaults, space frames and industrial dome coverings and Spotton Corporation, a design and manufacturer of high end custom hydraulic and pneumatic valves and cylinders. The Electronics Division includes the legacy Hypernetics and Summit Aerospace USA Inc. businesses. Hypernetics was established in 1972 and is a manufacturer of avionic components for various applications including aircraft antiskid braking, aircraft instrument indicators, solenoids, high purity valves and permanent magnet alternators. Summit Aerospace USA Inc. provides high precision machining to the aerospace and defense markets. Our facility includes 5 axis CNC precision machining of complex castings and large ring parts such as turbine and assembly shrouds as well as assembly & pressure seals. Summit will support requirements from concept, prototype and throughout production. Plaintree's shares are traded under the symbol "NPT". Shareholders and Investors can access Company information on CSE's website and receive full Company disclosure monthly. For more information on Plaintree or to receive stock quotes, complete with trading summaries, bid size and ask price, brokerage house participation, insider reports, news releases, disclosure information, and CSE and SEDAR filings, visit the CSE website at www.cnsx.ca or the Company's website at www.plaintree.com. Plaintree is publicly traded in Canada on the CSE (NPT) with 12,925,253 common shares and 18,325 class A preferred shares outstanding. This press release may include statements that are forward-looking and based on current expectations. The actual results of the company may differ materially from current expectations. The business of the company is subject to many risks and uncertainties, including changes in markets for the company's products, delays in product development and introduction to manufacturing and intense competition. For a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties related to the company's business, please refer to documents filed by the company with the Canadian regulatory authorities, including the annual report of the Company for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 and related management discussion and analysis. Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. For further information: Lynn Saunders, CFO - (613) 623-3434 x2223 SOURCE: Plaintree Systems Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529019/Plaintree-Systems-Inc-Announces-Continued-Strong-Second-Quarter-Fiscal-2019-Results Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) - First Vanadium Corp. (formerly Cornerstone Metals Inc.) (TSXV: FVAN) (OTCQX: FVANF) (FSE: 1PY) ("First Vanadium" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from an additional 11 confirmation in-fill drill holes along a 500m (1640ft) corridor of the Carlin Vanadium Deposit. The project is 6 miles south of Carlin, Nevada. A highlight interval from this drilling encountered 48.77m (160ft) grading 1.02% V 2 O 5 starting at surface. The average grade of these 11 holes is 0.64% V 2 O 5 as compared with the 2010 historic Inferred Resource average grade of 0.515% V 2 O 5 (see Historic Inferred Resource below). Holes RCC18-08, RCC18-09, RCC18-15 through RCC18-20, and RCC18-24 through RCC18-27 lie along the main corridor of the Central Zone. This drilling continues to prove continuity of a thick, shallow, near horizontal bed of high-grade vanadium mineralization, connecting to the nearest previous drill holes. The average thickness of the zone in these 11 holes is 31.9m (104ft). In the majority of these holes the high-grade mineralized zone lies within 10m (32ft) of surface. A figure has been placed on the Company website to demonstrate the location of these holes (https://firstvanadium.com/images/news-release/Figure%20for%20News%20release_Nov%2027_summary.jpg). "The drilling continues to yield solid thicknesses and good high grades near surface. These in-fill holes provide valuable information and confidence to support a new resource estimate," said First Vanadium President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Cowley. "There are pending assay results on a further 19 in-fill holes and 23 step-out holes from the Phase 2 RC summer program and those results will be reported as they become available. However, we are still experiencing slower than typical turnaround times due to laboratory volume backlog." Confirmation Drilling Highlights: Drillhole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) From (ft) To (ft) Length (ft) V2O5 (%) RCC18-08 0.00 48.77 48.77 0 160 160 1.02 RCC18-09 0.00 51.82 51.82 0 170 170 0.65 RCC18-15 10.67 47.24 36.57 35 155 120 0.65 RCC18-16 0.00 25.91 25.91 0 85 85 0.78 RCC18-17 50.29 67.06 16.77 165 220 55 0.62 RCC18-18 6.10 54.86 48.76 20 180 160 0.37 RCC18-19 56.39 74.68 18.29 185 245 60 0.71 RCC18-20 50.29 76.2 25.91 165 250 85 0.50 RCC18-24 10.67 38.1 27.43 35 125 90 0.62 RCC18-25 18.29 41.15 22.86 60 135 75 0.53 RCC18-26 9.14 36.58 27.43 30 120 90 0.54 Hole RCC18-17 encountered excessive water that prohibited continued RC drilling. However, the last 5-foot sample in this hole graded 0.96% V 2 O 5 . Holes RCC18-17, RCC18-20 and RCC18-25 also returned 6m (20ft) to 50m (60ft) thick near surface, flat-lying mineralized intervals above the main high-grade zone that graded between 0.2% and 0.28% V 2 O 5 . All holes reported here are vertical; thus, drill intercepts are considered true thickness. Historic Inferred Resource The Carlin Vanadium Deposit has a historic Inferred mineral resource of 28 million tons at 0.515% vanadium pentoxide (V 2 O 5 ), having a total metal content of 289 million pounds V 2 O 5 , based on a 0.3% V 2 O 5 cut-off grade ("CoG"), as calculated by Dr. Bart Stryhas of SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. for Energy Metal Corp in 2010, and was NI43-101 compliant at that time, based on 152 rotary drill holes completed by Union Carbide in the late 1960s. The 0.3% V 2 O 5 CoG was chosen in 2010 for resource reporting based on the reasonable potential for economic extraction under a conceptual open pit mining and milling scenario using US$2.30/st mining cost, US$35/st milling cost, US$0.50/st admin cost, 65% recovery, 95% selling pay-for, 1% freight charge, 0% royalty and a US$10.46/lb V 2 O 5 value. The results of the resource estimation provided a CIM classified Inferred Mineral Resource. The quality of the historical data was good and the Mineral Resource was classified as inferred mainly due to the fact that the rotary drilling has not been verified by a modern program. A current mineral resource has not been delineated on the property. The Company is not treating this historical estimate as a current mineral resource. The work needed to upgrade the historical estimate as current mineral resources is to use current costs, metal prices, new recoveries and results from the Company's 89 new drill holes. The Carlin Vanadium deposit is considered the largest, highest grade primary vanadium deposit in North America (USGS Professional Paper 1802 Critical Mineral Resources of the United States-Economic and Environmental Geology and Prospects for Future Supply dated December 18, 2017). Vanadium prices for 98% flake V 2 O 5 have steadily risen from under US$3.00/lb less than 3 years ago to US$33/lb, reflecting the higher demand for vanadium over its tight supply, globally. Vanadium is growing in importance for key industrial manufacturing sectors most notably steel and renewable energy. Today, more than 85 percent of the world's vanadium is used in steel manufacturing applications. Its importance to the energy sector is also growing rapidly with more than 10 percent of vanadium production used in energy storage where its substantial cost and performance benefits make it an alternative choice to lithium ion in several areas. About First Vanadium Corp. First Vanadium (formerly Cornerstone Metals Inc.) has an option to earn a 100% interest in the Carlin Vanadium Project, located in Elko County 6 miles south from the town of Carlin, Nevada on Highway I-80. The Carlin Vanadium Project hosts the Carlin Vanadium Deposit which is flat to shallow dipping and at shallow depths, 0-60 m (0-200 ft) below surface. ON BEHALF OF FIRST VANADIUM CORP. per: "Paul Cowley" CEO & President (604) 340-7711 pcowley@firstvanadium.com www.firstvanadium.com Technical disclosure in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul Cowley, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and President and CEO of the Company. 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. Forward-looking information Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking" statements. These statements relate to future events or the Company's future performance and include the Company's ability to meet the conditions required to exercise in full its option to acquire the Carlin Vanadium project and with respect to current and planned drill programs, the results of exploration programs, metallurgical test work, and changes in mineral resources. All such statements involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to vary from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, they should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and they will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions on the date of this news release, the Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities regulations. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) -TNR Gold Corp. (TSXV: TNR) ("TNR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that all resolutions proposed at the Company's annual general and special meeting of shareholders ("AGM") held on November 26, 2018 were passed. All agenda items outlined in the information circular for the meeting were approved and all directors standing for election were reelected. The directors elected for the ensuing year were Kirill Klip, John Davies, Greg Johnson and Natalia Lobanova. A total of 66,620,969 common shares were cast at the AGM, representing 42.4% of the votes attached to all outstanding shares as at the record date for the meeting. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business before the meeting, including the election of all director nominees as follows: Voted in Favour Matter Approved Number of % of Shares Votes Cast Set the number of directors at 4 (four) 59,212,500 100.00 Elect Kirill Klip as Director 58,981,000 99.61 Elect John Davies as Director 59,057,500 99.74 Elect Greg Johnson as Director 59,057,500 99.74 Elect Natalia Lobanova as Director 59,055,000 99.73 Appoint Manning Elliott LLP as auditor 66,365,248 99.62 Renew Stock Option Plan 58,988,500 99.62 The Company's CEO, Kirill Klip remarked, "I would like to thank the shareholders of our Company for the overwhelming support of the TNR Gold team. We are continuing to concentrate our efforts on the active management of our portfolio, including lithium and copper royalties, and the gold project. Our priority is to expand our shareholder base and build access to new sources of capital in order to realize our strategic goals and provide long-term value for all our stakeholders." ABOUT TNR GOLD CORP. TNR Gold Corp. is working to become a green energy metals royalty company. Over the past 22 years, TNR, through its lead generator business model, has been successful in generating high-quality exploration projects around the globe. With the Company's expertise, resources and industry network, it identified the potential of the Los Azules copper project in Argentina and now holds a 0.36% NSR royalty on the entire project, which is being developed by McEwen Mining Inc. TNR holds a strategic stake in International Lithium Corp. ("ILC"), a green energy metals company that was created through the spin-out of TNR's energy metals portfolio in 2011. ILC holds interests in lithium projects in Argentina, Ireland and Canada. TNR retains a 1.8% NSR royalty on the Mariana Lithium Brine Property in Argentina. ILC has a right to repurchase 1.0% of the NSR royalty on the Mariana Lithium property of which 0.9% relates to the Company's NSR interest. The Company would receive $900,000 on the execution of the repurchase. The project is currently being advanced in a joint venture between ILC and Ganfeng Lithium International Co. Ltd. At its core, TNR provides significant exposure to gold, copper and lithium through its holdings in Alaska (the Shotgun gold porphyry project) and Argentina, and is committed to the continued generation of in-demand projects, while diversifying its markets and building shareholder value. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Kirill Klip CEO and Chairman www.tnrgoldcorp.com For further information concerning this news release please contact +1 604-700-8912. 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. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "will", "could" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "could" occur, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements made in relation to: TNR's corporate objectives, changes in share capital, market conditions for energy commodities, the results of McEwen Mining's PEA, and improvements in the financial performance of the Company. Such forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those discussed in the sections entitled "Risks" and "Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company's interim and annual Management's Discussion and Analysis which are available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. While management believes that the assumptions made and reflected in this news release are reasonable, should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking information. In particular, there can be no assurance that: TNR will be repay its loans or complete any further royalty acquisitions or sales; debt or other financing will be available to TNR; or that TNR will be able to achieve any of its corporate objectives. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements included herein are not guarantees of future performance, and such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied on. In formulating the forward-looking statements contained herein, management has assumed that business and economic conditions affecting TNR and its royalty partners, McEwen Mining Inc. and International Lithium Corp. or its joint venture partner, Ganfeng Lithium will continue substantially in the ordinary course, including without limitation with respect to general industry conditions, general levels of economic activity and regulations. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking information herein and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change. Beijing: creation of Artprice and Artron teams to conquer the Chinese Art Market, multiply Artprice's turnover and promote Chinese art in the West. Beijing - Artprice's Chairman, thierry Ehrmann, and its senior executives have just returned from several days of intense work at Artron's headquarters in Beijing where discussions focused on accelerating and implementing, as quickly as possible, all the agreed strategic and commercial initiatives that will inevitably generate very positive results in terms of turnover and the expansion of Artprice's client base... not to mention shareholder value. Artron and its Chairman Mr. Wan Jie gave the Artprice team an exceptionally respectful, warm and loyal welcome and introduced Artprice to China's top-level institutional leaders, the country's principal Art Market players and all of Artron's 3,500 employees. These face-to-face introductions are an essential step in Artprice's bid to fructify the enormous potential of the Chinese market in a fast and optimal manner. In 2018, China accounted for 45% of global online transactions, generating 12 times more online transactions than the United States. China has a huge advantage over the West because it is building its market economy directly on the Internet (Source GEAB / LEAP 2020). Speaking in front of his senior executives and top management, Mr. Wan Jie - at the head of his Artron empire and probably the most powerful player in China's Art Market - reiterated his unfailing personal friendship and loyalty vis-a-vis Artprice's founder-Chairman, thierry Ehrmann. This fact deserves emphasis as Chinese custom usually prohibits such "departures' from accepted business protocol. As China has become the global Art Market's leading marketplace over the past decade - Artprice had been the first to report it in 2009 -, it naturally represents a fascinating new market for Artprice. China has grand ambitions: As the French language business weekly Challenges headlined last week: "China, the giant that wants to dominate the World". China is still accelerating with its "Made in China 2025" plan and its "New Silk Roads". As a global company, Artprice made a point to successfully enter the Chinese market, now the last great "eldorado' for any group whose market is global. According to Artprice's founding Chairman, thierry Ehrmann, "I appreciated the emergence of China's global power, its insatiable appetite and its desire for leadership a long time ago! Over the past nine years, Artprice has translated hundreds of millions of data from its proprietary databases into Mandarin. However, observant visitors to our famous head offices (L'Organe Museum of Contemporary Art at the "Abode of Chaos" [dixit The New York Times]) over the past 30 years will have noticed thousands of artworks - including my own sculptures and paintings - directly or indirectly referring to the ancient culture and history of China." "Unlike many, I am not surprised to see China gradually becoming the world's leading economic power. Artprice has decided to enter the Chinese market through the front door with a humility that has clearly been lacking in many Western listed companies. Any other strategy would have been a fatal mistake. I therefore wish to reiterate my thanks to Wan Jie, Artron's Chairman, and all his colleagues for making this open and proper strategy possible after 9 years of close collaboration!" Thanks to Artron's expert advice, Artprice fully complies with the specifications of China's "Great Electronic Wall" and its terms and conditions: Law CL97 (1997) as well as its "Golden Shield" protocol (1998). In order to comply with law CL97, Artprice spent two years rewriting all its databank code in order to eliminate all US and European corporate source code containing cookies, tags, metadata, backdoor elements (amongst other elements). Since Monday morning, Artprice is one of the very few Western companies to possess a WeChat profile reserved for companies operating under Chinese law. WeChat is used by more than 1.8 billion Chinese Internet users around the world. The statistics concerning China are eye-watering: a population of over 1.4 billion people, 5 times that of the United States, a GDP growth of 6.5% this year and, regarding specifically Artprice, a colossal art market with a massive pool of living artists (1 million in China versus 120,000 for the USA and Europe combined) and an almost infinite number of artworks. China's art market is animated by tens of millions of art buyers, professionals and collectors, many of whom are Artron customers and therefore, going forward, potential customers for Artprice. The title of Artron's press release: "Artron and Artprice team up to create the art "silk road'", (the "silk road' notion is massively used by the Chinese State) makes perfect sense. The New Silk Road is part of China's soft power strategy (OBOR for One Belt, One Road) to conquer the world economically. China had initiated the project. According to the IMF, the World Bank and the CIA World Factbook, China is the world's leading economic power in terms of GDP-PPP in 2017. According to CNN, this project encompasses 68 countries representing 4.8 billion people and 62% of global GDP. Artron is a very powerful company and, for those interested in Art or the Art Market, Artron is completely unavoidable in China. Artron is not only the world's leading publisher of Fine Art books and auction catalogues (with more than 400 million books/catalogues printed); it is also a major scientific laboratory - with premises in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen - and a technical and scientific knowledge base that easily rivals that of Silicon Valley. Its scanning processes in virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality have reached the very highest level of global sophistication and the company's scientific and cultural innovation has been rewarded with more than 800 prizes and awards for excellence. Artron.Net is the most respected brand in the Chinese art world. It has more than 3 million professional members in the arts sector and an average of 15 million daily visits, making it the world's leading art website. It is the first choice for art professionals, investors / collectors and art lovers. Founded in 1993, the Artron Art Group is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The involvement of Artron and its Chairman Mr. Wan Jie in Art in China is completely uncontested. Mr. Wan Jie is a "protector' of Beijing's famous 798 Factory which enjoys global visibility and was visited by Artprice staff. He is also Vice-Chairman and Founder of the Institute of the famous Forbidden City, where he and thierry Ehrmann visited government offices that are closed to the public during the recent trip to Beijing. The was also an opportunity for Artprice's Chairman thierry Ehrmann to see first-hand Mr. Wan Jie's involvement and support for the protection and diffusion of ancient masterpieces of Chinese art in the Imperial Granaries. These superb works have been "returned to the people" thanks to Artron's scientific breakthroughs and ultra high-speed Internet which allows these masterpieces of humanity to be contemplated in a virtual reality context, with the support of the Chinese State. During the trip, the Artprice team met some of China's world-renowned artists including Fang Lijun (born in 1963) ranked 623/700,000 in 2018 and Zhang Xiaogang (born in 1958) ranked 121/700,000 artists in 2018 in Artprice's global ranking. Artprice's press agency, ArtMarketInsight, together with Artron's editors, have decided to post around thirty daily dispatches in both Chinese and English aimed at combining information about the Chinese art market with information about the Western art market. Our various meetings and visits in Beijing left no doubt in our minds as to the power of China, the extraordinary wealth and depth of its history (over 4,000 years), and the country's incredible advance over the West in terms of technology a vision and an understanding of China that completely disqualifies the ignorant visions of the Chinese Empire that can still be found in the West to this day. A geo-cultural analysis is not interested in the percentage of GDP spent on arms, but rather in the depth of the countries' respective histories and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist civilizations. Among its numerous manifestations, China's "soft power' is also focused on the Art Market. In this context, Artron's alliance with Artprice is part of Xi Jinping's "BRI" (belt and road initiative) launched in 2013 (aka the "Silk Road" in Europe). According to CNN, this project encompasses 68 countries representing 4.8 billion people and 62% of global GDP with an investment of close to $8 trillion. It is therefore a great honour for Artprice to have been chosen by Artron and its Chairman Mr. Wan Jie. Artron appreciates the work conducted by Artprice and has validated its place as World Leader in Art Market Information. That is why Artprice subscriptions will be distributed in China, with a huge potential for new customers. Artprice's data will contribute to the fluidity of the Chinese and, more broadly, the Asian Art Market, in a context where "Greater Asia' will account for 70% of the global Art Market by 2019. According to Artron, Artprice's econometric expertise associated with Artron's proprietary data will not only provide an extraordinary boost to the fluidity of China's Art Market (throughout its numerous provinces and autonomous regions), it will also greatly enhance and facilitate the work conducted by the country's tax, administrative and customs authorities. According to Artron and its Chairman Mr. Wan Jie, the only legitimate way to approach this colossal mission was to team up with a recognised and globally authoritative third-party certifier like Artprice, as World Leader in Art Market Information. Never mentioned in the press or identified by economists or sociologists, this massive new market that Artprice is entering is typical of the kind of domestic market that only a central player in China's Art Market could have been aware of. China's Provincial-level administrative divisions are the highest level administrative divisions in the People's Republic of China. There are 34 such divisions, classified as 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, 5 autonomous regions, and 2 Special Administrative Regions. Artprice subscriptions sold exclusively by Artron in China will therefore reach directly into the heart of the need identified by Artron within China's domestic market. Similarly, Artprice will be accessible via Artron.Net's home page and all the Chinese social networks where Artron is omnipresent. Artron's Chairman Mr. Wan Jie has already introduced Artprice to some very promising commercial contacts including the Chairman of China Guardian, China's first publicly-traded Chinese auction house. China Guardian needs high-end Artprice subscriptions for its VIP customers as well as Artprice's monthly analyses for its internal operations. Thanks to Artron's unique technology in the field of scanning parchments, manuscripts and collection catalogues from the previous century, Artprice will finally be able to offer all its customers extremely high value-added data such as the hundreds of thousands of handwritten notes by Hippolyte Mireur and the various pre-17th century documentary collections that Artprice owns, which are too fragile to be scanned using Western scanning devices. With this major breakthrough, Artprice will further strengthen its position as World Leader in Art Market Information. In the context of this extraordinary alliance with Artron and the massive potential for new customers in China, Artprice is anticipating a major boost to its 2019 sales and profits. For the launch and marketing of its services and databases in China, Artprice will benefit from all of Artron's logistical resources in terms of communication, via the Internet, as well as the physical world, thanks to its power, its reputation and its innumerable electronic and/or commercial networks throughout Greater Asia. In this context, Artprice, with the assistance of Artron, has just translated 125 million data into the Chinese currency, the Renmimbi (RMB). Naturally the primary objective of this translation process is to facilitate the purchase of its data by its new Chinese clientele, presented by Artron. This captive clientele is accustomed to using Alipay and WeChat (1.8 billion users), two Chinese instant payment platforms (QR Code in kiosk mode debiting the Chinese customer on behalf of Artprice) that are mandatory for Chinese buyers. Numerous synergies have already been identified from our joint working sessions and the merging of Artprice/Artron teams with the similar functions. Given the extent of strategic, financial and economic involvement with Artron, Artprice has decided to appoint a Chief Executive responsible for its Chinese and Greater Asia operations, who will reside in Beijing and work closely with Artron's teams. The objective of this strategy is to accelerate the numerous initiatives recently engendered by Artprice's and Artron's contractual and promissory agreements. This informed decision has been carefully deliberated and enjoys unanimous support within the Group. This appointment will, notably, make it easier to coordinate Artron's and Artprice's joint initiatives. Artron's goals are both transparent and unambiguous: In Mr. Wan Jie's own words: "The founders and Chairmen of the two companies, thierry Ehrmann and myself - with our enthusiasm for art - will create a Silk Road linking the Chinese and Western art markets on the principle of mutual respect and cooperation". "The two parties will build a global, diversified and professional exchange platform in the art market that will ultimately promote the sustainable development of the global art market." As this platform develops, Artprice's Standardised Marketplace will host millions of works by Chinese artists, provided by Artron, generating a massive increase in the number of artworks available online. Artron's Founding Chairman, Mr. Wan Jie, immediately understood the commercial interest and wisdom of Artprice's ownership of the domain names artmarket.com, artmarket.net and artmarket.org, names that naturally and legally capture millions of "Art Market" queries on Google every month. Artmarket.com, .net and .org therefore represent a decisive advantage in our quest to capture and drive the Global Art Market's development on the Internet. According to a bailiff's report established by the Estelle PONS - Sarah MERGUI licensed court bailiff partnership in Lyon, Artmarket.com is the top result out of 1.82 billion results on Google.com (all languages combined) and therefore represents the best possible vector for Artprice to promote the works of 1 million Chinese artists and their tens of millions of works (already hosted by Artron) in the Western art market. In view of the radical change in scope anticipated, Artprice is naturally moving towards an IPO of its subsidiary artmarket.com, its Standardized Marketplace, on a Chinese stock exchange (Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen ...) and not on an Anglo-Saxon exchange as originally planned. According to thierry Ehrmann, "In 2019 Artprice will begin a new chapter alongside Artron that will trigger tremendous value for the global Art Market and our loyal shareholders. I am particularly pleased that my long-term strategy based on China's rapid economic emergence will generate such positive results." "Today I am 56; when I first visited China I was 25. Since then I have spent 30 years patiently studying the Middle Kingdom. Beyond this satisfaction, I have had the immense pleasure of knowing Mr. Wan Jie, a founding Chairman with whom I share the same vision regarding the democratization and promotion of art in the world. In short Artprice's long march is about to reach its objectives for its shareholders and for the global art market." Artron will soon be publishing a documentary-report explaining all the meetings, discussions and agreements between the Artprice and Artron teams in Beijing. It will allow Western viewers to see images of Artron's ultra-sophisticated scientific processes and appreciate the economic power of Artron in Greater Asia. About the Artron Group: "Artron Art Group (Artron), a comprehensive cultural industrial group founded in 1993, is committed to inheriting, enhancing and spreading art value. Based on abundant art data, Artron provides art industry and art fans with professional service and experience of quality products by integrated application of IT, advanced digital science and innovative crafts and materials. Having produced more than 60,000 books and auction catalogues, Artron is the world's largest art book printer with a total print volume of 300 million a year. It has more than 3 million professional members in the arts sector and an average of 15 million daily visits, making it the world's leading art website. Founded in 1993, the Artron Art Group is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It is the first choice for art professionals, investors, collectors and art fans in general wishing to discover and/or participate in the art world or the art market. Founded in 1993, Artron Art Group is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year." According to the Artron Group and its founder-Chairman Mr. Wan Jie "After 7 years of cooperation, Artron and Artprice have optimised their cooperation regarding the Chinese and Western art markets. The founders and Chairmen of both companies, Mr. Wan Jie and Mr. Thierry Ehrmann, with their enthusiasm for art, will create a Silk Road linking the Chinese and Western art markets on the principle of respect and mutual cooperation. The two groups will build a global, diversified and professional exchange platform in the Art Market, which will ultimately promote the sustainable development of the Global Art Market. Artron's Web: www.artron.com.cn; www.artron.net. Contact: 400-6690-999 About Artprice: Founded by thierry Ehrmann (see Who's who certified Biography ) (c) https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2018/10/bio-2019-whos-who-thierry-ehrmann.pdf ). Artprice is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long only and Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF. Dicover Artprice in video: https://www.artprice.com/video Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results covering more than 700,000 artists. Artprice Images gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians. 12 Oct. 2018: Artprice and Artron have just created an "Art Media Mogul": Video: https://vimeo.com/296010836 Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information from 6,300 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art market trends for the world's principal news agencies and approximately 7,200 international press publications. For its 4,500,000 members, Artprice gives access to the world's leading Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art. Artprice is preparing its blockchain for the Art Market. It is BPI-labelled (scientific national French label)Artprice's Global Art Market Annual Report for 2017 published last March 2018: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2017 Artprice's Contemporary Art Market Annual Report for 2017 - free access at: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-contemporary-art-market-report-2017 Artprice's press releases: http://serveur.serveur.com/Press_Release/pressreleaseen.htm https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom Artmarket News: https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom & https://twitter.com/artmarketdotcom https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom & https://plus.google.com/+artpricedotcom/posts http://artmarketinsight.wordpress.com/ Discover the Alchemy and the universe of Artprice http://web.artprice.com/video , which headquarters are the famous Museum of Contemporary Art, the Abode of Chaos: http://goo.gl/zJssd https://vimeo.com/124643720 The Contemporary Art Museum The Abode of Chaos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999 Contact: ir@artprice.com ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-56119-artprice-beijing-2018-11-27.pdf BEIJING and PARIS, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CITICPE received a gold award in the Best Global Private Equity Fund category at the 2018 Private Equity Exchange & Awards, a major Pan-European private equity focused event hosted by the renowned media and rating agency, Leaders League, in Paris. To date, CITICPE is the only Chinese private equity firm to have won such an award for two consecutive years, highlighting the global investment community's continual recognition of CITICPE as a leading Chinese asset manager. The Private Equity Exchange & Awards aims to recognize the best performing private equity funds across the globe. A panel of 80 investment veterans, consisting of Limited Partners and Asset Managers, conduct comprehensive research on the companies' overall governance and performance, including strategic positioning, management teams, sector knowledge over the past ten years, as well as investment performance, realizations and distributions over the past three years, to select the final winners. Since its establishment in 2008, CITICPE has focused on the six key areas of Technology & Internet, Industrial & Energy, Business & Financial Services, Consumer & Leisure, Healthcare and Real Estate. It adopts a long-term investment approach, investing in Chinese companies and international firms linked to China's growth, and is strongly committed to facilitating the growth of its portfolio companies, bringing global best practices to its investment process and generating sustainable returns for investors. The Company currently manages over USD 15 billion (RMB 100 billion) for institutional investors globally. Lefei Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CITICPE, commented, "We are honored to receive a gold award from the Private Equity Exchange & Awards in 2018, the year of CITICPE's 10th anniversary. In the past decade, we have achieved superior returns for our investors, followed a value-based investment approach and established an asset management firm with strong corporate culture. Over the next ten years, we will continue to maintain a modest attitude and an open mindset, adopt domestic and international best practices, and join forces with our peers to improve investment capabilities and corporate governance of Chinese PE firms, gradually gain international recognition and support the economic development in China and globally." In the 2018 Best Global Private Equity Fund category, along with CITICPE, leading investment firm Apollo Global Management received a gold award. In the same category the previous year, CITICPE, along with KKR, Blackstone and other global investment firms received silver awards. Paris-based Leaders League is a media and rating agency, which has organized the Private Equity Exchange & Awards for the past 17 years. About CITICPE CITICPE is a leading alternative asset manager, with asset classes spanning private equity, mezzanine and the public market. Founded in 2008 by a world class team of investment professionals and supported by over 200 domestic and international investors, CITICPE knows China like no one else and is a globally minded long-term value investor. The firm uses its sector expertise to generate deal flow and drive the value creation work during the post-investment stage. CITICPE follows a disciplined investment approach to preserve and grow its investors' capital. The firm's private equity portfolio of more than 100 companies is highly diversified by sector and stage of investment. CITICPE takes pride in its forward-looking investment philosophy and works hard to create value over the long-term for its investors and a better world. For more information, please visit www.citicpe.com. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) - Sensor Technologies Corp. (CSE: SENS) (formerly Mooncor Oil & Gas Corp.) (the "Corporation"), a developer and marketer of patented non-intrusive sensing systems, is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sensor Technologies Inc. ("Sensor"), has received a service orders from one of its current clients, one of North America's largest pipeline companies. The service orders received are for the client's various assets in Canada. The Corporation will provide the client with the monitoring of its various assets along with engineering field services and data analysis. The value of this order is $141,949.5. "This is an example of the Corporation's history of being able to provide custom solutions to its clients," commented Jay Vieira, President and CEO of the Corporation. "This order is the 1st of four service contracts the Corporation will be signing with the client in the next 45 to 60 days." About the Corporation Sensor Technologies Corp develops non-intrusive asset health monitoring sensor systems for the oil and gas market to help operators track the thinning of pipelines and refinery vessels due to corrosion/erosion, strain due to bending/buckling and process pressure and temperature. The Corporation's FT fiber optic sensor and corrosion monitoring systems allow cost-effective, 24/7 remote monitoring capabilities to improve scheduled maintenance operations, avoid unnecessary shutdowns, and prevent accidents and leaks. Corporation contact: Jay Vieira, President, CEO email: jay@fox-tek.com The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note regarding Forward-looking Statements This news release includes certain information and forward-looking statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward looking statements. Although the Corporation believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statement will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Corporation disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward looking statements or otherwise. Das Zertifikat der Suragroh-Melonenfarm, eine Sparte von Fyffes in Honduras, wurde offiziell aufgehoben und ihr Fair-Trade-Zertifikat mit Wirkung ab 14. Dezember 2018 widerrufen. Die Entscheidung wurde nach einer viertagigen Prufung getroffen, die durch angebliche Verletzungen der Standards von Fair Trade USA eingeleitet wurde, wie eine Presseveroffentlichung mitteilt. Die... Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. MIAMI, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UBS will release new insights into US-based collectors' behaviors and buying trends in a special Investor Watch Pulse Report UBS Lounge to feature abstract artworks by Sarah Morris , Frank Stella and Howard Hodgkin from the UBS Art Collection UBS, Global Lead Partner of Art Basel for over 25 years, will kick off the opening of Art Basel Miami Beach (December 6-9, 2018) with the release of a new report, surveying the attitudes and behaviors of US-based wealthy fine art collectors. According to the 2018 Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, the U.S. continued to hold strong as the leading market for the world's top 200 collectors, of whom 50% are based in the U.S. Moreover, 68% of global art dealers also cited the U.S. among their top three most important buyer nationalities. "Art Basel in Miami Beach sits at the nexus of North America and Latin America and we have had incredible interest in the show from across our global collecting community this year. With strong figures and confidence in the U.S. art market, Art Basel in Miami Beach is assured as a key destination for collectors," said John Mathews, Head of Ultra High Net Worth Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management. The UBS Lounge will feature a unique wallpaper, War of the Roses [Sound Graph], by painter and filmmaker Sarah Morris created especially for the show, as well as works by Morris from the UBS Art Collection, including a newly acquired painting, Precious Stone [Sound Graph], 2018. The UBS Lounge will also feature work by twentieth-century masters Frank Stella and Howard Hodgkin. Works by all three artists will also be featured in the newly renovated lobby of UBS's Midtown New York headquarters at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, to be completed in early 2019. In the public area of the fair, the UBS Art Studio will celebrate female mentorship in the art world. Additionally, UBS's Project Entrepreneur will partner with Leche Lounge, founded by Stephanie Conduff, to offer a mobile lactation suite in the West Lobby that will be available to the public for the duration of the fair. Project Entrepreneur is UBS's flagship philanthropic initiative which aims to increase the pipeline of female founders, and is part of the firm's overall commitment to driving towards a more inclusive landscape for entrepreneurs. In addition, UBS and Village Capital will host a special discussion on inclusive entrepreneurship on Saturday, December 8 in the UBS Lounge. The event will convene a group of early-stage startup investors, female founders, and business support organizations from Miami and beyond, for an important dialogue on how to level the playing field for underrepresented founders. To coincide with Art Basel in Miami Beach, UBS has surveyed the attitudes and behaviors of US-based wealthy fine art collectors, in a special edition of its Investor Watch Pulse Report. The findings will be released the week of December 3. For more information and to read previous versions of the report, please visit: ubs.com/investorwatch - Memorandum of Understanding for Joint Venture to Build TiO2 Pigment-Grade Production Facility in Vietnam MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Argex Titanium Inc. (TSX: RGX) ("Argex") is thrilled to announce that its chain of events necessary to change the TiO2 industry has now formally started by executing a significant agreement which will insure its future success and provide substantial benefit to its shareholders. We are announcing the formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with a major mine operator in Vietnam, Hung Thinh Minerals Investment Co. Ltd., for the creation of a Joint Venture in Vietnam. The Joint Venture which is expected to be non-dilutive to Argex shareholders will construct a TiO2 pigment grade facility with initial capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum, expandable to 300,000 tonnes per annum. The facility will use ore from existing mines which have an ilmenite reserve of more than 60 million tonnes. The project, expected to require investment in excess of 200 million US dollars, will be financed by our Vietnamese partner using Argex proprietary process technology. Products from the plant will be marketed to local users in SE Asia and world-wide whose aggressive growth is predicted to continue for many years. The project will also create employment in Vietnam, generate infrastructure needed for further development of assets in the country, and provide substantial economic benefits for the developing nation. Joint Venture Agreements will be completed in the next sixty (60) days and engineering work on the Vietnamese plant will commence early in 2019. Argex is also in discussions with other counterparties to develop similar JVs in different countries. We will be sharing hopefully soon any new developments on all fronts. "This agreement which is the culmination of years of work for Argex provides a sound base for our economic and technical future. It is rewarding that the confidence placed in Argex by major players in the TiO2 user industry has fulfilled our ambition for the company. The MOU with Hung Thinh indicates that confidence in the Argex technology will bring many licensing opportunities beyond this Joint Venture. My belief is that after a long period of intensive work by our staff, the opportunities for commercial benefit are being realized and our strategy is proving to be sound and viable for a long-term future in the TiO2 markets," said Mazen Al Naimi, Chairman and CEO. "We look forward to the potential of this opportunity with Argex as a partner in developing a commercial TiO2 facility in Vietnam. It will allow us to pursue market opportunities in the Asian region and grow the company and its profitability. The Argex technology will provide us with a novel process which is environmentally friendly and cost effective. This partnership will benefit the economy of Vietnam and our company and we anticipate successful conclusion of this important project," said Mr. Phan Tranh Moun, Chairman of Hung Thinh. About Argex Titanium Argex Titanium Inc. has developed an advanced chemical process for the volume production of high-grade titanium dioxide (TiO2) for use in high-quality paint, plastics, cosmetics and other TiO2 applications. The Corporation's unique proprietary process uses relatively inexpensive and plentiful source material from a variety of potential vendors to produce TiO2, along with other valuable byproducts. Argex's process provides a significant cost and environmental advantage over current legacy TiO2 production methods. To stay informed on Argex Titanium, join our Investor Group on 8020 Connect at www.8020connect.com/groups/argex-titanium-inc. About Hung Thinh Hung Thinh Minerals Investment Co, Ltd. Is a member of the Hung Thinh Group founded in 2002 and headquartered in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam which operates mines in Binh Thuan Province. The production from these mines includes ilmenite, rutile, monazite, leucexon, and zircon and the products are sold to regional customers in SE Asian markets. Hung Thinh specializes in the extraction of titanium bearing ores for processing into commercial grade minerals. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information and statements may include, among others, statements regarding future plans, costs, objectives or performance of Argex, or the assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. In this news release, words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "estimate" "target" and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. No assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur, including completion of Argex's TiO2 finished coating production facility in Becancour, Quebec, sales of TiO2 under the TiO2 Purchase Agreement, completion of the Joint Venture with Hung Thinh Minerals Investment Co. Ltd. for construction of a TiO2 pigment-grade production facility in Vietnam, all as referred to above, or if any of them do transpire or occur, what benefits Argex will derive from them. Forward-looking statements and information are based on information available at the time and/or management's good-faith belief with respect to future events and are subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond Argex's control. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, those described under "Risk Factors" in Argex's Annual Information Form for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com; they could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Argex does not intend, nor does Argex undertake any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements contained in this news release to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except if required by applicable laws. Contact: Mazen Alnaimi Chairman and Chief Executive Officer / Argex Titanium Inc. info@argex.ca SOURCE: Argex Titanium Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529004/Argex-Titanium-Announces-JV-for-First-Commercial-Plant Rock chip sampling identifies new spodumene occurrences Highlights Initial phase of rock chip sampling at Sherritt Gordon records values of up to 3.78% Li2O. Mineralisation hosted by a spodumene-bearing pegmatite swarm that has been defined third pegmatite "Grass River". The host pegmatites are fresh from surface with no significant depletion of lithium. Significant upside potential due to the lack of previous lithium exploration in the area and the strategic land position secured by Snow Lake along strike. Initial drilling of Grass River planned by Snow Lake Resources for late 2018/early 2019. Progressive Planet is a large shareholder of Snow Lake Resources. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 26, 2018 / PROGRESSIVE PLANET SOLUTIONS INC. (PLAN-TSX:V) ("Progressive Planet", "PLAN" or the "Company")is pleased to announce that initial reconnaissance rock chip sampling at Snow Lake Resources Sherritt Gordon has recorded new occurrences of higher grade lithium mineralisation (>1.5% Li2O/Figure 1) over an extensive area, with results including: SG1802 = 3.78 % Li20 - Grass River Pegmatite SG1804 = 2.15 % Li20 - SG - Pegmatite Following Nova's discovery (ASX Release 28 August 2018) as part of compilation work of historical data, the SNOW (Snow Lake Resources) team have discovered details on a cluster of spodumene-bearing pegmatite dykes located about 2 km southwest of the recently drilled Thomson Brothers pegmatite (Figure 1). This cluster, known as the Sherritt Gordon (SG) pegmatites, intrudes the outermost quartz diorite phase of the Rex Lake Pluton and was traced about 600 m along strike (Figure 2) by Sherritt Gordon Mines in the 1940s. Dyke SG-1 ranges from 1.5 to 5 m in width and dips 80o to the southwest. Dyke SG-2 is thinner and located about 70 m to the northeast of SG-1 and dips 50o - 70o southwest. In 1942, the SG-1 pegmatite was drill tested by Sherritt Gordon, and a total of twenty-one shallow drill holes totaling 608 m were completed at angles of -35o with a azimuths of 028o (Figure 3). Rather than reporting assays for Li2O, results in the historical drill logs are reported in "Gravitational Determination Percent Spodumene". This historical drilling yielded average spodumene contents ranging from 7.22 - 31.9 percent over widths ranging from 1.52 - 5.79 m core length (Table 1). The data contained within Table 1 is a recalculation of percent spodumene from data obtained in the 1942 drill logs. Data for hole SG-08 was not available within the drill log data file. SG and Grass River pegmatites remain open along strike in both directions and at depth. Dyke SG-2 was never drilled historically. The SG pegmatites are interpreted to have intruded late stage, sub parallel en-echelon, dilatational fractures. If both dykes are projected to depth they could merge or intersect at a depth of approximately 160 m. Snow Lake Resources intends a follow up drilling program to evaluate the SG-1, 2 and Grass River pegmatites which could contribute to increasing the overall resource inventory of the Thompson Brothers Lithium Project. Figure 1: Map showing pegmatite locations and rock chip samples (To view the full-size image, please click here) "We are committed to assisting Snow Lake Resources with their goal of fast tracking development of the Thompson Brothers Lithium Project. As a significant shareholder, we are excited to watch this new Sheritt Gordon Zone be systematically explored by Snow Lake in an effort to increase the tonnage of the Thompson Brothers Lithium Project," stated Steve Harpur, CEO of Progressive Planet. Qualified Person The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dwayne Melrose, P. Geo., a Director of Progressive Planet and a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101 and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. Progressive Planet is a Canadian based mineral exploration company with a flagship zeolite mine in British Columbia, and a graphite property in Buckingham, Quebec. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Signed "Stephen Harpur" Stephen Harpur, CPA, CGA CEO For further information, or to place a zeolite order, please contact: Stephen Harpur. CEO 1-800-910-3072 SHarpur@ProgressivePlanet.ca www.progressiveplanet.ca Forward-Looking Statements: Some of the statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Progressive Planet Solutions Inc. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Progressive Planet Solutions Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529133/Surface-Chip-Samples-of-up-to-378-Li2O-Confirms-New-Lithium-Bearing-Pegmatite-Discovery-at-Sherritt-Gordon Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) has promoted Simon Whitehead, currently Managing Director of H+K UK's Energy Industrials team to UK Chief Executive Officer. Effective immediately, he takes over the role from Richard Millar who has been promoted to Global President, along with Lars Erik Grnntun. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005539/en/ Hill+Knowlton Strategies Appoints Simon Whitehead as New UK CEO (Photo: Business Wire) Whitehead joined H+K in 2011 and has transformed H+K's Energy Industrials team into the largest of H+K UK's eight industry sectors with a 35-person dedicated team and clients including Shell, Hitachi, ICMM, OGCI and E.ON. He has also served as H+K's Global Energy Industrials Practice Leader "Simon's leadership of our Energy Industrial's team has proven undisputedly his abilities: he is held in high regard by clients and colleagues alike and his ability to motivate and mobilize teams to deliver exceptional work is outstanding," said Jack Martin, Global Chairman and CEO. "I am confident that Simon will lead H+K's flagship operation to new heights." "I am honored and energized by the opportunity to become CEO of H+K's largest single office. Under Richard's leadership, the London office has undergone a fundamental transformation and I am looking forward to building on that success along with my 300 London-based colleagues," said Whitehead. "We will build on our culture of innovation and collaboration by focusing on our clients and broadening and deepening the expertise we deliver through integrated communications." Whitehead spent the first part of his career working in international banking at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and in British politics before gaining his MBA from Cranfield, which focused on marketing communications. He then worked in public affairs and strategic communications as director of emerging markets in London at APCO Worldwide and then in financial public relations as the energy and natural resources partner at College Hill (now Instinctif) before joining H+K. H+K has offices in more than 40 countries worldwide, delivering award winning campaigns to clients across all sectors and disciplines and with a focus on continued innovation for the industry. Recent innovations include Flight School +, a crisis communications training and simulation tool, Better Impact, a new approach to brand purpose and CSR, and H+K Smarter, a behavioral science unit. About Hill+Knowlton Strategies Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Inc. is an international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational and global clients. The firm is headquartered in New York, with over 80 offices in more than 40 countries, as well as an extensive associate network. The agency is part of WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups. www.hkstrategies.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005539/en/ Contacts: For Media Enquiries: Sam Lythgoe Business Development +44 20 7413 3132 +44 7785 221709 sam.lythgoe@hkstrategies.coom Jason Stanford Global Communications +1 512 432 1937 +1 512 619 5756 jason.stanford@hkstrategies.com Megan Jackson Marketing Executive +44 20 7413 3766 +44 7809 643667 megan.jackson@hkstrategies.com Aircraft to Support the Spanish Carrier's Expansion of Scheduled and Charter Services to the Caribbean CDB Aviation, a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited ("CDB Leasing"), today announced that the company entered into a lease agreement with Palma de Mallorca-based Evelop Airlines ("Evelop"), covering one Airbus A330-300 aircraft. "We are pleased to welcome our new customer, Evelop Airlines, to CDB Aviation's rapidly expanding European customer base," said CDB Aviation Chief Commercial Officer Patrick Hannigan. "This widebody aircraft will bolster the airline's fleet as it continues its ambitious growth and expansion of its flight network connecting European passengers to destinations in the Caribbean." "Evelop is delighted to have entered into this dry operating lease agreement with CDB Aviation for its 6th aircraft, with this particular aircraft being our 5th widebody. CDB Aviation has been a very comprehensive lessor, understanding the needs of our airline and having worked very closely with our team in order to build a win-win transaction for both parties. We expect that this becomes the start of a long-term relationship between the two companies," commented Evelop Chief Financial Officer Fabian Hernande. This latest transaction demonstrates CDB Aviation's stalwart commitment to building and cultivating relationships with airlines in all key markets around the world. Hannigan concluded: "As our platform expands globally, we continue to deliver a full suite of operating lessor products that meet wide-ranging customer needs and ensure growth with access to a diverse fleet and attractive near-term delivery positions for new technology aircraft." About Evelop Airlines Evelop Airlines is a Spanish airline based in Palma de Mallorca, with an operating base at Madrid Barajas Airport. The airline is a subsidiary of travel and tourism conglomerate, Avoris Travel Group, and operates scheduled and charter services in collaboration with fellow group carrier, ORBEST (Portugal), on behalf of tour operators. www.evelop.com About CDB Aviation CDB Aviation is a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited ("CDB Leasing") a 34-year-old Chinese leasing company that is backed mainly by the China Development Bank. China Development Bank is under the direct jurisdiction of the State Council of China and is the world's largest development finance institution. It is also the largest Chinese bank for foreign investment and financing cooperation, long-term lending and bond issuance, enjoying Chinese sovereign credit rating. CDB Leasing is the only leasing arm of the China Development Bank and a leading company in China's leasing industry that has been engaged in aircraft, infrastructure, ship, commercial vehicle and construction machinery leasing and enjoys a Chinese sovereign credit rating. It took an important step in July 2016 to globalize and marketize its business listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX STOCK CODE: 1606). www.CDBAviation.aero View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005585/en/ Contacts: Media contact: Paul Thibeau, +1 612 594 9844 Paul.THIBEAU@CDBAviation.aero AXA Property Trust Ltd - Notice of AGM AXA Property Trust Limited (a closed-ended investment company incorporated with limited liability under the laws of Guernsey with registered number 43007) LEI Number: 213800AF85VEZMDMF931 (The "Company") 27 November 2018 NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Notice is hereby given that the 2018 Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held at the offices of Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited Trafalgar Court, Les Banques, St Peter Port, Guernsey on 28 December 2018 at 11.30am. The Notice of AGM has been posted to shareholders. In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.3, the Notice of Annual General Meeting and proxy form have been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at: www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM Enquiries: Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited The Company Secretary Trafalgar Court Les Banques St Peter Port Guernsey GY1 3QL Tel: 01481 745001 END FINANCIAL PRESS RELEASE Paris, France, November 27, 2018 H1 2018/2019 Results Strong business dynamic: +9% over the first half Net improvement of operational results (+47%) and EBITDA (+16%) Confirmation of 2018/2019 goals Generix Group, Industrial, Logistical and Retail Ecosystems provider with leading Collaborative Software Solutions, today issued its half-year results for the period ended September 30, 2018. According to Jean-Charles Deconninck, Chairman of the Board: "Over the first half of the current fiscal year, Generix Group has continued its commercial impetus. In addition to a 9% growth in sales, we have seen a marked increase in our signature rate for SaaS contracts. This performance has been accompanied by greater profit. We continue our actions to achieve the Group's growth potential and maintain our service quality standards." Key figures on September 30, 2018 Six months ended September 30, Variation IFRS consolidated accounts, in millions of Euros 2018 2017 M % Key elements of the consolidated income statement Revenues 37,3 34,3 3,0 9% EBITDA 4,5 3,9 0,6 16% Operating income 2,9 2,0 0,9 47% Financial result - 0,7 - 0,3 - 0,4 152% Income taxes benefit - 1,2 - 0,6 - 0,6 93% Net profit Group share 0,5 0,6 - 0,1 -11% Key elements of the consolidated Balance Sheet Net debt - 13,3 - 11,3 - 2,0 18% Free cash flow - 6,7 - 5,0 - 1,7 33% Noted improvement in profit The first half of 2018/2019 was characterized by a 9% growth in turnover, which was driven by the dynamics of the strategic SaaS model, in particular for international sales. Over this period, Generix Group showed an EBITDA of 4.5 M, a rise of 16% with respect to end September 2017, along with an EBITDA margin of 12%. This performance can be explained by the growth of sales and the stabilization of sales force and marketing costs. Operating income was 2.9 M, an increase of 47% with respect to end September 2017, after accounting for the activation of software design costs, depreciation and provisions. The financial result for the half includes 0.5 M in earn-outs tied to the acquisition of 30% of the remaining shares of Generix Group North America[1]. After accounting for the impact of updating tax rates in the calculation of deferred taxes and minority interests tied to Generix Group North America, net income for the Group share is 0.5 M, as compared to 0.6 M for the first half of the preceding fiscal year. A healthy financial situation The cash flow statement indicates the flows between March 31 and September 30, 2018, as compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. Between these two dates, working capital requirements increased because of the invoicing of annual maintenance contracts at the start of the calendar year. These contracts are accounted for as turnover throughout the entire year. Cash flow for the first half of 2018/2019 compared to the same half in the preceding fiscal year was characterized by: a self-financing capacity of 9% of turnover; an increase in the variation of the need for working capital due to: - accelerated growth; - debt related to shares subscribed to in the amount of 0.9 M by Group management, which was settled in early October 2018[2]. the increase in cash flow tied to financing activities, explained primarily by: - the impact of share subscription (+0.9 M); - the stability of financing tied to factoring compared to a decrease of 0.8 M in the first half of the preceding financial year; - taking out a BPI loan for 0.7 M related to an innovation program. Prospects Performance in this first half demonstrates the pertinence of the strategic SaaS model and international development potential. On the strength of this dynamic and thanks to the stabilization of Sales and Marketing costs, the Group confirms the improvement in turnover and EBITDA for the 2018/2019 fiscal year. Supplemental and non-IFRS Financial Information Supplemental non-IFRS information (above-mentioned as EBITDA or net debt) presented in this press release is subject to inherent limitations. It is not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles and should not be considered as a substitute for IFRS measurements. Also, the Company's supplemental non-IFRS financial information may not be comparable to similarly titled non-IFRS measures used by other companies. The Half-Year Financial Report at September 30, 2018 is available for download at the address: https://www.generixgroup.com/fr/rapports-financiers (https://www.generixgroup.com/fr/rapports-financiers) Next financial press release: January 28, 2019 after the market closes Revenues for the third quarter of financial year 2018/2019 About Generix Group Generix Group is a Collaborative Supply Chain expert present in 60 countries, thanks to its subsidiaries and network of partners. More than 5,000 companies around the world use its SaaS solutions. The group's 550 employees provide daily support for such customers as Carrefour, Danone, FM Logistic, McKesson, Bic, Essilor, Bic and Ferrero in the digital transformation of their Supply Chain. Its collaborative platform, Generix Supply Chain Hub, helps companies to keep the promises they make to their customers. It combines the capabilities to execute physical flows, digitalize information flows, manage collaborative processes and connect companies to all their partners, in real time. Generix Supply Chain Hub is aimed at all players in the Supply Chain: manufacturers, third- and fourth-party logistics providers (3PL/4PL) and retailers. www.generixgroup.com (http://www.generixgroup.com) Annexes Six months ended September 30, Variation IFRS consolidated accounts, in millions of Euros 2018 2017 M % Revenues 37,3 34,3 3,0 9% Other income from operations 1,0 0,9 0,1 13% Operational expenses - 33,8 - 31,3 - 2,5 8% Other purchases and external charges - 11,1 - 10,6 - 0,5 5% Personnel costs - 20,8 - 19,0 - 1,8 10% Taxes and similar payments - 0,8 - 0,8 - 0,0 3% Other - 1,1 - 1,0 - 0,1 15% EBITDA 4,5 3,9 0,6 16% EBITDA margin 12% 11% 1% 6% Software design costs activated net of depreciation - 0,3 - 0,5 0,2 -39% Net depreciation and provisions - 1,3 - 1,4 0,1 -8% Recurring operating income 2,9 2,0 0,9 45% Other operational income and expenses - - 0,0 0,0 -100% Operating income 2,9 2,0 0,9 47% Financial result - 0,7 - 0,3 - 0,4 152% Income taxes benefit - 1,2 - 0,6 - 0,6 93% Net result after tax 0,9 1,0 - 0,1 -10% Net profit Group share 0,5 0,6 - 0,1 -11% (1)EBITDA = current operating income + net provisions on current assets + net provisions for risks and charges + depreciation on fixed assets - capitalized production costs. Six months ended September 30, Variation Net debt, in millions of Euros 2018 2017 M % Cash and cash equivalents, end of period 0,6 0,2 0,4 290% Short-term and long-term portions of financial obligations - 13,8 - 11,4 - 2,4 21% Net debt - 13,3 - 11,3 - 2,0 18% Six months ended September 30, Variation Consolidated statements of cash flows, in millions of Euros 2018 2017 M % Net income adjusted by non-cash items 3,3 3,1 0,2 8% Change in working capital - 9,0 - 7,3 - 1,7 24% Net cash by operating activities - 5,7 - 4,2 - 1,5 36% Net cash used in investing activities - 1,0 - 0,8 - 0,2 22% Free cash flow - 6,7 - 5,0 - 1,7 33% Net cash by financing activities 1,1 - 1,7 2,8 -161% Net increase in cash and cash equivalent - 5,6 - 6,8 1,1 -17% Cash and cash equivalent, end of period 0,6 0,2 0,4 290% [1] See financial press release dated November 6, 2018 [2] See financial press release dated November 5, 2018 Financial Information Contacts: Generix Group - Ludovic Luzza - Chief Financial Officer - Tel: +33 (0)1 77 45 42 80 - lluzza@generixgroup.com (mailto:lluzza@generixgroup.com) CM-CIC Market Solutions - Stephanie Stahr - Tel: +33 (0)1 53 48 80 57 - stephanie.stahr@cmcic.fr (mailto:stephanie.stahr@cmcic.fr) GENERIX-GROUP-EN-FINA-PR-RST-S1-2018-2019 (http://hugin.info/143425/R/2227072/874209.pdf) This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Generix Group via Globenewswire SUDBURY, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Frontier Lithium Inc. (TSX-V: FL) (the "Company") has proposed a non-brokered flow-through private placement offering for a total of 1,190,476 units ("Units") of the Company priced at $0.42 per Unit, for total gross proceeds of $500,000. The Common Shares to be issued under a unit offering of 1,190,476 units ("Units") at a subscription price of $0.42 per Unit. Each Unit shall consist of one (1) Common Share of the Company and one-half (1/2) share purchase warrant (the "Warrant"). Each full Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to purchase one additional common share of Frontier Lithium at an exercise price of $0.50 for a 30-month period from the closing (the "Offering"). All of the Shares and Warrants issued pursuant to the flow-through private placement are subject to a minimum 4-month hold period. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance exploration of Frontier's 100% owned PAK Lithium Project located in northwestern Ontario. Frontier has reserved the opportunity to grant to eligible persons a finder's fee of a maximum 6% of the gross proceeds of the Offering and finder options of a maximum of 6% of the total number of Units sold under the Offering. Each finder option will be exercisable at an exercise price of $0.48 into one common share for a period of 30 months from the date of issuance. About Frontier Lithium Inc. Frontier Lithium is a Canadian junior mining company and have the largest land position in the Electric Avenue, a newly emerging premium lithium-metal district hosted in the Canadian Shield of northwestern Ontario. Frontier is implementing a phased approach to development for becoming a producer of technical grade lithium concentrates required to produce premium glass/ceramics as well as supplying a byproduct of chemical grade concentrates for the production of lithium hydroxide required for the burgeoning lithium battery industry. Frontier's goal is to become a low-cost, fully integrated lithium producer through development of the PAK lithium deposit in Ontario, Canada. Frontier maintains a tight share structure with management ownership exceeding 30% of the Company. The deposit boasts its lithium in a rare, high-purity, low-iron spodumene and is analogous to the Greenbushes' Deposit in SW Australia, which supplies approximately 40% of the world's lithium demands. Frontier has recently discovered a new LCT Pegmatite showing that called the Spark showing, which at surface has displayed a channel cut with similar grade and composition to PAK Lithium Deposit. The surface exposure 3 times larger than the PAK pegmatite with widths greater than 100m and a strike length of more than 300m and is the target of project exploration to most efficiently increase resource tonnage. Currently the company is awaiting results of an additional 200m of channels. Ceramic/glass customers prefer to source technical-grade (low-iron) spodumene concentrate in excess of 7% lithium oxide (Li2O), if available, to avoid inferior lower grade petalite concentrates, or paying much higher prices for battery grade lithium compounds. The PAK lithium deposit remains open in all directions and Company Management is working towards developing a viable operation. The Company has completed a pre-feasibility study to assess the economic viability and technical feasibility of producing lithium concentrates. About the PAK Lithium Project The PAK Lithium Project lies close to the boundary between two geological sub-provinces of the western Superior geologic province in northwestern Ontario and hosts a rare metals pegmatite deposit. The deposit is an LCT (lithium- cesium- tantalum) type pegmatite. These types of pegmatites have been the principal source of hard rock lithium, tantalum, rubidium and cesium ores mined in the world but there are comparatively few commercially-viable deposits. Frontier is actively exploring its 100% owned project which contains the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite. The PAK deposit has a current Measured and Indicated Resource of 7.5 million tonnes of 2.02% Li2O and an Inferred Lithium Resource of 1.8 million tonnes of 2.10% Li2O which has a technical/ceramic grade spodumene with low inherent iron (below 0.1% Fe2O3). The deposit now has a known 500m strike length with an estimated true width varying from 10m to 125m with a sub-vertical orientation. The resource remains open to depth and along strike to the northwest and southeast. For Further Information, please contact Bora Ugurgel Manager, Investor Relations 2736 Belisle Drive Val Caron, ON. P3N 1B3 CANADA T. +001 705.897.7622 F. +001 705.897.7618 Additional information regarding Frontier Lithium is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company's profile and on its website at www.frontierlithium.com, including various pictures of ongoing work at the project. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Frontier Lithium Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529145/Frontier-Lithium-Announces-500000-Flow-Through-Financing Truong hop cua Hassan al-Kontar a uoc pho bien rong rai sau khi anh chia se tren mang xa hoi mot clip cho thay hinh anh anh ang phai song trong san bay va cam cu bang cac bua an tu thien cua nhan vien san bay cung cap. Cac sinh hoat ca nhan khac eu dien ra trong khu nha ga so 2 cua san bay quoc te Kuala Lumpur. Mot cong dan Syria a phai song nhieu thang tai san bay quoc te Kuala Lumpur vi bi tu choi nhap canh vao Malaysia. Anh minh hoa. Nguon: AFP Kontar bi ket tai san bay Kuala Lumpur tu thang 3/2018, sau khi bi tu choi nhap canh vao Malaysia vi ly do thi thuc co van e va anh cung bi cam i en cac nuoc khac. Anh bi nhan vien cua van phong nhap canh bat giu hoi thang truoc. Toi biet trong toi rat ki quai, giong nhu nguoi cua thoi ai truoc. Toi rat tiec ve ieu o. Tam nam vua qua a rat nang ne, va 10 thang vua qua cung thuc su kho khan va lanh leo. Anh chia se trong mot video ang tren Twitter hom nay 27/11. Cac quan chuc Malaysia truoc o a noi se lam viec voi chinh quyen Syria e ban ve viec ua Kontar quay tro lai que nha. Nhung luat su cua Kontar la Andrew Brouwer cho biet ho a ap giai truc tiep Kontar en san bay Kuala Lumpur truoc khi Kontar len chuyen bay i en Vancouver Canada. Brouwer cho biet Canada a chap nhan Kontar la nguoi ti nan va cap the thuong tru theo chinh sach tai tro nguoi ti nan cua nuoc nay. Kontar khong phai truong hop duy nhat xin ti nan nhung phai lang thang trong san bay trong nhieu thang. Nam 2015, mot gia inh en tu Iraq cung a phai chiu canh tuong tu tai san bay Moscow, ho a phai song nho vao nuoc va thuc an uoc cac hanh khach khac chia se. Stranded Syrian refugee leaves airport for Canada (AFP) - A Syrian refugee who spent several months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has been granted permanent residency by Canada and is en route to Vancouver, his lawyer said Tuesday. Hassan al-Kontar's plight became widely known after he shared posts on social media that showed him surviving on donated airline meals, washing and giving himself a haircut in the toilets at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Terminal 2. He had been stuck since March -- blocked from entering Malaysia because of visa issues and barred from travelling to other countries, and was detained last month by immigration officials. "I know I look like someone who ran from the stone, middle ages. I'm sorry for that" the smiling 36-year-old said in a Twitter video Monday, looking tired and stroking his bushy beard. "For the last eight years, it was hard, long journey. The last ten months, it was very hard and cold." Malaysian officials earlier said they were going to work with Syrian authorities to deport him back to his war-torn homeland. But his lawyer Andrew Brouwer said they brought Kontar directly to the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday before he was put on a Vancouver-bound flight. Brouwer said his client was recognised by Canada as a refugee and was granted permanent residency under the country's refugee sponsorship programme. "We were of course very pleased that Malaysia appeared to agree and abide by international law," he said. In the video on his Twitter account Kontar said he was in transit in Taiwan and that he would be reaching his "final destination" the following day. "I could not do it without the support and the prayers from all of you," he said. Kontar is not the only asylum seeker who has been left in limbo at an airport for a long period of time. In 2015 an Iraqi family spent more than two months in an empty smoking cubicle in a Moscow airport, relying on passengers to bring them food and water. Kontar's case also recalls the 2004 film "The Terminal," in which Tom Hanks plays a man who finds himself stuck in a New York airport after his government collapses, rendering his papers useless. Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has left more than 350,000 people dead. OPnGO Group BV, owner of the digital platform of parking OPnGO, announces the signing of a strategic partnership agreement (Joint Venture) with Banrisul (Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul S.A.), Banrisul Cartoes (a company of the Banrisul group) and OPnGO Brasil Tecnologia S.A. This partnership will be implemented through the creation of a new company, VeroGo, in which OPnGO Group BV will hold a 6.0% equity interest. VeroGo will combine the credit card payment terminals of Banrisul group with the convenience service of access to parking facilities (via plate recognition). Moreover, merchants will be able to easily pay the parking of their clients. The solution VeroGo aims to offer a unique payment solution and customer loyalty system, dedicated to shopping centers in Brazil. Serge Clemente, Chief Executive Officer of Indigo Group, comments: "This strategic partnership is a new illustration of our 2025 strategic plan, which focuses on becoming a global leader in digital parking solutions, through our subsidiary OPnGO. It does also illustrate our geographical strategy focusing on the most attractive markets worldwide, especially Brazil, where Indigo Group has been present since 2013 and is now the number 2 player with around 200 car parks operated in 22 states at the end of November 2018." The completion of the transaction is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions, including obtaining the relevant regulatory authorizations. ********** Contact analysts / investors: Press contact: Erwan Begos Claire Lise Beaurenault Tel.: +33 1 49 03 15 80 Tel: +33 1 49 03 12 79 Cell: +33 6 25 71 28 76 Cell: + +33 7 50 68 30 64 ir@group-indigo.com claire-lise.beaurenault@group-indigo.com Indigo Group, holding about 100% of Indigo Infra, OPnGO and INDIGO weel, is a key global player in car parking and urban mobility, that manages more than 2.3 million parking spaces and related services in 14 different countries. In 2017, Indigo Group revenues and EBITDA amounted to 897.5 million and 310.0 million respectively (Global Proportionate figures). Indigo Group is indirectly held at 49.2% by investment funds managed by Ardian, 49.2% by Credit Agricole Assurances, and the remainder by the employees and management of the Group. OPnGO Group BV, which is held indirectly at 100% by Indigo Group, provides digital parking solutions (on-demand payment, pre-payment booking, monthly subscriptions, and on-street mobile payment) across 4 countries in Europe through more than 500 car parks and 50 on-street locations and in the United States via the brand Mobile NOW. Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul S.A. is the largest bank of Southern Brazil and operates primarily in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul S.A. is a publicly traded corporation that operates in the form of a multiservice bank and operates in the commercial, credit, financing and investment portfolios of real estate, development, leasing and investment loans, including foreign exchange transactions, securities brokerage and credit card management and consortia. Banrisul Cartoes S.A. is a company specialized in the capture, transmission, processing, and settlement of card transactions. It also engages in the issuance of prepaid and postpaid cards for purchasing food, meals, and fuel; prepaid debit cards; postpaid benefits cards and gift vouchers; and business cards for fleet, expense, and payment management. The company was founded in 1969 and is based in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Banrisul Cartoes S.A. operates as a subsidiary of Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul S.A. OPNGO BRASIL TECNOLOGIA S.A. is a company founded in Porto Alegre that offers a convenience service to its users, which facilitates the access to accredited parking areas and the electronic payment of parking fees. ------------------------ 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-0-56131-20181127-opngo-extends-its-digital-solutions-for-parking-veng-vf.pdf SINGAPORE, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan honored Asia's leading companies at its 11th annual Asia-Pacific Best Practices Awards banquet held on 27 November at the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790245/BPS_Awards_pic.jpg Mr. Shivaji Das, Partner & Asia-Pacific Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan noted that the annual awards was held to honor and recognize companies that have pushed the boundaries of excellence in Asia-Pacific. "We are delighted to highlight best practices and honor companies that have delivered excellence in their respective industries. Through this recognition, Frost & Sullivan hopes that the companies will continue to excel and spur them to further achievements," he added. The recipients of the annual Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific Best Practices Awards were identified based on in-depth research conducted by Frost & Sullivan's analysts. The award categories offered each year are carefully reviewed and evaluated to reflect the current market landscape and include new emerging trends. The nominated companies were then evaluated on a variety of actual market performance indicators which include revenue growth; market share and growth in market share; leadership in product innovation; marketing strategy and business development strategy. Frost & Sullivan congratulates all the recipients of the 2018 Asia-Pacific Best Practices Awards. GLOBAL 2018 Global Halal Glove Company of the Year KOSSAN RUBBER INDUSTRIES BHD 2018 Global Medical Glove Technology Innovation Award SMART GLOVE HOLDINGS 2018 Global API Manufacturing (Oligonucleotide) Growth Excellence Leadership Award ST PHARM 2018 Global Integrated Drug R & D Services Competitive Strategy Innovation & Leadership Award WUXI APPTEC ASIA-PACIFIC 2018 Asia-Pacific OSS/BSS Vendor of the Year AMDOCS 2018 Asia-Pacific Home Water Treatment Company of the Year AMWAY 2018 Asia Pacific Outbound Systems Market Share Leadership Award ASPECT SOFTWARE (ASIA PACIFIC) PTE LTD 2018 Asia-Pacific Contact Center Applications Growth Excellence Leadership Award ASPECT SOFTWARE (ASIA PACIFIC) PTE LTD 2018 Asia-Pacific CRO Customer Value Leadership Award COVANCE INC 2018 Asia Pacific Renewable Inverter Product Line Strategy Leadership Award DESTIN POWER INC 2018 Asia-Pacific E-Commerce Logistics Service Provider of the Year DHL eCOMMERCE 2018 Asia-Pacific Customer Experience System Integrator of the Year DIMENSION DATA ASIA PACIFIC 2018 Asia-Pacific Demand-Side Management Growth Excellence Leadership Award GRIDWIZ, INC. 2018 Asia Pacific Process Safety Systems Industry Growth Excellence Leadership Award HIMA 2018 Asia-Pacific Self-Service Contact Centre Application Vendor of the Year HUAWEI 2018 Asia-Pacific Telecom Equipment Vendor of the Year HUAWEI 2018 Asia-Pacific AMI Solutions Company of the Year ITRON INC 2018 Asia Pacific Secondary Battery Technology Innovation Award JENAX INC. 2018 Asia Pacific Facilities Management Company of the Year JLL 2018 Asia-Pacific Logistics Service Provider of the Year KERRY LOGISTICS NETWORK 2018 Asia-Pacific Road Transportation Service Provider of the Year KERRY LOGISTICS NETWORK 2018 Asia-Pacific Omni-Channel Logistics Service Provider of the Year LF LOGISTICS 2018 Asia-Pacific Warehouse Service Provider of the Year LF LOGISTICS 2018 Asia-Pacific Logistics Facilities Developer of the Year MAPLETREE LOGISTICS TRUST MANAGEMENT LTD 2018 Asia-Pacific Clinical Trial IT Solutions Provider of the Year MEDIDATA SOLUTIONS 2018 Asia-Pacific Biotech CRO Company of the Year NOVOTECH, THE ASIA PACIFIC CRO 2018 Asia-Pacific Cloud Contact Center Service Provider of the Year ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES 2018 Asia-Pacific Cloud UC Growth Excellence Leadership Award ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES 2018 Asia-Pacific Data Communication Service Provider of The Year ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES 2018 Asia-Pacific Data Center Infrastructure Service Provider of the Year SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC 2018 Asia-Pacific UPS Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC 2018 Asia-Pacific Liquid Chromatograph - Mass Spectrometry New Product Innovation Award SHIMADZU 2018 Asia Pacific Bottled Water Company of the Year SPRITZER 2018 Asia-Pacific Property Development Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award SUNWAY BERHAD 2018 Asia-Pacific Managed UC Services Provider of the Year TATA COMMUNICATIONS 2018 Asia Pacific Smart Utility Communications Platform Company of the Year TRILLIANT HOLDINGS INC 2018 Asia Pacific Customer Contact Optimization Solutions Vendor of the Year VERINT SYSTEMS SOUTHEAST ASIA 2018 Southeast Asia Unified Communications System Integrator of the Year DIMENSION DATA ASIA PACIFIC 2018 Southeast Asia Managed Security Service Provider of the Year TRUSTWAVE, A SINGTEL COMPANY COUNTRY 2018 Australia Customer Contact Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year STELLAR 2018 Cambodia Mobile Data Service Provider of the Year SMART AXIATA CO., LTD 2018 Cambodia Mobile Service Provider of the Year SMART AXIATA CO., LTD 2018 Indonesia Healthcare IT Company of the Year PT. QPRO SUKSES MANDIRI 2018 Indonesia Smart City infrastructure Service Provider of the Year LINTASARTA Excellence in Customer Experience - Telecommunications Industry Indonesia - Overall Experience PT TELEKOMUNIKASI SELULAR Excellence in Customer Experience - Telecommunications Industry Indonesia -Online Experience PT TELEKOMUNIKASI SELULAR 2018 Japan Managed Security Service Provider of the Year NRI SECURETECHNOLOGIES 2018 North American Artificial Intelligence for Aging Research and Drug Development Technology Innovation Award INSILICO MEDICINE , INC. 2018 Philippines Contact Center System Integrator of the Year DTSI GROUP 2018 Philippines Cloud Infrastructure Service Provider of the Year GLOBE TELECOM 2018 Philippines Data Center Service Provider of the Year GLOBE TELECOM 2018 Philippines Facilities Management Customer Value Leadership Award FPD ASIA PROPERTY SERVICES, INC. 2018 Philippines Property Development Growth Excellence Leadership Award SM PRIME HOLDINGS, INC. 2018 Singapore Data Center Competitive Strategy Innovation & Leadership Award SINGTEL 2018 Singapore Managed Security Service Provider of the Year TRUSTWAVE, A SINGTEL COMPANY 2018 Singapore Mobile Wallet Platform Growth Excellence Leadership Award MATCHMOVE PAY 2018 Singapore Wholesale Colocation Data Center Service Provider of the Year KEPPEL DATA CENTRES 2018 South Korea Managed Security Service Provider of the Year AHNLAB 2018 Taiwan Data Center Service Provider of the Year CHUNGHWA TELECOM 2018 Taiwan Mobile Service Provider of the Year CHUNGHWA TELECOM 2018 Vietnam Hospital of the Year HOAN MY MEDICAL CORPORATION 2018 China Contact Center Outsourcing Growth Excellence Leadership Award TELEPERFORMANCE CHINA About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies? Contact Us: Start the discussion Media Contact Melissa Tan Corporate Communications - Asia-Pacific Phone: +65.6890.0926 Email: melissa.tan@frost.com Zaman will be reporting from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Al-Monitor, the global news organization covering the Middle East, announced today it has named Amberin Zaman as a Senior Correspondent. Zaman has been a columnist for Al-Monitor for the past five years, examining the politics of Turkey, Iraq and Syria and writing the daily Briefly Turkey newsletter. Prior to Al-Monitor, Zaman covered Turkey, the Kurds and conflicts in the region for The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times and the Voice of America. She served as The Economist's Turkey correspondent between 1999 and 2016, and has worked as a columnist for several Turkish language outlets. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Al-Monitor recently introduced new features including short form video, podcasts and long form stories with audio - offering content on new platforms and aiming to reach a wider, international audience. In this new role, Zaman will be reporting from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, providing news and analysis on the trends shaping the region. In her new position, Zaman will further Al-Monitor's goal of reaching and engaging with audiences who wish to connect and understand the nuances of a region that is so rapidly changing. "I am so pleased to expand Ms. Zaman's role," said Jamal Daniel, Al-Monitor's founder. "Amberin's extensive experience reporting and telling the stories of the people and politics of the region align perfectly with our mission to be the leader in providing deep insights from the Middle East." "I am thrilled to be expanding my role at Al-Monitor as a senior staff correspondent covering the broader Middle East and North Africa Region," said Amberin Zaman. "Reporting from the field and giving voice to people whose lives are being affected by decisions being made thousands of miles away is what I most cherish about my work. There is no substitute for 'being there.'" About Al-Monitor Al-Monitor is a global newsroom headquartered in Washington, D.C. with a network of over 160 authors and analysts around the world. We monitor the pulse of the Middle East via our award-winning, multilingual platform and publish a diverse set of perspectives connecting local experts to audiences with a desire to better understand a region that is so rapidly changing. Related links: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/authors/amberin-zaman.html Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790216/Amberin_Zaman.jpg Stuttgart / Silicon Valley (ots) -- Querverweis: Bildmaterial ist abrufbar unter http://www.presseportal.de/bilder -Porsche Consulting has opened a new office in Belmont, California. The most innovative IT and technology companies are their neighbors in Silicon Valley. Detlev von Platen, Member of the Porsche AG Executive Board for Sales and Marketing, emphasized the significance of the new site for the company. "We need more visionaries, more 'out of the box' thinking, especially if we want to drive innovations forward," he noted. "And what better place to enact this necessary vision than the Silicon Valley? To have the consultants directly on-site offers the best conditions for this."Belmont is the ninth office that Porsche Consulting has opened since its inception in 1994. It is located next to Volkswagen's Electronics Research Laboratory. "Contact with colleagues from our own corporate group is just as valuable as with Silicon Valley's many other expert and courageous individuals who are working with enormous energy and matchless spirit to shape the world of the future," said Eberhard Weiblen, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche Consulting GmbH. He expects the Belmont office to bring together the best ideas from a wide range of fields and give Porsche Consulting clients around the world direct access to major innovation networks. New mobility, high-performance enterprise, and business transformation are Porsche Consulting's main areas of concentration.The company established its North America presence in 2011 with a subsidiary in Atlanta. Dr. Norman Firchau is the founding President and CEO of Porsche Consulting, Inc., USA, which currently has 46 employees. "We have quickly developed a good reputation with our management consulting services here too," said Firchau. "The new office in Belmont enables us to take the next step and offer even greater proximity and expertise to clients in this large and diverse country." Clients originate primarily from the automotive, aviation, and aerospace industries, as well as the industrial and consumer goods sectors. The Belmont office is led by Doug Reinart, an experienced industry executive and consulting partner. The total number of employees at Porsche Consulting, Inc., USA is expected to reach about 60 through 2019.Porsche Consulting GmbH is one of Germany's top ten management consultancies, and employs more than 550 people worldwide. It is a subsidiary of the Stuttgart headquartered sports-car maker Porsche AG. Porsche Consulting has offices in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Milan, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Atlanta and Belmont (Silicon Valley). Following the principle of "strategic vision, smart implementation," its experts help businesses improve their performance and the power to innovate. Its clients include large corporations and medium-sized companies from the automotive, aviation and aerospace industries, as well as the industrial goods, financial services, consumer goods, retail, and construction sectors.Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com)Images available in the Porsche Newsroom (http://newsroom.porsche.de) and in the Porsche media database (http://presse.porsche.de).A video is available at www.porsche-consulting.comOriginaltext: Porsche Consulting GmbH digital press kits: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/115681 press kits via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_115681.rss2Contact: Porsche Consulting GmbH Director Communication Heiner von der Laden phone +49 (0)711 911 - 1 21 21 Heiner.von.der.laden@porsche.de CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Ivrnet Inc. (TSX-V: IVI) is pleased to announce a sales and marketing partnership with Altitude Communications Inc, a Calgary communications and solution reseller with 22,000 end points and growing. Altitude and Ivrnet have a long history working together in the Calgary market place and have engaged in a sales partnership to extend and grow that relationship. Ivrnet and Altitude began their expanded partnership with an important new client. "Ivrnet and Altitude are thrilled to have begun our new expanded partnership with an early, high-profile win," stated Chris Topolniski, COO of Ivrnet. "Altitudes experience and reputation in the Alberta market and Ivrnet's deep product platform quickly combined to bring a new service to Albertan's starting at the end of this year." Details of the new project are expected to be announced later in the year. Through the new partnership agreement Altitude will sell Ivrnet services into Altitude's existing client base, while at the same time the companies will seek out new joint opportunities. Ivrnet's products provide increased recurring revenue opportunities to Altitude as well as a deeper and differentiated service offering for their clients. Similarly, Ivrnet will refer Altitude into Ivrnet's own client base to take advantage of Altitudes deep communications and infrastructure experience and solution. Altitude's proven sales expertise and market reach will help Ivrnet to increase the penetration of new products built upon Ivrnet's unique user engagement platform. Ivrnet feels this partnership is a key step towards achieving its internal goal of increasing sales activities ten-fold in 2019 over 2018, and thus to increase the growth rate of the organization. About Ivrnet Ivrnet is a software and communications company that develops, hosts, sells and supports value added business automation software. Our products and services are delivered through the traditional phone network and the Internet. These applications facilitate automated interaction through personalized communication between people; mass communication for disseminating information to thousands of people concurrently and personalized communication between people and automated systems. Ivrnet's applications are accessible through nearly any form of communication technology, at any time, from anywhere in North America via voice, phone, fax, email, texting and the Internet. About Altitude Communications Established in 2004, Altitude Communications provides business communications and customer engagement tools to companies across Canada. We are strategic with our customers while developing a communications plan for their organization. Business challenges have changed and our agile approach to technology research and implementation means that our customers can leverage our experience to develop a solution that matches their key priorities and timelines. Customer engagement is absolutely critical to a company's success. Knowing how your customers want to reach you and giving them the platform to make It easy for them to do so is exactly what Altitude Communications is all about. Giving your employees the right tools to properly support your customers and communicate with each other is equally important to Altitude Communications. Our mobile first, any device philosophy will give your employees collaboration and support tools they need to be effective wherever and whenever they are working. We deliver these services by working with partners that provide solutions that are high quality, flexible and fairly priced. Through consistent growth, a passion for technology, and a strong belief in doing what's best for our clients, Altitude Communications is the best choice for strategic communication solutions. Altitude Communications is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta and has services extending to all of Western Canada. www.altitudecommunications.ca Forward-looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements which reflect Ivrnet's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to Ivrnet. These statements require Ivrnet to make assumptions it believes are reasonable and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results and developments may differ materially from the results and developments discussed in the forward-looking statements as certain of these risks and uncertainties are beyond Ivrnet 's control. These statements are based on Ivrnet's understanding and assessment of applicable markets and the opportunities within those markets. However, there can be no guarantee that Ivrnet's assessment is correct, or even if it is correct, that Ivrnet will be able to capture any of those revenue opportunities or that it will be able to grow those opportunities. These statements are based on the assumption that Ivrnet has the technical capabilities to build and deliver technical enhancements and that such technical enhancements will increase revenue opportunities for Ivrnet as anticipated. However, there can be no guarantee that Ivrnet will be successful in building and delivering those technical enhancements in a commercially viable manner or that such technical enhancements will deliver any new revenue opportunities for Ivrnet or, if generated, that Ivrnet will be able to capture such revenue opportunities. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected effects on Ivrnet. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by applicable securities legislation, the Company assumes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent information, events, or circumstances. For further information please contact: Chris L. Topolniski - Chief Operating Officer, Ivrnet Inc. Direct: (403) 538-9722 Cellular: (403) 870-2434 E-mail: c.topolniski@ivrnet.com www.ivrnet.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Ivrnet Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529157/Ivrnet-Extends-Sales-Channel-with-Altitude-Communications-Partnership VANCOUVER, British Columbia, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Abattis Bioceuticals Corp (the "Company" or "Abattis") (CSE: ATT) (OTC: ATTBF) is pleased to announce that the Company has signed a Distribution Agreement (the "Distribution Agreement") with Shefield & Sons Tobacconists Inc. ("Shefield & Sons") to sell the Abattis vaporizer line in all Shefield & Sons stores across Canada. Shefield & Sons has been in business since 1976 and is one of Canada's pre-eminent tobacconist franchisors with locations in major cities across Canada. Shefield & Sons offers an extensive tobacco section and in the last three years has entered the lucrative cannabis space providing consumers with an array of complimentary products such as vaporizers, pipes and grinders. "The Company's Distribution Agreement with Shefield & Sons marks a monumental step forward in consumer exposure to the Company's retail vaporizer line," stated Robert Abenante, President and CEO of Abattis. "The Company is excited to announce this partnership with Shefield & Sons. By leveraging their brand name, image and vast distribution outlets across Canada, we expect significant growth in our vaporizer sales. In anticipation of our LP license, we are now more focused than ever on securing vaporizer distribution agreements and strategic partnerships with well-known franchises like Shefield & Sons. This Distribution Agreement offers tremendous value to our partners, shareholders and customers," added Mr. Abenante. Abattis' vaporizers provide therapeutic benefits in the delivery of cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol extracts, utilizing a system of rapid absorption for the quick delivery of cannabinoids. With the Distribution Agreement in place, the Company is anticipating increased sales growth of its entire vaporizer line for 2019. The current market for Abattis vaporizers is looking very promising. According to data by Wells Fargo and Agora Financial, "Vapes are proving to be more than just a short-term fad as 'vaping' has picked up steam dramatically in the last ten years." Business Intelligence and Strategy Research ("BIS Research"), a global market intelligence and advisory firm, recently published a report on Vaporizers titled "Global E cigarette and Vape market 2017-2025." In the report, BIS Research states, "The global e-cigarette market was estimated to be worth $8 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow at a [Compound Annual Growth Rate] of 19.34% throughout the forecast period to become a $46.9 billion industry by 2025." About Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. Abattis is a life sciences and biotechnology company which aggregates, integrates, and invests in cannabis technologies and biotechnology services for the legal cannabis industry developing in Canada. The Company has successfully developed and licensed natural health products, medicines, extractions, and ingredients for the biological, nutraceutical, bioceutical, and cosmetic markets. The Company is also seeking to acquire exclusive intellectual property rights to agricultural technologies to be employed in extraction and processing of botanical ingredients and compounds. The Company follows strict standard operating protocols and adheres to applicable laws of Canada and foreign jurisdictions. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD, ABATTIS BIOCEUTICALS CORP, "Rob Abenante" Robert Abenante, President & CEO For more information about Shefield & Sons, please visit their website at: www.shefield.com/shefieldsons For more information about the Company, please visit the Company's website at: www.abattis.com For Company inquiries please contact +1-808-650-3007 or at investors@abattis.com. Abattis IR is managed by Canada One Communications Inc. About Canada One Communications Inc. Canada One Communications Inc. ("Canada One") is a full-service Investor Relations and Marketing company that focuses on both private and public sectors within the Canadian markets. Canada One offers timely responses to all investor inquiries over several mediums and effective, thorough market awareness programs that are specifically designed to maximize exposure and bring value to shareholders. Canada One's dedicated and experienced team strives to promote client information to the public and educate potential investors on the various developments of its clients. From basic phone-call and email investor correspondence, to full-scale comprehensive marketing packages which includes industry analysis, website development, corporate videos and other marketing programs, Canada One provides a full suite of services that are fully compliant with Canadian securities regulations. Canada One is driven by an uncompromising dedication to provide publicly listed and private companies with across-the-board investor relations and marketing solutions, directly translating these services into organic growth and increased market value of its valued clients. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words including but not exclusive to "anticipate", "promising", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "intends", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include: (i) statements that the Company will experience increased sales growth of its entire vaporizer line in 2019 and beyond; (ii) statements regarding the size and projected growth of the global E-cigarette and vaporizer market in general; (iii) that the Distribution Agreement offers tremendous value to the Company's partners, shareholders and customers; and (iv) that the Company will receive a license to produce and cultivate cannabis. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties including: that the Distribution Agreement will not result in increased growth or a significant increase in the sales of the Company's vaporizers; that the Company will not receive the necessary regulatory approvals for its current or future products; that the Company will not see revenue growth at all or as anticipated; that the Company will not be well capitalized; that the Company or the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Gabriola Green Farms, will not be granted a production or cultivation license; that the Company will not be able to develop and supply a wide range of products and services to the market; that the Company's investments will not produce significant revenue streams; that the Company's investment initiatives will not drive growth; that the Company will not be able to execute its proposed business plan in the time required or at all due to regulatory, financial or other issues; that the Company's competitors may develop competing technologies; changes in regulatory requirements; and other factors beyond the Company's control. Additional risk factors are included in the Company's filings available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com . The forward-looking statements are made as at the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, where because of new information, future events or results, or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. For more information about the Company, please visit the Company's website at: www.abattis.com For Company inquiries please contact +1-808-650-3007 or at investors@abattis.com . CALHOUN, Georgia, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE: MHK) today announced that Frank H. Boykin, chief financial officer, is planning to retire in 2019. Boykin joined Mohawk in 1993, moving up through various finance roles prior to his appointment as CFO in January 2005. "I am grateful for the contributions Frank has made to Mohawk during his 25 years with the business," said Jeffrey S. Lorberbaum, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "During that time, his leadership enabled Mohawk to expand from a niche carpet provider into the world's largest flooring company with manufacturing operations in 19 countries. Frank has positioned Mohawk with a robust balance sheet that will support our growth and acquisitions in the future. I am confident in the strong financial team Frank has developed and appreciate his continued support through the transition." "I am proud of Mohawk's remarkable growth and expansion during my time here," said Boykin. "Mohawk is a great company with a bright future, and I look forward to working with our finance team to deliver a smooth transition." Mohawk has launched a comprehensive search for Boykin's successor. After his successor is selected, Boykin will facilitate the transition in a senior consultant role. ABOUT MOHAWK INDUSTRIES Mohawk Industries is the leading global flooring manufacturer that creates products to enhance residential and commercial spaces around the world. Mohawk's vertically integrated manufacturing and distribution processes provide competitive advantages in the production of carpet, rugs, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone and vinyl flooring. Our industry-leading innovation has yielded products and technologies that differentiate our brands in the marketplace and satisfy all remodeling and new construction requirements. Our brands are among the most recognized in the industry and include American Olean, Daltile, Durkan, Feltex, Godfrey Hirst, IVC, Karastan, Marazzi, Mohawk, Mohawk Group, Pergo, Quick-Step and Unilin. During the past decade, Mohawk has transformed its business from an American carpet manufacturer into the world's largest flooring company with operations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, India, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia and the United States. Certain of the statements in the immediately preceding paragraphs, particularly anticipating future performance, business prospects, growth and operating strategies and similar matters and those that include the words "could," "should," "believes," "anticipates," "expects," and "estimates," or similar expressions constitute "forward-looking statements." For those statements, Mohawk claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements will be accurate because they are based on many assumptions, which involve risks and uncertainties. The following important factors could cause future results to differ: changes in economic or industry conditions; competition; inflation and deflation in raw material prices and other input costs; inflation and deflation in consumer markets; energy costs and supply; timing and level of capital expenditures; timing and implementation of price increases for the Company's products; impairment charges; integration of acquisitions; international operations; introduction of new products; rationalization of operations; taxes and tax reform, product and other claims; litigation; and other risks identified in Mohawk's SEC reports and public announcements. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 27, 2018) - INTEGRITY GAMING CORP. (TSXV: IGAM) (OTCQX: IGAMF) ("Integrity" or the "Company") today announces financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018 (all amounts stated in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated). Third Quarter 2018 Highlights & Financial Results 1.8% decrease in leasing revenue to $3.24 million in Q3 2018 from $3.29 million in Q3 2017. 1.9% decrease in leasing revenue to $10.30 million for the first 9 months of 2018 from $10.50 million for the first 9 months of 2017. 1.0% increase in Adjusted EBITDA to $2.28 million in Q3 2018, compared to $2.25 million in Q2 2018, and a 4.6% decrease in Adjusted EBITDA compared to $2.39 million in Q3 2017. Net loss of $1.27 million for Q3 2018, compared to a net loss of $2.02 million in Q3 2017. Operating cash flow before changes in current non-cash working capital of 1.94 million for the first 9 months of 2018, compared to $2.43 million for the first 9 months of 2017. At quarter end, Integrity held participating interests in approximately 2,760 revenue generating machines, compared to 2,614 at September 30, 2017. Subsequent to Q2 2018, Integrity signed a new placement agreement for 250 machines. "We continue to carry out our strategy of increasing placements of machines in tribal casinos and we continue to look for opportunities to expand our presence into new markets. During the first 9 months of 2018, we increased our machine base by 146 machines, or 6%. In October 2018, we signed a new placement agreement for 250 gaming machines. Revenue from the new contract will be generated commencing in Q1 2019." said Robert Miodunski, Interim CEO of Integrity. About Integrity Gaming Corp. Integrity Gaming Corp. is a regional slot route operator with over 2,700 gaming machines in operation across over 33 casinos in Oklahoma and Texas. The Company primarily derives its revenue from short- and long-term revenue share contracts with Native American casinos. It provides gaming equipment such as slot machines and electronic table games, and project financing to owners, operators, and managers of casinos and other regulated gaming venues. The Company works with casinos, new casino developments, and gaming machine suppliers. Additional information about the Company can be found on the Company's website at www.integritygaming.com and on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Selected operating and financial information and reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA is as follows: Q3 2018 Q2 2018 Q1 2018 Q4 2017 Q3 2017 Q2 2017 ($) ($) ($) ($) ($) ($) Average number of machines 2,751 2,726 2,701 2,622 2,529 2,583 Leasing Payments * 3,927,423 3,964,593 4,276,700 3,781,240 3,833,128 3,922,972 Reported Leasing Revenue 3,235,344 3,311,306 3,751,437 3,576,719 3,294,897 3,614,580 Reported Total Revenue 3,416,059 4,338,416 4,443,280 4,062,627 3,898,110 4,250,547 COGS: Casino supplies and equipment (135,926) (924,106) (633,979) (320,786) (428,829) (428,595) Operating expenses (2,257,298) (2,236,190) (2,252,720) (2,317,861) (2,474,213) (2,335,795) General and administrative expenses (1,173,583) (1,667,662) (1,439,193) (1,372,907) (1,554,085) (1,546,981) Amortization of intangible assets (200,642) (199,576) (198,775) (200,375) (200,642) (199,576) Gain (loss) on disposal of assets 6,700 17,056 - - 990 23,200 Loss from operations (344,690) (672,062) (81,387) (149,302) (758,669) (237,200) Financing costs (1,003,720) (976,244) (932,950) (3,882,101) (1,163,893) (1,145,358) Foreign exchange gain (loss) (1,614) 1,047 1,897 (299) (1,948) 196 Gain on sale of Bingo - - - 139,032 - - Gain on settlement of debt - - - 194 580 (224) Revaluation of exit fee liability 97,974 43,248 105,464 - - - Income tax recovery (expense) (14,091) (10,000) (10,000) (3,307) (98,199) - Net Income (loss) (1,266,141) (1,614,011) (916,976) (3,895,783) (2,022,129) (1,382,586) Adjustments: Depreciation of equipment 1,282,440 1,254,083 1,277,063 1,321,685 1,599,168 1,525,644 Amortization of placement fees 383,468 435,372 441,393 441,393 424,863 449,658 Amortization of intangible assets 200,642 199,576 198,775 200,375 200,642 199,576 Income tax expense (recovery) 14,091 10,000 10,000 3,307 98,199 - Finance lease receivable reduction 692,079 653,287 525,263 204,521 538,231 308,392 Financing costs 1,003,720 976,244 932,950 3,882,101 1,163,893 1,145,358 Foreign exchange (gain) loss 1,614 (1,047) (1,897) 299 1,948 (196) Gain on settlement of debt - - - (194) (580) 224 Loss (gain) on disposal of assets (6,700) (17,056) - - (990) (23,200) Gain on disposal of Bingo - - - (139,032) - - Revaluation of exit fee liability (97,974) (43,248) (105,464) - - - Stock based compensation 38,093 116,686 56,627 89,024 92,691 116,416 Employee separation fees 30,000 284,000 - - 290,000 - Adjusted EBITDA 2,275,332 2,253,886 2,417,734 2,107,696 2,385,936 2,339,286 * Leasing Payments consist of leasing revenue reported under IFRS plus finance lease receivable reduction reported in the statement of financial position. For further information, please contact: Adam Kniec, CFO & Corporate Secretary Integrity Gaming Corp. T: 604.683.8393 E: ak@integritygaming.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain information in this news release is considered forward-looking within the meaning of certain securities laws and is subject to important risks, uncertainties and assumptions. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, information with respect to the Company's beliefs, plans, expectations, anticipations, estimates and intentions. The words "may", "could", "should", "would", "suspect", "outlook", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "plan", "target" and similar words and expressions are used to identify forward-looking information. The forward-looking information in this news release, including those statements relating to expected EBITDA, and the placement of additional machines by the Company, describes the Company's expectations as of the date of this news release. The results or events anticipated or predicted in such forward-looking information may differ materially from actual results or events. Material factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from such forward- looking information include, among others, risks arising from general economic conditions and adverse industry events. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Company's forward-looking information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME. Non-IFRS Measures Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure that does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before financing costs, income taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock based compensation, unrealized foreign exchange, impairment of loans receivable, impairment of placement fees, gain/loss on settlement of debt, gain/loss on disposal of assets, gain on sale of Bingo, finance lease receivable reduction, revaluation adjustment of earn-out liability, revaluation of exit fee liability, employee separation fees and non-recurring costs. As there is no standardized method of calculating Adjusted EBITDA, it may not be directly comparable with similarly titled measures used by other companies. The Company considers Adjusted EBITDA to be a relevant indicator for measuring trends in performance and its ability to generate funds to service its debt and to meet its future working capital and capital expenditure requirements. Adjusted EBITDA is not a generally accepted earnings measure and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income (loss), cash flows or other measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Gibraltar Rejects Claim Made by Spanish Foreign Minister Government says it rejects the view expressed by the Foreign Minister of Spain, Josep Borrell, that the United Kingdom has lost a measure of sovereign capacity over Gibraltar because it is no longer free to negotiate a future relationship with the European Union. "This is certainly not the case." reads a statement released by the Gibraltar Government today. "In the first place, the Prime Minister has made it abundantly clear that the United Kingdom Government will be negotiating for the whole UK family of nations and that this includes Gibraltar. Secondly, the document that Mr Borrell refers to is a political document of zero legal value. Thirdly, in the negotiation that follows about the post-Brexit future, the truth is that all Member States of the European Union will not only have a veto over absolutely everything but, in addition to this, the different national and in some cases even regional Parliaments of the different Member States will be required to approve every aspect of the future relationship. The talk of vetoes and exclusions is extremely unhelpful. It simply serves to generate uncertainty among the people in the neighbouring region of Spain. It is important to recall that over 14,000 people live in Spain and work in Gibraltar. Economic studies have shown that businesses in Gibraltar purchase some 400 million a year from businesses on the Spanish side of the border. Gibraltar residents spend 70 million a year in the hinterland. Indeed, Gibraltar accounts for 25% of the GDP on the Spanish side of the border. This is part of the shared prosperity that Gibraltar generates and which already exists. The reality is that over the last year as we prepared to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom and Gibraltar have held discussions with different Member States, including Spain, as our nearest EU neighbour. This has led to a number of agreements across a number of given issues. It has also led to Gibraltars inclusion in the Withdrawal Agreement and in the transition period which is now until the end of 2020. The basis of transition is that things will remain largely as they are for a fixed period while a future long-term relationship is negotiated and concluded. That future is about the relationship that the United Kingdom family, including Gibraltar, and the EU will have as from 1 January 2021. Gibraltar has always been ready and willing to discuss that relationship, in a friendly and constructive manner, in the same was as we have discussed our terms of exit from the European Union. What we are not ready or willing to do is to give up any part of our sovereignty as the price to pay." Rare earths miner, Lynashas kicked of its Annual General Meeting in Sydney today.Chairman, Mike Harding, says 2018 has been a year of record growth with the company achieving its first net profit after tax of $53 million.The meeting comes just hours before a decision is due to be handed down by the Malaysian Government regarding aspects of Lynas' operations in the country.Lynas expects the Minister will take some time to consider the report which will then be considered by the cabinet, but it could be weeks before the company is told of the findings.The company is planning for a temporary shutdown of Malaysian production in December as it waits on approval to increase the annual volume of lanthanide concentrate that can be processed at its Malaysian plant.Shares in Lynasare trading 3.19 per cent lower to $1.98. Santossays it has completed the US$1.93 billion acquisition of Quadrant Energy.The completion amount was fully funded from Santos' existing cash resources and US$1.2 billion of new debt facilities.The oil and gas giant says stronger operating performance and free cash flow generation since June 30 means Santos is now expecting gearing to be about 33 per cent at year-end.According to CEO, Kevin Gallagher the acquisition strengthens the company's ability to fund growth activities in Western Australia, Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea, and the sustainable dividend through the cycle.Shares in Santosare trading 2.19 per cent higher to $5.61 The gulf country is also looking to attract Indian tech companies in financial sector and offers various incentives to them for setting up business in Bahrain. Manama: Bahrain's investment promotion agency Economic Development Board (EDB) has called for closer economic ties with India, as it looks to shore up the tourism sector and establish itself as a financial as well as fin-tech hub in the GCC region. India and Bahrain have a longstanding economic and trade relationship. A large number of Indian businesses have already established operations in Bahrain. Seeking to strengthen and further build economic ties, Bahrain EDB has established international offices in both New Delhi and Mumbai," said EDB managing director Simon Galpin. "We are looking at regular visits to India in 2019, starting this December," Simon said. The gulf country is also looking to attract Indian tech companies in financial sector and offers various incentives to them for setting up business in Bahrain. It is also working with some Indian states on cooperation and development of the fin-tech sector and is looking to sign some MoUs either in December or next year. The EDB provides assistance to Indian investors interested in setting up business in Bahrain. Bahrain provides a competitive environment, a simplified licensing process for foreign corporation, taxation incentives, a welcoming environment and an unlimited access to Gulf and Middle Eastern markets, said Bahrain EDB. The gulf country is also aligning its economic policies in order to project itself as cost effective alternative to Dubai and other business-friendly neighbours. It is also looking to create enabling ecosystem for startups, including viable financing options. "We are very keen to tap into not only the early stage startups that are coming out of leading Indian cities, but also scale-ups. Bahrain is a great test market for companies which want to diversify outside of India. A lot of Indian entrepreneurs are starting business here. What we are making sure is the right funding options for them...We are looking to bring crowd funding that could be the next step for some entrepreneurs," Simon said. Tourism, on the other hand, was one of the Bahrain's highest potential growth sectors for foreign investors in 2017, constituting around 10 percent of the total investment flows into the country. On the tourism side, we have great connectivity, lots of flights to Indian cities. We really wish, we should be getting more tourists coming from India, Jerad Bachar, executive director of Tourism and Leisure Investment, EDB said. Today, one-third of Bahrain's total population of 1.3 million is Indians, making them the largest expat community in the country. "Due to cultural and geographical proximity, the Gulf provides an attractive option to promote Bahrain to India or Indian sub-continent, Hatim Dadabai, MD, Dadabai Group said. Hatim, whose family migrated from Rajasthan to the gulf nation in early 1900s, also hailed Bahrain's consistent economic policies for conducive business environment. By Allison Martell and Allison Lampert TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters) - Hundreds of workers walked off the job and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed 'deep disappointment' after General Motors Co on Monday announced the closure of its Oshawa plant, catching governments and employees by surprise. Canadian officials, briefed on the plan on Sunday, promised to aid those affected by the December 2019 closure, part of a wider restructuring that will cut production of slow-selling models and slash GM's North American workforce By Allison Martell and Allison Lampert TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters) - Hundreds of workers walked off the job and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed "deep disappointment" after General Motors Co on Monday announced the closure of its Oshawa plant, catching governments and employees by surprise. Canadian officials, briefed on the plan on Sunday, promised to aid those affected by the December 2019 closure, part of a wider restructuring that will cut production of slow-selling models and slash GM's North American workforce. GM said the closure affects 2,973 assemblyline jobs in the Ontario city, out of the automaker's Canadian workforce of 8,150. "I spoke with GM (Chief Executive) Mary Barra to express my deep disappointment in the closure," Trudeau tweeted on Monday. "We'll do everything we can to help the families affected by this news get back on their feet." The end of automotive production in Oshawa is a blow to workers in Canada's manufacturing heartland and comes as Trudeau's Liberal government is trying to head off the economic impact of low oil prices in Western Canada. Trudeau is up for re-election next October. "The families in Oshawa need to hear that the Prime Minister hasn't already given up on a century of the auto industry in our community," said Conservative member of parliament for nearby Durham Erin O'Toole, speaking in the legislature. GM told the provincial government nothing could be done to keep the plant - located about 37 miles (60 km) east of Toronto - open, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. "The first thing I said is, 'What can we do? What do we have to do?'" said Ford, referring to a Sunday call with GM Canada's president, Travis Hester. "He said the ship has already left the dock." The Canadian and Ontario governments joined the United States in supporting GM with billions of dollars in aid after the automaker filed for bankruptcy protection during the 2009 global economic downturn. "We are not going away without a fight," Jerry Dias, National President of Unifor, told a news conference in Oshawa. Unifor, a successor to the United Auto Workers breakoff Canadian Auto Workers, represents most of the country's auto workers and more than 250,000 in other sectors. 'IT'S TERRIBLE' Canada's auto industry has struggled to attract new investment in recent years, and the latest closure will ripple through the company's supply chain. Canadian auto parts maker Martinrea International Inc will close a plant that supplies the Oshawa facility, said Executive Chairman Rob Wildeboer in an interview. Wildeboer said the announcement affects only about 1 percent of revenue for Martinrea, whose shares fell 6.8 percent on Monday. Shares of peers Magna International and Linamar Corp pared early losses to close up. Ford Motor Co has no plans to close a plant in Canada, President Mark Buzzell told reporters after meeting with Trudeau on Monday. The new trade agreement struck by the United States, Mexico and Canada in September leaves significant room for Canadian plants to increase duty-free exports. USMCA, as the new NAFTA is called, is expected to be formally signed this week. But a former Canadian auto executive said it would be difficult for Canadian government officials to persuade GM to keep the plant open. "The government has done everything they could to keep them afloat. Obviously incentives by themselves don't keep a car plant open," said the executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Members of Unifor walked out of the Oshawa plant "in protest," ahead of a meeting with GM about the announcement, a union spokeswoman said. "I've moved my family twice for this company and they do this to me. It's terrible," a tearful worker told CBC TV as he left the plant. BMO Capital Markets estimated that the closure would reduce Canadian gross domestic product by between 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent over a full year. (Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto, Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Richard Chang and Matthew Lewis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Public sector oil companies plan to allot about 65,000 petrol pumps across the country to nearly double the existing retail network, according to officials. HPCL wants to set up 12,685 more outlets, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) 15,802 outlets, while Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will set up 26,982 more fuel stations. The expansion is being done in tandem with growth in demand for petrol and diesel. Retail outlets will be constructed with the latest technology including automation and are expected to generate employment opportunities, the statement said. India has 63,674 fuel retail stations - HPCL has 15,287 fuel pumps, BPCL has 14,593, IOC operates 27,377 fuel stations and ONGC/MRPL has 6 fuel pumps. Among private refiners, Nayara Energy has 4,895 fuel pumps, Reliance Industries 1,400 outlets and RoyalDutch Shell operates 116 fuels stations. Here are a few things you should know if you are planning to apply for a petrol pump dealership: A transparent online process for application and draw of lots or bid will be open. A different selection process for corporation-owned dealer operated outlets, dealer-owned dealer operated outlets and corporation-owned dealer operated outlets will be offered under Corpus Fund Scheme. Who can apply Anyone who is not less than 21 years and not more than 60 years and has passed minimum 10th standard can apply. According to The Financial Express, unlike earlier, applicants do not need to have a bank balance of Rs 25 lakh in accounts. Availability of suitable land is the most important requirement factor, the report said. However, applicants without the land "can also apply with a condition that they will offer land when asked to". Those who are interested can go through the detailed advertisement available on the government website petrolpumpdealerchayan.in. The government for the first time in the last four years has allowed the state-run oil marketing companies to go for a massive expansion of their retail operations. The move will boost employment generation by thousands and an investment of thousands of crores of rupees. According to statistics, retail sales of petrol and diesel are increasing at the rate of 8 percent and 4 percent per annum, respectively. With inputs from agencies Samsung India Head (Human Resources) Sameer Wadhawan said Samsung will visit IITs in Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Guwahati, BHU and Roorkie, starting 1 December for hiring. New Delhi: Samsung India plans to hire over 1,000 graduates from top engineering colleges across the country with over 300 of them coming in from various IITs, a top company official Tuesday said. Samsung India Head (Human Resources) Sameer Wadhawan said Samsung will visit IITs in Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Guwahati, BHU and Roorkie, starting 1 December for hiring. He added that overall, more than 1,000 students will be hired from premium engineering colleges from across the country. Hiring process will also include the newer IITs in Hyderabad, Dhanbad, Ropar, Indore, Gandhinagar, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Mandi and Jodhpur as well as other premium engineering colleges like BITS Pilani, IIITs, NITs, Delhi Technological University (DTU), Manipal Institute of Technology, and IISc Bengaluru. Wadhawan said most of the new hires will work in cutting-edge domains of artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, natural language processing, camera technology and 5G networks. Samsung had said last year that it will hire a total of 2,500 engineers for its R&D operations over the next three years. In 2017, Samsung spent over $15 billion on R&D globally. In August this year, the company had announced that it will invest $22 billion globally on four emerging technologies artificial intelligence, 5G, automotive electronics components and biopharmaceuticals over the next three years. In India, Samsung has three R&D centres in Delhi, Noida and Bengaluru. These units contribute to Samsung's global products portfolio as well as work on developing India-specific innovations. The company's R&D centres have filed over 2,900 patents in the country so far. The Bengaluru R&D centre, which was the company's first R&D centre in India set up in 1996, has a specialised in-house team that conducts company-wide systematic patent creation training. In all, Samsung has offered 350 pre-placement offers (PPOs) to students at the IITs this year. "There's a tactical shift that we have made to spot talent early and offer PPOs. This year, we had a slightly longer internship period so that students can spend more time in the company, giving them opportunity to interact with the leaders and managers. This helps us spot a bright talent amongst them, Wadhawan said. He added that the company will continue to add engineers for R&D in cutting-edge technologies, developing innovations for the Indian market as well as for the globe. "R&D for us has become a key differentiator and we continue to leverage India's intellectual capital and rapidly grow our reputation as the most innovative company in the areas which we operate," he said. In a regulatory filing, Sun Pharma said 'the settlements extend to all claims brought by the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs'. New Delhi: Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Monday said the company along with its subsidiary has entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the Modafinil antitrust litigation pending in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The company, however, did not disclose the details of the settlement, saying the terms are confidential. In a regulatory filing, Sun Pharma said "the settlements extend to all claims brought by the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs". The company "and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries have entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the 'In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation' matter pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania," Sun Pharma said in a filing to the BSE. Earlier in a regulatory filing on the quarterly results on 13 November, 2018, the pharma major had reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 218.82 crore for the July-September quarter on account of a Rs 1,214-crore provision for the settlement of the Modafinil antitrust case in the US. "After accounting for the provision of Rs 1,214 crore for the estimated settlement amount payable to all the remaining plaintiffs related to the Modafinil antitrust litigation in the US, the net loss for the quarter was at Rs 219 crore," Sun Pharma had said. Modafinil is a wakefulness-promoting drug for oral administration. At the RBI board meeting on that day, neither side actually blinked on the issue of transferring reserves from the RBI to the governments accounts In the Cold War era, they called it detente (a French word that meant a release from tension): but 19 November was not for the first time that there was an easing in the strained relations between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government. That was on 7 February this year when at the RBIs monetary policy meeting, some forbearance from the repayment of bank loans for small borrowers was announced a window of 180 days. The abolition of loan limits for medium, small and micro-enterprises (MSMEs) was also announced, in alignment with the launch of the governments MUDRA programme. The feeling of camaraderie lasted only till mid-February when the Nirav Modi-Punjab National Bank fraud came to light. In his remarks at The Economic Times Global Business Summit on 23 February, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was quoted as saying, Unfortunately in the Indian system, we politicians are accountable, but regulators are not. That message was not lost on the central bank. Fast forward to 19 November, which did not quite turn out to be the day of reckoning that many people thought it would be. At the RBI board meeting on that day, neither side actually blinked on the issue of transferring reserves from the RBI to the governments accounts; the risk of another face-off between the government and the central bank hasnt been lowered. Sure enough, on 24 November, headlines in two business newspapers heightened the perceptions of the rising temperature: The Economic Times reported that there would be government representatives on the Board of Financial Supervision (BFS), one of the key functions under the RBIs oversight of financial system stability. Another headline, this time in The Financial Express, cited SC Garg, economic affairs secretary at the finance ministry, calling for a review of the governance of the RBI. But lets go back to the outcomes of the 19 November meeting for context. Four key points emerged: (i) a committee would examine an economic capital framework (ECF) for the central bank; (ii) a certain amount of additional relief for small borrowers would be considered by restructuring SME loans up to Rs 25 crore; (iii) a possible review of the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework would be undertaken by the BFS, and (iv) the deadline for banks to meet the capital conservation buffer (CCB) requirement under Basel III norms would be extended till 2020. Economic capital is arrived at not through accounting but via a risk estimation approach based on on-ground economic conditions, expected losses, their frequency, and amounts lost; so economic capital is an assessment of how much capital a central bank needs to hold to absorb anticipated losses. At the end of the year, say, if the expected losses do not materialise, then the central bank has excess capital which can then be transferred to the treasury or finance ministry. The ECF is about arriving at a formula that will decide how much of the RBIs profits should be transferred to the government every year without compromising the financial strength of the central bank (hopefully). It may involve a change in accounting policy and the treatment of unrealised gains (or losses). Before that, of course, the ECF will arrive at a number for the right economic capital level and perhaps transfer the current excess to the governments coffers. Heres the kicker though: If it turns out that some of the revaluation reserves end up being transferred to the government that can probably be done by selling some of the RBIs foreign investments, or gold, and maybe by reducing the foreign exchange reserves accordingly. For that much bandied-about figure of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, that will be about $21 billion in reserves. How will the committee arrive at the ECF? How appropriate will that framework be? What will that minimum or initial level of capital be? Important questions, which we hope the committee will answer. Will the restructuring of small SME borrower loans actually help them? Or the banks, for that matter? According to a report prepared by TransUnion CIBIL, the ratings agency, for SIDBI Ltd (formerly the Small Industries Development Bank of India) the value of all loans to MSMEs with a loan exposure of up to Rs 25 crore was Rs 12.6 lakh crore at end-March 2018. After the regulatory forbearance announced in February 2018, Rs 81,000 crore was classified as non-performing assets or NPAs. There is another Rs 11,000 crore that is partial NPAs, meaning that one or two lenders may have classified them as NPAs, but others treated them as standard assets. MSME loans are classified on a scale of 1 to 10 denoted by CIBIL MSME Rank or CMR depending upon riskiness. The report MSME Pulse June 2018 estimates that by the end of March 2019, another Rs 16,000 crore will be added to the pile of NPAs: Up by 20 percent. New loan growth in this segment is about 15 percent. If that wasnt enough, the report points out that Rs 1.2 lakh crore falls in the CR-7 to CMR-10 ranks or high-risk loans. While the estimate of Rs 16,000 crore in fresh NPAs seems reasonable, it could be higher. The PCA framework has no doubt caused some serious heartburn among the public sector bank managements; as the owner of these banks, the government is worried too. The problem is, the stressed asset/NPA problem may get worse before it gets better; from the revisions over the last two quarters, its not clear if the NPA problem is fully recognised. The PCA is a strong medicine, but should it be withdrawn before an adequate degree of cure has been effected? What about the signalling effect to the banks? The PCA was implemented after all else had failed. Then look at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that has so effectively moved against the largest borrowers. Compromising on the seriousness of that process isnt advisable. Some people worry that an NCLT review could be next (look at the suggestion about putting government nominees on the BFS, which also raises a question about conflict of interest). The last item on the 19 November board meeting list does not look like a big deal, and probably isnt. Indian banks have a capital adequacy ratio that is higher than the Basel III requirements already. And its only a shift in the deadline. Perhaps that is a reasonable concession to make. Heres the question though: Why not also apply an economic capital framework for the banking system? The Cold War detente was first set in motion when then-US President Jimmy Carter initiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT, with the erstwhile USSR to limit the growth of nuclear weapons arsenals. When President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, he jettisoned SALT, and replaced it with another set of arms limitation negotiations a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START. The rest, as they say, is history. People and markets now await the second or third detente in the RBI-finance ministry face-off. The RBI is what is called an institution with an economic purpose. The outcome of this set of negotiations will define how well it fulfills its purpose. (The writer is a senior journalist and communications consultant) RBI governor Urjit Patel told the Members of Parliament that credit growth was 15 percent New Delhi: RBI Governor Urjit Patel Tuesday committed to a parliamentary committee to give in writing his views on some of the controversial issues, which may include the government citing never-used powers to get the central bank on the discussion table, said sources. Patel, who appeared before the 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, said the economy would get a boost from oil prices cooling off from four-year highs and said fundamentals were "robust", they said. The RBI governor also told the Members of Parliament that credit growth was 15 percent and the impact of November 2016 demonetisation has a transient impact on the economy. Patel was earlier scheduled to appear before the panel on 12 November. He, however, did not answer specific questions on the government invoking Section 7 of the RBI Act, NPAs, the autonomy of the central bank and other contentious issues, sources said. Sources said Patel made a presentation about the state of the economy as well about the world economy to the committee and several members asked questions. His views on the economy were "optimistic". "He stayed clear of controversial questions like government invoking special powers, instead he gave intelligent replies without saying anything," they said. Members also asked questions on the implementation of the Basel III capital adequacy norms for banks. To this, a source said the Governor replied that adherence to the global norms was India's commitment to G-20 nations. Another source said that as there were a large number of questions, the Governor was asked to file written replies in 10-15 days. The RBI governor appeared before the panel days after the RBI's face-off with the finance ministry over issues ranging from the appropriate size of reserves to be maintained by the central bank to easing of lending norms for small and medium enterprises. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh is also a member of the committee headed by senior Congress leader and former Union minister M Veerappa Moily. India's banking system, particularly state-owned banks, are grappling with huge bad loans. Recently, there has been a liquidity crisis for the important NBFC sector following re-payment default by IL&FS. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) Making the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) voluntary was only a "knee-jerk reaction" of Congress following the death of ROTC cadet Mark Welson Chua, House national defense and security committee chair Rep. Ruffy Biazon said. "It might have been just a knee-jerk reaction on our part that when there was an abuse in ROTC and it resulted in someone's death, we immediately abolished it," Biazon told CNN Philippines' The Source on Tuesday. Biazon was a member of Congress when it passed a bill making ROTC voluntary and establishing the National Service Training Program in place of mandatory military training following the death of University of Santo Tomas ROTC cadet Mark Welson Chua. UST's campus paper The Varsitarian reported that Chua's hogtied body, rolled in a carpet, was found floating in the Pasig River after he exposed to the student publication alleged corruption in the university's ROTC unit. Congressional records show that Biazon did not cast a vote on House Bill No. 3593, but another proponent to reinstate mandatory ROTC, Senator Win Gatchalian, voted in favor of the bill making ROTC voluntary. For Biazon, who is also Muntinlupa's district representative, the killing of an ROTC cadet who exposed alleged corruption in their unit is not enough reason against making military training for college students mandatory again. "As a proponent of ROTC, to say na may corruption [sa ROTC,] i-ban natin, eh may corruption din sa academic subjects, why can't we ban it?" he said. "Of course we cannot do that, that's the purpose of education." [Translation. As a proponent of ROTC, to say that there is corruption in ROTC so we have to ban it, but there is also corruption in academic subjects, why can't we ban it? Of course we cannot do that, that's the purpose of education.] He added that while his bill does not have any safeguards against abuses in the ROTC program, the amended Anti-Hazing Law, which imposed heftier penalties on hazing, would be enough to protect cadets. In a privilege speech on Thursday, Senator Manny Pacquiao, among the senators pushing for the reinstatement of mandatory ROTC, acknowledged that there were problems and controversies in the implementation of the program, but did not mention Chuas case. As solution providers, we will strengthen the accountability of the ROTC officers as well as everyone involved in the implementation of the program, Pacquiao said. But Pacquiaos bill, which is co-authored by Senate President Tito Sotto, does not mention any mechanism to ensure the accountability of ROTC officers. 'ROTC instills discipline' In a speech last Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte renewed his call on Congress to pass a law that would reinstate mandatory ROTC for senior high school students to "instill patriotism and love of country to the youth." Duterte said the abolition of mandatory ROTC due to a "simple hazing caused an aberration in our country." "Ang Pilipino ngayon wala nang alam dahil doon sa nawala ang ROTC," he said. [Translation: Filipinos today no longer know anything because ROTC is gone.] Chua did not die due to hazing, but was killed in 2001 by ROTC officers after he revealed the alleged corruption in his unit. "The killing of Chua is just one of the many ROTC-related violence. We should not let these hard-won struggles be put to waste and we should not let state terror and impunity continue to reign," said Salinlahi Alliance for Children's Concerns secretary general Eule Rico Banganay in a statement on Sunday. Still, Biazon stressed that there is a greater need for the reinstatement of mandatory ROTC in college "for us to organize a force that we can mobilize during calamities and emergencies." "Military service training develops leadership, it teaches people organization. Follow orders or follow instructions. I think it instills discipline," he said. But Akbayan party-list Rep. Tom Villarin warned that ROTC may be used to suppress dissent. The state of national emergency still being imposed nationwide can be used as a pretext to mobilize the ROTC to suppress legitimate dissent and go against citizens critical of the Duterte administration, Villarin said in a press briefing. He added that Dutertes proposal to make ROTC mandatory again is an empty act of patriotism when our leaders are surrendering our sovereignty to foreign powers. Biazon's bill, which seeks to amend the law which established the NSTP, is only one of five bills pending in the lower house seeking to revive mandatory ROTC, House public order and safety committee chair Rep. Romeo Acop said Monday. Meanwhile, in the Senate, five similar bills are pending in the committee. "Kailangan talaga eh. We speak of a reserve force in so far as the [Armed Forces of the Philippines] is concerned. Saan po manggagaling ang mga ito kung hindi po doon sa ating mga estudyante who are willing to undergo military training?" Acop said. [Translation: It's really needed. We speak of a reserve force in so far as the Armed Forces of the Philippines is concerned. Where else would this come from except from those students who are willing to undergo military training?] CNN Philippines Correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report. According to Wikipedia, Giving Tuesday, often hashtagged as #GivingTuesday, refers to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States. Essentially it has become an international day of charitable giving at the beginning of the holiday season. As our readers know well, WarbirdsNews has always supported the warbird community by promoting the preservation of historic aircraft as well as the stories surrounding them, and we have continued to do so since becoming part of Warbird Digest last year. We particularly like to support grassroots organizations that emphasize their roles in youth education and veteran advocacy. As such, for the aviation-minded among you looking to make your own #GivingTuesday contributions, we would encourage you to consider supporting the groups listed below. We have deliberately tried to keep the list small, and been careful to mention groups outside of the usual, higher profile organizations which already have more wide-spread support. There are obviously too many to mention in one article, and doubtless, there are some we have yet to hear of, so please do post your thoughts at the end of this article if you have suggestions for other lesser known, but deserving efforts. Kittyhawk Academy Warbirds of Glory recently formalized their youth training program by establishing the Kittyhawk Academy youth mentorship program. The Academy involves local high school students in the restoration of B-25J Mitchell 44-40733, known as the Sandbar Mitchell. While developing their skills in aircraft restoration and knowledge of aviation history, the students also gain experience in cutting-edge Computer Aided Design technology and other engineering-related fields to help foster their consideration of a career involving aviation. To make an online donation, please click HERE. Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation Tim Chopp and the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation (BAHF) are the very definition of the term Flying Museum. In many ways they have been the pioneers of a traveling educational program supported by an actual working historic aircraft. Their mission is to promote the memory and legacy of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. They have chosen to do so by preserving several aircraft types used in this massive effort which saved the people of West Berlin from being overrun by the Soviets in the early days of the Cold War. These Flying Memorials and Classrooms serve the purpose of educating the public about this pivotal, but sadly oft forgotten event in world history. The foundation has operated Douglas C-54E Skymaster Spirit of Freedom on the air show circuit for the past two decades. Hundreds of thousands of air show visitors have toured its interior, learning about the Berlin Airlift from the artifacts and stories presented within, as well as actual veterans of the Airlift itself, such as Gail Halvorsen, the Candy Bomber. More recently, BAHF re-flew their Boeing C-97G Stratocruiser named Angel of Deliverance after a seventeen year restoration effort. She is the last airworthy example of her entire breed (if you discount the highly modified Aero Spacelines Super Guppy variant operated by NASA). The BAHF need a lot of our help in the final push to make Angel of Deliverance ready for touring the country. To make an online donation, please click HERE. Vintage Wings Inc. Three years ago, Vintage Wings, Inc.s president and founder, Jason Capra was driving through Ohio and stumbled upon what appeared to be an abandoned Douglas C-53 Skytrooper at a grass airfield in Beach City, Ohio. Thousands of volunteers hours and dollars, not to mention blood, sweat and tears, later this 1942-built Skytrooper finally flew again for the first time on October 6th this year for a ferry flight to her new home in Franklin, Pennsylvania, where the rest of her restoration will continue. Vintage Wings Incs goal is to create a flying classroom, a mobile living history museum, inside the aircrafts cabin. Static aircraft in museums serve a distinct and valuable purpose, but there is no substitute for a flying aircraft with all its sights, sounds and smells, to vividly instill the stories of aviation history in the minds of younger generations. To make an online donation, please click HERE. D-Day squadron The D-Day Squadron is the part of the Tunison Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. In June 2019, the D-Day Squadron will lead an American fleet of restored, historic C-47 transport aircraft in Daks Over Normandy, a flyover featuring more than 30 internationally-based aircraft which will drop 250 paratroopers over the shores of Normandy to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The event will honor the citizen soldiers of World War Two whose bravery led the Allies to the liberation of France, and ultimately ended the devastating War in Europe. To make an online donation, please click HERE. Project Recover Project Recover is a collaborative team of marine scientists, archaeologists and volunteers who have combined their efforts to locate aircraft associated with American service personnel declared Missing In Action during WWII. Established in 2012 with initial support from the Office of Naval Research, and formalized in 2016 with private funding from Dan Friedkin, CEO and Chairman of The Friedkin Group, Project Recover was co-founded by researchers at the University of Delawares College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment; Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, and The BentProp Project, Limited. The BentProp Project began in 1993 and formalized its mission structure in 2000, as a team of volunteers, trained specialists, and professionals, each with essential expertise in history, aviation, diving, and navigation, who are dedicated to locating and assisting with the repatriation of American Prisoners Of War and MIAs from World War II and other conflicts around the world. To make an online donation, please click HERE. CAF Lake Superior Squadron 101s PBY Catalina One of the most grassroots of all the units within the Commemorative Air Force is the The CAF Lake Superior Squadron 101. While the CAF may seem beyond the scope of our remit for #GivingTuesday, it is important to remember that the CAF is really a collection of individually-run, and mostly self-funded, units operating under a thin umbrella of control from CAF Headquarters. The CAF Lake Superior Squadron 101 in Duluth, Minnesota has taken on the Herculean task of combining the airworthy components from two different Consolidated PBY Catalinas into one flying example. Unit members are forging ahead with the restoration of their Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina, which has become a rallying point in their community, and we hope you will join with us in their support. To make an online donation, please click HERE. Yes bank and Rana Kapoor himself are facing major questions for allegedly flouting the golden rules of good corporate governance Till a few years ago, Yes Bank was everything that one could think of how a model private bank should ideally be. Happy investors (in the 13 years since its listing, the stock gave a return over 31 times), an average 30 percent quarterly growth in bottom line, a promoter who is handholding the bank at every turn; some called it the next HDFC Bank. Rana Kapoor was a seen as a promoter who was willing to stake everything for the bank (Kapoor recently tweeted his intent to never sell his holdings in the bank saying diamonds are forever). He was considered a visionary banker who spoke at length during media interactions about the need for strong corporate governance practices. But, today, Yes Bank and Kapoor himself are facing major questions for allegedly flouting the same golden rules of good corporate governance. He was recently denied an extension by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to continue as bank's CEO. There are two major instances that have come up where the rules of good corporate governance were given a major miss by the bank. First is the non-disclosure of certain major transactions involving the promoter group as exposed by Bloombergs Andy Mukherjee in this piece. The Rana Kapoor family, one of the promoters, holds their shares in the bank through three channelsMorgan Credits Pvt Ltd (MCPL), Yes Capital India Pvt Ltd (YCPL) and Kapoors direct holding. These parties hold 3.05 percent, 3.28 percent and 4.34 percent respectively. Through the first two entities, Kapoors daughters hold banks shares. Together, the Kapoor family holds around 10.65 percent in the bank. As the Bloomberg piece finds, by way of two major transactions against the holdings in the bank through MCPL and YCPL, the Kapoor family raised around Rs 1,790 crore. The MCPLs Rs 1,160 crore transaction was rated by CARE rating agency with a CARE A-; Stable. These papers were bought by two fundsReliance Mutal Fund and Franklin Templeton. When the share price fell, Kapoor had to bring in funds to compensate for the fall. A set of questions sent to Yes Bank seeking its response on the promoter group deals remained unanswered. But, a senior bank official, speaking to this writer on the condition of anonymity, claimed ignorance on the part of the bank about the whole affair. The official said the bank wasnt aware of the promoter group transactions. It isnt Kapoor directly but his daughters who were holding Yes Bank shares through MCPL and YCPL. This money was raised for their entrepreneurial needs. In hindsight, even though it was not legally required, the transactions should have been made known to shareholders, the official said. The promoters, however, didnt feel the need to disclose the details of the deal to the public, neither the regulators asked for it. By rules, the Kapoors may not be required to disclose the promoter group transactions or the usage of funds but in the interest of good corporate governance, the promoters and the bank should have informed the public about the same by making a note to exchanges. This is only the latest issue. Much of the problems began for Yes Bank with massive under-reporting of loans that have turned into non-performing assets (NPAs). This cast the first shadow on the bank and investors began to get suspicious. As a result, the RBI judged gross NPAs at Rs 8,373.8 crore for Yes Bank for 2016-17 against the declared gross NPAs at Rs 2,018 crore. Thus, there was a divergence of Rs 6,355 crore or three times the reported amount. The assessment for 2017-18 is yet to be released. Why did the bank choose to hide the actual chunk of bad loans? One must say hereeven the approach of the regulator to the Yes Bank issue raises further questions. The RBI left the world guessing about the exact reasons why it did not approve another three-year term for Rana Kapoor. This came after the decision was left pending for about two weeks. The regulator, in a letter dated 17 September, 2018, had said Kapoor could continue as the MD and CEO till 31 January 2019, but there was no clue as to why the regulator decided not to give an extension to Kapoor. Did the RBI get a wind of the transactions of the Kapoor family through the holding companies and was worried? The lack of clarity on what really irked the regulator in the Yes Bank issue to cut down the tenure of the founder-CEO remained a matter of speculation. It remains so even today. Yes Bank is now distancing itself from Kapoors and is in the process of finding a new CEO to rebuild its lost reputation. But the erosion in good corporate governance has done much damage to the reputation of one of Indias youngest and well-known banks; the persisting uncertainty has also caused large erosion in the shareholder wealth. Yes Bank shareholders arent a very happy lot today. From the peak of Rs 393.85 on 20 August, the bank's shares have lost 53 percent. The promoters will have to offer an explanation to the minority shareholders about why they kept the small shareholders in the dark about the Rs 1,790 crore transaction, even if they can argue that disclosure wasnt required on legal grounds. The rules of good corporate governance arent written in any book but are deeply embedded in the institution itself. (Data support from Kishor Kadam) On the 10th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. Washington: On the 10th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. In the barbaric attack unleashed on 26 November, 2008 by 10 LeT fedayeen from Pakistan, 166 people, six of whom were US nationals, were killed. "On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice," Trump tweeted. "The attack killed 166 innocents, including six Americans. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning!" he said. Kia Scherr, whose husband and a 13-year-old daughter were killed in the attack, thanked the president for his tweet. "May this day serve to remind us that love overpowers hate. This is the strength no bullet can kill. This is our true power. Thank you," she said. At a solemn event "in memory of the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks" at the Indian Embassy in Washington, a top American counterterrorism official called on Pakistan to bring LeT operatives and other terrorists to justice. "We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to do their parts in bringing the perpetrators to justice. All countries must uphold their international obligations to take action against this UN sanctioned terrorist group and its leaders," said Nathan Sales, State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism in his brief remark. Noting that a day earlier, the State Department had announced to offer up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction to anyone who committed or assisted the horrific attacks, Sales said, "With this, we remind the world that we have not forgotten those who perished 10 years ago and we will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice." It is an absolute affront to the victims of Mumbai and to their families who grieve them to this day, that after 10 years, those who planned these despicable acts have still not been convicted for their crimes, Sales said, echoing the statement of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a day earlier. "Our citizens died together. So we must all work together to end the scourge of terrorism. We must prevent the terrorists who committed this act of barbarism, LeT from ever threatening our people again," Sales said as he warned the terrorist group and its leaders that the US will go after them wherever they are. In his remarks, the Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Singh Sarna, paid tributes to the innocent lives lost during these attacks which included Indians and citizens from 14 other countries, including those from the United States. He condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and urged the international community to call upon Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist attacks to justice. Sarna thanked the State Department for instituting a "Rewards for Justice" programme announcing a bounty for any information leading to arrest or conviction of any individual involved in planning or facilitating the attacks. To honour the memory of the victims, a moment of silence was observed by the attendees followed by the lighting of candles. Extracts from an article written on this occasion by Kia Scherr, the co-founder of a charity 'One Life Alliance' and a family member of US victims in this tragedy, was also read out. The event concluded with the screening of HBO documentary on 26/11 Mumbai attacks, titled 'Terror in Mumbai'. The event among others was attended by Basant Sanghera and Jennifer Whethey, Director in the US National Security Council at the White House. Rabbi Levi Shemstov, Executive Vice President, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) recounted his personal encounter of the events of the day 10 years ago when he desperately tried to save his friends and colleagues in Mumbai and talked with one of the terrorists over the phone. In a separate statement, Congressman Eliot L Engel, Ranking Member of the powerful House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said 10 years ago, the world watched in real time as a horrific terrorist attack unfolded over the course of 60 hours in Mumbai. "I join the friends and families in remembering the 166 victims, including the six American citizens killed during the attack, and I stand in solidarity with the people of India who have demonstrated their resilience in the face of such violence," he said. "It remains imperative, as it was 10 years ago, to bring the perpetrators of such heinous and senseless violence to account," said Engel, who in all probability will be the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2019. "10 years ago the people of Indian fell victim to a heinous terrorist attack in Mumbai. Today we remember the victims and stand with India in the fight to end violent Islamist extremism," Congressman Ted Yoho said in a tweet. While Amarinder rejected Pakistan Foreign Office's offer to attend the event and cited continued terrorist attacks in Punjab, Sidhu accepted the invite and arrived in Lahore on Tuesday. Amid the frenzy surrounding the construction of the Kartarpur corridor, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and his cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu are holding polar opposite views on visiting the neighbouring country for the groundbreaking ceremony on 28 November. While Amarinder rejected the Pakistan Foreign Office's offer to attend the event and cited continued terrorist attacks in Punjab, Sidhu accepted the invite and arrived in Lahore on Tuesday. In an interview to India Today on Tuesday, Amarinder said that he had advised Sidhu against the visit and had told him he was taking a stand on Pakistan terror. "Yet he went," he said. "I will not allow terror in Punjab. For the first time, there were some militants from Kashmir trying to set up la logistics base in Punjab. Pakistan is using them, but we won't permit it," he said. Speaking to Republic TV, the Punjab chief minister said that his cabinet was supportive of his decision and that Sidhu has gone for the ceremony in individual capacity. "Sidhu gets carried away sometimes," he said. The Punjab Congress is familiar with having the two leaders not agree on an issue. In August, when Sidhu had travelled to Pakistan for Prime Minister Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony, he had triggered a controversy for hugging Pakistani Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. Amarinder had then heavily criticised Sidhu, and said the Punjab local bodies minister should have avoided the gesture. "The fact is that the man (Sidhu) should understand that our soldiers are being killed everyday. My own regiment lost one major and two jawans a few months ago," said Amarinder, a retired officer of the Indian Army's Sikh Regiment. Sidhu had defended his action saying, "If someone comes to me and says that we belong to the same culture and that we'll open the route to Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib on first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev's 550th birth anniversary, what else I could do?" he said while speaking to reporters. The two also had difference of opinion on the cultivation of opium in Punjab. When Patiala MP Dharamvir Gandhi had suggested the legalisation of the sale and cultivation of opium, Sidhu had backed the demand. Dharamvir Gandhi is doing a very good thing, I support him. My uncle used to take opium as a medicine and lived a long life: Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on being asked about AAP MP from Patiala Dharamvir Gandhi's demand for legalising opium cultivation #Punjab pic.twitter.com/NoZ2RU6eVN ANI (@ANI) October 1, 2018 However, Amarinder turned down the proposal in view of Punjab's "serious drug problem". "We are against the concept of drugs... I have created a special force to deal with it, whether it is heroin or opium. I am against it (the proposal) and Punjab will not do it, The Daily Pioneer quoted him as saying. In June, Amarinder had also turned down Sidhu's suggestion to set up a corporation to sell sand even when the state was dealing with the issue of sand mining. The Indian Express reported that the chief minister said that Sidhu's idea would take time to be realised and directed the ministers to continue with the progressive bidding policy for the second year in row. When Sidhu's drive against illegal constructions in Jalandar prompted several MLAs to protest, Amarinder took up the matter with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. During a media interaction event in August, Sidhu had addressed the matter. We all respect whatever decision is taken by the chief minister. But it does not mean that Ive put a lid on my mouth, Hindustan Times quoted him as saying. With inputs from agencies Amitabh Bachchan completed the loan payment process and invited 70 farmers to Mumbai by blocking an entire train compartment for them to personally give away the bank letters. Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has cleared the loans of over one thousand farmers in Uttar Pradesh. "Cleared the loans of farmers from Uttar Pradesh... select few were booked by me on train from Varanasi, and given OTS ('OTS: One Time Settlement with Bank Of India')," Amitabh tweeted late on Monday. He also personally met some of them to give them their bank letters. T 3007 - Cleared the loans of 1348 farmers from UP .. select few were booked by me on train from Varanasi, and given OTS .. OTS ; - ! pic.twitter.com/cOTTd4NC2M Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) November 26, 2018 "And then the meeting with the farmers from UP and the giving of the OTS certificates to a select few from the 1398. Let the Laxmi of the house, the daughter give them that. Laxmi the goddess of wealth. Shweta, the daughter, the Laxmi of the house," he wrote. He shared his photographs with Shweta on the blogpost. Amitabh completed the OTS process and invited 70 farmers to Mumbai by blocking an entire train compartment for them to personally give away the bank letters. Earlier in 2017, the Piku star helped over 350 farmers by paying off their debts and helping the families of 44 Maharashtra soldier who died in combat. He had then handed over the amount to the farmers and the soldier's families along with his wife Jaya. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Monday that the old pension scheme will be restored by his government and he will write to his counterparts in other states to follow suit. Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Monday that the old pension scheme will be restored by his government and he will write to his counterparts in other states to follow suit. He said a resolution to restore the old pension scheme in the city will be passed in a special session of the Legislative Assembly. "It will then be sent to the Centre for approval. I will fight with the Centre to get it implemented," Kejriwal said while addressing a rally organised by the All Teachers, Employees Welfare Association (ATEWA) at the Ramlila Ground. He said that he will also speak to his counterparts in West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka for implementation of the scheme. "The government employees have the power to change the government of the country. I want to warn the Centre, if the demand of employees is not accepted in three months, there will be an apocalypse in 2019," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener said. Slogans like "desh ka neta kaisa ho, Kejriwal jaisa ho" greeted the Delhi chief minister as he made the announcement at the rally. Kejriwal slammed the new pension scheme as "betrayal and cheating" with government employees. "I want to request Modiji that you cannot accomplish nation-building by disappointing the government employees," he said, adding that the AAP government could perform in the areas of education, health, power and water supply only because of the cooperation of its employees. The new pension scheme was introduced by the Centre in 2004. Under it, employees contribute towards pension from their monthly salary along with an equal contribution from their employer. The funds are then invested in earmarked investment schemes through pension fund managers. The Indian establishment has not accorded due respect and honour to the Assamese. There are two citizenship laws in India, one for the rest of India and one for Assam. Even before taking a look at the draft Citizenship Amendment Bill, there is a need to go through the existing Citizenship Act. The cut-off year to be an Indian citizen is 1951 all over India whereas for Assam it is 24 March, 1971 in accordance with the Assam Accord. What it means is that anyone who was in India before 1951 will be an Indian citizen but anyone and who was in Assam till 24 March, 1971, will also be an Indian citizen. It also means that Assam has accepted several lakh foreigners who entered the state in the 20 years between 1951 and 1971. And by accepting them, the indigenous people of Assam have suffered immensely in terms of changing demographics. Even after accepting so many illegal immigrants, the government is hell-bent on forcing down the Citizenship Amendment Bill upon us. If this bill is passed, the Assam Accord would stand nullified. It will have no value. Nor will the National Register of Citizens have any validity as it is based on the Assam Accord cutoff year of 1971. Therefore, all of Assam is up in flames against the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Assams indigenous people are now thinking as to whether we have gained anything from the Assam Accord at all as there is a growing realisation that we actually lost a lot due to it. The indigenous people are getting threatened as their numbers have gone down due to unabated illegal immigration from neighbouring countries and regions. This threat is in the form of threat to language and threat to our culture which is on the way to becoming extinct. We feel there is a pre-planned conspiracy against the indigenous people of Assam. The comments of Shiladitya Deb (a BJP MLA whose recent anti-Assamese comments sparked a controversy) have only underscored the conspiracy. He said Assam will become a second Tripura which is a state where the indigenous people have been overrun by foreigners and have been rendered into a minority who are now just 19 percent of the state's population. Therefore, Shiladityas comments have only proved that there is indeed a conspiracy to render us into a minority and that is why the indigenous people have already been outnumbered in 42 of the state's 126 Assembly constituencies. The Assamese people want to identify themselves as Assamese and not as Hindus. This is something that the Indian government has to intensely reflect upon. Especially the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been following a policy in Assam that would create a divide between the Assamese and Bengalis and make the latter a permanent vote bank. That is why they want to pass the bill by hook or by crook and at whatever cost it entails. It is a preplanned move. In this respect, a few people like Shiladitya are playing a leading role which is to create a big rift between the Assamese and Bengalis. They have been making provocative statements that have vitiated the atmosphere. And when in reaction, individuals like Mrinal Hazarika and Jiten Dutta (United Liberation Front of Asom leaders) have furiously answered, it is Hazarika and Dutta who are picked up by the security forces and sent to jail but Shiladitya is left alone. This attitude smacks of a very discriminatory attitude. These are the instances that have poisoned the atmosphere which threatens the prevalent social order. Our patience has limits and our restraint should not be considered a sign of weakness. The feeling now is that India has neglected Assam at every step. The Indian establishment has not accorded due respect and honour to the Assamese. As a result, there is a lot of anger among the people now. The present mass upsurge is similar to the one during the Assam Agitation of 1979 to 1985. Assam's illegal foreigners do not only imply just the Bangladeshis, it includes the illegal immigrants from Nepal too. The powers that be are turning a blind eye to the illegal immigration from Nepal. If the Indian government had treated Assam at par with the other states and made 1951 as the cutoff year, this present problem would not have arisen. Possibly the ULFA would not have been created. Therefore we hope that the Indian government should view the problem from the interests of the people in Assam and not from the political viewpoint of the party. Anup Chetia A.K.A Golap Baruah is a founder member and general secretary of the ULFA. The Citizenship Amendment Bill seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. New Delhi: Bangladeshi nationals including Hindus should not be granted citizenship as proposed in the Citizenship Amendment Bill, Opposition members on Tuesday suggested saying India is a secular country and nationality should not be granted on the basis of religion, sources said. The suggestion was given by the Congress and other Opposition members at a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the Bill which is chaired by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, a source who was present in the meeting said. The Bill seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document. "The members have given various suggestions and the panel will decide in its next meeting which amendments will have to be taken up for consideration. The amendments for the Bill have to be passed by the committee through consensus. But if it doesn't happen then we will go for voting," Agarwal said after the three-hour-long meeting. The ruling NDA has maximum members in the 30-member panel. During the meeting, the opposition members moved clause-by-clause amendments and one of them from a Congress MP was to remove Bangladesh from the purview of the proposed legislation, another member who attended the meeting said. Interestingly, a BJP-supported member suggested that Assam, where the Bill received strong opposition, should be excluded from the ambit of the legislation. Opposition members from the TMC and the Left parties have claimed victory saying the BJP has "backed off" as it was pushing for concluding the deliberations on the Bill by Tuesday itself. Various members from Opposition parties asserted that citizenship is a constitutional provision and it cannot be based on religion, as India is a secular nation. Rather than resolving the situation in Assam, this Bill is making the situation more volatile in the already-tensed state, a Left party member in the panel said. Echoing similar sentiments, a Congress member said if all the proposed amendments come into force, then the Centre has to nullify the Assam Accord under which anyone entering the state illegally after March 1971, should be declared foreigner and deported. The Joint Parliamentary Committee is set to table its report in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament in December. The Bill is receiving vehement opposition in Assam and other northeastern states. A large section of people, organisations in the Northeast have opposed the Bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. The Meghalaya and Mizoram governments have strongly opposed the Citizenship Amendment Bill and adopted resolutions against it. The committee has already taken six extensions from the Lok Sabha Speaker. It has sought time for the presentation of the report on the "first day of the last week of the Winter Session, 2018". During the course of its examination and study visits, the committee met a cross section of people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Meghalaya and heard views of organisations, individuals, experts and others. The committee also heard the views of the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The accused along with 12 other imams and maulavis visited Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's Janta Darbar seeking increase in salary of the Delhi Waqf Board staff New Delhi: A 39-year-old Muslim cleric has been arrested for carrying a bullet while attending Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's Janta Darbar, police said on Tuesday. "The accused, Imran, along with 12 other imams and maulavis on Monday had visited the Delhi chief minister's Janta Darbar seeking an increase in salary of the Delhi Waqf Board staff," Deputy Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad said. "During frisking, a security officer found a bullet in Imran's wallet. He was handed over to the police," Prasad said. At his interrogation, Imran revealed that he lives in Seelampur and worked as a caretaker in the Bawli Wali mosque in Karol Bagh. He told the police he had found the bullet in a donation box three months ago and kept it in his wallet. He intended to throw it away in the Yamuna waters but later forgot. He has been booked under the Arms Act, the officer said. A massive fire broke out in Mumbai's Wadala area after an oil tanker burst into flames after crashing underneath the city's overhead monorail line, resulting in the death of the tanker driver, while the driver of the other vehicle suffered serious injuries. Mumbai: A massive fire broke out in Mumbai's Wadala area after an oil tanker burst into flames after crashing underneath the city's overhead monorail line, resulting in the death of the tanker driver, while the driver of the other vehicle suffered serious injuries. The incident took place last night around 10.47 pm at the Bhakti Park area. After receiving information, the police immediately cordoned off the area and fire trucks rushed to the spot to douse the flame. "The tanker was filled with methanol and when we reached the spot it had toppled and was on fire. The driver of the tanker was charred to death. The situation is under control now," fire service officer AH Sawant told reporters in Mumbai. There are waves and waves of marches by farmers, landless and tribals in many parts of India these days, particularly to the seats of power. Editor's note: This article is the first of a two-part series analysing the agrarian crisis in India, in light of the various marches and protests undertaken by farmers in recent months to highlight their problems. There are waves and waves of marches by farmers, landless and tribals in many parts of India these days, particularly to the seats of power like Mumbai and New Delhi. There have been at least four such marches in the past couple of months and another one is being organised in the National Capital on 29-30 November, seeking a special session of Parliament to discuss agrarian distress. These marches are timed to elections or Assembly/Parliament sessions in their desperate bid to be heard and their concerns addressed with long-term policies, plans and strategies, not sops, half-hearted measures or political skulduggery. Such is the irony that it seems as if the policymakers, economists and opinion makers are oblivious of the fact that agriculture provides maximum employment 49 percent and supports nearly 70 percent of Indias population and yet accounts for just 16 percent of the national income (or GDP). This reflects how nearly half of Indias workforce and more than two-thirds of its population live on disproportionately lower income and in the margins. These are not random numbers quoted here: agricultures contributions to employment and income have been taken from this years Economic Survey (2017-18), while the population dependency is from the draft National Land Reform Policy of 2013, which was never taken up for discussion or passage. Take a look at the magnitude of the challenges facing the most critical sector of Indias economy. In 1971-72, there were 77.53 percent rural households comprised of landless, small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land, which went up to 92.82 percent in 2013 according to the last NSSO survey released in 2015. Similarly, households with more than two hectares of land shrunk from 21.89 percent in 1971-72 to 7.81 percent in 2013; the average landholding progressively went down from 1.53 hectares in 1971-72 to 1.01 hectares in 1992, from which was halved to 0.59 hectares in 2013. Such marginalisation of farmers landholding is one of the major causes of making farming unviable. Moreover, for the first time since 1951, agriculture is now dominated by farm labourers, not cultivators. According to the Agriculture Statistics of 2017, farm labourers outnumbered farmers in 2011 144.3 million (54.9 percent of total agriculture worker) of them, against 118.8 million (45.1 percent) of cultivators. While the number of cultivators fell by 8.5 million in the decade between 2001 and 2011, 37.5 million more people took to farm labour during the same period. No wonder agriculture, which accounted for 51.8 percent of national income (GDP) in 1951, declined to 13.94 percent in 2013-14 according to RBI data (with base year of 2004-5, at factor cost and constant price). The new series of GDP/GVA data with the base year of 2011-12 is kept out of this narrative as the back series of data have not yet been officially released. We are skipping here the details of falling income level of farmers as these are now well-known. It is all very well to say that agriculture is no longer lucrative or sustainable and hence more people should move out of it. But where will such a large population go and what will they do? The jobless growth accompanying higher GDP growth during the UPA regime endures in the current NDA regime; unemployment rate has grown an ILO report of 2018 saying that 18.3 million Indians were unemployed in 2017, which is projected to go up to 18.9 million by 2019. The OECDs 2017 Economic Survey of India report shows that more than 30 percent Indian youth aged 15-29 were neither employed nor in education or training reflecting a truer state of unemployment among the youth. So, clearly the landless, small and marginal farmers and farm labourers have nowhere to go. On the other hand, continuation of agrarian crisis, or rather its neglect, is only compounding the problems, putting more pressure on the economy to create alternative or additional livelihood sources or activities. The Niti Aayogs 2017 report Doubling Farmers Income shows how a sluggish agriculture growth has been a drag on the economy since 1991-92 until when both farm and non-farm sectors grew at the same level. But in the post-liberalised era, the non-farm growth picked up to above 8 percent for most of the period while farm growth showed a long term trend of 2.8 percent. The solution, then, lies in giving more attention to agriculture, not less, and improving the condition of landless, small and marginal farmers and farm labourers while simultaneously pursuing the goal of higher economic growth in the other sectors industry and services. Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh often talked about the need to shift a large surplus farmers to non-farm sectors to make agriculture viable again. It is only when fewer people depend upon agriculture that per capita incomes in agriculture will rise significantly and sufficiently to make farming an attractive proposition," he would say. While there was little progress in this during his 10 years in office, a similar thinking was reflected by the new government that came to power in 2014. In his very first Economic Survey of 2014-15, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian talked about the Lewisian model of structural transformation: moving resources from the agricultural/traditional sector to the manufacturing/non-traditional sector. The CEA said Indias choice was about how to make it a Lewisian economy that has unlimited supplies of labour. His conclusion: Make in India, if successful, would make India a Lewisian economy in relation to unskilled labour. But Skilling India has the potential to make India a Lewisian economy with respect to more skilled labour. The future trajectory of Indian economic development could depend on both. Since Make in India and Skilling India have not been as successful as the new government would have liked, and the promise of structural transformation or an alternate policy vision is not in sight, the agrarian distress remains unaddressed at the macroeconomic level. But these are not the only issues. At the micro level, a slew of policy measures have been taken to address agrarian distress from time to time, the working of which will be examined in the next part. I am a user of the healthcare system available in Russia. I have to pay, since I am not a citizen, but I use the same healthcare that everyone else has available. Just costs me money 2300 rubles is what I paid to have a Carotid Ultrasound Doppler 2300 rubles is $34 to $35 right now. No.not $340 to $350, but $34 to $35 dollars not rubles I realize that some of you have insurance and the insurance absorbs most if not all the cost. I do not have insurance, insurance does not absorb any cost. I have to pay for it out of pocket. I have no reimbursement for any spending on healthcare and I use a place that actually costs me more than many other doctor offices. I use who I trust and like When the high cost is as cheap as I see it, why try to save a few hundred rubles, it is my life you know? Below is the results. Yes in Russia all results are given immediately and are your possession to do with as you want Neat concept, huh? The specialist was, well, a highly trained specialist and she was very good. She as almost all doctors in Russia, well, is a she, not a he. Women rule the medical field in Russia I have a tiny tiny spot of plaque in the right side neck artery (Thank god for small favors! I was starting to worry) Otherwise, my neck is open and free flowing. Now I go to a Cardiologist to find out what else I need to do. I am having some angina issues and they are effecting my neck Sucks to have my heart issues at times It is time to have a complete checkup and find out if I will live another few days WtR Left-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Ashok Dhawale 'We have never seen such a bad condition of farmers. Now, the Agriculture Ministry itself is saying that demonetisation had a bad impact on farmers.' New Delhi: Thousands of farmers from across the country will hold a protest march from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street in the national capital on Friday to pressurise the government for higher crop prices and farm loan waiver. According to the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an umbrella organisation of over 184 farm outfits, the two-day protest starting Thursday would be the culmination of efforts being made by the distressed farmers over the past one-and-a-half years. "We had held our first rally after the Mandsaur firing. We have received a huge response from not just farmers but people in the country as well. The AIKSCC has brought all ideologies together for the cause of farmers," Yogendra Yadav, President of Swaraj India, told reporters. AIKSCC convener VM Singh said farmers coming from different parts of the country would hold marches on Thursday from the stations they arrive at to the Ramlila Maidan. Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader and Member of Parliament Raju Shetti, who is also a part of the AIKSCC, has introduced two Private Member's Bills in the Lok Sabha seeking a loan waiver for farmers across the country and a guaranteed remunerative price for agricultural commodities. "We want the government to pass these Bills for the benefit of farmers," Singh said. The AIKSCC said 21 political parties have extended their support to the Bills and their representatives may visit the protest march on Friday. Left-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Ashok Dhawale said the government had failed to do anything with regard to the Private Member's Bills in the last one year. "Over 3.5 lakh farmers in the country have committed suicide so far. We have never seen such a bad condition of farmers. Now, the Agriculture Ministry itself is saying that demonetisation had a bad impact on farmers," Dhawale said. Social activist Medha Patkar, Major General (retired) Satbir Singh, who has been spearheading the agitation for implementation of the One Rank One Pension, and noted journalist P Sainath were among those who briefed the media. Sainath said a special session of Parliament was convened on short notice for the GST but the Swaminathan Commission's report had been lying in Parliament without any discussion since 2006. "The government has stopped giving data about farm suicides. It is not just farm woes; it is beyond. There is a national crisis now. We have to show solidarity with farmers," Sainath said. The AIKSCC has demanded Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 23 agriculture commodities based on the 'C2' input cost factor recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. It has expressed its disapproval over the government's decision to use 'A2 +FL' factor citing lower remuneration. Satbir Singh said his organisation extended its support to the protests as 70-80 percent of servicemen were sons of farmers. "Two special trains - one from Maharashtra's Miraj and the other from Bengaluru - have been arranged to bring farmers to Delhi," the AIKSCC leaders said. Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid Monday alleged that former president Abdulla Yameen had tried to play India against China as a 'puppet master' and said the new government was looking into the deals made with China to assess the debt accumulation. New Delhi: Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid Monday alleged that former president Abdulla Yameen had tried to play India against China as a "puppet master" and said the new government was looking into the deals made with China to assess the debt accumulation. Maldives knows the importance of India as it was an "important" partner, said Shahid who was on his first visit to India after assuming charge as the foreign minister of Maldives. The visit assumes significance as the ties between both the countries were severely strained under the previous government in the island nation. Maldivian Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, who is also part of a delegation of minister visiting India, also said the new government had identified a number of projects undertaken with China that were bought at an "inflated price" and it was in the process of assessing how much debt was accumulated. The remarks of both the foreign and finance ministers of Maldives assume significance as reports suggest that China had been trying to expand its influence over the island nation. Ameer said, "The Chinese portion of investment is taking long in assessment because all these deals took place in secrecy." Shahid targeted former president Abdulla Yameen, alleging he tried to play India against China. "Former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen tried to play India against China as a puppet master but we know the importance of India as an ally which has always come to the aid of Maldives," he told reporters at a gathering of Foreign Correspondents Club here. He said Maldives considered India such an "important partner" that new Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih would be making his first foreign visit to here on 17 December. Shahid, however, said that on the 'Belt and Road Initiative', the country would continue their cooperation with not only China but with other countries too. Ameer said they have identified a number of projects which were bought at an "inflated price" from China. These projects are China-Maldives Bridge, port development project and a project involving construction of around 1,000 housing units, he said. "We believe most of these projects have been bought at an inflated price and we are looking into them. But you have to understand that all these projects are now completed and we cannot renegotiate them. "In going forward, our main objective would be to reduce the cost of these infrastructure projects," Ameer told reporters. Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail said the island nation was trying to get past instability that was witnessed in the last couple of years. "We are trying to put past last five years of instability in the Maldives and we will try to resolve all differences between Maldivian and Indian investors. "In that regard, we are hoping to strengthen our bilateral trade. We are hoping to enter into a bilateral treaty with India on increasing investment," he said. He also said they were planning to ease visa norms so that Indian investors could travel to Maldives for business. Ameer said Maldives was mainly seeking budget support in healthcare projects among others. Shahid said Maldives had requested India to give it a Dornier aircraft and the External Affairs Ministry had "promised that it would be delivered soon". "During Yameen's time, Yameen ditched the Dornier gifted by India to get aircraft from Pakistan as Pakistan was giving it as loan and they prefer loan so they could get commission from it. But we will prefer a gift and we want to continue working with the Indian government," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on 17 November in Male. Solih, as the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party's candidate, had surprising victory over strongman Abdulla Yameen in the presidential election held on 23 September. India-Maldives ties had deteriorated significantly under Yameen who was perceived to be close to China. Some decisions by Yameen, including imposition of restrictions on work visas for Indians and signing of a new Free Trade Agreement with Beijing, also did not go down well with New Delhi. Relations between India and the Maldives slumped further after Yameen imposed emergency on 5 February this year. India had criticised his decision and asked his government to restore the credibility of the electoral and political process by releasing political prisoners. The emergency lasted for 45 days. John Allen Chau, 27, who described himself in social media posts as an adventurer and explorer, was killed by the Sentinelese tribes on 17 November when he tried to enter the North Sentinel Island where entry of outsiders is forbidden by law allegedly after paying to the fishermen to smuggle him. London: India should abandon its "incredibly dangerous" efforts to recover the body of an American national who was killed by members of a protected and reclusive tribe in the Andamans, a group working to protect the rights of tribal people has said. John Allen Chau, 27, who described himself in social media posts as an adventurer and explorer, was killed by the Sentinelese tribes on 17 November when he tried to enter the North Sentinel Island where entry of outsiders is forbidden by law allegedly after paying to the fishermen to smuggle him. The fishermen informed the Indian authorities that they saw the Sentinelese bury Chau's body on the beach. Efforts were being made by the authorities to retrieve the body from the remote island, but they have not set their foot on it. The London-based group, Survival International, said that any attempt to recover the body would be dangerous for both, the Indian authorities and the Sentinelese, who face being wiped out if any outside diseases are introduced. "We urge the Indian authorities to abandon efforts to recover John Allen Chau's body. Any such attempt is incredibly dangerous, both for the Indian officials, but also for the Sentinelese, who face being wiped out if any outside diseases are introduced," Survival International's Director Stephen Corry said in a statement on Monday. "The risk of a deadly epidemic of flu, measles or other outside disease is very real, and increases with every such contact. Such efforts in similar cases in the past have ended with the Sentinelese attempting to defend their island by force," he said. Corry said the body of Chau "should be left alone, as should the Sentinelese." The Sentinelese are generally considered the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world. Till June, foreigners was allowed to visit 29 islands in the Andamans, including the North Sentinel Island, only after taking special permission the Restricted Area Permit (RAP). According to officials, it was withdrawn, but any foreigner is required to take permission from the forest department and the administration of the island is protected under two other acts protection of aboriginal people and forest acts. Corry was also critical of the weakening of the restrictions and said "the weakening of the restrictions on visiting the islands must be revoked and the exclusion zone around the island properly enforced". The Survival International is an organisation working for the tribal peoples' rights around the world, helping them defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures. The Army is capable of taking action whenever told to do so, Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said, asserting that there will never be a situation where it will not be able to tackle a big terror attack like 26/11. New Delhi: The Army is capable of taking action whenever told to do so, Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said, asserting that there will never be a situation where it will not be able to tackle a big terror attack like 26/11. Rawat said the Army was now much more prepared to take action based on the directions given by the government. "If we are told to take some action, we are capable and ready for it. So, there is never going to be a situation where you will not have options to tackle something like a big terrorist attack," Rawat told the India Today magazine in an interview. He was responding to a question that if there was another attack like 26/11 in current times, what will be the Army's response. Asked about the recent beheadings in the Valley, Rawat said in the last year-and-a-half, terrorists had targeted policemen, burnt the houses of panchayat members and school buildings. "Now, they are targeting the unemployed, alleging that they are police informers. Locals now feel (militants) aren't acting in the best interests of the people of Kashmir. What we are seeing are acts of frustration in the final stages of an insurgency. It will lead to an uprising from the people who will then shun the militants," the Army chief said. Asked about his recent comments that attempts were being made through "external linkages" to "revive insurgency" in Punjab, Rawat said the statements were based on intelligence inputs. "We saw a terrorist act in Pathankot in 2016. We have seen some movements by terrorists taking place in areas bordering Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, especially the northern parts of Punjab. I was only reading the writing on the wall and warning the Army to be alert, because there might be a possible terrorist attack on our cantonments in Punjab," he added. The case under the scanner dates back to 2016, when the agency registered an FIR against nine Income Tax officials and private persons, including chartered accountant Sanjay Bhandari New Delhi: Interim CBI director M Nageswar Rao's decision to shoot down suspended chief Alok Verma's "proposal" to reopen a case he previously closed has triggered a massive debate among the investigating agency's ranks. Moreover, the various interpretations of Raos decision in the backdrop of a Supreme Court order directing him not to take any major policy decisions has caused much confusion. The debate is centered on two issues: Whether reopening a case already closed by Verma is tantamount to a major policy decision or an endorsement of the previous order. The case under the scanner dates back to 2016, when the agency registered an FIR against nine Income Tax officials and private persons, including chartered accountant Sanjay Bhandari. The case dragged on for two years. On 13 March, 2018, a decision was taken by the agency to close the FIR after approval of Director Alok Verma. However, two months later, Verma during a trip to Madurai "orally" conveyed to Rao a proposal to reopen the Bhandari case. This is where the confusion arose. Since Verma already ordered closure of the case in March, and only verbally mentioned about the reopening the case in June, which decision would be taken on the record while determining the fate of the case? Which is why the CBI's Chennai unit sought direction from the head office. According to a senior agency official, while the file was already closed by Verma on 13 March, 2018, it had still not been determined what was to be done about the oral observation in June. There was only mention about the oral observation on the file and no final decision was taken by the agency. The file noting of 13 March, 2018, suggests the case is being closed after instructions from competent authority, which in this case is CBI director. When Chennai unit sought direction, it was turned down in the wake of Supreme Court order asking him not to take any policy decision, the senior official said. On the other hand, some officials believe it is not a matter of any policy decision or taking a major decision regarding a corruption case. Rather, it is about following the decision already taken by Verma in March 2018. The interim chief already mentioned it when deciding on the Chennai unit's request, the official added. But what of Vermas oral request to reopen the case in June? Sources said this is a grey area because no developments in the case occurred in the four months that lapsed and perhaps a decision should be taken by the agency after the hearing in the Supreme Court on 29 November. Since there is a confusion on policy decision, file noting and subsequent verbal instruction, the unit may need to assess whether they have fresh evidence and it is a fit case for further probe and file another request. If there is new evidence and materials against accused, competent authority should definitely proceed in the case, sources said. He said the incident happened when he was asking another security guard whether the VC would come down to meet the teachers who are on a day-long hunger strike. Calling this 'shameful' and 'condemnable' he said, 'This kind of insensitive and racism is given life on day-to-day basis. It's a failure of the security firm and JNU administration that racism is perpetuated in university by its employees.' New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president N Sai Balaji accused a security guard of making derogatory and racist comments against him and submitted a complaint to varsity officials, including the university's vice-chancellor on Monday. Balaji said one Ramesh Pawar "passed a derogatory and racist remark, calling me and my community people racist and 'darpok'". "I told him I am a Telugu and what he said is shameful and completely racist," Balaji said in a written complaint submitted to the administration. He said the incident happened when he was asking another security guard whether the VC would come down to meet the teachers who are on a day-long hunger strike. Calling this "shameful" and "condemnable" he said, "This kind of insensitive and racism is given life on day-to-day basis. It's a failure of the security firm and JNU administration that racism is perpetuated in university by its employees." It's unfortunate that the firm which provides security services does not sensitise their employees and is only perpetuating racism and stereotyping by their failure, he said. "I immediately demand action be taken against him (the guard) and severe punishments be given. On behalf of JNUSU, we request JNU to sensitise the guards and other university employees," he added. KCR claimed that Telangana was the only state in the country where farmers were supplied power 24x7 and asked Narendra Modi if the BJP ruled states were providing 24-hour electricity to the farm sector Mahabubnagar (Telangana): Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks that Nizamabad was grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads, caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday asked him "not to lie for the sake of votes". "How can you say such a lie... You should not lie, being at the responsible post of Prime Minister, for the sake of votes," Rao said addressing an election rally in Mahabubnagar district. Nizamabad is represented by Rao's daughter K Kavitha in the Lok Sabha. "Narendra Modi, there is no power problem in Telangana... don't lie. I am very sorry to say this. You cannot level false allegations against a chief minister. I am not afraid of anyone. I am not Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu," Rao said, reiterating that there was a need for a "federal front government" at the Centre. Rao claimed that Telangana was the only state in the country where farmers were supplied power 24x7 and asked Modi if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states were providing 24-hour electricity to the farm sector. The chief minister further said Telangana was at the top spot in implementing welfare schemes, among which were those for women, children and the elderly. "No one can stop TRS from winning and we will again form the government (in Telangana)," Rao said. Modi, while addressing his first election rally ahead of the 7 December polls in Telangana, said the chief minister had once asserted that he would transform Nizamabad into a smart city like London but the city was still grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads. The complainant, a leader of the CPM youth wing the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) at Shornur, the constituency Sasi represents in the state Assembly, expressed satisfaction with the action The decision of Keralas ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) to suspend the primary membership of legislator PK Sasi for six months after a woman accused him of sexual harassment has raised questions about its gender equality campaign. The party state secretariat that met at Thiruvananthapuram on Monday morning recommended the action based on the report of investigation conducted by a two-member commission comprising Law Minister AK Balan and central committee member and MP PK Sreemathy. The state committee that met subsequently ratified the action. The complainant, a leader of the CPM youth wing the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) at Shornur, the constituency Sasi represents in the state Assembly, expressed satisfaction with the action, according to a report in Deccan Chronicle. Party secretariat member Anathalavattom Anandan described the action as exemplary. No other party in the state has taken any action against any leader involved in such sexual harassment cases. The suspension of Sasi is a strong message to the women that the party will not tolerate any atrocity against them, the senior leader said. However, Opposition leaders think otherwise. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the action "a message to the male cadres in the party that they can get away with any offence against women". The action could have been described exemplary if the party had referred the complaint to the police. Instead, it shielded Sasi from criminal procedures by settling it inside the party. The issue cannot be closed in this way as it pertains to sexual harassment. This is nothing but an open challenge to the legal system prevailing in a democratic society, said Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. He said the police can now register a suo motu case against the MLA as the party committee found him guilty of the charge levelled against him. BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai also voiced a similar demand, terming the action taken "a farce." After six months of suspension, Sasi will be reinstated to the positions he was holding. With this, CPM proved that its talk about protecting of women is empty rhetoric and it is actually protecting those involved in committing atrocities against women, Pillai added. After the DYFI leader approached the CPM, the party allegedly tried to get her to withdraw the complaint by offering money and a position within the party. State leadership took cognizance of the complaint only after she took up the matter with CPM national general secretary Sitaram Yechury and politburo member Brinda Karat. The state committee appointed the commission to probe the complaint only after Yechury confirmed the receipt of the communication to the media. The commission initially claimed it was a conspiracy against the MLA by local leaders inimical to him at Shornur. However, the commission was forced to change tack after the woman threatened to approach the police if she did not get justice. The commission finally made a case of inappropriate talk not expected from a party leader of Sasis stature. It ignored the woman leaders complaint that the MLA misbehaved with her several times in the party office and communicated his sexual intent on the phone. She produced the audio clips of the telephonic talks and other documentary evidence to support her allegation. Advocate Asha Unnithan, a prominent women's rights activist, said the commission may have limited the charge to inappropriate talk to save the MLA from being charged with sexual harassment. The MLA would be behind the bars if the talk was sexually coloured. The commission cleverly avoided it to save the MLA from criminal charges, she added. If the party was sincere in its action, it should have at least referred the complaint to the internal panel formed to deal with sexual abuse cases in the party. The probe by the commission consisting of party leaders lack transparency and authenticity, the lawyer said, and added that the party should have ideally referred the complaint to the police and supported the woman. Senior Congress leader KP Anil Kumar alleged grave misconduct on the part of the law minister in settling the case within the party. He said the matter probed by the committee headed by the minister was a cognizable offence and Balan, as law minister, was duty-bound to report it to the police. The Congress leader termed Balan's action "a violation of the oath taken while assuming office". Local Congress leaders said the CPM protected Sasi as he holds a strong sway over the party cadres in Palakkad district. Sasi, who belongs to the official fraction in the CPM led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is indispensable to the party as he is a major fund raiser for the CPM. They believe Sasi will return stronger, as has been the case with most leaders against whom party took action in sexual harassment cases. Former Ernakulam district secretary Gopi Kottamurikkal, who was expelled from the party for sexual misdemeanour, was reinstated recently and promoted to the state committee. P Sasi, another leader expelled similarly, was also taken back and given charge of court cases that the party and its cadres are battling in Kannur district. Kozhikode-based political analyst NP Chekutty said the attempt to save the MLA would affect the credibility of the gender equality campaign launched by the CPM in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on the entry of women in Sabarimala temple. The campaign christened Janamunnetta Yatra is intended to mobilise the renaissance forces against the right-wing outfits trying to "divide the people communally and destroy the secular fabric of the state". Curiously, the party gave responsibility of leading the yatra in Palakkad district earlier this month to Sasi. He even shared the dais with chief minister and law minister at the valedictory function with the commission report hanging over his head. Chekutty said the attempt by the party to hush up the case will send a wrong message to young women. The party has a lot of explaining to do to its aspiring members, he added. Candidates who clear the KVPY aptitude test will be called for the second stage, which is an interview scheduled for January 2019. IISc, Bangalore, will release the final KVPY result in the second week of April 2019. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru will release the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana, or KVPY, 2018 result in the second week of December 2018 for all three streams SA, SX and SB. The result for the aptitude test will be released in the online mode for the exam held on 4 November. The KVPY cut off and merit list will also be released along with the KVPY 2018 result. The KVPY cut off is the minimum score needed to qualify the KVPY aptitude test. Those who score marks equal to or above the cut off shall find their name and roll number in the merit list. However, the marks scored by the candidates in the aptitude test will not be declared now. Candidates who clear the KVPY aptitude test will be called for the second stage, which is an interview scheduled for January 2019. IISc, Bangalore, will release the final KVPY result in the second week of April 2019. To know more about the KVPY result, here are the steps to download it and more: Steps to check KVPY result 2018 - Visit the official KVPY website - Click on 'Results' - The merit lists will be displayed as per category for each stream along with the respective cutoff marks - Check for the roll number of application number to verify shortlisting for interview round Details mentioned in KVPY 2018 result Candidates can check the following fields in 'Result': - Candidates name - Rank - Roll number - Application number KVPY interview process Shortlisted candidates will be called for interviews in January, where they will be checked for their interest in basic sciences and research. Candidates can download the call letter from the official KVPY website by logging in with the user ID and password in the first week of January 2019. Given below is the list of important documents to be carried at the time of the KVPY interview: - Application form and interview call letter - Admit card of aptitude test - Original marksheet (Class 10 marksheet for the SA/SX stream and Class 12 marksheet for the SB stream) - Caste Certificate for candidates from the SC/ST categories - Medical certificate in case of differently abled candidates For candidates' reference, last year's KVPY cutoff for the aptitude test is provided below. KVPY 2017 cutoff for aptitude test Category Cut off for SB stream Cut off for SA stream Cut off for SX stream General 45 43 53 SC/ST 35 33 43 PwD 35 33 43 KVPY 2018 final result The final KVPY result will be declared tentatively around April 2019. Candidates can log in to check their result. This result is the compilation of the performance of candidates in both the aptitude test and interview. The weightage given to compute this result is 75 percent to aptitude test and 25 percent to the performance in the interview. The final KVPY result will be announced with the merit lists of the candidates chosen for fellowships. Have any queries or doubts? Head over to the Q&A section of Careers360 and post them for answers. All the Best! Wrapped in tricolour, the body of the decorated soldier was taken to his native village Ashmuji in Kulgam and handed over to family members. Wani was a militant initially and became a counter-insurgent after he realised the futility of violence, a senior Army officer accompanying the coffin said. Kulgam: Tears streamed down the faces of residents of Chak Ashmuji village Monday as they bid farewell to braveheart Lance Naik Nazir Ahmed Wani, who laid down his life during an encounter in South Kashmir's Shopian district in which six militants were killed. Wrapped in tricolour, the body of the decorated soldier was taken to his native village Ashmuji in Kulgam and handed over to family members. Wani was a militant initially and became a counter-insurgent after he realised the futility of violence, a senior Army officer accompanying the coffin said. "The family was fighting tears and they were honoured by the supreme sacrifice of Lance Naik Wani for the nation and peace for his state," the officer said. After the rituals, the body was taken for burial to a nearby graveyard where 500 to 600 villagers were present. A 21-gun salute was given when Wani's body was lowered in the grave. The village is surrounded by areas like Koinmooh, which are notorious for terrorist activities. The villagers had started gathering at his residence early Monday morning to mourn the death of their son, who began his career with 162 battalion of Territorial Army in 2004. "He was a real braveheart and his enthusiastic participation in an anti-militancy operation had fetched him a Sena Medal in 2007 and again a bar to the Sena Medal this year on the eve of Independence Day," the officer said. He said Wani was an epitome of bravery as he continued his relentless pursuit against terrorism specifically in South Kashmir. His battalion was attached with a unit of Rashtriya Rifles, a force carved out of the Army for fighting militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. "His colleagues will always remember him for his indomitable courage and bravery which led to many successful operations," the officer said. Wani, 38, who died during a fierce gunfight Sunday, is survived by a wife and two children aged 20 and 18 years. Here is the groundwork for the latest escapades in the Kerch Strait.and yes America was front and center The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and Ukraine on the occasion of the 2018 U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission Meeting in Washington, DC. Media Note: Office of the Spokesperson, Washington, DC, November 16, 2018 Begin text: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin met November 16, 2018, in Washington, D.C., to hold a plenary session of the U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission. The plenary meeting marked the tenth anniversary of the U.S.Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership, a document that enshrines the principles upon which the relationship between our two democracies is based. The plenary was also an opportunity to work toward implementation of the goals for the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship as outlined by Presidents Trump and Poroshenko during their previous bilateral meetings. During the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, the Ukrainian people voiced their desire to live in a modern, democratic, European state, free from corruption and foreign control. Since the Revolution, the United States has provided over $2.8 billion in assistance and three $1 billion loan guarantees to help Ukraine defend its territory and implement key reforms. The United States remains steadfast in its support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Klimkin reiterated that cooperation between the United States and Ukraine is based on common interests and shared values, including support for democracy, economic freedom and prosperity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, energy security, and respect for human rights and the rule of law. They decided to create three new bilateral working groups focused on Security and Countering Russian Aggression; Rule of Law and Humanitarian Issues; and Economy and Energy. These groups will meet regularly to discuss areas of mutual concern and advance joint objectives. The 2018 Strategic Partnership Commissions meeting featured inaugural sessions of each working group. Security and Countering Russian Aggression The two sides underscored the need to continue building Ukraines resilience in the face of Russian aggression, reaffirmed the importance of the Minsk agreements in ending Russias aggression, and highlighted the need to restore Ukrainian control over the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied or controlled by Russia Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Both sides decided that a robust UN-mandated international security force in the areas of Donbas controlled by Russia, including the Ukraine-Russia international border, would create the necessary security conditions for the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements. The United States reiterated its commitment to Secretary Pompeos July 25 Declaration on the non-recognition of Russias purported annexation of Crimea. The United States condemned Russias aggressive actions against international shipping transiting the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait to Ukrainian ports. Both sides underscored that Russias aggressive activities in the Sea of Azov have brought new security, economic, social, and environmental threats to the entire Azov-Black Sea region. The United States confirmed its commitment to maintain sanctions against Russia related to its aggression against Ukraine until Russia fully implements the Minsk agreements and returns Crimea to Ukrainian control. The United States welcomed Ukraines prolongation of the law on special order of self-government in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions on October 4, highlighted the many steps Ukraine has taken to implement the Minsk agreements, and called on Russia to fulfill its commitments under the agreements. The United States and Ukraine demanded the immediate release of all Ukrainian political prisoners unjustly held in Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Volodymyr Balukh, Server Mustafaiev, Emir-Usein Kuku, and many others. The two sides condemned the illegal so-called elections in Russia-controlled Donbas on November 11. The sides reiterated these sham elections, orchestrated by Russia, contravene Russias commitments under the Minsk agreements and flout UNSC Resolution 2202 (2015). Both sides noted with satisfaction that robust security cooperation would continue in 2019, including assistance to counter Russian election meddling, joint training exercises, and cybersecurity cooperation. The parties decided to further strengthen military-technical cooperation and welcomed the U.S. provision of military assistance, which will help build Ukraines long-term defensive capacity. The United States and Ukraine confirmed the importance of the Budapest Memorandum of December 5, 1994, and called on Russia to fulfill its previous commitments to respect Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Ukraine reaffirmed that becoming a NATO member remains its strategic priority, as recently enshrined in its legislation. The United States welcomed Ukraines NATO aspirations, reaffirmed by the 2008 Bucharest Declaration, and looked forward to one day welcoming Ukraine into the Alliance. The United States reiterated its support for Ukrainian efforts to implement the security reforms detailed in the Law on National Security, and commended Ukraines continuing contribution to international peace and security operations throughout the globe. Rule of Law and Humanitarian Issues The United States and Ukraine underscored that securing Ukraines European future and safeguarding the country from Russian malign influences requires continued reform and strong democratic institutions, in particular a free press, vibrant civil society, and an independent judiciary delivering impartial justice. Ukraine committed to further strengthen its democratic institutions, in particular by conducting free, fair, and secure 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections in accordance with international standards, and welcomed international support. The United States commended Ukraines commitment to pursue further comprehensive judicial and law enforcement reform, necessary to strengthen the rule of law in Ukraine. The United States commended Ukraine for adopting a law to establish an independent anti-corruption court that encompasses recommendations of the IMF and other international partners of Ukraine. Ukraine reaffirmed its commitment to establishing a fully functioning independent High Anti-Corruption Court and to protecting anti-corruption institutions. Both sides highlighted the need to increase civilians freedom of movement and improve access to government services and humanitarian assistance for Ukrainians affected by Russian aggression, including Ukrainians residing in territories temporarily controlled or occupied by Russia. The United States commended Ukraines efforts to provide for the needs of IDPs, though both sides concurred that more work remains. The sides emphasized that the rights of all Ukrainians must be equally guaranteed. The United States and Ukraine also discussed actions on combatting trafficking in persons. Economy and Energy The United States reaffirmed its commitment to partner with Ukraine to develop a free and prosperous economy. The United States expressed support for the many economic reforms Ukraine has undertaken, and encouraged further reform and cooperation with the IMF and other partners to achieve strong, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth. The United States and Ukraine underlined the importance of the work of the U.S.-Ukraine Trade and Investment Council to increase bilateral trade and investments by eliminating existing trade barriers and improving the regulatory environment and business climate. Both sides intend to continue work together aimed at developing and reforming Ukraines energy sector to enhance Ukraines economy and security. Ukraine underscored its intention to expand domestic oil and gas production, unbundle the gas transit system, and welcomed the involvement of U.S. companies in these efforts, as well as in programs aimed at increasing energy efficiency. Both sides also underscored the need for continued gas transit through Ukraine, and emphasized their opposition to energy projects that threaten European energy diversity and security. In particular, the United States and Ukraine stressed the importance of continued coordination to stop proposed Russian pipelines that would hurt Ukraines economic and strategic stability, such as Nord Stream 2 and the second line of TurkStream. Secretary Pompeo and Minister Klimkin look forward to further strengthening the partnership between the United States and Ukraine and decided to convene the next session of the Strategic Partnership Commission in Kyiv, Ukraine. End text. Congress leader and Punjab Tourism and Culture minister Navjot Singh Sidhu arrived in Pakistan Tuesday for the ground breaking ceremony of the much awaited Kartarpur corridor, which will link the Nankana Sahib Sikh shrine in Pakistan to the Indian state of Punjab. Congress leader and Punjab tourism and culture minister Navjot Singh Sidhu arrived in Pakistan Tuesday for the ground breaking ceremony of the much awaited Kartarpur corridor, which will link the Nankana Sahib Sikh shrine in Pakistan to the Indian state of Punjab. Sidhu will be the only state minister to make an appearance at the programme at Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's invitation, while Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh gave it a miss. Sidhu, who was in the midst of a controversy over his last Pakistan visit, has welcomed the opening of the corridor, which he said will deepen the people-to-people ties. "I feel that this corridor will be a bridge and erase enmity. It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. It is my belief that there are possibilities in it. This is a corridor of infinite possibilities, of peace, of prosperity, of opening up of trade relations," Sidhu told reporters in Lahore. Sidhu said that tough problems and discord in relations is never solved by the use of brute force, but on a table through dialogue. "This day will indeed break ground. As our two nations take this first step, the Kartarpur spirit can make pilgrims of us all, venturing out on a journey that breaks the barriers of history and opens the borders of the heart and the mind. A journey that our people can walk together towards, a future of shared peace and prosperity for India and Pakistan," Sidhu said. Sidhu was criticised heavily by the BJP for hugging Pakistani Army chief general Qamar Bajwa, and claiming that he did so after the latter told him they were opening the Kartarpur corridor. Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal had at the time hit out at Sidhu by calling him gaddar (traitor). However, ironically, Badal is one of the Central ministers representing the Government of India at the Pakistani event. Accompanying her is MoS Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri. The two ministers were sent to Pakistan after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said she was unable to attend the even citing prior commitments. In a letter to Qureshi, Swaraj thanked him for the invite and said she was unable to travel to Kartarpur Sahib due to prior commitments including election campaign in Telangana and that India will be represented at the ceremony by Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri. Swaraj also hoped that the government of Pakistan will expedite the construction of the corridor in order to ensure that "our citizens can pay their respects at the Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor as soon as possible". Meanwhile, Amarinder turned down the invite citing continued terrorist attacks in the state and the various killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistani armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir. "Firstly, not a day passes when Indian soldiers are not killed or wounded on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Rather than moving towards normalcy, these incidents are escalating," Singh said. Secondly, the chief minister claimed, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has started its nefarious activities in Punjab. "Since March 2017, the state has neutralised 19 ISI-armed and controlled modules, apprehended 81 terrorists and seized 79 weapons, numerous grenades of the HG-84 type made in Pakistan's Ordnance factories with Austrian know how, and some IEDs," the chief minister claimed. "I hope that the prime minister (of Pakistan) will understand these circumstances... It will not be possible for me to be present in Pakistan on this historic occasion, despite the fact that paying my respects at Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib has always been my cherished dream which will hopefully be fulfilled once these hostilities and killings are stopped," he said. Amarinder, refused to react on Sidhu's decision to go to Pakistan. "I only know my responsibility as a chief minister and a Sikh so that is why we wanted this to happen but also my responsibility is to maintain law and order and that prevents me from going," Amarinder said when asked about Sidhu. Pakistan's foreign office on Friday said the "Kartarpur spirit can be a step forward in the right direction from conflict to cooperation, animosity to peace and enmity to friendship." With inputs from agencies The Israeli diplomat also underlined that the objective of the attack in Mumbai was to cripple the Indian society, economy and culture, as well as the growing bilateral relationship between India and Israel. Tel Aviv: Israel has asked Pakistan to "ensure full justice" to the 26/11 terror attack victims on the 10th anniversary of the carnage in Mumbai carried out by 10 terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). About 166 people, including six Israelis, were killed in the terror attack. At a memorial event organised on Monday evening by the Indian mission to mark the anniversary, Michael Ronen, Director, South and South East Asia Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel emphasised that it was important for the international community, especially Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators and facilitators of the ghastly attacks do not go scott free. "It is important to provide full justice to the victims and their families," Ronen said, urging "all governments, including the Government of Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators and facilitators of the attack are brought to justice." The Israeli diplomat also underlined that the objective of the attack was to cripple the Indian society, economy and culture, as well as the growing bilateral relationship between India and Israel. In this regard, "the terrorist attack failed miserably as the Indian economy has continued to grow stronger, its culture remains invincible and bilateral ties continue to reach new heights," he noted. Asserting that terrorism can only be defeated by international cooperation, Ronen "again called upon the Government of Pakistan to ensure full justice to the victims and their families." The event was attended by members of the Indian community in Israel, some Indians visiting the country and also Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, who lost his daughter Rivka and son-in-law Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg in the attack on Nariman House, also known as the Chabad House. The couple's two year old son, Moshe, survived the attack, owing to a daring move by his nanny, Sandra Samuels, who risked her own life and rescued the boy by fleeing the building. Sandra's pictures of holding the little boy close to her chest after escaping from the place touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world. She was later awarded with honourary citizenship by the Israeli government and now lives in Jerusalem. The ceremony began with observance of one-minute silence in honour of the victims. India's Ambassador to Israel, Pavan Kapoor, speaking at the event stressed that the worst terrorist attack on the Indian soil "should motivate the world to unite against terrorism and defeat the ideology of hatred". Kapoor pointed out that the planners and facilitators of the attack in Pakistan have not yet been brought to justice and, in this context, welcomed the statement of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. He expressed hope that other countries would follow the US lead and call upon Pakistan to uphold its obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including the members of LeT and its affiliates. Rabbi Rosenberg said that the attack was not "just against his family but against all of us" who are one as a family. He further said that although ten years have passed since the tragedy, his grandson who is a "strong and good boy" has painful memories of the event but still wants to go to Mumbai for his bar mitzvah, a ceremony performed for Jewish boys at the age of 13 that some Israeli scholars compare to the Hindu upnayana or the sacred thread ceremony. Rosenberg was very appreciative of the support his family has received from the Indian government and people, which makes him believe that it is a "shared" pain. "I appreciate the government and people of India for the way they have stood by us and made us feel that it is a shared pain. We thank them for the relationship they have built with us," he said, recalling the family's trip with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Mumbai earlier in 2018. "People can say and complain about all sorts of things like security lapse, etc, but we believe in the God. The feeling of oneness demonstrated by Indians is heartwarming and we appreciate it a lot," Rosenberg told PTI. Moshe celebrated his 12th birthday according to the Hebrew Calendar some three weeks ago and would turn 12 as per Gregorian calendar on 28 November. Two clips featuring Moshe's conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Netanyahu in Jerusalem in July 2017 and his visit, along with the Israeli Premier, to the Chabad House in Mumbai in January 2018, were shown during the event. In an emotional meeting with Modi on 5 July, 2017 in Jerusalem, the young boy expressed his wish to visit Mumbai. "I hope I will be able to visit Mumbai, and when I get older, live there. I will be the director of our Chabad House...I love you and your people in India," Moshe told Modi. Modi responded by saying, "Come and stay in India and Mumbai. You are most welcome. You and your all family members will get long-term visas. So you can come anytime and go anywhere". Netanyahu had then promptly asked Moshe to join him when he travels to India, a promise he did not forget and the family accompanied him during his trip to India earlier in 2018. India issued 10-year multiple entry visas to Moshe and his grandparents to ease their travel to the country in August 2017. Modi is said to have personally followed up on the matter as promised to Moshe. Kapoor, along with Ronen and Rabbi Rosenberg also lit 25 candles in memory of the 25 foreign nationals who lost their lives in the attack. Two encounters broke out between militants and security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday in Kulgam and Pulwama districts respectively. Both the encounters are currently underway. Militants engaged security forces in a gunfight in two separate incidents on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam and Pulwama districts respectively. Both the encounter operations are currently underway. According to reports, two militants and one soldier has been killed in the ongoing encounter in the Redwani area of Kulgam district, after a five-hour standoff. The gunfight broke out after the militants fired at a team of the army, state police and CRPF that was conducting a cordon and search operation, reported NDTV. Security forces have managed to restrain the militants' to a narrow area. A second encounter is also underway between security forces and militants at Hafoo area of Tral in Pulwama. According to reports, a joint team of army, CRPF and SOG cordoned off Hafoo following inputs about the presence of militants. Two to three militants are suspected to be holed up in the area, reported India Today. More details on the operations are still awaited. On Sunday, one Indian Army soldier and six terrorists were killed in an encounter in Kapran Batagund area of Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district. A civilian was also killed while four other locals were injured in the crossfire near the site of the encounter, sparking clashes between groups of youth and security forces in the area, On 22 November, one civilian sustained injuries during an exchange of fire between militants and security personnel in the Kulgam district. The exchange of fire ensued after terrorists fired upon an army camp in Khudwani area of the district. The Reliance Group has alleged that The Wire's coverage of the controversy was 'false' and that statements made during the discussion were 'wholly incorrect and misleading, made with a deliberate pre-determined motive to harm and injure the reputation' Anil Ambanis Reliance Infrastructure has filed a Rs 6,000-crore defamation suit against The Wire, over the media house's coverage of the controversial Rafale deal, and the process that went into choosing Reliance Defence as the offset partner of Dassualt Aviation, the makers of the fighter jets. The company has objected to an online panel discussion video titled, Rafale Deal: Understanding the Controversy published in August this year. The lawsuit,which has been filed in an Ahmedabad civil court, names founding editors of the digital publication and journalist Ajay Shukla, who featured in the video and also The Wires office manager. The Reliance Group has alleged that The Wire's coverage of the controversy was "false" and that statements made during the discussion were "wholly incorrect and misleading, made with a deliberate pre-determined motive to harm and injure the reputation" of both the company and its chairman. The Wire claimed that Reliance chose to file their case in Ahmedabad because court fees for defamation cases are capped at Rs 75,000, meanwhile, in other jurisdictions the fees rise in proportion to the damages sought. In October, the Reliance Group had also sued NDTV in a Rs 10,000-crore suit regarding their coverage of the Rafale deal. The group, which called to the lawsuit as "nothing more than a heavy-handed attempt" to prevent media from doing its job, said the charges against it were false and frivolous. NDTV also alleged that it was being unfairly targeted for reporting on a widely-covered topic. The Rafale deal has turned into a huge political controversy in India with allegations of corruption and crony capitalism being levelled by the Opposition against the government. One of the key contentions being raised by several sections is the choice of a relatively new Rafale Defence as an offset partner, over the public-owned Hindustan Aeronautical Limited. The Congress has alleged that Dassault chose Reliance Defence as an offset partner, despite its inexperience in the field, to bag the Rs 59,000-crore deal. The Centre, Reliance group and Dassault have denied these allegations. The manifesto was unveiled by Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Prakash Javadekar, and Rajathan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, in the presence of BJP leaders and workers in Jaipur. Raje while addressing the media made promises on the education of girls and empowerment of farmers. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Rajasthan released its manifesto or 'Gaurav Sankalp Patra' on Tuesday, claiming that the work done in the past five years has been better than the work done in the past 75 years. The manifesto was unveiled by Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Prakash Javadekar and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje in the presence of BJP leaders and workers in Jaipur. Raje while addressing the media made promises on the education of girls and empowerment of farmers. The BJP government in the state met 630 of the 665 promises made in the 2013 Rajasthan manifesto, Raje said prior to releasing the manifesto. "The overall completion is 95 percent," she said. The chief minister also highlighted several points of the 2018 manifesto. She promised that 50 lakh jobs will be created in the private sector in the next five years in Rajasthan, whereas 30,000 jobs will be given in the government sector every year. Raje also said up to Rs 5,000 per month will be given as unemployment allowance to eligible youths above the age of 21 years. She stated that the focus of the party is on women's safety, claiming that schemes have been introduced to benefit women of all ages. She also emphasised on the fact that women have been made a part of panchayats. "To strengthen the education of girls, we will provide meals, health checkups, education and laptops. Upon completing school, they will get Rs 50,000 in their bank account," said Raje. "For the safety of girls and women, we have passed a very strict law on sexual harassment and rape. Recently, our government at the Centre made rape for minors punishable with capital punishment (hanging)." Keeping in view the huge role of farmers in elections, the BJP has vowed to disburse loans to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore co-operative farm loans by creating new members in next five years for which the government will launch a state-wide campaign. The party has also promised to spend Rs 6,060 crore to address the problem of water shortage in Jawai dam. The BJP will also try to bring Arabian Sea water to Sanchore and Jalore to create an inland port, she said. In order to double the income of farmers, the BJP promises to set up a farmer-centric rural start-up fund of Rs 250 crore. "It will also be ensured that farmers get one and a half time more than the production cost. Each year 1,000 farmers will be taken to Israel or any other foreign country for a better understanding of the best agro practices," BJP promised in the 'Gaurav Patra.' She also claimed that in the past five years loans worth Rs 50,000 have been waived off. Jaitley while releasing the manifesto, said that the manifesto envisages the route to the future. The Union finance minister said that during the time that the BJP has been in power, the party has pulled the state out of the BIMARU state category. 'R' stood for Rajasthan in BIMARU. While addressing the media, he praised BJP, claiming that growth is visible "in every corner of Rajasthan". "When there is development and a state rises on various accounts, it is not just a mere number or statistic. It is an indicator of how a state is growing with time," said Jaitley. Like Raje, the Union finance minister spoke about the development in the state in the past five years. "Highways, airports, ports and other infrastructure projects have been a priority of our government, the work of which can be seen by all. People across the country and here in Rajasthan have seen the difference in infrastructure development done in the past few years," he said. "Today, electricity has reached every village and soon will reach every home." He also spoke about the work done in rural areas, especially in sanitation. "Rural sanitation has been a top priority of the government," the Union minister said. Jaitley, while listing the achievements states that the party was the one to introduce pension for the armed forces after 40 years. He also claimed that GST has been beneficial for the states. "GST has been beneficial for states. They get 50 percent from SGST and a further 21 percent from the CGST. Above this, the funds the states receive for Central schemes and projects are separate," he said. The Congress, on the other hand, is likely to release its election manifesto on Wednesday. Polling in the state will take place on 7 December and results will be announced on 11 December. Kerala Police arrested activist Rehana Fathima after charging the activist of hurting religious sentiments via her Facebook post. Rehana is one of the women who tried to enter Sabarimala temple, which has been in the middle of a controversy since the Supreme Court's verdict where the top court allowed women of all ages access to the temple. Kerala Police arrested activist Rehana Fathima after charging the activist of hurting religious sentiments via her Facebook post. Rehana is one of the women who tried to enter Sabarimala temple, which has been in the middle of a controversy since the Supreme Court's verdict where the top court allowed women of all ages access to the temple. On 30 October, Rehana had moved the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail, after the Pathanamthitta police on 22 October registered a case against Rehana for putting up social media posts that are allegedly communally divisive in nature. A case was registered under IPC section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), Pathanamthitta CI Sunil Kumar. A case under section 295(a) has been registered. She will be produced before a magistrate soon, G Sunil Kumar, Inspector of Police, Pathanamthitta, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. The case was registered after a complaint was filed by Sabarimala Samtakshana Samithy. A report by The News Minute said that, "Rehana had posted a photo of herself on her Facebook page, which several people took offence to. Rehana had posted a picture on Facebook on September 30, dressed as an Ayyappa devotee wearing a rudraksha and sporting a patta, with the caption 'Tatvamasi'." On 16 November, the Kerala High Court had rejected Rehana anticipatory bail plea after the district police had filed an FIR against her in connection to the case. The court had instructed the Kerala Police to go ahead with necessary action against Rehana, while six people who were arrested in relation to the Sabarimala protests were granted bail. After her failed attempt to enter the shrine on 19 October, despite heavy police protection and adequate preparation, the Kerala Muslim Jama'ath Council had also expelled Fathima from the Muslim community for "hurting sentiments of lakhs of Hindu devotees". Rehana, a BSNL employee, was on 24 October also transferred to Palarivattom telephone exchange in Kochi, where public contact is not required. However, while she was making the attempt, her house in Kochi's Panampilly Nagar was allegedly vandalised by unidentified people. With inputs from agencies Lawyer appearing for Sundar and petitioners, said that they wanted the removal of their names as every time she and others travelled abroad, they have to mention if there is a case pending against them. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Chhattisgarh government's response on a plea by Delhi University Professor Nandini Sundar seeking the removal of her name and those of five others from a FIR in an alleged murder case. A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta also directed the state government to explain what it had done for the past two years when the FIR was registered in 2016, and what it intended to do now. The apex court has given the Chhattisgarh government three weeks to file its reply. "You can't let an FIR hanging on somebody," Justice Lokur said. While issuing notice to the state government, Justice Lokur said that the names could be removed from the FIR (First Information Report) only after quashing it. Senior counsel Ashok Desai, appearing for Sundar, said that they wanted the removal of their names as every time she and others travelled abroad, they have to mention if there is a case pending against them. On 15 November 2016, the top court had directed the Chhattisgarh government to give Sundar a four-week notice if it wanted to act in the case. At that time the Chhattisgarh government had told the top court that it will neither arrest nor interrogate Sundar. The court was also told that the other accused named in the FIR too would neither be arrested nor interrogated. The court had on 15 November 2016 said that Sunder can approach the court as and when she is given a notice that the Chhattisgarh government intended to proceed against her in pursuance of the FIR. With an aim to reduce trading costs, market regulator SEBI on Tuesday came out with a framework for interoperability among CCPs, which will be operationalised by 1 June, 2019. New Delhi: With an aim to reduce trading costs, market regulator SEBI on Tuesday came out with a framework for interoperability among clearing corporations (CCPs), which will be operationalised by 1 June, 2019. At present, different bourses have their own CCPs , which handle settlement of trades on the respective stock exchanges. The interoperability would permit trading members to clear trades through a firm of their choice instead of going through the CCP owned by the bourse on which the trade was executed. The framework comes after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) board in September approved a proposal to enable interoperability among CCPs. In a circular, SEBI said, interoperability framework will be applicable to all the recognised CCPs excluding those operating in International Financial Services Centre. "All the products available for trading on the stock exchanges (except commodity derivatives) shall be made available under the interoperability framework," it added. The regulator asked stock exchanges and CCPs to "take all necessary steps to operationalise interoperability at the earliest but not later than 1 June, 2019". The move assumes significance in the wake of the disruptions in the functioning of a stock exchange and the respective CCPs in recent past. Under the guidelines, the agreements entered into by the exchanges and CCPs will include system capability, inter-CCP links, risk management framework, monitoring of client margin/position limits. Obligation system, settlement process, surveillance systems, sharing of client data, sharing of product information, default handling process and dispute resolution process will also be part of the agreements. In case of default by a CCP, the collateral provided by such CCP will be utilised by the non-defaulting CCP to cover losses arising from such default, it said. To promote transparency in terms of charges levied by the exchanges and CCPs, the SEBI said the transaction charges levied need to be clearly identified and made known to the participants upfront. As per the SEBI, the CCPs will have to establish peer-to-peer link for ensuring interoperability. A CCP will have to maintain special arrangements with another CCP and not be subjected to normal participant (membership) rules. The regulator said risk management between the CCPs need to be based on a bilaterally approved framework and will have to ensure coverage of inter-CCP exposures. Besides, the CCPs need to exchange margins and other financial resources on a reciprocal basis based on mutually agreed margining models. However, the SEBI, in certain cases, may require a CCP to establish participant link for interoperability. "In such cases, the CCP concerned shall become participant of another CCP (the host CCP) and shall be subjected to the host CCP's normal participant rules. "Since the participant CCP would be posting margins with the host CCP, but would not be collecting margins from the host CCP, it shall be required to hold additional financial resources to protect itself against default of the host CCP," the regulator noted. To manage the inter-CCP exposure in the peer-to-peer link, CCPs will have to maintain sufficient collateral with each other so that any default by one CCP, in an interoperable arrangement, would be covered without financial loss to the other non-defaulting CCP. The collateral posted by one CCP with another CCP shall be maintained in a separate account which can be clearly identified in the name of such linked CCP, which is providing collateral, and will not be included in the Core SGF of the CCP receiving them. In an interoperable arrangement, the stock exchange and the CCP should not be located at same venue. To ensure real time flow of information between the stock exchange (trading venue) and the CCP, each interoperable CCP will have to put in place appropriate infrastructure including deployment of adequate servers at each of the linked trading venues. The exchanges will have to ensure that stock brokers are mandatorily subjected to risk reduction mode on utilisation of 85 percent of the broker's collateral available for adjustment against margins. In August 2015, the SEBI had decided to hold public consultations on a new set of norms to enable interoperability of CCPs. An expert committee chaired by eminent banker K V Kamath had suggested about interoperability among CCPs. Major exchanges in the country include BSE and National Stock Exchange, both of which have their own clearing corporation arms. A recent circular issued by the office of Director General of Police TK Rajendiran, particularly pointed out at the men in uniform using the mobiles to surf the social media Chennai: The Tamil Nadu police has banned officials below the rank of a sub-inspector from using mobile phones while on work, saying it "distracts" them from discharging official duties. A recent circular issued by the office of Director General of Police (DGP) TK Rajendiran, particularly pointed out at the men in uniform using the mobiles to surf the social media. "It is noticed that police personnel deployed on important bandobust (security) duties, frequently use phones for Whatsapp etc, and this distracts them from discharging official duties, particularly at sensitive and critical times," it said. Henceforth, only officials above the rank of sub-inspector can use mobile phones while on duty even as it is "used only for official purpose," while on important duty, it said. "Hence, cell phones should not be used by other ranks during important duties such as Law and Order, VVIP bandobust, temple and festival bandobust," it added. The circular further said the unit officers may decide on the time and specific places where the restriction would be in place and directed them to ensure that the instructions were communicated down the line by way of a circular, besides reading them out during the daily roll-call. On 12 November, two men cleaning a sewage tank in Varanasi died of asphyxiation. A news report said that the men both employed as manual scavengers had descended into the tank without any safety gear. It is believe they inhaled the toxic gases in the tank, before falling unconscious into the sewage water below, and drowned. The incident comes a little over two months after five men died in similar, horrific circumstances in New Delhi. (It must be noted that none of these five men had been hired to clean sewage, but forced to enter the sewer where they met their deaths, by the contractor who employed them.) Conservancy workers manual scavengers employed with urban municipalities clean (often with their bare hands and few or inadequate tools) excreta and other waste, blocked sewers and drains. Since January 2017, one person has died every five days, on average, while cleaning sewers and septic tanks across the country, the Indian Express reported. Reporting on the same figures released by the National Commission for Safai Karamacharis (NCSK) the Guardian decreed that sewage cleaning was one of the countrys deadliest jobs and most insidious form of caste discrimination; most manual scavengers/conservancy workers are Dalits. This, despite the government of Indias outlawing of the practice of manual scavenging in 1993, under the Employment of Manual Scavenging and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act. For over two decades now, acclaimed photographer and Padma Shri awardee Sudharak Olwe has been documenting the lives of the sewage cleaners in Mumbai. The first set of these photos, depicting the conservancy workers of Mumbai, were shot in 1999. Olwe revisited the same places and people in 2018. Nothing had changed in those 18 years. By change, I mean there have been no equipment upgrades, no scientific method brought to bear, says Olwe. Nobody is fighting or researching how to end this problem of manual scavenging. While caste dynamics have a role to play, Olwe says he cannot understand the apathy towards conservancy workers, even amid reports of their deaths. Why are people are not ashamed of someone dying in the sewer lines and gutters? And if some seven or more people dying in these sewage pipes doesnt make any difference then we really are insensitive. Nobody takes these matters to court; nobody questions the corporation; nobody questions the government," he says, sounding anguished. Olwe asks why there has been barely any education on garbage segregation in Indian cities and villages over the past 60 years, why there is a dearth of toilets. I understand there is a scarcity of water but why have we not thought of alternative measures? Why do people of a certain community clean human excreta and garbage? Why are all the citizens of this country not participative of this process? he asks. A Times of India report states that around 52 million tonnes of solid waste is produced in the towns and cities of India, annually. In Mumbai alone, around 11,000 metric tonnes of waste is produced per day. The sewage waste is either chanelled to the sea via the sewer network, or it is dumped into the creeks or nullahs in and around the city. To handle such a high volume of waste, there are reportedly just nine safety suits for the conservancy workers. Of these, many arent functional; once theyre worn in the sewers, dirty water and waste seep into the suit, making it unusable. Going into one of these drainage systems is like entering a double-decker bus, says Olwe, who has worked closely with the conservancy workers and their families over the years. Once inside, there is nothing but darkness and filth. Dead animals, rats, blades, glass shards, food items, human excreta they touch it with their bare hands and take that filth out. You feel terrible theres a terrible sense of undignified living. Compounding this is the lack of facilities above ground. Theres no medical van, theres no ambulance, theres no system that can help a worker come out. The gases down there are so toxic that one would collapse. The equipment and machinery that the government provides are of no use to them. They would rather go without any of that equipment as they believe their chances of survival are higher, says Olwe. And yet, there are those who seek out the job. The major perk of the job is getting a kholi (a room) in a city where housing is unaffordable, says Olwe. Anyway, you have stigmatised the work and left it only for a particular section of society. These workers dont get the attention of the Corporation [the BMC] unlike its other employees. Recalling an incident from the past, he explains how this vicious circle of manual scavenging persists within the same community, When I started the project, Kashya was one of the workers who I met in the first week. In the second week, he died. I met his family, his wife and children who used to live on a small lane in Grant Road in a small lane. They didnt have a house; its a big struggle to get a room even with a Corporation job. Finally, the wife got Kashyas job. Olwe, through his photography project on the conservancy workers, strives to give them a voice and bring them some semblance of justice and dignity. It was a very disheartening time when I was working on this project I used to carry a lot of negativity and sadness back home after shooting these pictures; it was pathetic to see people from my own community suffer like this. They die at a very young age, the places they live in are dilapidated buildings; there are no medical facilities; water is not available and yet they are doing such important work every day. They are almost like soldiers but they hardly receive any acknowledgement for that, let alone respect, Olwe says. Apart from documenting the lives and struggles of the conservancy workers, Olwe started a collective named Photography Promotion Trust (PPT) in 2005 in collaboration with a few other photographers from India and Europe. They have been organising photography workshops for the children of the conservancy workers for the past 10 years. They also run a diploma course in photography in association with Xavier's Institute of Communication (XIC), Mumbai. As a result, many of those children have become photographers now. We just wanted to break this vicious circle and didnt want them to go back to this mode of doing the same work from grandfather, to father to sons and so on, Olwe explains. I hope we have been successful in doing so for the past few years. All photographs by Sudharak Olwe The members of the BJP delegation are Saroj Pandey, Pralhad Joshi, Vinod Sonkar and Nalin Kumar Kateel. The delegation will submit its report within 15 days to Shah. New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah has appointed a four-member delegation to take firsthand account of ongoing agitation outside Sabarimala temple in Kerala. "The delegation will also assess the atrocities being committed to Satyagrahis, the indiscriminate arrests being made by police during this agitation and to meet the general public and party workers in particular," an official statement issued on Tuesday read. The members of the delegation are Saroj Pandey, Pralhad Joshi, Vinod Sonkar and Nalin Kumar Kateel. The delegation will submit its report within 15 days to Shah. Kerala witnessed a string of violent protests in October over the Supreme Court's 28 September decision allowing the entry of women of all age groups into the Sabarimala temple. Over 3,505 protesters were arrested and at least 529 cases were filed in connection with the violence. Amit Shah addressed public meetings in Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Udaipur districts of the state, which goes to the polls on 7 December. Jaipur: In a series of rallies Tuesday in poll-bound Rajasthan, BJP chief Amit Shah slammed the Congress over corruption, caste-based politics and Bangladeshi migrants. Corruption was commonplace when the UPA government was in power at the Centre, he alleged in Pali. From 2G and ISRO scam in space, AgustaWestland chopper scam in the sky, Adarsh Society scam on land, submarine scam underwater and coal mining scam beneath the earth, the Congress did not leave a place where they didn't do a scam, he said. He claimed four generations of a family in the Congress enjoyed power for years but did not work for development. The party has no leadership, policy or principles, he charged. He targeted the Congress leaders for asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's caste, saying that the leaders of the Opposition party had stooped low. Shah addressed public meetings in Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Udaipur districts of the state, which goes to the polls on 7 December. In Jalore, he reiterated that the Bharatiya Janata Party government was committed to sending back illegal migrants. Vote for Vasundhara Raje in 2018 in Rajasthan and vote for Narendra Modi in 2019. We will find intruders and throw them out of the country, one by one, Shah said. The Congress did nothing to address the issue of illegal migrants, he said. The allegation was also made in the manifesto for the Assembly polls, released Tuesday by the BJP in Jaipur. Attacking Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he said, "Rahul`baba' asks us to give a report of our four and a half years of performance. He and his family have been in power for four and a half generations. They should be the first one to talk about their performance." He said the Congress lost elections across states in the last four years and it is now difficult to find the party even with binoculars. It is good to dream but the Congress chief is daydreaming to form the government in Rajasthan. I want to say once again that the BJP is going to form the government here, Shah said. He referred to a reported incident in Bikaner where Congress workers raising 'Bharat mata ki jai' slogans were interrupted by 'Sonia Gandhi ki jai' slogans. They are ashamed of chanting slogans for the country," he said. Praising Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for financial management, he said the BJP government increased the state's revenue and put it on the path of growth and development. After joining the BJP, former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi said working with the party will give her the opportunity to work for the people of Odisha and ensure speedy development. A former IAS officer joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday. Aparajita Sarangi was inducted into the party by BJP president Amit Shah at a ceremony at his home in New Delhi. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Odisha party chief Basanta Panda, the BJP's Odisha in-charge Arun Singh were also present at the ceremony. "I have a strong value system and love to take on challenges," Sarangi said after joining the party. "Working with the BJP will give me the opportunity to pursue both. The party's motto and leaders made me choose the BJP, which not only assures development but also ensures speedy development." "I want to work for the people on a very large scale. Politics is the only platform that provides this kind of opportunity. I strongly feel that getting into politics will provide me with a bigger platform, I'll be able to work with people of Odisha much better," Sarangi added. #WATCH: I have strong value system & love to take challenges & being in BJP will give me opportunity to pursue both. The party's motto & leader made me choose BJP which not only assures development but ensures speed in development: Aparajita Sarangi after joining BJP in New Delhi pic.twitter.com/hw3q6Xy9f5 OTV (@otvnews) November 27, 2018 In September, the 1994-batch Odisha cadre IAS officer had opted for the voluntary retirement scheme she had been on central deputation for five years and Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved her application on 15 November on the recommendation of the Odisha government, The Times of India reported. She retired from service 11 years ahead of schedule. There is speculation that the BJP will field her as a candidate from the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency or any of the three Assembly segments in the city, given her popularity during her tenure as commissioner of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation from 2006 to 2009. While The Hindu quoted BJP sources as saying she will surely be fielded as a candidate, Sarangi claimed to be unaware of any such development. During her tenure with the central government, she had had served as a joint secretary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme under the Ministry of Rural Development. Her term ended in August, after which she opted to voluntarily retire from service. Before her central deputation, she had served as a secretary in several departments of the Odisha government, including textiles and handlooms, panchayati raj, school and mass education and higher education. Sarangi, who hails from Bihar, is married to a joint secretary under the Union Ministry of Commerce, Santosh Sarangi. Uncertainty looms on whether the BJP under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will return to power for a fourth consecutive term or if fortune will smile on the Congress after its long electoral drought. As the curtain comes down on the high-voltage electoral campaigning by the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh for the votes to be cast on 28 November, both parties are keeping their fingers crossed. Who will win Madhya Pradesh? The betting market is swinging on both sides: sometimes in favour of Congress and sometimes for the BJP. Uncertainty looms on whether the BJP under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will return to power for a fourth consecutive term or if fortune will smile on the Congress after its long electoral drought. Political analysts think Congress hasnt succeeded in building a narrative against Chouhan. People do not complain against Chouhan, but against the lower bureaucracy and uncaring BJP MLAs, some of whom are also corrupt, they add. In fact, Chouhan has, over the years, emerged as a brand not only of the party, but also the state. Congress couldnt build a strong issue-based narrative against Shivraj Singh government, except announcing debt waiver for farmers and tackling unemployment. Its not necessary that those whore unhappy (and not angry) with the BJP government will vote for the Congress, Bhopal-based political commentator Girija Shankar said. The high-decibel campaigning in Madhya Pradesh witnessed 10 rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 27 of BJP president Amit Shah, 178 of Chouhan along with his Jan Aashirwad Yatra criss-crossing the state. Unlike the BJP, Congress didnt have many star campaigners. While Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed 15 rallies, Jyotiraditya Scindia held the highest rallies for the party (103). MPCC president Kamal Nath addressed a few rallies, with a focus on organisational support, while courting a controversy on a video allegedly slamming the RSS over minority issue. The issues raised by the BJP and the Congress leaders were more national than state-level: Ram Mandir, Rafale deal. The Opposition Congress couldnt make Vyapam scam a big issue. One may recall, five years ago the Vyapam scamthe biggest one till date in Madhya Pradeshrelating to irregularities in medical admissions and other recruitment examinations conducted by the state government was unearthed. It had almost dislodged Chouhan, but the BJP salvaged the crisis by handing the case to the CBI. The state population is nearly 90 percent Hindu, which prompted Congress to toe a soft-Hindutva line. It is in the battlefield of Madhya Pradesh where Congress president Rahul Gandhi visited Jyotirlinga shrines Omkareshwar and Mahakaleshwar, and was projected as a Shiv-bhakt, and pandit Rahul Gandhi. But Rahul's new avatar has drawn criticism. Congress has successfully raked up the farmer distress that erupted in Mandsaur in 2017. Despite the state governments quick measures to quell farmers' anger, election results will show if the Congress succeeded in swinging the issue in its favour. The pro-poor schemes of Shivraj Singh government will help the BJP to get support from the poor and economically-weaker sections of the society, especially the urban poor, former Hindustan Times resident editor NK Singh told Firstpost. However, on the issue of farmers, the house is evenly divided. A section of rich farmers who gained from the government would support the BJP. Theres no doubt that the state government has done a lot for farmers in comparison to the Congress government in the past, but its not enough. What has been offered to the farmers is less than their input cost. The government scheme Bhaavantar Yojna is a big racket and plunder of the State exchequer, as traders (also middlemen) and a few rich farmers have got benefit, whereas the small and marginal farmers havent, he added. Factors in favour of Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the BJP Unlike in the case of the former chief minister Digvijay Singh, theres no anger directly against Chouhan. No large-scale complaint against Chouhan on basic amenities like electricity, road and water, as against the Congress between 2000 and 2003. Strong organisational base. Active role of frontal organisations of RSS-BJP and their grassroots reach. Chouhans image as a son of the soil. He brought in the insider-outsider narrative into play during the last 15 years. Strong support from those living in slums and economically-weaker sections (EWS) due to state government schemes, especially housing scheme (Awas Yojna). Against the BJP Large-scale rebellion in the form of Independent candidates, who failed to get either a BJP ticket, a post or favour from the party. Upper castes and a section of middle-class voters are disturbed over SC/ST Atrocities Act, high fuel prices. Mid-level businessmen, small and medium level farmers who are politically influential are vocal against the BJP. High-voltage campaigning in the form of rallies and roadshows with star campaigners like Modi, Shah and Chouhan. Factors in favour of Congress Anti-incumbency factor against the BJP. A section of voters wants a change in government. Farmer distress that erupted in Mandsaur district and the anger among small and marginal farmers may help Congress, especially due to Bhaavantar Yojna. Peoples anger against bureaucracy and BJP MLAs Against the Congress Long absence of senior leaders of Congress in the state. They are being considered more as outsiders, who have spent less time in state politics. Weak frontal organisations of Congress that lack grassroots connectivity. A large section of voters still unable to forget Digvijay Singhs disastrous second term (1998 to 2003) and poor infrastructure that earned the state the infamous Bimaru tag. Lack of cohesive leadership in the state over the last 15 years, which has weakened the party at organisational level. Factionalism within partys state leadership. Soft-Hindutva line adopted by the Congress wont make much dent in BJP, rather it has attracted more criticism. Telangana's ruling TRS and challenger Congress, along with its allies, are thus engaged in a competitive Muslim appeasement formula In December 2006, Manmohan Singh was prime minister, heading the UPA government. At a meeting of the National Development Council in New Delhi, he sought to redefine secularism and outlined how his government liked to prioritise welfare of one community over everyone else in the country. He famously announced, "Muslims must have first claim over resources". Over a decade later, the Congress, struggling to counter the "Muslim party" tag, has gone a step further by proposing a series of benefits meant exclusively for the Muslim community in Telangana, if its government comes to power after the 7 December election in the state. The party is also proposing to offer some sops to the Christian Church, which has in various parts of the country often been at loggerheads with the Narendra Modi regime and the BJP. The manifesto is yet to be released. The leaked contents of a draft manifesto have been in circulation since Monday evening, but the Congress party has not denied the veracity of its contents. Some of the promises that the Congress outlined in its draft manifesto are as follows: Free supply of electricity to mosques and churches, some government contracts to be marked exclusively for Muslim youths, Rs 20 lakh in aid for impoverished Muslim students, residential schools for Muslim boys and girls, hospitals meant only for Muslim patients, strict governmental action against those private entities that refuse to hire Muslims and a selection panel to be constituted for recruitment of Urdu teachers. Jawaharlal Nehru's concept of secularism has clearly been twisted by the Congress under the dispensation of his great grandson Rahul Gandhi. From "Muslims have first right to resources" under the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh regime to free power supply for Muslims, in addition to hospitals, schools, monetary aid and so on, the Congress has taken long strides to seek the votes of one particular community. The question is why distinguish between citizens X and Y? Those needing medical care are entitled to an equal measure of attention by hospitals without distinguishing whether a patient was a Hindu or a Muslim. Why distinguish between places of worship of various religion in terms of government aid and support? What makes a mosque and church entitled to a free electricity supply in their premises and why should a temple or gurudwara be deprived of free electricity supply? The list of questions goes on. The Congress will need to respond to its new found governance model. By doing so, the Congress is trying to outwit the TRS and AIMIM in Telangana in a race to garner a larger portion of Muslim votes. The Congress lost its support base in the Muslim community in the 1980s and early 1990s, mainly because of the way the party conducted the Ayodhya issue and the way emerging regional parties in various parts of the country proved to be a better counter to the RSS-BJP's Hindutva mobilisation. The Congress could get Muslim support only in areas where the BJP and Congress were pitted head-to-head, where no strong regional force was present. The party suffered from a trust deficit from both the majority Hindu community and minority Hindu community. Telangana does not have a substantial BJP presence. The ruling TRS and challenger Congress, along with its allies, are thus engaged in a competitive Muslim appeasement formula. Ironically, in the places where the Congress is in direct contest with the BJP, it is making an overt Hindutva posture and where the BJP is a marginal force and the Congress is engaged in a fight with a regional force, the latter is taking a pro-minority tilt. That shows the kind of confusion from which the Congress currently suffers. In the Gujarat election, Rahul Gandhi became a "Janeudhari Hindu" (Brahmin) and for the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha elections, he would become an "ananay Shiv bhakt". His party promised to create a new spiritual/religious department in Madhya Pradesh, construct a Ram vangaman path, build gaushalas (cow sheds) in every district, find a great deal of virtue in gaumutra (cow urine) and make lofty promises to commercialise it. Digvijaya Singh would tweet a recorded entry of Motilal Nehru in a register kept by a priest in Pushkar to claim that Rahul Gandhi is in fact a Kashmiri Brahmin. The issue here is not what Motilal Nehru or Jawaharlal Nehru's caste or gotra was. The issue here is Rahul's attempt to claim his grandmothers father's Kashmiri Brahmin lineage (not his grandfather's Parsi lineage) in north India to suggest that he is a better Hindu than those in the BJP leadership, and the electoral benefits he is aiming in north Indian states. A few days ago, Congress leader CP Joshi had overtly pronounced that only Brahmins could speak of Hindus and Hinduism and in the same vein, had questioned Modis caste and religion. In the south Indian state of Telangana, the party is taking a completely different Muslim appeasement turn. The party perhaps is compelled to do so in Telangana because it does not have a Kamal Nath-like leader there, who in a closed-door meeting attempted to convince Muslims that at least 90 percent of the members of the community must come out and vote for the Congress. As Telangana inches closes to polling day on 7 December, all's not well with the Mahakutami or Grand Alliance of the Congress, TDP, CPI and newly-formed Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) party in the state. Hyderabad: As Telangana inches closes to polling day on 7 December, all's not well with the Mahakutami or Grand Alliance of the Congress, TDP, CPI and newly-formed Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) party in the state. As if the much-publicised trust deficit between the rivals-turned-allies wasn't enough, reports of how "greed" and "lack of discipline" among the alliance partners may cost them their chance to defeat the state's ruling TRS, are trickling in. This is most visible in the allies' squabble over seat-sharing that has been making news. In the so-called "friendly contests" playing out between the Congress and TJS in at least four Khanapur, Dubbaka, Asifabad and Warangal (East) of the 119 Vidhan Sabha seats, the Grand Old Party has fielded candidates despite TJS candidates filing nominations as well. Congress playing Big Brother That there was little coordination among members of the Mahakutami seemed visible from Day One. First, there was the delay over the announcement of candidates, then over allocation of seats to the alliance partners and then the slow efforts to withdraw other candidates from contesting the seats given to the allies. The Congress was frequently blamed for acting as Big Brother but without commitment to the common cause. Now, the "friendly contests" are giving sleepless nights to candidates like K Vijay, TJS' man from the Asifabad constituency not to mention ample opportunity to TRS campaigners to criticise the grand alliance as a "grand failure". "How can you call it a friendly contest?" asks Vijay, "What is the meaning of a friendly contest? It is nothing but backstabbing. Congress leaders have not only cheated me but also our leader Professor Kodandaram (founder of TJS). It is the Congress that promised to allocate us eight seats including Janagaon from where our leader was supposed to contest. Finally, what happened? The Congress has fielded its candidates without bothering about our presence in these seats." The pro-alliance voters too seem confused about who should get their votes in these seats the Congress or TJS. "We were very happy when the Congress, TDP, CPI and TJS joined hands. But now, we are in a dilemma in Asifabad. I am not sure whom Kodandaram will accompany during the poll campaign the Congress candidate or the TJS candidate," says K Bheema Rao, a Congress supporter. A 'total failure' Terming the Mahakutami a "total failure" and "sham", Telakapalli Ravi, political analyst and writer, alleges the alliance was shaky from the start. "The 'friendly contests' will split the votes among the friendly contenders and finally help their main rival (TRS) win the election. It will not help the Mahakutami but may just help gauge the popularity of candidates. The Mahakutami should have avoided fielding more than one candidate from one constituency. Going by the Congress attitude, it seems it wanted to rope in Kodandaram, but does not want to help him in the election," Ravi opines. CH Rajendar, a TJS candidate contesting from Dubbaka in Siddipet district, also came down heavily on the Congress, accusing it of betrayal. He attributed caste as the main factor behind the Congress fielding its nominee, Maddula Nageshwar Reddy, against him. "My joy knew no bounds when Kodandaram selected me to contest from Dubbaka. I belong to the backward class community. When I filed the nomination papers, Kodandaram accompanied me. The voters were enthusiastic. Around 18,000 people went with me for the filing. But not many are with me now that the Congress candidate has also filed nomination papers," he says. "There was an offer from the Congress candidate, asking me to withdraw my nomination, but I declined. I do not want to be branded a cheat by accepting money from the Congress candidate. I am not saying I will win from Dubbaka, but it is an opportunity to showcase my popularity there," Rajendar adds. Behind the 'friendly contests' According to activist Professor Haragopal, a lack of confidence about the winnability of candidates is one reason behind the so-called friendly-contests. "The other reason is that the party leadership has no control over the candidates. Also, they lack discipline and patience,'' he says. For him, such contests are aimed at getting publicity or money from opponents for withdrawing from the contest in their favour. "Some candidates just want to test their popularity. It will tell them whether to remain in the party or to switch to another. It will also help the party leadership evaluate a candidate's capacity for future elections,'' the professor explains. But Kodam Kumar, president of the Telangana Vidya Vanthula Vedike, Jalagaon district, believes that money and muscle power play a key role in elections. "I am sure that candidates who can spend crores of rupees can win. I want the Election Commission to ban meetings and campaign programmes during the polls. The candidates must remain at their homes or party offices, and voters should be allowed to select the right person,'' Kumar insists. Meanwhile, TJS spokesperson G Venkat Reddy made it clear that Kodandaram will canvass for his party's candidates and will accompany the Congress, TDP and CPI candidates where the TJS had not fielded its own. It also turns out that the squabble over seats was the very thing the professor had feared. In an interview earlier this month, he had said that it was of utmost importance that the alliances seat-sharing deal be settled soon so that they can get on with campaigning as a united force he was wary of losing the momentum that news of the Mahakutami had generated among those opposed to TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Raos rule. The author is a freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik has purportedly said he would have made People's Conference chairman Sajad Lone the chief minister of the state had he listened to instructions from the Centre. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik has purportedly said he would have made People's Conference chairman Sajad Lone the chief minister of the state had he listened to instructions from the Centre. A video has surfaced in the media in which Malik can purportedly be heard making the remarks, another in his list of controversial comments after the controversy over a supposedly non-functional fax machine last week. #EXCLUSIVE -- Whatever I said is right. Sajjad has the numbers obviously Delhi will push for lone. Tell me what wrong I have done: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik tells CNN-News18. | #PowerPlayInJK pic.twitter.com/l9QPWBis7G News18 (@CNNnews18) November 27, 2018 On 21 November, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had sent an official communique to the Raj Bhawan via fax, staking claim to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the Congress and National Conference. She later tweeted saying that her fax was not going through to the governor's office in Jammu, and thus she was making their decision public as a last resort to reach out to Malik. Soon after Mehbooba's claim, Lone also claimed he had tried to send his letter to the governor staking claim to form the government with the support of BJP MLAs via fax, but after receiving no response, he said he sent a copy of the letter to Malik's personal assistant on WhatsApp and shared a screenshot of the same. Not long after Mehbooba and Lone's claims, Malilk announced his decision to dissolve the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The next day, in a bemusing turn of events, Malik had claimed he had not received either letter as it was a holiday at the Raj Bhawan on account of Eid, and there was no one to man the fax machine. Malik reportedly made the statement about making Lone the chief minister at a public gathering on 24 November in Gwalior. Responding to a query on the turn of events, Malik said he believed he had done the "right thing" as he did not want to go down in history as a "dishonest man". Speaking to India Today on Tuesday after the video of him making the remarks surfaced, Malik claimed there was no political pressure on him or any interference from the Centre in the affairs of Jammu and Kashmir, and that his decision was "completely apolitical". He reiterated that the sole intention behind his decision to dissolve the Assembly was to ensure that Jammu and Kashmir gets a "stable and elected government". Malik told India Today he did not want any "hanky panky, underhand... defection. "Let them go to the polls, ... I want the people to decide who they want to form the government," he said, while avoiding questions on his purported statements from the video. The governor also claimed that Mehbooba had never called him even though he his "always available on call", and that Lone had sent his letter to the personal assistant of the previous governor instead. He said he did not receive any list of supporting MLAs from either side staking claim to form the government until Mehbooba went public with the development the next day. "I was convinced that none of the parties had the numbers. They would have only indulged in horsetrading," Malik said. Since the BJP walked out of an alliance with Mehobooba's PDP on 19 June, Jammu and Kashmir has been under Governor's Rule. The central government has proposed to hold the elections in the state along with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Modi encouraged a new breed of leadership and goaded the organisaton into expanding its arc of influence to the scheduled castes and tribals whom he regarded as low-hanging fruits. His efforts met with strong resistance from within the BJPs state leadership. During his stint as BJP general secretary (organisation) and in-charge of Madhya Pradesh affairs in the late 1990s, Narendra Modi had acquired a new nickname. He was called "master sahib", because of his persuasive way of running the party's organisation and reshuffling the support base. Of course, in 1998 Madhya Pradesh emerged as a strong bastion of the BJP which retained a substantial support among urban areas and upper castes. Historically the state is also known for having the most robust organisation of the BJP and its earlier avatar, Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), on account of the partys sustained activities on ground. Overseeing all this development and enabling the BJP to grow from strength to strength was the most efficient organisation man in the BJP Kushabhau Thakre who also took over as the party president in 1998. But Thakres style of building and consolidating the party organisation was quite traditional, straight from the textbook. He roped in workers from within the Sangh Parivar constituents and trained them to become political activists. In 1998, Modi in introduced radical changes in the Madhya Pradesh unit that rubbed the traditional leadership of the party the wrong way. And MP had a plenty of top leaders ranging from Sunder Lal Patwa, Vikram Varma and Kailash Joshi to young, emerging leaders like Uma Bharti. Modi encouraged a new breed of leadership and goaded the organisaton into expanding its arc of influence to the scheduled castes and tribals whom he regarded as low-hanging fruits. His efforts met with strong resistance from within the BJPs state leadership. Yet he continued with the strategy of reorganising the social bases and roping in marginalised sections to the Hindutva fold. Though the BJP lost the state election in 1998, the party's expansion was quite evident among tribals, OBCs and SCs the sections that traditionally sided with the Congress. In 2003 assembly elections, the emergence of Uma Bharti and subsequently Shivraj Singh Chouhan was a natural corollary to the persuasive strategy of organisational expansion of none else but the Master Sahib of 1998. There is little doubt that the 15 years of BJPs uninterrupted reign has come with a cost. Its traditional supporters, the land-owning upper castes, are substantially alienated. Yet, there is a strong possibility that this political attrition is replaced by an accretion of social bases from marginalized sections, particularly from SCs, tribals and the urban poor. Intriguingly, this numerically strong social base is not as articulate as conventional BJP supporters. In Malwa region of the state, the BJP does not seem to be on as sticky a wicket as it is in Chambal and Bundelkhand where the party is facing severe anti-incumbency. The region which comprises a significant part of the state is urbanised and prosperous. For instance, Indore is known as mini Mumbai for people of the state due to its prospering trade and business. The city is a delight for foodies and street-food is a craze. At Sarrafa Bazar, which is the biggest centre for business of gold, diamonds and ornaments, there is palpable dullness as compared to the past. Yes, our business has gone down since demonetisation, acknowledge shopkeepers. Yet, they do not hold it against the prime minister. We are BJP voters and we cannot think of going elsewhere, they say when asked if their voting choice will change this time. Indore is a strong bastion of the BJP from where Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan has won the eight times in a row. In the past decade, the city has transformed itself into a model for the rest of India on account of its cleanliness and civic facilities. Only 15 years back, the city was a veritable urban mess during Digvijay Singhs tenure. Even slums are refurbished and provided with amenities to ensure cleanliness and hygiene. The changing face of Indore and its adjoining urban areas has found appreciation even among the marginalised people. By no indication, this BJP bastion is showing any sign of vulnerability. The union governments schemes of facilitating house construction of the poor, access to electricity and cooking gas in rural areas have found great resonance among the electorate. There is no doubt that peoples aspiration has risen exponentially over the years. And 15 years is a long time for people to get weary of one dispensation. Yet the electorate is quite wary of a change for the worse. Given the history of Digvijay Singhs one decade of governance from 1993-2003, a substantial number of people from the older generation is not only cynical about the Congress but recall with trepidation about the past. And the presence of a scion of the erstwhile Gwalior state, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and industrialist Kamal Nath does not adequately assure the electorate that the Congress leaders will change their spots. In this region, the BJPs social engineering, robust organisation and Modis charm will combine to protect the turf of Shivraj Singh Chouhan. As far as the Congress is concerned, it seems to have internalised the dictum, Losing, like winning, is a habit." The BJPs ploy to bring the MNF, Mizo Zirlai Pawl and other ethnic groups under one umbrella might finally pay dividend Aizawl: While the ruling Congress in Mizoram is gearing up to fight the Mizo National Front (MNF) and its North-East Democratic Alliance partner the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it is the BJP and the MNF who are fighting to gain the upper hand the day before the polls open. BJPs Mizoram election in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma unnerved leaders of the state's two stronger parties by suggesting the BJP might reach an understanding of sorts with dissenting MLAs of the Congress and MNFif requiredonce elections are over. The MNF, however, is distancing itself from the BJP in view of the impending elections. It is the BJP leaderships wishful thinking regarding the kind of alliance they think they can forge once the elections are over, said MNF chief Pu Zoramthanga. I think we wont need any other political party to form the government in the post-poll scenario. We believe the MNF will win 25 to 30 seats in Mizoram with a comfortable majority. The former Mizoram chief minister added, As far as Sarmas statement is concerned, he can say anything as that is his privilege. Zoramthanga believes the BJP will only win two or three seats in the 40-member Mizoram Vidhan Sabha. The BJP, on the other hand, is confident that Mizoram will have a BJP-led government if things go according to plans. State BJP president John V Hluna, who is contesting from Tawi constituency against former home minister and former Congress state vice-president R Lalzirliana, who is now with the MNF, said talks of post-poll alliance are, as of now, far off. However, he added that no one can determine what happens after an election. There are instances of Congress leaders joining other parties. Everything is possible once the votes have been cast, he stated. The BJP, which has failed to open its account in Mizoram, is banking heavily on the anti-incumbency factor facing the Congress. Election in-charge Sarma is credited with making inroads for the BJP in the North East. A worried Congress has accused the BJP of using money to make rapid inroads and rise to power through the back door. Congress spokesperson Maliana, while quashing Sarmas suggestion of uniting with dissenters from other parties, said: The reason why the BJP is coming up with such statements [about post-poll understanding with dissenters] is because the people of the state detest the BJP. The BJP knows that it can never form the government on its own and that is why it is banking on the support of the MNF. Sarma, on the other hand countered the Congress allegations: We will come through the front door. We will surprise everyone by winning seats in Mizoram too. We have friends in the Congress and the MNF. If there is any shortfall [post-election], we have enough friends in both parties. Political analysts believe the BJP and the MNF have a secret understanding and are maintaining a distance considering the ramifications they might face if they hobnob with each other prior to the election. The understanding between the MNF and the BJP is an open secret, said Abhijeet Deb, a veteran journalist covering the North East. They know in a state like Mizoram where Christians dominate every aspect of life, the BJP hobnobbing with the MNF will only dampen the MNFs prospects. The BJP is seen and perceived as a party with strong right-wing mentality and Christians in Mizoram have always opposed that. In a predominantly tribal state, their [BJPs] main motto is to form the government and ideological differences are irrelevant in the pursuit of power. Just as in Meghalaya, the NPP and the BJP, despite their differences prior to elections, came together later to form the government. The same might very well happen in Mizoram in case there is a hung Assembly. Maliana added, The BJP is concentrating primarily on the Bru and Chakma-dominated areas. These tribes often find themselves isolated and marginalised by the mainstream Mizo community. The BJP might be trying to make inroads into Chakma and Reang (Bru)-dominated areas, but they face an uphill task as voters are divided between the BJP, its alliance partners and the Congress. Even Dr BD Chakmas position [former minister and a Chakma tribe leader who recently quit the Congress to join the BJP] is under threat because what we apprehend from outside might not be true on the ground. BJP state president JV Hluna believes the past track record of the MNF under former chief minister Zoramthanga will dissuade many from voting for the party. Allegations of large-scale corruption and mismanagement of government funds will be a critical deciding factor for the electorate. The MNF might not realise it, but the BJP has made massive inroads in Mizoram, said Hluna, who is confident that the BJP will win 10 to 12 seats and lead the government. Whether they like it or not, they cannot form the government without the help of the BJP. They might think some senior Congress leaders joining the party will boost their prospects, but the reality is that the MNF leadership is much more corrupt than the Congress government under Lal Thanhawla, One thing is for sure: The BJP and MNF are is determined to wipe the Congress out from Mizoram. MNF chief Zoramthanga blames the Congress for antagonising the church by relaxing the ban on the sale of liquor, which, he said, resulted in the death of thousands over the past three years. According to him, the Congress will only win around 10 seats. BJP workers claim they see a positive trend and their party is favoured in border districts such as Mamit, Kolasib, Lunglei and Lawngtlai. The opinions of the Mizo people about the BJP are divided between those fed up with the "failures of the Congress and MNF", who want to give it a chance and others who believe the right-wing alternative is not suitable for an ethnic state like Mizoram. Mizoram badly needs development and that seems to be the primary concern for most of its voters, who are facing a Catch-22 situation: They either have to choose Mizo pride and ethnicity, or go for the BJP's development pitch, which its big namesincluding Prime Minister Narendra Modihave pushed effectively. The BJPs ploy to bring the MNF, Mizo Zirlai Pawl and other ethnic groups under one umbrella might finally pay dividend, just like in Meghalaya where the BJP, despite only winning two seats, managed to form the government by brokering a deal with the National Peoples Party (NPP) and other like-minded groups. The author is a freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com Alcohol vendors and suppliers, who have invested lots of money in the industry, are worried about the outcome of the elections. Aizawl: When the first wine shop in Aizawl opened up on 16 March, 2015 after a period of 18 years, people queued up soon after to get their hands on legally sold whiskey and rum. The ban on alcohol sale in the hill state that came into force with the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act of 1995 was lifted by the Congress government by introducing the Mizoram Liquor Prohibition and Control Act (MLPC) 2014. Three years down the line, as the 7.68 lakh voters of the state prepare to elect the members to the next state Assembly on 28 November, the fate of alcohol seems to be a crucial factor that could influence the outcome. Among the parties in the forefront are the ruling Congress, the Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Zoram Peoples' Movement (ZPM). The Congress is seeking a third term, while the main opposition, MNF, vows to brush aside the Lal Thanhawla-led government. After the MLPC Act 2014 replaced the Total Prohibition Act, three wine shops were opened in Aizawl, which were run by state-owned corporations, namely Zoram Industrial Development Corporation (ZIDCO), Mizoram Food and Allied Industries Corporation Ltd. (MIFCO) and Mizoram Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (MAMCO). According to a ZIDCO official, Zoa, the average alcohol sales every day for almost five months amounted to Rs 8 lakh. Going by this figure, the state exchequer made Rs 2.40 crore from alcohol sales in a month on an average for the first few months. Deaths due to alcohol The MNF, however, is promising a complete ban on alcohol if they win the elections, citing its bad influence on the society and painting the legal sale re-introduced by the Congress as a sinful attempt at garnering votes. The talk of the town in Aizawl is that if one wants to have quality spirits for another five years, they must vote Congress. But, if one is happy drinking low-quality liquor at exorbitant prices, they may go with the MNF. Liansuama, one of MNF's advisors, said that if MNF wins the elections this time, total prohibition will be implemented as soon as possible. People struggling with drug and alcohol addiction will be delivered from their bondage of sins through the services of NGOs and church efforts," he said. While the MNF is vehemently against the liquor business, Lallianchhunga, Congress spokesman, said that alcohol is not an issue at all, but the secret alliance between MNF and BJP is what is the real issue this election, he added. Meanwhile, the largest Christian organisation, the Presbyterian Church's Social Front, which studied the effects of alcohol in society, issued a 42-page report last year. It found that alcohol-related deaths in Mizoram had increased after lifting the prohibition. The survey said that alcohol-related deaths in Aizawl's four hospitals accounted for 16.32 percent of the total deaths. The survey interviewed 873 people, in which 93.81 percent believed that alcohol causes a "negative impact on society", while 63 percent people wanted total prohibition of liquor. Reverend F Lalrinnunga, chairman of Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee (all-Churches organisation) says, "As members of the Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee (MKHC) we don't have anything to say about prohibition." He adds that the biggest church in Mizoram, the Presbyterian Church Synod, had appealed to the government not to lift the prohibition, but failed in its attempt. State BJP president JV Hluna says that if they win the election and form a government, they will stop all liquor imports from other states, but will encourage locally-made liquor. Lallianchhunga adds that, as a party, they will have no hesitation in lifting the MLPC Act and reinstating the prohibition. But that would be after careful consultation with party workers and the church bodies, and only after going through the results of a study conducted by the state government, he said. Alcohol vendors vouching for Congress win Meanwhile, alcohol vendors and suppliers, who have invested lots of money in the industry, are worried about the outcome of the elections. If the ruling Congress loses the battle, it will mean the end of their high-yielding three-year business. V Lalliantluanga, a liquor vendor in Aizawl, says that if the Congress does not win the elections this time, and if the alcohol ban comes into effect, he'll have to look for a new job, along with several others in the industry. To purchase alcohol in the state, one would need a liquor permit, which is issued by the Excise and the Narcotics Department. This liquor permit puts a strict limit on alcohol, allowing only six bottles of hard liquor and 10 bottles of wine and beer for personal bonafide consumption. Those who visit the state can purchase alcohol by furnishing their inner-line permit. Main sources of income for the state The excise department's website reveals that alcohol-related deaths went up from 22 in 2016 to 59 in 2017. However, a high-ranking official from the department said that the sale of alcohol has gone down tremendously in the past year, which means that people are now more aware of their health and spending. As a society, we have learned how to drink more responsibly, he said. Now, there are 48 liquor shops in Mizoram. The proceeds from the alcohol business are one of the main sources of revenue to the state government. In the latest report obtained from the department during the past financial year (April 2017 to March 2018), the revenue received under the MLPC Act was Rs 65.68 crore, surpassing the target of Rs 51.5 crore for the year. The author is a freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com. Till the last election in 2014 for the Lok Sabha, not all areas in Mizoram were connected through wireless technology and there was a delay in receiving information from far-flung booths Aizawl: Gearing up its entire machinery for Assembly polls in Mizoram, the authorities have decided to connect all polling booths through wireless communication for the first time leaving no "shadow areas" at all. Mizoram, having a difficult hilly terrain, is going for Assembly elections on Wednesday to elect 40 MLAs. "For the first time in Mizoram's election history, all polling booths will be covered by wireless communication. It will help in timely reporting of every development and progress of the polling," said Mizoram Deputy Inspector General of Police (Training & Armed Branch) Joseph Lalchhuana. Till the last election in 2014 for the Lok Sabha, not all areas were connected through wireless technology and there was a delay in receiving information from far-flung booths, he added. Lalchhuana, who is also the Assistant State Police Nodal Officer for the Assembly elections, said, "By doing this (wireless connection), we have eliminated all shadow areas from Mizoram. Shadow areas means the place where there is no communication." For operating the system as per the Election Commission of India guidelines, special training sessions were conducted for the Mizoram Police personnel and now everything is in place to conduct the polls efficiently, he added. "We take pride in it. We have tested it under the direct supervision of our Director General of Police Balaji Srivastava and are fully confident of supporting the Election Commission as and when required," Lalchhuana said. Mizoram has 7,70,395 registered voters who will cast their franchise in 1,164 polling booths across the state, while an additional 15 special booths have been created at Kanhmun village in Mamit district for the Bru refugees coming from six camps in Tripura. Lalchhuana said that during the poll campaigning, which ended last evening, the Mizoram Police had formed 84 flying squads, 39 dynamic check posts, 80 static surveillance teams and 80 quick response teams across the state to prevent any unlawful activities. "We have over 50 zonal police officers in the rank of DSP to SP. They are looking at the macro security arrangements in their respective areas. Above them, we have four grid DIGs along with the existing two range DIGs for overall responsibility," he added. Mizoram has 38 police stations and it has recently set up five new outposts for ease of surveillance and confidence-building among voters. "The total sanctioned strength of Mizoram Police is around 13,000 personnel, but we have around 9,000 persons at present. They all will be involved in the poll process," the DIG said. Mizoram Police is being assisted in its poll-related activities by 40 companies of central armed police forces (CAPF), comprising personnel from BSF, SSB, CRPF and Assam Police. Lalchhuana said special attention has been given along the state's borders with Assam, Manipur and Tripura, while the Mizoram DGP has sought cooperation from his counterparts in these states. "At four inter-state border points, we are monitoring the movement of people through CCTV. This is a new initiative and we installed it before the poll process started," he added. Lalchhuana also praised the public for cooperation in overall peace-keeping efforts during the election campaign across the state. He appreciated the people for depositing their licenced arms as soon as the election notification was announced despite this being the harvest season that typically sees attacks by wild boars on farmers' produce. "We are repeatedly thanking the people for their cooperation. Mizoram has a track record of holding free and fair polls in the past. I had joined in 1986 and since then, I have witnessed no violence before or after the polling or after declaration of results," Lalchhuana said. The ruling Congress and the main opposition party Mizo National Front (MNF) have fielded 40 candidates each, while the BJP is looking to open its account in the state for the first time by contesting in 39 seats. The Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM), an alliance formed by two political parties and four groups, is contesting in 35 seats. Counting of votes will be taken up on 11 December. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in his first rally in poll-bound Telangana addressed a public meeting in Nizamabad and called out the Opposition for not fulfiling their promise of progress and development in Telangana and appealed to the youth to vote for a 'New India, New Telangana'. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in Telangana of not fulfiling its promise of progress and development in the state and appealed to the youth to vote for a "New India, New Telangana". Modi made the statement at his first rally in the poll-bound state, addressing a public meeting in Nizamabad. In a direct attack on the caretaker chief minister of Telangana and TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), Modi said KCR believes that just like the Congress did not undertake any development work but still managed to retain power at the Centre, year after year for nearly half a decade, he would also be able to "do nothing" and yet win the Assembly polls. "But he must know that the youth of the state are aware of the ground realities," the prime minister added. Modi also targeted the Telangana government over its "unfulfilled promise" of 'Ghar Ghar Godavari', through which the citizens of Telangana were assured clean drinking water. Modi asked the people how could they vote for someone who could not even provide them drinking water. "Telangana was formed after several years of struggle and sacrifices of the youth, and the state government does not have the right to destroy that sacrifice," he said. In another sharp jibe at KCR, Modi said KCR had claimed he would transform Nizamabad into London, but the region still lacks basic development. He also blamed the TRS government in Telangana for feeling "insecure" about the Ayushman Bharat Scheme and failing to connect the state with it. "In the past three months, three lakh families have benefitted of the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, but none of them are from Telangana. The state government is responsible for this," Modi said. He, once again, attacked the Congress for its "dynastic politics" and accused the TRS government of following the same tactic. "The Congress and TRS both believe in dynastic politics. They are two sides of the same coin. Both parties appease the minority; both parties believe in vote-bank politics; neither of them have internal democracy," Modi said. The prime minister is scheduled to hold another rally in Mahabubnagar at 2.30 pm and address a rally at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in Hyderabad on 3 December. On Sunday, BJP chief Amit Shah had undertaken a whirlwind tour of Telangana and addressed four public meetings. He will again address meetings in the state on Wednesday and Sunday, the BJP said. With inputs from agencies Addressing a poll rally at Mahbubnagar, Modi asked the people whether they would vote for someone who bows at the feet of some leader. Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought to appeal to Telangana pride when he referred to AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi's recent remark that whoever became the chief minister of Telangana or undivided Andhra Pradesh had to bow before his party. Addressing a poll rally at Mahbubnagar, Modi asked the people whether they would vote for someone who bows at the feet of some leader. "A leader recently said whoever became the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh-Telangana had to be at his feet (kadmon ke neeche). You fought for Telangana for your self-respect. Will you want a CM who bows at the feet of some leader instead of the people of Telangana," he asked. Owaisi made the remarks during an election rally in Hyderabad on Friday. Seeking re-election from Chandrayangutta segment, he had said (previous) chief ministers have always sought the support of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the party would be the kingmaker again in the upcoming elections. "Whoever becomes the chief minister... does (that) CM bow his head before us or not?" Owaisi had asked his supporters at the rally. "Right from (Y S) Rajasekhar Reddy to Kiran Reddy and even KCR (TRS chief)... all of them listen to us...," he had claimed. "Certainly I am not the king, but the kingmaker and I can make anyone sit (on the throne)... This is AIMIM... the world will watch on 11 December," he had said. K Chandrasekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi has friendly ties with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduduin Owaisi. Telangana assembly elections are scheduled to be held on December 7 and the results would be declared on 11 December. The defining linguistic feature of a Marwari people born in areas around Jodhpur is his complete reluctance to say the Hindi alphabet Sa and Sh. The defining linguistic feature of a Marwari people born in areas around Jodhpur is his complete reluctance to say the Hindi alphabet Sa and Sh. For reasons that are both hilarious and serious, a Jodhpuri would always replace Sa with a Ha. So, if you hear a Jodhpuri accusing of speaking haaf jhoot (lie), dont be under the illusion that you have resorted to half-truths. What you are guilty of is actually speaking saaf jhoot (clear lie). Similary, sach (truth) becomes hach, sui (needle) becomes hui, and supari (betel nut) becomes hupari. Go back further down in history and some linguists in Jodhpur would even trace the origin of the word Hindu in this linguistic variation a himple, err simple, substitution of the S in Sindhu by the sound H. But, thats a different debate. In adjoining Jalore, also part of Marwar, Sa and Sha becomes Cha and, funnily, Cha becomes Sa or Sha. And with this primer on the Marwari phonetics, lets come to the point, which is the ongoing election for the Assembly in Rajasthan. In Jalore, most people will tell you that there is very little chance of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, or if we were to keep in mind the Marwari linguistic feature, Vachundhra Raje, returning to power. They argue, this year the fight is between Achok Gehlot (Congress leader Ashok Gehlot) and Chashin Pilot (Sachin Pilot). The reason, as a woman asked Raje point blank at an election rally, is clear: Educated youth are sitting at home. They do not have jobs or employment. Kai vote dewan? (Why should we vote?) Also, they argue, farmers (kichan in Jalore) are on the verge of ruin because of low yields and falling prices of crops. The Congress has got its finger on Marwars painful nerve. At a rally in Pokhran on Monday, Rahul Gandhi addressed both these issues when he promised to waive off loans to farmers and guaranteed that the next chief minister of Rajasthan will work 18 hours a day just to ensure the youth get jobs. From their linguistic preferences, you can infer Jodhpuris are lazy (some argue they replace Sa with Ha because uttering the former alphabet requires more effort or the labour of spitting out the hupari they have stuffed in their oral cavity) as well as pragmatic. Notice that they use an H in place of S only when the word starts with that alphabet. If an S or Sh appears in the middle or at the end, they leave it untouched. So, unlike in Jalore, Vasundhara doesnt become Vahundhara in Jodhpur and Ashok doesnt become Ahok, but Sachin morphs into Hachin. (Legend has it that when India once played a one-dayer at the Barkatullah Stadium here, the stands echoed with the quasi-familiar chant of Hachin, Hachin.) So, in this election, the Jodhpuri voter is taking both the easy way out and being pragmatic. The easier route is reflected in their preference for the BJP on seats where the Congress has put up Muslim candidates, especially in Jodhpurs Soorsagar. Here, before the election began, the consensus was the BJP candidate Suryakanta Vyas was on her way out. Vyas, interestingly, is almost 75 years old and should have by now earned appellations like aunty or granny, but, for some reason, is still called Jiji (elder sister). The Congress has revived Jijis chances by fielding a local mathematics professor Dr Ayub Khan. Unfortunately, the caste and community arithmetic doesnt seem to favour him. The Jodhpuris pragmatism is evident in the steadfast loyalty to Gehlot, who wins every election by the simple expedient of announcing his candidature from the citys Hardarpura (Sardarpura) constituency. Voters know that even if all of Congress were to be decimated, they would still have a powerful man representing them in the Assembly. So, whatever by the nature of the poll Modi wave, anti-incumbency, Ram Mandir Gehlot is certain to win by a huge margin. Jodhpuris love sweets, pyaaz kachori and mirchi (green chilly) pakora. Many of them start their day with spicy hot snacks that an average Indian would eat only at the risk of summoning the fire brigade to douse the fire that erupts from every pore. The election in the region, in accordance with the gastronomic taste, is also not bland. The Congress believes it has the edge because of rising anti-incumbency and the presence of Gehlot, one of the frontrunners for the top job. But the old-school ticket distribution by the party three Muslims, four Jats, three Rajputs, four SC has shifted the debate from Rajes tenure to caste equations. And since the outcome now depends on local factors, the BJP is back in the race. Also, Gehlot as a frontrunner, is a bit of a double-edged sword. While some communities support him blindly, there are others who oppose him with equal vigour. In the end, this love-hate relationship with Gehlot generally balances the gains and losses. Once upon a time, Jats of Marwar believed their stalwart leader, the late Parasram Maderna, would become the chief minister. But Maderna was pipped by Gehlot and the Jats still hold it against him. But this year, the presence of Pilot in the fray he spoke just before Rahul Gandhi at Pokhran and thus occupied the higher position in public perception in the Congress pecking order may bring Jats who dont want Gehlot as chief minister back to the Congress fold. But the BJP too is going out of its way to retain Jat voters. Since the situation is fluid, there is no point asking a Marwari: Hachi, hachi bolo (tell honestly), who could be the next chief minister? You are unlikely to get a haaf picture. As many as 1,821 candidates are left in the fray for 119 constituencies in the 7 December Telangana Assembly polls, the state election commission said on Monday. The commission is coming out with the official figure Monday after withdrawal of nominations ended on 22 November. Hyderabad: As many as 1,821 candidates are left in the fray for 119 constituencies in the 7 December Telangana Assembly polls, the state election commission said on Monday. The commission is coming out with the official figure Monday after withdrawal of nominations ended on 22 November. According to an official release, 1,762 nominations were either rejected or withdrawn. Election officials had Thursday said the final number of candidates left in the fray would be known after receipt of information from the constituencies. Malkajgiri segment leads with 42 contestants including independents followed by 35 each in Uppal and LB Nagar constituencies. Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which is going it alone, has fielded candidates in all the 119 Assembly segments. The Congress, which is leading the 'grand alliance', has fielded 99 candidates while its other partners-Telugu Desam Party 13 and CPI three. Its other ally, Telangana Jana Samithi has given 'B-Forms' for eight candidates. B-Form for elections is proof that a particular candidate is put up by a political party. According to the original seat-sharing agreement, the Congress was supposed to contest in 94 seats, TDP (14) CPI (3) and TJS eight. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded 118 candidates. Caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is seeking re-election from Gajwel constituency. Telangana Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy is contesting from Huzurnagar, while BJP Telangana chief K Laxman from Musheerabad. CPI's Telangana unit secretary Chada Venkat Reddy is contesting from Husnabad. Campaigning will reach a crescendo on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to address two election rallies in Telangana on Tuesday as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign for the Assembly election. Party chief Amit Shah had on Sunday undertook a whirlwind tour of Telangana and addressed four public meetings. He will again address meetings on Wednesday and Sunday. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi undertook to campaign for the Congress party on 23 November. The ruling TRS is already into hectic campaigning with its president and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and other leaders addressing a series of rallies. Counting of votes will take place on 11 December. The opposition Congress, TDP, CPM and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS), who formed a 'grand alliance' for the 7 December assembly polls in Telangana, Monday released a common agenda for governance. Hyderabad: The opposition Congress, TDP, CPM and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS), who formed a "grand alliance" for the 7 December assembly polls in Telangana, on Monday released a common agenda for governance. The "grand alliance" will be known as the "people's front", the parties said. The agenda was released by Congress president in Telangana N Uttam Kumar Reddy, TDP's state unit president L Ramana, TJS president M Kodandaram and CPI's in-charge state secretary Palla Venkat Reddy. The "agenda of aspirations of the "martyrs"' (those who sacrificed their lives for separate Telangana) would form the political and ideological basis for the 'people's front' before the polls and coalition government post elections, the agenda said. The agenda said administrative changes would be made to end the "dictatorial" and "corrupt" rule of TRS. It said a judicial inquiry would be conducted into the design of major contracts and the award of contracts during the last four years. For the farm sector, the alliance promised Rs 2 lakh loan waiver at one go and the setting up a Rs 10,000 crore fund for price stabilisation and market intervention. Uttam Kumar Reddy hoped that the 'people's front' would form the government after the elections. He said that a committee would be formed, with Kodandaram as its chairman with Cabinet rank, for the implementation of the agenda. Those who fought for a separate Telangana would get recognition and also "partnership" in government schemes, the agenda said. Among others, the agenda said one lakh jobs would be filled in the first year after coming to power. The agenda promised implementation of reports of the Sachar Committee and Sudhir Committee on the welfare of minorities. It also said that libraries showcasing Telangana literature and records of photos, audio, and video of separate Telangana agitation would be set up. Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao's party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is fighting in all seats, while Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has joined hands with Congress, CPI and TJS to form a grand alliance. Hyderabad: Exuding confidence that the grand alliance or Mahakutami will form the next government in Telangana, Telegu Desam Party's (TDP) state chief L Ramana has alleged K Chandrashekar Rao used the opportunity as the first chief minister to benefit his family and the mega tie-up of Opposition parties has been formed to save people from his "dictatorship rule". In an interview to PTI, Ramana said that KCR, as the state's first chief minister is popularly known as, has failed on many fronts despite spending Rs 8 lakh crore and borrowing Rs 2.2 lakh crore. "The alliance was formed to save people from the dictatorship rule of KCR. People elected TRS in 2014, but the opportunity given to KCR was used for the benefit of his family. The dictator's rule is not good for welfare of Telangana. Therefore, four parties have come together," he said. KCR is seeking a second term as chief minister after dissolving the Assembly in September. KCR's party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is fighting in all seats, while TDP (Telugu Desam Party) has joined hands with Congress, CPI and TJS to form a grand alliance. When asked why TDP joined hands with the Congress in spite of bitter rivalry in the past, Ramana said, "There has been a change in Congress now. The party has changed its earlier ways of working and attitude and therefore it made PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh as prime ministers." He added, "In the event of changes seen in the Congress, we have allied with the Congress to form Mahakutami, the grand alliance that comprises two other parties Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI)." On TDP being portrayed as an "anti-Telangana" party, Ramana said, "The NTR Bhavan at the centre of the city (Hyderabad) is an example of where TDP's roots lie. The then TDP government created the Cyberabad region and boosted the service sector, the fruits of which are still available. Our base is here." Claiming that the BJP has a secret pact with KCR and also has friendly ties with Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, Ramana said, "Presently, about 4 crore people of Telangana are feeling as if they are captive. We want to free them by throwing TRS out of power." Ramana said his party's main focus in Telangana would be to increase opportunities to improve the revenue and make a surplus budget state. The TDP won 15 seats in the 2014 state elections, not 12 of them had defected to the ruling TRS. "I believe one should live in whatsoever situation comes. We need to have faith and be loyal. Our effort is to strengthen the faith and stay united. We remained strong and undeterred when TRS took away our MLAs and MLCs between 2014 and 2015," Ramana said. Asked who would be the chief minister if the grand alliance forms the government, the TDP leader was non-committal and said, "We will take a call in a democratic way after speaking to all MLAs." Reacting to the controversy around a Congress leader's snide remark on Narendra Modi's father and dragging the name of his mother in the political slugfest, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wrote Facebook blog targeting the Congress over their 'dynastic politics' and calling it a 'self-goal' by the grand old party. Controversy erupted last week after senior Congress leader, Vilas Muttemwar, said in a viral video that everybody knows about Rahul Gandhi's father but no one knows the name of Narendra Modi's father. Modi had reverted to Muttemwar's remarks by saying that Congress is running out of steam in the elections, and thus it is dragging his parents into politics. "My mother sits in her house, performing religious rites, confining herself to a room, and has never visited Madhya Pradesh. She does not even know the 'R' of 'rajneeti' (politics)," Modi had said. Modi said it only exposes the tradition of 'dynastic politics' in the Congress. The party, he said, cares only about lineage, not about achievements. "The Congress will never have the guts to fight an election on the basis of development. We never make any personal attacks on anyone's family. We criticised the post they held. But why are Congress leaders making personal attacks on my mother and father," he said. Reacting to the controversy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has written a Facebook blog targeting the Congress over their 'dynastic politics' and calling it a 'self-goal' by the grand old party. Read the full text of the blog here: The debate whether India should be a dynastic democracy has been ignited by a self-goal of the Congress Party. The Prime Ministers mothers age was made a subject matter of the electoral debate. His fathers anonymity was commented upon as an inadequate credential of the Prime Minister. The argument given was that if you represent the legacy of a well-known family, it is a political point in your favour. Millions of talented political workers who come from modest family backgrounds would fail by the Congress test of leadership. Merit, talent, ability to inspire and lead would not be a virtue. The Congress considers only a great surname as a political brand. On hearing this rationale, I asked a few well informed friends of mine three questions: (1) What is the name of Gandhijis father? (2) What is the name of Sardar Patels father? (3) What is the name of Sardar Patels wife? None of my well informed friends had a definitive answer. This is the tragedy of Congress politics and its impact on the nation. Gandhiji led the most extraordinary freedom movement of India. He created, through political awareness, Satyagraha and non-violence, an environment where British found it impossible to continue in India. Sardar Patels contribution was second to none. Besides being a frontline leader of the freedom movement, he, as the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, negotiated the transfer of power with the British. He negotiated the integration of India with over 550 rulers. He gave to India, within a short period of few months, its present geography. Incidentally, Gandhijis father was Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi, Sardar Patels father was Jhaverbhai Patel and his wifes name was Diwali Ba. No photograph of his wife or her details are available even after extensive research by modern day historians. The Officially Glamorised Family The reason for this is simple. Decades of Congress rule, naming colonies, localities, cities, bridges, airports, railway stations, schools, colleges, universities, stadiums after one family was intended to declare the Gandhis as Indias royalty. They were officially glamorised as the blue blooded family of India. The others did not matter. In fact, upon Sardar Patels death in Mumbai, Prime Minister Nehru requested many of his cabinet colleagues that the best tribute to the Sardar would be to work on the day of his funeral and not go to Mumbai. The then Head of State and several Union Ministers defied the advice. The proposal for building his statue at Vijay Chowk was rejected. The country had to be satisfied with the installation of his statue at a traffic round-about on Parliament Street. Many believe that Sardar Patel was a farmer leader because of his participation in Bardoli Satyagraha. On the contrary, he was one of Ahmedabads most successful practicing Barristers. Panditji is passed off as a great lawyer though he never argued a single case in his entire career. He only went to court once for reasons of tokenism to sit behind senior lawyers led by Bholabhai Desai who was arguing for the three INA officers in the mutiny trial inside the Red Fort. The danger of Glamorising at the Cost of Others The dangers of officially glamorising one family at the cost of those who made a far greater contribution is dangerous both for the nation as also for the party to which they belong. The contribution of other great stalwarts like Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose is downplayed. Members of one family are projected as larger than life. Their aberrations become national aberrations. The party adopts them as its ideology. When Panditji promoted his daughter as his successor, he laid the foundation of India as a dynastic democracy. When the daughter, in 1975, turned dictatorial, it became the partys ideology to convert India into a disciplined democracy. When the Sikh were massacred in 1984, communal polarisation against them was considered a legitimate electoral strategy. Today anti-BJPsm leads the Congress to a situation where it can tie up even with its political rivals and sympathise with the Maoists, separatists and disruptionists. The country pays a price for dynastic policies as we have witnessed in several regions. Three families two of them in Srinagar and one in New Delhi in the last 71 years, have played with the destiny of Jammu and Kashmir. The consequences are obvious. Following the dynastic pattern of leadership within the Congress, several other parties have followed the same principle. In such organisations there is no inner party democracy, there are no ideological principles. There is a complete flexibility to switch sides and align with your erstwhile political opponents. In Andhra Pradesh, NTR filled up the political vacuum and created an alternative to the Congress. Gradually the party went into a control of the present Chief Minister who is willing to switch sides in every general election. There is no second line of leadership and the option offered is of a coalition of rivals. The political parties in question also pay a price. The only leaders who have a political future are the ones which are acceptable to the leaders of the dynastic parties. You fall foul of the family, you are thrown out of the party or marginalised. Talent has no space. Merit is no virtue. Organisational structure need not exist. The charisma of the family alone is the partys vote bank. The crowd around the family is the cadre. The Weakness of the Dynastic Parties This model, however, has one significant weakness. Strength of the party is co-existent with the strength of the current generation of the dynasty. If he is found to be non-inspirational or inadequate in leadership, the party has to throw all its eggs in an incomplete basket. The basket may be worth only 44 Lok Sabha seats, at times slightly less; at times slightly more. The ill-informed reactions of the leader become the new ideology. The silver lining, however, is that India is changing. It has very large middle class and very strong aspirational class aspiring to get into the middle classes. This aspirational India judges parties and leaders very harshly. They dont accept whoever is imposed. They ask difficult and penetrating questions and their yardstick is very tough. They look for leaders of integrity, they look for men and women who can inspire them, who are decisive and can lead the nation. To them surnames dont matter competence and capacity does. The Challenge of 2019 The real strength of Indian democracy would be when the charismas of some families is completely shattered and parties, through a democratic process, throw up leaders of merit and competence. This was more than adequately proved in 2014 where most dynastic parties lost miserably. India of 2019 is different from India of 1971. If the Congress Party wants the 2019 elections to be between Prime Minister Modi, who is the son of lesser known parents and someone who is known only for his parentage rather than capacity, merit and competence, the BJP would gladly accept the challenge. Let this be the agenda for 2019. Disclaimer: This article has been reproduced as it appeared on Jaitley's Facebook page and has not been edited by Firstpost staff. Reuters Alphabet Incs Google in May introduced a slick feature for Gmail that automatically completes sentences for users as they type. Tap out I love and Gmail might propose you or it. But users are out of luck if the object of their affection is him or her. Googles technology will not suggest gender-based pronouns because the risk is too high that its Smart Compose technology might predict someones sex or gender identity incorrectly and offend users, product leaders revealed to Reuters in interviews. Gmail product manager Paul Lambert said a company research scientist discovered the problem in January when he typed I am meeting an investor next week, and Smart Compose suggested a possible follow-up question: Do you want to meet him? instead of her. Consumers have become accustomed to embarrassing gaffes from autocorrect on smartphones. But Google refused to take chances at a time when gender issues are reshaping politics and society, and critics are scrutinizing potential biases in artificial intelligence like never before. Not all screw ups are equal, Lambert said. Gender is a a big, big thing to get wrong. Getting Smart Compose right could be good for business. Demonstrating that Google understands the nuances of AI better than competitors is part of the companys strategy to build affinity for its brand and attract customers to its AI-powered cloud computing tools, advertising services and hardware. Gmail has 1.5 billion users, and Lambert said Smart Compose assists on 11 percent of messages worldwide sent from Gmail.com, where the feature first launched. Smart Compose is an example of what AI developers call natural language generation (NLG), in which computers learn to write sentences by studying patterns and relationships between words in literature, emails and web pages. A system shown billions of human sentences becomes adept at completing common phrases but is limited by generalities. Men have long dominated fields such as finance and science, for example, so the technology would conclude from the data that an investor or engineer is he or him. The issue trips up nearly every major tech company. Lambert said the Smart Compose team of about 15 engineers and designers tried several workarounds, but none proved bias-free or worthwhile. They decided the best solution was the strictest one: Limit coverage. The gendered pronoun ban affects fewer than 1 percent of cases where Smart Compose would propose something, Lambert said. The only reliable technique we have is to be conservative, said Prabhakar Raghavan, who oversaw engineering of Gmail and other services until a recent promotion. New Policy Googles decision to play it safe on gender follows some high-profile embarrassments for the companys predictive technologies. The company apologized in 2015 when the image recognition feature of its photo service labeled a black couple as gorillas. In 2016, Google altered its search engines autocomplete function after it suggested the anti-Semitic query are jews evil when users sought information about Jews. Google has banned expletives and racial slurs from its predictive technologies, as well as mentions of its business rivals or tragic events. The companys new policy banning gendered pronouns also affected the list of possible responses in Googles Smart Reply. That service allow users to respond instantly to text messages and emails with short phrases such as sounds good. Google uses tests developed by its AI ethics team to uncover new biases. A spam and abuse team pokes at systems, trying to find juicy gaffes by thinking as hackers or journalists might, Lambert said. Workers outside the United States look for local cultural issues. Smart Compose will soon work in four other languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French. You need a lot of human oversight, said engineering leader Raghavan, because in each language, the net of inappropriateness has to cover something different. Widespread Challenge Google is not the only tech company wrestling with the gender-based pronoun problem. Agolo, a New York startup that has received investment from Thomson Reuters, uses AI to summarize business documents. Its technology cannot reliably determine in some documents which pronoun goes with which name. So the summary pulls several sentences to give users more context, said Mohamed AlTantawy, Agolos chief technology officer. He said longer copy is better than missing details. The smallest mistakes will make people lose confidence, AlTantawy said. People want 100 percent correct. Yet, imperfections remain. Predictive keyboard tools developed by Google and Apple propose the gendered policeman to complete police and salesman for sales. Type the neutral Turkish phrase one is a soldier into Google Translate and it spits out hes a soldier in English. So do translation tools from Alibaba and Microsoft. Amazon.com opts for she for the same phrase on its translation service for cloud computing customers. AI experts have called on the companies to display a disclaimer and multiple possible translations. Microsofts LinkedIn said it avoids gendered pronouns in its year-old predictive messaging tool, Smart Replies, to ward off potential blunders. Alibaba and Amazon did not respond to requests to comment. Warnings and limitations like those in Smart Compose remain the most-used countermeasures in complex systems, said John Hegele, integration engineer at Durham, North Carolina-based Automated Insights Inc, which generates news articles from statistics. The end goal is a fully machine-generated system where it magically knows what to write, Hegele said. Theres been a ton of advances made but were not there yet. tech2 News Staff The Samsung Galaxy S10 is expected to come with a bunch of upgrades, and one of them is believed to be its display. The Galaxy S10 is rumoured to feature an improved version of the Infinity display, called the Infinity-O. And now, adding a little more authenticity to this rumour, a report from Korea suggests that these new displays for the S10 have now gone into production. According to a report by ETNews Samsung is already producing the Infinity-O displays in preparation of the Galaxy S10 launch next year. Samsung Display apparently finished adapting its production lines for the new Infinity-O display designs, the report notes, adding the laser equipment necessary to drill holes into OLED displays. But what's so special about the Infinity-O display? Well, that 'O' in the moniker is your hint. When Apple launched the iPhone X in 2017, it introduced the notch, and then we saw almost every brand following that design language, except for Samsung. The South Korean company found a different way to further increase the display real estate on its phones, and that's where Infinity-O steps in. The Galaxy S10's display is expected to come with even thinner top and bottom bezels, curved edges, and a hole near the top (read: O) of the screen where the selfie camera will be placed. Besides the Samsung Galaxy S10, the Galaxy A8s, which is believed to be launched in December, is also rumoured to feature the new Infinity-O display. However, a leakster from China recently claimed that the Galaxy A8s' display will be an LCD one and will be manufactured by BOE Display and not Samsung Display. Reuters The US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman said on Monday that the agency would not revisit its securities fraud settlement with Tesla Inc despite Chief Executive Elon Musks tweet mocking the regulator. Jay Clayton appeared to be unaware of the 4 October tweet describing the SEC as the Shortseller Enrichment Commission, when CNBC anchors read it to him on Monday. He said that? Clayton asked, declining to comment further. As far as Im concerned, that matter is settled. Tesla and Musk agreed in September to pay $20 million each to the SEC after he misled investors with tweets on 7 August that said he was considering taking Tesla private. The settlement requires him to be more restrained on Twitter, prompting speculation that the agency could review the agreement after Musks 4 October tweet which came hours after a federal judge ordered him and the SEC to justify their settlement. Shares of the electric carmaker fell as much as 4 percent after that tweet. I think it was an appropriate settlement; one that sent a message to the marketplace, letting CEOs know that if they speak, they need to speak accurately, Clayton said. tech2 News Staff Facebook is just not having the greatest of times. After being embroiled in multiple data privacy scandals over the past year, it looks like everyone wants to abandon the sinking ship. The latest in the line of high-level executives stepping down is Neeraj Arora, the chief business officer of WhatsApp whose parent company is Facebook. In a post on Facebook Neeraj announced his decision to step down from the company and taking some time off to recharge and spend time with family. He also thanked Jan Koum and Brian Acton, who are co-founders of WhatsApp, for letting him be their business partner for so long. As mentioned before, this is not the first big name in recent times to alienate themselves from Facebook. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger resigned as chief executive officer and chief technical officer of Instagram back in September. Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1 billion back in 2012. In May, Jan Koum resigned after clashing with Facebook over WhatApps strategy and Facebooks attempts to use its personal data and weaken its encryption. Brian Acton also followed suit in September. Indo-Asian News Service A team of scientists are preparing to set sail for seven weeks to the Antarctic so they can collect blue whale faeces and examine its impact on biodiversity and climate change, the media reported. "The most detailed whale poo expedition ever," as the participants have dubbed it, aims to test a theory that waste from the world's biggest mammal plays a far more crucial role in maintaining the productivity of southern oceans than previously believed, the Guardian reported. The team, along with dozens of other scientists will depart on January 19, 2019, from Hobart, Tasmania on the Research Vessel Investigator, it added. "I want to show that whales are ecosystem engineers," Lavenia Ratnarajah, a marine biogeochemist at the University of Liverpool, was quoted as saying. "Conservation campaigns are usually focussed on their beauty, but that doesn't convince everyone. If we can show how much these animals contribute to the functions of the ocean, then it will be easier to save them." Whale excrement acts as an iron-rich ocean fertiliser that stimulates the growth of marine bacteria and phytoplankton tiny plants that form the base of the Antarctic food chain and act as the greatest biological source of carbon sequestration. The new study will try to quantify that fertilising impact and test theories that the whale is irreplaceable in the polar ecosystem because the other major predators penguins and seals tend to defecate on the ice rather than in the water so they cannot provide the same nutritional benefits. The team will first deploy sonar buoys to identify the location of the whales and then, when close, use drones to fly above them and wait for telltale orange plumes. It can take days. The faeces, which is mainly composed of digested krill, initially floats on the surface before dissipating and then sinking to the floor of the ocean. Blue whale which can grow to more than 30 metres in length and weigh 200 tonnes numbers plunged by 95 percent in the early 20th century, but they have stabilised and partially recovered since the introduction of a global ban on catches in 1966. There are now thought to be between 10,000 and 35,000, mostly in the Antarctic. (Reuters) - An associate of political operative Roger Stone, a long-time ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said on Monday he will reject what he claims is a plea deal offered to him by the special counsel probing Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. (Reuters) - An associate of political operative Roger Stone, a long-time ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said on Monday he will reject what he claims is a plea deal offered to him by the special counsel probing Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Jerome Corsi, a right-wing commentator known for promoting conspiracy theories, said the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller wanted him to plead guilty to one felony count of knowingly providing false information in return for a lighter sentence. At issue in the plea talks were two separate email exchanges from 2016 in which Stone and another associate encouraged contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to Corsi, who said he has never communicated with Assange. Corsi said he had forgotten about the emails when he initially told Mueller's team there was never any intention to contact Assange. He said Mueller allowed him to amend his testimony to reflect the content of the emails. "Now they want to charge me for something that they allowed me to amend. That's not fair," said Corsi, who told media last week that he was in plea talks with Mueller. "I didn't go in to deceive them." Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, said it was unlikely Mueller would charge Corsi based solely on a situation in which he amended his statements to reflect communications memorialized in emails that he claimed at first not to remember. "The only way you get to the point that you charge him is if you have a lot more evidence," Goldman said. "There is more to it than what he is describing." Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel, declined to comment. Stone told Reuters on Monday that he believed the email from him was a message in which he urged Corsi to get an associate of theirs who lived in the United Kingdom to look into three issues, one of which was visiting Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Mueller's prosecutors have questioned several associates of Stone as part of their investigation. They are examining whether Stone had advance access to emails hacked from the Democratic Party and the account of John Podesta, campaign chairman of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and obtained and later published by Wikileaks. Stone has denied having advance access to the emails, which U.S. officials say were hacked by Russian intelligence and released by Wikileaks weeks before the 2016 election. Corsi, who provided research to Stone during the campaign, said in a livestream posted to YouTube earlier this month that he expected to be criminally charged by Mueller. (Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Ahmed Jadallah DUBAI (Reuters) - A British academic was on his way home from the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after a pardon saved him from a life sentence for spying, according to a Reuters photographer. The UAE said it had pardoned Matthew Hedges after showing a video of him purportedly confessing to being a member of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency. By Ahmed Jadallah DUBAI (Reuters) - A British academic was on his way home from the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after a pardon saved him from a life sentence for spying, according to a Reuters photographer. The UAE said it had pardoned Matthew Hedges after showing a video of him purportedly confessing to being a member of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency. Britain has denied he was a spy and welcomed his pardon. Hedges boarded a flight to London in Dubai, according to a Reuters photographer at the airport. Hedges, a 31-year-old doctoral student at Durham University, had been held since May 5, when he was arrested at Dubai International Airport after a two-week research visit. His family have cast him as a dedicated researcher who fell foul of the UAE's security and justice system. The UAE cast him as a British spy who was given a fair trial for grave espionage offences. The case has strained ties between the long-time allies, leading London to issue a forceful diplomatic response after last week's verdict was handed down, with a warning that it could hurt relations. The UAE president issued the pardon as part of a mass clemency of more than 700 prisoners to mark the country's National Day. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt welcomed the pardon, which he called "fantastic news". "Although we didn't agree with charges we are grateful to UAE government for resolving issue speedily," Hunt said. GULF SECURITY The UAE had signalled on Friday that it was working on an "amicable solution" to the case after Prime Minister Theresa May had described last week's sentence as deeply disappointing. His wife, Daniela Tejada, has said he was kept in solitary confinement for more than five months and the evidence presented against him consisted of notes from his dissertation research. Last week's hearing lasted less than five minutes, she said. The UAE's ambassador to the UK has disputed the account, saying the case was "extremely serious" and there had not been a "five minute show trial." Minutes before the pardon was announced on Monday, a UAE government spokesman showed journalists a video of Hedges purporting to confess to belonging to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and researching which military systems the UAE was buying. In the video, which was sometimes inaudible and shown with subtitles that could not be independently verified, Hedges appeared to say he approached sources as a doctoral student. The spokesman, Jaber al-Lamki, said Hedges was "100 percent a secret service operative" and aimed "to steal the UAE's sensitive national secrets for his paymasters", but did not take questions on the case. He said Hedges aimed to gather information on government figures including "members of the UAE's ruling families and their networks" and economic data related to strategic firms. Hedges had built an extensive network of contacts while working with Dubai's Institute for Near East & Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA), then returned to the UAE "on assignment as an undercover student on research trip", Lamki said. His family dispute the UAE account. They said he was an academic whose dissertation research focused on sensitive topics in the UAE such as security structures, tribalism and the consolidation of political power in Abu Dhabi. Like most Gulf states, the UAE brooks little public criticism of ruling family members, senior officials or policy and has prosecuted pro-democracy activists for what it calls insulting the country's leaders. (Additional reporting by Katie Paul; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Alistair Smout) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Weve seen this rodeo before. With five weeks to go before the Opposition takes over the US House majority and suspense building over when special counsel Robert Mueller may release his final report on the alleged Russian meddling in Trumps 2016 campaign - Donald Trump is raising the stakes, sowing chaos and distraction all around as he pushes for $ 5 billion in border wall funding and threatens government shutdown if his foot soldiers dont deliver. New York: Weve seen this rodeo before. With five weeks to go before the Opposition takes over the US House majority and suspense building over when special counsel Robert Mueller may release his final report on the alleged Russian meddling in Trumps 2016 campaign - Donald Trump is raising the stakes, sowing chaos and distraction all around as he pushes for $ 5 billion in border wall funding and threatening government shutdown if his foot soldiers in the Republican party dont deliver. Meanwhile, its been a whirlwind 24 hours of news about special counsel Robert Muellers investigation who has torn up his co-operation agreement with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, accusing Manafort of violating the agreement by lying. While this may be a big blow to the most crucial evidence in the probe, it could also mean were closer than ever before to the big reveal by the Mueller investigation team. Its just the kind of moment for Trump to go back to his proven tactic - distract, deflect, manufacture a new crisis. Trump and the Republican party got a sound thrashing in the House midterm elections and the dust has settled, but Trump doest want it to. He remains very much in political campaign mode, kicking up new controversies where none exist or in the case of the US - Mexico border, heightening the palpable sense of a looming crisis in the hope of justifying his $5 billion ask. On Monday, US troops fired tear gas at hordes of ragged Central American migrants who are camped at a city called Tijuana on the Mexico side of the US-Mexico border. Trump is strongly defending the U.S. use of tear gas at the Mexican border to repel a crowd of migrants that included angry rock-throwers but also barefoot, crying children. Critics denounced the border agents' action as overkill, but Trump is sticking to a hard line. How has Trump upped the stakes? Quite simply, by weaponizing the visuals of huddled masses of Central Americans who, sadly, have scant knowledge of Americas asylum rules or the hardline political ideology that has brought US military and barbed wire to this dusty outback. By next week, a new power equation will take hold in Mexico, the new president there has already indicated hes not going to be a holding facility for people headed to America, more chaos will follow and Trump will ratchet up his calls for $5 billion in border wall funding. Trump had likened the approaching caravans to an "invasion" in the days leading up to the 6 November midterm elections, but critics accused him of exaggerating the threat in order to motivate his base to turn out and vote. Trump, who has emphasized stopping illegal immigration as an issue since his presidential campaign in 2016, said earlier this month that he would veto any spending bill that did not include border wall funding. After migrants clashed with U.S. border patrol Sunday, he again called for the wall, tweeting, "We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" The White House scrambled to cobble together supporting themes for Trump's threats, quoting pro-Trump media on how three other Presidents have temporarily closed the southern border. Adding to Trump's troubles is the Monday announcement by automaker General Motors that it's cutting nearly 15000 jobs in the US geography. That most of the job cuts will come in places where Donald Trump won in 2016 has visibly angered the US president. Trump is saying he's "very disappointed" in General Motors closing plants and he says the White House is "looking at cutting all subsidies" for the auto giant. "She better do something, build something else", he snapped, referring to the GM CEO. Trump blasted GM's CEO, Mary Barra, "for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland" even though "nothing" was "being closed in Mexico and China." Trump angrily referred to the 2008 federal auto bailout by adding that "the U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!" With Trump's 'America First' battle cry biting back and exposing the hard reality that presidents who promise jobs on behalf of corporates actually have very little power over those corporates who answer to the stock markets, Trump is hitting back the only way he knows: fling plenty of pies and hope something sticks. BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon has accepted a Russian aid offer comprising millions of bullets that will be given to its police force, the office of the caretaker prime minister said on Monday, denying reports an offer of Russian military aid had been turned down. News that the Russian offer had been rejected was first reported by the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar on Monday, which said the ammunition had been offered to Lebanon's U.S.-backed army and had been turned down. A military source confirmed the army had declined the offer, saying this was for technical reasons linked to the types of weapons used by the Lebanese military and had nothing to do with politics BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon has accepted a Russian aid offer comprising millions of bullets that will be given to its police force, the office of the caretaker prime minister said on Monday, denying reports an offer of Russian military aid had been turned down. News that the Russian offer had been rejected was first reported by the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar on Monday, which said the ammunition had been offered to Lebanon's U.S.-backed army and had been turned down. A military source confirmed the army had declined the offer, saying this was for technical reasons linked to the types of weapons used by the Lebanese military and had nothing to do with politics. The media office of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said the al-Akhbar article was "devoid of truth". "The Press Office clarifies that this is not true and that the Russian side was informed of the acceptance to receive the donation, from which the Internal Security Forces in the Ministry of Interior will benefit," it said in a statement. Al-Akhbar, which is supportive of Lebanon's Hezbollah, the heavily armed Iranian-backed Shi'ite group, said the army's decision to rebuff the Russian offer was political, saying the United States was against the army accepting Russian aid. A senior Lebanese political source told Reuters that while the type of weapons and ammunition used by the Lebanese army had been cited as the reason for turning down the Russian offer, U.S. pressure could have been a reason. The United States is the biggest donor to the Lebanese army, providing more than $1.5 billion in support since 2006. Washington says the support has aimed to strengthen the army as "the sole" military force defending Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds significant sway, and to counter threats from neighbouring Syria. Russian forces are widely deployed in neighbouring Syria, where they have been fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad since 2015 alongside Iranian-backed groups including Hezbollah - which is listed as a terrorist group by Washington. Earlier this year, Russia tabled what appeared to be more wide-ranging military cooperation with Lebanon. A draft military accord published by the Russian news agency TASS in February set out a five-year renewable agreement included general aspirations of improving information exchanges, developing military training and fighting terrorism. Local media and a Western diplomat said Russia was offering a $1 billion line of credit to the Lebanese military for arms and other military purchases. The military source noted Lebanon still maintains military ties with Russia, saying the army signed a deal with Moscow in 2017 to purchase 104 military transport vehicles and that Lebanese military officers still undergo training in Russia. The United States has been increasing pressure on Russia globally through sanctions in recent years over actions including its role in annexing Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014, a nerve agent attack in Britain, allegations of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, and its role in Syria. Under a 2017 law, the United States can impose sanctions on countries that engage in "significant transactions" with the Russian military. [nL2N1N12UW] (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Laila Bassam; Editing by Mark Heinrich/Tom Perry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Maldives new finance minister said on Monday that China is executing infrastructure projects at vastly higher prices than originally proposed but the island nation cannot get out of its commitments now. New Delhi: Maldives new finance minister said on Monday that China is executing infrastructure projects at vastly higher prices than originally proposed but the island nation cannot get out of its commitments now. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solihs administration, which took office this month, is reviewing contracts awarded by his predecessor Abdulla Yameen. Most went to Chinese firms and are feared to have left the country in debt. During a five-year building spree, China built a sea bridge connecting the capital city of Male to the main airport on another island and is developing the airport itself as well as building mass housing on land reclaimed from the sea. But Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer told reporters during a visit to New Delhi that his officials had spent the first week in office trying to reconcile loans that the previous government took for these projects and the sovereign guarantees that it gave for them. We believe that most of these projects are at inflated prices, and so we are looking at them, Ameer said. But he said the government could not go back on the contracts because many of these, including the bridge, were already completed. We cannot do much in terms of renegotiation but going forward our objective would be to reduce the cost of our infrastructure projects, he said. One of the projects was a hospital in Male awarded to China which had already run up a cost $140 million, far more than a rival offer $54 million that was originally made, Ameer said. China has built ports, bridges and highways in countries stretching from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and its ally Pakistan as part of its Belt and Road Initiative for a trade and transit corridor across Asia and into Europe. But of late it has faced criticism that many of its massive projects costing millions of dollars are pushing the smaller countries into debt. India, which has been the traditional partner for most of the South Asian countries, has in addition viewed the expansive Chinese diplomacy as aimed at securing an outpost in some of the island nations such as Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid said he had assured Indian leaders that his country wanted the best of ties with its immediate neighbours and would return to an India First policy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Solihs inauguration and said India stood ready to help the country tide over its financial difficulties. China has rejected allegations it was driving the Maldives to debt and said it hopes the new government will continue with policies to attract investment. Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a severe political crisis after Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new prime minister on 26 October. Colombo: Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal on Monday accepted a legal challenge against newly-appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Cabinet, deepening the political crisis that enters its second month in the island country. The court accepted the petition filed by 122 legislators against Rajapaksa and 48 others who have been named as ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers in the new government appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena, Xinhua news agency reported. The case is to be taken up for preliminary hearing on Friday. The petitioners are seeking an interim order preventing Rajapaksa and his government from exercising any authority of a legitimate Cabinet. The legislators who have filed the petition are from ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party, the Tamil National Alliance and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. They argue that a "state of anarchy and chaos" would ensue in the country given that Rajapaksa's Cabinet had lost two no-confidence motions and does not command a majority in Parliament. Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a severe political crisis after Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new prime minister on 26 October. The president appointed a new caretaker government thereafter. By James Mackenzie KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb blast killed three U.S. By James Mackenzie KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb blast killed three U.S. service members and wounded three others near the central Afghan city of Ghazni on Tuesday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said. Taliban insurgents, who control large parts of Ghazni province, claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded an American civilian contractor. A Taliban commander in Ghazni said U.S. and Afghan security forces were conducting raids in different areas of Ghazni and insurgents managed to plant a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) in the Shahbaz area targeting one of their armoured vehicles. "The U.S. and Afghan forces are desperately trying to recapture some of the important places in Ghazni and have conducted several raids but they couldn't succeed and have suffered losses," the commander said. The NATO statement gave no details but Mohammad Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said an armoured vehicle carrying U.S. troops hit a large roadside bomb in the Shahbaz area, just outside the city, on Tuesday morning. He said U.S. special forces had been conducting operations with Afghan forces around Ghazni city since Monday. The casualties were the latest in a growing toll on U.S. forces in Afghanistan and followed the death of an army Ranger during an operation against al Qaeda militants in Nimruz province on Saturday. Resolute Support said the soldier had been accidentally shot by a member of Afghan partner forces. At least 11 U.S. service members have now died in Afghanistan this year, in combat or in so-called "insider attacks" by Afghan soldiers or police. Four Czech soldiers, serving with Resolute Support, have also been killed. There was no official confirmation from U.S. or NATO forces of the circumstances of Tuesday's blast but Ghazni has been one of the most embattled regions of Afghanistan this year and many areas close to the city are in the hands of the Taliban. The city, which sits on the main highway linking the capital Kabul with Kandahar in the south, was overrun this year by a large Taliban force before it was driven off by Afghan and U.S. troops after days of heavy fighting. About 14,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support and a separate counter-terrorism mission aimed against militant groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State. (Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Editing by Nick Macfie and Mark Heinrich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will have a packed schedule of bilateral meetings in Buenos Aires this week on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of world leaders, the White House said on Tuesday. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will have a packed schedule of bilateral meetings in Buenos Aires this week on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of world leaders, the White House said on Tuesday. Trump's talks on the sidelines are the main focus for the White House during the multilateral conference. It is unclear whether officials will be able to reach consensus on a final joint statement, or communique, for the conference. Trump's highest profile meeting will come at the end of the summit, when he has a much-anticipated dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, their first meeting since the two nations imposed tariffs on each other's imports. Also closely watched will be Trump's bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That meeting will cover security issues, arms control, and issues in the Middle East and Ukraine, Trump's national security John Bolton told reporters. Trump is also slated to meet on the sidelines with the leaders of Argentina, Germany, South Korea and Turkey, the White House said. He will meet with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and then the two leaders will meet jointly with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bolton said. But Bolton said Trump has not planned to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA believes ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has vowed to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Chizu Nomiyama) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Susan Heavey and Lizbeth Diaz WASHINGTON/TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday Mexico should send Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States back to their homelands, a day after U.S. By Susan Heavey and Lizbeth Diaz WASHINGTON/TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday Mexico should send Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States back to their homelands, a day after U.S. authorities shut the country's busiest border crossing and fired tear gas into a crowd there. Sunday's incident happened after a group of migrants in the Mexican border city of Tijuana rushed at the border fencing. It was the latest chapter in a saga that has pitted Trump's tough immigration line against thousands of migrants who have made their way north through Mexico from violent and impoverished Central American countries. Tensions had been growing in Tijuana, and Trump said on Saturday the migrants would have to wait in Mexico until their individual asylum claims were resolved in the United States. That would be a significant shift in asylum policy that could keep Central Americans in Mexico for more than a year. Trump went further on Monday, saying Mexico should send the Central Americans, mostly Hondurans, back home. "Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" Trump tweeted. Mexican government officials had no immediate response. Mexico has been in negotiations with the United States over a possible scheme to keep migrants in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed. The team of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Saturday, says no deal has been agreed on the migrants. But officials are hinting they could remain. "We should be objective, whatever happens they will stay in Mexico," said Alejandro Encinas, an incoming deputy interior minister. "Migrants have rights and we will respect them." CRITICISM U.S. government agencies defended the response to Sunday's incident at the San Ysidro crossing south of San Diego. News pictures showing children fleeing tear gas prompted sharp criticism from some lawmakers and charities. British aid group Oxfam said in a statement the use of tear gas was shameful. "Images of barefoot children choking on tear gas thrown by US Customs and Border Patrol should shock us to our core," Vicki Gass, Oxfam America Senior Policy Advisor for Central America said. Democrats and other critics called the use of tear gas an overreaction, and questioned the idea of keeping the migrants in Mexico to make asylum claims there. Some rights advocates and legal experts were concerned that the Trump administration was seeking to exploit the melee. Geoffrey Hoffman, a professor and director of the University of Houston Law Center Immigration Clinic which represents migrants applying for asylum, said the government would use it to push the argument that the migrants should remain in Mexico. Still, Rodney Scott, chief U.S. Border Patrol agent in San Diego, told CNN the vast majority of those assembled at the border were economic migrants who would not qualify for asylum, and said there were few women and children. "What I saw on the border yesterday was not people walking up to Border Patrol agents and asking to claim asylum," Scott said, adding that authorities had arrested 42 people. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were struck by projectiles thrown by caravan members. U.S. officials reopened the San Ysidro crossing after closing it for several hours. U.S. Republican Senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham said the border "chaos" had to be dealt with "properly". "Showing the American people we will take a tough line on future waves of illegal immigration helps build the necessary political support to deal fairly with the problems created in the past," Graham said in a statement. WAITING GAME Tijuana police chief Mario Martinez told a news conference on Monday that 194 Central Americans had been arrested in the 15 days the caravan has been in the area. Separately, Mexico Immigration Authority Director Gerardo Garcia told television channel Televisa that 98 people were in process of deportation as of Sunday night. The migrants have travelled through Mexico in large groups, or caravans. There are more than 7,000 at the U.S. border in Tijuana and the city of Mexicali, with more than 800 others still moving toward the border. Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum, who has said his city is facing a humanitarian crisis, told a local radio station the United States would take 2-1/2 to three months to start processing asylum requests, meaning the some 5,200 people currently packed into a shelter in the city could wait three months for their cases to be heard. Many of those in Tijuana have said they will wait there until they can seek asylum. If they enter the United States, legally or illegally, they have a right to seek asylum. Melkin Gonzalez, a 26-year-old Honduran man, recounting Sunday's tear gas firing, said: "I fell in dirty water when I was running (away) and I still don't have any clothes to change into. Even so, I'm not going back to Honduras, I want to go to the United States." The U.S. military said it had shifted about 300 service members from Texas and Arizona to California in recent days. In a statement, U.S. Northern Command said these forces would include military police, engineering and logistics units. It added that less than 200 troops had been sent home from the border mission, meaning that in total about 5,600 troops active-duty troops are on the border with Mexico. U.S. military officials have said they expected troops to be repositioned as the situation developed and changed. Trump has said the migrants should not easily enter the country and on Monday he threatened again to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, which stretches for 2,000 miles (3,200 km). U.S. lawmakers face a deadline to approve funding for the federal government by Dec. 7. Trump has threatened to shut down the government unless Congress pays for his planned border wall. (Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Lizbeth Diaz in Tijuana; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Idrees Ali in Washington and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Writing by Susan Heavey and Frances Kerry; Editing by Alistair Bell and James Dalgleish) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will have bilateral meetings with the leaders of Argentina, Russia, Japan and Germany when he and the American delegation go to Argentina for the Group of 20 summit later this week, a White House spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Trump is also expected to meet separately with China's Xi Jinping for the first time since the world's two largest economies imposed tariffs on each other's imports WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will have bilateral meetings with the leaders of Argentina, Russia, Japan and Germany when he and the American delegation go to Argentina for the Group of 20 summit later this week, a White House spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Trump is also expected to meet separately with China's Xi Jinping for the first time since the world's two largest economies imposed tariffs on each other's imports. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Erdogan and Prince Mohammed will attend the G20 meeting in Argentina later this week. Berlin/Istanbul: Turkeys foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview published Tuesday that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman asked for a meeting with Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and that there was currently no reason not to meet him. Yes, he has asked Erdogan on the phone, whether they could meet in Buenos Aires. Erdogans answer was Lets see, Cavusoglu told Germanys Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Erdogan and Prince Mohammed will attend the G20 meeting in Argentina later this week. At the moment there is no reason not to meet with the crown prince, Cavusoglu said. Saudi-Turkish relations have been strained by the killing last month of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said the prince had no knowledge of the killing, which Turkey says was carried out at the Saudi consulate by a squad of 15 Saudi agents which included a member of Prince Mohammeds security team. Erdogan has said the killing was ordered by the highest level of Saudi leadership but ruled out that it had come from King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on the 33-year-old crown prince. US president Donald Trump said last week Washington would remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia despite saying that Prince Mohammed may have known about the plan to murder Khashoggi. Asked if he knew for sure who in Riyadh gave the order to kill Khashoggi, Cavusoglu said that the team would not have acted on its own, but could not say anything else without proof. Cavusoglu said Riyadh had offered to send identikit photos of local helpers who assisted in the cover-up. Why identikit pictures? The Saudis know the names, he said. Turkey says it has recordings related to the killing which it shared with Western allies. Cavusoglu said he had listened to the recordings and that Khashoggi was killed within seven minutes. It was premeditated murder, he told the German newspaper, rather than a last resort after they failed to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia. It can be heard how the forensics expert instructs the others: they should listen to music while he cuts up the body. One notices how he enjoys it. By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will brief the U.S. Senate on Wednesday on the latest developments related to Saudi Arabia, Senator John Cornyn, the number two Senate Republican, told reporters on Monday. By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will brief the U.S. Senate on Wednesday on the latest developments related to Saudi Arabia, Senator John Cornyn, the number two Senate Republican, told reporters on Monday. Many U.S. lawmakers, including some of President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans, have rejected Trump's embrace of Saudi Arabia. They have called for a strong U.S. response to the murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the war in Yemen, which has created one of the world's most urgent humanitarian disasters. Trump vowed last week to remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia and said it was not clear whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew about the plan to kill Khashoggi last month at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The president cast doubt on the CIA assessment that the prince ordered Khashoggi's killing, telling reporters the agency had not formed a definitive conclusion. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said earlier this month he wanted Pompeo, Mattis and CIA Director Gina Haspel to come to the Capitol for a classified Senate briefing. A Senate aide said Haspel is not scheduled to be involved in Wednesday's briefing, which will take place at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). A House of Representatives aide said no similar briefing had been scheduled in that chamber. Cornyn also said he thought the Senate would vote on a Yemen resolution introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders seeking to pull back any U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Asked if the measure, which failed earlier this year, stood a chance of passage now, Cornyn said he did not want to "give Iran a pass." Gulf Arab states have been battling since 2015 to restore a government in Yemen driven out by the Houthis, Shi'ite Muslim fighters that Yemen's neighbours view as agents of Iran. (Reporting by Richard Cowan and Patricia Zengerle, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. In statistics released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime calculated that of a total 87,000 female homicide cases worldwide in 2017, some 50,000 or 58 percent were committed by the victims' intimate partners or family members. Vienna: More than half the women who were murdered worldwide last year were killed by their partners or family members, making home "the most dangerous place for a woman," a new UN study said Sunday. In statistics released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime calculated that of a total 87,000 female homicide cases worldwide in 2017, some 50,000 or 58 percent were committed by the victims' intimate partners or family members. Around 30,000, or 34 per cent, were committed by intimate partners alone. "This amounts to some six women being killed every hour by people they know," the Vienna-based body said. The vast majority around 80 per cent of homicide victims worldwide were men, but "women continue to pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality, discrimination and negative stereotypes," said UNODC chief Yury Fedotov. "They are also the most likely to be killed by intimate partners and family... making the home the most dangerous place for a woman," he said. "The fact that women continue to be affected by this type of violence to a greater degree than men is indicative of an imbalance in power relations between women and men inside the domestic sphere." The UNODC calculated that the global rate of female homicide victims stood at around 1.3 victims per 100,000 female population. The study found that Africa and the Americas were the regions where women were most at risk of being killed by intimate partners or family members. In Africa, the rate was around 3.1 victims per 100,000 female population, while the rate in the Americas was 1.6 victims, in Oceania 1.3 and in Asia 0.9. The lowest rate was found in Europe, with 0.7 victims per 100,000 female population. According to the UNODC, "no tangible progress" in combatting the scourge had been made in recent years "despite legislation and programmes developed to eradicate violence against women." The report's conclusions "highlight the need for effective crime prevention and criminal justice responses to violence against women," the UNODC said, stressing the need for measures to boost safety and empower potential victims while holding their abusers accountable. The study also called for greater coordination between police and the justice system as well as health and social services. And the UNODC said it was also important to involve men in the solutions, including through early education. Ever since OPPO introduced VOOC charging a few years back, it has taken the mantle of being the fastest charging standard around. However, as smartphone usage becomes ever more integrated into our life, there is a need for an even faster charging solution. Earlier this year, OPPO debuted the successor to VOOC and it puts every competing standard to shame. Follow along as we talk in depth about OPPOs Super VOOC charging technology. Lets start with the basics. OPPOs Super VOOC takes a leap ahead of VOOC Flash Charge and dramatically improves on charging times. Super VOOC can give you a 40% charge in 10 minutes. Realistically, were talking about a full days worth of charge in the time it takes you to make a cup of coffee. This is a drastic improvement over the first generation VOOC technology that took half an hour to charge up to 60%. So how does it work? A standard charger tops off a phone with a constant charge. This takes a really long time to charge your phone. In comparison, fast charging technologies are able to give you a lot of power quickly but then taper off once the battery has reached a certain percentage. The first generation VOOC charging increased charging speed to 5V/4A and delivered 20W. It meant that you could charge your phone to 60% in half an hour. Super VOOC kicks this up a notch and offers 10V/5A charging which delivers 50W. The upcoming OPPO R17 Pro uses a unique bi-cell technology in which the two cells get charged simultaneously. Doubling the charging speed, it means you can fully charge your phone in just 35 minutes. Interestingly, SuperVOOC flash charge for OPPO R17 Pro and FIND X has been accredited by TUV. TUV Rheinland has been committed to guaranteeing product safety through rigorous testing standards and sessions since its foundation in 1872. In this case. OPPO has cooperated with Rheinland Laboratory in Germany to conduct a strict safety test on super flash charging proposals. Furthermore, the safety test addresses every aspect related to mobile charging right from the cables to IC chips to guarantee the safe and quick charging performance of R17 Pro. Since the charging standard only works with OPPOs own cable and power adaptor, youre absolutely assured of safety. Switching over to any other charger defaults to regular slow charging. OPPO is debuting the technology with the upcoming Oppo R17 Pro and we can expect it to make it to other hardware over time. Were very excited to get our hands on the phone when it launches in India on 4th December. With pre-orders starting from the 1st to 6th of December, what are your thoughts on the OPPO R17 Pro and Super VOOC charging? Let us know in the comments section. HMD Global has started sending out invites for the launch of a new smartphone in India on December 10th in Delhi. Based on the Expect more teasers, the company is expected to launch the Nokia 8.1 at the event. It was supposed to happen on December 6th, now the event has been postponed to 10th. Since the Nokia 7.1 has been launched in India, the December 12th event, few days after the global event in Dubai on December 5th, might actually see the Nokia 8.1 (X7) be launched in India. Nokia 8.1 (X7) specifications 6.18-inch (2246 1080 pixels) Full HD+ Puredisplay with 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 500 nits brightness, 96% NTSC Color gamut, DCI-P3, 1500:1 Contrast ratio Octa Core Snapdragon 710 10nm Mobile Platform (Dual 2.2GHz Kryo 360 + Hexa 1.7GHz Kryo 360 CPUs) with Adreno 616 GPU 4GB (LPPDDR4x) RAM with 64GB (eMMC 5.1) storage / 6GB (LPPDDR4x) RAM with 128GB (eMMC 5.1) storage, expandable memory up to 400GB with microSD Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD) Android 9.0 (Pie) 12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, 1/2.55 Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1.4m pixels, OIS, 13MP secondary rear camera with f/2.2 aperture 20MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture Fingerprint sensor Dimensions: 154.875.767.97mm; Weight: 178g 3.5mm audio jack, Nokia OZO Stereo Audio recording Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C 3500mAh (typical) / 3400mAh (minimum) battery with fast charging We should know the price of the smartphone when it goes official in less than two weeks. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) has evolved quite a bit since Warren Buffett took control of the company more than 50 years ago. What started as a struggling textile manufacturer has grown into an insurance-based conglomerate with more than 60 subsidiary businesses and a widely followed stock portfolio worth more than $200 billion. However, with Buffett set to turn 89 in 2019, it's important for investors to realize that the Oracle of Omaha isn't going to be calling the shots forever. Fortunately, he's not the only good reason to invest in Berkshire Hathaway for the long haul. With that in mind, here are 10 of the reasons I own Berkshire in my personal stock portfolio and why I think all American investors would be wise to consider adding it to theirs. 1. A collection of "forever" businesses If you're looking for a stock to hold forever, you need to make sure the underlying business will still exist in 25, 50, or even 100 years. For example, the banking business will always exist, because people will always need a secure place to keep their money and borrow for their financial needs. Berkshire is even better -- a collection of businesses in forever industries. Berkshire's portfolio is filled with insurance companies, homebuilders, furniture retailers, and other businesses that will stand the test of time. Even most of its major stock holdings are in forever businesses -- in fact, more than 40% of Berkshire's stock portfolio is made up of banks. 2. That massive stock portfolio Speaking of the stock portfolio, Berkshire's is a massive $203 billion collection of some of the highest-quality companies around. Berkshire's largest stock positions include Apple, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, American Express, and Coca-Cola, just to name a few. In other words, an investment in Berkshire allows you to buy a piece of an excellent portfolio with dozens of stocks, most of which were hand-selected by Buffett himself. 3. Ted and Todd Ted Weschler and Todd Combs are Buffett's two stock-picking lieutenants. Both men have been responsible for an increasingly large amount of Berkshire's capital over the past few years and are expected to take the reins of Berkshire's investment portfolio after Buffett is no longer in charge. And if the early results are any indicator, they look like the right people for the job. In fact, Weschler was reportedly behind Berkshire's initial 2016 investment in Apple, and despite the recent pullback, the stock has performed very well since then. 4. Great managers ready to take the lead While Ted and Todd are set to take over the stock portfolio eventually, Berkshire also has two great leaders ready to assume control of the rest of the company's operations. Vice Chairmen Ajit Jain, who heads Berkshire's insurance operations, and Greg Abel, who heads all other subsidiary businesses, both have outstanding track records of creating shareholder value. While we don't know which is next in line for the CEO job, either should be able to keep the Berkshire magic alive and well for the foreseeable future. 5. Tons of cash at all times Berkshire Hathaway keeps lots of cash on hand at all times. Buffett mandates a minimum of $20 billion, but lately there has been much more (more than $100 billion at the end of the third quarter). This not only allows the company to continuously be on the lookout for attractive investment opportunities but also provides a margin of safety in case profits drop substantially. After all, a company with billions of dollars in the bank and effectively no debt won't have trouble paying its bills, no matter what the economy does. 6. Companies want to be acquired by Berkshire From an acquisition standpoint, Berkshire has a key advantage over its competitors. Not only does the company have tons of buying power and a fantastic reputation, but Berkshire tends to generally leave acquired companies alone, as far as management and general structure goes. This makes Berkshire a more desirable suitor than other potential acquirers in many cases and allows Berkshire to negotiate more favorable deals. 7. Berkshire thrives during the tough times To be perfectly clear here, I'm not saying that Berkshire's stock performs well during rough market conditions. Berkshire's stock dropped during the financial crisis, and if a similar panic hits the markets, I'd expect the same. However, Berkshire tends to do very well during such times from a business perspective. Not only are most of its subsidiary businesses quite recession resistant, but its cash on hand allows it to scoop up companies and stocks at fire-sale prices during panics. In fact, Berkshire's massive Bank of America investment originated in the aftermath of the financial crisis. 8. Free capital to invest At its core, Berkshire is an insurance company. In addition to GEICO, Berkshire owns a massive reinsurance operation. The general business model of insurers isn't necessarily to make a ton of money from collecting premiums from customers. Rather, the money is typically made by investing the premiums from the time they are paid in until the time they are paid out for claims. Most insurers invest in rather uninteresting things like Treasury securities. Berkshire, on the other hand, uses its insurance "float" to scoop up entire companies and invest in attractively valued common stocks. 9. Warren Buffett thinks the stock is cheap right now Berkshire's buyback policy was recently modified. Now the company can buy back shares at any time when both Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger agree it's trading at a substantial discount to its book value. Well, during the third quarter, the company bought back nearly $1 billion worth of stock at an average price of about $207. Shares are still trading for around that level, so it's fair to infer that Buffett and Munger both think shares are cheap at the current price. 10. A time-tested, market-beating investing approach Finally, Berkshire has a unique and time-tested business model that allows it to build its intrinsic value over time. While Buffett himself has cautioned investors that the next 50 years' performance won't match the last 50, there's no reason to believe that Berkshire can't continue to produce market-beating returns over the long run. When it comes to dividends, the past is certainly not an indicator of future results. Just ask General Electric investors after the giant conglomerate slashed its dividend from $0.12 per share to a penny. Yet for investors looking for a guidepost, a well-run business with a long, solid track record of paying dividends, even raising them consistently, isn't a bad road map to follow. Below, three Motley Fool contributors each lists a stock with a well-regarded business and a consistent history of rewarding shareholders. See why Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB), Enterprise Product Partners (NYSE:EPD), and Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC) ought to be able to continue their streaks for the rest of your life. These dividends are neither soft nor flushable Anders Bylund (Kimberly-Clark): This well-worn household name is the walking definition of a Dividend Aristocrat. The maker of Scotts paper towels, Huggies diapers, Cottonelle toilet paper, and Kleenex tissues has been paying quarterly dividends, without fail, since 1973. The payouts have increased every year since then, making for an unbroken 45-year streak at this point. Over that nearly half-century, annual payouts have increased by a stunning 13,570%. Over the same period, Kimberly-Clark's share prices rose 5,600% higher. During the last decade alone, we're looking at a 72% dividend boost balanced against 111% higher stock prices. This fantastic commitment to steady dividend growth has kept the yields steady and generous. Annualized dividend yields have hovered between 3% and 4% in recent years, clocking in at 3.5% today. And there's plenty of room for further dividend growth since Kimberly-Clark spent just 65% of its free cash flows on dividend payments over the last year. Yes, the company works in a highly competitive consumer market with slim profit margins and muted top-line growth. But Kimberly-Clark is also a finely tuned cash machine that shovels most of its incoming cash returns right back into the pockets of shareholders. This is one dividend stock you can own for decades without losing any sleep over its future payouts. More than just oil John Bromels (Enterprise Products Partners): Many oil and gas stocks pay big dividends. But one of the biggest fears about investing in oil and gas companies is that the green power revolution will render petroleum obsolete, destroying businesses across the energy sector. And while solar and wind energy are certainly getting cheaper and more prevalent every year, oil is clearly going to be with us for quite some time. But will it be around for the rest of your lifetime? If that's one of your concerns about investing in dividend stocks in the energy sector, you may want to consider energy infrastructure master limited partnership Enterprise Products Partners. This well-managed MLP does own pipelines that ship crude oil, but far more of its assets have to do with shipping, processing, and storing natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and petrochemicals. Even if every passenger car stopped using gasoline today, natural gas and NGLs like propane would still be in high demand as a source of heating for residences and businesses across the globe. And petroleum would still be an essential ingredient in many products like plastics, solvents, detergents, and personal care products. Because Enterprise's infrastructure network is so diversified, it should be able to deliver excellent returns to investors no matter what happens to oil markets decades down the road. Like many MLPs, Enterprise's yield is quite high (6.6%). Unlike many other MLPs, Enterprise has never cut its dividend since going public. That kind of reliability seems built to last for decades into the future. Road to opportunity Rich Duprey (Genuine Parts): In a world where dividend kings like Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive rule, an aftermarket auto parts store doesn't exactly have the same ring of royalty. Yet Genuine Parts has paid a dividend for 69 consecutive years and increased the payout for 61 years. That puts it in a rarefied group of companies that investors should consider owning for life. The competitive advantage Genuine Parts has going for it is its far-flung distribution network, including its chain of NAPA stores. NAPA, or the National Automotive Parts Association, is a voluntary trade association founded in 1925, but for which Genuine Parts is the only member. While do-it-yourself customers can buy parts for their cars there, three-quarters of Genuine Parts business comes from professional customers such as mechanics. That sets it apart from rivals like AutoZone and O'Reilly Automotive, where 60% or more of their customer base is DIY. That makes Genuine much more resilient to encroachment by Amazon.com, which has tried to make a mark in auto parts. Amazon has partnered with local distributors to get in on the B2B side of the market, but it's hard to compete against Genuine's logistics operations, even for the e-commerce giant. Genuine Parts' dividend of $2.88 per share currently yields 2.9% annually. Considering the auto parts dealer's track record, it's safe to assume we'll continue to see that payout rise as Genuine's growth opportunities widen. It's a stock you can live with for the rest of your life. ISXPay EU/EEA 'production live' with own Visa & Mastercard Principal Licenses EU Visa & Mastercard Tier 1 Live Melbourne, Nov 27, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Securities Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange cross listed iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ( FRA:TA8 ) (the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has completed its Tier 1 integration to access both Visa and Mastercard ("card schemes") directly, per its previously announced timetable on 30th August, and will be imminently using its own Principal Member Bank Institution Number (BIN) for processing of card transactions within the EU/EEA.Highlights- ISXPay Tier 1 'production live' in the EU, via own Visa and Mastercard principal licenses- $880m annualised GPTV volume to be incrementally ramped from January through March '19- New & existing merchants being onboarded to platform from December onwards- MSF% target of >100Bps on contracted book of >$880m GPTV- EBIT Guidance for CY/FY2019 restated unchanged at ~AUD$10.7mVisa and Mastercard, are as of tomorrow, both switched to Tier 1 'production live' by the card schemes, allowing direct processing by ISXPay under its own BIN, along with previously announced JCB. The combination of these three schemes alone represents a viable offering as an independent, standalone acquirer, and with our APMs and SEPA capability, will far exceed many EU payment companies' capabilities.The upcoming addition of our other principal licensed payment channels, including Diners, Discover, China UnionPay and Amex, will further augment ISXPay's offering and revenues from mid CY/FY2019, and positions the Company with a globally enviable choice of payment channels and capabilities.The Company has previously announced that it contracted more than AUD$880m of merchant GPTV, to be processed during FY/CY2019 and beyond. ISXPay will shortly start to ramp merchant volumes up, without the restrictions it previously faced working with other payment service provider partners. The Company will however, maintain strategic partnerships with other payment service providers, in order to offer specialty services.The Company expects that Gross Processed Turnover Volume (GPTV) will gradually be loaded to ISXPay over January and be at full GPTV monthly throughput by March 2019. The $880m annual GPTV will be subject to merchant and seasonal fluctuations during the course of the year, with some months performing stronger than others. GPTV volume ramping is non-linear accelerating post March 2019.The Company is restating its EBIT guidance of ~AUD$10.7m for CY/FY2019.The target MSF% of >100bps is sensitive to volume pricing discounts, but is also subject to increases for lower volumes or specialty merchants.The "Merchant Services Fee (MSF)% x monthly processed GPTV" will be booked as gross profit each month, without any cashflow lag, as MSF is deducted at daily or weekly settlement to merchant. The Costs of Goods line will soon largely exclude the underlying percentage cost that has been payable to partner payment services providers during previous quarters for use of their networks.Card Scheme Interchange fees will be collected and booked as revenue, and are payable to the card schemes by ISXPay per the terms of its Principal licenses, and do not contribute to gross profit.The overwhelming majority of ISXPay's merchants fall under MCC6211 (CFD/FX Brokers & Market makers), many of whom also utilise the Paydentity(TM) platform to meet their compliance requirements.Consistent with our strategy of supporting the FX sector, ISXPay offers merchants a large range of acceptance and settlement currencies, including AUD, GBP, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, HKD, JPY, NZD, PLN, RUB, SGD, SEK, USD and ZAR, with acceptance in a further 150 odd currencies, settling in EUR.About iSignthis Ltd iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions. By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard. iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia. ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others. Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service. AGM - Chairman's address to Shareholders Melbourne, Nov 27, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - AGM - Chairman's address to Shareholders - Fellow shareholders, it is my pleasure to address you today and provide some of the highlights of the past financial year.FY2018 Results OverviewThe 2018 financial year was a special one for SEEK as the business celebrated its 20th anniversary.SEEK started out as one of Australia's first online job sites and has evolved into a highly successful global organisation helping tens of millions of people lead more fulfilling and productive working lives and thousands of organisations succeed.The Group had another successful year, making strong progress against both its strategic and financial objectives.Strategic highlights included the creation of a new organisational structure to better capture future growth, continuing to build world class product and technology, strengthening market share in key markets and executing on key transactions.In terms of financial objectives, SEEK delivered strong underlying financial results. In constant currency and excluding significant items, revenue grew 24% and EBITDA grew 16% over the prior year, and total dividends grew 5%. These were good results in the context of continued reinvestment across the business.In regard to the key organisational changes we announced in January, we feel these will help to better position the Group to capture long-term growth opportunities and deliver sustained shareholder value.The new structure comprises two main divisions:- A larger operating business known as Asia Pacific and Americas (or AP&A) which brings together the ANZ business, SEEK Asia, Brasil Online, OCC and aligned Early Stage Ventures. The success we have had in ANZ provides the learnings to help accelerate the evolution of the other AP&A businesses; and- A dedicated Investments function to focus on M&A and active management of SEEK's investments which include Zhaopin, Online Education Services and other Early Stage Ventures. The focus is to manage these businesses for medium to long-term capital appreciation.The Group continues to evolve and invest to capture exciting growth opportunities which Andrew will discuss further in his presentation.A key highlight in 2018 has been progress with two significant transactions, in relation to Zhaopin and SEEK Asia.In October 2017, SEEK announced completion of the privatisation and delisting of Zhaopin from the New York Stock Exchange. With the support of its strategic partners (Hillhouse Capital Management and FountainVest Partners), Zhaopin is investing aggressively to pursue large opportunities in China.In March 2018, SEEK increased its ownership in SEEK Asia from 86.25% to 100% by acquiring the remaining shares from News Corporation. SEEK Asia operates in seven growth countries across South-East Asia and we are seeing good operational and financial results from our recent reinvestment.I am very confident that both our reinvestment program and M&A activities will allow us to deliver on our purpose and generate strong returns for shareholders over the medium to long-term.The Community & Our PeopleIn relation to the community and our people, SEEK has a long-standing commitment to furthering its core beliefs of having a positive impact on society and creating a community where people are valued. SEEK contributes to the wider community in many ways, including:- Through SEEK Volunteer, the leading volunteer marketplace in Australia and New Zealand; and- Providing dollar matching of every Australian employee donation through our Small Change workplace giving program. In FY2018, 60% of our employees participated in this program.There are also various community initiatives across our international businesses that are designed to support better employment and education outcomes. Examples of these include:- JobStreet in the Philippines, which helps the government provide a channel for various government agencies and departments to promote employment in the public service- JobStreet in Malaysia, which launched a Graduate Employability Program in partnership with universities and institutes to help improve employability for Malaysia's unemployed graduates- Brasil Online, which provided free access to their online employment marketplace to more than 13,000 candidates with a disability.- OCC in Mexico, which provided 650 free face-to-face workshops to approximately 50,000 students to teach them resume and job interview skillsWithin SEEK, two Diversity and Inclusion areas that are a priority are gender diversity and employee inclusion.To improve the representation of women at all levels, SEEK continues to offer:1. the FAST (or Females At SEEK Thrive) program which aims to increase female participation in senior roles and provide organisational learnings about how to improve gender representation at all levels; and2. Camp SEEK, a week-long program for teenage girls, which is aimed at engaging and informing them about careers in technology, and encouraging them to continue studies in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This program represents a long-term investment in school level technology talent.In addition, SEEK undertakes a number of initiatives that are aimed at providing employees with an inclusive and welcoming environment. One such initiative is the Wellbeing at SEEK program which was launched in April 2018. This program provides opportunities for employees to understand their own mental health and wellbeing, as well as how to support others.In terms of the Environment, SEEK's operational model is office based and online. Therefore, its environmental footprint is small.Nevertheless, SEEK believes that individuals and organisations should make a conscious effort to do what they can in response to climate change. Accordingly, we are fully committed to minimising our environmental impact and will continue to look for ways to reduce it further.We have included information in relation to our sustainability practices and environmental programs in the Sustainability Statement of our Annual Report.Remuneration ReportI would now like to make some comments in relation to shareholder engagement as well as voting on today's remuneration related resolutions.Over the past couple of months, Graham and I have met with many of SEEK's shareholders and it has been very pleasing to hear their overwhelming support for SEEK's strategic direction, focussed re-investment programs and long-term investment horizon.It is very apparent that the company has developed a high level of understanding and trust amongst its shareholders.In terms of remuneration, the vast majority of our shareholders have continued to encourage the Board to retain its commitment to a framework that is right for SEEK and which maintains alignment with our long-term strategic focus, an approach which has served the company, and its shareholders, well for a long time.I don't want to pre-empt the voting outcomes, however, the proxy votes lodged by shareholders to date are disappointing and at odds with this supportive shareholder sentiment. We believe many of those votes have been influenced by some negative proxy adviser recommendations this year.Each year the Board undertakes a review of our remuneration strategy and structure combined with robust benchmarking against relevant peers and we continue to strongly believe our approach is fit-for-purpose for SEEK and has strengthened the alignment between business objectives, shareholder returns and executive remuneration. Our results and shareholder returns reflect this. The SEEK Board introduced our current remuneration structure in FY2013 and over the 6 years to 30 June 2018, SEEK's total shareholder returns were 296.4% compared with shareholder returns of 97.5% for the ASX200.It is very encouraging that many investors are developing in-house resources to review company AGM resolutions, including remuneration resolutions. In our view this will result in more informed voting and better alignment of shareholder interests.We will continue to engage with proxy advisers and shareholders on this important issue, whilst always ensuring the Board will do what is right in the long term for SEEK's shareholders.The BoardAs part of the ongoing director renewal process, and as advised at last year's AGM, Colin Carter retired from the Board in March 2018. Colin joined the Board in 2005 and made an enormous contribution to the company. On behalf of all shareholders, we wish Colin the very best for the future.In September 2018, we were pleased to welcome Michael Wachtel to the Board as a non-executive director.Following Michael's appointment, there are six non-executive directors on the Board and Michael is standing for election today. Michael's wealth of global experience will be invaluable to SEEK as it continues to expand internationally.In line with our program of Board renewal and succession we are also well advanced in discussions to appoint an additional non-executive director in early 2019.As announced earlier this year, I will be retiring from the Board on 31 December 2018, and will hand over the Chair role to Graham Goldsmith. Graham has been Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee for the past 6 years and has been an outstanding contributor to the Board. I believe he will be an exceptional Chairman.ThanksAs my last address as Chairman of the Board, I would like to thank Andrew, my fellow Board members, the Executive and the entire SEEK team for their hard work and dedication, which is reflected in our strong financial performance and business accomplishments over many years.Having joined the Board in June 2005 and been Chairman since 2012, it has been a tremendous honour for me to be part of the team at SEEK.Since its formation 20 years ago, the company has become a true Australian corporate icon and has built an impressive and successful global footprint in geographies where few Australian companies have been able to deliver successfully.I believe the company has enormous growth and opportunity ahead of it and I will follow its progress with pride. I wish Graham as Chairman, the Board and the whole SEEK team every future success.I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued support and loyalty.To view the AGM - CEO Presentation, please visit:About SEEK Limited SEEK Limited (ASX:SEK) (OTCMKTS:SKLTY) is a diverse group of companies, comprised of a strong portfolio of online employment, educational, commercial and volunteer businesses. SEEK operates across 18 countries with exposure to over 2.9 billion people and approximately 26 per cent of GDP. SEEK makes a positive contribution to people's lives on a global scale. SEEK is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, where it is a top 100 company with a market capitalisation close to A$6billion and has been listed in the Top 20 Most Innovative Companies Globally by Forbes, and Number One in Australia. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) House national defense and security committee chair Rep. Ruffy Biazon backed Tuesday President Rodrigo Duterte's order to send more troops to parts of southern Luzon and the Visayas region. "I hesitate to question when state forces say that there is a need for us to deploy more troops to maintain peace and order because if something happens and they do not take action, then who suffers?" Biazon told CNN Philippines' The Source. Malacanang issued Memorandum Order No. 32 last Thursday, Nov. 22, which ordered the deployment of more police and military personnel in Samar, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and the Bicol Region on account of "sporadic acts of violence." The order stems from President Rodrigo Duterte's Proclamation No. 55 which declared in 2016 a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence in Mindanao following a bombing in his hometown of Davao City which killed 15 and injured 70. Memorandum Order No. 3 provided guidelines "to define and delimit the measures that the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and PNP (Philippine National Police) can undertake during the state of lawless violence." Biazon said Memorandum Order No. 32 is "just an expansion of the area covered" by the previous orders issued by the Malacanang, and brushed off statements from critics that this might be a prelude to the declaration of martial law nationwide. READ: Gov't: Deployment of more troops not a prelude to nationwide martial law "The positive thing that we see here is that there are specific guidelines on how to implement the augmentation of the AFP and PNP," Biazon said. "As opposed to just letting the AFP go ahead and address the violence there, this one, they have guidelines that govern it." Corporate Strategy Update Perth, Nov 27, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Ardea Resources Ltd ( ASX:ARL ) advises that it has revised the development timetable for the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project ("Goongarrie" or "GNCP") in order to deliver the best value for shareholders from the Strategic Partner process, where several discussions are current.While the Company remains focussed on systematically advancing the flagship Goongarrie Project, the full Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) will only be completed once a suitable Strategic Partner is committed and announced.Ardea has optimised the Company budget to ensure the GNCP continues to progress through prudent and targeted expenditure but is unlikely to commit to late stage Definitive Feasibility Study work such as engineering for at least six months.Separately to progressing the GNCP, Ardea has allocated funds to advance drilling of its WA gold and nickel sulphide exploration targets within the Company's extensive WA and NSW 5,484km2 land holding. Ardea is also working towards completing a spin-out of the NSW gold and base metal assets over the next 12 months.Commenting on the revised schedule to business operations, Ardea Executive Chair Katina Law said:"It has been an extremely successful 12 months for the Company and Goongarrie has advanced considerably. However, in times of challenging market conditions, we should take a considered and metered approach to the ongoing development programs for such a large, world-class Project"."It has become clear that due to the weakening nickel and cobalt markets the Strategic Partner process should be extended to secure the optimum outcome for our shareholders.""Your Company is in an enviable position, having world-class assets and a strong cash position, combined with a prudent and diligent development approach."Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt ProjectThe Strategic Partner process continues, with a number of well-credentialed parties active in evaluating the Project. Recent production of high-purity nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate crystals from a pilot plant exceeded all available product specifications, and this has resulted in a renewed wave of interest in the Project. However, due to the current market conditions, the nature of the parties and their corporate decision-making timeframes, a final outcome to the partnership process is now likely to take longer.These prospective Strategic Partners are looking for security and consistency of supply for multiple decades, and such timeframes exceed the usual short-term business windows which generally are measured in years. Long term, high quality projects such as the GNCP demand detailed scrutiny which process requires a certain amount of time and resources.As a part of this process the Company has received a range of feedback from evaluating parties which has identified several opportunities to add value to the Project, de-risk further development and enhance the project economics.Following a thorough review, the Board has set a revised schedule that will continue to advance development and grow the value of Goongarrie in a cost-effective manner while maintaining the Company's strong cash position.The focus of works over the next six months at Goongarrie is outlined below and will comprise a mix of both value enhancement opportunities and continued work that is required in any event ahead of a DFS commitment. Completion of this work will ensure that, upon confirmation of a Strategic Partner, definitive studies can be undertaken quickly within the shortest possible timeframe to production.Ardea will continue to advance the Project:- Resource update - An update of the resource estimate is targeted for completion in early 2019. This will include the 47,239m of new drilling completed by Ardea, with the Company currently awaiting the final drill assays. A strong structural control on mineralisation was recognised in 2018 drilling, which will allow more appropriate resource block sizes to be used for selective high-grade mining to be investigated. The resource will also include variably mineralised carbonate saprock to be used for neutralising free acid after leaching the ore, which will provide additional nickel and cobalt production credits.- Scandium resource - The new resource will also include for the first time a scandium grade estimate within the Project.- High grade mine schedule - The new resource estimate will be used to prepare an updated mine schedule, which will be optimised to ensure the highest nickel-cobalt grades are mined during the payback years of the Project, along with suitable neutraliser recovered from below the ore.- Approvals - Work is ongoing in relation to the referral of the Project to the EPA for evaluation. A number of studies including flora, fauna, tailings, emissions and water are being finalised to support the referral. At this stage Ardea expects to be in a position to refer to the EPA in early 2019. After referral there will be a continuing program of more detailed environmental studies as required to provide ongoing information to the EPA.- Alternative product options - Including manufacture of a Mixed Sulphide Product (MSP) as opposed to solely nickel and cobalt sulphate crystals, or a staged combination (such as commission with MSP with later addition of a crystal refinery).- In-pit tailings discharge - Lower cost in-pit slurry tailings disposal will be examined as opposed to the current higher cost dry-stack tailings model.- Variability work - Further leaching, rheology, neutraliser and comminution studies will take place to cover the full range of ore-types for a 25 year mine-life. Additionally, thickening and filtration work will be completed on a range of geo-metallurgical drill core composites. Comminution work will also be completed on a range of ore samples for the design of the comminution circuit. Comminution and leaching test-work will also be completed on the run-of-mine neutraliser selected from the updated resource model.- Mineralised neutraliser - Current metallurgical programs include optimising the mineralised neutraliser nickel-cobalt-scandium recoveries and allow their value to be realised in the financial model (not available in 2018 PFS).- Water studies - Recent studies into water sources and water treatment options have identified that significant volumes of plant process water can be sourced from de-watering pits, due to the high permeability of Goongarrie ore.The Company will continue to hold discussions with interested funding parties and will seek to obtain the best outcome for shareholders. Once Strategic Partner funding is in place, the above DFS programs can be quickly expanded to the full DFS level, including engineering once throughput and product type are settled with the Partner.Goongarrie offers a wide variety of possibilities in terms product type, product purity, and by-products. Logically these will be determined by the requirements of the Strategic Partner/offtake parties. Therefore, rather than progressing with a single Company-defined option, the most prudent approach for the detailed final stage DFS-level studies, notably the engineering component, is to commence once the Strategic Partner process has been finalised.Ardea's view is that high quality "ethical" nickel-cobalt-scandium projects such as the GNCP will become integral and a critical aspect in the supply chain for the global battery industry. As auto manufacturers continue to announce production plans far exceeding the most optimistic predictions of only a year ago, government incentives for home battery systems are promoted in the public arena, and sovereign control of energy supplies becomes increasingly important, surety of supply, consistency of quality and reliable production of high volumes of nickel and cobalt will be at the top of battery manufacturers' requirements. Goongarrie can deliver on all fronts.Gold and Nickel Sulphide Exploration in WAWith the successful completion of the GNCP drill-out, Ardea will utilise this opportunity to move the drill-rigs to complementary assets within the Company's highly-prospective exploration portfolio, to potentially add further value for shareholders.Ardea has a strategic land holding in one of Australia's premier gold and nickel sulphide provinces. The Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP), Mt Zephyr, Perrinvale and Bedonia projects are all highly prospective for both gold and nickel sulphides.Following completion of the GNCP resource drill-out, Ardea staff commenced evaluation of all the Company's gold and nickel sulphide plays in WA. Recently acquired airborne survey data has added to the understanding of these targets as well as detailed Geographic Information System (GIS) compilation of historic data. This work is being followed by field sampling of defined targets.The data gathered has been used to rank these targets and a budget has been allocated which will allow systematic drill testing of the top three targets over the next six months.Key drill targets include:- Mount Zephyr gold and nickel sulphide targets have been defined and are ready to be drilled. Strong structural/intrusive parallels for gold mineralisation are drawn between the Mount Zephyr and Gruyere-hosting Yamarna greenstone sequences. Government approvals are expected shortly to enable commencement of drill programs.- Gold deposits of the Bardoc Tectonic Zone (BTZ) at Goongarrie. A gold corridor parallels the 16km strike length at the eastern contact of the Goongarrie nickel-cobalt-scandium laterite orebodies (including Ardea's historic Big Four gold mine). The BTZ Gold Corridor requires systematic drill assessment.- Bedonia gold and nickel sulphide targets are at an earlier exploration stage but initial Ardea sampling provides strong anomalism in a little explored area within the western margin of the Albany Fraser Province (which hosts the Nova nickel-copper deposit).Drilling is planned at advanced gold and nickel targets around Mt Zephyr in the first quarter of 2019.The majority of Ardea's nickel sulphide targets have been specifically targeted as nickel laterite plays since 1997 and have never been subject to modern ground EM geophysical prospecting.Further details of the planned exploration activities and target generation will be provided in the coming months.Spin out of NSW AssetsTo create additional value for existing Ardea shareholders, the Company corporate strategy is to complete the spin out of its NSW mineral assets within the next twelve months.Ardea controls a suite of highly-prospective tenements in NSW within the Lachlan Fold Belt which hosts multiple bulk-tonnage deposits such as Northparkes, Cadia-Ridgeway and Cowal.Data validation and resource estimation is underway for Lewis Ponds and the Company is currently reviewing the results of promising metallurgical work which has been completed during 2018.A detailed GIS compilation is underway, with multiple gold targets generated for Copper Hill East. GIS targets at Wiseman's Creek have had initial sampling completed, returning up to 38g/t gold and 348g/t silver at the Black Bullock prospect.Further information about the proposed spin-put will be provided to shareholders in due course.About Ardea Resources Ltd Ardea Resources Ltd (ASX:ARL) (OTCMKTS:ARRRF) (FRA:A91) is an ASX listed resources company, with 100% controlled Australian based projects, prioritising a three-pronged value creation strategy which is: - development of the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project, which is part of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project, a globally significant series of nickel-cobalt deposits which host the largest nickel-cobalt resource in the developed world, coincidentally located as a cover sequence overlying fertile orogenic gold targets; - advanced-stage exploration at WA gold and nickel sulphide targets within the Eastern Goldfields world-class nickel-gold province; and - the demerger of the NSW gold and base metal assets with planned in-specie share distribution, with projects located within the Lachlan Fold Belt world-class gold-copper province. GAS WELL AT STU AND PRB DRILL SITES INITIATED Perth, Nov 27, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - EON NRG Ltd ( ASX:E2E ) ( OTCMKTS:ICRMF ) has contracted a completion rig and wireline to mobilize to the Silvertip field located in Powell Wyoming. The rig is scheduled to arrive December 3rd to recomplete the STU 64-28F in the Meeteetse gas formation. The STU 64-28F is an offset to the STU 35-28F which was recompleted in February and has produced over 100,000 Mcf of gas.Since recently acquiring over 15,000 acres of leases in the Powder River Basin ("PRB"), Wyoming, Eon has been carrying out in-depth geological studies to rank the best prospects and define potential new well targets for drilling in 2019-20. Environmental surveys and onsite inspections are being conducted on the first round of drill sites as a start of the drilling permit process.Eon expects to announce the details of its initial planned drilling program in February 2019 following completion of the technical studies.The PRB has a long history of oil and gas production from multi-stacked pay zones. It has become one of the most active oil and gas basins in North America in recent times with many large E&P companies including Anadarko Resources, Chesapeake Energy, EOG Resources, Anschutz and Devon Energy acquiring large acreage positions and actively drilling successful wells. The number of drilling rigs operating in PRB has risen fourfold since 2016 and current PRB production is approaching 140 Mb/d. The PRB is emerging as the industry's new growth engine due to the slowing of the Permian Basin as a result of pipeline bottlenecks and high commodity deducts. Relatively low drilling and completion costs, highly attractive conventional staked plays, and the ability to grow while other basins are growth limited makes the PRB a good basin to operate in.Eon will initially be targeting conventional oil formations with low cost vertical wells that have relatively low technical risk and provide long life production.The Company will have the option to bring JV partners to share the drilling cost/risk while maintaining operating control of the development program and ongoing production operations.Eon is well positioned to carry out the initial exploration work on the PRB assets with an experienced in-house team that has a good track record and strong technical skills. The current management team has been responsible for the drilling of over one hundred wells across multiple basins in the US.Success from new wells would significantly add to the Company's existing production and positive cash flow from oil and gas fields in Wyoming and California.About EON NRG Ltd EON NRG Ltd (ASX:E2E) is an USA onshore focused energy exploration and production company. The Company's growth path is through drilling of high impact oil exploration wells, supported by its 100% owned and operated long life oil and gas production assets and associated cashflow. The company also has a battery minerals division with prospective leases in Nevada which are at the early stages of low-cost exploration. Galveston, TX (77553) Today Showers and thundershowers in the morning will give way to steady rain in the afternoon. High near 75F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph, becoming N and increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Cloudy and windy. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 52F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Chairman's Address - 2018 AGM Brisbane, Nov 27, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Alligator Energy Ltd ( ASX:AGE ) Chairman's Address - 2018 AGM - Dear Shareholders, The past 12 months has seen continued positive factors that are assisting to support an improved Uranium spot price, currently US$29-10 per lb, which is up well over 35% since May and sentiment in the sector has improved immeasurably.This change in sentiment and interest in the sector has helped Alligator raise funds to explore and drill TCC4 which is one of the many targets out of a portfolio that was significantly expanded over the past 2-3 years at the depths of the lows in the Uranium market and remains relatively under explored.To this end Alligator has retained the services of a world-renowned Uranium geologist to review all the results from the recent drilling in the Alligator Rivers Uranium Province ("ARUP"), and to provide a strategic review of all prospects, some of the older prospects and those that we have recently acquired to assist the Company in its decision-making process.Additionally, Alligator has diversified its portfolio through farming in to the Piedmont Nickel, Copper and Cobalt project in Italy, which has provided Shareholders with the exposure to the ever-growing Battery Metals market.Alligator has received encouraging results to date following completion of stage 1 of the Piedmont farm-in, and a decision to proceed to stage 2 will be made shortly.In the next 12 months we expect to see further focus on the ARUP interests following completion of the strategic review, and subject to progressing to stage 2, the Piedmont areas.Finally, the Board wishes to thank John Main for his tireless work over the past 4 years and he has made a valuable contribution to the professional running of Alligator Energy Ltd and his input in technical analysis of many of the Uranium targets has been exceptional.John has also indicated that he is willing to continue to provide exploration input to the technical team going forwards, and for this we thank him and we wish him well in the future.Paul DicksonActing ChairmanAbout Alligator Energy Ltd Alligator Energy Ltd (ASX:AGE) is an Australian, ASX-listed, exploration company focused on uranium and energy related minerals, principally cobalt-nickel. Alligator's Directors have significant experience in the exploration, development and operations of both uranium and nickel projects (both laterites and sulphides). High Grade Lithium Samples Confirm Sherritt Gordon Potential Melbourne, Nov 27, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The directors of Nova Minerals Limited (Nova or Company) ( ASX:NVA ) ( FRA:QM3 ) on behalf of Snow Lake Resources Ltd are pleased to announce Initial phase of rock chip sampling at Sherritt Gordon records values of up to 3.78% Li2O. See Snow Lake Resources release below.Nova Minerals Limited has now earned the right to own up to an 80% interest in the Thompson Brothers Lithium Project from Ashburton Ventures Inc. by financing their commitments relating to their Option Agreement with Strider Resources Ltd.The Thompson Brothers Lithium Project is well advanced and with a maiden Inferred Resource of 6.3 Mt @ 1.38% containing 86,940 tonnes of Li2O with an additional exploration target of 3 to 7Mt @ between 1.3 and 1.5% Li2O in the immediate area of the resource. Initial metallurgical test work demonstrates the project can produce a concentrate material of 6.37% Li2O using standard metallurgical laboratory test techniques.Alaskan Project Portfolio Nova Minerals Limited owns the rights to earn up to 85% ownership interest of the Alaskan Project Portfolio from AK Minerals Pty Ltd. by financing their commitments relating to the JV Agreement.The Alaskan project portfolio range from more advanced exploration projects with ore grade drill intersections to brownfield tenements. The most advanced projects are the Estelle gold project, a district scale project with a 1.1 - 2.3 million ounce gold exploration target, the Chip-Loy nickel, cobalt, copper project, the Bowser creek silver, zinc, lead project which the US goverment has spent in excess of $7m on this project historically and the Windy Fork REE project. Officer Hill Gold ProjectWe are committed to continue our working relationship with Newmont and proceed with exploration on the Officer Hill Gold Project, in the Tanami region of Northern Territory, located within the ~13 million ounce Tanami endowment.To view the related release, please visit:About Nova Minerals Limited Nova Minerals Limited (ASX:NVA) (FRA:QM3) (OTCMKTS:NVAAF) is a dynamic explorer and developer of its flagship Estelle Gold district in the Tintina gold belt. Nova's strategy is to substantially increase the current 4.7Moz resource on the Korbel prospect. Subsequently to continue to lock in value through moving Korbel towards production whilst increasing the resource base across the pipeline of targets within the Estelle gold district. Nova Minerals also holds strategic investments in Snow Lake Resources Ltd (Thompson Brothers Lithium Project), Torian Resources Ltd (ASX:TNR) and RotorX Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Although Toronto may have lost out to not one, two locations in their bid for Amazons' second headquarters the Canadian city may be doing better without the retailing giant. Toronto initially put in a bid for the second headquarters known as HQ2, but they lost out to two cities, New York and Virginia. The initial pitch for Amazons HQ2 promised to bring as many as 50,000 jobs to wherever they picked. In reality, the jobs will be split into two. Each hub will get 25,000 jobs, with an additional 5,000 jobs in Nashville, Tenn. However, some in Toronto's tech space have voiced their worry over Amazon coming to the city, comparing it to a big fish in a small pond. They believed the presence of Amazon would have swallowed up most of the talent in the pool. Anthony Lacavera, the founder of Toronto-based Globalive, a company that uses investments and partnerships to grow their start-ups, said in an email, We already have a significant talent shortage, and Canadian growth companies need the talent that multinationals like Amazon will consume. Toronto is steadily growing its reputation as a tech hub. It is thriving off investments in financial technology and artificial intelligence, an ecosystem that supports start-ups, and a strong university research community. According to CBRE, a commercial real estate, and investment firm, Toronto has been the fastest growing tech market in North America for two years in a row.The city added 28,900 tech jobs last year, a 13.6% increase from the year before. However, there is yet to be a Canadian-born Amazon equivalent. The arrival of a global giant like Amazon would have probably squashed Torontos ecosystem instead of helping it to grow, said Lacavera. Lacavera also founded his startup, WIND Mobile in Toronto, before selling it for $1.3 billion US. Canada needs to build its global winners and end the branch plant economy once and for all, Lacavera said. Still, Toronto did highlight the reasons why it put in a bid to become the home for Amazons HQ2. It would have promoted Toronto's reliable, affordable, and diverse talent, its competitive corporate tax rates, quality of life, and their universal healthcare. Healthcare is a significant concern to Amazon. In January, they teamed up with JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway to create a way to bring down the healthcare costs of their employees. Health care wasn't the only thing Toronto had to offer though. The organizers also highlighted what Toronto had to offer by bringing different benefits from different locations in and around the region. Torontos pitch also had the backing of neighboring cities such as Hamilton, the two hubs of Kitchener-Waterloo, and several others, showing off the abundance of high-skilled workers. These workers would have been hired for far less than what American workers would have demanded. There was one thing Toronto didnt do, and that was to try to woo the company with Tax incentives. Even though Amazon is worth more than a $1 trillion US, some cities tried to lure the company with tax breaks as the bids heated up. Google Maps banking scam: Heres how you can stay safe News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Google Maps loophole is more dangerous than you can imagine. You might be aware that the internet has many loopholes for those who are using it with the wrong intention. But you might not have thought that Google Maps could be used to trick people. Well, Google Maps is one of the most popular navigational apps that is used by millions of people and this popularity has attracted the scammers and fraudsters as well. Recent reports suggest that Google Maps is being used by scammers to collect the bank details of users and trick them. The app lets users edit and update the contact details of an establishment or business to make it useful for others. But this facility is being used by the fraudsters as they are changing the phone numbers of banks and replacing the same with their own numbers. Eventually, victims who contact the banks will be connected with the scammers and end up being cheated without even realizing that there is something wrong. Google Maps scam As per a report by The Hindu citing the information from Maharashtra cyber police, this trend of scam has been prevailing since one month. Police officers state that if a specific branch of a bank is searched on Google, the results also show the Google Maps listing of the same. But the contact information on the page including phone number and address can be edited by anyone according to the User Generated Content policy of Google. The report goes on stating that they have received three complaints from the Bank of India in one month. And, all these incidents have been immediately brought to light to the authorities at Google. It also cites a Google spokesperson stating that they are allowing users to suggest edits to provide an up-to-date information but there can be occasional errors and bad edits. In such situations, they do their best to address the issue quickly. Google removes 100 scam ads per second Victim loses all his money In this scam, a blogger has shared that his cousin lost all the money in his account. The victim tried to contact his bank to report a failed online transaction but the call was connected to a scamster who pretended to be an executive from the bank. The scammer has collected sensitive details such as card number and CVV of the user. Being eager to fix the failed transaction, the user ended up giving away all the important details and finally lost all the money in his account. Beware of fraud Income Tax refund SMS How to stay safe from online scams Well, if you are calling any business, then you should make sure that you verify the business first. So, the best way to do this is to get the contact number from the official website. Also, remember not to share sensitive details such as CVV of your card to anyone at any circumstance even if the person on the other end claims to be from your bank. In fact, banks too don't encourage sharing CVV with anyone. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Nokia 7.1 India launch date pegged for December 6: Expected price, specs and more News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu A new Nokia phone coming to India next week. Recently, HMD Global confirmed that it will host an event in Dubai on December 5. And, there are speculations that the global variant of Nokia X7 and Nokia 2.1 Plus could be unveiled at the event. In the meantime, the company has also been teasing the launch of a new smartphone in India. Now, there is more clarity regarding the upcoming Nokia smartphone. Well, HMD Global has started sending invites for an event on December 6 in Delhi, India. Also, has has shared teasers with the caption 'Expect more' tipping that it is all set to launch a new smartphone in the country. Earlier there were speculations that the Nokia X7 global variant could be launched in India soon but now the teasers hint that it could be accompanied by the Nokia 7.1. For the uninitiated, the Nokia 7.1 was unveiled by the company at an event in London early in October. The smartphone was launched in Gloss Steel and Gloss Midnight Blue. Nokia 7.1 expected price in India The Nokia 7.1 was launched in two storage configurations. The base variant has 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM and is priced at 319 euros (approx. Rs. 25,500). The high-end variant has 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM and is priced at Rs. 349 euros (approx. Rs. 28,000). But we can get to know the final pricing only when the smartphone is launched in India next week. Nokia 7.1 specifications and features This Nokia smartphone is fitted with a 5.84-inch FHD+ display with HDR 10 and there is a notch at its top. The screen has a resolution of 2244 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19:9. The screen is protected using Gorilla Glass 3. At its heart, this smartphone employs a 1.8GHz Snapdragon 636 SoC based on the 14nm process. The processor is teamed up with Adreno 509 GPU, 3GB/4GB RAM and 32GB/64GB storage space. There is a microSD card slot supporting up to 400GB of additional storage space. When it comes to the imaging aspects, this soon-to-be-launched smartphone comes with a dual camera module at its rear with a 12MP primary RGB sensor and a 5MP secondary monochrome sensor. The camera from ZEISS Optics renders fast autofocus and has f/1.8 and f/2.4 aperture respectively. At the front, there is an 8MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and 84-degree field of view. Running Android 8.1 Oreo, this smartphone will receive the Android 9.0 Pie update just like the other smartphones in the Nokia portfolio. The other goodies of this smartphone are dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, GPS, USB Type-C 2.0, NFC, a fingerprint sensor at its rear, Nokia OZO audio, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a 3060mAh battery with support for fast charging. 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 Samsung Galaxy S10 to be available in three premium and one low-end variant News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Samsung is said to unveil all the variants of Galaxy S10 next year in February during the Mobile World Congress (MWC). Samsung's upcoming smartphones have been a hot topic of discussion for quite some time now. It has become quite frequent that we are receiving information on the next Samsung releases including the Galaxy Foldable smartphone, Galaxy S10, and the Galaxy A8s. Now, a new report sheds some more light on the company's next flagship Galaxy S10. The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 will reportedly be available in four different variants. It is being said that out of the four different variants of the Galaxy S10 one will be an entry-segment device and the remaining three will be the premium offerings. All the latest variants of the Galaxy S10 have been registered in Russia recently. Out of the four Galaxy S10 variants registered in Russia, one will come with a dual-SIM card support. Samsung is said to unveil all the variants of Galaxy S10 next year in February during the Mobile World Congress (MWC). The premium variants of the Galaxy carry model numbers SM-g975F, SM-G975X, SM-g973X. On the other hand, the entry-level variant of the Galaxy S10 carries a model number SM-G970x. The Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup is expected to be powered by the company's newly announced Exynos 9820 processor. The Exynos 9820 chipset will be manufactured on a 7nm process rather than the 8nm process. This is the first processor from the South Korean tech giant which has an NPU (neural processing unit) dedicated to it. As for the other rumored specifications and features which will be offered by the Galaxy S10: The upcoming flagship Galaxy S10 is expected to be available in up to 12GB of RAM with 1TB of native storage. If this is the case, then the Galaxy S10 would be the first smartphone lineup to offer such high-end features. The device will make use of a triple-lens rear camera module comprising of a variable aperture, telephoto lens, and a super wide-angle lens. Source Best Mobiles in India Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is the first Xiaomi phone to run on Android Q OS on Geekbench News oi-Vivek Android Q is expected to go official in Q2 of 2019 The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is the most affordable Mi 8series smartphone from Xiaomi with premium features like an all-glass design, Snapdragon 710 SoC, and a lot more. The smartphone was launched in mid-2018 in China, and the device was made available in other international markets as well. The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is the one smartphone, which offers a tremendous value for money, especially under Rs 20,000 or $300 price mark. The smartphone was launched with MIUI 9.5 based on Android 8.1 Oreo and was recently updated to MIUI 10 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The smartphone is expected to receive Android 9 Pie update in early 2019. According to the latest listing on Geekbench, the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is running on Android Q, which is the upcoming Android OS from Google. Xiaomi Mi 8 SE on Geekbench According to the Geekbench listing, the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE scores 1830 points on the single core and 5819 points on multi-core CPU performance with 6 GB of RAM. The smartphone is running on Android Q, the next generation Android OS. Google is expected to announce the Android Q OS in early 2019, and Xiaomi is most likely testing the compatibility of the beta software or is working with Google to improvise the upcoming operating system from Google. Xiaomi Mi 8 SE specifications The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE comes with a 5.99-inch IPS LCD Screen with a wide notch on top. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 SoC with 4/6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. The smartphone has a dual camera setup on the back with a 12 MP primary sensor with an f/1.9 aperture and 1.4-micron pixel size and a 5 MP depth sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. The smartphone has a 20 MP front-facing selfie camera with support for Face Unlock and 1080p video recording capability. The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE gets its juice from a 3120 mAh Li-ion battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 via USB type C port. Source 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 UAE frees British spy jailed for life after London threatened diplomatic ties Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 01:47PM The United Arab Emirate has granted a pardon to a British academic whose life sentence a week ago had triggered a harsh response from London. The pardon issued by the UAE president, on Monday came despite the release of a video in which Matthew Hedge purportedly accepted his spying conviction by saying that he was a member of the British intelligence agency MI5. Hedges, 31, a doctoral student who was arrested in May after UAE authorities found about his espionage activities, said in the video that he was specifically looking into UAE military issues while in the emirates. However, a court ruling last week, which sentenced him to life in prison, sparked harsh reactions from London. Both Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had warned that ties could be at risk over the ruling. A statement on state news agency WAM said the pardoning of Hedges was part of a mass clemency of more than 700 prisoners to mark the country's National Day. It said the order was effective immediately and Hedges could leave the UAE "once formalities are completed". Britain is a main supplier of lethal weapons to the UAE, on which the small Persian Gulf country has relied for its contribution to a deadly Saudi war on Yemen over the past three years. The two countries maintain close economic cooperation while London has helped the UAE over the years to boost its media image around the world. Hunt, the British foreign minister, welcomed the UAE's grant of pardon to Hedges, saying it was a "fantastic news". "Although we didn't agree with charges, we are grateful to the UAE government for resolving the issue speedily," said Hunt. However, Hunt's denial of espionage charges against Hedges came as a UAE government spokesman showed a video several minutes before the pardon was announced in which Hedges appeared to be admitting that he had been working for the MI5. He said in the video that he had approached sources in the UAE as a doctoral student to know which military systems the UAE was buying. Jaber al-Lamki, the spokesman, said Hedges had been in the UAE to steal the country's "sensitive national secrets for his paymasters". The official told reporters that Hedges was "100 percent a secret service operative". Hunt also linked Hedges' release to a similar case in Iran, where a British-Iranian journalist has been held over espionage. Iranian authorities have indicated they will stand by their charges against Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, a worker of the Thomson Reuters Foundation who was arrested in April 2016 after it was revealed that she had been spying on Iran for London. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UAE Pardons UK National Who Allegedly Confessed to Being MI6 Agent Sputnik News 11:25 26.11.2018(updated 14:01 26.11.2018) Last week, a 31-year-old British academic, who travelled to Dubai in early May, was accused of 'jeopardising the military, economy and political security' of the United Arab Emirates, and was given a life sentence for spying. On Monday, the United Arab Emirates freed Matthew Hedges, a British national who was sentenced to life imprisonment last week on spying charges, Reuters reported, citing a UAE official. It remains unclear when he would leave the country. Earlier in the day, UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued the clemency for Hedges as part of the country's National Day. "Mr Hedges will be permitted to leave the UAE once formalities are completed," the statement said. At a Monday press conference, Emirati officials reportedly showed a video to reporters of Hedges purportedly confessing to being a captain in MI6 Britain, however, has denied that he was a spy. Journalists were not allowed to record the clip, reports say. "The family and I welcome the news of the presidential pardon and cannot wait to have Matt back home," Hedges' wife, Daniela Tejada, was cited as saying by Reuters. Reacting to the news, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that London was grateful to the UAE: "Fantastic news about Matthew Hedges. Although we didn't agree with charges we are grateful to UAE government for resolving issue speedily". Hedges, a 31-year-old doctoral student in Middle Eastern studies at Durham University, was handed down a life sentence for spying last week. It normally includes a maximum of 25 years in jail and is followed by deportations for non-Emiratis. He was detained on 5 May at Dubai Airport as he was preparing to leave the country, and later accused of spying "for a foreign country and jeopardising the military, political and economic security of the UAE". Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghanistan protests kill 4, injure 19 IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Kabul, Nov 26, IRNA -- The protests against arresting a local commander by security forces in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of 4 and injured 19 others. Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Vahid Majrouh said 4 people were killed and 19 others were injured as a result of the violence. The demonstration began in western Kabul yesterday when security forces arrested Abdul Ghani Alipour, a commander of the popular uprisings against Taliban in Kabul. Alipour is one of the leaders of the popular uprising who defended the people against Taliban attacks. The intelligence office has recently announced that he was arrested on charges of extortion, kidnapping and illegal activities. Meanwhile, the protests in Bamyan City has claimed the life of one and injured 16 more. 9376**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni drone targets Saudi commanders' meeting IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Nov 26, IRNA -- The Yemeni army has targeted the meeting of the Saudi-coalition commanders in Ma'rib Province, northwestern Yemen, Yemeni TV Channel Al-Masirah reported. Yemen used Qasif-1 drone in this operation which was performed on Sunday, according to Yemeni media. Earlier, Yemeni air forces had conducted a drone attack on Saudi forces base in Ma'rib. Meanwhile, the Yemeni artillery units targeted Saudi forces positions in Jabal al-Dud, Jizan. A number of Saudi forces are reported to be killed or injured in this operation. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the country's Houthi Ansarullah Movement. Some 16,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression. The assaults of the Saudi-led coalition forces have failed to stop the Yemenis from resisting the aggression. Recently, the Yemeni army unveiled its home-made underground missile launching pads. 9376**1771 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taliban attack on Afghan police convoy kills 22 IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Nov 26, IRNA -- At least 22 policemen were killed in a Taliban attack on an Afghan police convoy in the east of Farah Province, western Afghanistan on Sunday night. According to Washington Post, Dadullah Qaneh, a member of the provincial council in Farah, said the attack took place near Lash wa Juwayn district, killing 22 policemen and wounding four including the deputy provincial police chief. 'The convoy was on its way to the district to introduce newly appointed district police chief when it came under attack,' the provincial officials said. The newly appointed police chief was among those killed, Qaneh said. The Taliban, which during recent years has seized more than half of Afghanistan, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Since 2011, Afghanistan has been engulfed by a rising wave of violence and despite the presence of foreign troops, many parts of the country remain plagued by militancy. The United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) occupied the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. The Taliban and other militant groups have been carrying out bloody attacks across Afghanistan, killing the military and civilians alike and taking heavy toll on women and children 9477**1771 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Navy Ships Train with Western Hemisphere Partners Navy News Service Story Number: NNS181126-12 Release Date: 11/26/2018 3:17:00 PM From U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- In support of U.S. Southern Command's (USSOUTHCOM) Enduring Promise Initiative, amphiibous transport dock USS Somerset (LPD 25) and guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) will conduct interoperability and partnership exercises in Ecuador, Peru and Chile. Somerset has approximately 300 U.S. Marines and Sailors with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Peru that will conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief training with Peruvian naval forces. Wayne E. Meyer will conduct an interoperability and information sharing exercise with the Ecuadorian navy to increase capacity in countering illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. After the exercise is complete, Wayne E. Meyer will navigate to Chile with Somerset to participate in celebrations of the Chilean navy's 200th anniversary and EXPONAVAL 2018. EXPONAVAL 2018 is the 11th Chilean International Naval & Maritime Exhibition and Congress for Latin America. It will take place Dec. 4-7 at Base Aeronaval Concon, Valparaiso in Chile. Sponsored by the Chilean Ministry of Defense and the Chilean navy, it is the major naval exhibition for Latin America on the Pacific coast. The four-day event comprises an exhibition, conference, senior staff delegations and visiting warships and will focus exclusively on naval defense and maritime security issues and equipment procurement. Eighty-two nations from across the globe have been invited to attend the event. The Enduring Promise initiative reaffirms U.S. Southern Command's longstanding commitment to the nations of the Western Hemisphere with a series of operations, activities and events to increase partner nation capacity and build interoperability. Southern Command's engagement in the region reflects the United States' enduring promise of friendship, partnership and solidarity with the Americas - united in shared responsibility as defenders of the InterAmerican values of human rights, freedom, respect for the rule of law and commitment to peace. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Donald Cook Departs Naval Station Rota, Begins 8th FDNF Patrol Navy News Service Story Number: NNS181126-09 Release Date: 11/26/2018 2:59:00 PM By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ford Williams, Navy Public Affairs Support Element Det. Europe ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) departed Naval Station Rota, Spain, for its eighth forward-deployed naval forces (FDNF) patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations, Nov. 19. Donald Cook is a multi-mission surface combatant capable of conducting exercises and operations in areas such as anti-submarine warfare and ballistic missile defense. While on patrol, Donald Cook will engage with NATO allies and partners to reaffirm the United States' commitment to strengthening ties, and to promote peace and stability in the region. Quote: "The crew is excited and motivated to begin patrol number eight. We look forward to all the challenges and opportunities that go along with operating in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations." Cmdr. Matthew Powel, commanding officer of USS Donald Cook Quick Facts: This is Donald Cook's eighth FDNF patrol since becoming forward-deployed in Naval Station Rota in February 2014. While on patrol, Donald Cook is scheduled to conduct naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taliban ambush Afghan police convoy, kill at least 22 Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:02AM Taliban militants in Afghanistan have ambushed a police convoy, reportedly killing at least 22 people, as Afghan authorities consider postponing the presidential election scheduled for next year. Police spokesman Mohebullah Moheb confirmed a late Sunday ambush on a police convoy in Lash-e Joveyn district of Farah Province but gave no details. A member of the provincial council in Farah, Abdul Samad Salehi, said the convoy had been on its way to the district to introduce the newly-appointed district police chief when it came under attack. Another council member, Dadullah Qaneh, said the new chief had been killed in the attack. A spokesman at the Farah provincial hospital said 22 bodies had been brought in from the scene. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the ambush. They have stepped up their attacks and have been staging assaults in the past weeks on an almost daily basis against security forces and civilian targets throughout Afghanistan. Delayed election Reuters reported on Monday that Afghan authorities were considering postponing the presidential election scheduled for April 20 next year. Officials said the idea was being considered due to the chaotic situation of the country's parliamentary elections, which were held last month. The parliamentary elections came under heavy criticism over problems ranging from incomplete voter lists to malfunctioning biometric voter verification equipment. A spokesperson for the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Kubra Rezaie, said an option was being considered in which the presidential election along with already-delayed parliamentary elections in the central province of Ghazni as well as the district council elections could be postponed by three months. "But we cannot say [definitively that] they will be postponed because this is something at an initial stage," she stressed. In the meantime, diplomatic efforts to begin peace talks with the Taliban may have gained momentum with a meeting held in Moscow earlier this month with the participation of the Taliban representatives and the High Peace Council (HPC). US-led foreign troops toppled a Taliban regime that ruled over much of Afghanistan in 2001. However, the group continues a militancy and wreaks havoc across the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghanistan Considers Delaying April Presidential Election By RFE/RL November 26, 2018 Afghanistan's election authorities are considering delaying a presidential election scheduled for April 2019, officials said, as they struggle to count votes cast in recent parliamentary elections. The possible postponement also comes as U.S. officials engage the Taliban in talks to end the 17-year war that some fear could be derailed by the April 20 presidential vote, which is expected to be fiercely contested. Kubra Rezaie, a spokeswoman at the Independent Election Commission (IEC), said on November 26 that the presidential election could be delayed by three months but added that discussions were "at an initial stage." Rezaie said an option being considered was to hold the presidential election, along with an already delayed parliamentary election in the province of Ghazni and provincial council and district council elections, in July. Ali Reza Rohani, a spokesman for the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), told reporters on November 26 that there would be "legal and technical issues" in delaying the election, although it would be "practical" to push the vote to the new date of July 13. The Afghan Constitution requires the presidential election to take place no later than April 22. IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad told reporters that a "practical timeline" was needed. "The economic, security and weather situations are forcing us to make some changes to the timeline of elections," Sayyad said. President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah are among the officials who have declared that the date should not be changed. Thousands Of Complaints The October parliamentary elections came in for severe criticism over technical and logistical problems, including with biometric verification machines and incomplete or missing voter rolls, resulting in thousands of registered complaints. The elections, which were more than three years late, were also marred by deadly violence. The elections were not held in Ghazni Province due to disputes over representation between different ethnic groups. The IEC has announced preliminary results for parliamentary elections in 10 of the 33 Afghan provinces where voting took place. But full results for all provinces are not expected until January, officials said, with election authorities saying there would not be enough time to prepare for the presidential vote. The election is complicated by diplomatic efforts to start a formal peace process with the Taliban, who have met U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad for several rounds of preliminary talks. Khalilzad told reporters in Kabul this month that a peace deal with the militants could be reached by April. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan- considers-delaying-april-presidential -election/29622099.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghan Authorities Release Militia Leader After Violent Demonstrations By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan November 26, 2018 Afghan authorities have released on bail a militia leader accused of human rights abuses following days of violent demonstrations over his detention. The office of Vice President Sarwar Danish said on November 26 that Abdul Ghani Alipur, the leader of a private militia in central Afghanistan, had been released but that judicial organizations would follow up on allegations against him. Alipur, a member of the country's Shi'ite Hazara minority, was arrested in the capital, Kabul, on November 24. His release on November 26 came after two days of demonstrations in which hundreds of Hazara protesters clashed with police in Kabul. The Interior Ministry said 48 police officers were wounded and eight police checkpoints set on fire during two days of demonstrations. They said no one was killed. Health officials said at least 19 protesters were wounded. Demonstrators claim security forces shot at protesters and killed at least three people. Protests were also held in the provinces of Bamiyan, Daikundi, and Balkh, although no violence was reported there. Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country's main intelligence agency, accused Alipur of leading an illegal private militia of 350 armed men. The government accuses him of conducting criminal activities, including extortion, in the guise of fighting the Taliban. Alipur, known as Commander Sword, has said he was simply protecting Hazaras from the Taliban, a mainly Pashtun group. While his main base is in Wardak Province, Alipur's militia also operates in other parts of Afghanistan where Hazara communities face security problems. Despite the accusations against him, Alipur has enjoyed the support of powerful Hazara leaders and remains popular with the community, which has been embittered by what they see as government inaction in the face of deadly militant attacks against the minority group. With reporting by Tolo News, dpa, and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/supporters- of-hazara-militia-leader-protest-in- kabul-for-second-day/29621253.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At Least 20 Killed In Taliban Ambush Of Afghan Police Convoy By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan November 26, 2018 At least 20 Afghan police officers were killed when their convoy was ambushed in the western province of Farah, officials say. A spokesman for the provincial police, Muhebullah Muheb, told RFE/RL that the newly appointed police chief of the Lash-e Juwayn district were among those killed in the November 26 attack, which was claimed by the Taliban. A deputy provincial police chief was also said to be among the dead. A spokesman at the provincial hospital was quoted as saying that a total of 22 bodies were brought in from the assault. Two members of the provincial council, Dadullah Qaneh and Shah Mahmood Naeemi, said at least four officers were also wounded. The convoy came under fire as it was heading to Lash-e Juwayn for the introduction of the newly appointed district police chief, according to a third council member, Abdul Samad Salehi. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed that four vehicles were destroyed in the assault and large quantities of weapons were captured. Farah is a sparsely populated province on the border with Iran where the Taliban controls large parts of the countryside. A number of Taliban attacks has left more than 100 Afghan police officers and soldiers dead in the province this month alone. Afghan security forces have struggled to counter attacks from the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops in 2014. President Ashraf Ghani said earlier in November that nearly 29,000 Afghan police and soldiers had been killed since the start of 2015 when they took over primary responsibility for Afghanistan's security. During the same period, 58 American were killed, he said. With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/at-least-20- killed-in-taliban-ambush-of-afghan- police-convoy/29620922.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Somalia: UN mission head condemns deadly terrorist attacks in Mogadishu, Galkayo 26 November 2018 - The top United Nations official in Somalia has "strongly condemned" terrorist attacks in the north-central city of Galkayo and in the Somali capital on Monday, which left a prominent cleric and a number of other civilians dead. Nicholas Haysom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and the head of the UN mission there (UNSOM), said no legitimate political agenda can be advanced through the indiscriminate killing of innocent children, women and men. "Today's attacks on civilians in Mogadishu and Galkayo demonstrate the disregard of violent extremists for the sanctity of human life", he said, adding that the UN "stands with the people and government of Somalia in their rejection of terrorism." The Al-Shabaab terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the early morning assault on a compound belonging to Sufi Muslim cleric Abdiweli Ali Elmi, in the southern portion of Galkayo, according to UNSOM. In early afternoon, a car bomb was detonated at a busy market in Wadajir district of Mogadishu. A suspect has been arrested by Somali security forces. According to media reports, Mr. Ali Elmi had received death threats from the jihadist group in the past. Though Al-Shabaab has been largely forced-out of Mogadishu and other towns and cities, it continues to remain a potent threat, launching frequent and deadly attacks in the capital and elsewhere. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taliban Attacks Kill 30 Afghan Personnel By Ayaz Gul November 26, 2018 Taliban attacks have killed at least 30 security personnel while dozens of police officers have been injured in clashes with angry protesters in western Kabul, according to Afghan officials. Members of the minority Shi'ite Hazara community took to the streets Monday for a second day in the capital to protest the arrest of a controversial militia commander. At a news conference, Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Akhtar Ibrahimi said the city police attempted to disperse the crippling protest when they came under attack from the crowd. He said the violence injured 48 policemen and four of them received bullet wounds. Organizers said police opened fire at a Sunday rally, killing six protesters and injuring at least 20 others. Ibrahimi denied police used "live ammunition" against the demonstrators. He did not confirm fatalities among protesters. Claims from both sides could not be immediately verified. The protest has paralyzed routine life, business and education activities in the usually bustling part of the capital. Demonstrators had been demanding the government release "innocent" Abdul Ghani Alipoor, a Shi'ite militia commander from the western Afghan province of Ghor. The Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security, detained Alipoor on Sunday for allegedly running an illegal armed group of hundreds of men who are blamed for extortion and other criminal activities in the region. The government late Monday freed Alipoor, defusing the protests. Ibrahimi had called on Alipoor's supporters to allow the legal and judicial institutions to determine Alipoor's innocence or guilt. The commander's supporters also staged demonstrations in central Bamiyan and northern Balkh provinces. Deadly Taliban attacks Meanwhile, officials in western Farah province, near the Iranian border, said Taliban insurgents ambushed an Afghan police convoy, killing 22 officers and injuring five others. A newly-appointed district chief was said to be among the dead. Separately, at least eight Afghan soldiers were reported killed and three others wounded when the Taliban attacked an army base in the Qaisar district of northern Faryab province. The Taliban claimed responsibility, with a spokesman saying the group staged both attacks. He gave a much higher death toll for Afghan forces, although insurgent claims are often inflated. President Ashraf Ghani announced earlier this month that Afghan security forces have lost nearly 29,000 personal since 2015. Security in the South Asian nation has been deteriorating, with the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan recording the highest number of civilians killed and wounded, almost 1,700, between January and June of this year. The increasingly deadly Afghan war marked its 17th anniversary recently. The United States is trying to jump-start negotiations with the Taliban to help find a road map to peace. U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was in the region for more than a week this month. He met Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, as well as various factions of Afghan society. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New Admiral Takes Helm of US Southern Command By Carla Babb November 26, 2018 U.S. Navy Adm. Craig Faller has taken charge of U.S. Southern Command, which overseas military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Speaking at the change of command ceremony Monday near Miami, Florida, Faller said that "like good neighbors," all nations in the Americas "benefit from a strong neighborhood watch." He said the threats in the region were both "real and imminent," from great-power competition to violent extremism. Faller took command from Navy Adm. Kurt Tidd, who led U.S. Southern Command since January 2016. Tidd said U.S. Southern Command must continue to combat threats arising from "failed socialist parties," "incompetent leaders" and illegal criminal groups serving as "drivers for migration." He warned that Iranian terror networks were trying to grow in the region, while Russia was also attempting to spread its influence in the Americas. "We must not act as bystanders to a destiny that other forces are happy to dictate," he said. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who led the ceremony, charged Faller with strengthening ties with allies in the region. He praised the "mutual respect, teamwork and stable military relationships" the U.S. shares with allies from the region, while slamming the "irresponsible leadership of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela." "There is more in this hemisphere that binds us together than drives us apart," Mattis said. Prior to this post, Faller was the senior military aid for Mattis at the Pentagon. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Militant Attacks Kills 22 in Somalia By Harun Maruf November 26, 2018 At least 22 people were killed in two separate militant attacks Monday in Somalia, witnesses and officials said. In the first incident, al-Shabab militants attacked the compound of a controversial cleric in the central Somalia town of Galkayo, killing him and at least 14 other people. Residents in the town said they woke up Monday to huge explosions, followed by heavy, sustained gunfire at the compound in the southern half of the town. Witnesses said a car bomb rammed into the gate followed by insurgents who stormed the compound. The compound has been the headquarters of the Sufi cleric Sheikh Abdiweli Ali Elmi and his congregation. Al-Shabab accused him of committing blasphemy last year and threatened to kill him after he posted controversial videos on YouTube. Religious leaders criticized him for posting videos that showed the cleric pointing to a picture some thought represented the Prophet Muhammad. He was also condemned for using music in his worship services. Elmi had denied the blasphemy accusations against him and insisted music is not contrary to Islamic teachings. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for killing the cleric. Security forces launched an attack on the militants, killing two of them. A third militant reportedly has been apprehended. Commander of the security forces who fought al-Shabab militants in the compound Abdulaziz Abdullahi Hogolof told journalists that four militants were behind the attack including the driver of the suicide car bomb. Police say eight people were killed by a car bomb just after mid-day in Mogadishu. Commissioner of Wadajir district Omar Abdullahi Hassan told VOA that security forces intercepted the car after the driver showed suspicious behavior. He said the driver was taken away for questioning and the search of the car started when the explosion occurred. Al-Shabab often takes credit for these types of explosions in Somalia. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New York Woman Pleads Guilty to Providing Material Support to ISIS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, November 26, 2018 Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, of Brentwood, New York, pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney, Jr. for the FBI's New York Field Office, and Commissioner James P. O'Neill for the NYPD announced the guilty plea. The guilty plea was entered before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert. According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, between March 2017 and the date of her attempted travel to Syria on July 31, 2017, the defendant engaged in a scheme to defraud numerous financial institutions. Specifically, Shahnaz obtained a loan for approximately $22,500 by way of materially false pretenses, representations and promises. She also fraudulently applied for and used over a dozen credit cards, which she used to purchase approximately $62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies online. She then engaged in a pattern of financial activity, culminating in several wire transactions totaling over $150,000 to individuals and shell entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for ISIS. During the time she was committing bank fraud and laundering money overseas, the defendant was accessing ISIS propaganda online, including violent jihad-related websites and message boards, and social media and messaging pages of known ISIS recruiters, facilitators and financiers. Additionally, the defendant conducted numerous internet searches for information that would facilitate her entry into Syria, but ultimately was intercepted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Queens, New York, while attempting to board a flight with a multi-day layover in Istanbul, Turkey a common point of entry for individuals travelling from Western countries to join ISIS in Syria. As part of her plea agreement with the government, Shahnaz admitted to defrauding numerous financial institutions and laundering the stolen proceeds out of the country with the intent to support a specified unlawful activity, namely the provision of material support to ISIS, after which she attempted to leave the United States and travel to Syria. When she is sentenced, Shahnaz faces up to 20 years in prison, as well as restitution, criminal forfeiture and a fine. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. Any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Mr. Demers and Mr. Donoghue extended their grateful appreciation to the FBI's JTTF, which comprises a number of federal, state and local agencies from the region. The government's case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell of the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorney Joseph Attias of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. Topic(s): Counterterrorism National Security Component(s): National Security Division (NSD) USAO - New York, Eastern Press Release Number: 18-1543 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Embassy in DRC Closed Because of Terror Threat By VOA News November 26, 2018 The United States has closed its embassy in the Democratic Republic of Congo because of what it says is "credible and specific" information about a terror threat. The embassy in Kinshasa will remain closed at least through Tuesday, and all U.S. citizens in the DRC are "strongly encouraged" to keep a low profile. The Congolese government is accusing the U.S. of creating "needless fear and uncertainty" by closing the embassy. It also says Washington and others who have "no control over the electoral process" are trying to "distract" voters ahead of the Dec. 23 presidential election. Officials did not say what they think outsiders hope to gain by distracting people. But they say election observers from the European Union and the U.S.-based Carter Center are not invited only those from other African states. The DRC has been trying for two years to hold an election to replace longtime president Joseph Kabila. But violence, armed militias, and problems organizing a new vote have led to two postponements. Kabila was supposed to have stepped down in 2016 when his second term ended. But he invoked a clause in the constitution allowing him to stay in office until a successor is chosen. The opposition accuses him of doing what he can to keep power. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kazakhs From Xinjiang Say Relatives Not Allowed To Leave China By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service November 26, 2018 ASTANA -- Ethnic Kazakhs from China's northwestern region of Xinjiang say their relatives with permanent residence permits issued by Kazakhstan have been barred from leaving China after traveling there at the request of Beijing. Several ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang told reporters in Astana on November 26 that their relatives were summoned by Chinese authorities to go to Xinjiang and, despite having received permanent resident status in Kazakhstan, have not been allowed to leave. Speaking at a news conference, they said Chinese authorities confiscated Kazakh documents and Chinese travel passports from their relatives after they went back to China to deal with bureaucratic necessities. Zhainar Serikqyzy told journalists that her 82-year old grandfather, Raesh Qazbekuly, obtained a Kazakh residence permit and was ordered by Chinese authorities to return to Xinjiang for documentation needs in September 2017. He has been unable to return to Kazakhstan ever since, Serikqyzy said. She said that an uncle also had to go back to Xinjiang in 2017 for bureaucratic reasons, but was detained upon his arrival and has been held incommunicado since then. The Kazakhs also said that they had asked Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry earlier to help them to get their relatives back from China, but that the ministry said Kazakhstan cannot interfere in China's internal affairs. Foreign Ministry officials did not immediately comment on that allegation. Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov said there are 14 ethnic Kazakhs who are barred from leaving Xinjiang for Kazakhstan because they are accused of violating regulations and holding passports of both countries simultaneously. Smadiyarov also said that, in all, 29 Kazakhs had been detained in China in recent years on suspicion of illegally having dual citizenship, of whom 15 had been released. 'Reeducation Camps' According to Smadiyarov, between January and September of 2018, some 2,500 ethnic Kazakhs had been able to abandon their Chinese citizenship in a simplified process as it had been agreed by Astana and Beijing. In several public gatherings and rallies in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, earlier this year, ethnic Kazakhs urged Kazakh authorities and Western countries to help release their relatives from so-called "reeducation camps" in Xinjiang. After Kazakhstan gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang and elsewhere benefited from Kazakhstan's state program for the resettlement of ethnic Kazakhs into the country. Many of them obtained permanent residence in Kazakhstan or Kazakh citizenship but continue to visit Xinjiang on a regular basis either to see relatives of due to bureaucratic necessities. The United Nations human rights officials said in August that an estimated 1 million Muslims, mainly Uyghurs, from Xinjiang were being held in "counterextremism centers" in China and millions more have been forced into reeducation camps. Seprately on November 26, a group of ethnic Kyrgyz originally from Xinjiang urged Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov to seek the release of at least 50,000 relatives and others who they say are being held in the camps. Uyghurs are the largest indigenous community in Xinjiang, followed by Kazakhs, and the region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans. Han, China's largest ethnicity, are the second largest community in Xinjiang. China denies the facilities are internment camps. Officials say they are part of a "vocational education and training program" that helps people to "see clearly the essence and harm of terrorism and religious extremism." In October, the state-run China Daily newspaper said in an editorial that Muslims in Xinjiang were vulnerable to foreign extremist propaganda and needed education and vocational skills. The editorial accused the western media of "double standards" when it comes to reporting on Xinjiang, adding that the "false picture" of the region in the foreign media was "aimed at smearing the Chinese government." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhs-from -xinjiang-say-relatives-not-allowed -to-leave-china/29621852.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China Reportedly Starts Building 'New-Generation' Aircraft Carrier Sputnik News 19:01 26.11.2018 Beijing already has two aircraft carriers that have already undergone all the necessary trials prior to duty. The first carrier, the CNS Liaoning, has even participated in its first war games, which took place in disputed areas of the South China Sea. China has launched the construction of a third aircraft carrier, Xinhua News Agency reported on 25 November 2018. The news outlet noted that with the first two carriers having completed sea trials, the construction of a "new-generation" carrier is already underway and added that it would be delivered on schedule. At the same time, Xinhua didn't give any specifics about how the new carrier would differ from the first two and when it is expected to enter into service. The online outlet China News Service (ECNS) noted that several Chinese weapons enthusiasts have predicted the construction of a new, "bigger and mightier" carrier than the first two. The first Chinese aircraft carrier, the CNS Liaoning, was based on an unfinished Soviet Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier and was declared combat-ready in 2016. It has already taken part in military exercises that took place in the South China Sea on 18 April 2018. In August, the Liaoning reportedly received upgrades to its radar and air traffic control centre. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran nuclear chief: US not complying with its int'l commitments IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Nov 26, IRNA -- US unilateral withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal is indicative of the country's non-adherence to its international commitments, according to head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). Speaking during a seminar on peaceful nuclear cooperation between Iran and the European Union in Brussels on Monday, Salehi condemned Washington's efforts to prevent the implementation of Iran nuclear deal by exerting pressure on other countries to follow its sanctions plan on Tehran. It is for the first time that the seminar is being held after the US backed out from a multilateral nuclear deal signed in 2015 between Iran and the six world powers. Many independent countries view Washington's decision to withdraw from Iran nuclear deal as a strange move as the UN atomic agency has confirmed Iran's commitment to its promises under the deal in 13 separate reports, Salehi said. Hailing the underway cooperation between Iran and the European Union on stress test in Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, the official expressed satisfaction with feasibility studies being carried out by the European Commission in Iran's Nuclear Safety Center. Noting that nuclear safety is Iran's priority, he said that the recent achievements are of special significance as they help the further safety of nuclear cycle. 9341**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. France, Germany may host payment channel aimed at bypassing US bans on Iran Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 08:56PM France and Germany will likely host the Special Vehicle Purpose (SPV), a special payment channel created by Europe as part of its efforts to keep trade flowing with Iran in defiance of US sanctions, senior diplomats told the Wall Street Journal. The Monday report said the governments participating in the payment channel will directly manage the company (mechanism) in order to prevent the US from putting direct sanctions on it. According to the diplomats, British officials are also mulling over joining France and Germany in order to rescue the European attempt to circumvent the US sanctions and salvage the Iran nuclear deal following the US' withdrawal in May. The report said if France plays host to the SPV, Germany will take the helm, and vice versa. According to the report, the mechanism is not finalized yet and finishing touches will be discussed on the sidelines of the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit, scheduled to begin on November 30. The move comes after Luxembourg and Austria, under the US pressure, refused to host the SPV, with Luxembourg officials being warned that hosting the mechanism could damage the country's place as a major financial center hosting many international investment funds, European diplomats said. The report was released during the visit of Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi to Brussels, Belgium, where he attended the third seminar on peaceful nuclear cooperation between Tehran and the European Union. The European Union hosted the AEOI chief at the seminar aimed at showing the bloc's continuing support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Addressing the seminar, Salehi criticized the US administration's efforts to prevent the implementation of the 2015 deal through exerting pressure on other countries to make them pursue Washington's policies vis-a-vis the deal. "This unconstructive US approach shows that this country, as a permanent member of the [United Nations] Security Council, is not committed to its international obligations," said Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the seminar, the Iranian nuclear chief warned the European Union of "ominous" outcomes if it did not follow through with action to keep the economic benefits of the JCPOA alive. "If words are not turned into deeds, then ... it is very ominous, the situation would be unpredictable," Salehi said. Iran's nuclear chief, however, said he believed that the 28-nation bloc was "doing its best" and was on its way to delivering on its promises. Europe has been taking a range of measures to meet the Iranian demand for practical guarantees. Iran and the European side have been discussing ways to conduct non-dollar trade in order to offset the US sanctions. On September 24, Iran and its five partners released a joint statement announcing the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate continued trade with Iran, bypass the US financial system, and avoid any impact of America's secondary sanctions. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran says ready to export fighter jets, training aircraft Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:50AM Iran says it is ready to export domestically built fighter jets after showcasing them to potential buyers during an upcoming air show on Kish Island. Brigadier General Abdoklarim Banitarafi, head of Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO), made the announcement on Monday, before the air show's opening ceremony. "We have already taken the necessary steps to export products that we are authorized to sell," he told reporters, noting that Tehran will resume selling trainer jets as well. Iran unveiled its first domestically designed and manufactured fighter jet named "Kowsar" during a defense show in Tehran in August. The fourth-generation Iranian fighter jet is equipped with "advanced avionics and fire control systems" and can be used for short aerial support missions. The plane can be manufactured in both single- and double-cockpit types, the latter of which can be used for advanced pilot training missions in addition to its combat capability, according to Fars news agency. Banitarafi said Iran had already reached export agreements with China, Russia and Indonesia. US becoming 'more miserable' Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said at the Kish Air Show's opening ceremony that Iran was steaming ahead and making advancements in all fields despite harsh economic sanctions by the US, which he said is becoming "more miserable" by the day. "Forty years ago, the Iranian nation purged America as the symbol of imperialism and it will proudly celebrate the 40th anniversary of its independence three months from now," he said. New warship armed with domestic CIWS Iran's Navy says its new warship, which will be unveiled later this week, comes equipped with a domestically developed close-in weapon system (CIWS). Dubbed Kamand, the state-of-the-art system is mounted on the Iranian Navy's Sahand guided-missile destroyer, allowing it to defend itself against anti-ship missiles, helicopters and a range of other incoming threats. Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, the commander of the Navy, made the announcement during an interview published by Tasnim News on Monday. Khanzadi said besides Kamand, the warship has also received a range of new weapons and electronics that put it above its predecessors in terms of combat power and operability. "This frigate is armed with anti-ship cruise missiles and has larger flight decks to carry heavier helicopters," the commander said. Sahand is also equipped with other advanced systems that Khanzadi said "perhaps we don't need to talk about right now." According to Khanzadi, the Navy would commission a total of three new destroyers to its northern and southern armadas in the next four months. The rear admiral noted that a second destroyer was in line to receive Kamand, which is often referred to as the Iranian equivalent to America's Phalanx CIWS. The Navy has yet to disclose more details about the weapons system but according to Khanzadi, Kamand can fire anywhere from 4,000 to 7,000 projectiles per minute. Earlier this year, Khanzadi told reporters that Kamand had been successfully tested and was ready for deployment. He said back then that Iran was among the few countries in the world with the technology to develop such advanced systems. Iran is set to showcase its latest achievements in maritime technology during the 20th Iran International Maritime and Offshore Technologies Exhibition (IRANIMEX2018) on Kish Island next month. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Leader of Iraqi Shia group urges formal border security role for Shia fighters Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 06:51PM The head of a powerful Shia group in Iraq says Shia paramilitaries in the Arab country should have a formal role in securing the border with Syria and defend the Iraqi people against terror outfits, particularly the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group. Qais al-Khazali, the leader the Asaib Ahl al-Haq group, which is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), made the remarks in an interview with Reuters at his office in the Shia holy city of Najaf on Saturday, the transcripts of which published on Monday. "Securing Iraq's borders with Syria is among the most important duties of the Popular Mobilization Forces right now," he said, urging Baghdad to provide a more formal, long-term border protection role for the voluntary forces. The PMF, which are known in Arabic as Hashd al-Sha'abi, is a combination of some 40 groups of mostly Shia fighters as well as Sunnis and Christians, which was formed shortly after the Daesh emerged in Iraq in mid-2014. The forces played a significant role in aiding the army forces in defeating the terror group in the country. Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, in turn, is part of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance led by secretary general of Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri, which finished second in the May 12 election with 47 out of 329 parliamentary seats. The alliance is a political coalition in the Arab country formed to contest the 2018 general election. Its main components are groups involved in the state-sponsored PMF, which was formally declared as part of Iraq's security forces earlier this year. "The Daesh threat against Iraq won't end as long as Syria is unstable. The PMF proved it is the military side most capable of dealing with Daesh ... maybe the armed forces can invest the PMF in duties that include border security," Khazali added. He went on to say that paramilitary commanders should retain leadership positions and that "the government needs to provide bases and weapons depots." The Iraqi military, supported by the United States, is deployed along the frontier, but PMF leaders have already said they are taking the lead in securing it, including around the town of al-Qaim which borders Syria's embattled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr. "The border was not secure before. Our operations have fixed that completely," Reuters quoted an unnamed senior PMF commander as saying in October. The PMF, estimated at 150,000 members, includes groups which fought against the US military after the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraq's former dictator, Saddam Hussein. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraqi Security Forces Eliminate Senior Daesh Leader 'Katkut' - US-Led Coalition Sputnik News 17:01 26.11.2018(updated 17:27 26.11.2018) The US-led coalition reported earlier in October that with help of Iraqi Special Forces they managed to arrest 10 members of a suspected network that provided funds to the Daesh* terror group. The Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) of the US coalition stated Monday that Iraqi servicemen had eliminated a top-ranking Daesh officer. "Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve's partner, the Iraqi Security Forces eliminated an ISIS [Daesh] fighter and senior leader known as 'Katkut,' during an operation on Nov. 21, in Salah ad Din province, Iraq," the release said. The coalition explained that the Salah ad Din Operations Command dispatched forces to capture Daesh fighters after a rocket attack, and the Iraqi Security Forces killed the terrorist as he was fleeing the scene. Katkut used to operate out of the area, which lies southwest of Mosul, and led an Daesh mortar detachment, according to the coalition. "His attacks resulted in the deaths and injuries of Iraqi civilians and security forces; they also induced damage and destruction to infrastructure within Salah ad Din and Ninewah provinces," the release said. The US-led coalition of more than 70 countries is conducting military operations against Daesh in the country with the cooperation of the Iraqi government. At the end of 2017, Baghdad declared victory over the terrorist organisation, noting, however, that the fight against remaining cells would continue. *Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rohingya say Bangladesh, aid agencies must stop collecting information for Myanmar Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 03:53PM Rohingya refugees in southeast Bangladesh have staged a massive protest and strike, demanding that officials and aid agencies stop sharing their family information with Myanmar's government. Markets were shut at several of the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar District because of the protest on Monday. Rohingya working with non-government groups and the UN refugee agency also boycotted their jobs as part of the strike. The leaders of Rohingya refugee camps called the strike to pressure the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to include "Rohingya" on the ID cards it has been issuing them. The smart cards however, identify an individual as a "forcibly displaced Myanmar national" and not as Rohingya. In a statement, the protesting refugees said it was crucial that they be identified as ethnic Rohingya on the cards because they were being persecuted in Myanmar precisely because of their ethnicity. "The term 'Rohingya' is very important because we have been persecuted because of our identity," the statement said, adding that while the term was banned in Myanmar, it should not be banned in Bangladesh. Elsewhere in the statement, the angry protesters also voiced concern about a plan to collect biometric data and copies of documents, as they fear the UNHCR and the Dhaka government could share the data with Myanmar, which could use the information against them. Bangladesh has been urging the refugees to accept smart cards that help with identification and the distribution of aid. Firas al-Khateeb, a UNHCR representative, said data was being collected for a verification process which would help Rohingya refugees get better protection and ensure their access to services in Bangladesh. "It is not linked to repatriation," al-Khateeb said, adding that the data was jointly maintained by Bangladesh and the UNHCR. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been living for more than a year in cramped refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Rakhine at the hands of the Myanmar military. In late October, Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to begin to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled last year. None of those on the list agreed to return if their demands for justice, citizenship and the ability to go back to their original villages and land were not met. Myanmar's government has faced international condemnation for failing to halt the brutal persecution of Rohingya Muslims by military forces and Buddhist extremists. The Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries, but most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar see them as unwanted immigrants from Bangladesh, with the state denying the Muslims citizenship. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Warns Against New U.S. Missile Deployments In Europe By RFE/RL November 26, 2018 Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned that the planned U.S. withdrawal from a Cold War nuclear arms treaty could critically undermine stability in Europe. Ryabkov said on November 26 that Russia was expecting a U.S. deployment of new missiles in Europe after Washington withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), despite Washington denying it has such plans. The 1987 INF Treaty prohibits the United States and Russia from possessing, producing, or deploying ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,000 kilometers. Amid persistent tension between the United States and Russia, both sides accuse each other of violating the accord, and U.S. President Donald Trump last month declared his intention to withdraw the United States from it, triggering angry reactions from Moscow. Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, are expected to discuss the matter on the sidelines of the November 30-December 1 summit of the Group of 20 (G20) in Argentina. Ryabkov told a news conference that Russia was open to talks on the issue with Washington but added that Moscow was skeptical about assertions that no new missiles would be deployed in Europe. "We hear [the denials] but nothing more," Ryabkov said. "Plans have been changed many times before. We don't want to be disappointed in our [U.S.] colleagues again and therefore we are assuming the worst-case scenario in our military planning." NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said he did not believe there would be new deployments of U.S. missiles in Europe, while U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton said Washington was a long way from taking decisions about deploying such missiles. Ryabkov said the United States would be able to deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe "within years," something he said would fuel a dangerous arms race. "In the event of such a deployment the Americans would gain significant extra capabilities, allowing them to strike at targets deep inside Russia," he added. The diplomat also said that, if the United States stations the currently banned missiles in Europe, Moscow's response would be "effective." He did not elaborate. Putin has said that Russia would be forced to target any European countries that agreed to host intermediate-range missiles. With reporting by AP and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia -warns-against-new-u-s-missile-deployments -in-europe/29621947.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kushner pushed to inflate Saudi arms deal to $110 billion: Sources Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 09:27PM US President Donald Trump's son-in-law pushed American officials to pump up numbers for a supposed $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, sources tell ABC News. "There was a back and forth between Kushner and Department of Defense and State officials on how to get to a larger number because the officials initially told Kushner that realistically they had about $15 billion worth of deals in works," read a Monday report, which cited two US officials and three former White House officials. According to the Pentagon, Riyadh has so far signed "Letters of Offer and Acceptance" (LOAs) for only $14.5 billion in sales of helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons, and training. Kushner, Trump's adviser put in charge of the Middle East, was apparently trying to solidify the new alliance between the Trump administration and the Saudi royal family. Therefore, he pushed the State and Defense departments to inflate the number, an initiative also backed by Defense Secretary James Mattis "We need to sell them as much as possible," Kushner reportedly told colleagues at an NSC meeting weeks ahead of Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia last year. The new revelations come amid tensions in US-Saudi ties over Trump's connivance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi's probable assassination at the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul last month. Saudi Arabia has acknowledged the murder, yet left many questions unanswered. Turkish intelligence intercepts reportedly show that Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi mission in Istanbul on October 2, was murdered on a direct order from Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Trump has thrown his support behind the monarchy and bin Salman, taking credit for low oil prices, which he claims emanate from his close ties with the Saudi royal family. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israeli firm offered Saudi Arabia hacking system ahead of royal purge: Report Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 08:28AM A recent report reveals Saudi Arabia had negotiated with a secretive Israeli technology firm the purchase of a system that hacks into cellphones, months before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unleashed a purge of the country's rival royals and businessmen. Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz revealed Riyadh's behind-the-scenes attempts to buy Israeli cyberattack software, citing a complaint filed with the Israeli police by a European businessman, who said representatives of Israel's NSO Group Technologies offered their Pegasus 3 technology to high-profile Saudi officials during talks in Vienna, Austria, last year. The report identified the Saudi officials as Abdullah al-Malihi, a close associate of Prince Turki al-Faisal a former Saudi spy chief and another top Saudi official, Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current spy chief. During their meeting, NSO representatives showed a PowerPoint presentation of the system's capabilities. Back then, NSO was promoting its Pegasus 3 software, a sophisticated espionage tool that does not depend on the victim clicking on a link before the phone is hacked, as defined by Haaretz. The spyware needs only a phone number to ensnare a device. As soon as a phone is breached, the speaker and camera can be used for recording conversations, according to the report. Even encoded apps like WhatsApp can be monitored via the spying software, it added. The Vienna's meeting was not the first one between the two sides, Haaretz said. The outcome of the meeting is now the subject of the complaint by the unnamed European business man, who says he helped set up the initial contact between Israeli dealers and Saudi buyers, but was frozen out of receiving any commission on the deal. The NSO Group has been under much controversy and scrutiny over the past years, with Canadian internet watchdog Citizen Lab saying that the Pegasus software marketed by the company is being used by a number of countries "with dubious human rights records and histories of abusive behavior by state security services." The Haaretz report further said "it emerges that the deal was signed in the summer of 2017, a few months before Crown Prince Mohammed began his purge of regime opponents." Hundreds of princes, ministers, and former ministers were detained on November 9, 2017 on the orders of Saudi Arabia's so-called Anti-Corruption Committee headed by bin Salman, in what was widely viewed as the young prince's push to consolidate his grip to power. The bin Salman-led purge did not remain limited to the Saudi soil. In the following months, the Saudis continued their hunt for the dissidents living abroad, in a campaign which raised international attention only when dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October. A recent Forbes report said Riyadh used Pegasus 3 to spy on its opponents living abroad such as the London-based comedian Ghanem Almasarir and human rights activist Yahya Assiri as well as activist Omar Abdulaziz, who lives in Canada. All three were in contact with Khashoggi. Last month, former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said that Pegasus had been used by the Saudi regime to track Khashoggi. "They are the worst of the worst," Snowden said of Herzliya-based NSO, accusing the firm of aiding and abetting human rights violations. Khashoggi, a one-time royal insider who had been critical of the crown prince recently, was murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October. Following weeks of denial of any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance, the Saudi Arabia regime eventually acknowledged the "premeditated" murder, but has sought to distance the heir to the Saudi throne from the assassination. A Saudi prosecutor said Khashoggi's body had been dismembered, removed from the diplomatic mission and handed to an unidentified "local cooperator." The CIA is said to have concluded that the crown prince was behind the killing, but US President Donald Trump is yet to endorse the assessment. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sweden Sticks to 'Insignificant' Arms Exports to Saudi Arabia Sputnik News 10:59 26.11.2018 Over the past several weeks, Norway, Germany, Denmark and Finland have announced they will stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia, calling their European peers to do likewise. While all of the nations have cited the Saudi military and humanitarian crisis in Yemen as the reason, Denmark also referenced the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While all of Sweden's Scandinavian neighbours (and Germany) have stopped arms exports to Saudi Arabia, Stockholm stands out for its plans to maintain its military cooperation with the regional superpower citing its 'limited' scale. For Sweden's part, it is about follow-up deliveries to previous purchases, despite rising opposition from the Green and the Left Party. Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who is known for having unleashed a diplomatic spat with Riyadh by calling Saudi Arabia a 'medieval dictatorship', voiced concern about the perceived lack of human rights in the Middle Eastern country, while at the same time downplaying the importance of Swedish arms exports. "Sweden's military equipment exports to Saudi Arabia have recently been very limited. Since 2015, no permits for new military equipment export have been issued," Wallstrom said in a Facebook post. At the same time, Wallstrom stated that the circumstances surrounding Jamal Khashoggi's death must be clarified and voiced her 'deep concern' over the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia. Wallstrom also referenced the Inspectorate for Strategic Products (ISP), the authority supervising arms exports as the body that makes decisions on these matters. The ISP, in turn, reiterated that exports from Sweden are a consequence of previously concluded contracts and mostly involve spare parts and equipment maintenance. Karl Evertsson of the ISP stressed that no new business licences for Saudi Arabia have been issued in the past five years. In April, Sweden introduced guidelines for arms exports in order to make it more difficult to provide countries that fail to meel meet democracy and human rights requirements with arms. However, some parliamentary parties argue that these measures are insufficient and that all military cooperation with Ryadh must be disrupted. The Green Party has been pushing for a complete halt to arms deals with Saudi Arabia since 2015. Although the party is currently part of a transitional coalition goverment with a limited mandate, it doesn't intend to push harder at the current moment, unless it garners the support of more parties. "Our deliveries do not have the same value as Germany's extensive arms exports," Green Party MP Annica Hjerling told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, admitting that a stop would rather have a symbolic effect. Instead, a comprehensive EU embargo would be more useful, she argued. The Left Party, currently in opposition, is in favour of an immediate stop of arms sales to dictatorships. Hanna Gunnarsson of the Left Party defence committee cited 'oppression and the murder of Khashoggi' as the reasons for the termination. The ISP does not report which specific spare parts Sweden sells to Saudi Arabia, but indicated that some of the items are listed as electronic equipment, UAVs, military software, and monitoring systems. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Arabia Pumps All-Time Record Amount of Oil Amid Pressure From Washington Sputnik News 02:32 27.11.2018(updated 02:33 27.11.2018) Saudi Arabia raised the production of oil in November to its highest in the history of the country amid US President Donald Trump's calls for the lowering of oil prices. An OPEC meeting, at which the members will consider how to arrest a decline in oil prices, will be held after leaders of top global oil producers Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Trump travel to Argentina for a G20 summit this week. And Saudi Arabia is expected to refrain from production cuts, an industry source told Reuters on Monday. The source said that Saudi crude oil production hit 11.1-11.3 million barrels per day (BPD) in November, although the exact average daily output will be clear only after the month's end. The levels to which Saudi Arabia has increased production are 0.5 million BPD up equal to 0.5 percent of global demand from October and more than 1 million BPD higher than in early 2018, when OPEC members were curtailing production together. OPEC and Russia agreed to cut production for the first time since 2016, yet Russia has also raised production steeply in recent months to a post-Soviet high of 11.4 million BPD. Analysts at Goldman Sachs, one of the most active banks in commodities, said the G20 meeting could be a catalyst for prices to rebound, noting that they "expect an OPEC cut and its announcement to lead to a recovery in [Brent] prices." Saudi oil industry sources have indicated they wanted prices to stay above $70 per barrel, and Saudi energy minister Khalid al Falih said this month that global oil supply could exceed demand by over 1 million BPD next year, asking OPEC to intervene, Reuters reported. Falih also noted that state oil giant Saudi Aramco would ship 0.5 million BPD less crude in December than in November following falling demand from customers. The US, which is not an OPEC member state and has not participated in the output reductions, has repeatedly called on OPEC to refrain from cuts. Trump, who has maintained his support for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite calls from many US politicians to impose sanctions on Riyadh over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi last month, has requested numerous times that Saudi Arabia keep oil prices lower. According to sources cited by Reuters, the crown prince wishes to avoid confrontation with Washington, including on oil prices. On Sunday, Trump complimented himself and took credit for lowering oil prices, comparing them to a tax cut for the US economy. Riyadh agreed to raise its oil output steeply in June in response to calls from consumers, including the United States and India, to help cool oil prices and address supply shortages after Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran, the third-largest OPEC oil producer. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran is ready to export indigenous fighter jets, the managing director of the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (AIO) said Monday. "We have already taken necessary steps to export (our) products," Abdoklarim Banitarafi, head of Iran Aviation Industries Organization, was quoted as saying by Press TV. Iran's Kowsar two-seat fighter jet (Credit: Tasnim News) Iran plans to sell its trainer jets as well, he added. Banitarafi made the remarks ahead of the opening ceremony of an air show in Iran's southern Kish Island on Monday. Iran unveiled its first "indigenous" fighter jet, Kowsar, in August. The fighter jet is equipped with "advanced avionics and fire control systems" and can be used for short aerial support missions. It also uses digital military data networks, multi-purpose digital monitors, ballistic calculation computers and smart mobile mapping systems. The jet has an advanced radar system, enabling it to detect enemy targets. It is also equipped with a head-up display (HUD), which promotes precision targeting. The plane can be manufactured in both single and double cockpit types, the latter of which can be used for advanced pilot training missions in addition to its combat capability. Russian jets strike Syrian militants accused of using chemical weapons People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 09:21, November 26, 2018 MOSCOW, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian warplanes on Sunday struck militants in Syria who had been shelling civilians in the northern city of Aleppo with chemical munitions, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The Russian aircraft bombed the artillery positions where militants carried out the chemical weapon attack against Aleppo civilians, the ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, adding that all the targets were destroyed. Russia informed Turkey of the airstrike in advance via a hotline, he said. At least 107 civilians suffered suffocation as a result of a rebel attack with "poisonous gas" in Aleppo on Saturday, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Fresh US-led airstrikes kill several Syrian civilians in Dayr al-Zawr Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 03:54PM Several civilians, mostly women and children, have lost their lives and sustained injuries when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group carried out a number of aerial attacks in Syria's troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria's official news agency SANA that the airstrikes targeted the village of Abu Hassan, which lies close to the town of Hajin, on Monday evening. The sources added that a number of people are trapped under the rubble of buildings destroyed following the airstrikes. The development came only a day after US-led coalition warplanes bombarded the town of al-Shaafah, which lies in the Abu Kamal district of Dayr al-Zawr province, on Sunday evening, leaving 14 people dead. Informed sources, requesting not to be named, said the victims were all members of the same family. On Saturday, twenty civilians, including women and children, were killed in US-led coalition airstrikes against Hajin. Nine children and eight women were among the dead after the strikes targeted a local market. Earlier in the day, SANA reported another coalition strike in the same province, where 11 civilians, including three women and five children, were killed. On November 13, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned a recent airstrike by the so-called US-led coalition against the eastern town of al-Shaafah, which left more than 60 people dead and injured, arguing that the massacre clearly pointed to the fact that members of the military alliance had no respect for moral values, international rules and regulations besides the lives of innocent civilians. The ministry, in two separate letters, addressed to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the UN Security Council Ma Zhaoxu, called on the Security Council to fulfill its responsibilities and stop US-led aerial assaults. It also asked the world body to propose an international, independent and impartial mechanism to investigate the crimes being perpetrated by the so-called US-led coalition. The letters noted that the coalition was deliberately targeting Syria civilians and making use of internationally banned weapons, including white phosphorus bombs, in Syria. The ministry stressed that the so-called US-led coalition airstrikes were meant to kill as many Syrian people as possible, prolong the ongoing Syrian conflict, destroy the country's infrastructure and undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity in flagrant violation of all UN Security Council resolutions on Syria. The letters concluded that the embarrassing silence of the Security Council had encouraged the coalition to kill more Syrian civilians and destroy their property. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Premier retracts decision to resign, citing need for continuity ROC Central News Agency 2018/11/26 13:59:26 Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) Premier Lai Ching-te () said Monday that he has decided to remain in his post in the interest of continuity, after his Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) defeat in the local government elections on Saturday. Lai, who was appointed premier in September 2017, offered on Saturday night to resign to take responsibility for the DPP's drubbing at the polls but President Tsai Ing-wen () said she would not accept his resignation. At a news conference Monday, Lai said that after discussions with Tsai the previous day he had decided to remain as premier to help advance the government's policies. "The election results showed that many people in Taiwan are unhappy with the government's performance," Lai said. "But the country needs continuity of government policy so I will stay on to ensure political stability." "I promise the Cabinet will work with all of the local governments and provide the necessary assistance to them for major development projects throughout the country to improve the people's welfare," he said. Lai said he is scheduled to deliver a report to the Legislature on Tuesday about an express train accident in Yilan County last month that killed 18 people and left 210 injured. The premier said he will also continue the government's efforts to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). On the question of whether there will be a Cabinet reshuffle, Lai said he will make adjustments at an appropriate time in line with the public's expectations. Meanwhile, Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu () has also retracted her decision to resign in the wake of the elections, according to the Presidential Office. In a statement Monday, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang () said Chen made a decision to stay on in the interest of political stability. In Saturday's elections, the DPP suffered a crushing defeat, taking only six of the 22 city and county seats nationwide, while the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) won 15. The DPP lost more than half of the 13 seats it had held prior to the elections, while the KMT gained nine. In the six special municipalities, the DPP was unseated in Taichung and in one of its strongholds, Kaohsiung. After the results were released, President Tsai apologized to supporters for her party's disappointing performance in the elections and later resigned as DPP chairwoman to take responsibility for the major setback. Alongside the local government elections, 10 referendums were also held Saturday, with three of them being rejected, including one on the legalization of gay marriage in Taiwan. (By Ku Chuan and Frances Huang) Enditem/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan Election Results Pressure Ruling Party to Take Action toward China By Ralph Jennings November 26, 2018 The ruling party in Taiwan received a message this weekend to show more achievements, including engagement with the island's old nemesis China, as the opposition camp swept midterm elections. The Democratic Progressive Party of President Tsai Ing-wen lost all but six mayoral and county magistrate seats Saturday, the first electoral test of its two years in the presidency. Fifteen seats went to the opposition Nationalist Party, which wants closer ties with China. The ruling party advocates for more distance. China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, causing decades of friction between the two sides. "I think if this year, in 2018, if the Nationalists smoothly win Taiwan's city and county elections, that has some warning effects on the party in power, to let them know they've made mistakes in the past two years," said Taipei voter Hong Wei-chi, 40, a marketing specialist. Tsai stepped down Saturday night as party chief, though retaining the presidency, to take what she described as "full responsibility" for the election losses. Her premier also offered to resign, and the Central Election Commission head quit over the slow processing of ballots. Search for more action Some voters believe Tsai hasn't done enough to lift Taiwan's economy despite data that points to improvement, said Raymond Wu, managing director of political risk consultancy e-telligence in Taipei. Unemployment has fallen to 3.76 percent during Tsai's term and the economy is forecast to grow 2.68 percent this year. Others are turned off by the ruling party because it stands by statements and actions that others find problematic, said Gratiana Jung, senior political researcher with the Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute think tank in Taipei. "The elections are not just local, they're about governing style," Jung said. "There are people who have criticized the government's way of communicating as being too arrogant." Voters interviewed ahead of the vote said they were looking for local leaders who could build major new infrastructure, stimulate the economy or help particular groups such as youth. The Democratic Progressive Party formed in 1986 to resist the then-authoritarian rule of the Nationalists, and it now embraces a list of popular liberal causes. Taiwan democratized in the 1980s. Tsai's flagships achievements to date include pension reform, active support for renewable energy over nuclear power and stronger ties with the United States a counterbalance to China. Relations with China Voters expressed themselves Saturday in part because they want Taiwan's government to engage China, though not necessarily on Beijing's terms, said Chao Chien-min, dean of the social sciences college at Chinese Cultural University in Taipei. The two sides have not talked since 2016 because Tsai rejects China's precondition that each side sees itself as part of one country a process informally known as the 1992 Consensus. China, angered by lack of dialogue, has flown military planes near Taiwan, scaled back group tourism and hobbled Taiwan's foreign diplomacy. The Nationalists accept Beijing's condition for talks, and when former president Ma Ying-jeou ruled from 2008 to 2016 the two sides signed more than 20 deals on trade, transit and investment. But voters threw the Nationalists out of local offices in 2014 and the presidency in 2016 as they feared Ma had gotten too cozy with Beijing. "The public wants you to go accept negotiations with mainland China so previous relations, for example the 20 agreements, can keep being executed, but you need to find your own way of doing it," Chao said. "It doesn't have to be the 1992 Consensus. You can find your own golden key." Tsai must mind members of her party who advocate formal independence from China -- more than today's widely supported de facto autonomy and a red line for Beijing. China has claimed Taiwan since the civil war of the 1940s, when the Nationalists lost and rebased in Taipei. Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Den-yih said after the elections Saturday his camp would keep advocating for stronger relations with Beijing. Setback for same-sex marriage Tsai's party also lost ground Saturday for one of its causes, the legalization of same-sex marriage. Voters passed a referendum asking that marriage be restricted to one man and one woman despite draft legislation last year by ruling party lawmakers suggesting recognition of same-sex ties. LGBT couples hope Taiwan will be the first place in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage, letting them share child custody and insurance benefits. Christian groups and advocates of the traditional Chinese family structure stumped for Saturday's referendum along with a separate ballot measure that suggests using a "different process" to protect same-sex unions, a likely reference to keeping the civil code's marriage wording as is.Both measures passed. Their campaign may have raised fear among voters, said Shiau Hong-chi, professor of gender studies and communications management at Shih-Hsin University in Taiwan. "They usually do not illustrate any concrete examples about why they are against (same-sex marriage) and they usually make up some facts like once the laws pass, you cannot call your father papa, you cannot call your mother mama," Shiau said. But the referendum is advisory only, and in May 2017 the Constitutional Court ruling ordered parliament to make same-sex marriage legal within two years. Legislators, though mindful of public opinion, are obligated to carry out the legal order. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 26 Nov. 2018 (As delivered) Good afternoon. We have just finished an extraordinary meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission. NATO Allies and Ukraine discussed the serious situation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Ukraine provided Allies with detailed information on the incident yesterday. This morning, I had a phone call with President Poroshenko who requested the NATO - Ukraine Commission meeting. Because under the NATO - Ukraine Charter, Ukraine can request such a meeting if it perceives a direct threat to its territorial integrity, political independence, or security. And at this meeting all allies expressed their full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. So we call on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports and allow freedom of navigation for Ukraine in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. There is no justification for the use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel. So we call on Russia to release immediately the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized yesterday. And we call for calm and restraint. This incident is a reminder that there is a war going on in Ukraine. It has been going on for more than 4 years. The Allied position has been consistent. Since 2014, all Allies have condemned Russia's aggressive actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Russia must end its support to militant groups and withdraw all its forces from Ukrainian territory. Allies will not recognise Russia's illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea. Russia's ongoing militarization of Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, poses further threats to Ukraine's independence. And undermines the stability of the broader region. NATO continues to provide political and practical support to Ukraine and the people of Ukraine. NATO Allies have imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Russia. NATO has undertaken the largest reinforcement of our collective defence in a generation. So Russia has to understand that it is consequences of its actions. We will remain in contact with the Ukrainian government to underline our support. With that I'm ready to take your questions. PIERS CAZALET [NATO Deputy Spokesperson]: Iryna from the Kyiv Post. Question [Kyiv Post]: Iryna Somer, Kyiv Post newspaper. Secretary General, can we expect any concrete action from NATO side, in the case of if the situation will be even worse than they have it now? For example, can we see NATO free this friendly visit to Mariupol? Thank you. Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: Russia has to understand that its actions have consequences, and that's the reason why NATO has reacted so firmly against the actions of Russia against Ukraine over several years. NATO Allies have imposed economic sanctions. NATO has, not least because of the actions against Ukraine; illegally annexing Crimea, destabilising Eastern Ukraine. We have implemented the biggest reinforcement to our collective defence since the end of the Cold War, also with more presence in the eastern part of the Alliance. And then, NATO Allies and NATO have provided strong political and practical support to Ukraine. We help to modernise the Ukrainian armed forces; we provide some support to the naval forces of Ukraine, and we are constantly assessing what more we can do to provide support and to help Ukraine. We do this partly within the NATO framework, but also some Allies provide some direct support on the bilateral level and we support and encourage that. So, we are following and monitoring the situation very closely and we constantly assess what more we can do because Russia has to understand that its actions have consequences. PIERS CAZALET [NATO Deputy Spokesperson]: Lorne from AP. Question [AP]: Lorne Cook, Associated Press. Secretary General, you've often spoken about Russia's pattern of behaviour. Ukraine, by calling this meeting, obviously seems to think that this is an escalation. What's NATO's assessment? How do the Allies feel about it? Is this something bigger than we've seen before? Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: What we saw yesterday was very serious because we saw actually that Russia used military force against Ukraine, in an open and direct way. We saw that they fired at Ukrainian ships; that they actually seized and captured ships and personnel, and we have seen reports that several of the personnel that were seized or captured, are wounded. So, this is escalating the situation in the region and it confirms a pattern of behaviour that we have seen over several years, where Russia illegally annexed Crimea, continued to destabilise Eastern Ukraine, and now also use a military force in a very direct way, in the Sea of Azov or the Kerch Strait So of course, this is serious. That's the reason why NATO Allies react as we do. But at the same time, we need to work for de-escalation, for calm and restraint, because we have to avoid this situation coming out of control and becoming even more dangerous. So, we continue to be firm and strong, but at the same time we support all efforts to find a political, negotiated solution to the crisis in and around Ukraine. And the situation in and around Ukraine, including the Azov Sea and the situation in the Black Sea, and the militarisation of Crimea, has been raised again and again in the NATO-Russia Council. We addressed it, this issue, just a few weeks ago when we had the last meeting of the NATO-Russia Council. PIERS CAZALET [NATO Deputy Spokesperson]: Yes, please? Question here. Question [Radio Free Europe]: Radio Free Europe, Ukrainian Service. What is NATO's reaction on obvious installation of martial law in Ukraine? Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: Well, I spoke this morning with President Poroshenko and he underlined that the introduction of martial law will not hinder the working of the democratic institutions of Ukraine, and will not create any problems for the upcoming presidential election. For NATO Allies, this is of course important, that the President so clearly says that the martial law will not create any problems for the political democratic processes in Ukraine. PIERS CAZALET [NATO Deputy Spokesperson]: We have time for one last question; gentleman at the end. Question [National News Agency of Ukraine]: The situation deteriorating the situation in the Black Sea area and as is such. What can NATO do to reinforce its presence in that area, in the current circumstances? Thank you. Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: NATO has increased its presence in the Black Sea region on land, but also with air policing over the Black Sea region, including the Black Sea, and we have a regular NATO presence in the Black Sea, with naval capabilities. Then of course we have three littoral states: Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria; and we have two very close partners: Ukraine and Georgia. And we are working with the two partners and we will also meet next week, here at Ministerial level, with Foreign Minister Klimkin. He will come to NATO and we will meet with Foreign Minister Klimkin, but also with Georgia, and we will discuss issues also of course related to security in the Black Sea region. NATO has increased its presence and we are working closely with the two partner countries, Ukraine and Georgia, and we will meet at Ministerial level next week. PIERS CAZALET [NATO Deputy Spokesperson]: Okay. Ladies and Gentlemen, that's all we have time for. Thank you very much. Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: Thank you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships lawful: Kremlin Iran Press TV Mon Nov 26, 2018 05:05PM The Kremlin has defended Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships off the coast of Crimea, saying the move was lawful and in strict accordance with international and domestic regulations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday described the actions of the Ukrainian navy as "an invasion of Russian territorial waters," and accused the Ukrainian vessels of illegally crossing Russia's sea border and ignoring warnings made by Russian border guards. "The Russian side acted in strict accordance with the law, both domestic and international. This is a case of trespassing into territorial waters of the Russian Federation by foreign military vessels," Peskov said. "These foreign military vessels entered Russian territorial waters not answering any queries from our coast guard, ignoring proposals to use piloting services, and so on and so forth," he added. Peskov also said a criminal case has been opened over the violation of Russia's border, without providing further details. Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the incident in the Kerch Strait near Crimea had been organized at the highest political level in Ukraine. Blaming Kiev for the incident, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of a "planned" provocation and of using "dangerous methods" that would put ships in the area at risk. The ministry statement said the Ukrainian navy had "violated the rules of passage through Russian territorial waters," adding that Kiev had deliberately provoked the clash in order to create a pretext for new sanctions to be imposed on Moscow. "Russia has repeatedly warned the Kiev regime and its Western supporters that fanning up the hysteria over the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait was dangerous. It's obvious that there was a provocation, carefully planned in terms of location and form, which is aimed at flaring up yet another point of conflict in the region and creating a new pretext to impose more sanctions against Russia," the statement noted. The Russian Foreign Ministry also said in the statement that such incidents may have "serious consequences," and it would "strongly counter" any attempts to undermine the country's sovereignty and security. Russia's RIA news agency reported that a Ukrainian diplomat had been seen entering the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday, hours after Moscow promised to summon a Ukrainian representative to discuss an incident in the Kerch Strait. Two Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat on Sunday tried to pass through the Kerch Strait in the Azov Sea apparently without prior warning, but were ordered to stop by Russian border guards. A confrontation took place after the Ukrainian navy ships ignored the calls while maneuvering dangerously, ending with the three ships being seized by the Russian side and the injury of six Ukrainian seamen. Kiev has accused Moscow of blocking access for Ukrainian ships though the strait, the only way in and out of the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. The Sea of Azov is a strategic ocean route linked to the Black Sea by the narrow Strait of Kerch where Russia has built a bridge to link the Crimean Peninsula with the mainland. Tensions escalated earlier this year after Ukraine detained two Russian ships for port calls on Crimea, which rejoined Russia in a 2014 referendum. Moscow described the move as "maritime terrorism" and increased patrols off its Azov coast to guarantee free navigation by Russian ships. Ukraine reserves right for defense against Russia: FM Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Kiev reserved the right to defend itself against Russia, warning that it was likely "Russia plans further acts of aggression at seas or on the ground." "But (Ukraine) certainly reserves the right for self-defense as it is prescribed by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. It is very important that the whole civilized world goes beyond formal and informal statements, no matter how strong or very strong they are, and takes certain measures against Russia," Klimkin noted. Following the Kerch Strait incident, a group of Ukrainian radicals and extremists gathered in front of Russia's diplomatic facilities, throwing flares and eggs at the Russian embassy in the Ukrainian capital. Moscow announced on Monday that it has summoned an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the incident. NATO calls emergency meeting with Ukraine NATO said it would hold an emergency meeting later in the day with Ukrainian officials at the US-led alliance's headquarters in Brussels over the naval standoff off the coast of Crimea. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was reported to have held phone talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and other officials from the two sides over the issue. "The Secretary General expressed NATO's full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law," NATO said of Stoltenberg's call. EU declares stance on Azov Sea clash The European Union warned on Sunday that tensions in the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait had "increased dangerously," calling on Russia to restore freedom of passage. EU President Donald Tusk criticized "Russian use of force" in clashes with Ukraine ships off the coast of Crimea and pledged European support for Kiev in the standoff. "I condemn Russian use of force in Azov Sea. Russian authorities must return Ukrainian sailors, vessels & refrain from further provocations," Tusk said in a tweet, adding that "Europe will stay united in support of Ukraine." A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said senior officials from Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France were holding a meeting in Berlin on Monday, seeking to come up with a common solution to renewed tensions between Moscow and Kiev. "Today, by chance - it was planned long in advance - political directors are meeting here in Berlin in the Normandy format to discuss the situation in Ukraine and progress in the Minsk process," the ministry spokesman said, referring to the format under which the four countries meet. "Of course, this forum will be used to discuss the weekend's events and to find a collective solution," he added. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter on Monday that Russian blockade of the Sea of Azov was unacceptable and developments in Ukraine were alarming. Maas called on both sides of the Kerch incident to de-escalate the conflict. France on Monday also urged Moscow to release the three Ukrainian naval ships seized near Crimea over the weekend. "Nothing appears to have justified the use of force by Russia," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We urge Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors and hand back the seized naval vessels as soon as possible." Britain pointed the finger of blame at Russia for "destabilizing behavior" in the region after the weekend incident in the Sea of Azov, calling for restraint from both sides involved in the conflict. "The UK position is clear; ships must be allowed free passage to Ukrainian ports in the sea of Azov. We urge all parties to act with restraint. Russia must not be allowed to use force to exert greater pressure on Ukraine," Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman told reporters. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt also accused Moscow in a tweet of undermining Ukrainian sovereignty. Ukraine president decrees martial law, calls for release of navy officers Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on Monday to introduce martial law for 60 days, following a sharp escalation in tensions between the two countries. The decree needs parliamentary approval to come into force throughout the country as of Wednesday, November 28. Ukraine's parliament is expected to debate the decree later on Monday. The Ukrainian president also demanded the release of the seized vessels and their crew following the Sunday incident, as Russia is resisting international calls to release the Ukrainian naval ships. "I appeal to the leadership of the Russian Federation with a demand to immediately release the Ukrainian servicemen who were brutally detained in violation of international law, and whose fate is unknown. We demand to immediately hand them over to the Ukrainian side together with the ships and to de-escalate the situation in the Azov Sea immediately as a first step and to de-escalate tensions in other areas. I would like to ask for a quick reaction," Poroshenko said. Additionally, Ukraine has called on its Western allies to step up existing sanctions implemented against Russia over Crimea and its role in the ongoing military conflict in eastern Ukraine between government troops and pro-Russia forces. Ties between Russia and the rest of Europe have deteriorated since February 2014, when Crimea rejoined Russia following a referendum. In siding with Ukraine, the European Union has leveled several rounds of sanctions against the Russian government. The NATO military alliance has also joined the pressure campaign, amassing troops and equipment on Russia's borders. The West brands the reunification as annexation of the territory by Russia but Moscow denies any involvement in the conflict. Armed confrontation between the pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian military has killed more than 10,000 people, according to the United Nations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine Backs Martial Law After Gunfire At Sea By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service November 26, 2018 KYIV -- The Ukrainian parliament has voted to impose martial law for 30 days after Russian forces fired on Ukrainian ships and seized 23 sailors in the Black Sea off the coast of the Russian-controlled Crimean Peninsula. The vote on November 26 came as tensions between Moscow and Kyiv reached new heights after an unprecedented maritime incident, in which a Russian vessel rammed a Ukrainian Navy tugboat and captured more than 20 servicemen. After heated debates, lawmakers backed President Petro Poroshenko's request to bring in martial law that would last 30 days starting from 28 November. The measures will include a partial mobilization, a strengthening of Ukraine's air defenses, and several steps whose broad wording -- such as unspecified steps "to strengthen the counterintelligence, counterterrorism and counter-sabotage regime and information security." The martial law will be introduced in areas of the country most vulnerable to "aggression from Russia." In a parliament that that is composed of 450 deputies, 276 lawmakers voted in favor of the plan, with 30 voting against. Lawmakers also stated that the next presidential elections in Ukraine will take place on March 31, 2019. The decision marks the first time Kyiv has taken such a step since Russia seized Crimea in March 2014, following the downfall of Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, and backed separatists fighting Kyiv's forces in a war that erupted in eastern Ukraine the following month. Before submitting the decree, President Petro Poroshenko had demanded that Russia immediately release the ships and sailors, who he said had been "brutally detained in violation of international law." He also urged Moscow to "ensure deescalation of the situation in the Sea of Azov as a first step" and to ease tension more broadly. But Russia gave no indication it would release the sailors. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Ukrainian sailors would be held responsible under Russian law for violating the border, but did not specify what that meant. Western Criticism Western leaders criticized Russia and echoed Kyiv's call for the release of the Ukrainian servicemen. Speaking at a November 26 meeting of the UN Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned Russia that its seizure of three Ukrainian vessels was an "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory" and "an arrogant act that the international community must condemn." Haley added that "the United States would welcome a normal relationship with Russia. But outlaw actions like this one continue to make that impossible." "We do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out," Trump told reporters as he left the White House. Trump said European leaders were working on the situation. "They're not thrilled. We're all working on it together," he said. U.S. Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo said Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels represented "a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law." "The United States condemns this aggressive Russian action. We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters," Pompeo said in a November 26 statement where he also called on both sides to exercise restraint and abide by their international obligations and commitments. European Council President Donald Tusk condemned the "Russian use of force" and tweeted that "Russian authorities must return Ukrainian sailors, vessels & refrain from further provocations," adding: "Europe will stay united in support of Ukraine." For his part, NATO head Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia to release Ukrainian Navy ships and sailors, saying there was no justification for Moscow's actions. "What we saw yesterday was very serious," Stoltenberg told a news conference after an emergency meeting of the Western military alliance held on request on Ukraine. "All allies expressed full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty," he added. "There is no justification for the use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel, so we call on Russia to release immediately the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized yesterday." The U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that the OSCE Permanent Council would meet in Vienna to discuss "Russia's aggression against Ukraine in the Kerch Strait" -- the narrow body of water, now spanned by a bridge from Russia to Crimea, that is the only route for ships traveling between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, where Ukraine has several ports including Mariupol. Poroshenko spoke by phone to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a key player in Western efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The imposition of martial law could give his government the power to restrict public demonstrations, regulate the media, and potentially postpone a presidential election slated to be held in late March, among other things. Speaking to lawmakers amid turmoil inside parliament and protests by nationlists outside, Poroshenko -- who polls indicate faces an uphill battle for reelection -- promised that citizens' rights would not be restricted and the vote would be held on schedule. While the initial decree he put forward called for a 60-day period of martial law, he adjusted that down to 30 days in his remarks ahead of the expected vote. Three of Poroshenko's four predecessors as president of Ukraine, which gained independence from Moscow in the 1991 Soviet collapse -- Viktor Yushchenko, Leonid Kuchma, and Leonid Kravchuk -- had warned against approving the martial-law decree as submitted. They said that, if lawmakers were to pass it, they should ensure it was amended to make clear that basic rights and freedoms would be preserved and elections would not be canceled. 'Threat Of Large-Scale Invasion' Poroshenko's decree said that martial law was needed due to the naval incident, which it called "another act of armed aggression," as well as "other aggressive actions of the Russian Federation in the Azov and Black Seas." It also cited "the ongoing threat of a large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the occupation by the Russian Federation" of Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Kyiv of violating international norms with "dangerous methods that created threats and risks for the normal movement of ships in the area." An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called for later in the day, and NATO ambassadors were meeting their Ukrainian counterpart in Brussels to discuss the situation. In a sharp escalation of tension between the two countries, Russian forces on November 25 fired on two warships, wounding six crew members, before seizing the vessels along with a Ukrainian Navy tugboat. Kyiv said it had not been in contact with 23 sailors who it said were taken captive. The three Ukrainian vessels were being held at the Crimean port of Kerch, the Reuters news agency quoted an eyewitness as saying on November 26. The witness said people in naval-style uniforms could be seen around the ships. The Russian gunfire and seizure of the vessels and crews came on a day of heightened tension after Russia prevented the boats from passing from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukrainian authorities of using "gangster tactics" -- first a provocation, then pressure, and finally accusations of aggression. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which oversees the country's border-guard service, said its forces fired at the Ukrainian Navy ships to get them to stop after they had illegally entered Russian territorial waters. "In order to stop the Ukrainian military ships, weapons were used," the FSB said. It also confirmed that three Ukrainian Navy ships were "boarded and searched." But the Ukrainian Navy said its vessels -- including two small artillery boats -- were attacked by Russian coast-guard ships as they were leaving the Kerch Strait and moving back into the Black Sea. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Russia's "aggressive actions" violated international law and should be met with "an international and diplomatic legal response." Demonstrators protested outside the Russian Embassy in Kyiv late on November 25. Earlier on November 25, Kyiv said a Russian coast-guard vessel rammed the Ukrainian Navy tugboat in the same area as three Ukrainian ships approached the Kerch Strait in an attempt to reach the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted a video of the ramming on his Facebook page. Mariupol is the closest government-controlled port to the parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists. It has been targeted by the anti-Kyiv forces at times during the war that has killed more than 10,300 people since it erupted shortly after Russia seized Crimea. In a reference to Russia, the Ukrainian Navy said the collision occurred because "the invaders' dispatcher service refuses to ensure the right to freedom of navigation, guaranteed by international agreements." "The ships of the Ukrainian Navy continue to perform tasks in compliance with all norms of international law," the Ukrainian Navy said in a statement. "All illegal actions are recorded by the crews of the ships and the command of Ukraine's Navy and will be handed over to the respective international bodies." "The ships of the Ukrainian Navy continue to perform tasks in compliance with all norms of international law," the Navy said in a statement. NATO Calls For Restraint After that incident, Russian authorities closed passage by civilian ships through the Kerch Strait on grounds of heightened security concerns. Russian news agencies quoted a local port authority as saying that the strait was reopened for shipping early on November 26. NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said NATO was "closely monitoring developments" and was "in contact with the Ukrainian authorities, adding: "We call for restraint and deescalation." "NATO fully supports Ukraine's sovereignty and its territorial integrity, including its navigational rights in its territorial waters," Lungescu said. "We call on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea, in accordance with international law." The spokeswoman stressed that at a summit in July, NATO "made clear that Russia's ongoing militarization of Crimea, the Black Sea, and the Azov Sea pose further threats to Ukraine's independence and undermines the stability of the broader region." The Foreign Ministry of Turkey, which lies across the Black Sea from Ukraine and Russia, called for calm, voiced concern and stressed that "passage should not be blocked on the Kerch Strait." Russia claimed it did nothing wrong. The FSB accused the Ukrainian Navy ships of illegally entering its territorial waters and deliberately provoking a conflict. The Sea of Azov, the Kerch Strait, and the Black Sea waters off Crimea have been areas of heightened tension since March 2014,when Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and began supporting pro-Russia separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A 2003 treaty between Russia and Ukraine designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters. But Moscow has been asserting greater control since its takeover of Crimea -- particularly since May, when it opened a bridge linking the peninsula to Russian territory on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait. Both sides have recently increased their military presence in the region, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of harassing ships heading toward Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov, such as Mariupol and Berdyansk. The Ukrainian Navy said it was a Russian border guard ship, the Don, that "rammed into our tugboat." It said the collision caused damage to the tugboat's engine, outer hull, and guardrail. Russia's ships "carried out openly aggressive actions against Ukrainian naval ships," the statement said, adding that the Ukrainian ships were continuing on their way "despite Russia's counteraction." The FSB, however, said the Ukrainian ships "illegally entered a temporarily closed area of Russian territorial waters" without authorization. In a statement, it did not mention the ramming of the Ukrainian tugboat. With reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv, Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, AFP, AP, Reuters, UNIAN, and Interfax Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian- lawmakers-to-consider-martial-law-proposal-after-russia-opens -fire-on-ships-in-black-sea/29620128.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Explainer: What The Kerch Strait Skirmish Tells Us About A Simmering European Conflict By Christopher Miller November 26, 2018 KYIV -- A dusting of snow and unease fell over Ukraine one day after Russian Coast Guard vessels fired on and detained three Ukrainian military ships and their crews off the Crimean coast, igniting rioting outside the Russian Embassy and public demands for retaliation. The November 25 incident marked the most significant escalation of tensions in the shared Sea of Azov this year and the first time since Russia's unrecognized annexation of Crimea four years ago that Moscow has publicly acknowledged opening fire on Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces was on full combat alert ahead of an extraordinary session of parliament on November 26, when lawmakers were expected to consider backing for a decree by President Petro Poroshenko to impose martial law in response to the skirmish. Here's what went down, what has happened since, and what it all could mean: What Happened And Where? The Ukrainian and Russian versions of events differ, with each blaming the other for instigating the incident. Kyiv said the Russians' actions violated a 2003 bilateral treaty designating the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait as shared territorial waters and the UN Law of the Sea, which guarantees access through the strait. Russian officials said the Ukrainian ships were maneuvering dangerously, requiring the strait to be temporarily closed for security reasons. Moscow has since announced the reopening of the strait after using a cargo ship to block passage beneath a controversial new bridge connecting Russia with occupied Crimea. But what isn't disputed is that a Russian Coast Guard vessel, the Don, slammed into a Ukrainian Navy tugboat as it escorted two military vessels toward the Kerch Strait in the direction of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which lies on the coast of the inland Sea of Azov. A series of dangerous events followed. According to the Ukrainian Navy, the transfer of its vessels from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol was planned in advance. It said that while en route on November 25 the ships had radioed the Russian Coast Guard twice to announce their approach to the Kerch Strait but received no response. Hours later, as the boats approached the strait, they were intercepted by Russian Coast Guard vessels. A video recorded aboard the Don and shared by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov appeared to show the chaos that ensued, including the moment that the Russian vessel collided with the Ukrainian tugboat. The tugboat suffered damage to its engine, hull, and guardrail, according to the Ukrainian Navy. Ukrainian authorities said the Russian forces subsequently opened fire on its vessels, badly damaging them. Russia said its forces fired on the Ukrainian boats as a matter of security. As the incident unfolded, Russia blocked the Kerch Strait -- the only passage to and from the inland Sea of Azov, which is jointly controlled by Russia and Ukraine -- by anchoring a freighter across the central span of its six-month-old Crimean Bridge. At least six Ukrainian servicemen were said to have been wounded, including two seriously, a National Security and Defense Council official and a Foreign Ministry official told RFE/RL on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment officially to journalists. They said around midday on November 26 that there had been no contact with 23 sailors aboard those vessels. The ships and crew were detained and brought to the Russia-controlled port in Kerch, in annexed Crimea. Early on November 26, Kerch FM, a local radio station and news site, published photographs and a video of what it claimed were the detained Ukrainian Navy vessels moored at the port in Kerch. Meanwhile, Poroshenko's permanent representative for Crimea, Borys Babin, told the 112 Channel that at least three of six wounded Ukrainian servicemen had been transferred to Moscow for medical treatment. Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova reportedly told Ukraine's Hromadske TV that three others were being treated at a hospital in Kerch. Poroshenko Calls For Martial Law. What Would That Mean? From Kyiv's perspective, the sea skirmish marked a significant escalation in a long-running conflict and perhaps the opening of a new front at sea. Until then, the fighting in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have battled Russia-backed separatists since April 2014, had been mostly a land war fought in trenches and with indiscriminate heavy artillery systems, albeit with mounting confrontations at sea as Russia bolstered its military presence there. At an emergency cabinet meeting after midnight on November 26, Poroshenko called on parliament to support a declaration of martial law to respond to Russia's attacks and its effective blockade of the Sea of Azov. His call was heeded by parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy, who convened an extraordinary session for the late afternoon. It was unclear whether lawmakers would approve the proposal. But with a powerful coalition in parliament supporting Poroshenko, passage appeared likely. Moreover, some members of parliament who frequently oppose the coalition quickly voiced support for the measure, including Self Reliance party leader and Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy. But some lawmakers have expressed concern about the move. Mustafa Nayyem, a member of Poroshenko's party who is often critical of the president, wrote on Facebook that "the president must indicate the JUSTIFICATION of the need to impose martial law, the BORDER of the territory in which it is to be introduced, as well as the TERM for its introduction." "In addition," Nayyem argued, "the document should contain an exhaustive list of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens that would be temporarily restricted." The proposal from the National Security and Defense Council that Poroshenko announced he had signed on November 26 lists some of these things. As proposed, martial law would be introduced for a period of 60 days, beginning November 26 and ending January 25, according to a text published on the president's official site. It calls for partial mobilization, the immediate organization of air-defense forces, tightened security at borders with Russia, increased information security, an information campaign to present facts about Russia's "aggression," increased security around critical infrastructure, and more. It can reportedly be canceled at any time. The text reportedly makes no mention of the scheduled presidential election in March, which some critics fear could be postponed. But presidential adviser Yuriy Biryukov said before the decree was published that Poroshenko's administration would not do that, adding that there would be no restrictions on freedom of speech. Why Now? Poroshenko and the martial law decree say it is necessary for national security. Specifically, the decree states it is "in connection with the next act of armed aggression on the part of the Russian Federation, which took place on November 25, 2018, in the Kerch Strait against the ships of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine." Beyond that, he hasn't said much else about the timing or aims. The introduction of martial law would be an extraordinary and unprecedented move. No martial law was imposed during Russia's occupation and annexation of Crimea in early 2014 nor at any point since hostilities began a month later in eastern Ukraine -- even when Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were dying at the height of fighting that summer and in early 2015. Back then, Ukrainian officials worried publicly that a declaration of martial law could severely damage the country's ailing economy and disrupt cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Today, the economy has seen some recovery and the IMF recently promised Ukraine another financial bailout. There could be other reasons, as some on Ukrainian social media pointed out after the president's proposal was made public. Poroshenko's approval ratings have declined dramatically in recent months. He's now lagging far behind his highest-profile opponent, former Prime Minister and Fatherland party leader Yulia Tymoshenko. Some Ukrainian and foreign observers have suggested that Poroshenko, who has tried to capitalize on the threat from Russia with a three-pointed election slogan -- Army! Language! Faith! -- might benefit from playing up Russian hostilities. Also, under martial law, he would have the legal authority to cancel or postpone elections. For its part, Ukraine's Central Election Commission reportedly stated that holding elections under martial law would be possible. Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin's own approval ratings have sunk in recent months as Russians vented anger over controversial pension reforms. Putin's purported order to special forces to seize the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine came in March 2014, with his approval ratings sagging. But tensions in and around the Sea of Azov have been mounting for some time, with the Ukrainian military and Border Guard Service telling RFE/RL in August that it felt like only a matter of time before the situation would worsen. How Did We Get Here? Confrontation has been brewing in and around the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait for months, if not years, as RFE/RL reported from Mariupol in August. The situation began ramping up in May, when Russia opened a 19-kilometer, rail-and-highway bridge over the Kerch Strait connecting mainland Russia with the annexed Crimean Peninsula. The bridge's low height restricted the types of merchant ships that could pass, decreasing traffic to service Ukrainian ports in Mariupol and Berdyansk. For those cities, their ports are economic lifelines. Both sides increased their military presence in the Azov region. And Kyiv accused Moscow of harassing ships bound for Mariupol and Berdyansk. Ships operated by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) have since detained more than 150 merchant vessels, holding them for up to several days, at considerable cost to the companies and the ports. Each side has detained the other's vessels. In March, Ukraine's State Border Guard Service detained a Russian fishing boat and impounded it in Berdyansk. Just last week, Russian Border Guards seized a Ukrainian fishing boat and impounded it in the Russian port of Yeysk, about 60 kilometers southeast of Mariupol. How Will The International Community Respond? An emergency United Nations Security Council meeting has been called for later on November 26 to consider the situation. Much of the international community, which dismissed Russia's claim to Crimea in a UN vote in 2014, has largely sided with Ukraine. Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said free passage of the Kerch Strait was guaranteed by the 2003 treaty signed by Russia and Ukraine. "The Agreement must be respected. It is of utmost importance to avoid any further escalation in the region," he said in a statement. Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian foreign minister, tweeted her support for Kyiv. "Canada condemns Russian aggression towards Ukraine in the Kerch Strait," she wrote. "We call on Russia to immediately de-escalate, release the captured vessels, and allow for freedom of passage. Canada is unwavering in its support for Ukraine's sovereignty." There was no immediately statement from the White House or U.S. State Department. But U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, who has been particularly critical of what he calls "Russian aggression" against Ukraine, tweeted, "Russia rams Ukrainian vessel peacefully traveling toward a Ukrainian port. Russia seizes ships and crew and then accuses Ukraine of provocation???" The statements of condemnation were welcomed in Kyiv, but some Ukrainian officials privately expressed to RFE/RL their frustration with such statements. What they would prefer, they said, is for their international partners to apply fresh, harsh sanctions against Russia over the skirmish. What's Russia's Next Move? With Ukraine considering martial law, this is perhaps the biggest lingering question. The short answer is that no one knows. Russia's flagship news program claimed the Kerch Strait incident was a Ukrainian provocation ordered from Washington in a bid to sabotage an upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and Putin at this week's Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina. If Russia's state media provide any indication, the Kremlin might well play up the incident as a demonstration of Ukrainian aggression and perhaps a pretext for further actions against Ukraine. But what kind of actions remains to be seen. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in a statement, offered no specifics but warned the Kyiv "regime and its Western patrons" of "serious consequences" of the skirmish at sea. "Clearly, this is a well-thought-out provocation that took place in a predetermined place and form and is aimed at creating another hotbed of tension in that region and a pretext for stepping up sanctions against Russia," the ministry said. "We are hereby issuing a warning to Ukraine that Kyiv's policy, pursued in coordination with the United States and the EU, that seeks to provoke a conflict with Russia in the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea is fraught with serious consequences." It added: "The Russian Federation will firmly curb any attempts to encroach on its sovereignty and security." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/explainer-kerch -strait-skirmish-ukraine-russia-simmering -european-conflict/29621909.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Seemingly In Unison, Moscow Cries Ukrainian 'Provocation' Ordered By Washington By Matthew Luxmoore November 26, 2018 Russia has accused Ukraine of planning and staging a deliberate "provocation" for political purposes following a naval incident in the Kerch Strait that marked the first public acknowledgement by Moscow of its forces firing on Ukrainian troops since the onset of fighting in eastern Ukraine nearly five years ago. Kyiv insists Russia is waging a "hybrid war" on Ukraine, and that the ramming, firing-on, and seizure of its vessels with their crews outside the Sea of Azov is just the latest attack in a long-running, separatism-fueled conflict with Moscow and its proxies. The UN Security Council called a special session for later on November 26 to discuss the situation. "We're dealing with a very dangerous provocation, and this of course demands special attention and a special investigation," Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on November 26. He said the Kremlin would refrain from further comment until the Russian Foreign Ministry made a detailed statement about the incident. Kyiv regards the incident as evidence of continuing Russian aggression in a region where Moscow used to call the shots, and alleges that Russia continues to wage a hybrid war against its smaller neighbor. 'Worst Fears Confirmed' Moscow counters that Ukraine's government is provoking conflict under orders from Washington. "Literally the whole basis of the politics of Poroshenko and his regime is a provocation," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook, without citing any evidence. Chalking the incident up to efforts by the Poroshenko administration to raise his approval rating and distract from domestic issues, Zakharova's statements echoed those of other Russian officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin. Karasin claimed that the Sea of Azov had been specifically chosen for its strategic location -- where "provocative activities by Ukraine can bring rapid and required results for an international scandal." "Unfortunately our worst fears have been confirmed," Karashin told RIA Novosti. Russian state media have given generous coverage to the incident, devoting several live TV debates to the issue. "Maritime Aggression" was the title of a report on the prime-time Sunday evening show News of the Week, in which Russian state media boss and presenter Dmitry Kiselyov claimed the clash near the Kerch Strait was a Western-led provocation aimed at undermining a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina on November 30. "Ships of the Ukrainian Navy are still in our territorial waters, but they're adrift. They're waiting for something," Kiselyov said on the evening of November 25, as news of the event was still unfolding. "It's unwise to sink the trespassers, since that's clearly exactly what they want. All we can do is pray that the rusty old barges of the Ukrainian Navy don't sink themselves, as they'll pin that on Russia in any case." Russia has bolstered naval forces into the area over the past year -- with an overmatched Ukraine trying to do the same -- and routinely detained Ukrainian vessels in waters that Kyiv still regards as its own or at least shared, according to a bilateral agreement from 2003. In an interview with news channel Rossia 24, the Moscow-installed leader in Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said the conflict is being provoked by "psychologically abnormal people" in Ukraine who have no concern for the fate of their citizens. "Crimea has returned to Russia forever," he said. "So there's nothing in the cards for them." 'Military Adventurism' The United Nations gave overwhelming support to a 2014 resolution underscoring Ukraine's territorial integrity following Russia's seizure of Crimea and with Russia-backed separatists fighting for control of swaths of eastern Ukraine in 2014. Russian officials have also publicly targeted international support for Ukraine's version of the November 25 events, calling out their counterparts in the European Union for risking further escalations with their statements of support for Kyiv. After European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted that he condemned Russia's use of force in the Sea of Azov, Andrei Klimov, a member of Russia's Federation Council, issued a bitter rebuke and accused the EU of encouraging Ukraine's president to engage in "military adventurism." "The EU does not understand the consequences of such decisions, that it encourages such actions by Poroshenko," Klimov told RIA Novosti. "This is the same as placing a machine gun and flame thrower in the hands of a psychopath and watching how he acts in a recreation park where people are taking walks." Poll Boost? Yet while the Russian narrative has zeroed in on the notion that Poroshenko is angling for approval ratings ahead of a planned vote in Ukraine in March, some commentators in Russia painted the incident as a ploy by Russia's president to improve his own political standing. "Putin's approval rating this month is 66%, slowly going down to its lowest pre-Crimean level," Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote on Twitter, referring to a period before Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 boosted outward displays of patriotism and raised Putin's domestic ratings. "Why not to mobilize domestic audience, demonstrating military force in the sea?" But if this was the Kremlin's tactic, at least some Russians appear convinced that it might have unintended consequences. Vladimir Milov, a prominent member of the Russian opposition, argued that the Ukrainian Navy might have been trying to test Russia's resolve in preventing it from entering the Kerch Strait. "If the goal was to scare the Ukrainians so that they 'stop trespassing,' then the way this was done they'll definitely 'trespass' again," Milov wrote on Facebook. "There'll be consequences for Putin, 100%, talk of a new round of sanctions will now get a fresh impulse." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-kerch- strait-ukrainian-provocation-russia -washington/29622239.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Security Council Discusses Kerch Incident Sputnik News 19:14 26.11.2018(updated 20:56 26.11.2018) Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the Kerch Strait incident would be discussed at a UN Security Council meeting later in the day at Russia's request. The UN Security Council is discussing the Kerch Strait incident, a day after Russia detained three ships from the Ukrainian Navy that crossed the Russian maritime border, thus violating Articles 19 and 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Speaking at the meeting, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said that Ukraine violated key provisions of international law, including UN charters, during the Kerch incident. "The fact that such a violation occurred and using very dangerous measures in a narrow strait can create the risk for normal movement of all vessels in that particular area of water," Polyanskiy said. "We would urge partners in the Security Council not to shoulder responsibility for the dangerous conduct of the Ukrainian authorities." The official further noted that Ukraine premeditated its recent provocation in the Kerch strait with the approval of its Western supporters. "This provocation was preplanned, that is obvious. It was okayed by the Western states," he said at a meeting of the UN Security Council. US Position on the Kerch Strait Incident At the same time, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that the United States voiced its support for Ukraine after the incident. "I make the statement on behalf of the United States, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. We stand united in opposing Russia's attack," Haley said. "We strongly support Ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders extending to its territorial waters. We express our deep concern over the incident which represents a dangerous escalation and violation of international law." The US ambassador also said that she spoke earlier in the day with both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the naval incident. "This morning, I spoke with both President Trump and Secretary Pompeo, and my statement reflects the concerns at the highest level of the American government," Haley said during the meeting. Russia's FSB security agency accused the ships of ignoring warnings to stop and manoeuvring dangerously. Ukraine's national security council responded by declaring 60 days of martial law, signed by the country's President Petro Poroshenko earlier in the day. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Foreign Ministry Declares Protest Over Kerch Strait Incident Sputnik News 15:27 26.11.2018(updated 15:42 26.11.2018) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Foreign Ministry is declaring a resolute protest over the recent violation of the rules of innocent passage in the Black Sea by Ukrainian Navy ships, the ministry said in a statement. "The Russian Foreign Ministry is declaring resolute protest over Ukrainian Naval Forces' ships' violation of rules of innocent passage in the Russian territorial waters of the Black Sea. The Russian side has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the developing situation," the statement read. Russia will suppress "harshly" any offence against its sovereignty and security, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We would like to warn the Ukrainian side that its policy, coordinated with the United States and the European Union and designed at provoking conflict with Russia, is fraught with serious consequences," the statement read. "The Russian Federation will suppress harshly any attack on its sovereignty and security," the ministry went on to say. The statement comes after the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three ships of the Ukrainian Navy in violation of Articles 19 and 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, crossed the Russian sea border, entered the temporarily closed area of the Russian territorial waters, and were moving from the Black Sea toward the Kerch Strait. The Ukrainian ships did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them and made dangerous manoeuvres and were detained after violating the Russian state border, according to the FSB. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kiev Urges Moscow to Return Servicemen Detained in Kerch Strait Incident Sputnik News 07:03 26.11.2018(updated 08:08 26.11.2018) KIEV (Sputnik) - Kiev is demanding that Moscow return sailors from the Ukrainian Navy ships seized for violating the Russian state border, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. "Ukraine demands to provide urgent medical assistance to the wounded and to ensure their immediate and safe return home. Ukraine also demands to return the captured navy ships and to compensate for the damages caused," the ministry said in a statement. Kiev also urged its allies to provide military assistance. "Ukraine is urging its allies and partners to take all necessary measures to deter the aggressor, i.e. by applying new and strengthening existing sanctions, as well as by providing Ukraine with military assistance to protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty within the internationally recognised borders," the ministry said. A spokesman for the FSB Border Directorate for Crimea, Anton Lozovoy, said earlier in the day that the vessels seized were being convoyed to the port of Kerch and that three slightly wounded Ukrainian soldiers had received medical assistance. Earlier, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that three ships of the Ukrainian Navy Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yana Kapu had been seized after violating Russia's state border. The Ukrainian ships did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them and made dangerous maneuvers, the FSB noted. A criminal case over the violation of the state border of Russia has been initiated. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia's Dangerous Escalation in the Kerch Strait Press Statement Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State Washington, DC November 26, 2018 The United States expresses its deep concern over the incident in the Black Sea that occurred November 25 as Ukrainian vessels attempted to transit through the Kerch Strait. Reports that Russian vessels rammed and fired on the Ukrainian ships, injuring Ukrainian crewmen, before seizing three vessels, represent a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law. The United States condemns this aggressive Russian action. We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters. We call on both parties to exercise restraint and abide by their international obligations and commitments. We urge Presidents Poroshenko and Putin to engage directly to resolve this situation. In that regard, we reiterate our support for the Normandy Four format. The United States supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters, as well as the right of its vessels to traverse international waters. As stated in our Crimea Declaration, the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine Declares Martial Law Along Borders With Russia, Black Sea By Margaret Besheer November 26, 2018 Ukraine's parliament approved President Petro Poroshenko's call to impose martial law in parts of Ukraine bordering Russia and the Black Sea Monday, a day after Moscow attacked and seized three Ukrainian ships and their crews in waters off Crimea. This is the first time the government has taken such measures since the crisis between Moscow and Kyiv began in 2014. Declaring martial law will limit rights and freedoms enumerated in 12 articles of the country's constitution. Poroshenko said Monday that martial law will help "strengthen Ukraine's defense capabilities amid increasing aggression and according to international law a cold act of aggression by the Russian Federation." He added that Ukraine intends "to keep adhering to all international obligations." The measure calls for 30 days of martial law - an apparent concession to opponents - which would allow for elections to be called as scheduled in December. Ukraine is due to hold a presidential poll March 31, 2019. US: Russian action 'outrageous violation' Earlier Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley condemned Russia on Monday for its "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory," after Moscow seized three Ukrainian ships and their crews in the Black Sea. "This is no way for a law-abiding civilized nation to act," Haley said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. "Impeding Ukraine's lawful transit through the Kerch Strait is a violation under international law. It is an arrogant act that the international community must condemn and will never accept." Haley told the council that she had spoken with both U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before addressing the council and her statement reflects concerns at the highest level of the U.S. government. Russia fired on two Ukrainian naval ships and rammed a third vessel Sunday in the Black Sea, seizing the ships and accusing them of illegally entering its territorial waters. Video purportedly showing a Russian vessel ramming a Ukrainian tug boat Sunday: Ukraine's parliament is considering President Petro Poroshenko's call to impose martial law in the country, in the wake of the incident. If imposed, it would be the first time since the crisis between Moscow and Kyiv began in 2014 that such measures have been taken. Poroshenko reduced an earlier version of a bill to propose 30 days of martial law an apparent concession to opponents which would allow for elections to be called as scheduled in December. Poroshenko said Monday he wants to declare martial law "to strengthen Ukraine's defense capabilities amid increasing aggression and according to international law a cold act of aggression by the Russian Federation." He added that Ukraine intends "to keep adhering to all international obligations." Poroshenko is demanding Russia immediately release the Ukrainian sailors and ships. Trading accusations Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of violating international norms with "dangerous methods that created threats and risks for the normal movement of ships in the area." NATO head Jens Stoltenberg also called on Russia to release the Ukrainian navy ships, saying "there is no justification" for Moscow's actions, while European Union chief Donald Tusk condemned Russia's use of force and reiterated the EU would stand in support of Ukraine. At the U.N. Security Council, most members condemned the escalation, urged restraint, and called for the unconditional and immediate release of the Ukrainian sailors and the return of their ships. Russia's deputy envoy Dmitry Polyanskiy blamed Kyiv and its western supporters for the escalation. "This provocation was pre-planned, that's obvious, and it was with the full connivance of Western states that de facto have just given carte blanche to any actions taken by their subordinates," he said. Ukraine's U.N. ambassador, Volodymyr Yelchenko, said his government would like to see a tightening of economic sanctions on Moscow. "The sanctions is the only real tool that can make Russia at least start thinking of their behavior," Yelchenko said after the meeting. "Sanctions, they do bite." Ukrainian officials say at least six sailors were wounded in the incident. They deny any wrongdoing on Ukraine's part. "We think our sailors committed no crime whatsoever," Ambassador Yelchenko said, noting that Crimea is not recognized as Russian territory by anyone except Russia. "What are they claiming, that Ukrainian sailors committed a crime by crossing the Russian border? Where is this border? It does not exist." Russia's deputy U.N. envoy appeared to signal the Ukrainian sailors would not be released quickly and could face a trial. "The three sailors, they were acting in provocation and they were conducting a crime according to the laws of the Russian Federation," Polyanskiy told reporters. "Each and every sovereign country has [a] right to prosecute people who conduct crimes and unlawful acts on their territory, that's our approach." Russia, Ukraine claims Sunday's incident began when a Ukrainian tugboat set out to escort two navy ships from Odessa, on the Black Sea, through the Kerch Strait to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, in the Sea of Azov. The Kerch Strait is the only passage between the two seas. Ukraine said Russia used a tanker to block access to the Kerch Strait, which under a treaty is shared territory. Russia said the Ukrainian ships were violating its waters and accuses the Ukrainians of failing to inform it that three of its ships were planning to sail through Kerch, a charge Ukraine denies. The Trump administration has previously warned Russia against trying to strangle the Ukrainian economy by harassing international shipping through the Kerch Strait. Russia forcibly annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014, claiming its ethnic Russian majority was under threat from the Ukrainian government. Fighting between pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian troops has eased in recent months, but there are still occasional deadly flare-ups. Russia has consistently denied sending weapons and fighters to help the separatists, despite strong evidence to the contrary. VOA's Fern Robinson contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kosmos Energy Ltd. (Kosmos) (NYSE: KOS) announced today the pricing of a previously announced underwritten public offering of 15 million of its common shares (the Offering), all of which were offered by funds affiliated with Warburg Pincus LLC (the Selling Shareholder). The price to the public was $5.43 per share. The Selling Shareholder has granted the underwriter an option to purchase up to an additional 2.25 million common shares on the same terms and conditions, exercisable within 30 days. The Offering is expected to close on November 29, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions. Kosmos will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the common shares. Barclays is acting as the underwriter of the Offering. In addition, Kosmoss previously announced repurchase of 35 million of its common shares from the Selling Shareholder pursuant to a separate, privately negotiated agreement (the Share Repurchase) has been completed at a price equal to the price per share to the underwriter of the Offering. The total aggregate purchase price for the Share Repurchase is approximately $188 million. The Offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement, including a prospectus, filed by Kosmos with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on August 28, 2018. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents Kosmos has filed with the SEC for more complete information about Kosmos and the Offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies of the prospectus and a prospectus supplement, when available, may be obtained from Barclays, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717 (Tel: 1-888-603-5847) or by e-mailing Barclaysprospectus@broadridge.com. This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Kosmos Energy Kosmos is a full-cycle deepwater independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused along the Atlantic Margin. Our key assets include production offshore Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and U.S. Gulf of Mexico, as well as a world-class gas development offshore Mauritania and Senegal. We also maintain a sustainable exploration program balanced between proven basin short-cycle exploration (Equatorial Guinea and U.S. Gulf of Mexico), emerging basins (Mauritania, Senegal and Suriname) and frontier basins (Cote dIvoire, Namibia and Sao Tome and Principe). As an ethical and transparent company, Kosmos is committed to doing things the right way. The companys Business Principles articulate our commitment to transparency, ethics, human rights, safety and the environment. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains 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. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that Kosmos expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Kosmos estimates and forward-looking statements are mainly based on its current expectations and estimates of future events and trends, which affect or may affect its businesses and operations. Although Kosmos believes that these estimates and forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, they are subject to several risks and uncertainties and are made in light of information currently available to Kosmos. When used in this press release, the words anticipate, believe, intend, expect, plan, will or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of Kosmos, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied or expressed by the forward-looking statements. Further information on such assumptions, risks and uncertainties is available in Kosmos Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. Kosmos undertakes no obligation and does not intend to update or correct these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release, except as required by applicable law. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181126005825/en/ Contact Kosmos Energy Ltd. Investor Relations Jamie Buckland, +44 (0) 203 954 2831 jbuckland@kosmosenergy.com or Rhys Williams +1-214-445-9693 rwilliams@kosmosenergy.com or Media Relations Thomas Golembeski, +1-214-445-9674 tgolembeski@kosmosenergy.com Latest Headlines Halt to apartment law reform plan Therell be no immediate reforms to apartment law after the Housing Minister declined to adopt a new Unit Titles Bill drafted by two National MPs. Tuesday, November 27th 2018, 10:26AM by The Landlord Nationals Housing spokesperson Judith Collins and Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye last month asked Housing Minister Phil Twyford to adopt their Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. The Bill aims to strengthen the existing law in areas like pre-contract disclosure, record keeping of body corporates and better management of conflicts of interests and proxy votes. However, after considering the draft Bill, Twyford has decided not to progress with the legislation as a Government Bill. In a letter to Collins and Kaye he says further work is needed to make the necessary amendments to the Bill to achieve the full set of results officials have recommended. He does say that the draft Bill has some merit, reflects some of the issues from the Unit Titles Act Review completed in 2017, and encourages Collins and Kaye to submit the Bill as a Members Bill. But Collins and Kaye, who say the Bill has huge support from the public, property and legal industry, say Twyfords decision is a missed opportunity and comes down to playing politics. They say the issues stated by the Minister as needing work could have been raised in Select Committee as the reality is no Bill goes to Select Committee in a perfect form. The legislation is about ensuring homeowners dont end up with defective buildings, in disputes and with substandard information about what they are buying into, Kaye says. "Some estimates have the apartment sector alone worth more than $50 billion. Underinvestment and inadequate long term maintenance plans can result in large unexpected bills for homeowners if defects occur and increases in body corporate fees. These issues hit young homeowners and vulnerable people more as they are more likely to buy apartments or townhouses, she adds. Kaye has long advocated for apartment law reform. She produced the 2016 Apartment Blues report and contributed to a discussion paper for the last government on the issues. Both she and Collins say they will keep fighting to pressure the Government to prioritise apartment reform. Meanwhile, in the letter, Twyford says he intends to progress the results of the 2017 Unit Titles Act review in due course when priorities and resources permit. Read more: Time for apartment law reform Shake-up for apartment laws Special Offers Comments from our readers No comments yet Sign In to add your comment It's goodbye to Sovereign AIA has announced that its combined New Zealand business will operate under the AIA brand. Tuesday, November 27th 2018, 1:12PM The process of rolling out the AIA brand will begin later this year and will be completed in 2019. AIA acquired the Sovereign business from CBA in July this year. The AIA Group, which was founded in 1919, is a pan-Asian life insurance group, and one of the largest life insurance companies in world. It has a presence in 18 markets across the Asia-Pacific region, and services the holders of 32 million individual policies, and over 16 million members of group insurance schemes. AIA New Zealand has been in the market since 1981. In 2018, AIA launched a new brand promise: Healthier, Longer, Better Lives. Damien Mu, who heads up Australia and New Zealand for AIA, said: AIA is a hugely recognised and respected brand in the region and we are excited to be adopting the AIA brand across our combined New Zealand business in 2019. The recent acquisition of Sovereign, which is a world class business, has transformed AIAs scale and reach enabling us to become the largest life insurer in New Zealand. This puts us in a unique position to address the nations significant insurance gap. AIA is committed to helping make New Zealand one of the healthiest and most protected nations in the world. We will do this as a customer-centric organisation that delivers valued insurance propositions to our customers. These include AIA Vitality, which will be launched in New Zealand in the near future, and AIAs established rehabilitation and return to work programmes, both of which are helping people live healthier, longer, better lives." AIA Vitality is AIAs science-based health and wellness programme, offering members the knowledge, tools and motivation they need to improve their health, while enjoying lower premiums and other rewards. AIA Vitality is now in 10 of AIAs markets with nearly a million members including those of AIAs wellness programme in China. AIA will be the only insurer to offer the programme in New Zealand. New Zealand chief executive Nick Stanhope said: Im confident that AIA Vitality will prove a game changer in our market, changing the conversation about life insurance and New Zealanders lifestyle choices, in general, from what if something bad happens? to how can I improve my health, wellness and wellbeing? That work has already begun in earnest with the New Zealands Healthiest Schools Challenge, which finished last week. This year the challenge involved an amazing 55,000 Kiwi kids, as well as their families, helping them form healthy habits that we hope will last them a lifetime." While the Sovereign brand will be phased out, both AIAs and Sovereigns products and services will remain fully serviced according to the terms and benefits already in place for customers. These products will continue to be available to customers through AIAs partnership with ASB with whom it has a 20-year distribution agreement, as well as a network of independent financial advisers, which AIA and Sovereign have worked with for more than 25 years in New Zealand. Special Offers Comments from our readers Sign In to add your comment Latest Headlines First home buyers outshine investors Investor lending remained flat in October while first home buyers continued their strong resurgence in the property market, latest RBNZ data shows. Tuesday, November 27th 2018, 4:09PM Kelvin Davidson, CoreLogic The Reserve Bank has released its data for October which shows investor lending hit $1.03 billion, slightly less than the $1.04 borrowed by investors in October 2017. The subdued investor numbers are in line with much of 2018, and rank against a high of $1.36 billion in March, and low of just $779 million in January. Meanwhile, first home buyers borrowed $920 million, up from $722 million in October 2017. The figure is the second highest on record, based on RBNZ data going back to August 2014. Overall lending shows a strong level of activity in the housing market. New Zealand home buyers borrowed a total of $5.5 billion, more than $900 million higher than the $4.6 billion borrowed in October last year. CoreLogic's Kelvin Davidson said the figures underline a strong market: "Total flows were $920m higher than a year ago, driven by lending to owner-occupiers (and in turn, of that $920m rise, about $200m came from first home buyers, and of that $200m, $130m came from lending to FHBs at more than 80% LVR. So thats all consistent with our own CoreLogic Buyer Classification figures, showing that FHBs are pretty active at present, right around the country, even Auckland." The figures show banks are still treading cautiously around LVR restrictions, which could be relaxed by the Reserve Bank as soon as tomorrow. Interest-only lending represented less than 30% of the total, while high LVR lending to investors represented just 0.4% of total borrowing. Davidson described the overall numbers as "reassuring" for the Reserve Bank. He predicts the central bank will loosen LVR restrictions tomorrow in the FSR. Special Offers Comments from our readers No comments yet Sign In to add your comment Progress on increasing the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency is slowing across the European Union, putting at risk the EUs ability to achieve its energy and emissions reduction targets. Rising energy consumption, particularly in the transport sector, is to blame for the slowdown, according to preliminary data released in the European Environment Agencys (EEA) annual analysis on the EUs progress towards its targets on renewables and energy efficiency. EU progress towards 2020 and 2030 targets on climate and energy The EEAs updated assessment on the EUs progress on renewable energy and energy efficiency targets completes this years Trends and Projections in Europe: 2018: Tracking progress towards Europes climate and energy targets package. The report is based on the most recent reported and approximated data from EU Member States on greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy uptake and energy consumption. Complementing the report are updated climate and energy country factsheets. The first part of the Trends and Projections report, which includes an assessment of progress towards the EUs climate targets, was published in October. While the EU as a whole remains on track to meet its 2020 targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase renewable energy use, recent increasing trends in energy consumption need to be reversed in order to meet the 2020 targets. Renewed efforts will also be necessary to meet the 2030 climate and energy targets. Progress on renewables. The uptake of renewable energy as part of the EUs energy mix resulted in a 17.4% share of renewables in gross final energy consumption in 2017, according to preliminary EEA data. This indicates that the EU remains on track to reach its target of a renewables share of 20% by 2020. However, the pace of increasing renewables use was only up marginally from 17.0% in 2016. There has also been insufficient progress towards the 10% target for renewables in the transport sector by 2020. With 2020 approaching, the trajectories needed to meet the national targets are becoming steeper. Increased energy consumption and persisting market barriers are hindering the uptake of renewables in several Member States. Preliminary EEA data for 2017 show that 20 Member States were on track to reach their individual targets on renewable energy by 2020a decline from 2016, when 25 countries were on track. In many countries, the slowing of progress is due to increases in total energy consumption, which caused the share of renewables in energy consumption to fall. Energy efficiency hampered by increased consumption. Over the past decade, energy consumption generally decreased at a pace that could ensure the achievement of the EUs 2020 targets on energy efficiency. However, in 2015, energy consumption in the EU began to increase, and the EEAs preliminary estimates for 2017 indicate that both primary energy consumption and final energy consumption now lie above the indicative trajectory towards 2020. Notably, in 2016, growing demands for energy in the transport sector reached 33 % of final energy consumption in the EU. The continued growth in energy consumption, particularly in transport but also in other sectors, makes achieving the 2020 target increasingly uncertain. Preliminary EEA data from 2017 show that 13 Member States are expected to have increased their primary energy consumption to levels above the trajectories to their 2020 targets. That is an increase of three countries from 2016. Member States will need to increase their efforts to bring the EU back on track and reverse the trend of increasing energy consumption, in particular in the transport sector. Stepped up measures needed to meet 2030 targets. New EU-wide targets are set for 2030 in the areas of greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy and energy efficiency, namely to: Reduce the EUs greenhouse gas emissions domestically by at least 40% (compared to 1990 levels); Increase the share of renewable energy sources to at least 32 % of gross final energy consumption; and Achieve at least a 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency (compared to the 2007 baseline). The EEAs Trends and Projections report indicates that the current trends will not be adequate to reach the 2030 targets, and additional and enhanced efforts will be necessary in the coming decade. To this end, Member States will submit by the end of 2018 their first draft national energy and climate plans, including details on climate and energy objectives and policies that that will help them achieve the 2030 targets. In a referendum, the Taiwanese people voted against the governments policy to phase out the use of nuclear energy by 2025. The referendum proposal (Case 16) asked if voters agreed to repeal Article 95 paragraph 1 of The Electricity Act: The nuclear-energy-based power-generating facilities shall wholly stop running by 2025? 5,895,560 votes were cast in favor of dropping the clause from the Electricity Act, while 4,014,215 voted to retain it. A minimum of 5,000,000 votes were required to pass the referendum. As a result, the referendum is officially adopted. Taiwans Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected to government in January 2016 having a policy of creating a nuclear-free homeland by 2025. Shortly after taking office, the DPP government passed an amendment to the Electricity Act, passing its phase-out policy into law. Taiwan has four operable nuclear power reactorstwo each at the Kuosheng and Maanshan plantswhich account for around 15% of electricity generation. Voters also approved proposals to stop the construction or expansion of coal-fired power stations and to reduce by 1% year by year the output of coal-fired power plants. World Nuclear News reported that state-owned Taipower said that while it respects the referendum results related to energy, it will still follow the policies of the government. (CNN) Most politicians go to great lengths to avoid alienating large sections of the population, but Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison apparently didn't get the memo as he blasted schoolchildren who are organizing protests for climate action. "What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools," Morrison said during question time in Parliament Monday. Young people are planning a series of strikes over three days starting Wednesday, walking out of classes to draw attention to the lack of political action on climate change. "We don't support the idea of kids not going to school to participate in things that can be dealt with outside of school," said Morrison. "Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members' kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments." The Prime Minister listed a number of ways in which the government is tackling climate change, before making clear his opposition to the walkout. "We are committed to all of these things, but I will tell you what we are also committed to -- kids should go to school," Morrison said. Schoolchildren have organized strikes in all of the state capitals under the banner of School Strike 4 Climate Action. Their demands include the cancellation of the proposed Carmichael coal mine in Central Queensland, no new coal or gas projects, and a move to 100% renewable energy by 2030, according to a statement on the organization's website. "Maybe if the people in power like Scott Morrison listened to the climate scientists and took action to stop dangerous climate change then we wouldn't have to resort to all become climate activists," the organizers told CNN via email. "We are temporarily sacrificing our education in order to save our futures from climate change," they said. "People's lives are on the line. It's time to act before it's too late." The vast majority of Australians accept human-induced climate change is real and scientists have linked the current record-slashing drought to global warming, yet the subject is still highly controversial in Australian politics, and climate change skepticism is still given political space. "The history of Australian politics is that climate policy has proven in the past to be so controversial that it has resulted in prime ministers losing their jobs," Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, told CNN in August. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Less activism, more learning - Australia's PM rebukes schoolchildren protesting climate change." GREENWICH A paddle-wheel steamer that once hosted parties and revelry on the Greenwich waterfront is moving to another location. The exact destination for the 110-foot party boat once known as the Mark Twain, most recently docked along the banks of the Byram River in Port Chester, N.Y., wasnt officially revealed, but a massive undertaking to load up the boat for a new home overseas was taking place off the Greenwich coast. Theyve found a new home for the Mark Twain, said Greenwich Harbormaster Ian Macmillan. He spent the day observing a heavy-lift freighter off Greenwich Point, making preparations to gather up the paddle-wheeler with a large crane for a long-distance ride. The current owner of the vessel, Billie Frenz, a Greenwich musician and businessman, said the deal to relocate the ship had yet to be finalized, and he decline comment other than to say, Were looking for a new home. The ship was built in 1960 by a Los Angeles-area shipbuilder, and its first destination was an amusement park in the Baychester section of The Bronx called Freedomland. The ship was then called the Canadian. Freedomland was a short-lived venture. The ship then caught the attention of an enterprising restaurant owner, Joe Keating. He took the vessel to the Greenwich waterfront in 1965 and re-christened it the Mark Twain. Keating loved the New Orleans lifestyle, and the ship was used as dockside lounge to the Showboat Hotel. That business went bust in 1989, and the Showboat Hotel gave way to the current operation, the Delamar. The paddle-wheeler came to Port Chester in the early 2000s, where it has been the setting for jazz shows and other social events. Frenz extensively re-built the vessel, now called the Showboat. It can accommodate roughly 150 people and has facilities for catered events. Maritime observers in the region were intrigued by the activity off-shore and the prospect that an old seafaring vessel was getting a new lease on life. Jardar Nygaard, who works in the shellfish business on Long Island Sound, said he hoped the old paddle-wheeler had many more good years ahead of her. Its got a lot of character, its really unique. And a lot of history, he said. The loading of the ship onto the cargo vessel was being overseen by the Coast Guard, said Macmillan, the harbormaster. / contributed: Greenwich Hospital GREENWICH A health-care consulting organization that compiles data about the medical field is honoring Greenwich Hospital for its outpatient care. The Guardian of Excellence Award from Press Ganey cited the hospital for hitting high numbers on patient satisfaction with services provided outside the hospital. The outpatient offerings at the hospital involve 37 individual departments. GREENWICH Substance abuse, cyberbullying, social media use and the power of parent influence: The town Prevention Council surveyed about 3,000 middle school and high school students on these and other topics earlier this year. Results of the survey will be released next week, but some educators and council members have spoken on its broader themes. Responses revealed parents have a strong influence on their children a surprising finding that could shift how the councils 32 members, from education, law enforcement and health sectors, will approach educating young people, Commissioner of Greenwich Department of Human Services Alan Barry said Tuesday. We focus all of our efforts on the kids, Barry said. That may not be the most effective strategy. It may be more working with the adults. Students said they were almost half as likely to try drugs if their parents expressed their disapproval of them. Parents will be pleasantly surprised, or interested to learn, that their view of whether or not they approve of those behaviors has a lot more efficacy than parents believe they have, Greenwich Country Day School Upper School Director Anthony Bowes said earlier this fall after educators saw a preview of the survey results. The anonymous survey was filled out by students from Greenwich Public Schools, Greenwich Academy, Brunswick School, Greenwich Country Day School, Greenwich Catholic School, Stanwich School, Whitby School and Sacred Heart Greenwich in February. Full results will be revealed Dec. 4. Despite the positive influence parents can have, many students still indulge in harmful or risky behaviors, according to preliminary survey results. Nearly 5 percent of eighth-graders smoked an e-cigarette in the last 30 days, according to the survey. That percentage jumps to 13 percent of ninth-graders, and almost 36 percent of high school seniors reported vaping in the last month. The data confirmed the instincts of public and private school administrators. They suspected the rise of e-cigarette use, and said it shows the importance of managing the transition from middle school to high school in preventing substance abuse. As adults, we have a sense of when that happens, but thats a gut feeling based on anecdotes, Bowes said. This is the students self-reporting when they start engaging in those behaviors. Sandrine Utzinger, a school psychologist for Stanwich School, said she was relieved prescription drug use was low, considering the nationwide epidemic. Students are more likely to take stimulants without a prescription, 6 percent of seniors, than they are to use drugs such as oxycodone, less than 1 percent. Alcohol is still the most popular substance of choice. Five percent of eighth-graders and 14 percent of ninth-graders reported drinking in the last month, a percentage that increased steadily to 55 percent in senior year. Almost 37 percent of seniors drink at home, and 45 percent drink in other peoples homes. Its always helpful to see that alcohol remains the biggest risk for kids, Tom Sullivan, Greenwich Academy head of upper school, said in response to the preliminary results. Certainly, you could see e-cigs were concerning, but it helped us reaffirm our baseline understanding. The survey also gauged if students feel supported by their communities, loved and accepted by family and friends, and have opportunities outside of school to develop new skills and interests with others. Its about how we value our youth and how our youth feel valued, said Ingrid Gillespie, executive director of Communities 4 Action, a regional resource for education on substance abuse. Greenwich students feel supported by their families, but the town can increase and improve its after-school offerings, she said. How students are using their free time is a critical factor in looking at students engagement in risky behaviors, Interim Superintendent of Greenwich Public Schools Ralph Mayo said. The survey also found students often feel insecure in their own identities, which Utzinger said did not surprise her, because children worry about maintaining perfect images on social media. Theres been a rise in how they feel about themselves and how they compare to that picture or like they see online, she said. If schools teach students how to view themselves positively and not compare themselves to others, it will impact which crowds students choose to go with, which will impact what they expose themselves to and what they will do to fit in, she said. Fitting in would motivate 56 percent of seniors to try a new drug. Middle school students said they started drinking and smoking to prepare for high school, and high schoolers to prepare for college, Barry said. Bowes said the data will help Greenwich Country Day as it expands to include students in grades 10 through 12. We couldnt have gotten this information at a better time, Bowes said. Were going to have to deal with issues we havent had to deal with in the past, and educate kids we havent been responsible for in the past. The survey, which cost $11,000 to administer, was paid for by the Board of Education and participating Greenwich private schools. The Prevention Council will use the data to apply for a $125,000 per year grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services Substance to support drug-free communities. In the immediate future, the data will inform the creation of student focus groups and a survey of adults, Barry said. We have to start thinking outside the box, he said. You just cant say No, but also, were seeing the influence adults and parents have. Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Commissioner of Greenwich Department of Human Services Alan Barrys title. jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com GREENWICH Free child care, hourlong evening meetings, translators and a brand-new bilingual co-president: Hamilton Avenue School does not have the average Greenwich parent-teacher association. These features have been added to encourage parents many of whom lack time, money or confidence speaking English to be involved in their childs education and school building and to close a PTA achievement gap between western Greenwich parents and those on the east side of town, many of whom have more time and money to spend in their childs building and on programs. The additions seem to be working, Interim Principal John Grasso said. Meetings of late have averaged more than 50 parents, an attendance rate some PTAs only reach during crises, Grasso said. The meeting last week, which included an election and an informational session about understanding report cards and meeting with teachers, drew in about 45 participants. Its a really healthy attendance, said Patti Jomo, who Grasso brought in to help build up the Hamilton Avenue PTA. Its hard to find a time and date that works for everybody, but they do a good job of communicating it, the parents respond to it. Boosting involvement should ease the organizations growing pains as it phases in new leaders and prepares for a new principal, a transition that a stable PTA will smooth, Grasso said. When I hand over the keys, I want to say, The PTA is in good shape: we have a standing executive board committee, weve managed to get people out to meetings, and here are the tricks of the trade, he said. Grassos wish-list includes strengthening the leadership, creating an environment in which parents feel comfortable volunteering and encouraging small-scale help in the building from as many parents as possible. Outside help To check these boxes, Grasso recruited Jomo, an old friend who led the Riverside School PTA while he was the principal there, who has nearly two decades of experience in local PTAs. The ideal group has a strong administration, understands how the district and the school operate and works with both entities to inform parents, Jomo said. The more parents know, the more likely they are to be involved in the school and in the childs education, Jomo said. It all feeds back to that end product of higher levels of academic and lifelong success. Jomo joined her first PTA 18 years ago when her oldest daughter started kindergarten. Since then, she has chaired committees, occupied board positions and led PTAs at Riverside and Greenwich High School as well as the Greenwich Parent Teacher Association Council, the umbrella organization formed by the 15 PTAs of Greenwich Public Schools. Ive had my thumb in just about every pie there might be, PTA-wise, Jomo said. I was happy to help here. Jomo provides needed insights and stability, said Sarah Haag-Fisk, the vice president of education for the Hamilton Avenue PTA. Weve had principal and PTA president turnover, so having institutional knowledge is helpful, Haag-Fisk said. Patti can weigh in and compare what we do to other schools. Hamilton Avenue PTA members last week elected Reina Medrano to serve a two-year term as co-president. She will work with current Co-President Allison Radzin until Radzins replacement is chosen to work with Medrano in the fall of 2019. The Hamilton Avenue group uses a succession plan common among PTAs in town. Presidents are elected to two-year terms, but elections are staggered so there always is a new and veteran leader working together. Medrano has sent two children through the school, and her third child currently is in the third grade there. When her oldest started kindergarten, the mother knew nothing about American public schools, and the PTA taught her how to read a report card and ask teachers questions. I started helping with everything, Medrano said. Somebody has to be here and help the kids. Parents can volunteer to run Picture Day, help at the book fair, show kids what parts of their meal can be recycled and composted, deliver forgotten items to children or work fundraisers. One father refurbished and installed the Hamilton Avenue School sign out front after it sat for years in an office, Grasso said. Everybody can do a little something, and if everyone does a little something, the big things get taken care of, he said. Time and language The PTAs serving schools in eastern Greenwich are made of parents who have more time to devote to meetings and volunteering and more money to contribute to fundraisers, Grasso said. They also feel more comfortable with English and the American public school system. The neighborhood surrounding Hamilton Avenue is 70 percent minority, according to recent district enrollment data. Students from racial minorities account for 73.8 percent of the schools population, 38 percentage points higher than the district average. Further, nearly 70 percent of students are learning English, receive special education services or qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch; Hamilton Avenue is one of three schools in town with the highest ratios of students who fit one or more of those categories. Grasso remembers morning PTA meetings at Riverside, ideal for families with one stay-at-home parent. The working parents of Hamilton Avenue, however, can only attend night meetings. As a result, they tend to cram every discussion and voting item into a monthly, one-hour meeting if they can come at all. Later meetings require child care, which is a financial obstacle for many parents. Its easier to pay for a babysitter on the other side of town, Grasso said. If we can include the kids or provide for the kids, the parents do come out. The PTA now eliminates the need to find child care by providing the service or bringing in the staff from the Bruce Museum to conduct workshops for kids during the meetings. Language has been another obstacle. Parents not confident in English often hold back because they feel like they do not belong or are not good in school, Grasso said. They want to be involved, but theyre not, he said. Meetings now often have translators, and the parent informational e-newsletter called Headlines is in both English and Spanish, said Medrano, who is bilingual. If I know parents only speak Spanish, Ill switch and tell them I can help you, she said. jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com My employees, students, advisees and investees have all asked me the question, "Do I need to learn to code?" My basic answer is, "Yes. And you're going to love it!" Also, it's important. As famed innovator Marc Andreessen put it: "The spread of computers and the internet will put jobs in two categories: people who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do." Related: Why Your Next Hire Should Be a Coding School Graduate To be one of those people telling computers what to do, you don't need to be a career coder. Innovation skills like figuring out what software might do for a customer that's valuable and how the user should experience your software remain extremely important. That said, you want to make sure you have the creative confidence to be intimately involved in the process of software creation. My advice is to start by practicing with something small and relevant to your line of work. It won't be hard, but it will take some energy and endurance. Other than becoming a career coder, here are three good reasons you might want to learn how to code along with suggestions on how to get started: 1. Change web page content on your own without tapping someone on the shoulder. Yes, great idea! Honestly, in my opinion not being able to work with HTML and CSS (code for creating web pages) is equivalent to being illiterate. I know that sounds stark, but the good news is that this problem is easily solved. Codeacademy has terrific online courses in subject like HTML and CSSthat are totally free. For best results, pair tutorials with a project you can work on, so you can apply skills immediately. When learning to code, it's more about creative confidence and the ability to figure things out that's key. 2. Present your ideas with prototypes instead of PowerPoints. Good on you! You'll be much more convincing and engaged with a prototype. This isn't separate from the above item, but it will involve use of design to figure out what you want to build and a programming language like Javascript or Python. For this, you'll need to chart your own path. I recommend starting out with a clear objective, so you don't get lost in the details. Classes that offer design-driven case studies, supporting materials and starter code you can use are beneficial because they show how modern software relates to actual development. Related: Google Launches a Game to Teach Adults How to Code 3. Be a better collaborator to the engineers/developers you work with. Yes! Many groups inside companies like Google require that product managers, for example, have a STEM undergraduate degree. These groups have found that it's a reliable way to make sure they can engage with their collaborators in development. Learning to code will give you intuition about what it is to move from design to code, what's hard when and why, as well as a sense of what level of detail your collaborators need from you on a particular item. These are all good places to start and having a specific project in mind will allow you to start small. Additionally, here are three bad, or misguided, reasons you might want to learn how to code, along with suggestions about what to do instead: 1. Give your developers instructions on how to code in order to work better/faster. No one likes to be told how to do their job. However, they do like to know what constitutes success and the more you can clearly show how what your team is building will be valuable to the user, the better. The punchline here is that for more than 90 percent of the cases I've seen, the product/businessperson needs to better test and validate what's valuable to the user and translate that into development-friendly inputs like storyboards and user stories. For learning how to do that testing and provide those great inputs, I recommend a balanced approach to both designing and coding. Make sure you stay focused on a specific design outcome while you're coding. Related: Today's Shortage in Code Development Presents Entrepreneurs With a Massive Opportunity 2. Dispute estimates with your collaborators in development. Basically, it's best to assume your developers know what they're doing, have good intent and to focus on what you need to do to get them great inputs. If you're still unsure about that, talk with a development manager or development lead to get some additional perspective. 3. Build an app. Great idea! Maybe. You should use tools like design thinking to learn about your customer and the "lean startup" concept to test your idea. Then getting the goodwill and capital to build your software will be a lot easier. Related: Do You Need to Learn to Code? What Does Being Digitally Literate Mean? Sharpen Your Company's Competitive Edge by Hiring the Most Motivated Tech Talent Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved President Donald Trump has spent the past few weeks grandstanding over a crisis that seems to exist only in the heads of him and his allies. He repeatedly cast the arrival of Central American asylum seekers at the American border as an almost apocalyptic invasion of terrorists, criminals and other malefactors. (Reporters traveling among the "caravan" of migrants found mostly families fleeing gang violence and poverty.) In an ostentatious election stunt, he dispatched active-duty troops to a dusty corner of Texas to unfurl miles of concertina wire for the cameras. (The Pentagon wound down the operation within days of the polls closing.) On Monday, Trump warned that he would even permanently close a crucial California border crossing if he doesn't get federal funding for his still-nonexistent border wall, which most security experts believe would make little difference. But as the president fulminated over immigration and border security - red-meat subjects for his base - it's worth considering what he wasn't talking about. On Friday, a U.S. government report acknowledged that climate change is real - and is doing damage to both the country and the world. The White House apparently hoped to bury the report by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving rather than next month. When that didn't work, Trump used a cold spell over the weekend to claim yet again that global warming is a hoax and later explicitly said he didn't believe his own administration's findings. On Sunday, a dangerous military escalation flared between Russia and Ukraine, prompting alarmist headlines about World War III. Trump tweeted nothing about it, choosing instead to once more attack his nation's traditional allies in Europe, grousing over their supposed unwillingness to "pay their fair share for Military Protection." In reality, a growing chorus of European leaders is calling for the continent to beef up its defense in the face of Moscow's menace - and Washington's unpredictability. On Monday, the heads of five major international aid groups urged the United States to halt its military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Thanks to years of conflict and an intractable Saudi blockade, 14 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine. "We have no means left to avert a catastrophe in Yemen," the leaders warned in a joint statement. "Every humanitarian effort can no longer prevent mass starvation if the war is not brought to an end immediately and urgent efforts undertaken to ensure food, fuel, and other vital supplies reach those in greatest need." All three are urgent international issues, all ones in which the United States can play an important role. But Trump, as ever, is uninterested in statecraft. Confronted with record low approval ratings and a vast thicket of controversies, he has chosen to circle the wagons and continue ginning up the same grievance and nationalist rancor that brought him to power. But for a president convinced that he's putting America first, his blind spots may ultimately cause the country more harm than anything else. On climate change, Trump has not merely surrendered the field to other governments but ignored the existence of the battle. Experts fear that his administration's actual climate policies - promoting coal, rolling back regulations and weakening rules such as emissions standards - are only going to make things worse. Trump's reluctance to rebuke Russian President Vladimir Putin or condemn his annexation of Crimea, critics argue, has encouraged an adventurous Kremlin to test the waters of expansion - all too literally in the case of this weekend's clash with Ukrainian warships in the Sea of Azov. His deference to Putin at a summit in Helsinki this year baffled many analysts, who contrast Trump's acquiescence with the tougher stances of senior foreign policy officials in the administration. On Yemen, Trump has said precious little about the world's most dire humanitarian crisis. Instead, he has sought to defend one of the war's leading belligerents, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, from international censure. In a widely condemned statement issued last week by Trump - entitled "Standing with Saudi Arabia" - Yemen was only acknowledged as a proxy zone for Saudi and Iranian conflict. There was no mention of the human catastrophe unfolding there. Trump also highlighted Saudi Arabia's oil output and American arms purchases as reasons to not to punish the reckless prince for his alleged role in the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. None of this can justify the horrors of the war, nor the White House's inaction as mass starvation looms. For Trump, it's also bad politics: A growing faction in Congress wants to rein in the conflict; a new poll commissioned by the International Rescue Committee found that a majority of both U.S. liberals and conservatives opposed continuing arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Meanwhile, the migrant caravan that scares and angers Trump's is the product of a real crisis, but not one that he will acknowledge. In a column for The Washington Post, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former Mexican treasury Secretary Pedro Aspe outlined measures Washington could pursue to help stabilize the Central American countries that are so dangerous for their own citizens. "Instead of blaming the migrants who are fleeing violence and corruption in Central America, we should recognize why they are leaving and do something about it," Shultz and Aspe wrote. "If we succeed in improving economic conditions and reducing drug-related violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, then we can expect that the citizens of those countries will choose to stay home." - Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York WASHINGTON Sen. Richard Blumenthal continued his campaign Monday against acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker by requesting a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into whether the Whitaker violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits government employees from participating in political activities. In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Blumenthal pointed to Federal Election Commission filings that show Whitaker received donations to his failed 2014 Senate campaign while he was serving as former Attorney General Jeff Sessions chief of staff. FEC records show that Whitakers campaign committee, which still carries about $49,000 in debt, hadnt received any contributions between 2015 through 2017. But that Senate campaign committee accepted $8,800 in donations this year, while Whitaker was serving as a top Justice Department lawyer. In his letter requesting the hearing, Blumenthal also raised other questions about Whitakers political impartiality, citing the acting attorney generals employment at a conservative political group before joining the Justice Department. As you know, the Hatch Act prohibits government employees from accepting political contributions and is one of the chief anti-corruption measures in American law, Blumenthal wrote. Additionally, recent reports indicate that immediately prior to his employment at DOJ, Mr. Whitaker earned $1.2 million heading a conservative political group whose donors are anonymous. These payments at the very least call into question Mr. Whitakers impartiality as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. As a member of the minority of the Judiciary Committee, Blumenthal cannot schedule an official hearing on Whitaker. But he and other Democrats on the panel can put pressure on Grassley and by doing so call attention to their concerns about the appointment. Blumenthal also belongs to a group of Judiciary Committee Democrats who are challenging Whitakers appointment in court. They argue President Donald Trump violated the U.S. Constitutions appointment clause in appointing Whitaker to head the Justice Department after the ouster of Sessions as attorney general earlier this month. The Samsung Galaxy S10 is the Korean giants upcoming flagship device, which is already well rumored around these parts. The latest piece of news is an alleged filing for a Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus device that is being certified for the Russian market. The listing doesnt reveal any new specs about the flagship, but we do see three different model numbers signifying variants of the Galaxy S10 Plus: SM-G975F / DS SM-G975F / SM-G975X. In the past, all Plus variants have usually ended in 5, so wed expect the regular Galaxy S10 model to be SM-G970x (where the x depends on the region). As for what the actual X variant represents is unknown at this time. Source: Techieride.com Its still too early to tell the final specs and design of the Galaxy S10, but rumors so far have suggested that the S10 will come with either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 or Samsungs Exynos 9820 depending on the region. Other rumors include 5G connectivity, a 512GB storage option, and analysts claim that a fully-loaded tier will have a doubtful 12GB of RAM. Perhaps since the 5G version is said to have a ceramic back, this could be the X variant that we saw in the certification document. Otherwise, the Galaxy S10 will have an updated array of multiple cameras. The S10 Plus is said to have a display between 6.4-inches and 6.7-inches diagonally. As for a release date, Samsung usually releases the Galaxy S device sometime between February and April. We can always expect a release at the MWC in Barcelona (which usually takes place in late-February), but lately weve noticed a trend of bigger smartphone makers holding major events independent of a huge trade show. My guess is well see Samsung announce this guy in New York City. Source | Via (Translated) It seems that Lenovo is looking to expand its K lineup even further after releasing the K5 Pro last month. This one is called K5X and the most recent report reveals a good portion of the specs along with a press render giving us a sneak peek of the front panel. The handset is powered by a Snapdragon 636 paired with 6GB of RAM and either 32, 64 or 128GB of internal storage. The display is said to be 1080 x 2160 (FHD+) with 18:9 aspect ratio and 480 ppi with no word regarding screen size. However, simple math says that with FHD+ resolution and 480 ppi, the diagonal should be approximately 5". The rest remains pretty vague so for now, we can only play the waiting game. Source Although past rumors convinced us that there wouldn't be a Moto G7 Play next year, the FCC begs to differ. The phone has been spotted in the agency's documents today, and unlike most of its listings which don't reveal much about the devices that are certified, this one's a got quite a lot of information. We assume this might have been a mistake, either on the FCC's part, or Motorola's, but regardless of who's to blame, we can only be happy to present you the G7 Play in all its glory. The handset will have the model number XT1952, and you'll be able to get it in black or silverish blue. It has a single rear camera, a notch on the front, a fingerprint reader on the back, a USB-C port, headphone jack, and microSD card slot. Its battery capacity is disappointingly only 2,820 mAh. The phone will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 632 chipset, which comes with the Adreno 506 GPU. In the US it will only be compatible with GSM-based carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, their various prepaid brands, and the companies that operate as MVNOs using their networks. Source | Via These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. HMD Global introduced the Nokia 7.1 last month with Snapdragon 636 and two memory options - 3/32 GB and 4/64 GB. Europe received the less impressive version at launch, but according to various retailers across the European Union, the dual SIM variant with 4 gigs of RAM is already hitting store shelves and will be available for purchase on Friday. Nokia 7.1 is part of the Android One program and comes with a promise for monthly security updates for three years after its launch. Other neat features include 12 MP + 5 MP rear camera setup with Zeiss optics and fast-charging that fills about 45% of the empty battery in 30 minutes. When the phone was initially introduced, it was priced at 319 for the 3/32 GB variant, while the upgraded 4 GB version had a 349 price tag. The roomier version is now available for pre-order in the Czech Republic and is actually slightly cheaper - CZK8,499 or about 330. Source (in Czech) Haiti - Politic : General strike, the population inflicts a failure to the radical opposition After a week of paralysis in Haiti, the population has defeated on Monday the slogan of general strike launched by the radical opposition (26-27 November) both in the capital and in the provincial cities. Schoolchildren returned to school and most shops and supermarkets reopened gradually. The small traders also resumed their activities and the sidewalks filled with pedestrians hour by hour. Public transit and motorcycle taxis have resumed their regular activities. Several unions have denounced on the air of radios of the the capital, this call to strike for which they claim not to have been consulted, pointing out that the population needs to work. The police presence is very visible at intersections and patrols crisscross the streets. For the radical opposition it is a real failure against a population that has enough of this paralysis imposed with its manifestations, its violence and its daily victims. The Prime Minister, Jean Henry Ceant was satisfied with this return to normal https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26225-haiti-politic-the-minister-of-the-interior-calls-for-calm-and-announces-measures.html and again called to the dialogue, an appeal rejected by the radical opposition ... See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26225-haiti-politic-the-minister-of-the-interior-calls-for-calm-and-announces-measures.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26221-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26208-haiti-demonstrations-numerous-clashes-between-the-police-and-the-protesters.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26196-haiti-flash-statement-of-the-united-states-embassy-on-the-situation-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26188-haiti-security-attempts-of-fire-and-destruction-of-edh-facilities.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26186-haiti-flash-message-to-the-nation-of-president-jovenel-moise.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26185-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26178-haiti-security-the-ministry-of-health-condemns-attacks-against-ambulances.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26176-haiti-flash-the-national-palace-deploys-its-special-unit-equipped-with-weapons-of-war.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26156-haiti-flash-dead-and-wounded-across-the-country-partial-assessment.html SL/ HaitiLibre iciHaiti - Social : The European Union against violence against Haitian women and girls As part of the celebration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Gender (25 November), the European Union (EU) reaffirmed its commitment to Haitian women and girls victims of violence. Recalling that this violence was not only physical, but also exercised by denying women's right to economic opportunities, denying girls access to education, or limiting their participation in the political life. Emphasizing that violence against women and girls undermines the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, which must be achieved through the empowerment of women. EU joins forces with 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-19332-icihaiti-social-16-days-of-activism-against-gender-violence.html , organized in Haiti from November 25 to December 10 to say NO to violence against women. Furthermore, it should be recalled that the EU is implementing the Gender Action Plan (2016-2020) in Haiti, which identifies a set of priority axes and results-oriented actions in favor of equality between women and men and the empowerment of women" to transform the lives of girls and women. IH/ iciHaiti Haiti - Social : The phenomenon of street children still a reality in the country As part of the World Day of Street Children (20 November) the Haitian Foundation "Zanmi Timoun Fwontye" (Founded in 2001) is appalled by the fact that the phenomenon of street children continues in the country and is indignated by the precarious living conditions of these children left to themselves, wearing dirty and torn clothes forced to beg to find some food. Despite the proliferation of organizations and institutions involved in the fight against this phenomenon, street children are still numerous in the capital and in some provincial towns. "Zanmi Timoun Fwontye" denounces the irresponsibility of the Haitian State underlining the non-respect of its obligations towards children and families in Haiti, recalling that the Constitution amended in its prescriptions stipulates in articles 260 and 261 the State commitments to ensure the protection of children and families. Article 260 : It (the State) owes equal protection to all families, whether or not they are married. It must provide help and assistance to maternity, childhood and old age. Article 261 : The law provides protection to all children. Every child has the right to love, affection, understanding and the moral and material care of his father and mother. In addition, the Foundation reminds the Haitian Government by ratifying in 1994, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, is committed to respect the rights of children, including their right to food, their right to health, their right to education, their right to live in an environment conducive to their physical, psychological, moral, social and spiritual development. But that in fact, the Haitian State has taken no effective measures to meet its obligations. To effectively combat the phenomenon of street children, the Foundation recommends to the Government in terms of corrective measures to remove street children for placement in reintegration centers or in families and provide them with an education adapted to their needs. As for preventive measures, it is for the State to adopt an effective social policy with regard to children and the family so that any family is able to meet the basic needs of its children: food, clothing , housing, education, health and finally the Haitian state must ensure that new children do not return to live on the streets. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-10250-haiti-education-for-a-better-supervision-of-street-children.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-10357-haiti-education-two-new-social-and-academic-integration-centers-for-street-children.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Education : 7 years after its launch, the National Education Fund has a DG Monday, November 26, 7 years after the launch of the National Education Fund (FNE) in May 2011 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3034-haiti-education-launch-of-the-national-fund-for-education-fne-by-martelly-update-1h03pm.html , Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, the Minister of National Education, in the presence of its Director General Meniol Jeune, several cabinet members including the director and coordinator, Jackson Pleteau and Jacques Yvon Pierre, the presidential advisor on education, Guichard Dore, inspectors general and several technical directors and executives of the Ministry proceeded to the installation of Joseph Frantz Nicolas as Director General of the FNE. Appointed by Presidential Decree, published in Le Moniteur dated November 12, 2018, No. 193, Joseph Frantz NICOLAS is the first Director General of this State institution called to play a major role in the mobilization of resources to meet the major needs of the country in the education sector. This is an important act for the effective implementation of the Act of August 17, 2017 establishing, organizing and operating the FNE (voted in first reading by the Lower House in 2012) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-6379-haiti-education-the-fne-becomes-progressively-legal.html and by the Senate after 5 years of blocking by the majority opposition https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21412-haiti-politics-after-5-years-of-blocking-the-senate-votes-the-law-on-the-fne.html ), which stipulates in Article 5 that the General Directorate is one of the two central bodies of the FNE with the Board of Directors. Recall that the FNE is an autonomous body of unlimited duration, enjoying administrative and financial autonomy, endowed with a legal personality "the mission of the FNE is to participate in the education for all of the Republic of Haiti and to manage the funds intended for the financing, both at the level of the State and at the level of territorial collectivities, of the expenses relating to education [...] ", according to articles 1 and 3 of this Law. The FNE Board is composed of the Ministers of Education, Finance, Planning, Haitians living abroad (or their representative) and a representative of the teacher union sector. The Presidency is held by the Minister of Education and the Vice Presidency by the Ministry of Finance. In addition to budgetary allocations, the funds of the FNE come from royalties and fees constituted on the following products: incoming and outgoing international call, transfer of international funds https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25587-haiti-diaspora-7-years-later-the-brh-finally-reveals-the-details-of-taxes-collected-on-transfers.html , rights and concessions on casinos, income generated by lottery concessions of the Haitian State, gains from games of chance, dividends paid to the State by enterprises whose capital is wholly or partly owned by the State, net profits generated by the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) and profits generated by state-owned commercial banks. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25587-haiti-diaspora-7-years-later-the-brh-finally-reveals-the-details-of-taxes-collected-on-transfers.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21412-haiti-politics-after-5-years-of-blocking-the-senate-votes-the-law-on-the-fne.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-14374-icihaiti-education-fne-$112-million-in-tariff-surplus.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13049-haiti-education-a-lot-of-money-in-the-fne.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-6379-haiti-education-the-fne-becomes-progressively-legal.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3034-haiti-education-launch-of-the-national-fund-for-education-fne-by-martelly-update-1h03pm.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3027-haiti-education-the-tax-on-money-transfers-comes-into-force-on-june-1-2011.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2993-haiti-education-it-s-not-a-tax-but-a-surcharge-on-the-tariff.html HL/ SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Politic : PM excludes to discuss the departure of President Moise with the opposition On Monday, Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant said on the air of a radio that the violent demonstrations and a transitional government as conceived by the radical opposition, are not viable solutions to get the country out of the crisis. He proposed to the opposition a dialogue between all sectors of national life leading to a political pact of governance, recalling that the population was exhausted of this situation of violence and paralysis of the economy "a country can not move in disorder, in violence. We should rather go to others, depolarize society, bring everyone together," and have as goal to strengthen democracy and not the other way around. An invitation to dialogue already rejected informally by the radical opposition. However, the Prime Minister leaves no doubt on the limits of its opening with the radical opposition "the mandate of the President of the Republic, Jovenel Moise, will not be on the table as part of the dialogue that the Government intends to initiate with the opposition. The Head of Government said he had contacted some members of the democratic and popular radical opposition movement by phone and that formal correspondence would be sent to officials in the coming days. The Prime Minister does not exclude a cabinet reshuffle if this is necessary to achieve political stability in the country, seeking above all to create a favorable environment for the holding of this dialogue. PI/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... New Trial of Clifford Brandt The new trial of Clifford Brandt will be held this Tuesday in Gonaives. Information confirmed by the commissioner of the government of this place, Me Serard Gasius emphasizing that all the provisions are made in this direction. NOTICE : Passports ready in Guadeloupe The Consulate General of Haiti in Pointe-a-Pitre (Guadeloupe) informs the Haitian community in general and passport applicants in particular, that passports whose applications were filed until early October 2018, are available at the Consulate counter at regular times. Promises of PM for international In his latest message to the Nation, Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant addressed the partners of the international community said "Haiti is a link in the great chain of international trade, a real openness to the world. A continuous increase in national production will enable us to rebalance our accounts and improve the living conditions of the population. We have made a firm commitment to reform public finances and, more generally, the functioning of the State. We reiterate our commitment to act in a transparent manner for good governance." FLASH : Sharing of knowledge between Ethiopia and Haiti Thursday, November 29 at the Kinam Hotel starting at 5:00 pm the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Haitiano-Canadian (CCIHC) and the Seguin Foundation, will present Greener Ethiopia an organization promoting the reforestation and conservation of the environment in Ethiopia that has successfully planted 30 million trees. During this event, the first of its kind between Ethiopia and Haiti, Bedru Sultan, one of the founders of Greener Ethiopia, will give a presentation on the method his organization favors. Book as soon as possible : ccihcsecretariat@yahoo.com or 2813 0773 Gedeon's visit to CIMO Michel-Ange Gedeon, the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) paid a visit to the police officers of intervention and law enforcement (CIMO). After the words of sympathy and in a climate of conviviality, the police shared several concerns and frustrations. In addition, Inspector General Carl-Henry Boucher and the Commander of CIMO, the Chief Commissioner Vladimir Cherubin, have a private conversation with the widow and two relatives of the police offciers Jurond Durosier killed on November 19 last https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-26167-icihaiti-insecurity-a-cimo-agent-shot-dead.html "Children have rights" says Ralph Youri Chevry As part of the International Day of the Rights of the Child, Port-au-Prince Mayor Ralph Youri Chevry said, "Children have rights like everyone else, respecting them is the greatest gift we have to offer them. The Port-au-Prince Municipal Administration wants to commend the work and courage of all the institutions that are fighting so hard that every child in the community will enjoy these rights. Today's children, adults of tomorrow, respect their place in our society." HL/ HaitiLibre Published on 2018/11/25 | Source A hydrogen-fueled bus runs on a street in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on Wednesday. /Newsis Hydrogen-fueled buses began operating in Seoul for the first time on Wednesday. The service runs five times a day along the No. 405 route between Yangjae-dong and Seoul Plaza in the capital. Advertisement Seoul is the second city in Korea to run hydrogen-fueled buses on a regular route after Ulsan, which first started operating eco-friendly vehicles last month. The Seoul Metropolitan Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai on Wednesday to provide more hydrogen buses in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Environment. Under the MOU, the carmaker will supply 30 more buses to six cities next year, and some 1,000 hydrogen buses nationwide by 2022. Published on 2018/11/25 | Source Taxi drivers rally in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul on Thursday. Some 40,000 taxi drivers rallied in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul on Thursday to protest against the launch of Kakao's new carpooling app. Advertisement They blocked the road in front of the parliament for two hours, calling for a ban on commercial carpooling services in a revised transport bill, which lawmakers started deliberating that day. The rally came about a month after a similar protest in Gwanghawmun on Oct. 18 by tens of thousands of taxi drivers who say the service will take a major toll on their business and steal their jobs. The revised bill would allow carpooling only during morning and evening rush hours and prohibit it on holidays. Havre Daily News staff Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced Monday that its Region 6 Citizen Advisory Council will meet in Havre for a special legislative meeting. The Region 6 CAC will meet from 12:45-5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, in the conference room of Havre Inn and Suites on the Boot Hill Plaza. The next legislative session follows some tumultuous happenings in the state including invasive mussels being discovered in Tiber Reservoir in 2016 and chronic wasting disease discovered for the first time in Montana wildlife including in Liberty County in 2017 and more confirmed cases including in Blaine and Liberty counties this year. The Dec. 11 meeting is open to the public, and state senators and representatives in the region have been invited. Both Helena and Region 6 FWP staff will be at the meeting to present material and answer questions. The main purpose of this meeting is for the department to share with legislators and CAC members the legislative proposals that involve FWP and to answer any questions on these or other related topics. Introductions will start at 12:45 p.m., followed by a legislative presentation and an open session for questions and discussions. Each of FWPs seven administrative regions has a volunteer CAC to help guide policies and programs. The Region 6 group meets three times a year. FWP ensures that its meetings are fully accessible to persons with disabilities. To request special accommodations for this meeting, please contact 406-228-3700. To all bereaved parents, grandparents, siblings, and those who support them, The North Central Montana Compassionate Friends, along with the National Compassionate Friends, is participating in the 22nd annual World Wide Candle Lighting in remembrance of those children gone too soon. The death of a child is devastating and its important to the family that the child always be remembered. Thats why our chapter, based in Fort Benton, will take part in this worldwide event designed to honor the memories of all children, regardless of age, who have died. The NCM Chapter along with hundreds of other chapters around the world Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018, is conducting organized memorial services for The Compassionate Friends 22nd annual Worldwide Candle Lighting, an event now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting in the world. The local candle lighting will be part of a special service held at 6:45 P.M. at the Community Bible Center, 1600 Main Street, in Fort Benton, and will feature Molly and Peter Wilson providing music, along with readings, and poems. Annually, tens of thousands of families, united in loss, light candles for one hour during the Worldwide Candle Lighting, held the second Sunday in December. Candles are first lit at 7 p.m. local time, just west of the International Date Line. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lit in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light as the observance continues around the world. I encourage families from every part of the Golden Triangle to join us, including from Havre, Box Elder, Rocky Boy, Chester along with Geraldine, Carter, Great Falls, etc. The holiday season is an extremely difficult time of the year for families grieving the death of a child. The Worldwide Candle Lighting has united bereaved families around the globe as a symbolic way of showing the love we continue to carry for our children, even though they can no longer be with us physically. This candle lighting transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries as tens of thousands of families share in this worldwide memorial event. From my own experience, this candle lighting helps set a tone for the holiday season that makes it a tiny bit easier. If you are unable to join us in person, feel free to light your own candle at the 7 oclock hour, where ever you are. I encourage friends of people who are grieving the loss of a child to attend as well the support is appreciated. Be good to yourselves during this season. Sincerely, Gail M. Allen, Chapter Leader for NCM Compassionate Friends, Fort Benton. Within minutes of the accident, a safety GPS tracking device was activated, HCA Managing Director Mick Hewitt said in a statement. This enabled us to locate the employees and deploy medical assistance. We are in contact with the families of those who were on board and are providing our full support to them, he said, assuring staff and the victims families of counselling services. Hewitt said HCA prioritises workplace health and safety. The company is working with authorities investigating the crash. We have extended our assistance and cooperation to investigation authorities and emergency services, he said. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is leading the probe by examining the wreckage and obtaining any available recorded data for analysis. In 1999, Susan Sheridans husband, Pat, went in for surgery to remove a tumor in his neck. After the surgery, the neurosurgeon gave the Eagle, Idaho, couple great news: The mass was benigna fact the neurosurgeon confirmed after looking at the pathology report two weeks later. Little did we know that the pathologist had been conducting ongoing stains on the tumor and had released a final pathology report 21 days after the surgery, says Susan, now 48. It said malignant sarcoma. Cancer. But the Sheridans never got this critical update because it was mistakenly filed away at Pats doctors office without the physician or patient ever seeing it. Within six months, Pats cancer had spread dramatically; he died of it in 2002, at the age of 45, leaving behind two school-age children. Had Pats malignancy been aggressively treated after that first surgery, he would likely be alive today. There was no system in place to make sure a life-or-death document was read, explains Susan, who discovered the error after requesting Pats medical records. The mistake that cost Pat Sheridan his life took just seconds. Even if most errors dont have such tragic consequences, the circumstances that prompt them are everywhereand screwups happen often. In fact, 95% of physicians report having witnessed a serious medical mistake, and 56% say theyve personally been involved in a serious preventable error, says Sanjaya Kumar, MD, author of Fatal Care: Survive in the U.S. Health System. And these mistakes kill. "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System," the Institute of Medicines 1999 seminal report that first brought to light the problem of medical mistakes, noted that up to 98,000 preventable deaths happen each year in hospitals. But deaths in other settings, including doctors offices, were about three times that. [ pagebreak ] doctor-office Why the doctor's office is so risky Simply put, Medicine is more complicated today. Its a lot more daunting, says Pamela Gallin, MD, author of How to Survive Your Doctors Care: Get the Right Diagnosis, the Right Treatment, and the Right Experts for You. There are so many more treatment choices, often for diseases that once couldnt be treated. There are more moving parts. Here, four key factors that are making a trip to the doc more dangerous than ever. Appointments are shorter The average doctors visit lasts seven minutes. Blink-and-youll-miss-it appointments conspire against safe care, says Dr. Gallin, who is also a clinical professor at New York PresbyterianColumbia University Medical Center in New York City. She likens medical care today to the famous I Love Lucy episode in which Lucy cant keep up with the chocolates coming down the candy-factory conveyor belt. The system has sped everybody up, and everybodys multitasking more. If I have more time to think about a patient or a diagnosis, Im going to be more attentive, she says. When doctors are forced to go faster, their judgments have to be formulated more quickly. That pressure-cooker environment makes every decision ripe for error. There arent enough primary-care physicians By 2025, we will be down 200,000 MDs. Fewer students want to go into family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatricsthe areas in need of those workhorse docs who provide the great majority of year-in, year-out care. Family care has become one of those jobs Americans wont do, like picking grapes, says Phil Miller, vice president of communications at Merritt Hawkins and Associates, the countrys largest physician-recruiting firm. If youve tried to get a last-minute appointment (or, in many places, any appointment) you know that the MD shortage has already arrived in some parts of the country. This means you may not be able to choose your doctor so easily, which might result in your inability to pick the safest ones. People are playing musical doctors Maybe youre a patient in a practice with several doctors who rotate in and out of your appointments; half of all physicians today are in these plus-size practices (with three or more MDs). Maybe youve moved around a lot. Or maybe youre seeing a revolving door of specialists. Whatever the reason, you rarely go to just one doctor, Dr. Gallin says. The system mandates that you go to an internist to check your blood, a radiologist for a mammogram, a gynecologist for your Pap smear, and a pathologist is reading your Pap smear. Youre up to four doctors and nothing is wrong with you. Four peopleany one of whom can mess up. A critical test result may go missing or not get to the office in time for a patient to schedule a follow-up appointment, or different specialists could be prescribing drugs that cause dangerous interactions. Whats more, safety experts know that any transition in careas happens when a patient sees different doctors in a medical groupraises the risk for experiencing a slipup. Safety isnt on the radar of many practices Safety is becoming more and more of a buzzword in hospitals. But doctors in stand-alone practices are on their own to educate themselves about medical errors and put in place protections (including costly technology) that could safeguard patients. Theres also a lack of feedbackan error can occur, like a missed diagnosis, and the [physician] who missed it may never know, says Tejal Gandhi, MD, executive director of quality and safety at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. The patient may be [correctly] diagnosed a year later by a different doctor, but this means the stand-alone doctor may not even grasp the size of the problem in her own practice. Next Page: What goes wrong [ pagebreak ] Misdiagnosis Misdiagnosesand missed diagnosesare perhaps the most-feared of all the kinds of doctor errors. And for good reason: In about half of cases where a diagnosis is never made or delayed significantly, the result is real harm to the patient, says Jerome Groopman, MD, author of How Doctors Think and the Dina and Raphael Recanati chair of medicine at Harvard Medical School. How do well-trained MDs blow the call? There are three main thinking traps physicians fall into, leading them to the wrong diagnosis, Dr. Groopman explains. The first happens when the doctor makes a snap judgment by seizing on the first symptom or finding. The second: sticking only to the diagnosis foremost in her mind. For instance, when a doctor has just seen 15 consecutive flu cases, thats whats most likely to come to mind when he sees a 16th person, Dr. Groopman says, even though patient number 16 may have something else. The last type has to do with negative stereotypes. For example, if a woman in the middle of menopause has hot flashes and headaches and feels jittery, her doctor may attribute any of her complaints to menopause, he says. These assumptions can add up to a lot of wrong calls: About 15% to 20% of all diagnoses are missed or flat-out incorrect. One study of settled malpractice claims found that 59% of outpatient claims were for a diagnostic screwup. The most common errors? Incorrect reading of a test result; wrong or inadequate follow-up care; and missed or delayed cancer diagnosis. Breast cancer accounted for about 42% of missed cancer cases. Thats what happened to Maureen Thiel. The 40-year-old Pennsylvania mother of two first found a lump in her left breast during a self-exam in late 1994. She followed up immediately with a mammogram and ultrasound and was told she had fibrocystic breasts. Although the lump didnt wax and wane, as is usually the case with this condition, her initial doctor and two subsequent ones she saw failed to advise her to get a biopsy. By February 1997, Maureen had found a new lumpthis time under her arm. She then saw a different doctor, who ordered not only a mammogram and ultrasound but a biopsy; the tests turned up stage III metastatic breast cancer. She was positive [for cancer] in all 47 lymph nodes, Maureens husband, William, says. She lived 15 months. Communication breakdown Many errors stem from a communication lapse. These errors go to everything, says Nancy C. Elder, MD, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Cincinnati and one of the few researchers to study mistakes in doctors offices. In a 2004 study of 75 errors reported anonymously by family physicians, 47 were triggered by miscommunication. So what is a communication error, exactly? Its the rushed doctor who doesnt listen and brushes off your concernsor even your symptoms or pain; the lost medical record or referral that delays diagnosis or treatment; the rude office manager or nurse who makes it impossible to get information or an appointment when its really needed; or the phone that never rings with word about that lab result youve been losing sleep over. Anytime you undergo a test, you should always get the result back, Dr. Elder says. Well call you if anything is bad isnt an acceptable response. Medication mistakes If you take even one prescription med, youre at risk for an error. Your doctor could give you the wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong type (pill versus liquid), wrong timing (morning versus evening)or you could even be the wrong person (i.e., you dont need the drug). And the more meds youre on, the more likely it is youll experience dangerous interactions. (A side effect shouldnt be confused with an error, though.) As tempting as it may be, bypass free drug samples, advises Allen J. Vaida, PharmD, executive vice president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, in Horsham, Pa. Theres a debate about whether physicians should dispense samples in the first place, because theres no way for pharmacists and other providers to know youre on that drug. Sometimes labeling is really inadequate, he adds, citing an example of an arthritis-pain-med sample that came in a blister pack of three capsules: The box said to take 200 milligrams, but it never said that each capsule was 200 milligrams, so people were taking all three. Drugs can expire without a doctor or patient realizing it, too. "Pharmaceutical reps leave samples in the doctors drug cabinetin front of their competitors, Vaida explains. That means some drugs languish on the shelf for months before they make it to you. Finally, when you get a drug off the record, youre less likely to hear about a recall because theres no log of who got what sample and lot number. [ pagebreak ] Can you trust tests? Testing blunders Chances are good that, at least once, youve had some sort of medical test and then waitedand waitedand waitedto get your result back. Maybe the doctors office finally got in touch (after youd driven yourself mad with worry), or maybe they never did. If you never got the resultgood or badthats an error. If you got a result saying you had a disease or condition when you didnt, or that you didnt have a disease when you really did, or that you had a disease but it turned out to be another disease, those are testing mistakes too, as is a lost lab result and mixing up your specimen with someone elses. When you consider that the average family physician sees about 100 patients a week and orders tests for 39 of those, its not hard to imagine the opportunity for blunders. In 2006 Darrie Eason, a then-33-year-old single mother from Long Island, N.Y., was one of those unlucky few. Shed gotten the news every woman dreads: She had breast cancer, and it was aggressive. Her doctor recommended a double mastectomy, so Eason went for a second opinion and brought along the test results her first doctor had used to make his recommendation. The second doctor gave her the same advice, and she decided to have both breasts removed. I was told I had lobular breast cancer, which everyone said would come back, Eason told the Today show last fall. But after her double mastectomy, she learned she had never had cancer: The lab had mixed up her biopsy results with those of another woman. What goes wrong most often? A 2008 study found that many mistakes happened in the doing of the testit wasnt done, the specimen was lost or improperly stored, or the wrong test was performed or scheduled. Most common, though, were glitches in getting test results to the doctor in a timely way (or at all). In fact, 39% of the time, one mistake led to another, and 60% of the errors took place in an MDs office, not in a lab. And 1 out of 10 times, the mistakes in the study resulted in pain and suffering, as in the tragic mix-up that cost Eason her healthy breasts. A doctor can also fail to get enough of a tissue, blood, or urine sample or take a sample from the wrong place, perhaps giving a false-negative result when disease is present, explains David S. Wilkinson, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the department of pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Va., and chair of the quality-practice committee for the College of American Pathologists, which accredits U.S. and foreign labs. Or, he adds, a pathologist can simply write the wrong thing in a report. It can be a subtle error, writing malignant cells seen instead of no malignant cells seen. It gets even dicier when a test is complicated to interpret. Tests that require analyzing a tissue sample are particularly prone to error, because theres often no clear-cut interpretation. Looking at a biopsy and deciding if its cancer and what kind is not as precise as measuring glucose in a test tube. Even knowledgeable, conscientious, well-trained people may have differences of opinion, Dr. Wilkinson says. Hence the need for the all-important second (or third) opinion to interpret pathology results for biopsies. Next Page: Take action now [ pagebreak ] Take action now There are simple steps you can take to guard against mistakes. First, choose your physician very carefully. Be sure shes affiliated with a top hospital. Remember: Youre not just picking an MD for an annual checkup; you may one day need her for something more serious. A doctor affiliated with a top-notch hospital extends to you the high-quality care of all the specialists and support staff she knows there, Dr. Gallin says. Once youve found an MD you trust, stay loyal. Jumping from physician to physicianor popping in and out of in-store and after-hours clinics ups your odds that a key piece of information, like a test result or potential drug interaction, will slip through the cracks. If youre seeing several specialists, consider it your job to make sure all parts of your medical story are filled in on all your records, kept updated, and, most important, consolidated with all records from your different care providers. Keep your own copy, too. It also helps to be a good (read: organized) patient. Before you land in an exam room, know all the details of your family history and how long youve had symptoms, Dr. Gandhi says. Also bring a list of all medications and supplements youre taking, because this can avert a medication disaster. The time for a passive, blinders-on approach to our medical care has passed. A lot of people are worried about alienating or insulting their doctor by asking questionswhen I was a patient I felt the same waybut a good doctor welcomes that kind of input and questioning, Harvards Dr. Groopman says. This approach can go a long way toward protecting you, Susan Sheridan believes. In addition to losing her husband to a delayed cancer diagnosis, her son, Cal, now 13, was the victim of lack of treatment for too-high bilirubin levels as a newborn, which resulted in kernicterus, or brain damage from severe jaundice. Differential brain responses to speech in toddlers with autism and poor language development associated with widespread gene expression activity in blood leukocyte cells An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of Cyprus and University of California San Diego School of Medicine, have identified a previously unknown, large-scale association between molecular gene expression activity in blood leukocyte cells and altered neural responses to speech in toddlers with autism as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The findings were published online November 26 in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The large-scale gene-brain association occurs differently in toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and who have poor language development compared to toddlers with ASD and good language development or typically developing toddlers. This large-scale association involved a very large number of genes, many of which are commonly expressed in many tissues, including the brain and leukocytes, a type of blood cell. Many of the genes involved are known from other work to be involved in prenatal brain development are human-specific, are linked to vocal learning, and importantly, have been directly implicated in ASD by other genetic and postmortem studies, said first author Michael Lombardo, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Cyprus. The findings show that different molecular biological mechanisms underpin functional brain development in a subtype of ASD toddlers with poor language outcome, and this biology is present before such outcomes are known. Accordingly, say the authors, the work suggests that functional neuroimaging measures and gene expression levels in blood leukocyte cells may offer a novel in vivo way to identify brain-relevant molecular mechanisms in ASD. They also show how using peripheral blood samples could help inform our understanding of how brain development dynamically changes across the lifespan, said co-senior author Eric Courchesne, PhD, professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine. For example, the methodology behind this work can be utilized in the future to monitor how the biology of a patient, at molecular and neural systems levels, responds to treatment or changes over the lifespan across different outcomes. Early language development in autism is highly variable, noted the authors. Some toddlers with autism are minimally verbal, while at the other extreme, many individuals develop language like typically developing toddlers, said Lombardo. An important and long-standing question has been whether these very different language profiles in autism are subtype distinctions that point to different biological underpinnings. We need to better understand the biological underpinnings of different early language development in autism because early language ability is one of the most important predictors of early intervention response and later-life outcomes, said Courchesne. If we can understand that biology, this may have high impact in future work examining how to best facilitate change to the biology that can then substantially improve longer term outcomes for patients. At UC San Diego School of Medicine, a research team led by Courchesne and co-senior author Karen Pierce, PhD, professor of neuroscience and co-director with Courchesne of the UC San Diego Autism Center of Excellence, collected blood samples from 118 toddlers, average age 29 months or just under 2-and-a-half years old, and measured transcriptional activity of all protein coding genes in the genome. The UC San Diego team additionally collected fMRI data during natural sleep from toddlers while they were passively exposed to speech stimuli. Using behavioral clinical assessment data collected repeatedly each year from one to four years of age, Pierce divided the toddlers with autism into subtypes that showed poor or good language outcome by three to four years of age. Lombardo then used advanced biostatistics analyses to cluster genes into highly correlated gene modules, assessing how activity in the modules related to whole-brain neural response to speech. The researchers found that module activity linked to neural responses to speech was widespread across the genome, encompassing several thousand genes working in coordinated fashion. The finding, said authors, was highly linked to in vivo fMRI response in living patients and is a methodological advance that could help improve how clinicians assess which individuals will respond to different kinds of treatment. One of the biggest challenges in advancing understanding of ASD has been the absence of a method to identify what gene activity differences underlie the initial brain differences and the clinical symptoms in living toddlers with ASD, said Courchesne. This is because the living toddlers brain is inaccessible to the direct measurement of gene activity. As such, gene activity differences underlying emerging brain dysfunction and clinical symptoms has remained completely unknown until now. Our method takes advantage of the fact that a large number of ASD-relevant and prenatal brain-relevant genes and gene networks broadly express in easily accessible non-brain tissues, such as leukocytes as well as in brain. By carefully analyzing such early age gene activity, its possible to advance understanding of this key biology in living toddlers with ASD. This unique method not only can have a huge impact on understanding the molecular bases of ASD, but also how to monitor changes in the biology as a function of early intervention. We think this method for linking molecular mechanisms in available peripheral samples, such as blood, with in vivo measures of the brain using neuroimaging helps us substantially. Courchesne said researchers plan to extend their work in clinically relevant directions, such as monitoring treatment response in ASD subtypes and potentially leverage information derived from gene expression, fMRI and clinical measures to develop tools that can better predict language outcomes for toddlers with ASD at very early ages. Co-authors include: Tiziano Pramparo, Vahid Gazestani, Cynthia Carter Barnes, Linda Lopez, Nathan E. Lewis and Lisa Eyler UC San Diego; and Varun Warrier and Richard A.I. Bethlehem, University of Cambridge. Funding for this research came, in part, from the National Institutes of Health (R01-MH080134, R01-MH104446, P50-MH081755, R01-MH036840, R01-MH110558, U01-MH036840, R01-MH110558, U01-MH108898, R01-DC016385), the National Foundation for Autism Research, the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (AR130409), the Simons Foundation, European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (755816), and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Scientists have discovered a new chemical process also known as a biosynthetic pathway in bacteria which could lead to a new generation of antibiotics being produced and manufactured. Researchers at The University of Manchesters School of Chemistry say their new pathway includes an enzyme, called a carboxylase, which adds CO 2 to a precursor molecule producing a highly unusual antibiotic called malonomycin. The team says the biosynthetic process used to produce this antibiotic could now possibly lead to the discovery and development of other drugs, helping in the fight against drug-resistant bugs and illnesses in the future. The work was carried out in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and is being published in Nature Catalysis. International figures say antibiotic resistance could result in an estimated 10 million deaths every year by 2050, whilst the cost to the global economy could be 66 trillion in lost productivity. Across Europe alone, an estimated 25,000 people already die each year as a result of hospital infections caused by the antibiotic resistant bacteria such asEscherichia coli (E. coli). Jason Micklefield, Professor of Chemical Biology at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, who led the study, said: The rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is one of the foremost global health concerns of modern times. Now, using a combination of bioinformatics, gene editing and in vitro experiments, we have discovered a highly unusual biosynthetic pathway to the antibiotic malonomycin. This could pave the way for a new kind of antibiotic production process. Former gang boss John Gilligan has told a court he would honour the terms of bail if it was granted because he is old now and "can't be looking over my shoulder". John Gilligan (66), of Greenfort Crescent, Dublin, was speaking at Coleraine Magistrates Court yesterday after being arrested with 23,000 in a suitcase at Belfast International Airport in August. He appeared via video link from Maghaberry Prison, where he has been in custody since his arrest, accused of "attempting to remove criminal property" from the North. The charge relates to August 23, when the defendant was arrested attempting to board a flight from Belfast to Spain. At the time, Britain's National Crime Agency said officers recovered around 23,000 at the scene. At yesterday's court hearing, after being told he was being remanded in continuing custody until a week before Christmas, Gilligan told the court: "I declared the money to the customs. I committed no crime whatsoever." Regarding bail, he said: "I never failed to turn up for bail in my life." Honouring He said he had always honoured bail conditions as a young man, and added: "I'm an old man now. I can't be looking over my shoulder." Gilligan entered the video link booth at the prison wearing a fleece and clutching papers. He confirmed his name to the court and confirmed he could hear proceedings. District Judge Liam McNally said he had been told at the last hearing of the case last month that the full file was to be submitted on November 1. A prosecutor told the court the full file had been received, but one of their officials wants to meet investigating officers on November 30 and asked for a further adjournment. Judge McNally said that was "progress", but defence barrister Plunkett Nugent said it was "very limited progress". Mr Nugent said there had been "one reason upon another" for continued delays. He said it was not a difficult case, and added that a preliminary enquiry - the legal step to send a case to the Crown Court - could, in his opinion, take place within days. Mr Nugent said his client had been stopped with an amount of money for which he had given a "full account". Mr Nugent said the authorities on both sides of the border had made enquiries and his client's explanation had been backed up by "written and sworn statements". He said the delay was "beginning to become interminable" and it was all building to another bail application being made. Judge McNally noted that bail had already been refused twice by the Magistrates Court and twice at the High Court. He said there would soon be a meeting between the directing officer in the case at the Public Prosecution Service and the investigating officer and remanded Gilligan in continuing custody to December 17 when, he said, progress in the case could again be reviewed. A man accused of a 90,000 tiger kidnapping four years ago has ties to organised crime, a detective told a court yesterday. Paschal Kelly (52), of Cootehill, Co Cavan, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to trespass and to falsely imprisoning postmistress Susan Lawlor, her daughter Emma Carter and Italian student Gabriella Saisa at Seabury Drive, Malahide, Dublin, on September 25, 2014. Mr Kelly has also pleaded not guilty to robbing Ms Lawlor of cash at Bayside Post Office, Sutton, Dublin, and threatening to kill her, Ms Carter and Ms Saisa at an unknown location in the State. He has also denied unlawful possession of a vehicle, all on the same date. Suspect Martin O'Rourke SC, defending, yesterday asked Detective Garda Domhnall O'Connell whether Mr Kelly was a man that "gardai would dearly love to see locked up" outside of his alleged involvement in this case. Det Gda O'Connell said he disagreed. Mr O'Rourke also asked whether the detective believed that Mr Kelly was related to organised crime. Det Gda O'Connell agreed that he did hold this view. Det Gda O'Connell also told the court that a man who ran a dog kennel was not a suspect in the case, despite a price tag for a dog product being discovered in a car allegedly used in the commission of the kidnapping. "A lot of people own dogs," he said. Mr O'Rourke put it to the detective the dog kennel owner resembled the descriptions given by several witnesses of one of the men allegedly involved in the case, in that he has grey hair and a beard. Det Gda O'Connell said in the photo he had of the man, he had a full head of black hair and no beard. The detective told Kerida Naidoo SC, prosecuting, that the reason gardai did not hold an identity parade in this case was due to there being no realistic prospect of identification. He explained that Mr Kelly's appearance had changed considerably since the date of the alleged offence. Last Friday, Detective Chief Superintendent Anthony Howard told the court two gardai identified Mr Kelly as the driver of the car used in the tiger kidnapping after viewing CCTV footage. He said that he had not been aware at that time that the two detectives had participated in an arrest of Mr Kelly three weeks earlier and that they had viewed images of Mr Kelly before the operation. The trial continues. The alleged killer of Irish charity worker John Curran, who was brutally stabbed to death in Cape Town, has appeared before magistrates dressed in his boxer shorts after he was charged with murder. Congolese-born cleaner Mitspa Mzakombo Onyoka (24), who can be seen here in CCTV images released by police after the murder, was arrested on Friday at his place of work, just 8km from the murder scene, following a tip-off. Prosecutor Adiel Jansen said that bearded Mr Onyoka had been charged by police with the murder of Dublin father-of-four Mr Curran, as well as aggravated robbery. Interpreter Since his arrest he had been kept in a holding cell at Cape Town Police Station and was dressed for court in just a pair of blue and white boxer shorts, flip flops and a T-shirt. He was granted the services of a French interpreter, as he said his English was poor, as well as legal aid to seek bail. "The man who is the victim here was very benevolent to Cape Town society," Mr Jansen told Cape Town Magistrates' Court yesterday. "He was found murdered in his flat and quite a number of items were taken. "[Mr Onyoka] has been charged with murder and aggravated robbery and is currently in custody". He requested permission from magistrate Greg Jacobs for the police to take blood samples from the accused to match it with DNA as part of the investigation. Mr Jansen said the police were also seeking information through diplomatic channels with police in the Democratic Republic of Congo regarding any previous convictions. CCTV images of the suspect were circulated by police after Mr Curran's body was found on November 7. They show a man seen entering the flats and leaving the night before he was found. It is understood that the arrested man is the same person captured on CCTV images and it is thought that to enter the complex he may have been "buzzed in". The magistrate told the accused: "This is a very serious charge and he should appeal for legal aid, and it is in his best interests if he needs help to make a bail application". Mr Onyoka was remanded in custody at Cape Town Police Station until December 3 and was led away half-dressed by court custody officers. Murdered Mr Curran had spent two years working in Cape Town as the director of education for the Irish NGO Mellon Educate and had retired in September. His task was to oversee the building of thousands of homes for underprivileged people and for the refurbishment and building of schools to educate children. He had taken two months off to enjoy a "farewell holiday" in South Africa and had moved into a rented flat in a secure apartment complex on Buitengracht Street. However, he was found dead on November 7 after a female friend let herself into his flat and found his body on the floor behind the door. Mr Curran was due to fly back to his native Dublin within weeks of his death. He was stabbed multiple times to the head and chest and is thought to have died in the early hours of the morning. After gaining a degree at Trinity College, he devoted himself to teaching and had been principal of the Good Shepherd National School in Dublin for 15 years. He was then employed by the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPNN) until he retired in 2005. However, he continued to work with the IPNN as a consultant until 2016. Mellon Educate then hired him on a two-year contract to run its Cape Town operation, which he did successfully until September. His proudest achievement was working with 270 volunteers to rebuild and renovate schools in 400,000-strong Khayelitsha - the largest township in Cape Town. Tragic Mellon Educate chief executive Niall Mellon said at the time of his death: "I know our many volunteers and supporters will be very sad to hear this tragic news. "John was much loved by everyone who met him and especially by the thousands of children he helped during his time with Mellon Educate." A memorial service for Mr Curran was held in Dublin last Friday. The month before Mr Curran was murdered, British man Upendra Galegedera (50) was stabbed to death in his upmarket holiday home in the nearby Cape Quarter. Local man Iryvine Dzitiro (24) is awaiting trial charged with his murder. Cruel pet owner Amy Lee, who neglected her husky dog to the point of starvation, outside court. Photo: Collins Courts A mother-of-two who neglected and starved her pet husky until it was emaciated has been banned for life from keeping animals. Amy Lee, of School Street Flats, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to neglecting the female husky, called Sky. Dublin District Court was told that Lee, who is expecting a third child, had moved back home to her mother's but left Sky behind in the flat, which she only visited "on and off". After viewing photos of the skeletal dog, which has since recovered its health and been adopted by another family, Judge Anthony Halpin told Lee: "Shame on you." Welfare He said her offence was a "disgraceful" one that would make any animal lover cry and she was only being spared a jail sentence because of her personal circumstances. Expand Close The husky dog / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The husky dog Lee was fined 100 and ordered to pay 100 in costs after she pleaded guilty to three charges under the Animal Health and Welfare Act. She was accused of failing to take all necessary steps to ensure Sky was kept in a manner to safeguard her health and welfare, and that the building used to contain her did not cause unnecessary suffering; being reckless regarding the health or welfare of the dog, and not providing sufficient food and water. Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) inspector Liam Kinsella told Judge Halpin he went to Lee's address after receiving a report from the gardai. The DSPCA inspector and a colleague were let in by the accused. Mr Kinsella said Sky was on the balcony of Ms Lee's flat. He told the court the husky was in an "emaciated state". The accused was co-operative and agreed to surrender Sky to the DSPCA, the court heard. The husky was seen by a vet who provided a medical report for the court hearing. Since then Sky's condition has improved significantly and she was adopted by another family 12 days after she was rescued, Judge Halpin heard. He noted a vet's report said the husky weighed 11.6kg at the time she was handed over to the DSPCA. There was no evidence of illness which could provide a clinical explanation for the weight loss. She was also found to have a "ravenous appetite" and in the months after she was rescued she gained 7.2kg, bringing her weight up to 18.8kg. Mr Kinsella told the court that when he first saw the dog she was "in an underweight, neglected condition and as a result of this was suffering unnecessarily". Lee had no previous convictions. Defence counsel Ann Sheridan accepted it had been an awful situation and there was no excuse for the way the dog was treated. She said her client bought Sky for her family. However, she had suffered health problems and moved back in with her mother. Ms Sheridan said the prosecution was a "wake-up call" for Lee who started attending a family resource centre after the dog was taken. She has also attended a mental health service. He added that Lee has no intention of ever keeping an animal again. Pleading for leniency, she said her client was a single mother on social welfare, had no prior criminal convictions and was very apologetic. Medical reports were provided to the judge. Lee could have faced a fine of up to 5,000 per charge and a prison term of up to six months. Judge Halpin described how the photos he had been given showed a beautiful dog who had been "totally emaciated". He said Lee had no problem in taking care of her own health but she did not take her dog to a vet. The husky was "starved and uncared for and left in a state of suffering", he said, adding: "How a person can do that to an innocent animal is beyond me. "Looking at the photos here would bring any animal lover to tears. It really is disgraceful, shame on you," he told the accused. The judge noted he also had the power to disqualify her from being an animal owner. He added that the way she had treated the dog was "inexcusable" and he had no way of knowing how long it was in that condition. The judge ordered Lee to pay the fine and costs in six months. "But for the personal circumstances of the defendant, I would be considering a custodial sentence," he told the court. Gardai at the scene on Hawthorn Avenue in East Wall A potentially deadly pipe bomb attack on a van owned by an innocent man is believed to be linked to the Kinahan-Hutch feud. Detectives suspect the late night bomb incident - which sent one of the devices smashing through the window of a family home - is part of a "feud within a feud" in Dublin's north inner city. Two viable pipe bombs were wrapped together and placed underneath the Ford Focus van that was then set on fire outside a house on Hawthorn Avenue in East Wall shortly after 11pm on Sunday. Missile A senior source told the Herald yesterday that "someone could easily have been killed" when one of the pipe bombs "took off like a missile" and went straight through the hall window of a house on the opposite side of the road. The owner of the vehicle, a man in his 50s, has no involvement in the bitter gang warfare. The house hit by the pipe bomb is also occupied by a "totally innocent family" who were uninjured when the bomb landed in their hall. However, it is understood that the target of the attack was a 35-year-old man who is known to the van owner. Rival criminals have blamed the 35-year-old for recent incidents in the area, which included a house being attacked and two vehicles being burned out. Gardai have no evidence that these allegations are true and no arrests have been made in relation to the earlier incidents. However, the bomb target has close links to the chief suspect - who is currently in jail - for the January feud murder of Jason 'Buda' Molyneux in the north inner city. This link has made the 35-year-old a target for the Hutch mob. Meanwhile, detectives are investigating one theory that the men behind Sunday night's pipe bomb attack were trying to frame one of Molyneux's closest pals for the incident. Their getaway car was found burned out in the Fairview area, not far from the home of Molyneux's friend Gary Hanley. "Hanley lives very near where the disguised two-man bomb attack team decided to burn out the car," a source said. "This may well have been done so that Hanley would be blamed for the bomb attack, but gardai are confident enough that he was not involved. "The bomb attack is linked to a feud within the wider feud which has been playing out in the East Wall area in recent weeks. "There will be an increase in armed garda patrols in the locality to deal with this escalating situation." Investigating officers and the Defence Forces' bomb disposal unit spent several hours at the scene investigating the attack in the early hours of yesterday. Flames Local people reported hearing two loud bangs before noticing that the van parked outside was on fire. A fire extinguisher was used to douse the flames, but significant damage was done to the vehicle. "A van was discovered on fire at this location and a number of items were discovered," said a garda spokesman. "Defence Forces EOD were contacted and made safe a number of suspicious items which were believed to be viable devices. "No arrests have been made and investigations are continuing." The spokesman added that the devices found turned out to be pipe bombs. (CNN) As world leaders denounced Russia's aggression against Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump waited more than a day before offering a muted response about the clash, leaving the task of criticizing Moscow to the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the UN. When asked how he felt about the clash, Trump said, "not good. Not happy about it at all." He seemed reluctant to blame Russia, adding, "we do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out." Trump spoke to reporters just days before he is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin at a G20 meeting in Argentina. In the 24 hours after Russian ships opened fire on and seized three Ukrainian vessels near Crimea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May, the foreign ministers of Germany, the UK and Canada, European members of the Security Council, including France, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as several U.S. lawmakers expressed grave concern and called for a de-escalation. During that time, the President and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remained silent on the serious escalation in tensions between the two countries. After Trump spoke to reporters, a day and a half after the confrontation, Pompeo released a statement expressing "deep concern," condemning Russia and calling for restraint from "both parties." But it fell to Ambassador Nikki Haley to reprise her role as the administration's leading and toughest voice on Russia, leaving analysts concerned that the White House silence and then Trump's low-key response would be read as encouragement, if not acquiescence. 'He can play Trump' "If there's not a strong Western response in terms of a statement, but also one that says there will be consequences unless Russia ceases and desists, the Russians may conclude they can get away with this," said Steven Pifer, a William J. Perry fellow at Stanford University and expert on Russia, Europe and the former Soviet states. "It's striking that Washington was silent on this yesterday," said Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. He added that Trump's restraint does not position him well for the anticipated meeting with Putin. "It just leaves Putin feeling he can play Trump, whereas a forthright statement might even earn a measure of respect from the Russians," Pifer said. "I don't think the Russians would respect what they're seeing right now out of this administration," he said, referring to the White House and State Department failure to comment promptly. At the UN, Haley denounced the clash in the Kerch Strait as a "reckless escalation," and called for Russia to immediately "cease its unlawful conduct and respect the navigational rights and freedoms of all states." Nikki Haley on Ukraine "Sunday's outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory is part of a pattern of Russian behavior that includes the purported annexation of Crimea and abuses against countless Ukrainians in Crimea," Haley told the Security Council in an emergency meeting Monday morning, "as well as stoking a conflict that has taken the lives of more than 10,000 people in eastern Ukraine, and it shows no signs of decreasing." Haley's comments were hedged with a nod to Trump, who has consistently touted his desire for close ties with Putin. "As my country's President has said many times, the United States would welcome a normal relationship with Russia," Haley said. "But outlaw actions like this one continue to make that impossible." John Herbst, also a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said that a strong statement from Haley about the situation "probably covers the administration," but acknowledged that her lame duck status she leaves the job at the end of the year tempers the power of her remarks. "A senior official who's going to be in office in six months from now would be better," said Herbst, director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. Deeply shadowed Beyond Haley, the State Department's special representative for Ukraine negotiations, Kurt Volker, tweeted a question "Russia rams Ukrainian vessel peacefully traveling toward a Ukrainian port. Russia series ships and crew and then accuses Ukraine of provocation???" Those comments just underscored the lack of a robust response from other quarters of the administration. Trump's presidency has been overshadowed by a special counsel investigation into possible Russian interference in to the 2016 election and Putin's admission that he wanted Trump to win the presidency. The President also has a long history of being equivocal on Russia's internationally condemned annexation of Crimea, which is central to the clash on Sunday. The Ukrainian Navy says its ships were planning to enter the Kerch Strait to access the city of Mariupol before they were fired upon by the Russians. The strait runs between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia, and is an important economic lifeline for Ukraine, as it allows ships leaving the port city of Mariupol to access the Black Sea. But it's also the closest point of access for Russia to Crimea, a peninsula Moscow invaded and annexed in 2014. Trump has been seemingly reluctant to condemn Russia for that act, repeatedly suggesting instead that Crimeans welcomed the invasion or that because many are Russian language speakers they "belong" to Russia. In June, before his summit with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Trump was asked if he was going to accept Russia's annexation of the peninsula. "We're going to have to see," the President said. It's still not clear what the two leaders actually discussed. And after a G7 summit in Canada, also in June, Trump made a series of eyebrow-raising comments about Crimea and Russia, avoiding the word "annexation" and instead referring to "something" that happened. He blamed Obama for Crimea's annexation, pointed to all the money Russia is spending on the peninsula and suggested that Russia's expulsion from the G8 because of the annexation should be reversed. "This used to be the G8, not the G7," Trump said in Canada. "And something happened a while ago, where Russia is no longer in. I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in." This story was first published on CNN.com "Trump refuses to condemn Russian aggression against Ukraine" Shopping for the holidays? Black Friday sales are out there now Brexit: Donald Trump warns British to stock up on Netflix and Xanax as trade war looms Shrewd dealers will stock up on chlorinated chickens, baggy satin vests and TV boxsets because the US-UK trade deal is in dire peril. Donald Trump has looked at Theresa Mays Brexit agreement and says it sounds like a great deal for the EU. He also says it means the UK might not be able to trade with the US. The chances of Trump having read all 500-plus pages of the winter fuel allowance are thinner than a parrots lips. The deal is crap. The UK is stuck in the EU, liaising with le club with the enthusiasm of a baby seal. May counters that she is ready to defend her deal in a TV debate with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Hes unlikely to have read the corpulent pamphlet either. Even a trainee MP knows the deal is dire, but Corbyn has never had his ideas encumbered by power so theres every chance hell struggle to get past the coherently phatic before panicking and belatedly realising that student politics is best left to students. The excruciating TV debate could take place on 9 December two days before the Parliamentary vote on Mays deal. Itll make not a sop of difference to the outcome, but might finally trigger a rebellion among Labour MPs as Corbyn spends an hour incontinently telling a tired and irritated electorate that all options are open and hes not a racist. Back to Trump, then, who assured that his lacquer is made in China and not Chelmsford, guffs: Right now if you look at the deal, [the UK] may not be able to trade with us. And that wouldnt be a good thing. I dont think they meant that. Cabinet Office minister David Lidington hes the one who looks like a hairy lemon sorbet, an amuse bouche of an MP whose job is to cleanse the pallet before something of substance arrives (spoiler: it doesnt) says Mr Trumps comments were not unexpected and trade deals with the US are challenging. The United States is a tough negotiator, he told BBC Radio 4s Today. President Trumps always said very plainly I put America first. Well, Id expect the British prime minister to put British interests first. Boom! Boom! Oh, he wasnt joking. Meanwhile, whispering from the shadows is Lord Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, said government officials were probably working on a Plan B in case the deal was rejected but there would be no whisper of it publicly until the outcome of the Commons vote. Failing that we can all vote for Boris Johnson, wholl paste over the huge gaps in his and our political knowledge by lavishing on cheap gags and gratuitous insults. Well all be chortling and eating our young by teatime but itll be British kids and taste better than that imported US chicken. Anorak Posted: 27th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink (ANSA) - Chakama, November 27 - The kidnappers of Italian aid worker Silvia Romano in Kenya "wanted a lightning-fast ransom, but Silvia didn't have any money or a telephone," a Nigerian boy who saw her being abducted told ANSA Tuesday. James, whose education is being paid for by the NGO Romano worked for, "some of them wanted to let her go free, but the others refused". He said "Silviua was crying desperately, shouting 'help me' while she was being dragged away by the armed men. There were at least four of them, we followed them but they started shooting to keep us away. We only had knives". A Kenyan regional police commander said Monday the police were getting close to Romano's kidnappers. Noah Mwivanda told NTV that "we are getting close. Everything indicates that we have almost reached the kidnappers". He said "we expect to find (Romano) alive". Mwivanda also voiced the fear some local residents were collaborating with the kidnappers by giving them refuge and provisions. NTV said the search for Romano had been boosted by information from three suspects currently being held by police. The search has now been narrowed down to a specific area of the forest, it said. Access points are being patrolled by police. Volunteer worker Romano, 23, was taken captive in the African nation last Tuesday. By Brig Arun Bajpai Two jihadi attacks in Pakistan on Friday 23 November, within few hours, should at least now wake up China that if it continued its un mitigated support to Pakistan on its cross border jihadi activities then its own CPEC will be in trouble. Having committed to spend 47 billion dollars in Pakistan in CEPC, can China afford to continue helping Pakistan in world forums like UN to shield Pakistani army and its ISI of using its sponsored jihadis against India and Afghanistan with impunity ? First jihadi attack was launched in Pakistan on 23 November 2018, in Oakajee Tribal Area of Pakistan in Khaiber Pakhtunkhwa Province by a remote operated bomb, placed in a motorcycle, with main target being Shia Muslims of Pakistan, a minority. A total of 32 people were killed including three children and 40 wounded. OK this can be set aside for a time being because these types of attacks on minority Shias in Pakistan by Sunni majority jihadi terror organisations, keep on happening as a routine. This will not please the Shia majority Iran, the next-door neighbour of Pakistan. However, what should shock both Pakistan and China are the jihadi attack in Karachi town of Pakistan a few hours later, that also in posh Clifton Area of Pakistan, launched by Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), a jihadi organisation against China building CEPC in 3000 km length of Baluchistan. . This attack was aimed directly at the Chinese Consulate by the Baluchistan Liberation Army, who have taken its responsibility. The three jihadis involved killed two policemen and two civilians, before they themselves were shot dead. The objective of this attack, as stated by Shahid Mehmood Qureshi the foreign minister of Pakistan was, to scare the Chinese who are coming to Pakistan for investment and construction of CEPC, mostly in Baluchistan. This attack happened just three weeks after Pakistani PM Imran Khan had visited China, assuring China that Pakistan will do utmost to the security and welfare of Chinese workers involved in this construction of CEPC in Baluchistan. Condemning this jihadi attack, Pakistani Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has made a statement that both China and Pakistan together will defeat these nefarious activities of jihadis. Does he mean that now China also will place its troops on Pakistani soil in Baluchistan, to protect its persons working for CEPC? If this happens, it will be like showing red flag to BLA and other Baluch terror groups wanting independence from Pakistan. This road and rail network being laid in Baluchistan under CEPC, for 3000 kms by China, is too long to protect when Baluch population is against this. Earlier the BLA spokesperson Jihand Baluch had said that we see Chinese as oppressors along with Pakistani Army. he said that they have now created a separate fidayeen group, a Majeed Brigade to carry out suicide raids against Pakistani Army and Chinese targets. He said objective of our attacks are clear, we will not tolerate Chinese military expansionist endeavors. This is an ominous development for china. There is no protection from suicide attacks any where in the world. So, when Chinese will start dying their enthusiasm to build CPEC will start diminishing. Pakistan has used such ham-handed methods in dealing with Baluch and has committed such atrocities there that now they will not be able to retain Baluchistan for long. Here in lies the opportunity for India. Pakistan is crying hoarse that India is helping Baluchistan in ceding from Pakistan. Jury is still out whether it is just Pakistani propaganda or India is actually doing it. If India is not doing it then it must start helping Baluchistan in the same way as Pakistan is interfering in Kashmir. This is the only language Pakistan understands. Of course, India must always be in denial mode like Pakistan on Kashmir. It is also being said in Pakistan that America is also against CPEC and is quietly scuttling this project. if it is true then India and America should join hands in scuttling CPEC and enabling resource rich, mineral rich Baluchistan to cede from Pakistan. Source : One India The unlawful, and fatal, expedition of a young American evangelist adventurer to a remote island that is home to the worlds last known pre-Neolithic tribe has highlighted Indias lax internal security controls and the threat to endangered indigenous communities from interlopers. The episode also casts an unflattering light on the ministry of home affairs (MHA), which, to cover up its lapses, has sought to obscure the truth. Although lionised as a martyr in the US evangelical media, John Allen Chau was a wilful intruder. He trespassed on a prohibited island to impose his religion on a tiny, highly endangered tribe whose seclusion and privacy are legally protected. Worse still, his repeated intrusions into their peaceful, self-contented world might have exposed the Sentinelese with no resistance to outsiders common diseases and already on the brink of extinction to deadly pathogens. One crazed mans conduct may have put an entire tribes survival at risk. On his first intrusion into their North Sentinel Island, the Sentinelese, setting an example for the so-called civilised world, did not subject Chau to Abu Ghraib-style torture or even detain him. Yet, undeterred by the tribes warning not to return, a recalcitrant Chau over the next two days repeatedly came back to the island, disparaging it as Satans last stronghold, according to his own diary notes, released by his mother. The son of a refugee father who fled China during the Cultural Revolution and converted to Christianity in the US, Chau described in his notes how he hid from Indian coastal patrols under cover of darkness to make his criminal forays into an island forbidden even to Indians and Indian forces. The ease with which he broke Indian laws and evaded onshore and offshore checks is a sad commentary on Indias internal security. The Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) chain is a critical asset for Indias national security. Located just northwest of the Malacca Strait, the archipelago offers India control of a chokepoint that is Chinas greatest maritime vulnerability. A&N is also home to some of the worlds most endangered tribes. After the ravages of British colonial rule, when the archipelagos aboriginal communities were systematically decimated, only some tribes still survive. But their member numbers are dwindling. For example, the Jarawas, one of the first tribes to fall prey to British excesses, are vanishing, in an example of how contact with outsiders can doom an indigenous community. Chau, instead of applying for a missionary visa, abused Indias e-visa on arrival system for tourists by hiding his real purpose. He neither registered with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office nor sought the mandatory permission under the separate aborigine and forest protection laws before undertaking a mission he plotted through previous A&N visits. Yet, in isolated but militarily sensitive Andaman, no agency spotted the Chinese-looking American, although Chinese and Pakistanis need MHAs clearance to be there. In June, MHA lifted the requirement for foreigners to secure a Restricted Area Permit (RAP) to visit 29 A&N islands in the interest of promoting tourism and [their] overall development. The decision smacked of utter recklessness: About one-third of the 29 islands, including North Sentinel, are home to endangered tribes and not open to tourism or development under the aborigine law. RAPs lifting implicitly emboldened Chaus exploits, although foreigners, like Indians, still need special permission under the aborigine and forest acts to visit any tribal-reserved island. Caught flat-footed by Chaus forays, an embarrassed MHA contradicted the Andaman police to claim there was no evidence that he was on a mission to evangelize. Had Chaus own detailed accounts of his motives and exploits not become public, the MHAs misinformation would have prevailed. To cover its back, MHA now claims it lifted RAP for tribal-reserved islands, not for tourism, but to promote the flow of people, particularly anthropologists and other researchers, although no foreign expert is left on these tribes. Thanks to MHAs ineptitude, we may never know if an external group funded Chaus mission, which he ominously undertook just before Thanksgiving, an annual whitewash of white settlers mass killing of millions of Native Americans. Internal security has historically been Indias Achilles heel a frailty that invited repeated foreign invasions, plunder and subjugation. Yet, with India not fully absorbing the lessons of history, internal security has remained its paramount weakness under successive governments. Developments continue to expose glaring gaps in its internal security from the entry of foreign extremists, criminals and illegal migrants to recurrent terrorist attacks, such as the recent strike on Nirankari worshippers with a Pakistan-made grenade. With Indias internal security under increasing pressure, the endangered tribes future has grown even more uncertain. Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist. The views expressed are personal US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, urged Pakistan to take action against those responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, while also announcing a $5-million reward for any information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of any individual who committed, conspired, aided or abetted the audacious terror strikes. The announcement came on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the assault, which left 166, including six Americans, dead. It is an affront to the families of the victims that after 10 years, those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted for their involvement, Mr Pompeo said. He called upon all countries (Pakistan in particular) to uphold their UN Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Tayba (LeT) and its affiliates. Why does the US need to offer a reward for information that is already in the public domain? All that Washington needs to do is to go through the detailed interrogation reports of one of its own citizens. Pakistan-born American terrorist, David Coleman Headley, who admitted to visiting Mumbai at least seven times to videograph the targets that were chosen for the final assault, has given the names of all those who committed, conspired, aided and abetted the terror strikes. India would also have shared the detailed interrogation report of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist who was caught alive in Mumbai. That, too, is proof of individuals and organisations responsible for the attack. Both Headley and Kasab have, in fact, corroborated each other on two important aspects of 26/11. One, that every major action of the LeT is executed only after the approval of its founder, Hafiz Saeed. Headley told the FBI and the NIA that Saeed knew about the Mumbai attacks and that the operation was launched only after his approval. Kasab, too, has detailed how Saeed supervised weapons training and complimented him for his aim. Two, both said the ISI handheld the LeT through the planning. Surely, America remembers that it had also issued a $10-million bounty for Saeed in 2012. No one needs reminding that not only does the LeT founder continue to roam free; he also continues to threaten India and the US. It is indeed an affront to the families of the victims, as Pompeo said, that the trial in Pakistan has become a sham. Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, the LeTs military commander, who was arrested soon after 26/11, not only fathered a child while in jail; he is now also out on bail. The fresh reward of $5 million is mere tokenism, and it is 10 years too late. India tried and hanged Kasab. The US can and must push Pakistan to take tougher measures. harinder.baweja@hindustantimes.com Over 78,000 paramilitary personnel have been mobilised by the Union Home Ministry for deployment in the ongoing assembly elections in five states, officials said Monday. The action has been taken following several rounds of discussions with the Election Commission, which directed the home ministry to provide adequate forces under its disposal. A total of 785 companies of paramilitary forces have been mobilised for deployment in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana for the assembly polls, a home ministry official said. One company of paramilitary comprises around 100 personnel. While the two-phased assembly elections have already been held in Chhattisgarh, polling in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on November 28 and in Rajasthan and Telangana on December 7. The highest number of paramilitary personnel were deployed in Chhattisgarh. For complete coverage of Assembly Elections 2018, click here (ANSA) - Chakama, November 27 - The kidnappers of Italian aid worker Silvia Romano in Kenya "wanted a lightning-fast ransom, but Silvia didn't have any money or a telephone," a Nigerian boy who saw her being abducted told ANSA Tuesday. James, whose education is being paid for by the NGO Romano worked for, "some of them wanted to let her go free, but the others refused". He said "Silvia was crying desperately, shouting 'help me' while she was being dragged away by the armed men. There were at least four of them, we followed them but they started shooting to keep us away. We only had knives". James said that if the kidnappers had been Somali Al-Shabaab militants or Islamist extremists "they could easily have committed a massacre, killing anyone they found". He said they could have done so by throwing a bomb into the guest house where most of the residents were, instead of the home-made device they set off in the street. A Kenyan regional police commander said Monday the police were getting close to Romano's kidnappers. Noah Mwivanda told NTV that "we are getting close. Everything indicates that we have almost reached the kidnappers". He said "we expect to find (Romano) alive". Mwivanda also voiced the fear some local residents were collaborating with the kidnappers by giving them refuge and provisions. NTV said the search for Romano had been boosted by information from three suspects currently being held by police. The search has now been narrowed down to a specific area of the forest, it said. Access points are being patrolled by police. Romano, 23, was taken captive in the African nation last Tuesday. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas will reportedly get married in Jodhpurs impressive Umaid Bhawan Palace and looks like the entire affair, starting with the pre-wedding functions starting from November 29 onwards to their wedding on December 2 will be a lavish affair. Reports suggest that the bride will fly to Udaipur and take a helicopter and land directly at Umaid Bhawan Palace. Nick may join her in the chopper. While details like wedding guests and Priyankas trousseau are hard to come by, we do know that the bride-to-be was busy in Delhi shooting her film, The Sky Is Pink, till Saturday. In fact, the films team threw a little party as a send off to their bride to be. Nick also joined the celebrations. In the run-up to their wedding, both Priyanka and Nick held their pre-wedding celebrations for a while now. In end of October, Priyankas friend threw a lavish bridal shower, which was attended by Sonali Bendre and Neetu Kapoor too. She followed it up with a bachelorette party in Amsterdam, which saw Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner. Meanwhile, Nick too had his little bachelor party by the sea. Ahead of their wedding, here are some pictures from their childhood that the couple has shared over a period of time: Follow @htshowbiz for more Mitsubishi Motors executives on Monday ousted Carlos Ghosn as chairman following his shock arrest for alleged financial misconduct, capping a stunning fall from grace for the tycoon credited with saving the scandal-hit Japanese firm. The move follows Ghosns sacking as chairman of Nissan as he faces questioning in a Tokyo detention centre over claims he under-reported his salary to the tune of $44 million over several years. During todays board meeting, it was decided that he is dismissed as chairman, the firm said in a statement following a gathering that lasted just over an hour. The 64-year-old Brazil-born Frenchman rode to Mitsubishi Motors rescue in 2016 when the firm was battered by a fuel efficiency cheating scandal, tying it to his Nissan-Renault alliance and turning its fortunes around. Together, the three-way alliance is the worlds top-selling car company, with some 10.6 million vehicles rolling off the production line. It employs around 450,000 people worldwide. But the future of the tie-up is now uncertain as the talismanic Ghosn was seen as the glue binding together a fractious Franco-Japanese alliance with headquarters 10,000 kilometres apart. A seven-person Nissan board decided unanimously on Thursday to jettison the once-revered leader based on the copious amount and compelling nature of the evidence of misconduct presented, said a company spokesman. Meanwhile, further claims continued to leak out in the Japanese media of Ghosns alleged misconduct. Officially, prosecutors are looking into allegations that he conspired with another executive, American Greg Kelly, to understate his income by around five billion yen ($44 million) between June 2011 and June 2015. But the Asahi Shimbun said authorities are planning to re-arrest him on charges of understating his income by a further three billion yen -- for a total of $71 million -- for the following three fiscal years. Under Japanese law, suspects can face additional arrest warrants, which can result in heavier penalties. The current allegations could see Ghosn facing 10 years behind bars and/or a 10-million-yen fine. Separately, Kyodo has reported that Nissan paid $100,000 annually since 2002 to Ghosns sister for a fictive advisory role. And the Mainichi Shimbun reported on Monday that Ghosn used Nissans corporate money to pay a donation to his daughters university and also charged family trips to the company. Both Ghosn and Kelly have reportedly denied the allegations. - Tangible charges - Nissans current CEO Hiroto Saikawa told staff on Monday he was shocked at his former mentors alleged misconduct. At a 45-minute meeting attended by hundreds of staff at the firms Yokohama HQ and broadcast internally to other sites, Saikawa stressed that the scandal should not affect day-to-day operations. Saikawa, who rose through the Nissan ranks under Ghosns wing, has already spoken of his great resentment and dismay at the allegations and told staff he felt a sense of powerlessness in the current situation. According to local media, Nissan formed a secret cell within the firm to look into the alleged financial misdeeds. Executives accelerated the probe amid concerns Ghosn was working on a fully fledged merger between Nissan and Renault, Kyodo News said without naming its sources. Renault is the dominant partner in the alliance, holding 43 percent of the shares in Nissan, but the Japanese firm outsells its French counterpart -- sparking concern in Tokyo about the balance of power. Renault, which is 15-percent owned by the French state, has decided to stick by Ghosn for now, appointing Thierry Bollore as interim boss while the current CEO and chairman is incapacitated. Frances economy minister Bruno Le Maire has urged the Japanese firm to share quickly whatever evidence it has gathered and stressed Ghosn will stay at the helm of Renault until there are tangible charges. However, Le Maire also said I do not believe in a conspiracy theory amid talk of a so-called palace coup within Nissan to prevent Ghosn merging the firm with Renault. The difficulty now will be to find a replacement to lead the three-way alliance. The statutes of the alliance, based in the Netherlands, state that Renault appoints the CEO and Nissan chooses the deputy. A source close to the case in Paris told AFP: The reality is that they are already looking for a replacement. Not to do so would be irresponsible. It needs to be someone palatable to the Japanese and the French. Investors appeared to be recovering from the initial shock of the arrest, which sent shares in all three firms tumbling. At the Tokyo close, Nissan was up nearly two percent and Mitsubishi Motors enjoyed an even sharper bump -- up more than three percent just ahead of the board meeting. Three siblings, two Muslim sisters and their Sikh brother from a village near Dera Baba Nanak, had an emotional reunion at Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib, on Sunday. Ulfat Bibi and Mairaj Bibi hugged Beant Singh tightly as they met him for the first time in seven decades. Natives of Paracha village near Dera Baba Nanak, the family was migrating to Pakistan when it lost its son and daughter during the violence that marked Partition. The mother, Allah Rakhhi, later contacted one of her former neighbours and found out the whereabouts of her son, Beant. Since then Beant has been in touch with his sisters through letters and phone calls. But it was only this year that he managed to meet them face to face as part of the Sikh jatha (group) from India. Speaking to Express Tribune, a Pakistani daily, Ulfat Bibi said she should be allowed to travel to India to meet her sister-in-law and nieces and nephews. Ulfat and Miraj also appealed to Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan to extend their brothers visa. Pakistan and India have decided to open the Kartarpur corridor to facilitate the visit of Sikh pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib, the final resting place of Guru Nanak. The gurdwara is 4 km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine, and is visible from the Indian side. Sikhs gather in large numbers at Dera Baba Nanak to catch a glimpse of the gurdwara. The Delhi Assembly on Monday passed a resolution asking the Union government to amend the Constitution to bring Delhi Police under the control of the state government of Delhi and to make the Capitals police accountable to the state legislature. Delhis chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal for failing to ensure the security of an elected CM. While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been demanding control over the Delhi Police, this was the first time a resolution was passed for the same in the House, a government spokesperson said. The Union government must take immediate steps, in larger public interest, to bring the police in Delhi under the control of the elected government of NCT of Delhi and to make it accountable to the Legislative Assembly as in the case with any other state, by way of amending the Constitution and relevant laws, read the resolution passed on the first day of the special assembly session called by the AAP government to discuss the string of attacks on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, among other issues. In the meantime, pending such amendments, necessary steps be initiated by the government of India to devolve certain powers to the elected government so that it is in a position to have control over Delhi Police in implementing its decisions... the resolution read. Mondays resolution was proposed by Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain, who presented numbers he said were from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the national capital. Delhi Police, however, said the figures quoted by Jain were incorrect. The Delhi Police currently reports to the Union home ministry through the lieutenant-governor. The one-day session was later extended for another day. Senior government officials said the issue of the alleged deletion of names of voters from electoral rolls would be taken up for discussion on Tuesday. PM Cant protect CM Speaking towards the end of the nearly five-hour-long debate, Kejriwal targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal for failing to ensure the security of an elected CM. If PM Narendra Modi cannot ensure security of an elected CM, he should resign. Or else, people will think that PM Modi has attacked Delhis residents and he is taking revenge from the people of Delhi, said Kejriwal, adding that he has no grudges against 95% of Delhi Police personnel and did not approve of demands to exclude them from the state governments compensation scheme. The AAP chief said the string of attacks on him were planned by the BJP because they cannot see a common man like him as chief minister of Delhi. L-G has time for small-time BJP leaders but he doesnt want to meet our ministers, Kejriwal said. Calling the special session a waste of taxpayers money, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the AAP claims were a diversionary tactic to deflect attention from real issues. The CM should tell people why taxpayers money is being wasted on the special sessions and not on discussing issues like pollution, water crisis and poor condition of health, etc, said Ravindra Gupta, general secretary, Delhi BJP. The L-Gs office, however, did not respond to queries despite repeated attempts. The Delhi Police, meanwhile, alleged that Jain had quoted incorrect figures. As regards the alleged incident of attack on the Honble CM, prompt legal action was taken by police and further investigation of the case is being conducted professionally and expeditiously as per law, said Delhi police spokesperson, Madhur Verma. It is incorrect to state that National Capital Territory of Delhi is the national crime capital as the heinous crime registered in NCT of Delhi has declined from the year 2016 to 2017, Verma added. Madhya Pradesh matters. It matters because it is one of the largest states in India in terms of both demographics and size. It matters because it sends 29 members to the Lok Sabha. It matters because of its geographic centrality. It matters because it is a microcosm of Indian diversity, with a range of caste groups, tribals and Muslims. And it matters because development indicators in the state shape development indicators nationally. But the MP election is crucial not just because of these features. It is arguably the most closely fought and the most interesting election among the five states going to polls. As the battle in the heart of India gets underway today, it will not only reveal the preferences of the states voters and issues that concern them, but also shape the future trajectories of both national parties. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for 15 years, with Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a popular chief minister, making tangible improvements in governance. But the party now faces triple anti-incumbency since it has a majority of the legislators, and is in power in both the state and the Centre. Being in power gives a party an advantage in terms of resources and patronage networks. But it also breeds resentment for no party can fulfil all aspirations and tackle local contradictions in a diverse and unequal society with high aspirations. This election will be a test of resilience of the BJPs national and state leadership and its organisational machine. If the BJP is able to win again, it will reinforce the political hegemony of the party in the state; it will bolster Mr Chouhans credibility and stature; it will boost the BJPs chances in the state in the Lok Sabha polls; and it will show that the party still has a multi-caste and multi-class alliance. The stakes could not be higher for the Congress. It is not easy to forget how MP used to be a Congress bastion. Except for three short interludes in the late 1960s, post Emergency, and the early 1990s the state has always been ruled by the Congress. But out of power for 15 years, the party has been a shadow of its past. In this election, the Congress has sought to smoothen over its factional differences. It has mounted a robust campaign centred around the agrarian failures of the Chouhan government and economic mismanagement of the Central government. It has also been tactically careful and reached out to various segments of Hindu voters besides consolidating its older constituencies. But whether the Congress is able to bridge the huge gap it got 58 seats compared to the BJPs 165 in the last election is still to be seen. A respectable defeat may make the polity more competitive but will not be enough. If the Congress wins, it will bolster Rahul Gandhis reputation as a leader; it will show the partys ability to take on and defeat the BJP in a straight contest; and it will enhance its bargaining capacity with regional parties and help generate momentum and morale for 2019. 2018 isnt 1992, but its hard to ignore the significant intensification in clamour for a Ram temple at Ayodhya over the past few months. A big show of strength by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate in Ayodhya on November 25 is to be followed by another event in the capital on November 9. From the RSS to the VHP to even the Shiv Sena, various groups and parties have become aggressive in their assertions that a temple has to be built. The Bharatiya Janata Partys President Amit Shah has said his party will wait for the Supreme Courts January hearing but that it would have built a temple in Ayodhya long ago if it had its way. The Shiv Sena, the BJPs fractious alliance partner, has said that the outcome of the 2019 elections hinges on the building of the temple. And RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said the time for patience is over. The Congress, for its part, has been soft pedalling the issue with its embrace of soft-Hindutva . Other parties, barring the All India Masjlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, have also steered clear of the issue. There are reports now that some Muslims have started moving out of Ayodhya. There has also been a lot of talk about how the temple has divine sanction and will come up irrespective of what the Supreme Court rules. The Supreme Court will hear the case as a title dispute, which is as it should be, but its decision to hear the case in January (and not October as it was supposed to) has, in some ways, resulted in all parties concerned upping the ante. Indeed, even the Prime Minister, in an election campaign meeting, alleged that pressure is being brought upon the court to push the case to after the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh state and the central government (both BJP ones) have to ensure that as much as they support the cause of a Ram temple, they have to ensure that law and order is maintained. For the BJP, this is a real test. The temple is an emotive issue with a large cohort of its constituents. Yet, if it pushes an ordinance at this stage, it would just be giving opponents a convenient political handle to beat it with. For now, all it can do is hope that the clamour for a temple does not get out of hand and that the court resolves the issue soon. The skeletal remains of a four-year-old girl, allegedly raped and murdered by a serial killer in October 2014, have been recovered near Gwalior railway station the second time in three days that accused Sunil Kumar has led law enforcement to a spot where he buried a victim. On November 24, the Gwalior police recovered the remains and clothes of another minor, a five-year-old girl, near the Akhileshwar temple. She was allegedly raped and killed by Kumar in September 2013 after he abducted her from a community lunch, police said. Gurugram Police has said at least 16 cases of rape and murder of minor girls have been solved in Gurugram, Gwalior, Jhansi and village Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh charges which, if proved, would make the 23-year-old one of the most heinous serial killers in India since Kumar was arrested in Jhansi on November 19 for the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Gurugrams Sector 66. According to the Gwalior police, the girl whose remains were found on Monday was also abducted by Kumar from a community lunch near the railway station. He told the police that he took her to an isolated place, raped her, and bludgeoned her to death with a brick. The local police registered a case on October 15, 2014, under sections 361 and 363 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Gwaliors Inderganj police station. The victim lived near the railway station with her four siblings and parents. They survived on begging. The parents have identified the clothes recovered from the spot where the skeletal remains were found, said Singh.The investigators also recovered the girls clothes and nails, which have been sent for a forensic examination. The Gwalior police team informed us on Monday about the skeletal remains. One of their teams is already here for questioning and will take the accused man on a production remand for further investigation in his alleged involvement in the four cases which were registered at the Government Railway Police station, Inderganj, and Kampoo police station. In most of the cases, he buried the clothes of the victims to escape arrest, Singh said. Kumar, a daily wage labourer, was arrested from Magarpur village after the police got a tip-off. During interrogation, he allegedly confessed to the police that he raped and killed at least 15 other girls over the last seven years in Gurugram, Delhi, Jhansi and Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Police said Kumar, who lived in Mahoba, visited Gurugram to meet his mother and two sisters who work as domestic helps. He would visit his brother-in-law in Jhansi and a distant relative in Gwalior. On November 23, Kumar showed the police several spots from where he had kidnapped minors in Jhansi and Gwalior. He will be taken to those spots again by the Gwalior Police after they get his custody. Dharmendra Kushwah, sub-inspector of Kampoo police station, Gwalior, said DNA test reports of the forensics are awaited and they are also looking at other cases where minors went missing in mysterious circumstances. We are showing his picture to the people at railway stations and community lunches to get more clues regarding the case. There is a possibility that he would be involved in more cases, said Kushwah. Kumar will be produced before a Gurugram court on Wednesday and the city police are likely to demand extended custody for further investigation. We still have a lot more evidence to collect from different locations from where the incidents were reported. We need reports from the Madhuban Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and technical team for better legal scrutiny before filing the charge sheet. Usually, the charge sheet is filed within 90 days, but we hope not to wait for that long, Singh said. A day after Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh rejected the invite of Pakistan to attend groundbreaking ceremony for Kartarpur Sahib corridor on Wednesday, his stand split the Congress government and the party. Jails and cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the Sikh community is thankful to Pakistans Imran Khan government for opening up the corridor. They have done so on our request. As a Sikh, I would have attended the ceremony, if invited, he said. But health minister Brahm Mohindra hailed CMs stand saying he has conveyed a strong message in unambiguous terms to Pakistan that we are not blind to their machinations of disturbing and sabotaging the peace in our country and state. I have seen dark days of militancy in Punjab. Not everyone is optimistic about Pakistans intentions. Why are they opening the corridor now, he said. Assembly speaker Rana KP Singh too hailed the CMs move saying Amarinder is as true a Sikh as he is a nationalist. The Pakistani army will never let peace prevail between the two countries and they can sabotage it anytime, Rana said. Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, who has supported local government minister Navjot Singh Sidhu accepting Imrans invite, saying the corridor opens doors to peace between the two nations, too, did a balancing act on Monday by hailing Captains stand. It is a principled stand taken in the best interests of Punjab. Amarinders concerns are not misplaced, and unlike BJP and Akali Dal leaders, who have hopped onto the bandwagon, he has been steadfast in his stand, Jakhar said in a statement. On his partys stand on Sidhu accepting the invite, Jakhar said the stands taken by Sidhu and CM are not contradictory. Sidhu is opening Track-II diplomacy with Pakistan and is not going as a government nominee but personal friend of Imran. His contribution towards opening the corridor cannot be undermined. But Amarinder has taken a principled stand as the head of state. The corridor would be held hostage every time there is a terror activity or tension on the borders or infiltration, Jakhar said. Sidhu, who does not have many friends in Amarinders cabinet and is a lone ranger, remained away from Mondays stone-laying ceremony at Dera Bana Nanak, saying he does not want to play any politics over the issue and is going to Pakistan with CMs consent. But the CM rebuffed him for accepting the invite saying it was his personal thinking. A caretaker of a Delhi mosque was caught carrying a live bullet while visiting chief minister Arvind Kejriwals Janata Darbar on Monday morning, police said, six days after a visitor threw chilli powder at the chief minister at Delhi secretariat. Identified as 39-year-old Mohd Imran, the man was visiting the Janata Darbar with 12 other Imams and Maulvis to seek an increase in the salaries of the Delhi Waqf Board staff. The .32 bore live cartridge was recovered from his purse during the search and frisking by the security staff of CMs residence, said Harendra Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (north). The officer said that Imran is a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad and works as the caretaker (Muezzin) of the Masjid Bawli Wali in Karol Bagh. He has claimed he found the bullet in a donation box two-three months ago and he intended to throw it in the Yamuna, but since he was yet to do it, he had kept it in his purse, Singh said. Imran told the police that he had forgotten about the bullet. A case under the arms act has been registered against him at Civil Lines police station and he has been arrested. The arrest came hours after Kejriwal, speaking in Delhi assembly, said, the string of attacks were planned by the BJP because they cannot see a common man like me as chief minister of Delhi. On November 20, a man threw chilli powder at Kejriwal as he was leaving his offices at the Delhi Secretariat for lunch. The attacker has been identified as Anil Kumar Sharma. Sharma, a Naraina resident, was waiting for the AAP convenor, outside his office at the Delhi secretariat. When Kejriwal stepped out, Sharma walked up to him and said, Aap hi se umeed hai, and tried to touch his feet Sharma had a letter in one hand and chilli powder in the other. He had packed the chilli powder a gutka packet. Kejriwal stopped Sharma from touching his feet, and while getting up Sharma threw chilli powder at Kejriwals face. This is not the first time that Kejriwal has been attacked. He has earlier had ink, shoes and slippers thrown at him. Soon after the attack on Kejriwal, AAP accused the BJP of orchestrating these attacks. Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik who appeared to be countering the perception that he had acted at the behest of the BJP in dissolving the state assembly when political parties were getting around to stitching a coalition, has said that he did not want to go down history as a dishonest man, coming in for rare praise from state leaders for going against the wishes of the Centre. Addressing a university convocation in Madhya Pradeshs Gwalior, a video of which did the rounds on social media on Tuesday, he said that had he looked towards Delhi for instructions, Sajad Lone would have formed the government. And I would have gone down in history as a dishonest man. So I ended this matter. Now, they can abuse me but I am convinced that what I did is right, he said. However, state Raj Bhavan spokesperson has clarified that there was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter and some news channels are misinterpreting his statement. The governor, while taking the decision to dissolve the legislative assembly, acted in an objective and impartial manner, he said. Malik had earlier attributed the last-minute dissolution of the state assembly to fears that politicians would have formed what he had described an opportunistic regime. Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP and Omar Abdullahs National Conference, the two bitter rivals who came together in a rare move, had attacked the governors timing of the dissolution. A day after the assemblys dissolution, Governor Malik told reporters: Had I followed the BJP instructions, then I would have allowed their candidate (Sajad Lone) to stake claim. I didnt listen to any of them. I did what was right under state constitution. Reacting to the statement, Omar Abdullah said that BJP and its proxies were desperate to form government by indulging in horse trading and use of money, but added in his tweet that weve never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the Centre. Mehbooba Mufti termed the admission of the governor as unprecedented. Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sb refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state, she said. Read: In thank you note to rival Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Muftis stinging jibe at BJP PDP chief spokesperson Rafi Ahmad Mir said the video of the governors revelation showed how things are forced on Kashmir. Congress state unit president Ghulam Ahmad Mir said the governor had exposed the BJP made efforts to form the government and install a person with two legislators as chief minister. CPI(M) general secretary, Mohammad Yusuf Taragami said the governors remarks were an eye opener for democratic forces and demanded that elections should be held in the state without delay. (ANSA) - Paris, November 27 - European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Tuesday that the Italian budget was among the "uncertainties" that weighed on Europe and the European Commission's strictures on the 2019 budgetary plans had not yet "found a response". Moscovici cited global trade tensions, Brexit and the Italian budget as the three main uncertainties weighing on Europe. He stressed that the three main strictures of the EC - growth, deficit and debt - "at the present time have not found a response". He said "we continue to think that the Italian budget entails risks for Italian businesses, savers and citizens. "This risk has a name: it is called debt at 130% of GDP." Moscovici also said the EC would keep making "efforts" to find "shared solutions for Italy and the EU" stressing that "sanctions are always a failure". But he said that an infringement procedure for excessive deficit "as it stands today would be needed". President Donald Trump added his voice to the outpouring of support for India and the condemnation of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai 10 years ago saying the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice, which has meant prosecuting and punishing those who planned and executed it from Pakistan. The president did not name Pakistan in the tweet he posted late Monday afternoon, but the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has in his statement earlier and Nathan Sales, the counterterrorism czar at the state department had, stressing the need for Pakistan to punish the guilty. President Trump, who has been tough on Pakistan, pointed in that direction. On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice, he wrote on Twitter. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning! The president has suspended $1.66 billion in security aid to Pakistan in 2018 after accusing the one-time close ally of giving only lies and deceit in return for American assistance and steered it on watch-list of a world watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, that combats money laundering and terrorist financing. Just the previous week Trump fulminated in an interview to the news TV channel that Pakistan has not done a damn thing for the United State despite all the aid it has received. On Monday, two Trump White House officials and Ambassador Sales attended an event hosted by Indian ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna at the Indian Embassy to observe the 10th anniversary of the attack. Sarna said, bilateral cooperation between India and the US in the field of counter-terrorism has perhaps never been more intense and at a higher level that it is. Ensure justice , Israel tells pakistan Israel has asked Pakistan to ensure full justice to the 26/11 terror attack victims. Michael Ronen, director, South & South East Asia Division at the ministry of foreign affairs of Israel said it was important for the international community, especially Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators of the attacks do not go scott free. It is important to provide justice..., he said, urging all governments, including the Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. Amid criticism over his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhus visit to Pakistan for the inauguration of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said Tuesday he had asked him to reconsider it. But Amarinder said he acceded to Sidhus request for permission as he did not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a personal visit. The Chief Minister said Sidhu was campaigning in Madhya Pradesh when he told him to reconsider his decision. Sidhu told me he had already committed himself to going. When I informed him of the stand I had taken on the issue, he said it was his personal visit but he would get back to me. But I did not hear from him, Amarinder said. He added the cabinet minister had sent him a request for going and he approved it. I do not stop anyone from going anywhere on a private visit. It is not an official visit, said the CM. Notably, Sidhu Tuesday crossed over to Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border to take part in the ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday. Reiterating his stand of not going to Pakistan himself for ground breaking ceremony of the corridor there on Wednesday, Amarinder said in a statement how could he go there when innocent Indian citizens and soldiers were being killed everyday. I have strong feelings on the issue. I have a strong bond with the Army and cannot stand seeing my people killed, he asserted. Amarinder had earlier declined Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshis invitation to attend the foundation stone laying for the Kartarpur Corridor on the other side of the border, citing continued terrorist attacks in Punjab and killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan armed forces. The Congress, he said, had always stood against terrorism, and would never allow anyone to destroy the peace of the country or its people. Terming the situation in Pakistan as very uncertain and fluid, Amarinder said nobody knew who was running the government there or what was happening in that country. If Imran Khan (Pakistan Prime Minister) is running the government then he should rein in (the Pak army and the terrorist groups). If he cannot do that then he obviously has nothing in his hands, said the Chief Minister. My message is very clear dont mess with Punjab, asserted Amarinder, reiterating his warning to Pakistan against any attempt to disrupt Indias peace. Vowing not to allow terrorism to return to Punjab at any cost, the Chief Minister said the times had changed now. In those times, Punjab then had a police force of less than 20,000, but now has 81,000 police personnel to keep it safe and protected, said the CM. However, if things do get out of hand, then there is the Indian Army, which is well equipped and prepared to counter any threat, said Amarinder, adding the Army will not allow them (Pakistan) to create trouble in the country. On the issue of the Kartarpur corridor, the Chief Minister said every Punjabi was very happy with it and there was no question of it being used by terrorists to infiltrate into India. No one need worry about that as there would be high level of security at the corridor, he added. Stating that the issue of the corridor was raised by former prime minister Manmohan Singh on the 400th anniversary of installation of holy Guru Granth Sahib and he himself had raised the issue with Pakistani leaders Parvez Musharraf and Parvez Elahi, Amarinder said he was completely in favour of the corridor as he wanted peace, backed by increase in trade, with Pakistan. It was the killing of innocent Indians and Indian soldiers that he could not tolerate, said the CM, recalling that Kargil had happened during peace talks with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He warned that Pakistan could not be trusted in the current circumstances. Asked about the Referendum 2020 (campaign for a separate Sikh state), the Chief Minister said the Sikhs For Justice legal advisor G S Pannun was just a stooge of the Pakistans ISI as the organisation was being funded and managed by the ISI. It has no takers in India and is being propagated by a handful of anti-socials, he added. Amarinder also criticised Akali leader and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal for raking up the 1984 anti-Sikh riots issue on the historic occasion of the foundation stone laying of Kartarpur corridor at Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district on Monday. He said, the Akalis were in the habit of exploiting religion for political gains. But the people of Punjab were no longer willing to be misled by their propaganda. The Chief Minister also said the Congress MLAs were rightly aggrieved about the Badals names being on the foundation stone plaque. The Government of India is making the road and protocol prohibited the inclusion of their names, he stressed. Remarks by Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik that knowledge that the Centre would ask him to install Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone as the new chief minister if he looked to it for directions, prompted him to dissolve the assembly last week, have drawn a sharp reaction from political parties in the state. On Saturday, speaking at function in ITM University, Gwalior, Malik said that had he looked to New Delhi for counsel, in history, I would have been remembered as a dishonest person. So I finished this matter [by dissolving the assembly], he said, according to a video clip of his address. Even if they abuse me, I am convinced that I have done the right work. On November 21, Malik dissolved the assembly after Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti staked claim for forming a government with the support of rival National Conference (NC) and the Congress. She said it had the support of 56 members in the 87-seat assembly. Lone, whose party has two legislators, made a rival bid for power, claiming to have the support of the Bharatiya Janata Partys 25 lawmakers and more than 18 others. Malik, who became J&K governor in August, said in Gwalior that Lone sent his letter on WhatsApp to an official who turned out to be the personal assistant of the former governor. Mufti tried to send a fax to the governor and to reach him over phone, but eventually had to tag the Governors Twitter account to stake claim. A Raj Bhawan spokesperson in Jammu on Tuesday clarified that the governor, in taking the decision to dissolve the J&K legislative assembly on the night of November 21, acted in an objective and impartial manner. There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter, he said in a statement. Governor Malik has broadly explained the last-minute dissolution of the state assembly to fears that politicians would have formed what he had described as an opportunistic regime. The Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP and Omar Abdullahs NC, who came together in a rare move, have attacked the governors timing of dissolving the house. Abdullah wrote on Twitter: I really dont know what to make of Governor Sb revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & its proxies were desperate to form a government through horse trading & use of money but weve also never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the centre. PDP president and former J&K chief minister Mufti termed the admission of governor unprecedented. Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sb refused to take dictation from Delhi, and rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state, she said on Twitter. Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir said the governor had exposed the fact that the BJP had made efforts to form a state government and install as chief minister, a person whose party had just two legislators. From day one BJP wanted to install the government in J&K by encouraging defections, horse trading and other things. Governor Malik has exposed the plot of the BJP, Mir said. BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a free hand to the governor unlike during Congress rule, when decisions were taken in New Delhi and implemented in the state. He added: For the first time, the governor has been... directed to take those decisions which he feels are good for the state. On Tuesday, Lone complained of a misrepresentation of facts and gross distortion of certain events that unfolded. I want to put the record straight. On that particular day when we all staked a claim [to form the government], I was the first one to talk to him on the phone and tell him my intention. The governor asked me to send a fax. Thereafter for three hours we tried to unsuccessfully send a fax to the Raj Bhawan. The fax would not go through. I called the governors secretary who had earlier put me on to him. He would not take the call. For three hours we tried and could not get through any of the Raj Bhawan numbers, he said. Whenever I said that I would stake a claim, it would be done under the ambit of a constitutional provision and would be totally legitimate. I dont know since when they have made constitutional provisions and solutions illegal that is for the governor to clarify. We had the numbers and would have emerged victorious in a constitutionally legitimate method, he said. Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has said that the Kartarpur corridor will be a bridge and will erase enmity between the two nations. Sidhu was speaking in Lahore where he has gone to attend the foundation laying ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor on the Pakistan side. Sidhu was invited by the Pakistan administration to attend the ceremony and had accepted the invite. This is a corridor of infinite possibilities, of peace, of prosperity, of opening up of trade relations, Sidhu said while addressing a press conference in Lahore on the Kartarpur Corridor. I feel that this corridor will be a bridge and erase enmity. It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. It is my belief that there are possibilities in it, he said. Answering a question, about whether the two countries would ever reunite and become a single borderless state, he said that the Kartarpur corridor is a start and it could lead to that as well. Also read: Cowardice: Amarinder Singhs stinker for Pak Army chief at Kartarpur event Kerala activist Rehana Fathima was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly posting a message on social media that hurt religious sentiments, police said. Fathima was booked by Pathanamthitta police under Section 295 A (outraging religious feeling and creating enmity between different communities) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after a Sabarimala devotee complained against her post. Absconding for more than three weeks, she was arrested from Ernakulam. She will be produced in a court in Pathanamthitta in the evening, a senior police officer said. Fathima put a provocative post on social media angering many believers after her attempt to trek to the hill temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa last month failed. An employee of the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), she had moved Kerala high court anticipating an arrest but it refused to entertain her plea. Fathima and Hyderabad-based digital journalist Kavita Jakkala were taken to the shrine under heavy police security but were forced to go back after protesters lay on the trekking path, and the tantri or the supreme priest threatened to close the temple if they climbed the 18 holy steps. They were almost 50 metres away from the sanctum sanctorum. Fathimas house was vandalised by protesters as the news spread that she had attempted to trek to the hilltop shrine. After her foiled Sabarimala trip, the Muslim Jamath Council expelled her from the community saying she hurt religious sentiments of Hindu brethren. The mother of two was later transferred to an insignificant post by BSNL. A controversial activist, she acted nude in a film and was closely associated with the Kiss of Love movement in 2014 against alleged moral policing. She had kicked up a row last year by posing for topless photos with watermelons in protest against a Kozhikode-based college professors statement comparing womens breasts to watermelons. BJP president Amit Shah holds a road show in Udaipur Cong, TRS two sides of the same coin: Modi Cong and TRS two sides of the same coin: Modi Centre will register its homes in the name of women: Modi Homes that the Centre is building will be registered in the names of women of the family. The CM here promised 2 lakh flats of 2 bedrooms each. Wasnt his promise false? Our homes will have water, electricity and gas connections: Modi How can Congress speak of dynastic politics: Modi Can people believe the same Cong which fired on youth? Sonia says KCR is indulging in dynastic politics. But her son was sitting beside her. This family captured Congress for four generations. How can they speak of dynastic politics: Modi Cong had no love for farmers: Modi By 2022, we aim to double incomes of farmers. Naamdaar should stop shedding crocodile tears for farmers. Swaminathan report was shelved. Cong refused to pay two and half times of produce price as MSP: Modi Had it not for Sardar Patel, we would need passport for Hyderabad: Modi If Sardar Patel would not have been there, we would need passport to travel to Hyderabad. Thanks to him, we are being able to chant Bharat mata ki jai here. Sardar Patel has a special place in the hearts of people of Telangana. Please visit Statue of Unity in Gujarat: Modi Cong, TRS behind misery of farmers: Modi Centre helped build metro train services in Hyderabad. Cong and TRS should not speak of farmers. They are behind the misery of farmers. If Sardar Patel had been first PM, farmers would have much better off: Modi Centre committed to development of people of Telangana: Modi Centre is committed to the development of people of Telangana, whether it is roads, health, gas connection, etc. NDA govt giving far more money to Andhra and Telangana than UPA govt ever gave: Modi Cong divided Andhra in such a way that their relations are still bitter: Modi Should swear in the name of martyrs of Telangana that those who fired at them should not be allowed to return. Cong divided Andhra Pradesh in such a way that today too, their relations are bitter. Former PM Vajpayee carned out three new states. Today, all the states are prospering: Modi Lack of development in Telangana: Modi Have your dreams been fulfilled? Have they not destroyed Telangana? So many people gave their lives for Telangana. This is because those ruling here first interned under Chandrababu Naidu and then under Sonia Gandhi: Modi TRS, Cong indulging in minority appeasement: Modi TRS speaking of minority reservation. Cong has been doing the same all these years. Some leaders here said that whether it is the Congress, TDP or YSRCP, whether from Andhra or Telangana, they have to lie at their feet. But our CM will lie at the feet of people: Modi TRS and Cong dividing people: Modi Both TRS and Cong are dynastic parties, do caste, vote bank and divisive politics: Modi Cong, TRS faking a fight: Modi Rulers of the state have stopped speaking about development and started speaking about caste. Congress and TRS fighting it out like WWF. Both are together, their aims and characters are similar: Modi Will dynastic politics benefit you: Modi Was Telangana formed to benefit one family? Did so many youth lose their lives just to benefit one family? After independence, four generations of one family ruled at the Centre. In the state, one family has captured power. Will such dynastic politics benefit you: Modi Mahbubnagar facing lack of water: Modi Why is there lack of water in this area despite Bhakra Nangal dam? This is because of the same people who did nothing but created problems in your lives for 70 years: Modi People migrating from Mahbubnagar: Modi Mahbubnagar is rich in milk. But how did it happen that people are migrating from here? You should ask this to TRS and Congress: Modi PM in Mahbubnagar Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts speaking in Mahbubnagar, Telangana. Chandrashekar Rao learnt from Congress and destroyed Telangana: PM Chandrashekar Raos apprenticeship was in Congress. He learnt from them and destroyed Telangana, now if those who have done PhD (Congress) come to power, theyll do 100 times more destruction, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Nizamabad. Telephone banking by Congress led to indiscriminate lending by banks: PM Telephone banking by the Congress Party led to indiscriminate lending by the banks during the period of 2008-2014, says PM Modi. TRS and Congress playing friendly match in Telangana polls: PM TRS and Congress family-ruled parties, playing friendly match in Telangana polls, says PM Modi at election rally in Nizamabad. People of Telangana dont have access to drinking water: PM After 5 years of KCR government, people of Telangana do not have access to drinking water. He said that if Im not able to provide the water to every household I will not come to seek votes, says PM Modi. Both Congress and TRS believe in dynastic politics: PM Modi Congress as well as TRS, both the parties believe in dynastic politics. They are two sides of same coin. Both the parties appease the minority, both the parties believe in vote-bank politics, none of them have internal democracy, says PM Modi. Will ensure free gas connection for all poor: Modi Smoke from wooden chulha is equal to smoking 400 cigarettes. It is unhealthy for children as well. I have seen poverty. I will ensure free gas connections to all poor. Five lakh people in Telangana have benefitted from this scheme. Under Ujjawala Scheme free gas connections have been provided to 5 lakh families in Telangana by our government , says PM Modi. We do not believe in vote-bank politics: PM Modi We believe in Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. We do not believe in vote bank politics, says PM Modi. PM Modi addresses a public meeting in Telanganas Nizamabad. ( Ani/Twitter ) 3 lakh families took the benefit of Ayushman Bharat: PM Ayushmaan Bharat was launched 2 months ago, 3 lakh families have availed its benefits. Serious operations have been done, peoples lives have been saved. Yet, not a single person from Telangana availed its benefits, your CM is responsible for it, says PM Modi. Chief minister of the state feels too insecure: PM Chief minister of the state feels too insecure and refused to connect the state with the scheme of Ayushman Bharat, says PM Modi. Nizamabad lacks development: PM The Chief Minister of this state says he will transform Nizamabad into London. But look at the condition of this region. The region lacks development , says PM Modi. Those who believe in vikas must choose BJP: PM Those who believe in vikas must choose the BJP, says PM Modi. Those who believe in development are placing their trust in BJP: PM Those who believe in development, in forming a new Telangana,a new India, are placing their trust in BJP to take the nation forward.Telangana was formed after several years struggle and sacrifices of youth.The state government doesnt have right to destroy that sacrifice. Telangana government has done nothing in 4.5 years:, says PM Modi. I thank the people for their faith in BJPs development agenda : PM There are elections in five states and wherever I have had the opportunity to visit, the enthusiasm of people is immense. I thank the people for their faith in the BJPs development agenda, says PM Modi. Happy to be in Telangana: PM Modi Happy to be in Telangana, says PM Modi while addressing a public meeting in Nizamabad. Rahul Gandhi to campaign in Telangana tomorrow Congress president Rahul Gandhi will campaign in Telangana tomorrow. He will be campaigning with Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. Sonia Gandhi vows to teach TRS a fitting lesson Addressing a rally at Medchal on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Saturday, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had called upon the people of the countys newest state to teach a fitting lesson to Telangana Rashtra Samithi for completely shattering their hopes and aspirations in the four-and-a- half years of its rule. Congress focuses on farmers, employments The Congress has focused on farmers and employees of the state government and is likely to promise regulation of liquor sale, ban on marriages of girls below 18 years of age, free electricity to places of worship in its manifesto for the December 7 assembly elections in Telangana. Peoples aspirations following Telanganas formation not been met during TRS rule The grand alliance, comprising the Congress, TDP, CPI and TJS, has alleged that the aspirations of the people following the formation of Telangana have not been met during the TRS rule. PM Modi tweets ahead of Telangana rally Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweets ahead of addressing a rally in Telangana, I am eagerly looking forward to being in your state today. Dear sisters and brothers of Telangana, I am eagerly looking forward to being in your state today. I will address a rally in Nizamabad followed by one in Mahabubnagar. I seek your support and blessings for @BJP4Telangana in the coming polls. Watch the rallies on the NM Mobile App Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 27, 2018 Amit Shah accuses Congress of supporting Urban Naxals BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday accused Congress of supporting Urban Naxals and said his party will put Maoists in jail if it is voted to power in Telangana. Congress resorting to jatiwaad ka zeher: PM In both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Modi reiterated that the Congress was resorting to jatiwaad ka zeher (the poison of caste) and claimed the moral of the rival party was down whereas that of the BJP was up. Congress adopting delaying tactics in construction of Ram temple: PM The Prime Minister, in his Alwar rally yesterday, accused the Congress of adopting delaying tactics in the Supreme Court to create hurdles in the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya and playing a dangerous game of threatening the judges with impeachment. PM Modi directed an attack on Pakistan PM Modi has directed an attack on Pakistan, without naming the neighbouring country, which many saw was an attempt to point at his counterpart Imran Khans efforts at seeking financial aid from several allies. PM Modi hit out at Cong for indulging in caste politics Those who till yesterday threatened to drop bombs on India are begging today due to our strategy. Modis caste was not behind it. It was because of the 125 crore Indians, the Prime Minister said at a rally in Rajasthans Alwar on Sunday. PM Modi to address two rallies in Telangana today Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two public meetings in poll-bound Telanganas Nizamabad and Mahbubnagar today. The high-decibel campaign that witnessed several acrimonious exchanges came to an end at 5 pm on Monday. Political observers say that the battle for the state assembly elections to be held on Wednesday is a close contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress. Over 50 million voters will decide whether the BJP, which has ruled the state since 2003, will be fourth time lucky. The other parties in the fray are the Bahujan Samaj Party, alliance partners Samajwadi Party and Gondwana Gantantra Party, and the Aam Admi Party. MP is the largest of five states going for polls and contributes the largest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha (29) among them. Congress national president Rahul Gandhi made eight visits to the state starting June and visited all regions of the state, holding nearly 20 public meetings and half a dozen road shows. He was accompanied by state Congress chief Kamal Nath, campaign committee chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia, and other top state leaders. Read more: Vote share in 2013 Independently, Scindia is estimated to have held over 100 public meetings and a dozen road shows, while Nath held over 60 public meetings and a dozen road shows. In contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his MP campaign only on November 16. He also visited the Vindhya region, which has 30 seats in the 230-member strong state assembly. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans much-touted Jan Ashirwad Yatra, which began in July and sought to visit all the states assembly constituencies was called off abruptly in October, after covering 187 seats. The BJP attacked Rahul Gandhi and compared the development in MP over the last 13 years to the 10-year Congress rule from 1993-2003. On Monday BJP national vice president Prabhat Jha said the Congresss attack on the PMs parents was condemnable. Read more: Win map of 2013 The Congresss campaign involved a mix of local and national issues, including the alleged corruption in the Rafale deal, farm distress, lack of development and unemployment, corruption, lack of security for women and atrocities on Dalits and adivasis. Congress leader Raj Babbar in Indore last week compared the falling value of rupee against US dollar with the age of the prime ministers mother. State Congress media-in-charge Shobha Oza said, It was unfortunate to note that during the campaign, the PM and CM who hold constitutional posts didnt refrain from telling lies that Congress had not waived loans in Punjab and Karnataka. Votes will be counted on December 11. For full coverage of MP elections, click here. Bengals ruling Trinamool Congress is in talks with other opposition parties to muster support for a private members bill that makes contributions to Chief Ministers Disaster Relief Funds from a company a so-called eligible activity under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Act, a senior leader of the TMC said on condition of anonymity. This has been a long-standing demand of the states chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The CSR Act of 2013 currently says only contributions to the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund are eligible. While the possibilities of the passage of a private members bill is dim the opposition just doesnt have the numbers in the lower house of Parliament the political aim behind pushing such a legislation is to bring chief ministers from various parties on the same page on yet another issue. Apart from Banerjee, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has also, in the past, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow donations to the chief ministers disaster relief fund an activity eligible for the mandatory CSR. Donations to the relief funds (both CMs and PMs ) are exempt from tax. Allowing CSR funds to be deployed in CMs relief funds would enable states to attract large contributions from local companies based in their jurisdiction for spending on social welfare schemes and to finance relief efforts at times of natural calamities. The inclusion of contributions made to the CMs Relief Fund as one of the eligible activities under CSR will not only bring parity with the existing provision allowing CSR for PMs National Relief Fund (PMNRF) but also go a long way in helping the poor and needy in the state to get support, Banerjee wrote in a letter to Modi in May this year. A copy of the letter has been seen by HT. A month later, Patnaik echoed the same demand to Modi. He wrote that that there is a dire need to include contribution to state CMRFs as an eligible activity under CSR. CSR rules were rolled out on April 1, 2014. They make it compulsory for companies with a net worth of 500 crore or revenue of 1,000 crore or net profit of 5 crore to spend 2% of their average profit in the previous three years on social development-related activities such as sanitation, education, healthcare and poverty alleviation. The PMNRF was formed in 1948, when Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, set up the fund with public contributions to assist people displaced from Pakistan after Partition. The private members bill is likely to be pushed by a senior Trinamool MP in Rajya Sabha, the TMC leader added. Even as many public sector or private companies like to directly take up projects to spend their CSR money, many others want to deposit the money in the PMNRF or Swachh Bharat Kosh and get 100% tax relief on the donated amount and leave it to the PM and the union government to decide where and when to spend it. Banerjee mentioned in her letter that chief ministers relief fund is always under financial stress as not much contribution is made by the corporations. Due to paucity of funds, we are not being able to fulfil all the requests made for support, she wrote. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has asked the police to erect watchtowers and install CCTV cameras along 110 km of the states border with Jharkhand to prevent the alleged entry of miscreants. Though the two states share a 380-km border, she has asked that the vigil be maintained along the areas once dominated by Maoists. During an administrative review meeting in Purulia district on Tuesday, Mamata said the police and Western Region development board will release the necessary funds. The problem is acute in the border area and miscreants are entering the state, committing crime and going back. The goons of that state are hired to kill a person. After the crime, a section of the people make a song and dance over it. I think that the border should be sealed. But, initially CCTVs should be installed in the area and watchtowers erected, she said. Over the past few months, she and her Trinamool Congress leaders have alleged that Maoists from BJP-ruled Jharkhand have started movements to Bengal, and alleged that the saffron camp is instigating the rebels. The saffron brigade is sending Maoists from Jharkhand to create turmoil in the area and trigger a blood bath again, Banerjee alleged on Monday from the dais of a government programme in neighbouring Jhargram district. Hitting back, BJP Bengal president Dilip Ghosh said, The state government has not cooperated with the Centre by giving land for erecting a fence along a several hundred kilometres of Indo-Bangladesh border. If she is so concerned with security, let her fulfil this requirement first. How can she restrict movement between two states, and why is she so scared of Jharkhand? During Tuesdays meeting, district police superintendent Akash Magharia told her that they have deployed additional force in the area. But Mamata said the step would fail as the area had thick forests and difficult terrain. The Maoists had a nearly free run in vast swathes of the four districts of West Midnapore, Bankura, Jhargram and Purulia between 2009 and 2011, during which about 500 people lost their lives in clashes. The Trinamool chief also attended a meeting of Hindi-speaking people of the district, where she lashed out at the BJP. They are creating fear in the minds of the people. I am getting information that BJP will lose the Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, she said. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati had directed her partys office-bearers at the zonal and district levels to counter the moves of fringe Dalit outfits. The office-bearers have been asked to inform the partys supporters and its bhaichara (brotherhood) committee about the design of the fringe groups, said a BSP leader, who did not wish to be named. To send a message to the party supporters, she reorganised the party by abolishing the posts of national coordinators. She also removed her brother, Anand, from the post of national vice-president. He added Mayawati would review the party organisation at a meeting in Lucknow after the assembly election in five states. State unit president RS Kushwaha, who has reviewed the organisation in 75 districts, will table his report before the party chief. The directions come as organisations like Bhim Army, Dalit Yuva Dal, Rashtriya Bahujan Morcha have become active in Dalit-dominated areas, according to BSP leaders. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar has launched a membership drive in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar to mobilise Dalits. He has called upon the Dalits to donate generously. Chandrashekar is also wooing the Dalit leaders, who have parted ways with Mayawati or have been expelled from the BSP. In his meetings, he has been referring to Mayawati as his bua (aunt) and has maintained he is mobilising the Dalits to make Mayawati the next prime minister. Mayawati had on Sunday accused these organisations of having launched a drive to divide Dalit votes to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. She called upon the Dalits not to donate money or attend the programmes of Bhim Army and other Dalit outfits. (ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 27 - In Kosovo the mayors of the four largest Serb-majority municipalities, in the northern part of the country, resigned on Tuesday to protest a 100% increase in customs duties on imports from Serbia decided in recent days by Pristina authorities. In a statement reported on by Serbian media, the mayors lashed out at the "discriminatory and uncivilized" behavior of the Albanian Kosovar authorities, saying they are leaving Serb children without food and medicine. Judges and Serb staff in courts in the Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo also went on strike. In practice, the Serb community has severed its contact with the Albanian Kosovar leadership in Pristina, accusing them of violating human rights and all economic and trade agreements signed. The municipalities affected by the protest of Serb mayors and judges are northern Kosovska Mitrovica (the Serb-majority sector), Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan. Another half-day peaceful protest is expected by the Serb population of Kosovo against the increase in customs duties, which are making it very difficult to get hold of basic needs, medicines, and newspapers from the Serb community. (ANSAmed). The Union human resource development ministry has asked states and Union territories to ensure that the weight of school bags follow set norms and also that kids in classes 1 and 2 do not have homework. Although the ministry did not prescribe these norms in a statement, it asked the states to quickly come up with those of their own, or follow the ones already put in place by Telangana or Maharashtra models. According to the Telangana model, for students in classes 1 and 2 the maximum weight of the school bag should be 1.5 kg; 2-3 kg for classes 3 and 4; for those in classes 6 to 7, 4 kg; for those studying in classes 8 and 9, 4.5 kg; and for those in class 10, 5 kg. Maharashtras policy is that the weight of a bag should not exceed 10% of a students weight. Senior HRD ministry officials said the latest directions were issued following a direction of the Madras high court which directed the Centre to formulate a policy on school bags. Following the court order, the ministry also formed a panel comprising experts from CBSE, NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and other bodies to formulate a draft policy in this regard, the officials said. While certain norms related to the weight of school bags and burden of homework on children already exist, the ministry has again written to the states in line with the high court order, a senior HRD ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Schools should not prescribe any other subjects except Language and Mathematics for classes 1 and 2 and Language, EVS and Mathematics for classes 3 to 5 students as prescribed by the NCERT, said the HRD ministry order. Students should not be asked to bring additional books, extra materials and the weight of a school bag should not exceed the prescribed limit, it added. Educationist Ameeta Mulla Wattal, Delhis Springdales School principal, said a situation where bags are done away with for young children would be even more welcome situation. For young schoolchildren, there should not be any bags. There can be lockers. Other items used can be left behind in the schools, said Wattal. A man was dragged out of a police vehicle and beaten to death in Uttar Pradeshs Shamli on Monday. In a video that has gone viral, the police can be seen just standing and not making any attempt to save the man. One person has been arrested and police are on the lookout for five others who attacked the victim identified as Rajendra. Shamli Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar said that a police team had gone to village Hathchoya on Monday evening after receiving a complaint that Rajendra, apparently drunk, was creating nuisance in the area. He was taken into custody. The video shows a group of villagers thrashing Rajendra inside the patrol car in the presence of cops and then dragging him out of the car. He is seen lying unconscious by the side of the road and was later declared dead. Admitting negligence on part of the cops on duty in patrol van, SP ordered their suspension and has initiated a departmental enquiry. Stern action would be taken against those found responsible for the incident, said Kumar. Initially police allegedly tried to project the incident as that of enmity among villagers but swung into action after the video went viral on social media. The police identified the accused as Hashim (who has been arrested), Rifu,Sadakat, Vasar, Sahadat and Aamir. After the incident, villagers blocked Jhinjhana-Un road on Tuesday morning demanding immediate arrest of the accused and ended the dharna only after assurance from senior officials. The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has questioned the recent visit of the ex-prime minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik to Kashmir, where he met separatists leaders last week. National Conference leader Abdullah took to Twitter on Monday asking foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and national secretary advisor Ajit Doval to put Bondeviks visit in perspective. What are the Norwegians up to in Kashmir? Would either @SushmaSwaraj ji or Doval ji care to put the visit of the former Norwegian PM to both sides of the divided state in the correct context or do we have to rely on rumours & conjecture? Abdullah tweeted. Bondevik recently visited Srinagar and met senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. He also visited Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir and met a cross-section of people there. Farooq tweeted photos from the fruitful meeting on November 23, saying they have urged Bondevik to help reach a resolution in the restive state as Norway is known to play a constructive role in conflict resolution across the globe. Fruitful meeting of JRL with Mr Kjell Magne Bondevik,Ex Prime Minister of Norway. As Norway is known to play a constructive role in conflict resolution across the globe urged Mr Bondevik to help in ending the daily killings and urgent resolution of the festering Kashmir dispute (sic), the Mirwaiz said. News agency PTI reported that Hurriyat said in a statement the Norwegian delegation had assured the separatist leaders that they would use their good offices to ensure that a sustained and result-oriented dialogue between India and Pakistan for an amicable solution on Kashmir. Bondevik was the prime minister when Norway brokered a 2002 ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers that fell apart and led to the final fight that destroyed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Supreme Court on Tuesday hauled the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government over the coals for not filing sodomy and abuse cases against shelter homes indicted in a study report earlier this year. The Muzaffarpur shelter home abuse case that hit headlines in July this year was only one of the 17 shelter homes indicted in the study by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. But criminal cases have only been registered against 10 shelter homes. This too, the Supreme Court noted, has not been done under the appropriate criminal provisions. In one instance, TISS found sexual violence at a shelter home for boys but the First Information Report, or FIR, filed by the government does not include stringent penal code provisions such as sodomy. In another, a child who refused to cook food suffered a three-inch long scar on his cheek. In both cases, the police only filed a case under the juvenile justice law. Only God can save, the top court remarked, indicating that it might transfer all abuse cases flagged in the TISS report to the Central Bureau of Investigation. What are you (Bihar government) doing? Its shameful. If the child is sodomised you say its nothing? How can you do this? Its inhuman. We were told that matter will be looked with great seriousness, this is seriousness? Every time I read this file its tragic, the court said, according to news agency ANI. Also read: Children in Bihar adoption centres locked in washrooms, verbally abused The top court gave the Nitish Kumar government 24 hours to add the charges in the FIRs registered by the police. If we find that there were offences under section 377 IPC (rape) and POCSO Act (sex abuse of children) and you did not register FIR, we will pass an order against the government, the top court warned. Over the last few weeks, the Supreme Court has taken the Bihar government to task on several occasions for its handling of the probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home. Over 30 of the 42 girls at the short-stay home were alleged to have been sexually abused. It was only after the top court delivered a sharp warning to the police that Manju Verma, a former minister in Nitish Kumar cabinet, eventually surrendered. Verma was on the run after the CBI recovered ammunition from her home during a raid in connection with the sexual abuse scandal. Verma had stepped down as social welfare minister in August after her husband, Chandrashekhar Verma, came under scan for allegedly visiting the Muzaffarpur shelter home multiple times. Also read: In Muzaffarpurs shelter home, a web of silence shielded sexual abuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit in Argentinas capital Buenos Aires on November 30, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said on Tuesday. Modi will be leaving for Argentina on Wednesday evening and return on December 2 . This will be the fourth meeting between the two heads of state in last seven months, Gokhale said that a meeting with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) head of states is also scheduled. Our interest is two-fold that the G20 issue is not hijacked by the single issue of trade, whether it is between two countries or otherwise. And secondly, how we can constructively reform the World Trade Organization which serves Indias interest and which is multilateral. That is going to be one of the focal points of this meet, or certainly of Indias position at the G20 meeting, Gokhale said. He said the G20 summit must cover the entire gamut of economic issues, including the agricultural sector reform, the challenges climate change poses and healthcare issues faced by the world. The theme of the summit is Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development. Detailing Modis visit, Gokhale said Modi will make a lead intervention in a session on, Putting People First that is essentially on the global economy. The second session is on talks of building consensus which will deal with trade, finance, taxation, sustainable development and climate change. The third session will be on Embracing Opportunities and these are related to energy infrastructure, sustainable food security, Gokhale said. Among others, the PM will also meet United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres, presidents of Argentina, Chile and heads of states of Spain, Jamaica and Netherlands. A meeting with the German chancellor Angela Merkel is also scheduled and possibly with French president (Emmanuel Macron) , the foreign secretary said. The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to initiate prosecution of government officials who have not penalised polluters against whom it received complaints. A bench of justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta issued the directive after CPCB informed it that the board has taken the first step towards prosecuting such officials and issued show-cause notices to them. Under environment protection law, a criminal case can be registered against erring government servants who do not comply with CPCB directions. The maximum jail term for this offence is for six months. Additional solicitor general AS Nadkarni, appearing for CPCB, placed an affidavit before the court, giving the number of complaints it has received on its Facebook page, phone app, Twitter handle and e-mail. He said from November 1 to November 22 the board received 749 complaints -- 479 on Twitter, 65 on Facebook and 205 through e-mails. CPCB addressed around 500 complaints using 52 teams and sent the rest to various government departments with directions under the law to resolve them. Show cause notices were issued to them indicating the intent to initiate criminal prosecution for their failure to control air-pollution, Nadkarni submitted. Similarly out of 3,337 complaints received on the Sameer app 923 complaints were resolved, 1,248 complaints are being attended to, 349 complaints are under investigation and 817 complaints are yet to be addressed. agencies. On October 27, union environment minister Harsh Vardhan directed CPCB to initiate criminal proceedings against government agencies and officers failing to check sources of pollution even after being informed by the pollution control agencies. Nadkarni urged the court to direct authorities to take action or face contempt. The requirement for such a direction was justified by Nadkarni on the ground that a trial under the normal course would take years to culminate. By then the erring officer might retire. If we need to really help Delhi, I would request this court to direct the nodal agencies to comply with your direction, Nadkarni submitted. However, the court refused to pass such a direction and said it cannot micro-manage the issue. No, we will simply say prosecute them, Justice Lokur said. Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court said, there should a fear of law and criminal prosecution must be launched against the officers who do not follow the directions. HT reported on October 28 that less than 5% of the complaints received in Delhi on the Sameer app between September 15 and October 15 were addressed. The maximum complaints with CPCB were for construction and demolition activities, followed by burning of waste, road dust, traffic congestion and industrial emission. The joint-inspection teams comprising officials from the union government, Delhi government and civic bodies which were sent out between November 1 and November 10 also reported several violations. Even though construction activities were banned during that 10-day period, the highest number of violations pertained to this. CPCB started its services for receiving complaints on various social media platforms on October 31, subsequent to the top courts direction. The CPCB is primarily a standard setting body. It is the state pollution control boards that need to initiate criminal proceedings against agencies who fail to control pollution. The SC-appointed body EPCA can also initiate such actions in Delh-NCR. But in reality everyone is passing the buck and nothing really is happening apart from issuing a few warnings to the defaulters, said Ritwick Dutta, environment lawyer. Labelling actions taken by government agencies to curb pollution in Delhi-NCR as grossly inadequate, CPCB has already sent notices to construction agencies, civic bodies and land holding agencies, warning them of criminal proceedings if they fail to take actions against polluting sources, despite being informed. Notices were also sent to the police commissioners and district magistrates of Delhi and NCR towns for not restricting the sale and use of conventional firecrackers during Diwali despite a ban on them. Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi on Monday dared the BJP to go ahead and build the temple if it had the courage, and stop playing politics over it. Who is stopping the BJP? It should not resort to politics over temple. All want the temple there with mutual consent. The BJP should go ahead if it feels it can, she said, while talking to media persons outside the Bihar legislative council on the first day of the winter session of the Bihar Legislature. In the absence of both her sons Tej Pratap Yadav and leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejasvi Prasad Yadav, Rabri held the fort. Tej Pratap Yadav has been away from Patna ever since he filed a divorce petition. The matter of the Ram temple is before the apex court and no matter how much the BJP tries, it will not succeed in its plan. If it feels it can go ahead without the court verdict, it should do it. For the BJP it is just a poll issue that it is trying to play up again, as it did in the past, she added. The former CM also attacked the Nitish government over poor law and order in the state and for alleged scams. There are far too many issues to be raised in the House, she said, ahead of the RJD legislature party meeting to decide the partys floor strategy slated Monday evening. Before the session began, Rabri Devi and Nitish Kumar had come face to face in the chamber of Bihar legislative chairman, Haroon Rashid and sat next to each other for a while. Rabri had gone to present a bouquet to Rashid on the first day of the session, when she found the chief minister there too. Former Bihar CM, Jitan Ram Manjhi said that the temple was no issue. The matter is before the court and once it is decided in the court, it will be built. It is not an issue, but the BJP is desperately trying to make one, he added. BJP leader Ramnaresh Chaurasia, on the other hand, said that all political parties should join hands to build the temple at the designated spot in Ayodhya. It has to be built there only, he added. Union minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday took a dig at the Congress for not declaring its chief minister candidate in Rajasthan, which goes to polls on December 7. He was speaking at a press meet in Jaipur to release the BJP manifesto for the upcoming Rajasthan elections Congress is making a virtue out of division in the party. They want to keep six communities under illusion, Jaitley said in a possible reference to Ashok Gehlots statement that the Congress has not one but many chief ministerial candidates. When asked who would be the next chief minister of the state (between him and PCC chief Sachin Pilot), the veteran Congress leader and former chief minister of the state said in Jodhpur, now there are more in the running PC Joshi, Girija Vyas, Lalchan Kataria and Rameshwar Dudi. Gehlot said that even Ajmer MP Raghu Sharm was a contender. He heads the campaign committee and is a strong contender, he added The Congress added to the leadership suspense in the state by fielding Gehlot and Pilot, both strong contenders for the CM post. Leaders from former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are discussing a seat-sharing formula with potential allies that could bring nearly half-adozen parties together against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar ahead of next years Lok Sabha elections, according to two leaders familiar with the matter. The Congress and the Hindustani Awam Morcha of former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi are the RJDs current partners in Bihar. The RJD leaders cited above said the party has started talks with Loktantrik Janta Dal of Sharad Yadav, Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist-Leninist), and some others regional parties to broaden the alliance. We are ready to take a cut in our share to accommodate more partners, the first leader said on condition of anonymity. We fielded candidates in 27 Lok Sabha seats (of 40) in 2014. We are ready to settle for about 20 seats if that makes room for valuable allies. The remaining 20 seats can go to our allies, he added. The second leader, who also asked not to be named, added: We contested 27 seats and won four in 2014. We dont mind contesting fewer seat if that ensures we win more this time. The aim is to build a formidable alliance. The RJD was in an alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in the 2014 parliamentary polls, and left 13 seats for these two parties. The lone NCP MP from the state, Tariq Anwar, joined the Congress last month. The leaders said the seat-sharing agreement under discussion at the moment proposes one seat each to Sharad Yadav, CPI, CPI (M-L) and Manjhi. The first leader said the RJD is also keeping its doors open for Union minister Upendra Kushwahas Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, currently with the BJP-led NDA. Kushwaha, who has openly hit out at allies particularly CM Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi has given the BJP a November 30 deadline to finalise the seat-sharing formula for 2019. A BJP leader said Kushwaha has been informally told that he may get two seats in the NDA alliance, down from three seats an offer that Kushwaha is not happy with. The ongoing trade war between China and the U.S. is pushing the Asian powerhouse to sweeten ties with neighbouring India. Chinas refiners are considering the purchase of unprecedented amounts of Indian raw sugar, with a delegation visiting the South Asian nation next month to meet mill officials and inspect logistics infrastructure, according to an Indian official. Refiners may buy the sugar if prices are good enough, said Liu Hande, vice chairman of China Sugar Association. The potential sales come amid the tariff war thats prompting China to build stronger ties with other nations. The timing couldnt be better for India, where record output is forecast to boost domestic stockpiles. A deal on sugar would be the second such agricultural commodity agreement recently after China said it would import non-basmati rice, Indias ministry of commerce said. China needs to show its open attitude to trading partners, and is likely to purchase a symbolic amount in a show of good will given its trade spat with the U.S., said Zhan Xiao, a fund manager with Shanghai Buyun Investment Co. The volume may not be as big as India expects, especially given Chinas large state stockpiles, estimated as high as 7 million tons, said Shanghai Buyuns Zhan. China Sugar Associations Liu agrees, adding that theres a chance the government may not purchase Indian sugar as stockpiles are still quite high, and its looking to reduce inventories, not increase them, he said. Bumper harvest Chinas past actions signal that Zhan and Liu may be right. The country imposed high tariffs on imports in May last year to protect its local industry. Currently, sugar imports above annual quotas are taxed at 90 percent. We dont know how much import quota would be issued, or whether China and India would sign any agreement regarding low tariffs on imports, China Sugar Associations Liu said. Despite the tariffs, the incentive for India to become a regular supplier to China is high. A bumper harvest is set to lift India above Brazil to become the worlds number one sugar producer for the first time in 16 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With a glut on its hands and benchmark sugar futures sliding to a decade-low this year, the Indian government is giving mills financial assistance to boost overseas sales. Sugar stockpiles in India climbed to 10.7 million tons at the start of the crop year on Oct. 1, the biggest in a decade, from 3.9 million tons a year earlier, according to the Indian Sugar Mills Association. India plans to export 2 million tons of raw sugar to China, starting in 2019, the Commerce Ministry has said. An Indian entity has already contracted with Cofco International Ltd. to export 50,000 tons, and the country is positioned to become a significant exporter to China, the government said. We want China to issue import permits to its refiners immediately, said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd. TUNIS - Tunisian authorities denied entrance at the port of Zarzis to the rescue ship Sea Watch of the eponymous German NGO, said Chamseddine Marzoug, an activist and member of the Tunisian Red Crescent. Marzoug told local media that the ship is at the mercy of the waves about 20 miles off the coast of Zarzis, a city on Tunisia's southeast coast. Two Spanish NGO ships - the Mare Jonio of the NGO Mediterranea and the Proactiva Open Arms of the eponymous NGO - have been docked at the port of Zarzis since last Saturday for a technical stopover, and are currently remaining there due to expected worsening weather. Necessary amendments to the Representation of the People Act might be required to adhere to the Supreme Courts order for monitoring assets and sources of income of the legislators and his associates, officials told HT on Monday. A meeting comprising senior officials from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the Union government, Election Commission and representatives of state assemblies discussed this on Monday. A bench of justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer passed a judgment to this effect while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Lok Prahari, a Lucknow-based NGO against corruption. The NGO sought the top courts direction to make it mandatory for candidates to declare not only their income but also its source. The petition highlighted the issue of a sharp rise in the assets of some politicians between two successive elections. The apex court further directed the government to set up a permanent mechanism to monitor the accrual of wealth of sitting Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assemblies, their spouses and associates. During the discussions, participants felt that the implementation of the direction of the apex court may require necessary amendment in the Representation of the People Act, 1951 making such disproportionate acquisition of assets a ground for disqualification from the membership of the Legislatures, said an official. It was also pointed out that this Act is applicable only to the elected MPS in respect of requiring disclosure of assets and liabilities. According to House rules, MPS need to make such declarations within 90 days of their election to Parliament, added another official. Even as different legislatures have rules in this regard there is no provision to ensure compliance of the same. Besides, there is no provision requiring such periodic declaration thereafter. Also, there is no provision under any Act of Parliament or Rules of respective legislatures to disqualify members from the Legislatures on account of acquisition of disproportionate assets, said another official. Sipping tea at an eatery, Brajendra Singh, resident of Bihars Sonepur, idles most of his time away. The Sonepur cattle fair kicked off earlier this week and as over thousands of years, it is a colourful melange of richly bedecked horses, magicians, dancers and artists. Stricter enforcement of Indias Wildlife Act of 1972 in recent years has ensured that elephants, other wild animals and birds are no longer traded at the fair, which is held at the confluence of Ganges and Gandak in November and December. The state government of Bihar has introduced new attractions like martial arts at the event which is increasingly turning into a popular cultural festival which attracts hundreds of foreign tourists. But its not the missing wildlife or the inclusion of cultural events at the traditional livestock fair, that Brajendra Singh is morose about. The Centres ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals statutes, coupled with growing attacks by cow vigilante groups has robbed the livelihood of hundreds of cattle traders and brokers like Singh: men who wait for 11 long months for the Sonepur fair, only to earn enough to sustain themselves and their families for a year and save a bit on the side. Over the last four to five years, the participation of cattle traders has dwindled so rapidly that at this years edition, the once popular cattle-broker, Brajendra Singh, has no business. Sonepur may be famous as Asias largest livestock fair, says Singh, but you will hardly find cattle here. Traders from several states, mainly Punjab, Haryana and Assam, who were regulars here, have stopped coming, adds another trader, Asharfi Rai. The fear of cow vigilante groups has prevented several farmers from sending their livestock to the fair. Even before central legislation banning the sale and purchase of cows for slaughter kicked into effect in 2017, several cattle traders travelling to the fair with their beasts were reportedly attacked and harassed. President Donald Trump added his voice to the outpouring of support for India and the condemnation of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai ten years ago, saying the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. Trump did not name Pakistan in the tweet he posted late on Monday afternoon, but the secretary of state Mike Pompeo, in his statement earlier, and Nathan Sales, the counterterrorism czar at the state department, had stressed the need for Pakistan to punish the guilty. President Trump, who has been tough on Pakistan, pointed in that direction. On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning! he wrote on Twitter. On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the U.S. stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. The attack killed 166 innocents, including six Americans. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018 The US also announced a $5 million reward earlier on Monday for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of any individual who committed, conspired, aided or abetted the attacks in Mumbai in 2008. The United States is committed to seeing that those responsible for this attack face justice. The Department of State Rewards for Justice (RFJ) Program offers a new reward for up to USD five million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual who was involved in planning or facilitating the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Pompeo said in a statement. Pompeo also said the US will call upon Pakistan, to uphold its UN Security Council obligation to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity. It is the third such reward offered by the US. In April 2012, the state department had announced rewards for information for LeT founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Hafiz and another senior leader of the group, Abdul Rahman Makki. In December 2001, it designated LeT as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Trump has also suspended $1.66 billion in security aid to Pakistan this year after accusing the one-time close ally of giving only lies and deceit in return for American assistance and steered it on to a watch-list of a world watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, that combats money laundering and terrorist financing. Watch: Nariman House memorial unveiled Just the previous week, Trump said in an interview to a television news channel that Pakistan has not done a damn thing for the United States despite all the aid it has received and went on to call them Fools!. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he (Osama bin Laden) was living there. On Monday, two Trump White House officials and Sales attended an event hosted by Indian ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna at the Indian Embassy to observe the tenth anniversary of the attack that had lasted three days and killed 166 people from India and 14 other countries, including six American citizens. Referring to Trumps tweets, Pompeos remarks and the presence of Sales and the White House officials, Sarna said, bilateral cooperation between India and the US in the field of counter-terrorism has perhaps never been more intense and at a higher level that it is today. India has welcomed Trump administrations unflinching focus on combating counter-terrorism, especially in South Asia and in Afghanistan, where the US has been long in search of a way to end its longest lasting war, which Pakistan has the ability to influence through its proxies among the Taliban. But Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been on the US radar also for it its actions and its many attempts to evade scrutiny with active encouragement from its local benefactors in Pakistan through fronts seeking to either promote humanitarian work (Jamaat-ud-Dawa) or a political philosophy (through Milli Muslim League). And the US has been relentlessly vigilant, outlawing the charity and political fronts of the LeT soon after they were launched. Make no mistake, said Sales at the Indian embassy event. Whatever the LeT and its proxies choose to call themselves we know who they are: terrorists. Union minister Jayant Sinha has responded to a differently-abled woman who had complained of alleged mistreatment by the security personnel at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSIA). Really sorry for the suffering that you went through, Sinha, the minister of state for civil aviation, said on Twitter. He asked officials of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which mans airports in the country, and Mumbai airport to redress the matter. The woman, Virali Modi had complained she had the most horrible experience while travelling from Mumbai to London on Jet Airways flight. She said that an insensitive a CISF woman security personnel asked her to stand up repeatedly after scanning her wheelchair. She kept forcing me to stand up and then she went on to say that shed lift me up and get someone else to pat my backside. After many denied requests, she lifted my leg up forcefully, causing a major cramp, she said in a series of tweets. The cramp was so painful, that my leg went into a spasm which made it cramp even more. I wanted to file a complaint about the way she treated me, but her senior was nowhere in sight. Is this how the CISF are trained? she complained. Virali also said that every other international airport has chemical strips to check the wheelchair and shoes so that a disabled passenger doesnt need to get out of their wheelchair and questioned why such a facility was not available in Mumbai international airport. Sinha had tagged #AirSewa in his response. Air Sewa is a digital platform launched by the aviation ministry for improved traveller experience for passengers. Yeh Modi ji ka chunav nahin hai [this is not Narendra Modis election], says a government official in Madhya Pradeshs Morena district five days before the region goes to the polls on November 28. In almost every state election since 2014 where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been an important player, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come out either as the opener who has set the stage for a successful innings, or as a late-order batsman who has swung the match for his team. His strike rate has been high. The Madhya Pradesh elections could well be the first where either Modi is not a prominent factor, or at best, delivers mixed results. The focus is primarily on state leaders, but even here there is a puzzle. The BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with his carefully cultivated image of Mamaji (uncle), bestowing welfare on the population enjoys goodwill. But it is not clear whether this will translate to support for local candidates battling anti-incumbency. On the other side of the fence, the Congress has three leaders. Anecdotal evidence from travels across all major regions in the state Malwa-Nimar, Vindhya, Mahakoshal, and Gwalior-Chambal suggests that most popular within the party fold is Jyotiraditya Scindia. This is true for both, the wider public as well as the younger voter who may have earlier been with the BJP. The state president, Kamal Nath, is less widely known in the public sphere since his politics has largely revolved around Delhi and his seat, Chhindwara, rather than Bhopal. And the least popular but most experienced in state politics, Digvijay Singh, has been kept in the deep background because his term in office is associated with poor governance. But most striking from the perspective of 2019 are the kinds of responses that Modi evokes indifference, support and criticism. There is one thing in common in all three: the PM is now being judged for his performance, not his intent and announcements. Read: Madhya Pradesh assembly elections: BJP banks on welfare schemes to retain core voters Local versus general At Modis Shahdol rally on November 16, two men came on their motorcycle from a neighbouring constituency to hear him speak. They were not particularly interested in CM Chouhans speech and appeared to have made up their mind to vote for the Congress. But they were keen to hear what Modi had to say. One of them, Dileep, a 45-year-old farmer, said: Modi ji offers something new each time. He is the countrys PM and so we wanted to come. Was his speech enough to convince them to vote for BJP in the state polls? No. He will not run the government in Bhopal. This is not his election. Back in the Morena government office, the local official offered an explanation for this phenomena. Voters are very aware now. They know the distinction between a local and general election, an election for Bhopal and an election for Delhi, he said. And that is why what happens on December 11 cannot easily be extrapolated into what will eventually happen in 2019. Click here to find out 2013 vote share of various parties Performance assessment It is inevitable in a political battle that the work of the central government, which is often implemented through state government agencies, is discussed. This is particularly true when both the state and Centre are ruled by the same party. Those who support Modi credit him for his attempt at rural transformation. Across villages, even his most strident critics admit that the government has worked on four key schemes rural housing, rural roads, toilets and distribution of gas cylinders. Bijay Chaudhary in Nauroli village in Sagar district tells fellow Dalits that this shows the BJP has worked for the poor. Dharmendra Thakur, a local BJP councillor in the districts Khurai constituency, claims that welfare delivery is Modis biggest contribution. Narayan Singh Yadav, a contractor in Morena, says that Modi has changed life in rural areas. In Boyera and Gopalpura villages in Jhabua, tribals acknowledge that money has come into their accounts for housing. Also Read: Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2018: BJP did nothing for farmers, says Rahul Gandhi But there are also robust voices critiquing Modi from across communities. When asked about the rural welfare delivery, Satyendra Pariyar of Narsinghpurs Kathgodiya village says, A gas cylinder is now more than 1,000 and so people are returning to their old ways of cooking. For houses, even though the government has promised 150,000, not all the money comes into the account. There is still corruption. And can you really make toilets for 12,000 now? Amit, a driver in Bhopal, says the PM is actually taking away votes from the BJP this time around. He did demonetisation. He did GST [Goods and Services Tax]. Chouhan has to carry the baggage of his unpopular policies. The Centre has done little for us who belong to the lower middle class. In Shivpuris Kolaras assembly, a group of Yadav men concur. He [Modi] now says the same thing again and again. But look at the delivery. Where are the jobs? Across MP, people are migrating for jobs, says one of them. It is in these diverse voices that a pattern can be discerned, both for the current election and the Lok Sabha election. Modi is not the decisive factor in Madhya Pradesh as voters make up their mind this time around. For 2019, his four key flagship projects housing, toilets, gas, roads have expanded support. But the perception that jobs have not been created and economic environment is not bright has eroded support. For complete coverage of Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election 2018, click here The government agricultural mandi in Gunnour Assembly Constituency (AC) in Panna district in Madhya Pradesh has two large sheds. One can see from a distance that one is more crowded with both people and grain than the other. The reason becomes clear when one goes closer. The emptier shed has two groups of farmers with the same product: black urad. They have come to sell it under the Bhavantar scheme of the state government. However, there is a vast difference in their fortunes now. One groups product has passed the quality control test of the procuring officials, while the others hasnt. It has slightly higher soil content per unit weight. It cannot be filtered out, because soil particles are often the same size as the dal. The latter group is devastated. Bhavantar gives Rs 5,600 per quintal while the mandi prices are as low as Rs 3,500 per quintal. A farmer who came with a fully loaded tractor is potentially staring at a loss of more than Rs 50,000. Thats a lot of money. The crowded shed is full of farmers who now await private buyers to sell their crop at much lower prices. Even farmers whose crops are accepted will have to wait for some time (sometimes weeks, and some say even months) before they get the payment directly in their bank accounts. This delay matters a lot for small farmers, who have very little capital and need to pay for other expenses including the cost of transportation to the mandi immediately. Travelling across Madhya Pradesh, HT hears other complaints from farmers. There are problems with the registration process for Bhavantar and rich farmers are favoured, says one. Private traders have artificially lowered prices in the market as they know that the small farmer has no other option but to sell to them, says another. This is not to say that Bhavantar or government procurement has not benefitted farmers. Things could have been a lot worse without the scheme. What is also a fact however, is that for each beneficiary, there are several rejected aspirants. That could work against the government politically. The average farmer in Madhya Pradesh is used to better times. That Madhya Pradesh has been one of Indias better performers in agricultural growth (in terms of the rate) under Shivraj Singh Chauhan is well known. One of the biggest reasons for this was Chauhans focus on irrigation. Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows that Madhya Pradesh doubled its net irrigated area between 2002-03 and 2014-15 (latest available data). This also led to a sharp increase in productivity. Madhya Pradesh has significantly closed its yield gap in food grains vis-a-vis the all-India average under the current state government. (See Chart 1) In almost all the villages HT visited, farmers were unanimous that irrigation infrastructure, including power supply, has improved significantly under the Chouhan government. Yet, they are not happy with the Bharatiya Janata Party this time. The price crash is to blame. Farmers recount how the prices they are getting today are only a small fraction of what they used to get earlier. This shows up in the data as well. CMIE statistics show that the average prices of soyabean, gram, garlic etc., all important crops in Madhya Pradesh, fell significantly in the post-demonetisation period. Cost of cultivation did not go down though. Labour, fertilizer, diesel etc. all of them have become more expensive. (See Chart 2) To be sure, the BJP supporters discount the hit due to demonetisation. But the perception on demonetisation is more uniform in Madhya Pradesh than it was in Karnataka, when this author visited the state before the assembly elections. Sitting in his small shop in the Jabera AC of Damoh District, Arun Singhai openly proclaims his loyalty to the BJP. His brother is a local leader of the party, he says. I have always voted for the BJP and will do so again, but it is also true that I used to earn more when the Congress was in power, Singhai told HT. In India, whether the farmer votes as a farmer, or as part of a larger caste group has always been a much debated question. The answer to this question will matter a lot in Madhya Pradesh this time. Elections are scheduled on November 28 and the results will be declared on December 11. A counter-question is warranted. Did farmers vote as farmers or caste groups when they rewarded Shivraj Singh Chauhan for his focus on agriculture? For full coverage on MP elections, click here. Sumaoli assembly constituency (AC) in Madhya Pradeshs Morena District went to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2013. Neetu Satyapal Singh of the BJP won the seat with 40% of the votes polled. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) finished second with 31% votes. The Congress finished third with 27% votes. When HT visited Sumaoli village, after which the AC is named, it found considerable anti-incumbency, as indeed there is across the state, one reason why the BJP has dropped 53% of its sitting legislators. To be sure, anti-incumbency is not the only factor which affects results. It generates headwinds for the ruling party, but the opposition has to get its act together to convert anti-incumbency into tailwinds for itself. Given that the BSP finished second in this seat in 2013, it should have a strong claim on this seat in this election. Yet, it is the Congress which seems to be gaining from this anti-incumbency. The reason is simple. Ajab Singh Kushwah, who was the BSP candidate from Sumaoli in 2013, has been fielded by the BJP this time. The incumbent BJP MLA is not contesting. The BSP candidate Manvendra Singh Sikarvar is related to Neetu Satyapal Singh, the incumbent MLA. The Congress has repeated its 2013 candidate, Adal Singh Kansana, here. Things are not very different in Dimani AC, also in Morena district. Dimani elected Balveer Singh Dandotiya (a Brahmin) from the BSP in 2013. The Congress, which had fielded a Tomar (Rajput), finished second. This time, the Congress has fielded a Brahmin, while both the BJP and the BSP have fielded Rajput candidates. When HT spoke to young Tomar men in Dimani village, they were worried that the Brahmin candidate could gain from the division of Rajput votes. The BSP factor has been generating much more attention in Madhya Pradesh this time, especially after its alliance negotiations with the Congress failed to materialise. Yet, the anecdotes above underline the hazards of relying too much on BSPs headline vote share numbers for predicting the 2018 results. A lot of BSP candidates are locally influential characters, who are amenable to contesting elections from a national party like the BSP, but not very committed to its larger politics. This does not make the BSPs politics very different from what other parties practise on the ground. Winning elections is not all about figuring out the local caste arithmetic. But a lot of it is. A careful analysis of the BSPs performance in Madhya Pradesh since 2003 supports this argument. The BSP has won 13 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh since the 2003 elections. Nine of these were on non-reserved seats, which means the candidate was neither a Dalit nor adivasi. This suggests significant reliance on votes from other caste groups too. Read more: Vote share in 2013 To be sure, the BSPs vote share in Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved seats was higher, albeit marginally, than non-reserved seats in 2008 and 2013. SC reserved constituencies have a higher proportion of Dalits in the total population. This suggests that the BSP might have some sort of a committed vote bank among the Dalits. When HT visited Sumoali, the BSP campaign vehicle was only doing rounds of the Dalit settlements to make announcements for a Mayawati rally and ignoring upper caste neighbourhoods. However, as the AC type-wise seat share analysis shows, this vote bank is not sufficient to ensure electoral victories for the BSP. It would have been one thing had the BSP enjoyed an overwhelming support among the Dalits in Madhya Pradesh but this is, at best, the situation in a few pockets in the state. Read more: Win map in 2013 See the chart above: BSP seat share and vote share by AC type in 2003, 2008 and 2013. The arguments given above are not meant to discount the BSPs political presence or how it will impact the 2018 election results in Madhya Pradesh. However, they do help us understand why the Congress and the BSP could not agree on an alliance formula in the state. The BSP as it works on the ground in Madhya Pradesh is very different from the cadre-based Dalit party it is perceived to be by most political commentators. For full coverage on MP elections, click here Campaigning for the 40 assembly seats in Mizoram, which goes to polls on November 28, ended on Monday evening and it is now left for the states voters to decide the fate of candidates. Mizoram has over 7,68,000 lakh voters (3,93,000 women) who will decide the fate of 209 candidates, 18 of whom are women. The state will have 1,164 polling stations across all eight districts. We had a good campaign and are hopeful. But non-availability of adequate funds for campaigning could affect our prospects. It is all up to voters now, said JV Hluna, Mizoram BJP president. While Congress president Rahul Gandhi drummed up support for the ruling party, the BJPs campaign witnessed rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and union home minister Rajnath Singh. Mizoram is the only Congress-ruled state in the northeast. It is also a state where the BJP is neither in power nor part of a ruling coalition. This poll is expected to see voting by nearly 11,000 Bru voters, living in six relief camps in Tripura. The Brus are a scheduled tribe who had fled Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic clashes. Efforts to repatriate them to Mizoram have failed. They can cast their ballots at Kanhmun village in the Mamit district of Mizoram, located close to the border with Tripura. Opposition to a proposal to allow them to vote in Tripura by political parties and organizations in Assam, led the Election Commission to set up a polling station at Mamit to ensure they cast their votes in Mizoram. The issue also led to the removal of a Mizo IAS officer from his post and the subsequent transfer of chief electoral officer SB Shashank. Forty companies of central police forces have been deployed across the state along with state police to ensure voting goes off smoothly. Nearly 10,000 personnel including polling officers will be on duty on November 28, said chief electoral officer, Ashish Kundra. For complete coverage of Mizoram Assembly Election 2018, click here Elections in Christian-majority Mizoram are usually quiet affairs, due to certain guidelines issued by the Mizoram Peoples Forum, a church-sponsored election watchdog. Like previous polls, the direct contest is between the ruling Congress (in power since 2008) and the Mizo National Front (MNF). But several others including the BJP, the National Peoples Party (NPP) and the Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM) could play crucial roles in the formation of the next government. The Congress and the MNF are contesting for all 40 seats while BJP has put up candidates for 39 and ZPM contesting for 35 seats. Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla who is contesting for both the Serchhip and Champhai South seats is among nine candidates who have filed nominations from multiple seats. According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) made public last week, nine candidates in the fray including CM Lal Thanhawla and MNF chief and former chief minister Zoramthanga, have criminal cases against them. Amid hectic activities in the ruling camp to finalise the Maratha quota and the Opposition demand to make public the report of the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes (MSCBC) on Tuesday, a senior minister said the cabinet sub-committee was considering 16% reservation for the community in government jobs and education, which will have to be finalised by the chief minister. The action taken report (ATR) on the recommendations of the report will be tabled in the legislature on Wednesday, while the quota bill is likely to be tabled. The committee met twice on Tuesday to discuss the quota issue. CM Devendra Fadnavis will finalise the quota only after a round of deliberations, said the senior minister. It is a political decision. We will have to grant more or less the same percentage of reservation [as granted by the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government, which was set aside by the HC]. If we propose a quota of less than 16%, Maratha outfits will target us. Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil, who heads the cabinet sub-committee, met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to brief him about the decision. He asked Patil to bring in the bill at the earliest. Uddhavji said the existing reservation should not be disturbed and decision on reservation for Dhangars, too, should be taken soon, said a Sena functionary. Meanwhile, the Congress-NCP sought to corner the government over the MSCBC report, as the meeting between key leaders from both the sides on Tuesday morning failed to resolve the stalemate. While Fadnavis pointed at section 14 of the MSCBC Act, which says the government should table annual report and action taken report, not making tabling of the report mandatory, Dhananjay Munde, Opposition leader in the legislative Council, quoted Article 340 of the Constitution that states tabling the report is mandatory. Former chief minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said MSCBC Act has mandatory provisions to make the report public and which the HC, too, had noted it in its order while striking down the reservation given by the previous government in 2014. The ruling parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena, have ordered their legislators to remain present in the House when the ATR is presented. Although the CM, on the eve of the winter session, announced that the report would be tabled, we realised that its findings and dissent notes by MSCBC members may provide ammunition to the groups opposing the reservation. Our intention is to make the reservation foolproof on legal grounds, said a senior BJP minister. In the dissent note, a member has stated that it is difficult to prove social backwardness of Marathas in the absence of comprehensive door-to-door surveys. No report can be challenged in the court, unless a bill is passed by the legislature. The legislature is supreme and debates inside the houses are not subject to challenge. There is no point in claiming that the revelation of the content of report will jeopardise the fate of the reservation. We had offered to cooperate with the government by all means, but they failed to take us into confidence, said NCP leader Ajit Pawar. The BJP has alleged the Opposition was raking up a non-issue for political gain. They are worried that we will get credit for granting reservation, as it will stand legal scrutiny, unlike the one given by them, said BJP minister Girish Mahajan. Maratha leader Balasaheb Sarate Patil said, Although the incumbent government has scored over the previous one in making the bill foolproof, we fear it may not stand the legal battle as it is over and above the existing reservation. Marathas should have been put in the existing quota of OBC, and then the limit should have extended. Amid the din over Maratha reservation, the state Assembly on Monday cleared a crucial amendment to the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of fee) Act that lays down fresh provisions to clear fee hikes in schools. Earlier, only the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) executive body, comprising parent representatives and teachers, had the right to clear the fee hike proposal. But the amendment allows school managements to hike fees either through the approval of the executive committee of the PTA or by a simple majority of parents of 76% of school students in unforeseen circumstances. These provisions will be applicable to private unaided and permanently unaided schools. The bill will now be placed before the legislative Council for approval, after which the amendments will come into effect. Also, in a first, parents aggrieved by the fee hike decision can challenge it, by moving the Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee (DRFC). The option can be availed only if 25% of the affected parents oppose the hike. Parents associations have termed the amendment pro-management, claiming it ignores their objections. Parent bodies want every parent to get the right to challenge or complain against fee hike. The amendment also allows school managements to charge a late payment fee with penal interest. Parents said this clause could be used as a pressure tactic to ensure there is no opposition to the hike. However, the government has reserved the right to decide the rate of penal interest. State education minister Vinod Tawde defended the amendment saying it had introduced appeal provision for the first time and laid down restriction on the extent of hike. Parents can approach DRFC against fee hike, which they couldnt do earlier. We cant allow every parent to approach DFRC against the hike, as it will become impossible for managements to run schools, Tawde said. The fresh provisions allow parents to know the fee structure for every Class and cap the hike to 15%, that too only once in two years. The minister said school managements will have to approach DFRC to get a go ahead for a fee revision done under unforeseen circumstances. The bill allows the parents to pay fees for the full or half the year. Through another clause, the state has also allowed the managements to declare standard-wise fee structure (from Class 1 to 10) at the time of admissions to the students or in parts. If the structure is declared in parts, fee structure for the remaining part has to be declared at least one year before the commencement of the academic year. Similarly, schools that dont declare the fee structure at the time of admission will be eligible to propose a fee hike which shall not be more than 15%. Move pro-management: Parents While the state Assembly on Monday cleared the amendment to the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of fee) Act, parents have termed the change pro-management. Anubha Sahai, president, Indiawide Parents Association, said the government has ignored all objections raised by parents groups while bringing in the amendment. It allows school management to arbitrarily propose 15% or even more fee hike under unforeseen circumstances by taking approval from not more than 76% of parents or PTA committee. This is a pro-management step. It is vague, with no definition of unforeseen circumstances, she said, adding parents groups from across the state plan to vote for NOTA in the 2019 elections to protest the decision. We are planning to challenge the order in the court. Parents are also not too happy with the provision that allows them to move the Divisional Fee Revision Committee (DFRC) only if 25% of them object to the fee hike. It is not easy to get such a big number, said Prasad Tulaskar, a parent who is embroiled in a fee battle with a Dadar school. Archana Shetty, a city-based parent, said, The government is not investing enough in public schools, while private schools only focus on making money. Where should the parents go? (Inputs from Ankita Bhatkhande) CAIRO - Catania is working with the Egyptian city of Alexandria on a unique twin city project that would include cultural as well as economic partnerships, in particular in the sectors of tourism, agro-business, fishing, and nanotechnologies. Sources in Cairo said there is a draft twin-city and cooperation agreement between the Governorate of Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city, and the Sicilian city of Catania. The initiative is the result of a roundtable discussion with private entrepreneurs and public figures from Catania organised last February 3 by Eugenio Benedetti Gaglio, president of the Italian Charity Society-Benedetti, as part of its work in relaunching relations between Egypt and Italy, sources said. The agreement comes following a similar one that was signed between Turin and Luxor regarding their shared interests in Egyptology in 2015, one year before the diplomatic crisis between Rome and Cairo. The English text of the draft agreement states that the two countries "wish to promote friendship, cooperation, and mutual understanding" and that Catania and Alexandria will "encourage" an "exchange of delegations and cultural activities", reciprocal "tourist flows" including with "cruise lines between the ports of the two cities". The text also states that cooperation will be encouraged in the agro-business and fishing sectors through an exchange of know-how and the creation of joint ventures. Collaboration and knowledge exchange will also take place in the sector of nanotechnologies, including with visits by experts in that sector as well as in the sectors of natural and cultural heritage. Article Six of the draft accord provides for "strengthening commercial and economic ties" between Catania and Alexandria through exchanges of delegations, and in particular between the chambers of commerce of the two cities through coordination of their participation in "relevant activities". The two cities will also make efforts in small and midsize business innovation. From unveiling a memorial at Nariman House to pledging to donate organs, the city on Monday saw various events paying tributes to the 26/11 terror attack victims. On November 26, 2008, 10 operatives of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), entered the city by sea, and carried out dastardly attacks at select landmarks, leading to 166 deaths. Israeli ambassador Ron Malka unveiled the memorial at the rooftop of Nariman House, one of the attack sites, which has a plaque bearing the names of the 166 victims. While senior officials of the Central Railway (CR) held an event at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, another site that was under siege, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao attended a programme organised by the Mumbai police at Martyrs Memorial in Marine Drive. School students and residents of Cuffe Parade along with local leaders held a march speaking about the importance of organ donation. Students of St Xaviers college held a march in the lane where police officials Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte were shot dead. A police officer spoke to them about the attacks, said Avkash Jadhav, professor of history at St Xaviers College. Meanwhile, Virar paid tributes to the four dogs Sultan, Max, Caesar and Tiger who were part of the police team during the attacks. These dogs, too, deserve to be honoured. They were at my farmhouse after retirement, which is why I thought it was my duty to honour them, said Fizzah Shah, owner of the retirement home for dogs. A man allegedly stabbed his former girlfriend with a knife in Ghaziabad and then attempted to commit suicide after she refused to continue their relationship as the accused got married to another woman, police said on Monday. Both were admitted to a private hospital. The woman was later referred to AIIMS, New Delhi, as her condition was serious, they said, and the man has been put under detention. Ghaziabad Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said the woman, a final year law student, had developed intimacy with the accused while attending his tuition classes. They wanted to get married but the mans parents had objected to it. The man got married to another woman four months back, he said. But even after that, the man kept on insisting that the law student continue their relationship, which she refused, Kumar said. On Sunday night, the accused reached the law students home to talk to her. During the conversation, he suddenly stabbed the woman with a screw driver and a knife multiple times, the SP said. On hearing the womans cries, her mother rushed to the room, but by that time the man slit his throat. The womans mother informed police following which they were rushed to a private hospital in Ghaziabad, the police officer said, adding that the man has been put under detention and is undergoing treatment. Besides working on pacifying party rebels in fray for the December 7 assembly election in Rajasthan, top Congress leaders and party candidates started the exercise to deal with candidates who play spoilsport, especially on minority dominated seats. The figures reveal that on 16 assembly constituencies dominated by Muslims traditionally Congress supporters around 125 of 382 candidates who have filed nominations, are from minority, which might act as spoilsport for party candidates. In 2013, there were 80 candidates from minority on such seats. The Congress candidates fate would have changed, if the rebel, other party or independent candidates had not contested. The margin of defeat would have reduced or at some places the Congress candidate would have won. Constituencies where Congress fields candidates from minority are Churu, Fatehpur, Kishanpole, Adarsh Nagar, Sawai Madhopur, Pushkar, Nagaur, Makrana, Pokhran, Sheo, Ramgarh, Kaman, Soorsagar, Ladpura, Tijara and Tonk. However, after 46 years, Congress for the first time has fielded a non-Muslim face state party chief Sachin Pilot. In 2013, maximum numbers of candidates from minority in fray were from Kishanpole (17), Adarsh Nagar (17), Kaman (11) and Tijara (6). In the nominations filed for 2018 elections, maximum are from Adarsh Nagar (39) and Kishanpole (34), and in the rest of the places, the numbers range from one to six. Congress candidate from Kaman (Bharatpur), Zahida Khan lost to BJPs Jagat Singh with a margin of 3,357 votes. In the elections, 10 candidates from minority in total bagged 8,207 votes. In Adarsh Nagar constituency, late Mahir Azad lost to Ashok Parnami with a margin of 3,803 votes candidates from minority received 4,556 votes. Read: Rajasthan Congress expels 28 rebel leaders including 2 former ministers ahead of Dec 7 polls Former health minister in Congress government AA Khan (Duru Miyan) was second runner-up and party rebel Fazal Hussain son of former congress minister Taiyyab Hussain contested from BSP, was first runner-up. The seat was won by BJPs Maman Singh Yadav he defeated Hussain with a margin of 37,994 votes. Similarly, in another constituency in Alwar Ramgarh, the Congress candidate Zubair Khan lost to BJPs Gyan Dev Ahuja with a margin of 4,647 votes other candidates from minority received 7,790 votes. In Tonk, Congress candidate Zakia was second runner-up, as the rebel Saud Saidi contested as independent and lost to BJPs Ajit Singh with a margin of 30,343 votes the margin of defeat would have reduced if Saidi had not contested. In Jaipur, minority dominated seats are Kishanpole, Hawa Mahal and Adarsh Nagar. After delimitation, the Congress from 2008 is giving ticket to minority from Kishanpole and Adarsh Nagar but lost to BJP with close margin infight and independent played spoilsport. The statistics reflect that had the rebel and independent from minority, which traditionally is a Congress voter, not played spoilsport, the partys number in the state assembly had been better. Congress spokesperson and Jaipur district President Pratap Singh said, These rebel and independents are BJP sponsored. Congress this time is alert and will make efforts that such things do not happen. BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said BJP has faith on party candidates and do not need to support any other. The candidates are selected on the basis of worker and voters, he said. For complete coverage of Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018, click here A Congress candidate from Telangana attempted self-immolation to prevent the police from conducting searches in his house at Kompally on the outskirts of Hyderabad late on Monday night. Vanteru Pratap Reddy, who is contesting from the Gajwel assembly constituency against Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was later arrested for obstructing the police from discharging their duties. No case has been filed so far, a police official said. According to Cyberabad Police, the Election Commission had received a complaint from TRS leaders earlier in the day that Reddy and his followers were distributing money to people at his Kompally residence. A team led by Balanagar deputy commissioner of police Padmaja went to his residence to conduct searches in his house following an instruction from the poll body. Read more: Vote share in 2014 Reddy and his family members resisted the teams entry into their house. He alleged the police were trying to intimidate Congress leaders and workers in the name of searches. There has been specific information that large-scale money distribution has been going at the farmhouse of KCR at Erravelli near Gajwel. I will give you a written complaint. Do you have the guts to conduct searches in his farmhouse? he asked the police. He said just because he was giving a tough fight against KCR, the chief minister was instigating the police to harass him mentally and physically. The police, however, tried to convince him that they were doing their duty under the poll bodys instructions. As the police insisted they would have to break into the house, Reddy asked his followers to bring a bottle of petrol and tried to douse himself with fuel. Police, however, stalled his attempts. Read more: Win map in 2014 Hundreds of supporters of the Congress candidate gathered near his house and started shouting slogans against the TRS government and the chief minister. As the situation turned tense, police took Reddy into custody and warned the party workers against obstructing them while they were performing their duty. After an intense search for over an hour, the police left saying they did not find any money or valuables at the house. Reddy sat on a hunger strike in front of the office of returning officer of Gajwel last Saturday, alleging that TRS leaders were tapping his phone and harassing him. He alleged the TRS was indulging in the large-scale distribution of money and liquor in the constituency. Gajwel Police arrested him and took him away only to let him off later. But Reddy got himself admitted to a corporate hospital in Secunderabad complaining of low blood pressure. The assembly elections in the state will be held on December 7 to elect representatives of 119 constituencies. The counting of votes will take place on December 11. For full coverage on Telangana, click here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two public meetings in poll-bound Telanganas Nizamabad and Mahbubnagar on Tuesday. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s state president, K Laxman, said Modi is also expected to address a big public meeting in Hyderabad on December 3. The schedule (of the address) is yet to be confirmed. Modi will arrive in Telangana as the BJP has intensified its campaign ahead of the December 7 assembly elections and amid speculation about its tacit understanding with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Follow live updates here: PM Narendra Modi to address rally in Telangana BJP chief, Amit Shah, addressed four rallies in the state at Parkal, Nirmal, Narayankhed and Dubbak on Sunday. He attacked the TRS for failing to fulfil its election promises and appeasing Muslims under its ally Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)s influence, singling out a state government proposal to give 12% quota to Muslims. TRS chief and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao hit back at Shah on Monday, saying the TRS will continue efforts to get quotas increased for Scheduled Tribes and Muslims. Yesterday, their president also came... He spoke that we will not let Muslims get reservation... Amit Shah... You will not be in power. It is not you giving (something) and we taking it, Rao said. For full coverage about Telangana, click here. Describing Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) as a by-product of the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the TRS and the grand old party were hand in glove with each other and their fight was a WWF match (a friendly fight). Modi addressed massive election rallies of the Bharatiya Janata Party at Nizamabad and Mahabubnagar. Speaking at Nizamabad, Modi said KCR had consumed the salt of the Congress. He was a minister in the UPA cabinet. Now, he is trying to hoodwink the people by criticising the Congress. In fact, the Congress and the TRS are playing a friendly match, he alleged. Read more: Vote share in 2014 At the Mahbubnagar rally, he said both TRS and Congress were family-ruled parties and were fighting a WWF match (friendly). And ironically, both were accusing each other of encouraging family rule, he criticised. While one family ruined the country by ruling it for four decades, the other family destroyed Telangana in its four-and-a half year rule, he said. The Prime Minister pointed out that migration of workers, which had been plaguing Telangana for the last several decades, was still going on even after Telangana formation due to lack of employment opportunities. Read: Congress candidate attempts suicide to prevent police search at home He also took pot shots at KCR for trying to portray himself as highly religious. He is in fact a superstitious person, who believes in astrology, vastu and mirchi-nimbu, he pointed out. Modi said he was glad that people of Telangana was rid of the TRS rule early. KCR does not complete anything. Projects were half-complete. His term too was half-complete, Modi said to huge applause from the audience. At Mahbubnagar, he came down heavily on MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi for saying that any party that came to power should depend on the MIM. Read: Telanganas Grand Alliance under strain as parties violate seat sharing deal Stating that Telangana had become a reality after long-drawn agitations and sacrifices by hundreds of youth, the Prime Minister said no politician should play with the state. Calling upon the people of Telangana to reject the Congress and the TRS, he reminded that the corrupt Congress had never been voted back to power in the states in which it was rejected once and cited Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Jarkhand as examples. People prefer Mulayam, Lalu, Mamata, Nitish, but reject Congress, he noted. The PM, who began his speech in Telugu, appealed to the people of Telangana to give a chance to BJP for development of Telangana. He lauded Telangana as the brave land that fought against Rajakars (during Nizam time). He lauded 13-year-old girl Malawat Purna who climbed Mount Everest and Mohammed Hussaiuddin who brought India medal in the Commonwealth Games. Interestingly, Modi made no reference to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telugu Desam Party (TDP), who have been the targets of the TRS leaders during the campaign. TDP, which severed ties with the NDA in March this year, is in electoral alliance with the Congress in Telangana elections. The Prime Minister also said that fraudsters had started running away after his government had started chasing them for defaulting bank loans. Four or five may run away, but we will confiscate their assets in India. We will attack the assets of all those who resorted to financial frauds, he said. 'Systematic torture, abuse by Jordan security, police' - NGO Abuses happen during arrest and detention across country (ANSAmed) - AMMAN, NOVEMBER 27 - Jordan security forces have been committing systematic torture and human rights abuse against suspects and prison inmates during arrest and investigation process and some incidents lead to the death of scores of victims, while the government often covers up for violations, human rights activists and family of victims said. Addalah Human rights organization published this week a detailed report citing scores of cases of torture in police stations and prisons across Jordan by police and other security apparatus, while noting the number of incidents has been increasing. During a press conference to denounce the practices, family members of victims spoke about ongoing torture, human rights abuse and cover up by police and other officials on the highest level. "The government has failed in its commitment to stop torture and to prosecute culprits, despite the fact that Jordan has joined the anti-torture agreement since more than 25 years," said the report that was made available to ANSA. An eye witness told ANSA her brother was tortured repeatedly for suspicion of possession soft drugs, resulting in his subsequent death, which officials blamed on terminal disease. "When I visited him in prison, his body was full of bruzes and he was complaining from pain allover his body. He told me police took turn to beat him up," she said. Another relative of a victim said her brother was killed by police a few hours after his arrest. "After a brief detention, the police called us to say he died, without giving explanation," while blaming the forensic medicine department for refusing to conduct an autopsy on the body. The report of Addalah centre pointed out that number of torture cases has increased, insisting that it has been taking place in "systematic manner." Activists say hundreds of torture cases go unreported or unproved because police often luck victims for prolonged period to abort any attempt of obtaining medical proof of torture. "Torture against these victims is illegal. Victims and inmates must have the right to hire lawyers and be shown to doctors," said director of Adalah centre, Assem Rababa. He said the cases of torture that were reported to Adalah centre happened during arrest process and home raids "without consideration of principles of the use of forcewhich is a fundamental breach to the law." Earlier this year, a family of a victim killed during detention took to the streets and refused to bury their son demanding official investigation and an independent autopsy is carried out. Police authorities on Tuesday issued a statement denying accusations of torture, while calling on family of victims to report cases of abuse to the concerned parties. "The report of Addalah should have also referred to the number of police who die during arrest of suspects," said a statement by the public security department. Human Rights Watch had previously published similar reports on torture in Jordan, reporting credible allegations of mistreatment, often amounting to torture while also noting that at least five prison directors personally participated in torturing detainees. (ANSAmed). Pakistans weapons are a deterrent to ensure that nobody looks at it with a bad eye as the country is facing a belligerent neighbourhood, President Arif Alvi said on Tuesday. Alvi was addressing the opening ceremony of the 10th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2018 in Karachi. We want peace, we have been striving for peace in a belligerent neighbourhood but we must stay strongOur weapons are for peaceful intent, he said, without naming any country. We are there to defend our country and that is what IDEAS is all about, he said. Pakistans weapons will be for defence, never for offence, he said without mentioning the countrys nuclear capabilities. When the paradigm is not in our favour, we also have a deterrent to ensure the fact that nobody looks at Pakistan with a bad eye at all. Alvi also appreciated the sacrifices of the Pakistan Army in the fight against terrorism and bringing peace in the country. Over 262 companies from from China, Russia, USA, France, Germany, Turkey, Poland and South Korea have established their pavilions at the EXPO Center to display their products, according to Radio Pakistan. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) Read more| Kartarpur Corridor a bridge of peace: Navjot Sidhu ahead of inauguration China has launched an investigation into the claim made by Shenzhen-based scientist He Jiankui on Monday that he has created the worlds first genetically-edited twins, triggering disbelief and criticism from the scientific community. The twins, Lulu and Nana, are resistant to HIV, state media reported, according to the claims made by the scientist. In a statement released late on Monday night, the National Health Commission (NHC), Chinas top health supervisory body, said it had directed local authorities to investigate the experiment and Hes claims. It was paying close attention to reports about the experiment, the NHC statement said. The statement said information about the investigation should be made public in a timely manner. The experiment was led by He Jiankui, an associate professor of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST)s Biology department. He claimed that his team had successfully altered the CCR5 gene of twins born earlier this month in China with a gene technology called CRISPR, known as the gene scalpel, people.cn reported. The CCR5 gene is the main receptor in the human body for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The news trended on Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, soon after it was published with thousands of netizens weighing in on the debate about tinkering with human genes. The news quickly gathered controversy after SUST said in a statement late on Monday that it is deeply shocked by Hes experiment and believes the work seriously violates academic ethics and norms. A large group of Chinese scientists too agreed about the risks. A group of 122 leading scientists from China condemned gene editing in a statement on Weibo, where they questioned the ethics and potential pitfalls of tinkering with human genes. Direct human experimentation can only be described as madness. The accuracy of the CRISPR gene editing technology and the off-target effects it brings are very controversial within the scientific community. There is a huge risk in any attempt to directly perform human embryo transformation and attempt to produce a baby before rigorous further testing, the scientists said. First reported by the MIT Technology Review and the Associated Press (AP), the reports said scientist He Jiankui had claimed to have altered embryos for seven couples. The scientist told AP that he had altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. United States President Donald Trump on Monday said security forces had to use tear gas at the Mexican border because they were being rushed by some very tough people but it was not used on children. Trump was replying to reporters queries at the White House over US Border Patrol authorities using tear gas at the Mexican border to repel caravans of illegal immigrants trying to enter the United States. We didnt. We dont use it (tear gas) on children, he said. They had to use because they were being rushed by some very tough people, and they used tear gas. And heres the bottom line: Nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally, Trump asserted. Read more: Clashes at US border leaves caravan migrants dejected, worried Over the past few weeks, Trump has asserted that no foreign nationals would be allowed to enter the country illegally and they would have to come to the US through legal process. He has deployed several thousand additional forces on the south western border with Mexico to prevent them from entering the country. The caravan of illegal migrants are mostly from three Latin American countries Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. But it also includes people from South Asia, including India and Bangladesh, local media reports said. Trump said he has asked Mexico not to let them cross the border. Mexico wants to see if they can get it straightened out. But weve, during certain time, closed the border. Theyre not coming into the United States. They will not be coming into our country, he said. Facebook Inc. knew that Russian-linked entities were using a feature on the social network that let advertisers harvest large amounts of data as early as October 2014, according to an internal email a U.K. lawmaker said he had reviewed. Previously, Facebook has said it was unaware of this sort of Russian activity on the social network until after the 2016 election. Damian Collins, head of a committee of British lawmakers investigating the impact of fake news, said he had reviewed an email from a Facebook engineer highlighting suspicious Russian-linked data harvesting on Facebook two years before that. Collins committee obtained the email after it compelled the founder of a U.S. software company, Six4Three, to hand over a large cache of documents during a business trip to London. The Six4Three founder had obtained the documents as part of a legal discovery process in a lawsuit against Facebook that his company has brought against the social network in California. Facebook said that the document cited by Collins was taken out of context. The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity, the company said in an email to Bloomberg Tuesday. Richard Allan, vice president of policy solutions at Facebook, said in testimony before Collins committee Tuesday that he would not discuss the documents, which have been sealed by the California court. Collins said his committee would not release the full cache of documents at this time. Lawmakers from the U.K. and other nations lambasted Facebook during the hearing for abusing public trust and failing to provide honest answers to questions about the misuse of user data. The lawmakers had wanted Mark Zuckerberg, the companys founder and chief executive officer, to appear as well, and they repeatedly hammered Allan over the companys decision not to send the CEO to testify. The committee laid out a place card marked Mark Zuckerberg, which remained unoccupied during the hearing. I have a role supporting my company as it tries to grapple with the issues we are discussing today and when we are trying to decide where senior officers of the company should be, we need to balance that out, Allan said in response to repeated questions about why he was appearing instead of Zuckerberg. Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus asked Allan whether Facebook had lost public trust and should now be regulated by governments. I am not going to disagree with you that we have damaged public trust in some of the actions that weve taken, Allan said. Allan said that Facebook would welcome clear laws globally around political communication and was willing to accept some further regulation. To the extent this is all clarified and we have a clear playbook to work from, that would be very helpful, he said. But Allan said the company had not violated existing laws or a consent decree the company had signed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission concerning users privacy. Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, a member of the Canadian Parliament, pressed Allan over whether a user signing up for Facebook could reasonably be seen as meaningful consent -- the standard under Canadian privacy law -- for the company allowing others to access that data. Our view is when you signed up for Facebook it was sufficiently clear that as part of the social experience that when you shared information with friends that they might share it on, Allan said. Erskine-Smith also asked Allan about whether the company ever sought to tie the purchases of mobile advertising to further access to user data. Allan said he was unaware of any such discussions and would have to get back to the committee with an answer. Six4Three allowed users to find photos posted of friends in bikinis. Facebook effectively shut down the app -- which was deemed creepy by the Silicon Valley trade press -- when it cut off third-party developers from the data users share about their friends in 2015. That was about a year after the same back-door channel allowed a Soviet-born American researcher, linked to Cambridge Analytica, to gather basic profile information on millions of Facebook users. Since the revelations in mid-March that Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political ad consulting firm, governments in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe have been grilling executives, industry insiders and whistle-blowers to understand exactly how much information the company collects on people and what they do with it. Cambridge Analytica and Nix have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions during U.S. congressional hearings in April, but has repeatedly refused to appear before U.K. lawmakers. The social networks chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, was sent to answer questions in April. Allans hearing comes about a month after Facebook announced it had hired Nick Clegg, Britains former deputy prime minister, to run its lobbying efforts. A former campaign aide to Donald Trump whose contacts in Russia set off an investigation over collusion in the 2016 United States presidential election began a two-week jail sentence on Monday over lies he told to the FBI. George Papadopoulos entered the minimum security unit of the Oxford, Wisconsin federal prison more than one year after pleading guilty in one of the first cases brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed. He was the second figure in the Mueller probe to be sentenced to jail, after Alex Van Der Zwaan, a London lawyer who got 30 days for lying about his work with Paul Manafort, chairman of Donald Trumps presidential campaign in 2016. Manafort meanwhile faces more than a decade in jail when he is sentenced in February on multiple charges related to money laundering and illegal lobbying. Papadopoulos was an obscure oil industry analyst when he joined the Trump campaigns foreign policy advisory team in March 2016. Based in London, he made contacts with what he believed were important Russian and Russia-linked officials, who through him offered the Trump campaign a meeting between candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. One, a mysterious professor Joseph Mifsud, also told Papadopoulos that Moscow had dirt on Trumps election rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. After an allegedly drunken Papadopoulos related the conversation to an Australian diplomat who passed the information on through intelligence channels, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a probe into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. Emails and testimony by other witnesses showed that Papadopoulos had repeatedly reported his Russia contacts and meetings to the Trump campaign, raising suspicions of collusion. One week after Trump took office in January 2017, the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos. During that interview, he lied about his contacts including with Mifsud, according to federal charges. On October 5, 2017, he pleaded guilty and pledged to cooperate with the probe. At the time, Trump branded him a young, low-level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. He was sentenced on September 7 this year after expressing his remorse that he lied in an investigation that was important to national security. But immediately after that, Papadopoulos declared he had been entrapped by US and foreign intelligence services and alleged that Mifsud was a CIA operative who was part of a broader campaign to damage Trump. I was framed in many ways, he said in an interview last month with Fox News, calling his Russia contacts completely orchestrated. He tried to delay his prison sentence, claiming in a court filing that the Mueller investigation was illegal, a claim Trump himself has made. On Sunday, a judge rejected that last-ditch move. In a major setback to jailed former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, a top court Tuesday ruled that a person jailed for more than two years cannot contest polls, effectively ruining her chance to participate in the December 30 polls. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson, who is convicted in two graft cases, cannot contest the upcoming 11th general election next month. She is disqualified from taking part in the upcoming elections, Alam told a press conference, hours after the High Court issued a rule saying persons jailed for more than two years even if their appeals are pending with the courts cannot contest the polls. The 73-year-old ex-premier is currently serving jail terms in two graft cases involving charities named after her slain husband Ziaur Rahman. She has been in custody since February 8, when Dhaka Special Court convicted her in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and sentenced her to five years of imprisonment for embezzling 21 million Bangladeshi Taka ($ 252,504) in foreign donations meant for the Trust. On October 30, the High Court doubled her jail term to 10 years. On October 29, a trial court convicted her in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case and sentenced her to seven years in prison and imposed a fine of Tk 1 million ($ 12,024). The High Court order came as the BNP, which boycotted the 2014 elections under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League (AL) government, was set to contest the polls in alliance with the newly formed National Unity Front (NUF) led by eminent jurist Kamal Hossain. The chief state counsel said even if Zia was released from jail before November 28, the deadline of filing the nomination papers, the Constitution would not allow her to contest the polls and she will have to wait for five more years after her acquittal to take part in the elections. As per Bangladeshs Constitution, a person sentenced to imprisonment for two years or above for a criminal offence cannot take part in an election unless five years have elapsed since his/her release. The two-judge High Court bench comprising Justice Mohammad Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice KM Hafizul Alam passed the order, rejecting separate petitions filed by five BNP leaders, including Zias adviser Amanullah Aman, seeking a stay on their convictions and sentences in graft cases. The Attorney General said, If the court allows them to take part in the next general election by staying their conviction, it will go against Article 66 of the Constitution...so the court scrapped their pleas. Zia was made vice-chairperson of the BNP, the largest political opposition of the country, in March 1983 after the assassination of her husband. She became chairperson of the party on May 10, 1984, a post she is holding till now. In her 35 years of political career, Zia went to the jail several times. During the 2007-2008 tenure of the army-backed caretaker government, she was in jail for about a year on charges of corruption. Israel has asked Pakistan to ensure full justice to the 26/11 terror attack victims on the 10th anniversary of the carnage in Mumbai carried out by 10 terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. About 166 people, including six Israelis, were killed in the terror attack. At a memorial event organised on Monday evening by the Indian mission here to mark the anniversary, Michael Ronen, Director, South & South East Asia Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel emphasised that it was important for the international community, especially Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators and facilitators of the ghastly attacks do not go scott free. It is important to provide full justice to the victims and their families, Ronen said, urging all governments, including the Government of Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators and facilitators of the attack are brought to justice. The Israeli diplomat also underlined that the objective of the attack was to cripple the Indian society, economy and culture, as well as the growing bilateral relationship between India and Israel. In this regard, the terrorist attack failed miserably as the Indian economy has continued to grow stronger, its culture remains invincible and bilateral ties continue to reach new heights, he noted. Also Read: US stands with India in their quest for justice: Donald Trump on 26/11 Mumbai attacks Asserting that terrorism can only be defeated by international cooperation, Ronen again called upon the Government of Pakistan to ensure full justice to the victims and their families. The event was attended by members of the Indian community in Israel, some Indians visiting the country and also Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, who lost his daughter Rivka and son-in-law Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg in the attack on Nariman House, also known as the Chabad House. The couples two year old son, Moshe, survived the attack thanks to a daring move by his nanny, Sandra Samuels, who risked her own life and rescued the boy by fleeing the building. Sandras pictures of holding the little boy close to her chest after escaping from the place touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world. She was later honoured with honourary citizenship by the Israeli government and now lives in Jerusalem. The ceremony began with observance of one-minute silence in honour of the victims. Indias Ambassador to Israel, Pavan Kapoor, speaking at the event stressed that the worst terrorist attack on the Indian soil should motivate the world to unite against terrorism and defeat the ideology of hatred. Kapoor pointed out that the planners and facilitators of the attack in Pakistan have not yet been brought to justice and, in this context, welcomed the statement of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Watch: 26/11 Anniversary: Nariman House memorial unveiled He expressed hope that other countries would follow the US lead and call upon Pakistan to uphold its obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including the members of Lashkar-e-Taeba and its affiliates. Rabbi Rosenberg said that the attack was not just against his family but against all of us who are one as a family. He further said that although 10 years have passed since the tragedy, his grandson who is a strong and good boy has painful memories of the event but still wants to go to Mumbai for his bar mitzvah, a ceremony performed for Jewish boys at the age of 13 that some Israeli scholars compare to the Hindu upnayana or the sacred thread ceremony. Rosenberg was very appreciative of the support his family has received from the Indian government and people, which makes him believe that it is a shared pain. I appreciate the government and people of India for the way they have stood by us and made us feel that it is a shared pain. We thank them for the relationship they have built with us, he said, recalling the familys trip with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Mumbai early this year. People can say and complain about all sorts of things like security lapse, etc, but we believe in the God. The feeling of oneness demonstrated by Indians is heartwarming and we appreciate it a lot, Rosenberg told PTI. Moshe celebrated his 12th birthday according to the Hebrew Calendar some three weeks ago and would turn 12 as per Gregorian calendar on November 28. Two clips featuring Moshes conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Netanyahu in Jerusalem in July 2017 and his visit, along with the Israeli Premier, to the Chabad House in Mumbai in January 2018, were shown during the event. In an emotional meeting with Modi on July 5, 2017 in Jerusalem, the young boy expressed his wish to visit Mumbai. I hope I will be able to visit Mumbai, and when I get older, live there. I will be the director of our Chabad House...I love you and your people in India, Moshe told Modi. Modi responded by saying, Come and stay in India and Mumbai. You are most welcome. You and your all family members will get long-term visas. So you can come anytime and go anywhere. Netanyahu had then promptly asked Moshe to join him when he travels to India, a promise he did not forget and the family accompanied him during his trip to India earlier this year. India issued 10-year multiple entry visas to Moshe and his grandparents to ease their travel to the country in August 2017. Modi is said to have personally followed up on the matter as promised to Moshe. Kapoor, along with Ronen and Rabbi Rosenberg also lit 25 candles in memory of the 25 foreign nationals who lost their lives in the attack. Authorities in Myanmar have seized a boat carrying 93 people, apparently Rohingya Muslims, fleeing displacement camps in western Myanmars Rakhine State and hoping to reach Malaysia, an official said on Tuesday. The boat is believed to be the third bound for Malaysia stopped in Myanmar waters since monsoon rains began to subside last month, bringing calmer weather, raising fears of a fresh wave of hazardous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers. Moe Zaw Latt, director of the government office in Dawei, a coastal town in southern Myanmar, said fishermen had reported a suspicious boat to authorities. The navy stopped the boat on Sunday and detained the 93 people, who said they had come from the Thae Chaung camp in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, he said. Thae Chaung is about 900 km (560 miles) northwest of Dawei and holds internally displaced people, most of whom are stateless Rohingya. They said they ran away from the camp. They said they intended to go to Malaysia, said Moe Zaw Latt, adding authorities were preparing to send them back to Sittwe on Tuesday. Photographs in media showed police standing by as passengers - many of them women in headscarves and children - huddled on the deck. The boat resembled vessels the Rohingya typically use to escape the apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine State, where their movements and access to services are severely curtailed. The U.N. refugee agency has said Myanmar must address the root causes of displacement, including the lack of citizenship for the Rohingya, who consider themselves native to Rakhine State. Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and has confined tens of thousands to sprawling camps outside Sittwe since violence swept the area in 2012. More than 7,00,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh last year fleeing an army crackdown in the north of Rakhine State, according to U.N. agencies. U.N.-mandated investigators have accused the Myanmar army of genocidal intent and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied most allegations of atrocities, blaming Rohingya insurgents who attacked police boats for sparking the exodus. Myanmar officials say they are ready to accept Rohingya who want to return from Bangladeshi refugee camps. But refugees themselves and aid agencies oppose a repatriation plan that was due to begin on Nov. 15, saying conditions in Myanmar were not safe. Myanmar detained 106 Rohingya men, women and children on a boat near the commercial hub of Yangon on Nov. 16, when their engine failed on their way from the Sittwe camps to Malaysia. Those people have been returned to the camps, along with another group of more than 80 people whose boat was seized off the coast of southern Rakhine last week also bound for Malaysia, according to an aid worker in Sittwe monitoring the boat movements. A migrant mother photographed running with her daughters from tear gas at the U.S.-Mexico border said she never expected the U.S. Border Patrol to fire gas canisters at children and families. After travelling north from Honduras and spending a week in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, Maria Meza, 35, set out on Sunday with her five children to claim asylum at the U.S. border crossing. She and hundreds of other Central American migrants were blocked by Mexican police and staged a protest in front of the border, some rushing the U.S fence. Three tear gas canisters shot from the U.S. side landed around Meza and her children, who range in age from toddlers to teenagers, she said in an interview at a Tijuana migrant shelter. Read more: Clashes at US border leaves caravan migrants dejected, worried The first thing I did was grab my children, said Meza. A photo of her clutching the hands of twin five-year-old daughters Saira and Cheili, as her 13-year-old daughter Jamie runs alongside, has gone viral and sparked angry reactions from some lawmakers and charities. I was scared, and I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas, said Meza. Her young son James nearly fainted when a canister landed near him. Meza fell and struggled to get up amidst the gas. A young man gave her his hand and pulled her to her feet. We never thought they were going to fire these bombs where there were children, because there were lots of children, said Meza, sitting in view of the rusted-steel U.S. border fence. It wasnt right, they know we are human beings, the same as them, said Meza. Read more: Donald Trump says he will close the Mexico border permanently if needed The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were struck by projectiles thrown by the migrants. Around 5,200 people who travelled in a caravan across Mexico are packed into the shelter in a stadium in Tijuana, living in makeshift tents. President Donald Trump has taken a hardline stance against the migrants, who have made their way north from violent and impoverished Central American countries. On Monday, he said Mexico should send them back to their home countries. The U.S. Border Patrol said most of those assembled at the border were economic migrants who would not qualify for asylum. I came here for one reason, and thats because there is a lot of violence in Honduras, said Meza, as her children played with empty tear gas canisters shot by the Border Patrol. Read more: Migrants not allowed into US until court approves claims individually, says Donald Trump The United States shut the crossing for several hours on Sunday and Trump has threatened to close the border entirely. If they close the border I ask God that here in Tijuana, or in another country they open doors to us, to allow me to survive with my children, said Meza. US President Donald Trump said Monday he expected to raise the punitive tariff rates on hundreds of billions in Chinese imports as scheduled next year. Just days ahead of a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump also vowed to put tariffs on all remaining imports from China if the two sides failed to reach a deal, according to The Wall Street Journal. Trump already has imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods -- about half of the total imported each year -- in an attempt to pressure the country to change its trade rules. If we dont make a deal, then Im going to put the $267 billion additional on, he told the newspaper, referring to the remainder of Chinese imports which so far have not been hit with tariffs. The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States. If he goes ahead with the additional punishing duties taxes it would include Apple products produced in China. In September, Washington slapped 10 percent duties on $200 billion in imports from China in an effort to get Beijing to reverse alleged unfair trade practices such as the forced transfer of intellectual property and massive state intervention in markets. The duties are due to go rise to 25 percent on at the start of next year -- something US companies and markets are hoping can be averted. Another $50 billion already faces 25 percent punitive tariffs. Beijing was hoping Washington would call off the planned increase as a result of this weeks meeting between Trump and Xi. Tunisian protests over Saudi prince Bin Salman's arrival Banners and placards with phrase 'Go Away Assassin' (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, NOVEMBER 27 - Hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets on Tuesday in the very central Avenue Bourguiba of the capital to protest against an expected visit by Saudi crown prince Mohamed Bin Salman. Many placards and banners were raised against it, with phrases such as 'Go Away Assassin' written on them. There were many Palestinian flags as well. In an open letter to the President Beji Caid Essebsi, the mayor said that he firmly rejected the visit by the Saudi crown prince since it was a "clear violation of the principles of the 2011 revolution". "Mohamed Bin Salman is a true danger to the peace and security of the world. He is the enemy of freedom of expression," said the letter, signed by the head of SNJT, Soukeina Abdessamad. The Tunisian National Women's Union (UNFT) has also said that it is against the visit. (ANSAmed). Catalonia: Cuixart challenges court in separatists trial Defense appeals to Otegi doctrine, alleged judicial bias (ANSAmed) - MADRID, NOVEMBER 27 - It may take longer than expected for a ruling on Catalan separatist leaders in Spanish jails. The defense team of Jordi Cuixart, the head of Omnium Cultural, has challenged all the judges of Section II of the Supreme Court, tasked with the trial of the nine jailed separatist leaders. Judicial sources quoted by the online daily El Espanol say that the request filed by Cuixart's lawyer, Marina Roig, is based on the doctrine established by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, with the recent sentence upholding an appeal by the former Batasuna leader, Arnaldo Otegi, in acknowledging that the judge of the high court of the Audiencia Nacional, Angela Murillo, able to condition the court, was not ''impartial''. Otegi had been found guilty of belonging to the ETA terrorist group and given a 10-year ban on public office in a trial in the Betragune case. The decision on the request, which was filed in addition to one against the head of Hall II of the Supreme Court, Manuel Marchena, will be made in the special hall 61 of the high court. (ANSAmed). M arylebone knows all about failed attempts to modernise mews houses. The main challenge faced by architects is to overcome their design negatives small rooms, poor light and low ceilings in properties originally built, after all, for humble servants. By contrast, newly built mews houses with open-plan spaces, double-height voids and lots of glass, can be spectacular. This is demonstrated by a terrace of five excellent new tucked-away homes that are part of The W1 London, the redevelopment of BBC Radio Londons former Art Deco HQ in Marylebone. A cathedral-style oak front door opens into a double-height entrance lobby, offering a fantastic sense of arrival. The stand-out feature of each home is a glass atrium and retractable glass roof for stargazing. Living rooms and bedrooms on three levels surround this central atrium, while on the top floor, a sky bridge links two sides of the house. There is a rear entrance linked to a car park, offering security and privacy. The project is by architects Dixon Jones also responsible for the Royal Opera House revamp and interiors specialist Darling Associates. Peter Wood, the insurance tycoon who made Direct Lines red telephone brand a household name, is behind the scheme. ISTANBUL - Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu told German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung that there is currently "no reason" that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan couldn't meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman on the sidelines of the G20 conference this weekend in Argentina. Cavusolgu said, however, that the final decision is up to Erdogan. He said that he had heard the audio recording of the assassination of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Riyadh consulate in Istanbul. "In the recording you can hear the forensic expert giving instructions," Cavusoglu said. "You can hear him saying that the others should listen to music while he dismembers the body. You can tell he likes it. He likes dismembering people. It's disgusting," Cavusoglu said. He said the Turkish government maintains that the assassins did not "act alone" but at the moment there is no definitive proof on who ordered the killing. Pipeline 27 November 2018 MEININGER Hotels has signed a long-term lease agreement with Altus Realty, the project owner and developer, for a hotel in Washington, D.C. Located at 35 New York Avenue NE in the NoMa neighborhood, the new hotel is scheduled to open at the end of 2020 and will feature 154 rooms and 616 beds. The hotel, with a gross floor area of 74,500 square feet, will be a newly built 13 story property. Staying true to MEININGER's concept, the room categories will range from classic double rooms to private and shared multi-bed rooms. There will be ample public areas on two floors including a large reception, lounge and bar area on the ground floor and a breakfast area, guest kitchen and game zone on the second floor. Learn more Pipeline 27 November 2018 Hilton (NYSE: HLT) has signed a franchise agreement with Goldenflamingo Ida to open The Emerald House Lisbon, Curio Collection by Hilton next year in the popular Portuguese capital. The Emerald House Lisbon will be the first Curio Collection by Hilton property in Portugal, joining the global portfolio of more than 60 one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts handpicked for their unique character. Upon completion of a multi-million Euro renovation, the property will boast 67 guest rooms, a fitness centre, restaurant and bar for guests and local residents to enjoy. The hotel will be situated in the heart of Lisbon, enviably near the Ancient National Museum of Art and surrounded by several embassies and Portuguese Parliament buildings. A few streets away are the historical districts of Chiado and Baixa, famous for impressive plazas, vibrant restaurants and boutique shops. Press Release 27 November 2018 The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the regions tourism development agency, is soon to publish a disaster risk management (DRM) guide for the regions tourism sector as part of its objective to foster a culture of preparedness in destination management. Advertisements The publication, which targets tourism businesses and policymakers, will help guide the tourism sectors preparedness, response and recovery from the multiplicity of hazards that impact and/or potentially threaten the region. The manual will provide guidelines for climate change mitigation and adaptation, showcase regional and international best practices in comprehensive disaster management, and present strategies for effective response protocols before, during and after a disaster. The current and future impacts of climate variability and climate change which includes an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, flood and droughts, among others, make it imperative that countries, particularly the regional tourism sector, be equipped to adequately prepare for, respond to and recover from climate related hazards, Amanda Charles, the CTOs sustainable tourism development specialist. The handbook, which is expected to be finalised next month and launched early 2019, is one component of the ongoing project, Supporting a Climate Smart and Sustainable Caribbean Tourism Industry (CSSCTI). This project includes a series of training workshops in disaster risk management and climate resilience, aimed as sharing knowledge and best practices on strategies related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as identifying sound DRM approaches, to enhance tourism sector preparedness, response and resilience to climate-related hazards. A team of consultants from the University of Technology of Jamaica (UTech) has been engaged by the CTO to produce the Disaster Risk Management Guide for the Caribbean Tourism Sector: A Practical Handbook for Tourism Business and Policymakers, and to facilitate the workshops - two days of training on DRM followed by a one-day training programme for trainers to help build local capacity. The target audiences are tourism practitioners and decision-makers from the public and private sectors, and representatives from key ancillary sectors such as air and sea port authorities and disaster management agencies who play a key role in tourism disaster management. In this first phase, five countries: The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Haiti and Jamaica are benefiting from this training, with workshops having already been held in the Bahamas, Belize Haiti and Jamaica, while the workshop for Dominica will be held in the coming weeks. Given the vulnerability of the tourism sector to climate-related disruptions, the CTO is pleased to deliver this training to our member countries as part of efforts to support climate sensitisation and capacity enhancement in disaster management. As we move towards realising the vision of an industry that is climate smart and resilient, we must make every effort to reduce the risks of climate change and related hazards by effecting the necessary policies and being trained to respond swiftly and efficiently to manage and mitigate risks said Hugh Riley, CTOs secretary general. The CSSCTI project is funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) through resources allocated under the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)- European Union (EU)- CDB Natural Disaster Risk Management (NDRM) in CARIFORUM countries programme. CDB recognises the enormous contribution of the tourism sector to the socio-economic development of the Caribbean and is pleased to support CTOs initiatives to promote a climate smart and sustainable Caribbean tourism industry. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report-Global Warming of 1.5 0C underscores that climate change impacts on natural and human systems have already been observed as a result of approximately 1.0 0C of global warming from human activities, and climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth are projected to increase with global warming of 1.5 0C and increase further with 2 0C. Therefore, building local, national and regional capacities of key tourism stakeholders is crucial to enhance resilience to climate-related risks and to ensure the sustainability of the tourism sector, said Dr. Yves Robert Personna, project manager ACP-EU-CDB NDRM programme. Other activities of the CSSCTI project include updating the Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework and producing a compendium of Best Practices in Sustainable Tourism; an ongoing regional tourism education and awareness campaign delivered through social media and a televised video series; and a feasibility study to inform the needs related to climate services in tourism. In addition, a regional workshop was held last month, which brought together hotel and tourism association executives and officials from ministries of tourism and tourism authorities from CTO member countries. The workshop facilitated the review and validation of the disaster risk management guide, the updated Caribbean sustainable tourism policy framework and other project related manuals, by the tourism sector decision-makers, which aimed to obtain their input, enhance awareness and foster utilisation of the updated manuals. The project is expected to be concluded by mid-2019. External Article 27 November 2018 According to Forbes, China currently has 637 billionaires, versus a tally of 563 for the U.S.; and the China-specific Hurun Report says that Apple, followed by Bulgari, are top luxury brands when it comes to gifting. When, therefore, Bulgari recently opened its first two hotels in China, they were both bound to be hot news. If you want to people-watch China's Millennial fashionistas, these are the hotels for you. Thanks to the brand's designers Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, and brand leader Silvio Ursini for cutlery and bedside lights you have Italian sleekness, incorporating just a modicum of Chinese elements. You have the best, if repetitive, Italian food, great wellness options, and more than enough mental stimulation through well-chosen books and memorable art. Bvlgari Hotel Beijing In Beijing and Shanghai, the hotels anchor new communities. Beijing's Genesis Urban Living, on the bank of the Liangma River, is in a gorgeous park that is landscaped to illustrate the five flow states of wu wei (play, pause, reflect, exchange, concentrate). The 119-room hotel is flanked by Genesis headquarters, and by a Tadao Ando building, opening in 2019, as the ultimate gallery of modern Chinese art. Press Release 27 November 2018 Since launching less than 18 months ago as Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:WH) first soft-brand, Trademark Collection by Wyndham is continuing its rapid growth around the world and raising its flag in Canada with a dozen recently signed hotels and resorts spanning the country. These additions five of which have opened doors in British Columbia and Ontario, and another seven set to open within the next year in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta, and Saskatchewan bolster the brands footprint on both sides of the Atlantic with the Trademark name now adorning more than 100 hotels in North America and Europe. Launched in 2017, Trademark is the first soft-brand geared to three- and four-star hotel owners passionate about upholding their hotels independent spirit and designed for everyday travelers seeking distinctive, attainable accommodations in sought-after destinations. Today, travelers can tap global, award-winning Trademark experiences like The INFINITY Hotel & Conference Center in Munich, Germany, and the HYPERION Hotel Basel in Basel, Switzerland, as well as notable American locations like the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Ky., Ravel Hotel in Long Island City, N.Y., and the Zermatt Utah Resort & Spa in Midway, Utah. This global momentum is a testament to Trademarks mounting appeal as one of the most compelling soft-branded offerings for independent hoteliers across the globe, said Greg Giordano, vice president, brand operations, Trademark Collection by Wyndham. These recent landmark additions, located in some of Canadas most coveted travel spots, underscore what it means to be a Trademark hotelunmatched character, charm, and individuality. These hotels are now backed by the global distribution power of a leading hospitality name in Wyndham, and a team passionate about driving more travelers through entrepreneurial hoteliers doors every day. Planting Roots in the Great White North Trademarks Canadian additions widen the brands presence in North America, joining nearly 50 hotels across the U.S. The first locations flying the Trademark flag in Canada include: Georgian Bay Hotel & Conference Centre, Trademark Collection by Wyndham, in Collingwood, Ontario: Located in one of the countrys most spectacular natural landscapes, the 94-room Georgian Bay Hotel & Conference Centre gives guests easy access to year-round outdoor activities, up-and-coming wineries, trendy boutiques and galleries, and award-winning dining in the heart of Collingwood, just 90 minutes north of Toronto Pearson International Airport. Recent renovations have transformed the hotel by infusing modern design, comfort, and enhanced functionality into its lobby, restaurant, on-site spa, indoor pool, standard guest rooms and nearly 9,400 square feet of meeting and event space, which can accommodate up to 400 guests. The hotel also offers customized leisure, event, and corporate packages. Located in one of the countrys most spectacular natural landscapes, the 94-room Georgian Bay Hotel & Conference Centre gives guests easy access to year-round outdoor activities, up-and-coming wineries, trendy boutiques and galleries, and award-winning dining in the heart of Collingwood, just 90 minutes north of Toronto Pearson International Airport. Recent renovations have transformed the hotel by infusing modern design, comfort, and enhanced functionality into its lobby, restaurant, on-site spa, indoor pool, standard guest rooms and nearly 9,400 square feet of meeting and event space, which can accommodate up to 400 guests. The hotel also offers customized leisure, event, and corporate packages. The Plaza Hotel, Trademark Collection by Wyndham, in Kamloops, British Columbia: Built in 1928, the 67-room Plaza Hotel in downtown Kamloops balances modern decor and conveniences with historic British Columbian charm. The renovated hotel is conveniently located just steps from the citys shops and restaurants, and close to popular attractions like Riverside Park and Exhibition Park. Complimentary hotel amenities and services include daily breakfast, wireless internet access, and access to nearby fitness and wellness centers. Further propelling the brands momentum in Canada are two recently signed franchise agreements bringing seven Trademark hotels to four additional Canadian provinces. Wyndham recently executed a deal with Advanced Lodging, Inc., for three highly rated hotels in Eastern Canada scheduled to open under the Trademark brand by the end of the year: Chateau Bedford in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Chateau Moncton in Moncton, New Brunswick; and Chateau Saint John in Saint John, New Brunswick, located just two kilometers (a little over one mile) from Wyndhams Canadian-based contact center. In Western Canada, another four Trademark locations will open their doors in 2019 in Alberta and Saskatchewan through a franchise agreement with Royal Hotel Group. Opinion Article 27 November 2018 There are already tons of editorials, research, market studies, and opinions about the relations between hotels and online travel agents, very often called the battle for direct bookings. The problem has been analyzed from many different perspectives, and even if the final theses are sometimes inconsistent, the whole industry agrees that no hotelier is winning this competition. To better understand the background, lets go back to the mid-90s when most of the big OTAs were starting their quest for the share of the online travel market. If we were to ask hoteliers who were already operational in those days, not many could confirm that a hotel website was customary. By website I do not mean the sites from those days even remotely resemble modern ones. Back then the typical site was nothing more than a static landing page under a hotels domain. At the beginning of the 2000s, the first providers of booking engines entered the market a sign that the hospitality industry was looking fervently at direct distribution. At a time when booking.nl was already on the market for ten years, offering a customer friendly business model based on commissions, hoteliers began catching up with OTAs. In comparison to the merchant system, this was a dream for most of the hoteliers who could pay a percentage of the selling price, AFTER the business was delivered. Despite that fact, more and more technology companies were entering hotel industry offering their reservation engines, at the same time educating the market. This process is still on as hoteliers do not ask anymore if they should have the booking engine, but which booking engine will work best for them. As Martin Soler puts it, direct revenue has unfortunately become a way to get attention in the hotel marketing world. The problem with such buzzwords being used and abused is that in the long run they sound like conspiracy theories. All one needs to do it say the words and suddenly they are no longer credible. There is inherent value in retaining control and a fair share of direct bookings. The most recent debate if hotels should obsess about direct or not is splitting hairs. Hoteliers should obsess about having a healthy distribution mix. That means a fair share of direct, OTAs, and other channels. Healthy distribution mix a concept forgotten by many, and while I could understand that independent hoteliers, with limited resources, staff and know-how could miss the point, its interesting to see, how painful this mistake was (is) for big players. A few years back we saw the attempts of almost all big hotel companies to shift the pattern from 3rd party channels to direct. We all have heard all those brave declarations about massive investments in technology and marketing to win back the control. Moreover, we also see that not many of them were successful. Its a very sensitive topic, as one of the most significant values hotel owners are paying for to hotel brands is the distribution. A few decades ago brands were the power of distribution. Branded hotels had an incredible distribution advantage over non-branded hotels. Branding a hotel was like plugging into a power line. Distribution systems were hardly known. Today things are quite different, travelers are more aware of distributors (the pipes) than the brands, adds Soler. Why is it so important to deal directly with the customer/ guest? For sure because of the costs, which are rising without any control from the suppliers side. Moreover, data, big data about guests habits, expectations, behaviors- anything that happens before and during the booking process, which ends with the reservation. Are all the faults on the side of the OTAs who misuse their power over hoteliers? Could hoteliers do anything better? When OTA brings the new customer to the hotel and charges the commission, I see it as a fair deal, as most probably a hotelier would not be able to acquire new guest for the same amount. However, if the customer already knows the hotel, likes the brand but still books through the OTA (generating commission cost) whos fault is it? Coming back to the present times Artificial Intelligence becomes a commodity, chatbots are taking our reservations and we check-in with face recognition solutions. The tourism industry is booming thanks to the healthy global economy, fueled by Chinese travelers, who are more and more eager to travel the world and spend their yuans. However, when talking to hoteliers about the development of the Chinese market, I feel like 15-20 years ago, while discussing the importance of online presence for hotels. Most of the inventory of European hotels sold to China is based on traditional B2B agreements with travel agents so primarily offline. Those rooms are later on loaded to Chinese reservation portals and marketplaces, but they are already out of the control of the hotelier. Everything a hotelier can see at this point is the reservation with the name of the guest, very often even without direct contact data - either phone or email. The situation with the Chinese market is even more complicated, as simple placement on the Chinese OTA needs a lot of effort and patience, mainly due to, lack of local support and the language barrier. On top of this hoteliers also face the connectivity issue, as not all Channel managers/ PMSs support Chinese channels. Take heed, the situation is not so hopeless. Elijah Whaley, CMO of influencers marketing agency PARKLU, explains we are finally starting to see an increase in long-term commitments between (hotel) brands and social media influencers. Long-term sponsorship relationships allow brands to become more synonymous with an influencer in the eyes of followers. Brands that negotiate long-term contracts often use influencers for promotion and as content creators for branded channels. Ultimately, its about finding novel ways to connect with customers while staying top of mind with quality social content. Most hoteliers still give away low pricing, brand, and guest relations. Even when there is coming to a group of Chinese travelers, they come and go without proper interaction with the hotel, either offline or online. Building a brand in China is even more difficult due to the language barrier, separated digital ecosystem, and entirely different applications. Complexity and level of complication make the whole attempt more expensive. However, do hoteliers want to give up the entire brand to third parties, like we used to see some time ago and then fight back? One would say, that Chinese market is currently just a few percents of their business- sure, but take into consideration the fact that its only 5-7% of Chinese who own the passport and just a fraction of it comes to Europe. What is the situation going to be, when the passport is held by 40% of the population (as in case of Americans) or 76% (like Britons) and they will like to travel to Europe more? Based on the UNWTO research, by 2030 China will account for almost a quarter of international tourism. What then? Is your hotel ready to forfeit 25% of the business and give it out to third partiesagain? Alternatively, should you instead learn the lesson and at least try to find out what are the chances to build your brand in China? What are the possibilities? How much could it cost? What tools are available on the market? And so on. One of the ways to answer all these questions is participation in industry events, and the next opportunity comes in January, when the conference Marketing to China takes place in Prague. Why is it worth to go there? learning the newest trends networking with the industry workshops& training about available technologies listening about the successful case studies getting new qualifications. Whom are the speakers you will meet there: Ashley Galina Dudarenok Matthew Brennan Elijah Whaley Joseph Leveque Jan Smejkal Michael Norris plus the representatives of the agencies, which successfully marketed to China brands such as: Hilton, Nike, Starbucks, Disneyland, City of Paris, Leading Hotels of the World, Air Canada and many more. This domain name expired on 2021-10-30 06:44:14 Click here to renew it. Opinion Article 27 November 2018 Staying innovative in your digital marketing strategy means staying up-to-date with the ever-changing digital landscape. From TripAdvisor evolving into a social travel platform with new research and sharing tools to Google Maps adding a follow button for businesses, learn more about the top things you need to know now in hotel digital marketing. 1. SEO: Google launches a follow button for businesses in Google Maps. Earlier this year, Google added a posting feature to Google My Business listings, allowing businesses to post updates directly to their local listing. Now, Google has added a follow button for businesses featured on Google Maps so users can subscribe to a businesss updates, which will display in a new tab for users called For You. In light of this new feature, businesses will be able to launch a Google My Business listing three months prior to opening, in order to build awareness and traction. Now hotels have a new way to engage with potential guests, keeping them in the know of spa or dining specials or driving awareness of new hotel openings on Google Maps, up to three months before the first guest sets foot in the lobby. 2. SEM: Google expands Exact Match to include close variants focused on query intent. Google has officially rolled out exact match to include variants that share the same meaning of the keyword, including implied words and paraphrases. Now, instead of focusing on the exact wording of the keyword, Google is focusing more on the intent of the keyword to potentially reach more users with relevant ads, even when the query itself might be worded slightly differently. In light of this change, hotel search marketers may be able to spend less time building out exhaustive lists of keywords for campaigns and more time analyzing search term reports for new and negative keywords once a campaign gains traction. 3. Display: AMP Story Ads come out of beta with Google Ad Manager support. AMP Story Ads are full-screen ads that appear directly within a Google AMP story to promote products, services, and content. Theyre now accessible to everyone with the Google Ad Manager. Hotel brands with a strong blog presence or editorial content hub can utilize AMP Story Ads to promote content to mobile users on the go. 4. Social: TripAdvisor goes social with personal ways for travel planners to connect and share advice. The new TripAdvisor expands its community beyond travelers to also include brands, social media influencers, publishers, and friends. Travel planners can now follow and connect with individuals or content creators who share information that is relevant to their travel research and interests. Complementing our more than 661 million reviews and opinions, TripAdvisor members will be able to create and view inspirational and helpful new forms of content including photos, videos and articles, TripAdvisor announced on their investor relations forum. Members will also have the ability to create Trips, which can be in-depth travel guides, itineraries, or simple wish lists of things to do while traveling. Trips can be made private and saved for personal use or shared with the community to inspire and help others. As TripAdvisor evolves more into a social community, theres potential for TripAdvisor to dramatically change the way travelers research and plan travel. While the impact of these changes remains to be seen, hotel brands should keep a pulse on these changes to find new ways to leverage in their digital strategy. HEBS Digital is currently developing best practices on ways hotels can take advantage of these new TripAdvisor features. 5. Design: Particle website backgrounds. Hotels with limited video assets that still want engaging animation throughout their web design should consider a particle background. Particle backgrounds are lightweight java script animations that allow movement to be created as a subtle part of the website background. This is a great way to make a website more exciting and interactive without overwhelming visitors. Opinion Article 27 November 2018 Group business is growing. According to American Express,1 group hotel rates increased globally 2.8 percent on average over 2017, with North America seeing the greatest increase, rising 3.5 percent. And we can expect those rates to continue their upward climb along with continued demand growth from groups.2 Unfortunately, many hotels are not capturing the full potential of this growth the average U.S. hotel occupancy rate hitting a 30-year high3 at 66.1 percent, while event space remained vacant a disproportionate amount of the time. Group businesses is a highly underutilized revenue source that should form an essential part of a hotel revenue mix. Groups provide leverage in pricing. And while leisure travelers may cancel on a whim, group business is sticky, operating in both peak and off-peak seasons. In addition, group customers spend more on ancillaries, have a higher propensity for repeat business, and often combine business trips with leisure vacations (bleisure). Today, 86 percent of event planners4 fall into the tech-savvy5 Millennial and Gen X categories, with the vast majority of them now sourcing venues digitally. And while CareerCast.com ranks event coordinators fifth6 on the list of most stressful jobs in 2018, you can make their and your sales team members jobs easier with the right tools. Advances in technology are revolutionizing the meetings and events industry by automating and streamlining formerly manual processes. By adding critical pieces to your group sales toolkit, your hotel will g gain exposure to your highest valued prospects and have real-time access to accurate group demand forecasts, optimal room rate suggestions, and more, enabling your sales team to respond quicker and convert more booked business. Win at the Law of Attraction The first step in gaining more group customers starts with awareness. As planners begin their preliminary searches for possible destinations, you want your property to be the first to enter their radar. To increase exposure, you need to be visible on every channel that planners are utilizing7 during this stage. So, in addition to optimizing your search engine results, you can employ a top-line planner sourcing platform, such as the Cvent Supplier Network, which instantly connects you with prospects while highlighting your hotels value and unique features. This simplifies the site selection process for the planner and brings you incremental business you would not have obtained otherwise. And once planners have nailed down their event destination, hotels still have a big opportunity to win the business because nearly half of all planners remain somewhat uncertain8 regarding specific venue. Implement software that allows you to target planners with customized and automated digital marketing campaigns that are more likely to convert. Manage Incoming RFPs Electronic requests for proposal (RFPs) have become the norm. And many group sales teams are overwhelmed with the volume of queries they receive, resulting in missed opportunities and delays in finding those diamonds amid all the rough. Approximately 70 percent of group business is awarded to first responders. Arm your sales team with integrated technology solutions that help prioritize leads and swiftly analyze group displacement, demand forecasts, and other market conditions to instantly suggest optimal pricing. Strong lead-scoring lets you evaluate leads by any number of factors, including profitability, availability, and propensity to spend, helping you determine in a matter of minutes versus hours, which leads are most worth pursuing. Group displacement analysis allows hotels to accurately calculate the true value of a group in comparison to other potential groups or transient business looking beyond room rates to examine total value, including food-and-beverage spend, meeting room rental, and all non-room revenue streams. Furthermore, with the right technology, hotels gain the ability to transform turndowns into bids by automatically recommending alternative dates if the primary dates arent available. Optimize & Maximize Oftentimes, hoteliers dont apply the same revenue management tactics for groups that they use for transient or leisure business. However, those who use Rainmakers group sales enablement solution, grouprev, can now quickly identify and convert the most valuable groups for their hotel while considering the propertys broader revenue strategy. Sophisticated algorithms allow you to maximize group room and non-room revenue by instantly optimizing group pricing with just a couple of clicks. The platform helps you maximize utilization of function space as well, and more effectively manage your propertys catering calendar. The convenience of the optimized pricing feature allows your sales teams to respond to RFPs and group leads more quickly and confidently as opposed to wasting hours or even days waiting for approvals and risking loss of the business. grouprev also helps you refine pattern management, allowing you to more effectively yield around transient business and better strategize around your optimal business mix. Hotels using grouprev see an average lift of 8.4 percent in group revenue, and an 11.5 percent average increase in converted group RFPs. Benchmark Yourself & Your Competition To achieve optimal success from your group business, you must fully understand your own performance. A solid solution measures your own key performance indicators (KPIs), patterns, and progress over time, while also providing insight into the whys behind the numbers. Rate your progress on metrics such as your bid, turndown, and conversion rates. Evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, your response times, and RFP market share. And determine your ratio of RFPs won versus lost. Once you have a clear view of your own group business performance, you can move on to see how you stack up against your competitors. How much market share do you claim? How do your soft periods compare with your comp set? Study group booking trends among your local and broader market. And identify your true competitive set, which is not necessarily made up of hotels within your local market. Advanced analytics helps you identify those hotels receiving the highest proportion of leads that your hotel also receives, no matter where in the world theyre located. By benchmarking your performance and your competition, youre better positioned to make informed decisions concerning where you need to improve and where to best focus your resources. Forecasting for Success Another critical tool to deploy in this journey is one that automates the process of generating accurate group business demand forecasts. While forecasting transient demand is commonplace, forecasting for groups9 is a relatively new concept. But an invaluable one. An accurate prediction of your group demand allows you to convert more, facilitating decisions regarding which group or transient business to accept for any given period. Accurate forecasts help you maximize room rates and the usage of your property function space as well, while optimizing operation expenses such as food-and-beverage ordering and staffing. Its possible to lose a group lead at any point in the process from sourcing all the way through to the actual event. Incorporating digital tools and software solutions can make a crucial difference. Partner with providers that will help your hotel sales professionals attract and convert the most valuable group leads to you grow your bottom line. With the right systems in place, you can dig deep into the numbers, monitoring your analytics and performance over time in order to continuously improve, ultimately claiming larger and larger slices of the group business pie. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser UK group Clean Bandit are getting ready to release a new album soon called What Is Love? which will feature guest appearances from the likes of Stefflon Don, Sean Paul, Craig David, Rita Ora and others. But before it arrives this Friday (11/30), the UK decides to liberate one last offering ahead of time called Out At Night featuring ATL legend Big Boi & KYLE. The catchy, uptempo record finds KYLE handling the soft & melodic chorus, while Big Boi adds some hip hop flavor over the poppy, dance-friendly production. It follows up the groups latest offering Baby featuring Marina. Available now on iTunes, take a listen to the new pop song and let us know what you think. Quotable Lyrics: Hey, baby girl is so nocturnal The fire in her eyes burning brighter than infernos The dimples in her thighs got me writing in my journal Let her know That this is forever just like my words are eternal, yeah - Big Boi It appears The Diplomats are on the wrong side of some backlash at the moment after they mightve crossed the line with their military look this weekend. The hip-hop group, specifically Jim Jones & Camron, reportedly wore a full military uniform this weekend on stage at their show at the Apollo in New York City, including what appeared to be real ribbons and medals. Well according to PageSix, many veterans took offense to the outfit and were not amused. I get performance art, and if you want to wear camo or a [costume] uniform, I have no problem. But if youre wearing medals and ribbons, its crossing a line, an insider told the media publication. Neither Cam or Jim JOnes have addressed the reported backlash, nor will they probably, but video of the performance has surfaced online, which you can see Camron and Jim Jones wearing the offending apparel. The incident is not the first controversy to follow the group on their current tour. Last week, it emerged that Camron called fellow rapper Kanye West an Uncle Tom in their new albums first song "Intro: Stay Down." Check out the clip (below). You'd have thought that after Heath Ledger's iconic and, unfortunately, lethal performance in The Dark Night, that maybe people would give it a minute before diving back into The Joker as the next tortured, wealthy star's exercise in method acting. First we had Jared Leto, the tactless muse of the creative director of Gucci, who gave us a jittery rehash of Ledger's iconic role, updated with some tattoos and a more punky style. Now, we have another actor trying to recapture the character's past glory (and agony). This time it's Joaquin Phoenix, who was photographed on set (see the photos here) wearing a suit that evokes the 70s in every possible way (just like Leto's pal in fashion): form the (Ron) Burgundy colour to the width of the lapels, to their accompanying peaks. According to Screen Rant, the movie will centre on the Joker's relationship with his dying mother during his time as a failed comedian. This premise, coupled with the inclusion of Phoenix is a foolproof formula for another serious and artistic movie (not to mention that this new universe for DC will be called something along the lines of DC Dark or DC Black). The movie is currently in production. To some, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's relationship define "relationship goals." Although they're both polarizing figures to the public, the two of them ride together and enjoy the luxurious lifestyle that they're able to afford. Kim recently took to Instagram to show off the private Boeing 747 jet that she and her husband were riding in. The Boeing 747 is one of the most, if not the most, luxurious private jets that one could fly in and KimYe boarded one last night. Kim gave fans a bit of a tour of what her and her hubby were flying in. "No big deal just taking a private 747. This is how [Kanye] does it now. Only 747s. Private. I've never even heard of this but whatever!' Kim Kardashian said on her Instagram Story. The private jet for their "long flight" came equipped with "bedrooms everywhere," bathrooms, and a dining room. Kim also shared a photo of Kanye West in the "Yeezy Floating Office." Image Via Instagram The double-decker private jet can seat up to 660 people, according to Refinery29 who recently spoke to CEO of Private Fly Adam Twidel about the Boeing 747. "The particular plane Kanye and Kim were on is privately owned. As such, we can only estimate as to the cost required to operate it, but it's in the neighborhood of $200,000 per hour. To put it in perspective, Air Force One is a 747-200, a slightly bigger version of the same model, and costs about $250,000 an hour to operate," Twidel said. Nicki Minaj has been getting ready to release the upcoming remix to "Good Form," tapping Young Money capo Lil Wayne for the endeavor. It's been a minute since we've seen new visuals from Queen, though the August-released album has no shortage of possible single selections. I was hoping for "Miami," but "Good Form" has undoubtedly emerged as a fan favorite. Though she's been steadily teasing the upcoming collaboration with Weezy, Minaj has come through with a teaser to the upcoming video, providing a glimpse into the ultimate creative direction. The clip finds Minaj reunited with director Colin Tilley, who previously brought the wonderous "Anaconda" video upon us; his catalog also includes a variety of Nicki visuals, including "I Am Your Leader," "The Boys," and "Freedom." Though Wayne is notably absent from the teaser, it has been confirmed that Lauren London, Evelyn Lozada, and both Shannon and Shannade Clermont will be starring. Look for this one to arrive on Thursday. Are you excited for a new collaboration between Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne? The two previously linked up on Queen's fourth song, the opulent "Rich Sex." Some of you are probably unaware that Will Smith was married before Jada Pinkett and that he had another son in his first marriage, named Trey Smith. While we haven't seen or heard a lot about Trey over the years, in comparison to Jaden or Willow, that changed on Tuesday when Will decided to take a moment out of his day and share some kind words about their working relationship. Will admits their relationship struggled for years, but as of recently theyre better than ever. It has not always been like this between Trey & I. We STRUGGLED FOR YEARS after my Divorce from his Mother. He felt betrayed & abandoned. It is a Wild Blessing to recover & restore a Loving Relationship with My Beautiful Son! he wrote as his caption. In addition to the words, Will also shared an moving clip reminiscing about their trip in Abu Dhabi at F1 where Trey acknowledge to Will that the two are best friends. He said you know what dad? He said I just realized. Youre not just my dad and he paused, Im pretty sure you're my best friend, Will said of the story as he reacted with a deep breathe and some tears swelling up in his eyes. Check out Wills moving post (below). Trey has since responded to it by saying Awwwww shucks i you too big guy. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqsdyB3hwzL https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqsf-TJFjwz YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. A senior official in the French Senate has been arrested on suspicion of spying for North Korea, according to French media reports say. Benoit Quennedey was arrested on Sunday night over the "collection and delivery of information to a foreign power", AFP news agency reported. He is being questioned by the domestic security agency, the DGSI. His Paris home and the home of his parents near Dijon have been searched, Le Parisien newspaper said. Quennedey is a senior civil servant and president of the Franco-Korean Friendship Association, Le Parisien reported. The Senate's presidency has declined to comment on the reports, AFP said THE CONCEPT Benjamin Berg, the owner of B&B Butchers steakhouse on Washington Avenue, opens a smaller, more casual restaurant across the street meant to recall cozy New York haunts J.G. Melon and P.J. Clarkes, both of which Berg frequented growing up in Manhattan. THE SPACE The 76-seat, shotgun-style tavern formerly the Caddy Shack has a front room with a large brass bar, a back room with booths and banquettes of tufted green upholstery and green plaid wallpaper, and a patio dotted with potted lemon trees. The design suggests a vintage restaurant: pressed-tin ceilings, green-and-white-checkered tablecloths, diner-style plates, framed photographs of Houston celebs and antique fixtures (a vestibule with a working public phone!). THE FOOD The unfussy menu, dished out by chef Eric Johnson, features traditional foods Berg loved at neighborhood bars in New York, with a few Houston-savvy twists. That means oysters, steak tartare and blue crab beignets to start, or cheesy French onion soup and New England clam chowder served in a bread bowl. Classic burgers and sandwiches (patty melt, lobster roll, BLT) and comforting entrees fish and chips, shepherds pie, pork schnitzel, falafel, corned beef and cabbage, all-day omelet round out the savory mix. For dessert? Cheesecake, root beer float, brownie with ice cream and a monster-size banana pudding that can feed a large group. THE DRINKS A short-but-sweet, fairly affordable wine list; a handful of beers; and a selection of cool cocktails courtesy of beverage director Monique Cioffi-Hernandez the Belle of the Ball has gin, lemon, lavender and bubbles, for example. ONE MORE THING In December, Berg will open a kid-friendly food truck across the street from his Carmelos Cucina Italiano, 14795 Memorial. The Ashford Dairy will serve burgers, fried chicken, fried clams and root beer floats. After that, hes planning to open a restaurant called Benjamin at The Star apartment building downtown. THE DETAILS 1809 Washington, 713-554-1809; bblemon.com. Open 11 a.m.-midnight Mondays-Wednesdays; 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays. greg.morago@chron.com twitter.com/gregmorago When Indias external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj requested a global celebration of the birthday of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, Houstons Raj Bhalla heeded the call. It touched my heart, Bhalla said. He listened as Swaraj explained that the year 2019 will mark the 550th anniversary of the birth of the first Sikh Guru, and that the Indian government has kicked off celebrations across the world, lasting the entire year leading up to the occasion. Bhalla and his wife Kanwal asked the India Culture Center to join forces in planning festivities in Houston. The organizations president, Nisha Mirani, jumped at the opportunity. Our whole board whole-heartedly agreed, she said. Its a great program and a great outreach. And Guru Nanak has good teachings that ask all people to do good deeds and live better lives. She explained that as a secular organization, the India Culture Center embraces holidays that highlight all member religions. A birthday celebration is planned for 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday at India House, 8888 West Bellfort. The event is by invitation only and is open to 250 attendees. We will have music, Guru Nanaks hymns and his poetry, Bhalla said. In addition, there will be guest speakers and a video of the speech from the Indian minister that inspired it all. Then we will have a nice dinner, with everything top class, Bhalla said. This is the most important holiday, because its the birthday of the founder of the Sikh faith. Bhalla, who is Sikh, told some of Nanaks story, explaining that when the guru was young, he refused to get into farming or business. Nanaks father gave him some money to begin trading with a neighboring town. His father thought that he would get a taste for profit, Bhalla said. Instead Nanak gave the money to help the poor. What can be a better bargain than to feed the hungry and clothe the naked? He did nothing but sing the praises of God, Bhalla said. He said that Sikhs are monotheists. We are all created by the same God, he said. Guru Nanak had three main teachings live honestly, share what you earn and meditate Gods name. In simple things, in simple ways, he taught the world. When Nanak died in 1539, he passed the baton to subsequent leaders. There were nine who followed him. The final Guru passed on the responsibility to the Sikh scripture known as Guru Granth Sahib, instead of to a human leader, Harjit Singh Galhotra said. Galhotra serves as secretary and on the architectural committee of the Sikh National Center, a new religious campus under construction on 20 acres at 7500 North Sam Houston Pkwy W. Our scripture is essentially a living saint, Galhotra said. We have full respect for it and sit below it. He said the Sikh tradition asks for respect for all, including women. Our first saint stressed this, Galhotra said. He asked, why look down on women, who gave birth to all the kings and rulers? All religions are respected, Galhotra added. We believe in freedom of religion, he said. We believe God is the same for all people. Different religions follow different paths but they all end up in the same place. Galhotra said Houston has the largest population of Sikhs in Texas. Hardam Singh Azad, chairman of the Sikh National Center, estimates that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 Sikhs in the greater Houston area. He has lived in the area since moving from India in 1962 and watched firsthand as the population rose. In the early 1970s, the Sikh Center of the Gulf Coast Area started. The Sikh center of worship, known as a Gurdwara, was the first to open in Houston. Sikhs have been in this country for more than 100 years, in relatively small numbers, Azad said. Its really been an evolution. He expects the opening of Sikh National Center to be an important next step in establishing the religions presence in Houston and said construction will be complete by late next year. There are already six Gurdwaras in Houston, which welcome all to learn more about the Sikh culture. Were devout people, but were totally attuned to local customs and culture, Azad said. He said that the American philosophy of all men are created equal, is perfectly aligned to Sikh ideals. In addition, the religion is centered on charity. If you are hungry, no one will ask you what religion you are, what caste or creed, Azad said. We feel it is our duty to feed you. If you need shelter, no one in the Sikh religion would deny it. He said the Gurdwaras started celebrating Guru Nanaks birthday on Nov. 23 this year. In Swarajs speech, she said that in todays troubled times, remembering the teachings of Nanak and his message of religious tolerance is pertinent. Azad agreed. Its important to remember every day, something taught in the Sikh tradition, that mankind is all one family, he said. Here's a real Houston story. Two of its central characters will come together Tuesday, November 27, on a stage at Rice University. When former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Susan, his wife, returned to Houston from Washington, I sought them out mostly to remind them that the agency known then as Neighborhood Centers Inc., founded in 1907 by Baker's grandmother as the Houston Settlement Association, was still delivering on her early commitment "that every resident of the city would have access to work with dignity, education and healthy surroundings." Settlement homes were welcoming centers for the newly arrived. Houston was busy welcoming newcomers in 1998 when "Jimmy" and Susan came back from their Washington work. My pitch to Susan was, "We're here. We need you. It's hard work. No glamour." She said yes, and began a friendship built on principles of service, help and generosity. She is that truly rare, unfailingly kind and tough leader. The Secretary, as I referred to "Jimmy" then, was always willing to speak, add his endorsement of events, write letters on our behalf. Then came a development that would change everything. In 2008, we had been working for some time with the Gulfton community in southwest Houston. BakerRipley coined the term "the new Ellis Island of the nation" for the area, and demographers picked it up. Houston was welcoming the world albeit haphazardly and without much self-awareness. Families were arriving daily from places gripped by misery and struggle. BakerRipley was firmly embedded in Houston's demographic transformation, having worked in the area for 40 years. We could trace the migration to Gulfton by following the pattern of misery and strife in the world. As Neighborhood Centers' CEO, I had been invited to meet with Justice Department officials in the early 2000s. "Great," I thought. "Resources, perhaps?" But the meeting was simply to inform me that Gulfton had the highest juvenile crime rate of any ZIP code in the country. I felt responsible, chastised and helpless. Though the Justice Department did provide a grant that would lead to valuable partnerships, our anguish about Gulfton's isolation and violence led us to seek better answers than simply curbing juvenile crime. We turned to our original roots as a settlement house. What would it mean to create an actual landing place in Gulfton? How might we expand the ideas of multipurpose centers that we had pioneered at Ripley House in the East End? Could we make a "village center" for Gulfton reflecting the aspirations of the people who were arriving hungry to earn, learn and belong? In the Gulfton community we had strong, hardworking and entrepreneurial folks willing to work for their dreams. We needed a prominent leader to help garner the resources to invest in this idea of a new kind of community center a place that would weave together multiple elements of strong neighborhoods and build on the strengths of the people. Susan had to say yes, I thought no one else could speak to this the way she would, and her involvement would give us the power of the Baker name and the gift of the couple's compassion. I was told they would never do it: "These are immigrants you're working with. The Bakers are Republicans." But those who warned me were wrong. Like so many generous, compassionate Republicans I worked with, the Bakers wanted effective programs that promoted opportunities. And they were not at odds with our desire to work with immigrants both documented and undocumented compassionately and effectively. Susan did say yes. As she led this challenging fundraising campaign through the financial meltdown of 2008 and the upheaval of Hurricane Ike, multiple Baker family members gave and spread the word. And Secretary Baker lent his considerable weight to our appeals. As the rest of the country's "thought leaders" woke up to the Houston story and began shining a light on the Gulfton project, James said to me: "I love watching people discover Houston through the lens of BakerRipley." My favorite photo of Susan and Jimmy was taken at the grand opening of the Gulfton site in 2010. I relished watching the two of them move through a crowd of people, some of whom had been in the country for less than a month. Courtesy One of the people discovering Gulfton was Roberta Achtenberg, who had led President Barack Obama's transition team for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A San Franciscan and longtime social justice warrior, Achtenberg saw Gulfton as the prototype for a better approach to neighborhood revitalization. The idea was not to displace poor people, but to foster belief in their worth and in their neighborhoods as vital places for investment. Achtenberg brought the Gulfton center to the attention of Obama White House officials looking for examples of holistic approaches. The administration had been energized by the transformation of a 10-block area of Harlem known as the Harlem Children's Zone. Its founder, Geoffrey Canada, had focused on education and had proven that a person's ZIP code did not have to be a life sentence. Obama was determined to see coordinated, neighborhood-level investment on the part of five federal agencies. While some disparaged his community organizer experience, it gave him a priceless perspective on the connections among neighborhood problems. He knew that no neighborhood has ever been transformed from a poverty trap to an opportunity springboard on the basis of just a school, or just a clinic, or just a jobs program, or just housing. Obama's team needed examples beyond New York City on which to base their Promise Neighborhood Initiative a new strategy for coordinated federal investment in neighborhoods. Imagine their delight in discovering an example of this holistic approach in a Houston program championed by respected regional leaders. As a part of the Promise Neighborhood Initiative, I was invited to the Obama White House four times the final time in 2013 to meet with the president. I got the invitation via email and had I not been sitting with Achtenberg at the time, I would not have believed it was real. About a dozen others, a mix of academics and community developers like Geoff Canada, were included in the meeting. Obama arrived on time in the Roosevelt Room. He shook each hand before he sat down. He stayed in his seat listening carefully for the full two hours. He interjected strongly only once. When the policy folks had been stuck in the problems, grinding away at the numbers for too long, he said: "I know we're here in a bubble. So I invite people like all of you here because we want to understand what's working on the ground. What's making a difference? What's helping?" Then one of his policy advisers said, "I really want Angela to tell about what they've done in Houston." I told him of our coordinated efforts at BakerRipley to intertwine more than 24 funding streams to craft a true landing place and connect people to regional opportunities. I told him that despite the fact that we largely (in Gulfton) served immigrants, all Houston's philanthropic leaders had come together to fund the creation of this five-building, four-acre site designed to extend warm welcome to Somalis, Colombians, Pakistanis, Cubans, Nigerians, Nepalis and even our newly arrived neighbors from New Orleans who had settled into some of the same apartment complexes. Michael Paulsen/Staff I was terrified. Breathless. Hopeful. I made a plea for more and better community college opportunities focused on mid-skills jobs. For continued focus on holistic approaches. As the president wrapped up the meeting, he shook hands with us one by one. When he came to me he said, "You remind me of Ann Richards." It was my "I can die now" moment. Tonight, Secretary Baker and President Obama will exchange ideas and insights before a Houston audience of 1,200 people. They're both formidable, powerful and intelligent; they're both human and imperfect. And they exemplify the dignity and selflessness of service. Tonight, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. It is a "think tank" of substance, far more useful and efficient than many of higher profile. It's a place where information gleaned by earnest scholars is forged into insights leaders can use to make more just and effective decisions that may well bring light and hope to millions. Angela Blanchard is President Emerita of BakerRipley and chairs the Committee on the Middle East as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Baker Institute. She is a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute of Brown University, where she lectures on disaster and displacement. She is a sought after presenter and consultant to city leaders on responses to inflows of people displaced by war or weather. Get the Gray Matters newsletter. It works on the ground. A Chinese researcher, assisted by a Houston professor, has created the worlds first genetically edited babies. The researchers claim, issued on Monday, triggered global outrage because of concerns the DNA changes would be passed to future generations and could cause harm. The experiment, unpublished and unverified, was intended not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to make the babies cells resistant to infection by HIV, said He Jiankui, the lead scientist. Michael Deem, a professor of physics and bioengineering at Rice University, worked with him on the research, which is banned in the United States. Rice has begun a full investigation of Deems involvement in the research, the school said in a statement Monday. Rice had no knowledge of the work and the statement added that regardless of where it was conducted, the work as described in press reports violates scientific conduct guidelines. Officials at Rice called the work inconsistent with ethical norms of the scientific community and Rice University. The research is also being investigated by Chinas National Health Commission and the Southern University of Science and Technology in the city of Shenzhen, where He holds an associate professorship. In a letter, more than 120 Chinese scientists called the experiment crazy and said it dealt a huge blow to the global reputation of Chinese science. The news was first reported Monday by The Associated Press, which said He revealed the work Monday in Hong Kong to one of the organizers of an international conference on gene editing that begins Tuesday and earlier in exclusive interviews with the AP. I feel a strong responsibility that its not just to make a first, but also make an example, AP quoted He as saying. Society will decide what to do next. The extent of Deems involvement in the work is unclear. He did not respond to a Houston Chronicle phone call and email. AP reported that Deem, Hes adviser when He got a doctorate in biophysics from Rice in 2010, worked with He after he returned to China. AP reported Deem was present in China when participants gave their consent and said that he absolutely thinks they were able to understand the risks. AP added that Deem holds what he called a small stake in Hes two companies. Deem is on the scientific advisory boards of the companies. The research involved the alteration of embryos of seven couples getting fertility treatment. The implantations produced one pregnancy, which He says resulted in the delivery of twins a few weeks ago. In a YouTube video, He says that two beautiful little Chinese girls named Lulu and Nana came crying into the world as healthy as any other babies. The boast did not win over many scientists, who said the field is not yet ready for such clinical experimentation and that the potential benefits arent worth the risks. Art Beaudet, a Baylor College of Medicine professor of molecular and human genetics, said he suspects the team was more interested in glory than whats really in the best interest of the families and the twins. He said changing one mutation in one gene carries the theoretical possibility of causing severe disability that might not be obvious for years, such as some kind of cancer. He said that its hard to justify how at this point, this work makes sense for couples. The risk-benefit is just not attractive. The American Society of Human Genetics released a statement, given the mornings reports of infants possibly born whose genomes were edited, reaffirming its 2017 position that it is premature to perform genome editing that culminates in human pregnancy. The paper notes 10 other global organizations with expertise in medical genetics, genetics research and genetic counseling share the position. The statement outlines scientific and societal steps necessary before implementation of the clinical applications of genomic editing is considered, such as establishing a compelling medical rationale and scientific evidence base, an ethical justification and a transparent public process to solicit and incorporate stakeholder input. It notes it supports publicly funded, in vitro research into potential clinical applications. Genomic editing is one of sciences most cutting-edge technologies, thanks to recent advances. A new tool makes it possible to operate on DNA to supply a needed gene or disable one thats a cause of problems. The tool has been used recently to treat deadly diseases in adults, when the changes are confined to that person. The editing of sperm, eggs or embryos is not allowed in the United States, except for lab research, because those changes can be inherited. Although some scientists questioned the veracity of Hes claim, Harvard biologist and genetics pioneer George Church told the online publication Stat News that hed been in contact with the team, had seen the data and the claims were probably accurate. Chris Scott, a Baylor ethicist, said it was only a matter of time before we saw a story like this. The genies out of the bottle, said Scott, associate director of health policy at Baylors Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. It escaped in 2015 when the Chinese first edited non-viable embryos, Scott said. Then Oregon researchers edited viable embryos under strict ethical guidelines and didnt implant them. This was the next step. Scott said one of his concerns is that attention to the event in China may cause other rogue scientists to perform the procedure. Though all the men in the experiment were infected with HIV and all the women were not, the editing was not aimed at preventing the risk of transmission, already small because the infections were heavily suppressed by standard HIV medicines Instead, AP reported, the goal was to introduce a genetic variation that makes it more difficult for HIV to infect white blood cells, protecting the child from ever contracting HIV. AP reported that Deem said he worked with He on vaccine research at Rice and considers the gene editing similar to a vaccine. That might be a laymans way of describing it, Deem told the AP. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A teen girl's plea to Mayor Sylvester Turner demanded that he make good on his pledge to stop campus violence after the third gun-related death of a Lamar High School student in a month. The email from 17-year-old Elizabeth Nelson-Fryar landed in the mayor's inbox hours after De'Lindsey Mack was gunned down a block from their River Oaks campus. The Nov. 13 note recalled the "emotional and mental pain" caused by the feared gang-related slaying of De'Lindsey Mack and the deaths of Lamar students Pierce Schwartz and Samuel Yeargain in an apparent murder-suicide that rocked the school less than a week earlier. Now Playing: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, center, Lamar senior Elizabeth Nelson-Fryar, 17, have a conversation regarding to school safety during a lunch meet with more than a dozen Lamar High School students on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018, in Houston. The meeting was sparked by Elizabeths letter to Turner that told him she was losing hope following recent shooting outside of the high school that killed one student. Several members of city officials and Houston Independent School District officials were also at the meeting. ( Yi-Chin Lee / Houston Chronicle ) Video: Houston Chronicle "I was at the student walkout at city hall last year where you spoke to us," Nelson-Fryar wrote, referencing the March for Our Lives rally that protested the lack of gun control after the Parkland High School massacre in Florida. "You told us we needed change, we deserved change. Where is that change, sir," she added. "We waited. We waited, and more kids, our friends and peers, died because of the wait. This is not the world we want to live in." The letter drew Turner's attention and on Tuesday led to a sit-down with Nelson-Fryar and about a dozen other student leaders to discuss how to make Houston ISD schools safer. One of the solutions Turner offered during the meeting was that the Houston Police Department had agreed to boost supplemental patrols to 10 HISD campuses, including Lamar the second largest school in its district. "We do care and we do hear you, and we are concerned about your safety," the mayor said. Turner spoke to the students for about 15 minutes before asking members of the media to leave the conference room so he could speak to the students alone. What the mayor said during that sequestered portion of the meeting, which lasted another half hour, was not immediately known. During the first part of the meeting, and in a letter he sent to Nelson-Fryar last week, he said the Commission Against Gun Violence he created after the Parkland shooting was still working to make their safety recommendations anonymous reporting, increased police presence, more mental health resources a reality. "We are working with elected, school and community officials on finding ways to implement these recommendations, and we realize that we must move quickly," he wrote in his Nov. 21 response. The Commission is slated to compile another report detailing unspecified "substantive changes" at the state and federal levels, Turner added. Even though the changes may not happen until after Nelson-Fryar leaves Lamar, she wrote in her email she was worried for her mother, who is a teacher, and her brother, who is studying to become an educator as well. After the meeting, Nelson-Fryar said she is worried for everyone. "I would like to have everybody in schools feel safe, whether that is the teachers, the students, the staff," she said. "I think it's really important for everybody to not be afraid to go to school, to walk home." For the River Oaks-area high school, November was deadly. The death of three students in less than a week left parents and their children on edge. Just days after Mack's death, worried parents met with district leaders to address security issues, and administrators promised heightened security efforts through the end of the school year. Recent crime statistics for the Lamar campus, for both all of last school year and since the beginning of this school year, were not available. In the 2016-2017 school year, however, the district reported 318 total incidents at the campus, according to the district's most recent disciplinary report released in January. Three of those incidents involved the use or possession of a firearm, and 32 involved fighting. Seventeen involved assault against non-employees or volunteers. The large majority involved violations of code of conduct and possession of a controlled substance, according to the report. Houston ISD interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said the district police department, which is currently understaffed, is working with HPD to pool resources and that new security measures would be implemented, without elaborating on what those precautions would be. In addition to Lamar, nine other schools will receive supplemental patrols, she said. She did not identify the other schools. "This not just an issue for Lamar High School," Lathan said. "It's a city issue." Mack's slaying has driven much of the conversation that is prompting the changes. The shooting occurred during the school day and caused a lengthy lockdown at Lamar and the nearby St. John's School. Mack was leaving school around 12:15 p.m. when three people, including a masked gunman, confronted him and a 15-year-old girl with him. His assailant opened fire on him next to the Bethany Christian Church parking lot, police said. After he collapsed, his assailant stood over him and fired more shots. The gunmen fled in a four-door, black Subaru with paper license plates and a plastic bag covering the back passenger side window, according to police. No known arrests have been made. The probability that gang activity was a factor in the slaying was high, Chief Art Acevedo said, although he wouldn't completely confirm that was the case. Acevedo, meanwhile, pointed to two gangs that are feuding in the South Side as a major source of violence in the city. "They're either going to have to start getting along better, or we're going to be flies on stink and they're not going to like it," Acevedo said. "It's coming." Mack's father and pastor both said that Mack himself wasn't a gang member. Instead, he cultivated a persona on social media that portrayed himself to be in a gang, leading to his death, they said. Police reports obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that Mack's mother lodged two complaints that her son was being threatened once in 2016 and once in April of this year. The earlier complaint referenced a gang member. samantha.ketterer@chron.com Twitter.com/sam_kett nicole.hensley@chron.com A Sugar Land businessman who literally made piles of cash manufacturing synthetic drugs at a rural ranch was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison Monday for operating a multimillion dollar kush manufacturing and distribution operation. U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller said in determining Muhammad Shariq Siddiqis sentence he factored in the defendants help in providing key information in an unrelated federal fraud investigation. But the judge also noted that Siddiqi had marketed his packages of chemical-coated leaves that resemble marijuana to children, using brands like Angry Birds and Hello Kitty. Miller sentenced Siddiqi to more than 11 years in custody to be followed by three years on supervised release and agreed to dismiss five other charges. Defense attorney Kent Schaffer told the judge he anticipated Siddiqi would be deported to his native Pakistan after he was released from prison. He also told the judge he had no intention of disputing that his client broke the law and knew he was doing so. Siddiqi, 49, who wore shaded glasses, was handcuffed and shackled in an orange jail uniform as he recited a written statement in a rapid-fire monotone. I would like to apologize to my family, friends for the pain and embarrassment that I have caused them, Siddiqi said. I am remorseful and I am humbled by what happened. The businessman expressed sadness at not being able to see his sons graduate. Siddiqis longtime girlfriend, Ayisha Khurram, who also pleaded guilty to involvement in the scheme, appeared in court shortly before his hearing. The 42-year-old mother lodged fairly new accusations that Siddiqi had burned her, attempted to blackmail her with nude photos and threatened her life. The judge reset her sentencing to Wednesday so he could ask Siddiqi about the allegations. Eleven other participants in the kush scheme are scheduled to be sentenced later this week, wrapping up an investigation into a dangerous street drug that caused dozens of overdoses in Houston. Siddiqi, the father of three children and four step children, got into the cannabinoid-making business as a result of his business holdings. Vendors visited the gas stations he owned and asked if he would be interested in selling the popular foil wrapped packets of the synthetic drug, his lawyer said following the hearing. They sold very quickly so he took on more product. When Siddiqi learned the drugs were made locally, he decided he would get in on that aspect of the business as well, Schaffer said. Siddiqi ran a kush lab at a farm in Onalaska that he co-owned with his mistress, Khurram. Federal agents intercepted a U-Haul van leaving that property loaded with 813 pounds of raw kush in plastic garbage bags. A special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration testified the haul could have been stretched exponentially to manufacture massive amounts of the smokable drug. When agents searched Siddiqis home where he lived with his wife and seven children, they found drug-making materials and more than $700,000 in cash, an amount his wife said wasnt particularly spectacular for him. Police were also tipped off to the kingpins cash flow when Siddiqis son began passing out $100 bills to his middle school classmates. At sentencing, the federal prosecutor said Siddiqis actions were despicable, and any plea for additional leniency for this head of household should be counterbalanced by the fact that he intentionally set out to market his drugs to young children. Khurram, his girlfriend at the time, pleaded guilty to supervising the workers in the kush manufacturing business. At her Sugar Land home, where she lived with her husband, police found synthetic products from China addressed directly to the house. Heriberto Medrano, the new defense attorney for Khurram, asked his client to show the judge her forearm, where Medrano said Siddiqi had burned her by holding her hand to a burning hot stove. He waved a thick manila envelope at the judge, saying it contained x-rated photographs of Khurram that Siddiqi threatened to use against her. The lawyer also said that Siddiqi crashed his car into hers and he took out a $500,000 life insurance policy for Khurram where Siddiqi was listed as the only beneficiary. Mr. Siddiqi had told her, This is what happens to you when you dont listen. This is how much money Im going to make from you if you disappear or someone kills you. This is how Im going to go ahead and punish you, Medrano told the judge. Siddiqis lawyer later explained the photos were from a romantic vacation the couple took to Dubai. Khurram paid installments on the life insurance policy which Siddiqi set up to protect her, the lawyer said. gabrielle.banks@chron.com YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. According to preliminary reports, two ethnic Armenians have been killed in the massive wildfires in California. One more Armenian is in the list of missing persons, Armenian foreign ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan told Armenpress. She informed that three homes owned by Armenian families have been damaged due to the fires. 203 persons still remain missing in California fires. Search operations continue. 88 people have been killed so far in the massive fires. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan The temporary tower was installed as part of the development of the Waikato Expressway. Moreover, WorkSafes investigation found that the tower was not safely secured for the work being undertaken on it. The company was found to have: Failed to develop and implement a safe system of work. Failed to ensure the tower was erected in accordance with the manufacturers instructions. Failed to ensure the competency of its workers on the towers. WorkSafes head of specialist interventions, Simon Humphries, said the sentencing should remind those working in the industry to ensure they understand and mitigate the many risks associated with that industry. The fact that tower fell in the first place is completely unacceptable, said Humphries. Translation: IATA llama a la cooperacion para impulsar los beneficios economicos de la aviacion en Colombia (pdf) Bogota, Colombia - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on the government of Colombia and aviation stakeholders to work together to grow the economic benefits that aviation delivers to the country. Speaking at Aviation Day Colombia, organized by IATA and the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), Peter Cerda, IATAs Regional Vice President, The Americas, said, Aviation supports over 600,000 jobs and contributes 2.1% to Colombias GDP. These are big numbers, but aviation could increase this contribution with a more accommodating environment. For example, in the Middle East region, air transport supports 3.3% of all employment and 4.4% of GDP. Cerda identified three key priorities to help increase aviations economic benefits in Colombia: Develop airport and airspace infrastructure Building capacity and improving processes at Bogotas El Dorado Airport should be a priority. El Dorado handles around 69% of the countrys traffic and is already congested. Investment in existing infrastructure can raise capacity to 40 million passengers annually over the next few years. Adding a third runway and a new passenger terminal could enable annual capacity to reach 70 million. Colombia also needs to continue moving forward with airspace redesign. The recent airspace redesign around BOG made it possible to achieve 90 or more operations per hour. This additional capacity should be tapped now, said Cerda. Additional capacity and efficiency gains can be achieved by a redesign of the rest of Colombian airspace including further easing of restrictions on use of the military-controlled Palanquero airspace. Opening this airspace up to commercial operations could generate additional savings of 12 to 41 nautical miles, equivalent to a daily saving of 15,000 kg in fuel and 46,000 kg in CO2. Reduce taxes and charges that raise the cost of air travel Colombia is an expensive place to do business. In fact, it ranks near the bottom of a list of 138 countries in terms of the cost-competitiveness of its fees and taxes, according to the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report. This has implications for air travel. On average, taxes and fees add $20 to a domestic one-way ticket and more than $100 for international tickets. The experience of Rafael Nunez International Airport in Cartagena demonstrates the economic benefit of reducing fees and taxes on air travel. In 2015, the airport slashed its airport fee from $92 to $38. The measure had an immediate impact: the number of international passengers increased by 26% and arrivals of international visitors to Cartagena increased by 38%. Embrace Smarter Regulation Principles The history of airline deregulation around the world shows that demand surges when airlines are freed from regulatory constraints that limit pricing creativity and flexibility, or that raise travel costs by punishing airlines with heavy fines for disruptions that are often outside their control. Recognizing this, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has adopted IATAs Smarter Regulation principles. As a member of ICAO, Colombia should incorporate these principles as part of its aviation regulatory process. These include: Consistency: Regulations should be consistent with each other and with global standards and best practices. Regulations should be consistent with each other and with global standards and best practices. Proportionality: Regulations should only be used when their need is demonstrated and should be proportional to the problems they are intended to address. Regulations should only be used when their need is demonstrated and should be proportional to the problems they are intended to address. Risk-Oriented: Regulations must have specific and well-defined objectives that respond directly to the problems identified. Regulations must have specific and well-defined objectives that respond directly to the problems identified. Fair and without distortions - The regulations must be applied in an equitable manner and not create discriminatory charges on any particular group. - The regulations must be applied in an equitable manner and not create discriminatory charges on any particular group. Clarity and certainty Companies should be provided with a clear understanding of the regulations, what is expected of them and given sufficient time to comply with any new requirements. The forces of the marketplace provide the best commercial discipline. An airline that does not serve its customers well today will not have many customers tomorrow. But passengers have shown they want choices. Many prefer a non-refundable ticket if it means a lower fare. And the airline can offer a lower fare because it has certainty the passenger will travel. Regulations that prevent airlines from responding to market demand have the effect of raising the cost of travel for all. Why not give passengers the choice and bring air travel within reach of more people? said Cerda. Air travel demand in Colombia is forecast to at least double over the next 20 years, with the potential for up to a fourfold increase in passenger demand. That means that under the right conditions, aviation could support more than one million jobs and contribute $17.2 billion to GDP by 2037. Now is the time to lay the foundations for that success by creating a more favorable operating and regulatory environment, said Cerda. For more information, please contact: Perry Flint Assistant Director, Corporate Communications Tel: +1 202-628-9444 Email: flintp@iata.org Notes for Editors: EU aquaculture aids sustainable fisheries in Cambodia by Pav Suy November 27,2018 | Source: Khmer Times As Cambodias population grows, so does the need for sustainable fish production and as yields from the wild decrease, the European Union is pushing for more sustainable aquaculture, a sector that is just emerging in the Kingdom. The EU-funded Freshwater Aquaculture Research and Development Centre in Prey Veng province, roughly 70 kilometers from the capital, is leading the charge. Spread over the swathe of 16 hectares of land, the centre has 69 fish ponds, three cemented reservoirs for raising frogs as well as prawns, and administrative and residential buildings to house 20 permanent staff and also visiting researchers and students. Before we only had a small population to feed, but now it has grown to 16 million people and natural fish resources are dwindling, Srung Limsong, deputy director-general of the Fisheries Administration, said during a recent visit to the centre by an EU delegation. Meng Sothai, chief of the centre, said it was initially set up to research fish breeding, but its operations were obstructed during the civil war. The centre was constructed in 1990 and was a revolutionary concept at the time, he said. Back then, it was well known among foreign interns who came to learn from us here, but everything was changed due to the war and it was downgraded to what it is today. However, in recent years it is now being redeveloped with financial support from the government as well as funding from the European Union, he added. 2018 Khmer Times Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. South Africa minister meets fishing industry leaders to discuss strategic fisheries matters November 26,2018 | Source: Devdiscourse News Desk South Africa's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr. Senzeni Zokwana, on Sunday 25 November 2018 met with the Captains of the Fishing Industry to discuss strategic fisheries matters such as the support for the implementation of the Small-Scale Fishing Policy (SSFP), the Fishing Rights Allocation Process (FRAP) for 2020, and transformation imperatives within the broader fishing industry. More engagements of this nature are to follow with different fishing sub-sectors and companies of different sizes, from small, medium and large. The Minister emphasised the importance of Government leadership and the need of continuous engagement with organised industry, especially captains of the industry in achieving some of the key government objectives, especially broadening participation of the historically disadvantaged individuals (HDIs) and historically disadvantaged companies (HDCs). After 1994 and the advent of democracy, the new government expressed the intent to overhaul the rights allocation system and transform the fishing industry, giving rise to the promulgation of the Marine Living Resources Act, Act No. 18 of 1998 (MLRA), which was to set the broad guidelines on how fisheries were to be managed and transformed. 2017 VisionRI Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. MPs call for new tech for fisheries data after Brexit November 26,2018 | Source: UK Authority A debate in Parliament on the post-Brexit Fisheries Bill was told that leaving the European Union, and, therefore, the Common Fisheries Policy, would allow the UK to break free of antiquated systems and turn boats into scientific vessels sending back data. During the debate, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was urged to follow the model set by Norway, Iceland and even the Falkland Islands. In those places, scientists monitor catches on a daily basis and vessels can be moved on at an hours notice if too much of a certain species is being caught. Scientists in the EU are currently in the dark about the scale of the damage being done to fish stocks by discards the part of the catch tossed, often dead or dying, back into the sea because the data is so weak and so old. Alistair Carmichael, a Scottish Liberal Democrat MP, said: The root of the disjunction between science and the industry is the fact that the advice that is given is often based on data that are very old almost two years old by the time they are used for decision making. 2018 Informed Communications Ltd. Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade. Irish fisheries sector encouraged by new Brexit declaration by Jason Holland November 26,2018 | Source: SeafoodSource Sean ODonoghue, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermens Organisation (KFO), has welcomed the latest Brexit declaration as having achieved specific acknowledgment and reference to the crucial issue of the linkage between access and quotas to the wider trade issue. Responding to the 36-page draft text, which is part of a package alongside the legal treaty on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, ODonoghue said that he had always maintained that the key to a successful fisheries outcome would be linking access and quota share to the wider trade negotiations. Paragraph 75 of the text states: Within the context of the overall economic partnership the parties should establish a new fisheries agreement on, inter alia, access to waters and quota shares. A new E.U.-U.K. agreement on fisheries would form part of the overall new relationship between the two. The sides aim to conclude and ratify their new fisheries agreement by 1 July, 2020. Building on the momentum of last weeks publication of the draft withdrawal agreement and outline political declaration, the KFO believes that the Irish fishing industry is relatively well-placed to avoid a disastrous hard Brexit. While we are quite encouraged by the documents we have seen to date, I said last week that strong foundations have now been laid, we cannot afford to take our eye off the ball. Weve begun well but were not even at half-time yet. We know only too well from experience that fisheries negotiations are multi-faceted and highly complex and much remains to be agreed," ODonoghue said. We firmly believe that the future framework for fisheries, after the transition period, needs to maintain the current levels of reciprocal access to waters and markets, as well as sound science-based fisheries management. The text presented to date takes the first steps to deliver on this and we look forward to productive negotiations in the near future. Irelands two biggest fisheries, mackerel (60 percent) and nephrops (40 percent), are hugely dependent on access to U.K. waters with the overall dependency for all stocks of over 30 percent. Therefore, maintaining reciprocal access to waters and resources need to be at the heart of the post-Brexit relationship in fisheries, given the historic ties and inextricable links between the countries and industries, ODonoghue said. 2018 Diversified Communications Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenia reiterates its commitment to the main idea of BSECs foundation strengthening of economic cooperation between member states, however it insists that it is necessary to maintain the economic nature of the organization, by avoiding unnecessary politicization, Speaker of Parliament Ara Babloyan said during the 52nd General Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) in Yerevan. Armenias Speaker of Parliament is the incumbent President of PABSEC. Despite the pre-election processes, we, as a chairing country, attach importance to BSECs coherent and non-disruptive activity, and it is on this very basis that we are holding a plenary sitting days ahead of parliamentary election. I am sure that the [next] parliament of Armenia will be actively involved in international activities, given the yearly growing role of parliamentary diplomacy. PABSECs particularity is that it is the single parliamentary organization having exclusively economic character. Armenia is interested in developing multilateral economic cooperation in the region. However, the main idea and priority behind the creation of PABSEC is the strengthening of economic cooperation between BSEC member states. Armenia reiterates its commitment to this idea and insists that it is necessary to maintain the economic nature of the organization by avoiding unnecessary politicization for the effective implementation of BSEC goals, Babloyan said. He said the PABSECs role is growing significantly because economy is a key factor in international relations. He said that sometimes economic relations create favorable conditions for developing a productive political agenda, which contributes to settling disputes. According to Babloyan, certain tensions existing in the region obstruct the deepening of economic partnership between countries. However, he argues that the strengthening of economic potential of the regions countries can be a good prerequisite for reacting to challenges and strengthening stability. He stressed that one should not forget that the great part of the most difficult problems are possible to be solves by developing honest, sincere and unbiased dialogue, while the inter-parliamentary cooperation and parliamentary diplomacy are among the irreplaceable tools for establishing it. Babloyan expressed hope that the Yerevan session will be another step in the direction of strengthening economic cooperation between countries. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan on November 27 received a delegation led by head of the Syria-Armenia parliamentary friendship group Nora Arisian, the Parliament told Armenpress. The delegation visited Armenia to take part in the 52nd plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. Welcoming the guests, Speaker Babloyan touched upon the historical past and traditions of the two peoples, as well as the effective cooperation in different formats. Coming to the regional issues, the Speaker said Armenia attaches importance to the security of Syria and its citizens and expressed hope that peace and stability will soon be established there. Ara Babloyan also highlighted intensifying active contacts and mutual visits between the parliamentarians of the two countries. The guests highly appreciated the bilateral effective partnership and thanked Armenia for supporting the Syrian people during difficult times. The delegation members also highly valued the role of the Armenian community in developing the Syria-Armenia relations, which has a great contribution to the countrys development process. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan The nation's most iconic brands all have staying power, but few can stick it out five generations like Carhartt, the made-in-America family business that's popular among everyone from roughnecks to Rihanna. "Few brands have been able to stand the test of time through decades of evolving consumer behaviors and at times an even more volatile economy," says Krista Corrigan, a retail analyst at New York City-based Edited. "Carhartt has not only managed to remain relevant, but has adapted and thrived in the changing environment.?" The story behind how this chameleon of a brand, which was doing an estimated $630 million in revenue in 2014, managed this feat is as much a testament to the value of craftsmanship and conservation as it is strategy and innovation. A funny thing happened in 1992 ... At the time, Carhartt was a little more-than-100-year-old blue-collar workwear brand founded by the Detroit horse-and-wagon salesman Hamilton "Ham" Carhartt. Its signature product, even more popular than its original sturdy canvas overalls, was a jacket: the Weathered Duck Detroit. The company sold it in mustard or navy blue 12-ounce cotton canvas, dubbed "duck," with triple-stitched seams and metal rivets. It hit at the waist to "keep your tool belt in mind." The jacket for a century had been a favorite outerwear of hunters, railway workers, and oil riggers. Then, in 1992, it showed up in the video for "Jump Around" by House of Pain. It was a shift, but not entirely diametric. The jacket had already made a more subtle entree into city streetwear. Drug dealers had by the late 1980s discovered its utility and sturdiness. "They needed to keep warm and they needed to carry a lot of stuff," Steven J. Rapiel, the New York City salesman for Carhartt, remarked to The New York Times. "Then the kids saw these guys on the street, and it became the hip thing to wear." By 1990, Tommy Boy Records, the hip-hop label, decided to use the popular jacket as a promotion, giving 800 of them to "taste makers." "It took off immediately," Monica Lynch, Tommy Boy's president, told the Times. Before long, the label signed the hip-hop group House of Pain, and, suddenly, the gear favored by large-animal veterinarians was jumping around. It wasn't only the appropriation by drug dealers and rappers that led to the cultural explosion of what had been, essentially, a barn jacket. In 1989, Swiss denim specialists and designers Edwin and Salomee Faeh struck a licensing deal with Carhartt in the United States to tailor the classic, sturdy clothes to a more streamlined skater aesthetic, and take it to Europe. What resulted was a line, Carhartt Work in Progress, or WIP, not just tailor-made for the city streets but also for editorial packages in all the glossy fashion and culture mags. Back in America, some of that European luster rubbed off on the brand. Carhartt didn't shy from it; instead it worked with fashion's elite, executing collaborations with brands such as A.P.C. and Adam Kimmel. The appeal couldn't have been more tailor-made if Hamilton Carhartt had sewn it himself: By the 2010s, a fresh wave of Brooklyn hipsters, whom some dubbed "lumbersexuals," were sporting Carhartt beanies and jackets. Skaters and hip-hop heads hadn't given up on it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it also got big in Japan. There's also a women's line. All the while, the steady, classic brand never lost its blue-collar appeal. It was, in this way, handy to politicians: Everyone from Sarah Palin to Barack Obama has worn Carhartt prominently, at rallies and campaign events. The blue-collar appeal is so strong that Esquire wrote: "These jackets are everything the American man aspires to be. They're tough as hell. They'll keep you extremely warm in the winter. They look good when dirty ... They're unpretentious, masculine, and completely non-BS." "Honest value for an honest dollar" These qualities can be traced back to Hamilton. Around the turn of the 20th century, Ham Carhartt began hand-sewing overalls after getting requests from railway workers. He used a half-horsepower electric sewing machine in a small Detroit loft--and by 1910 he'd grown his enterprise to a companplaceholdery that operated cotton mills in South Carolina and Georgia and four sewing facilities across the U.S. A distinctly hard-working vibe was infused into the whole operation by its founder. "Honest value for an honest dollar" was the motto. But after the company nearly crumbled during the 1929 stock-market collapse and subsequent depression, Hamilton's son Wylie became president in 1937 and debuted new outdoor lines of hunting wear. Wylie Carhartt's daughter, Gretchen, married Robert Valade--who took over the company's helm in 1959. He modernized Carhartt's production facilities, and began a private-label business, creating products specifically for department stores. The brand continued to grow, and gained popularity with construction and outdoor workers, who found the tough outerwear held up to harsh conditions. Word of mouth led to more sales, with help from major construction projects across North America, such as the construction of the trans-Alaska Pipeline, which commenced in 1975. In 1996, Hamilton's great grandson, Mark Valade, became president of Carhartt. Having grown up in the family business, he established new operations in Europe and a global e-commerce business. He transitioned to CEO in 2013, and in a sweep opened up dozens of Carhartt retail stores and a women's line--fully embracing its ability to cross borders, demographics, and tastes. This is how Matthew McConaughey dons a sand-colored Duck Detroit jacket throughout the 2014 film Interstellar and by 2018 New York magazine ponders: "Why can't I walk five blocks without seeing a Carhartt beanie?" To be sure, most family businesses struggle with succession planning; 70 percent don't make it to even a second generation, according to Margarita Tsoutsoura, the John and Dyan Smith Professor of Management and Family Business at Cornell's SC Johnson College of Business. However, at Carhartt, which is now onto its fifth generation--one family member is a web developer, another is in marketing--every generational shift has seemed to make it stronger, and that's helped further diversify its fan base. Perhaps some of the strength comes from the long-term view family-run businesses tend to take, says Carrie Hall, who leads Ernst & Young's network of family business professionals. A massive study of large family-run businesses the group conducted showed that the ability to make decisions based on a long view afforded such businesses many benefits. Editor's note: Inc. magazine's 2018 Company of the Year is Bird. Here, we spotlight a contender for the title. Seven lines of code--and a vision for democratizing online payments--served as the impetus for Patrick and John Collison to launch Stripe. Today, that code has expanded along with the entrepreneurs' vision for the now $20 billion company. Since 2010, San Francisco's Stripe has been helping businesses better integrate banking or credit card systems online. This year, the Collison brothers are doubling down on that mission--releasing a handful of products geared specifically at making transactions easier for entrepreneurs in both the online and offline world. "I think this is really the year when it became clear how the whole picture fits together," says Patrick Collison, Stripe's CEO. "We had a sense for where we wanted to go and what we wanted to build and really started." Leveling the Playing Field On top of system improvements allowing customers to better accept recurring revenue and invoices, in October the company announced the creation of Terminal, a payment system for brick-and-mortar businesses that includes card readers. It's a way for Stripe to stay with its customers, who are increasingly taking their online operations to the real world. In the same month, Stripe partnered with the World Bank to produce the Digital Entrepreneurship Index that will aggregate the self-reported experiences of business owners. The Index, which the company aims to release annually, is also intended to help policymakers work to improve the landscape for entrepreneurs in their respective countries. Stripe also raised $245 million in a Series E round that closed in mid-September, valuing the company at $20 billion. Two years ago, it was valued at $9 billion. "We want to create a more level playing field where opportunity can be pursued," Patrick Collison says. "All this is situated in our larger, long-term goal of building mobile economy infrastructure and enable entrepreneurs everywhere." Stripe also announced this year that Singapore would become the company's fourth engineering hub--its existing locations are in San Francisco, Seattle, and Dublin, about 110 miles from the founders' hometown of Dromineer, Ireland. Vision for Payment The year certainly brought missteps, too. But the company worked to fix them. In January, Stripe ceased accepting bitcoin as a form of payment after cryptocurrency prices became increasingly volatile. Some analysts are also skeptical of the founders' foray in offline payments. Brendan Miller, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, suggests that the company will have tough competition from the likes of Square and PayPal, which have long made credit card readers for brick-and-mortar businesses available. However, Miller praised the brothers' focus on one industry and said that will reduce the company's risk of failure. "They've stayed very close to a simple payments model, and that's been their power, so I'm very bullish on the company," Miller says. "Patrick Collison is a genius. I've met a lot of people in this space, but his vision for payment and his company is clear, simple, and direct, and it's really refreshing to see that in a CEO." Patrick and John Collison hail from central Ireland, where their parents were also entrepreneurs, and attended MIT and Harvard, respectively. While in school, they developed iPhone apps and created a way to manage eBay auctions, which sold for $5 million in 2008. The next year, they both dropped out and began working on Stripe. Stripe is the financial system for more than 100,000 companies, including mom-and-pop shops along with tech giants like Lyft and Facebook. It stores financial information, assists with fraud detection, and works with companies to add new forms of payment, like Apple Pay. To make money, it charges a 2.9 percent fee on credit card payments and 30 cents per successful card charge. Stripe won't disclose the number of transactions it processes or its annual revenue, but experts told Bloomberg last year it handles about $50 billion in commerce annually and is likely booking about $1.5 billion in annual revenue. Patrick Collison doesn't shy away from the fact that his company's list of new services and tools may sound unglamorous, but he insists they are the infrastructure for entrepreneurial success. Warner Bros has unveiled its standalone Aquaman film after what seems like an eternity of promotion. Despite making his debut in 2016 film Batman v Superman, the character real name Arthur Curry is only just receiving the solo treatment in a spectacle starring original Game of Thrones actor Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman and, in what was originally a secret role, Julie Andrews. Compared with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the majority of films released as part of the DC Extended Universe have had a fairly rough ride with the critics: Batman v Superman was maligned, as were mash-ups Suicide Squad which starred Jared Leto as Joker and Justice League. The jewel in its crown thus far has been Wonder Woman, the Gal Gadot-starring period adventure which made Patty Jenkins the most successful female director of all time. A sequel will follow in 2019. But whats the verdict on Aquaman? If the first reactions are anything to go by, it seems the fish king can sit alongside Wonder Woman as a DCEU success story. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel The consensus is that the film, while a bizarre watch filled with divisive moments, delivers on action and somehow makes talking to fish look normal. I cant believe how big, creative, and crazy it gets, Mike Rougeau wrote on Twitter, with Paul Shirey adding somewhat controversially that its the best Marvel movie DC has made insofar that it feels like a film that knows what it is, what its selling and who its selling to. This sentiment was echoed by Slashfilm's Petter Sciretta who added: "Its at its best when its having fun and not taking itself too seriously." IGN's Tom Jorgensen has branded it "the best DC movie since The Dark Knight". Praise has largely been reserved for Momoas portrayal as well as the technical prowess of director James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring). Aquaman reviews are embargoed until 11 December ahead of its release on 14 December. Rachel Weisz has an issue with members of the press who are intent on continually asking her what its like to act alongside other women. The British actor, who was attending the 2018 Gotham Awards, used the ceremony as an opportunity to express a hope that one day she wont be asked such questions, highlighting the double standard that male actors dont get asked the same question about working with other men. Accepting the Special Jury Award For Ensemble Performance for Yorgos Lanthimos film The Favourite, Weisz said: I hope one day in the not-so-distant future we dont get asked what it was like to share the screen with other women. Because I dont think you ever ask men that. But I could be wrong. The best films of 2018 (so far) Show all 17 1 /17 The best films of 2018 (so far) The best films of 2018 (so far) The Guardians From its slow-burning beginning, The Guardians develops into an epic melodrama. Its a wartime story in which, for a change, the men are relegated to supporting roles. It follows in a tradition of French rural family sagas like Jean De Florette or Manon Des Sources. The landscapes and the changing seasons play as much of a part in the story as the main characters. The best films of 2018 (so far) Dark River Dark River offers little such consolation. It has some lyrical and delicate moments but the mood is generally overwhelmingly bleak and lugubrious. Incest and abuse dont leave much space for any comic interludes. This is a powerful film with a grinding intensity about it. Light relief it isnt but Dark River still has quite an impact. Alamy The best films of 2018 (so far) Zama Late on in Argentinean director Lucrecia Martels startling, highly original new feature, Zama, a character who has just had both his arms cut off, is advised to shove your stumps in the sand if you dont bleed out, youll survive. Its a grisly, darkly humorous moment in a film that continually surprises us with both its brutality and its lyricism. The Match Factory The best films of 2018 (so far) The Breadwinner The most dispiriting aspect of this otherwise enrapturing Oscar-nominated animated feature is that its storyline still seems so current. The film depicts an Afghan society in which women dont have a face. It is set during the Taliban rule, which lasted from the mid-1990s until late 2001, but this doesnt feel like a period piece. Seventeen years after the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan following the US invasion, the plight of women in the country appears hardly to have improved. GKIDS The best films of 2018 (so far) BlacKkKlansman Spike Lees work sometimes risks sensory overload. He fires off so many different ideas and storytelling styles that audiences can become bamboozled by his scattergun approach. BlacKkKlansman is one of his very best films because the digressions are as entertaining as ever but dont get in the way of the main story. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Early Man Much of the pleasure in Aardman films has always lain in their gently ironic, Alan Bennett-like humour. They take very exotic characters and subject matter but then deal with them in a matter-of-fact fashion. They make a virtue out of their own relative modesty. Early Man isnt the flashiest animated feature that youll see this year but it is certainly the most likeable. The best films of 2018 (so far) Isle of Dogs Like all of Wes Andersons work, Isle Of Dogs is very stylised, very offbeat and characterised by its extremely dry and often ironic humour. This Japanese-set stop-motion fable is also gorgeous to look at packed full of intricate visual detail. It deals with some weighty themes (ethnic cleansing, fascism and corruption) but does so in an idiosyncratic fashion. The best films of 2018 (so far) Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri Writer-director Martin McDonagh has a host of award-winning plays behind him but his movies havent always lived up to his stage work. This one certainly does. It shares some of the dark and nihilistic humour found in McDonaghs previous film, Seven Psychopaths. The best films of 2018 (so far) A Quiet Place In an era of wearisome poltergeist movies, haunted house stories and torture porn, A Quiet Place is a refreshingly pared-down and very original affair. Director John Krasinski relies on editing, sound effects and off-screen action to crank up the tension. We do see the creatures from time to time, sometimes even in extreme closeup. They are very grotesque, bigger versions of the polyp-like succubus which exploded out of John Hurts stomach in Alien. However, the most terrifying moments here come when the humans are waiting for them to appear, desperately hoping that they wont. Paramount Pictures The best films of 2018 (so far) Lady Bird Lady Bird is one of the best American coming-of-age films since Barry Levinsons Diner. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, it offers an utterly winning mix of humour, poignancy and sharp-eyed social observation. Gerwig approaches her subject matter with the same tenderness and affectionate irony with which the adolescent Lady Bird regards Sacramento. Gerwig also shows Lady Birds heroism as the young heroine strives against the odds to become the very best version of herself she can be. A24 The best films of 2018 (so far) Phantom Thread If Phantom Thread is indeed Daniel Day-Lewiss final film as an actor, he is going out on a wondrously bizarre note. This must be the oddest film in his career, one in which he gives a typically commanding but very idiosyncratic performance. Almost everything here is jarring but generally in a very positive way. The best films of 2018 (so far) First Reformed It is not so long ago that Paul Schrader seemed to be giving up on cinema. The American writer-director (whose credits include Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Affliction) had taken to making movies like the sour Hollywood satire The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan and the cartoonishly violent Dog Eat Dog, shot cheaply, aimed at a VOD audience. The former had a montage of closed-down movie theatres. In interviews, Schrader struck a gloomy note about the future of the industry. This is why First Reformed is so refreshing. This is not just Schraders best film in a very long while. It is also a re-affirmation of the directors belief in the medium. Rex The best films of 2018 (so far) The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde goes to ruin in Rupert Everetts debut feature as director. Everett also wrote and stars in the film, giving a grandstanding performance as the Irish writer at the end of his life, after his release from prison, where he has been doing hard labour for gross indecency. This is a moving and surprising biopic that squeezes out every last drop of pathos from its subject matter. BBC Films The best films of 2018 (so far) Black Panther Black Panther is not only one of the most entertaining recent superhero films but has an intelligence and a political dimension that such inchoate offerings as Suicide Squad and Justice League completely lacked. It is an action movie which touches on Pan-Africanism and which owes as much to Malcolm X as it does to Batman or Captain America. Marvel Studios/Disney The best films of 2018 (so far) Sicilian Ghost Story Sicilian Ghost Story is a genre-bending affair that combines elements of teen romance, gothic psycho-drama and political thriller. It is loosely based on a true story of a boy called Giuseppe Di Matteo whose father, an ex-member of the Sicilian Mafia, turned grass against his erstwhile associates. The Mafia responded by kidnapping Giuseppe and keeping him in captivity for nearly 800 days. Altitude The best films of 2018 (so far) First Man First Man is all about understated heroism. Its affecting precisely because Armstrong (played with quiet intensity by Ryan Gosling) doesnt feel the continual need to boast about his mission. The film is a tearjerker but a very subtle one. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Dogman Dogman is one of the best Italian films of recent times, a modern day neo realist fable that bears comparison with the great work of Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica et al. Its main character, the dog groomer Marcello (Marcello Fonte), is a wonderful creation: loveable, vulnerable, seedy and comic all at the same time. Curzon Artificial Eye Weisz stars in the period comedy alongside Olivia Colman and Emma Stone who both couldnt attend the ceremony. In their place, Weisz brought along two cardboard cutout masks of their faces. The film reunited Weisz with The Lobster director Lanthimos. in it, she plays Lady Sarah whose status as the closest friend of a frail Queen Anne (Colman) is rocked upon the arrival of Stones character, Abigail Hill. (REX (REX) Upon its release in the US last week, the Fox Searchlight film has become the highest-grossing independent film of the year so far. Colman is expected to battle in the forthcoming Oscars race in the Best Actress category alongside contenders Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Glenn Close (The Wife). The Favourite is released in the UK on 1 January 2019. Countries must slash emissions by five times their planned amount in the next 11 years if they are to avert disastrous global warming, the UN has warned. Vanishing islands, widespread species extinctions and extreme weather have all been predicted under even the most optimistic climate predictions. However, experts think the worst effects of climate change can be averted if the world breaks its dependence on carbon-emitting fossil fuels. CO2 pollution increased in 2017 after a promising three-year decline, dashing hopes that the world had reached peak emissions. Initial reports suggest in 2018 this worrying trend will continue. Despite efforts to eradicate fossil fuels in many countries, plans to slash emissions are still way off what is required to keep warming under 2C above pre-industrial levels. This is even more pronounced if the more ambitious target of 1.5C recommended by many in the global climate science community is to be achieved. In a new report, UN environment specialists predict that if this emissions gap is not closed by 2030, the world will never meet these targets, which are set out by the Paris climate agreement. This echoes the scientific conclusions of the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in October, which found emissions needed to halve in 12 years to avoid climate catastrophe. 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 The scientists behind that report predicted a world of melting Arctic sea ice, climate refugees and dying coral reefs as it soars past the 1.5C threshold. If the IPCC report represented a global fire alarm, this report is the arson investigation, said UN environment deputy executive director Joyce Msuya. The science is clear: for all the ambitious climate action weve seen, governments need to move faster and with greater urgency. Were feeding this fire while the means to extinguish it are within reach. Nations must set more ambitious commitments and triple their emissions cuts by 2030 to meet a 2C target, and increase cuts by five times to meet the 1.5C target. If current trends continue, the Earth will likely heat up by 3.2C by the end of the century. The report comes at a crucial time for climate change preparations, arriving shortly after the IPCCs report and the week before important climate discussions begin at COP24 in Poland. While governments have so far failed in stepping up to the challenge, climate experts said there was hope among the doom and gloom predictions. IPCC: limiting global warming would require 'unprecedented changes', says Professor Jim Skea Its clear that governments can make global carbon emissions peak and decline soon if they simply do more of whats proven to work, such as cutting energy waste and switching from coal to clean energy, said Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit Dr Jian Liu, UN Environments chief scientist, said governments must act by subsidising renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and taxing fossil fuels heavily instead of supporting them. If all fossil fuel subsidies were phased out, global carbon emissions could be reduced by up to 10 percent by 2030, he said. Despite global progress in renewable energy, much of the world still remains locked into high-polluting fuels like coal and oil, and opposition to climate science from major nations like the US and Brazil looks set to jeopardise the fight against global warming. Recommended Government urged to act fast on climate change after UN warning While the UK has cut emissions by more than 40 per cent since 1990, green groups say this progress is being hampered as the government stalls on switching to electric vehicles and supports fracking. This is the biggest threat humanity has faced and the urgency of action required is shocking. What are governments waiting for? said Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan. With cities around the world banning non-electric cars, regional governments phasing out coal power and banks turning their back on fossil fuel investments, Ms Morgan said hope may now lie with these non-state actors. Extreme heatwaves this summer were widely viewed as a glimpse of future life in a warmer world, and an approaching El Nino event could see 2019 take the crown for hottest year on record. Representatives from governments, NGOs and businesses gather in the Polish city of Katowice for the UNs COP24 summit next week an event seen by many as a potential turning point in efforts to avert climate change. The UN's World Meteorological Organisation has warned there is a 75-80 per cent chance of a weak El Nino event forming within the next three months. This naturally occurring phenomenon changes temperatures across the Pacific Ocean and drives extreme weather across the world. Droughts and flooding are likely to follow in otherwise fairly stable regions as worldwide climate patterns are thrown into disarray for the first part of 2019. The most recent El Nino event ended in 2016, and was associated with catastrophic coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef as global temperatures reached the highest levels ever recorded. While the predicted event is not likely to be as severe, it could still bring dangerous weather to vulnerable areas around the world. The forecast El Nino is not expected to be as powerful as the event in 2015-2016, which was linked with droughts, flooding and coral bleaching in different parts of the world, said Maxx Dilley, director of the WMOs Climate Prediction and Adaptation branch. 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 Even so, it can still significantly affect rainfall and temperature patterns in many regions, with important consequences to agricultural and food security sectors, and for management of water resources and public health, and it may combine with long-term climate change to boost 2019 global temperatures. Scientists have been predicting the likelihood of such as event since May, with the chances gradually increasing as the year progresses. The UN agency said that ocean temperatures have already reached weak El Nino levels in parts of the tropical Pacific, although the atmospheric patterns that accompany these changes have not yet materialised. Forecasters in the US and Australia have already warned of an approaching El Nino. Chances of dry conditions and drought will increase in nations from the Caribbean to southern Africa, while heavy rainfall will likely hit parts of the US and Europe. Under the most extreme conditions currently predicted by WMO, sea temperatures will rise up to 1.2C above average. The Met Office has previously warned that El Nino could impact winter weather in the UK next year. An El Nino can create wetter and windier conditions in the first half of winter and it can bring a colder and drier second half, but El Nino is just one factor and others will vie to affect our winter, said Met scientist Professor Adam Scaife. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events For example, the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation with its 14-month pattern of alternating easterly and westerly winds along the equator can weaken or strengthen the jet stream. He also said the phenomenon will have a marked effect on global temperature measurements in 2019. The effects of this warm phase helped make 2016 the hottest year on record. The following year was cooler, but the hottest year ever recorded in which an El Nino event did not take place. Though El Nino is part of a natural planetary cycle, previous research has suggested its effects are made worse by human-driven climate change. Cleansing our skin before bed can be a chore at the best of times, let alone in the summer when we turn to longer-lasting cosmetic formulations and SPF moisturisers that are more difficult to remove. But the thing is, theres no need to struggle: a simple switch to a hard-working cleansing oil will see it melt off in seconds yes, even your trusty waterproof mascara. Cleansing oils are such effective cleansers because, as school science taught us, likes attract. Oil attracts oil, so a cleansing oil will latch on to oily make-up formulations as well as oil in your skincare and the grease your skin naturally produces and dissolve it. Thats why cleansing oils are suitable for all skin types, including oily complexions. Effortless to use, simply apply a couple of pumps to a dry face and massage in circular motions. Then rinse with water or, if you prefer, a muslin or washcloth. For a deeper clean, go for a double cleanse with your favourite cream, gel or lotion after. How we tested We tried and tested the latest cleansing oil formulations to bring you our edit of the very best. They were all trialled on the same waterproof mascara, as well as long-lasting foundation and SPF moisturiser. All our winners were quick and easy to use, with no rubbing of the delicate eye area required. They left no make-up residue, caused zero irritation and left skin feeling soft and supple. Theres a slick operator to suit every budget and skin type in our round-up. Read more: The best cleansing oils for 2021 are: Best overall Pai light work rosehip cleansing oil: 33, Cultbeauty.co.uk Pai light work rosehip cleansing oil: 33, Cultbeauty.co.uk Best for mature skin Adaptology time warp cleanser: 34, Contentbeautywellbeing.com Adaptology time warp cleanser: 34, Contentbeautywellbeing.com Best for sensitive skin Curel makeup cleansing oil: 10.87, Boots.com Curel makeup cleansing oil: 10.87, Boots.com Best for normal to dry skin bareMinerals smoothness hydrating cleansing oil: 26, Escentual.com bareMinerals smoothness hydrating cleansing oil: 26, Escentual.com Best for oily and combination skin Dear, Klairs gentle black deep cleansing oil: 23, Lookfantastic.com Dear, Klairs gentle black deep cleansing oil: 23, Lookfantastic.com Best value Q+A rosehip cleansing oil: 10, Feelunique.com Q+A rosehip cleansing oil: 10, Feelunique.com Best for dry skin Biossance squalane and antioxidant cleansing oil: 25, Cultbeauty.co.uk Biossance squalane and antioxidant cleansing oil: 25, Cultbeauty.co.uk Best luxe formula Epara cleansing oil: 45, Net-a-porter.com Epara cleansing oil: 45, Net-a-porter.com Best at removing make-up Typology 7-ingredient cleansing oil: 14.90, Typology.com Typology 7-ingredient cleansing oil: 14.90, Typology.com Best one-step cleanse Decleor micellar cleansing oil: 19.95, Allbeauty.com Pai light work rosehip cleansing oil Best: Overall Rating: 10/10 A bestseller for the British sensitive skincare brand, this formula should not be overlooked by other skin types as its so quick and easy to use, dissolving and removing even the most stubborn long-lasting and waterproof make-up in seconds. It boasts, as the name suggests, rosehip oil, which is rich in essential fatty acids crucial for healthy skin function and, crucially, wont strip the skin with its hydrating and healing properties. This formula makes the usual chore of make-up removal a joy thanks to both its effectiveness and the uplifting citrus and jasmine fragrance. Buy now 33 , Cultbeauty.co.uk {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Adaptology time warp cleanser Best: For mature skin Rating: 8/10 If youve already turned to the skincare superpowers of vitamin C elsewhere in your skincare routine, youll love this cleansing oil thats enriched with an oil-based form of it. The powerful antioxidant is well known for its skin-brightening and collagen-boosting effects. Combined with rosehip oil another radiance booster youve got yourself a beautifully indulgent and sweet-smelling oil cleanser. It makes fast work of make-up removal, and for a really deep cleanse, we found two rounds made our skin glow. Buy now 34 , Contentbeautywellbeing.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Curel makeup cleansing oil Best: For sensitive skin Rating: 9/10 Hailing from Japan, the masters of the double cleanse, this skincare brand has infused its cleansing oil with hydrating and strengthening ceramides perfect for skin on the dry or sensitive side. Designed to be used as the first step in a double cleanse, we found it effortlessly lifted away make-up with no heavy rubbing needed removing waterproof formulations was a doddle. It has more of a water-like consistency that makes it feel beautifully refreshing on the skin, making it perfect for the warmer months, and it turns into a milky-white emulsion when massaged with water. Buy now 10.87 , Boots.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} bareMinerals smoothness hydrating cleansing oil Best: For normal to dry skin Rating: 8/10 Even the most stubborn waterproof mascara that youve had to turn to in order to stay meltproof in the summer heat doesnt stand a chance against first contact with this formula. It instantly breaks down make-up, dirt and grime with its antioxidant-rich pomegranate and sunflower oil formula. The soothing lavender scent, meanwhile, makes it a pleasure to use before bed. Once applied, place a washcloth over the face to really take in the relaxing aroma with some deep, steady breathing. Its such a firm favourite with our tester that shes returned to it time and time again. Buy now 26 , Escentual.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Dear, Klairs gentle black deep cleansing oil Best: For oily and combination skin Rating: 8/10 Beauty fanatics that like to look to Korea for their next-generation skincare will already be familiar with this sensitive brand that does back to basics at its best. Wed heard good things about this formulation and couldnt wait to get our hands on it. And we can confirm it's worthy of its reputation, as the super lightweight and gentle formula makes easy work of removing every type of stubborn make-up. And dont let the name confuse you its not a black formula. Instead, the blend of natural oils includes black bean oil, for balancing excess sebum, making it the best pick for oilier skin types. Buy now 23 , Lookfantastic.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Q+A rosehip cleansing oil Best: Value Rating: 9/10 For an effective and affordable cleansing oil, turn to this ingredient-led UK brand. This new cleanser is made from a cocktail of some of our favourite oils, including healing rosehip and essential fatty-acids-rich avocado oil. Then theres repairing and moisturising argan oil, as well as hempseed oil. Its one for all skin types, as its gentle and nourishing, but still breaks down long-wear and waterproof make-up easily. We like to use this as a first-step cleanse, with a cleansing balm for the second. Buy now 10 , Feelunique.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Biossance squalane and antioxidant cleansing oil Best: For dry skin Rating: 9/10 If your skins on the normal to dry side, reach for this nourishing option. Its enriched with antioxidants and super-hydrating squalane (derived from sugarcane), so it packs a moisturising punch that leaves skin feeling well hydrated. Itll melt away the toughest budge-proof formulas, and we found it even removed our long-lasting liquid lipstick that can be a nightmare to take off. Impressive. Buy now 25 , Cultbeauty.co.uk {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Epara cleansing oil Best: Luxe formula Rating: 7/10 Our priciest pick is a whos who of beautiful oils, using a blend of the best organic and natural ingredients from Africa. Epara means to cocoon oneself in the Nigerian dialect of Ebira, and we liked to do just that with the nourishing blend of moringa, marula and argan oil, to name drop just a few. It also boasts liquorice-root extract for its brightening properties and plankton extract to help with hyper-pigmentation. Expect it to melt away make-up and SPF skincare instantly, leaving you with a soft and subtle complexion. Buy now 45 , Net-a-porter.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Typology 7-ingredient cleansing oil Best: For removing make-up Rating: 8/10 The French minimalist brand with a stripped-back approach to skincare has this bestselling formula in its collection. With, as the name gives away, only seven essential ingredients, such as soothing sweet almond oil and nourishing sunflower seed oil, unnecessary additives are left out. No rubbing of the delicate eye area is needed, as it lifts away make-up and impurities effectively, ready to be rinsed away with water once it emulsifies. Youre left with comfortably soft skin. Buy now 14.90 , Typology.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Decleor micellar cleansing oil Best: One-step cleanse Rating: 8/10 When you combine the technology behind the brilliance of micellar water cleansers with the effectiveness of oil, you get this hard-working formula. Stand-out ingredients include soothing and strengthening sweet almond oil, as well as squalene (derived from olive oil) for hydration. The subtle, spa-like fragrance makes this such a pleasure to apply, you almost wish it wasnt so effective, so you could leave it on the skin for longer. No long-lasting make-up or SPF formulations are too tough for this oil-to-milk cleanser. Buy now 19.95 , Allbeauty.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Cleansing oils FAQs How do I use a cleansing oil? Wed recommend applying a small amount a couple of pumps to damp skin and gently massaging in circular motions before rinsing thoroughly and patting skin dry with a soft, clean towel. Whats the difference between a cleansing oil and a cleansing balm? The main difference between cleansing oils and balms is the texture. While oils are liquid and tend to be heavier, balms start in a more solid state but melt into an oil once massaged. Cleansing balms can range from a wax-like salve to a creamy gel consistency and the two formulas also differ in packaging; oils typically come in a pump bottle and balms in a tub. Is cleansing oil better than micellar water? While micellar waters are great for removing make-up from the surface of the skin they can require a little more effort to get to work. In comparison, cleansing oils are some of the gentlest products that will still ensure every last trace of waterproof mascara and foundation is removed. However, if youre someone who wears very little make-up, a bottle of micellar water could be good enough. The verdict: Cleansing oils Our best buy goes to Pai light work rosehip cleansing oil, not only for making it so quick and easy to remove the days make-up, dirt and oil, but for making it such a pleasure. If youre looking for change from a 20 note, you wont be disappointed with the effective and affordable Curel makeup cleansing oil. Voucher codes For the latest discounts on skincare, try the links below: Very discount code Asos discount code Elemis offers If its not just your skin that needs some TLC, check out these hair oils that lock in moisture and add shine IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing. A New York City view famous on Instagram may soon be replaced with apartment buildings, to the dismay of tourists and residents alike. The scene, a quintessential view of the Empire State Building standing tall in the distance behind the Manhattan Bridge, is located in DUMBO, Brooklyn - and it draws countless bloggers and influencers for the view alone. However, skyscrapers may replace the idyllic backdrop, according to a testimony to the Mayors Office of Environmental Consideration written by the Municipal Art Society (MAS) that raises issues surrounding the Two Bridges Large-Scale Residential Development (LSRD) Proposal for the Manhattan side of the East River, the Brooklyn Paper reported. Recommended NYC has an apartment solely for Instagram influencers to take pictures The proposed high-rises would be built in Manhattans Two Bridges neighbourhood, and two of the three would block the view from across the river. The proposal states that two of the towers would share a four-story base, with one rising 62 stories and the other 69 stories. The third building would be the tallest, at 79 stories, according to the proposal, which would mean the iconic view of the Empire State Building would be obstructed. A person standing on the street...where previously you would see the Empire State Building, you will now see part of this development, MAS vice president of policy and programs Tara Kelly told the New York Post. In its testimony, the group, which has supported sound planning and effective community engagement in New York City for 125 years, also claims that the Two Bridges neighbourhood faces dire consequences from the proposed redevelopment, in addition to ruining the view from Washington Street in Brooklyn. Revealed: New York City's ugliest buildings Show all 2 1 /2 Revealed: New York City's ugliest buildings Revealed: New York City's ugliest buildings 411143.bin AFP PHOTO /TIMOTHY A. CLARY Revealed: New York City's ugliest buildings 411144.bin All Rights Reserved According to the MAS, the proposed buildings do not comply with the New York City Zoning Resolution regulations and will result in unmitigated adverse impacts on socio economic conditions, community facilities, open space, shadows, transportation, parking, and construction. The MAS also predicts the proposed buildings will have serious, long-term, adverse consequences on the Two Bridges Community, which faced serious damage as a result of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. We really think that this is something that requires much more community input, much further study, Kelly said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events As of now, a date has not been set for the Planning Commission to vote on the LSRD Proposal. Banks and other financial services firms reported a 138 per cent increase in technology outages in the year to October, according to the City watchdog. The rise in tech failures came alongside an 18 per cent increase in cyber incidents, the Financial Conduct Authority said. The figures were revealed in a speech by Megan Butler, the regulators director of supervision for investment, wholesale and specialists. She said the increase in incidents doesnt present a one dimensional picture of a surge in cyber attacks and outages. This is partly because companies have been more robust about making complains recently, although, she added: We strongly suspect that under-reporting is still a problem. Ms Butler also said the FCA does not expect zero failure. The true test of the resilience of UK finance is not the absence of incidents. Its how well incidents are managed, she said. One of the most notable tech outages of the past year occurred at TSB, which suffered a series of IT failures leading to chaos for thousands of customers. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The issues at TSB led to a parliamentary inquiry, and ultimately cost the former chief executive, Paul Pester, his job. The Treasury Select Committee recently announced plans to investigate IT failures across the financial services sector. Commenting on the FCAs figures, Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the Treasury Committee, said: There has been a litany of IT failures in the financial services sector in recent years, so todays revelation that tech outages at financial institutions have more than doubled in the last year comes as no surprise. As part of its newly-launched inquiry into IT failures in the financial services sector, the Treasury Committee will look at what has caused such a stark increase in failures, and what can be done to prevent them in the future. Topps Tiles will stockpile key selling lines ahead of Brexit to prepare for disruption to supplies, the company has said. The FTSE 250-listed firm said it was planning for a number of potentially negative consequences of the UK leaving the EU in March including lower consumer spending and problems finding staff. It became the latest firm to announce contingency plans with food, wine, medical supplies and parts for manufactured goods already being stockpiled by companies worried about delays at ports. Those who are building up their stocks are facing problems finding storage space, according to Food and Drink Federation boss Ian Wright. He told MPs on Tuesday that all available frozen and chilled space had been taken but no one knew who had taken it and whether anything was in it. The announcement comes as the likelihood of no deal being agreed increased after former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, once seen as a close ally of Ms May, said the prime ministers proposed agreement was doomed. FTSE 250-listed Topps Tiles also revealed profits had fallen by a quarter in the year to 29 September with part of the decline due to additional costs from its newly acquired commercial business, Parkside. Like-for-like sales were down in the first eight weeks of the current financial year versus tough comparatives. But chief executive Matthew Williams said: Whilst retaining a cautious view on the outlook, we remain confident that our expansion into the commercial tile market, coupled with our market-leading retail operation, gives us a solid platform for future growth. Male students at a top university receive hardly any boost to their future earnings compared with peers who chose to avoid higher education altogether, government figures suggest. The University of Glasgow, a member of the Russell Group which represents the most selective universities in the UK, makes no significantly positive returns for male attendees, the data finds. It comes as Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) research shows one in three male students attend an institution that gives them no significant advantage in terms of salary over their non-graduate peers. Full data from the Department for Education, who commissioned the report, shows that studying a degree at the University of Glasgow would only see a return of just over zero for men. However, on average, the majority of Russell Group universities still tend to have very high returns after controlling for background characteristics, the IFS analysis found. According to the government data, the higher education institution (HEI) with the worst returns for women is the University of Bolton at -10 per cent, and for men it is Leeds City at -22 per cent. Meanwhile, the university offering the greatest returns for both men and women is the London School of Economics with 99 per cent and 62 per cent respectively. The data focuses on the earnings of those who took their GCSEs in England between 2002 and 2007 and then attended university compared with their peers with no experience of higher education. A spokesperson for the University of Glasgow said: The statistics provided are extremely misleading. Glasgows relatively low figure for estimated returns for male HEI grads at age 29 is related to the noticeably small number of observations that the result is based upon. Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Show all 20 1 /20 Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Harvard University Flickr/Michael Hicks Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Cambridge University Flickr/John Menard Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Oxford University, All Souls College Tejvan Pettinger/CC BY 2.0 Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Massachusetts Institute of Technology Flickr/Justin Jensen Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Stanford University Flickr/Franco Folini Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine John Hopkins University Flickr/David Wilson Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Karolinska Institutet, Main entrance from Solnavagen with the 'Aula Medica' in the background Creative Commons Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of California, Los Angeles campus Flickr/Tzuhsun Hsu Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of California, Hastings College of Law Flickr/Ken Lund Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Flickr/Lauren Manning Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine UCL University, London Flickr/Neil Turner Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Imperial College, London Flickr/Andrew Crump Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Melbourne Flickr/Geoff Penaluna Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Berkeley University Flickr/Charlie Nguyen Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Toronto Flickr/Umair Khan Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine The Geisel Library on the San Diego campus of the University of California Flickr/O Palsson Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Sydney Flickr/Jason Tong Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Kings College London iStock Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Duke University Flickr/Carine06 Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Singapore Flickr/smuconlaw They added: The IFS study uses GCSE result information from the national pupil database, which focuses on students schooled in England. Glasgow attracts a smaller proportion of students who attended school in England and this is borne out in the data the Glasgow figure in the IFS study is based on only 62 observations, compared with an average of 730 observations at other Russell Group universities. Gaze around Britains great cathedrals and castles, at the carved stone and painted glass the biblia idiotarum or books of the unlettered and they eloquently evoke every age back to William the Conqueror. Try to peer back further, though, and everything changes. The visual, intellectual, spiritual, and day-to-day world of the age that came before seems maddeningly hard to grasp. Back in the 1930s, the authors of 1066 And All That captured something of the frustration: Egg-Kings were found on the thrones of all these kingdoms, such as Eggberd, Eggbreth, Eggfroth, etc. None of them, however, succeeded in becoming memorable except in so far as it is difficult to forget such names as Eggborth, Eggbred, Eggbeard, Eggfish, etc. Nor is it even remembered by what kind of Eggdeath they perished. However, the low middle ages are not truly lost. Pre-conquest England is there it is just well hidden. Occasional church towers or windows and museum cabinets of jewellery hint at a vibrant period, but it is in books and manuscripts that the Anglo-Saxons come vividly alive, delineated in everything from pale rusty ink to lush gold and lapis. In these texts we meet a vigorous and confident cast of warriors and saints, queens and kings, thegns and villagers, dragons and gods. In years past, followers of political quiz games would stump friends by asking them to name the oldest minister in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and then John Major. The answer was Baroness Trumpington of Sandwich, who was a junior minister in their respective governments from 1985 to 1992, by which point she was the oldest ever female minister. Her last role was as baroness-in-waiting to the Queen between 1992 and 1997. In 2011, aged 89, she famously stuck two fingers up at her Conservative colleague Lord King of Bridgwater in the Lords, after he made an unflattering reference to her advancing years. Clips of the televised footage went viral, raising her profile. An autobiography was commissioned the ghost-written Coming Up Trumps. To the publishers horror, she said: I don't understand what all the fuss is about, I didn't write the damn book and haven't read it either. Baroness Trumpington revelled, however, in the attention it gave her and the respectful reviews and interviews she received. She was born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris to an affluent household in 1922. Her father Arthur Edward Campbell-Harris served with the Bengal Lancers. Her mother Doris Robson came from a wealthy American family which faced financial woe following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 they were forced to lose the servants and move into a home with no gas or electricity. As a child, she felt neglected at her parents paying more attention to her two younger brothers. Later, friends wondered if that was a possible reason why she embraced the limelight in her adult years. Baroness Trumpington famously stuck her fingers up at Lord King (BBC) Trumpington was educated at boarding schools in England and France and, apart from a course at a secretarial college, never sat an exam but she was fluent in French, German and Italian. She could drive a car because she gained a licence during the war when there were no tests. She was tall and shy. But she had drive, was eager for adventure and prepared to stick up for herself, all life-long characteristics. In the early years of the Second World War she worked as a land-girl on the Sussex farm of former prime minister David Lloyd George, who happened to be a friend of her father. Her language skills and a word from her well-connected dad helped her, aged 18, to gain a post working on naval intelligence at Bletchley Park, the secret centre for cracking Nazi codes. As a cypher clerk she transcribed messages picked up from German submarines which were sent to Alan Turings codebreakers, who worked in a separate unit. The need for secrecy was drummed into her such that she said in her book, even now, when we are allowed to talk, I still find it hard except with others who were there. She met Turing by delivering messages to his office. In 2013 she added her signature to an appeal calling for his conviction in 1952 for homosexuality to be overturned later that year he received a royal pardon. Baroness Trumpington with the Yeomen of the Guard in the House of Lords (PA) Life at Bletchley had broadened the young Jeans horizons and added to her self-confidence. She worked in Paris for the European Transport Organisation and in 1951 went to New York to work for a Madison Square advertising agency. She led a hectic social life but was no nearer securing a relationship or settling on a career. But in 1953 she met an Eton schoolmaster, William Alan Barker, in New York he was a visiting scholar at Yale University They married in 1954. She was a strong support for her husband at these boys-only schools. On one occasion the combination of high spirits and attention-seeking led her to jump fully clothed into the swimming pool at a school prize-giving. Her husband was outraged and the marriage came under strain. Being a headmasters wife was not sufficient for a woman of great energy and ability. She threw herself into the political and social life of Cambridge. She was elected to the council in 1963 and became mayor in 1971. She was county councillor for the Trumpington ward in Cambridge in 1981. She was frustrated in her efforts to become an MP, given the bias and narrow-mindedness of Conservative selection committees. In the 1979 Parliament there were only eight Conservative female MPs out of a total of 339, although one was prime minister. When interviewed by a selection committee at the Isle of Ely she was asked why her applications had been so unsuccessful so far, and replied, Because of selection committees like you. Appointed to a life peerage in 1980 she sat on the Conservative benches. Unlike many of her colleagues the peerage was not a reward for long service as an MP or cabinet minister, or having made a substantial donation to party coffers. It was for service to the party and she welcomed the opportunity to be a working peer. Always close to Tory grandees she was introduced to the House by lords Butler and Thorneycroft. Her maiden speech was on old peoples homes and the need for more public facilities to cope with incontinence. The baroness was appointed a government whip in 1983, followed by spells as a joint parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department of Health and Social Security and two years later in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. She was promoted to minister of state in the same department in 1989. She successfully sponsored a bill which eased the legal restrictions on shop opening hours. Although Trumpington relied heavily on the material prepared by colleagues and officials when addressing the Lords on complex matters she had a knack of making it interesting and even amusing. At times, the predominantly male House of Lords did not know how to react to her speeches, given her age and gender. One such time, as a health minister, she explained government policy on containing the spread of Aids and defended the use of explicit adverts in the campaign against the disease. Baroness Trumpington seemed determined to age disgracefully. She liked to claim that because of her age she did not give a damn. In fact age had little to do with it; she had always been outspoken. She liked a drink and smoked until she was 79, notwithstanding that she had been a health minister. In her eighties she appeared on Have I Got News For You and on other television programmes, including The Great British Menu. With Mary Berry she did more than anybody to promote the cause of senior women on television. She was made Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2005. Unsurprisingly, Trumpington she was something of a traditionalist regarding political institutions. She opposed electoral reform and the ban on hunting and supported tough measures on crime. Until she retired in 2017, in her 95th year, she still made a point of attending the Lords every day it sat. To the baroness, her fellow peers and staff had become family (her husband had died in 1988) and she had good friends in other parties. Trumpington, who is survived by her son, Adam, 63, had a steady stream of visitors to her apartment and could be relied on to provide colourful copy for journalists and students who came to interview her. She had no time for modern communications, saying I havent got a Twitterer, I dont use a mobile phone and Im not on Facebook. She followed horse racing and for some years had been a steward at Folkestone Racecourse. Asked on the radio programme Desert Island Discs to choose a luxury item to take to the island she chose the Crown Jewels because somebody would come to look for me. Jean Alys Barker, Baroness Trumpington, socialite and politician, born 23 October 1922, died 26 November 2018 Nasa's brand new Mars lander has sent back the first stunning of the surface of the red planet, taken at the end of a terrifying journey. As well as showing the dusty red ground that is now the InSight lander's home, the photo marks a successful close to a journey that took seven months from Earth, and culminated with a nervy few hours as InSight blasted through the Martian atmosphere. The photograph, which shows the InSight spacecraft in the front and the Martian surface further on, is an incredible look at a world that has killed most of the landers that have tried to journey there. 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 It also shows that all of the spacecraft's systems are working. The photo was taken after the solar panels successfully folded out from its sides so that its batteries can be charged, and was relayed through the Mars Odyssey orbiter that floats around the planet and sends messages back down to Earth. Tom Hoffman, InSight's project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "The InSight team can rest a little easier tonight now that we know the spacecraft solar arrays are deployed and recharging the batteries. Recommended Nasa Mars lander successfully touches down on surface of Mars "It's been a long day for the team. "But tomorrow begins an exciting new chapter for InSight: surface operations and the beginning of the instrument deployment phase." Using InSight's robotic arm, which has a camera attached, the mission team will be able to take more photographs in the coming days, Nasa has said. This will help engineers to assess where to install the spacecraft's scientific instruments, which will be able to start sending back data to Earth within two to three months. The InSight lander touched down on Mars just before 8pm GMT on Monday, surviving the so-called "seven minutes of terror", a tricky landing phase for the robotic probe, travelling at 13,200mph through the planet's thin atmosphere which provides little friction to slow down. American space agency Nasa's 814 million dollar (633 million) two-year mission aims to shine new light on how the Red Planet was formed and its deep structure, by mapping its core, crust and mantle. InSight arrived on Mars's Elysium Planitia area north of its equator, described as an ideal spot for its flat, rockless surface. It is the first attempt to reach Mars in six years. Only 40% of missions to the planet have succeeded and all have been US-led. Three UK-made seismometer instruments are on board InSight, part of a 4 million UK Space Agency effort to measure seismic waves. Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford who created the instruments will be based at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to assist with the study, including selecting the best spot for the robot arm to place the seismometer. "It is wonderful news that the InSight spacecraft has landed safely on Mars," said Sue Horne, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency. "The UK scientists and engineers involved in this mission have committed several years of their lives to building the seismometer on board, and the descent is always a worrying time. "We can now look forward to the deployment of the instrument and the data that will start to arrive in the new year, to improve our understanding of how the planet formed." A second instrument will burrow five metres into the ground of Mars, measuring the planet's temperature, while a third experiment will determine how Mars wobbles on its axis. Additional reporting by Press Association Harmful myths and lies about Muslims are now believed by a large section of the UK's population, contributing to discrimination across employment, housing, the criminal justice system and other areas of public life, a new report by MPs has found. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims found that prevalent Islamophobia was driving division, hate crime and even terror attacks. British society at large, by virtue of normalised prejudice against Muslim beliefs and practice, have come to imbibe a panoply of falsehoods or misrepresentations and discriminatory outlooks, its report said. "Academic research has consistently shown that British Muslims face considerably high levels of economic disadvantage than other groups in Britain." While a report by market research company Ipsos Mori found that the majority of Muslims believe Islam is compatible with the British way of life, a separate survey of the wider population by polling firm YouGov, found that 46 per cent thought there was a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of British society. A separate study recently found almost a third of British people believe the myth of no-go zones where non-Muslims cannot enter, while the MPs took aim at false and misleading news stories. They include the Winterval myth that claimed Christmas celebrations were being suppressed and a story that wrongly interpreted research to say one fifth of British Muslims had sympathy for jihadis. MPs said that corrections published by newspapers pale in comparison to the damage done to perceptions of Muslims in British society. Religious hate crime rises 40% in England and Wales - with more than half directed at Muslims A report concluded that Islamophobia has far surpassed the dinner table test espoused by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi in 2011 and is now prevalent in society. MPs said that because there is no commonly agreed definition of Islamophobia, it has been allowed to increase in society to devastating effect. The detectable shift from overt to subtler or respectable, manifestations of Islamophobia - the normalisation of the prejudice to the extent it is rendered almost invisible to many - warrants a definition that can arrest and reverse its present trajectory, their report said. There has been no attempt to adopt a definition of Islamophobia by government despite recognising the significant impact the problem has on British Muslim communities. After a six-month inquiry taking evidence from Muslim organisations, legal experts, academics, MPs and other groups, the APPG called on the government to adopt the definition: Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness. Recommended Finsbury Park mosque reveals vile threats one year after attack Anticipating criticism from far-right and populist groups, MPs said the definition did not aim to curtail free speech or criticism of Islam as a religion. From hate crimes motivated by anti-Muslim feeling, buttressed by stereotypes and racist caricatures prevalent in social and media discourse, to policies which perpetuate discriminatory outcomes for Muslims, a definition of Islamophobia is vital, the APPG concluded. MPs highlighted terror attacks and plots targeting Muslims, including the Finsbury Park attack and the attempted murder of a Sikh dentist in Wales. They said that rising hate crimes had affected both Muslims and those wrongly thought to be part of the religion because of their appearance, including an Italian man who was badly beaten in London. Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a love bombing rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell The APPG cited research showing that Muslims are disadvantaged across employment, housing, education, the criminal justice system, social and public life and in political or media discourse. Its report warned that Islamophobia also increased feeling of disengagement, disenfranchisement and disaffection with the state. Wes Streeting MP, co-chair of the APPG for British Muslims and Labour MP for Ilford North, said: Islamophobia is a form of racism and it is growing in our society. To tackle it, Islamophobia must be accurately and fully defined and thats why this inquiry centred around the discussion on a working definition. This landmark report brings about a working definition of Islamophobia for the first time, which will allow us to tackle this prejudice head-on. The adoption of this definition by political parties, statutory agencies and civil society organisations will allow us to turn a corner to move forward towards a fairer society. Anna Soubry MP, co-chair of the APPG for British Muslims and Conservative MP for Broxtowe, said Islamophobia was a very real problem throughout the UK. Muslims or people assumed to be Muslims are subjected to abuse, discrimination and criminal acts against them for no other reason than their faith or perceived faith, she added. It is equally obvious that overwhelmingly Islamophobia is rooted in racism and therefore is, racist. This definition recognises this truth and I hope it will now enable the serious work that needs to be done to tackle Islamophobia. A government spokesperson said: We remain deeply concerned at hatred directed against British Muslims and others because of their faith or heritage. This is utterly unacceptable and does not reflect the values of our country. We know that some have suggested establishing a definition of Islamophobia could strengthen efforts to confront bigotry and division. Any such approach would need to be considered carefully to ensure that this would have the positive effect intended. Following the recent publication of our Hate Crime Action Plan, we look forward to discussing steps to confront hatred, bigotry and division with the Governments Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group. Tommy Robinsons planned speaking tour of Australia has been postponed after he planned a Brexit protest on the same date. Supporters had paid up to A$995 (563) for tickets to see the anti-Islam activist alongside Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes at five events in December. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said last month that he was excited about the tour, telling supporters in a Facebook video: Its my opportunity to thank everyone in Australia, Ive received so much support. But last week he announced a Brexit betrayal march would take place on 9 December, when he was supposed to be travelling between Perth and Melbourne. The following day, Ukips leader Gerard Batten announced that Robinson had been appointed as an official adviser on grooming gangs and prisons. MEP Patrick OFlynn quit Ukip over the move on Tuesday, saying he had tried and failed to persuade Mr Batten to focus on Brexit and abandon an apparent and growing fixation with Tommy Robinson. Tickets for the Deplorables tour continued to sell for the December dates amid confusion over whether Robinson would still be visiting Australia. Nigel Farage says Ukip's appointment of Tommy Robinson is 'dragging us in a shameful direction' Supporters who asked Robinson for information on Facebook received no answer, including a man who wrote: Its coming up to Christmas time. Moneys tight and I have children. If hes not going to be appearing Id like a refund as I could put that money to good use at home. Hel Gower, Robinsons personal assistant, replied to speculation on Twitter on Thursday to say the tour had been moved to February. He does have a visa but due to family commitments the date had to be changed plus he cocked up his diary, she wrote. Recommended Islamophobia driving belief in myths about Muslims in British society But the dates on the official website did not change for several days, selling tickets for A$85 (48) for general entry, A$295 (167) for a VIP meet and greet including a photograph with Robinson, and A$495 (280) for a backstage pass including an after-show party. The most expensive option comes in at A$995 (563) per head, which buys a pre-show dinner with The Deplorables, champagne reception and VIP seating for the show. The tour has now been rescheduled for 1 to 10 February 2019, with five dates in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Sydney. Organisers have taken precautions in a bid to avoid a repeat of protests and boycotts that have disrupted engagements by other right-wing figures by withholding the exact location of the events until 24 hours before they take place. A spokesman for Penthouse Australia, which is running the event, said the dates were changed at Robinsons request. Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Show all 16 1 /16 Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey A Tommy Robinson supporter in London after former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson left the Old Bailey where his contempt of court case was adjourned PA Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey A Tommy Robinson supporter outside the Old Bailey in London where the former English Defence League (EDL) leader is accused of contempt of court PA Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Tommy Robinson supporters outside the Old Bailey in London before former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson arrives accused of contempt of court PA Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson demonstrate outside the Old Bailey Getty Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson demonstrate outside the Old Bailey Getty Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson protest at the Old Bailey Courthouse EPA Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of former English Defence League leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, or 'Tommy Robinson', who was jailed for contempt of court in May and later released, wait for him to arrive at the Old Bailey to attend a court hearing Reuters Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson demonstrate outside the Old Bailey Getty Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Tommy Robinson arrives for his hearing at the Old Bailey Reuters Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson demonstrate outside the Old Bailey Getty Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of far-right spokeseman Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, AKA Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the right-wing EDL (English Defence League) wave flags as they demonstrate outsise The Old Bailey AFP/Getty Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Supporters of far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson demonstrate outside the Old Bailey EPA Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey EPA Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey Robinson gestures to supporters from inside the Old Bailey AFP/Getty Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey AFP/Getty Tommy Robinson supporters protest outside the Old Bailey EPA Tommys recent appointment to Ukip and the issues surrounding the controversial Brexit vote are the reasons for the delay, he said. All ticket holders were contacted and advised of the postponement the new dates are on the website and ticket site. All tickets will be valid. Penthouse said refunds would be issued to ticket holders who could not attend the new dates. The tour could generate significant profits for Robinson after his fundraising activities were hit by a ban from PayPal. Robinsons planned trip to Washington to address Republican members of the US Congress was cancelled because his visa was not granted in time for an event earlier this month. A spokesperson from the Australian Department of Home Affairs would not confirm whether the English Defence League founder had been granted a visa. His extensive criminal record includes convictions for violence, drug possession, public order offences and fraud, while the attorney general is deciding whether to continue a case against Robinson for alleged contempt of court. The 35-year-old was jailed for breaking reporting restrictions on linked grooming trials in May but freed on appeal over procedural failings in August. Robinson has enjoyed a surge in donations since his imprisonment and said last month there was still a pot in excess of a few hundred thousand pounds left after legal costs. Lawyers acting for the EU have argued that Britain should not be able to cancel Brexit without the blocs consent in order to prevent political chaos from engulfing the union. The European Unions top court is to rule on whether the UK has the power to unilaterally revoke Article 50, after legal action seeking clarity on the matter from Remain campaigners. The UK started the legal process of leaving the EU in March 2017 by invoking the Lisbon treaty clause, which spells out the steps towards the exit door. Recommended Brexit vote date on deal confirmed as Trump warns it favours EU But the guidelines in the treaty, which run to just over 250 words, are ambiguous as to whether a country that notifies the EU it is leaving can cancel its departure and stay, even if other countries do not agree. A legal challenge drawn up by Scottish MSPs and MEPs has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the matter. Though a hearing took place on Tuesday, a final ruling could potentially be months away with the clock ticking down to Britains departure date on 29 March 2019. The case is expected to help clarify the options available to MPs and the government in the likely event Theresa Mays Brexit deal is rejected by parliament. Lawyers for the campaigners argued that requiring a unanimous vote of the European Council would ride roughshod over EU principles that states cannot be ejected from the union against their will. They also said parliamentarians needed to know what the options available to them were before they vote on Brexit. British government lawyers argued that the case was inadmissible because ministers do not intend to revoke Article 50. They claimed the reactions of other member states are unknown and unknowable and that the campaigners simply sought ammunition for their political views. The European Councils legal team argued against unilateral revocation, stating that it would allow the UK to unfairly keep the ball rolling on the Article 50 period until it had a better deal from the bloc. Lawyers acting for the European Commission meanwhile argued that states could act in an abusive manner by triggering and revoking Article 50 repeatedly, creating endless uncertainty against the spirit of the treaty. They said that a unanimous vote should be required because extension also requires it. Ultimately, the issue could be a moot point for Britain, as no EU state has indicated that it would block Britains remaining in the bloc, and Brussels chiefs such as Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker have said the UK would be welcome to stay. Some observers however suspect the EU might try to extract concessions from the UK in the event it tried to stay. Article 50 is clear that for a mere extension of the negotiating period, rather than a cancellation, the consent of the other member states on the European Council is required. The UK government failed in an attempt to derail the challenge earlier this month by appealing to the UK supreme court against its referral to the ECJ. Documents revealed in the course of that appeal however show that the governments lawyers accept that parliament could instruct the government to revoke Article 50 a significant point in its own right. It has previously been determined that parliaments consent was required for Article 50 to be triggered in the first place. 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 Downing Street has refused to elaborate on what it would do if Theresa Mays Brexit deal is voted down, with a spokesperson saying on Monday the prime minister had been clear there would be a period of uncertainty. Jo Maugham QC, a high profile lawyer who is supporting the legal action, said: The Article 50 case is highly significant. It could answer the question how the majority of MPs against no deal together act to prevent one. Simples they direct the government to revoke. The uncomfortable truth, for paid soothsayers, is that no one knows. No one knows what happens after Theresa Mays shameful attempt to sacrifice all else at her xenophobic altar fails. Anything could happen and remaining is at least as likely as any other outcome. A former UK trade chief says Donald Trump is speaking the truth when he warns Theresa Mays Brexit deal will wreck hopes of a trade agreement with the US. Sir Andrew Cahn backed the US president, undermining attempts by a furious Downing Street to fight back against the bombshell dropped in Washington. Sir Michael Fallon, the former defence secretary who will vote against a deal he branded doomed also warned that brushing off Mr Trumps embarrassing comments would not work. No 10 was thrown on the back foot when the president described the Brexit proposals as a great deal for the EU and a very big negative for the UKs aim of striking its own trade deals. Sir Andrew Cahn, the former chief executive of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), agreed, telling BBC Radio 4 that, unusually, the president is actually speaking the truth. Pointing out any trade talks would not be able to cover key US interests such as sending their chicken to us, their cars, he added: In the end there just wouldnt be a deal. Sir Andrew said the Brexit plan was likely to leave the UK stuck within the EU customs union for the foreseeable future restricting bilateral trade deals to services only. The deal Mrs May has come up with doesnt tell us what the long-term trading arrangements between Britain and the EU would be, he said. Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Show all 13 1 /13 Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Esther McVey Britain's Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey arrives to attend the weekly meeting of the cabinet at 10 Downing Street in London. - Britain's Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey resigned from the cabinet over draft Brexit deal AFP/Getty Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Dominic Raab British Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab give a press conference at the end of the final round of talks in Brexit negotiations at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium EPA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Rehman Chrishti Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party Rehman Chrishti tendered his resignation letter this afternoon PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Anne-Marie Trevelyan Parliamentary private secretary in the Department of Education Anne-Marie Trevelyan resigned stating that she cannot support the deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Sam Gyimah Universities minister Sam Gyimah resigned on November 30, claiming the government's decision to pull out of the EU's Galileo satellite navigation system as a deciding factor PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Shailesh Vara Shailesh Vara who has quit as Minister of State for Northern Ireland, saying he cannot support Theresa May's Brexit agreement, which he said "leaves the UK in a halfway house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation" PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Suella Braverman Brexit minister Suella Braverman has resigned, stating It is not what the British people, or my constituents, voted for in 2016. Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Ranil Jayawardena Parliamentary private secretary to the ministry of justice Ranil Jayawardena resigned as he could not back the deal "in good conscience" So, after the transition period is finished in two or three or four years, anything could happen. Sir Andrew, who advised on setting up the single market in the 1980s, added: It will be very difficult to do independent trade deals for as long as we can see looking forward. The warning came as Sir Michael, who resigned a year ago, called for Brexit to be postponed for two or three months, to allow negotiators to go back to Brussels for a better deal. Its no use us just brushing that off, saying no, no we can do a deal with America, he said. Hes the president of the United States, and if he says its going to be difficult, then it certainly looks like its going to be difficult. This is not a good deal and we need a better deal. At the White House on Monday, Mr Trump said: Sounds like a great deal for the EU. I think we have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade a reference to signing trade deals. Right now, as the deal stands, they may not be able to trade with the US and I dont think they want that at all. That would be a very big negative for the deal. Later, the prime minister, speaking on a visit to Wales, insisted the political declaration agree with the EU would allow the UK to strike its own trade deals. It clearly identifies that we will have an independent trade policy and we will be able to do trade deals, to negotiate trade deals, with countries around the rest of the world, she said. And, as regards the United States, weve already been talking to them about the sort of agreement we could have with them in the future. Weve got a working group set up which is working very well, has met several times, [and were] continuing to work with the US on this. And David Lidington, Ms Mays de facto deputy, shrugged off Mr Trumps comments, saying: I dont think it was that unexpected. He added: I think it was always going to be challenging to do a deal with the United States. The United States is a tough negotiator, President Trumps always said very plainly I put America first. Theresa May has said that Sunday 9 December should be the date for the live television Brexit debate pitting her against Labours Jeremy Corbyn. The prime minister settled on the day for the head-to-head clash as she starts a nationwide tour in a bid to convince voters the Brexit deal she has agreed with Brussels is the right one for the country. It means the showdown will come just two day before MPs vote on the deal in the House of Commons with all signs pointing towards a major defeat for the prime minister. In an interview with The Sun, Ms May said: I am going to be going out and round the country. I am going to be talking to people. I am going to be explaining why I think this deal is the right deal for the UK and yes, I am ready to debate it with Jeremy Corbyn. Because I have got a plan. He hasnt got a plan. The paper reported that Downing Street is looking at the Sunday as the best time for the debate to have an impact on the MPs vote two days later. In response to the challenge, Mr Corbyn was said to be eager to take on the prime minister. Jeremy would relish a head-to-head debate with Theresa May about her botched Brexit deal and the future of our country, a Labour Party spokesperson said. 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 It came as one of Ms Mays staunchest allies, Sir Michael Fallon MP, said that her Brexit deal was in fact the worst of all worlds. The former defence secretary confirmed he will not vote in favour of the agreement when it comes to Parliament, where he said it seems doomed to fail. The MP for Sevenoaks, until now seen as a May loyalist, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: My fear is that this deal gives us the worst of all worlds no guarantee of smooth trade in the future and no ability to reduce the tariffs that we need to conclude trade deals with the rest of the world. So, unless the House of Commons can be persuaded somehow that those are possible, then I think, yes, the deal is doomed. Up to 90 Conservative MPs are said to be ready to vote against her deal, while her Northern Irish DUP partners in government are also set to vote against it. Foreign food imports must be held to Britains high standards after Brexit or the nations farming community will be devastated, MPs have warned. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee concluded the governments agriculture bill must be amended to ensure goods meet current rules for production, animal welfare and the environment. The warning from MPs comes after committee members questioned environment secretary Michael Gove at the end of October about the bill and its failure to stop products like chlorinated chicken entering the country. Recommended Gove forced to defend lack of protection against chlorinated chicken Following the hearing, the National Farmers Union told The Independent that British farming operates to some of the highest standards in the world and said it was vital this was not undermined after Brexit. Mr Gove said he agreed with these sentiments, but added that in his view the proposed changes to future trade deals fell outside the scope of the bill. In a new report, the Efra committee members said the government must put its money where its mouth is when it comes to maintaining high standards following Brexit. They also expressed disappointment that they had not been given ample opportunity to scrutinise either the agriculture or fisheries bills. Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Show all 13 1 /13 Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Esther McVey Britain's Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey arrives to attend the weekly meeting of the cabinet at 10 Downing Street in London. - Britain's Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey resigned from the cabinet over draft Brexit deal AFP/Getty Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Dominic Raab British Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab give a press conference at the end of the final round of talks in Brexit negotiations at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium EPA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Rehman Chrishti Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party Rehman Chrishti tendered his resignation letter this afternoon PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Anne-Marie Trevelyan Parliamentary private secretary in the Department of Education Anne-Marie Trevelyan resigned stating that she cannot support the deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Sam Gyimah Universities minister Sam Gyimah resigned on November 30, claiming the government's decision to pull out of the EU's Galileo satellite navigation system as a deciding factor PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Shailesh Vara Shailesh Vara who has quit as Minister of State for Northern Ireland, saying he cannot support Theresa May's Brexit agreement, which he said "leaves the UK in a halfway house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation" PA Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Suella Braverman Brexit minister Suella Braverman has resigned, stating It is not what the British people, or my constituents, voted for in 2016. Cabinet ministers resign over Brexit deal Ranil Jayawardena Parliamentary private secretary to the ministry of justice Ranil Jayawardena resigned as he could not back the deal "in good conscience" Efra chair Neil Parish, a former farmer himself, noted: The UK currently has exceptionally high environmental and food standards and an internationally recognised approach to animal welfare. This legacy cannot be ripped apart by the introduction of cheap, low-quality goods following our exit from the EU. Recommended Chlorinated chicken is the least of our problems with a US trade deal Besides the chlorine-washed chicken that is reportedly poised to flood the UK market from the US, there have also been warnings of hormone-treated beef that is currently not allowed in Britain. Imports produced to lower standards than ours pose a very real threat to UK agriculture. Without sufficient safeguards we could see British farmers significantly undermined while turning a blind eye to environmental degradation and poor animal welfare standards abroad, said Mr Parish. Our suggested amendment calls for agricultural goods to be imported into the UK only if the standards to which those goods were produced are as high as, or higher than, current UK standards. He also noted that given the lack of clarity in the existing bill, future environment secretaries would be able to avoid scrutiny and make crucial decisions unchallenged. We would like to see sufficient opportunities for parliamentary scrutiny before any new systems or policies are rolled out, said Mr Parish. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Environmental groups have long warned about environmental standards being compromised when the UK no longer abides by EU regulations, despite Mr Goves promise of a green Brexit. Pressure to get a deal at any cost could mean our environmental standards are traded away for access to markets, said Kierra Box, Brexit lead for Friends of the Earth. This could result in the obvious lowering of standards. Responding to the report, a spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: Ministers have always been absolutely clear that we will not water down our high standards in pursuit of trade deals. Our food security is built on a strong domestic production base and access to safe, high-quality imports from a diverse range of countries. Warehouses to stockpile food for a no-deal Brexit may be empty because they have been snapped up by Amazon to pounce on the UK market, an inquiry by MPs has been told. The Food and Drink Federation warned that all available frozen and chilled space had been taken but no one knew who had taken it and whether there was anything in it. What we dont know is whether there is actual product in those places, said Ian Wright, the federations chief executive. And he added: There is some gossip, and I cant stand this up, that quite a lot of this has been booked by Amazon for their entry into the food market at some point over the next few months. Every retailer is inevitably terrified by that prospect and will talk it up. Mr Wright suggested it was a useful question for MPs put to the boss of Amazon, but warned: He wont tell you. Theresa May revealed in July that plans were underway to stockpile food in case imports from the EU are cut off if the UK crashes out without an agreement but denied the public should be worried. However, Mr Wright said space had now almost run out with food and drink manufacturers in the dark about who had booked it up. Frozen and chilled are, for all practical purposes, booked out at the moment, he told the Commons business committee. 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 There is some ambient available, but its in the wrong part of the country. Its not where you need it on your particular supply journey. And he added: For long-term planning for big or medium-sized businesses, it wont work. Mr Wright also warned of inevitable price hikes in the shops, if stockpiling took place, saying: Theres nowhere to go. If costs go up, you either have to absorb them or you have to pass them on in price increases. Amazon has been contacted for comment on the claim it has bought up available warehousing space in the UK. In common with other retailers, food and drink manufacturers have backed the prime ministers Brexit deal, in relief that it would avoid the damage from crashing out of the EU. However, Mr Wright said the federation remained opposed to ending free movement of labour a criticism he had put to Ms May in person at a meeting this week. And, on the political declaration, which was meant to outline a future trade deal, he added: Its a list of new year resolutions and we dont know whether they will still be there at the end of January. Both Mr Wright and Ian Rayson, of Nestle, cast doubt on a solution ever being found to deliver frictionless trade, while avoiding the return of a hard border in Ireland. Were not aware of technologies that can magically solve the problem, Mr Rayson told the committee. And Mr Wright said: When politicians tell you therell be a technological solution [for Ireland] they almost certainly dont know what theyre talking about. A senior Ukip MEP has announced he is leaving the party over its growing links to former EDL leader Tommy Robinson. Patrick OFlynn said he had tried to dissuade Ukips leadership from its apparent and growing fixation with the far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Unexpectedly, Mr OFlynn, the partys former economics spokesperson, said he would be joining the continuity SDP (Social Democratic Party), which has practically zero elected representatives at any other level of government. Ukip has been beset by huge internal strife since the EU referendum in 2016, careering through a succession of short-lived leaders, losing swathes of councillors, and tanking in the polls. The latest row to hit the party emerged last week after current leader, MEP Gerard Batten, appointed Mr Robinson, a prominent media figure in so-called alt-right circles as an advisor. The decision was immediately condemned by some factions in the party, including former leader Nigel Farage. Mr Batten claimed high profile figure had been persecuted by the state because of his views and was good to have on our side. In a statement Mr OFlynn said: Without any mandate from the membership or the partys elected ruling body to go down this path, Gerard is transforming what UKIP stands for and offers to voters. Many longstanding party members have already left as a result. Today I am joining them because I have reached the sorry conclusion that UKIP under its current direction and at this decisive moment has become an impediment to the Brexit campaigning that I have energetically pursued for many years. In an ironic twist of fate the tiny continuity SDP, whose members rejected the old SDPs merger with the Liberal party to form the Liberal Democrats, will now have the same number of MEPs as the Lib Dems one. The party that exists today was legally founded in 1990 after the disillusion of the original continuity group by David Owen, which lasted from 1988 until 1990. The SDP has taken a eurosceptic turn since the 1990s, when it split from the Labour party principally because it considered Labour too anti-EU. In 2016 it campaigned for Brexit. It received a total of 469 votes across the country at the 2017 general election, totalling 0.0%. Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, March 9 2016 This wholly false headline merited the first ruling by IPSO (the press regulator) under clause 1 of the revised Editor's Code of Practice. Clause 1 makes specific reference to newspapers printing "headlines not supported by the text" Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, November 4 2016 In perhaps the most notorious front page of the past few years, the Mail derides the High Court judges who ruled that parliament must have a vote on whether to trigger article 50 and start the Brexit process Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Express, November 4 2016 In the Express' take on the same story, they manage to incorporate the Union Jack, allude to First World War propaganda, invoke memories of Churchill and, of course, state "Brexit means Brexit" Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, March 29 2017 The Sun marked the day on which Mrs May triggered article 50 by projecting a huge and terrible pun on to the Cliffs of Dover Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, April 4 2017 Referencing their notorious eurosceptic headline from 1990 (See: Up Yours Delors), the Sun stokes the flames of the brief Gibraltar dispute, a dispute in which Spain, the supposed aggressors, only joined to note that there was "no need for it" Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, April 19 2017 This headline followed Mrs May's snap election announcement, which gave the Mail hope that dissenting opinions on Brexit would disappear Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, December 14 2017 In recent months, the Mail has often forgone catchy headlines in favour of rambling rants, this is an early example aimed at Tory Brexit rebels Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, January 31 2018 This headline (?) takes aim at the Lords over their repeated amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, June 12 2018 On the day that the EU Withdrawal Bill is to be debated in the Commons, the Sun offers two choices to MPs, desperately including all conceivable imagery that might make Brits feel patriotic, which apparently includes the Loch Ness Monster Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Express, June 12 2018 On the same day, the Express lets MPs know what the consequences of the vote may be The key question in British politics now is which party are millions of sensible, moderate Brexit voters betrayed by establishment parties but wishing no tie-up with Tommy Robinson supposed to vote for? The answer, alas, is clearly not UKIP, Mr OFlynn said of his decision. So, like many on the communitarian wing of the party, I have decided to join the resurgent SDP, which campaigned for Brexit during the referendum and espouses broad and moderate pro-nation state political values that I and I believe many of our voters from 2014 will be delighted to endorse. The man accused of ramming his car into a crowd at a white supremacist rally and killing one of the counter protesters, has pleaded not guilty to murder. James Alex Fields Jr sat silently as jury selection began in the Charlottesville Circuit Court where faces multiple charges of malicious wounding and assault and separate federal hate crime charges. He also faces a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal who was killed as she joined other residents of Charlottesville to protest against neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups that descended on the quiet Virginia town for a Unite the Right rally. The protest saw hundreds of neo-Nazi sympathizers, accompanied by rifle-carrying men, yelling white nationalist slogans and wielding flaming torches. Dozens of other protesters were injured, many seriously, in the alleged car attack on 12 August 2017. Video of the incident shows a Dodge Challenger stopping a short distance from those marching in the area reversing, but then going forward into them. If convicted of first degree murder Mr Fields faces 20 years to life in prison. Both lawyers Judge Richard Moore asked groups of 28 people about their knowledge and opinions about the case, along with more basic questions about personal connections to witnesses in the case. Charlottesville one year on Show all 15 1 /15 Charlottesville one year on Charlottesville one year on Mary Grace, from Durham, North Carolina, walks through the downtown mall area August 11, 2018 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville has been declared in a state of emergency by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as the city braces for the one year anniversary of the deadly clash between white supremacist forces and counter protesters over the potential removal of Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee and Jackson. A "Unite the Right" rally featuring some of the same groups is planned for tomorrow in Washington, DC. Getty Charlottesville one year on Chris Jessee (R) hands out placards to people visiting downtown Charlottesville as the city marks the anniversary of last year's 'Unite the Right rally' in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 11 August 2018. On 12 August 2017, a bloody clash between white supremacists and counterprotestors in Charlottesville left three people dead and dozens injured Getty Charlottesville one year on A member of the Virginia State Police waits outside the park where a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is located August 11, 2018 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville has been declared in a state of emergency by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as the city braces for the one year anniversary of a deadly clash between white supremacist forces and counter protesters over the potential removal of Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee and Jackson. A "Unite the Right" rally featuring some of the same groups is planned for tomorrow in Washington, DC Reuters Charlottesville one year on A woman displays a shirt ahead of the one-year anniversary of 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" protests, in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 10, 2018. Reuters Charlottesville one year on A sign reading "Strength, which was taken down at the request of police officers, hangs by the statue of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee, ahead of the one-year anniversary of 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" protests, in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 10, 2018. Reuters Charlottesville one year on Law enforcement arrives ahead of the one year anniversary of 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" protests, in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 10, 2018 Reuters Charlottesville one year on A vendor displays wares on the mall as State Police lock down the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. The Governor has declared a state of emergency in Charlottesville AP Charlottesville one year on A Police bike patrol takes a break in the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. State and local authorities framed the weekend's heightened security as a necessary precaution. AP Charlottesville one year on State Police arrest a local resident, John Miska, in the locked down downtown area in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. Miska purchased razor blades, which are banned items, in a downtown drugstore. On the the anniversary of white supremacist violence, state and local authorities framed the weekend's heightened security as a necessary precaution. AP Charlottesville one year on State Police escort local resident, John Miska, red hat, after he was arrested in the locked down downtown area in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. Miska purchased razor blades, which are banned items, in a downtown drugstore. On the the anniversary of white supremacist violence, state and local authorities framed the weekend's heightened security as a necessary precaution. AP Charlottesville one year on A group Anti-fascism demonstrators, march in the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, AP Charlottesville one year on A group anti-fascism demonstrators march in the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., AP Charlottesville one year on People receive first-aid after a car accident ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA on August 12, 2017. A vehicle plowed into a crowd of people Saturday at a Virginia rally where violence erupted between white nationalist demonstrators and counter-protesters, witnesses said, causing an unclear number of injuries AFP/Getty Charlottesville one year on Alt-right rally members in Lee Park in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday August 12, 2017 White nationalist 'Unite the Right' rally, Charlottesville, USA Rex Charlottesville one year on A counter protester who got hit with a stick by alt-right member covered with blood on his face in Lee Park in Charlottesville, Rex Mr Fields counsel John Hill told one group that the court will hear evidence that the 21-year-old "thought he was acting in self-defence." The commonwealths attorney Joseph Platania and senior assistant attorney Nina-Alice Antony are expected to argue that it was a premeditated attack. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Jury selection is expected to last around two days, with the full trial scheduled to last until mid-December. Donald Trump was widely criticised after the incident when he did condemn white supremacists in his initial response to the incident. Instead he blamed the violence on many sides. Mexicos incoming foreign minister has said that a scheme similar to the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Western Europe after the Second World War will be necessary to handle the migrant crisis stemming from Central America and southern Mexico. Marcelo Ebrard told reporters in Mexico Cory that a major investment of that kind would be necessary to develop the area and to ameliorate conditions that push migrants north from Central America and away from violence and poor economic prospects. The idea has come up as incoming Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador considers how to handle the border crisis that he will inherit when he is sworn into office this weekend. As his swearing-in approaches, US president Donald Trumps administration has suggested that migrants should be kept in Mexico as their asylum claims are processed. Mr Ebrard, who is due to meet US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Sunday to discuss the border and migration, said estimates were still being prepared to determine just how much funding would be needed to develop the region. Mexico alone was likely to invest more than $20 billion (15.7bn) in southern Mexico during the coming administration, Mr Ebrard said. As a result, any serious effort undertaken for our brothers in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala would need to be a similar sum, he said. The majority of those involved in the migrant caravans making their way to the US border are believed to be Honduran. Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Show all 30 1 /30 Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Members of the caravan of Central American migrants climb the border wall in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico EPA Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border US Border Patrol agents seen through the concertina wire where the border meets the Pacific Ocean AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Central American migrants pray at a temporary shelter in Tijuana AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Darwin, a 12 year old migrant boy from Honduras, looks out from under a tarp while taking refuge at a shelter in Tijuana Reuters Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Central American migrants line up for a meal at a shelter in Tijuana AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Angel, a 13-year-old migrant from Honduras looks towards the United States past the border fence in Tijuana Reuters Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Members of the LGBTQ community -who split from a caravan of Central American migrants heading to the US- arrive at the Diversidad Migrante (Migrant Diversity) NGO headquarters, which they will use as shelter, in Tijuana AFP/Getty Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border US military personell install barbed wire fences to stop the passage of Central American migrants EPA Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Young Honduran migrant Daniel Gamez waits with his family in a line for a meal after arriving with the Central America migrant caravan in Tijuana AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Two women, one carrying a child, walk north after crossing illegally into the United States as a Border Patrol agent moves in to detain them AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border EPA Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border A child looks out the window of a bus upon its arrival at a temporary shelter in Tijuana AFP/Getty Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Migrants from Honduras dry their clothes in the sand after washing off in the Pacific Ocean AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Central American migrants at a temporary shelter near the US-Mexico border AFP/Getty Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border US police agents stand guard near the US-Mexico border fence AFP/Getty Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border A migrant, who claimed not to be part of the Central American migrant caravan walks on the US-Mexico border fence AFP/Getty Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Eldin, a migrant man from Honduras, awakes next to his seven year old son Jose while taking refuge at a shelter in Tijuana Reuters Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Migrants line up for food at a shelter AFP/Getty Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border A man installs concertina wire on top of the border structure on the US side AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Central American migrants sit on an overlook in Tijuana AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border A migrant, who is part of a caravan traveling en route to the United States, shouts as he waits to receive food in a shelter in Tijuana REUTERS Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border A man tries to get over a border structure topped with concertina wire AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border People who are part of the Central American migrants caravan arrive at a shelter EPA Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border AFP/Getty Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border EPA Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Migrants pray at a temporary shelter in Tijuana AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border Migrants shower outside a temporary migrant shelter next to the Us-Mexico border fence Getty Images Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border US Border Patrol agents, left, speak with two Central American migrants as they sit atop the border structure AP Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border A Central American migrant looks on through the US-Mexico border fence AFP/Getty Images Migrant caravan reaches Tijuana on US border A migrant stands next to the border fence REUTERS Revitalising Southern Mexico was a key pledge of Mr Lopez Obradors during his run for the Mexican presidency, and defending the poor more broadly has been a central theme to his political rise to the top echelons of Mexican politics. But the migrant crisis on the US-Mexico border may be the first major challenge to Mr Lopez Obradors commitment to help the struggling masses he has championed as he looks to balance demands from the US alongside those of the migrants who are fleeing violence and economic depression in Central America. Mexican officials have already indicated that keeping migrants in Mexican border towns is turning into a humanitarian crisis, with officials expressing concern that keeping would-be refugees in Mexico as they await the conclusion to their asylum cases could force people into crowded shelters with squalid conditions. There has been added tension at the border between Tijuana and California after US border patrol officials opened fire with tear gas canisters on migrants who attempted to rush the border, with a number of women and children caught up in the clashes. The US, for its part, defended the use of those tactics and Mr Trump indicated that tear gas canisters and other means of physical control are not intended to be used on women and children. Theyre not coming into the United States. They will not be coming into our country, Mr Trump said. We dont use it on children. Border agents were forced into action because they were being rushed by some very tough people, Mr Trump said calling the use of tear gas "very safe" despite images of women and children crying in pain after it was deployed Critics have accused the Trump administration of a draconian response, while Mexico which says it will deport 100 of those has demanded the US investigate its use of tear gas. The migrants and refugees themselves were urgently exploring their options amid a growing feeling that they had little hope of making successful asylum bids in the United States or of crossing the border illegally. There was a steady line on Tuesday outside a tent housing the International Organisation for Migration, where officials were offering assistance to those who wanted to return to their home countries. The Marshall Plan gave more than $15bn or more that $157bn in 2018 money in economic assistance to Western Europe following the conclusion of the Second World War. The measure, which was also known as the European Recovery Program, was started in 1948 and helped to promote US anti-communist policies in the post-war period. The money helped to restore major economic and cultural centres in the UK, France, Belgium, Italy and Germany. Associated Press contributed to this report Close Migrants enveloped in tear gas after heading toward US More than 5,000 Central American migrants in Tijuana, Mexico wait for their applications for asylum to be processed as Donald Trump continues to crack down on their entry into the US. Speaking at a roundtable with supporters in Mississippi, Mr Trump claimed the tear gas used against asylum seekers was very safe. The US president went on to say that some of the women pictured with the tear gas are not really parents but are instead grabbers who steal children to have a better chance of being granted asylum. He cited no evidence to back-up his claim. Mr Trump had, for nearly two years on the campaign trail and in the White House, promised Mexico would foot the massive bill for the project without ever saying why or how they would do so. However, a partial government shutdown looms. Congress has just 11 days to pass a spending bill which would fund, among other agencies, the border-policing Department of Homeland Security. Saturday Night Live skit parodies Fox News coverage of Migrant Caravan Mr Trump has been threatening to bring the $312bn bill to a standstill over his border wall proposal. Democrats have accused him of putting at risk the one function of government he wants to shore up with the wall - all for the sake of saving face on his campaign promise. The president's supporters say his base will understand the stance because he is putting "America First". Mexico's incoming foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard has said that something like a new Marshall Plan is needed to deal with the number with the issue of refugees and migrants heading to Mexico and the US from Central America. Mr Ebrard was speaking to reporters during a news conference in Mexico City. Named after General George Marshall, the Marshall Plan was a US-backed aid scheme to rebuild Western Europe after the devastation of the Second World War. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be meeting with Mr Ebrard, who will officially take office on 1 December as President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known by the acronym Amlo is sworn into office. He is already facing a dilemma about his proposal to issue work visas to the Central American migrants so they do not have to cross the border into the US. Donald Trump defends use of tear gas at Mexico border poll in El Universal, one of Mexico's largest newspapers, showed 52 per cent supported the idea while 40 per cent opposed it. The poll stated 70 per cent of Mexicans had some sort of negative view about the migrant caravan. Just about half supported blocking the migrants' entry into Mexico, which with this latest caravan was via a crossing point on the Suchiate River bordering Guatemala. Around 55 per cent supported the Mexican government taking harsher measures to prevent future caravans. Support for the migrants has been declining even from their steadfast Mexican supporters. With migrants feeling deflated after the tear gas clash, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said it "reiterates that members of the caravans that cross our country should respect Mexican laws and not engage in actions that affect the communities they pass through." Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds "It is important to note that the fact the Mexican government protects their rights does not imply a free pass to break the law," the group said in a rare moment of less than full-throated support for the migrants. A large part of the support issue is due to economics. For the six million people who live in the border region this could prove disastrous economically. Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to close the San Ysidro port of entry near San Diego, California, and Tiajuana, Mexico. The San Ysidro port of entry has a more than $220 billion dollar economy passing through its gates. San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce on yesterdays port of entry shutdown. pic.twitter.com/Xphgd4TkEt Maya Srikrishnan (@msrikris) November 27, 2018 A statement issued by the local Chamber of Commerce said the temporary shutdown which occurred during the tear gas incident cost area businesses $5.3m (4.2m). Approximately 25 million vehicles containing roughly 48 million passengers and more than 16 million pedestrians go between the U.S. and Mexico to go to work and school through that port every year, according to the Department of Transportation. There are actually American troops stationed along the US-Mexico border. US border patrol agents were the ones who the tear gas, however. Approximately 300 US troops stationed at the border in Texas and Arizona have now been given a new assignment in California, specifically around the San Ysidro port of entry near San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. The move comes after US Customs and Border Protection asked the Pentagon for help to stop illegal immigration. According to the US military 2,400 troops are in Texas, 1,400 are in Arizona and 1,800 are currently in California. Follow live updates below Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Donald Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to the FBI even after agreeing a plea deal, special prosecutor Robert Mueller has alleged. In a court filing made in Washington DC, Mr Muellers office claimed that crimes and lies made by Manafort during a series of interviews with lawyers meant the agreements made by prosecutors in September were no longer applicable. The special counsel asked a judge to set a date for the sentencing of the 69-year-old. But Manaforts lawyers disagreed, according to the New York Times. They insisted the man who led Mr Trumps campaign from June to August 2016 - a brief but crucial period for the former Apprentice star when he secured the Republican nomination - had been truthful with prosecutors. In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-8.jpg Getty Images In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-2.jpg AP In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-3.jpg Getty Images In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-4.jpg AP In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-5.jpg Getty Images In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-7.jpg Getty Images In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-9.jpg AP In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-12.jpg Getty Images In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-10.jpg AP In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-6.jpg Getty Images In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-11.jpg AP In pictures: Nelson Mandelas death dominates world newspaper headlines newspapers-1.jpg Reuters In the same filing updating Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, they said Manafort had been honest. Because of the disagreement with prosecutors, they also asked that the case move to the sentencing phase. In their filing, Mr Muellers team wrote: After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the special counsels office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement. The government will file a detailed sentencing submission to the probation department and the court in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendants crimes and lies. In September, Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mr Muellers team as part of an agreement that saw him plead guilty to two charges - one of conspiracy against the United States and one of witness tampering. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleads guilty The plea meant Manafort avoided going through a a second trial, on charges of money laundering and lobbying violations. He was already facing eight to 10 years in prison after being convicted in August in Virginia on eight counts of bank and tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts relating to $16m (12m) laundered through shell companies overseas. Manafort is awaiting sentencing on both of the cases. There has been talk that Manafort could face decades in jail, unless he was pardoned by Mr Trump. After Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mr Mueller there was much speculation about what sort of information he might be able to provide about the president, who recently completed a series of written answers to questions put to him by Mr Mueller, who is investigating Russias alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. The court filing did not specify what Manafort had lied to agents about. However, Mr Muellers office insisted it was sufficient to invalidate any undertaking prosecutors had given. A breach relieves the government of any obligations it has under the agreement, including its agreement to a reduction in the sentencing guidelines for acceptance of responsibility, but leaves intact all the obligations of the defendant as well as his guilty pleas, Mr Mueller wrote. At the time of his plea deal, his lawyer Kevin Downing, said it included a full cooperation agreement. He wanted to make sure his family remained safe and live a good life, Mr Downing told reporters outside of the courthouse. He has accepted responsibility. The conventional wisdom usually suggests anyone expecting to get money for nothing will end up bitterly disappointed. However, for a few short hours, bank customers in Texas were able to do just that when a cash machine began mistakenly dispensing $100 bills - worth around 78 at current exchange rates. Authorities said the Bank of America ATM, in Harris County just north of Houston, started spitting out the banknotes on Sunday evening every time a person attempted to withdraw just $10. As word spread via social media, large queues began to form by the machine, leading, perhaps inevitably, to fights breaking out between some of those hoping to cash in. The disturbances led sheriffs deputies to later attend and disperse the crowd, before shutting the machine down, local news station ABC 13 reported. It is not known how much money Bank of America lost during the incident, but the lucky few who made it to the ATM in time have been told they will not have to return the cash. This was an incident at a single ATM in Houston caused when a vendor incorrectly loaded $100 bills in place of $10 bills. We have resolved the matter, the bank said in a statement. Customers will be able to keep the additional money dispensed. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Bank of Americas decision not to pursue those who took advantage of the error is an unusual gesture - some financial services firms in the US have taken legal action in the past over similar incidents. In February this year, the Kansas-based Central National Bank sued a customer who it said withdrew thousands of dollars after discovering an ATM in Wichita was dispensing $100 bills instead of $5 notes. The banks lawsuit claimed the woman was able to withdraw $14,120 (11,000) in cash, when the machine should have instead given her just $1,485 (1,165). A new report paints a harrowing picture of what its like for thousands of migrants arriving to the US-Mexico border, as Donald Trump defends the use of tear gas against women and children in the region. The report, released by Amnesty International UK and titled Americas: Stuck at the door, features interviews with 200 migrants who have travelled in caravans headed towards the border, alleging unlawful US immigration policies that have left thousands of asylum-seekers stranded in Mexico. Amnesty found nearly 4,320 people were listed on an unofficial asylum wait list maintained by asylum-seekers themselves and Mexican officials at the Tijuana side of the San Ysidro port of entry. According to the international human rights organisation, multiple sources in the Mexican government confirmed that Mexican immigration officials routinely coordinate with the US border authorities over how many asylum-seekers from the list will be received each day. Mexicos immigration laws state authorities cannot restrict the flow of asylum-seekers exiting the country and travelling towards the US border. If Mexico agrees to do the US governments dirty work at the expense of the caravan members dignity and human rights, it is effectively paying for Trumps shameful border wall, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnestys Americas director, said in a statement sent to The Independent. She added, The governments of Mexico and Central America must take urgent action to ensure they do not suffer further human rights violations. As a result of the extended waiting times in Mexico, thousands of migrants are at risk of deportation, with dozens of caravan members being detained by municipal police in Tijuana and eventually deported. The report also describes squalid conditions migrants face, with Mexican officials reportedly admitting temporary shelters built to accommodate the influx of migrants lacked sufficient food, water and health services, and that respiratory illnesses were spreading among those there. Meanwhile, Mr Trump claimed the tear gas recently used on women and children at the US-Mexico border was "very safe," walking back initial denials about border patrol agents using force against minors. Trump defends use of tear gas Speaking with reporters in Mississippi amid a campaign event for Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, the president questioned why the migrants were arriving to the nations border, calling the women grabbers and claiming they grab a child because they think theyll have a certain status by grabbing a child. Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and its going to be formed and theyre running up with a child? He said, while adding the tear gas used was very safe. Mr Trump appeared to echo claims made by Ron Colburn, the former deputy chief of US Border Patrol, who said on Fox News Monday morning the tear was natural, adding, You can actually put it on your nachos and eat it. So, its a good way of deterring people without long-term harm. The president also appeared to directly contradict statements he made just hours earlier before flying to Mississippi, when a reporter asked him at the White House if he considered it OK to use tear gas on children. We didn't, Mr Trump responded. We dont use it on children. Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Show all 23 1 /23 Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants climb the US border fence in Tijuana AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants cross the dried up Tijuana river AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Mexico police emerge from a cloud of tear gas Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Mexico police work to keep migrants from getting over the border with the US AP Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border US border patrol agents stand guard as migrant seek to cross the border at Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Adults help a child over the US border fence AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants near the US border in Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants climb the US border fence in Tijuana AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants clash with riot police as they near the US border in Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A migrant is detained by US border patrol officers after illegally crossing the border Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants cross the dried up Tijuana river Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Tear gas is deployed at the border Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants make their way to the US border fence Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A migrant man wears a homemade gas mask Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants stand on the banks of the Tijuana river opposite the US border fence Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants cross the Tijuana river Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants gather at the border crossing in Tijuana AP Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Tear gas is fired by border police to deter migrants EPA Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A migrant covers his face as tear gas surrounds him Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrant families seek to cross the US border at Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Mexico police try to stop migrants from crossing Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants force their way through the border fence at Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Reuters By the time the president landed in the south to campaign for Ms Hyde-Smith whose re-election was once considered a sure-fire victory for the Republican Party, until her controversial statements and history with race relations came to light it was clear those denials would no longer hold up. US Customs and Border Protection confirmed agents made the decision to use their professional judgement and fire the tear gas at migrants, with CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan saying the agents were mostly reposing to adult males who threw rocks at US officials. Migrants have revealed harrowing accounts of what it was like to be hit tear gas at the border this week, including Cindy Milla, who told the Wall Street Journal, I felt that my face was burning, and my baby fainted. She added, I ran for my life and that of my children. Still, the Trump administration continued to assert the use of force was necessary, following the presidents admittance Monday night. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen claimed without evidence in a Facebook post Monday night that It appears in some cases that the limited number of women and children in the caravan are being used by the organisers as human shields when they confront law enforcement. Ms Nielsen also claimed without evidence the caravan members are predominately male, warning parents to avoid violent caravan groups and refrain from attempts to illegally enter our country. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events These acts will put your children in danger, she wrote. In its report, Amnesty issued 26 recommendations for the US and Mexican governments, urging officials ensure human rights protections for all migrants crossing the border, as well as to supply humanitarian support for asylum-seekers. Mexicos Foreign Ministry and US Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment. Mississippi voters are going to the polls to decide the last US senate race of the midterms, as authorities investigate nooses found hanging from the state capitol amid a divisive campaign by the Republican incumbent. The Mississippi department of public safety is looking for several suspects who hung seven nooses and signs on Monday that referred to the election and the state's history of lynching. "We're hanging nooses to remind people that times haven't changed," one of the signs reads. Mississippi's past of racist violence became a dominant theme after a video showed Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith praising a supporter in early November by saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row". If elected, Ms Hyde-Smith, who inherited her seat after her predecessor retired, would be the first woman ever elected to congress from Mississippi. Either way history will be made, as her Democrat opponent, Mike Espy, would be the state's first African-American senator since Reconstruction. Noose hangs on a tree on the state capitol grounds in Jackson, Mississippi (AP) The pair face a runoff on Tuesday after neither won more than 50 per cent of the vote in a special four-way election on 6 November. After footage of Ms Hyde Smith's comments were aired earlier this month, the 59-year-old apologised to "anyone that was offended by my comments", but also said the remark was used as a "weapon" against her. Ms Hyde-Smith, an unwavering supporter of Donald Trump, was seen in another video talking about making voting difficult for "liberal folks", and a photo circulated of her wearing a replica Confederate military hat during a 2014 visit to Beauvoir, last home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Critics said Ms Hyde-Smith's comments and Confederate regalia showed callous indifference in a state with a 38 per cent black population, and some corporate donors, including Walmart, requested refunds on their campaign contributions to her. Cindy Hyde-Smith addresses crowd during rally alongside Donald Trump (AP) Mississippi which still has the Confederate battle emblem on its state flag has a history of racially motivated lynchings. The Naacp website says between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the US, and that nearly 73 per cent of the victims were black. It says Mississippi had 581 lynching during that time, the highest number of any state. Ms Hyde-Smith was in her second term as Mississippi's elected agriculture commissioner when Republican governor Phil Bryant chose her to temporarily succeed longtime Republican senator Thad Cochran, who retired in April amid health concerns. Tuesday's winner will serve the last two years of Mr Cochran's six-year term. Mr Trump on Monday campaigned with Ms Hyde-Smith and praised her at a rally in the northeastern Mississippi city of Tupelo for voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Show all 20 1 /20 US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democratic candidate Ilhan Omar is celebrates with her husband's mother after she won a congress place, becoming the first Muslim woman to be elected into congress alongside Rashida Tlaib Reuters US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democratic House candidate, from Kansas, Sharice Davids (left) and her mom Crystal celebrate after she won. Davids is the first lesbian Native American Congresswoman by beating Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder. Davids is one of several first-time female candidates that helped the Democratic Party takeover in the House of Representatives EPA US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Republican Marsha Blackburn celebrates after winning the race for senate in Tennessee. In doing so she became that states first female senator AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Democratic House candidate Sharice Davids cheer and cry after learning she won EPA US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Ayanna Pressley beaome Massachusetts first black congresswoman by defeating 10-term Republican Michael Capuano AFP/Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Republican candidate Young Kim has become the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democrat Jared Polis won his seat and became the USs first ever openly gay governor AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Jean Kasselman (left) and Teresa Booker, supporters of Democratic candidate for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District Sharice Davids, react to election results Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Republican Kristi Noem hugs a supporter after being announced as the new governor of South Dakota. Noem made history by being the first female governor of the state AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Gabierla Martinez and Cesar Delgado cheer on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis REUTERS US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest women ever elected to Congress, representing New Yorks 14th congressional district AFP/Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democratic congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib celebrates with family and friends at her midterm election night party in Detroit after won and also became the nations first Muslim woman to congress alongside Ilhan Omar who was also elected Reuters US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Democratic candidate for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District Sharice Davids react to election results Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Already having become the first Native American woman to chair a state political party, Deb Haaland has now become the joint-first Native American woman to be elected to congress, alongside Sharice Davids Reuters US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cheer during her election night party in the Queens Borough AFP/Getty US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Young Kim hugs her son Alvin after she won a seat in congress AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cheer AFP/Getty Images US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Asma Mohammed and Ashley Fairbanks celebrate as results come in at Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar's election night headquarters AP US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Democrat Deb Haaland hugs a voter REUTERS US midterm results: more diverse, more female and more progressive Supporters of Democratic House candidate from Kansas Sharice Davids cheer and cry after learning she won her race EPA "She stood up to the Democrat smear machine," Mr Trump said. With the Mississippi election undecided, Republicans hold 52 of the 100 Senate seats. Mississippi last elected a Democrat to the US Senate in 1982, but Mr Espy was trying for the same kind of upset win that fellow Democrat Doug Jones had nearly a year ago in neighbouring Alabama, another conservative Deep South state where Republicans hold most statewide offices. Mr Espy campaigned as someone who would be able to bridge the partisan divide in Washington. He was endorsed by former vice president Joe Biden, and three Democrats who are potential 2020 presidential candidates former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey travelled to Mississippi to campaign for him. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events "I ask you tonight, Mississippi. It's the third decade of the 21st century. Why are we still fighting about the colour line?" Mr Espy said during a speech on Monday night at a predominantly African-American church. "This is a campaign that goes to the colour line and it reached across the colour line, across the chasm of racial division, across the chasm of racial acrimony," Mr Espy said. If white voters outnumber black voters 2-to-1 on Tuesday, Mr Espy would have to win 30 per cent or more of white votes, a tough task in a state with possibly the most racially polarised electorate in the country. But if black voters rise to 40 per cent of the electorate and Mr Espy wins 9 out of 10, he needs less than a quarter of white votes to squeak out a victory. "If Espy wins that race, it represents a huge breakthrough for America," said the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights activist and former Democratic presidential candidate. "If he loses, it's a brief statement about Mississippi being unrepentant." Additional reporting by AP Donald Trumps former campaign chairman has vehemently denied reports that he held secret meetings with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, including one that took place in 2016 just months before a trove of hacked Democratic emails were released on the whistle blowing website. Paul Manafort is said to have met with Mr Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2013, 2015, and the spring of 2016. The third and final meeting is thought to have been around the time he was made a senior figure in the Trump presidential campaign. Within months, WikiLeaks released thousands of Democratic National Committee emails that are believed to have be stolen by Russian intelligence officials, The Guardian reported. Manafort denied any connection to the hacked emails or their release in a strongly worded statement. "This story is totally false and deliberately libellous," he said. "I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to Wikileaks, either directly or indirectly." He added: "I have never reached out to Assange or Wikileaks on any matter. We are considering all legal options against the Guardian who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false. The report about the meeting emerged comes, less than 24 hours after special counsel Robert Muellers team alleged that Manafort had violated a plea agreement by lying to investigators looking into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Manafort has also denied this. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images It is not clear what Manafort and Mr Assange discussed during their three secret meetings, but it is likely that the apparent meetings will be of interest to the Mueller probe. In a series of tweets, Wikileaks said that Mr Assange and Manafort had not met. Mr Assange himself, called the story a hoax. Manafort had already been convicted on eight felony financial crimes before he reached a plea agreement with federal investigators two months ago, but Mr Mueller's team say the new allegations of lying to investigators mean that deal is now off. The visits to Mr Assange are said to have began a year after the WikiLeaks founder sought refuge in the embassy, but it did not appear as though regular protocol for logging visitors had been followed though a document showed that he was a known visitor. Sources told The Guardian that Manaforts 2016 visit was made alone and that it came just months before the tens of thousands of documents were released online about Mr Trump's Democratic rivals. They were published at around the same time that Manafort would have been named in charge of key campaign activities. While it is not clear what the men may have discussed, the reported meetings raise new questions about how much the Trump campaign knew about Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential campaign. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Manafort had previously worked as a political constant in Ukraine before joining Mr Trumps team in 2016. Mr Trump openly praised WikiLeaks in 2016 on the campaign trail, and encouraged Russia to hack his political opponent during campaign events leading up to his victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump twice asked Iraqs prime minister for oil in repayment for Americas invasion of the Middle East country to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, it has been reported. The US president first brought the subject up in a meeting with Iraqs then-leader Haider al-Abadi in March last year, according to Axios. Trump says something to the effect of, he gets a little smirk on his face and he says, So what are we going to do about the oil? a source in the White House meeting told the US news outlet. Asked by Mr Al-Abadi what he meant, Mr Trump said, Well, we did a lot, we did a lot over there, we spent trillions over there, and a lot of people have been talking about the oil, according to the source. It was a look down and reach for your coffee moment, a second source who was in the room told the site. Mr Trump again raised the issue with Mr Al-Abadi during a phone call last summer, according to the outlet, and discussed seizing Iraqs oil with officials in a Situation Room meeting last year. The 72-year-old was reportedly told by defence secretary James Mattis that such a move would be a violation of international law. We do not discuss internal deliberations, and the secretarys advice and counsel to the president is private, a Pentagon spokesperson said. The Independent has contacted the White House for comment. President Donald Trump has unleashed one of his most vicious attacks on special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election, just a day after investigators accused former top Trump official Paul Manafort of violating a plea agreement by lying. In an early morning tweet storm, Mr Trump called the special counsel a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue who was doing TREMENDOUS damage to the American criminal justice system. Mr Mueller a registered Republican who had previously been appointed to top US intelligence posts by presidents of both is leading the investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russias efforts to influence the presidential election. Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System. The president continued on to question why Mr Muellers campaign is not investigating his political adversaries, and claimed the the probe would cost American taxpayers $30 million. The Tuesday morning tweets came amid a number of high-profile developments for the Mueller probe. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images Just a day earlier, prosecutors with the probe alleged that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had lied to investigators repeatedly during their investigation, in violation of a plea agreement. Manafort, who had previously been found guilty on eight felony charges for financial fraud over lobby work in Ukraine before making a deal with prosecutors, has denied intentionally lying to investigators. That alleged breach in the agreement could have significant ramifications for the Mueller probe, and the news came just hours before reports broke that Manafort had apparently met secretly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2016 just months before that whistle blower website released a stash of hacked emails from Democrats. It is not clear what the men discussed during their three meetings, The Guardian claimed. Both Mr Assange and Wikileaks denied any meeting with Manafort, while Manafort denied having anything to do with the hacking of the emails or their release by Wikileaks Other developments included the jailing of Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who was sent to prison after a federal judge rejected his lawyers motion to delay his imprisonment while a constitutional challenge to the Mueller probe plays out. Papadopoulous pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators about contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign, but has recently hired a new legal team and has alleged publicly that he was framed by American intelligence agencies . In yet another development, conservative author and commentator Jerome Corsi announced that he had rejected a plea offer from the Mueller probe to plead guilty to perjury. Mr Corsi said that accepting a plea agreement would mean he would be falsely admitting to intentionally misleading prosecutors. Mr Corsi had provided research to Trump associate Roger Stone during the 2016 campaign. The special counsels team has been investigating possible coordination between Mr Stone and Mr Assange over the release of Democratic emails during the campaign. Both Mr Stone and WikiLeaks have denied any coordination on the release of those emails. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Mr Muellers probe has so far resulted in indictments or pleas against 32 individuals, including 26 Russians and three companies. During that time, Mr Trump has repeatedly attempted to cast doubt on the probe, and has regularly called the investigation a witch hunt that is being run by a conflicted partisan though he has provided no evidence against Mr Mueller, a man widely defended in Washington for his independence. Mr Mueller was put in charge of the special counsel investigation by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was appointed to that role by the Trump administration. Donald Trump has avoided singling out Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, implying both countries were to blame for increased tensions around the Crimean peninsula. In his first comments since Moscows forces shot at and seized three of Kievs navy vessels, the US president said: We do not like whats happening either way. We dont like whats happening, and hopefully it will get straightened out. He added: I know Europe is not thrilled; theyre working on it too. Were all working on it together. Speaking to reporters outside the White House before embarking on a campaign trip to Mississippi, Mr Trump was asked for a response to Russia firing on the Ukraine. He replied: Not good. Were not happy about it at all. Not at all. Weve let our position be known, and were not happy about it. Russias coastguard opened fire on two Ukrainian artillery boats and a tug in the Black Sea before seizing the vessels on Sunday. Two of the boats were damaged and six crew were injured, according to Kiev. Moscow claimed the vessels had made an unauthorised passage through its waters, a claim seemingly undermined by distress signals sent one of the Ukrainian boats 1km outside of Russias waters. On Monday, Ukranian president Petro Poroshenko announced 30 days of martial law in parts of the country, warning of the extremely serious threat of a land invasion. Critics said he was was looking to shore up support ahead of elections next year. Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Show all 32 1 /32 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of opposition parties burn flares during a rally demanding to break an agreement with Russia on the use of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, in front of the parliament building in Kiev Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Volunteers with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps light flares during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev after Russia seized two of their armored artillery vessels and a tug boat in the Black Sea AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists demand to break the diplomatic relations with Russia and nationalization of Russian property in Ukraine EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian activists burn flares during their rally in front of Russian Consulate in Kharkiv EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Seized Ukrainian ships, small armoured artillery ships and a tug boat, are seen anchored in a port of Kerch Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, announced, on 25 November, at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council that they will introduce martial law in Ukraine for a period of 60 days and appeal to the Parliament to consider the move Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Russia seized two small-sized 'Berdiansk' and 'Nikopol' armored artillery boats. The 'Yany Kapu' tugboat has forcibly been stopped Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Children from an orphanage volunteer to help the city defenders strengthen trenches on Ukraine's Army positions near the village of Rybatske 25 km from Mariupol AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Policemen guard at Russian consulate during a protest action in the Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 With relations still raw after Russias annexation of Crimea and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the capture of three Ukrainian naval vessels risks pushing the two countries towards a wider conflict. Graphic explains how the naval incident unfolded on a map Graphic News Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of far-right parties burn flares in front of the parliament building in Kiev during a rally to support the Ukrainian navy Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A Ukraine army APC moves toward on position at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists sign a banner with a slogan reading like 'Not retreat and not surrendering!' EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists glue Ukrainian flag on the fence of Russian consulate AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A volunteer with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A National Guard serviceman extinguishes a torch thrown by a protester during a rally against the seizure by Russian special forces of three of the Ukrainian navy ships Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A protester throws a smoke grenade during a rally in front of the embassy of Russia in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protestors set up paper ships on the tires during their rally near of Russian embassy building in Kiev EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A man extinguishes a burning car of the embassy of Russia Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Paper boats are seen placed during a protest Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA World leaders including Theresa May and German chancellor Angela Merkel quickly expressed grave concern Russia's seizure of the Ukranian vessels. The UK prime minister condemned Russias act of aggression, while British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said Moscow had shown contempt for international norms and Ukrainian sovereignty. Mr Trumps more muted response came more than 24 hours later. Mark David Simakovsky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Centre, said Vladimir Putin would be "watching Washingtons response carefully". He said the Russian president would be "taking the measure of Trumps likely lack of interest in Ukraine" ahead of the G20 summit later this week in Argentina, where where the two leaders are set to meet. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, was more outspoken about Russia's aggression, which she denounced as an "outrageous" and reckless" escalation of tensions over Crimea. She added: In the name of international peace and security, Russia must immediately cease its unlawful conduct and respect the navigational rights and freedoms of all states. Ms Haley is to leave her post in January. Close Sarah Sanders: It is a "ridiculous accusation" to say Trump has ever lied US press secretary Sarah Sanders is holding the first White House news briefing this month. The conference comes as the White House is juggling controversies on multiple fronts, including growing tension at the US-Mexico border where agents fired tear gas at travelling migrants a move staunchly defended by Donald Trump and recent developments from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election after former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was accused of lying to the FBI in violation of a recent plea deal. During the press conference, Ms Sanders suggested that the Obama administration also allowed for the use of tear gas at the US-Mexico border, and said that Mr Trump would like to see the Mueller investigation come to its conclusion. "Certainly the president has voiced his unhappiness from the beginning that this has gone on, this ridiculous witch hunt for two years, and we would like to see it come to a conclusion," Ms Sanders said when asked why the president appears uneasy with the looming release of the Mueller report, which will be delivered to the US attorney general. Those concerns come just as the US economy shows signs of potential weakening, too, after General Motors announced thousands of layoffs this week amid ongoing tension over the president's harsh tariffs on foreign imports that have left major American industries in jeopardy as the cost of raw materials has surged. Meanwhile, on the international front, Russian aggression in Ukraine has put a spotlight on Mr Trump's relationship with the Kremlin as he has refused to condemn the aggression there. Just at the end of the press conference, the president himself weighed in on Twitter to discuss the GM layoffs, and suggested that the company may see its subsidies for electric car production revoked. White House officials had indicated during the press conference that punishments may come for the auto maker over its thousands of layoffs. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty "Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) - dont think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect Americas Workers!" Mr Trump tweeted. Other topics covered during the press conference included the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi US National Security Adviser John Bolton said he would not listen to a tape recording of the murder and the recent US report on climate change, which Ms Sanders said the president does not believe is accurate. Please read along for our coverage of the press conference, as it happened. Thanks for reading! Police in Maryland there is "no indication" of an active shooter situation in the area near Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, despite emergency calls regarding hearing gunshots. The hospital is located just outside of Washington, DC in Bethesda, Maryland but Naval Support Activity Bethesda tweeted there was no imminent danger to patients and staff. US Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland tweeted he is at the centre but "currently safe in a conference room w/ approx 40 others." Swat teams were seen swarming the building complex but NSAB public affairs officer Jeremy Brooks told the Associated Press "right now there is no indication that there is any active shooter, but we won't know 100 percent until the buildings have been successfully cleared." Mr Ruppersberger's staff appears to have taken over his Twitter account and said the congressman "does not believe this to be a drill". However the Pentagon later confirmed it was, in fact, a drill to test security response. The south gate to Walter Reed had been closed as police continue to investigate the situation. Mass shootings in America Show all 8 1 /8 Mass shootings in America Mass shootings in America Camden shootings 1949 Howard Unruh killed 13 people, including three children, during a 12-minute walk through his neighborhood on September 6, 1949, in Camden, New Jersey, when he was 28 years old. The incident became known as the "Walk of Death". Unruh was found to be criminally insane and died in 2009 after a lengthy illness at the age of 88, following 60 years of confinement. Alamy Mass shootings in America University of Texas tower shooting 1966 Charles Whitman killed 17 people and injured 31 others in Austin, Texas. After stabbing his mother and wife the night before, he headed to the University of Texas, where he opened fire on people in the campus and streets from the observation desk. He was shot dead after a policeman and civilian reached the scene. Austin History Center, Austin Public Library Mass shootings in America Easter Sunday Massacre 1975 James Ruppert killd 11 family members in his mother's house, which included his mother, brother and his wife, as well as their eight children. He used a magnum, two handguns and a rifle. Mass shootings in America Wilkes-Barre shootings 1982 Former prison guard, George Banks, shot dead 13 people in Pennsylvania, including five of his own children. AP Photo/Times Leader Mass shootings in America Wah Mee massacre 1983 Three men, Kwan Fai Mak, Wai-Chiu Ng, and Benjamin Ng, killed 13 people who were in Seattle's Wah Mee gambling club. YouTube/KIRO 7 News Mass shootings in America San Ysidro McDonald's massacre 1984 James Huberty killed 21 people and injured 19 others after he walked in a McDonald's in San Diego. He was shot dead by a sniper after 78 minutes of him entering the restaurant. Alamy Mass shootings in America Palm Sunday massacre 1984 Ten people were shot dead from handguns at close range in a New York home. A baby girl was the only survivor after convicted dealer, Christopher Thomas, shot three women, one teenage girl and six children in their Brooklyn home. Thomas was convicted of manslaughter and cleared of murder. He was released from prison after 32 years. Mass shootings in America Edmond post office shooting 1986 Patrick Sherrill, a postal worker at the Edmond post office in Oklahoma, killed 14 co-workers and injured 6 others, before he shot himself. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Collection Police have not reported finding any victims despite several 911 calls indicating people had heard gunshots in the vicinity. The main road leading to the centre has also been cleared of traffic out of precaution. Police have reportedly cleared the basement of Building 19 in the complex, but did not find a shooter. The whole building had been cleared out of precaution as service members recover from injuries and get medical treatment. No other evacuations have been reported. The Taliban has claimed a roadside bomb attack that killed three US soldiers and left at least three wounded in Afghanistan. The incident involved an improvised explosive device (IED), which detonated near the southeastern city of Ghazni, according to a statement from the US military It is believed to be the worst loss of life for US military personnel in the country this year. Recommended At least 50 dead in suicide bombing at religious gathering in Kabul An additional US defence contractor was also wounded in the roadside explosion and was evacuated to receive treatment alongside the soldiers. The identities of the deceased have not been released as yet, per US military policy to wait 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified. Three days ago another US soldier was killed in a similar incident in another southeastern province, Nimroz, the Resolute Support Mission led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) said in the statement. Sergeant Leandro AS Jassos death occurred during a fight with militants linked to al Qaeda, however, it was determined he died as a result of friendly fire from an Afghan partner force. Isis fighters in Afghanistan are communicating with UK terror cells, defence secretary Gavin Williamson says The military indicated there were no indications he was shot intentionally. Major Brent Taylor of the Army National Guard, who was also the mayor of North Ogden, Utah, was killed in another apparent friendly fire incident on 4 November after a member of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces shot him. The suspect was immediately killed by other Afghan forces, the US military said. According to the Defense Casualty Analysis System, 10 US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year. A total of 13 solders have died, counting three Czech service members who died after a suicide bomb was set off near the Bagram military base in August. Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Show all 16 1 /16 Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2001 Afghans at the Killi Faizo refugee camp desperately reach for bags of rice being handed out to the thousands who escaped the bombardment in southern Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. (Chaman, Pakistan, December 4, 2001) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2002 Mahbooba stands against a bullet-ridden wall, waiting to be seen at a medical clinic. The seven-year-old girl suffers from leishmaniasis, a parasitical infection. (Kabul, March 1, 2002) All photos Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2003 A mother and her two children look out from their cave dwelling. Many families who, fleeing the Taliban, took refuge inside caves adjacent to Bamiyans destroyed ancient Buddha statues now have nowhere else to live. (Bamiyan, November 19, 2003) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Students recite prayers in a makeshift outdoor classroom in the Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous region in northeastern Afghanistan that extends to China and separates Tajikistan from India and Pakistan. (Northeastern Afghanistan, September 2, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Bodybuilders in the 55-60 kg category square off during a regional bodybuilding competition. Many Afghan men, like others around the world, feel that a macho image of physical strength is important. (Kabul, August 6, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2008 A woman in a white burqa enjoys an afternoon with her family feeding the white pigeons at the Blue Mosque. (Mazar-e-Sharif, March 8, 2008) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Addicts inject heroin while trying to keep warm inside the abandoned Russian Cultural Center, which the capital citys addicts use as a common gathering point. Heroin is readily available, costing about one dollar a hit. (Kabul, February 9, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 An elderly man holds his granddaughter in their tent at a refugee camp after they were forced to flee their village, which US and NATO forces had bombed because, they claimed, it was a Taliban hideout. (Surobi, Nangarhar Province, February 7, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Seven-year-old Attiullah, a patient at Mirwais Hospital, stands alongside an X ray showing the bullet that entered his back, nearly killing him. Attiullah was shot by US forces when he was caught in a crossfire as he was herding sheep. (Kandahar, October 13, 2009). Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 US Army Sargeant Jay Kenney (right), with Task Force Destiny, helps wounded Afghan National Army soldiers exit a Blackhawk helicopter after they have been rescued in an air mission. (Kandahar, December 12, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 An Afghan National Army battalion marches back to barracks at the Kabul Military Training Center. (Kabul, October 4, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Eid Muhammad, seventy, lives in a house with a view overlooking the hills of Kabul. He and millions of other Afghans occupy land and housing without possessing formal deeds to them. (Kabul, November 21, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Razima holds her two-year-old son, Malik, while waiting for medical attention at the Boost Hospital emergency room. (Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, June 23, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Young women cheer as they attend a rally for the Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. (Kabul, April 1, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Burqa-clad women wait to vote after a polling station runs out of ballots. (Kabul, April 5, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2015 Relatives, friends, and womens rights activists grieve at the home of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was killed by a mob in the center of Kabul. Farkhunda was violently beaten and set on fire after a local cleric accused her of burning a Quran. (Kabul, March 22, 2015) Paula Bronstein The Taliban have killed at 30 people and injured dozens more in recent days. The extremist group ambushed a police convoy, killing 22 officers and injuring five others. In a separate incident, eight Afghan soldiers were killed in an attack at an army base in the Qaisar district of northern Faryab province. Five others were reported as injured. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Deaths of western coalition soldiers including the US have been on a decline in recent years, but the opposite appears to be true for Aghan partner forces. President Ashraf Ghani has claimed at least 29,000 deaths among the Afghan Security Forces since 2015 and according to the New York Times the numbers show at least 25 soldiers have been killed each day in 2018. Between January and June 2018, an additional 1,700 civilians have been reported as killed according to the United Nations assistance mission in the South Asian country. Neo-nazis in Germany scrawled swastikas on the camper van of a Jewish filmmaker who is walking 1,000 miles across Europe to raise awareness of refugee children. Grig Richters said the Nazi symbol was daubed seven times on his vehicle after he left it in a car park in Hanover at night. The vandals also wrote refugees out on the van, which is being driven by a supporter following the 31-year-old as he walks from Paris to Berlin. The German-born filmmaker set out on 28 October to bring attention to the growing number of unaccompanied children in refugee camps in Europe and to call on western governments to offer them refuge. He described his brightly painted van driven by a different supporter on each leg of his journey as a petition on wheels designed to bring attention to his journey. The vehicle has been signed by thousands of supporters he has met during his walk. The far right is on the rise and thats partly why I felt I had to do this Grig Richters, filmmaker It is thought to have been vandalised while left in a secured car park overnight. This been an emotional journey for me and I was devastated for a moment when I saw it, he told The Independent. Vandals scrawled refugees out and a swastika on the vans window (Grig Richters) Mr Richter, who lives in London, reported the graffiti to the police and was able to scrub the swastikas from his van. He said he had also been threatened with violence by a man in Dortmund and believes someone tampered with his vans brakes in Brussels. I was actually expecting a lot more of this, he added. The far right is on the rise and thats partly why I felt I had to do this. During the course of his walk, Mr Richter has met political leaders in 16 German towns and cities. He said all wanted to take in more refugee children. "Now we need the German government to take action," he added. "Every day we wait, another child dies in the camps. They are dropping like flies." In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing for food at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees' tents at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Oxy transit camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos The graves of drowned refugees in Mytilene, Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos A building used to house unaccompanied children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing to register at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees arriving on smugglers' boats from Turkey in Lesbos Last week Amnesty International urged the government of Greece to take urgent action to "restore human dignity" to migrants living in squalid conditions in Moria, the country's largest refugee camp. Public health inspectors on the island of Lesbos have declared "dangerous for public health and the environment" and said there was an "uncontrollable amount of waste" at the site. "I have friends who volunteer in these camps and witness this on a daily basis," said Mr Richter. "Many of these children try to commit suicide." He added: "The only thing these children want is to live a normal life. Many of these children lost their families during the war and they went through hell to come to Europe." Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has introduced martial law to parts of his country as tensions with Russia escalate. The Ukrainian parliament voted 272-30 in favour of a presidential edict calling for the measures introduction in the aftermath of a naval clash off the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday 25 November, which saw the Russian coastguard capture three Ukrainian ships and their 23 crew members on the Sea of Azov. Russia accused the two Ukrainian artillery boats and a tug of crossing into its waters along the Kerch Strait without permission, despite the two nations having signed a 2003 maritime treaty agreeing the passage to the Black Sea was shared territory. Recommended Ukraine votes to introduce martial law across ten regions Moscows attitude to the region appears to have changed since then, however, its navy behaving increasingly aggressively since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, with Ukrainians fearing the Vladimir Putin administration is seeking to control access to its ports in order to weaken the smaller nations economy. But what exactly is martial law and what does it mean for the Eastern European nation? Martial law is defined as the temporary imposition of military rule over a state or region in times of national crisis when civil authority has broken down or when wartime operations are underway. The ordinary rule of law is postponed and the administration of government functions is overseen by the armed forces, ostensibly in the best interests of the public. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addresses lawmakers during an emergency session of Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev on 26 November 2018 (Vladimir Shtanko/Anadolu Agency/Getty) But the principle has also been deployed by authoritarian regimes around the world as a means of suppressing popular dissent. China declared martial law to curtail the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989, for instance. It is often instigated as a means of re-establishing national security in the wake of uprisings or coups detat, as seen in Thailand in 2006 and 2014 and in Egypt in 2013. In the case of Ukraine, a state of martial law has been declared for the first time since 1945 in 10 strategic border regions: five neighbouring Russia, two near Moldovas breakaway Trans-Dniester region where Russia has a military presence and three along the Black Sea and Azov. This will last for a period of 30 days, after President Poroshenkos initial appeal for 60 was curtailed, in order to see off further acts of aggression from the Kremlin, including the possibility of a full-scale invasion. Ukraine, independent and Western-facing since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, is thought to be regarded as a threat to regional stability by the Kremlin. Russias actions on Sunday prompted angry demonstrations on the streets of Kiev, prompting Mr Poroshenko to react. Under martial law, the military would have the power to ban further protests and strikes and even call up ordinary citizens for national service, its authority in place from Wednesday 28 November to 27 December. President Poroshenkos original proposals for the terms of martial law, covering the whole country, were criticised by fellow MPs as representing a roll-back of the rights hard-won during the Maidan revolution of 2014 and as a transparent bid to shore up waning support ahead of next Marchs elections or delay the ballot entirely. Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Show all 32 1 /32 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of opposition parties burn flares during a rally demanding to break an agreement with Russia on the use of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, in front of the parliament building in Kiev Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Volunteers with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps light flares during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev after Russia seized two of their armored artillery vessels and a tug boat in the Black Sea AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists demand to break the diplomatic relations with Russia and nationalization of Russian property in Ukraine EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian activists burn flares during their rally in front of Russian Consulate in Kharkiv EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Seized Ukrainian ships, small armoured artillery ships and a tug boat, are seen anchored in a port of Kerch Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, announced, on 25 November, at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council that they will introduce martial law in Ukraine for a period of 60 days and appeal to the Parliament to consider the move Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Russia seized two small-sized 'Berdiansk' and 'Nikopol' armored artillery boats. The 'Yany Kapu' tugboat has forcibly been stopped Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Children from an orphanage volunteer to help the city defenders strengthen trenches on Ukraine's Army positions near the village of Rybatske 25 km from Mariupol AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Policemen guard at Russian consulate during a protest action in the Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 With relations still raw after Russias annexation of Crimea and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the capture of three Ukrainian naval vessels risks pushing the two countries towards a wider conflict. Graphic explains how the naval incident unfolded on a map Graphic News Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of far-right parties burn flares in front of the parliament building in Kiev during a rally to support the Ukrainian navy Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A Ukraine army APC moves toward on position at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists sign a banner with a slogan reading like 'Not retreat and not surrendering!' EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists glue Ukrainian flag on the fence of Russian consulate AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A volunteer with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A National Guard serviceman extinguishes a torch thrown by a protester during a rally against the seizure by Russian special forces of three of the Ukrainian navy ships Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A protester throws a smoke grenade during a rally in front of the embassy of Russia in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protestors set up paper ships on the tires during their rally near of Russian embassy building in Kiev EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A man extinguishes a burning car of the embassy of Russia Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Paper boats are seen placed during a protest Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA The president currently trails former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, at the polls. His campaign slogan, incidentally, reads: Army, Language, Faith. Poroshenko wanted to use the situation in Kerch to grow his rating, to follow the example of Margaret Thatcher, who strengthened her position with the Falklands War of 1982, opposition MP Sergii Leschenko commented, expressing concern about the future of civil liberties. The president countered that there was no reason for dirty speculation as to his intentions. On Monday, US president Donald Trump said: We do not like whats happening, either way we dont like whats happening and hopefully theyll get straight. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events German chancellor Angela Merkel was among the other world leaders adding their voices to the condemnation of Russias actions. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, warned on Tuesday the decision could provoke further hostilities to erupt while Russias president himself has expressed serious concern at the developments. Russia has begun formally charging the Ukrainian servicemen it detained after seizing three naval vessels near the Sea of Azov on Sunday. The first man to be charged on border violation crimes was Vladimir Varimez (b. 1992). A court in Simferopol, Crimea upheld a request by Russian prosecutors to formally arrest him until 26 January. The court is expected to make similar rulings on 12 of the 24 detained servicemen over the the course of Tuesday. Ukraine has denied its boats ever entered Russian territorial waters, and distress signals were received from the boats when they were clearly in shared waters. On Monday, the Ukrainian parliament voted for martial law in 10 border areas, for a period of 30 days, The eventual version of the law was a much watered-down version of the original proposal Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko put to lawmakers. The Independent understands that several last-minute concessions were made to make the vote pass. But on Tuesday, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that even the reduced martial law could be enough to trigger a flare-up in hostilities in the east. It is an internal affair for Ukraine, but martial law in a number of regions could potentially present a risk for escalation of tensions in the south-east, he said. Similar predictions have been followed by renewed fighting in the past. Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014. The hostilities have largely died down from the highs of 2014-15. But even after signing a peace agreement in 2015, fighting continues in several hotspots. The Russian-backed separatists are heavily dependent on supply chains, finance and expertise. The vast bulk of evidence suggests Russia provides these. In September, the OSCE monitoring mission to Ukraine released footage that appeared to show military vehicles crossing the border from Russia to Ukraine at an unofficial crossing point. Mr Peskov said that he saw no reason for direct negotiations between Mr Putin and Mr Poroshenko, since the situation was already regulated. Russia has yet to return either seized boats or crews. On Monday, it released footage showing several crew members confessing to having encroached on Russian territorial waters. At least one of the servicemen appears to be reading from a prompter, and seems almost to be laughing at one point. On Monday, Russian officials announced they intended to press criminal charges against the 24 arrested servicemen for "illegally entering Russian territorial waters." Mr Peskov said the Russian president would be making a statement on the matter when he is ready. A day after the Ukrainian parliament voted to introduce martial law across 10 border regions, there was little clarity about what it would actually mean in practice. With parts of the government on different pages, and the introduction of measures that could cover most aspects of life, even family, some areas of the country bordered on panic mode. In the southern city of Odessa, there were rumours of forced mobilisation, though these turned out to be false. In other cities across the region, shortages of foreign currency were reported. The text of the law eventually voted on was considerably watered down from the edict originally presented by President Petro Poroshenko on Monday afternoon. That contained provisions for a state of martial law lasting 60 days across the whole country. By logical extension, that would have meant delaying next Marchs presidential elections, a point that caused uproar among the opposition. The eventual compromise saw a commitment to fix the date of the elections, the duration reduced to 30 days, and the zone of coverage reduced to 10 border regions. The Independent understands that these concessions were made only at the last moment, and the vote would not have passed without them. There was considerable confusion as to when martial law would even begin, the catalyst for which was an incident in the Azov sea on Sunday, when Russia opened fire and seized three Ukrainian vessels, which were sailing in shared waters. Russia has now formally begun charging some of the sailors it has detained. In the text agreed by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraines parliament, the state of martial law was due to start on Wednesday morning at 9am local time. But on Tuesday morning, the secretary of the national security council, Oleksandr Turchynov, said that a state of martial law was already in effect. To make matters even more complicated, the Government Courier, the state newspaper where all laws are published, printed a version of the original law, including provisions for 60 days of restrictions across all of Ukraine. Late on Tuesday evening, parliamentary speaker Andrei Paruby adopted a position apparently contrary to the national security council by insisting the law had no effect until he had signed it. That would happen, he said, at some point tomorrow. Oleksiy Ryabchyn, a high ranking deputy in the Fatherland faction, headed by presidential frontrunner Yulia Tymoshenko, said that the confusion was a natural consequence of a poorly drafted law that the president had attempted to drive through parliament. Petro Poroshenko had insisted on his version of martial law without even consulting with party leaders, said Mr Ryabchyn. Party leaders found out about shifts in the presidents position either via press conferences or new edits of his speech that appeared in the autocue in parliament. A Ukrainian sailor (right) is escorted by a Russian intelligence agency officer to a court room in Simferopol, Crimea, on Tuesday (AP) Our party does not agree with Poroshenko on everything, but on this issue we were prepared to show unity in the national interest, said Mr Ryabchyn. He refused to listen to us, so parliament had to show its will and demand a compromise that came. In the end, it was a victory for parliamentary democracy Those compromises represented a face-saving exercise that seemed to leave a pointless law, suggested another deputy, Sergii Leschenko. But in the 10 border regions at least, the law potentially has a very wide scope. The presidential amendments introduce few restrictions on the overarching 2015 legislation covering martial law. In other words, it allows for extrajudicial searches of property, travel bans, closing media deemed against national interests, bans on rallies and demonstrations, limitations on private correspondence and communications, and even introducing limitations on education, private and family life. Mr Ryabchyn said opposition parties asked for clarity about why such extreme limitations were needed, but Mr Poroshenko refused to meet with any of our representatives. All throughout the parliamentary session people I knew politicians, journalists, friends, bankers were calling me, asking me what to do, and I simply could not tell them. None of us has concrete information to pass on. Donald Trump Ukraine imposing martial law: 'we do not like what's happening' Reports of several dozen Russians being turned away from Kiev airports on Monday evening seemed to suggest that that border control had already begun working under the auspices of the new law. Unsurprisingly, the informational vacuum surrounding the new measures has also begun to be filled with scare stories. In Odessa, there were reports of young men being mobilised directly in the citys railway station. These reports eventually turned out to be fake, but they had added to a general sense of panic, local journalist Iryna Kiporenko told The Independent. We are already seeing some changes in increased security around the ports and station, she said. Police are telling us they will introduce additional measures at the first sight of Russian provocation. In written comments to The Independent, a press secretary for the national security council refrained from offering any concrete examples of how the new law would affect ordinary citizens. The measures were, she said, a legal mechanism allowing Ukraine to react expediently ... in the event of open aggression from Russia. Be prepared, the spokesperson added in English. Ukraines parliament has taken one of its most significant decisions in years, resolving to impose martial law for the first time since 1945 in the wake of Russias seizure of Ukrainian vessels on Sunday. After several hours, the Rada split 272-30 in favour of the presidential edict, but only after being presented major concessions. President Petro Poroshenkos initial suggestion of martial law lasting 60 days was curtailed to 30 days. An original proposal to cover all of Ukraine was reduced to just ten border territories. Mr Poroshenko was also forced to make a commitment to hold next years presidential election as scheduled, on 31 March. Many criticised the Ukrainian presidents original proposals as representing a roll-back of rights won during the Maidan revolution, and an attempt to shore up flagging support ahead of next years elections. Mr Poroshenko currently trails the polls, behind the front-runner, and former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Even the watered-down proposals offered limited guarantees for civil liberties, said the pro-reform MP Sergii Leschenko. Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Show all 32 1 /32 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of opposition parties burn flares during a rally demanding to break an agreement with Russia on the use of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, in front of the parliament building in Kiev Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Volunteers with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps light flares during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev after Russia seized two of their armored artillery vessels and a tug boat in the Black Sea AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists demand to break the diplomatic relations with Russia and nationalization of Russian property in Ukraine EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian activists burn flares during their rally in front of Russian Consulate in Kharkiv EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Seized Ukrainian ships, small armoured artillery ships and a tug boat, are seen anchored in a port of Kerch Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, announced, on 25 November, at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council that they will introduce martial law in Ukraine for a period of 60 days and appeal to the Parliament to consider the move Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Russia seized two small-sized 'Berdiansk' and 'Nikopol' armored artillery boats. The 'Yany Kapu' tugboat has forcibly been stopped Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Children from an orphanage volunteer to help the city defenders strengthen trenches on Ukraine's Army positions near the village of Rybatske 25 km from Mariupol AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Policemen guard at Russian consulate during a protest action in the Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 With relations still raw after Russias annexation of Crimea and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the capture of three Ukrainian naval vessels risks pushing the two countries towards a wider conflict. Graphic explains how the naval incident unfolded on a map Graphic News Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of far-right parties burn flares in front of the parliament building in Kiev during a rally to support the Ukrainian navy Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A Ukraine army APC moves toward on position at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists sign a banner with a slogan reading like 'Not retreat and not surrendering!' EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists glue Ukrainian flag on the fence of Russian consulate AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A volunteer with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A National Guard serviceman extinguishes a torch thrown by a protester during a rally against the seizure by Russian special forces of three of the Ukrainian navy ships Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A protester throws a smoke grenade during a rally in front of the embassy of Russia in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protestors set up paper ships on the tires during their rally near of Russian embassy building in Kiev EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A man extinguishes a burning car of the embassy of Russia Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Paper boats are seen placed during a protest Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Poroshenko wanted to use the situation in Kerch to grow his rating, to follow the example of Margaret Thatcher, who strengthened her position with the Falklands War of 1982, he said. Supporters of the legislation said Mr Poroshenkos proposal of military law was the only possible reaction to Sundays military engagement around the Sea of Azov. These saw Russia open fire and seize three Ukrainian vessels, which were sailing in shared waters. Three Ukrainian servicemen were injured in the incident. Russia has refused to release the naval ships or their crews. Poroshenko was forced to react to the depth of yesterdays emotions, said the independent expert Vladimir Fesenko. Had he not announced the legislation, he would have been criticised for sleeping on the job, failing to act. Sundays incident has been condemned by several western leaders. On Monday, Donald Trump said he did not like what was happening. As common in Ukraine, Mondays parliamentary deliberations were less debates as horse trades. Right from the start of proceedings, Oleh Lyashko, one of Ukraines most extrovert politicians, had surrounded the speakers platform. Together with colleagues, he chanted recess, recess, into Speaker Andrii Parubys ear, and demanded further behind-the-scenes bargaining with the president. Before the parliamentary vote, all of Ukraines first three presidents signed a statement warning against the dangers of martial law. The Verkhovna Rada should make sure the elections of 31 March happen. This is a moment when the future of our state depends on the judgement of the peoples elected representatives, read the joint statement by Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The text of Mr Poroshenkos original edict, published on Monday morning, seemed to confirm many peoples fears. The proposed measures would cover the entire country. There was little clarity on exactly what restrictions would be introduced. And at 60 days, they would have meant shifting the elections by at least a month as under Ukrainian electoral law, the presidential campaign is a minimum 90 days. Mr Poroshenko needed 226 votes for his proposal to pass. With the votes of smaller opposition parties secured, a majority was never going to be a problem. But the matter of quorum was. That was only received after hours of negotiations and several significant concessions. Shifting his original position from 60 days to 30 days, Mr Poroshenko said he had actually never wanted to postpone elections. There was no reason for dirty speculation, he said. He had been guided entirely by intelligence that suggested Russia was preparing a ground attack. The president has yet to make such intelligence public. The changes represented a rare victory by parliament and common sense, Mr Leschenko said. The vote scuppered the presidents dream scenario of delaying the elections, as he set out in his first edict. Hundreds of bodies have been exhumed from one of the largest mass graves near the Syrian city of Raqqa - once the capital of Isiss self-declared caliphate. Concerns about the preservation of bodies and evidence for possible war crimes trials, have led local groups and first responders to work around the clock to exhume the bodies. Were in a race against time, said Sara Kayyali, of Human Rights Watch. These bodies are decomposing at an exponential rate. A devastating US-backed air and ground offensive drove Isis from Raqqa more than a year ago, but rescuers and recovery teams continue to locate mass graves in and around the city. At least nine graves have been found in and around the city. The bodies have been recovered are a mix of victims of US-led coalition airstrikes, Isis fighters and civilians. The Panorama mass grave, named after the neighbourhood where it was found, is one of the largest of nine discovered so far. It is believed to contain around 1,500 bodies. "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Show all 20 1 /20 "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria A child injured by an IED explosion in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Children riding a bicycle among destroyed buildings in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Entire neighbourhoods in Raqqa are damaged beyond repair Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Members of the Badran family killed in three separate Coalition air strike on 18 July and 20 August 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria The city of Raqqa in northern Syria has become hardly recognizable to those who try to return after months battle between US-backed forces and the Islamic State terrorist group for control of it. The city has no running water or electricity and homes, business and public squares are mere rubble and debris Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Fayad Mohammed and his daughters Wafa, Fadda and Tamam; Ammar al-Faris; Reem al-Maddad, Yusra Abd-al-Aziz, and baby Razqiya Habib; Jasim Hamal and Salem Hamad. They were among the 16 civilians killed in Coalition air strikes on 12 October 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Men wait by the side of the road for casual labour in Raqqa. Many end up clearing partially destroyed or damaged buildings, a very risky endeavour as many building were mined by IS and civilians are frequently killed and injured by mines Amnesty "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite images showing the Aswad familys building before it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the Aswad familys building after it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Amal Othman, 13, and her brothers Ammar, 8 and Mahmoud, 17; and Jamal Aswad, 41 four of the eight victims killed in a Coalition air strike on 28 June 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Low-income district west of the Jezra intersection on the western outskirts of Raqqa city destroyed by the Coalition shelling started in June 2017 Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Ali Hassan Nafa; Mahdia Hashish and her husband Hussein Ali; Hussein Hashish, Mohammed Hashish and Hussein Ibrahim Hashish, and Mohammed Ali Hashish Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Harat al Badu, a built up area in central Raqqa, next to the stadium. It was the scene of the final battle in the city between SDF/Coalition forces and IS Amnesty International "War of Annihilation" devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Map showing where the Badran, Hashish, Aswad and Fayab families were living before the coalition air strikes Unosat /Amnesty International Hammoud al-Shawakh, a local official involved in the work, said 516 bodies believed to be of Isis fighters and civilians have been exhumed. The work is pain-staking and the task is huge. A team of Raqqa-based first responders and a forensic doctor carefully shovel dirt to search for the bodies, which are believed to have been buried there in the last days of the four-month campaign to liberate Raqqa. Mass grave reveals horrors of Raqqas final battle Abdul Raouf al-Ahmad, the deputy forensic doctor, said local teams start work at 8am and work for more than seven hours straight each day digging through neatly formed trenches in the grave. After we extract the bodies from this grave... we document whether it belongs to a fighter, child, baby, an adolescent or woman or an ordinary person, he said. We document clothing, ornaments, height, type of injury, cause of death and how it was covered, what the person was wearing, with what it was wrapped and its position in the grave. Thousands of digital activists to track how US-led air strikes destroyed Raqqa International human rights groups say they are concerned local groups are not getting the support they need in terms of forensic expertise and human resources. If these bodies are not preserved in the correct way, in the way thats been established, then it does mean that much of this evidence might be lost when were seeking accountability for crimes committed either in the context of the battle or before it, Ms Kayyali said. Additional reporting by Associated Press An international tour by Saudi Arabias de facto leader was meant to show off his continued prowess and influence. It has instead highlighted the Arab worlds stark divisions over Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated against the arrival of Crown Prince Mohammad to Tunisias capital on Tuesday afternoon, marching along the same Habib Bourguiba avenue that was the symbolically significant site of the 2011 uprising which overthrew the countrys longtime dictator and ignited nearly eight years of unrest across the region. The people want the riddance of Bin Salman, they chanted, in a play on a 2011 Arab Spring slogan demanding the downfall of dictatorships. Eyewitnesses described and videos showed men and women of Tunisias various political and cultural strains Islamists, leftists, nationalists, and feminists at the protest. Tunisia is free! they cried, holding up hacksaws of the sort believed to have been used in the killing and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents last month. Bin Salman! Go away! More protesters are expected when he arrives later this week in Algeria. Human Rights Watch has urged prosecutors in Argentina to file a war crimes complaint against the Saudi heir to the throne over his nations conduct in the Yemen conflict. He is expected to arrive in the South American country on 30 November for a G20 summit. Recommended Argentina to consider charging Saudi crown prince with war crimes The public outcries came as the 33-year-old made his first foray outside the four Arab dictatorships that make up his bloc following the brutal killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at the alleged hands of royal court operatives. The administration of Donald Trump has bet big on Crown Prince Mohammad as a cornerstone for its vague plans to unify the Arab world behind its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, its confrontation against Iran, and to combat Sunni extremism. But US officials have watched with dismay as the crown prince has squandered much of the goodwill he generated in pricey PR schemes to package himself as a reformer and moderniser. Tunisians demonstrate with placards reading You are not welcomed (AP) Hes a very dangerous person because he doesnt seem to understand politics or respect his own people or other people, said Radwan Masmoudi, president of Tunisias Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy, and among those protesting Crown Prince Mohammads visit. Theres no way hell bring stability. His actions speak louder than his words. There have been few indications that the Khashoggi affair has chastened or softened Crown Prince Mohammads erratic policies, as some Saudi commentators optimistically predicted. He has yet to release civil society activists he locked up on dubious national security charges, nor loosen up political restrictions that dont allow mild dissent. In Cairo on Tuesday, where the monarch was welcomed by a few dozen protesters holding up Saudi and Egyptian flags in Tahrir Square, the crown prince and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to continue their 17-month effort to isolate and blockade Qatar, the small energy rich Arabian Peninsula country that has pursued an independent foreign policy. Saudi Arabias crown prince Mohammad bin Salman (left) and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo on Tuesday (AP) As Mr Sisi and Prince Mohammad embraced, Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani wrapped up a high-profile trip to Turkey, where he solidified his partnership with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is increasingly countering US policies in the Middle East. On Tuesday, Qatars national airline announced that it was increasing air connections to Iranian cities at the same time the US is trying to isolate Iran. Despite the complications that Crown Prince Mohammads moves have created, the Trump administration has stood by him. Still he has become toxic even in the White House. A source close to his chief of protocol, Khalifa bin Salifa, told The Independent he has sought to to wrangle a photo opportunity with Mr Trump during the summit in Buenos Aires, but has been rebuffed so far. While Egypt, which has received billions in Saudi aid, and cash-strapped Tunisia, which has also benefited from Riyadhs largesse, may be compelled to cosy up to Crown Prince Mohammad, western leaders have been more hesitant. This is a tour to help Prince Mohammads reputation and to signify that he still has influence and power in the region as a whole, said one Tunis-based analyst who is working on sensitive research and asked not to be named. Tunisia economically is in a rough situation and doesnt have the luxury of saying no. Local media reported on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is considering giving $2bn dollars, discounted oil and weapons to Tunis in exchange for the visit. Britains biggest holiday company, Tui, has been accused of unfairly rejecting flight delay compensation claims with easyJet and VIrgin Atlantic also criticised for stalling tactics. Passengers whose flights on EU airlines arrive three hours late or more are entitled to a cash payout. The amount ranges from a minimum of 250 (220) for the shortest hops to 600 (530) for a long-haul service delayed by four hours or more. The only defence for airlines is extraordinary circumstances such as adverse weather, security alerts or air-traffic control strikes. The European Court of Justice ruled that technical faults do not constitute an excuse. Recommended Airlines face crack down on use of algorithm that splits up families Airlines encourage passengers to claim direct, rather than going through claims-handling firms, which typically take one third of any compensation paid. But one such company, Bott and Co, says that Tui refused to settle seven out of 10 legitimate claims until court proceedings were issued. The legal firm says that for every 100 claims it successfully makes for delays on Tui, only 29 are settled before the court process begins. Coby Benson, flight delay solicitor at Bott and Co, said: If the airlines were fully complying with the law then 100 per cent of pay-outs would be without court proceedings. We understand that airlines need to look at claims on an individual basis; however what were seeing is airlines routinely defending claims for eligible flights, some where theyve already paid dozens of others on the same flight. It is fundamentally unfair for airlines to continue to defend claims in the hope that passengers will just give up. One passenger, Tara Bentley, told The Independent of the response from Tui after a delay of over three hours: They put it down to unruly passengers, which was obviously not the case. I replied to their email with a very detailed response. As I didnt receive a response I went into the Tui shop where they asked me to resend the email. After just a few hours I received an email saying they have investigated again and the complaint would not be upheld. A Tui spokesperson said: We are sorry to hear that some customers have faced issues when submitting their flight delay claim. We remain committed to doing everything we can to minimise delays to customers when flying with us and we also continually review the process of how we handle flight delay claims. When customers are entitled to delayed compensation we believe that any money due to customers should go in its entirety to them, so wed always suggest customers claim directly via us instead of using third party delay claim management companies, who routinely take a large percentage of the payment as commission. The airline with the second-highest proportion of claims that are settled only after court proceedings begin is easyJet the biggest budget carrier in Britain. According to Bott and Co, the budget airline initially rejected 45 per cent of claims that were subsequently paid after legal proceedings began. A spokesperson for easyJet said: We want to make it as easy as possible for our passengers to claim and the majority of passenger claims are resolved directly with us, without any need to involve the courts. We always recommend that passengers claim directly with us rather than sacrificing a significant portion of their compensation to other organisations unnecessarily. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Virgin Atlantic performed third worst, according to Bott and Co, with only 44 per cent of claims settled without recourse to the law. A spokesperson for the airline said: We strongly question the validity of this data from Bott & Co. In fact, our data suggests that under 1 per cent of all EU261 claims made by customers in 2018 have involved legal proceedings. "We never want to disappoint our customers but on the rare occasion when there is a long delay or cancellation, we encourage customers to contact us directly. We will respond as quickly as possible and on average, pay all eligible claims 14 days after receipt. The European Court of Auditors says that flight compensation rules are poorly observed. National enforcement bodies such as the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK reported that three out of five claims that were initially rejected by airlines were later held to be legitimate. This means that carriers can compensate one passenger and not another on the same flight, its report says. Bott and Co praised Thomas Cook Airlines, British Airways and Jet2 for settling nine out of 10 claims without court proceedings being issued. An Italian village in Puglia has started charging visitors an entry fee in a bid to attract tourists year-round. Polignano a Mare in southern Italy has installed turnstiles and set a ticket price of 5 (4.40) for entry to its cobbled streets, piazzas and terraces during the festive period, which are currently lit up by Christmas lights. To justify the entry fee, visitors will get a bag of popcorn, doughnut, candy floss and a drink, with the idea being to encourage people to come in the off-season as well as the summer, according to local mayor Domenico Vitto. The aim is to attract tourists even during the winter months, he told The Telegraph. We have big numbers of visitors during the summer but then it dwindles to almost nothing by October and the town is dead. We want to make it less seasonally dependent. With this initiative, shops, hotels and restaurants have remained open. Last weekend alone we had 30,000 visitors. Vitto has confirmed that residents can come and go as they like and dont have to buy the ticket". During the lead up to Christmas and New Year, the village is illuminated by thousands of lights. The ticketing initiative, which started earlier in November, will continue until 6 January. However, not everyones a fan of the radical concept. In a recently released statement, Confesercenti Terra di Bari, a local business association, said: Installing turnstiles and charging people to enter one of the most famous historic villages in Italy is detrimental to what should be a public place. Turning the town into a sort of show business, as if it was a fun park for private use, is not a good idea. The town should be part of the cultural heritage of the whole world. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Meanwhile music festival artistic director Cesare Veronico said: The fundamental point is that you cannot restrict access to a public place, which everyone should be allowed to see. The villages move to start charging in order to entice more tourists is at odds with other parts of Italy, where turnstiles and ticketing have been introduced instead to tackle overtourism. Venice, for example, hit headlines in April 2018 when it installed temporary turnstiles to separate locals and visitors, with the latter prevented from using certain streets in a bid to disperse footfall over the busy bank holiday weekend. However, protesters chanting Free Venice dismantled the check points a day after they were put up. We refuse the idea of having checkpoints to get into the city. We own our city, said Marco Baravalle in a video later posted on social media. Its not the mayor who owns the city. Its not the police or the tourists either. Venice is dying, he added. The mayor putting in the turnstiles is demonstrating that he is giving up. He wants Venice to become a city with no inhabitants. The clashes between Moscow and Kiev in the Azov Sea were not a matter of surprise. Tension has been rising along with likelihood of a front line on water as well as the one on land with the separatist eastern Ukraine. The question now is whether this will be a contained confrontation or pave the way towards wider conflict. Two months ago I was at an international conference in Kiev, where the US special representative to Ukraine declared that the presence of Russian forces on the Azov Sea was a provocative aggressive act which was a matter of deep concern. Washington had just reversed the policy of the Obama administration and started sending Javelin missiles to Ukraine, and Kurt Volker stressed that further supplies of offensive weaponry were being considered. Later that week, at the port of Odessa a city that experienced one of the worst acts of violence during the civil war in which 46 people burnt to death there was unease about what lay ahead. A Ukrainian military officer I met wondered whether he would be able to get back to his home city of Lviv for Christmas or whether hed find himself on active duty. The officer was wrong about the timing. The incident he thought would take place came earlier than expected. On Sunday three Ukrainian vessels, two gunboats and a tug that sailed out of Odessa were seized by the Russian special forces, who opened fire while boarding, injuring between three to six Ukrainian sailors. Moscow has now stated that it will prosecute 23 people on board the ships who included Ukrainian intelligence officers with making an illegal border crossing, dismissing Kievs call to treat them as prisoners of war. The Kremlin claims that the clash on the Azov Sea was an act of deliberate provocation, a word much used by both sides in the separatist conflict. Russian state television showed interrogations with three of the sailors in which one of them, who identified himself as Vladimir Lisov, said, I recognise that the actions of the ships with military hardware of Ukraines navy had a provocative character. I was carrying out an order. It was distasteful footage, with indications that the statement may have been made under duress. This was the first overt military exchange between the two countries since four years ago when I watched Moscows military take over Crimea. I subsequently met Russian soldiers fighting in the Donbas while reporting on the conflict, but was told that they were volunteers on leave from their units. The annexation of Crimea changed the physical dynamics of the Azov Sea and its access route, the Kerch Strait. Under a 2003 agreement, the strait was meant to be shared between Ukraine and Russia, with the two countries flanking its western and eastern shores. With control of Crimea, Moscow now holds both sides. A 12-mile bridge linking Crimea and Russia has now been built, with Vladimir Putin, who had complained about Crimea being given away to Ukraine like a bag of potatoes by Nikita Khrushchev, personally driving a truck across it. Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Show all 32 1 /32 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of opposition parties burn flares during a rally demanding to break an agreement with Russia on the use of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, in front of the parliament building in Kiev Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Volunteers with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps light flares during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev after Russia seized two of their armored artillery vessels and a tug boat in the Black Sea AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists demand to break the diplomatic relations with Russia and nationalization of Russian property in Ukraine EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian activists burn flares during their rally in front of Russian Consulate in Kharkiv EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Seized Ukrainian ships, small armoured artillery ships and a tug boat, are seen anchored in a port of Kerch Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, announced, on 25 November, at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council that they will introduce martial law in Ukraine for a period of 60 days and appeal to the Parliament to consider the move Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Russia seized two small-sized 'Berdiansk' and 'Nikopol' armored artillery boats. The 'Yany Kapu' tugboat has forcibly been stopped Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Children from an orphanage volunteer to help the city defenders strengthen trenches on Ukraine's Army positions near the village of Rybatske 25 km from Mariupol AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Policemen guard at Russian consulate during a protest action in the Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 With relations still raw after Russias annexation of Crimea and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the capture of three Ukrainian naval vessels risks pushing the two countries towards a wider conflict. Graphic explains how the naval incident unfolded on a map Graphic News Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists of far-right parties burn flares in front of the parliament building in Kiev during a rally to support the Ukrainian navy Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A Ukraine army APC moves toward on position at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Ukrainian Nationalists sign a banner with a slogan reading like 'Not retreat and not surrendering!' EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Activists glue Ukrainian flag on the fence of Russian consulate AFP/Getty Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A volunteer with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A National Guard serviceman extinguishes a torch thrown by a protester during a rally against the seizure by Russian special forces of three of the Ukrainian navy ships Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A protester throws a smoke grenade during a rally in front of the embassy of Russia in Kiev AP Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Protestors set up paper ships on the tires during their rally near of Russian embassy building in Kiev EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 A man extinguishes a burning car of the embassy of Russia Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 Paper boats are seen placed during a protest Reuters Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Protests break out after Russia seize Ukraine warships in 2018 EPA Russia quickly enlarged its naval presence in the area after the annexation, and vessels trying to get to Ukrainian ports from Mariupol in the north to Odessa in the south found themselves facing time-consuming and commercially damaging delays through inspections. Ukraine claimed that the Kremlin was breaching the 2003 deal and effectively carrying out a blockade; Moscow insisted that the checks were necessary on security grounds. Inside Ukraine and elsewhere, there are claims that it suited President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, trailing in the opinion polls in the elections due in four months time, to find a threat to national security. Martial law has been declared in border areas for 30 days the first time since the uprising which overthrew the pro-Moscow government of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. This, say critics, will affect campaigning for the election. Russia called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to address what it called Ukrainian violations of Russian territorial waters. The session, however, was quickly turned into a mass criticism of Moscows actions in Ukraine by western states. Ukraine, in turn, requested a meeting with Nato, following which secretary general Jens Stoltenberg wanted to stress that what you saw was very serious, because you saw actually that Russia used military force in an open way. That is escalating the situation in the region and confirms a pattern of behaviour which we have seen over several years. Ukraine, however, is not a Nato member and it remains to be seen what steps, if any, the alliance will take. There has been talk in the past of exercising right of navigation by sending warships through the Azov Sea, but there is unlikely to be appetite for such a high-risk move in the current febrile climate. Any really strong western response would depend on the US. Donald Trump, asked for his reaction to ship seizures, refused to blame Russia. Not good, were not happy about it at all. We do not like whats happening either way, he said. This is a president who has said that his administration may reverse US policy and recognise Crimea as now part of the Russian Federation. It is highly improbable, whatever some people in his administration may want, that he will sanction combative action. The European Union has called for de-escalation of the situation and Angela Merkels office said she reinforced the need for it in a telephone call to Putin. The Russian president will meet fellow world leaders at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of the week and is likely to face criticism from some of them. But Russias control of the Strait of Kerch, Ukraines access to the Azov Sea, is unlikely to be loosened. Dont be confused by my name, Shahrazad. Im a Latina, Guatemalan with Mexican-American roots, living in the United States. Born and raised less than an hour from the United States-Mexico border, my life and culture was mostly influenced by Mexico. Going between Tijuana and San Diego was at least a monthly outing. My mum has always worked helping immigrants, specifically undocumented families. My dad proudly served in the United States Marine Corps, where he has seen first-hand why these people decide to flee. Recommended US troops fire tear gas at migrant children on Mexico border I was raised in a house and community where helping others is just who we are. And this nonsense at the border boils my blood. Whats even more infuriating is the fact that members of my family, my own blood, justify the abuse and perpetuate the Donald Trump rhetoric against immigrants. Im ashamed of fellow Latinos speaking badly about the refugees. This is the time for us to speak out against these human right violations. Stop with the excuses and the memes perpetuating hate about Central Americans. Its almost as if we forget our own history. The US is a land of immigrants. The only true natives of this land are the Indians. My family didnt cross the border; the border crossed them with the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. My family didnt go through any extraneous immigration process. Their citizenship was immediate. My mum had a fast immigration process because she married a marine. Regardless of legalities were all human and deserve to be treated like so. A woman and her children escape the teargas at the US-Mexico border (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon) In the last few days, reports from the US-Mexico border have shown heartbreaking images of refugees attempting to flee violence and poverty from their respective countries, fleeing the border fence in fear, screaming. Unarmed men, women and children were surprised with teargas flying onto Mexico soil. An act considered illegal in warfare, but not illegal to use in riots. The now iconic Reuters photo taken by Kim Kyung-Hoon of the mum fleeing the teargas with her two daughters is inscribed in my brain. Similar to Napalm Girl by Reuters photographer Nick Ut this is an image never to be forgotten. After weeks of migrating north from Honduras, migrants were met with violence from Mexicans and violence from US security forces. This will forever be a shameful part of migration history. It wasnt too long ago when Jews fled parts of Europe seeking refuge and were turned away at the border. It was 14 November 1938 when the New York Times reported the scenes at a European border, Jews on Knees Beg Netherlands Entry; Implore Admission at Border, but Guards are Doubled. It was only eighty years ago. If only we could learn from our past. Sundays attack on members of the refugee exodus was a new low for the United States. The exodus is non-violent. Refugees come unarmed and desperate for a new life. The nativist and xenophobic reaction of those on the border in Tijuana and even Latinos in the US is absolutely disgusting. People forget that some of us were dealt a better hand in life and for those who were dealt a worse hand, they cant just get in line. Their time for change is now not tomorrow. Closing the border isnt going to change anything but the region of where people cross. This is history repeating itself. A more militarised border in San Diego pushed crossings further east to more dangerous desert areas, where thousands have disappeared or died. According to US Customs and Border Protection, 7,216 people died crossing the border between 1998 and 2017; the number doesnt even include those disappeared. And now the violence in Tijuana will only result in more misery with people being forced to cross in increasingly dangerous parts of the border. So far, despite a barrage of violence from Border Patrol, the migrants have remained weapon-less, armed only with rocks and rubbish to throw over the 18ft steel fence. One thing for sure is that none of those children that were brutalised by teargas could ever have thrown a rock over that fence. Its too tall. Yet, they were still to experience the full force of the Border Patrols aggression. Theres no telling how the repercussions of such actions will affect a young mind and body. Its too early to know the long-term impacts of this horrible situation. People need to wake up and step down from their pedestal. We cant allow such inhumanity to happen. Soon, itll become normal. And thats the scariest thought. There have been more than 3,000 applications for 600 customs officers positions advertised as part of the Government's Brexit contingency plans. Tanaiste Simon Coveney will today update Cabinet on plans for dealing with the fallout from Brexit, including the potential for a no-deal scenario. Revenue has said it needs an extra 600 staff to get through the transition period which runs until the end of 2020 and to be ready for a future EU-UK trade deal. The number of customs staff in ports and airports, including Dublin Airport, Dublin Port and Shannon, is being beefed up. It is understood Mr Coveney will today outline the huge interest in the positions as part of a progress report on contingencies to Cabinet. In July the Cabinet signed off on close to 1,100 customs officers, vets and SPS inspectors to be recruited as part of the Brexit 'preparedness' on an east/west basis. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May will today visit Belfast in a bid to highlight the support among business people for her Brexit deal. Amid ongoing wrangling in Westminster, Mrs May has chosen Northern Ireland as one of the first stops on a UK-wide tour to sell the package. She will tell an event at Queen's University that avoiding a hard Border on this island "has been to the forefront of my mind throughout the negotiations". In a statement issued last night, the prime minister noted that her previous visits to the North helped her see "first-hand how important it is that the unique circumstances local employers face are recognised in any agreement". "They need to be able to trade freely across the Border with Ireland and have unfettered access to the rest of the United Kingdom's market. This deal makes that possible and that's why, across Northern Ireland, employers large and small have been getting behind it," she said. Downing Street said she will meet with all five political parties, including the DUP which currently props up her fragile government through a confidence and supply arrangement. Arlene Foster's party is showing little sign of relenting from its position that the deal cannot be approved unless the so-called 'backstop' is dropped. She told business representatives yesterday there was "no enthusiasm" for the deal in the House of Commons and they "should not waste the next few weeks". "We should use this time to work on getting a better deal which works for the UK and Northern Ireland," the DUP leader said. However, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he expects UK politicians will have to accept the Brexit deal "sooner or later". He said a hard Border cannot be avoided "just through goodwill and political statements and wishful thinking". Asked if that meant the EU would wait for the House of Commons to vote a second time on the deal if it doesn't pass in December, Mr Varadkar said he doesn't have "a crystal ball". But he turned the heat up on Sinn Fein for not using its votes in Westminster. He described Mary Lou McDonald's party as "unusual" because it "isn't taking up its seats in Westminster for one reason and it isn't taking up its seats in Stormont for another". Ms McDonald said Sinn Fein had "no intention of standing aside and abandon our mandate". Completing a winter feed budget and reviewing in early January should be standard practice on dairy farms Dairy farmers are being warned by Teagasc that the weather is a reality of farming and they must build in resilience to weather shocks. Speaking at the Teagasc National Dairy Conference in Cork, Dr Joe Patton said that dairy farming systems must build in resilience to weather shocks. "The multiple weather events of 2018 stretched farm resources cash, labour, forage and facilities. Underinvestment in labour and facilities, or the lack of a cash reserve, can leave the system exposed to shock or unexpected events. "The impact of extreme weather events can be reduced by having a reserve of quality fodder on the farm to compensate for weather-induced reductions in pasture growth." Teagasc, he said, recommends that a reserve of 500 - 800kg DM per cow be built up over time and maintained on a rolling basis. He said a key lesson from spring 2018 is that relatively small proportional initial shortages can turn into a complete lack of feed for a period by the end of winter (for example running a 10pc feed budget deficit may equate to two weeks full feeding). "This can be avoided by better planning. Completing a winter feed budget and reviewing in early January should be standard practice on dairy farms." Despite the numerous weather challenges posed in 2018, he said the prevailing grass based system demonstrated good resilience as evidenced by the overall milk production figures for 2018. "At the end of September, the volume of milk supplied for processing was slightly ahead of 2017 albeit with reduced cumulative protein and butterfat content. "Nonetheless, this resilience of production came at a much increased feed cost; and at significantly greater time input from individual farmers, their families and staff. Detailed discussions with numerous dairy discussion groups have highlighted a real need for more and better planning around the key areas of labour, forage feed security, and facilities. These were common themes across region and scale of operation." He said that dairy farmers need to be in a position to make tactical changes more quickly in order to respond to adverse weather events or other shocks to the system. "There are no off-the-shelf options that will work for every farm so it essential to fully consider potential for lessening the risk against investment costs or possible reductions in short-term profitability. "Auditing what went wrong in 2018 and listing possible future solutions are the important first steps. Imagination and flexibility of thought will always yield better outcomes than reactionary capital spending." The chances of a pre-Christmas bounce in beef prices evaporated this week, with the factories continuing to face a flood of cattle. Factory sources predict that the kill will breach the 40,000-head mark for the fourth week in a row by Friday, with little sign of an easing in supplies. Bullock and heifer prices held at the low levels of the last few weeks, but the cow trade has taken a hit from the increased numbers, with quotes back 10c/kg. Prices for in-spec prime cattle held at 3.75/kg for bullocks, with heifers 10c/kg above this at 3.85/kg. However, quotes for R-grade cull cows have fallen to the 3.00/kg mark, with O grades on 2.80 and those grading P+3 at 2.60-2.80/kg. This represents a fall in cow returns of 130-150/hd over the last six weeks. This downturn has also been reflected in the marts, where dry cow prices are back 140-180/hd. Farmers report little appetite for cows from factory buyers. The word being put about is that fridges are full and the trade for manufacturing beef is slow. This was confirmed by Cormac Healy of Meat Industry Ireland (MII). "The combination of strong beef output across Europe, coupled with higher EU beef imports, up 14pc this year, and a fall in EU beef exports has put pressure on market returns," Mr Healy said. "Stock levels being held by the industry are rising, reflecting the poorer demand out there. "Cow beef output in the EU is up 4pc, which is reflecting in the weaker manufacturing beef trade at present." Farmers are 'broken' The appetite for bulls isn't too great either, with quotes back 5c/kg yesterday. Quotes for U-grade bulls ranged from 3.80/kg to 3.90/kg, with R grades around the 3.70/kg mark, while O grades were coming in at 3.50-3.60/kg. There is now little chance of the traditional pre-Christmas lift in cattle prices at this stage, given the high stock levels factories are holding and the continuing flood of cattle being killed each week. Mart managers report an air of total despondency among farmers at the worsening situation in the beef trade. One west of Ireland mart manager said that he had never before seen farmers as "broken" as they are at the moment. Jim Bushe of New Ross Mart concurred. He said it was too late to talk of saving the suckler sector in the south-east because "it's already gone". Meanwhile, the Brexit deal agreed between the UK and EU could create an Irish loophole around proposals in Britain to ban live exports. Campaigners who want to see an end to live exports believe the UK's withdrawal agreement may make a ban impossible. Environment secretary Michael Gove said that once Britain leaves the EU, the country could ban the export of thousands of live farm animals to mainland Europe. The policy, which will likely be opposed by farming organisations, would enjoy support from campaign groups pushing for a broad ban. But campaigners who have studied the draft Brexit agreement, published last week, say the document could undermine plans for a total ban. The North's backstop protocol states: "Quantitative restrictions on exports and imports shall be prohibited between the [European] Union and Northern Ireland" - effectively insisting on free movement of goods. 'Factories in no doubt over farmer anger on prices' The IFA demanded a "strong and immediate increase in beef prices" at a meeting yesterday with Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and the three main meat plant groups, ABP, Dawn and Kepak. Pointing out that 2018 had been an extremely difficult year in terms of income losses at farm level, IFA president Joe Healy told the factories that they needed to restore confidence to the market in terms of increasing cattle prices for farmers. "Beef farmers have been short-changed on price this autumn and it's high time the factories restored confidence to the beef sector and increased prices," Mr Healy said. "IFA left the factories in no doubt of the anger among livestock farmers over prices and incomes this autumn." The IFA leader said cattle prices in Britain were at 3.70/kg for R3 grade steers, which is the equivalent of 4.43/kg, making the price gap with Irish prices over 200 per head. Farmers are warned of the dangers in marts. Picture; Gerry Mooney Farmers are being warned about safety at marts after an incident at Maam Cross Mart saw one mart worker taken to hospital. The worker at the mart was knocked down by an animal that escaped when being unloaded at the mart yesterday. It's understood that a farmer had started to unload the animal at the mart when it broke free and knocked down a staff member who was taken to hospital. The worker was released, uninjured from hospital in the early hours of this morning, but Brid Burke of Maam Cross Mart said the incident highlighted the need for vigilance at marts. It comes as the main mart insurer FBD said it is losing 140pc on average across the board by taking them on. By insuring marts, on average, we are losing 140pc every year, this is not sustainable and needs to change, FBD CEO Fiona Muldoon told a recent conference. According to FBD, the most common cause of liability claims at marts are injuries caused by livestock. It said that one of the most more common accidents at marts happens when cattle are being loaded and unloaded and can kick or crush people. Another common claim is incidents involving gates hitting a member of the public or an employee. Foreign food imports must be held to Britains high standards after Brexit or the nations farming community will be devastated, MPs have warned. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee concluded the governments agriculture bill must be amended to ensure goods meet current rules for production, animal welfare and the environment. The warning from MPs comes after committee members questioned environment secretary Michael Gove at the end of October about the bill and its failure to stop products like chlorinated chicken entering the country. Following the hearing, the National Farmers Union told The Independent that British farming operates to some of the highest standards in the world and said it was vital this was not undermined after Brexit. Mr Gove said he agreed with these sentiments, but added that in his view the proposed changes to future trade deals fell outside the scope of the bill. In a new report, the Efra committee members said the government must put its money where its mouth is when it comes to maintaining high standards following Brexit. They also expressed disappointment that they had not been given ample opportunity to scrutinise either the agriculture or fisheries bills. Efra chair Neil Parish, a former farmer himself, noted: The UK currently has exceptionally high environmental and food standards and an internationally recognised approach to animal welfare. This legacy cannot be ripped apart by the introduction of cheap, low-quality goods following our exit from the EU. Besides the chlorine-washed chicken that is reportedly poised to flood the UK market from the US, there have also been warnings of hormone-treated beef that is currently not allowed in Britain. Imports produced to lower standards than ours pose a very real threat to UK agriculture. Without sufficient safeguards we could see British farmers significantly undermined while turning a blind eye to environmental degradation and poor animal welfare standards abroad, said Mr Parish. Our suggested amendment calls for agricultural goods to be imported into the UK only if the standards to which those goods were produced are as high as, or higher than, current UK standards. He also noted that given the lack of clarity in the existing bill, future environment secretaries would be able to avoid scrutiny and make crucial decisions unchallenged. We would like to see sufficient opportunities for parliamentary scrutiny before any new systems or policies are rolled out, said Mr Parish. Environmental groups have long warned about environmental standards being compromised when the UK no longer abides by EU regulations, despite Mr Goves promise of a green Brexit. Pressure to get a deal at any cost could mean our environmental standards are traded away for access to markets, said Kierra Box, Brexit lead for Friends of the Earth. This could result in the obvious lowering of standards. Responding to the report, a spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: Ministers have always been absolutely clear that we will not water down our high standards in pursuit of trade deals. Our food security is built on a strong domestic production base and access to safe, high-quality imports from a diverse range of countries. One of the masked raiders makes a hasty retreat back to the car after opening the gate. Gardai are on the hunt for masked thieves who broke into a compound in Bunclody on Sunday afternoon, making off with a brand new trailer worth in the region of 5,000. Byrne's Trailers at Ryland Business Park was the target of the masked men and owner Ivan Byrne told the Enniscorthy Guardian that he believes they are a professional gang from the Dublin area. In CCTV footage captured from the compound, you can see an 06 Hyundai Trajet pull up outside the compound at 3.08 p.m. before the first man climbs in over the gates. Having done this, Ivan says they used specialised equipment to break the lock on the trailer, before managing to open the gate and drive away with the brand new Murphy 10x519" cattle trailer. 'I think they knew what they were looking for alright,' Ivan said. 'A trailer like that is worth in the region of 5,000. They seemed to target it. It seems like a theft to order type job. They were in and out in less than four minutes.' Gardai have confirmed that an investigation is ongoing into the matter and have appealed for any witnesses or anyone who may have been offered a similar trailer for sale to contact them at Bunclody Garda Station on 0539377102. Meanwhile, Ivan says that gardai have managed to trace the registration plate of the car to an address in Ballyfermot, Dublin, and there were also three separate sightings of the vehicle and trailer heading north on the N11 at Tombrack, Clogh and near Jack White's. This leads him to believe that the theft may have been carried out by a Dublin gang. Expand Close The masked man scales the fence at Byrne's Trailers in Bunclody. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The masked man scales the fence at Byrne's Trailers in Bunclody. This latest theft comes just over three weeks after a selection of tools carrying a value in excess of 2,000 were stolen from Pat Skelton's Car Breakers in Bunclody. Ivan Byrne says that it's a worrying trend and that crimes like this seem to have stepped up in the build-up to Christmas. Investors are betting that shares in State-owned Permanent TSB will fall. If proved true it's bad news for the taxpayer as the bank's biggest shareholder. The bank's stock is being shorted by one of London's oldest hedge funds, Lansdowne Partners, according to publicly available Central Bank data. It means the fund has made an investment that will pay out if the share price goes down, meaning Lansdowne is pessimistic on the outlook for the 75pc State-owned bank. Permanent TSB declined to comment, while Lansdowne said it did not talk about individual investments. Shorting is usually done by borrowing shares for a set period; selling them and hoping to return them at a later date by buying them more cheaply. It is risky because if the shares rise the "shorter" could face big losses. The position was opened on November 19 when the bank's shares closed at 1.78. Yesterday they closed at 1.70 - meaning Lansdowne is sitting on a profit. The hedge fund is shorting 0.7pc of shares in the bank - with a market value of around 5.5m as of yesterday evening. The bank has long been mooted as a potential takeover candidate for a rival such as Ulster Bank or KBC Bank Ireland. It said in a trading update earlier that its business "continues to trend in line with expectations". It said new lending volume increased 48pc year-on-year to 1bn, in the first nine months of 2018. In the first half of the bank's financial year, profit before tax was 57m, an increase of 33pc on the same period in the prior year. Its balance sheet has been weighed down by a large amount of non-performing loans. The Government has teamed up with a Chinese company to map Irish people's genetic material in the hope of making medical advances. As part of the initiative as many as 600 people will be recruited by Irish firm Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI) over the next five years. The $400m (353m) project aims to get 400,000 Irish people to participate, including patients with a range of common and rare diseases. It is designed to boost medical outcomes, by allowing researchers to identify common genes among people with certain conditions. In addition, it is meant to allow doctors identify when people have genes that put them at risk of a condition, and then monitor or intervene with those patients earlier. The project is being led by WuXi NextCode - part of the Chinese WuXi Group. WuXi NextCode is buying Irish firm GMI as part of the deal. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is investing $70m to back the project, alongside a number of other investors including Chinese private equity firm Yunfeng Capital - co-founded by Alibaba chief Jack Ma. Investors hope to make a return by, for example, charging health companies a fee to access to the database. If the company develops a successful drug on foot of the data, the investors may then be able to get a royalty depending on the terms of the deal. Asked about potential opposition to the project because of a company headquartered in China, WuXi NextCode chief Rob Brainin said: "We're a global company. We operate in Shanghai; Reykjavik; Cambridge, Massachusetts... and now Dublin. "All of the data related to this initiative is within GMI, which is a subsidiary, it's not mixed and mingled with the rest. We don't consider ourselves owners of the data." Paul Saunders, head of strategic innovation at ISIF, said the State fund had done "extensive due diligence" on WuXi NextCode. "We don't enter into any of our investments lightly," he added, saying ISIF would monitor the project closely. GMI CEO Anne Jones said all the data relating to the project would sit in European servers. "We do hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards, we will always be extremely compliant, particularly with GDPR," she said. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the deal would "ultimately deliver better health and wellness management to people and patients in Ireland and turn the advances we make here into benefits for people around the world. "GMI's success is a reflection on the wider success of Ireland as a location for the life sciences industry for more than 50 years," Mr Varadkar added. Balancing act :The slump in oil prices in 2014 forced Tullow and new CEO Paul McDade to re-evaluate its risk-taking strategies The fortunes of Paul McDade and Tullow Oil have mirrored each other for almost three decades. Drawn to the industry in the 1980s as a way to see life outside his native Scotland, Mr McDade moved through the Middle East, South America and Southeast Asia. At the turn of the century, just as a promising career was shaping up at Canadian oil company Talisman, a different opportunity emerged. "I've met this Irish guy who's trying to convince me to come to London and start with the company," Mr McDade said at the time to his wife. It was a risky leap from a well-established producer to a near-startup with uncertain prospects and few staff. "How many people?" Mr McDade's wife asked. "Well, there's no one there yet," he replied. The Irishman was Aidan Heavey, who named Tullow after the Co Carlow town. He'd started with the development of a small gas project in Senegal in 1986, before acquiring North Sea assets over the next couple of years. Over the next decade the company remained a modest driller and when Mr McDade jumped on board in 2001 Tullow was just about starting to spread across Africa. One word defined Tullow, Mr Heavey and Mr McDade in those early days - risk. And it certainly paid off. Over the next few years they unlocked reserves in Ghana and Uganda, becoming one of the continent's top explorers with a reputation for opening up new frontiers. Yet, for Mr McDade, having taken the helm at Tullow last year, the keywords have now changed to discipline and restraint. Acquisitions and large oil discoveries pushed the company's market capitalisation from about 300m (339m) in 2003 to more than 14bn (15.8bn) in 2012. Since then it's slumped to about 2.5bn (2.8bn). Oil's downturn, which started in 2014, changed the company, forcing it to cut spending and reconsider its risk-taking ways. In an attempt to stem declining profits and a rapidly falling share price, Tullow reorganised and Mr Heavey departed earlier this summer. Mr McDade took over. One of his biggest challenges will be to emerge not just from Mr Heavey's dominating shadow on the company, but to convince investors and analysts he's the right man for the job. He will have to draw on his vast experience of working around the world. Mr McDade was in Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded the country in 1990. "That wasn't good timing," he said. The experience and subsequent evacuation from the war-torn nation didn't faze him. Among Mr McDade's first jobs at Tullow was to manage the money-making North Sea assets, which funded Mr Heavey's risky exploration elsewhere. He was promoted to chief operating officer in 2004, and tasked with bringing together the company's assets worldwide, including Energy Africa, which Tullow bought that year. In the years that followed, Mr McDade ran the day-to-day operations and Mr Heavey doubled down on exploration. Tullow had a string of successes in Uganda in 2006, a nation with no previous proven oil or gas reserves. The following year it made its biggest ever discovery - the Jubilee field in Ghana. It discovered oil in Kenya in 2012. "I don't think even Aidan thought we would get to the dizzy heights of sitting there at the first oil ceremony in Ghana," Mr McDade said. The company's profit jumped more than nine times to a record of about $650m in 2011 compared with the previous year as oil prices stayed high. Crude's biggest slump in a generation in 2014 caught most companies around the world by surprise. Tullow reported losses in each of the four years from 2014 to 2017 and total debt surged. Trouble piled up. The company is among the worst performers in the 22-member Stoxx Europe 600 Oil & Gas Index this year. "Tullow's calling card is exploration, but it hasn't been able to repeat the success of the Jubilee field," Jefferies analyst Mark Wilson wrote in a report last month. While Kosmos Energy and Cairn Energy have similar operating models with producing assets balancing the risky hunt for new discoveries, Tullow is still seen to be straddling priorities. A priority since the oil price slump has been to fix the balance sheet, Mr McDade said. That meant resolving production issues in Ghana, selling down in Uganda and prioritising development in Kenya. Despite the reticence on exploration, the company continues to look forward to a field in Guyana, in which it holds a 60pc stake. Tullow is managing expectations better. Having won over at least some analysts, Mr McDade's approach could help him move Tullow on from Mr Heavey's legacy by tempering risks and meeting targets "which, I suppose, is a lot more of a focus for me than Aidan," he said. "We will do frontier exploration, but we'll do it in a manner where we take a certain amount of funds and we stretch them." Bloomberg Tanaiste Simon Coveney described the announcement as "another great day for the Cork economy." Photo: Steve Humphreys Australian travel insurer World Nomads Group (WNG) has launched its European operations and headquarters in Cork. The establishment of its Cork headquarters is part of the groups overall expansion plan, and the office will directly manage the companys European travel insurance business. As part of the growth, the group plans to increase its staff numbers in Cork from 20 to more than 80 over the next 18 months. "We are currently migrating our European travel insurance arrangements from the UK and continental Europe to our Cork office. We estimate this will involve the transfer of more than 100,000 policies," Bernard OSullivan, WNGs manager for Europe, said. "We have already employed more than 20 high-quality staff in Cork to support our operations. We expect this to increase to more than 80 staff over the next 18 months," he added. WNG will manage all the functions of a travel insurer to its European customers such as product design, pricing, customer service, claims and emergency assistance. It will partner with specialist organisations to carry the underwriting risk. The announcement was welcomed by Cork TD and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, who described it as "another great day for the Cork economy." "It demonstrates the value and attractiveness that Cork and Ireland have to offer to major companies wishing to operate in Europe. This is very important for the Irish economy especially within the context of Brexit," he added. WNG is part of the Nib group, a health and travel insurance company based in Australia. Nib is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market capitalisation of approximately AUD$2.5bn and more than 1,500 employees in eight countries around the globe. Employers want to pay just half what the Government is proposing into a new 'auto-enrolment' scheme for 860,000 workers with no pension. Ibec has proposed that employers put a minimum of 3pc of pay into the scheme that is due to be rolled out from 2022. This would be matched by staff. However, the Government has proposed that employers eventually contribute twice this amount. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection said they should pay a minimum of 6pc from 2027 under a proposal launched earlier this year. The level of contributions that will eventually be made by employers and employees has still to be decided. But the portion of wages that will be plunged into the scheme will be crucial to its success. The Government aims to prevent around 860,000 workers who only have the State pension to rely on in retirement from facing poverty in old age. The majority of them work in low-paid jobs, including in retail and hotels. Under the Government's plan, workers aged between 23 and 60 and earning more than 20,000 a year would be automatically enrolled in the scheme. The State would contribute 1 for every 3 saved. Ibec's submission to Government on the proposed scheme says it supports its proposal that minimum employer and employee contribution rates are initially set at a modest 1pc. But it argues that higher contributions after this would hit the competitiveness of Irish-owned businesses. It also says it could put workers off staying in the scheme and cause them to opt out. The Ibec document says the "extremely rapid auto-escalation" of contributions would cause significant numbers to opt out. This would "defeat the whole purpose of the system". Meanwhile, pensions experts have warned that some of the returns from the planned auto-enrolment pension scheme could be very low. The Society of Actuaries said there was a risk that those who do not specify where their contributions will be invested will be put into a "default fund". Such a fund will likely have very low, or no, investment growth. This will lead to disappointment for those saving into the new pension scheme. In a submission to the Government, the society argued that cash funds should instead be more accurately described as "low return". A thousand so-called 'fast-track' apartments announced almost six months ago will not be built until late 2019 or even 2020. Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy confirmed plans to use factory-built apartments at various sites in Dublin and other towns following a housing summit with local authority chiefs last July. However, the Irish Independent has learned that no timeline has yet been set for the delivery of the much-needed apartments, which are planned for use as social housing, and it is anticipated that "some units" will be delivered in late 2019 or early 2020. The first "volumetric apartments" - built off-site, including fittings and finishes, and stacked on-site - will be installed on Bunratty Road in Coolock, north Dublin. Other sites where it is expected the apartments will be built are at feasibility stage. One proposal has been submitted by Dublin City Council (DCC), with others expected to follow, and these will be given "priority attention due to the current housing situation", according to the Department of Housing. It is anticipated that the apartments will be built in relatively small lots. Asked about the lengthy timeline for the delivery of the apartments, a spokesperson said that it was "always necessary that a procurement framework of design-build contractors for the delivery of social housing and apartments would be established by DCC". A tender was issued by DCC in September seeking contractors to deliver the factory-built units. A second-stage progress for lot two of the framework is under way, with a deadline of December 21. The council expects to award the initial contract at the end of January, provided there is no delay with the contract. Modular housing has been used in the UK to address housing shortages, but similar projects in Ireland have faced substantial delays. The apartments were one of a range of measures announced by Mr Murphy following the third in a series of regular meetings in the Custom House in Dublin with the heads of all of the local authorities to discuss the ongoing housing crisis. After that meeting, the minister also said that the State would target some 1,000 homes that were owned by banks and other financial institutions. At the end of October, the Housing Agency had accepted bids on 893 homes, a spokesperson said. Meanwhile, planned "family hubs" in Galway and Louth in conjunction with the Peter McVerry Trust are still at the procurement phase. Under the plans, the temporary family hubs will consist of clusters of prefabricated individual units which will be operated as a hub, meaning residents will have access to wraparound support. It is expected that the work on the pilot sites will be carried out in the first three months of next year. In July, Mr Murphy also said that a policy statement on the need to "ensure delivery of housing for older people and the need to support downsizing for older people" would be published "shortly". Asked for this statement, a spokesperson pointed to a conference held last week, led by Junior Housing Minister Damien English and Minister with Responsibility for Older People Jim Daly, which brought together experts in housing for older people to discuss options for elderly people who wished to live in the community, rather than a nursing home setting. Separately, Mr Murphy yesterday declined to "speculate" on the latest homelessness figures, which are due to be released later this week. The minister said he hoped to see "some positive results". He said the four local authorities in Dublin had been doing "a huge amount of work" to put solutions in place, adding that the focus was very much on trying to find homes for families and children. Figures for the month of September show there were 9,698 people homeless, including 3,829 children. A review of the bidding process for the National Broadband Plan has found ex-minister Denis Naughten did not jeopardise it but opposition parties are unlikely to allow the Government proceed with the plan without a fight. The study by independent auditor Peter Smyth has found that private meetings Mr Naughten had with businessman David McCourt did not amount to an attempt to interfere with the process. Mr McCourt is the head of the only consortium left in the running for the valuable contract to rollout broadband across rural Ireland. While carrying out his review, Mr Smyth had to rely heavily on the accounts provided to him by the ex-minister and businessman. But he concludes that neither Mr Naughten nor Mr McCourt were in a position to influence the bidding process in favour of Granahan McCourt. The report states that the fact that the former Minister met with Mr McCourt (or representatives of the other bidders) outside the process is not in and of itself a basis for finding that the procurement process has been tainted. Mr Smyth notes that in the absence of minutes and notes for a number of those meetings he is reliant in the statements of the former minister, Mr McCourt and other parties for verification, therefore I cannot unequivocally state that the State-led intervention under the NBP was not discussed at the meetings between Mr Naughten and Mr McCourt. However based on his ongoing review of the process and considerations of the workings of the process Mr Smyth states that he is "satisfied that neither the former minister nor Mr McCourt had the opportunity to influence the conduct of the tender process on favour of Granahan McCourt or otherwise. The report also notes that Mr Naughten's decision to resign insulates the process from any apparent bias created by his engagements with Mr McCourt. More than 500,000 homes and businesses are waiting on the NBP to bring high-speed broadband to their area. Former minister Denis Naughten this evening urged TDs not to abandon the National Broadband Plan for political reasons. I welcome the conclusion of Mr Smyths report not only for myself but for the 1.2 million people in rural Ireland waiting to be connected to high speed broadband, he said. The Roscommon TD goes on to earnestly ask the Government and Opposition parties to carry through on the significant body of work that I completed during my time as Communications Minister to ensure that every home and business in Ireland gains access to high speed broadband without any further delay. He also highlighted a section of Mr Smyths report which notes that there rules underpinning the NBP do not expressly prohibit engagements between bidders and the department. As Minister my job required me to meet investors from all sectors under the remit of my former Department whether they were investors from telecoms, renewable energy, environment or natural resources. These investors are the men and women who provide jobs in our country, he said. Mr Naughten said his sole objective was to deliver much promised broadband to rural Ireland. I am proud of the work that I achieved which has ensured that over one third of rural homes will, by next June, have access to up to 1000mbps pure fibre broadband. I hope that once this procurement process has been completed that the remaining homes, farms and businesses will get access to this technology. This should now be the only goal of our Government and members of Dail Eireann at this point and I urge colleagues not to succumb to those who want to make a political issue of the NBP for their own ends and not that of the Country as a whole, he said. However, Opposition TDs are unlikely to fully accept the findings of the review which is partly redacted. Read More Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy has already questioned why there are rules in place for bidding process if they are not carefully followed. The Taoiseach, and indeed many other Government Deputies, when they learned of Mister Naughtens repeated meetings with David McCourt, accepted his actions were inappropriate and had an impact on the NBP process. For the report to find different is ridiculous, she said. Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin has claimed it would be reckless for the Government to proceed with the plan. People in rural Ireland are anxious to have access to high-speed broadband, but no one wants to be ripped off. We cannot stand over an unsafe situation where ministerial protocols are being ignored with a real risk to the taxpayer of being sued, he said. Mr Howlin added: If necessary, a new tendering process, including State companies, could be run within months given all of the preparation that has already been done in this process. That is a small price to pay to avoid over-paying for a network that will be outside of public control and where there is a risk of the State being sued for allowing such a compromised process to continue. Mr Varadkar said there are no doubts about the status of the 500m bid to install broadband to half a million homes and businesses in rural parts of the country - and that other necessary assessments of the project can continue. The Taoiseach told Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, that this remaining consortium in the tender process for the National Broadband Plan had changed its composition. But Mr Varadkar insisted that it is not a new consortium. It was on that basis, Mr Varadkar said: The bid still stands. Mr Martin pointed to the reports note that Mr Naughten had 12 meetings, 18 phones calls and five dinners with the businessman. He said the minister and the bidder were talking about the level of subsidy that should be paid, with some estimates putting it at 3bn. Speaking in the Dail in the wake of the publication of the report, Taoiseach added that the resignation of Mr Naughten as Communications Minister, and which came on October 11 last, had helped keep the process secure. His departure meant that any concerns about his involvement or his relationship with the lead bidder no longer affect this process. Mr Naughten resigned amid controversy over contacts he had with American businessman David McCourt leading the Granahan McCourt consortium which is the sole remaining bidder for the plan to provide broadband to some 500,000 homes and businesses without high speed broadband access. Mr Varadkar argued that the Government had improved broadband access in recent years moving it from 50pc of homes and premises to a current level of of 75pc. He hoped this project would complete the extension to the final quarter of the country. Kenneth Branagh is standing in the vast living room of Fowl Manor, the sprawling fantasy home of Artemis Fowl. Fowl, as you will likely know, is the protagonist of the internationally bestselling series of science fiction fantasy books by Irish writer Eoin Colfer, whose series of stories made his name as Ireland's answer to JK Rowling. This house, a small-scale castle, was first built in Colfer's imagination, and in the world of the story, is located somewhere outside Dublin. But now, it has been built, brick-by-brick by Disney on the edge of a film studio in Surrey. Branagh is in the middle of a day's shooting of the mega-budget film adaptation of the first book in the Artemis Fowl series, and he wears the brisk, yet affable air of a man juggling a million tasks and issues with practised equanimity. It's a juggernaut of a project, produced by Disney and slated for release in late summer 2019. Fowl Manor is at the centre of a vast and ambitious set that has been purpose- built at Longcross Studios - a world so detailed and monumental that it could rival Potter. The project is freighted by so much expectation. If all goes well, and film one is a success, it represents the start of a franchise. It is a much-loved adaptation of a YA book series with hordes of young fans. But Branagh, who knows his way around a popcorn blockbuster, could be considered a safe pair of hands. He's appeared in one as an actor (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) and has directed a few more (Thor, Cinderella, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit). Still, it is, even for a director of his standing, a plum job. He was drawn to the world of Artemis Fowl he says because of "the imagination, it felt very original. I loved it's Irishness", which he connected with especially as someone who comes "from the North part of that country". He enjoyed too, "the collisions... the proximity of worlds, very different worlds. I like that creatively. It always feels like it's a good risky place to be. I had some experience with it making the film of Thor, where a very contemporary feeling, still heightened world of science is right next door to a world of magic. So the way those two things inter-relate has always been very fascinating to me". In Fowl, the action shifts between Ireland, Haven City, (a subterranean fairy world) and Ho Chi Minh City, to name just a few places. These shifts, Branagh explains, "mean you can be poetic, it means you can have a size that does invite a big audience to go to the movies to watch it on a big screen with a lot of other people because somehow the subject matter expands away from the norms". Perhaps surprisingly, Branagh cites The Godfather as an influence for his take on the Artemis origin story, in which the young protagonist experiences something of a loss of innocence as he learns of his complex family history and the dark dealings therein. "I always look at the masters, the great classics," Branagh says. "Don't take this too literally," he says, but a "story shape that I found interesting as we were considering this was The Godfather, where Michael Corleone, as you may recall at the beginning of the first film, although part of a family he knows to be involved in business, he's been in the services and he's not entirely aware of exactly what dad does, and I think that Artemis has, but by the end of the picture he has to face up to, well shall I do some of this as well, do I believe in it? Am I behind it?" Two young Irish actors will star as the main characters, Artemis, and the fairy Holly Short, in a piece of casting that will almost certainly change their lives. Video of the Day Lara McDonnell, who will play Holly has some experience of showbiz, (she played Matilda in the West End between 2015 and 2016) But for Ferdia Shaw, the 11-year-old Kilkenny boy who was cast from an open call, it's an entry to a new world as startlingly different and fantasy-like as Haven City. "With Artemis and with Holly... we looked at literally hundreds, in fact thousands of people to find what we thought were the right characteristics," explains Branagh. For Artemis they leaned towards casting an Irish boy from the first. "We saw probably 1,200 boys. Anyone from Ireland who applied, but people from all over the world, absolutely all over the world. A tough one was people from other cultures or backgrounds doing an Irish accent. It's tough at the best of times. There's so many of them, as there is in any nation there's always a trillion accents - there isn't a single one. But there is always a little cultural frisson that you get out of - in his case he comes from Kilkenny. And Lara McDonnell plays Holly, who is part of a fairy world that appears to be underneath Ireland, so she also happens to be Irish. That helps, I think, locate something quite distinct in the tone of the movie. We hear the accent so much that it feels as though we just really are in another place." Read More Lara and Ferdia will join an all-star cast that includes Dame Judi Dench, cast as fairy police chief Commander Root, and Josh Gad, who will play "kleptomaniacal dwarf" Mulch Diggums. "What I knew was he (Gad) was a joy to work with as indeed is Judy Dench. I'd met him before but it was the first-time experience working with him. But certainly, I knew that because he was Irish in spirit that a certain kind of fringe of anarchy would be in the movie." There will also be a brief stint of filming in Ireland. "I think often even for a short time, the spirit of a place, even for a few days if you are in a different place... there's a different sense and vibration. From its very authenticity," he says. "We went to Ho Chi Minh City to shoot at the beginning. Ferdia and Nonso (Anozie, who plays Butler) who had never been before, were travelling around on mopeds... safely, safely! No children were exposed to any form of possible health and safety implication in the carefully orchestrated thing," he is at pains to point out. "But it was an incredible culture shock - the noise, the traffic, particularly motorcycle and moped traffic, the friendliness of the people, the curiosity of the people and all of that is an incredible sort of injection into the beginning of the movie." The same principle applied for shooting in Ireland. "The sea and the Atlantic coast... I always think it when I fly home, there is a green that, there's no other colour but that Irish green. It sounds like a bit of a sentimental thing to say but that's always how I feel about it, so if that's in the movie I think that's a good thing." Artemis Fowl opens in August 2019 Jamie Dornan said filming for Death And Nightingales in Belfast was a nostalgic experience (Ian West/PA) Jamie Dornan refused to pick sides growing up in the shadow of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The actor has said it was impossible to not be affected by the violence and division, and that he understands the dynamics and motivations of the conflict. Dornan, an avowed atheist, has revealed that he refused to declare his loyalty to either side in the sectarian struggle between Protestant unionists and the largely Catholic nationalists. The 36-year-old actor has returned to his Northern Irish roots for upcoming BBC Two period drama Death And Nightingales, which is set in Fermanagh before the partition of Ireland, although it features the religious and political divisions which would turn into paramilitary violence. Expand Close Jamie Dornan stars alongside Ann Skelly in Death And Nightingales which was filmed in Northern Ireland (BBC/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jamie Dornan stars alongside Ann Skelly in Death And Nightingales which was filmed in Northern Ireland (BBC/PA) Dornan has said that although he had experience of the Troubles he had no partisanship to draw on for his role as a Catholic tenant, having been lucky to mix with both sides of the religious divide while he was growing up. He said: You cant live and grow up in Northern Ireland in that time, that time I did, and not be affected by the Troubles, even in the smallest of ways. Although I dont think there was anything small in any way to be honest. I have a very good understanding of it. But Im an atheist and I always was growing up, and I have never felt that I have any loyalty to either side, or a lot of what was driving the situation. I was very lucky. I went to a school where there was a healthy mix of Catholic and Protestant, I could relate to both sides. I could relate to it in my own way because I definitely experienced it. Video of the Day Dornan plays Liam Ward in the upcoming drama, a Catholic coming into conflict with his morally dubious Protestant landlord, Billy Winters, played by Matthew Rhys. Dublin-born actress Ann Skelly plays the female lead, Beth Winters, at the heart of the story of love, revenge and betrayal. Star of Northern Irish drama The Fall, Dornan has said he enjoyed returning home to film, especially during an exceptionally sunny summer which made for an idyllic shoot. He said: Since season three of The Fall Ive been pretty crap about going home, so to have an excuse to be home for the summer was amazing. I visited parts of the country I never knew existed. Any opportunity to work at home, if the role is right, I will take it. Stories from that part of world mean a lot to me. It was a joy. Dornan was reunited with The Fall creator Allan Cubitt for Death And Nightingales, which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Eugene McCabe. The writer and director said the piece, set in 1885, touches on a troubled Northern Ireland, a region that is once again making headlines over potential political divisions. Cubitt said: Its set during the time of the Fenian dynamite campaign. It was the time of the start of modern terrorism, terrorism as we know it, the battle of these people who believed the British should not be in Ireland. The tensions serve as the backdrop for a drama which uses flashbacks to tell interweaving family and love stories as the main character, Beth, faces a major decision on her birthday. Death And Nightingales will air at 9pm on Wednesday November 28 on BBC Two. Charities who lost 3.8m to an Irish businessman's embezzlement will get nothing from his Swiss accounts, authorities have revealed. The money in the accounts has been confiscated to cover the costs of Peter Conlon's criminal trial in Zurich - meaning it is now out of reach of the affected charities. Ammado, the online fundraising platform run by Conlon (64) collapsed this year and it emerged 3.8m of funds donated through it were not paid to the charities. The Irish High Court issued a world-wide freezing order against Conlon's assets, but he had already been detained in Switzerland. Last week, a court in Zurich sentenced him to a 36-month prison term after he pleaded guilty to embezzlement of charity donations made through his company. The money was taken to fund the running of the business, the court was told. The Swiss judge said Conlon had not personally benefited from the offence. Conlon's defence lawyer Andrea Taormina said he was a "good-hearted person" who has never been concerned with embezzling donations. A report of the trial in Zurich newspaper 'Neue Zurcher Zeitung' said the one-time Entrepreneur of the Year finalist was almost unrecognisable compared to his online photographs. His lawyer told the court he had lost 20kg - more than three stones - during his pre-trial detention. Under a deal with Swiss prosecutors, the last two years of the sentence were suspended and Conlon will be released on December 22 - a year after he was arrested at Zurich Airport. He will be expelled from Switzerland for five years, and his lawyer said he plans to go to Paris or London. Swiss authorities indicated that further proceedings against other people linked to the case are pending. In Ireland, the collapse of Ammado triggered a hunt for assets by Myles Kirby, a liquidator who was appointed at the request of Revenue, which is owed 400,000, as well as a Garda investigation. The High Court is due to hear an update on the liquidation on February 5. Up to 800 charities were left out of pocket following the collapse of Ammado, a Dublin-based company set up to collect online donations for charities. After the High Court appointed Mr Kirby to related company Pembroke Dynamic Internet Services, he uncovered evidence of the alleged misappropriation of up to 3.8m owed to charities. Victim: John Curran was found murdered in his flat in Cape Town. Photo: Irish Primary Principals' Network/PA Wire A man charged with the murder of Irish charity worker John Curran in South Africa has appeared in court dressed in boxer shorts. Congolese-born cleaner Mitspa Mzakombo Onyoka (24) was arrested by police at his workplace in Cape Town last Friday after a tip-off. Prosecutor Adiel Jansen said Mr Onyoka had been charged by police with the murder of Mr Curran (60) as well as aggravated robbery. Since his arrest, he had been kept in a holding cell at Cape Town Police Station and was dressed for court in just a pair of blue and white boxer shorts, flip flops and a T-shirt. He was granted the services of a French interpreter and legal aid to seek bail. Mr Jansen told Cape Town Magistrates Court yesterday that Mr Curran "was very benevolent to Cape Town society". "He was found murdered in his flat and quite a number of items were taken," he said. He requested permission from magistrate Greg Jacobs for the police to take blood samples from Mr Onyoka as part of the on-going investigation. Mr Jansen said that the police were also seeking information through diplomatic channels from police in the Democratic Republic of Congo regarding any previous convictions. "This is a very serious charge and he should appeal for legal aid and it is in his best interests if he needs help to make a bail application," Mr Jacobs said. Mr Jacobs remanded him in custody for seven days until December 3 at Cape Town Police Station holding cells and Mr Onyoka was then led away by court custody officers. Mr Curran had spent two years working in Cape Town as the director of education for Mellon Educate. He had been enjoying a holiday before flying home to Dublin when he was found killed in his apartment. He had suffered multiple stab wounds. Mr Curran was principal of the Good Shepherd National School in Churchtown for 15 years, and was a founding member of the Irish Primary Principals Network. Mellon Educate hired him on a two-year contract to run its Cape Town operation in Western Province, which he did successfully until September. His proudest achievement was working with 270 volunteers to rebuild and renovate schools in the 400,000-strong Khayelitsha township in Cape Town. A memorial service was held for him in Dublin last week. John Gilligan: He said he cant be looking over my shoulder Criminal John Gilligan has told a Northern Ireland court he would honour the terms of bail if it was granted, saying he is old now and "can't be looking over my shoulder". Gilligan (66), with an address in west Dublin, appeared before Coleraine Magistrates Court yesterday. He appeared via video link from Maghaberry Prison where he has been in custody since being arrested at Belfast International Airport on August 23 last with 23,000 in a suitcase. He is accused of "attempting to remove criminal property" from Northern Ireland. He was arrested while attempting to board a flight to Spain. Officers from the National Crime Agency recovered the cash at the scene. After being told yesterday he was being remanded in continuing custody until a week before Christmas, Gilligan told the court: "I declared the money to the customs, I committed no crime whatsoever." Regarding bail, he said: "I never failed to turn up for bail in my life." He said he had always honoured bail conditions as a young man, adding: "I'm an old man now, I can't be looking over my shoulder." District Judge Liam McNally said he had been told at the last hearing in the case in October that the full file was to be submitted on November 1. A prosecutor said the full file had been received but one of their officials wants to meet with investigating officers on November 30 and asked for a further adjournment. Judge McNally said that was "progress" but defence barrister Plunkett Nugent said it was "very limited progress". Mr Nugent said there had been "one reason upon another" for continued delays. Judge McNally remanded Gilligan in custody until December 17. A man who attacked his pregnant wife for burning a pizza, a day after she had gotten a job, has lost an appeal against the severity of his three-year prison sentence. Afghan national Muhammed Tajik (28), of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Susan Wombsley at a flat on Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin on December 8, 2015. The Court of Appeal heard that on the day of the assault, Tajik was said to have been simmering with anger for a number of matters, particularly because his wife had just obtained employment but also because she had burned a pizza. Garda John Freeney told prosecuting lawyers that Tajik grabbed Ms Wombsleys neck from behind, punching her in the head and face until she passed out. She was knocked unconscious and suffered a broken jaw on both sides. Sentencing him to three years imprisonment, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said Ms Wombsley had fallen into the hands of a man of a very violent disposition. The Court of Appeal upheld his sentence today with the three-judge court unable to identify an error in principle. Giving judgment, Mr Justice John Edwards said the couple met online and got married in Turkey in August 2015. They subsequently moved to Dublin and were encountering financial difficulties, occasionally sleeping in Ms Wombsleys car in spots around Dublin. Before the night in question, she had obtained employment, which was the cause of some dispute, the judge said. Following the assault, Tajik sent a number of messages to Ms Wombsley apologising for the assault and expressing remorse. He was arrested at Terminal 2 of Dublin Airport and denied any responsibility for the attack until presented with the messages. Counsel for Tajik, Patrick Gageby SC, said Tajik had left Afghanistan as a refugee, lived in Iran for a while and then Turkey. He had never been in trouble before or since the assault, counsel said. Mr Gageby further submitted that the trial judge attached too little weight to the fact Tajik had formed a new relationship and his new girlfriend was expecting a baby. He said no accused should shelter behind a new relationship, but it indicated his clients rehabilitation and stability, in his submission. Mr Justice Edwards said Tajik had no family with him in Ireland and had become involved with the Church of Latter-day Saints. Members of the Church submitted testimonials on his behalf, including a volunteer who said Tajik had come through many challenging times in his life but had undergone a considerable change in his behaviour. Mr Justice Edwards, who sat with President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, said no error could be found and the appeal was therefore dismissed. Ann OCarroll, niece of Kerry farmer Anthony OMahony, leaves the CCJ after reading an impact statment on behalf of her mother Angela. Photo: Mark Condren The family of a Kerry farmer killed by a neighbour when he drove a teleporter into him have said he was "physically torn apart that day" and then his character was "shredded" during the trial process. Tillage farmer John Anthony O'Mahony was described as a "decent and honest man" who was "good, kind and giving". Neighbouring farmer Michael Ferris (63) was last month found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter by a jury at the Central Criminal Court. Ferris repeatedly drove a teleporter into Mr O'Mahony's car in April last year after he "snapped" over a crow banger, the court heard. State Pathologist Margot Bolster said Mr O'Mahony died from the "total evulsion", or forcible extraction, of his heart and liver. Yesterday at a sentencing hearing, Ferris expressed his "remorse and sorrow" and apologised to the family. In a victim impact statement, Mr O'Mahony's sister Angela Houlihan said: "Anthony was physically torn apart that day and his character has been constantly attacked since. "As his sister, I have to speak for the brother and person that I knew who deserved dignity and respect, but even in death he did not receive that." Expand Close James OMahony. Photo: Mark Condren / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp James OMahony. Photo: Mark Condren Seamus O'Mahony said his brother's character had been "shredded" during the trial as "only one side" was told. Mr O'Mahony told the court that his family now lived "in fear", knowing that Ferris would be released from prison some day and they would have to pass each other again on that "small country road". "He [Ferris] said he snapped once - what is to stop him snapping again and doing something similar?" he asked. At yesterday's sentencing hearing, Ferris expressed his "remorse and sorrow" and apologised to the O'Mahony family. However, in Ms Houlihan's statement, which was read to the court by her daughter, she said: "We have not seen any evidence of remorse or regret from that day in April right through to today, and I don't believe we ever will. Expand Close The teleporter that was driven into John Anthony OMahonys car. Photo: RTE News / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The teleporter that was driven into John Anthony OMahonys car. Photo: RTE News "There was no justification to what was done to my brother on April 4, 2017. "My family and I will never be able to come to terms with the way Anthony died and will live the rest of our lives with the pain and loss." Ms Houlihan said her brother's car was repeatedly rammed by Ferris driving the teleporter. "He could have stopped after the first blow, but he just kept on going," she said. Expand Close Kerry farmer John Anthony OMahony / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kerry farmer John Anthony OMahony Mr O'Mahony said his brother was no longer alive to defend his "good name". He described the elderly tillage farmer as a "decent and honest" man, a "passionate farmer" and a "hard worker". He said the family would never get over what happened to him. "First, we lost a brother, an uncle and a friend, in the most horrific way imaginable, then we had to endure a two-week trial, which has devastated my family," he said. "As difficult as it was to hear the grotesque details of how Anthony's life was ended on the morning of April 4, 2017 in Rattoo, the way his good character was shredded during the trial was even more harrowing and emotionally stressful. "People will remember my brother the way he was depicted in the trial and this hurts us greatly. "Every story has two sides, and there was only one side of the story told during this trial. "Anthony was not there to defend his good name and we were not given a fair opportunity to show what kind of a man he truly was." He said it had been printed in the media that Anthony's neighbours had been living in fear of him. But people had since approached him to say they were hurt by this, and "so many people only had good things to say" about him. Mr O'Mahony said he had known there was an issue with the crow banger, but he had not known "the extent of the anger". He said no one had ever approached him about it, and if they had, "all this could have been avoided" and some arrangement could have been made. That Anthony was killed over a crow banger "beggars belief" he said. He asked: "Who would do something so unspeakable over a crow banger?" Ferris, of Rattoo, Ballyduff, had denied the murder of Mr O'Mahony at Rattoo on April 4, 2017. During the trial, the prosecution alleged Ferris "intentionally rammed" Mr O'Mahony's car with the prongs of a teleporter, causing "catastrophic injuries" to Mr O'Mahony. Ferris told gardai he did this as there was no other way to stop Mr O'Mahony using a loud crow banger. He told gardai that the banger, a device used to scare away birds, had been an issue for 30 years. Ms Justice Carmel Stewart will sentence Ferris on Monday. A rape trial has collapsed due to an allegedly prejudicial newspaper report that linked the case to the ongoing debate around the fairness of rape trials. The trial involved a Dublin defendant accused of raping a woman he met on a night out in 2015. It had run for six days and was at the closing stages, with the jury sent out on Friday to begin deliberations. Lawyers for the defendant told the Central Criminal Court that on Saturday a comment piece appeared in the Irish Independent newspaper that suggested implicitly he was guilty and that "the complainant is, in fact, a victim". Acceding to an application to discharge the jury, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that the article came close to scandalising the court. He said the article, with the headline 'A tipping point has come from high-profile cases shining painful spotlights', stated "society has had a bellyful" in relation to rape trials. He said that while people are entitled to have views about these matters, it was unacceptable to juxtapose an ongoing trial with those views and others cases with a level of notoriety. Mr Justice McDermott said that the unprecedented media coverage included references that a fair trial was not being conducted. He told the jury of four men and eight women that it was unacceptable a trial was subjected to such comment. He said the publication of this article had caused a situation to arise in which difficulties presented to the complainant would have to be revisited and the defendant would have to await a potential retrial. He said the trial had been conducted with commendable professionalism by both the defence and the prosecution. He said the cross-examination on any relevant material was done responsibly and if it wasn't, the court would have intervened. He said there was an implicit criticism of mounting a defence on behalf of an accused and this was the fundamental core of the right to a fair trial. He added that the suggestion that this trial was conducted improperly was simply wrong. Opposing the application on behalf of Director of Public Prosecutions, James Dwyer SC submitted the court could remedy the situation by instructing jurors to put any comment or articles out of their mind when deliberating on the case. Earlier, Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, defending, told the court her client had been awaiting trial since 2015 and that the trial had been listed to go on three previous occasions. She said this allegation hanging over him had created very significant personal and professional difficulties. She said that until the publication of the article, he was satisfied that he had received a fair trial, but he could no longer be satisfied that a jury could assess the evidence given the context. Ms Lawlor said the article appeared to advance a position that society has had enough of incorrect or wrongful acquittals of persons. "It advances that society will change, and that this case, being used as a pivot for this opinion, may operate as a bellwether for change," she said. She said the article amounted to an exhortation to the jury to convict the accused. Ms Lawlor said the article alongside an accompanying editorial contained a criticism of the trial process. She said this process presumed a person to be innocent and gave an opportunity to test the evidence against an accused. Mr Justice McDermott said the articles referred to how a person's clothes or whether they had been drinking might be held against them in rape trials. This comment about rape trials was then juxtaposed with facts from the trial before the court. He said the publication appeared to involve contempt, but there was a "whiff of scandalising the court as well". He said it was the DPP's jurisdiction to prosecute for contempt of court and that there is no such prosecution before the court. Ms Lawlor said the court could not remedy the situation because to ask the jurors if they had read the article at this stage would be to trespass into their role in an unprecedented and unlawful way. She said to engage in such a consultative process came with a health warning. Mr Justice McDermott said that there was no precedent for the court to make inquiries into the state of mind of jurors once deliberations had begun. The court heard that such inquiries have been made in previous trials where potential prejudicial information or commentary was published during the course of the trial but before evidence had finished. Monster: Patrick Nevin was guilty of three attacks on women after meeting them on the Tinder dating app. Photo: Collins Serial sex offender Patrick Nevin has been jailed for five and a half years for attacking a Brazilian student he met on Tinder. Nevin (37) was convicted after a trial last December of sexually assaulting the student when they met for a first date, after matching on the Tinder dating app in July 2014. Nevin has since pleaded guilty to raping a second woman and sexually assaulting a third victim. All three attacks took place within 11 days in July 2014 and all involved Nevin meeting the women on Tinder and then picking them up at their homes in his dark blue BMW. Nevin, with former addresses of Mounttown, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin and Castlebellingham, Co Louth, then drove the women to secluded locations and attacked them. After a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in late 2017, a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting the Brazilian woman on UCD campus, south Dublin on July 23, 2014. His lawyers told the court that Nevin continues to deny the charge. Judge Cormac Quinn said that contact on Tinder did not give consent to sexual assault. He said Nevin brought the victim to a secluded spot knowing she was a foreigner who did not know where she was and spoke very little English. Expand Close Patrick Nevin was found guilty of sexually assaulting a Brazilian student, but still denies the crime / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Patrick Nevin was found guilty of sexually assaulting a Brazilian student, but still denies the crime He also noted the use of force during the attack with Nevin punching the woman to the head. Judge Quinn said he had to take into consideration mitigating factors such as Nevin's age and a prison governor's report, which stated Nevin is on an enhanced privilege level and is pursuing studies in custody. He previously acquired a degree in software engineering from UCD while serving a prison sentence for a serious assault. Judge Quinn sentenced Nevin to a prison term of five and a half years. He also imposed a post release supervision period of two years, with a condition that Nevin is not to use the internet to make contact with anyone unknown to him for the purposes of meeting with him. The sentence is backdated to September 2014 when Nevin was arrested for this offence. He has been in custody since then awaiting trial and sentence. The court heard that the victim was a language student who was using Tinder to meet Irish people to practice speaking English. After the two matched on Tinder, Nevin repeatedly asked the woman to meet with him. She agreed, believing they were meeting to go for a coffee. Instead Nevin drove her to a secluded field on UCD campus. When she resisted a forcible attempt to kiss her, Nevin became aggressive and began cursing. He put his hand up her dress and she struggled with him. He pulled down part of her dress exposing her breast and restrained her by holding her arm. During the struggle Nevin punched her on the back of her head. The attack stopped when she managed to release her seat belt and get out of the car and Nevin drove off. He left her in a distressed state and she didn't know where she was. A lady out walking her dogs came to her assistance and helped her get to the N11 and into a taxi. Nevin was identified as a suspect by gardai after they checked the records of the car registration caught on UCD's automatic number plate recognition system. During the trial, the woman testified that she was in fear of her life and thought Nevin was going to rape her. The victim, now aged 36, told the court on Friday that it had been very hard for her to travel back here for the trial last year and to see her attacker. She said she felt the same fear I felt that day when he became a monster in front of me. Becoming tearful at times and flanked by the investigating garda, Detective Sergeant Denis Ellard, the woman said that when the jury returned its verdict, she felt a freedom she hadn't felt for a long time. She said that the attack forced her to change her plans to learn English here and she was only able to find work as a cleaner. She said she was working alone most of the time, so the only words she learned were related to cleaning. Reading from her victim impact statement, in halting English, she said Initially I blamed myself for everything that happened. Im afraid of peoples judgment about how I am especially when it comes to men. The woman said she struggles to still believe that men can be kind and hates seeing a blue BMW or beige leather as they both remind her of the attack. She said she still dreams of returning to Ireland to live here. She said that Ireland taught her to say please, sorry and thank you for everything and she tells herself nowadays that most people are good. I know I lost money and self confidence after what happened but I still think I will be able to live my dream of living here, she said. Det Sgt Ellard told the court that Nevin's eight previous convictions include one for a brutal assault on his then partner. In that 2001 attack, Nevin killed the woman's two dogs before launching an assault on her which left her with serious injuries. He received a seven-year prison term for this and the court heard he qualified with a degree in software engineering from UCD while in custody. He also has a conviction from 2012 for possession of a stun gun in suspicious circumstances. Patrick McGrath SC, defending, told the court that his client does not accept the verdict of the jury for the sex assault offence. He asked the court to consider the nature of the assault. He also asked the court to note the relative youth of his client. Nevin is due to be sentenced in another court next month (December) for the rape offence and the other assault. A mother of two who kept a starved husky in an emaciated state in her flat has been given a lifetime ban on owning pets. Amy Lee, with an address at School Street Flats, Dublin 8, was prosecuted for neglecting her husky named Sky. After looking at photos of her dog, Judge Anthony Halpin said "shame on you" to the accused. He described it as a "disgraceful" offence that would make any animal lover cry, but said she was being spared a jail sentence because of her personal circumstances. She was fined 100 and ordered to pay 100 in costs after she pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to three charges under the Animal Health and Welfare Act. She was accused of failing to take all necessary steps to ensure Sky was kept in a manner to safeguard her health and welfare and that the building used to contain her did not cause unnecessary suffering; being reckless regarding the health or welfare of the dog and not providing sufficient food and water, at her address on September 1, 2017. Expand Close Disgrace: Sky the husky was found in an emaciated state by the DSPCA but has since gained weight / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Disgrace: Sky the husky was found in an emaciated state by the DSPCA but has since gained weight Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) inspector Liam Kinsella told the judge he found Sky on the balcony of Lee's flat in an "emaciated state". A vet's report said that since the dog was surrendered to the DSPCA, Sky's condition has improved significantly and she has gained weight. A senior EU judge has leapt to the defence of the Irish High Court justice who was criticised in Poland for suspending a drug suspect's extradition earlier this year. Judge Eugene Regan, Ireland's nominee to the Court of Justice of the European Union, said the decision by Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly "created consternation in Poland". "There was a lot of public comment and indeed unfair comment of the Irish High Court judge for raising that issue," he told an Institute of International and European Affairs event in Dublin. The extradition was suspended last March due to concerns over the violation of the independence of Poland's judiciary, but the suspect's surrender to Poland was eventually ordered earlier this month. Judge Regan said Ms Justice Donnelly "acted in a completely balanced and correct manner" throughout. A judge jailed a young woman for two months for causing criminal damage to a 1.50 tube of Pringle crisps in a Tesco supermarket. Judge Brian O'Shea jailed Kathleen McDonagh (25) at Cork District Court after hearing she opened the crisp container in a Tesco outlet from which she had been barred when approached by security staff at Christmas 2016. McDonagh of Inchera, Mahon, Cork pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to the 1.50 packet of potato snacks at the Tesco outlet in the Mahon Point Shopping complex on December 27 2016. Judge O'Shea was told by Inspector Ronan Kenneally that the defendant was barred from the Tesco outlet involved on the date in question. However, she entered the supermarket, took the tube of Pringle crisps from a display shelf and proceeded to a self check-out area. Security staff became aware of the defendant's presence in the store and walked over to her to make her aware of the fact she was barred. As they approached, she opened the crisp container in front of them. Inspector Kenneally said the defendant informed security personnel she had deliberately opened the packet. "(She said) I opened it so you will have to leave me pay for it," he explained. The court was told that, because the packet had been opened and could not be resealed, it could not be offered for re-sale. Judge O'Shea was told the defendant had more than 30 previous convictions. These included convictions for theft, criminal damage and handling stolen property. The court was told the defendant had no permission to be in the Tesco outlet that day. Judge O'Shea was told the defendant had co-operated fully with gardai and flagged her guilty plea at the earliest possible opportunity. The young woman had recently gotten married and had a history of anxiety problems. She is currently undergoing a beautician and hairdressing course and had secured employment while she trained. Defence counsel urged the court to adopt as lenient a stance as possible to the young woman. Judge O'Shea said the offence had to be viewed in context against what he termed the defendant's "Smart Alec" behaviour towards security staff, the fact she opened the Pringle tube after being asked to leave the supermarket and her history of previous convictions. The judge said her behaviour towards the security personnel on the day was an aggravating factor in the matter. He noted that a number of suspended sentences imposed in the district court had not apparently been successful for the defendant. Judge O'Shea imposed a four month prison sentence but agreed to suspend the final two months in light of her co-operation with Gardai and her guilty plea. Recognisance was set in case of an appeal to the Circuit Court. A District Court judge convicted a woman of assault after hearing that she had slapped a young teenage boy in the face after he had kicked a ball at her door. The court heard the slap was sufficiently hard to have 'reddened' the boy about the ear. Dace Reboka, 61 Lartigue Village, Listowel, pleaded guilty to assault - which occurred on October 15 of 2017 - before Judge David Waters at Listowel District Court on Friday. Sergeant Kieran O'Connell informed Judge Waters that gardai were called to the scene on the day, explaining that the injured party, a teenager, had accidentally kicked a ball against the defendant's door. The accused came out from her house, she was very angry and slapped the young lad across the face, adding that the force of the blow was enough to have 'reddened his ear'. A victim impact statement was furnished to Judge Waters. The court heard that Ms Reboka had no previous convictions. "While there is some dispute about the level of force applied to the minor's face... nonetheless she accepts there was some force and that she should not have done this," Ms Reboka's solicitor Ann Keane said. She described her client as an ordinarily very 'gentle' person: "She is a very gentle and mild-mannered woman who never came to garda attention before and is highly unlikely to come to garda attention in the future." Ms Keane described Ms Reboka, as a very peaceful and hard-working mother who enjoys a good relationship with neighbours. "Ms Reboka is at present working in the family home but hopes that when her family is older to gain employment," Ms Keane explained, saying her client has a background in hospitality - the sector her husband works in - and would seek to find work in that area in future. Ms Keane said the State would accept the assault was not a very 'serious' one. Judge Waters said he could not accept the solicitor's contention. "She can't slap someone else's child," the Judge said. Ms Keane also alluded to a 'background to the case', asking the Judge to apply the Probation Act and not to convict. "A conviction would be very damaging for her employment options in the future," she argued. The Judge heard there was no apology or offer of compensation to the victim; which he said 'might have helped with the result of this assault on the individual, which I won't go into in open court'. The Judge said he would not leave her without a conviction in those circumstances, convicting and fining Ms Reboka 250. Gardai expect further arrests in a widening investigation into allegations of historic abuse within Ireland's scouting movement. The revelation came as a man in his late 60s was released without charge after being arrested for questioning about an allegation of sexual assault at a scout camp in the early 1980s in the south west. The allegation, lodged by a man now in his 40s, involved a claim of sexual assault conducted while the complainant was just a boy. The man has alleged the incidents occurred over several years from 1983. Gardai questioned the man for almost 12 hours before releasing him without charge. A file on the matter will now be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). A Garda source pointed out that their investigation was underway long before the shock caused by the publication of the report by child protection expert, Ian Elliot, into historic abuse allegations within Ireland's scouting movement. The man arrested - well known within both scouting and business circles in the south - is understood to have vehemently denied the allegation. He has been associated with first the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) and its successor, Scouting Ireland, for over 30 years, holding positions both at troop and organisation level. While the man does not hold any current position, he is still involved on the periphery of scouting. The Irish Independent understands that at least a dozen investigations are now being conducted by Gardai nationwide into allegations of sexual assault involving former scouts. Children's Minister Katherine Zappone last week warned that both her office and Scouting Ireland were "flooded" with inquiries following the publication of the Elliot review. These inquiries had flooded in from adults alleged they had been abused as children at scout events dating from the 1960s to the 1980s. The Elliot review of abuse allegations within the scouting movement found indications of 71 alleged abusers as well as 108 victims dating from the 1960s through to the 1980s. It is unclear if the individual arrested by Gardai is one of the 71 names indicated in the review. The review indicated that 14 of the alleged abusers had multiple victims. The Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs was told that reports have been submitted, on the basis of the review findings, to both the Gardai and Tusla. Ms Zappone, who previously suspended funding for Scouting Ireland amid concerns over how it was handling the issue, said she had been assured that Scouting Ireland was committed to enforcing the highest possible level of child protection and safeguarding standards. She acknowledged the youth organisation now faced "a very difficult time" and said she would remain in close contact with its board. Patients have given emotional testimonies of overcrowded A&Es, describing one as "a complete zoo". Another patient recalled the hardship of enduring four days on a trolley in a noisy, draughty corridor. The damning comments were made in the latest National Patient Experience Survey, which asks people to score various aspects of their care. Other patients who attended the same A&E departments reported positive experiences. Nationally, some 5,997 patients - 69pc of those who responded - waited more than six hours on a trolley before getting a bed. Rushed staff on wards and being discharged home from hospital without enough advice on drug side effects were also major grievances. University Hospital Limerick got the lowest individual overall score and the Royal College of Surgeons hospital group, which includes Beaumont and Connolly Hospitals, was the worst group. The Department of Health-commissioned survey, carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), found 84pc of patients - equivalent to 13,000 - said that they had a good or a very good overall experience . There was particular praise for the kindness of many staff. But patients treated in one hospital spoke of being distressed at hearing personal medical history being discussed in a hallway. Some patients complained that staff were too rushed to speak to them about their concerns on ward. One person recalled: "I saw patients in the ward crying alone each evening." Some 27pc also gave hospital food a lukewarm review, saying it was "poor" or "fair." It is the largest survey of its kind in Ireland and ran for the second time in May of this year. Rachel Flynn of Hiqa who conducted the survey said: "The majority of patients, once they were admitted to a ward, spoke positively of hospital care. "However, their experiences in the emergency department were less favourable. While improvements in the discharge processes were identified, there is still room for improvement in this area. "The results of the survey indicate that patients want staff to provide them and their families with more information about their treatment, and would like to be involved in decisions about their care and discharge." Health Minister Simon Harris, who launched the survey, said the findings "give an invaluable insight into the experiences of patients in our hospitals". It comes as the emergency department taskforce considered the HSE's winter plan to tackle the trolley crisis yesterday. It emerged that there are around 140 hospital beds closed for various reasons. Hospital consultants also warned of potential industrial action over new recruits' pay. DRUGS BUST: Kenny Coalter was arrested in Gran Canaria following the seizure of 500kg of cocaine, gold and firearms aboard the Maid of Orleans yacht, which belongs to another man DRUGS BUST: Kenny Coalter was arrested in Gran Canaria following the seizure of 500kg of cocaine, gold and firearms aboard the Maid of Orleans yacht, which belongs to another man A TEAM of miscarriage-of-justice lawyers are to fly out to Gran Canaria next weekend to help an Irishman held by Spanish police for 17 months without being charged. Kenny Coalter, a retired businessman, was wrongly implicated in an international drugs and bullion smuggling operation, according to his friends, simply because he acted the 'Good Samaritan' to members of a drug-smuggling gang by helping fix their yacht. Mr Coalter (63), who was originally from Co Tyrone but who ran a transport business in Dublin until retiring to Spain and then Gran Canaria, is an engineer by trade and assisted in repairs and other work on a yacht used by members of a gang involved in a 135m cocaine and bullion smuggling operation. He was arrested by Spanish police in July last year after the seizure on board a yacht off Gran Canaria. Mr Coalter was not on the yacht at the time and he and his family and friends insist he knew nothing of the operation. The director of the Dublin branch of the international network Innocence Project is travelling to Gran Canaria with two colleagues next weekend and hope to bring Mr Coalter's case. David Langwallner, head of legal studies at Griffith College in Dublin, who runs the Irish branch of Innocence Project, said he and his team had studied the papers in Mr Coalter's case and found nothing to support his imprisonment. "When we looked at the documents, we could not find anything whatsoever. We decided the next logical step was to go over there. We want to see Mr Coalter and visit the site where the boat was and meet a Spanish lawyer," he told the Sunday Independent. Under Spanish law, suspects can be held for up to two or even three years without charge or trial. Mr Coalter encountered the members of the American gang when they berthed their yacht, the Maid of Orleans, beside his boat and he helped them to carry out repairs. Last July the Maid of Orleans was intercepted by Spanish customs off Gran Canaria carrying 500kg of cocaine and stolen gold bullion. Mr Coalter, who has no criminal convictions, has been held in a prison in Gran Canaria since then. Funding has been secured for at least 15 Irish councils to host free Wi-Fi in public areas. Some 105 city and county councils in Ireland have applied for free WiFi in public areas - with only 15 vouchers available in the first round. The EU is set to provide 120m for local authorities across Europe over the next three years as part of the WiFi4EU scheme. According to Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune, over 4,000 municipalities in Europe applied within the first 10 seconds of the applications portal opening on November 7, but only 2,800 will receive the 15,000 allocated funding in this first round. The WiFi is expected to be free of charge, free of advertising, and will be available in public spaces such as parks, town halls, public libraries and museums. Ms Clune described the initiative as a "great idea" and said it could potentially attract more tourists to certain areas because of the availability of WiFi free of charge. "There was a lot of interest in this scheme from around Europe. 120m will available for up to 8,000 Local Authorities across the EU by 2020," Ms Clune said. "This is another great initiative from the EU which aims to improve access to the internet for citizens." It is understood that the vouchers will be allocated to councils on a first-come, first-serve basis. "Every participating country is guaranteed a minimum of 15 vouchers and can potentially win a maximum of 224 vouchers [in later rounds]," Ms Clune explained. "With the voucher, the local authority will be able to set up a WiFi hotspot in public spaces, including town halls, public libraries, museums, public parks or squares." The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), the Commission's executive agency in charge of implementing the WiFi4EU programme, will now make necessary checks of the admissibility and eligibility of the municipalities. The winning councils are expected to be announced in December. POOR air quality arising from burning wood, coal and peat on open fires is responsible for an estimated 1,100 premature deaths every year, according to a new report. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says solid fuel burning and emissions from transport remain the main threats to good air quality, and that high levels of particulate matter - dust is of growing concern. Launching a new report, Air Quality in Ireland 2017 Key Indicators of Ambient Air Quality EPA director general Laura Burke said while Irish air quality was in line with EU standards, some locations did not meet more stringent World Health Organisation (WHO) quality guidelines. We all expect that the air we breathe is clean but we cannot take this for granted, she said. It is now time to tackle the two key issues impacting negatively on air quality in Ireland transport emissions in large urban areas and emissions from solid fuel burning across the country. While Ireland met all legal standards for air quality in 2017 at EPA monitoring stations, the levels of air pollution caused by burning solid fuel including back yard burning - and by transport at some locations were above the WHO air quality guidelines. The choices we all make as individuals affect the levels of pollution in the air we breathe which have an impact on peoples health and life expectancy. The report says that levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), the predominant source of which arises from use of solid fuels for home heating, is consistently above the WHO guideline value. This is the pollutant that the EEA has highlighted as having the greatest negative impact on the health of the Irish population, responsible for 1,100 of a total 1,150 premature deaths in 2015, it says. We are also approaching the EU limit value for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant from transport emissions, in our urban areas, with the potential for future exceedances if we experience weather conditions that are unfavourable to dispersion of air pollution for any extended period. The report notes that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) values were close to the EU limit in urban areas, largely due to transport emissions. Tighter WHO air quality guideline values were exceeded at a number of monitoring sites for particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), ozone and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The report provides an overview of air quality for 2017, based on data from 29 monitoring stations which formed the National Ambient Air Quality Network. The network is being expanded, with 16 new stations to be added this year and upgrades to another ten. Cork University Hospital is one of those that will be affected by the strike A WOMAN has suffered critical injuries in a house fire in Cork. The woman, who is in aged her late 50s, was discovered unconscious in a house at the Meadows, Blarney in Co Cork this morning. She was discovered shortly after 6.30am today when neighbours and emergency services became aware of a fire at the property. The woman received medical treatment at the scene before being rushed to Cork University Hospital (CUH). She remains in a critical condition and is being treated for the effects of severe smoke inhalation. Cork Fire Brigade units extinguished the fire within a short time after their arrival at the scene. Significant damage was caused to the property. A full forensic examination is now underway to determine the precise cause of the blaze. However, the fire is being treated as accidental. Social media giant Twitter is expected to signal support for new legislation aimed at clamping down on political advertising online - but will warn against broad strokes in relation to so-called 'bots'. The issue of bots - which are social media profiles programmed to automatically generate messages or take other actions online - emerged as a key concern during the 2016 US presidential election. The tech company will appear before the Dail's Communications Committee today as part of pre-legislative scrutiny of a Bill proposed by Fianna Fail TD James Lawless, which aims to introduce more transparency on political ad spending and who is behind political ads. The Online Advertising and Social Media (Transparency) Bill 2017 also looks to tackle orchestrated social media campaigns and phoney accounts. The Bill has been opposed by the Government over concerns it would give rise to unintended consequences. In an opening statement to the committee, Karen White, Twitter's director of public policy in Europe, says the company appreciates what the Bill is seeking to achieve and "we are supportive of its goals". She says the Bill mirrors what the company is trying to achieve around transparency in advertisements. However, the company will warn that not all bot use directed towards a political end is malicious and they can be used for positive political goals, such as voter registration drives. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) meets with the Grand Secretary of the Orange Lodge, Reverend Mervyn Gibson at Government Buildings to discuss issues affecting its members south of the border Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the colours on the Irish flag are "white, orange and green in equal measure" after a meeting with the Orange Order. The Irish leader and Minister for European Affairs Helen McEntee met with the Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, Reverend Mervyn Gibson and a delegation of Orange Order members from south of the border in Government Buildings in Dublin on Monday. During the meeting, they discussed issues affecting Orange Order members in Ireland, including Protestant schools and education in general, infrastructure and the cultural needs of Protestant communities in border counties. The government reports they also discussed support for tourism projects including further development of the Battle of the Boyne site, the possibility of a Williamite Trail from Antrim to Aughrim, and Second World War commemorations. Speaking after the meeting the Taoiseach said: "The colours on our flag are white, orange and green in equal measure. "Sometimes I feel that we haven't fully lived up to that. "The Good Friday Agreement acknowledges that people in Northern Ireland have the right to be British, Irish or both, and accepted as such. "We should acknowledge that there are many people in our State that feel themselves to be both British and Irish. "It's something that we should accept too. "On many occasions, I have said that our job should be to build bridges, not borders. "I strongly believe that States can best be judged on how they treat minorities. "This visit today is another step in an ongoing engagement between the Government and the Order. "We must always keep channels of communication open as a basis for respectful discussion on matters of common interest. "I look forward to ongoing dialogue between the Government and the Orange Order." Mr Varadkar recently became the first serving Irish head of government to visit the Orange Heritage Museum in Belfast in June and went on to provide funding for the rebuilding of a fire damaged Orange Hall in Co Donegal after an arson attack this year. In recent months he has been keen to reiterate his understanding and sympathy for Northern Ireland unionists, using his speeches to reiterate that the Republic's government would respect the Good Friday Agreement. Monday's meeting also touched on Brexit, the Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration agreed at the European Council meeting in Brussels last weekend. The meeting comes as the political positions of the DUP and Mr Varadkar's office have been at odds in recent weeks as the Irish government backed Theresa May's draft agreement, which the DUP has flatly rejected. Arlene Foster strongly reiterated DUP rejection of the EU-UK Brexit withdrawal agreement at her party conference over the weekend. "The choice is not between this deal and no deal despite what the government spin machine may say," she said. "We cannot wish away the fact that the draft withdrawal agreement contains arrangements that we believe are not in Northern Ireland's long term economic or strategic interests." After the meeting Mr Gibson said: "This was a useful exercise, following on from the Taoiseach's visit to the Museum of Orange Heritage earlier this year. "Then, Grand Master Edward Stevenson highlighted our intention to continue meaningful engagement with the Irish Government on matters of mutual interest - today's meeting was another positive step in this regard. "Members of the institution from the border counties of the Republic of Ireland raised a number of issues with Mr Varadkar, including education, culture and tourism. "On behalf of the institution, I would like to thank the Taoiseach for hosting this afternoon's meeting. "We look forward to building on such conversations with the Irish Government, allowing for ongoing representation on matters relating to our members and the Orange fraternity in the Republic of Ireland." Prime Minister Theresa at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story POLITICS Brexit. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire Theresa May has sidestepped questions on whether she would support Sinn Fein taking their Westminster seats to back her Brexit deal. The British Prime Minister, who was pressed on the issue a number of times during her visit to Belfast, insisted it was a matter for the republican party to decide on. "What my job is about is showing those MPs who will be voting on December 11 on this deal why it is a good deal for the UK," she said. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Nora Smith, chief executive of CO3, at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story POLITICS Brexit. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Nora Smith, chief executive of CO3, at Queen's University in Belfast, during her visit to Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday November 27, 2018. See PA story POLITICS Brexit. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire On Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said if Sinn Fein was not prepared to ditch its abstentionist policy, it should resign its seven seats to allow other MPs to represent its constituents in the House of Commons vote. Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald, in Belfast today to meet the Prime Minister, rejected the notion as "politically illiterate". "Ireland won't be protected at Westminster," she said. "Any notion that Sinn Fein MPs could ride in on their chargers and stop Brexit or save Mrs May are politically fanciful - I would go so far as to say politically illiterate." "We are abstentionists, we are Irish republicans, we believe as the nationalist people of this island believe, that our decisions are best taken here in our democratic institutions on this island." The party's MPs do not take their seats in Westminster because they refuse to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen. Mrs McDonald accused Mr Varadkar of "disrespecting" Sinn Fein's mandate. She further noted that his Fine Gael party had chosen to "abstain" from Northern Ireland, having not run in elections north of the border. Sinn Fein has been broadly supportive of the Prime Minister's draft deal, describing it as the "bottom line" and "least-worst option" in terms of protecting the economy on the island of Ireland. On Monday, Mr Varadkar said Sinn Fein's seven MPs should consider resigning their Westminster seats to give voters in Northern Ireland an opportunity to elect MPs who would take up their seats. "Sinn Fein is an unusual party in that it isn't taking up its seats in Westminster for one reason and not taking its seats in Stormont for another," he added. "Generally, people who get involved in politics do so because they want to make a difference and they want to use the democratic process to get good outcomes for their citizens. "If they are not willing to take up their seats because they feel they can't because they got elected on the basis of abstention, they do have the option now of resigning their seats and allowing people in those constituencies to decide whether or not they want to have a say when this vote comes to Westminster. "Bear in mind there are 18 MPs in NI, eight of those are in support of what Theresa May is proposing, but seven are abstaining." James Kavanagh has teamed up with Durex and HIV Ireland for a safe-sex campaign ahead of World Aids Day I was 15 years old and in a sexual health clinic when I learned that I had gonorrhoea. I had no idea what was happening. In fact, I had absolutely no idea that there were such things as sexually transmitted infections. The word 'gonorrhoea' sounded foreign and ugly to me - it's fair to say that I was in a state of shock. My parents are going to be so traumatised, I thought, and rightly so - but they had never warned me about sexually transmitted infections or STIs. I had just come out and he hadn't been out for long - we certainly didn't know this could happen. Gonorrhoea is a really common STI (it used to be known as 'the clap'), and around the world, it's estimated that 78 million new cases are diagnosed each year, which shows you how common it really is. It's most often diagnosed amongst 18 to 24-year-olds and it's easily treated - however, because some people are scared to go to their doctor, it's often not reported or treated at all. I knew something was amiss because it felt like I was urinating glass every time I went to the toilet - however, not everyone has this or any symptoms. I was lucky that I did have a symptom so I knew to visit a doctor. Getting tested and treated is really important because gonorrhoea can lead to more serious long-term health problems like pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in women or infertility. I was treated with a single tablet - mainly, treatment consists of one antibiotic tablet or injection. But after my diagnosis, I spent hours researching STIs and then passed on everything I had learnt to my classmates. Everyone echoed my shock and questioned why we weren't being taught about things like STIs in sex education? I felt somewhat let down by the people (my school, the Government, even my parents, whom I adore) responsible for my education and personal safety. Whilst my diagnosis was the reality check I clearly needed, it is definitely not the way young people should be educated about sexual health. Looking back, I realise just how defining that moment was when I was diagnosed with an STI. I was a frightened teenager with little support and so angry that I found myself in that situation. That is why I now work hard to advocate for safe sex and progressive sexual health education. In early 2017, at the peak of my Snapchat following, I spent time chatting to my followers, most of whom were in their teens, about their life experiences, worries and concerns. I wanted to get a really true sense of the pressures that today's teens are experiencing and what they were (and weren't) learning in school to equip them to deal with these pressures. Ireland has grown up so much over the past decade. Surely, I thought, the sex education that I experienced had evolved too. Never was there a mention about sex for pleasure or anything other than penetrative sex. There certainly wasn't even a whisper of gay sex. Instead, we received an insular, one-dimensional sex education that consisted of an embarrassed science teacher wheeling in a TV and pressing play on a video that informed us that penis+vagina = baby. To my astonishment, my followers said they were still being shown videos of a similar nature to what I had been shown, videos that solely focused on reproductive sex. I decided then and there that I would personally provide sex education lessons every Tuesday via Snapchat to try to better inform and educate teens. I did this for over two months. Through my work in this area, and talking and interviewing many experts, I know now that parents need to talk about sex with their children like they're discussing the weather. A parent's attitude towards sex education is pivotal because it is reflected on to their kids later in life. It's important to create a positive atmosphere and one in which kids are informed about how to prevent STIs - this is more relevant than ever because every week in Ireland, 10 people are diagnosed with HIV; last year alone, young people aged 15-24 accounted for 50pc of chlamydia diagnoses, 39pc of gonorrhoea cases and 38pc of genital herpes cases. The statistics speak for themselves. I urge parents to discuss sex at the dinner table. I feel very strongly about these issues and I am determined to effect positive change. That's why I have teamed up with Durex and HIV Ireland to ask the people of Ireland to 'give a f**k' (#GAF) about Aids ahead of World Aids Day this Saturday. Durex has partnered with non-profit organisation, RED, to support its mission to end Aids. For a limited period, Irish consumers can purchase a box of limited edition condoms in selected retailers nationwide, and funds raised from sales will go directly towards a programme in South Africa where it is estimated that there are 7.2 million people living with HIV. The 'Keeping Girls in School' programme aims to reduce new HIV infections and pregnancies among young women through encouraging girls to stay in education and improving access to sexual health and reproductive services. More generally, I am glad that the Provision of the Objective Sex Education Bill 2018 is now on to its third stage in the Dail and would strongly welcome the opportunity to contribute to the legislated sex education curriculum. Ultimately, I want the powers that be to 'give a f**k' about our sexual health and the 15-year-olds who may find themselves in a situation like mine. The next generation should not be failed by those close to them. For more information about the Durex campaign, go to www.durex.ie/red. He invented it. Now he figures it's time to rescue it. Tim Berners-Lee has launched a new global campaign to save the internet from abuse, discrimination and political manipulation. At the Web Summit in Lisbon, Berners- Lee called on governments, companies and individuals to back a new "contract for the web" to protect people's rights and freedoms on the internet. "Good luck with that," I thought, as I read his speech. "How sad is that?" was my second thought. Because here, within the lifetime of one of the key men behind the whole idea, is the reality that the perfect, ultimate technology for information-sharing has become so corrupted that this key man needs to stand up and cry "Halt!" If you analyse mainstream media coverage on any given day, the fact is that the internet is portrayed more as a threat than as a promise. That is matched by the fear of governments throughout the world about the growing power of big tech companies. And the exploitation of personal data is at the heart of the unease. A real and happy naivety characterised how users interacted with social media in the early days. With platforms such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, most thought their personal data would stay private and that they would have control over how it was used. That was if they thought about their data at all. It is difficult to tie down the precise point, but somewhere along the line, the fun stopped. Scams directed at credit cards were just the beginning, the catalyst making web-users aware that they owned something called "data" and that it was of more importance to their future than they might have realised. People started to feel that they had been blindsided into handing over huge amounts of personal data without fully understanding the consequences. It took the Cambridge Analytica scandal at Facebook to teach many of them exactly how big tech firms made their money. The penny dropped. We now live with a tech industry with our data as its main asset, not its technology. I'm not sure that many people saw that coming, or now know what to do about it. Users are now becoming much more cautious about sharing personal data and they care about where, to whom and how they disclose it, in a way that they didn't before. More and more users are looking to the big tech firms to secure their data, to protect it from exploitation, to respect consumer privacy and to develop technologies that ensure the web is a public good that puts people first. For tech companies who rely on people to willingly share their personal data to power their business models, it is a worrying time. The firms that will thrive into the future are the ones who are listening carefully to users and taking seriously the responsibility to earn and keep the public's trust. Companies that understand and show that they care about personal data and privacy will not go unnoticed. Innovation in dealing with data privacy and a reimagining of tech business models may well be required because "business as usual" is no longer an option. Tech companies need to respect and prioritise this shift in perspective and act to retain the trust of users. Those firms that haven't already done so need to get serious about transparency, accountability and consent in the context of data protection. These are the firms that will have a very significant commercial advantage. Tech companies would also do well to focus more on the next generations of web users by educating children and parents about the dangers and benefits of the internet. Investing in programmes such as the hugely popular coding workshops for young people help to strengthen trust and reputation with the wider public. The wider tech sector needs all the help it can get, because the public is watching and wondering like never before. Marie McGinley is a partner and head of the data protection and intellectual property team at Eversheds Sutherland It's not the job of the IDA to tell the story of the Irish housing crisis, but State agencies should at least provide an accurate reflection of what's going on in our highly dysfunctional market. In an internal report, 'Residential Property Market Key Messages' dated September 2018, the job creation agency makes the eyebrow-raising claim that the monthly rent for a one-person apartment in Dublin, measuring between 39 and 45 square metres, is just over 1,000 a month. This claim, contained in a table which ranked the cost of renting this property type against those in competitor cities including San Francisco, London, Zurich and Geneva, is based not on Irish data sources such as those held by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) or Daft.ie, but instead on a 2017 report from an online search engine catering for people seeking a furnished apartment. Had the IDA, or anyone acting on its behalf, gone to the RTB website they would have quickly realised that the cost of renting a one-bedroom property of any type in Dublin has not been 'around' 1,000 since the last quarter of 2016. Currently, it stands at 1,179 per month. In fact, of the 66 areas of the capital for which data is available, only in seven is the 'average' rent for this property type below 1,000, according to the latest report covering the second quarter of this year. In just 23 of the 66 areas, it's under 1,100. A quick search of Daft.ie tells the story of how little has changed since - of the 1,479 properties available for rent in all parts of Dublin yesterday afternoon, just 36 were available for 1,000 or less. While it might be hard to compare rental costs in Dublin with those in other cities, better to just give the facts as they currently stand rather than a meaningless comparison which anyone with even a passing knowledge of the housing market knows doesn't stand up. In fact, the IDA does this in the same document, saying the 'average' monthly rent in Dublin City currently stands at 1,436. Why it decided to include a meaningless figure on the cost of a one-bed unit is something only it can answer. There's another issue too. The IDA makes the claim that first-time buyers are spending around 21pc of their income on their mortgages. This could well reflect repayments under existing Central Bank lending rules for new homeowners, but this figure doesn't reflect the reality for many first-time buyers who bought during the boom. Nor does it take into account that so many people are locked out of the housing market. Experts have long suggested that many people are spending above 30pc of their income on their housing needs, the upper limit considered sustainable, with the Housing Agency last week confirming that many were paying 40pc or more. One in three mortgage-holders, it added, reported having had a problem meeting their repayments. Clearly, for many people, homeownership is a struggle. Surely the IDA should just have stuck with the facts on pricing and supply, while also alluding to the various measures enacted by the Government to solve the housing crisis, instead of trying to put a shine on a pretty awful situation? Sources make the point that the agency deals with a sector in a state of flux, it has never denied there is a housing shortage and nor was it attempting to paint an inaccurate picture. Nor has it. But it's fair to say its description of the sector needs to be updated, because right now it's not telling the whole story. 'Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested if Sinn Fein members felt they could not take up their seats, they should consider resigning ahead of a vote on the Brexit deal.' Photo credit: Tom Honan/PA Wire IT must be a puzzling thing to be a Sinn Fein representative and be required to respond differently based purely on which ear is being addressed. In the left ear, when standing for election in the Commons, a voice whispers: I will do everything for my constituents, except take my seat in parliament; I will serve them faithfully in all matters, so long as it does not involve offering a voice in all debates concerning their future; I will also strive to make sure their rights are championed, so long as I am not required to vote on all matters critical to their interests. In the right ear, should the representative be a member of the Assembly in the North and were that body not in cold storage, a voice just as insistent will insist they be just as assiduous in doing all possible for their constituents bar actually taking their seats. Thus in Belfast and London, the party is content to play the role of a dead-man's brake on all political machinery. By its reckoning, the historic oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth must take precedence over any pressing political priorities of today. Yet party MPs can, and do, bill her majesty for their services, and have no difficulty accepting that same queen's shilling for their highly selective services. Its abstentionist policy in Westminster has given the DUP the whip-hand on all Brexit- related decisions, past and future. Its allegiance to the past thus bolsters the ranks and potency of hardline Brexiteers. The party has arrived at a juncture where it can continue hauling its historical baggage, or it can shrug the dead weight off its shoulders. It might then use its strength to help pull the Brexit deal back from the brink. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested if Sinn Fein members felt they could not take up their seats, they should consider resigning ahead of a vote on the Brexit deal. He pointed out Sinn Fein is an unusual party in that it is not taking up its seats in Westminster for one reason, nor in Stormont for another. His logic is flawless. People who get involved in politics do so to make a difference. Opting out of a vote - or indeed votes, should that come to pass - could unleash economic chaos and undermine the peace process, and that amounts to moral desertion. The pages of history are there to be turned, indeed the future depends on it. In 'Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty', James Bovard writes: "Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner." And it must. Three decades ago, the party turned its own tradition on its head by taking seats in the Dail. If it is to have any credibility as a democratic party, it can not cop out of taking tough decisions. It must either react or be redundant. Domestic violence must be tackled in all its forms, because not only do you have a victim, primarily women, but where children witness this violence then they too become victims. Sadly, when gardai investigate incidents of domestic violence the victim may be too afraid to come forward to make a statement or may withdraw a statement due to other factors. Maybe it's time that our laws made domestic violence a stand-alone statutory offence carrying a prison term, fine or both, with the perpetrator having to undergo compulsory anger management as part of his or her rehabilitation. Evidence from gardai and support services should suffice where the victim is unwilling or unable to make a statement as proof of the offence which has occurred. The victims, including children who witness it, should also be afforded counselling. This type of crime must be tackled head-on, with gardai and other services given the necessary resources and training to help those who require it, and bring those who commit domestic violence to justice. Christy Galligan Letterkenny, Co Donegal History is repeating itself with North over Brexit IT IS interesting to note how many Brexiteer advocates accuse the EU of bullying Britain into accepting conditions that they deem unfavourable to Britain, despite the fact that Britain, or part of it, brought this on itself and now demands that the EU clears up the mess that it itself has created. I find the charge of bullying from the British side rather ironic since the biggest stumbling block seems to be the backstop for Northern Ireland, which actually voted to remain in the EU. Those advocates who make the charge of bullying would do well to recall that Britain was to the forefront when it came to bullying regarding the Irish question. At the end of the Anglo-Irish treaty negotiations in 1920, the then-UK prime minister David Lloyd George put it to the Irish delegation, accept this treaty to partition Ireland or face "an immediate and terrible war". Michael Collins was left with no other option as the gun was put to his head. In 1914, a British government caved in to the threat by pro-unionist officers in the British army that they would resign their commissions rather than enforce the democratic vote taken by the Westminster parliament which had granted home rule to Ireland. Today again we see history repeating itself whereby the Northern Ireland tail is wagging the British government. Paul Connolly Address with editor EU's hostility to blame if UK leaves with no deal IVAN Yates says that "every state has complete and exclusive sovereignty over airspace above its territory" ('May's plan will pass as MPs won't vote for a catastrophe', Irish Independent, November 24). Does this mean that if the EU bans British airlines from flying to or over EU territory, the UK could retaliate by banning EU airlines from access to or over UK airspace? In any case, what has the departure from the EU got to do with the operation of the inter-government services agreements to which he refers? If the UK leaves without an agreement much of the blame will lie with the EU, whose hostile attitude and determination to make an example of the UK has turned me, and no doubt many others, from being a strong Remainer into an even stronger Brexiteer. Len Gurrie London, England IDA's claims over housing are a shameful betrayal I AM outraged that a publicly funded body, the IDA, would seek to claim that Ireland's housing crisis is about average across the world (it isn't) and that rents are "reasonable" in Dublin (they aren't), and that you can find a one-bed apartment for around 1,000 in Dublin (good luck with that). These claims are manifestly untrue, and both the IDA and the Government know they are untrue. Ireland has in excess of 100,000 people looking for their own apartment/flat/house, a figure that grows daily. Our situation is incomparable to any other OECD country, in that the housing shortage extends right across Ireland, beyond the major metropolises. Of course, it's not really a shortage, much like the famine was not a true famine. The housing crisis is the creation of the wilfully blind ideological intransigence of Fine Gael. If you wish to gain insight into how strained the housing market is, on Daft.ie today an apartment in Santry, Dublin 9, was advertised at 9am. By midday, it had attracted 8,609 views. In stark contrast, there are, in total, 1,475 properties for rent across the entire Dublin region. Furthermore, in relation to the 1,000-a-month claim, a cursory look at Daft.ie today will show you just 290 one-bedroom dwellings across the Dublin metropolitan area, only five of which are 1,000 a month or less. The IDA is a publicly funded body, and has an obligation to set out facts impartially. The clear disinformation from this body is not acceptable, and the CEO of the IDA should consider his position. Promulgating lies is one thing, being paid handsomely from the public purse to do so is simply not acceptable. And pretending our housing situation is "normal" is an utter disgrace, and a callous betrayal of the tens of thousands languishing in misery as a result of this mess created by Fine Gael. Kev O Faolain An Tulach Mhor, Co Uibh Fhaili THE recent report by Women's Aid into femicide is extremely worrying. It showed nine out of 10 murdered women were killed by a man they knew, half of those were carried out by a current or former partner, while 61pc of those died in their own homes. Overall since 1996, 225 women died at the hands of a man and seven were killed this year so far. Looking at the CSO statistics, which are under review from the Garda Pulse system, from 2003 to 2017 an average 3-4,000 "assaults causing harm", including poisoning, were carried out each year, with "other assaults" increasing from more than 8,000 to 12,000 during the same period. Murders have averaged in the 30s and 40s, peaking in 2007 at 78 murders. Not all of these statistics relate to violence against women, but it is an indicator of how these types of offences, including murder, are all too prevalent in our society. A Chinese researcher claims he helped to make the world's first genetically edited babies - twin girls whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. If true, it would be a huge leap of science and ethics. The researcher, He Jiankui, said he altered embryos during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was to try to bestow an ability to resist future infection with HIV. He said the parents involved declined to be identified. There is no independent confirmation of Mr He's claim, and it has not been published in a journal. He revealed it to an organiser of an international conference on gene editing, which begins today. "Society will decide what to do next" in terms of allowing such science, Mr He added. Some scientists were astounded to hear of the claim and strongly condemned it. Dr Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal, said it was "an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible". In recent years, scientists have discovered a way to edit genes. Editing sperm, eggs or embryos is different, as the changes can be inherited. China outlaws human cloning, but not gene editing. Mr He studied at Rice and Stanford universities in the US before returning to open a lab at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen. He sought to disable a gene that forms a protein doorway that allows HIV to enter a cell. Tests suggest one twin, born this month, had both copies of the gene altered and the other had just one altered, he said. A terminally-ill motor neurone disease sufferer has been refused permission for a challenge over the law on assisted dying at the UK's highest court. The UK Supreme Court justices rejected a bid by Noel Conway to appeal against an earlier ruling in his fight over current legislation which prevents him from being helped to die. The 68-year-old, from Shrewsbury, says that being forced to choose between "unacceptable options" to end his life is "barbaric". He wants medical assistance to die when he has less than six months left to live, still has the mental capacity to make the decision and has made a "voluntary, clear, settled and informed" choice. Mr Conway lost a Court of Appeal challenge in June against an earlier UK High Court rejection of his case that the "blanket ban" on assisted dying was an unjustified interference with his human rights. He sought to challenge that at the UK Supreme Court and justices took the unusual step of considering his case at a hearing last week. During that hearing, Mr Conway's lawyers told the court the retired lecturer does not accept that withdrawal of his "non-invasive ventilation" (NIV), which he needs 23 hours a day, would be an acceptable way for him to end his life. But Lady Hale, Lord Reed and Lord Kerr declined permission for an appeal. Read More Giving reasons for their decision in a joint statement, they said: "No-one doubts that the issue is of transcendent public importance. "It touches us all. "We all have to experience the death of people about whom we care. "We all have to contemplate our own death." The justices added: "Ultimately the question for this panel is whether the prospects of Mr Conway's succeeding in his claim before this court are sufficient to justify our giving him permission to pursue it, with all that that would entail for him, for his family, for those on all sides of this multi-faceted debate, for the general public and for this court. "Not without some reluctance, it has been concluded that in this case those prospects are not sufficient to justify giving permission to appeal." Mr Conway, who is supported by the campaign group Dignity In Dying, was too unwell to travel to London for the UK Supreme Court hearing. He is now dependent on a ventilator for up to 23 hours a day and only has movement in his right hand, head and neck. A woman holds a poster during the funeral prayers in absentia for Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi (Emrah Gurel/AP) Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File) Turkey's foreign minister has said he has listened to a "disgusting" tape that allegedly captures the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Mevlut Cavusoglu told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung today: "I listened to it. "He was killed within seven minutes. It was a deliberate murder." Mr Cavusoglu said he could hear the forensic doctor instructing others to listen to music while he cuts up the body. He said: "One notices that he's enjoying it ... he likes to cut up people. "It is disgusting." Turkey said Mr Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed last month by a 15-member assassination squad sent from Riyadh. Ankara insists orders for the killing came from the highest levels of the Saudi government, but not King Salman. ITALIAN director Bernardo Bertolucci, whose 1972 movie 'Last Tango In Paris' shocked audiences with a notoriously explicit scene that came back to haunt him in his later years, has died aged 77. Bertolucci died yesterday at his home in Rome after a long illness, his publicist said. He had been in bad health for years and used a wheelchair since the early 2000s following a back operation. 'Last Tango', which starred Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, was banned in several countries, including Italy, where it was not released for viewing until early 1987. It won Bertolucci an Oscar nomination and burnished his international reputation, but his follow-up '1900', a five-hour historical epic starring Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Donald Sutherland and Burt Lancaster, marked the start of a period of commercial flops. He burst back with 'The Last Emperor' in 1987, shot by his long-time cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, which took all nine Oscars for which it was nominated. Born in Parma in central Italy, Bertolucci began writing poetry as a child and won a national poetry prize as a student in Rome. At 15, he borrowed a camera to make 16mm silent shorts, and in 1961 he dropped out of college to become assistant director to the young Pier Paolo Pasolini on 'Accattone'. The turning point in his career came in 1970, when he made two outstanding films, 'The Spider's Stratagem' and an adaptation of Alberto Moravia's novel 'The Conformist'. 'Last Tango' aroused controversy because of its explicit sex - in particular an anal rape scene, with Schneider telling a newspaper in 2011 that she had felt "humiliated" by the scene. The controversy resurfaced in 2016 when a video emerged of Bertolucci telling a class: "I had been, in a way, horrible to Maria because I didn't tell her what was going on." Video of the Day Responding to outrage, the director said Schneider had known everything about the scene in advance, except the use of butter, which he had discussed with Brando just before shooting. Emergency measures: Ukraines president Petro Poroshenko signed the bill to impose martial law for two months. Photo: Reuters UKRAINIAN President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill to impose martial law in the country in the wake of Russia's seizure of three ships and their crews. Mr Poroshenko proposed imposing martial law in the country after Russian border guards opened fire on three Ukrainian military vessels in the Sea of Azov. The bill that was published by Mr Poroshenko's office calls for martial law to be imposed for two months. The emergency measures will, if adopted by lawmakers, include a partial mobilisation, a strengthening of the country's air defence as well as a plethora of vaguely worded steps such as the "strengthening" of anti-terrorism measures and "information security". Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said the Ukrainian seamen captured off the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea should be treated as prisoners of war. Mr Klimkin told reporters in Kiev that the government is in talks with the Red Cross to make sure the captured seamen are treated as prisoners of war. Six Ukrainians were injured after Russian border guards opened fire on three Ukrainian military vessels in the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The vessels and the crews were captured by the Russians. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether the Kremlin considers them prisoners of war. Nato and the European Union issued demands for restraint after Ukraine accused Russian border guards of damaging two of the armoured artillery boats and injuring six crew members. Meanwhile, an aide to Polish President Andrzej Duda says sanctions on Russia should be stepped up following its seizure of the ships. Krzysztof Szczerski said Russia's recent actions against Ukraine's vessels were an "open violation" of international law and was "another attempt to destabilise the region". Mr Szczerski said Poland sees the need to "take into consideration and discuss among allies the stepping-up of sanctions on Russia". He said Mr Duda has spoken over the phone with Mr Poroshenko about the naval standoff in the Black Sea. "Weapons were used with the aim of forcibly stopping the Ukrainian warships," the Ukrainro ian defence ministry said in a statement circulated to Russian state media. Ukraine denied its ships had done anything wrong and accused Russia of military aggression. The European Union said in a statement it expected Russia to restore freedom of passage via the Kerch Strait and urged both sides to act with the utmost restraint to de-escalate the situation. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas yesterday called Russia's blockade of access to the Sea of Azov "unacceptable" and urged an easing of tensions with Ukraine. "The developments are troubling," he tweeted. "A Russian blockade of the passage to the Sea of Azov is unacceptable. "It is important that the blockade be lifted. We call on both sides to de-escalate." About 50-100 people gathered outside the Russian embassy in Kiev to protest against Moscow's actions. An embassy vehicle was set on fire, according to reports. If you were looking for a time to re-ignite the slumbering conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Sunday would have been a good choice. With European leaders preoccupied with Brexit and the president of the United States silent, Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships occurred in a diplomatic vacuum that makes the danger of escalation greater than at any time in years. Neither side has much to gain from re-igniting the full-on shooting war of 2014 and 2015. But we can expect both Moscow and Kiev to exploit it for political gain. At a time when Vladimir Putin's government is facing a serious slide in approval ratings over an unpopular pension reform, a small but successful tangle with a "Ukrainian provocation" will play well on the domestic front. Russia's tightly controlled state television devoted major coverage to the incident. Moscow will recount its capture of Ukrainian vessels with undisguised triumph. Meanwhile, Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko will ask parliament for permission to introduce martial law today. That would hand him emergency war-time powers, including the ability to suspend elections just months before a presidential vote that Mr Poroshenko, on current polling, is set to lose. The potential for abuse is obvious. Opposition-minded Ukrainian MPs who backed the 2014 Maidan revolution have already warned that they will want to see "exhaustive" justification for such a move. Partisans on either side are already claiming that this incident was cynically orchestrated by the other. There may be an element of truth to either or both claims. But the political opportunists in the Kremlin and Kiev are seeking to exploit an extremely dangerous situation with real military and strategic implications. Russia and Ukraine have been fighting a war for nearly five years, but this is the first time Russian forces have openly engaged their Ukrainian foes. Even during the annexation of Crimea and the tank battles in Donbas four years ago, the Kremlin claimed - however implausibly - not to be involved. The blunt truth is that a nautical confrontation has been brewing in the Sea of Azov for months, and is fast becoming a maritime theatre in the slow-burning land war that has devastated East Ukraine since 2014. Since Russia completed its bridge to Crimea across the Kerch Strait earlier this year, tensions at sea have escalated. By closing the strait of Kerch, the Kremlin has asserted its almost universally unrecognised claim to Crimea. But it also leaves Ukraine's small naval presence in the sea of Azov isolated and cut off from reinforcements. And it brings this part of Europe once again to the brink of something much worse. NASA engineers Kris Bruvold (L) and Sandy Krasner react in the space flight operation facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as the spaceship InSight lands on the surface of Mars after a six-month journey, in Pasadena, California, U.S. November 26, 2018. Al Seib/Pool via REUTERS NASA engineers Kris Bruvold (L) and Sandy Krasner react in the space flight operation facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as the spaceship InSight lands on the surface of Mars after a six-month journey, in Pasadena, California, U.S. November 26, 2018. Al Seib/Pool via REUTERS NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC) with the ICC image field of view of 124 x 124 degrees, on Mars, November 26, 2018. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS NASA engineers Kris Bruvold (L) and Sandy Krasner react in the space flight operation facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as the spaceship InSight lands on the surface of Mars after a six-month journey, at JPL in Pasadena, California, U.S. November 26, 2018. Al Seib/Pool via REUTERS People react as they watch on a video screen the spaceship InSight, NASA's first robotic lander dedicated to studying the deep interior of Mars, land on the planet's surface after a six-month journey, in Times Square in New York City, U.S., November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Female engineers from NASA celebrate in the space flight operation facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after the spaceship InSight landed on the surface of Mars, from Pasadena, California, U.S. November 26, 2018. Al Seib/Pool via REUTERS NASA JPL engineers Julie Wertz-Chen (L), and Aline Zimmer, (C), react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, U.S., November 26, 2018 NASA/Bill Ingalls/Handout via REUTERS InSight project manager Tom Hoffman points at an image sent from the InSight lander after the space craft landed on Mars in the mission support area of the space flight operation facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/(Al Seib /Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool) James Bridenstine (L), Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) watches a replay of the celebration with Michael Watkins, JPL Director, Project Manager Tom Hoffman and scientists Bruce Banerdt and Andrew Klesh after the landing of the spacecraft InSight on the surface of Mars in Pasadena, California, U.S. November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake Astronauts on the International Space Station congratulate Michael Watkins (L), JPL Director, Project Manager Tom Hoffman and scientists Bruce Banerdt and Andrew Klesh (R) after the landing of the spacecraft InSight on the surface of Mars, in Pasadena, California, U.S. November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake Bruce Banerdt (C), InSight Principal Investigator, NASA JPL, Hallie Gengl, Data Visualization Developer, NASA JPL, (R), and other NASA InSight team members celebrate after the first image of Mars from the Mars InSight lander are shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, U.S., November 26, 2018 NASA/Bill Ingalls/Handout via REUTERS James Bridenstine (L), Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), speaks along Michael Watkins, JPL Director, Project Manager Tom Hoffman and scientists Bruce Banerdt, Andrew Klesh and Elizabeth Barrett after the landing of spacecraft InSight on the surface of Mars, in Pasadena, California, U.S. November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake From left, NASA officials Jim Bridenstine, Michael Watkins, Tom Hoffman, Bruce Banerdt, Andrew Klesh and Elizabeth Barrett celebrate the Mars landing of InSight during a press conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) From left, NASA officials Jim Bridenstine, Michael Watkins, Tom Hoffman, Bruce Banerdt, Andrew Klesh and Elizabeth Barrett make statements under a photograph sent from Mars by the InSight lander at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) Nasa has released the first image of the spacecraft InSight from the surface of Mars, after it successfully reached the planet after almost seven months travelling through space. The Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed images of the spacecraft from its landing site, known as Elysium Planitia, at 1.30am GMT. The US space agency tweeted one photograph, showing part of the InSight spacecraft and the Martian surface in the distance. The spacecraft took the image of itself from the red dusty planet, arguably making it the first selfie on Mars. Expand Close People react as they watch on a video screen the spaceship InSight, NASA's first robotic lander dedicated to studying the deep interior of Mars, land on the planet's surface after a six-month journey, in Times Square in New York City, U.S., November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People react as they watch on a video screen the spaceship InSight, NASA's first robotic lander dedicated to studying the deep interior of Mars, land on the planet's surface after a six-month journey, in Times Square in New York City, U.S., November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The receiving of the images signals that InSight's solar panels, known as solar arrays, have now successfully opened, meaning it is able to collect sunlight and recharge its batteries each day. Tom Hoffman, InSight's project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "The InSight team can rest a little easier tonight now that we know the spacecraft solar arrays are deployed and recharging the batteries. "It's been a long day for the team. "But tomorrow begins an exciting new chapter for InSight: surface operations and the beginning of the instrument deployment phase." Using InSight's robotic arm, which has a camera attached, the mission team will be able to take more photographs in the coming days, Nasa has said. This will help engineers to assess where to install the spacecraft's scientific instruments, which will be able to start sending back data to Earth within two to three months. Expand Close NASA JPL engineers Julie Wertz-Chen (L), and Aline Zimmer, (C), react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, U.S., November 26, 2018 NASA/Bill Ingalls/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp NASA JPL engineers Julie Wertz-Chen (L), and Aline Zimmer, (C), react after receiving confirmation that the Mars InSight lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, U.S., November 26, 2018 NASA/Bill Ingalls/Handout via REUTERS The InSight lander touched down on Mars just before 8pm GMT on Monday, surviving the so-called "seven minutes of terror", a tricky landing phase for the robotic probe, travelling at 13,200mph through the planet's thin atmosphere which provides little friction to slow down. American space agency Nasa's 814 million dollar (633 million) two-year mission aims to shine new light on how the Red Planet was formed and its deep structure, by mapping its core, crust and mantle. Expand Close NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC) with the ICC image field of view of 124 x 124 degrees, on Mars, November 26, 2018. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC) with the ICC image field of view of 124 x 124 degrees, on Mars, November 26, 2018. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS InSight arrived on Mars's Elysium Planitia area north of its equator, described as an ideal spot for its flat, rockless surface. It is the first attempt to reach Mars in six years. Only 40% of missions to the planet have succeeded and all have been US-led. Three UK-made seismometer instruments are on board InSight, part of a 4 million UK Space Agency effort to measure seismic waves. Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford who created the instruments will be based at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to assist with the study, including selecting the best spot for the robot arm to place the seismometer. "It is wonderful news that the InSight spacecraft has landed safely on Mars," said Sue Horne, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency. "The UK scientists and engineers involved in this mission have committed several years of their lives to building the seismometer on board, and the descent is always a worrying time. "We can now look forward to the deployment of the instrument and the data that will start to arrive in the new year, to improve our understanding of how the planet formed." A second instrument will burrow five metres into the ground of Mars, measuring the planet's temperature, while a third experiment will determine how Mars wobbles on its axis. A woman holds a poster during the funeral prayers in absentia for Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi (Emrah Gurel/AP) Turkeys foreign minister has said he has listened to a disgusting tape that allegedly captures the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul. Mevlut Cavusoglu told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday: I listened to it. He was killed within seven minutes. It was a deliberate murder. One notices that he's enjoying it ... he (the doctor) likes to cut up peopleMevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey's foreign minister Mr Cavusoglu said he could hear the forensic doctor instructing others to listen to music while he cuts up the body. He said: One notices that hes enjoying it he likes to cut up people. It is disgusting. Expand Close Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (Burhan Ozbilici/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (Burhan Ozbilici/AP) Turkey said Mr Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed last month by a 15-member assassination squad sent from Riyadh. Ankara insists orders for the killing came from the highest levels of the Saudi government, but not King Salman. Matthew Hedges, the British PhD student jailed for life for spying in the UAE, has been pardoned "with immediate effect" as part of the country's National Day clemency tradition. An official said he would be free to leave the country once the formalities of the presidential pardon had been seen to. Mr Hedges's wife Daniela Tejada, who has lobbied for his release, said she "can't wait" to have her husband back home. She said: "The presidential pardon for Matt is the best news we could have received. Our six-plus months of nightmare are finally over and to say we are elated is an understatement." But at the same time of announcing his release, the Emirati government claimed to have a video which shows Mr Hedges admitting he was a member of MI6. Donald Trump's one-time advisor George Papadopoulos has been ordered to go to jail, after he failed to persuade a judge to delay his two-week sentence. Papadopoulos, who last year admitted lying to FBI agents about conversations with Russia-linked intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign, sought to delay the sentence while proceeding with a separate legal action challenging the constitutionality of Robert Mueller's investigation. US District Court Judge Randy Moss said Papadopoulos' arguments had failed to justify a delay. As part of his plea deal with the team of Mr Mueller, which is investigating Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 race, Papadopoulos forfeited most of his rights to contest his conviction. "The court, accordingly, concludes that Papadopoulos' motion for a stay pending his appeal of this decision lacks merit," Mr Moss said. Papadopoulos was sentenced in September, and along with the two weeks he must spend in jail, he must serve 200 hours of community service and pay a fine of $9,500 (8,400). "People point and snicker and I am terribly depressed," he told the judge. "This investigation has global implications and the truth matters." Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of lying to federal investigators in the Russia probe in breach of his plea agreement. The allegation could expose Manafort to a lengthier prison sentence - and potentially more criminal charges. The torpedoing of Manafort's plea deal, disclosed in a court filing on Monday, also results in Mr Mueller's team losing a witness from the top of Donald Trump's presidential campaign who was present for several key episodes under investigation. That includes a Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer he was told had derogatory information on Democrat Hillary Clinton. In the new filing, Mr Mueller's team said that after Manafort agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation, he "committed federal crimes" by lying about "a variety of subject matters". Prosecutors said they would detail the "nature of the defendant's crimes and lies" in writing at a later date to the judge. Through his lawyers, Manafort denied lying, saying he "believes he provided truthful information" during a series of sessions with Mr Mueller's investigators. He also disagreed that he breached his plea agreement. Still, both sides now agree they cannot resolve the conflict, and US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson should set a date to sentence him. Manafort, who remains jailed, had been meeting with the special counsel's office since he pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He cut that deal to head off a second trial after being convicted last summer of eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in offshore accounts. Expand Close Paul Manafort was US president Donald Trumps former campaign chairman (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Paul Manafort was US president Donald Trumps former campaign chairman (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Both cases stemmed from his Ukrainian political work and undisclosed lobbying work he admitted to carrying out in the US in violation of federal law. As part of his plea agreement, Manafort pledged to "cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly" with the government "in any and all matters" prosecutors deemed necessary. He also forfeited many of his rights as well as his ability to withdraw the plea deal if he broke any of the terms. In return, prosecutors agreed to not bring additional charges against him and to ask a judge for a reduction of his sentence if he provided "substantial assistance". But with prosecutors saying he breached the agreement, Manafort now faces serious repercussions such as the possibility of prosecution on additional charges, including those prosecutors dropped when he made the deal. Manafort already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his plea agreement. In his separate Virginia case, Manafort's potential sentencing under federal guidelines has not yet been calculated, but prosecutors have previously said he could face as much as 10 years in prison on those charges. A ship makes way near to the Kerch bridge, near Kerch in Crimea (AP) Russias President Vladimir Putin has told the German chancellor that he is seriously concerned about the weekends escalation near Crimea and developments in Ukraine. Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. Ukraine on Monday announced martial law in parts of the country, citing a growing threat from Russia. Expand Close Russian President Vladimir Putin (Alexei Nikolsky/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Russian President Vladimir Putin (Alexei Nikolsky/AP) The Kremlin said Mr Putin expressed his concern over the escalation and the martial law in Ukraine in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr Putin told Mrs Merkel he lays all the blame for the confrontation on Ukraine and said Ukraine provoked it for political reasons. Mrs Merkels spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Mrs Merkel in the conversation with Mr Putin stressed the need for de-escalation and dialogue. Russias main intelligence agency has released a video of three crew members of the Ukrainian vessels that were seized. The FSB put out the video, showing interviews with three seamen, all of whom confirmed that they violated the Russian border. It was not immediately possible to ascertain if the men were talking under duress. One of them was clearly reading from a teleprompter. RERA has become the most preferred authority for grievance redressal. Maharashtra received 4,893 complaints, of which orders were passed in 3,041 cases while hearing is on in 1,542 cases. Chennai: Within a year of its implementation, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority in several states is flooded with complaints from homebuyers. Surveys also show that RERA has become the most preferred authority for grievance redressal. Maharashtra received 4,893 complaints, of which orders were passed in 3,041 cases while hearing is on in 1,542 cases. In Haryana, 1,800 complaints have been filed so far and still it is receiving 15-20 complaints everyday. According to KK Khandelwal, RERA regulator of Haryana, the authority needs more benches to dispose of the cases. It also has 20 law interns sitting in the authority, helping consumers file their complaints, understand their positions and get to know realistic timeframes. Uttar Pradesh received 8,100 complaints, of which 2,200 have been disposed off. Uttar Pradesh RERA regulator Rajive Kumar expects that by January 2019, all pending complaints would be addressed. The Uttarakhand regulator received 266 complaints in 225 registered projects. Regulator Vishnu Kumar feels they will be resolved in 4-6 months. In Tamil Nadu, the RERA regulator has cleared 24 complaints and another 266 are being heard. Karnataka has passed orders in 503 complaints. Madhya Pradesh has disposed off 1,268 complaints. Some states are still in the process of setting up RERA, while some do not divulge the details of the complaints on their websites. A consumer poll conducted by Magicbricks.com also found that Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Act 2016 (RERA) has been able to instil confidence in consumers in around one year of its implementation. As many as 56 per cent respondents prefer the RERA regulator in case of a dispute, while 23 per cent still prefer to file their first complaint with the builder. Around 12 per cent homebuyers said they would go to consumer courts and just 7 per cent chose to go to the police. A miniscule of 2 per cent would either go to the HC or the SC. RERA seeks to protect homebuyers and ensure that projects are completed on time. Homebuyers feel the law can help them get justice in case of a dispute. Today, buyers should not feel hesitant to file their complaints with RERA for speedy redressal, said E Jayashree Kurup, editor, Magicbricks. Paul Manafort, Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, has been accused of lying to investigators in the Russia probe (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of lying to federal investigators in the Russia probe in breach of his plea agreement. The allegation could expose Manafort to a lengthier prison sentence and potentially more criminal charges. The torpedoing of Manaforts plea deal, disclosed in a court filing on Monday, also results in Mr Muellers team losing a witness from the top of Donald Trumps presidential campaign who was present for several key episodes under investigation. That includes a Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer he was told had derogatory information on Democrat Hillary Clinton. In the new filing, Mr Muellers team said that after Manafort agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation, he committed federal crimes by lying about a variety of subject matters. Prosecutors said they would detail the nature of the defendants crimes and lies in writing at a later date to the judge. Through his lawyers, Manafort denied lying, saying he believes he provided truthful information during a series of sessions with Mr Muellers investigators. He also disagreed that he breached his plea agreement. Still, both sides now agree they cannot resolve the conflict, and US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson should set a date to sentence him. Expand Close Paul Manafort was US president Donald Trumps former campaign chairman (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Paul Manafort was US president Donald Trumps former campaign chairman (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Manafort, who remains jailed, had been meeting with the special counsels office since he pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He cut that deal to head off a second trial after being convicted last summer of eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in offshore accounts. Both cases stemmed from his Ukrainian political work and undisclosed lobbying work he admitted to carrying out in the US in violation of federal law. As part of his plea agreement, Manafort pledged to cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly with the government in any and all matters prosecutors deemed necessary. He also forfeited many of his rights as well as his ability to withdraw the plea deal if he broke any of the terms. In return, prosecutors agreed to not bring additional charges against him and to ask a judge for a reduction of his sentence if he provided substantial assistance. But with prosecutors saying he breached the agreement, Manafort now faces serious repercussions such as the possibility of prosecution on additional charges, including those prosecutors dropped when he made the deal. Manafort already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his plea agreement. In his separate Virginia case, Manaforts potential sentencing under federal guidelines has not yet been calculated, but prosecutors have previously said he could face as much as 10 years in prison on those charges. It's time we get ready for yet another lavish celebrity wedding. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are all set to solemnize their affair of eight months by exchanging vows in Umaid Bhawan, Jodhpur. The couple got engaged in August in Mumbai and they will take the second step towards their happy forever amidst close ones in Jodhpur. Jonas and Chopra have reportedly booked Umaid Bhawan Palace for five days. (Also read: Priyanka Chopra Throws A Pre-Wedding Party To Welcome Sophie Turner & Joe Jonas In India) This was confirmed by a media portal who quoted a source as saying, None of the rooms are available on these dates. We have rooms till November 28 and again starting from December 4. We are completely booked for the five days in between. That's not all. This wedding is going to be one royal affair and in every sense of the word. Can you guess how much money the couple is shelling out for this palace wedding? Just FYI, Instagram Umaid Bhawan Palace has 64 luxurious rooms and suites i.e. 22 palace rooms and 42 suites which are further divided into four types - 24 historical suites, 10 royal suites, 6 grand royal suites, and 2 presidential suites. The per night prices (exclusive of taxes) for each room is Rs 47,300 for palace rooms, Rs 65,300 for historical suites, Rs 1.45 lakh for royal suites, Rs 2.30 lakh for grand royal suites and Rs 5.04 lakh for presidential suites. So, the total cost to book the entire hotel sums up to approximately Rs 64.40 lakh per night. Considering the fact that Priyanka and Nick have booked the entire property for five days, the accommodation will reportedly cost around Rs 3.2 crore. Agencies That's not all. A special helipad has been made inside Umaid Bhawan to ferry guests in and out of the property! This wedding is surely going down in the history of most stylish and royal celebrity weddings in India. Agree? 19-month-old baby Heeba Nisar is the youngest victim of pellet guns in the valley. She sustained pellet gun injuries in a protest demonstration in Shopian district of South Kashmir on Sunday. Six militants were gunned down and one soldier and one civilian lost their lives in cross firing. More than 50 persons were injured. Pellet guns have ravaged hundreds of lives in Kashmir since 2016. Twitter A pellet had hit her eye and gone deep inside, causing injury to parts critical for vision. Heebas family was trying to flee home in Karpan village of Shopian district, some 62 km south of Srinagar. Intense tear gas shelling made air unbreathable. An encounter had broken out in Batgund, a neighbouring village. The panicked mother rushed out clasping the baby to her chest with tears streaming from the eyes and profuse coughing. The Army fired directly towards the family without even caring for the child, 32-year-old Marsala, Heebas mother told the National Herald. #indian Terrorism in #Kashmir Hit with pellet in her eye, 19-month-old #Hiba may lose sight A doctor at the ward shuddered at the sight of the little girl, whom he described as the youngest pellet victim. pic.twitter.com/rRjPs4qeMZ (@kashmir__speaks) November 26, 2018 A 20-month-old Baby was hit by a pellet on her right eye on Sunday inside her home in Shopian. A baby. Inside her home. I hope there are no shameless patRIOTs defending this horrifying incident. How can anyone take pride in murder/violence on others? https://t.co/3PJkt5Z4FO Saileena (@saileenas) November 26, 2018 Shame on u kid hiba with pellet wounds in her eyes #freeKashmir pic.twitter.com/kVP4WucGsF Taimoor ch (@Taimoor10565641) November 27, 2018 The conflict situation in #Kashmir is extremely difficult for children,who are amongst the most vulnerable and worst affected , #Hiba (Hiba Nisar)youngest pellet victim,They fired pellets on her face and she may lost her eyesight now.#kashmirburns#kashmircrisis #kashmirburns pic.twitter.com/p5g79nOZD7 Malik Muzamil (@malikmuzamill) November 27, 2018 As soon as pellet hit the child, her eye turned puffy and she began crying in excruciating pain, she recalled, adding, We immediately rushed her to district hospital Kulgam from where she was referred to SMHS, Srinagar, given the severity of her injuries. The metallic balls have been removed from her eye but the doctors are not sure if she will be able to see again. As workers load packs of food meant to be distributed to children in the hospital, Abdullateef Khaled is busy making a video and narrating the process on camera. He is mesmerised by the very interesting tuk-tuk carts (autorickshaw) in India. Once the food packets are loaded, he sits with the auto-driver in the front and heads towards the hospital. For all those looking for a purpose in life, this is the purpose help the needy, he says as he waves a goodbye at the end of the video. A Kuwaiti national, Khaled has been involved in aid and relief work since 2012. He has successfully founded and run several orphan projects ever since. Khaled also serves as the Project Manager for International Human Care and Relief Organisation (IHCRO), based in Istanbul. Raising and educating children at Future Leaders Village For his next humanitarian journey, Khaled chose Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Our landmark project for 2019 is called 'Future Leaders Village' in India. Our goal is to spread education in India and provide quality schools and learning. We begin with this amazing project which will provide a comprehensive life for children. Were standing on the exact plot of land which we purchased and will begin constructing soon, says his Instagram post. The construction of a school, 25 homes, a masjid, playground, dining hall, Islamic library and an auditorium will begin soon for the less fortunate in the state of Telangana. The facility is expected to start operations by the end of 2019. Our job is to serve Allah and spread kindness. I want the whole Ummah to donate to us so that we can help people, he requests in the video. Also Read: This Aid Worker Is Rebuilding War-Torn Syria By Distributing Food Among Hungry Kids India were now at your full service! We stayed up last night filling up 300 bags with fruits so we can distribute it at a local hospital here full of sick and helpless people! This is what we will be doing around the clock: building projects, building masjid, wells, distributing zakah, distributing food bags and doing it all BY HANDS to make sure it reaches. Were waiting for your support, says one of his Instagram posts. With our efforts, hopefully, we can help more and more people and provide them with a better, more colourful and hopeful life, a hands-full Khaled told Indiatimes in a brief conversation. The Future Leaders Village was created after ICHRO and Siraajul Uloom Trust, an Indian organisation, joined hands to raise future leaders. Future Leaders is a humanitarian project that aims to raise and educate future Muslim generations of India. The project aims to motivate and inspire children to become best Muslims with their conduct, love for doing good and well behaviour, reads the description on their website. Championing the humanitarian cause in Syria He is also a founder of One Solid Ummah (OSU) - an organisation which is building schools, hospitals, shelter villages, masjids and wells in Syria for the thousands of people who have been displaced in the war. So far, the organisation has built 31 masjids, eight orphan villages, a world-class medical centre for Syrians and refugees in Idlib, three schools and more than 10 wells, considering water scarcity one of the primal problems in a war zone. In 2015, the construction of the first orphan village had started in Syria. It was successfully finished in 2016 with many service buildings. One Solid Ummah also constructed an emergency shelter village which aims to host displaced people coming from Idlib and Eastern Ghouta. Abdullateef Khaled/Facebook While it rains bombs in the conflict area, Khaled, who has dedicated his life to helping the oppressed children of Syria, is a ray of hope. As an aid worker, he distributes meals, teaches young kids, provides medical aid to the children, women and men residing in Syrian camps and remote villages. He does all this with the help of his team and the donations that they receive from across the world. The organisation also provides medical aid to patients recovering from severe injuries. OSU is a group of people who share one common belief and goal assuring that the displaced and refugees in Syria live, eat, and sleep better. John Chau/ Instagram The Andaman and Nicobar Administration has reportedly suspended all the attempts to reach the Northern Sentinel Islands, in an effort to recover the body of American Missionary John Allen Chau who was killed by the indigenous tribe earlier this month after he trespassed into the island illegally. Read more Here's more top news of the day: 1) Nearly Six Women Are Killed Every Hour Worldwide By Their Partners, Family Members More than half of the women who were murdered worldwide in 2017 were killed by their partners, or family members, making a home the most dangerous place for a woman. Read more 2) 19-Month-Old Heeba Is The Youngest Victim Of Pellet Guns In Kashmir; May Lose Sight Twitter 19-month-old baby Heeba Nisar is the youngest victim of pellet guns in the valley. She sustained pellet gun injuries in a protest demonstration in Shopian district of South Kashmir on Sunday. Read more 3) Sikh Man Meets His Two Muslim Sisters In Pakistan, First Time Since They Got Separated in 1947 Express Tribune The family was originally from Paracha village near Dera Baba Nanak Gurdaspur, India before the historic partition. However, in the partition a daughter and son went missing. Read more 4) 99.7% Of Indian Railway Tracks Not Solid Enough To Handle High Speed Trains Of 160 Kmph Photo: AP The assessment has come to light when Train 18 completed its first trial run with flying colours. The train, set to replace Shatabdi Express, ran at 115 km per hour on tracks in Moradabad division of Northern Railway. Read more 5) A Kuwaiti Aid Worker Is Building School, Homes And Hospital For Less Fortunate Children In Telangana Abdullateef Khaled/Facebook As workers load packs of food meant to be distributed to children in the hospital, Abdullateef Khaled is busy making a video and narrating the process on camera. He is mesmerised by the very interesting tuk-tuk carts (autorickshaw) in India. Read more Amitabh Bachchan and daughter Shweta Nanda, invited 70 farmers from Uttar Pradesh to personally hand them the bank letters of the cleared loans. In a humanitarian act, veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan has cleared the loans of over one thousand farmers in Uttar Pradesh. The superstar took to the social media site Twitter to share the news. Cleared the loans of farmers from Uttar Pradesh... select few were booked by me on the train from Varanasi, and given OTS (OTS: One Time Settlement with Bank Of India'), Amitabh tweeted late on Monday. He shared the photographs on the blog post, in which his daughter Shweta Nanda can be seen accompanying her father in the good deed. He also captioned, Let the Laxmi of the house, the daughter give them that. Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. Shweta, the daughter, the Laxmi of the house. Amitabh did the OTS and invited 70 farmers to Mumbai by booking an entire train compartment for them to personally give away the bank letters. When you think of jail, what all can you imagine? A closed, dingy cell. Prison clothes, bland food and doing laborious work all day long. If that is the image of a jail in your mind then you are mistaken. A video from Raebareli jail in Uttar Pradesh has gone viral on social media where prison inmates can be seen partying as they eat outside food, drink alcohol and even have a discussion on which kind of alcohol they want to order, white vaali ya nahi they can be heard saying. One even seems to take pride that he is in Raebareli jail as he throws one or two abusive words at the person on the other side. Another eats a spoon of rice and instructs the anonymous phone receiver to hand over Rs 5,000 out of Rs 10,000 to the deputy jailer. The video has enraged public and raised serious questions about the security of the district jail. From the video, one gets the impression that jail security officials have been colluding or extorting money from inmates so that they can drink alcohol and have fun. One who is apparently making the video and cannot be seen in the frame can be heard saying, Paisa bhi mangva le, khatam hogaya hai. The one on the phone says, Marvadenge tujhe, dafnaadenge. The one making threat calls has been identified as a sharpshooter, Anshu Dixit. The disturbing content has prompted Uttar Pradesh government to suspend six officials, including a senior jail superintendent, Press Trust of India reported. After local TV news channels repeatedly telecast the footage, the authorities swung into action and shifted the four inmates seen in the video to other jails. An FIR has been lodged against them under various sections of the IPC and Prisons act, Principal Secretary Home, Arvind Kumar said. Those suspended included senior jail superintendent Pramod Kumar Shukla and three jail warders. News 18 reported that other names that were included in this list are: jailer Govind Ram Verma, Deputy jailer Ram Chandra Tiwari, head jail warder, Lalta Prasad Upadhayay and jail warders, Ganga Ram and Shiv Mangal. Some bullets were also seen lying on the bed where the inmates were having their meal. Reportedly, four inmates have also been transferred to another prison. After the video went viral, an inspection of the jail was done in which 4 mobile phones, one SIM card, cigarettes, lighter, matchbox, sweets and dry fruits were recovered. Nankana Sahib, one of the holiest sites of Sikhism witnessed some emotional scenes on the occasion of Guru Nanak s 549th birth anniversary. Siblings who got separated during the partition in 1947 met for the first time in over seven decades. Sardar Bayanth Singh met his two siblings, Ulfat Bibi, and Mairaj Bibi on Sunday at the Nankana Sahib where he had gone for the pilgrimage. Express Tribune The family was originally from Paracha village near Dera Baba Nanak Gurdaspur, India before the historic partition. However, in the partition a daughter and son went missing. The family later migrated to Pakistan leaving behind their two children. Years later, the siblings' mother, Allah Rakhhi, contacted one of her former neighbours and learned the whereabouts of her son Bayanth. Since then the siblings remained in touch over letters and phone calls. This year Bayanth planned a pilgrimage to the Nankana Sahibs Gurdwara where he also got the long-awaited opportunity to meet his sisters. REUTERS Speaking to media after the emotional reunion, Speaking to the media, Ulfat Bibi expressed her desire to be allowed to travel to India where she can meet her sister-in-law and nieces and nephews. The two sisters have also appealed to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to extend Bayanths visa if he cannot be granted Pakistan nationality. PTI The story of the emotional reunion comes at a time when both Pakistan and India are working together to open the Kartarpur Corridor, a pilgrim route to the Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan. The cross-border pilgrim route is expected to help thousands of Sikh devotees to visit one of the most important religious places and help in increasing people to people contact. Malaysian police have arrested 21 people over riots that broke out amid a dispute over the relocation of a Hindu temple outside Kuala Lumpur. The clashes began on Monday morning when a group of intruders attacked Indian devotees praying at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in central Selangor state's Subang Jaya township and torched vehicles. Another group of men retaliated early Tuesday morning by vandalizing the office of property developer MCT Berhad near the temple and also set some vehicles ablaze. AP MCT's unit One City Development Sdn. Bhd. owns the land on which the temple sits and is embroiled in a legal tussle to relocate the century-old temple to an area nearby. Government officials and police were quick to dispel rumours on social media that it was a racial conflict. Selangor police chief Mazlan Mansor said 21 people were detained and will be investigated for rioting with weapons and arson. He said nearly two dozen vehicles were torched but the situation is calm and under control. Some 700 anti-riot personnel have been deployed to ensure peace in the area, he added. AP Temple members told local media that the mob, mainly ethnic Malays, were armed with weapons such as knives and had told devotees to leave the temple because the land is owned by One City Development. In a statement, the developer denied that it orchestrated the attack on the temple. It said it abhorred the violence and had no reason to engage a mob after going through a lengthy court process. It said it had also offered compensation to build a new temple and had delayed the temple relocation to accommodate rituals tied to the move. Racial clashes have been rare in multiracial Malaysia since deadly race riots in 1969. Ethnic Malays account for nearly two-thirds of the country's 31 million people, with large Chinese and Indian minorities. In a milestone scientific and technological breakthrough, a Chinese scientist is claiming successfully altering the DNA of twin girls at an embryonic stage, girls who were finally born earlier this month in China. The doctor made use of CRISPR gene-editing technique to inject external protein and certain instructions to permanently prevent the twin girls -- Lulu and Nana -- from ever getting infected by HIV virus and contracting AIDS disease. YouTube screenshot Hailing from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, scientist He Jiankui reportedly used CRISPR -- a controversial gene editing technique -- to alter the DNA of Lulu and Nana. Both girls were successfully born earlier in the month and are currently living with their parents in China. As per an Associated Press report, the doctor fertilized the embryos for seven couples through IVF treatments, and only one of those seven pregnancies has reportedly been successful. In a YouTube video where the doctor speaks in English, he explains how he used CRISPR gene-editing technique to alter the DNA of Lulu and Nana when they were just cells. He injected an external protein along with some instructions to perform "cellular surgery" on the two fertilized embryos. The gene-editing surgery was meant to protect the girls from future HIV infection, claims the doctor, by removing the portal through which the AIDS virus infects people. Later researchers used gene sequencing technique to successfully confirm that the DNA-editing tweak had actually worked. If there are no complications in the health of Lulu and Nana, as they grow up, this all but confirms CRISPR/Cas9 as becoming the preferred gene-editing tool of the future. The great part about this technology is it works pretty much like cutting and pasting parts of text from a Word document to another, when it comes to reorganizing a human being's genetic code. This will no doubt lead to a race of superior, genetically modified superhumans very soon, which will kick open a lot of moral debates on the ethical validity of CRISPR and its use on humans. ALSO READ: New Rice Variety Created By CRISPR Gene-Edit Technology Can Yield Up To 31% More Grain Per Crop You are stepping out of the house, you have a flight to catch and you're already running late. That's when your smartphone beeps! It's the low battery warning again and you don't have time to put it on charge. Now that is our biggest nightmare in the world! If you are agreeing with us and nodding your head right now, here is a good news you've been waiting for ages. Oppo is launching the R17 Pro in India that will be featuring the Super VOOC Fast Charging. Oppo So what's the hype? Oppo is the first one to come up with the Super VOOC technology and it is by far the fastest charging technology we have ever seen! It takes about 10 minutes to charge 40 per cent of your phone and that's truly remarkable. That's killer and truly a life saviour for all of us who love to have those long, hearty conversations. Oppo Oppo had introduced the VOOC (Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging) at the 2016 Mobile World Congress show. The Chinese smartphone maker has always given priority to product safety while pursuing a faster charging speed. And to ensure that OPPO has cooperated with Rheinland Laboratory in Germany to conduct strict safety test on super flash charging proposals. Rheinland has also conducted a certification test on the charging speed of R17 Pro with Super VOOC and it showed that R17 Pro's charging speed has reached 40 per cent of electricity in 10 minutes. As for us, we cannot wait to get our hands on the fantastic R17 Pro! After nearly seven months of travelling over 4800 lakh kilometres of empty space, NASA's Mars InSight Lander finally made a successful landing on the Red Planet, the eighth historic manmade object to land on our neighbouring planet. And right on cue, the newest manmade rover on Martian soil has sent back its first two pics of the alien world. NASA "Today, we successfully landed on Mars for the eighth time in human history," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. InSight's mission is to study the interior of Mars and throw light on valuable science, as NASA prepares to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars. "The best of NASA is yet to come, and it is coming soon." A few minutes after landing, the InSight Lander sent the official "beep" to NASA to message that it had survived the journey and made it alive onto Mars, including a grainy photo of the Martian surface where it touched down. But minutes later, NASA Mars InSight rover sent back this majestic picture of the Martian horizon, posting it on its official Twitter account no less. Theres a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home. #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/mfClzsfJJr NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) November 27, 2018 This is surely just the beginning of a lot more that InSight is expected to during its two year mission on Mars, where it will drill holes inside the Martian surface and hunt for clues and attempt to find answers how humans one day might live on the Red Planet. "Landing was thrilling, but Im looking forward to the drilling," said InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. InSight has already deployed its two decagonal solar arrays, which span seven feet each and provide the crafts operational power supply, according to a NASA statement. As a kid, going on a holiday meant making new friends and having a gala time until it was time to go back home. A Twitter user posted an old picture that shows her sitting with a girl she met in Hawaii years ago. The girl on Twitter by the name, @briannacry, tweeted the picture of both of them from 2006, writing Hey Twitter, I met this girl on a dinner cruise in Hawaii in 2006. We were basically best friends for that night so I need yall to help me find my best friend cause I miss her and I need to see how shes doing now. Please retweet this so we can be reunited. She got an overwhelming response and twitterati banded together to find her best friend. Hey twitter, I met this girl on a dinner cruise in Hawaii in 2006. We were basically bestfriends for that night so I need yall to help me find my bestfriend cause I miss her and I need to see how shes doing now. Please retweet this so we can be reunited. pic.twitter.com/LRtk6ClvV3 Bri (@briannacry) November 24, 2018 And guess what? They found her. After the tweet went viral, a girl who goes by the name Heii, soon responded to her tweet with her childhood picture from the same vacation. Heard you were looking for me~ pic.twitter.com/Dz4z1wapRv heii (@heii_tree) November 24, 2018 After reading the story of these two childhood best friends, people were left emotional and started sharing pictures of their lost best friends, wishing to get in touch with them. The story of these two went viral with over two lakh likes and over one lakh retweets. Here are some of the reactions of the netizens: 1. Anyone wanna help me find my kindergarten crush? We were supposed to get married. We went to Woodrow Wilson elementary in Binghamton, NY pic.twitter.com/VX7yCkFT57 Bunny (@whoreline) November 25, 2018 2. someone pleathe help me find a grilly. we were best friends on a carnival cruise in december 2006, her name was holly and she was from the netherlands and she came to play dolls with me on my bunkbed MKSJGNG all ive got is pics of me on that cruise pic.twitter.com/vHMFhuoDHw (@tilltoniight) November 24, 2018 3. I need help finding an elementary school best friend !!! Please Help mEEE Her name is Abigail Ramirez. pic.twitter.com/v8XN5zwBKE Jaida Newhouse (@cooljay_505) November 25, 2018 4. OMG IM IN THE SAME SITUATION. This girl and I were bestfriends for a whole weekend about 6 years ago. I have no clue where she is but I just know its some where in Florida. This is the only pic I have of her. Help! pic.twitter.com/8ebSscYWwE a. (@m_shonteII) November 25, 2018 5. Yall can you also help me find my preschool best friend ,, she left to go back to South Korea and we lost contact gonna be hard but her name was jiyo ( it sounded like that !! ) South Africa aint the same without you bro ! pic.twitter.com/AFxy99QJS7 sisi (@SZingitwa) November 25, 2018 6. can someone help me find my childhood best friends, ik its blury but their names r Brittany & Mariah from Maryland pic.twitter.com/ZURYVlHJff tera (@diggy_mbluvv) November 26, 2018 7. this story is awesome! I immediately sent it to my hawaii cruise bestie from 2009 (we were pen pals for years after meeting!) I hope you two get to reunite! pic.twitter.com/Hjy3yaOOGp Isha Jog (@Isha_Jog) November 25, 2018 8. Some told their reunion stories too! i met a girl on a cruise to alaska we were really close and then 10 years later i was on facebook saw this girl as a suggested friend and i requested her and we talked and it was just so cool to reunite with her after so long now shes going to college and im a senior insanee julia johnson (@juliaaj1322) November 25, 2018 9. Hey twitter, I met this girl and his brother on vacation in Qatar in 2001. We were basically bestfriends for that night so I need yall to help me find my bestfriend cause I miss them and I need to see how they're doing now. Please retweet this so we can be reunited pic.twitter.com/v6pUNPOU7t Dirga Hauri C (@DirgaHC) November 25, 2018 10. This story reminds me that I used to write letters to a girl in California as a pen pal for YEARS (full length letters for pages and pages) when I first started high school. I wonder where she is now. jung (@paperalwayswins) November 25, 2018 After finding her lost best friend, the girl tweeted something funny and said that she is also looking for a husband, so now the people should find her a husband too! umm this was at 9 retweets when I fell asleep.. Sooo Im looking for a husband as well so yall can try to find him too while yall search for girly. thanks Bri (@briannacry) November 24, 2018 Well, that's going to be harder. While travelling on a train, have you ever felt scared of dozing off for too long and missing your station? But this time it happened in a flight and the passengers didnt fall asleep, the pilot of the plane did. Read More: Amazing Cockpit Footage Shows Pilot Landing In The Midst Of A Heavy Thunderstorm In Spain A small plane crossed its destination in Australia by almost 46 km after the pilot fell asleep in the cockpit, the safety officials told. The aircraft- Piper PA-31 from Devonport to King Island in Tasmania had only one person in the cockpit - the pilot. Officials have not said anything about how the pilot woke up before landing the plane safely. During the cruise, the pilot fell asleep, resulting in the aircraft overflying King Island by 46 kilometres, the ATSB said in a statement. Investigators have classified it as a 'serious operational incident' and they are now in the process of collecting evidence before issuing their final report, which is expected in March 2019. We can also expect the report by April 2019 if they fall asleep before issuing the final report. Divya Salaskar, daughter of slain Indian policeman Vijay Salaskar, pays respects at the Police Memorial, during an event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2008 Mumbai militant attacks in Mumbai on Nov. 26, 2018. (AFP/Getty Images) The Bhim Army leader said that he believed that Ayodhya was an ancient Buddhist place of religious importance as it was called Saket. Lucknow: Bhim army chief Chandra Shekhar Azad, on Monday, presented a copy of the Indian Constitution to the Ayodhya district magistrate and urged him to govern the district as per the law and not according to Manu Smitri, an ancient Hindu text on Hindu law. Talking to reporters after his return from Ayodhya , Chandra Shekahr said that he was concerned about the build up in the temple town and reports of Muslim migration. I responded to the fear of the minorities and decided to see things myself. The district magistrate assured me that the reports were baseless and Ayodhya was normal. The VHP volunteers and Shiv Sainiks had returned, he said. The Bhim Army leader said that he believed that Ayodhya was an ancient Buddhist place of religious importance as it was called Saket. I had written to the chief minister to develop it as a Buddha Vihar, he said. However, he maintained that he wanted the Supreme Court to decide in the matter as was proper in a democracy. Clarifying his position regarding the Ram temple movement, Azad said that if there was any threat to the constitutional rights of the people of Ayodhya, the Bhim army would launch a campaign to protect them. Replying to a question about BSP national president Mayawatis continuous attack on him, he said that it appears that some people have poisoned her ears against me. I am a humble follower of Kanshi Ram and have always voted for the BSP. I believe Behenji (Mayawati) is the tallest Dalit leader today and should be projected as the Prime Minister for 2019, He said. The Bhim Army leader clarified that his outfit would not join electoral politics and work to make the Dalits aware of their rights. Activists rally to support immigrants and to mark World Refugee Day on June 20 in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Indian American attorney Deepak Ahluwalia who handles a large number of asylum cases for migrants from India and other countries in South Asia told India-West earlier this month that the presidents proclamation is in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Scientists from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, led by Nitin Singh, are concerned over the strains of the bacterium Enterobacter, identified on the toilets of the International Space Station. (Caltech.edu photo) Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at a public meeting in Nizamabad, Telangana Nov. 27. The Pakistan Foreign Office has said that Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit. (IANS photo) Rare earth miner Lynas will halt operations at its refining plant in Malaysia until the New Year after local authorities in Kuantan, Pahang state, blocked its application to increase its output quota. Lynan will shutter production after hitting a production cap imposed by regulators, it... For years, Google Cloud Platform has built more geewizardy-type services than anyone else, leading the other cloud providers in things like AI. It has also done the best job of building impressive open source communities like Kubernetes and TensorFlow. And yet Google Cloud Platform remains a distant third in the public cloud computing contest, with the usual reason cited being: Google doesnt get enterprise. This, despite hiring a bevy of enterprise folks throughout its sales and marketing. And despite hiring VMware cofounder Diane Greene to shepherd the company into a more glorious enterprise future that has yet to come. Now Greene is out and an even stodgier enterprise person, Oracles Thomas Kurian, is on tap to save Googles cloudy soul. Will it work? Googlers dont care about the enterprise If what Google was lacking was enterprise DNA at the top, its hard to see how swapping Greene for Kurian helps. Yes, its now fashionable to deride Greene as rather old-school, someone who struggled to understand how employees at [Google] operate. This, however, was exactly why she was hired: not to become more like Google, but rather in the hope that Google would become more like her. In many ways, Google has. Greene has hired more people for the Google Cloud group in the last two years than any other division in Googles parent Alphabet. Many of those hires come from the staid world of enterprise computing. Indeed, browse through Google Cloud employees on LinkedIn and youll see enterprise plastered all over their pedigrees: Red Hat, Cisco, IBM, SAP, VMware, you name it. If the company is big, boring, and profitable, current Google Cloud employees have likely worked there. But by other measures, efforts to make Google more enterprise-friendly have failed, largely because the bulk of its employee base simply doesnt care about the enterprise. Google remains very engineer-driven, more likely to tell customers why theyre wrong to prefer a particular approach to a business problem than to listen to the customers and try to solve it for them. For example, when Greene wanted to sell to the US military, Googlers protested. When Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said tech companies cant turn their backs on the US Department of Defense [or] this country is going to be in trouble, his employees got in line. Kejriwal hit out BJP-led NDA govt over alleged corruption in Rafale fighter jet deal and Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi fleeing the country. New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal Monday asserted that Delhiites are proud of him as an honest chief minister, while questioning the people of the country if they felt the same about their prime minister. Kejriwal made the remarks at a function to mark the sixth foundation day of the party here. Speaking at the party headquarters, the Delhi chief minister claimed that the AAP government in the national capital did "much more" during its three-year rule than what Narendra Modi did in 12 years as chief minister of Gujarat. Congratulating party workers and supporters, he said the AAP's political revolution against corruption and communalism is going on despite obstacles. "The people of Delhi are proud of their honest chief minister. I want to ask the people of the country if they feel the same about their prime minister," Kejriwal said. He hit out the BJP-led NDA government over alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal and Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi fleeing the country. Targeting the Gujarat model of development, the Delhi chief minister said, "I challenge... the AAP government in Delhi did much more than he (Narendra Modi) did in Gujarat in 12 years," he said. "The AAP's political journey began on this day six years ago. The political revolution against corruption and communalism is going on despite obstacles," the chief minister tweeted. Outlining the significance of party's foundation day, he said it could not be a mere coincidence that the AAP was formed on a day the Indian Constitution was adopted. "At a time when the Constitution is under attack, it's only AAP that can protect it," Kejriwal said. Recalling the party's origin six years ago, the Delhi chief minister said the AAP defied all naysayers when it went on to form the government a year after its formation. He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, saying "I feel we went on to win 67 seats by the grace of God because Shah would not have let us survive with anything less than that." Claiming that 400 files of the Delhi government were scrutinised at the behest of the Centre to find wrongdoing in its functioning, Kejriwal said he was certified as honest by the prime minister. "They scrutinised 400 files but did not get anything. I have a certificate of honesty from Modiji," he claimed. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is on a visit of Japan, said in a tweet that the occasion marked the possibility of honest politics. "#6YearsOfAAP is actually a celebration of the possibility of honest politics and the possibility that the Aam Aadmi of the nation can agitate, organise & govern to break the chains of corruption, lack of education & healthcare(sic)," he said. GBPAUD Weekly MACD Trying to Positively Cross Tradable Patterns - 1 hour ago The (GBPAUD) is consolidating for a 6th straight day going into today's European morning, hovering just below ascending triangle resistance (on the 4hr chart). Significantly, GBPAUD has been testing... ^GBPAUD : 1.85234 (+0.10%) Corn Closes Red Ahead of Holiday Barchart - Wed Nov 24, 4:44PM CST Corn futures ended the Wednesday session with 3/4 to 3 cent losses. New crop futures also faded into Thanksgiving but only by 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cents. USDA announced a large export sale for 100,000 MT of... ZCZ21 : 579-6s (unch) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.6537 (-0.17%) ZCH22 : 585-4s (-0.47%) ZCZ21 : 579-6s (unch) ZCPZ21US.CM : 5.6934 (-0.19%) Beans Fade on Wednesday Barchart - Wed Nov 24, 4:44PM CST Soybean futures closed in the red going ahead of the Thanksgiving break. Losses were limited to 7 cents in the front months, with new crop prices closing down 3 3/4 cents. Soymeal ended lower as well,... 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According to Atkinson, a notable thing about Japan is that despite being the fourth-largest commercial insurance market in the world with total premiums of US$38 billion in 2016, penetration is low compared to other advanced economies. For example, commercial insurance penetration in Japan was 0.8% of GDP in 2016, compared to 1.6% in the US and 2.4% in the UK, he said. One driver could be that Japan corporates, in general, tend to spend less on insurance and the demand for commercial insurance is sensitive to the economic cycle. However, that is only one side of the story. What we see is that while Japanese corporations typically have extremely advanced risk management processes and practices, these are focused on asset protection rather than financial risk and balance sheet protection. We also see the need for more education on the topic of business interruption and non-physical damage business interruption to prevent it being inadvertently underinsured. From Atkinsons perspective, rapid technological progress, particularly digital transformation, is changing the nature of business, and this is where Swiss Re Corporate Solutions sees major opportunities in Japan. New types of company and business models, for example, the sharing economy have started to enter the market despite tough regulation and popular suspicion, he said. Car and bike sharing schemes are slowly starting to gain traction along with meal delivery services like UberEATS. According to 2018 data published by the Economist, the sharing economy in Japan accounts for US$11 billion, while growing this is still a tiny fraction as compared to developed markets in Europe, the US or China. He also mentioned a shift in Japans corporate sector from being rich in physical assets to deriving more value from intangibles and services. This is a departure from what Japanese corporates are used to, creating a gap which insurers can fill. Over time, the nature of insurable commercial property risks has also broadened from traditional property damage to business interruption and contingent business interruption (CBI), although sales of these covers still lag [behind] European and USA markets, he said. Non-physical damage business interruption (NDBI) is the next step in the evolution of providing solutions for exposures which, traditionally, have been difficult to insure. Data analytics is leading to a better assessment on the nature of risks. This and the innovation in product design is driving the continuing development of new risk covers for a wider range of threats and perils that businesses face. The risk landscape, according to Atkinson, is constantly evolving as new risks emerge as a result of new technology, globalisation, geopolitical events, and other changes. How companies manage these risks has a great impact on their market value, financial strength, and funding costs. To illustrate the risks faced by Swiss Re Corporate Insurance in Japan, Atkinson cited a 2017 survey by the World Economic Forum, which revealed that natural catastrophes and cyberattacks are among the top risks cited by Japanese firms, followed by economic risks such as a fiscal crisis. Exposed to a wide spectrum of natural disasters, including earthquakes, typhoons, windstorm and floods, it is no surprise that Nat Cat is a top corporate concern, he said. A major loss in assets or disruption to production may lead to a reduction in a firms share price and even lead to bankruptcy. From a risk management and insurance perspective the widespread nature of Nat Cats creates challenges even with the best business continuity management plans in place. He gave the 2011 floods in Thailand as an example, which impacted over 300 Japanese firms. During this major wide area damage event, critical supply chains were disrupted along with power and utilities, which prevented supplies from reaching their destination, he said. As a result, business recovery efforts were substantially delayed, which is not an uncommon occurrence for such events. Atkinson also linked business interruption with cyber risks, especially for businesses that possess personal or sensitive data. For example, a major auto manufacturer halted its production plant for a day after finding that the WannaCry ransomware had affected the companys computer network, he said. Going even further back, in 2016, there were about 468 cases of cyber incident in Japan and these involved more than 15 million personal information data sets being stolen and estimated losses of 299.4 billion. As globalisation progresses, Japanese corporations have expanded their interests worldwide, with manufacturing facilities in Europe, the US and many economies in Asia, including China, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. As a result, many Japanese companies are looking for insurance solutions which cater to their operations in multiple jurisdictions. As a specific example, the Japanese auto and auto-related sector has a truly global spread, Atkinson said. Recalls are happening frequently in this sector and it is becoming more expensive due to longer and more complex supply chains and more stringent product safety rules and regulations. From an infrastructure angle, Japanese investments overseas are on the rise. In addition, the Japanese government has recently pledged to make it easier for domestic power companies to invest in overseas power plant projects and with this expected increase, there should be more demand around supply chain business interruption and non-damage business interruption risks. We intend to offer both general and life insurance, and want to stay for the long term, Kamaludin said. However, this will require Etiqa to work with two different local companies, due to regulatory requirements. According to Kamaludin, Cambodia requires separate licences for general insurance and life insurance, unlike in other markets that Etiqa operates in, such as Singapore and the Philippines. Meanwhile, Insurance Association of Cambodia (IAC) chairman Huy Vatharo said that he has already heard about Etiqas plans to enter the market. More players in the market will be good for consumers, Huy told the Phnom Penh Post. It will create good products and services in the insurance industry for the benefit of Cambodians. The IAC is composed of 11 general insurers, seven life insurers, and one reinsurer, according to its recent annual report. Many senior leaders, including Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Odisha BJP unit president, were also present during the programme. Bhubaneswar: Former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi on Tuesday formally joi-ned the BJP during a programme held at the residence of party president Amit Shah in New Delhi. Many senior leaders, including Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Odisha BJP unit president, were also present during the programme. The bureaucrat-turned-politician is expected to return to Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Ms Sarangi said she chose to enter politics after voluntarily retiring from service, 11 years ahead of schedule as politics offered her a huge medium for offering service to the people. A member of the French Fiscal Council, Noyer is also advisor to the French government on Brexit-related issues. He worked for the French Treasury for more than two decades. We would like to congratulate Christian on his appointments and look forward to his invaluable contribution, said Lloyds. The key arrival, who was named director of the French Treasury in 1993, held the position of vice president of the European Central Bank for about four years from its birth in 1998. Noyer was also president of the Bank for International Settlements between 2010 and 2015. In its annual review of the private health insurance industry, ACCC revealed that $23.9bn in premiums was paid out last year, $834m more than in 2016/17 but the number of policyholders with hospital or combined health cover dropped 0.9% to 45.1%, and those with extras-only cover rose 0.3% to 9.2%, the Australian Associated Press reported. ACCC said many are also opting for policies with either lower cost with exclusions or have an access with copayments option, as policies with exclusions rose 44% from 40%, while hospital policies with excess increased 0.1% to 84%. People are increasingly feeling the pinch of private health premium increases and growing gap payments, Delia Rickard, ACCC deputy chair, told AAP. In response, many are shifting to cheaper products with reduced coverage, and some are dropping their cover altogether. During the year, private health insurers forked out $15.1bn in hospital benefits and $5.2bn in extras treatment benefits. Rickard also issued a warning to private health insurers as the implementation for new health insurance reforms loom close. Private health insurers need to be transparent about what is and isnt included in their policies or risk losing their customers trust and, ultimately, their business, Rickard told AAP. Our simplified structure will make us a stronger and more deeply connected insurer, one thats better able to anticipate the rapidly evolving needs of our broker partners and customers, said Tim Plant, Zurichs general insurance CEO. Our focus will continue to be the commercial intermediated insurance sector, and todays changes will strengthen this focus. From today, we will place even greater emphasis on our state and regional presence and empower our local teams to trade and make decisions closer to our customers. This new structure positions these proven leaders to accelerate the improvements and momentum that weve seen across our business in recent years, and ensure that we are bringing timely, relevant solutions and insights to our broker partners and customers. The changes will also see Steven Ord, chief distribution officer, depart the business. Ord has been at the forefront of driving Zurichs broker engagement strategy, and he leaves a proud legacy in terms of the capability he has developed across the team, Plant said. However, despite the tendency towards high aspirations, three quarters of survey respondents also said they have far exceeded the initial ambitions they had for their business. We think its a real positive that ambition shines so strongly in the broker community, said Phuong Ly, executive manager of broker and agency solutions for IAG. Its also good to see that brokers have ambitions not only for themselves, but also for their employees, customers and the community, he added. According to the research, the top four priorities for brokers are to increase their customer base and grow their business, to ensure their employees are happy, to make a positive impact in their communities, and to bring something innovative to the industry. To do all this at the same time is not easy and it is ambitious, Ly told Insurance Business. He also said it came as no surprise to him that brokers were interested in improving their communities. Brokers are often business-owners themselves and much like other small business owners I think they do want to make a positive impact beyond their core service of offering advice and support for insurance needs, he said. The majority of brokers are active members of their community and make significant contributions to charity, local events and fundraisers, and education to their communities, he continued. Its also great to see that brokers continually strive to improve the industry as this in turn helps support the ambitions of the businesses and individuals they serve. Scotiabank also plans to sell multiple banking operations in Anguilla, Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Vincent & the Grenadines to Republic Financial Holdings. The news of Scotiabanks Caribbean twist follows the banks fourth-quarter (Q4) earnings report, which fell short of analyst expectations. The Toronto-based bank earned $2.27 billion in Q4, up from $2.07 billion in the same period last year. However, the adjusted diluted earnings per share ($1.77) fell shy of analysts expectations of $1.79. Scotiabanks Q4 results were fuelled by the banks international business, which increased earnings by more than 21% in the quarter to reach $804 million. Reuters attributes the banks international success to growth in the Pacific Alliance trading bloc which comprises Peru, Mexico, Chile and Columbia, which makes up around 25% of Scotiabanks revenues. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has announced the acquisition of R.T. Beers & Company Insurance Services. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. R.T. Beers & Company is a California-based retail property-casualty broker serving clients throughout the country. It has a strong focus on risk identification and mitigation, and offers an exclusive group safety program for metal service centers. Ralph Beers, John Lavey, Guy Pakenham and their associates will continue to operate the firm from its current location in Long Beach, Calif. They will operate under the direction of Scott Firestone, Gallaghers head of retail property-casualty operations for the Southwest region. Obtaining regulatory approval in California is very important to Oyster and to our partner network, commented Oyster Insurance managing director Curt Stevenson. The majority of our larger digital distribution partners are not only based in the Bay Area, but have a significant amount of their small business customers throughout the state. In aggregate, 40% of our potential customers are based in California and we are committed to their success. Since the start of the year, Oyster has been providing workers compensation to more than 70 classes of business in New York and New Jersey. Initially, the insurer provided coverage for professional classes, such as software consulting firms, lawyers and medical and dental offices. Since then, Oyster has expanded into covering variety stores, groceries/delis, bakeries, eating places, drug stores, jewelry stores and florists. The program administrators coverage options include crop insurance, product liability, property insurance, transit/motor truck cargo insurance, insurance for stock, cyber insurance, general and premises liability. According to a release, QuadScores program is underwritten on Trisura Specialty Insurance paper, rated A-. The program is aimed at markets such as cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, retail, distribution, testing, warehousing and vertically integrated businesses. Our team of experienced underwriters are committed to quick turnaround time on quoting and overall excellence in service, the company said in a release. We see ourselves as more than a program administrator - we are partners vying for your success. QuadScores website says that its executive team has a combined 80 years of experience in a variety of industry sectors. The company also says that it conducts research for all areas of the cannabis industry, allowing it to better understand the nuances of conducting business. The program administrator sets itself apart from the competition through its genuine belief in the potential cannabis holds. Legislation, elections, and regulation are out of our control and will impact how we make adjustments to the cannabis industry. Our transparency and responsiveness in regards to claims and/or any questions you may have separate us from other players in the industry, a statement on the QuadScore website read. We are specialists providing customized risk solutions for our clients from seed to sale. Cannabis has potential for future medicines and economic growth of the country; we understand this potential and take servicing this industry very seriously. Vermont officials are seeking a second round of feedback from the public on a proposal to regulate home improvement and construction contractors. Lauren Hibbert, of the Office of Professional Regulation with the Secretary of State, says the initiative began after staff at the Attorney Generals Consumer Assistance Program noticed a high frequency of complaints about contractors from property owners. Vermont Public Radio reports Hibberts office has recommended what we would consider light regulation. The regulation could include a registry of contractors, required insurance and a written contract between property owners and service providers. Vermont law requires that the Secretary of States office conduct a cost-benefit analysis before creating a new professional regulation. Hearings are scheduled for Nov. 27 in Burlington, Dec. 4 in Springfield and Dec. 11 in Newport. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Contractors Insurance broker Marsh has been awarded the first licence to provide captive insurance management services in Abu Dhabi. Operating as Marsh Management Services (MENA) Limited, the firm has been authorised to provide captive insurance management services by Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). The AGDM is the International Financial Centre in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi aims to play a pivotal role in meeting the growing financial, insurance needs and requirements of the region, while connecting and strengthening links between the financial markets of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, said Ronny Vellekoop, senior executive officer, Marsh. Richard Teng, chief executive officer of the FSRA, said ADGM will continue to strengthen its captive insurance regime to provide users with strategic risk management and financial solutions to support their business ambition and growth locally and globally. Mr Modi said that the TRS government has failed to fulfil the aspirations of Telangana people. Nizamabad/Mahbubnagar: Addressing his first election rally in Telangana ahead of the December 7 Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday lacerated Telanganas ruling TRS and the Congress for perpetuating family rule and pursuing vote bank politics that destroyed development like termites. Calling the two parties two sides of the same coin, Mr Modi recalled caretaker chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Raos apprenticeship with the Congress while he served as a minister in the UPA government, and claimed that the two parties are playing a friendly match in the Assembly polls. The Prime Minister criticised the Congress for destroying India on all fronts. Now they (Congress leaders) are pointing out my caste, age of my mother and name of my father. Are these the issues for election debate in the country? he asked. The TRS chief hit back accusing the Prime Minister of lying for the sake of votes and the Congress hit out at Mr Modi for using politics of victimhood in his poll campaign to escape accountability and divert public attention from the failures of his government. Earlier, Mr Modi said, The Congress and the TRS are two faces of the same coin. Both parties are competing against each other on who tells more lies. He invoked Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to claim that had the political titan not been there, Indians would have needed Pakistani visa to visit Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana. Patel is widely credited for the annexation of the princely state of Hyderabad whose Muslim ruler did not want to join the Indian Union. At an election rally in Nizamabad, the Prime Minister said, The chief minister of Telangana and his family think they can get away with doing no work like the Congress... They have adopted the style of the Congress which ruled for 50-52 years without doing anything. But that cannot happen now. Mr Raos daughter K. Kavitha represents Nizamabad in the Lok Sabha. Mr Modi said that the TRS government has failed to fulfil the aspirations of Telangana people. If the BJP is voted to power in Telangana, simultaneous development will be possible like double engine force, he said. Mr Modi sought to invoke Telangana pride when he referred to AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisis recent remark that whoever became the chief minister of Telangana or undivided Andhra Pradesh had to bow before his party. Will you want a CM who bows at the feet of some leader instead of the people of Telangana? asked the Prime Minister at another rally at Mahbubnagar. Mr Raos TRS has friendly ties with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Owaisi. Mr Modi noted that Mr Rao had once said he would transform Nizamabad into a smart city like London but the place was still grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads. Mr Rao took strong exception to the Prime Ministers comments, saying How can you tell such a lie...I challenge you...Being in the responsible position of the Prime Minister you should not lie for the sake of votes. Voting for the 119 seats in Telangana will be held on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11. The Congress, which released its manifesto for Telangana polls on Tuesday, accused the Prime Minister of being solely responsible for lowering the level of public discourse in politics in the country and asked him to adhere to the advice of his predecessor Manmohan Singh to conduct himself in a manner which is worthy and consistent with his obligations as Prime Minister. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said that in 2014 the people of the country gave Mr Modi a full mandate, but instead of fulfilling the promises made to them he is pursuing politics of victimhood. Managing general agency and surplus lines broker, J.M. Wilson, has made a number of personnel changes in its transportation department with promotions and new hires in the Midwest. Josh Mauk was promoted to senior transportation underwriter in J.M. Wilsons Carmel, Indiana, office. He is responsible for underwriting new and renewal accounts for a wide variety of transportation risks, including trucking, non-trucking, business auto and public auto, as well as issuing policies and servicing accounts for independent insurance agents in Indiana. Mauk previously served the company as a transportation underwriter. Steve Francis has been promoted to transportation underwriter in the Arlington Heights, Illinois, office. He is responsible for underwriting new and renewal business, corresponding with carrier underwriters, and assisting independent agents in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska. Francis previously served as an assistant transportation underwriter. He joined the company in June, bringing four years of previous experience as a surety claims specialist and surety underwriter. Alex Mikos has been hired as assistant transportation underwriter in Arlington Heights. Mikos is responsible for assisting underwriters on a wide variety of commercial transportation risks, as well as quoting new and renewal business, corresponding with carrier underwriters and assisting independent agents in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. Prior to joining J.M. Wilson, Mikos worked for a mortgage company as a closing assistant, loan coordinator, and national training coordinator. Emelia Tollison has been added as a transportation underwriter in Madison, Wisconsin. She is responsible for underwriting new and renewal business, as well as corresponding with carrier underwriters and assisting independent agents. Prior to joining J.M. Wilson, Tollison was a personal auto liability claims adjuster for Esurance Insurance Co. With offices in eight states, J.M. Wilson provides coverage for standard and hard-to-place commercial transportation, property/casualty, professional liability, garage, personal lines and surety in thirty-six states. Source: J.M. Wilson Topics Agencies Underwriting Illinois The voters have spoken. Republicans have increased their slight advantage in the Senate, while Democrats have flipped the House and will now be in control there. Of course, President Trump, a Republican, still occupies the White House. Now what? What do the politics of the new Congress mean for the property/casualty insurance industry? While it is possible that the newly-divided 116th Congress could pass bipartisan legislation of interest to the property/casualty insurance industry, it is also possible that Congressional investigations, intraparty differences, and 2020 presidential politics will crowd out any real legislating, according to two insurance insiders speaking in an exclusive discussion with Wells Media. Last week, before the Thanksgiving holiday, Wells Medias Andy Simpson asked two Washington insiders who closely monitor and help shape property/casualty issues in on Capitol Hill to discuss the post-election dynamics and the ramifications for the property/casualty insurance industry. The experts offering their analyses and insights were: Ray Lehmann, co-founder and director of insurance policy at R Street Institute, a public policy and research group advocating for free markets and efficient government; and Charles Symington, senior vice president for external industry and government affairs at the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, the largest association of insurance agents and brokers. The complete exclusive Symington-Lehmann discussion, Now What? Americas Mid-Term Elections and the Property/Casualty Insurance Industry, is available free on Insurance Journal TV. Kicking off the discussion, Symington described the new landscape where each party has claimed some turf. I would almost call the election a tale of two races. You saw at the very least a blue rising tide in the House, and it looks like at the end of the day Democrats will most likely gain close to 40 seats in the House of Representatives, right now 38, 39 is probably the best guess. So that will give them a comfortable margin in the House of along the lines of a 16, 17 seat majority, said Symington. And in the Senate, like I said a tale of two races, you see Republicans picking up two seats, subject to a runoff in Mississippi where the Republican is expected to win. So, the margin in the Senate for Republicans will be 53/47. Theyll have that three-seat cushion. The agency system lobbyist then added some color: I will say while there may not have been a blue wave, although one could probably reasonably argue there might have been one in the House, there certainly was a green wave, and Democrats took advantage of that. In terms of the fundraising, Democrats had a very significant advantage in the House. A lot of times money talks, and I do think that was a contributing factor. Lehmann compares the Democrats wave this election to the Tea Party movement in the Republican Party and thinks Democrats may have some work to do uniting as a caucus. Whats interesting about the Democratic caucus in the House is unlike sort of the post-Tea Party Republicans, theyre a pretty fractious caucus. There isnt a single way to be a Democrat today. A lot of the new members are more moderate. They came from swing districts. Some of them are those Obama-Trump districts that had gone for Obama and then went to Trump in 2016, more working class, sometimes more labor oriented. Some of them are these suburban districts, which you would call the more Romney-Clinton districts that a lot of college educated women came out to vote and provided the margins. And so theyre going to need to build consensus within their own caucus first on what sorts of legislative priorities they have before they even get to the Senate, which actually I think it can work, Lehmann said. Lehmann recalled divided government did not work so well during the Obama White House but did work pretty well during the Clinton White House. So, which of those models or versions of divided government is going to emulate is something we dont know. We do know that in the Senate a large number of the members are going to be running for president from day one. And so how that affects whether they can cut a deal on things like infrastructure and actually try to provide governance, or if its just going to be the permanent campaign, well get to see, Lehmann said. Symington agreed that there are some moderates among the new Democrats but noted that there is also a lot of energy on the progressive side of the Democratic Party that will add to that fractious nature of their caucus in the House. He drew a parallel with the energy of the conservative caucus within the Republican House that sometimes makes it difficult for leadership to corral the troops and thinks Democratic leaders might face some a similar challenge. Symington and Lehmann both see potential obstacles to Congress addressing key issues. For Symington, there is the prospect of Democrats focusing on oversight and investigation of the Trump administration. I think that the House Democrats are going to spend a lot of time on that and I think thats going to impact the policy agenda in a number of ways. Now number one obviously if youre a fan or a supporter of some of the regulatory initiatives coming out of the Trump administration, those pro-business initiatives, its going to tend to slow that down a little bit, he said. Number two, theres only so much oxygen in the room in Congress as well, so as you have these committees of jurisdiction focusing more and more on oversight, well thats less time that they could focus on important policy matters, whether thats trade or flood insurance or crop insurance, added the Big I lobbyist. Lehmann worries that there are various senators plotting to run for president and there is a small, if any, window of opportunity for legislating before presidential politics kicks in. It kicks in from day one. I dont think were going to have a period where were not looking forward to November 2020, because weve been looking forward to November 2020 since November 2016, the R Street leader said. It is already in progress. That doesnt mean you cant get some legislating done also, but theres going to be a challenge and they will have to come up with a set of definable issues that they want to be legislating on. Despite the obstacles, they both also see room for optimism that some work will get done. They discuss the prospects in Congress for specific issues including flood insurance, terrorism reinsurance, data privacy, crop insurance, federal regulatory rollback, financial regulation, taxes, trade, marijuana and more. The two also reveal some of the important members of Congress who are leaving as well as current and new members of Congress with ties to the insurance industry. For more from the exclusive interview see: Insiders Symington, Lehmann Analyze Mid-Term Elections for P/C Insurance. The complete exclusive Symington-Lehmann discussion, Now What? Americas Mid-Term Elections and the Property/Casualty Insurance Industry, is available free on Insurance Journal TV. Their discussion on flood insurance can be be found here: Could Next Congress Actually Reform Flood Insurance? Topics Legislation Flood Property Property Casualty Market Casualty Burns & Wilcox has formed an exclusive partnership with London-based BreachAware, a cybersecurity company specializing in data breach research and analysis. This risk management program will serve as an extension of the cyber products and services offered by Burns & Wilcox and will allow commercial clients to better understand their exposure to compromised credentials, providing a proactive approach that can reduce the risk of compromise. The addition of this service could also lead to more favorable cyber insurance premiums for buyers. BreachAware is a proprietary risk mitigation tool that scans the web 24/7 and identifies compromised assets such as company email addresses, passwords, and personally identifiable information linked to employees of an organization. The tool can help to reduce the likelihood of account compromise and warns users of phishing attacks through instant, action-oriented alerts when new data is discovered. David Derigiotis, corporate vice president, National Professional Liability Practice leader, Burns & Wilcox, said the partnership with BreachAware allows it to pair cybersecurity and monitoring services with its specialty insurance products. Brokers and agents can offer their clients the BreachAware option to improve security, regardless if they have a cyber Insurance product, he added. Burns & Wilcox is a wholesale insurance broker and underwriting manager specializaing commercial and professional liability, property, marine and personal insurance. Topics Cyber Homes in wildfire-prone areas around the U.S. could be built to better withstand blazes without increasing the cost of construction, according to a new report. The research released Tuesday was sponsored in part by the insurance industry and marks the first attempt to quantify the expenses associated with building residences that meet stringent flame-resistant criteria. Few states have adopted such codes, often citing housing costs, but the new findings suggest fire-plagued communities could curb damage and save lives with minimal effect on home buyers. Its a proven method, Kelly Pohl, a research and policy analyst at the Montana-based wildfire policy consulting firm Headwaters Economics, who co-authored the report with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety on the report. We now know that its also a cost-effective method. The findings come days after a sweeping report from scientists for 13 federal agencies, who say that climate change will cause more devastating, costly and deadly fires, and that communities havent done enough to prepare. Insurers, safety advocates and disaster policy experts have urged state and local governments to toughen building codes a move thats often opposed by home builders over concerns it will increase housing costs, putting them out of reach of more potential buyers. Home that comply with wildfire code are 2% less expensive than traditional construction. The new research suggests that at least when it comes to wildfires, those concerns may be overblown. The report looked at a typical three-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot, single-story home constructed last year in Park County, Montana, an area at risk for wildfires. The authors compared two ways of constructing that home: One using standard techniques and materials, and the other conforming to the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, set by the nonprofit International Code Council in Washington. They found that adding a fire-resistant roof, vents and gutters on the home would increase material costs by $6,000, or about 27 percent. Fire-resistant doors and windows would also raise to the expenses by another $5,000. But those additional costs would be offset by the use of fiber-cement siding, which is fire-resistant and less than half the price of more commonly used cedar-plank siding. Altogether, the authors found that building the home to comply with the model wildfire code would be 2 percent less expensive than traditional construction. Accessible and Affordable State and local government officials across the American West may not realize that fire-resistant building codes dont raise housing prices, according to Stephen Quarles, chief wildfire scientist for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety and the reports co-author. He said he hopes the report persuades officials, as well as homeowners, to demand stricter construction practices. Wildfire research is still a very new science, said Quarles. This new report adds another layer of evidence that resilience is accessible and affordable. But he added the resistance to building codes in many rural communities is as much cultural as economic. There is, in some parts of the country, this desire not to be told how to build, Quarles said. It goes beyond how to build. Its how to live your life. Steve Snezek, executive director of the Montana Building Industry Association, which represents home builders, said his members are constructing houses that are increasingly fire-resistant, even in the absence of codes requiring more stringent techniques. A lot of people that are building homes out in more rural areas are looking for a little bit more protection, Snezek said in a phone interview. The market is working. Still, Snezek agreed that people in Montana werent keen to have the government tell them what to do. Theres certainly a live-and-let-live culture. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Catastrophe Wildfire Montana Relatives of the late conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly on Monday lost their appeal to block a St. Louis, Missouri, craft brewery from trademarking the Schlafly name. In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Saint Louis Brewery LLC, which was co-founded by Schlaflys nephew Thomas Schlafly, and had applied in 2011 to trademark the Schlafly name. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman said the name had acquired a secondary meaning and distinctiveness through sales of Schlafly-branded beer, and that surnames could be trademarked when that occurred. The brewery began selling beer with the Schlafly logo in 1991, and sales had reached 74.8 million cans, bottles and draft servings between 2009 and 2014. Phyllis Schlafly and her son Bruce Schlafly, an orthopedic surgeon, had claimed that trademarking the Schlafly name for beer could hurt their reputations by associating them with alcohol. Their lawyer Andrew Schlafly, of Far Hills, New Jersey, who is also a son of Phyllis Schlafly, said his clients plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Its unusual for a company to try to trademark a prominent surname such as this, Andrew Schlafly said in an interview. The law says words that are primarily merely a surname should not be trademarked. Saint Louis Brewery distributes Schlafly beer in more than one dozen U.S. states and Washington, D.C. This is a huge relief, Thomas Schlafly, who is also the brewerys chairman, said in an interview. It had never occurred to me that my relatives, who had no connection with beer, would oppose a routine trademark. The decision upheld an August 2016 ruling by the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Phyllis Schlafly founded the conservative Eagle Forum and was a forceful opponent of abortion, Communism and adding an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She died in September 2016 at the age of 92. A trust in her name was substituted as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The case is Schlafly et al v Saint Louis Brewery LLC, Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 2017-1468. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Richard Chang) Topics USA Corvus Insurance has secured $10 million in new venture financing that the Boston-based insurtech managing general agency plans to use to jump into additional lines of commercial insurance. Two firms led the startups Series A financing: .406 Ventures and Hudson Structured. Previous investor Bain Capital Ventures also committed to additional funding. To date, Corvus has raised $14 million in overall financing. Corvus bills itself as a broker-friendly MGA focused on offering smart, or technology-enabled commercial insurance. The company said it uses big data, the Internet of Things and other technology to help commercial insurance brokers and their clients predict and prevent loss. The companys CrowBar product uses customer-specific data to develop scoring that informs underwriting decisions and pricing. The data is then converted into free data analytics and business intelligence for commercial insurance brokers and their policyholders, Corvus said. The platform also allows 24/7 access to policy and claims information. Corvus has initially focused on cargo insurance, using data from temperature sensors to help predict and prevent spoilage claims. Argo Insurance is the primary cargo carrier. It also offers a cyber Insurance product that uses network security assessments and web scanning technology to give clients better pricing, enhanced coverage and tools for proactive risk management. Corvus said it is developing more commercial insurance products that will use data from a number of sources including private sources, government sources, mobile phones, cybersecurity scans, social media, Internet of Things sensors and satellite imagery. Founder and CEO Phil Edmundson previously ran a top commercial insurance brokerage, William Gallagher Associates, which was subsequently sold to Arthur J. Gallagher. Commercial insurance is a huge market that is ripe for innovation and theres a lot of investment interest. That stirs the pot and brings together insurance professionals with tech expertise and funds new ventures like Corvus, Edmundson told Insurance Journal earlier this year for a report on agent-inspired insurtechs. Edmundson said he expects the industry will see more insurtech startups focused on empowering brokers rather than those that want to displace them. We are not trying to disintermediate anyone, he said. We are trying to empower brokers because the present system moves a little too slowly in bringing tech-enabled insurance products to market. Topics Agencies InsurTech Commercial Lines Tech Business Insurance Insurance Wholesale Funding A Texas-based oil and gas company will pay $50,000 to settle a racial harassment lawsuit involving a black employee in North Dakota. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement Wednesday with Houston-based Murex Petroleum Corp. According to the lawsuit, Derrick Jenkins worked for Murex from April to September 2014 at its Tioga, North Dakota, facility. The EEOC says Jenkins co-workers directed racial slurs at him and made racially derogatory comments. It says Jenkins supervisor witnessed the harassment, but did nothing about it. The lawsuit says another African-American employee complained to a high-level executive at the company about the harassment, but no action was taken. The settlement requires Murex to revise its harassment policy to outline procedures for reporting complaints. A spokeswoman for Murex Petroleum was unavailable for comment. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Texas Energy Oil Gas An Alabama steel company is being fined more than $320,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over hazardous working conditions. Al.com reports OSHA announced the fine Nov. 13 for Montgomery-based Sabel Steel Service Inc. An agency news release says it inspected company plants in Montgomery, Dothan, Theodore and Newnan, Georgia, as part of a national emphasis program on amputations. It says it found that employees were exposed to amputation risks and the company wasnt safely controlling the release of hazardous energy during machine servicing. Sabel Steel Vice President Fred Callahan says the company disagrees with the findings and is set to meet with OSHA. OSHA says the company has 15 business days to comply, request a conference with the agency or contest the findings before an independent OSHA review commission. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Workers' Compensation Alabama Hawaii is giving a $10 million grant to the Big Island to help jump-start recovery efforts following the Kilauea volcano eruption. The Hawaii County Council adopted a resolution last week to accept the funding, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported. The funds must be used for the protection of health, safety and welfare of area residents, and for relocation planning for residents and agricultural enterprises adversely impacted by the volcanic eruption, according to a filing with the measure. The grant money, approved by Hawaii Gov. David Ige, will be directed for economic impact and relocation studies as well as housing vouchers, county finance director Deanna Sako told council members. The Big Island previously received $12 million in state funding for disaster response following the eruption in May. Of that amount, about $4 million is left, Sako said. County officials had tried to get the state Legislature to enter a special session so recovery efforts could be addressed. When the next legislative session begins in January, the county will seek about $150 million from the state to fund recovery efforts, said Roy Takemoto, an executive assistant to Big Island Mayor Harry Kim. The combined $22 million collected from the state so far will help address the islands immediate needs through June 2019, according a draft aid request. A work in progress budget identifies about $480 million in federal funding for long-term recovery that the island also plans to request, Takemoto said. Related: Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Businesses need to respond to Brexit and its challenges, as it will bring real changes for all of us, regardless of what form it takes, Tanaiste Simon Coveney has said. Speaking at the launch of a joint report between Cork Chamber and the British Embassy on growing economic links between the south-west and various UK regions, Mr Coveney said the importance of regional development could not be understated. Both of our companies have economies that are focused heavily on our capital cities. However, it is important that we focus on developing our next-tier cities as a strong counterbalance to capitals, he said. Wales provided a good example of the importance of a regional relationship, Mr Coveney said. Ireland is Wales fourth largest trading partner. There are an estimated 85 Irish companies with a presence in Wales, employing just over 5,500 people. This is a growing economic relationship, with the value of Welsh exports to Ireland 15% higher in 2017 than 2016. In addition, Welsh ports are one of the principal transit points for large quantities of Irish imports and exports, both to the UK and beyond. UK ambassador to Ireland, Robin Barnett said one of the priorities of Prime Minister, Theresa Mays Brexit strategies was to maintain frictionless trade in the deal agreed with the EU. The proposed deal would preserve and enhance trade in areas such as Cork and Limerick, he said, and the joint Cork Chamber-British Embassy report had identified areas in which to concentrate. One of the priorities set out was always to maintain frictionless trade of goods and as everybody here knows, the trade between the UK and Ireland is enormously important in both directions. This report is designed not only to ensure that we continue to have the levels of trade we do now, but my ambition for Cork and the whole south-west region, including Limerick, is actually that we are able to do much more in the future, the ambassador said. He said there was immense scope for partnership between the UK and the south-west, across a huge range of sectors such as IT, construction, and fintech. That is why we have people across the UK here from the Midlands, the North, Wales, because they are interested in the potential for the future, Mr Barnett said, referring to the UK presence at the launch of the report. Cork Chamber chief executive Conor Healy said World Trade Organisation tariffs would be the worst-case scenario for business in the region. The number of people arrested for being drunk in Cork city and county has increased dramatically and it is being attributed primarily to the improving economy. Figures released by the gardai show that arrests for drunkenness between last August and October numbered 436. During the same period last year there were 324 arrests, so there was a rise of 34%. Chief Superintendent Barry McPolin told a meeting of the Cork County Joint Policing Committee in County Hall yesterday that the likelihood was that this was due to more people being in employment and many having increased disposable income. He also told Cllr Michael Ahern that it could be due in part to gardai concentrating their resources at so-called hotspot times in the city and towns. Senator Jerry Buttimer said he was very concerned about the increasing level of drunkenness and the post-recession rise in drug use. Chief Superintendent Con Cadogan, who is in charge of the West Cork Garda Division, said that gardai had arrested 22 drug-drivers in his division so far this year, which was up seven on last years total. There has also been a notable rise in the number of traffic accidents in the region, which has again been put down in part to more people going to work. The number of non-serious injury collisions rose from 101 to 144 and material damage-only accidents increased from 1,323 to 1,394 in the comparable periods. Fortunately, the number of fatal accidents fell from two to one and serious injury accidents were also down from 22 to 18. Thefts from shops were up from 554 to 610 and theft from the person rose from 32 to 41. Chief Supt McPolin, who is in charge of policing Cork city, said thefts from vehicles had increased from 187 to 262 and the number of bicycles stolen rose from 85 to 98. The number of cars stolen was also up from 69 to 85. However, assaults causing harm and minor assaults were both down from 102 to 92 and 396 to 346 respectively. Public order offences were also down marginally to 467. But criminal damage incidents rose from 433 to 523 and arson increased from 35 to 51. The number of burglaries actually dropped by 70 from 290 to 220 which gardai said were down to specific operations against known gangs. The number of rapes reported rose to 22, but non-aggravated sexual assaults fell from 61 to 58. Some of the rapes were of a historic nature and gardai emphasised that people are more likely to report such crimes now than years ago. Rape survivor Lavinia Kerwick has challenged the Garda Commissioner, the Government, and the judiciary to match her bravery by bringing about major changes in the way victims are treated in sexual offence trials. Ms Kerwick made legal history in 1992 when, at the age of 19, she spoke out publicly about her court ordeal and the suspended sentence given to her attacker, shaming the nation by saying the experience was like being raped all over again. Her stance led to landmark changes in the law, namely the introduction of victim impact statements and powers for the director of public prosecution (DPP) to appeal lenient sentences. However, she said the courtroom was still a hostile place for victims a quarter of a century later. She said it was wrong that victims still had no legal representation in court and that defence lawyers could try to undermine them by referring to what they wore when they were attacked. The justice system broke me, said the now 44-year-old Co Kilkenny woman, who developed an eating disorder following the trial that left her close to death. It very nearly killed me. Rapists have nothing to lose when they go to court. They already know the system is flawed. They have everyone lined up barristers, solicitors, character witnesses and they will defend themselves by saying its the clothes that were worn, the underwear, and sure, you were up for it. The justice system will let this happen and all the while the victim is sitting there alone and wondering why she ever reported this in the first place. Her comments followed pleas by another rape survivor, Leona OCallaghan, earlier this month for restrictions on the points defence lawyers can raise in mitigation for defendants, and after outcry over a defence barristers reference to a 17-year-old girls lacy thong in a rape trial. Stop talking about what we wore, said Ms Kerwick. Rape is rape, we said no, and what we wore should be no excuse for rape. We will always remember what the rapist wore. It is ingrained in our memory forever and by that I mean belts to restrain you, gloves to put in your mouth so you cant scream, jeans to carry a knife to threaten you with. Its as clear as day the system isnt working and the last thing everyone here today wants is to go back to the old Ireland sweep rape under the carpet and pretend it isnt happening. Its happening and someone will be raped in Ireland and wonder is this rape worth reporting when the system is stacked against them. Ms Kerwick was addressing a gathering including Garda Commissioner Drew Harris for the publication of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centres annual report. Looking back now, I was brave, and thats now what I need you to be, Commissioner, she said. We are now at a crossroads and victims are crying out for change. Im going to now hand you back my bravery and ask you to go to the minister for justice, the judicial system, the rape crisis centres, victims, and survivors and say lets work together, lets be brave and lets never hear the words as the victim leaves the court: He might as well have raped me again. The Government has commissioned a review of all matters relating to the conduct of rape trials which is expected to be completed within weeks. Mr Harris gave his personal and professional commitment to treating sex offences as a priority. In responding to the challenge that was put down to me, yes, Im up for the challenge and that means An Garda Siochana is up for the challenge, he said. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centres report showed a substantial rise in activity on its 24-hour national helpline last year, with almost 13,000 contacts from people in distress. While victims of childhood sexual abuse continue to make up many of the callers, the numbers reporting recent rapes jumped by a third in 2017, following on from a similar increase the previous year. Mr Harris said the introduction of specialist protective services units in all Garda divisions would be complete by the end of next year to ensure local gardai had expert support when investigating sex crimes. Mr Harris said a sex crimes management system was also being put in place to monitor investigations and ensure consistency in how they are handled. I very much know and appreciate how difficult this is but it is vital that the victims of sexual crime do come forward and I would take this opportunity to ask victims of sexual crime, including rape, who havent done so up until now to please come forward. "We will listen, we will support you and we will investigate, he said. The national 24-hour rape crisis helpline is on 1800 778888. The Governments report into the broadband lobbying fiasco will face immediate whitewash claims if it says the project has not been damaged by Denis Naughtens serial meetings with the only bidder in the process. Fianna Fail communications spokesman Timmy Dooley issued the warning last night after it emerged the report leaks of which claim has cleared officials of wrongdoing will be published after Cabinet this morning. The report by independent expert Peter Smyth was commissioned by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in October in response to concerns over the transparency of the bidding process which threatened to collapse the Government. The concerns specifically involved repeated meetings by then communications minister Mr Naughten and Granahan McCourt chairman David McCourt, whose firm is key to the only bidder still seeking the multi-billion euro project. While Mr Naughten initially claimed that only one meeting took place, over a number of weeks it emerged that he met had Mr McCourt on nine different occasions while the tendering process was underway. Although Mr Naughten rejected any criticism of the meetings, he resigned on October 11 after being told by Mr Varadkar his position was no longer tenable. However, despite the situation risking a Government collapse and throwing the multi-billion euro national broadband plan into doubt, leaks in recent days have claimed the Smyth report will say the fiasco has not fatally wounded the project. Mr Naughten said last night that he will be making no comment until its [the report] published while a government spokesperson and a spokesperson for Communications Minister Richard Bruton declined to comment on the findings. However, speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Dooley said the report will leave itself wide open to whitewash accusations if it fails to acknowledge the seriousness of the scandal. Saying clear department guidelines on canvassing by tender bidders have been broken, Mr Dooley said if the report does not confirm the breach there will be genuine concerns at maybe an attempt at a whitewash. Noting the fact Mr Naughten resigned over the controversy and the likely questions from rival bidders over what happened, Mr Dooley said the report will need to thoroughly explain all aspects of the case. He added that it remains Fianna Fails position that there are serious concerns over the multi-billion euro broadband project and that the whole process may need to be re-examined if anything untoward is found. The Cabinet is today considering a plan to create a permanent flood relief scheme for small businesses and community organisations. It would see automatic payments of up to 5,000 for uninsured premises damaged by flood waters. A crusading mother who helped open the door to medicinal cannabis treatment in Ireland plans to stand for election as a Fine Gael candidate in West Cork in next years local elections. Yvonne Cahalane, from Dunmanway, in Co Cork, whose young son Tristan became the first person in Ireland to be licensed to import medical cannabis, confirmed that her name will be put forward at the partys selection convention for the West Cork municipal district next week. She is expected to be added to the ticket. When we were in a desperate situation, we asked for help, we asked everybody for help. We didnt just focus on one political party. And despite this being a controversial issue, Fine Gael were the only ones who took this up and did something about it, she said. If I can put myself in a position to help those who helped us, to stand beside the party that helped us, I cant think of a better way to thank them. She also called for the implementation of the proposed cannabis access programme, announced in February 2017, but which appears to have stalled. Ms Cahalane made headlines in 2015 when she launched a fundraising appeal for specialist medical marijuana treatment in the US for Tristan, who has Dravet Syndrome a rare and severe form of epilepsy. He was suffering up to 20 seizures a day, with some of the more severe seizures lasting up to an hour. Ms Cahalane and Tristan relocated to Colorado where the treatment over the course of a year transformed his life, before they returned home. They then made history in December 2016 when Tristan became the first person in Ireland to be licensed to import medicinal cannabis. They travel to the Netherlands every few months to collect his medication, while his treatment regime is being overseen by two Irish doctors. Ms Cahalane said while Tristan is now attending mainstream school, and the treatment is controlling his symptoms, it is not a cure. She began studying law at Griffith College and her vast research on medicinal cannabis led to her making recommendations to the Oireachtas Health Committee ahead of the drafting of the proposed Medical Cannabis Access Programme. Her priorities if elected to Cork County Council include ensuring Dunmanways playground becomes one of the most inclusive in the country, through the addition of extra disability friendly equipment. By Fiachra O'Cionnaith Ex-communications minister Denis Naughten has broken his silence on the broadband meetings controversy which forced him to resign from office, saying he has been cleared by the Government report into the scandal. In a statement on the 50-page Peter Smyth report this afternoon, the unaligned Independent TD said he has been found not to have done anything wrong, quoting the report by saying he "did not influence or seek to influence" the multi-billion euro procurement process. "I welcome the findings of the independent audit report by Mr Peter Smyth which concludes that I did not influence or seek to influence the conduct of the tender process in favour of Granahan McCourt and further concludes that the process has not been tainted," Mr Naughten's statement read. "I welcome the conclusion of Mr Smyths report not only for myself but for the 1.2 million people in rural Ireland waiting to be connected to high speed broadband. "I would now earnestly ask that the Government and all members of Dail Eireann carry through on the significant body of work that I completed during my time as Communications Minister to ensure that every home and business in Ireland gains access to high speed broadband without any further delay. "It should be noted that Mr Smyth also concludes that the communications protocol for the procurement process for the State-led intervention under the NBP does not expressly prohibit engagements between the bidders (or individual members of a bidding consortium) and the Department "As Minister my job required me to meet investors from all sectors under the remit of my former Department whether they were investors from telecoms, renewable energy, environment or natural resources. These investors are the men and women who provide jobs in our country. "It is important to note that a Competitive Dialogue Procurement Process requires dialogue and Mr Smyths Report details the significant level of engagement that the Department has been expertly managing since the process began. My sole objective throughout this process, during my time as Minister, was to deliver much promised broadband to rural Ireland. I am proud of the work that I achieved which has ensured that over one third of rural homes will, by next June, have access to up to 1000mbps pure fibre broadband. "I hope that once this procurement process has been completed that the remaining homes, farms and businesses will get access to this technology. "This should now be the only goal of our government and members of Dail Eireann at this point and I urge colleagues not to succumb to those who want to make a political issue of the NBP for their own ends and not that of the Country as a whole." Mr Naughten's statement was in response to the Smyth report's publication today, which cleared him of wrongdoing despite minutes of key meetings being absent - leaving the report's author "reliant" on statements from Mr Naughten, lead bidder David McCourt and other officials for "verification" of what was discussed at meetings "I cannot unequivocally state the State-led intervention under the national broadband plan was not discussed at the meetings between the former minister and Mr McCourt outside of the procurement process," Mr Smyth's report concluded. Meanwhile, National Broadband Ireland (NBI) also welcomed today's report which it says confirms that "at no stage did either Mr McCourt or Granahan McCourt influence the tender process in favour of Granahan McCourt or otherwise and any engagements with the Department have always been in the sincere interest of supporting investment in rural Ireland which the National Broadband Plan represents". A statement released by NBI said: "National Broadband Ireland has been committed to the National Broadband Plan (NBP) since the first days of consultation and will continue to fully support the Department with its procurement evaluation. "We look forward to continued engagement and remain committed to a successful conclusion to bring world-class connectivity to transform the lives of over a million people in rural Ireland." Review into National Broadband Plan clears Denis Naughten of wrongdoing By Daniel McConnell The Government-ordered review into the National Broadband Plan has cleared former Minister Denis Naughten of wrongdoing, despite minutes of key meetings being absent. As a result, consultant auditor Peter Smyth said he was reliant on statements from Mr Naughten, lead bidder David McCourt and other parties for verification of the purpose of those meetings. Therefore, I cannot unequivocally state that the State-led intervention under the NBP was not discussed at the meetings between the former minister and Mr McCourt outside of the procurement process, Mr Smyth's report concluded. However, Mr Smyth said: I am satisfied that the [sic] neither the former minister nor Mr McCourt had the opportunity to influence the conduct of the tender process in favour of Granahan McCourt or otherwise.Mr Smyth goes on to find that Mr Naughten's decision to resign further insulates the process from any perception of wrongdoing. I also believe that the decision of the former Minister to resign, thereby removing himself from the process insulates the process from any apparent bias created by his engagements with Mr McCourt, the report said. Mr Smyth added that based on the consideration of the data available to him including information available to Mr Naughten, decisions taken by him, changes to tender documents and an evaluation of submissions to Government he was satisfied that Mr Naughten did not influence or seek to influence the conduct of the tender process in favour of Granahan McCourt or otherwise. In his report, Mr Smyth examined communications between Mr Naughten and the American businessman David McCourt heading up the Granahan McCourt consortium, the sole remaining bidder for the plan which some estimates have said will cost up to 3 billion. Mr Naughten, an independent TD for Roscommon, as minister on October 11, two days after the Budget passed. The report, details that Mr Naughten when minister attended 40 meetings with representatives of one or more members of the consortiums tendering for the State-led intervention under the National Broadband Plan (NBP), 18 of which were with Granahan McCourt consortium. Mr Smyth confirmed that Mr Naughten met with Mr McCourt on nine occasions, a majority occurred after the NBP initiated a 'Detailed Solution Phase' which required Granahan McCourt to commit significant financial resources to the process. Eight of the meetings between the two men occurred after rival bidder Eir, had exited the process, meaning Granahan McCourt was the sole remaining bidder. Mr Smyth highlights two meetings one on January 31, 2018 in Dublin, June 26, 2018 in Dublin and a phone call on August 8, 2018 did relate to the bid. In his only criticism of Mr Naughten in the report, Mr Smyth said: Albeit it would have been preferable that the former minister was accompanied by a departmental official and that the meeting and the call were formally documented. However, he found: The fact that the former minister met Mr McCourt or representatives of the other bidders outside the process is not in and of itself a basis for the finding that the procurement process has been tainted. The report found the communications protocol for the procurement process does not expressly prohibit engagements between the bidders and the Department, which is state would have been impracticable in the context of the Departments ongoing work outside the procurement process. A young mum has issued a warning to other parents after online conmen posted a picture of her son on social media claiming he was missing. Tricia Greene from Gaoth Dobhair in Co Donegal was left shocked when she saw a poster of her son Callan claiming he was missing. The online appeal went viral and was shared more than 4,000 times on Facebook as well as Twitter and Snapchat by concerned members of the public. The bogus poster warned 'Still no sign of Caolan, if anyone has seen him or sees him can they please get in touch! "He's six years old, been missing since Friday and was last seen wearing the jacket in this picture, Barcelona top and joggies around Springburn Park area." The campaign, which used an actual picture of Callan, was widely shared in and around the Glasgow area of Scotland. Mum Tricia only found out about the bogus campaign when relatives in Glasgow became concerned about Callan thinking he was missing. They contacted Tricia only to find out that Callan was safe and well at home in Donegal. Tricia then spent hours trying to get to the bottom of the bogus online campaign and asking people to delete the message and not to share it anymore. She said she doesn't know why anybody would do this but said it must have been deliberate if they took a picture of Callan and put an appeal along with it. I just want to let other parents know that these things can happen. I don't know why anybody would do such a thing but it certainly gave me a fright. "I might never have known about this but for the fact that I have relatives living in Glasgow and they alerted me to it. "Thankfully Callan has never been missing and that's all that matters. But I would hate for any other parents to get the fright that I got when I read this," she said. One of the countrys most notorious convicted killers is awaiting a decision on an action he is taking to strike down Irelands communication data laws. Graham Dwyer claims that the data gathered by gardai from his mobile phone under powers in the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 should not have been used at his trial in the Central Criminal Court. The Cork-born architect was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2015 for the murder of Elaine OHara, whose remains were recovered at a forest at Killakee in the Dublin Mountains in September 2013. Communication data, including location data, gathered from Dwyers work phone placed the phone at a specific place at a particular time. That data was used to link Dwyer to another mobile phone (referred to as the master phone) that the prosecution said Dwyer acquired and used to contact Ms OHara. Ms OHara used another mobile phone (referred to as the slave phone), which was recovered by gardai. The garda investigation traced the movements of both phones and the times of contacts between them. Dwyer, who denies killing Ms OHara, is claiming the provisions are unconstitutional and breach his rights under the EU Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to privacy. In his action, Dwyer is citing the 2014 ruling of the European Court of Justice, which declared the 2006 EU directive to be invalid. The court said the directive failed to make express provision for sufficient safeguards for the protection of fundamental rights. It made the judgment in relation to a case taken by Digital Rights Ireland against the minister for communications, which was referred by the Irish High Court to the ECJ. Dwyers counsel claims that the 2011 Act suffers from the same flaws as the directive. His counsel said the garda decision to arrest Dwyer in October 2013 was based to a significant extent on the data disclosed by mobile phone providers. The State does not accept the arguments and maintains that Dwyers application is misconceived. The State further argues that laws that allow authorities to access communication data are extremely important in the detection of serious crime. A ruling on Dwyers action is expected soon. A High Court judge has overturned an emergency care order under which a day-old baby was forcibly removed from his mother at a maternity hospital due to serious concerns of risk to his health and life if she left there with him. The court upheld an interim care order under which the baby remains in foster care. In a significant judgment concerning the rights of newborns and parents in such situations, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan ruled the ECO was a nuclear option sought by the Child and Family Agency (CFA) which was not constitutionally proportionate or compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights. The jurisprudence of the ECHR makes clear State authorities must consider all possible alternatives to the removal of the child from its family and the action taken must be proportionate, he said. Article 42A of the Constitution, demands no less and requires, where the State endeavours to supply the place of the parents, it must act always "with due regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of the child". While there was more than ample evidence of potentially very serious risk to the baby if the mother was allowed to leave hospital with him, the taking of a newborn baby into public care at the moment of its birth is an extremely harsh measure. The CFA knew in advance of the birth-induction date and of potential risk to the child but, when seeking the ECO, provided no evidence it had even considered any alternative to forcible removal, such as detaining the baby in hospital for a few more days and permitting his mother supervised access, he said. There was a world of difference between that and the baby being forcibly taken from his mother and brought to an unknown location. The removal was hugely traumatic for mother and baby, and for gardai and social workers involved, who acted with great sensitivity. Immaculate conception The judge noted the mother was initially calm but later became aggressive, insisting God had given her the child through immaculate conception and they could not take him. She had a Bible in one hand and the infant was on her lap and there was concern he could fall to the ground. The mother was strong and gripped the baby tightly but he was eventually removed using minimal force, the judge said. While quashing the ECO, the judge disagreed that the manner in which the ICO was made two days later breached the rights to fair procedures of the parents, whose several other children are also in foster care for reasons including concerns by social workers about the mothers mental health, domestic violence and neglect. The parents had not opposed those care orders. The parents, who were separately legally represented at the ICO hearing, had argued their lawyers had insufficient time to prepare for it and the District Court should have adjourned the application. Mr Justice Noonan noted the Supreme Court has said the requirements to take steps to protect children may sometimes take precedence over rights of parents to fully participate in such hearings. One of the reasons these parents had little time to prepare for the ICO hearing was their "steadfast" refusal over years to engage with the CFA or disclose their addresses and they had not sworn affidavits disputing the CFA reports, he noted. His reserved judgment concerned proceedings by the mother and child against the CFA alleging their rights were breached in how the ECO and ICO were made. The father, a notice party, supported those arguments. The judge noted the mother attended a medical centre in 2015 with two of her children who had serious burns not consistent with explanations provided by the parents. The oldest child, a teenager, was also missing for four days without any notification to gardai or the CFA. The mother had said angels, spirits and demons were molesting the children at night and medical staff, social workers and others had voiced concerns about her mental health arising from strange behaviours. During this pregnancy, she missed several ante-natal appointments but had 12 emergency room attendances. A few days before her due date, she insisted she wanted the baby out immediately, that demons, spirits and angels were coming for her and she had to save the baby from them. At a pre-birth case conference both parents failed to attend, it was concluded an immediate and serious risk to the health and welfare of the baby would be triggered as soon as the parents learned of ECO proceedings. The ECO was granted on foot of evidence from social workers and a psychiatrist whose concerns included what the mother might do if she thought the baby was possessed. A scheme which could help increase the population on the seven islands off West Cork cannot supply the social houses needed because it costs around 40% more to build homes on the islands than on the mainland. Cork County Council is to write to Government departments seeking to have adjustments made to the Repair and Lease Scheme. Under the scheme a person who owns a derelict building can get up to 40,000 to refurbish it and then lease it back to the local authority for a period of 15 to 20 years. Sinn Fein councillor Paul Hayes said there were many derelict buildings which could be refurbished on the islands, but owners will not sign up to the scheme because building costs are far higher way more than on the mainland. He told colleagues there were 42 applicants on the councils housing waiting lists who had expressed a preference for living on the islands, but there were no houses for them. Mr Hayes said it is vital that new blood is brought onto the islands to ensure their survival. He said he and fellow councillors from West Cork had recently met with Islands Interagency Group representatives who had pointed out that people would like to apply for the Repair and Lease Scheme, but the cap is too low. It costs a lot more because builders have to factor in transporting construction equipment and material to the islands and they also have to factor in the possibility that their machinery will be trapped on them during bad weather, said Mr Hayes. The current cap is totally inadequate. It could potentially be a great scheme if this cap was increased. It would help save schools on the islands and businesses. Its unlikely that many council houses will be built on the islands, so we have to explore other ways of getting more houses into use. So the Repair and Lease Scheme is potentially the best vehicle to get houses. There are lots of older, empty houses on the islands that could be renovated, leased back to the council, and then allocated to needy families and individuals on the waiting list. Sinn Fein councillor Eoghan Jeffers supported his motion and said that in many cases even on the mainland 40,000 wouldnt be enough to bring a derelict building up to a proper standard. Independent councillor Danny Collins said it would make it more attractive to owners of derelict sites if the 15- to 20-year lease was reduced to 10 years. The cost of construction is going up the whole time and 40,000 isnt enough any more, said Fianna Fail councillor Seamus McGrath. Fine Gael councillor Mary Hegarty said that it costs the county council considerably more to maintain services on the islands because of transport costs and the Government should recognise this added expense when it comes to the cap on the Repair and Lease Scheme. The mayor of County Cork, Patrick Gerard Murphy, supported the call and said the council would write to the Government departments involved in the scheme to point out the disadvantage islanders are under. Council chief executive Tim Lucey also said there was a need for the Government to review the cap. Frank OFlynn of Fianna Fail and Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley felt that the council should be doing more to advertise the scheme nas it would also help regenerate vacant properties in villages . A man sitting in the foyer of a Cork city hotel challenged a stranger who stole his bag only to be caught by the throat and pinned against the wall and yesterday the attacker was jailed for five months. Judge Olann Kelleher said: This is a very serious assault. The injured party was grabbed by the throat and pushed against the wall. He was a much bigger man than the victim. Judge Kelleher said the maximum penalty for a simple assault is six months. He took into consideration the plea of guilty by the defendant and imposed five months. A concurrent five-month term was imposed on him for the theft. Frank Buttimer said yesterday at Cork District Court on behalf of John Long, 31, that he remained at the scene to await gardai when confronted by a member of staff who intervened: The injured party was upset by the matter. Mr Long apologised to the injured party and repeats that apology today. It was a random act of opportunism where the defendant observed the bag and he was detected immediately. He was undergoing some difficulty with homelessness which neither explains nor excused his behaviour but he did what he did in that context. Sergeant Annmarie Twomey said Long had 102 previous convictions, including eight for simple assault and three for assault causing harm. Judge Kelleher described his track record as terrible. Long pleaded guilty to charges of assault and stealing a bag from the man at the Clayton hotel on Lapps Quay, Cork, on September 10. Garda Anita ORourke objected to bail being granted to the 31-year-old on the basis that the alleged offences were too serious. He was remanded in custody since the date of his arrest. The injured party was sitting in the foyer of the hotel at 9.20am when a man picked up his bag and walked towards the front door with it. The injured party followed him and said the bag belonged to him. The injured party was pushed against the wall and grabbed by the neck.He said he was sore and shaken after what happened, Garda ORourke testified. The Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has dismissed calls for the party to end its policy of abstention from the British House of Commons. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar believes the party should use its votes to boost support for the Brexit deal. More than 3,000 people have applied for 600 customs officer roles to shore up Irish ports and airports from any Brexit fallout. Tanaiste Simon Coveney and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will reveal the figure in a joint Cabinet memo today as part of a wider Brexit contingency plan. From young people stoned all day long to life-changing health benefits the pros and cons of cannabis are scrutinised in a probing TG4 documentary due to air tomorrow night. As part of the ongoing Tabu series looking at issues affecting Irish society, 22-year-old NUIG student Daire Ni Chanain is on a mission to find a way of dealing with her anxiety and depression that is not pharma-led. Daire is particularly keen on testing the potential benefits of CBD oil. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a naturally occurring cannabinoid constituent of cannabis. Daire encounters Bobby Smyth, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist working in HSE adolescent addiction services, who believes people are confusing the potential benefits of CBD with cannabis. Dr Smyth warns that CBD is just one chemical within the cannabis plant but that the perception seems to be that the whole cannabis plant is somehow safe or harmless or a medicine. In fact, chronic use of cannabis by young people is a major problem. At this point in time, cannabis is the biggest contributor to our workload of all the drugs out there, he says. I really have been blindsided by the severity of the addiction related to this modern weed. It is the only drug in adolescence where people use it from first thing in the morning til last thing at night. They are stoned all day long. He believes it would be a mistake to make cannabis freely available to anyone to prescribe for any condition. I would end up seeing a lot more teenagers who are addicted to this drug, he says. Colin Doherty, neurologist at St Jamess Hospital, says CBD is not a dangerous drug but THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is. THC is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis and Dr Doherty says theres a section of our society, particularly young people, adolescents, who are addicted to street versions of cannabis with THC in it. On the flip side, Daire meets a number of women who swear by the health benefits of CBD to alleviate the symptoms of their own chronic health conditions, or the symptoms of their children. Among them is medicinal cannabis campaigner Vera Twomey, from Aghabullogue, Co Cork, who fought a high-profile campaign on behalf of her daughter Ava, who has Dravets Syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. Ms Twomey travelled to the Netherlands last summer so Ava could receive CBD oil and THC oil to help alleviate the symptoms. Towards the end of 2017, Ava was granted a special licence which allows her to receive cannabis treatments at home. Ms Twomey says her daughter is now seizure-free. Shes smiling from her eyes, the suffering isnt in her eyes anymore, she says. Shes got seizure freedom, shes got space to grow, opportunity to improve. The fight has to continue until we get to the stage where medicinal cannabis is accepted as an option in this country, says Ms Twomey. TABU: Cinneadh Cannabais (Medicinal Cannabis) airs tomorrow night at 9.30pm on TG4. Low-lying quays in Cork city centre may suffer localised spot flooding at high tide just before 9am tomorrow as the south coast braces for winds gusting up to 130kmh. A Met Eireann status orange wind warning has been issued as a weather system tracks towards Ireland. Severe winds associated with Storm Diana are expected to arrive at around 6am tomorrow with south to southwest winds of 65 to 80kmh gusting up to 130 kmh. Tidal surges of 0.6m -0.75m are expected which could give rise to coastal flooding in some locations, depending on the wind direction and the exact timing of peak wind conditions. High seas are expected also, with the associated risk of coastal flooding. In Cork, the county councils Severe Weather Assessment Team convened today to discuss the forecast. A Met Eireann Status Orange Wind warning has issued for a weather system tracking towards Ireland. Severe S-SW winds of 65 to 80 km/h will gust 110 to 130 km/h. High seas expected with a risk of coastal flooding, valid from 06:00 until 12:00 28 Novemberhttps://t.co/1ilGlGa7Ho pic.twitter.com/eGAkyoqfIX Cork County Council (@Corkcoco) November 27, 2018 They urged road users to exercise extreme caution, particularly tomorrow morning, due to surface water on roads and debris. They said overall, the outlook is for disturbed conditions over the next five days bringing high rainfall across the country with highest rainfall expected in the west and southwest. In Cork city, the city council said low-lying quayside areas may experience localised spot flooding. Traffic restrictions may be in place from around 8am to 10am around Morrisons Island, Fr Matthew Quay, Union Quay, Wandesford Quay, Frenchs Quay and Crosses Green. Attempts to ban public funding for abortions could lead to means testing for those seeking terminations and discrimination against impoverished women, TDs have warned. The comments came as the Dail continued to debate the passage of legislation to enact the Yes vote to grant women access to abortions. Independent TD Carol Nolan had moved a motion in report stage to stop public funds being used for terminations. Carol Nolan Several TDs said the move went against the outcome of the referendum and would lead to a two-tier health system for women in Ireland. Fianna Fails Billy Kelleher said the motion amounted to means testing for women in need of an abortion, while Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Brid Smith said the proposal was not logical, equal, or fair and would only allow rich women access abortion. Ms Nolan said taxpayers were being asked to pay for killing while Independents Mattie McGrath and Peadar Toibin backed her motion. Lisa Chambers of Fianna Fail warned that, without public funding for terminations, women would be forced to remain pregnant against their will. Citizens did not vote for inequality or to erect barriers to the most impoverished in society, said the Mayo TD. Jonathan OBrien of Sinn Fein said it was rubbish to say that if no public funds went on abortions, more money would be available for other health services. He said the World Health Organisation had found that 7m women are admitted to hospitals worldwide every year due to unsafe abortions. Health Minister Simon Harris said the intention was to make abortion free and safe in Ireland and not to divide people. Ancient Egyptians believed shaving was associated with cleanliness but Greeks were proud of their beards, which symbolised authority and wisdom, writes Lucy Newton Recording the human face in art is a long-held tradition, from the Roman Bust to the 15th century Dutch painting. The portrait signals power, prestige and wealth. Corporations have also used portraits to depict their leaders. For example, UK retail banks have been collecting images of their founders and chairmen since the 18th century. These paintings remain on proud display in London head offices. For a company, the portrait provides a public face and identity to an impersonal institution. But portraits can also reveal interesting trends and attitudes towards appearances. Research I carried out on portraits with my colleague Victoria Barnes revealed some interesting results. One article published in the journal Enterprise and Society analysed the commissioning of bank managers portraits in the early 19th century. The research showed that, from a very early stage, newly formed joint-stock banks realised the value of such art works and used them to successful create a corporate identity and signal their place in the market. Another article, published in the Journal of Management and Organisational History, examined how Lloyds Bank began collecting portraits of past bank chairmen in the 1960s and put them on display in their head offices. One thing that stood out to us in this research is the changing patterns in mens facial whiskers over the decades. Recent fashion has embraced all forms of facial hair, but it has not always been so well accepted. Bears were an important part of the Viking warrior uniform. Nejron Photo / Shutterstock Ancient Egyptians believed shaving was associated with cleanliness. Greeks were proud of their beards, which symbolised authority and wisdom. Roman whiskers tended to be less luxurious and neater, while Vikings sported large beards and moustaches, their fearsome appearance adding to their formidable reputation in combat. Conversely, later armies often discouraged facial hair as beards could be seized in battle by the enemy to incapacitate a soldier. Beards thrived in the UK in the Medieval and Tudor periods. Most of Elizabeth Is key advisers have beards in their portraits. Charles I (1600-1649) famously sported a small and neatly trimmed beard, combined with a moustache. His whiskers may have been famed but they did not prevent his execution. Then, the late 17th and 18th century witnessed the return of the clean shave in Europe, providing abundant work for barbers. In the early 19th century, beards returned with a flourish. But they were associated with left-wing, anti-capitalist revolutionaries. Just picture Karl Marx. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, authors of the Communist Manifesto. Wikipedia Fashions changed again from the 1850s. As revolutions across Europe were extinguished, in Britain the Victorians enthusiastically embraced beards and muttonchops big long side burns that connect with a moustache. For them, the beard signaled power, masculinity and status. This was an age when British trade, commerce and industry were in the ascendance. Masculinity was therefore on display during a period of supreme confidence and economic success. This really was a time of peak beard. Beards and business Within companies, the beard has a mixed history, usually depending on contemporary fashions. From 1850 to 1900, British businessmen usually had some form of facial hair. Visit the halls of many UK institutions with a history back to the 19th century and youll see a line of portraits of men with beards. The Edwardians at the turn of the 20th century, in contrast, rejected the full facial hair of their forebears and adopted the moustache. At a practical level, those fighting in World War I shaved off their beards to ensure their gas masks fitted properly. But they often retained their moustaches. The preference for a smooth shave with only a moustache followed thereafter during a period of mixed economic fortunes for British business, interrupted by two world wars and disrupted by the loss of Empire. As successive generations attempted to move away from the one before them, the beard found favour again in the hippy-influenced 1960s and 1970s. The Beatles led this trend. Facial hair fell out of fashion in the 1980s and 1990s, when trustworthiness in business was signalled by a clean shave. Indeed, companies such as HSBC even had a clean shave policy at this time, according to archivists Ive spoken to there. This was an era of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and free-market capitalism. And, of course, more women were visible in both politics and business. Charles Geach (1808-1854), founder of the Birmingham and Midland Bank, sporting some serious side burns. HBSC Group Archives, 1850. J. Partridge., Author provided Reflecting the face of corporations, company portraits reflect trends in the appearance of businessmen and women. More recently they also reflect changes in the way that companies project their identity. They are no longer merely a procession of middle-aged, white, senior male managers with beards, as seen in the portraits of 19th-century bankers. Banks now display images that are more diverse of people from various levels of the company, of women and different ethnicities. Thus, the company portrait survives but reflects progression in the society in which it is embedded. Changing fashions in facial hair also opens opportunities for business. Barbers services and beard products allow men to groom in style. This reinforces the growing trend for men to spend more time and money on their appearance, a trend which shows no sign of abating. A growing popularity of beards is, obviously, less good for those producing razors. Facial hair has traditionally signalled masculinity. As 21st-century businesses are, of course, gender diverse, facial hair will never be the essential work accessory, but rather a style choice and positive vehicle for charity fundraising through initiatives including Movember and Decembeard. After recent research in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology found that all women questioned preferred men with facial hair, there may be more than just a business case for men to keep their whiskers. Whatever the motivation for hair growth, it looks like the beard will always be with us. This article was written by Lucy Newton of University of Reading and was originally published on The Conversation Read the original article here. As Fortitude gets one more series, Irish actor Richard Dormer reflects on the fun hes had making the show, writes Georgia Humphreys ITS impossible to ignore how emotional Richard Dormer feels about the end of Fortitude. Tears suddenly start rolling down the Northern Irish stars cheeks, as he discusses the Sky Atlantic sci-fi thriller. Now in its third and final series, the 49-year-old plays the mad and sinister Sheriff Dan Anderssen, at the centre of the crazy goings-on in a close-knit community located in the Arctic Circle. Some characters, some jobs, some souls you can relate to, Dormer says candidly, as he dabs at his eyes, and tries to pinpoint exactly why this has been the most emotional shoot hes ever done. Just personally, in my life Ive been going through tough times and this guy is doing the same thing, hes trying not to lose himself. Its kind of a reflection of where I am, and that journey of someone trying to hold on to the things he loves. But filming the series, which was created by Simon Donald, has been cathartic. Its therapy time for me! quips the actor, whos also known for his role as Beric Dondarrion in the HBO television series Game Of Thrones. Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion in Game of Thrones So far in Fortitude, weve seen a lot of deaths, and some bonkers storylines, such as a killing spree by a parasitic wasp, and the rampage of a shaman seeking revenge. And Dan having survived the parasite, and a host of other traumatic events has lost his way. The new episodes will see the complex character struggling to hold on to any sense of good and evil. Hes evolved, hes a new human being... or maybe not human, offers Dormer. Hes a demon, hes lost his morality, his humanity. But hes stronger and wiser than ever, so thats pretty scary. Hes also seeing ghosts and things that others cant see. Dormer continues: As well as being addicted to every substance on the planet, hes now addicted to muscimol juice; when reindeer have eaten fungi and then they pee, and they collect the pee. Eskimos used to actually do this to be able to have visions of the afterlife or the land of the dead. Dan has one foot in this world and the other foot in the land of the dead so he can communicate with the people who he has killed. COLD COMFORT The final instalment of the show, which also stars the likes of Dennis Quaid, Luke Treadaway and Sienna Guillory, was shot in Svalbard, Norway. At times, the weather dropped as low as -35 degrees, -50 with wind chill. Its where the show is originally set, says Dormer, and it really added a new dimension to the characters because we were informed by the severity and the absolute brutality of that landscape. How did he find it being in a much colder environment for this series? If you take your glove off to light a cigarette, within 20 seconds it hurts, he admits. And if youre going out for a walk youve got to tell somebody, because if you slip and get knocked unconscious, youre dead in 10, 15 minutes. So you have to be really careful. But theres no denying this added element of danger helped with his performance. I think everybody just got tougher and meaner and then whenever we do the interiors, when its warm and cosy, out comes this extreme gentleness and love. So you get those extremes. We tried to get them in the first two seasons but I think they really come out in this one. The show isnt an easy watch, with its heavy themes of loss, death and identity. But it has amassed a huge cult following, perhaps for the clever way it balances elements of horror (expect some gruesome scenes) and sci-fi. UNBOUND CHARACTER It also feels kind of Greek, notes Dormer. Dan is kind of Prometheus because hes stolen this gift... Hes stolen the power to regenerate, to become godlike, and with that power of course comes the responsibility and its how a human being deals with that. He adds boldly: Having played this part, I could play anything because nothing could take me as far into darkness and light. This part has just been extraordinary. It may be time for him to say a sad goodbye to the role, but at least Dormer is going to keep a prop to remember Dan by - his gun. Its the best gun on television, he boasts. Dan is an Arctic sheriff; hes like a western sheriff and hes kind of styling himself on that. So we got this beautiful gun holster made and 9in barrel magnum, and its a real gun! Fortitude is a job Dormer has clearly relished in more ways than one. Im really going to miss it because its like Dans my best friend, he elaborates. Hes a monster but I play him like nobodys truly a monster; theres a deep humanity in him and I think thats what makes him interesting. If he ever does anything wrong, you know its going to hurt him later. He has a conscience. Even though hes losing his humanity, theres still a little seed of goodness in him, and thats what I hold on to when Im playing him - that he could redeem himself. Fortitude returns to Sky Atlantic on Thursday, December 6 The refusal of State agencies to publish statistics on their use of controversial surveillance powers is in breach of the States transparency duties under the law, a leading legal expert says. TJ McIntyre, law lecturer at UCD and chairman of Digital Rights Ireland, congratulated the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) for breaking ranks with State agencies and voluntarily publishing figures. Mr McIntyre was reacting to a special report in the Irish Examiner yesterday on the States use of secretive and controversial spying powers. In the report, three key state agencies An Garda Siochana, the Defence Forces, and the Revenue Commissioners refused to provide figures on their use of powers which allows them to access peoples private communication data from phone companies and internet firms. However, following repeated queries from the Irish Examiner, the Garda Ombudsman eventually agreed to publish limited data, which revealed it had secured information of peoples communication data almost 100 times between 2012 and 2017. This newspaper also revealed that all state agencies had made 1,250 disclosure requests to four major internet firms (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Twitter) over the last five years. In addition, the countrys largest mobile phone operator, Vodafone, agreed to 16,500 disclosure requests from the agencies over a three-year period. Under the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011, designated state agencies can access communication data for the prevention, detection or investigation of a serious offence (Garda Siochana, Revenue, GSOC), safeguarding the security of the State (gardai, Defence Forces) and the saving of human life (gardai). The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission also has the power, but has not yet used it. The Irish Examiner sought details almost three weeks ago of use of this legislation from the Department of Justice, which receives an annual report directly, or through other government departments from the relevant agencies. No information has been provided to this newspaper, as of yet, by the department. Commenting on the refusal by the gardai, Defence Forces, and Revenue to provide statistics, Mr McIntyre said: A failure to publish statistics on use of this surveillance power is in breach of the States transparency duty under section 9 of the 2011 Act. This section relates to the obligation of the State agencies to provide an annual report to the Department of Justice, either directly in the case of gardai (and GSOC), and indirectly through the minister of defence by the Defence Forces and through the finance minister by Revenue. The chairman of Digital Rights Ireland commended the Garda Ombudsman for its decision to publish figures on its usage of the provisions and said it highlighted the secretive culture of the other agencies. Im happy to see GSOC displaying how its possible to have transparency in this area, which shows up the reflexive secrecy on the part of the other state agencies, he said. DGI took a High Court case here that led to a landmark decision in April 2014 by the European Court of Justice, which found that the 2006 EU Data Retention Directive was incompatible with the EUs Charter of Fundamental Rights. Whats involved in data access? Is accessing my communication data the same as bugging? No. Bugging of your phones (interception) involves eavesdropping on what you are saying. Its a separate power (also covers online content) and requires authorisation by the Minister for Justice. Bugs as in placing audio/visual surveillance devices in homes, cars, or other places is not the same either and that requires a court order. So, what data are we talking about? Communication data can be broken down into three areas.First, subscriber data. This will identify the number of a landline or mobile phone and the identity and address of the user/subscriber (unless its a pay-as-you-go phone). Second, call data records. This includes details of the number calling and the number called, for outgoing and incoming calls (also revealing the frequency and intensity of calls). It tells the type of communication, whether voice or text. It will give details of the handset used, the start and finish time of the call (giving the duration) and where the call entered the system (nearest mast), providing the information on the location of the communication. Handsets can also be pinged in a bid to locate the device, often used in missing person cases. Third, internet data records. This includes the equivalent subscriber data and communication data. It also includes the IP addresses of a digital device being used, email addresses, names and addresses of user, when they registered, web history, credit card,and other billing information. For example, Facebook says the request relates to its various products, including Facebook itself, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Accessing this data is done internally in the agencies with the power (the Gardai, the Defence Forces, Revenue, Gsoc, and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission). Whats the big deal with it? One judge here described communication data as a vast store of private information. Its information that goes back years. It can provide a detailed insight into what you have swiped on your phone and your network of contacts. Mr Justice John Murray examined the law and published his report just over a year ago. He said this stored data provides a historical record of all your communication over a lengthy period two years for telephone communications and one year for internet communications. He said: Although routinely referred to in anodyne terms as data or retained data, this vast store of private information touches every aspect of an individuals private and professional communications profile over a lengthy period. He said this data has special importance when considering the principle of protection of journalistic sources. Speaking in Dublin, UN Special Rapporteur on Privacy Joseph Cannataci said communication data isnot less any less sensitive than content data and it canactually reveal a lot more about you. He said this includes information of all websites you have looked at, each click you have made, every swipe on your smartphone, every telephone call you made or received, the times of the calls, who the calls were made to. He added: They will have a more intimate knowledge of you than access to some content data. In its report in January 2018, the Oireachtas Justice Committee said: Access to communications data can allow an observer to create a detailed outline of a persons personal, social, and professional activities and networks, and even of that persons interests and opinions. How are the gardai using these powers and are they abused? Firstly, its not just the gardai, though they are by far the greatest users of the power. The Defence Forces can seek access to this information for reasons of protecting the security of the State. Revenue can do so when investigating tax and customs offences (such as tobacco and oil smuggling). And GSOC can use it when investigating suspected criminal offences involving guards, which can include and has included accessing the records of journalists. Gardai seek this information when investigating serious crime, prevention of the loss of life (e.g. in child kidnap cases), missing persons investigations, and national security. The recent case of Graham Dwyer is an example of the type of cases where such information can be crucial in both investigating a crime and securing evidence for a prosecution. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has said that the State has a positive obligation established by European courts and conventions to investigate crimes. It noted that communication data was heavily relied upon in the Dwyer prosecution and added: Such examples show the clear public interest in communications data being available, and defensible on appeal. There isnt much publicly accessible analysis of the type of cases where the power is used. Under Section 12 of the 2011 Act, a designated judge reviews the operation of the provisions to ensure compliance. The High Court judge is also required to submit a report to the Taoiseach. But these reports traditionally give little information and this has been the source of concern and criticism by various bodies, including the IHREC, Digital Rights Ireland (DRI), and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL). In the most recent four-page review of both communication data and phone interception powers, the designated judge, Ms Justice Marie Baker, said a critical filtering was conducted in each of the State agencies regarding use of the powers and that peoples privacy was respected. She said the usage was a proportionate responseto the legislation and that the powers were exercised reasonably and there was no overzealous use. The Data Protection Commissioner, in its 2016 annual report, said that strict assessment was conducted in central units in all of the agencies. It said the principle of proportionality, necessity, and relevance was applied in all disclosure requests examined. Do I have any rights in any of this? Apart from the function of the designated judge,Section 10 of the 2011 Act outlines a complaints procedure and there is provision for a complaints referee who shall investigate complaints made under the act. Mr Justice Murray said the procedure can only be triggered by someone who believes their data has been improperly disclosed. If the referee finds the provisions of the act have been contravened, the referee must tell the applicant and make areport to the Taoiseach. The referee has powers to order the destruction of the retained data and the payment of compensation. The IHREC said the current complaints mechanism does not appear to provide an effective remedy and is not open to appeal. The ICCL and DRI want the referee to collate statistics on complaints, those upheld, and compensation paid, a view shared by the Oireachtas Justice Committee. The Murray report said the State agencies should be required to notify people affected by the communication disclosures as soon as such notification is no longer liable to jeopardise theinvestigation. It also recommended a judicial remedy for those whose rights have been infringed, a view backed by the justice committee. Whats next? Publication of the Communications (Data Retention) Bill 2017, said to be imminent. The dearth of information in the wake of the Aids crisis demanded that early health education campaigns were undertaken by grassroots groups, writes Dr Nina Holmes December 1 marks the 30th anniversary of World Aids Day. Today, advances in antiretroviral treatments have had profoundly life-changing effects for many in Western societies; however prognoses in the advent of the HIV and Aids epidemic in the 1980s were bleak. At an official level, government inaction and bureaucratic inertia came to define the early days of Aids, causing ire amongst activist and lobby groups throughout much of Europe and the US. Similarly, in Ireland, criticism was levelled at the authorities for failing to provide timely information about transmission and protective practices. In 1987, Derek Freedman observed that Ireland was ill-prepared and ill-equipped to deal with the Aids epidemic. It is easy to see what he meant: A variety of legislative and social factors distinguished the Aids crisis in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. The influential position of the Catholic Church and legacy of health and education provision in Ireland likely affected the prevalence and explicitness of HIV and Aids information campaigns. Catholic teaching on sexual practice and artificial contraception was maintained at a legislative level by the Censorship of Publications Act, which prohibited publication of literature which might advocate the unnatural prevention of conception. It was not until 1992 that condoms were deregulated and could be legally sold in retail outlets to any person over the age of 17. Additionally, health education efforts directed at the gay community in Ireland were inhibited by the status of male homosexual activity, which was not decriminalised until the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act was passed in 1993. The scarcity of information in the wake of the crisis demanded that early Aids health education campaigns were undertaken by grassroots groups, many of which were formed by the gay community. In fact, Irelands first Aids pamphlet was issued not by the Department of Health, but by the independent group Gay Health Action. Aids was an A4 fold-out pamphlet issued in May 1985. Given its early publication date this was a crucial source of information, particularly for Irelands gay community. This pamphlet positioned Irish Aids activism alongside international campaigns to raise awareness about the disease. It visually aligns with the style of material produced by the international Aids activist group ACT UP in the 1980s and 1990s. The logo a pink triangle is a visual reference to gay rights activism and a subtle anti-discrimination message. During the Holocaust, a pink triangle was used to demarcate gay men in concentration camps. In later years, the oppressive symbol was reclaimed by the community as a symbol of gay rights activism, as seen in many examples of activist ephemera. The pamphlet challenged what it described as attempts to deny our civil liberties through the communication of anti-gay hysteria on Aids. It went beyond the mere address of safe sex practice; it was a platform for political and social activism. Issued in 1986, Gay Health Action (GHA)s Aids Information Booklet also predated the first Government Aids education campaign. The need for clear, unbiased information was addressed through the informative language and the functional design of the booklet. The understated aesthetic emulates publications produced by State sources and does not engage with shock tactics, graphic imagery, or other visual devices that were often employed by Aids activist groups internationally. As indicated within the booklet, the main motivation was to inform readers and to collate accurate information in a clear and concise format in response to the dearth of information and the very poor and frequently hysterical coverage. At that time, GHA stated that the lack of information being provided for the public indicated that GHA would be acting as primary source. The acute need for a government-backed campaign was specified by GHAs Chris Robson at the launch of Aids: Information Booklet. This was eventually addressed by the State in 1987 with the Health Education Bureaus TV advertisement. According to Janice Gaffey, the Catholic hierarchy promptly denounced any campaign that advocated any solution to Aids other than chastity until marriage and monogamy within marriage. Revisiting that advertisement today, it appears less interested in offering advice on safe sex and more interested in promoting monogamy. The visual approach of the advertisement and the tagline Casual Sex Spreads Aids personalises transmission by emphasising sexual partners, rather than sexual practices. Dramatic public information campaigns such as Casual Sex Spreads Aids (right) did little to clarify matters. The 30-second advertisement opens with scenes from a horse race and a greyhound racing stadium; disembodied hands place bets and handle money. Images of gambling and chance are intercut with the suggestion of sexual encounter; a man and womans eyes meet across opposite sides of a revolving door. The visual trope of the disembodied hands gambling is repeated with shots of a game of cards featuring a design of abstracted bones, introducing a theme of death and bodily decay. Significant eye contact between the pair indicates a sexual undertone and correlates the idea of death and danger with sex. The voiceover warns: Meet someone who is an Aids carrier, and although condoms give some protection, just one act of intercourse may give you Aids, and lead to death. In the scenes that follow, the man covers the womans Claddagh-ringed hand, and then deals the death card. The Claddagh ring is traditionally representative of monogamy and marriage and significantly, is a culturally specific Irish symbol. Its use in the context of the Health Education Bureaus advertisement constructs Aids as not just a serious threat to health and life, but as a foreign problem an infraction on traditional Irish values. On a panel discussion on The Late Late Show in 1987, journalist Ann Marie Hourihane observed that we have seen this country bury its head in the sand about the people it doesnt approve of. She claimed that Aids had ripped the cover off the perception that Irish people were sexually innocent. The alarming tone of the Casual Sex Spreads Aids advertisement bolsters fear rather than providing practical information and advice. In Britain, the Dont Die Of Ignorance campaign similarly aroused much fear and apprehension, though it was accompanied by an information leaflet which was delivered to every household. The Irish Health Education Bureaus campaign did not encompass such a measure. This was put to the Health Education Bureaus Harry Crawley on The Late Late Show, when Gay Byrne read out a viewers question: Why are the Health Education Bureau leaflets only gone to chemists and health boards? Why not into all schools and to peoples homes? To this, Dr Crawley responded that it was just a matter of the organisation of distribution. The campaigns emphasis on promiscuous sex and the lack of accompanying practical information suggest a concern with the moral implications of sex exposed by the occurrence of Aids in Ireland. The overarching message was not how to have safe sex, but rather who to have sex with. A discernible Catholic influence can be seen within government HIV and Aids material by the dominant one faithful partner message as the most effective preventative measure. Indeed, particularities of Catholic moral teaching were preserved as national values through restrictions on condoms and the criminal status of homosexual acts, and as such distinguished the Aids crisis in Ireland. Nina Holmes has a PhD in design history from Kingston University London. Her research specialises in the contemporary history of Irish government health campaigns. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, additionally, has levelled allegations of stalling reservation for Marathas against Opposition parties. Mumbai: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers dec ided in a latenight meeting on Monday to aggressively counter the Opposition on the Maratha quota issue and not to table the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission report in the House. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, additionally, has levelled allegations of stalling reservation for Marathas against Opposition parties. Meanwhile, sources informed The Asian Age that Mr Fadnavis has made it clear to his party colleagues that the partys central leadership has given him a free hand on the reservation bill issue. The Opposition has been asking to table the report, which concluded that the Maratha community is backward. The Maratha reservation bill, which will be tabled in the House on Thursday, is based on this report. But the state government believes that if the report goes public, more legal hurdles would emerge to Maratha reservation. Mr Fadnavis and his senior party colleagues met to discuss the political and legal repercussions of the situation. It was decided in this meeting that the government wouldnt give the Oppositions demands to table the report. Instead, it was decided that the BJP would go all out and make sure that the Assembly functions despite Oppositions aggressive approach. The script was followed on Thursday as the Opposition kept on asking for the report, but the government proceeded to conduct business, pushing almost nine bills, amid ruckus in the House. Furthermore, BJP members even raised slogans against Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in both Houses. Also, as the Upper House was adjourned for the day, BJP members sat on the steps of Vidhan Bhavan and raised slogans against Opposition leader Dhananjay Munde. Parties are demanding that backward class commission report be tabled before Lower House. Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday attacked the Opposition-Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is demanding that the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (SBCC) report be tabled before the Lower House. Mr Fadnavis said that the Opposition has ill intentions and wants to create animosity in society and spark conflict among castes. Amid the chaos created by the Opposition, the chief minister said that his government is committed to granting reservation to the Maratha community and will place an ATR (action-taken report) before tabling the reservation bill. He also reiterated that the government will not touch the existing 52 per cent quota for giving reservation to the Maratha and Dhangar community. Citing the rules, Mr Fadnavis said that the state government had appointed backward class commission as per the provisions in law. In Section 14, it is stated that annual report and ATR, on recommendations, should be placed before the House. This is the 52nd report of backward class commission and none of the previous 51 reports were placed before the House. He also questioned why the Opposition is demanding the report to be tabled. While replying to the queries of the Opposition including NCP leader Chhagan Bhujabal, Mr Fadnavis, who appeared very aggressive, said that two per cent reservation has been given to Special Backward Classes (SBC) separately. Hence, there is 52 per cent reservation in the state, not 50. Maratha quota bill will be introduced in this session only. The government has received the report of Dhangar community, the study of the report is going on and within stipulated period, the study would be completed. The government will take all the necessary steps for giving reservation to Dhangar community. We will send recommendations to the government of India and place ATR at appropriate time, said chief minister. Over Muslim reservation, he said, You (the opposition) have not given reservation to Muslim community, but to the few castes of the community. Retail telecommunications is still the most complained about industry in New Zealand despite complaints levels remaining relatively flat year-on-year, according to a new consumer issues report from the competition enforcement agency, the Commerce Commission. And, also high on the list of complains for consumers was the online area, with the Commission finding that online sales generated nearly a quarter of all Fair Trading Act complaints, highlighting what it says is the growing size of this market and the challenges for consumers purchasing goods from overseas-based companies in particular. Both the telco and online retail sectors are priority focus areas for us, said Commissioner Anna Rawlings in the report, which looked at the 7452 consumer complaints it received during the 2017/2018 financial year. The Commission report reveals that there were 584 complaints about telecommunications retail service providers in the 12 months to the end of June under the Fair Trading Act, just ahead of the next most complained about sector motor vehicle retail which had 420 complaints over the 12-months. According to the report, the 584 complaints about telecommunications retail service providers represents a decrease from the 603 complaints received about TRSPs in the year ended 30 June 2017. The Commission says the telecoms industry accounted for 9% of all FT Act complaints in the 2017/18 year, the same as in 2016/17 - and TRSPs continue to generate a higher volume of complaints under the FT Act than other industries, a trend observed since the end of the 2014 calendar year. Consistent with this, a recent survey of 28 countries found that in 2017 TRSPs were among the top three most complained about industries, the Commission observes. Consumers in overseas countries complained about issues like accurate billing, closely resembling the complaints reported by New Zealand consumers. There are many providers of telecommunication products and services, all competing for consumers business with a range of offers and contracts of varying lengths. Consumers report that it can be a challenge to understand and compare the range and complexity of these offers in terms of price, quality (for instance, broadband speed) and what is included in, or excluded from, a contract. In addition, the Commission says a key feature in the telecommunications industry is that many providers create bundles of products and services, which consumers say can be difficult to compare. These bundles may combine broadband with a home phone and/or mobile; telecommunications products with non-telecommunications products such as electricity; or broadband with power or with music or video streaming subscription services, the Commission notes. In its report the Commission says that purchasing online is both beneficial and risky for consumers, as consumers online spending continues to grow in double-digit percentages year by year. The report reveals that in the 2017 calendar year New Zealanders spent approximately NZ$4 billion shopping in both domestic and international online stores and technological change has transformed the way consumers learn about, consider and decide to buy goods and services. Shopping from mobile devices, buying goods from traders based overseas, and considering the online reviews posted by other consumers before making a purchase decision have all become normal parts of the consumer experience, the Commission notes. When shopping online works well, consumers can benefit from increased choice, competitive prices, secure and efficient payment systems and prompt delivery services. Consumers should be able to trust the information that is presented to them online. This includes the representations online traders make about the products or services on offer, and the reviews of fellow online shoppers. The Commission says that 24% of the Fair Trading Act complaints the Commerce Commission received in the year to 30 June 2018 were about purchases considered or made online. According to the Commission, complaints show that some consumers have trusted the legitimacy of an online trader and then felt let down. This includes consumers complaining that they have not received products at all, along with other issues such as allegations of counterfeit and poor quality goods, delivery delays and purchases costing the consumer more than expected. These are similar to the types of complaints the Commerce Commission received in 2016/17. The Commission says that a common theme in online complaints it received involves consumers being unable to make contact with overseas-based traders to resolve concerns about product delivery or quality. We also hear from consumers who thought they were buying from a New Zealand based trader and were surprised to discover that it was based overseas, the Commission observed. The Commission says that consumers are faced with increasingly sophisticated marketing techniques, and now have the ability to purchase 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with purchases made on smartphones and tablets increasing year on year. Through targeted advertising and price discrimination online, traders are more able to appeal to the wants and needs of the individual than ever before, the Commission says. Some traders, especially those selling online, have developed marketing techniques that some consumers tell us have caused them to make hurried, spontaneous purchases. For example, an accommodation site may state that only one discounted room remains available, introduce a price-hold for only a few minutes or represent constant purchases by other consumers. Consumers report feeling pressured by these tools into making a quick purchase before they have completed the due diligence they might otherwise have carried out. The Commission says that consumers describe finding it difficult to verify the accuracy of these representations, and these techniques are also used on some travel sites and ticket reselling sites. Australian energy storage company Redflow has won a second deal, for the sale of 32 zinc-bromine flow batteries, to provide standby energy storage for mobile phone towers in South Africa. The Australian-listed company (ASX:RFX) secured the second sale following an initial order last month for five batteries for use at mobile phone towers run by a leading South African telecommunications company. The towers are owned by a local company that is supported by the South African Governments Black Economic Empowerment affirmative action agenda. Redflow chief executive Tim Harris, who received the new order after a visit to South Africa last week, said it clearly demonstrated the technological and commercial viability of Redflows zinc-bromine flow batteries for telecommunication deployments. Our batteries thrive on heat and hard work, which is what these sites in South Africa require. Following yesterdays Optus announcement, todays new sale further highlights the value proposition that Redflows ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries deliver to telecommunications companies, both in Australia and overseas. Redflow says its long-term South African partner, Specialized Solar Systems, working with renewable energy specialist Amber Energy, is providing the energy storage and telecommunications skills to deploy the batteries at remote mobile phone towers. Harris says the new order of 32 batteries will support the telecommunication companys mobile tower rollout program to March 2019. SSS chief executive Peter Bergs said the new order followed the successful delivery of the first five Redflow batteries. This telco is expanding its infrastructure rapidly, so it has an aggressive schedule to deploy mobile phone towers with energy storage provided by Redflow batteries. Redflows batteries are ideal to store solar energy for mobile phone towers, which are often located in remote areas. These batteries maintain their energy storage capacity despite working hard, day in and day out, and also tolerate warm climates, which are common in South Africa. According to Redflow, a major benefit of its batteries is their ability to operate in standby power system mode, where the batteries are charged and then placed in a dormant state, with no self-discharge, until they are required to supply energy during a power outage. Redflows SPS mode avoids the need for a standby diesel generator eliminating the cost, complexity and risk of storing fuel at the site. And Redflow says the 240kg size and lack of saleable components in Redflow batteries also discourage theft, an endemic problem with legacy batteries. Harris says Redflow is building its presence in the South African telecommunications market after establishing its flow batteries with customers in manufacturing, such as Bosco Printed Circuits in Johannesburg, and local government, such as Mossel Bay Municipality in Southern Cape, as well as at residential sites. A minister in the Papua New Guinea government has said that his country will honour the agreement it has made with Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies to build its Internet infrastructure, snubbing offers by the US, Japan and Australia to step in instead. William Duma, the minister for public enterprise and state investment, told Reuters on Monday that PNG had an existing agreement with Huawei to build the infrastructure in question. Huawei won the contract two years ago but the US, Australia and Japan attempted to take on the task recently. The deal was for an 5457-km network of submarine cables that would link 14 coastal towns in PNG. Duma dismissed the offer from the US, Japan and Australia as patronising, adding that Huawei had already completed nearly two-thirds of the work. The US, Australia and Japanduring the recent APEC summit, held in Port Moresby, that they would fund a rollout of electricity and cable in PNG. The move comes in the wake of what the US and its allies describe as moves by China to expand its influence in the Asia-Pacific region. An agreement to deliver the project was signed on 18 November, according to reports. Reuters quoted Jonathan Pryke, a member of the Sydney-based think-tank, the Lowy Institute, as saying that the signing of the agreement meant that that the US and the others were not completely locked out. Contacted for comment, a Huawei spokesperson told iTWire: "Huawei has a proud history of delivering world leading technology to PNG safely and securely for over 10 years. "We look forward to continuing to work with our local partners to help give the people of PNG access to the world's best technology." Australia intervened in a cable project in the Solomon Islands last year that was to be built by Huawei. In the end, Canberra ended up taking on the task in April and contracted a local company, Vocus Communications, to built the undersea cable that would touch Sydney, the Solomon Islands and PNG. UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy Professor Joseph Cannataci speaking to the PJCIS on Tuesday via Skype. Australia's proposed encryption bill has been described as a national security measure that has been poorly conceived and likely to endanger security as not by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, Professor Joseph Cannataci. Prof Cannataci told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security on Tuesday evening that it was up in the air whether the legislation could achieve its aims and avoid introducing vulnerabilities in devices. He spoke at length about what he described as weak oversight and accountability in the bill. Tuesday marked the fourth day of hearings on the bill officially known as the Telecommunications and other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access Bill) 2018 and the PJCIS also heard from Margaret Stone, the inspector-general of intelligence and security, deputy Commonwealth ombudsman Jaala Hinchcliffe and Jake Blight, inspector-general of intelligence and security. Prof Cannataci said, rather than attempt to make changes here and there in the bill, it would be better to drop it altogether and start again from scratch, after proper consultation and developing an idea of the real purpose of the legislation. He said that the targets of the bill - seasoned organised criminals and terrorists - had the means to invest in their own algorithms and develop their own cryptography, defeating the point of the bill. Also, he said, it was pertinent to note that the UK, which had a similar law, had not tried to get any big technology company to provide it with a means to access encrypted devices as the matter would result in prolonged litigation. Asked by Senator Eric Abetz how he, as someone concerned with privacy, had made comments about the bill that extended to other realms. Prof Cannataci patiently explained how his field, privacy, was affected by various aspects of the bill. In his submission to the committee, Prof Cannataci mentioned the fact that Australia had passed 70 counter-terrorism laws since the terrorist attacks on the world trade centre in New York on 11 September 2001. "Concern has been expressed at the international level about trends in Australia's human rights performance," he pointed out. "This includes the UN Human Rights Committee who requested the Australian Government to reconsider the legality of its power in certain areas." He said that the bill under consideration had been criticised as too broad and potentially undermining the privacy of Australians. The PJCIS is due to hold another two days of hearings on 30 November and 4 December, before submitting its report to the government. A campaign that targets government domains in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the private Lebanese airline, Middle East Airlines, has been uncovered by Cisco's Talos Intelligence Group, which claims that the attackers appear to have studied their intended victims' networks well enough to remain inconspicuous. Researchers Warren Mercer and Paul Rascagneres said the campaign, which they had named DNSpionage, appeared to be a by a new group unconnected to any previous similar attacks. Two fake malicious websites were used in the campaign to target possible victims using infected Microsoft Office documents which contained embedded macros. Apart from the above attacks, the actors also used the same IP to redirect the DNS of legitimate .gov and private domains, carefully generating certificates for the domains that were redirected. "During each DNS compromise, the actor carefully generated Let's Encrypt certificates for the redirected domains. These certificates provide X.509 certificates for TLS free of charge to the user. We don't know at this time if the DNS redirections were successful," Mercer and Rascagneres wrote. The two malicious websites used were hr-wipro[.]com and hr-suncor[.]com which redirected to wipro.com and suncor.com. "At this time, we don't know how the target received these links. The attackers most likely sent the malicious document via email as part of a spear-phishing campaign, but it also could have circulated via social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, in an attempt to legitimise the opportunity for a new job," the researchers said. One of the Lebanese Government domains that was targeted was that belonging to the Ministry of Finance. "We are highly confident that both of these campaigns came from the same actor," Mercer and Rascagneres noted. "However, we do not know much about the location of the actors and their exact motivations. It is clear that this threat actor was able to redirect DNS from government-owned domains in two different countries over the course of two months, as well as a national Lebanese airline. "They were able to work from the system's point of view by using a Windows malware, as well as the network, by using DNS exfiltration and redirection. It is unclear if these DNS redirection attacks were successful, but the attackers have kept up their efforts, launching five attacks so far this year, including one in the past two weeks." The detailed analysis is here. Australias second largest telco Optus is preparing to build 16 new mobile sites as part of the NSW Governments mobile black spot program at a total cost of $12 million, with half of the funding provided by Optus itself and half by the State Government. The 16 sites are spread across New South Wales and Optus says, in a real boost for residents and businesses in the Northern Rivers, nearly half of all new sites will be located within the region, including sites at Fernleigh, Goolmangar, Main Arm, Rock Valley, Rosebank and Stony Chute. Optus, which will contribute $6 million with $6 million from the NSW Government, says the new sites will deliver much needed mobile coverage and connectivity to regional communities across the state. At Optus we want every Australian to have access to reliable mobile coverage and Programs like this from the NSW State Government play a critical role in making this possible. Our priority at Optus is to deliver our customers, across Australia, our best network coverage, value and experience and we are pleased to be a part of this Program which aims to expand mobile coverage in regional and remote NSW, said Andrew Sheridan, vice-president, Regulatory and Public Affairs. There is a genuine need for improved telecommunications services across this key regional centre, especially given Northern Rivers popularity as a tourism hub. Only recently Optus announced that we would build five new sites in the Northern Rivers region and these NSW Government Mobile Black Spots will complement our existing plans, further bolstering coverage across the area. Optus says it has worked closely with the State Government to determine the best locations for the sites to ensure maximum coverage in each area. The 16 sites secured by Optus will include Anembo, Bannaby Hill, Fernleigh, Glanmire, Goolmangar, Lowanna East, Main Arm, Majors Creek, Mount Bodangora, Mt Mary, Rick Valley, Rosebank, Rouchel Brook, Stony Chute, Sunnyside and Tanja. This is the first time that people in these areas will have dedicated mobile coverage. Access to voice and data coverage is critical, particularly in those regions with high agricultural or tourism-based economies, Sheridan said. Its great to see sites like Anembo, where we have met with the local community to address their coverage requirements, have been included as part of this round of funding. Now that we have been awarded these sites we look forward to working in partnership with the local communities to get these sites up and running. Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro said the NSW Government was committed to boosting voice and data coverage across regional NSW. We know that in order to keep up you have to be connected and are working as fast as we can to cover the gaps in coverage across the state. Connectivity is at the heart of everything we do from running a business, getting produce from paddock to port or staying in touch with family. Expanding mobile coverage means theres more areas where you can call Triple Zero if you need help and more areas where you will receive vital Emergency Alert information messages. The new sites announced today will benefit hundreds of residents as well as tourists and I am proud that this program is continuing to expand mobile coverage across regional NSW. Optus has already delivered six Mobile Black Spot sites across NSW as part of the Federal and State Governments Program. Across Australia a total of 68 Optus co-funded Black Spot sites are already live, providing much needed coverage to communities in those areas. It is likely to shape/change the narrative of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. When the Assembly elections for five states Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram were announced, it was believed by most people that this would be the semi-final for the final which is scheduled to take place in early 2019. It was widely believed that the party, which would perform well in these Assembly elections (win two or three states), would be in a stronger position to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It was believed this would be true in case of the BJP, but may not be for the Congress as the party would still need to travel a long way for a possible victory in 2019, even if it manages to win two or three of these five states. The Congress will be starting from a very low base in terms of voteshare (19.6 per cent votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha election) and it needs to perform extremely well to win the 2019 Lok Sabha election. But slowly and gradually, as the campaign in different states progressed and election entered in different phases, the focus has now shifted to a great extent on only one state Madhya Pradesh which goes to the polls today (November 28) along with Mizoram. The importance of Madhya Pradesh more than any other state in this round of Assembly elections is not because the state is geographically located in the middle of the country or because it is in the middle of this election cycle (Chhattisgarh voted on November 12 and 20 and Rajasthan and Telangana will vote on December 7), but only because there is a lot of uncertainty about what might happen in Madhya Pradesh. The ground reports and various surveys suggest that the BJP is comfortably placed in Chhattisgarh and the Congress is in a strong position in Rajasthan. But there still remains a lot of suspense about what might happen in Madhya Pradesh. Though the Congress, in alliance with the Telugu Desam Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Telangana Jana Samithi, is giving a good fight to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana, yet the incumbent TRS seems well placed to retain power in Telangana. The Congress might be losing one more state in the Northeast Mizoram. While there is hardly any discussion on what might be the impact on the 2019 Lok Sabha of a possible victory of the Congress in Mizoram or in Telangana or even in Chhattisgarh, there is a strong belief that the Madhya Pradesh result might affect the mood of the people. It is likely to shape/change the narrative of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. While there is no guarantee that the party which might win the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh would certainly win the 2019 Lok Sabha election, it is widely believed that the results of Madhya Pradesh will shape the nature of the 2019 electoral contest. If the BJP manages to retain Madhya Pradesh, it will give a strong signal of its return to power comfortably at the Centre in 2019 and the road to 2019 will become difficult for the Congress. If the Congress manages to snatch Madhya Pradesh from the BJP, the narrative for the 2019 Lok Sabha election might change. While this victory may not help in people believing that the Congress might come back to power in 2019, it would certainly help the Congress in regaining its negotiating power vis-a-vis the regional parties while discussing possible alliance formations for 2019. The ground reports suggest that the Congress has led a strong camping against the BJP and it seems it has succeeded in mobilising an additional support beyond what it received in the 2013 Assembly elections. But that may not be enough for the Congress to unseat the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, as the lead of the BJP over the Congress has been very large. During the 2013 Assembly elections, the BJP led over the Congress by eight per cent votes. In a bipolar contest, the Congress will need to generate a five to six per cent swing in its favour to defeat the BJP. A five to six per cent swing is not an impossible task. There have been elections that have witnessed bigger swings. Even in these round of Assembly elections, the reports suggest that the Congress, which trailed behind the BJP by almost 12 per cent votes in Rajasthan, seems to have managed to generate a big swing in its favour and is comfortably placed. But that seems to be happening only because there is a strong anti-incumbency mood in the state a visible anger against chief minister Vasundhara Raje. In a sharp contrast, there is no strong anti-incumbency mood in Madhya Pradesh, sections of voters like farmers and the youth may be slightly unhappy with the Madhya Pradesh government, but there is no visible anger amongst them to overthrow the ruling party. As a complete contrast to what one witnesses in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan remains reasonably popular in the state. The BJP seems to have done reasonably well even in Chhattisgarh only because there is a reasonable level of satisfaction in the people with the ruling BJP and chief minister Raman Singh still remains popular even after being in power for 15 years. Though the people of Telangana will vote for the first time on December 7 after the new state was formed after the 2014 Lok Sabha election by bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the TRS has been in power in the state since 2014. The TRS formed its first government with K. Chandrashekar Rao as the first chief minister as the party, which contested the 2014 Assembly elections in united Andhra Pradesh, had won 62 of the 119 Assembly seats in this region. Chief minister KCR, who led sustained agitation for the formation of Telangana, still remains very popular among voters of his state. There is hardly any other state which has focused so much on welfare schemes for the people. It is important to note that one of the reasons for the popularity of KCR is his launching of 19 welfare schemes during the four years of his tenure. One may not be sure how much impact these results will have on the 2019 contest, but it is sure that performance in these elections will affect the morale of party workers and will also help in creating perception about different political parties. Perceptions do play an important role in Indian elections, so one needs to wait and keep watching how these elections unfold, and what happens on the way to the 2019 contest. Faculty to Present Lunch and Learn Talks Nov. 27, 2018 Lunch and Learn is a series of presentations sponsored by the McLean County Museum of History and Illinois Wesleyan University. BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Illinois Wesleyan faculty Eva Ferguson, Ray Wilson, Abigail Kerr and Tyler Schwend will host presentations throughout the fall and spring semesters, discussing topics in the areas of music, physics, psychology and biology. Their presentations are part of the Lunch and Learn series sponsored by the McLean County Museum of History and Illinois Wesleyan University. All programs begin at 12:10 p.m. in the museums second-floor Governor Fifer Courtroom and are free and open to the public. As part of the holiday season, Visiting Assistant Professor of music Eva Ferguson will present a talk on Christmas in Slovakia: From pagan rituals to Santa Claus, on Dec. 13. A native of Slovakia, Ferguson will discuss how Christmas traditions in her home country have evolved from past to present. She will also introduce Slovak Christmas traditions, food and music. Ferguson received a master of fine arts degree in piano performance from the Academy of Music in Bratislava, Slovakia, and has performed as an accompanist internationally. On Jan. 10, Emeritus Associate Professor of Physics Ray Wilson will discuss the true realities of nuclear war and the urgent need for peace. His talk, titled Nuclear War: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and a workable moral strategy for Achieving and Preserving World Peace, will propose a workable moral strategy for achieving peace and stability and ending war-sacrificed lives. Wilson believes that it is important to educate young people of the U.S., as the next generations of politicians, decision-makers and citizens, of the nature of nuclear war and possible solutions to this problem. Wilson received a doctorate degree from the University of Arizona, and in 1979, created the physics course Problems of Nuclear Disarmament. In 2014, he published a book, Nuclear War: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and a Workable Moral Strategy for Achieving and Preserving World Peace. On Feb. 14, Associate Professor of Psychology Abigail Kerr will explore rehabilitative strategies for stroke survivors based on animal models. In her talk, The Good Limb, the Bad Limb, and Recovery: What animal models tell us about improving behavioral recovery after stroke, she will discuss current rehabilitative strategies in comparison with her findings from using adjunctive therapies in mice, in order to conclude the ultimate recovery for stroke survivors. Kerr received her doctorate in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research focuses on the behavioral and neuroanatomical effects of experience following exercise and nervous system damage. Assistant Professor of Biology Tyler Schwend will discuss the new signature way of learning at Illinois Wesleyan on March 14. His talk, Lasers, Chicken Eggs and a Nagging Medical Problem: Key Ingredients for a Signature Experience for Illinois Wesleyan Students, focuses on the importance of learning by actively applying concepts learned in the classroom to the real world. Schwend will share a personal story of a signature experience involving his students and discuss ways to integrate learning into the community. Schwend received his doctorate degree from Northwestern University in 2010, and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Kansas State University and at the University of Illinois. Faculty and staff from Illinois State University will also present Lunch and Learn sessions over the course of the year. On April 11, former administrators and faculty at The Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University Gail Lamb and Mary Ann Watkins will celebrate 100 years of nursing in their panel, The Keepers of the Flame: Mennonite College of Nursing Illinois State University 1919-2019. On May 9, Associate Professor of Anthropology Kathryn Sampeck will discuss the evolution of chocolate over time as a womans drink, food and flavor in her presentation, Sex in a Cup: Chocolate and Gender Through the Ages. By Vi Kakares 20 Homefield Energy Helps Replace Campus Trees Lost to Emerald Ash Borer Nov. 27, 2018 Representatives from IWU, Homefield Energy and the community commemorated newly planted trees donated by Homefield Energy. BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Furthering Illinois Wesleyan Universitys sustainability goals and tree diversification efforts, Homefield Energy is donating 12 trees to assist with replacing campus trees lost due to the spread of the emerald ash borer. Illinois Wesleyan President Eric Jensen, along with University officials and representatives from Homefield Energy, commemorated the donation during a ceremony held Tuesday, Nov. 27. We are thankful to receive these trees donated by Homefield Energy, especially now, as weve experienced extreme ash tree loss across campus from the emerald ash borer, Jensen said. The new trees will offer beauty and shade for thousands of future Titans who will, without a doubt, spend countless hours studying and socializing under their canopies. The donated trees including cobblestone bur oak, hackberry, Japanese lilac, Norway spruce, Princeton elm, and quaking aspen, among other species were selected by assistant manager of grounds services and University arborist Ken Detloff, and will further diversify the schools tree population. Ten of the trees have been planted this fall, and two more will be planted in the spring. As a company, one of the numerous ways we focus on sustainability excellence is through our signature tree donation program, said Caroline Atkins, Homefield Energy community affairs manager. In addition to their numerous ecological benefits, trees bring people together, and we hope these trees will be a part of students college experience for years to come. Since 2002, Homefield Energy, and its sister companies, have provided more than 285,000 trees to various partner communities. The donated trees have helped generate environmental savings and health benefits for municipalities and residents valued at approximately $37 million annually during the life of these trees. Homefield Energy is a retail electricity provider that powers thousands of Illinois homes and businesses, including the Illinois Wesleyan campus. Approximately 30 ash trees have been removed from the Illinois Wesleyan campus to help stop the spread of the emerald ash borer. Trees can be donated to Illinois Wesleyan by contacting the University Advancement Office at advancement@iwu.edu or (309) 556-3091. By John Twork The politicos of Pakistan are not entirely irresponsible. Parliament these days is mostly about ugly noises. The government cannot get enough of calling those on the Opposition benches chor and daku while the Opposition too has ratcheted up its rhetoric. Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistans erstwhile interior minister, recently called the Prime Minister a conman (admittedly, he was not in Parliament when he said it). And the less said about the words spouted by Fawad Chaudhry and Mushahidullah Khan the better. But, at times it is not enough to simply focus on what is being said publicly. The politicos of Pakistan are not entirely irresponsible. Beyond the noise and behind the closed doors, efforts are afoot at smoking the peace pipe. Speaker Asad Qaiser has been trying his level best to reach out to all the parties in the National Assembly for a code of conduct. There also has been some effort at breaking the most serious stalemate of all over the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee. A story in the Express Tribune last week quoted senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira as saying that his party was trying to break the logjam his party was suggesting that Shahbaz Sharif head the PAC while a sub-committee headed by a PTI parliamentarian be set up for the audits of the previous PML(N) government. When asked, PML(N)s Khawaja Asif said on Friday that though the two Opposition parties had not discussed the issue in a meeting, the PPP had mentioned the idea during the parliamentary session that day. Though he wouldnt conjecture his partys reaction to the suggestion, the former foreign minister agreed that his party would bear some of the burden of a paralysed Parliament if the PML(N) refused to concede any space on the PAC issue. Of course, it goes without saying that the PTI bears the larger burden. The stalemate on the PAC, which began with the PTIs intransigence, has been of concern to many. A tradition set by the Charter of Democracy dictates that the PAC chairmanship goes to the Opposition leader, which in this case is Shahbaz Sharif. However, a corruption-obsessed PTI refuses to adhere to this, arguing that Shahbaz Sharif can hardly be expected to judge the audits of his brothers government. As the PPP and PML(N) dont agree, they are staying away from the National Assembly committees in general consequently none have been formed since the advent of the current Parliament. As a result, Parliament cannot do its job of legislation. Without committees, no draft laws can be examined or debated. But the PPPs suggestion seems to provide a way out for all. The PPP may be a member of the Opposition and a party that calls the 2018 election rigged, but it does want the flawed system to go on, as it is a stakeholder the party rules Sindh and has its man as the deputy chairman of the Senate. And for this reason, among others, the PPP wants the system to go on. The PML(N), of course, was robbed of its due share in the summer. But it still has a stake. Its parliamentarians may be on the wrong side of the aisle but they still want to be in the building. It doesnt suit them to give it all up and hit the streets. This is so not just because there is a certain satisfaction to sitting in Parliament but also because the road option doesnt work Nawaz Sharif tried it in the run-up to the election and failed. Even back then, not all PML(N) members agreed with Sharif seniors strategy that his anti-establishment rhetoric would win enough support to out-orchestrate the other side. However, few within the party said it out aloud. Now, of course, this is changing; some senior PML(N)wallahs are willing to express the view that Mian Sahib had gotten it wrong. The PML(N)wallahs had always wanted to muddle along with the system as it was. But now, even their head may be thinking like them the legal troubles of the Sharif family are now worsening; it is likely the family realises its chances are better under a flawed democratic system than a completely undemocratic one. And probably so does Asif Ali Zardari. All this is a cynical interpretation of how parties view politics through the lens of their interests. But the efforts to break the logjam can also be seen a little differently politicians, however corrupt or incompetent or self-centred, break stalemates and find solutions and a middle path. For them, politics is the art of the possible, and in this much-maligned phrase lies the beauty of politics. It is about muddling on, through negotiation and compromise. And for this reason, be it the PPP, PML(N) or the PTI, each one of them will opt for working with the system, however faulty it is, instead of breaking it down and building it anew. By arrangement with Dawn As per Ireland's Data Protection Commission report, in the first 6 months of 2018, LinkedIn processed hashed email addresses of 18 million. LinkedIn reportedly used millions of email addresses of non-LinkedIn users to target ads on Facebook, a new report has revealed. According to Ireland's Data Protection Commission report, in the first six months of 2018, LinkedIn processed hashed email addresses of approximately 18 million email addresses of non-users to target them with ads on Facebook, The Verge reported. A number of companies have moved their data processing operations to Ireland, requiring them to abide by the regulations. LinkedIn has since ceased those practices, however, it raises concerns about user privacy. We appreciate the DPCs 2017 investigation of a complaint about an advertising campaign and fully cooperated. Unfortunately, the strong processes and procedures we have in place were not followed and for that we are sorry. Weve taken appropriate action, and have improved the way we work to ensure that this will not happen again. During the audit, we also identified one further area where we could improve data privacy for non-members and we have voluntarily changed our practices as a result, Denis Kelleher, Head of Privacy, EMEA, for LinkedIn said. Over the past five years, Russia has introduced tougher internet laws that require search engines to delete some search results. The plans for harsher fines are contained in a consultation document prepared by the administration of President Vladimir Putin. Russia plans to impose stiffer fines on technology firms that fail to comply with Russian laws, sources familiar with the plans said, raising the stakes in the Kremlins fight with global tech giants such as Facebook and Google. Over the past five years, Russia has introduced tougher internet laws that require search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services and social networks to store Russian users personal data on servers within the country. The plans for harsher fines are contained in a consultation document prepared by the administration of President Vladimir Putin and sent to industry players for feedback, according to three sources familiar with the draft document. At the moment, the only tools Russia has to enforce its data rules are fines that typically only come to a few thousand dollars or blocking the offending online services, which is an option fraught with technical difficulties. The proposal is to amend the legislation so a company not complying with the rules is subject to a fine equal to 1 percent of its annual revenue in Russia, according to the sources and a copy of the document seen by Reuters. The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment. A representative of state telecoms regulator Roscomnadzor, Vadim Ampelonsky, said he could not comment because his agency was not involved in drafting laws. Russian regulator Roscomnadzor has repeatedly accused Facebook and Google of failing to comply with Russian laws. It blocked access to LinkedIn in 2016 and tried to do the same to the Telegram encrypted messenger service in April. A Google representative in Russia declined to comment on the accusations or the proposal for new fines. Neither Facebook nor Telegram CEO Pavel Durov responded to requests for comment. One of the sources who told Reuters about the proposal works for a Russian technology firm, one is at a foreign tech company and the third works for an industry lobby group. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media. Just like lawmakers and officials in the United States and the European Union, Russia is wrestling with the challenge of how to limit the power of tech companies that have accumulated vast wealth and enormous vaults of data. The proposal to levy companies 1 percent of annual revenue could lead to substantial fines. Googles Russian subsidiary, for example, had revenue of 45.2 billion roubles (USD 687 million) in 2017, according to the SPARK database which aggregates data from business registries. For a foreign company, thats already a significant amount, the source at the foreign tech firm said, though they added that it was unclear how the fine would be collected given some companies have no legal entity in Russia. Under the proposed amendments, a fine could also be levied multiple times on the same company for every time it is found to have committed a violation. By comparison, under current legislation the maximum fine Google in Russia can face in an ongoing case brought against it by Roscomnadzor is 700,000 roubles (USD 10,595). That case relates to allegations that Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc, failed to comply with requests to remove search results for organisations that are banned in Russia. Google has not commented on the allegations. Facebook has said it is in discussions with the telecoms watchdog about its compliance with the rules. It has not moved servers containing its Russian users data to Russia, three years after a law was passed requiring the move. In addition to stiffer fines, Russian authorities would retain the power to block companies online services under the new laws, according to the draft proposal seen by Reuters. The source in the industry lobby group said companies in the sector could accept higher fines if they were applied fairly and they replaced the practice of blocking sites. But he said firms would oppose rules that allow both fines and blocking. But generally speaking anything that brings order to the system of blocking that has sporadically arisen at various times is an excellent idea, the source said. Blocking has caused technical problems in the past. When officials tried to block Telegram in April they inadvertently stopped Russian users access to voice calls on the Viber messaging service and cloud-based applications for Volvo cars, among other services. Telegram is still accessible in Russia. (Source) Maldives knows importance of India as it was an 'important' partner, said Shahid who was on his first visit to India as foreign minister. 'Former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen tried to play India against China as a puppet master but we know the importance of India as an ally which has always come to the aid of Maldives,' Shahid said. (Photo: File) Male: Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Monday alleged that former president Abdulla Yameen had tried to play India against China as a "puppet master" and said the new government was looking into the deals made with China to assess the debt accumulation. Maldives knows the importance of India as it was an "important" partner, said Shahid who was on his first visit to India after assuming charge as the foreign minister of Maldives. The visit assumes significance as the ties between both the countries were severely strained under the previous government in the island nation. Maldivian Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, who is also part of a delegation of minister visiting India, also said the new government had identified a number of projects undertaken with China that were bought at an "inflated price" and it was in the process of assessing how much debt was accumulated. The remarks of both the foreign and finance ministers of Maldives assume significance as reports suggest that China had been trying to expand its influence over the island nation. Ameer said, "The Chinese portion of investment is taking long in assessment because all these deals took place in secrecy." Shahid targeted former president Abdulla Yameen, alleging he tried to play India against China. "Former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen tried to play India against China as a puppet master but we know the importance of India as an ally which has always come to the aid of Maldives," he told reporters at a gathering of Foreign Correspondents Club. He said Maldives considered India such an "important partner" that new Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih would be making his first foreign visit to here on December 17. Shahid, however, said that on the 'Belt and Road Initiative', the country would continue their cooperation with not only China but with other countries too. Ameer said they have identified a number of projects which were bought at an "inflated price" from China. These projects are China-Maldives Bridge, port development project and a project involving construction of around 1,000 housing units, he said. "We believe most of these projects have been bought at an inflated price and we are looking into them. But you have to understand that all these projects are now completed and we cannot renegotiate them. "In going forward, our main objective would be to reduce the cost of these infrastructure projects," Ameer told reporters. Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail said, "We are trying to put past last five years of instability in the Maldives and we will try to resolve all differences between Maldivian and Indian investors." "In that regard, we are hoping to strengthen our bilateral trade. We are hoping to enter into a bilateral treaty with India on increasing investment," he said. He also said they were planning to ease visa norms so that Indian investors could travel to Maldives for business. Ameer said Maldives was mainly seeking budget support in healthcare projects among others. Shahid said Maldives had requested India to give it a Dornier aircraft and the External Affairs Ministry had "promised that it would be delivered soon". "During Yameen's time, Yameen ditched the Dornier gifted by India to get aircraft from Pakistan as Pakistan was giving it as loan and they prefer loan so they could get commission from it. But we will prefer a gift and we want to continue working with the Indian government," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on November 17 in Male. Some 161,584 people were arrested in the more than 100,000 anti-drug operations ordered by President Duterte. But only 8,935 of the countrys 42,044 baragays are drug-free. Some 271 drug dens and laboratories have been shut down. Manila (AsiaNews/Agencies) The Duterte administration is intensifying its war on drug by all means, include violence. Between July 2016 to October 2018, 4,999 people were killed in anti-drug operations by government forces, this according to a report by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which operates under the supervision of the Office of the President of the Philippines. In addition to the death of people connected to the drug trade, the report notes that 161,584 arrests were carried out by security forces during the same period. The PDEA and the Philippine National Police (PNP) took part in 113,570 anti-drug operations. However, only 8,935 of the 42,044 barangays (districts) across the country can be called drug-free. The report shows that the authorities have yet to clear another 23,161. According to the PDEA, law enforcement agencies have also dismantled 271 drug dens and illegal drug laboratories. After his election in July 2016, President Duterte launched an unprecedented war against illegal drugs, promising to kill tens of thousands of criminals. International organisations and observers estimate that more than 12,000 people have died in the presidents crackdown, many of them victims of summary executions. The Catholic Church is one the few voices to complain about the deaths. Polls show widespread support for the Filipino president. In response to criticism of extrajudicial killings, Duterte has repeatedly attacked bishops and priests, using harsh language. In addition to criticising the killings and violations of human rights, the Church is working on the rehabilitation and reintegration of drug addicts into society. In October 2016, the Archdiocese of Manila launched Sanlakbay, a programme that was subsequently adopted by other dioceses in the country. It is based on the involvement of parish communities in providing drug addicts with counselling, spiritual support and even work opportunities. The work of the Filipino Church against drug addiction has also met with the appreciation and support of Pope Francis. The 26th Patriarchs Conference is underway, held for the first time in Iraq, from 26 to 30 November. In his opening address, Card Sako spoke about problems and challenges, to be faced working together. He hopes for a better future of peace, stability and a prosperity. Baghdad (AsiaNews) The 26th Conference of the Patriarchs of the East opened yesterday in Baghdad until 30 November. This is the first time that the event is held in Iraq. Its goal is to boost unity among eastern Christians and meet the many challenges that threaten the survival of Christian communities in the various countries of the region, as a result of persecution, extremism and migration. The most important leaders of the Eastern Churches are present: Maronite Patriarch Card Beshara al-Rahi, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Youssef Absi, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan, the representative of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Mgr William Hanna Shomali and the host, Chaldean Patriarch Card Louis Raphael Sako who delivered the opening speech. Here are the salient passages in Card Sakos opening speech, sent for information to AsiaNews: The convening of the 26th Conference of the Catholic Patriarchs of the East, for the first time in Iraq, has a significant impact on our presence as Christians, in such difficult circumstances, facing the unprecedented challenges of its kind. Your presence here today, as Leaders and Fathers of ancient Churches, is truly a strong expression of your solidarity and being with us in all that we have been through from, persecution, displacement, abandonment, forced emigration etc. This assembly in Iraq, at this particular time, fills us with hope and encourages families to return and stay in our homeland keeping up our faith, identity, ethics, traditions and language. At the opening of the Synod of Bishops that was held in Rome (October 3-28, 2018) on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, His Holiness Pope Francis addressed the importance of may the Synod awaken our hearts! to be extremely fruitful for giving rise to hope. Based on that, let me wish that our gathering be a turning point of grace and blessing for Christians and our fellow citizens in this troubled East, with a hope for a better future of peace, stability, and prosperous society. Today, we are called to create a unified Eastern Christian vision that plans strategically, to sustain our existence and our role in this part of the world by: being stronger than the division; removing the psychological and historical barriers; and also, by respecting the differences in ideas and opinions, which is very natural. Realizing this unity of our Churches is required and crucial, as a response for the call of Jesus Christ (John 17/27) and to help us attain an influential presence in the future, in spite of the pressing challenges we are facing, such as emigration and the religious extremism which is the most serious problem. Therefore, this cooperation of all Churches in the region is urged to focus on highlighting the theology Spirituality of the displaced and the emigrants; the theology of return and the celebration of construction and renewal. Moreover, we together, have to hold onto it, since it represents the spotlight of Christian hope that should grow and spread. This conference is a vital message to all Iraqis and Middle East citizens towards eliminating intolerance, endorsing dialogue, spreading the values of peace and citizenship, consolidating the principles of coexistence through recognition, acceptance and respect of privacy, which is almost missing in our societies. In the spirit of such a blessed environment, of true renewal for a better tomorrow, we hope that the new recently formed Iraqi Government give the priority to a serious practical plan for community reconciliation; a strategy based on citizenship, law, equality and provision of services for all Iraqis, to live in freedom, dignity and social justice. Summerville, SC (29483) Today Partly cloudy skies. High 66F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy in the evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers after midnight. Low 49F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. MEDELLIN, Colombia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orosur Mining Inc. (Orosur or the Company) (TSX: OMI) (AIM: OMI) announces that at the Companys Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at 4:00 p.m. GMT today, all resolutions put to shareholders were duly passed. Additionally, the Company announces the streamlining of its senior management team to better align itself to the current situation and plans of the Company. Management Streamlining Considering the need to preserve cash during the current reorganization proceedings in Uruguay, and the exploration focus in Colombia, Ms. Alejandra Lopez, the Companys Uruguayan-based Chief Financial Officer, has agreed to step down from her CFO position effective November 30, 2018. Ms. Lopez will assist the Company in conducting an orderly transition and has agreed to remain available to the Company in the coming months on an as needed basis. Ms. Lopez has been CFO since 2016 and a highly valued member of the Companys management team. The Board wishes to thank Ms. Lopez for her considerable service and dedication to the Company in challenging times and wishes her the very best in her future endeavours. Mr. Ryan Cohen, who has been the Companys Vice President of Corporate Development since January 2014, will be acting as the Interim Chief Financial Officer until a suitable replacement has been found. The Company will, as soon as practicable, commence the search for a permanent CFO with expertise more aligned with capital markets and exploration and development activities. AGM Voting Results At the AGM, a total 45,566,818 common shares of the 146,800,091 shares outstanding as at the October 23, 2018 record date were voted at the meeting, representing approximately 31.04% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. The Company presently has 150,277,672 shares issued and outstanding. The nominees listed in the Companys management proxy circular were re-elected as directors as follows: Nominee Votes For % Votes For Votes Withheld % Votes Withheld John Walmsley 43,142,201 97.05% 1,311,234 2.95% Ignacio Salazar 37,810,701 85.06% 6,642,734 14.94% Robert Schafer 43,509,506 97.88% 943,929 2.12% Horng Dih Lee 43,509,502 97.88% 943,933 2.12% Uruguay Reorganisation Update The Company has been working diligently to reach a fair and balanced solution in Uruguay in the interests of all its stakeholders. As previously announced, as part of the Loryser reorganisation procedures, the Uruguayan Court has scheduled a meeting of creditors for December 17, 2018. In parallel with ongoing discussions with third parties, the Company has started negotiating a payment plan proposal agreement with creditors. The Company will require the support of more than 50% of creditors by value prior to the creditors meeting on December 17, 2018 in order to proceed with the agreed plan to avoid other options such as the liquidation of Loryser S.A. About Orosur Mining Inc. Orosur Mining Inc. (TSX: OMI; AIM: OMI) is a precious metals developer and explorer focused on identifying and advancing gold projects in South America. The Company operates in Colombia and Uruguay. Forward Looking Statements All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including but not limited to the "safe harbour" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on expectations estimates and projections as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the search for a permanent CFO and the negotiation and approval of a reorganization plan with creditors. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward looking statements. The Companys continuance as a going concern is dependent upon its ability to obtain adequate financing and to reach profitable levels of operations. These material uncertainties may cast significant doubt upon the Companys ability to realize its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business and accordingly the appropriateness of the use of accounting principles applicable to a going concern. Although the Company has been successful in the past in obtaining financing there is no assurance that it will be able to obtain adequate financing in future or that such financing will be on terms advantageous to the Company. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bankers Cobalt Corp. (TSXV: BANC; FSE: BC2; OTCQB: NDENF) (the Corporation or Bankers) announces that it has agreed to settle $136,458.20 of debt owing to its consultants and insiders by issuing 2,729,164 common shares in the capital of the Company at a deemed price of $0.05 per common share (the Shares). No warrants were issued in connection with the debt settlement. The debt settlement transaction is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and all Shares issued pursuant to the debt settlements will be subject to a four-month statutory hold period. The debt settlement will not create a new control person. The Company believes it is in the best interest of its shareholders to reduce the amount of accrued indebtedness to improve its financial position. The issuance of portion of the Shares constitutes a Related Party Transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101, as directors and officers of the Company will receive an aggregate of 2,158,860 Shares. All the directors of the company without a material interest in the debt settlement, acting in good faith, considered the debt settlement and have determined that the value of the consideration received by Bankers is fair and reasonable. Bankers notes that in this regard the $0.05 per Share debt settlement price is above the current trading price for the Companys common shares. Bankers is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the debt settlement insofar as it involves related parties, does not exceed 25 per cent of the market capitalization of Bankers. About Bankers Bankers is a natural resource company with a primary focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of cobalt and copper mineral properties in the DRC and Namibia to world-class Canadian standards. Bankers has acquired an option on licenses covering 1,078 km in Namibia with the potential for copper, cobalt and other metals. Bankers holds rights to 30 separate mineral concessions strategically located in the southern DRC Copperbelt and having a total area of more than 400km. Bankers has the intention to acquire interests in additional concessions or relinquish concessions in the normal course of business. All DRC concessions were obtained as either new grants or through reputable DRC partners and have clean title with no government involvement. Bankers has an experienced management team operating in the southern CopperBelt of the DRC and Namibia. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF BANKERS COBALT CORP. Stephen Barley Chairman & CEO For further information: Phone: 604.684.6730 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Website: www.bankerscobalt.com Reader Advisory Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws including statements relating to the Debt Settlement, regulatory approvals required in connection with the Debt Settlement, the outlook of the business of the Corporation, the Corporations intention to acquire additional concessions, the Corporations ability to explore and develop the concessions, the results of any development and exploration, . Although the Corporation believes considering the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate, that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them as the Corporation can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of the Corporation its securities, or its financial or operating results. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 17, 2015) - Duran Ventures Inc. (TSX VENTURE:DRV)(BVL:DRV) ("Duran" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with BacTech Environmental Corporation ("BacTech" or the "Company") (CSE:BAC)(OTC PINK:BCCEF)(WKN:A1H4TY). The basis of the MOU is to determine the financial viability of constructing a bioleach circuit to be built as an add-on to Duran's Aguila Norte mineral processing plant ("Aguila Norte Plant") near Trujillo, Peru (see Duran NR dated October 19, 2015). BacTech and its predecessors use proprietary bacterial oxidation technology that liberates precious and base metals from difficult to treat sulphide ores and concentrates. The BacTech technology is the only one employed that has commercially-proven bioleaching technology for gold and base metal separation. To date 3 bioleach plants have been designed and built (2 in Australia and 1 in China). Construction of the Aguila Norte Plant, currently underway, is expected to be completed late in the 1st quarter 2016. If deemed viable, the bioleach plant will be designed to address the high levels of arsenic that are present in high-grade precious metal material, which are prevalent in northern Peru. Duran's geologists have already identified several prospective sources of this mineralized material, which is presently not treatable at most other toll-milling facilities in Peru. Both companies agree that a bioleach circuit at the Aguila Norte Plant will be an environmentally friendly alternative to process refractory and arsenic rich precious and base metal mineralized material mined by small scale miners. In many cases, gold rich refractory mineralized materials mined are treated with mercury in an attempt to extract gold from the host rocks. Recoveries of gold are very low and much of the material is discarded after mercury treatment leading to widespread contamination of soils and waterways. If further investigation shows favorable economics on identifiable mineralized material, a Joint Venture will be formed with Duran's 80% owned subsidiary Minera Aguila de Oro SAC ("MADOSAC") and BacTech with each party holding 50% ownership of the bio-leach circuit. BacTech will finance the cost of the construction of the bio-leach circuit. Duran will have the right to participate in BacTech's financing if a construction decision is considered. Flotation will be the preferred method of treating the difficult refractory and arsenic rich gold/base metal material delivered to Duran's Aguila Norte Plant. This flotation concentrate will then be processed through the bioleach circuit, which should deliver liberated gold for conventional recovery, possible by-product copper or silver and ferric arsenate for disposal. It should be noted that without eliminating the arsenic, any sale of this concentrate to a smelter would be very difficult given the restrictions imposed on smelters and their ability to burn arsenic. One of the major attributes of bioleaching is its ability to process high arsenic concentrates whereby the arsenic is converted to ferric arsenate, which is an acceptable final state product according to US EPA regulations. The approximate ratio for concentration is roughly 20%. This means that for each 100 tonnes of mineralized material delivered to the flotation plant there would be 20 tonnes of concentrate produced and available for treatment through the bioleach circuit. Duran's Aguila Norte Plant will charge a processing fee to the Joint Venture. Any profits generated by processing mineral through the bioleach circuit will be equally shared after first paying the Aguila Norte Plant its processing fee. For the past several months Duran's geologists have collected gold mineralized samples from different sites in northern Peru. The assay and metallurgical results from these samples convinced both parties that further investigation was warranted. It should be noted that some of the samples were representative of non-refractory sulphide mineralization and contained potential "preg-robbing" copper as well as gold. Another benefit of bioleaching is the ability to put this copper into solution for recovery as a by-product. This then allows for conventional recovery of the gold without the use of large amounts of cyanide that would be otherwise consumed by copper content. Duran recently announced the construction schedule of its 80% owned Aguila Norte 100-ton per day flotation plant in Northern Peru. This permitted plant will process simple sulphide mineralized materials and if a bioleach circuit is added to the plant, the companies believe that more favorable mineral purchase agreements could be secured. Duran's intention is to expand to the maximum 350 tonnes per day allowed under the Peruvian small miners' regulations. The Aguila Norte site is considered extremely favorable for a bioleach circuit because of its low elevation (200 metres above sea level elevation) and nearby workforce, water and power. "We see a real need for a plant such as the one proposed at Duran's Aguila Norte Plant near Trujillo in Northern Peru. Through Dr. Marcello Veiga at the University of British Columbia School of Mining we learned about the issues in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia concerning the use of mercury in artisanal mining. Unfortunately creating a concentrate with high arsenic restricts the options for processing leading to very little value being created for the artisanal miner. With bioleaching we hope to be able to eliminate mercury use, stabilize the arsenic and provide a better livelihood for the artisanal miners both financially as well as from a health perspective," said Ross Orr, President and CEO of BacTech. "We feel that this investigation and the continued study of a variety of mineralized materials throughout Peru will be very beneficial for miners. The location of the Aguila Norte Plant is ideal and will be able to process ore of many types for several decades due to favorable infrastructure and topography. Duran is continually reviewing and acquiring concessions and some have high-grade arsenic-rich mineralization ideal for bioleach processing. We look forward to working with the BacTech team and look forward to a positive outcome," said Jeffrey Reeder, President and CEO of Duran. Jeffrey Reeder, P.Geo., and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has prepared and approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release. About Duran Duran Ventures Inc. is a Canadian exploration company focused on the exploration and development of precious and base metal properties, and mineral processing in Peru. Duran Ventures Inc. is a Canadian resource company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and the Bolsa de Valores de Lima: Symbol "DRV" 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. Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. We use words such as "might", "will", "should", "anticipate", "plan", "expect", "believe", "estimate", "forecast" and similar terminology to identify forward looking statements and forward-looking information. Such statements and information are based on assumptions, estimates, opinions and analysis made by management in light of its experience, current conditions and its expectations of future developments as well as other factors which it believes to be reasonable and relevant. Forward-looking statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements and information and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on such statements and information. Risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our annual and quarterly Management's Discussion and Analysis and in other filings made by us with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com. While the Company believes that the expectations expressed by such forward-looking statements and forward-looking information and the assumptions, estimates, opinions and analysis underlying such expectations are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove to be correct. In evaluating forward-looking statements and information, readers should carefully consider the various factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward looking statements and forward-looking information. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Sarama Resources Ltd. ("Sarama" or the "Company") (TSX-V: SWA) is pleased to announce that it has executed a Heads of Agreement (the "Agreement") with Acacia Mining plc ("Acacia") that provides for the termination the 2014 earn-in agreement between the two companies in respect of the South Hounde Project (or the "Project") in south-western Burkina Faso. The Agreement provides for Sarama to resume operatorship and regain a 100% interest in the Project, which is contiguous to Sarama's neighbouring 100%-owned ThreeBee Project(4) (refer to Figure 1). The two project areas cover approximately 1,400km of prospective greenstone terrane and will be Sarama's principal focus to advance towards mine development, underpinned by the current inventory of free-milling material, suitable for processing by heap leaching or a conventional gold plant. It is anticipated that the Project's 2.1Moz Au(1) inferred mineral resource will form the foundation for development and be supplemented by the ThreeBee Project where recent exploration success demonstrates good potential to add to the historical estimate of mineral resources at the Bondi Deposit (0.3Moz Au measured and indicated, 0.1Moz inferred)(2). Highlights Agreement with Acacia provides for Sarama to regain a 100% ownership interest and operatorship of the Project (7) . and operatorship of the Project . Completion will increase Sarama's 100%-owned interests in the southern Hounde Belt to approximately 1,400km . . The Project hosts an inferred mineral resource of 2.1Moz Au (1) , which includes 0.6Moz Au (1) of oxide and transition material. , which includes of oxide and transition material. In addition, the Bondi Deposit, within the ThreeBee Project, has a historical estimate of mineral resources of 0.3Moz Au (measured and indicated) and 0.1Moz Au (inferred) (2) . (measured and indicated) and (inferred) . Project development will focus on the free-milling components of the mineral inventories which have yielded high metallurgical recoveries in heap leach and conventional gold plant basedtestwork. of the mineral inventories which have yielded high metallurgical recoveries in heap leach and conventional gold plant basedtestwork. Scope for additions to the mineral inventories is demonstrated by recent (6) reconnaissance drilling by Sarama at the new Zawana and SE Splay Prospects on the ThreeBee Project: 22m @ 3.85g/t Au from 5m in DJR0029; 29m @ 1.44g/t Au from 1m and 10m @ 1.24g/t A u from 67m in DJR0030; 5m @ 4.54g/t Au from 15m in DJA0141, and 3m @ 4.71g/t Au from 51m and 3m @ 19.86g/t Au (EOH) from 69m in DJR0013. reconnaissance drilling by Sarama at the new and on the ThreeBee Project: Sarama will benefit from approximately US$13M of historical exploration expenditure by Acacia on the South Hounde Project (7) . Commercial terms of the Agreement include short-term cash payments by Sarama totalling US$2M, staged over a 12-month period, and further cash and royalty payments following commercial production. . Commercial terms of the Agreement include short-term cash payments by Sarama totalling US$2M, staged over a 12-month period, and further cash and royalty payments following commercial production. Significant exploration potential remains on both of Sarama's 100%-owned projects(7) with initial focus on attractive oxide targets. Future Project Direction Upon resuming operatorship of the Project, the Company will focus exploration efforts on attractive oxide and free-milling targets on both the Project and the Sarama's adjacent ThreeBee Project. Potential exists to expand the current oxide and free-milling inventories on each of the project areas. Sarama's recent exploration activities at the Zanawa and SE Splay Prospects at the ThreeBee Project have indicated further potential to add to the mineral inventory where recent reconnaissance drilling(6) has extended the strike of new mineralisation to 1km and delivered encouraging intersections including: 22m @ 3.85g/t Au from 5m in DJR0029; from 5m in DJR0029; 29m @ 1.44g/t Au from 1m and 10m @ 1.24g/t A u from 67m in DJR0030; from 1m and from 67m in DJR0030; 5m @ 4.54g/t A u from 15m in DJA0141, and u from 15m in DJA0141, and 3m @ 4.71g/t Au from 51m and 3m @ 19.86g/t Au (EOH) from 69m in DJR0013. The Company is actively pursuing these targets and has identified a number of areas at the MM, MC, Obi and Kenobi Deposits on the South Hounde Project for immediate follow-up. Concurrent with exploration activities, the Company will commence scoping work to frame project development options, which will generally focus on the component of the mineral inventory which is amenable to processing by heap leaching or a conventional gold plant. In this regard, the South Hounde Project hosts an inferred mineral resource of 0.6Moz Au(1) (oxide and transition) and the Bondi Deposit, located on the ThreeBee Project has a historical estimate of mineral resources of 0.3Moz Au (measured and indicated) and 0.1Moz Au (inferred)(2) in free-milling oxide, transition and fresh material. Key Commercial Terms The contractual relationship between Sarama and Acacia (the "Parties") will be varied to reflect the following key commercial and operating terms: the earn-in phase will terminate and Sarama will resume sole operatorship of the Project; Acacia will relinquish its right to an ownership interest in the Project and Sarama will retain 100% ownership; Sarama will make cash payments to Acacia according to the following schedule: US$750,000 on completion of all pertinent agreements ('' Completion Date '') US$750,000 at 6 months after the Completion Date; US$500,000 at 12 months after Completion Date; and US$2,000,000 upon commercial production of gold from the Project. Sarama will grant Acacia a royalty on gold production from the Project on the following terms: royalty payments to be capped at gold production of 1Moz Au; sliding-scale royalty rates of: 1.0% for gold price US$1300/oz; 1.5% for gold prices >US$1300/oz and US$1500/oz; and 2.0% for gold prices >US$1500/oz. Sarama will grant to Acacia the following warrants for common shares in Sarama, exercisable for 5-years: 2.5M warrants, exercisable at C$0.10 per share; and 2.5M warrants, exercisable at C$0.20 per share. The issuance of the warrants is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Completion of the variation of contractual relationship between the Parties is subject to the execution of definitive agreements. Sarama's President and CEO, Andrew Dinning, commented: "We are very pleased to have reached agreement with Acacia and are keen to resume management of the South Hounde Project on a 100% basis. This agreement is fundamental to consolidating our position in the southern Hounde Belt and puts Sarama on a solid footing to advance its interests towards mine development. I would like to acknowledge the current management of Acacia for their pragmatic approach to negotiating a mutually beneficial outcome that will facilitate development in the region. Sarama looks forward to framing up the development opportunity and re-commencing exploration work which will focus on attractive oxide and free-milling targets in the greater project area." For further information on the Company's activities, please contact: Andrew Dinning or Paul Schmiede e: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. t: +61 (0) 8 9363 7600 Figure 1 Sarama's 100%-Owned Interests(7) in the Southern Hounde Belt ABOUT SARAMA RESOURCES LTD Sarama Resources Ltd (TSX-V: SWA) is a West African focused gold explorer and developer with substantial landholdings in Burkina Faso. Sarama is focused on consolidating under-explored landholdings in Burkina Faso and advancing its key projects towards development. Sarama's 100%-owned(7) South Hounde and ThreeBee Projects are located within the prolific Hounde Greenstone Belt in south-west Burkina Faso and are the exploration and development focus of the company. Its exploration programs have successfully discovered an inferred mineral resource estimate of 2.1Moz gold(2) at the South Hounde Project which is complemented by the ThreeBee Project's Bondi Deposit (historical estimate of mineral resources of 0.3Moz Au measured and indicated and 0.1Moz Au inferred(2)). Together, the projects form a cluster of advanced gold deposits, within trucking distance of one another, which potentially offers a development option for a multi-source fed central processing facility in the southern Hounde Belt region of Burkina Faso. Sarama has also built a growth pipeline which features a new 600km exploration position in the highly prospective Banfora Belt in south-western Burkina Faso. The Koumandara Project hosts several regional-scale structural features and trends of gold-in-soil anomalism extending for over 40km along strike. Sarama holds a 27% participating interest in the Karankasso Project Joint Venture ("JV") which is situated adjacent to the Company's South Hounde Project in Burkina Faso and is a JV between Sarama and Savary Gold Corp. ("Savary"). Savary is the operator of the JV and in October 2015, declared a maiden inferred mineral resource estimate of 671,000 ounces of contained gold(3) at the Karankasso Project JV. Incorporated in 2010, the Company's Board and management team have a proven track record in Africa and a strong history in the discovery and development of large-scale gold deposits. Sarama is well positioned to build on its current success with a sound exploration strategy across its property portfolio. FOOTNOTES South Hounde Project - 43.0Mt @ 1.5g/t Au (reported above cut-off grades ranging 0.3-2.2g/t Au, reflecting the mining methods and processing flowsheets assumed to assess the likelihood of the inferred mineral resources having reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction). This mineral resource contains an oxide and transition component of 16.0Mt @ 1.2g/t Au for 611koz Au (reported at a cut-off grade of 0.3g/t Au for oxide and 0.8g/t Au for transition material). The effective date of the Company's inferred mineral resource estimate is February 4, 2016. For further information regarding the mineral resource estimate please refer to the technical report titled "NI 43-101 Independent Technical Report South Hounde Project Update, Bougouriba and Ioba Provinces, Burkina Faso", dated March 31, 2016 and prepared by Adrian Shepherd. Adrian Shepherd is an employee of Cube Consulting Pty Ltd and is considered to be independent of Sarama. The technical report is available under Sarama's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Bondi Deposit - 4.1Mt @ 2.1g/t Au for 282,000oz Au (measured and indicated) and 2.5Mt @ 1.8g/t Au for 149,700oz Au (inferred), reported at a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off. i. The historical estimate of the Bondi Deposit reflects a mineral resource estimate compiled by Orezone Gold Corporation ("Orezone") which has an effective date of February 20, 2009. The historical estimate is contained in a technical report titled "Technical Report on the Mineral Resource of the Bondigui Gold Project", dated date of February 20, 2009 and prepared by Yves Buro (the "Bondi Technical Report"). Yves Buro is an employee of Met-Chem Canada Inc and is considered to be independent of Orezone and Sarama. The technical report is available under Orezone's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. ii.Sarama believes that the historical estimate is relevant to investors' understanding of the property, as it reflects the most recent technical work undertaken in respect of the Bondi Deposit. iii. The historical estimate was informed by 886 drillholes, assayed for gold by cyanidation methods, were used to interpret mineralised envelopes and geological zones over the area of the historical estimate. Gold grade interpolation was undertaken using ID methodology based on input parameters derived from geostatistical and geological analyses assessments. Field measurements and geological logging of drillholes were used to determine weathering boundaries and bulk densities for modelled blocks. iv. The historical estimate uses the mineral resource reporting categories required under National Instrument 43-101. v. No more recent estimates of the mineral resource or other data are available. vi. Sarama is currently undertaking the necessary verification work in the field and on the desktop that may support the future reclassification of the historical estimate to a mineral resource. vii. A qualified person engaged by Sarama has not undertaken sufficient work to verify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource and Sarama is therefore not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. Karankasso Project - 9.2Mt @ 2.3g/t Au (at a 0.5g/t Au cut-off). The effective date ("Effective Date") of the most recent Karankasso Project JV mineral resource estimate that is supported by a technical report is October 7, 2015. For further information regarding that mineral resource estimate please refer to the technical report titled "Technical Report and Resource Estimate on the Karankasso Project, Burkina Faso", dated October 7, 2015 and prepared by Eugene Puritch and Antoine Yassa. Eugene Puritch and Antoine Yassa are employees of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. and are considered to be independent of Savary and Sarama. The technical report is available under Savary's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Sarama has not independently verified Savary's mineral resource estimate and takes no responsibility for its accuracy. Savary is the operator of the Karankasso Project JV and Sarama is relying on their Qualified Persons' assurance of the validity of the mineral resource estimate. Additional technical work has been undertaken on the Karankasso Project since the Effective Date, including but not limited to, metallurgical testwork, exploration drilling and mineral resource estimation, but Sarama is not in a position to quantify the impact of this additional work on the mineral resource estimate referred to above. The ThreeBee Project comprises the Djarkadougou, Botoro, Bamako(5) and Bouni(5) Properties and Sarama has, or is entitled to have, a 100% interest in each of the properties. The Djarkadougou, Bamako and Bouni Exploration Permits are going through a process with the government of Burkina Faso where it is required they be reissued as a new full-term exploration permit. The Company anticipates this to be completed in due course, though there can be no assurance that the process will be successfully completed on a timely basis, or at all. For further information regarding the drilling on the Bamako and Bouni Properties, please refer to the technical report titled "NI 43-101 Independent Technical Report South Hounde Project Update, Bougouriba and Ioba Provinces, Burkina Faso", dated October 28, 2013 and prepared by Adrian Shepherd. Adrian Shepherd is an employee of Cube Consulting Pty Ltd and is considered independent of Sarama. The technical report is available under Sarama's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Drilling previously disclosed in Sarama news release of September 20, 2018. Upon completion of definitive agreements between Sarama and Acacia. CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS Information in this disclosure that is not a statement of historical fact constitutes forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information includes statements regarding the potential for the receipt of regulatory approvals, the completion of definitive agreements, the potential of the projects to host mineralization of significance to support regional development plans, the timing and prospects for the reissuance of the Djarkadougou, Bamako and Bouni Exploration Permits by the government of Burkina Faso, plans for exploration at the South Hounde, ThreeBee and Koumandara Projects, the potential to expand the present oxide component of the existing estimated mineral resources at the South Hounde Project and the reliability of the historical estimate of mineral resources at the Bondi Deposit. Actual results, performance or achievements of the Company may vary from the results suggested by such forward-looking statements due to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such factors include, among others, that the business of exploration for gold and other precious minerals involves a high degree of risk and is highly speculative in nature; Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves, they do not have demonstrated economic viability, and there is no certainty that they can be upgraded to Mineral Reserves through continued exploration; few properties that are explored are ultimately developed into producing mines; geological factors; the actual results of current and future exploration; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's publicly filed documents. There can be no assurance that any mineralisation that is discovered will be proven to be economic, or that future required regulatory licensing or approvals will be obtained. However, the Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, Acacia's continued funding of exploration activities, the Company's ability to carry on its exploration activities, the sufficiency of funding, the timely receipt of required approvals, the price of gold and other precious metals, that the Company will not be affected by adverse political events, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the Company to obtain further financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Sarama does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable laws. 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. QUALIFIED PERSONS' STATEMENT Scientific or technical information in this disclosure that relates to the Company's exploration activities in Burkina Faso is based on information compiled or approved by Guy Scherrer. Guy Scherrer is an employee of Sarama Resources Ltd and is a member in good standing of the Ordre des Geologues du Quebec and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the commodity, style of mineralisation under consideration and activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Guy Scherrer consents to the inclusion in this disclosure of the information, in the form and context in which it appears. Scientific or technical information in this disclosure that relates to the preparation of the South Hounde Project mineral resource estimate is based on information compiled or approved by Adrian Shepherd. Adrian Shepherd is an employee of Cube Consulting Pty Ltd and is considered to be independent of Sarama Resources Ltd. Adrian Shepherd is a Chartered Professional Member in good standing of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the commodity, style of mineralisation under consideration and activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Adrian Shepherd consents to the inclusion in this disclosure of the information, in the form and context in which it appears. Scientific or technical information in this disclosure, in respect of the Bondi Deposit relating to mineral resource and exploration information drawn from the Technical Report prepared for Orezone on that deposit has been approved by Guy Scherrer. Guy Scherrer is an employee of Sarama Resources Ltd and is a member in good standing of the Ordre des Geologues du Quebec and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the commodity, style of mineralisation under consideration and activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Guy Scherrer consents to the inclusion in this disclosure of the information, in the form and context in which it appears. Scientific or technical information in this disclosure that relates to the quotation of the Karankasso Project's mineral resource estimate is based on information compiled by Paul Schmiede. Paul Schmiede is an employee of Sarama Resources Ltd and is a Fellow in good standing of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Paul Schmiede has sufficient experience which is relevant to the commodity, style of mineralisation under consideration and activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Paul Schmiede consents to the inclusion in this disclosure of the information, in the form and context in which it appears. Paul Schmiede and Sarama have not independently verified Savary's mineral resource estimate and take no responsibility for its accuracy. Highlights: Numerous new discoveries made surrounding the past-producing Bussiere Mine, 1.5 to 3.0 kilometres west of the Companys 43-101 Resource on the Pascalis Gold Trend Near surface discovery grading 3.3 g/t Au over 11 metres within a larger zone of 2.0 g/t over 22.4 metres, located 200 metres west of the Former Bussiere Mine Near-surface discovery grading 5.2 g/t Au over 7.4 metres and 118 g/t Au over 1.1 metre, located 1,000 metres and 1,200 metres, respectively, north of the Bussiere Mine Main Zone Two half kilometre-long gold structure intersected in fifteen holes south and southwest of the Bussiere Mine Main Zone, includes near-surface intercepts grading 31.3 g/t Au over 1.5 metres, 19.5 g/t Au over 1.2 metres and 10.8 g/t Au over 1.5 metres On-going drilling to follow-up on new zones identified on the Courvan property. TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Probe Metals Inc. (TSX-V: PRB) (OTCQB: PROBF) (Probe or the Company) is pleased to provide new results from the 2018 drill program on the Val-dOr East Courvan property area (the Property) located near Val-dOr, Quebec. Results from twenty-five (25) drill holes, totaling 8,285 metres, were received and showed significant new discoveries north and south of the Former Bussiere Mine (see figure 1). The 100%-owned Property is located approximately 1.5 kilometres west and adjacent to the New Beliveau deposit. The discoveries have opened up a new area for exploration within a short distance from the Companys current resources and will be a priority focus of the winter drilling program. Significant drill results are presented below. David Palmer, President and CEO of Probe, states Once again, the regional exploration program has returned significant results demonstrating the areas potential to host numerous gold deposits. Like the Monique property, the Courvan discoveries are within a short distance of our current gold resources and have the potential to contribute to an overall development strategy. Importantly, the Courvan area has seen very little exploration outside of the old mine site, with large areas of ground between the mine and New Beliveau, which fall along the interpreted gold trend, having seen no historic drilling. Courvan will also figure prominently in the winter drilling program, with the intent of expanding these near-surface discoveries. The initial drilling program at Courvan has already allowed us to identify several high potential areas of near-surface mineralization around the old Bussieres mine. The geometry of the mineralized zones are similar to those observed along the Pascalis trend, consisting of shallow dipping tension vein networks closely associated with sub-vertical deformation zones. Mineralization intersected on the Courvan property is characterized mainly by sulphide-bearing quartz-carbonate-tourmaline veins and veinlets in the Bourlamaque granodiorite batholith. Gold is generally associated with cm-scale pyrite masses in veins, 1% to 5% finely disseminated pyrite in the host rocks. Visible gold is common within the mineralization. Granodiorite, when mineralized, is generally altered with variable amounts of sericite, carbonate, and/or silica. Assay results from selected drill holes are reported in the following table: Selected drill results from the Courvan Area drilling program1 Hole Number From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) Area CO-18-01 116.0 117.2 1.2 19.5 Courvan Southwest 259.5 260.5 1.0 10.7 Courvan Southwest CO-18-02 173.5 179.5 6.0 2.5 Courvan Southwest CO-18-03 172.0 178.0 6.0 1.7 Courvan Southwest 245.5 247.0 1.5 7.9 Courvan Southwest CO-18-08 264.5 273.0 8.5 5.7 Courvan Southwest including 271.5 273.0 1.5 31.3 Courvan Southwest CO-18-09 209.4 221.0 11.6 1.4 Courvan Southwest including 209.4 210.5 1.1 7.9 Courvan Southwest CO-18-11 122.0 123.5 1.5 10.8 Courvan Southeast CO-18-12 107.0 113.5 6.5 1.1 Courvan Southeast CO-18-15 117.5 121.0 3.5 1.4 Courvan Southeast 181.0 182.0 1.0 5.4 Courvan Southeast CO-18-16 21.0 33.8 12.8 1.1 North of Creek Zone including 28.8 30.8 2.0 4.6 North of Creek Zone 53.6 57.0 3.4 1.2 North of Creek Zone 174.5 178.0 3.5 1.7 North of Creek Zone CO-18-17 160.0 161.0 1.0 5.9 North of Creek Zone 202.0 208.0 6.0 1.2 North of Creek Zone 246.0 250.0 4.0 1.1 North of Creek Zone 289.0 290.0 1.0 8.6 North of Creek Zone CO-18-19 36.5 70.0 33.5 1.2 North of Creek Zone including 54.0 55.0 1.0 27.4 North of Creek Zone CO-18-20 18.0 21.0 3.0 1.6 North of Creek Zone 211.0 212.1 1.1 10.1 North of Creek Zone 281.9 282.9 1.0 19.4 North of Creek Zone 394.9 396.0 1.1 118.0 North of Creek Zone CO-18-21 42.0 43.0 1.0 69.6 Bussiere West CO-18-22 70.3 92.7 22.4 2.0 Bussiere West including 75.0 86.0 11.0 3.3 Bussiere West including 75.0 76.0 1.0 27.9 Bussiere West CO-18-23 168.3 173.3 5.0 2.0 North of Creek Zone 344.3 359.5 15.2 2.3 North of Creek Zone including 350.3 357.5 7.2 4.3 North of Creek Zone CO-18-25 69.3 76.7 7.4 5.2 North of Creek Zone including 74.6 76.7 2.1 15.6 North of Creek Zone (1) All the new analytical results reported in this release and in this table, are presented in core length and uncut. Additional drilling is planned for the immediate area which will enable the true width determination. Figure 1: Surface Map Val-dOr East - Courvan and Pascalis Gold Trend Area About the Courvan Property: The Courvan Property is adjacent to the Companys New Beliveau deposit and unlocks significant exploration potential to the west of the New Beliveau mineralized system. The Property land package is largely unexplored, with limited historic diamond drilling in the vicinity of the past-producing Bussiere Mine. Gold-bearing veins historically mined on the property consisted of quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins associated with shear zones and diorite dykes, similar to what is found in the New Beliveau deposit, approximately 1.5 kilometers to the east. The Bussiere Mine produced 42,000 ounces at a grade of 5.8 g/t Au between 1932 and 1942. Qualified Persons The scientific and technical content of this press release has been reviewed, prepared and approved by Mr. Marco Gagnon, P.Geo, Executive Vice President, who is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). Quality Control During the last drilling program, assay samples were taken from the NQ core by sawing the drill core in half, with one-half sent to a certified commercial laboratory and the other half retained for future reference. A strict QA/QC program was applied to all samples; which includes insertion of mineralized standards and blank samples for each batch of 20 samples. The gold analyses were completed by fire-assayed with an atomic absorption finish on 50 grams of materials. Repeats were carried out by fire-assay followed by gravimetric testing on each sample containing 3.0 g/t gold or more. Total gold analyses (Metallic Sieve) were carried out on the samples which presented a great variation of their gold contents or the presence of visible gold. About Probe Metals: Probe Metals Inc. is a leading Canadian gold exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of highly prospective gold properties. The Company is committed to discovering and developing high-quality gold projects, including its key asset the Val-dOr East Gold Project, Quebec. The Company is well-funded and controls a strategic land package of approximately 1,000-square-kilometres of exploration ground within some of the most prolific gold belts in Quebec. The Company was formed as a result of the sale of Probe Mines Limited to Goldcorp in March 2015. Goldcorp currently owns approximately 13.7% of the Company. On behalf of Probe Metals Inc., Dr. David Palmer, President & Chief Executive Officer For further information: Please visit our website at www.probemetals.com or contact: Seema Sindwani Director of Investor Relations This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +1.416.777.9467 Forward-Looking Statements Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Companys future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as believes, anticipates, expects, estimates, may, could, would, will, or plan. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet managements expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Companys objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate First Nations and other indigenous peoples, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Companys public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. JUSTICEINFO.NET IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Rithy Panh Cambodian film maker and survivor of Khmer Rouge crimes After the conviction of the last two surviving Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity Rithy Panh, who survived four years of terror under Pol Pot, gives his reaction to this judgment and the justice rendered 40 years on. He describes an experience of genocide beyond bodies, inaccessible to a court, and his constant dialogue with the dead. JUSTICEINFO.NET: How do you react to the verdict handed down in Phnom Penh on November 16, convicting Nuon Chea et Khieu Samphan for genocide ? RITHY PANH: Headlines in the national and international press said it: for the first time the genocide has been recognized. Then there were a couple of lines about the genocide of Cham and Vietnamese people. Most people think this means there is a conviction for the whole genocide in Cambodia. The Chams see themselves as Cambodians and so do the Vietnamese in Cambodia. If we have a conviction for them, then Cambodians are also victims of genocide. But for me there is something else missing, a definition of the crime. I no longer felt Cambodian at all under the Khmer Rouge. I was dispossessed of everything, my first name, my religious and cultural practice, my family everything was torn apart. I felt under attack in my identity, my dignity. I was on death row, and I was nothing. There is an attack on something that is deeper than the crime. In the first trial [against Duch, former director of the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, sentenced in 2010], it was not defined either. The decision is welcome, but the court cannot convict for everything involved. I have always supported this court. I think its useful and something will always come out of it, even if I disagree with a lot of things. In my village, there are mass graves. I buried people myself in mass graves. There was not a single search. Not a single grave has been excavated, to my knowledge. There were no forensics. What interests me is not so much the Khmer Rouge security sites, its what happened in the villages. Executing people in villages, not giving them medical care is a crime. I find it surprising that four or five villages have not been chosen for a study. Its like a return to the Vietnamese show trials like in 1979 [In 1979, under Vietnamese occupation, a trial sentenced Pol Pot and his brother-in-law Ieng Sary in absentia for genocide; this trial is generally considered a show trial]. Are you comparing the two? I think the 1979 trial did a lot. It was certainly too political, but lots of evidence has been gathered from it. The fact that Nuon Chea was not cited in the Duch trial makes me sick. Taking the S-21 case is to understand the Khmer Rouge doctrine. But the trial failed there. It should have gone further and brought in Nuon Chea. Is it shocking to have separated the crime against the Chams and the Vietnamese, described as genocide, from that against the rest of the Khmer people, described as a crime against humanity? What more did the Cham and Vietnamese suffer than all Cambodians? What is shocking is that the majority of those who have been through this are Cambodians. So you have to explain this separation to me. In what way does the treatment of Chams and Vietnamese qualify more as genocide? Personally, I dont mind, but what more did they suffer than the Cambodian people as a whole? So you think everyone was victim of the same crime? Yes. We were forced to eat rats. Buddhists were told they should no longer pray. I remember my mother finding two or three sticks of incense. She lit them but then rushed to extinguish them because we hadnt smelled incense for months and it could be smelled from very far away. So the Khmers were targeted as Buddhists and so should also have been recognized as victims of genocide? They tried to wipe out our religion, our identity, our culture, our dignity. We were no longer part of the population. Thats it. Did they attack my identity? Yes. I was no longer called Rithy Panh, I no longer had a name. They tried to wipe out our religion, our identity, our culture, our dignity. We were no longer part of the population. So how do you assess this tribunal, after 12 years of its existence? I am surprised how interested Cambodians are in it. I disagree with those who say they are not interested. Maybe Im short-sighted, but I see them interested. Young Cambodians have more questions than those who experienced the genocide. When you create an App on Khmer Rouge history, there are 25,000 to 30,000 downloads. Thats not bad! Its free, and its the story of the Khmer Rouge for school students. A labour camp for the younger generation means absolutely nothing if you dont provide an image. We bring the image and they understand better. In this court at least, there are the civil parties, there are the accused with their lawyers, they argue. In my life in Cambodia, Ive never seen anything like it. Another thing I think is good is that we have never had a justice debate like this. Even in the Sihanouk era, we never had that. We have never believed in justice, even to this day. Weve always had justice for the strongest. In this court at least, there are the civil parties, there are the accused with their lawyers, they argue. In my life in Cambodia, Ive never seen anything like it. So the court has served as an example, but it is also said that it has had no impact on the functioning of national justice Yes, but I think there will be an impact later, perhaps. We have to be patient. At least it existed. Young Cambodian historians are writing, whereas before there were none. History teaching has not progressed much, but we are taking more risks. For years, teaching Khmer Rouge history was viewed as propaganda. Now it is more balanced, more fair. You have wanted to create links between Cambodians and Rwandans, and you have had contacts with survivors of the Shoah. Is there a common bond between survivors of genocide? Yes. I recently lost Marceline Loridan [French filmmaker, Holocaust survivor, deceased in September 2018], with whom I had had private and constant exchanges. There was a lot of talk about who we are, the survivors. There are these dead people who are with us all the time. Do you feel that you speak the same language? In terms of suffering, trauma, loss of self, I do not see the difference between myself and Marceline Loridan. Yes, we share the same pain in any case. That is why I do not understand the terms genocide or crimes against humanity. In terms of suffering, trauma, loss of self, loss of family, loss of others, I do not see the difference between myself and Marceline Loridan. She has a number tattooed on her arm and I have a foot injury, which is also a form of tattoo. We all have a mark. It looks like shes been in the same place as me, or me with her. Is the paradox that each crime is specific but that the experience of those who suffer is common? Yes, thats why I think its important to understand what it means behind the words. Legally, I am not saying that Cambodians fall into the category of genocide, but if I am allowed to explain point by point, perhaps we will understand better. In terms of destroying what is most precious in us as human beings, and in terms of intent emptying Phnom Penh of its inhabitants is not improvised, when they want to register us, they register us, when they want us to die, they let us die the power of death grows very quickly. In my village in 1976, the men in charge did nothing, but the process was thus accelerated so that there was large-scale elimination. That was clear in the case of the Jews because they were brought from everywhere and killed because they were Jews and because people built death factories. But when you see how people were killed in the swamps, it was as fast as in the gas chambers. The definition of genocide is based on intent to destroy, so is it this intent that you felt? Yes. We were the new people. We were immediately given a name, classified in categories and given less rations than the ancient people of the land. We were not seen as part of it. The ancient people did not die from the intent to purify but from internal political struggles. You are a filmmaker, what is the strength of the cinematographic art to evoke this? I work on gestures, on bodies, on words, on how extreme violence affects the bodies of victims as well as the bodies of perpetrators. I work on extreme violence. I work on gestures, on bodies, on words, on how extreme violence affects the bodies of victims as well as the bodies of perpetrators. There is a language at S-21 that is very important to show how people are dehumanized. If you work on the face, you see the face, you look into the eyes. Look at how Duch, for example, avoids eye contact. When I ask him why, and he looks at me, its a different face. Sometimes physical presence can be translated. Cinema remains subjective, but sometimes it succeeds in this. Your search is endless. You seem to be constantly renewing means and tools to find an impossible truth about extreme violence. Yes, but is it me or is the world repeating itself? When you see the rhetoric of Orban or Salvini or Duterte or Bolsonaro or Trump, I have the impression that this way of speaking has returned. It scares the hell out of me. This extreme violence is in us, we suffered it. With Marceline, we said to ourselves that we had already died once, but we keep this death in us. You know, when a baby is born, it sometimes has traces on the body, bruises, sometimes matching exactly the bullets received by a distant or close relative during war. It is said that he is reborn with the marks of the bullets he received. One of my cousins died and when his sister had a child, it had the exact mark of the bullets he had received. Do we pass trauma on to the child? Or is the person reborn? This is the theme of your new work on trauma transmission, which recently took you to Japan, to the site of the nuclear bomb. What were you looking for? I have the impression that this violence is such that it even changes us physically, changes our molecules. Im trying to see how this extreme violence is transmitted. Once the generation that suffered it directly disappears, is it over or is it passed on? I ask myself this question because I have the impression that this violence is such that it even changes us physically, changes our molecules. I dont understand, for example, why it doesnt disappear in my country, why its not mitigated. The older you get, the more acutely you feel this. I have the impression that it is transmitted and I dont really like that idea. I see it and I try to find a way to talk about it, so that others can defend themselves, so to speak, so their immune systems can step up. I have the impression that by talking, by showing, things come out. Can we avoid transmitting it, I dont know, but I hope we can mitigate it. Extreme violence means going beyond physical violence. The court did not address this at all. I remember that Vann Nath [Cambodian painter, S-21 survivor, died in 2011] was very hurt by the court. He said they only asked me how I was beaten, how I was tortured, but they not how I feel spiritually. Morally, spiritually, I am not asked any questions. He told me that he had chosen not to be a civil party to testify in another way, and that he had not been allowed to do this. He said they asked me all the time how many spoons of soup did you get, how did you shit in your cell, how many times did they torture you with electric shocks. Its important, but theres also what we felt afterwards. Beyond the physical. And yet you come back to the body, your new work speaks of the impact on the body Yes, a physical impact on another scale, of a molecular nature. I have the impression of circular communication, from the body to beyond the body, with a return to body, to molecules. Apparently, this transmits, but I need the scientists to help me. When you film, do you feel you are doing something for justice or for remembrance, or neither one? I often forget all that. Justice, no, never, Im not looking for that. It becomes a work of memory, but I dont realize that while Im filming. I am interested first in what is contained in thoughts, gestures, words. My images are made of that, composed of gestures, words and silences. Afterwards, if it becomes a work of remembrance, so much the better, but that is not why I film or think. Dont you realize that the work you have created is also a work of remembrance? We hope to be appeased, but the appeasement of the soul is not automatic, otherwise I would not scream so much at night. Perhaps it is the defence of the soul or of the body? After the event yes, I am aware of it. I am lucky that I dont have to do anything else, perhaps also because I am a survivor. And so we come back to where we started, that the dead remain with me and I talk to them. I have a constant dialogue with them. I still scream at night. Forty years later, I scream, I see things. I am asked do you feel appeased? No, thats not how it works. We hope to be appeased, but the appeasement of the soul is not automatic, otherwise I would not scream so much at night. Perhaps it is the defence of the soul or of the body? The story comes back to you, you scream, you wake up and you almost dont remember it. Its a call, something inside me. We can pretend not to hear, but I dont have the spirit to do that, or the cynicism to turn a deaf ear. I have been more in dialogue with the dead than in the work of remembrance. But the dead can be considered as memory. You have worked several times with foreign directors wanting to make films inspired by what happened in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Hollywood dealing with subjects like genocide, doesnt that raise some concerns for you? I dont really like Roland Joffes film [La dechirure, released in 1984], but it was he who made the Cambodian genocide known to the whole world. Before, people didnt know who the Khmer Rouge were. All at once there were millions of spectators. Angelina Jolie [director of First they killed my father, co-produced by Rithy Panh] caused millions of people to watch. If she films in Khmer, its good for me, its the Cambodian language. The film Blood Diamonds made Sierra Leone known like no other film, but many Sierra Leoneans hate the image the film reduces them to The beauty of fiction is that it reaches a wider audience. How many schoolchildren have seen Spielbergs Schindlers List and how many have seen Lanzmanns Shoah? Yes, there is a risk of that. The beauty of fiction is that it reaches a wider audience. How many schoolchildren have seen Spielbergs Schindlers List and how many have seen Lanzmanns Shoah? And is it the same viewer who, twenty years later, will watch Lanzmanns film? Maybe its easier for Spielberg or Jolie to make a film like that than it is for me or Lanzmann. I think they have a role, that they do a good job. I dont like Spielbergs film, but it did play a part. The Deer Hunter is a superb film, even if they all scream in Thai, not Vietnamese. The other day in Italy, a waitress told me that she had seen Angelina Jolies film six or seven times. Thats amazing, isnt it? Ive seen some people go with their families. At first, no Cambodians ever watched my films. There was not a single Cambodian in the cinemas. Today, young people are watching it. Interviewed by Thierry Cruvellier, JusticeInfo.net. by Vladimir Rozanskij The second most important cleric in the Russian Orthodox Church visits the Far East. In Beijing he cited the 222 Chinese martyrs killed during the Boxer Uprising (1900). In Pyongyang he gave a gift to Kim Jong-un from Patriarch Kirill. Russias Church and diplomats work together abroad. Moscow (AsiaNews) Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, the most important cleric in the Russian Church after Patriarch Kirill, visited Beijing 23-24 November. Before travelling to the two Koreas, he celebrated a Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in the Russian embassy in Beijing, together with Church Rector Hieromonk Innokenty (Kolesnikov), and Archbishop Sergey (Chashin) of Solnechnogorsk, Administrative Secretary of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. In his homily, the metropolitan mentioned that China is "sacred for us, where the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission used to be, and where 222 Chinese martyrs had suffered We pray to the martyrs and confessors of this land so that the Lord may enlighten it with the light of Christs faith. We pray that the Orthodox faith may be preserved in this land. Hilarion also noted the concerns and efforts of the Patriarchate in helping the autonomous Chinese Orthodox Church in its journey an atheist state. The Russian delegation then left for Seoul, where it visited the local Orthodox community before moving onto Pyongyang, where it delivered a gift from Patriarch Kirill to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Russia and North Korea are marking 70 years of diplomatic relations this year, and the visit is part of the celebrations for this anniversary. Metropolitan Hilarion was able to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Life-giving Trinity together with Fr Feodor Kim, dean of the church, and other priests serving Russian churches in the Far East, from which came Russian missions left to go to China, Korea and Japan. During the celebration, prayers were offered in memory of the servant of God Andrei Karlov, ambassador and "hero of Russia", killed by an Islamic terrorist in 2016 at an art exhibit in Ankara, Turkey. Karlov served in North Korea from 2001 to 2006, and had made a special effort to build a Russian Orthodox church in Pyongyang, which was later consecrated in 2006 by Kirill himself. The current patriarch was then head of the Patriarchates Foreign Relations Department, a post now held by Hilarion. The parish of Pyongyang was officially registered with the North Korean government following negotiations that lasted a few years in which the Patriarchate was backed by Russian diplomats. Speaking about the Gospel of the Good Samaritan, Metropolitan Hilarion noted that "The Lord has called everyone to his Church to share the treasures of the spirit with our neighbours. It is therefore no coincidence that this magnificent church is located in the centre of Pyongyang ... Its doors are always open to those who want to receive the Holy Communion, and be together with the Lord. This church is a true miracle, which blesses those who are present and those who are outside." After his visit to North Korea, Metropolitan Hilarion made another stopover in Beijing where he met Russian ambassador Andrey Denisov to look at the joint efforts by the Church and the Russian government in support of the autonomous Chinese Orthodox Church, following the example of the good relations with Pyongyang. by Trung Tin The inauguration ceremony will be held in St Joseph Cathedral on 18 December. The new archbishop was the bishop of Hai Phong for 16 years, during which he gave impetus to the dioceses development. In Hanoi he will face the seizure and forced occupation of Church-owned assets. Hanoi (AsiaNews) Pope Francis has appointed Mgr Giuse (Joseph) Vu Van Thien as the new archbishop of Hanoi, northern Vietnam. On 17 November, the pontiff had accepted the resignation of his predecessor, 80-year-old Mgr Phero (Pierre) Nguyen Van Nhon. Before taking over the Archdiocese of the capital, Mgr Thien was bishop of Hai Phong, also in northern Vietnam, not far from the Sino-Vietnamese border. The inauguration ceremony of the new archbishop is set for 10 am on 18 December in St Joseph Cathedral. Mgr Thien was born on 26 October 1960 in Ke Sat parish in Trang Liet, Binh Giang district (Hai Phong province). He studied at the St Joseph Major Seminary in Hanoi from 1982 to 1988. Ordained priest by Mgr Giuse Maria (Joseph Maria) Nguyen Tung Cuong, Fr Thien pursued his studies between 1996 and 2000 in Paris (France). Back in Vietnam, he became professor of theology at his old seminary. In 2002, Pope John Paul II named him bishop of Hai Phong. In 2003, Catholics make up about 2.5 per cent of the population the diocese, and could count only on 20 priests, a handful of religious institutes and congregations and some crumbling buildings. In 16 years of service, Mgr Thien brought the number of priests to 82 and established 30 new parishes, which now number 92. In parallel, religious associations, institutes and congregations enjoyed an important development. Between 2007 and 2016, Hanois new archbishop chaired the Youth Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Vietnam (CBCV). After his term of office, he became CBCV deputy secretary general, a post he will hold until next year. In the capital, Mgr Thien will have to deal with the seizure and forced occupation of Church-owned land and property by Communist authorities. However, the archbishop is not new to such matters. In the past, he defended Phero (Peter) oan Van Vuon, a Catholic man arrested on the orders of Hai Phong authorities for resisting the seizure of his land and the destruction of his home in Tien Lang district. This said, Hai Phong provincial authorities note that Mgr Thien "has had good relations with non-Catholics and the poor, and has a harmonious relationship with the authorities at all levels. The prelate has also upgraded diocesan institutions such as the Bishops Office, the St Gieronimo Liem Minor Seminary and the Diocesan Pastoral Centre." by Anna Chiara Filice The Christian woman is stuck in Pakistan and cannot leave the country because of an agreement between the government and radicals. Activist Wajahat Abbas Kazmi claims that moderates "are silent because they know that expressing themselves can be dangerous for themselves and their families". In his view, there is "no justification" for people protesting against Asia Bibis acquittal. Rome (AsiaNews) What s happening in Pakistan against Asia Bibi is a disgrace. Even more disgraceful is the agreement between the government and Islamic radicals", which has effectively prevented the Christian woman from leaving the country, despite her acquittal of the accusation of blasphemy, this according to Wajahat Abbas Kazmi, a filmmaker and LGBT activist who spoke to AsiaNews. One of the few Pakistani Muslims who openly stand by Asia Bibi and against anti-Christian discrimination in his country, Wajahat currently lives in Italy. His life has been repeatedly threatened because of his work in favour of human rights. Despite this, he hasnt stopped speaking out against persecution. In the coming weeks, his second book title Asia Bibi: La tragedia di una donna cristiana vista attraverso gli occhi di un musulmano (Asia Bibi: The tragedy of a Christian woman seen through the eyes of a Muslim), will be published. According to the activist, the cause of the Asia Bibis painful experience is "the abuse of the blasphemy law", which has been used, he stressed, " not only against Christians but also Muslims". How do you interpret the silence of moderate Muslims in the Asia Bibi affair? In Pakistan, moderates are silent because they know that those who tried to defend the woman have been threatened or even killed. Pakistanis do not speak out because they know that expressing themselves can be dangerous for themselves and their families. In addition to this, I believe that those who live outside the country know little of the case, they do not know all the details, whether she was accused of blasphemy or guilty according to this law. Why is it that radical views dominate the Islamic world? It is very simple: because loud voices are easily heard, whilst peaceful voices have always been silenced. I also think that those who express themselves in favour of peace do not have sufficient media coverage. Also, most readers want to hear those who scream louder. What do you think of the blasphemy law? Why dont people reject it? The rules that criminalise offenses against the Islamic religion are rooted in the English (colonial-era) Penal Code, like all other laws in force in Pakistan. The critical point is that they have not been scrapped, and new ones have been added over the years (like under General Zia-ul Haqs military regime). But we must be careful. Christians are not the only victims of this law; Muslims are as well. The blasphemy laws in Pakistan have been abused just like any other law. it is not just a law used against minorities, because in the country any law can be used against anyone who is not powerful enough to defend themselves. In recent years, some of the biggest countries in the world have rid themselves of such laws. I hope this gradually happens in Pakistan too. In your country extremists have blocked roads demanding Asia Bibi be hanged. In the end, Imran Khan's government came to terms with them. Do you believe that the authorities have given in? It is a disgrace; there is no defence for this. There is no justification for people protesting against Asia Bibis acquittal. At the same time, contrary to what the agreement with the radicals says, Asia Bibis name has not been added to the list of people banned from leaving Pakistan. This gives us hope that the agreement is not so important. In the archipelago the structure of geopolitical relations changes. The new government of Male reiterates the return to the politics of "India First". The Maldives are likely to fall into the debt trap in which Sri Lanka has already fallen. Male (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Beijing "inflates the cost of debts", accused Ibrahim Ameer, the new Minister of Finance of the Maldives. During an official visit to New Delhi, he said that China "inflated the prices of infrastructure projects" negotiated by former president Abdulla Yameen. He also assures the new government led by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party (Mdp), wants to restore the policy of "India First" and renegotiate the commercial agreements signed with China. The breakthrough in geopolitical relations in the Indian Ocean was expected since Solih beat his rival, ex-president Yameen, by surprise. The latter, a close friend of China, in recent years has signed a series of projects with Beijing. Sri Lanka. Experts in the economic field point out that such plans risk plummeting the tax haven into a debt trap with no way out. In fact, last year Colombo was forced to cede control of the port of Hambantota for 99 years in Beijing to finance its debt. Meanwhile India celebrates its renewed friendship with Male. The Indian premier, Narendra Modi, who has supported the country in financial difficulties, took part in the inauguration ceremony of the new government on 17 November. Mohamed Nasheed, MDP leader and first president, democratically elected in 2008, forced into new exile in 2012 and returned home after his victory of the Solih ally. Demonstrators critical of the number two of the Saudi kingdom, for involvement in Khashoggi's death. Journalists' union join civil society protests. More scheduled today, coinciding with the arrival of the crowned prince. Tunis (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Human rights activists demonstrated yesterday afternoon against the visit of Saudi hereditary prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), in the context of the economic and diplomatic tour of the Arab world. Protests have been sparked by Mbs alleged role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in spite of official denials of Riyadh. Tunisia is one of the few states in the Muslim Arab world where protests are authorized; the 2011 Arab Spring led to the overthrow of the long-time leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and the subsequent introduction of some basic rights. These include the "most modern" Constitution of the Arab world and equal rights in the field of inheritance. The arrival of bin Salman is scheduled for today, from Egypt where he met yesterday President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. A visit that has pushed at least 13 activist groups of Tunisian civil society to take to the streets. Among the promoters of the protest are the leaders of the journalists' union, who have chosen as their symbol the central Habib Bourguiba avenue, the scene of the demonstrations against Ben Ali. The activists showed signs praising "freedom for Saudi women" and against the crowned prince: "Bin Salman, you're the number one killer." "The Tunisian revolution - said Soukaina Abdessamad, leader of the journalist union - cannot accept to welcome him [Mbs] and allow it to clean up [with this journey] from the murder". New protests are also scheduled today, coinciding with the visit of bin Salman. By AusSMC NASA's InSight lander has touched down on Mars after spending almost 7 months travelling through space. Its mission is to measure the temperature of the red planet and listen out for any earthquakes to help scientists understand more about the interior of the planet. "As our global civilisation moves closer to developing technology which can both transport and provide life support for humans across the vast distances required to get to Mars, missions such as Insight provide us with data and insights critical to understanding challenges. These missions provide crucial baseline science and cannot occur without extensive global co-operation and co-ordination between nations. Currently, as the number of missions in total is relatively small, however as the volume of missions increase, the number of technical and legal challenges will increase also. You only have to look at the explosion in the number of satellites orbiting Earth, to see that its possible for a space environment to become congested and contested in a relatively short period of time. There are 5 United Nations treaties on space include the 1957 Outer Space Treaty (http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties.html) and these provide a framework for peaceful operations in space and domestic legislative arrangements cover important financial, insurance and safety requirements and important country specific regulations and requirements for specific missions. As the number of missions to the Moon, Mars and other places in our solar system increases; its important to examine the questions of how to ensure that international frameworks continue to promote peaceful operations and allow equitable access for all nations to sites which are identified as significant or important. How do we avoid creating a system of regulation which is cumbersome and expensive, does not stifle technology development and promotes safety? Easy, if every Space related organisation from Space Agencies to Commercial business added a Lawyer/Scientist to their team, this will bridge the gap between technology and law, and identify areas of potential issues." "InSight is different to previous Mars missions. It is not a rover or an orbiter. It is a geophysical station to be placed on the surface with passive instruments that will sense the interior structure. The aim is to understand how Mars has formed, how it differentiated and how much is it different to our planet. Ultimately, this will contribute to the knowledge of how all rocky planets formed. My role is to study marsquakes that originate from meteoroid strikes on the ground and fireballs bursting in atmosphere. I make numerical simulations of impact events, and this is my contribution to the large InSight team of scientists and engineers. I work with my two PhD students on Mars InSight project at the newly formed Space Science and Technology Centre at Curtin University, the largest planetary group in Australia (and the Southern hemisphere). Space mission launch and landing are two nail-biting moments, as these manoeuvres are technically challenging, but NASA has been landing missions successfully for a long time, so I hope this one wont be any different. In case of a lost mission, all these years put into design, building and launching as well as all science preparations behind the mission would not be in vain. We learn from our experiences and if InSight is not meant to be, we will keep working towards new endeavours in discovering Mars. We live in an amazing time to be working in space exploration. With active involvement by space agencies around the world as well as this new momentum coming from private industries, the space sector is only going to grow. You probably know that Australia has its own space agency now, which makes it an awesome time to be advancing the space sector nationally as well." "You might imagine that a world without a dynamic crust of shifting tectonic plates would never have earthquakes. After all, thats the main reason we have quakes on our own planet, as the plates slowly rub together, slide under each other, or pull apart. As far as we can tell, though, the planet Mars has an unbroken crust without moving plates but we believe it will still have marsquakes. How would they be caused? Meteorite impacts, for a start, since Mars thin atmosphere burns up far fewer incoming space rocks than the Earths does. And shrinkage of Mars crust, or swelling of the underlying soft rock due to convection in its interior could also cause marsquakes. Potentially, such quakes could tell us an awful lot about the interior of the planet, as they do here on Earth. But so far, weve had no way of detecting them. Enter InSight, the brilliant new NASA Mars lander. With a seismometer to die for, placed directly on the Martian surface, plus other sophisticated instrumentation, InSight will tell us much about the planets interior over the next couple of years." "Mars InSight is a lander rather than a rover. That means it does not have wheels to move around and it will be located in one place for the duration of the mission. Landers are generally cheaper than rovers because they have less movable parts to break down, but it is the mission objective that has driving the design of Mars InSIght mission. The lander carries a sensor for listening the heartbeat of Mars, which is tectonic activity of Mars. This will help us understand better what is Martian core made of, which then also tells us more about how terrestrial (rocky) planets form in general. Another important mission objective is to measure the inner temperature of Mars, using the heat probe that will dig 5 meters deep through Martian regolith. While we know plenty about the surface temperature of Mars, we need to dig deep to measure the residual temperature from the time of planetary formation to see how much of that heat remains still trapped insight. All these data will also help us to understand better what influences habitability (a potential to host life) of rocky planets and whether Mars could still host active life forms, rather than just fossilised life." "Mars InSight is the first lander devoted to understanding the interior of Mars. Whereas Martian rovers have shown us how similar Mars is to Earth, Mars InSight will explore key differences. Why is Mars so geologically quiet while the Earth has plate tectonics, active volcanoes and violent earthquakes? Mars may have lost its magnetic field due to geological inactivity, and this may have resulted in Mars losing most of its atmosphere and water. Mars InSight will look under the surface by measuring the heat flowing from Mars interior. It will also use a seismometer and marsquakes (including those caused by meteorite impacts) to probe the interior, using the same techniques geologists have used to understand the interior of the Earth." "Landing on Mars is high-risk. More than half the landing missions since the 1960s have failed to reach the surface, or have not been able to return data when they did. Apart from the rover Curiosity (its still not clear if Opportunity is going to fully recover from recent dust storms), there are no instruments actively gathering information on the Martian surface right now. Given that many hold out hope that settlement on Mars will make humans a multiplanet species, we really need to have a better understanding of what makes the planet tick. If Mars InSight is successful, it will use its robot arm to place a small seismometer onto the surface. And then the lander will wait still and silent, hoping to pick up the tell-tale signals of rocks cracking and moving below the surface, sending waves of vibrations bouncing through the deep layers of the planet that we know so little about. This is the first time that that well have such direct measurements of the mysterious interior, so its a very exciting mission." "The InSight mission will allow us to peer beneath the immediate surface of Mars for the first time. This will allow us to better understand how it was formed, and its present condition. Just like you can tell a hard-boiled from a raw egg by how it spins, the RISE instrument will allow us to determine the internal structure of Mars by tracking how it rotates." "Landing on the Red Planet is hard. Almost as many missions to Mars have failed as have succeeded. After a 484 million km journey InSight must hit a window just 10 x 24 km across in the atmosphere, otherwise it risks burning up or bouncing off the atmosphere. Hitting this target window is like threading the eye of a needle from a distance of over 20km. A successful landing on Mars after the 7 minutes of terror that includes supersonic airbrakes, parachutes and retro-thrusters firing, will be the first NASA mission to the surface in nearly a decade and is a big deal! The site chosen Elysium Planitia is the most boring on the planet, which is great! A featureless, flat location means less risk of tipping the lander on rocks or not being able to deploy solar panels on the slopes. The InSight lander will explore the inner structure of the planet over two years. Seismographs will measure seismic waves as the planet cools and shrinks as well as asteroids crashing into Mars all setting off Marsquakes that move faster in denser solid cores than liquid mantles of rocky worlds, a technique used to probe the Earths structure and an advancement in our knowledge. One of the most ambitious science efforts will be drilling 15ft (or 5m) into Mars by the mole, that will jackhammer itself and accompanying thermometers into the rock to record the temperature and rate of cooling of the Red Planet giving us clues as to why Mars has ended up so different to Earth." "Managed on NASAs behalf by the CSIRO, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) has been providing vital two-way contact for the InSight mission since its launch from Earth in May this year. The facilities giant antenna dishes sends commands and receive data from dozens of robotic spacecraft exploring the solar system and beyond, including eight missions currently operating at Mars. Before it makes its final preparations to land on Mars early Tuesday morning (AEDT), CDSCC will have contact with InSight to relay any last minute course corrections or uplink any changes to the spacecrafts landing instructions. Along with our two sister stations in Spain and the United States, Canberra will be supporting InSight as it begins its mission on the red planet. We are the only places in the world capable of communicating with these spacecraft at such enormous distances. InSight will give scientists a greater understanding of the formation and early evolution of planetary formation, including Earth. Travelling with InSight are two briefcase-sized cubesats called MarCo, the first test of an interplanetary internet that will help relay news of InSights landing back to Earth. Everything is ready in Canberra to receive InSights call." "Im really excited about this new mission to Mars - its always great when we see a new spacecraft landing on the Red Planet, but InSight is particularly interesting, for me, because it is going to be doing something totally new. By studying Mars Quakes, the spacecraft will tell us a great deal about Mars interior - offering our first real insights into how seismically active the Red Planet is. It will also detect the impacts of asteroids and comets on the Martian surface, by recording their seismic signatures (the ringing of the bell after the planet is struck, essentially). As someone whos interested in the impact rates of asteroids and comets in the Solar system, this will be fascinating information, letting us get a feel for just how often Mars gets hit. I also love the idea of the heat probe InSight will deploy - sending a robotic mole to drill five metres down beneath the surface, to measure how much heat is leaking out from the planets interior. Put together with the seismic studies, this will help us understand whether Mars is a dead world, or whether it is still hot enough in its interior to drive that kind of activity. Its a really exciting mission, and Ill be watching for confirmation that the landing went smoothly with bated breath!" "NASAs Insight mission is a wonderful science initiative to learn more about planet formation processes, including aspects that relate to the understanding of how Earths history formed. By measuring current tectonic activity on Mars, a much smaller planet than Earth and one that has largely cooled, we can learn about how Earth formed within the solar system, and also about what the long-term future of our planet will be." GRANTS PASS, Ore,- Dutch Bros Coffee will donate more than $400,000 to victims of the recent California Wildfires. The coffee company started collecting donations on November 13. It promised to match up to $150,000 in donations. It announced Tuesday it raised $401,530. That money will go to three different organizations that support wildfire victims in Northern California. The money will go to Salvation Army, United Way, and the North Valley Community Foundation. Today family and friends of Joshua Perdue are remembering his life. Joshua was hit and killed early Friday morning in downtown Grants Pass. Friends and family told Newswatch 12 they are in shock. They all met up today to remember Joshua. Talk about their favorite memories of him and what to do next. One of the family members was 11 year old Hannah Perdue. Joshua was her father. She was courageous enough to get in front of the camera and tell me about her dad. She told me how he was a good cook and she loved when he cooked fish. Now she can't imagine her life without her dad. Hannah Perdue says, "Whenever I was at school today I went to go talk to my counselor. I was crying because of it. I really just miss by dad. Newswatch 12 also spoke with Hannah's mother Deena Harman. When she heard the suspect turned himself into police she thought their was some good in the guy. Then she found out through police that the suspect destroyed the front grill of his car, because it had evidence of hitting Joshua and also found out he stopped for beer after the incident happened. Deena Harman says, "I just know I'm livid with the man. I don't know how somebody could leave somebody in the street to die and go down to 7/11 and buy more beer. How, how, how can you do that to somebody? I just can't wrap my head around it. Joshua's friends and family walked to the court house after talking with us to see the suspect be arraigned. The suspect is Anthony Mooney. He is facing manslaughter and DUII charges. Police believe Mooney hit Perdue with his car, drove off without calling 911 and then tried to burn his car grill to destroy evidence. The accident happened early Friday morning. According to court documents, Mooney admitted to drinking eight beers before getting in his car that day. In court several people spoke on behalf of Joshua Perdue and the loss they are now having to deal with. 99 Shares Share An excerpt from Wrongful Deaths. We will name Memorial Hospital, Dr. Julie Stone, Dr. Vijay Gupta, and ICU nurse Tracy Miller in a malpractice suit involving the wrongful death of Ivy Jackson. Venjer appeared apologetic. But Dr. Torrins is correct. It is early, and we will pursue all the facts and revisit our plans in due course. He closed his file. Thats all I have for now. He put the file in his briefcase. He began to stand, then sat back and raised a finger. Excuse me, one last thing if I may. Dr. Cody, you saw the deceased before she was admitted to the ICU, correct? Yes. Drakes first view of the opioid ODed mother and the infants protruding legs flashed. When you cared for her in the ER, it was hours before she passed. Im sure when you learned of her death, it saddened you. His tone and manner broadcast sympathy. Ive been around enough to know that a patients death, especially a young patient in tragic circumstances, devastates caregivers. It had to be rough. He seemed to genuinely empathize. What hed said was true. Clete Venjer was an attorney. He was doing his job. He was not responsible for the messed-up malpractice system. Hed been nothing but respectful and classy. Actually, Dr. Cody, Venjer said, I understand you saved her life and that of her baby. The paramedics saved her, Drake said. I was part of the team that cared for her when they brought her to the ER. Youre being modest. The attorney smiled. You managed the complicated delivery of her premature baby and got him safely to the neonatal intensive care unit. Then you stabilized her multiple problems and transferred her to the ICU. Thats true, isnt it? He glanced at Torrins, whose eyes flashed a warning. Drake remembered the hospital risk management attorneys cautions to the earlier doctors. Answer the questions but volunteer nothing more. Yes. We delivered the infant and transferred the mother to the ICU. The record shows that you administered drugs to manage the overdose, delivered the baby and the placenta, gave fluids, and began to transfuse blood, all within fifteen minutes. Yes. The ER team accomplished those things. If its in the record, why is he asking me? The documents show the baby was successfully transferred to the neonatal care unit and the placenta was delivered. The mother responded to your treatment of her overdose, and her vital signs and bleeding greatly improved before she was transferred to the ICU. I suspect you, er, your team felt good about the care provided. They had felt good. Damn good. It was what they were all about. Paramedics, nurses, techs, doctors and the other members of the emergency care team had worked together to save lives. Why is he asking this? Venjer waited several seconds, but Drake remained silent. Personally, Im very impressed with what you did. Venjer paused, then shook his head. But hours later, something went horribly wrong. His voice quavered. A young mother lost her life. The hollowness of the tragedy gripped Drake. It seemed Venjer also cared. He definitely did not fit the stereotype of a greedy ambulance chaser. One last thing, Dr. Cody. Thanks for bearing with me. You got the baby delivered, the afterbirth followed, and then your obstetrical colleague arrived in the ER. He paused. Is that what happened? Was that one question or three? Is he trying to get me to support his claim against Julie? The placenta delivered before Dr. Stone arrived, Drake said. I see. Venjers brows knitted. He paused, then gently shook his head. He turned to the CEO, the attorneys, and Jim Torrins. Last, he looked at Drake, his expression sad. I apologize to all, but I must amend my earlier statement. He nodded to the stenographer. In the spirit of transparency and cooperation initiated by CEO Kline, I have to make a correction. Within the last several hours, I received confirmation of a pertinent medical finding. He shook his head. One might say a most unfortunate finding. His hound dog eyes scanned the group, then rested on Drake. I regret to inform you that we will be adding Dr. Drake Cody to the malpractice suit involving the wrongful case death of Ivy Jackson. The floor gave way under Drake. What? Had he misheard? Dr. Cody acknowledges he oversaw delivery of the placenta and, per the record, he examined it. The attorney gave a big sigh, then opened his briefcase and took out a single sheet of paper. This is pathology report on specimen C2984, identified as the placental tissue of the birth-mother Ivy Jackson. Ill quote the significant element: Placental tissue weighs 0.46 kilograms. The specimen is not intact. Examination confirms disruption and separation of tissue, with an unknown amount of placental tissue absent. Clinical correlation advised. Venjer set the report down. The room was silent. As the physicians here know, Venjer said in a voice just above a whisper, retained placental material is a well-documented possible trigger for disseminated intravascular coagulation and runaway bleeding. If the incomplete placenta had been recognized in the ER or thereafter, steps could have been taken to address the retained placenta, and Ms. Jackson would be alive today. He paused, his head bent. Id ergo est. The thing explains itself, he said. Dr. Drake Codys failure to recognize the possible presence of retained placenta was negligent and a proximate cause of Ivy Jacksons wrongful death. His treatment of her did not meet the standard of care and she suffered damages, in fact the ultimate damage, because of his failure. This is the definition of malpractice. Venjer raised his head, looked at Drake, and laid his hands flat on the table. I am truly sorry, Dr. Cody. A high-pitched keening filled Drakes ears. He fought for air, feeling as if hed been kicked in the head. He tried to maintain his outward appearance while inside he collapsed like the walls of a dynamited building. Lord, no! Tom Combs is an emergency physician and author of Wrongful Deaths. He can be reached at his self-titled site, Tom Combs. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Leo Morris served in the Air Force. Karen Carter patrolled with the Coast Guard. Henry Owens enlisted in the Navy. These veterans all served their country. They've also shared another experience: homelessness. "You feel a sense of desperation, loneliness," said Owens, who was homeless for eight years. "I had no hope." Today, they have another common bond: They are neighbors. Each one lives in a tiny home in the Veterans' Village in Kansas City, Missouri -- run by the Veterans Community Project. The nonprofit is the vision of a group of young veterans led by former US Army Corporal Chris Stout. After being wounded in Afghanistan in 2005 and returning home, Stout struggled with his injury and PTSD. He enjoyed being around veterans and got a job connecting vets to services they needed. But he was frustrated by the gaps and inefficiencies he saw. At times, Stout used his own money to put homeless veterans up in hotel rooms. In 2015, he and a few buddies quit their jobs and started their organization. "We are the place that says 'yes' first and figures everything else out later," Stout said. "We serve anybody who's ever raised their hand to defend our Constitution." Stout found that many homeless veterans didn't like traditional shelters because they were unsafe or lacked privacy. When he learned about tiny homes, he quickly realized that a cluster of them made a lot of sense. "It provides everything these guys need to live with dignity, safely, and then fix what got them there in the first place," he said. The first 13 homes opened in January, and 13 more will be finished this November. The houses come complete with furniture, kitchen supplies, linens, toiletries, food and even gift baskets of coffee and cookies. The group's outreach center assists residents as well as any local veteran with a variety of issues. "Tiny houses are the sexy piece," Stout said. "But the meat and potatoes of what we do is connecting them to the services. ... We're a one-stop shop for all things veteran." The Veterans Village itself provides valuable support: camaraderie. "It's very much like the barracks lifestyle," Stout said. "They're taking care of each other." Since he moved in this summer, Owens has gone back to school and has started a lawn care business. He says the support has changed his life. "Now I have hope," he said. "It makes me love my country again." CNN's Kathleen Toner spoke with Stout about his work. Below is an edited version of their conversation. CNN: How long are veterans able to stay in the tiny homes? Chris Stout: Our anticipated length of stay is six months, but as long as they're working towards their goals, they're welcome to stay. We see these tiny homes as an educational tool to teach them how to maintain a home, cook for themselves and live next to neighbors. So far, eight of the original 13 residents have moved into permanent housing. They take their furniture with them, so it takes about 72 hours to prepare a home for the next resident. In addition to the 13 homes that will open in November, another 23 are set to be finished after the first of the year, so that'll be 49 houses all together. We'll also have a community center providing medical, dental, barbershop, veterinarian care, as well as a fellowship hall, so we can have group events. CNN: The tiny homes are for homeless veterans. What assistance does your group offer other veterans? Stout: One of our flagship programs is our free bus passes for all veterans. We partnered with the local transit authority and they've given out more than a million rides in less than a year. When any veteran walks in the door they can get their bus pass, housing placement, job placement, legal services, food pantry, clothing closet and emergency financial assistance. We like to have them say, "What do you provide?" That way we can ask them "What do you need?" And then we can start being the connectors. So far, we have helped more than 8,000 veterans. CNN: What role does the community play in your work? Stout: We're called the Veterans Community Project because we are the community's project. We want people to feel like they have ownership in this, and we want everybody to pitch in. When the veterans see all these volunteers show up, they'll say, "Why are they here?" And we explain, "They're grateful." The really cool part is that we've been reached out to by more than 650-plus communities. We're working in Denver, Nashville and St. Louis. Our goal is to be in every major city moving forward. CNN: You gave up a lot to do this work. Stout: I gave up my job, mortgaged my house, spent my life savings -- worried my wife to death! But I get to work with a group of people that I can relate to. They're my friends. When I see a win for them, that's huge. It's a celebration for me. That's what gets me going every day. We all went through basic. We all served. This is just my way to serve them. Want to get involved? Check out the Veterans Community Project website and see how to help. To donate to Veterans Community Project, click the CrowdRise widget below. Click here for updates on this story San Diego, CA (KGTV) -- A couple who evacuated from the Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles says their Airbnb hosts kicked them out of their unit and cleaned out all their belongings, forcing them to live with relatives in San Diego. Ben and Jessica Wells said they rented out the Airbnb unit in July, paying in advance through May. The newlywed couple had been living there as they searched for a home to buy. It was a studio apartment located in West Hills, a community on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, which backed up to where the Woolsey Fire was burning. I could see the fire burning on the hill. I saw the smoke, said Ben, who got an evacuation alert on his phone while at the gym. He went home to meet his wife, frantically packing up some important belongings. We were not trying to check out of the place at all. Obviously things were a mess, clothes were everywhere. We were just trying to basically make sure we had everything we needed just in case everything burnt, said Jessica. After they left, the Airbnb hosts contacted them to see if they could go inside the unit and turn off the lights. Ben said he agreed to let them in for that purpose. But once inside, owners Larry and Jeri Hannah said they were shocked by what they saw. I dont even know how they were living there, said Larry. We couldnt believe the mess we saw. In addition to the clothes scattered about, the Hannahs say the grout on the tile floor in the bathroom had been stained black. They said the walls needed painting and some of the flooring needed to be replaced. When It became obvious that we werent going to let them come back then we just decided we were going to clean it up because we didnt want to leave it like that, said Larry. In order to do that, they removed all of the Wells belongings and told them the rest of their reservation had been canceled. The Wells said they agreed to pay through the end of November if they could keep their stuff there. But when Ben arrived on November 17th he said he was surprised to see their belongings strewn across the property. Expensive recording equipment had been left outside, he said. Other belongings had been thrown in trash bags. Some appeared to be missing. At that point I was in shock, just completely shaken, said Ben. He grabbed what he could find, not knowing that more of their belongings had been stored in a shed on the property. Their stuff is all still here, said Larry. In a statement, a spokesperson with Airbnb wrote We are urgently investigating this incident to better understand what happened. There have been more than 400 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings to date and negative incidents are extremely rare. Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform. The British lawmaker who seized a cache of confidential Facebook documents says he could make them public within a week. Damian Collins, the chairman of a British parliamentary committee investigating disinformation, told reporters he would release the documents once they had been reviewed and stripped of personal data. "I can't give you an exact date, but I would hope we would be in a position to publish them very soon," he said Tuesday. "Certainly within the next week or so, that would be my hope." Facebook (FB) has fought for months to keep the documents private. They are part of a court case in California between Facebook and a small app developer. Collins was able to obtain copies of the documents just days before his committee was joined by lawmakers from eight other countries for an unusual hearing related to Facebook and disinformation in London on Tuesday. The inaugural hearing of the "International Grand Committee on Disinformation" was attended by lawmakers from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Much of the discussion focused on the absence of one star witness. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was repeatedly asked to attend, but the tech company has instead dispatched one of his deputies. The committee left an open seat for the CEO on Tuesday, complete with a nameplate. The lawmakers questioned Richard Allan, a former member of the House of Commons and the company's vice president of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Charlie Angus, a lawmaker from Canada, opened the hearing with a broadside. "We've never seen anything quite like Facebook, where while we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions ... seem to have been upended by frat boy billionaires from California," he said. Facebook documents Collins, who had claimed the legal authority to publish the Facebook documents ahead of the hearing, did not act on that threat. The documents are under court seal in the United States. Facebook wrote to Collins over the weekend asking him to consider hearing from the US court before making the documents public. Collins wrote in a response that he had the power to publish the documents, which were seized from the owner of the app developer while he was visiting London. But he said Tuesday he would not release the documents during the hearing. "We are going through the documents we have received," he told reporters when asked why he had not published them. "You probably understand there is a very large number of them." "It is not a lack of desire on our part to publish them, I can promise you that," he added. Members of parliament have certain legal immunities when conducting official proceedings. This protection from prosecution ensures freedom of speech, including documents and reports published as part of parliamentary proceedings. Collins did, however, question Allan during the hearing about one email included in the document trove that was written by a Facebook engineer. He said that the email, written in 2014, warned that entities with Russian IP addresses were collecting billions of Facebook data points a day through Pinterest. Allan did not address the alleged incident directly, but he told Collins that "the information you have seen is at best partial and at worst potentially misleading." Facebook told CNN Business that "the engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity." The company did not respond to questions about the nature of the incident, or whether the company contacted law enforcement. Pinterest did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook has endured a year of negative headlines about fake news, election meddling and privacy concerns. Zuckerberg pushed back on some of the unrelenting critical coverage last week in an interview with CNN Business. Allan, a member of the House of Lords, said he was responsible for the decision for Zuckerberg not to attend the hearing. Asked how that looked for a member of parliament, he said: "Not great, I guess is the answer." COOS BAY, Ore. -- A man was arrested with an outstanding warrant following a traffic stop on Highway 101 Saturday, the Coos County Sheriffs Office said. Burton W. Soto, 40, was driving 10 mph under the speed limit and failing to maintain his lane, and the vehicles license plate did not have current valid tags, deputies said. A deputy initiated a traffic stop near Coos Sumner Lane. Deputies said Soto was driving while suspended and had an outstanding warrant for his arrest out of Lebanon for menacing, third-degree criminal mischief and interfering with making a report. Soto was lodged at the Coos County Jail. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has recommended for a California winery to lose its licenses to distribute wine or do retail business within the state. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports commission executive director Steven Marks sent a letter to the owner of Rutherford, California,-based Copper Cane LLC, saying multiple violations of Oregon labeling regulations were found. The winery was accused of putting misleading labels on wines to make it appear they were produced in Oregon. Regulations require labels to list Oregon as only the appellation of origin when the grapes cross into California. Owner Joe Wagner says new Copper Cane labels will clearly state that the grapes are grown in Oregon and the wines are made in California. The winery has until Dec. 20 to request a hearing on the commission charges. HARRISBURG, Ore. -- Officials said a second note that threatened bombing the school was found at Harrisburg Elementary Tuesday morning. They said it is connected to the threatening note that was found Monday morning at the nearby middle school. Related stories: Bomb threat at Harrisburg Middle School deemed to be hoax Deputies responded and determined their wasn't a real threat with the help of Oregon State Police. Investigators discovered that a 14-year-old student was responsible for Monday's threat and could face disorderly conduct charges. Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley wants to remind parents to talk with their children about the dangers of these kinds of pranks. Any threat to the community is taken seriously and officials will fully investigate these incidents. Watergate Theatre and Barnstorm Theatre Company have teamed up again to produce yet another fantastic Curriculum Play Live. All My Sons by Arthur Miller is one of the best loved US classics from the twentieth century. Showcasing Arthur Millers brilliance in exploring human nature and the psychology of family, it tells a story which reflects society and how people driven by a lust for money can stoop to any extent to acquire wealth urgently topical in 2018! All My Sons is amongst Millers best known plays alongside A View from the Bridge, The Crucible and Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman. Transport yourself back to America, 1947 into the life of Joe Keller, played by Brendan Corcoran and Kate Keller played by Mags Whiteley, where, despite hard choices and even harder knocks Joe and Kate Keller are a success story. They have built a home, raised two sons and established a thriving business. But nothing lasts forever and their contented lives, already shadowed by the loss of their youngest boy to war, are about to shatter. With a return of a figure from the past, long buried truths are forced to the surface and the price of their American dream is laid bare. Cast Brendan Corcoran who plays the role of Joe Keller, was introduced to theatre in 1964 when he joined Kilkenny Youth Theatre (1964 1971). He then joined the adult scene when he became a member of The New Theatre Group at the age of 18. From 1973 to 1993 he appeared in 30 productions as an actor and directed Johnny Belinda in 1984 and Neil Simons Come Blow your Horn in 1987. He was instrumental in the formation of Gaslight Theatre Company in the early nineties and was a cast member of four All Ireland winning productions, winning Best Actor in the All Ireland finals in the Moat Club in Naas in 1979. Since the formation of Watergate Productions he has appeared in 35 in-house productions including Sive, The Field, Da, Arsenic and Old lace, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Scrooge the Musical, and Twelve Angry Men. He directed Death of a Salesman in 2000. His most recent productions include The Kings of the Kilburn Highroad in 2017 and On Golden Pond in 2018. Brendan has collaborated with Phillip Hardy with Dancing at Lughnasa in 1994 and in 2016 with Translations . All My Sons runs from November 28 to December 1 inclusive with 11am shows on November 29 and 30 at 11am. Tickets at the Watergate on 056-7761674 or book online. Due to the wildfires raging in Northern California, San Francisco, Stockton and Sacramento were the world's three "most polluted cities" on Friday morning, according to Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit that aggregates data from air-quality monitoring sites. PurpleAir, which has a network of sensors around the world, also showed that California had worse air than traditional smog hotspots in India and China. Accidents, disasters and safety Air pollution California Continents and regions Education Environment and natural resources Fires North America Particulate matter Pollution San Francisco Southwestern United States Students and student life The Americas United States Universities and colleges University of California System University of California-Berkeley California wildfires Natural disasters Sacramento Wildfires Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Filtration Manufacturing and engineering Process industry CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller confirmed that "no region on Earth had as many air quality stations in the highest ranges" of particulate matter, or PM, the toxic mixture of particles and droplets that worsens after wildfires. Those values, he said, "stretched for hundreds of miles over Northern and Central California, from the mountains to the valleys and the coast." Schools, colleges and public transit have closed as smoke from the Camp Fire descends on the region. "It appears to be the worst air quality ever experienced in San Francisco," said Dan Jaffe, a professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Washington. He called the situation "an air quality emergency," and experts said the smoke could undo decades of progress on pollution. "We have made tremendous efforts and investment to clean up our air with considerable benefits for public health," said Dr. Daniel Jacob, a professor of atmospheric chemistry and environmental engineering at Harvard University. "But now it's like we're getting stabbed in the back with those wildfires." Some call cancellations 'too little, too late' San Francisco's transit agency has taken its cable cars off the streets, several schools have canceled classes, and the National Park service suspended tours to Alcatraz Island. Public schools in San Francisco and Alameda County were closed Friday, along with UC Davis and UC Merced. UC Berkeley also canceled Friday's classes, but some students criticized the university's decision to stay open Thursday as smoke descended on the campus. The school's student association wrote a letter to their chancellor denouncing the "administration's insufficient response to these public health risks" and urging administrators to allocate emergency funds for masks and mobile air filtration units. "Campus buildings are not equipped to filter out the pollutants making the air indoors just as harmful as it is outside," the group wrote. Some students, even those without pre-existing conditions, said they felt sick. "I had a bloody throat, bloody nose, a cough, dry and watering eyes, and my throat is still very sore and dry," freshman Sabrina Thorn said. "I almost passed out trying to go to class yesterday. My professor told me to go home." Students struggle to find respirators Thorn's sorority sister gave her a mask, but freshman Samantha Greene said that other students have struggled to find them. That's because the university's health service is not distributing them to all students -- just those with medical conditions like asthma. "There are over 40,000 students at the university," spokesman Dan Mogulof said, "and we just don't have access to masks of that number." Some students, though, still think the school needs to be doing more. "I have many friends who have been coughing up blood and [were] forced to seek emergency medical help because of the air and Berkeley's unwillingness to act," Greene said. The student association itself decided to hand out masks Thursday, she said, leading to large crowds as people "desperately [tried] to get respirators from [the] student-run club, which ran out in the first five minutes and turned into a mob scene." In stores near Berkeley, masks also quickly sold out, Greene said, leading to "an absurd sort of competition between students to get one." Students lucky enough to get the masks, she said, were trying to sell them at "absurd prices." In a message to students announcing Friday's cancellation, the school's chancellor, Carol Christ, said Thursday that Berkeley had "a limited supply of appropriate 'N-95' respirators available for those students with medical conditions that may make them particularly susceptible to the impact of degraded air quality." Greene called that "too little too late" and said masks are still difficult to come by. The university told students that "even these relatively advanced masks provide limited protection and are not a substitute for staying indoors." Jaffe, however, said that "the masks definitely help" if worn properly and are "better than nothing," although staying in a building with filtered air offers the best protection. The university, for its part, says it's doing the best it can. "Our students, like our staff, our faculty and our neighbors, are without a doubt being impacted by one of the greatest natural disasters in California's history," Mogulof said. "The university just does not have the ability to completely mitigate the impacts of this wildfire." Staying safe in the smoke Particulate matter is the "number one environmental killer in the world," Jacob said, and "the levels that are present in those areas affected by wildfires are like you might expect on a very polluted day in China or India." Smoke from fires releases particles small enough to make their way through our nose and into our lungs, Jaffe added, and "young children and the elderly have the greatest risks for immediate health concerns." PM can aggravate asthma, decrease lung function and increase the risk of cardiovascular events such as stroke, according to a study published last year in the Lancet. And because children with developing airways breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults, they can experience more severe symptoms. "We give people advice to say indoors and to reduce exercise and things like that," Jaffe said, "but those don't mitigate the problem too much." That's especially true in San Francisco, where many don't have air conditioning. Without any sort of "controlled system" to filter air, Jaffe said, a building doesn't offer much protection against particulate matter. When air is properly filtered, though, people can "reduce their PM exposure by about 90%" by being inside, he said. If you have to go outside, Jaffe recommends an N95 respirator, a specially designed mask that provides "very efficient filtration of airborne particles" when worn correctly, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The agency warns that "a proper fit cannot be achieved on children and people with facial hair," which means the masks "may not provide full protection" for those people. But even if you are able to protect your lungs, Jaffe said, diminished air quality can be demoralizing. "There's a mental health issue too," he said. "Everybody is unhappy, and it's hard to enjoy life." The British lawmaker who seized a cache of confidential Facebook documents says he could make them public within a week. Damian Collins, the chairman of a British parliamentary committee investigating disinformation, told reporters he would release the documents once they had been reviewed and stripped of personal data. Companies Continents and regions England Europe Facebook Government and public administration London Northern Europe Politics United Kingdom Disinformation Societal issues Society British Parliament Government organizations - Intl Business figures Government bodies and offices Legislative bodies Mark Zuckerberg Digital privacy Technology North America The Americas United States Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Journalism and news media Media industry "I can't give you an exact date, but I would hope we would be in a position to publish them very soon," he said Tuesday. "Certainly within the next week or so, that would be my hope." Facebook (FB) has fought for months to keep the documents private. They are part of a court case in California between Facebook and a small app developer. Collins was able to obtain copies of the documents just days before his committee was joined by lawmakers from eight other countries for an unusual hearing related to Facebook and disinformation in London on Tuesday. The inaugural hearing of the "International Grand Committee on Disinformation" was attended by lawmakers from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Much of the discussion focused on the absence of one star witness. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was repeatedly asked to attend, but the tech company has instead dispatched one of his deputies. The committee left an open seat for the CEO on Tuesday, complete with a nameplate. The lawmakers questioned Richard Allan, a former member of the House of Commons and the company's vice president of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Charlie Angus, a lawmaker from Canada, opened the hearing with a broadside. "We've never seen anything quite like Facebook, where while we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions ... seem to have been upended by frat boy billionaires from California," he said. Facebook documents Collins, who had claimed the legal authority to publish the Facebook documents ahead of the hearing, did not act on that threat. The documents are under court seal in the United States. Facebook wrote to Collins over the weekend asking him to consider hearing from the US court before making the documents public. Collins wrote in a response that he had the power to publish the documents, which were seized from the owner of the app developer while he was visiting London. But he said Tuesday he would not release the documents during the hearing. "We are going through the documents we have received," he told reporters when asked why he had not published them. "You probably understand there is a very large number of them." "It is not a lack of desire on our part to publish them, I can promise you that," he added. Members of parliament have certain legal immunities when conducting official proceedings. This protection from prosecution ensures freedom of speech, including documents and reports published as part of parliamentary proceedings. Collins did, however, question Allan during the hearing about one email included in the document trove that was written by a Facebook engineer. He said that the email, written in 2014, warned that entities with Russian IP addresses were collecting billions of Facebook data points a day through Pinterest. Allan did not address the alleged incident directly, but he told Collins that "the information you have seen is at best partial and at worst potentially misleading." Facebook told CNN Business that "the engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity." Later on Tuesday, Facebook released a copy of the email chain with the engineer's warning. The full chain showed that the engineer appears to have been mistaken. In a statement, Facebook said, "We looked into this at the time and determined that the calls to the API [Facebook system] were all legitimate API calls from Pinterest and not from Russia. We also determined the volume of actual calls to be around 6m and that the suggestion of billions was inaccurate." It is not clear if the committee had access to the entire chain or just the emails in which the engineer initially raised the false alarm. CNN has asked the committee to clarify. Pinterest told CNN earlier in the day that it was investigating and had contacted Facebook. Pinterest later pointed CNN to Facebook's statement. Facebook has endured a year of negative headlines about fake news, election meddling and privacy concerns. Zuckerberg pushed back on some of the unrelenting critical coverage last week in an interview with CNN Business. Allan, a member of the House of Lords, said he was responsible for the decision for Zuckerberg not to attend the hearing. Asked how that looked for a member of parliament, he said: "Not great, I guess is the answer." ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) A motorist accused of crashing his SUV through the front gate of the Minnesota governor's residence told paramedics he was tired of dealing with "all the electricity under his skin." Clinton Leonard Fouquette was charged Monday with making terroristic threats and causing criminal damage to property. Authorities say in the criminal complaint that the 59-year-old St. Paul man drove his SUV into the gate around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Officers removed him from the vehicle at gunpoint. They say Fouquette told state troopers he had many problems and believed his only solution was to talk to the governor. The crash caused $50,000-$75,000 in damage to the gate. Gov. Mark Dayton was home at the time but wasn't injured. Court records don't list a lawyer for Fouquette, who is due in court Tuesday. Bail is set at $25,000. CHARLES CITY, Iowa A Floyd County woman accused of trying to kill her mother is pleading not guilty. Jennifer Katherine Bean, 44 of Charles City, is charged with attempt to commit murder and domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury. She was arrested on November 7 after authorities say injected her mother with insulin. Court documents state the injection was done without consent and could, if left untreated, have resulted in coma and eventual death. Law enforcement says there was a domestic dispute between Bean and her mother on November 6 and officers responded after a 911 hang up. Beans trial is scheduled to begin on January 8, 2019. EYOTA, Minn.- Thanksgiving is over but students at Dover-Eyota public schools are looking to help members in their community. Theyre doing it through a sharing tree where people come and drop off gifts and food items under the tree. The food will go to help families in the Dover-Eyota area. Bryanna Anderson is an organizer of the sharing tree and tells KIMT that each year students surprise her. They really donate because its such a tight community, they feel like theyre helping someone they know, she add. You can drop off items until Dec. 7 at the high or middle school, City Hall, Eyota Flea Market or Bremer Bank. MASON CITY, Iowa - This week we are honoring a north Iowa band instructor who not only cares about how his students perform musically, but how they perform in terms of their character. Congratulations to Mr. Russ Kramer, Director of Bands, at Mason City High School for winning this week's Golden Apple Award! It was quite the Tuesday morning for Mr. Kramer. I was surprised. For 17 years Mr. Kramer has been instructing students on playing the right notes, in the right style, at the right time. But that's not necessarily why his student, Megan Johnson, nominated him. I nominated Mr. Kramer because he's always pushing us to be better people not just in band but outside of band, says Johnson. It goes way beyond the music. Sure, I want them to sound great but a big thing for me is character, says Kramer. His slogan: It's not doing the right thing when people are watching; it's doing the right thing when nobody is. And as they prepare for their annual Christmas concert, Mr. Kramer has a way of reaching the students to really help them understand music. He comes up with ways to apply how we are playing to real life things, says Johnson. It's all in an effort to help the students be the very best they can be whether they are playing their instrument or not. It's just trying to find ways hopefully to motivate the students to try to push themselves beyond mediocrity towards excellence, says Kramer. Congratulations again to this weeks Golden Apple Award Winner! CRESCO, Iowa A Lime Springs man is pleading not guilty to writing bad checks. Tyler Scott Juveland, 30, is charged with one count of 2nd degree theft. Authorities say that between February and April, Juveland wrote seven checks for a total of $3,366.70 to buy items from a Cresco man. When the checks were sent to the bank for payment, court documents state they were all returned for refer to maker and Juveland has made no payments in regards to the checks. Juveland was charged in August and entered a not guilty plea on Monday. No trial date has been set. MASON CITY, Iowa A lawsuit is being refiled against the owners of Southbridge Mall for non-payment of real estate taxes. A lawsuit had been filed in Cerro Gordo County District Court seeking $177,324 in taxes and interest. It was withdrawn in October after the county treasurers office said it received payment. However, County Treasurer Patricia Wright issued a statement on Monday that three of the four checks received from Southbridge Mall Realty Holding, LLC have been returned for non-sufficient funds. Wright states a written demand to honor the checks was sent to Southbridge Malls owners and they failed to comply. She says the lawsuit will now be refiled with additional requests for punitive and other damages. MASON CITY, Iowa - A Mason City man is accused of stealing a business truck belonging to River City Fence Co. James Dulude, 30, is facing a first-degree theft charge in connection to an alleged vehicle theft. Authorities say at 10:35 a.m. Monday, Dulude was driving the vehicle when he was stopped by officers at 10th St. NE and Elm Dr. Dulude fled from the vehicle, according to police, and was apprehended a short distance away. The truck was reported stolen earlier in the day. HANCOCK COUNTY, Iowa Authorities are looking for help to locate a man who has multiple warrants out of Hancock county and is on the sex offender registry, the Hancock County Sheriffs Office said Tuesday. The man is 46-year-old David Banak. He is 5-foot-8, 178 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. According to court documents, Banak has multiple felony convictions in north Iowa, including being sentenced to probation for sexual abuse in Winnebago County in 2005. In Hancock County, he pled guilty to domestic abuse in 2017 and was arrested for domestic abuse again in 2018. An arrest warrant was issued in June of 2018 for his arrest, according to documents. Anyone who has information about the whereabouts of Banak is asked to call 641-923-2621. MASON CITY, Iowa A woman caught in a North Iowa drug sting is pleading guilty. Rachel Adele Bendickson, 37 of Mason City, pleaded guilty Monday to possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine. She was arrested in May after authorities said she delivered a little over one gram of meth to someone working with the North Central Iowa Narcotics Task Force. Bendickson was a fugitive for two months before finally being picked up on a warrant. No sentencing date has been set. ROCHESTER, Minn.-The Minnesota Department of Education say schools districts are required to follow state standards. All this month department committee members traveled throughout Minnesota to talk about updating their science education standards. Members went to cities like Duluth and Moorhead to talk to the public about their first draft of the standards. In the draft would be teaching students about the environment and how humans affect the climate. Diana Flores is a recent Rochester High School graduate. She tells KIMT that she wishes more teachers talked about climate change. We really didnt learn much about it, She said. The state science standards were lasted updated in 2009. Flores thinks that teachers should put politics aside and teach students facts. They should just say that heres how were affecting the earth, not who wants to change laws, she adds. If approved the standard will go into start the next school year. The final approval is expected next spring. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A Minnesota lawmaker said Monday that she plans a fresh push next year to strengthen a state law against female genital mutilation in the wake of a judge's declaration last week that a federal law against the practice is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Bernhard Friedman, of Detroit, ruled last Tuesday that Congress lacks the authority to regulate the practice, but that states can do so under laws that criminalize sexual battery and abuse. The judge dismissed most criminal charges against a Michigan doctor accused of cutting nine girls from three states, including Minnesota. Franson, an Alexandria Republican, said Friedman's ruling underscores the need for her bill, which passed the House 124-4 in 2017, but never got a vote or hearing in the Senate in the 2017 or 2018 sessions. The Michigan case was the impetus for her bill. "I will never stop fighting for the safety of little girls, and will keep working to put an end to this barbaric practice and punish parents who subject their daughters to these horrors," she said in a statement. Minnesota law makes it a felony for anyone to perform the procedure, but doesn't directly address the actions of parents. Franson's bill would make it a felony for parents to knowingly allow it, and would expand the authority of child protection authorities to take girls away from parents who allow it. A tiered system of penalties would range as high as 20 years in prison, compared with the current five-year maximum. The World Health Organization says there is no health benefit to female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision or cutting, and it can cause numerous health problems. The practice is common in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East and is generally performed as a way of controlling a girl's sexuality. Under current state law, parents who arrange or knowingly allow the procedure on a daughter can be charged with the crime of aiding and abetting the crime of female genital mutilation or with child neglect or endangerment, according to a report by the nonpartisan Minnesota House Research Department, which noted that both of those offenses are felonies. Some opponents of the bill in 2017 said they considered it unnecessary. They also said they feared it could lead to unintended consequences, such as discouraging families from seeking health care, family separations and deportations, and pushing the practice even farther underground. While 27 states have laws against female genital mutilation, 23 others don't, according to the AHA Foundation, which works to protect women from the practice as well as honor violence and forced marriages. Franson said in her statement that she would request a prompt hearing from the incoming chairwoman of the House health and human services committee, Democratic Rep. Rena Moran of St. Paul. She pointed out that Moran was one of the four legislators who voted against her bill in 2017. Moran did not immediately return a call seeking comment. CHARLES CITY, Iowa A Nora Springs man is pleading not guilty to three counts of 2nd degree sexual abuse. Aaron Leroy Olson, 35, is accused of showing pornography to and sexually abusing a five-year-old female on three occasions between January 1 and November 8. He was arrested on November 9. Olson is also charged with possession of marijuana-1st offense. He entered not guilty pleas to all charges Monday in Floyd County District Court. No trial date has been set. FOREST CITY, Iowa - A new program being taught in some North Iowa high schools could help future college students and adults. "Foundations in Personal Finance", developed by radio talk show host Dave Ramsey, is a 12-chapter curriculum being taught in five area schools, including Forest City High School, and being sponsored by Waldorf University. It teaches students how to manage a budget, investing and insurance, among other topics, as well as post-secondary education and career options. The curriculum can be taught in 45 or 90 days. Renae Littrell is the Director for Academic Outreach at Waldorf, and spoke with students earlier this semester. She says the program is getting students to think about how to achieve affordable and even debt-free education. "At Waldorf, we want them to know that it's an affordable option for them locally, but also to get them thinking about, even in their freshman and sophomore year, how am I going to fund my education, what research do I need to do to find these affordable options. And just to let them know that there are many resources out there and affordable avenues. It takes a little bit of planning and thinking and communication with parents and family members to get them started on that track towards debt free education." When she visited with students, there were many questions that were asked. "'Do I have to graduate in four years or can I graduate a little bit sooner so that the cost is less expensive?' They're getting their mindsets around thinking about the opportunity to really lower that college cost, and finding creative ways to be able to do that." According to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, 55% of teens surveyed say that they want to learn more about how to manage their money. ROCHESTER, Minn. A Rochester man tased by police is pleading not guilty to several crimes. Courtney Michael Mason, 28, was arrested on October 31 and charged with 1st degree damage to property, violating a no contact order, and obstructing the legal process. Officers say Mason kicked his victims computer and a pet chinchilla cage. The incident reportedly happened in the 300 block of 10th Avenue NE. No trial date has been set. ROCHESTER, Minn. A teenager facing eight criminal charges is pleading not guilty. Omar Mohamed, 18 of Rochester, was arrested on October 26. Police say he was one of three people who kicked in a door in the 1300 block of Turnberry Drive SE, grabbed a new puppy, held a knife to its throat and threatened to kill it before leaving with the dog. The puppy was later found and returned to its owner. Mohamed is now set to stand trial starting May 13, 2019, on two counts of aiding and abetting 1st degree burglary, aiding and abetting 1st degree assault, 2nd degree assault, threats of violence, 5th degree assault, aiding and abetting 4th degree damage to property, and theft. KASSON, Minn.-- The International Labour Organization estimates there are 40.3 million victims trafficked worldwide. However, sexual exploitation is also a problem locally. In Southeastern Minnesota, Safe Harbor -- an organization that combats human trafficking -- receives hundreds of referrals a year from victims who have been exploited. It's the reason why parents gathered at Kasson Mantorville High School to learn and discuss how to protect their children from human trafficking. One of the parents, Christie Schaefer, attended the event because she hopes to start having conversations with her daughter as she continues to grow up. "It's something we don't like to think about, but it's always something in the back of your mind, so it's good to get information, so that we are prepared and we can educate them and other parents throughout our community to keep everyone safe," Schaefer said. The facilitator of the event -- Laura Sutherland -- is a representative from Safe Harbor and insists parents should monitor their children's relationships online and learn about the meaning of healthy relationships to protect themselves from any threats. "For a lot of youth, they don't have a great sense of that, so if someone is asking them to keep someone secret or pressuring them, they need guidance from parents that that's not a healthy relationship," Sutherland said. These conversations will help parents like Schaefer who will educate her daughter in the future. "As they get older, I think the conversations will be happening more and more, it's difficult because you don't want to frighten your child and that's why felt this speaker was so appropriate." PIONEER, Iowa (AP) A tiny city in northern Iowa is edging toward unincorporating as its population dwindles, but first it must figure out how to spend its healthy reserve fund. Pioneer City Clerk Janet Berte recently met with the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to discuss the formal process of unincorporating, The Messenger reported. The city only has three occupied homes and one co-op. The last census found that the city had a population of 23, Berte said. The city soon won't be able to meet the official requirements of being a city as its citizens age, officials said. "You have to have a mayor, a city clerk, at least three council members," Berte said. "We have a monthly meeting. ... You have to do that to pay your bills in a timely fashion." One obstacle to unincorporating is the city's good financials, Berte said. Most cities unincorporated when they run out of money, but Pioneer has about $150,000, she said. "And they have been trying, and have done a very good job of getting rid of it donating it to fire departments, ambulances, Upper Des Moines they gave them $15,000 this year," she said. Pioneer has considered unincorporating before, but the move didn't pass, Berte said. "The city wasn't ready to unincorporate yet. It wasn't sound yet," she said. "So now my goal is to get them on the right page, so when they do unincorporate they'll be prepared for it and they'll feel good about it." The City Council doesn't have a set timeline for unincorporating, Berte said. "When I talked to them last about this maybe 2020," she said. "Maybe not. It all depends on how things are going." TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Europes Airbus (AIR.PA) delivered its first A330neo jet to TAP Portugal on Monday as it seeks to trump U.S. rival Boeing (BA.N) in the fiercely competitive battle at the lower end of the market for long-haul jets. The face-off between the A330neo and Boeing 787 pits two generations of jetliner against each other in one of the most crowded but potentially lucrative parts of the aircraft market, predicted to represent $1 trillion in sales over 20 years. The A330neo offers fuel savings through new engines from Rolls-Royce (RR.L), though these have been delayed by industrial problems at the British supplier. Airbus planemaking chief Guillaume Faury said he expected Airbus to catch up on delayed A330neo deliveries by end-2019. Sales of the A330neo have also fallen short of expectations as Boeing places its 787, but Faury predicted these would pick up following the first delivery. The A330neo will in my view get more traction when it is in service, he told reporters. One of the earliest and largest customers for the A330neo, leasing firm Avolon which financed the first TAP aircraft, said Airbus still needed to win more orders. It is a soft (order) backlog. We would prefer if there were more airplanes sold to more customers - wouldnt anybody?, Avolon Chief Executive Domhnal Slattery told Reuters. But the thing that is giving us comfort is that the replacement wave for the (earlier) A330-200 hasnt really kicked in and it should kick in this year, next year and the year after. Airbus recently won A330neo orders from Kuwait Airways and Delta Air Lines, but Delta said it had deferred some deliveries of the newer A350 and industry sources say Kuwait had been given flexibility to delay or cancel A350s in return for its support. MID-MARKET STRATEGY The A330neo - sporting a newer cabin and larger engines than existing A330 long-haul jets - is the latest gambit in a battle between Airbus and Boeing over the fiercely contested middle of the market, sitting between long-haul and medium-haul planes. Boeing is weighing proposals to develop a dedicated jet carrying 220-270 people in a development analysts say could damage the A330, the most profitable Airbus wide-body model. Airbus is attempting to close its jaws around the same part of the market through a combination of the 250-300-seat A330neo at the top end and the smaller A321neo underneath. The dogfight between plane giants has been one of the most intense for years, prompting European claims that Boeing is trying to drive the A330neo out of the market to make way for its potential new jet. Boeing failed in its mission to kill the A330, Airbus twin-aisle marketing head Crawford Hamilton said. Boeing rejected this. We are focused on delivering the most capable, most efficient and versatile airplanes to airlines around the world, a spokesman said. Boeing says it has won 65 percent of wide-body orders in the last 5 years. Airbus says the A330 won some 50 percent of orders contested against the 787 since the A330neo version was launched in 2014. Both firms select data to support marketing campaigns. The aircraft delivered to TAP Portugal on Monday is the 298-seat A330-900neo, the larger of two versions developed by Airbus and one that dominates the tally of 242 aircraft on order. Of these, 28 are officially earmarked for IranAir but Airbus says these wont be delivered any time soon due to renewed U.S sanctions, which apply to all jets using significant U.S. parts. The smaller A330-800neo took its first flight this month. ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government is sticking to its main 2019 budget goals for now as it awaits a full cost analysis of its most important spending measures for next year, coalition leaders said on Monday. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met his two deputies, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, to discuss the financial package, with the European Commission warning of possible disciplinary action if Rome fails to revise its expansionary plans. The objectives that have already been fixed are confirmed, said a joint statement signed by the three men. However, two government sources said the deficit target might be lowered in the wake of the forthcoming spending review. Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Kevin Liffey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the agreement allowing the United Kingdom to leave the European Union may make trade between Washington and London more difficult. He also told reporters outside the White House that the deal sounded like it would be good for the European Union, but he expressed concern about where the deal left trade between the UK and the United States. I think we have to take a look seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade. Because right now if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us, he said. And that wouldnt be a good thing. I dont think they meant that. He said he hoped British Prime Minister Theresa May would be able to address the problem, but he did not specify which provision of the deal he was concerned about. Under the deal secured with EU leaders on Sunday, the UK will leave the bloc in March with continued close trade ties. But the odds look stacked against May getting it approved by a divided British parliament. Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Makini Brice and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Susan Thomas and Peter Cooney WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said it was highly unlikely he would accept Chinas request to hold off on the increase, which is due to take effect on Jan. 1. The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States, Trump told the Journal. As far as other countries are concerned, thats up to them. Trump, who is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, said that if negotiations were unsuccessful, he would also put tariffs on the rest of Chinese imports. If we dont make a deal, then Im going to put the $267 billion additional on, at a tariff rate of either 10 percent or 25 percent, Trump told the Journal. He said the tariffs could also be placed on laptops and Apple Incs (AAPL.O) iPhones imported from China, and that any potential backlash from U.S. consumers could be tempered if the tariff rate was just 10 percent, according to the newspaper. Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is, Trump said, referring to the possibility of tariffs on mobile phones and laptops, according to the Journal. I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily. Shares in Apple Inc fell in after-hours trading after the interview was published. Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Peter Cooney WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Monday that General Motors Co should stop making cars in China and make them in the United States instead. GM said on Monday it would cut thousands from its North American workforce, slash production and eliminate some slow-selling car models. Trump told reporters he was not happy with GMs decision to idle a plant in Lordstown, Ohio and that GM had better put something else in Ohio. He said he told GM Chief Executive Mary Barra he was unhappy with the announcement. She told him the decision to halt sales of the Chevrolet Cruze had nothing to do with tariffs but was because of poor sales. Get a car that is selling well and put it back in, Trump said. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russias seizure of three Ukrainian navy vessels represents a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday in a statement that called for restraint from both countries. Ukraine imposed martial law on Monday for 30 days after Russia seized two small Ukrainian artillery vessels and a tug boat and detained their crews over the weekend. The top U.S. diplomat condemned Russias actions and called for Moscow to return the vessels. Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by David Alexander Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. Chinese gold imports through traditional conduit Hong Kong are lower this year, but then the country may well be getting metal elsewhere, Commerzbank says. Analysts cite data released at the start of the week by the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong government showing that China imported only 29.6 tonnes of gold, on a net basis, from Hong Kong in October. Though this was nearly three times as much as in September, it was 36% less than last October, Commerzbank says. The 439 tonnes of Chinese gold imports in the first 10 months of the year were 22% lower year-on-year. That said, there is much to suggest that the trade routes have changed i.e. China is increasingly importing gold from other countries, such as Switzerland. China imported 400 tonnes of gold directly from Switzerland between January and October 60% up on last year. Thus the Hong Kong data paint a distorted and overly negative picture of Chinese gold demand, in our opinion. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com FXTM: 'Is This The End Of The Road For Bitcoin?' With Bitcoin continuing to sink, Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, asks the question: Is this the end of the road for Bitcoin? The cryptocurrency was making headlines for sharp gains a year ago. Fast forward 12 months, the cryptocurrency is gasping for air with prices sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss. The analysts says a combination of factors have hurt the cryptocurrency, ranging from regulatory scrutiny, infighting within the crypto community and a noticeable drop in investor appetite. With Bitcoin finding comfort below the $4,000 level and showing little sign of recovery, the next key level of interest may be found at $3,000, Otunuga adds. Meanwhile, Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM, says traders are no longer worried about price movements as much as the fate of these currencies. A fall from almost $20,000 to below $4,000 in Bitcoins price is a complete crash. The market also underwent a sharp correction before when prices dropped from $1,150 in December 2013 to below $300 more than a year later. However, the difference between then and now is the market cap, Sayed continues. Back then investors and speculators may have lost $9 billion. However, this years move has wiped out more than $250 billion from its peak. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com BBH: New Fed Governors All Orthodox Centrists' New Federal Reserve governors have tended to be orthodox centrists, points out Brown Brothers Harriman. The newest Fed governor is Michelle Bowman. Five of the seven members of the board of governors are now in place, with two more governors (Marvin Goodfriend and Nellie Liang) still awaiting confirmation, BBH says. Despite [U.S. President Donald] Trump's complaints about Fed policy, all of his choices have been orthodox centrists. Bowman will be able to vote at the Dec. 19 policy meeting, where a 25-basis-point hike is still widely expected. President Moon Jae-in left the country Tuesday on a three-nation tour that will take him to Argentina for the annual Group of 20 summit. The president will first head to the Czech Republic, where he will make an unofficial visit before heading to Buenos Aires on Wednesday. In Prague, the president will hold a summit with Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Moon will arrive in Argentina on Thursday for a three-day visit that will include a bilateral summit with his Argentine counterpart, Mauricio Macri. It will mark the first South Korea-Argentina summit in 14 years, according to Moon's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. The G-20 summit will be held Friday and Saturday, bringing together the heads of state and government from 20 developed and developing nations throughout the globe. President Moon is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of South Africa and the Netherlands. Cheong Wa Dae officials have said the president may also hold a bilateral summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, but that the specific time and venue of the first South Korea-U.S. summit since September will be decided later. Moon will arrive in Auckland on Sunday, following his departure from Argentina the previous day. His visit to New Zealand will be a state visit that will begin with an official welcome ceremony, followed by a meeting with Governor-General Patsy Reddy. He will also hold a bilateral summit with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern before heading home Tuesday. (Yonhap) Garrett, IN (46738) Today Cloudy with occasional rain...mainly in the morning. High 47F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Snow showers will become more widely scattered later on. Low 26F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 40%. Angola, IN (46703) Today Rain diminishing to a few showers in the afternoon. High 47F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Overcast. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low around 25F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. Ahmedabad, Nov 27 (PTI) A man arrested for alleged involvement in the 2002 terror attack on the Akshardham temple in Gujarat was Tuesday produced before a city court which sent him to police custody till November 30. Mohammed Farooq Shaikh was arrested Monday by Ahmedabad Crime Branch officials from the airport here on his arrival from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Crime Branch had sought a 14-day remand of the 47-year-old accused on grounds that it wanted to interrogate him to know about the involvement of members of terrorist organisations in the attack that had left 34 people dead and 86 others injured. However, Principal Sessions Judge M K Dave, before whom Shaikh was produced, sent him to police remand for only three days. In its remand application, the Crime Branch said it wanted to know from the accused who all from Pakistan-based terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba were involved in the attack and if he was in touch with them. Police have said the accused was part of the conspiracy to carry out the attack on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar. He was involved in collecting funds for the operation with the help of the two banned terror outfits, a police official had said after his arrest. Shaikh had been living in Riyadh since 1994 and hatched the conspiracy with others to target the temple to avenge the killing of minority community members in the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, he had said. On September 24, 2002, two armed terrorists had stormed the Akshardham temple complex in the state capital and opened fire on devotees. The assault had taken place seven months after Gujarat was rocked by widespread communal violence triggered by the torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra station. The attackers were subsequently killed by National Security Guard (NSG) commandos. The Supreme Court had, in May 2014, acquitted all the six convicts in the Akshardham case, including three who were awarded the death sentence by a trial court, for want of sufficient evidence against them. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Janakpur (Nepal), Nov 27 (ANI): The longtime agitating Madhesh based party of Nepal, the Rastriya Janata Party- Nepal (RJP-N) will soon decide whether it will continue to support the incumbent Government led by Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, said party's coordinator. Rajendra Mahato, newly elected coordinator of the party on a visit to his constituency in Janakpur made these remarks while replying to a query of reporters about RJP-N's support to the incumbent government. Mahato said "We had supported the government but there has been no positive development from the government's side in the direction of addressing our demands. No discussion has been made on the constitutional amendment, about the release of Resham Chaudhary and other prisoners, withdrawal of the cases lodged against the arrested protestors as well as the issues having a direct impact on the daily life of the people, such as peace, security, and good governance. In this critical phase the Rastriya Janata Party- Nepal (RJP-N) will be holding a meeting over the issues soon and on that meet, we will soon decide over the issue." The current government under the Prime Ministers KP Sharma Oli was formed in mid of February this year after his party secured a majority of seats in federal elections held in two phases. The longtime agitating party RJP-N had supported the government upon being convinced over the addressal of their demands. The amalgam of the Communist Parties of Nepal, the then Left alliance had 174 votes in the 275 members strong House of Representative. The then CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) whose chairman Oli is the current PM of Nepal has 121 seats in the parliament and MC has 53 members. The agitating parties of Nepal the RJP-N and the Federal Socialist Party- Nepal who have 16 and 17 votes in the parliament also voted in favor of PM Oli which made him acieve the desired 207 marks hence completing the majority of two-thirds with 23 votes in addition. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Dera Baba Nanak, November 26: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday used the foundation stone-laying event for Kartarpur Sahib corridor across Indo-Pak border for Sikh pilgrims to warn Pakistan to stop terror activities against India and said "we have a large army and we are prepared". Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who laid the foundation stone for the much-awaited corridor, access to which is seen as a goodwill gesture by Pakistan, called it "beginning of a new chapter" in bilateral ties and said it will act as a "unifier" to build bridges across old chasms. However, Naidu also lamented that it was unfortunate that some people made terrorism their policy and India would not allow terrorism and killing of innocent on its soil. However, he didn't name Pakistan. While Punjab chief minister turned down Pakistan's invitation to participate in the inauguration there on Wednesday, his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu, who described the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as an "angel" for accepting the long-pending demand of Sikh pilgrims, will be going. Kartarpur Corridor: Captain Amarinder Singh Refuses to Comment on Navjot Singh Sidhu's Views, Flays Pakistan Over Terror. "There are tremendous possibilities in this corridor, only a political was required which has been shown by an angel (Imran Khan) across the border and as well our government here," Sidhu told reporters. Defending his decision of not going to Pakistan, the chief minister said, "Punjab has been suffering due to terrorism for 20 years and is paying even today... This is why I will not go to Pakistan till violence stops. My heart wants me to go there but I have commitment to ensure safety of my people." Singh, who himself is a retired army officer, lashed out at Pakistan army chief, but thanked its prime minister for the gesture. "While I thank Prime Minister of Pakistan (for Kartarpur Corridor), I want to say something to his Chief of Army Staff (Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa). I have been in the army and he (Pakistan army chief) is very junior to me in the service. When we were in the army, the country's security was always foremost for us. But who teaches in the army that you kill our soldiers at the border?, Singh questioned. He further said Pakistan army uses sniper to kill Indian Jawans. "Have you ever been told that you killed people in Pathankot, Dinanagar (referring to terror attacks at Pathankot air base in 2016 and Dinanagar in Gurdaspur in 2015)," Singh said. Incidently, today's event coincided with the 10th anniversary of Mumbai terror attack, carried out by terror groups in Pakistan, in which over 160 people were killed. He asserted that India wants peace and that's the message the country is giving through this corridor, but at the same time it also has huge army to tackle any threat. "We believe in peace and we are giving a message of peace from here. But, their generals should understand that we have a large Army and we are prepared... And this should not happen as nobody wants war. We all want to carry out development in a peaceful manner," Singh said. He made these remarks while referring to recent grenade attack at the Nirankari hall in Amritsar, and attack on airforce station in Pathankot in Punjab in 2016. "If they try to foment trouble in Punjab then Bajwa (Pak army chief) should remember that we have Punjabi blood, we will not tolerate it, Singh said. Asserting that India wants good relations with its neighbours, Naidu said,"This is a corridor that opens new doors. It is a path that opens up new possibilities. It is a unifier, building bridges across old chasms. It promotes deeper understanding and a new resolve to connect the people of our two countries through love, empathy and invisible threads of common spiritual heritage." He further said that the two countries need to create history together which will make the entire world a more peaceful place for children. At the event, the SAD and the Congress leaders appeared squabbling with each other for taking credit of building this corridor. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who was present at the event announced that the corridor will be completed within four and half months. Others present included union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Congress MP Sunil Jakhar, both of whom claimed credit for their respective parties for opening of the corridor. Badal and her cabinet colleague Hardeep Singh Puri will be travelling to Pakistan as the government representatives for the inauguration of the corridor. Bengaluru, November 27: K Unnikrishnan, father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was killed in 26/11 attack, Tuesday said no government has so far been sincere in dealing with terrorism and rued that India does not have a "stern" policy to deal with it. "If you are totally against terrorism, then you have to be sincere in that. No government so far has been sincere in dealing with terrorism or cross-border terrorism," he told PTI in an interview here. 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack: 10 Years After Attack, People Left With Faded Memories of the Mayhem. Major Unnikrishnan had lost his life while battling the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists during the 26/11 attack on Mumbai in 2008. He was leading a team of NSG commandos to flush out terrorists from the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai when he was fatally wounded. He was conferred the Ashok Chakra, the country's highest peacetime gallantry award, on January 26, 2009. K Unnikrishnan said India does not have a "stern" policy on terrorism and lamented parties joining hands with "destructive forces" for political gains. "India does not have a stern policy on terrorism. I can easily say that BJP should not have joined hands with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir. If you are totally against terrorism, then you have to be sincere in that," he said. Similarly, it was also bad to support destructive forces like Afzal Guru, who had masterminded the Parliament attack and later was hanged, the father of the deceased Major said. "At that time, many people and politicians felt Afzal Guru should not be hanged. How can we expect this? He was the mastermind of the Parliament attack. Parliament is the nerve-centre of India," Unnikrishnan said. "If he (Afzal) is a culprit, you cannot say he is a scholar and has a very good brain and then he should not be punished. That is very bad. If you have a good brain, then you should use it for benefit of humanity. You cannot support such a person," he added. Asked if he was happy with the Narendra Modi government's steps to tackle terrorism, Unnikrishnan said he does not want to give credit to any government, but added that vigilance has increased a lot. Unnikrishnan praised Modi, calling him a good Prime Minister and added he was satisfied with his good intent. "There are loopholes in any system, but I can tell you that we have a good Prime Minister. His concern for the nation is totally satisfying," he said. "There were a lot of Prime Ministers. I have not seen such a person in my lifetime. I have also seen Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, but was not mature to understand politics then," he added. Unnikrishnan, however, was critical about Modi government's demonetisation move. He also said the Kashmir dispute can only be solved by India and Pakistan amicably without the latter bringing religion into it. "I have an idea, why they (India and Pakistan) cannot solve the Kashmir issue amicably? Why is Pakistan bringing religion into it?" he asked. Lucknow, November 27: Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad, who is fondly called Ravan by his supporters, has dropped the alias Ravan from his name. Chandrashekhar Azad said political parties may take political advantage of moniker 'Ravan' to polarise voters between Ram supporters and Ravan supporters. The pro-Dalit activist said he may choose to be called Chulbul Pandey, a famous character played by Salman Khan in Dabangg movie. When I was released from prison, there was talk of only Ravan and I realised that I did not want political parties to take advantage of this name. Officially my name is Chandrashekhar Azad and tomorrow I may choose to call myself Chulbul Pandey. I dont want any political party to ask people to choose between Ram and Ravan," Chandrashekhar Azad was quoted as saying. The Bhim Army chief also announced his support for Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and ruled out the possibility of him contesting elections. Notably, the BSP has so far kept a distance from Azad, with Mayawati calling him an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Chandrashekhar Meets Jamiat Chief Arshad Madani. "Behenji is the tallest leader of the Bahujan samaj. I feel she has been misled by some people. We are running a social movement and will not be making a party so nobody needs to be scared of us. We will stand with her and try that there is a Bahujan samaj government this time," Azad said. He added that the Bhim Army members will travel across the country to mobilise support for the Bahujan samaj. "I wont tell them who to vote for but I will tell them who their friends are who are the enemy," Azad said. Calling the Congress anti-Dalit, Azad said if the grand old party claims to care for the welfare of Dalits, it will have to fight under the leadership of Mayawati. He also accused the BJP of tarnishing his image "in a bid to suppress the Bahujan movement. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 27, 2018 01:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Lahore, November 27: Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Sidhu reiterated his defence on hugging Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in August this year, calling it a normal practice of embracing each other in the Punjabi culture. Sidhu made the remarks in Lahore, where he was invited by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor. On being confronted by Pakistani media over the flak generated by him back at home for hugging Gen Bajwa, Sidhu said the criticism is uncalled for. Quipping with a jibe at the ruling BJP government at the Centre, the senior Congress leader said his interaction with the Pakistani Army chief was not a "Rafale deal" -- the controversy-marred defence pact inked between the India and France-based Dassault Aviation. Navjot Singh Sidhu Crosses Attari-Wagah Border, Says 'I am Messenger of Guru Nanak'. "The hug (with Pakistan Army Chief) was for hardly a second, it was not a Rafale Deal . When two Punjabis meet they hug each other. It's a normal practice in Punjab," he said. Watch Sidhu Defending Hug With Gen Bajwa: #WATCH The hug(with Pakistan Army Chief) was for hardly a second, it was not a #RafaleDeal . When two Punjabis meet they hug each other, its normal practice in Punjab.: Navjot Sidhu in Lahore pic.twitter.com/w43CYie5GI ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 Earlier today, Sidhu crossed the Atari-Wagah border to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of Kartarpur Sahib corridor, scheduled on November 28. Sidhu said the corridor "will be a bridge and erase enmity". He further added, "It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. It is my belief that there are possibilities in it." The Indian government on the eve of Guru Nanak Gurpurab, on November 22 approved the building and development of Kartarpur Corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to India-Pakistan International Border. Following this, the Pakistan government announced to open the corridor next year. The Kartarpur route along the India-Pakistan border is three kilometers away from Gurdaspur, Punjab. If opened, it would allow Sikh pilgrims a direct access to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where Guru Nanak died in 1539. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 27, 2018 05:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Wellington, November 27: A five-month pregnant Indian woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances in White Rock beach, Wairarapa on Friday. The deceased was identified as 26-year-old Sonam Shelar, who had moved to New Zealand after getting married in July. Sonam, a fitness trainer, was reported missing from the residence she and her husband shared with few others in Cashmere Avenue, Khandallah, Wellington, on November 17. Sonam's body was found by surfers at White Rock beach. Few days before, her two mobile phones were recovered from Island Bay beach, following which police have intensified the search operations. According to reports, her husband told police that she was upset after getting an ultrasound report. Drunken Doctor Attempts To Deliver Baby in Gujarat Hospital, Mother and Infant Dies. Her autopsy has revealed the gender of her foetus, but the police are yet to make the information public. According to the police, her cause of death is provisional, but details, including forensic analysis, will be shared with Family, reported Mumbai Mirror. Meanwhile, In Mumbai Congress leader Kumar Ketkar stepped into organising travel documents for Sonams family, so that they travel to New Zealand, reported Mumbai daily. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 27, 2018 04:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Mathura, November 27: Two persons, including a tourist guide, were arrested here on Tuesday for gang raping a young Non-Resident Indian (NRI) in this temple town, police said. The victim, settled in South Africa, had come with a woman friend to Mathura three days back and was allegedly raped in a beauty parlour at Dampier Nagar on Monday. After a friend of the victim lodged a police complaint, the two rapists were arrested. Uttar Pradesh: 6 Accused in Muzaffarnagar Gangrape Case Acquitted. The guide apparently lured the NRI to the parlour in Dampier Nagar, promising her a body massage. She alleged that her drink was spiked and the two raped her. Superintendent of Police Shravan Kumar said the South African embassy in New Delhi had been informed about the crime. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 27, 2018 05:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Kochi, November 27: Woman activist Rehana Fathima has been arrested by Pathanamthitta Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiment through a Facebook post. The activist, who tried to enter the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala in October, has also been expelled from the Muslim community by the Kerala Muslim Jama-ath Council. A press statement released by the Council stated that she has been removed as she hurt the sentiments of lakhs of Hindu devotees. On October 19, Fathima reached the Sabarimala temple with her family but could not reach up to Sannidhanam due to heavy attack by protestors. In the last week, the Kerala High Court directed the state police to take necessary action against the activist, who has been accused of attempting to spread religious hatred online. Reports inform that the 31-year-old activist is in an open relationship with a Hindu and has sparked many controversies in the recent past. Sabarimala Row: BSNL Transfers Activist Rehana Fathima Who Made An Attempt to Enter Lord Ayyappa Temple. Kerala: Woman activist Rehana Fathima has been arrested by Pathanamthitta Police. The arrest was made on charges of allegedly hurting religious sentiment through a Facebook post. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/WMWoGkGIl1 ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 According to reports, on October 22, the Pathanamthitta Police filed a case against Fathima for allegedly attempting to spread religious hatred on social media. They acted on the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithis complaints about her Facebook posts. As per reports, the protestors had also vandalised her home and later a Muslim council in the state expelled her from the community. Sabarimala Row: 47-Year-Old Woman Devotee Suffers Panic Attack Enroute Shrine as Protesters Heckle Her. Earlier in 2004, Fathima was a part of the "kiss of love" campaign in Kochi in protest against moral policing. Reports inform that she had raked a controversy, when her partner Manoj shared a video clip of the kiss on Facebook. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 27, 2018 02:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Tehran, November 27: Iran is determined to fight against US Donald Trump's anticipated Israel-Palestinian peace plan, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday according to semi-official news agency ISNA. Trump has dubbed his administration's long-awaited plan the "ultimate deal", which has already unsettled the Palestinians although no details have yet been disclosed. Speaking in Tehran, Larijani said the "deal of the century" was a "plot" between Iran's arch foe Israel and the United States to establish the Jewish state's domination in the Middle East. "We will stand against the regime of Israel and won't let this deal take place in the region," Larijani said at an annual conference on Islamic unity. "If Americans are imposing sanctions on Iran today and are putting pressure on Iran, the reason for it is because Iran has stood against Israel," he added, quoted by ISNA. Palestinians Won't Participate in Peace Deal Presented by US President Donald Trump: Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Official. Earlier this year, Washington pulled out of the landmark international nuclear accord with Iran and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran. "In order to achieve their objective they try to create new political arrangements in the region," Larijani said of US-Israeli strategy in the Middle East. The parliament speaker also singled out regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as he warned countries against normalising relations with Israel. Countries in the region "should know that they would not benefit at all by letting (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to their countries", Larijani said. "People in the region, in any country, regard Israel as a cancerous tumour and hate it," he added. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this year reaffirmed his country's "steadfast" support for the Palestinian cause, after coming under fire for saying both Israelis and Palestinians "have the right to have their own land". Israel has diplomatic relations with just two Arab states -- Egypt and Jordan -- but Netanyahu has been pushing for broader regional ties. The Israeli premier travelled to Oman in October, while two of his ministers visited the UAE. The Maldives Supreme Court has overturned a terrorism conviction against the country's first democratically elected President Mohamed Nasheed. The Supreme Court held that Nasheed was wrongfully charged and should not have been convicted in the 2015 trial which was brought against him after he was overthrown mid-way through his presidential term. Nasheed went into exile a year later when he traveled abroad to seek medical treatment, and was branded a fugitive from justice during Abdulla Yameens reign as president. Nasheed welcomed the news in a post on Twitter, expressing his "deepest gratitude to the people of the Maldives". The ruling came 10 days after the inauguration ceremony of recently elected President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. "President Nasheed's entire trial was a politically-motivated sham," his lawyer, Hisaan Hussein, said after his conviction was quashed. "It is appalling that an innocent man was unjustly forced to spend a year in jail, 35 months in exile, and was prevented from standing for political office." Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the Maldives archipelago for 30 years but lost the country's first multiparty election to Nasheed, also took to Twitter to say that "justice has prevailed". I am so happy that President @MohamedNasheed has been freed by the Supreme Court. Justice has prevailed. Congratulations and good luck! Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (@maumoonagayoom) November 26, 2018 Nasheeds trial and the subsequent charges against him were described by the United Nations as politically motivated. Nasheed, the leader of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, was expected to contest the September poll but was barred from contesting on account of his terrorism conviction. He has since become an icon of democracy in the island-nation. He returned to his home country this month after the joint political candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Soli defeated the incumbent president in the countrys closely watched general elections. Yameen, during his time as president jailed or exiled most of his opponents but since he departed office political prisoners have been freed and opponents abroad have returned. (With PTI inputs) (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 27, 2018 06:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). An orang-utan named Pony was rescued in the year 2003 from a village in Central Kalimantan area in Indonesia by a team led by wildlife conservationist Dr Lone Droscher-Nielsen. When the team found her, she was found chained to a mattress, shaved off her fur and kept in a red-light area. Soon, the horrific story of her captivity was revealed. Pony, a Bornean orang-utan, was sold off when she was just an infant. The brothel where she ended up eventually treated her horribly. Her heart-breaking story is now being shared by people who were part of her rescue. During her time in captivity at the brothel, she was shaved and done up like a woman, with makeup and perfume, to make her appealing to the palm oil farmers who raped her. Theyd pay as little as 2 to the brothel keepers. Animals Feel Anguish Too: Video Shows Orangutan Fighting A Bulldozer to Protect His Home in Indonesia. The madam at the brothel had trained her to perform sex acts for the clients. While the place also housed human prostitutes, the men were particularly interested in raping the orang-utan because of the novelty. When she was discovered by the team or rescuers, Pony was in a terrible condition with blisters since she was constantly shaved to make her look presentable. Dr Doescher-Neilsen, who was touched by the plight of the animal, said in an interview: Perhaps in my naivety, I had never thought it humanly possible to do such a thing to an animal. The brothel keepers and the local people have resisted the rescue attempts since she was a good source of income for them. The rescue team were threatened with machetes when they tried taking Pony away. But in the end, a squad of 35 policemen armed with AK-47s forced the locals to give her up. The madam who trained Pony cried bitterly when she was taken away. Video of Orangutan Smoking Cigarette in Indonesian Zoo Goes Viral, Sparks Debate on Animal Protection. After rescuing her, the real challenge was to get her to trust people again. Pony would never feel safe in human company, considering the horrors she has experienced, her rescuers felt. But Dr Doescher-Neilsen took up the challenge, by first keeping men away from her enclosure. Slowly and steadily, male caretakers were introduced to her one by one so that she overcomes her fear of them. Its been fifteen years since shes been rescued, but Pony doesnt have the means to survive in the wild by herself because she has been in captivity all her life. Sadly, the law of Indonesia doesnt have the provision to punish her exploiters, so it is unlikely that theyd be brought to justice. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 27, 2018 03:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Kuala Lumpur, November 27: A Syrian refugee who spent several months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has been granted permanent residency by Canada and is en route to Vancouver, his lawyer said Tuesday. Hassan al-Kontar's plight became widely known after he shared posts on social media that showed him surviving on donated airline meals, washing and giving himself a haircut in the toilets at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Terminal 2. He had been stuck since March -- blocked from entering Malaysia because of visa issues and barred from travelling to other countries, and was detained last month by immigration officials. "I know I look like someone who ran from the stone, middle ages. I'm sorry for that" the smiling 36-year-old said in a Twitter video Monday, looking tired and stroking his bushy beard. Millions of Syrians at Risk as Assad Plans Offensive on Idlib with Russia's Backing. Breaking news pic.twitter.com/o2vQGROBdS Hassan Al Kontar (@Kontar81) November 26, 2018 "For the last eight years, it was hard, long journey. The last ten months, it was very hard and cold." Malaysian officials earlier said they were going to work with Syrian authorities to deport him back to his war-torn homeland. But his lawyer Andrew Brouwer said they brought Kontar directly to the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday before he was put on a Vancouver-bound flight. Brouwer said his client was recognised by Canada as a refugee and was granted permanent residency under the country's refugee sponsorship programme. "We were of course very pleased that Malaysia appeared to agree and abide by international law," he said. In the video on his Twitter account Kontar said he was in transit in Taiwan and that he would be reaching his "final destination" the following day. "I could not do it without the support and the prayers from all of you," he said. Kontar is not the only asylum seeker who has been left in limbo at an airport for a long period of time. In 2015 an Iraqi family spent more than two months in an empty smoking cubicle in a Moscow airport, relying on passengers to bring them food and water. Kontar's case also recalls the 2004 film "The Terminal," in which Tom Hanks plays a man who finds himself stuck in a New York airport after his government collapses, rendering his papers useless. Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has left more than 350,000 people dead. This man is still one of the most influential people in Ekiti State and a very famous politician in Nigeria. This means that many people want to know about his personal life and family. In this article, we will talk about Fayose children. How many does he have, and what are they all currently doing? Photo: informationcradle.com Governor Fayose's children Peter Ayodele Fayose, former Ekiti State governor, is not just a hardworking and diplomatic man when it comes to the politics. He is also a happy family man, with a loving wife and children. Ayo Fayoses beloved wife is called Feyisetan Fayose. She is four years younger than him, she was born in 1964, while the Governors birth year is 1960. Feyisetan Fayose is a human rights activist, as well as a generous philanthropist. She is especially concerned about female rights. Governor Fayose and his wife Feyisetan have five sons. However, some reports indicate that they also have a daughter, who recently got married. It is unknown who of them is the oldest and the youngest, but they are all adults with their own lives already. Tomiwa Fayose One of Ayo Fayose children is Tomiwa. It is unknown what does he do for a living. However, there are occasional photos of him with the luxurious cars surfacing online, so we know for sure that this young man is a car enthusiast. Quite often, Tomiwa posts pictures with his cars on Instagram, letting his followers know about his passion. Tomiwa Fayose. Photo: xpress9ja.blogspot.com Nigba Fayose Another son of the politician, Nigba, is also a man with a lot of swag. He often shows up in stylish costumes and demonstrates his lavish lifestyle. Occasionally, you can find photos of him with the expensive vehicles in front of a gorgeous mansion. READ ALSO: Names of governors in Nigeria and their states Nigba Fayose. Photo: gistmania.com Rogba Fayose This son used to be a student of the Covenant University in Ogun State. He graduated from the university few years ago. There is not a lot known about Boluwatife Fayose and Joju Fayose, but we are pretty sure that they are alright, considering how rich and influential their father is. READ ALSO: Nigerian celebrities and prominent people born in November Rogba Fayose graduating from Covenant University. Photo: theelitesng.com Tomi Fayose Fayose's daughter is a beautiful young woman, who recently got married to Arewa Odunlade. They had a gorgeous wedding ceremony in August 2018 The brides outfit was created by Deola Sagoe, and her makeup was beautifully done by the Oshewa Beauty studio. There were a lot of dignitaries in the attendance, including other and politicians. Of course, the father of the bride was also present at his daughters big event. After the ceremony, he tweeted about being proud to give out his daughters hand in marriage and expressed the best wishes to her and her new husband. READ ALSO: Current Nigerian states capitals, slogans and governors Ayo Fayose daughter wedding. Photo: rich-news.media You have read the article about Ayo Fayoses children. It looks like they all live in peace and prosperity and we wish them all the best. READ ALSO: Ayo Fayose's birthday Source: Legit - Fifty illegal filling stations have been discovered by the Department of Petroleum Resources in Akwa Ibom - According to DPR, the illegal filling stations refused to obtain federal government licences nor follow due process in their construction - Marketers that site filling stations before approaching DPR for consideration have been warned to desist from such act The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Eket office, has said it has discovered 50 illegal filling stations in the state. Tamunoiminabo Kingsley-Sundaye, the operations controller of DPR in Akwa Ibom, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Eket on Monday, November 26. Legit.ng gathers that Kingsley-Sundaye explained that the illegal filling stations refused to obtain federal government licences nor follow due process in their construction. He added that the filling stations were built without appropriate approval by the department in the state. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda He said: There are 50 illegal filling stations in the state. We have come to a point in this country where people have decided to do things that are wrong. When I resume a year ago, we observed that there are some fuel stations that are built without appropriate approvals from the department." He said that when building filling stations, there are things that are considered such as engineering design, safety, earth considerations and social economy of the area. Kingsley-Sundaye condemned marketers that build filling stations that share boundaries with markets, schools, hospitals, saying that such stations would affect the economy of the area. He warned marketers that site filling stations before approaching DPR for consideration to desist from it. The DPR operations controller said that the department had sensitised the marketers who were involved to come to DPR office for reassessment and appropriate documentation. He said: We have compiled those names and sent them to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) to take appropriate actions." Kingsley-Sundaye said that the department was working with law enforcement agencies and the state government to dismantle illegal filling stations in the state. He said: We will work with the state government to dismantle illegal filling stations in the state and the department was working towards getting rid of those stations." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app According to him, owners of such stations have violated the Petroleum Act of 1969 which says that nobody can sell or store petroleum product in Nigeria without federal government license. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the weight and measures department in the federal ministry of industry, trade and investment shut down 30 filling stations in Benin. Nwachukwu Cordelia, chief media mythology officer of the ministry, disclosed this in Benin on Friday, October 12. Nwachukwu, who was in the state for a surveillance inspection in Benin, Auchi and Uromi, said that the fuel stations were shut due to faulty meter pumps used by petroleum marketers. She said: We have investigated about 120 filling stations and some of the marketers are doing well, while some are cheating buyers." Price of petrol crashes in Nigeria - Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Newspaper - The British government says it does not have any preferred presidential candidate in Nigeria ahead of 2019 - Wale Adebajo says the national disability bill awaiting presidential assent would help in resolving some of the issues in Nigeria - Adebajo warns that in 2019, INEC must ensure a free and fair election in Nigeria Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the British government says it has no preferred candidates. The political adviser to the British deputy commissioner to Nigeria, Wale Adebajo, reportedly said this at a public forum in Ado Ekiti on Monday, November 26. The programme tagged: Enhancing Electoral Participation of Peoples Living with Disabilities (PWDs) in 2019 General Elections, had international organisations and local civil society organisations in attendance. They included the British Department for International Development(DFID) and the Foundation For Justice and Social Development (FOJSOD). READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Adebajo also said the national disability bill that was currently awaiting presidential assent would help in resolving some of the issues affecting the group in the country. He commended INEC for including PWDs in its strategic plan for 2017-2021 elections, saying the British government and United States Department for International Development(USAID) were favourably disposed to the action. "When we pointed out in the Ondo governorship election the need to make the PWDs more inclusive in our elections, INEC responded positively to our response by establishing desk officers in INEC offices to take care of the PWDs. This to us was a signal of INECs commitment to improving access to the electoral system. "We want to clear the air that the British government is not supporting any candidate in the election. We are neutral when it comes to election in Nigeria," he said. The DFID regional programme officer, Margaret Fagboyo, said PWDs should be beneficiaries of the sustainable development in Nigeria. "In 2019, INEC must ensure that ballot boxes are placed where they can be accessed easily, the police shouldnt harass them, they should be accorded respect. They should be seen as critical stakeholders in any election. We commend INEC for noticing where they are lapses and trying to improve on them. We cant leave these people behind while taking critical decisions just because they are having one form of disability; if this happens, definitely there will be problems, she said. READ ALSO: Soldiers were killed while service chiefs were attending Buharis re-election campaign - Atiku The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti, Prof. Abduganiy Raji, said INEC had identified critical areas where PWDs were having problems in the electoral system. He said these were being tackled through policy formulation and strong legal framework. Raji said those with disabilities were effectively sensitised before the July 14 governorship election in the state, adding that this accounted for the major breakthrough recorded in the poll. "The overall goal of this programme is to consolidate inclusive electoral process that would be in consonance with the international best practices. "In this programme, we must also identify those critical challenges affecting the participation of PWDs in elections. "They should understand the legal provisions and policies framework that can support electoral participation and engage electoral stakeholders to mainstream PWDs into electoral engagement," Raji said. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that as Nigeria moves closer to the 2019 general elections, the international community announced its decision to watch and monitor the campaign and election process closely to prevent manipulation and rigging. The international community which comprises of the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the European Union has also warned against violence during the election period. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng upgrades to serve you better. Nigeria Latest News: Buhari vs Atiku - 2019 Elections | - on Legit TV Source: Legit.ng - The United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, has condemned the attack on Nigerian soldiers in Matele by Boko Haram terrorists - Guterres extended his condolences to the government of Nigeria and to the families of the victims - The UN chief said several other bases were targeted apart from Matele, Borno The United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, has condemned the attacks in Nigeria by terrorists and other extremist groups that have taken a toll on security forces and civilians, especially in Borno state. Guterres, in a statement by his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, extended his heartfelt condolences to the government of Nigeria and to the families of those who have lost their life. A major attack took place at a Nigerian military base in Metele, Borno, carried out by the extremists a week ago, in which scores of soldiers were killed. The UN chief said several other bases were targeted, according to news reports. READ ALSO: Just in: President Buhari increases salary of Nigerian Police Force Those who violate international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law must be held accountable, Guterres said. The recent increase in violence stems from a power-struggle between militant factions in the region. President Muhammadu Buhari had vowed to end the insurgency across the northeast, which is the stronghold of the Boko Haram militant group, founded nearly a decade ago. The UN chief noted that national elections are due to be held in February next year. The United Nations stands in solidarity with the government of Nigeria in its fight against terrorism and violent extremism, the UN chief said. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that President Buhari Buhari on Sunday, November 25, presided over a meeting of security chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as part of the ongoing efforts to engage military and intelligence community towards addressing Boko Haram insurgency. Confirming this development in a tweet in Abuja on Sunday, the presidents aide on new media, Bashir Ahmad, said all the service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police Idris Ibrahim and the Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS) Yusuf Bichi were part of the meeting. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better. Nigerian Air Force Operations Against Boko Haram | Legit TV Source: Legit - The former governor of Cross River state, Donald Duke, promises free education at all levels if elected president in 2019 - Duke is contesting for presidency on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) - The former governor also promises to offer both undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships home and abroad The presidential candidate of the SDP, Donald Duke, has promised free tuition in primary, secondary and tertiary educational in the country, if elected president in the 2019 general elections. Duke, represented by Precious Elekima, the governorship candidate of the party in Rivers, made the promise on Monday in Port Harcourt, at the flag-off of the partys campaign for 2019 polls in Rivers, NAN reports. Legit.ng notes that Elekima said: Today I am representing our presidential candidate to pass his message to Nigerians and to the people of Rivers state in particular. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda His Excellency, Donald Duke, says that everyone matters. You deserve the best in this country. He says that his administration will bridge the gap between the poor and the rich in the country. Our administration will bridge the gap between the rich and the poor by offering free tuition in all levels of education from primary to tertiary. We will revisit the handover of schools to missionaries with a view to working out an agreeable partnership, taking into consideration the interest of the public, the missions and the communities. Undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships home and abroad will be offered. Board of governors will be inaugurated for all public primary and secondary schools in Rivers state. We will extend the civil servants retirement age to 45 years of service or 70 years of age mandatory; retirement after 35 years of service or 60 years of age will be optional. This is because if lecturers and judges can work up till 70 years, I am sure civil servants can also work till that age. Our pensioners will be on first priority and must be paid first before anyone in the state." He called on Rivers people and Nigerians to vote for the party because its leader feared God and loved mankind, adding that the SDP would win the Rivers and presidential polls in 2019. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Donald Duke, said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s baggage would not allow for good performance, if its candidate emerges winner of the 2019 presidential election in 2019. Duke told newsmen on Thursday, November 22, in Lagos that no matter how good a candidates intentions are, the person cannot perform if he becomes president on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Nigeria Latest News: Buhari vs Atiku - 2019 Elections | - on Legit TV Source: Legit Newspaper - The Anambra state government has declared support for the formal abolition of the Osu caste system in the southeast - To this end, the state commissioner for diaspora affairs, indigenous artwork, culture and tourism, Sally Mbanefo, has penned a letter to the group championing the abolition - The govt referred to the caste system as a scourge and expressed its unflinching support for its abolition The December 28, 2018 date fixed for the formal abolition of the Osu caste system in the southeast has been backed by the Anambra state Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, Indigenous Artwork, Culture and Tourism. The development was made public in a statement released on Monday, November 26, Punch reports. READ ALSO: President Buhari increases salary of Nigerian Police Force Legit.ng gathers that a letter was written by the state commissioner for diaspora affairs, indigenous artwork, culture and tourism, Sally Mbanefo, to the director of Celibacy International, which is championing the campaign to abolish the Osu caste system. The letter read: The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, Indigenous Artwork, Culture and Tourism has been inundated with your efforts in raising awareness on the traumatic stigma of Osu/Ohu/ Ume caste system. As a ministry, we also commend your selfless and bold commitment to the abolition of this demeaning caste system in the land. Consequently, we wish to express our unflinching support for abolishing the scourge of this unfortunate practice in Igbo land. We, therefore, have no reservation whatsoever in endorsing your project to abolish the Osu practice. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that twenty four traditional rulers in Oguta local government areas of Imo state endorsed abolishing the Osu caste system to free affected people from stigmatisation. The age-long system is also known in some Igbo tradition as Osu, Diala or Ohu, depicting slavery to either a human being or deity. The royal fathers lamented over the fact that the caste system had caused major deprivations, dehumanisation, stigmatisation and lack of marriage among units on a particular class of people in the society considered to be slaves. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Top 5 coolest facts about the Igbo people - on Legit TV: Source: Legit.ng - South Africa has increased its minimum wage for workers to N126,480 per month - The increase would consequently see South African workers earning N527 per hour and N4,216 per day - Even if the proposed N30,000 payment eventually comes into effect, Nigerian workers will be earning less than a quarter of what their South African counterparts take home monthly At a time when Nigerian workers are uncertain that their struggle for a N30,000 minimum wage would yield favourable results, South Africa has increased its minimum wage to N126,480 per month. South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said six million workers will benefit from the increase which comes into effect on January 1, 2019, Guardian reports. READ ALSO: Sultan proffers strategies for peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Christians Legit.ng gathers that South African workers would be earning N527 per hour, N4,216 per day and N126,480 per month; as one South African rand exchanges for N26.35. In contrast, however, Nigerian workers currently earn N75 per hour, which is N600 per day (at eight working hours per day) and N18,000 per month. If the minimum wage is eventually increased to N30,000 monthly, Nigerian workers would be earning N125 per hour or N1,000 per day; amounting to less than a quarter of what their South African counterparts take home monthly. Comrade Ayuba Wabba, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Monday, October 26, disclosed that labour would soon meet to draw up a timetable within which government would be expected to conclude work on the new wage. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that President Buhari was urged by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), to take urgent steps to address the lingering issue on the new national minimum wage by immediately forwarding an executive bill to the National Assembly to legalise the recommendation of the Tripartite Committee. Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the NLC president, said Nigerian workers were running out of patience with the government over the delay and were getting more and more agitated. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Minimum wage: Is N30,000 too much for FG to pay workers? - on Legit TV: Source: Legit - The Niger state government has made its prohibition of early marriages for female children fiercer - The state commissioner for Education, Fatima Madugu, said that not less than 13 persons have been convicted for withdrawing girls from schools for early marriages - Madugu the suspects will face sanction, adding about seven young girls have been supported to go back to schools after forced marriages The Niger state government on Monday, November 26, revealed that it has convicted about 13 persons who withdrew young female students from school in order to give their hands in marriages, Punch reports. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Speaking to newsmen on the issue in Minna, Fatima Madugu, the state commissioner for Education, said that the government also supported seven young girls to go back to schools after forced marriages while some other cases were still pending in court. Declining to reveal the identities and addresses of those convicted, Magudu said: Any parent that withdraws a girl child will be sanctioned; we should allow our female children to go to school like their male counterparts. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! The commissioner also defended the discriminatory policy of the government in the payment of public examination fees, saying: Because of the free education policy of the government people from neighbouring states were trooping to the state to register for the public examinations. We are trying to straighten the records after which we will revert to the old policy. Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that an additional 13,606 qualified primary school teachers, including a PhD holder had been recruited by the Kaduna state government, the state commissioner for education, science and technology, Mallam Jaafaru Sani noted. Legit.ng gathered that Sani said the exercise marked the completion of the 25,000 vacancy announced after the sack of the 22,000 unqualified teachers in the state in January, 2018. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better. If your son changes his gender to female, will you accept his bride price? | Legit TV Source: Legit - Armed robbers allegedly attacked the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital on Sunday night, November 25, stealing three new born babies - The hoodlums were said to have come with with guns and machetes; and also stole cash from nurses and nursing mothers - The hospitals chief medical director, Prof Thomas Agan, however, denied the occurrence of the incident The paediatric unit of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital was on Sunday night, November 25, allegedly invaded by armed robbers who stole three new born babies and some cash. According to Punch, the robbers, who were about 10 in number, also beat up the nurses on duty as well as nursing mothers and pregnant women and made away with mobile telephones, during the 10 minute operation. READ ALSO: Police lock down Akwa Ibom Assembly again Legit.ng gathers that the robbers easily gained entry into the maternity section and moved from bed to bed to pick up the babies. They were reportedly well armed and did not wear masks. A nurse who was seen consoling a sobbing nursing mother, speaking on the condition of anonymity, stated: Several armed robbers gained access to this (paediatric) unit. They came with guns and machetes. They beat up my colleagues and some nursing mothers. They took away some babies and money from the patients and nursing mothers. The security in this hospital has been very porous. Lives of patients, nurses and doctors are at risk. There is nowhere in this hospital that is safe. There is so much stealing going on. Visitors are no longer controlled. People troop into the wards without any check. Many, including thieves, come in the guise of being patients relatives. Hospital properties are stolen frequently, while electricity supply is a big challenge in the hospital, because the diesel and generator parts are stolen frequently by the workers and armed robbers. Non-payment of salaries by the hospitals management had reportedly led to the withdrawal of services by personnel of private security firms and regular policemen for some months now. When contacted on Monday, November 26, however, the hospitals chief medical director, Prof Thomas Agan, denied the occurrence of the incident. On his part, the Cross River state commissioner of police, Hafiz Inuwa, reportedly said he could not speak on the incident because he was out of Calabar. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that one Chiamaka Ukeje, a 22-year-old female from Umuduru Isiala Mbano local government area of Imo state, was paraded alongside three others by the Imo police command, for stealing and selling one Chinagorom Ndukwe, a five-month-old baby, to the tune of four hundred thousand naira. Ukeje and her alleged accomplices were among 61 suspects who were paraded at the state police command for various offenses. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Lagos Police parades suspects - on Legit TV: Source: Legit Newspaper - A 300 level student of DELSU was recently murdered by suspected ritualists masquerading as internet fraudsters also known as 'yahoo boys' - Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has condoled with the family of the late student, identified as Miss Elozino Ogege - The governor also ordered a massive crackdown on the 'yahoo boys' Delta state governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, on Monday, November 26, condoled with the family of Miss Elozino Ogege, a 300 level student of mass communication department, Delta State University, (DELSU), Abraka who was brutally murdered by suspected ritualists masquerading as "yahoo boys." Governor Okowa has ordered a serious crackdown on all "yahoo boys," ritualists and all those involved in unexplainable and sudden wealth in the state. In a statement sent to Legit.ng by his chief press secretary, Charles Aniagwu, the governor expressed his heartfelt condolences to the family, the Isoko nation and the University. READ ALSO: President Buhari increases salary of Nigerian Police Force The governor noted with concern and worry, the increasing and disturbing activities of suspected ritual killers and criminally minded individuals, whose obtrusive and flamboyant escapades are becoming more conspicuous." I am glad that the security agencies have made serious progress in the investigation into the murder and i can assure Deltans and Nigerians that justice will be served on the perpetrators of this dastard act, the governor said. He expressed his appreciation for the solidarity exhibited by Deltans and Nigerians in condemning the act and urged security agencies in the state and country to commence a massive crackdown on criminal elements veneering as "yahoo boys." As a government whose primary responsibility is the protection of lives and property as well as the welfare of her citizens, I urge Deltans and Nigerians to partner with the government and report to security agencies the activities of these gangs with a view to assisting the society get rid of such dangerous groups. Never again as a people shall we condone the activities of these known criminals as we all seem to agree that enough is enough, the governor stated. Nigeria has been battling with rampant cases of ritualists as many say former internet fraudsters known have resulted to fetish ways of getting money. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Recently, officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Nairobi, Kenya, arrested suspected 19 Nigerian nationals believed to be behind online fraud in the city. Legit.ng gathered that the suspects were reported to be using social media to defraud unsuspecting Kenyans. According to a brief statement issued by the DCI on its Facebook page, the suspects live in Nairobi's Roysambu, Umoja and Kasarani estates. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. BUSTED: Professional Hacker Nabbed Over Fraudulent Purchase of N28million Porshe | Legit TV Source: Legit - As ASUU strike lingers on, some parents and students have called on the federal government to speedily intervene - They expressed displeasure over the ongoing strike, saying the strike is causing a lot of problems for students - A parent, David Onilede, says the strike is worrisome, adding that the productivity of the students will be affected as it lingers on Some parents and students on Tuesday, November 27, urged the federal government to speedily intervene and resolve the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the parents expressed worry over the constant strikes embarked upon by the university lecturers union. Legit.ng gathers that on Monday, November 26, the federal government and ASUU had a meeting to resolve their agreement in order to suspend the lecturers strike. However, the meeting that reportedly started at about 5 p.m. at the federal ministry of education ended in another deadlock. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda A parent, Eunice John, said: It is a pity what our government and ASUU is doing to this to our children who have been forced once again out of school. We know that many of the leaders have their children either studying in private universities or in other schools overseas, that is why they can always keep our children out of school. Many parents are struggling to pay school fees of their wards to keep them in school and out of the streets, yet these children are forced to come home and some now engage in various vices. That is not the only problem, when their studies are disrupted, it affects them; imagine those who were in the middle of writing examinations having that flow disrupted." John pleaded with the federal government and ASUU to reach an agreement that would end the strike and ultimately help improve the education sector. David Onilede, another parent, said the strike was worrisome adding that it would affect the productivity of the students. He said: I am worried at the sustained strike by ASUU. As a parent, the capacity of our children for productive interaction with their studies is being jeopardised. I do not trust the FG s negotiating team; it seems that it is fixated on commercialising education at the tertiary level; ASUU should resist this. ASUU too should be more flexible in their obsession with earned allowances; it portrays their struggles as selfish." Jumoke Yusuf, a public servant, said that the constant and protracted lecturers strikes had marred the countrys university system, as continuous breaks in the learning process had negatively affected the students. She said: This strike is affecting the students and even we the parents because unexpectedly these children are coming home which they did not plan for. That is not the main issue because you cannot stop your children from coming home no matter what. The issue is that these incessant strikes are actually causing a lot of problems for these children in the sense that they just stay too long in school." Esther Ajayi, a student at the Nasarawa State University, said the strike had reduced her morale. She said: I paid my fees for admission for a masters degree programme and was excited and ready to go to school, however, this strike has dampened my hope of finishing within the stipulated time. We want the federal government to dialogue with ASUU to end this continuous strike. It is not only sad that children of the masses try to be beat all odds to be the best they can be, but more worrisome is that the government of the day plays politics with the education system. Nigeria prides herself as the giant of Africa, but finds it difficult to resolve issues that are beneficial to the populace, we want the strike called off soonest. Emmanuel Onuoha, another student, accused the federal government of failing the Nigerian student. He said that government needed to do everything within its power to address the challenges in the sector as he called for the strike to be called of soonest. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Onuoha said: Our parents said in their time the education system was good, there was nothing like strike and education was basically free. Now some of them are in government and they are allowing us to suffer what they never did, because they can afford to send their children to schools abroad to get the best. We are pleading with government to solve this problem so we can go back to school. Our mates in private universities are way ahead of us; we are just sitting at home doing nothing. It is not fair." Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) vowed to continue its ongoing industrial action if the federal government failed to meet its demands. In a statement on Sunday, November 25, the national president of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said the unions struggle was still alive and that the strike would continue. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better. Parents advice government over ASUU strike | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Senate has suspended the confirmation of Olanipekun Olukoyede as secretary of the EFCC - The Senate suspended Olukoyede's confirmation after a member of its committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes lodged a complaint to the lawmakers - Isa Misau says the committee prepared a report without the consent of other members The confirmation of Olanipekun Olukoyede as secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been suspended by the Senate. A member of the Senate committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes, Isa Misau, had earlier accused the committee of preparing a report without the consent of others, Premium Times reports. Legit.ng gathers that the lawmaker complained that the endorsement page report was signed by only three out of eight members of the committee. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda He said: Lets step down this report so that we, the members of the committee can go through it. Because I participated actively in the screening of these nominees and there are some of them that are not competent to hold that office. Im just seeing this report. It has not been sent to my office and I was part of the screening and during the screening, I made objections on certain people that are not supposed to hold that office to be screened. It is necessary for us to look at the report." The chairman of the committee, Chukwuka Utazi, who urged the Senate to confirm Olukoyede, said: Most of the committee members are busy with oversight. We wrote every member to be in attendance. What Misau attended was the ICPC screening. He attended and participated but he did not attend this one. We gave the notice to everybody to attend; and at the end of the day, the number of people who attended, formed quorum and took the decision on behalf of the committee (signed)." Utazi was thereafter asked by the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, to meet with his members later in the day, conclude and re-present the report on Wednesday, November 28. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Olanipekun Olukoyede, the chief of staff to the chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, as the secretary of the commission. The president in a letter to the Senate requested that Olukoyede's nomination be confirmed as secretary of the EFCC. The letter dated September 10, 2018, and addressed to Senate president, Bukola Saraki, asked that Olukoyede be confirmed in accordance with Section 2 of the EFCC Act. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better. The EFCC stage a walk against corruption - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng Africa is very blessed with a beautiful tradition and culture. It is no wonder that several foreigners come to the country to be a part of such lovely displays. Nigerians are awed by the story of Austrian born woman, Susan Wenger, now popularly known as Adunni Olorisa, who came to the country and made it her home. It all started when Susan and her first husband, Ulli Beier, came to Nigeria. Beier was a German researcher and a linguist while Susan was an artist. Susan worked as an artist in Nigeria while her husband was a lecturer at the University of Ibadan. They lived together in Ede, Osun state. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria Young Susan Wenger. Photo source: ohafrika.com Source: UGC While in Ede, Wenger became interested in Yoruba rituals despite not being able to speak the language. She reportedly got close to Ajagemo, one of the last priests of Obatala worship. However, Susan and her husband later moved to Osogbo and they divorced soon after. Beier moved back to Europe while his ex-wife stayed behind to learn the art of being a priestess. The huge turning point in Susans life came when she fell seriously ill with tuberculosis. The sickness was slowly killing her till medicine men came to her aid and gave her herbal mixtures which healed her. Susan Wenger. Photo source: www.fotograefin.com Source: Instagram READ ALSO: Personal letter from the Editor-in-Chief of Legit.ng (formerly NAIJ.com) After she fully recovered, she dedicated her life to the orisa that saved her from death. Being an artist with knowledge of Yoruba tradition, she used her art works to express herself. Susan eventually gave love another chance. She got married to a local drummer, Chief Ayansola Oniru Alarape, but they later separated because he maltreated her. The artist later adopted 12 Yoruba kids whom she cared for. Susan Wenger Photo source: www.sussannewenger.com Source: UGC Susan Wenger was responsible for preserving the sacred Osun forest. She made sure to also decorate the grove with several of her art works and works of other artists. Because of her efforts, the Osun grove was declared a national monument and in 2005, it became recognised as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). On January 12, 2009, Susan passed on at the age of 93. Legit.ng earlier shared the interesting story of Nigeria's famous adventurer, Ajala. Not a lot of people like to leave their comfort zones and experience new things. However, there are a few individuals who have etched their name in history for their globetrotting skills. HELLO! NAIJ.com (naija.ng) upgrades to Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. African Proverbs and Their Meanings | Legit TV Source: Legit - President Buhari had planned to go on a five-day casual leave, to be spent in his Daura hometown - The president, however, cancelled the plan in honour of victims of the Boko Haram terrorists in the recent attack in Borno - Recall that the president had earlier cancelled his trip to Edo state, with a new plan to visit the Nigerian soldiers at the Boko Haram war front in Borno state President Muhammadu Buhari has cancelled his planned five-day casual leave as a mark of respect for victims of Boko Haram attacks across the battlefields in the northeast zone of the country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the president had planned to spend the casual leave at his home country, Daura, Katsina state from November 27 to December 2. Recall that the president had earlier cancelled his official trip to Benin City, Edo, where he was initially billed to inaugurate the Edo-Azura Power Plant and grace the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference. READ ALSO: BREAKING: Confirmation of EFCC secretary suspended by Senate NAN reports that already the advanced teams of the president, who left Abuja for Katsina and Benin on Sunday, November 25, had been asked to return. Legit.ng gathered that the cancellation of the trips would also enable the president to continue his ongoing meetings and consultations with relevant security and intelligence community aimed at addressing the nations security challenges. However, the president is expected to declare open the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference, which was moved from Benin City to Maiduguri, Borno, on November 28, at the Government House Conference Hall (CGH). President Buharis aide on new media, Alhaji Bashir Ahmad, had on November 25 confirmed this development on his twitter handle. He said: President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to declare the COAS Annual Conference on November 28, 2018, at the Conference Hall CGH in Maiduguri, Borno state. The conference was earlier scheduled to take place from 26 -28 November 2018 in Benin, Edo state." The shifting of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference from Benin City to Maiduguri might not be unconnected with the killing of Nigerian soldiers at Metele, a remote village bordering Nigeria and Chad. President Buhari would reportedly use the opportunity of the COAS conference to address the Nigerian soldiers at the battlefields to further boost their morale. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates Meanwhile, Oby Ezekwesili, the presidential candidate of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has reacted to the killings of Nigerian soldiers in Melete, Borno state, by men suspected to be Boko Haram. The former minister, in a press statement made on Sunday, November 25, berated the countrys internal security apparatus, wondering why it took the Nigerian Army close to a week before announcing the incident to Nigeria. Ezekwesili, commiserating with families of the deceased, demanded that the fallen heroes must not be deprived of their honour. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have updated to serve you better. Nigerian Air Force Operations Against Boko Haram | Legit TV Source: Legit - Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's minister of information, reveals that the federal government has made N540 billion from the whistle-blower policy - Mohammed breaks down the amount as recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) - The minister pleads with Nigerians to support President Buhari's moves to make Nigeria a better country Nigerias minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has revealed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has so far recovered over N540 billion through the governments whistle-blower policy. Minister Mohammed made the disclosure on Tuesday, November 27, at the 71st general assembly of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. To this end, as at May this year, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, through the whistle blower policy, has recovered over N527 billion, $53 million, and 122,890, he said. READ ALSO: 2019: Southeast PDP governors' absence at Atiku's installation unsettles party A statement by Segun Adeyemi, an aide to Alhaji Mohammed, said the minister was represented by the director, public relations and protocol, of the federal ministry of information and culture, Sunny Adejoh Baba. The minister said the EFCC also successfully launched a major onslaught on the seeming high-and-mighty in the society (including senior military officer and their civilian accomplices), who had soiled their hands with shady deals, leading to the recovery of choice assets across the country. Mohammed, therefore, urged the media to align itself with the policies and programmes of the Buhari administration, which he said are aimed at ridding the country of the cancer of corruption, in order to free funds for development projects, which will uplift the standard of living of the citizenry. This effort should not be seen as the sole effort of Mr President or the government alone. The media has a duty to ensure that the programmes of government, meant to uplift the lots of the citizenry, are projected as a national cause and not just as that of Mr President or the administration, the minister said. The minister, who said the BON general assembly is taking place at an auspicious time in view of the forthcoming general elections, charged the broadcasting organizations not to yield their platforms to the purveyors of hate speech and fake news. Mohammed said the broadcasting outfits should instead promote the unity, stability and the development of the country. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates Anything short of this would amount to a criminal abdication of a sacred duty which could spell doom for our collective national life. We have had enough sordid examples to learn from that we ought not to allow a repeat at this critical time of our national development. It is therefore of utmost importance that the media and specifically, broadcast media, do not allow itself to become a purveyor of fake news and hate speeches, he said while restating the federal governments commitment to allowing the press to carry out its assigned watchdog roles. He, however, said the government expects the press to be guided by national interest above every other interests. Legit.ng earlier reported how gold worth about $3, 131, 412.39 (N1, 127, 308, 460.39) being allegedly exported to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, illegally, was seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently. The anti-graft commission named one Abba Ali Yahaya as the brain behind the deal. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Between Buharis Next Level And Atikulate - Nigerians React| Legit TV Source: Legit.ng Allentowns former finance director wont have to join his old boss in federal prison. Garret Strathearn, previously referred to as public official No. 4 in court documents, admitted falsifying documents to help a campaign donor of then-Mayor Ed Pawlowski. Strathearn, of Sea Girt, New Jersey, was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation for his role in a pay-to-play scheme led by Pawlowski. The first six months will be served at home under electronic monitoring. Strathearn must also pay a $5,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. He was free on $50,000 unsecured bail while awaiting sentencing. Pawlowksi was sentenced last month to 15 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was convicted March 1 of 47 federal crimes including conspiracy to commit fraud, making false statements to the FBI and multiple counts of bribery, attempted extortion, mail fraud and wire fraud. Strathearn pleaded guilty in January 2016 in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Strathearn became Allentowns finance director in June 2010 and resigned in May 2015. Strathearn was part of a group of former city officials and employees who pleaded guilty to their roles awarding city contracts to Pawlowskis campaign donors. Dale Wiles, a former assistant Allentown solicitor, also pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday. At his sentencing hearing, Pawlowski said "in some small way I thought I could make a difference, that I could change the world." But federal prosecutors said he made a money grab to bolster his campaign at that time for U.S. Senate, what Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Wzorek called an obsession with raising $1 million in order to scare potential political challengers. Pawlowski was re-elected four times, including in the fall of 2017 while under federal indictment. He resigned on March 8. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. When thousands of women converged on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 2017, women and girls from across the Lehigh Valley gathered in Bethlehems Payrow Plaza in solidarity. They returned to the plaza in 2018 buoyed by the #MeToo movement. On Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, the national march is back in our nations capital after heading to the battleground state of Nevada in 2018. And Bethlehem is getting in on the movement again. The Lehigh Valleys second-largest city is one of only three locations across Pennsylvania currently scheduled to host a sister march. The Bethlehem rally is set to begin at 10 a.m. in Payrow Plaza outside of Bethlehem City Hall, 10 E. Church St. Millions of women around the world took to the streets in 2017 the day after President Donald Trumps inauguration to strongly send the message that womens rights are human rights. Then came #MeToo. The third march is being planned in the wake of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs confirmation despite allegations of sexual assault dating back to high school. We are outraged. We are organized. They forgot that 5 million women lit the world on fire two years ago, the national womens march website reads. On January 19, 2019, were going to remind them when we flood the streets of Washington, D.C., and with sister marches in cities across the globe. Save the date: The #WomensWave is coming, and were sweeping the world forward with us. The 2019 Womens March on New Jersey will be held in Trenton on Jan. 19, organizers have announced. The 11 a.m. march will begin at the State House Annex on West State Street and conclude on the steps of the War Memorial around 1 p.m., the announcement said. More details, including speakers and the event's mission statement, will be announced later. The organizers of the Womens March on New Jersey want women, here in our state, to rally together for something, not demonstrate against something, organizers said. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The Stroud Area Regional Police Department is investigating whether a gunshot wound victim who showed up at a Bethlehem hospital is connected to a reported shooting in Monroe County. Jehovah Maldonado Stroud Area Regional officers were dispatched at about 1:30 a.m. Monday to the 100 block of E.D. Christine Drive in Stroudsburg. The report indicated "multiple shots" were fired, Stroud Area Regional police said. Investigators did not find anyone in the area, but later seized multiple bullet casings in a nearby parking lot. What appeared to be blood on a sidewalk also was discovered, police said. Witnesses reported to police seeing a silver pickup truck and dark Mercedes leaving the area shortly after shots were fired. Area hospitals were checked and no victims were located, police said. Bethlehem police at 3 a.m. Monday found a male gunshot victim was being treated at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg in Bethlehem and notified Stroud Area Regional police. The victim, police said, had wounds to his ankle and foot. It's unclear if the gunshot victim is connected to the reported shooting in Stroudsburg and the Stroud Area Regional Police Department continues to investigate. The victim told investigators that he was shot at Third and Hayes street in Bethlehem, Police Chief Mark DiLuzio had said. But city officers responding there didn't find anything there that indicated there was a shooting, DiLuzio said. The victim also told police that a shooter was in a silver Dodge and through pinging a phone, the vehicle was located on Schoenersville Road near a convenience store north of the hospital, DiLuzio said. An officer got the license number and soon learned the vehicle was registered to a person who is jailed on charges involving the Monroe County killing of a pizza delivery driver, DiLuzio said. As police about 3:20 a.m. aimed to question the driver, who was later identified as Jehovah Maldonado, 23, of the 100 block of Crystal Drive in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, he was pulled over in a "high-risk maneuver" on a Route 22 entrance ramp, police said. Officers then tried to take Maldonado into custody, but he drove off and headed east on Route 22, ensuing a high speed chase, police said. The pursuit, involving Pennsylvania State Police and city police, went south on Route 33 and west on Interstate 78 and Maldonado hit speeds in excess of 100 mph as he swerved around cars and tractor-trailers, police said. The truck eventually exited the highway as Hellertown and Lower Saucon police joined the chase. The vehicle later crashed on Silvex Road near Hellertown Road and the park-and-ride -- not far from the I-78 interchange in the city, police said. Maldonado ran off into the woods in Saucon Park and toward a hill near I-78, but was eventually arrested. He was arraigned Monday before District Judge John Capobianco on charges of fleeing and eluding a police officer, escape, reckless driving, driving without a license and driving at an unsafe speed. Maldonado was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail. Maldonado also is wanted in an armed robbery of a motel in Paradise Township, Monroe County, police said. What you can do: Those with information about the case are asked to email Stroud Area Regional Police Detective Robert Transue at rtransue@sarpd.com or call 570-421-6800, ext: 1027. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A Hunterdon County man was in stable condition Tuesday after a piece of metal flew into the truck he was driving and struck him in the neck, police said. The 23-year-old Holland Township man was driving about 9:15 a.m. on Route 519 when a piece of metal flew in through the passenger window, according to Holland police Chief John D. Harris Jr. Harris said workers hired by the county were using heavy machinery to clear trees for a road-widening project when two men in an electrical engineering van drove by. At that moment, investigators believe the machinery kicked up metal from the base of an old utility pole. "It just shot out," Harris said. The 5-inch metal piece of metal, which was less than an inch thick, smashed through a window on the sliding side door of the van, went through a construction cage and lodged in the driver's neck, Harris said. "The passenger heard glass breaking and when he looked over, the driver was unconscious," the chief said. "The metal was impaled in his neck," he said. The passenger threw the van into park, grabbed the wheel and stopped safely on the side of the road, Harris said. The man then removed the metal from the driver's neck and applied pressure to the wound with his hands, Harris said, crediting the passenger with saving the man's life. The injured man was flown by helicopter to St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The man was in stable condition in the hospital's emergency room on Tuesday afternoon, Harris said. "It was a freak accident," Harris said. "It would probably never happen again in a million years." Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A German specialty chemicals company plans to open a $50 million business and technology center in Upper Macungie Township, according to a news release. The release from the Pennsylvania governors office says Evonik Corp. chose the Valley over property it owns in another state. Evonik will purchase its leased manufacturing facility in Upper Macungie Township and build an expansion to support 50 high paying jobs, according to the news release. A news release from Evonik says the company is buying the Upper Macungie site from Air Products and Chemicals. Evonik will purchase two research and development buildings, a pilot plant, ancillary support buildings along with an additional 41 acres, Evoniks release says. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close mid-2019, were not disclosed, according to Evonik. Evoniks expansion shows that the Commonwealth is well-equipped for companies looking to grow their R&D capabilities, Governor Tom Wolf said in his news release. The center will include more than 50 specialized laboratories for new product development and testing, the governors release says. The project will retain the companys existing 277 jobs at the site and across the state. Purchasing the existing facilities will allow us to retain the R&D capabilities, avoid business disruption and enable investments to the site to modernize and sustain the growth of our businesses here, said John Rolando, North America region president for Evonik in his news release. Evonik received a funding proposal from the Department of Community and Economic Development for $150,000 in tax credits and a $2.5 million grant from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, according to the state. Evonik Industries of Germany makes amino acids, building protection coatings and specialty acrylic products, the governors release says. The company serves makers of coatings, pharmaceuticals, and plastics in over 100 countries around the world with more than 36,000 employees, it says. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. EDITOR'S NOTE: Are you interested in the N.J. cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider. After months of false starts and delays, New Jersey took a big step toward legal weed on Monday, with lawmakers advancing a bill that would legalize the possession and personal use of marijuana. Committees from both the state Senate and Assembly approved the bill, which now awaits a full vote in the Legislature before it could be signed into law by the governor. After nearly four hours of debate in a hearing room packed with about 200 people, the bill cleared the Senate budget committee, 7-3 with two abstentions, and then Assembly budget panel, 7-2, with one abstention. This is the first official action taken by the Legislature on recreational marijuana since Gov. Phil Murphy took office in January, in part on the promise to legalize marijuana. Prior to Monday's hearing, no legal weed bill had made it past introduction. "This process has been a long one," said Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, who has led the charge for legalization in New Jersey. "I started talking about this 15 years ago." Despite the committee action on Monday, legalization is not assured. Even the supporters of legal weed agree that New Jersey's plan could still use some work, so it remains possible that legalization could bleed into next year as lawmakers continue to tweak the legislation. The only remaining day this year where the Legislature is scheduled to be in session is December 17. "They've made good progress, but there are still changes that need to be made," said Dianna Houenou, a senior policy advisor with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, who spoke in support of legalization. Houenou said she wanted to see improvements to language in the bill about expungement and other social justice issues. Scutari said Monday that the bill remains a work in progress will be changed before it gets a floor vote. It has already been amended since it was introduced last week. The legal weed bill, which was unveiled last week, would legalize the possession and personal use of one ounce or less of marijuana for people at least 21 years old, and create, regulate and impose a 12 percent tax on a commercial marijuana industry in the state. An extra 2 percent excise tax could be raised for towns which host cannabis businesses. The legislation also aims to speed up the expungement process for people who have prior arrests and convictions for possession or distributing small quantities of marijuana. Within six months of the law's enactment, the Administrative Office of the Courts must create an electronic filing system for expedited expungements, a concept that has been the linchpin of social justice debate this year. The main tension in the hearing on Monday was social justice versus money. "This is still being sold under the auspices of social justice, but it's about money," said Sen. Ron Rice, D-Essex, who has long been opposed to legalization. "It's not about social justice. It's about money for white investors. "It's a slap in the face to people like me and people of color." But several lawmakers on the committees later pushed back on that idea, citing the state's racially disproportionate marijuana arrest rate. An ACLU report from last year found that black people are three times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people, despite similar usage rates between the groups. "Do you have a solution that's better than our current legislation?" Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, D-Somerset, asked a group of law enforcement officials about fixing the racially disproportionate arrest rate. If they did have a solution, they did not share it before the committee. Other opponents of legalization mentioned health concerns associated with marijuana, along with one of the more confounding issues that accompanies legalization: driving while high. Inconsistent and sometimes flawed data regarding marijuana DUIs means it's hard to draw firm conclusions. But in the end, final passage of the legal weed bill may well come down to the balance of social justice and money. Houenou and other advocates, along with several key lawmakers, have said they wouldn't support the bill if its social justice elements, like expungements and minority participation in a future industry, were too weak. On the other hand, Murphy has indicated he might not support a bill unless it had what he concerns an acceptable tax rate. Murphy wants 25 percent, the new bill calls for a 12 percent tax. On Monday, Murphy declined to say whether he'd support the bill that is now moving through the state Legislature. "It's too early to tell," Murphy said during an unrelated news conference at his Trenton office. "We haven't commented on specifics, but I am very happy that this is moving," NJ Advance Media reporters Brent Johnson and Susan K. Livio contributed to this report. Are you interested in the N.J. cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider. Payton Guion may be reached at PGuion@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaytonGuion. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The last few days have been tumultuous on the southern border. On Sunday U.S Border Patrol agents responded with tear gas when members of a migrant caravan attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at Tijuana. When some of those approaching the border began throwing rocks at agents, the agents fired rubber bullets. Mexican officials said they plan to to deport as many as 500 people who resorted to violence in an attempt to cross the border illegally. While that was playing out, President Donald Trump renewed his pitch for Mexico to detain those seeking asylum while their cases are sorted out, and encouraged Mexico to deport as many as necessary. Trump and members of Congress are looking to see whether a deal could be reached to avoid a government shutdown the next budget deadline is Dec. 7 to finance the border wall in return for keeping the government operating. Any accord probably would have to occur during the current lame-duck session, since Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives in January. A recent HarrisX poll shows that Americans are almost evenly divided on the prospect of financing a multi-billion-dollar barrier as a condition to avoid a shutdown. What do you think? Should the president and Congress use this budget deadline to underwrite a wall? Should Congress stand firm against it? Have a say in our unscientific, informal poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comment section. A Laois postmaster who dedicated his lifetime to running the family post office, has passed away just months after his retirement aged 81. Aidan Kennedy from Ballinakill has died unexpectedly at his residence, on Monday November 26. He retired last June 30 due to ill health, and with no-one to replace him it also marked the closure of the village's post office. He talked to the Leinster Express at that time. They are all disappointed. There is no chance of keeping it open. I am sorry for the people who use the post office so well, they are so nice, I have never had much trouble with anybody, he said. Mr Kennedy had developed a lung condition in recent years that meant he required constant oxygen, even while working behind the counter. He had been Post Master in Ballinakill for 51 years, a family job that began with his aunt Julia in 1881, and continued with his mother. He had one employee who worked with him two days a week. It is the end of an era. I am 51 years a postmaster, I will miss the title. My son Declan was willing to take it over a few years ago, but that idea was shot down by An Post, he said. He was given a warm farewell for his retirement by the local community. Photo below: Mr Kennedy had served as club secretary for Ballinakill GAA Club for 40 years. The club has written a touching tribute online to him. "Aidan Kennedy: One of our greatest. As a community we were rocked this morning by the very sad news that we had lost one of our most beloved members. Whilst for Sadie and family the loss of Aidan is immeasurable in comparison to ours, the community of Ballinakill has lost one of its greatest sons. Superlatives and hyperbole is often fired around in the modern times in descriptions of events or individuals, but no amount of words can summerise what a giant of the community Aidan was. "It has been reported in numerous places of all the organizations he was involved in and how he gave himself 100% in his help of others. He was archetype volunteer. Committed. Hard working. Self less. Honest with a fantastic sense of humour. As we come to terms with his loss we can recognize there is no one individual in our tight knit community who has not had their life impacted in a positive way by Aidan. Be it education, agriculture, GAA, Bingo, Post Office, etc.. he served his community and asked for nothing in return "A role model for all to follow. Our busy world would be a better place for more Aidan Kennedys but we can honestly say there will never be one like him again. A person who modeled all that is good about rural Ireland. "As a GAA club we were blessed to have him serve every role within the club. His lifetime of dedication ensured that there is an outlet for Gaelic Games in our village and in particular for our young people. His 40 years as club secretary is an achievement that is truly staggering, but in typical Aidan fashion he did it in his own unassuming and diligent way. "We extend our sympathies to all the Kennedy family at this difficult time but will celebrate a life that has left a positive impact on all our lives. You will be missed Aidan, by one and all. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam," the Club said. Mr Kennedy's death is deeply regretted by his loving wife Sadie, his daughter Jane, sons Aidan, Brian, Luke, Declan, John and Des, extended family and friends. Reposal was at his residence on Monday and Tuesday evenings with Rosary at 9 pm. Removal will be on Wednesday morning at 10.30 am to St. Brigid's Church, Ballinakill for Funeral Mass at 11 am. Burial afterwards in St. Brigid's Cemetery. House Private on Wednesday morning. A remarkable young Laois boy has been chosen as the Leinster Young Carer of the Year in the National CarePlus Carer of the Year 2018 Awards. Ten-year-old Sean Ryan from Portlaoise helps to care for his twin brother Liam who has severe Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy and as a result is a full-time wheelchair user. Liam also has many other complex medical needs. Sean is a wonderful brother and caring comes naturally to him. He helps by bringing Liams feed to his mother Niamh, getting a clean bib and stopping Liams feed tube when its finished. Sean holds his twin brother's hand when they watch TV and when they travel in the car. They have a strong bond and Sean knows the signs when Liam is getting upset or is feeling unwell. Sean is great at educating his friends about Liams condition, he tells them all about Liam and how life is for him. He recently raised 675 for Laura Lynn Childrens Hospice to say thanks for their support to his family. Sean never complains that there are activities or places that the family cant go to with Liam, he just wants his brother to be happy. A second outstanding Laois carer was acknowledged at the awards. John Bergin is the Laois Carer of the Year, he cares for his wife Kathleen who has had two strokes which left her blind in both eyes and wheelchair bound. John told the Leinster Express that he feels he is just doing what any husband or wife would do. I am very happy and humbled to think that I would win it. Its a hard one to quantify and I am extremely grateful to be nominated and to be considered good enough to win. To me, I am just doing what any husband or wife would do for their spouse to me that is the way it should be, I dont need an award and I dont look for the limelight. We are happy enough doing what we do. There is no guarantee in life and nothing to say that everything is going to be rosy for you, you make the most of life no matter what that is and we are doing our best, he said. The National CarePlus Carer of the Year 2018 Awards took place at a special ceremony in The Westin Hotel presented by broadcasters and patrons of Family Carers Ireland, Marty Whelan and Mary Kennedy. Family Carers Ireland recognised 27 family carers from across Ireland for their dedication and many sacrifices made in their caring roles. Mrs Browns Boys stars Danny OCarroll and Paddy Houlihan were in attendance as they took on ambassador roles with the organisation. According to the Central Statistics Office Irish Health Survey, there are approximately 6,480 family carers in Laois. Family carers in Ireland provide 45 hours of unpaid-for care per week in their homes saving the state 10 billion every year. Today one in 10 people provide care for a loved one in the home, by 2030 demographic changes predict that one in five people will take on a caring role. Laois schools are being strongly urged to spend money on fire safety under a grant scheme for minor works on school buildings and facilities. Laois TD and Minister for Justice & Equality, Charlie Flanagan confirmed some 65 schools in Laois will receive a Minor Works Grant payment over the coming days for small-scale works and improvements. He said the Department of Education is advising all school authorities to use the grant to prioritise fire safety prevention works. While schools have discretion under the Minor Works Grant Scheme in relation to the nature of small-scale works and improvements to be carried out to their school buildings, the Department is advising all school authorities to use the grant in the first instance to prioritise fire safety prevention works. The key outcomes from the Department-led programme of fire safety assessments on 55 schools that was initiated last year highlights the need for a strengthened focus on fire safety housekeeping, maintenance and, where necessary, remedial works. The Department will be developing guidance for all primary and post-primary schools on the key issues identified from the fire safety assessment programme. This will focus on the importance of managing and prioritising fire safety particularly in the context of funding provided under the Minor Works Grant to all primary schools," said Minister Flanagan. It is envisaged that this guidance will be provided to schools in the first quarter of 2019 and the Department will be consulting with the school management bodies before finalising the guidance. All primary schools will receive a flat rate Minor Works Grant of 5,500 plus 18.50 per mainstream pupil and 74 per special needs pupil attending a special school or special class. The grant is worth 6,425 for a 50 pupil school and over 11,000 for a 300 pupil school. Minister Flanagan said a commitment made under Project Ireland 2040 meant that the Minor Works Grant will be paid on an annual basis to all primary schools. A Portlaoise co-working centre that will also be known as The Cube is being developed by Laois County Council to provide a digital innovation working space for entrepreneurs and businesses in the county. The council has applied for cash to provide the physical environment needed for people seeking business supports like networking and mentorship. It aims to support new businesses and job creation in Portlaoise, mostly funded through government grants under Enterprise Irelands Regional Enterprise Development Fund 2017 2020. Denise Rainey is a Business Development Officer in the Business Support Unit at Laois County Council. Laois County Council has applied for funding to develop 'The Cube', a digital/innovation hub/co-working space which will have a strong focus on strengthening the innovation ecosystem in Laois, facilitating entrepreneurial growth and job creation. "The Cube will provide the physical environment with required business supports and networking, inclusive of mentorship, incubation, collaboration and business development under one, she said. The council is awaiting the outcome of the funding application. In the Capital Indicative Programme 2019 - 2021 1.37 million is allocated to the business centre over three years. The Cube is up and running in County Roscommon and the local enterprise office there has stated that it is the next step in fostering and retaining the best entrepreneurs in the county, especially the many graduates that the county produces, who often have to leave in search of work opportunities or the necessary modern infrastructure to assist them to establish their own businesses. A Kildare county councillor has publicly apologised to the Mayor of Kildare for an incorrect statement about expenses for a trip to China by himself and a senior Council official. Cllr Fiona McLoughlin Healy apologised at the Kildare County Council monthly meeting yesterday (November 26) for incorrectly stating that the trip to Guangdong province last October was funded by the Irish taxpayer. Reading from a written statement during Mayors Business at the meeting Mayor of Kildare, Cllr Sean Power, said that the trip to China by himself and Director of Services, Niall Morrissey, came about following an invitation from the Chinese embassy. He said it was fully paid for by the Chinese embassy and there was no expense for the Irish taxpayer. SEE ALSO: Plans unveiled for Kildare's Grand Canal Greenway Cllr Power said that a recent tweet by Cllr McLoughlin Healy was wholly inaccurate and extremely damaging to my good name. He said that while reserving my position on any action, he asked Cllr McLoughlin Healy for an apology and the removal of the tweet. The Mayor said he wanted the apology and the removal of the tweet by the close of business today. Replying to his statement, Cllr McLoughlin Healy said she had no difficulty apologising. She said that it was not clear initially that the trip was not funded by the Irish taxpayer. The Mayor responded to this by saying that he had spoken of the trip at the Councils September meeting, and that it was at the expense of the Chinese embassy and not the Irish taxpayer. Earlier, under Mayors Business, Cllr Power reported to the meeting on the China visit. We had a number of very interesting and important meetings, he said. There are a variety of reasons why China wants to do business in different parts of the world, said Cllr Power. Kildare, he said, had a connection with Guangdong province and it wanted more than a friendship. The Mayor said that there would be a visit from a Chinese television group to make a documentary in Ireland, including Kildare, in December. In 2017, the Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Guangdong provincial authorities in China. Where farmers are engaged in meaningful mediation with vulture funds, there should be no forced sales and consequent evictions MEP, Marian Harkin has stated. The comments come following yesterday's (Monday, November 26) protest outside BidX1 offices, a global online auction platform, in Dublin. Speaking at the protest, Ms Harkin emphasised that the purpose of this demonstration was to support farm families who are making real efforts to deal with their financial institutions who are currently seeking to sell their farms in online auctions. We are supporting genuine efforts by farmers and their families to engage with financial institutions. There are examples of these institutions simply pulling the plug when serious and substantive negotiations are ongoing, she stated. This is a very difficult issue but, as politicians, we have a responsibility to facilitate real dialogue and meaningful engagement in an effort to avoid forced evictions. It is important to say this is not about moral hazard but about ensuring that those who make genuine and substantive efforts to find solutions should be given an opportunity to do so. Some farmers and their families are living in terror day after day as their efforts to deal with their debt are ignored and dismissed and people feel totally powerless. Today is about redressing that balance just a little and giving people a real opportunity to sort out their debts," said Ms Harkin concluded. A Leitrim person who wishes to start a hackney business in the county has been quoted 7,650 for insurance. Sinn Fein Cllr Padraig Fallon is calling for more supports to be made available to people wishing to establish hackneys and taxis in rural Ireland. Cllr Fallon told the Leitrim Observer, I have been contacted by a local constituent who is trying to establish a hackney business; the individual has a clean driving licence and over thirty years driving experience. However when he went looking for insurance the best quote he could obtain was 7,650. Also read: New 'rural hackney' licences allowed Most of the insurance companies refused to quote him because he didnt have two years experience driving a hackney. We recently seen the introduction of new drink driving laws which will result in an automatic three month ban on anyone caught driving over the alcohol limit. There is little or no public transport in rural Ireland and especially at night time taxis or hackneys are like hens teeth. This individual was trying to establish a business that would be of benefit to the whole community but due to Insurance costs it is not financially viable. I am calling on the government to provide some kind of financial support to individuals who wish to establish a taxi or a hackney business or to intervene with the insurance companies and stop this policy of quoting extortionate sums of money for insurance cover." Also read: New drink driving law branded "anti-rural" LifeStyle The best Lifestyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel Lifestyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Shaynna Blaze and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand. We're sorry that the ministry you were looking for is no longer available on LightSource.com. However, below are some great ministries that offer related content. Enjoy the inspiration, encouragement, and Biblical challenge from these LightSource.com ministry partners! LABOUR councillor Joe Leddin has urged Limerick City and County Council to review its housing strategy in the Ballinacurra Weston area. Speaking at the annual budget meeting, Cllr Leddin, a member of the housing and social policy committee, claimed there has been an ad-hoc approach towards the building, demolition and renovation of houses within Ballinacurra Weston. He claims the estate is split in two residents on one side are able to access regeneration services, while on the other, they cannot. We cannot have a scenario were just because the regeneration boundary lines have the split the estate effectively in two that some residents are having significant refurbishment works done including insulation, windows and doors replacement while neighbours across the road continue to wait for similar works, he said. Original plans as part of the regeneration programme included the part demolition of houses on Byrne Avenue and Lenihan Avenue. However, this in my opinion is not sustainable given the timeframe involved and pressure to house people. It is also unfair to expect tenants to continue to live in these houses if no major maintenance works will be done. In the former Clarina Park part of the estate, huge green spaces have replaced lands which were once full of houses. Cllr Leddin is bemoaning the fact there does not appear to be any plans to replace these. While, he added, other plans to build houses to the rear of Our Lady of Lourdes community centre are advanced with no consultation. Void properties continue to blot the community and we must set ambitious targets to eliminate and compulsory purchase order houses that are derelict or empty and provide homes for families. The objective of subsuming the regeneration agency into the council was to ensure that there was joined up thinking on how best to develop and improve Ballinacurra Weston, the City West member added. NINE months after his passing Limerick historian and GAA stalwart Harry Greensmyth will be honoured by his fellow members of the Lough Gur and District Society in two weeks. A Tribute to Harry will be an afternoon for all to remember and celebrate the legacy of the former Limerick Leader contributor. Chairman of the historical society George Finch believes the event will be the perfect celebration of the life of his colleague, and a celebration of his countys All-Ireland win that he was unfortunately unable to witness. Given the fantastic year that it was for Limerick, it was sad that Harry did not live to see it, he explained. It would be a pity to let the year pass without honouring Harry in some small way, particularly when one thinks of the time that he gave to the promotion of our native games, Mr Finch added. A native of Boherlode, Ballyneety, Mr Greensmyth worked as a correspondent for the Ballyneety area and produced GAA match reports across the county for the Limerick Leader newspaper. As well as a media giant for local Gaelic Games contributing to matchday programmes and yearbooks as a PRO, Mr Greensmyths contributions on the field left a successful legacy for years to come. The Ballyneety native was a founding member of South Liberties Camogie club and has trained many teams such as Na Fianna, Knockainey, Hospital-Herbertstown and South Liberties, to county titles. Mr Greensmyth also wrote numerous publications including The Bouncers which received a McNamee award in 2004. A Tribute to Harry will feature guest speakers such as Matt OCallaghan of the Vale Star, local historian Tom Toomey and many more, with music and light refreshments following the talks. The event will take place on Sunday, December 2 at 3pm at The Honey Fitz Theatre in Lough Gur, admission is 5 at the door. A SPECIAL report into the handling of finances at the University of Limerick has found the University added two employees from a subsidiary company to the Universitys pension scheme with additional benefits at a cost of 1.2m. The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General published this Tuesday has also found the discretionary awarding of professional service years cost the exchequer an estimated 1.27m. The report also found that UL misrepresented the circumstances around severance deals and on several occasions withheld relevant and material information from the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), the Dail Public Accounts Committee, the Department of Education and Skills and its own legal team. The report finds that two senior executives, who were not employees of the University, from Plassey Campus Centre (PCC) had their individual employees and employers contributions, totalling 708,000, transferred from the PCC pension fund to the University. PCC, operating as Campus Life Services, is responsible for the development of student accommodation, sporting facilities and conferencing, through its subsidiaries including Plassey Campus Arena Ltd and University Concert Hall Limited. According to the report, this ceased any entitlement of the two senior executives to any further payments from the PCC pension fund. One of the two executives retired at the end of September 2014 and is currently in receipt of benefits just under 745,000 more than was transferred in to the university, the report finds. This executive was immediately re-engaged by PCC on a part-time, one day a week, basis for one year, a contract which was put in place by the UL Director of Finance and paid for by PCC. The report also finds the amount paid out under this contract exceeded the contracted amount by more than 43,000. The employee earned more than 13,600 than their pre-retirement salary through this contract and the pension received from the university, the C&AG also found. The second executive, who has not yet retired, will receive up to 424,000 in excess of the transfer amount, depending on when retirement is taken. The report recommends that the university should examine all subsidiary companies to make sure contractual arrangements are in place, including pensions. The discretionary awarding of 324 professional added service years, between 2012 and 2016, to UL employees pensions cost the exchequer an estimated an estimated 1.27m, the report also finds. This is on top of a further 400,000 in paying out increased annual pensions to those retirees. The report finds that 18% of the awards were made to non-academic and managerial staff, and that 89% of applications were successful. During the same timeframe in Dublin City University, the other Irish university with a comparable scheme, less than 100 years were added to solely teaching staff. While a previous report by the C&AG was taking place, UL back-dated a severance agreement in late 2015, purporting to be a document signed four years previously, the report also finds. This backdated agreement was signed by the then Universitys Director of Human Resources and witnessed by the Universitys Human Resources Manager at the time, who reported directly to the Director of Human Resources. The back-dated agreement was provided to the examination team in October 2015, with the Universitys Director of Finance in copy, purporting to be a document signed four years previously, the reports states. The report also finds the timing of the severance and contractual arrangements suggests that they may have been designed to circumvent certain effects of the FEMPI Act 2009. For the avoidance of any doubt, this report does not make any criticism or comment or present any view, whether express or implied, with respect to the staff members concerned and should not be understood as doing so, the report states. In a statement in the report, UL president Dr Des Fitzgerald said: Since coming into office in May 2017, I have put in place a new management structure, in particular the appointment of a Chief Operating Officer and Registrar to which Human Resources and Finance report. There is ongoing restructuring of the new portfolio including making changes in Human Resources and Finance. In addition, the subsidiary companies have been restructured. The Governing Authority has also been changed, resulting in a smaller membership and a more slimline committee structure. Finally, the University of Limerick has committed to and already implemented many of the recommendations of the Thorn and Deloitte reports and reports regularly to the Governing Authority and Higher Education Authority on same. A LIMERICK man who admitted storing a stash of drugs in a 14-year-old car has avoided an immediate prison sentence. Eoin McDonnell, aged 22, who has an address at College Avenue, Moyross had pleaded guilty to charges relating to the seizure of a significant amount of cannabis more than two years ago. Limerick Circuit Court was told a house at Bruach Na Coille, Old Cratloe Road was placed under surveillance on March 16, 2016 as part of an intelligence led operation. While there gardai observed a man Mr X emerge from the house on four separate occasions to meet with other unknown males who had called to the front gate. On each occasion, a brief transaction was carried out. The defendant, who was driving a 06-registered VW Passat arrived at around 8.30pm. McDonnell remained outside the main entrance to the housing estate where he was observed speaking with the driver of another car for a short time. Garda Alan Considine said the defendant then parked his Passat before entering the house which was under surveillance. McDonnell quickly re-emerged from the house and went back to the person he had met a short time earlier. They interacted for a matter of seconds, said Garda Considine. Judge Tom ODonnell was told the defendant was later observed walking to a 02-registered Opel Corsa and removing something from under the passenger seat. The item was placed in small nappy bag before McDonnell returned to the house. During a search of the premises a small quantity of cannabis was located in the nappy bag which had been thrown into an open fire. A further quantity of cannabis was recovered from the Opel Corsa. The total value of the drugs seized was 9,742 while more than 3,000 in cash was also seized. Texts found on a mobile phone were consistent with drug dealing and following his arrest, McDonnell made admissions and took responsibility for the cannabis and cash. Garda Considine said gardai were sceptical of his claim that he was the owner of the drugs but accepted he had cooperated. Brian McInerney BL said his client has poor cognitive skills and is engaging with a number of agencies. He said the father-of-two, who has a number of previous convictions, is now in full time employment which has brought an element of steadiness to his life. Judge ODonnell imposed a three year prison sentence which he suspended for three years. He ordered that the cash seized at the house be forfeited to the State and that the drugs be destroyed. The ruined baptistery (right) of the northern church in the ancient desert city of Shivta, where the portrait of Jesus Christ was found. Emma Maayan-Fanar was looking for shade from the desert sun when she saw the face of Jesus. The art historian from the University of Haifa in Israel had been studying crucifixes and other motifs on the stone lintels of the ancient churches and houses of the ruined city of Shivta in the Negev Desert. Although it was February, days in the desert can still get hot and so Maayan-Fanar found some shade under one of the few pieces of roof still intact at the site, in the baptistery of the northernmost of three ruined churches in the ancient city. That's when she saw eyes looking out from the stones the very faint remains of a portrait of Jesus Christ at his baptism in the Jordan River, painted on the ceiling of the building around 1,500 years ago. [See Photos of the Jesus Portrait and the Ruins of Shivta] "Everyone describes it as like a miracle, and it was, for a moment," she told Live Science. Maayan-Fanar called her husband, Dror Maayan, the photographer for the Israeli academic team working at Shivta, to take pictures of the painting on the stones of the baptistery ceiling. The results of their find in 2017 were recently published in the journal Antiquity. The heavily eroded painting is now thought to be the oldest representation of Jesus Christ found so far in Israel, and one of the very few images from that time that shows details of his face. The Christian ruins of the ancient desert city are thought to date from between the fourth and sixth century A.D. Ancient paintings Another painting found some years ago at Shivta, in the southernmost of its three ruined churches, shows Christ at his transfiguration another key event described in the Christian gospels, which are thought to have been written in the first century after his death. That painting, too, is heavily eroded; it shows only an outline of the figure of Christ and a single eyebrow. But the painting on the ceiling of the northern baptistery a building used for baptisms and containing the baptismal font shows most of the face of Christ, as a young man with short, curly hair. [See Images of Jesus' House and Nazareth Artifacts] Only the right light or high-resolution photographs can reveal details of the heavily-eroded Jesus portrait, which is thought to have been painted in the sixth century A.D (Image credit: Dror Maayan/Emma Maayan-Fanar) The iconography of Christ with short hair was common throughout the east of the Byzantine Empire, Maayan-Fanar explained, especially in Egypt and the Syria-Palestine region. But it was eventually displaced by Byzantine images of Christ with long hair, which remains a common portrayal today. Christ was also shown as a very young man, she said, because his baptism in the Jordan symbolized a "new birth." For the same reason, the painting shows a larger figure of John the Baptist, who is said to have presided at Christ's baptism, according to the Christian Gospels. In their study of the baptistery painting, Maayan-Fanar and her colleagues describe the portrait of Christ as that of a youth with "short curly hair, a prolonged face, large eyes and an elongated nose." It represents a sixth-century convention of Christ's appearance, rather than his actual appearance, which is not described in the Gospels: "It would be wonderful, but how would we know?" she said. Lawrence of Arabia The ruined city of Shivta is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The region is now a national park and is listed as one of Israel's World Heritage sites by the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO. The northern church is one of three ancient churches in the desert city of Shivta in southern Israel that are thought to have been built between the fourth and the sixth centuries A.D. (Image credit: Dror Maayan) The desert city dates from at least the first century. In later Byzantine times, it is thought to have been a caravan stop for Christian pilgrims on their way to St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Shivta declined as a population center during the early Islamic period from the sixth to the ninth centuries and was then abandoned, until it was rediscovered in the 19th century. The ruins at Shivta were explored by English archaeologists in the 1870s and first studied scientifically in 1914 by two more English archaeologists, C.L. Woolley and T.E. Lawrence. The latter archaeologist would become famous during World War I as Lawrence of Arabia, a leader of the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule. Archaeologists who explored the ruined desert city in the late 1920s had briefly noted that there were traces of a painted scene on the baptistery ceiling of the northern church, but they had not recorded any details, Maayan-Fanar said. The light conditions in the baptistery at the time the painting was found, along with subsequent studies using high-resolution photographic equipment, allowed the Christ portrait to be seen again: "If you don't have a good camera and a good photographer, nothing will be visible," she said. The painting will now be recovered as much as possible using modern conservation techniques, she said. "It has to be done very carefully. The condition of the painting is very sensitive." "I think much is hidden under the erosion. It is actually a much fuller image," Maayan-Fanar said. Originally published on Live Science. An aerial view of Wellington, New Zealand. A new study shows that the 2016 Kaikoura quake pushed Cape Campbell, on the northern end of the South Island, nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) closer to the city of Wellington, which sits just across the Cook Strait on the North Island. In the two years since a magnitude-7.8 earthquake rocked New Zealand, the country's South Island has slid a smidgeon closer to its North Island. As the Earth's crust continues to shift after its cataclysmic rupture during the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake , Cape Campbell on the northern side of the South Island has shifted nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) closer to the city of Wellington, which sits across the Cook Strait on the North Island, said Sigrun Hreinsdottir, a geodetic scientist at GNS Science, a research consultancy service in New Zealand. The movement is too slow and subtle to be felt by humans, Hreinsdottir told Live Science, but she and her colleagues have been measuring it with a combination of GPS sensors and satellite measurements. These measurements reveal that New Zealand is still feeling the effects of the 2016 quake, which killed two people when it struck just after midnight on Nov. 14. The measurements will also help scientists predict what size earthquakes New Zealanders could expect to face in the future, Hreinsdottir said. [ The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History ] Complex crust The Kaikoura quake was mind-bogglingly complex . It hit in a transition zone between two very different geologic regions, Hreinsdottir said. In general, the country sits right on the edge of a subduction zone, where the Pacific plate grinds under the Indian-Australian plate. The border of this subduction zone runs along the east coast of the North Island. Meanwhile, the South Island hosts a strike-slip fault known as the Alpine Fault, where pieces of crust move horizontally in relation to one another. When the Kaikoura quake hit near the South Island town of the same name, it ruptured more than two dozen fault lines in the area. One major question, Hreinsdottir said, is how much of the resulting movement was due to those fairly shallow faults, and how much could be traced back to deeper subduction-zone faults far deeper in the crust. That matters, Hreinsdottir said, because when a quake happens in a subduction zone, the amount of area that "breaks" determines the size of the shaking. If New Zealand's active subduction zone extends far south, it could mean that the country needs to prepare for especially large quakes. So far, the researchers' data suggests that the deep, subduction-zone faults didn't make a big contribution to the Kaikoura quake right as it happened. But that deep interface does seem to be moving post-quake, Hreinsdottir said. Future quakes It's too early to fully understand what that movement means for future earthquakes. Hreinsdottir and her colleagues have published some of their findings on the post-earthquake movement, including a March study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters . They've observed movement as far as 372 miles (600 kilometers) from the quake's epicenter. Next month, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Hreinsdottir will present updated data collected earlier this year. The researchers will also collect another round of GPS data in 2020, doubling the amount of time they've been following the post-quake movements to date. The largest post-quake movements have already occurred, Hreinsdottir said. Now, the earth is still creeping, but the movements are gradually tapering off. Following them into the future, though, will help researchers determine which movements come from the upper crust and which from deeper down. They'll also be able to figure out more about whether the quake put pressure on nearby faults, making a future quake more likely, or took some pressure off other faults, meaning the crust is likely to stay quiet. "It's always important to monitor and measure what happens after an earthquake," Hreinsdottir said. Originally published on Live Science. Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Chesapeake Energy Corp. has entered into a long-term frac sand logistics deal to support its drilling operations in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The Oklahoma-based exploration and production company chose Denver-based Pronghorn Logistics to haul frac sand to their drilling sites in the region. Hazards of Time Travel By Joyce Carol Oates Ecco. 336 pp. $26.99 --- Someone needs to check Joyce Carol Oates' garage for a De-Lorean. Her new novel, "Hazards of Time Travel," seems to have slipped through the space-time continuum. Although Oates started writing it in 2011 and finished before the election of President Trump, the story feels charged by the horrors of our Orwellian era. Even the author sounds a bit freaked out by the prescient quality of this novel. Months ago, she tweeted, "Feeling strange that it will seem to be - obviously! - about T***p Dark Age; in fact, it was/is not since completed years before." Perhaps that's the special instrument of sensitive novelists: a flux capacitor that allows them to register what's approaching on the horizon. In this case, Oates has recast our present moment as "an Interlude of Indecisiveness," a period of strident debate about the need for PVIWAT (Patriot Vigilance in the War Against Terror). In the grim future she imagines, the Constitution has been suspended and the RNAS (Reconstituted North American States) is a violently xenophobic and officially racist country. OHSTFAIIFOI (Oates Has Seen the Future and It Is Full of Initials). Our heroine in this all-caps dictatorship is a 17-year-old high school student named Adriane Strohl. Try as she might, Adriane can't restrain her inquisitiveness or hide her precocity, which is a problem in a True Democracy where "all individuals are equal," but some are more equal than others. Early in the novel, she tells us, "I was not aggressive in class. I don't think so. But compared with my mostly meek classmates, some of whom sat small in their desks like partially folded-up papier-mache dolls, it is possible that Adriane Strohl stood out - in an unfortunate way." If you're a CR (Curious Reader), you might be tempted to wonder just how much Oates is channeling her own aggrieved experience as a brilliant teenage girl in the repressive mid-20th century. Indeed, it's not long before the novel takes us back to that period. Charged with Treason, Adriane is arrested at her graduation rehearsal for planning to deliver a speech full of PQs (Provocative Questions). She's interrogated, tortured and branded an EI (Exiled Individual). Her punishment is to be teletransported to a mediocre university in the Midwest in the late 1950s, which tells us all we need to know about Oates' concept of hell. Orwell imagined a helmet of hungry rats; Oates gives us Wisconsin. Adriane awakens as a new freshman at Wainscotia State University. Forbidden from telling her roommates about her true identity or revealing anything about the future, she makes up vague stories on the fly, like the Coneheads from Remulak, France. To fulfill her sentence, all Adriane needs to do is be "the ideal coed" - pleasant, bland, compliant - but that's not easy for a curious young woman. Not only does she excel in school, but she falls in love with Ira Wolfman, her dashing assistant professor in psychology. Before long she's fantasizing like some teenage Emily Dickinson: (BEGIN ITAL)Does he know?(END ITAL) (BEGIN ITAL)Does he - somehow - recognize me?(END ITAL) (BEGIN ITAL)Is he in Exile too - like me?(END ITAL) Poor Adriane is never certain what's happening to her, and anyone who reads "Hazards of Time Travel" is likely to feel the same way. At first, the story's clunky political satire and feverish tone suggest the makings of a young-adult novel, but that's another ruse. The plot quickly gets snarled up in B.F. Skinner's theories of behaviorism, which the kids won't find all that rewarding. Adults, though, may be intrigued to see Oates' sly efforts to create a time-loop. Her history-shifting story suggests that the alarming epoch we're stuck in now resembles that golden era we're still romanticizing. America's old paranoia about nuclear war with the Soviet Union anticipated our unending War on Terror, an existential threat sufficient to justify any abuse of civil rights, any level of surveillance, any mechanism of exclusion. Confused by the surreal elements of her mid-20th-century prison and terrified that she may never return home, Adriane begins to see herself as a pigeon in a Skinner box being conditioned to react in acceptable ways. Meanwhile, the story's unpredictable shocks may reduce readers to a state of learned helplessness. Nothing - including a happy ending - is as it seems in this accelerating swirl of political and academic satire, science fiction and romantic melodrama. At 80, after more than 40 novels, Oates is still casting some awfully dark magic. --- Video Embed Code Video: Ron Charles goes back in time as a cheerleader in order to review 'Hazards of Time Travel' by Joyce Carol Oates.(Ron Charles/The Washington Post) Embed code: WASHINGTON - First lady Melania Trump skipped the traditional press preview of the White House holiday decorations Monday, tweeting out a 56-second video of herself wandering through the glittery, dressed-up rooms in a dark coat and boots. Was she upstairs baking star-shaped sugar cookies using her recipe, which appears in the official White House holiday printed program? Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said Trump decided "to let the decorations speak for themselves." Members of the media were invited on a brisk 30-minute self-guided tour through the holiday wonderland of more than 20,000 feet of lights and 12,000 bows, put up over the past few days with the help of 225 volunteers. Official theme: American Treasures. The color red was big, appearing in a dramatic forest of 40 towering crimson topiary trees in the East Colonnade and on 14,000 ornaments in the Grand Foyer and Cross Hall. The first lady's office described the red motif: "The choice of red is an extension of the pales, or stripes found in the presidential seal designed by our Founding Fathers. It is a symbol of valor and bravery." However, the unconventional grove of red trees evoked an immediate reaction online. They were described as scary and referred to as the "hallway of Yuletide murders," "the avenue of blood red trees" and ominous. Green Room decorations celebrate the country's harvest and include fruits, grains and vegetables, including aptly colored artichokes and tomatoes, which were artfully arranged on mantels and antique tabletops. The East Room featured mantel pieces trimmed with silhouetted skylines of New York, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. The China Room presented table settings of three state dinners, including the Trump administration's sole such soiree for the president of France. In the Red Room, wreaths made of pencils bearing Melania Trump's "Be Best" logo and "Be Best" tree ornaments highlighted the first lady's signature initiative on issues facing children, including cyberbullying. The traditional White House gingerbread house was supersize, made of 225 pounds of dough, and included not only 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. but the entire Mall. "This is a joyous time of year when we decorate the White House for the Christmas season," the first lady said in an official statement. "Our theme honors the heart and spirit of the American people. . . . On behalf of my family, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." On the second year of Trump Christmas, the first lady decided not to appear in person to unveil the work of her staff and volunteers, a gig first ladies since at least as far back as Nancy Reagan made a part of their official White House duties. Over the years, first ladies have appeared in blinking Christmas tree pins and emerald green dresses. Some served long buffet tables of artisan cheeses, lamb chops and spiked eggnog that would be on the menus of that year's holiday parties. Sometimes the artist of the official White House Christmas card would be introduced, or the White House chief florist would be around to answer questions. Sometimes it wasn't all festive. Facing reporters at the 1986 media preview of holiday decorations, Reagan denied that she and President Ronald Reagan had been bickering over whether Chief of Staff Donald Regan should be fired. At the 1991 preview, Helen Thomas, longtime White House correspondent for United Press International, asked Barbara Bush how she thought the economic "depression" (a word never uttered at the White House) would affect Christmas 1991. "I hope it will make people think of others and give more to people in need," said the first lady. At the Clintons' first Christmas at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in 1994, Hillary Clinton fielded questions in front of the Blue Room tree. When asked about an allegation from Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., that a quarter of White House staffers had used drugs before coming to work there, she deemed the accusation "unfair" and said she was sure the White House chief of staff would respond. During her years in the White House, Michelle Obama appeared at the holiday decor unveiling with her dogs for photos but did not take questions from reporters. At last year's media event, Trump in an off-white dress and gold stilettos made a dramatic entrance down the stairs into the White House's Grand Foyer to the tune of "The Nutcracker Suite" as ballerinas danced around her. Although she didn't speak to reporters, she wandered through the decorated rooms interacting with schoolchildren and was available for photo ops. This holiday season, the White House will host 100 December open houses and receptions, the same as last year. And they expect 30,000 visitors to walk through the halls on holiday tours. A couple of new traditions for the Trumps were also visible: The Melania Trump "signature wreaths" (pine circles with red bows) that made their debut last year have returned, displayed on White House exterior windows. At the end of the media tour, reporters were handed small custom green-and-red boxes of Hershey's Kisses, the official token of Christmas at the White House 2018. A new Six Flags Fiesta Texas ride will pit you and fellow sailors against pirates who are out for your treasure. The park's new ride, Pirates of the Deep Sea, was unveiled to Diamond Membership Pass holders on January 1 before a grand opening scheduled for January 12. A veteran competition cook is set to make a smoky splash in the vibrant New Braunfels barbecue scene with a new food trailer called 1836 BBQ that will make its debut this weekend. Pitmaster Christopher Haynes, an eight-year veteran on the Texas barbecue circuit, will debut his new blue trailer at 1365 West County Line Road in New Braunfels from 10:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. or sold out on Saturday and Sunday. His mesquite-fueled pit is large enough to hold up to 25 briskets. Haynes said that his new operation (named after the year the Republic of Texas was created) will focus on quality meats and cooking technique as if they were under a judges microscope. We want to bring in that competition-style flavor, where every bite packs some punch, Haynes said. For brisket, we will serve Black Angus prime cuts, which deliver more juiciness and flavor. Its not going be something that is just pulled out of the meat case. In addition to brisket, he also will have pulled pork, two types of sausage (regular and jalapeno), whole and half smoked chickens, and ribs at least two days per week. One novelty to the 1836 menu is Haynes pulled beef, which is made from shoulder clod and will be on the daily menu. Chopped beef sandwiches are usually made with the brisket leftovers, and I wanted to create something nontraditional, Haynes said. Sides will include the barbecue staples (mac and cheese, pinto beans and potato salad), but will also include garlic cheese cubed potatoes and butter garlic corn. John Herdman, the former executive chef at Sustenio in San Antonio who now works in Austin, has been helping Haynes transition into the food business. The two were longtime neighbors in New Braunfels. Hes doing good, down-home barbecue, Herdman said. I dont stand behind a lot of peoples barbecue, but Ill stand behind his. Hes got the passion to do it. Haynes said that he hopes the trailer will be the beginning to an eventual brick and mortar location in New Braunfels, a city with a lively barbecue scene that includes Blacks BBQ, Coopers Old Time Pit BBQ, Rudys Country Store and Bar-B-Q, among others. 1836 BBQ, 1365 West County Line Road. Hours after weekend launch: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. Facebook: 1836BBQ. cblount@express-news.net Woman accused of stealing pills, Twisted Tea KNOX A Berne woman was arrested after authorities said she broke into a house, destroying valuables and stealing pills and alcoholic beverages. Brittney M. Shultes was arrested after an investigation by the Albany County Sheriff's Office, according to a press release Sunday. She is accused of destroying numerous items, including two flat-screen televisions, two mirrors, and 30 metal belt buckles, as well as stealing 15 to 20 Adderall pills and 18 cans of Twisted Tea. Shultes was charged with burglary and criminal mischief felonies and a petit larceny misdemeanor. She was arraigned by Judge Timothy Francis and released on $700 bail. Staff report Man charged with shooting father STOCKPORT A 23-year-old Stockport man was charged with reckless endangerment after he allegedly shot his father, Columbia County Sheriff David P. Bartlett said Monday. Timothy S. Johnson of Pats Lane allegedly shot his father, Billy Johnson, at their home on Sunday. Deputies said they were called to the home about 5:38 p.m., where Billy Johnson was found with a gunshot wound to his pelvis. Timothy Johnson, who was outside the home, told deputies he fired the shot. The Valatie Rescue Squad treated Billy Johnson at the scene and he was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital for surgery. He is in stable condition, the sheriff said. The sheriff's office obtained a search warrant and, with help from the state Department of Environmental Conservation police, recovered a rifle they believe was used in the shooting. Timothy Johnson was charged with felony reckless endangerment, arraigned in Stockport Town Court and sent to Columbia County jail in lieu of $15,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday. The Columbia County district attorney's office and State Police also aided in the investigation, the sheriff's office said. Meanwhile, a sheriff's patrol vehicle was involved in a crash while responding to the shooting in Stockport, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office said. Deputy Peter Merante was transported to Columbia Memorial Hospital for hip, leg, and back pain as a result of the crash, said Lt. Wayne Lopez. While heading to the scene, around 5:45 p.m. on State Route 9H, the patrol vehicle driven by Merante was struck by a Chevrolet driven by 30-year-old Clifford Jean-Baptiste, the sheriff's office said. Jean-Baptiste and a passenger in the Chevrolet were taken to the hospital for evaluations and later released, Lopez said. Jean-Baptiste was issued a ticket for failure to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle. The crash remains under investigation. Staff report Man charged in Saturday robbery ALBANY A 21-year-old man is facing multiple felonies after police said he helped rob a man on Saturday evening. Police were called to West Lawrence Street and Lincoln Avenue for a reported robbery. A man told police he had been walking when three men approached him and knocked him to the ground, demanding money. The men beat him and kicked him, and one man struck the victim in the head with a rifle, according to police. Police later saw a man who matched the description of one of the suspects and stopped him. The man, Gerald Dutton, had a loaded, sawed-off .22 caliber rifle when he was stopped, police said. He was charged with two counts of robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. He was arraigned in Albany City Court and sent to Albany County jail. Steve Hughes The Houston Tri Delta alumnae chapter is holding their fifth annual SALE shopping event on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 12-13, at the Bayou City Event Center, 9401 Knight Rd., benefiting pediatric cancer research. According to Jen Moss, president of Houston Tri Delta Philanthropies Inc., the national Tri Delta chapter also supports pediatric cancer, fundraising for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. Because of the Houston chapters proximity to the Texas Medical Center, the local chapter was able to continue that support. This years The SALE will benefit MD Anderson Childrens Cancer Hospital. In the past, the event has benefited Texas Childrens Hospital. Moss notes that The SALE is the alumnae chapters one and only fundraiser, and it takes all year to plan and execute. Our first sale was in 2015, and we got off to a great start. We had 43 vendors our first year. Now we will have over 50 boutiques this year and we have a wait list. We are expecting over 1,000 shoppers, Moss said. The amount of money the chapter has been able to fundraise continues to grow each year. The first year they raised $165,000, and last years event brought in $220,000. Only four percent of national governmental research goes to fund pediatric cancer research. There is a real need. We feel passionate about serving those families, Moss said. Janet McCloskey, senior associate director in the development office at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and also a Tri Delta member, notes that the hospitals and research centers rely on donors and organizations to raise funds for them, because of the small amount of research funding allotted. According to McCloskey, cancer is the number one cause of death by disease in children. More than 15,000 children up to age 19 are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. each year. The Houston Tri Delta alumnae chapter has specifically helped fund research for sarcomas, or tumors that occur in the bones and soft tissues, specifically osteosarcoma and Ewings sarcoma. Sarcoma research has not made much progress in 40 years, but it is on the verge of breakthroughs that havent been seen in decades, McCloskey said. McCloskey notes that having the Childrens Cancer Hospital within a hospital that is the number one ranked cancer care center is beneficial, because resources can be shared, and adult clinical trials could be opened up to pediatrics. We have launched the Adolescent and Young Adult oncology program. That helps patients that are in this strange in-between age, from 15-29. They often get left behind, McCloskey said. McCloskey notes that the teenagers and young adults in this age group often get diagnosed with sarcomas, which is why The SALE has been so beneficial. The SALE will feature different local boutiques that will have a wide arraignment of items from apparel and furniture to stationary. General admission is $20 per person in advance or $25 at the door. Shopping hours are noon to 5p.m. on Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. There is a Champagne Shopping Preview on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to noon for $150. The Weekend Shopper ticket gets visitors in for two days of shopping for a discounted price of $30. On Sunday there will be a panel discussion featuring Caroline from House of Harper, Marla from The Blonde Pantry and Estela from Switch2Pure. We have over 100 Tri Delta volunteers that make The SALE possible. It is a neat way for us to have fellowship with each other and do something meaningful for the local community, Moss said. For more information visit https://www.thesalehouston.com/. New York Mexico's former top security chief and another law enforcement official who once worked under the country's new president-elect took millions of dollars in bribes from the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel in the mid-2000s, a witness testified Tuesday at the U.S. trial of kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Former cartel member Jesus Zambada made the allegations Tuesday while testifying about what he described as widespread corruption among authorities who were paid to keep their hands off the lucrative and violent drug operation. During cross-examination, Zambada claimed he personally made at least $6 million in hidden payments to the former federal security chief, Genaro Garcia Luna, on behalf of his older brother, cartel boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. The cash was delivered during two meetings at a restaurant in Mexico between the start of 2005 and the end of 2007, he said. Cartel leaders had agreed that they would pool up to $50 million to buy the protection of Garcia Luna, Jesus Zambada added when being asked about previous statements first made after he was flipped by U.S. authorities. The witness also said a separate bribe of "a few million dollars" was made in 2005 to Gabriel Regino, who worked in the administration of current President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador when he was mayor of Mexico City. There was no immediate response on Tuesday from Garcia Luna. Regino, now a private lawyer and law professor, wrote on Twitter, "I categorically deny these accusations." Jurors in federal court in Brooklyn also heard testimony on Tuesday from U.S. agents about how they intercepted cocaine-stashed jalapeno cans and more than $1 million in drug proceeds hidden in the paneling of a Ford Bronco used by Guzman's brother. The trial is off the rest of the week and is to resume Monday. Guzman, perhaps best known for escaping from Mexican prisons, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges. If convicted, he faces life in prison. How to stay motivated and get back on track.Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com EL PASO, Texas - Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat who built a national following and a deep fundraising base during his unsuccessful bid for the Senate from Texas, would not rule out a run for the presidency Monday, telling constituents at an El Paso town hall that he and his wife were considering next steps. "Amy and I made a decision not to rule anything out," he told reporters afterward, admitting that his position is different from the one he took on 2020 during his campaign. O'Rourke, 46, who is leaving the House after three terms, would enter the race with more limited elected experience than many of his rivals but a proven ability to excite Democratic voters in a political era dominated by President Donald Trump. In a crowded field that could number more than 20 candidates, O'Rourke's ability to draw crowds and communicate using his large social media audiences could give him an edge in attracting voters in early primary states and the small-dollar donors that most candidates will need to survive the early stages of the primaries. With just weeks remaining in his congressional job, O'Rourke had already made clear that he intends to remain a part of the national conversation, penning occasional online essays, including a piece Sunday critiquing Trump's treatment of asylum seekers on the southern border. "We can either give into the fear of walls and tear-gassing children in diapers," he told the crowd of more than 120 Monday, at his first public event since losing the election. "Or we can live up to the best traditions, potential promise of what we are as Americans." Much of his address focused on themes that are likely to play a central role in the coming Democratic presidential primaries. He spoke of winding down foreign military engagements "that have continued to metastasize" since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He expressed concern about the growing national debt and voiced opposition to Trump's plans for a new southern border wall. Three different members of the audience mentioned a potential campaign for the White House when they got the microphone, and he expressed discomfort each time, looking repeatedly at Amy O'Rourke, who sat in the sixth row. "We got to take a vacation with our kids, spend some time with our family for the first time in a year and a half," he said, in explaining why he was delaying any decisions until after he leaves Congress on Jan. 3. "I love waking up in my own bed." In this year's election, O'Rourke came up 2.6 percentage points behind Republican Sen. Ted Cruz . He received more than 4 million votes, about 250,000 more than Hillary Clinton got in the state in 2016, when she lost Texas by nine points to Trump. Many in the crowd came to Monday's town hall, billed as a congressional event, because of O'Rourke's presidential potential. "We want to see the next step because we want to be a part of it," said Martha Morales of El Paso, who had given money and put out signs for the Senate campaign. "We want him to be president." Other former volunteers from the failed Senate effort said they now felt free to speak about their real ambitions. "He's the next Obama, and we weren't allowed to say that," Ellen Young of El Paso said of her time as a campaign volunteer. Speaking after the event, Amy O'Rourke expressed concern about a possible presidential campaign, calling the prospect both flattering and "scary." She said she and her husband had not talked to any political strategists about the prospect. "I don't know. To me that just seems like you have to give up so much," she said. "I don't know if this is a line that I or we really want to cross." More than any other candidate this year, O'Rourke found a way to harness social media and capture the imagination of Democrats nationally. From July to September, he raised $38 million from more than 800,000 individual contributions, breaking records for a Senate campaign. Days before the November midterm election, O'Rourke swore off any interest in mounting a presidential campaign of his own. "Win or lose, I'm not - I'm not running in, in 2020," he told "60 Minutes," citing the pressures on his wife and family. "Amy and I are raising an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old, and we spent the better part of the last two years not with each other, missing birthdays and anniversaries and time together," he said. "Our family could not survive more of that. We, we need to be together." About a week after his defeat, he wrote a blog post that could be read as a coded tease of a coming presidential effort. With grammar and punctuation suited to a personal diary, he recounted a morning jog on the Mall, describing how he overcame concern that he might slip, a chance meeting with a supporter and his affection for Abraham Lincoln's prose. "I'm so much more alive in the middle of a run," O'Rourke wrote. Lincoln won the presidency with a record of public service not dissimilar from O'Rourke. A former one-term member of Congress, Lincoln had lost two Senate campaigns in Illinois when he won the White House. The next day, gossip website TMZ caught O'Rourke walking outside the U.S. Capitol. "I haven't made any decisions about anything is probably the best way to put it," he said then. O'Rourke admitted Monday to a shift in thinking about a presidential run. "Running for the Senate, I was 100 percent focused on our campaign," he said. Rep.-elect Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who will succeed O'Rourke in the House, has said he should run for president, as have the social media accounts of many supporters who have devoted themselves to promoting the idea. Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama who now co-hosts the Pod Save America political podcast, has argued that the enthusiasm O'Rourke inspired this year was greater even than the Barack Obama's 2004 Senate campaign, making the Texan a viable contender in 2020. But in an interview Monday, Pfeiffer said O'Rourke would find it difficult to balance another campaign with the needs of his family. "The idea of running for president and finding a balance is impossible," he said. "The question is: Can you do things to mitigate some of the challenges? It was one of the reasons Obama's headquarters were in Chicago rather than somewhere else." "He is hip and he is contemporary, but there is something much deeper than that, which is he treats voters with respect," said David Axelrod, a former strategist for Obama. "I think people are hungry for that - this sense that politics can be something other than 'The Hunger Games.' " Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Democratic Party in Iowa, said O'Rourke had been invited twice to speak in the county but had yet to respond, which was unusual for potential candidates. "The joke around town is you would need to rent out Wells Fargo Arena if you get him, which would be tens of thousands of people," he said. "I don't know if it would be that big." Obama also weighed in last week, praising O'Rourke's apparent authenticity. "It felt as if he based his statements and his positions on what he believed," Obama said. "And that, you'd like to think, is normally how things work. Sadly, it's not." Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg Nestled in Europe's southeast corner is the world's shallowest sea: the Azov. It is no more than 50 feet deep and smaller than Lake Michigan. But it's come to bear outsize geopolitical importance because of the territories that bound it: Ukraine to the west, Russia to the east, and Russia-annexed Crimea to the south. The narrow Kerch Strait, between Crimea and mainland Russia, leads from the Azov to the Black Sea, which in turn connects to Western Europe and to Asia via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. Months of brewing tensions over the use of this sea underpin the latest flare-up in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Here's a quick primer to the world's latest marine flash point. WASHINGTON - After Tyson Timbs pleaded guilty in 2015 to selling heroin worth $225 to undercover cops, he got a year of home detention and five years of probation. The state of Indiana got his $42,000 Land Rover SUV. The state hired a private law firm to file a civil suit to forfeit the car, under a law that allows seizure of vehicles used "to facilitate violation of a criminal statute." The car's value was four times what the law allowed as the maximum monetary penalty for Timbs'crime. The Supreme Court on Wednesday will consider whether the Constitution's prohibition on excessive fines applies to a state law such as Indiana's. Timbs' case has united a range of groups that are not often on the same page - among them the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative American Civil Rights Union. They all urge the court to take a hard look at civil forfeiture laws, which Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in an opinion last year have "become widespread and highly profitable." "This system - where police can seize property with limited judicial oversight and retain it for their own use - has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses," Thomas wrote, referencing reporting by The Washington Post and the New Yorker. "These forfeiture operations frequently target the poor and other groups least able to defend their interests in forfeiture proceedings," Thomas wrote. "Perversely, these same groups are often the most burdened by forfeiture." In a brief to the Supreme Court in the Timbs case, the Chamber of Commerce makes a similar claim. "Unfortunately, and with increasing frequency, state and local legislatures are authorizing - and executive officials are seeking - excessive fines and forfeitures for relatively modest violations of the law by businesses and individuals," it says. Lawyers for Timbs say his case provides not only a vivid example of the procedure but also an intriguing constitutional question for the court, focusing on the Eighth Amendment. The Constitution's Bill of Rights protects against actions of the federal government. But the Supreme Court over time has applied them to state and local governments under the due-process clause of the 14th Amendment. (In 2010, for instance, the court held that the Second Amendment applied to state and local government laws on gun control.) The Eighth Amendment states: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Two of those commands - regarding bail and cruel and unusual punishments - have been incorporated to apply to state and local governments. But not the ban on excessive fines. Timbs, 37, says his addiction grew from a reliance on painkillers prescribed for foot pain. He moved from Ohio to Marion, Indiana, to live with his aunt and to try to make a fresh start. "As I've said a million times," Timbs said in a recent interview, "unfortunately, I came with me." With money he received from a life-insurance policy after his father's death, Timbs bought the Land Rover. "The rest of the money I spent on drugs," he said. When that ran out, he undertook the small-time heroin dealing. After he pleaded guilty, Timbs was sentenced to the home detention, probation and a court-supervised treatment program for addiction. But he wanted the vehicle back, partly to get to the factory job he holds in a town about 35 miles away. (He borrows his aunt's car now.) Lower state courts noted that Timbs had used his vehicle in the commission of his crime, but added that "forfeiture of the Land Rover . . . was grossly disproportionate to the gravity" of the crime. But the Indiana Supreme Court held that the excessive-fines clause did not apply to the states. Citing Indiana's status as "a sovereign state within our federal system," the court said that it would not "impose federal obligations on the state that the federal government itself has not mandated." Timbs is represented by lawyers from the Institute for Justice, the libertarian legal organization that often brings property rights cases to the Supreme Court. It was a natural fit, said Wesley Hottot, a lawyer for the group. "Civil forfeiture is one of the greatest threats to property rights today," Hottot said in an interview. Hottot's petition to the Supreme Court said two federal appeals courts and the highest courts in 14 states have found that the excessive-fines clause applies to state and local governments. But he said that Indiana was joining courts in Montana, Mississippi and Michigan in finding that it does not. The petition noted what it called a series of abuses from around the country. Included is a Justice Department report that said city officials in Ferguson, Missouri - the town beset by racial conflict after the police shooting of Michael Brown - "have consistently set maximizing revenue as the priority for . . . law enforcement activity." Indiana argues that while the Constitution protects against excessive fines, that is not what Timbs is contesting. "Here the right question is not whether the Excessive Fines Clause is incorporated as a general matter, but whether the Clause, in conjunction with the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits the particular state action against which Timbs has lodged a constitutional objection - the . . . forfeiture of his Rover as an instrumentality of drug trafficking," wrote Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher. There is a long history of government seizing property, the state argues. Even if the Supreme Court sides with Timbs, it does not mean the Land Rover is his. The case would return to Indiana for its high court to decide whether seizing the vehicle was, in fact, excessive, Hottot said. Until then, that Land Rover sits somewhere in a police impound lot. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States should launch its own state-run cable TV network that would compete with CNN for viewers across the globe, a suggestion that prompted comparisons to networks run by the governments of Russia and China. In afternoon tweets, Trump took aim at one of his favorite targets, CNN, which he said "doesn't do great" in terms of US ratings but has "very little competition" outside the country, where it is a "powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way." "Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!" Trump said. The U.S. Agency for Global Media oversees several US government broadcasters, such as Radio and Television Marti, whose target audience is in Cuba, and Voice of America, which broadcasts radio and TV content across the globe in a variety of languages. Among the programs aired by Voice of America is "Plugged In," which is anchored by former cable news host Greta Van Susteren. Trump's proposal sparked heated debate online. One group, the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, tweeted that the idea is one "widely popular with dictators around the world." Others noted that Trump's tweets were not out of character for the president, who has obsessed over TV coverage of his administration. Ahead of the 2016 election, speculation had swirled around the possibility of a "Trump TV" channel, should Trump have lost his bid for the White House. Such a network never materialized, although Right Side Broadcasting Network, founded by Trump supporter Joe Seales, became something of an unofficial online version. "The use of tv networks as soft power is not a new obsession, although maybe expressing it in this way is," tweeted Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. She noted that both Trump and his 2016 Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have weighed in on the topic and that Clinton "made a speech in 2011 worrying about China and Russia and their networks in this respect." The Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Nicaragua's vice president and national security adviser, in the latest move to put pressure on the regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The sanctions against Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also the country's first lady, and adviser Nestor Moncada Lau followed President Donald Trump's signing of an executive order allowing the Treasury Department to block the property and interests of Nicaraguan officials. The text of the order, which was issued Tuesday, states that the action was taken in response to the Nicaraguan government's corruption, its "violent response" to protests and its "systematic dismantling and undermining of democratic institutions and the rule of law." "Vice President Murillo and her political operators have systematically sought to dismantle democratic institutions and loot the wealth of Nicaragua to consolidate their grip on power," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "Treasury is intent on ensuring that Ortega regime insiders are not able to access the U.S. financial system to profit at the expense of the Nicaraguan people." Ortega, 72, came to power in 1979 as part of a government built by the Sandinista National Liberation Front guerrillas who overthrew President Anastasio Somoza, a longtime U.S. ally. First elected to a six-year term as president in 1984 as head of the Sandinista party, he lost the next three electoral rounds, only to win the next three, most recently in 2016, when his wife, Murillo, ran as his vice president. The Nicaraguan people, he said, would have a "50-50" presidency between the two of them. Murillo, 67, is outspoken and well-organized compared to Ortega's somewhat bland public persona, and had already long been a visible wielder of power. Despite increasingly autocratic tendencies, allegations of electoral fraud, and conspicuous unearned wealth, Ortega managed to co-opt much of the business community and, unlike much of the rest of Central America, maintain relative peace and a sustained growth rate of at least 4 percent with the help of international bank loans and deeply discounted fuel supplies from Venezuela. But a sharp decrease in those supplies, as Venezuela's economy and oil exports have nosedived, led the Ortega-Murillo government to look for places to cut the budget. When they announced last April that the were decreasing public pensions, Nicaragua erupted in violence. Protest demonstrations joined senior citizens with students angry over the paucity of jobs - many of which were reserved for Sandinista supporters. The government responded with repressive force that sparked new demonstrations by students and political opponents, sparking even more force by the government and its paramilitary militias that has left hundreds of both protesters and uninvolved civilians dead. The Trump administration, which had displayed little interest in Nicaragua to that point, responded by supporting mediation efforts by the Organization of American States and the Catholic Church that eventually collapsed. As administration criticism and sanctions against Venezuela increased along with government repression and violence against civilians in that country, the White House turned its attention toward Nicaragua. In a speech in Miami earlier this month, national security adviser John Bolton vowed to confront Nicaragua, which he said was part of the "troika of tyranny" along with Cuba and Venezuela. "This triangle of terror stretching from Havana to Caracas to Managua, is 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," Bolton said. "Under President Trump, the United States is taking action against all three regimes to defend the rule of law, liberty and basic human decency in our region." The administration had already minimized ties with Cuba, reversing the opening pursued by President Barack Obama, and has imposed escalating sanctions on the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro. In the speech, he criticized Ortega for his "regime's violence and repression against its citizens and opposition members." The Nicaraguan government, he said, "like Venezuela and Cuba, will feel the full weight of America's robust sanctions regime." In a conference call with reporters, Trump administration officials cast the sanctions on Murillo and Lau as the first step in fulfilling that pledge. Sigal Mandelker, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department, said there was "no question in our mind" that the move would have a significant impact on the Nicaraguan government. A federal judge is weighing a motion to dismiss an oil-theft case against a San Antonio man whose lawyer argued that the feds had no authority to prosecute his client because President Donald Trump unlawfully appointed Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. The ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra could be the first court opinion to come after Whitakers controversial appointment and has larger implications because it could have the effect of stalling federal prosecutions across the country. The judge held a hearing Monday morning in which defense lawyer Donald Flanary argued that charges against Luis Valencia should be dismissed because Whitaker was not lawfully confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as the Constitution requires. And because of that, Flanary argued, federal prosecutors in the San Antonio-based U.S. Attorneys Office have no jurisdiction to proceed against his client. EXPRESS-NEWS: San Antonio attorney defends his client by challenging Trump's choice for acting attorney general Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general on Nov. 7, saying he was leaving at the request of Trump, who had repeatedly criticized him. The president immediately named Whitaker, who was Sessions chief of staff, as acting attorney general, and Trump tweeted that a search for Sessions would be ongoing. Ezras ruling stands to have national consequences because if Ezra finds that Whitaker does not have the authority and dismisses the charges against Valencia, the judge noted, It would cause a massive disruption in prosecutions across the country because every single defense lawyer would have to file a motion to dismiss predicated on the same grounds as (Flanarys motion) because if they dont... it would be malpractice. But Ezra said he would not let the national implications sway him. My job is not to say, The consequence of this would be terrible, nationwide, and therefore Im not going to rule on the law, Ezra said. Im not going to do that. Flanary filed his motion on Nov. 12 to dismiss the federal governments case against Valencia, one of five Texas oilfield workers accused of selling nearly $2 million of oil stolen from companies in the Eagle Ford Shale. Over the next few days, several lawyers in Washington D.C. and elsewhere filed similar motions, calling into question Whitakers appointment and the authority of the Justice Department to act in other legal matters including a challenge to the federal health care law. Three Senate Democrats also sued last week, arguing that Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, should have the acting attorney general job until Trump nominates, and the Senate confirms, a permanent successor. Flanary argued that Whitakers appointment is unlawful under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, which requires that the president get the advice and consent of the Senate for appointments to offices that report directly to the president. And, when pressed by the judge, Flanary argued that Whitaker need not have any hand in the local prosecution, or even know about it. RELATED: Attorney General Jeff Sessions forced out The prosecutor in the Valencia case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bud Paulissen, told Judge Ezra that Flanarys arguments are flawed. He said there is no conflict between the Federal Vacancies Appointment Act and the Appointments Clause, as Flanary suggested. President Trump appointed Whitaker under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a 1998 federal law laying out rules for how a president may appoint temporary officers. Under that law, presidents may appoint a temporary officer to a Senate-confirmed, presidentially appointed position when the previous officeholder dies, resigns or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office. The president may install any other person who has been confirmed by the Senate, or an officer or employee who has served at least 90 days at the agency at a senior pay scale. Some defenders of the appointment argue that Whitaker, as the former chief of staff, would fall under the second category. But Flanary argues that most acting federal officers are promoted from a position as deputy to the vacant office. The Vacancies Reform Act makes this the default succession, and the Justice Departments succession law designates the deputy attorney general as the preferred acting attorney general. That would make Rod Rosenstein, who has been through a Senate confirmation, the presumptive successor to Sessions, Flanary argued. He also argued that Sessions was fired, so the vacancies reform act would not apply to Whitaker. Flanary told the judge his decision to file the motion to dismiss wasnt political. Our motion has nothing to do with the political considerations of Mr. Whitaker, Flanary told the judge. Who is (Paulissens) authority?, Flanary argued. Does he get it from Whitaker, Rosenstein or someone else? The judge asked if it mattered. It absolutely matters, Flanary responded. Theres a lot of arguments that Rosenstein is in charge, and other arguments that Whitaker is in charge. And we cant have this conflict. Guillermo Contreras covers federal court and immigration news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland A second suspect who said she was going to disappear after a fatal shooting on the Northeast Side last month was arrested Monday. Rachael Stanford, 30, is charged with murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records. Gregory Dylan Garrett, 23, was arrested last week on the same charges in connection with the Oct. 25 shooting. RELATED: SAPD needs helps finding missing teen Stanford and Garrett are accused in the death of 22-year-old James Perez Jr., according to San Antonio police. Garrett and Stanford knocked on the door of a home in the 4000 block of Mystic Sunrise at about 6 p.m., an affidavit said. When a man answered the door, Garrett and Stanford entered the home and began shooting at him and two others who were inside, police said. The duo then ran outside to a gray pickup that they had backed into the driveway of the home and drove away from the scene, investigators said. Perez was pronounced dead at the home, police said. First responders found the other two men critically injured and took them to San Antonio Military Medical Center. RELATED: Suspect charged after woman found slain in San Antonio home A man told police earlier this month that Stanford messaged him that she screwed up and was going to disappear, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Stanford said that a homeboy she was with dropped his phone and gun during a shooting, the affidavit states. A phone containing all of Garretts identifying information, including his Social Security card, Texas ID and Texas Department of Criminal Justice card, was recovered by investigators from the scene. Details about Stanfords arrest were not immediately available Monday evening. Christmas is on our doorstep and this means different things to different people. For some it is exciting, fun, they love the build up to Christmas day, and are at their happiest in the holiday season. For business owners it can mean different things too. It might be a quieter time of the year in December, where there is a slow down in work and clients only want to see them again in the New Year. For others it is their busiest time where they need to make a large amount of sales to see them through a quieter January and February. Wherever people are at, most business owners have worked hard all year and need to find some time to rest, reflect, review and recharge for the year ahead. The longer Ive been in business, the more I am encouraging people to take time over Christmas to rest, put your feet up, and find time to slow down and enjoy time with your family. Business will always be there, and it seems the years are flying by even faster or maybe its just the way we live gets faster. We never stop in business, because there is always more to do we need to increase sales, get more clients, work less hours, scale and grow and so on. Its ongoing and that makes it both exciting and challenging. If you are a business owner, then I know you are busy but the fact is, you will always be busy. So find a way to enjoy the Christmas break, and plan time away from the business. Focus on spending as much time as possible with friends and family, and really be present so you can enjoy fun and good times. This is your business and your life, so you get to make decisions about it. And what can we do to show support for our local business owners? We need to shop local whenever we can, buy local products, show some kindness, pass on referrals and recommendations, mention businesses that give us good service on social media, and make the choice to shop on the Coast. Why? Because these business owners could be the future employers of you or your kids, they aim to provide products or services you need, and we dont always realise the many ways in which small businesses keep towns and regions going. With Christmas coming up there will be lots of opportunity to buy, so lets spend money in our local community, share the Christmas spirit, and look after each other. This is Fiona Clarks final business column. Hibiscus Matters thanks her for all her contributions. A new project to be offered in schools uses virtual reality to make New Zealands natural world, including underwater places, more accessible. The project is a collaboration between NZ Geographic, the Sir Peter Blake Trust, WWF and the Pew Charitable Trust. The virtual reality videos were filmed by a team from NZ Geographic in the Hauraki Gulf, the Three Kings, Parengrenga Harbour and the Poor Knights. In addition to the public release last month, the Sir Peter Blake Trust will offer a programme to New Zealand schools from early next year. Sir Peter Blake Trust chief executive James Gibson, says the free programme will allow students to see both the rich biodiversity below the surface of our waters, as well as the damage thats been done to the ecosystem. The project is funded by Foundation North. The videos can be viewed on any internet-connected device with a browserphones, tablets, desktopswithout needing an app. Info: nzgeo.com/vr and another wild place revealed Theres a new way to get inside Parliament via XR 360 virtual reality tour headsets. Labour List MP Marja Lubeck will take the headsets to schools in Rodney and the Hibiscus Coast to enable students to experience parliament for themselves. Developed for Parliament by local virtual reality experts, the Virtual Debating Chamber builds on the Parliament XR app launched earlier this year. It gives users the impression of walking around the chamber, listening to the voices of past Prime Ministers, Speakers, and MPs as they debate significant events in New Zealands history. The Parliament XR 360 virtual reality tour, is available free from the App Store or Google Play, and can be downloaded on Apple or Android devices. If your school or community group would like a set of cardboard headsets for the Parliament XR app, email OOC.Education@parliament.govt.nz Two men who stole a $16,000 Ford ute from Wilmot Motors in Warkworth last night smashed through heavy gates of the car yard to make their escape. The theft happened at about 4.30am last night. Sales manager Rob Morris says the men have been caught on security cameras and they are currently reviewing the footage. The two men entered the car yard at about 2.30am and stayed for about two hours before reversing the ute through the front gate. They must have been reversing at full speed to smash through. These guys knew what they were doing. The vehicle has a five star anti-theft rating. The gate was found over the middle of the road at about 5am by people driving through the area. The ute only had a quarter-tank of diesel, so theyve either stashed it nearby or have to stop for fuel. The ute is a 1998 Ford Courier flat-deck four-wheel-drive with large distinctive tires and 4WD written in red over the drivers door. Rob believes the vehicle was targeted as it had the power to smash the gate and was an older model which made it easier to steal. The newer, more expensive vehicles have immobilisers on them which make them more difficult to steal. Police are investigating the theft. Last month Auckland Council proposed a new time and season for dogs to be allowed on beaches and parks, which, if adopted, will apply to the whole of Auckland. Currently times vary in different local board areas. The proposal is for dogs to be prohibited from 10am-7pm on beaches and parks (that have time/date restrictions), from Labour Weekend to March 31. Crs Wayne Walker and John Watson were the only councillors to vote against the proposal, saying that the existing rules are working well in the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board area. Dog owners say that some of the biggest losers, if the new time and date definition is adopted, will be in this area, as the existing regional time and date seasonal restriction here is 10am to 5pm, from Labour Weekend to March 1. A statement of proposal is to go back to the Councils Regulatory Committee and Governing Body next February/March. It will then be notified so that the public can have a say, expected to be around May. Council aims to have any changes in place by the end of next year. This Christmas season, Hibiscus Matters your local community newspaper would like to provide a way for the community to support families in need. We are collecting donations of non-perishable food items the kind of things that you would like to find in your Christmas stocking. We are also asking local businesses for vouchers that we can pass onto people in need, so they can purchase things they would like or need themselves. Anyone is welcome to drop off non-perishable food, or vouchers, to Hibiscus Matters office in Cammish Lane, Orewa (behind Countdown), during working hours, until the office closes for the summer break, on December 18. Everything donated will be given to one of three local agencies that provide food to people in need at Christmas the local Polices new Christmas collection (HM November 14), the Hibiscus Coast Community Houses foodbank and Love Soup Hibiscus Coast. Together, can help make Christmas Day something to look forward to for all Coast residents. Terry Moore, Editor Phil Somerville and the crew of Today sailed the globe, trawling the sea for plastic and found plenty in Tiri channel. The painstaking process of analyzing the micro-plastic catch. Seawater scooped from the Tiri channel proved to contain plenty of tiny pieces of plastic which was a disappointment to the sailors who recorded the data. The plastic was pulled from the ocean in a super fine Mantra trawl, designed to collect even the tiniest particles. It was among the final trawls undertaken by the crew of the ship Today, which spent six months sailing from California to New Zealand, trawling for plastic along its 8800-mile journey. The ship arrived in New Zealand last month. The Eat Less Plastic project is supported by a number of celebrities, including Rhys Darby and Martin Henderson, who all took a turn onboard, and well-known sailors such as Chris Dickson. The information collected by the team goes to the 5 Gyre Institute, a nonprofit organisation in Los Angeles whose mission it is to empower action against the global health crisis of plastic pollution through science, education, and adventure. This brand new data will be used to analyse and quantify the impacts that plastic is having on the ocean and marine life as well as the wider ecosystem. Captain of the ship, Phil Somerville, is an Aucklander whose parents are long time residents of Stanmore Bay. So he says he was hopeful that the trawls undertaken in Auckland, including one on November 14 between Gulf Harbour and Tiritiri Matangi Island, would net only a small amount of plastic. In fact, it was one of the heaviest loads weve seen, no doubt assisted by the currents and tides, he says. It was right up there on the scale, which I found surprising. The trawling process involved skimming the top 30cm of water for around 1-2 hours. The contents of the net were then sieved and analysed. A lot of micro-plastic (pieces less than 5mm) was found, as well as larger pieces of plastic and other rubbish. Phil says 95 percent of all the trawls had plastic in them and that they hope to concentrate efforts in the Pacific in future he says the plastic pollution was particularly bad off the Fiji islands. He says future work will focus on education for the Fijian government and school children. Info: eatlessplastic.com Steve Caines of Orewa says ACCs decision not to give him a ReWalk leaves him back on a wheelchair or scooter. Steve spent three years learning to walk in this ReWalk exoskeleton photo, Cheril Clarke Steve Caines of Orewa, who is paralysed from the chest down, is locked in a battle with ACC over its refusal to provide a piece of equipment that enables him to walk independently. ACC funded Steve to learn to use the ReWalk equipment a battery powered exoskeleton which he did successfully over a three-year period. Towards the end of the training, he applied to ACC to obtain a ReWalk, and says he was gutted to be turned down. What is the point of funding three years of training, paying for me to be in a position where I can walk again, and then taking away that option? Steve says. ACC clearly dont want me to walk again they say that my callipers and crutches, or a wheelchair or scooter are enough. Find me anyone who wants to spend life in a wheelchair there is no one. I have had a taste of an independent life that puts less demand on my body and the health system, and now it has been snatched away. Thirteen years ago, a motorcycle accident left the 50-year-old engineer paralysed from the chest down. Ever since he has been fighting to get back on his feet. The health professionals he works closely with, including a number of doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, support him in his desire for a ReWalk, saying the benefits to a persons physical and mental health of standing upright are significant. Several of them note the importance Steve places on being able to stand, and the positive effects of this on muscle strength, bone density and the digestive system compared with remaining seated in a wheelchair. Steve says that walking using leg callipers, as he has since the accident, puts a lot of strain on his body, especially the shoulders, whereas the ReWalk takes the load more effectively. I learned to use callipers because 13 years ago they were the only option, Steve says. Technology has moved on and I welcomed it. Mastering the ReWalk required the fitness, focus and commitment of an athlete and Steve is the first New Zealander to successfully see a ReWalk trial to completion. He says he was determined to tick every box that ACC asked of him in the trial, and in many cases he exceeded their requirements. He was signed off by his physios as having successfully completed the ReWalk trial, including being able to walk independently, in July. However, ACC appears not to be relying on this report, but rather on the findings of other experts. ACC spokesperson James Funnell says specialists at the Auckland Spinal Unit have told ACC they do not believe an exoskeleton is a suitable aid for someone with Steves type of spinal cord injury. The spinal unit believes that training programmes for Steve should not focus on walking, and we have informed him of this, James says. Steve has not yet been able to use the exoskeleton independent of therapist supervision. James also cites safety concerns around the demands the ReWalk places on Steves upper body, and says ACC believes there is a high risk of him falling while using it. Steve refutes these claims, saying the goal posts keep changing. It comes back to this if this system was not working for me, why would ACC continue to fund me through the trial, including after that spinal unit report was written, and then turn around and say its unsafe? I only ever fell in the exoskeleton in the first few months while I got the body position right. And I have used it independently on many occasions. That is why Im so excited about the prospects it holds for my future. The final report by Steves physiotherapists Neuro Rehab Results, dated July 27, notes that with the ReWalk Steve can walk in his local community safely and independently. He can walk over even and uneven surfaces. He can walk from home to the local community and access buildings such as the Post Office. Whilst he is able to perform some of these tasks using callipers, it results in increased strain on his shoulders compared to use of the ReWalk, the report says. The report goes on to note the importance that Steve places on the restoration of his walking function. Over the course of this programme we have explored other options with Steve and after weighing the options we feel strongly that the ReWalk is the best option, the report says. The ReWalk costs around $115,000 but ACC says the decision not to fund it for Steve has nothing to do with cost. We fund a considerable range of very expensive equipment for our clients where it is deemed appropriate, safe and beneficial. James says to date ACC has spent $79,000 on training for independence programmes for Steve but cannot say what percentage of this involved the ReWalk, as it was not individually costed. Steve says learning to use the ReWalk left him the fittest he has been since his accident and he is afraid of seeing that health decline now that he is back on callipers, a scooter or wheelchair. They taught me a whole lot of skills and offered me a way to become an active part of the community again. I cant believe after all that they would return me to a wheelchair. Local News, Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: November 27 2018 Residents are advised to check in frequently and speak with elderly friends and relatives in order to ensure they dont fall victim to a scam. Suffolk County, NY - November 27, 2018 - Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and the Suffolk County Police Department today reminded residents to beware of telephone scams during the upcoming holidays. Residents are advised to check in frequently and speak with elderly friends and relatives in order to ensure they dont fall victim to a scam. In addition, those who believe that they may be a victim of a scam are asked to contact the police immediately on their non-emergency line by dialing 631-852-COPS. The public should be aware that certain individuals are looking to take advantage of the generosity of others during this time of year, said Suffolk County Executive Bellone. We will continue to do everything we can to inform our residents, especially the elderly, of existing scams that are out there and how they can stay protected. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said: It is sad how often people fall prey to these types of scams. Once a person is bilked out of money, it is a challenge for the department to locate a suspect, who is often out of state, and recoup the money for a victim. The department wants the public to educate themselves so that people will stop giving their hard-earned money to scammers. A number of scams, many of which target the elderly, may occur in several different forms. Some examples of scams that have been reported include: A person stating they work for a utility company and threatens to shut off the utility if payment is not immediately made. In some circumstances, the funds are requested via gift card. If you have doubts about the legitimacy of a call from a utility company, call the business directly. The victim is asked to wire money for a family member who is in trouble. The caller will say that the victims family member has been in an accident or is in jail and money is needed to rectify the situation. The caller attempts to pressure the victim to send money without verifying the family members whereabouts. Potential victims are advised to independently verify the threatened relatives whereabouts and not give financial or personal information during the call. The caller stating they work for a government agency, such as the IRS, and the victim will be arrested if they dont make a payment. The IRS does not call to demand immediate payment using a specific payment method such as a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer. Generally, the IRS will first mail a bill to any taxpayer who owes taxes. If you know, or believe, that you owe taxes, contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. To-Tien #2, clay, Howard Tran Download Image: Web Lycoming College Art Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of recent work featuring the Colleges studio art faculty, who are professional exhibiting artists, as well as exceptional educators. Coinciding with Williamsports First Friday events, the show opens Nov. 2 with an artist reception from 5-7 p.m., and a gallery talk beginning at 5:30 p.m. The gallery will remain open until 9 p.m. The exhibit runs through Jan. 5, 2019. The 2018-19 Lycoming Art Faculty Show will include the following: David Burke An avid motorcyclist, David Burke, art instructor, was captivated by the extensive use of two-wheeled transportation in all aspects of the Vietnamese culture during a recent May term trip. Many families only had a small scooter as their sole means of transportation. It was not unusual to see a family of three or four or large amounts of merchandise perched precariously headed to market, said Burke. Digital images were processed on Photoshop and archivally printed with an inkjet printer. Burke teaches 35mm, medium format and large format film photography, studio lighting and alternative processes. Since graduating from Lycoming College, Burke has worked in commercial photography with an emphasis in healthcare. His traditionally produced large format black and white photographs have received awards locally and regionally. He has taught black and white photography at the college level for over 20 years. Setareh Ghoreishi Visiting assistant professor of digital design, Setareh Ghoreishis McTradition focuses on food topics, because food and eating are fundamental to culture and bring the commonalities and distinctions of people across the world to light. A new set of American fast food packaging represents a mash-up of cultures, based on contemporary Iranian cultures extreme interest in westernization and Ghoreishis own life in the United States. I wanted to show that being with family is one of the cornerstones of each culture, no matter Iranian or American, said Ghoreishi. Ghoreishi teaches Introduction to Digital Art, Interactive Multimedia and Web Design and Special Project in Commercial Design. After receiving her B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the University of Art in Tehran, Iran, Ghoreishi received her first M.F.A. from Florida Atlantic University in Graphic Design, and the second M.F.A in Art & Technology from University of Florida. In her work, she investigates cultural disparities, most specifically between the United States and Iran. Through the lens of her own experience, she examines each country's cultural and social issues (http://www.setarehghoreishi.com/ ) Seth Goodman Recent work by Seth Goodman, associate professor of art and department chair, is topical political and social satire. Hogarthian in attitude, Goodmans work reads as sardonic half-truths speaking to absurdity of the American political landscape. Goodman teaches painting, drawing, 2-D design and color theory. He received his B.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and his M.F.A. from Towson University. Goodman exhibits his paintings, drawings and mixed-media work internationally (https://sethgoodman.net/home.html). Jeremiah Johnson This series of prints from Jeremiah Johnson, art instructor, depicts the self-immolation of the Buddhism Monk, Thich Quang Duc, during the Diem Regime in South Vietnam in 1963. It is an attempt to understand his belief in the good fruition of his act of self-sacrifice for the sake of others. An act that moved the world. The prints in this show reflect Johnsons recent collaborations with his wife, Duyen Nguyen. Their combined vision and inspiration come together to form The Nguyen-Johnson Company. Johnson received his BFA from Tyler School of Art of Temple University and his MFA in print, paper and book arts from Syracuse University. Johnsons work is in several public and private collections including The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pa., The Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Va., and the Alain Servais Collection, Brussels, Belgium (http://www.jeremiahjohnsonart.com/). Andreas Rentsch In the video piece The Wanderer, Andreas Rentsch, assistant professor of photographer, employs an interdisciplinary approach including still images, video and avant-garde music to create a work that is as much an homage to early German Expressionist cinematography, as well as a piece of remembrance of a kindred spirit that went through life endlessly searching. Rentsch's work has been exhibited worldwide and is in many museum collections. He is a recipient of two New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships and two grants from the Polaroid Corporation. The prestigious photography magazine, Aperture, published one of his portfolios. Other pieces have been published in numerous books and magazines including The Polaroid Project, a book published as part of a six-museum exhibition of artist that have used Polaroid film in their work (http://www.andreasrentsch.com/) Katherine Sterngold "I create a diverse blend of functional pottery and contemporary clay art, said Katherine Sterngold, art instructor. In my work, I like bringing out the nature of the clay, whether by the fluidity of the throwing process or the subtle, minimalist lines of hand building. I'm influenced by the beauty of natural objects that surround my daily life in such abundance. The earthy colors and textures in our local landscapes are a source of inspiration for the colors and textures of the clays and glazes that I use in my forms. After earning arts degrees from Kutztown and Alfred University, Sterngold joined The Clay Studio in Philadelphia as one of its first resident artists. Her work has been exhibited at the LH Horton Gallery in California, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen Gallery in Bushkill Falls, Pa., the Packwood House Museum in Lewisburg, Pa., the Radius Gallery in the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the Lycoming College Art Faculty Show on multiple occasions. In 2014 and 2016, her works were chosen for the "Visions in Clay" exhibition in Stockton, Calif., named by Ceramics Monthly as one of the top ceramic art shows in the nation. She taught workshops at the Bucknell University Craft Center and art classes in the Muncy public schools, where she gained tenure as a full-time teacher. Kathy has been teaching ceramics at Lycoming for 30 years (www.muncypotter.com). Howard Tran Howard Tran, professor of art, creates artwork ranging from figurative sculpture to abstract, two-dimensional pieces. Utilizing traditional and non-traditional materials, he creates pieces that emphasize texture and symbols and reflect his Vietnamese/Chinese background. Tran received his MFA in sculpture from Boston University in 2000. He received his BFA in sculpture from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 1998. His work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions (http://www. haotransculpture.com/). Andrea McDonough Varner Art instructor Andrea McDonough Varners current art practice involves the exploration of mindfulness through drawing, experimental works, and mixed-media encaustics. McDonough Varner is a secondary art educator and K-12 art curriculum coordinator for the Williamsport Area School District, and supports the art and education departments at Lycoming College. She is a successful grant-writer with a passion for public art and the expansion of K-16 visual arts curriculum in the Williamsport area. McDonough Varner holds a PA K-12 Art Education Certificate and a PK-12 Supervisory Certificate in Curriculum and Instruction. With a MA.Ed. from Mansfield University, McDonough Varner is a doctoral student at Drexel University, concentrating research in creativity and innovation (www.makeartatme .tumblr.com). The Lycoming College Art Gallery, located in downtown Williamsport at 25 W. Fourth St., contributes to the citys arts culture and provides a way for the College to become more involved with the community surrounding it. Lycoming art students have the opportunity to interact with visiting artists, as well as learn first-hand the inner workings of a gallery. The gallery is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 4 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. 2 p.m. and 5 9 p.m.; and on First Fridays and exhibition opening nights, 4 9 p.m. For more information, please visit the gallery online at https://www.lycoming.edu /art /gallery.html or send an email to dirocco@lycoming.edu. Download Image: Web Since arriving in Williamsport five years ago as the new president of Lycoming College, Kent C. Trachte, Ph.D., has served as a dedicated board member of the Lycoming County United Way (LCUW). This past spring, he began a two-year term as chair of the board of directors for LCUW. The mission of LCUW is simple: Mobilize resources to improve lives. Its support for local organizations that serve as the countys safety net is broad-reaching, backing agencies that cover every aspect of local human need from domestic violence support to dental care, children and youth, counseling services, homeless shelters, and more. The College has a long history of supporting LCUW, dating back to 1947, when Lycoming became a four-year college. For many years since, in what has become an annual tradition, the campus conducts a fall fundraising drive benefitting LCUW. But it wasnt until 1999 when then-president James E. Douthat, Ph.D., took the reins as the chairman of the LCUW capital campaign a substantial time commitment, especially for someone already heading a college that Lycoming College made its first step toward increasing the level of participation with the LCUW. This was one of [Douthats] most significant community contributions, said John Piper, Ph.D., Lycoming College historian and retired history professor. And Kents current position as chair of the LCUW board will be remembered as one of his most significant contributions to the community. With careful strategizing and a new approach to rallying support for LCUW, in two years the College more than doubled funds raised annually among faculty and staff. Although past campaigns had been successful and did raise modest amounts, we saw an opportunity to improve our support of LCUW, said Steve Johnson, professor and chair of religion, who assists with LCUW fundraising. He credits the jump in giving to meetings and personal invitations to contribute. Were excited about the ways this involvement can teach our students about engaging and supporting local communities, and we believe this is central to a Lycoming College education, said Trachte. Presidential involvement is clearly important, said Piper, adding that without Douthats and Trachtes exemplary actions, the College would not have the support for LCUW that it has today. As chair of LCUW, serving a two-year term, Trachte will work to advance the organizations policies to better identify community needs, as well as create the partnerships that help to address them. Our board and community volunteers scrutinize every dollar spent to ensure donations are being used in the most responsible way. Because of this shared responsibility, our community has confidence in our allocation of funds, said Ron Frick 83, president of LCUW, who first became involved in the United Way right out of college while working at Northern Central Bank (now M&T). Frick explained that its important to look at the impact of LCUW and its 38 partners in Lycoming, Sullivan and Tioga counties to measure its effectiveness. Last year, LCUW served 42,000 residents, and this year we have set a goal of touching 55,000 residents in those three counties that means 55,000 times that services are provided by LCUW program partners. Trachte is no stranger to serving the communities around him. In addition to lending his leadership to collegiate organizations, including the NCAA Division III Presidents Council, the Middle Atlantic Conference Presidents Council and the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Pennsylvania Board of Directors, he also supports groups closer to home including the board of both the Williamsport-Lycoming County Chamber of Commerce and the Williamsport Community Arts Center. Also on a local front, Trachte has led in Lycoming Colleges dedication to community engagement, leadership, and generosity, as evidenced through his shepherding the East End Gateway Project and the Krapf Gateway Center from conception to reality, with the ground breaking on the project just this summer. The new building, set for completion in 2019, will create a new entrance to the College and in doing so help to revitalize the East End of Williamsport. The College secured $12.5 million for the construction of the building and an additional $11 million for site work and infrastructure. The project is likely to attract millions more in private investment to the area. As the student population has diversified geographically, the College has had to work harder to maintain ties to the community. Whereas the vast majority of students prior to recent years were from a tighter radius around Williamsport, (for example, in 1986, 63 percent of students were from Pennsylvania, with just nine other states represented and only one international student) todays student population hails from 29 different states and 21 countries. Despite this obstacle, there have been signs of successful transitions to LCUW involvement post-Lycoming: Piper and his wife Margaret, 2016-17 campaign co-chairs, were presented with the LCUWs highest honor, the 2017 Douglas C. Dickey Award, for their dedication, commitment and outstanding leadership in contributing to the welfare of Lycoming County. Robert Glunk 86 served as the 2017-18 campaign chair, currently serves as past chair, and is the Boards secretary. Like the Pipers and Glunk, Frick served as campaign chair in 2002, was the 2004 Douglas C. Dickey Award recipient, the Douglas J. Shangraw Memorial Volunteer Award winner in 2010, and was named to lead the organization in April 2017 after service as a volunteer for for 33 years. We keep the community connections long after people leave campus, explained Piper. Robert Glunk and Ron Frick have poured new energy, enthusiasm and interest into the United Way. Regarding his deep involvement in the Colleges annual campaign, Johnson said, I do it because the United Way supports so many nonprofits in our community. The money we raise keeps them from having to spend so much time fundraising. Knowing the United Way has their back allows them to focus on their organizations mission. Its my way of participating in the community. I work at my church and Im involved in my daughters activities, but the United Way is what gives me the opportunity to connect faculty and staff with the community. We are a college in the heart of and completely surrounded by a city. The lifeblood of this community includes the college, and the lifeblood of the College is Williamsport, said Trachte. For more information on this years LCUW capital campaign, or to contribute, contact the LCUW office at 570-323-9448 or online at www.lcuw.org/give. Download Image: Web In light of recent events, Lycoming College gathered as a campus to show support for those involved in the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, and to celebrate diversity in its own campus community. On Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, at 8:30 p.m., in support of the Jewish community, students and faculty gathered on the steps of Wertz Hall for a solemn vigil mourning the victims of the Tree of Life shooting. As each victims name was read, those gathered lit candles in remembrance and solidarity. The vigil was followed-up with a more celebratory demonstration of acceptance and inclusivity at Lycoming Colleges 8th annual Unity Day on Friday, Nov. 2, at 3:30 p.m. Students were encouraged to wear Lycoming blue and gold and to sign a banner promoting the Colleges commitment to creating an accepting and diverse campus community. The event began with a unity march, followed by a reception in Pennington Lounge. While the campus community enjoyed snacks provided by various clubs and organizations, students were invited to give speeches and Lycomings Pom and Dance team entertained with a special performance. ABC/Randy HolmesEarlier this month, Metallica played a rare acoustic show at the Masonic in their hometown of San Francisco to raise money for their All Within My Hands charity foundation. If you missed your chance to see the metal legends unplugged, you can still listen to the special performance thanks to an upcoming live album. Metallica will release Helping Hands...Live & Acoustic at the Masonic on February 1. It'll be available on vinyl in independent record stores, as well as on digital platforms. The performance included acoustic versions of Metallica classics such as "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters," as well as covers of songs by Deep Purple, Nazareth, Bob Seger and Blue Oyster Cult. Through the concert, Metallica raised over $1.3 million for issues including hunger and workforce education. Here's the Helping Hands...Live & Acoustic at the Masonic track list: "Disposable Heroes" "When a Blind Man Cries" (Deep Purple cover) "The Unforgiven" "Please Dont Judas Me" (Nazareth cover) "Turn the Page" (Bob Seger cover) "Bleeding Me" "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (Blue Oyster Cult cover) "Nothing Else Matters" "All Within My Hands" "Enter Sandman" "The Four Horsemen" "Hardwired" Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. SPRINGFIELD -- Marijuana might be legal for adults to possess, grow, consume and, starting only last week, to buy at retail shops in Massachusetts. But marijuana and its derivatives are still forbidden to employees at Teddy Bear Pools in Chicopee. President and CEO Ted Hebert said Monday that he'll continue random drug testing for his 90-or-so workers, and he'll keep dismissing those who test positive for marijuana. "We will continue doing drug testing. It's my liability," he said. "As an employer I have a responsibility and a liability." State law on marijuana has changed, but the law still allows employers to test employees for drug use. Workplaces are required to make reasonable accommodations for medical marijuana. Hebert's regime of pre-employment and at-work random drug testing also means he can get cheaper rates on insurance, he said. That's no small consideration for a business where workers drive trucks and operate heavy equipment. But saving money isn't his only consideration, Hebert said. He's also thinking of customers who have Hebert's employees come to their homes -- often when no one is there -- to work on pools and spas. Hebert, 68, said he's also concerned for the well-being of the people who work for him. "I've got great employees and I care about them," he said. "I'm old. I've seen it. I know what drugs can do to somebody." If a Teddy Bear Pools employee tests positive, Hebert said he dismisses them, but allows them to come back for a new test after 30 days. If they pass, he may rehire them. He's not alone. Saverio Mancini, director of communications at MGM Springfield, said the resort casino is still a drug-free workplace and will continue its pre-employment drug screening program. At MGM, drug tests must be completed within three business days of accepting an employment offer. Candidates that do not pass can reapply after 90 days, Mancini said. But employment lawyer Marylou Fabbo, a partner at Springfield-based Skoler, Abbott & Presser, said some of her clients have either stopped drug testing outright or stopped testing for marijuana. They fear testing for marijuana would eliminate too many prospective employees from their hiring pool. "I think that's what the majority of companies are doing, to be honest," she said. Employers are allowed, under the law, to test both before and during employment, Fabbo said. It's a message she's been repeating in seminars at meetings and with clients since the marijuana referendum passed in Massachusetts in 2016. "A lot of employers want to know if this changes anything in marijuana policy at the workplace. Really it does not," she said. "Employers are still free to make employment decisions based on recreational marijuana." That includes choosing not to employ anyone who uses it, even if the use is outside work hours. "You are not protected if you are using recreational marijuana," she said. "Employers don't even have to employ people if they test positive." The presence of metabolized THC in urine can persist for up to three days following a single use, according to the Mayo Clinic. But the chemical can persist for up to five days for those who use marijuana four times a week, 10 days for daily users and as long as 30 days for those who use more than once a day. Fabbo says the law does protect those who use medical marijuana. Employers may be required to make reasonable accommodations for those whose doctors have recommended marijuana for them and who have a certification through the state. Those accommodations become difficult, she said, in jobs where people have to drive. At Springfield's Peter Pan Bus Lines, random tests are administered to bus drivers, other employees with commercial driver's licenses, and workers with safety-related jobs. All employees go through pre-employment drug screening whether they drive or not. Drivers are also tested following accidents in some circumstances. Chris Crean, the company's vice president of safety and security, said federal rules on drug testing and commercial vehicles are strict. And they haven't changed under the state's marijuana legislation. "But that doesn't mean it won't change down the road," he said. Rapper Meek Mill will head out on tour in 2019 and his routing includes a stop in Connecticut. Meek Mill will perform at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford on March 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets for the show are on sale beginning Friday, Nov. 30 at 10 a.m. through Live Nation at livenation.com and by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets are priced between $29.50 and $79.50. This is an indoor show only (no lawn seating) "The Motivation Tour" is the first outing for Meek Mill since his release from prison in April of 2018. He recently penned an op-ed piece in the New York Times about his unjust incarceration (a must read) and has started a foundation to affect change in the criminal justice system. MGM Springfield President and CEO Michael Mathis is urging the casino's security guards to reject unionization ahead of Tuesday's union vote, describing labor organizers as "strangers" coming between workers and management. "The 'NO' box is a vote for MGM Springfield to work together and not have a third party between us. Please vote 'NO' and give all of us the chance to prove to you that we can resolve our issues together," Mathis wrote in a letter sent to the casino's security staff. "Let's tell this union to go away so we can continue to work on our issues. I promise you that my entire management team and I are committed to doing so." Security officers launched the union drive after promised pay raises failed to materialize, organizers said. Kevin Frazier, an MGM security officer, told MassLive last week that guards were told they would receive raises to $18 per hour after 90 days and that officers who became certified to train other staff in CPR and defensive tactics would be paid an extra $1 per hour. Officers who spoke to MassLive said that MGM Springfield does not offer extra pay on Sundays or holidays, another point of contention. MGM Springfield's 200-odd security guards are largely military veterans, former police officers and former correctional officers. The guards are responsible for ensuring safety and smooth operations on the property and working with the State Police and Springfield Police officers who have jurisdiction over crimes reported on the casino floor. The security officers will decide in a National Labor Relations Board-certified union election whether to join the Law Enforcement Officers Security Union, which has local affiliates across the East Coast. The union currently represents other security workers in Western Massachusetts, including officers at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. LEOSU Organizing Director Steve Maritas said that MGM management has sent mixed messages about the allegedly promised raises. "Originally they were saying they never said it. Then they told these guys they did say it, and they apologized," Maritas said in an interview. "It's a shame what's happening. It's really a shame." MGM Springfield has held information sessions with security staff about the union campaign -- sessions that Maritas bashed as "union busting meetings." Saverio Mancini, a spokesman for MGM Springfield, disputed that characterization, saying the company was ensuring the security officers had a full understanding of what unionization would mean. "It is not a union busting thing," Mancini said. "We're arming our employees with the facts." In a statement last week, MGM's Mathis said the company respects the rights of its employees to organize. "We believe in the right to join or refrain from joining a union," Mathis said in a statement shared with MassLive. "We are proud of the partnerships we have forged, continuously leveraging our relationships with community-based organizations to promote and assist with job placement and workforce development. It is important for employees to make an informed decision, based on factual information, exercising their right in a secret ballot election." But in the letter sent Sunday to security staff, Mathis made no secret of the company's opposition to the union proposal. "For MGM Springfield to continue to be successful, we need to work together. I don't know who the various outside union organizers are from LEOSU, but I do know they are strangers. They weren't here in 2012 and 2013 when a small group of Springfield volunteers and I knocked on doors asking the residents of the city for their vote," Mathis wrote. "They weren't here on Aug. 24 when we welcomed 50,000 people into our resort. They're not here when we're walking the floor and taking care of each other and our guests. We are the ones that brought this resort to life, and we are the ones that run it every day," Mathis continued. "So here is my request: Please work with me and our management team to make this the best experience for our customers and the best workplace in the industry. You have a voice and I want to hear it, but none of us can do it on our own." Mathis also acknowledged that MGM Springfield "did not always hear the voice" of its security officers, saying management would listen to concerns and touting promotion opportunities within the company. "The last three weeks have been difficult for me ... and for all of us. It is uncomfortable for everyone when an organization reveals rifts among its ranks and strife between the front line and managers," Mathis wrote. "I have taken it personally, as I am responsible for everything that happens in the building. The fact that some of you believe you have to pay a union from your hard-earned paychecks to give you a voice disheartens me. I commit to doing a better job of not just hearing you, but truly listening, so that you know that you do have a voice in our organization." Maritas said that while MGM has been open to unionization for other elements of its work force, it fears unionized security guards because a security strike could force the casino to shut down. Mancini disputed that claim, saying MGM Springfield could continue to operate through a labor dispute with a security guard union. Maritas, a former organizer for the International Union of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, has a history of using colorful labor tactics -- and an equally vivid family history. In 2008, as Maritas led an ultimately unsuccessful bid to organize security workers at the MGM Mirage at Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Sun reported on his hardball maneuvers. Maritas compared MGM Resorts International President Bill Hornbuckle to Osama bin Laden and hired homeless people to fill out picket lines -- "the smellier the better." Speaking to MassLive, Maritas defended those maneuvers as necessary while fighting against union-busting bosses. "We do informational pickets. Do we use homeless people to picket? We have to. It's a tactic used by the union," Maritas said. "To me, when you're beating down workers, that's terrorism." Maritas has hard-edged labor organizing in his blood. He is the son of former New York District Council of Carpenters head Theodore Maritas, who was indicted in 1981 on labor racketeering and extortion charges. The elder Maritas's first trial ended in a hung jury, and before his second he vanished, with his wallet later found in the water near the Throgs Neck Bridge in the Bronx. Federal authorities suspected he was murdered in a mob hit, the New York Times reported at the time. Read the full letter from Mathis below. NORTHAMPTON -- A Hampshire County grand jury has indicted eight Western Massachusetts residents on 51 charges in connection with the March 10 death of Daniel Cruz, whose body was found burning in a field in Hatfield. The charges in the murder of Cruz, 44, of Northampton, include murder and other charges related to the concealment of his murder, and/or the subsequent police and grand jury investigation, according to the Northwestern district attorney's office. Those indicted on Monday are: Nerkin Omar Morales, 22, of Northampton, was indicted on a charge of Murder, as well as several other charges. Pedro J. Soto-Rodriguez, 21, of Northampton, Mercedes N. Diaz-Wright, 22, of Northampton, Alondra E. Gil, 23, of Northampton, Chelsea T. Rodriguez, 22, of Northampton, Kimberly A. Perez, 26, of Springfield, and Matthew M. Ross, 24, of Northampton, were all indicted on a charge of Accessory After the Fact to Murder, as well as several other charges. Joshua T. Ealy, 20, of Northampton, was indicted on a charge of Perjury related to the grand jury investigation in this case. Diaz-Wright, Perez and Ross were arrested Tuesday morning by members of the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office, the Northampton Police Department, the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section of the Massachusetts State Police, the Northwestern District Attorney's Anti-Crime Task Force, the Springfield Police Department and the Agawam Police Department. Here is the full list of the 51 indictments, according to the DA's office: NERKIN OMAR MORALES: Murder, Burning Personal Property, Withhold Evidence from Criminal Proceeding, Conspiracy (two counts), Improper Disposition of a Human Body, Intimidation of a Witness, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm as an Armed Career Criminal, Use of a Firearm in a Felony, and Discharging a Firearm within 500 Feet of a Dwelling. PEDRO J. SOTO-RODRIGUEZ: Accessory After the Fact, Burning Personal Property, Withhold Evidence from Criminal Proceeding (two counts), Conspiracy (two counts), Improper Disposition of a Human Body, and Intimidation of a Witness. MERCEDES N. DIAZ-WRIGHT: Accessory After the Fact, Burning Personal Property, Withhold Evidence from Criminal Proceeding (two counts), Conspiracy (two counts), Improper Disposition of a Human Body, Intimidation of a Witness, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, Unlawful Possession of Ammunition without Identification Card, Misleading a Police Officer, and Subornation of Perjury. ALONDRA E. GIL: Accessory After the Fact, Burning Personal Property, Withhold Evidence from Criminal Proceeding, Conspiracy (two counts), and Improper Disposition of a Human Body. KIMBERLY A. PEREZ: Accessory After the Fact, Burning Personal Property, Withhold Evidence from Criminal Proceeding, Conspiracy (two counts), and Improper Disposition of a Human Body. CHELSEA T. RODRIGUEZ: Accessory After the Fact, Burning Personal Property, Withhold Evidence from Criminal Proceeding (two counts), Conspiracy (two counts), and Improper Disposition of a Human Body. MATTHEW M. ROSS: Accessory After the Fact. JOSHUA T. EALY: Perjury. Kaiser Maximilian Hosts 2 Festival Gourmet Guest Chefs Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The 24th Festival Gourmet International, which began on November 23 and runs through December 2, 2018, celebrates culinary excellence, with chefs from all over the world sharing their expertise with the talented chefs at some of the finest restaurants in Puerto Vallarta and around Banderas Bay. Kaiser Maximilian has been participating in the Gourmet Festival every year and, in this 24th edition, they are hosting two guest chefs from Octon, France, who are making "The French Connection," with the restaurant's talented team of chefs during the event. Come enjoy the special menu items created by Guest Chef Mathieu Ravinel of La Palombe Restaurant in Octon, France, and Sous Chef, Jean Adrien Buniazet, together with Kaiser Maximilian's Executive Chef, Carlos Palomera, and Pastry Chef Claudio Hernandez. Guest Chef Mathieu Ravinel trained at the hotel school in Thonon les Bain (near Geneva) and the Ferrandi culinary school in Paris. After working at Ze Kitchen Galery in Paris for 4 years, he moved on to work with the famous Chef Michel Kayser of the 2 Michelin star restaurant Alexandre, near Nimes, France. Mathieu's assistant, Jean-Adren Buniazet, who worked with the well-known Chef Helene Darroze, joins him at Kaiser Maximilian. Part of the success formula at Kaiser Maximilian is that since the restaurant opened, Chef Juan Carlos Palomera has been part of all the Festival Gourmet events, working shoulder to shoulder with acclaimed U.S. and European chefs. Sharing Maximilian's kitchen is pastry Chef Claudio Hernandez. On this occasion, and because of the history of Emperor Maximilian with France, this year's culinary theme is "The French Connection," and the innovative menu created by these exceptional chefs features the exceptional flavors of France. If you miss the 24th Festival Gourmet International, never fear! Kaiser Maximilian will be serving up the guest chef's special French Connection menu, along with the restaurant's Austrian fare, from noon to 11 pm at Espresso Bar and from 6 to 11 pm in The Main Dining Room through December 15th. Whether dining al fresco at the European-style sidewalk cafe tables, or in the intimate air-conditioned dining rooms, you'll enjoy the fabulous cuisine, professional service and elegant atmosphere that have made Kaiser Maximilian one of PV's favorite restaurants. Recreational marijuana sales began last week at two stores in Massachusetts, the first to open on the East Coast. Customers gathered outside the stores before the sun rose on Tuesday, quickly forming hours-long lines. Anticipating the buzz around the first shops, both dispensaries hired detail police officers to be positioned at the shops. Cultivate is paying $21,010 per week for a Leicester Police detail around its Main Street store. NETA in Northampton is paying the city police $18,207 for traffic detail around the Conz Street dispensary. At a heated town meeting Monday night, Leicester Police Chief James Hurley said the owners of Cultivate have "paid the entire bill" for the police presence at the facility. Every weekday in Leicester, Cultivate pays $2,255 for three police officers with three cruisers with operating lights to patrol the area. On weekends, that rate increases to $3,245 per day. The dispensary is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. "You're not paying anything out of pocket for the police here," Hurley said to a crowd of about 100 people gathered for an emergency meeting Monday after the shop's first week of recreational sales. The town collects a 10 percent surcharge off of the detail rate, Hurley said. This means Cultivate pays the town $180 per weekday and $270 per weekend, or $1,440 per week for use of its police force. Northampton Police Captain John D. Cartledge said the department has three officers at NETA per day, working a traffic detail at a cost of $2,601 per day. The dispensary is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. NETA pays an administrative fee of $260 per day, or $1,820 per week, to the city of Northampton, Cartledge said. Massachusetts law requires people working security detail be paid time and a half, even if a business uses a private vendor. On Nov. 20 Cultivate and NETA became the first shops on the East Coast to sell recreational marijuana. This came more than two years after voters passed a ballot initiative legalizing marijuana in 2016. In the first day of operations, customers spent $440,011, according to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. Leicester residents are frustrated with the influx of traffic that came with recreational buyers and cannabis tourists since the Cannabis Control Commission greenlighted the store last week. People who live on Main Street in Leicester say they haven't been able to drive and one woman said she spotted people urinating in her yard. Town leaders and Robert Lally, the chief operating officer of Cultivate, stressed that once more shops open less attention will be on Leicester, a small town in Worcester County. Lally said the business "had no idea" they'd be the first to open, right before the Thanksgiving holiday. Three other shops are close to opening -- INSA in Easthampton, Pharmacannis in Wareham, and Alternative Therapies Group in Salem. INSA CEO Mark Zatyrka told the The Republican that its 122 Pleasant St. location is likely to start selling marijuana and marijuana-related products in two to three weeks. The Salem News reported on Nov. 20 that Alternative Therapies Group's recreational pot shop could be open in about a month. A Lowell couple now has some more cash to do holiday shopping if they want. While doing holiday shopping at the Natick Mall over the weekend, Neang Peov decided to buy some Massachusetts State Lottery scratch tickets. The result, a $4 million prize. "Neang Peov and her husband Bunrith were eating lunch in the food court at the Natick Mall when Neang saw the Happy Corner store and decided to buy some Lottery tickets, including a '100X'instant ticket," according to the Massachusetts State Lottery. "While still at the mall, she scratched her ticket and found out that she had won a $4 million prize." The couple headed to the Lottery headquarters Monday to claim the prize. Neang Peov is the second $4 million prize winner in the scratch ticket game. Peov chose the cash option and received a one-time payment of $2.6 million. She plans on using the winnings to pay off their mortgage and invest in retirement. Happy Corner will receive a $40,000 bonus for selling the ticket. NORTHAMPTON - The admitted mastermind behind a violent home invasion and drug robbery in Amherst in 2016 has been sentenced to three to four years in state prison. Patrick Bemben, 27, of Hadley, also must serve four years of probation following his release under a sentence imposed Monday by Judge Richard Carey in Hampshire Superior Court. The sentence was less than the five to six years in state prison recommended by First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne, but more than the six month jail term proposed by defense lawyer David Hoose. The judge agreed to recommend that Bemben serve his sentence at the Hampshire County House of Correction instead of MCI-Cedar Junction or another state prison. Under state law, the Department of Corrections is not bound by a judge's recommendation. Moments after the sentence was imposed, Bemben, dressed in a gray suit and tie, was handcuffed and led from the courtroom. He nodded and appeared to wink at his family members and supporters in the gallery. Bemben, then a senior engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, spent months in 2016 planning to rob a drug dealer who had stopped selling him marijuana and refused to return his phone calls, according to testimony and court records. He recruited six others who went to the at home on South East Street with guns, knives, a hatchet, pepper spray and other weapons. The defendants hoped to pocket up to $100,000 in cash, plus a large quantity of marijuana and Ecstasy. But the night raid turned into a bloody melee, and Bemben and his recruits scattered as police arrived. Suffering from head and facial injuries, Bemben was arrested nearby. It took seven months for investigators to round up the other suspects. One, Warrens Gelin, 23, of Springfield, was sentenced last month to four to five years in state prison after pleading guilty to armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm, aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and related charges. Four others -- Stephanos Georgiadis of Hadley, Joseph Barcelos of Belchertown, and John Niemiec III and Brittany Buckowski, both of Sunderland -- are awaiting trial. Niemiec and Buckowski served as drivers, but did not participate in the robbery, police said. On Nov. 21, Bemben pleaded guilty to 10 counts, including aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, armed robbery with a rifle, breaking and entering in the nighttime and wearing body armor during the commission of a felony. The sentencing was postponed to give the defense time to prepare for the hearing. On Monday, Hoose pointed out that his client had no criminal record and was in the throes of heroin addiction when he began plotting to rob his former drug dealer. Addiction altered Bemben's thinking, causing him to "perseverate over a slight" - his drug dealer's decision to stop selling him marijuana, Hoose said. While Bemben and his accomplices were armed and well-equipped, the planning for the raid was haphazard, with no precautions taken to avoid a motion detector outside the house and a last-minute decision to hire a U-Haul to carry away drug-related equipment they hoped to steal, Hoose said. Bemben never assaulted anyone during the raid and never denied his role as instigator once he was arrested, Hoose said. In past two years, Bemben has had "exceptional" success in overcoming his addiction, a testament to his strong will and the support of his family and friends, Hoose said. He has also earned an associate degree at Greenfield Community College, according to Hoose, who proposed a six month jail sentence. "He has to go to jail, but not for so long that it undoes what he's been able to accomplish," the lawyer said. Gagne, however, said a five to six year sentence was justified "due to the severe nature of the multiple felonies and the inherent risk to human life they posed." One victim was pistol whipped and another suffered a severe hatchet wound as a result of Bemben's plan; months later, a semi-automatic rifle dropped by the defendants was found in nearby woods, where it posed a potential danger to children and neighbors, Gagne said. The three victims suffered physical and psychological damage from a raid that had its origin in a "perceived slight," the prosecutor said. "He (Bemben) felt he was being disrespected. And his response was drastically out of proportion," Gagne said. "He orchestrated this over months; without him, this never would have happened," the prosecutor said. BOSTON -- Amid pent-up demand from the industry, Massachusetts on Monday opened the floodgates to a new solar incentive program known as SMART, designed to support another 1,600 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity across the state. The allocations, rolled out in 200-megawatt "capacity blocks," are expected to go fast, and early applicants will benefit from higher incentive payments. A web portal run by the Department of Energy Resources opened at noon, and for five business days will accept applications for the first round of fully-permitted, connection-ready projects, each with a top size of 5 megawatts. The Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, will pay a flat-fee tariff to owners of home or commercial solar facilities. It offers "adders" for community solar, for integrated battery storage, and for building on brownfields, landfills, and previously developed sites. "We're very concerned about land use, and want to make sure that as solar grows, we are doing it in the right way," said DOER Commissioner Judith Judson in a telephone interview. The program creates a stable investment climate, said Judson, who noted that SMART will replace solar renewable energy credits, or SRECs, production credits which are akin to commodities. "It was a volatile, market-traded program," said Judson. "National companies, or even an individual homeowner, didn't know what they would be getting from the SREC market. We've changed it to a predictable revenue stream." She said SMART will be good for ratepayers, and incentivize 1.6 gigawatts of solar at a cost that's $4.7 billion less, over the program's lifetime, than the previous 1.6 gigawatts built in Massachusetts. The state already has around 2.2 gigawatts of solar, ranking it 7th in the nation for installed capacity. The SMART program was slow in coming, and over the summer, advocates expressed frustration with various solar roadblocks, saying jobs within the clean tech economy were at stake. The DOER issued regulations to guide the SMART program 15 months ago, and in the meantime, proponents complained about the stalled launch. Judson said the program was sourced in bipartisan 2016 energy legislation, and developed over time with input from diverse stakeholder groups. "We were tasked to create a sustainable program going forward, and we're proud of that collaborative effort," said Judson. "So projects can be developed in the most cost-effective way." The program could even supplant net metering in some utility territories where solar projects remain stalled and on long waiting lists. Net metering lets solar owners sell electricity back to the grid, but its availability has been capped by the Massachusetts State Legislature. Michael Judge, the DOER's renewable energy division director, said that SMART will still let property owners enter agreements with third-party leasing companies to gain rooftop solar with zero upfront cost, if that's what they want to do. In the past, such third parties would own the SCRECs, and moving forward, they could claim the tariff payments. "But we've seen a trend, nationwide, to more ownership," said Judge. He said the state offers solar loans to low-income homeowners who wish to own their systems, and that private banks are now offering such capital loans as well. Judge said that solar owners who now have SRECs will get to keep them throughout the their ten-year life, and that the last SCRECS will expire in 2027. Judson said she is excited about an aspect of SMART that provides incentives for battery storage integrated with solar. Homeowners could store energy during the day when the sun is shining, and use it at night when they return from work. She said the batteries could light up a home during power outages, providing resilience as well as load-balancing on the power grid. Incentives for community solar -- where people who can't build their own rooftop solar may subscribe to a larger, centralized project -- are part of the program. There are added financial benefits for community solar projects that benefit low-income ratepayers. "We really want to make sure that all our energy programs are broadly available to all, regardless of income," said Judson. Asked if the incentives will be adequate to prevent solar developers from cutting down acres of trees to build their plants, Judson said the program will be evaluated soon after launch to make sure it is working as planned. "We're trying to take the lessons learned from SRECs and other programs, and apply them to the SMART program," said Judge. The two said Massachusetts remains a national leader when it comes to solar energy policy programs, and deployment. Infrastructure spending and protecting health insurance for pre-existing health care conditions are among the top priorities for Rep. Richard Neal, who will take over the powerful Ways and Means Committee when Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives. Speaking with Boston business leaders Tuesday, Neal said he recently spoke with Steven Mnuchin, President Donald Trump's treasury secretary. "They're on board with infrastructure," Neal said. "Now whether or not that changes given the vagaries of opinion at the White House in the next few minutes," infrastructure spending is something Trump has previously supported, up to $1.5 trillion, according to Neal, a Springfield Democrat. Addressing the New England Council at the Boston Harbor Hotel, Neal pointed to the multibillion dollar Big Dig project and how much the megaproject transformed Boston's waterfront as an example of federal spending. "People object to federal spending in general, they tend not to object to it when specific," he said. Neal continued: "The wise investment of public purse is really important. And I think on the infrastructure side...we've really fallen behind." Neal recalled his frequent travels between Washington, D.C. and Connecticut's Bradley International Airport, the second largest in New England. "When they say, 'Well, your assignment is Gate 35A,' I think purgatory," Neal quipped. "Our roads, bridges, highways, our airports, water and sewer, broadband investments," he added. "Those are the things we all ought to be able to agree on as members of the American family." Mnuchin has asked him how he intends to pay for it, and Neal said he responded by saying he is aiming for a bipartisan press conference to announce the infrastructure bill, an effort to head off dueling party-line announcements that would have Democrats announcing the spending and Republicans saying they would block it. "The optics will be designed early on, and we'll do this shoulder to shoulder, without even air between us," Neal said. "But we have to do it." Other "quick wins" Neal is looking to put on the political board include "enshrining" health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. That will be one of the first things the Ways and Means Committee will do, "if not the first," Neal said. He also pledged to protect Medicare, the federal health insurance program largely for people ages 65 and over. Neal brought up Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, big employers 50 miles apart in the western and central parts of the state. Half of their revenue comes from Medicare, he said. A day before Democrats were set to pick US House leaders, Rep. Richard Neal launched into a defense of Nancy Pelosi. Neal, the Springfield Democrat in line to chair the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, said he has worked the phones in support of Pelosi, who is looking to return to the House speakership. "You've probably heard there's a bit of dispute in our family," Neal joked while speaking with business leaders in Boston. "You should know, I've been picking them off one after another," he told the New England Council during a breakfast event inside the Boston Harbor Hotel. "We're working hard to bring them into the tent," Neal added. "And I think that we're going to hold on." Reps. Seth Moulton, a Salem Democrat, and Steve Lynch, a South Boston Democrat, are two members of the Massachusetts House delegation who have voiced concerns about Pelosi again taking the gavel. Moulton has pushed for newer and younger leaders to receive top positions. Democrats are currently eyeing a majority in the House of Representatives through the Nov. 6 election that resulted in 39 flipped seats. Many of the seats were won by center-left Democrats who either unseated Republicans or won seats held by retiring Republicans, according to Neal. "The losing party is generally the one that has to do the reset, not the winning party," Neal said. Asked if the members who haven't supported Pelosi will face a backlash from House leaders, Neal said, "There'll be a reconciliation." "Tomorrow is going to be the first dust-up," Neal added. "I think that obviously she's going to overwhelmingly win the caucus. But there'll be a chance to find out how many real hard no's there are. And then you'll see us continue to go to work on this. I think the emphasis right now ought to be on governing." Massachusetts Democrats will have "somebody on every key committee," according to Neal. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Worcester Democrat, is slated to take over the Rules Committee. Rep. Katherine Clark of Melrose is on the Appropriations Committee, while Joe Kennedy of Newton is on the Commerce Committee and Moulton is on the Armed Services Committee. Neal said he has spoken with incoming Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Dorchester and Lori Trahan of Westford. Trahan succeeds Niki Tsongas, who did not run for reelection, and Pressley, who ousted longtime Rep. Mike Capuano of Somerville. Neal noted that Capuano sat on transportation committees that could wield significant influence if House Democrats move ahead on a massive infrastructure spending bill. "That's where you make your mark," Neal said of committees. "Because your committee assignment is your destiny in Congress." PITTSFIELD -- A city man was found guilty of beating a woman and threatening to kill her, following a trial in Berkshire Superior Court. A jury Monday afternoon found Garrett Vil guilty of assault and battery resulting in serious bodily harm and threatening to commit murder. Judge John Agostini immediately sentenced him to 4 to 5 years in prison to be served at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction in Walpole, said Frederick Lantz, spokesman for Berkshire District Attorney Paul J. Caccaviello. The 27-year-old, who is also known as Garrett Johnson and Garrett Johnson-Vil, was also given a concurrent six-month sentence in the house of corrections on the threatening charge, he said. He was found guilty of assaulting a 24-year-old woman in a Pittsfield hotel on March 4, 2017. She was beaten so badly she had to have surgery to repair her eye socket, Lantz said. The jury, which deliberated for about six hours over two days, found Vil not guilty of mayhem, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery and two counts of intimidation of a witness or other person, he said. SOUTHAMPTON - A shed was destroyed in a fire and residents of a group home were temporarily displaced Monday. Southampton firefighters responded to the fire at about 1:45 p.m. to find the shed engulfed. They quickly stopped a shed fire at 314 College Highway before it spread to the nearby home, according to the department's Facebook Page. The fire did cause some damage to the electrical system of the house, some windows were broken and the siding was melted, according to Western Mass News. The fire was caused by improper disposal of smoking materials. Displaced residents have been moved to temporary housing while repairs can be made, according to Western Mass News. The home is owned by Berkshire Omega Corp., a real estate arm of Berkshire County Arc. It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and is assessed at $526,000, according to the Town of Southampton records. The Southampton Police Department and Massachusetts State Police Fire Investigation Unit assisted on the scene of the fire, Southampton fire officials said. PITTSFIELD - A Springfield man will serve two to three years in state prison after pleading guilty on Monday to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. This is the second time John A. Dyer has been ordered to serve up to three years in prison in the past five years after admitting to drug offenses Dyer, 43, pleaded guilty in Berkshire Superior Court and was sentenced by Judge John Agostini. He will begin serving his sentence on Jan. 10 at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction in Walpole, said Frederick Lantz, spokesman for Berkshire District Attorney Paul J. Caccaviello. Dyer was arrested on March 24, 2017, in Pittsfield on the drug charges. Pittsfield Police conducted the investigation, he said. In July 2014, Dyer also pleaded guilty to separate counts of possession of cocaine, marijuana and oxycodone, each with intent to distribute, as well as having an open container in a motor vehicle, and two counts of driving without a seatbelt. Those charges stemmed from traffic stops in Cheshire in 2012 and Dalton in 2013. SPRINGFIELD -- Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said Tuesday that he will veto an ordinance that would establish the city as a "welcoming community" for immigrants, including those living here without legal permission, saying it is part of the City Council's continuing effort to make Springfield a "sanctuary city." "My concerns have always been for the health and public safety of our residents and business community and not to create a liability issue of our city employees to neglect their sworn duties to follow the letter of the law," Sarno said. On Nov. 19, the council gave first-step approval to the ordinance that, if passed, would ban city employees from asking about a resident's immigration status unless required by state or federal law. The ordinance also prohibits targeting any medical, educational or faith institution for providing refuge to immigrants and their families. The ordinance proposal drew a large crowd to City Council chambers including advocates from groups including the Pioneer Valley Project, The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, and the American Civil Liberties Union. The council could consider final passage at its next regular meeting on Monday, with the threat of the veto. Sarno has said multiple times that Springfield is not a sanctuary city. Such communities provide some degree of safe haven for people who may have entered or stayed in the country without legal authority. For the Toy for Joy campaign, financial contributions mean happy families. Now in its 96th year, the campaign annually seeks to raise money to purchase Christmas presents for families throughout Western Massachusetts. It is a collaborative effort between the Salvation Army, The Republican and MassLive. The goal this year is to raise $150,000 by Christmas Eve. "The past couple of years we've just gone over $100,000," said Danielle LaTaille, social services director for the Salvation Army, and a longtime organizer for the event. These donations translate directly into Christmas presents for families who need them, and, in a tradition continuing for the second year, each child will receive a new book, thanks, in particular, to support from the Reading Success by 4th Grade initiative of the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. All families who benefit from Toy for Joy must document proof of need at the time of registration. Registration got underway yesterday in Springfield and begins today at Salvation Army units in Holyoke and Greenfield. "We really try to go with what's popular," said LaTaille. Personal experience can help with this, she said. "I have a 5-year-old son and a 10-month-old daughter and nieces and nephews, so we kind of know what's popular," she said. The program provides a different set of toys for each age range group, starting with 0-11 months old to 13-16-year-old children. Every child of the same gender and age range gets the same toys. "We just try to fit each age range with something that we think the kids would enjoy," she said. "We try to really pick a quality toy, something that's going to really last for them." In recent years, Toy for Joy has also begun giving out books. This year the campaign is partnering with the Reading Success by 4th Grade initiative of the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation for a second year to help ensure each child receives a new book. LaTaille said that the event's organizers try to pick books that are engaging, ones that are "fun and interactive" for children whose attention may also be captured by iPhones or television. "We really try to make the books fun and exciting so that kids build a love of reading," she said. To make a contribution to the Toy for Joy fund, write: Toy for Joy, 1860 Main St., Springfield, MA 01101. Contributions may also be dropped off with the coupon which accompanies this story to The Republican, 1860 Main St., Springfield, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. through noon on Dec. 21. For the third year in a row, Pride Stores is partnering with Toy for Joy. Pride locations in Western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut will rally its customers in November and December to help contribute to Toy for Joy. Customers can go into any Pride in the area and purchase a $1, $5 or $10 donation card for Toy for Joy. TOY FOR JOY REGISTRATION Here are the times for families to register at Salvation Army sites for the 96th annual Toy for Joy campaign. The Springfield citadel will assist families whose communities are not listed below: Greater Springfield Citadel: 170 Pearl St., Springfield; Registration: November 26, 27, 28. 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., for info, call (413) 733-1518, serves Agawam, East Longmeadow, Easthampton, Longmeadow, Ludlow, Northampton, Palmer, Monson, Springfield, Ware, West Springfield, Wilbraham, Westfield, Southwick, Russell and Belchertown; Holyoke: 271 Appleton St., Holyoke; Registration: November 27 and 28, 9 a.m.- 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. - 3 p.m., for info, call (413) 532-6312, serves Holyoke, South Hadley, Granby and Chicopee; Greenfield: 72 Chapman St., Greenfield; Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. until December 8th, for info, call (413) 773-3154, serves all Franklin County communities; Required documentation: Photo ID for parent/guardian, proof of address dated within last 30 days, birth certificates or passports for each child 16 years and younger and proof of financial need (MassHealth, WIC card, EBT card, current pay stub, or other acceptable documentation). AMHERST -- The University of Massachusetts Graduate Employee Organization is planning a protest prior to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer's talk on campus Tuesday night, accusing the university of giving a platform to hate speech. Spicer has been invited to speak by University of Massachusetts College Republicans. The talk, at 6:30 p.m at the Fine Arts Center, will focus on his time in President Donald J. Trump's administration and his book, "The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President." The GEO rally will be held outside the Student Union beginning at 4:30 p.m. Spicer's appearance comes in "the wake of a series of attempts at harassing and intimidating black people and people of color on campus," a press release from the GEO said. In the release, the organization cited a number of incidents on campus including concerns about racial profiling after a caller reported a black man who seemed agitated as he entered Whitmore Administration Building. Officers placed the building on lockdown and questioned the man, who turned out to be UMass employee Reginald "Reg" Andrade, who has worked on campus for 14 years. They also mentioned the anti-black threats at the Melville dorm, as well as white supremacist propaganda posted in Herter Hall. Given that climate, "we cannot stay silent as the University gives hate speech a platform," the release said. The organization argued that Spicer's appearance is not a matter of "freedom of speech, or the pretense of a 'marketplace of ideas,'" but puts at stake "people's bodily autonomy, physical safety and ability to continue to work and study at UMass Amherst." The organization cited Spicer's support for the travel ban barring Muslims from select countries and "his role in espousing alternative facts for the Trump administration" as reasons the UMass Amherst administration should "think more critically when presented with the decision of giving him a platform." In a statement, UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewksi wrote "student organizations at the university regularly invite people to speak on campus about many topics, and speakers convey a variety of viewpoints. "Student groups invite presenters in the spirit of free speech and the open discussion of ideas, and the university supports their right to do so." SPRINGFIELD -- The mother and sister of a Vermont woman memorialized in an obituary that won broad news coverage for its sensitive, candid look at the opioid crisis are suing the Springfield Police Department and the city for records about her final days. The suit, filed Monday in Hampden Superior Court, says the department is "likely in possession of audiovisual recordings" showing that it failed to provide medical care for Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir, who family members said struggled with drug addiction. "Plaintiffs are aware of this refusal because it occurred, at least in part, during a phone call from Madelyn and an SPD officer to Madelyn's mother, Maureen Linsenmeir," the suit says. City police arrested Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir on warrants on Sept. 29, according to the department's log. She died Oct. 7 at a Springfield hospital. In the suit, Maureen Linsenmeir and a second plaintiff, Madelyn Linsenmeir's sister Maura O'Neill -- both of Vermont -- ask the court to order the release of records family members have requested from the department. Springfield City Solicitor Edward Pikula declined comment on the suit Tuesday, saying it will be reviewed. Asked for comment about the suit, the family said in a statement, "Our family is heartbroken to have lost our beloved Madelyn. We are also deeply troubled both by her death in custody and the Springfield Police Department's lack of transparency about what happened to her." "We know she was refused medical attention upon booking and was rushed to the hospital five days later but are left to draw our own conclusions about what occurred in between. We have a right to know what happened to our daughter and sister while she was in the care of the SPD and call on them to release the public records we have requested," the statement said. Madelyn Linsenmeir's death received national and international attention for an obituary, written by sister Kate O'Neill, that described her battle against opioid addiction and offered a poignant, humanizing portrait of her life. It also offered a call to action to change a system that "seems to have hardened itself against addicts and is failing them every day." "If you work in one of the many institutions through which addicts often pass -- rehabs, hospitals, jails, courts -- and treat them with the compassion and respect they deserve, thank you," read the obituary, published by Seven Days and the Burlington Free Press. "If instead you see a junkie or thief or liar in front of you rather than a human being in need of help, consider a new profession." A call home According to the suit, Madelyn Linsenmeir, 30, texted her family on Sept. 28. "I am really sick," she wrote. Other messages followed: "I am just in a lot of pain;" "can't eat, sleep;" "chest Hurst;" "my knee is so swollen i can't even walk." On Sept. 29 Springfield police arrested her on a probation-related warrant from Vermont. She had lived in Burlington at different times, the suit said. She was later transferred to the custody of the Hampden County Sheriff's Department, and was held at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee. On Oct. 4 she was rushed from the jail to the hospital, where she was admitted to the intensive care unit. She died three days later. But shortly after her arrest, the suit says, she had called her mother. "On information and belief, the call was made during the booking process, which the SPD routinely records," the suit says. According to the suit, Madelyn Linsenmeir told her mother she was not receiving medical attention. "As the conversation progressed, the police officer refused to provide medical attention and even made a sarcastic comment to Maureen after Maureen expressed concern that Madelyn was being denied care," the suit says. The suit says the police department also has other records relating to Madelyn Linsenmeir's arrest and detention. "Madelyn's family is urgently seeking such records to better understand the events leading to her hospitalization and death," the suit says. The police department and city have failed to respond to the family's request for records, it says. When Linsenmeir's death became the subject of widespread publicity, it generated conversation about opioid addiction. In the suit, the family writes, "release of the requested records would serve the public interest by supporting Madelyn's family in their public advocacy for the humane treatment of opioid users and for increased access to medications and medical care for people suffering from opioid use disorder." Lawyers for Madelyn Linsenmeir's mother and sister are Matthew R. Segal and Daniel L. McFadden of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Massachusetts; Elizabeth Matos and David Milton of Prisoners' Legal Service of Massachusetts; and Luke Ryan, a Northampton attorney. "The public has the right to know what happened to Madelyn," Carol Rose, executive director the the ACLU of Massachusetts, said Tuesday. "Families must be able to learn the circumstances leading to the death of a loved one in police custody, and police must be accountable for the welfare of people in custody, including any failure to treat a person's sickness or injury." "Facts regarding Madelyn's treatment in custody are crucial to understanding her story and whether or not those responsible for her care acted in accordance with the law," said Matos, executive director of Prisoners' Legal Services. "Her family is entitled to these records and it is in the public's interest to know if procedures currently in place are sufficiently equipped to address the needs of our fellow community members suffering from substance use disorder." SPRINGFIELD -A woman was seriously injured after being stabbed Monday afternoon. Police have arrested a suspect in the assault that was reported at 3:47 p.m., said Ryan Walsh, police spokesman. A caller reported the stabbing occurred near the area of School and Union streets. Officers who initially responded found the woman who was rushed to Baystate Medical Center with serious injuries, Walsh said. Police arrested the suspect shortly after the incident. No information about the suspect will be released until Tuesday, Walsh said. Police blocked a large brick apartment building with yellow crime scene tape as they continue to investigate the stabbing. Two people were injured Sunday night after the vehicle they were traveling in was shot at in Worcester, causing the driver to crash into a wall. Worcester police responded to 86 Providence St. around 10 p.m. for a report of a car that had crashed into a wall. Authorities were told that the crash may have been the result of shots fired. Upon arrival, officers found the 21-year-old female driver and a 23-year-old male passenger still in the vehicle. Both were suffering from injuries related to the crash. The occupants told police that they hit the wall after being shot at by people in an unknown vehicle. The victims said they were driving on Pattison Street toward Providence Street when the car pulled up behind them and one of the occupants began to fire shots. The driver said she panicked and accelerated the car in an effort to get away from the other vehicle, but lost control and crashed into the wall. Neither occupant was shot, but the woman broke several bones and the man received some cuts and a possible leg injury, according to police. Authorities said the victim's car had several bullet holes in it and officers at the scene recovered ballistic evidence. A vehicle that was parked nearby was also hit with a stray bullet. There is little information on the suspect vehicle or the occupants at this time. The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to send an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWPD + your message or send an anonymous web based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at (508) 799-8651. The Charlton mother who stuffed her car's tailpipe with clothing and left the car running with both her and her 3-year-old daughter inside was sentenced to jail after pleading guilty in a Worcester court Monday. Leeann Rickheit, 40, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and child endangerment charges in Worcester Superior Court. She was sentenced to serve 2 1/2 years in prison with three years of probation once she is released, according to the Worcester County District Attorney's Office. Rickheit will undergo mental health and substance abuse evaluations, must remain drug and alcohol-free and abide by any state Department of Children and Families orders regarding her daughter. Rickheit was the focus of an Aug. 9, 2017 Amber Alert after she texted her mother suicidal messages before taking off with her then 3-year-old daughter, Ella Abbott. She also made suicidal threats during a phone call with her mother, court records show. When Massachusetts State Police troopers found Rickheit and her child in her car in the woods near Cook's Pond in Charlton on Aug. 10, 2017, they noticed the car's tailpipe was stuffed with clothing. The car was running. A window was cracked. Rickheit believed leaving the window cracked would not kill her daughter, prosecutors said. A suicide note was in the car. Authorities said Rickheit also researched death by carbon monoxide. Rickheit and Ella were either asleep or unconscious inside the running car. A trooper smashed a window in order to free the mother and daughter. Charges of assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury and assault with intent to murder were dismissed. On the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in Massachusetts, Marc Castonguay, a 57-year-old man who lives with disabilities had to cancel his monthly doctor's appointment. "I couldn't even leave my yard because there were so many cars," Castonguay, who lives on Main Street in Leicester - less than a mile from Cultivate, one of two stores in Massachusetts to begin selling recreational marijuana on Nov. 20, told MassLive. Kim Miczek, a fellow Main Street resident, complained she has spotted two people "urinating" on her lawn while waiting in line for Cultivate. "My road has become a long parking lot," she told people gathered in Leicester Town Hall Monday night for an emergency meeting. "I don't like it." About 100 people gathered for a meeting with Leicester officials and the owners of Cultivate to discuss the new influx of "cannabis tourists" and recreational buyers. "We're in hell," Castonguay, who walks with a cane because of nerve damage, said. He said and his 22-year-old daughter Sara can barely leave the house because of the traffic snaking down their street toward satellite parking for the dispensary. During the tense meeting - during which at least one neighbor of the dispensary stormed out in frustration - town officials and Robert Lally, the chief operating officer of Cultivate, tried to assuage concerns. The novelty will wear off, Police Chief James Hurley said. And the more shops scheduled to open - about a dozen by the end of the year, according to estimates by the Cannabis Control Commission - the less attention will be on Leicester, a small town in Worcester County. "No one knew this was going to happen," Lally said to the crowd. "We did not know we'd be the first store to be open." He promised additional parking where needed, and more police officers if necessary. Hurley told the group that Cultivate is paying the police more than $2,000 a day for the traffic detail and additional officers. "We want to ensure the safety of our customers," Lally said. "And I think, so far, we've done that." But some saw the upside of the business, which could bring the town $1.25 million in revenue over the next five years, according to Town Administrator David A. Genereux. John Shocik, another resident of Leicester, said though he did not vote for the ballot initiative that passed in 2016, allowing recreational marijuana sale in the state, he was happy to see the attention - and business - it is bringing the town. "I didn't vote for it but people did," Shocik said. "We want more businesses ... here there is a business." After one man, who declined to provide his name, called for Cultivate to shut down, Board of Selectmen member Rick Antanavica protested. "People complain there is no business, there is no business," he said. "And you want to shut down a business after five days?" For people living on, or around, Main Street the lines are a serious problem, Dawn Gauthier said. She said she's gotten no response to complaints she's raised with Lally. As she stormed out of the meeting after about an hour she said: "It's making the town money, so people say the hell with it. It's not fair." She added: "We're living in a fishbowl." After two hours of discussion, the group agreed to reconvene at the end of December. "It's going to get better," Genereux said. "It will." LAWRENCE -- U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, pledged Monday to push for changes to federal gas pipeline safety regulations in the wake of the September explosions that destroyed homes and killed one person in the Merrimack Valley. The senator, who joined other Massachusetts lawmakers in holding a U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing in Lawrence, told reporters that they're committed to ensuring that no other communities in the United States ever have to face such disasters. Markey told reporters after the hearing that lawmakers are "going to work to ensure that we change the laws of our country, that safety is made first rather than profits of corporations. "And, we are going to ensure that Columbia Gas and NiSource are made accountable, that they're going to compensate every single business, every single homeowner, every single resident of Merrimack Valley for every single loss that they incurred because of the negligence of this company," he added. The senator pledged to continue highlighting the situation in the Merrimack Valley "until every single person ... feels that justice was done to their family and that we have changed the laws of our country." Markey further said he's optimistic about the chances of such legislation in Congress. He noted that John Thune, Republican senator from South Dakota and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, responded "immediately and affirmatively" to his request to hold a field hearing in Lawrence. "I think that Republicans and Democrats both have a stake in safety," he said. "I'm optimistic that we can pass laws in the pipeline safety reauthorization bill and ensure there are real teeth in the laws and not this rubber stamping of poor safety plans, which has been the history of this agency in terms of accepting plans all across the country." Most Massachusetts voters believe that mass media coverage and President Donald Trump's rhetoric have contributed to recent violence, including bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, a new poll suggests. The University of Massachusetts Amherst released a survey this week that asked more than 700 registered state voters, divided into two groups, about the effect they believe the president's rhetoric, as well as new outlets' coverage have played in recent high-profile violent acts. About half, or 49 percent, of those asked about mass media's impact on violence, said they "somewhat" or "strongly" agreed that news outlets played a part in incidents like the attempted mail bomb attacks and Pittsburgh mass shooting. Just under a quarter of respondents, by contrast, disagreed that mass media led to such incidents, while 26 percent said they "neither agree nor disagree." An even greater number, 61 percent, of those asked about the president's rhetoric, meanwhile, said they believed his remarks attacking critics and news outlets have contributed to recent violence, including 47 percent who "strongly" agreed. Three in 10 respondents said they "somewhat" or "strongly" disagree with such assertions, while 9 percent offered that they "neither agree nor disagree." Raymond La Raja, a political science professor and associate director of the UMass Poll, said the findings suggest that voters "believe that the president, through his rhetoric, is doing the exact opposite of his constitutional mandate to protect them." "They see him as fomenting disorder and violence," he said in a statement. LaRaja noted that views of the president's rhetoric "are heavily colored by whether voters supported him," with 91 percent of those who voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton saying they believe his words incite violence, compared to only 10 percent who cast ballots for Trump in 2016. Three-quarters of Trump voters, meanwhile, blamed the mass media for recent violence, the poll found. Just 34 percent of Clinton voters agreed. Tatishe Nteta, an associate professor of political science and director of the UMass Poll, offered that the poll's findings suggest Republicans, as a whole, were also more inclined to attribute recent violence to the media. "They view the mass media in a negative light and believe that the media, more than the president, is responsible for the recent spate of violence in the country," he said in a statement. More than two-thirds, or 68 percent, of Republicans attributed recent violence to mass media, compared to 56 percent of independents and 34 percent of Democrats. The UMass Poll surveyed 750 registered Massachusetts voters online via YouGov from Nov. 7 to 14. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent. Paul Manafort reportedly met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in secret at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London before joining Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, a British newspaper has alleged. The Guardian reported Tuesday that the former Trump campaign manager, who has become a subject of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, visited Assange in 2013, 2015 and in the spring of 2016 -- the time during which he became an important player in the Republican presidential hopeful's White House run. According to the newspaper, "a well-placed source" said Manafort visited Assange around March 2016. Months later, WikiLeaks released thousands of Democratic emails that were reportedly stolen by Russian intelligence officials. Manafort, who joined Trump's campaign in late March 2016, has denied involvement in the email hacking and called the claim "100 percent false," The Guardian reported. His lawyers declined comment on the alleged visits, the newspaper said. They did not immediately returns messages from The Associated Press. Assange's Ecuadorian lawyer Carlos Poveda said The Guardian's report was false, The Washington Post reported. WikiLeaks, meanwhile, slammed The Guardian's reporting on Twitter as "100 percent fake," adding that it's "willing to bet The Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange." Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper's reputation. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange. https://t.co/R2Qn6rLQjn WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018 Manafort was named the Trump campaign's chairman and chief strategist in May 2016. He left his post in August 2016 after facing criticism, in part, for his past work for pro-Russian Ukraine oligarchs. The Guardian's report came just one day after Mueller's office, in a court filing, accused Manafort of lying to federal investigators -- breaching a plea agreement he made with the special counsel in September. Manafort's lawyers rejected the accusation, offering that Manafort believed he has "provided truthful information," according to reports. This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Xem them ... Tin bai cuoi cung Khong con du lieu e load This company article has been removed. Dental Bone Graft Market Overview Globally the market for dental bone graft is increasing rapidly the main reason for this is the growth is the increase in the aging population. The Global Dental Bone Graft Market is expected to reach an approximate CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period. The factors that influence the growth of Dental Bone Graft are the increasing development in technology and the different types of bone graft options such as Autograft, Xenograft, Alloplast/synthetic bone grafts and allograft. According to the British editorial society of bone and joint surgery, bone was the second most common transplanted tissue after blood with an estimated 2.2 million grafting procedures annually worldwide in 2015. However, risk and complications from bone grafting procedures and the high cost of the procedure may hamper the market growth during the forecast period. Request Sample Copy at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/867 Global Dental Bone Graft Market Key Players: Straumann AG Dentsply Sirona Zimmer Biomet Geistlich Medtronic BioHorizons IPH, Inc ACE Surgical Supply Company, Inc. RTI Surgical, Inc LifeNet Health Kerr Dental Dentium Dental Bone Graft Market Segmentation: The global dental bone graft market is segmented on the basis of type, product, material form, application, and end-user. The global dental bone graft market by type is segmented into synthetic bone graft, xenograft, allograft, and demineralized allograft. Synthetic bone graft is further segmented into ceramics, tricalcium phosphate, hydroxyapatite, and others. Demineralized allograft is further segmented bio-reabsorbable and non-bio-reabsorbable. Based on the product segment the market is segmented into bio-oss, osteograf, grafton, and others. On the basis material form, the market is segmented of injectable, granules, and putty. Based on the application the market is segmented into socket preservation, ridge augmentation, periodontal defect regeneration, implant bone regeneration, and sinus lift. On the basis of end-user, the market is categorized into dental clinics, research and dental laboratories, and others. On the basis of region, the global dental bone graft market is segmented into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. The Americas is sub-segmented into North America and South America. The North American region is further segmented into the US and Canada. The European region is divided into two, namely, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Western Europe is further classified into Germany, Italy, France, the U.K., Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. The Asia-Pacific region is sub-segmented into Japan, China, India, Australia, the Republic of Korea, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. The Middle Eastern and African region is sub-segmented into the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and the rest of the Middle East and Africa. Dental Bone Graft Market Regional Analysis: The dental bone graft market is dominated by Europe owing to the rising healthcare expenditure that contributes to enhancing the market growth in this region. As there is a transition happening in the use of the types of bone grafts for the various restorative & reconstructive dental procedures, the world is adopting the new technologies leading to the massive growth in the market. It is estimated that North America stood second in the global dental bone graft market. As a result of advancement in the dentistry and development of the dental industry in Europe, the dental bone grafts market has grown significantly in the region. Asia-Pacific is likely to witness growth in the dental bone graft market during the forecast period owing to the increasing number of healthcare organizations, growing advantages of the dental bone graft. The rapidly changing technology and growing awareness in the region influence the market growth. China, India, and Japan are the key market players in this region and Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for the dental bone graft. The Middle East and Africa holds the least share in the global dental bone graft market due to the presence of stringent government policies and poor economies. Browse Complete 115 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 50+ Respective Tables and Figures at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/dental-bone-graft-market-867 Top Questions Answered In Dental Bone Graft Market Report: What will the market size and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors? 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 Encephalomyelitis is brain or spinal cord inflammation caused due to virus, infections, and other foreign particles. The patient suffering from autoimmune diseases and AIDS are more prone to the diseases. A wide range of drugs are available for the treatment of this disease, however no precise treatment is available to cure the disease. Increasing prevalence of encephalomyelitis and autoimmune diseases has boosted the growth of the market. According to the WHO, 4.3 million people across the globe are affected by this disease. Additionally, changing lifestyle, increasing geriatric population, increasing need for better treatment has driven the global market. Moreover, increasing government support along with the per capita income have fuelled the market growth. However, limited and high cost of treatment options may retard the growth of the market over the assessment period. Get Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4874 The global encephalomyelitis market is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~8.1 % during the forecast period 2017-2023. Segmentations The global encephalomyelitis market is segmented on the basis of types, treatment and end users. On the basis of treatment, the market is segmented into drug treatment, plasmapheresis, surgery, and others. Drug therapy is further segmented into antiviral medications, antibiotics, steroids, sedatives, NSAIDs, mood stabilizers, and others. On the basis of types, the market is segmented into acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, encephalomyelitis disseminata, antiMOG associated encephalomyelitis, equine encephalomyelitis, AIDS related encephalomyelitis and others. On the basis of end users, the market is segmented into hospital, clinics and others. Regional Analysis The Americas command a major share of the market owing to the large patient population, growing prevalence of encephalomyelitis & autoimmune diseases, and strong government support for research & development. According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, approximately 50 million people in the U.S. were reported to be suffering from autoimmune diseases in 2014. Europe accounts for the second largest market across the globe, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Strong government support, availability of funds for research and high healthcare expenditure drives the growth of the market. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market. China, and India are the key contributors to the market growth due to presence of huge population base, increasing prevalence of AIDS and autoimmune diseases, rapidly growing economy, and increasing healthcare expenditure. Additionally, increasing government support, and presence of huge opportunity have fuelled the growth of the market in Asia Pacific. The Middle East & Africa holds the least share of the global market due to limited availability of medical facilities and poor economic condition in African region. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are expected to drive the Middle East & African market owing to the well-developed economy and high healthcare spending. Key Players Some of key the players in the market are Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (U.S.), Sanofi (France), GlaxoSmithKline Plc. (U.K), Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (U.S.), Amgen, Inc. (U.S.), Merck & Co., Inc. (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany), Novartis AG (Switzerland), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland), Eli Lilly and Company (U.S.), AstraZeneca Plc. (U.K), Janssen Biotech, Inc. (U.S.), AbbVie Inc. (U.S.), Takeda Pharmaceuticals (Japan), Immunomedics (U.S.), Pfizer, Inc. (U.S.), and Oncomed Pharmaceuticals (U.S.). Browse Complete 85 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 86 Respective Tables and Figures @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/encephalomyelitis-market-4874 Detailed Table of Contents: Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope Of The Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation Chapter 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.2 Restrains 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Challenges 4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis 5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis 5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers 5.1.2 Bargaining Power Of Buyers 5.1.3 Threat Of New Entrants 5.1.4 Threat Of Substitutes 5.1.5 Intensity Of Rivalry Continued About US: Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Us: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Laboratory Information Systems Market Key Players The key players that are involved in Global Laboratory Information Systems market are Cerner Corporation, Recent Developments, Eclipsys Corporation, LabVantage Solutions Inc, LabWare Inc, McKesson Corporation, Medical Information Technology Inc., Merge Healthcare Inc, STARLIMS Corporation, Sunquest Corporation and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Laboratory Information Systems Market Industry Updates Nov 2014 Thermo Fisher launched a new ultracentrifuge which combines speed with safety and ergonomics, allowing researchers to easily protect samples while achieving reliable and consistent results. Sept 2014 Cerner announced a strategic agreement with Intermountain Healthcare to provide clinical governance of solutions and workflow to be proposed for the Department of Defenses Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) initiative. Aug 2014 Cerner Corporation and Siemens AG signed a definitive agreement for Cerner to acquire the assets of Siemens health information technology business unit, Siemens Health Services, for $1.3 billion in cash. As part of the agreement, Cerner and Siemens will form a strategic alliance to bring new solutions to market that combine Cerners health IT leadership and Siemens strengths in medical devices and imaging services. March 2014 LabVantage launched a new product known as LabVantage 7 Express for quality controlled smaller labs. Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/852 Laboratory Information Systems Market Insights Laboratory information system (LIS) is a comprehensive information system developed and configured to process, store and manage information pertaining to industrial and medical-related laboratories which include clinical and analytical laboratories. LIS plays an important role in streamlining the process and generating high quality data to support effective clinical decisions. The LIS provides information that helps hospitals in the diagnosis, prevention, management and treatment of diseases, and acts an indicator for public health. The LIS has now emerged as a necessity for both small and large diagnostic and drug companies laboratories. The ability of both clinical and analytical laboratories to better manage data and incorporate collaborative technological tools into their day-to-day operations has become critical to remain competitive. LIS, used in both large and small-scale companies, provide a platform to automatically obtain, store and archive information, track samples, and generate reports efficiently. The LIS products vary widely in terms of cost, sophistication, and industrial focus. As industrial and medical laboratories are diverse with different requirements, hence, there is no standard information system designed for laboratories. Therefore, a LIS is customized, developed, and configured according to the requirements of a laboratory. There are various different applications of LIS including drug delivery and clinical diagnostics. LIS in clinical diagnostics includes anatomic pathology systems; microbiology, genetic and molecular diagnostics support systems; blood bank systems; and billing or accounts receivable or revenue cycle management (RCM) systems. Major components of LIS are hardware, software and services. Hardware mainly includes servers as well as data input, output and storage devices. Software includes the interface of integrated LIS which helps managing and analysing data in an efficient manner. Whereas, the key delivery modes used for LIS, include web based, on premise, mobile solutions and cloud-based technology. The Global LIS Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3% between 2016 and 2027, driven by growth from both developed and emerging markets. Laboratory Information Systems Market Segments Segmentation by Applications Segmentation for Laboratory Information Systems market involves the following Applications such Clinical LIS Market, Drug Discovery LIS Market, Industrial LIS Market. Segmentation by Components Segmentation for Laboratory Information Systems market involves the following Components such as Software in LIS Market, Hardware in LIS Market, Services in LIS Market. Segmentation by Delivery Segmentation for Laboratory Information Systems market involves the following Delivery such as Web-based LIS Market, On-premise based LIS Market, Cloud-based LIS Market. Browse Complete 83 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with Tables and Figures @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/laboratory-information-systems-market-852 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 Molecular scientists these days have tools at their disposal that allow to do quite incredible things. To use these tools to create new drugs and therapies, they need new ways to visualize and manipulate molecules using computers. Proteins are important subjects of study, as an understanding of their structure and how they fold and work can lead to the design of appropriate drugs for a variety of conditions. Theyre typically large molecules with a lot of complexity and using conventional software and 2D computer screens has its limitations. But, a great deal of this complexity can be analyzed and resolved by regular people with just a bit of knowledge about proteins and a virtual reality headset. Nanome, a company based in San Diego, California, has released a virtual reality app that they dub an immersive virtual lab that makes it possible for anyone with a VR rig to contribute to the creation of a complete map of the Human Proteome. If you have a virtual reality headset, such as the Oculus, Nanome is looking for your help. And if you dont yet have one, perhaps this may be a starting point if youre looking for something other than games to play with. More from Nanome: Collaborative Structure Based Drug Design in Virtual Reality More about the Nanome app Link: Nanome.ai by Melynda Fuller , November 26, 2018 Working in partnership with cannabis media company PRHBTD, Entrepreneur Media announced the creation of its "Green 400," an annual ranking of companies across North American making the biggest splash in the cannabis industry. The list, which will be revealed in 2019, is broken into 20 categories, honoring innovators, investors and entrepreneurs across the industry. Winners will be honored at Green Entrepreneurs Green 400 event in California, which welcomes hundreds of members of the cannabis business and consumer community to discuss the latest trends and future of the market. Entrepreneur president Bill Shaw stated: "There's no road map here -- you need to be fearless and able to see around corners to successfully navigate the tricky legal and financial waters of this industry. And that's what this program is celebrating." advertisement advertisement Deadline for entries is February 15, 2019. Separately, Miraculo, Inc., a media company in the cannabis space, recently announced the launch of Christian-focused website GodsGreenery.com. The platform, which the company says is the first of its kind, discusses the use of cannabidiol (CBD) within the Christian lifestyle. Publishing research, articles, first-person stories, videos and podcasts, GodsGreenery.com delivers its information through a faith-based lens. Michael Klein, CEO of Miraculo, Inc., told Publishers Daily: CBD ranks as one of the most searched terms on the internet. As we continue to expand across different media verticals in CBD education, Godsgreenery.com is the authoritative platform for the [faith-based] audience. Miraculo, Inc., launched earlier this year, hosts cannabisMD.com in addition to GodsGreenery.com. The company plans to launch additional verticals in 2019. by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, November 26, 2018 LOS ANGELES This weeks AutoMobility LA media preview includes more than 60 vehicles debuts, including the all new-vehicle Hyundai Palisade and a pickup truck from Jeep. Kia is expected to have multiple vehicles make their world debut, including the 2020 Kia Soul Crossover. A brand new automotive company, Rivian, debuts two electric adventure vehicles. Mitsubishis newest concept is also set to make its North American debut at the show. Lincoln is presenting the global debut of its all-new Aviator luxury SUV. MediaPost will also make its debut at the show on Tuesday, with an afternoon conference that includes top marketers from Infiniti, Mini, Honda, Kia, Nissan and Hyundai. The inaugural West Coast offering follows on the heels of three successful conferences held in conjunction with the New York Auto Show. Located in the nations largest car, luxury car and green vehicle market according to J.D. Power, AutoMobility LA continues to be a prime platform for automakers to launch products, and share their insights into the future of transportation. Featured on almost one million square feet of space, the LA Auto Show campus will feature interactive experiences and curated showcases, including simulators, test drives, gaming areas, custom cars and the latest mobility solutions. Its not just automakers who will be on hand. Facebook will have an interactive experience showcasing its latest innovations for the auto industry. Automakers are invited to learn new ways to use video and Instagram stories and to see the latest offerings from Messenger. Artificial intelligence company Affectiva, which detects complex human emotions and cognitive states from face and voice, will be presenting automotive applications. The company is working with automakers, suppliers and technology providers to implement in-cabin human perception AI. The technology aims to improve road safety through next-generation driver state monitoring, and optimize the transportation experience by sensing occupant mood and reactions, and tailoring the transportation experience including music, recommended stops, and other in-cabin conditions accordingly. This is relevant not only in the cars we drive today, but in (semi)-autonomous vehicles as well. Back to the vehicle debuts: More than half will be higher profile world premieres, which is a coup for the show organizers. Audi has confirmed that the e-tron GT concept 4-door electric performance coupe will make its global premiere at AutoMobility LA for media and industry professionals. Subaru is introducing the 2019 Crosstrek Hybrid. The SUV offers all-wheel drive capability in a hybrid package. Arriving at Subaru retailers near the end of this year, the 2019 Crosstrek Hybrid will also feature unique exterior and interior styling and new in-vehicle technology. The new SUV also qualifies for High Occupancy Vehicle permits in many states. This year, 57% of AutoMobility LAs debut vehicles span across several segments within the luxury class. These include Volvos latest luxury sedan, the all-new S60, which will make its auto show debut alongside the all-new V60 Cross Country wagon. The Swedish automaker has also confirmed that its global CEO is slated to make significant announcements about the companys progressive approach to transportation. Following AutoMobility LA, the show opens its doors to the public Nov. 30 Dec. 9. Stay tuned for more news directly from the show floor. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, November 26, 2018 The Supreme Court on Monday weighed whether Apple will have to face a lawsuit by consumers who say the App Store's pricing model violates antitrust laws. The battle centers on Apple's app-store business model, which generally calls for a 70-30 revenue split with developers. (Two years ago, Apple tweaked its formula to allow developers who offer subscriptions to retain 85% of their app's revenue after the first year.) In a lawsuit brought in 2011, a group of iPhone users allege that Apple's 30% commission from developers gets passed on to consumers. The users argued that Apple was only able to charge the 30% mark-up because it wielded monopoly power over the distribution of iPhone apps. Apple is arguing that the lawsuit should be dismissed, essentially arguing that app purchasers shouldn't be able to bring antitrust cases that stem from deals between Apple and app developers. Apple draws on a 1977 Supreme Court decision that only direct purchasers can sue over antitrust violations. advertisement advertisement In the case of iPhone apps, developers are direct purchasers, while consumers are only indirect purchasers -- and therefore unable to sue Apple -- the company contends. The app developers ... are buying a package of services which include distribution and software and intellectual property and testing, Daniel Wall, an attorney for Apple, told the Supreme Court Monday morning. Several justices appeared skeptical of Apple's argument. Justice Sonia Sotomayor specifically questioned whether consumers who purchase apps should be considered indirect customers. The first sale is from Apple to the customer. It's the customer who pays the 30%, she told Wall. Apple took 30% from the customer, not from the developer. Justice Elena Kagan made similar comments. It just seems to me that when you're looking at the relationship between the consumer and Apple, that there is only one step, she said. I pick up my iPhone. I go to Apple's App Store. I pay Apple directly with the credit card information that I've supplied to Apple... From my perspective, I've just engaged in a one-step transaction with Apple. At one point in the hearing, Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared to question whether the 1977 decision barring antitrust lawsuits by indirect purchasers was correct. Indirect purchasers may be better suited to enforce the antitrust laws, Gorsuch said. In 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California dismissed the lawsuit. But a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the complaint last year. Those judges ruled that Apple was a distributor, and therefore could be sued for allegedly monopolizing the sale of iPhone apps. by Wayne Friedman , November 26, 2018 In a few Monday tweets, President Trump suggested the U.S. should start its own global TV news network to compete with the CNN. While CNN doesnt do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of the U.S., they have very little competition, said a Trump tweet. Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair ... and false way. He added: Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT! The U.S. is already in this kind of news business in part. Voice of America is a U.S. government funded TV/radio broadcast group established in 1942. Part of the VOA charter is that news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.. [And that] the VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions. advertisement advertisement Trump has long complained about CNN, targeting the network -- and other news networks -- as distributing fake news when it airs information he dislikes. Earlier this month, the Trump administration took away the press pass -- the so-called hard pass -- of CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta. This came after a heated exchange with Trump through a number of questions by Acosta during a recent press conference. A few days later a federal judge granted CNN's request for a court order temporarily reinstating Acosta's White House press pass. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, November 26, 2018 Facebook has been hit with another lawsuit accusing it of sending people unwanted text messages. In a complaint filed late last week, Colin Suttles of Austin, Texas alleges that Facebook sent him text messages with verification codes that were actually intended for other people. He says he received at least 25 text messages in a four-year period, which were directed at people with names like Hannah, Abel, and Sandra. Plaintiff does not know individuals by these names or why he is receiving codes that appear directed toward them, he alleges. He adds that he responded by texting Stop to Facebook, but that the messages continued. Suttles alleges the text messages caused him actual harm, including aggravation, nuisance, and invasion of privacy, in addition to the fees charged by his carrier. advertisement advertisement His lawsuit alleges that Facebook violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using auto-dialers to text people without their consent. Facebook has been sued several other times for allegedly violating that law. The company argues in one of those prior cases that the law itself is unconstitutional, because it exempts robo-texts aimed at collecting debts owed to the government. The company elaborates in papers filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the law unconstitutionally "draws distinctions on the basis of content, offering an exemption for calls placed 'to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States.'" The Justice Department is siding against Facebook in that battle. Last month, the DOJ urged the 9th Circuit to reject the social media company's argument and uphold the constitutionality of the anti-robotexting law. With the 2018 midterms elections in the rear-view mirror, Facebook is shuttering its so-called war room. Opened last September, the physical room has been located in Facebooks Menlo Park, California, headquarters. On any given day, it brought together between 20 to 30 experts from the companys threat intelligence, data science, software engineering, research, community operations and legal teams. First reported by Bloomberg on Monday, a Facebook spokesperson has since confirmed the war rooms fate. Although Facebook has not confirmed plans for future war rooms, the approach did appear to produce positive results in the run-up to the midterm elections. Tasked with tackling various safety and security issues, the war room team oversaw a broader staff of roughly 20,000, according to Samidh Chakrabarti, director of product management-civic engagement, Facebook In October, the team was tested during the first round of Brazils presidential elections, during which it detected a false post claiming that Brazils Election Day had been moved from October 7 to October 8. advertisement advertisement When the false claim began to trend, Facebooks team took notice and removed it within an hour of its original posting. To track such abuses, Facebook also relies heavily on its machine learning and artificial intelligence technology, which is getting better at blocking and disabling fake accounts. Beyond Facebooks flagship property, that technology has helped WhatsApp remove hundreds of thousands of spam accounts leading up the final round of Brazils presidential elections. Facebook is also increasingly aligning with law enforcement in countries where platform abuse is rampant. Those partnerships appeared to pay off in November when U.S. law enforcement alerted Facebook to some suspicious activity on its platform, which they believed was linked to foreign entities. As a result of the tip, Facebook said it identified around 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts that may have been engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, November 26, 2018 Advertising agencies began receiving a legal notice from Google late Monday related to a lawsuit brought about by AdTrader, which manages and places bids for online advertising. Googles letter to agencies states that the company has been ordered by a California federal court to produce information related to some of its advertising accounts. This lawsuit was filed against Google on behalf of Google Marketing Platform, previously DoubleClick Bid Manager; Authorized Buyers, previously AdX; and Google Ads, previously AdWords advertisers. The email serves as a notice to agencies that Google will comply with the order on December 5, 2018, and provide names, company names, customer IDs, addresses and or telephone numbers associated with specific account numbers. It also will turn over to AdTrader's lawyers any information related to the credits received when publishers working with Googles ad exchange was terminated. advertisement advertisement What I really want to know is the reason behind Google seizing AdTraders earnings, said Janel Laravie, founder and CEO at Chacka Marketing. As an agency we continually scrutinize ad quality. If we feel any of our clients receive poor quality traffic, we compile all the data and present it to Google. Laravie said Google has always worked with the agency to provide a positive outcome. More importantly, Chacka works with Google to improve their automated detection process for invalid ad clicks. Many other agencies whose reps spoke with MediaPost also received letters. "We take seriously any violations on our ad platforms and have a longstanding policy of crediting advertisers for invalid traffic," according to a Google spokesperson. AdTrader alleges in that lawsuit that Google failed to provide advertisers with credits when it discovered invalid publisher activity. Now the court wants the names and contact information of the advertisers that received credits when certain publishers' ad-exchange accounts were terminated, as well as information related to the amount and date of those credits. Any agency that receives the letter has accounts that fall within this category, in which case Google says it is obligated to turn over the names and contact information of the brands. Turning over the information to Google does not make the agency part of the case, according to the letter. The court also issued a protective order in the case and Google will designate the information as confidential, according to the notice. This designation prohibits the plaintiff lawyers from using the information for any purpose outside of the lawsuit. A description of the lawsuit found on the web states that a few days before Google was scheduled to pay AdTrader its accrued earnings on Googles mobile ad network AdX in May 2017, the search giant terminated its account due to violation of its policies by AdTrader. Google, however, did not terminate the individual accounts of AdTrader's publisher clients. At the time, AdTrader had a balance of $476,622.69 in its Google ad exchange account, which it withheld. by Larissa Faw , November 27, 2018 Wisconsin-based printing company Quad/Graphics is acquiring Periscope for $132.5 million in order to offer clients fully-integrated marketing services from packaging to print ads and TV campaigns. Founded in 1994, the Minneapolis-based Periscope employs 500 people with a client roster that includes Arctic Cat, Autotrader, BASF, Bridgestone, Cox Communications, Intuit, Kelley Blue Book, Krispy Kreme, Petco, Red Robin, Target, Toro, Trolli, UnitedHealth Group, and Walgreens. Members of Periscope, including president/CEO Elizabeth Ross, are all expected to join the new company, with the agency's offices in Minneapolis as well as Chicago, Hong Kong and Delhi expected to remain operational. For now, Periscope will continue to operate under its own name. "Periscope will turbo-charge our existing offering with its world-class capabilities in strategy, including media buying and analytics, creative and account management," stated Joel Quadracci, chairman, president/CEO, Quad/Graphics, whose client base includes LL Bean, Target, Macy's, KFC, CVS Health, and Lexus. advertisement advertisement This deal came after Periscope's current owner Bill Simpson decided to retire and sell the company, coinciding with Quad's self-described 3.0 transformation that seeks to bolster its current print-production capabilities with end-to-end marketing services. Quad has also recently invested in Rise Interactive and Ivie & Associates. We are redefining the future of integrated marketing at a time of substantial disruption when clients are looking for less complexity, greater transparency and accountability from their business partners, stated Quadracci. The transaction has been approved by both companies boards of directors and is expected to close in early 2019. by Wayne Friedman , November 27, 2018 MBuy -- the media planning and buying technology service of major media software system company Mediaocean -- has renewed and expanded its agreement with Nielsen. In the deal, MBuy renews its Nielsen deal for standard local and national viewing measurement as well as extending it into Nielsens advertising data, Ad Intel -- which provides advertiser spend and ratings data across 23 different media categories, and access to data in 208 local TV markets. This year, Nielsen expanded measurement across all local TV markets, allowing agencies to forecast, deliver, and steward their buys. MediaOcean is the major media software system provider to TV advertiser/agency, TV stations and networks for media buying and planning. In June, Mediaocean struck a deal with major TV station owner Sinclair Broadcast Groups network ad sales group, Sinclair Media Networks. The agreement provides buyers and planners at media agencies access through Mediaoceans Spectra platform, with access to all Mediaocean Spectra users across all six media agency holding companies. by Wayne Friedman , November 27, 2018 Walt Disney Company has struck a major deal with Googles Ad Manager for its new direct-to-consumer & international business unit. The deal will provide key delivery, optimization and performance of digital advertising across Disneys global digital brands and properties. Disney had been using Comcasts FreeWheel advertising technology company for many of its digital properties. The deal adds to recent Google deals with traditional media companies, such as the deal with CBS for its digital properties including CBS All Access. A&E Networks and AMC Networks are among the other TV networks that already use Google Ad Manager. As part of the deal, the two companies will work on development of next-generation solutions and technologies across video, mobile, apps and display. advertisement advertisement Disney Advertising Sales will now offer advertisers cross-platform and performance measurement of digital video and display advertising across its all brands -- including Disney, ABC, ESPN, Freeform, Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar brands. The deal will include an array of content -- long-form video-on-demand, live streaming video, short-form video, video and text news content and fantasy games. Disney says its combined digital properties reach more than 230 million users worldwide who spend more than 14 billion minutes of time and view billions of videos per month. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, November 27, 2018 Privacy watchdogs are blasting the Federal Trade Commission's recent privacy report, which appears to oppose the proposition that companies should obtain consumers' opt-in consent before tracking their online activity in order to send them targeted ads. Earlier this month, the FTC said in a staff report submitted to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that an opt-in regime for online tracking would likely lead to the loss of ad-funded content. The agency cited a 2013 study by the ad industry group Digital Advertising Alliance for that proposition -- even though that study focused on consumers' attitudes toward the internet, as opposed to whether online tracking fueled free content. advertisement advertisement This week, a coalition of civil rights groups and consumer advocates wrote to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons to express their disappointment with the staff report. We would have hoped that the FTC would take a broader look at the evidence, rather than relying on a self-serving study by one stakeholder, the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Privacy Information Center and 11 other organizations wrote. They added that the 2013 DAA study referenced by the agency fails to cite any empirical data suggesting that without targeted advertising, free online content will decrease. The FTCs stated position ignores the fact that contextual advertising, which does not raise the same privacy concerns as behavioral advertising, would still be possible, the watchdogs add. In addition, the FTC fails to recognize that placing the burden on individuals to deal with the privacy-intrusive nature of behavioral tracking and targeting is unfair. The FTC staff report -- one of the agency's first major statements on online privacy since a slate of new commissioners took over this year -- also endorsed a balanced approach that weighs the risks of data misuse with the benefits of data to innovation and competition. The report went on to offer some specific examples of benefits to data collection, including more relevant online experiences, as retailers provide customized offers and video services recommend new shows. But the advocates say these kinds of benefits should be offered on an opt-in basis. 'More relevant online experiences' ... is something that consumers should be given the option to affirmatively agree to if they wish, the groups write. We do not think that 'more relevant' should be read to mean more beneficial to advertisers. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people worldwide. Its main symptom is breathlessness, which can be distressing and causes many people with this lung condition to experience anxiety. Share on Pinterest People with COPD-related anxiety would benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy, a new trial finds. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 3.17 million people died from causes related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) worldwide in 2015 alone. COPD symptoms typically shortness of breath and coughing can be more or less severe. However, the symptoms are often upsetting, and many of the people living with this disease experience anxiety as well. This anxiety can exacerbate a persons health, potentially resulting in repeated visits to the hospital. One of the main symptoms of COPD is breathlessness. This is very frightening and often leads to feelings of anxiety, explains Dr. Karen Heslop-Marshall, a nurse consultant at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Many healthcare professionals do not currently screen COPD patients for symptoms of anxiety, she continues, even though it can have an impact on their overall health. Heslop-Marshall and colleagues recently conducted a randomized controlled trial, testing the effectiveness of one approach to helping people with COPD manage their anxiety, and reducing the number of hospital visits that COPD-related anxiety causes. Feeling anxious has a negative impact on patients quality of life and leads to more frequent use of healthcare resources, says Heslop-Marshall. So, she and other specialists teamed up to find out if cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) would be an effective tool for these people. In the new study, the researchers wanted to test whether one-to-one CBT sessions delivered by respiratory nurses could reduce symptoms of anxiety and whether this could be a cost-effective intervention. The whole world knows about Elon Musk and his obsession with Mars. While he hopes to travel to Mars someday, NASA's InSight lander successfully touched down yesterday, after completing a 6-month long journey. InSight was launched on May 5 and travelled approximately 480 million kms before landing on the surface of Mars. Have you ever seen a spacecraft spread its solar wings? @NASAInSight will need to perform the critical task of deploying its solar arrays to power the mission. We expect to get data confirmation this evening. About the #MarsLanding milestones: https://t.co/vnmkKY2MUs pic.twitter.com/3Wx1mvRFvD NASA (@NASA) November 27, 2018 After its touch down, NASA tweeted this picture with the caption "Wish you were here! @NASAInSight sent home its first photo after #MarsLanding: InSight's view is a flat, smooth expanse called Elysium Planitia, but its workspace is below the surface, where it will study Mars' deep interior." Wish you were here! @NASAInSight sent home its first photo after #MarsLanding: InSight's view is a flat, smooth expanse called Elysium Planitia, but its workspace is below the surface, where it will study Mars' deep interior. pic.twitter.com/3EU70jXQJw NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018 Soon after, the first clear photo of the planet was relayed to Earth by the Mars Odyssey orbiter, "Our Mars Odyssey orbiter phoned home, relaying news from @NASAInSight indicating its solar panels are open & collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. Also in the dispatch: this snapshot from the lander's arm showing the instruments in their new home." Our Mars Odyssey orbiter phoned home, relaying news from @NASAInSight indicating its solar panels are open & collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. Also in the dispatch: this snapshot from the lander's arm showing the instruments in their new home: https://t.co/WygR5X2Px4 pic.twitter.com/UwzBsu8BNe NASA (@NASA) November 27, 2018 Since then, NASA has been posting pictures on social media of the planet and the spacecraft opening its solar panels, through which it can recharge its batteries. Aaah...soaking up the Sun with my solar panels. After a long flight, and thrilling #MarsLanding, it feels great to get a good stretch and recharge my batteries. (Like, literally.) It's just what I'll need to really start getting in tune with #Mars. https://t.co/yse3VEst3G pic.twitter.com/LpsiI0KNNz NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) November 27, 2018 These pictures and a few more that are expected to be relayed back in the following days, will surely excite Musk and everyone else, who want to travel to Mars or want to explore the red planet in detail. InSight will now begin its two-year mission as the first spacecraft designed to explore the deep interior of another world. Technology truly is developing at a speed 10x faster than Usain Bolt. We can't believe we are looking at the surface of one planet, while sipping tea sitting on a bean bag in another planet. Thank you for subscribing! By signing up to this free newsletter you agree to receive occasional emails from us informing you about our products and services. You can opt out of these emails at any time. JOURNALIST: As we said earlier, joining us is Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Giorgos Katrougalos. Good morning, Minister. G. KATROUGALOS: Good morning to you too and to our listeners. JOURNALIST: And let us wish everyone a good week. Did this week begin well for Theresa May? Is this a velvet divorce after all, Mr Minister? G. KATROUGALOS: It is a compromise, much like any international agreement that seeks to reach a compromise between conflicting interests. What we, as the EU-27, achieved was to show unity and solidarity both between ourselves and towards countries with important, crucial national interests depending on the outcome of the negotiations, such as Ireland and, more recently, Spain, so as to reach an agreement that protects our vital interests. The outcome also protects the vital interests of the other side, as appropriate for such agreements. From here on in, Mrs May has a difficult road ahead of her in order to achieve ratification, the approval of this agreement, because, unfortunately, the political dialogue that took place in Great Britain had not clarified the dilemmas at hand from the outset. There were many who believed that they would leave the European Union and retain the privileges afforded to Member States - which was clearly impossible. Even when one leaves an ordinary club, it is obvious that one cannot enjoy the same privileges as one did as a member. JOURNALIST: Nevertheless, while the ratification of the agreement in London is questionable, in inverted commas, European officials are praising it. Alright, Prime Minister Tsipras said that this agreement should not serve as an example to others. Was it a bad deal after all? G. KATROUGALOS: No. What we meant was that in certain areas, for example in defence and security, we wish to preserve our cooperation with the United Kingdom much more than with other, third countries. However, this special relationship that we wish to preserve with the United Kingdom must not serve as a standard for relations between the European Union and other countries in the future, because we indeed wish to keep the United Kingdom as a special partner. The UK is leaving the European Union. It isnt leaving Europe. JOURNALIST: Minister, what will Brexit mean for us Greeks, for Greek students, for Greek immigrants in England? Will it mean something for... G. KATROUGALOS: Good question. For us, safeguarding the rights of Greek workers and Greek students was our top priority. These were among the very first issues resolved. The rights of Greeks currently living and working in Great Britain are absolutely guaranteed, and every possible effort will be made, in the context of our future relations, so that those who will move to Great Britain will have considerable protection. JOURNALIST: Protection in which areas? Their lives? Their studies? Will they need a visa? G. KATROUGALOS: Let me be perfectly clear. For those who are... JOURNALIST: Let me explain: they have certain privileges as citizens of the European Union. They have certain privileges. Or had. Such as the health system. What will happen to these privileges? G. KATROUGALOS: Those who were in Great Britain at the time had precisely the same rights -lets not call them privileges, since they are rights- as UK citizens, precisely because Member States cannot discriminate domestically. So, what I mean is that with respect to Greek citizens who are currently in Great Britain, who live there, whether they are working or studying, nothing will change. The rights of these people will remain the same as before. JOURNALIST: Let us focus on our neighbouring country, Turkey. The Greek military leadership appears to be vigilant in the area of Cyprus, with regard to what is occurring in the Aegean Sea, which seem to entail almost daily threats by the Turkish leadership. G. KATROUGALOS: It is in our country's absolute interest to remain sober. This is precisely because we know that our interests are fortified by international legality and protected under international agreements, and also because the diplomatic position of both the Hellenic Republic and Republic of Cyprus is particularly strong. In fact, it is clear that what have been proven to be revisionist efforts with regard to treaties and strident belligerent rhetoric are not beneficial, but, on the contrary, lead to isolationism. My opinion -and this is clear from the fact that the Republic of Cyprus is moving forward with exploiting its natural resources- is that the foregoing policy, that of disputing international law and not of the effort to have national interests regulated in the context dictated by international law, is currently in isolation. JOURNALIST: Minister, there are even insinuations of a new invasion of Cyprus. G. KATROUGALOS: There are indeed -however, these were said not by a representative of the government, but by a representative of the opposition. In any event, this is indicative of the fact that there is fertile ground in Turkish politics for such nationalistic bombast. Once again, it is obviously in our interest to refrain from such bombast with similar statements, precisely because we have nothing to claim, but also nothing to concede. Our interests and national rights are absolutely protected. And to assure our listeners that these are not empty words, this is reflected in a number of recent EU decisions which, when compared to the past, even during critical periods such as the one following the case of Imia, indicate that the European Union clearly accepts the simple fact I mentioned: that in our region, there is one state, Turkey, which is disputing legality in terms of the Law of the Sea and its defence by another state, which is an EU Member State and which from this very fact alone demands solidarity. And I repeat: the current issue in the seas of Cyprus is not just a matter of right - it is also a matter of diplomatic capacity. HARBOR BEACH Michael Delpiere, along with Scott Rayl, has been the owner of Harbor Drug for nearly 27 years. During that time, Delpiere, a long-resident of Harbor Beach and graduate of Bad Axe, has enjoyed the hometown feel of working at Harbor Drug. I enjoy the fact that I know almost everybody here, Delpiere said. I know most of my patients by name. I just enjoy the day-to-day interaction with them and I enjoy the fact that everybody knows everybody, and you find out when youre actually helping somebody. I really like that. Delpiere is a registered pharmacist and when the opportunity to buy Huron Drug arose, he jumped at the opportunity. I had been working at Huron Medical Center at the time, Delpiere explained. An opportunity came up and I wanted to be able to practice pharmacy, where I work with patients every day of the week. Thats why I always wanted to own a retail pharmacy. Harbor Drug is located at 114 S. Huron Ave. in Harbor Beach, but that is not where it has always been located. When we bought the store, it was originally across the street, Delpiere said. It was basically just a pharmacy with over-the-counter type drugs and a Hallmark gift department. When we moved over to this store in 1997, we had a lot more space. We went from about 3,800 square feet to 5,000 square feet, which allowed us to expand the departments. Since moving, Harbor Drug has turned into a one-stop-shop in Harbor Beach, as they sell a wide variety of things, from gifts, alcohol, crafting items, and medical items. We lost a few stores around town and we just felt that we needed to add some things, Delpiere said. Over the years different departments have changed, weve added, subtracted, now we use probably 10 main vendors. Harbor Drug, along with their location in Deckerville, works closely with the local hospitals as well. I feel like the pharmacy in a small town is one of the cornerstone stores, Delpiere said. Were trying to make it so that we can continue to serve everyone in Harbor Beach and from the surrounding areas. We actually have a store in Deckerville also because there was a need there." "We also service both of those hospitals (in Harbor Beach and Deckerville)," he added. "Its a nice partnership between us and them and being able to be here helps keep people in town. The fact that Harbor Drug is independently owned, gives them an advantage, Delpiere added. Harbor Drug is an independently owned pharmacy, where CVS or Walgreens is a corporation, Delpiere said. Were it. Were the decision makers on everything from what we purchase to how we fill prescriptions. "At a corporation level, thats all outsourced. The pharmacist there basically follows the protocol of the company. So, it gives us a lot more professional judgement. They have professional judgement as well Im sure, but were able to work with the patients on certain things a little more effectively. He also understands the importance of local pharmacies. Its very important, Delpiere said. We participate in Small Business Saturday, we hosted an open house on Monday because in small towns, a lot of these large corporations are not. We also have a lot of lower income type people who cant travel to those areas, so its important for us to have what they need. MIDDLETOWN The citys three-term mayor will not run in 2019, he said Tuesday. Drew shared the news in a Facebook post, citing his wish to spend more time with his wife and four young children. Holding this office is not just a job it, by necessity, becomes a lifestyle, and requires the continued sacrifice of everyone close to whoever holds it. Its pressures are tremendous and exist around the clock, 365 days per year wherever you happen to be, he wrote. Drew also reflected on changes that have take place over his eight years in office. His first two terms were two years in length, and, after a charter revision passed by voters in 2015, the post was increased to a four-year term. I am proud to say we never took the path of least resistance when faced with hard decisions, he said. State Rep. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, issued a statement in reaction to the news: Public service can take an incredible toll on ones family and friendships and I know how hard he has worked, Lesser said. A Democrat, Drew formed an exploratory committee in July 2017 for a gubernatorial bid in 2018 . He withdrew in January, after his campaign reported a negative balance when factoring in unpaid expenses on the last election filing. The night before his announcement to end his bid , Drew lost his seat on the Democratic Town Committee as a part of a larger coup attempt by a rival party faction. In April, the mayor, originally from New Milford, also considered running for the 5th District congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, a Democrat. He abandoned that campaign in May, saying the timing was not right to run for Congress, according to the CT Mirror. The mayors recent tenure saw a gender bias complaint levied by Michele DiMauro, the human resources director of the Board of Education, who alleged she had been denied a pay raise and that Drew was responsible. An independent probe conducted by New Haven attorney Margaret P. Mason, reported we cannot conclude one way or the other that the mayor actually influenced the process, she wrote. Among benefits residents have enjoyed are the opening of the FedEx distribution hub in the Westfield section of the city. In the past seven years, we have seen the city of Middletown advance significantly and in ways that so many people said could not be done. Our bond rating has advanced to the highest level a community can achieve, the infrastructure for a new riverfront development is in place, unemployment is down, violent crime is down, and thousands of businesses have located here, he wrote. Common Councilman and Minority Leader Sebastian N. Giuliano wishes Drew well, saying he is not entirely ruling out a run for the citys top job next November. Giuliano, a Republican, was mayor for three two-year terms from 2005 until 2011, and is in his fifth year on the council. He probably deserves a break, he said. He praised Drews leadership in moving ahead the Mattabasset sewer district connection, expected to be complete by next July; the Pat Kidney and Palmer Field projects, and encouraging the passing of a $33 million parks bond. Giuliano has one criticism, however. I think there was too much stuff in it, but for the most part was a positive thing. Drews successor will be charged with wooing a tenant for the former parking Arcade on Court Street, demolished in May and turned into a temporary surface lot. I think he would have been happier if something concrete had been there before he left. Some things, all you can do is advance the ball down the field and someone else is going to carry it across the goal line, Giuliano said. Santangelo, who has been on the council for 26 yearsand is in his 13th term, said hed only consider running under one condition if a large group of people, say 50 to 100 individuals, pledged support for his candidacy. Barring that, Santangelo would retire from the council at the end of his term in 2019. They basically told me goodbye, said Santangelo, 72, referring to the progressive slates takeover of the town committee. Its time to step down. Its time to take a vacation, play golf, and sit and watch the election from the sidelines, he said. Much like during his tenure, Giuliano said dealing with staff is often a challenge. On the downside, I dont know that his relationship with the city workforce is as good as it could have been. Its never a bed of roses. Ive been there, I know. He kept things going in a decent direction for the city, he said. Drew also increased the general fund budget to numbers I personally am not comfortable with, said Giuliano, who left office when expenditures were $130 million a year, compared to $151 million now. The last eight years, it has been an honor to serve with Dan Drew. He had a great vision and he got things done, Santangelo said. Dan left Middletown better than he found it, said Santangelo, who does have one disappointment: Drew wont be around to lead as the city once the Francis T. Patnaude Inter-municipal Pumping Station is complete next summer. The project sounded the bell for waterfront development, the deputy mayor said. Drew noted positive changes in the city over the past seven years, including a very high bond rating, reduced unemployment and less violent crime. Drew said hes enjoyed his time in the mayors seat: Being your mayor has been the greatest professional honor of my life, but said he also believes there are disadvantages to having a leader serve for too long. I have long believed that no one should hold an office like this in perpetuity. ... The limitations of local government can make this a difficult goal to achieve, but those same limitations make it all the more satisfying when it works. I have been fortunate to lead a team that has made it work time and again. For that, I thank you, the people, for giving me this opportunity. I am eternally grateful, Drew concluded on his Facebook post. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Drew is from Milford. He is from New Milford. MIDDLETOWN What do you get when you gather artists, workplace experts, advocates, employers, city officials, non-profit staff, single parents, philanthropists and community residents in one place to help solve a persistent community problem? A sorely needed discussion and place for innovation to thrive and solutions to be born. The issue is poverty. Middletown is home to 10,567 families. Of these, 43% are single parent families, which is higher than the state average of 34 percent. Of the 43 percent, there are 35 percent (1,590 families) living at or below the Federal Poverty Level. This is an annual income of $24,600 for a family of four. Middletown WORKS, part of the Working Cities Challenge of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, has taken the lead on tackling this issue by working to reduce the percentage of Middletowns single parent families living at or below poverty by 15 percent over a 10-year period (by 2028). The War on Poverty began 50 years ago, when President Lyndon Johnson, during his first State of the Union address, urged an all-out war on human poverty and unemployment in the United States. (Pew Research Center, 2018). Over the last few decades, there have many debates over Johnsons antipoverty programs. But one thing is for sure - todays impoverished families look much different than they did years ago. For example, single parenthood is on the rise. According to the Pew Research Center, in 1973 more than half (51.4%) of poor families were headed by a married couple; 45.4% were headed by women. In 2012, just over half (50.3%) of poor families were female-headed, while 38.9% were headed by married couples. Middletown WORKS is unique because it brings a variety of voices to the table to find ways to think outside the box when it comes to finding pathways to prosperity. Our team is off to a running start. We have recruited 13 new members and created subcommittees to address various strategies and goals. The kick-off event, Middletown WORKS! Community Launch, will take place on Thursday, Dec. 6, 3:30-5 p.m. at Community Health Center (675 Main St., Middletown). Free snacks, kids activities, giveaways and door prizes will be provided. For more information and to learn about how to get involved, contact Rebecca Lemanski, MSW, Director of Middletown WORKS at 860-975-5405 or email Rebecca.Lemanski@MiddletownWorks.org Hope and Support Groups to meet DURHAM/MIDDLEFIELD A new service for those who have a loved one struggling with substance abuse or addiction is being offered in the Durham/Middlefield area. Hope and Support Groups provide a safe and confidential space for parents, guardians and all others dealing with a loved ones disease of substance abuse or addiction. The group is led by two trained facilitators, a licensed professional and a para-professional with lived experience. Recognizing that this disease affects entire families, the group provides a forum to share openly while receiving peer support, information and the compassion that everyone deserves thus breaking the stigma and isolation created by the disease. The group meets from 7-8:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the Middlefield Federated Church, 402 Main Street, Middlefield. Parents, guardians, siblings, partners and all others living with a loved ones substance abuse disorder or addiction are invited to attend. This service is provided by TriCircle, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides resources for people and families affected by substance use disorders. Through education, research and community engagement they are dedicated to providing the tools that build strong futures. Recovery support group meets in Middletown MIDDLETOWN New Life Journey is a faith based recovery support community, comprised of people from all walks of life who recognize that although experiences shape and mold them, they are not limited to or defined by their stories. The group meets on Fridays from 7-8:30 p.m. at First Church, 190 Court Street, Middletown. For more information, email Admin@NewLifeJourneyCT.com. Young widows, widowers can attend support group MIDDLETOWN Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center and Middlesex Hospital Hospice and Palliative Care are holding a support group for young widows and widowers. Meetings will be held at the Middlesex Hospital Outpatient Center. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. To register, contact Doreen Gagnon at 860-358-2053 or doreen.gagnon@midhosp.org, or Sherry Russenberger at 860-358-6091 or sherry.russenberger@midhosp.org. Adult education offers free classes MIDDLETOWN Adult education offers free classes for area residents ready to earn their high school diploma. High school completion options include online classes and GED. English classes for non-English speaking residents are also available for all proficiency levels. Enrollment is ongoing and there is never a charge for area residents. Day and evening classes are available at 398 Main Street, Middletown. Call or stop by for more information, 860-343-6044. Free GED instruction offered MIDDLETOWN Free GED tutoring is available days & evenings at 398 Main Street Middletown to help residents get their GED. There is no charge for area residents. Call 860-343-6044 for more information. Man of the Year Nominations sought CROMWELL The Knights of Columbus, DeSoto Council 6 in Cromwell announced that nominations forms for the 2019 Man of the Year Award are now available. This award is given annually by the Knights of Columbus to a Cromwell man who displays the highest level of commitment to the Cromwell Community. The applications must contain information on the candidate's civic involvement, member organizations, impact on the community, leadership, and other reasons that make him worthy of this honor. Applications may be obtained at the Town Hall Lobby, Belden Library, or the Knights of Columbus website - www.cromwellkofc.com, or by contacting Tom Tokarz at 860-250-5991 or Mark Walsh at 860-306-2219. Completed applications may be sent to the Knights of Columbus, 573 Main St., Cromwell, CT, or emailed to the Knights of Columbus at cromwellkofc@yahoo.com. Deadline for applications is Dec. 14. EAST HAMPTON A popular podcast produced by a former resident is gearing up for another season after reaching an unanticipated 10,000 listeners. Girl Tales is a free childrens podcast that puts a feminist twist on classic fairy tales by making girl, transgender and non-binary characters the heroes of the story. Each episode is adapted by a different playwright and acted out by multiple actors. Girl Tales founder Rebecca Cunningham describes it as an old-school radio play. Cunningham, who grew up in Old Bridge, New Jersey, teamed up with East Hampton native Chad Chenail to produce the podcast. They met in college while attending Pace University in Manhattan. The Girl Tales concept was Cunninghams idea, but with the help of Chenail, the podcast took flight. Cunningham is the director and host, while Chenail holds the title of producer: working the audio-tech portions of the recording sessions and creating the sound schemes. Chad literally creates the entire world, Cunningham said. The idea for the podcast came about after a series of interactions between Cunningham and the children she cared for during her five years as a nanny. While caring for one child not allowed to watch television, Cunningham struggled to occupy the him long enough so she could cook dinner. I knew I loved podcasts, so I searched if kids podcasts were a thing, and it turned out they were. He was captivated and just sat there for 35 minutes. You would think that it would not work, but its pretty incredible. Its a magic tool for sure, Chenail said. Cunningham thought she found the perfect solution to screen time, and played with the idea of creating her own podcast. While caring for another little girl, she recalled the girl wanting to reenact the Rapunzel story and asking her to act out the part of the prince, her hero. I asked her how she could save herself, and she looked at me like I had six heads, Cunningham said. But the real motivation came after the last presidential election as Cunningham held a young girl in her charge while she watched Hillary Clintons televised concession speech. And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams, Clinton said. I knew that I couldnt not do anything. I had to make sure that the little girl and all the other kids I cared for grew up in a world where they knew that they were capable of anything they wished to do, Cunningham said. She also credits her grandmother, mother and sister. They all fought really hard for the things they wanted in life. My grandmothers case was limited in terms of what dreams she could chase, and so she raised four daughters and she swore that they would never go through the same thing and those daughters raised more daughters, Cunningham said. Theres a really long line of strong women in my family, and I look to them every day for advice in making this podcast, she added. Chenail was also inspired by his mother as well as Epoch Arts, a nonprofit theater arts organization in his hometown of East Hampton. My mother told me every day that Im worthy of doing whatever I want to do, and the power that gave me is the inspiration behind trying to empower these girls, he said. Epoch Arts has done an incredible job giving opportunities to kids and teens to generate art instead of just reading from someone elses script. Everything they do is so collaborative that I think it gave me a lot of courage to jump in and make something instead of just running with something that already exists, Chenail said. They both agree, however, that ultimately, it is the child listeners who motivate them on a daily basis. We are trying to think of one kid and what does that kid really need to hear? We want to fill in the void that childrens media is lacking, Cunningham said. Next season, the duo are creating a story for a child who was born female but identifies as a boy, according to Cunningham. Hes a huge fan and hes our inspiration, she said. Everyone gets something out of this. Girls have spent so much time identifying with male characters in stories that theres no hesitance in boy listeners getting a lot out of the tales, too. Its feminist-focused, but everyone is included in the adventure of the tale, Chenail said. My favorite so far is the Literate Mermaid. Its the tale of the Little Mermaid except Ariel wants legs, so she can get a library card. Shes seen books, but by the time the books get to the bottom of the ocean, all the ink has washed off, and she just wants to be able to read. I think its a great twist, he said. Girl Tales can be found on Facebook at girltalespodcast or subscribe to the mailing list at girltalespodcast.com. To find out when a new episode is up, subscribe on iTunes or Google Play. Season two premiers in January. PORTLAND The Brownstone Quorum was recognized for its management of Riverfront Park by the Connecticut Recreation & Parks Association during a recent awards ceremony at Mohegan Sun. The Quorum received the Selected Organization Award, which recognizes an organization that has made an outstanding voluntary contribution to the field of public recreation and parks, according to the CRPA. The contribution must be significant enough to have had a stimulating effect on recreation at a town, city, state or national level, the association said on its website. The group was nominated by Sean Dwyer, the towns recreation director. In doing so, Dwyer said the Quorum has made tremendous advances toward greater community involvement, and has helped us with a multitude of both passive and recreational opportunities. The Quorum has been partner and advocate for our department since their establishment and we plan to continue working hand in hand to bring more opportunities to the families of Portland, he added. Thanks to the hard work, innovation and dedication of this group of individuals, Portlands community continues to grow and develop, Dwyer concluded. The Quorum has its roots in the effort to oversee the two brownstone quarries the town acquired in the late 1990s. Its goal was to aid the town as officials decided the use of the properties, which also included adjacent riverfront land, Dwyer explained in his nominating letter. The goals of the Quorum are to encourage the preservation of the town quarries, increase public awareness of the history of the parcel, and to both preserve and enhance the features designated as a Nation Historic Landmark, his statement said. In 2007, three brothers took a gamble and leased the north quarry, which they converted in the Brownstone Exploration and Discovery Park. The Quorum decided a town gathering site would complement the discovery park, and so members began clearing a site that offered a view of the Connecticut River. Quorum volunteers began clearing the site, removing debris, and clearing trees and blazing trails, Dwyer said. As efforts began bearing fruits, the town, aided by nearly $1 million in state grants, created an open pavilion, which housed eight picnic tables, running water and electricity, a small storage building with men and womens restrooms and picnic tables and stone seats arranged along the river edge to take advantage of the views, according to as First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield. As the park began attracting more and more visitors, the Quorum decided to build a stage/band shell to hold free town concerts. Those concerts have become a huge hit, Dwyer said, attracting an average of 600 attendees per week. In the fall, the park is the site of both the Come On Over 5K Road Race and haunted trail walk. The Quorum and Parks and Recreation Department have collaborated on many public/community events at the park, which is also available for private events and parties, Dwyer noted. Resident Frank Winiski said much of the credit for the Quorums early success must go to Jeanne Dilworth. Winiski said Dilworth, who was a teacher in town for a number of years, recruited me back in the 90s to become involved in what later became the Quorum. In accepting the award, Quorum President and Selectman James K. Tripp said, I want to thank Sean Dwyer for nominating us for the award and CRPA for selecting us. I am proud of the work the Quorum has done over our nearly two decades in existence. We are lucky to have a dedicated group of volunteers who are always willing to share their expertise, he said. We are ever grateful for the support of the residents of Portland and the partnership we have enjoyed with the town, Tripp said. Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Cromwell and Portland for the Middletown Press. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com. The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels. You will not find this level of coverage anywhere else, join us! Send information, pictures or videos, you remain 100% anonymous. Envia fotos, videos, notas, enlaces o informacion todo 100% Anonimo. Want to be a contributor or citizen reporter for Borderland Beat? We love to have you in our team, send Sol Prendido or HEARST an email! WARNING: Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. COMMENTS: We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. China's Sub Force Is Growing More Powerful. This Is What the US Navy Needs to Do to Stay Ahead U.S. military officials announced Tuesday that the U.S. Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday was likely a victim of friendly fire. Sgt. Leandro A.S. Jasso, a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, was killed during an operation to eliminate al-Qaida militants in Nimruz province. "An initial review indicates Sgt. Jasso was likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force," according to an Operation Resolute Support press release. "There are no indications he was shot intentionally." Early interviews indicate the tragic accident occurred "when the partnered force became engaged in a close-quarter battle during an assault on one of multiple barricaded al-Qaida shooters," the release states. "Sgt. Jasso was killed defending our nation, fighting al-Qaida alongside our Afghan partners," Gen. Scott Miller, commanding general of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said in the release. "All of us, and throughout our coalition of 41 nations, recognize the threats posed by groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS and are determined to fight them here." The announcement about Jasso's death came as three U.S. service members were killed Tuesday in a blast that wounded four other Americans. The three died when an improvised explosive device detonated near Ghazni. Three other service members and one American contractor were wounded in the blast. The deaths of Jasso and the three service members bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 13. About 14,000 U.S. troops are deployed to Afghanistan to assist NATO's training and advising mission, while a smaller number help with a separate U.S. counterterrorism mission that targets groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. The head of a B-52 Stratofortress bomber squadron at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, has been fired for failing to maintain a professional and positive workplace. Lt. Col. Paul Goossen was removed from command of the 69th Bomb Squadron "due to a loss of trust and confidence from his failure to maintain a professional workplace environment," the Air Force said in a release Tuesday. "The Air Force values and encourages a positive work atmosphere where all airmen are treated with dignity and respect, and leadership actions that do not reflect these ideals are not condoned," the service said. Maj. Natasha Cherne, spokeswoman for the 5th Bomb Wing, told Military.com the removal was the result of a command-directed investigation. Col. Bradley Cochran, commander of the 5th Bomb Wing, initiated the investigation, which concluded Oct. 31, Cherne said. Goossen took over as the squadron commander in summer 2017, she said. Related content: According to Goossen's professional LinkedIn page, he was previously the installation's Inspector General. He attended the Air Force Academy between 1999 and 2003, the website says. Goossen was commander of the 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron when the B-52 flew its last missions against the Islamic State before the B-1B Lancer took over the mission in the Middle East, according to the Air Force. During its eight-month deployment, Air Force units to include the 69th launched "834 consecutive B-52 missions without a maintenance cancellation," while targeting ISIS and Taliban fighters across the U.S. Central Command region, the service said in a release. The 69th was reactivated in 2009 to provide an active-duty combat-coded B-52 squadron, making it the fourth operational Stratofortress squadron in the Air Force, according to the service. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has ordered U.S. troops to set up observation posts in northern Syria with a dual purpose -- to warn Turkey of threats and to stop the Turkish military from attacking U.S.-backed opposition forces. In an informal session with Pentagon reporters last Wednesday, Mattis said the personnel at the observation posts would come from the estimated 2,000 U.S. troops already in Syria on train, advise and assist missions and would not require bringing in additional forces. "We are putting observation posts in several locations up along the northern Syrian border because we want to be the people who call the Turks and warn them if we see something coming out of an area that we're operating in," Mattis said, referring to the U.S. troops working with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to eliminate the last remnants of the Islamic State in Syria around the town of Al-Tanf near the Iraqi border. "We are going to track any threat we can spot going up into Turkey," he said. "That means we'll be talking to Turkish military across the border." But he also acknowledged that the observation posts would give a measure of protection to the SDF. "What this is designed to do is make sure that the people we have fighting down in the MERV [Middle Euphrates River Valley] are not drawn off that fight and that we can crush what's left of the geographic caliphate," Mattis said. The Turkish military has occasionally shelled the SDF. Last month, the SDF halted offensives against Al-Tanf out of concerns that Turkey was moving against elements of the group in Manbij on the Turkish border. The U.S. has begun joint patrols in Manbij with the Turks to ease tensions. Turkey has maintained that the Kurdish YPG (People's Protection Units), considered the most effective fighting force within the SDF, is linked with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has been labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey and the U.S. Mattis said the Turks "don't like our relationship" with the YPG. "I understand where they're coming from. But we do not say that YPG is the same as PKK." Turkey's concerns about the YPG are also distracting the SDF from the final push against ISIS, Mattis said. He said the SDF has lost thousands of troops in the effort to drive ISIS from the region, but they "got distracted by the instability up around Afrin and Manbij, and so they were not staying fully focused." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. "The thing's gone on long enough," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week of the war in Afghanistan as he pressed for peace talks with the Taliban. "Right now, it's 40 years next year since the Soviet invasion," which lit the fuse for the bloody ethnic, sectarian and political rivalries that have continued through the Taliban's rise to power, he said. The U.S. military involvement began within weeks of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It's time for a political settlement, Mattis said last Wednesday in a wide-ranging informal session with Pentagon reporters. He spoke three days before Army Sgt. Leandro A.S. Jasso, 25, of Leavenworth, Washington, was fatally wounded in a firefight with al-Qaida militants in southwestern Nimruz province. On Tuesday, NATO's Resolute Support mission said Jasso's death was likely the result of friendly fire from an Afghan security forces unit. Also on Tuesday, NATO reported that three U.S. troops were killed and three other service members and a contractor were wounded by an improvised explosive device in north central Ghazni province. The deaths of Jasso and the three service members bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year up to 13. At the Pentagon, Mattis said he is encouraged by the efforts of veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, in attempting to lay the groundwork for a political settlement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. "We're doing what we can to support Ambassador Khalilzad. He is firmly in control now and acting very much in an energetic way" to make contacts with Taliban representatives, Mattis said, adding that the ambassador is trying "to engage with Saudi help, United Arab Emirates help and Qatari help, to get the reconciliation talks going." The three Gulf Arab states "are helping us to try to bring the Taliban together for an Afghan-led, but fully supported by the international community, reconciliation effort," he said. Mattis declined to characterize the progress made by Khalilzad, but said, "There's an active effort underway, and it includes folks from the Taliban side." The estimated 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan are "doing the advising in the field" for the Afghan forces, Mattis said. "We've lost some troops doing it over the last several months, as you know," but Afghan troops since 2014 have taken the lead in the fighting and have suffered far more casualties. "You noticed President [Ashraf] Ghani announcing at least a total 29,000 Afghan troops killed since 2015. It gives you an idea just how much of a load of this fight is being carried by the Afghan army," he said. The U.S. and NATO no longer give estimates on Afghan casualties, but Ghani gave the figures earlier this month in a speech by video to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, where he once taught anthropology. Ghani said that since the start of 2015, when Afghan police and army units took over primary Afghan security, "28,529 of our security forces have lost their lives and become martyrs for our freedom." During that same period, 58 U.S. troops were killed, he said. "I would like to salute the patriotism of the Afghan security forces, every single one of whom is a volunteer," Ghani said. "We have no conscription, nobody is forced, and if there was not a patriotic impulse, I don't think that people would sacrifice their lives for a pay of $200 [per month]." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out Tuesday against the U.S. troop presence in eastern Syria, charging that American plans to set up observation posts along the Turkish-Syrian border are meant to aid terrorist elements in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Without naming the U.S., a NATO ally, Erdogan said, "Those who say they are countering [ISIS] in Syria are in fact allowing a small group of terrorists to exist in the country to justify their presence in the war-torn country," according to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper. Erdogan was referring to the YPG (People's Protection Units), the Kurdish force within the SDF that has been instrumental in driving the Islamic State from Raqqa and now is pressing the last pocket of ISIS fighters in Syria near the Iraqi border. Turkey considers the YPG to be an ally of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has been labeled a terrorist group by it and the U.S. Erdogan charged that the U.S. is falsely claiming to be fighting terror through the presence of its estimated 2,000 troops in Syria, saying it is actually showing a preference to "live and breathe with the terrorists" by backing the SDF and its YPG contingents. "The only target of this terror organization [YPG], which is the Syrian branch of the PKK, is our country," he said. "It's not possible for us to remain idle against this threat." Erdogan spoke ahead of a meeting of his National Security Council to consider regional issues, including the plan announced last week by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to set up observation posts manned by U.S. troops in northern Syria. In making the announcement to Pentagon reporters, Mattis rejected the charge that the YPG is allied with the PKK. The Turks "don't like our relationship" with the YPG, he said. "I understand where they're coming from. But we do not say that YPG is the same as PKK." Mattis said the observation posts will give early warning to Turkey of any threats headed north and also prevent clashes between the Turkish military and the YPG. A U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday that U.S. troops are present along the Turkey-Syria border but are still in the process of selecting locations for the observation posts. "Turkey was fully briefed" on the observation posts as the planning proceeded, Army Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a video briefing to the Pentagon from Baghdad. Ryan said the posts are "committed to security in the northern Syria region. It takes into account Turkey's security as well." However, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Saturday that the observation posts will aggravate the security situation in the region, Turkey's state Anadolu news agency reported. "I think actions like this will make the complicated situation in the region even more complicated," Akar said, adding that the Turkish military will not hesitate to launch cross-border attacks against perceived threats. "Nobody should doubt that the Turkish armed forces and the Republic of Turkey will take the necessary steps against all kinds of risks and threats from across its borders," he said. On other issues, Ryan confirmed that a major counterattack by ISIS in Syria last weekend killed at least 80 troops from the U.S.-backed SDF, showing the resilience of the terrorist organization despite an 11-month siege of its last refuge in Syria near the town of Al-Tanf on the Iraqi border. Ryan said the SDF had regained territory lost in the counterattack and resumed offensives against Al-Tanf. "We should remain patient as fighting continues to be intense," he added. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. Green Berets and Czech troops are being investigated after an Afghan commando died in custody last month, military officials in Afghanistan said Tuesday. The commando, Wahidullah Khan, 19, had been arrested by Afghan troops and handed over to the U.S.-led coalition shortly after he was accused of opening fire and killing a Czech soldier at Shindand Air Base in western Herat province on Oct. 22, the New York Times first reported Monday. When Khan was returned to Afghan custody, he had been beaten unconscious, officials said. He died shortly thereafter, the newspaper said, citing unnamed Afghan officials. Gen. Scott Miller, commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, has since asked the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command to investigate the death. "The incident remains under investigation," NATO's Resolute Support mission in Kabul said Tuesday in an email to Stars and Stripes. "We will hold individuals accountable, as appropriate." A team from the Army's 7th Special Forces Group, which helped transfer Khan to the custody of Czech soldiers, has been removed from Afghanistan for the duration of the investigation, the Times reported. It's not clear if any U.S. troops were responsible for beating Khan. The Czech Ministry of Defense denied any involvement in the commando's death to the Times. Khan was accused of killing Cpl. Tomas Prochazka and wounding two other Czech soldiers when he shot at a coalition vehicle last month. It was one of five insider attacks in which a member of the Afghan security forces has turned their weapon on coalition troops this year. NATO troops were killed in four of these incidents. The shooting came just days after an insider attack at a meeting in Kandahar province killed Afghan police Gen. Abdul Raziq and wounded U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley. Miller, the top U.S. commander in the country, had been at the meeting but was unharmed. Insider attacks remain a serious threat in Afghanistan, although they are much less frequent than at their peak in 2012. U.S. and Afghan officials have sought to reduce the threat in recent years and in September 2017 introduced a screening process that has since led to the removal of some 300 Afghan commandos from the force. The elite commando troops conduct most of the country's offensive operations against terrorist and insurgent groups. They are often accompanied on the battlefield by U.S. special operations troops. In at least two insider attacks last year, commandos turned their weapons on their American counterparts, killing three and wounding seven. The shooting in Herat that killed Prochazka was the third attack on Czech troops serving in Afghanistan in as many months. Days earlier, five soldiers were wounded when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb outside Bagram Air Field. Three were killed in an August suicide bombing while on a foot patrol outside the base. The Czech military says its troops operate at Bagram and in Herat, Kabul and Logar provinces. The Czech Republic recently agreed to station 390 soldiers in Afghanistan through 2020, among the more than 16,000 coalition troops in the country who mainly train and equip government forces as part of the NATO mission. Female Marines have begun wearing a new dress blue uniform coat designed to look like the male version. Marines with November Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, were the first to don the new uniform, which features a white belt and form-fitting coat with standing collar, during their Nov. 16 graduation ceremony. "All the Marines looked sharp," Marine Corps Systems Command Sgt. Maj. Robin Fortner said in a recent service press release. "The uniform represents the United States Marine Corps and its proud, rich legacy, which was exemplified by the Marines." Female Marines have until Sept. 30, 2022, to wear the current women's dress coat, which features an open collar, before they must change over to the new design. The new female dress coat is the result of a 2014 initiative to develop a female uniform similar to the male uniform for a more unified look, the release states. Marine Corps Systems Command conducted extensive research with female Marines by visiting I and II Marine Expeditionary Forces and conducting onsite surveys with 2,632 Marines from the National Capital Region; Parris Island; Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point, North Carolina; and the entire West Coast, the release continues. "It was important for MCSC to get this right for the institution," Fortner said. "I appreciate the diligence that went into this effort from the beginning and the follow-on support to the depot." The third prototype was selected as the final design, said Louis Curcio, Infantry Combat Equipment clothing designer. The main additions are a white belt and standing collar. "Throughout the process, we conducted three different surveys to figure out if the new coat was something Marines actually wanted -- and we only surveyed females," he said. "We gave all of the results to the commandant, and he made the final decision based on their input." Designers also added a seam to the upper-torso area to make the uniform easier to alter to fit different body types. Additionally, the coat was lengthened 1.5 inches to give it more structure and balance with the trousers, which also offer greater range of motion and mobility, according to the release. "With this change, all Marines will have the uniform of the Corps, and there will be no doubts that they are U.S. Marines in the dress blue uniform," Curcio said. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. AF Announces Bases for B-21 Tests The Air Force has selected the bases where the B-21 Raider will be tested and evaluated. Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma will coordinate maintenance and sustainment of the B-21, and Edwards AFB, California, will lead testing and evaluation. The testing program is designed to provide timely, objective and accurate information to decision makers. Robins AFB, Georgia, and Hill AFB, Utah, will support Tinker AFB to ensure the advanced B-21 is maintained and, when necessary, overhauled and upgraded. The plane is expected to be delivered in the mid-2020s. For more military base news and resources, visit Military.com's Base Guide. For more on military aircraft, check out Military.com's Equipment Guide. The creators of a new online tool are hoping a road map to the military caregiver experience can help users better navigate the challenges of assisting a wounded veteran, while giving advocates and nonprofits a better idea of how to help. The Caregiver Journey Map, unveiled Nov. 26 at a Washington, D.C., event, was created by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation through its Hidden Heroes caregiver program, in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs and corporate sponsor Philips. Based off interviews and coordination with a wide array of experts and military caregivers, the map plots life experiences in a clock-like format. That life cycle is split into three main sections: becoming aware and adjusting, shifting priorities and seeking help, and finding a rhythm. Within each section are the landmark events a wounded veteran's caregiver often experiences, starting with the moment the injury occurs or is noticed. Elizabeth Dole Foundation officials said they hope the map is used by two distinct groups of people: caregivers who need help, and the people who want to help them. For advocates, the map can "teach providers, non-profits, anyone who is interested in learning more ... where there are points of intervention when their support can be most effective," said Laurel Rodewald, the foundation's director of programs, who helped developed the tool. Rodewald said they originally got the idea for the map from a foundation partner who wanted to know how to help caregivers, but didn't know where to start. "Despite the research that is going on in the space, people didn't have a perspective of the full context on the caregiver," she said. The map, which is also available as a stand-alone print guide, can give those users a big picture overview. But officials are also hoping it's equally useful to the caregivers themselves, giving them not only perspective that what they are currently going through is normal, but a view into how they may feel in the future, said foundation fellow Hannah Nieskens. Nieskens, whose husband was injured in Iraq in 2005, said she hopes the map becomes a tool her community can use to know they are not alone in the feelings or struggles they face at home. "Something like this would've been an awesome resource at that time because I really felt isolated. I felt confused. I felt overwhelmed," she said. "I felt very unsure of what I was doing, and it felt like I was doing this by myself. This tool, I think, could be so helpful for anyone who is going through the cycle of coming to grips with becoming a caregiver, and ultimately working toward balance in their life and thriving in that role." The interactive map can be viewed here, while a print version can be found here. -- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com. The Braves have designated lefty Adam McCreery for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot will go to just-inked slugger Josh Donaldson. McCreery, 25, came to the Atlanta organization in the early-season 2016 swap that sent Jhoulys Chacin to the Angels. He has steadily moved up the ladder in the Braves system since his arrival, even briefly cracking the big leagues last year. The 2018 season was McCreerys first in the upper minors. He produced solid results, working to a 3.59 ERA in 62 2/3 innings (including his frames in the Arizona Fall League), but coughed up 5.7 free passes per nine to go with a healthy tally of 11.2 K/9. Whether the 69 southpaw can stay in the zone enough to establish himself at the MLB level remains to be seen. After GM announced it would close assembly and propulsion plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Ontario by the end of 2019, President Donald Trump said he warned the Detroit-based automaker they were "playing around with the wrong person. Trump, who was warned by the automaker months ago that his import tariffs would lead to "a smaller GM," spoke with the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Nov. 26. He said he spoke with GM CEO Mary Barra the night before the cuts were announced, and claims to have suggested the automaker cease production in China and replace it with a new plant in Ohio. Despite closing an assembly and propulsion plant in Michigan, the president focused on the loss of the Ohio plant going as far as saying "they better damn well open a new plant there very quickly." "I love Ohio," he told WSJ in the interview. "I said, 'I heard you're closing your plant. It's not going to be closed for long, I hope, Mary, because if it is you have a problem." CNN reports Trump said he "was very tough" with Barra, and that he reminded the automaker's CEO that "you know, this country has done a lot for General Motors. You know, the United States saved General Motors, and for her to take that company out of Ohio is not good." General Motors just announced plans to lay off nearly 15,000 workers and shut down plants across the US. This is the same @GM that got a huge tax break from the #GOPTaxScam and spent $4.5 billion on stock buybacks last year. Its shameful. https://t.co/7C7W77PouW Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 26, 2018 -- Specifically, GM announced plans to close the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, Lordstown Assembly Plant in Warren, Ohio and Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario by the end of 2019. It will also close propulsion plants in Warren, Michigan and White Marsh, Maryland in the same timeframe. This will result in the loss of nearly 15,000 jobs and a 15 percent cut to its salaried workforce. About 8,100 of the 14,700 jobs cut were white-collar, salaried employees. North America isn't the only area feeling cuts, as GM also says it will close the assembly plant in Gunsan, Korea in addition to two other non-North American plants by the end of next year. Mary Barra, the automaker's CEO and chairman, said that these measures will continue GM's transformation into a "highly agile, resilient and profitable" company with some needed investment flexibility. The cuts is expected to result in an increase in the automaker's cash flow by $6 billion by the end of 2020. "This morning (Monday), I spoke to Mary Barra and she advised me for the first time of the situation at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said. "The news is troubling. "We all know there is strong demand for manufacturing space in Detroit and we are willing to work with GM to fill all the available manufacturing space at Poletown with either GM-related entities or other companies." UAW responded by calling the automaker's moves a "callous decision" that is "profoundly damaging to our American workforce." Much like Trump, the union pointed to the past of the "historical American-made bailout." "GM's production decisions, in light of employee concessions during the economic downturn and a taxpayer bailout from bankruptcy, puts profits before the working families of this country whose personal sacrifices stood with GM during those dark days," Terry Dittes, UAW vice president and director of the GM department, said in a statement. "These decisions are a slap in the face to the memory and recall of that historical American made bailout." As part of the cuts, GM will also cease production of the Chevrolet Impala, Volt and Cruze, and is also thought to be eyeing the Cadillac XTS, CT6 and Buick LaCrosse for the chopping block. ANN ARBOR, MI - Standing over metal grates along a walking trail in Ann Arbor's West Park, Evan Pratt noted the rushing sound below. "What we're hearing here is water that's about 15 feet below us," said Washtenaw County's water resources commissioner. Lab tests show the flowing drain water -- a mix of groundwater and stormwater contained in storm sewer pipes that ultimately discharge to the Huron River in Ann Arbor -- has been contaminated with dioxane, a harmful chemical from old manufacturing operations that has poisoned much of the area's groundwater. "Ironically these are purifying chambers here," Pratt said of the drain system he stood above. "We settle out a lot of the sediment and fines that pollutants take a ride on. We scoop this stuff out a few times a year." The dioxane levels in water samples taken from the storm sewer-- a buried branch of the Allen Creek -- jumped from 4.4 parts per billion last year to 19 ppb more recently, a spike that has Pratt and others calling for more investigation. "We want more information," said Pratt, who doesn't believe residents are in any immediate danger. "I don't see anything, from what I've learned, that suggests that we've got any issues with human exposure, even if we were to see 10 or even 100 times what we're seeing here." But some local environmental watchdogs are concerned the discovery of dioxane in the West Park drain is only the tip of the iceberg and a warning of potential problems and looming risks to residents. An underground plume of dioxane has been gradually spreading through Ann Arbor's groundwater for decades, originating at the Gelman Sciences complex off Wagner Road between the 1960s and 1980s. The plume now covers an area more than three miles long and a mile wide, inching toward the Huron River. It's the subject of ongoing litigation brought against the polluter by the city of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Scio Township, the Huron River Watershed Council and the state of Michigan. Dioxane is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as likely to be carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure. It also can cause kidney and liver damage, and respiratory problems. Just a few parts per billion in drinking water, with long-term exposure, poses a 1 in 100,000 cancer risk, according to the EPA. The leading edge of the plume, as mapped using test results from monitoring wells scattered around the city, is now shown moving east through the West Park area just west of downtown. It's there where various branches of Allen Creek -- which once openly flowed until they were converted into underground storm sewers roughly a century ago -- come together. And shallow groundwater in this area is known to rise to the surface and seep out of hillsides. It's now believed that dioxane-laced shallow groundwater is leaking into the storm sewer pipes flowing through West Park. "The groundwater plume is pretty deep out at the source -- between 150 and 200 feet -- and there are several layers to it, but all that groundwater kind of comes together as you get to one of the lower parts of town in West Park where Allen Creek joins up," Pratt said. "There are several branches that feed the west part of town and I think for quite some time the scientists have figured that the groundwater plume will vent around this area in West Park." Pratt said he knows some people are concerned about the potential for dioxane-laced groundwater to leak into home basements. "But as you stand here in West Park and look around, there really aren't many basements," he said. "All the science from the EPA says really until you've got contaminated groundwater that you know is within 10 feet of a basement, you don't even think about going and checking. And then, if you do go and check, you're still looking for levels of dioxane that are a couple of order of magnitude higher than what we've got here." Members of the Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane, a partnership of local governments and citizens known as CARD, have been raising concerns for years about the potential for a shallow plume of dioxane to come into contact with leaky basements as the plume rises toward the surface in residential areas west of downtown. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality acknowledges that could potentially pose vapor-intrusion health risks for residents. CARD Chairman Roger Rayle said the dioxane found at West Park likely came from somewhere further west where pockets of near-surface groundwater with dioxane are entering the drain and rushing to West Park in the pipes faster than they would through groundwater. "It's a sign of what is already happening up gradient," he said, arguing there's only one permanent monitoring well shallow enough to detect dioxane in the upper aquifer heading toward West Park. That's a well just north of Huron Street east of the Dexter/Jackson split, where there have been gradually increasing levels of dioxane detected over the last several years. The readings spiked at 920 ppb in 2010 before dropping off to under 200 ppb in 2011, and by last year they climbed back up to 370 ppb. That 370 ppb, along with higher concentrations farther up gradient, are heading to West Park where the land surface falls away, exposing the shallow aquifer, said Rayle, who has spent decades tracking the plume and plotting its course. Rayle believes there should be permanent shallow monitoring wells all the way from Maple Road to West Park to better track the dioxane heading toward the park and how fast it's moving, so it can be addressed in time before it nears people's basements. Vince Caruso, a CARD member who lives on Ann Arbor's west side, said he's concerned there haven't been any real plans to systematically test for dioxane in near-surface groundwater. He and others have pushed for the testing done so far. Caruso is hoping things could change with new leadership in Ann Arbor and Lansing. He suggests petitioning incoming Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to have the EPA once again consider designating the Gelman plume as a federal Superfund site with the polluter held responsible for funding a more aggressive cleanup. Gelman's current pump-and-treat efforts overseen by the DEQ to gradually remove dioxane from the ground at select locations have slowed down in recent years. Caruso believes $50 million over 10 years could be enough to clean up the plume and save Barton Pond and many private wells and homes from contamination. Barton Pond is an impoundment on the Huron River where Ann Arbor gets most of its drinking water. Caruso notes there are dioxane readings of close to 1,000 ppb in the Veterans Memorial Park area. He's concerned about those concentrations spreading eastward and rising to the surface. Dan Bicknell, an environmental remediation professional and former EPA Superfund enforcement officer who is credited with discovering the Gelman plume in the 1980s, has joined CARD in pushing for more testing for dioxane in shallow groundwater. He did an evaluation of the Allen Creek storm drain findings and says the latest 19 ppb reading supports his conclusion that a shallow dioxane plume is moving eastward toward West Park. "The dioxane plume is migrating at significant concentrations towards homes located in the lower topographic area of the Old West Side and West Park areas with no proper shallow groundwater monitoring," Bicknell said, estimating a network of monitoring wells to better track the shallow plume and warn residents would cost about $25,000. "As the rapidly increasing dioxane levels moving east reach West Park, they will present increasing risks to construction workers and home owners," Bicknell said. Pratt said he's talked with the DEQ about doing more testing for dioxane in the Allen Creek storm drain system. "Stormwater pipes typically are leaky -- not in a bad way, but they will allow groundwater to come into the pipes," he noted. At Pratt's request, the DEQ tested the storm sewer at the southwest corner of West Park in December 2017 and again in September 2018, which resulted in the 4.4 ppb and 19 ppb readings. "We found more this time than we did last year, so we've asked them to do some more frequent sampling at the DEQ, and it sounds like they're willing to do that," Pratt said, expressing hopes for a series of six monthly samples at four or five additional locations. "We need more data from the branches of Allen Creek that are within the known plume. More data at several storm sewer locations will establish a better picture of where we are now." From there, he said, officials can identify trends before dioxane is at a level that might impact people. DEQ officials could not be reached for comment. Unfortunately, Pratt said, "there's an awful lot of history of contamination and pollution" around Allen Creek. "Along the creek is where tanneries were and a lot of manufacturing," he said. "So, for example, there are groundwater plumes of other chemicals around the Argus building and the Eaton building, around there. And if we were to sample in that main stem of Allen's Creek, we wouldn't really know what we were getting from where, so we just want to kind of sample these legs that are upstream." Pratt noted the latest surface-water sampling results from the DEQ showed no substantive changes in dioxane concentrations at 17 repeat sampling locations in Scio Township and Ann Arbor. He said 10 showed no dioxane, including the three surface waters connected to Allen Creek. Gelman Sciences, a filter maker that used dioxane as an industrial solvent in its manufacturing processes, was acquired in 1997 by Pall Corp., which was acquired in 2015 by Danaher Corp., a multibillion-dollar corporation that some local officials and residents argue has the financial resources to do a better cleanup. Pratt said his preference would be to have Danaher Corp. fund the increased monitoring efforts. "I'll certainly ask them, if the DEQ has not, if they'd be willing and interested in doing so," he said. The mission of the water resources commissioner's office is to provide for the health, safety and welfare of county residents, the protection of surface water and the environment, and to promote environmental and economic sustainability by providing stormwater management, flood control, development review and water-quality programs. Pratt noted his office operates under a permit from the DEQ that requires no detectable levels of any chemicals in stormwater pipes, so he's obligated to probe deeper into the dioxane matter. "If we find any chemicals in our pipes, we're obligated -- myself, the city -- to chase those down and eliminate these chemicals," he said, adding that's unless an exception is made. "So, we want to get a little better idea of what's here, and then I actually have an obligation to go back to a different section of the DEQ that works with municipalities on making sure stormwater isn't contaminated. I've got to go back to those folks and say, 'Well, this is what we have. This is what we know. You know, is this a problem from our permit perspective?' Because we get permitted on a five-year cycle with the DEQ to keep the stormwater clean in urbanized areas." The Allen Creek drain system discharges to the Huron River just south of Argo Pond and downstream of where the city gets its drinking water, and any dioxane reaching the river becomes diluted there. The state's standards for dioxane in groundwater venting to surface water were tightened earlier this year, putting stricter limits in place. The limit for dioxane in surface waters that are protected as drinking water sources dropped from 34 parts per billion to 3.5 ppb, while the limit for dioxane in surface waters that are not protected as drinking water sources dropped from 2,800 ppb to 280 ppb. As far as dioxane in residential drinking water, the state's separate limit for that went down from 85 ppb to 7.2 ppb in 2016, a decision that came after years of lobbying by local officials and activists. Trace amounts of dioxane were detected in shallow groundwater by Waterworks Park on Ann Arbor's west side in 2016, after which the state enacted new emergency standards. BAY CITY, MI -- A Bay County man is spending at least a decade behind bars for driving more than 100 miles to abduct and sexually assault an 11-year-old girl he met online. Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran on Monday, Nov. 26, sentenced Chad D. Michael, 36, to 10 to 15 years in prison. The judge gave him credit for 280 days already served in jail and suggested to the Michigan Department of Corrections that he serve the 15-year maximum. Michael in September pleaded no contest to one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct using force or coercion. The charge involves penetration and is punishable by up to 15 years' imprisonment. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim between the ages of 13 and 15, which is a life offense. Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham previously told MLive that about 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 18, an 11-year-old Dimondale girl was reported missing by her parents. Deputies in Dimondale's Eaton County pinged the girl's iPad and determined it was in or near a Frankenlust Township apartment building. The Eaton County deputies contacted their Bay County counterparts, who went to the unit in the 7000 block of Mackinaw Road early Feb. 19. Deputies met with Michael. Inside his unit, deputies found the girl. Police arrested Michael and transported the girl to an area hospital for an evaluation. She was later returned to her family. Deputies subsequently learned the girl had met Michael several weeks prior via a Craigslist casual encounters portal, Cunningham has said. The night of Feb. 18, Michael had driven the roughly 110 miles one way to the girl's house and picked her up, then drove her back to his apartment, the sheriff has said. FLINT, MI - The judge who ordered Michigan Department of Health and Human Services chief Nick Lyon to face a jury on charges related to the Flint water crisis abused his discretion and ignored certain evidence, the director's attorneys claim in a new court filing. Lyon, 50, is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for what prosecutors say was his role in Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in Genesee County that coincided with the city's use of the Flint River for drinking water. He's also charged with misconduct in office and neglect of duty, a misdemeanor, after being accused of withholding information from Flint citizens about their water. Lyon's attorneys are asking Genesee Circuit Court Judge Joseph Farah to overturn a decision by Genesee District Judge David Goggins' to bind Lyon - the state's top public health official - over for trial. "Regarding the two manslaughter charges ... neither statute nor common law imposed a duty on (Lyon) to guarantee the health of every citizen by issuing a public notice (about the outbreaks, and the director) had no basis to think he should provide public notice ..," part of an 11-page court filing says. "The prosecutor's case is built on supposition and hyperbole, not evidence. The District Court relied on this supposition and hyperbole and did not consider all the evidence, as it was required to do." Special prosecutors have charged Lyon with direct responsibility in the deaths of two men who they claim contracted Legionnaires' during the water crisis. Goggins ruled in August that there was probable cause to believe the crimes Lyon is accused of were committed by him, but attorneys for the director filed a motion to quash that bindover decision. Special prosecutor Todd Flood, in a brief filed earlier this month, said Lyon's attorneys are raising "highly speculative public policy arguments and throw(ing) blame anywhere" in attempt to derail a trial with their motion to quash Goggins' decision. In addition to his own attorneys, Lyon has been supported with amicus briefs filed by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Michigan Association of Health Plans, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. The groups say they are supporting Lyon because of the implications of public health officials being prosecuted for alleged wrongdoing of their agencies in carrying out public health investigations. 1FLINT, MI - Hurley Children's Hospital is asking residents to vote for a miracle. The Flint hospital is in the running for a $50,000 national online contest which it has won the last two years, sponsored by Credit Unions for the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals. Laura Parcels, director of child life services for Hurley Children's Hospital, said funds won in 2016 were used for the addition of 14 private rooms while the 2017 winnings went toward a room used specifically for physical and forensic exams of children that had been abused. "It's so amazing what we can provide to the kids that we haven't provided before," she said. "The private rooms are absolutely amazing and our kids deserve the best." Alan Klein, a Hurley pediatric dentist and advisor of The Sheppy Dog Fund, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to match the winnings. The facility served more than 1,100 children in October alone, Parcels said, dealing with conditions ranging from sickle cell anemia to oncology, burns, hemophilia, and trauma patients. Miracle Mack was one of those children utilizing the hospital's services. Chambria Mack, Miracle's mother, said her daughter was 18 weeks early and weighed less than one pound when she was delivered. "Anything you can possibly think of that went wrong did," said Chambria Mack of Miracle who was treated for convulsions, chronic lung disease, jaundice, underactive thyroid, and poor muscle tone while in the neonatal intensive care unit. "But today she is a healthy little girl." She credited the children's hospital and Children's Miracle Network with their support in helping Miracle along the way. "I remember the nurses and doctors coming to me. They asked me 'do you want to go forward or do you not? It's your choice.' I said we want to go for it. When I said that they backed me 100 percent. Whenever I showed a little bit of faith, they just stood behind me," said Chambria Mack, after her daughter was given a two percent chance of living. "It was a very critical thing that they did for me because a lot of times a lot of things they did for me they said they would not normally do under these circumstances. They stood behind me and I have Miracle." Chambria Mack described her daughter as a "bundle of joy." "(Miracle) is one of the happiest kids I've ever seen in my life," she said while pointing out a knack her daughter has already developed. "Everyone is her friend. She never meets anybody that is not her friend. She treats everybody like she's known them forever. It's really special." said Chambria Mack. "Once you meet her and talk to her everybody usually gets a connection with Miracle and remembers her. Vote for Miracle. Vote every day." Participants can vote once a day per email address until 11:59 p.m. Dec. 18 at voteformiracles.org. The top vote-getting hospital receives the $50,000 prize, while the second-place facility will get $20,000, third place nabs $15,000, fourth place garners $10,000, and $5,000 for the fifth-place finisher. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A 48-year-old woman from Lake Odessa, Michigan died in a multi-vehicle crash after police said she lost control of her car on the icy roads. The crash was reported just before 8 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26, in Ionia County. Police shut down M-66 near Eaton Highway while the scene was being investigated. The Lake Odessa woman was driving south on M-66 in a 2004 Dodge Intrepid when she lost control on the icy roads, according to Michigan State Police. The woman's vehicle slid sideways into the path of oncoming traffic, traveling in the northbound lane. The Dodge Intrepid was then struck in the passenger side doors by a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, driven by a 21-year-old man. The 48-year-old woman died at the scene due to her injuries. The driver of the pickup truck did not report any injuries. Seat belts were worn by both drivers, and drugs or alcohol are not considered factors of the crash at this time, according to state police. The crash remains under investigation. Police throughout West Michigan responded to multiple crashes and vehicles sliding off the road Monday. Rescuers have also responded to trees and power lines down after a heavy, wet snowfall overnight. "The roads are treacherous this morning," said Ionia County sheriff's deputies in a statement. "Limit driving to essential travel only and drive safely." GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A man accused of leaving racist, threatening voicemails at a predominately black church is considering a guilty plea to ethnic intimidation. Over 20 black pastors and church officials looked on Tuesday, Nov. 27, as Todd Jamison, 26, stood in Grand Rapids District Court with his attorney, Brett Stevenson, to waive his right to a probable-cause hearing to preserve a plea offer. Judge David Buter bound the case over to Kent County Circuit Court. Under the proposal, Jamison, a Grand Rapids resident, would plead guilty to ethnic intimidation, a two-year felony, while misdemeanor charges of stalking and malicious use of a telephone would be dismissed. The pastors said that the recorded threats targeting blacks have been felt throughout the community. Parishioners have talked about beefing up security, maybe carrying firearms. "How do we know what happened in South Carolina couldn't happen here," the Rev. Jerry Bishop said, in a courtroom hallway. He and others made references to Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who shot and killed nine black worshipers after they asked him to join for Bible study at a Charleston church. The trouble in Grand Rapids started Nov. 14. Workers at Brown Funeral Home asked Jamison and another man to leave while they were under an awning in front. After a short confrontation, the two left, Grand Rapids police said. Nathaniel Moody The funeral home and the church across the street - Brown Hutcherson Ministries - later began to get race-based threats, including threats to kill blacks, the church's pastor, Nathaniel Moody, told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. His secretary, Paula Woods, is still upset by voicemails she heard when she showed up at the church the next day. She said that the caller threatened to shoot the first black person he saw. She momentarily panicked because she could not find a co-worker who had opened the church. He was OK. Woods said the calls were chilling. She took the threats against blacks personally because of her race. "It really shook me," she said. "He's talking to me. He doesn't know he's talking to me, but he's talking to me." She has been a member of the church for 18 years, and spent nine years as secretary. She said she shouldn't have to fear going to her church. Eddie Jenkins, chairman of the church's Board of Trustees, said the caller claimed to be part of a group targeting blacks. The N-word was used frequently, he said. He said he was not sure what the caller intended "but I know what he said. People are concerned. ... I've got to take him literally for what he's saying. The threat was made against a group of people. It could be any church." He and others said the defendant's $12,000 bond was too low. "The man made a threat to not only one congregation, at one church, he made that threat to a group of people, referring to black people. That is not something to take lightly," Jenkins said. Moody, the pastor at Brown Hutcherson Ministries, and others met with Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Dan Helmer after the brief hearing. Moody told others that it was important to attend future court hearings. "We can't afford to let the court take this lightly," he said. "We don't want this to happen to any church so we need to stop it now. I have people in my church who are scared, who are fearful right now. I don't want that to happen. We need to make a stand and I think this is the time to do it." President Donald Trump is reportedly considering recent Michigan U.S. Senate candidate John James as a replacement for United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley. According to Bloomberg, James visited the White House last week to discuss a possible administration post with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and is being considered for the United Nations ambassador position. Haley, former governor of South Carolina, is set to resign at the end of the year. Other candidates Trump is considering for the the United Nations position include the U.S. ambassadors to France, Germany and Canada, Bloomberg reports. James, a veteran and president of the Detroit-based firm James Group International, lost to incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow in the November midterms, earning 45.8 percent of the vote to Stabenow's 52.2 percent. James was slightly ahead for much of the evening until the returns came in from vote-rich metro Detroit. It was Stabenow's poorest showing at the polls since she first won election to the Senate in 2000 in a narrow victory over incumbent Spence Abraham. In her last election in 2012, Stabenow won by 21 points over former U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra. Throughout the election, James was touted by state and national Republicans as a rising star in the Republican party and a formidable challenger to Stabenow. Pence and Donald Trump Jr. both headlined James' rallies ahead of the election. Although Trump didn't visit Michigan personally to stump for James ahead of the midterms, he endorsed James in the Republican primary cycle and invited James to the White House in September. Harold White Jr. JACKSON, MI - He's never believed in just sitting on the sidelines. And having a positive voice in his community always has been important. Now, Harold White Jr.'s lifetime of leadership and community involvement is being honored with Jackson College's 2019 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Medal of Service Award. The award is being presented at the college's annual King Celebration Dinner at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, in the Potter Center's Robert Snyder Dining Commons, 2111 Emmons Road. "I love my community," White Jr. said in a press release. "I was born and raised in Jackson and want to see what is best for everyone." His father, Harold White Sr., was a well-known Jackson civil rights leader in the 1960s and '70s. "I came up just after the Jim Crow laws, but I talked to my dad and heard his stories," White Jr. said in the release. "That's why I'm very active and very adamant about having civil rights for all." Jamie White White Jr. spent more than 30 years with the Michigan Department of Corrections, starting as a corrections officer and ending as a prison warden. "I enjoyed seeing guys change their attitudes," he said in the release. "Understanding that they are humans and that even though they are being punished, we go in, talk to the guys, and often, we see them change." White Jr. helped form People for Peace in Jackson. He's active in a statewide collaborative called Michigan Initiative to End Mass Incarceration and a collaborative called a Nation Outside, which advocates for the incarcerated after they are released back into society. Locally, White Jr. has served on Jackson County's Foster Care Review Board for 15 years, is president of the South Central Credit Union board and is active on several Jackson Public Schools committees. White Jr.'s past activities include Family Services and Children's Aid board, Salvation Army board, Jackson School Board and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Jackson County mentor. "Harold White is a great leader in our community," Lee Hampton, Jackson College's chief diversity officer, said in the release. "He works closely with the police department, educational institutions and elected officials to ensure that all citizens are treated fairly and humanely." H. James "Jamie" White, White Jr.'s son, will present the dinner's keynote speech, "Keeping the Dream Alive." He is a 1989 Jackson High School graduate who earned a bachelor's degree and a law degree from Michigan State University. A practicing lawyer, White currently is acting as co-lead counsel for hundreds of victims of Larry Nassar, the ex-Michigan State University doctor convicted of sexually assaulting patients under the guise of providing medical treatment. Tickets to the King Celebration Dinner are $25. Senior citizens and students pay $20. Call 517-796-8600 to purchase. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Students and their families in need can pick up a variety of foods at 10 pantries throughout the Kalamazoo Public Schools district. Director of Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes Jennifer Johnson said food insecurity is a common hurdle for students in Kalamazoo. "Food is so essential to everything," Jennifer said in a news release from KPS. "If you don't have key basic needs fulfilled, you're going to have the toughest time fulfilling your potential." Johnson, alongside the district's director of food services Christina Haller and the senior director of community engagement at Communities in Schools Artrella Cohn discussed the expansion of food resources available to Kalamazoo students during a presentation to the Board of Education at an October meeting. In 2010, Loaves & Fishes began a food pack program for students in Kalamazoo County. The organization provided weekend food packs to elementary school children. But the pack system didn't fulfill the needs of the community so the idea of a grocery pantry model was born. The packs had to be small enough for children as young as five years old to carry home and were expensive to create, the release said. The first school-based pantry was opened at El Sol Elementary in 2010. The pantry model was used in six schools during the 2011-2012 school year. Families received nearly 5,000 pounds of food that year. Today, seven full-service pantries and three hybrid pantries are stocked in schools throughout the district. Nearly 60,000 pounds of food were distributed during last year's school year, the presentation said. Students at Woodward School for Technology and Research have seen definite benefits from the pantry, Jen DeWaele said in the release. The Woodward site coordinator for Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo said it was a "huge project to undertake, but the benefits have been worth the effort." The pantry currently serves about 15 people per week, the release said. The pantry is a way to "deepen the connection between the school and families and better meet the needs of families so their children can succeed," DeWaele said. The school's role expands in the community while the pantry motivates parents to visit and discuss with staff about their child's academic performance, tutoring, mentoring, and other community services available through the school, she said. An estimated 40,000 residents are food insecure in Kalamazoo County, Johnson said. "The sooner we know that a child is food insecure, the sooner we can make sure there are not food gaps in their lives," she said. "Imagine what our community could be if hunger wasn't an issue? And, if we start with kids, it's like we're writing a different story." There are two types of pantries to help fit the needs and space of every school. A full-service pantry requires refrigeration and freezer space and provides several options for food. A hybrid pantry provides mostly small meals or snacks and doesn't have adequate space for refrigeration or freezing. There are full-service pantries at the following schools: - El Sol Elementary School - Northeastern Elementary School - Washington Writers' Academy - The Woodward School for Technology and Research - Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts - Linden Grove Middle School - Kalamazoo Central High School The following schools offer hybrid pantries: - Hillside Middle School - Milwood Magnet School - Loy Norrix High School Students can access a four-day food order, a light meal, a healthy snack or an emergency food pack through a full-service pantry. Trustee TiAnna Harrison said during the October meeting that the grocery model as opposed to handouts "restores dignity by providing people the ability to choose their own food and plan their own meals." The "silent partnerships" with community organizations make it possible for students to eat three times every day," she said. District Superintendent Michael Rice said only a decade ago, no pantries were available for families. But today, people can choose from 10 pantries throughout the district, which reach out to the people in their individual communities to serve them where they live and where their students go to school, he said. "By working to create middle class supports for all of our children, working class and poor among them, we will have children who are far more capable of doing their best in school," Rice said. The pantries are more cost-effective and offer more nutritional value and options compared to the food packs, Johnson said. The food is purchased in larger quantity by leveraging Loaves & Fishes' buying power. The weekend food pack cost $3.75 to create while a four-day food order costs $2.70, according to the presentation. The district's efforts to combat hunger include free breakfast, lunch, dinner and meals during the summer. School meals are provided in large part through federal funding, while the pantries are supported through local aid to the organizations, Rice said. In the 2006-2007 school year, KPS served 516,467 free breakfasts, according to the presentation during the board meeting. Compared to today, the need is expected to increase 139 percent, resulting in over 1.2 million free breakfasts served. The district saw a similar increase for dinners between the program's beginning and today. KPS partnered with Communities in Schools and began serving free dinners in 2010-11. In that year, the district served 3,539 dinners. The school expects to serve 99,263 free dinners this school year. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Under a cabinet of new leadership, Western Michigan University is transforming and welcoming input from the community. "While we have so much for which we can be proud, the world has changed around us," Tony Proudfoot, vice president for marketing and strategic communication, said in a press release about WMU's marketing efforts. Have opinions on what "distinguishes WMU and makes it a special place to learn, live, work and play?" university spokesperson Paula Davis said in an email to MLive. The university wants to hear those opinions and will host a number of town hall meetings to seek input from alumni, students, faculty and the community. The first two meetings are 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28 and 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5. Those interested in attending should RSVP online at wmich.edu. The number of high school graduates in Michigan began declining a decade ago, Proudfoot said. And the cost of education shifted to families. "Not surprisingly, students and their families are now actively questioning the value of college in general, and the value of a degree from specific universities in particular," he said. "They are much more discerning in their choices and want to know what they are getting for their investment." The meetings are a chance for people to offer input on the best path for WMU, Davis said. Proudfoot is seeking "ideas and visions about the university future (the community) would like to see," she said. WMU lost 332 students since last year, according to the university's fall 2018 enrollment report. There are 22,562 students enrolled at WMU this year, a 1.5 percent drop from 2017. Last year, the campus had 22,894 students. The school's numbers have been declining since the early 2000s. President Edward Montgomery announced multiple efforts to reverse this trend in the first year in leadership. A $1 million fund created two initiatives to increase student engagement, enrollment and retention. Montgomery is also leading the transformation of the university's south side, which faces heavily traveled Stadium Drive. Despite the challenges, the university is charged to face the future under the direction of Proudfoot, the university's first vice president for marketing and strategic communications. "What we know for certain in an uncertain world is this: We must evolve if we are to fully realize our mission," he said. "Our future is bright. We are responding to the world around us." SAGINAW, MI -- Employees of Ascension St. Mary's Hospital in Saginaw celebrated the hospital's rebranding and renaming, a process that has been in the works for the past two years. The event took place on Tuesday, Nov. 27, in the hospital's main lobby, 800 S. Washington Ave. Attendees participated in several prayers and speakers shared a message about the the organization's recommitment to its locations in Saginaw, Tawas City and Standish. "Part of the rebranding was great timing for us in Saginaw, Tawas and Standish because there was concern that we may or may not be a part of Ascension," said CEO Stephanie Duggan. In May, Ascension announced a $50 million initial investment to St. Mary's of Michigan in Saginaw, Standish, and St. Joseph Health System in Tawas City. Hospital officials then said the majority of the investment would go toward the Saginaw hospital because it was the largest. Adding that there were plans to update the emergency room and various clinical programs so that they are more competitive. "We been here 144 years, we want to be here another 144," said Duggan. "Changing to the One Ascension brand is a way for us to reaffirm to our sponsors and our original members that we have not lost sight of our mission." The new logo integrates the Christian trinity symbol with an "A." The logo is a visible sign of a call to unity, community and love as a healing ministry of Jesus, the organization said. The three colors each represent the hospital's mission: green for growth, blue for health and purple for compassion, according to the hospital's brochure. Ascension's website says it is the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S. and the world's largest Catholic health system. Ascension has 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities, according to the organization. UPDATE: TUSCOLA COUNTY, MI -- Caro Community Schools Superintendent Pete Newman crisscrossed roads in the district on Monday, Nov. 26 and grew more concerned at what he saw. The school district in Tuscola County has canceled classes for Tuesday, Nov. 27 due to road conditions. "We traveled the roads all day, and conditions on many of them just deteriorated," said Newman Monday evening. "Wind and cooler temps have turned many of the roads on which we have routes into sheets of ice." The district was also closed Monday, but the closure was due to a scheduled teacher work day. Several inches of snow fell between Sunday night and Monday morning that led most mid-Michigan schools to stay closed to begin the week. "I suspect many of the schools in Tuscola (County) will be closing tonight as well," said Newman. "The county took their trucks off the road at 5:30, but I sure they'll be back at it early tomorrow morning. Please be careful if you have to drive anywhere." ST. CHARLES, MI -- The St. Charles community is working to bring back a Christmas celebration some lifelong residents regularly enjoyed decades ago. The second annual Old-Fashioned Christmas Celebration kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 30 at Coal Miners' Park. The first night of activities includes a petting zoo, hay rides through the park, free cookies and hot chocolate and a tree-lighting ceremony to kick off the holiday season, according to a village of St. Charles press release. The second day have a parade of lights at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1. Following the parade, residents can enjoy a downtown Christmas celebration with music from area church choirs, refreshments and a visit from Santa Claus. "We have been working to bring back the tree-lighting since 2016 when the family of the late Cecil Szepanski donated a beautiful blue spruce in the park to be used as our community Christmas tree," said Former Village President Marie Roe. "We are coming together to celebrate the holiday season and bringing the tree-lighting in the park and the parade of lights downtown together for a two-day celebration and it is absolutely wonderful for the community." The village came together with resources and donations to help make the two-day event possible, with a focus on fundraising to donate to charities and service organizations. Local businesses such as the Charboneau Christmas Tree Farm donated "Charlie Brown" trees to sell to residents and businesses to raise money for the St. Charles Area Museum. The museum has been trying to build up an endowment fund held in trust by the Saginaw Community Foundation. In order to establish a consistent annual source of revenue, the museum has to reach a goal of at least $10,000 before it begins paying dividends. The museum endowment has been the destination for any funds raised through the event both this year and last. The community event-planning committee includes members from the St. Charles Lions Club, Village of St. Charles, St. Charles District Library, St. Charles Community Schools, various local churches and area businesses. "This year we are excited to see if we can take that momentum and repeat the old-fashioned feel," said Matthew Lane, village manager." Not necessarily old-fashioned in the sense that we are dwelling on the past or reliving bygone eras, but old-fashioned in the sense that we are all coming together as a community as they used to do to celebrate the magic of the holiday season." The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) launched on Wednesday the National Strategy for the Implementation of 5G Technologies in Romania for public consultation. According to the action timetable, the auction for granting the rights to use the frequency bands considered for fixed and mobile communications services associated with this technology will be concluded by December 15, 2019, according to Agerpres. Today, in this select company, we wanted to launch in public consultation Romanias National Strategy for 5G. Today, we take pride in some things. Romania ranks among the firsts in the world in terms of the performance of communications networks. In August 2019, 94% of households in Romania had 4G LTE network coverage. Due to these achievements, there are places in Romania that have progressed towards the economy and lifestyle of the future, and I am thinking about Alba Iulia, where smart city applications are already being tested and where the quality of life is already improved by these applications. But there are also areas on Romanias map that are not covered by the telecommunication networks, too many citizens do not use the new technologies and too many companies do not use them, said Sorin Grindeanu, President of ANCOM, at the conference organised for launching the National Strategy for 5G for public consultation. Our goal is to launch the 5G services in 2020. I was close to saying 20 20. We want to launch these services in flagship cities, and by 2025 we would like to have 5G in all urban centres, as well as on the connections between them highways, express roads, railways, Sorin Grindeanu announced. The ANCOM official also said that the implementation of 5G technologies will have a multiplier effect in the national economy, including through the creation of new jobs. Tests made so far show that the new technology package can deliver faster and more energy and spectre efficient communications. Studies tell us that this new type of connectivity and technology will encourage an activity increase in all economic sectors and will bring prosperity and create many jobs. The European Commission estimates that the implementation of 5G technologies will have a multiplier effect in the Romanian economy of EUR 4.7 billion and create over 250.000 jobs. 5G will also require operators to make investments. We are talking about EUR 58 billion at the European Union level and over two billion euros in Romania. The amounts are calculated by the European Commission, do not include licenses and take into account the existing networks, not from scratch. But profits will correspond to them, said Sorin Grindeanu. Calendar of actions The timetable for the actions to be taken on the allocation and future use of the 470-790 MHz frequency band provides that a first step is the timely release of the appropriate radio spectrum for the future development of broadband mobile communications systems. For the band of 700 MHz to be available, ANCOM will propose the adjustment of the TNABF (National Table for Radio Frequency Allocation) and the allocation of the 790 MHz band to the terrestrial mobile service, at the moment being assigned to terrestrial digital television services. Another action with an impact on the implementation of 5G technologies is the conclusion of bilateral coordination agreements with neighbouring countries by June 30, 2019. At the same time, ANCOM will conduct a monitoring campaign on radio spectrum from the bands that are the subject of the auction and will make available to the auction participants a report on the situation of radio signals identified on the Romanian territory within these bands, coming from the territory of other states. By July 31, 2019, the Authority plans to adopt the decision on the organization of the procedure for granting the licenses, namely to set the conditions for granting the rights of using frequencies and other regulations needed. ANCOMs proposal is that by December 15, 2019, the tender will be completed for granting the rights for using the 700 MHz frequency band and the other bands considered for providing fixed and mobile communications associated with 5G technology. At European level, the following priority frequency bands have been identified for the early introduction of the 5th generation mobile communications systems in the European Union: the 700 MHz (694-790 MHz) band, the band of 3400-3800 MHz and the band of 26 GHz (24.25-27.5 GHz). The EU estimates investments needed for 5G of EUR 56-58 billion in 2025, which means an average investment of 145 euro/European user, 7% more than for 4G and 20% more than for 3G. For Romania, there is estimated a need for investment in 5G of EUR 2.3 billion. In addition, a quantitative input-output analysis for examining the interdependencies between 38 economic sectors in the European Union shows that the multiplier effects at the level of the whole Union are estimated at EUR 142 billion and 2.4 million jobs. Aboneaza-te la newsletter aici. Iti multumim ca citesti cursdeguvernare. At the same time, for Romania alone, the multiplier effects are estimated at EUR 4.7 billion, respectively the creation of over 252,000 jobs. The estimated knock-on effects for four sectors (automotive, transport, utilities and health) indicate benefits of EUR 62.5 billion/year at the EU level. On November 19, 2018, within the Inter-institutional Working Group under the coordination of the State Secretary from the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) Manuela Catrina and with the ANCOMs support, the final version of the National Strategy for the Implementation of 5G Technologies in Romania has been agreed. November 27, 2018 TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL: President & CEO: Junichiro Ikeda) today announced that the Ice-Breaking LNG Carrier "Vladimir Rusanov", which is jointly owned by MOL and China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited (China COSCO Shipping) (*1), has successfully completed the first Ship-to-Ship Transfer ("STS") operation at Honningsvag, Norway. On November 24, Vladimir Rusanov, which started LNG transportation services for the Yamal LNG project in March(*2), completed unloading of Yamal LNG cargo to a lower ice class LNG Carrier named "Pskov". The two vessels were directly moored alongside each other during the STS operation in the calm sheltered waters of Honningsvag. The fact that neither vessel was moored to the jetty was a unique feature of this STS operation. Without this STS operation, the Ice-Breaking LNG Carrier would have been required to navigate to a LNG receiving terminal in continental Western Europe necessitating more than two weeks navigation for the round trip. However, by carrying out this open sea STS operation at Honningsvag, the Ice-Breaking LNG Carrier was able to shorten by approximately a week needed to transport its cargo, enabling the vessel to carry out more frequent cargo lifting from Sabetta, where access by non-Ice-Breaking vessels is limited in the winter period. Immediately after completion of the STS operation, the Ice-Breaking LNG Carrier headed back to Sabetta for her next cargo loading. The STS sets a new milestone in the transportation of LNG from the Arctic. MOL continues to take a proactive stance and remains focused on providing value-added transport services for its customers. [ Location Description ] [ Photos taken during the STS at Honningsvag ] (Left:Pskov Right:Vladimir Rusanov) (Left:Vladimir Rusanov Right:Pskov) (*1) For details, please refer to the 9 July, 2014 press release: MOL signs Ship Building Contracts with DSME for ice class carriers (*2) For details, please refer to the 29 March, 2018 press release: Ice-Breaking LNG Carrier "Vladimir Rusanov" for Yamal LNG Project Started the First Loading Operation in the Yamal LNG Plant at Sabetta Port live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More At least four large public sector banks have put up nearly Rs 7,500 crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) on sale to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) and other financial institutions. Lenders State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Andhra Bank have decided to sell a large part of their NPA exposures to accounts which are undergoing resolutions at various insolvency courts. We expect to recover a large part of these assets on a cash basis. This also helps us avoid delays in resolution due to the excessive litigation, said the head of a large public sector bank. On November 20, Bank of Baroda listed 35 bad loan accounts worth Rs 4,237 crore for sale on its website. These include: Jindal India Thermal Power (Rs 334.93 crore), Rathi Steel & Power (Rs 290.52 crore) and Rolta India (Rs 287.38 crore). The interested ARCs/ banks/ NBFCs/FIs can conduct due diligence of these assets with immediate effect after submitting expression of interest and executing a non-disclosure agreement with the Bank, BoB said on its website. Similarly, state-owned Andhra Bank has invited bids for the proposed sale of its NPAs comprising 53 accounts, with a principal balance of Rs 1,552.96 crore on a cash basis only. The e-bidding will take place on December 3. The bank will execute the assignment agreements and fund transfer on or before December 10. Dena Bank proposed sale of 84 NPAs totalling Rs 3,324 crore, through an e-bidding process on November 29. The countrys largest lender SBI had also put up 11 bad loan accounts for sale to ARCs and financial companies to recover dues worth nearly Rs 1,019 crore. Banks are putting up many distressed assets on sale, but pricing continues to be an issue. However, with more cash deals and push for a clean-up from the regulator has helped us garner a better price. They (banks) also want to avoid the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) after the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) February 12 circular. Hence, they are putting up more assets on sale, said a chief of a large ARC. The circular mandates all lenders to push all borrower accounts for resolution under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) if a successful recovery has not been made within 180 days of the loan turning into an NPA. Banks and ARCs have been negotiating hard over the past several years. Given the rush to recover loans and increasing supply of bad loans, banks are willing to take more hair-cuts or losses on its loans than before for immediate cash recovery. Asset Reconstruction Company (India), or Arcil, one of the country's largest ARCs, plans to buy about Rs 5,400 crore worth of stressed assets from banks. For this, it plans to raise additional Rs 1,500 crore in the next six months. In FY18, Arcil acquired about Rs 2,700 crore worth of assets, while the same for the industry stood at over Rs 20,000 crore, said Pramod Gupta, Arcils Chief Financial Officer (CFO). With a clear focus on retail and mid-sized distressed assets, Arcil's CEO and Managing Director Vinayak Bahuguna said his firm is selectively looking at some of the industrial assets too. In the mid-sized segment, we are looking at companies with debt up to Rs 5,000 crore. We are looking at steel, textile and road projects and some select stressed power projects. In Q2, Bank of India had put up a total of Rs 10,000 crore worth of NPAs on sale through auction. The banks CEO and MD Dinabandhu Mohapatra said the management is negotiating resolutions for power assets worth Rs 3,000 crore. Till March, cumulative estimates suggest that about one-third of the bad loans of banks have been purchased by ARCs. As on September, banks are sitting on a huge pile of NPAs worth over Rs 10.50 lakh crore on its balance sheets, creating an opportunity for ARCs and domestic and foreign investors. Corporate governance in India is in a better position than where it was a few years back, says M Damodaran, chairperson, Excellence Enablers, and former chairman, SEBI, UTI and IDBI. India does not need more laws to ensure good corporate governance with performing directors in boardrooms; the enforcement of the existing ones is enough. While there is a positive change in favour of corporate governance among investors and many private sector organisations, the governments response leaves a lot to be desired, said Damodaran in an extensive interview with Moneycontrol Opinion Editor Viju Cherian. Edited Excerpts: Q: On November 19, Nissans former chief Carlos Ghosn was arrested for fraud, leading to his sacking. How do you think this reflects on the board and on corporate governance in general? A: It all stems from a clear understanding of the role of the board. There are boards in and outside India that do not understand their roleand in the absence of a clear role, what they end up doing is extending mindless support to the CEO. The CEO is someone who is identified with the company, whos often the face of the company, in good times the person to whom all good is attributed to, and therefore, theyre (the board) quite happy playing the role of cheerleaders. When the whole thing blows up in the face, excuses get trotted out as explanations but, clearly, theyre no more than excuses. The board role and its not rocket science is: superintendence, directions and control. It has no executive or operational responsibility as that is the managements responsibility. However, it has to ensure that the management does its job properly. That is the responsibility of the board.The board, as representatives of the stakeholders, can hold the management to account. If this relationship goes wrong, everything goes wrong. Q: What are your views about corporate governance in India? A: Let me try hard and be positive to the extent possible. We are in a better position today than where we were 4-5 years back. I think a large number of companies recognise that governance is important if youre going to stay around and prosper on a long-term basis. Q: How is corporate governance in India in comparison with the international situation? A: Internationally, there are some who have been doing the right thing both within and outside boardrooms. We will not immediately measure up to them. However, were certainly better off than many countries where there is not even a pretence of corporate governance. Q: Can you elaborate on that view? A: What are we doing now? Were writing new laws and regulations, but thats not the way to go. Laws should be simple, straightforward and not amended too often so that there is continuity and certainty. Enforcement is important and so is regulation. There is no shortage of laws. The problem, especially in India, is that when something goes wrong, somebody wants to write a law or a regulation. This happened even after (the) Satyam scandal. It was a self-confessed fraud which did not need any new legal provision; the existing laws were enough. Our systems are so dilatory not just the regulatory agencies but also our courts. Compare Nick Leeson and Harshad Mehta: look at what happened to Leeson everything got over so quickly. Mehta had one conviction under Section 138 and nothing under the Securities Act. In India, the time taken is several years or decades, and by the time we come to a conclusion, that conclusion is meaningless. Q: From the point of view of corporate governance, is there a mismatch between the pace at which things are moving and the pace required to maintain progress? A: Let me look at it from SEBIs point of view. More surveillance throws up more cases, which are taken in a chronological order. To clean this up, the consent mechanism was introduced (when I was chairman). This was done so that the technical and smaller issues do not clog the system. The regulatory capacity is also a factor here, and so is the technology application in the commission of an offence. Q: So were playing catch-up. A: That will always be the case. The policeman always runs after the thiefbut you got to run reasonably close to the thief; you got to anticipate. Dont wait for everything to go wrong and then act. But do we have the resources for that? What I would like to see at SEBI I tried to do it while I was there but it did not find favour at the concept stage itself is to create a separate organisation outside SEBI for enforcement and investigation. So when you have a complex case, you bring in professionals from outside for a limited time period specific to the requirements of that case. Investigation will get over in a time-bound manner and youll have people with the required skillsets. Like in the United States and the United Kingdom, we need movement between the regulatory organisation and the regulated entity. We need such a system. Such a movement will help anticipate problems or even plug loopholes. Q: Why do you think this approach was not considered? A: It faced the usual problem we face in India: everything is suspected before given a fair trial. Q: Are we to blame the bureaucratic setup for this delay and attitude? A: Its unfair to blame the bureaucracy because in the bureaucratic setup you cannot sacrifice process but the processes are outdated and in some sense theyre all creating a defence case. This leads to decisions not being taken because there is safety in not taking decisions. Q: Talking about complacency in boardrooms, what do you make of the IL&FS episode? A: For one, it was a business model gone horribly wrong. Without enough capital, you cannot indefinitely get into every conceivable space. You dont have to have a piece of every action. I suspect the board got swept along by the enthusiasm and energy demonstrated by the management. To be fair to the board members, for the last two-and-a-half-years they have been discussing alternatives and they looked at bringing in investors. It did not work out. This was not a case where people had their hand in the till. This is a case where the management clearly bit off more than it could chew, and the board watched without understanding what was happening. Where the board did not measure up is where the risk management committee did not meet for two years. The audit committee knew that things were going wrong and at some point, it should have dug in and said enough is enough. Q: Private sector banks have had a lot of corporate governance issues in recent times: We have the conflict of interest in ICICI and the fiasco at Yes Bank. Your comments? A: Over the years, we have come to believe that private sector and privatisation is a synonym for efficiency and honesty. Because youve seen some transgression in the public sector, you cannot jump to the conclusion that the private sector is bathed in milk. What has happened in the private sector, and partly the media is to blame, is that we have raised people to the level of godheads. Others are made to believe that these people are infallible, invincible and that they are clearly indispensable to the organisation. The fact is, as were discovering now, nobody is indispensable. Q: we create superstars out of CEOs? A: We created a superstar out of Harshad Mehta; he and his Lexus car were on the cover of every magazine. The strong CEO model, which is the model for growth at a certain stage, has its limitations. The strong CEO should not be so strong that everybody and every process is reduced to irrelevance. Look at what happened at ICICI: the ink had not dried on the complaint when the company announced that nothing was wrong. Then it was said that the same complaint was received two years ago. Then it was discovered that you didnt inform the exchanges what you did with the complaint. Then the board didnt have the courage to ask the CEO to step down. I was the first to recommend that the CEO go on leave while an outside enquiry is held. All of that eventually happened, but by then it was too late. Q: Coming to independent directors on boards and their role in corporate governance; is it counterproductive to view them as the opposition party in a boardroom? A: Its completely counterproductive. Laws are being written where you have raised the expectations from the independent directorsNow as a result of action taken against independent directors in the Jaypee case, assets of family members are attached! When you travel that far, the remaining independent director on the board will ensure that he/she does not meet such a fate. As a result, almost every proposal will be questioned and blocked. What if the independent directors gang up in the boardroom and take a decision to oppose every proposal because every proposal will be beneficial for the majority stakeholder? Q: Given this scenario, what do you think needs to be done to make the boardroom more effective? A: The board constituted must not be unidimensional. You get people on board based on what are the needs of the company. Then it must be ensured that all the board members perform. So there ought to be an induction. Then there is the annual evaluation of the board. If the evaluation is not proper and every board member is evaluated 6 on 5, the board wont function properly. I must confess I have a vested interest as I do external board evaluations, but every second or third year, the board evaluation must be done by an external agency, which has boardroom experience. Boardrooms must also have a mix of both old and young. Q: How many organisations go for external evaluation? A: Very few. Less than 5 percent. Q: Investors seem to penalise only performance not any lapse in corporate governance. Is that a reflection of society as a whole; or is it because corporate governance is not given the primacy it should be? A: About 15 years ago, there was no relationship established between good governance and good performance. Today it is an established fact that good corporate governance is a necessary condition for sustainable performance, otherwise, the company will fail. Today there is a feeling among investors that I will not put my hard-earned money in a company where I dont know whats happening. Institutions are backing companies with good corporate governance. You get a market premium for good governance. Q: The rules of corporate governance do not seem to matter in public sector firms, especially public sector banks. Your views? A: Public sector in some sense is the anti-thesis of governance. When you have a majority stakeholder who confuses ownership with management, and steps on the toes of the management on a continuing basis, you cannot have governance. The tenure given to the CEOs is short. The directors who come to the board do not necessarily add value to the company. Governments that make the law must also comply by that law. Be it independent directors or women directors, the government was the last to follow it. We must not forget that governments that make the law have the highest responsibility to obey the law. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Siemens India is trying to reinvent itself from being a pure electrical hardware supplier to providing end-to-end digital solutions to companies across business verticals to help them improve efficiency and cut costs. It has been a difficult 3-4 years. We are not of the woods yet. Large tenders that usually come from the Centre are not happening, said Sunil Mathur, Siemens India Managing Director and CEO on Monday. Mathur said the company has started focusing on moving from electrification to automation to digitalisation. Having faced a tough market in the last couple of years - the reality is that we have grown way above the market level at 10 percent CAGR. This has come not only by delivering plain hardware that we were always doing, which is the motors and drives, but in reinventing our business model using financing and digitilisation as a tool and working with our customers to answer their end-to-end problems, Mathur said. To push its digitilisation business further, the company launched an open platform called MindSphere - a cloud-based, open internet of things (IoT) operating system to help its customers embrace digitalisation. Companies like Siemens, ABB, Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric, which started out as industrial equipment suppliers, are now helping clients or companies in their transformation towards digitalisation. Digitalisation involves deploying a network of tools like software, sensors, camera and actuators to capture every possible data point on the shop floor seamlessly. Using data analytics and artificial intelligence, companies are now able to analyse the data to improve efficiency, cut costs and have better control over their operations. Siemens India, which follows an October-September financial year, posted its best ever financial performance. The company reported 14.6 percent increase in revenue to Rs 12,293 crore. Net profit rose 26.3 percent to Rs 1,391 crore. New orders for financial year 2018 stood at Rs 12,740 crore. The order backlog as of September 30 stood at Rs 12,352 crore. The government alone contributed around 50 percent of those orders, the company said. Mathur said he is seeing a private capex picking up and is finding a lot of activity in sectors such as automotive, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals and power transmission and distribution where customers are looking for solutions to enhance efficiency. In the power sector, Siemens India said the sub-large orders are being tendered and their volumes are high. But in terms of ticket size they are still at the lower-end, or less than Rs 100 crore, mostly coming from captive power plants of cement, fertiliser and sugar industries. Mathur said he expects large order to kick in over the next 3-4 years as 30-40 gigawatt (GW) of capacities at large power plants are reaching the end of their life cycles and need to be replaced A lot of these plants at some point of their time start performing or have to comply with COP 21 norms. Their efficiency levels have to improve. Many operators are beginning to talk to us - on how we can make these plants more efficient and turn them around, Mathur said. There only two ways to do it. You either install pollution control devices or get super critical technologies to make these plants more efficient if the economy is to reach 7-8 percent, which means huge amount of capex, he said. In the transmission and distribution segment, Mathur said investments are taking place and this business is seeing double-digit growth. We are growing at 10-13 percent CAGR on the back of these small businesses, he added. The focus is now shifting from high value 765 KV to 400-220 KV. There have been substantial tendering at the distribution company level as states opt for efficient substations. Lupin | Rakesh Jhunjhunwala increased stake in company to 1.53 percent in September quarter, from 1.47 percent in June quarter; LIC also raised stake to 3.71 percent from 2.7 percent and MFs to 12.58 percent from 11.94 percent. (Image: Reuters) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Lupin's Chief Financial Officer Ramesh Swaminathan has announced his resignation on November 27. Swaminathan was with Lupin for close to 12 years and was instrumental in helping the company grow sales to Rs 15,560 crore in FY18 from Rs 2,773 crore in FY08. We wish to inform that Ramesh Swaminathan, Chief Financial Officer of the Company has decided to pursue other responsibilities outside the pharmaceutical industry and will be leaving the organization in the month of December 2018, Lupin said in a statement. The company is yet to announce a replacement for Swaminathan. Prior to Lupin, Swaminathan headed finance functions at German consumer goods company Henkel in various sub-regions. The announcement came after market hours. Shares of Lupin rose 0.50 percent to close at Rs 849.05 on BSE, the benchmark Sensex gained 0.45 percent to end 35,513.14 points. A customer shops in a Casino supermarket in Mouans Sartoux, France, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard - RTX2QQ3Q : FMCG Sounak Mitra Organised retail is reaching an inflection point. The sector is gaining critical mass and is consolidating, as evidenced by the flurry of recent deals. In August alone, Walmart picked up 77 percent stake in Flipkart for $16 billion, Warren Buffett agreed to invest in Paytm, and China's Alibaba invested $300 million in online grocery retailer BigBasket. Besides, Ikea opened its first store in the country. It is not exactly a surprise. Organised retail has started getting more interest from global biggies after the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), which has minimised cash dealings (without bills, or fake bills), made retailing more structured, and made the supply chain less cumbersome, among other things. While this has made lives difficult for small and medium-scale retailers (including neighbourhood stores), it has surely enhanced scope for big companies who constitute organised retail. Besides, it has paved the way for integration of online and offline trade, leading to a hybrid model that equities research firm Morgan Stanley, in a note on 21 November, said is the future of retailing in India. Recent and proposed deals in the space Walmart-Flipkart, Amazon-More, Amazon-Shoppers Stop and Amazon-Future Retail are exactly in line with the hybrid model. The change was bound to happen. Retail is mostly unorganised in India and has not contributed much to the government's revenue for the longest time. Most of the estimated 12 million small neighbourhood stores, where most of the 1.3 billion people in the country shop on a daily basis, had managed to stay out of the tax bracket until the implementation of GST. There are just about 16,500 retail outlets in the organised sector, of which 3,000 have been added in the past two years. The potential to grow is huge. The share of organised retailing, or modern format retailing, which consists of hyper markets, super markets and small organised outlets, is only around 10 percent in India. In comparison, it is 74 percent in Philippines, 70 percent in Malaysia, 65 percent in Thailand and 55 percent in China. The growth trend is already visible. Data from Nielsen showed sales of packaged goods (primarily household essentials) in modern trade grew 24 per cent (in value terms) during July-September 2018 quarter as volume grew by 14 per cent. In comparison, growth in the traditional trade channel was 16 per cent during the same quarter on a 12 per cent growth in volume. Around 3 per cent of the growth came from price increases. To add to this, e-commerce accounts for just around 2 per cent of Indias total retail while the global average is 15-20 per cent. Online retail is projected to grow faster than physical retail in India over the next few years. To ensure sustainability, however, traditional (offline) retailers need to integrate with the online model. As Morgan Stanley explains, the hybrid model is where physical retailers and e-commerce companies work together to combine digital power with infrastructure and service capabilities. This would help both physical and online retailers expand reach and ensure faster delivery. That is the model currently being followed by Amazon through acquisitions in India. The Jeff Bezos-led company has been doing everything it can to win consumers in India, and it wont stop. Consider this: if Amazon can start serving Andaman as a market that has only 3.8 lakh population, despite logistical disadvantages, the time is not far when it starts bringing general trade neighbourhood stores in its kitty. Of course, to be a true sunrise sector, retail should also create lot of jobs, which is currently the one of the biggest problems with the Indian economy. Will there be jobs, especially when modern-age retailers are more dependent on technology for accuracy and analytics? The fact is that physical retail isn't going anywhere. Rather it will become the enabler to online retailing. The nature of jobs, however, is changing, and will change faster with the expected integration of online with offline. Thus, skilling and re-skilling will be the key differentiator here. As projected by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), both conventional and specialised retail together will employ around 56 million by 2022. The number was just half a million in 2011. Considering that NSDC had projected the scope of employment in the retail industry in 2015, the number will be much higher in reality. Besides, there will be considerably high employment in associated industries like logistics that works as the backbone for online retail. The future does not look gloomy, at least for retail. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Amid a boardroom crisis, Yes Bank promoters have laid down nine conditions for a mutual settlement of the family dispute ahead of the December 13 board meeting to discuss the appointment of Rana Kapoors successor. Kapoor, the banks managing director and chief executive officer (MD and CEO) and also the largest promoter, has reached out to the second largest promoter Madhu Kapur to arrive at a consensus to appoint members on the board. Rana Kapoor has reached out to Madhu Kapur and both have presented their wishlist. It is still work in progress and both parties have made additions and subtractions in the conditions from the previous attempts to reach a consensus, sources told Moneycontrol. According to sources close to Madhu Kapur, Rana Kapoor has approached and we are ready to reach a consensus. We only want our rights as per the court judgment. We should be entitled to the nomination of the directors on board, the appointment of MD and CEO, non-executive directors and the executive directors. No agreement has been signed yet. Some of Rana Kapoors conditions are that Indian Partners (Rana Kapoor and Madhu Kapur's late husband Ashok Kapur) will have right to appoint three directors as long as they hold at least 10 percent stake. Three appointed directors will include one director nominated by each partner and the third nominated director will be jointly recommended by the Indian Partners. Additionally, each partner will accept the director nominated by the other Indian Partner subject to board & Nomination & Remuneration Committee (NRC) approval. Also, one director nominated by each partner will not be liable to retire by rotation. Sources confirmed of the nine-point conditions but did not reveal further details. At present, Kapoor, also through his promoted entities, owns around 10.66 percent while Kapur, along with her associate firms, holds around 9.23 percent in Yes Bank. The combined holding of the promoter group will be around 20 percent. Family-cum-promoter dispute Both Rana Kapoor and Madhu Kapur are involved in a family dispute at the Bombay High Court, which in its latest judgment in 2015, allowed Madhu Kapur, as the legal heir to Yes Bank Indian Partner, to have joint rights to nominate whole time directors on board. Rana Kapoors wife Bindu Kapoor and Madhu Kapur are sisters. Over the last two weeks, the mid-sized private sector bank has faced multiple resignations from its directors on the board including its chairman. The board at present has seven board members, after the resignations of Ashok Chawla, Vasant Gujarathi and R Chandrashekhar. Also Read: What The Top-Level Resignations At Yes Bank Mean Further, on November 27, global rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded Yes Bank's foreign currency issuer rating to Ba1 from Baa3 and revised its outlook to negative, citing leadership transition and governance issues as credit negative. Moneycontrol has also learnt that Rana Kapoor is willing to drop the plea against the Bombay HC order at the courts division bench granting Madhu Kapur right to nominate directors only if the conditions are met by her. If Madhu Kapur gives consent, only then will the appeal by Rana Kapoor will stand withdrawn, sources said. Currently, as per the Bombay High Court judgment, Indian Partners will continue to enjoy all joint rights as per Articles of Association (AoA) Of Bank. The move comes just ahead of the banks board meeting on December 13 to discuss the successor to Rana Kapoor. Kapoor will step down as Yes Banks MD and CEO on January 31, 2019, on the Reserve Bank of Indias directive in September. After the RBI directive, Rana Kapoor and his wife met Madhu Kapur and her son Gaurav Kapur and daughter Shagun Gogia, at least four times but no settlement was reached. Agriculture Agri-chemcial firm Crystal Crop Protection Tuesday said it has acquired Swiss-based Syngenta's three brands -- Proclaim, Tilt and Blue Copper, in India. Crystal Crop Protection also plans to launch its IPO to raise an estimated Rs 1,000 crore. This acquisition from Syngenta will enhance Crystal's penetration in the pulses, cotton, rice, wheat, vegetable and grapes markets in India, Crystal Crop said in a statement. Crystal Crop Protection manufactures crop protection products which include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and plant growth regulators and bio-stimulants. "The Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed the divestment of these brands to Crystal while approving the global acquisition of Syngenta by ChemChina. We are confident that Crystal will continue to steward the products for the benefit of the farming communities," Syngenta India's MD Rafael Del Rio said. Commenting on the acquisition, Crystal Crop MD Ankur Aggarwal said this acquisition is in line with the company's vision and philosophy of ensuring growth for all the stakeholders. "Inclusion of high equity brands in our portfolio will strengthen us to provide best in class crop protection solution to farmers and thus increase their farm productivity," he added. This is the company's fourth acquisition in the calendar year 2018. The first acquisition was of the manufacturing facility at MIDC, from Cytec India Specialty Chemicals & Materials Pvt Ltd, the second was the purchase of Indian gram sorghum, pearl millet and fodder sorghum seeds business from Syngenta India, Devgen NV, Belgium and Devgen Seeds and Crop Technology Pvt Ltd. The third was the acquisition of four brands namely Furadan, Splendour, Affinity Force and Metcil from FMC India Ltd. Crystal has made number of acquisitions in the past few years. Crystal signed an agreement with Germany's BASF SE in 2016 to acquire the brand Bavistin for use in India. It also acquired Hyderabad-based company Rohini-Seeds Pvt Ltd and Rohini Bioseeds and Agritech Pvt Ltd in 2011, which has brought its presence in the seeds market. Reversing its previous stand of not subsidising hybrid cars, Centre may soon bear the cost for such cars as Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) is believed to have asked for a Rs 13 crore corpus for the same. In a meeting with the committee on 23 August for the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid vehicles (FAME) scheme, the department sought incentives for potential buyers of 10,000 hybrid cars fitted with lithium-ion batteries of 0.5-2 kilowatt hour (kWh), Mint reported. The financial daily said that the Department sought the amount after automakers such as Toyota, Maruti Suzuki and Honda intensively lobbied for subsidising hybrid cars. The automakers are unhappy with the cars being put in the highest tax bracket of 28 percent under goods and services tax (GST) regime. The report quoted RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India saying that the government has realised that direct shift from IC cars to electric is not possible. Also read: Electric vehicles: Government raises incentives under FAME-II to Rs 5,500 crore Electric vehicles alone will not be able to solve the problems of oil imports and rising pollution, Bhargava said adding that if 10-15 percent of cars are converted to electric, then something has to be done for the remaining 85 percent. The government had, last year, decided to tax electric cars at 12 percent, showing its preference towards electric cars. DHI had earlier received nod from the finance ministry for Rs 5,500 crore fund to subsidise manufacturing for electric cars. Of this, Rs 1,000 crore was to be spent on setting up charging stations. The idea, however, received red flag from the PMO as it wanted to figure out way to make batteries cheaper rather than subsidising manufacturing of such cars. Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said he has taken up the issue of declining credit to exporters with the finance ministry to ensure adequate availability of funds to them. Prabhu said exports are growing and the ministry is taking steps to further accelerate the growth rate. "One of the main challenges for export is finance. There is a decline in (export) finance, so we have taken up the issue with the finance ministry...I think, the finance minister is also looking into this (as in) how we can improve the credit flow into the export sector," the minister told reporters here. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta has time and again demanded augmentation of credit flow to the export sector, as a sharp decline in credit would impact exports growth. The minister has earlier suggested that loans to exporters should be considered as priority sector lending by the banks. As per estimates, outstanding export credit which stood at Rs 28,300 crore as on March 30 has come down to Rs 22,300 crore as on June 22 this year. Prabhu also said that to boost shipments, exporters should explore new markets including in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, south Asia, and the Middle East. He said logistics sector will play a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of Indian goods in the global markets. The ministry along with FIEO is organising 'Logix India' from January 31 to February 2, 2019 here. Speaking on this, Gupta said over 20 countries are sending their delegations to explore logistics partnerships with India in this function. He said the organisation is focussing on logistics solutions for 'difficult to reach markets' and over 100 international delegates are expected to attend Logix India. Since 2011-12, India's exports have been hovering at around USD 300 billion. During 2017-18, the shipments grew to USD 303 billion. Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange. Representative image India's natural rubber imports in October jumped 63 percent from a year ago to 62,047 tonnes, the state-run Rubber Board said on Tuesday, as local consumption surged amid drop in overseas prices. The country's consumption jumped 14.6 percent to 102,000 tonnes in October, while production rose 8.1 percent to 67,000 tonnes, the Board said in a statement. India imports natural rubber mainly from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. SP Jain School of Global Management on November 27 announced the issuance of blockchain-enabled certificates to its students. As many as 1,189 blockchain-based certificates were issued which are now live on Ethereum blockchain. The first such initiative by a business school in the world, this will help curb fake certificates. Blockchain refers to a digital ledger in which transactions made using bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly. Ethereums blockchain can handle transactions like those used in bitcoins but can also store and execute newly coded programming logic. Also, Ethereum can handle not just payments but also other transactions like the execution of smart contracts. "This will enable the recruiting organisations and other relevant bodies to validate the veracity of the certificates issued to a student," said the institute in a statement. The automated five-step blockchain validation is intuitive and does not require any technical know-how on validators end. Prospective employers or other agencies can now directly verify our students' credentials, authenticity, and view student projects without contacting the institution. Nitish Jain, President, SP Jain School of Global Management said digital certificates are the future. "There have been various attempts globally to issue certificates on the blockchain. But so far no one has captured the complete lifecycle of the certification," said Jain. Here, he said the students attendance and other private data are securely stored in the schools private blockchain and only the certification-related data is exposed to the public Ethereum blockchain. Vikram Pandya, Director of the fintech programme at SP Jain Global said by scanning the smart QR code printed on the certificate anyone can validate the certificate without requiring any additional software or application. The intelligent custom smart contract, created in partnership with Smart-Sense Consulting Solutions, allows SP Jain School of Global Management to issue certificates, link students portfolio & projects, link students transcript and other documents, track its verification/use and control revocation list. Sachin Bansal After establishing and moving on from India's biggest e-commerce company, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal seems have set his sights on two emerging sectors in India -- agriculture technology and financial technology (fintech). Bansal plans to set up a holding company through which he will establish new businesses and make fresh investments, two people in the know told The Economic Times. Bansal will rope in Ankit Agarwal, his acquaintance from his time at IIT-Delhi, as a partner for this platform, the sources told the paper. Agarwal has reportedly worked with Bank of America and Deutsche Bank in the past. "They are evaluating multiple segments as well as investments in both these areas (agri-tech and fintech) to understand them better. These two focus areas are where Bansal is expected to deploy a large chunk of his capital. The time frame for when the company will be launched in not clear yet," one person was quoted as saying. After Walmart took over control of Flipkart, Bansal sold his 5 percent stake for nearly $1 billion, of which he possibly retained nearly $750 million, after taxes. The Flipkart founder was reportedly in talks with cab aggregator Ola to invest $100 million, which could go up to $150 million. Another company which interested Bansal was bike maker Ather Energy, in which he is a board member and wanted to infuse $30 million. Bansal was interested in investing $35-40 million in Sigtuple, an artificial intelligence-based venture, the sources cited earlier told the news daily. Many investors have shown interest in India's agri-tech and fintech sectors, with the latter being one of the fastest growing sectors in the country. Fintech is also benefitting heavily from the government's push for digitisation, especially in transactions. Bansal's interest in agri-tech is surprising as there are many problems in that space in India, according to Jinesh Shah, co-founder of agriculture-focused venture fund Omnivore. "It is a huge sector with a huge amount of problems. But there are quite a few areas in agriculture where startups are using software-as-a-service (SaaS), Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and remote sensing to improve logistics and productivity of the sector," Shah was quoted as saying. Seven bidders, including GMR Group, GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd and Essel Infraprojects Ltd have been shortlisted for Bhogapuram Airport in Andhra Pradesh, sources told Moneycontrol. The shortlisted bidders are Reliance Infrastructure (Reliance Airport Developers Pvt Ltd), GMR Group, GVK Power & Infra Ltd, Essel Infraprojects Ltd, Doit Urban Infranetwork Ltd, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Fairfax India Holdings. They have been given three months time to submit final request for proposals (RFP) for the greenfield airport, said people aware of the development. The bidders have been selected after receiving approval for their request for qualification (RFQ). Sources said that Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been barred from participating in the bidding process. In June this year, the Andhra Pradesh Airports Development Corporation Ltd (APADCL) had issued fresh tender barring all government agencies to participate in the bidding process. Emails sent by Moneycontrol to all the shortlisted bidders didnt elicit any response. Bhogapuram International Airport will be constructed at Bhogapuram, near Vishakhapatnam in AP. It will be built at an approximate cost of Rs 42.1 billion. The government had given 'in-principle' approval to Bhogapuram International Airport Corporation Limited (BIACL) for the establishment of the airport in Oct-2016. It is expected to handle more than 18 crore passengers at a time. The government has set two years time to complete the project. Starting next year, the project should be complete by December 2020. The project seem to be in line the with Centres proposal to privatise select airports. Media reports have suggested that NITI Aayog, chief executive officer (CEO), Amitabh Kant led committee has proposed to privatise six airports, one each in Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru by leasing the airports for 50 years. Unlike Delhi and Mumbai, where Airports Authority of India was a joint venture partner for GMR and GVK, his time the panel has decided to allow 100% private participation for operation, development and management. A foreign investor can also be the sole developer, reports suggested. Representative image In the interest of workers across India, the Labour Ministry will soon roll out the much-awaited social security code in three phases, dismissing fears that controversies around some of its proposals may delay the entire project, The Economic Times reports. The government is keen to launch this scheme before Lok Sabha elections in May next year, an official told the paper. The ministry will go ahead with the launch, hitting pause on debatable proposals in the comprehensive draft, the official added. Some of the controversial proposals include a transfer of all powers of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to the state social security boards to be set-up according to the new scheme. The two central agencies would be converted into fund managers, according to this proposal, which the ministry feels could be an issue. This social security system provides retirement, health, old-age, disability, unemployment and maternity benefits to unorganised workers in the country. The new code will benefit 50 crore workers around the world, as opposed to the existing one, which covers only 10 crore. It envisions 14 benefits for the workers. Workers are currently eligible for benefits including pensions, Employee State Insurance (ESI), Employee Provident Fund (EPF), gratuity, maternity benefit and perks under Employee Compensation Act and Unorganised Workers Social Security Act. These acts will be subsumed by the new scheme. A universal social security legislation was recommended by the second National Commission on Labour in 2002. A three-tier administration structure will be set up, with the National Social Security Council headed by the Prime Minister. There will be a Central Board of Social Security at the Union level and state boards at the state/Union territory level. A greater onus has been put on the state governments to make the scheme enforceable. The government will rollout this scheme in three phases over the next decade, after which it wishes to make the programme universal. The government plans to wholly finance the cost from taxes collected for people below the poverty line. In the first phase, all workers will get the minimum benefits including retirement and health benefits, the report said. Other welfare measures will be added in the consequent phases. As the coverage of the scheme expanded, implementation became more complex. The beneficiaries of the scheme will be divided into four groups. The first group would have people below the poverty line, who cannot contribute to their own social security. The government will bear the cost of this group under tax-based schemes. The second group will comprise of workers of the unorganised sector who may be capable of some contributions but need assistance from the government. The third group has self-sufficient people who can fund their social security either on their own or with help from their employers. Financially comfortable people, who can support themselves for risks and emergencies, fall in the fourth group. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More This is the verbatim transcript of HPL Electric & Power management call with analysts. Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen good day and welcome to the HPL Electric & Power Limited Q2 FY2019 Earnings Conference call hosted by Elara Securities Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing * then 0 on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities Private Limited. Thank you and over to you Sir! Harshit Kapadia: Thanks Stanford. Good evening everyone, on behalf of Elara Securities we welcome you all for the Q2 FY2019 conference call of HPL Electric & Power Limited. I take this opportunity to welcome the management of HPL Electric & Power represented by Mr. Gautam Seth, Joint Managing Director and Mr. V.R. Gupta, Director. We will begin the call with a brief overview by the management followed by Q&A session. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Seth for his opening remarks. Gautam Seth: Thank you Harshit. Good evening everyone, on behalf of the Board of Directors and the management of the company, we extend a very warm welcome to all of you to discuss the financial results for the second quarter and first half of the FY2018-2019. We recorded strong performance in the second quarter driven by favourable momentum across core business segment. Our metering, switchgear and lighting businesses have now displayed positive growth trajectory over the last eight quarters giving us confidence and placing us on strong footing to deliver robust business growth over coming quarters. Our overall revenue for the quarter stood at Rs.286.5 Crores growing by 28% year-on-year, metering business grew by 43% driven by strong execution of metering orders, switchgear business grew by 46% driven by strong growth in the trade business. There was a 12% year-on-year decline in the lighting business primarily due to the high base effect of Q2 FY2018, which saw festive season in September. Wires and cables business grew by 12% year-on-year. Overall the revenue growth of 10% quarter-on-quarter was driven by increase in metering and lighting sales. We recorded improved EBITDA margin both on year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter basis driven by higher sales and strict control on operating cost. Our metering margin declined on year-on-year basis due to increase in polycarbonate prices; however, the margin improved on quarter-on-quarter basis, which is due to better product mix. Switchgears margins improved due to higher realization and cost optimization measures. Lighting margins improved due to the efficiencies from better procurement. Our PAT for the quarter was Rs.7.8 Crores, registering a growth of 26% year-on-year and 39% on quarter-on-quarter basis. Our persistent efforts towards reducing our working capital cycle are yielding results. Our overall receivable days have gone down from 164 days in March to 140 days in September; this was driven by reduction in trade, which is the non-utility receivable days, from 125 days in March to 87 days in September. Our inventory days have also gone down from 149 days to 138 days from March to September. As discussed in our first quarter earning call, our endeavor shall be to maintain our net working capital at current level. Coming to our order book position, it continued an upward trend to reach Rs.507.5 Crores (net of taxes). As on October 25, 2018, the metering order book stood at Rs.462.4 Crores, which includes the smart meter order worth Rs.52.3 Crores received from one of the leading private power utilities. Our BIS certified smart meters are gaining widespread recognition and coupled with our strong execution in the metering segment we remain optimistic about the growth prospects in the segment. We are setting up a new manufacturing facility for electronic components used in the lighting business. Due to a strong growth in both metering and lighting businesses, we shall use our existing unit for metering business and dedicate this facility entirely for the lighting business. Our total revenue for the six months of FY2019 stood at Rs.546.5 Crores. This along with a strong order book places us in a formidable position to achieve our target of double-digit revenue growth in FY2019 coupled with improved profitability. Our ad spent for the quarter was Rs.4 Crores, taking the six months total to Rs.9.3 Crores. We shall continue to channelize our efforts towards strengthening the HPL brand and product recall in the minds of the consumer. We will continue to work on strengthening our centralized procurement network, inventory rationalization, brand building initiatives and innovative product launches incorporating the latest technology. With this I would now like to hand over the call for Q&A session. Moderator: Thank you very much Sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. The first question is from the line of Anup Nayar from Equity Intelligence. Please go ahead. Anup Nayar: Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Our share price has come down from IPO level of Rs.200 to around Rs.65, correction of 65% to 70%. Generally promoters use this as an opportunity to increase the stake. Can we expect any buy back plans from the companys side? Gautam Seth: Currently we have no such plan, however, we take your suggestion and we can consider it. Anup Nayar: Because the investor community would perceive this as the promotors confidence in and commitment towards the business and the company. Gautam Seth: I would not like to comment on the share price. There was some impact of GST on the trade business and our metering business was affected in FY 2016-2017. Since the last four quarters, there has been a steady increase in revenues; we have been working on all the parameters, right from improving our margins, controlling our operating costs and working on various balance sheet parameters and the working capital cycle. So, on a quarter on quarter basis there has been an improvement, as the results are better and those will reflect on the overall business. Anup Nayar: Our new centralized procurement network and other efforts to reduce working capital, have started showing results. What will be the capex on the new electronic component manufacturing facility and the expected advantages from that? Gautam Seth: When we started LED manufacturing four years ago, we were one of the first few players who got into manufacturing of the LED drivers, MCPCB and all the electronic components. Because of our existing electronic facility of meters, we have a large backward integrated manufacturing, so that gave us an edge in LED manufacturing. We are witnessing high growth in meters and even LED is growing, as the CFL sales have been converted into LED. We expect good growth in LED over the coming years, so the capacity which we had leveraged, was actually of the meter component manufacturing, which was manufacturing components for both lighting and meters. Given the growth prospects, we would be dedicating the existing facility for the meter component manufacturing, which it was originally doing and the new facility coming in Kundli would be focused only on lighting. In terms of capex, more than Rs.12 Crores approx. is going to be made for the set up of the facility. Anup Nayar: As a result of this capex, how much margin improvement isexpected in the lighting division? Gautam Seth: The primary benefit would be in the form of quality maintenance. The government has imposed high duties on imports of LED components, so they have been encouraging local manufacturing. We have always showcased HPL as a backward integrated manufacturer, where we are focused on technology & quality and then using our own manufacturing, so it will help us maintain consistency in quality and other things. It also gives us control over the supply chain wherein we know exactly what to make. In the long-term definitely certain benefits are there. If you see, the pricing of LEDs have been quite turbulent in the last three years because they have been coming down and we have been stating this right from the IPO time that there have been so many manufacturers, but we will see consolidation in the overall competitive scenario because there were so many people who entered, just trying to import. Today, there are a few competitors and there is serious competition. For us to go forward having our own facility definitely make sense; it also helps us optimize the cost because LED is a very dynamic technology and one needs to continuously do R&D. Since we now have separate units, we are well poised to benefit from the anticipated growth in metering and LED segments. Moderator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Divesh Shah, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead. Divesh Shah: What is the total market size of smart meter in India in terms of meter as well as in terms of the value and what is our market share? Gautam Seth: Right now, it is difficult to predict the market size of the smart meter. There have been only 4 to 5 tenders, which have come out though some of them have been the last tenders from EESL, but about two years back the meter industry was around Rs. 3,500 Crores, which was growing at almost 8% to 10%. The smart meters are eventually set to replace these types of meters because this is a new technology, the adoption of which would take around 5 to 10 years. It is a long-term opportunity. There have been only one or two tenders from the government. Certain private utilities are also coming out with tenders. The market size is small for now. Around 1 lakh pieces have been supplied till now, so it is still very less, but this is an opportunity for the future, which one needs to evaluate. There are only two manufactures who have the BIS license. HPL electric has now got 3 BIS licenses for different products in smart meters, so that is because of specifications that have come last year. A lot of other manufacturers are undergoing the test to comply with these standards, so a lot of things are happening and as we go forward we will see this industry evolve, so whether in couple of years may be 10%, 15% industry shifts are possible, but I cannot comment on that. Eventually the whole market is there for adoption of a new technology. Divesh Shah: Which is the other organized player, which is competing with us? Gautam Seth: There are 3 organized players in the market. Genus is one of them. Divesh Shah: Genus, we and the third one? Gautam Seth: I am not able to recollect the name, but yes there are only three players which participated in the previous tenders. Divesh Shah: We are supplying to the power utilities and payment from power utilities is very hard to come by, so do we face any difficulties in getting payment from state electricity board or power utilities, how do we get the payment? Gautam Seth: No, the payments are regular though the payment cycle is always 5 to 6 months, so that has always been the case for many years and we are in the business for over 20 years. The procedure is such that it does take a little time, but normally the payments are coming quite consistently and its been over 20 years we have been in this business and there is no single bad debt from any power utility. So that is a positive. Moderator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Omkar Rahman, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead. Omkar Rahman: Is the growth in metering revenue driven by a few key customers and if yes what has been their contribution in this quarter? Gautam Seth: Year-on-year or quarter-on-quarter growth is across various utilities, so it is not concentrated on one or two customers. Since many years we have been always having a very diversified customer portfolio supplying to almost every utility in the country, so similar trend has been maintained. Omkar Rahman: If one utility is procuring from a particular supplier, does that mean we will be the sole supplier or other suppliers can also be approached by the utility? Gautam Seth: The procurement from utilities is tender driven so normally it is not a single supplier, when a tender is finalized there are at least up to three vendors which are selected to supply within the tender. Although utility is always free to go to any supplier for the future tenders, but for that particular tender, whoever has won the orders, they are supplying it. Omkar Rahman: Would it not be beneficial for them to keep procuring from only one designated supplier, so that there is consistency maintained in the meters? Gautam Seth: There are central procurement rules, which the government has framed, which is not only for electricals, but it also applies to any purchases done by the government so there are certain rules, which have to be followed by every government department. I am not fully aware of the rules, but broadly I am aware that the utilities, the way the tender processes, it follows that. If there is more than one supplier which is supplying, the price is always taken of the lowest bidder, so there is never a loss for the government in procuring from multiple vendors. Moderator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ronak Jain, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead. Ronak Jain: Are we expecting employee expenses to increase over the next few quarters or the current quarterly run rate of 35 cr. will be maintained? Gautam Seth: Broadly as the production goes up, especially the factory wages and salary, which are directly in proportion to the manufacturing activities, the employee expenses will increase but as I mentioned in my original remarks that we have been working towards rationalizing our operating expenses and we have been able to do that despite the increase in sales. So, I dont see a major spike but yes, as the production increases in the forthcoming quarters in line with sales, we can expect proportionate increase. Ronak Jain: Sir, if we can get some colour on approximate increase, may be 10% or something? Gautam Seth: I do not think I can quantify it right now, but if we witness an increase in turnover, though not in that ratio, we will witness some increase in salaries and wages. Ronak Jain: Just a follow-up on the expense side. On the other expenses front, given that we are focusing on cost optimization and have benefitted from that this quarter, can we expect full year figure to be less than Rs.100 cr? Gautam Seth: You are talking about what cost Ronak Jain: Other expenses in P&L, so would the full year figure be less than 100cr.? Gautam Seth: No. As it is already Rs.53 Crores in the first half and the second half is set to be better because on the trade side, the second half is normally better. So, I dont see a major drop but we are working towards reducing our expenses. Despite the cost control measures, I dont think it will be below 100cr., bearing in mind the current trend. Moderator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhineet Anand from SBICAP Securities. Please go ahead. Abhineet Anand: First of all, if you could comment on the Chinese competitors in metering segment. There was a media article with respect to Chinese players doing L1 in some of the orders and secondly, if you could also mention the size of meter tenders available as of now? Gautam Seth: I will take your second question first. Currently there are about eight million meters which are under various stages of evaluation, so it would be around Rs.1,000 Crores in terms of value. Over the last two quarters, the execution rate has been faster than the industry. Even our own order book of meters on net basis, is at Rs.460 Crores plus. Over and above that, there have been good enquiries coming in from various utilities and I see an upward trend up to March. Regarding the Chinese competition, yes, especially the government tenders in EESL and others. In the utilities we are not witnessing Chinese entries, but in certain central utilities, we are seeing some participation. Yes, I have come across a few articles with regards to the Chinese competition in the metering space. Abhineet Anand: Does the EESL have any criteria regarding manufacturing setup in India? Gautam Seth: We have not been participating in the double EESL tenders that started off with lighting because in lighting and then even in meters, the margins and the terms & conditions do not seem favorable in the long run. Due to that, we have not been participating; but on a tender-to-tender basis, their terms are now becoming better. Now this is going to help to eventually build up the free qualification for future tenders. So, I am aware of these things, but exactly I cannot comment on what they are doing. Moderator: Thank you Abhineet. The next question is from the line of Divesh Shah, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead. Divesh Shah: Again, my question regarding meter, what is our total capacity in terms of manufacturing smart meters? Number of meters? Gautam Seth: Overall our annual capacity is 9 million meters and right now these are for normal meters, but if you look at the smart meters broadly, it is going to be similar as we make a single phase meter or a three phase meter or any other meter, in the same facility. One can safely assume that if the industry were to shift to smart meters entirely, we could accommodate that in our current capacity. Divesh Shah: What will be the average selling price of the meter supplied to the power utilities and that of a smart meter? Gautam Seth: You need to check the tenders because in the last tender, it was around Rs.1400 to Rs.1500 plus software and others, which were a part of a different tender. So roughly the overall cost should be 3,500 to 4,000; but it depends upon various specifications; so each time if there is a change in the specification, the cost would be according to that. Divesh Shah: Our IPO came at 202 and since then, there has been 70% destruction in the value. So what is your message to the present shareholder who are holding the share at 202 level? Gautam Seth: HPL Electric is a long term player; we have been in this business for many years and we do understand the metering, the switchgear, lighting businesses and if you see right from demonetization or from GST, there were constant disruptions which were beyond anyones control. If you see in the last couple of quarters, we have been working towards improving our working capital cycle and going forward, given the growth prospects in our business segments, we remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of the company and work towards attaining a stable growth rate. Divesh Shah: Since the share price has declined from 202 to 60, is the promoter looking to increase the stake? Gautam Seth: Somebody just suggested before, so we take the suggestion and we will consider it. Moderator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities. Please go ahead. Harshit Kapadia: I have a few questions. On the lighting margins, we have seen an improvement. If you look at the other competitors who have reported numbers in the last one-and-a-half weeks, their margins have been down considerably. So what explains this difference Sir? Gautam Seth: If you see the margins, our EBIT margin has gone up to about 12.5% and this was due to two factors. First one being the product mix, the other one being the procurement efficiencies. This is something we have started about four to five months back and we see this across the organization. We are focusing on centralized procurement, the overall benefits of which will start coming in the last quarter as it would require some time and effort. Overall in LED, we have been working on procurement and I believe that has helped us to some extent. Also, the product mix is better. Our original guidance of having about 11% to 11.5% as the EBIT margin in lighting is sustainable; however, there are continuous efforts by our team to enhance it like we have done this quarter. We hope to continue that in future. Harshit Kapadia: This would mean there has been a very less impact of the LED price decline from June onwards? Gautam Seth: What LED price? You mean the selling price? Harshit Kapadia: Prices of batons and panels have been declining in the market because of a few competitors aggressive pricing. New competitors have also entered this segment. Gautam Seth: Our selling prices since the last two quarters have been maintained and we have not seen any decline in our selling prices, although on the procurement side as I said, there have been constant efforts since the last four to five months and we have seen some benefits. We are getting new vendors, looking at different models and in fact last month or in October when we had the Light India Exhibition in Delhi and for this festive season, we have launched a lot of new products in lighting and across the various segments whether they are consumer, commercial, industrial or the outdoor lighting. We have come out with new models and we do hope that our teams would work towards enhancing the revenue from those. We will also work on the margin. As far as prices are concerned, those have declined compared to the level 2 years back since the last few quarters it has been steady, so I do not think there has been any decline in price from our end. Harshit Kapadia: Second question is again on margins, but on the metering side. You had earlier indicated that the polycarbonate prices have increased. Do you think it is rock bottom or do you expect further increase in the prices and the margins could be in the range of 13%-14% for the year or do you see any uptick in margin in the next couple of quarters? Gautam Seth: The polycarbonate prices as you are aware, was quite high, but it is coming off those highs and the polycarbonate prices have softened. The impact on margin will be seen with a lag effect. In terms of margin of course we have seen slight improvement in this quarter, but in the next two quarters, it may be 14% or 15%. Any upward tick in the margin because of this may be possible in the next financial year. There are certain quantities, which are already committed, our selling prices are fixed, so that is why it took a toll on the margins. Even in the case of price reversal, there is a time lag in price pass-on. Harshit Kapadia: Is there any plan to decline your short term debt, which has increased to Rs.520 Crores level ? Gautam Seth: As we said we are working on working capital efficiencies, so you can see improvement right from the trade debtors, which have come down in the past six months. The inventory level is also down. We are looking to maintain our net working capital at the current level, As far as our debt is concerned, it would remain at this level. We are expecting double-digit growth in H2, so that would actually bring it to a better level compared to the sales. Moderator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashok Shah from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Ashok Shah: Sir, can you just help us with the capacity utilization of various plants? Gautam Seth: Broadly we are operating at 75-80% of the capacity. In terms of meters, multiple facilities are working almost on two shift basis, some of it being on one or one-and-a-half shifts. In terms of capacity utilization, that has gone up considerably in the last three to four quarters and we are seeing that especially in meters, where we are seeing even month-on-month increase. Even in the second quarter, from July to September, we have seen improving utilization levels on a month-on-month basis. Broadly, across all the four product categories, be metering, lighting or switchgear, these have been working at good capacity utilization levels. Ashok Shah: In terms of turnover, when will we be able to attain FY6 level? What is the GST rate on different products? Gautam Seth: The GST rates are 18% for meters, switchgear & wires and 12% for LED lighting. In terms of our turnover, we have grown almost 28% this year in the first half. The second half of last year had a much higher base than the first half. Despite that, we expect a double-digit growth in the second half. Overall on a year-on-year basis, we do expect 15-20% growth in our top-line, which will help us attain our previous turnover and margin levels. We are working accordingly on that and we do see a positive trend quarter-on-quarter. Moderator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen as there are no further questions from the participants I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Kapadia from Elara Securities for closing comments. Harshit Kapadia: Thanks Stanford. We thank Mr. Seth and Mr. Gupta for giving us an opportunity to host this call. We also thank all the investors and the analysts for joining this call. Any closing comments Sir? Gautam Seth: Thank you and I would like to thank all the participants for giving us the opportunity to discuss and present our results and we continue to focus on our business; looking at bringing in efficiencies in our business, growing the revenue and also building the HPL brand. So, thank you once again. Thank you very much Sir. Ladies and gentlemen on behalf of Elara Securities Private Limited that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Chinese tech giant Huawei is betting on India to play a key role in achieving its global target of shipping 200 million smartphones this year. The company, which has shipped close to 100 million units in the first half of the year, on Tuesday also unveiled its premium smartphone 'Mate 20 Pro' in India for Rs 69,990. "India is integral to Huawei's global strategy of achieving the 200 million shipment globally by the end of 2018," Huawei Consumer Business group Senior Product Marketing Director Wally Yang said. According to research firm IDC, Huawei shipped 52 million smartphones in the July-September 2018 quarter globally, ranking second after Samsung (72.2 million) and ahead of Apple (46.9 million). Talking about its latest product, Yang said the Mate 20 Pro is "powerful and intelligent". "India is a key market for us and it is our constant endeavour to create value for our Indian customers, offering the most innovative smartphone technology and luxury design as a differentiator in the market," he said. The company has partnered brands like Leica, Microsoft and Dolby to deliver some of the premium features on the smartphone. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is equipped with a 40MP main camera, a 20MP ultra wide angle camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera. It has a 6.39-inch curved display and 4,200 mAh battery. The device would compete with handsets from the stables of companies like Samsung and Apple. In the above Rs 30,000 category (considered as the premium segment), China's OnePlus continued with its leadership with 30 per cent share in India during the July-September 2018 quarter. Samsung was the second largest premium brand with 28 per cent market share, followed by Apple (25 per cent), as per data from research firm Counterpoint. Bulls have managed to maintain a good momentum this week, ahead of expiry of F&O contracts on Thursday. A rally in technology names as well as financials, especially PSU banks, helped the market close with gains of half a percent. Further, softening crude prices and a possible deal between US and China aided sentiment on indices here. It wasnt a strong start on the market on Tuesday morning as indices opened flat. It largely remained around flat terrain for the greater part of the day. However, last hour saw investors rushing to buying counters of financials. They could have reacted of Rs 42,000-crore capital infusion by the government into PSU banks. A rally among PSU banks, energy names as well as IT boosted the market. In the broader market, the Nifty Midcap index ended over half a percent higher. At the close of market hours, the Sensex ended up 159.06 points or 0.45% at 35513.14, while the Nifty was higher by 57.00 points or 0.54% at 10685.60. The market breadth was narrow as 1238 shares advanced, against a decline of 1320 shares, while 161 shares were unchanged. Infosys, TCS, and BPCL were the top gainers, while Sun Pharma and Hero MotoCorp lost the most. Stocks in News Yes Banks shares plunged after Moodys downgraded its rating on the stock. Unichem Laboratories added 5 percent on Tuesday after it received an establishment inspection report from USFDA. Suzlon Energy rose more than 3.5 percent after it completed sale of its subsidiary company. Shares of IFCI gained 2 percent after it received Rs 492 crore under the resolution plan for Binani Cement under the IBC mechanism. Matrimony.com shares declined 2 percent on Tuesday after its chief financial officer resigned from his post. Global research firm Phillip Capital has maintained its neutral call on Voltas with a target price at Rs 510, implying 8.5 percent potential downside on likely margin pressure in Q3. The stock fell 2 percent. Global investment firm Bank of America Merrill Lynch has maintained its buy rating on Reliance Industries, the country's largest company by market capitalisation, and raised target price by nearly 12 percent. The stock rallied 1.6 percent. (Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.) Punjab National Bank shares gained 2 percent after it said that it is expecting Rs 2,500 crore recovery from Essar Steel resolution. Global Markets Asia markets traded higher as investors wait for a crucial meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Nikkei 225 rose 140.40 points, or 0.64 percent, to 21,952.40 while the Topix index added 11.96 points. Meanwhile, European stocks fell as investors monitored political events, including Brexit and Italian budget plans. Stoxx 600 was 0.25 percent lower. Sanjeev Prasad, Managing Director and co-head at Kotak Institutional Equities, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about stock market outlook, earnings and elections. With regards to the earnings growth, Prasad said, "The numbers for Q2 were quite reasonable with more surprises than disappointments. For Nifty-50 index, we are looking at 15 percent earnings growth for FY19 and around 26 percent earnings for FY20." According to Prasad, large part of earnings growth is on the back of normalization of earnings of the banking sector. Sharing the market outlook, Prasad said, "One will have to keep an eye on upcoming events like the G20 meet, OPEC meet and state elections going forward but earnings seem to be less of a concern." When asked about his views on commodities, he said, "The worry is what will transpire in the G20 meet with regards to China-US trade issues. It looks like tensions have again escalated and US could put additional tariffs on imports from China. If this were to happen then it could have negative implications on Chinese economy, which is already slowing and which in turn could impact commodities as a whole". "However, aluminium looks good on back a deficit of 200 million tonnes in terms of supply-demand mismatch," he said. Prasad is not worried about the domestic profitability of Tata Steel and continues to have the stock in their model portfolio. "Valuations not bad for JSW and Tata Steel," he added. When asked about their reduced weightage on HDFC, Cipla and L&T, he said, "L&T still continues to be a hefty weight in portfolio at 5.5 percent." The house is also upbeat on standard private retail banks like HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank although valuations are on the higher side. "On the private corporate side, we like ICICI Bank given that we are starting to see hopefully the end of the NPL cycle,' Prasad added. Talking about elections landscape back home, Prasad said, "As of now, market has factored in that the BJP would most likely win Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and could lose Rajasthan but if it were to lose even MP then market would start getting worried about the prospects of the same government coming to power in general elections." Source: CNBC-TV18 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Monte Carlo Fashions rallied nearly 6 percent intraday Tuesday ahead of board meeting to consider the proposal of share buyback. The company informed exchanges that the meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled to be held on November 30, 2018. In the said meeting, the board members will consider and approve the buy-back of fully paid-up equity shares of the company. The apparel retailer said trading window for trading in the equity shares of the company will remain closed from November 27 to December 2, 2018 (both days inclusive) for all the designated persons (including directors and designated employees as per company's aforesaid code) and their immediate relatives. At 14:42 hours IST, the stock was quoting at Rs 362, up Rs 12.55, or 3.59 percent on the BSE. The RBI will pump in another set of liquidity in December by infusing Rs 40,000 crore into the system through open market operations (OMOs). "Based on an assessment of the durable liquidity needs going forward, the RBI has decided to conduct purchase of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMOs) for an aggregate amount of Rs 400 billion in the month of December 2018," the central bank said in a release Tuesday. The Reserve Bank will detail about the auction dates for the OMOs in due course. However, it added that this OMO amount is indicative with the RBI retaining the flexibility to change it, depending on the evolving liquidity and market conditions. The RBI had announced to inject Rs 40,000 crore into the system in November. It has already infused Rs 30,000 crore into the system while the rest Rs 10,000 crore liquidity would be pumped in through auction on November 29. "Based on an assessment of prevailing liquidity conditions and also of the durable liquidity needs going forward, the Reserve Bank has decided to conduct purchase of the following Government securities under OMOs for an aggregate amount of Rs 100 billion on November 29, 2018 through multi-security auction using the multiple price method," RBI said in a separate release. In October, the central bank already injected Rs 36,000 crore into the system through OMOs. The RBI had earlier stated that the system liquidity will move into deficit in the second half of 2018-19 and the evolving liquidity conditions would determine its choice of instruments for both transient and durable liquidity management. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Global investment firm Bank of America Merrill Lynch has maintained its buy rating on Reliance Industries, the country's largest company by market capitalisation, and raised target price by nearly 12 percent. The research house increased its price target for the stock to Rs 1,430 from Rs 1,280 earlier, implying a 29 percent potential upside as it said RIL transitioned from an oil & gas conglomerate to India's "everything company". The oil-retail-to-telecom conglomerate has crossed the tipping point in consumer acceptability and shifted from B2C to B2B to help valuations, BoAML said. Retail and digital services (including telecom), which cater to consumer segment, contributed 22 percent and 7.5 percent to total revenue from operations for the quarter ended September 2018. Refining business' contribution stood at 67 percent followed by petrochemical with 30 percent. Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of the company, on October 17, had said company's commitment to create consumer value is gathering momentum, with the robust scale-up of India-centric consumer-facing businesses. "The financial performance of both Retail and Jio reflect the benefits of scale, technology and operational efficiencies." Retail business EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) grew three fold YoY whereas Reliance Jio EBITDA jumped nearly 2.5 times in quarter ended September 2018. Jio crossed 250 million subscriber milestone and continues to be the largest mobile data carrier in the world. At 1238 hours, the stock was quoting at Rs 1,121.75, up Rs 12.15, or 1.09 percent on the BSE. Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. : The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Here are stocks that are in the news today: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries: Company and its wholly-owned subsidiary entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The settlements extend to all claims brought by the direct are confidential. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries: Company to acquire Pola Pharma in Japan by way of cash consideration of 100 million Japanese Yen (approximately $1 million). IL&FS Transportation Networks: Interest due and payable on November 26 on the NCDs was not paid to the debenture holders due to insufficient funds. NMDC: Total iron ore production up to October 2018 at 15.47 million tonne and sales production at 16.55 million tonne. IFCI: On account of resolution of Binani Cement through NCLT, IFCI, which is holding 42,16,850 security receipts of the face value of Rs 1,000 each has received an amount of Rs 491.84 crore, net of TDS of Rs 30.55 crore, pursuant to the said resolution. Yes Bank: Promoter companies prepaid Rs 200 crore to Reliance MF and Rs 200 crore to Franklin Templeton - CNBC-TV18 Sources. Outstanding loans of bank promoters reduced to Rs 1,400 crore. Matrimony.com: Board approved resignation of K Balasubramanian as CFO and approved appointment of Sushanth Pai as CFO. Oriental Bank of Commerce: Shareholders to consider issuing up to 5 crore shares under ESPS. Richfield Financial Services: Board approved resignation of Abhijit Puglia as MD and appointed Rishabh Kankaria as the new MD. Unichem Labs: Mumbai office receives Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from USFDA for post marketing adverse drug experience inspection. Suzlon Energy: Company has completed sale of Tornado to CLP and accordingly Tornado has ceased to be a subsidiary of the company. Sunil Agro Foods: Company has commenced commercial production on the expanded capacity. TGV Sraac: To recommend appropriate Special Resolution for members approval at the Annual General Meeting for issue and allotment of 1,52,73,682 convertible warrants to the promoters (Brilliant Industries Pvt. Ltd., and Sri T G Venkatesh) at an issue price of Rs 37.01 per warrant to be converted into Equity Shares in the ratio of 1:1 within a period of 18 months of allotment. Bulk Deals Agro Phos India: Bharati Arvind Shah purchased 1,80,000 shares of the company at Rs 42.12 per share on the NSE. GSS Infotech: Dharmesh Maldevbhai Godhania bought 1 lakh shares of the company at Rs 117.95 per share on the NSE. Sita Shree Food Products: Daffodil Laboratories Private Limited purchased 3,72,049 shares of the company at Rs 0.75 per share on the NSE. (For more bulk deals, click here) Analyst or Board Meet/Briefings Motherson Sumi Systems: Conference organised by UBS Global Emerging Markets to be held on November 27 at New York and organised by Nomura to be held on December 3-4 at Hong Kong. TIL: Conference call with the investors / shareholders of TIL has been fixed through Emkay Global Financial Services Limited on November 29. Acrysil: Officials of the Company will be attending the investor conference hosted by Edelweiss on November 27 in Mumbai. Greenply Industries: Investor and Analyst Meet to discuss the operating & financial performance and future growth plans of the company on December 6. Mishtann Foods: Board meeting is scheduled on December 4 to consider to apply and authorise any director of the company, for making application for listing at Metropolitan Stock Exchange (MSE). Welspun Corp: Company will be attending a conference Organised by Edelweiss Broking on November 27 in Mumbai. Tata Steel: Company's officials will be meeting Legal & General Investment Management, Insight Investments, Amundi Pioneer and Stone Harbor Investment Partners on November 27 in London. Inox Leisure: Board meeting will be held on November 29 to approve the issue price for the preferential allotment. Godawari Power & Ispat: Dinesh Gandhi, Director of the company will be participating in conference organised by Edelweiss Broking Limited on November 27. Muthoot Finance: Board meeting is scheduled on December 6 to consider the unaudited standalone financial results of the company for the quarter and half year ended September 2018. Eicher Motors: Company's officials will be meeting JP Morgan Global on November 27. Galaxy Surfactants: Officials of the company will be meeting investors and analyst at the plant and R&D centre on November 27 in Navi Mumbai. Emmbi Industries: Company will be attending a conference Organised by Edelweiss Broking on November 27 in Mumbai. Indostar Capital Finance: Company will be attending a conference Organised by Edelweiss Broking on November 27 in Mumbai. Magma Fincorp: Company will be attending a conference Organised by Edelweiss Broking on November 27 in Mumbai. Future Supply Chain Solutions: Officials of the company will be participating the "Edelweiss GWAM Emerging Ideas Conference" scheduled to be held on November 27 at Mumbai and would meet various categories of investors. Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers: Company's officials will be meeting HDFC Fund on November 27. : Company will be participating in non-deal road show of UBS Securities India Private Ltd and IIFL Holdings Limited on November 26-27 in Hong Kong, November 29-30 on Singapore and December 3-5 in UK. Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries erased initial gains, plunging about 6 percent after a settlement with certain plaintiffs in the Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in a US district court. The company did not disclose the settlement amount. Also read: Sun Pharma settles Modafinil antitrust litigation with certain US plaintiffs The stock had risen as much as 2 percent in early trade after the acquisition of Japanese pharmaceutical company Polo Pharma for $1 million. Polo Pharma has a portfolio of dermatology products and has two manufacturing facilities at Saitama. "This acquisition is in line with our strategy to strengthen our global dermatology presence," Kirti Ganorkar, Executive Vice President, Sun Pharma said in a statement. At 11:32 hours Sun Pharma was quoting at Rs 484.25 on the BSE, down 5.17 percent from the previous close. Divis Laboratories Ltd. | The companys profit margin in September 2020 quarter stood at 29.95 percent as against 25.13 percent in September 2019. In FY21 so far, the stock price has risen 69 percent to Rs 3366.05 on November 12, 2020, from Rs 1987.55 on March 31, 2020. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Healthcare majors Sun Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma and Cadila Healthcare are expected to be benefitted from the likely production slowdown at Mylan's US facility after warning letter, Motilal Oswal said. The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter to Mylan's flagship facility at Morgantown, US, which produces sizable oral solids portfolio for the US market. The USFDA inspected Mylan's formulation facility at Morgantown, USA, during March 19-April 12, 2018, and issued Form 483 with 13 observations. Post inspection, the USFDA issued a warning letter likely due to inadequate response to the observations. According to the warning letter, there is a lack of sufficient interim plan/comprehensive retrospective evaluation of investigations to ensure implementation of appropriate corrective and preventive action (CAPA). The warning letter cited significant violations of the good manufacturing practices (GMP) for finished products. Motilal Oswal said its analysis indicated that Mylan manufactures around 300 oral solids dosages at this site, making it the largest oral solids facility of Mylan. "Issuance of Form 483 and the warning letter does not impose stoppage of production at the site, however, given the intensity of the issue, the huge product base and complexity of manufacturing, there could be a slowdown in production due to the implementation of remediation measures to resolve regulatory issues," it added. According to the research firm, the slowdown in production at Morgantown site could provide a window of opportunity to Mylan's peers. After analysing competitive dynamics of around 300 products manufactured at this site, Motilal Oswal concluded that there could be meaningful prospects for three pharma companies. "There could be a probable benefit of $79 million to Sun Pharma, $40 million to Aurobindo Pharma and $35 million to Cadila Healthcare." The benefit is subject to (a) non-filing for an alternate site by Mylan, and (b) capacity available with Sun Pharma, Aurobindo and Cadila Healthcare to supply for any unplanned opportunities, the research house said. Motilal Oswal remained selectively positive on companies with (a) a healthy generic product pipeline, (b) readiness to transform towards specialty/differentiated portfolio and (c) consistency to meet regulatory compliance. Its top pick is Aurobindo Pharma. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Dhanuka Agritech reported a decent Q2, indicating a recovery after a muted performance in Q1 FY19. The 10.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) uptick in revenue was driven by growth in volume and price uptick. However, an increased input cost ate into profitability and led to a margin contraction. While earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) remained largely flat, net profit inched up 4.2 percent. Erratic and uneven monsoon rains, coupled with water shortages in key states, stunted overall revenue and profit growth for the company. Revenue was up 10.4 percent YoY, with decent volume growth and price upticks in Q2. However, higher raw material costs impacted gross profitability. Though higher costs were passed on to customers in the form of price hikes, with some existing inventory in channels, there was a time lag in passing on the price hikes, which impacted Q2 margin and led to a 190 basis points (100 bps = 1 percentage point) contraction in EBITDA margin. A lower tax rate helped provide cushion on net margin, with net profit up 4.2 percent. In Q2, a fire incident at one of its manufacturing units in Keshwana led to an inventory loss of Rs 45 crore. The company has filed a claim for the same. The board has approved a proposal to buy-back shares worth Rs 8,250 crore at a maximum price not exceeding Rs 550 per share. Imported raw material constitutes 25 percent of total inputs. Of this, around 33 percent consist of imports from China and supply from there played a part in the companys profitability. As per the management, prices of key technical imports from China have stabilised now. However, they continue to remain at elevated levels. Moreover, the management expects a slight relief on the cost front from the rabi season owing to stabilisation in the supply situation.The company has launched 11 products in FY18 and the same have now started to pick up. The management now plans to capitalise on these by launching them countrywide and aggressively pushing them with marketing efforts and farmer trainings. From Q4, it plans to launch one grape fungicide product. The management expects 10-15 percent revenue growth for FY19, with 6-7 percent volume uptick. The annual tax rate is expected to be around 29-30 percent, impacting net margin. We expect margin to remain intact in coming quarters. The stock has corrected 32 percent over the last one year. After the correction, the stock is now trading at an FY19 estimated price-to-earnings of 17 times. With the growth story remaining intact, the stock appears attractive. We expect consistency in earnings as the company has a healthy product mix, with more than half of its sales accruing from specialty molecules, strong pick up in recently launched products, low penetration of herbicides and fungicides in India and favourable macro and policy environment for agriculture companies. Follow @Ruchiagrawal live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More In a quarter hit by rising input costs and a weaker rupee, Insecticides India (IIL) was able to deliver a decent performance. It reported a strong growth in Q2 FY19 with a 10 percent year-on-year (YoY) uptick in revenue owing to healthy volume growth. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) saw a 24 percent uptick with a 170 basis point (100 bps = 1 percentage point) margin expansion due to a favourable product mix, with lower share of generic products, better utilisation at the Dahej plant and improved B2C sales. The management was able to substantially reduce interest cost, which resulted in an 18.9 percent YoY growth in net profit. The company has strategically started exiting low margin products and is now looking to capture higher market share in superior margin products. The management aims to improvise its product mix by reducing concentration of generic products to around 5 percent. This should aid margin in coming quarters. Disruptions in Chinese supply and a weaker rupee have led to a surge in raw material prices, thus pressurising margins across the industry. Since 25 percent of its raw material needs are sourced from China, IIL saw a rise in input costs. However, it sees scope for an uptick in product prices, which would help protect margin. The management is planning a backward integration plant, which is scheduled to be completed by FY19-end. While the same augurs well for its own raw material sourcing, the company is also planning to capture the void in the market created due to missing Chinese supply. In August, the government banned 18 pesticides, of which four are produced by IIL and are to be phased out by December 2020. With a substantial 15 percent revenue accruing from these products, the companys FY20 earnings is expected to be impacted. Also, accumulation of inventory for these products in coming quarters might inflate working capital requirements. However, the company has a pipeline of new products, which are scheduled to be launched in the next two years. Sales from these new products should help offset a portion of the impact on revenue. The six new products launched in the H1 FY19 are now gaining traction. It has a strong line-up in technical grade agrochemicals and formulation products. These are expected to drive volumes in coming quarters. The company has a strong R&D focus and intends to launch 6-7 new products every year. It is focussing on its branded B2B business and plans to spend on a branding exercise.The management has started focusing on the export segment and is planning to export branded formulations and technical grade agrochemicals to high growth emerging markets like Middle East, Africa and South East Asian regions. With rigorous registration rules, exports to the US and European nations are relatively more difficult and hence emerging markets seem like a thoughtful approach.The management is planning a brownfield expansion of its technical grade agrochemicals facility at Dahej. It is planning to fund the capital expenditure from internal accruals. With substantial capacity expansion on cards, we see improved volumes and benefits of operating leverage in the future. The stock has corrected 25 percent in the last three month and is currently trading 41 percent below its 52-week high. Post-correction, the stock is now trading at FY19 estimated price-to-earnings of 12 times. With its growth story remaining intact, the counter appears attractive. We expect consistency in earnings as the company is: 1) Moving to a healthier product mix; 2) Focusing on high margin products; 3) Low penetration of herbicides and fungicides in India; 4) Expectation of a near normal monsoon; and 5) Favourable macro and policy environment for agricultural companies. Follow @Ruchiagrawal Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, CARE Ratings, wrote a piece on November 14, 2016 in Firstpost that summed up the dizzying chaos of the early days of demonetisation. Among other things, he described the stress and heartburn caused by the disruption of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) services in just one part of the country. A metro like Mumbai. He wrote, "The ATM story is still bizarre. On the 11 November one moved in a radius of 4 km between Andheri East and Vile Parle East (in Mumbai), which houses around 25 ATMs. Several ATMs of Kotak Bank and YES Bank were closed, with shutters down. The security guard said that cash was not received. SBI was taking only deposits. ICICI Bank claimed money was exhausted while HDFC Bank had no one to talk to as the main shutter was down and locked. PNB, Canara, Karnataka Bank, OBC and United Bank had not received stock of money. The only ATM which could give cash at 11 pm was IDBI Bank which probably had currency as it is located in a quiet place." What was the issue here? Well, his conversations with bankers and security personnel revealed the following. All banks did not have currency chests and did not have access to money. They needed to get money from the RBI and the central bank appeared not to have the stock which meant basically that there was a shortage of currency notes. "Once a bank gets the money it should have the wherewithal to handle it and disburse to branches. All do not have these facilities. The ATMs need to be reprogrammed to dispense specific denomination notes of fixed quantity and also ensure that the same card cannot be used twice in a day. There is a limit to it as it involves a physical exercise. There are over 2 lakh machines that need such attention. The outcome is also that once these machines are to provide a larger quantity after a pre-specified date, then they have to be reprogrammed. It is not surprising that these notes do not fit and the result is long queues." The estimation of the cost incurred from realigning ATMs, transportation of cash, security, besides the printing of new notes and destruction of old mites, was pegged in the article to anywhere between Rs 30,000 crore and Rs 40,000 crore. This of course excluded the loss of GDP. Plus, said the piece, announcing limits on withdrawals at ATMs or exchanging of currency sent out panic messages that the system did not have enough money. The conclusion by the author? The problem with India and the schemes implemented here is that most of them are formulated in the precincts of institutions with less knowledge of reality. Execution has always been our Achilles heel, and the attitude is always one of jugaad, he wrote. In this Moneycontrol podcast, we will discuss another ATM related crisis looming on the horizon. One that has already sent alarm bells ringing far and wide. Multiple news sources reported on November 21 that increased costs to meet new security norms may force automated teller machine (ATM) operators to close the machines. The Confederation of ATM industry (CATMi), the apex body of the domestic ATM collective warned that nearly 50 per cent of the country's 2.38 lakh ATMs face risk of being shut down due to fresh guidelines issued by the RBI. The industry body said the forced closure was on account of unviability of operations brought about by recent regulatory guidelines for ATM hardware and software upgrades, recent mandates on cash management standards, and the Cassette Swap method of loading cash. India Today reported CATMi's fears that at least 1.13 lakh ATMs may cease to exist as early as March 2019. These include one lakh off-site units and 15,000 white-label ATMs that are operated by non-banking financial corporations. CATMi also warned that the move could drastically impact "non-urban" areas. Reminding us of Madan Sabnavis' Firstpost piece where he had stated that the worst affected by the demonetisation chaos were lower income groups. How dire the situation can be gauged by a statement by CATMi, that a total of almost 7-10 lakh ATMs are required in India to adequately cater to the population of the country. And as the piece informs, India already has the lowest ATM penetration globally, with an average of 8.9 ATMs for one lakh people in comparison to 119.6 in Brazil, 78 in Thailand and 60 in South Africa. A tipping point CATMi director V Balasubramanian reportedly told news agency IANS that the recent regulatory guidelines issued for hardware and software upgrade of ATMs has led to higher costs, and that ATM operators have reached a "tipping point". The intentions are not bad. The cassette-swapping method will enable operators to quickly replenish exhausted ATMs and RBI has asked for the integration of lockable cassettes for adding an extra layer of security as well Earlier in April, reported India Today, RBI had also asked banks and ATM operators to tighten regulations in order to prevent rising fraudulent activity apart from its larger goal to contain bad loans. However, as always the execution is where we will falter. Neither banks nor ATM operators are happy with the RBI's mandate, which is expected to cost them at least Rs 4,800 crore. According to CATMi, the new cash logistics and cassette-swap method will alone cost in excess of Rs 3,500 crore. Balasubramanian explained, "To implement all these security, software-hardware directives would entail an additional cost of minimum Rs 1.5 lakh per ATM per month. This works out to astronomical figures for all the 2.38 lakh ATMs in the country." Complicating the issue is the fact that there is no clarity if the banks are required to bear the additional cost of meeting these guidelines. As CATMi said, "The service providers do not have the financial means to meet such massive costs and may be forced to shut down these ATMs." And Balasubramanian has stated that there is no possibility of continuing operations if the operators are not compensated by the banks for making the initial investments. The fallout India Today warns that while a majority of ATM operators and service providers would be forced to give up their licenses, the closure of such high number of ATMs will make life harder for citizens, especially in rural areas where cash use is still widespread. A major group to suffer from the fallout would be the millions of hapless beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana [PMJDY] who withdraw subsidies in form of cash through ATMs. This once again recalls the loss of working hours, inconvenience and stress that citizens suffered in interminable and chaotic queues post-demonetisation. We quote India Today, "There are millions of people living in rural areas who predominantly use ATMs for withdrawing cash on a daily basis. In such a scenario, closure of over one lakh ATMs may lead to a situation of panic, as witnessed after demonetisation." In any case, says the report, 10 percent of all ATMs in the country are non-operational at any given time due to various reasons such as unavailability of cash or system malfunction. Considering the facts, a further reduction in the number of ATMs in the country would be perilous, especially in remote areas. People living in the far flung parts of states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and others sometimes have to travel over 40 km or more to access an ATM. It is also feared that many depositors may even resort to hoarding cash at home if the ATM crisis deepens. Another body blow post demonetisation? CATMi has additionally stated that operators were already reeling under the financial impact caused by huge losses during and post-demonetisation as cash supply was impacted and remained inconsistent for months. And the large-scale closure of ATMs will further deliver a body blow with huge job losses in the industry and that in turn would be detrimental to financial services in the economy as a whole. CATMi has also reported that revenues from providing ATMs as a service are not growing at all due to very low ATM interchange and ever-increasing costs. The additional outlay of about Rs 3,500 crore only for complying with the new cash logistics and cassette swap method was never anticipated by the industry participants at the time of signing contracts with the banks. Many of these agreements were inked four to five years before such requirements were in sight. Any solution in sight? Well, there just might be. The Financial Express has reported that the largest ATM supplier NCR is in favour of multi-stakeholder synergy to resolve the problems being faced by the cash vending machines industry. Financial Express quoted NCR managing director Navroze Dastur who said, There is a need for the banks, managed service providers (MSPs) and the regulators to discuss and resolve the issues, just like we had done during demonetisation." Dastur reportedly said there can be a working group or a committee to sort out the crisis. It is the MSPs and white-label ATM operators which are the most impacted as the costs have gone up without a corresponding increase in revenues as most of their contracts are linked per transaction, he explained. According to Dastur, typically, ATMs next to branches are installed and managed by the banks themselves, while the offsite ones are done by the MSP. NCR also has a MSP vertical and takes care of 25,000 ATMs, he said, affirming a commitment to continue with it. As per RBI data, cash withdrawals from ATMs grew 8 percent to Rs 2.75 lakh crore in August, up from Rs 2.54 lakh crore in October 2016. Dastur indicated that cash is back in the system and ATMs and cash worth over 26 percent of GDP is routed through the ATM network at present. We cannot afford any disruption in ATMs, he said. The path ahead seems a bit tough to navigate as Dastur also noted that there has been a reduction in the number of new ATMs installed this year, and pointed out that the demand for replacements is keeping suppliers busy. He estimated however that up to 12,000 new machines will be installed in the near future. The Indian Banks Association (IBA) had also requested the RBI to relax norms or extend the deadline for cash management, though without gaining any ground so far with the central bank. And according to a Moneycontrol piece, an intervention from the regulator, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the interchange fee), or the Finance Ministry may be the need of the hour. Different voices Consumers are already finding it tough to wrap their heads around the crisis. Principal Correspondent Beena Parmar quoted Mumbai-based computer science professional Viren Darji in a Moneycontrol piece and he stated, "I use internet and mobile banking, but for a lot of day to day payments while commuting or roadside payments, or at shops, I would need cash...If 50 percent ATMs close down, it will lead to a situation similar to demonetisation." Sanjeev Patel, President of CATMi cannot ally these fears and he told Money Control, "We have been fighting for the increase in interchange fee from Rs 15 to Rs 18 for financial transactions and from Rs 5 to Rs 8 for non-financial transactions. The costs are increasing and with the RBI mandate to upgrade, the costs will hike by over 50 percent. So maintaining the ATMs become unaffordable and we have no option but to close down." Patel is also Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at Tata Communications Payment Solutions, a white label ATM operator. State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has categorically stated that it has no major plans to reduce the number of its ATMs by March 2019 and that the security measures advised by the RBI are in the interest of the bank and the customers at large. It has already started the process of implementation of the security measures on its ATMs. As of now, we wait and watch for the penny to drop and await a decisive move that hopefully will circumvent the pandemonium the ATM crisis had caused during demonetisation. Qatar Airways | Maintaining its place as the best airline in the world for the second year in a row, is Doha-based airline Qatar Airways. The airline is regarded to have high quality service and timely operations and claim processing. (Image: Reuters) Qatar Airways announced on November 26 it is expanding operations in Iran, despite US sanctions on the Islamic republic and a Gulf diplomatic rift over accusations Doha was too close to Tehran. The carrier will begin twice-weekly flights to Isfahan in February 2019 and increase existing services to Shiraz and Tehran in January 2019, it said in a statement. "These latest launches are further evidence of Qatar Airways' commitment to Iran," said Akbar al-Baker, the airline's group chief executive. Last month, Baker said services to Iran would continue despite a tightening economic and political squeeze on the Islamic republic by Washington. The US said it would impose sanctions on any American or foreign company that continues to do business with Iran, prompting some major airlines, including Air France, KLM and British Airways, to stop flights to Iran. A first tranche of US punitive measures were introduced in August after Washington withdrew earlier this year from the 2015 international deal aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Coupled with the US sanctions, Qatar is under scrutiny from regional powers over its relationship with Iran. Since June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have imposed a sweeping diplomatic and economic embargo on Qatar. The four countries accuse Doha of seeking closer ties with Iran, Saudi Arabia's arch-rival, as well as supporting radical Islamist groups. Qatar, which shares the world's largest natural gas field with Iran, denies the charges, saying its former allies are seeking regime change. Yes Bank live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has begun investigating Yes Bank's exposure to cash-strapped Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), Dewan Housing Finance Corp (DHFL), Indiabulls Group and Sudhir Valia's Fortune Financial Services India and Suraksha ARC, according to a report in Mint. Following an RBI missive to Yes Bank seeking details of the exposure on November 22, the central bank's supervision team has started going through statements issued since the date of sanction of loans to these companies. The team is also inspecting internal and statutory auditor observations and terms of disclosure. This inspection is quick and targeted in nature, a source told the paper. "RBI is trying to see the interconnections between Yes Bank and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) against the backdrop of the IL&FS crisis. These investigations are different from the annual inspection," the source added. Moneycontrol couldn't independently verify the report. Yes Bank reported an exposure of Rs 2,600 crore to IL&FS in its second quarter results. The bank's share of loans given to housing finance companies (HFCs) is 3.2 percent, while NBFCs share is 2.6 percent. After a series of defaults by IL&FS in September, bankers and market regulators are wary of a possible spillover effect in other NBFCs, which has led to a liquidity crunch in the system. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked mutual funds to furnish details about their exposure to all NBFCs and HFCs. The mutual fund industry collectively held IL&FS papers worth Rs 2,800 crore. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Lenders of embattled firm Jaypee Infratech met on November 27 to discuss the evaluation criteria, process memorandum and the expression of interest received by five companies to take over the firm and complete construction of projects. The next meeting is expected to be held in the next seven to eight days, sources told Moneycontrol. Sources said the evaluation matrix will be put to vote at the next meeting. The bidding process and schedule would also be firmed up in the next meeting. "The evaluation matrix and the process document was discussed at the meeting. The resolution professional gave an update on the EOIs received," sources said. The meeting lasted for over two hours. Homebuyers were represented by their authorised representative Kuldip Verma. Banks held an informal meeting with home buyers in the evening and may meet to discuss the evaluation matrix shortly, sources said. "The IRPs evaluation matrix does not cater to the construction of homes and how finances will be raised. Banks have their own evaluation criteria. There was no common ground on this front," homebuyers claimed after the meeting. Five companies -- NBCC, Kotak Investment, L&T Infrastructure, Singapore-based Cube Highways and Suraksha group -- have shown interest in taking over Jaypee Infratech, which is facing bankruptcy proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Sources said that L&T Infrastructure may not be invited for bidding as the company is only given a conditional bid for taking over Yamuna Expressway project. Evaluation matrix is a set of parameters shared with all the bidders based on which their bids are evaluated. These parameters include aspects such as which firm is bringing in how much cash, who has real estate competency, who has the net worth, the turnaround capability and so on. A process note shares the details of how the bidding process is expected to pan out, the time duration after which bids would be called, when would negotiations take place among others. Earlier, the company had postponed the CoC meeting slated for November 20. In October, after creditors of Jaypee Infratech (JIL) approved a proposal to invite bids for the embattled company, the interim resolution professional (IRP) Anuj Jain had invited expressions of interest for resolution plans from companies. The last date for submitting the expressions of interest was November 9. This is the second time that the resolution process has commenced. The first time round, there were three bidders in the race to buy Jaypee Infratech - Lakshadweep, Adani group and Kotak Realty Fund-Cube Highways. Only Lakshadweep, a joint venture of Sudhir Valia-led Suraksha Asset Reconstruction Company and Mumbai-based Dosti Realty, was left in the fray, but its Rs 7,000 crore offer was ultimately rejected by a committee of creditors for being too low. In the second resolution process, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects said it is only interested in 165-km Yamuna Expressway and not the development of land parcels attached to the expressway belonging to JIL. In a filing to BSE on November 20, state-owned NBCC said it has submitted the EoI for submitting a resolution plan for JIL and the company has been provisionally shortlisted by IRP as prospective resolution applicant of JIL. Suraksha Asset Reconstruction has also shown interest along with its entities Lakshdeep Investments and Finance and Suraksha Realty. The NCLT had on August 10, 2017, admitted IDBI Banks plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against the JIL for defaulting on Rs 526-crore loan. While admitting the plea of IDBI Bank, the NCLT had appointed Anuj Jain as IRP to manage the companys business. vandana.ramnani@nw18.com A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi - Nov 12, 2018 (Image- PTI) (2) The Supreme Court has asked the amicus curiae to file a report on the construction status, the amount required for completion of Unitech projects. "I have been asked to report on the status how many projects have been constructed so far and how many are pending construction along with buyers option (prefer possession or refund) on the portal with regard to that particular project stalled, completed, 30 percent completed etc," Pawanshree Agrawal, amicus curiae in the Unitech case, told Moneycontrol. The report has to be submitted before the next date of hearing - November 30. The apex court has also directed Agrawal to look into the report by the Dhingra Committee concerning the exact construction stage of 514 units that the embattled firm claims have been completed. The court had allotted Rs 21 crore to complete these units located in projects in Noida and Gurugram. At the hearing on Monday, the new bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud wanted to understand what has transpired in the case so far and also if the process of disbursement and construction could be streamlined, Agrawal said. It also made it clear to Unitech's counsel Abhishek Singhvi that the bail application of the companys promoters cannot be considered until Rs 750 crore were deposited, lawyers present at the hearing said. This was in response to Singhvi's argument that his client was in jail since the last 16 months. "I have heard that they are getting VIP facilities in jail," Justice Chandrachud observed. Justice Chandrachud also noted that the court proceedings were going nowhere as no money was being deposited by Unitech. Singhvi claimed that the real estate firm was able to complete 514 units with Rs 3 crore and was in the process of offering possession. This was countered by lawyers representing the home buyers who said "what is the use if the units cannot be registered as internal development charges and external development charges have not been paid by the company. There is also no completion or occupancy certification in place so as to get the flats registered," lawyers said. In fact, the amicus' report submitted last week also notes that some home buyers who have agreed to take possession of the units being offered by the embattled firm Unitech are unable to get their homes registered. "Regarding offer of possession of flats to home buyers, an issue has been raised that where possessions are being offered and has been accepted by the home buyer, the registration of flats are not being done," the report noted. The developer's counsel also argued that since most buyers had switched from refund to construction - 65 percent want possession and 35 percent want refund, at least 60 percent of the amount deposited by the embattled firm should be utilised for construction. The court has directed the amicus to confirm the fact and a decision may be taken on Friday, sources present at the hearing said. The apex court has also directed the realtors counsel to sell of the 400 acre land located in Chennai's Sriperumbudur area. The amicus had on November 22 filed his report with regard to the developments so far with regard to the case, a copy of which that was handed over the bench on Monday. Vandana.ramnani@nw18.com SEBI slapped a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on Kolkata-based R S Ispat for indulging in non-genuine trade which created a false appearance of trading in illiquid stock options segment of BSE. In April, SEBI had announced to take action in a phased manner against 14,720 entities for 'non-genuine trades' in illiquid stock option segment. The markets regulator said adjudication proceedings have been initiated against 567 entities involved in such trades in the first phase. In an order, SEBI fined the firm for violating PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) Regulations. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) conducted an investigation into the trading activity in illiquid stock options on BSE between April 2014 to September 2015 after observing large scale reversal of trades in the stock options. The probe found that R S Ispat was one of the various entities indulged in execution of non-genuine trades in stock options during the examination period. The company "by indulging in execution of reversal trades in stock options with same entities on the same day, had created artificial volume leading to false and misleading appearance of trading...therefore violating PFUTP regulations. Accordingly noticee (R S Ispat) is liable for monetary penalty," the regulator said and imposed fine on it. The logo of Sotheby's auction house is seen at a branch office in Zurich, Switzerland October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann - D1BEUKNHTEAA After ruling the art auction market across the globe, Sotheby's finally comes to India this week with an inaugural sale featuring 60 artworks estimated to make Rs 43.1 crore-62.9 crore. The "Boundless: India" sale in Mumbai on November 29 is irresistible in its composition, not just in terms of the artists it is offering but also in the wide range of media of works going under the hammer in Mumbai. A part of the collection, headlined by the likes of Tyeb Mehta and Amrita Sher-Gil, was up for preview in Bikaner House here recently. There are sculptures and installations, oil and acrylic on canvases, furniture, lithographs as well as photographs. The decision to debut in India was taken after the auction house spotted the growing presence of Indian collectors at international sales and the development of an increasingly vibrant domestic Indian art market. "Given these promising signs, and the projected economic growth for India in the future, it is the right time for Sotheby's to further expand, and to bring our auctions directly to the doorstep of the many collectors who live here," said Jan Prasens, Sotheby's managing director for Europe, Middle East, Russia and India, said. Leading the lot is Mehta's "Durga Mahisasura Mardini", estimated between Rs 20 crore-30 crore. Commissioned directly from the artist in 1993, it has remained in a private collection since. The work is Mehta's earliest depiction of the deity. Sketched in his familiar sharp, edgy lines, the magnificently saffron Durga stands tall over the green vanquished buffalo demon Mahishasur against the backdrop of a "hope" hued blue sky. "What you essentially have here are the colours of the Indian flag," Yamini Mehta, international head of Indian and South Asian Art at Sotheby's, told PTI. The painting was done during one of Mehta's visits to Calcutta right after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. That Sotheby's left no stone unturned for their debut auction to make a mark in India is conspicuous. The artworks are beautiful, rare and have unparalleled histories. Sher-Gil's "The Little Girl in Blue", which is also headlining the sale, is one of them. With hints of the sprawling French landscape she grew up in, she blends, almost unintentionally, elements of her Indian origins. The portrait is of Babit, a cousin of Sher-Gil's. It was painted in 1934 on the request of her aunt, Babit's mother. But Sher-Gil painted the "exceptionally beautiful and fair" eight-year old as a "dark, ugly" child, which obviously did not sit well with the aunt, Mehta said. The artist, however, went on to exhibit the work at her debut exhibition in Lahore in 1937, where it was bought by Hungarian art historian Charles Fabri. It has stayed with the family since. Sotheby's is bringing the painting back on the market after eight decades, making it only the third oil painting by Sher-Gil to come to auction in India. "The Little Girl in Blue" is estimated at Rs 8.5 crore-12.5 crore. Francis Newton Souza's painting of the London skyline featuring the St Paul's Cathedral under what looks like a stormy sky is yet another stellar work in Sotheby's debut sale. The 1961 oil on board, estimated between Rs 90 lakh-1.10 crore, is a stunning piece of art in monochrome, deriving inspiration from both the Catholic architecture of his native Goa and from his immediate surroundings in the English capital, where he had been living for 12 years. "Souza is just wonderful in monochrome and the way he has painted this is as if he almost carved on the canvas," Mehta said. A very minimalist ink on paper by Vasudeo S Gaitonde, who is best known for his large oil on canvases, painted during the early years of his career is also part of the sale. An abstract piece, the simplicity of the medium renders a sense of innocence to the composition. The aged, sepia tinted parchment gives the whole work a "Japanese tempura kind of feel". According to Gaurav Bhatia, MD of Sotheby's India, the work allows room for subjectivity -- every viewer can see in the painting what they want to. "It's got a lot of depth and minimal elegance. It is a simple painting, not trying to say very much. It's just the quintessential Gaitonde style which develops into a very strong style later," Bhatia told PTI at the Delhi preview earlier this month. For Bhatia, the painting is reminiscent of sunrise. The auction will also see an unassuming, unlikely work going under the hammer -- a mix media work by Ahmedabad born artist Piraji Sagara. The 1962 work depicting a Kashmir landscape is quite "folksy" at first sight. Unlike most portrayals of Kashmir, this particular rendition is a "calm picture" of the volatile Valley. "Piraji was one of the most underrated artists who was not commercial. Extremely understated, he was rediscovered two years ago," Bhatia said. The catalogue also includes a steel sculpture by Bharti Kher and Priti Paul, a bronze sculpture by Sadanand Bakre, a painting by Gulam Rasool Santosh, two water-colour works by Bhupen Khakhar, two Sangath studio stools by Balkrishna V Doshi among others. The sale will be held at The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai on November 29. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More After a strong closing on November 26, the Sensex and Nifty are trading in a range on November 27 with Nifty trading in 10,600-10,650 range, while Sensex is hovering around 35,400. IT, energy and banking stocks are trading higher, while major losers are pharma, metal, auto and FMCG stocks. Pharma index lost the most in day's trading session as it was trading lower by 1.4 percent at 9051.20. On the intraday basis, Sun Pharma shed 7 percent, while Lupin, Granules India, Unichem Laboratories and Alembic Pharmaceuticals gained 1-11 percent. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries | Down 7 percent Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries erased initial gains, plunging about 7 percent after a settlement with certain plaintiffs in the Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in a US district court. The company did not disclose the settlement amount. It had gained about 1.5 percent in early trade after the acquisition of Japanese pharmaceutical company Polo Pharma for USD 1 million. Lupin | Gains 1.4 percent The company has received EIR (Establishment Inspection Report) on the completion of an inspection by the USFDA (United States Food & Drug Administration) at its facility in Tarapur, Maharashtra. The inspection conducted between August 27 and August 31, 2018 concluded with one inspectional observation. Alembic Pharmaceuticals | Up 3.4 percent The company has received approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for its abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) Temazepam Capsules USP 7.5mg, 15mg, 22.5mg and 40mg. The approved ANDA is therapeutically equivalent to the reference listed drug product (RLD), Restoril Capsules, 7.5mg, 15mg, 22.5mg and 40mg, of SpecGx LLC. Temazepam Capsules are indicated for short-term treatment of insomnia. Unichem Laboratories | Rises 11 percent Company's Mumbai office has received EIR (Establishment Inspection Report) from USFDA for the post-marketing adverse drug experience inspection conducted by the USFDA from June 25 to June 29, indicating closure of inspection. Granules India | Gains 2.5 percent The USFDA has approved the Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) filed by Granules Pharmaceuticals, Inc., subsidiary of Granules India Limited, through its US agent First Time US Generics LLC, for Methylphenidate Hydrochloride Extended-Release Tablets USP, 10 mg and 20 mg. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries was quoting at Rs 487.95, down or 4.45 percent, Granules India was quoting at Rs 89.55, down 1.10 percent. Unichem Laboratories was quoting at Rs 217, up 7.11 percent, Alembic Pharmaceuticals was quoting at Rs 565.65, up 1.09 percent and Lupinwas quoting at Rs 853.75, up Rs 1.06 percent on the BSE. Mudslides could follow wildfires in California The Guardian quoted UB associate professor of geography Christian Renschler in an article on how heavy rains forecasted across California could create mudslides and floods, threatening the safety of those living in camps after being displaced by the fires. Renschler explained that the rain water is not absorbed into the earth because carbon from the fires seal the soils surface. The debris and ash, when mixed with the water, also form a cement-like mixture that may damage infrastructure, he says. Myth 2: If you try harder, you can make your symptoms go away | Mental illnesses cant be willed away. And for those who are experiencing them, pushing this approach can be very defeating, Emily Bulthuis, a therapist at Park Nicollet said as quoted by HealthPartners. (Representative image) Armed with a job in hand straight out of college, the world was an oyster waiting to be explored for Mumbai-based Arushi Sethi. However, fate had other plans for her. Just before starting on the job, on an invitation from a friend, Sethi decided to visit Nepal in 2015 the year the country was devastated by an earthquake that claimed nearly 9,000 lives and left millions homeless. She was fortunate enough to be among the first 200 people that were rescued, but the death and destruction she witnessed due to the natural disaster left her wondering: "Why me?" She found it heart wrenching that despite each one being equal living at the mercy of mother nature, authorities first came to rescue the rich. Within three hours of the earthquake, Sethi grappled with this disparity in class and socio-economic structures and decided to do something it. On her return, she ventured out with Trijog a startup that focuses on mental well-being. "Trijog is all about trying to redefine mental health as a culture," she told Moneycontrol and added, "You need to change the way you are looking at mental health, rather than just looking at it from a hospital. Mental health needs to be celebratory. Why should we stigmatise ourselves into things that have been pre-decided for us?" A visit to Trijog's office will take you far away from the imposing vibes of a clinic or a hospital. It feels like you have entered a spa, rather than a mental wellness centre. Sethi hopes that with the knick-knacks, the friendly turquoise blue walls and the alleviating sound of flowing water would help clients work their problems more efficiently along with assistance from Trijog's team. However, she is aware that the real battle lies in fighting the stigma associated with seeking help for mental health conditions. According to a 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) report, close to 56.7 million Indians silently suffer from a depressive disorder, which was 4.7 percent of the country's population at the time. Close to 38.4 million citizens, or 3 percent of the population, were coping with an anxiety disorder with the numbers rising. Sethi estimates that one in four people would face some sort of mental health issues and only 10 percent of those would seek help in India. "Human nature is such that one doesn't want to feel vulnerable," said Neeja Birla, Founder and Chairperson of Mpower a foundation that seeks to raise mental health awareness and provide clinical aid to those coping with a medical condition. In her experience, the inward nature of the afflictions from mental health conditions make people believe that they can manage on their own. Some are of the view that mental health issues are more of a personality issue, which makes them hesitant to spend on treating it. The way Birla sees it, if one has sound mental health, it reflects positively on their relationships and productivity. However, due to the stigma associated with it, she recalls how some well-educated people would hesitate to enter the Mpower Centre. They were more worried about people noticing them as the clinic was situated "too close to the main road". She has been working on eliminating the stigma by educating people. "One has always associated mental health with a weak mind. Many dont know that even strong-willed personalities can also have depression, and the two can co-exist. Many high achievers also suffer from anxiety," Birla said. "If one is able to educate people around this, they realise that it is not so bad...when more and more people talk about it when you realise that you are not the only one. That prevents one from isolation, and you get a sense of belonging." To reach this goal, Mpower organises awareness programs regularly at schools and public places. The organisation has a strong social media presence, which helps in its objective of, "Disseminating information about mental health in an accessible, easy to understand manner to a large audience in a short span of time," according to its website. Apart from the Mpower Centre, which tends to those who can afford regular mental health care, the organisation runs the Mpower Foundation, a centre for the underprivileged in Mumbai that charges as low as Rs 10 as consultation fee. Mpower and Trijog, operate in a mental health space with negligible industry standards. The lack of standardisation meant that Trijog had the leeway to innovate their own practices that could stabilise and be viewed as a norm in the coming years. The company came up with corporate wellness programmes that include music, art and other tactile elements that celebrate mental health. Nonetheless, Sethi claimed that this was a sphere where 50 percent of the people suffer from a stress or anxiety disorder. In a similar vein, the company aims to tackle behavioural and learning disorders in children by holding programmes at schools. What started off as a humble startup from a kitchen, has now turned into a company valued at around Rs 8 crore with 30 employees. The founder said that Trijog grew six times in 2017. The centre currently treats around 300 clients, aged between two and 85 years -- over a wide spectrum of social, emotional and behavioural problems. According to Sethi, the severity of mental health issues falls on a spectrum and many people can be saved if they are in the "not so good" or questionable stage, as opposed to those in the "poor", "very poor" and "clinical" levels. "For some of us, it is a pre-body disposition, it is bound to happen," she said. United Technologies Corp said on Monday it would separate into three companies consisting of its aerospace, elevators and building divisions, making it the latest industrial conglomerate to pursue such a break-up. The decision follows the completion this month of United Technologies' $30 billion acquisition of avionics maker Rockwell Collins, which gave enough scale to its aerospace business to be a standalone company. The move is in line with plans of other major industrial companies, such as DowDuPont Inc, Honeywell International Inc and General Electric Co, to shed major divisions, as investors assign more value to the parts of these companies separately than to their sum. Two activist hedge funds, Daniel Loeb's firm Third Point LLC and William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management LP, had called on United Technologies to pursue a split, and United Technology's chief executive, Gregory Hayes, had signalled for most of the past year that he was considering the move. "Our decision to separate United Technologies is a pivotal moment in our history and will best position each independent company to drive sustained growth," Hayes said in a statement. United Technologies shares were up 2.2 percent at $130.81 in extended trading in New York on Monday. With a market capitalisation of $102.5 billion, United Technologies is one of the biggest companies ever to pursue a three-way split. United Technologies said it planned to keep the newly acquired Rockwell Collins business, along with its Pratt and Whitney engines unit and aerospace systems. This combine business generated total sales of $39 billion in 2017 on a pro forma basis. United Technologies said it will spin off its Otis elevators and Carrier air-conditioning businesses tax-free to shareholders. Otis reported sales of $12.3 billion last year, while the Carrier unit had revenues of $17.8 billion. Hayes will continue in his current role as United Technologies chairman and CEO after the separation, the company said, with the separation expected to be completed by 2020. United Technologies raised its 2018 sales forecast on Monday to a range of $64.5 billion to $65.0 billion, up from $64.0 billion to $64.5 billion previously, to include the Rockwell Collins acquisition. The company expects 2018 adjusted earnings per share of between $7.10 and $7.20, down from $7.20 and $7.30 earlier. Neeraj Arora, who has been WhatsApp's business head for 11 years, has quit the company, marking another high-profile exit at the popular messaging app. Arora, who is a native of Delhi, first made headlines in 2014 when WhatsApp was acquired by social networking giant Facebook. He was credited with being an important reason for why the deal was structured the way it was. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Arora said he would be "taking some time off to recharge and spend time with family". "I am deeply indebted to Jan and Brian, who entrusted me to be their business companion for so many years..." he said. WhatsApp Co-founder Jan Koum quit the company in May. Brian Acton is the other co-founder. WhatsApp has been facing challenges in several key markets including India, with governments asking it to fix the spread of misinformation. The company recently appointed Ezetap founder Abhijit Bose as India head. Bose will assume his new role from next year. The Indian government has been asking WhatsApp to fix the problem of fake news messages. Of its 1.5 billion monthly active users, over 200 million are in India, making it one of the largest markets for the Facebook-owned company across the globe. WhatsApp is grateful for the dedication, focus, and outstanding work of our early leaders and team. We remain deeply committed to providing a way for people to communicate privately now and in the future, a WhatsApp spokesperson said. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh hit out at Pakistan Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, blaming him for terror activities in the state and killings of Indian soldiers at the border. The chief minister made the remarks at an event where he laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor along with Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. He said, I want to say something to their (Pakistan) army chief. I have also been in the Army and General Bajwa he is very junior to me in service Does the Army teach (you) to kill our jawans at the border? You kill them with sniper. Have you ever been told that you killed people in Pathankot, Dinanagar, Singh said. Referring to the grenade attack on the Nirankari Bhavan in Amritsar in which three people were killed, he said: People were offering prayers in a village and grenades were hurled at them. Is it what is taught by the Army? It is cowardliness, said the 76-year-old Singh, himself an ex-Indian Army officer. He said that it is common knowledge that it is the Army that calls the shots in Pakistan. "We believe in peace and we are giving a message of peace from here. But, their generals should understand that we have a large Army and we are prepared... And this should not happen as nobody wants war. We all want to carry out development in a peaceful manner, he said. Earlier, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Singh laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, which will facilitate easy passage to Sikh pilgrims to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. The decision to build the passage -- from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to the International Border -- was taken by the Union Cabinet on November 22. Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab. Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years of his life there. Amit Shah, Vasundhara Raje and State President Madan Lal Saini during 'Yuva Ree Baat Amit Shah Ke Sath', at Deep Smriti Auditorium, in Jaipur, Rajasthan In a series of rallies on November 27 in poll-bound Rajasthan, BJP chief Amit Shah slammed the Congress over corruption, caste-based politics and Bangladeshi migrants. Corruption was commonplace when the UPA government was in power at the Centre, he alleged in Pali. From 2G and ISRO scam in space, AgustaWestland chopper scam in the sky, Adarsh Society scam on land, submarine scam underwater and coal mining scam beneath the earth, the Congress did not leave a place where they didn't do a scam, he said. He claimed four generations of a family in the Congress enjoyed power for years but did not work for development. The party has no leadership, policy or principles, he charged. He targeted the Congress leaders for asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's caste, saying that the leaders of the opposition party had stooped low. Shah addressed public meetings in Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Udaipur districts of the state which goes to the polls on December 7. In Jalore, he reiterated that the Bharatiya Janata Party government was committed to sending back illegal migrants. Vote for Vasundhara Raje in 2018 in Rajasthan and vote for Narendra Modi in 2019. We will find intruders and throw them out of the country, one by one, Shah said. The Congress did nothing to address the issue of illegal migrants, he said. The allegation was also made in the manifesto for the assembly polls, released Tuesday by the BJP in Jaipur. Attacking Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he said, "Rahul'baba' asks us to give a report of our four and a half years of performance. He and his family have been in power for four and a half generations. They should be the first one to talk about their performance." He said the Congress lost elections across states in the last four years and it is now difficult to find the party even with binoculars. It is good to dream but the Congress chief is daydreaming to form the government in Rajasthan. I want to say once again that the BJP is going to form the government here, Shah said. He referred to a reported incident in Bikaner where Congress workers raising 'Bharat mata ki jai' slogans were interrupted by 'Sonia Gandhi ki jai' slogans. They are ashamed of chanting slogans for the country," he said. Praising Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for financial management, he said the BJP government increased the state's revenue and put it on the path of growth and development. Army chief General Bipin Rawat The Army is capable of taking action whenever told to do so, Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said, asserting that there will never be a situation where it will not be able to tackle a big terror attack like 26/11. Rawat said the Army was now much more prepared to take action based on the directions given by the government. "If we are told to take some action, we are capable and ready for it. So, there is never going to be a situation where you will not have options to tackle something like a big terrorist attack," Rawat told the India Today magazine in an interview. He was responding to a question that if there was another attack like 26/11 today, what will be the Army's response. Asked about the recent beheadings in the Valley, Rawat said in the last year-and-a-half, terrorists had targeted policemen, burnt the houses of panchayat members and school buildings. "Now, they are targeting the unemployed, alleging that they are police informers. Locals now feel (militants) aren't acting in the best interests of the people of Kashmir. What we are seeing are acts of frustration in the final stages of an insurgency. It will lead to an uprising from the people who will then shun the militants," the Army chief said. Asked about his recent comments that attempts were being made through "external linkages" to "revive insurgency" in Punjab, Rawat said the statements were based on intelligence inputs. The BJP rolled out its Rajasthan poll manifesto on November 27, promising 30,000 new government jobs every year, 50 lakh employment opportunities over the next five years in the private sector and an allowance for the educated jobless. It also held out a possibility to farmers of doubling their income, helped by a new Rs 250-crore fund to encourage rural start-ups. The manifesto for the December 7 assembly polls said illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Rohingya Muslims would be identified and expelled, and Hindus who had to leave Pakistan offered citizenship. The manifesto unveiled by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his cabinet colleagues Prakash Javadekar and Arjun Ram Meghwal. The document, called 'Rajasthan Gaurav Sankalp', also mentioned efforts to check cow smuggling in the state. Raje said the Eastern Rajasthan Canal project, which addresses the irrigation and drinking water problem in 13 districts of eastern Rajasthan, will be taken up on priority. The Bharatiya Janata Party promised expansion of cooperative loans for the agriculture sector, saying loans worth Rs 1 lakh crore will be disbursed in the next five years. If the Raje government returns to power, there will be farmers' visits to Israel and other countries to study best practices. It will pick a district in each division to focus on organic farming. Farming of medicinal plants will also be encouraged. Creation of jobs is a big part of the manifesto. Raje promised the enactment of an employment guarantee scheme on the lines of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for urban areas. Apart from creating 30,000 government jobs every year, the manifesto assured 50 lakh job opportunities over five years in the private sector, including through self-employment. Educated unemployed youths above 21 will be given an unemployment allowance of up to Rs 5,000 a month, the manifesto said. It also carried promises for the tribals and Dalits. A Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar pilgrimage fund will be established, Ambedkar Peeth in Jaipur declared a national-level tourist site, Dr Ambedkar chairs set up at government universities and e-libraries introduced in Ambedkar community halls. The BJP announced that the state government will spend about Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years for the development of tribal sub-plan areas. The next BJP government will recommend to the Centre to include 'Meena', along with 'Mina', in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) and will construct memorials to tribal leaders in Dungarpur, Kota, Bundi, Banswara and Jaipur. In the education sector, a private school board or an empowered committee will help the government decide policies and a Vedic studies board will be set up. The party also promised a scheme for providing meritorious students taking admission in government schools with laptops or smartphones. Every government college will get an e-library, the party said. The party said it would set up additional check posts to prevent cow smuggling in the Mewat region. The next BJP government would rope in Akshya Patra Foundation or a similar organisation to manage cow shelters, it said. Promises on industries, tourism, women welfare, social justice, youth and journalists also figure in the manifesto. Chief Minister Raje claimed that her government fulfilled 630 out of the 665 promises made in the 2013 manifesto. Senior party leader and Union minister Jual Oram said Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Odisha. He was speaking to reporters after former Odisha-cadre IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi joined the saffron party in the presence of party president Amit Shah in Delhi. The announcement came amid rumours in the political circle that the BJP would project Sarangi as its chief ministerial candidate for the state assembly elections next year. "Dharmendra Pradhan will be the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP in Odisha. We will fight the forthcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections under his leadership. Our aim is to unseat Naveen Patnaik from power and put an end to the rule of the non-Odia bureaucrats in the state," Oram said. Asked about Sarangi's joining the BJP, the Union tribal affairs minister said she has joined the party as a primary member. On speculations of resignation of two senior party leaders - Rourkela MLA Dilip Ray and party's national executive member Bijay Mohapatra - from the BJP, Oram said it will be a "major loss" for the party if they quit. However, the BJP will try its best to compensate the loss if it happens, he added. Ray had recently hinted at his resignation from the party as he alleged the central government had not taken steps for the development of Rourkela city. "I do not think Ray will quit the party on the issue of development, rather due to political reasons," Oram said. The minister said his personal relationship with Ray was very good. "It is the personal matter of a leader to decide whether to remain in a party or quit," he said. Ray is reportedly unhappy with the Central government as no progress was made in the construction of the second bridge over Brahmani river and upgradation of Ispat General Hospital (IGH) in Rourkela. Oram "blamed" the BJD-led state government for the "delay" in sanction of the bridge work. He claimed the state was yet to give the documents for environment clearance for the project. However, the process to upgrade the IGH as a super speciality hospital has already started, he added. Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik addresses the media in Jammu. (Image: PTI) In remarks that could embarrass the Centre, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said had he "looked to Delhi", he would have had to install a government led by Sajad Lone, a claim which the opposition said vindicated its charge he was under pressure to put in place a "BJP-supported government". There was no immediate reaction from the Centre or the BJP to the remark made by Malik, who said history would have remembered him as a "dishonest man" if he had asked Lone, the leader of the People's Conference, to form the government. But a Raj Bhavan spokesperson in Jammu clarified that the governor while taking the decision to dissolve the J&K Legislative Assembly on the night of November 21 acted in an "objective and impartial" manner. "There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter," he said in a press statement. As the comments by Malik created a flutter, the chiefs of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and National Conference --Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, both former chief ministers--complimented the governor for not taking "instructions" from Delhi thereby stopping the installation of a government of the "BJP and its proxies". Malik abruptly dissolved the Assembly after the PDP staked claim to form a government with the backing of arch rival NC and the Congress. Mehbooba claimed the support of 57 MLAs in the 87-member Assembly. The PDP claim was quickly followed by another bid from the People's Conference which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties. The BJP had 25 MLAs while the strength of the People's Conference was 2. "Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jata...(Had I looked to Delhi, I would have had to install a government led by Lone, and history would have remembered me as a dishonest man)." said Malik during a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior. "Therefore, I ended up the matter. Whosoever wants to scold, can do so now but I am convinced that whatever I did, was right," he said in his address after noted journalist Ravish Kumar in his speech referred to the faulty fax machine at Raj Bhavan in Jammu on a day of fast paced political developments. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the more the Governor tries to justify his decision to dissolve the assembly the more he is "tying himself up in his knots". The action by the governor was nothing short of a "command performance", Tiwari said, alleging he did it on the "instructions of Delhi". "The Governor of J&K has done long term damage to India's interest in J&K. That is a reality which unfortunately will have implications in the future also," he told reporters in the national capital. "So, what Governor Satya Pal Malik is trying to do is really emulate his masters in Delhi who have done a Phd in flip-flop, U-turns, somersaults and the reality is that NDA-BJP Government has no policy towards J&K." Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the governor has exposed Modi government's alleged "sinister design of installing an illegitimate government by horse trading and coercion". Abdullah and Mehbooba took to Twitter to react to the governor's claim. "My compliments to Governor Malik for not looking to Delhi & for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & it's proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money," Abdullah said. "I really don't know what to make of Governor Sahib's revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & it's proxies were desperate to form a government through horse trading & use of money but we've also never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the Centre," he added. Mehbooba said it is good to see that the governor refused to take "dictation from Delhi". "Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sahib refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state." J&K Pradesh Congress Committee(JKPCC) Chief Gulam Ahmed Mir said Malik's "admission" has vindicated the opposition charge that BJP wanted the governor to install a government through defections against all constitutional norms. "As the governor had no option except to invite the single largest party claiming majority to form the government, the governor resorted to dissolving the assembly to prevent the government formation, since he was under pressure to install BJP supported government," he added. "But the cat is finally out of the bag now, that Modi government was pressuring governor to install a chief minister with the backing of BJP by arranging numbers apparently through horse trading," he claimed. At the Gwalior event, Malik said that without seeking any advice or direction or holding any discussion with Delhi, he took the decision of dissolving the assembly. The governor noted that Lone had been saying he had sent his letter on WhatsApp and Mufti said she tweeted staking claim for government formation. "I never knew that governments were formed on WhatsApp and tweet messages. Staking claim for the formation of the government are not made on WhatsApp,"he said. Israel has asked Pakistan to "ensure full justice" to the 26/11 terror attack victims on the 10th anniversary of the carnage in Mumbai carried out by 10 terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. About 166 people, including six Israelis, were killed in the terror attack. At a memorial event organised on November 26 evening by the Indian mission here to mark the anniversary, Michael Ronen, Director, South & South East Asia Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel emphasised that it was important for the international community, especially Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators and facilitators of the ghastly attacks do not go scott free. "It is important to provide full justice to the victims and their families," Ronen said, urging "all governments, including the Government of Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators and facilitators of the attack are brought to justice." The Israeli diplomat also underlined that the objective of the attack was to cripple the Indian society, economy and culture, as well as the growing bilateral relationship between India and Israel. In this regard, "the terrorist attack failed miserably as the Indian economy has continued to grow stronger, its culture remains invincible and bilateral ties continue to reach new heights," he noted. Asserting that terrorism can only be defeated by international cooperation, Ronen "again called upon the Government of Pakistan to ensure full justice to the victims and their families." The event was attended by members of the Indian community in Israel, some Indians visiting the country and also Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, who lost his daughter Rivka and son-in-law Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg in the attack on Nariman House, also known as the Chabad House. The couple's two year old son, Moshe, survived the attack thanks to a daring move by his nanny, Sandra Samuels, who risked her own life and rescued the boy by fleeing the building. Sandra's pictures of holding the little boy close to her chest after escaping from the place touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world. She was later honoured with honourary citizenship by the Israeli government and now lives in Jerusalem. The ceremony began with observance of one-minute silence in honour of the victims. India's Ambassador to Israel, Pavan Kapoor, speaking at the event stressed that the worst terrorist attack on the Indian soil "should motivate the world to unite against terrorism and defeat the ideology of hatred". Kapoor pointed out that the planners and facilitators of the attack in Pakistan have not yet been brought to justice and, in this context, welcomed the statement of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. He expressed hope that other countries would follow the US lead and call upon Pakistan to uphold its obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including the members of Lashkar-e-Taeba and its affiliates. Rabbi Rosenberg said that the attack was not "just against his family but against all of us" who are one as a family. He further said that although 10 years have passed since the tragedy, his grandson who is a "strong and good boy" has painful memories of the event but still wants to go to Mumbai for his bar mitzvah, a ceremony performed for Jewish boys at the age of 13 that some Israeli scholars compare to the Hindu upnayana or the sacred thread ceremony. Rosenberg was very appreciative of the support his family has received from the Indian government and people, which makes him believe that it is a "shared" pain. "I appreciate the government and people of India for the way they have stood by us and made us feel that it is a shared pain. We thank them for the relationship they have built with us," he said, recalling the family's trip with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Mumbai early this year. "People can say and complain about all sorts of things like security lapse, etc, but we believe in the God. The feeling of oneness demonstrated by Indians is heartwarming and we appreciate it a lot," Rosenberg told PTI. Moshe celebrated his 12th birthday according to the Hebrew Calendar some three weeks ago and would turn 12 as per Gregorian calendar on November 28. Two clips featuring Moshe's conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Netanyahu in Jerusalem in July 2017 and his visit, along with the Israeli Premier, to the Chabad House in Mumbai in January 2018, were shown during the event. In an emotional meeting with Modi on July 5, 2017 in Jerusalem, the young boy expressed his wish to visit Mumbai. "I hope I will be able to visit Mumbai, and when I get older, live there. I will be the director of our Chabad House I love you and your people in India," Moshe told Modi. Modi responded by saying, "Come and stay in India and Mumbai. You are most welcome. You and your all family members will get long-term visas. So you can come anytime and go anywhere". Netanyahu had then promptly asked Moshe to join him when he travels to India, a promise he did not forget and the family accompanied him during his trip to India earlier this year. India issued 10-year multiple entry visas to Moshe and his grandparents to ease their travel to the country in August 2017. Modi is said to have personally followed up on the matter as promised to Moshe. Kapoor, along with Ronen and Rabbi Rosenberg also lit 25 candles in memory of the 25 foreign nationals who lost their lives in the attack. Campus News UB Law clinic to help asylum seekers in Texas UBNOW STAFF Ever since the family separations, there are so many families in need, so much miscommunication. There are a lot of illegal things going on down there, and conditions arent good at all. I really want to see that firsthand. Against the backdrop of a contentious national debate over immigration policy and widespread protest over the U.S. governments treatment of immigrants seeking to cross into the United States from Mexico, a handful of UB law students are poised to provide hands-on help to asylum seekers. The six students are part of Assistant Clinical Professor Nicole Halletts U.S.-Mexico Border Clinic course that will be held in January. For seven days, the student clinicians will be in Dilley, Texas, site of the South Texas Family Residential Center, the largest detention center in the country. The for-profit institute, with a capacity of 2,400 persons, is contracted by the federal Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house women and children. Working with the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project, the students will work under a practice order to advance the cases of detainees many from violence-plagued Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who are seeking asylum in the United States. Hallett, an immigration law specialist who also directs the School of Laws Community Justice Clinic, says the idea for the January clinic developed over the summer. In response to the Trump administrations controversial family separation policy, she says, students were looking for a way to help. Many applied, and six second- and third-year students were chosen. Theyll fly to San Antonio, Texas, along with Hallett, two Spanish-language translators, and a UB social work student. The CARA Project, Hallett says, relies on volunteers to provide most of their legal representation. Well visit the detention center, do a training on Sunday night, and then on Monday morning the students will be working with asylum seekers, preparing them for asylum interviews or representing them in immigration court so they can be released on bond. Its unlikely that the students will see a single case from beginning to end, she says, but well see a lot of cases at one step in the process. Theyll get cases that other law students and lawyers will have begun to prepare. Client meetings will take place in a trailer on the detention center property set up for that purpose. Theres a lot going on in this facility, Hallett says, and that requires the volunteers to be very nimble and flexible in terms of what they have to do. One student in the clinic group, Leighann Ramirez, is a JD/MSW dual degree candidate who has already done significant work in immigration and asylum law, including currently serving in a social work clinic at the federal detention center in Batavia. Ramirez aspires to become an immigration attorney. She says that, after having read so much about it, shes looking forward to seeing the situation in Texas. Ever since the family separations, there are so many families in need, so much miscommunication, she says. There are a lot of illegal things going on down there, and conditions arent good at all. I really want to see that firsthand. She also expects her fluency in Spanish will help her connect with these women and children, and she knows they are at risk of being re-traumatized by the asylum process. If I can offer some decent human interaction with them that maybe they are not getting, that, for me, would be huge, she says. Id just like to make it as seamless as possible for them. The students are covering their own travel costs, but participation in the clinic by members of the UB community is invited. Visit the clinics fundraising page to donate toward a funding goal of $15,000 as Hallett says, a good opportunity to do a little bit to support the important work of helping asylum seekers. KT Rama Rao (Image: Facebook/@KTRTRS) As TRS tries to retain power in Telangana, interim chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao's son and K T Rama Rao has said the anti-incumbency sentiment against some leaders will not affect the party's prospects in assembly poll as it will be "eclipsed" by the image of his father. Asserting that people will cast "decisive votes" as they are aware of the TRS government's development work, Rao said the party is banking on his father and his vision to come to power again with a thumping majority of 100 seats in 119-member assembly polls. Popularly known as KTR, 42-year-old Rao is contesting for the third time from Sircilla constituency, located 140 km from Hyderabad, in the December 7 assembly elections. He had won in 2014 assembly polls with over 53,000 votes against a Congress candidate. In an exclusive interview to PTI, Rao said, "People realise that this is the election where KCR (as the chief minister is popularly known as) gets elected as chief minister. For that to happen, they have to vote for MLAs. Whatever anti-incumbency or dissatisfaction that could be against incumbent MLAs, that will be eclipsed by KCR." He said the Opposition has been pointing out "blemishes" in the TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) manifesto, but the people have to decide finally. "You can look at the moon and point out the brightness it exudes. You can also point out the small blemishes the moon has. So, the Opposition always has to point out the blemishes in our manifesto and those promises that our party has not fulfilled," Rao added. Exuding confidence that people will cast a "decisive votes", Rao who is one of the most popular faces in the state and a potential successor of K Chandrashekar Rao, said let people judge TRS' performance and vote. He said that the party has laid a strong foundation in the state, but admitted there were some issues in implementing all its promises. "There are going to be issues. But we already have a foot in the elections and we are going on polls on December 7. Let them (Opposition) give their agenda and we will give ours. Let people decide. We believe we played a strong foundation," he said. Asked if the TRS was depending on KCR's image to retain power, Rao said, "We are banking on good governance by KCR. We are banking on pro-poor policies of TRS. We are banking on a combination of welfare and development which never been seen in any state." On Former finance minister P Chidambaram's allegation that Telangana chief minister has failed to deliver the goods and left behind Rs 2.20 lakh crore debt on the people, Rao said, "Mr Chidambaram being a learned man should not mislead people. We donot need Chidambaram's certificate. We don't need Congress party's certificate. We need certificate from the people." The state debt to GDP ratio is 22 percent that is lower than the country's average and than that of many other states, he added. Rao also ruled out power tussle within the family and said his father will be chief minister for next 10-15 years. On the party's promise of offering 1 lakh government jobs, the TRS leader said, "We have filled 38,000 posts. Let me remind you, this is the highest number any government has filled in the past. The previous government has filled on an average 9,000 jobs annually." He further said that the 'Rythu Bandhu Scheme' was a revolutionary scheme lauded by the UN as well as renowned farm scientist M S Swaminathan and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian but the Opposition was finding "loopholes". "I pity their intellectual bankruptcy. ...These jokers (Congress and TDP) who ruled us for 70 years could not conceive a programme like this," he said. The TRS leader further said that the party has turned a power-deficit state into a power-surplus state, irrigation projects are near 90 percent completion and the state government has brought 38 lakh hectare under irrigation. Stating that farmers' suicides are declining rapidly in the state, Rao said, "Union Minister of State for Agriculture Purshottam Rupala has said it on record on the floor of Parliament that 1500 or 1600, subject to correction, farmers suicides have come down by 54 percent last year to 645. We also want to see a situation in Telangana that there are zero farmers' suicides." Asked about the Opposition's allegation that the TRS was becoming a party of Reddy community as half of the candidates fielded by it belong to that caste, Rao said these are baseless allegations. "We do not divide communities in Telangana based on caste, creed or religion," he said. New Delhi: Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad leaves after briefing the media about a Cabinet meeting, in New Delhi, Thursday, Nov 8, 2018. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma) (PTI11_8_2018_000148B) Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad pitched for a national-level entrance test for "talent infusion" into the subordinate judiciary. He said the all-India examination, which the UPSC could conduct, would allow the pool of talented young lawyers who graduate every year from national law universities to be part of the subordinate judiciary. He was speaking at a Constitution Day event in the presence of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and other senior judges. Appointments to the lower judiciary in the states are made by the respective high courts either directly or through public service commissions through state-level examinations. The government has in the past proposed an all-India judicial service to be conducted the Union Public Service Commission. But nine high courts have opposed the proposal to have an all-India service for lower judiciary. Eight others have sought changes in the proposed framework and only two have supported the idea. The Narendra Modi Government has given a fresh push to the long-pending proposal to set up the new service to have a separate cadre for lower judiciary in the country. The idea was first mooted in the 1960s. The high courts of Andhra Pradesh, Bombay, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Patna as well as Punjab and Haryana have not favoured the idea of All-India Judicial Service (AIJS). Only the high courts of Sikkim and Tripura have concurred with the proposal approved by the committee of secretaries for formation of an all-India service for lower judiciary. Allahabad, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Orissa and Uttarakhand high courts have suggested changes in age at induction level, qualifications, training and quota of vacancies to filled through the proposed service. The high courts of Jharkhand and Rajasthan have indicated that the matter regarding creation of the AIJS is pending consideration, while no response has been received from the high courts of Calcutta, Jammu and Kashmir and Gauhati, a recent Law Ministry document showed. Seeking to overcome the divergence of views, the government had recently suggested to the Supreme Court various options, including NEET-like examination to recruit judges to the lower judiciary. National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is conducted for admission to medical degrees. There were vacancies of 4,452 judges in subordinate courts in the country as per the figures released on December 31, 2015. While the sanctioned strength is 20,502, the actual number of judges and judicial officers in subordinate courts is 16,050. File Pic: Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting, in Wuhan, China. PTI Photo Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Argentina from November 28 to December 2 to participate in the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires during which he will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of other participating nations, the Ministry of External Affairs said on November 27. Modi will also highlight the risks posed by oil price volatility and raise the issue of combating terror financing and money laundering, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said. One of the issues that will be discussed is strengthening of the WTO, he told reporters. The meeting is being held amid the ongoing trade war between the US and China. "Our interest is two-fold that the G20 issue is not hijacked by the single issue of trade, whether it is between two countries or otherwise. "And secondly how we can constructively reform the WTO which serves India's interest and which is multilateral. That is going to be one of the focal points of this G20 meeting, or certainly of India's position at the G20 meeting," Gokhale said. He said the G20 Summit must cover the entire gamut of economic issues, including the agricultural sector reform, the challenges climate change poses and health-care issues faced by the world. The theme of the G20 Summit is 'Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development'. Detailing Modi's visit, Gokhale said the prime minister will make a lead intervention in a session on 'Putting People First' that is essentially on the global economy. The second session is on talks of building consensus which will deal with trade, finance, taxation, sustainable development and climate change. The third session will be on 'Embracing Opportunities' and these are related to energy infrastructure, sustainable food security. The prime minister will be making subsidiary interventions in the other two sessions, Gokhale said. There will be a number of bilateral meetings during the visit. When asked the agenda of the Modi-Xi's visit, Gokhale declined to go into details, but said the purpose of the meeting is to build a mutual trust and understanding. He noted that the meeting will be fourth between the two leaders in last seven months. "It was decided in (the) Wuhan (Summit between Modi and Xi) that they would take the opportunity whenever and wherever they could meet. They could discuss issues on either leader's mind or issues of mutual concern," Gokhale said. When asked about a possible meet with the US President Donald Trump, Gokhale said the ministry was working on various bilaterals. The foreign secretary said Modi will also meet United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Mauricio Macri, the President of Argentina; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He will also meet the prime ministers of Spain, Jamaica, the Netherlands and the president of European Union and European Council. A bilateral meeting between Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron is also being worked out, Gokhale said. The prime minister, he said, will also speak on his flag programmes like the Jan Dhan Yojana, the Mudra scheme, Ayushman Bharat, soil health card in the G20 Summit. The prime minister will also make a pitch to countries who are not in the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn to join the International Solar Alliance. Gokhale said the issue of disaster relief infrastructure will also be discussed. There is a space of major countries, particulary the G20 nations, to have some kind of informal arrangement where they can share capacity building, technical know-how with countries hit by disasters, Gokhale said. India has shared a concept paper with the G20 countries and it has received a positive response, he added. Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan campaigns in support of BJP candidate Rameshwar Sharma, in Bhopal, Monday, Nov 26, 2018. (PTI Photo) (PTI11_26_2018_000213B) Aditya Menon By most accounts, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) best bet among the five states where elections are being held is Madhya Pradesh. This is due to two factors the popularity of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the BJP's existing lead over the Congress in the state. However in the past few years, the state has seen the mobilisation of various sections the farmers' agitation in Mandsaur and Harda, protests by upper caste outfits such as SAPAKS and Karni Sena against the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and counter protests by Dalit organisations, and the Adivasi Mahasabha in Kukshi to name a few. Such agitations have the potential of bringing about a massive political upheaval. It remains to be seen if these movements have neutralised the BJP's dominance in Madhya Pradesh. What's working for BJP? Chouhan took over as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2005 at a time when the state had seen two BJP chief ministers in two years. Despite being a five-time MP from Vidisha, Chouhan was seen as a political lightweight compared to his predecessors. Gradually, he consolidated his hold, helped in no small part by the Congress' ineptitude. The regime became famous for its sops, which it advertised as 'taking care of citizens from birth to death'. Chouhan provided money for everything from childbirth to the marriage of girls and a pilgrimage grant for the elderly. Even now, many people are willing to overlook the lack of jobs, price rise and agrarian distress for fear of losing these sops in case Chouhan gets voted out. Chouhan's government has the highest approval rating among the three BJP-ruled states where elections are being held. According to the Lokniti-CSDS survey conducted in October, 45 percent respondents in Madhya Pradesh wanted the state government to get another chance, compared to 34 percent in Rajasthan and 39 percent in Chhattisgarh. Twenty-five percent respondents in Madhya Pradesh said they are "fully satisfied" with the state government, compared to 22 percent in Rajasthan and 17 percent in Chhattisgarh. The BJP had a substantial lead in Madhya Pradesh in 2013 as it won 165 out of the state's 230 seats, with the Congress winning just 58. Compared to Chhattisgarh, where BJP won 40 percent of its seats by a margin of 5 percent or less, in Madhya Pradesh, one in four BJP seats were won by such a small margin. So even if the BJP ends up losing all these seats, it will still be above the majority mark. Watch | Madhya Pradesh Polls Decoded in 3 Minutes More than Chhattisgarh, the BJP's situation in Madhya Pradesh is comparable to Gujarat, where it enjoyed a significant lead in a number of seats, especially in urban centres. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP won 93 out of 165 seats by a margin of over 10 percent. In 24 seats, the margins were higher than 20 percent and 19 of these were urban seats. There's likely to be an urban-rural divide in these elections as well. According to the Lokniti-CSDS survey, the BJP has a 9 percent lead in urban areas but in rural areas, the Congress has a slender lead of 1 percent. What is troubling for the BJP is that Madhya Pradesh is a far less urban state than Gujarat, with 28 percent of its population residing in urban areas compared to 43 percent in the latter. What isn't working for BJP? Pre-election surveys predict a close fight. While the Lokniti-CSDS survey has given a 1 percent lead to the BJP, C-Voter has given an identical lead to the Congress. Both surveys, however, testify to the fact that the 8 percent lead the BJP had in the 2013 elections has reduced substantially. The other aspect that is going against the BJP is the relatively low popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to the Lokniti-CSDS survey, 39 percent respondents in Madhya Pradesh said they "highly like" Modi, compared to 52 percent in Rajasthan and 48 percent in Chhattisgarh. Conversely, the gap between the popularity of Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi is lowest in Madhya Pradesh at 6 percent, compared to 34 percent in Rajasthan and 20 percent in Chhattisgarh. Even the Congress' allegations of corruption against Modi have found more resonance in Madhya Pradesh. Here 29 percent respondents feel the Modi government is corrupt compared to 13 percent in Rajasthan and 17 percent in Chhattisgarh. Most issues harming the BJP in the state pertain more to the Union government than the state government, from the low minimum support price for crops to the row surrounding the SC/ST Act. According to the Lokniti-CSDS survey, 62 percent Adivasis, 53 percent Dalits and 50 percent upper castes said that the Act is an important factor in the elections. It seems that all the three sections blame the Modi government. While the Dalits and the Adivasis accuse the government of trying to dilute the Act, many upper castes say it hasn't done enough to stop misuse of the Act. According to the National Crime Records Bureau data this year, Madhya Pradesh ranks the highest in terms of cases of atrocities against the Dalits. With the BJP's trump card the Modi factor not working, it isn't surprising that the Prime Minister made an emotional pitch in Madhya Pradesh in the last week before polling, by accusing the Congress of targeting his family. It is ironic that the state where the BJP has the best chance of returning to power is one where the Prime Minister's popularity is the lowest. (Aditya Menon is a Delhi-based political journalist and commentator. Views are personal) Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tell the status of the NCTC and the NATGRID, both were conceived in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks 10 years ago. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the country's worst terror attack, Chidambaram asked whether these institutions were not important to construct a comprehensive security architecture. "On the 10th anniversary of 26/11, will the PM please disclose the status of NCTC that was mooted 10 years ago? Will the PM also tell the country the present status of NATGRID?," he said in a series of tweets. Chidambaram took over the charge of the Union home minister soon after the 26/11 attacks. It was he who mooted the idea of setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). While the plans for the NCTC has been put into cold storage due to opposition by several chief ministers, including Modi when he was the Gujarat chief minister, the progress of NATGRID is reported to be very slow. "Are these not important institutions that the country needs in order to construct a comprehensive security infrastructure? Why does no one in government talk about them?," Chidambaram asked. Ten terrorists, who came from Pakistan through sea, carried out attack in multiple locations in the metropolis on November 26, 2008, killing 166 people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. Addressing a conference in Islamabad, Faisal recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. Prime Minister Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the SAARC summit, Faisal was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Modi. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances" and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. Nineteen Indian soldiers died in the attack. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (Image- PTI) Coming down heavily on the Congress for considering "surname as a political brand", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday the BJP will "gladly accept" the challenge of 2019 general elections if the Congress wants it to be between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the son of lesser-known parents, and someone who is known for his parentage. In a Facebook post titled ' What was the name of Sardar Patel's father', Jaitley said that in a dynastic party like the Congress, talent and merit has no space and the crowd around the family is the cadre. Jaitley's post comes days after some Congress leaders stoked a controversy by naming family members of Modi. "If the Congress party wants the 2019 elections to be between Prime Minister Modi, who is the son of lesser-known parents and someone who is known only for his parentage rather than capacity, merit and competence, the BJP would gladly accept the challenge. Let this be the agenda for 2019," the minister said. Jaitley said while the age of the prime minister's mother was made a subject matter of the electoral debate, his father's anonymity was commented upon as an inadequate credential of the prime minister. "The debate whether India should be a dynastic democracy has been ignited by a self-goal of the Congress Party... The argument given was that if you represent the legacy of a well-known family, it is a political point in your favour. "Millions of talented political workers who come from modest family backgrounds would fail by the Congress test of leadership. Merit, talent, ability to inspire and lead would not be a virtue. The Congress considers only a great surname as a political brand," Jaitley added. He said that even his "well-informed friends" did not have a "definitive answer" when asked to name Mahatma Gandhi's father, Sardar Patel's father or his wife. "The reason for this is simple. Decades of Congress rule, naming colonies, localities, cities, bridges, airports, railway stations, schools, colleges, universities, stadiums after one family was intended to declare the Gandhis' as India's royalty. They were officially glamorised' as the blue-blooded family of India. The others did not matter," Jaitley said. Mahatma Gandhi's father was Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi, while Sardar Patel's wife's name was Diwali Ba and father was Jhaverbhai Patel. He said although Sardar Patel, who was a frontline leader of the freedom movement and was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, negotiated the transfer of power with the British, the Congress government rejected the proposal to build his statue at Vijay Chowk in the national capital. "The country had to be satisfied with the installation of his statue at a traffic round-about on Parliament Street," Jaitley said. He said the dangers of officially glamorising one family at the cost of those who made a far greater contribution "is dangerous" both for the nation as also for the party to which they belong. "The contribution of other great stalwarts like Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose is downplayed. Members of one family are projected as larger than life. Their aberrations become national aberrations. The party adopts them as its ideology," Jaitley added. He said the silver lining is that country is changing and aspirational India judges parties and leaders very harshly. "They don't accept whoever is imposed. They ask difficult and penetrating questions and their yardstick is very tough. They look for leaders of integrity, they look for men and women who can inspire them, who are decisive and can lead the nation. To them surnames don't matter competence and capacity does," Jaitley said. There were controversies over the comments of Congress leader Raj Babbar who had likened the falling rupee to the age of Modi's mother. "Before becoming PM, Narendra Modi used to say that the value of the rupee has fallen to a level where it is almost the same as the age of the then-PM (Manmohan Singh). Now, it is inching towards the age of Modi's respected mother," Babbar had said. Congress leader Vilas Muttemwar said, "Who knew you (Modi) before you became the PM. Even now, nobody knows the name of your father, but everybody knows the name of (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi's father," Muttemwar was heard saying in a video. Muttemwar, who hails from Vidarbha region, however, later said that the video in circulation was distorted. Amit Shah BJP president Amit Shah said on Tuesday the Congress has no leadership and no programme as he addressed a public meeting in Rajasthan, which goes to the polls on December 7. At a meeting in Jalore, he reiterated that the BJP government was committed to sending back illegal migrants. The point was also made in the manifesto released Tuesday by the ruling party in Jaipur ahead of the assembly polls. I want to say once again that the BJP is going to form the government here, Shah said. The Congress is just dreaming of forming the government but the party has no leadership and no programme, Shah said. He said the BJP will also retain power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Praising Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for financial management, he said the BJP government increased the state's revenue and put it on the path of growth and development. The Congress did nothing to address the issue of illegal migrants, he said. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will also be giving the grand event at Rashtrapati Bhavan a miss. He attended Jagan Mohan Reddy's swearing-in ceremony today, and was scheduled to fly by a special flight to New Delhi, according to reports. Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks that Nizamabad was grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads, caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on November 27 asked him "not to lie for the sake of votes". "How can you say such a lie... You should not lie, being at the responsible post of Prime Minister, for the sake of votes," Rao said addressing an election rally in Mahabubnagar district. Nizamabad is represented by Rao's daughter K Kavitha in the Lok Sabha. "Mr Narendra Modi, there is no power problem in Telangana... don't lie. I am very sorry to say this. You cannot level false allegations against a chief minister. I am not afraid of anyone. I am not (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N) Chandrababu Naidu," Rao said, reiterating that there was a need for a "federal front government" at the Centre. Rao claimed that Telangana was the only state in the country where farmers were supplied power 24x7 and asked Modi if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states were providing 24-hour electricity to the farm sector. The chief minister further said Telangana was at the top spot in implementing welfare schemes, among which were those for women, children and the elderly. "No one can stop TRS from winning and we will again form the government (in Telangana)," Rao said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power in Madhya Pradesh for 15 years. Congress has been calling this their chance to dethrone the saffron party, riding on a possible tide of anti-incumbency. (Image: shivrajsinghchouhan.com) As Madhya Pradesh gears up for assembly polls on November 28, star candidates are a plenty in the fray from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to noted royals and from bureaucrat-turned-politicians to doctors. There are several commoners also, as are eunuchs trying their luck for the 230-member state assembly being ruled by the BJP for 15 consecutive years. Chouhan is the BJP's chief ministerial face for the fourth time in a row and is contesting from his traditional Budhni seat in Sehore district. While many Congress stalwarts including former chief minister Digvijay Singh, state Congress President Kamal Nath and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia are not contesting the assembly polls, they also have a lot at stake to ensure their party's victory in their respective bastions. In case of Digvijay Singh and a few other stalwarts, their family members are in the fray. Two most prominent self-proclaimed 'farmer-sons' Chouhan and former Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Arun Yadav are pitted against each other in the high-profile Budhni seat from where the present chief minister contested his first assembly election in 1989-90. Though Yadav belongs to Khargone district in Nimar region of the western Madhya Pradesh, he has been fielded by the Congress from Budhni this time to challenge Chouhan on his home turf. While Chouhan has called Yadav a "scapegoat", the Congress leader is leaving no stone unturned by way of what he calls his expose of tall claims of development in the high profile constituency. "Despite Chouhan being elected four times from the seat, Budhni area remains backward in all spheres," Yadav told PTI. Another BJP stalwart and minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia is contesting from Shivpuri seat for the fourth time, while former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's nephew Anoop Mishra is fighting from Bhitarwar in Gwalior district. Public relations minister Narottam Mishra (Datia), former IPS officer Rustam Singh (Morena), ex-opposition leader Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi (Bhind) are other prominent candidates. Digvijay Singh's son Jaivardhan is contesting from his forte Raghogarh for the second time in a row, while his brother Laxman Singh is trying his luck from Chanchoda seat. Besides former powerful Congress leader Arjun Singh's son and leader of opposition Ajay Singh is contesting from his traditional Churht seat in Sidhi district. Another relative of Digvijay Singh and ex-royal of Khilchipur Priyavrat Singh, also a former MLA, is trying his luck again from Khilchipur seat in Rajgarh district. Former Goa Governor and ex-King of Narsinghgarh, late Bhanu Pratap Singh's son and former MLA Rajyavardhan Singh is contesting on BJP ticket from his erstwhile kingdom Narsinghgarh. BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijywargiya's son Akash is contesting his maiden election from Indore-3 seat against the former Congress MLA Ashwin Joshi. This contest has also become prestigious for both the BJP and the Congress. Former union minister, Kantilal Bhuria's son Dr Vikrant Bhuria is contesting his maiden election from tribal Jhabua seat, while another medical practitioner Dr Hiralal Alawa is testing political waters for the first time on a Congress ticket from Manawar seat in tribal Dhar district. Among prominent women candidates, Archana Chitnis is contesting from Burhanpur seat while former Bhopal mayor Krishna Gaur, daughter-in-law of former minister Babu Lal Gaur, is contesting from Gaur's traditional seat Govindpura in Bhopal district. Former union minister and senior Congress leader Suresh Pachouri is pitted against sitting MLA and minister Surendra Patwa in Bhojpur seat of Raisen district. Former union minister Sartaj Singh, who left BJP on denial of party ticket and joined Congress, is contesting against assembly speaker Dr Sitasharan Sharma from Hoshangabad seat. The prestige of the state Congress President Kamal Nath as well as of the state BJP president Rakesh Singh is at stake as both hail from Mahakoushal region. Rakesh Singh is an MP from Jabalpur Lok Sabha seat while Nath is a long time member of the lower house of Parliament from Chhindwara. Former health director Dr K L Sahu is contesting from newly floated outfit SAPAKS Samaj Party from Bhopal South West constituency. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state head and IIT alumni Alok Agrawal is also contesting from Bhopal South West seat. Alok is the chief ministerial face of AAP in Madhya Pradesh. Among six eunuchs contesting the polls, prominent are former MLA Shabnam Mousi is fighting from Kotma seat in Anooppur district and Neha Kinnar from Ambab seat in Morena district. According to the EC data, a total number of 2,907 candidates are in the fray from 230 assembly seats. The highest number of 34 candidates will lock horns in Mehgaon constituency in Bhind district, while the lowest number of four candidates will battle it out in Gunnor seat in Panna district. While the main contest is between the BJP and the Congress, the BSP has fielded 227 candidates and the SP is contesting on 51 seats. Aam Aadmi Party, contesting the Madhya Pradesh election for the first time, has fielded 208 candidates. As per final electoral rolls, the state has 5,04,95,251 voters, including 2,63,01,300 males, 2,41,30,390 females and 1,389 third gender voters. Besides there are 62,172 postal voters. In the last assembly poll, the BJP had won 165 seats, Congress 58, BSP four and independents three. November 28, 2018 / 04:06 PM IST As voting in the 40 assembly constituencies of Mizoram closed at 4 pm, here are the five key features: 1. Bru voters came out to vote in large numbers. The place of voting for 11,232 Bru voters, who are residing in neighboring Tripura, was the bone of contention, leading to the replacement of the then chief electoral officer, SB Shashank, less than two weeks ahead of the polls. 2. The Election Commission had set up pink polling booths in every constituency to woo women voters. These booths are locally known as Dingdi in Mizoram. Named after a wild flower commonly available in the state, Dingdi is used by poets to depict beautiful women. 3. Even though women voters outnumber men in the state, only 15 out of the 209 candidates were women. BJP fielded the highest number of women candidates at six. 4. The Election Commission also ensured that the disabled and the elderly get to exercise their franchise without any hurdles by arranging special provisions for them. A number of elderly voters turned out to vote, including a few centenarians. 5. All booths in the state were covered via wireless communication for the first time in Mizoram's polling history. This was done to ensure timely reporting of every development and progress of polling. Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal Pradesh Ninong Ering on November 27 urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up several issues involving the state with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the upcoming G-20 Summit. The next G-20 Summit would be held at Buenos Aires, Argentina, from November 30 to December 1. In a letter to Modi, the Congress MP said the relation between India and China is critical from the view point of Arunachal as the state shares border with China. "The issue of China providing stapled visa to the people of Arunachal Pradesh is not new and must be brought to their notice tactfully. The Government of India must assert the territorial integrity of India, and convey the feelings of the state people in a firm manner," Ering wrote in the letter. As a policy, China issues stapled visas to people of Arunachal Pradesh leading to problems for them. They were prevented from boarding China bound flights because of this. The MP of Arunachal East constituency also drew the attention of the Prime Minister at several instances in recent time when Chinese troops have tried to enter into the state's territory and build roads. "India must protest against such incidents and ask China to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country for a peaceful co-existence, as envisaged in historical Panchsheel agreement," Ering said. The Panchsheel agreement, or the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, was signed between the Tibet region of China and India in 1954. The MP urged Modi to take up the issues with the Chinese president and stand up to the hopes and aspirations of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. The BJP on November 27 released its manifesto for the December 7 Rajasthan polls, saying it had met 95 per cent of the promises it had made in 2013. The manifesto was unveiled by Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Prakash Javadekar, and Rajathan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, in the presence of BJP leaders and workers here. The BJP government in the state met 630 of the 665 promises made in the 2013 Rajasthan manifesto, Raje said prior to releasing the manifesto. "The overall completion is 95 per cent," she said. Raje also highlighted several points of the 2018 manifesto, saying 50 lakh jobs will be created in private sector in next five years in Rajasthan and every year, 30,000 jobs will be given in the government sector. The chief minister also said up to Rs 5,000 per month will be given as unemployment allowance to eligible youths above the age of 21 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh - Nov 18 2018 (Image- PTI) Campaigning for the December 7 Rajasthan Assembly polls intensified Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BSP chief Mayawati addressing a total of 17 public meetings in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders attacked the Congress with Modi leading from the front, slamming the opposition party over its stand on terrorism, Naxalism and tribal development among others, while Gandhi said farm loans would be waived if the Congress formed the government in the state and asked his party workers not to use any bad word against the prime minister and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. While the prime minister was in Bhilwara, Dungarpur and Kota, Gandhi visited the Ajmer dargah and Pushkar, before addressing rallies at Pokhran (in Jaisalmer district), Jalore and Jodhpur. Adityanath addressed five rallies in Nagaur, Sikar, Churu, Bikaner and Jaisalmer districts. Rajnath Singh took part in two rallies at Dholpur and as many in Jaipur district, while Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati addressed rallies at Jhunjhunu and Jaipur. Both Gandhi and Adityanath addressed meetings in support of the candidates of their respective parties in the Pokhran constituency, whereas Mayawati and Rajnath Singh held separate rallies in the Amber constituency in Jaipur. Highlighting the importance of every single vote, both Modi and Gandhi exuded confidence that their respective parties will form the government in the state after December 7. At the Kota rally, the prime minister said, "Your votes will empower Modi. Your votes will bring changes in the country." "Broadband network reached one lakh villages, 2.5 to 3 lakh kms of optical-fibre line was laid, 12 crore LPG connections, better roads were given in four-and-a-half years of the BJP government at the Centre. Your one vote has provided speed to the country. It has the power to change the country and shape its future," he said. Modi alleged that the Congress had no issues and therefore, was making casteist remarks. Rajnath Singh and Adityanath also targeted Gandhi. At Ratangarh, Adityanath said the Congress chief was the guarantee of defeat for his party's candidates. "No Congress candidate wants Rahul Gandhi in his constituency because Gandhi means defeat," he said. On the other hand, the Congress president said farm loans would be waived within 10 days if his party formed the government in the state. He also said Modi and Raje were left with no issues as they had made false promises and broke people's trust, adding that now they were spreading hatred and anger. Gandhi, who visited the Ajmer dargah and the Pushkar lake before addressing the rallies, said the Congress government would restart the free medicines scheme and put public money in improving the infrastructure in hospitals, schools and disbursing loans to the youth. He also cornered the prime minister on the issues of the Rafale deal, demonetisation, favouring top industrialists and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). State Congress chief Sachin Pilot, who is contesting the upcoming polls from Tonk, and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, the party's candidate from Jodhpur's Sardarpura constituency, accompanied Gandhi at the rallies. Mayawati, on the other hand, termed both the BJP and Congress "anti-Dalit and anti-poor" and alleged that the two parties wanted to abolish reservation in government jobs. She addressed two rallies in Jhunjhunu and in Jaipur district. Kota: Congress President Rahul Gandhi waves at crowd during a public meeting in Kota, Rajasthan, Wednesday, Oct 24, 2018. (PTI Photo) (PTI10_24_2018_000225B) Going all out to woo farmers and the youth in poll-bound Rajasthan, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on November 26 promised to waive farm loans within 10 days if his party was voted to power in the state and said the Congress chief minister would work 18 hours a day to help youngsters get jobs. Speaking at election rallies in different parts of the state, he also described the Congress workers as "sher" (tiger) and "babbar sher" (lion) and said they had to fight at the polling booth, but gently, unlike the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers. Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Gandhi, who began his day by visiting the Ajmer dargah, the Pushkar lake and the Brahma temple, said the two leaders had become arrogant after winning elections, did not hear the voice of the people, made false promises and broke people's trust, adding that now they were left with nothing and therefore, spreading hatred and anger. "You (people) are going to make the Congress party's government in the state. Within 10 days of government formation, the Congress will waive farm loans in the state. You can call and ask any farmer in Punjab and Karnataka, where I made the same promise and our governments fulfilled that," he said, addressing the first rally in Jaisalmer's Pokhran area. Gandhi asserted that he and other Congress leaders like Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot will speak the truth and make promises only if they could fulfil those. "The bond between you and me should be that of transparency. Many things can be done by being truthful," he said. "The chief minister of the Congress will work for 18 hours a day and will be engaged in getting the youth jobs. We will put public money in improving the facilities in government hospitals, schools and setting up universities. The vacant posts will be filled and the youth will be given loans to start their own business, factories," he said, while alleging that the Modi government only worked for the top 15 industrialists in the country. Gandhi said the free medicines scheme introduced by the previous Congress government in the state will be restarted after his party formed the government. He also attacked the prime minister over the Rafale deal, demonetisation, GST and other issues. Gandhi said when demonetisation destroyed the informal sector, those who had to stand in queues in front of banks were farmers, labourers, small-scale businessmen etc., but those who had black money got it changed to white in the air-conditioned chambers of the banks with the help of Modi. He said Modi was left with nothing to speak and thus, he was lying, but the people had understood him well. Gandhi also accused the prime minister of insulting the youth, farmers, labourers of the country as well as their parents and grandparents with his statement from the Red Fort that the "elephant was sleeping". "He meant that the country was sleeping before he became the prime minister. This is an insult to your parents and grandparents, who put their efforts and labour and contributed in taking the country to the present stage," he said in Jodhpur. Targeting Raje, Gandhi said in an advertisement, she had talked about a school in Bharatpur and said it had fans, furniture, drinking water, playground etc., but when journalists went there, they found that the school had nothing -- no fan, no drinking water. The Congress chief told the party workers not to speak ill about the prime minister or the chief minister. "You are the soldiers of the Congress and not RSS or BJP workers. Fight with manners. Do not use any bad word for anyone, be it the PM or the CM. It is their work to abuse, not ours. We will speak good of them," he said. "You hear their speeches and compare with ours. Listen to the way Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot are addressing them. They are addressing them as Modiji, Vasundharaji with manners. On the other hand, they are spreading hatred and anger," Gandhi said. In Jalore, the Congress chief said the December 7 Assembly election was a fight for the future of the people of Rajasthan. "This is the fight for your future. You will not get false promises from this stage," he said. "They (BJP) took people's money and gave it to the top 15 industrialists, which should have gone to hospitals, schools, for employment etc. Tell me one thing, why all these names are Modi -- Neerav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi -- all are one. Wherever you see, they are the same names. Someone took Rs 10,000 crore, someone Rs 35,000 crore and one gave Rs 30,000 crore to his friend," Gandhi alleged. He also raised questions on the bullet train project. Gandhi also accused the BJP of practising divisive politics by alleging that Modi had created two India -- one for the rich and the other for the poor -- and added that the Congress wanted one India. Gandhi began his election meetings after offering prayers at the Ajmer dargah, the Pushkar lake and the Brahma temple. He presented a "chadar", along with state Congress chief Pilot and former chief minister Gehlot, at the dargah, where the traditional "khadim" of his family made him perform the "ziyarat". Gandhi was honoured by the president of the Anjuman committee, Moin Chisty. The Nazim of the Dargah committee, Shakil Ahmed, also honoured the Congress chief. Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy addresses the media in Hyderabad, Wednesday, Oct 24, 2018. (PTI Photo) (PTI10_24_2018_000215B) TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy on November 27 alleged that Telangana caretaker Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao has taken political corruption to the "highest levels in the country." Launching the attack on Rao, popularly known as KCR and his son KT Rama Rao at a Meet the Press programme, he said that the TRS chief has 'degraded' Telangana and political standards in the country. "KCR is credited with degrading Telangana state and political standards. He is the only Chief Minister who shamelessly degraded politics in this country. But people of the state are observing it. It is a fact that there is some corruption in the political system of this country. But KCR has taken corruption to the highest level," he said. After 'assaulting' all forms of Parliamentary democracy, he launched an attack on the media by banning or luring some of them, the Congress leader alleged. He took exception to Rao's comments on UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and said a separate Telangana would not have been possible without her. "Undoubtedly, not as a Congress leader, but as a citizen I am saying that but for Sonia Gandhi, Telangana would not have been possible..." he added. "KCR also endorsed this after Telangana formation... Who stopped you (KCR) from giving 12 per cent reservation to Muslims and Girijans? Did Chandrababu Naidu (AP Chief Minister and TDP supremo) stop you? (from fulfilling poll promises)?" Reddy asked. The Congress has tied up with the TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samithi for the December 7 assembly polls. The TPCC chief said the Gandhi family sacrificed their lives for the country and Rao had no moral right to criticise Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, who had refused the opportunity to become Prime Minister. On Congress' poll promises, Reddy said his party is committed to allotting 12 per cent of the budgetary funds for the welfare of Muslims. Alleging the MIM has a tacit understanding with TRS, he said the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party failed to question the KCR government on why it did not file an appeal against the Mecca Masjid verdict, which set free all the five accused. On Rao's claims that his government had improved the power situation in Telangana, Reddy said no new project had come up in the state in the past four and half years, except those started by the earlier Congress government. Reacting to Reddy's remarks, TRS MP Vinod Kumar said the Congress leader was levelling such charges out of 'frustration' as the party was on the verge of losing the elections. "I challenge Uttam Kumar Reddy to prove the charges he has levelled against our leader. He has done so out of frustration, as the Congress is on the verge of losing the elections. It is only the TRS which has never aligned with the BJP ever since the Telangana-based party was formed," Kumar told PTI. Representative Image The Congress on November 27 said it neither believed in nor practised communal politics, but had only reflected the sentiments of the people of Telangana by incorporating promises towards a particular community in its manifesto for the poll-bound state. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said it was the responsibility of the opposition party to ensure that the sentiments on the ground were reflected in their articulation of the manifesto. "The Congress party has never done communal politics. The Congress party does not believe in communal politics. If there has been one all-enveloping umbrella which has accommodated flowers of every shade and hue, it is the Indian National Congress. So, on our pluralistic or secular credentials, we neither need a certificate from anybody nor do we need to answer for that," he said. "If a manifesto in a particular state has a particular formulation, that formulation is primarily reflective of the sentiments of the people of that state and as a responsible, sensitive political party, it is our responsibility to ensure that the sentiments on the ground do get reflected in our articulation because after all, those are the commitments that we are making to the people of India," Tewari said, when asked about promising sops for the Muslim community in the southern state. According to reports, the Congress in its draft poll manifesto in Telangana is learnt to have promised schools for Muslims and free electricity to churches and mosques, besides making Urdu the second official language in the state. Almost every business is taking the digital-first route and increasing productivity, integrating their systems and managing workflow by using different technology. With this drastic technological shift, the Indian mortgage industry has also begun treading on the digital path to make mortgage finance future ready. As the industry is still on the tip of the iceberg in adoption of technology, there are many concerns and roadblocks that the mortgage sector is facing. To discuss the pitfalls and solutions, the India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) and CNBCTV 18 hosted India Mortgage Leadership Conclave (IMLC), in which the second panel discussion deliberated about Risk Transformation: Role of Analytics & Technology and gave insightful learnings to the gathering. The panellists Anil Mehta, CEO&MD, India Shelter Finance Corporation Ltd.; Monu Ratra, CEO, India Infoline Housing Finance, Rajinder Singh, Chief Risk Officer, Global Mortgage Insurance, Genworth; Vishal Goyal, Country Manager (South Asia) FICO; and Pranay Mehrotra, Partner and Director, Boston Consulting Group discussed on importance of digital technologies, how to service customers online, the role of data and how to acquire talent. The session was moderated by Prashant Nair, national news editor, CNBC TV18. There is increasing use of technology. However, there are many ecosystem gaps in our industry. First is the talent that is hardly available, second is the digitisation of the outside world, and third is the regulatory overhang, said Mehta. The experts said there is fluid environment, patchy systems and data is not being used across the companies. There is immense room to create digital systems. Presently, there is nothing available off the shelf to use. Digitisation is about reimagining the entire work flow, invest lot of effort and serve the customers to the optimum. Digitisation also gives you the ability to scale up, said Ratra. Technology can streamline various areas in the mortgage sector and there is a need to have an integrated management, right decision making and hygiene reason for survival. The digital mindset has to be shared from top to the bottom of any organisation. It is important to have a decision framework or a platform where you can take decisions at all point of time and not just origination. Any changes, for instance in economy, can impact your portfolio. Hence, it is important to make portfolio management easy. In a nutshell, if you make connected decisions across your portfolio, people should be in good shape, which can happen by taking the digital route, said Goyal. Moreover, the mortgage sector can use new technology and analytics in writing home loans, reducing costs, managing portfolio, repayments, etc. The availability of tech is no longer a constraint. Technology is as good as the user, so how do you make tech ready at each point of functioning is important, said Mehrotra. The runway for growth is tremendous in mortgage sector and tech can further enhance it. Data has huge learning for Indian markets. What we need right now are data scientists who can come up with data insights and actionable points that can help us in enhancing productivity, quality, assessment, and reduce inefficiency, said Singh. Theres always an answer in the data to most of the business problems and the mortgage sector is open to experiments and risks. US President Donald Trump said on Monday the agreement allowing the United Kingdom to leave the European Union may make trade between Washington and London more difficult, but the UK prime minister's office disputed his interpretation. Trump told reporters outside the White House that the deal sounded like it would be good for the European Union, but "I think we have to take a look seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade. "Because right now if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us," he said. "And that wouldn't be a good thing. I don't think they meant that." He said he hoped British Prime Minister Theresa May would be able to address the problem, but he did not specify which provision of the deal he was concerned about. A spokeswoman for May's office said the agreement struck with the EU allowed the UK to sign trade deals with countries throughout the world, including with the United States. "We have already been laying the groundwork for an ambitious agreement with the US through our joint working groups, which have met five times so far," the spokeswoman said. Under the deal secured with EU leaders on Sunday, the UK will leave the bloc in March with continued close trade ties. But the odds look stacked against May getting it approved by a divided British parliament. US President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump said it was "highly unlikely" he would accept China's request to hold off on the increase, which is due to take effect on January 1. "The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States," Trump told the Journal. "As far as other countries are concerned, thats up to them." Trump, who is due to meet Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, said that if negotiations were unsuccessful, he would also put tariffs on the rest of Chinese imports. "If we dont make a deal, then I'm going to put the $267 billion additional on," at a tariff rate of either 10 percent or 25 percent, Trump told the Journal. A Chinese official told reporters last week that the two leaders would look to set guidelines for future talks. "The main issue is how to settle down the trade war," the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of preparatory negotiations. "I am conservatively optimistic that can be done," he added. Trump said the next round of tariffs could also be placed on laptops and Apple Inc's iPhones imported from China, which are part of that $267 billion list of goods not yet hit by tariffs. Cell phones and computers, among China's biggest exports to the United States, have thus far been spared as the administration has sought to minimize the impact on US consumers. The Journal said the administration has been worried about a consumer reaction to such levies. "Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is," Trump said, referring to the possibility of tariffs on mobile phones and laptops, according to the Journal. "I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily." Shares in Apple fell in after-hours trading after the interview was published. An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries. Apple CEO Tim Cook has personally pressed the issue of tariffs with Trump, telling the president that while there are valid concerns about US-China trade relations, tariffs are not the best way to resolve them. Despite using contract manufacturers to make most of its products overseas, Apple has also sought to emphasise its contribution to the US economy, saying it plans to spend about $55 billion in 2018 with its US-based suppliers. President Donald Trump warned on Monday that the deal taking Britain out of the European Union may inadvertently hamper trade between London and Washington. "Sounds like a great deal for the EU," he said at the White House, before adding that "we have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade." "You know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn't be a good thing," he said. "I don't think they want that at all. That would be a very big negative for the deal." He expressed hope that Prime Minister Theresa May will "be able to do something about that." The British leader on Sunday closed 17 months of complex talks with Brussels by sealing Brexit arrangements with the 27 other EU heads of state and government. However, May faces a difficult task getting parliamentary approval for the deal. A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics. A US scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes. Many mainstream scientists think it's too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus. He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was done. There is no independent confirmation of He's claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts. He revealed it Monday in Hong Kong to one of the organizers of an international conference on gene editing that is set to begin Tuesday, and earlier in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press. "I feel a strong responsibility that it's not just to make a first, but also make it an example," He told the AP. "Society will decide what to do next" in terms of allowing or forbidding such science. Some scientists were astounded to hear of the claim and strongly condemned it. It's "unconscionable ... an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible," said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal. "This is far too premature," said Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. "We're dealing with the operating instructions of a human being. It's a big deal." However, one famed geneticist, Harvard University's George Church, defended attempting gene editing for HIV, which he called "a major and growing public health threat." "I think this is justifiable," Church said of that goal. In recent years scientists have discovered a relatively easy way to edit genes, the strands of DNA that govern the body. The tool, called CRISPR-cas9, makes it possible to operate on DNA to supply a needed gene or disable one that's causing problems. It's only recently been tried in adults to treat deadly diseases, and the changes are confined to that person. Editing sperm, eggs or embryos is different the changes can be inherited. In the US, it's not allowed except for lab research. China outlaws human cloning but not specifically gene editing. He Jiankui, who goes by "JK," studied at Rice and Stanford universities in the US before returning to his homeland to open a lab at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, where he also has two genetics companies. The US scientist who worked with him on this project after He returned to China was physics and bioengineering professor Michael Deem, who was his adviser at Rice in Houston. Deem also holds what he called "a small stake" in and is on the scientific advisory boards of He's two companies. The Chinese researcher said he practiced editing mice, monkey and human embryos in the lab for several years and has applied for patents on his methods. He said he chose to try embryo gene editing for HIV because these infections are a big problem in China. He sought to disable a gene called CCR5 that forms a protein doorway that allows HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to enter a cell. All of the men in the project had HIV and all of the women did not, but the gene editing was not aimed at preventing the small risk of transmission, He said. The fathers had their infections deeply suppressed by standard HIV medicines and there are simple ways to keep them from infecting offspring that do not involve altering genes. Instead, the appeal was to offer couples affected by HIV a chance to have a child that might be protected from a similar fate. He recruited couples through a Beijing-based AIDS advocacy group called Baihualin. Its leader, known by the pseudonym "Bai Hua," told the AP that it's not uncommon for people with HIV to lose jobs or have trouble getting medical care if their infections are revealed. Here is how He described the work: The gene editing occurred during IVF, or lab dish fertilization. First, sperm was "washed" to separate it from semen, the fluid where HIV can lurk. A single sperm was placed into a single egg to create an embryo. Then the gene editing tool was added. When the embryos were 3 to 5 days old, a few cells were removed and checked for editing. Couples could choose whether to use edited or unedited embryos for pregnancy attempts. In all, 16 of 22 embryos were edited, and 11 embryos were used in six implant attempts before the twin pregnancy was achieved, He said. Tests suggest that one twin had both copies of the intended gene altered and the other twin had just one altered, with no evidence of harm to other genes, He said. People with one copy of the gene can still get HIV, although some very limited research suggests their health might decline more slowly once they do. Several scientists reviewed materials that He provided to the AP and said tests so far are insufficient to say the editing worked or to rule out harm. They also noted evidence that the editing was incomplete and that at least one twin appears to be a patchwork of cells with various changes. "It's almost like not editing at all" if only some of certain cells were altered, because HIV infection can still occur, Church said. Authorities in Myanmar have seized a boat carrying 93 people, apparently Rohingya Muslims, fleeing displacement camps in western Myanmar's Rakhine State and hoping to reach Malaysia, an official said on November 27. The boat is believed to be the third bound for Malaysia stopped in Myanmar waters since monsoon rains began to subside last month, bringing calmer weather, raising fears of a fresh wave of hazardous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers. Moe Zaw Latt, director of the government office in Dawei, a coastal town in southern Myanmar, said fishermen had reported a "suspicious" boat to authorities. The navy stopped the boat on November 25 and detained the 93 people, who said they had come from the Thae Chaung camp in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, he said. Thae Chaung is about 900 km (560 miles) northwest of Dawei and holds internally displaced people, most of whom are stateless Rohingya. "They said they ran away from the camp. They said they intended to go to Malaysia," said Moe Zaw Latt, adding authorities were preparing to send them back to Sittwe on Tuesday. Photographs in media showed police standing by as passengers - many of them women in headscarves and children - huddled on the deck. The boat resembled vessels the Rohingya typically use to escape the apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine State, where their movements and access to services are severely curtailed. The U.N. refugee agency has said Myanmar must "address the root causes of displacement", including the lack of citizenship for the Rohingya, who consider themselves native to Rakhine State. Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and has confined tens of thousands to sprawling camps outside Sittwe since violence swept the area in 2012. More than 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh last year fleeing an army crackdown in the north of Rakhine State, according to U.N. agencies. U.N.-mandated investigators have accused the Myanmar army of "genocidal intent" and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied most allegations of atrocities, blaming Rohingya insurgents who attacked police boats for sparking the exodus. Myanmar officials say they are ready to accept Rohingya who want to return from Bangladeshi refugee camps. But refugees themselves and aid agencies oppose a repatriation plan that was due to begin on Nov. 15, saying conditions in Myanmar were not safe. Myanmar detained 106 Rohingya men, women and children on a boat near the commercial hub of Yangon on Nov. 16, when their engine failed on their way from the Sittwe camps to Malaysia. Those people have been returned to the camps, along with another group of more than 80 people whose boat was seized off the coast of southern Rakhine last week also bound for Malaysia, according to an aid worker in Sittwe monitoring the boat movements. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 2, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/Pool - RC1BD12454F0 China on Tuesday said Pakistan has assured that it will provide full security to its citizens and the CPEC projects following the recent terrorist attack on its Consulate in Karachi and that any attempt to sabotage their friendship would not succeed. Three heavily-armed suicide bombers stormed the Chinese consulate in the Pakistan's largest city on November 23, killing four people including two policemen before being shot dead by security forces which foiled the daring attack in the high-security zone. The attack was soon claimed by the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) which said it would not tolerate "any Chinese military expansionist endeavours on Baloch soil". "Pakistan has made it clear that they will get to the bottom of this attack, crackdown on the terrorist organisation and enhance the security of Chinese citizens, institutions and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters here. Praising the swift action by the Pakistan's security personnel in warding off the attack, Geng said, "this attack once again showcased the mutual trust, mutual support and friendship between the two governments and two peoples." He said once again it proved that China-Pakistan relationship is higher than mountains and deeper than the sea. "We stand by each other through everything and we are all-weather strategic partners in every way," he said. "I want to reiterate that no attempt to sabotage our friendship will succeed. We will maintain a close communication with Pakistani side. We believe in their ability to ensure domestic security, stability and in taking tough measures to ensure Chinese interests in Pakistan and ensuring the security of Chinese citizens and institutions there," he said. Also, some institutions and netizens in China are collecting donations to help the families of the policemen killed and injured in the attack. Resource-rich Balochistan is at the heart of the Beijing's ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The BLA is opposed to the CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, alleging that the project was aimed at exploiting the resources of the province. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed "serious concern" over Ukraine's decision to impose martial law, the Kremlin said on November 27, after a confrontation at sea between the two countries. In a phone conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin also said he hoped the German leader could intervene to rein in Kiev. Putin "expressed a serious concern over Kiev's decision to put its armed forces on alert and to introduce martial law," the Kremlin said in a statement following the call. He also said he hoped "Berlin could influence the Ukrainian authorities to dissuade them from further reckless acts," it added. A fresh crisis unfolded on November 25 when Russian forces boarded and captured three Ukrainian ships, with Moscow accusing the vessels of illegally entering Russian waters off the coast of Crimea in the Sea of Azov. The surge in tensions prompted the Ukranian parliament to vote Monday in favour of martial law in border areas for 30 days. Martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine against any "reckless acts" on November 26 after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscow's seizure of three of its navy vessels. The Ukrainian parliament late on November 26 voted in favour of President Petro Poroshenko's request for the introduction of martial law in parts of the country for 30 days. The decision came as Ukraine and Russia face their most dangerous crisis in years after Russian forces fired on, boarded and captured Kiev's ships on Sunday off the coast of Crimea. The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country's east. It has raised fears of a wider escalation in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 and prompted international calls for restraint and offers of mediation. Martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas. Moscow has accused Kiev of planning Sunday's confrontation as a provocation aimed at drumming up support for Poroshenko ahead of elections next year and convincing Western governments to impose further sanctions on Russia. In a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin expressed "serious concern" over the introduction of martial law, the Kremlin said in a statement. Putin said Kiev's actions were "clearly taken in view of the election campaign in Ukraine". He said he hoped Berlin could intervene with Ukrainian authorities "to dissuade them from further reckless acts". Sunday's incident has been playing out on Russian and Ukrainian television screens, with dramatic footage of Russian ships chasing down a Ukrainian tugboat that was trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov. Ukraine has accused Russian border patrol vessels of ramming the tugboat, which was accompanied by two small warships, and of firing on the Ukrainian vessels. Russia's FSB security service, which oversees border forces, confirmed weapons had been fired and the vessels seized, but accused Ukrainian ships of crossing illegally into Russian waters and of ignoring warnings. Tensions have been building for months over the Kerch Strait, especially after Russia built a new bridge across the waterway that gives it a land connection to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Moscow has so far resisted calls to release the three ships or the 24 sailors it has detained, suggesting they could face criminal action. In a move sure to further anger Kiev, Russian state television late on Monday aired footage of some of the captured sailors being questioned by Moscow's security services. One of the sailors is heard saying "the actions of the Ukrainian armed vessels in the Kerch Strait had a provocatory character" parroting the version of events put forward by Russian authorities. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev in the dispute, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov and of taking military action without justification. Kiev urged the United States and European Union to impose more sanctions on Russia over the latest incident. Britain, Canada, France, Germany and others expressed support for Kiev on November 26, with EU President Donald Tusk calling for Russia to return the Ukrainian sailors and ships and "refrain from further provocations". The United Nations Security Council met in an emergency session on the crisis on Monday, where US envoy Nikki Haley called the seizure of the ships an "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory" and slammed "yet another reckless Russian escalation". She did not, however, threaten further sanctions on Russia and President Donald Trump suggested it was up to European governments to handle the crisis. "We don't like what's happening and hopefully it will get straightened out. I know Europe is not they are not thrilled. They're working on it too. We're all working on it together," Trump told reporters at the White House. Saudi Aramco said on Tuesday its gas programme would attract $150 billion worth of investments over the next decade with production growing to 23 billion standard cubic feet a day from the current 14 billion. "We also have world-class unconventional gas resources that are rapidly supplementing our large conventional resources ... currently we have 16 drilling rigs concentrating on unconventional gas and more than 70 wells completed this year," CEO Amin Nasser said at a conference in Dubai. Nasser also said Aramco plans to invest $100 billion over the next 10 years in chemicals globally, in addition to potential acquisitions. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks outside 10 Downing Street in London Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to Northern Ireland and Wales on Tuesday as part of a tour of the United Kingdom designed to rally support for her widely criticised Brexit deal before a vote in parliament. May secured agreement with the EU on Sunday for a deal that will see Britain leaving the bloc with continued close trade ties, but the odds now look stacked against her getting it approved by a deeply divided British parliament. Tuesday's tour includes meetings with political leaders from all parties in Northern Ireland - which will have Britain's only land border with the European Union and whose future has been a stumbling block in the negotiations. "Having been told by the EU that we would need to split the UK in two, we are leaving as one United Kingdom," May said in a statement announcing the visit and defending the border arrangements agreed with the EU.A "My deal delivers for every corner of the UK and I will work hard to strengthen the bonds that unite us as we look ahead to our future outside of the EU." The visit is part one of several fronts May's team are working on to build support ahead of the Dec. 11 vote in parliament. Some of her senior ministers have been praising the deal in public, and courting opposition lawmakers in private. So far, the deal has failed to impress the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which props up May's minority government. The DUP said they would vote against the current form of the deal, drastically reducing May's chances of passing it, because it could leave the Northern Ireland subject to different rules than the rest of the country. May will highlight the business case for backing her deal, saying that it has support from manufacturers who "need to be able to trade freely across the border with Ireland and have unfettered access to the rest of the United Kingdom's market". May will also meet students, academics, and community and religious leaders in Northern Ireland. On the Welsh leg of the visit she will meet political leaders and farmers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi July 16 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is travelling to Buenos Aires to attend the 13th G20 summit, said he would be discussing ways to meet the new and upcoming challenges of the coming decade with world leaders there. In his departure statement issued, Modi said through the 10 years of its existence, the G-20 had strived to promote stable and sustainable global growth. "This objective is of particular significance for developing countries and emerging economies such as India, which is today the fastest growing large economy in the world," he said. Modi said the country's contribution to the global economic growth and prosperity underlined its commitment to 'Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development', which is the theme of the summit. "I look forward to meeting leaders from other G-20 countries to review the work of G-20 in the last ten years of its existence and chart the ways and means to meet the new and upcoming challenges of the coming decade," he said. The prime minister said the participants would deliberate on the situation of global economy and trade, international financial and tax systems, the future of work, women empowerment, infrastructure and sustainable development. Emerging economies, which played a major role in revitalising the growth in the global economy pursuant to the financial crisis are today facing unprecedented economic and technological challenges, Modi said. "I will highlight the need for reformed multilateralism which reflects the contemporary realities and can effectively strengthen collective action for global good," he noted. The prime minister stressed on the need to strengthen international cooperation and enhance coordinated action against fugitive economic offenders and financing of terrorism. "As in the past, I look forward to the opportunity to meet leaders on the side lines of the Summit to exchange views on bilateral matters of mutual interest," he added. Earlier in the day, the Ministry of External Affairs said Modi would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the event. He will be in Buenos Aires from November 29-December 1. Day by day, the nuisances of Aadhaar are becoming more and more bizarre. There was a camp organised by IDFC Bank in Bengaluru for providing plastic cards of Aadhaar. There were banners displaying the name of IDFC Bank. However, IDFC Bank denied organising any such camp. In addition, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) itself had barred the use of plastic or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Aadhaar cards. But more about it later. Bengaluru-based Prem Balakrishnan, in a series of tweets has asked IDFC Bank whether it has the necessary permission to print Aadhaar data on a PVC card. He also asked UIDAI if private banks like IDFC Bank are allowed to collect Aadhaar data under pretext of printing an Aadhaar card on plastic or PVC. @IDFC_Bank Do you have permission to print #Aadhar data on PVC card? @UIDAI Are these private banks allowed to collect Aadhar data in the name of printing Aadhar on PVC card ? Isnt it against Supreme court verdict????#Awareness #Aadhaar #Privacy pic.twitter.com/FhUibQ8VoW Prem Balakrishnan (@premsight) November 15, 2018 Officials from IDFC Bank contacted Prem and told him that the said camp, where Aadhaar cards were being printed on plastic or PVC, was not organised by the Bank. The same was also confirmed by the bank in an email to Prem. Mail confirmation from IDFC bank. pic.twitter.com/NDch5zrZTL Prem Balakrishnan (@premsight) November 24, 2018 The main question here is, if IDFC Bank has not organised the camp, then who organised it? How did the lender allow someone to use its name and logo on the banners displayed at the camp at Prestige Technology Park at Kadubeesanahalli in Bengaluru? According to UIDAI collecting Aadhaar information for printing a plastic or PVC card or unauthorised printing of Aadhaar card or aiding such persons in any manner amounts to a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment under the Indian Penal Code and Aadhaar Act 2016. UIDAI had also advised people to be watchful for the protection of their privacy and recommended not to share their Aadhaar number or personal details to unauthorised agencies for getting it laminated, or printed on plastic card. Earlier in September 2018, the Supreme Court has barred banks, telecom companies and other private entities from using Aadhaar for identification. With the apex court declaring Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act as unconstitutional, bank account-holders, e-wallet or mobile wallet users and mobile subscribers are no longer required to use their Aadhaar number. The Supreme Court has given a time limit to all private entities for deletion of all such e-know-your-customer (eKYC) data from their records. In a circular issued on 26 October 2018, the department of telecommunication (DoT) directed all unified license holders to discontinue the use of Aadhaar eKYC for issuing new SIM and re-verification of existing subscribers before 5 November 2018. "...the use of Aadhaar authentication is not permissible for eKYC for verification of telecom subscribers, nor for issuing new mobile connections. In compliance with o the judgement of the Supreme Court, all licensees are to discontinue the use of Aadhaar eKYC service of UIDAI both for verification as well as for issuing new mobile connections. All TSPs shall ensure its implementation across the country in a time bound manner and compliance in this regard be submitted by 5 November 2018," the telecom department said in the circular. However, till today, there is no such action. In fact, TRAI and UIDAI are insisting that subscribers can use physical copy of their Aadhaar number for KYC. UIDAI had said, service providers can use offline verification tools like eAadhaar and QR code that leverage the unique ID without authentication, any access to biometrics, or revealing the 12-digit number. But there is no word on deletion of subscriber data from their servers as mandated by the apex court. , "Bringing paperless account opening to the under banked and unbanked areas, customers can open an account just by linking their Aadhaar Number and biometric authentication". The same IDFC Bank, which has denied having organised any camp for the plastic Aadhaar card, however continues to use the unique ID for opening a bank account through microATM. On its portal, IDFC Bank says "Bringing paperless account opening to the under banked and unbanked areas, customers can open an account just by linking their Aadhaar Number and biometric authentication". Earlier in February this year, UIDAI had issued a clarification saying plastic or PVC Aadhaar smart cards are often not usable as the QR code commonly becomes dysfunctional during such unauthorised printing at some vendor or shop. Also, there could be a possibility of sharing Aadhaar details like personal sensitive demographic information without informed consent with some devious elements. The so-called Aadhaar Smart card is totally unnecessary and a waste as during such printing its QR code often becomes dysfunctional. The Aadhaar card or the downloaded Aadhaar card printed on ordinary paper or mAadhaar is perfectly valid for all kind of uses, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, chief executive (CEO) of UIDAI, had said in a statement. When opining on an unfolding situationa case of watch this spaceit is always difficult to come in midway and be very conclusive about ramifications, leave alone analysing sagely, who is right, who was wrong, or what could be the long-term implications. The Carlos Ghosn saga is a case in point, made all the more difficult by the sheer silence on the part of the protagonist, an entire week since his incarceration. But, in the meantime, he has been shorn off the chairmanship of two of the most storied Japanese carmakers ever, Nissan and Mitsubishi, one of which he saved from possible obscurity, whilst retaining the stewardship of the French giant Renault for now. Of course, this could change if enough evidence is provided to the French government, which owns 15% of Renault and the Renault board in connection with the charges brought against him by no less than Japans deputy attorney general, Shin Kukimoto. But rather surprisingly, it has been a week since Mr Ghosn wasdramaticallyarrested just as he descended from his private jet at Tokyo airport, completely unaware of what was awaiting him, yet the French counterparts have still not received any conclusive documentation supporting the accusations. "You would be surprised at what we found. It's intolerable," said interim chairman and Mr Ghosns number two till a week ago, Hiroto Saikawa, in a letter addressed to Nissan employees. But, for now, neither Renault nor the French authorities have had access to the results of the Japanese automaker's internal investigation against Carlos Ghosn, despite repeated requests. In the meantime, all we have are the statements of the Tokyo prosecutor and information selectively disseminated to the Japanese press. Officially, the prosecutor's office accuses Carlos Ghosn of having knowingly undervalued, from 2011 to 2015, his remuneration in the financial reports that Nissan must regularly submit to the stock market authorities. In total, the French boss, who was at the time the chief executive (CEO) of the manufacturer, would have declared revenue less by about 5 billion yen, or 39 million euros. From a recent Japanese TV report, Mr Ghosn, who has not yet been indicted for this offense under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law (FIEL), denies these accusations in their entirety. The question that is being asked is: Is the indictment of Mr Ghosn really one for 'misconduct,' or is it one for having succeededa Gaijin, a foreigner, who had overstayed his welcomeone who had stayed too long thinking naively that he was no longer considered a foreigner in Japan? Mr Ghosn, as you must have read in several other reports, landed in Japan in 1999 as a white knight to save Nissan, the dying old lady of the Japanese automobile industry, the oldest of the Japanese Big Three. The Japanese industrial world was bemused, even tolerant and welcomed the man who would be called "le cost killer." Not only did the otherwise suspicious Japanese society adopt this samurai Frenchie-Lebanese-Brazilian, they even made him a manga star. It was the honeymoon years; but then honeymoons do not last for ever. In the times of crisis, people tend to glorify and honour the hero who gets them out of trouble. But as soon as the crisis is over, the mediocre take over and they resent the hero more and more. Winston Churchill paid for it, soon after winning WW II. It is now Carlos Ghosn, who is being made to pay. He stayed too long in Japan, he was adulated when he saved Nissan, but once company had been saved, and was healthy once again, the leadership of a Gaijin had become questionable. Even if Ghosn leadership, as well as the collaboration with Renault in 1999, was lifesaving for Nissan, by 2018, the Japanese automaker is in a position to erase the past and launch itself into, what Saikawa expects, a new era of playing Big Brother. One may even speculate that it is not Mr Ghosn who is the one really targeted, but it is Renault, Europe and France, as it is symbolically this triumvirate that came to Japan to save an industry in distress. It was not even three decades ago that Japan was the dominant player in the worlds automobile industry, today it has slipped to an ailing third, and soon to be overtaken by a certain developing nation called India. Japan has always been a very proud nation. But excessive pride can eventually be detrimental to the nations business and political acceptance across nations. Especially so in a time of globalisation and internationalism. In a sharp break from the caution and inertia of his predecessors, President Donald Trump has slashed U.S. military aid to Pakistan and warned that Washington will take further punitive measures unless the Pakistani government acts decisively against Islamist terrorists. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return, the president tweeted about Pakistan on Nov. 19. Thats ENDING! But while the Trump administration has freely vented its frustration with Islamabad, current and former officials said it has been slow to seek justice for the 2008 massacre of 166 people six of them Americans in Mumbai, India, by a terrorist group that has worked closely with Pakistans intelligence service. In 2011, federal prosecutors in Chicago indicted four Pakistanis, including a serving officer of the countrys powerful intelligence service, in connection with the Mumbai attacks. Yet after an initial flurry of effort by the Obama administration, the government has done little to press Pakistan to arrest those suspects or to condition U.S. support on progress in the hunt for the suspects, the officials said. d in planning or facilitating the attacks. Nonetheless, critics say the administrations lack of effort and attention until now shows that the matter has not been a priority. Earlier this year, a multi-agency group of national security officials agreed to prepare financial sanctions against the Mumbai suspects to try to force action by the Pakistani government. But soon thereafter, the officials involved were reassigned to other tasks, including a State Department campaign of counterterrorism measures against Iran, several officials said. The administration said they were going to get tougher, but it didnt translate into action, on the Mumbai case, said Jason Blazakis, who recently stepped down as director of the State Departments office on counterterrorism finance and designations. What are you doing as a government to bring these people to justice? Not a whole heck of a lot and thats unfortunate. The Pakistani governments support for the deadly Mumbai attacks was especially brazen, U.S. and Indian investigators say. A well-trained team of 10 militants, deployed by boat and directed by phone from Pakistan, slipped into the city and stormed a Jewish center, Chabad House, as well as two luxury hotels, a restaurant and a train station. The three-day rampage of shootings and bombings outraged India, Pakistans neighbor and nuclear-armed rival. The attacks exposed the Pakistani governments patronage of and control over Lashkar, a militant group that has served as Islamabads proxy in the longtime conflict with India over the disputed border region of Kashmir. November 27, 2018 Ukraine - Poroshenko Launched Clash With Russia To Gain Dictatorial Powers - He Failed The Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko's attempted to shore up his approval rate for the upcoming election by provoking a military incident. It was a gamble and it failed. Three Ukrainian boats, a tug and two gun boats, attempted to sail from the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov. The Kerch Strait is territorial Russian water since Crimea voted to join Russia. "Innocent passage" is allowed but necessitates following the laws and regulations of the territorial country. Depth chart - Sea of Azov Dark blue - less than 5 meters, light blue - less than 10 meters, white - less than 13.5 meters shipping channels not shown - bigger The Ukraine does not accept the decision the people of Crimea and insists that the peninsula is still part of its territory. The Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko sent the boats with the order not to coordinate their passage with Russian authorities. The captured sailors confirm that. He obviously wanted to provoke a violent Russian reaction. The government of Ukraine practically admitted that the mission had nefarious intent: Ukraines state security service says that its intelligence officers were among the crew on Ukrainian naval ships seized by Russia in a standoff near Crimea. The SBU agency said in a statement Tuesday that the officers were fulfilling counterintelligence operations for the Ukrainian navy, in response to psychological and physical pressure by Russian spy services. It didnt elaborate, but demanded that Russia stop such activity. Russias FSB intelligence agency said late Monday that that there were SBU officers on board the Ukrainian ships, calling that proof of a provocation staged by Ukraine. The SBU is the incompetent spy service that faked the murder of the Arkady Babchenko as part of a corporate raid. What is the real reason that its agents were on board of the Ukrainian gun boats? And why was the crew of the tug armed with heavy machine guns? bigger A few of the Ukrainian seaman were lightly wounded when the Russian coast guard took a shot at one of the boats. bigger The gun boats of the Gurza-M class were built on a shipyard that Poroshenko owned at that time. He profited from ordering them. They may be useful for river policing but do not belong at sea. The Russian coast guard had no problem to disable the ships and to capture their crews. A Crimean court ordered that the sailors will be held for two more month while they face charges over border violations. In 1988 the U.S. tried to pull up a similar stunt in the Black Sea. Two U.S. Navy ships with spying equipment crossed into Soviet territorial water near Crimea. They got rammed (vid) by Soviet ships and were smart enough to move out before the situation escalated further. Poroshenko's intent was to provoke an incident that would allow him to present himself as a war-president. Elections are coming up and all polls show him below 10% and far behind two other candidates. He attempted to use the incident to introduce martial law over all the Ukraine. Martial law would give Poroshenko full control over the country. He would be able to remove any regional or local government, to shut down the political opposition and to censor the media. He would be able to postpone the upcoming elections indefinitely. Back in July Yulia Tymoshenko, who is leading the polls for the next elections, warned that Poroshenko would take this step (machine translation): The leader of Batkivshchyna, Yulia Tymoshenko, claims that one of her main competitors in the upcoming presidential election, the incumbent head of state, Petro Poroshenko, is allegedly nurturing a extremely dangerous plan to disrupt voting by escalating the war in Donbass and imposing martial law in Ukraine. The politician made such a statement on the TV channel UA: First. Tymoshenko stated that Poroshenko "does not want" to hold presidential elections in order to "save power", ... Yesterday Poroshenko tried to scare the parliament into accepting his plans: Intelligence data speak of an extremely serious threat, Poroshenko declared in a televised address on Monday, brandishing a pile of paper, which, he said, was an intelligence report detailing the Russian forces massed close to the border. At a session of the United Nations Security Council called at Ukraines request late on Monday, the countrys representative, Volodymyr Yelchenko, claimed the Azov Sea ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk faced invasion. That is of course utter nonsense. Russia has no interest in launching a war with the Ukraine. There is nothing to gain from it. The parliament must vote on the introduction of martial law and the opposition parties recognized Poroshenko's stunt for what it was. His plans were rejected. Poroshenko pulled back. Instead of the 60 day long, renewable period of martial law he wanted, he had to settle for 30 days. And that was still not enough: Rival political parties - former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenkos Fatherland, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyis Self-Help and populist Oleh Lyashkos Radical Party demanded further concessions. They wanted immediate confirmation, rather than just a promise, that the election will go ahead on March 31. They sought to limit martial law to a number of regions rather the whole country, and they objected to any plans to limit Ukrainians constitutional freedoms. Their fear wasnt just that campaigning would be limited, but that Poroshenko would get near-dictatorial powers. There will now be a limited martial law but only in those regions that border Russia or the Black Sea. These are the Russian speaking regions which did not vote for Poroshenko in the 2014 elections. The opposition and its foreign backers will hopefully take care that the martial law use will not get out of hand. There will be a limited call-up of reserve troops, but most of the reservists are to likely ignore it. With the election date set to March 31 by the parliament Poroshenko has no legal tool to postpone it. Unless of course he manages to provoke a real war, either with the rebels who are holding the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, or with Russia itself. The lunatic warmongers at the Atlantic Council urge him to do exactly that: Even though Ukraine is outgunned, it does have options. It can undertake operations to break the blockade, though they would likely be fruitless given the forces Moscow has sent there. Nevertheless, it cannot accept this attack on its sovereignty and integrity passively. Ukraine should give careful consideration to a special operation that might disrupt the bridge that Moscow built over the Kerch Strait that joins Crimea to Russia. But thats not all. Ukraine should invite the United States and NATO to send a fleet of armed ships to visit Mariupol, the main city on the Sea of Azov coast and defy Russia to fire on or block NATO from exercising the right to visit Ukraines ports. Those ships should be armed and have air cover but be instructed not to fire unless fired upon. Even Poroshenko is not dumb enough to repeat his failed provocation in the Kerch Strait. The Kerch bridge is guarded. Its pillars are massive because it was build near a fault and has be able to withstand earthquakes. A saboteur unit would have to bring several tons of high explosives to even damage one. To reach Mariupol in the Sea of Azov ships have to cross through the the Kerch Strait. The passage is a very narrow artificial channel with only 8 meter depth. Outside of the channel the water is as shallow as a think tankers thought. Any ship with more than 2-3 meters draft has zero room to navigate there. Russia does not even need boats or airplanes to protect it. A few guns along the coast can easily control the passage. No sane naval commander will try to pass the Strait by force. bigger Russia already warned warned against further 'reckless' moves and deployed an anti-ship missile system (vid) to the Kerch Strait to make sure that any further provocations there will have deadly consequences. Poroshenko could start a provocation elsewhere. He could attempt to reconquer the Donetzk airport. But while he might itch for losing more fights, a full blown war is out of question. Kiev's army is low on morale and would be defeated within days. Poroshenko's rule was catastrophic for the Ukraine. In several cities the central heating and warm water supply is broken. Ten-thousands will have to freeze during the winter, some of them to death. Since Poroshenko came to power millions of able Ukrainian workers have fled or work abroad, most of them to Russia. The most industrialized regions are in firmly in rebel hands. Most of the population is poor, the bureaucracy is utterly corrupt and the country is practically bankrupt. There will likely be dozens of corruption cases brought up against Poroshenko himself as soon as he loses power. If he is smart he will flee the Ukraine the very day his term ends. The international reactions showed that Poroshenko is no longer of value. While the russo-phobe Poland and the Baltic countries called for more sanction against Russia the European heavyweights Germany and France urged deescalation and direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. (Sources in Berlin say that Merkel firmly told him to stand down.) The U.S. reaction was delayed and mild. Trump punted the problem to the Europeans. Pedro Poroshenko will leave the political stage as a despised man. But will also be much richer after he pilfered the Ukrainian state wherever he could. The people of the Ukraine should take their money back before dumping him abroad. Posted by b on November 27, 2018 at 19:25 UTC | Permalink Comments next page next page During a press conference in Moscow on October 4, 2018, Major General Igor Kirillov, commander of Russias radiological, chemical and biological defense troops, stated that 73 citizens of Georgia had died as a result of medical experiments conducted by a company owned by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He referred to recent accusations from Georgias former Minister of State Security Igor Giorgadze, who served in the KGB from the 1970s to the 1990s and holds the title Honorary Officer of the KGB of the USSR. Kirillovs statement coincided with allegations from the UK and the Netherlands that Russian spies attempted to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. BACKGROUND: Since the U.S. established partnerships in biological studies with several post-Soviet republics in the late 1990s, Moscow has considered such cooperation as a threat. The main targets of Russias accusations have been the so-called Lugar laboratories established in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and more recently in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as part of the Nunn-Lugar Biological Threat Reduction Program. The program was established in order to dismantle the USSRs massive infrastructure for biological WMD research, development and production. Moreover, it seeks to prevent the proliferation of expertise, materials, equipment and technologies that could contribute to the development of biological weapons. Under the program, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has together with local institutions implemented biothreat reduction projects in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine. In Georgia, the program established the Richard Lugar Public Health Research Center, which was recently upgraded to Biosafety Level-2 with funds from the DTRA. Moscow has periodically accused the U.S. and the aforementioned republics of conducting suspected biological activities in areas close to Russias borders. Representatives of the U.S. and other accused states have refuted the allegations, yet the dissemination of negative information has intensified in recent years. High level officials of Russias MFA have accused the U.S. of violating the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, whereas the countrys former Chief Sanitary Physician, Gennady Onishchenko, claimed that U.S. military microbiologists in Georgia can purposely infect mosquitoes with the Zika virus. The use of such narratives as a component of information warfare is not new to Russia, but has a strong legacy in the active measures employed by Soviet security agencies against the West during the Cold War. For example, in the 1960s the Soviet propaganda machine embarked on a campaign claiming that the U.S. intentionally infected Eastern Europe with Colorado potato beetles. According to Tamara Eidelmans book How Propaganda Works, one of the most complex fabrications in this narrative was a massive influx of Colorado potato beetles across the Baltic Sea. In order to strengthen their case, Soviet propagandists invented an amphibian Colorado potato beetle. The USSR promoted a similar story in North Korea and China. In the 1950s, a Soviet disinformation campaign claimed that the U.S. sought to infect North Korean people with several diseases through rodents and insects, referring to the groundless conclusions of an international commission of scientists established under Soviet control, which were spread globally by left-leaning press. The method applied then was simple and effective: Soviet security organizations paid generously for the services of experts, who turned a blind eye to the absence of facts, and for publications that spread the fake information in North Korea and China. In 2016, several media outlets in Armenia blamed the Lugar Center in Georgia for the deaths of more than 10 people from swine flu (H1N1), yet the absurdity of these accusations was recognized even in Russian media. Recently, a group of Dagestani journalists led by Mukhtar Amirov alleged that the Georgian laboratory had been involved in the use of biological weapons in Dagestan and Chechnya. He has also petitioned to President Vladimir Putin to initiate an investigation into the activities of the Lugar laboratory in connection with the threat to biological safety of Russian citizens, and to impose sanctions against individuals and legal entities related to this laboratory. In April 2018, Russias MFA stated that the very fact of the large-scale medical-biological activities of the Pentagon on the borders of Russia is of particular concern for Moscow. On June 11, 2018, Russias Foreign Minister informed his Kazakh counterpart of Moscows concerns over U.S. military logistics planning involving Kazakhstan and biological laboratories in the country. IMPLICATIONS: According to Moscow, these laboratories are conducting research that could potentially be used for the production of bacteriological weapons, while the transfer of information and samples of pathogens to the U.S. could disclose not only Soviet, but also Russian military and biological secrets. Thus, these activities threaten Russias military interests. These military-biological labs near Russia are described as external threats in Russias latest National Security Strategy (see CACI Analyst 09/20/18). Most recently, Giorgadze referred to documents regarding the Lugar laboratory that he claimed to have obtained from Georgia, which allegedly disclose that the U.S. might be developing biological weapons and conducting human experiments in the facility. These accusations were accompanied with a media campaign in Russia, in which pro-government media published articles about the issue. Moreover the main state TV channels, including First Channel, covered his accusation as breaking news. Although Giorgadze stated that the official documents he had obtained contained evidence of his allegations, his claims were ambiguous. For instance, regarding the human experiments, he said, I do not exclude that they conduct experiments on people. Moreover, he confirmed positive developments in public health in Georgia, including an increase in treatment of hepatitis C. On the other hand, he argued that strange things are happening, according to 100,000 pages of documents that Giorgadze said he had received from his friends in Georgia. He called on experts to study the documents and said he is interested in drawing attention to the situation and that an international investigation should be conducted into the issue. Yet he also admitted that there are not enough materials for official allegations, and that his sources in Georgia may have various political aims. The U.S. and Georgia rejected these claims within a day. Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon strongly rejected Kirillovs statement, calling it an invention of the imaginative and false Russian disinformation campaign against the West and obvious attempts to divert attention from Russias bad behavior on many fronts. The Georgian Prime Ministers special representative for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, termed the allegations against Georgias National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) a soap bubble, which will be burst very soon. The NCDC, which oversees the Lugar Center, stated that Moscow categorically rejected its invitation to participate in an international monitoring exercise of the laboratory. The Russian MFA confirmed the refusal to partake in the exercise, stating that Russian specialists will not take part in a propaganda workshop on countering biological weapons in Tbilisi. President Putin also expressed concerns regarding Giorgadzes claims: these developments if they are actually taking place are very dangerous and are related to the latest achievements in genetics. Although Putin did not judge whether the allegations were true, he stated that it is about finding agents that can selectively affect people depending on their ethnic group, and over two or three generations, allegedly, they have used animals to conduct such experiments. Putin also warned the West and said that everyone has to be aware that nothing comes from nothing and nothing disappears; every action has a reaction, or rather, an opposite ... if someone is developing this technology, they have to understand that others will be doing so as well. So it is better to sit at the negotiating table beforehand and develop unified rules of conduct in this very sensitive area. CONCLUSIONS: General Kirillov utilized almost all of Giorgadzes accusations in his press-conference and referred to Giorgadzes documents as facts. In this case, Russian authorities are seemingly using Giorgadze as an expert and a main source in accusing the U.S. of developing biological weapons and conducting human medical experiments in former Soviet republics. According to the Independent, Kirillovs press conference was hastily announced, precisely at the moment when Russian authorities likely learnt of the upcoming announcement that four of its citizens had been expelled from the Netherlands after an attempted cyberattack on the OPCW. This sequence of events indicates that the recent intensification of the campaign against the Lugar laboratories is part of a response to investigations into Russias cyber-attacks and attempted assassinations, i.e. the Skripal case, in several Western countries. The latest developments highlight how the Kremlin uses the biological narrative for attack and counterattack in the information war, along with backing its suspicions and grievances over U.S. cooperation with former Soviet republics. While the narrative is currently employed as an information operation, it could also serve as a means for intimidation or even a pretext for military intervention in the future. AUTHORS BIO: Nurlan Aliyev is a PhD Candidate and Researcher at the Institute of International Relations of the University of Warsaw. He is a receiver of the Visegrad Found Scholarship for 2018-2019. From 2000 to 2017, he worked as an expert at various government, non-government and international institutions. His research focuses on political and security processes in Russia, post-soviet countries and asymmetric warfare threats. Image source: By: Press TV accessed on 11.27.2018 Oshawas housing market has been on fire these last few years, but a downturn had already taken hold prior to the GM announcement late Sunday evening. It nevertheless adds fuel to the fire, says Plowman. Perception is reality and bad obviously has an impact, he said. I believe that when people freezein other words, when theyre scared or uncertainthey tend to be more conservative, whether with retail shopping or purchasing cars, or even buying secondary properties, but it only last a little while. I say 60 to 90 days. The economy in Oshawa, and Durham Region as a whole, is diverse enough today to absorb the lost GM plant jobs. Moreover, the union that represents the auto workers has come out swinging, making it clear that it doesnt intend to go down without a fight. "Unifor does not accept the closure of the plant as a foregone conclusion,"Unifors President Jerry Dias said in a statement. "Oshawa has been in this situation before with no product on the horizon and we were able to successfully make the case for continued operations. We will vigorously fight again to maintain these good-paying auto jobs." Rosemary Madden, a Mortgage Intelligence agent based in Oshawa, notes that, in addition to the unfortunate timing, the layoffs will have a ripple effect. The pace at which new condos are added to Torontos red-hot housing market is nowhere near enough to fulfil the needs of a veritable surge of renters and would-be buyers, according to a recent report by Altus Group Ltd. Since 2005, only around 60 purpose-built rental buildings have been erected in the market, offering a total of 11,620 new units over the 13-year period from then to the present. Moreover, the condo completion rate is running near a five-year low of approximately 10,000 units. None of the new additions are anywhere near sufficient in accommodating Torontos influx of 17,000 new renter households a year, most of which are magnetized by the relative affordability promised by the asset class. With no end in sight to Wells Fargos seemingly limitless supply of scandals, how long can CEO Tim Sloan last? Thats the question being asked by many market observers more than two years into the banking giants slog through numerous controversies. In September of 2016, Wells Fargo admitted that it had created millions of unauthorized customer accounts. Since that time, the banks scandals havent died down theyve grown, with new revelations of misbehavior coming at breakneck speed. Those revelations of alleged housing discrimination, unnecessary mortgage fees, unauthorized insurance charges, and more have caused many to call for Sloans ouster, according to a Los Angeles Times report. Among those calling for Sloans exit is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who said that Sloan, a three-decade veteran of the megabank, either knew or should have known about the banks various misdeeds long ago. Last month, Warren asked the Federal Reserve not to lift sanctions it had levied against Wells Fargo until Sloan hands in his resignation. | BY Ricki Green | The Australian Television industry has thrown its support behind a 30-second community service announcement created by Sydney-based production company Brightworks for the 200BALES campaign. The 200BALES campaign is raising vital funds for the provision of feed bales to struggling farmers and the CSA is receiving vital on air support across WIN, Prime7, ABC, Channel 7 and Foxtel. 200BALES was established by a group of Mudgee residents looking to help struggling farmers in the Mid Western Regional Shire as they battle the drought. The initiative offers everyday Australians the opportunity to pledge $200 towards a quality round bale which are distributed to farmers in need of a helping hand. Brightworks founder Cameron DArcy who also owns Sierra Escape Mudgees first and only luxury eco-glamping experience, is passionate about telling the local farmers stories of hardship and resilience, having witnessed the catastrophic impacts of the drought. Says DArcy: We cant thank the television networks enough for theyre on air support of the 200BALES CSA. We appreciate there has been a lot of coverage on the difficult conditions being faced by Australian farmers, but long term forecasts suggests there is little relief in sight. Farmers will be relying on the generosity of Australians to survive the difficult summer period. Wed love to challenge our clients, fellow production campaigns, media and advertising agencies to get on board and help where you can. $200 goes a long way in saving precious stock and farmers livelihoods. The 30-second 200BALES CSA is currently being aired across WIN, Prime7, Channel 7 and ABC from now through to January 2019, with the Foxtel network airing the CSA across its channels during the month of November. Starting as a local initiative 200BALES has already far exceeded expectations having donated over 1970 bales to 410 farmers in the Mid West region. 200BALES organiser, Glenn Box says the success of 200BALES lies in the fact that every dollar donated goes directly toward supplying the bales. Says Box: We hope the CSA support from the networks will help those outside of country towns see the glaring reality of whats happening in our regional areas. The recent rain has been very welcomed but its not been a drought breaker by any means. September was Australias driest on record and many farmers have been hand feeding their cattle for well over a year. With predictions of dry conditions set to continue well into 2019, these bales are bringing much needed relief to those affected, many of whom are at risk of losing their farms. Australians need to recognise the important role farmers play in providing essential commodities such as milk, bread, meat and many more into our households. The drought is an ongoing issue and any support given, big or small, is greatly appreciated by our farmers. Production Company: Brightworks Director/Producer: Cameron DArcy DOP: Michael Hegarty Production Assistant: Matthew Withaar Editor: Karin Zigner Production Company: Brightworks Thanks to: Panavision, VA Hire, ISM Studios & White Chocolate. Some liquefied natural gas sellers arent in a rush to deliver their multimillion-dollar cargoes. With uncertain demand and no signs yet of bitter cold, some traders are preferring to keep their fuel inside vessels in the hope prices will rise. While the sight of stationary cargoes might not be unusual in the more-established oil market, technology has only recently made it feasible to keep LNG at minus 162 degrees Celsius (minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit) for longer periods. There are cargoes parked close to Singapore, apparently waiting for the right market conditions to be delivered, said Dumitru Dediu, an associate partner at McKinsey Energy Insights, which monitors LNG flows. Some of the players are speculating. There are about 30 vessels currently flagged as floating storage globally, two-thirds of which are in Asia, the biggest LNG consuming region, according to cargo-tracking company Kpler SAS. Thats still a fraction of a global fleet of more than 500 vessels. OFFSHORE: Projects to reverse offshore gas production declines in the Gulf The practice of using tankers as floating storage is common in the more developed oil market. It happens during periods of contango -- when storage on land is used up, immediate demand is weak and the cost for later delivery is high enough to cover the expense of storing crude on a tanker. Trading houses and oil majors from Vitol Group and Glencore Plc to BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc collectively made billions of dollars from 2008 to 2009 stockpiling crude at sea. At the peak of the floating storage spree, sheltered anchorages in the North Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Singapore Strait and off South Africa each hosted dozens of supertankers. Boil Off LNG, the fastest-growing fossil fuel, is starting to resemble the oil market in that sense. Holding it back is that some LNG is lost to keep it cool during its journey, known as boil off, and that most sales are through traditional long-term contracts without destination flexibility. But thats rapidly changing. Modern tankers are capable of serving as floating storage, especially for markets such as China that lack that capacity. They have lower boil-off rates, bigger capacity and re-liquefaction units on board to keep the cargoes cool. The global LNG fleet has transportation capacity of about 44 million tons, which pales beside the 372 million tons of the crude oil tanker fleet, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the worlds biggest shipbroker. LNG tankers working as storage can tie up transport capacity, even if volumes are not significant in a global context, Alastair Maxwell, chief financial officer of LNG ship owner and operator GasLog Ltd., said earlier this month. IN THE PERMIAN: Texas' Permian oil field sees slowing labor market The biggest contributor to flexible supplies is the U.S., where destination-free LNG exports started in 2016. The nation is adding production terminals and will compete with Australia and Qatar for a top place in LNG trade, which the International Energy Agency expects will overtake volumes delivered by pipelines in the middle of the next decade. Developers of U.S. LNG export projects will be among key speakers at the annual CWC World LNG Summit which starts Tuesday in Lisbon and gathers executives and traders of the super-chilled fuel. If a cold snap suddenly comes and the spot price rises, a well-diversified player storing fuel may boost earnings by $2 million to $5 million, despite current high shipping rates and boil off, Dediu said. Playing contango on LNG has not been traditionally popular, but given the price volatility for gas we do see a lot more players doing this, he said. With higher volatility and given the unpredictable winter weather patterns, from one week to another, it might be a real option for some of the players. --With assistance from Grant Smith and Alaric Nightingale. 2018 Bloomberg L.P. | BY Ricki Green | Following a competitive pitch, Edge has been appointed by Australian producer Michael Cassel Group (MCG) to handle strategy, creative and promotion of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo spectacular when it arrives in Sydney in 2019. Carat has been appointed to handle media strategy and implementation. The production billed as one of the worlds biggest shows returns to Sydney to play at ANZ stadium in Sydney Olympic Park for four performances, 17-19th October. Mirroring the spectacular show at Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will be showcasing military and civilian acts from around the world. First arriving in Sydney in 2005 and again in 2010 to rave reviews. Says Luca Asrress, head of marketing, MCG: Edge presented an impressive team with a deep understanding of event & theatrical productions. Edges strategy and creative work was a standout winner for us. Says David Stretch, managing director, Edge: After the success of Kinky Boots, its great to have another opportunity to work with the team at Michael Cassel Group. Over the years weve developed a good understanding of the nuances of event marketing, which well be drawing on. Saying that, this event is like no other: its a remarkable blend of music, ceremony, theatre and dance, which I know Sydneysiders will love. | BY Kim Shaw | Sydney brand communications agency Precinct has focussed on the unique and unexpected experiences UNSW offers students that help to set them apart, in its latest campaign targeting school leavers. Says Precinct Executive Creative Director Mick Thorp: The insight of unexpected experiences provided us with a really strong creative idea. We were able to develop the theme and to build a creative execution around it. Visual elements from the previous Precinct/UNSW campaign provided continuity. Four students were cast to tell their stories of the unexpected experiences that had opened their eyes to something new and different whilst at UNSW. The Frolic of The Beasts By Yukio Mishima. Vintage. 176 pp. $16. Yukio Mishima's 1961 novel "The Frolic of the Beasts," a compelling tale of love and violence, has only now appeared in English for the first time. Admirers of the enigmatic Japanese master have reason to rejoice. Those still unfamiliar with his work might very well have a new entryway to one of the most vital - and troubling - literary voices of the 20th century. Of course, it's impossible to discuss Mishima's extraordinary life and work without also noting his extreme politics and the circumstances surrounding his gruesome death. Born in Tokyo in 1925, Mishima published his first book in 1944, shortly before the cataclysmic end of Japan's involvement in World War II. His 1949 novel "Confessions of a Mask" established him as a leading voice in that nation's literary life, alongside Kenzaburo Oe, Taeko Kono, Kobo Abe and others. Remarkable novels followed, including "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" and "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea." For the short remainder of his life, Mishima also wrote the stories and drama (including traditional Noh plays) that defined postwar literature - and not only in Japan. His "Sea of Fertility" tetralogy stands as one of the epic achievements of 20th-century letters. The day Mishima finished writing the fourth volume, in 1970, he led a nationalistic plot intended to return power to the imperial throne. His group of far-right extremists visited a military base and took the commandant hostage. Unable to persuade the resident soldiers to join him, he committed ritual suicide by disemboweling himself. And he knew what he was doing. The samurai practice of seppuku, or hara-kiri, was something he had described in gory detail a decade earlier in his short story "Patriotism": "Despite the effort he had himself put into the blow, the lieutenant had the impression that someone else had struck the side of his stomach agonizingly with a thick rod of iron. For a second or so his head reeled and he had no idea what had happened. The five or six inches of naked point had vanished completely into his flesh, and the white bandage, gripped in his clenched fist, pressed directly against his stomach." The pain of that story - not to mention the nihilistic self-righteousness - remains palpable with every rereading. The same year Mishima published that memento mori, he also wrote "The Frolic of the Beasts." Andrew Clare's translation provides a ripe opportunity to revisit Mishima's mind-set at that time. The story is straightforward, though told in a meandering style that moves back and forth in time. As the book opens, a man named Koji is getting out of prison and arriving at a remote fishing port. There, he meets his former lover Yuko and the intrigue begins: "As they began to walk, Yuko was seized with anxiety that it had been a mistake to take charge of this forlorn young orphan. Since deciding to care for him, she had not once experienced such a sense of trepidation, which was clearly therefore some sort of presentiment. She had even been censured for her rashness by the prison governor, who said he had never before heard of a case where a member of the victim's family had become the criminal's guarantor." Koji has been given a job in a greenhouse and invited to live with Yuko and her husband, Ippei. Details about their complicated past arrive in a slow drip of information that we know lead toward a "final wretched incident." Ippei's aphasia - the result of a fractured cranium - complicates matters in unexpected and terrible ways. By the time we reach the end, Mishima's twisty timeline pays huge dividends. A powerful epilogue ties a neat ribbon around the plot. Mishima's sensibilities will seem a bit dated to contemporary readers. For example, the excessive and repetitive attention to the breast size of every female character is - to put it in technical terms - yucky. On the other hand, I did enjoy underlining the many fun and weird similes. The nighttime stars are like a "huge blanket of shiny mildew growing across the heavens." The night itself is like a "colossal, intense piece of meat saturated with hot blood." A woman's face is like a "beautiful half-open sea cucumber." Let that one sink in for a moment. "The Frolic of the Beasts" comes to us in the midst of a Mishima moment. In addition to the welcome publication of this novel, Hiroaki Sato's tremendous new book "On Haiku" includes some of Mishima's earliest poems. One of them goes, in its entirety: "Here's a stain of perfume on an old ball gown." Next spring will bring another, previously untranslated work of Mishima's fiction, his novella "Star." By my thinking, Mishima is a magnificent and important storyteller whose implicit value system just happens to make me ever so leery. Perhaps today's rekindled interest in his work can be chalked up to coincidence. Or maybe there exists another reason some historical examples of far-right extremism and political violence and nihilism elsewhere now resonate so loudly here. - -- Ervin is the author of the novel "Burning Down George Orwell's House" and the novella collection "Extraordinary Renditions." His most recent book is "Bit By Bit: How Video Games Transformed Our World." WASHINGTON - He was the youngest of his father's 15 children. He wrote in his high school yearbook that he wanted to be "a general or a Jazz Sheik." Gordon Parks fell short of those goals, but in the process of failing, he became a poet, novelist and memoirist; the inventor of a new genre of film; a pianist, composer and librettist; and one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. How did this happen? If you love an artist's mature work, his or her early work is almost always riveting. The drama is innate: How did it come to be? What were the breakthroughs? Who and what helped? What explains it? "Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950," at the National Gallery of Art, sets out to answer these questions. But just as Parks himself got diverted on his way to becoming a "Jazz Sheik," the curator, Philip Brookman, gets waylaid, and instead of rooting around in juvenilia, finds himself presenting a show with the force and cogency of a full-blown retrospective. Parks, happily, comes out of it as inexplicable as ever. You want to see the struggle, the gauche experiments, the lurching missteps. But Parks was taking good photographs virtually from the get-go. In everything he did - fashion, portraiture, street photography, even corporate propaganda - you feel the hum of a visual intelligence that feels innate, like perfect pitch. Take his picture of a young black boy in Washington, D.C., standing on crutches. The boy has one leg. (The other, according to the title, was cut off by a streetcar). We see him from behind. He appears to be looking across the street to two girls who, sitting on the steps in front of their door, stare back at him. This picture was taken in 1941. What makes it special is, in one sense, what makes any photograph special: the light, the point of view. The boy is outside in bright sunlight; the camera inside, in a dark, unadorned hallway. This conceit immediately puts us in the anxious position of someone in the boy's family - his mother, perhaps - watching her boy venture out into the world, crippled. What will others make of him? How will he manage? The girls across the street hold answers, but their faces are impassive, their bodies perched like question marks. Parks gets all this across with tact, timing and a withholding of histrionics that are the essence of human empathy. You know it immediately. You are dealing with an incredible artist. Raised in Kansas, Parks was imbued early on with the confidence that comes from a mother who believed in him. Her love was armor, of a sort, against the constant denigration he endured outside his home. In a 1963 Life magazine article, he remembered being called racist names that aroused anger and humiliation: "I was stoned and beaten. The indignities came so often that I soon began to accept them as normal. But I always fought back." Parks had a sense of the camera's potential as a tool of social justice from early on. The same year he took the photograph of the crippled boy, Richard Wright's "12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States" was published, and the book, said Parks, became his "bible." (The exhibit's title, "The New Tide," comes from Wright's book.) He worked first as a fashion and portrait photographer, then as a documentary photographer. He worked for the government and Standard Oil during World War II and in its aftermath, for Vogue, and finally as a staff photographer for Life magazine, which he joined in 1949, the first African-American in that role. The inside-to-outside dynamic that powers the picture of the crippled boy appears again in August 1943, in the astonishing "Boys Looking in Car Window, Harlem." Parks and his camera - and by extension we, the viewers - are right there inside the car as a gaggle of boys press up against the window. The window is about a quarter open and seems to underline the deep expressiveness of the six taller boys: one squinting, one smiling, three with eyes dreamily closed in the press, and one - the picture's emotional focus - with an expression of the most heart-rending, plaintive concern on his face. Photographs are questions. What happened before? What happened next? Parks's 1949 photo of a woman at a roulette table in Puerto Rico dramatizes the stakes: The wheel spins. The woman's mature face (what brought her here?), mouth set in a frown, awaits the results. In a way she is beautiful. Aren't we all waiting to know what happens next? Parks took so many indelible images from this decade alone, which is why the show feels so full-throated and complete. The pictures of African-Americans living hardscrabble lives in Harlem and the District of Columbia; the famous series on the life of Ella Watson, a government cleaning woman; the heroic images of the African-American fighter pilots William Walker and George Knox; the farmers in Maine, the fisherman in Gloucester, Mass., the drugstore "cowboys" in Canada, the tenement dwellers in Chicago; and, of course, the legendary assignments (Ingrid Bergman on Stromboli! Models wearing dresses by Dior and Schiaparelli in Paris!) and photo essays for Life, none more remarkable than the one on the young, photogenic gang member Red Jackson. Parks is great. No need to go on. Just go. Just look. Just marvel. --- "Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950," through Feb. 18, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; nga.gov. 'Account for monies you have received ... Embed from Getty Images Google Maps might make discovery of new places or businesses to visit that much easier. The Android version of the app now lets users who leave reviews on establishments add hashtags to their writeups. Google suggests these hashtags be added at the end of their posts and they can add up to five hashtags. These hashtags will help those who tap on them find other establishments using the same tag. But they request reviewers to be specific about the hashtags they use like #vegetarian #goodforselfies, instead of using the more generic #food. It rolled out first to Android devices last week, but there is no word yet when its coming to iOS or the web versions of the app. During the Democratic Weekly Address, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) discussed what Congress should do next, since Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker hasnt recused himself from the Mueller investigation. Warner was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words: Hi, Im Mark Warner, Senator from Virginia, and the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. On the Intelligence Committee, it is our job to ensure that our country, our people, and our values are protected against some of the most dangerous threats facing the United States. At times, however, serious challenges to our democracy can come from right here at home. Today, I want to talk about the presidents threats against the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and what the implications are for our country. I know it can be easy to get lost in all of the details of this investigation. There have been so many concerning revelations that it can be truly overwhelming. But lets be crystal clear, this much we know: Russia attacked our democracy in 2016. And we have to get to the bottom of what happened, and make sure that no crimes were committed along the way. My committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, continues to conduct a bipartisan inquiry into what happened in 2016. And as important as that investigation is, only Special Counsel Mueller has the necessary independence, tools, and law enforcement authorities to pursue justice and prosecute criminal activity. That investigation has already made significant progress exposing Russias assault on our democracy. The special counsel has already obtained six guilty pleas and over 30 indictments. And that list of guilty pleas includes the campaign manager of the Trump campaign, the deputy campaign manager, a campaign foreign policy adviser, and the presidents former national security adviser. Lets be clear, this is no witch hunt, as the president has falsely tried to claim. This is a methodical, professional, unbiased criminal investigation. And the special counsel must be permitted to continue doing his job, which is to quite honestly follow the facts until we get the whole truth. Now if the president has nothing to hide, he should welcome this investigation. If he has done nothing wrong, then he has nothing to fear from the special counsel. So I ask: Why does he keep publicly threatening this investigation? Two weeks ago, when the president fired the attorney general, he also upended decades of precedent by going around the line of succession in the Justice Department and installing an acting attorney general whose primary qualification for the job seems to be that he has publicly criticized the Mueller investigation. As acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker has the power to shut down the investigation, to deny subpoena power, or starve it of the resources needed to get the job done. It appears that is why the president went around the line of succession at the Justice Department, and appointed Mr. Whitaker to the job. No one in our country is above the law, including the president. And with the failure of Mr. Whitaker, the acting attorney general, to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation, it is incumbent that the Congress pass the bipartisan legislation thats already passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee that will protect the integrity of the special prosecutors investigation. Now more than ever all of Congress needs to stand firm in support of rule of law. Thank you. The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML. Ag Secretary Perdue (green vest) and Interior Secretary Zinke (directly behind) speak with Forest Service officials in Paradise View Photos Paradise, CA During a visit to the devastation in Paradise, US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue argued there is an awakening that forest policies of the past should be revamped moving forward. Perdue, who oversees agencies such as the US Forest Service, toured the destruction left behind by the Camp Fire, along with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. During a media briefing, Perdue stated, There is an awakening, I think, and some of the people (conservation organizations) that have litigated against good forest management techniques are now seeing that the pristine forests that they were imagining are no longer pristine when they are burned. Well-groomed and well managed forests can protect and prohibit against the type of devastation that we see here. Giving more specifics, he stated, It is coming in and clearing the forests. Now logging has become a pejorative term of just massive hillsides of clear-cutting. Thats not what were talking about and what reducing fuel loads is all about. Were talking about common sense types of provisions like prescribed burns at the right times, and coming in and reducing all of this fuel load and chaparral on the ground so you dont have these fires that just rage. Zinke added, In my mind, there is no doubt that the temperatures are getting hotter and seasons are getting longer. In drought conditions, the moisture content is also much lower. Taking that as a backdrop, it doesnt relieve you from the responsibility of trying to mitigate the fires. Zinke says it needs to include going in and reducing the fuel loads and removing diseased stricken trees earlier in the process. Both Perdue and Zinke are openly seeking additional Congressional approval to implement more forest thinning initiatives on Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other public lands. This is the 67th article about Clent Breedlove's Plainview Pre-Glider School at Finney Field. In the last article, we learned how the Texas Defense Guard (TDG) was formed and its similarity in purpose and function to the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). According to Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO), the Texas 47th Legislature created the Texas Defense Guard by House Bill 45 on Feb. 10, 1941. It was to be organized by the Governor whenever "any part of the Texas National Guard was in active federal service (as they were during the emergency beginning prior to Pearl Harbor and extending to 1947)." A total of 51 battalions were formed over time with each battalion having a headquarters, along with a headquarters detachment, a service detachment, and a medical detachment and four to eight companies. Both Lubbock and Hale counties were listed in the same battalion, number 39. In addition, the legislature authorized up to 15 air force squadrons along with two battalions of field artillery. Several bands were also created. Flight F was located in Lubbock. No flight was listed for Plainview or anywhere else in Hale County; but since Lubbock and Hale counties were in the same TDG battalion, it seems likely that they shared the same TDG air force squadron flights, too. According to the Feb. 1, 1942 edition of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock was home to two flights in the Texas Defense Guard, Flights E and F. One of the officers listed in the article, Harold Humphries, would soon instruct pre-glider students at Finney Field starting later that year in June. Membership in flights E and F of the 11th squadron of the Texas Defense Guard aviation branch was open to men of military age at that time. In the photograph that accompanied the Feb. 1, 1942 AJ article, 2nd Lt. Humphries appeared along with 1st Lt. Robert H. Bean and M. F. Dagley. Bean was the business manager for Breedlove Aerial Service and, like Humphries, worked at the Plainview Pre-glider School. The school was open from June 1, 1942 until April 14, 1943. Humphries remembered posing for the photograph. In a recent interview, Humphries talked more about the Texas Defense Guard, the Civil Air Patrol and the photo. "That was a long time ago and I am not for sure I can give you a correct answer, but as I remember the Texas Defense Guard and the Civil Air Patrol were the same thing...one starting and continuing into the next and I don't remember which started first. We did have uniforms that we wore when meeting, but in reality it was a worthless effort," Humphries said. "I remember a trip Judge [Robert] Bean and I made to the Piper plant to pick up new [Cub] L-4's. On that trip I wore my guard uniform (which looked identical to regular Army Air Force uniforms); and at one point in the trip, I was questioned by Army authorities as to what part of the military I was with. "The [CAP] uniforms were so much like regular USAAF uniforms that I was questioned when in Lock Haven, Penna," Humphries continued. "[We] wore caps and I was a 2nd Lt. Don't remember whether the uniforms were issued or we purchased them. "It was a non-eventful trip except for the snowstorm we encountered on the way back. With no radio and instruments to fly in that kind of weather, we flew the roads at about 300 to 500 feet," recalled Humphries. "My memory centers on a snow storm but that is about all I remember about the guard. We were just a bunch of local flyers. The two planes we picked up were not for the guard but rather a local dealer. The guard had no planes," he explained. "The CAP was designed to guard the borders and the coast, so what was the value in West Texas?" Another important part of the Texas Defense Guard was the creation of bands in which its members presumably would play both military music as well as popular "big band" music at social events. Humphries played in a Benny Goodman-style band during college. In 1943, the Texas Legislature changed the name of the Texas Defense Guard to Texas State Guard, according to the TARO website. Humphries co-founded American State Bank in Lubbock with several other men in May 1948. The Humphries family was originally from east Texas but moved to Lubbock when Harold Humphries was quite young. He lived in Lubbock most of his life but moved to a senior living facility in Dallas a few years ago. He will turn 105 years old in December. He grew up in a large, two-story home on Broadway in Lubbock that was later Gardski's Loft restaurant for many decades. Humphries' father co-owned the Davis and Humphries Wholesale Food Distribution Company as well as the Piggly-Wiggly Groceries stores in Lubbock from the 1930s until 1960. Plans are underway now to have a site marker from the Texas Historical Commission in Austin placed along highway 788 north of Plainview to mark Finney Field and commemorate Clent Breedlove's Plainview Pre-Glider School. If you would like to contribute to the cost of this marker, please mail your check to Kim Horne at 401 Mesa Circle, Plainview, Texas, 79072. Please make your check payable to the Hale County Historical Commission. Your donation is tax-deductible. The HCHC needs to raise about $2,000 for a large-size marker from the THC in Austin. If the marker application is approved, the HCHC plans to implant the Finney Field around June 2019. To everyone who trained and worked at Clent Breedlove's Plainview Pre-Glider School at Finney Field in WWII, happy Thanksgiving and warmest wishes this holiday season. Readers are asked to visit www.silentwingsmuseum.com for more details about the glider program of WWII. Anyone with information about the Plainview Pre-Glider School at Finney Field should contact John McCullough at (806)793-4448 or email john.w.mccullough@live.com. One of San Antonio's favorite haunts is hosting a holiday ball to celebrate renowned film star Tim Burton, whose dark, animated musical film "The Nightmare Before Christmas" turns 25 this year. Victorias Black Swan Inn is encouraging Christmas- or Burton-themed costumes at the ball, which will begin at 8 p.m. on Dec. 15, according to the Facebook event details. With a focus on the mystical shadows of the Christmas season and the magic of Tim Burton, the night is sure to vary from typical holiday parties. U.S. Border Patrol agents working north of Laredo on U.S. 83 arrested a man attempting to smuggle 12 undocumented immigrants. Agents from the Laredo North Station conducted a vehicle stop on a pick-up truck that was traveling north on U.S. 83. The driver of the vehicle pulled into a local store's parking lot and came to a stop. As the agents approached, they noticed several people concealed in the cargo and passenger cab areas of the vehicle. READ ALSO: Additional charges filed in fatal crash that killed Laredo mother and daughter The 12 passengers were determined to be Mexican nationals illegally in the United States. The driver was determined to be a U.S. citizen. They were all arrested and transported to the Laredo North Station for processing. The vehicle was seized by the U.S. Border Patrol. Nearly every day for weeks, a white-haired man in a wheelchair, his body ravaged by diabetes and heart disease, has been escorted under heavy guard from a Texas jail cell to an interview room to speak about evil. Day by day, authorities say, he has recounted details of long-ago murders: faces, places, the layouts of small towns. He has described how he picked up vulnerable women from bars, nightclubs and along streets and strangled them to death in the back seat of his car. The man, Samuel Little, 78, has confessed to more than 90 murders, investigators say, stretching back almost half a century. Little already is serving three life sentences for the murders of three Los Angeles women during the 1980s, but authorities suspect him of killing women in at least 14 states. Investigators say they have established Littles ties to about 30 of the murders so far, and have little reason to doubt his confessions. By the time we are done, we anticipate that Samuel Little will be confirmed as one of the most prolific serial killers in American history, said Bobby Bland, district attorney of Ector County, Texas, where Little is being held after a grand jury indicted him this summer for a 1994 killing. RELATED: How Texas' most notorious serial killers were caught Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, was convicted of 49 murders in Washington state during the 1980s and 1990s, the highest number of murder convictions for an American serial killer. How a serial murderer could go on killing for years, apparently without anyone noticing a pattern, seems perplexing. But even the most effective police departments solve only about three-quarters of homicides, meaning that thousands of people get away with murder each year. Also, the killings Little is said to have admitted to occurred in a wide range of counties and states. Many of the women whom Little is believed to have killed were poor and addicted to drugs, alcohol, or both a group of people who often are not reported missing for weeks and sometimes receive fewer investigative resources than others. It was DNA evidence collected over years in the criminal justice system that first connected Little to several women who had been killed. Then, this year, a Texas Ranger named James Holland visited Little in a Los Angeles County prison and succeeded in winning his confidence, authorities said. The stories began to tumble out, setting off a transfer to Texas and a frenzy of visits from investigators with cold cases from all over the nation. Part of Littles impetus for talking now, investigators say, is that he seems to prefer the Ector County jail to the noisy, often chaotic environment of a Los Angeles County prison. Investigators who have spoken to him say he also appears to enjoy the attention he is receiving as he recites details only a killer would know, after decades of discussing them with no one. Officials in Texas said Little would not be made available for an interview for this article and a public defender who recently represented him declined to comment. As the weeks have passed and new cases and details have emerged, more than a dozen local investigators, along with the FBI, have flocked to Texas to speak to Little in person. Authorities say Little displays no sign of remorse while discussing the killings. He is exacting with certain details, they say, including where he left the womens bodies years ago: A dumpster, near a hog pit, under a pecan tree. The investigators say he is matter-of-fact about his actions, and sometimes even chuckles about them; other times, they said, he speaks so quickly, with such excitement, that they struggle to understand his words. Believe it or not, you only see evil a few times in your career, said Tim Marcia, a cold case detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who dealt with Little on the three killings he was convicted of there. Looking into his eyes, I would say that was pure evil. In many ways, the investigation into Little began in earnest in 2012 when Marcia and his partner, Detective Mitzi Roberts, tracked him down at a homeless shelter in Kentucky after his DNA had been found to match two Los Angeles murder victims from the 1990s. At the time, Little had served fewer than 10 years in prison, though he had amassed nearly 100 arrests in numerous states over more than 50 years. The charges ranged from kidnapping and rape to armed robbery. He got off over and over and over again, said Beth Silverman, the Los Angeles County prosecutor who ultimately won three murder convictions against Little. There are a lot of agencies around the country that dropped the ball on this case. Silverman and others say the killings were sexually motivated, but she also said that Little takes offense at being called a rapist. He says erectile problems make that impossible. But he is believed to have raped some of his victims, and Littles semen has been found on some of the womens nude bodies or on their clothing. The way he gets sexual gratification is during the strangulation, Silverman said. During his interrogation of Little in October, Sgt. Michael Mongeluzzo, a detective in Marion County, Florida where Little has confessed to killing 20-year-old Rosie Hill in 1982 said he had been astonished by Littles ability to recall various specific details about the 36-year-old crime. Its scary the clarity he has about certain things after all this time, Mongeluzzo said. He remembers names and faces. Little, detectives say, is a charismatic psychopath who would brutally beat his victims before strangling them. A former boxer, he punched with such force that when he struck one of his victims in the abdomen he broke her spine, according to the autopsy report. Mongeluzzo said he had wondered aloud during the interrogation how Little had managed to avoid arrest for so long. Little, he said, had an answer. I can go into my world and do what I want to do, Little said, according to Mongeluzzo, describing neighborhoods around the nation where poverty, drug addiction and unsolved murders are common. I wont go into your world. Little has told investigators that his mother had been in his words a lady of the night. But many other details about his childhood are unclear, although investigators said he may have been born in jail during one of his mothers arrests. He was raised mostly by one of his grandmothers in Ohio. In Opelousas, Louisiana, a town of 16,000, Donald Thompson, the police chief, said he has been haunted by a killing for years. In January 1996, the naked body of Melissa Thomas, 24, the cousin of Thompsons wife, was found under a pecan tree in a small cemetery behind a Baptist church. At the time, Thompson was the departments lead investigator on the case. He said he always suspected the killer had been an outsider because no one in the tight-knit town had any information. Last month, Thompson got a call from Texas that Little had confessed to the murder, and he sent one of his detectives, Sgt. Crystal LeBlanc. Over two hours, LeBlanc found that Little knew the towns streets, its bars, the location of the little church cemetery. Little told LeBlanc that he met Melissa Thomas on a street and they drove to the cemetery to use drugs. He said when they moved into the back seat to have sex, he began to stroke her neck and Thomas became alarmed. He said that she said, Why do you keep touching my neck? Are you a serial killer?' LeBlanc said. Little said he became so enraged that he strangled her to death, according to LeBlanc. Toward the end of the interview, LeBlanc said she asked about Littles religious beliefs. They spoke about the nature of sin. He told her he had no need to fear God. He said God made him this way, so why should he ask for forgiveness? she said. He said God knew everything he did. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Monday unveiled a tax package that would fix some technical errors in the tax law they passed last year, reform parts of the Internal Revenue Service, and provide tax relief for victims of the California wildfires and other natural disasters. The legislation also would extend about 30 tax breaks that are regularly renewed but are at risk of expiring, and the bill aims to make it easier for small employers to provide retirement plans to their workers. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, released the nearly 300-page bill Monday night during Congress' lame-duck session. The proposal would require Democratic votes in the Senate to be signed into law, and faces an uncertain fate given a crunch of other issues facing Congress before it adjourns in December. "The policy proposals in this package have support of Republicans and Democrats in both chambers," Brady said in a statement. "I look forward to swift action in the House to send these measures to the Senate." But the proposal faced criticism for not being crafted with Democratic support, as Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said he was not consulted on the package. Congressional Democrats may not be interested in helping Republicans fix a tax law the GOP passed without bipartisan input, at least without adding to the Democratic priorities or legislation to the bill. "There was no communication from his staff, including a heads up that something was coming," Wyden spokeswoman Rachel McCleery wrote on twitter. "That is not how you negotiate." In their 2017 tax law, Republicans unintentionally changed the tax code in a way that made it take longer for stores or restaurants to take tax deductions for the costs of remodeling. Monday's bill unveiled aims to revise that issue, as well as address other drafting errors. The disaster relief package offers temporary tax relief to victims of hurricanes Michael and Florence, according to a GOP aide, as well as for victims of a volcano in Hawaii. The legislation would also extend tax breaks currently set to expire, including those for alternative fuels, race horse expenses, the deduction for private mortgage insurance, and NASCAR expensing, according to Nicole Kaeding, director of federal projects at the Tax Foundation, a think tank. The IRS section of the new tax bill would require the agency to develop "a comprehensive customer service plan" to submit to Congress, as well as a plan to reorganize by September 2020, according to Kaeding. The bill also would make it easier for small employers to band together to form a larger pool to offer retirement benefits, said Paul Richman, vice president of government affairs at the Insured Retirement Institute, a trade association representing insurance companies, broker dealers and asset management firms. Under current law, firms must either be in the same kind of business or located in roughly the same area to pool retirement benefits. Brady's proposal would lift that restriction, Richman said. The legislation also would require benefit statements to illustrate the retirement benefits of an employee's savings - something already required on the statements for federal workers. - - - The Washington Post's Erica Werner contributed to this report. A woman is dead, and her suspected killer is on the loose after a shooting Monday in southeast Houston. Houston police believe the woman was shot inside her home in the 8100 block of Ogden Street around 10:30 a.m. Monday but was not discovered until around 4:45 p.m. that afternoon. Since 2014, San Antonio police officers have made 30,626 arrests for some low-level misdeameanors like theft, graffiti and driving with a invalid license. That is likely to change. Police Chief William McManus said Tuesday that the department is ready to start a cite-and-release program for some misdemeanors, including possession of small amounts of marijuana. That could allow a person suspected of certain offenses to take a class, pay a fine and do community service instead of having an arrest on their record. It would also free up limited law enforcement resources. It will save officers a ton of time if they are allowed to cite and release versus arrest, McManus said. We are ready on the front end. RELATED: 16 key takeaways from the DEA on the threat drugs and gangs pose to Texans McManus said the police department has been in discussions with City Council members for over a year about the possibility of such a program. Ultimately, the Bexar County District Attorneys Office must finalize the policy for the program to be viable, McManus said. On average, an officer spends 90 minutes processing such offenses, the department said. That translated to about 45,939 hours of officer time over the last four and a half years. Bexar County District Attorney-Elect Joe Gonzales, who defeated the incumbent DA Nico LaHood in the primary and then won election this month, has said a cite-and-release program is one of his first priorities when he takes office Jan. 1. I want to go back in there and say Look, were going to start from scratch, Gonzales said earlier this month. Were going to start anew. Lets work together. Emilie Eaton is a criminal justice reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eeaton@express-news.net | Twitter: @emilieeaton San Antonio police are looking for a teenager who was last seen Thursday. Isabela Fackovec, 15, was last seen in the 200 block of East Kings Highway, according to police. It is not surprising that an article under Their View in a prior Telegraph edition would blame an increase in hate crimes on president Donald Trump. After all, everything bad that happens in this world is blamed on President Trump by the liberal press and this article was in fact a reprint from the far-left leaning St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Never mind that the left has been stirring up hate for this president since the day he was elected and numerous Hollywood actors/actresses have called for his assassination. This along with a play held in Central Park in New York City depicting the presidents assassination. In the minds of the left, all hate is caused by this president. Never mind that the president stated the obvious fact that included amongst illegal immigrants are criminals and rapists. Never mind the obvious fact that immigration from some countries is preferable to immigration from other countries. Never mind the increased security resulting from implementing a travel ban against the countries on Obamas terrorist watch list. In the minds of the left, all of these things are racist. In light of the caveat included in the article it is obvious that the entire article is just an attempt to make our president look bad and once again shows the bias and contempt the media has for this president. The caveat included in the article states that hate-crime reporting by local law enforcement is voluntary and a rise in the number of departments participating could have influenced some statistics. In other words, the percent increase numbers are meaningless since they do not include the number of departments participating each year. This is the classic definition of what has become known as fake news. Jim Schwegel Godfrey As I noted in an earlier column, Arkansass first-in-the-country, first-in-history Medicaid work requirements have been backfiring. The state has already purged 12,000 residents from the Medicaid rolls over the past three months. These Arkansans are not necessarily being booted because theyre failing to work, however. Some have lost their insurance because the state has made it so ridiculously complicated for them to prove theyre working. Then, perversely, getting kicked off insurance can also make it harder for poor Arkansans to keep their jobs. Some people such as Adrian McGonigal, a Medicaid recipient with a severe lung disease need medication and other care to be productive, healthy workers. Nonetheless, 13 other states are pursuing similar policies. In fact, the Trump administration has reapproved Kentuckys Medicaid work requirements proposal, just months after a virtually identical proposal had been blocked by a federal court. The question now is whether the many problems Arkansas is experiencing are because of specific (and unwise) implementation choices that the state made and are therefore fixable, or whether the very premise of adding work requirements to a health-insurance program is inherently, irredeemably flawed. There is clearly a political appetite for imposing conditions on lots of public benefits, to make sure no one is taking advantage. Some health policy experts argue that work requirements could make conservatives feel more comfortable with Obamacares Medicaid expansion, because work requirements would allow red states to expand insurance on their own terms. And, to be fair, Arkansass policy does seem especially poorly designed. Among its worst features is that reporting of work hours can be done online only not by phone, by mail, by fax or in person. Officials chose this setup despite the fact that Arkansas has the lowest level of household internet access in the country. The website is glitchy, too, and doesnt work well on smartphones. Craziest of all, the website shuts down every day at 9 p.m. Hey, maybe it needs to go home and see its wife and kids? Arkansas officials say the whole Medicaid system must be taken down every night to update statewide databases. But database maintenance technology that doesnt require daily, 10-hour offline gaps is readily available. It has existed for decades. Arkansass policy also doesnt account for local job-market conditions, including the challenges of finding regular work (and reliable transportation) in rural areas. Nor does it consider the fact that many poor people have unstable living conditions (the state will terminate Medicaid recipients insurance for returned mail) and often dont control their work hours. All these design issues can feel like Medicaid termination traps, says Kevin De Liban, an attorney with Legal Aid of Arkansas, one of the organizations challenging the policy in federal court. But lets say you fix all those flaws: You give people more ways to report their work hours (or qualified exemptions, such as pregnancy or illness). You allow more concessions for local work conditions, transient home addresses, unpredictable hours and other barriers to employment, such as lack of transportation or child care. Could you then formulate a policy that wouldnt be so dysfunctional or cause so much accidental hardship? Could you have a compassionate, thoughtful system that truly punishes only the shirkers? Only if you want much bigger government, which conservatives generally dont. Most nonelderly Medicaid enrollees are already working, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Almost all of those who arent working have a pretty reasonable explanation for why not, such as disability, family obligations, school attendance or no work available. Finding, documenting and ultimately punishing the tiny minority of Medicaid recipients whom officials target as undeserving would therefore require a major, costly expansion of the administrative state. Arkansas already knows this. Thats why officials made the reporting system online-only, after all, and presumably why they didnt bother to bring its database software into the 21st century: to save money. Helping poor people find work, or at least helping them find better work, is a laudable goal. But there are much more effective, and less punitive, tools available, such as expanding the earned-income tax credit or investing in better education and training. And expand programs that help. Think: child care, reliable transportation, reliable internet access. Perhaps even gasp access to health care. crampell@washpost.com This time of year, President Trump should be thankful for the immigration debate. It is a distraction that steals the publics attention away from administration flubs, GOP election losses and policy failures. Its a tool to fire up his base, especially those folks who say they care about the rule of law but really worry that America is becoming too brownish. And its a way to oversimplify a complicated issue that revolves around supply and demand as well as a need to balance workforce demands with legitimate concerns about whether foreigners are properly assimilating. If youre a president who doesnt mind breaking apart society and dividing the American people for your own benefit, the immigration debate can be incredibly useful. But it must be handled with care. The issue often slips away from Trump. Promises get broken. Lies get told. Initiatives are reversed. There is backtracking and doubletalk. The White House will get everyone all worked up, and then say: Oh, never mind. Indeed, if all the policy discussions were attractions in an amusement park, immigration would be Mr. Trumps Wild Ride. Here are some recent twists and turns: Trump promised a big beautiful wall on the U.S.-Mexico border that would keep out illegal immigrants and illegal drugs. But he misled his supporters into thinking that Mexico would pay for it. When Mexico took a hard pass, the wall got downsized to barbed wire and fence repairs. Last week, during a visit to the border near San Diego, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who youd think would have empathy for people looking for work since, according to media reports, she could soon be without a job herself proudly surveyed the metal structures and declared her mission accomplished. Trump said early in his presidential campaign that any wall that his administration built would have a wide door to let immigrants come in legally. And, in recent weeks, he has repeatedly made the case that America welcomes legal immigration as a way to fill vacant jobs. Yet, by any measure, this administration has been extremely hostile to legal immigration. It pursues policies that would whittle it down to dangerously low levels, and punishes legal immigrants who have been forced to rely on public-assistance programs that they paid for with their taxes. Trump tried to gin up votes for Republicans in the midterm elections by making a big spectacle of dispatching 5,800 U.S. troops to the border. Supposedly, they were going to repel an approaching caravan of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 migrants and refugees. The stunt didnt work. Voters chose health care as their top issue over immigration. And, as soon as the election was over, Army Lt. Jeffrey Buchanan told Politico that the troops would be heading home in time for Christmas. (And then another Pentagon official dithered on that). Finally, remember when Trump got the nativist right wing all worked up over a promise to scrap the 14th Amendment and end so-called birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants? Well, forget it. That was never a serious idea. That was just a cruel tease intended to manipulate the hardliners. According to The Washington Post, now that the midterms are done, White House officials are freely admitting that Trump has no plans at the moment to follow through with an executive order that would end birthright citizenship. Are we having fun yet? Trump still seems to be having a blast with his favorite chew toy: the immigration issue. Im not having fun. Its surreal to watch someone who got so many breaks in life due to his fathers money and connections talk about the importance of only letting in immigrants with merit. Its absurd to see someone who has, throughout his business career, cut corners and violated regulations suddenly emphasizing the importance of following the rules. And its ridiculous to have someone who has at various points in his life paid little or no taxes, taking full advantage of existing loopholes and creating new ones, accusing others of gaming the system. Nonetheless, lets give Trump credit for knowing his audience. He has a Ph.D. in human nature. He figured out that Americans whether in politics, media or the town square just love to talk about immigration. Imagine how much better off this country would be if they, and the president whom so many of them support, actually knew what they were talking about. ruben@rubennavarrette.com Something continues to nag at me about the midterm elections. Its the way we in the news media too often allowed ourselves to be manipulated by President Donald Trump to heighten fears about the immigrant caravan from Central America so as to benefit Republican candidates. Obviously there were many journalists who pushed back on the presidents narrative, but on the whole Im afraid news organizations became a channel for carefully calculated fearmongering about refugees. We in the media have, quite rightly, aggressively covered the failings of Facebook and other social media in circulating lies that manipulated voters. Thats justified: We should hold executives feet to the fire when they pursue profits in ways that undermine the integrity of our electoral system. The problem is that too often we in the media engage in the same kind of profit chasing. The news business model is in part about attracting eyeballs, and cable television in particular sees that as long as the topic is Trump, revenues follow. So when Trump makes false statements about America being invaded by Central American refugees, he not only gets coverage, but also manages to control the media agenda. At a recent Trilateral Commission conference in Silicon Valley, there was discussion of the irresponsibility of internet companies in modern democracy but also tough words about the role of the mainstream media. Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford law professor and elections expert, told me that in 2016, Russians used mainstream media to manipulate voters even more successfully than they used Facebook. Likewise, Alex Stamos, formerly at Facebook and now at Stanford, noted that much of the public discussion has been about how Russia used profiles of fake Americans to sow discord and falsehood. There has been less focus, he noted, on how Russia used news organizations to publicize stolen Democratic emails to hurt Hillary Clinton. There is no easy answer for what legitimate journalists should do when newsworthy information is strategically leaked, but there might be some options to cover these stories without providing massive amplification, Stamos told me. In general, I thought that we in the media (especially cable television) fumbled 2016 but then had a much better 2017 and 2018 until we let ourselves be used to elevate lies about the caravan to the top of the agenda. We even knew we were being manipulated and we still let it happen: As we expected, Trump lost interest in the caravan after ballots were cast and the topic faded. Solutions are complicated, for there may well be a public interest in seeing purloined material; if Trumps tax returns showed up in my mailbox, I would report on them even if I thought that China had stolen them and was using me to undermine the White House. Likewise, we do have to cover what a president says, even if its false, bigoted or demagogic but I think we can try harder to make crystal clear the efforts at manipulating the public. One challenge is that fact-checking doesnt work very well. Social psychology experiments have found that when people are presented with factual corrections that contradict their beliefs, they may cling to mistaken beliefs more strongly than ever. Consider the statements, Millions of illegal votes were cast and, Experts dispute Trumps claim that millions of illegal votes were cast. The former is false, the latter correct, but Persily says that the cognitive impact on news consumers is roughly the same, seeding doubts about illegal voting. This presents the media with a dilemma. How do we cover lies without compounding them? My answer is that we have to try harder, relying on evidence about what kind of fact-checking seems more successful. Theres an emerging literature on this topic, and not surprisingly it appears to be more effective to quote Republicans than Democrats in correcting a GOP narrative. Mocking people for their worldview is counterproductive. Weve managed effective fact-checking at crucial junctures in the past: The great Edward R. Murrow deflated Joseph McCarthy, and some heroic news reporters (often from the South) covered the civil rights struggle in ways that changed attitudes rather than reinforcing prejudices. So lets start asking ourselves the tough questions we ask of Facebook and others. We must try harder to avoid becoming a channel to spread disinformation, hatred or lies. Contact Kristof at Facebook.com/Kristof. What should we do during the next two years of divided government? We could spend them as weve spent the last two: React to every Donald Trump outrage. Keep Trumps narcissistic provocations at center stage. Express daily contempt from within the safety of our political silos. This seems to be the business model for cable news and online media. Theres a big, reliable audience of people who will tune in to feel appalled by and superior to Trump and who are addicted to their daily rituals of moral onanism. On the other hand, we could acknowledge that we are an evenly divided country. We could build the bipartisan governing coalitions and agendas suited to that reality. Fortunately, many people are opting for plan B.The Convergence Center for Policy Resolution gathers stakeholders across the political spectrum and gets them working together on common visions union bosses with Walmart executives, teacher union leaders with charter school heads. Washington think tanks are undergoing a fundamental evolution. A lot of them, like the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, were built to advise parties that no longer exist. Many people at these places have discovered that they have more in common with one another than they do with the extremists on their own sides. So suddenly there is a flurry of working together across ideological lines. This week, for example, the group Opportunity America, with Brookings and AEI, will release a bipartisan agenda called Work, Skills, Community: Restoring Opportunity for the Working Class. Written by a wide array of scholars, the report starts with the truth that the working class has been mostly ignored by the rest of society. Government has welfare programs to serve the poor and programs like 529 savings accounts to subsidize the rich. But theres very little for families making, say, $50,000 a year. Businesses like Amazon will invest in rich places like New York and Northern Virginia, but they wont invest much in working-class communities in Ohio or Kentucky. Universities, religious organizations and activist groups will recruit from the affluent suburbs and serve those in dire poverty, but they barely touch the working class. What you get is a layer of society that has been denuded of institutions and social bonds. Working-class men have been dropping out of the labor force at alarming rates. A generation ago, working-class families were about as likely to be part of religious communities as affluent Americans, but now their participation rates have plummeted. A generation ago, working-class families were nearly as likely to be married as affluent people, but now only half the children in working-class families will be raised in adolescence by stably married parents. As the authors of the Opportunity America report lay out the evidence, you see how the debate has evolved over the past few years. First, there used to be relatively little research attention paid to the working class. Now its the epicenter. Second, there used to be a silly debate over whether economics or culture explained social breakdown. Now these two elements are woven seamlessly together. Third, geography plays a much bigger role. Social problems are concentrated in specific places. The authors of this report dismiss the policy slogans coming from the extremes. Building a wall is not a policy. Universal basic income degrades the work ethic that is at the core of working-class life. Free college is a massive subsidy for the upper middle class. Instead, the authors come up with a broad left-right agenda that 70 percent of Republicans and Democrats could support: wage subsidies, improved parental leave, work requirements for some federal benefits, child care tax credits. I especially like their point that we have overemphasized four-year colleges as the only route to success. In 2016, the federal government spent $139 billion on postsecondary education and training. Only a sliver, 14 percent, went to career education and training. Private sector employers fetishize the college degree even where its unnecessary. One of the core questions before us is this: Who is going to lead this country? Is it perpetual outsiders like Trump, with no governing or policy competence, who say the establishments have forfeited all credibility? Or are there enough chastened members of establishments, who have governing experience, who acknowledge past mistakes, who take the time to reconnect with the country and apply their expertise in new ways? I dont know about you, Ill take a chastened establishment any day. The ill-informed voters who voted to pass Proposition B made a huge mistake that will cost the city of San Antonio dearly in years to come. They were misled by Chris Steele and the firefighters union, who demonized City Manager Sheryl Sculley. Sculley is the best city manager that San Antonio has ever had and has kept the citys AAA bond rating for years. The Proposition B voters obviously do not understand the importance of good fiscal management and this bond rating, and how that helps the city move forward. Now, however, the City Councils hands are tied by limiting the salary of anyone who replaces Sculley. It saddens me to see swayed voters choose the wrong path for San Antonio. Harry Shafer Recusal, please If there were a contest for the 2018 Poster Child for Recusal, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker would win hands down! That he might not recuse himself from the Mueller inquiry indicates this appointee lacks an iota of integrity. And yet he would lead the Justice Department. If the Republican Party lets that stand, it will confirm it has become no more than a cabal of bootlickers. Ross Smith No evidence Re: What Kavanaugh fiasco says about us, Another View, by Rudy Apodaca, Nov. 4: Judge Apodacas op-ed tried to appear even-handed and ameliorative he even quoted Pope Francis and Martin Luther King Jr., and wrote about his grandson but the results were a hate-filled, hypocritical, prejudgment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh showing little evidence other than Apodacas emotions. Apodaca stated, Judicial temperament is a quality all jurists must work hard to attain. A judge who presumes guilt with scant evidence and absolutely no corroboration should take his own advice. No one else, not even Christine Blasey Fords best friend, could confirm Fords claims. Its truly astounding that Apodaca, a former judge, would accuse anyone of a serious crime with so little evidence. Apodaca also refers to the sham of the FBI investigation. Who elses investigation should have been made if the numerous FBI investigations of Kavanaugh were insufficient? And how many more would please Apodaca? The left is willing to tear apart this country and our Constitution rather than seat another conservative on the Supreme Court. John K. Landry, New Braunfels Christian caravan Pastor John Garland of the San Antonio Mennonite Church has a ministry to Central American refugees. In the Nov. 1 interview on The Source by David Martin Davies on Texas Public Radio, Garland stated that 85 percent of those in the caravan are evangelical Christians, that they are targeted by gangs because they are Christians and leaders in their churches and communities. Why dont churches know this? Why arent we as Christians embracing and supporting these faithful Christian refugees? Rebecca Baker Was Trump right? A question to Donald Trump supporters. He famously said something like: On the first day in office I will replace Obamacare with a really, really, terrific plan. You will have better coverage and cost less. My question: Hows that working out for you? Donald also once said, I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose voters. The next question, If Donald actually murdered someone, would you still for him? If your answer is yes, seek psychiatric help immediately. You dont belong to a political party, you belong to a mindless cult. Dale McCarty, Boerne Hes not king Our president seems to believe he is the king of this country and not merely the chief executive in charge of only one of three branches of government. The idea that no reporter can ask a follow-up question and can get their press pass revoked if they try to not only makes a mockery of presidential responsibility to the people who put him in office, it also seems subjective enforcement. I doubt any of this presidents fawning acolytes would be punished if they were to ask a follow-up question. In short, this president is supposed to work for we, the people of the United States; we do not work for him, and we are not his subjects! Paul Kellar Checks ahead It seems each day brings new revelations of unabashed corruption in the Trump administration. Success is winning at all cost, based on what they can get away with. As evidence, so many of those involved with Donald Trump wind up suspect, indicted, convicted, jailed or fighting off one of the aforementioned family included. But the morality the GOP staked out in the 1990s has been surrendered in lieu of winning at all cost. The justification for its surrender is putting conservative judges on the bench, tax breaks for the rich and deregulating businesses such as banks. I believe the goal is relitigating the past, to pick up where we left off in the 1950s. Certainly, conservative judges, given the current atmosphere, do imply this. They have been effective recently in striking down parts of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, and eroding womens rights via Roe vs. Wade. Backward we go, via the federal bench. The number of people supporting this ideology is stunning but sobering, a minority majority. We were down to our last Democratic check (the U.S. Senate and House failed) on corruptive power. Thankfully, voting won (at least partially) as our final check as Democrats won the House. Our democracy stands in saving grace, even as suppressed as voting rights are at this point. Jerry Kempe # I wish to compliment the newspaper for including so many articles Friday about veterans about gender discrimination, PTSD stigma, attacks by President Donald Trump, U.S. intelligence and war heroes such as Adm. Bill McRaven. And articles about helping homeless veterans and those suffering trauma to their souls when participating in war of any kind and at any level. I got the picture. As a veteran of the Vietnam War and 24 years of active duty, I was able to relate and certainly feel the pain from PTSD. Thank you for your support of veterans and acknowledging what we have suffered to keep this country safe. Raymond Baird, master sergeant, retired Meanings changed It is very curious that so many writers of letters to the editor are not aware that the terms liberal and conservative have acquired very different meanings from what they had before Donald Trump was made president. Nowadays conservative apparently describes a person who believes that Trump can make no mistakes. A liberal is a person who believes that at least some of the things he does are mistakes and makes that judgment known. Many of the letters in support of the president reveal these changes in the meaning of political rhetoric. At least some of those letter writers who defend the presidents actions misrepresent the nature of political liberalism and in doing so misrepresent the nature of political conservatism. Most of the conservative friends I have admired from childhood would be horrified at the expressions of conservatism that appear in print these days. Most certainly my liberal friends would be horrified at the caricatures of their political positions expressed by conservative letter writers. A person is not liberal simply because that person supports the constitutional restrictions on the arbitrary use of the power by any individual who holds a political office, including the presidency. A person is not conservative by ignoring this limitation. Witness the difficulties for the people of Venezuela because there is no limit on the exercise of the power of the president of that country. This is why Americans have always abhorred a dictatorship. Caron Richard Waits Lost the election? Re: Election hopefuls coping with recent loss, Nation, Friday: Heres a suggestion to help all the poor candidates who lost in the recent elections to cope with their loss. Rather than wondering what to do with all my free time or cooking, knitting and craft projects, or changing diapers, or canning pear butter and going on cruises, perhaps they should consider getting jobs and quit being career politicians! Richard Ochoa Double the pardon I understand Donald Trump pardoned two turkeys, Peas and Carrots. Does that mean hell pardon Jared and Ivanka as well? Adela Vega Munoz Purpose of 14th Everybody wants to analyze and interpret the Constitution to meet their own needs. The 14th Amendment does not say its purpose is to grant citizenship to former slaves. It says: All persons born or naturalized in the United States. As for diplomats, their embassies are not U.S. territory but the countries of the diplomats. Children born to diplomats are citizens of the diplomatic country. Richard Wallish From where? I see that our former Mayor Julian Castro wrote a book titled An Unlikely Journey. Im wondering from what planet or galaxy did he and his brother come from. It had to be a long journey. Just wondering. Rick Martinez Not a victim Re: California a punching bag with Electoral College, Puro San Antonio, by Gilbert Garcia, Nov. 16: Garcia states: Carrying Texas by one vote gets you more than carrying New York by 3 million votes. And thats absurd. It must be assumed that Mr. Garcia is a victim of a poor education as he apparently is not aware that the Electoral College was created as a compromise, along with others, that made the formation of the United States possible. It was not absurd then, nor has the reason for the compromise been eliminated. The poor education, wherever it occurred, is quite common these days as civics and history are not given adequate emphasis in our schools. This is my opinion, of course. Although it is possible that California may be a victim of the Electoral College as described, it is not an established fact. President Donald Trumps comments might have been made, as so many others, with little or no aforethought. Mr. Garcias opinions that California is a victim of the Electoral College and that the Electoral College is absurd are not news. These opinions belong in the Editorial section. Kent McKinney Homeless youth Homelessness continues to affect our communities. An increase of 323 individuals from last year were reported living on the streets and in shelters. As citizens of this community, we should care for one another. It is important to educate our society on the statistics to bring awareness, supporting our local homeless shelter and organizations is a key factor. It is important to remember the purpose of homeless shelters; they are not only to provide shelter, clothing or food. The goal of these organizations is to transform the life of those who need that extra push. By providing resources for employment and education we are giving the people a better chance of a successful life. A major group that has been affected by this issue are youths. Research has shown that the majority of these youths are runaways, have been kicked out of their homes by parents, or are transgender/gay. Based on these numbers and statistics, we understand that our community must target the issue of homelessness, but most important, we must focus on the greater problem that is unsheltered youths. Claudia Dominguez SENATOR Tambudzani Mohadi was last week banished from a funeral wake of a cousin of Vice-President Kembo Mohadi a few minutes before the VP arrived, as the couples relationship continues to deteriorate to embarrassingly low levels. A witness said the Beitbridge senator cut a lone figure at the home of the late Ngambeni Mohadi (96), who was buried at the Mohadi family home at Mtetengwe, some 25km west of Beitbridge town. An advance party of Vice-Presidents entourage arrived, and she must have been asked to leave. She did not argue, but just picked her bags and left gracefully, said the witness. All is not well between the two after Mohadi approached the High Court, seeking a formal end to their marriage. The VP, in his divorce application papers, said their union had been in turmoil for almost 18 years. He buttressed the divorce application with another appeal for a peace order in a Harare Civil Court, alleging his estranged wife, who contested the divorce, harassed him. Not to be outdone, Senator Mohadi slapped her husbands mistress Julia Muthavhatsindi with a lawsuit, claiming she was responsible for the breakdown of her marriage, a case that is pending before the courts. Prior to her departure, Senator Mohadi, who comes a stones throw away from the couples homestead and is a close relative, had been showering elderly people with gifts in what is now known as her trademark in the district. The twos strained relationship has torn Mtetengwe village apart, and has created glaring divisions within their ruling Zanu PF party at district, constituency and provincial levels in Matabeleland South province. If there was another gentle way, it could have been more diplomatic. They are both our people and we love them. We love their children; they make it difficult for an entire community, said one elderly villager from Mtetengwe. NewsDay Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News OPPOSITION leader Nelson Chamisa and his deputy party chair Tendai Biti, yesterday distanced their party from involvement in the fatal post-election protests which rocked Harare on August 1, telling the commission of inquiry instead that Zanu PF and the military connived to foment chaos and shoot innocent civilians as part of a grand scheme to retain power after losing the presidential race in the July 30 poll. Appearing before the commission into the shootings chaired by former South African President, Kgalema Motlanthe, the MDC officials, who were accused of fanning the violence which led members of the military to allegedly kill six civilians, set out a new narrative. Chamisa said the August 1 shootings and violence were carried out by some elements in Zanu PF in collusion with the military after it became clear that they had lost the elections and were aware of the intention to cook results. August 1 is a very sad day in the history of our country; very regrettable for me, but the way I see it, it was a pre-emptive measure to avert what they expected to be a response from those whom they had robbed of electoral victory. It was what I would call a managed explosion calculated to forestall any kind of protests, especially in the context of results that would be doctored or not real. It was designed to be the platform for the release of fake results and justify a putative attack on innocent citizens, he said. Chamisas testimony follows that of Presidential Guard commander Brigadier-General Anselem Nhamo Sanyatwe, who few weeks ago told the commission that a national reactional force (NRF) was set up on July 10 ahead of the elections amid intelligence that the MDC had plans to destabilise the country. The NRF unleased 62 soldiers, armed with AK-47 assault rifles who allegedly shot at protestors, killing six and injuring 24. A seventh civilian died in a stampede that followed the shootings. Distancing his party from being the architects of the violent protests, which were allegedly led by militants, according to the army and police testimony, Chamisa said he had won the polls and had no reason to demonstrate, saying Zanu PF knew they had lost and had printed fresh ballots with the hope of pushing for another election. We had won the election; we had bagged it and there was no need for us under those circumstances to do anything that would then cause unnecessary challenges in the context of our country there were 4 million ballot papers that were printed after July 30 and that can be validated they were being printed because wrong results were going to be announced, Zecs figures could not tally, he said. Basking in the glare and support of MDC parliamentarians, who thronged the hearing, clapping and ululating as he spoke eloquently, Chamisa declared his innocence saying his party was a democratic and law-abiding institution, and that his hands were clean. My resolve is unbreakable and my heart is pure, these hands you see have not spilled blood, these are clean hands, the mouth you see here has never conspired to have a life that is lost on the basis of political violence. We will not walk to State House in the blood of the innocent. The paradox is that the allegations are being made by those whose hands are unclean, he said. Police were deployed at the MDC headquarters way ahead of the elections with anti-riot water cannons taking residence at Harvest House, a fact which Sanyatwe in his evidence alluded to, but described it as pre-emptive measure because they had credible intelligence that MDC was planning to unleash violence. Chamisa, however, said these were red flags pointing towards August 1. In the context of August 1, this was a plan that was done well ahead by the deployment of water cannons at Harvest House on July 28, on a Saturday. Why would you deploy tanks at Harvest House and not at Zanu PF headquarters? These are both political parties that are in an election but you have already deployed against one and have already worked on a presumption that there is going to be a demonstration that is going to come or emanate from one party and not the other, he said. Chamisa said even the manner in which results were announced suggested a grand plan of master-minding electoral grand theft. When there was this violence on the August 1, certain people attempted to convince the relatives of the deceased that let the cause of death be stab wounds instead of gunshot wounds. Why was the election result announced at night? Why were the election results announced when (the army had cleared people) from the (CBD)? he questioned. Chamisa said he did not mobilise or give instructions to demonstrate. We did not give any instruction to demonstrate on the first of August. When we make decisions to demonstrate we are an organised party with organs and structures, we dont just wake up and say go and demonstrate, they have to be meetings we have demonstrated before and we are going to demonstrate again as we are going to demonstrate on November 29, He accused witnesses from State institutions of lying under oath saying they were drivers of national decadency. For a nation to thrive, dishonesty must die, deception must cease and tomfoolery must vanish. Such is the case in our circumstances and no nation will survive on the foundation of falsehoods, deceit and deception, I have had opportunity to take a look at some of the testimonies given under oath. People are lying about things that happened in broad daylight, said Chamisa. Chamisa told the commission that the MDC, in its 19 years of existence had never used guns and did not have an army and called out the military for concocting lies. Pushing back on allegations that his party set the ground stage for conflict and violence by arming a military wing in the MDC called the Vanguard, Chamisa said he contested in the polls because he thought that there was a vacancy to become commander-in-chief of Zimbabwe Defence Forces and not the Vanguard. The MDC national vice-chairperson, Tendai Biti took the commission on a history of state-sponsored violence, arguing that the military has been used by governments from the time of Ian Smith to present day to maintain a grip on political power. The Gukurahindi massacres in the 1980s were one such occasion, as were the murder of hundreds of MDC supporters. He asked why Mnangagwa appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the deaths of seven people, and yet was ignoring the murder of 20 000 people during Gukurahundi by members of the military, whose commanders he said were in the presidency. We were very colourful during the elections but we did not cross the line, said Biti, adding that he feared that Mnangagwa wanted to use the commissions findings to suppress opposition politics. NewsDay Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) top leadership, President Nelson Chamisa and deputy chairperson Tendai Biti yesterday sent the public into euphoria when they appeared before the Commission of Inquiry into the post election violence to make their submissions. The commission invited the duo to respond to allegations of their involvement in the 1st of August fracas by previous witnesses. Self exiled former cabinet minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo described Bitis submissions as comprehensive, informing and compelling. Only incorrigible malcontents will dispute that Tendai Bitis testimony at the Motlanthe Commission was top drawer: well considered, comprehensive, thorough, detailed, eloquent, informing and compelling. The rest is up to the Commission to do justice to its integrity for posterity! Today Chamisa and Biti did the nation proud in ways that will reverberate far and wide in and outside Zimbabwe. God took over and spoke through them. The peoples narrative was told. Theres a huge sigh of relief and hope across the nation. Its now on Motlanthes shoulders! Renowned constitutional lawyer Fadzayi Mahere weighed in saying Bitis submissions reflected a long standing fight for democracy in the country and that only democracy can be used as tool to build Zimbabwe. The best aspect of Bitis evidence was that it located the events of 1 August within the broader struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe. The take-home is that we have a nation to build and its foundations must be strong. Democracy is the only way, Mahere wrote on twitter yesterday. United Kingdom based lecturer Alex Magaisa has praised the Harare East lawmaker for keeping his calm throughout even though there was potential for conflict with some of the commissioners. Biti spoke charmingly of his old comrade who sat behind the desk, as a commissioner. Despite the potential conflict, Biti was soft towards him. Instead, he appealed to the conscience of his friend: You are one of us. We suffered together. The system battered us together, he wrote today. Meanwhile, Chamisa pleaded with Motlanthe to invite President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga to appear before the commission and answer to the various allegations raised against them by previous witnesses. The commission will today hear submissions from former Home Affairs minister and Zanu PF Secretary for Administration Obert Mpofu who has been also invited to testify. 263Chat Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson Priscilla Chigumba failed to avail herself before the Harare Magistrates Court today for the trial of Night Tawona Shadaya where she is the complainant in the matter despite polices efforts to furnish her with court papers. According to the state, Chigumba failed to come because the police could not give her court papers, pleading to be granted a further postponement of the matter. But Shadayas lawyer, Noble Chinhanu of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) opposed the application proposing that the accused be removed from remand. Harare Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa ruled in favour of Shadaya urging the state to proceed by way of summons once they put their house in order. In an interview with 263Chat, Chinhanu said; We opposed to the states application since last time we notified the court that if the complainant fails to appear before court to stand as a witness, we cannot proceed but seeking that the accused should be removed from remand. The state has been making the same excuses and there is no guarantee that the complainant is going to avail herself before court. When the state is ready they should call us and we will be available. The accused was facing charges of criminal insult for creating a fake Chigumba Twitter account and posted a messages that reads, I cant wait for the election fiasco to come to an end. I could do with a holiday and some good sex. My body needs a break. 263Chat Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Originally published at The Conversation The price of Bitcoin has dropped by 75% in the past year, so anyone who invested heavily at the peak will have lost a lot of money. And now theres more bad news for crypto-currency investors to worry about: they may not legally own the digital assets they have purchased. My colleagues and I have recently completed research showing that courts in England and Wales are unlikely to identify digital tokens as property, since the law does not recognise possession of intangible items. This means that crypto-currency holdings may not qualify as property at all. As a result, although digital tokens are technically secured through blockchain technology, the level of legal protection is unclear. And the same likely applies in other common law jurisdictions such as the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, and most of India. Defining Property Property law deals with the rights you have over the things you own. Common law systems distinguish between land, called real property, and all other property, called personal property. Personal property includes rights over two categories of things. First, there are things in possession. These are tangible items which you can physically possess and transfer to another. The 20 note in your pocket is a thing in possession. Second, there are things in action, a mixed category of rights that can only be claimed or enforced by legal action. This includes debts, rights under contract, and intellectual property. The 20 you have deposited at a bank is a thing in action, because the bank owes you a debt of 20. That debt is intangible, but, if necessary, could be enforced through legal action. So what about digital tokens such as crypto-currencies? Tokens dont physically exist. They are entries on a virtual ledger. And case law in England and Wales has established that a thing which exists only in electronic form cannot be the subject of possession. So digital tokens arent things in possession. But they dont really resemble things in action either. A Bitcoin doesnt give you a right to anything or against anyone. What you have is a cryptographic private key (a sort of secret number password) that gives you exclusive control over that Bitcoin. This allows you to submit transactions to the ledger and send your Bitcoin to anyone you like. Other types of tokens do give you a right against the token issuer. For instance, utility tokens give you a right to a product or service from a company. Such tokens effectively represent a debt or right under contract and will probably be considered things in action. However, not all tokens give purchasers a right against the issuer. The terms of one recent token sale by start-up firm Block.one which raised US$4 billion specified that the tokens have no rights, uses, or attributes. Legal Uncertainty This lack of legal protection may suit crypto-currencies cypherpunk origins. Individuals trading secure tokens online in private dont need protection from weary giants of flesh and steel (industrial governments). But when mainstream consumers buy digital tokens, disputes are bound to arise. For example, if digital tokens are property, they will form part of your estate when you die and your heirs will inherit them. But whoever has the private key technically controls the tokens, creating a potential conflict. The issue has arisen before a court in Florida. The estate of the deceased Dave Kleiman is suing Craig Wright, who allegedly seized up to 1m bitcoin, worth billions of dollars. The estate is suing for return of the tokens under what is known as the tort of conversion, which in England and Wales applies only to things in possession. Some commentators have questioned whether Wright a colourful character who once claimed to have invented Bitcoin ever had the tokens to begin with. But the case shows how the outcome of disputes can depend on the property status of digital tokens. Similar issues could arise in cases of theft, bankruptcy, and divorce. Few investors will have given much thought to the legal status of their crypto-currency. But in the long term a lack of legal protection could further diminish the tokens value, particularly if it stops financial concepts such as trusts or securities being applied. Admittedly, the value of digital tokens so far has anyway been volatile and unpredictable. But the resulting legal disputes may force property lawyers to confront a new, virtual world of digital assets. In future, the law could extend property rights to digital tokens, for instance by recognising a new category of virtual-thing-in-possession but this would probably require new legislation. For now, the property status of digital tokens remains an area of doubt, as one of the UKs Supreme Court justices recently put it. So caveat emptor: bitcoin buyer, beware. Yves here. This Real News Network interview with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson puts the current Russia-Ukraine spat in context. GREG WILPERT: Its The Real News Network, and Im Greg Wilpert, coming to you from Baltimore. On Sunday, Russian warships used a tanker to block Ukrainian navy ships in what Russia says were entering its territorial waters in the Kerch Strait, between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea. The Strait separates the Crimean peninsula from Russian mainland, and is a vital point of passage for Ukrainian ships crossing between the two seas. The Russian vessels opened fire and then seized three Ukrainian vessels. Two Ukrainian sailors were injured, and the Ukrainian Navy reports that the Russian ship rammed a tugboat that was helping the Ukrainian vessels navigate the strait. Both the U.N. Security Council and NATO called emergency meetings on Monday to discuss the crisis. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appealed to the Parliament of the Ukraine to grant him war powers, which would give him the authority to declare martial law, and possibly declare war on Russia. Heres what he said. PETRO POROSHENKO: Martial law is introduced in order to strengthen Ukraines defense capabilities amid increasing aggression, and according to international law, a cold act of aggression by the Russian Federation. Martial law does not mean our refusal to resolve the issue of liberating Ukrainian territory by political and diplomatic means. We intend to keep adhering to all international obligations. GREG WILPERT: Joining me now to analyze this flareup in tensions between Russia and the Ukraine is Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. Hes a retired U.S. Colonel and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Currently hes a distinguished professor at the College of William and Mary. Thanks for joining us again, Larry. LARRY WILKERSON: Thanks for having me. GREG WILPERT: The Ukraine is saying that Russia has no reason to hold its ships, and Russia is accusing the Ukraine of intentionally creating a provocation in order to draw NATO from what we know of what happened. Who seems to be in the more solid position here, legally speaking? LARRY WILKERSON: Legally speaking Im not quite sure, because there are a number of protocols that are at play here. On top of everything is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the designation of territorial waters and shelfs, economic zones and so forth. And the right, even though those things might intersect, to pass through what are called International Straits or international waters, no matter how narrow they may be. Then youve also got, underneath that, various protocols and agreements that have been made. In this case, I think theres one between Russia and Ukraine. There are probably other agreements that impact on the Black Sea, which, as you know, the strait they were trying to pass through is to the north of, or the north side of. So there are all kinds of international agreements and bilateral agreements about passage through this area. The legal aspects of it really, I think, would boil down to, in many respects, who has Crimea? Ukraine still claims Crimea. Russia now claims Crimea. And if they claim Crimea, then their territorial water, even with unclassedwith respect to unclassed, its definition of straights and so forththen that territorial water, that is territorial water, even under [unclass], is Russian. If its Ukranian, its Ukrainian. The Russians are claiming its Russian and Ukrainian ships violated it. Ukrainians, I guess, are complaining or asserting the fact that they think its still Ukrainian, and so they didnt violate anything. But all of that, the legal aspects of it, really boil downas Mao Zedong said, international law comes out the barrel of a gun. Who has the biggest gun? And in this case, Russia has the biggest gun. Its also complicated by the fact that Poroshenko has elections coming up, I think, in March. And declaring martial law, what the heck does that have to do with naval affairs? Many suspect that hes reading his polls and knowing that hes in trouble, political trouble, and so hes trying to start something that will help his political chances. So you have so many different variables here that its hard to say whos right and whos wrong, except to say that you have to determine whether Russia is right about Ukraine, and ultimately about Crimea, or whether Ukraine is right about Ukraine. And since NATO and the European Union and the United States have been rather in the front of the foxhole claiming that Ukraine is right in many of these disputes, then youve got the recipe for real problem. Youve got NATOs ships, U.S. ships, other ships that might challenge Russia in these waters. And there again, though, power comes out of the barrel of a gun. Russia has the advantage because its operating on interior lines from this area, very close to its own homeland, close to its ports in Crimea. And the United States or NATO would be operating, in the case of NATO, at quite a distance from the United States, quite a distance from its home water. So this is just another incident in Putins ability to poke his fingers in the eyes of NATO, and the United States in particular, since the United States and NATO started encroaching on his near abroad. GREG WILPERT: Right. Actually, thats something I was going to ask as well, is the extent to which this might be also driven by domestic politics within Russia. Clearly somethings happening within the Ukraine in terms of the elections and the fact that, as you mentioned, that Poroshenko is behind in the polls. But Putins own popularity might be being impacted right now due to a declining economic situation. So Im just wondering, what role do you think that those domestic factors within Russia might be at play, that this might be a way for him to recuperate some of his own popularity? LARRY WILKERSON: Well, no question about it. We say domestic politics drives most of Donald Trumps decision making. And I think thats a correct interpretation. It also has an impact on people like Poroshenko and Putin. And the plunge in oil prices, my goodness. I looked at a sign this morning, it was $2.19. I never thought Id see that price again here in Williamsburg. The plunge in oil prices, the benchmarks, has probably hurt Russia pretty badly. They are, as one person said to me recently, a gas station with a capital in Moscow. So Putin, if hes sinking in the polls, this would be something for him to do that has worked for him in the past. Stick your fingers in Ukraine, which by extension is sticking your fingers in the U.S.s eyes, and you get a bump in the polls. I wouldnt put it past him at all. GREG WILPERT: Now, in 2014, Russia held a referendum in Crimea and ended up annexing the peninsula after it said that 97 percent of the population voted to join Russia. Now, looking at the Kerch Strait between Crimea and Russia, which Ukraine needs in order to access its southeastern coast from the Black Sea, wasnt such a crisis inevitable sooner or later? LARRY WILKERSON: Oh, it was. And we have had a number of incidents where a Russian patrol craft, FSB or otherwise, Navy, had come out and challenged Ukrainian ships in accordance with, they said, the agreement that they saw. And they actually, as I understand it, boarded some of these ships and searched them, and caused them commercial damage, if you will, because they held them up so long; didnt let them get under way for a long period of time. So this is, this has been working up to this more dramatic confrontation that we have now, I think, for some time. And its the tit for tat game that Putin is playing with Kiev, and in essence that NATO, the EU, and the United States are playing with Moscow. Ukraine is Ukraine, and it is going to be a member of NATO and a member of the EU. And Moscow says over, over our prostrate body will the whole country of Ukraineand weve taken Crimea, thank you very much, and have invested with little green men and other things in much of Eastern Ukraine. So over my prostate body will that happen. And Putin has, as I said, the interior lines. Its much easier for him to operate than it is for NATO or the United States to operate. And as long as that situation exists hes going to continue to test this. Hes not the equal of us in combination, but he is in a position to test us all the time, and hes become brilliant at it. He goes into a fissure here, a fissure there, a crack here, a crack there. And if hes challenged resolutely, he just kind of holds what hes got or he backs up a little bit. But if he finds more mobility he widens it, deepens it, and exploits it; Syria being a perfect example. And Syria being almost to the point where its exterior lines for him. LARRY WILKERSON: So I have to admire the guy for the brilliance with which he does this, and then, as you said, he turns it into domestic political gain. GREG WILPERT: But now turning, actually, to the West, the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and pro-European government in the Ukraine has been all about an international conflict already, with constant intervention from NATO, as well as from Russia. Now, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued a declaration, actually, where he declared, quote, full support for Ukraines territorial integrity and sovereignty. However, the Ukraine is not yet part of NATO, and thus theres no obligation to defend the Ukraine. But Stoltenbergs statement makes it sound like NATO would do just that, defend the Ukraine should a conflict escalate. Now, what do you think? Is that a wise position for the West to take, considering the potential for escalation and outright war? LARRY WILKERSON: Well, I dont think its been a wise position for the West, quote-unquote, to take, the United States leading the way. But its pushed itself and its alliance, NATO, so close to Russias bordersI mean, incorporating former Warsaw Pact members into NATO. Putins reactions in that regard are perfectly understandable. Im not saying that the United States and NATO shouldnt take measures to defend themselves. But why does that include taking over for alliance purposes, now? Commercial purposes, the EU, the common market, so forth and so on, thats another deal. But taking them over for alliance purposeswe forget. Its a political alliance, surely. But its also a military alliance, and thats the way Moscow has to look at it. So their military exercises since about 2013 have been postulated on a NATO invasion of the near abroad, and even a NATO invasion of Russia proper. So this is the way they do their military exercises. Clearly theyre not doing that because they think spending all that money on that preposterous possible situation is just that: preposterous. They think its a probability, or at least a possibility. So were giving them the incentive to do this. And to fight over Ukraineyou remember the old expression Who would die for Danzig? I keep asking myself, if Americans really were asked to fulfill Article 5 of the NATO treaty for a place like Tbilisi, or even a place like Riga, or any of those countries weve now expanded NATO into or proposed expanding NATO into, like Ukraine, what would Americans say when they were told that full conscription was in process, full mobilization was in process, war taxes are going to be levied, and were going to war for a city you cant even pronounce and couldnt find on a map? Thats what were talking about. And oh, by the way, Russia is generally speaking cheek and jowl with that city, whereas were ten thousand miles away. GREG WILPERT: All right. Well, were going to leave it there for now. I was speaking to Larry Wilkerson, Distinguished Professor at the College of William and Mary. Thanks again, Larry, for having joined us today. LARRY WILKERSON: Thanks for having me on. GREG WILPERT: And thank you for joining The Real News Network. If you like Real News Network stories such as this one, please keep in mind that weve started our winter fundraiser and need your help to reach our goal of raising $400,000. Every dollar that you donate will be matched. Unlike practically all other news outlets, we do not accept support from governments or corporations. Please do what you can today. In view of Russias use of military force against Ukraine near the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, NATO Allies call on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports and allow freedom of navigation. There is no justification for Russias use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel. We call on Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized, without delay. We call for calm and restraint. We reiterate our full support to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and territorial waters. We strongly condemn Russias illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea, which we do not and will not recognise. Russia's construction and partial opening of the Kerch Strait bridge represents another violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. NATO stands with Ukraine, and will continue to provide political and practical support to the country within the framework of our established cooperation. NATO will continue to monitor the situation. The NATO Deputy Secretary General, the Honourable Rose Gottemoeller, will travel to Geneva on Wednesday, 28 November 2018 to participate in the Conference on Afghanistan co-hosted by the Afghan Government and the United Nations. More information about the Conference can be found here: https://unama.unmissions.org/geneva-conference-afghanistan. Follow the Deputy Secretary General on Twitter (@Gottemoeller). Also follow us at @NATOPress The NATO Deputy Secretary General, Rose Gottemoeller, took part at Korber Stiftungs Berlin Foreign Policy Forum on Tuesday (27 November). The Deputy Secretary General was on a panel discussion titled, Russia Going Global? Prospects for Engagement. Other panelists included Aleksey Pushkov, Chairman of the Committee on Information and Media in the Russian Parliament, Philip Barton, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Juri Luik, Estonian Minister of Defence. Click here to listen to the panel discussion. (Natural News) Just listen to Nancy Pelosi talk and she sounds like a drunk about to fall off her bar stool at 1:30 a.m., just before the bars all close. She slurs her words as they all seem to run together, and she gets simple facts all jumbled up, losing her train of thought frequently, and simply blanking out for periods of time while in the public eye. This is the leading Democratic Congress person, mind-you. Theres also the riot-inciting Maxine Waters, and when she speaks sounds like some angry, violent Neanderthal, who, if given a Billy club and a few more prescription drugs, would probably go on a rampage, beating to death anyone who doesnt scream impeach! a hundred times in a row with her at her psychotic rallies. This is also a Congress person mind-you. Then theres Hitlery Clinton, who has trouble just standing up on her own, cant stop coughing during speeches, and who experiences frequent bouts of bobble head while contradicting herself with nearly every new sentence she speaks (memory loss is a common problem for prescription drug addicts). This is the woman who wanted to be the leader of the free world, mind-you. Members of Congress can be completely senile and demented, just like head Democrats are today, but still they cannot be removed from their position It is impossible to yank a member of Congress from their seat, even if theyve gone completely senile, insane, or become radically violent. In fact, no member of the House of Representatives or U.S. Senator has ever been recalled by the electorate, because there simply is no mechanism in place to do so, not even in the Constitution (even though the Framers debated about it). Heres the catch: Even though citizens cant recall members of Congress, the chambers can by way of expulsion, if two-thirds vote to do so (there have been 20 cases like this already). This has only been used when members committed serious crimes or have been treasonous to the United States. Well, its about that time again, folks. Remember how many prescription drugs that Grubbs Pharmacy, that age-old D.C. dispensary, bragged about delivering to members of Congress not long ago? The fact is that taking too many prescription drugs for too long fuels dementia and Alzheimer-style violent episodes. We hear it when Nancy Pelosi talks. We see it when Hillary Clintons head bobbles and she calls for violence until the Democrats control the country again. We hear it when Maxine Waters calls for Democrats to create crowds and violently push back against Republican members of Congress or Trumps Administration (including his cabinet members) when they go shopping, get gas, or go out to eat at restaurants. Thats treason folks, plain and simple. Just about a year ago, Grubbs Pharmacy in Washington D.C. spilled the beans on just how many prescription drugs, especially drugs for Alzheimers Disease and other pretty serious health problems, that they hand deliver to the many mentally challenged members of Congress. America is under attack, and its not by some rogue terrorists strapped with explosives or biological weapons, but by a group of mentally incapacitated Leftist tyrants that rule up on the hill in Washington, D.C. Lets face the facts here; if you have Alzheimers Disease, then you are medically disqualified from holding high office. Imagine if the military allowed people with dementia to carry automatic weapons into battle. These insane Democrats are literally running the country and making decisions of global significance, and they cant even speak words clearly, or remember what they are saying mid-sentence, and all while this deranged, medicated majority call on their own citizens to be violent and overthrow the sitting President and his cabinet. They literally support the assassination of our POTUS. These senile imbeciles cast the wrong votes on bills, cant remember what happened yesterday, and it seems having all that power is causing more brain damage. Could it be that toxic, experimental prescription medications, when mixed with flu shots, aspirin, blood thinner, cholesterol medications, and over-the-counter synthetic meds are kicking dementia into full gear? It definitely appears so. Maybe thats why 33 states now have mandatory retirement ages for judges and impose term limits for governors. Its obvious that becoming drunk with power is now a literal interpretation thats mixed with powerful, mind-decaying prescription drugs. Our only hope is if our government establishes term limits, but then again, theyd probably just grandfather in (pardon the pun) all those senile, unhinged Democrat nut-jobs at the top anyway. Sources for this article include: ThoughtCo.com TermLimits.com FoxNews.com NaturalNews.com BigPharmaNews.com (Natural News) One of the last places most people would expect to find human waste is in their food. But its a little-known fact that so-called biosludge, the treated sewage material collected from whats flushed down peoples toilets, is routinely spread over Americas food crops as fertilizer, contaminating your dinner plate with God knows what. In the upcoming Brighteon.com film Biosludged you can watch a trailer for the film at Brighteon.com this mass pollution of North American soils with what the films creators describe as a toxic stew of human and industrial waste collected by municipal waste processing centers across America is depicted in all of its shocking horror. Though proponents of biosludge claim that its perfectly safe, the truth couldnt be more disparate. As Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, recently reported, biosludge is actually one of the tools being used by the globalist cabal to reduce upwards of 90 percent of the population. Our ecosystem is in the crosshairs of this bio-sludge industry, explains Adams in Biosludged about this nefarious plot by evil in high places to destroy both people and planet with toxic sewage. Be sure to check out the films trailer at Brighteon.com. Weaponizing the food supply with GMOs and crop chemicals apparently wasnt enough Its no secret that the conventional food supply has already been made toxic with bioengineering, which involves the use of genetic modifications in conjunction with all sorts of pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides nearly all of which are highly toxic to the human body. Glyphosate, as one prominent example, which is the primary active ingredient in Monsantos Roundup herbicide, is a verified cancer-causing agent thats routinely sprayed all over Roundup-Ready food crops like soybeans, corn, and canola. Well, now it appears that this eugenics plot is being taken to a whole new level with the addition of biosludge which, in addition to actual human waste, likely contains a cornucopia of pharmaceutical, chemical, and other toxic residues that are sure to destroy human health, setting those exposed to these nefarious substances down the path towards disease and death. Is biosludge a weapon of mass destruction? Another major concern with biosludge is that whatever is sent down peoples toilets and into the crop fields could be intentionally weaponized and made even more dangerous with the addition of poisonous chemicals designed to kill and destroy. Any toxic chemical that a bio-terrorist could want to use, can be added to a sewer, go through the plant, and be spread out courtesy of the municipal government, warns one expert in Biosludged. And nobody will know it until people start dropping dead. Its perhaps even more insidious than the pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that are being pumped into peoples bodies in the name of medicine, but that are actually causing prolific damage to public health. Biosludge is simply the latest attempt by the elites to thin out the herd and create a more manageable society of chemicalized drones. The human food supply is intentionally laced with toxic chemicals that impede brain function, immune function and fertility, warns Adams, noting that at the very same time, these social engineers are trying to convince the public through endless propaganda suggesting that real nutrition is unimportant and worthless. This is all by design: Weak-minded people are easier for the info-propagandists to manipulate and control, Adams adds. And the last thing they want is people obtaining the ability to operate with cognitive clarity and presence of mind. You can watch Biosludged in its entirety for free, beginning on November 28, at BrighteonFilms.com. Sources for this article include: Biosludged.com NaturalNews.com Brighteon.com BrighteonFilms.com (Natural News) Migraines can often be debilitating. More severe than common headaches, migraines are characterized by frequent, throbbing head pain, as well as nausea, chills, and a sensitivity to light and sound. People prone to or suffering from migraines should be careful with the food they eat. Certain foods might trigger onset, while others may be useful in treating them. There can be many causes for migraines, such as an individuals sensitivity to certain triggers, genetics, stress, and fatigue, but usually, migraines are connected to the dilation and constriction of blood vessels in ones head. They can be particularly bad when the symptoms include visual or sensory impairments, which are often called auras. If youve ever had a severe migraine, you know how dreadful they can be, but if you havent, why wait to experience it in the first place? You can easily take certain nutrients to protect yourself from migraines ever occurring or even prevent future cases from happening. (Related: Constantly having migraines? Supplement with these 3 nutrients to avoid getting them in the first place.) Natural remedies for treating migraines Perhaps you were unable to avoid a migraine, or you may even be experiencing one right now. What should you do to treat it? Fortunately, there are many natural remedies to help ease migraine pain. Here are some ways to treat migraines naturally: Feverfew. This flowering herb has often been used as a folk remedy for treating migraines. It is helpful in relieving the symptoms of migraines without any side effects. Ginger. Ginger is known for having a positive effect against migraines while also having minimal side effects. It can help decrease the severity and duration of migraines as well as ease symptoms of nausea. Foods rich in magnesium. A deficiency in magnesium is often connected to migraines and headaches. Take plenty of magnesium-rich foods to help prevent migraines with an aura as well as menstrual-related migraines. Excellent sources of magnesium include almonds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, cashews, peanut butter, oatmeal, eggs, and milk. Regular massages. Reduce the frequency of migraines and improve your stress levels and sleep quality by having a weekly massage. If you suffer from chronic headaches and migraine-related nausea, you could also have an acupressure session for quick pain relief. Essential oils. Use essential oils to prevent and combat migraine pain. Peppermint oil or a menthol solution may be applied directly to the forehead to avoid the onset of migraines. If you are currently suffering a migraine, you can ease your pain by inhaling lavender oil for 15 minutes. You may also dilute it, then apply it directly to the temples. Yoga. Yoga utilizes a combination of techniques involving breathing, meditation and different body postures to relieve anxiety, release tension in migraine-trigger areas and support your overall health and well-being. It can be helpful in decreasing the frequency, duration, and intensity of migraines. Biofeedback. This relaxation method teaches you to manage your autonomic reactions to stress. It is useful in dealing with migraines brought on by stress. Potential migraine triggers Just as some foods are natural remedies for migraines, others might cause or trigger them. Here are some foods you will want to avoid if you are prone to having migraines: Foods that contain nitrates. They might taste delicious, but hot dogs, deli meats, bacon, and sausages are a no-no when it comes to migraine prevention. Certain dairy products. As a source of magnesium, organic milk is fine for regular consumption, but some dairy products may trigger migraines. Certain kinds of cheese, such as blue cheese, feta cheese, Parmesan, and Swiss cheese contain the naturally occurring compound tyramine, which is linked to migraines. Cultured dairy products, such as buttermilk, sour cream and yogurt should also be avoided. Unfortunately, chocolates may also be potential triggers. Foods that contain flavor enhancers. Some flavor enhancers, such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the natural sweetener, aspartame, have also been linked with the causes of migraines. To learn more about natural cures and remedies, you can go to NaturalCures.news. Sources include: NaturalHealth365.com Healthline.com (Natural News) The American Left is outraged again and, as usual, at the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. You likely have read or heard by now that the U.S. Border Patrol was forced to deploy pepper balls and tear gas against groups of caravan migrants who rushed the San Ysidro border entry point near San Diego on Sunday. If all you consume is mainstream news youve also likely been told thats the Border Patrols fault or, more specifically, POTUS Donald Trumps fault because its his policy. Neither of those assertions is true. Yes, the Border Patrol did indeed use pepper balls and tear gas to disperse a large group of charging migrants. But they did so only after they were left with no other choice, as the Department of Homeland Security explained, Breitbart News reported. Today, several migrants threw projectiles at the agents in San Diego. Border Patrol agents deployed tear gas to dispel the group because of the risk to agents safety. Several agents were hit by the projectiles, DHS said in a tweet. Today, several migrants threw projectiles at the agents in San Diego. Border Patrol agents deployed tear gas to dispel the group because of the risk to agents' safety. Several agents were hit by the projectiles. The situation is evolving and a statement is forthcoming. CBP (@CBP) November 25, 2018 Border Patrol officials said the same thing in interviews with some media outlets. The National Sentinel reported: San Diego Chief Border Patrol Agent Rodney Scott said that personnel did not use tear gas, pepper balls, and other dispersion techniques until after his agents were attacked. In an interview with The Daily Caller, Scott said, Several agents were actually struck by rocks, adding that mostly male migrants were using women and children as shields. What we saw over and over yesterday was that the group the caravan, as we call them would push women and children to the front and then begin, basically, rocking our agents, he continued. They use women and children regularly, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told The Daily Caller in a separate interview. (Related: The caravan trying to invade the USA is almost entirely military-aged males almost no women or children anywhere.) Left blaming this crisis on who else? POTUS Trump Despite this, however, the progressive Left remained apoplectic angry at the Border Patrol for protecting themselves and at POTUS Trump for trying to protect the integrity of U.S. borders. Tear gas and rubber bullets attacking asylum seeking families. Moms shrieking as they pour water on their kids burning eyes and others pushing baby strollers as they run in fear. This is America 2018. This is our government. Dont look away, we must face what is happening, immigration lawyer Lindsay Toczylowski tweeted. Using tear-gas against unarmed families seeking protection of the US government is a new low. All the millions of dollars spent at border militarization these past weeks could have been used to properly process asylum seekers at the US- Mexico border! tweeted pro-immigration open borders activist Esmeralda Flores. Others sought to blame what happened on POTUS Trumps racism. This is a completely manufactured crisis driven by the racism of POTUS. It enrages me, Princeton professor emeritus Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. tweeted. That particular statement seemed not just odd but completely misinformed. Having a liberal American minority throw down the race card when criticizing POTUS Trump is nothing new, but claiming that the president, and not the migrants themselves, manufactured this crisis is the epitome of allowing ones ideology to reign supreme over ones common sense and logic. The president isnt responsible for this situation, the American Left is for shunning immigration laws, creating sanctuary cities, and mainstreaming the notion that only America has no right whatsoever, as a country, to secure its borders and enforce its immigration laws. The fact is, whatever negative encounters the migrants experience along the U.S.-Mexico border is no ones fault but theirs. They have decided on their own to put themselves in a position to challenge U.S. border security agents and thus must accept the consequences of their own actions. As for the American Left, they will never be satisfied until they have completely destroyed what remains of our nations history, culture, and heritage. Read more about the invading migrant hordes at InvasionUSA.news. Sources include: Breitbart.com TheNationalSentinel.com DailyCaller.com (Natural News) An anonymous whistleblower and teacher from Great Britain has brought some shocking claims to the table about transgender indoctrination that she says is taking place in British public schools particularly against autistic children whom she says are being actively manipulated and tricked into thinking that theyre the opposite sex. As reported by the Daily Mail Online, this woman, whom the media is referring to as Carol, says there are currently 17 students at her school, which is also unnamed, who all identify as transgender. And most of them, she explains in horror, are on the autism spectrum. In order to feel accepted by other students at the school who have already made their transition to the opposite sex, younger students, mostly autistic, are being preyed upon to switch genders by the growing transgender lobby, Carol contends. I congratulate this teacher for coming out and telling us what I have long suspected has been going on in schools, stated conservative M.P. David Davies, as quoted by the Daily Mail Online, upon hearing the news. It is horrendous that children are being encouraged by other pupils to identify as transgender, particularly if they have autism. Parents are not told about this and there is no way of challenging these pupils who are convinced by others that they have a problem they almost certainly do not have. Tragically the end result could be irreversible surgical procedures. This is scandalous. At least one-third of children who opt for NHS transition surgery show moderate to severe autistic traits As shocking as this all is, its apparently not limited just to Carols school. Its happening all over the U.K., with data from the National Health Service (NHS) revealing that at least one-third of all young people who go in for transition surgery show signs of what the health authority describes as moderate to severe autistic traits. What this suggests is that many British children arent actually suffering from true gender dysphoria, but perhaps other mental issues stemming from their autism diagnoses that make them ripe for the picking, so to speak, when it comes to being recruited into transgenderism. If a child genuinely has gender dysphoria then of course they should get all the love and support they need, Carol says. But I believe that autistic children who are not transgender are being exploited by the transgender lobby. They are being brainwashed into believing they are transgender. Teachers, faculty terrified that gender pronoun slip-up will cost them their jobs The problem, however, is that teachers and faculty like Carol are basically muzzled from having any input into the matter. Should they dare to say anything to a developing youth under their care who might be struggling with pressure from transgenders to make a similar conversion, they face being fired or worse. Im now so alarmed by the force of the transgender agenda that Im not sure how much longer I can go on for, as I can no longer be honest with the students, Carol laments, further worrying that some of these manipulated transgenders will regret their decisions later on in life. We are being dictated to by groups who dont know these kids, to make decisions that are harmful to them. And we are giving children a huge amount of agency to make decisions when what they need are boundaries to make them feel safe and secure. It feels as if we are walking into a nightmare. Ironically enough, all of this militant pressure that Carol says shes witnessing from transgenders at her school who are trying to convert all of the other students to transgenderism is nothing short of bullying and sexual assault, which has no place in the educational system. But what can be done about it, other than for vocal and brave opposition to finally step up to the plate and say: enough is enough! Be sure to read Carols full account of the situation at the Daily Mail Online. For more related news, be sure to check out Gender.news. Sources for this article include: DailyMail.co.uk NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Having family and friends in close proximity may significantly improve overall health and well being, according to an animal study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team of researchers at the University of East Anglia, the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands has collaborated in order to carry out the study. As part of the study, the research team observed a population of Seychelles warblers and examined their behavior and health status in response to their neighbors antics. The experts also assessed the animals body condition and telomere length. Telomeres are sections of DNA that easily erode due to stress and poor health. The study has revealed that the birds occasionally fought with new, unrelated neighbors but not with their family members or neighbors they have known for quite some time. According to the results, birds living in close proximity to their relatives and long-time neighbors have also exhibited significantly better health and less telomere loss. However, the scientists observed that the birds displayed worse condition and more telomere shortening whenever new and unfamiliar birds move into the neighborhood. The findings demonstrate that having good neighbors may positively impact health and wellness, the research team has noted. Defending territory boundaries is crucial if animals are to hold onto valuable food and other resources. Territory owners who are constantly fighting with neighbors are stressed and have little time to do other important things such as finding food and producing offspring and their health suffers as a result. Interestingly, we show that its not just relatives that can be trusted, but also neighbors you get to know well over time. Something similar probably occurs in human neighborhoods: if youve lived next to your neighbor for years, you are much more likely to trust each other and help each other out now and then, lead author Kat Bebbington has stated in a university release. Trusting neighbors may help boost human health, too A 2011 study carried out by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) has indicated that fostering and increasing trust among neighbors may lead to better self-reported health. The research team pooled data from the 2001 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey to carry out the study. The experts also took into account several factors such as education levels, income, and age in observing the respondents. The findings revealed that people with a higher income relative to their community tend to trust their neighbors less, which in turn may lead to poorer health condition. In contrast, people who trust their neighbors have exhibited better overall health. (Related: Healthy social relationships are crucial for good physical, mental and emotional health.) Because human beings engage in interpersonal comparisons in order to gauge individual characteristics, it has been suggested that a low relative position, or feeling that you are below another person financially, leads to stress and negative emotions such as shame, hostility and distrust, and that health suffers as a consequence. While most people arent aware of how trust impacts them, results indicated that trust was a factor in a persons overall health, researcher Eileen Bjornstrom, an assistant professor of sociology in the MU College of Arts and Science, has discussed in a EurekAlert article. The results suggest that overcoming distrust towards neighbors may be beneficial for the bodys overall well-being, Bjornstrom has added. According to the sociology expert, using shared community resources such as parks and sidewalks may help resolve the trust gap between neighbors and may even improve an individuals well-being once the community reaches complete cohesion. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk UEA.ac.uk EurekAlert.org What to Know Two babies with confirmed cases of A. baumannii died last week at Newark's University Hospital, the Department of Health says The department is investigating the outbreak of the bacterial infection in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit The infections may not be the cause of the deaths as the babies had other medical conditions. Another infected baby died in September. Two premature babies who contracted a bacterial infection at a New Jersey hospital in the throes of an outbreak, died last week, officials say. It is the third death of a premature baby in Newark's University Hospital after the Department of Health became aware that the hospital had an outbreak of the bacteria A. baumannii in its neonatal intensive care unit. The department says that, while the babies were infected with A. baumannii, it may not have been what killed them, as they also suffered from other medical conditions due to being born premature. Four babies have been infected in total at the hospital, officials say. At the end of September, a premature baby who had been cared for at the hospital and had the bacteria died after being transferred to another facility, and before the Department's notification of problems in the NICU, health officials say. Another baby was effectively treated for the bacteria and was discharged last month. No new infections have been confirmed since October. The department issued the news about the deaths of the other two babies Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into the outbreak of A. baumannii in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of University Hospital. It said it was on-site at the hospital Tuesday to investigate the facility's internal processes around reporting deaths amid ongoing outbreaks. The department said as of Monday, the hospital's own infection control program was not aware of the most recent deaths when contacted. A University Hospital spokesperson on Tuesday said the hospital has "continue[d] to reinforce proper procedures and protocols with our team." "We have worked diligently since the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria was discovered in our neonatal intensive care unit to control the outbreak, and there have been no new cases in the NICU since October," the spokesperson said. Emergency crews responded to the scene of a vehicle that crashed into a building in San Francisco's Parkside neighborhood Monday afternoon, according to fire officials. Two people have been extricated from the vehicle, which hit a building at 1404 Taraval St. shortly after 3 p.m., fire officials said. One person suffered serious injuries and the other minor injuries. Neither was life-threatening. No injuries were reported to anyone inside the building, the San Francisco Fire Department posted on Twitter. The cause of the crash was not released. Motorists were advised to avoid the area. Some residents of Butte County are still looking for the pets they lost in the deadly Camp Fire. There are a number of resources available to help them: SAN FRANCISCO SPCA MISSING PETS The San Francisco SPCA has received an additional nine cats with burn injuries, bringing the total number of animals that are currently being treated at the shelter from the Camp Fire to 38. Out of the original 29 animals that the SPCA received, 14 of them have been reunited with their owners. Only one of them has been healthy enough to return home. The SPCA said in a statement that it will take weeks, maybe months for the animals to fully recover. The animal shelter said it will cover the full cost of the treatment that the animals are receiving. Photos of the nine cats will be available on the San Francisco SPCA Facebook page in order for owners to search for their missing cats. If owners find their missing pets, they can call the SF SPCA 415-554-3030. NEW ONLINE TOOL FOR MISSING PETS A new website has been created to help match missing animals with their owners. The North Valley Animal Disaster Group has created a site that helps owners to search photos of animals at an emergency shelter at the Chico Municipal Airport. If you see a familiar face, come to the shelter to ID your animal, the organization says. You must provide photo ID of your pet, describe unique markings or identifiers, or let us know anything else that will help us ID the pet as yours. Even if you can't take your pet right away, please come to identify him or her so we have your contact information. Cats are housed at 100 Lockheed Ave (except where otherwise noted), and dogs are housed at the Aero Union building at 747 Fortress Street (both buildings located at the Chico airport). Other exotic pets and farm animals are also on the list. OTHER RESOURCES: Christine Blasey Ford has closed donations on her crowdfunding page and is hoping that things will go back to normal for her and her family two months after she testified at Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing that he sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. Ford's neighbors in Palo Alto, California, say they still haven't seen the psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University since before the extraordinary Senate hearing in September. Threats forced Ford from her home, but she said last week in an update on the GoFundMe page set up for her that the crowdfunded donations were a "godsend" that helped her and her family cope. The GoFundMe page raised about $650,000 from nearly 14,000 people over two months. Ford said the money has been used to pay for security to deal with the "frightening threats" she received since reluctantly coming forward with her allegation. She added that she'll donate whatever is leftover to trauma survivor support groups. "Your tremendous outpouring of support and kind letters have made it possible for us to cope with the immeasurable stress, particularly the disruption to our safety and privacy," Ford said in an update posted the day before Thanksgiving. The hearing pitched Ford's word against Kavanaugh's and nearly prevented his confirmation to the Supreme Court. But Kavanaugh forcefully denied that he ever sexually assaulted Ford or anyone else and he was narrowly confirmed to the Supreme Court in a vote that polarized the country. Ford told the Senate in September that she'd always lived in fear of what would happen if she spoke out against Kavanaugh, who was a White House lawyer before becoming a federal judge. Coming forward brought out "constant harassment and death threats" that was worse than what she'd expected and left her terrified, she said. She also said in the GoFundMe update last week that the donations went toward a new home security system, housing costs while she and her family have been displaced and a security service that is beginning to taper off. The support has left her hopeful that "our lives will return to normal," she wrote. "Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty," Ford wrote, adding that she sends love and support to others who have shared their experiences of sexual assault with Ford and the world. Neighbor Kristen Podulka, who hasn't seen Ford since September, said, "my number-one hope is that she can move home." Palo Alto Mayor Liz Kniss said she hopes to welcome Ford home with a proclamation, when Ford is ready. "Everything she has done is brave and courageous that certainly is a brand-new path for women to follow," Kniss said. An Oakland nurse who was deported to Mexico last year is one step closer to being reunited with her four children in the Bay Area in time for the holidays. Maria Mendoza Sanchez entered the United States illegally 20 years ago, raised a family, never got into trouble and became a nurse. On Monday, she was at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, where a State Department official agreed she should be allowed to come home. "I was very happy," Mendoza Sanchez said. "I mean, you could imagine how much I missed my kids. Its been very difficult." Mendoza Sanchez is happy because she is a step closer to an H1B visa that would allow her to return to Oakland with her children. "As time is going by, they have become more withdrawn from everybody," she said of her kids. Camiel Becker, the family's attorney, says he has to share credit for the legal victory. "They were particularly interested in all the media coverage this case has received and were also interested in [Sen.] Dianne Feinsteins report," Becker said. Mendoza Sanchez's occupation, an oncology nurse at Oaklands Highland Hospital, works in her favor. But having entered the U.S. illegally with a child 20-plus years ago works against her. Her only hope is a waiver on the H1B visa. "Knowing that shell come back, were just very overwhelmed, and were so happy," said Melin Sanchez. "Hopefully, she could come back for like Christmas." The work visa will be good only for a few years, but theyd be critical years for Mendoza Sanchez's two teenage children. A man in his 30s suffered life-threatening injuries after being punched on San Francisco's Market Street on Monday evening, according to police. The assault was reported at 7:19 p.m. in the area of Market and Jones streets. The victim fell to the ground after being punched. He was taken to a hospital and an update on his condition was not immediately available this morning. The suspect, also believed to be a man in his 30s, has not been arrested, police said. Mill Valley Middle School received a bomb threat Tuesday morning, prompting an evacuation of the North Bay school, according to police. Police announced that all children from the school were safely evacuated. Students were moved to the Mill Valley Community Center, which is located at 180 Camino Alto, police stated. Parents can pick up their students at the community center. Residents within a half-mile of the school are still being asked to shelter in place, police reported. An investigation is ongoing. Further information was not immediately available. Refresh the page for more information on this developing news story. Details may change as more information becomes available. A retired firefighter helped save an elderly woman's life after she went into cardiac arrest on board an Alaska Airlines flight. Alaska Airlines flight 843 from Seattle to Kona, Hawaii, on Monday was diverted to San Francisco International Airport, where emergency crews waited for the plane to land and transport the woman to a hospital. Officials said the woman is in good condition. Authorities said the firefighter from Bellingham, Washington, was on the flight and helped Alaska Airlines crew members use the AED device on the plane. No other information was immediately available. An East Bay woman is accusing Richmond police of excessive force after she said an officer threw her to the ground and allegedly broke her arm, all over a minor fix-it ticket. The exchange was captured on video. But Richmond police maintain Shi Hughes made a bad decision when she exited her car, triggering the officer to react. According to police, the incident started with Hughes trying to explain why she had no front license plate. But the situation changes quickly once she gets out of the car. "He asks for my ID; I told him it's a new car," Hughes said. Friend Angela Douglas said she had a bad feeling about what might happen so she started rolling video. Douglas said she told the officer she was going to her apartment while the officer and Hughes were talking. When she got back, Douglas saw the situation get worse. "Two weeks ago, I got a ticket for this; I told him I refuse to sign this because I was just pulled over for the exact same thing," Hughes said. A police spokesperson says Hughes should have presented that fix-it ticket to the officer and signed the citation to settle the matter later in court. But Hughes stepped out of the car, and the exchange escalated, with the officer throwing Hughes to the ground. "He's just holding on to me ... and things got aggressive," she said. "He grabs me, throws me on the ground and tells me to stop resisting, at what point I did not know I was resisting because I did not know I was arrested." Hughes claimed the officer broke her arm during the incident and told NBC Bay Area that she sought medical attention for her injury at Kaiser Permanente. It was not clear if police were aware of the injury at the time of the arrest. Information on the extent of Hughes' injury was not immediately available. Hughes said she holds three jobs as a chef, security guard and Uber driver. She recently bought her new Jeep and has been waiting for her license plates to come in the mail. "I told them there's people killing, shooting, and you're all over me," Hughes said. "It was excessive." Hughes and her mother say they want Richmond police to go through better training and have better communication during traffic stops. A representative from the Richmond police union told NBC Bay Area from "his perspective," Hughes escalated the situation when she got out of her car. He said people should never do that during a traffic stop. He hadn't seen the video in its entirety, he said. A Northern California sheriff says no additional remains were found Monday, but the wildfires death toll rose to 88 after investigators determined human remains that had been assigned to two people actually belong to three. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Monday that 203 names remain on the list of those unaccounted for after the Camp Fire swept through the rural area 140 miles north of San Francisco. Earlier in the day, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said costs associated with wildfire will likely be in the billions. Zinke, who was back in the town of Paradise on Monday, said he has never witnessed such devastation. "There's a lot of things I'd rather spend this federal money on rather than repairing damage of things that have been destroyed," he said. Zinke nodded to other public services, such as improving visitor experiences at Yosemite National Park or thinning forests. The U.S. government has distributed more than $20 million in assistance for people displaced by the catastrophic wildfire in Northern California, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said Monday as hundreds of searchers kept looking for more human remains. The massive wildfire that destroyed nearly 14,000 homes in the town of Paradise and surrounding communities was fully contained over the weekend after igniting more than two weeks ago. FEMA spokesman Frank Mansell told The Associated Press that $15.5 million has been spent on housing assistance, including vouchers for hotel rooms. During an interview in the city of Chico, he said disaster response is in an early phase but many people will eventually get longer-term housing in trailers or apartments. FEMA also has distributed $5 million to help with other needs, including funeral expenses, he said. About 17,000 people have registered with the federal disaster agency, which will look at insurance coverage, assets and other factors to determine how much assistance they are eligible for, Mansell said. Meanwhile, the list of people who are unaccounted for has dropped from a high of 1,300 to the "high 200s" Monday, Honea said. He said the number of volunteers searching for the missing and dead has been reduced to about 200 Monday from 500 Sunday after many of those reported missing were found over the weekend. "We made great progress," Honea said. Anthropologists are sifting through bone fragments to help coroners identify the remains, he said, and "the remains that we are now recovering are now remains that were almost completely consumed by the fire." Though he has declined to characterize how much of the area has been searched, Honea said that highly populated areas and places that were identified as possibly having deceased people have been fully searched and search teams are now spreading out into less dense areas of devastation. Zinke said building restrictions in fire-prone areas should be part of a discussion about protections from wildfires. "When we rebuild, having a frank discussion whether it's appropriate to rebuild every place is an important part of the equation," he told The Associated Press. He did not say Paradise should avoid rebuilding, noting the town has expanded evacuation routes and would be safer with more aggressive efforts to cut thin forests and built vegetation-free fire breaks that could stop advancing flames. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue joined Zinke on a tour of Paradise, which was decimated by the fire that ignited in the parched Sierra Nevada foothills Nov. 8 and quickly spread across 240 square miles (620 square kilometers). Perdue suggested donating timber from the nearby Plumas National Forest to rebuild Paradise. The firefight got a boost last week from the first significant storm to hit California this year, which dropped several inches of rain over the burn area without causing significant mudslides. Lawmakers from around the world questioned a top Facebook executive over "fake news" on Tuesday at a hearing that CEO Mark Zuckerberg refused to attend, NBC News reported. Politicians and other top officials from nine countries were questioning Richard Allan, the company's vice president of policy solutions in London. Representatives from the U.K., Canada, Australia, Ireland, Argentina, Brazil, Singapore and Latvia invited Zuckerberg to give evidence, even by video link, but he declined. France and Belgium also attended the hearing. The event was billed as the inaugural "Grand Committee on Disinformation. Organizer Damian Collins, the British lawmaker who chairs a parliamentary committee investigating disinformation and the use of people's data, said he was "deeply disappointed by Zuckerberg's decision to ignore summons from so many nations." The committee turned up the heat by seizing confidential Facebook documents from the developer of a now-defunct bikini photo-searching app. Two men from Haverhill, Massachusetts testified Tuesday in the Maine trial of a former priest accused of sexual abuse. Ronald Paquin, 76, faces 31 counts of sexual abuse from two accusers. Both men say the former priest would bring them to his trailer in Kennebunkport, Maine in the late 1980s, give them alcohol, and sexually assault them. On Tuesday, Keith Townsend, 44, of Seabrook, New Hampshire, testified that Paquin befriended altar boys like himself at St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill. Townsend told the jury that Paquin took an interest in him when he was eight years old. He was kind of a hip priest, Townsend said. He wasnt traditional. Townsend said Paquin would buy altar boys gifts and take them on trips without their parents. Soon, he said Paquin began to touch him. He would always be touching me, he told the jury. He said it was perfectly normal for men to touch each other. He said it was part of a human sexuality course he was taking. Townsend said he took frequent trips with Paquin, sometimes staying in the camper, sometimes in the same motel room, often sharing a bed. He said Paquin taught him how to drive, letting him sit on his lap and practice driving a parish vehicle when he was just nine years old. Over the years, Townsend said the drinking and abuse progressed and he believes the priest was putting drugs in his drinks to make him completely pass out. Townsend told the jury he remembers one night, when he was about 13 years old, waking up bleeding and naked beside Paquin. I was upset, Townsend said. Things were starting to not feel right. Townsends testimony is similar to the testimony of another alleged victim, who testified Monday. Paquins defense attorneys have asked jurors to keep an open mind. They said the allegations are decades old, and without corroborating witnesses. Paquin, who was featured in the movie "Spotlight", was a central figure in the scandal that enveloped the Boston archdiocese. He spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for sexually assaulting an altar boy. He was released in 2015 and was taken into custody in Maine last year. The Boston Globe reported Paquin admitted to medical evaluators that he abused at least 14 boys and said he was also abused as a child. Other allegations against him have prompted civil settlements, but no other criminal convictions. In Maine, charges were made possible because the statute of limitations for sex crimes against a child younger than 16 was eliminated in 1999. The Illinois General Assembly convenes Tuesday for the final three days of its fall legislative session. The focus this week is on the House. It is poised to take override action on vetoed legislation which the Senate voted to reverse two weeks ago. The list includes a measure vetoed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to set a deadline for local police to sign paperwork to help immigrant victims of crime. Victims of certain violent crimes who cooperate with police qualify for visas to let them stay in the country. The legislation requires police to act within 90 days to sign necessary paperwork. Other vetoes awaiting House action are on legislation prohibiting tobacco sales to those under 21 and requiring online vehicle-sharing services to meet rental-car company safety standards. Marijuana will be legal in Michigan beginning Dec. 6, 10 days after the 2018 election results were officially certified. On Election Day, Michigan voters made their state the first in the Midwest to legalize recreational marijuana by passing a ballot measure that will allow people 21 or older to buy and use the drug, putting conservative neighboring states on notice. Three other states had marijuana-related measures on their ballots. North Dakota voters decided recreational pot wasn't for them, while voters in Missouri passed one of three unrelated measures to legalize medical marijuana. Utah voters also were considering whether to allow medical marijuana and to join the 31 other states that have already done so. Including Michigan, 10 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana. And Canada recently did so. But the passage in Michigan gives it a foothold in Middle America and could cause tension with neighboring Indiana and Ohio, which overwhelmingly rejected a 2015 legalization measure. Once the Michigan law takes effect in about a month, people age 21 or older will be allowed to have, use and grow the drug, but the process of establishing regulations for its retail sale could take about two years. The measure, which was endorsed by a national organization of black-owned businesses and a group of retired Michigan law enforcement officers, will create a state licensing system for marijuana businesses and allow cities and townships to restrict them. Supporters say it will raise roughly $130 million in additional tax revenue each year that will go toward road repairs, schools and local governments. They also say it will allow for greater regulation of pot usage and for the police to focus on more pressing problems. Opponents, including many law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, chambers of commerce and religious groups, said legalizing marijuana would lead to increased use by children, drug abuse and car crashes. They also said Michigan's proposal would be too permissive by allowing people to have up to 2.5 ounces of the drug on them and up to 10 ounces at home. It will take time to implement the new law, which means marijuana won't be commercially available for sale until the state comes up with rules and regulations, and begins licensing businesses - a process that will happen at the end of 2019, according to the Detroit Free Press. Residents can grow up to 12 plants for personal use in their homes, the Free Press reports, and give - but not sell - marijuana to friends and family over the legal age of 21. Authorities are working to confirm whether a body found in the Illinois River is that of a woman who was reported missing in February. The Tazewell County Sheriff's Office says the body was inside a Jeep Liberty SUV that was discovered Saturday by search crews using sonar on the river near the community of Manito. It was the same vehicle that 69-year-old Lois Fidler was driving when she left her nearby home on Feb. 20. Officials say the submerged vehicle was about 20 feet from shore in the river about 20 miles southwest of Peoria. The weekend search was organized by the Missing Persons Awareness Network. Group president Gia Marie Wright says Fidler had dementia and didn't tell anyone she was leaving home on a rainy and slick evening. An Illinois priest has been removed from ministry again, years after a conviction for manufacturing and selling a date-rape drug. The Chicago Tribune reports that the Peoria Diocese bishop removed Rev. Jeffrey Windy from his post serving three Ottawa parishes in March. Officials found that Windy had involved himself in a criminal court case by visiting a crime victim with the suspect's father, who is a parishioner. Monsignor James Kruse says Windy didn't consult his superiors before getting involved. Kruse says that shows Windy hasn't overcome "a pattern of imprudence." Windy was arrested in 2002 while at a different parish and served time in federal prison for manufacturing gamma-hydroxybutyrate. He returned to parish work in 2013. Windy's attorney says the diocese is seeking to permanently remove Windy from the priesthood. The attorney says the removal isn't justified. A Guilford family is calling for change after their teenage son was killed in what police are calling an accidental shooting. Guilford police have finished the investigation into the death of 15-year-old Ethan Song that ended with the arrest of a juvenile who was charged with second-degree manslaughter. Because of the suspects age, very little information is being released. A report the Waterbury State's Attorney's office released last week says its investigation determined Song accidentally shot himself in the head with a .357 magnum handgun and called the death a horrific and preventable tragedy. In January, police said Song was with another teen and no adults were home on Seaside Avenue at the time of the shooting. Songs family and others hope to prevent something like this tragedy from happening again. We cant bring Ethan back. This was a great tragedy, but we can make sure other children arent lost to gun violence in the state of Connecticut, State Rep. Sean Scanlon, D 98th District said. Scanlon is working with the Song family to try to find a way to toughen Connecticuts gun laws. In a video posted on social media last week, Ethans father, Mike, blasted the decision not to prosecute the gun owner. Its time that when someone is reckless, negligent, when someone endangers children that they be held accountable, Song said. The Waterbury States Attorneys Office report revealed the gun had been stored with other guns in a cardboard box inside Tupperware in the master bedroom closet. There were gun locks and no signs the firearms were loaded, but investigators discovered the keys and ammunition were also hidden in the closet. In the end, the report concluded the storage of the weapons did not break the law and its led some to believe the law has a loophole that needs to be closed. We can reduce gun violence in the state of Connecticut. And one of the ways I think we can really do that is to make sure every single gun in the state of Connecticut is properly stored, whether its loaded or unloaded, Scanlon said. The Song family has started a foundation to honor Ethan and the next step is turning their loss into political action. Im going to tell you one thing -- Im going to see this through. Were going to achieve something for Ethan thats really going to be a miracle, Mike Song said. The family plans to hold a news conference Tuesday. Police added the juvenile who was arrested on Monday also faces a reckless endangerment charge for an event before Songs death. A proposed site for a grocery store between downtown Hartford and the citys North End, is facing some push-back from a magnet school, a city councilwoman, and neighborhood organizers. You cant always make things happen when its going to impact so many children, said rJo Winch, a Democrat on the Hartford City Council. The proposed grocery store site would be built behind Capital Preparatory Magnet School on Main Street in Hartford. The school currently uses a fenced-in field that is on the proposed property for activities like recess and practices. That parcel, however, is technically part of the Downtown North development (DoNo), which includes Dunkin' Donuts Park and other parcels of land. Opponents of that location want to ensure students keep their access to the field, and theyre worried about having a larger grocery store so close to the school. We dont know what time its going to open, Winch asked. We dont know how its going to impede on fire drills. On buses? Where are the buses going to park? A lot of things have not been considered. The other two locations under consideration for the grocery store are across the street from Dunkin Donuts Park, still within the immediate vicinity of Capital Prep. A spokesman for Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin told NBC Connecticut that the Mayor does not have a preference on the location. Bronin, he said, wants the store to be developed. The state of Connecticut provided more than $8 million toward landing a grocery store on the foot of the North End. The Capital Region Development Authoritys Executive Director Michael Freimuth told NBC Connecticut that the group is already in discussions with potential grocers to run the store. Janelle Thomas, who was picking up her niece from Capital Prep on Monday, said she would love for a grocery store to be located in the neighborhood. I think its a good idea. At least its more closer than going to Bloomfield or West Hartford or anything, she said. Winch is not convinced a grocery store would be successful, referring to the most recent failed effort, the Market at Hartford 21, which closed nearly seven years ago. Weve had new grocery stores and theyve gone out of business. I think this one, too, in my personal opinion, I dont think it will last a year. A Guilford family is calling for stricter gun legislation after their teenage son died in what police are calling an accidental shooting. On Tuesday, Kristin and Mike Song held a news conference to propose new legislation they said would close a loophole in a state law and require all guns to be properly stored as well as amend rules on when a firearm must be secured. The legislation, named Ethan's Law, is in memory of their son, 15-year-old Ethan Song, who died in a shooting in January. A report released by the Waterbury State's Attorney's office last week says its investigation determined Ethan accidentally shot himself in the head with a .357 magnum handgun and called the death a horrific and preventable tragedy. Ethan and another teen were at a home on Seaside Avenue, with no adults present, at the time of the shooting, police said. The state's attorney report revealed the gun had been stored with other firearms in a cardboard box inside Tupperware in the master bedroom closet. And while there were gun locks and no signs the firearms were loaded, investigators learned the keys and ammunition were also hidden in the closet. The report concluded the storage of the weapons did not break the law and its led some to believe the law has a loophole that needs to be closed. The Ethan's Law bill would close a perceived loophole in Connecticut law that prohibited prosecutors from charging the owner of the gun Ethan shot himself with. "Ethan's law removes the loophole that says it's all about who loaded that gun. Unfortunately, in many of these cases, you can't prove who loaded the gun so it muddies the waters and nothing happens," Ethan's father, Mike Song, said. State Rep. Sean Scanlon, D - 98th District plans to announce Ethan's Law during the 2019 legislative session. Ethans Law will promote safe gun storage, which will reduce tragic accidents, teen suicide, school shootings and gun theft. It will save lives by motivating parents to consider the many ways that young people can access the familys guns versus merely asking, Did I unload my gun? Mike Song said. "By just removing the word 'loaded' out of the current statutes and creating Ethan's Law, we can really focus on what's important, what matters most, which is how those guns are secure," he added. After the news conference Tuesday, Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a guns rights group, issued a statement, offering sympathies to the Song family and urging that in addition to securing firearms all parents should make an effort to understand that firearms can be deadly if handled improperly. There are tremendous programs out there that teach firearm safety to children of all ages; often at little or no cost. Along with the securing of firearms in a responsible manner, proper firearms education is imperative to the safety of children. Even if parents dont own firearms themselves, children should still be taught what to do if they encounter a firearm without parental supervision, Wilson said in a statement posted on the CCDL website. We thank Ethans father for acknowledging that there may be times that gun owners may also need to gain access to their firearms immediately to stop home invasions or protect loved ones, Wilsons statement goes on to say. Wilson, who said he had been shot decades ago, said his organization partners with an organization to help get gunlocks distributed and he will be meeting with Representative Scanlon this weekend. In a video posted on social media last week, Mike Song blasted the decision not to prosecute the gun owner, Dan Markle. Its time that when someone is reckless, negligent, when someone endangers children that they be held accountable, Mike Song said. NBC Connecticut reached out to the attorney representing Markle, who responded, "Until pending litigation is resolved, the firm will have no comment. The Song family has started a foundation to honor Ethan and the next step is turning their loss into political action. I will honor Ethan through action. I will fight for all children impacted by gun violence and work tirelessly to ensure that no other child dies because of unsecured guns and my hope is no other parent will have to walk this heartbreaking journey, Ethans mother, Kristin Song, said. Im going to tell you one thing -- Im going to see this through. Were going to achieve something for Ethan thats really going to be a miracle, Mike Song added. Guilford police finished their investigation into Ethan's death and arrested a juvenile, who was charged with second-degree manslaughter. Because of the suspects age, very little information is being released. Police added the juvenile who was arrested on Monday also faces a reckless endangerment charge for an event before Songs death. Britain's parliament has seized confidential Facebook documents from the developer of a now-defunct bikini photo searching app as it turns up the heat on the social media company over its data protection policies. A British lawmaker took the unusually aggressive move of forcing a visiting tech executive to turn over the files ahead of an international hearing that parliament is hosting on Tuesday to look into disinformation and "fake news." The parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has "received the documents it ordered from Six4Three relating to Facebook," Committee Chairman Damian Collins tweeted on Sunday, adding that he had already reviewed them. "Under UK law & parliamentary privilege we can publish papers if we choose to as part of our inquiry." The app maker, Six4Three, had acquired the files, which date from 2013-2014, as part of a U.S. lawsuit against the social media giant. It's suing Facebook over a change to the social network's privacy policies in 2015 that led Six4Three to shut down its app, Pikinis, which let users find photos of their friends in bikinis and bathing suits by searching their friends list. Collins, a critic of social media abuses and manipulation, is leading the committee's look into the rise of "fake news" and how it is being used to influence political elections. Lawmakers from seven countries are preparing to grill a Facebook executive, Richard Allan, at the committee's hearing in London. They had asked for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear in person or by video, but he has refused. The U.K. committee used its powers to compel the chief executive Six4Three, Theodore Kramer, who was on a business trip to London, to turn over the files, according to parliamentary records and news reports. The committee twice requested that Kramer turn over the documents. When he failed to do so, Kramer was escorted to parliament and told he risked imprisonment if he didn't hand them over, the Observer newspaper reported. Facebook wants the files to be kept secret and a judge in California ordered them sealed earlier this year. The judge is expected to give guidance on the legal status of the documents as early as Monday, Allan wrote in a letter to Collins. "Six4Three's claims are entirely meritless," Facebook said in a statement. For the third year in-a-row Fort Worths Panther Island project has failed to receive federal funding, raising more concerns about the future of the plan to re-shape the area just north of downtown Fort Worth. In its newly released 2019 "work plan" budget the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers again left the Panther Island project off the list, deciding instead to direct federal flood prevention money to other projects across the country. Project planners at the Tarrant Regional Water District/Trinity River Vision Authority have been counting on more than $400 million in federal funds to finish the massive effort which is already underway. But on Monday a TRVA spokesman seemed to brush aside the latest denial of federal funds saying there was still good news for the project. We look forward to continuing to work with The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on this important flood control project. USACE will continue to work on the Central City Project using previously appropriated federal funds. The great news is that we continue to move full speed ahead and follow our critical path schedule, said Matt Oliver, a spokesman for the Trinity River Vision Authority. There are some existing federal funds to continue project planning, but without at least $250 million to dig the river bypass channel, the bridges now taking shape north of downtown may end up over dry land instead of the urban waterfront that planners have envisioned. Or, local officials may have to come up with another plan to fund additional aspects of construction. In Washington D.C., Panther Island has come under fire with some critics arguing the project is more about creating a luxury development than controlling floodwaters. Others have questioned whether federal funds should be spent on a project lead by the son of Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth). Her son, J.D. Granger leads the Trinity River Vision Authority. And, as NBC 5 Investigates first reported last week, a third member of the Granger family will be soon be involved in the project as J.D. Granger is engaged to Shanna Cate, a project director at the TRVA who is also involved in various aspects of developing the island. There is a lot of competition for these federal dollars going to Army Corps of Engineer projects so when you have something like a family member being involved and raising concerns about nepotism its just going to be another mark against the project, said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan watchdog group that has opposed the project. For more than two weeks, J.D. Granger and Rep. Kay Granger have not responded to NBC 5s questions about the familys involvement in the project. At a recent meeting J.D. Granger brushed aside questions saying the project is doing well because it has received some federal funds over the last 12 years. On Tuesday, members of the Tarrant Regional Water District Board are scheduled to meet to consider terms of a comprehensive review of the project, requested by Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price who has raised concerns recently about the projects prospects in Washington. Price was in city pension meetings late Monday and not available to comment on the latest federal funding decision. A mayor's calls for patience following the shooting of a black man by police at Alabama's largest shopping mall were met Monday by chanting, marching protesters who blocked one of the state's busiest roads. Several dozen protesters holding signs blocked heavily traveled U.S. 31 at Interstate 459 during evening rush hour near the Riverchase Galleria, where a police officer killed 21-year-old Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr. on Thanksgiving night. Hoover police shot Bradford while responding to a shooting that wounded two people at the mall. They later said Bradford wasn't the gunman in the shooting although he had a gun that officers saw. The demonstration in the city of 95,000 people just south of Birmingham came shortly after Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato offered sympathy to Bradford's family. "We all want answers and we believe with patience and focus the truth will be firmly established," Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said while reading a public statement in which he pleaded for patience while a state investigation continues. The shooting had already sparked multiple protests in the suburban city amid calls to publicly release body camera footage and other video. An officer killed Bradford while responding to the report of the shooting last week that wounded two people in the mall. Hoover police initially portrayed Bradford as the mall gunman and said officers acted heroically to "take out the threat" within seconds of shots being fired in the crowded mall. They later retracted the statement, and said while Bradford was seen with a handgun, evidence indicates he was not the person who shot an 18-year-old and a 12-year-old bystander. Authorities said the actual gunman remains at large. A lawyer for Bradford's family said witnesses have contacted his law firm saying Bradford was trying to "wave people away from the shooting" and the officer did not issue any verbal commands before shooting the 21-year-old. "He saw a black man with a gun and he made his determination he must be a criminal," Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for Bradford's family said of the officer at a news conference Sunday in Birmingham. Responding to building tensions, police and the city of Hoover on Monday offered public sympathy to the Bradford family and issued more detailed statements about the shooting and the investigation. "We can say with certainty Mr. Bradford brandished a gun during the seconds following the gunshots, which instantly heightened the sense of threat to approaching police officers responding to the chaotic scene," the statement said. They later clarified the use of the verb "brandished" saying it meant Bradford was holding a gun. Bradford's father and other family members said they want to see body camera video from the shooting. Family members expressed frustration and anger that the young man was initially described as a gunman who shot two people. "I knew my son didn't do that. People rushed to judgment. They shouldn't have done that," Emantic Bradford, Sr. told The Associated Press. Hoover police said Monday that "body camera video and other available video has been turned over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) which is now investigating the shooting. "Release of any video will be done as ALEA deems appropriate during the investigation," the statement added. The mayor said he is requesting a meeting with the Bradford family. Family members have said they learned through social media of their loved one's death. Video circulated on social media of Bradford lying uncovered in a pool of blood on the floor of the mall. Bradford's father, a former longtime employee of the Birmingham Police Department jail, said his son had a permit to carry a concealed handgun. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, which issues concealed carry permits, referred questions to ALEA on whether Bradford had a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Bradford was a graduate of a Catholic high school in Birmingham and afterward joined the U.S. Army, although he had recently left the military, family said. A U.S. Army spokesman said that Bradford, Jr. reported to the Army for initial entry training in November 2017 but "was administratively separated in August 2018 before completing training" and being awarded a specialty certification. The shooting sparked a weekend protest at the mall, with demonstrators chanting Bradford's name as they walked past Christmas shoppers to the spot where he was killed. A group of pastors on Monday joined the called for police to release additional information. "His mother deserves answers. The community deserves answers," said the Rev. Nate Brooks of the Greater Saint John Baptist Church in Birmingham. It took more than 15 years for Mississippi and other Southern states to catch up to the Supreme Court's landmark desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education, and many in the school systems found ways around the new system, NBC News reported. The issue came to light again last week when the Jackson Free-Press reported that Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who faces a special election Tuedsay, attended a school in Brookhaven, Mississippi, that was founded in 1970 to flout the integration order. Its mascot was a confederate general. Such so-called segregationist academies around the South prevented black students from entering through financial barriers and unstated discriminatory practices. "The state of Mississippi and other states began offering private school vouchers to support this effort to bypass integration," according to Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and an expert on American education and segregation. A suspected member of a Southern California white supremacist group is expected to ask a judge Tuesday to grant him bail while awaiting trial on charges of planning and inciting brawls at political rallies last year. Aaron Eason 38, of the Riverside County community of Anza, and three others were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly inciting violence against counter-protesters, journalists and others. A lawyer for Eason is set to argue before a federal magistrate judge in downtown Los Angeles that his client is not a flight risk or a danger to the community and should be released on bail. A friend of Eason's filed papers in Los Angeles federal court in support of the bail request, denying that Eason is a racist or a member of the so-called Rise Above Movement. The woman wrote that Eason attended at least one of the rallies by invitation in the role of peacekeeper. One of the four defendants -- Tyler Laube, 22, of Redondo Beach -- pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to violate the federal riots act. In a plea agreement, Laube admitted to being associated with RAM, attending a "combat-training event" in San Clemente and assaulting counter-protesters and others at a "Make America Great Again" rally in Huntington Beach in March 2017. Eason, Laube and co-defendants Robert Rundo, 28, of Huntington Beach, and Robert Boman, 25, of Torrance, were indicted on one count each of conspiracy to violate the federal riots act. Additionally, Rundo, Boman and Eason were charged with violating the riots statute. Each of the two counts carry sentences of up to five years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Last month, federal authorities arrested suspected RAM founder Benjamin Daley, 25, of Redondo Beach, and three others for their suspected roles in last year's deadly far-right rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. Daley, Thomas Walter Gillen, 24, also of Redondo Beach, Michael Paul Miselis, 29, of Lawndale, and Cole Evan White, 24, of Clayton, California, are awaiting trial in Virginia. The Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox were sued Monday in Los Angeles for more than $1 billion by a Malaysian casino company which alleges the studios backed out of an agreement to sponsor a "Fox World" theme park outside Kuala Lumpur. Lawyers for Genting Malaysia Berhad allege in the lawsuit, filed in federal court, that Fox, with Disney, breached a 2013 contract to license intellectual property, including "Ice Age" and "Planet of the Apes," for the first-ever Fox-branded park. Representatives of Disney and Fox could not immediately be reached for comment. According to the 29-page complaint, Disney wants to end the contract because going into business with a gambling company does not correspond to its "family-friendly" image. "The plan was for Fox World to be the new centerpiece of Resorts World Genting, GENM's integrated resort complex in Genting Highlands, an idyllic mountain retreat 6,000 feet above sea level and an hour's drive outside of Kuala Lumpur that already attracts over 23 million visitors a year," according to the lawsuit. Genting runs the only legal land-based casino in Malaysia, along with hotels, venues, shopping malls and scores of restaurants, bars and clubs. The company claims Fox issued a default notice with the hope of terminating the contract, in a manner "entirely consistent with Disney wanting to kill the deal." According to the suit, which alleges that Genting had already made a $750 million-plus investment in the park, the studios are liable "for what will exceed a billion dollars in damages attributable to the bad-faith behavior of both Fox and Disney." Following several serious or deadly attacks on homeless people this year, the Los Angeles City Council will consider a resolution Tuesday supporting any legislation that would add homeless people to the list of those protected by the state's hate crime law. A homeless man and woman were attacked with battery acid while they slept in a Mission Hills park in October, and a man was arrested in September as the prime suspect in a series of beatings of primarily homeless people in Los Angeles and Santa Monica that left four dead and four others seriously injured. The California Penal Code defines a hate crime as a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of the perceived characteristics of the victim, according to the resolution, which was introduced by Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. "The current definition of hate crime does not include housing status, even though attacks against those experiencing homelessness are a persistent problem," the resolution states. A 2015 report from the National Coalition for the Homeless found that California led the nation in attacks targeting people experiencing homelessness, a report from the Office of the Chief Legislative Analyst noted. The NCH report said the number of attacks against persons experiencing homelessness nationwide has increased over the years, even though crimes against the homeless are reported at lower rates than other crimes. It also said that since 1999, the number of fatal attacks on persons experiencing homelessness exceeds the combined number of deaths in hate crimes that targeted specific races, religions and sexual orientations. Other states, including Maryland, Florida and Alaska, have broadened their definitions of hate crime to include protections based on housing status, the CLA report said, but that former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill in 2010 that would have added hate crime protections for homeless people. LOTS OF PLACES... and events and attractions love to gussy up "old-fashioned" by adding an "e" onto the end of "old," all to give the sheen of time, and the passage of decades, and the aura of ages gone by, to the proceedings. But not every place, and not every attraction and event, has rightfully earned that additional "e," especially if, all told, the passage of time can't truly be fathomed around the festival or destination in question. But Los Olivos? Break out all the "oldes," for the Santa Ynez Valley hamlet looks as though it emerged from a century of, well, olde, given the small town's large number of historic structures. Those structures will take on extra layer of splendid-tude come the first day of December 2018, when an... OLDE-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS... trots into town. Look for a brand-new holiday market to sell all manner of stocking-worthy, use-yourself-worthy artisanal items, while the Summerset Farm Christmas Train will toot-toot for five festive hours, beginning at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, Dec. 1. Ho, ho, ho over to St. Mark's Parlor for a Santa Claus Sighting, make time for a visit with Elsa or an "Elf" screening, savor around-town caroling, and check out the tree lighting, after sundown, near the town's famous flagpole. Will there be treats to buy? Sips to savor? Count on it, as Los Olivos does have a foodie rep it certainly deserves. Bask in the olde-mazing action, just as the merriest month gets going, in one of the California's olde-est, and awesome-est, burgs. What to Know Mohamed Mohamed Abdi, 32, was taken into custody Monday for allegedly trying to run over the men and making anti-Semitic remarks. Police called it a hate crime. No one was injured, and police arrested Abdi after he crashed into another vehicle while he was speeding away. Felony charges were filed Tuesday against a Seattle resident who allegedly tried to run over two men outside a synagogue in a Jewish neighborhood in the Wilshire area last week while yelling anti-Semitic remarks. Mohamed Mohamed Abdi, 32, was taken into custody Monday for allegedly trying to run over the men and making anti-Semitic remarks, in a case that has been classified by police as a hate crime. Mohamed is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. He was arrested on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon, Deputy Chief Horace Frank said at a news conference at LAPD headquarters. No one was hurt in the confrontation that occurred about 9:30 p.m. Friday near La Brea and Oakwood avenues, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Frank said Abdi, who remains in custody on $55,000 bail, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and lives in the United States as a U.S. citizen. The FBI was involved in the investigation, and Abdi could face federal charges, Frank said. LAPD Chief Michel Moore said two men had just left a synagogue in the 300 block of La Brea Avenue and were walking toward Oakwood Avenue when Abdi allegedly tried to run them over with a vehicle. "He's yelling out hateful remarks regarding Jewish heritage and regarding these people of faith," Moore said. "They watch him as he then turns his vehicle directly at them." No one was injured, and police arrested Abdi after he crashed into another vehicle while he was speeding away. A knife was found in his vehicle, but there was no indication the suspect was driving under the influence, Frank said. "Hate in America is on the rise," Moore said. "That has to change. And a portion of that is that every community recognize that when such acts occur, that the department -- LAPD -- that our federal and state partners will bring the full weight of the law to hold accountable those who believe that there would be some other type of response." Moore said Abdi had been in the Los Angeles area for "a very short period of time," but he declined to elaborate. Moore said investigators believe Abdi was acting as a "lone individual" and not as a member of a group, but the investigation was continuing into his background and associations, including his social media connections. "I want to make it clear to the Jewish community and to all residents of Los Angeles that this type of hate and violence will not stand, and that my colleagues and I will do everything in our power to make sure that our communities are protected and secure," said Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz. "We will continue to fight anti-Semitism, bigotry, and we will continue to shine light on the darkness of hate," Koretz said. More than four years after the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, the mothers of two of them protested on Monday in front of the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles and demanded the disappearance to be clarified. Cristina Bautista and Joaquina Garcia have lived four years and two months of anguish and despair since their children disappeared on Sept. 26, 2014 in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. Joaquina Garcia says that the last thing her son Martin Sanchez Garcia, 19, told her before he left that day was that he would be back early to have lunch with her. Garcia never saw her son again. "That day was the saddest day of our lives," said Garcia. "We went to where the accident happened and we did not find them." The two moms recall the chaotic day when the students traveled from the town of Ayotzinapa. "Some of the people looked dislocated, others were without shoes. It was a sad thing," Garcia said. The students intended to take buses to travel to Mexico City to participate in the annual commemorative march of the student massacre of 1968. "I will not rest until I find him because my son has to fulfill his dreams of being someone in life," said Bautista about her missing son. Both women traveled to Los Angeles to continue with their search and to ask current Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to clarify the disappearance of their children and to punish those responsible. Bautista said, "I left my harvest. I quit my job. I left everything to come here to demand that the Mexican government gives me my son alive." Lopez-Obrador met with the families of the disappeared students during his election campaign and assured them that he would seek justice. According to the Mexican Attorney General's Office, local police opened fire on the students because the couple in charge of the group had an alleged relationship with an organized crime group, and the police thought that the students were going to interrupt a public event. National Park Service officials said Monday that a young mountain lion they were tracking in the Santa Monica Mountains likely died in the massive Woolsey Fire. P-74, a male lion born last year, had been unaccounted for since the fire erupted. A dozen other lions being tracked by the Park Service were eventually located, along with four bobcats, but P-74 remained missing. Park officials said in a Twitter post Monday that P-74 likely died in the blaze. Beth Pratt is working with government officials, industry, and the local community to fundraise for a bridge that might save LA's mountain lions from the grim future predicted for them: extinction within 50 years. Aliya Jasmine accompanies Pratt on a 5 day 50 mile hike to retrace the steps of P-22. "His GPS collar has not reported to us since Nov. 9, the day the fire moved into the central part of the Santa Monica Mountains," according to the Park Service. "We believe that he had not yet dispersed from his mother, who was not radio-collared." P-74 was the newest lion being tracked by the Park Service in its study of the animals' movements in the mountains. It's OK to eat some romaine lettuce again, U.S. health officials said. Just check the label. The Food and Drug Administration narrowed its blanket warning from last week, when it said people shouldn't eat any romaine because of an E. coli outbreak. The agency said Monday the romaine linked to the outbreak appears to be from the California's Central Coast region. It said romaine from elsewhere should soon be labeled with harvest dates and regions, so people know it's OK to eat. People shouldn't eat romaine that doesn't have the label information, the FDA said. For romaine that doesn't come in packaging, grocers and retailers are being asked to post the information by the register. Romaine harvesting recently began shifting from California's Central Coast to winter growing areas, primarily Arizona, Florida, Mexico and California's Imperial Valley. Those winter regions weren't yet shipping when the illnesses began. The FDA also noted hydroponically grown romaine and romaine grown in greenhouses aren't implicated in the outbreak. The labeling arrangement was worked out as the produce industry called on the FDA to quickly narrow the scope of its warning so it wouldn't have to waste freshly harvested romaine. An industry group said people can expect to start seeing labels as early as this week. It noted the labels are voluntary, and that it will monitor whether to expand the measure to other leafy greens and produce. The FDA said the industry committed to making the labeling standard for romaine and to consider longer-term labeling options for other leafy greens. Robert Whitaker, chief science officer of the Produce Marketing Association, said labeling for romaine could help limit the scope of future alerts and rebuild public trust after other outbreaks. "Romaine as a category has had a year that's been unfortunate," Whitaker said. The FDA still hasn't identified a source of contamination in the latest outbreak. There have been no reported deaths, but health officials say 43 people in 12 states have been sickened. Twenty-two people in Canada were also sickened. Even though romaine from the Yuma, Arizona, region is not implicated in the current outbreak, it was blamed for an E. coli outbreak this spring that sickened more than 200 people and killed five. Contaminated irrigation water near a cattle lot was later identified as the likely source. Leafy greens were also blamed for an E. coli outbreak last year. U.S. investigators never specified which salad green might be to blame for those illnesses, which happened around the same time of year as the current outbreak. But officials in Canada identified romaine as a common source of illnesses there. The produce industry is aware the problem is recurring, said Jennifer McEntire of the United Fresh Produce Association. "To have something repeat in this way, there simply must be some environmental source that persisted," she said. "The question now is, can we find it?" Growers and handlers in the region tightened food safety measures after the outbreak this spring, the industry says. Steps include expanding buffer zones between cattle lots and produce fields. But McEntire said it's not known for sure how the romaine became contaminated in the Yuma outbreak. Another possibility, she said, is that winds blew dust from the cattle lot onto produce. McEntire said the industry is considering multiple theories, including whether there is something about romaine that makes it more susceptible to contamination. Compared with iceberg lettuce, she noted its leaves are more open, thus exposing more surface area. Since romaine has a shelf life of about 21 days, health officials said last week they believed contaminated romaine could still be on the market or in people's homes. Food poisoning outbreaks from leafy greens are not unusual. But after a 2006 outbreak linked to spinach, the produce industry took steps it believed would limit large scale outbreaks, said Timothy Lytton, a Georgia State University law professor. The outbreak linked to romaine earlier this year cast doubt on how effective the measures have been, he said. But Lytton also noted the inherent risk of produce, which is grown in open fields and eaten raw. Ukraine's parliament voted Monday to impose martial law in parts of the country to fight what its president called "growing aggression" from Moscow after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. Western leaders and diplomats urged both sides to de-escalate the conflict, and the U.S. blamed Russia for what it called "unlawful conduct" over Sunday's incident in the Black Sea. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other in the dispute that further ratcheted up tensions ever since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine with clandestine support, including troops and weapons. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked lawmakers in Kiev to institute martial law, something the country did not do even during the worst of the fighting in the east that killed about 10,000 people. After a five-hour debate, parliament overwhelmingly approved his proposal, voting to impose martial law for 30 days starting Wednesday morning in 10 of Ukraine's 27 regions those bordering Russia, Belarus and Moldova's pro-Moscow breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester. The locations chosen were ones that Poroshenko identified as potentially in the front line of any Russian attack. The capital of Kiev is not under martial law. Poroshenko said it was necessary because of intelligence about "a highly serious threat of a ground operation against Ukraine." He did not elaborate. "Martial law doesn't mean declaring a war," he said. "It is introduced with the sole purpose of boosting Ukraine's defense in the light of a growing aggression from Russia." Ukraine's Defense Ministry already announced earlier in the day that its troops were on full combat alert in the country. The approved measures included a partial mobilization and strengthening of air defenses. It also contained vaguely worded steps such as "strengthening" anti-terrorism measures and "information security" that could curtail certain rights and freedoms. But Poroshenko also pledged to respect the rights of Ukrainian citizens. His critics reacted to his call for martial law with suspicion, wondering why Sunday's incident merited such a response. Poroshenko's approval ratings have been plunging, and there were concerns that he would postpone a presidential election scheduled for March. Just before the parliament met to vote, Poroshenko sought to allay those fears by releasing a statement revising his original martial law proposal from 60 days to just 30 days, in order to "do away with the pretexts for political speculation." Oksana Syroid, a deputy speaker of parliament, noted that martial law was not introduced in 2014 or 2015 despite large-scale fighting in the east. A state of emergency "would present a wonderful chance to manipulate the presidential elections," she said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Poroshenko assured him that martial law would not have a negative impact on the election. Despite Poroshenko's vow to respect individual rights, opposition lawmaker and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko warned before the vote that his proposal would lead to the possible illegal searches, invasion of privacy and curtailing of free speech. "This means they will be breaking into the houses of Ukrainians and not those of the aggressor nation," noted Tymoshenko, who is leading in various opinion polls. "They will be prying into personal mail, family affairs ... In fact, everything that is written here is a destruction of the lives of Ukrainians." Poroshenko's call also outraged far-right groups in Ukraine that have advocated severing diplomatic ties with Russia. Hundreds of protesters from the National Corps party waved flares in the snowy streets of Kiev outside parliament and accused the president of using martial law to his own ends. But Poroshenko insisted it was necessary because what happened in the Kerch Strait between Crimea and the Russian mainland "was no accident," adding that "this was not the culmination of it yet." Russian coast guard ships fired on the Ukrainian navy vessels near the strait, which separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian seamen and eventually seizing the vessels and their crews. It was the first open military confrontation between the two neighbors since the annexation of Crimea. Ukraine said its vessels were heading to the Sea of Azov in line with international maritime rules, while Russia charged that they had failed to obtain permission to pass through the narrow strait that is spanned by a 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) bridge that Russia completed this year. While a 2003 treaty designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, Russia has sought to assert greater control over the passage since the annexation. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted that the dispute was not an accident and that Russia had engaged in "deliberately planned hostilities," while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed Kiev for what he described as a "provocation," adding that "Ukraine had undoubtedly hoped to get additional benefits from the situation, expecting the U.S. and Europe to blindly take the provocateurs' side." Klimkin told reporters in Kiev that the government is in talks with the Red Cross to make sure the captive seamen are treated as prisoners of war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether the Kremlin considers them prisoners of war. At a U.N. Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged Russia to "immediately cease its unlawful conduct" in the Black Sea. In his first public remarks since the confrontation, President Donald Trump did not specifically call out Russia's behavior. "We do not like what's happening, either way, we don't like what's happening and hopefully it will get straightened out," Trump said. Anne Gueguen, the French deputy permanent representative at the U.N., urged the release of the sailors and the vessels. But Russia called Ukraine's actions "dangerous." Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council the incident was another example of Ukrainian leaders trying to provoke Russia for political purposes. The European Union and NATO called for restraint from both sides. NATO said Stoltenberg expressed the U.S.-led military alliance's "full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law." German Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke by telephone with Poroshenko to express her concerns and emphasize the need for de-escalation and dialogue, her office said. British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman, James Slack, said the incident was "further evidence of Russia's destabilizing behavior in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity." President Donald Trump rallied voters Monday for Republican Senate appointee Cindy Hyde-Smith who has found herself in a closer-than-expected runoff contest after comments she made about attending a public hanging drew condemnation. As Trump praised Hyde-Smith at two high-profile rallies in different parts of the state, her opponent, Democrat Mike Espy spoke at a predominantly African-American church and described his campaign as an effort to reach across the "chasm of racial division." The runoff election Tuesday will decide who serves the final two years of a term begun by Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who resigned in April amid health concerns. The historic contest features Hyde-Smith, who would be the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi, against Espy, who's vying to become the state's first black senator since Reconstruction. It's a contest that has been buffeted by racial tensions after Hyde-Smith's public hanging comments. And the tensions continued right up until Election Day with the discovery of seven nooses and six handwritten signs on Capitol grounds Monday morning. It was not immediately known who put them there. The signs referred to the state's history of lynchings and the Senate race. One sign said Mississippi needs a senator "who respects the lives of lynch victims." At rallies in Tupelo and then in Biloxi, Trump praised Hyde-Smith and called on voters to send her back to Washington. She was appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant to fill the senate seat after Cochran retired. "She votes for us and she votes for 'Make America Great Again,'" Trump said in Tupelo, where he was accompanied by Hyde-Smith. Trump called her "a truly incredible leader and tireless champion" for Mississippi. "She stood up to the Democrat smear machine," Trump said, praising her for voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Hyde-Smith, who has made the Trump rallies a highlight of her runoff campaign, told the crowd in Tupelo: "I worked very, very hard for you. I have stood up for you and you know I will continue to stand up for the conservative values of Mississippi." But race has become a dominant issue as Hyde-Smith faces Espy, a former congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary. Hyde-Smith has drawn fire for a photo showing her wearing a replica hat of a Confederate soldier, and a video showing her praising a supporter by saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings and violence against people who sought voting rights for black citizens. About 38 percent of the state's residents are black. Espy is trying to boost their turnout and pick up support from white voters who are uneasy with Trump or the racially tinged stories about Hyde-Smith. Espy spoke for nearly 30 minutes Monday to a crowd of about 200 people gathered at church in Jackson. He called on his supporters to go out to vote on Tuesday "like it's a holiday." "We've got a job to do. We need to come out tomorrow in such numbers, such strength, marching to the polls like it's a holiday," he said. "This is a campaign that goes to the color line and it reached across the color line, across the chasm of racial division, across the chasm of racial acrimony," Espy said, saying blacks and whites share common concerns in the issues he's centered his campaign on, such as health insurance, student debt and jobs. It's the last U.S. Senate race to be decided in 2018 and will determine whether Republicans pad their slim majority. "If we win tomorrow, we'll be at 53-47 which is substantially more than we had," Trump said. He said of Espy, "Oh, he's far left, he's out there. How does he fit in in Mississippi?" And he told the crowd, "don't take any chances" by not voting. Hyde-Smith's support of Trump is unmistakable. She used both her opening and closing statements of the only debate of the runoff campaign to promote Monday's presidential rallies, citing the online address to get tickets. Even on trade and tariffs, where Trump's decisions could hurt Mississippi farmers, Hyde-Smith praised the president. After the event in Tupelo, best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley, Hyde-Smith and Trump flew to the Gulf Coast for a larger rally in Biloxi where thousands of Trump supporters were waiting. "Cindy Hyde-Smith will support President Trump's agenda, and President Trump's agenda includes a better America for all of us, every state, including Mississippi," said Virginia Olander from Bay St. Louis. About 100 anti-Trump protesters were also there, chanting "Impeach 45" as they held signs with red strikes through Hyde-Smith's name. Espy has emphasized that he's a moderate seeking the votes of everyone and willing to work across party lines. He noted during a campaign stop earlier Monday that he had crossed the "party chasm" to endorse the re-election of Republican Gov. Haley Barbour in Mississippi in 2007. Democrats also have used some star power. Former Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Espy, and three Democrats who could run for president in 2020 Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick have been to Mississippi to campaign for the former congressman who served as agriculture secretary in 1993 and 1994 under Democratic President Bill Clinton. For Espy, turnout is key. He must close the gap in a state where Trump received 58 percent in 2016. Mississippi hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1982. Hyde-Smith has apologized to "anyone that was offended" by the hanging comment, saying she meant no ill will. She and her campaign have refused to discuss the Confederate hat. Trump defended Hyde-Smith Monday. He said the comment was "a little flip" but said she apologized and that he'd "heard that loud and clear." He said he knows "where her heart is and her heart is good." Walmart asked Hyde-Smith to return a $2,000 campaign contribution because of the hanging remark. AP video journalist Stacey Plaisance contributed to this report. Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won a divisive Mississippi runoff Tuesday, surviving a video-recorded remark decried as racist and defeating a former federal official who hoped to become the state's first African-American senator since Reconstruction. The runoff was rocked by the video, in which Hyde-Smith said of a supporter, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." A separate video showed her talking about "liberal folks" and making it "just a little more difficult" for them to vote. The comments by Hyde-Smith, who is white, made Mississippi's history of racist lynchings a theme of the runoff and spurred many black voters to return to the polls Tuesday. In the aftermath of the video, Republicans worried they could face a repeat of last year's special election in Alabama, in which a flawed Republican candidate handed Democrats a reliable GOP Senate seat in the Deep South. The GOP pumped resources into Mississippi, and President Donald Trump made a strong effort on behalf of Hyde-Smith, holding last-minute rallies in Mississippi on Monday. Speaking to supporters after her win, Hyde-Smith vowed to fight for everyone in the state when she goes to Washington. "I want everybody to know, no matter who you voted for today, I'm going to always represent every Mississippian. I will work very hard and do my very best to make Mississippi very proud," she said. Her supporters said the furor over her comments was overblown. They also stuck by her as a photo was circulated of her wearing a replica Confederate military hat during a 2014 visit to Beauvoir, the last home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. "So many things are taken out of context," said Elizabeth Gallinghouse, 84, from Diamondhead, Mississippi. "The fact that she toured Jefferson Davis's house. You or I could have done the same thing. They said, 'Put this cap on. Hold this gun.' It was a fun time. She wasn't trying to send any messages." The contest caps a campaign season that exposed persistent racial divisions in America and the willingness of some political candidates to exploit them to win elections. With Hyde-Smith's victory, Republicans control 53 of the Senate's 100 seats. The GOP lost control of the House, where Democrats will assume the majority in January. In the final weeks of the runoff, Hyde-Smith's campaign said the remark about making voting difficult was a joke. She said the "public hanging" comment was "an exaggerated expression of regard" for a fellow cattle rancher. During a televised debate nine days after the video was publicized, she apologized to "anyone that was offended by my comments," but also said the remark was used as a "weapon" against her. Democratic opponent Mike Espy, 64, a former U.S. agriculture secretary, replied: "I don't know what's in your heart, but I know what came out of your mouth." Addressing his supporters Tuesday night, Espy said: "While this is not the result we were hoping for, I am proud of the historic campaign we ran and grateful for the support we received across Mississippi. We built the largest grassroots organization our state has seen in a generation." The "public hanging" comment also resonated with his supporters. "That really offended me," said Charles Connley, 60, a black voter from Picayune. Some corporate donors, including Walmart, requested refunds on their campaign contributions to Hyde-Smith after the videos surfaced. Hyde-Smith was in her second term as Mississippi agriculture commissioner when Republican Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to temporarily succeed GOP Sen. Thad Cochran. The longtime lawmaker retired in April amid health concerns. The win makes Hyde-Smith, 59, the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi. Hyde-Smith and Espy emerged from a field of four candidates Nov. 6 to advance to Tuesday's runoff. Her win allows her to complete the final two years of Cochran's six-year term. Shortly after the win Tuesday, Trump tweeted: "Congratulations to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith on your big WIN in the Great State of Mississippi. We are all very proud of you!" Associated Press writers Jeff Amy and Janet McConnaughey contributed to this report. A woman who was trying to retrieve a garbage bin after it fell out of the back of a landscaping truck was struck and killed by a car on the the Florida's Turnpike in Miami-Dade County Tuesday morning, authorities said. The woman was struck by a black Toyota sedan on the northbound side of the Turnpike near Northwest 199th Street around 9:30 a.m., Florida Highway Patrol officials said. Officials said the woman was driving a landscaping truck when it dropped a garbage bin onto the roadway. She walked into the road to recover it when she was struck by the car. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman, whose name hasn't been released, worked for All Natural Landscapes. What to Know 40-year-old Travis Howard was arrested after rear ending another vehicle who was stopped at a light near Cape Coral on Saturday evening. A Southwest Florida man accused of driving drunk when he caused an accident this weekend thought he was in an Uber vehicle as police transported him to jail. NBC affiliate WBBH-TV reports 40-year-old Travis Howard was arrested after rear ending another vehicle who was stopped at a light near Cape Coral on Saturday evening. Howard told Lee County deputies he couldnt remember how the crash happened and handed officers a hotel card when they asked for his license. Howard refused to take a breathalyzer test before failing several sobriety tests and being arrested on DUI charges. While in the back of a deputys car, Howard reportedly said Uber, when we get to my room, can I go to bed before being informed he was going to jail. Howard was booked into jail and released Sunday after posting $1,500 bond. Deputies say Howard, who will appear in court next month on the charges, has been arrested five times since last December. The streets of San Pedro Tapanatepec in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico changed overnight. The tranquil town in south-western Mexico was interrupted by the bustle of thousands of migrants, mostly Honduran, who stopped to rest for a few hours in between long days of walking on their journey toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Among those who arrived, are Raquel and her parents. The newborn barely opens her eyes and her tender fingers move slowly while her father, Ernesto, uses a piece of cardboard as a fan to protect her from humidity and heat. "We are here because of the heat, but at night we go to the shelters," said Ernesto, who is accompanied by his wife and two other daughters, a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old. Images: A look Inside the Migrant Caravan Ernesto, who did not share his last name and asked not to be identified on camera, said he fears for his life and his safety is in under constant threat in Honduras. It was a sentiment shared by several of the migrants NBC 7 and T20 spoke with while traveling with the caravan from Tapanatepec northwest to Santo Domingo Zanatepec. Maryui Elizat said that if she returned to Honduras, she would fear violence and face hunger for the rest of her life. She is eight months pregnant and scheduled to give birth in less than three weeks. Elizat still has several hundred miles ahead of her before reaching the border, where she, along with others in the caravan, planned to seek asylum to gain entry into the U.S. They traveled approximately 25 miles Monday through the state of Oaxaca. The caravan of thousands is made up of hundreds of children like 9-year-old Aisleen. "I feel a little happy, but like, I have a little bit of fear. I feel a little nervous," the young girl said. "But first, God, let's get there." About 7,000 people make up the migrant caravan that traveled through southern Mexico Monday. NBC 7's Rigo Villalobos has more with an exclusive look. Aisleen's mother, Eucebia Dominguez, only brought one of her three children along for the long journey. Aisleen admitted that the hardest part of the journey hasn't been the walking, but the fatigue and hunger is what haunts them. When the migrants can rest -- trying to fight exhaustion, prevent illness and deportation during the journey -- they are helped along the way by locals. The Mexican Red Cross has also been offering assistance. "Thank God, they have supported us a lot, just like when we were in Guatemala, they supported us a lot," said a migrant in the caravan. Many of the migrants in the caravan are from Honduras. NBC 7's Catherine Garcia has more on the history of the moving caravan. Angela Corte, a merchant in Tapanatepec, made a salsa and cheese for the migrants. Corte told T20 that it was all she could afford to offer. Meanwhile, other Mexican residents along the route have opened their homes and business for the migrants to charge their cell phones and provided water drums for them to bathe in. Some preferred to clean themselves in the rivers that run along the road. When they change their clothes, the migrants shield one another. And although they carry very little money, with all the help they've received, they haven't lacked anything. Nine-year-old Aisleen wants to get an education when she arrives in the U.S. She said while the path to get there is long, she knows it will be worth it. "We are going to get there; we have faith that we are going to get there, and you know, only God can break barriers," said Eucebia Dominguez, citing scripture. What to Know Christian Toro, a former teacher at a Harlem high school, was trying to build bombs with his brother in their apartment, authorities say They paid students at Christian Toro's Harlem school $50 an hour to break down fireworks and collect powder from them, the complaint says The inquiry began when Christian Toro resigned from the school and his brother returned a school laptop with a bomb-making manual on it The New York City teacher and brother who were arrested earlier this year by the FBIs Joint Terrorist Task Force have pleaded guilty to explosives charges in Manhattan federal court. Christian Toro, 28, a former high school teacher in Harlem, and his brother, Tyler Toro, 28, entered guilty pleas on charges of manufacturing and possessing a destructive device and conspiracy charges, prosecutors say. The brothers were arrested in February after authorities found a bomb-making manual on Christian Toros laptop, 30 pounds of chemicals and household materials used to create explosives in their apartment. Authorities also found a diary that referenced operation flash and a handwritten note that said under the full moon the small ones will know terror. Federal authorities said at the time of the arrests, the pair had been compiling the materials for several months but had not made any specific threats, completed any devices or chosen any targets. Tyler Toro returned Christian Toros school-issued laptop following Christians resignation from the school in December 2017 in a separate case. A technical specialist at the school found a copy of a book providing instructions on how to assemble bombs causing school officials to notify the authorities. As admitted in court today, Christian Toro and Tyler Toro sought to build a destructive device that could have caused great damage, said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced next March. A NJ Transit bus was seen driving down a New Jersey highway with what appeared to be a fire in its underside. Commuters took photos of the bus at it drove down Route 23 South at about 7 a.m. Tuesday with flames coming from its left, back undercarriage. "Enjoying the aroma of roasted bus in the morning," Twitter user @JoysofC posted, with a photo of the bus. Bus 194 was headed from Butler, New Jersey, to Port Authority in New York when the fire broke out, NJ Transit said. The small mechanical fire was extinguished by the bus operator, it said. None of the 54 passengers on board the bus were injured. Those passengers were moved onto another bus. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More What to Know The special counsel in the Russia investigation is accusing Paul Manafort of lying to federal investigators in breach of his plea agreement At least 116 people, mostly children, have been confirmed with the polio-like condition called acute flaccid myelitis, health officials say Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine has pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering and firearms charges he faces Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here. Paul Manafort Lied, Broke Plea Agreement, Mueller Says The special counsel in the Russia investigation is accusing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of lying to federal investigators in breach of his plea agreement, an extraordinary allegation that could expose him to a lengthier prison sentence and potentially more criminal charges. The torpedoing of Manafort's plea deal, disclosed in a court filing, also results in special counsel Robert Mueller's team losing a cooperating witness from the top of Donald Trump's presidential campaign who was present for several key episodes under investigation. That includes a Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer he was told had derogatory information on Democrat Hillary Clinton. The move signals a return to the acrimonious relationship Manafort has had with the special counsel's office since his indictment last year. Before his plea agreement, Manafort aggressively challenged the special counsel's legitimacy in court, went through a bitter trial and landed himself in jail after prosecutors discovered he had attempted to tamper with witnesses in his case. Caravan Migrants Explore Options After Border Clash Many among the more than 5,000 Central American migrants in Tijuana were urgently exploring their options amid a growing feeling that they had little hope of making successful asylum bids in the United States or of crossing the border illegally. Most were dispirited a day after U.S. agents fired tear gas into Mexico to turn back some migrants who had breached the border. They saw the clash and official response as hurting their chances of reaching the U.S. There was a steady line outside a shelter at a tent housing the International Organization for Migration, where officials were offering assistance for those who wanted to return to their home countries. Officials also reported more interest from migrants wanting to start the process staying in Mexico. A job fair matching migrants with openings in Baja California saw a growing number of inquiries. 'I Don't Believe' Government Climate Report Finding, Trump Says President Trump rejected a central conclusion of a dire report on the economic costs of climate change released by his own administration. But economists said the National Climate Assessment's warning of hundreds of billions of dollars a year in global warming costs is pretty much on the money. Just look at last year with Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma, they said. Those three 2017 storms caused at least $265 billion in damage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The climate report, quietly unveiled, warned that natural disasters are worsening in the United States because of global warming. It said warming-charged extremes "have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration." The report noted the last few years have smashed U.S. records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015. CDC Confirms 116 Cases of Polio-Like Paralysis At least 116 people, mostly children, have been confirmed with the polio-like condition called acute flaccid myelitis, federal health officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is investigating 286 cases of AFM, which puts 2018 on track to be a busy year for cases of the little-understood syndrome, NBC News reported. So far in 2018, there are 116 confirmed cases of AFM in 31 states, the CDC said in its latest update. It's OK to Eat Some Romaine, Look for Labels, US Officials Say It's OK to eat some romaine lettuce again, U.S. health officials said. Just check the label. The Food and Drug Administration narrowed its blanket warning from last week, when it said people shouldn't eat any romaine because of an E. coli outbreak. The agency said the romaine linked to the outbreak appears to be from the California's Central Coast region. It said romaine from elsewhere should soon be labeled with harvest dates and regions, so people know it's OK to eat. People shouldn't eat romaine that doesn't have the label information, the FDA said. For romaine that doesn't come in packaging, grocers and retailers are being asked to post the information by the register. Romaine harvesting recently began shifting from California's Central Coast to winter growing areas, primarily Arizona, Florida, Mexico and California's Imperial Valley. Those winter regions weren't yet shipping when the illnesses began. The FDA also noted hydroponically grown romaine and romaine grown in greenhouses aren't implicated in the outbreak. Tekashi 6ix9ine Pleads Not Guilty to Racketeering Charges Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering and firearms charges he faces. The rapper, whose legal name is Daniel Hernandez, is among five people indicted on charges that he directed or participated in violent acts as part of a deadly gang known as the 9 Trey Bloods. The indictment alleges the violent episodes involving 6ix9ine included the July shooting of a bystander in Brooklyn and the gunpoint robbery of one of the gang's rivals last spring. No bail applications were made. However, the judge will accept letters from counsel on bail and other motions. Tekashi remains in custody. A pretrial conference is set for Jan. 22, 2019 with a trial date of Sept. 4, 2019. Tearful Tamera Mowry Returns to The Real After Niece's Death Tamera Mowry-Housley returned to "The Real, just over two weeks after the heartbreaking death of her niece. College freshman Alaina Housley, the niece of Tamera and husband Adam Housley, was one of 12 people killed at the Borderline Bar & Grill shooting in Thousand Oaks, Calif. earlier this month. "Our hearts are broken. We just learned that our niece Alaina was one of the victims of last night's shooting at Borderline Bar in Thousand Oaks," the couple said in a statement issued to E! News on Nov. 8. "Alaina was an incredible young woman with so much life ahead of her and we are devastated that her life was cut short in this manner. We thank everyone for your prayers and ask for privacy at this time." On Nov. 15, Tamera confirmed on her Instagram that Alaina had been laid to rest, one week after the shooting. When asked how she's doing, Tamera teared up as she replied, "I'm OK." What to Know Prosecutors asked a judge to sanction 'El Chapo's' defense team Tuesday, claiming they facilitated unauthorized contact with his wife Guzman has been denied contact with his wife as a security measure since being brought to New York City to face drug conspiracy charges The judge presiding over his case previously denied his request to hug his wife before the start of the trial, citing escape concerns Prosecutors asked a judge on Tuesday to sanction the defense team for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman for facilitating "unauthorized" contact between the Mexican drug lord and his wife during his federal trial in Brooklyn. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York filed heavily redacted court papers citing surveillance footage in which Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, was seen in possession of a cellphone in violation of courthouse policy. Prosecutors said the "impermissible" contact happened "in concert with an attorney visit to the defendant following two trial days last week." The judge instructed defense lawyers to respond by week's end to prosecutors' complaints about them. Before testimony resumed, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said he'll take up the issue next week after seeing the defense's response. He said any immediate concerns had already been resolved. Lawyers for Guzman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Guzman's wife was back in her regular spot in the courtroom gallery. Federal authorities have imposed tight security measures throughout Guzman's proceedings. Tuesday's court filings referred to a "determination by the Attorney General that communications and contacts between the defendant and other persons could result in death or serious bodily injury to others." Guzman has been denied contact with his wife as a security measure since being brought to New York City to face drug conspiracy charges. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, citing security risks, denied his request to hug his wife before the trial got underway, even as he praised the infamous drug smuggler for good conduct in solitary confinement. The request for sanctions came as the trial entered its third week. The jury heard testimony Monday that Guzman orchestrated massive cocaine shipments that made him so rich he could pay multimillion-dollar bribes to a powerful police commander. Miguel Angel Martinez told the jury that he worked for Guzman in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and that the Sinaloa cartel paid $10 million in drug money bribes at least twice to Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, a top law enforcement official in Mexico City. Calderoni, in exchange, tipped off the cartel about investigations and offered other protections that helped keep Guzman from getting caught, Martinez testified. What to Know Wendy Martinez, a 45-year-old hospital assistant, was shot dead while looking through the peephole of her apartment Saturday Martinez's older son, who also lives in the apartment, is mired in a court battle to clear his name in a 2014 murder of an alleged gang memb The family's private investigator says the family has gotten ongoing death threats after the son was suddenly released without bail The killing of a New York City mother who was shot while peering through the peephole of her apartment door Saturday night is raising questions over whether the actual target was her son, who's fighting to prove his innocence in a murder case. Wendy Martinez, 45, was shot in the face through the peephole on her apartment door in the Bronx Saturday night, killed as her 15-year-old son watched, police said. She was pronounced dead in the Concourse Village apartment. The masked gunman was dressed in a dark sweatshirt and sweatpants. Police said Monday surveillance cameras in the building have not yet produced any valuable images of the shooter. Martinez worked at the nearby Lincoln Medical Center. A fundraising page was set up for the popular hospital assistant, generating more than $8,000 by Monday. Martinez's youngest son was the one who watched her get shot; her older son, Brian Solano, who also lives in the apartment, was not home at the time. He is mired in a court battle to clear his name for a 2014 murder of an alleged gang member. Solano, who spent three years behind bars before the trial, was suddenly released without bail nearly a year ago after a private investigator hired by the family raised questions about prosecution witnesses and ballistics linking the murder weapon to someone else. Solano sat down with the News 4 I-Team a few months ago in that same family apartment. Now, after his mother's murder, Solano is in hiding. The private investigator hired by the family says there have been ongoing threats which he says may have escalated with pre-trial hearings about the admissibility of evidence. "This is an unfortunate murder that should have never occurred," Gomez said. "The family was getting death threats for more than two years." The Bronx district attorney's office told News 4 in a statement Monday that the office was unaware of any threats made to Martinez or her family. Private investigator Gomez is offering a $5,000 cash reward for information on Martinez's killer. Crime Stoppers is also offering a $2,500 cash reward. What to Know A third suspect has been arrested in connection with a string of robberies on Long Island, police say Yamil Torres, of Huntington Station, allegedly acted as an accomplice in three of the robberies, according to police During one of the robberies, a worker used a machete to fend off the would-be thief A third suspect has been arrested in connection with a string of robberies on Long Island, including one during which a worker used a machete to fend off one of the would-be thieves. Police last week arrested Carlos Garcia, 35, in connection with robberies at five businesses on Long Island, including an attempted robbery at a Deli Pupuseria in Huntington Station on Nov. 21. On Tuesday, Suffolk County police said theyd arrested a third person, 26-year-old Yamil Torres, of Huntington Station, for acting as an accomplice in three of the robberies, including the one at the Deli Pupuseria. Torres has been charged with three counts of first-degree robbery. His attorney information wasnt immediately available Tuesday. Police previously arrested Angela Reilly, 53, of Huntington Station, for allegedly driving Garcia to and from the three robberies that took place on Nov. 21. A worker at one of the Deli Pupuserias brandished a machete when Garcia allegedly approached the register inside the diner with a gun. I was working so hard that day and somebody comes here to steal it, thats not right, she told NBC 4 New York. What to Know A witness testifying at the U.S. trial of the alleged Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo" claims his cartel paid massive bribes to top cop Miguel Angel Martinez told a NYC jury on Monday that Joaquin Guzman ordered $10M bribes at least twice to the Mexican police commander The defense says Guzman is being framed by shady cooperators A government witness testifying at the U.S. trial of the alleged Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo" claims his cartel paid massive bribes to a top law enforcement official. Miguel Angel Martinez told a New York City jury on Monday that Joaquin Guzman ordered $10 million bribes at least twice to the police commander starting in the late 1980s. He said in exchange the commander, Guillermo Gonzalez Calderon, helped keep Guzman from getting caught. Martinez testified that Guzman hired him in the late 1980s to work for his drug-smuggling operation. He said they became so close that Guzman became his son's godfather. The defense says Guzman is being framed by shady cooperators. A 73-year-old man accused of walking into a Pennsylvania municipal building and fatally shooting a zoning officer pleaded guilty but mentally ill Monday. A Monroe County judge accepted David Green's plea in the November 2018 death of part-time Paradise Township code enforcement officer Michael Tripus. Green, who lives in the Henryville section of the township, did not say Monday why he followed the 65-year-old victim into the municipal building that day and fatally shot him. Tripus had left a notice at Green's property in 2017 but the two men never met or spoke to each other before the murder, according to state police. Greens defense attorney hired mental health professionals who found him competent to stand trial and not insane. He was, however, found to have delusional disorder of somatic type," the county said. Green was also found with a mild cognitive impairment; some kind of pre-dementia condition." The prosecution plans to seek the maximum sentencing in light of the danger the defendant poses to the community in general, and for the premeditated nature of the victim's death. A woman spent six days in the Arizona desert after her car veered off a highway, surviving injuries from the crash and getting rescued after roadway workers noticed a broken fence, authorities said Wednesday. The Department of Public Safety said two state transportation workers and a rancher were corralling a bull on the other side of a fence along a highway on Oct. 18 in the town of Wickenburg, about an hour's drive northwest of Phoenix, when they saw the fence was unusually damaged. "I said, 'There's tracks right off the edge of the road through the fence," Zach Moralez, a highway operations technician, told The Associated Press. "I said, 'Hop over that hill, I bet you there's a car down there." The three saw a mangled car entangled in a mesquite tree, made their way to the bottom of the hill and checked the car. It was empty. Nobody answered their hollering, Moralez said. A DPS trooper arrived, and by then, other members of a maintenance crew showed up. They all fanned out. Moralez said his brother, the rancher, spotted a footprint. The group followed the tracks for about 500 yards (457 meters) and found a 53-year-old woman severely dehydrated and with serious injuries in a dry riverbed. "She was in the fetal position, and there was no movement," Moralez said. "We started asking her a bunch of questions: 'How long have you been here? Do you have any pain?'" Despite being somewhat lethargic and in pain, she was alert enough to open her eyes and answer questions. Moralez said she was dirty from sleeping on the ground for a couple of days and had facial trauma likely from the accident. She was airlifted to a hospital about 15 minutes later. The woman recounted how she was driving on U.S. 60 on Oct. 12 when she lost control of her car, according to the trooper. The vehicle went through the fence and dropped 50 feet (15 meters), landing in the tree. She stayed inside her car for several days before trying to walk toward some railroad tracks to find help, but she was too weak to make it, authorities said. DPS spokesman Quentin Mehr said the woman is declining all media requests and did not give any details about her current condition. DPS Director Col. Frank Milstead commended the transportation workers and the rancher. "Due to their outstanding efforts, this woman's life was saved," he said in a statement. Moralez said it's a good feeling to know that he helped make the difference between life and death for someone. "I believe people are put in the right place in the right time," he said. Police in Coronado are investigating the death of a man found on Silver Strand Boulevard Monday. A Coronado Police Department Captain Laszlo Waczek said pedestrians noticed something strange in the bushes and discovered it was the body of a man. The discovery was made at around 3:30 p.m., Capt. Waczek said. Police had concerns that the man's death wasn't natural and determined his death was suspicious soon after. According to Waczek, Medical Examiner's office staff noticed there was trauma to the man's chest. Officials did not specify details of the trauma. Some of the victim's clothes were found scattered around the area, Chief Waczek said. San Diego County Sheriff's Department homicide investigators are assisting the Coronado Police Department in the death investigation. Waczek said investigators could be at the scene until midnight or possibly later. No other information was available. Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available. Dozens gathered at the Transgender Law Center in City Heights Monday to demand justice for a migrant who died while in U.S. custody. Roxsana Hernandez, 33, was a transgender immigrant from Honduras who came to the U.S. to seek asylum. The HIV-positive woman came to the U.S.-Mexico border near San Ysidro and was transferred to New Mexico where she died in May. Attorneys said Hernandez was handcuffed, tortured and denied basic medical care and water. The Transgender Law Center ordered an independent autopsy. They added that Hernandez died from dehydration. "Roxsana was shackled for a long time and very tightly, enough to cause deep bruising on her wrists," said Lynly Egyes, director of litigation for the Transgender Law Center. "She had deep bruising injuries consistent with physical abuse with a baton." The Transgender Law Center announced Monday a wrongful death lawsuit against the State of New Mexico. Egyes added that Hernandez's death could have been prevented. Jerome Jones, an LGBTQ activist at the law center Monday, said Hernandez's story deeply affected him. "The government doesn't look at us like human beings, they see these different labels," said Jones. "Treat us as human beings first. Roxsana was a human being, a sister to all of us." In early November, about 76 people from the LGBTQ community arrived in Tijuana ahead of a large migrant caravan in buses that were paid for by an anonymous organization. They said they were discriminated against by people in the caravan. "To come here at the border and then face the military, to lose your life trying to escape to a better life is not a fair payment," added Jones. "That's a actually horrible punishment." Two San Diego County sheriff's deputies face misdemeanor criminal charges in the May arrest of a Vista man and his father that sparked outrage in the community. Deputy Nicholas Morgan and Deputy Joshua Nahan will appear in court Friday, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office announced. Both deputies were involved in the arrest of Gerardo Martinez, Jr. and his father after deputies were called to a domestic violence incident. A neighbor captured the May 7th arrest on video and posted it to Facebook. In the 22-second video, two deputies walked a handcuffed Gerardo Martinez Sr. down a walkway. Nahan, the deputy on the elder Martinez's left side, appears to push him head first into a wooden fence. While deputies were walking Martinez Sr., two other deputies were attempting to take his son into custody on the ground. Deputy Morgan was seen striking Martinez Jr. in the back of the head as he lay face down on the concrete. Deputies were heard telling him to "stop fighting."I feel like this District Attorney is the defender of law enforcement. They were under the color of authority. These were brutal assaults." Morgan, 27, has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault without lawful necessity by an officer and faces two years behind bars if convicted, the District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. Nahan, 31, has been charged with one misdemeanor count of assault without lawful necessity by an officer and faces one year in jail if convicted. Vista resident Alan Cabrera spoke passionately at a news conference called by members of the community when he said he hopes this action by the district attorney is a stepping stone toward a better relationship between the community and the sheriff's department. "A lot of times the sheriffs department doesnt hear who they are working for. They are working for us," Cabrera said. Other activists were disappointed the deputies were charged with misdemeanors. "I don't feel like it's a step forward," Tasha Williamson said. " Darwin Fishman with the Racial Justice Coalition of San Diego said its remarkable that this step was even taken. Often, community members are told law enforcement officers are acting within the agency's protocol or under threat to their personal safety. Right now, we have cowboys that are riding around North County doing whatever they way, Fishman said. Certainly this is just the tip of the iceberg. Neither the DA's Office or the sheriff's department would comment on the remarks made by those community activists. The day after the arrest, the sheriff's department said the deputies were responding to a call involving a domestic violence victim who was being held against her will. Martinez Sr. was charged with obstructing a public officer and bailed out days later. The charge was dropped. The younger Martinez was initially booked on false imprisonment, domestic violence, assault and resisting arrest charges. The resisting arrest charge was later dropped. He pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of corporal injury of a roommate or spouse. He was sentenced to four years of probation. Five years ago, more than 150 undocumented immigrants stormed the U.S. border at San Ysidro. Some threw rocks and bottles; U.S. border agents responded with pepper spray and tear gas. The immigrants who rushed the border wall in Nov. 2013 had a different motive than members of the caravan who tried to breach the boundary Sunday. In 2013, many of the undocumented immigrants who tried to cross had been deported from California after living and working for years in the U.S. Roberto Hernandez, a professor of Chicano/Chicana Studies at San Diego State University, researched the 2013 incident. He told NBC 7 that, just like Sunday, there were concerns about border security and the ability of undocumented immigrants to overwhelm border barriers. But Hernandez also noted that part of the reaction was also alarm [on both sides of the border] at the level of reaction on the part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, because the tear gas from helicopters, that was unprecedented." Years earlier, in the 1980s and 1990s, there were similar but much less violent incidents. Groups of undocumented immigrants would rush the border, hoping to overwhelm Border Patrol officers and run north to San Diego. The 9-11 terror attacks also slowed vehicle and foot traffic to a trickle at San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings and at other border crossings across the U.S. At the time, one pedestrian told NBC 7 that pedestrian traffic waiting to clear U.S. Customs from Tijuana had backed up a quarter-mile. They have metal detectors, they have [agents] standing [everywhere] down there, everyone's watching you walking up and down the hall, everyone's looking you up and down." Last year, a decision by the Mexican government to dramatically increase gas prices in Tijuana also caused disruptions on both sides of the border. Protests over the price hikes broke out in Tijuana, said University of San Diego professor David Shirk. Mexican authorities responded by closing their side of the Otay Mesa border crossing, according to Shirk. U.S. authorities also closed the southbound entrance at San Ysidro several times as a result of the Tijuana protests. But Hernandez said shut-downs are limited and invoked as a last resort, because people and businesses on both sides of the border suffer significant delays, inconveniences and financial hardships. "At all levels of government, except the federal government, there is a clear understanding of the symbiotic relationship that exists across the border, Hernandez said. What to Know The first 100 or so active duty troops arrived at the border on Thursday, making initial assessment at the McAllen, Texas, crossing The head of "Operation Faithful Patriot," has argued that the caravan is a potential threat, although he has not fully defined that AP journalists traveling with the largest group say it includes many families, including hundreds of children, and it has been orderly President Donald Trump ordered troops to the border in response to a caravan of migrants slowly making its way through Mexico toward the United States and still about 900 miles away, with many dropping out. Here's what we know so far about the military's mission: WHAT TROOPS ARE INVOLVED? More than 7,000 active duty troops have been told to deploy to Texas, Arizona and California. They are a mix of forces, including military police, an assault helicopter battalion, various communications, medical and headquarters units, combat engineers, planners and public affairs units. As of Friday, one week after the Pentagon acknowledged that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had approved a Department of Homeland Security request for military support at the border, the troop deployment was still unfolding, with about 3,500 at staging bases in the Southwest. Of those, about 2,250 active duty troops are at staging bases in Texas, about 1,100 Marines are at Camp Pendleton in California and fewer than 200 are in Arizona. About 100 troops are actually on the border, at the port crossing near McAllen, Texas. Most of the troops are being used to facilitate the movement of border patrol agents, house them, feed them and provide some of their protection. WHAT IS THEIR ROLE ON THE BORDER? The Pentagon is adamant that active duty troops will not do law enforcement, which they are forbidden from doing under the Posse Comitatus Act in the Constitution. Troops can't arrest people at the border. Their main job will be to support the Border Patrol. This means the military will transport border patrol agents to and along the border, help them erect additional vehicle barriers and fencing along the border, assist them with communications and provide some security for border agent camps. The military also will provide the border patrol agents with medical care, pre-packaged meals, and temporary housing. WILL TROOPS BE ARMED? Yes, many of them will be, mainly for self-protection. Military police at the border will be armed, although they will have non-lethal options for dealing with unexpected conflict. Pentagon officials say they are planning for a worst-case scenario of violence that could force soldiers to rely on their training to make split-second decisions to defend themselves or civilians. MPs might, for example, be dispatched to provide armed security for military engineers placing barricades at locations where there are no border patrol agents to provide protection. One day after Trump suggested soldiers on the southwest border may open fire if migrants throw rocks at them, he insisted Friday that he meant that rock-throwers would be arrested. "I didn't say 'shoot,'" he told reporters at the White House. Either way, his scenario of violence captures in a nutshell the risk of using active duty troops for domestic security: Their mission does not include confronting migrants, but some may be unable to avoid it. The commander in charge of the military operation, Air Force Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, head of U.S. Northern Command, said earlier this week that handling migrants will be primarily the job of the Customs and Border Protection agency. But he acknowledged "there could be incidental interaction" between migrants and soldiers. In light of that possibility, the soldiers "are going to be fully trained in how to do that," he said. Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military will not disclose details of its rules on the use of force. DOES CONGRESS SUPPORT THIS MISSION? With members of Congress focused mainly on Tuesday's midterm elections, reaction has been mild. A group of senior House Democrats wrote a letter to Mattis on Thursday expressing opposition to the military mission and demanding answers on its cost. The deployment of active duty troops, they wrote, "only exacerbates the potential to unnecessarily escalate the situation." Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator and Army combat veteran who served as defense secretary under President Barack Obama, told CNN the mission is "folly" because there is "no need, no threat." Retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who preceded Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took double-barreled aim at the border mission. Writing on Twitter Thursday, he called the military mission a "wasteful deployment of over-stretched Soldiers and Marines" that would be "made much worse" if they used force disproportional to the threat they face on the border. The Ocean Beach Pier was shut down on Wednesday due to high surf, hours before a storm was set to arrive in San Diego, bringing a major shift to the weather. The storm was expected to make landfall in North County San Diego Wednesday evening, bringing some light rain before the brunt of the storm reaches the county on Thursday morning, according to NBC 7 Meteorologist Sheena Parveen. By 11 p.m. Wednesday only a few spot showers were showing on NBC 7's weather radar. NBC 7 Meteorologist Dagmar Midcap said she expected showers to remain light through the night, and said moderate to heavy rains could make landfall as early as 6 a.m. Thursday. The NBC 7 First Alert Weather forecast calls for the potential for an inch of rain across much of the area by the end of Thursday, Parveen said. Forecasters say there's a risk of heavy rainfall in virtually all of the coastal ranges and some interior sections of the state through Wednesday. By late Thursday morning, storm clouds would start to dump heavy rain on the parts of the county, Parveen projected. The storm could cause flash flooding in areas scarred by recent wildfires, including last December's Lilac Fire in Fallbrook and this summer's West Fire in Alpine, the NWS said. The San Diego County Department of Public Works is cleaning one of the many storm channels ahead of tomorrow's rain storm to prevent any flooding. NBC 7's Joe Little reports. San Diego County has designated free sandbag stations for residents who need to protect their property from flooding. Free bags and sand will be provided at more than two dozen locations but residents must bring their own shovels. Several bag-only locations will also be available. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for areas where wildfires have left scorched land in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties. A high surf advisory is in effect for all of San Diego County's beaches through 10 p.m. Friday. The advisory warns of sneaker waves, sets measuring 6 to 10 feet and minor coastal flooding during the morning high tide. Midcap said wind gusts could reach 20 to 30 mph throughout the county, and could reach as high as 70 mph in the mountains and deserts. San Diego Fire-Rescue lifeguards shut down the Ocean Beach Pier Wednesday morning due to the high surf. Rain is on the way and the county wants residents in fire-scarred areas to be prepared for possible flooding. NBC 7's Audra Stafford has more. "It may re-open this afternoon when the surf settles down," the agency said in a tweet. There's also the possibility of snow in the mountains across Southern California with more than six inches of snow forecasted for areas above 7,000 feet. Snow accumulations in the Sierra could range from 2-4 feet. During the storm, winds will average 15 to 25 miles per hour in the mountains and some gusts could reach 35 mph. The NWS has issued a wind advisory for 24 hours starting at 6 a.m. Thursday. The City of San Diego was busy Wednesday clearing out storm drains ahead of the rain. At Kenwood Drive and Barbic Court in Spring Valley, road crew supervisor Tony Ariosta was hard at work clearing an outlet where debris tends to build up. We want to collect the debris so that it doesnt plug stuff up further down the system, Ariosta explained. Its very important to the big picture: it reduces flooding and reduces impact to the environment as well. Ariosta said the city plans to have public works employees work 12-hour shifts throughout the storm to make sure the storm channels are manned all day. There will be 24-hour coverage throughout the county through any events that could come up so that we can keep the streets and the thoroughfares safe for the traveling public, he added. Meanwhile, the California Highway Patrol reminded drivers Wednesday that, since there hasnt been significant rainfall in San Diego in several months, the highways will be slick once the storm rolls in. CHP said the most important thing for drivers to remember during a storm is to slow down. Drivers should also leave early to allow plenty of time to reach their destination, check their windshield wipers and tire tread before taking off for the day, and remember to use their headlights if their windshield wipers are in use. A man was shot and killed in Monday afternoon in a Northeast D.C. neighborhood that has seen a lot of violence in recent months. The shooting took place before 2 p.m. in the 1800 block of Benning Road NE. A witness said he heard 14 shots. Randall Francis, a valedictorian graduate of Eastern High School, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other victim was taken to a hospital. The family of the victim said he was a model and the shooting may have stemmed from a dispute over a girl. Police told his grandmother, Debra Smith, he got in an argument in a store. "And the girl left and came back with two boys and they shot him," she said. Francis' family said he worked as a photographer and model. There have been several shootings in the area in recent months. "We attribute it to these illegal firearms," Police Chief Pete Newsham said. "We have to start taking illegal firearms very seriously in our city. Got another young man over there who lost his life as a result of an illegal firearm." ANC Commissioner Kathy Henderson said outside drug dealers are bringing trouble into the neighborhood. "People that come over here and they think that this continues to be the epicenter for drug activity, it is not," she said. "They are relics. That's a bygone day, and they can't come back over here to continue their drug activity. We've moved on from that." In a statement released Monday night, Henderson called for emergency legislation that would allow police to clear the block when they see people congregating or selling illegal drugs or single cigarettes. About two weeks ago, another man was killed in the area. A military veteran was shot at 15th and D streets NE about 5:30 p.m. Oct. 5. Walter Leon Baylor, 32, was taken to a hospital, where he died. Police arrested 25-year-old Rodney Wayne Kinard of Northeast D.C. and charged him with second-degree murder while armed. Two other D.C. residents were killed in the area this fall. Marquiawn Williams, 25, was shot about 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24 in the 1800 block of Benning Road NE. Wilbert Brooks, 27, was shot just after midnight Sept. 30 in the 1500 block of Benning Road NE. No arrests have been made in either homicide. A 9-year-old girl was injured in a shooting about 9:30 p.m. Sept. 28 in the 1600 block of E Street NE. No arrests have been made. And on Sept. 21 about 11:10 p.m., four people were shot in the 1800 block of Benning Road NE. The victims survived. Police arrested 27-year-old Anthony Farmer of D.C. and a 26-year-old man. Students at La Plata High School in Maryland will now be required to wear photo ID in a program meant to bolster school safety by monitoring who goes in and out. The badges, each with a barcode, will help school officials identify who is supposed to be in the building and who is not. La Plata began issuing badges on Monday, and starting Tuesday, all 1,150 students will be required to wear their IDs. The cards feature barcodes that can be scanned to buy lunch, check out library books, sign into school late or sign out for early dismissal. In the future, the IDs could be used to identify students in an emergency "This is just another layer that we can add to our security," school safety director Jason Stoddard said. "Theres no one solution that's going to fix school security across the spectrum. However, the more layers that you can build in the better off we believe it will be." La Plata, Ryon Elementary School and Hanson Middle School are participating in the pilot program, which is expected to be implemented throughout the 27,000-student district next year. Temporary IDs will be issued to anyone who forgets or loses their card. Its up to the principals to decide if students would face any repercussions, the school website says. No specific incident prompted the new policy, but students told News4 of an earlier incident where a non-student came into the cafeteria and allegedly started a fight. "It does make the school more secure," senior Michael Windsor said. Some schools in Prince George's County give out student IDs that don't have barcodes. In D.C., students have a D.C. One Card that allows entry to schools and other government buildings. While other school districts in the region assign school ID cards to students, using the IDs to monitor attendance is a relatively new use of technology. A Virginia police officer killed in a crash while responding to a call had policing in his blood and was just married two months ago. Winchester police Officer Hunter Edwards, 30, died after his patrol car struck a tree as he was rushing to back up fellow officers responding to a big fight Saturday night. Hed just married Tara Edwards in September and considered her son to be his son. He was just a good man, a good person, said his wife, Tara Edwards, suddenly a widow. He loved what he did. His mother, Anne-Berry Wade, said policing was in his blood. His father was an officer and she was once in law enforcement, too. He majored in criminal justice in college and I think there was never any doubt in his mind that that was the career path that would be the perfect one for him, Wade said. Tara Edwards said it's no surprise her husband was hurrying to help fellow officers when he crashed. He didn't have to be asked to do that. He just took initiative on his own to always be there and help go above and beyond, she said. In addition to being a patrol officer, Edwards trained for the departments SWAT team and Civil Disturbance Response Unit. First responders stood atop Interstate 66 overpasses paying tribute as his body was returned to Winchester Monday. Anytime you have a line of duty death, it creates a huge hole and it's very painful for the men and women of the department, Winchester Police Chief John Piper said. A visitation is scheduled for Thursday at the Winchester Church of God from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. A funeral for family, friends and law enforcement personnel will be held on Friday at 11 a.m. A procession route will be announced soon, the city of Winchester said. The Chinese scientist who says he helped make the world's first gene-edited babies veered off a traditional career path, keeping much of his research secret in pursuit of a larger goal making history. He Jiankui's outsized aspirations began to take shape in 2016, the year after another team of Chinese researchers sparked global debate with the revelation that they had altered the DNA of human embryos in the lab. He soon set his mind on pushing the boundaries of medical ethics even further. The China-born, U.S.-trained scientist once confided to his former Stanford University adviser his interest in gene-edited babies. He told The Associated Press last month that he had been working on the experiment for more than two years a period in which, by his own account, he concealed information from some medical staff involved in the research, as well as apparently from his own bosses. He took advantage of the loosely worded and irregularly enforced regulations and generous funding available today in China, in some cases skirting even local protocols and possibly laws. "The enormous ambition in China, the desire to be the first, collides with the desire to create and enforce standards," said Jing-Bao Nie, an expert on Chinese bioethics at the University of Otago in New Zealand. On the eve of an international gene-editing summit in Hong Kong this week, the 34-year-old scientist stunned the world by claiming he had used the powerful CRISPR gene-editing tool to alter the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month. His claim could not be independently confirmed, and it has not been published in a journal, but it drew swift outrage from both researchers and regulators. Mainstream scientists in China and globally said the experiment should never have been tried. "They chose to short-circuit the entire process. They went rogue," said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene-editing expert. On Monday, China's National Health Commission ordered local officials in Guangdong province which includes He's laboratory in Shenzhen to investigate his actions. It was not clear if he could face criminal charges. His career trajectory did not follow the expected script. He did not publish most of his earlier research on modifying mice and monkey DNA, as most scientists would have done. And the way he advanced his latest study included questionable decisions on secrecy and medical ethics. "If you're going to do something this controversial and this early, and you want to be the leader of this movement, you want to do it in an exemplary way," said Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. He, who says his parents were farmers, was born in 1984 in southern China. At the time, the country was just beginning to emerge from the isolation of the Mao era, and the average annual income was only $300. Telephones were rare. Many villages were not yet connected by paved roads. Initially, He followed a common path for scientists of his generation. After graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China, he moved to the United States for graduate studies. There he earned a Ph.D. in biophysics from Rice University in 2010, then spent a year as a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford. His Stanford adviser, Stephen Quake, described him as "super bright" and "at the cutting edge of trying to apply new technologies to biology." In 2012, He returned to China to take up a post at Southern University of Science and Technology an institution that opened only a year earlier and is partly funded by the government of Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city known for its technology companies. "He was really interested in the notion of human genome editing," and what situation would be appropriate, said Quake, recalling one of He's visits. Quake gave feedback, but did not oversee the study. He's research could not have been legally conducted in the U.S. or in most of Europe. China has banned human cloning for reproduction. In 2003, its Ministry of Health issued a guideline to in-vitro clinics barring "clinical experiments which violate ethical or moral principles." The young scientist saw this ambiguity as an opportunity. Sometimes researchers Chinese or foreign who can't secure funding or permission for unconventional projects in the U.S. or Europe find financial support and openings in China. Ren Xiaoping, a surgeon who aims to perform the first human head transplant, worked for many years in U.S. hospitals but returned to China because a medical institute in his hometown of Shenyang agreed to support his research. Guoping Feng, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, works with a research facility in Guangdong province where his associates genetically engineer monkeys with brain disorders to study the development of autism-like symptoms. China has fewer restrictions on the use of lab animals. In 2016, He reached out to an AIDS advocacy group in Beijing to help him recruit potential study participants couples trying to have children where the man was HIV positive. There are already well-tested ways to guard against transmission of the AIDS virus in IVF. Instead, He's goal was to rewrite DNA before birth to make children less likely to contract HIV after they're born. Other scientists have tested similar gene-editing techniques on cells in a lab dish to prevent inherited diseases, but not leading to live births. For his CRISPR work, He did not seek prior approval from federal regulators. He listed his study in an online registry of Chinese clinical trials on Nov. 8 long after it began. His lab skirted norms that many of his Chinese peers uphold. For example, the lab did not inform all the medical staff directly assisting the expectant couples that the study involved gene editing. They believed they were assisting in standard IVF attempts, with an additional step of mapping the genomes, not manipulating the embryo, according to one of the embryologists involved in the research, Qin Jinzhou. Patient consent forms referred to the study imprecisely as an "AIDS vaccine development" program. He also sought consultation from an ethics committee outside the hospitals involved in the research. Lin Zhitong, founder of the Shenzhen Harmonicare Women & Children's Hospital, told the AP in October that his hospital's ethics committee advised He, but had no other involvement. Withholding information from medical staff about gene editing was acceptable because some fertility doctors may not agree to help HIV positive couples, said Lin, who also said he has not worked as a doctor or scientist, but comes from a family of hospital property developers. Deceiving or working around any study participants is not standard practice in China, "and it violates the broad spirit of informed consent," said Nie, the bioethics expert. "In some cases, ethics committees are just rubber stamps." After He's claim, Harmonicare released a statement condemning human gene-editing and announced an investigation into any ties with He's lab. The Shenzhen scientist released some findings in YouTube videos. He announced his feat in English, not Chinese. "He wanted to attract attention in the international community. Now he got what he really wanted," Nie said. He's own university was kept in the dark. Southern University of Science and Technology said in a statement that it was not informed about He's work, and that it "seriously violated academic ethics and standards." He's research team included his former Rice adviser, physics professor Michael Deem, who sits on the scientific advisory boards of He's two genetics companies. Rice said it has launched an investigation into Deem's involvement. In an interview last month at his Shenzhen lab, He said gene-edited babies were inevitable. He wanted to be first. "There will be someone, somewhere, who is doing this," he said. "If it's not me, it's someone else." AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, researcher Fu Ting and video journalist Emily Wang contributed to this report. What to Know Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is receiving counsel from a former Obama New Hampshire campaign co-chairman Jim Demers is becoming known as Booker's "tour guide" within New Hampshire Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is getting advice from one of former President Barack Obama's campaign leaders in New Hampshire as he considers a run for the White House in 2020, CNBC has learned. Jim Demers, a co-chairman of Obama's New Hampshire campaign organization in 2008, is becoming known as Booker's "tour guide" within the state. "I have told Cory if he runs, I plan to support him," Demers said in an email to CNBC. He noted that he assisted Booker during his trip to New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago and plans to do the same in December when Booker attends the New Hampshire Democratic Party's midterm victory celebration. "I have introduced him to multiple elected officials in N.H.," Demers added. Booker's engagement with top political operatives in New Hampshire, a state that holds one of the earliest contests of the presidential election season, shows he is surrounding himself with people who could help him mount a formidable campaign for the Democratic nomination. The development also comes after CNBC learned that Booker was developing relationships with top-tier campaign strategists in Iowa, which holds its stage-setting caucuses earlier than New Hampshire's primary. Demers expressed his support for a Booker run early on. "I have been watching this guy for several years now. He has got, I think, that 'it' factor," the New Hampshire political operative told The Washington Times in February. He did not say at the time that he would become one of Booker's top advisors. A spokesman for Booker declined to comment. Kathy Sullivan, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, is one of the influential people Booker met through Demers. Sullivan was a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. "My husband and I had dinner with Senator Booker and a few other people just before the midterms when he was in New Hampshire," Sullivan told CNBC. "Jim Demers was really the one acting as a tour guide." The focus of the conversation was on the midterms but it also turned into what Sullivan described as a "getting-to-know-you meeting." The New Hampshire primary is one of the early hurdles for any presidential candidate, although it isn't always a must-win. Obama lost the state's 2008 primary to Hillary Clinton by just under three percentage points. Clinton fell in the same primary in 2016 when she was in a surprisingly tough race for the nomination against Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Sanders trounced Clinton by over 20 points, but she went on to capture the Democratic Party nomination that year. Then-candidate Donald Trump won the state's Republican primary and later defeated Clinton in the general election. Beyond Booker Booker isn't the only Democrat making inroads within the pivotal state in the run up to the next election. Paul Hodes, a former congressman and Obama campaign chair, said he's met privately with at least three other potential candidates, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti. Avenatti, who has emerged as one of Trump's most strident critics in the media, was arrested amid allegations of domestic violence earlier in November but maintains he is innocent. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office declined to file felony charges against Avenatti, and referred the case to the Los Angeles City Attorney's office to consider possible misdemeanor charges. Hodes said Avenatti came across as someone who is seriously considering a run. "I would say that of the folks I have met with, he was the clearest at the time thinking about whether or not to run for president," Hodes said. However, Hodes, along with New Hampshire Democrats who spoke on the condition of anonymity, are eagerly awaiting the visit of another prospective candidate: Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke. O'Rourke, whose improbably tight U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz has made him a hero within the Democratic Party, has yet to make a trip to the Granite State. But he is being prodded by his donors to make a run for the White House. "I haven't looked at Beto O'Rourke's record, but he's a really interesting candidate," Hodes said. "He has a way of communicating that just works and he manages to frame issues in a way that isn't divisive but also in a way that isn't weak." O'Rourke said Monday that he is no longer ruling out a run for president. This story first appeared on CNBC.com. More from CNBC: President Donald Trump on Monday rejected a central conclusion of a dire report on the economic costs of climate change released by his own administration. But economists said the National Climate Assessment's warning of hundreds of billions of dollars a year in global warming costs is pretty much on the money. Just look at last year with Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma, they said. Those three 2017 storms caused at least $265 billion in damage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The climate report, quietly unveiled Friday, warned that natural disasters are worsening in the United States because of global warming. It said warming-charged extremes "have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration." The report noted the last few years have smashed U.S. records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015. "The potential for losses in some sectors could reach hundreds of billions of dollars per year by the end of this century," the report said. It added that if emissions of heat-trapping gases continue at current levels, labor costs in outdoor industries during heat waves could cost $155 billion in lost wages per year by 2090. The president said he read some of the report "and it's fine" but not the part about the devastating economic impact. "I don't believe it," Trump said, adding that if "every other place on Earth is dirty, that's not so good." Nearly every country in the world in 2015 pledged to reduce or slow the growth of carbon dioxide emissions, the chief greenhouse gas. "We're already there," said Wesleyan University economist Gary Yohe, who was a reviewer of the national report, which was produced by 13 federal agencies and outside scientists. "Climate change is making a noticeable impact on our economy right now: Harvey, Florence, Michael, Maria." Yohe said, "It is devastating at particular locations, but for the entire country? No." Economist Ray Kopp, a vice president at the think tank Resources For the Future and who wasn't part of the assessment, said the economics and the science in the report were absolutely credible. "I believe this is going to be a devastating loss without any other action-taking place," Kopp said Monday. "This is certainly something you would want to avoid." Earlier, the White House had played down the report. Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in an emailed statement that the report "is largely based on the most extreme scenario, which contradicts long-established trends by assuming that, despite strong economic growth that would increase greenhouse gas emissions, there would be limited technology and innovation, and a rapidly expanding population. " Throughout the 29-chapter report, scientists provide three scenarios that the United Nations' climate assessments use. One is the business-as-usual scenario, which scientists say is closest to the current situation. That is the worst case of the three scenarios. Another would envision modest reductions in heat-trapping gases, and the third would involve severe cuts in carbon dioxide pollution. For example, the $155 billion a year in extra labor costs at the end of the century is under the business-as-usual scenario. Modest reductions in carbon pollution would cut that to $75 billion a year, the report said. The report talks of hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses in several spots. In one graphic, it shows the worst-case business-as-usual scenario of economic costs reaching 10 percent of gross domestic product when Earth is about a dozen degrees warmer than now with no specific date. Yohe said it was unfortunate that some media jumped on that 10 percent number because that was a rare case of hyperbole in the report. "The 10 percent is not implausible as a possible future for 2100," Yohe said. "It's just not terribly likely." Kopp, on the other hand, said the 10 percent figure seems believable. "This is probably a best estimate," Kopp said. "It could be larger. It could be smaller." Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report. Police in Duxbury, Massachusetts are warning residents of a scam that targets parishioners via email. Officials received reports of a person using a fake church email address in an effort to receive money or gift cards. The scammer poses as the Rev. Mally Lloyd of the towns St. John the Evangelist Church and demands goods that would go towards fighting cancer, according to police. Lloyd said the email was only sent to her parishioners making the scam extremely specific. "It's like a trifecta of indignity and danger," Lloyd said. "Why do they need the money so much that theyre willing to scam people? Is it greed? Is it desperation because they're poor? I don't know, but its not right to do it this way." Police said so far, no one has fallen for the scam. Authorities caution it's the time of year when cyber criminals know people want to give to charities and that gift cards are their go-to. "It's a cash value for them. It's a $50 iTunes card and they will sell it to someone else for $25," Duxbury Police Deputy Chief Stephen McDonald said. Duxbury police advise residents to research organizations before making donations to them. They warn that it is common for thieves to pose as false charities with names similar to legitimate organizations. If you believe you are a victim to this scam, Duxbury police urge you to call them at 781-934-5656. A juvenile New Hampshire suspect arrested over the weekend for allegedly making threatening phone calls to two Boston gay bars could appear in court as early as Monday afternoon, authorities said. The suspect, who has only been identified as a 16-year-old boy from Hampton, New Hampshire, is accused of making threatening phone calls earlier this month to Alley Bar in downtown Boston and dbar in the city's Dorchester neighborhood. During a hearing at Portsmouth Court on Monday, the teen waived rendition proceedings on Massachusetts complaints that charged him with threatening to use deadly weapons, threatening to do bodily harm and a civil rights violation as well as additional warrants from separate charges. Investigators say the calls were placed through a smartphone app that allows the user to make phone calls and send text messages online. Investigators identified the number assigned to the app and obtained the user information which were entered. Eventually, police found a juvenile had downloaded the app on April 2016, according to the Suffolk district attorney's office. By checking call records associated with the account, they allegedly discovered the app was used to communicate with one of the juveniles close relatives around the same time the two bars received the threats. The suspect allegedly phoned the Boston bars on Nov. 9 and 10 and said he wanted to "kill everyone" and "shoot everyone in the bar." It's unclear if the teen suspect had an attorney in New Hampshire or has an attorney in Massachusetts. Authorities are following up with bar staff at Alley Bar and dbar to determine if additional charges are warranted. The investigation is ongoing. A 74-year-old former Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to raping an altar boy in Massachusetts went on trial Monday for allegedly assaulting two boys in Maine in the 1980s. Ronald Paquin, who was defrocked in 2004, is charged with assaulting the boys between 1985 and 1988 in Kennebunkport, Maine when the victims were 14 or younger. Court documents indicate one of them was "substantially impaired" by drugs during the assault. Paquin, who pleaded not guilty, used a cane when he entered the courtroom on Monday and sat between his attorneys as one of the victims testified in York County Superior Court. Assistant District Attorney Justina McGettigan said the evidence would show Paquin gave the boys alcohol, asked them to perform sex acts on him, and performed sex acts on them on several occasions. "All of this was while the defendant was a religious figure in their lives," McGettigan said. The alleged victim who testified, now in his late 40s, told the jury that Paquin began taking an interest in him when he was 12 years old and continued through his teenage years. The sexual assaults took place at several locations, including a motel and a campground in Kennebunkport, he said. He said the priest took him on trips to Hawaii, Orlando, and even a cruise to Mexico. The alleged victim said eventually their time together turned physical. "He would tell dirty jokes. He would tell me I wanted something more from him," the alleged victim remembered, his hands and voice shaking throughout his testimony. Jurors who were selected last week were asked a series of questions including whether they watched the movie "Spotlight" about the Boston Globe's reporting on the clergy abuse scandal. Paquin, who was featured in the movie, was a central figure in the scandal that enveloped the Boston archdiocese. He spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for sexually assaulting an altar boy. He was released in 2015 and was taken into custody in Maine last year. The Boston Globe reported Paquin admitted to medical evaluators that he abused at least 14 boys and said he was also abused as a child. Other allegations against him have prompted civil settlements, but no other criminal convictions. In Maine, charges were made possible because the statute of limitations for sex crimes against a child younger than 16 was eliminated in 1999. The second alleged victim in the case is expected to testify Tuesday. St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston has launched Open House once a week to give people in the local community an opportunity to socialise over a coffee. St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston has launched Open House once a week to give people in the local community an opportunity to socialise over a coffee. Lady Dannatt sees Eaton's creativity in times of Covid Lady Dannatt MBE, the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, and the Mayor and Sheriff of Norwich were among visitors to a recent Quilt of Kindness exhibition in Norwich. Read more Norwich church runs weekly job club A Norwich Job Club offers friendship, peer support and community to local people seeking employment and it is based at a local church. Read more God will help you run the race Jane Walters marvels at the achievements of those who run marathons, but recognises the need to allow God to set the pace, and provide the strength. Read more Integrate Youth for Christ hiring in South Norfolk Integrate Youth for Christ are looking for an Area Youth and Schools Worker in South Norfolk and North Suffolk. Read more East Anglia Safeguarding Officer is needed The Diocese of East Anglia has an exciting opportunity for a Safeguarding Officer to join our diocesan team on a part-time basis. Read more Women's Specialist Practitioner vacancy The Magdalene Group has been supporting women, who experience sexual exploitation and coercion, for over 25 years; we have a track record of building trusted relationships with some of the most marginalised women in society. Read more Carols and prayer at historic Walsingham bakery A Walsingham couple are hosting a carol concert and charismatic prayer meeting in their historic home, with a few places left for others to join them. Read more Ashill actors create full immersion Christmas experience The Fountain of Life Church in Ashill is bringing Christmas alive with an all-senses journey through the Christmas story. Read more Care home careers at MHA Cromwell House, Norwich MHA Cromwell House in Norwich has career opportunities for a Care Assistant and Senior Care Assistant. Read more Norwich synagogue giving away free clothes this Sunday The Adat Yeshua Messianic Jewish congregation in Norwich are giving away clothes for free this Sunday, November 21, as part of the national Jewish Mitzva Day. Read more TimeNorfolk seeks volunteer practitioners TimeNorfolk are running a training course in 2022 for people interested in volunteering as a practitioner supporting the charity's clients. Read more Advent Angels set to land in Norfolk churches Churches in the Aylsham area will be visited by Advent Angels during December, created by churches and schools in the district. Read more Norwich Community Gospel Choir brings comfort and joy The Norwich Community Gospel Choir is fully up and running again, and welcoming new singers. Read more Crowdfunding appeal to fix Wiveton Church St Mary's, Wiveton has launched a CrowdFunding appeal for urgent roof repairs following storm damage two years ago, and Emma Bridgewater is supporting the campaign. Read more Help us to stage the Norwich Passion Play Would you like to be part of a professional Passion Play being staged on the streets of Norwich city centre next Easter and see the Gospel story performed in public? Read more Chance to meet new YMCA Norfolk CEO New YMCA Norfolk CEO, John Lee, will be the speaker at the next Transforming Norwich lunch to which local Christian leaders are invited to share lunch and to encourage and pray for one another. Read more Worshipping God in a draughty church Robert Ashton is concerned about the environmental impact of trying to heat the large number of historic, but often draughty, churches in Britain. Read more Cold Ash St Mark's head standing down following strong Ofsted report COLD Ash St Marks School is marking both good news and a goodbye following a glowing Ofsted report and the impending departure of its headteacher. Sue Ball will be leaving the school at the end of the term next month after 11 years at the helm. Mrs Ball, who has also been headteacher at Aldermaston, Brightwalton and Winchcombe schools in her 28 years in education, said the time had come for her to retire. She said: I would like to personally thank the staff, governors and parents for making my time here so memorable. I feel very fortunate that I have built a lovely team of staff and parents here who are really supportive. Mrs Ball will be handing over to deputy head Mitch Warrender, who has been at the school for 18 years. He knows the school well, the children, parents and community, Mrs Ball said. Im leaving the school in very good hands. Its just time for me to go. The schools in a good place and now is a good time to hand over. Indeed, the school was judged as being good by Ofsted following an inspection in October. Ofsted said that a good quality of education had been maintained since the school was last inspected in 2014. The report said that Mrs Ball, Mr Warrender and other senior leaders and governors, had led the school to become the happy, purposeful place that it is today. It adds: You are ambitious for pupils to achieve well and to make good progress academically, but you also place a strong emphasis on developing pupils characters and their sense of responsibility. Teachers were said to have planned memorable learning experiences and had high expectations of pupils, who in turn worked hard, striving to do their best. The report added that parents were overwhelmingly positive about the school, with many saying that staff enabled pupils not only to achieve well academically, but also socially and emotionally. Ofsted said that the next steps for the school were to improve the teaching of phonics by the end of year one and for pupils to achieve higher standards by the end of Key Stage 2. Mrs Ball said: Im absolutely delighted with the outcome of the Ofsted report and really pleased that it actually identified the same things that we identified that will need future work on. Its nice knowing we didnt have any surprises in the report. Also, Im really pleased to see the inspector picked up on the excellent behaviour of the children and their enthusiasm for being at school. She said that learning was not just about academics and that the school tried to provide children hands-on experience relevant to the curriculum. Without the support of the parents we couldnt do that, Mrs Ball added. We do rely on them and their voluntary contributions. Chairman of governors Rod King said the school had witnessed postive and lasting changes under Mrs Balls watch. She has led in creating a warm, welcoming, safe and stimulating place in which children learn, make good progress and grow in confidence, he said. She will leave the school with a strong foundation to become the centre of educational excellence to which we aspire and in which all our children can thrive as young people. For her service to the school, staff, families and the community and for many other reasons, the governors would like to say a big thank you. Mr King praised his team of governors and the Cold Ash St Marks School Association, which has funded 21 new computers for the school after raising 30,000 in one year. BRIDGEPORT Housatonic Community College is hosting upcoming Friday registration sessions aimed at shortening the application and enrollment process. The first is set for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec 14 in the Lafayette Hall Student Services Center. Prospective students can meet with admissions, receive advising, learn about financial aid, complete testing, and register for classes all in one day. Future sessions are planned for Dec. 28 and January 11. The colleges winter session starts Dec. 26, 2018. The spring semester begins January 24, 2019. On each of the Fridays, students can complete the pre-entrance assessment in reading, writing and math until 12:30 p.m. Students who have previously completed college math and English, or those who have qualifying ACT or SAT scores, may not need to take an ACCUPLACER test. For further information, please contact the HCC Admissions Office at (203) 332-5100 or visit Housatonic.edu. Researchers at the University of Tubingen and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have achieved a breakthrough in the decoding of multi-resistant pathogens. The team led by Professor Andreas Peschel and Professor Thilo Stehle was able to decode the structure and function of a previously unknown protein used by dreaded pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus like a magic cloak to protect themselves against the human immune system. The study was published in Nature on Wednesday. Infections caused by bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus cause many deaths worldwide. Staphylococcus aureus strains resistant to the antibiotic methicillin (MRSA for short) are particularly feared in hospitals. According to a study published at the beginning of November, there were around 670,000 diseases caused by multi-resistant pathogens in the EU alone in 2015 and 33,000 patients died. Normally, our immune system copes well with pathogens such as bacteria or viruses. However, sometimes the defensive strategies of the human body fail, especially in immunocompromised patients. Most antibiotics are meanwhile ineffective against resistant pathogens. Effective replacement antibiotics and a protective vaccine against MRSA are not yet in sight. A precise understanding of the defense mechanisms could therefore lead to new therapies against the bacteria. DZIF researchers at the University of Tubingen have now described how MRSA bacteria become invisible to the immune system. They were able to show that many of the particularly frequent MRSA bacteria have acquired a previously unknown protein that prevents the pathogens from being detected by anti-bodies. The Tubingen scientists gave the protein the name TarP (short for teichoic acid ribitol P). "TarP alters the pattern of carbohydrate molecules on the pathogen surface in a so far unknown way," explained Professor Andreas Peschel from the Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine at the University of Tubingen. "As a result, the immune system is unable to produce antibodies against the most important MRSA antigen, teichoic acid," said Peschel. "The immune system is 'blinded' and loses its most important weapon against the pathogen." Reprogrammed by phages The researchers from Tubingen assume that the bacterial camouflage is the result of an exchange between the pathogens and their natural enemies, known as bacteriophages. Phages are a class of viruses that attack bacteria, use them as host cells and feed on them. In this case, phages seem to have reprogrammed their host using the TarP protein and thus altered the surface of the bacterium. The first authors of the study, David Gerlach and Yinglan Guo, succeeded in clarifying the mechanism and structure of TarP. "We now have a detailed understanding of how the protein functions as an enzyme on the molecular level," said Gerlach. The structure-function analysis of TarP forms an excellent basis for the development of new drugs that block TarP allowing the immune system to detect the pathogens. An interdisciplinary approach, involving scientists from Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and South Korea, was particularly important for the success of this work. "The discovery of TarP came as a complete surprise to us. It explains very well why the immune system often has no chance against MRSA," said Professor Thilo Stehle from the Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry. "The results will help us to develop better therapies and vaccines against the pathogens." Peschel referred to the recently approved Tubingen Cluster of Excellence "Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections" and the close cooperation with the German Center for Infection Research: "These outstanding networks will help us to further advance the research of MRSA and TarP." On the November 23rd, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that as of February, all advertisements for food high in fat, sugar and salt will be banned from the Londons tube and bus network. The measure is part of the mayors plan to decrease child obesity rates. The Consumer Choice Center's London-based Managing Director Fred Roeder said that combating childhood obesity is a noble goal, but trampling on consumer choice and the rights of adult consumers isn't an appropriate solution. Even though we all agree that obesity is an important issue, marketing restrictions havent proved to be effective in stemming it. In 1980, junk food advertising was outlawed in Quebec and contrary to the expected outcomes, childhood obesity rates went up by 140% in the 15 years following the introduction of the ban. In October, Public Health England indicated that more than 37 percent of 10 and 11 year-olds in London are overweight or obese. It is often mistakenly argued that this is caused by high energy intake, but the obesity rates are dependent on the physical activity, which according to the Public Health England has decreased by 24 per cent since the 1960s. Daily calorie intake in the UK is also decreasing each decade. We dont have a junk food problem, but a calorie burning problem. Rather than impose the junk food ban, the mayor should advocate promoting healthy lifestyles that include physical exercise. To back up the plan, the mayor explained that advertising plays a huge part in the choices we make. While it is true that advertisements help distinguish products on the market, governments should preserve consumers' rights to decide for themselves and avoid legislation that seeks to ban brands. Ultimately, we as a society need to focus on educating and empowering parents to ensure their children make healthy choices. Fred Roeder, Managing Director, Consumer Choice Center Source: https://consumerchoicecenter.org/ When is high blood pressure dangerous? Medical associations offer widely differing answers. In the USA, for example, patients are seen as hypertensive much sooner than in Germany. A team working with Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig of the Technical University of Munich and the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen has concluded that treating patients sooner does not reduce the risk of deadly heart disease. It could even negatively affect their mental health. In 2017 the American College of Cardiology added a new category to its guidelines for high blood pressure: "Stage 1 Hypertension". Under the new standards, doctors are advised to place patients in this category (130-139 mmHg / 80-89 mmHg) on treatment. For the European Society of Cardiology, that range is defined as "high normal" blood pressure, with no specific action recommended. "The idea behind the US guidelines is to lower blood pressure as early as possible and, by presenting patients with a diagnosis, to encourage them to adopt a healthier lifestyle," explains Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig, a researcher at the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the TUM University Clinic rechts der Isar at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen. Motivation factor questionable Using data from approximately 12,000 patients, Ladwig and his team assessed the situation in Germany. "We studied the 10-year risk of mortality from cardio-vascular disease (CVD) among people in the various hypertension categories in the context of the other risk factors affecting them," says Seryan Atasoy, the first author of the study, who is working as an epidemiologist at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen. In the newly created category "Stage 1 Hypertension", the CVD mortality risk was not significantly higher than among patients with normal blood pressure. "The motivation effect is questionable, too," says Karl-Heinz Ladwig. Patients in the high-risk category "Stage 2 Hypertension", where medication is recommended under both the US and the European guidelines, have a much greater risk of dying of heart disease, he explains. "At the same time, risk factors such as smoking and a lack of exercise are far more frequent in that group. That shows that many people do not change their lifestyles despite the diagnosis." Dangerous depression Although the incidence of depression is generally lower among people with dangerously high blood pressure than in the general population, depression was significantly more common in one subset of that group: those taking medication to treat their serious hypertension. Here, depressive moods were reported by around half of all patients, as opposed to just one-third of those not receiving treatment. "We believe that this should be seen as a labeling effect," says Ladwig. "When people are officially labeled as 'sick', that has an impact on their mental health." A previous study by Ladwig and his team showed that, in terms of mortality risk from cardio-vascular disease, depression is comparable to high cholesterol levels or obesity. New guidelines mean more sick people "The American College of Cardiology itself has calculated that the proportion of adults diagnosed with high blood pressure will increase from 32 to 46 percent," says Karl-Heinz Ladwig. "That means 14 percent more who have to deal with the additional mental stress - although their risk of developing a potentially deadly cardio-vascular condition is not significantly higher, and despite no real expectation of extra motivation through the diagnosis." For those reasons, Ladwig believes that it would be a serious mistake to adopt the US guidelines in Europe. An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of Cyprus and University of California San Diego School of Medicine, have identified a previously unknown, large-scale association between molecular gene expression activity in blood leukocyte cells and altered neural responses to speech in toddlers with autism as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The findings were published online November 26 in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The large-scale gene-brain association occurs differently in toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and who have poor language development compared to toddlers with ASD and good language development or typically developing toddlers. This large-scale association involved a very large number of genes, many of which are commonly expressed in many tissues, including the brain and leukocytes, a type of blood cell. "Many of the genes involved are known from other work to be involved in prenatal brain development are human-specific, are linked to vocal learning, and importantly, have been directly implicated in ASD by other genetic and postmortem studies," said first author Michael Lombardo, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Cyprus. "The findings show that different molecular biological mechanisms underpin functional brain development in a subtype of ASD toddlers with poor language outcome, and this biology is present before such outcomes are known." Accordingly, say the authors, the work suggests that functional neuroimaging measures and gene expression levels in blood leukocyte cells may offer a novel in vivo way to identify brain-relevant molecular mechanisms in ASD. "They also show how using peripheral blood samples could help inform our understanding of how brain development dynamically changes across the lifespan," said co-senior author Eric Courchesne, PhD, professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "For example, the methodology behind this work can be utilized in the future to monitor how the biology of a patient, at molecular and neural systems levels, responds to treatment or changes over the lifespan across different outcomes." Early language development in autism is highly variable, noted the authors. "Some toddlers with autism are minimally verbal, while at the other extreme, many individuals develop language like typically developing toddlers," said Lombardo. "An important and long-standing question has been whether these very different language profiles in autism are subtype distinctions that point to different biological underpinnings." "We need to better understand the biological underpinnings of different early language development in autism because early language ability is one of the most important predictors of early intervention response and later-life outcomes," said Courchesne. "If we can understand that biology, this may have high impact in future work examining how to best facilitate change to the biology that can then substantially improve longer term outcomes for patients." At UC San Diego School of Medicine, a research team led by Courchesne and co-senior author Karen Pierce, PhD, professor of neuroscience and co-director with Courchesne of the UC San Diego Autism Center of Excellence, collected blood samples from 118 toddlers, average age 29 months or just under 2-and-a-half years old, and measured transcriptional activity of all protein coding genes in the genome. The UC San Diego team additionally collected fMRI data during natural sleep from toddlers while they were passively exposed to speech stimuli. Using behavioral clinical assessment data collected repeatedly each year from one to four years of age, Pierce divided the toddlers with autism into subtypes that showed poor or good language outcome by three to four years of age. Lombardo then used advanced biostatistics analyses to cluster genes into highly correlated "gene modules," assessing how activity in the modules related to whole-brain neural response to speech. The researchers found that module activity linked to neural responses to speech was widespread across the genome, encompassing several thousand genes working in coordinated fashion. The finding, said authors, was highly linked to in vivo fMRI response in living patients and is a methodological advance that could help improve how clinicians assess which individuals will respond to different kinds of treatment. "One of the biggest challenges in advancing understanding of ASD has been the absence of a method to identify what gene activity differences underlie the initial brain differences and the clinical symptoms in living toddlers with ASD," said Courchesne. "This is because the living toddler's brain is inaccessible to the direct measurement of gene activity. As such, gene activity differences underlying emerging brain dysfunction and clinical symptoms has remained completely unknown -- until now. "Our method takes advantage of the fact that a large number of ASD-relevant and prenatal brain-relevant genes and gene networks broadly express in easily accessible non-brain tissues, such as leukocytes as well as in brain. By carefully analyzing such early age gene activity, it's possible to advance understanding of this key biology in living toddlers with ASD. This unique method not only can have a huge impact on understanding the molecular bases of ASD, but also how to monitor changes in the biology as a function of early intervention. We think this method for linking molecular mechanisms in available peripheral samples, such as blood, with in vivo measures of the brain using neuroimaging helps us substantially." Courchesne said researchers plan to extend their work in clinically relevant directions, such as monitoring treatment response in ASD subtypes and potentially leverage information derived from gene expression, fMRI and clinical measures to develop tools that can better predict language outcomes for toddlers with ASD at very early ages. In areas of Washington, D.C. and Maryland the prevalence of diabetes is as high as 15 percent in adults. This, coupled with long waitlists at endocrinologist offices, helped to fuel the idea that primary care physicians with advanced training in diabetes could effectively care for complex patients living with diabetes. Project ECHO -- short for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes -- is a telementoring project that targets increased workforce capacity to provide best practice specialty care and reduce health disparities. The heart of the ECHO model is its hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing networks to conduct virtual clinics with community providers. Through the Merck Foundation's Bridging the Gap: Reducing Disparities in Diabetes Care grant, the George Washington University (GW) in partnership with La Clinica del Pueblo, launched the first Project ECHO site in the D.C./Maryland region to improve the capacity of care teams to manage complex diabetes cases and establish team-based care review meetings focused on diabetes population health. This site launched in September 2018. In 2017, La Clinica, a nonprofit serving as a dependable source of integrated health care and health education for more than 8,000 men, women, and children, was selected by the Merck Foundation through a national application process, to be a part of the Bridging the Gap initiative. This initiative aims to bring together the health care sector and others to support innovative approaches to diabetes treatment and management. "Through Project ECHO, we are conducting a multidisciplinary intervention to target the Latino population to improve diabetes management by empowering primary care providers," said Nicole Ehrhardt, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences and one of the GW faculty involved with the grant. Through 14 sessions over the course of six months, participants will learn through case presentations how they can approach diabetic patients with complex diagnoses. Ehrhardt said 10 GW physician assistant students also are involved. The students are attending sessions and at the end will share how comfortable they feel about their ability to manage diabetes when they start their own independent clinical practice in a year. The goal is to offer the diabetes ECHO training sessions to many more local primary care providers in D.C. and Maryland and also more GW students over the next four years. "ECHO will strengthen our delivery of care and ultimately help our patients," said Ricardo Fernandez, MD, chief medical officer at La Clinica. Through this initiative, La Clinica aims to strengthen its delivery of diabetes care through practice transformation strategies, and conduct multilevel and inter-sectoral interventions to reduce health disparities and improve population health in the Latino community. Project ECHO will improve health outcomes and increase access to quality diabetes care for Latinos with Type 2 diabetes in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The D.C./Maryland program joins 14 other Project ECHO sites across the country focused on endocrinology and diabetes. Further bringing 3D printed medical models to life, Stratasys is expanding the suite of printers and materials validated by its collaborator Materialise as part of FDA-cleared Materialise Mimics inPrint software. The end result is the most versatile 3D printing system for point-of-care across hospitals and physicians - advancing production of patient-specific, life-like anatomical models for diagnostic purposes in conjunction with other tools and expert clinical judgment. Model of patients left atrial appendage (LAA) created with Stratasys and Materialise technology is intended to allow surgeons to select the appropriate device and plan the optimal approach to occlude the LAA. Image provided by Materialise PolyJet multi-material and multi-color solutions validated now include the J750 and J735 3D Printers and the high-performance desktop Objet30 Prime 3D Printer. Materialise Mimics inPrint is the first and currently only 3D printing software cleared by the FDA to create anatomical models for patient care. The software is designed to allow physicians and hospitals to leverage 3D printing at point-of-care - building a trusted and reliable source for surgical planning and interdisciplinary communication. Historically, pre-surgical planning relied on 2D imaging requiring physicians to mentally reconstruct the patient anatomy. But 3D printing evolves this approach by putting precise replicas of patient anatomy directly in physician hands. Our collaboration with Materialise is a huge step towards unlocking the potential of this technology for patient care. Now the 3D printer that every hospital needs to power their medical modeling comes with additional options for an FDA-cleared software solution. Eyal Miller, Head of Healthcare Business Unit, Stratasys In March of 2018, Materialise Mimics inPrint was cleared by the FDA, becoming the only solution with 510(k) clearance as an end-to-end 3D printing solution, as well as a fully comprehensive 3D printing solution for anatomical modeling. According to company reports, of the top 20 U.S. hospitals as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, 16 have implemented a medical 3D printing strategy using Materialise Mimics technology. By validating Stratasys 3D printing technologies through our certification process, were giving doctors and hospitals improved access to high-quality anatomical models for personalized care to patients. The addition of multi-color and multi-material printers to the list of validated printers is aimed to enable healthcare providers to implement a versatile offering that can support their most complex cases across a wide range of surgical specialties on a single printer. At Materialise, we take a hardware-agnostic approach to software development, offering the flexibility to partner with other leaders in the 3D printing industry like Stratasys a company committed to addressing requirements of the medical community. Bryan Crutchfield, Vice President and General Manager of Materialise North America The Stratasys J735/J750 3D Printers are able to develop highly-complex models using multiple textures while combining hard and soft materials to mimic human tissue. The unique combination of transparency with multiple color re-creation ensures practitioners can differentiate anatomy, view critical structures within an organ replica, and create realistic representations of any bone, tissue, and organ. The Stratasys Objet30 Prime 3D Printer is a cost-effective, desktop platform providing an entry point to hospitals seeking a point-of-care printing solution - without compromising quality, resolution or accuracy. The versatile offering supports a range of anatomical models and applications, including orthopedic, cardiac, neurosurgery and other use-cases for visualization, surgical planning, training, and education. The health of newborn babies and their mothers are key indicators of the health and wellbeing of populations. Although stillbirth and infant mortality rates have fallen substantially in recent decades, there are still major challenges to achieving the goal of providing an optimal start in life for all children and families. Looking at the health of newborn babies and their mothers through a European lens gives us insight into these challenges and possible ways of tackling them. One of the obstacles to making comparisons between European countries is that they collect their national statistics in different ways, so it is difficult to do valid comparisons. The European Perinatal Health Report is the fourth report produced by the Euro-Peristat collaboration, which was established to deal with this problem. To produce the report, over 100 participating members in all the current EU member states and Iceland, Norway and Switzerland contributed data from their national statistical systems. Euro-Peristat is coordinated by Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. Euro-Peristat has defined a set of 10 core and 20 recommended indicators and uses them to monitor perinatal health in Europe. This new report is based on data for over five million births in the year 2015 compiled from public national statistical systems to construct all 10 core indicators and two of the 20 recommended indicators. Euro-Peristat works to produce high quality, comparable indicators by using common inclusion criteria and categories, followed by extensive data checking with the active involvement of network members from all participating countries. Comparisons were made with data for births in 2010 from Euro-Peristat's previous report. REPORT HIGHLIGHTS Stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates were lower compared with 2010 in Europe overall, but both the rates and the extent of the decrease varied widely between countries Stillbirths Usually only stillbirths after 28 or more weeks of pregnancy are included in international comparisons The median stillbirth rate at 28 weeks of gestation and over was 2.7 per 1000 total live and still births. Rates ranged from rates below 2.3 in in Cyprus, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands to 3.5 or more in Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Including stillbirths between 24 and 27 weeks of gestation, previously excluded from international comparisons, led to a median rate of 3.4 per 1000, 26% higher. The ranking of countries remained similar. Stillbirth rates in 2015 were 5% lower overall compared with 2010. But in some countries such as the Netherlands, Scotland, and Poland the rate fell to a greater extent. In many other countries, the stillbirth rate did not decrease. Neonatal mortality Neonatal deaths are deaths of babies before 28 days after live birth. Babies born before 22 weeks of pregnancy were excluded in line with international definitions The median neonatal mortality rate for birth at 22 weeks of gestation and over was 2.2 per 1000 live births. Rates ranged from 1.5 per 1000 live births or lower in Slovenia, Iceland, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Sweden to over 3.5 in Northern Ireland, Malta, Romania, and Bulgaria. Some of this variation in neonatal mortality rates is related to differences in national policies about termination of pregnancy for fetal anomalies. Overall, neonatal mortality rates in 2015 were 10% lower than in 2010. In some countries, neonatal mortality rates were higher in 2015, however. Infant mortality Infant deaths are deaths of babies under a year after live birth. Babies born before 22 weeks of pregnancy were excluded in line with international definitions The median infant mortality rate was 3.1 per 1000 live births. Rates ranged widely with some countries reporting rates of 2 and lower, while other countries had rates of 5 per 1000 or more. Rates of preterm birth and low birthweight did not change overall, but there were wide geographical variations Low birth weight Low birth weight is defined as a birth weight under 2500 grams Low birthweight babies accounted for less than 4.5% of all births in Iceland, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia and more than 8.0% in Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, and Cyprus. The percentage of low birthweight babies was significantly lower in 2015 compared with 2010 in some countries, such as Norway, Greece, and Austria and significantly higher in others such as Iceland, France, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Portugal. Preterm birth Preterm birth is birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy The median preterm birth rate was 7.3%. Preterm birth rates ranged widely, from less than 6% in Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, and Lithuania to more than 8.0% in Belgium, Scotland, Romania, Germany, Hungary, Greece, and Cyprus. Comparisons in the preterm birth rate in 2010 and 2015 differed widely between countries. It was significantly lower in 2015 in 7 countries, including the Netherlands, Austria, and the Czech Republic; and significantly higher in 8 countries: Portugal, England and Wales, Poland, Ireland, France, Cyprus and Scotland. Poor quality statistics continue to hamper European surveillance of maternal deaths Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy for any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes. Most countries rely on routine cause of death statistics to count maternal deaths, despite well-known under-reporting, especially where death does not take place immediately or where he mother has other complicating conditions. In addition, as maternal deaths are now rare in high income countries, rates are based on small numbers of deaths. These factors make it difficult to detect differences between countries or over time in maternal mortality ratios. Seven of the countries also use enhanced systems to carefully ascertain and analyse maternal deaths. Maternal mortality appears to have declined in countries that carefully count and analyse maternal deaths. Since many enhanced systems include audits and confidential enquiries, these systems may contribute to improving care for pregnant women and therefore the results from these countries may not apply more generally. Other European countries should consider establishing enhanced systems so that they can also provide reliable statistics on maternal deaths. Differences in mode of delivery have widened, with caesarean section rates rising to over 40% in some countries There has been an increase since 2010 in the relative size of many subgroups of childbearing women at higher risk of adverse outcome and this presents a common challenge. The median caesarean section rate was 27.0%. A quarter of countries had rates below 21%. Iceland, Finland, Norway, and the Netherlands had the lowest rates, under 18%. In contrast, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus had rates over 35%. Overall, caesarean birth rates were 4% higher in 2015 compared with 2010. Much greater increases occurred in countries such as Romania, rising from 36.9% to 46.9%, Poland, rising from 34.0% to 42.2%, Hungary rising from 32.3% to 39%, and Scotland rising from 27.8% to 32.5%. In other countries, caesarean section rates decreased: Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Estonia, Italy, and Norway. For babies in a breech (feet first) presentation, the median caesarean rate was 89%, with a range from 64.3% to 100%. In 4 countries, Norway, Latvia, Finland, and France, 25% or more breech babies were born vaginally. Ten countries only had data overall rates, so no data were available about subgroups, such as babies in a breech presentation. Unfortunately, many of these countries are those with high rates of caesarean births, where evaluating current practices is particularly important. There has been an increase since 2010 in the relative size of many subgroups of childbearing women at higher risk of adverse outcome and this presents a common challenge. Multiple births The median multiple pregnancy rate was 16.7 per 1000 women delivering a live or stillbirth. The multiple birth rate ranged from over 19 per 1000 women in Ireland, Germany, Slovenia, Spain, and Cyprus to under 14 per 1000 women in Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Greece, Finland, and Lithuania. Age at childbirth The median percentage of women having babies at 35 years of age or older was 20.8% Percentages exceeded 29% in Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Spain and were less than 15% in Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland. There is a common trend toward later age at childbirth. Overall the percentage of mothers aged 35 years or older increased by 16% between 2010 and 2015, with the biggest increases in Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Portugal. Teenage pregnancy is increasingly uncommon in Europe; in 21 countries, fewer than 3% of women were under 20 years of age at the birth of their child. This percentage exceeded 6% in several countries, however: Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Obesity Although obesity is known to be increasing among women in childbearing age, only 12 of the 31 countries participating in Euro-Peristat could provide this information. The median prevalence of obesity before pregnancy, as defined by a maternal body mass index of 30 or greater, was 13.2% in these countries. The percentage ranged from 7.8 to 25.6. In 7 of the 9 countries that also had data for 2010, percentages were higher in 2015. Smoking in pregnancy Only 19 countries had data on smoking in pregnancy but these had good news to report. Overall, the percentage of women smoking during pregnancy in 2015 was 13% lower than in 2010. Further improvement is needed, however. In a quarter of the 19 countries with data, more than 12.5% of women smoked, with percentages highest in Valencia in Spain (18.3), Wales (17.3), France (16.3), and Northern Ireland (14.3). In contrast, in Norway, Sweden, and Lithuania, fewer than 5% of women smoked during pregnancy. Europe needs continuous and more complete monitoring This report illustrates the extent to which it is feasible to compile comparable data about the health of mothers and babies and the importance of doing so. The set of Euro-Peristat indicators should represent minimum standards for national reporting, but many countries do not have all the data required. Data availability overall is good for the core indicators, but tabulations by subgroup are not available for all indicators. Many countries were unable to provide data on maternal smoking or prepregnancy body mass index, although these are needed to evaluate policies to improve population health. This report includes data for 2015 for all 10 Euro-Peristat core indicators, but only two of the 20 recommended indicators. In the absence of funding for a full data collection exercise, the network decided to collect core indicators to be able to update essential basic information related to the health of babies and their mothers. We hope that in the future, sustainable funding for data collection will make it possible to compile the full set of Euro-Peristat indicators related to the wider set of health and healthcare factors as well as social determinants of health, such as maternal education and country of birth. These data are needed to address the high priority questions of health inequalities on a European scale. Finally, this report is based on data for two single years five years apart and therefore suffers from a lack of continuous time series data. We cannot accurately describe trends in the indicators without annual data. Many of the participating countries have relatively small populations and rates fluctuate from year to year. A goal for current health information initiatives should be to create a sustainable structure and a funding stream to support collection, data cleaning and validation, and analysis of data from routine statistical systems in European countries on an annual basis. In 1960, scientists described the "Philadelphia chromosome" that causes chronic myeloid leukemia, and in 2001 the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug imatinib to disable the action of this cancer-causing genetic change. It was the dawn of genetically-targeted treatments against cancer and it seemed as if many cancers would fall to a similar strategy: Find a genetic difference between cancer cells and healthy cells, and then develop a drug to target this difference. Of course, rarely has it proved that easy. It's difficult to find a genetic difference common to all cells within a single cancer, and many of these differences are impossible to target with existing drug strategies. Often this seemingly simple gene/drug pairing doesn't work. Then again, sometimes it does. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine describes a genetic change common to 80 percent of human melanomas, the most deadly form of skin cancer, and also describes a molecule that seeks out cells marked by this genetic change. The current study attaches a radioactive label to the targeting molecule and uses positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to show that the radiolabeled molecule does, in fact, seek out and bind to melanoma cells. Using a similar approach, it may be possible to not only image these cells, but to attach therapy to this targeting molecule to kill these melanoma cells. The work starts with a protein called melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), which is involved in determining skin and hair color, but which is also found at a higher level on the surface of more than 80 percent of human melanomas. The current study describes a "peptide" that specifically binds to MC1R. If MC1R is a lock, then the peptide 68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex is the key that fits it. In this case, researchers attached an imaging radionuclide to this peptide - the combination of peptide and radionuclide found, bound, and "lit up" melanoma metastases, allowing researchers to image these melanoma cells. The success of this molecular targeting approach suggests the possibility of using the peptide as a delivery vehicle to transport a therapeutic radionuclide directly to melanoma cells marked with MC1Rs for therapy. "Basically, we attach the imaging radionuclide to the peptide, then the radiolabeled peptide finds MC1Rs on the melanoma through blood circulation, allowing us to use a PET machine to gather the signals from the radiolabeled peptide for melanoma imaging. It's a very sensitive way to see melanoma," says Yubin Miao, PhD, investigator at CU Cancer Center and Director of Radiopharmaceutical Science at the Radiology of CU School of Medicine. In addition, researchers were able to replace the radiolabel with a fluorescent one to generate a new MC1R-targeting fluorescence imaging probe (called Cy5.5-GGNle-CycMSHhex). The current study shows that the fluorescent probe binds and stains MC1Rs on melanoma cells and lesions. Miao sees that the combination of these two approaches - one radiolabeled and one fluorescent - may potentially improve surgical outcomes for melanoma via imaging-guided surgery. He also sees the potential to use a similar strategy as a personalized therapeutic approach for patients with melanoma metastases high in MC1Rs, especially for brain metastases. "Approximately 60 percent of patients with metastatic melanoma develop brain metastases during the course of their disease. Patients with brain metastases have much shorter life expectancies than patients without brain metastases. Our study shows that the MC1R continues to mark melanoma cells even after these cells metastasize from the site of origin to brain, and this peptide can bind to MC1Rs in melanoma brain metastases. One potential application for this technology is to use our imaging systems to identify MC1R-postive melanoma tumors and then treat these lesions with therapies delivered by this peptide," Miao says. For now, the current study demonstrates the first-in-human ability to image melanoma metastases using the group's radiolabeled peptide. With more funding and collaboration, the Miao group hopes to explore the therapeutic potential in the near future. White Fox protects Seoul from the fallout of The Death of Doctor Strange in new special preview The Death of Doctor Strange leads to White Fox being the prime suspect in other Marvel murders Sorry! This content is not available in your region New Delhi : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday launched a scathing attack at the Congress and dared the party to announce the name of its chief ministerial candidate in Rajasthan. Singh said that the Congress party will break into pieces if they announce their candidate for the top job. "Congress is now in the election battle but it must be asked as to whom they would make the chief minister if they form the government. They know the reality that in Rajasthan they cannot form the government. But it must be asked who their leader is," Singh said while addressing a rally in the poll-bound states Dholpur. Taking a dig at the party for not announcing the chief ministerial candidate, Singh said the condition of Congress party in Rajasthan is like a marriage procession without the groom. Also Read | Rajasthan elections turn into battle of heavyweights, BJP pits Yunus Khan against Sachin Pilot in Tonk "They (Congress) have taken out a marriage procession but the groom is nowhere to be found. Has anyone seen a marriage procession in Rajasthan without the groom?" the minister said. The Congress party in Rajasthan is said to be divided between two factions loyalists of Ashok Gehlot and the other of Sachin Pilot. Both Gehlot and Pilot are potential claimants for the top job. However, the party is unlikely to take any risk of rebellion by announcing the name of its leader or the chief minister. Both Sachin Pilot, the president of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) and Ashok Gehlot, a two-time chief minister and Congress general secretary are contesting the December 7 Assembly elections. Pilot, however, rejected the reports of any rift with Gehlot and asserted that the name of the chief ministerial candidate will be decided after the elections. Also Read | Rajasthan Elections: Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot to contest polls, deny rift Mumbai: The rupee depreciated by 15 paise to 71.02 against the US dollar in early trade Tuesday at the interbank foreign exchange, after US President Donald Trump suggested a tariff hike on Chinese goods. The domestic unit opened weak in line with other Asian currencies after Trump Monday said that for any trade deal China has to treat his country fairly. Heres what the bottom line is: China has to treat us fairly. They havent been. They have to treat us fairly, Trump told reporters at the White House. Read More | Fuel prices continue downward trend; Check November 27 rates here At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened lower at 70.91 and declined further to quote at 71.02, showing a fall of 15 paise over its previous close. The rupee Monday fell by 18 paise to close at 70.87 against the US dollar. Forex dealers said fresh demand for the American currency from importers amid a marginal rise in crude prices weighed on the domestic unit. The international benchmark, Brent crude was trading higher by 0.28 per cent to $60.65 per barrel. Also Read | Gujarat signs MoUs with IAAI, CMAI to promote textile industry Traders said, fresh foreign inflows restricted the decline in the local unit. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made fresh purchases worth Rs 62.74 crore Monday, as per provisional data. Meanwhile, the 30-share Sensex was trading 27.28 points, or 0.08 per cent, lower at 35,326.80. The NSE Nifty too witnessed similar movement, and was trading 18.70 points, or 0.18 per cent, lower at 10,609.90. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Photo: The Canadian Press A migrant carrying a roll of carpet wipes his face after U.S. border agents fired tear gas at a group of migrants who had pushed past Mexican police at the Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. President Donald Trump is strongly defending the U.S. use of tear gas at the Mexican border to repel a crowd of migrants that included angry rock-throwers but also barefoot, crying children. Critics denounced the border agents' action as overkill, but Trump kept to a hard line. "They were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas," Trump said Monday of the previous day's encounter. "Here's the bottom line: Nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally." At a roundtable in Mississippi later Monday, Trump seemed to acknowledge that children were affected, asking, "Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it's going to be formed and they were running up with a child?" He said it was "a very minor form of the tear gas itself" that he assured was "very safe." Without offering evidence, he also claimed that some of the women are not really parents but are instead "grabbers" who steal children so they have a better chance of being granted asylum in the U.S. The showdown at the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing has thrown into sharp relief two competing narratives about the caravan of migrants hoping to apply for asylum but stuck on the Mexican side. Trump portrays them as a threat to U.S. national security, intent on exploiting America's asylum law, but others insist he is exaggerating to stoke fears and achieve his political goals. The sheer size of the caravan makes it unusual. "I think it's so unprecedented that everyone is hanging their own fears and political agendas on the caravan," said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think-tank that studies immigration. "You can call it scary, you can call it hopeful, you can call it a sign of human misery. You can hang whatever angle you want to on it." Trump rails against migrant caravans as dangerous groups of mostly single men. That view featured heavily in his speeches during the midterm election campaign when several were hundreds of miles away, travelling on foot. Officials have said some 500 members are criminals but haven't backed that up with details on why they think so. On Monday, Trump tweeted that the caravan at the border included "stone cold criminals." Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights groups blasted the border agents' Sunday tactics. "These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas," California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom tweeted. "Women and children who left their lives behind seeking peace and asylum were met with violence and fear. That's not my America." U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the administration's concerns about the caravan "were borne out and on fully display" Sunday. McAleenan said hundreds perhaps more than 1,000 people attempted to rush vehicle lanes at the San Ysidro crossing. Mexican authorities estimated the crowd at 500. The chaos followed what began as a peaceful march to appeal for the U.S. to speed processing of asylum claims. After being stopped by Mexican authorities, the migrants split into groups. On the west side of the crossing, some tried to get through razor-wire fencing in a concrete levee that separates the two countries. On the east side, some pulled back a panel of fencing made of Army surplus steel landing mats to create an opening of about 4 feet, through which a group of more than 30 people crossed, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Others made it over a steel fence farther east. McAleenan said four agents were struck with rocks but were not injured because they were wearing protective gear. New Delhi: The Delhi Police detained a man after a live bullet was found on him during his visit to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals Janta Darbar on Sunday. He was among the Muslim clerics who had gone to meet the chief minister with a request to increase the salary by Waqf Board. The man was intercepted at the entrance of the chief minister's residence after the security staff recovered the live cartridge from his wallet. He was arrested under the Arms Act. Delhi police: The man, identified as Imran, told police that he found the bullets in the donation of a mosque, kept it in his wallet and later forgot about it. The police are investigating the matter. https://t.co/wx45611D3f ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 Also Read | Man who attacked Arvind Kejriwal was issued entry pass for Delhi Secretariat: Sources Identified as Imran, the 39-year-old caretaker of the mosque, told the police that he found the bullets in the donation of a mosque and had kept it in his wallet and later forgot about it. The police are investigating the matter. This comes barely a week after another man flung chilli powder at Kejriwal outside his office in the Secretariat on November 20. The accused, 40-year-old Anil Sharma, was immediately taken into custody. Sources said Sharma managed to gain entry in the Delhi Secretariat after being issued a pass to go to PGMS unit of the government. The attacker had gone to the Secretariat allegedly seeking help for an ailing relative, they said. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders alleged that the man threw red chilli powder at the chief minister, a claim denied by the Delhi Police. Sharma had reached the reception of the Delhi Secretariat where he was issued a pass after a call was received from the PGMS, sources said. A purported CCTV footage of the incident showed Kejriwal accompanied by his staff outside his office on the third floor of the Delhi Secretariat. The accused could be seen approaching him without any check and handing him over some papers that Kejriwal gave to his staff. The accused could be seen in the video bending down to touch Kejriwal's feet and suddenly lunging at him with his hand brushing past the chief minister's face. New Delhi: The national capital on Tuesday woke up to a poor air quality. At the Lodhi Road area, the Air Quality Index (AQI) PM 2.5 was at 248 (poor category) and PM 10 at 250 (poor category), according to the news agency ANI. According to the Air Quality Index (AQI) data, major pollutants PM 2.5 and PM 10 are at 248 and 250 respectively, in Lodhi Road. Both fall in 'Poor' category, ANI tweeted. Delhi: According to the Air Quality Index (AQI) data, major pollutants PM 2.5 and PM 10 are at 248 and 250 respectively, in Lodhi Road. Both fall in 'Poor' category. pic.twitter.com/toGPQK69Il ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 ALSO READ | Japanese man attacked with knife, looted in Delhi Delhi is reeling under the menace of air pollution for the past couple of years. The region faced a major air quality crisis last year when severe pollution level forced the shutdown of schools and colleges. Earlier, Union Environment Minister Mahesh Sharma announced to induce artificial rain to wash away toxic pollutants from the air. Cloud seeding for artificial rain would be done once the meteorological conditions are stable. Cloud seeding is the process of combining different kinds of chemical agents, including silver iodide, dry ice and even common table salt, with existing clouds in an effort to thicken them and increase the chance of rainfall. ALSO READ | No space for Muslim burials in Delhi after a year: Report In 2016, the government tried to explore the possibility of cloud seeding for artificial rain but the plan never worked out AQI categories: New Delhi: Samsung India on Tuesday announced hiring plans from some of the top engineering colleges across the country. More than 1,000 students will be hired from premium engineering colleges from across the country, Samsung India Head (Human Resources) Sameer Wadhawan said. With the Company and its market growing facilities in India by hiring new engineers, the Korean electronics company plans to strengthen its research and development (R&D) facilities, said Wadhawaan. Indian tech students can look forward to working with one of the global s top electronic giant companies as Samsung set to visit the leading engineering colleges in the country. Also Read | Samsung to set up Smart Class at 14 colleges in Andhra Pradesh The hiring spree will be starting from December 1 and Samsung will visit some of the top engineering colleges, including IITs in Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Guwahati, BHU and Roorkie, the official said. Wadhawaan said, Hiring process will also include the newer IITs in Hyderabad, Dhanbad, Ropar, Indore, Gandhinagar, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Mandi and Jodhpur as well as other premium engineering colleges like BITS Pilani, IIITs, NITs, Delhi Technological University (DTU), Manipal Institute of Technology, and IISc Bengaluru. The new recruit engineers will work on cutting-edge technology at the Samsung Indias three R&Ds centres in Bengaluru, Noida and Delhi, which have evolved as centres of expertise, it said. Wadhawan said most of the new hires will work in cutting-edge domains of artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, natural language processing, camera technology and 5G networks. Read More | Odisha's Biju Patnaik University of Technology announces PhD exam schedule Samsung had said last year that it will hire a total of 2,500 engineers for its R&D operations over the next three years. Theres a tactical shift that we have made to spot talent early and offer PPOs. This year, we had a slightly longer internship period so that students can spend more time in the company, giving them opportunity to interact with the leaders and managers. This helps us spot a bright talent amongst them, Wadhawan said. He added that the company will continue to add engineers for R&D in cutting-edge technologies, developing innovations for the Indian market as well as for the globe. R&D for us has become a key differentiator and we continue to leverage Indias intellectual capital and rapidly grow our reputation as the most innovative company in the areas which we operate, he said. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest Education News, Jobs News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit, Dawn News quoted Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal as saying on Tuesday. Faisal said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. He added that Khan, in his response to Modi's letter, had expressed Pakistan's openness to resolving all outstanding issues through dialogue with India. SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association. The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Modi. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances" and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. Nineteen Indian soldiers died in the attack. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative. "We fought a war with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly," Faisal said. "In this century diplomacy has completely changed," he said, adding policies are now made based on citizens' emotions and wishes. Where is Kartarpur Sahib? # Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. It was established by the Sikh Guru in 1522. # The first Gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was built here, where Guru Nanak Dev is said to have died. # Both India and Pakistan have decided to build a corridor, linking Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district with the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The National Conference vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday asked the Centre to clear the air around former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Mangne Bondevik's visit to Kashmir during which he met the separatists. Bondevik is currently heading the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights. "What are the Norwegians up to in Kashmir? Would either (External Affairs Minister) @SushmaSwaraj ji or (National Security Advisor Ajit) Doval ji care to put the visit of the former Norwegian PM to both sides of the divided state in the correct context or do we have to rely on rumours & conjecture?" Omar said in a tweet. What are the Norwegians up to in Kashmir? Would either @SushmaSwaraj ji or Doval ji care to put the visit of the former Norwegian PM to both sides of the divided state in the correct context or do we have to rely on rumours & conjecture? Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 26, 2018 ALSO READ | Jammu-Kashmir: 2 terrorists killed in Kulgam encounter Bondevik had on Friday met senior separatists Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at the latter's residence in Srinagars Hyderpora. Fruitful meeting of JRL with Mr Kjell Magne Bondevik,Ex Prime Minister of Norway. As Norway is known to play a constructive role in conflict resolution across the globe urged Mr Bondevik to help in ending the daily killings and urgent resolution of the festering Kashmir dispute pic.twitter.com/gUWEUKcUF8 Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) November 23, 2018 When we received a call a day before the visit, we were surprised. This is our first such meeting with a foreign dignitary in six years. New Delhi had always objected to any such visit to us and for some time now, foreign diplomats would also hesitate to meet us, the Indian Express quoted Mirwaiz Umar Farooq as saying. It is clear that this visit was possible only after the go-ahead by New Delhi. Sri Sri Ravishankars representative was accompanying the former Norwegian PM, Mirwaiz said. He is currently in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and has met its President Masood Khan in Muzaffarabad. In a statement, Hurriyat said the Norwegian delegation had assured the separatists that "they would use their good offices to ensure that a sustained and result-oriented dialogue between India and Pakistan" for an amicable solution on Kashmir, news agency Press Trust of India reported. Considering Kashmir a bilateral issue, India for more than five years has not allowed any foreign envoy to visit the Kashmir Valley or meet any separatist leader. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: An encounter between terrorists and security forces broke out in Redwani area of Jammu and Kashmirs Kulgam district on Tuesday morning killing two terrorists. A soldier was also martyred in the fierce gunfight, according to reports. It was a joint operation of the Army, CRPF and the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Encounter breaks out between security forces and terrorists in Redwani area of Kulgam. More details awaited. #JammuandKashmirpic.twitter.com/1ypOAF4dCx ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 Meanwhile, in another encounter, a terrorist was neutralised by security forces in the Hafoo area of Tral in Pulwama. The area has been cordoned off by the Army. Incriminating material including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter and the police have registered a case and initiated an investigation in the matter. One terrorist was neutralized & his body was retrieved. His identity & affiliation is being ascertained. Incriminating materials including arms & ammunition were recovered from site of encounter. Police has registered a case and initiated investigation in the matter: J&K Police https://t.co/8PdluTk9NB ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 On Monday, a soldier was critically injured in a sniper attack by Pakistan in Machil sector of Kupwara district. On Sunday, six terrorists were killed in an encounter in the Batgund area of South Kashmirs Shopian district. Six militants were killed, of which four belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen and two to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Both the district commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar were killed. A huge cache of arms was seized, the police had said. ALSO READ | Army soldier critically injured in sniper attack by Pak in Kupwara On Friday, a former special police officer (SPO) Basharat Ahmad Wagay was killed after he was kidnapped by terrorists in the Shopian district. His bullet-riddled body was recovered, hours after he was kidnapped. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prices of fuel extended its downward trend on Tuesday because of the huge fall in global crude oil prices last week. Petrol was pegged at Rs 74.07 a litre with a fall in Rs 0.42 paise in Delhi, while diesel was being sold at Rs 68.89 after a decrease of Rs 0.40 paise, according to the data in the Indian Oil Corporation website. In Mumbai, petrol was sold at Rs 79.62 per litre on Tuesday compared to Rs 80.03 on Monday. Diesel in Mumbai became cheaper by 43 paise to Rs 72.13 per litre as against 72.56 per litre the previous day. In Chennai, petrol was retailing at Rs 76.88 per litre as against Rs 77.32 on Monday. In Kolkata petrol was sold at Rs 76.06 as against Rs 76.47 per litre. Diesel in Chennai and Kolkata was sold at Rs 72.77 and Rs 70.74, respectively. Read More | Gold prices rise to Rs 31,850 per 10 gram on buying by local jewellers Rates have been on the decline since October 18. This has wiped out all of the price hike on petrol in two months beginning August 16 and more than half on diesel. The reduction in diesel rates has been slower due to moderate fall in its benchmark international prices, according to oil company price notifications. Oil prices slumped to its lowest level in 2018 on Friday after 8 per cent correction in prices. Brent crude oil futures hit their lowest since December 2017 at $59.04 per barrel. On Monday, it witnessed minor bounceback and was trading near $59.50 per barrel mark. Petrol price had touched a record high of Rs 84 per litre in Delhi and Rs 91.34 in Mumbai on October 4. Diesel on that day had peaked to an all-time high of Rs 75.45 a litre in Delhi and Rs 80.10 in Mumbai. Prices had started to climb from August 16. Petrol in Delhi was priced at Rs 77.14 per litre and in Mumbai it cost Rs 84.58 on August 15. Diesel on that day was priced at Rs 68.72 per litre in Delhi and at Rs 72.96 in Mumbai. Between August 16 and October 4, petrol price was hiked by Rs 6.86 per litre and diesel by Rs 6.73. Read More | 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks: US stands with India in quest for justice, says US President Donald Trump On October 4, the government decided to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre each and asked state-owned fuel retailers to subsidise the price by another Re 1 a litre by reducing their margins. Subsequent to this, the petrol price came down to Rs 81.50 per litre in Delhi and diesel to Rs 72.95 a litre on October 5. In Mumbai, rates fell to Rs 86.97 per litre for petrol and Rs 77.45 in case of diesel. Before the price cut, petrol in Delhi had hit an all-time high of Rs 84 per litre while diesel was at record Rs 75.45. This came down to Rs 81.50 per litre for petrol and Rs 72.95 in case of diesel. The fall in fuel price come after the United States recently softened its stand on Iran's sanctions and allowed eight countries to continue importing oil from Iran temporarily. These countries are India, China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday rapped the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government for not filling FIRs on the allegations of sodomy of children at shelter homes in the state. While hearing a separate case of alleged rapes at the state-run Muzaffarpur shelter home, the top court found out that the explanation of Bihar government on sodomy cases was frivolous. "A child is sodomised, you say FIR will be lodged on Monday. Are we doing any favour to these children? Are they not citizens of this country?" the court asked. Also Read | Muzaffarpur shelter home case: CBI finds human bones at cremation ground The top court also noted that the FIR registered by the Bihar government was only for minimum offence and not under Section 377. If you haven't registered FIR on 377, then how will you investigate?" the court asked. While the Supreme Court has struck down the Section 377 that criminalised consensual gay sex, "carnal intercourse with children, animals and bestiality remain the criminal offence. The top court said that despite receiving the report on sodomy cases in May, the Bihar government has done nothing. The counsel appearing for the Nitish Kumar government, however, claimed that an action was taken without any delay. The court has ordered Bihar chief secretary to explain why FIRs under Section 377 were not filed in the sodomy cases. On this, the counsel assured the court that fresh FIRs will be filled under Section 377. The Supreme Court also warned the Bihar government of handing over all the shelter home cases to the CBI if the state delays the action. As of now, only the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case is being investigated by the CBI. Also Read | Muzaffarpur case: SC says facts very disturbing, asks for probe against former minister Nitish Kumar trying to brush the case under carpet: Tejashwi Yadav Meanwhile, former Bihar deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of trying to "brush the case under the carpet." Speaking to news agency ANI, Tejashwi said, "It took two months to file FIR in the case and even the name of the main accused wasnt included. All the names coming up in the case are of those close to Nitish Kumar." For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Expressing strong support for India in its fight against terrorism, US President Donald Trump on Monday said will never let terrorists win. India observed 10 years of the Mumbai terror attacks on Monday that left as many as 165 dead and hundreds injured in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. "On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the U.S. stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. The attack killed 166 innocents, including six Americans. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning! (sic)" Trump tweeted. On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the U.S. stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. The attack killed 166 innocents, including six Americans. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018 Read More | 26/11 Attack: Pak yet to bring perpetrators to justice, says MEA The US had also announced a new reward of $5 million for helping secure the arrest of those who masterminded the 26/11 attacks. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday asked Pakistan to uphold the UNSC obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists and their outfits, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates, responsible for the atrocious act. Speaking on the behalf of the US government, Pompeo said that it was an insult of the families of the victims that even after 10 years, those who planned the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack could not be convicted. As many as 165 people were killed and over 300 sustained serious injuries after 10 members of the Pakistan-based Islamic terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e-Taiba, stormed the coastal city of Mumbai in November 2008. The terrorists carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks at several locations, including Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Nariman House Jewish community centre, the Metro Cinema and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College. Also Read | 26/11 Mumbai attack: 10 years on, India still lives in fear The attacks which began on November 26 had lasted till November 29. While nine of the attackers were gunned down, a 10th terrorist - Ajmal Kasab was captured alive. He was executed on November 12, 2012. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: According to a new study, magic mushroom could be the solution depressed people have been seeking for. Magic mushrooms have been found to contain psilocybin, a psychoactive compound that can lead to a reduction of depression for people battling with this mental problem. The latest study highlighted that this Fungi may effectively reset the activity of key brain circuits known to play a role in depression. Over the years clinical trials have been conducted on how psychedelics that are found in magic mushrooms can help in the treatment of depression and addictions and the results have been promising. Researchers at the Imperial College London researchers used psilocybin the psychoactive compound that occurs naturally in magic mushrooms to treat a small number of patients with depression, monitoring their brain function, before and after. And the result showed that the images of patients brains changes in brain activity which showed a marked and lasting reduction in depressive symptoms and participants in the trial reported benefits lasting up to five weeks after treatment. Also Read | Priyanka Chopra dazzles in a shiny rose gold outfit Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, head of psychedelic research at Imperial, who led the study, said: We have shown for the first time clear changes in brain activity in depressed people treated with psilocybin after failing to respond to conventional treatments. Several of our patients described feeling reset after the treatment and often used computer analogies. For example, one said he felt like his brain had been defragged like a computer hard drive, and another said he felt rebooted. Psilocybin may be giving these individuals the temporary kick start they need to break out of their depressive states and these imaging results do tentatively support a reset analogy. Similar brain effects to these have been seen with electroconvulsive therapy. Another study was also conducted on 20 patients. They were given two doses of psilocybin which were then followed by a second dose the next week. Of these, 19 underwent initial brain imaging and then a second scan one day after the high dose treatment. The team used two main brain imaging methods to measure changes in blood flow and the crosstalk between brain regions, with patients reporting their depressive symptoms through completing clinical questionnaires. Immediately following treatment with psilocybin, patients reported a decrease in depressive symptoms, such as improvements in mood and stress relief. MRI imaging revealed reduced blood flow in areas of the brain, including the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped region of the brain known to be involved in processing emotional responses, stress and fear. The researchers of the Imperial College also re-acknowledged the positive findings found in the magic mushrooms, stating that the results is in complete absence of a control/placebo effect and further stressing that it would be dangerous for patients with depression to attempt to self-medicate. Read | Hikers rejoice! Chile just opened the longest 1700 miles hiking trail! Professor David Nutt, director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit in the division of brain sciences, and senior author of the paper, said: Larger studies are needed to see if this positive effect can be reproduced in more patients. But these initial findings are exciting and provide another treatment avenue to explore. The authors currently plan to test psilocybin against a leading antidepressant in a trial set in the coming years. For all the Latest Lifestyle News, Food News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Photo: CTV News A pedestrian has been rushed to hospital in Victoria after what police say was a serious, early morning collision. Const. Matt Rutherford says in a news release that the unnamed man was hit by a motorhome. It happened just before 6:30 a.m. on Douglas Street, a main route through downtown Victoria. Few other details have been released but Rutherford says the pedestrian has life-threatening injuries. Officers are appealing for witnesses to come forward. Several blocks of busy Douglas Street were closed through the morning rush hour as the investigation continued. New Delhi: Brain bleeding is caused by a defect in a gene called collagen IV and can cause strokes. But scientists have identified a drug to reduce brain bleeding and risk of strokes. They say that the drug has been already approved for use in patients to treat urea-related disorders. How is brain bleeding caused? Mutations in collagen IV genes lead to a genetic form of eye, kidney and vascular disease that ruptures the blood vessels in the brain and can cause brain bleeding, even in childhood. The study on brain bleeding The researchers, from the University of Manchester and University of Edinburgh in the UK, conducted a study on mice that have a similar defect in the collagen IV gene and develop the same disease as patients. Using sodium phenyl butyric acid, they were able to reduce brain bleeding, according to the study published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. Also Read | Magic mushroom may reboot brain in depressed people The treatment, however, did not treat either the eye or kidney disease linked with these genetic defects. While these genetic forms of the disease are rare, the same gene has also been implicated in common forms of brain bleeding in the general population. Further research is now required to understand how these mutations cause the disease in different tissues so that strategies for treating all the clinical symptoms, including the eye and kidney disease, can be developed. Lack of specific treatments for brain bleeding Specific treatments for brain bleeding, including common diseases such as haemorrhagic stroke that accounts for 15 per cent of adult stroke, are currently lacking. Researchers hope these new study will be able to lead to new treatment opportunities for patients suffering from strokes and brain bleeding. Read | Men prefer bromances over romantic relationship says study "There are no treatments for diseases due to collagen IV mutations and brain bleeding. This work has identified a potential treatment strategy in mice and is the first step in translating this to patients," said Tom Van Agtmael, from the University of Glasgow. "It will also help to identify for which patients this strategy may be effective and for which patients it is not recommended or may be counter-indicative. This personalised approach to medicine will be important to develop the most effective future treatments," Agtmael added in the study. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: Indeed, a bit of bravado marked one of the remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat on Sunday, November 25. This relates to, as per him, with the irrelevance of whether his being (or continuing) at the helm or not in future, given Indias eternal longevity in any case which was also pointed out and affirmed by him. Yet, it brought a hint to what many may think to be his indispensability for the top office of the country. This is more so because of his strong presence, rather stamp, marking the public arena and discourse for over four years now, or since 2014 to be precise. ALSO READ | Rajasthan Polls: Congress throws a googly via Manvendra Singh at BJP And as he brought this only a few months before he would try his luck for another term in office, it also points to the big stakes that are clearly impending both for him and the country with the next years polls looming large over the horizon. Thus, the events unfolding right now and that may unravel hereafter, or in near future, assume great significance despite Modis assertion that he keeps politics off from his Mann Ki Baat series of address to the nation. The course that will define the future of over billion people in India. So, irrespective of what he said or left unsaid, it is a fact that both Modi and the country are now at the crossroads of history and any turn that he takes is going to be crucial to define the course for the future of over a billion people. Somehow, the day he delivered his latest radio talk, the 50th edition, an experiment to turn history into histrionics was on at Ayodhya over an issue that is before the highest court of the land awaiting a decision as per its wisdom, discretion and its virtual right to be an arbitrator of sorts in case of not only Ayodhya but so many disputes that come before its learned judges. But the fact that those marshalling or herding crowds to Ayodhya are no strangers to either the prime minister or his most Cabinet colleagues points to an intriguing situation where an attempt is clearly being made to virtually put both the Supreme Court and the Government on notice. And this is so when the top court has decided to take some more time before it hears a few appeals now bunched together in the Ayodhya case and which were moved before it by rival parties. ALSO READ | Telangana Polls: Youth power may give a push to Cong-led Mahakootami Colossal failure of both religious and political leaderships The crowds gathered at Ayodhya on Sunday were meant to give vent to anger over the delay by the court in deciding the appeals related to the title of the land whose historicity has for long been tried to be decided on streets as well inflicting not only loss of lives and property but also often causing a blow to laws, rules and norms. And as a result of this, a 16th century mosque was reduced to rubbles about 26 years ago from now. Even before that, the mosque and the land where it once stood as also the claims of thereupon having been a temple before the mosque came into being the controversial spot at Ayodhya signifies deep fissures and breaches that the time has not been able to fill so far. Thus, this speaks of a colossal failure of both religious and political leaderships of not only the day but also since times bygone. The more the fault-lines of history etched by Ayodhya dispute turn one leader after the other inconsequential, the more zealously the issue of Ayodhya is whipped up by both the religious zealots and their supposedly ungodly and neutral counterparts for the purpose of running the state which is called modern nation-state with its other accompanying and logical attributes like a non-partisan approach to religion, caste and creed. But since the late 1980s and whenever the turn to elect a new leader comes, the Ayodhya dispute is brought back to discussion through media hype and amid fears of peace getting vitiated. This being the case for long, a fatigue of sorts has been setting in and the people have perhaps been getting tired of hearing about the Ayodhya dispute during or before every election. And this time it appears to be no exception to this trend though poll dates are yet to be set. ALSO READ | The challenges posing Congress in poll-bound states The test facing Modi Thus, among others, Modi mainly faces a test of sorts where the onus is on him to stay the way he has been through the run-up to the last general elections held over four-and-half years ago. As one would remember the BJP manifesto released before the last polls had underplayed the temple issue at Ayodhya. In fact, it was included at the last moment mildly by the drafting committee headed by the party veteran Murli Manohar Joshi. And it is a fact that Modi had won the 2014 polls without using the Mandir card unlike the two previous polls when Congress along with other parties could win despite BJPs outcry over temple. Not only this but through most of the current term of the Central Government also little was heard of the Ayodhya issue except that in past couple of months or so a build up around temple is being thought to be ideal to keep the Hindutva push on under whose shadow Modi had first successively won Assembly polls in Gujarat and came to power at the Centre before the atmosphere brought by the Ayodhya dispute could really be lifted. The Ayodhya temple temptation So, toying with the Ayodhya card this time comes as no surprise. Yet, the size of the crowds gathered at Ayodhya on November 25 was smaller than what was expected to be by the protagonists of the Mandir stir. This creates doubts about the likely fallout or outcome of the Ayodhya card this time. Amid such a scenario, Modi could not refrain himself from bringing in Ayodhya in his election speech at Alwar in Rajasthan. This was on a day when his Mann Ki Baat address was also broadcast, a couple of weeks before December 7 Assembly poll in Rajasthan. Modi blamed the rival Congress party at Alwar for the delay in hearing of the Ayodhya case by the Supreme Court though the Congress maintains that the party has not gone to the court as is the case also with the BJP. The difference is that only some of the lawyers, who have been in the higher rungs of the Congress, have been pleading the case of one side in the dispute. And this cuts across to the BJP as some of the lawyers representing the other side are also sympathetic or have links with the BJP. ALSO READ | Is the govt using demonetisation as a postdated cheque? As the vexed issue drags on in the apex court now the votaries of the temple are trying to shift focus to it with an eye on 2019 general elections. Since Modi is going to be the centrepiece in this, he is being tempted to try out the Ayodhya issue to make it easier for him to romp home. Ignoring past precedents, the advocates of the temple want Modi to bring a law possibly in the winter session of Parliament, beginning December 11, a day when the results of five Assembly polls would be out. How Modi treads through such a muddle being created around the temple issue will not only test his mettle but also that of the law which he is supposed and constitutionally bounden to uphold in a way that it withstands the scrutiny and test of the Supreme Court. And, thus, only the days to come will differentiate between the gullible and not-so-gullible, between sentiments and reason and between what is lawful and what is not. New Delhi: A small-size plane missed its destination by almost 50km after the pilot gradually fall asleep in the cockpit. The airplane took off from Devenport in Tasmania for King Island on November 8 and the pilot at 6:21AM realised that he had missed the destination and took U-turn. The incident is classified as a case of incapacitation and it is being investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). However, the only person on board was the pilot and the nine-seater Piper PA-31 Navajo VH-TWU suffered no damage whatsoever. The official spokesperson of ATBS said, The ATSB is investigating a pilot incapacitation involving a Piper PA-31, VH-TWU, operated by Vortex Air, near King Island Airport, Tasmania on 8 November 2018. During the cruise, the pilot fell asleep resulting in the aircraft overflying King Island by 46km. As part of the investigation, the ATSB will interview the pilot and review operational procedures. A final report will be released at the conclusion of the investigation, he added. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will release the report by March 2019. For all the Latest Viral News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Photo: The Canadian Press Hassan Al Kontar leaves Vancouver's international airport after flying from Kuala Lumpur. A Syrian man who was stranded for seven months at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport arrived in Vancouver on Monday night. Hassan Al Kontar thanked his friends and his lawyer in a video posted to Twitter for helping him leave Malaysia. He says he videotaped the message at the Taiwan International Airport as he waited to board a flight to Vancouver, which he described as his final destination. On his Twitter account, Al Kontar says Canadian volunteers gave him hope after he submitted an application for asylum. A GoFundMe page set up for him by Canadian volunteers raised money for his flight to Canada and living expenses. The fundraising page says the 36-year-old was refused a new Syrian passport in 2012 when he was working in the United Arab Emirates and was facing military service in his home country, which he refused. Between 2012 and 2017, it says he was without status in the UAE and lost his job. The fundraising page says he went to Malaysia, where Syrians do not need a visa, in October 2017. The page says he was given a document allowing him to stay in Malaysia for three months, although he could not work. He tried unsuccessfully to leave the country and was sent back to Kuala Lumpur, where he remained in the arrivals terminal after he overstayed his visa. "It was a hard, long journey," he says on the video posted to Twitter. "The last 10 months it was very hard. ... I could not do it without the support and prayers from all of you." Scientists are testing a cyborg cockroach for use in search-and-rescue missions If ever you get trapped in a wreckage or ruins after an accident or a disaster, the rescuer that finds you could be a cockroach one that is remotely controlled by humans through a miniaturized neuro-controller mounted on its back. A research team from the University of Connecticut (UConn) created the device to manipulate the movement of living insects. When installed on a cockroach or other appropriate animal, it turns the animal into a biological soft robot. The UConn-developed controller is currently being tested on Madagascar hissing roaches. The cyborg insects could one day be deployed in search-and-rescue operations, military missions, and other uses. Right now, the technology is rather limited. It faces two major challenges: Building a sufficiently small robotic system, and integrating that electronic hardware with the biological nerve tissue that controls the movement of the insect. Tiny neuro-controller turns cockroaches into soft robots The UConn researchers succeeded on both accounts. Their neuro-controller microcircuit is small enough to fit inside an electronic module worn by the insect on its back. Wires connect the device to the antennae of the insect. They stimulate the antennae lobe of the insect by administering weak electrical shocks to the neural tissue. If the right antenna is stimulated by an electric charge, the cockroach moves to the left. Conversely, sending a charge to the left antenna gets the insect to turn right. The neuro-controller devised by UConn is fairly unique among its peers. It uses four-channel microcircuitry to apply a wide degree of stimulation for the antennae lobes. It also provides detailed information regarding the response of the insects stimulated nerves and muscles. The user will find it easier to keep an eye on movement. They will also have an easier time controlling the insect robot. A Bluetooth-capable insect robot The use of insects as platforms for small robots has an incredible number of useful applications from search and rescue to national defense, explained Abishek Dutta, the leader of the UConn researcher team. We believe our microcircuit provides a more sophisticated and reliable control system that brings us one step closer to real world implementation of this technology. The aforementioned microcircuit is equipped with a 9-axis inertial measurement unit. This sensor gathers data regarding the linear and rotational acceleration of the insect, the direction it is going, and the temperature around it. The device uses a Bluetooth antenna to send these pertinent data to the human controllers. The wireless signal is strong enough to be picked up by a cellphone. This transmitted data allows the controllers to determine the trajectory of the insect. They can alter the strength of the electric charge, send the corrected impulses to the insect, and redirect it to another direction. (Related: As scientists inch closer to fighting cancer with nanobots, would you embrace having programmable robots in your bloodstream?) Cockroach robot develops resistance to constant barrage of electric pulses Duttas research team put the new controller through its paces. They used a Madagascar hissing cockroach, a species of large roaches that is a popular choice for a pet. In their experiment, they reported that the stimulation became less effective if it was repeated soon after the first pulse. For example, they applied an electric pulse to the right antenna lobe in order to get the roach to immediately turn left. When they jolted the same lobe a second time, the insect still turned, but it did not do so as sharply as before. Robots.news can tell you more about the cyborg insects that researchers are working on. Sources include: ScienceDaily.com Today.UConn.edu Sikorsky Aircraft, the largest corporate employer in southwestern Connecticut, will remain in its Stratford headquarters after Lockheed Martin takes over the helicopter maker, a company official said Monday. Whether Sikorsky which Lockheed agreed to buy from United Technologies in a deal worth $9 billion will maintain its staffing levels is another question. In acquiring Sikorsky, Lockheed said it expects to save $150 million a year from the deal, part of which will come from a rationalization of employee counts and facilities. The Bethesda, Md.-based contractor, a longtime supplier of systems for use on Sikorsky helicopters, hasnt specified any impact on jobs in Stratford, but a Lockheed spokesman said Sikorsky will keep its Stratford headquarters facility and Sikorsky identity. Shares of Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) were up nearly 2 percent Monday afternoon to $204.80, while those of Sikorskys Hartford-based parent United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) were off less than a percentage point to about $110. The $150 million in annual cost savings will be the result of the combination of all the things you would think would happen in this sort of transaction, Lockheed Chief Financial Officer Bruce Tanner said in a Monday conference call with analysts and investors. Those would possibly include jobs, facility consolidation and the elimination of overlapping procurement costs, he said. The company did not immediately respond to a Hearst query on whether those cost cuts would fall entirely on Sikorsky, or Lockheed Martins existing operations could be impacted as well. In a Monday interview with the Connecticut Post, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he plans to be in touch with both Lockheed Martin and UTC, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense with respect to Sikorskys Connecticut operations. The Pentagon has to drill down here to make sure that this company never puts profits and the bottom line ahead of our national security, Blumenthal said. Im going to press the Pentagon for (an) answer to assure me ... that no Lockheed Martin cuts will imperil or diminish the (efficacy) of that Stratford plant. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said she has spoken with Bob LeDuc, who was named president of Sikorsky earlier this year by UTC as the company explored its options to divest the maker of Black Hawk helicopters used by the U.S. and other governments. We wanted to to make sure that work being done in Stratford stays in Stratford, DeLauro said. That was the danger but thats not the case ... What we know so far is positive, and thats whats critically important. Sikorsky employees are likewise cautiously optimistic about the prospect of joining Lockheed Martin, according to Rocco Calo, business agent for Teamsters Local 1150 in Stratford. The union has been operating under the oversight of a trustee since last year when allegations surfaced that that Local 1150s former president misappropriated funds. Sikorsky and Teamsters 1150 reached a new contract in December that runs through February 2018, with Calo anticipating negotiations will not open on a new deal until months before the expiration date of the current contract. He added Sikorskys deal is in the same ballpark for compensation and benefits as contracts Lockheed Martin has with its own labor unions. UTC announced plans in March to explore the spinoff of Sikorsky as an independent, publicly traded company. Rumors began circulating immediately of UTC receiving offers from other companies, with Chicago-based Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Providence, R.I.-based Textron (NYSE: TXT) floated as possible buyers in addition to Lockheed Martin, with Textrons Bell Helicopter subsidiary a major helicopter manufacturer in its own right. Either Lockheed Martin or Bell would make a good business fit for Sikorsky, according to Ray Jaworowski, senior aerospace analyst with Forecast International, a Newtown firm that analyzes markets for aerospace and defense systems. He said Bells fleet has little overlap with Sikorskys larger helicopters, while noting Lockheed Martins long familiarity with Sikorsky. Even though they dont cut metal, they are heavily involved in helicopter systems, Jaworowski said of Lockheed Martin. I think certainly for now and some time to come theyll likely keep Sikorsky in Stratford; the reason being that there is a ready-made, existing facility in Connecticut with a workforce in place. Any extended period of uncertainty creates some concern for employees, and Stratford has been no exception over the past several months, according to Calo. Lockheed has no rotor-wing business at all, so to pick us up and move us to another facility I dont think would be realistic, Calo said. I was concerned about Textron. Sikorsky has 8,050 employees in the Stratford area making it Fairfield Countys largest employer and 15,300 employees globally. The company announced plans last month to cut 1,400 jobs globally, while closing a facility in Bridgeport. Outside the public eye, Calo said, Sikorsky has been hiring hundreds of engineers the past several months as it gets ready to design a new fleet of helicopters for the White House and the U.S. Air Force, for combat rescue operations in the latter instance. Calo said the hiring of engineering talent is typically the precursor to additions to the production line workforce as designs progress from blueprints to prototype parts, systems and eventually aircraft. Unofficial sources peg the average annual wages for Sikorskys Connecticut operations at about $84,000, which would result in payroll taxes to Connecticut of more than $37 million annually, with an additional ripple effect from local employees and their families spending money that generates sales taxes. Last year, Sikorsky contributed about $4.1 million in property taxes to Stratford, or nearly 2 percent of the towns annual budget of $207 million. Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson called Sikorsky a natural fit for her company and emphasized the appeal for Lockheed Martins in being able to reap $1.9 billion in tax benefits by adding Sikorsky. Lockheed Martin aims to complete its purchase of Sikorsky by early 2016 at the latest, pending regulatory approval. We have similar cultures, Hewson said. I am confident that Sikorsky will be an excellent fit and a strong contributor to (Lockheed Martin). Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-964-2236; www.twitter.com/casoulman Includes reporting by Hugh Bailey, John Burgeson and Dan Freedman. On the heels of its most recent Connecticut expansion, Peoples United Financial, parent company to Peoples United Bank, is preparing for more growth across state lines. The Bridgeport-based company announced Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement with BSB Bancorp, parent company of Belmont Savings Bank in Massachusetts. The stock transaction is valued at roughly $327 million and is expected to close by the second quarter of next year. Its very consistent with our strategy of increasing our presence in larger demographically attractive areas, said CEO Jack Barnes. Weve moved into Boston via other acquisitions over the last number of years and weve also been building out teams in the commercial banking and government banking areas, so we have a big commitment to Boston and the Massachusetts market. Its very important part of our franchise and this will strengthen it. The transaction will add Belmonts six branches, pushing Peoples presence to 53 locations in the greater Boston area. Belmont Savings Bank provides a range of banking services for professional commercial real estate investors, developers and managers as well as individuals and small-business owners through its branches in Belmont, Watertown, and three Star Market branches in Waltham, Newton and Cambridge. The branches are in communities where Peoples United doesnt currently have a presence. Weve really strengthened our geographic position in that area of west Boston and those suburbs with the addition of Belmont, Barnes said. Belmont has done a considerable amount of commercial real estate lending and thats a big part of their portfolio and thats a large part of our activity, so it will strengthen our market position on the market side, as well. Belmont Savings Bank was founded in 1885, and has $3 billion in assets, employing around 130 people. While Peoples United plans to maintain BSBs six branches, not every employee is expected to remain. We will be keeping the people in the branches, and a significant number of the employees, but there will be a conversion eventually of the systems and integration into Peoples United, and there will be some reduction in employment when all of that comes out, Barnes said. Peoples United jumped to just over $47 billion in assets this year following its acquisition of Farmington Bank in Hartford County roughly two months ago. That was Peoples Uniteds first Connecticut-based deal since 2015. Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media BROOKFIELD The Board of Finance is expected to vote Wednesday night on the $78.1 million plan to build a new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School. A special meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Brookfield High School media center. BETHEL The selectmen will vote next week on an application to put a happy holidays banner in P.T. Barnum Square signed your atheist neighbors. The display would go next to a Nativity set that an atheist group had requested be removed. In front of a packed room on Monday evening, the selectmen unanimously approved guidelines on what displays are allowed in the square, but held off on voting on the sign because they did not know how big it was or whether it could be set up elsewhere. Town Attorney Marty Lawlor said the sign likely would need to be accepted under the guidelines the selectmen had approved moments earlier. These policies state the displays cannot defame or attack another religion or person. I dont think (the proposed banner) is mean-spirited, Lawlor said. I dont think this is demeaning to anybody. Its just encroaching on somebody elses use of the property. Residents gasped and groaned when First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker described the sign. Many of them had attended the meeting to support the new nativity set in PT Barnum Square after the backlash from the atheist group. The American Atheists Legal Center has requested the selectmen rescind their approval of the nativity after learning an application for a non-religious display had not been accepted. The selectmen had not voted on the application two weeks ago because it was missing required information, including an image of the display and an insurance form. The resident since submitted this information. The sign shows a blue sky with snow falling on white-capped mountains. It reads: This season, no matter what you celebrate or why, Happy Holidays! your atheist neighbors. The sign also includes the American Atheists logo. Public comment had closed before residents learned about the banner, but many mumbled in dismay and shouted out suggestions for what the selectmen should do. Its the signature thats bothering everybody, right? called out Tim Martin, who was part of the group that raised money to replace the old nativity set that had been displayed in the square for decades. The message is fine, happy holidays. Martin suggested asking the applicant if he would display the sign elsewhere in town, not next to the nativity set. The new guidelines permit holiday displays in PT Barnum Square only, but that was intended to prevent religious displays from being set in front of Town Hall, which is illegal, officials said. To me, this doesnt appear to be religious in nature, so I suppose it could go someplace else, Lawlor said. Knickerbocker said the guidelines intend to ensure the town is inclusive when permitting holiday displays. We value our citizens right to display holiday messages that reflect their culture and traditions, whether religious or secular, but we encourage those messages to be positive in nature, the policy reads. The policy is meant to get the town through this holiday season. A committee will be formed to develop permanent protocols next year. Guidelines also require displays to be sponsored by local residents or organizations and ban excessively large displays that could hinder public safety. Many residents spoke in support of the nativity set, describing how their children loved the display and arguing it represented both culture and community, rather than a purely religious message. The nativity is actually a very unifying thing, resident Donna Bowman said. We could move it, perhaps, to the grounds of a church, but probably it would just be the people that go to that church that see it. I cant tell you how much it has meant to me to not have Christmas stripped of all meaning. The selectmen plan to vote on the sign at their Dec. 4 meeting. "Human capital development" has definitely achieved buzzword status. As a phrase, its ubiquitous in the entrepreneurship and business-oriented press. You can even study it through a certification program at an Ivy League university. But what, exactly, is human capital development? More importantly, why is it so important for business success, and how does a small business owner go about actually investing in it the right way? Sure, it might make sound financial sense -- and constitute a relative drop in the budget bucket -- for a large company. But, does it even make sense for smaller businesses, with smaller budgets that may already be stretched thin? Use the following five-step program to create your companys best human capital development strategy and tactics. 1. Understand what human capital development is all about. First and foremost, lets get clear on what human capital development is all about. At its simplest level, human capital is a way to quantify the economic value of a specific employees set of skills. Like all forms of capital, human capital is an essential component of your companys long-term assets. The collective profile of skills for all your employees ideally meets your companys needs, but more importantly, it also adds to your companys intrinsic value. Developing that capital -- that is, investing in the further enhancement of those skills in a way that adds to that value -- is a smart financial investment in your own company. Its also a way to increase employee satisfaction and engagement levels. Put simply, when employees feel that management understands and appreciates their value, theyre likelier to stay with the company, further enhancing the companys value. A companys human capital costs can account for a large portion of its overall operating expenses. However, most companies admit that they dont do enough investing in their employees, through career development opportunities, skill enhancement training, or otherwise. Investing in your employees is not only a smart way to hold on to valuable, skilled employees who have the drive and passion to grow (and help your business grow, too), but its also in a very real sense an investment in your own company. Capital investments bring dividends to the business itself, in terms of increased productivity, higher quality of product and service, and a fatter profit margin. Human capital investments are no different. Related: 6 Recent Trends in Human Capital World 2. Help employees keep up with necessary skills. Human capital development plans often focus primarily on improving employee skill sets or helping them acquire new sets of skills and abilities. This approach makes a great deal of practical sense to small businesses that might be new to investing in their employees. The investment is directly related to the business and results in a direct benefit to the company through greater skills and improved productivity. You have to ensure that your companys human capital assets keep up with your companys needs and the changing landscape of your field or niche. In other words, if technology is changing rapidly in your industry, the profile of your workers skill sets must keep up with those changes if your company is to remain competitive. 3. Make life easier for static-skill workers. Of course, not all workers will benefit equally from skill development opportunities. Many positions require some static form of skill -- for example, operating a machine that doesnt change, or any sort of repetitive work such as sorting or point of sale operations. For these workers, investing in them as human capital could mean making their lives easier in some way. Look for creative ways the company can help these static skill workers reach other types of goals. For example, you could partner with other community organizations or businesses to provide opportunities for these workers to learn new languages, save money, plan and take a trip, or improve their health in some way. Related: Offer These 50 Free Professional Resources to Your Employees 4. Invest in the best supplies, tools and equipment. Human capital investment doesnt just mean investing directly in employees. It also means maintaining a harmonious workplace that helps your employees be more productive at their jobs. As one example, making sure that your workers are given the best office furniture and equipment that your business can afford immediately produces a more positive work environment. Additionally, you should objectively assess each workplace environment for detrimental conditions, such as improper lighting or sound pollution, that can make work unnecessarily unpleasant for your workers and remedy those conditions. Its also important to solicit and consider the input from the affected workers. Wherever possible, make the changes that they agree are most important. Related: Why Team Input Is the Key to Successful Benefits Planning 5. Empower your human resources professionals to develop new ways to invest in human capital. Experienced human resources professionals are the best equipped to evaluate not only what your staff needs most but how to prioritize the investments your company makes in your workforce. Your job is to first communicate clearly to your HR staff that human capital development is a priority for the companys leadership, and then to ensure that goal is adequately funded. With the right charge and budget, HR can then analyze the various needs and opportunities specific to your business. Related: 5 Steps to Investing Wisely in Human Capital Development Would Human Resource Turn More Resourceful? Are Tech Companies Making Profits Over the Cost of Human Lives? Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Photo: The Canadian Press Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, answers questions after touring fire ravaged Paradise, Calif. Costs associated with a deadly Northern California wildfire will likely be in the billions, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Monday as he returned to the town of Paradise, saying he has never witnessed such devastation. "There's a lot of things I'd rather spend this federal money on rather than repairing damage of things that have been destroyed," he said. Zinke nodded to other public services, such as improving visitor experiences at Yosemite National Park or thinning forests as options for the money. No additional remains were found Monday, but the wildfire's death toll rose to 88 after investigators determined that three separate sets of human remains contained remains from more than one person. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said 203 names remain on the list of those unaccounted for after the Camp Fire swept through the rural area 140 miles north of San Francisco. He released the names of 16 people who died in the blaze, ranging in age from 58 to 95. The pace of newly discovered remains has slowed in recent days, and Honea said searchers are making "good progress" as they methodically sweep through any property where people may have died. "The remains that we are now recovering are now remains that were almost completely consumed by the fire," he said. Anthropologists are sifting through bone fragments to help coroners identify the remains, he said. Though he has declined to characterize how much of the area has been searched, Honea said that highly populated areas and places that were identified as possibly having deceased people have been fully searched and search teams are now spreading out into less dense areas of devastation. The U.S. government has distributed more than $20 million in assistance for people displaced by the catastrophic wildfire in Northern California, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said Monday as hundreds of searchers kept looking for more human remains. The massive wildfire that destroyed nearly 14,000 homes in the town of Paradise and surrounding communities was fully contained over the weekend after igniting more than two weeks ago. FEMA spokesman Frank Mansell told The Associated Press that $15.5 million has been spent on housing assistance, including vouchers for hotel rooms. During an interview in the city of Chico, he said disaster response is in an early phase but many people will eventually get longer-term housing in trailers or apartments. FEMA also has distributed $5 million to help with other needs, including funeral expenses, he said. TUPELO, Miss. - President Donald Trump on Monday inserted himself into a searing racial debate here in the cradle of the Confederacy, barnstorming Mississippi on the eve of a Senate runoff election riven by divergent attitudes here about the legacy of segregation and lynching. With his forceful and unambiguous endorsement of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith - whose embrace of Confederate traditions and comments about a "public hanging" have revived painful memories of Mississippi's dark history - the president again dived into a cultural firestorm. By yoking himself with Hyde-Smith, Trump is backing a politician who said she would sit with a supporter in the front row of a public hanging, donned a Confederate uniform to promote tourism at Jefferson Davis's homestead, and graduated from one segregation academy while sending her daughter to another. "Race is always the key in which life in Mississippi is played," said Stuart Stevens, a Republican strategist and Mississippi native who wrote a book about growing up here. "It's just always present and it is the greatest determinant, still, in Mississippi of one's path through life." Trump's decision to swoop into Mississippi aboard Air Force One on Monday to stage two campaign rallies - one here in Tupelo and the second in Biloxi - on the eve of Tuesday's runoff election underscored the uncertain state of Hyde-Smith's candidacy. The president was on a rescue mission to mobilize his supporters around the incumbent senator, who was appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant, R, to fill a vacancy earlier this year left by the retirement of Sen. Thad Cochran, R. Republican strategists privately say Hyde-Smith has stumbled badly and struggled to generate momentum, though they are confident that she ultimately will prevail. Hyde-Smith has cast herself as a Trump clone. She has hopscotched the state on a campaign bus emblazoned with a massive picture of her and the president together and dubbed "The MAGA Wagon," a play on Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan. She brags that she has voted with Trump "100 percent of the time," including to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. On issue after issue, from trade to immigration, she parrots the president's talking points. Still, the contest is far more competitive than had been expected in solidly Republican Mississippi, a state Trump carried in 2016 by 18 percentage points. After Hyde-Smith's hanging remark, public and private polls have measured a boost in voter enthusiasm for Democratic Senate candidate Mike Espy, who is black and has made racial discrimination a central theme in the campaign's closing weeks. Neither Trump nor Hyde-Smith made any overt mention of the racial controversies surrounding the race when they rallied a crowd of several thousand people bundled up against the cold as the sun set on the airport tarmac here in Tupelo. The president called Tuesday's runoff "one of the most important elections of your lives," and he cast Hyde-Smith as a champion of his agenda who would bolster the Republican majority in the Senate. "She votes to make America great again and she votes for America first," Trump said, referring to two of his slogans. "Cindy is so important, so respected, we've got to send her back. If we win tomorrow, we'll be at 53-47." Hyde-Smith, meanwhile, emphasized her traditionally conservative ideology, saying she would work to lower taxes, loosen regulations, support the military and law enforcement, and fight for antiabortion policies. "I will stand up for your conservative values and that is what's on the ballot tomorrow," Hyde-Smith said. Espy, a former congressman and an agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration, has embraced his position as an underdog. He told reporters on Monday that he planned to speak at a gospel event while Trump is campaigning with Hyde-Smith. "We welcome him to Mississippi," Espy said. "He's going to say whatever he has to say, and we're going to be praising the Lord." As voters head to the polls on Tuesday, the question is whether Mississippians will retreat to their natural partisan alignment or whether, as occurred in neighboring Alabama a year ago, enough suburban Republican voters break with their party to deliver a Democratic upset. Hyde-Smith and her allies are banking on the former, and they are hopeful that Trump's visit reminds voters that she would be a rubber stamp on his agenda. "I don't have any doubt that Mike Espy will vote with [House Democratic Leader] Nancy Pelosi and Cindy Hyde-Smith will vote with President Trump, and at the end of the day that's why Cindy Hyde-Smith will win," said Henry Barbour, a Mississippi-based Republican strategist who runs Mississippi Victory Fund, a super PAC helping Hyde-Smith. Last December in Alabama, also a staunchly Republican state, Democrat Doug Jones won a special election to the Senate in the wake of credible allegations that GOP nominee Roy Moore harassed and assaulted underage girls when he was in his 30s. Trump defended Moore against the allegations, campaigned for him and ordered the Republican National Committee to maintain its support for his campaign, even as other GOP figures and groups - including the National Republican Senatorial Committee - pulled their support. Although a majority of white voters backed Moore, Jones prevailed by boosting turnout among African Americans and other loyal Democrats, as well as among suburban whites who lean Republican but rejected Moore. "The question is, have white folks' attitudes changed in Mississippi?" Democratic strategist Paul Begala said. "In Alabama, they have. The winning message for Doug Jones was, 'Don't embarrass us, Alabama.' But I just don't know. It is still Mississippi." Hyde-Smith's supporters say it would be wrong to compare her candidacy to Moore's. "Cindy Hyde-Smith made an awkward comment and didn't clean it up fast enough," Barbour said, compared with the accusations against Moore. Hyde-Smith has defended her hanging comment as an exaggerated gesture of friendship, but many interpreted her remark as an allusion to lynching. In the candidate's only debate for the runoff, Hyde-Smith delivered a limited apology and said that her remarks had been "twisted" for political purposes. "For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize," she said. "There was no ill will or intent whatsoever in my statement." Espy replied, "I don't know what's in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth. It's given our state another black eye that we don't need. It's just rejuvenated old stereotypes that we don't need anymore." Just as he did with Moore, Trump came to the senator's defense when a reporter asked Monday night in Gulfport, Mississippi, whether Hyde-Smith's hanging remark was appropriate. "First of all, there was an apology made," Trump said. "I heard that loud and clear. Second of all, really it was something that was sad and it was a little flip. . . . I know where her heart is, and her heart is good. That's not what she was meaning when she said that." The Senate race has turned into a proxy of sorts for a debate over the identity of Mississippi. Once the lynching capital of America, Mississippi is the last state in the union still incorporating the Confederate battle flag in its state flag. But the state has also been striving to modernize, and has sought to reckon with its white supremacist past by opening a new state history and civil rights museum under the same roof in Jackson. Hyde-Smith's campaign has proved toxic in some quarters. AT&T, Walmart and some other major corporations have moved to distance themselves from the senator by publicly requesting that their donations be returned. Elise Jordan, a Mississippi native who served in the George W. Bush administration and is now a Republican commentator, wrote in an op-ed in the Clarion Ledger that the election is "about the values we want our great state to represent in the world." "I know that many Mississippians worry about sending a Democratic senator to Washington, but I worry more that Cindy Hyde-Smith, who gave only a belated and cursory apology for comments supporting voter suppression and, of all things, public hangings, will be a constant reminder of the darkest days of our history," Jordan writes. "Is that a reputational risk Mississippians can afford to take?" Photo: The Canadian Press A soldier from Washington state who was killed in Afghanistan over the weekend gave his life in service of the United States, Gov. Jay Inslee said. Army Sgt. Leandro A.S. Jasso, 25, died Saturday during combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Defence Department officials said Sunday. Jasso was from Leavenworth, Washington, and was assigned to 2nd Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Inslee said in a statement that "we are profoundly grateful for his service and sacrifice." Jasso was wounded by small-arms fire and was treated and evacuated to the nearest medical treatment facility, where he died, said Lt. Col. Loren Bymer, an Army spokesman. He was on his third deployment to Afghanistan after enlisting in the Army in 2012. "Sgt. Jasso was a humble professional who placed the mission first, lived the Ranger Creed and will be deeply missed," said Lt. Col. Rob McChrystal, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. On Sunday, as news of Jasso's death spread through Leavenworth, former teachers and friends recalled a quiet young man who enjoyed the discipline and experiences the Army provided, the Seattle Times reported . They said everyone seemed to have a connection to the soldier in the Chelan County city of about 2,000 people. "You hear the stories of kids enlisting and going off to war and then losing their life, but it really hits home with us, being a small town," said Elia Ala'ilima-Daley, principal of Cascade High School, where Jasso graduated in 2012. "Everybody knows everyone." Andrea Brixey, a Cascade High teacher, had Jasso in her seventh-grade English class and said he liked to challenge the norms but never in a disrespectful way. She got an initial taste of that when, on the first day of school, he called her "Andrea" instead of "Ms. Brixey." "He wasn't busy being a ringleader and trying to torment me. That was just how he rolled," Brixey said. "He was never disruptive or difficult, but he always questioned authority on every level. But once he got the answers, he was the best kid to have on your team." Jasso enlisted in August 2012, about three months after graduating high school. Brixey said he told her it seemed like the smartest option with the most benefit. Re: the letter Sending poor message Our prime minister was in France with more than 70 other world leaders to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. He also visited Vimy Ridge, where many Canadians died and my grandfather was badly wounded. Canadians played a big role in that war, and I am very glad our prime minister was there on Nov. 11 to represent us. He was invited by French President Macron. Are you suggesting he should have stayed home and refused the invitation to placate non-thinking Canadians? Don Fletcher, Kelowna 81% of Canadians believe all companies should give back and 68% say they would be more loyal to companies that did TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - A new report from The Upside Foundation, a charity that enables startups to give back by sharing their financial upside, examines Canadians' attitudes toward corporate giving and the effect it has on purchasing decisions. The report* was commissioned in collaboration with Interac Corp. (Interac), The Upside Foundation's Innovation Sponsor, to celebrate #GivingTuesday, which takes place annually the day after Cyber Monday, and encourages Canadians to give back with their time or money. The report found that 70% of Canadians are more likely to purchase from companies that support charities, with 81% of Canadians agreeing that all companies should give back, and 68% saying they would be more loyal to companies that have a corporate giving mandate. "The numbers speak for themselvescharitable giving helps drive economic growth because Canadians not only prefer to support businesses that give back, they are also willing to spend more at businesses that do so," said Debbie Gamble, Chief Officer of Innovation Labs and New Ventures at Interac. Were proud to sponsor The Upside Foundation to help promote connecting business innovation to social good and encourage Canadians to spend smart this holiday season. While one-fifth (20%) of Canadians feel that after doing their holiday shopping they should be giving back to charities, yet another good reason to maintain control of spending by using their own money during the holidays. When it comes to purchasing decisions, nearly half (46%) of Canadians say they have based their purchase on whether or not a company was considered charitable. What's more, 48% are willing to spend more on products from companies that give back. The report also found that corporate giving has a long-standing impact on consumersalmost a quarter (23%) of Canadians say they have purchased from a company more than once or changed their shopping habits entirely as a show of support for that company's charitable giving. "Charitable giving has been a central part of our business and brand ethos since day one, so donating company equity for charity through The Upside Foundation was a simple decision for us," said Tyler Handley, co-founder and CEO of inkbox, creators of the world's first semi-permanent tattoo and an Upside Foundation Member. "Companies have a responsibility to give back to the communities that have supported themnot only is it the right thing to do, it's also a relatively simple way to better align your brand with the values of your employees and customers." As Canadians look to the year ahead, 46% say they believe that the biggest trend for charitable giving in 2019 will be an increase in digital donation options. When it came to the way that Canadians believed companies can be most effective with the corporate giving mandates, "donating money to causes/charities" was the top choice (75%). To celebrate #GivingTuesday, Interac has donated $10,000 to Tech4SickKids, a SickKids fundraising campaign targeted at the tech community. The campaign is aiming to raise $25 million to build a new emergency room. For companies who would like to give back, but don't have the resources to make cash donations today, donating equity for charity is a way to make a longer-term, meaningful impact on the causes they care about most. Over 200 companies in Canada have already taken the pledge to donate equity for charity. To join them: Companies can fill out the online pledge form Once the pledge form is received, companies will receive detailed instructions on how to contribute from an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan), warrants or a simple legal form, with flexibility depending on the stage of the company. With the donation embedded in the company's DNA, the company then integrates the charitable commitment into their culture and brand. Once the company has a liquidity event (typically acquisition or IPO), the proceeds are donated to the company's charity of choice. Social Links Website: upsidefoundation.ca/ Instagram: instagram.com/upsidefoundation/ Twitter: twitter.com/sharetheupside Facebook: facebook.com/The-Upside-Foundation-of-Canada-409389922465814/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-upside-foundation-of-canada/ *About the Survey Maru/Blue conducted an online survey of Canadian residents between October 29th and November 2nd, 2018. In total, 1000 members of the general public 18 years or older were surveyed. Final survey data were weighted based on national Census figures, according to region, age, and gender. About The Upside Foundation The Upside Foundation is a charity that enables startups to give back by donating equity in their company to Canadian charities. Early stage companies pledge stock options or warrants to The Upside Foundation, which upon a liquidity event convert to a cash donation for the company's charity of choice. To learn more about The Upside Foundation visit: www.upsidefoundation.ca About Interac Corp. Interac Corp. operates an economical, world-class debit payments system with broad-based acceptance, reliability, security, and efficiency. The organization is one of Canada's leading payments brands and is chosen an average of 16 million times daily to pay and exchange money. For more than 30 years, Interac Corp. and its predecessors, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation, have facilitated secure financial transactions through the development of innovative and convenient debit and money transfer solutions. A leader in the prevention and detection of fraud, the organization has one of the lowest rates of fraud globally. Visit interac.ca or follow @INTERAC on Twitter. Interac Corp. has a diverse group of shareholders that includes banks, credit unions, caisses populaires, payment processors and merchants. SOURCE The Upside Foundation For further information: Press contact: Jamie Gillingham, Account Manager, [email protected], 1 647 490 1507 Orchard Park, N.Y. -- Authorities in Western New York are seeking the public's help in finding the driver of a pickup truck that struck a sheriff's deputy after Sunday's Buffalo Bills game, leaving him with a serious arm injury. The Erie County Sheriff's Office says the deputy was directing traffic at Big Tree Road and Route 219 in Orchard Park around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when he was hit by a dark-colored Ford F-250 pickup with a full, rear window hunting-related decal. Deputies say the vehicle continued traveling east on Big Tree Road and turned left onto Route 219 and drove north. The deputy was taken to a Buffalo hospital for treatment. Deputies asking anyone who may have seen the vehicle or knows of a similar truck to call the sheriff's office. The Russian coastguard opened fire on two artillery boats and a tug belonging to Ukraine which it claimed had made an unauthorized passage through Russias waters. Two of the craft, the Berdyansk and the Nikopol, were damaged and six crew members injured. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Ukraines Parliament has declared martial law in 10 of its provinces to combat growing aggression from Russia. Poroshenko originally proposed 60 days before halving the proposed period to 30 days. Three former Ukrainian presidents, including first president Leonid Kravchuk, opposed the motion. A letter signed by them said that the originally proposed length of 60 days would pose a threat to democracy by delaying the Ukrainian presidential election. Poroshenkos approval ratings have declined dramatically in recent months. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is leading in the polls. Some Ukrainian and foreign observers have suggested that Poroshenko is trying to benefit from playing up Russian hostilities. President Vladimir Putins own approval ratings have sunk in recent months over controversial pension reforms. Putins purported order to special forces to seize the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine came in March 2014, with his approval ratings sagging. Martial law will include a partial mobilization and strengthening of the countrys air defense. There will be anti-terrorism and cybersecurity measures as well. The Kerch Strait, the Bridge and Blocking Commerce to Ukraine Russia prevented three Ukrainian ships from entering the Kerch Strait, a narrow strip of water linking the Azov and Black seas. Russia prevented the ships from entering the strait by placing a large cargo vessel beneath a Russian-controlled bridge. Russia then closed the strait, which both nations use. In May, Russia opened a 19-kilometer, rail-and-highway bridge over the Kerch Strait connecting mainland Russia with the annexed Crimean Peninsula. The bridges low height restricted the types of merchant ships that could pass. This decreases traffic to service Ukrainian ports in Mariupol and Berdyansk. For those cities, their ports are economic lifelines. Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) have since detained more than 150 merchant vessels, holding them for up to several days. An extra day at sea costs a shipping company up to $15,000. There are also costs to the port. Each side has detained the others vessels. In March, Ukraines State Border Guard Service detained a Russian fishing boat and impounded it in Berdyansk. Just last week, Russian Border Guards seized a Ukrainian fishing boat and impounded it in the Russian port of Yeysk, about 60 kilometers southeast of Mariupol. Kyiv said the Russians actions violated a 2003 bilateral treaty designating the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait as shared territorial waters and the UN Law of the Sea, which guarantees access through the strait. Russian officials said the Ukrainian ships were maneuvering dangerously, requiring the strait to be temporarily closed for security reasons. Russia is Able to Control the Black Sea to Blackmail Ukraine Russia is able to control the Black Sea. Putin will be able to blackmail Ukraine to allow ships to pass. The main response for USA and Europe against Russia is imposing more economic sanctions. There will be no military response to Russia over the Black Sea. Russia has the military capability to conquer Ukraine. However, there would be a constant Ukrainian insurgency against Russia which would drain Russian resources. The best option for Ukraine is probably to elect Tymeshenko and try to join the EU. Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Unifor national president Jerry Dias meet in Ottawa, Tuesday. Unifor president Jerry Dias says General Motors' plan to close its car plant in Oshawa, Ontario puts it on the brink of leaving Canada completely. The head of Canada's biggest private-sector union represents about 2,500 workers at the factory the carmaker plans to shut at the end of 2019. After meeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa on Tuesday, Dias said GM has moved production of five models of vehicles to Mexico and the United States in the past few years, and if the Oshawa plant closes, the company will have only one left here. Dias argues that if General Motors stops making cars in Canada, it would devastate the parts industry and that would cause big trouble for other car companies. He says labour standards in Mexico are low and Trudeau has to work with President Donald Trump to keep manufacturing jobs from shifting south. Dias says the revamped NAFTA deal should help eventually, but the parts that apply to the auto sector won't kick in for years and by then it could be too late. Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media BRIDGEPORT A woman waiting for a bus Tuesday was caught in a line of gunfire intended for another person and shot several times, officials said. At 11:50 a.m., police received several 911 calls about a female shot in the 1000 block of Connecticut Avenue, police spokesman Av Harris. Police Chief Armando Perez said someone wearing a mask tried to shoot at another person. NEW HAVEN If it takes a village to raise a child, then eight working professionals held what amounted to a town hall meeting Tuesday. Gateway Community College played host to a forum of black male professionals Tuesday morning on the challenges and successes they faced on their paths to a career. Eight men from various industries in Greater New Haven spoke to a room of about 50 people about how they landed where they did. For me, the only option to get out of Georgia was to be good at something, said Yale University geneticist Montrell Seay, who spoke about growing up dirt poor in the South. He said he was motivated to work hard largely because of what he views as his mothers sacrifice to him by raising him instead of pursuing a career of her own. Joel Pullen, a social worker, said he was motivated to succeed by competitiveness after initially being derailed by a physically and emotionally traumatic motorcycle accident at 18. You go through a period of life where youre disappointed with the hand you were dealt, he said, about surviving the accident with physical scars. However, he said, he maintained his focus to achieve two things that are crucial to him: to never be considered dumb and to not be seen as a follower. My motivation was that I didnt want to lose. Pullen also made reference to the school-to-prison pipeline, and how low academic achievement has a strong correlation with incarceration. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 41.3 percent of the population of incarcerated males in 2016 was black; according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 13.4 percent of the U.S. population in 2017 was black. The day before the forum, officials with New Havens public schools presented the Board of Education with data that 43.3 percent of all discipline in the first marking period of this academic year was directed at black males. We have to start looking at how black males are viewed from pre-K, said board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur. I have a girl and a boy theyre twins and I see the difference in how different discipline is meted out for the same behaviors. I just wonder what were doing with that population to try to make school feel a little better to that population, and Im very concerned that perhaps there should be some group that looks at why there is such a failure to adjust to school by this population, said Mayor Toni Harp after seeing the rate of suspensions facing black males in the school system. Panelist Billy Johnson, a former director of instruction with the school district, said he believes we dont spend enough time questioning education. The education system we live in and work in was not made for us, he told the room of mostly young, black college students. You need to understand why education was created and how it impacts you. Seth Poole, a sexual educator with Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said attending Trinity College a private white institution, as opposed to a historically black college was traumatic, but awakened him to how the world works. Weve got to know our history; its essential, he said. Gateway Community College student Myles Lawrence said he thought the panel discussion was interesting. You can learn more from what theyre talking about and putting yourself in their shoes, he said. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN Following months of discontent with a perceived disconnect between members of the school board and community members, the Board of Education said it will look at ways to be more communicative with parents and other stakeholders. Members of the community have expressed concerns that their questions about how the district operates are not being answered; under previous district leadership, questions asked of the school board during public comment were answered in writing within the week and posted online. We just do not have the staff to do that, said Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks. The district is facing a projected deficit of $8.7 million, and several school-level staff members were laid off at the beginning of the school year. Some of the questions are more complicated. I do not have someone to write back dissertations on some of the questions, which are very detailed. Last Monday, volunteers from a coalition of concerned parents and teachers challenged several contracts going before the finance committee in an email to Jamell Cotto, chairman of that committee. Cotto confirmed he received the questions, but did not ask any of the staff members presenting contracts to provide answers to questions posed by that group. I didnt open the email, because I have a day job, until right before the meeting, Cotto said at Mondays school board meeting. All six members of the public who addressed the school board during public comment asked questions about or commented on how the district communicates information about its spending to the public. A request for information is a request for education, and if you dont value the pursuit of education please recuse yourself from the board, said parent and teacher Jessica Light. Democracy dies in darkness. We hear a lot of that, and we dont want darkness in New Haven, said retired library media specialist Robert Gibson. Were not here to be dismissed, disrespected or ignored. Birks said central office staff members who sit in on every school board meeting will always respond to any member of the community who raises a personal concern, and will work with that person to provide an answer. Any members of the community with broader concerns, she said, are invited to attend any of the periodic coffee conversation forums she holds around the community, ordinarily for about two hours. She also mentioned she has spoken with members of the community on the record over the phone and the district is willing to make any materials such as PowerPoint presentations available to anyone who asks. What the community really wants, Birks suggested, is answers from the school board. Mayor Toni Harp said this can present an issue if the board is not prepared to respond in public. Unless this board operates at a formal meeting that is open to the public, indviduals cannot speak on behalf of the entire board, she said. Any question that the board as a board would have an answer to would have to be done at this meeting or at another time at a full board meeting. Cotto added that he feels as chairman of the Finance Committee, its his duty to bring any questions before the full board instead of investigating them in committee. Birks, who attends those committee meetings and often asks questions for clarification, said those meetings are the best time for asking questions. We have staff who have been part of the grant writing process and they answer the questions posed to them by the committee, not the board, she said. During the meeting, Cotto attempted to move five contracts back to the Finance Committee for further discussion. Birks said that maneuver could jeopardize compliance with the state Department of Education in the case of two of those contracts, which were pulled from consideration. Ultimately, the school board voted to send a contract for SAT preparatory classes at Hill Regional Career High School, a mentoring program that pairs students with veteran mentors and a contract with the New Haven Family Alliance back to the committee for further questioning. Birks suggested that any community groups concerned that they are not receiving adequate information should designate a representative to meet with her to discuss how they can do a better job of communicating in the future. I feel like theyre trying, said parent Jill Kelly, although she said she was ignored in previous community forums when she attempted to ask Birks a question about the budget. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com EAST HAVEN Public funds were used to pay nearly $171,600 to attorneys and investigators to defend Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. in a four-year legal battle with a former town employee who claimed he repeatedly sexually harassed her, records show. Billing documents dating to August 2014, when attorneys hired to represent the mayor and the town began conferencing with a private investigator, through Sept. 19, when the legal team reviewed media stories about three new accusers, show the town footed the legal bill to protect Maturos interests in heated court disputes. The documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, show $171,600 was spent on attorneys and private investigators to build a defense for Maturo in the July 2014 state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities complaint filed by Francine Carbone, who was fired by the town, as well as the subsequently filed state civil suit and federal Family Leave Act suit. When asked for comment on the cost of his legal defense, Maturo, who has denied all the accusations, accused the Register of being fake news. That case involved a lot more than a sexual harassment case, he said via phone Tuesday. It involved a wrongful firing case, which the Register continues to fail to mention. All that is mentioned is the sexual harassment case. The mayor continued, I settle cases, probably hundreds of times a year. That includes a $3 million DOJ lawsuit. I settled that out of court and the Register never lambasted me for it. Again, I say: fake news. Republican Town Councilman Ken McKay recently told Hearst Connecticut Media he believed the town legally should protect the mayor, just as it would a firefighter or policeman. If [the mayor] says things that are out of order, we have to protect him, McKay said. Hes an employee of the town of East Haven. Democrats on the council, however, are frustrated with the fact that the town covered Maturos legal expenses. We think its wrong, Councilman Joe Carfora, D-3, said. And its rubbed taxpayers the wrong way. Councilman Nicholas Palladino, D-2, said Thats $171,000 of taxpayers money that should have never had to be spent. That money was for somebodys misbehavior, for lack of a better word, he said. I dont remember anywhere in the town charter under the job description of the mayor it saying that harassing female employees was part of his job. The New Haven-based law firm Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante, which was hired to defend Maturo according to state civil court filings, charged the town more than $70,000 for four years of legal services, records show. The firm charged hourly rates between $65 and $185 to perform tasks such as sending emails, making phone calls, conferencing with other attorneys, deposing and subpoenaing witnesses and preparing for trial, according to the bills. Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante attorneys billed for items such as inspecting and performing an acoustical test in the Town Hall office, deposing Carbones family members and preparing to subpoena another women who would eventually come forward publicly to accuse Maturo of sexual harassment herself: Roxanne Melillo. Billing documents show attorneys were researching Melillo, conferencing with each other about deposing her and reviewing a video file titled with her last name as early as November 2017. She didnt come forward publicly with the accusations until Sept. 19, after the Carbone settlement was reached. There were reports of a Facebook Live video of Melillo accusing Maturo of harassment around that time. The legal documents dont indicate what the video file they reviewed contained. Prestige Investigations, a Connecticut-based private investigation company, was hired by attorney Hugh Keefe on behalf of the mayor to conduct background checks, take photos, and search, locate and interview witnesses, bills from the firm show. Prestige charged an hourly fee of $150 for most of the tasks it performed, according to invoices. The town paid a total of $11,150 for the companys services, according to purchase orders. The towns counsel in the Carbone cases was Wallingford-based law firm Loughlin Fitzgerald, state court documents show. The total bill for the firms legal services related to the Carbone case dating back to July 2015 was more than $97,000, according to invoices sent to Town Attorney Joseph Zullo. Loughlin Fitzgerald charged the town $135 per hour for work done by an associate and $185 per hour for a partner. The firms preparation for the trial which never happened because the parties settled right before it was scheduled included reviewing notes from Carbones therapy sessions, filing numerous motions to quash subpoenas, creating posters for trial exhibits and traveling out of town to retrieve depositions, according to bills. Loughlin Fitzgerald associate James Ringold and partner John Conways extensive work on the Carbone case involved going through Carbones childs medical records, reviewing timecards and researching FMLA case law, the companys bills show. The firms billing documents also show its attorneys were strategizing to reach a settlement in the state civil suit as early as February. All of the mayors legal bills were covered by funds from the towns Legal and Lawyer Fees spending, a line item in the legal services department budget, according to Zullo. The cost of Maturos defense was slightly less than the $175,000 settlement Zullo said the legal team agreed to pay Carbone on Sept. 12. The town already has paid Carbone $87,500 of the settlement, according to a finance department purchase order. That money came from the towns self-insurance fund, Zullo said. The deal also included health insurance for Carbone and her husband until age 65, per Zullo. WEST HAVEN Former two-term Mayor Ed OBrien has formed an exploratory committee for a possible bid to recapture in 2019 the seat he lost to Mayor Nancy Rossi in 2017, OBrien confirmed Monday. I am going to spend the next few months talking to residents and exploring the possibility of running again for the Office of Mayor, a seat I held from 2013-2017, OBrien said in a text statement that began with, To the Residents of West Haven. Why would I seek to run? he asked in the text, which confirmed what he first suggested in a YouTube video posted on one of his Facebook pages Friday. The answer is simple, West Haven is too great to give up on. OBrien said in the YouTube video that he had formed an exploratory committee, which is necessary for a possible future candidate to raise money. He said by phone that he is considering another run because its my hometown and I dont like the direction its going in. OBrien said he doesnt know when he might make a final decision. Im just going to talk to as many people as I can ... to make a decision one way or another when I feel its right, he said. When I close my eyes and picture West Haven 25 years from now, I see a city with a strong commercial base and reasonable taxes; a city with low crime, clean streets, where visitors from around the state flock for our festivals, concerts, beaches and our wonderful quality of life, he wrote in the text. When I see the direction the present administration is taking West Haven, it is a very different picture, he said. I see a city where there are financial mistruths spun for political gain, only two ways to fix 30-year-old financial problems, cuts to crucial services and community events as well as huge tax increases. In addition, economic development efforts have come to a screeching stop, OBrien said. It is my belief, and the belief of the armies of people that have reached out to me over this last year, that we were on a path that was leading our city out of the stagnations it has been in for a quarter of a century, he said. He said that in the next few months, I will be talking to residents both to explain why getting back on track is so important and answer questions about both our past and our future OBrien urged any concerned West Haveners to contact him directly on his cellphone at 203-668-0641 if they have any questions. Over the next few months he said he will hold a series of Meet & Greets in peoples homes. Rossi did not immediately return a call for comment. Rossi has credited the OBrien administration with running up $10.3 million of the $18.1 million cumulative deficit that put the state at West Havens doorstep. The city was put under the guidance of the state Municipal Accountability Review Board after the city sold $16.13 million in deficit bonds last November, shortly before OBrien left office. Rossi has been dealing with the MARB since she took office last December. OBrien said in the YouTube video that the videos purpose was to answer questions that Ive been getting since the election. More and more frequently, people are asking me if I plan on running for mayor in 2019. More and more Im being asked that blunt question: Will you run for mayor again? Id be lying if I said the thought hasnt crossed my mind, he said. As mayor, he said he loved having the opportunity to shape our city for the next generation and the generations to come ... Watching West Haven begin to transform into a city where people wanted to move, companies wanted to invest their money, was extremely rewarding. But West Haven is a tough political town, and any campaign is full of low blows and personal attacks. OBrien said he had planned to wait a while longer to step forward, but I am frustrated with the turn our city has taken: poor communication, conflicts with the state, unkept surroundings and increased taxes. As a taxpaying citizen who had a desk in City Hall, I know this doesnt have to be the case and I know it is unacceptable, he said in the video. After a year of soul searching and watching the actions of the current administration, talking to countless residents and hearing the effects this administrations tax increases are having on them, the decision to at least explore the option was an easy decision to make, he said. GUILFORD A New Haven man charged with making racially-based threats is accused of violence in a separate pending case , court records show. Guilford police arrested Brendan Garvey, 55, on Nov. 21 after a family reported he had threatened and intimidated them based on their Hispanic heritage. Garvey is charged with intimidation due to bias, threatening and breach of peace, all in the second degree. Garvey is known to Guilford police, having been convicted for breach of peace, driving under the influence and violation of probation in 2013 and 2014. He had a pending criminal case, including a third-degree assault charge, in Superior Court in Middletown when he was arrested Nov. 21 in Guilford. In Garveys Guilford arrest, a family said they felt they were singled out because they were the only people of color in the restaurant. The woman involved, Claudia, asked that only her first name be used in the story. When Claudia, her boyfriend and two daughters walked into Centro Pizza, Garvey immediately began staring at them and saying things such as Im going to get shot and Go back to Bridgeport, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. In cellphone footage of the incident, Garvey slams a restaurant chair under a table, the warrant affidavit said. Garvey allegedly approached the familys table and began harassing them, asking Claudias boyfriend, who is white, if they were his family, the warrant affidavit said. This man kept mocking in disbelief that we were his family, Claudia said. Claudias boyfriend asked repeatedly for Garvey to leave the family alone as Claudia left the table to get the restaurant owner. Garvey continued to wave his hand, pointed like a gun at the family, the warrant said. When he was told to return to his table, Garvey began slamming things onto the table, one of Claudias daughters said in an email. She said the incident scared her and she believes she was being treated that way for her brown skin and curly hair. (It) made me feel belittled, like I was less than human, almost like an animal, she said. Claudia said she was very frustrated to see Garvey make her children feel so uncomfortable, to the point of making them cry. (Im) upset that no one from the restaurant came and made this man sit quietly, she said. I had to get up and go and ask for the manager. It was very obvious our server was aware and ignoring what was going on. When I came back to the table this man was still harassing us and all the manager [did] was tell this man he was gonna move his table. By no means does Centro tolerate hateful, racist, or threatening behavior of any kind, the restaurant owners said in a statement. We are so sorry the incident was not handled better by the staff on duty. While the owners werent present, they said the manager and waitstaff who were were unprepared to handle such a situation. In the future, any reports of threatening behavior will be met with immediate intervention and police involvement, they said, asking for forgiveness of the family and apologizing to the Guilford community for how it was handled. Racism and bigotry have no place here, they said. The family has lived in Guilford for six years, but none of them said they had experienced harassment to the extent they did from Garvey. After Garvey was asked to return to his table, the family left. The restaurant compensated the family for their pizza, but Garvey was not walked out of the restaurant, Claudia said. Claudia has since seen Garvey in public, she said. It was very upsetting that this person was at the library (Monday) and recognized my kids, no they were not harassed, but makes me feel unsafe, after reading about the multiple arrests having to do with harassment and kids involved, Claudia said. Garvey is known to police and frequents the center of town in Guilford, the warrant said. Clinton police recently charged Garvey in another pending case in which he allegedly sexually and physically assaulted a woman in June. The incident occurred at Garveys hotel room in Clinton just before midnight, court records show. The woman told police Garvey put her in a headlock, punched her and threw her out of his hotel room after she refused to have sex with him, the warrant in that case said. The woman didnt talk further to police that night but went to Guilford police the next day reporting she had been physically and sexually assaulted. She said shed been staying with Garvey for three nights when he allegedly climbed into bed with her and tried to force himself on her, records show. She tried to get away, and he threw her things outside and hung up her phone when she called police the first time. Garvey was inconsistent with his story about the incident over several interviews, denying the womans account , a warrant said. The victims version of what happened was consistent in several interviews, police said. Clinton police eventually arrested Garvey and charged him with fourth-degree sexual assault, first-degree unlawful restraint, third-degree assault, interfering with an emergency call and making a false statement, records show. In 2013, Garvey threatened a group of teenagers with a tire iron while intoxicated and claimed to have a bomb in his backpack, according to court documents. He received a six-month suspended sentence and 18 months of probation in that case, records show. Garvey appeared in Middletown court Monday for his arrest in Clinton and is scheduled to appear in court in New Haven Dec. 4 in the Guilford incident . mdignan@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN The chief operating officer of New Haven Public Schools is in negotiations to leave the district for a job with Waterbury Public Schools before 2019, according to two sources familiar with negotiations. The Board of Education went into executive (closed-door) session at the end of its meeting Monday for what the agenda described as discussion of employment of an executive level employee and possible action related to the employee. Two sources familiar with negotiations said it was Will Clark who was being discussed in the meeting. An attorney by trade with experience defending school boards against claims and litigation, Clark often is invited into executive session by the school board to offer legal advice about the districts best interests. He was not included in the beginning of the executive session Monday night. When asked after the meeting had adjourned whether he was leaving the district , Clark said he had no comment. He did not return a request for comment Tuesday. Without a permanent COO in the district, Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks would be the last remaining executive in the school boards central office. Birks has been serving at the districts helm since March. I think its a devastating loss, said Board of Education President Darnell Goldson. I think his institutional knowledge will not be able to be replaced. Goldson said he is looking forward to hearing the recommendations from the superintendent for the districts next steps. Birks did not answer multiple phone calls Tuesday. Dave Cicarella, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said he did not expect the move to have a direct impact on teachers. I dont see it having any impact on teachers given his present role; he wasnt really working with us directly anymore like when we were immersed in school reform, he said. According to a staff chart posted to the Waterbury Public Schools website, there is a vacancy for a COO position in the district as of at least Oct. 2. The position is not currently listed on the districts hiring website. A request for comment from Waterbury Public Schools was not returned Tuesday. According to a LinkedIn account, Clark has worked in New Haven since 1997 after graduating Quinnipiac Universitys law school, beginning in the office of the corporation counsel defending the school board. He has been COO since 2007. Clarks departure from the district would be one of the biggest changes to a fairly new central office structure that has brought in a number of new hires from out of the district this year, including Deputy Superintendent of School Ivelise Velazquez and Paul Whyte, one of three assistant superintendents for instructional leadership. Under Birks organization plan, which was approved by the school board on July 31, the COO supervises school construction, safety and security, transportation, food services, facilities, information technology and health services. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com Chantelle Deacon The Canadian Red Cross is looking for emergency management volunteers across the North Okanagan. The volunteers would respond to help people in disasters like floods or fires. "We often respond to house fires and floods in the North Okanagan," said Liam Devine, emergency management coordinator. "Just recently we responded to a house fire where we helped a family with basic assistance to support their recovery." Volunteers are needed for multiple positions within the Red Cross. "We look for all types of skill sets in volunteers," Devine said. "We have many different needs for our local volunteer teams." The Red Cross needs everything from administrative and logistics volunteers to personal disaster responders. "We welcome all types of people." Over the past two years, the need for Red Cross volunteers across the Okanagan has substantially grown. "The current situation in the province with more and more disasters becoming more frequent we respond with the flooding in the spring and in the summer with the wildfire response we are definitely seeing a greater need for more and more volunteers," Devine said. If you're interested in becoming a volunteer apply online or reach out to your local Red Cross office. NEW HAVEN Yale New Haven Hospital plans to move its primary care centers which serve more than 28,500 patients annually to a new location where it will outsource its billing to realize higher Medicaid reimbursements. It is one of the factors in the proposed New Haven Primary Care Consortium, in which Fair Haven Community Health Center and Cornell Scott Hill Health Corp. will lease the current Yale staff running the clinics with FHCHC responsible for billing pediatric care and Cornell Scott given that role for the adult and womens clinics. The state Department of Public Healths Office of Health Strategy recently declared complete the 570-page Certificate of Need application from the hospital seeking approval of the plan. A public hearing has been set for 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Parish House at Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School, 150 Kimberly Ave. Cynthia Sparer, senior vice president of operations at Yale New Haven Hospital, in testimony she plans to deliver Wednesday, said existing providers at Yales clinics, including residents being trained there, will continue to provide their services at the consolidated site at 150 Sargent Drive. This will make for continuity of care and enhance medical education in the region by introducing trainees to the health centers primary care model, Sparer wrote. The current staff also will remain employees of YNHH, but for billing purposes they will be assigned to one of the federally qualified health clinics. A complicating factor are the current charity policies of YNHH, which are robust, with individuals and families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level not charged for medical care. It offers discounted care for those at 251 percent to 550 percent of the federal poverty level; it also has free bed funds for those who qualify. At the Fair Haven clinic, an individual making 100 per cent of the federal poverty level with an income of $12,140 would pay $25 for a visit; at 125 percent of poverty up to an income $15,175 the charge will be $35 for the first visit and $30 after that. For a family of four at 200 percent of poverty, up to $50,200 in income, a new visit is $65 with $45 for a follow-up. Cornell Scott charges $20 for the lowest income level, which increases to $100 for someone earning $24,280 at 200 percent of poverty. The current payer mix for Yales clinic patient is 78 percent Medicaid and 6 percent uninsured. Sparer wrote that Yale is reviewing the differences in the cost to these patients and for those who dont qualify for a hardship waiver, the hospital said it would work with the clinics to mitigate the out-of-pocket costs. She said the benefits to the patients are free parking and taking advantage of more than one procedure given the many services at one site. The hospital plans to put in $20 million to renovate the Sargent Drive building and bring the Epic computer system to Cornell Scott, a platform shared by all of Yales offices that is also already used by the Fair Haven center. The hospital does address costs and savings with the plan in its application. Shifting active management to CSHHC and FHCHC allows for increased reimbursement through the Federally Qualified Health Center enhanced Medicaid rate structure, according to the document. Based on financial data for fiscal 2016, the hospital said its support for its primary care mission will drop from $16 million to $12 million in the form of separate community benefit grants to both the Fair Haven and Hill health care centers. The grants are offered to make the federally supported clinics whole in their new role with Yale personnel. From the perspective of the hospitals finances, it said the grant payments will be less than losses historically incurred by YNHH in operating the YNHH outpatient primary care sites. The hospital is expected to cover the clinics unanticipated losses, such as more uninsured patients or lower patient volume. On its financial worksheet, the hospital said it expects $16.5 million savings in salaries, wages and fringe incremental difference due to the proposed plan by fiscal 2020, when it is fully implemented. It is anticipated to open in March 2019. Total operating savings annually due to the consolidated plan for fiscal 2020 is estimated at $8.3 million, according to one document. The plan also includes bonuses for key CHC (Community Health Center) management paid by the hospital of up to $68,665 for each clinic upon completion of the deal. Half was supposed to be paid when they signed the deal with the hospital. No one would comment on who is in line for the bonuses. This is the not the first hospital to bill through a federally qualified health care center. The others include Connecticut Childrens Medical Center, St. Francis, St. Vincents, Charlotte Hungerford, Danbury Hospital, St. Marys Hospital and Backus Hospital. The word is still out on whether the state will end up sending more Medicaid funds to the hospitals because of these partnerships. A state study looked at the cost of a specific type of wellness visit at Yale and at the two local clinics and concluded the current Yale cost is more than the Medicaid sent to the clinics. It said since the clinic payments are bundled, the savings could be higher. Ellen Andrews, head of the Connecticut Health Policy Project, argued that the hospital is not taking into account the impact of the states PCMH+ (Patient Center Medical Home) costs for the thousands of Yale patients who will be joining the health clinics networks. The program provides financial and in-kind support in making primary care practices more responsive to the needs of Medicaid members with providers sharing in any cost savings. At $4.50 per patient member per month, Andrews said the cost could be $1.3 million. Some 40 percent of the cost is borne by the state and the rest by the federal government. The proposed collaboration stresses efficiencies with administrators moving to see 15 or more patients a day, the community health center model, from the current 8 patients in the training of doctors. Imaging services and lab work will remain at the new site, but the hospital found it did not have enough room for a pharmacy, an issue for some medical staff who worry about patients leaving the site without their medication in hand. They are used to a pharmacy at the current St. Raphaels building. The collaboration will add behavioral health services to each of the three clinics: adult medicine; womens health; and Pediatrics, something they dont offer now. Abortion counseling and services will be located elsewhere because of the Hyde Amendment, which bars use of federal funds for that purpose. The current Yale primary care centers, which are on York and Chapel streets and on Whitney Avenue in Hamden, are in residential neighborhoods. The new light industrial site is 1.5 miles away from them. It is on a bus line, but it is not as direct as riding downtown for the estimated 30 percent of patients who dont drive. Transportation is not expected to be an issue for the 70 percent of drivers, according to Sparer, who said they always complained about the cost of parking downtown. The Sargent Drive site has free parking. Andrews did her own survey using the CT Transit trip planner. From the clinic at 20 York St. there is only one bus for a 1:45 p.m. ride for a total of 24 minutes of travel, 21 of them walking; from 1450 Chapel St. (St. Raphaels), the trip totaled 27 minutes of travel with 14 minutes of walking and 2 buses; from 2080 Whitney Ave. in Hamden, it was a 37-minute ride, which included a 14-minute walk and two buses. The clinics and the hospital, through a governing steering committee, will look to expand access to Sargent Drive. Such opportunities may include travel assistance, shuttle services, expansion of bus routes and parking and other options, according to the certificate of need application. Jill Zorn, senior policy officer at the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, said transportation is a big deal, that could discourage patients from using the new site. As for her reaction generally to the proposal, she and Andrews said they would like to see an evaluation system built into the model to hold it to the promises it is making. Dr. Suzanne Lagarde, CEO at the Fair Haven Community Health Clinic, said they provide care to 19,000 patients, have won awards for their programs and are particularly adept at creating partnerships. It was able to integrate the over 500 Puerto Rican evacuees who fled that country after Hurricane Maria and is charged with assessing the health of refugees coming to Connecticut. Student doctors and nurses regularly come to the clinic for training and she said she is excited to see the health center model be a part of medical training at Yale. Dr. Stephen Huot, associate dean for graduate medical education at YNHH, said to continue its leadership role, we must move away from the traditional hospital-based clinic model of primary care and emphasize competency-based, team-based, real-world training in a complex, ever-changing healthcare system. He said studies have shown that health centers provide high quality care to the underserved more efficiently than traditional primary care practices. Robert Taylor, the CEO at Cornell Scott, said the clinic has provided behavioral health programs for more than three decades and now serves 36,000 patients. Its expertise in behavioral services will ensure a holistic approach to patient care at the Sargent Drive site, he said. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577 It must be one of the emotional stories that have come to light since after India and Pakistan partitions. However, the separation of India and Pakistan had given some bad and some good memories to us. Many families were migrated, many have lost their dear ones. Can you imagine that how it feels to meet your relatives or your loved ones after a long time? Well, we cant! But these three siblings can understand that feeling. As two Muslim sisters and their Sikh brother from a village near Dera Baba Nanak, have reunited at Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib, on Sunday, after they got separated. As per the reports of HT, two Muslim sisters named Ulfat Bibi and Mairaj Bibi have hugged their brother Sardar Bayanth Singh as they met him for the first time in seven decades. The Muslim sisters were the natives of Paracha village near Dera Baba Nanak, they were migrated to Pakistan when they lost their son and daughter during the violence. The mother, Allah Rakhhi had also contacted one of her former neighbours and inquired about her son, Beant. Since then, they were in touch through a phone call or letter. But never met face to face. This is the first time that the trio has met as part of the Sikh jatha (group) from India. While speaking to Express Tribune, a Pakistani daily, Ulfat Bibi said that she should be allowed to meet her sister-in-law and nieces and nephews. Even the two sisters has also appealed to Pak PM Imran Khan to extend the visa of their brother. Recently, Pak and India have opened the Kartarpur corridor to facilitate the visit of Sikh pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib. Also read: 'Kartarpur Corridor might act as a bridge between India and Pakistan,' says PM Narendra Modi at Gurupurab function [W]e may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. president Donald Trump told the nation on Nov. 20, but [t]he United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region. Many find the presidents statement curious indeed given the seeming consensus among Turkish and U.S. intelligence communities that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered Khashoggis murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But two simple numbers clarify just how much importance successive administrations, including Trumps, have placed on the US-Saudi relationship. The first number is the number one. Khashoggi was one man. He was a Saudi citizen, and considered an enemy of the state by his government to boot. He was neither a U.S. citizen, nor was he killed on U.S. soil. In fact, he was technically killed on Saudi soil consulates enjoy the same sovereign status as embassies. His murder, while evil and tragic, was really not any more the business of the U..S government than the execution of an American in Texas would be Mohammed bin Salmans concern. The second number is 2,977. Thats how many people 19 hijackers (15 of them Saudis) killed (excluding themselves) at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and at a crash site in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. No later than December 2002, and presumably before that, the U.S. government knew the 9/11 hijackers had received significant funding and support from Saudi government officials and members of the Saudi royal family. That information remained classified until 2016, when 28 previously redacted pages from Congresss official 9/11 report were finally released to the public and still friendly relations between Washington and Riyadh continued without interruption. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan (none of the hijackers were Afghans) in response to the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government insinuated a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Husseins regime in Iraq as part of its justification for invading that country in 2003 (none of the hijackers were Iraqis, and in fact al Qaeda was among Saddams most implacable enemies). But Saudi Arabia got a free pass, as did the United Arab Emirates (where two of the hijackers came from). Why? Oil, money, and U.S. foreign policy. Saudi Arabia and the UAE control a great deal of the worlds oil, and can threaten to disrupt international oil markets (and international life in general) any time they dont get their way. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also the top two buyers of of U.S. weapons. Finally, Saudi Arabia and the UAE support the U.S. agenda of isolating Iran and frustrating its regimes regional ambitions, and allow the U.S. military to operate bases on their territory pursuant to that agenda. Next to those considerations, 2,977 murders on U.S. soil, most of them Americans, didnt matter to George W. Bush or to Barack Obama. Nor do those 2,977 murders, let alone the murder of one Saudi journalist in a Saudi consulate, matter to Donald Trump. But they should. Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism. In a move that is rarely seen in politics, a political party is denouncing one of its members currently serving in office. Inside the Local 54 building on Atlantic Avenue, members of the Atlantic City Democratic Committee voted 27-3 on a resolution asking Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam and City Councilman-at-large Jeffree Fauntleroy II to leave their positions without pay while an investigation continues surrounding an alleged assault at the Haven Night Club at the Golden Nugget Hotel. The resolution will be sent to the governor and lieutenant governor. Criminal complaints of simple assault and harassment against the two men allege Gilliam threw punches at two people, "kept trying to attack" one of the witnesses and allegedly chased a person around a car. Fauntleroy allegedly punched a person in the face multiple times, threw the person on the floor, and then chased him. "We apologize to the Golden Nugget hotel and to the citizens of our city. We denounce in the strongest terms the egregious situation mayor Frank Gilliam and councilman-at-large Jeffree Fauntleroy placed themselves in," the committee said. "Both Democrat elected officials were previously endorsed by the Atlantic City Democratic Committee. We find this atmosphere of inappropriate behavior and transgressions to be unacceptable, specifically regarding the alleged behavior towards women while serving in a public capacity. Such behavior is beyond the norms of conduct of elected officials. This alleged conduct is disgraceful and is extremely disturbing and should not go without reproach." The committee also asked for Gov. Phil Murphy and Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver to use their authority to temporarily suspend and remove both from their positions without pay until the legal process is resolved. The mayor's salary is $103,000 a year, according to the city's records. "As an executive, the governor has the power and authority under the constitution of the state of New Jersey is duly empowered to take such action to protect the safety, security, and well-being of the citizens from any and all harm or threats on any level," the committee said in the resolution. "The reputation of the city of Atlantic City is in question and is in jeopardy as a result of tumultuous, thuggish and aggressive behavior, leaving a trail of financial liability on the backs of the heavily burdened taxpayers." Party chairperson Gwen Lewis said the men should be held to the same policies other city employees face when in a similar situation. "I think the state will now see that the local people are upset about it and we expect something to be done and something to let them know that they do not accept that type of behavior, no matter who it is," Lewis said. "If an employee that works for Atlantic City, the mayor's policy is if they get in some kind of criminal trouble, they are suspended without pay until the outcome of that court decision. Why are he and the councilman held to a different standard? They are elected officials, and they should be held to a higher standard than the regular employees. It's not fair." Committee member John Devlin thinks the resolution will send a strong message. "This is a good showing of the Democratic committee, and it is the voice of the community," Devlin said. "Hopefully that message will shoot right to the governor's or lieutenant governor's office, and a message to our other elected officials, the mayor, and councilmen. These type of violent acts will not be tolerated by us, the police or the community. We do not want to be liable anymore." City Council President Marty Small Sr. was also in attendance. When asked if the two men should resign, Small Sr. said he was focusing on other things at the moment. "As I stated, while all this is transpiring, I am focused on my leadership role as City Council president, and my main goal is for the 2019 budget and to help our employees and get the taxpayers and businesses some much-needed tax relief," the council president said. When NJ Advance Media asked if the committee had looked to recall the mayor, the committee said it would wait until the decision of the court. For a recall vote to be convened, 25 percent of the registered voters in the municipality have to sign a petition with their address supporting a recall. According to the Atlantic County Commissioner of Registration office, Atlantic City currently has 22,944 registered voters, meaning a minimum of 5,736 voters would have to sign the petition. If the petition received the required about of signatures, the municipal clerk would examine the petition and make sure the names, signatures, and addresses are valid. If the clerk certifies the petition, Gilliam would be served notice within two days that a recall will be underway. Gilliam will then have five days to determine if he wishes to resign. If he does not, a recall election would be held. Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips A federal judge in Trenton Tuesday sentenced a New York man to five years in prison for robbing three banks in Bergen and Ocean counties over a four-year period, prosecutors said. Eddy Cruz, a Manhattan resident, had also pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in the attempted robbery of a TD Bank branch in Englewood on Feb. 24, 2017, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey. Cruz, 42, was arrested at the Englewood bank by investigators who had tracked his car from Manhattan, prosecutors said. When law enforcement officers confronted Cruz in the bank's parking lot, an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint, he had already written a note to hand to a bank teller demanding cash and warning them not to call police. Cruz, who was represented by the Federal Public Defender's Office, ultimately admitted to robbing three banks in Jackson Township, Fort Lee and Hasbrouck Heights between December 2013 and February 2017. In addition to the prison time, Sheridan -- who imposed the sentence Tuesday -- ordered Cruz spend three years under supervision once he's released and pay $10,556. Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A Bergen County duo face human trafficking charges after a woman was held captive for 12 days and forced into prostitution at their Edgewater home, prosecutors said Monday. Tyrone Washington and Shameka Lambert were arrested Saturday, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Washington forced the victim to engage in prostitution while holding her against her will at the same house he and Lambert shared with a young child, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. The two were also charged with child endangerment. Lambert, 28, and Washington, 33, were being held at the Bergen County jail ahead of a Wednesday morning court hearing. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Two of the people accused of fabricating a story to generate hundreds of thousands in donations for a crowdfunding campaign had court dates this week. Mark D'Amico appeared in municipal court in Florence on Monday to address charges that he was trespassing by continuing to stay at a home in the township. The landlord at that home, Leslie DeAngelo, is the grandmother of Kate McClure, another person charged in the alleged GoFundMe fraud scheme. In the trespassing case, DeAngelo charged D'Amico with disobeying an Oct. 2 notice to leave the property. She wrote that he promised he would be out Nov. 1 and later changed the locks and stayed there. The Monday hearing was rescheduled to Dec. 17 to give D'Amico time to address the charges or come back to court, Philly.com reported. D'Amico's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Johnny Bobbitt, the homeless man and purported benefactor of the money, but who prosecutors say helped out with the scheme, was scheduled for an extradition hearing in Philadelphia. That hearing was continued to Thursday, Pennsylvania court records show. Those also indicate that Bobbitt remains in Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia. A city prisons spokeswoman said Bobbitt would have to return Thursday because detainer orders keeping him in Philadelphia still needed to be addressed. After that, he could be sent to New Jersey. Messages left for the public defender who represented Bobbitt on Tuesday were not immediately returned. James Gerrow, the lawyer representing McClure, declined comment on the developments of her codefendants. Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips The South Jersey man shot to death by a detective last month apparently threatened to run down officers with his car, according to documents released Monday afternoon. Jacob Servais (Salem County Correctional Facility) Jacob L. Servais, 19, of Millville, was under investigation for a crime in Cape May County when he crossed paths with investigators from that county in the parking lot of a vehicle rental business in Vineland. Detectives from the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office and Lower Township Police were casing the rental business because they believed Servais would be there with an acquaintance who was returning a car, according to previously released police dispatch communications. Servais was at the wheel of a Nissan Altima when prosecutor's office Detective John Caccia fired three rounds from his service weapon. The prosecutor's office use of force report, made public Monday in response to an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, indicates Servais "resisted police officer control" and "threatened/attacked officer or another with motor vehicle." No detectives were injured. Apart from the vehicle he was driving, the report indicates Servais had no other weapon in his possession. Caccia was in plainclothes during the incident. The 36-year-old detective is an 8-year veteran of prosecutor's office, according to the report. The state Attorney General's Office is investigating the shooting, which was not captured on body camera. Officials have not revealed details of the earlier Cape May County crime that was under investigation when the shooting occurred, apart from describing it as "violent." At the time of his death, Servais was under indictment for aggravated assault in Burlington County, for receiving stolen property in Cumberland County and was facing indictment for death by auto in Gloucester County. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. 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. SUNRISE, Fla. -- Keith Kinkaid, Nico Hischier, Taylor Hall, Travis Zajac, and the New Jersey Devils will close a back-to-back when they visit the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m. on Monday at BB&T Center. Forward Marcus Johansson will be out on Monday after suffering a lower body injury in Sunday's 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is day-to-day. Jean-Sebastien Dea will enter in Johansson's place. Forward Blake Coleman is a game-time decision due to illness. Join NJ.com's live chat in the comment section, and follow along with live updates in the box below. Here is everything you need to know about the home game: What: New Jersey Devils (9-10-3) vs. Florida Panthers (8-9-4) When: 7 p.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise, Florida TV: MSG+ Live stream: MSG Go Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com Devils on Facebook. A 70-year-old woman was fatally struck by a car in Millburn Monday night, authorities said. Virginia S. Thaler, of Brooklyn, New York, was was attempting to cross the street in the area of Lackawanna Place when she was struck by a car around 8:45 p.m., the Essex County Prosecutor's Office and Millburn police said in a statement. The driver stopped and called for help, investigators said. First responders took Thaler to Morristown Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at at 9:54 p.m., according to the prosecutor's office. Authorities said Thaler's death is still under investigation, and no charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon. Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook. New Jersey's largest city was paralyzed when the mid-November storm took officials by surprise and forced the state to shut down four major highways that lead in and out of Newark. As Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose put it: "Our heart stopped pumping and all of our arteries got clogged." Hoping to avoid another gridlock, Mayor Ras Baraka on Monday announced a new regional task force among local and county leaders in the public and private sectors to plan for unanticipated emergencies -- whether natural disasters or terrorism-related. "Every institution in the city has an emergency preparedness plan," Baraka said during a planning meeting he called with city stakeholders at NJIT. "What we need is an emergency preparedness plan that involved us all." Newark, he said, has about 50,000 people who work in the city but don't live there. That's in addition to its 280,000 residents and all the students who attend the city's colleges and universities. Among Baraka's suggestions: Staggering times when people leave work; opening buildings for stranded motorists to go to the bathroom, shelter or rest; and better communicating with local partners. During the Nov. 15 storm, the state closed Routes 280, 78, 21 and 22 because of safety concerns. That meant those trying to get out of Newark were stuck. Even Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo said he was stalled in traffic for 10 hours. "When you had school get out, employees getting out, it was a bottleneck," he said. Baraka said the city needs to partner with the its anchor institutions and businesses to "have places people can go if they're stuck." "We have to have our buildings open, we have to be open for business," he said. Ambrose said in his 33 years of public service, he's never seen all four major highways close. But, he warned, it could happen again and everyone needs to be prepared. He urged motorists to carry kits in their cars that include medicine, water, snacks and phone chargers. Ambrose said 145 officers were on duty that day but some were stuck in traffic themselves. One officer was injured while directing traffic and suffered a concussion, he said. He said the biggest issue was communicating with residents and businesses so they understood what was causing the delay. Part of the problem, Baraka said, is that the city didn't treat the storm as an emergency, "we looked at it as a traffic jam." Performances at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center were only delayed and not canceled because no state of emergency was declared, which meant people were making their way into the city for those, too. "Hopefully this doesn't happen again but if it does, next time we'll be ready," Baraka said. Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook. Two more infants who had spent time at University Hospital in Newark died last week, bringing the total to three deaths related to a bacterial outbreak inside the neonatal intensive care unit since September, the state Health Department announced Tuesday. The announcement elicited an angry response from Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who called for new senior management and board members who are more responsive to the community. "The deaths of three premature infants with an Acinetobacter bacteria and the infection of a fourth, all cared for at University Hospital, are stark reminders that an overhaul of the quality of care and the leadership of the hospital is urgently needed," Baraka said in a statement. "The infants had a variety of other medical conditions, but the fact remains that they contracted the bacteria in the hospital's neonatal ICU." The health department sent an inspection team to the hospital Tuesday after learning University's own infection control program had not been informed two more babies had died. "A Department survey team is on-site today to investigate the hospital's internal notification policies, governance, and other factors that relate to reporting of deaths of cases during an ongoing outbreak," according to the announcement. The cause of death is unclear because these were premature babies with other medical problems, according to the health department's announcement. Two of the infants died after being transferred to other hospitals. A total of four infants have been exposed to the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria, a hospital-acquired infection, since September. The two babies who died last week contracted the infection six weeks ago. The fourth child exposed was discharged from the hospital last month, Health Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner said. Dana Yeganian, a hospital spokeswoman, said the staff "have worked diligently since the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria was discovered in our neonatal intensive care unit to control the outbreak, and there have been no new cases in the NICU since October. We continue to reinforce proper procedures and protocols with our team." She declined to comment on Baraka's statement. Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal last month ordered the hospital to hire a full-time certified infection control practitioner after an inspection uncovered "major infection control deficiencies" with "hand hygiene, personal protective equipment and cleanliness." Hiring the infection control practitioner was part of the state's "plan of correction" for New Jersey's only public hospital. The health department first learned about the outbreak and the first child's death from an anonymous employee, Elnahal said. The state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee is holding a hearing Monday on the rash of unrelated outbreaks at health care facilities treating children: University Hospital, the Wanaque Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where 11 children have died, and the Voorhees Pediatric Center where 13 children have been infected but none have died. The mayor, who backed Gov. Phil Murphy's decision in August to impose an independent monitor at the hospital to address a separate set of problem, said Tuesday it was time for more dramatic action. "State and federal investment is needed to enable University Hospital to become the first-class teaching hospital that it was intended to be, including an overhauled emergency room, a world-class trauma center, and more outpatient clinics to meet the underserved medical needs of the people of Newark," Baraka said. Elnahal issued a statement Tuesday night saying he agreed "on the need for urgent action at University Hospital." "I have worked diligently with Judy Persichilli, the monitor we appointed a number of months ago, and we will be coming out soon with a list of comprehensive recommendations needed to achieve high quality care in the state's only public hospital," Elnahal's statement 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 Bayonne woman on trial for strangling her husband in 2015 was living high on the hog at the time of the killing and using money taken from her mother's estate to do it, her brother said. "They were living beyond their means," said Scott Sykowski of his sister, Michelle Hurley, 47, and her husband, David Hurley, 50. "David worked at Port Authority and was making $60,000 and during the time she was taking my mother's money, they were traveling a lot, doing home improvements, gambling," Sykowski said yesterday. Jury selection for Michelle Hurley's murder trial started Tuesday morning before Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City. She faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. Michelle Hurley was a branch manager at Pamrapo Savings Bank, which merged with Bayonne Community Bank in 2010. A lawsuit against her filed by Sykowski in 2014 said his sister used her position at the bank to skirt safeguards and take nearly $300,000 of her mother's money in two transactions -- $110,000 in 2007 and $168,000 in 2009. Michelle Hurley's mother, Helen Elaine Sykowski, died on March 17, 2014. At the time David Hurley was killed, Michelle Hurley had reached the deadline for turning over documents related to the lawsuit to show where the money went, Sykowski said. In 2016, a judge ordered Hurley to pay $278,000 to her mother's estate. Sykowski said he tried to follow the paper trail, but in the end the money was never recovered. He also sued the bank and eventually settled for $65,000, but that money went to legal fees, he said. A comment from the bank on the lawsuit's accusations and the settlement was not immediately available. On Sept. 28, 2015 police responded to the couple's Fifth Street home at 10:30 p.m. and found David Hurley unresponsive, an official said, adding that his face was purple and his neck bloody. He was hospitalized in intensive care until his death on Oct. 8, 2015, officials said. Michelle Hurley was charged with aggravated assault, but the charge was upgraded to murder after her husband's death. Authorities say Michelle Hurley gave a statement to police saying she was arguing with her husband and he grabbed her. She told police she put a cord around his neck and he fell, the criminal complaint says. During a pretrial hearing, Michelle Hurley's defense attorney attempted to suppress the statement, but a judge ruled that it will be admissible at trial. The Hurleys had filed for divorce only months before the fatal dispute. After leaving BCB, Michelle Hurley opened a dog grooming business in the couple's basement. Sykowski said his sister filed for bankruptcy in 2007 after divorcing her first husband. "I don't know what happened that day," Sykowski said when asked if he believes his sister murdered her husband. He said his sister is "a thief" and he didn't understand why she and her husband were together that day if they were divorcing. Michelle Hurley is represented by defense attorney Kathleen Theurer, who said "Mrs. Hurley looks forward to finally having her day in court. We will vigorously defend Michelle against the state's charges." Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Salvatore Rozzi is handling the case for the state. BAYONNE -- Neil Carroll III, the Peninsula City's newest councilman, said he will be stepping down from his positions with a county freeholder and local assemblyman to focus on his job with the city. Carroll served as an aide to both Hudson County Freeholder Bill O'Dea and state Assemblyman Nicholas Chiaravalloti. He said he has already given his resignation to O'Dea and will step down from his role with Chiaravalloti at the end of January, Carroll said. "He's a family friend and a good man," Carroll said of O'Dea, but told The Jersey Journal he resigned to "just to focus on what I'm doing in the city." His position with Chiaravalloti, meanwhile, will continue until Feb. 1. "There are certain programs we've got in place through the holidays that we want to see through, but after I'll be coming off," he said. Last week, he replaced Tommy Cotter, who stepped down from his position on the five-member council earlier this month to lead the Department of Public Works as its director with a salary of $117,000 a year. Carroll, 27, has been a public school teacher for six years. He currently works as a history teacher at the Washington Community School, and previously worked at Bayonne High School. He graduated from Saint Peter's College, where he received his masters degree in education leadership. He is also completing a doctoral program in higher education. Carroll comes from a storied political family. His grandfather, Neil Carroll Sr., was the former chief of staff to four U.S. representatives between 1963 and 1989, including the late Cornelius E. "Neil" Gallagher, and was also a Hudson County Freeholder from 1997 to 1999. Carroll is also the nephew of former Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith, but has been an ally to Davis' administration. Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski said he campaigned with the Davis team in 2014, and "believes in the same vision we have for the City of Bayonne." "We were going to appoint someone who has the same vision, and he seemed like a natural fit," said Ashe-Nadrowski, who oversaw the application process. She said 17 people applied for the vacated seat. "He just has a presence and wants what he believes is right for Bayonne," she said. The youngest councilperson in the city's history, Carroll said he will represent a generation that is gaining interest in the city. "There's more and more interest from the younger community in our city especially with the coming of the ferry, and the very large ridership we have on the (Hudson-Bergen) Light Rail," he said. "Bayonne isn't a stranger to highly involved young people, it's just this is the first time in a while that we've had somebody that's in any decision making power." He said the city has "had a good plan thus far," and is currently benefiting from the "healthy development" the city has seen over the past four years. But he would "take a closer look at abatements," he said. "I think we can definitely shrink the amount of time... I don't think 30-year abatements are necessary, but then again the city seems to be moving away from that." Nonetheless, he sees the community moving in a positive direction, and wants to continue that drive. "Over the past four years, this city has seen a transformation," he said. "We've gone from keeping to ourselves and staying inside, to all of a sudden it seems like every other week there's an event that brings thousands of people out on to the streets to be part of the larger community. That's what I want to continue." Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. On Monday, Nov. 26, New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher officially kicked off the choose-and-cut Christmas tree season during the annual ceremonial cutting of a Christmas tree, held this year at Kingdom of Car-Lay Christmas Tree Farm in Hampton. Gov. Murphy proclaimed Nov. 26 as Jersey Grown Christmas Tree Day, encouraging New Jersey residents to support the state's farmers and visit choose-and-cut Christmas tree farms. "When a family visits a New Jersey Christmas Tree farm it's a wonderful way to create memories that last a lifetime and a tradition that can last through generations," Fisher said. "Christmas tree growers in New Jersey grow a wide variety of beautiful and healthy trees that fit into any home or business. Visiting a Christmas tree farm can be a day-long activity and it's a great way to support the local economy." Kingdom of Car-Lay Christmas Tree Farm's Norway Spruce won the 2018 New Jersey Christmas Tree Growers Association annual tree contest that was held at the Middlesex County Fair. It has been a long-standing tradition that the kick-off of the Choose-and-Cut Christmas tree season takes place at the Grand Champion's farm. The first tree seedlings at Kingdom of Car-Lay were planted in 1986 with tree harvesting beginning in 1992. This season, Carl Paffendorf and Layce Gebhard, owners of Kingdom of Car-Lay, are celebrating 26 years of harvesting Christmas trees along with celebrating being the New Jersey Grand Champion. Kingdom of Car-Lay is a choose-and-cut operation featuring a variety of Spruce and Fir trees, open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sunday, Dec. 23. This year, Kingdom of Car-Lay will be donating the 8-foot Balsam tree cut by Secretary Fisher to the United Way of Hunterdon County. Almost 69,000 trees are cut in New Jersey each year. The last U.S. Census of Agriculture ranked New Jersey seventh in the nation in the number of Christmas tree growers, with hundreds of farms that grow more than 4,600 acres of Christmas trees in the state. The New Jersey Christmas Tree Growers' Association, organized in 1950, is a statewide organization of growers, professionals and industry leaders dedicated to the promotion and marketing of Christmas trees and related products. A listing of farms consumers can visit as well as the types of trees that best fit a need are available at www.njchristmastrees.org. Also this year, the Department of Agriculture is having a social media Christmas tree photo contest of trees purchased from one of New Jersey's Christmas tree farms. Whether in the field or once decorated at home, the department is asking for families to share photos of their tree on the Jersey Fresh Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages using the hashtag #JerseyFreshChristmas. Participants need to mention the name of the New Jersey Christmas Tree farm where the tree was purchased. The contest runs until Dec. 25 and two winners will receive a $150 gift card to where they like finding Jersey Fresh the most. For more information, go to https://findjerseyfresh.com/contest/. A Ridgefield Park man who apparently couldn't find family members who he said live in a Hoboken apartment complex was arrested for trespassing and then was found to have 20 bags of marijuana. When Bryan Hansen, 27, was located in the Hoboken Housing Authority building on Jackson Street on Nov. 20 by Police Officers Sam Williams and Marvin DeJesus, he told the officers he was visiting family in the building for Thanksgiving. But Hansen, who was found in the seventh-floor stairwell, could not identify the apartment in which they live and he was charged with trespassing. Officers handcuffing Hansen detected the odor of raw marijuana emanating from him, authorities said, and Williams and DeJesus then found 20 small bags of marijuana inside two cylindrical tubes. Hansen was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana within 500 feet of Hoboken Housing Authority property, possession with intent to distribute marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school, criminal trespass and possession of narcotic paraphernalia. A former firefighter and emergency medical technician was sentenced Tuesday to more than 11 years in prison for eliciting nude photos from a young boy, the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey said. Zachary Motta Zachary Motta, 24, of Iselin in Woodbridge, began talking with a 12-year-old boy online in October 2016, and continued their relationship through February 2017. During their correspondence, Motta and the boy had "sexually explicit conversations," and Motta elicited nude photos, prosecutors said. "Just don't get caught," Motta allegedly said to the boy, according to the criminal complaint. At the time, Motta was employed as an EMT at a New Brunswick hospital and served with the Iselin Volunteer Fire Company. Authorities began investigating after the boy's mother alerted them to the situation. Motta was originally charged in February 2017 with endangering the welfare of a child and possession of child pornography. Motta later pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton to enticing a child to produce sexually explicit images, and was sentenced for the crime on Tuesday. Motta's sentence comprises 135 months -- 11 years and three months -- in prison, five years of supervised release and an order to pay a $5,000 fine to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act assessment. Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross. KABUL, Afghanistan -- A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. The military said that three other service members were wounded when the bomb went off near the city of Ghazni. An American contractor was also wounded, it said. The military did not immediately identify any of the casualties. Lt. Ubon Mendie, a military spokesman, said the wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the the attack, saying a U.S. tank was completely destroyed. The Taliban carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan forces, and in August the insurgents overran parts of Ghazni, leading to days of intense fighting before they were driven out. Ghazni was the only one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces where parliamentary elections could not be held in October. Voting there has been postponed for a year. The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but still provide close support to Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations. Some 15,000 American forces are currently serving in Afghanistan. In a separate incident on Tuesday, the Taliban abducted 21 passengers from two vans that were traveling through the northern Sari Pul province, according to Habibullah Mujahidzada, a district police chief. It was not immediately clear what motivated the abduction, and there was no immediate comment from the Taliban. It may cost you a little more to use the Delaware Memorial Bridge in the future. The Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) will be holding public meetings in December to inform the public about a possible toll increase for the Delaware Memorial Bridge. If the toll hike is approved, the cost to cross the bridge from New Jersey into Delaware will increase from $4 to $5, while trucks will pay an additional $2 per axle. According to DRBA spokesman James Salmon, the rate hike, if approved, would tentatively be implemented March 1, 2019. The DRBA says it has to increase the toll amount to fund current and future projects estimated to cost $440 million over the next five years. "We are in the fifth year of a ten-year complete overhaul of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is dictated by its age, condition, operating environment and heavy volume of usage," DRBA executive director Tom Cook said in a statement. "Among the components of this overhaul are a ship collision protection system, suspender rope (vertical cable) replacement, major steelwork repairs, paint removal and recoating and a bridge deck repair. All of these projects are necessary to ensure public safety and uninterrupted traffic flow." The $5 toll cost would match the amount it currently costs to travel across the nearby Commodore Barry Bridge, which connects Bridgeport to Chester, Pa. Before a decision is made to increase the tolls, the DRBA will be holding two public meetings. The first will be held Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Vincent A. Julia Center adjacent to the Delaware Memorial Bridge Toll Plaza in New Castle, DE. The second meeting will be held Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. the Salem Community College Davidow Performing Arts Theatre in Carneys Point Township. RELATED STORIES Bill Gallo may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips UPDATE: Bridgegate attorneys now look to U.S. Supreme Court after appeal denied A federal appeals court today upheld a major part of the convictions of two members of former Gov. Chris Christie's inner circle in the high-profile Bridgegate scandal of political retribution that played out five years ago on the world's busiest bridge. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia threw out a part of the case dealing with civil rights violations against the two former Christie associates. The ruling will likely mean that both Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly will now face prison. Both have remained free since their trial pending the appeal. Both must first be re-sentenced, with the court's reversal of the civil rights charges. In its 78-page ruling, the court said federal prosecutors presented evidence sufficient to prove that the two fraudulently obtained the labor of public employees, and in a harsh rebuke, said there was no "legitimate justification" for Baroni and Kelly's conduct. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office said it was "reviewing the opinion and is grateful for the court's consideration of all of the issues raised in the appeal." Kelly's attorney, Michael Critchley of West Orange, said he intended to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. "While we are pleased that the Third Circuit rejected the civil rights charges, we are disappointed that the court did not similarly reject the government's unprecedented application o the wire fraud and misapplication statutes. We still believe that the remaining charges are not legally sustainable," he said. Michael A. Levy of Sidley Austin, who handled Baroni's appeal, also said further appellate options were under consideration. "What remains from this unprecedented prosecution are convictions only for the supposed misapplication of a few thousand dollars of Port Authority resources over less than one week. We disagree that any resources were misapplied and are evaluating further appellate options," he said. Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kelly, a single mother of four who served as Christie's deputy chief of staff, were convicted in November 2016 in an outlandish, only-in-Jersey game of political hardball, involving the unauthorized shutdown of several local access lanes to the toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge. Prosecutors said they conspired to cause massive traffic jams in Fort Lee as payback against Mayor Mark Sokolich, after he stepped back from an expected endorsement during Christie's re-election campaign. But the bizarre, dirty tricks campaign came to light after outraged motorists stuck in historic traffic congestion on local streets around the bridge led to a special legislative inquiry, and later a federal criminal investigation. Baroni and Kelly were ultimately found guilty of conspiring to misuse public resources to create a choke point, "to pursue a purely personal vendetta." The appeals court agreed. In its ruling, the court said Baroni and Kelly "altered the bridge's decades-old lane alignment -- without authorization and in direct contravention of Port Authority protocol -- for the sole purpose of creating gridlock in Fort Lee." The court noted that to "execute their scheme, they conscripted 14 Port Authority employees to do sham work in pursuit of no legitimate Port Authority aim." It added that the fact Baroni and Kelly were politically motivated did not make what they did a non-criminal act, adding that there was no legitimate justification for their conduct. The criminal case was built around a rarely used provision of a fraud statute that makes it a crime to "misapply" property of federal aid recipients. It charged that Baroni and Kelly intentionally misapplied the property or money of the Port Authority. David Wildstein -- a former Republican political strategist and Port Authority patronage appointee who claimed his singular mission was to advance the governor's agenda at the bi-state agency -- was the key witness for the prosecution. He admitted to hatching the lane-closure plan for political purposes, and ultimately pleaded guilty and testified against Baroni and Kelly. Christie, who has repeatedly denied any advance knowledge of the scheme, was never charged of any wrongdoing or involvement--although the episode and the criminal investigation it sparked would haunt his ill-fated campaign for president. Baroni and Kelly both took the stand on their own behalf. But the most damning evidence in the case might have been the now-infamous "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email sent by Kelly to Wildstein less than a month before the unexpected shutdown of several toll lanes at George Washington Bridge for nearly a week in September 2013. A jury of seven women and five men heard from 35 witnesses and found both guilty after a seven-week trial in Newark. Baroni, 46, was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Kelly, who is 45, was sentenced to a term of 18 months. They have both remained free on bail while their appeals were argued. Wildstein was given probation and now writes a New Jersey political blog. In their appeal, Baroni and Kelly argued their actions didn't amount to criminal conduct under the law and challenged the instructions that U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton, who presided over the closely watched case, gave to the jury. At the heart of the case was a statute known as Section 666 of Title 18 of the federal criminal code, which charged that they knowingly converted and intentionally misapplied property of an organization receiving federal benefits. It is a charge typically used against those who steal money from an anti-poverty agency or some other entity that gets federal funds and misuses the fund. In this case, prosecutors acknowledged it was the hook that made the toll lane shutdowns at the bridge for political purposes a federal crime. The Port Authority, which manages the George Washington Bridge, receives funding from Washington. "I'm not here to convince the court that the underlying conduct in this case was a model of public service," Kelly's lawyer Yaakov Roth told the appellate court during oral arguments in April. "I'm here to convince the court that the conduct did not violate the specific federal criminal statutes at issue." In court briefs, defense attorneys said that the government's theory of the case would criminalize not just "fraudulent" political spin, "but earmarks, patronage, favoritism, redistricting, and many other practices blending politics with governance that, for better or worse, have been the currency of electoral democracy from time immemorial." They argued that even if the motivation for realigning the lanes at the bridge was in fact to punish the Fort Lee mayor for not endorsing Christie, that was not a crime under federal law. They also maintained that the bridge lanes still were being used for a public purpose and did not benefit either defendant. Baroni's attorney Michael Levy told judges Thomas Ambro, Anthony Scirica and Eugene Siler Jr. that their conduct from a moral perspective may have been "bad, wrongful and unjustifiable," but said that was not the standard for a federal crime. "This was bad conduct in search of a criminal theory for how to prosecute it," he remarked. However, the court said Congress intended Section 666 to focus on offenses involving fraud and theft, and "intended to expand the federal government's prosecutorial power to encompass significant misapplication of federal funds at a local level." The arguments also focused on whether there was a right to intrastate travel, which was a basis for the charges of civil rights violations upon which both Kelly and Baroni were convicted. "The right to intrastate travel is not clearly established," Roth told the court. In its ruling, the Third Circuit said "there is hardly a 'robust consensus'" the the right to interstate travel exists, and it reversed the civil rights convictions of Baroni and Kelly. Read the Third Circuit ruling here: Third Circuit Decision (PDF)
Third Circuit Decision (Text) Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. By Matt Katz and Audrey Quinn Editor's Note: This story was updated to reflect that nine out of the 11 people who died under the authority of the Camden County Jail in 2016 were on probation, not parole. David Acosta was at home on a Sunday morning in January when he got the call from a friend, a corrections officer at the Hudson County Correctional Facility, who told him that something bad had happened to his sister. "I said, 'I know, she's locked up,' " Acosta remembered. "He said, 'No, it's a little worse.' " Guards found Cynthia Acosta, 34, hanging from torn bedsheets tied to an overturned bunk. She was the third of six deaths that occurred at the Kearny facility between June 2017 and March 2018, and one of dozens of suicides that occurred over the last several years at the state's county jails. The exact number of deaths at New Jersey jails are difficult to count. An examination of public records found wide disparities in the statistics that counties maintain and what they provide to the state and federal governments. In some counties, the month-by-month death numbers listed in annual state inspection reports do not add up to the yearly totals in those very same reports. There are jails in 20 of New Jersey's 21 counties. They operate with little oversight from the state Department of Corrections, which has a patchwork system of rules and no consistent system for investigating deaths. In Hudson County, 17 deaths were recorded at the jail since 2013, but officials could only locate incident reports on six. What is clear is that, according to the latest figures available from the U.S. Department of Justice, New Jersey jails have the highest per-capita death rate among the 30 states with the largest jail populations. And suicides committed by those suffering from untreated drug addiction and mental illness are a big driver of that number. The rate of suicide in New Jersey jails rose an average of fifty-five percent each year between 2012 and 2016, according to documents provided by officials in the 15 counties who responded to our records request, out of the state's 21 counties. Suicides make up as much as a third of all jail deaths. But with the exception of Hudson County, where officials recently increased spending on mental health and stepped up screenings as part of the intake process for prisoners, these deaths have garnered little governmental attention. Cynthia Acosta had a history of drug abuse, but in the weeks leading up to her arrest and suicide she was getting help. She admitted herself to an inpatient mental health program at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, where she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A prescription for psychiatric medication helped to stabilize her. "I noticed her changing throughout those days when she was taking the medication," said David Acosta, who was putting his sister up at his home at the time. At this point she was feeling ready to find her own place, but to qualify for housing assistance she needed a copy of her identification records. So she drove to a government office in Hoboken, despite having a suspended driver's license. North Bergen police officers pulled her over and arrested her for past traffic violations. She was booked at the Hudson County Correctional Facility and housed in the women's combined medical and mental health unit -- a small, windowless, triangle-shaped room bordered by three cells, a shower and a nurses' station. David Acosta said his sister's new medication was left in her vehicle when she was arrested. Three days later, she was dead. Cynthia Acosta with her brother David. (Courtesy of David Acosta) Cynthia Acosta was the youngest of five. "She just brought life to everybody," her brother said. "That's who she was." He blames his sister's death on poor monitoring in the Hudson County jail medical unit. "This could have been prevented," he said. 'Those six deaths, they all have my name attached' Hudson County Correctional Facility Director Ronald Edwards, the third director of the jail in two years, acknowledged that the jail's nurses didn't have enough training and resources to deal with mental health issues. But he said inmates were appropriately monitored. "Those six deaths, they all have my name attached. That's a heavy weight," he said. "It was my facility and my community and these people's relatives that had brought this crisis to the forefront. " After the string of deaths, cells at the jails were reconfigured to prevent hangings. Hudson County is also building new multimillion-dollar health units with one of the most progressive medical and mental health programs in the state. Seventy-two percent of the people in the Hudson County jail are dealing with mental illness, drug addiction or, like Acosta, both, according to jail officials. New Jersey, like most other states, spent decades moving mentally ill people out of decrepit institutions. But, also like most other states, New Jersey never replaced them with other service options. So jails became the de facto mental health care providers. While incomplete and inconsistent record keeping makes it hard to pinpoint the causes behind all of the jail deaths, experts point to problems with jail healthcare as a common denominator. Of the 10 jails with the highest death rates in New Jersey, eight contract out their medical services to one for-profit provider, CFG Health Systems, based in Burlington County. CFG doesn't release information on specific cases. A company spokeswoman said it consistently gives inmates a high level of care. But a nurse practitioner who used to work in New Jersey jails and is familiar with CFG's practices said the system rewards companies that provide less care. Since the medical contractor gets a flat rate per jail, she said, increased services means the less profit for the company. "The more patients I saw, then the more orders for medications there were, the more referrals to psychology there were. So it's more work for everybody," said the nurse, who asked not to be identified because she still works in the corrections field and feared retribution. She said she flagged one prisoner who later committed suicide for mental health problems, but her colleagues failed to follow up. The contracts for healthcare at jails are awarded by the elected county officials. Since 2001, CFG and its executives have given more than $400,000 to New Jersey politicians. About $100,000 of that went to party organizations and officials in Camden County, where CFG operates a medical unit at the local jail. Daniel Valdez, who struggled with addiction, was 33 when he killed himself there in 2016. He was one of 11 people who died under authority of the Camden County Department of Corrections that year. Two died in the jail, and nine people were on probation. 'Oh well, they can't do nothing about it' Valdez's friend, Mike Sorrentino, also struggled with addiction. He was actually at the jail on a possession charge the night Valdez came in for the last time, and he shared a cell in the intake area with his friend. Over the next four days, Sorrentino said he kept watch as Valdez went through the withdrawal routine: Visits to the nurse's station at the start and end of each day. On the first morning, Valdez took a regimen of withdrawal meds -- vitamins, and librium to calm him down. But he vomited the pills. "[The nurse] said 'Oh well, that would have helped him.' Oh well, they can't do nothing about it," Sorrentino said. "Now at this point he looked like a good wind could have picked him up and took him away." Daniel Valdez, right, with his brother, John Valdez Jr. (Courtesy of the Valdez family.) On the third morning, Valdez fainted and knocked his head against a brick wall. Sorrentino said the nurse alleged that Valdez was faking his injury. On the fourth day, Valdez fainted again while the nurse took his blood pressure. "She looked me right in the eye and said 'If he's not bleeding or he's not dead, there's nothing we can do for him,'" Sorrentino said. Later that night, Sorrentino went to Valdez's cell to give him a Snickers bar. He found Valdez hanging from a bedsheet tied to the upper bunk. A Camden County spokesman, Dan Keashen, said nurses did do their job, and that Valdez got the right medication and monitoring. He said an internal investigation found that Valdez's other cellmate didn't corroborate Sorrentino's allegations. Keashen also said the county contracts with a monitor who oversees CFG's performance. But Jeanne LoCicero, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is seeking documents from jails to try to hold officials accountable, said there's little incentive for stricter monitoring of CFG's performance. She points to online photo galleries of CFG executives throwing fundraisers for the New Jersey County Jails Wardens Association. "Once the counties enter these contracts, we don't know if they're auditing the contracts and making sure that they're getting what they asked the provider to do," she said. "When different places have different numbers of something so critical and so certain as a death, it seems that we know we have a broken oversight system." 'The state inspections are a joke' Camden County jail director David Owens said his jail administrators regularly meet with CFG Health Systems to discuss standards of care. About 60 percent of his jail's population have drug and alcohol problems, he said. "I'm sensitive to the complaints," he said. "We are responsive as we possibly can be to them. And we are concerned that the individuals committed to this facility have the best medical care possible." The state Department of Corrections conducts annual inspections at the jails, checking off about 800 different standards. Over the last five years, 80 to 90 percent of the jails were listed as being in full compliance, records show -- even if they failed to accurately report death totals. "The state inspections are a joke," said Robert Murie, who spent 28 years as a corrections officer at the Atlantic County Jail before he retired last year. Murie said jail officials have ways of getting around state rules like the requirement that each inmate gets "25 square feet of unencumbered floor space." In 2014, a state inspector marked Atlantic County as noncompliant for squeezing three inmates into two-person cells. So the next year, Murie said, the warden moved the overflow into a mental health holding area before state inspectors visited. "State came," Murie said. "They saw that the counts were correct. They left." And right away, jail officials moved the inmates back to the crowded cells, he alleged. Murie also said that jail officials fudged death totals by discharging inmates at risk of death to a hospital, so they wouldn't be on the jail's record. Atlantic County officials denied all of Murie's allegations. But in Camden County, records show how a sick inmate was released just before he died, and another dying inmate received his discharge papers at the hospital. Those cases were not counted as jail deaths. The state of New Jersey doesn't publish summary statistics on county jail deaths. But a WNYC analysis of 80 recent death reports, obtained from the seven deadliest jails through public records requests, found that half of all inmate deaths, regardless of cause, happened within the first two weeks of admission. Female inmates were overrepresented in cases of suicide. Marcus Hicks, the acting Commissioner of the state Department of Corrections, refused numerous requests for an interview. An agency spokeswoman said county jail deaths are a county issue. "Our role is to establish the standards," said the spokeswoman, Alexandra Altman. "And it's the role of the county to meet those standards." In contrast to New Jersey, New York's Commission on Corrections is an independent body that investigates every death in local jails, with the power to interview employees, inmates and family members. At the end of 2017, the New Jersey Department of Corrections announced it will keep more formal records of all jail deaths. But so far this year, the state has records on less than two-thirds of confirmed deaths in county jails. Matt Katz and Audrey Quinn are reporters for WNYC News, which produced this report. By George E. Norcross III Health care is arguably the most vital sector of New Jersey's economy. In fact, nearly, 500,000 people are employed in New Jersey's health care industry, according to Choose New Jersey. That's out of a total state labor force of 4.5 million. It's helping to fuel New Jersey's economy, especially when you consider that employment in this sector has increased every year since 1990. However, despite the importance of this industry and its overall growth, wages for too many workers at our state's health systems were not growing along with it. That is why Cooper University Health Care is raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all of our employees effective Jan. 1, 2019. At a time when the state's unemployment rate is approaching historically low levels, it's only right to pay higher wage to those who play a vital role in keeping all of us healthy. The increase of the minimum wage will immediately benefit about 10 percent of Cooper's 7,500 employees. Because as much as one-third of the people receiving the raise are Camden city residents, the multiplying effects on this investment in our staff will be felt throughout the city. But Cooper should not be alone in making this decision. Especially in our cities, medical centers are among the largest employers, and an increase in wages will have a huge impact on our own communities. And there's certainly no reason the state's suburban and rural hospitals should not follow suit as well. That's why last week I wrote to the chair and CEO of every health system in New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania asking them to raise wages for their workers. I let my colleagues know that Cooper is raising the minimum wage for our employees not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because we believe it is a sound business decision to help attract and retain valuable employees. While there is undoubtedly a cost that comes with this decision, the benefit it provides to the people who make our organizations run and the patients they serve clearly outweighs the cost, especially when you consider what the state unemployment rate is today. As anyone who works in health care knows, too often it is difficult to attract and retain the people we need in this field because of the low wages that are paid. We also know that in this tight labor market we are going to have to raise wages some, so there is frankly no excuse not to raise health care workers to a $15 minimum wage now to attract and retain the best workforce. I further wrote that studies indicate low wages are directly tied to the physical health of an individual, with those earning lower incomes suffering from more long-term health problems and acute medical needs. Our organizations are committed to improving the health of the communities we serve. It is inconceivable to us that we would continue to promote the health of our patients, but neglect the health of our own staff. Last, when large employers -- such as New Jersey's health systems -- pay a higher wage to our employees, we will help the communities we serve. Many health systems, including Cooper, have deep roots in the local communities and many employees, particularly lower-wage earners, live in close proximity to their hospitals and facilities. By increasing wages, we are doing more than helping individual workers; we are strengthening their community -- our community -- as they earn and spend more. Cooper has led the way and I can assure my colleagues it's the right thing to do. I urge them to have their organizations join us to do right by New Jersey residents. George E. Norcross III is chairman of the Cooper University Health Care Board of Trustees. RELATED: Assembly Speaker Coughlin: With Murphy, we can finally raise the minimum wage Here's what N.J. thinks about raising the minimum wage (and Murphy's push for $15 an hour) I'm a small business owner, here's why a $15 minimum wage works for us I'm a young business owner. Raising the min. wage won't help N.J.'s working poor Can N.J. absorb a minimum wage boost of up to $15 an hour? | Q&A Religious leaders back push to raise the minimum wage to new heights | Editorial Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. On Black Friday, the holiday of rampant consumerism, President Trump's administration released its scientific report on the dire threat of climate change to humanity. The theme was unintentional. This was an effort to bury bad news on the busiest shopping day of the year. The gist is, we're trashing the planet, and Trump's own experts say ignoring climate change will end up costing our economy hundreds of billions a year. Total annual losses, according to the scientists who authored this report, will be "more than the current gross domestic product (G.D.P.) of many U.S. states." All told, the financial hit could be more than twice as bad as that of the Great Recession. Trump says the planet's screwed, so let's burn as much fossil fuel as we can | Editorial While Trump thinks he's saving international trade, the federal government's top scientists say doing nothing on climate change will make us less competitive in industries like agriculture and tourism, yielding fewer crops and visitors to the shore. We'll lose $141 billion from heat-related deaths, $118 billion from sea level rise and $32 billion from infrastructure damage by the end of the century, this report found. Slashes growth, knocks billions off our economy! Bad deal, Trump might say. But we'll see no such tweet. "I don't believe it," the president said Monday, citing zero contrary evidence. Perhaps this is because his policies run completely counter to the advice of his own scientists. By seeking to pull out of the Paris climate accord that sets limits on pollution and the Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon emissions, telling carmakers they don't need to abide by tailpipe emission standards, scorning climate research as a "hoax," falsely conflating weather with climate - as if a frigid Thanksgiving Day refutes the existence of global warming - Trump is compounding the danger. This is a report that the White House is required to put out every four years, and the initial fear was that Trump officials would tamper with its findings. Its data will certainly be an impediment in court, as they seek to roll back environmental protections. But apparently, the White House allowed it to be released as is, because it believes that even in the face of dire warnings from Trump's own administration, his fans will be undeterred. A climate denier on Trump's transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency, Steven J. Milloy, put it this way: "We don't care." He blamed this report on the "deep state," as if thousands of scientists all over the globe, and in a consortium of 13 U.S. federal agencies, are conspiring to hide the truth from the American public. Yet we see the impact firsthand. Consider the ramifications of just one big storm. Salts from Hurricane Sandy gnawed away at the lining of our tunnels into Manhattan, threatening to shut them down for extensive repairs that could cripple the economy of the Northeast. Unanticipated factors like this flooding made it even harder to repair damage to other areas, like the electrical system, the report notes. And that doesn't even consider the societal costs of consequences down the road, ranging from respiratory illness linked to dangerously high levels of mold, to the clinical depression of victims who lost everything. The financial burden falls heaviest on the poor and vulnerable, including the elderly. Wildfire victims in California are now expected to pay hundreds of dollars on air purifiers to make breathing safe for themselves and their kids, much like Sandy victims had to put themselves up in hotels. If we don't change course, global warming will almost certainly cause "substantial damages to the U.S. economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades," this report warns. Trump says he wants a "great climate." But if he can't face reality, he'll never negotiate a better deal. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. No one was injured after a small fire broke out in the exhaust area of a New Jersey Transit bus traveling through Passaic County on Tuesday morning. The driver pulled over in the vicinity of the "spaghetti bowl" - where Route 23 south meets Route 46 and Interstate 80 in Wayne - and used an on-board fire extinguisher to put out the blaze outside the bus, NJ Transit spokesman Jim Smith said. The No. 194 bus was traveling from Butler to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York when it caught fire around 7 a.m. The 54 passengers were picked up by other buses to continue their trip, Smith said. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Sexual assault victims in New Jersey will get an opportunity to meet with prosecutors who offer plea bargains and before they decline to file criminal charges, under a new directive state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Tuesday. The state's top law enforcement official issued the sweeping new protocols at the request of Gov. Phil Murphy, in response to an accusation that one of his senior advisers raped a supporter during his 2017 gubernatorial campaign. The Hudson County Prosecutor declined to bring charges against Albert Alvarez, who was later appointed to chief of staff for the School Development Authority. Alvarez has denied the allegations. Alvarez's accuser, Katie Brennan, came forward in an explosive story in the Wall Street Journal explaining how she felt both law enforcement officials and people within the Murphy transition team and his administration mishandled and tried to bury her claims. In a statement, Brennan called the new protocols "an encouraging step forward in ensuring justice for survivors. But there is still much more work to do. I am hopeful that our elected leaders continue to push for progress on this urgent issue." A state legislative hearing on how the Murphy administration handled Brennan's allegations is scheduled for Tuesday. The purpose of the 14 new protocols is to improve communication between a victim of sexual assault and law enforcement officials who investigate the complaints. Taken together, they "prioritize the needs and concerns of victims" and "ensure that victims receive respectful treatment and appropriate services," according the announcement. In addition to permitting the victim to speak to prosecutors before plea bargains are extended and cases are dismissed without charges, a supervisor within the "special victims unit" or juvenile unit in the county prosecutor's office would also review each case. Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, praised the proposal -- particularly its provision that will require prosecutors to tell victims about the availability of "Sexual Assault Survivor Protection Act Orders they can obtain against their perpetrators," according to the attorney general's announcement. "These revised Attorney General Standards address gaps in policy and procedure and seek to ensure all survivors of sexual violence in New Jersey have access to appropriate crisis services," Teffenhart said. "For victims seeking services in the aftermath of a sexual assault, access to a timely, trauma-informed response can lay a solid foundation for pathways to healing and justice," she said. Grewal said the standards will make law enforcement and healthcare professionals more sensitive to victims' needs. "The directive and standards issued today are the result of outstanding collaboration among law enforcement, the service community, and advocates for sexual assault survivors," Grewal said. "Moreover, these documents provide for increased input from victims and further evaluation of these issues going forward." "With these actions, we ensure that New Jersey remains at the forefront of nationwide best practices and standards in our efforts to stamp out sexual violence," he added. The directive -- going out to all county, state and local law enforcement -- also requires all reports of sexual assaults must be sent to county prosecutors within 24 hours of the complaint's filing. Murphy issued a statement saying the directive and guidelines "make New Jersey a national leader in taking a victim-centric approach to sexual assault cases. "Survivors of sexual assault deserve a criminal justice system that works for them," Murphy said. "By embracing this victim-centric approach, our law enforcement agencies can encourage more victims to come forward with their stories and seek justice." First Lady Tammy Murphy, herself a survivor of sexual assault, praised Grewal's actions in a tweet. As a survivor, I so applaud these new measures. https://t.co/gdzTbBUnYw Tammy Murphy (@FirstLadyNJ) November 27, 2018 Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Who are you calling a showboater? Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday fired back at New Jersey's top state lawmaker for suggesting the governor was "showboating" by holding a news conference Monday on a long-delayed effort to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour instead of meeting to hammer out a solution. "We stood up with advocates yesterday, many of whom are making $8.60 an hour," Murphy said during a separate, unrelated news conference in Paterson in response to state Senate President Stephen Sweeney's comments from a day earlier. "That's not showboating," the governor said. "That's people's lives. That's people's ability to put food on the table for their kids, to be able to afford health care." It's the latest tiff between Murphy and Sweeney, New Jersey's top two elected leaders and fellow Democrats who need to work together to create new policy, such as hiking New Jersey's minimum wage from $8.60 to $15 an hour. Murphy, Sweeney and the other Democrats who control the state Legislature have long said the increase is a top priority after failing to get it passed during the tenure of former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican. But Murphy and lawmakers have not reached an agreement on a bill. And on Monday morning, the governor held a news conference calling on leadership to help him "do whatever is required to get this going." Sweeney, D-Gloucester, didn't take kindly to that. "Listen: I was the prime sponsor of minimum wage both times it was passed -- not Phil Murphy, not anyone else," Sweeney told NJ Advance Media shortly after Murphy's event. "I believe in raising the minimum wage," Sweeney added. "I don't believe in showboating and doing press conferences. If you want to get something done, then sit down with the principals and have a conversation." Sweeney suggested the problem is he and Murphy haven't personally spoken since Oct. 2. Murphy was asked at Tuesday's news conference if that's true. "I don't know if he keeps a diary," the governor said. Murphy stressed he sent a minimum wage bill to lawmakers in May to review, but nothing has changed. "This notion that we're not engaged, we're not focused on the substance, we're just focused on the show could not be farther from the truth," the governor said. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. A Warren County man facing rape, sexual assault and child pornography charges in Monroe County is now facing federal charges related to child pornography allegedly found on his devices. Daniel Palmitessa, who lived in Columbia, New Jersey, at the time of his arrest but previously lived in Stroudsburg, has been held on $1.5 million bail since April, when he was charged in Monroe County with raping a 14-year-old girl, sexually assaulting another girl and producing child pornography with both victims. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted the 33-year-old Palmitessa for sexually exploiting children to produce child pornography, online enticement and possession of child pornography. Palmitessa is scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday. His defense attorney in the Monroe County cases, Thomas Sundmaker, was not immediately available Tuesday to talk about the new charges. Assistant District Attorney Julieane Fry said her office is waiting to hear from federal authorities before dropping some of the charges at the county level so they can be prosecuted in federal court. Charges related to the child pornography crimes will stay at the federal level, while the rape and sexual assault charges will be prosecuted in Monroe County, Fry said. Pennsylvania State Police in the Stroudsburg barracks said they were contacted in April, when Palmitessa began messaging a 14-year-old girl. The girl reported she was repeatedly asked to hang out with Palmitessa and another 14-year-old girl, but she declined. Palmitessa reportedly offered the girl money to spend time with him and showed up at her house, troopers said. Palmitessa also allegedly sent the girl a message through Instagram, and she deleted the message and blocked Palmitessa from contacting her. The second girl, also 14, knew Palmitessa and was sexually assaulted by him, state police said. Messages on this girls phone showed Palmitessa offering money for the first girl to hang out and keep it a secret, state police said. A third girl reported Palmitessa offered her money to pose nude, which she declined, and that Palmitessa posed as a girl on social media to try to get her to send nude photos. In one instance, Palmitessa allegedly offered the third girl $5,000 to sneak out of her house and hang out with him at his home. In a separate incident, Palmitessa tried to pull the girls shirt over her head, and she got away and locked herself in a bathroom, troopers said. Palmitessas behavior escalated, according to the girl. The third girl told troopers of one incident where she believed Palmitessa took nude photos of another girl, and then came up behind the third girl and groped her chest under her shirt. Later that day, while the third girl and Palmitessa were alone, Palmitessa threatened to kill the girl if she didnt pose nude, according to state police. Palmitessa took photos of the girl with a digital camera, and then raped the girl, troopers said. The girl reported Palmitessa pinned her down, and when she tried to say something he told her, I will kill you. The assault only stopped when Palmitessa thought someone else would come into the room, state police said. Palmitessa then told the girl if she reported anything to police he would kill her, troopers said. Palmitessas charges include rape, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, intimidating a witness, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of minors. In a second case, his charges include 100 counts of recording child sex acts and 200 counts of possession of child pornography Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook MLB teams shopping for starting pitching have some options on the trade market, including Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber and Arizona Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke. But the free agent market remains flooded with quality arms, including Nathan Eovaldi, Patrick Corbin, and J.A. Happ. Free agency is pretty quiet right now. It seems most everyone is waiting to see where Bryce Harper and Manny Machado will sign, since their nine-figure contracts will set the market. But MLB.com's Jon Morosi says the Phillies aren't content to wait for the big sluggers to sign, and could end up starting a run on free-agent pitchers. The Phillies aren't waiting on decisions from Harper and Machado as the team ambitiously pursues upgrades to its roster, people in the industry told MLB.com Monday. In fact, the sources said it's possible the Phillies will sign multiple free agents before Harper or Machado agree to terms. In practice, that approach means the Phillies could sign a starting pitcher, closer and an outfielder who costs less than Harper. Sources say the Phillies have interest in starters Patrick Corbin, Nathan Eovaldiand J.A. Happ; closers Craig Kimbrel and Zach Britton; and outfielders Michael Brantley and A.J. Pollock, among other free agents. The Phillies carried payrolls in excess of $170 million during multiple seasons earlier this decade. They have less than $70 million committed to players for 2019. That leaves general manager Matt Klentak with ample capacity to add multiple big-name free agents this offseason. "This is a franchise that's carried big payrolls for a lot of years," Klentak told MLB.com during the General Managers Meetings earlier this month. "It's no secret to you, or to me, or to the fans, or to the agents. Everybody knows that. It's always been a matter of when -- and not if -- the Phillies were going to spend again." Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook. On the fence about buying a home in New Orleans? New analysis by neighborhood research site HomeArea.com suggests it may be better to hold off and continue renting for now. The analysis, which used U.S. Census Bureau data to compare median home values and median annual rent in various cities, highlights New Orleans as one of five Louisiana cities where it may be more affordable to rent than buy a home right now. The analysis looked only at cities with a population at or above 60,000 people. The website calculated a price-to-rent ratio for eight Louisiana cities, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, by dividing the median home value in each city by the median annual rent. The ratio goes up when home prices rise faster than local rents. A high price-to-rent ratio indicates it may be more affordable to rent a home rather than buy, at least until home values slow down. Home prices rebound in New Orleans, cool off in suburbs in first half of 2018 In HomeArea.coms analysis, a price-to-rent ratio of 15 or lower indicates a more favorable market for buying, while a ratio of 20 or higher favors renting. New Orleans got a 23.8, ranking fourth on the list of Louisiana cities where it may be better to rent. The median home price in Orleans Parish is $183,700, according to the analysis, which used estimates from the Census Bureaus American Community Survey. HomeArea.com found median costs for home owners in New Orleans with a mortgage to be about $1,585 a month. That compared with $926 a month in median rent, with utilities included. Its worth noting that the median rent HomeArea.com is using appears to be on the lower side in terms of rental rate estimates for the city. For comparison, rent tracking website RentCafe looks at average rents nationwide, and estimates New Orleans renters pay about $1,118 on average. (Remember that average is not the same as median. Heres a quick explainer on the difference between the two.) Where else does HomeArea.com think it makes more sense to rent? Nearby Metairie got a price-to-rent ratio of 22.9, with median homeowner costs of $1,572 a month and median rent of $883 a month. Baton Rouge, Shreveport and Lafayette also had ratios that suggest renting is more affordable in those cities. Cities where buying may be more affordable included Bossier City, Kenner and Lake Charles, according to the analysis. 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 Did home prices in your ZIP code rise or fall in the first half of 2018? Local analysis indicates home prices are up in New Orleans, though they may be slowing down in suburbs with the exception of St. Tammany Parish. The average price for a single family home sold in Orleans Parish was up 8.6 percent in the first half of 2018, according to an August report prepared by Real Property Associates with data from the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors and Gulf South Real Estate Information Network. By comparison, average values held steady in Jefferson Parish, St. Bernard Parish and the River Parishes. St. Tammany jumped 14.1 percent, with home values nearly on par with prices fetched in Jefferson Parish, according to the report. Here is the list of cities included in the HomeArea.com analysis as well as their price-to-rent ratio. Cities where its better to buy Bossier City, 16.5 Cities where its better to rent Baton Rouge, 21 Read the full HomeArea.com analysis. Four St. Bernard Parish Office deputies were injured Monday in two separate incidents, including one in which a deputy shot the driver of stolen vehicle in the face, according to officials. Arabi Around 10:30 a.m., deputies were in Arabi investigating a report of a stolen vehicle received through the License Plate Recognition camera system. When those deputies came located the stolen vehicle near the intersection of St. Claude Avenue and Government Street in Arabi, the driver sped toward the deputy and struck him with the vehicle. The deputy shot the driver as he sped towards him. The responding deputy was taken to the hospital and later released. The driver, later identified as 21-year-old Tyrin Hamilton, was taken into custody at the hospital after he was treated and released for non-life threatening injuries. New Orleans police said in a 10:34 a.m. report that he had been shot in the face. He was booked on two counts of possession of stolen property. St. Bernard deputy shoots man who struck him with stolen car: SBSO St. Bernard police have also issued an arrest warrant for 19-year-old Devonte Smith and 19-year-old Maurice Hicks Jr. on the same charges as Hamilton, but their roles in the incident were not clear. Youre not going to put my citizens at risk and my deputies at risk and not have any consequences, St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann said of the Arabi incident. We are going to catch you and we are going to take you to jail. And if you try to run over a deputy, you are putting yourself at risk as well. 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 Chalmette Three other St. Bernard deputies were injured during a stop involving another stolen car Monday afternoon. The deputies attempted to stop a car on West Judge Perez Avenue near Packenham Avenue. It was not immediately clear what prompted the initial stop, but the car was later confirmed stolen out of Mississippi. At some point during the stop, three deputies were injured and shots were fired, according to Louisiana State Police, who was contacted by SBSO after the shooting. The deputies were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. The man accused of fleeing from and striking deputies, Michael Cole, 24, was not injured, State Police said in a news release. He was taken into custody and booked on charges of aggravated flight from an officer, aggravated battery, possession of stolen property and reckless operation. Correction: An earlier version of this story, citing incorrect information from the St. Bernard Sheriffs Office, said the first incident began at Judge Perez Drive and Government Street. SBSO said the correct location was St. Claude Avenue and Government Street. This story has been updated with the identity of the man accused in the Chalmette case. A man authorities say killed his mother by setting a fire inside their home Friday night (Nov. 23) has been arrested, New Orleans police said. Erik Beasley, 39, was booked at the Orleans Justice Center jail about 1:05 p.m. Tuesday on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated arson, jail records show. He was taken into custody after being released from a medical facility," NOPD spokesman Gary Scheets said. The department did not answer questions about the circumstances of his medical treatment. Family members notified the Louisiana State Fire Marshals Office that the victim is 78-year-old Sarah Beasley, Erik Beasleys mother, the agency said. The office is awaiting further confirmation by the Orleans Parish Coroners Office. Jason Melancon, a spokesman for the coroners office, said Tuesday the case -- including the womans identity -- is still under investigation. Firefighters were sent to the home in the 4700 block of Corinne Street, in New Orleans Easts Read Boulevard East neighborhood, about 10:40 p.m. Friday. Firefighters arrived within five minutes of the call and found the house filled with light smoke. They then discovered the woman dead, lying next to a damaged chaise, with burns to 90 percent her body. Only the woman and the chair were burned, the New Orleans Fire Department reported. 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 NOPD searching for man suspected of killing his mother in New Orleans East house fire Beasley has a lengthy criminal record in Orleans Parish with criminal damage to property and sexual battery convictions dating back to 2014. In many of his trials, Beasleys mental competency was called into question. Court records show Beasley was receiving mental health treatments as early as last year. In December 2017, he was ruled mentally incompetent, but that ruling was reversed in April 2018. As of August 2018, court records described him as living with his parents and taking medication. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact NOPD Homicide Detective Jake Engle at (504)-658-5300 or call Crimestoppers anonymously at 504-822-1111 and toll-free at 1-877-903-7867. Over two years after a man hit a bicyclist outside New Orleans' National World War II Museum and fled the scene, the legal case came to a close Tuesday (Nov. 27). Driver Michael Foley Jr. was sentenced to community service and a year of active probation, in the hit-and-run that injured bicyclist Rebekah Abernathy. On Sept. 12, 2016, Abernathy cycled within the bike lane on Magazine Street in a helmet and a bright green shirt with a caution light blinking above her rear tire. Around 8:12 a.m., Foley, 26, struck her with his white Dodge sedan. She was ejected off her bike and splayed onto the sidewalk. Foley fled the scene. Surveillance video from the nearby WWII museum captured Abernathys fall to the ground. After media coverage and citizen tips, NOPD arrested Foley on Sept. 28, two weeks after the hit-and-run. He was booked with hit-and-run driving with no death or serious bodily injury, which carries a less than $500 fine and a less than six-month sentence. The case was dismissed in traffic court, despite video evidence of the crash. Following the dismissal, attorney Charlie Thomas made a final plea to the Orleans Parish District Attorneys office, which eventually agreed to take on the case. The case was set to go to trial this week, but Foley pleaded guilty Nov. 19 to hit-and-run with death or serious bodily injury. The charge is more serious than his original one and carries up to a $5,000 fine and ten years in jail. Bicyclists struck by hit-and-run drivers face long road to justice Abernathy decided not to speak before Foleys sentencing in court Tuesday (Nov. 27), but state attorney Daniel Smart emphasized she never had it out for [Foley] to go to jail. Rather, she wanted him to understand and admit the severity of his actions." If Judge Paul A. Bonin decided not to incarcerate Foley, Smart urged him to consider a serious and strict type of probation. Foley then asked to speak. Clad in a camouflage military uniform, he turned the wooden podium to face Abernathy and apologized for his actions. If I could go back I would. Im sorry for what I did, said Foley, who is currently employed by the U.S. Army and has shared custody of a child. His mother then addressed the judge and Abernathy to offer another apology and provide some explanation for Foleys decision to flee the scene. At the time of the accident, he was on military flood orders and working days and nights with no rest at all. I dont know what happened, she said, before admitting she had not watched the video because it stressed her. 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 Judge Paul A. Bonin interrupted her. It is horrifying, he said the footage. Smart recognized the extenuating circumstances cited by Foleys mother, but contended that the foundation of the military is to help the citizens youre supposed to serve and protect. By fleeing the scene, Foley did the opposite, said Smart. I have viewed the film and it was stark, announced Bonin slowly. It had the potential to be truly fatal. Before announcing his decision, Bonin recapped his logic. He dismissed the possibility that Foley purposely struck Abernathy, calling it accidental. He also acknowledged that Foleys military career would be over if he landed in jail. However, he said Foley compounded his wrongdoing by fleeing the scene and waiting to report his involvement. Ultimately, Bonin ordered Foley to work 50 hours of community service with the Louisiana Highway Safety Program and pay $250 to the Indigent Transcript Fund, which allows people who are indigent to get copies of court transcripts for appeal purposes. He was also sentenced to one year of active probation, which Bonin called Foleys chance to prove he didnt belong in a penitentiary. Bonin said he would be watching Foley closely. If he violated his parole, Bonin said he would not have any problem sending Foley to prison. Abernathy told NOLA.com | Times-Picayune she was satisfied with the judges decision, especially the community service portion. After two years entangled in litigation, she hopes to never return to the Criminal District Court. Charlie Thomas, who originally advocated for the District Attorney to take on the case, also said he was pleased with the decision. She requested that the defendant not serve jail time and instead use this incident as a reason to change his ways, said Thomas. For New Orleans bicyclists injured in hit-and-runs, the insult comes from city officials New Orleans police are searching for a man suspected of killing his mother by setting fire to their New Orleans East home on Friday night (Nov. 23). Erik Beasley, 39, is wanted on one count each of second-degree murder and aggravated arson. UPDATE: Erik Beasley was arrested Tuesday (Nov. 27) and booked with second-degree murder, aggravated arson and on several warrants out of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, according to court records. Family members notified the Louisiana State Fire Marshals Office that the woman is 78-year-old Sarah Beasley, Erik Beasleys mother. The office is awaiting further confirmation by the Orleans Parish Coroners Office, who had not released the womans identity as of Monday night, according to agency spokeswoman Ashley Rodrigue. Firefighters had originally said the woman was 60 years old. Firefighters were sent to the home in the 4700 block of Corinne Street around 10:40 p.m. Friday. 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 Firefighters arrived within five minutes of the call and found the house filled with light smoke. They then discovered the woman lying next to a damaged chaise, with burns to 90 percent her body. Only the woman and the chair were burned, the New Orleans Fire Department reported. Police described Erik Beasley as a 6-foot, 1-inch tall, weighing 250-pounds with several gold teeth as well as a fleur-de-lis tattoo under his left eye. He may be frequenting areas where homeless people congregate. Beasley has a lengthy criminal record in Orleans Parish with criminal damage to property and sexual battery convictions dating back to 2014. In many of his trials, Beasleys mental competency was called into question. Court records show Beasley was receiving mental health treatments as early as last year. In December 2017, he was ruled mentally incompetent, but that ruling was reversed in April 2018. As of August 2018, court records described him as living with his parents and taking medication. Anyone with information on this incident or the whereabouts of Erik J. Beasley is asked to contact NOPD Homicide Detective Jake Engle at (504)-658-5300 or call Crimestoppers anonymously at 504-822-1111 and toll-free at 1-877-903-7867. A man who was set to face trial this week in a fatal Gentilly double shooting pleaded guilty Tuesday (Nov. 27) before any witnesses were called in the case. Daniel K. Carter, 25, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, attempted second-degree murder and obstruction of justice in a Jan. 9, 2017, shooting that left Alfred Hamilton Jr. dead and a 23-year-old man injured. Criminal District Judge Laurie White sentenced him to 35 years in prison, per the agreement. A jury was seated Monday and testimony in the trial was scheduled to start Tuesday. Police said Hamilton, 27, and the other man were shot as they were sitting inside a vehicle in a driveway in the 2500 block of New York Street around 10 p.m. Both were taken to a nearby hospital, where Hamilton was pronounced dead. Man killed, another wounded in Gentilly shooting on New York Street: NOPD Carter was arrested in March of 2017, and indicted in July. Hamiltons mom, Cheryl, told Carter she still is angry and hopes to eventually forgive him for taking her first-born son and best friend. Cheryl Hamilton said she talked to Alfred on the front lawn of her house about 20 minutes before he was shot. She was inside when shots rang out and heard every shot you entered into my child" I can say to you that you really didnt know him, Hamilton told Carter from the witness stand. He would have given you the shirt off his back I beat myself up for a long time thinking I taught him to be too kind, too forgiving. Murder was not the answer. Hamiltons father, Alfred Hamilton Sr., also addressed Carter before White sentenced him. Hamilton said he felt a bitterness when he first saw Carter because you didnt realize what you took from me. 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 That started to go away when Carter admitted his role in his sons shooting, he said. Hamilton said his son was a beautiful person. He came from a large family many of whom were in court and wept as Hamiltons parents gave impact statements and had high hopes and plans for life. Alfred Hamilton Jr. worked for the U.S. Postal Service, and was planning to move to California, his dad said. Justice has been served, Hamilton said. I hope you find some goodness each and every day of your life, and try to do something good. Carter apologized to the Hamiltons, telling them, Ms. Cheryl and Mr. Alfred, from the top to bottom of my heart, Im sorry. Carter thanked the Hamiltons for agreeing to allow him to plead guilty to a lesser charge and in turn to receive a sentence that will give him a chance to get out of prison and help change lives. Had he been convicted of second-degree murder, Carter would have faced an automatic life sentence. Carter, who told White he has a college education, said his dad was never in his life, as he was serving a life sentence in prison. Now, he said, he has to go through the same thing with his young daughter. Carter also apologized to his family, who were in court when he entered his plea. White sentenced Carter to 35 years on each of the three charges he pleaded guilty to Tuesday, and ran them concurrent. The 35 years imposed for attempted second-degree murder must be served without the benefit of probation, parole or a suspended sentence. Assistant District Attorneys Jason Napoli and Mike Trummel prosecuted the case. Eusi Phillips represented Carter. The first bar from Quixotic Projects was Candelaria in Paris' Marais neighborhood. It made drinks with tequila and mezcal, sold tacos and soon ranked among the top bars in the world. The group, two Americans and a Colombian, opened more celebrated bars and restaurants across Paris, including Glass, Hero and Le Mary Celeste. Their next bar will be their first outside Paris. It will be in New Orleans, inside the new Maison de la Luz hotel at 546 Carondelet St., and will open in spring 2019. We want to bring the easy conviviality of French aperitif culture, said Josh Fontaine, one of the three partners in Quixotic Projects. Laid back, not pretentious. Drinks that are not going to knock you on your back after one or two. The bar, which does not yet have a name, will look to France, the French West Indies and New Orleans for inspiration and ingredients. "There will be a little flair, a little bit of theater," Fontaine said. "But we're not taking anything too seriously. We want it to be fun." The bar will also offer charcuterie, pickles and larger plates. The 67-room Maison de la Luz hotel will be in a building that used to be a City Hall annex and most recently was a law office. The hotel is being developed by The Domain Companies, which created the nearby South Market District. Atelier Ace, which runs the Ace hotel across the street, will operate Maison de la Luz in partnership with The Domain Companies. Maison de la Luz will be run by Atelier Ace "Working with experienced, creative and passionate partners is part of our ethos we bring in talented collaborators and work together to develop our spaces, layering their distinctive tastes and expertise to manifest in a cohesive, singular vision," said Atelier Ace's president Brad Wilson in an email. The bar from Quixotic Projects, however, will have a separate entrance and address from the hotel. Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The bar will be in the law office's former library, and the decor will be a fantasy of a world traveler's personal library filled with mementos and memories. "It's supposed to be like you're walking into someone's home library and you feel this conviviality," Fontaine said. Fontaine, born in Connecticut, and his Quixotic Projects partners, the also-Connecticut-born Adam Tsou and Carina Soto Velasquez of Colombia, all met at the Experimental Cocktail Club, the bar that launched Paris' cocktail renaissance. Soto Velasquez was the bars first employee. She was later Fontaines manager at the Experimental Cocktail Club. And Tsou drank there a lot. "Contrary to popular belief, it's quite easy to open your business (in Paris) on a shoestring budget," Fontaine said. In recent years, he said, Paris cocktail bars have been exploring the many spirits and liqueurs made in France, such as Lillet, Noilly Prat vermouth and the extra-bitter amaro Suze. "You have this heritage of grandma drinks and spirits that bartenders like to use these days," he said. The Quixotic Projects team is creating the menu for the New Orleans bar. "The fun part is happening right now, which is the brainstorming and the back and forth," Fontaine said. Once they're done with the fun part, they will be back regularly to check on the New Orleans bar. Were not just doing a concept and letting it fly, he said. Health officials are keeping a close eye on a rare polio-like illness that has been reported mainly in children under the age of four in 31 states. One case has been reported in Louisiana this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. So far in 2018, there are 116 confirmed cases of Accute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) a rare but serious condition that affects the nervous system, specifically the area of the spinal cord called gray matter. The condition causes muscles and reflexes to weaken. The cause of the condition is unknown and there is no treatment or vaccine. Health officials are investigating an additional 170 possible cases of AFM. Most patients with AFM had a mild respiratory illness, or fever about three to 10 days before they developed the condition, according to the CDC. Health officials have been monitoring AFM cases since 2014 when 120 cases were reported. The CDC is encouraging healthcare providers to report to their health departments all patients who they think may have AFM. So far Colorado has reported the largest number of cases (15), followed by Texas (14). The CDC updates their case count every Monday. Its unclear how Louisiana is going to pay for salary increases already given to prison guards and housing for state inmates that local sheriffs provide after a lawmaker rejected a state revenue forecast that included enough money for these and other items. State Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said he wanted to wait to make sure the moneys actually there before spending it. Henrys decision Tuesday (Nov. 27) during a meeting of the states Revenue Estimating Conference also leaves up in the air how lawmakers and Gov. John Bel Edwards would afford a pay raise for public school teachers next year. Under the forecast in place, the $1,000 teacher salary increase and $500 school staff pay bump the governor proposed would likely only happen if the money was taken from somewhere else in the budget. Lawmakers built a budget earlier this year that included spending levels contingent on the state seeing more revenue than was projected at the time. In order to realize that extra money, the Revenue Estimating Conference has to sign off on a new, higher forecast that all but confirms the money is in hand. Three members of the group Commission of Administration Jay Dardenne, Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, and LSU economist Jim Richardson were willing to vote for an estimate a state economist brought forward Tuesday, showing an increase in state tax collections and other fees. Henry, who was standing in for House Speaker Taylor Barras at the meeting, was not. With near universal agreement that we should provide Louisiana teachers with a pay raise, the actions by Speaker Barras and Chairman Henry place the ability to fund that plan in jeopardy, Edwards said in a statement after the meeting. 19 winners and losers in Louisiana's budget and tax battles Henry said he only wanted to stall the adoption of the new forecast for a few months to make sure the higher projections for tax and fee collections hold. He isnt trying to jeopardize a pay boost for teachers, he said. I assure you. You wont get a no vote from me on teacher pay raises, Henry said. Its a concern for us," Cynthia Posey, legislative director for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said in an interview. "I think possibly (Henrys) objection was a little bit disingenuous. Waiting to adopt a new forecast for a few months could mean less money for the Department of Corrections, local sheriffs and others for at least several months. The Louisiana Legislature approved a spending plan in June that called for giving the state prison system, local sheriffs, the Office of Juvenile Justice and a few other agencies as much as $42 million more if revenue ended up being higher than originally budgeted. But that $42 million can only be dispersed this budget cycle if the higher revenue forecast is put in place before Dec. 31, according to the budget lawmakers approved in June. It would also need approval from the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, made up of lawmakers, later this month. The prison system was slated to get $16.29 million, including $4 million to cover half of the prison guards pay raise for the year, and sheriffs were supposed to receive $10.6 million. 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 If approval of the new revenue forecast is delayed for a few months, some agencies might have to wait until the legislative session, which starts in April, for the extra money if they get any at all. The prison system has already started paying its correctional officers more in anticipation of the higher revenue forecast getting approved. Dardenne, the Edwards' administrations budget architect, said he will call another Revenue Estimating Conference meeting in the next few days with hope for a different outcome. It will be scheduled for a day when Barras, R-New Iberia, can personally attend, Dardenne said. Im not comfortable with the situation, but usually cooler heads prevail, said Jimmy LeBlanc, secretary of Louisianas Department of Correction, in an interview. I have confidence in Commissioner Dardenne and the governor and President Alario. In an interview, Henry said he and Barras were on the same page about the revenue projections, and the House speaker would have objected the same way he did on Tuesday. Barras could not be reached for comment. He would have done absolutely nothing different than I did, Henry said in an interview. Henry said concerns the state economists brought up about the price of oil dropping, possibly larger state tax refunds going out to residents and uncertainty around corporate tax collection projections made him think the new revenue projection was shaky. The economists, one of whom has been doing state revenue projections for decades, routinely point out portions of their forecasts they believe to be less certain. Legislative economist Greg Albrecht, specifically, mentions the unpredictable nature of corporate tax collections at almost every Revenue Estimating Conference meeting, but that usually does not delay the adoption of a new forecast. John Bel Edwards' top priority? Giving teachers a raise Alario accused Henry of playing political games with the adoption of the revenue forecast in order to make it easier to implement budget cuts Henry failed to get during the legislative sessions. Last spring, Henry specifically pushed back against crafting the budget with contingency funding based on future revenue projections. He only went forward with the current spending plan, when it became obvious most other lawmakers didnt share his objections. Henry said his vote Tuesday reflected a genuine concern about whether the economists' revenue forecasts were reliable over the long term. I can assure you there is no game being played," he said. If Henry wanted to argue against spending money on those agencies, he could do so at the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget meeting later this month, Alario said. Henry is the head of that committee, but other legislators sitting on it could overrule him. On the Revenue Estimating Conference, his vote Tuesday amounted to veto power over the other members. The family of a Slidell woman who was killed in a head-on crash on Interstate 59 in south Mississippi on Thanksgiving morning wants to know why the driver authorities say caused the crash had been released from jail only days earlier after a DUI arrest, WVUE-TV Fox 8 reported. Shelley Rose of South Carolina was driving a minivan on the wrong side of I-59 in Pearl River County when she crashed into a Saturn driven by Jada Bright, 23, of Slidell and a Nissan driven by Evans Vincent of Alabama, authorities said. Rose, Bright and Evans all were killed, the Mississippi Highway Patrol has said. Recent media reports said that Rose had been arrested in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, two days prior to the Thanksgiving crash on a charge accusing her of fourth-offense DUI. After she posted bond in that arrest, she was arrested on Nov. 21 on a misdemeanor public drunkeness charge by the Ellisville Police Department in Jones County, Mississippi. In a report Monday (Nov. 26), Brights sister in law, Jennifer Posey-Bright, questioned why Rose was not still in jail at the time of the fatal crash. The Fox 8 report said toxicology tests are pending. Left tackle Terron Armstead remained the only New Orleans Saints player absent from practice on Tuesday as the team prepares for Thursdays game against the Dallas Cowboys. Armstead (pectoral) was also out Monday, so it appears likely hell miss his third consecutive game. The Saints practice report Tuesday was identical to Mondays. Kicker Wil Lutz (back, defensive end Marcus Davenport (toe), wide receiver TreQuan Smith (toe), tight end Dan Arnold (chest), left guard Andrus Peat (shoulder) and cornerback P.J. Williams (hip) were all limited. The Cowboys had just one change to their practice report as wide receiver Allen Hurns (thumb) improved from limited to full participation. For Dallas, linebacker Sean Lee (hamstring), defensive end David Irving (ankle), wide receiver Tavon Austin (groin), left tackle Tyron Smith (neck) and tight end Geoff Swaim (wrist) did not practice on Tuesday. Defensive tackle Maliek Collins (knee), right guard Zack Martin (knee) and left guard Xavier Sua-Filo (ankle) were limited. Hurns, guards Adam Redmond (concussion) and Connor Williams (knee), defensive ends Taco Charlton (shoulder) and Daniel Ross (calf) and linebacker Joe Thomas (foot) were full participants. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lauds Sean Payton, says Super Bowl play needed to defeat Saints North Augusta, SC (29841) Today Partly cloudy skies. High 67F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to occasional showers later during the night. Low around 50F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. the next week at the UN-States will meet for a climate summit in Katowice, Poland. Now, the United Nations environment programme (Unep), increases the pressure on the States to make strict rules. In order to achieve the objectives of the Paris climate agreement, should the countries of their previous efforts at least triple . Theoretically, it is the United Nations environment programme, is still possible, the goal of a maximum of two degrees of average warming to 2100 to be observed. If the countries did, however, continue as before, will increase the temperature of the earth to about 3.2 degrees in comparison to the time before industrialization and then still continue to rise, the so-called 9. Emissions Gap Report, the environmental program in Paris on Tuesday. "The countries must now act" was a similar result is also a special report of the UN world climate Council (IPCC). The Intermediate product of the Unep experts now have evidence to suggest the extent to which the climate protection targets in the Paris agreement with the previous promises to the States can be achieved. Thus, the results of the study are a Wake-up call ahead of the upcoming UN climate change conference, from 3. to 14. December takes place in Katowice, Poland. "More than ever, the countries of must action now ", warn the authors in their report. The goal of a maximum of two degrees of average warming of the earth's temperature is regarded as the extreme limit to catastrophic climate consequences. If possible, should be limited to the warming of the Paris agreements, but even at 1.5 degrees. The Two-degree-to comply with the target, will have to increase the countries of their previous efforts, tripled - to 1.5-degrees-not to exceed limit, even quintuple. According to many scientists could be at a Plus of 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the ice , the rise of the Betlike sea level , and more extreme weather to melt. CO2 emissions After three relatively stable years has increased the global CO2 emissions in 2017 was increased again, the scientists write in their report. 53.5 gigatons of CO2 emissions is alarmingly high. The main reason: The economy is growing and at the same time, the energy consumption decreases only slowly, especially with a view to carbon . "emissions must be reduced by a quarter by 2030 to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius to 1.5 degrees, emissions need to be halved," said Gunnar Luderer of the Potsdam Institute for climate impact research (PIK). At the moment, the G20 countries are on the way to meet their national targets set for 2030 - only Brazil , China and Japan lie in the established framework. The scientists call for decisive action: the reduction of fossil fuel subsidies, support programmes for renewable energies E-mobility programs emission standards for heavy commercial vehicles Especially the tax policy can influence economic development. So fossil fuels could be taxed high , while low-emission Alternatives will be encouraged with subsidies. So far, the tax policy objectives in many countries, however, a Transition to a climate-friendly economy. This is just in the areas where private companies are reluctant to so far. best could be, for example, Sweden or Switzerland, where already per ton of CO2 120 Euro or 80 Euro will be payable. Only last week, a number of European heads of state had asked for - and heads of government before the world climate conference in Katowice ambitious in limiting global warming. Germany and 15 other countries had signed a Declaration that calls for more commitment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Germany missed climate targets Germany is, however, far from the self-imposed climate goals. Actually, the greenhouse gas emissions should drop by 2020 to 40 percent compared to 1990. However, so far, are made of only 32 percent, in the current climate protection, report to the government. According to a study commissioned by Greenpeace in order, would be the climate protection targets to achieve, only when the oldest brown coal off the blocks, in whole or in part, and Wind and solar power, as in the coalition agreement to be extended. In the Video: Five ways to save the world BBC koe/dpa Updated Date: 27 November 2018, 20:00 There's a lot to see and do in downtown Indianapolis, and some fun ways to get around while exploring. Here are some of our favorites for you to try in 2019. Viewed of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. This conversation includes spoilers for the first four episodes of My Brilliant Friend. Episode 3 of My Brilliant Friend opens with two new actresses playing Lenu (Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila (Gaia Girace), who are now teenagers. The girls lives are also diverging in new ways: Lenu is heading to a classical high school in Naples; Lila is working with her brother in her fathers shoe repair store. But that doesnt mean they are any less competitive, and puberty brings new ways for Lenu to measure herself against her old friend. Meanwhile, tensions mount as a new generation of men vie for power in the neighborhood along battle lines drawn by their parents. Once a week, over the four weeks the series airs on HBO, we are gathering a rotating group of Elena Ferrante fans from across The New York Times newsroom to discuss the show. You can read our discussion of the first two episodes here, and the Times review of the show here. This week, Nicole Herrington and Alicia DeSantis, editors on the Culture desk, and Gal Beckerman, an editor on the Books desk, jump into Episodes 3 and 4. GAL BECKERMAN As the third episode opens, we get a time jump that moves Lenu and Lila into their teenage years of burgeoning sexual awareness and acne trouble. I was impressed with how seamless the transition was between the child and teenage actresses who play the girls, and especially the opening, which smartly and swiftly uses a dream sequence to move it all forward. But there were other ways that the show, in its design choices, signaled the other big transition, a shift in perspective from the parents world to the childrens. Same streets, but not so drab and gray. There were pops of color. A bit more life and possibility in a passing pastel pink dress. Part of this was the move from the 1940s into the postwar boom of the 1950s, but it also gave the visceral sense of youth emerging into their own, claiming the neighborhood. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a staunch Trump backer, said the crown prince wouldnt get a pass if he was making the world a more dangerous place. And Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said it was a grave mistake for Mr. Trump to ignore the C.I.A.s assessment. If the President does not reconsider what actions our government should take toward the Saudi Government & MbS, Congress must act instead, she wrote on Twitter. Mr. Graham and Ms. Collins are among three Republicans who have co-sponsored the Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act, which was introduced the week before Thanksgiving. And House Democrats, fresh off their midterm triumphs, are also rattling their sabers. Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had been briefed by the C.I.A. and believed the president was being dishonest. I think, in part, he feels that by saying that we dont know or that the world is a dangerous place or everybody does it, he thinks it makes him look strong, Mr. Schiff said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union. It actually makes him look weak. Not only has Mr. Trump increased the chances that Congress will enact restrictions on the Saudi royal family or make it harder to do business with the kingdom, he has prompted Democrats to question his financial ties to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Schiff, who is expected to take over as chairman of the Intelligence Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January, has promised to investigate those, too. United Technologies plans to split into three companies, the industrial giant said on Monday. The breakup, to be completed by 2020, signals a shift away from a kitchen-sink approach to industrial manufacturing in favor of generating returns by specializing in a single area of business. One of the entities will be called United Technologies, with a focus on aerospace, wrapping up the companys Collins Aerospace Systems and Pratt & Whitney units. Another will be Otis, manufacturing elevators and escalators, and the third will be Carrier, making heating and cooling equipment among other products. Our decision to separate United Technologies is a pivotal moment in our history and will best position each independent company to drive sustained growth, the companys chairman and chief executive, Gregory J. Hayes, said in a statement. Last week, Chinese regulators approved the companys $30 billion purchase of Rockwell Collins, a manufacturer of airplane parts, providing the final green light for a deal struck last year. Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON President Trump had a clear message Monday when asked about the core conclusion of a scientific report issued by his own administration: that climate change will batter the nations economy. I dont believe it, he said. Mr. Trump then laid responsibility for cleaning the atmosphere on other countries like China and Japan: Right now were at the cleanest weve ever been, and thats very important to me. But if were clean but every other place on Earth is dirty, thats not so good. So I want clean air. I want clean water. Very important. The remarks fit a pattern, and not just for their bluntness. In almost two years since taking office, Mr. Trump has denied the scientific reality of climate change and taken aggressive steps that will increase emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases despite unequivocal scientific evidence that those pollutants are warming the planet to dangerous levels. Since virtually the first day the administration came into office they have systematically worked to reverse policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said Robert N. Stavins, a professor of environmental economics at Harvard. But this report, which is mandated by law, shows that greenhouse gas emissions are going to have profound effects on the United States in this century. WASHINGTON Its O.K. to eat romaine lettuce again, federal health officials said on Monday as long as youre sure it wasnt grown on Californias north and central coast. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said investigators had traced the romaine lettuce associated with an outbreak of E. coli that has sickened 65 people in 12 states and Canada to end of summer romaine lettuce harvested from that region. With the growing and harvesting season over there, according to the F.D.A., people may eat romaine lettuce that has been hydroponically or greenhouse grown, or has been harvested from the winter growing desert regions of the United States, and is labeled such. If it does not have this information, the agency said in a statement posted on its website, you should not eat or use it. A driver trying to park a minivan in Manhattans bustling Chinatown careened over a curb and onto a sidewalk Monday night, killing a 56-year-old man and injuring six others, the authorities said. At least two of the injured victims were in critical condition; two others had injuries that were serious but not life-threatening, the police said. Police and fire officials responded to the corner of Canal and Forsyth Streets about 6:47 p.m., where they said that minutes earlier, a 70-year-old man had tried to park a minivan. But in so doing, they said, the man had hit the gas rather than the brakes, and the minivan mounted a curb, smashing two fruit carts and striking several victims. Mr. Martinezs success in taking Colombian cocaine safely into Mexico, he explained, endeared him to Mr. Guzman, who soon became his sons godfather. The two men also started traveling together, Mr. Martinez recalled: once to Los Angeles, where Mr. Guzman spent $6 million buying airplanes, and then to Las Vegas, where they gambled. Mr. Guzman also opened up to him, Mr. Martinez said, telling him how he got his start in dealing drugs by cultivating marijuana near his home in Sinaloa, Mexico, and making heroin by scraping little by little every morning the milk-like sap out of the poppies he had planted. He was a very poor person who didnt have anything to eat, Mr. Martinez said. And that was the reason why he got involved in drug trafficking. But Mr. Guzman did not stay poor for long. In a bit of back story that was part Mr. Martinezs testimony in a trial in 2006, he said Mr. Guzman owned at least three Lear jets and moved about with an entourage of gunmen, shuttling among multiple homes in multiple Mexican cities. In one of those homes, there was a hidden compartment underneath a bed that raised off the floor on a hydraulic-powered lift. Mr. Guzman also had a zoo in Guadalajara, Mr. Martinez noted in 2006, where he kept lions, tigers, crocodiles and bears. Some of El Chapos fortune was used to buy off the authorities, Mr. Martinez told the jury on Monday, including the chief of Mexico Citys federal police. According to Mr. Martinez, Mr. Guzman paid the police chief $10 million two or three times in the early 1990s. In exchange, he said, the chief gave the kingpin information about drug investigations and helped him track down his enemies and rivals. At least twice since he was arrested by the Mexican authorities in 1998, assassins have tried to kill Mr. Martinez. The first attempt on his life came shortly after he was taken into custody. A group of killers confronted him in prison, stabbing him repeatedly. After a second knife attack, he testified at the separate trial in 2006, someone threw two hand grenades into his cell. He survived, he said, by hiding behind his toilet bowl. Meena Alexander, a poet and scholar whose writings reflected the search for identity that came with a peripatetic life, including time in India, Africa, Europe and the United States, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 67. Her husband, David Lelyveld, said the cause was endometrial serous cancer. In both prose and poetry Ms. Alexander, a longtime professor at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, explored themes of feminism, post-colonialism, dislocation, memory and more. She published numerous volumes of poetry, two novels and a memoir, Fault Lines (1993). Her writings were themselves the subject of a book, Passage to Manhattan: Critical Essays on Meena Alexander (2005). In their introduction, the editors of that volume, Lopamudra Basu and Cynthia Leenerts, credit Ms. Alexander with creating a new hybrid poetic form, which fuses the Western Romantic lyric tradition with non-Western ones of Bhakti and Sufi poetry, which came out of India. In one essay in the book, Jacqueline Wigfall describes Fault Lines as a production of sound, color and texture that exceeds the function of autobiography, social history and political memoir. Fault Lines, which was reissued in 2003, was indeed far more lyrical and exploratory than the average autobiography, a search for identity through the elusiveness of memory. Russias attack on Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea was a violation of international law and a dangerous escalation of the undeclared war the Kremlin has waged for more than four years against Ukraine in Crimea, in the breakaway provinces of eastern Ukraine, and now at sea. The Kremlin can shout all it wants about a provocation, about an attempt by the Ukrainian president to create a political diversion or about anything else, but none of that changes the fact that Russia had no legal justification for firing on three Ukrainian boats and seizing them. The vessels, two small armored boats and a tugboat, were headed for the Kerch Strait, which separates Crimea from Russia and is the only entrance to the Sea of Azov, where much of Ukraines coastline lies . Russia claimed they had crossed into Russian waters, but that is based on its illegal claim to Crimea, which it seized in 2014. Ukraine and most every other state in the world still regard Crimea and its coastal waters as Ukrainian territory. And under a treaty ratified by Ukraine and Russia in 2004 a now hard-to-imagine time when they could still refer to each other as historically brotherly nations the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait were defined as shared territorial waters. That treaty, signed by President Vladimir Putin of Russia, is still in force. Into the bleak landscape that is the Trump administrations environmental record comes a new report from the governments own analysts that lays out in the grimmest terms yet the consequences of continued inaction on climate change. The National Climate Assessment, issued on Friday when most Americans attention was on shopping, football and leftovers, predicts devastating effects from a warming planet and stands in sharp contrast to President Trumps blithe rejection of the basic science of climate change. The report details the environmental, human and economic costs of a changing climate in the United States, including worsening drought, more vicious wildfires, wider crop failures and accelerating property damage. The impacts could reduce domestic economic activity by as much as a tenth by 2100, the report says. The president shrugged it off I dont believe it, he said Monday as he has all previous studies on climate change, even as his administration pursues policies that will in all likelihood make the problem worse. In fact, the administrations retrograde policies and its assault on President Barack Obamas environmental agenda have been so broad that its become something of a game to ask which of Mr. Obamas initiatives on climate change and the environment still have life. The news site Axios tried this exercise recently and came up with a rather short list, albeit one that might suggest some tactics to win at least modest protections for the environment even from this administration. It included a possible reprieve for a threatened bird that Mr. Obama had hoped to save, but none of his ambitious efforts to attack global warming. Mr. Trump is determined to weaken Mr. Obamas rules restricting greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and power plants the chief culprits in the warming climate. As for the positive bits, Andrew Wheeler, Mr. Trumps choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency, got top billing for pledging to move ahead with stronger air pollution standards for heavy trucks, as promised by Mr. Obama. Mr. Wheeler convinced the trucking lobby and truck and engine manufacturers to go along with the new standards (to be issued in 2020) in return for simpler compliance rules. This is big news from an agency that has torpedoed one clean air initiative after another. The Interior Department rated two mentions. One was Secretary Ryan Zinkes announcement of a forthcoming auction of federal waters off Massachusetts as a possible site for wind turbines. Offshore wind is a carbon-free source of power, and Mr. Obama promoted it as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Trump administration advertises it as part of the presidents all of the above energy strategy and a way to promote American wind turbine builders. With only one offshore wind farm in United States waters, America lags far behind the rest of the world. INTERNATIONAL An article on Sunday about nationality law in Ireland referred incorrectly to an Irish organization that promotes migrants rights. It is the Immigrant Council of Ireland, not the Irish Council for Immigrants. An article on Saturday about the impact of tourism on the Hong Kong suburb of Tung Chung referred incorrectly to a Hong Kong tourism authority. It is the Hong Kong Tourism Association, not the Hong Kong Travel Association. NATIONAL An article on Friday about a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner at a relief kitchen in California misstated when a caravan of fire evacuees departed Paradise, Calif. It was two weeks before Thanksgiving, not one week before. NEW YORK An article on Friday about the circumstances of suspicious killings in New Jersey misidentified one of the children who was killed. He is Jesse Caneiro, 11, not James. Chasing the New White Whale scores points for sheer gumption. The Forty Hour Club production, which just opened at La MaMa, borrows elements from Moby-Dick to depict the ravages brought on by the opioid epidemic, particularly on the New England working class. There are boats moving about on wheeled scaffolds as well as projections onto a sail-like screen; a two-person band supplies an omnipresent live score. The story features sermons and ghosts, drug-running and tempests at sea, not to mention high-stakes fishing. It would be exciting to report that the playwright Mike Gorman found a way to tie all these strands together if only because modern theater does not write enough about either blue-collar characters or drug addiction but Chasing the New White Whale is a muddle of ideas in search of coherence and falls short of its ambition. The show declares a parallel between Melvilles creations and the plague of drugs. What was Ahab, but an addict, really, and what was the white whale, but an allusion to opium, and heroin, its contemporary scourge? asks a Quaker chaplain (Mr. Gorman), who pops up at regular intervals to deliver flowery homilies. In between these sermons we follow the story of Robby (Alan Barnes Netherton), a fisherman whos doomed by the threat of drug addiction and his obsession with fishing. Since he was a kid, you see, Robby has been driven by the one that got away. Ive got one more trip to catch a big halibut and then Im out, he says at one point. HOUSTON Representative Beto ORourke, the Texas Democrat whose unsuccessful underdog Senate bid this year turned him into a political celebrity and fund-raising powerhouse, told an El Paso audience on Monday that he was not ruling out running for president in 2020. Mr. ORourke had previously said, on repeated occasions, that he would not seek the presidency in the next election. But Mr. ORourke has demonstrated strong appeal with a cross-section of Democrats as well as with people who had never voted before or infrequently cast ballots, and he now possesses a list of hundreds of thousands of small donors that is the envy of most politicians mulling a White House bid. A three-term liberal congressman from El Paso, Mr. ORourke, 46, lost to Senator Ted Cruz in a hard-fought campaign to become the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Texas since Lloyd Bentsen was re-elected in 1988. But Mr. Cruz won by just 2.6 percentage points in a solid-red state President Trump carried Texas by nine points in 2016 and Democrats have spent weeks speculating about Mr. ORourkes future in politics. At a town hall event on Monday and in remarks to reporters afterward, Mr. ORourke suggested he was now open to a presidential run, a significant shift from his remarks on the matter during his Senate race. WASHINGTON American and Czech forces are under investigation for the death of an Afghan commando who was beaten while in NATO custody in western Afghanistan, American and Afghan officials said, demonstrating the tensions that have grown among military forces after 17 years of war. The commando, Wahidullah Khan, was accused of killing a Czech soldier last month in one of four deadly insider attacks this year by Afghan forces on NATO troops. One American official said a team from the Armys 7th Special Forces Group, which helped transfer Mr. Khan to the custody of Czech soldiers, has been withdrawn from Afghanistan as the investigation continues. It is not clear, however, if any American soldiers participated in the beating of Mr. Khan. Col. Dave Butler, a spokesman for the American-led mission in Afghanistan, acknowledged the investigation but declined to provide details. the facts This requires context. Asked about President Trumps clash last week with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. over the independence of the federal judiciary, Mr. Sasse agreed with the chief justice that judges should not be categorized as partisans. But he argued that Mr. Trump had a point in criticizing the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The claim that the Ninth Circuit holds the record for the highest percentage of cases reversed repeated by Mr. Trump as well as several conservative pundits is wrong by one metric but correct by another. In the 2017 term, the Supreme Court heard 14 cases from the Ninth Circuit, reversing or vacating 12. That is a rate of nearly 86 percent, which is lower than the 100 percent rates of the First, Third and Sixth Circuits. In the 2016 term, the Ninth Circuits rate was nearly 88 percent, still behind the 100 percent reversal or vacating rates of four other circuit courts. From 2006 to 2015, the Supreme Court heard 160 cases from the Ninth Circuit, reversing 106 decisions and vacating 24, according to a law journal article by Judge Timothy B. Dyk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That is a reversal or vacating rate of about 81 percent, which is higher than the average reversal rate of nearly 73 percent. But the highest rate belongs to the Sixth Circuit, with nearly 84 percent. But the groups have splintered and shape-shifted in the face of grueling travel, government opposition and the opportunity to seek asylum in places other than the United States. Mr. Mensing said that the majority of the caravan members were from Honduras, with others coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. He also said that new caravans were beginning to form as recently as a few days ago, originating in El Salvador. What authority do the American border agents have to forcefully block the migrants? A Customs and Border Protection manual makes clear the officers have authority to use force, up to and including the use of deadly force. At San Ysidro, the border officers have deployed tear gas as a less-lethal force to control crowds. The manual allows less-lethal devices including pepper spray to be used in situations where empty-handed techniques are not sufficient to control disorderly or violent subjects. Are the military troops there? Will they shoot anybody? The Pentagon has sent 1,300 American troops to California out of about 5,900 military forces deployed to support Border Patrol operations. But the military is legally forbidden from taking part in law enforcement activities within the United States, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that most troops on the border would not be carrying guns. Some of the American troops are now undergoing riot training and may defend border officials against migrants throwing rocks. Mr. Mattis also said troops might detain migrants throwing rocks. But the troops wont be armed. What currently happens when somebody applies for asylum? Encounters between border agents and border crossers, regardless of where they take place, always involve a version of the same question: Are you afraid to return to your country? When the answer is yes, the border crosser is referred for a credible fear interview, where an asylum officer asks for details and evidence to assess whether the claim is likely to be approved by an immigration judge. TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras In a blow to President Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras, American prosecutors on Monday announced drug charges against his younger brother, describing him as a large-scale drug trafficker who spent a dozen years moving cocaine shipments bound for the United States through Central America. Juan Antonio Hernandez, 40, was deeply involved in all aspects of the drug trade arranging security and protection for shipments, taking bribes from traffickers, and assuring government contracts for money-laundering front companies according to Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan. Mr. Hernandez was so established in trafficking, prosecutors said, that he had even had his own cocaine brand: Laboratories in Colombia and Honduras stamped packets with the initials T.H., for Tony Hernandez. He was arrested in Miami on Friday, but American officials did not provide details until Monday. The first confirmation of the arrest came from President Hernandez himself on Friday, in a statement from his office that reaffirmed his governments commitment to justice and declared that no one was above the law. OSHAWA, Ontario General Motors has been making cars in Oshawa, Ontario, for more than a century in factories that once employed upward of 40,000 people, so the companys announcement on Monday that it would stop production brought recriminations from across the Canadian political spectrum. But for Eva McKeen, an inspector in the paint shop that looms over the north end of the vast manufacturing complex, the pain and the sense of betrayal went far beyond political and economic arguments. Just as youre getting older to know that you dont have a job, its really heart-wrenching, she said. Ms. McKeen was among the hundreds of workers who walked out of the plant in protest just before managers were about to announce its death sentence. Outside, they began waving red flags while blockading the complexs truck entrances. The ponchos they wore, bearing the logo of their union, Unifor, offered scant protection against the sleet coming down. Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic group founded by George Soros, announced Monday that it would stop its operations in Turkey, where the organization and its founder have been assailed by an increasingly authoritarian government. The organization, which promotes justice and human rights in more than 100 countries, said that it would close its office in Istanbul after it became the target of baseless accusations that made it impossible to work in the country. The Turkish government has tried to link Open Society to the Gezi Park protests of 2013; the organization has denied any role and dismissed the allegation as unfounded. One of the organizations board members, Osman Kavala, was arrested and has been in jail for over a year without being formally charged, the organization said. We are deeply dismayed and disappointed that the foundation had to close, an Open Society spokeswoman, Laura Silber, said on Monday. But, she said, it became completely untenable. LONDON As Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain continued her effort on Monday to sell her agreement to withdraw from the European Union to skeptics in Parliament, she was blindsided by President Trump, who called the agreement a great deal for the E.U., and warned that, if it were adopted, it might obstruct a free trade deal between the United States and Britain. Mrs. May has long held out the prospects of a new trade deal between the United States and Britain as one of the payoffs of leaving the bloc, and negotiations were expected to begin as early as next spring, after Britains March 29 exit, known as Brexit. According to Mrs. Mays proposed withdrawal agreement, a bilateral trade deal could come into force at the end of a transition period in 2020. But Mr. Trumps comments suggested that Britain might never be able to conclude a bilateral trade deal with the United States, creating new difficulties for Mrs. May. She must overcome the resistance of around 90 lawmakers within her own party if she is to win parliamentary approval for the agreement next month. In Africa, the announcement was met with a mix of enthusiasm and caution. The restitution of 26 objects to Benin does not change the policy of the British Museum, nor legislation in Great Britain, said Hartwig Fischer, the director of the London institution, which has 73,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa in its collections, many obtained in colonial times. The museum has been in a decades-long dispute with Greece over the so-called Elgin marbles, which came from the Parthenon, and the governor of Easter Island requested last week the return of Hoa Hakananaia, a statue that is among the British Museums most popular items. Mr. Fischer said that while the British Museums trustees were open to all forms of cooperation, the collections have to be preserved as whole. He recognized that Mr. Macrons announcement would intensify the debate about access, and would contribute to the next dimension of cooperation as African countries develop their cultural and museum infrastructure. Hartmut Dorgerloh, the director of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, a giant museum of non-Western art set to open next year, said in an interview that Mr. Macrons pledge to return the 26 objects had made issues of Africas heritage more obvious, more visible and also more urgent. In the future, he said, European museums would have to return objects in some cases, while in others, the inclusion of artifacts in collections would have to be viewed as the result of European or global history. Im not sure, she said by telephone, before a visit to the gall ery, where s he at least perche d at the edge of it . I love that they did it, but knock on wood Im terrified of medical things. We talked to Ms. Chast, 64, about starting out as a cartoonist, why she loves crafting and the thing she hates drawing the most. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. The earliest drawings in the show were made when you were about 3. When did you get the idea that you might become a cartoonist? I always drew always, always, always from when I was really young. As far as thinking of myself as a cartoonist, that started when I was 12 or 13. I loved the underground stuff, and also MAD magazine, with the fake ads and everything else. Some of the sketchbooks in the show are things I did as a teenager to keep myself sane. I can still see things from back then that are very connected to what I do now. For better or worse, I had a style. One of the notebooks is shown open to a real New Yorker cover that you doctored, inserting a giant woman you drew into a Midtown streetscape, King Kong-style. So maybe that was your unofficial first cover? Three U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Witnesses said a roadside bomb detonated as an American convoy passed near Ghazni City, in the southeast. It was the worst loss of life for American troops in the country this year. The Taliban, which now controls more territory in Afghanistan than since the start of the war, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group has been pressing the fight for Ghazni City, pictured above, since August. Meanwhile, the military is investigating whether an Afghan soldier who killed a Czech soldier last month in the western province of Herat was beaten or tortured to death while in custody. The U.S. Green Beret unit at the scene has been sent home, officials said. Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines and the power-brokers who shape them. __________ Fighting climate change could be Americas new New Deal. The effects of global warming on virtually all aspects of American society could be devastating, according to a government report released on Friday. Rather than seize on its findings as a way to boost American innovation, economic output and jobs, President Trumps administration pushed the report out late on Friday after Thanksgiving and then played down its devastating findings. Thats a big missed opportunity. Unchecked, climate change could cut as much as a tenth off the nations gross domestic product by the end of the century, according to the authors of the 1,656-page assessment. That overall figure probably underestimates regional variances. The overall cost of the wildfires that hit California in 2017, for example, amounted to 6.5 percent of the states economic output, according to estimates by the weather forecasting company AccuWeather. Factor in everything from water scarcity to pollution to energy production to human health, and in some parts of the country the economic impact could be far worse. The cost in financial and human terms drops by up to 70 percent if greenhouse-gas emissions peak before the middle of the century and then drop, the report says. That requires investment, of course which some Republicans, like Senator Mike Lee of Utah, deride as being harmful to the economy. Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines and the power-brokers who shape them. __________ The worlds new top bank cop faces a political stress test. The Financial Stability Board on Monday confirmed that it had picked Randal Quarles as its new chair. Mr. Quarles, who is currently the U.S. Federal Reserves vice chair for supervision, is a strong choice to lead the organization. But he faces many challenges: A divided U.S. Congress is fighting about whether to be tough or soft on Wall Street; Brexit and other forces will also test cross-border unity. Picking Mr. Quarles to replace the Bank of England governor Mark Carney, whose term as chair of the F.S.B. ends on Saturday, helps ensure that America remains solidly involved in devising global bank rules. Thats an important counterweight to President Trumps habit of undermining international bodies. In a speech in the summer, Mr. Quarles presented a robust defense of the F.S.B., which sets standards but doesnt have enforcement powers. While Mr. Carney focused on post-crisis reforms, Mr. Quarles faces a trickier set of issues. At home, he will face competing pressures from a Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and a Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate. The new chair of the House Financial Services Committee will probably be Representative Maxine Waters, who already has Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank in her sights. Some Republicans, including Trump administration aides, want Mr. Quarles to rein in what they see as an overreaching F.S.B. Trumps Saudi play could backfire If President Trump sought to end debate over Americas ties to Saudi Arabia with his pledge of support, he fell short, Andrew writes in his latest column. Instead, the move could inspire Congress to introduce new sanctions: Mr. Trump may think he has gained the loyalty of the crown prince by standing by him, but if Congress moves to enact sanctions, the economic fallout could be serious for the kingdom, which the president has been encouraging to hold down oil prices. Between the economic pressures that Saudi Arabia is increasingly facing the price of oil is hovering around $50 a barrel when the kingdom needs it to sell for $70 to maintain its budget and the executives who are rightly skittish about investing there, Mr. Trump may have pushed Congress toward taking actions that create more problems. More Saudi news: Heres a breakdown of Mr. Trumps exaggerations on the economic benefits of the Saudi relationship. Sanctions on arms sales to the country might hurt defense contractors only slightly. And rich Saudis started pulling money from the kingdom long before the Jamal Khashoggi killing. A trade truce with China? Dont bet on it In an interview with the WSJ, President Trump said that it was highly unlikely that he would delay or suspend his plan to boost his tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, currently 10 percent, to 25 percent next year. His timing is inflammatory. Mr. Trump is scheduled to sit down with President Xi Jinping of China at the Group of 20 meeting later this week, with trade top of the agenda. Officials from both sides have been speaking for weeks, with China also making a public push to look open for international business. Mr. Trump also said that if he couldnt reach a trade deal, he would impose tariffs of either 10 percent or 25 percent on the rest of the goods America imports from China, another $267 billion worth. (American consumers could stand a 10 percent price hike on products like iPhones very easily, he declared.) In the past, Mr. Trump has used threats as a negotiating tool. We will have to wait until the G-20 meeting to find out whether he was doing it again, or simply preparing the markets for bad news. We dont make money on 90 percent of the things we do, Mr. Ahuja said. It is a really risky game. The surge in noncompetitive transactions has intensified debate over how well the federal government handles the task of auctioning off access to taxpayer-owned lands. Taxpayers get 12.5 percent of revenues produced from any oil or gas extracted from leased public land or nothing but trivial rent payments if speculators fail to develop the land successfully. More than 11 million acres of land leased by the federal government lies idle or about half of all the land out on lease property that may or may not ever be drilled for oil and gas. The speculation, critics say, allows companies to lock up millions of acres of federal land in leases, complicating efforts to set it aside for other uses, such as wildlife conservation areas or hunting and recreation zones. People come to Montana and stay in Montana not because of the best weather or highest wages or the best beaches, said John Todd, the conservation director at the Montana Wilderness Association. They come here because we have access to ample public land, most of it that is in the same shape as it was when Lewis and Clark came here or before that. Because the speculators can resell the leases, they could also reap the gains from any increase in the value of their landholdings, gains that otherwise would go to American taxpayers, said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. We should not be flooding the market so it is easy for companies to sit back and wait to get to leases at fire-sale prices, Ms. Alexander said. The acceleration of leasing is doing just that. The industry is getting a great deal and taxpayers are not. The relentlessly hyped arrival of autonomous vehicles looms as the greatest disruption in personal transportation since Henry Fords moving assembly line started producing Model Ts by the millions. One word in that statement arrival is, however, doing a disproportionate amount of work. Self-driving vehicles, despite being the subject of breathless media reports and in automakers strategies, remain years from being available to private owners. Scores of companies hold permits to test autonomous cars in California, yet even leaders like Waymo, once Googles self-driving project, are unwilling to commit to when such vehicles might be appearing in showrooms. Even with so many companies testing self-driving cars 10 million miles since 2009 by Waymo alone the definition of autonomous continues to be murky, at least to the public. What is available today in driver-assistance systems like Cadillacs Super Cruise or Teslas Enhanced Autopilot may offer hands-free motoring in some situations, but they are far short of what is known as Level 5 full automation under the standards of SAE International, a standards-setting organization. That capability entails operation on any road in any conditions that a human driver could handle; logically, cars built to this standard would have no need for a steering wheel or foot pedals. With this radical shift in driving comes questions about the viability of traditional business models based on the private ownership of cars and the dominance of the large carmakers. Past the outlet stores of Austin Street, you can just make out the familiar thwack of la mian dough hitting the counter at Xin Taste Hand Pulled Noodle. Down the block, a cafe called Pink Forest serves creative bubble tea flavors and jianbing Beijings famed savory pancakes alongside bagels and almond croissants. Snowdays, a Taiwanese shaved ice chain with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, doesnt have a branch in Flushing or Elmhurst. But it does have a storefront on Austin Street. Each of these businesses has opened in the last two years, a sea change in a neighborhood better known for its decades-old pizza parlors and Jewish delis. Growing up on Yellowstone Boulevard, I always knew the local delicacy was Knish Nosh or a mean bowl of matzo ball soup, said Nora Lum, the rapper and Crazy Rich Asians actor who goes by the name Awkwafina. When her family wanted a taste of Chinese food, they had to trek to Flushing and Elmhurst. Headliner Kung Fu Tea & TKK Fried Chicken This new eat-in, take-out spot is a Taiwanese doubleheader. Kung Fu Tea, a Taiwanese-style bubble tea company that started in 2010 in Flushing, Queens, and now has 200 outlets in 30 states, has joined forces with TKK Fried Chicken, a chain founded in 1974 in Taiwan. The Taiwanese recipe called original on the menu is crisp and moderately spiced. There is also a milder version and, for the American market, a crisper, more forcefully seasoned one. How is this fried chicken different from the Korean variety found all over New York? Taiwanese fried chicken is first marinated for 24 hours to add flavor, said Steven Luw, the general operating manager. Then it gets a flour breading and is fried once. Korean fried chicken is usually dipped in batter and fried twice. The company, which will count this location as its first American restaurant in addition to the 68 branches it has in Taiwan and Shanghai, is also offering items that are not on the menu in Asia, including curly fries, a fried chicken sandwich, chunky coleslaw, Wisconsin-style cheese curds, biscuits and seared shishito peppers. The bubble tea partnership provides many colorful teas with optional toppings like red beans and crushed Oreos, served at varying sweetness, iced to hot. Beer and wine are also served. The bright space has tables in front and back separated by an open kitchen and ordering counter. It took but a few minutes during a recent trial period for this place to become a canteen for nearby Baruch College students. (Opens Friday) 115 East 23rd Street, tkkusa.com. Opening Oxalis The list of boutique restaurants doing serious cooking in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, keeps growing. James was the pioneer, followed by Olmsted and Faun, and now theres this one to take it up a notch with a five-course tasting menu from Nico Russell, a chef who worked at Mirazur on the French Riviera and Restaurant Daniel in New York. Back in 2016, Mr. Russell ran a series of more than 30 sold-out pop-up dinners around the city, under the umbrella name Oxalis. Now his concept has found a permanent home, with Piper Kristensen, formerly at the Booker and Dax lab, in charge of creative cocktails and natural-style wines. Dishes might include squash with burrata and flaxseed, cod with roasted potato and sorrel, and duck with sweet potato, fig and yogurt. There is a pastry station at the entrance, followed by a path along the open kitchen to the dining room, which seats 32. Another 32 seats are on an enclosed back patio, where an a la carte menu is available. (Wednesday) 791 Washington Avenue (Lincoln Place), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 347-627-8298, oxalisnyc.com. Snowday in Brooklyn This inviting seasonal pop-up, running through Feb. 28 from 6:30 p.m., will feature drinks like a spiced pear margarita, a winter-spiced pineapple daiquiri, and a smoked rum and sherry version of eggnog with honeynut squash. There will be tableside raclette service and a stroopwafel bar. (Friday) Sunday in Brooklyn, 348 Wythe Avenue (South Second Street), Williamsburg, 347-222-6722, snowdayinbrooklyn.com. La Conca del Sogno at Chefs Club Escaping to the Amalfi Coast might be the ideal antidote to Decembers deep freeze. From Dec. 3 through Jan. 1, Luca Fedele, the chef of La Conca del Sogno, a 60-year-old restaurant overlooking Nerano Bay, a stunning inlet between Sorrento and Amalfi, will be in the kitchen at Chefs Club. He will prepare bright fried zucchini blossoms, ricotta-filled ravioli with seafood sauce, mussels with cherry tomatoes and linguine, and veal scaloppine with lemon, for a la carte and tasting menus. 275 Mulberry Street (Jersey Street), 212-941-1100, chefsclub.com. There is another cameo: El Quinto Pinos very fine combination of pink-fleshed anchovies with cold vanilla butter. The butter soothes the anchovies the way the vermouth in a martini helps the gin settle down. (On a related topic, the short cocktail list includes a deceptively soft-spoken number called the Kanpai Martini. Its a variation on the Vesper, which itself is the amended martini that Ian Fleming had James Bond order in Casino Royale.) At times Saint Julivert reminds me of Cal Pep, in Barcelona, Spain, whose plain, cramped counter looks like the last place in the world where you are going to have an epiphany of the taste buds, right up until the moment the txipirones and thumbtack-size clams knock you off your barstool. Like Cal Pep, and unlike nearly every other New York restaurant, Saint Julivert serves gooseneck barnacles when theyre available, boiling them with bay leaves and salt and mounding them on a cloth napkin before they cool so that when you twist the wrinkled sheath of skin away from the sweet, edible meat inside there is a good chance somebody in the vicinity will get hit with a squirt of hot barnacle juice. Mostly, though, any Spanish-ness in Saint Julivert has more to do with its spirit than its recipes, which come from all over: the deep-fried Puerto Rican cylinders of cornmeal known as sorrullitos; a kanpachi collar whose juicy meat is shockingly white under a black rub of jerk spices; tender slices of warm beef tenderloin on a fist-size roll, known in Portugal as a prego sandwich. There is also the crispy tuna bake, a peculiarly satisfying hybrid that crosses a tuna noodle casserole by way of India with fideua, the Spanish dish that treats pasta like the rice in paella. The noodles, short ridged tubes, are toasted and cooked with oil-cured tuna in a tomato sauce that is seasoned with turmeric and curry leaves. It is one of the most fearless, not to mention filling, dishes on a menu that could use a little more of both qualities. The battle against Ebola now underway in central Africa is like no other . It is the first for which doctors have both a promising vaccine and treatments to offer. These medical innovations are experimental, but the vaccine seems to work well, the four new treatments have given preliminary hints of curative powers and a clinical trial of them began Monday. It had seemed, with the help of these new tools, that the outbreak was headed for a quick end. Instead, with 419 cases and 240 deaths , it is now the second deadliest ever (although the 2014 West African one was orders of magnitude larger, with over 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths). Dr. Peter Salama, the W.H.O.s emergency response chief, recently said he expected this outbreak to last at least another six months. Thats because it is unique in another way: its the first to erupt in an area rived by gun battles. Doctors and other experts currently or formerly working in the region described a landscape that is not quite a war zone but in which shooting can break out almost anywhere for unknown reasons. The cryptic declaration from Beijing alarmed and mystified wildlife conservationists around the world. Reversing a 25-year-old ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhinoceros horns, the Chinese government announced in October that it would foster a controlled legal market in these goods. The move was unexpected, given that less than a year ago China took a major step in the fight against wildlife trafficking by doing precisely the opposite: banning the domestic sale of elephant ivory. Exotic-animal parts have become status symbols in parts of newly affluent China, but the demand for rhino horns and tiger bones is also driven by an ancient belief in their power to cure everything from fever to impotence. As if to soften potential criticism, the State Council noted that the horns and bones would come not from wild rhinos and tigers but from existing stockpiles or animals bred in captivity. The reaction was still swift and harsh. Wildlife advocates pointed out that even a highly regulated trade in endangered-animal products can provide cover for continued trafficking; it can also unleash fresh demand that is satisfied by only the killing of more endangered animals in the wild. This new policy would open the floodgates to the illegal trade, says Leigh Henry, wildlife policy director at the World Wildlife Fund in Washington. Wild rhino and tiger populations are at such low levels that there is no wiggle room. If it goes wrong, thats it. The species are not coming back. In November, unexpectedly, China seemed to back down. A government usually impervious to criticism postponed its plan in the face of the growing uproar from environmental groups, the United Nations and signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. For now, the government is keeping in place its three strict bans: on the import and export of rhinos, tigers and their byproducts; on their sale; and on the medical use of rhino horns and tiger bones. The State Council order has not been rescinded, however, and wildlife conservationists know that the potent economic forces driving the wildlife trade are not going away anytime soon. Behind Chinas Hamlet moment to ban or not to ban lies a deeper question: Why would Beijing push a policy that undermines President Xi Jinpings oft-stated ambition to build an ecological civilization? Over the past few years, China has tried to refashion itself as a responsible global leader on climate change and environmental issues. It has also become a champion of wildlife conservation. Chinas total ban on the sale of ivory, a widely applauded move designed to help protect elephants, took effect at the end of 2017. This decade, Chinese consumption of shark fins has dropped by 80 percent. A campaign by the wildlife-advocacy group WildAid ran on Chinese digital media, keying in on the fact that rhino horns provide no more health benefits than other sources of keratin by showing a string of Chinese celebrities all biting their fingernails. All this progress, though, cant offset Chinas central role in stoking the illegal wildlife trade. I am the executor of my fathers will. He is 82 years old and frail, and lately I have been troubled by a question. My brother may not be his child, and my mother and siblings all know this (including the brother in question), but my father does not. My parents are divorced and not on good terms. My mother is fairly sure that my brother is not my fathers child, but a DNA test would have to be done to be certain. If my brother is not my fathers child, does my dad deserve to know this before he dies? Name Withheld There is something disrespectful to your father in the family conspiracy to keep him in the dark about your brothers suspected paternity. Unfortunately, that affront cant now be undone, especially if youve known for some time. You may think that the pain the revelation might give your father would be a strong-enough reason to let him go to his grave in ignorance. Im inclined to doubt it in important matters, we usually do best by defaulting to the truth though youll naturally take into consideration your sense of just how frail, physically and otherwise, your father really is. Do you mention your role as your fathers executor because you suspect he might change his will if he knew that your brother was, in fact, your half brother? If thats the situation, your brother might be reluctant to agree to a DNA test. Either way, he may not want to risk unsettling his relationship with the only father he has known. Still, having lived all these years with a paternal relation to your brother, your father surely has feelings for him that would survive the discovery: Its not, after all, your brothers fault that your mother was unfaithful. But peoples feelings about these things are hard to predict. A DNA test, should your brother consent to one, would provide only one kind of certainty. There may be other discoveries in store. For one thing, you should be prepared to learn that your father isnt as unaware as you imagine. I am a medical student who has mitigated my student-loan debt by attending school on a scholarship and by living with my parents, who are kind enough to take me in without rent. Im really thankful for their generosity; its helped me avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt that other medical students must incur. I still have to borrow money for various odds and ends, but its insignificant compared to what Im saving living at home, about $25,000 per year. The community that was there was amazing, Ms. Martins said. When I got home, I shut that off. Outside her school was a stark contrast. She came out to her family, and relationships turned adversarial. After graduating in 2013, Ms. Martins was not sure what to do. She enrolled at Queensborough Community College and took an overnight delivery shift at Insomnia Cookies. Juggling a job and college became too burdensome, and Ms. Martins dropped out. I had to make money, she said. I couldnt rely on anyone but myself. She was living in Brooklyn with her partner until their relationship dissolved, and Ms. Martins, without support from her family or the ability to afford a new home, entered the shelter system. In August 2014, she was accepted into a transitional living facility operated by Green Chimneys, which provides resources to homeless youth. She lived there for a year and a half, working and saving money, but made no grander plans for her future. As the end of the 18-month program at Green Chimneys drew near, Ms. Martins signed up for AmeriCorps, hoping it could give her a fresh start and wider prospects. This bubble, this shelter, is about to be popped, and I need to really correct myself, she recalled thinking. Its a really mean world out there. Its cold and you dont always get help. [What you need to know to start your day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld most of the criminal convictions against two associates of former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey in the 2013 scandal over George Washington Bridge lane closings, one of the more bizarre events in the states political history. But in a partial victory for the defense, the court cleared the two associates, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, of two of the seven counts they had been found guilty of in 2016. The decision sends their case back to the lower court in Newark and opens the chance that their prison sentences could be lessened. Ms. Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff for New Jerseys Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for her role in Bridgegate, as the incident came to be known. Mr. Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was sentenced to two years in prison. Both have been out on bail as their appeals continued. Michael Critchley, a lawyer for Ms. Kelly, said in a statement that while her legal team was pleased some of the charges had been rejected, it was were disappointed that all of them had not and intended to petition the United States Supreme Court to review this case. [Read our latest coverage: Paul Caneiro has been charged in the murder of his brothers family.] Four people killed. Two suspicious fires. While many people were busy with the Thanksgiving weekend, a dramatic case in suburban New Jersey grew clouded by more questions than answers. Keith M. Caneiro, 50, and his wife and children were found dead at their large home in Colts Neck, N.J., two days before the holiday. The mansion had subsequently erupted in flames that took firefighters hours to extinguish. Hours earlier, the nearby home of Paul J. Caneiro, Keiths brother, had also been set ablaze, law enforcement officials said. By the next day, the police had arrested Paul Caneiro, 51, accusing him of setting his Ocean Township house on fire while his wife and daughters were inside. As law enforcement officials continued to investigate the killings and fire in the affluent enclave of Colts Neck, funeral services for Keith Caneiro and his family his wife, Jennifer Karidis Caneiro, 45; their son, Jesse, 11; and their daughter, Sophia, 8 were scheduled for Sunday. [What you need to know to start your day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Mayor Bill de Blasio has called electric bicycles a real danger, and a serious part of the problem when it comes to the safety of city streets. He celebrated a police crackdown last year in which hundreds were confiscated. Now, a package of four City Council bills, set to be introduced Wednesday, would legalize most forms of the so-called e-bikes, the scourge of many New York residents and also a staple of the food-delivery workers who serve them. The legislation, which would also legalize electric scooters, would allow not only electric bicycles that give extra support to a pedaling rider, but also those that could be operated without pedaling, by engaging a motorcycle-like handlebar throttle. [Need a primer on e-bikes? Were here to help.] The legislation, a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times, is likely to set off a public confrontation with Mr. de Blasio, whose administration has insisted that state law bans electric bicycles that operate with a throttle the primary sort of e-bike used by delivery cyclists, many of whom are recent immigrants. Ms. Mark-Viverito, who represented East Harlem and part of the Bronx, was the first Latino to be elected as speaker. She was term-limited out of office at the end of 2017, and has since served as vice president of the Latino Victory Fund, a political action committee that seeks to elect more Latinos to office. She enters a crowded field that already includes Assemblyman Michael A. Blake of the Bronx and Councilman Jumaane D. Williams of Brooklyn, whose candidacy may benefit from his recent bid for lieutenant governor, where he garnered 414,000 votes in New York City in a losing effort. Councilman Rafael L. Espinal of Brooklyn, Daniel J. ODonnell, a Manhattan assemblyman, and Nomiki Konst, a journalist and activist in Queens, are just a few others who have said they will run for the seat. Mr. Williams has garnered the endorsement of the Working Families Party, which will help with volunteers and fund-raising. But Ms. Mark-Viveritos entrance into the race challenges the conventional wisdom that Williams has an inside track and the presumption that he has a clear shot at dominating the progressive votes, Mr. Gyory said. Another former City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, has announced that she will not run, which opens up a lane for Ms. Mark-Viverito to go after the womens vote, said Christina M. Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University. But because there are other women in the race, that wont be easy. The trick will be finding an issue that resonates with voters that is unique to her and gives her a voice, Professor Greer said. In a short period of time when all the candidates are trying to introduce themselves to voters, she has to reintroduce herself. The M.T.A. has said that even raising fares may not be enough: if it doesnt also get more money from riders or the state, there could be service cuts. Context: Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director for the Riders Alliance, noted that Tuesdays meeting was the first since 2016, the year of the summer of hell, before the governor declared a state of emergency, before he inaugurated the subway action plan, before he declared congestion pricing is an idea whose time has come. Know your audience: Critics want the state to provide more funds to the M.T.A. in order to stave off a fare increase. So the real audience for Tuesdays hearing is not just the head of the subways, Andy Byford, and the M.T.A. board members in the room. It is, rather, prominent state politicians key among them Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who effectively controls the agency. State lawmakers representing suburbs and rural areas not served by the M.T.A. will also likely be paying close attention. They may have to be persuaded to risk angering their constituents by voting to send money to a New York City agency. Stephen Hillenburg, a former marine biology teacher who created a childrens show that ballooned into an unlikely cultural phenomenon, SpongeBob SquarePants, died on Monday at his home in Southern California. He was 57. Mr. Hillenburg announced last year that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the neurodegenerative condition known as Lou Gehrigs disease. Nickelodeon, the channel that has been the shows home since its premiere in May 1999, announced his death. Steve imbued SpongeBob SquarePants with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere, the network said in its statement. His utterly original characters and the world of Bikini Bottom will long stand as a reminder of the value of optimism, friendship and the limitless power of imagination. Bikini Bottom is the underwater home of the shows title character, a good-natured yellow kitchen sponge, or sea creature, or both, who works as a fry cook, has a pet snail and lives in a pineapple. In 1994 they passed the toque to their two junior partners, Mr. von Bidder and Mr. Niccolini, who continued to run the restaurant in the Seagram Building until their lease expired in 2016 and the buildings new owners replaced them. Three months ago, Mr. von Bidder and Mr. Niccolini opened a new Four Seasons at 42 East 49th Street. Thomas George Margittai was born on April 8, 1928, in Sighet, Transylvania its jurisdiction shifted over the years between Romania and Hungary to Bela Margittai and Piroszca (Scheiner) Margittai. His father owned a lumber mill. The family lived in Bucharest, Romania, until Tom was about 10, then moved to Budapest. In 1944, when the Germans invaded, the family seemed destined for extermination, but they escaped in late June on what became known as the Kastner Train, an exodus on 35 cattle cars that Adolf Eichmann of the SS had agreed to in exchange for gold, gems and cash. The train was diverted by the German authorities to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where the refugees were held for several months before most of them were transported to Switzerland by December. The family emigrated to what would become Israel before Tom Margittai moved to New York. There he would become banquet manager at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel. In 1956, Mr. Kovi, who was born in Hungary, was named his assistant. After a hiatus at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, Mr. Margittai returned to New York in 1962 and became a vice president of Restaurant Associates; by then Mr. Kovi had been running several high-end establishments for the conglomerate. They became directors of the Four Seasons in 1968. In 1972, Mr. Margittai was mulling an offer to run the Playboy Clubs, but the chef and cookbook author James Beard, a friend, suggested buying the Four Seasons instead. Restaurant Associates, which had overexpanded, demanded $230,000 and insisted that Mr. Margittai and Mr. Kovi also acquire the nearly defunct Forum of the Twelve Caesars, on West 48th Street. Much of the coverage of proposed new rules released last week on how schools should handle sexual harassment allegations has focused on how the rules expand the rights of those accused and they do. But the most significant parts of the proposal have nothing to do with protecting students, accused or otherwise. Instead, if allowed to go into effect, the new rules would, above all, protect schools. Schools dont like getting in trouble with the law. Under the previous administration, the Education Department opened nearly 400 investigations into schools handling of sexual violence. Some colleges reportedly spent as much as $600,000 to avoid the reputational hit of being found in violation of Title IX and the theoretical threat of the department pulling their federal funding (which it has never done). The education lobby made clear it wasnt happy. The National School Boards Association repeatedly demanded that the department ease the standards by which it assessed schools liability. The American Council on Education and a group of university presidents complained to Congress that the departments approach was too vigorous. A lucrative cottage industry arose to train college administrators on Twenty Steps to O.C.R.-Proof Your Campus on Title IX. (O.C.R., or the Office for Civil Rights, is tasked with investigating schools.) Public lobbying disclosures reveal that universities like Yale, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, and the Universities of Iowa and Colorado spent tens of thousands of dollars in just the past year alone lobbying the Trump Education Department on regulations, including on Title IX. The new proposed rules lighten the burdens on institutions. First, the rules significantly narrow what counts as sexual harassment. Under the Trump administrations definition, harassment must be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to education. Some courts (though fortunately not all) have said that even a rape does not count under this standard because a one-time act of violence is not pervasive. That means a victim of rape (not to mention other less severe forms of sexual misconduct) might never see her school investigate her claims, let alone remedy them. This is because higher earners are in higher tax brackets, which means that giving them a pass on those taxes costs the country more. It is also because wealthy individuals often have appreciated stock that they can donate, which lets them avoid paying the capital gains taxes that they would otherwise owe if they cashed in on that stock themselves. Finally, you have to itemize deductions to get almost any reduction in taxes from giving. Nearly all wealthy people do so, but its rare among lower-income people. The new tax law will make it even rarer; the Tax Policy Center predicts that it will reduce the number of households that take the charitable deduction to 16 million from 37 million. Eliminating the tax deduction for charitable giving would not be politically viable. But we could limit it, either through lowering the cap on how much of a gift can be deducted or setting a flat percent of each donated dollar that can be used as a credit against ones tax bill. We could also call on the philanthropists who are making these enormous contributions to voluntarily forgo the deduction. Many megawealthy individuals have followed Bill Gatess and Warren Buffetts lead and pledged to give away half of their accumulated wealth. Perhaps they could also pledge that through their funding of the causes they hold dear, they will neither reduce the ability of our government to fund its priorities, nor shift some of the cost of their gifts onto other taxpayers. Any of these steps could reduce the amount of charitable giving. But some studies suggest that donations would fall far less than tax receipts would increase. One frequently cited figure is that for every additional dollar raised by the government through changes in the deduction, charitable giving might fall by 40 cents. This is not that surprising, really wealthy philanthropists fund their causes to the level the effort requires, not merely as a way of reducing taxes. To be clear, we arent saying that our messy democracy gets spending right all of the time or even most of the time. Nor are we critiquing the magnanimity of wealthy philanthropists who choose to bestow some of their accumulated wealth on causes they believe will make us all better off. We just think that if everyone has to pay, everyone should have a say. Peter B. Bach is the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Why? Because there were two superpowers competing for your affection by throwing foreign aid at you, building your army, buying your cheap goods and educating your college students ; climate change was moderate; populations were still under control in the developing world; no one had a cellphone to easily organize movements against your government; and China was not in the World Trade Organization, so everyone could be in textiles and other low-wage industries. Opinion Conversation The climate, and the world, are changing. What challenges will the future bring, and how should we respond to them? What should our leaders be doing? Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, finds reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency. Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, finds reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency. What are the worst climate risks in your country? Select a country, and we'll break down the climate hazards it faces. Select a country, and we'll break down the climate hazards it faces. Where are Americans suffering most? Our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths in the U.S. Our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths in the U.S. What does climate devastation look like? In Sept. 2020, Michael Benson studied detailed satellite imagery. Here's the earth that he saw and the one he wants to see. All of that switched in the early 21st century: Climate-driven extreme weather floods, droughts, heat and cold on top of man-made deforestation began to hammer many countries, especially their small-scale farmers. This happened right as developing-world populations exploded. Africa went from 140 million in 1900 to one billion in 2010 to a projected 2.5 billion by 2050. Syria grew from three million people in 1950 to over 22 million today, which, along with droughts, totally stressed its water resources. Guatemala, the main source of the migrant caravan heading our way, has been ravaged by deforestation thanks to illegal logging, farmers cutting trees for firewood and drug traffickers creating landing strips and smuggling trails. A satellite map just released by University of Cincinnati geography researchers demonstrated that nearly a quarter of the earths habitable surface changed between just 1992 and 2015, primarily from forests to agriculture, from grasslands to deserts and from wetlands to urban concrete. Meanwhile, the internet has enabled citizens to easily compare their living standards with those in Paris or Phoenix and find a human trafficker to take them there. Also, China joined the W.T.O., dominating low-wage industries, and the end of the Cold War meant no superpower wanted to touch your country, because all it would win was a bill. So its now much harder to be an average little country. The most frail of them are hemorrhaging people, like Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Sudan and most every nation in sub-Saharan Africa. Others Venezuela, Syria, Afghanistan and Libya have just fractured . Together, theyre creating vast zones of disorder, and many people want to get out of them into any zone of order, particularly America or Europe, triggering nationalist-populist backlashes. To the Editor: Re Clinton Warns Europe of Peril of Open Doors (front page, Nov. 23): To be flabbergasted by Hillary Clintons statements is not only a legitimate reaction but also a recognition of the need to challenge inhumane, let alone illegal, policies adversely affecting refugees and migrants. Mrs. Clintons remarks play into the abject game of some leaders in Europe and the current administration in the United States. I would love to consider that the positions she expressed do not fairly reflect who she is, an eloquent human rights advocate. T he international community will soon celebrate the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It includes the following standard: Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution . Yes, Mrs. Clinton expresses admiration for Angela Merkels affirmative actions toward Syrian refugees who sought safety in Germany. Yet , in the name of political gains, she encourages opposite policies. This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday. The voters of Missouri this month overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment with the aim of making their state government work in less partisan, less corrupt ways. The amendment bars lawmakers from accepting lobbyists gifts worth more than $5. It also bars former state officials from accepting a paid lobbying job for two years after leaving office. And it changes the process for drawing state-legislature districts to be fairer for both parties. Some 62 percent of Missourians voted for the amendment, known as Clean Missouri. And yet, in the three weeks since Election Day, top Republicans in Missouri have started a cynical effort to weaken the new law. Mr. Lieberman was frustrated with the outcome, and he sensed a political opportunity. He quit his job as defense minister and pulled his party out of the governing coalition, rocking the foundations of one of Israels longest-serving governments. Its not every day that politicians go against an overwhelming sentiment of the public. And yet, Mr. Netanyahu did just that. Why he did isnt entirely clear. He argued that there were facts that he wasnt able to share with the public. Speaking at the 45th memorial for David Ben-Gurion, Israels first prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu compared himself to the founding father: In times of trial, Ben-Gurion made fateful decisions. Sometimes he did so contrary to popular opinion, but over time, these decisions turned out to be correct, he said. If he is still in office this spring, Mr. Netanyahus tenure will surpass Ben-Gurions, making him the longest-serving Israeli prime minister since Israels birth. Mr. Netanyahu has been able to pull this off because he is an adept politician. And it was that skillfulness that was on display when he decided to offer the cease-fire in Gaza, despite Hamass provocations and Mr. Liebermans complaints. When rockets fall or buses explode in terror attacks, launching grand military operations, even going to war, is an easier decision for Israeli politicians than exercising caution. Thats because over many years, Israelis have learned to mistrust diplomacy and fancy arrangements and instead to put their faith in the one thing that rarely seems to fail them: Israels military. So military action is popular. And thats why using force is what relatively weak prime ministers tend to do. History shows this: In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak did not restrain the forces responding to riots that became the Second Intifada. In 2006, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched a war in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israels northern border. Mr. Barak was a lame duck with no parliamentary majority when violence broke out. Mr. Olmert was an accidental prime minister who had stepped into office just half a year earlier, as an uninspiring replacement for the ailing Ariel Sharon. Now we learn that his cooperation was squirrelly and incomplete, a series of prevarications that obviously infuriated the prosecutors, who gave him one final 10-day chance to play it straight. But he did not heed the warning and now is unlikely to ever leave prison absent a pardon from President Trump. Which leads us to: Hypothesis No. 1: The Pardon Promise Did the president secretly promise to rescue Mr. Manafort, so long as he resisted Mr. Mueller? That would make sense of his otherwise confounding conduct. But the chain of implausibilities is long. The prospect of a pardon was always in the mix, including when Mr. Manafort made his initial decision to cooperate. For it to suffice to change his mind now, it would have to have become all the more certain. But that would entail some communication, from the president, through two intermediaries (one in the Trump camp and one in the Manafort camp) and on to Mr. Manafort in prison, where all his conversations are monitored. The perils for all those participants in such a crass scheme would be enormous. If discovered, it would mean assured conviction for witness tampering and, if any of the intermediaries was a lawyer, disbarment. For the president, it most likely would trigger impeachment, and even conviction in the Senate could not be counted out. Finally, for Mr. Manafort, it would require a measure of Mr. Trumps good faith that nobody acquainted with the presidents track record could comfortably have. And it would still not shield him from near-certain prosecution for related state crimes. Hypothesis No. 2: The Assassination Fixation Some commentators have suggested that Mr. Manaforts lifetime of shady dealings with the Russian government have left him more afraid of life on the outside, where he could be vulnerable to a poison needle anytime, than of the safe confines of a federal prison. This scenario was always out of the most imaginative Le Carre novel, and it is the sheer unlikelihood of the other alternatives, combined with Mr. Manaforts intransigence, that makes it a contender at all. The problem with it at this point is that theres no reason to think that any of the cloak-and-dagger circumstances would have changed. If Mr. Manafort most feared the spys comeuppance, he wouldnt have agreed to cooperate, and earn a much reduced sentence, in the first place. So that hypothesis doesnt help explain Mr. Manaforts decision to double-cross Mr. Mueller. T Introduces: Chable Maroma Quintana Roo, the Mexican state on the Caribbean side of the Yucatan Peninsula, has been a major destination since the 1970s, when the first resorts started appearing along its sandy coastline. Since then, travelers in search of a pristine, not-too-developed piece of it have moved from Cancun to Playa del Carmen to Tulum, which, with its winter yoga retreats and beachside bars, remains the bohemian favorite. It also has some much-lauded restaurants and small hotels, including two new and noteworthy properties: Habitas Tulum has a glass-walled Moorish restaurant and 32 canvas structures outfitted with kilim rugs, midcentury-style furnishings and decorative macrame. A ways inland, in the heart of town, lies the 16-room Casa Pueblo Tulum, set in a Modernist concrete building whose decor unpolished wooden doors, handcrafted ceramics nods to the Japanese art of wabi-sabi. The regions latest exciting spot, though, isnt in Tulum at all but some 50 miles north past the Mayan ruins of Xel-Ha and Playa del Carmen, in the area known as Punta Maroma. Here, on an especially lush stretch of jungle that juts out into the sea, youll find Chable Maroma, which promises to draw the next wave of pioneers looking to escape the scene. Its the second location for the Chable brand, whose first resort opened just outside Merida in 2016. Like that property, this one prioritizes privacy each of the 70 palapa-roofed casitas has its own pool and terrace and the beauty of the natural surroundings. The architect Javier Fernandez placed the casitas throughout the 11-acre site around the existing mangroves. The floors are made of parota wood, and local Yucatan limestone was used for the facades, while artisans in the Yucatan city of Valladolid embroidered the silk and linen pillows inside. The rooms also come with outdoor showers, from which you can watch spider monkeys swinging through the canopy overhead. LONDON Officials from nine countries examining Facebooks business practices have spent weeks trying to get the companys chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to face questions at a hearing. On Tuesday in London, Mr. Zuckerberg was represented by an empty chair. He skipped the session, which was organized by a British committee investigating Facebook and the spread of misinformation. In Mr. Zuckerbergs absence, officials spent more than three hours grilling a Facebook executive who stood in for him, criticizing the companys influence on democracy, its distribution of false news and its use of personal user data. You have lost the trust of the international community, said Charlie Angus, an official representing Canada. He was joined by policymakers from Argentina, Brazil, Ireland, Latvia, Singapore, France, Belgium and Britain. The hearing was built up by panel members as a moment of international accountability for Facebook. While the panel has no authority to impose laws or fines, it was a rare collaboration to investigate a company that is facing scrutiny after revelations about privacy breaches and its role in spreading propaganda and fomenting ethnic strife. The planning committee takes charge A planning committee had gathered outside my compartment on an overnight slow train. I had, it turned out, a certain love for the more social, populist hard sleeper cars with no doors and six bunks to a room where the inability to sit up straight on any bed but the bottom meant lots of congregating in corridors. I also had a pile of logistical dilemmas, which piqued the interest of some English-speakers whod overheard me discussing them with the conductor. For my last day in the country, with a flight to Japan at 9 p.m., I had concocted a harebrained plan to spend the morning at Zhangye Danxia Landform National Geopark, or the Rainbow Mountains, then hop on a three-hour bullet train to the Lanzhou West station, and take another 40-minute train from there to the Lanzhou airport. But the trip was going to require precision engineering. First, Lien Shaoyong, a fellow eastward-bound traveler I had met at the grottoes, struck a deal for me with the conductor. I had a ticket for only part of the journey because the final leg to Zhangye had been sold out. The solution: pay cash for the difference and the staff would wake me in the middle of the night to move me to an empty slot since my bed was already spoken for. Next on the scene was Song Xu, my bunkmate and a businessman with excellent English. He began plotting my day backward from my last possible arrival time at the airport. A college student, Liu Haocheng, joined us, as did another businessman sitting nearby. The family of three whose bottom bunks wed commandeered listened in with bemusement as Mr. Liu translated the action into Chinese. Youre doing this by yourself? the mother said, nodding with approval. Very brave. With the four of us checking websites and making phone calls in both Chinese and English, we nailed down a plan in a mere two hours. A driver named Tao Hongbing would pick me up when the train got in at 2 a.m., help me buy tickets for the legs back to the Lanzhou airport, find me a cheap by-the-hour hotel for a quick rest, pick me up again at 7 a.m. in order to get me to the geopark before sunrise, and then return me to the Zhangye train station to make the bullet train to Lanzhou that was holding this whole Jenga schedule in place. Mr. Tao picked me up while it was still dark and we drove to the park, past trucks making early morning deliveries, and droves of children riding their bicycles to school. Private cars cant go inside, so I boarded the first hop-on-hop-off bus of the day, which was carrying all the security guards and park workers, in their fur hats and winter coats, to their posts. The temperature gauge read minus-seven-degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit). After a short drive down red brick roads, a guard shouted something that I assumed meant Get off! as we pulled up to the second of four scenic overlook platforms on the route. Along with two other tourists, I raced up flights of steps and along wooden boardwalks just in time to watch the sun peek over a sea of red hills and valleys and pillars and anthropomorphic sandstone formations that rivaled anything Ive seen in the American Southwest. Then stripes in yellows and greens and whites and maroons began to emerge as sunlight bathed the landscape. Theyre the result of mineral deposits organizing themselves during tectonic movements over tens of million of years. Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.) Today, were trying something a little different. The Times investigative reporter Ian Urbina wrote about new efforts to curb the use of lead ammunition by hunters. Unsurprisingly, California has been out front on the issue, with a statewide ban going into effect next July, so I asked him to tell us a little more about the story. We also have coverage of chaos at the border below. Say Im a Californian who doesnt hunt and doesnt eat game meat. Should the use of lead in ammunition worry me? Yes, if only because you care about the environment and wildlife. Lead exposure is the leading cause of death among California condors and a major threat to bald eagles, ravens and other raptors, for example. By 1982, the number of California condors in the wild had dwindled to 22 an entire species nearly wiped out partly as a result from this type of poisoning. Thanks largely to captive breeding programs, their numbers have rebounded. On the morning of Nov. 9, a wildfire busted out of a small area outside Los Angeles, jumped Highway 101 and ignited the jagged hills of the Santa Monica Mountains. In its fiery path were thousands of homes and residents, and a mountain lion named P-74. It was the last day P-74 was seen alive. While the wildfire, known as the Woolsey Fire, raged through the slopes and canyons over the next two weeks, scorching over 1,500 buildings and killing three people, park rangers in the Santa Monica Mountains searched for GPS signals from about a dozen mountain lions constantly tracked there. All of them were eventually located alive except for P-74, a roughly one-year-old male and the newest member of the group. On Monday, rangers in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a vast area of trails and parks on federal land overlooking the Pacific Ocean, confirmed what they had feared was true: P-74 likely died in the blaze. His GPS collar last sent a signal at 1 p.m. on Nov. 9, but failed to register at the next automatic check-in, at 5 p.m. that same day. We never got another point after that, Seth Riley, the wildlife branch chief at the recreation area, said in an interview on Tuesday. The fire came through that evening in his area. WASHINGTON John R. Bolton, President Trumps national security adviser, defended on Tuesday the fact that neither Mr. Trump nor top national security officials had listened to audio of the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that they did not speak Arabic and would not be able to understand what was on the tape. During a nearly hourlong briefing focused on foreign policy, Mr. Bolton took the lectern at the White House and declined to answer repeated questions about why he had not listened to the recording provided by Turkish officials of the killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Why do you think I should? Mr. Bolton asked reporters, suggesting he could read a transcript instead. People who speak Arabic have listened to the tape, and theyve given us the substance of whats in it. Mr. Boltons comments came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were preparing to brief the Senate on Wednesday about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Khashoggis death, which has prompted outrage among members of Congress. Republicans have won every Senate race in Mississippi for the last three decades. Voters in Mississippi will head back to the polls Nov. 27 for a runoff. But this years special election has some in the G.O.P. worried, after this controversial comment made by Republican candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith was caught on video. The remark was particularly tone deaf in Mississippi, where more than 600 people were killed in lynchings from 1877 to 1950 more than any other state. Hyde-Smith, the states former agricultural and commerce commissioner, is in a runoff with Democrat Mike Espy after no one received more than 50 percent of the vote on Election Day. Espy was the agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration. And, if elected, would be the first black senator from the state since Reconstruction. He was running an underdog campaign in conservative Mississippi. But Hyde-Smiths comments put the trajectory of the race in doubt. Facing an uproar over her remarks, she retreated from the campaign and dodged reporters questions. We put out a statement yesterday and we stand by that statement. We put out the statement yesterday and its available. And we stand by that statement. I put out a statement yesterday. I put out a statement yesterday. We did address it yesterday. And thats all Im going to say about it. But after her poll numbers dropped and companies began withdrawing contributions, she was forced to address them at a debate. For anyone that was offended for my by my comments, I certainly apologize. There was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statements. I also recognize that this comment was twisted and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me. Espy responded this way: Well, no one twisted your comments because your comments were live, you know, it came out of your mouth. And I dont know whats in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth. The controversy appears to have emboldened Democrats. Espy picked up an endorsement from former Vide President Joe Biden, and Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris have stumped for him in Mississippi. I think that people are fed up with and really just tired of supposed leaders who lead by trying to sow hate and division among us. But Hyde-Smith still has some big advantages over her opponent. Shes been endorsed by President Trump, who won Mississippi by nearly 18 points in 2016. And a vote for Cindy is a vote for me. Trumps support could help Hyde-Smith shore up conservative white voters, which may be enough to secure victory in solidly red Mississippi. Theres a fundamental principle of law that derives from Sherlock Holmes, which is the dog that didnt bark, he said. And how can it be that none of this was recognized by anybody or asserted by the Creek Nation, as far as Im aware, for 100 years? Ian H. Gershengorn, a lawyer for Mr. Murphy, said the tribe had continued to exercise sovereignty after Oklahoma became a state. It abolished tribal offices, he said. It created the office of executive interpreter and funded it. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was unimpressed. Thats the best youve got? he asked. In terms of the ongoing functioning and relationship, the best example you have of the tribes continuing authority is hiring an interpreter? Other justices were more interested in the consequences of a ruling in Mr. Murphys favor. Edwin S. Kneedler, a lawyer for the federal government, arguing in favor of Oklahoma, listed what he said were some of them. Any crime involving an Indian as a victim or a perpetrator would be subject to federal jurisdiction, not state jurisdiction, he said. That would, he said, strain the resources of the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors. The state would not be able to impose taxes on Native Americans, he added, and many other ordinary laws could be affected. This would be a dramatic change from the way everyone has understood it for the past 100 years, Mr. Kneedler said. Ms. Blatt said a ruling in favor of Mr. Murphy could affect many other convictions. There are 2,000 prisoners in state court who committed a crime in the former Indian Territory who self-identify as Native American, she said. This number is grossly underinclusive because, if the victim was Native American, the state court also lacked jurisdiction. Thats 155 murderers, 113 rapists and over 200 felons who committed crimes against children. In 2012, the federal government, fearing that extreme weather or an infectious disease could wipe out the species, came up with a backup plan to designate private land in Louisiana as critical habitat for the frogs survival. The frogs do not live there now, and the designation could limit the ability of the owners to develop the land, by one account potentially costing them about $33 million. The landowners sued, and they lost in the lower courts. A divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, said the governments designation was entitled to judicial deference. The Endangered Species Act requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to identify species in peril and to designate their critical habitat, meaning places they live now or places essential for their conservation. The service designated the land in Louisiana as the second sort of place. It found that the land included the ponds crucial to the frogs survival. But it acknowledged that the frogs needed more, including an open forest canopy, while the Louisiana land had a closed canopy. The service said it would not take an unreasonable effort to thin the canopy. Chief Justice Roberts said the case turned on the meaning critical habitat. According to the ordinary understanding of how adjectives work, critical habitat must also be habitat, he wrote. Adjectives modify nouns they pick out a subset of a category that possesses a certain quality. It follows that critical habitat is the subset of habitat that is critical to the conservation of an endangered species. WASHINGTON A judicial nominee nearing a showdown vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee could be the test for Senator Jeff Flakes vow to block judges until the Senate is allowed to vote on legislation to protect the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Democrats have united behind a bid to derail the district court nomination of a judge who defended a racially gerrymandered House map in North Carolina and helped draft the states voter ID law, efforts that federal courts found were specifically designed to disenfranchise African-American voters, in one case, with almost surgical precision. With Mr. Flake pledging to stay true to his word, opponents need to find one more Republican to block him, a victory that would momentarily pause the stream of conservative judges Senate Republicans are sending to the federal bench. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone black Republican in the Senate, helped sink a judicial nominee in July over his writings in college, which railed against race-focused groups on campus and race-think. A vote is expected this week. Thomas A. Farr, 64, a Raleigh-based attorney with a focus on employment law, would fill the nations oldest federal judiciary vacancy, left open since 2005. But Democrats, led by Senator Chuck Schumer and the Congressional Black Caucus, are outraged at Mr. Farrs nomination and are spearheading a campaign against him. A coalition of progressive groups, including the N.A.A.C.P. and Demand Justice, have joined the fray. Good Tuesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ The incoming president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has built his political career on defending the poor. But as President Trump vows to keep thousands of migrants from crossing the border, his commitments are already being tested. The discord at the San Ysidro border crossing in Southern California, where tear gas was used to deter migrants, highlights the question of what rights migrants have when they reach the border. Here are answers to some key questions about the situation. The special counsels office asserted on Monday that Paul Manafort, Mr. Trumps former campaign chairman, had lied to the federal authorities since reaching a plea agreement, violating its terms. Read about the development in his case. But Mr. Valdezs work and international profile, they figured, protected him. He was known and beloved by local and foreign journalists alike, and was the recipient of awards and recognition globally. His death and the subsequent targeting of newsroom leaders exposed two of the most devastating risks to the freedom of expression in Mexico today. One is the physical threats to journalists and, by extension, freedom of speech in Mexico. More than 47 journalists have been killed since Mr. Pena Nieto took office in late 2012, 15 of them after Mr. Valdezs death in May of last year, according to Article 19, a journalist protection group. We believed that a journalist as prestigious as Javier was untouchable, Mr. Bojorquez said. When they killed Javier, we understood from that point on that they could kill anyone, he added. We understood that the paradigm had been broken. The second risk is a separate but connected facet of the rule of law in Mexico: There is essentially near total impunity when it comes to how it is broken or applied a dynamic underscored by the use of illegal spyware to intimidate and spy on pro-democracy voices. Dating back to 2016, the target list has been a whos who of Mexicos most prominent voices aiming to bring accountability to the nation, including the directors at Rio Doce. Mr. Bojorquez said he and others had become aware of the governments potent spyware in February 2017, when the Citizen Lab and The New York Times published articles outlining its illicit use against backers of a nationwide soda tax. A Syrian refugee who had been stranded in a Malaysian airport for more than seven months landed in Vancouver on Monday, finally reaching the end of an ordeal that he had documented extensively on social media. Hassan al-Kontar, who was wanted in Syria for refusing to serve in the military, had been stuck in Kuala Lumpur International Airport since March, when he was turned back as he tried to leave the country. He had intended to travel more, eventually seeking asylum. He had overstayed his Malaysian visa, so leaving the airport wasnt an option, either. In October, seven months later, he was arrested by the Malaysian police and sent to a detention center, setting off fears among human rights groups that he could be forced to return to Syria. He had not been heard from on social media since the arrest. But he resurfaced in a Taiwan airport on Monday, announcing in a video that he would soon be reaching Vancouver my final destination. In contrast to his videos shot over the previous months, all featuring the drab backgrounds of a nondescript airport terminal, he was surrounded in the new video by plants, artwork and comfortable-looking furniture. His mood was also brighter, sounding grateful and optimistic. Investigators have yet to recover the cockpit voice recorder, which could provide further insight into the steps taken by the pilots and whether they followed the correct procedures. Despite Boeings insistence that the proper procedures were in the handbook, also called the emergency checklist, pilots have said since the accident that Boeing had not been clear about one potentially vital difference between the system on the new 737s and the older models. In the older versions, pilots could help address the problem of the nose being forced down improperly a situation known as runaway stabilizer trim by pulling back on the control column in front of them, the pilots say. In the latest 737 generation, called the Max, that measure does not work, they said, citing information they have received since the crash. The pilots on Lion Air Flight 610 appear to have forcefully pulled back on their control columns to no avail, before the final dive, according to the information from the flight data recorder. Capt. Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the American Airlines pilot union and a 737 pilot, said he could not comment on any aspect of the investigation. But, he said, in the previous model of the 737, pulling back on the control column, Boeing says will stop a stabilizer runaway. Information provided to American Airlines from Boeing since the crash, Captain Tajer said, specifically says that pulling back on the control column in the Max will not stop the runaway if M.C.A.S. is triggered. That is an important difference to know. Boeing said in its statement on Tuesday that the existing procedures covered the latest 737 model. Bulletins from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States since the crash indicate that pilots could overcome an incorrectly activated M.C.A.S. with a series of steps. First, they would have had to activate switches on the outside of the control columns in front of both the pilot and co-pilot. Those switches are for electrically controlling the trim the angle of the stabilizers on the planes tail. The pilot of Flight 610 appears to have done that repeatedly to bring the nose up, but the M.C.A.S. reactivated each time, as it was designed to do, forcing the nose back down, and the pilot had to repeat the process again and again. GHAZNI, Afghanistan American forces experienced the worst loss of life so far this year in Afghanistan when three soldiers were killed in a Taliban bombing on Tuesday. Three more soldiers and an American contractor were wounded. The deaths took place when a roadside bomb went off near Ghazni City, in the southeastern province of the same name, killing Special Forces soldiers three months after they were sent to save that city from falling to the Taliban. The Pentagon declared an end to American combat operations in Afghanistan in 2014. But since that time, the Taliban have expanded their reach, and the Americans have rejoined the fray. A witness said the bomb in Ghazni went off as an American convoy passed on the highway. The convoy set off a roadside mine, and there was smoke all over the place, said the witness, Haji Abdulamin, a local resident. The road was blocked, and a few minutes later helicopters landed and took the dead. What I want the French to understand and especially those who are saying, more or less, Were hearing the President, the government, talk about the end of the world, but we, we are talking about the end of the month I want them to understand, were going to deal with both, Mr. Macron said in his speech to government officials in Paris. Yet despite his insistence he understood the peoples pain, the president offered no relief particularly from an especially hated gasoline tax increase and the speech struck many as out of sync with the political moment. As he spoke, French television showed images of the citizen protesters who filled the streets of Paris last weekend. That France, the worlds most nuclear-dependent country, may reduce its use by 50 percent, was a matter of relative indifference to them, they said scornfully in interview after interview. From the moment he took office, the problem for Mr. Macron has been that the sweep of his vision was always greater than the actual depth of his support. Untested as a politician, the former investment banker was elected virtually by default in 2017, running an insurgent campaign after he had bolted from of the failing Socialist party, where he never quite fit in. The center-right politician who had been the front-runner, Francois Fillon, collapsed under the weight of a scandal. Many French voters said they could not vote for the far-right alternative, Marine Le Pen. The French took a chance on a fresh face and voted for change, but perhaps got more than they had bargained for. It is a deal now instilling a certain buyers remorse among voters and coming back to haunt their audacious yet politically naive leader, who has been dropping steadily in polls. LONDON The Bank of England has decided to honor a scientist with its next bank note design. One of the nominees? Margaret Thatcher, Britains first female prime minister. Mrs. Thatcher held power for more than a decade from 1979, reshaping British politics. But she appears on the central banks initial list of some 800 names because of her time as a research chemist at a food company in the late 1940s, playing a disputed but much-discussed role in the history of ice cream. The bank plans to introduce a new 50-pound note the largest and rarest of its regular denominations, worth about $64 in 2020, as part of a program replacing paper bills with sturdier polymer versions. Its bills feature Queen Elizabeth on one side, and a historical figure on the other; the current 50 has James Watt and Matthew Boulton, pioneers of the steam engine. Nominations for a replacement are open until Dec. 14, but on Monday the bank published the suggestions that had met its basic criteria so far. San Ysidro Crossing Tear gas used in this area Police blockade United States Train crossing Mexico 3 Tear gas used in this area Police blockade Tijuana River Barrier 1 Chaparral Crossing One of three key places where migrants tried to cross the border United States Police blockade Area of detail 2 Mexico San Ysidro Crossing Tear gas used in this area Police blockade United States Mexico 3 Tear gas used in this area Police blockade Barrier Chaparral Crossing Tijuana River 1 One of three key places where migrants tried to cross the border United States Police blockade Area of detail 2 Mexico North Police blockade One of three key places where migrants tried to cross the border 1 Tear gas used in this area Tijuana River United States Mexico Barrier 2 Chaparral Crossing Police blockade San Ysidro Crossing United States Area of detail Police blockade 3 Mexico Tear gas used in this area Train crossing Police blockade North 1 Tear gas used in this area One of three key places where migrants tried to cross the border United States Barrier Mexico 2 Chaparral Crossing Police blockade San Ysidro Crossing United States Area of detail Police blockade Tear gas used in this area Mexico 3 Satellite image by DigitalGlobe via Google United States Customs and Border Protection officers used tear gas on Sunday to deter hundreds of migrants who attempted to cross the border into the United States. Migrants tried to enter at three locations near the border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico. 1 The Tijuana River Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters A number of migrants tried to cross into the United States at the nearly dry Tijuana River and were met with a law enforcement blockade with barbed wire and tear gas. In a widely viewed photograph, a woman can be seen pulling her family away from tear gas fired by Customs and Border Protection officers. 2 The Chaparral Crossing Mario Tama/Getty Images Others crossed the Tijuana River on their way to El Chaparral, a port of entry on the Mexico side of the border, to evade the police blockade. 3 The Train Tracks Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press Where does this strange empire start or stop? By JENNY ODELL Part I: Zooming Out Recently, one of my students at Stanford told me a strange story. His parents, who live in Palo Alto, Calif., had been receiving mysterious packages at their house. The packages were all different shapes and sizes but each was addressed to Returns Department, Valley Fountain LLC. I looked into it and found that a company called Valley Fountain LLC was indeed listed at his parents address. But it also appeared to be listed at 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 350, in downtown San Francisco. So were 140 other LLCs , most of which were registered in 2015. The names of many of these other companies were baffling and surreal. They included Bropastures, Dreamlish and Your Friend Bart LLC. And on further inspection, each one was associated with an Amazon seller (usually based in a European country) with an equally bizarre but unrelated name, like Ipple Store, DeepOceanStoreuk and GiGling EyE. There was little pattern or theme to what these Amazon shops sold. They had everything from hemorrhoid cream to desk lamps, and there were varying levels of inventory. On sale at DeepOceanStoreuk (a storefront on Amazon.uk associated with Bropastures LLC), I found a book on industrial electricity, a set of fake facial wounds and a No Stress Tech Guide to Microsoft Works 8 & 8.5. Another storefront called Kingdom Kber, this one on Amazon.de and associated with Agapao LLC, advertised a miniature whale, nail gel and a copy of Undocumented Immigrants and Higher Education. When I clicked on these items, though, none of them were currently available. A good number of the storefronts were completely empty. One thing these LLCs had in common was that their registered agent was named Jonathan Park. Even though the packages being sent to my students parents home were addressed to Valley Fountain LLC, one of the packages had a return label taped to it that indicated it came from an Amazon store called Sendai Book Store. I looked it up and found that it was on several cautionary lists of unauthorized resellers, and had more than 400,000 things for sale. But once again, the offerings seemed chosen at random. A seemingly random assortment of items for sale on an Amazon storefront called Sendai Bookstore They were also strangely expensive. You might be hard pressed to imagine someone paying $42.66 for 6 ounces of Ulcer Ease Anesthetic Mouth Rinse, $52.00 for three boxes of Queasy Pops, or $127.09 for beige compression stockings in medium. But perhaps not having done their research, some people do. Some items at Sendai Book Store seemed to be sold at significant markups I decided to order something: L.A. Girl Matte Flat Velvet Lipstick (3 pcs) for $25.63. (I pretended not to see that the same item was listed at $10.74 by another reseller.) Amazon informed me that the lipstick would come in two weeks; there was no tracking information. 1. Orders and Fulfillment As it happens, uncanny ecommerce is a passion of mine, which is why my student mentioned the packages, and why I suspected that whoever was behind these retailers was doing something like dropshipping, just taken up a notch. Dropshippers are online sellers who dont keep any products in stock. Instead, they advertise a product and, if it is purchased, they buy the item from overseas and ship it directly to the customer. In this case, it seemed that Valley Fountain LLC and other companies were posing as traditional retailers usually by setting up Amazon storefronts like Sendai Book Store and were just reselling items from other Amazon storefronts at inflated prices. It sounds confusing, but ultimately, its pretty similar to scalping concert tickets: A middleman makes money by ratcheting up the price. The items in many of the storefronts associated with 235 Montgomery, Suite 350 had an unusually long shipping time and consistently low stock, so it made sense that items purchased from them might be coming from elsewhere. While I waited for my lipstick, I returned to the list of LLCs, and noticed that there was something else that the companies had in common. According to LinkedIn and Facebook, at least a handful of the listed agents were alumni of Olivet University, a Bible college based in California. If Olivet University sounds familiar, thats because it has been in the news lately. Earlier this year its offices were raided as part of a fraud investigation being conducted by the Manhattan district attorneys office. 2. The Newsweek Raid A photo of David Jang by Hto0501 from 2014 Olivet University was established in California in 2000 by an evangelical pastor named David Jang. His global religious community often referred to, simply, as the Community has been the subject of numerous articles that allege labor violations, fraud and abuse. That includes a 2014 Mother Jones story in which former religious followers of Mr. Jang said that the Community recruited them from China and brought them to the U.S. on student visas to study at Olivet University. In reality, the followers said, they spent most of their time working illegally, for very little pay, churning out clickbait for the International Business Times. The International Business Times, or IBTimes, was started in 2006 by two of David Jangs followers, Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis. It began as a small business and commerce website and grew by aggregating stories about basically everything. By 2013, it had enough revenue to buy the struggling Newsweek magazine from Barry Diller for cheap. The IBTimes then rebranded as Newsweek Media Group, and increased Newsweeks web traffic, in part by gaming search engines to bring in more clicks. Over the past few years, the pressure on employees to increase page views got worse and worse, even as Google and Facebook changed their algorithms to crack down on clickbait and traffic to the website fell. As it also happens, here is where the story converged with another of my interests. My boyfriend had worked at Newsweek as an editor for a year. He was let go in April 2017. In January of this year, things took an even darker tone. Investigators from the Manhattan district attorneys office raided Newsweeks New York office, taking 18 computer servers with them. The magazines own journalists investigated, and found that over the past few years, Newsweek Media Group had paid Olivet University millions of dollars for licensing and research and development agreements all while the magazine was in financial distress. Newsweeks journalists also found that their company had offered about $149,000 worth of free advertising in the print magazine to New Yorks Dutchess County, where Olivet was turning an abandoned psychiatric hospital into a satellite campus of Olivet University. The deal which resulted in 10 full-page ads promoting local tourism and the Hudson Valley Regional Airport was facilitated by Marian Rebro, the president of the company overseeing the construction. Mr. Rebros company, which was at the time called Dover Greens but was formerly called Olivet Management, had previously gotten into trouble over the renovation of the psychiatric hospital. In 2016, it settled a case for $700,000 with the Department of Labor for exposing workers to asbestos and lead hazards. At the time of the advertising deal, the company was seeking tax exemptions in the town of Dover, which is in Dutchess County. Dutchess County officials told Newsweek that they made no promises of favorable treatment in return for the ads. Next, the Manhattan D.A. raided Olivets campus-in-progress. According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, the nature of the search warrant was unclear to state police who helped with the raid, but Mr. Rebro said the search was for Newsweek servers. Olivet University was not the subject of the visit, he told the paper. They didnt take anything from the campus. Several of the Newsweek journalists who had worked on the investigation of their company and its relationship with Olivet University were fired earlier this year. A spokesperson for Newsweek Media Group declined to comment. 3. A San Francisco Startup Thinking about that one office at 235 Montgomery Street, I pictured 141 Olivet alumni, each at a tiny desk, carefully minding his or her Amazon storefront. After all, a 2011 Olivet University news bulletin stated that students from the Olivet Institute of Technology and Olivet College of Business were collaborating to explore features in E-Commerce websites. Or maybe it was Jonathan Park, the registered officer of many of these stores, alone in there with a laptop? Or no one at all just a humming, automated system trawling retail sites to make listings of random products on Amazon pages? I went to 235 Montgomery Street to check it out, and found a set of locked double doors outfitted with a camera, a blinking light and a card reader. On the buildings directory, Suite 350 was listed as IBPort, Inc. The name was familiar to me by then. IBPort is another one of Jonathan Parks companies, registered in 2012. But far from being another sparse Amazon storefront, IBPort appears to be a full-fledged online business that sells its own products (although still for seemingly inflated prices). Several of the items, like the Asavea hair straightener and the SeaSum bluetooth speakers, are trademarked and have, or had, convincing websites of their own, even if they use a lot of stock imagery. For example, Little Martins Drawer is a baby products company with a website that combines stock images with some pleasing pastel graphics. (Intriguingly, the company is also described on its website as a brand concept and San Francisco headquartered startup.) All three of the aforementioned brands, as well as other products on IBPorts site, have trademarks that also belong to Jonathan Park. If you look for Jonathan Park on the current Olivet University website, as I did, you wont find him. But in an extremely long article that he wrote in 2012 for the Christian Post, a website that was itself founded by David Jang, Mr. Park describes himself as the director of the school of journalism at Olivet. But back to IBPort. It isnt the only place you can find Jonathan Parks many trademarks. If you want an Essy Beauty charcoal blackhead remover mask or Spreaze 3-D building blocks, you'll have to head to a store called Everymarket. The strangely expensive items on sale there also recall the postmodern assortment of the Amazon storefronts. In New Arrivals, for example, I found a childrens dinosaur costume marketed alongside a bottle of psoriasis shampoo and a canister of butane fuel. A row of goods for sale under the New Arrivals section on Everymarket.com Everymarkets Twitter account, outside of a notable emphasis on patriotic U.S. holidays (including the birthday of the Continental Army), mostly tweets out generic lifestyle photos alongside advertisements of the products it sells. The images have a synthetic dissonance to them. One tweet, for example, features a hair straightener by Asavea a trademark that belongs to Jonathan Park photoshopped into a royalty-free stock photo. A reverse image search of the Asavea hair straightener ad The About page of everymarket.com is also vaguely unsettling. A long explanation of how the founder used to travel to New York with a suitcase that couldnt hold all the great products he bought there sounds like it was written by Tommy Wiseau of The Room fame: On almost every occasion after his return home, hed experience travel withdrawal symptoms and nostalgia remembering the scents, the foods, the music, the local lifestyle and products that had become a part of his memories. He spent hours online searching for products but was unsuccessful. The shipping was too expensive, the website had too little information and did not seem reliable, or the price of the item was overly inflated. If only there was a credible and affordable online store where he could conveniently order authentic products from around the world! This is what he thought a countless number of times! Who could this cosmopolitan shopper be? Its hard to say. Until recently, Marian Rebro, the president of the Olivet-affiliated management company that is developing the abandoned psychiatric facility in New York, was listed on business websites as the manager of Everymarket Inc. But Mr. Rebro said, in a statement: I am not the founder of Everymarket.com. I may have advised the company at one point many years ago, but have never been an employee there. He also said: I am not, nor have I ever been, a manager or employee of Everymarket. Everymarket is also listed in the U.K. as Everymarket Limited, but it has been dormant there since it incorporated in 2014. The listed director there is Dev Pragad, the C.E.O. of Newsweek. He took on that role in 2016 after the IBT Media acquisition. Its not hard to see the oddly overpriced Essy Beauty peel-off mask or Asavea hair straightener as a kind of product version of clickbait. After all, what is the experience of clickbait other than realizing we have vastly overpaid, even if only with our attention? News, information and products are simply someones inventory. This is what I thought a countless number of times! And just as clickbait is often a mish-mash of copy-pasted content, aggregated from other sources, the products on retail websites run by people who are affiliated with the Community often seem less than original. For example, the Little Martins Drawer baby nail grinder is nearly identical to some that are available wholesale on Alibaba, in a range of color combinations. Listings on Everymarket for Essy beauty products sometimes blatantly feature images of other brands. This has gotten some of the companies listed at 235 Montgomery in trouble. In 2017, for example, a company called Curv Brands LLC the owner of the trademark for the Keysmart Key Organizer sued Goldeast LLC, one of Mr. Parks many companies, for producing an extremely similar key organizer under the trademark Kiartten. On the now-defunct kiartten.com, the key organizer had a name that even sounds like clickbait: Portable Key Holder/Organizer From Kiartten Eliminates Bulging Pockets Holds Up To 14 Keys Compact Easy To Carry Durable Construction Fits Most Keys Great Gift Idea Find The Right Key Instantly. Despite the lawsuit, the Kiartten keys were still being sold until recently, at $140 for a unit of 10, on Ibport.com.au. In another legal dispute, from February of this year, Adult Printed Diapers LLC sued Faithfulness LLC, another one of Mr. Parks companies, for selling Aww So Cute diapers, which are an Adult Printed Diapers trademark. Its not clear where Faithfulness LLC got the Adult Printed Diapers diapers, but the lawsuit alleges that Faithfulness LLCs co-defendant in the lawsuit, Rearz, Inc., made an unauthorized purchase of diaper inventory directly from Adult Printed Diapers supplier in Shandong, China. PDF of the lawsuit filed against Faithfulness LLC 4. A Better Life Deep into my internet rabbit hole, I came across another online store called Olivesmall, which appeared online in May 2017. Hosted on Shopify, Olivesmall sells just about everything. It also shares a motto A Peace of Mind, A Better Life with Everymarket.com. Although the registrant of olivesmall.com is hidden, Jonathan Park registered Olivesmall as a trademark in December 2017. In October, he also registered olivesmalltoy.com and olivesmallhealth.com, and over the span of two days in November, he registered olivesfashion.com, olivesoffice.com, olivespet.com, olivesfoods.com and olivesgames.com. Almost all of these sites recently began displaying the same store unavailable message on their homepages, but Olivesmall still hosts the familiar cornucopia of high-priced hodgepodge items for example, a jar of Natural Butt Enhancement Cream for Women and Men goes for $23.64 and its $56.12 for a bottle of Vimulti Grow Taller Pills will Increase Height." This is the point at which the connections between these mysterious retailers and people affiliated with the Community became seriously disorienting. The Olivesmall trademark was filed by Yen-Yi Anderson, of Anderson and Associates, a small firm that has filed many of Mr. Parks trademarks including Faith Beauty, Essy, Vassoul, P&J Health, and Spreaze. Ms. Anderson also filed the trademarks for Bible Portal, Christian Today, Christian Daily, Christian Examiner, China Topix, Music Times, Adprime Media, and, last but not least, the Christian Post the same publication that published Jonathan Parks defense of David Jang. The address of Anderson and Associates is 33 Whitehall Street, 9th Floor, in New York City the same as Everymarkets New York address. And according to old course catalogs for Olivet University International, Yen-Yi Anderson has also been on faculty during the past three years. The catalog PDFs were recently all replaced with versions that exclude Ms. Andersons name, but even after, she was still listed as the executive director of the Veritas Legal Society, which is featured on World Olivets website under its Justice Ministry page. (Ms. Andersons husband, William Anderson, is also involved in the Community, as a trustee of Olivet University. He is also the former publisher and C.E.O. of Christian Media Corporation, the umbrella entity for Bible Portal, Christian Today, Christian Daily, Christian Examiner and Christian Post.) When its not registering trademarks for hair straighteners, pet slings and Christian media companies, Ms. Andersons firm also practices corporate and immigration law. In 2016, Anderson and Associates represented Jonathan Park when he registered for an H1-B employee for IBPorts warehouse in New Jersey. In a statement, Ms. Anderson said that the law firms policy prevented her from commenting directly on matters that are protected by attorney-client privilege. In many cases my firm has assisted entrepreneurs with new product launches and ventures, she said. Due to my volunteer engagements, my firm is often sought after via referrals from those who share the same Christian faith and values, among other referrals of all types, and thus I have formed a strong business and entrepreneurial network. 5. An Empty Store The New Jersey warehouse wasnt the only brick-and-mortar manifestation of IBPort. According to its website, IBPort also has extensive partnerships with well-known department store Trinity Place in Manhattan, New York, which it says is one of the fastest growing department stores in recent years. Trinity Place appeared suddenly in downtown Manhattan in 2012, the same year that IBPort incorporated. That year, Racked wrote about how the department store had popped up to sell brands including Sylvia Lee, Trollied Dolly, Rockn Royalty and Burkinabe Couture. The Racked journalist wrote, If none of those names mean anything to you, youre not alone. Map data: Google But Trinity Place is quite real. Its now called Leez Department Store. Inside the Leez Department Store On a recent visit to Leez, recognizable brands were mixed in with disconcerting objects, like a $59 hat that said Oslo Iceland on it and something called Granny Attic Bubble Foam. Both items appeared to be made by JNG Korea Co. Ltd. A hat for sale at Leez Department Store Products from Little Martins Drawer and Asavea were prominently displayed. Merchandise with trademarks belonging to Jonathan Park Along the wall was a giant stockpile of Kims Living Cutetok UV sanitizer for baby products, marooned perhaps, after a Korean suppliers failed Indiegogo campaign. (Not to worry, however; the Cutetok sanitizers are still widely available on Alibaba.) The second floor A sorry assortment of wooden furniture haunted the second floor, while the third floor remained dark, empty and forbidding; visitors were informed that it is now an event rental space. Business cards displayed at Leez named Chris Liu as the Chief Operation Officer there. Chris Lius Linkedin profile lists a previous position in Business Development at IBTimes Australia. When I looked up the origins of Trinity Place, I learned that the chief executive at the time of its opening was Marian Rebro the Olivet-affiliated developer who is renovating the former psychiatric hospital in New York, and who helped secure free advertising for the county in which it is located. A business card found near the empty cash register at Leez Amid all of this, my lipstick arrived! Inside the package was an invoice for $10.75 from Crispy Beauty, an unfortunately named Amazon seller that was decidedly not Sendai Book Store, the store on Amazon I paid $25.63 for the lipstick. When I went back to Amazon and generated a return label, the address was for Valley Fountain LLC. Part II: Zooming In I was not prepared for the way a simple question about some mysterious packages would spiral into a dizzying network of Amazon storefronts, web domains and badly written About us pages. But the more I looked into it, the more it seemed they were being run by a handful of people, each operating in different capacities depending on the needs of the moment. More surreal was how these websites were linked to the physical world. 6. The High End Furniture On Leezs Yelp page was a January 2018 review hidden by the algorithms that Yelp uses to detect fake reviews that expressed great excitement that the store would be selling furniture. Posted by Chris L., who has never written a Yelp review again, it reads: My favourite is the high end furniture that they recently got in store, Hunt Furniture, made in NY since 1926. Its 100% hand made with solid wood. Chris L. also made sure to throw in a plug for the third floor: The 3rd floor of the store is open for rent. Its quite spacious and bright. Good for all kinds of event. A Hunt Country Furniture brochure picked up at Leez Department Store True enough, the sorry assortment of wooden furniture on the second floor of Leez was by Hunt Country Furniture. And on first glance, the website for Hunt Country Furniture seemed real enough. But if you want to actually buy something, you have to click on the Shop Now tab, which according to snapshots on the Wayback Machine, was added to the website sometime after July 2017. That tab takes you to the Shopify-powered, surreal shop.huntcountryfurniture.com, which hosts images of furniture overlaid with strange phrases like Find the Wooden Furniture of your Dreams and Tradition, generational. In March 2017, a resident who lived close to the Hunt Country Furniture factory in New York (which is located in the same town as the abandoned psychiatric facility), wrote a sorrowful Facebook post after hearing the place was closing after 90 years. The post was accompanied by a photo of the front of factory building, covered in orange Closing signs. When I contacted that person, who asked not to be named, he told me that Hunt Country Furniture had indeed closed and that it had sold its name, designs and property to a member of the Community. From what he could tell, the new factory owner wasnt making more than piecemeal quantities. He also said that the prices for the furniture sold at Leez were astronomical compared to what they used to be. The only logical explanation was that someone from Olivet had taken over the factory. But what would the Community want with a furniture store? 7. Books Can Minister When No One Else Can Hunt Country Furniture is not the only business the Community has taken over. One of Yen-Yi Andersons likes on Facebook is a page for Stevens Book Shop. Its store logo notes that it has served readers since 1954. Again, on a quick visit to its website, stevensbooks.com, nothing seemed amiss. The bookstore appears to have been founded in North Carolina by a man named Dick Steven. But in a 2013 Yelp review of the Raleigh, N.C. location, one reviewer wrote: I was told by the sales clerk that the store while once owned by Steven, is now owned by a Christian University in California. WHAT? Youd be hard pressed to find any trace of the Community on the Stevens Book website, but a 2008 article published on Olivet Universitys website announced that the school bought it, calling Stevens Books the worlds largest Christian theological bookshop. Snapshots on the Wayback Machine of the companys original URL, stevensbks.com, illustrate the turnover. Up until 2010 the website was relatively simple, with a black background and a brief About page. But between June and July 2009, stevensbks.com changed to look more like an online store and its About Us page began redirecting to a separate site, stevensbooks.com. A year later, that URL changed back to stevensbks.com but began sporting a Stevens Book logo. This is extra confusing because there was also a third site in the mix: stevensbook.com. Eventually, stevensbook.com began redirecting to stevensbooks.com. The current website for Stevens Books shows locations in Raleigh, N.C. (the original store), La Mirada, Calif., and San Francisco. But according to the Wayback Machine, the website also listed a previous address, in Manhattan at 22 Cortlandt Street, on the 21st Floor. Thats the same address as several of the media companies Yen-Yi Anderson helped trademark, as well as Olivet Institute Inc. (It is also, as an article in Paste noted, the address listed on the old website of a company called Oikos Networks, which is the company that sold Newsweek Media Group the computer servers that spurred the Manhattan D.A.s investigation.) I decided I had to go to the San Francisco store. A few local blog posts from 2016, when it opened, identify the owner as Joseph Volansky, and a YouTube video from June 2016 called Stevens Books features a monologue by Mr. Volansky, sitting on a couch inside the store. The YouTube description reads: Joseph Volansky, owner of Stevens Books sits down and talks about the bookstore. Michelle Tran In what sounds like a thick Eastern European accent, he says that Stevens is the last name of a man who was in the bookstore business for 60 years. This gentleman is actually my friend, he said. We used to work a couple years together, and this is in memory of him. Theres a cut in the video, and then: Hes still alive, but this is like a tribute to him. Thats why it is called Stevens Books. I began to wonder if Stevens may have been more of an idea than an actual person. On Facebook, there is a profile for Joseph Stevens, who is listed as the manager of Stevens Books, but his profile photo is clearly the man from the video identified as Joseph Volansky. This Joseph Stevens (or is he Volansky?) posts prolifically about the store, and his list of friends and liked pages contain almost no references to Community-related entities. But there is another profile for someone named Jozef Volansky who is Facebook friends with Jonathan Park, and his likes include two separate pages for Stevens Books, two separate pages for Stevens Book Shop, stevensbooks.com and Stevensbook, along with the Christian Post, International Business Times and Olivet Theological College and Seminary. When I walked into the San Francisco store, the first thing I encountered was a bookshelf that looked remarkably like a real-life version of the online shops I had been visiting. Interspersed among the staff picks (Walter Isaacsons Steve Jobs, Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizens You, Staying Young: The Owners Manual for Extending Your Warranty) were some Happy Monkey finger puppet toys, anti-snoring mouth devices, silicone pads for the insides of bras and retinol skin cream. Along the window there were fidget spinners, Piero Lorenzo wallets, dartboards and squishy toys for sale. Of course the store also had books, many of them Christian and collected from churches and schools. The featured titles, however, were largely business-related. Joseph/Jozef Stevens and/or Volansky was there, moving things around between the shelves and a storage area. His employees, three young people, loitered about, looking at their phones and checking Twitter from the store computer. When it came time for me to buy my two books (a memoir by Benoit Mandelbrot and something titled Redeeming Halloween: Celebrating without Selling Out), I approached one of them tentatively. Do you want to check out those books? the guy asked. No, I said. I wanted to buy them. Oh! he said, and then laughed to himself. Thats right were not a library. 8. Who Is Mr. Stevens When I later looked up the non-book items from the store, the names were familiar. The anti-snoring devices were from P&J Health, a Jonathan Park trademark. The Piero Lorenzo wallets had a trademark filed by Anderson & Associates for Kenosis International LLC, a business registered by an Olivet faculty member at Olivet Universitys address in San Francisco. Things that werent associated in some way with people affiliated with the Community appeared to have just been directly imported from China, without further branding. I found the Happy Monkey finger toys box and all on several wholesaler sites on Alibaba. The retinol cream and the silicone pads were both Reejoys brand, and I found that the Reejoys LLC trademark belongs to Jozef Volansky himself. That Mr. Volansky had branded and imported these, and was selling them in his own store, seemed almost endearingly straightforward compared to everything else I had encountered. Still, the image used for the Reejoys Facebook profile and cover photo is a placeholder image for a Shopify template. If a post is liked on the Facebook page, it is usually by Joseph Stevens. Several of the photos are clearly taken in the bookstore; one photo of the retinol cream, accompanied by a not-totally-convincing review, appears to have been taken on the same red couch from the Stevens Books video. In an email in response to request for comment, Mr. Volansky wrote P&J Health anti-snoring devices and Piero Lorenzo wallets are not sold in Stevens Books. He said he was not the owner, and that the store and the brand were owned by the Stevens Books Group. I go by my own name, Stevens is a nickname because of Stevens Books, he wrote. 9. The future belongs to the one who has dreams Trying to map the connections between all these entities opens a gaping wormhole. I couldnt get over the idea that a church might be behind a network of used business books, hair straighteners, and suspiciously priced compression stockings sold on Amazon storefronts with names like GiGling EyE, ShopperDooperEU and DAMP store all while running a once-venerable American news publication into the ground. While I searched for consistencies among disparate connections, the one thing I encountered again and again on websites affiliated with those in the Community was the word dream. Find the wooden furniture of your dreams (Hunt Country Furniture). Read your dreams (Stevens Books). Our company is still evolving every year, but our dream never changed (Everymarket). The future belongs to the one who has dreams; a company with dreams achieves the same (Verecom). Read Your Dreams appears to be the tagline of Stevens Books on facebook Indeed, at some point I began to feel like I was in a dream. Or that I was half-awake, unable to distinguish the virtual from the real, the local from the global, a product from a Photoshop image, the sincere from the insincere. Still harder for me to grasp was the total interpenetration of e-commerce and physical space. Standing inside Stevens Books was like being on a stage set for Stevens Books, Stevens Book, Stevens Book Shop, and Stevensbook all at the same time. It wasnt that the bookstore wasnt real, but rather that it felt reverse-engineered by an online business, or a series of them. Being a human who resides in physical space, my perceptual abilities were overwhelmed. But in some way, even if it was impossible to articulate, I knew that some kind of intersection of Olivet University, Gratia Community Church, IBPort, the Newsweek Media Group, and someone named Stevens was right there with me, among the fidget spinners, in an otherwise unremarkable store in San Francisco. Speaking with Jonathan Park, and reaching out to Olivet, provided some kind of clarification. Mr. Park said: I currently own and operate several businesses that I started while I was at Olivet, but added that he does not operate many of the entities that he helped incorporate, and that some entities have been spun off and are not related to him anymore. He said he mentored students, including interns and graduates of Olivet, and helped them set up businesses from time to time: My collaboration with Olivet was one of my lifes best experiences because the University and its students have an entrepreneurial spirit and great aspirations. It is truly a privilege to work together with these bright and gifted individuals. The school and students, he said, partnered and envisioned an incubating program similar to those of the leading research universities; including Stanford and Cornell. While Olivet and my businesses are of a different scale than that of Stanfords and Googles, this type of collaboration is commonplace today and has proven to be very successful and rewarding for the economy at large. Our results and volumes are not odd, but, I believe, are rather impressive and something to be proud of. Olivet was more vague in its statement, made through its spokesperson Ronn Torossian. He wrote, in full: Following the legacy of our (late) Honorary Chairman Dr. Ralph D. Winter, Olivet University has always looked for ways to encourage growth in mission frontiers. This influence shaped the founding vision from Dr. Jang, who, as a devout Christian, believes a Biblical worldview can be applied across all varieties of fields. In that same spirit, the University has always been happy to help evangelical business owners, and weve had a good working relationship with IBTimes over the years. We are also proud of our business-as-mission network with various entrepreneurs going into the marketplace as part of our ongoing exploration into models about how to best plant churches and expand mission frontiers. We will continue to explore this paradigm. These are challenging times for Christian and secular higher education institutions alike. Olivet is continually learning the best ways to provide high quality education to raise leaders while developing sound and diversified income sources. One model is Stanford University, which derives 85% of its revenues from non-tuition sources including sponsored research. Olivet similarly recognizes the importance of finding new models for supporting education, and therefore the school encourages innovation and entrepreneurship for its student and alumni base. Many of our alumni are successful entrepreneurs in the U.S. and other countries and contribute to and partner with the University by donating, partnering on research projects, providing internship/training opportunities, and in other ways. We will continue promoting these values that have made America into the great country it has become. And we are proud of all our successful alumni and are thankful to all the friends, benefactors and partners of Olivet University. 10. A Dream Without End In the end, I decided to return the lipstick. The Amazon return slip listed Valley Fountain LLC, but it wasnt my students parents address. Thankfully, they were no longer receiving the packages, having complained about it to the postal service. This time, the Valley Fountain address was 501 Broad Ave., Ridgefield, N.J. When I looked up the address, it was the IBPort warehouse where Everymarket is also listed as a tenant. If you look it up on Googles Street View just right, you can spy a small sign for IBPort pointing enticingly around a corner. Map data: Google As for Newsweek Media Group, it got indicted. First, the company split into two entities: Newsweek and IBT Media. Then, in October, the Manhattan district attorneys office charged IBT Media and a number of co-conspirators with defrauding lenders. A month later, the office announced that Olivet University would be indicted, too. The charges which include falsifying records, conspiracy and criminal contempt revolve around money laundering that prosecutors say was carried out to fund Olivets operations and real estate acquisitions. The alleged schemes include fictitious auditors (named Karen Smith and Lynn Chen) who came complete with their own fictitious emails, phone numbers and websites; networks of corporate bank accounts; and the computer server company, Oikos Networks, that is listed at 22 Cortlandt Street, which also happens to be the address where Olivet Institute, Stevens Books and Christian Media Corporation are all registered. The indictments include charges against Etienne Uzac, a co-owner of IBT (and one of the original founders of International Business Times); William Anderson, an Olivet trustee, former chief executive of Christian Media Corporation (and husband of Yen-Yi Anderson); and John Xiao, Olivets finance director and dean of Olivet Business School. The general manager of Oikos is named only as an unindicted co-conspirator. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Uzac maintain they are not guilty. A lawyer for Mr. Uzac described the charges as baseless, and a lawyer for Mr. Anderson described the charges as absurd. Mr. Torossian, the Olivet spokesperson, said: Olivet University denies the charges announced by the District Attorneys Office and will vigorously defend itself against these unsupported allegations including the puzzling claim that lenders who have suffered no loss were somehow victimized. Olivet stands strongly by the individual members of its team who have been wrongfully accused. Olivet is a Christian institution dedicated to providing educational and spiritual opportunities to students around the globe including in locations that are hostile to Christianity and Christian practice. I wondered about the fate of my overpriced L.A. Girl Matte Flat Velvet Lipstick and who, at the New Jersey warehouse, would be there to receive it. I imagined a person sitting surrounded by rejected dinosaur costumes, butane fuel canisters and butt-enhancing creams. Soon they would receive my lipstick, neither a return nor quite a gift, purchased, at one point, from a faraway place called Crispy Beauty. I wondered if they knew their place in this vast and vertiginous network if they knew that they were helping to achieve Everymarkets dream: A dream of being a marketplace offering practically everything from everywhere for everyone. Jenny Odell, an Oakland-based writer and a lecturer in the art and art history department at Stanford University, is the author of the forthcoming book, How to Do Nothing. Locals from Craig Cove desperate for flights to resume have begun burying the cracks on the airport runway surface. Photo: W.Talban Authorities in the Indian state of Goa are encouraging farmers to adopt cosmic farming by chanting Vedic mantras to their fields for 20 days in order o improve the quality and quantity of their crops without the help of chemical fertilizers. Promoting organic farming is definitely commendable, but the approach of Goas Ministry of Agriculture is questionable at least. According to several news reports, authorities in the Indian state are currently promoting cosmic farming as an alternative to conventional agriculture. This requires farmers to chant Vedic mantras to their fields for 20 days, which is supposed to help attract the energy of the universe into the field and help the seeds sprout faster and ultimately provide better yields. Photo: AnnaER/Pixabay The agriculture department wants to tread the path of organic and eco-friendly farming. It has been holding talks with propagators of cosmic farming and other believers of similar activities, which can increase the farm yield in an organic way, Goas Agriculture Director, Nelson Figueiredo, told reporters. As part of this, a farmer needs to spend at least 20 minutes a day chanting the vedic mantra for 20 days in his farm. The believers of cosmic farming claim that mantra draws the energy of universe into the field and helps the seeds to sprout better and gives quality yield. The states Agriculture Minister, Vijai Sardesai, is just as enthusiastic about the benefits of cosmic farming, claiming that it eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers. Cosmic farming will give you safe food without any chemicals or fertilizers. Under this type of farming, no chemical is put on paddy and it will be grown with organic manure only, Sardesai said. Sardesai and Figuiredo recently visited Guru Shivanand in Gurgaon in Haryana, the promoter of Shiv Yog Krishi, to better understand cosmic farming. But wait, it gets better. Apart from cosmic farming, Goas government also has plans to promote eco-farming with the help of yogic farming. Agriculture officials have been keeping an eye on the Sustainable Yogic Farming project of the rural development wing of the Brahma Kumaris, an international spiritual organization based in Rajasthan, and they seem very impressed. They (Brahma Kumaris) claim that over 1,000 farmers in India are combining organic farming with meditation and it is showing remarkable results, Director Figueiredo said, adding that Goa farmers are already being educated on how sustainable yogic farming can lower costs and help the environment. In a time where science and technology play a huge part in agriculture, Goas reliance on cosmic and yogic farming may seem shocking to a lot of people, but lets not forget that this is the same country that only a month ago announced an optional engineering course that teaches students that modern inventions like aeronautics, batteries, as well as knowledge of gravity existed in India during the Vedic Age, thousands of years ago Viktor Orban Barnes & Thornburg has picked up government relations work for Hungary's Washington embassy, primarily in the areas of religious freedom and immigration. Human rights activists and politicos have accused Hungary's right-wing leader Viktor Orban of cracking down on religious rights. Pew Research Center has cited Hungary as one of seven countries to pass emergency laws in 2016 to restrict religion within its borders. Those measures specifically target Muslims. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, hammered Hungary's prime minister on Nov. 8 for tolerating "xenophobia, nationalism and anti-Semitism while undermining liberal democracy," according to the UK's Independent. Orban met with US Ambassador Sam Brownback, ex-Kansas Republican Governor and Senator, on Nov. 15 in Budapest to discuss efforts to curb anti-Semitism in Europe and ways to return Christian migrants to their homes in the Middle East. B&T's contract with Hungarian ambassador Laszio Szabo calls for a flat $50K fee for work from Nov. 7 though Jan. 21. Craig Burkhardt heads the effort for Hungary's embassy. He's a Republican operative who worked for George W. Bush's legal team during the 2000 Florida recount, served as chief counsel for technology in the Commerce Dept. and provided legal assistance to the Trump campaign and transition teams. The 56th Annual General Meeting of Tullamore Credit Union will take place on Monday, December 3, at 8 pm in the Tullamore Court Hotel. In the 2018 Annual Report - Pat Doheny, Chairperson of Tullamore Credit Union, informed members that overall this years outcome has been strong and has surpassed expectations in a number of areas, with savings, investments and surplus all coming in ahead of budget." The Chairperson further stated that this year Tullamore Credit Union achieved a major milestone when our assets surpassed a quarter of a Billion Euro." The focus of the Board of Tullamore Credit Union, they insist, is to provide quality service to members and the Chairperson reported that our new Tullamore Credit Union website went live and in September we introduced a new farm-lending product called Cultivate in conjunction with six other midland based credit unions. Our Member Personal Current Account Services (MPCAS) is planned to come into operation in quarter two of 2019." The Chairperson reported that Credit Unions have been voted Irelands most trusted financial institutions for the fourth year in a row and recently Tullamore Credit Union received the Best Customer Service award for Finance Service of the Year at the inaugural Midlands 103 Customer Service Awards. Pat Doheny also highlighted to members that the success of Tullamore Credit Union is built on the efforts of our members volunteering their time freely." He requested members to consider volunteering and informed members seeking more information about participating in the running of the credit union to please contact CEO, Dennis Daly or indeed any member of the Board of Directors. Tullamore Credit Unions Finance Officer, Declan McDonnell reported that the excess of income over expenditure for the year amounted to 4.7 million, which, while up on last years figure of 4.3 million was significantly boosted by a one off investment gain of 1.9 million." Declan further stated that without this once off gain our income and surplus figures would have reduced significantly on 2017, primarily as a result of reduced investment income of 1.9 million, down from 3.2 million last year." The Finance Officer also reported that the Reserves of Tullamore Credit Union, which are a real measure of the strength of the credit union, have increased from 61.8 million to 66.1 million at year-end." CEO Dennis Daly stated that more and more members are using our services, and more frequently than ever before. We believe that this is a reflection of the quality of service that we provide to members, and of the trust that our members place in our credit union. The report also showed 1,376 new members joined, 28.5 million was issued in loans, while 436.2 million was withdrawn from peoples' savings. In his CEOs Report, Dennis updated members on the credit unions focus on improved lending processes stating we are working to ensure that the process of applying for and receiving approval for a loan is as quick and as user-friendly as possible. Dennis also stated that we have also been working on making it easier for members to make online applications either through our website or Facebook on a 24/7 basis. Dennis reminded members of the launch of CULTIVATE, a farm finance package providing loans for local farmers, reporting that the level of uptake and interest from farmers has, to date, been very positive. The CEO also reminded members that the credit union is set to launch its Member Personal Current Account Service in 2019. This will be a fully functional current account including overdraft, online and debit card facilities and will provide members with added convenience and greater access to their funds. DCU is to host a Coffee Morning fundraiser for a Tullamore church hit by vandals last month. 104 panes of glass were broken at St. Catherine's Church of Ireland church in late October, prompting gardai into an investigation. The DCU fundraising event will take place at the Inter Faith Centre at DCU's Glasnevin Campus in Dublin at 10:30am on Wednesday, November 28. The event will be addressed by St. Catherine's rector Rev. Isaac Delamere who will outline the impact of the attack has had on the church. Elsewhere, a GoFundMe page has been established to support the repair works needed at St. Catherine's Church in Tullamore. It has already raised over 5,650 in two days, to help fund the estimated 70,000 repair costs. The GoFundMe campaign reads: "Following the recent malicious damage to eight windows in St. Catherines Church Tullamore, we are launching an appeal to pay for the grills to protect the windows after they have been repaired." "We also hope to install security cameras around the Church to prevent this from happening again. Thank you to everyone for their overwhelming good wishes and kind offers of support which we have received," the parish said. You can support the GoFundMe campaign here. Wampsville, N.Y. Madison County Historian Matthew Urtz recently had the opportunity to visit Buffalo State Universitys Art Conservation Department to pick up a third of a series of paintings that once hung in the Madison County Courthouse. Many of the paintings in the collection were donated by family members of the painting subjects, including judges, district attorneys and members of the Madison County Bar Association circa the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When the courthouse underwent renovations in the 1960s, several of the portraits were put in storage. Unfortunately when the renovations were complete, they were forgotten about until early in the 21st century. By that point, some of the paintings had disappeared and many were significantly damaged or altered. Four of the paintings were sent to the New York State Preservation and Conservation Center at Peebles Island State Park in Waterford, N.Y., to find out what it would take to restore the paintings. When the estimated cost to restore the paintings was placed at north of $10,000 on average, it was determined it was not feasible to restore them at this point and they were once again returned to storage. Later, the county was told of a program at Buffalo State University which charged significantly less but took longer than the average restoration. The program trained students who wanted to make a career in the restoration of paper, art and artifacts. Utz took the first painting out around 2014 and have since taken three more. The partnership has been beneficial for both parties as it allows Madison County to save significant amounts (in some cases north of 90 percent) while making sure these pieces are maintained for the public and projects like these allow students to develop their skills working on historic pieces. The most recent painting returned from Buffalo State was a portrait of Benjamin Franklin Chapman, a judge from Clockville and later Oneida. The painting was assigned to student Nicole Flam, now a second year student in the program. According to the examination report the painting was in good condition overallThe Canvas has some bulging areas along the bottom edge. There are several losses in paint layer extending down to the bare canvas and varying degrees of craquelure throughout. There is a heavy layer of dirt and splattered accretions on the entire surface of both the painting and the frame. There are several large losses of the leading edge of the frame and two screw eyes protruding through the front. The image taken before shows a frame in rough shape, with an image that appears to be very dark in nature (that would be the layer of dirt). The process of cleaning the portrait included utilizing a low-suction vacuum with soft bristled brushes. Following that, Flam applied a solution of triammonium citrate in deionized water to the portrait with hand-rolled swabs. The student performed this action three times to remove as much dirt as possible. Flam then worked to remove a layer of varnish utilizing an organic solvent mixture and tissue paper. By placing the solvent mixture on the tissue paper and then applying it to the painting, the mixture had longer contact with the varnish and removed more of it. This treatment removed the majority of the varnish. Flam then moved to repair the bulges with heat, moisture and pressure as necessary. She then filled in minor areas of loss with paintable fill material and sprayed a protective coating over the painting. The frame was cleaned with the low-suction vacuum and soft bristled brush as well. Then a lightly dampened brush and cleaning solution was utilized to clean and followed up by being wiped with a sponge dampened with deionized water. The screw eyes were removed and filled with putty. Flam then took and made a mold of the existing decorative components so that she could recreate the trim in other spots. Plaster was poured in the molds and allowed to set. Upon completion, they were toned utilizing Golden Paints and installed creating a near flawless recreation. Small things pop when seeing the restored painting, including the buttons on his coat and the vivid gold color of the frame. Because of this partnership with Buffalo State Universitys Art Conservation Program, the county is capable of restoring more paintings that if it went to a private conservator. We are grateful for the hard work that the students put in and hope that people appreciate both the art and the history that will be on display in our courthouse when it reopens in 2019, Urtz said. Want to learn more about the restoration process? Contact Madison County Historian Matthew Urtz at 315-366-2453 or by email at matthew.urtz@madisoncounty.ny.gov. The Trump administration on Black Friday released its climate report warning of more frequent and more devastating wildfires, more crop failures and a more rapidly crumbling infrastructure. The US analysis follows dire warnings from the United Nations that the world has 12 years to take unprecedented worldwide action to avoid potential civilization collapse. Floods, sea level rise, wildfires, heat waves and droughts will make parts of the planet uninhabitable. Climate refugees will likely be in the hundreds of millions. Support systems involving energy, food and water will break down, leading to wars over such resources. President Trump unfortunately is a climate denier, pulling the US out of the Paris climate treaty. However, all the Democratic Congress members from New York except one are co-sponsors of the Off Act to require our electricity and transportation systems to go to 100 percent clean energy by 2035. The Green Party for the last eight years has campaigned for a Green New Deal (GND) to transform our energy systems while providing millions of new living wage. The Green New Deal made national headlines recently when hundreds of climate activists held a sit-in in Congresswoman Nancy Pelosis office. Legislation by incoming Congress Member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls for a 10-year transition to 100 percent clean power, with a commitment to environmental and economic justice. We also need Gov. Cuomo, state and local lawmakers to step up their commitment to climate action. Sixteen years after Gov. Pataki set goals for renewable energy, New York only gets 4 percent of its electricity from solar and wind. New Yorks Off Fossil Fuel Act is the strongest climate change agenda in the country. It would halt new fossil fuel infrastructure and transition to 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2030 and requires new buildings to be net zero carbon emissions. The Act requires state and local governments to adopt enforceable climate action plans with clear timelines and benchmarks. The State also needs to divest its state pension fund from billions in fossil fuel investments. And enact a state carbon tax to make polluters pay for the damage they cause. The NY Times Magazine recently concluded that life on the planet is doomed since we lacked the political leadership to stand up to the fossil fuel companies. The NY Times may say game over but we say game on. We must demand that our elected officials take action to ensure a future for our children and grandchildren. 26/11 Convicted only in Mickey Mouse case, why Indias road to Rana is a tough one India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 27: Nearly two years after the Mumbai 26/11 attack, one of the biggest revelations to have come out is with regard to David Headley. The American agent who had turned rogue was the one who carried out the reconnaissance of the targets that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba hit in Mumbai. The other name that cropped up from the United States was that of Tahawwur Rana. He was accused of helping Headley forge documents and also facilitate his travel to India. US stands with India in its quest for justice for 26/11: Donald Trump India had managed to question Headley, but till date has not been able to get its hands on Rana. The case against Rana has always been a non-starter. India was hoping that after questioning Headley, it could also interrogate Rana in a bid to join the dots and understand further their Indian connections as well. Since the past 7 years, India has been trying to build up a case to question Rana. While an extradition seemed tough, the NIA at least wanted to question him in connection with the 26/11 attack. There were plenty of issues that stood in the way of India and Rana. The biggest setback was a court order. A US federal court had indicted Headley and Rana for their support Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists. Headley was sentenced to 35 years in jail for several crimes, which included his role in the 26/11 attacks. He was also held guilty of a proposed attack on a newspaper in Denmark, the plot which is famously referred to as the Mickey Mouse Project. Rana, a Canadian national and close friend of Headley was on the other hand convicted and sentenced to 14 years in jail for conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist plot in Denmark. In June 2011, he was acquitted of conspiracy to provide material support to the perpetrators of the 26/11 attack. He was however convicted to taking part in a conspiracy against the Danish newspaper. 26/11: India slams Pakistan for showing 'little sincerity' The NIA had however renewed its request to extradite Rana in 2016. It would be a bit tricky legally, say officials, with the double jeopardy clause coming into play. The US law bars a person from being punished twice for the same offence. As of now, Rana stands acquitted in the 26/11 case and hence pushing for a questioning at least through video conferencing appears to be very difficult as of now. An official with the NIA tells OneIndia that they would continue to pursue the case. Rana it may be recalled had said in a statement prior to the trial that he was an ISI operative and not a cadre of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. Rana may have been cleared of of any direct involvement in the 26/11 case. The NIA has prepared a separate chargesheet in the 26/11 case in which it links Rana to the attacks. Our case is not guided by the decision of the US court. We have enough evidence against him and it is on this basis that we will continue to pursue our case with the US authorities. Even our own chargesheet does describe the manner in which Rana helped Headley with the travel. Had Rana not helped Headley with his travel, then the latter would not have been able to move around with such ease. It was in the year 2006 that Rana helped Headley open an immigration office which was in fact used to facilitate his travel and also survey targets for the 26/11 attack. The NIA also states that there is ample evidence to show that each time Headley returned to the US, he met with Rana first and briefed him about the progress made in the case. The road to Rana looks particularly difficult now. However India sees a silver lining in the announcement that the US made. The US had on the eve of the 26/11 anniversary announced a 5 million reward for any information leading up to the arrest of conviction in any country of any individual who committed, conspired to commit, or aided or abetted the execution of the Mumbai 2008 attack. 26/11: Memorial unveiled on Nariman House terrace The Donald Trump administration is making all the right noises where terror is concerned. Unlike Presidents of the past, Trump has been more vocal on Pakistan. This India feels would help it in its case against Rana. The officials in India and US are in talks with each other and the NIA hopes that the permission to question Rana would come through sooner or later. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 11:28 [IST] 200 per cent salary hike The Ministry of Railways has proposed to revise various allowances for its workers. The risk and hardship allowance would be raised from Rs 2,700 per month to Rs 6,000 for Mate and Keymen. Who gets it The ministry has planned to raise the Risk and Hardship Allowance from Rs 2,700 per month to Rs 4,100 per month for Trackmen and preforming patrolling duty. Another hike There is also a proposal to increase the Level Crossing Gate Allowance from Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,100 for Gateman working in Special and A Class Gates. Further a proposal to include all P.Way Artisans and their helper in their R and H Matrix with a pay of Rs 2,700 as for trackman has also been proposed. Amidst protests There were protests relating to the 7th Pay Commission by various railway workers. They were demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme. However if the new proposal goes through, then there is good news around the corner. It is with the Finance Ministry as of now and if approved, it would cost the centre and addition Rs 222 crore per annum. Gujarat school reopening: Offline classes for Class 1 to 5 to resume from Monday Gujarat gram panchayat election 2021 date announced: The polls to be held on Dec 19 Abandoned Pakistani boat seized off Gujarat coast India pti-PTI Bhuj (Guj), Nov 27: An abandoned Pakistani boat was seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) near Sir Creek area off the Gujarat coast in the Arabian sea, an official said on Tuesday. The fishing boat was found abandoned in the Sir Creek estuary along the Indo-Pakistan border near Kutch off the Gujarat coast Monday night by a BSF patrolling team, he said. No fisherman was found in the boat, the official said. A search operation was launched in the area but no one was found, he said, adding that some fishing equipment were seized from the boat. [Sri Lankan Navy arrests 48 Tamil Nadu fishermen, seize 12 boats] Pakistani fishermen have several times crossed over to the Indian waters on boats during fishing. In October, the BSF had caught five Pakistani nationals from Indian territorial waters from creek area in the Arabian Sea near border pillar number G-33 close to the Indo-Pakistan border. PTI What is Sabarimala Thantri's view over use of halal jaggery to prepare prasadam: plea in Kerala HC Activist Rehana Fathima arrested for hurting religious sentiment in FB post India oi-Deepika S Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 27: Activist Rehana Fathima, who attempted to climb Sabarimala in October, has been arrested by the Pathanamthitta police on Tuesday. She has been accused of hurting religious feelings with her "insulting" social media posts on Lord Ayyappa, the deity at Sabarimala shrine. A case was registered against her on October 30 based on a complaint filed by the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi, a group that claims to fight for upholding the "traditions at the temple" accused Fathima of insulting the Hindu religious belief with her social media posts. Rehana had posted a picture on Facebook on September 30, dressed as an Ayyappa devotee wearing a rudraksha and sporting a patta, with the caption 'Tatvamasi'. The case was registered following a complaint filed by the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi alleging that her social media posts has hurt their religious sentiments. Rehana, along with a woman journalist from Hyderabad had tried to enter the Ayyappa shrine despite ardent protests by devotees against the Supreme Court verdict. She however could not enter the shrine and the Kerala Dewaswom Minister had subsequently called out the 'activists' saying that a temple is no place for such activities. On October 19, protestors demonstrating against the Supreme Court's decision to allow women of all ages to enter the shrine vandalised her home after she tried to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The Muslim body also asked the Ernakulam Central Muslim Jama'ath to revoke her family's Mahallu membership. The council's president A Pookunju said her attempt to enter the temple was against Hindu rituals. BJP promises Rs 5000 per month to every youth above 21 years of age if voted to power India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 27: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its Rajasthan Gaurav Sankalp Patra promised 30,000 government jobs per year and 50 lakh employments to youths in five years. The BJP has also made its focus on farmers in the Gaurav Sankalp Patra by promising 50 per cent increase in Minimum Support Price and increase their income up to double by 2022 by sending the money to their accounts directly. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje claimed that she fulfilled 630 commitments out of 655 made in the last manifesto as they are either complete or at the last stage of getting completed. So around 81 per cent promises made by her are complete. She has also promised to give cooperative loan to the tune of one lakh crore. There is a plan to create Rin Rahat Kendra in every district of Rajasthan. Rajasthan assembly elections 2018: BJP releases poll manifesto The BJP has also made commitment to give Rs 5000 to every unemployed youth above 21 years of age. The CM said that Rajasthan will be made a special state by working hard for it. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said that giving special status to any state is a constitutional matter that cannot be decided from Jaipur. Jaitley provided all information about the scheme and supports provided by the central government to the state. The BJP has talked about Rural Start Up Fund in Rajasthan, Eastern Rajasthan Canal will be completed to make not only irrigation water available but drinking water as well. This will irrigate two lakh hectare land more. The state government will start training camp three months in advance before Army's recruitment camps starts. Modi tears into Rahul Gandhi, stops short of calling him ignorant Water from Arabian sea will be brought in to Sanchor and Jalore districts to make inland port. The state government will work for universal health and 108 ambulance will be made available to gram panchayats and happiness index of the state will be prepared. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 16:31 [IST] Satyapal Malik has not got over Kashmir as yet 'Even when an animal dies': Satya Pal Malik's dig at Centre over farm laws Centre wanted me to appoint Sajad Lone as CM: J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik India oi-Deepika S Srinagar, Nov 27: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Tuesday triggered a fresh controversy when he said the Modi government wanted him to instal Sajad Lone as the state's chief minister, right before he dissolved the assembly last week. "Had I looked at Delhi, I would have had to invite Sajad Lone to form government. But I did not want to go down in the history as a dishonest man. I don't bother about the abuses now," said Satya Pal Malik. Later, he took an u-turn, while speaking to a news channel and said that there was no political pressure or interference from the Centre. Malik's admission came days after he dissolved the J&K Assembly after Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti staked claim to form a government along with the support of her arch-rival Omar Abdullah's National Conference (NC) and the Congress. Governor dissolves J&K assembly after Mehbooba stakes claim to form govt A huge political slugfest broke out in the state of Jammu and Kashmir on November 21 after the Governor, Satya Pal Malik decided to dissolve the assembly, quashing hopes of the newly-formed alliance of PDP, NC and Congress from forming the government. Launching a scathing attack on the Governor, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah had called Malik a "slave of the Centre". Mehbooba has ruled out taking the legal route against the Governor's decision, saying she would go to the "people's court". For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 14:53 [IST] US designates Pakistan, China as countries of particular concern for religious freedom violation Pakistan to allow India to send wheat to Afghanistan through its territory: PM Imran Khan Citing killing of Indian soldiers, ISI activities, Captain declines Pakistan's Kartarpur invite India oi-Madhuri Adnal Amritsar, Nov 26: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday declined Pakistan's invitation to attend the Kartarpur corridor foundation stone-laying ceremony on the other side of the international border, citing terror attacks in his state and killings of Indian soldiers by Pakistan troops as the reason. In a letter to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Singh said it is a historic occasion, but regretted his inability to be present. The chief minister said his reason for declining the invitation was twofold. Not just Pakistan, even Malaysia, Italy have contributed to revival of terror in Punjab "Firstly, not a day passes when Indian soldiers are not killed or wounded on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Rather than moving towards normalcy, these incidents are escalating," he said. Secondly, the chief minister claimed, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has started its nefarious activities in Punjab. "Since March 2017, the state has neutralised 19 ISI-armed and controlled modules, apprehended 81 terrorists and seized 79 weapons, numerous grenades of the HG-84 type made in Pakistan's Ordnance factories with Austrian know how, and some IEDs," the chief minister claimed. The last attack took place in Amritsar a few days ago, on a peaceful religious congregation in a village. Three men were killed and 19, including women and children, were wounded, Singh said, adding that the terrorists had been caught. Amarinder Singh says 'ISI masterminded Amritsar blast' "I hope that the prime minister (of Pak) will understand these circumstances... It will not be possible for me to be present in Pakistan on this historic occasion, despite the fact that paying my respects at Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib has always been my cherished dream which will hopefully be fulfilled once these hostilities and killings are stopped," he said. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor, on the Pakistan side, on November 28. It took 70 years for Yamuna to get this dirty, can't be cleaned in 2 days: CM Kejriwal A win for AAP in Punjab would cost it Rs 12,000 crore a year: Here is why Cleric with live bullet caught while meeting Kejriwal India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 27: A Muslim cleric was caught with a live bullet when had gone to meeting, Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal. The man has been identified as Imran. He told the police that the he found the bullets in the donation of a Mosque. He had kept it in his wallet and later forgot about it. The bullet was seized when he was being checked ahead of his meeting with the CM. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal attacked with chilli powder; suspect arrested He has been arrested under the Arms Act and a probe has been launched. Imran was among the many clerics, who had gone to meet Kejriwal to demand an increase in salary by the Waqf Board. It may be recalled that just last week Kejriwal was attacked with chilli powder inside the Delhi Secretariat. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 10:10 [IST] Court refuses to hear petition of engineering student who had 17 compartments India oi-Vikas SV Chandigarh, Nov 27: A B-Tech student, who has 17 compartments and took admission in the engineering college in 2009, had approached the court to allow him one more attempt to clear exams, but the court refused to hear his plea, said reports. The student took admission in NIT Kurukshetra in 2009 and was awarded the compartments during four years of the degree course. The court further asked how the student would clear all exams in one attempt when he was not able to clear them in so many years. An engineering course is of four year, so the student should have completed it by 2013. But, if a student fails in exams then the duration of the course gets extended as the student will have to clear all the exams before getting degree. Engineers Day 2018: Significance, Why is it celebrated? Different universities have different rules concerning the maximum limit that can be given to student to clear all pending exams. The court said the expenses incurred by the government during this period were manifold compared to the fees that he paid, said an India Today report. The Punjab and Haryana High Court also reportedly said not to waste its time. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 17:26 [IST] Delhi cops arrest 3 HDFC employees, 9 others for trying to withdraw Rs 5 crore from NRIs account Delhi court acquits AAP minister Satyendar Jain in case of rioting India oi-PTI New Delhi, Nov 27: Delhi's Patiala House Court acquitted Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday in 2013 obstructing public servants case. The court granted relief to Jain and 4 AAP volunteers noting that the witnesses in the case failed to identify them. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted the relief to Jain and four AAP volunteers, noting that the witnesses cited by the prosecution failed to identify Jain, his advocate Mohd Irshad said. Telangana Assembly polls 2018: Vanteru Pratap Reddy, contesting against CM Rao attempts, suicide Jain was arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly rioting and obstructing public servants from discharging their duty during the protest which was held after a reported rape incident. In its order, the court also observed that no public servant appeared before it to prove that he or she was obstructed by Jain from doing official duty. Police had booked Jain and others for various offences punishable under Indian Penal Code, including under sections147 (rioting), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions). PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 18:17 [IST] From terrorist to highly decorated soldier: A big salute to Lance Naik Wani India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Srinagar, Nov 27: He was a terrorist initially. However, he realised that this entire exercise was a futile one. He went on to become a highly decorated Armyman and on Sunday, he laid down his life battling terrorists. Lance Naik Nazir Ahmed Wani was martyred while battling terrorists at Shopian in Jammu and Kashmir. Six terrorists were killed in the operation. Sadly, Wani, once an ikhwan was martyred in the operation. An ikhwan is one who has been a terrorist, but has surrendered to become involved in counter insurgency operations. J&K: Jaish-e Mohammed terrorist gunned down by security forces in Pulwama Lance Naik Wani, began his career with the 162 Battalion of the Territorial Army in 2004. A highly decorated soldier, he had received the Sena Medal for gallantry in 2007. He had also received a bar to the Sena Medal in August this year. A resident of Cheki Ashmuji village in Kulgam, he is survived by his wife and two children. For this brave soldier, life came a full cycle. He was initially a terrorist, but over the years realised that violence was a futile exercise. He then surrendered and later became involved in counter-insurgency operations. On Monday, Lance Naik Wani's body was taken to his village. Draped in the Tricolur, he was given a 21 gun salute. The 38 year old soldier had been shot and injured during an operation at the Batagund village in Shopian on Sunday. He was evacuated to a hospital immediately, but succumbed to his injuries later. J&K: LeT, Hizbul commanders among 6 terrorists killed in Shopian encounter In this hour of grief, the Army stands in solidarity with the bereaved family of the martyr and remains committed to their dignity and well-being, the Army spokesperson said. The ADG PI, Indian Army on its Twitter handle said, General Bipin Rawat COAS & all ranks salute supreme sacrifice of Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, SM* & offer sincere condolences to the family. India May announce some financial assistance to the Maldives on President Solihs visit India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 27: India is likely to announce some special financial package to the Maldives where a pro-India government has recently taken over. A discussion in this regard has happened with the delegation of the Maldives which is here along with the foreign minister of the country Abdullah Shahid. The island nation is in the severe debt trap of China. The foreign minister is accompanied by finance minister Ibrahim Amir, economic development minister Faiyyaz Ismail and some other senior officials in the government, who are on a three-day visit to India. It has also been decided that the new president of the Maldives Muhammad Solih will visit India on December 17, 2018, and the Indian assistance will be announced during his visit to India India-Maldives to work for regional peace; visa norms to be made easy between the two countries This is to recall that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Maldives for the swearing-in ceremony of Muhammad Solih, the India PM invited him to India and it was decided that external affairs minister of the Maldives will visit India to decide about the detail of the programme. So the external affairs minister is here to discuss things in detail. Salih recently took over as President of the Maldives and during his meeting with Prime Minister in Male, he told the Indian PM that how the country is struggling with Chinese debt which is impacting the economy of the country. The Maldivian delegation had a meeting with India external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and various aspect of Indian assistance was discussed with him. They also met with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The old regime of the Maldives was in the complete influence of China but the Maldives is supposed to close ally of India. There were certain issues that needed to be addressed as the Maldives has its own advantage and China wants its influence there which is not good for India. It has already its presence in Sri Lanka and Pakistan to trouble India. Kartarpur: Euphoria alright, but Pak has given space to Referendum 2020 campaigners India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 27: There is euphoria no doubt after the decision on Kartarpur was made. However many are wary of the decision, although some say it could lead to a thaw in relations between India and Pakistan. The BJP has sounded a cautionary note over the possibility of the corridor being misused as a cover by the ISI. BJP leader RP Singh tweeted: "Hope @sherryontopp will confront his friend @ImranKhanPTI and tell him that opening of Kartarpur corridor cannot be used as a cover by ISI to help @sikhsforjustice to open office in Lahore for @referendum2020 as for Sikhs integrity of India is above everything else @SushmaSwaraj". Sidhu reaches Pakistan, says Kartarpur Corridor will erase enmity The biggest worry for the Indian agencies is that the decision came at a time, when Pakistan allowed campaigners of the Referendum 2020 to open an office in Lahore. A letter released by the legal advisor for SJF, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun states that the pro-Khalistan advocacy group, Sikhs for Justice said that several 100s of its campaigners have reached Pakistan to coordinate the Referendum 2020 campaign in the Nanjana Sahib during the ongoing 549th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Devji. The letter further said Referendum 2020 banners and Khalistan flags with the life size portrait of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale have been placed throughout the Nankana Sahib complex. "SJF will initiate the registration of votes of Referendum 2020 during the next years scheduled 550th birth celebrations at Kartarpur Sahib. A permanent office of he SJF will be established in Lahore to coordinate the registration of Referendum votes. Sushma Swaraj turns down Pakistan's invite for Sikh pilgrim corridor event The worry for the agencies is that the ISI would try and propagate among the pilgrims the need for a pro Khalistan movement. The ISI would also look to evoke sentiments, the agencies believe. The agencies also feel that the ISI and its agents would go all out to whip up passions. This becomes necessary for both the ISI and pro-Khalistan groups as the movement has failed to generate any great mass support. While on one hand, the ISI could build a terror infrastructure, they realise that no movement would take off as desired unless and until there is mass support and sympathy among the people. In this context, all efforts would be made to utilise the pilgrimage to Pakistan, an Intelligence Bureau officer informed OneIndia. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 16:17 [IST] Aryan Khan gets bail: Here is how Bollywood celebrates the release of Shah Rukh Khan's son Odisha outfit threatens to throw ink on Shah Rukh Khan for a film he did 17 years ago! India oi-Shubham Ghosh Bhubaneswar, Nov 27: A local outfit in Odisha has threatened to throw ink on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for it feels the man had portrayed emperor Ashoka in a bad light in his film by the same name that released way back in 2001. The outfit, called Kalinga Sena, has sought an apology from the 53-year-old actor and decided to throw ink at him and also show him black flags when he visits the Odisha capital next week. According to a report in PTI, the Kalinga Sena filed a complaint against Khan on November 1 alleging that the latter had hurt the sentiments of the Odia people and dishonoured the state's culture by showing the Kalinga war in a wrong light. Why was Shah Rukh Khan awarded at Davos? "We have made preparation to throw ink on the actor's face and show him black flag at any place from the airport to the stadium. Our activists will remain present all along the road where Khan is likely to visit," the outfit's press statement said. It also held a protest rally on November 11 where they burned the veteran actor's effigy. The film 'Asoka' featuring Kareena Kapoor besides Khan was based on the battle of Kalinga, one of the most violent ones in the history of India and which had changed heart of the emperor who then took to non-violence. Loveratri row: Right wing group announces Rs 5 lakh reward for thrashing Salman Khan The Odisha Police have meanwhile assured that steps will be taken to ensure full security to Khan, who is scheduled to attend the inaugural ceremony of the Men's Hockey World Cup at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, November 27. Khan also faced the wrath of a section of Sikhs who alleged that his upcoming film 'Zero' made a wrong depiction of their sacred 'kirpan', thereby hurting Sikh sentiments. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 10:43 [IST] Palaniswami asks PM Modi to rescind nod for DPR on Mekedatu dam India pti-PTI Chennai, Nov 27: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Tuesday urged the Centre to withdraw its permission to Karnataka for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a proposed balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project at Mekedatu across the Cauvery river. Bringing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's notice that the Central Water Commission has this month given its go-ahead to Karnataka for preparing a DPR, Palaniswami said Tamil Nadu had already opposed a feasibility report in the matter. The chief minister, in a letter to Modi, said he had urged him in September to stop any further processing of Karnataka's feasibility report to construct a balancing reservoir at Mekedatu. 'Rise Above Politics': Kamal Haasan to Pinarayi Vijayan on cyclone damage He added that he had also urged the prime minister to not give consent to any projects across the Cauvery without obtaining the prior concurrence of Tamil Nadu and other co-basin states. It was reiterated in a memorandum presented to him on October 8 as well, the chief minister said. Tamil Nadu had already conveyed to the Centre that Karnataka's feasibility report was not acceptable to it. "The proposal for reservoir is not just for drinking water alone as claimed by Karnataka, but to increase the extent of irrigation which is in clear violation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal Award," Palaniswami said. Telangana Assembly polls 2018: Vanteru Pratap Reddy, contesting against CM Rao attempts, suicide The CWC, without considering the genuine and justifiable objections of Tamil Nadu, has given permission to Karnataka to prepare the DPR for the Mekedatu project, he said. The CWC's action has caused apprehension among people as its decision will affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers who depend on the Cauvery water, he added. "I request you to kindly...instruct the CWC to forthwith withdraw the permission given to Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd of Karnataka for preparation of the DPR for Mekedatu project," the chief minister said, adding that he expected an immediate and positive reply. PTI PM Modi to open new campus of Ambedkar School of Economics University on Dec 6 Pakistan to invite PM Modi for SAARC Summit: Report India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Nov 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. The invitation comes after Pakistan invited Sushma Swaraj, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for Kartapur corridor ceremony. While addressing the Kashmir Conference in Islamabad, Dr Faisal recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two, reports Pakistan's Dawn News. He added that the premier, in his response to Modi's letter, had expressed Pakistan's openness to resolving all outstanding issues through dialogue with India. Reports indicated that India will pull out of 2018 SAARC summit that is to be hosted by Pakistan. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had recently told the media, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had very enthusiastically participated in the SAARC summit held at Kathmandu, however, given the current situation, where cross-border terrorism is destabilising the region, it was difficult to proceed with such initiatives. Pakistan has been making efforts to host the summit, which was to be initially held in November 2016. However, in a synchronised move in September that year, India, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh informed the Saarc secretariat that its leaders would be unable to attend, citing almost similar reasons. The four countries had linked regional cooperation to an atmosphere free of terror - meaning that Pakistan should stop sponsoring terrorism which is destabilising the region and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. The protocol of the SAARC summit dictates that the summits be held as per member's alphabetical order. The 20th SAARC summit was actually to be held in Sri Lanka this year. SC wants West Bengal Assembly Speaker to decide on disqualification of BJP MLA Mukul Roy SC refuses to postpone Tripura municipal elections: 'If we do it then it will set a wrong precedent' This is the national capital, what message are we sending: SC on Delhi air pollution Rape case against Tarun Tejpal: SC adjourns matter for three weeks India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Nov 27: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the case for three weeks after Goa government sought deferment of the matter. Tejpal was accused of rape by one of his junior colleagues on November 7, 2013. She alleged that Tejpal assaulted her in the elevator of the Grand Hyatt in Panaji, where Tehelka was holding its annual Think Fest. Tejpal arrived at Goa from Delhi on November 30, where he was denied anticipatory bail and arrested by the police. He was lodged in the Sada sub-jail in Goa's Vasco. He was charged with rape, sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of his colleague on February 17, 2014. Complete Tarun Tejpal's trial within a year: SC tells Goa court On 1 July 2014, the Supreme Court granted him bail. After years of delay, the trial against the Tehelka's former editor-in-chief finally started in Goa's Mapusa in February this year. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 15:46 [IST] RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent for 8th time in a row PM Modi launches RBI Retail Direct, Integrated Ombudsman schemes: All you need to know Urjit Patel attends Parliamentary standing committee meeting, says demonetisaion effect temporary India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Nov 27: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel will on Tuesday attended the Parliamentary standing committee meeting. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the impact of demonetisation, said reports. A PTI report while quoting sources said issues related to November 2016 demonetisation of old Rs 500/1000 notes, reforms in the RBI, stressed assets in the banking system, and state of the economy, were listed as agenda items of the 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. Reports say that Patel told the committee that effects of the demonetisation are temporary. The panel is also said to have asked Patel about RBI's autonomy. The RBI governor will file a detailed report on the issues raised within next 10 days. Other issues like mounting NPAs, administrative reforms and impact of demonetisation on farmers are also likely to be discussed. Government, RBI set for truce; Urjit Patel unlikely to quit: Reports Last week, the RBI's Central Board met in Mumbai and discussed the Basel regulatory capital framework, a restructuring scheme for stressed MSMEs, bank health under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework and the Economic Capital Framework (ECF) of RBI. In today's meeting, Patel is expected to apprise the Parliamentary standing committee regarding the impact of demonetisation on Indian economy. Committee for RBI's capital framework to be formed within a week The meeting comes amid stand-off of sorts between the RBI and government. The government feels that the MSME sector which employs about 12 crore people plays a critical role in the economy, and the sector hit by demonetisation and implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) needs support. However, the central bank has been averse to government demand for special dispensations for MSME and NBFC sectors as it consider them vulnerable. Recalling 2013 Madhya Pradesh polls: Chouhan becomes CM for 3rd time, Congress puts up abysmal show India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Nov 27: With polling for the 230 seats Madhya Pradesh assembly set to be held tomorrow, it is worth recalling what happened in the previous 2013 elections in the state. The previous Madhya Pradesh assembly elections were on November, 25, 2013 and the result was announced on 8 December. The BJP registered a thumping win the 2013 elections by bagging 165 of the 230 seats in the state. The Congress party got a drubbing in the state by winning only 58 seats in the 230-member Assembly. The win paved way for Shivraj Singh Chouhan to become Chief Minister of the state for the third consecutive time. The BJP bettered its performance in 2013 when compared to 2008, but the number of seats won by the saffron party remained less than what it had in 2003 when it won 173 out of 230 seats. The Congress, on the other hand, won 13 seats less in 2013 assembly elections compared to 2008 when it won 71 seats. Campaigning ends in Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram The seats won by BJP in 2003, 2008 and 2013 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections were 173, 143 and 165, respectively. The seats won by the Congress in 2003, 2008 and 2013 were 38, 71 and 58, respectively. In 2013, both BJP and the Congress increased their vote shares. The BJP recorded a vote share percentage of 44.87 %, surpassing its previous high of 42.5% in 2003. The Congress recorded an increase of 3.97% in its vote share. Madhya Pradesh elections 2013: Final Tally Performance of Major Political Parties in 2013 Performance of Major Political Parties Seats Won Vote Share BJP 165 44.88% INC 58 36.38% BSP 04 6.29% NCP 00 0.29% SP 00 1.20% CPI 00 0.15% NOTA - Campaigning in 2013: Shivraj Singh Chouhan led the campaigning for the BJP in 2013. The BJP had already declared Narendra Modi, who was then the Gujarat Chief Minister, as their Prime Ministerial candidate for 2014 LoK Sabha polls. For Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia played an important role in the campaigning with Rahul Gandhi also addressing several rallies. Shivraj Singh Chouhan used 3D Virtual Live Technology to address various rallies simultaneously from one place. This technology was previously used by the Narendra Modi during Gujarat legislative assembly election, 2012. BJP extensively campaigned on social media including Twitter and Facebook to attract young and first time voters. Chouhan contested from two seats Vidisha and Budhni, and won from both seats. Chouhan won from Budhni by 84,805 votes, the second highest margin in MP, by defeating Congress candidate Mahendra Singh Chouhan. However, in Vidisha he faced a tough fight from Congress' Shashank Bhargava and won by only 16,996 vote gap. After Congress' defeats, Scindia, who was the chairman of the state Congress Poll Campaign Committee, took onus of the defeat said, "I have taken upon myself the responsibility for the party's defeat and I stand by it." In MP polls, BJP fields most richest candidates, Cong has more with criminal background Challenges in 2018: Although Chouhan has been in power for three terms and seeking a fourth term this team, there are several pressing issues in the state that need to be addressed. Law and order remains a major problem, and Madhya Pradesh tops in terms of rape cases. Farmer problems are also a concern with a large number of farmers under debt. Electricity and water problems are also major issues in some parts of the state. Madhya Pradesh in numbers: State Madhya Pradesh Capital Bhopal No. of Districts 52 No. of Assembly Constituencies 230 Total Population 7.2 crore Urban Population 2.0 crore Rural Population 5.2 crore GDP (2018-19) Rs 8.26 lakh crore Literacy (2011) 72.60% Sex ratio (2011) 931 Current Ruling Party BJP Total No. of Voters 5,03,34,260 No. of Polling Stations 65,341 Madhya Pradesh population (Religionwise): Religious data Description Population Percentage Hindu 66,007,121 90.89 % Muslim 4,774,695 6.57 % Other Religion 599,594 0.83 % Jain 567,028 0.78 % Buddhist 216,052 0.30 % Christian 213,282 0.29 % Sikh 151,412 0.21 % Not Available 97,625 0.13 % For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 12:04 [IST] Recalling Mizoram elections 2013: Will Congress beat anti-incumbency this time? India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Nov 27: With polling for the 40 seats Mizoram assembly set to be held tomorrow, it is worth recalling what happened in the previous 2013 elections in the north eastern state. In 2013, Congress swept the polls by winning 34 of the 40 seats in the Mizoram Assembly. The MNF, which had fielded candidates from 31 constituencies, had bagged five seats, and the Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) got one. In the 2008 election, the Congress won 32 seats, while the MNF won only three, the MPC won two , the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) won two, and the Maraland Democratic Front (MDF) bagged one. Mizoram elections 2013: The election for 40 seats legislative assembly was held on November 25, 2013. There were 6.9 lakh eligible voters. There were total 142 candidates including 40 Congress and 40 Mizoram Democratic Alliance (MDA) candidates. MDA candidates include 31 Mizo National Front (MNF), 8 Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) and one Maraland Democratic Front (MDF) candidates. 38 Zoram Nationalist Party, 17 Bharatiya Janata Party, 2 Nationalist Congress Party and one Jai Maha Bharath Party candidate also contested. Mizoram in numbers: State Mizoram Capital Aizawl No. of Districts 8 No. of Assembly Constituencies 40 Total Population 10.9 Lakh Urban Population 5.6 lakh Rural Population 52 lakh GDP (2018-19) Rs 11,458 crore Literacy (2011) 91.58% Sex ratio (2011) 976 Current Ruling Party CONG Total No. of Voters 7,68,181 No. of Polling Stations 1,164 With the MNF vying for a comeback in the 28 November election, one can expect a neck-and-neck contest between the regional party and Congress. If we look at the past two elections, the Congress got hold of the highest number of seats in state Assembly, but the difference in the vote shares between the two was not much. While 2,55,917 voters (44.63 percent of the total) across constituencies voted for the Congress in 2013, the MNF got 1,64,305 votes (28.65 percent) overall. In 2008, the margin was even smaller - the Congress had captured a total of 1,95,614 (38.89 percent) votes, while the MNF had secured a total of 1,54,132 votes (30.65 percent). Campaigning ends in Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram If the Congress wins once again, Lal Thanhawla is likely to return as the chief minister for a third term and hold the party's fort in the region. Mizoram population (Religionwise): Religious data Description Population Percentage Christian 956,331 87.16 % Buddhist 93,411 8.51 % Hindu 30,136 2.75 % Muslim 14,832 1.35 % Not Available 1,026 0.09 % Other Religion 808 0.07 % Jain 376 0.03 % Sikh 286 0.03 % For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 14:19 [IST] Senior Congress leaders concerned about promises made by state Congress chief Kamal Nath India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 27: The Congress has left nothing to woo voters of Madhya Pradsh by making all kinds of promises despite the fact that state is under heavy debt. Now the senior leaders of the party are concerned that how the will promises made by the Congress be fulfilled. Actually Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath has made lots of promises on twitter after the manifesto of the Congress, which was named as Vachan Patra, was announced. Senior leaders of the Congress got to know about some of the promises made by him on twitter only. Weekly off to policemen is one such promise on which even party insiders are astonished because the state is already facing shortage of police personal and on top of that crime graph of the state is quite high. So how will this be managed? The state Congress president has promised recruiting 50 thousand police personals. Looking at the financial condition of the state, it is difficult to bear such a huge burden but even if it goes ahead with its plans of recruiting one forth of its promise, it will take two to three years to complete recruitment, training and deployment. Similarly the promise made by him to make all temporary workers permanent is also difficult to comply with. Amisha Patel, who hailed Modi while campaigning for Congress in 2014, seeks vote for BJP in MP Kamal Nath has also promised to make all Aganwadi workers, their assistants and Asha workers involved in health services permanent. They are in thousands and none of the states in the country has made these workers serving on stipend as permanent. Kamal Nath has also made a promise to absorb such temporary workers who have been removed from the job. He has also promised making all contractual teachers permanent besides increasing the old age pension and stipend for physically challenged three times from Rs 300 per month to Rs 1000. Campaigning ends in Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram He has already said to waive off loans of women self help groups and loans of farmers not only from banks but also of the cooperative society. All medical colleges will be made super specialty hospitals and all these promises are also made by him only. It is also said that there will be separate centers for bypass, angioplasty and diabetes. He has also promised costly treatment at private hospitals will be done at the state government's expanses. Kamal Nath promised to make 12 hour electricity available at half rate. So lots of promises when the government has a debt of Rs 187,639 crore and salary of employees is somehow managed. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 10:07 [IST] Sidhus moves to harm not only Punjab, the Congress but also Indias fight against terrorism India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 27: Minister in the Capt Amarinder Singh government of Punjab, Navjot Singh Sidhu has reached Pakistan to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor to be done by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan but he failed to make it to the stone laying ceremony at Dera Baba Nanak despite being present there. Sidhu watched Gurudwara Kartarpur Saheb from the telescope from Dera Baba Nanak but did not participate in the programme. Political circle in India is abuzz with talks about Sidhu not participating in the stone laying despite claiming all credits for the opening of this corridor. Punjab chief minister Capt Amrinder Singh refused to go to Pakistan to attend the same programme by saying in no uncertain terms that Pakistan-sponsored terrorists are killing Indian soldiers and people so there is no point for him attending it. So has been the case with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj politely refusing to visit Pakistan, however, Indian stand is clear on Pakistan. Sidhu reaches Pakistan, defends hugging Qamar Bajwa Despite controversy had erupted on Sidhu hugging Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa but he defended his decision by saying that this is a Punjabi way of showing affection towards anyone. He has gone a notch further to say that he did not do a Rafale. However, another proud Punjabi and his chief minister refused to go to Pakistan. Sidhu termed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan an angel for allowing this corridor. Sidhu also claimed that Bajwa assured him of Kartarpur Corridor during his visit to Pakistan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan. India May announce some financial assistance to the Maldives on President Solih's visit The government of India might have some diplomatic compulsion to respond to Pakistn and deputed Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri to attend it but what compulsion Sidhu has to visit Pakistan except pleasing Imran Khan for nothing. Sidhu is well aware that a couple of days back a terrorist incident took place in Punjab for which the CM directly held Pakistan responsible and Sidhu being part of the same government is visiting the land from where terrorists came. So a new controversy is here to erupt for sure. But people close to Sidhu have been arguing that he did not attend the programme at Dera Baba Nank because Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsimrat Kaur Badal were present and animosity for a family has been such that Sidhu preferred hobnobbing with people and the country responsible for killing innocent lives in India. The argument and alibi are beyond comprehension that to teach someone a lesson such action is taken. It is in the public knowledge that due to the Badal family, he was forced to part ways with the BJP. But the BJP tried to placate him by every means including nominating him to Rajya Sabha that he refused to accept. Sidhu responded by saying that he was not invited by the government for the programme and second he had to address rallies in Madhya Pradesh. But whatever the reasons and argument Sidhu have, his hatred for a particular family has forced to behave irresponsibly which is also against the interest of the state and nation and people with public life such decisions always have a long lasting impact. He justifications and arguments that hugging Bajwa is not akin to Rafale suits Pakistan and they are enjoying Sidhu's move. But this is not only likely to harm him politically but also to the Congress if not in Amritsar then the rest of the country for sure. It is also harming the country when India has almost alienated Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism and the US offered every support to India in this regard. Hope Sidhu will understand that Indo-Pakistan relations a serious issue not a laughter show! For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 21:52 [IST] Soon, lawmakers will be disqualified for amassing disproportionate assets India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 27: If all goes according to plan, lawmakers could face disqualification if their assets increase in a disproportionate manner. The Centre is mulling a law that would make lawmakers liable for disqualification if there is a disproportionate increase in their assets as members of Parliament of state legislatures. 'What is the status of NCTC, NATGRID?,' Chidambaram asks PM A meeting of senior officials from both Houses of Parliament, the Centre and Election Commission pat from 20 state legislatures was held to discuss the issue. The meeting was held in the wake of the Supreme Court directing the creation of a permanent institutional mechanism to monitor the assets of lawmakers and their associates. The court had also suggested appropriate action if there was a disproportionate rise in assets. The major point of contention however was the no compliance rule. While lawmakers are required to declare their assets and liabilities following the election, there is no provision to ensure compliance. Moreover there is no provision or rule to disqualify members for the acquisition of disproportionate assets. Manmohan Singh's advice to PM Modi: 'Set example with your conduct' In order to bring about a law to this effect there would have to be an amendment to the Representation of People Act 1951, which would have to make acquisition of disproportionate assets a ground for disqualification. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 6:40 [IST] Telangana elections: Karimnagar not impressed by Yogi Adityanath, BJP down to 1 from 5 Telanagana Election: KCR 'insecure', walking on Congress path, says PM Modi India oi-Deepika S Hyderabad, Nov 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi took on caretaker chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, saying that he had not kept the promises he had made to the people of the state. In a direct attack on the TRS chief, Modi said KCR believes that just like the Congress did not undertake any development work but still managed to retain power at the Centre, year after year for nearly half a decade, he would also be able to "do nothing" and yet win the Assembly polls. Telangana elections: Naidu set to hit campaign trail with Rahul Gandhi "But he must know that the youth of the state are aware of the ground realities," the prime minister added. "Telangana was formed after several years of struggle and sacrifices of the youth, and the state government does not have the right to destroy that sacrifice," he said. Seeking accountability from the current government, PM Modi said, "It's been 4.5 years since the state was formed. The upcoming elections is the time to ask the current government what they have done until now. Ask for every minute's and every rupee's accountability." "Even after 5 years of KCR government, people of Telangana do not have access to drinking water which they had promised. They had said they would provide Godavari water, and if they are unable to provide, they would not contest the next elections. Are they true to their promise?" Modi said attacking the Telangana government. "Ayushmaan Bharat was launched two months ago, 3 lakh families have availed its benefits. Serious operations have been done, people's lives have been saved. Yet, not a single person from Telangana availed its benefits, your CM is responsible for it,"the prime minister said. This is the second time Modi is visiting Telangana since its formation. In August 2016, he inaugurated KCR's favorite Mission Bhageeratha scheme that aims to provide drinking water to every household. Modi will also address a rally at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in Hyderabad next on December 3, BJP Telangana unit chief K Laxman said recently. Party chief Amit Shah had on Sunday undertook a whirlwind tour of Telangana and addressed four public meetings. He attacked the TRS for failing to fulfil its election promises and "appeasing Muslims" under its ally Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)'s influence, singling out a state government proposal to give 12% quota to Muslims. "The CM and his party are like this only... incomplete promises, incomplete projects and an incomplete tenure... everything is incomplete. Will you believe in such a government?," he said. "It's good that they announced an early election in the state. At least you will be free of your problems earlier," he said. He will again address meetings on November 28 and December 2. Major political parties yet to launch manifesto for Telangana polls Besides the PM, a battery of BJP cabinet ministers and leaders including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP President Amit Shah Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Telecommunication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal, actor Hema Malini and several others would be campaigning in Telangana. Telangana will go to polls on December 7, the results will be declared on December 11. TMC plans to build 10 Sun temples in Bengal's Hindi heartland Asansol India oi-PTI Kolkata, Nov 27: The Trinamool Congress is mulling construction of 10 Sun temples in Asansol area of south Bengal to peddle its "soft Hindutva" brand and take the wind out of the BJP's sails in the state ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Mayor of Asansol Municipal Corporation, Jitendra Kumar Tiwari is at the forefront of construction of the temples in his area which is likely to be completed before next year's 'Chhath' puja. In addition to increasing outreach among the majority community members, the TMC's efforts also appear to be guided by its endeavour to further endear itself with the migrant Hindi speaking population from Bihar and Jharkhand in the region which has five Lok Sabha constituencies. "In this area of Durgapur-Asansol, there is a huge Hindi speaking population. Every year, we witness large number of devotees during Chhath Puja. In order to cater to them, we have decided to build 10 sun temples in the area," Tiwari, who is also the chairman of Chhath Puja Coordination Committee, told PTI. The designs of the temples would be ready by December and the construction will cost around Rs. 2 crore, Tiwari, who is also a TMC MLA from the West Burdwan district, said. "We have already started mobilizing funds from the locals for the construction of the temples. We have formed temple committees in different areas to raise funds. The Asansol Municipal Corporation will provide infrastructure support such as roads and electricity," he said. Asansol-Durgapur belt has been one of the most politically and communally volatile regions in the state since 2014 Lok Sabha polls, which witnessed a surprising victory of BJP's Babul Supriyo. Earlier, in March-April of this year, Asansol in West Burdwan district witnessed communal riots over Ram Navami celebrations. The TMC's temple building exercise is being seen as its bid to check the saffron party's growth, which has made steady inroads in the region since Mr Supriyo's victory. The decision to construct the temples comes at a time when the BJP has registered phenomenal growth in Bengal politics by championing the cause of Hindus and labelling TMC as a party more "keen on appeasing Muslims". The BJP, which has fixed a target to win 22 seats in Bengal, is also set to start its three 'rath yatras' in Bengal from December 7 covering all the 42 Lok Sabha seats of the state. However, a senior TMC leader and MP, on the condition of anonymity said, the party and the state government works for every caste and religion. "We are aware that 10 sun temples are coming up in Asansol. The allegations of TMC practising soft Hindutva are completely baseless. We respect each and every religion. We don't believe in communal politics of BJP," the TMC leader told PTI. TMC sources admitted that the temples would endear the party to the Hindi speaking migrants in the region as Chhath festival-- to worship sun god-- is close to their hearts. The Asansol-Durgapur belt and parts of Birbhum and Purulia, which share its border with Jharkhand, is known as the Hindi heartland of Bengal due to presence of considerable Hindi speaking population. A majority of the population in the area are migrant labourers from Bihar and Jharkhand who work in factories there. Despite Tiwari maintaining that the temples had nothing to do with elections or politics, TMC insiders said the initiative would have a "positive" impact on the 2019 polls. "BJP has been trying to increase its footprint in the area by trying to pitch themselves as champions of Hindutva and saviours of Hindus. So we want to reach out to the masses of the area, especially Hindi speaking people, with the message that we respect all religions," said a senior TMC leader. The construction of temples in the areas will send out a strong message to the majority population in the adjoining districts and also tribal areas, which comprises nearly 5-6 Lok Sabha seats that the BJP is eyeing in next Lok Sabha polls, said another TMC leader. However, the opposition Congress and CPI(M) alleged that the TMC was "peddling soft hindutva" to nullify Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) "pro-Hindu" agenda. From organising 'purohit sammelan' (congregation of Hindu priests) to Haunuman Jayanti, Ram Navami celebrations and more recently providing Rs. 10,000 each to 28,000 Durga puja pandals across the state, the TMC has been charting a course of "soft Hindutva" to take the wind out of BJP's sails, said CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty. State Congress president Somen Mitra went on to blame TMC's communal politics as the main reason for the rise of the BJP and its mentor the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Bengal. However, the BJP said that it was due to the "fear psychosis" of the saffron party, that the TMC was forced to shift its stance from "Muslim appeasement to temple construction". "It is really good to see that the TMC has changed its political strategy from minority appeasement to construction of temples due to the fear of BJP. The TMC is doing it with an eye on next year's Lok Sabha polls," local MP and Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries, Babul Supriyo said. BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said if the TMC was so keen on building temples, then it should come out with a clear stand on the issue of construction of Ram Temple in Ayodha. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 16:14 [IST] US and India to join hands to further alienate Pakistan for supporting terrorism India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 27: The way Pakistan continues to defend perpetrators of terrorism especially those involved in 26/11 Mumbai attack, both the United States and India have raised objection over Pakistan's stand of ignoring the issue and not bringing such people to book. This stand of Pakistan will invite serious troubles for it. The US and India have indicated that they might try to reign in Pakistan with the help of United Nations and force it to control organisations like Lashkar e Toiba and others in its territory. Sources said that Pakistan is alienated due to its policy on terrorism and despite undergoing serious financial crisis none is coming forward to help it. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already refused it, China's terms and conditions for loan are very tough and that are making them slaves of the country and Saudi Arabia agreed to provide some amount to save itself from alienation. In such a situation banking on China and ignoring rest of the world might proved to be fatal for Pakistan. Jehadi attack in Pakistan, a wake up call for China Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan indirectly cocked a snook at the US President Donald Trump in a veiled attack who accused Islamabad of not helping the US in its fight against terrorism that 'war on terror' as an "imposed war" on Pakistan and Pakistan would never fight such a war inside the country. So there is a clear indication of Pakistan not taking any action on terrorism. National Security Adviser (NSA) of both the countries had discussed the matter and may discuss it further when need be that how to go about it as all attempts made by the international community is foiled by China to support Pakistan. US Secretary of State Mike Popio tweeted by expressing his sympathy towards the six US national killed in 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai and expressed condolence towards the families of other 160 people killed in the attack. People involved in this incidence have not yet been punished even after 10 years of the incidence. He asked all the countries to take appropriate action on organisations like Laskar e Toiba who failed to do much in this regard so far. He specifically named Pakistan. This is for the first time that the US has taken such a tough stand on Mumbai terrorist attack and issued such statement naming Pakistan. 26/11: Cops were afraid, let Kasab and accomplice flee from railway station External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj welcomed the decision of the US secretary of stat and asked Pakistan to take tough measures on terrorists roaming free in Pakistan. As per external affairs ministry, NSAs of the both the countries had discussed the matter recently. Pakistan has always been taking dual stand on terrorism and has always been diverting the issue. External affairs ministry has always been of the view that from conspiracy to execution, everything was done by Pakistan and even former PM of Pakistan recently accepted that they were sent from Pakistan. The government of India requested Pakistan to get rid of its present policy of duality on terrorism and must work to get perpetrators of terrorism to book. It is their international obligation that justice must be given to people killed in the attack and India is constantly trying for it. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 11:44 [IST] Veteran journalist Radhakrishnan Nair dies at 54; Tributes pour in India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Nov 27: Veteran journalist Radhakrishnan Nair passed away in the wee hours of Tuesday at the age of 54. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. Born in 1964, he was the eldest of four siblings. Nair moved out of Kerala for opportunities in Delhi and worked in United News of India (UNI) for a few years before shifting to television journalism. He joined CNN News18 in 2006 and was promoted as Managing Editor of CNN-IBN in 2014. Radhakrishnan has worked for DD, BBC and also Sony before joining CNN. He made a remarkable presence in the field of journalism while working for UNI and CNBC. He has been in the field for more than 25 years. Condolences poured in for Nair on Twitter with Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Suresh Prabhu also expressing sorrow over his untimely demise. Saddened by the demise of Shri Radhakrishnan Nair, an outstanding journalist and a pleasant human being. May God render peace to the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family. Om Shanti. Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) November 27, 2018 Really sad to know of untimely passing away of my dear friend Radhakrishna Nair, sr Journalist ,very good human being, veteran in his field.We all will always miss him.Condolences to his family Om Shanti #RadhakrishnanNair Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) November 27, 2018 One of the finest human beings I have had the privilege to work with, our managing editor when I was at CNN IBN, Radhakrishnan Nair passed away this morning. Please do keep him and his family in your prayers. RIP Radha my friend.. will miss you. Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) November 27, 2018 For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 11:15 [IST] VHP says, lots of talks have been done on Ram Temple, now it is time to deliver India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 27: Buoyant by the success of November 25 rallies in Ayodhya and many other places in the country, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is exerting its full strength to make December 9 rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi even a bigger success in terms of number of people attending it. They are expecting around five lakh people to join the Delhi Dharm Sabha. Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesperson Vinod Bansal told Oneindia, "See around 16.5 crore people have so far participated in the Ram temple movement since 1984 during the various course of the movement and campaign taken by the VHP and not a single incidence was reported to be provoked by Ram Bhakts where they turned violent. You must understand that they are not a crown but Ram Bhakt who are demanding construction of temple of Lord Ram at his birth place. There has not been a single incidence when even a wrong comment was passed by them on anyone. Everything has been peaceful so far and will always be peaceful as they are sticking to their cause only." Now, VHP will have six similar and simultaneous rallies across the country But there is slight change in their stand that they don't want to be taken for granted anymore when Bansal said, "So far, we have been saying that this is the government of Ram Bhakts. There was a slogan that Jo Janmabhoomi ki Baat Karega, Wahi Desh Par Raj Karega (Those who talks about birthplace of Lord Ram, they will rule the country) but there is slight change that Baat (talk) has been replaced with Kaj (work). As lots of talks have been done not, now it is the time to deliver. Not a single traitor to the cause of Lord Ram will be able to step up stairs of Parliament. So leaders irrespective of party lines must understand that nothing will happen without Lord Ram." Bansal said that People from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi will come to attend the Dharm Sabha. The VHP is getting a good feedback and before that big Dharm Sabha is organised, around 200 small Dharm Sabha is planned in Delhi to invite people to come to attend December 9 Dharm Sabha. The same is happening outside Delhi for the mass mobilisation. Top brass of Sangh Pariwar pitch for construction of Ram Temple from different places "We are inviting people with Akshat (rice) and Moli (sacred band) and they will offer these things to Lord Ram at the venue of Dharm Sabha. This was on the instruction from saints and the crowd will be unprecedented. This will be a clear message for the government as winter session is scheduled from December 11. So the government must step in for this," added Bansal. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 12:51 [IST] Climate change: US President Trump rejects his own administrations report International oi-Shubham Ghosh Washington, Nov 27: US President Donald Trump on Monday, November 26, discarded projections that climate change will cause severe hardships to the American economy, thereby dumping findings by a report that Washington itself published last week. According to the report www.globalchange.gov mandated by the Congress, the phenomenon of climate change will cost the US economy billions of USD by end of the current century. The mercurial president, however, is not convinced. When an 18-year-old Assam girl taught US President Trump a lesson on global warming Speaking to the media at the White House, Trump said he read some parts of the report but didn't believe it. The report came out on Black Friday, the day after Thankgiving when Americans traditionally go shopping and as per Trump's critics, it was deliberately done at the moment to minimise the impact. In 2017, Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 Paris climate deal, making it the first country to do so. US's industrial carbon emissions slipped 2.7 per cent last year as use of natural and renewable energy rose but according to Trump's critics, the withdrawal from the global deal meant the US ceded the leadership to others in the fight to curb climate change. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 8:58 [IST] Jehadi attack in Pakistan, a wake up call for China International oi-Madhuri Adnal By Brig Arun Bajpai Two jehadi attacks in Pakistan on Friday 23 November, within few hours, should at least now wake up China that if it continued its un mitigated support to Pakistan on its cross border jehadi activities then its own CPEC will be in trouble. Having committed to spend 47 billion dollars in Pakistan in CEPC, can China afford to continue helping Pakistan in world forums like UN to shield Pakistani army and its ISI of using its sponsored jehadis against India and Afghanistan with impunity? First jehadi attack was launched in Pakistan on 23 November 2018, in Oakajee Tribal Area of Pakistan in Khaiber Pakhtunkhwa Province by a remote operated bomb, placed in a motorcycle, with main target being Shia Muslims of Pakistan, a minority. A total of 32 people were killed including three children and 40 wounded. OK this can be set aside for a time being because these types of attacks on minority Shias in Pakistan by Sunni majority Jehadi terror organisations, keep on happening as a routine. This will not please the Shia majority Iran, the next-door neighbour of Pakistan. However, what should shock both Pakistan and China are the jehadi attack in Karachi town of Pakistan a few hours later, that also in posh Clifton Area of Pakistan, launched by Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), a jehadi organisation against China building CEPC in 3000 km length of Baluchistan. . This attack was aimed directly at the Chinese Consulate by the Baluchistan Liberation Army, who have taken its responsibility. The three jehadis involved killed two policemen and two civilians, before they themselves were shot dead. The objective of this attack, as stated by Shahid Mehmood Qureshi the foreign minister of Pakistan was, to scare the Chinese who are coming to Pakistan for investment and construction of CEPC, mostly in Baluchistan. This attack happened just three weeks after Pakistani PM Imran Khan had visited China, assuring China that Pakistan will do utmost to the security and welfare of Chinese workers involved in this construction of CEPC in Baluchistan. Condemning this jehadi attack, Pakistani Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has made a statement that both China and Pakistan together will defeat these nefarious activities of jehadis. Does he mean that now China also will place its troops on Pakistani soil in Baluchistan, to protect its persons working for CEPC? If this happens, it will be like showing red flag to BLA and other Baluch terror groups wanting independence from Pakistan. This road and rail network being laid in Baluchistan under CEPC, for 3000 kms by China, is too long to protect when Baluch population is against this. Earlier the BLA spokesperson Jihand Baluch had said that we see Chinese as oppressors along with Pakistani Army. he said that they have now created a separate fedayeen group, a Majeed Brigade to carry out suicide raids against Pakistani Army and Chinese targets. He said objective of our attacks are clear, we will not tolerate Chinese military expansionist endeavours. This is an ominous development for china. There is no protection from suicide attacks any where in the world. So, when Chinese will start dying their enthusiasm to build CPEC will start diminishing. Pakistan has used such ham-handed methods in dealing with Baluch and has committed such atrocities there that now they will not be able to retain Baluchistan for long. Karachi attack: China asks Pakistan to take 'practical measures' Here in lies the opportunity for India. Pakistan is crying hoarse that India is helping Baluchistan in ceding from Pakistan. Jury is still out whether it is just Pakistani propaganda or India is actually doing it. If India is not doing it then it must start helping Baluchistan in the same way as Pakistan is interfering in Kashmir. This is the only language Pakistan understands. Of course, India must always be in denial mode like Pakistan on Kashmir. It is also being said in Pakistan that America is also against CPEC and is quietly scuttling this project. if it is true then India and America should join hands in scuttling CEPC and enabling resource rich, mineral rich Baluchistan to cede from Pakistan. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 10:29 [IST] After Pak allows access, India says yet to decide on opening Kartarpur Corridor Sidhu reaches Pakistan, defends hugging Qamar Bajwa International oi-Vikas SV Lahore, Nov 27: Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday reached Pakistan to attend the ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor which will be held tomorrow. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the groundbreaking ceremony of the facilities at on the Pakistan side on November 28. Sidhu entered Pakistan by crossing crosses Attari-Wagah border in Punjab. Sidhu was invited by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to attend groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor on 28th November. Sidhu's decision to visit Pakistan his 'way of thinking', says CM Amarinder "This is a corridor of infinite possibilities, of peace, of prosperity, of opening up of trade relations. I feel that this corridor will be a bridge and erase enmity. It will increase people to people contact and bring peace. It is my belief that there are possibilities in it," he told the media is Lahore. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will not visit Pakistan to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims. She had been invited by her counterpart Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Thanking Qureshi, Swaraj said Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri will travel to Pakistan instead. The hug(with Pakistan Army Chief) was for hardly a second, it was not a #RafaleDeal . When two Punjabis meet they hug each other, its normal practice in Punjab.: Navjot Sidhu in Lahore pic.twitter.com/zZemyh0qls ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2018 A long-pending demand of the Sikh community to build a religious corridor linking India's border district of Gurdaspur with a historic gurudwara in Pakistan is set to be fulfilled with both the countries announcing that they would develop the stretch. Sushma Swaraj turns down Pakistan's invite for Sikh pilgrim corridor event In August, Sidhu's visit to Pakistan for Khan's swearing-in had come under fire from opposition parties for his hug to Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. Sidhu had claimed that Gen Bajwa had told him about "making efforts to open the Kartarpur corridor". US bombers halt flying over Korean Peninsula to help peace process International oi-Shubham Ghosh Washington, Nov 27: American bombers are no longer conducting flights over South Korea after Seoul sought to pause such missions, a US general said on Monday, November 26, according to an AFP report. Charles Brown, head of US Pacific Air Forces, told reporters at Pentagon that the mission was halted to allow the ongoing diplomatic efforts addressing the nuclear activities of North Korea have some space. "As we're going through the diplomatic aspect, we don't want to actually do something that's going to derail the diplomatic negotiations," Brown was quoted as saying. "So that's part of the reason why we're not doing (flights) over Korea." Chennai RSS HQ bombing: Prime accused nabbed after 24 years The US maintains bomber planes like B-1B, B-52 and B-2 on its territory in Guam since 2004 under its "Continuous Bomber Presence Mission". These planes are used for conducting flights over the region, also with ally nations like Japan, South Korea and Australia may a times, for asserting a strong military presence against North Korea and other potential foes. The US, however, hasn't affected the number of flights even though it has stopped flying over the Korean Peninsula. As the current year has seen a series of diplomatic measures to establish peace in the Korean Peninsula and the isolationist regime of Kim Jong-un of North Korea has reached out to countries like US, South Korea and China, there has been a scaling down of joint military drills between Washington and Seoul, especially in the wake of the historic summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in June. Trump had said after that meeting in Singapore that the US would stop holding joint exercise with South Korea - something her called expensive and "very provocative". US stands with India in its quest for justice for 26/11: Donald Trump US Defence Secretary James Mattis said last week that the US and South Korea are also reducing the scope of their joint drill scheduled in 2019 named "Foal Eagle", the report added. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Scientists have discovered that semiconducting molecules with unpaired electrons, termed 'radicals' can be used to fabricate very efficient organic-light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), exploiting their quantum mechanical 'spin' property to overcome efficiency limitations for traditional, non-radical materials. Radicals are usually noted for their high chemical reactivity and often detrimental effects, from human health to the ozone layer. Now radical-based OLEDs could form the basis for next-generation displays and lighting technologies. The team from the University of Cambridge and Jilin University describe how stabilised radicals form electronic states known as 'doublets', on account of the spin character being either 'up' or 'down.' Running electricity through these radical-based OLEDs leads to the formation of bright-doublet excited states which emit deep-red light with near-100% efficiency. For traditional compounds (i.e. non-radicals without an unpaired electron), quantum-mechanical-spin considerations dictate that charge injection forms 25% bright-'singlet' and 75% dark-'triplet' states in OLED operation. Radicals pose an elegant solution to this fundamental spin problem which has troubled researchers ever since the development of OLEDs from the 1980s. Dr Emrys Evans, a lead co-author who works in Professor Sir Richard Friend's group at the Cavendish Laboratory, said "On the face of it, radicals in OLEDs shouldn't really work, which makes our results so surprising. The radicals themselves are unusually emissive, and they operate in the OLEDs with unusual physics." When isolated in a host matrix and excited with a laser, the radicals, atypically, have close to unity efficiency for light emission. The highly emissive behaviour was translated to highly emissive LEDs, but with another twist: in the devices, the electrical current injects electrons into the unpaired electron energy level of the radical, and pulls electrons out of a lower-lying level, and another portion of the molecule, to form bright-doublet excited states. In future, efficient blue- and green-light radical-based diodes could appear with further materials innovation. The researchers are working on exploiting radicals beyond lighting applications, and expect radicals to impact other branches of organic electronics research. Professor Feng Li from Jilin University is a visitor at the Cavendish Laboratory and corresponding author for the work. He said: "The collaboration between the universities and research groups has been instrumental to the success of this work. In future, I hope that we can demonstrate more radical-based solutions for organic electronics." Perstorp announced the sale of Perstorp BioProducts, a leading producer of biodiesel and glycerine in Scandinavia, to a Swedish investor together with a member of the subsidiarys management team. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The sale includes the production site in Fredrikstad, Norway, while the production site in Stenungsund, Sweden, will remain under Perstorps ownership. Perstorp will also, for a limited time, be a minority owner of the new company i.e. Adesso BioProducts AB. The 20 staff employed at Perstorp BioProducts, mostly in Fredrikstad, have been offered to continue their employment with Adesso BioProducts AB. A tolling agreement forms a part of the sale, whereby Perstorp will continue to produce biodiesel at Stenungsund production site for Adesso BioProducts. In the long term, Adesso might relocate production and Perstorp may look to repurpose this site for other specialty chemical products. Jan Secher, President and CEO of Perstorp, commented: Adesso BioProducts is one of the leading suppliers of biofuels in Scandinavia and we see great potential for the business under its new ownership. For Perstorp, the sale is in line with our strategy to focus on high growth areas in the specialty chemicals market and build on our position as a global leader in the field. We look forward to continuing our good cooperation with the new owners. Lars Lind, CEO of Adesso BioProducts AB commented: With the rapidly increasing focus on the decarbonization of the transportation sector, demand for biofuels and bio-based fuel components will see continued strong growth and provides us with a great potential to expand. Aside from the development of the existing biofuel portfolio, we see an interesting opportunity in biocomponents suitable for advanced biofuels, carbon free aviation and bio-based chemicals. We thank the team at Perstorp for their continued support and look forward to the next stage of our development. The transportation bio fuels market will be the core business of Adesso BioProducts AB and we possess extensive experience and knowledge within the industry. The focus and setup of the company will also allow us to adapt quickly to any changes in the industry. The suits, filed last week in federal court in Chicago, are among a spate of legal actions taken by Juul in federal courts across the U.S. to protect its market share and discourage underage use of its products, which the company said are aimed at helping adults quit smoking. Just Salad has not returned romaine to its menu out of an abundance of caution, but plans to carry Arizona-grown romaine beginning next week, said founder and CEO Nick Kenner. In the meantime in its Chicago and New York locations, Just Salad is working with hydroponic grower Gotham Greens to provide romaine. The fast casual chain is also working with vendors to ensure every case is clearly labeled with its harvest region and will update its digital menus to include the harvest region as well, he said. A couple of years ago I was in a craft-beer bar in Helsinki and felt more than a little pride when I spied Bourbon County Brand Stout on the menu. I didnt order it the thick, black Goose Island brew was close to $40 for a 22-ounce bottle. But 4,400 miles from Chicago, there it was: a little piece of home. If I hadn't known it already, I realized then that Goose Island deserves a place at the head craft-beer table. With New Belgium, Dogfish Head and so many others, Goose Island has made American beer daring, exciting and, most important, delicious. Most craft beer drinkers have a gateway beer, the one that gets them appreciating the depth beer can hold. Being a local boy, Goose Islands Honkers Ale was the beer that hooked me. When I moved to Baton Rouge years back, my dad sent me a case of Honkers Ale with a note along the lines of, Never forget where you came from. Since starting with its Clybourn Avenue brewpub in 1988, Goose Island has played its hand brilliantly. It put itself on the map with two easy-drinking beers: Honkers Ale, a low-alcohol English-style pub beer, and 312 Urban Wheat Ale. Youre unlikely to find many beer aficionados sipping much of either, but who cares? They are Gooses biggest sellers and allow the brewery to pursue edgier flights of fancy. Now based on Fulton Street, Goose is widely credited for pioneering barrel-aged stouts, starting with that Bourbon County I saw in Helsinki. As the name implies, the stout is aged in bourbon barrels. The result is profound for the soul and on the palate: a spicy, rich, high-octane sipper with chocolate and coffee flavors that keep you warm on a winter day. Goose has since added coffee, vanilla and rare (extra-aged) versions of Bourbon Country to rave reviews. Sure, they cost $22 or so for a four pack (or in the case of the Rare Bourbon County Stout, close to $50 for a 22-ounce bottle), but they have pushed American beer to new heights. Countless breweries age stouts in barrels these days. If Goose hadnt done it first, someone else would have. But they did, so the credit belongs to them. The brewery also has helped further the Belgian-style ales in America. It is hardly alone on this front, but deserves credit for doing the style well and pushing it as a food accompaniment. Matilda is arguably the best-known of that style, but Pere Jacques, Lolita, Juliet and Madame Rose are worth exploring as well. All this leads us to Mondays announcement that Anheuser-Busch was taking over Goose Island for almost $39 million. Goose Island will no longer be Goose Island, Chicagos independent brewer. It will be Goose Island, brought to you by the maker of Budweiser. The question in the minds of beer drinkers: Will the acquisition change the good work that Goose has done? Theres only one answer at this point: Maybe. Both Goose and Anheuser-Busch were saying the right things Monday about leaving Goose to do what Goose does best. But the cynics and craft-beer lovers segments that, to no surprise, intersect widely were dubious. Blogs, comment boards and Twitter posts lit up at news of the sale, most reactions decrying the perceived death of interesting Goose Island beers. But there is an encouraging sign of Goose Islands future: The person replacing brew master Greg Hall, who says he is leaving to start a new project, isnt an outsider. Head brewer Brett Porter, who was lured last year from Oregons Deschutes Brewery, will fill his shoes. With A-Bs deep pockets, Goose now has the opportunity for a sorely needed expansion of its production capacity. In fact, the beer giant plans on spending $1.3 million on increasing brewing capacity that will include new fermentation tanks. This should make its brews accessible to more beer drinkers throughout the country. But the real test will come in two to three years. Will Porter still be there? Will Goose continue to unveil avant garde brews every year, such as Pepe Nero, a new black Saison-style beer that few others have tackled? Or the upcoming Big John, a stout aged with cocoa nibs? The truth is that this deal breaks new ground in the craft-beer world and the fallout, whether it turns out to be for better or for worse for beer drinkers, is unknown. Rock band the Flaming Lips have been with a mainstream music label -- Warner Bros. Records -- for years, and it's still producing gloriously weird music. The corporate parent hasn't gotten in the way. Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- The suspected Thousand Oaks gunman was carrying seven high-capacity, 30-round magazines when he stormed the Borderline Bar & Grill earlier this month, authorities said. The magazines are illegal to buy or possess in California but easy to attain in neighboring states. Twelve people, including a sergeant with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, were shot dead at the bar on Nov. 7, allegedly by 28-year-old Ian David Long. Long burst into the bar at about 11:18 p.m. and immediately started shooting, armed only with a Glock .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol he legally bought in 2016 at a Southern California gun shop, Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said at a news conference Tuesday. Long also had a folding knife, the sheriff said, but no other guns were found in the suspect's home or car. Long fired over 50 rounds during the massacre, hitting 13 people, Ayub said. He also threw multiple smoke grenades, Ayub said, contributing to the chaos as bar-goers tried to hide or flee, some jumping through windows to escape the carnage. Long positioned himself for the arrival of law enforcement, according to the sheriff. He took his own life with a single bullet to the head, authorities said. Sgt. Ron Helus, a 29-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was wearing body armor when he was shot multiple times and died, authorities said. Five of the seven magazines were found fully loaded after the suicide, the sheriff said. All of the victims died quickly from one or more gunshot wounds, said Ventura County Medical examiner Dr. Christopher Young. Many gunshots were fired from close proximity, Young said, and there was no chance for survival. One person was stabbed in addition to suffering multiple gunshot wounds, he said. There is no information to suggest any bar-goers were hit by law enforcement gunfire, Young added. Meanwhile, the suspect's motive is unclear. Long posted to Instagram while inside the Borderline Bar and his social media activity is being analyzed, authorities said. Long had frequented the bar before but the owner did not know him, authorities added. There's no indication of radicalization, said Paul Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. (Miller) spoke about the gospel bird, said the chef. It used to be a term we used for fried chicken, because it wasnt an everyday meal. It was only eaten on Sundays at brunch or at the church. Its no surprise, then, that the signature item at the new restaurant is a dish Reed has dubbed The Gospel. Pho (say: fuh), that mesmerizing Vietnamese beef soup, takes time. Even Nancie McDermott's superb recipe in her "Quick & Easy Vietnamese" (Chronicle) itself an express version requires first making a broth with a pound of round steak. So let's get this out of the way: This is not authentic pho. (Hopefully you gathered that by the recipe's name.) Rather, this quick soup is inspired by pho and my own observation that one of my favorite teas, a rooibos (red herbal) chai, includes the very spices that create pho's intoxicating broth: cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom. Advertisement So I thought, what if I dropped a couple of tea bags into plain chicken broth, and took things from there? Of course, this shortcut requires that you find rooibos chai tea. (I think using a black chai tea would impart too bitter a flavor.) Several companies make it, including Republic of Tea and Numi; you may need to go to a specialty store or online. Advertisement I made this soup at home with thinly sliced leftover rib-eye, but you can start with raw meat. If you wish, since we're faux-ing things, you could easily substitute sliced chicken breast for the beef. Faux pho Prep: 15 minutes Cook: 10 minutes Servings: 4 Ingredients: 2 ounces rice noodles 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 onion, diced 1 tablespoon chopped ginger root 1 tablespoon honey or sugar 1 1/2 cartons (from 32-ounce cartons) chicken broth 2 to 3 tea bags herbal rooibos chai tea 2 tablespoons fish sauce 1/4 to 1/2 pound rib-eye or strip steak, very thinly sliced, pounded thin 2 cups bean sprouts 1/2 cup basil or mint, coarsely chopped 1 jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced 1 lime, quartered 1. For noodles, heat large saucepan of water to a boil. Prepare according to package instructions. 2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add onion and ginger. Cook until ginger yields its fragrance, about 1 minute. Stir in the honey, letting it meld with the onion and ginger, about 30 seconds. Add broth; heat to a boil. 3. Lower heat; add tea bags. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tea releases its fragrance and flavors, about 2 minutes. Advertisement 4. Stir in fish sauce; raise heat to medium-high. When mixture reaches a boil, lower heat to a slow boil. Add beef. Cook until meat is medium-rare, about 2-5 minutes. 5. Remove pan from heat; discard tea bags. Stir in noodles, bean sprouts, basil and jalapenos. Taste for seasoning. Serve with lime wedges for squeezing at the table. Nutrition information: Per serving: 228 calories, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 32 g carbohydrates, 12 g protein, 829 mg sodium, 3 g fiber. renna@tribune.com Opalesque Industry Update - 50 South Capital Advisors has named Aaron Gillum, Molly Brister and Maureen "Mo" Wilkie to the private equity group, enhancing the firm's ability to search for and evaluate private equity investment opportunities in the U.S., Europe and Asia that fit clients' needs. Brister and Wilkie will source, evaluate and execute primary fund investments and direct co-investments in the buyout space, while Gillum will focus the majority of his time in venture capital. They also will participate in fundraising and portfolio management activities. Brister and Wilkie are vice presidents and Gillum is a senior vice president. The 50 South Capital team has been investing in the private markets since 2000, as clients seek access to the top funds in the industry. "We think buyouts and venture capital present attractive investment opportunities for our clients, and the addition of Aaron, Molly and Mo will expand our coverage to find the most promising investments," said Bradley Dorchinecz, director of the private equity group within 50 South Capital. Wilkie has experience working in operating roles at consumer companies ranging in size from seed stage start-ups to large public entities. She also worked in investment banking groups at Citigroup and Citadel Securities on a variety of transactions within the metals and mining, financial institutions and consumer industries. Wilkie earned an MBA from the University of Chicago, where she was the recipient of the Madison Dearborn Private Equity Award and the Herman Family Fellowship for female entrepreneurs. Brister previously was a manager at the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), where she was responsible for EMPEA's private equity research and data, authoring private equity reports and speaking on panels around the world. Most recently, she was a summer associate at a private equity firm focused on emerging markets, where she worked on deals in Latin America. Brister received her MBA from the University of California in Berkeley, where she was awarded the John H. Freemen Fellowship and was selected as an Entrepreneurial Finance Fellow. Gillum previously was co-founder and managing partner of an early stage venture fund focused on technology companies in the Midwest and New York City regions. He has more than 15 years of experience in leadership roles with tech start-ups, as well as strategy and restructuring advisory to Fortune 500 and middle market companies across a variety of industries. Aaron was named to Crain's Chicago Business Tech 50, a recipient of the Turnaround Managements Association's Turnaround of the Year and M&A Advisor's Top 40 Under 40. The result is "The Complete Indian Instant Pot Cookbook." Despite what the name implies, don't expect an introduction to Indian cuisine. "I'm not the person to write the super-traditional Indian cookbook," says Ram. "Instead, I wanted to expand the idea of what Indian food is." That means including some dishes that initially look more Middle Eastern than Indian. As Ram explains, Bombay (now Mumbai) was a main port during the spice trade, so there was a lot of influence from other cultures. "I have a lot of memories in Bombay, and I could see the port where the Indian spice ships came in," says Ram. UK SME Insurance: Market Dynamics and Opportunities 2018 by AXA, Aviva, Allianz, Hiscox, Zurich, Acturis, Slice SME Insurance http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2386257 http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/2386257 This report analyzes the UK SME insurance market. Economic factors including GDP growth, SME business confidence, and unemployment rates are explored in relation to the UK business landscape. Growth in the number of SMEs is explored by business size and industry. The SME market is discussed in relation to the uptake of commercial insurance. Finally an estimate of the current and historic market size is provided, in addition to a five-year forecast.The UK SME insurance market saw modest growth in 2017, as it grew by 1.4% to 7.8bn. But the market environment has been challenging. Brexit uncertainty has slowed GDP growth, which is intrinsically linked to the SME market, with conditions benign as insurers and reinsurers have faced no major incidents forcing significant payouts. There have been several factors counteracting this, which resulted in the very slight growth seen in 2017. The change to the Ogden rate has seen rates harden, particularly in motor-based categories, which have seen strong growth in premium prices since 2016. Yet the number of registered businesses rising in 2017 was largely countered by a rise in liquidations and a fall in penetration rates for insurers. This has been especially prevalent among micro businesses - a segment insurers continue to struggle to engage with.Get PDF Sample Copy of Report atScope- Micro businesses account for 95.7% of UK private sector enterprises but just 22.0% of turnover.- Cyber insurance uptake is on the rise as the issue features heavily among SMEs top concerns.- 38% of SMEs are concerned about the implications of Brexit.- The UK SME insurance market is forecast to be worth 8.3bn by 2022.Reasons to buy- Be aware of the significance of SMEs within the commercial insurance market and how they are influenced by the UK economy.- Adapt your strategy and ensure you remain competitive by understanding the opportunities for growth within the SME insurance market.- Recognize the challenges the SME insurance market faces.- See our forecasts for the SME market.Key Companies Mentioned:AXAAvivaAllianzHiscoxZurichActurisSliceMajor Points from Table of Content:1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 21.1. The SME market has stalled due to tough economic conditions 21.2. Key findings 21.3. Critical success factors 22. THE SHAPE OF THE UK SME SPACE 72.1. The SME market is the backbone of the UK economy 72.1.1. The number of UK SMEs continues to grow, driven by micro enterprises 72.1.2. UK GDP growth remained slow throughout 2017 102.1.3. The number of company liquidations rose again in 2017 after falling between 2008 and 2015 122.1.4. Construction leads the SME market by business numbers, while wholesale dominates turnover 142.1.5. The number of companies registered has risen despite an increase in dissolutions 162.1.6. Business and consumer confidence have been affected by the possibility of a no deal Brexit 182.1.7. UK unemployment continues to fall to record lows 192.1.8. Business profits are likely to fall if household disposable income is squeezed 202.2. Key issues affecting SMEs 212.2.1. Pension contributions, exchange rates, and business rates mean costs have mounted for SMEs 212.2.2. Rising employment costs and economic uncertainty have led to growing use of freelancers 262.2.3. The government and banks are aiming to spark investment in SMEs 272.2.4. The manufacturing sector is most at risk from a no deal Brexit 282.2.5. The end of freedom of movement will hit food and drink manufacturers hardest 292.2.6. SMEs are most concerned about Brexit and cybercrime 303. THE UK SME INSURANCE MARKET 333.1.1. The SME sector is strategically important for insurance 333.1.2. The SME market registered limited growth in 2017 333.1.3. Motor-based categories have kept rates steady as competition stunts growth 363.1.4. Public liability remains the leading SME insurance product 373.1.5. Insurance product penetration varies by SME industry, in line with the risks involved 383.1.6. Declining penetration rates are a growing issue insurers need to address 404. THE FUTURE OF THE UK SME INSURANCE MARKET 444.1. SME insurance is set to exceed 8.0bn by 2020, but growth will remain slow 444.1.1. Cybercrime remains a key worry, and insurers need to respond 464.1.2. The changing face of SMEs needs to be catered for 464.1.3. The insurance industry is looking to real-time insight to help SMEs 475. APPENDIX 485.1. Abbreviations and acronyms 48Make an Inquiry before Buying@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 CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019Email: sales@orbisresearch.com Strategy Consulting Market Worth USD 336 Billion By 2026 - Boston Consulting Group, CSC, Deloitte, PwC, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bain & Company, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, Accenture PLC and CGI Group Inc. Strategy Consulting Industry Outlook to 2026 https://www.search4research.com/request-sample/41483/ https://www.search4research.com/inquiry/41483/ https://www.search4research.com/industry-reports/41483/strategy-consulting-market/ The global strategy consulting market is valued USD 140 Billion in 2017 and is projected is to exhibit 11.6% CAGR during the forecast period. The market is project to be USD 336 billion by 2026. The market is driven by increase in need for boardroom consulting and strategic advisory especially for the large enterprises.Strategy consulting is commonly referred as boardroom consulting or strategic advisory. The strategy consulting is adopted by the most of consultants as the most prestigious consultancy and high end within the professional services sector. This primarily put emphases on private sector clients with the development of corporate, functional or organizational strategies and also this strategy consulting is adopted by the public sector organizations and organisations with economic policy.Crucial Strategy Consulting Market Players1. BCG2. CGI Group Inc.3. Accenture PLC4. McKinsey & Company5. Deloitte6. PwC7. KPMG8. Bain & Company9. CSC10. Booz Allen HamiltonRequest Sample Copy is Available atTo sustain in the competitive world, strategy is the only source, which can create difference in the market. Therefore to maintain competitive edge in the market, big enterprises are widely adopting strategy consulting to deliver best to their customer and unleash new business growth opportunity. Further, to develop a strong market presence, strategy plays a crucial role in the market and also increasing competitive environment are driving the need for strategy consulting globally.Majorly the large enterprises are adopting strategy consulting as they have good repository of budget and huge board of investors to fund them with money. Also, increasing pressure from new entrants in the business is creating pressure on the giant industries to develop and adopt new solution to maintain and regulate strategies. To shield business from competition paired with continuous upgradation on strategy drives the demand for strategy consultant across the world during the forthcoming years.Inquire about this Report atNorth America holds the major market share of the global strategy consulting market owing to presence of major technology conglomerate in the region, wherein Asia Pacific region is expected to witness fastest growth rate owing to rapid industrial happening the particular region. Followed by North America, Europe is anticipated to capture second largest market share in the global strategy consult market owing to ongoing industry 4.0 in developing countries such as Russia.The global strategy consulting market is segmented into industry verticals, services, organization size, and region. On the basis of the service the market is further bifurcated into operational strategy, economic policy, digital strategy, corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions, business model transformation, functional strategy, and organizational strategy. On the basis of industry vertical the global strategy consulting market is segmented into BFSI, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, it & telecommunication, and others. On the basis of the organization size the market is segmented into small & medium sized organization and large sized enterprises. Based on the geography the market is further segregated into North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.Complete Report is Available atThe players associated with the global strategy consulting market are BCG, CGI Group Inc., Accenture PLC, McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, PwC., KPMG, Bain & Company, CSC and Booz Allen Hamilton. Aforementioned players are continuously innovating and developing new product solution to cater the changing need of their customer and deliver the best of the solutions. Also, these players are involved in research & development to make solution more customer centric and deliver value to the customers.Contact Us:Call: +1-707-633-0404Email: sales@search4research.comAbout Us:Search4Research is the most prominent online store for market research reports and solutions to many companies around the world. We have been helping our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose the most relevant and affordable research reports and solutions from various publishers.Pune, INDIA Global Medical Display Market 2018: Technology, Top Key Players- Barco, Eizo, Sony, LG Display, Novanta, FSN, Advantech adn more... Medical Display Market https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request_sample/207892 https://www.reportsmonitor.com/check_discount/207892 https://www.reportsmonitor.com/report/207892/Medical-Display-Market Medical Display MarketSummary:The Global Medical Display Market is an emerging market at present years. The report covers current Market Trends,advancements in Technologies over a period of time. The Global Medical Display Market research report offers an in-depth analysis of the global market, providing relevant information for the new market entrants or well-established players. Some of the key strategies employed by leading key players operating in the market and their impact analysis have been included in this research report.Go for Sample Copy of Global Medical Display Market Report & Get 30 Min Free Consultation!The Medical Display Market report contains some of the valuable information with regards to their outlook, in terms of their finances, product portfolios, investment plans, and business and marketing strategies. Moreover, the report also comprises of the SWOT analysis, a business overview, and revenue generation information of the industry pioneers in the Global Medical Display Market.Geographically Report shows Developments in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.The Global Medical Display Market report provides an overview of the Medical Display industry by studying various key segments and sub-segments, on the basis of specification, application, end-users, and geography. The geographical analysis of the Global Medical Display Market is on a global and regional scale, the result of which is used to evaluate the performance of the global market over the forecast period.Market Segment by Top Manufacturers, this report covers : Barco, Eizo, Sony, LG Display, Novanta, FSN, Advantech, Quest International, Steris, Jusha Medical, Siemens.Product Type Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Major Company of Product Type etc.):By Technology, LED-backlit LCD Display, CCFL-backlit LCD Display, OLED Display, By Panel Size, Under 22.9 Inch Panels, 23.0-26.9 Inch Panels, 27.0-41.9 Inch Panels, Above 42 Inch Panels.Demand Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Consumer Distribution):Diagnostic, General Radiology, Mammography, Digital Pathology, Multi-modality, Surgical/ Interventional, Dentistry, Others.It also provides a details analysis of the Global Medical Display Market, including empowering technologies, key market trends, development patterns, growth drivers, restraints, challenges, threats, potential opportunities, standardization, value chain, regulatory landscape, future estimates, and key methodologies.Avail 50% discount while purchasing this report @The Global Medical Display Market is defined by the presence of some of the leading competitors operating in the market, including the well-established players and new entrants, and the suppliers, vendors, and distributors. The key players are persistently center around growing Geographic reach and widen their client base, keeping in mind the end goal to extend their item portfolio and think of new progressions. The Medical Display Market report additionally dissects the advancement proposition and the achievability of new ventures.Key Insights:Complete in-depth analysis of the Medical DisplayImportant changes in market dynamics.Segmentation analysis of the market.Emerging segments and regional markets.Assessment of niche industry players.Market share analysis.Key strategies of major players.Read Full Report with TOC, Table & Figures @About US:We at Reports Monitor.com provide a comprehensive analysis by providing in-depth reports of the various market verticals. Our Mission is to provide a detailed analysis of the vast markets Global-wide backed by Rich data. Decision makers can now rely on our well-defined data gathering methods to get the correct and accurate market forecasting along with detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911 (U.S.)+44 203 318 2883 (U.K.)Email: sales@reportsmonitor.com Voice-Directed Warehousing Solutions Market: 2025 | Dematic Corporation, Honeywell International Inc. (Vocollect), TopVox Corporation, Voiteq Ltd., Speech Interface Design Inc., https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114993/Voice-Directed-Warehousing-Solutions-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114993/Voice-Directed-Warehousing-Solutions-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114993/Voice-Directed-Warehousing-Solutions-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ A voice-directed warehousing means utilization of the speech recognition and voice direction software in distribution centres and warehouses. A worker has to put on a headset linked to a pocket-size or wearable computer that states the worker what to do and where to go by means of vocal prompts. The workers then affirm their jobs by verbalizing reading confirmation codes and pre-defined commands written on products or locations all through the warehouse. The software functioning on the wearable computer interprets the worker's reactions. A voice-directed warehousing solution is generally utilized rather than a mobile computer or paper-based method which requires workers to interpret instructions as well as key-enter information or scan barcodes to verify their tasks.The global voice-directed warehousing solutions market is predicted to expand at a higher rate by exhibiting a 14.4% CAGR over the predicted period and is predicted to account for a valuation in excess of US$ 2,500 Million through 2025.Request For Report Sample:Market SegmentationBy component type, the overall market is segmented into services (implementation & integration and consulting) and voice-directed warehousing platform. The voice-directed warehousing platform is predicted to remain the biggest market regarding market share. Although, the services segment will be recording a high 15% CAGR in value terms for the duration of the predicted period.By industry type, the worldwide market is segmented as food and beverage, electrical and electronics, e-commerce, pharmaceutical, tracking, logistics and transport, retail and others. The retail segment is predicted to account for around US$ 866 Million in value terms through 2025 end projecting to expand at a moderately quicker rate to record a 15.7% CAGR all through the predicted period.Request Report Discount:The worldwide market on the basis of the region is assessed across Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, North America and Middle East & Africa. APAC region is predicted to be dominating the market globally in the said period. The region is predicted to account for a market valuation in excess of US$ 985 Million through the end of the eight-year projection period and is predicted to grow at a high 16.3% CAGR for the duration of the predicted period of 2025.Key Market PlayersThe key players effective in the worldwide market voice-directed warehousing solutions includes, Dematic Corporation, Honeywell International Inc. (Vocollect), TopVox Corporation, Voiteq Ltd., Speech Interface Design Inc., Lucas Systems Inc., Zebra Technologies Corporation , Voxware Inc., Zetes Industries S.A., Honeywell Intelligrated, Business Computer Projects Ltd. and Ivanti Software Inc.. Other players functional in the overall market includes Symphony EYC Solution UK Ltd., HighJump Software Inc., BEC (Systems Integration) Ltd., Blue Horseshoe Solutions, Inc., Ehrhardt + Partner Group (TopVox Corporation) and Proteus Software Ltd.Report Analysis:Research Report Insights (RRI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver a host of services including custom research reports, syndicated research reports, and consulting services which are personalised in nature. RRI delivers a complete packaged solution to clients; this combines current market intelligence, technology inputs, statistical anecdotes, valuable growth insights, 360-degree view of the competitive framework, and anticipated market trends.Contact Us:Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website:Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com Egypt Energy and Utilities Construction Market to 2022| Lime Energy, BDavis Designs LLC, Denbow Company, Skanska UK Plc, NPL Construction Co https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1711044 https://www.researchmoz.us/energy-and-utilities-construction-market-in-egypt-market-size-growth-and-forecast-analytics-to-2022-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1711044 https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/ Albany, NY, 27th November : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Energy and Utilities Construction Market in Egypt: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics to 2022" globally.Timetrics "Energy and Utilities Construction Market in Egypt: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics to 2022" contains historic and forecast market data for the energy and utilities construction market in Egypt, with a detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by cost type( construction materials, construction equipment and construction services).Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @This report also contains overall values of the energy and utilities construction segments such as Energy and utilities construction market covers the development of energy and telecommunications related projects, oil and gas projects including both upstream and downstream exploration, and utility projects such as water and sewage infrastructure. This market includes five categories: electricity and power, oil & gas, telecommunications, sewage infrastructure and water infrastructure.. This research report provides up-to-date market size data for the period 2013-2017 and an illustrative forecast to 2022.SummaryEnergy and utilities construction market covers the development of energy and telecommunications related projects, oil and gas projects including both upstream and downstream exploration, and utility projects such as water and sewage infrastructure. This market includes five categories: electricity and power, oil & gas, telecommunications, sewage infrastructure and water infrastructure.The Egyptian energy and utilities construction category continued to increase in the review period with a value of EGPxxx.xx million (US$xxx.xx million) in 2017 and increased at a rate of xx.xx% over 2016. The market recorded a CAGR of xx.xx% from 2013 through 2017."Energy and Utilities Construction Market in Egypt: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics to 2022"' provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of the energy and utilities construction market in Egypt. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Egypt construction value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @ScopeAn overview of the energy and utilities construction market in Egypt.Historic (2013 through 2017) and forecast (2018 through 2022) construction market output values are provided.A detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) is provided at the market level while the values for the segments are provided by cost types (construction materials, construction equipment & construction services).This report covers all the segments of commercial construction market including Energy and utilities construction market covers the development of energy and telecommunications related projects, oil and gas projects including both upstream and downstream exploration, and utility projects such as water and sewage infrastructure. This market includes five categories: electricity and power, oil & gas, telecommunications, sewage infrastructure and water infrastructure..Reasons To BuyEnhances your knowledge of the market with key figures detailing construction type.Provides you with a breakdown of the market by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition).Provides you with a breakdown of the segments by cost type (construction materials, construction equipment &construction services).Details the segments covered under commercial construction market.Allows you to plan future business decisions using the forecast figures given.Table of Contents1 Introduction1.1 What is this Report About?1.2 Definitions1.3 CAGR Definition and Calculation2 Overall Energy and Utilities Construction Value: Market Analysis2.1 Overall Energy and Utilities Construction Output Value, 2013 - 20172.2 Overall Energy and Utilities Construction Output Value Forecast, 2018 - 20222.3 Overall Energy and Utilities Construction Output Value by Cost Type2.3.1 Overall Energy and Utilities Construction Output Value by Cost Type, 2013 - 20172.3.2 Overall Energy and Utilities Construction Output Value Forecast, by Cost Type, 2018 - 20223 Energy and Utilities Construction Output: Analysis by Category3.1 New Construction Output Value, 2013 - 20173.2 New Construction Output Value Forecast, 2018 - 20223.3 New Construction Output Value by Cost Type3.3.1 New Construction Output Value by Cost Type, 2013 - 20173.3.2 New Construction Output Value by Cost Type Forecast, 2018 - 20223.4 Repair & Maintenance Output Value, 2013 - 20173.5 Repair & Maintenance Output value Forecast, 2018 - 20223.6 Repair & Maintenance Output Value by Cost TypeMake An Enquiry @3.6.1 Repair & Maintenance Output Value by Cost Type, 2013 - 20173.6.2 Repair & Maintenance Output Forecast, by Cost Type, 2018 - 20223.7 Refurbishment Construction Output Value, 2013 - 20173.8 Refurbishment Construction Output Value Forecast, 2018 - 20223.9 Refurbishment Construction Output Value by Cost Type3.9.1 Refurbishment Construction Output Value by Cost Type, 2013 - 20173.9.2 Refurbishment Construction Output Forecast, by Cost type, 2018 - 20223.1 Demolition Construction Output Value, 2013 - 20173.11 Demolition Construction Output Value Forecast, 2018 - 2022ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. Nachiket Ghumare,ResearchMoz,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States,Tel: +1-518-621-2074,USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948,Email: sales@researchmoz.us,Follow me on : Pharmaceutical Market: Saudi Arabia Industry Analysis US$ 8,465 Mn by 2023 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/2082 https://www.mrrse.com/saudi-arabia-pharmaceutical-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/2082 An insightful study, titled Saudi Arabia Pharmaceutical Market has been freshly broadcasted to the vast research repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). The research study provides detailed comprehensions and forecasts future growth of the global market with an in-depth study of the factors impacting revenue growth throughout the mentioned forecast period. Further, a deep analysis on the major players from diverse regions is also present in the report. Click to Get ReportGet Report Sample COpy @The significant rise in lifestyle-related diseases and the developments in healthcare infrastructure are expected to influence the demand for pharmaceuticals in Saudi Arabia. In 2016, the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market is anticipated to procure value worth US$ 5,209.5 Mn at a y-o-y growth of 6.0 % over 2015. The mounting demand for branded drug products will continue to incite the growth of the Saudi Arabian pharmaceutical market in 2016.The demand for pharmaceuticals in Saudi Arabia is expected to register substantial growth owing to the increasing penetration of health insurance companies and the rising incidence rate of non-communicable diseases. Furthermore, the exceptional rise in the per capita income of Saudi Arabia is also expected to foster the demand for branded pharmaceutical drugs. Another key factor driving the growth of the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is the countrys strategic move to allow 100% FDI in the pharmaceuticals sector. Although, the shortage of profound indigenous research capacity in the pharmaceutical industry and the delayed registration of drug and medicine patents is expected to limit the expansion of the market in 2016 and beyond.Based on the product type, the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is expected to witness an upsurge in the prescription-type branded drug products. In terms of market value, the branded drugs are estimated to reach US$ 2,760.8 Mn by 2016-end. The demand for generic drugs is projected to secure steady growth, attributing to the insisting promotion of generic drug adoption by healthcare insurance providers.Complete Research Report with TOC @On the basis of the diseases, the pharmaceutical drugs used for treatment of cardiovascular diseases will continue exhibiting robust growth in 2016. The demand for cardiovascular medications will continue to surge due to the prominence of circulatory disorders in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the rising prevalence of disorders related to body sugar levels is expected to make diabetes a rapidly growing disease-based sub-segment in the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market.The pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is also segmented on the basis of distribution channel, where retail pharmacies will continue to account for 80% market share compared to hospital pharmacies. The westernised modernisation of retail pharmacies in Saudi Arabia has led to the availability of a wide range drugs and medicinal products, thereby attaining a considerable growth in the retail pharmacy sub-segment in 2016 and further.The rising resource potential in Saudi Arabia is projected to positively reform the production environment for pharmaceutical manufacturers. In order to expand the markets size, structuring alliances with well-established native companies is predicted to be a key strategy for global pharmaceutical leaders. The key players in the Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market include Novartis AG, SPIMACO, Pfizer Inc., and Glaxosmithkline plc., Jamjoom Pharma, and Tabuk Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Co. among others.Long-term Outlook: The Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast period 2016-2026. In terms of market value, the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is estimated to be worth US$ 12,281.4 Mn by the end of forecast period.Enquire Now @About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY 12207(United State)United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559(Toll-Free USA & Canada)Email: sales@mrrse.com Vials Market - Clear and precice analysis of 2025 | MeadWestvaco Corporation., Amcor Ltd https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=269 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=269 https://www.tmrresearch.com/vials-market Global Vials Market: SnapshotThe chromatography market along with the packaging market serves as the top driver of the global vials market. Owing to the dynamic nature of the global chromatography market, where end user and existing technologies experience incessant change, the demand for vials in this sector is likely to be high, thus benefitting the global vials market in return. Vials are basically small glass or plastic bottles that employed for storing medications such as capsules, liquids, and powders. With respect to the growing healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, the demand for vials is also expected to be comparatively high from these industries along with the ones mentioned above.To maintain a leading position in the global market and stay competitive, the leading companies are focusing spontaneously on investments and enhancing their research and development activities for manufacturing new products by deploying advanced technologies for the purpose. The demand for vials is basically anticipated to be driven by the constant need for chromatography processes in industries such as insecticides, pesticides, food and beverages, chemicals, life sciences, and biotechnology.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Based on region, the prevalence of leading players in Europe and North America are likely to make these regions potential prospects for the entry of new players to make the most of the available opportunities. As for the existing players in these, they are focusing on expanding their services and products to countries in the Asia Pacific region with the prevalence of a large population base and well equipped laboratories for carrying out further research.Global Vials Market: Comprehensive OverviewVial also known as phial or flacon, is a small plastic or a glass bottle or vessel. Vials are primarily used to store medication such as powders, liquids or capsules. In the past, vials were made of glass, but now, various plastic materials, including polypropylene are being used in manufacturing vials. Varieties of closed systems are used during the manufacturing of vials, including screw vials and crimp vials. In addition, plastic vials can have various other types of closure systems including flip-tops or snap caps. A vial can either be bottle shaped or can have a bottle-like shape with a neck. The volume that is defined by the neck of the vial is called the headspace.Request TOC of the Report @However, the bottom of the vial is usually flat, unlike that of test tubes, which is circular or rounded. The small vials, which are bottle shaped, are typically used in chemical laboratories and are known as McCartneys bottles or bijou. The bijou bottles are usually smaller, and have holding capacity of around 10mm. Various laboratories use different types of vials depending on their need such as low adsorption vials, certified vials, screw top vials, 9mm screw top vials, snap ring vials, crimp top vials, polypropylene vials, interlocked vials, inserts, versa vials, shell vials, center drain vials and headspace vials.Vials are primarily used as scientific sample vessels specifically in auto sampler devices employed in the analytical chromatography process. In addition, vials are used as primary or secondary packaging material in order to store various medicines in their powder, granular or liquid form. Medications of highly sensitive nature can only be stored in vials in order to protect them from external environment.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Vials Market: Trends and ProspectsThe chromatography accessory market as well as the packaging market boosts demand for vials in the global market. The chromatography market is technology driven, where new technologies and end users witness continuous and rapid change. All major companies continue to invest, in order to expand its research and development team, with principal aim of introducing new products and technologies in the market. The vial market is the fastest growing segment in the chromatography accessory market, and is expected to grow even further over the next few years, owing to innovations, in terms of various types of materials used in the manufacturing and designing of vials. The demand for vials is essentially driven by the increasing demand for chromatography procedures in various industries including biotechnology, life sciences, chemicals, food and beverage, pesticides, and insecticides. In addition, increasing investments made by the government in the Asia Pacific region, primarily in the biochemical industry, is expected to boost the vial market in the projected period.Global Vials Market: Regional OutlookThe key regions of the vial market are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). Major players in the North American region as well as the European region are focused on increasing their presence in various high growth markets of the Asia pacific region. Various companies plan to expand their base in emerging countries like India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. These markets offer a wide range of opportunities for growth and are expected to become high investment regions as well as new revenue pockets for the global market. High population, new technologies, increasing number of chemical laboratories, high investment in various research and development activities, and favorable demographics are expected to drive the global vial market.Global Vials Market: Key Market PlayersThe key vials market players include MeadWestvaco Corporation., Amcor Ltd, Schott AG, Rexam PLC, Gerresheimer AG, and West Pharmaceutical Services.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Nocturia Market - Evolution of effective therapeutics 2024 | Astellas Pharma Inc., Allergan, Inc. https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=296 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=296 https://www.tmrresearch.com/nocturia-market Global Nocturia Market: SnapshotNocturia, also known as nocturnal polyuria, is a medical condition in which patients get a frequent urge to urinate while sleeping at night. It is particularly prevalent among the elderly who often find it difficult to sleep properly. The three broad categories of nocturia are mixed nocturia, bladder storage problems, and nocturnal polyuria.Although, women between 18 to 49 years of age are more susceptible to nocturia than men, after the age of 60, it is men who are more prone to it. In order to treat nocturia, uncovering of neurological disorders, hypertension, cardiac symptoms, and intake of medicines such as cardiac glycosides is a must. Patients also need to be diagnosed for lower limb edema, sleep apnea, obesity, and pelvic analysis. This diagnostics segment of the nocturia market will likely keep driving demand upwards on account of a burgeoning elderly population worldwide.Request Sample Copy of the Report @From a geographical standpoint, North America, powered by the highly developed healthcare infrastructure in the advanced nations of Canada and the U.S. is a key region in the global nocturia market. It is trailed by Europe which is also witnessing a growth in the market owing to a surging geriatric population, sponsorship from government agencies and other companies, and other crucial support. Apart from Europe and North America, Asia Pacific and the Rest of the World are also significantly contributing to the market, particularly in the area of research for development of new and more effective therapeutics. Both for aspiring and existing are exploring the opportunities for growth in the regionGlobal Nocturia Market: Brief DescriptionNocturia, or nocturnal polyuria, is a medical condition wherein patients experience frequent urge to urinate at night after sleeping. Especially among the elder patients, the lack of sleep often leads to nocturia, and is not to be mistaken by enuresis or bedwetting where patients do no wake up to avoid it. Rated among the most distressing symptoms in older men and women, nocturia is classified into three prominent categories namely bladder storage problems, nocturnal polyuria, and mixed nocturia. Although the women aged between 18 to 49 years are more prone to nocturia than men, the ratio reverses after 60 years of age. Nocturia in some cases are also caused by conditions such as urological infection, liver infection, tumor of bladder, diabetes, diuretic medications, pregnancy, and regular alcohol or coffee intake at night among others. Depression, low level of physical activities, mental stress, and congestive heart failure may also lead to nocturia. This report observes that the prevalence of two or more nocturia among men aged between 70 to 79 years is approximately 50%.Request TOC of the Report @As per an article by Medscape in 2010, 58% women and 66% men in the country of the U.S. suffer from nocturia and the percentage is expected to rise to 72% to 91% respectively for age group of over 80 years. With the rising geriatric population across the world, the market for nocturia is estimated for a healthy growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.Global Nocturia Market: Trends and ProspectsFor proper treatment of nocturia, diagnosis to identify neurological disorders, cardiac symptoms, intake of medicines such as cardiac glycosides, and hypertension is imperative. The patients should also be thoroughly diagnosed for sleep apnea, obesity, lower limb edema, and pelvic analysis. These diagnostics segment of nocturia market is estimated to maintain consistent demand as the geriatric population surges across the global. According to the National Institute of Aging, 1.6 billion people will be aged over 65 by 2050. Pelvic organ prolapse repair and surgical intervention with respect to transurethral prostatectomy are the last approaches for physicians and surgeons. Nocturia in past couple of years has gained a lot of attention and prompted researches and manufacturers to invest and thereby improve quality sleep and overall life rating. Some of the pipeline drugs include desmopressin acetate, afacifenacin, fedovapagon, ASP-7035, lidocaine, Paxerol among others.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Nocturia Market: Geographical OutlookOwing to robust healthcare infrastructure, the U.S. and Canada make North America as the most lucrative region in the global market for nocturia, although Europe too is experiencing escalation in demand due to rising aging population, feasible support, and sponsorship from government agencies and other companies. Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World market in terms of research activities are not contributing too significantly in the global nocturia market but for existing and new entrants these regions render pool of opportunities to explore and grow owing to developments in healthcare infrastructure, rise in disposable income, and increasing incidences of diabetes and bladder cancer conditions.Astellas Pharma Inc., Allergan, Inc., Urigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Vantia Therapeutics, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd. are some of the key companies currently operational in global nocturia market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com As for Vice, making the controversial Cheney a relevant figure required digging into his background, says director Adam McKay. "We're told that all the pieces of this history are boring, but they just needed to be assembled," he says. "We found this epic American story that tracks with the American dream of a kid from nowhere who starts to climb and have remarkable success. His story tracks with the arc of America in the last 50 or 60 years, and how that dream twisted and turned tragically," he says. "It's nice to see people light up as the movie goes on, and they see a story that probably should have been a big story all along and wasn't." Facial Injectable Market Outstanding Survey by Allergan, Galderma, Integra Lifesciences, Merz Pharma, Sanofi etc. During 2018-2021 Facial Injectable Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1527 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/facial-injectable-market-1527 The Global Facial Injectable Market is presumed to expand at 13.2 % CAGR during the forecast period (2016-2021). The market is likely to garner USD 9.04 billion by the end of 2021 owing to the growing geriatric population, asserts Market Research Future (MRFR). Also referred to as dermal fillers, facial injectable is products which help in facial rejuvenation or bio-engineering. With growing age, human facial skin loses subcutaneous fat naturally and the skin is lured closer to the facial working muscles. Thus, wrinkles and smile lines become visible. Cosmetic treatments, anti-aging, and face rejuvenation have changed the rules of reinvention and engagement.Facial Injectable Market - Key PlayersSome of the key players in his market are: Allergan, Galderma, Integra Lifesciences, Merz Pharma, Sanofi, SciVision Biotech Inc, Sinclair. Suneva Medical and Valeant Pharmaceuticals.Industry NewsOctober 3, 2108: Allergan plc has recently announced the launch of a new JUVEDERM advertising campaign which has been created to empower the next generation of consumers to JUVEDERM IT. JUVEDERM IT was designed to further Allergan's goal of making the JUVEDERM Collection of Fillers the first choice for consumers.Get Sample Report @Facial Injectable Market - Key FindingsThe Facial Injectable Global Market and is expected to reach USD9.04 billion by 2021.Botulinum Toxin holds the largest share of the market.North America holds the largest market share of facial injectable market and is anticipated to reach USD 3.42 billion by the end of forecast period.Globally, Asia-Pacific the fastest growing region and expected to grow at the CAGR of 13.6% during the forecast period.Facial Injectable Market - Segmental AnalysisThe Global Facial Injectable Market has been segmented on the basis of type, application, and region.By mode of type, the global facial injectable market has been segmented into collagen, botulinum toxin, hyaluronic acid, and polymers & particles.By mode of application, the global facial injectable market has been segmented into face-lift, facial line correction treatment, lip treatments, and others.Facial Injectable Market - Regional InsightsGeographically, the Facial Injectable Market span across regions namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest-of-the-World.Among all the regions, North America is presumed to dominate the global market for facial injectable and is anticipated to reach USD 3.42 billion by the end of the review period. The growth is attributed to the rising approvals of facial injectable products in emerging countries.Asia Pacific is considered to be the fastest growing market during the assessment period owing to the presence of major countries such as India and China. The market in this region is majorly influenced by the tourism and fashion industry. One of the hindering factors of this region is the high cost of treatment and poor per capita income.Europe is considered to hold a substantial market share due to the growing consumer disposable income coupled with the presence of advanced healthcare infrastructure.Moreover, the porn industry is also affecting the market to a great extent and it has been noticed that the rise of cosmetic surgery has a linear relationship with bandwidth of the internet.Browse Complete 105 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with Tables and Figures @Major Table of ContentChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market DynamicsContinued.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 FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com Global Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Market: Restraints, and By Top Key Players like IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, PTC Inc., Aras Corporation, Siemens AG Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) https://www.reportconsultant.com/request_sample.php?id=3025 https://www.reportconsultant.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=3025 https://www.reportconsultant.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=3025 www.reportconsultant.com Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Market report provides in-depth statistics and analysis available on the market status of the Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Manufacturers and is a valuable method of obtaining guidance and direction for companies and business enterprise insider considering the Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) market. It contains the analysis of drivers, challenges, and restraints impacting the industry.The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market is expected to reach USD 63 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 9% during the forecast period (2018 - 2025). Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the system of strategic processes employed to reduce the cost of getting a product to market, efficiently scale to meet market demand, extend the duration of the profitable years of your product's maturity and continue maximum profitability as product sales begin to decline.The geographical dissection of the Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) market requires the prevailing regions in the market during the forecast period. Evidence on the region leading the market is some of the facets that are highlighted under this section of the report. The competitive landscape segment of the report boons the major vendors functioning in the market. They are analyzed on the basis of their characteristics such as product profile, product introductions, SWOT analysis, and contact information.Get Sample Copy Of this Report @This report focuses on the global top players, covered IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, PTC Inc., Aras Corporation, Siemens AG, Arena Technologies LLC, Autodesk Inc., Accenture PLC, Dassault Systems SA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Infor Inc., SAP SE, and Omnify Software, Inc., among others.This report is a thorough piece of work and assembled by primary as well as secondary research. The top segments in the Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) market have been emphasized clearly in the report for the readers to comprehend in a condensed manner. These sectors have been presented by giving information on their existing and anticipated state by the end of the forecast period.The major stratagems approved by the well-known players for a better diffusion in the Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) market also forms a key section. The global market has also been analyzed in terms of revenue and also determines the regional outlook. The market crescendos such as market drivers, challenges, opportunities, and trends have been also presented.The Global Product lifecycle management (PLM) market has been segmented as follows: On the Basis of Component Type: Software, Services. On the basis of End-use: Automotive and Transportation, Aerospace and Defense, Industrial Machinery and Heavy Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductor, Energy and Utilities, Consumer Products and Retail, Medical Devices and Pharmaceutical, IT and Telecom, OthersThe main points which are answered and covered in this Report are-What will be the total market size in the coming years till 2025?What will be the key factors which will be overall affecting the market?What are the various challenges addressed?Which are the major companies included?For more Information and Enquiry Click Here:Table of Content:Global Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Market Research Report 2018-2025Chapter 1: Industry OverviewChapter 2: Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) International and China Market AnalysisChapter 3: Environment Analysis of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) marketChapter 4: Analysis of Revenue by ClassificationsChapter 5: Analysis of Revenue by Regions and ApplicationsChapter 6: Analysis of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Revenue Market Status.Chapter 7: Analysis of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Industry Key ManufacturersChapter 8: Sales Price and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter 9: Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) marketChapter 10: Development Trend of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Industry 2018-2025Chapter 11: Industry Chain Suppliers of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) with Contact InformationChapter 12: New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM)Chapter 13: Conclusion of the Global Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) Market ResearchBuyers will get up to 30% discount on this report Click Here:If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About Us:Report Consultant - A global leader in analytics, research and advisory that can assist you to renovate your business and modify your approach. With us, you will learn to take decisions intrepidly. We make sense of drawbacks, opportunities, circumstances, estimations and information using our experienced skills and verified methodologies.Our research reports will give you an exceptional experience of innovative solutions and outcomes. We have effectively steered businesses all over the world with our market research reports and are outstandingly positioned to lead digital transformations. Thus, we craft 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 Enterprise WLAN Market Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025: Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems, Aruba Networks, Aerohive Networks, Allied Telesis, ZTE Corporation https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/8345 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/toc/8345 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/checkout?rep_id=8345&licType=S The report analyzes and presents an overview on "Enterprise WLAN Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.Global Enterprise WLAN Market: SnapshotWireless LAN (WLAN) technology, also referred to as Wi-Fi, has been fast evolving to adapt to the highly dynamic market for mobile communication. With rise in practices such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in the workplace, it is becoming increasingly necessary for companies to provide a safe and secure Wi-Fi network. This has upped the demand for enterprise-grade WLAN security.The primary task of an enterprise WLAN solution is to offer secure and solid wireless service to users. It is a known fact that WLANs provide lesser degree of security than their wired counterparts. This is because Wi-Fi use unlicensed bands that can be accessed by anyone, making them vulnerable to different interferences, which, in turn, can cause degradation in service. An enterprise WLAN solution helps to tackle the aforementioned problems with advanced functions and technologies.Realizing the advantages, companies are deploying more and more WLANs every year to encourage their employees to use smartphones and pads for work as well.Request to Get Sample Copy of This Report @An enterprise wireless network is typically comprised of the following basic components access points (AP), AP controllers, and authentication servers. An additional component called WIPS sensor and server can also be included when required to prevent wireless intrusion.Key end users in the global market for WLAN can be categorized into IT and telecommunication, banking, financial service and insurance (BFSI), logistics, municipality and public infrastructure, education, healthcare, transport, retail, etc. At present, the segment of IT and telecommunication accounts for significant demand because of their ample use of software and hardware to transfer data in various ways.The enterprise WLAN market holds out strong promise for players operating in it. Most of the big shots in the market are registering gangbuster profits year after year and seem primed to repeat the feat in the future as well.With the advent of internet connectivity and growing user base for internet, enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) market is expected to witness flourishing growth prospect during the forecast period.Rising internet penetration and growing investment made towards telecommunication network broadens the market prospect for enterprise WLAN market. Consumers spend larger proportion of their income on mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones and others. Though network facility has been greatly developed in the age of 3G, 4G network connection, Wi-Fi become a valid option for most of the organizations, The Wi-Fi is able to provide internet connection with higher speed, and also covers large area. With the help of Wi-Fi, internet facility can be provided in public areas such as restaurants, parks, metro stations and others and this factor drives the enterprise WLAN market during the forecast period.There are several disadvantages involved to the enterprise WLAN market. The installation of such system is very expensive and this require skilled personnel for the regular maintenance. Huge expense and frequent change in technology in this sector is a restraining factor for the enterprise WLAN market over the forecast period and this is a hindrance for the market as well.Request to Get Complete Report List Of Tables and Figures @On the basis of hardware, enterprise WLAN market is segmented into AP antennas, wireless access points, wireless LAN controller, wireless location appliance and multigigabit switching. Wireless LAN controller held the largest market share and this segment is expected to remain its market dominance during the forecast period. This segment is expected to attain considerable market share owing to large number of network operating centres and the segment is able to handle wireless access points. Large number of smartphone users and higher intensity of data usage among varied verticals such as hospitals, restaurants, homes and others facilitate the demand for enterprise WLAN market during the forecast period.In terms of verticals, enterprise WLAN market is classified into IT and telecommunication, logistics, banking, financial service and insurance (BFSI), municipality and public infrastructure, healthcare, education, retail, transport and other. IT and telecommunication held the largest market share in enterprise WLAN market. This segment utilizes lots of software and hardware to operationalise the transfer of data among varied number of ways. This segments large volume of data and installation of enterprise WLAN facilitates the transfer of data in this scenario. This kind of enterprise Wi-Fi actually broadens the scope of data transfer and enhances transmission thus projecting high growth trajectory for the market of enterprise WLAN market during the forecast period.According to regions, global enterprise WLAN market is classified into five regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA) and Latin America. Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing region in enterprise WLAN market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is the main hub information technology and telecommunication centre. Cloud based services is the most attractive investment destination in this region thus fostering the growth prospect of enterprise WLAN market over the forecast period. This region consists of large number of working population in comparison to other regions where number of dependent people are quite high. With the concentration of large number of emerging economies such as China, India and South Korea where there is substantial amount of growth opportunities, it is estimated that global enterprise WLAN market during the forecast period. North America and Europe are also promising market for enterprise WLAN. These regions have flourishing banking, healthcare and telecommunication sectors and with the rising investment opportunities these region witness stable growth rate over the forecast period.Some of the key market players include Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems, Aruba Networks, Aerohive Networks, Allied Telesis, ZTE Corporation, Extreme Networks, Ruckus Wireless, Wi-Fi Spark, Boingo Wireless, Avaya Corporation, Dell, Alcatel Lucent Enterprises, and others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Request to Buy This Premium Report From Here @Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketMarketResearchReports.biz is a seller of syndicated market studies, featuring an exhaustive collection of research reports from leading international publishers. Our repositoryis diverse, spanningvirtually every industrial sector and even more every category and sub-category within the industry. We also provide consulting services to enable our clients have adynamicbusiness perspective.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Anticoagulants Market 2025 | Baxter International Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc., AstraZeneca plc, BioVascular Inc., Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer, Inc. https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upsample/120124759/Anticoagulants-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/TOC/120124759/Anticoagulants-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upcomming/120124759/Anticoagulants-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com Anticoagulants are utilized to take out the danger of blood clumps in the body. Anticoagulants prevent the platelets from clinging to each other and coagulating proteins from restricting together. These are usually utilized in the treatment of DVT (deep vein thrombosis), atrial fibrillation, pneumonic embolism as well as managing moderate and high danger of stroke.Anticoagulants are essentially segmented as warfarin, therapies, LMWHs (low molecular weight heparins), DTIs (direct thrombin inhibitors) and factor Xa inhibitors. Of these, the heparin is an injectable anticoagulant broadly utilized in hospitals for fast anticoagulation. LMWHs are directed about two times every day as subcutaneous infusions to care for DVT. These are more advantageous to utilize in contrast to heparins, as LMWHs could be self-infused at home. Warfarin is generally prescribed as a component of long-haul anticoagulant treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation to help diminish the danger of stroke by over 60%.The worldwide market for anticoagulants is segmented on the basis of several types of anticoagulant drugs as well as applications. In terms of the types of anticoagulants, the worldwide market is categorized into Dabigatran (Pradaxa), Betrixaban, E Eliquis (Apixaban) Rivaroxaban (Xarelto), as well as doxaban, The application category is additionally subcategorized into heart valve replacement, DVT, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmia, coronary artery diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.Request For Report Sample:On the basis of geography, North America regional market for anticoagulants is considered to foresee a huge market attractiveness. This is mainly a result of augmented awareness regarding remedial applications of anticoagulants in ailment management in the region. The U.S. is believed to be the foremost regional market for anticoagulants in North America, trained by Canada. In Europe, the U.K., France, and Germany account for the majority of the overall market shares of the anticoagulants. The Asia anticoagulant market as well is anticipated to reflect higher growth pace over the approaching five years to come. This is due to a bunch of market players are establishing production facilities in the region. In addition, the increasing populace is, in addition, boosting up the overall market expansion in the region. Japan, China, and India are considered to remain the quickest expanding markets in Asia for anticoagulants.The growing geriatric populace is the foremost driver for the worldwide market for anticoagulants. In addition, rising investment in the pharmaceutical sector for R&D activities as well as the introduction of innovative oral anticoagulants drugs have boosted the market growth. Recently Daiichi establishes anticoagulant Lixiana, an OD tablet for enhancing medication compliance in patients. Moreover, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Pfizer, Inc. have offered fresh studies for Eliquis(apixaban) clinical as well as real-world data.Request For TOC:On the other hand, strict regulations arranged by a variety of governments impede the expansion growth of the worldwide anticoagulants market. Recently, US FDA holds up approving for AndexXa for thought review of the data. On the other hand, FDA green-lights Bayer Xarelto 10 mg once daily dose for extended treatment of venous thromboembolism. In addition, the danger of complications and side-effects related to the consumption of oral anticoagulants, in addition, impedes the expansion of the worldwide market for anticoagulants. Growing figure of mergers and acquisitions of drug production companies is a foremost trend of the worldwide market for anticoagulants, for instance, Espero Pharmaceuticals and Armetheon plans to merge for developing cardiovascular medications.The foremost market players active in this market are Baxter International Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc., AstraZeneca plc, BioVascular Inc., Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Genentech Inc., Novartis AG, and Sanofi.Report Analysis:About UsResearch Report Insights (RRI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver a host of services including custom research reports, syndicated research reports, and consulting services which are personalised in nature. RRI delivers a complete packaged solution to clients; this combines current market intelligence, technology inputs, statistical anecdotes, valuable growth insights, 360-degree view of the competitive framework, and anticipated market trendsContact Us:Research Report Insights (RRI42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website:Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com AEGIS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS HOSTS THE SECOND JURY ROUND FOR THE NINTH EDITION OF AEGIS GRAHAM BELL AWARDS www.aegis.edu.in www.bellaward.com Aegis School of Business, Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecom, a leading school in telecom, data science and cyber security hosted the second jury round with a focus on technology in Mumbai. Industry stalwart like Kirat Communication, Lavelle Networks, Tech Mahindra, eClerx, HCL, Teleperformance DIBS, Jadooz, ESRI, Datamatics, Parallel Wireless, MagicTap, Airtel Business, Sankriti company of Dell EMC, GeBBS, Vodafone, UIB, Cyient, Ericsson, Tata Communications, AM Technologies, TCS, Livnsense, Aricent, Accenture, IBM, Digisoft, Reliance Jio, Informatica, Vymo, Vphrase, Uniphore, Yes Bank, Yactraq, Neewee, Exponentia DataLabs and Racetrack demonstrated their innovations from 26th to 28th November 2018.The winners will be facilitated at the Aegis Graham Bell Awards Grand Ceremony on 18th January 2019.The jury mentioned below are been meticulously chosen who promise to select the best of best innovations: Dr Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Dean, Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecom, Founding Dean, IIM Indore Bhupesh Daheria, CEO, Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecom; Founder, Aegis Graham Bell Awards Kallol Kanungo, CEO, Convergent Communications Raju Wadalkar, Former CTO, TechMahindra Dr Neelesh Kumbhojkar, Director, Symbiosis International University, Former Competamcy Head Cloud, Tech Mahindra Dr. Amitabha De, Former Director, IIM Shillong Dr. Parag Chaudhuri, Professor, IIT Bombay Dr Samsuddin Ladha, Professor, Aegis School of Data Science Dr. Vinay Kulkarni , Adjunct Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Director, Faculty and Mentor, Aegis School of Business and TelecommunicationsAbout Aegis School of Business Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecom:Aegis School of Business, Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecom was founded in the year 2002 with support from Bharti Airtel to develop cross functional technology leaders. In 2015, Aegis and IBM collaborated to launch, India's first Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Data Science, Business Analytics and Big Data and later in 2017 PGP in Cyber Security. These programs are jointly certified and delivered by Aegis School of Business in association with IBM. IBM has set up high end Business Analytics and Cloud Computing Lab at Campus. Also, Aegis and NVIDIA partnered for Deep Learning and applied AI courses. Aegis is the no.1 School of Data Science and among the top 5 in Business Analytics. Aegis takes up various industry projects, research and consulting assignments in the field of data science under its initiative 'Data Science Delivered' and 'Data Science for social good', and helping organizations for devolving skills on data science, ML, DL, Big Data, Analytics etc. For further information, please visit:About Aegis Graham Bell Awards:Aegis School of Data Science, Cyber Security & Telecom, key innovators and veterans of the industries realized that it is important to recognize the Indian innovators and their innovations that are changing the lives of millions. In the year 2010, Aegis Graham Bell Award was initiated to promote innovators and innovations in Information & Communication Technology (ICT) domain and as a tribute to the father of telephony, Alexander Graham Bell. The Award is organized with support of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), and Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCOE) and Convergence India. For further information, please visit:Communicate India A6, Satyadev Plaza, Veera Desai Road, Off Link Road, Andheri West Mumbai 400053Manish Kadam - Mob - 9324286677 Mail - manish.kadam@communicateindia.com Milk Protein Concentrate Market 2024 | Fonterra Co-Operative Group, Arla Foods Ingredients Group P/S Ltd., Glanbia Nutritionals, FrieslandCampina , include Erie Foods Inc https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upsample/120124591/Milk-Protein-Concentrate-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/TOC/120124591/Milk-Protein-Concentrate-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upcomming/120124591/Milk-Protein-Concentrate-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com Milk protein concentrate is a highly concentrated milk ingredient enriched with milk proteins. Widely available in powdered form, milk protein concentrate has lower lactose content that makes it ideal for dietary consumption. The most common products containing milk protein concentrate are cheese, yogurts, and soups. However, the proportion of milk protein concentrate in various products differ on the basis of their protein content requirement. Milk protein concentrates with high protein content are widely applicable in dietary foods and beverages.Fueled by a wide range of end-user applications, the global milk protein concentrate market recorded the revenues worth US$ XX Mn in 2017. Up from US$ XX Mn estimated in 2017, the market is likely to reach beyond US$ XX Mn by the end of 2024. Over the six-year forecast period 2017-2024, the global market for milk protein concentrate will witness a CAGR of XX%; several trends and opportunities will continue to boost the revenue sales throughout the aforementioned period.Request For Report Sample:Global Milk Protein Concentrate Market: Drivers and RestraintsBesides major application in cheese and yogurts, milk protein concentrate will gain remarkable traction in dietary foods and beverages sector. With substantial consumption by frozen food, infant formula, and bakery and confectionary sectors, the market revenues are expected to elevate during the forecast period. Rising health conscious consumer population will also impact heavily on the demand for protein milk concentrate in near future. Increasing awareness about consuming high-protein-low-calorie diet is anticipated to be an influential trend among consumer, which will eventually benefit the sales of milk protein concentrate-based products. Growing popularity, availability, and preference for sports diet is expected to play a key role in bolstering the market for milk protein concentrate and derived products.However, lack of awareness about the significance and availability of food and beverage products based on milk protein concentrate, especially among developing countries, will continue to pose a long-term challenge to rapid market penetration.Global Milk Protein Concentrate Market: Segment AnalysisThe global milk protein concentrate market is segmented on the basis of application. The key application segments include nutritional beverages, infant formula, dietary products, frozen food, yogurts, and bakery and confectionary. Nutritional beverages segment is likely to hold dominance, attributed to a host of health benefits associated with the nutritional beverage consumption. Dietary supplements segment, followed by the infant formula segment, will experience the fastest growth over the forecast period. This growth is due to exploding infant population observed since the past few years.Request For TOC:Global Milk Protein Concentrate Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of regional analysis, the global milk protein concentrate market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa, and Japan. North America will retain dominance, led by the U.S. The second largest market will possibly be Europe and Asia Pacific will register a significant CAGR over the forecast period. Growth in APAC is primarily due to rising population in China and India, coupled with growing preference for nutritious food products among consumers in emerging economies.Global Milk Protein Concentrate Market: Key PlayersFonterra Co-Operative Group, Arla Foods Ingredients Group P/S Ltd., Glanbia Nutritionals, FrieslandCampina, and Lactalis Ingredients Ingredion Incorporated are a few of the key players operating in the global milk protein concentrate market. Other notable companies profiled in the report, include Erie Foods Inc., Theo Muller, Sole Mizo, Dairiconcepts, Darigolds, Devondale Murray Goulburn Co-Operative, Laita Group, Grassland, Idaho Milk, Milk Specialties Inc., Tatura Milk Ind, United Dairymen of Arizona, and Westland Milk Products. In order to meet evolving consumer needs, a majority of leading companies are focusing on enhancing their product portfolio.Report Analysis:About UsResearch Report Insights (RRI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver a host of services including custom research reports, syndicated research reports, and consulting services which are personalised in nature. RRI delivers a complete packaged solution to clients; this combines current market intelligence, technology inputs, statistical anecdotes, valuable growth insights, 360-degree view of the competitive framework, and anticipated market trendsContact Us:Research Report Insights (RRI42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website:Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com Contact Lenses Market Booming in Healthcare With Novartis AG, Johnson & Johnson, CooperVision, CLEARLAB SG PTE, LTD, BAUSCH + LOMB, NEOVISION CO, LTD, Hoya Corporation, etc Contact Lenses Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6210 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/contact-lenses-market-6210 This MRFR Market Perspective Examines the Historical Trends and Current Scenario of the Global Contact Lenses Market to Deliver a Highly Pertinent Growth Forecast. The Report Includes Key Trends, Drivers And Restraints That Are Likely To Influence The Market Over The Next Five Years.Contact Lenses just like eyeglasses/ spectacles, correct vision problems caused by refractive errors. In other word, contact lenses improve the eyesight for people with these refractive errors such as myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism (distorted vision), and presbyopia (changes to near vision that normally happen with age).Many risk factors can cause these refractive errors, such as certain deficiencies and accidents that can lead to disorders hampering the ability to see. In all sort of eyesight issues, spectacles are being recommended by ophthalmologists to overcome these issues. However, some people get over self-conscious about their appearance thinking that wearing spectacles is hindering with their look. The very notion could have been the reason for the advent of contact lenses.Other reasons that not only have compelled people to consider contact lenses but have also garnered huge popularity for them include, the flexibility of contact licenses, they move with the eyeballs, allowing a natural field of view, without the obstruction of frames and greatly reduced distortions. Unlike glasses, they do not fog up or get splattered by mud or rain. Contact lenses make a great choice in sports and other physical activities.Request Sample copy atAlthough contacts lenses have been around in the market for more than a half-century now, technological advancements that took place in the field over the past couple of decades have brought about many novel innovations in terms of design and functionality of the product, making it more viable than ever. These betterments have increased the uptake of contact lenses, worldwide. The widened adoption is escalating the market of contact lenses allowing it to flourish, worldwide.Recognizing the kind of growth, the market perceives currently, Market Research Future (MRFR) in its recently published study report asserts that the global contact lenses market gaining further prominence will register a spectacular growth crossing the valuation of USD 11 Bn. by 2023 at a striking CAGR from 2018 2023. The market had valued at USD 7.9 Billion in 2017.Global Contact Lenses Market SegmentationsMRFR has segmented its analysis into four key dynamics for enhanced understanding.By Types: Therapeutic Lenses, Corrective Lenses, and Cosmetic & Lifestyle oriented Lens among others.By Materials: Silicone Hydrogel Soft Contact Lens, Gas-Permeable Contact Lens, and Methacrylate Hydrogel Soft Contact Lens among others.By Designs : Spherical, Toric, and Multifocal among others.By Regions : Europe, North America, APAC and Rest of the World.Key Players:Some of the eminent leaders of the market include Novartis AG, Johnson & Johnson, CooperVision, Inc., CLEARLAB SG PTE, LTD, BAUSCH + LOMB, NEOVISION CO, LTD, Hoya Corporation, Menicon Co., Ltd, Seed Co. Ltd, Bescon Co., Ltd, CAMAX OPTICAL CORP, St. Shine Optical Co., Ltd., and Oculus Private Limited.Industry/Innovation/Related News:October 11, 2018 Alcon (Switzerland), leading global medical company specializing in eye care products launched sweepstakes, scheduled to run through December 2018, highlighting the newly launched Gemstone Collection of contact lenses a trio of colors including Amethyst, True Sapphire, and Turquoise.October 11, 2018 - Scientists from China Pharmaceutical University and Southeast University in China published their study of color-sensitive contact lens that they have developed and that can show the distribution of eye drugs.Global Contact Lenses Market Geographical AnalysisThe North American region is projected to account for the dominating market for contact lenses, globally, possessing the significant market share. Growing prevalence of vision problems and other eye diseases & disorders that can affect the eyesight are driving the market growth in the region. Moreover, increasing number of middle age populace and the rising vision problems in youngsters along with the self-consciousness about their appearance supports the contact lenses market in the region.Furthermore, increasing number of product launches alongside the presence of the leading players and their expansion strategies is expected to act as one of the predominant driving forces propelling the market growth in the region.Whereas the Europe & Asia Pacific markets stand at the second & third positions respectively, in terms of the market share.The European contact lenses market is expected to demonstrate healthy growth during the review period. Also, factors such as the increase in research and development activities, and new product approvals are fuelling the market growth. Moreover, rising rates of eyesight disorders and other eye diseases along with the growing number of the middle-aged population are driving the market growth in the region. Increase in focus of key players to expand business in the region along with the well-spread awareness about health care is propelling the growth of the contact lenses market in the European region.The Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, is rapidly emerging as a promising market for contact lenses. Factors such as growing incidences of optical diseases coupled with the availability of a range of cost-completive options and verities of contact lenses are driving the market growth in the region. Large untapped needs among the hugely populated countries such as India and China along with the spreading awareness about eye care are anticipated to fuel the growth of the contact lenses market in this region, attracting many market players.Browse Complete 119 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 100+ Respective Tables and Figures atAbout 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.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Light Curtain Sensors Market Segment by Application, Product Type, Geographies and Forecast 2018-2028 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/12374 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/toc/12374 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Latest Research Report Light Curtain Sensors Market - Global Industry Trend Analysis 2013 to 2017 and Forecast 2018 - 2028 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Safety light curtains are photo-electric devices used to safeguard people around heavy machineries, such as palletizers, winders and presses. These are sensors integrated into light curtains that receive a transmitters array of IR beams. If a worker breaks any beam by passing through that area, the light curtain sensor sends a stop order to the guarded machinery to ensure the safety of the worker.Light curtain sensors are ergonomically sound in comparison to mechanical barriers or guards as they are programmed to cut the power to the machinery instantly to avoid injuries. These sensors fall under the presence detection equipment category. Light curtain sensors are cost-effective and reliable and help in proper maintenance and increasing the long run efficiency of the floor machinery.These days, light curtain sensors are being used in elevators to ensure that nobody or nothing gets stuck in between the elevator doors. Also, such sensors are compact in size and easy to install, even in small spaces and hard to reach spots.Get Sample Copy of this report @Light Curtain Sensors Market: Drivers & ChallengesCost-saving installation, maintenance and upgrades provided by safety light curtain vendors in the market are expected to drive the global Light Curtain Sensors Market. Also, stringent industrial safety standards legislated by governments across the world will compel industrial manufacturers to integrate light curtain sensors and other presence detection equipment in their work space. The attractiveness of industrial automation is expected to boost the global Light Curtain Sensors market.However, the requirement of timely maintenance might hinder the growth of the light curtain sensors market. In case of failure, the equipment offers no contingency plan. Also, IR beams are not visible to the naked eye and hence, a worker, assuming the sensors to be working, might get hurt badly.Light Curtain Sensors Market: SegmentationOn the basis of industry vertical, the global Light Curtain Sensors market can be segmented into the following,Electronics and Semiconductors Food and Beverages Automotive Defense Aerospace and Avionics Medical and Pharmaceuticals Transportation and Logistics OthersOn the basis of application, the global Light Curtain Sensors market can be segmented into following:Personnel Safety Large Object SafetyLight Curtain Sensors Market: Regional OutlookAmong all the regions, China is expected to register highest growth in the Light Curtain Sensors Market. Currently, North America leads the Light Curtain Sensors Market owing to the increased safety measures implemented by the governments and companies in the region. Asia Pacific is the second largest contributor in the Light Curtain Sensors Market due to the ever-increasing industrial automation in APAC countries, such as India, Japan and Indonesia.Light Curtain Sensors Market: Key PlayersFew of the major players operating in the Global Light Curtain Sensors Market include Omron, KEYENCE, Rockwell Automation, SICK, Pepperl Fuchs, Banner Engineering, Panasonic, Schneider Electric, Datalogic and Leuze Electronic, among others.The Light Curtain Sensors Market Report covers exhaustive analysis on:Light Curtain Sensors Market SegmentsRegional analysis for Light Curtain Sensors Market includes development of these systems in the following regions:The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Request For TOC Report @Light Curtain Sensors Market Report Highlights:Light Curtain Sensors Market SegmentsHistorical Actual Market Size, 2012 - 2016Light Curtain Sensors Market Size & Forecast 2017 to 2027Supply & Demand Value ChainLight Curtain Sensors Market Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedPedestrian entrance control system TechnologyValue ChainLight Curtain Sensors Market Drivers and RestraintsNorth AmericaUS & CanadaLatin AmericaBrazil, Mexico, OthersEuropeWestern EuropeGermanyFranceU.K.SpainItalyNordicBENELUXRest of Western EuropeEastern EuropeRussiaPolandRest of Eastern EuropeAsia PacificAustralia and New Zealand (ANZ)Greater ChinaIndiaASEANRest of Asia PacificJapanMiddle East and AfricaGCC CountriesOther Middle EastNorth AfricaSouth AfricaOther AfricaDetailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Global Aerogels Market: In-Depth Analysis on Size, Trends, Region, Revenue and Top Key Players: Empa, Enersens, Green Earth Aeroge, JIOS, BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, Aerogel UK|Forecast to 2025 Aerogels Market https://www.businessindustryreports.com/sample-request/118410 https://www.businessindustryreports.com/buy-now/118410/single https://www.businessindustryreports.com/check-discount/118410 Businessindustryreports.com adds Global Aerogels Market Report to understand current global competitive market status. This report categorizes the Aerogels Market into key industries, region, type and application. This report covers major geographical regions and concentrates on product sales, value, market size and growth opportunities in these regions.Global Aerogels Market Overview:According to market analysts, Global Aerogels Market is projected to grow at a high CAGR value from 2019 to 2025.Request a Sample Report @The market is majorly driven by growing demand from various end-use industries such as oil and gas, building and construction, automotive, aerospace and marine, and performance coatings. The multi-disciplinary use of aerogels across various sectors is a major driver for growth of the aerogel market.The Aerogels Market is segmented based on Type, Form, Processing, Application and Region. On the basis of type, the market is sub-segmented into Silica, Carbon, Polymer and Others. The polymer segment of the aerogel market is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Polymer aerogels are mechanically stronger than silica aerogels.On the basis of form, the market is sub-segmented into Blanket, Particle, Panel and Monolith. On the basis of processing segment, the market is divided into Virgin (as manufactured), Composite and Additives.On the basis of application, the market is sub-segmented into Oil & gas, Construction, Transportation and Other. The oil & gas segment is estimated to be the largest application of aerogel. The rising demand for advanced insulation materials in the oil & gas application is fueling the growth of the aerogel market.Regionally, North America was the largest regional market in terms of revenue, driven by robust growth in various end-use industries; especially in U.S. North America is the largest market, followed by Asia Pacific.Purchase this 54 Pages report online along with complete Table of contents@Key Players:1 Empa2 Enersens3 Green Earth Aerogel Technologies4 Guangdong Alison Hi-Tech Co5 JIOS6 Aspen Aerogel7 BASF Polyurethanes GmbH8 Blueshift International Materials and More..Key Regions:1 North America2 Europe3 Asia-Pacific4 South America5 Middle East & AfricaGrab Your Report at an Impressive Discount @Key Questions Answered in this Report:1 What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2025?2 What are the key factors driving the Aerogels Market?3 What are the challenges to market growth?4 Who are the key vendors in the market?5 What are the latest market trends?Table of Content:1 Industry Overview2 Aerogels Market by Type3 Global Market Demand4 Major Region Market5 Major Companies List6 ConclusionAbout us:BusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940 Steam Autoclaves Market Landscape Assessment By Type, Opportunities and Higher Mortality Rates by 2027 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/13330 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/toc/13330 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/checkout?rep_id=13330&licType=S http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Report Steam Autoclaves Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2017-2027 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to aid the user in understanding the market Steam Autoclaves as a whole, its definitions, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the barriers that it is facing. Meticulous research and analysis were an important part of the report preparation. Those reading the report will be able to get a detailed understanding about the market. Industry experts have verified and checked the data and information that have been taken from credible sources like websites, annual reports of companies, journals, and other resources. In order give the facts and data a pictorial form, diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other representations have been used. That augments the visual appeal of the report and makes understanding it much easier.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @An autoclave is a pressure device that is mainly used in a sterilization process, where medical equipment and supplies are sterilized at elevated temperature and pressure than the ambient air pressure. Steam autoclaves are also used in the process of vulcanization of rubber and in chemical industries. They play an important role in sterilization of healthcare waste in hospitals and organizations. Medical devices get contaminated after usage, and need autoclaving in order to kill bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. Steam autoclaves provide a physical method for disinfection and sterilization. They work on the basis of steam, pressure and time, and hence, use high pressure and temperature steam for this purpose. Increasing number of medical procedures and in-hospital infection are main driving factors for growth of the global steam autoclave market. Healthcare and environmental waste produced from hospitals, pharmaceuticals, life science amenities, etc. is increasing day by day, due to which the process of sterilization and waste management has become of utmost importance. This will propel growth of the steam autoclaves market globally.Key Drivers, Trends, RestraintsWith increasing demand from dental, healthcare, and pharmaceutical sectors, the steam autoclaves market is expected to grow at a rapid pace. Implementation of strict government rules and regulations regarding biosafety will boost the global steam autoclave market in coming years. Also, the increasing number of hospitals globally will fuel growth of the steam autoclave market.Steam autoclaves are also used in dental clinics. Bench top dental steam autoclaves are made of high grade stainless steel, and are used for the purpose of decontamination and sterilization of dental equipment. As the number of incidences in dental disorders, such as cavities, fractured teeth, pulpitis, etc. are increasing, the demand for steam autoclaves is expected to rise. Favorable government rules and regulations and the rising demand for dental services are other key factors spurring growth of the global steam autoclaves market.Industrial steam autoclaves are also used to process industrial parts at high pressure and temperature. These steam autoclaves are used in the aerospace industry, where they requires to perform the same function. Increasing growth in the aerospace industry is expected to fuel growth of the global steam autoclave market.Steam autoclaves are used in the process of vulcanization of rubber. It is also called autoclave curing. This type of vulcanization is relatively fast and economical. With growth in the rubber industry, the global steam autoclaves market is expected to grow substantially.In recent years, the need for hazardous waste management is increasing in the healthcare sector. Maintaining clean, sterilized and disinfected environment in hospitals has become crucial. Also, the growing usage of steam autoclaves and adoption of central sterile services department (CSSD) framework will boost the global steam autoclaves market.In recent years, many new technologies have evolved in the steam autoclaves market; there are autoclaves which are fully automated. Companies have started manufacturing low cost and more efficient steam autoclaves, which is responsible for fueling growth in the global steam autoclaves market.Market SegmentationThe global steam autoclaves market can be segmented on the basis of design, product type, functioning, and application.On the basis of design, the global steam autoclaves market is segmented as: Automatic Semi-Automatic Pre-Vacuum Post-VacuumOn the basis of product type, the global steam autoclaves market is segmented as: Table top Vertical Horizontal Floor Standing High PressureOn the basis of functioning, the global steam autoclaves market is segmented as: Downward Displacement Autoclaves Positive Pressure Displacement Autoclaves Negative Pressure Displacement Autoclaves Triple Vacuum AutoclavesOn the basis of application, the global steam autoclaves market is segmented as: Aerospace Rubber Industry Medical Dental Laboratory Chemical IndustryRequest For TOC @Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global steam autoclaves market, identified across the value chain include: Belimed BMM Weston Ltd. Getinge Group LTE Scientific Ltd Panasonic Biomedical Sales Europe B.V. Priorclave Ltd. Tuttnauer MATACHANA GROUP STERIS plc. Astell Scientific Biotechnologies Inc. ZIRBUS technology GmbH LIFE STERIWARE Accumax India. Consolidated Sterilizer SystemsThe research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geographies, application, and industry.The report covers exhaust analysis on: Market Segments Market Dynamics Market Size Supply & Demand Current Trends/Issues/Challenges Competition & Companies involved Technology Value ChainRegional analysis includes: North America (U.S., Canada) Latin America (Mexico. Brazil) Western Europe (Germany, Italy, France, U.K, Spain) Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia) Asia Pacific (China, India, ASEAN, Australia & New Zealand) Japan Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, S. Africa, Northern Africa)The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Report Highlights: Detailed overview of parent market Changing market dynamics in the industry In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value Recent industry trends and developments Competitive landscape Strategies of key players and products offered Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective on market performance Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.Pre Book Report @About UsMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Like so many of his contemporaries - the auteurs who built the canon - Bertolucci refused to countenance how his own fantasies and impulses became part of film's fundamental grammar, internalized by men and women alike as what counts as beautiful, desirable and worth aestheticizing in the first place. Unwilling to interrogate his own work, now Bertolucci has left it to audiences to reconcile its contradictions - or at least allow them to coexist in an uneasy standoff. Bertolucci's contributions to cinema are enduring and undebatable, not least because they add up to so many opposing ideas being true at the same time. His gaze demands that we create one of our own, capable of perceiving pleasure and pain in equal and disquieting measure. On-site Preventive Care Market Growth By 2027 | Premise Health, OnSite Care, Inc., PrevMED, RepuCare, Healthcare Solutions Centers, LLC, McCormack & Kale Motiva Health https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5518 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-5518 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/on-site-preventive-care-market https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Future Market Insights has published a new report titled On-site Preventive Care Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017-2027). The report states that the standards set in the workplace for the safety of workers and the need to adhere to workplace norms have triggered the demand for on-site preventive care. Moreover, the increasing incidences of workplace illness has also made it an obligation for employers to follow employee safety codes and adopt on-site preventive care. As a result, the global on-site preventive care market is expected to witness a CAGR of 7.1% from 2017 to 2027. The market was worth around US$ 16,135 Mn in 2017 and is likely to touch a valuation of US$ 32,063 Mn approximately by the end of 2027.To know key findings Request Sample Report @:On-site clinics enable employees to receive the required essential care at the time of emergency without having to leave the workplace. The clinicians in these clinics also aid employees in searching for a primary care physician who they can consult with on a regular basis. As a Future Market Insights analyst quotes, Changes in lifestyle among the working class have incessantly impelled employers to establish certain behavioural standards within the workplace. This is one of the core factors responsible for the growing adoption of on-site preventive care in several organisations across the globe.Burgeoning Penetration of Workplace Wellness Programmes to Bode Well for the MarketIn the recent past, workplace wellness programmes have earned the merit of being one of the most adopted healthcare services in the world. It has been further expected that its adoption will increase in the coming years owing to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This act is expected to promote an increase in the employee-based coverage of workplace wellness and also promote these programmes through several provisions. Moreover, the growing incidences of chronic diseases among the working population have also become a matter of concern and this has compelled employers across the globe to adopt as well as promote workplace wellness programmes.Request for Report customization @:Furthermore, employers who have adopted on-site preventive care services have reported enhanced performance ranging from heightened morale and cost savings to productivity. The death of time, access, and cost along with misunderstanding of the benefits of prescribed wellness programmes result in the underutilisation of primary care services. As a result, employees flood emergency rooms, missing out on critical preventive care measures and also leave chronic conditions go unmanaged. In this regard, on-site clinics provide employees with the necessary support without having to leave their work and plus the clinicians also work together with the patients in a cohesive environment to address their various health related issues.North America and Western Europe to Compete Neck and NeckIn 2017, North America held a share of 37.0% in the global on-site preventive care market closely trailed by Western Europe. The dominance of North America can be attributed to the several policies implemented by the U.S. government pertaining to employee safety and the adoption of certain employee codes of safety. The U.S. is also an extremely mature market owing to the high adoption of workplace wellness programmes.Get access to full summary @:Companies to Innovate Services in the Global MarketIn order to stay ahead of the competition, several companies operating in the global market are focussing on innovating their existing services and integrating new services. Some of the leading companies in the market are Premise Health, OnSite Care, Inc., PrevMED, RepuCare, Healthcare Solutions Centers, LLC, McCormack & Kale Motiva Health & Chiropractic, Inc., Marino Wellness, Kinema Fitness, and TotalWellness.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: Artificial Intelligence Market - Key Opportunities 2025 | Next IT Corporation, MicroStrategy Inc. https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2858 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2858 https://www.tmrresearch.com/artificial-intelligence-market Global Artificial Intelligence Market: SnapshotIn spite of the fact that AI is a branch of software engineering, today there's no field which is left unaffected by this innovation. The point is to train the machines to think insightfully simply the way people do. Till now, the machines have been doing what they were advised to do yet with AI they will have the capacity to think and act like a human.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Today tech mammoths like Google, Microsoft, and IBM are very associated with concentrate building up the innovation which has just begun bringing a progressive change. In spite of the fact that it will shape our future, yet we have to know how it's influencing our present life. AI has right now changed business administration through joining of different instruments, for example, work process administration devices, and others.These factors expected to weigh in heavily in the coming years, since machine-learning calculations would soon be utilized for counteracting installment fakes and cyber terrorism. Besides, AI is evaluated to strongly affect innovations in health care and prompt more exact medications and aversion of therapeutic conditions. Artificial Intelligence has seen gigantic development in the ongoing past because of the need for headway in the arena of machine learning, protest perception and recognition. The fast take-up of artificial intelligence in end-use ventures, for example, retail and business analytics is predicted to heavily impact the growth of the global artificial intelligence market in the coming years.Global Artificial Intelligence Market: OverviewGlobally, the trend of using artificial intelligence across various industries, particularly healthcare and consumer electronics is increasing because of the numerous benefits AI offer. This trend is likely to continue to grow in the upcoming years. The global market for artificial intelligence is predicted to see a tremendous growth in the years to come as the organizations are now leveraging on the advantages of phenomenal technologies like these for the efficient positioning of their services and to expand their consumer reach. Additionally, the increasing investments by enterprises to improve the quality of the services and products will push the demand for AI.Request TOC of the Report @As per TMR Research, the global market for artificial intelligence to register a tremendous 36.1% CAGR between 2016 and 2024, that comes up to US$3061.35 bn by the end of 2024 from US$126.14 bn in 2015.Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Drivers and RestraintsA large number of companies today are concentrating on many different groundbreaking technologies so as to be able to reach out to the customers easily. This happens to be one of the main reasons boosting the global market for artificial intelligence. Such technologies consist of effective marketing practices like social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies (SMAC) that help the companies to have strong control in the digital business. The need for this market is also arising due to the extended usage of artificial intelligence in various sectors such as E-Commerce, BFSI, retail, health informatics, to name a few. The rise in IT expenditure by companies throughout the globe in the hope of developing enhanced and efficient products will also drive the global artificial intelligence market.The global market for artificial intelligence is currently facing challenges due to lack of investments. Many of the companies that offer artificial intelligence services have issues in accumulating funds in the initial levels for development and research. This dearth of investment is adversely impacting the task of creating new prototypes along with other technologies. Also, there is a lack of trained professionals in the market to solve advanced technical problems. This lack of professionals also happens to be an important reason in the growth of the global market for artificial intelligence as a whole.Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Regional OutlookIn the year 2015, North America contributed the most in terms of revenues and it accounted for around 38% of the entire market. The presence of a large number of technology companies is behind the growth of the market for artificial intelligence in North America. Plus, the large investments by the government have proven to be of great help in the technological growth of artificial intelligence in the region. The increased scope of usage of this technology in so many sectors, including retail, BFSI, consumer electronics, media and advertising, and automotive, equally help this market in the North America. Because of these reasons, this region is slated to keep its leadership with it throughout 2024. The Middle East and Africa is expected to register a noticeable CAGR of 38.2% throughout the assessment period, that is the highest in any area. Technological advancements, like the robotic automation, and the rise in the adoption of smart cities, gives impetus to the acceptance of artificial intelligence in the region. The current infrastructure plans like the creation of new airports is making the market in the Middle East and Africa to be full of opportunities.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Competitive LandscapeMany of the players are finding it difficult to gather funds for their research which is in early stage. Market players need funds for developing prototypes of their underlying technology and the lack of it is restricting their research. Some of the prominent players within the market include: Nuance Communications, Next IT Corporation, MicroStrategy Inc., eGain Corporation, QlikTech International AB, Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc., Brighterion Inc., IBM Corporation, and IntelliResponse Systems Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends. Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Hydrogen Electrolyzer Market 2017-2027 Latest Technology Trends and Future Scope with Top Key Players- Nel Hydrogen, McPhy Energy S.A., Hydrogenics Corp., Tianjin Mainland Hydrogen Equipment Co. Ltd., Giner Inc. https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1946 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-1946 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com The global hydrogen electrolyzer market is poised to witness significant growth and is expected to develop across key regions worldwide in the years to come. Future Market Insights has put forth a spectacular snapshot of the entire hydrogen electrolyzer market in its new research publication Hydrogen Electrolyzer Market: Global Industry Analysis 20122016 and Opportunity Assessment 20172027. The research study stresses on the various developments, trends, opportunities, drivers and restraints that have an impact on the global market.Global Hydrogen Electrolyzer Market: DynamicsThe global hydrogen electrolyzer market is impacted by several factors. According to the impact analysis done during the research, factors such as increasing demand for hydrogen from the hydro processing industry; hydrogen being considered as a solution to achieve clean energy implementation; hydrogen being considered as a transport fuel; hydrogen touted as the best alternative for gasoline and primarily used for metal production applications; hydrogen being abundant and so considered as a potential source of electricity generation are driving the growth of the global hydrogen electrolyzer market. However, the high cost of hydrogen production by electrolysis is a main restraint hindering revenue growth of the global market.For Requesting a Sample Copy of This Report, Please Visit @Global Hydrogen Electrolyzer Market: ForecastThe global hydrogen electrolyzer market is anticipated to grow at a robust CAGR of 7.0% throughout the period of forecast, 2017 to 2027. It is expected to reach a market value of more than US$ 350 Mn by the end of 2027 from a calculated value of US$ 181.6 Mn by the end of 2017.Global Hydrogen Electrolyzer Market: Segmental Analysis Alkaline electrolyzer segment by product type dominates the global market by reflecting a higher market value of more than US$ 190 Mn by the end of 2027. The PEM segment by product type is anticipated to witness higher growth rate and is poised to register a CAGR of 8.0% throughout the period of forecast. By capacity, the high (>1 MW) segment is expected to show higher market value of about US$ 186.9 Mn by 2027 end as well as a higher growth rate, registering a CAGR of 7.4% over the forecast period. Western Europe region is expected to dominate the global market by portraying a higher market value of US$ 86 Mn by the end of 2027. North America is anticipated to be the fastest growing region and is set to register a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period. By hydrogen outlet pressure, the low (= 40 Bar) segment is poised to grow at a higher growth rate to register a CAGR of 7.7% throughout the assessment period. Energy segment by end user is expected to dominate the global market with respect to market value as well as growth rate. Energy segment is anticipated to display a market value of US$ 108.1 Mn by the end of 2027 and is expected to grow at a higher CAGR of 8.7% throughout the study period.Global Hydrogen Electrolyzer Market: Competitive LandscapeThe research report on the global hydrogen electrolyzer market has profiled tier players involved in the market such as Nel Hydrogen, McPhy Energy S.A., Hydrogenics Corp., Tianjin Mainland Hydrogen Equipment Co. Ltd., Giner Inc., Siemens AG, Areva H2Gen, GreenHydrogen.dk ApS, Igas Energy GmbH, Accagen SA, Next Hydrogen, ELB Elektrolysetechnik GmbH and Beijing CEI Technology Co., Ltd.Customized Research Report As per your Requirements @ABOUT US:Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.CONTACT:Future Market InsightsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: Solar Batteries Market Top 3 Key Players in this Industry| East Penn Manufacturing(US) Exide Technologies(US) GS Yuasa(JP) https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2729601 https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2729601 https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/global-solar-batteries-2018-by-manufacturers-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2023-market A solar battery, or photovoltaic cell, is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect.Request Sample At:Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Solar Batteries in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.According to this market study, the Li-ion segment will account for the major shares and dominate this industry by the end of the forecast period. Li-ion batteries have high energy density and are commonly used in electronic devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Moreover, these batteries are highly efficient and provide an improved energy-to-density ratio, owing to which, there will be an increasing demand for Li-ion batteries to overcome power-interruptions. This in turn, will drive the growth of this market segment in the coming years.This market study estimates that in terms of geographical regions, the Americas will be the major revenue contributor to the solar energy batteries market throughout the forecast period. This mainly attributed to the increased investments in smart solar and the growth in solar capacity and installations in the region. Analysts predict that North America will be the major contributor in this region, which will owe to the increasing support of the US government towards the installation of smart solar projects.Enquire About Report At:The worldwide market for Solar Batteries is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly xx% over the next five years, will reach xx million US$ in 2023, from xx million US$ in 2017, according to a new GIR (Global Info Research) study.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversEast Penn Manufacturing(US)Exide Technologies(US)GS Yuasa(JP)LG(Korea)SAFT(France)Samsung SDI(Korea)A123 Systems(US)First Solar(US)Bosch Solar Energy(GE)Panasonic(JP)Sanyo Solar(JP)TSMC(Taiwan)Yingli(CN)Canadian Solar(Canada)Alpha Technologies(US)BAE Batterien(GE)BYD(CN)Manz(GE)Sharp(JP)Kyocera(JP)Suniva(US)Honda(JP)Ascent Solar(US)AUO(Taiwan)EnerSys(US)EverExceed Industrial(CN)FIAMM(Italia)Hoppecke Batterien(GE)Access Full Report At:Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Big Market Research has a range of research reports from various publishers across the world. Our database of reports of various market categories and sub-categories would help you find the exact report you may be looking for. We are instrumental in providing quantitative and qualitative insights on your area of interest by bringing reports from various publishers at one place to save your time and money. A lot of organizations across the world are gaining profits and great benefits from information gained through reports sourced by us.Global Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive, #205, Portland, OR 97220 United Statescall answer Direct:+1-971-202-1575call answer Toll Free:+1-800-910-6452email help@bigmarketresearch.com Temperature Controlled Packaging Market Analysis and Opportunities To 2023 | Key Players Envirotainer AB, Intelsius, Inmark Inc., Amerisourcebergen Corporation, Tempack Packaging Solutions, S.L https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/sample/CnM/QBI-MR-CnM-1022 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/enquiry/CnM/QBI-MR-CnM-1022 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/buy/CnM/QBI-MR-CnM-1022/ https://www.qurateresearch.com/ A report added to the rich database of Qurate Business Intelligence, titled Global Temperature Controlled Packaging Market Size, Status and Forecast 2023, provides a 360-degree overview of the worldwide market. Approximations associated with the market values over the forecast period are based on empirical research and data collected through both primary and secondary sources. temperature-controlled packaging solutions are widely used as they enable the transportation of any size of the temperature sensitive shipment. Passive temperature-controlled packaging solution allows bulk shipping with lesser cost.Key players profiled in the report: Envirotainer AB, Intelsius, Inmark Inc., Amerisourcebergen Corporation, Tempack Packaging Solutions, S.L., Softbox Systems Limited, Va-Q-Tec AG, Cold Chain Technologies, Inc., Pelican Biothermal LLC, Sofrigam, Sonoco Products CompanyGet Sample Copy of This Report@Temperature-controlled packaging solution. The food such as meat, dairy products, canned food, and beverages such as cold drinks, milk, and others require temperature-controlled packaging during transportation. Increased preference of consumers for canned food products has encouraged the rise in demand for the temperature-controlled packaging solutions.Global Temperature Controlled Packaging Market is research report of comprehensive nature which entails information in relation with major regional markets, current scenarios. This includes key regional areas such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, etc. and the foremost countries such as United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China.Enquiry before buying@The Global Temperature Controlled Packaging Market report attempts to build familiarity of the market through sharing basic information associated with the aspects such as definitions, classifications, applications and market overview, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, raw materials and more. Furthermore, it strives to analyze the crucial regional markets, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate. It also discusses forecast for the same. The report concludes with new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.In addition, this report identifies pin-point analysis of competitive dashboard and helps readers to develop competitive edge over others. It delivers a noteworthy data and insights associated with factors driving or preventing the growth of the market. It brings a nine-year forecast evaluated on the basis of how the market is expected to perform.This statistical surveying report presents comprehensive assessment of the global market for Temperature Controlled Packaging, discussing several market verticals such as the production capacity, product pricing, the dynamics of demand and supply, sales volume, revenue, growth rate and more.Buy Complete Report@Table of Content:Global Temperature Controlled Packaging Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1: Global Temperature Controlled Packaging Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic ImpactChapter 3: Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4: Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5: Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6: Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Temperature Controlled Packaging Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Temperature Controlled Packaging Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13: AppendixAbout Us:Qurate Business Intelligence delivers unique market research solutions to its customers and help them to get equipped with refined information and market insights derived from reports. We are committed to providing best business services and easy processes to get the same. Qurate Business Intelligence considers themselves as strategic partners of their customers and always shows the keen level of interest to deliver quality.Contact Us:Nehal ChinoyRunwal Platinum,Ramnagar Colony, Bavdhan,Pune, Maharashtra, India-411021IN +919881074592info@qurateresearch.com Human Microbiome Based Drugs and Diagnostics Worldwide: Market Dynamics and Trends, Efficiencies Forecast 2023 Human Microbiome Based Drugs and Diagnostics Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-toc-and-sample/1530 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Human microbiome drugs and diagnostics basically involves the use of microorganisms of human body for the treatment of diseases. The modern approach involves exploiting the interaction between humans and the bacteria that live in or on the body to develop new drugs and therapies to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes. These microbiomes derived drugs help the physician in better diagnosis of the illness. The emergence of healthcare cum technology devices have addressed the increasing needs for better therapeutics. The technologically advanced human microbiome drugs and diagnostics have surmounted the conventional methods in terms of reducing the side effects caused due to the excessive use of antibiotics.The key players of this market include Second Genome Inc., Enterome Bioscience, Yakult, DuPont, Vedanta BioSciences, Metabiomics Corporation, ViThera Pharmaceuticals, MicroBiome Therapeutics LLC, Osel and Merck.Get Sample PDF Brochure :Rising cases of chronic diseases such as diabetes, disorders at early stage and the ability of the drugs to diagnose them and increased awareness among people to maintain healthy lifestyle is driving the growth of this market. Besides, rise in geriatric population, increasing expenditure on healthcare and growing demand for effective procedures and safe medication are expected to further fuel the market growth. However, lack of awareness about the health benefits of probiotics and prebiotics coupled with unfavorable government regulations have restricted the growth of the market in developing regions.Contemplating its segmentation, the market is divided on the basis of product, application, disease, and geography. On the basis of research spending market, human microbiome is segmented by product and technology type. By product, market is segmented into food, probiotics, prebiotics, medical food, diagnostic devices, drugs and other probiotic supplements. The human microbiome based drugs and diagnostics market is segmented on the grounds of application type into therapeutics and diagnostics. On the basis of disease market is divided into acute diarrhea, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, cancer, mental disorders and other diseases.Geographically the demand of human microbiome drugs and diagnostics market is in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and LAMEA. Considering the market segmentation by research spending, human microbiome market is divided by product and technology. By product type market is divided into instruments and consumables. By instruments the market can be further segmented as laboratory instruments and analyzers and by consumables it can be divided into kits and reagents. By technology the market is segregated into cell culture technology, high throughput technology, omics technology and computational tools.Strategies such as collaboration and agreement have been adopted by the companies for market growth. Enterome signed an agreement with Vertex pharmaceuticals Inc. (April 2016) to develop small molecules FimH anatgonists to treat inflammatory bowel disease. Besides, Second genome and Mayo clinic entered a partnership (October 2014) to develop therapeutics products for microbiome mediated pathways.KEY MARKET BENEFITS: The projections in the report are made by analyzing the current market trends and future market potential for the period of 20152022 in terms of value. The report analysis the segmentation of the human microbiome drugs and diagnostics market on the basis of product, application and geography. Analysis of the examination of the factors that curtail and bolster the market trends for human microbiome drugs and diagnostics market for example increased cases of chronic diseases aid the market growth. The various players, leading companies their collaboration and their strategies to evolve the market growth rate. Region wise and country wise human microbiome drugs and diagnostics market conditions are comprehensively analyzed in this report.HUMAN MICROBIOME BASED DRUGS AND DIAGNOSTICS MARKETSEGMENTS:By Product Food Probiotics Prebiotics Medical Food Diagnostic Devices Drugs Other Probiotic SupplementsBy Application Therapeutics DiagnosticsAllied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.David C5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Automated Breast Ultrasound System Market Competitive Landscape 2017-2025 : GE Healthcare, Hitachi, Philips Healthcare, Siemens, and SonoCine https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1337 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1337 https://www.tmrresearch.com/automated-breast-ultrasound-system-market Automated Breast Ultrasound System Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth, and Forecast 2017 2025 is the latest report added by TMR Research which sheds light on the global market landscape of the automated breast ultrasound system. The research report is a result of compilation of extensive primary as well as secondary research methodologies. The research report makes use of inputs from industry experts, surveys, and personal interviews to provide an in-depth qualitative as well as quantitative evaluation of the global automated breast ultrasound system market. The report also consists of crucial information gathered from the prominent companies that are playing their trade in the global automated breast ultrasound system market. A separate evaluation of the macro as well as micro-economic directives, driving factors of the market, current trends, mandates, and regulation that govern the overall development of the global market for automated breast ultrasound system are also given out in the report.Automated breast ultrasound system (ABUS), another innovative technology, is the other option to customary hand-held ultrasounds for breast screenings. Same as customary ultrasound, the technology utilizes high-frequency sound waves that are focused at the breast with the benefit of getting a 3-D volumetric picture of the breast. ABUS examinations require substantially less time than conventional ultrasound which can be a fraction of the time requirement for customary ultrasounds. Additionally, the transducer utilized as a part of ABUS plays out a programmed output of the breast, in this way diminishing operator reliance to a higher degree.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Over the world, the expanding occurrence of breast tumor is considerably adding to the development of the automated breast ultrasound system market. As indicated by the World Cancer Research Fund, the commonness of breast tumor is 25% higher than different sorts of cancers in ladies.Ecological changes and changes in lifestyles are increasing the vulnerabilities to a number of disorders among females, which also includes breast cancer. Chemicals found in polychlorinated, plastics, biphenyls, pesticides, and beauty care products, have estrogen properties, which builds the danger of breast tumor. Also, raising undesirable habits, for instance, smoking and drinking is prompting significant occurrence of cancer, fueling the overall development of the automated breast ultrasound system market.Activities undertaken by a number of governments around the globe for increasing general awareness about breast cancer have brought about a growing number of women experiencing screening. Not just this, few charitable associations are likewise occupied with raising awareness for the disease and accessibility of cutting edge diagnostics for early identification of the breast cancer. This factors are expected to drive the overall growth of the market in the coming years of the forecast period.The global market for automated breast ultrasound system can be comprehensively fragmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. In North America, the U.S. contributed a huge income to the local market because of high occurrences of breast cancer cases and good government activities for the utilization of high-tech diagnostics methods.Request TOC of the Report @Germany is expected to represent a critical contribution in terms of income to the Europe ABUS market. According to the Immunological and Oncological Center, the district records nearly 70,000 breast cancers cases every year. With the launch of screening programs and their successful administration, clinical cancer registrations have been prepared for the early treatment and effective care for cancer.In Asia Pacific, the growing awareness for the early identification of breast cancer and innovative technologies for enhanced screening systems are expected to fuel development of this market.Some of the key players in the global market include names such as SonoCine, Siemens, Philips Healthcare, Hitachi, and GE Healthcare among others.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Breast Pump Market Competitive Landscape 2017-2025 : Energizer Personal Care, Bailey Medical, Lansinoh Laboratories, Whittlestone, and Hygeia Medical Group https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1346 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1346 https://www.tmrresearch.com/breast-pump-market The global breast pump market is anticipated to witness a significant daylight in coming years. These gadgets are utilized mostly by working ladies to keep breastfeeding their children while still at work. In a few occurrences, specialists likewise prescribe ladies to utilize breast pumps to empower drain supply when the infant cant suck drain. Breast pumps have developed as an appropriate decision by the working ladies. The market is relied upon to witness an eminent development, because of mechanical headways, for example, twofold breast pumps, which help to dispense with fat substance from drain and substitute it with higher caloric value. The research report authored by a market research company titled, Breast Pump Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth, and Forecast 2017 2025. This report fills in as a strong business source to survey examples and openings in the overall breast pump market. It offers encounters into the estimations of the market at both worldwide and common levels. It gives an all-round comprehension of the vendor scene of the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Because of the expanding number of working ladies, breast pumps are essentially utilized, particularly in created nations. Likewise, as a larger part of ladies are continuing to work promptly in the wake of conceiving an offspring, breast pumps assume a noticeable part in adjusting their own and expert lives. Developing nations such as India and China are expected to support the advance of the market for breast encourage pumps attributable to their expanding populace and rise in the population of working ladies. This situation in creating nations is additionally anticipated that would balance the market development in the Asia Pacific area. Be that as it may, created nations in the districts like North America and Europe too are required to hold their market positions in for breast pumps sector.To give lactating moms ease, comfort and improve their milk production alongside supporting their own position in the market, makers are enhancing and creating breast pumps with each passing day. For example, double electric breast pumps raises prolactin level among ladies that expands the drain generation over the time. These pumps additionally decrease the fat levels present in the milk and furthermore invigorates the calorific estimations of it as well. As of late, makers are endeavoring to present convenient breast pumps that will additionally encourage the way toward bolstering new conceived babies.Request TOC of the Report @Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), established by six moms as a deliberate association in 1964, will underwrite two brands of breast pumps, namely Ardo Calypso and Ardo Carum, as indicated by a concurrence with Medical Australia. The best purchases are additionally anticipated that would rotate around single and twofold electric and manual breast pumps. The sensibly estimated Nuby Natural Touch single electric breast pump had won the silver acknowledgment at the Prima Baby and Pregnancy Awards in 2016. Manual pumps, for example, Medela Harmony are considered as best purchases for moms who incline toward quietness and compactness and need the gadget to fit into even an anorak take. Philips, Ameda Breastfeeding Solutions, and Medela are among the top three firms with the highest shares in the market. Bailey Medical, Whittlestone, Energizer Personal Care, Lansinoh Laboratories, and Hygeia Medical Groupare the names of some more key players in the industry.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com IP Intercom Market Comprehensive Study with focus on key drivers: Barix, Mircom, ABB, Legrand, Honeywell, Samsung, Quantometrix,etc IP Intercom Market https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request_sample/207647 https://www.reportsmonitor.com/check_discount/207647 https://www.reportsmonitor.com/report/207647/IP-Intercom-Market IP Intercom MarketSummaryThe IP Intercom Market has, over the years of massive advancements and vast rise in application areas, become the backbone of a number of industries and continues to transform the way operations and processes are undertaken across a number of industries.This IP Intercom Market has touched, in more ways than apparent, and transformed a number of industries, making computer control and automation a norm. Added reliability in the way processes operate, less time to result, and consistent results are some of the key factors new sets of end-users continue to turn to the software industry for a vast variety of operating solutions.To Access PDF Sample Report, Click Here:Scope of the Report:Major Players in IP Intercom market are: Barix, Mircom, ABB, Legrand, Honeywell, Samsung, Quantometrix, Alpha Communications, AIPHONE, BEC Integrated Solutions, Commend, TCS AG, Siedle, Nyteck Systems, Housing Devices, Inc (HDI), Gira, Independent Alarm, DASH, Caverion, Commend, Jacques Technologies, Silva Consultants, Nortek Security & Control, Algo, CASTEL, Hooks Burglar & Fire Alarm Co., Inc, GAI-Tronics, TOA CorporationMajor Regions play vital role in IP Intercom market are: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East & AfricaResearch FrameworkThe report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry with respect to each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market. Global IP Intercom Market Research Report provides insights of IP Intercom industry over past 5 years and a forecast until 2025.The Report studies the Market status and future trend in global market, splits by type and applications, to fully and deeply research and reveal the market situation and future forecast.Check Discount for this Report @Global IP Intercom Market: Type Outlook: Visible, InvisibleGlobal IP Intercom Market: Application Outlook: Commercial, Government, Industrial, Other Security AreaWhat are the key dynamic factors that are detailed in the report?Key Market Dynamics: The Global IP Intercom Market research report details the latest industry trends, growth patterns, and research methodologies. The factors that directly contribute to the growth of the market include the production strategies and methodologies, development platforms, and the product model itself, wherein a small change would result in further changes in the overall report. All of these factors are explained in detail in the research study.Market Outlook: The report also sheds light on some of the major factors, including R&D, new product launches, M&A, agreements, partnerships, joint ventures, collaborations, and growth of the key industry participants, on a regional and global basis.Major Features: The report provides a thorough analysis of some of the significant factors, which include cost, capacity, capacity utilization rate, production, revenue, production rate, consumption, import/export, supply/demand, gross, market share, CAGR, and gross margin. Besides, the report provides a comprehensive study of the key influencing factors and market inclinations, in addition to the relevant market segments and sub-segments.Analytical Tools: The Global IP Intercom 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.Potential Customers: The report offers detailed insights to users, service providers, suppliers, manufacturers, stockholders, and individuals who are interested in evaluating and self-studying this market.Browse Detailed TOC, Tables, Figures, Charts and Companies @In the end, The main goal of this research study is to provide a clear picture and a better understanding of the market for Global self driving car sales market report 2018 to the manufacturers, suppliers, and the distributors operational in it. The readers can gain a deep insight into this market from this piece of information that can enable them to formulate and develop critical strategies for the further expansion of their businesses.Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like Asia, United States, Europe.About UsReports Monitor is a market intelligence and consulting firm with extensive experience and knowledge of the Market Research industry.Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact Us:Mr Jay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911 (U.S.)+44 203 318 2846 (U.K.)Email: sales@reportsmonitor.com It is likely that the tear gas was intended for the few hundred migrants who broke off from a peaceful protest. That protest was aimed at getting the U.S. to reconsider its decision to deny asylum to some 5,000 people who had made the trek from Honduras to Guatemala to Tijuana, Mexico. The children became collateral damage in Trumps war against nations whose people he considers to be less than human. Throat Cancer Key Players Resort to Novel Innovation in Treatment to Increase Market Share 2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1792 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/throat-cancer-market-1792 Global Throat Cancer Market - OverviewCancer is a condition with uncontrolled division of cells spreading unusually in the body. These abnormal cells accumulate at a specific site to form mass of cells called tumors. Throat cancer refers to tumor of the voice box, the vocal cords, and different parts of the throat, for example, the tonsils and the oropharynx. The throat cancer is categorized into two types: pharyngeal cancer and laryngeal cancer.GET SAMPLE REPORT @The throat cancer market is growing at a fast pace and is expected to growth in the near future. The major factors that driving the growth of this market are the increasing geriatric population, increasing rate of cancer survival, changing lifestyle, high number of tobacco consumers, and increasing smoking population. The treatment procedure for the throat cancer is becoming more effective with increasing success rates. The increasing demand for these treatments will grow resulting in the growth of the global throat cancer market.There are emerging new drugs, therapies for the treatment and occurrence of throat cancer, the ever increasing demand and popularity of these treatments will grow eventually. Globally around 157,000 new cases of laryngeal cancer were diagnosed in 2012. According to National Cancer Institute (NIH), about 1.1% of adult population is estimated to be diagnosed with pharyngeal cancer followed by 0.4% with laryngeal cancers at some point during their lifetime.With the increasing prevalence of throat cancer, raise in HPV infections, alcohol consumption and rising aging population are the major factors driving the growth of throat cancer market in the forecast period. According to American Cancer Society (ACS), around 13,430 new cases of laryngeal cancer were diagnosed among them 79% were men and 21% were women in 2016. Throat cancer are more common in men than women that are probably because of their smoking habits.Combination therapy are more preferred for the treatment of throat cancer die to different mechanisms and the combined ability to decrease the resistance of the cancer cells to drugs. Cisplatin and 5-FU are more commonly used chemotherapy drugs to treat the throat cancers but these drugs have numerous side effects such as diarrhoea, kidney damage and heart problems. The global throat cancer market has been examined as a swiftly growing market and expected to grow at a tremendous rate.Ongoing research to develop the newer chemotherapies such as targeted therapies by using EGFR inhibitors and angiogenesis inhibitors to treat the throat cancer. The recent use of transoral robotic surgeries are gaining traction for the physicians to remove the tumors due to minimal invasion to conduct the surgery in a precise manner with fewer side effects. In the case of the radiation therapy, few doctors are trying to kill the cancer cells by using proton beam therapy because these cause less damage to the tissues they pass through than the X-rays.However, lack of target specific drugs to treat the throat cancer, side effects of the chemotherapy drugs and lack of diagnosis of the disease are some of the factors that may hamper the growth of throat cancer treatment market in near future.Global Throat Cancer Market Regional:Geographically, the regional market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.The North America dominated the global throat cancer market with the U.S. holding the largest market share. The factors that drive the throat cancer market are the rising aging population, growing demand for advanced cancer therapies, increasing government funding in the healthcare sector, and growth of cancer care facilities in emerging countriesIn Europe, due to increase in the incidence of throat cancer because of increase in smoking, tobacco and alcohol consumption in these regions. Cancer of the larynx is uncommon in the UK with around 2,000 cases developing each year. It is four times more common in men than in women. It is rare in people aged under 40 years and is most common in people aged over 60 years.Asia Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly with developing countries such as China and India leading this market due to the fast growing healthcare sector and large unmet needs over the forecast period.The Middle East & African market especially, the African region is expected to witness a poor growth owing to the lack of knowledge in medical sector, and less development in medical facilities in Middle East & Africa will have limited growth in the market.Table of Content: Key Points1 Introduction2 Research Methodology3 Market Dynamics4 Market Factor Analysis5 Global Throat Cancer Market, By Types6 Global Throat Cancer Market, By Treatments7 Global Throat Cancer Market, By Regions8 Company LandscapeContinuedAccess full report now:Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMarket Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market profiled with top companies like | Ge Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, Esaote, Analogic (BK Ultrasound), Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung Medison, https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1043881?utm_source=OPR-PRAVIN https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/1043881?utm_source=OPR-PRAVIN https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/world-diagnostic-ultrasound-imaging-systems-market-research-report-2023-covering-usa-eu-china-south-east-asia-india-japan-and-etc https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog Latest report on Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market offered by Market Study Report gives a market overview of the Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems which covers product scope, market revenue, opportunities, growth rate, sales volumes and figures. The report also explores the worldwide players of the market and is segmented by region, type and application with forecast to 2023.Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability.The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.The report includes the forecasts, Analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry Players.Request a sample of this premium report atThe Players mentioned in our report:Ge Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, Esaote, Analogic (BK Ultrasound), Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung Medison, Terason, Mindray, Philips Healthcare, Carestream HealthGlobal Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market: Product Segment AnalysisTrolley/Cart-based ultrasound imaging devicesCompact/Portable ultrasound imaging devicesColor Doppler Ultrasound Imaging SystemsBlack & White Ultrasound Imaging SystemsGlobal Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market: Application Segment AnalysisGeneral ImagingWomen's HealthCardiovascularPoint-of-CareVeterinaryGlobal Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market: Regional Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSouth East AsiaRequest a discount on standard prices of this premium report atTable of ContentChapter 1 About the Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems IndustryChapter 2 World Market Competition LandscapeChapter 3 World Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market shareChapter 4 Supply Chain AnalysisChapter 5 Company ProfilesChapter 6 Globalization & TradeChapter 7 Distributors and CustomersChapter 8 Import, Export, Consumption and Consumption Value by MajorCountriesChapter 9 World Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market Forecast through 2023Chapter 10 Key success factors and Market OverviewComplete report titled World Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging Systems Market Report available atAbout Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog: Latest Report On Shoulder Anatomical Model Market Growing Fast during 2018-2025- Estimated By Top Key Players like 3B Scientific, Altay Scientific, Creaplast, Denoyer-Geppert Latest Report On Shoulder Anatomical Model Market Growing Fast during 2018-2025- Estimated By Top Key Players like 3B Scientific https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/23714 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/23714 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/23714 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/request_for_discount/23714 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/shoulder-anatomical-model--market www.upmarketresearch.com UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Shoulder Anatomical Model Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 119 pages which highly exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Get Free Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This ReportShoulder Anatomical Model Industry research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Shoulder Anatomical Model Industry global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018 - 2025.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Shoulder Anatomical Model :History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.Get Free Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This ReportThe report for Shoulder Anatomical Model market analysis & forecast 2018-2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Global Shoulder Anatomical Model Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis 3B Scientific Altay Scientific Creaplast Denoyer-Geppert Educational + Scientific Products Erler-Zimmer Anatomiemodelle Fysiomed GPI Anatomicals Nasco RUDIGER - ANATOMIE SOMSO Xincheng Scientific Industries YUAN TECHNOLOGY LIMITEDFor More Information Please VisitShoulder Anatomical Model Consumption by Region North America Asia-Pacific Europe Central & South America Middle East & AfricaMarket Size Split by Type Adult Shoulder Anatomical Model Children Shoulder Anatomical ModelShoulder Anatomical Model Breakdown Data by Application Hospital Clinic Medical CollegeGet Best Discount @StakeholdersHigh Intensity Focused Ultrasound Key Therapy Manufacturers Shoulder Anatomical Model Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Shoulder Anatomical Model Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsTo Buy This Report and Get It Delivered In Your Inbox Within 24 Hours @The Report covers in-depth analysis as follows1 Study Coverage2 Executive Summary3 Market Size by Manufacturers4 Shoulder Anatomical Model Production by Regions5 Shoulder Anatomical Model Consumption by Regions6 Market Size by Type7 Market Size by Application8 Manufacturers Profiles9 Production Forecasts10 Consumption Forecast11 Upstream, Industry Chain and Downstream Customers Analysis12 Opportunities & Challenges, Threat and Affecting Factors13 Key Findings14 AppendixKey Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Shoulder Anatomical Model Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 and its commercial landscape Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations To understand the future outlook and prospects for Shoulder Anatomical Model market analysis and forecast 2018-2025.Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About UpMarketResearch:UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States Global Biosensors Market Forecast Showing 8% CAGR to 2024 | Top Key Players - Siemens Healthcare, Thermo-Fisher Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Biosensors International, Innovative Biosensors, Johnson & Johnson Biosensors Market, Biosensors Market trend, Biosensors Market analysis, Biosensors Industry https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/467795/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/467795/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/biosensors-market/?utm_source=OPR-SP https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog/ Market Study Report adds Global Biosensors market report that gives meticulous investigation of current scenario of the market size, share, demand, growth, trends, companies active in the industry and forecasts for the coming years.Biosensors Market will exceed USD 29 billion by 2024; as per a new research report. Integration of advanced technology in the newly developed biosensors will propel business growth. Growing adoption of biosensors in medical diagnostics due to accuracy and efficiency provided by newly developed biosensors will further boost biosensors market growth over the forecast timeframe.Request a sample of this premium Research Report at:U.S. biosensors Market was over USD 5.5 billion in 2017. The market growth will be driven by rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer that require continuous critical monitoring. Rising usage of portable biosensors will increase the demand and stimulate the business growth. Furthermore, extended applications of biosensors in various other fields will also enhance overall industry growth significantly.Increasing prevalence of diabetes has been a major growth factor driving the biosensors industry. Increasing sedentary lifestyle and changing food habits around the world have resulted in obesity and hormonal disorders that lead to high prevalence of diabetes. Increasing demand for glucose biosensors that enable accurate detection of blood sugar levels has stimulated industry growth.Germany biosensors market will witness 8.2% growth over the forecast period due to development of new biosensor devices that have advanced technology integrated within them delivering improved surgical performance along with assisting in critical decisions about patient?s health. Increasing use of biosensors in medical as well as research laboratories will fuel biosensors market growth significantly.Wearable biosensors attributed to more than 55% of the industry revenue in 2017 and is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period, owing to growing awareness amongst the adult population in developed as well as developing countries for sustaining healthy lifestyles along with rising incidences of diabetes. Industry players are focused on developing devices that will help individuals to monitor their health on various parameters.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Strategic merger and acquisition as well as new product development are some of the strategic initiatives that render companies with competitive advantage to survive in stiff competitive market. In June 2014, Johnson & Johnson developed new technology that is integrated within the biosensors that helps in monitoring critical and chronic conditions such as Alzheimer?s disease. Development of such new technologies will strengthen company?s product portfolio thereby generating profits for the company.Major industry players operating in biosensors market are Abbott Laboratories, Bio-Rad International, Biosensors International, DuPont Biosensors Materials, Ercon, Gwent Group, Innovative Biosensors, Johnson & Johnson, Molecular Devices Corp, Pinnacle Technology, QTL Biosystems, Roche Diagnostics, SDIX, LLC, Siemens Healthcare, TE Connectivity Corporation, Thermo-Fisher Scientific. Stiff competition among manufacturers have encouraged industry players to undertake some strategic initiatives to improvise their product offerings coupled with consolidating their market position.Table of Content:Chapter 1. Biosensors Market MethodologyChapter 2. Biosensors Market Executive SummaryChapter 3. Biosensors Industry InsightsChapter 4. Biosensors Market, By TypeChapter 5. Biosensors Market, By TechnologyChapter 6. Biosensors Market, By Medical ApplicationChapter 7. Biosensors Market, By End-useChapter 8. Biosensors Market, By RegionChapter 9. Biosensors Market Company ProfilesFor more information on this report at:About Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWeb site:Blog: Bioanalytical Testing Services Market Booming in Healthcare With Toxikon, Intertek Group plc, Charles River Laboratories, SGS SA (Switzerland), WuXi AppTec Pharmaceutical Product Development, etc Market Research Future https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6573 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/bioanalytical-testing-services-market-6573 Global Bioanalytical Testing Services Market Report of Market Research Future (MRFR)s Explores Scope of the Study as Research Objective, Assumptions and Limitations in-depth. The report gives Market Dynamics by Major Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Challenges.Bioanalytical Testing Services Market - Overview:The global bioanalytical testing services market is expected to touch a valuation of USD 1,867.30 million by 2023, as per the latest report by Market Research Future (MRFR). High needs of blockbuster drugs to treat chronic diseases is one of the major factors predicted to drive the market growth over the forecast period (2018-2023). Rising research and development activities conducted in biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors can spur market growth.Increasing development of biologics can induce market demand over the forecast period. Patent expiry of various drugs and need for them to expedite clinical trials can positively impact the bioanalytical testing services market. Outsourcing of testing services to contract research organizations (CROs) in developing economies to curtail operational expenditure costs can propel market growth over the forecast period.Rising prevalence of cancer and other chronic ailments which require blockbuster drugs can bolster market demand in the forthcoming years. But high costs of drug discovery can pose a challenge to market growth.Request Sample copy atBioanalytical Testing Services Market - Segmental Analysis:The bioanalytical testing services market covers the latest trends and opportunities across Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East & Africa (MEA).The Americas region accounted for 39.3% share in 2017, followed by Europe (31.3%), APAC (22.1%), and MEA (7.3%). The large share of Americas can be credited to presence of major pharmaceutical manufacturers, high incidence of chronic diseases, and technological advances in preclinical and clinical testing phases. The huge patient pool residing in the region can generate close to USD 716.73 million by 2023 at a CAGR of 12.39% over the forecast period.The APAC bioanalytical testing services market can grow at a rapid clip owing to presence of CROs in India and China. India is touted to be the prime destination owing to the low production cost of drugs in the country. Factors such as developing healthcare infrastructure, investments by pharmaceutical giants of Europe and U.S., and numerous research organizations are expected to augment the market size to USD 435.05 million by 2023.Europe can experience 12.94% CAGR over the forecast period, while the MEA region is likely to experience a modest growth rate.Bioanalytical Testing Services Market Top Players:Prominent players operating in the bioanalytical testing services market include Toxikon (U.S.), Intertek Group plc (U.K.), Charles River Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), SGS SA (Switzerland), WuXi AppTec (U.S.), Pharmaceutical Product Development (U.S.), Covance, Inc. (U.S.), ICON plc (Ireland), Pace Analytical Services, LLC (U.S.), inVentiv Health (U.S.), and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (U.S.). Collaborations, mergers & acquisitions, and product portfolio expansions are core strategies deemed to be employed by these players during the forecast period.Bioanalytical Testing Services Market - Detailed Regional Analysis:The bioanalytical testing services market can be segmented by molecule type and test type.By molecule type, the market is segmented into small and large. The small segment accounted for nearly 66% market share, while the large segment accounted for 34.9% share in 2017. Small molecules can exhibit a 11.94% CAGR over the forecast period owing to its advantages against battling chronic diseases. Large molecules can grow at a higher CAGR (14.76%) than its counterpart due to large scale development of biologics. Biologics are an essential component in the manufacture of vaccines, proteins, and others. Testing of large molecules can turn out to be a lucrative opportunity for the bioanalytical testing services market.By tests, it is segmented into pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD), bioavailability, bioequivalence, and others. Within this segment, PD accounted for 39% share of the bioanalytical testing services market in 2017. It can touch a size of USD 467.25 million by 2023. This can be credited to this branch of testing capable of determining dose concentration-response relationships of drugs. PK assumed the second position by capturing close to 25% share in the same year. This segment is touted to generate revenues at 13.96% CAGR over the forecast period.Browse Complete 100 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 100+ Respective Tables and Figures atAbout 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.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Rhabdomyosarcoma Market Booming in Healthcare With Eli Lilly & Company, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Pfizer, Novartis AG, Bristol Myers Squibb Company, Oasmia, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, etc Market Research Future https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6569 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/rhabdomyosarcoma-market-6569 Global Rhabdomyosarcoma Market Report of Market Research Future (MRFR)s Explores Scope of the Study as Research Objective, Assumptions and Limitations in-depth. The report gives Market Dynamics by Major Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Challenges.Rhabdomyosarcoma Market - HighlightsRhabdomyosarcoma is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of ~4.8%. Rhabdomyosarcoma or RMS is a type of soft tissue cancer. It is rare cancer and affects the skeletal muscle tissue. Sometimes, it also affects the hollow organs like uterus or bladder. RMS can affect people of any age, but it mostly affects children. The increasing prevalence of rhabdomyosarcoma, rising research & development expenditure and useful molecules in the pipeline are expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. Additionally, the increasing awareness among people is likely to boost the market growth. On the other hand, high treatment costs, side effects of the treatment, improper results of the drugs in the pipeline and strict government regulations may hinder the growth of the market during the forecast period.The global rhabdomyosarcoma market is currently dominated by many market players. The key players in the market are engaging themselves in new product launches and strategic collaborations to strengthen its market position.Request Sample copy atFor instance, in December 2016, Pfizer USD 6 million in Bioinvent for Myeloid Cell Antibody partnership. Bioinvent has a few cancer drugs in the pipeline, like the TB-403, a monoclonal antibody which targets placental growth factor, as a possible treatment for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, medulloblastoma, etc. This drug is in its Phase 2 trials.Competitive Dashboard:Some of the key players in the global rhabdomyosarcoma market are Eli Lilly & Company, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG, Bristol Myers Squibb Company, Oasmia, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., CELGENE CORPORATION, Eisai Co., Ltd., MacroGenics, Inc., NantKwest, TAIHO ONCOLOGY, INC., Tarveda Therapeutics., Exelixis, Inc., and Ipsen Pharma.Segmentation Overview:The global rhabdomyosarcoma market has been segmented into type, treatment, and diagnosis.The market, on the basis of type, has been segmented into Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma, and Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is expected to account for the largest market share in this segment owing to its rising prevalence. It is also anticipated to be the fastest growing market.The market, by diagnosis, has been segmented into Imaging Tests and Biopsy.According to diagnosis, imaging tests have been segmented into X-Ray, CT scan, MRI scan, PET scan, and Bone scan.According to diagnosis, biopsy has been segmented into Needle Biopsy and Surgical Biopsy.The market, by treatment, has been segmented into Surgery, Radiation Therapy, Chemotherapy and Stem Cell Therapy.Regional Wise Analysis:The market in the Americas is expected to dominate the global rhabdomyosarcoma market during the forecast period owing to the high prevalence of rhabdomyosarcoma and well-established healthcare infrastructure. According to an article published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology in January 2018, about 350 children are diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma every year. The European market is expected to be the second-largest due to the well-developed healthcare infrastructure in the region. Moreover, the market in Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest-growing during the assessment period owing to favorable government initiatives for enhancing healthcare facilities. The market in the Middle East & Africa is likely to account for the smallest share of the global rhabdomyosarcoma market. The market growth in this region can be attributed to the increases cases of rhabdomyosarcoma.Some Points from TOC of Rhabdomyosarcoma Market Research Report Forecast to 2023:Chapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Challenges4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4.6 Technology Trends & AssessmentChapter 5. Market Factor AnalysisTOC CONTINUED.Browse Complete 100 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 90 Respective Tables and Figures atAbout 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.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com New Stainless Steel Railway Catch from EMKA New Stainless Steel Railway Catch from EMKA www.emka.com/uk_en/transport-rail-simple-locking-systems/quarter-turn-for-outside-the-gasketing-957/ www.emkablog.co.uk http://twitter.com/emkauk www.emka.com www.emkablog.co.uk The new Program 1000 stainless steel quarter-turn latch from EMKA uses an externally mounted C shaped catch and insert type spanner lock in conformity with RIC for Railway use outside the sealing gasket on enclosures and cabinets. By mounting outside the cabinet frame and outside the gasketing area, panel builders may be confident that the lock installation ensures integrity of the housing as the sealed area is not compromised in any way.The Program 1000 can be varied in format by using other types of quarter-turn or compression latch where required, perhaps for non-rail applications such as food industry where a suitable latch/lock can be selected.Rail industry conformity may be further addressed by use of a fire protection gasket sealing profile such as 1011-05-FR01 in the knowledge that there are no other vulnerabilities.Further information on the EMKA stainless steel railway catch can be found at. Readers can find the latest information and news on the EMKA blog or follow them on twitter -EMKA UK Ltd is the UK subsidiary of EMKA Beschlagteile GmbH, a privately owned company specialising in the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative Electronic Locking Modules, Biometric Locking Systems, Locks and Latches, Compression Locks, Keylocks, Toggle latches, Hinges, Handles, Rod Controls, Air Conditioning products, Stainless Steel products, Sealing profiles, Window/Door units and Accessories to the Electrical and Electronic, HVAC and Industrial Enclosure Industries, plus Commercial Vehicle Accessories.Their focus is to provide customers with the best, cost effective, reliable solution within their ability, backed by a comprehensive support service.EMKA (UK) LtdPatricia HouseBodmin RoadCoventryWest MidlandsCV2 5DGTel: 024 7661 6505email: emka@emka.co.ukPress contact: Andrew Billingham Household Cleaner Market Overview with detailed analysis, Competitive landscape Forecast 2025 Household Cleaner Market https://www.inforgrowth.com/samplerequest/r/320873/global-household-cleaner-market-research-repor https://www.inforgrowth.com/customizationrequest/r/119742/global-workforce-management-software-market-si https://www.inforgrowth.com/requestdiscount/r/320873/global-household-cleaner-market-research-repor Global Household Cleaner Market reports provide CAGR Value 2018-2025 and in-depth analysis of Top Players, Geography, End users, Applications, Competitor analysis, Sales, Revenue, Price, Gross Margin, Market Share, Trends and Forecast.Household Cleaner Market Report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Household Cleaner market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.Download Sample of This Premium Report atThe Global Household Cleaner market analyzes and researches the Household Cleaner development status and forecast in North America, Europe, Japan, China, and other regions (India, Southeast Asia).The Global Household Cleaner Market focuses on global major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out.Key Players covered in this report are Henkel, Bombril, Colgate Palmolive, McBride, Church & Dwight Co.Inc., Kao Corporation, Godrej Consumer Products, SC Johnson & Son, The Clorox Company, Seventh Generation, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, Unilever.Report analysed by applications like Surface Cleaner, Specialty Cleaner, Bleaches. Then report is analysed on the basis of type Bathroom Cleaner, Kitchen Cleaner, Floor Cleaner, Fabric Cleaner, Others.The Household Cleaner industry development trends and marketing channels are analysed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.With the tables and figures, the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.The Household Cleaner Market report provides key statistics on the market status of the Household Cleaner manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Ask for Custom Requirements or Queries about this Report atMajor Points Covered in Table of Contents:1 Study Coverage2 Executive Summary3 Breakdown Data by Manufacturers4 Breakdown Data by Type5 Breakdown Data by Application6 North America7 Europe8 Asia Pacific9 Central & South America10 Middle East and Africa11 Company Profiles12 Market Opportunities, Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis13 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis14 Research Findings and Conclusion15 AppendixRequest For special discountAbout InForGrowth:We are a market-intelligence company formed with the objective of providing clients access to the most relevant and accurate research content for their growth needs. At InForGrowth, we understand Research requirements and help a client in taking informed business critical decisions. Given the complexities and interdependencies of market-intelligence, there is always more than one source to explore and arrive at the right answer. Through our smart search feature and our reliable & trusted publishing partners, we are paving way for a more simplified and relevant research.For all your Research needs, reach out to us at:Address: 6400 Village Pkwy suite # 104, Dublin, CA 94568, USAEmail: info@inforgrowth.comPhone: +1-909-329-2808 New Report Antifungal Agents Market 2023 : Asperqillus, Alternaria, Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Glaxosmithkline, Bayer Healthcare, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis and Other Top Key Players Included Antifungal Agents Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-toc-and-sample/76?utm_source=sank_opr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/76?utm_source=sank_opr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Anti fungal agent is a drug that detects and eliminates fungal pathogens from foreign body with minimal toxic side effects to the body. The global market for anti fungal agents is expected to reach approximately $102 billion by 2015. The anti fungal agent market growth is increasing due to rise in number of patients suffering from hygiene related diseases in developing countries and some of the developed countries.Get Access to TOC / Sample Report @High penetration of conventional drugs used in the treatment of fungal diseases is reducing the growth for anti-fungal agent market. Though these restraints are dominating the market, the application of anti fungal drugs market has initiated the growth of anti fungal agent market. The challenges faced by this market are expected to resolve, as companies are concentrating on advancement in technologies that reduces the cost and increases the efficiency of the treatment. The report provides intelligence on patent analysis that provides forecasted market trends for anti fungal agents. The report also provides intelligence about competitive landscape for key companies engaged in this business.Key companies included in company profiles are Asperqillus, Alternaria, Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Glaxosmithkline, Bayer Healthcare, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck & Co., Kramer Laboratories, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, and Gilead.Antifungal Agents Market Key Benefits: Key developmental strategies of the top market players are analyzed in this report so that companies involved in development of anti-fungal agents can get competitive intelligence of their competitors The report provides market estimation for drug types, therapeutics, applications and geographic segments that are derived from current market scenarios and expected market trends. Market attractiveness analysis has been included for various product segments, therapeutics, techniques and geographic regions with detailed analysis of factors responsible for rapid growth of the market segments In depth analysis of key market drivers, restraints and opportunities are discussed for anti-fungal agent market with impact analysis Value chain analysis, Porters five force model, top investment pockets (GE9 Cell Matrix) are analyzed and presented in detail in the report so that decision makers receive clear picture of anti-fungal agent marketSend Enquiry on this report @About usAllied Market Research, a market research and advisory company of Allied Analytics LLP, provides business insights and market research reports to large as well as small & medium enterprises. The company assists its clients to strategize business policies and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Allied Market Research provides one stop solution from the beginning of data collection to investment advice. The analysts at Allied Market Research dig out factors that help clients to understand the significance and impact of market dynamics. The company amplies clients insight on the factors, such as strategies, future estimations, growth or fall forecasting, opportunity analysis, and consumer surveys among others. As follows, the company offers consistent business intelligent support to aid the clients to turn into prominent business firm.Contact:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1(855)550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Size, Insights, Trends, Outlook 2018 | Top Key Players: Lebara Mobile, LycaMobile, Talkmobile, Giffgaff, Poste Mobile Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) http://www.supplydemandmarketresearch.com/home/contact/66752?ref=Sample-and-Brochure&toccode=SDMRIN66752 http://www.supplydemandmarketresearch.com/home/toc_publisher/66752?code=SDMRIN66752#Tables_and_Figures http://www.supplydemandmarketresearch.com/ A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), virtual network operator (VNO), or mobile other licensed operator (MOLO), is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers.The Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market report offers a detailed Outlook and future prospects of the Industry. The Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) market report includes various topics like market size & share, Competitive Analysis, applications, key market drivers & restraints, challenges, growth opportunities, key players, competitive landscape, Regions etc.The Asia Pacific and MEA regions are projected to experience a significant growth over the forecast period. Asia Pacific regional market was valued at USD 4.62 billion in 2017. due to rapid growth of the telecom services industry in this region. Moreover, emerging economies, such as India, Vietnam, Myanmar, and China, are putting efforts in expanding and modernizing their telecommunication services. Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Singapore, and Philippines, are also estimated to contribute substantially to the regions expansion over the forecast period.Request for the sample copy:The Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) market was valued at Million US$ in 2017 and is projected to reach Million US$ by 2025, at a CAGR of during the forecast period. In this study, 2017 has been considered as the base year and 2018 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)The key players covered in this study Lebara Mobile LycaMobile Talkmobile Giffgaff Poste Mobile Virgin Mobile ATT Verizon Telefonica Lycamobile Truphone T-Mobile Citic Telecom Tracfone Wireless Japan Communications OthersKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2025 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Reseller Service Operator Full MVNOMarket segment by Application, split into Customer service Billing support systems Marketing Sales personnelBrowse Complete Report:Software Defined Anything (SDx) Production by RegionUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanOther RegionsTable of Contents1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 Reseller1.4.3 Service Operator1.4.4 Full MVNO1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Customer service1.5.3 Billing support systems1.5.4 Marketing1.5.5 Sales personnel1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Size2.2 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities3 Market Share by Key Players3.1 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Size by Manufacturers3.1.1 Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Revenue by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.2 Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Revenue Market Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.3 Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)3.2 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Product/Solution/Service3.4 Date of Enter into Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market3.5 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion PlansToc Continued!List of Tables and FiguresTable Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Key Market SegmentsTable Key Players Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) CoveredTable Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Size Growth Rate by Type 2013-2025 (Million US$)Figure Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Size Market Share by Type 2013-2025Figure Reseller FiguresTable Key Players of ResellerFigure Service Operator FiguresTable Key Players of Service OperatorAnd MoreAbout Us:We have a strong network of high powered and experienced global consultants who have about 10+ years of experience in the specific industry to deliver quality research and analysis.Having such an experienced network, our services not only cater to the client who wants the basic reference of market numbers and related high growth areas in the demand side, but also we provide detailed and granular information using which the client can definitely plan the strategies with respect to both supply and demand side.302-20 Misssisauga Valley, Missisauga,L5A 3S1, TorontoContact UsEmail- sales@supplydemandmarketresearch.comWebsite-Phone Number: +1-778-686-7521 Cutting Tool Inserts Market 2025 | Sumitomo Electric Carbide Inc., Saint Gobain, KennaMetal, Kyocera Corporation, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Asahi Diamond Industrial Co. Ltd., https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114960/Cutting-Tool-Inserts-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114960/Cutting-Tool-Inserts-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114960/Cutting-Tool-Inserts-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ Global Cutting Tool Inserts Market to Register a CAGR of 6.6% during 2017 2025 in terms of value; Asia Pacific to lead global Cutting Tool Inserts market over the forecast periodRRI delivers key insights on the global Cutting Tool Inserts market in its latest report entitled Cutting Tool Inserts Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Sales and Forecast By 2025. The overall growth for global Cutting Tool Inserts market to remain attractive, with the market value anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 6.6% in terms of volume during the forecast period 2017 2025. According to the technology, the carbides segments are expected to hold leading market shareduring the forecast period.On the basis of substrate, cast iron and stainless steel are expected to be major segment driving the globalCutting Tool Insertsregisteringsignificant CAGR in terms of volumes and valuesduring the forecast period. The global Cutting Tool Inserts market is expected to reach US$ 15,044.9Mn by the end of 2017. Asia Pacific followed by Europe and North America account for majorityshare in the global Cutting Tool Inserts market by the end of 2016.Request For Report Sample:Global Cutting Tool Inserts Market DynamicsThe APAC region will be key region driving the Cutting Tool Insertsmarket, as emerging economies located inregion will witness significant increase in themanufacturingactivities. Thecountries, such as India and China are expected to propel the overall demand for cutting equipment as well as consumable inserts globally. The global automotive industry is estimated to grow rapidly globally that will directly impact the trailer axle market in the near future. The demand from North America and Europewill be mainly driven growing usage of machines incorporated highly advanced automation technology. The key indicators such as population growth, urbanization and disposable income of individuals are pointing at notableincrease in the demand of products that require components made from cutting tools will result in surge of demand for Cutting Tool Inserts.Also, the ongoing investments in construction sector in Middle East & Africa mainly in GCC countries is expected to boost the demand of Cutting Tool Inserts in the region. On the other hand, the increasing focus on precision and quality products are expected to drive the machinery associated markets in the Europe.However, the slow adoption of advanced cutting technologies in developing countries such as China and India is a major restraint for the growth of cutting equipment market in APAC. Cost-sensitivity and technical know-how issues in developing countries are the major factors that may hamper investments in advanced cutting technologies.Global Cutting Tool Inserts Market ForecastOn the basis of technology,market insights suggestthat thecarbidessegment that comprisesBoron Carbide, Titanium Carbide, Tungsten Carbide and Others will hold major share inthe market in the coming years. On the basis of end user sector, transportation sectorisprojected to dominate the market in terms of values and volumes during the forecast period in the global Cutting Tool Inserts market.Europe and North AmericaCutting Tool Inserts market willsignificant share in the global Cutting Tool Inserts market. However, Asia Pacific, led by China and India,are expected to dominate global Cutting Tool Inserts. The marketperspective in India are anticipated owing to various steps taken by government such as Make in India that will propel manufacturing sector in the country.In Latin America and Middle East & Africa, the demand is comparatively lower in terms of volume. However, thepresence of developing countrieswill play key role in growth of Cutting Tool Inserts demand in these regions.Request Report Discount:Global Cutting Tool Inserts Market Competitive LandscapeSome of the key market participants included in the Global Cutting Tool Inserts Market report are:Sandvik AB, Sumitomo Electric Carbide Inc., Saint Gobain, KennaMetal, Kyocera Corporation, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Asahi Diamond Industrial Co. Ltd., Showa Denko K.K. IscarLtd. Knight Carbide, Inc. Iljin DiamondCo. Ltd.,Tomei Diamond Co.,Ltd., Sinter SudS.p.A. and Element Six and Total Carbide Ltd.Summary:The Global Cutting Tool Inserts market isexpected to register a value CAGR of 6.6% during forecast period in terms of volume. Asia Pacific to lead global market in terms of consumption and CAGR over the forecast period.Report Analysis:Research Report Insights (RRI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver a host of services including custom research reports, syndicated research reports, and consulting services which are personalised in nature. RRI delivers a complete packaged solution to clients; this combines current market intelligence, technology inputs, statistical anecdotes, valuable growth insights, 360-degree view of the competitive framework, and anticipated market trends.Contact Us:Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website:Email: sales@researchreportinsights.com Payments Landscape in Australia: Business Development Strategies 2018 by Major Key Vendors Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Bank, National Australia Bank, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Citibank Payments Landscape in Australia https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012265602/sample https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012265602/buying https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012265602/discount Payments Landscape in Australia: Opportunities and Risks to 2022, report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the Australian cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cards, cash, direct debit, credit transfers, and cheques during the review-period (2014-18).The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2018-22). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including market shares of issuers and schemes.Companies mentioned in this reports are: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Bank, National Australia Bank, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Citibank, Tyro, eftpos, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners ClubRequest for sample here:This report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Australian cards and payments industry, including-Current and forecast values for each market in the Australian cards and payments industry, including debit, credit, and charge cards.Detailed insights into payment instruments including cards, cash, direct debit, credit transfers, and cheques. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.E-commerce market analysis and payment methods.Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the Australian cards and payments industry.Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit, and charge cards.-To offer enhanced convenience and encourage electronic payments for even low-value transactions, in February 2018 the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and its Payments System Board rolled out a new payments infrastructure known as the New Payments Platform (NPP) that allows customers with accounts with different banks to make payments and transfer funds in real-time. It is available 24/7, 365 days a year. Developed by SWIFT in collaboration between 13 members of Australias financial services industry, the platform provides an addressing service known as PayID, which allows users to enter only the recipients mobile phone number or email address to transfer the money.The advent of digital-only banks is likely to stir competition in the Australian banking sector over the coming years. Volt Bank received a Restricted ADI (RADI) license from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) in May 2018, enabling it to offer a limited number of products and services, before a full banking license is given. Fintech startup Xinja is also seeking a full banking license and hopes to break into mainstream banking. Other challenger banks named 86 400 and Up are to be launched soon.To know more about this report:Growth in the Australian credit card market is likely to slow in the coming years in the wake of several regulatory overhauls by the government. In February 2018 the Australian parliament passed a new bill that aims to crack down on credit card providers unfair practices. As a result, from July 2018 financial services providers are required to analyze the affordability of a credit card based on a consumers capability to repay the limit within a reasonable duration.Reasons to buy:Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the Australian cards and payments industry and each market within it.Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the Australian cards and payments industry.Assess the competitive dynamics in the Australian cards and payments industry.Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Australia.Gain insights into key regulations governing the Australian cards and payments industry.Avail Discount for this report at:About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Contact us:Phone : +1-646-491-9876E-Mail : sales@reportsweb.com Aegis School of Business, Data Science, Cyber Security and Telecom, a leading school in telecom, data science and cyber security hosted the second jury round with a focus on technology in Mumbai. Industry stalwart like Kirat Communication, Lavelle Networks, Tech Mahindra, eClerx, HCL, Teleperformance DIBS, Jadooz, ESRI, Datamatics, Parallel Wireless, MagicTap, Airtel Business, Sankriti company of Dell EMC, GeBBS, Vodafone, UIB, Cyient, Ericsson, Tata Communications, AM Technologies, TCS, Livnsense, Aricent, Dallas, Texas - November 27, 2018 - Licensed Cowboy Bail Bonds offers a 24/7 year-round service, helping out families in their darkest hour of need, with straightforward, clear advice. The bondsman, which has serviced over 300,000 satisfied customers, offers a sensitive and professional approach to families caught up in the maze of the criminal justice system. With a quick, friendly, but discreet approach, Cowboy Bail Bonds is often the first stop A Vancouver police officer is on paid administrative leave after shooting a man during a traffic stop early Thanksgiving morning. Officer Christopher Bohatch, a two-year department veteran, shot 31-year-old Demarcus D. Roundtree after being "threatened" by Roundtree's actions while he was pulled over in a reported stolen car, according to Vancouver police. The law agency has not specified what led Bohatch to opening fire. The stop occurred around 1:40 a.m. near Interstate 5 south and East Fourth Plain Boulevard. Roundtree drove away after being shot, abandoned the car at Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard and E Street and was later found hiding in the area in a parked vehicle, police said. Roundtree was taken to a hospital and treated for a non-life-threatening injury. Police have not said where he was shot. No one else was injured. He is accused of possession of a stolen vehicle, diving while suspended and first-degree criminal impersonation. He also has a warrant for his arrest in Multnomah County. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler wants to contribute city money to study bringing passenger ferries to the Willamette and Columbia rivers and shuttling commuters between Oregon and Washington. Michael Cox, Wheelers chief of staff, made the announcement Tuesday at a news conference aboard the Portland Spirit. Backers of the up-start project, which they are calling the Frog Ferry, organized the event aboard the river cruise ship to drum up support and put pressure on public agencies to help pay for an in-depth study. Susan Bladholm, president and founder of the nonprofit Friends of Frog Ferry organization, said she has asked Portland, Vancouver, the Oregon Department of Transportation and TriMet to help pay for the study. If the studies dont bear out, Bladholm said, then were not going to go ahead and implement this. But the former marketing leader for Erickson Incorporated, the Portland-based aviation giant, said after spending the past 18 months diving into the issue, she has no doubt a ferry makes sense between Portland and Vancouver. This is more than doable, she said. This is way past time. Many questions remain unanswered such as how much money it would cost to build terminals, docks and buy boats. But Bladholm said its time to act now. We can go ahead and play around with this for the next decade or the next 50 years, she said, but when we do have the ability to pull this together rather quickly to provide a new transit mode for our locals, lets do it, especially when we have so much private sector support backing us. She said Portland could have a ferry system running between the Port of Vancouvers Terminal 1 west of the Interstate Bridge to downtown Portland in four years. A one-way trip could take 38 minutes, she said, adding thats a conservative estimate. Bladholm said the ferry service, which would require a public subsidy, would be scaled up to include other stops in Portland, Lake Oswego or Oregon City. The news conference came one week after Bladholm and Portland Spirit owner Dan Yates lobbied the states top transportation decisionmakers for money for the study, which Bladholm estimated may cost $625,000. She has private sector support, she said. Cox said Wheeler fully supports funding a portion of the study, adding the Willamette River could be one of the citys true resources to bring everyone together. Portlanders want a vibrant waterfront, Cox said, and the mayor does too. Ferry service serves both of these needs, transit and water access. But its unclear how much money Portland would be asked to contribute and where that money would come from. Wheeler would also need a majority of the City Councils support, and discussions could pick up during budget talks this spring. Cox said the mayors office was excited to lead a conversation with other jurisdictions to get all the money on the table, adding that conversation is moving forward with some urgency and some excitement. TriMet confirmed the ferry supporters had asked for financial help. Chad Eiken, Vancouvers director of community and economic development, said in a voicemail that city officials met with Frog Ferry representatives several weeks ago. We didnt make any commitments, Eiken said, but he added the city was obviously supportive of their efforts, but he said it was early and Vancouver was waiting to see that its in fact a real project. Bladholm said backers are hoping Clark County planners include the ferry project on Southwest Washingtons long-range transportation project list, which is expected to be approved in mid-December. Meanwhile, Tuesdays gathering occurred with the empty Willamette River as a canvas behind it. Yates, the Portland Spirit owner, said that sadly is an everyday occurrence, unlike freeways and roads, which are full. -- Andrew Theen atheen@oregonian.com 503-294-4026 @andrewtheen After more than a year of obstacles, the federal government will resume a project to fulfill an 80-year-old promise. The Trump administration halted work in October 2017 on a plan to build a village for tribal members who fished the Columbia River for millennia, but last week, money reappeared in the budget. Were so delighted by the White Houses decision to restore and direct funds to the Columbia River tribal housing initiative, said Charles Hudson, intergovernmental affairs director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. We did a lot of scratching and clawing to keep this project active after a year of lapsed funding. Leaders from the Warm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes have lobbied along with Congressional officials from Oregon and Washington to find a way to circumvent the barriers the Trump administration put in the way. A year ago, tribal members who live along the Columbia River were cautiously optimistic that the federal government was making good on one of its promises. Starting with the Bonneville Dam in the 1930s, the federal government flooded villages where tribal members lived. Many of those villages were centers of economic, social and religious importance. The federal government said it would replace the flooded homes, but never did. Now, many people live six months to year-round at fishing sites built by the government that are decrepit, unsafe and unsanitary. The Oregonian/OregonLive documented the conditions and how the federal governments unmet obligation to the tribes forced them into these conditions even while a town of predominantly white people was relocated. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, both Democrats, spearheaded the effort to prod the government to replace the housing. They devised a plan with the Army Corps to pay for the work in two funding cycles. The first went forward in 2016. Senator Jeff Merkley (right) shakes hands with JoDe Goudy (left), chairman of the Yakama Nation, as Congressman Earl Blumenauer (center) looks on. Merkley and Blumenauer visited the longhouse at Celilo Village and listened to members of the four Columbia River tribes speak on March 29, 2016. The meeting was attended by about 30 people and lasted around 45 minutes. Dave Killen / staff LC- The OregonianLC- The Oregonian But a second infusion of cash was blocked by Mick Mulvaney, head of the federal Office of Management and Budget, last year. He claimed that he wasnt required to approve the money and he didnt like the way it would be moved around the Corps budget. Tribal representatives and Washington and Oregon lawmakers pleaded with Mulvaney and his staff to reconsider. But eventually, they found a way around the office. In a bill that dictates Army Corps priorities, they added language compelling the federal government to plan and build the villages. Merkley and Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee and added more than $1.8 million to a separate funding bill without any dictates of how it must be used. A bipartisan and bi-state group of lawmakers wrote a letter to R.D. James, assistant secretary of the Army, and Mulvaney to suggest the $1.8 million be used to finish the village planning. The Army Corps, which had signaled willingness to start the work since 2016, added The Dalles Dam village plan to its project list of 2019 with the $1.8 million. Now that the latest investment is in place, we will continue holding federal agency officials accountable to ensure that the plan is not only completed, but also carried out so tribal members get the facilities and river access they were promised more than 65 years ago, Murray said. Merkley said Monday that he wants The Dalles village to move forward first, but it is not the last of his efforts. He and other lawmakers want to start the same momentum for villages at the Bonneville and John Day dams. It was an unnecessary delay and Im really pleased to see weve been able to get the legislation in place to push it forward, Merkley said. The money is needed to figure out where a village could be located near The Dalles Dam and how it would look. The Army Corps and a committee of tribal members had identified three Washington sites in 2016, but now need to figure out if they will still work. The site could end up on the Oregon side of the river. The locations would need to be assessed for feasibility and environmental concerns. Tribal members are supposed to be involved at every step of the process, such as deciding whether the housing will be individual homes with covered garages, like at Celilo Village, or multi-family units. Celilo Village, where 15 permanent homes take the place of one of oldest continually inhabited tribal centers in the world, took decades to build, but is considered a sign of success that could be replicated in this new effort. One of the houses at Celilo Village near The Dalles, OR on May 17, 2016. Northwest tribal members have lived at Celilo for at least 9,000 years, fishing in the Columbia River. The center of trade, though, was changed drastically by The Dalles Dam construction, and plunged the community into poverty. The federal government at first provided substandard housing, but now Celilo is a success story because a 2003 coalition between the tribes, the federal government and the community rehabilitated the village into something livable. Dave Killen / staff LC- StaffLC- Staff After the decisions are made, the plans would be subject to public input. The Army Corps would also perform preliminary engineering, according to Corps spokeswoman Sarah Bennett. All that work was expected to be done in 2016 -- or shortly after. But now, the delay could add years to the project planning. The Corps will have to ask for more money to actually build the village once all the planning is completed. There is no estimate of the cost yet. At the same time, a standalone bill is in its final stages to fix up the existing 31 fishing sites. The sites are maintained and operated by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which took on the task because no one else was doing it. The fish commission largely focuses on salmon restoration and managing tribal fishing on the Columbia River. The money to maintain the sites is quickly running out because it was created with estimates that undercounted how many people would use the sites. The Columbia River In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act would allow the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to evaluate what improvements are needed at the sites and how much money it would take to bring them up to a safe, sanitary standard. The bill has already passed out of the Senate and is on the House floor awaiting a vote. From there, it would go straight to the presidents desk to be signed into law. The Trump Administration has been putting up barriers to this project for too long and Im glad theyve finally decided to allow progress, said Blumenauer. While this process moves forward, they should also work with Congress to rebuild faith with the tribes and pass my legislation to improve conditions at the current in-lieu and treaty fishing access sites for those without housing. As youve heard, Denial aint a river in Egypt! Denial flows from Washington D.C. to the Western states. The area most recently burned by fire has been increasing over the last few decades. But data also tell us going back a century and beyond, the area of Western forests burned was much greater than today. So, whats been happening? Since the wildfire trend started in the 1970s or 80s -- before logging was substantially reduced -- logging cannot be the problem. However, what happened in the mid to early years of the last century was an extensive campaign of fire suppression. Meanwhile, during the 1970s-1980s and onward, climatic conditions started becoming notably different as temperatures rose, snowpack declined and soils started drying out, producing worsening drought trends. Throughout the world, areas with our winter wet and summer dry climate support fire-prone, fire-adapted and fire-dependent vegetation. Since fire critical to the health of our forests and is inevitable with global warming continuing, well never prevent fires no matter how hard we try. Urging yet more fire suppression in place of sane fire management is displaying ignorance. Its alarming to see uniformed citizens and politicians blaming the wrong causes for fires. Alan Journet, Jacksonville Journet is co-facilitator for Southern Oregon Climate Action Now. A key state lawmaker said Monday she will push to strengthen Oregon's child death disclosure laws after reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive exposed delays, omissions and failures by state officials to meet current requirements. The Department of Human Services is required to promptly review the deaths of children who were likely killed by abuse or neglect on the agency's watch. The reviews examine what, if anything, went wrong and suggest changes to keep more kids from dying. But The Oregonian/OregonLive found that agency officials have routinely ignored legal deadlines to disclose those deaths to the public, waiting more than one year to disclose any details about its role in children's deaths in all but one review published in 2018. The agency continues to withhold at least two mandatory reviews, including one regarding a 10-year-old girl killed in foster care. Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, said she also would ask agency leaders to explain the delays when legislators meet in December to discuss the upcoming legislative session. Gelser leads the Senate human services committee and is a vocal advocate for child welfare reforms. On Sunday, the day the article appeared in The Oregonian, she drafted a bill that would hold the Department of Human Services to stricter reporting requirements. She submitted the proposal to be considered during the 2019 legislative session, which starts Jan. 22. Gelser said the measure would require officials to immediately publish an initial report regarding a child's death after convening a team to review the fatality. The bill would require the agency to put together a team within seven days, rather than its current requirement of 10. The 10-day requirement took effect last year, a change that Gelser supported at the time, because she said the overall intent of the bill was to increase transparency surrounding the review process. The changes gave the department a total of 70 days to complete the reviews, although the team could also ask for an extension. If the reports were delayed, the Department of Human Services is required to say why on its website. But the Department of Human Services contended in a statement provided last week that the deadline outlined in the 2017 bill is an internal requirement and does not require the agency to make public anything but a final report. Gelser disagrees with that interpretation. Her new bill would make the reporting requirements even more explicit, she said. The bill would mandate that agency officials immediately publish initial, progress and final reports. Only the information that might compromise a criminal investigation could be withheld. The Oregonian/OregonLive found that the reviews the state has posted this year sometimes omit key facts about case workers' interactions with families. One review, regarding the April 2017 death of a Roseburg baby, leaves out three instances that case workers received concerns about the infant's family before she died. Gelser's new bill would require the department to disclose all contacts with the victim or siblings, parents, foster parents or other caregivers. The proposal would also expand the scope of the fatality reviews to include the death of any child in the state's custody, even if they are not suspected of dying from abuse or neglect. That would ensure that the unexpected deaths of children in foster care come to public light, such as the March 2017 death of Nicholas Lowe, who was 13 when he died in a fire at his Douglas County foster home. To increase public accountability, Gelser's bill also would require the department to include reviewers who do not work at the agency, namely state lawmakers, as part of every child death review team. Recently elected Rep. Marty Wilde, D-Eugene, said he contacted Gelser to express his support for the proposed reforms. Adding outsiders will encourage the agency to be more timely, ensure that the process is objective and keep the fatality reviews focused on identifying the root causes of problems, he said. "These are the lives of children we are talking about." The department's failure to disclose the deaths of children on its watch drew criticism from Republicans, as well. Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, placed blame on Gov. Kate Brown, who defeated him Nov. 6 in a contentious race for the state's top post. He wrote on Twitter that Brown "cares more about winning elections than protecting vulnerable kids from abuse." Two of the state's delayed child fatality reports were posted the final two days of the election. Brown's office has said it did not request the agency to withhold the reports. The Department of Human Services has published only one report since then. -- Molly Young FEDERAL WAY, Wash. A woman who died after her car crashed into a guardrail on Interstate 5 in Federal Way, Washington, has been identified as Sau Chun Leung of Portland. The News Tribune reports that Leung, 68 years old, died at the scene of the Saturday afternoon crash. The male driver, also from Portland and also 68 years old, was not injured. The Washington State Patrol says their vehicle was southbound on I-5 at about 2:30 p.m. when it lost control and crashed into the guardrail. After the crash, Leung was trapped in the vehicle and later died, according to the State Patrol. Although uninjured, the male driver was still evaluated at Saint Francis Hospital in Federal Way. The Associated Press Louis Bostich went to Mt. Shasta and prayed. Sober for about a year, he found himself reaching for the bottle again. And he knew why. It was the same reason he drank away a promising Navy career, a string of other respectable jobs and his only meaningful relationships. Advertisement He was thinking of what he did to Jami Vitteli. Bostich never told anyone what happened 20 years earlier. Not his father, who raised him after his mother died of an aneurysm when he was 5. Not his friends or Navy shipmates. Advertisement He began drinking himself to sleep. His addiction didn't go unnoticed. When he tried to re-enlist, the Navy said no, sending him on his way with an honorable discharge. Trained as an electrician, Bostich sought jobs that allowed him to work in virtual isolation and drift from place to place. Over the years, he was a technician for Southern California Edison in San Diego, a pipe fitter in Long Beach, Calif., and general hand at a small sawmill in Washington state. He donated money and time to charities, working for outfits including Habitat for Humanity, hoping somehow it might balance out the events of that dreadful night in Huntington Beach, Calif. It didn't. Sitting behind security glass at Orange County, Calif.'s Theo Lacy jail, Bostich, 45, recently shared his story about that night, admitting that some details had been lost to years of hard drinking. He's at Perqs, a bar in Huntington Beach. It's Memorial Day weekend, 1987. He's on leave from his Navy ship, the frigate Roark stationed in San Diego. She is standing in a group near him. Her dark hair is long and thick, and she carries a few extra pounds. Not his type. But they strike up a conversation. She's intelligent and friendly. An artist. That's what draws him in. They talk for a while, mostly about art. Bostich had sketched as a kid. She asks him whether he's interested in trying the latest fad drug. Intrigued, he follows her outside. He doesn't want to risk getting caught doing it in the open. So they head to her place, a few blocks away. Always something of a free spirit, Jami Vitteli had left home on Long Island, N.Y., midway through college, planning to transfer to a California school to finish her degree in communications. Advertisement The last her parents knew, she was doing just that, taking classes part time in Long Beach, studying Buddhism, working odd jobs and selling her paintings to help make ends meet. "She was very artistic," her mother, Vickie Vitteli, said in a recent interview. "And she had a heart of gold." During the six years Vitteli lived in California, her parents called often, wishing she would come home. Their biggest fear, they told her, was that she would die in an earthquake. Inside Vitteli's cramped apartment, Bostich sits next to her on her beat-up couch. They drink. Talk. About her paintings, politics, the military. He makes a move. Are we going into the bedroom or what? She backs him off. Tells him men are all the same. He says maybe he should go home. He gets up and walks out. She follows him to his truck. He doesn't have to leave, she says. He just has to behave. They head back to her apartment. Back in Huntington Beach, lead Detective Dale Mason was stumped after eight months. A set of bloody footprints trailed from Vitteli's front door, heading west down her street until they disappeared near a curb. Inside the apartment, the 26-year-old's body was covered in blood and found in a sitting position, leaning against the couch with her legs blocking the front door. Advertisement She was fully dressed, but something about the disarray of her clothing indicated a sexual curiosity on the part of her attacker. A glass vial with a powdery substance was found in a pocket. There was no forced entry, no obvious motive or weapon. Moisture in the kitchen sink led Mason to believe that whoever was there might have washed up. More than a year later, Mason arrested two men who knew Vitteli and were together at Perqs on the night in question. One of the men had bragged at a party that he had knowledge of a woman who was killed by a "Colombian necktie," a reference to a knife wound that was similar to one of Vitteli's injuries. Charges were dropped later for lack of evidence. Mason eventually returned to the hunch he had the first day he stepped foot in her apartment. Vitteli went home with someone she met at the bar, he surmised, and they got along for awhile before something went bad. Mason retired in 2002, closer to the truth than he knew. Back inside her place, they drink some more. He is snorting the drug she talked about. A white powder: meth. Then they are arguing again. About politics, the military. Or maybe it's because he makes another move? ... His mind is fuzzy. He remembers straddling her, holding a bottle of champagne. She fights him. He strikes her over the head with the bottle. It doesn't break. ... Then he's standing in the kitchen, without her ... heads back to the living room ... blacks out. When he comes to, he is on top of her, slitting her throat with a kitchen knife.... Advertisement About six years ago, Bostich moved to the tiny town of Forks, Wash., and was working at a sawmill. He was consuming a liter of vodka a night, usually drinking by himself at home. The mill boss, a Baptist minister, persuaded Bostich to come to church with him and to get treated for his alcoholism. He successfully completed a 90-day outpatient program and after that attended daily Alcoholics Anonymous sessions. But with no alcohol to numb his conscience, his flashbacks worsened. He thought maybe he just needed to get away and clear his head. So he sold his possessions and drove to Mt. Shasta, where he meditated and prayed. He went on another binge. Then he realized he had been dodging two of the 12 steps recommended to members of Alcoholics Anonymous: Step 8: Make a list of all persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. Step 9: Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Advertisement So he got in his pickup and began the long drive to Huntington Beach, ready to do what he should have done nearly 20 years ago. Only miles into his trip, however, he pulled off the highway in a panic. He fled her apartment before dawn, taking the knife and champagne bottle with him. He ditched them and some of his bloody clothing in random strip mall trash bins. When he returned to his dad's home, where he had been staying for the weekend, no one was awake. He packed his sea bag and headed out. Then he drove around Orange County for several hours, debating whether he should turn himself in. Ultimately, he rationalized that it was better if he didn't, because confession would have wasted two lives. He promised himself and God he would make up for it by living an exemplary life. Driving around Redding, Calif., Bostich went from church to church, looking for someone to confess to. Finding no one, he went to a pay phone and began cold-calling from the Yellow Pages. Finally, he heard the voice of Rev. Gerri Murray on the other end. Moments later, he was walking through the doors of Christ Unity Church. Call the police, he told Murray. "I've got a confession to make." Huntington Beach detectives reacted with disbelief. They told Bostich a confession wasn't enough. Advertisement Bostich told them which way his footprints tracked from the front door, about the head wound from the champagne bottle, two details that had never been made public. Still not enough. Bostich asked if detectives had any DNA evidence. Indeed, the shreds of the attacker's skin had been found under Vitteli's fingernails, but never tested. After a sample was sent to the lab, the detectives knew they had their murderer. Bostich pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in September 2006 and was sentenced the same day to 15 years to life. He said nothing. No one from Vitteli's family was in the courtroom. Advertisement Bostich is housed with nearly 5,000 other felons at Centinela state prison, a maximum-security facility in the California desert just north of the Mexican border. A spokesman for Alcoholics Anonymous said he and other officials at the organization, which tracks confessions of recovering alcoholics through its "Big Book," could not recall a case in which someone had accepted responsibility for such a serious crime. Bostich believes others are out there, still trying to wash away demons. A 20-year-old man was sentenced to 19 years in prison Monday after killing a 17-year-old boy while trying to rob him of his belt in a Northeast Portland park last year. Kole Jones pleaded guilty last Wednesday to first-degree manslaughter and attempted first-degree robbery, as well as second-degree robbery from a separate incident in 2016. Jones was part of a group of three teens arrested in the Holladay Park killing of Shawn Scott Jr. as they tried to force him at gunpoint to hand over his brown-checkered Louis Vuitton belt. Scott, whose family called him Junior, died after being shot once in the head by Jones. Scott was a junior at Union High School in Vancouver, where he lived. Jones was the only one with a gun at the time. Malique Kinnerly-Hicks, 19, pleaded guilty in October to second-degree manslaughter and first-degree robbery. He was sentenced to seven and a half years in a state youth correctional facility for robbery and is scheduled to be sentenced for manslaughter in January, court records show. Miguel Nunez Thompson, 20, is scheduled to go to trial in February on charges of murder and first-degree robbery. Jones declined to say anything in court before he was sentenced. Joe Calhoun, his attorney, told county circuit Judge Nan Waller that Jones never intended to shoot Scott, is sorry he killed him and has taken responsibility for his actions. Calhoun contended that surveillance footage showed the shooting was an accident, and that without the footage, Jones likely would have had to plead guilty to murder. The attorney said after the court hearing that the footage, from a nearby Bonneville Power Administration building, showed Jones appear to punch Scott in the head with his hand holding a gun. The gun discharged in the process. According to court documents, the surveillance video showed that before the shooting, Jones, Kinnerly-Hicks and Thompson walked up to Scott as he stood near a tree in the park around 4:30 p.m. Scott appeared to sell Thompson a bottle of alcohol. The trio walked away from Scott, then came back and surround him. Jones pulled out the handgun and pointed the barrel in Scott's back as Scott appeared to question what's going on, court records show. Scott was shot soon after. Jones, Kinnerly-Hicks and Thompson then ran away. Investigators noted in court documents that the shooting occurred with many pedestrians and cars traveling in the area. Waller said in court that Scott was planning to go home for a birthday party after returning from the park. The judge said while Jones may not have meant to kill Scott, he did intend to bring a gun to the park that day and he meant to show it to Scott. "There was no good that was going to come out of that day by your actions," Waller said. She told Jones to use his time in prison to becoming a better person. The judge noted that Scott's family opted not to attend Jones' sentencing and said she wished relatives were there to better convey their loss to Jones and tell him what Scott meant to them. In a statement read in court, Scott's mother Natasha Hunter told Jones that she would never forgive him for killing her son, called Jones a coward and said that she was proud of her son for standing up for himself while outnumbered. She said she believes her son spent his final moments in disbelief someone was "stupid enough to shoot him in broad daylight over a belt." Hunter said Scott took pride in how he was dressed and regularly traded clothes and accessories, which was how he came to own the belt. She said she couldn't count how many days Scott's younger brother and sister have cried for him. She said she awakes every morning and relives the pain of remembering her son is no longer there. She said Scott often talked about the future and one day going to college and having children of his own. "In that moment, you meant to hurt my son and that's enough for me to hate you for the rest of my life," Hunter wrote in the letter, read in court by county victims advocate Chanel Thomas. Jones alternated between looking down at the table in front of him and looking straight ahead as Thomas read the letter. His parents and two other relatives sat behind him in the gallery toward the back of the courtroom. After the hearing, Jones' mother said their family is heartbroken forScott's family over his death and said it was a tragedy for both families. "She said there's no hope for forgiveness in her heart," Heidi Sellway said in reference to Hunter's letter. "I hope some day that changes." -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey Prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office made a surprise announcement in court on Monday, accusing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of lying to them, thus negating his cooperation agreement with the special counsel. Manafort's lawyers say their client "does not agree with the government's characterization or that he has breached the agreement." The follow-up news on Tuesday is even more stunning: Manafort held ongoing "secret talks" with Wikileaks editor Julian Assange, The Guardian reports. Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012 to avoid sexual-assault charges in Sweden and possibly espionage charges in the U.S. Shortly before Election Day in 2016, Wikileaks released cherry-picked stolen emails, part of a massive cache of emails from Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton campaign officials that had been hacked by Russian government operatives. In July 2016, Donald Trump, then a Republican candidate for president, publicly called on Russia to "find" Clinton's emails. His supporters have said he was joking. Writes The Guardian: Manafort's first visit to the [Ecuadorian] embassy took place a year after Assange sought asylum inside, two sources said. A separate internal document written by Ecuador's Senain intelligence agency and seen by the Guardian lists "Paul Manaford [sic]" as one of several well-known guests. It also mentions "Russians." According to two sources, Manafort returned to the embassy in 2015. He paid another visit in spring 2016, turning up alone, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager. The visit is tentatively dated to March. The British newspaper points out that the infamous Steele dossier, compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, states that "Manafort was at the center of a 'well-developed conspiracy of cooperation' between the Trump campaign and Russia's leadership." Much of the Steele report has not been verified by news organizations; President Trump and other Republicans have dismissed it as "fake news" and a political hit job. Wikileaks responded to The Guardian's report on Twitter, with the anti-secrecy site stating it would bet the newspaper "a million dollars [that] Manafort never met Assange." Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper's reputation. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange. https://t.co/R2Qn6rLQjn WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018 President Trump on Tuesday once again called the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia a "phony witch hunt." Read The Guardian report. -- Douglas Perry John M. Pafford, a professor emeritus of Northwood University, discussed the presidential election of 1864: Lincoln versus George McClellan, to the Wilbur T. Lanphierd Chapter of the Daughters of the Union (DOU) at its final fall meeting. Twenty-seven members and guests enjoyed a luncheon followed by the presentation. In early to mid 1864, Lincoln was facing the likelihood of defeat in his reelection bid. The Union had not achieved a smashing victory in Virginia over General Robert E. Lee nor in the Western Theater of war over Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. In addition, both the Republican and the Democratic political parties were split into pro-war, pro-Union versus anti-war, peace factions. These factions, fueled by discouragement of Union losses, caused political havoc in the North. Helping adults further their education is what the Education and Training Connection of Midland (ETC) is all about. To help it achieve that goal, ETC has received a $66,158 Talent Investment Agency grant to aid those over age 23 obtain high school credentials. The reimbursement grant will aid those adults who desire program training as certified nurse assistants, jobs in the construction trades and manufacturing skills for the shop floor. "The reimbursements are to support adults in such areas as: satisfactory monthly progress, completion of an employability skills certification program, attainment of an industry-recognized credential, attainment of a high school credential and placement in a job in an in-demand career pathway," stated Lyn Knapp, CEO of ETC, 884 E. Isabella. Since 1996, ETC has provided accredited diplomas to adult education participants through a partnership with Bullock Creek Public Schools. In addition to providing adult education programs at its own sites in the mid-Michigan area, ETC provides adult education services for two Michigan Works! agencies, works with three alternative education programs, and has a Proprietary Schools license offering industry-recognized credentials in various high-demand employment areas. "Earning a high school diploma, or an equivalent degree, along with technical skills related to an in-demand occupation, greatly increases the employability and earning potential of Michigan's citizens," said Stephanie Beckhorn, director of the TIA's Workforce Development Agency. "Providing more opportunities to gain in-demand skills through the state's adult education programs is an important investment in Michigan residents and allows us to better prepare our residents for jobs and career advancements." ETC is one of four recipients of $1.5 million in TIA grants. The Graduation Alliance, which received just over $772,000, provides multiple pathways to individuals seeking to earn a high school credential. The Sparta Adult Education grant for $418,000 will help the program work with surrounding local dropouts complete their high school degrees. The final grant, for $242,000 will go to The Cyber Education Center, which partners with The City School of Detroit/The International School, that allows participants to engage in programming that results in post-secondary readiness, industry-recognized credentials and high-demand job placements. To contact ETC, phone 989-631-5202, email info@etc-1.com or visit its website: www.etc-1.com 5. Reporter Jamie Kalven was booted from the courtroom after defense attorneys revealed they may want to call him as a witness later in the trial. Kalvens attorneys are fighting the subpoena, but Judge Domenica Stephenson held off on ruling on whether he should have to take the stand. In the meantime, since potential witnesses are barred from viewing testimony by others, the judge ordered that Kalven stay away from the courtroom -- over the objections of his attorney who said it violated the First Amendment and infringed on his ability to do his job. In a court filing released on Monday, Robert Mueller accused Paul Manafort of lying to investigators, despite agreeing to comply with the special counsels probe, per the AP. The list of Manaforts alleged crimes is long; if Mueller proves he lied and violated the agreement, he could face charges for all of them. The former Trump campaign chairman was present for two key meetings that connect him to Russian interference in the 2016 election and has met with investigators several times to report on his involvement. Manafort was in the room with Donald Trump Jr., in Trump Tower during the meeting with Russians claiming to have incriminating information on Hillary Clinton. In September, he plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice. That was when he began cooperating with Mueller and his team. He would be able to dodge several other charges in doing so. Manafort was also convicted of eight felonies. He was caught hiding huge sums of money from the IRS in offshore accounts, all in connection to undisclosed lobbying along with Ukrainian political work thats still under investigation. Manafort was even found trying to interfere with witnesses in his own case. Since that incident, hes been sitting in a Virginia jail, awaiting a Feb. 8, 2019, sentencing on a separate case, per CNN. And thats all on top of his suspected communications with Wikileaks Julian Assange: NEW: .@carlbernstein reports Muellers team has been investigating a 2017 meeting between Manafort and Ecuadors president in Quito in 2017, and has specifically asked if Wikileaks or Julian Assange were discussed in the meeting. David P Gelles (@gelles) November 27, 2018 Manafort was set to slip away from several of the charges against him as a result of his plea agreement, but thats not likely to be the case anymore. He pledged to work truthfully and thoroughly with the government in its investigation, but Muellers team is confident that hasnt happened. Muellers teams court filing claims that, by lying about a variety of subject matters, Manafort committed yet another federal crime and violated his plea deal. Its unclear what exactly hes suspected of lying about, but the special counsel will elaborate in communications with the judge. More importantly, we can infer that Mueller is confident he can prove that Manafort is being deceitful. Per BuzzFeed News, the special counsel is finished working with Manafort, either because hes provided false testimony, or because hes simply given all the information necessary. There are numerous details unavailable to the public, but for Mueller to make these claims, there has to be another source hes able to cross-examine. Well likely find out more soon, as both parties are ready for sentencing. Manaforts lawyers responded to the allegations with a denial, saying he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the governments characterization or that he has breached the agreement, and have requested a court date. That date has yet to be determined. Last night, Robert Mueller alleged in a court filing that Paul Manafort had lied to him, thus breaking the terms of his plea agreement. This morning brought more bad news for Trumps former campaign manager. Per The Guardian: Donald Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trumps campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 during the period when he was made a key figure in Trumps push for the White House. A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. I put reportedly in the title because smart folks like Matt Tait and Marcy Wheeler who are clued in to this kind of stuff are skeptical of the report. Jerome Corsi, an operative for Infowars and a supposed backchannel between Roger Stone and Wikileaks, claims he is about to be indicted. If there was a backchannel set up to Assange, why would Manafort need to visit Assange himself? In general, @guardian might do well to explain to their readers that this is an extremely politicised situation within Ecuador, as well as everywhere else. Hard to see partisan anon sourcing for an equivalent UK story being treated in a similarly uncritical way. Naomi Colvin (@auerfeld) November 27, 2018 The Guardian is an A+ journalistic outlet, so if they're willing to publish this, they must have good reason to. As someone who's job it has been to follow every twist and turn of this saga, I can promise you that there have been mistakes made by good journalists. As of right now, there isn't much of a concrete reason to doubt the story, but I would encourage everyone to keep their guard up and keep an eye out for corroborating reports before drawing any big conclusions. That said, if this is true, boy does it look bad for Manafort. He joined the Trump campaign right around the time he was meeting with Assangeone of the Kremlin's favorite useful idiotsand he was named campaign manager right around the time that Wikileaks started dumping e-mails. That's a whole lot of convenient coincidences for a man who spent the last ten years of his career working for one of Vladimir Putin's most trusted oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska. I have a feeling this won't be the last that we hear of Paul Manafort's legal troubles with Kremlin affiliated outlets and people. UPDATE: The Guardian has tweaked their report to make it less authoritative. We will keep an eye on this and update this post if this story gets any thinner. The Guardian has weakened some of the language in their Manafort/Assange story: https://t.co/QbgnvpHNiXpic.twitter.com/bgm8fvQGxF Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) November 27, 2018 UPDATE #2: NEW: .@carlbernstein reports Mueller's team has been investigating a 2017 meeting between Manafort and Ecuador's president in Quito in 2017, and has specifically asked if Wikileaks or Julian Assange were discussed in the meeting. David P Gelles (@gelles) November 27, 2018 Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. Its the largest group that is part of the first wave in the archdioceses Renew My Church plan, which calls for a reconfiguration of staff and parishes in the Chicago area. The Archdiocese of Chicago is the third largest Catholic diocese in the country, and includes an estimated 2.2 million Catholics under its jurisdiction, in Cook and Lake counties, according to the church. If you thought that Russia annexing Crimea from Ukraine was no big deal, think again. Yesterday, the practical implications of this violation of Ukraines sovereignty manifested themselves by bringing these two nations to the brink of war. Per the BBC: The three [Ukranian] ships were sailing off the coast of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, when they were seized. Russia opened fire, before its special forces stormed the vessels. Between three and six Ukrainians were injured. Ukraine said it was a Russian act of aggression. Moscow said the ships had illegally entered its waters. On Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he was proposing that parliament back a 30-day martial law half the length of that recommended by Ukraines security and defence council a day earlier. ...which basically is, nominally, a declaration of war Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) November 25, 2018 Official statement from Russia at 11 pm Moscow time: "The three Ukrainian ships sailed back to Ukraine ports and we will show proof of that tomorrow" Official statement from Russia at 12:13 am Moscow time: "We shot at 3 Ukrainian ships and detained them for trespassing" Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) November 25, 2018 Here is video of a Russian vessel hitting a Ukrainian tugboat. This piece by Christopher Miller in the American government-funded news network of RadioFreeEurope does a good job of laying out the timeline that lead to yesterday's events. Per Miller: Russia launched the opening salvo here in 2016, with its $3.7 billion Crimean Bridge project to link that occupied Ukrainian peninsula with southern Russia across the Kerch Strait the gate to the [Sea of] Azov. The move led to stern condemnation and sanctions from Kyiv and Western governments. The European Union in late July added six more Russian companies involved in the bridge project to its sanctions list. In March, with the bridge nearing completion, Ukrainian authorities detained a Ukrainian-registered Crimean fishing vessel for illegally sailing under the Russian flag and arrested its captain and crew in the Sea of Azov a move one Russian official likened to that of Somali pirates. Since then, Russia has stepped up confrontation in and around the Azov in a big way. In early May, Russian border guards subordinate to the country's Federal Security Service (FSB) reportedly arrested a Ukrainian fishing vessel and its crew in the Black Sea, ostensibly for illegally fishing in what it said was Russia's exclusive economic zone. This is a territorial cold war that has gone hot (again). Per international law, Crimea is part of Ukraine. Period. Russia stole it, and has faced no consequences yet. Now, Russia is attacking Ukraine because Ukraine still claims land that they never legally lost. This is how wars begin, and it is imperative that we take steps to curb Russia's aggressive actions without escalating this into a larger conflict. However, that is FAR easier said than done, and right now, all we have to work with is a bunch of boilerplate statements from everyone but the Trump White House expressing grave concern over the situation. WATCH: In first response from US gov't leadership, Amb. Haley says in Security Council mtg. that Russia's shooting and seizing Ukrainian vessels is "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory" and marks yet another reckless Russian escalation." pic.twitter.com/hczWuTI5wu NBC News (@NBCNews) November 26, 2018 In call with Ukrainian President Poroshenko , NATO Sec.-Gen. Stoltenberg expressed NATO's full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law. NBC News (@NBCNews) November 26, 2018 The UK utterly condemns Russia's use of force against Ukrainian vessels entering the Sea of Azov. Once again, we see Russian CONTEMPT for international norms and Ukrainian sovereignty. Russia must release detained Ukrainian sailors and guarantee free passage through Kerch Straits Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) November 26, 2018 After over 24 hours, Trump finally did make a statement on the crisis, and it was as feckless as you would imagine. Trump frames Russia's aggression in Ukraine as a #bothsides issue: "We don't like what's happening either way. We don't like what's happening." pic.twitter.com/tl120YU7CS Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 26, 2018 Now, President Trump's overly cozy relationship with the Kremlin is the elephant in the room, and he didn't do himself any favors by tweeting this out about an hour after news broke of the Russian assault yesterday. Europe has to pay their fair share for Military Protection. The European Union, for many years, has taken advantage of us on Trade, and then they don't live up to their Military commitment through NATO. Things must change fast! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2018 On its face, it sure looks like an overt and explicit endorsement of Russia's illegal actions, as it seems like Trump is using this act of war as leverage to get NATO countries to pay up, lest they go the way of Ukraine. In reality, president racist grandpa was just yelling at the TV and the timing was likely coincidental. Hell, he probably didn't even know that this had happened yet since he prefers to get his news via that morning's Fox & Friends in his DVR instead of the most up to date and accurate information from his intelligence agencies. Left, Fox & Friends, 9:29 am Tata: Merkel knows "President Trump forcing NATO and the European Union to pay their fair share, all of these European nations are realizing that their free ride is over." Right, Trump, 3:27 am pic.twitter.com/84SsuvyR3k Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) November 25, 2018 That didn't stop plenty of self-described Russia experts from coming up with convoluted theories that would get you laughed out of a political science 101 class. Sarah Kendzior, famed online #resistance hero, retweeted this hot take she posted from March that has absolutely no basis in reality. We're seeing a realignment of powers. My guess is Trump admin and Kremlin are making deals to give respective invasions (Ukraine for Russia, Iran for US, to start) a pass. Pay attention to what's happening with Kushner, Israel, KSA, etc as well. Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) March 23, 2018 Russia and Iran are staunch allies. This is the center of the problem in Syria, where Russias air force is bombing civilians on behalf of the Assad government while Iran fuels money, resources and various kinds of support to the murderous Syrian regime. Addressing Syria seriously means dealing with both Russia and Iran. Russia needs Syria because it is the only military base they have in the Middle East. The scenario described by Kendzior above means that she believes that Russia would give up its only foothold in the Middle East, along with a close ally, in order to placate Trump so they can fully invade a country it already has immense influence over (and who they have already begun to invade, as Dontesk is another area of Ukraine essentially controlled by Russia). The Kremlin is known for committing unforced errors, but Kendziors proposed tradeoff would be above and beyond their typical stupidity. Not everything that happens in the world has to do with the United States. In fact, most things dont. The only certain answer to what is going on? is we dont know. Trump will likely do nothing to pressure Russia away from its slow-scale invasion of Ukraine, but its difficult to see how less Kremlin-compromised powers like the UK or NATO would either. Are we really going to start World War III with Russia over Ukraine? Probably not, although the lesson of post-World War II is that one should never underestimate the Western war machines insatiable desire for (profitable) death and destruction. This is a delicate situation that looks like it will go Russias way. Trump is Trump, the UK is entrenched in a fight with itself over Brexit, and NATO is rudderless without either countrys leadership. Not to mention, Ukrainian President Poroshenko instituting martial law provides another avenue of influence that the Kremlin can use (Ukraine has elections in four monthswhich are suspended as long as martial law is declaredand Poroshenko is behind in the polls, so it doesnt take a whole lot of imagination to see how Vladimir Putin could leverage that reality over the Ukrainian president). A military option is only on the table for folks who either dont understand the situation (time and time again, studies show that the less likely you are to know where a country is, the more likely you are to want to bomb it) or the kind of people who always suggest a military option (looking at you neocons). Im not sure what the right answer is here. Going to war with Russia over Ukraine is literal insanity, but letting Russia violate the sovereignty of nations they claim to have ownership of is a harrowing standard that can only embolden Russia to invade more of Europe. Alienation from the international community is a powerful deterrent that has unfortunately become less powerful as the international community has become less unified around the interests of man and more geared towards the interests of capital in the 21st century. This is very much a developing situation that can go in a lot of different directions, but one thing is certain: the world is a far more dangerous place today than it was yesterday. Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it. Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies We already know the way out. I know this sounds contrary, in a time when Californias skin is sloughing off in huge burned chunks. But theres no such thing as an unsolvable problem. The world is telling us how to solve the world: change the view. There were about nine important stories last week. The wildfires of California. New Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez triggering conservatives in a dozen different ways. Amazons massively unpopular exploitation of New York, and that citys shameful sell-out to him. Rumors of Secretary Clintons return to the electoral game, and the pushback against it. Trump being afraid of rain, and Trump being Trump in general. Facebook exploiting Americans by peddling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The story of this election: disgusted suburban voters come to the Dems. Signs of electoral hope from Red States: promises of progressivism to come. Finally, there were visible, irrefutable demonstrations of voter suppression in Georgia and Florida. Proof that suppression is necessary for conservatives to win in modern, diverse America. They dont seem to tell the same story, except they do. We dont live in the end times. We live in the time when our old model of the world is falling apart. Thats why the news seems so crazy. The old model cannot explain, it cannot predict, it cannot advise on courses of action. We live surrounded by problems we seem incapable of solving. But they are solvable. Its just that our model cannot account for them. This is what it feels like when your societys understanding of the world is wrong. It feels like the stars and planets are falling on you. For example, the old model advised passivity for the public. It said that merit and markets would save everything. The people and their government couldnt fix anything, the old model said. We have to rely on rich people to fix our problems, the old model said. But Bezos will not fix New York. He will make it worse, as he makes the lives of his workers worse. Zuckerberg will not fix social media. He will make it worse, as he has made politics worse. The rich people of California will not fight the fires. They will pay for private fire fighters to save their own houses. All of these events are anomalies in the system. And anomalies tell you change is coming. A philosopher named Thomas Kuhn studied the history of science. Kuhn said human society changes its scientific understanding in a funny way. The science of Aristotle gave way to the science of Newton. Near the end of the Age of Aristotle, everything looked confusing. Our understanding of science was full of anomalies. Thats what happens when science is about to change, Kuhn said. The dominant story looks creaky. People try like mad to protect the old story, even when its full of holes. Because they cannot imagine anything outside the current theory. Then a new story, one that better explains those anomalies, takes over. The history books are written to make this change look inevitable. But really, up until the moment of change, it was anything but certain. The story that illuminated all of this for me wasnt about Ocasio-Cortez, or Trump, or the wildfires. It was a hand-wringing New York Times piece about the recent rise of China. It was full of elite anxiety about waning American power: The West was sure the Chinese approach would not work. It just had to wait. Its still waiting. Everybody knows that China is doing well. Thats not news. And indeed, that is not what the feature was actually about. Although on its surface, the story was a study of modern China, it wasnt truly about China. The story was really about how badly America had messed up in underestimating China. The Times writes about the fear of the Chinese elites, but I believe that they are projecting their own fear onto Beijing: There is no simple explanation for how Chinas leaders pulled this off. There was foresight and luck, skill and violent resolve, but perhaps most important was the fear a sense of crisis among Maos successors that they never shook, and that intensified after the Tiananmen Square massacre and the collapse of the Soviet Union. For decades, Americas model of China said that China would fail. China has not failed. Did the article suggest that the American model might be wrong? It did not. Thats why the story is such a good example of how the old model is dying. The Times is the most important paper in the world. It sets the tone. When the NYT is conflicted, it means the establishment is conflicted. In this China article, the Times was not able to make up its mind. It was torn between two needs. On one hand, as the paper of authority, the Times is wedded to whatever official establishment ideology is. The establishment ideology changes. In 2003, mainstream ideology said that Iraq had nuclear weapons, and the Times agreed. Now, mainstream ideology says that invading Iraq was a mistake, and the Times agrees. Whatever the prevailing ideology is in America, it is the job of the Times to promote and argue for it. The Times cannot say that neoliberalism is bankrupt, any more than a cavefish can curse the darkness in which it swims. On the other hand, the Times is made up of honest, gifted journalists. These journalists understand that the official model failed to explain the success of China. The establishment cannot rule without correct information. It is the job of the Times to provide useful data to the rulers of this country. Those rulers are indifferent to the suffering of ordinary people. However, they do care about America being eclipsed by another power. The Times is obligated to supply data showing the story they have been telling is wronglike an ambassador delivering an order for his own beheading. The current mainstream ideology of our time is called neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is conservative capitalism combined with shallow social liberalism. The Times cannot yet admit that neoliberalism is wrong that would cause a psychological rupture and alienate their readership. But the Times cannot deny Chinas success. Underselling China would mean incorrect information. Incorrect information makes the Times worthless. Being worthless also alienates the readership. So the Times is stuck between a hard place and a somehow still harder place. Unable to say anything, all the article can do is marvel at Chinas success, and say How bout that. What is happening at the Times is happening at every level of our society. Each of those news stories I mentioned demonstrates anomalies. Those stories describe events that are not supposed to happen in a society where markets and merit rule. Two of the aforementioned stories are about a problem that our current model is powerless to solve (wildfires, Trump)problems that were not supposed to happen under neoliberalism. Markets were supposed to be more efficient at protecting the planet. Meritocracy was supposed to prevent idiots from being president. Four stories are about powerful people proposing obviously bad fixes to problems with clear solutions (Bezos, Clinton, Zuckerberg, Brian Kemp). Three stories are about experts being shocked by people behaving in unexpected ways (AOC, suburbans, the Red States). And the story about China fits into all three categories. These crises that cannot be solved or explained by neoliberalism. Or by centrism. Or by civility. So, a new model is coming. In this new model, the market and merit will be recognized as the shams they are. In the new model, people will understand that the system can be changed. We solve problems, not Bezos. In the new model, the first step in saving the world is to stop believing capital and meritocracy are good ways to structure a society. In the new model, popular organizing against concentrations of power will be the only reliable way to build a just world. None of this will be surprising to you, if you are the kind of person who reads political hot-takes. But most people do not spend their waking hours thinking about politics. Most people are busy with other concerns, and they accept societys model. This is why challenging the narrative is the first step in changing the world. A societys operating model determines what is and what is not possible. Kings were never legitimate. Kings were never necessary. But for centuries nobody thought to question kings, because most people lived in monarchical societies. A society without a king was so far outside of the approved model that a crownless world seemed impossible. For most Americans, the laws of politics seem as immutable as the laws of nature. It doesnt occur to most people, for example, that debt scares are entirely bullshit. It doesnt occur to most people that we have enough resources to take care of everyone. It doesnt occur to most people that theres nothing natural about having billionaires. When these ideas do get brought up, theyre immediately dismissed as unrealistic. But who decides whats realistic? The model does. Politics is the art of the possible, and whats considered possible is about to change. A new model is arriving. The world can be made legible. The story this week, of this year, is nothing more than the oldest story in the bookthe oldest, and truest: a change is gonna come. This afternoon Apple unveiled new resources designed to bring coding education through the Everyone Can Code program to even more students around the world. Starting today, customers can register for thousands of free Hour of Code sessions, available at all Apple Store locations around the world from December 1 through 14. The company also introduced Swift Coding Club materials to help teach coding outside of the classroom with Swift, Apples easy-to-learn programming language used by professional developers to create world-class apps. And to help prepare and develop students for the workforce, the company unveiled new Advanced Placement curriculum and App Development with Swift certification. Today at Apple For the sixth year, Apple will host Hour of Code daily coding sessions through Today at Apple from December 1 through 14. The sessions will provide opportunities for people at a variety of skill levels to learn coding. Kids Hour sessions will help aspiring coders aged six to 12 explore coding with robots, while those aged 12 and above can attend sessions using Swift Playgrounds and iPad to learn coding concepts. More Ways to Introduce Students to Coding To celebrate Computer Science Education Week, Apple created a new Hour of Code Facilitator Guide to help educators host sessions in their classroom using Swift Playgrounds and other iPad apps. Swift Playgrounds is available as a free download in the App Store in 15 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. To teach coding outside of the classroom, a new Swift Coding Club kit gives teachers, students and club mentors the tools they need to start their own coding clubs. The new kit gives students aged 8 and up the ability to collaborate, prototype apps and explore how coding can make a difference in their communities using fun activities from Swift Playgrounds and App Development with Swift. Preparing Students for the Workforce The App Development with Swift curriculum gives high school and college students the critical skills they need to qualify for high-demand and high-skill jobs. In the next school year, Apple will release a free AP Computer Science Principles course syllabus and curriculum, giving high school students the opportunity to earn Advanced Placement (AP) credit for learning App Development with Swift. Students can also earn a certification that recognizes their knowledge of Swift, app developer tools and core components of apps. The App Development with Swift Level 1 certification exams are offered through Certiport Authorized Testing Centers worldwide. In the 2TB and 4TB capacities, this SATAa 6Gbps SSD is a lot cheaper than the competition. Its also a very fast reader, and a fast writeruntil it runs out of cache. At the 1TB level however, there are cheaper drives that dont slow down even when writing large data sets. The reason I mention this competitive drive from Intel up-front is that its becoming clear that 4-bit NAND, while allowing greater capacity, also extracts a performance hit that vendors must work around. How well a vendor does that affects which 4-bit drive you should buy, and whether you might be better off with an MLC or TLC drive. Samsungs 860 QVO SSD is an excellent everyday performer and an outstanding bargain in its 2TB and 4TB flavors. Its also the second quad-level cell (4-bit) SSD to pass our portals, the other being Intels SSD 660P . Note: Samsung refers to the 860 QVO as 4-bit MLC. As the acronym MLC stands for Multi-Level Cell, this is technically correct. However, most refer to it as quad-level cell or QLC, which is what I assume the Q in QVO stands for. Design and features The 860 QVO is a 2.5-inch, 7mm thick, SATA 6Gbps SSD. Its a lighter shade of gray than most of Samsungs SSDs, and will be available in four capacities: 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. That last is a boon of 4-bit NAND: greater data density than 3-bit TLC, so you can fit more data in the same number of chips. Samsung The 860 QVO is thin, light, and a bargain in its 2TB and 4TB capacities. The drive provides 1GB of DRAM cache for each 1TB of capacity. The TBW (TeraBytes Written) rating is 360TB for every 1TB of capacity. The 1TB version I tested has approximately 42GB of available secondary cache (QLC, written as SLC or MLC). The 2TB and 4TB drives each get 78GB of cache. Pricing starts at $150 for the 1TB drive. The 2TB comes in at $300, and the 4TB model costs $600. A 4TB SSD for $500 is dirt-cheap compared to everything else on the market, as well as what you wouldve paid only last year. Performance The plain fact of the matter is that writing more bits to a NAND cell takes more time. Its not that SLC NAND cells are so much faster than TLC or QLC cells, its that writing only one bit is faster. Write only one bit to TLC or QLC, and theyre nearly as fast. Write three or four bits, and theyre not even close. Hence a certain amount of the TLC (or QLC in this case) of any SSD is treated as SLC or MLC to form a secondary cache. Using this secondary cacheagain, approximately 42GBthe 860 QVO proved a very good performer in most circumstances, as you can tell from the benchmark results below. There were no performance slowdowns until our 48GB file copy tests, in which the last 4GB or so wrote at only 70MBps. This would not occur in the 2TB or 4TB drives, with their more bountiful Level 2 cache. IDG The 860 QVO (blue bars) is more than competitive with other drives in CrystalDiskMark 6. Longer bars are better. AS SSD 2.0 had roughly the same opinion as CrystalDiskMark about the 860 QVOs speediness. Note that this test isnt as optimistic about the throughput, erring slightly on the low side of what we see in our real-world, 48GB copy tests. IDG AS SSD largely agreed with CrystalDiskMark: The 860 QVO (blue bars) is fast under most circumstances. Longer bars are better. Seek times, as shown below, are actually quite quick compared to most SATA 6Gbps SSDs. This may have something to do with the previously described and generous allotment of DRAM cache. IDG The 860 QVOs (blue bars) seek times even faster than youd expect from a SATA 6Gbps SSD. Shorter bars are better. Below you can see that the copy tests were only mildly affected by the 860 QVOs running out of cache, but that was only because such a small amount of data was written to the main body of QLC memory. Double this test size, and the 1TB 860 QVO and Kingstons bars wouldve been far longer than the Sonys or Seagates. Even the 2TB and 4TB capacities would run dry in that scenario. IDG The area where the 860 QVO (blue bars) falls short is in writing large amounts of data, a trait it shares with the Kingston HyperX Fury (purple bars). The more data you write, the worse the times will be. The pace of the 860 QVO hovers around 70MBps once the cache is overwritten. Shorter bars are better. When the 860 QVO runs out of cache, its pretty depressing. The drive will clear the cache by writing the data to the main body of 4-bit NAND, but that process takes a while. I waited a good ten minutes between tests. Below you can see what happened when I didnt wait that long to try copying 48GB one more time. The original 48GB copy didnt slow down until about the 90-percent mark. IDG This is what it looks like when the 860 QVO slows down. Note that this is a second copy. The initial 48GB didnt slow down until about 90% of the way through the copy. Just by way of comparison, in terms of sustained throughput, weve seen hard drives clock 250MBps. But even when writing slowly, SSDs retain their super-fast seek times. Also note, this is strictly about writing. NAND read speeds in SATA SSDS remain quick no matter what the number of bits being read. A good drive for the mainstream user The 860 QVO is a great SSD most of the time, but there are a number of cheaper 1TB competitors that dont slow down. The 2TB and 4TB drives, on the other hand, are a couple of hundred dollars less than the competition and dont fall out of cache nearly as soon. Thats a big-enough price difference that Id consider the trade-off, which will vary in balance depending on your needs, worthwhile. Bargain or not, know that you will see a massive drop-off in performance when the drive runs out of cache. It doesnt run out often, but its ugly when it does. Walsh, who was partnered with Van Dyke for only the second time that night, gave his statement and filled out police reports according to his best recollection, Pugh said. The suggestion that Walsh would have engaged in a conspiracy is far-fetched, Pugh said, because he barely knew Van Dyke and had no role in the investigation after he gave his statement. DETROIT (AP) Even though unemployment is low, the economy is growing and U.S. auto sales are near historic highs, General Motors is cutting thousands of jobs in a major restructuring aimed at generating cash to spend on innovation. The GM layoffs come amid the backdrop of a trade wars between the U.S., China and Europe that likely will lead to higher prices for imported vehicles and those exported from the U.S. CEO Mary Barra said the company faces challenges from tariffs but she did not directly link the layoffs to them. President Donald Trump, who has made bringing auto jobs back a big part of his appeal to Ohio and other Great Lakes states that are crucial to his re-election, said his administration and lawmakers are exerting "a lot of pressure" on GM. Barra headed for Washington after the news broke to speak with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow in what was described as a previously scheduled meeting. Trump said he was being tough on Barra, telling the company that the U.S. has done a lot for GM and that if its cars aren't selling, the company needs to produce ones that will. At a rally near GM's Lordstown, Ohio, plant last summer, Trump told people not to sell their homes because the jobs are "all coming back." GM announced Monday that it will cut as many as 14,000 workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure. According to the Detroit Free Press, GM will end U.S. sales of the Volt, the Cruz and the Impala, the Cadillac XTS and CT6, and the Buick LaCrosse. At the factories, around 3,300 blue-collar workers could lose jobs in the U.S. and another 2,600 in Canada, but some U.S. workers could transfer to truck or SUV factories that are increasing production. The cuts mark GM's first major downsizing since shedding thousands of jobs in the Great Recession. The reductions could amount to as much as 8 percent of GM's global workforce of 180,000 employees. The cuts include about 8,000 white-collar employees, or 15 percent of GM's North American white-collar workforce. Some will take buyouts while others will be laid off. The restructuring is part of a shift by GM as it abandons many of its car models and focuses more on autonomous and electric vehicles. It's the new reality for automakers that are faced with the present cost of designing gas-powered cars and trucks that appeal to buyers now while at the same time preparing for a future world of electric and autonomous vehicles. Barra said as cars and trucks become more complex, GM will need more computer coders but fewer engineers who work on internal combustion engines. "The vehicle has become much more software-oriented" with millions of lines of code, she said. "We still need many technical resources in the company." The restructuring also reflects changing North American auto markets as manufacturers continue to shift away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. In October, almost 65 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. were trucks or SUVs. That figure was about 50 percent cars just five years ago. GM is shedding cars largely because it doesn't make money on them, Citi analyst Itay Michaeli wrote in a note to investors. "We estimate sedans operate at a significant loss, hence the need for classic restructuring," he wrote. The move to make GM get leaner before the next downturn likely will be followed by Ford Motor Co., which also has struggled to keep one foot in the present and another in an ambiguous future of new mobility. Ford has been slower to react, but says it will lay off an unspecified number of white-collar workers as it exits much of the car market in favor of trucks and SUVs, some of them powered by batteries. GM doesn't foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts "to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong," Barra told reporters. Factories that could be closed include assembly plants in Detroit and Oshawa, Ontario, and Lordstown, Ohio, as well as transmission plants in Warren, Michigan, and near Baltimore. The company also said it will stop operating two additional factories outside North America by the end of next year. The announcement worried GM workers who could lose their jobs. "I don't know how I'm going to feed my family," Matt Smith, a worker at the Ontario factory, said Monday outside the plant's south gate, where workers blocked trucks from entering or leaving. "It's hard. It's horrible." Smith's wife also works at the plant. The couple has an 11-month-old at home. Workers at the Ontario plant walked off the job Monday but were expected to return Tuesday. Most of the factories to be affected by GM's restructuring build cars that will not be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. Their futures will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year. The Detroit-based union has already condemned GM's actions and threatened to fight them "through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership." Bobbi Marsh, who has worked assembling the Chevrolet Cruze compact car at the Ohio plant since 2008, said she can't understand why the factory might close given the strong economy. "I can't believe our president would allow this to happen," she said Monday. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said the move will be disastrous for the region around Youngstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland, where GM is one of the area's few remaining industrial anchors. "GM received record tax breaks as a result of the GOP's tax bill last year, and has eliminated jobs instead of using that tax windfall to invest in American workers," he said in a statement. GM, the nation's largest automaker, will stop producing cars and transmissions at the plants through 2019. In all, six car models were scrapped, leaving the company with nine remaining car models for its four brands, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC. By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer. Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. The neighborhood where 15-year-old Kobe Santiago died is quiet. The tree along the 2500 block of Brookwood Street in Harrisburg, where Santiago crashed a stolen car on Sunday, now has balloons, candles, and a stuffed bear mixed in with the shattered window glass, plastic, and pieces of vehicle lights. Harrisburg police said Santiago and two other teenagers were in the car, which was stolen earlier that day. Police said they saw the stolen car on South 20th and Kensington streets and tried to stop it. The vehicle fled, and police said that due to the cars increasing speed, they ended the pursuit. Police said Santiago did not stop but instead went even faster, which led to him losing control on Brookwood Street and crashing into the tree. Santiago died after being transported to a local hospital. Two other teens suffered non-life threatening injuries and were transported to hospitals. Police have not provided an update on their conditions. Holy Family Church is located a couple blocks down 25th Street, around the corner. A Girl Scouts building is located between where police saw the stolen vehicle and where it crashed. The rest is tightly packed residential, an area that was silent amid the rain and fog of a gloomy late November afternoon. Around a dozen kids gathered around the memorial Monday afternoon. They called themselves Santiagos brothers. No, they never imagined something like this could happen. They said the area wasnt busy; theres nothing worth coming for. Their knowledge of what happened came from social media, and they were angry. They had questions about what transpired that led to Santiagos death. The Harrisburg School District released a statement on Monday, informing students and parents that one of their students had passed away suddenly. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family at this difficult time, the district said. They will have grief counselors available to students and staff on Tuesday and throughout the week as needed, the district said. But for Santiagos brothers" at the crash site, the idea of counseling didnt come up. They simply wanted one thing: more details about the crash. WILLIAMSPORT - The family of a 4-year-old girl who died after being left hours in a SUV on a hot July day in 2016 says it is not done fighting for "justice for Samaria." Private detective Kenneth L. Mains, who founded and is president of the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases, says he has been asked to "properly and thoroughly investigate the death" of Samaria Motyka. Providing a second opinion for parents who have lost a child to homicide or undetermined death is part of what he does, the former Williamsport police officer and Lycoming County detective said. "This is only the first step in our uphill battle we continue to face regarding the injustice and inexcusable death of Samaria," her mother, Sara Fox, stated in a Facebook posting. "We are not done fighting for justice and with Detective Mains' expertise, integrity and world renowned investigative experience, we feel confident justice delayed will not be justice denied." Family and friends are upset with the Nov. 9 jury verdict that acquitted Brittany Renee Borgess, 30, of DuBoistown, of charges of involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering. READ MORE: Pa. woman on trial in death of 4-year-old left more than six hours in sweltering SUV Senior Judge Dudley N. Anderson found her guilty of the summary charge of leaving a child unattended in car and fined her $25. "Unacceptable," Fox said about the outcome of the case. "This is an injustice to my daughter and everyone else who has a child. "Because of this injustice, we have decided to fight back against a justice system that has failed my daughter." Even if Mains uncovers new evidence, legal sources say because Borgess was acquitted she cannot be charged again. However, it does not preclude a civil action. Borgess was charged with leaving Samaria in her SUV outside her place of work for 61/2 hours on July 22, 2016, when temperatures in Williamsport hit 97 degrees. Samaria had gotten out of her booster seat but was found unresponsive on the front floor with her head on the passenger seat. Her internal temperature taken at Williamsport Regional Medical Center was 110 degrees. During the three-day trial defense attorney Peter T. Campana contended a brain malfunction caused Borgess to lose awareness Samaria was in the SUV. READ MORE: Was death of 4-year-old in hot SUV a crime? Jurors must wait a few days to render verdict He relied on the testimony of David Diamond, a professor of neuroscience at the University of South Florida, who has done extensive research on the brain and why someone's prospective memory suddenly fails. First Assistant District Attorney Martin Wade told jurors there was no reasonable explanation why Borgess left the girl in the SUV. He pointed out Borgess had spoken to Samaria minutes before she arrived at work when she dropped off her 2-year-old son at another day care. Instead of going to South Williamsport to Samaria's day care, she took a different Interstate 180 exit, drove to work, backed into a stall and went inside leaving the girl in a booster seat. The defense claimed construction caused Borgess to take a different exit but a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation employee testified there was no work being done there. There also was testimony Samaria's father William Motyka went to Borgess' work place that morning and they discussed what the children had for breakfast. LOCK HAVEN - A spot of blood found on the carpet in the back of a conversion van was that of a woman who went missing 27 years ago and is presumed dead. The prosecution and defense agreed on that fact Monday as the murder trial of Loyd M. Groves, 69, resumed in Clinton County court following a break for Thanksgiving. Loyd Groves Groves is accused of killing Katherine Dolan Heckel, 40, who was last seen leaving for lunch on July 15, 1991, from the former International Paper Co. where both were employed. They were involved in an extramarital relationship that Heckel reportedly was trying to end. The DNA profile of the minute amount of blood found on the carpet behind the driver's seat of Groves' van showed it was Heckel's, testified Sarah Kucherer, a former state police DNA analyst. Since the defense agreed with her finding, Deputy Attorney General Daniel J. Dye chose not to call additional witnesses who would provide similar testimony. The blood from which a DNA profile was generated was Type A, retired state police forensic scientist Donald P. Bloser Jr. testified. Human blood was found in four locations in the van but the amount in the other three was insufficient to determine the type, he said. On cross-examination he said he could not say how the blood got there or how long it had been there. There was testimony earlier in the trial that Heckel had been in the van many times. Former state Trooper Dennis L. Johnson described the condition of Heckel's car found in a fairly remote parking of Lock Haven Hospital. The keys were not in it, he said. He acknowledged under cross-examination he acted unprofessionally when, left alone with Groves during a July 17, 2017, interview, he used profanity and asked: "What did you do with this girl's body?" Johnson explained "he flew off the bat" because he knew members of Heckel's family. "He wouldn't talk," was his response when asked if Groves said anything during the state police interview. Dye said he expects to complete the prosecution's case Tuesday. Still scheduled to testify is Groves' former wife, who is expected to say that her husband came home between noon and 3 p.m. the day Heckel disappeared, changed clothes and returned to work. It is the prosecution's theory that Heckel was killed between those hours although her body never has been found. The defense, through cross-examination, has pointed out to jurors the amount of blood found in the van was extremely small and Heckel also was involved with a childhood friend, Dennis W. Taylor. The two were to have a dinner date the night of her disappearance, according to testimony. Heckel's husband, John, was away a lot as a member of the National Guard whose unit was based in Fort Drum, N.Y. Defense attorney David I. Lindsay would not say if Groves, who is charged with first- and third-degree murder, will testify. He has been in jail without bail since his arrest in January 2015 in Beaver where he was living. No one was injured in a multi-hour standoff in York County with a man who had been chased by Lancaster authorities earlier in the day. Newberry Township Police Sgt. Braxton Ditty spoke with media at the scene Monday evening, relaying information about the standoff. Ditty said shortly after 10 a.m., his department was notified of a police pursuit involving units from Lancaster County, related to a domestic incident in Mount Joy township that involved a firearm. Those units pursued the suspect until they were in the area of exit 33 of Interstate 83 northbound, Ditty said. Newberry Township PD was notified about the vehicle and given information that it was a part of an unauthorized use investigation, so the car involved at the time was being driven illegally. They also learned the gun used in the domestic incident was stolen yesterday, Ditty said. Monday morning, officers checked the area but did not find the suspect vehicle, Ditty said. Later in the day, they received information that the suspect was in the area and making comments to a family member about hurting himself, Ditty said. The man was not identified, but was described as being in his mid-twenties with a last known address in York County. Pennsylvania State Police, Fairview Township police and other agencies were called in to search for the man. Around 3:25 p.m., officers found the man, but he was a passenger in a different car than the one he was reported to be in, Ditty said. Police attempted a traffic stop in the area of the PennDOT shed at Exit 33 of Interstate 83, Ditty said. Once the vehicle was stopped, the suspect refused to leave the vehicle so police got the driver out without incident. Ditty said the driver will not be charged with anything. Police then negotiated with the suspect with assistance from the York County Quick Response Team and the Dauphin County Crisis Response Team, Ditty said. They were able to get the man in custody without any harm. Ditty attributed the length of the incident to their desire to get everyone out safely. Ditty said they are making sure he gets any services he needs for his welfare, but agencies in Lancaster and York county have charges pending based on incidents from the last few days. GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) A man broke into an 87-year-old Pennsylvania womans house the day before Thanksgiving and forced her to show him where her valuables were before he raped her twice, strangled her and tried to set the house on fire, according to a police affidavit released Monday. Kristopher Gartrell, 48, was arrested Friday and charged with criminal homicide, rape, kidnapping and arson, among other charges. He was being held at Adams County prison without bail. The Evening Sun reports a cleaning lady called police Wednesday when she found the house just north of Gettysburg in disarray and couldn't locate the homeowner, Virginia Barbour, according to the affidavit. Officers discovered Barbour's body wrapped in a sheet under a bed. Police say guns, $1,200 in coins and Barbour's silver 2012 Chevrolet Impala had been stolen. State police investigators questioned neighbors on Friday, and that led them to Gartrell's girlfriend. She told police she knew about the killing and said Gartrell threatened to hurt her and her family if she didn't help him, according to the affidavit. Gartrell was arrested outside the Presidential Inn in Gettysburg, and was found with items missing from Barbour's house, the affidavit said. He allegedly told officers he entered Barbour's unlocked home, tied her up, raped her twice, set the house on fire and fled. No attorney is listed in online court documents for Gartrell, who is a registered sex offender in South Carolina. He has been on the state's "19 most wanted" list for failing to report to a probation officer in August. He was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree in South Carolina in 1997. He has also been convicted of kidnapping and other charges in South Carolina. Court documents in South Carolina show he spent more than two decades behind bars before being released in March. LEBANON - Police are investigating who would have left an injured dog in the Lebanon County woods this weekend, one that was so sick that she was euthanized soon after being found. Veterinarians believe Allie spent at least several nights in the freezing woods by herself with a severe skin disease and an almost foot-long colon prolapse. These conditions led to the dog being put to death and police trying to find who abandoned her. Janine Guido, owner of Speranza Animal Rescue, holds Allie, who was euthanized Sunday. North Lebanon Township Police got a call around 1 p.m. Sunday about an injured dog abandoned in Stoever's Dam Park. A person found her in the camping area, which is just off a parking lot. "We called Speranza Animal Rescue after finding the black American Bulldog," said Sgt. Tim Knight, with the North Lebanon Township Police Department. Janine Guido, the owner of Speranza Animal Rescue in Cumberland County, only had minutes to spend with the dog at Shores Emergency Veterinary Center in Harrisburg before veterinarians euthanized her. "I asked the wife of the police officer that found her to name her. She chose Allie," Guido said. "Despite the condition she was in she was nothing but a sweetheart. She only knew me for a few minutes but she curled up in to my lap and smothered me with kisses until she passed." Speranza Animal Rescue's Facebook post about Allie has been shared almost 3,000 times and has more than 10,000 reactions. Dr. Debra Benner treated Allie at Shores Emergency Veterinary Center in Harrisburg and said she found an 8- to 10-inch colon and rectal prolapse. "I estimate she was exposed to the elements in the woods for at least a few days and had the prolapse for a minimum of a week. At night, she would have suffered hypothermia," Benner said. "This had to be noticeable. It was really dramatic. About 50 percent of the tissue had died. We could have done surgery and most likely saved her life if this was caught earlier." Veterinarians said that Allie, who they believe is an American Bulldog mixed with Shar Pei, had generalized hair loss. "This could be due to mange, ringworm, or both. She had to be in this condition for weeks, if not months, for it to get this bad," Benner said. Benner said the dog's skin had turned leathery, and she was dehydrated. "She was a gentle soul. She trusted us and liked being held despite what she had been through," Benner said. "She was a poor soul and was a dog not taken care of." Allie did not have a microchip. Anyone with information on the dog's owner and who might have dumped her at the park is asked to call investigating Ofc. Stephen Gross at the North Lebanon Township Police Department at (717) 273-8141. An anonymous donor contributed $5,000 to Speranza Animal Rescue for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person or persons who abandoned Allie. "We're hoping someone recognizes this dog or knows someone with a dog resembling [her] and is missing," Knight said. "Please give us a call." Governor Tom Wolf signed Libre's Law in 2017. It includes up to a third-degree felony punishment for severe animal abuse or neglect resulting in the death or seriously bodily injury of a dog. A school bus driver that drove for the Elizabethtown Area School District was accused of sexually assaulting a student and is wanted by police. On Nov. 1, Elizabethtown Area Middle School called Elizabethtown polices School Resource Officer of a possible sexual assault between a student and a school bus driver, police said. Vito A. Giannattasio, 53, of Mount Joy Township, was identified as the suspect of a tickling incident which involved touching of a sexual nature, police said. Giannattasio was employed as a school bus driver at the time. On Nov. 21, police completed their investigation and decided to charged Giannattasio with felony institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors and two counts of misdemeanor indecent assault, police said. The Elizabethtown Area School District and Durham School Services, who is contracted to provide transportation for students, have cooperated fully with the investigation, police said. LancasterOnline reported that the district released a statement that said they were saddened and angered by the news, and that they asked Durham to prohibit Giannattasio from transporting Elizabethtown students during the investigation. A Durham spokesperson told the outlet that Giannattasio was placed on administrative leave once the company learned about the allegations. A warrant was issued for Giannattasio on Nov. 21, police said. Online court records show Giannattasio has not yet been arraigned on the charges and the warrant is active. By Josh McNeil Just before the election, the United Nations. released a terrifying report about what kind of climate we will face in less than a generation. The U.N.s experienced panel of climate experts determined that we have just 12 years to change our ways if we hope to avoid devastating droughts, mass human migrations, rampant wildfires, and global famine. In Pennsylvania, we are already seeing the effects of climate change. Western Pennsylvania has been particularly hard-hit in recent months by flooding caused by severe rain. Families have lost loved ones, homes, and possessions due to out of control floods. Philadelphia is getting hotter, wetter, and snowier, wreaking havoc across the city. The report was no surprise to American youth, who already knew what too many elected leaders deny: if we dont acknowledge and act on climate change now, it will be too late to undo the damage. Republican incumbents in Congress and in Pennsylvanias General Assembly have had opportunity after opportunity to take action to stem the tide, and instead, have pushed an extreme anti-environment, anti-science agenda. Pennsylvanians are tired of inaction. Polls leading up to the election consistently showed that Pennsylvanians are deeply concerned about climate change and the future of our environment. For young voters in particular--who came out in remarkable numbers on Election Day--climate change was number two issue in the state in every region. For months, environmental organizations across Pennsylvania quietly worked to lift up some of the top pro-environment candidates running for the state Legislature and our investment paid off. We got heavily involved in key races with candidates who prioritized clean water, clean air, and a healthy environment. We talked to more than 1 million Pennsylvania voters, the majority of whom expressed grave concern about the future of our planet. On Nov. 6, voters sent a clear message that they will not support politicians who want to put big polluters profits ahead of clean drinking water, air, and land. In districts across the state, we saw voters stand with candidates who campaigned on holding polluters accountable, addressing the climate crisis, and protecting natural resources for all Pennsylvanians. In dozens of what were expected to be the most competitive races, our massive investment led to key wins by pro-environment candidates, including Governor Wolf, who was handily re-elected over climate-change denier Scott Wagner. From the election of Lindsey Williams, Sara Innamorato, and Summer Lee in western Pennsylvania to Danielle Friel Otten, Chris Sappey, Melissa Shusterman, Tim Kearney, and Steve Santarsiero in the eastern part of the state, the results tell the same story: if youre bad on the environment, we will hold you accountable. For the past decade, the oil and gas industry has dominated Harrisburg with millions in campaign donations. Now, the candidates who reject oil and gas money, and who clearly put the interests of their constituents first, are the candidates who can win. Whether its gas wells being fracked near schools outside Pittsburgh, or pipelines being built through neighborhood backyards in Chester County, voters clearly responded to candidates who demanded public protection. Pennsylvania voters want candidates who put environmental justice at the top of the list. Hopefully, its not too late. Josh McNeil is the executive director of the advocacy group Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania. He writes from Philadelphia. John E. Jones III doesnt look or sound much like a rebel. Like a lot of federal judges, hes given to sober suits, long pauses, and thoughtful and deliberative sentences. But Jones, a judge of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, is pretty much a legal apostate in our newly narrow judicial universe where all federal judges are Obama judges, or Bush judges, or Clinton judges. If Jones' name isnt familiar, his rulings will certainly ring a bell. This is the guy who tossed a York County school districts attempt to teach intelligent design as science in the landmark 2005 case known as Kitzmiller vs. Dover. In 2014, Jones beat the Supreme Court to the punch by a full year, overturning Pennsylvanias gay marriage ban in Whitewood vs. Wolf. Still, if were following the rules set down by President Donald Trump in his latest Jeremiad against judicial independence, then Jones, a President George W. Bush appointee, should not have ruled, as he did in Kitzmiller, that "the writings of leading [intelligent design] proponents reveal that the designer postulated by their argument is the God of Christianity. And in the Trumpiverse, where judges are expected to rubber-stamp the White Houses proposals, and not act as the co-equal branch of government, theres no way that a Bush judge would have offered this impassioned preamble in the Whitewood case: Today, certain citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are not guaranteed the right to marry the person they love. Nor does Pennsylvania recognize the marriages of other couples who have wed elsewhere, he wrote. "Hoping to end this injustice, eleven courageous lesbian and gay couples, one widow, and two teenage children of one of the aforesaid couples have come together as plaintiffs and asked this Court to declare that all Pennsylvanians have the right to marry the person of their choice and consequently, that the Commonwealths laws to the contrary are unconstitutional. We now join the twelve federal district courts across the country which, when confronted with these inequities in their own states, have concluded that all couples deserve equal dignity in the realm of civil marriage. But Jones did just that. And it wasnt because Jones was legislating from the bench. And it wasnt because Jones decided to shred the Constitution and cast it to the four winds. It was because he took a look at the facts, the Constitution, and precedent, and made a ruling that followed the law of the land. Sometimes its really that simple. Jones, a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board under Gov. Tom Ridge, acknowledged that he came to the table with GOP viewpoints upon his appointment to the federal bench in February 2002. But to say we hew to the political philosophy of our benefactors is not true. Were not automations who parrot their political philosophy, Jones said Monday when I called him to ask him about Trumps judicial broadsides, the presidents extraordinary war of words with U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, and Jones' own concerns about attacks on judicial independence. When judges seemingly follow their own path on the bench, Its not that were going rogue, were deciding cases according to the law, he continued. Jones declined to comment directly on Trump, who recently groused loudly, and publicly, about a federal judges ruling short-circuiting the White Houses attempts to turn away a column of asylum-seekers who have now reached the southern border. Youll probably recall that Trump criticized the judge in the case, Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco, as an Obama judge. Trump also scorched the West Coast-based 9th Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, calling it a disgrace, and threatening unspecified retaliation, The New York Times reported. That prompted a rare and stern rebuke from Roberts, who said that "we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. Roberts also smartly observed that an independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for. On Monday, Jones credited Roberts, saying the chief justices statement was a timely statement for him to make and truly a heartfelt statement. As the functional head of the federal judiciary, to see him stand up for his judges was just terrific, Jones said. I think most of us [judges], if not all of us, feel that way. Despite his politic silence Monday, Jones has already made his feelings about Trumps attacks on the judiciary pretty clear. In a June 2016 op-Ed for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jones observed that then-candidate Trumps attacks on American-born U.S. District Judge Alfonso Curiel, whom Trump disparaged as a Mexican, were unwarranted and dangerous. Those comments about Curiels heritage were a misplaced and arguably racist diatribe, Jones wrote. Jones amplified a bit Monday on those comments from two years ago. All we have, as is so often said, is our credibility, he said. We dont have the purse and we dont have the sword - as Alexander Hamilton said. If that credibility is destroyed and people think they can disregard the rule of law in society, then we are going to a very dangerous and dark place, he said. We have an appellate system that gives everyone the opportunity to have due process if they disagree, he continued. Decisions themselves can be roundly criticized. Its a free country. But when those attacks devolve into something that is personal or when a judges authority is questioned because were a co-equal branch of government, its problematic for all of us. Ultimately, Jones said, all judges have is the law and precedent. And, in cases where theres a shortage of either, they have the evidence and the facts to guide them. The role of precedent at this level is critical And in almost every case in my docket, I will find precedent that will guide me to the right decision, he said. In the Kitzmiller case, which gained Jones nationwide attention, Jones said he didnt have that hard a time reaching his decision. That one, it was clear, violated the Establishment Clause in the Constitution. That case was not hard to decide, he said. It was hard to write because of its scope and size. There was plenty of precedent to guide me in that decision. The same-sex marriage decision in the Whitewood case was harder to decide than it was to write, because Jones and his colleagues across the country were trying to predict how the Supreme Court would come down on the issue. Ultimately, they were proven right when the Supremes legalized gay marriage in 2015, in a case known as Obergfell vs. Hodges. And thats why its so important for people to respect the independence of the judiciary. There will be times when you dont agree with a judge or his or her jurisprudence (and I have plenty of disagreements with the current U.S. Supreme Court), but theyre there for a reason: To make sure everyone gets a fair shake. And one of these days, it might be your turn. And you wont realize how much you miss that right to a fair shake until its not there anymore. We need to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric that might not be designed to imperil judges but might have that effect, Jones said. We should be very careful about that. Venckiene, who fled Lithuania in 2013 and ended up working as a florist in the far northwest suburbs, claims authorities in her homeland intend to persecute her for trying to expose high-level government corruption there. Those claims stem from the alleged molestation of Venckienes niece in 2008 and set in motion events that included the suspicious deaths of four people in Lithuania. By Franklin L. Kury Nationwide, the Nov. 6 midterm elections demonstrated a growing public desire to end gerrymandering of Congressional redistricting with independent redistricting commissions. Voters in Colorado, Michigan and Utah approved reforming their redistricting systems with independent commissions to draw Congressional maps. Colorado did it by a 71 to 29 per cent vote, Michigan by 61 to 39 percent and Utah 50.3 to 49.7 per cent. In its 2018 primary Ohio voters approved a similar proposal after the Ohio legislative leaders and state League of Women Voters worked out a compromise they both supported. When these four ballot box initiatives are implemented, ten states will have Congressional redistricting in the hands of an independent commission. The six currently with such commissions are Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey and Washington. Pennsylvanias congressional elections, using a new map drawn by the state Supreme Court, showed the difference fairly drawn maps can make in giving the voters competitive Congressional districts. In the 2016 Pennsylvania Congressional elections, Republicans won 13 of 18 seats. Twelve of the candidates won by 60 per cent or more and three seats were uncontested. The lowest margin was 53.73 per cent. In January 2018 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court relied on a free and equal elections provision in the state constitution to invalidate the 2011 map and drew its own. The results were astounding. The Congressional delegation elected November 6 yielded 9 Republicans and 9 Democrats, the number of seats won by 60 per cent fell from 12 to 8, only one seat was uncontested, and the lowest winning margin fell from 53.73 per cent to 51.35. Clearly, the state Supreme Court drawn map gave the voters a competitive set of choices in Congressional elections they had not seen in a long time. There are, however, a significant number of major states where it is hard to discern that the 2018 elections significantly improved the chances of Congressional redistricting reform. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland and Illinois continue under the control of strong partisan legislative leadership resistant to redistricting reform. In reviewing the national scene several points stand out. In states where the public has a direct voice by ballot box initiatives, obtaining redistricting reform is significantly easier than in states where only legislature can make the changes. Twenty six states have a form of ballot box initiative, twenty four do not. Congressional redistricting is a matter for each state individually. The road to reform is still filled with obstacles, even in state like Michigan, Colorado and Utah, the voters opinion is clear. Reform leaders in those states must be prepared for legal and legislative obstacles to implementation, such as those that occurred in Florida and Arizona after their voters approved reform at the ballot box. Pennsylvania is unique because the 2011 Congressional map was invalidated without reliance on the federal constitution or a referendum. The Pennsylvania Republican leadership has three times asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the state Supreme Courts action and the U.S. Supreme Court declined because it does not review state constitutional questions. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered map expires after the 2020 election. A new one will be needed to respond to the 2020 census. Drawing of this map will still begin in the Republican controlled legislature, but unlike in 2011 the governor will be a Democrat who can negotiate for a plan that is not gerrymandered. The challenge to enact redistricting reform in time for the 2021 redistricting in states without ballot box referendum continues to be daunting. There is a narrow time slot of perhaps two years in which to do it. Reform leaders in the hard states, like Fair Distracts PA, Common Cause in Georgia and the Texas reform coalition are undeterred. They will move ahead with indefatigable determination. There is always the possibility of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could change this by adopting a standard for measuring gerrymandering. The chances of that happening before 2021 are slim. The Wisconsin case that presented a gerrymandering measuring standard was sent back to the district court on the question of standing. There are cases in North Carolina and Texas that could go the nations top court. If any of these cases get to the U.S. Supreme Court they will be heard by a more conservative bench, now that Justice Kennedy has been replaced by Justice Kavanagh. Those seeking reform cannot wait for a court action that may never take place. Relying on the courts is to rely on a firm maybe. The clear necessity is to seek reform through the legislatures, difficult as that may be. The 2018 elections provide good reason to believe that Congressional redistricting reform is moving towards victory. The realities in each state also show there is considerable work to be done to get it. Franklin L. Kury, a former state lawmaker, is the author of Gerrymandering. A Guide to Congressional Redistricting, Dark Money and the U.S. Supreme Court. He lives near Harrisburg. Readers may email him at flkury5@gmail.com. HARRISBURG Pennsylvanias former top state prosecutor is likely to soon find herself behind bars, more than two years after being convicted and sentenced for leaking grand jury information and lying about it. The state Supreme Court announced Monday it will not review former state Attorney General Kathleen Kane's conviction, and the Montgomery County district attorney's office said it will ask a judge Tuesday morning to revoke her bail. The justices will not reconsider Kane's claims she was not properly convicted of two counts of felony perjury and seven misdemeanor charges, including obstruction and conspiracy. Kane, 52, a Democrat, has been out on $75,000 bail since her October 2016 sentencing to 10 to 23 months in jail. A spokeswoman for the prosecutors' office in suburban Philadelphia said the defense and prosecution could agree on when she should report to the county lockup, or the judge could set a date or order her to report immediately. Kane's defense lawyer, Joshua Lock, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. A three-judge Superior Court panel previously upheld her conviction, ruling in part that her defense was not entitled to use evidence of a pornographic email scandal or the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case that her former office prosecuted. While running for the office, Kane was critical of how the office handled the Sandusky investigation at Penn State, creating resentment among some of the lawyers who had worked on it. After secret grand jury information about another investigation was leaked to a newspaper, two of the attorney general's office's former prosecutors alerted a Montgomery County judge, and he appointed the special prosecutor who investigated Kane. Superior Court had said Kane cited baseless reasons in asking to use evidence of the pornographic emails, a scandal that rocked the state's judicial community and the attorney general's office in particular and led to the resignation of two Supreme Court justices. The lawyers who contacted the judge about grand jury leaks, former state prosecutors Frank Fina and Marc Costanzo, were also implicated in the pornographic email scandal and played key roles in Sandusky's prosecution. Superior Court said earlier this year the trial judge was correct to decide "the probative value of evidence of pornographic materials discovered in Attorney Fina's and Attorney Costanzo's OAG email accounts was speculative and inadmissible" and that evidence of the Sandusky investigation was irrelevant. Superior Court also ruled against her claims that all Montgomery County judges should have been prevented from handling her case, that evidence against her was illegally obtained and that she was the victim of selective and vindictive prosecution. Kane was the first woman and first Democrat elected as the state attorney general. She resigned in 2016 after her conviction. This story was updated at 7:20 p.m. Monday with more information. Health official: 'Unlikely we will reach a level of immunity in the next few years' 490 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Howard Schneider MEMPHIS(Reuters) Ask Memphis residents and they might say that President Donald Trump got this one right: this is the best job market as far as many in this majority black city can remember. For single mother Latasha Harwell, it has meant finally landing a full time job as a medical assistant, one with the regular 9 to 5 hours she needs so she can care for her kids. Chiquita Clayton says she has an open offer to move from part-time to full-time work at a FedEx warehouse; forklift driver Kendrick Jefferson got $3 dollar an hour more for switching employers. Unemployment in Memphis hit a post-crisis low of 3.5 percent in April. It has since crept back above 4 percent, though partly because of more people joining the labor force. But with poverty rates here still among the highest in the country, workers, employment advocates, and government officials also say that is only half the story. For this good spell to truly matter to black Americans, they say, it will need to continue for years to come. Trump often highlights that overall U.S. unemployment has reached a 50-year low on his watch, and that joblessness among black Americans has set a modern record as well. The unemployment rate for blacks sunk to 5.9 percent in May, the lowest since 1972 when the figure was first reported separately, but the milestone reflects a trend that took shape years before Trump took office. Black employment has risen about 1.3 million under Trump to hit a record 19.3 million in October, but job gains were the strongest during Barack Obamas second term when recovery from the Great Recession became more firmly rooted. Recent data indicate job gains for blacks may already be leveling off. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2PxGeh4) In Memphis, state officials, job recruiters and executives credit a confluence of forces, including a continued boom in logistics, warehousing, and related jobs, for creating what one employment agency executive deemed a gold rush moment. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2DtWhGq) Yet what matters for them is not who gets credit for todays strong labor market, but whether it will be durable enough to help workers weather the next downturn, something past upswings failed to accomplish. National data analyzed by Reuters shows minority hiring has remained clustered in industries such as food service, retail, and logistics that tend to pay less and have been quicker to lay off staff when the economy slows. The fear is that will repeat itself, and that after outsized gains during the upswing, relatively more black workers will lose their jobs when leaner times arrive. That is what happened during the last recession, when white unemployment peaked at just over 9 percent while black unemployment shot above 16 percent. As a result, past recoveries have done little to narrow the gap between black and white incomes, as numerous studies, including recent work by the Atlanta Federal Reserve, have documented. Nationally, median incomes for black families remain a third below white household incomes. In Memphis the gap is even larger, with a $31,000 median annual income for blacks representing just 54 percent of that of white families. LAST IN, FIRST OUT It is a good thing that African American unemployment is at a very low level, Fed chair Jerome Powell said at a meeting with community groups in Houston this month. (But) if you look at what happens in a downturn you see the last people hired are the first to get fired, he said. For that to change, workers such as Harwell need enough time to pay off student loans, get a raise or two, start saving for a home, and gain the additional skills and seniority needed to keep working through the next recession. This isnt a job anymore, it is a careerPersonally, I say I need two years, to feel economically stable, Harwell said. With the U.S. recovery pushing a decade and some signs of a growth slowdown ahead, local social service agencies and state officials say the time for recession-proofing is now. We know it is not going to last forever, said Deniece Thomas, an assistant commissioner at the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. There is a sense of urgency, for workers to assess what skills their employers will need even if business slows, she said. To help them, the state has made community college free for high school graduates and adults who have not previously earned a degree, one of the most expansive efforts in the country to encourage non-college educated adults to improve their skills. Other programs provide certifications for specific jobs in industries, such as the booming medical device field, that are struggling with labor shortages. A look behind the headline numbers shows there is still ground to cover. The black unemployment rate far outstrips the national average, now at 3.7 percent, and since reaching that record low in May has crept up to 6 percent and above even as white unemployment keeps edging lower. Other gauges, such as the employment to population ratio, also lag. Reuters analysis of the federal Quarterly Workforce Indicators shows that out of five U.S. industry groups where the share of jobs held by blacks grew the most between 2010 and 2017, three were among those that paid the least. Three of those five were also among the industries that shed the most jobs during the last recession. The QWI tracks 19 industry groups. Still, the gains are real. Overall black employment has soared by nearly a third since the crisis-era lows of late 2009, compared to a 6 percent increase in the number of jobs held by white workers, according to federal data. Blacks share of employment has also been catching up with their share of the U.S. working age population, and the gap is now at a record low. In Memphis, where 63 percent of the population is black and more than a quarter lives in poverty compared with a 14 percent national average, there is some optimism that there may be more than just a cyclical upturn at work. E-COMMERCE WINDFALL The city has long been politically and culturally important as a battleground of the 1960s civil rights movement, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination, and a cornerstone of American music where the careers of Elvis Presley, B.B. King and Otis Redding took off. Now, it is also making its name as a major logistics hub, a fulcrum of the internet economy that hosts FedExs global headquarters and the countrys busiest cargo airport.The e-commerce boom is a game changer for usMemphis is a poor city but logistics is a way for a lot of minorities to pull themselves into jobs, said Neil Harris, president of the Prestigious Placements recruiting and hiring firm. The firm has more than 2,000 workers placed around Memphis area warehouses and other facilities. Harris said that firms were so keen to fill vacancies that they were relaxing demands for prior experience, raising pay, offering more training, and becoming more flexible in scheduling. FedExs presence has led others to invest in this corner of western Tennessee, including Amazon.com Inc , which is expected to hire 1,500 for distribution facilities near Memphis, along with 5,000 at the facility it announced in Nashville earlier this month. In all, employment in transportation and warehousing in Memphis climbed to more than 53,000 last year from around 50,400 in 2014, with more than half the new jobs going to blacks. As of the end of October FedEx alone had about 400 vacancies posted on the Tennessee Department of Labors job site. The question is how long it can all last. Reid Dulberger, president of EDGE, a Memphis economic development group, said he was worried that automation will eventually eliminate many of the brawn jobs giants such as FedEx and Amazon now rely on to move tens of millions of packages in their warehouses. For now, though, forklifts still need drivers, and that demand gave Jefferson confidence to give two weeks notice at the warehouse paying him $11 an hour to move to one that pays $14. The years during and after the last recession were hard, the 31-year-old said, with work more difficult to find and mostly coming through temp agencies. Those were years spent bouncing among warehousing, fast food, janitorial, Jefferson said. But now a lot of opportunities have opened up, and Jefferson said his aim is to build the experience needed to be brought on as a full-timer. (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Tomasz Janowski) 413 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard If Paul Manafort lied about meeting with Julian Assange, Robert Mueller already knew because Assange was under surveillance. NBC Newss Ken Dilanian reported: NBC News has not independently confirmed it, as you can were working furiously to do that right now. What it says is that Paul Manafort began visiting Julian Assange in Ecuador back in 2013, before Donald Trump was a candidate for president, and theres a possible explanation for why that would be, and that is that at that time Paul Manafort was on the payroll of Ukrainian politicians who are enthralled to Russian oligarchs and Wikileaks is believed by the U.S. Government to be working with the Russian government and trying to discredit the Ukrainian opponents of manaforts clients. That relationship developed, according to The Guardian and Manafort met with Assange two more times including crucially in March of 2016. Now, what happened in March of 2016, Craig? John Podestas e-mails were phished at that time according to court documents. They were not released until October but the hackers got into Podesta in March of 2016. Very suggestive if true. Heres the thing about it, if this happened its almost certain that the U.S. Government would have known about it because the British were surveilling that embassy electronically once Assange took up residence there in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Robert Mueller would have known about it all along. Its almost a spy novel and were trying to get to the bottom of it. Video: If Paul Manafort lied about meeting with Julian Assange, Robert Mueller already knew because Assange was under surveillance. https://t.co/6tiNZ2HZx5 pic.twitter.com/8FRleX3IJl PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 27, 2018 Robert Mueller Already Has The Evidence If The Guardian story is confirmed as true, it illustrates why Trump is freaking out over the Robert Mueller investigation. Trump and his crew cant lie to Mueller because he already has the evidence. Manafort tried to lie to the Special Counsel and he got what is likely to be a lifetime prison sentence. There is an ongoing pattern in the Mueller investigation of Trump associates trying to lie to Robert Mueller and getting sent to prison. Trump cant be sent to prison while he is president, but if he lied to Robert Mueller in his written answers, it would be grounds for impeachment. Robert Mueller has the answers before he asks the questions. Trump and his crew are in a panic because they cant lie their way out of these crimes. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 205 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard President Donald Trump yesterday used several different arguments in defending the use of tear gas at the Mexican border. First he claimed that the tear gas was very safe, then blamed the migrants with children for being in the way of the tear gas, and finally he said that the children were not even theirs. The use of tear gas to repel a crowd of migrants that included rock-throwers but also barefoot, crying children was widely criticized and condemned. Universally critics of the president denounced the border agents actions, saying they were unnecessary, but Trump stuck to his hard line. They were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas, Trump said about Sundays border clashes. Heres the bottom line: Nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally. In his comments on Monday Trump did acknowledge that children were affected, but he asked, Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and its going to be formed and they were running up with a child? I say, why are they there? Trump added. First of all, the tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself. Its very safe. The ones that were suffering to a certain extent were the people that were putting it out there, but its very safe. With no evidence he also said that some of the women who were tear gassed were not really parents but were what he called grabbers. These are people who steal children so they have a better chance of being granted asylum in the United States. In his remarks Trump portrayed the migrants as a serious threat to U.S. national security. He believes he is protecting the country from people trying to exploit Americas asylum laws. Many other people, however, believe that he is exaggerating the threats posed by immigrants in order to stoke fears among the electorate and achieve his political goals. Trump claims the migrant caravans are dangerous groups of mostly single men. Members of his administration have said that 500 members of the caravan are criminals, but have provided no details on why they believe that to be true. On Monday, Trump tweeted that the caravan at the border included stone cold criminals. Mario Figueroa Tijuanas social services department director said as of Friday that of the 4,938 staying there, 933 were women, 889 were children and 3,105 were men, which includes fathers traveling with families. Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights groups blasted the border agents Sunday tactics. These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas, California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom tweeted. Women and children who left their lives behind seeking peace and asylum were met with violence and fear. Thats not my America. These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas. Women and children who left their lives behind seeking peace and asylum were met with violence and fear. Thats not my America. Were a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom. And we will not stand for this. https://t.co/1APpeHIq6v Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) November 26, 2018 411 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard President Trump yesterday said that he doesnt believe the findings of a major climate report released by his administration last week. The report predicted dire consequences for the United States if it doesnt take drastic steps very soon to deal with the negative impacts of climate change. Yeah, I dont believe it, Trump responded when asked about the climate report by members of the press. As he was leaving the White House to go to Mississippi to campaign for Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith he said that he is not concerned about the predictions of economic devastation from climate change.. Ive seen it, Ive read some of it, and its fine, Trump said of the shocking report which came out on Friday. What was released was the fourth National Climate Assessment from the multi-agency Global Change Research Program of the federal government. The program was set up by Congress several years ago and requires an annual climate assessment. Critics charged that Trump was trying to bury the findings by releasing the report on Black Friday when most Americans are not paying attention to the news. In fact former Vice President Al Gore harshly criticized Trump for trying to bury the report by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving. He tweeted a statement with his reaction: My statement on the National Climate Assessment released today: https://t.co/fltD5DOmoy pic.twitter.com/PLpGCnaUc0 Al Gore (@algore) November 23, 2018 Hundreds of highly respected scientists involved in the research concluded that climate change would likely cost the United States billions of dollars annually in the near future if greenhouse gases arent dramatically reduced. Without substantial and sustained global mitigation and regional adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century, the report found. The reports conclusions agree with the scientific communitys consensus on climate change. They are nearly unanimous in their assessment that human activity, via greenhouse gas emissions, is the chief cause of global warming and its impacts. Trump has always been a climate change denier and has always cast doubt on the scientists conclusions on climate change. In one particularly stupid tweet in 2012 he wrote: The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012 Trumps environmental policy since becoming president last year has been in total alignment with his attitude of skepticism and denial. Through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies, he has tried to roll back or repeal nearly every climate policy adopted by former President Barack Obama. By Alistair Smout LONDON (Reuters) Facebook came under fire on Tuesday from lawmakers from several countries who accused the firm of undermining democratic institutions and left out an empty chair for chief executive Mark Zuckerberg after he declined to be questioned. Facebook is being investigated by lawmakers in Britain after consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which worked on Donald Trumps presidential campaign, obtained the personal data of 87 million Facebook users from a researcher, drawing attention to the use of data analytics in politics. Concerns over the social media giants practices, the role of political adverts and possible foreign interference in the 2016 Brexit vote and U.S. elections are among the topics being investigated by British and European regulators. Weve never seen anything quite like Facebook, where, while we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions seem to have been upended by frat-boy billionaires from California, Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus said at a special international hearing at Britains parliament. So Mr Zuckerbergs decision not to appear here at Westminster (Britains parliament) to me speaks volumes, he said, later suggesting Facebook could be broken up to help address the issues. Facebook says it complies with EU data protection laws, but Richard Allan, the companys vice president of policy solutions who appeared in Zuckerbergs stead, admitted it had made mistakes. Im not going to disagree with you that weve damaged public trust through some of the actions weve taken, Allan told the hearing. RUSSIAN IP The 24 representatives from nine countries, who demanded answers from Facebook over its use and treatment of data, posed for a picture with an empty chair behind a desk with a nameplate for Zuckerberg on it. Facebook has faced a barrage of criticism from users and lawmakers after it said last year that Russian agents used its platform to spread disinformation before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an accusation Moscow denies. Legal documents reviewed by Reuters show how the investigation by British lawmakers has led them to seize documents relating to Facebook from app developer Six4Three, which is in a legal dispute with Facebook. Damian Collins, chair of the culture committee which convened the hearing, said he would not release those documents on Tuesday as he was not in a position to do so, although he has said previously the committee has the legal power to. However, he did refer to one item in the documents, alleging a Facebook engineer had notified the company in October 2014 that entities with Russian IP addresses have been using a Pinterest API key to pull over 3 billion data points a day. API refers to Application Programming Interfaces, which have been restricted by Facebook in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Allan said the documents were a partial set of information that was obtained by a hostile litigant. Any information that you have seen thats contained within that cache of emails is at best partial and at worst potentially misleading, he said. In a separate response to the issue raised by Collins, Facebook in a statement said the engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Mark Potter) On Monday, November 26, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree to introduce martial law for 60 days, tentatively scheduled to start from 9 am (local time), November 28 . Following strong public reaction on Monday, Poroshenko announced he would halve the term of military rule from 60 to 30 days. Parliamentary approval for martial law was granted on Monday evening. Poroshenko said, martial law does not mean a declaration of war, adding that Ukraine has no plans to go to war with anyone. In a statement prior to the parliamentary vote, Poroshenko said that martial law would be introduced exclusively for the purposes of defense, protection of the Ukrainian land, our territorial integrity, our country's sovereignty and independence." That announcement came after three Ukrainian ships were fired upon and then captured by Russian vessels as the Ukrainians were preparing to transit through the Kerch Strait, from the Black Sea port of Odessa to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov on Sunday, November 25. Earlier that day, a Ukrainian tugboat was rammed by a Russian coast guard ship. In a statement released on Monday, November 26, Poroshenko said, the attack was not accidental. Russia has been waging a hybrid war against our country for five years. But with an attack on Ukrainian military boats it moved to a new stage of aggression. No one will say now: They are not there. No one camouflages into green humanoids or militiamen. This is a bold and frank participation of the regular units of the Russian Federation, their demonstrative attack on the detachment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is a qualitatively different situation, a qualitatively different threat, he said. Poroshenko said the latest incident in the Sea of Azov was likely not the culmination of hostilities there. Reacting to the evolving situation, Bogdan Bespalko, a member of the Russian Presidential Council for Inter-ethnic Relations, said that martial law could be used as a pretext to strengthen Ukraines isolation from Russia. He also said it could entail a series of possible infringements of the rights and freedoms of citizens and restrictions, the possibility of the seizure of property, vehicles and fund for the state and army. His overall claim that radical changes are possible is correct. As noted in the Kyiv Post, the Ukrainian parliament or the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill On the Legal Regime of Martial Law in 2015. Under that law, potential measures cover everything from a wholesale ban on elections, to referendums and constitutional changes; a prohibition against peaceful protest, gatherings and other mass events; a halt to political activity deemed detrimental to state security; curfews; forced evacuations; a ban on selling alcohol; a requirement for civilians to provide quarters to military personnel or displaced individuals; forced internment or relocation of foreign citizens who pose a threat; and additional measures to safeguard state secrecy. The decree also allows for mobilizing reserve forces, organizing the air defense around vital state facilities and ramping up cyber security defenses. While Poroshenko reportedly said, Russia is preparing a ground attack against Ukraine, necessitating martial law, he is not characterizing it as a declaration of war or mobilization. Also on Monday, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, said that martial law may be lifted at any time if the situation normalizes. According to Kyiv-based RFE/RL correspondent Christopher Miller, "martial law will not cover Ukraine entirely, but regions subject to 'Russian aggression,' including Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, Sea of Azov." Some within the Radical Party and The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" or Batkivshchyna party had reportedly sought to block the introduction of martial law, with observers in Ukraine noting they could be the biggest losers if Presidential and parliamentary polls, scheduled in four months, are pushed back. Writing for Hromadske news site in August, special correspondent for international coverage, Maksym Kamenev said that Poroshenkos support rate fluctuates between 5% and 8%, while Batkivshchyna party head and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko leads the polls with 10-13% of the votes. The Russian state outlet, RT, has suggested that invoking martial law should be beneficial for Poroshenko, since the presidents rating is falling as he struggles to campaign for re-election in March. But the final vote on martial law saw 276 for and 30 votes against (with 23 not voting and 1 abstaining). Poroshenko said martial law will not overlap with the beginning of the election campaign by a single day. Martial law will last 30 days and will end in mid-December. It is in December, in early December, that I will submit a draft resolution to the Parliament on the date of the presidential elections to be held in accordance with the Constitution on March 31, 2019. Period. As Supreme Commander-in-Chief, I will make every effort to stay within this short term and squeeze out the maximum opportunities from this month to increase our readiness to repel a possible full-scale offensive of the aggressor country Russia, he said. For now, while Polygraph.info finds that Russian council members proclamations on the potential of martial law in Ukraine are consistent with the context of the countrys basic law, the extent to which it will be used and its implications appear to be limited and so the final effects are unclear. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Sun and clouds mixed. High 64F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 52F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Tony Bartelme, senior projects reporter for The Post and Courier, has earned national honors from the Nieman, Scripps, Loeb and National Press foundations and is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Twitter: @tbartelme Signal: 843-412-2283. Mary Katherine, who also goes by MK, covers health care for The Post and Courier. She is also pursuing a master's degree in data science. She grew up in upstate New York and enjoys playing cards, kayaking and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations. The Post and Courier provides a forum for our readers to share their opinions, and to hold up a mirror to our community. Publication does not imply endorsement by the newspaper; the editorial staff attempts to select a representative sample of letters because we believe its important to let our readers see the range of opinions their neighbors submit for publication. Rauner, who offered a God bless you to law enforcement as he spoke at the funeral of slain Chicago police Officer Samuel Jimenez on Monday, largely has been out of sight since the Nov. 6 election. Hes not said much about politics or the election, but offered a taste of both at a Thanksgiving luncheon for the homeless in Chicago, saying: You know what? The good Lord put us on Earth. He did not make us Democrats or Republicans. The good Lord put us on Earth to do his work help each other work together. Make our world a better place. Thats what we celebrate today helping each other, giving back. Read Rick Pearsons story here. 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. In news that only 2018 could provide, Jerry Springer has landed a new television gig, this time as a fake judge. Springers "Judge Jerry" is scheduled to debut in national syndication in fall 2019 and has already been sold to 75 percent of the U.S. via major station groups, according to the announcement made by NBCUniversal Television Distribution on Monday. "Judge Jerry will merge Jerrys talent for connecting with people, his incredibly relatable and funny personality and his legal training and governing experience to bring viewers a more entertaining court show," Tracie Wilson, executive vice president of creative affairs at NBCUniversal TV, said in a statement. "We are so happy to continue our fantastic partnership with Jerry, who is a proven TV icon with a dedicated and broad fan base," she continued. Before he became synonymous with chair-throwing and animal weddings courtesy of "The Jerry Springer Show," Springer was a practicing lawyer for more than 15 years. The eventual TV host then served five terms on the Cincinnati City Council despite an incident involving paying for sexual services via check before being elected mayor. "For the first time in my life, I am going to be called honorable," said Springer in Mondays statement. "My career is coming full circle and I finally get to put my law degree to use after all these years." Who better, really, to decide whether you or your ex-boyfriend really owns your dog? Landscape Management Systems Inc. of Tumon has been awarded an $11.4 million landscaping contract by Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas. LMS has been hired to perform all ground maintenance and tree-trimming services at Naval Base Guam and Naval Support Activity at Andersen Air Force Base. Seventy percent of the work will be performed at the Navy base and 30 percent at Andersen. The work is expected to be completed in November 2019. The Department of Defense announced this is the fourth option under a previously awarded contract. The cumulative value of the contract, after the exercise of this latest option, will be $48.6 million. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. LMS was established in 1994 by Bob Salas, who is its chief executive officer. Its a five-year contract, said Salas. We are happy that the federal government is working with local companies, and we hope that more local companies will get awards. LMS provides landscaping services to the private and public sectors as well as the residential community on the island. Prior to the current award, LMS was contracted to provide more than 100 indigenous plants and trees for an Air Force restoration protect at Ritidian Point. This is going to be the second year that we gather around the Thanksgiving table with the COVID-19 cloud hovering over us. Read more TRUMP AND MACRON: French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with President Donald Trump after a meeting at the Elysee Palace on the eve of the commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of World War I, in Paris, France, on Nov. 10. Reuters file photo WEST CHESTER When authorities announced the arrest in November 2016 of a man they said shot and killed a military veteran in cold blood on the streets of Coatesville, they credited the cooperation of eyewitnesses who they said identified the shooter as Sheron Jaeln Ryda Purnell, a 24-year-old reputed member of a local street gang. This case was solved by the courage of the witnesses who were willing to come forward and assist the authorities, District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a press release. Combined with the hard work of the Coatesville Police Department and Chester County Detectives, this type of cooperation is what Coatesville needs as the city looks to join other Chester County areas that have rebuilt themselves. But as Purnells trial on murder charges is expected to open Monday, some of those witnesses have reportedly begun to have second thoughts about their decisions to cooperate, and may now pose an obstacle to proving the prosecutions case. Two of the alleged eyewitnesses, including a now 15-year-old girl who was on the street the evening of the shooting and described what she saw for city police and a man who had at first been reluctant to speak with investigators but later gave a recorded statement allegedly identifying Purnell as the shooter, may be hesitant to come to the county Justice Center and testify against Purnell for fear of retaliation, Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Rice, one of three prosecutors in the case, told Judge David Bortner last week. The man, according to Rice, was recently beaten severely by a group of men who accused him of ratting out their friend, Purnell. During the assault, some of the group shouted Free Ryda, meaning Purnell, before bludgeoning the man with a metal foot scooter. The girl had initially given a detailed statement to a Chester County Detective that she saw the man who shot the veteran, Kevin Jalbert, as he was confronted by a gang in her neighborhood. She gave the statement even though she said the shooter had looked at her and pointed the gun he used to kill Jalbert at her. But now she says she is afraid to testify because of what might happen. Im scared, she told a city detective working on the case earlier this month. I dont want to get shot. Opening statements are scheduled to begin in Purnells trial, which is expected to last through the week. Bortner has yet to rule on motions filed by the prosecution earlier this month on the need to explain to the jury what may have caused the witnesses to balk at confirming earlier statements they gave to police. He is expected to do so before testimony begins Monday. Purnell, 24, of Coatesville, is charged with first-degree and third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and related charges. He has been held in Chester County Prison without bail since his arrest in November 2016. Purnell is reportedly a member of a local street gang in the city known as The Belmont Boys because of their shared upbringing on Belmont Street, a block-long residential neighborhood just south of the citys Main Street. The shooting occurred near the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Belmont about 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3, 2016. Jalbert, 36, of South Carolina, was pronounced dead later that night. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force who had been stationed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before his discharge, Jalbert was a native of Connecticut who had been treated at the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Caln. Jalbert had been walking near Olive Street when he came into contact with a group of children who he reportedly yelled at. The children walked away, but Purnell, who apparently lived on Belmont, arrived and reportedly engaged in a verbal confrontation with Jalbert. They both walked up White Alley, where police said the confrontation reportedly became physical. Purnell reportedly pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and allegedly shot Jalbert as many as eight times, according to witnesses and police. Several adults and kids who witnessed it, then scattered from the scene. Jalbert was unarmed. In the motions, Rice and her fellow prosecutors, Assistant District Attorneys Christopher Miller and Emily Provencher, asked Bortner to allow them to present evidence of the alleged intimidation against the man and the young girl. Both names are being withheld by the Daily Local News because of the alleged intimidation. Rice said she anticipated that both of the alleged eyewitnesses would now go back on their earlier statements so as not to run afoul of Purnells associates, one of whom has been arrested and charged with the September assault of the man. She said the prosecution wants to introduce a photograph of the man in the hospital after the assault, in which he is blooded and bruised, as well as a cellphone video of the alleged attack, in which he can been seen and heard being beaten by those shouting free Ryda! She also wants to present a videotaped statement by the girl in which she describes her fear of being retaliated against for her possible testimony. She said she witnessed the attack on the man, which occurred in virtually the same spot as the murder, and it as her scooter that was alleged to have been used against him. The evidence would be necessary to explain to the jury why the two witnesses would possibly try to recant their earlier statements. Assistant Public Defender Stephen Delano, who is representing Purnell, objected to the evidence as prejudicial. Purnell is not alleged to have directed the assault or actually threatened the girl. If convicted of first-degree murder, Purnell faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Despite its distance from the Arctic, Unalaska is the last deepwater port where large ships heading to the Arctic can refuel in the western United States, and the first when returning. However, it is not considered ideal by mariners and pilots because of its limitations, which include no highway connecting it to mainland Alaska, limited communications and wild weather in which thick fog and high winds are common and can maroon visitors for days. The Left is making a concerted effort to promote the idea that America suffers from a plague of right-wing violence. To the casual observer, such a claim might seem absurd, but it is bolstered with phony statistics. Paul noted a contribution to this theme by the Washington Post here. The New York Times editorial board similarly used bogus right wing violence data to call for suppression of freedom of speech. The Post and the Times both relied largely on a single statistic, which comes from the left-wing Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. The Post writes: [R]esearchers say at least 20 people have died this year in suspected right-wing attacks. The Times editorial board echoes: Last year, 20 of the 34 terrorist murders in the United States were connected to right-wing extremism. This factoid is critical to the claim that there is an epidemic of right-wing violence. It is, however, entirely false. The ADL study can be found here. It tallies 34 extremist-related murders in 2017. Note the careful characterization of the list. Many of the murders have little or nothing to do with extremism. For example: * GREELEY, COLORADO, AUGUST 16, 2017. Kelly Raisley, believed to be a member or associate of the 211 Crew white supremacist gang, was arrested on first-degree murder charges for the murder of his uncle, Randy Gene Baker. Bakers wife and sister were similarly arrested. The motive was apparently personal. * PUTNAM COUNTY GEORGIA, JUNE 13, 2017. Ricky Dubose, a member of the Ghostface Gangsters white supremacist prison gang, and another inmate, Donnie Russell Rowe, reportedly killed two corrections officers while trying to escape from a prison bus. They were later recaptured. * TAMPA, FLORIDA, MAY 19, 2017. White supremacist Devon Arthurs allegedly shot to death two of his roommates for making fun of his recent conversion to Islam. All three, and a fourth roommate, were members of Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi group. * NORTH JUDSON, INDIANA, MARCH 3, 2017. Aryan Circle member Edward Blackburn allegedly shot and killed another man who was reportedly dating his ex-girlfriend. * LEADWOOD, MISSOURI, FEBRUARY 9, 2017. Frank Ancona, head of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was shot to death; his wife and fellow Klan member, Malissa Ancona, and her son have been charged for the murder. * SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, JANUARY 29, 2017. Ashton Lucas Lomas was charged with capital murder after allegedly robbing and shooting to death Martin Gonzales over an alleged dispute Gonzales had with another person. Lomas and others charged in the case appear to be members or associates of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. * LAFAYETTE, INDIANA, JANUARY 16, 2017. Wesley Andrew Hampton, a self-declared white supremacist, and another defendant allegedly robbed and murdered a man in a home invasion. Those instances comprise 9 of the 20 murders the ADL attributes to right-wing extremists. Meanwhile, what about the murders committed by African-Americans who subscribed to Black Lives Matters ideology? The ADL makes no effort to tabulate those, presumably because it doesnt consider Black Lives Matters ideology to be extremist. The Lefts right-wing violence theme is intended to justify infringement of the First Amendment. Thus, the Times editorial board shamefully includes nationalism, suspicion of the federal government, [and] obsessions over individual liberty as hallmarks of right-wing extremism, as it calls for a government crackdown on social media. Another objective is to discredit mainstream conservatives. The Times promotes this ridiculous Alternative Influence Network, the purpose of which is to slander Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, Candace Owens, Andrew Klavan, Steven Crowder and others, by associating them with people I have never heard of, but assume to be white supremacists or something of the sort. Click to enlarge: We will see much more of the Lefts effort to delegitimize mainstream conservatism in the months to come. STEVE adds: The Washington Post also ran with this item on their Twitter feed: Someone hung a noose? In nearly every case of a noose appearing on a college campus in recent years, it has turned out to be a hoax by someone on the left. Ill bet this one is too. In Wisconsin, a wind turbine farm is being decommissioned and disassembled after only 20 years of operation. It turns out that this is typical. My colleague Isaac Orr explains at Center of the American Experiments web site: Whats really surprising about these wind turbines being decommissioned after 20 years is the fact that people were surprised by it. Youd be astonished at how many people I talk to have no idea that wind turbines only last for 20 years, maybe 25. In fact, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says the useful life of a wind turbine is only 20 years. This is the point: the federal government produces figures on the levelized cost of energy, comparing coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar and so on. Most people naively assume that the governments numbers are authoritative. In fact, as usual when it comes to energy, the governments thumb is firmly on the scale in favor of crony energy that funds politicians: The short usable lifespan of a wind turbine is one of the most important, but least-talked about subjects in energy policy. In contrast to wind, coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants can run for a very long time. Coal and natural gas plants can easily run for 50 years, and nuclear plants can be updated and retrofitted to run for 60 years. This has profound implications for the cost of electricity on a per megawatt hour basis that seemingly no one is talking about. When the federal government puts out their cost projections for energy, the numbers they produce are called the Levelized Cost of Energy, or LCOE. These numbers are supposed to act as a measuring stick that allows policymakers to determine which energy sources will best serve their needs, but these numbers are wrong because they assume all power plants, whether they are wind, coal, natural gas, or nuclear will have a 30-year payback period. This does two things. It artificially reduces the cost of wind power by allowing them to spread their costs over 30 years, when 20 would be much more appropriate, and it artificially inflates the cost of coal, natural gas, and nuclear by not calculating the cost over the entirety of their reasonable lifetimes. When it comes to energy, you cannot get reliable information from mainstream sources or from the government. Green energy investors like Tom Steyer have gamed the system, and whoever pays electric billsi.e., everyone elseis the sucker in their game. The best place I know for information on energy policy is AmericanExperiment.org. After the renewable energy scam, the next greatest rent-seeking scam has to be urban light rail transit, or what I have sometimes called The Quest for the Holy Rail, or A Desire Named Streetcar. Construction costs are always underestimated (funny how consistent this is) while ridership projections are always way higher than reality. And then after a while, like San Francisos BART or Washington DCs Metro, deferred maintenance results in a run-down system that loses more ridersand more money. So it was with some interest that I saw this headline in the Milwaukee Business Journal: Milwaukee Streetcar Ridership Better than Expected The Milwaukee streetcar system tallied strong ridership numbers in the weeks after its opening. . . So how strong was it, Jay? . . . averaging 2,191 riders a day. 2,191 riders a day? I wonder that percentage of total trips this accounts for in Milwaukee? Id guess somewhere around 0.01 percent. If this were a podcast, Id insert a rim-shot here. Leave it to The Guardian to progsplain (thats short for progressive-explaining) that the only reason the killing of Jamal Khashoggi is having such a long half-life in the news cycles is that he enjoyedwait for it nowwhite privilege!Yes, its true. Dont be fooled by his swarthy Middle Eastern complexion, or his non-Anglo name. Though it turns out he only borrowed his white privilege: The extent of the power of white privilege, even if only by association, came as a surprise to most world leaders, including Donald Trump, who were pressed into taking action following the murder of the Saudi Washington Post journalist who is not even an American citizen, as Trump said during a press conference. While the Saudi regime imprisons thousands of nameless dissidents and kills millions in Yemen, the whole world knew of one name, Jamal Khashoggi. That is his association with white privilege in action. There are thousands of Khashoggis out there working, dying but none will count like he did. But what the focus on him did achieve, thanks to his associated white privilege, is to help bring all of their stories to the surface. The author, Khalid Albaih, is described as a Sudanese artist and cartoonist living in Denmark. Cartoonist in Denmark. Hmmm, where have I heard about that before. Also, if a non-white person can borrow white privilege, what good is it any more? How soon until Elizabeth Warren decides we need to regulate predatory white privilege lending? Is there a futures market where I can sell puts and calls on white privilege? (And can I buy the options in Bitcoin?) There is talk of a possible government shutdown because of Trumps demands for funding for a border wall. Has it occurred to anyone that Trump is just the sort of president who would shut down the government. . . and not open it back up again? Democrats might want to ponder that. Yesterday, the Heritage Foundation, in conjunction with the Hoover Institution, hosted an event with this blunt title: Identity Politics Is a Threat to Society: Is There Anything We Can Do About It At This Point? The panel consisted my friends John Fonte and Peter Berkowitz; my hero Heather Mac Donald; our long-time blog nemesis Andrew Sullivan; and Michael Lind, an original thinker whose book about the Vietnam War was the subject of the first post I ever wrote on Power Line, more than 16 years ago. Only Lind dissented somewhat from the assertion in the title. As for the question, Mac Donald had the best answer, I think in essence, denounce identity politics in all of its forms and at every turn. I would have added, vote Republican at almost every opportunity. Ill see if I can find a video of the event to post. In the meantime, you can read Peter Berkowitzs excellent article, Liberal Education as an Antidote to Identity Politics, which formed the basis of his presentation. Unfortunately, our colleges and universities no longer offer a liberal education in the traditional sense. Thus, Peter advocates home schooling and charter schools that nurture the acquisition of knowledge and the spirit of free inquiry before college. He also applauds the expanding network of initiatives, generally supported by conservative philanthropists, that provide undergraduates and recent graduates the liberal education neglected or abused by our colleges and universities. The focus, he rightly insists, should be on an education for liberty, beginning with literacy and numeracy and proceeding through study of America and the West to the exploration of other civilizations. Identity politics, Peter notes, is not the first assault on the principles and practices of liberal democracy to emanate from our colleges and universities. It is, however, the most deadly. Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time. Winston Churchill Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. Inscription on the Liberty Bell For those of us who lived through the days of Watergate, the Mueller Switch Project makes us feel young again. It is easy to forget, however, how little we know even to this day about the facts underlying the Watergate scandal. Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler characterized Watergate as a third-rate burglary. The Democrats, by contrast, characterized Watergate as something vastly greater than the crime on the surface. According to Senate Watergate Committee Chairman Sam Ervin, this was Watergate: To destroy, insofar as the presidential election of 1972 was concerned, the integrity of the process by which the President of the United States is nominated and elected. That sounds familiar. Democrats held Watergate to be an assault on the American political system. The target of the operation, after all, was the Democratic National Committee. The treasure sought by the burglars, whatever it was, wasnt filthy lucre. But what was Watergate? We dont know who ordered the bungled second break-in of the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972. We dont know the motive for the break-in. We dont know what the burglars looking for. James Rosen noted more mysteries of Watergate in the 2008 New York Post column He was not a crook. Forty years after the break-in Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward looked back. They purported to bring the perspective of time and the accumulation of knowledge to the judgment that Nixon was far worse than we thought. Im quite sure they always thought he was as bad as they portrayed him. Did they really need forty years to render their verdict? Anthony Lukas arrived at the same verdict on much the same evidence in Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years in 1976, as did Stanley Kutler in The Wars of Watergate in 1990. Their books give us the received version of Watergate. Kutler tactfully notes and discounts the mysteries of Watergate in chapter 8 of his book. What is really important, he says, were the special crimes of cover-up and obstruction by high Administration officialsup to and including the President of the United States. Still, it would be nice to know what it was all about. You have to slog through nearly to the end of the 2012 Woodward/Bernstein remix to find this: Even now, there are old Nixon hands and defenders who dismiss the importance of Watergate or claim that key questions remain unanswered. This year, Thomas Mallon, director of the creative writing program at George Washington University, published a novel called Watergate, a sometimes witty and entirely fictional story featuring many of the real players. Frank Gannon, a former Nixon White House aide who now works for the Nixon Foundation, reviewed the book for the Wall Street Journal. What emerges from Watergate is an acute sense of how much we still dont know about the events of June 17, 1972, Gannon wrote. Who ordered the break-in? . . . What was its real purpose? Was it purposely botched? How much was the CIA involved? . . . And how did a politician as tough and canny as Richard Nixon allow himself to be brought down by a third rate burglary? Your guess is as good as mine. Of course, Gannon is correct in noting that there are some unanswered questions but not the big ones. By focusing on the supposed paucity of details concerning the burglary of June 17, 1972, he would divert us from the larger story. Thanks for nothing, gentlemen. The video below gives us former Nixon White House attorney Geoff Shepard recent lecture at Hillsdale on the Watergate special prosecutor operation. Shepard is the author of two Watergate books: The Plot to Make Ted Kennedy President: Inside the Real Watergate Conspiracy (2008) and The Real Watergate Scandal: Collusion, Conspiracy, and the Plot That Brought Nixon Down (2015). At the outset of his remarks Shepard invoked Moby Dick. His remarks have the flavor of Melvilles quotation of Job in the epilogue: And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Shepard does not touch on the mysteries of Watergate. Indeed, his remarks do not even acknowledge their existence. Rather, he focuses on the nature of the special prosecution team arrayed against Nixon and their alleged misconduct. Shepards depiction of the team of special prosecutor team has an amazingly contemporary ring. Shepard makes much of ex parte communications among the special prosecutor lawyers, Judge Sirica et al. Shepard doesnt know what transpired in the meetings he discusses and doesnt cite the rules of professional conduct that would have applied at the time. The current ABA Code of Model Judicial Conduct rule against ex parte communications is posted here. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 22:16:46 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 874 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 WYOMISSING, PA / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Customers Bancorp, Inc. today provided an update on its financial outlook. Customers' CFO Carla Leibold stated "We previously indicated that our Net Interest Margin (NIM) would trough in the third quarter. I am happy to report that our NIM in the month of October exceeded 2.60%, and we are on track to report 10 basis points to 15 basis points of NIM expansion this quarter. Additionally, we expect Q4 2018 financial results to be in line with the current consensus range of $0.49 to $0.53.''Customers CEO Jay Sidhu added "We remain committed to growing earnings per share to a $4.00 run-rate within three to four years. We will get there through NIM expansion, capital management, expense discipline, and continued improvement in profitability at both Customers Bank and BankMobile." Customers expects to update investors regularly on its quarterly earnings call on its progress towards the $4.00 earnings per share goal. "We are excited about the opportunity to generate significant shareholder value as we continue to improve our profitability" concluded Sidhu.Institutional BackgroundCustomers Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company located in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania engaged in banking and related businesses through its bank subsidiary, Customers Bank. Customers Bank is a community-based, full-service bank with assets of approximately $10.6 billion at September 30, 2018. A member of the Federal Reserve System with deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Customers Bank is an equal opportunity lender that provides a range of banking services to small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, individuals and families through offices in Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey. Committed to fostering customer loyalty, Customers Bank uses a High Tech/High Touch strategy that includes use of industry-leading technology to provide customers better access to their money, as well as Concierge Banking by appointment at customers' homes or offices 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers Bank offers a continually expanding portfolio of loans to small businesses, multi-family projects, mortgage companies and consumers.Customers Bancorp, Inc.'s voting common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CUBI. Additional information about Customers Bancorp, Inc. can be found on the company's website, www.customersbank.com "Safe Harbor" StatementIn addition to historical information, this press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements with respect to Customers Bancorp, Inc.'s strategies, goals, beliefs, expectations, estimates, intentions, capital raising efforts, financial condition and results of operations, future performance and business. Statements preceded by, followed by, or that include the words "may," "could," "should," "pro forma," "looking forward," "would," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," or similar expressions generally indicate a forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various important factors (some of which, in whole or in part, are beyond Customers Bancorp, Inc.'s control). Numerous competitive, economic, regulatory, legal and technological factors, among others, could cause Customers Bancorp, Inc.'s financial performance to differ materially from the goals, plans, objectives, intentions and expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. In addition, important factors relating to the acquisition of the Disbursements business, the combination of Customers' BankMobile business with the acquired Disbursements business, the implementation of Customers Bancorp, Inc.'s strategy to retain BankMobile for 2-3 years, the possibility that the expected benefits of retaining BankMobile for 2-3 years may not be achieved, or the possible effects on Customers' results of operations of the spin-off and merger of BankMobile not being completed also could cause Customers Bancorp's actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements. Further, Customers' expectations with respect to the effects of the new tax law could be affected by future clarifications, amendments, and interpretations of such law. Customers Bancorp, Inc. cautions that the foregoing factors are not exclusive, and neither such factors nor any such forward-looking statement takes into account the impact of any future events. All forward-looking statements and information set forth herein are based on management's current beliefs and assumptions as of the date hereof and speak only as of the date they are made. For a more complete discussion of the assumptions, risks and uncertainties related to our business, you are encouraged to review Customers Bancorp, Inc.'s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that update or provide information in addition to the information included in the Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings, if any. Customers Bancorp, Inc. does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by Customers Bancorp, Inc. or by or on behalf of Customers Bank.Contacts:Jay Sidhu, Chairman & CEO -- 610-935-8693Carla Leibold, CFO -- 484-923-8802Bob Ramsey, Director of IR & Strategic Planning -- 484-926-7118SOURCE: Customers Bancorp, Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 15:45:01 LONDON, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Thursday 29 November 2018 a Honduran criminal court is expected to issue a ruling against eight individuals accused of involvement in the 2016 murder of the activist Berta Caceres. The case has attracted large international interest, including a letter last Thursday (22 November 2018) from 32 MEPs from the European Union (EU) Parliament, alongside Federica Mogherini the High Representative for the EU, calling upon the Honduran authorities to guarantee a fair trial for Berta Caceres. However, worries are felt in some quarters that two of the accused, including DESA executives Sergio Rodriguez Orellana and Roberto David Castillo (the latter of whom is being tried separately), who have been held in pretrial detention for an extended period, are political prisoners, victims of the international pressures felt by the Honduran authorities. Robert Amsterdam, the lead lawyer for DESA in the case said: The European Parliaments intervention into the Berta Caceres trial at this point could not be more dangerous. The continued pressure applied by the EU risks increasing the likelihood of false prosecutions rather than delivering the fair trial they call for. Applying undue pressure on the Honduran authorities to prosecute those currently charged, before the full evidence has been heard, is a blatant disregard to their human rights and safeguarding of the rule of law. Justice for the relatives and friends of Ms. Caceres will only be delivered if those accused of her murder receive a trial that is fair and free from interference and coercion. Mr. Amsterdam said that problems with the legal process have been suffered by both sides and calls to ensure a fair trial have been made by both the victims and the defendants. Currently, the trial cannot deliver a just outcome. Central to our concerns is that COPINH, the organization of which Ms. Caceres was a member, is interfering in the judicial process with a reckless pressure campaign, spreading misinformation about the defendants and DESA to further a political agenda. I call upon the European Parliament to ensure the environment around this case does not become more fervent and vitriolic, and we ensure the rights to a presumption of innocence and a fair trial are upheld, for all Hondurans. Amsterdam concluded by saying hes written to the MEPs to respond to the letter dated 16 November 2018. The letter follows the publication of the white paper War on Development released by Amsterdam & Partners LLP on 15 November, 2018. The report accuses activists of spreading false information, attacking the right to a fair trial, and blocking economic development in Honduras. The Paper is available to download in English and Spanish http://casocaceres.com . More information about Amsterdam & Partners LLP is available at https://amsterdamandpartners.com . Source: Amsterdam & Partners LLP 1054 31st Street, NW Suite 110 Washington, DC 20007 Contact: +44 (0) 20 7406 7456 +44 (0) 7384 253 436 vchoplin@pagefieldglobal.com PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 10:17:46 Press Information Bigwasp Tattoo Supply Yiwu city, Zhejiang Province, China Zhanshuai Jin Zhanshuai Jin +8613335997999 email https://www.bigwasptattoo.com/ # 426 Words Yiwu city, Zhejiang Province, ChinaZhanshuai Jin+8613335997999 27 November 2018 BIG WASP offers top quality tattoo equipment at the most competitive prices on the internet. 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All the needles should be sterilized by ethylene oxide gas.About BIG WASP Tattoo:BIG WASP Tattoo is a reputed company that focuses on manufacturing tattoo needles and machines for over 10 years, producing tattoo equipment for many suppliers around the world. This professional company is dedicated to making the highest quality tattoo needles in the industry, and also offers an exceptional customer support on the website of BIG WASP.Contact:Company: Bigwasp Tattoo SupplyContact Name: Zhanshuai JinAddress: Yiwu city, Zhejiang Province, ChinaE-mail: issues@ bigwasptattoo.com Phone: +8613335997999Website: https://www.bigwasptattoo.com/ PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 18:06:24 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 775 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 SUDBURY, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Frontier Lithium Inc. (TSX-V: FL) (the "Company") has proposed a non-brokered flow-through private placement offering for a total of 1,190,476 units ("Units") of the Company priced at $0.42 per Unit, for total gross proceeds of $500,000.The Common Shares to be issued under a unit offering of 1,190,476 units ("Units") at a subscription price of $0.42 per Unit. Each Unit shall consist of one (1) Common Share of the Company and one-half (1/2) share purchase warrant (the "Warrant"). Each full Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to purchase one additional common share of Frontier Lithium at an exercise price of $0.50 for a 30-month period from the closing (the "Offering").All of the Shares and Warrants issued pursuant to the flow-through private placement are subject to a minimum 4-month hold period. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance exploration of Frontier's 100% owned PAK Lithium Project located in northwestern Ontario.Frontier has reserved the opportunity to grant to eligible persons a finder's fee of a maximum 6% of the gross proceeds of the Offering and finder options of a maximum of 6% of the total number of Units sold under the Offering. Each finder option will be exercisable at an exercise price of $0.48 into one common share for a period of 30 months from the date of issuance.About Frontier Lithium Inc.Frontier Lithium is a Canadian junior mining company and have the largest land position in the Electric Avenue, a newly emerging premium lithium-metal district hosted in the Canadian Shield of northwestern Ontario. Frontier is implementing a phased approach to development for becoming a producer of technical grade lithium concentrates required to produce premium glass/ceramics as well as supplying a byproduct of chemical grade concentrates for the production of lithium hydroxide required for the burgeoning lithium battery industry.Frontier's goal is to become a low-cost, fully integrated lithium producer through development of the PAK lithium deposit in Ontario, Canada. Frontier maintains a tight share structure with management ownership exceeding 30% of the Company. The deposit boasts its lithium in a rare, high-purity, low-iron spodumene and is analogous to the Greenbushes' Deposit in SW Australia, which supplies approximately 40% of the world's lithium demands. Frontier has recently discovered a new LCT Pegmatite showing that called the Spark showing, which at surface has displayed a channel cut with similar grade and composition to PAK Lithium Deposit. The surface exposure 3 times larger than the PAK pegmatite with widths greater than 100m and a strike length of more than 300m and is the target of project exploration to most efficiently increase resource tonnage. Currently the company is awaiting results of an additional 200m of channels.Ceramic/glass customers prefer to source technical-grade (low-iron) spodumene concentrate in excess of 7% lithium oxide (Li2O), if available, to avoid inferior lower grade petalite concentrates, or paying much higher prices for battery grade lithium compounds.The PAK lithium deposit remains open in all directions and Company Management is working towards developing a viable operation. The Company has completed a pre-feasibility study to assess the economic viability and technical feasibility of producing lithium concentrates.About the PAK Lithium ProjectThe PAK Lithium Project lies close to the boundary between two geological sub-provinces of the western Superior geologic province in northwestern Ontario and hosts a rare metals pegmatite deposit. The deposit is an LCT (lithium- cesium- tantalum) type pegmatite. These types of pegmatites have been the principal source of hard rock lithium, tantalum, rubidium and cesium ores mined in the world but there are comparatively few commercially-viable deposits.Frontier is actively exploring its 100% owned project which contains the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite. The PAK deposit has a current Measured and Indicated Resource of 7.5 million tonnes of 2.02% Li2O and an Inferred Lithium Resource of 1.8 milliontonnes of 2.10% Li2O which has a technical/ceramic grade spodumene with low inherent iron (below 0.1% Fe2O3).The deposit now has a known 500m strike length with an estimated true width varying from 10m to 125m with a sub-vertical orientation. The resource remains open to depth and along strike to the northwest and southeast.For Further Information, please contactBora UgurgelManager, Investor Relations2736 Belisle Drive Val Caron, ON. P3N 1B3 CANADAT. +001 705.897.7622F. +001 705.897.7618Additional information regarding Frontier Lithium is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company's profile and on its website at www.frontierlithium.com , including various pictures of ongoing work at the project.Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.SOURCE: Frontier Lithium Inc. Tannerite, which Dickey used to pack his surprise, is a legal explosive that is a favorite of some shooting buffs. Hitting a target filled with Tannerite with a bullet rewards the shooter with a boom. As The Washington Post's Alex Horton wrote: "Blowing up large amounts of Tannerite is its own YouTube genre. In one video, a group of enthusiasts gathered 164 pounds of Tannerite in a plastic bin and stuck it inside an abandoned barn, as explained by a man wearing a Richard Nixon mask, sunglasses and ear protection. The barn is obliterated in the video." PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 16:17:03 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 394 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 BEVERLY HILLS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / NMS Capital Group (the ''NMSCG''), which was recently ranked second on the 2018 Los Angeles Business Journal's List of Fastest Growing Private Companies announced today that it is spinning off its consulting practice as NMS Consulting, Inc. (''NMS Consulting''), to form an independent, global focused management consulting, corporate advisory and strategic communications firm. The move separates the consulting services from its core private equity investment activities all the while allowing the consulting practice to grow as a result of the recent growing demand from prospective clients and its portfolio companies seeking management consulting, corporate advisory and strategic communications services.Trevor M. Saliba, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NMS Capital Group said ''As the firm's operations continue to grow both geographically and by sector, specifically with the growing demand of our bespoke corporate strategy consulting services, we feel we are able to best serve prospective client opportunities through a separate standalone firm. NMS Consulting was born from this demand and it shall aim to provide best-in-class services across management consulting, corporate advisory and strategic communications for its clients.'' NMS Consulting has been launched as an independent, global focused, management consulting, corporate advisory and strategic communications firm providing strategic counsel to private and public companies, governments, philanthropic organizations and the individuals who lead them. The firm will be headquartered in Los Angeles with a corporate presence in London, New York, Washington D.C. and San Francisco initially with a core team of approximately twenty-five professionals. The firm is also in initial discussions with two management consulting firms to either form a strategic joint venture or perhaps be part of an initial roll-up strategy of NMS Consulting which shall give it a significant presence in Asia and the Middle East.About NMS Capital GroupNMS Capital Group is a global focused, private equity, merchant banking and advisory firm with investments in businesses across multiple asset classes ranging from real estate, financial services, technology, media, and consumer products manufacturing.About NMS ConsultingNMS Consulting has been launched as an independent, global focused, management consulting, corporate advisory and strategic communications firm providing strategic counsel to private and public companies, governments, philanthropic organizations and the individuals who lead them. For more information, please visit www.nmsconsulting.com Contact:Trevor M. SalibaTelephone: 310-855-0020Email: info@ nmscg.com SOURCE: NMS Capital Group, LLC PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 14:49:56 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 947 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / ("Prospera" or the "Corporation") (TSX-V: PEI; FRA: OF6A) Prospera is pleased to announce that the ongoing strategic objective to strengthen shareholder value through continued expansion and acquisitions has resulted in significant increases in the Corporation's overall production and revenue. The newly acquired properties in Saskatchewan and Alberta are successfully producing above management's expectations.Please refer to the press release dated June 13, 2018 for detailed information regarding the transaction and the agreement surrounding the acquisition of the three new properties: Cuthbert, Hearts Hill and Luseland, located approximately 160 km south of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan.OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTSGross revenue from June 11, 2018 to September 30, 2018 for the newly acquired oil and gas properties amounted to 87,006 BOE. Gross revenues from sales for this period were $4,726,609.The average commodity price received was $54.32 per barrel of oil.The assets generated a Q3 Net Operating Income after deduction of royalties and expenses of $1,102,410 for the Corporation and participating partners.STATEMENT FROM CEO, BURKHARD FRANZ''Prospera has mitigated exposure to apportionments by implementing an oil marketing strategy through an alliance with independent, third party marketing firm, Boomerang Energy Marketing. Our crude oil is now being marketed to two alternative locations in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan with two separate midstream providers. The alliance with Boomerang has allowed us to receive a premium on our oil sales when compared with some other E&P companies that are currently exposed to suppressed market conditions.'' POST TRANSACTION STRATEGYProspera will continue to aggressively develop its prolific Cuthbert, Hearts Hill and Luseland oil properties in the last quarter of 2018 and throughout 2019. The Corporation is accelerating its ongoing review of wells and further well reactivations and workovers are projected at a rate of 5-8 per month moving forward.In the coming days, the Corporation will also be providing shareholders with an update on the operations at its other three currently producing oil and gas properties in Northern Alberta and Eastern Saskatchewan, as this information becomes available. Detailed information summarizing all Prospera's operations will be forthcoming in the completed Q3 financial reports and accompanying MD&A to be issued later this week.Prospera's interim audit of its Q3 - 2018 financial statements is not yet complete, and accordingly all financial amounts referred to in this news release are unaudited and represent management's estimates. Readers are advised that these financial estimates are subject to audit and may be subject to change as a result.ABOUT PROSPERA INCProspera Inc is a Canadian natural resource Corporation engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and gas properties with operations in Alberta and Western Saskatchewan.For further information:Burkhard Franz,President and Chief Executive OfficerEmail: admin@ prosperaenergy.com Tel: (403) 457-9010Website: www.prosperaenergy.com Production volumes are commonly expressed on a barrel of oil equivalent ("BOE") basis whereby natural gas volumes are converted at a ratio of six thousand cubic feet to one barrel of oil. The intention is to convert oil and natural gas measurement units into one basis for improved analysis of results and comparisons with other industry participants. The term BOE may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. The conversion ratio is based on an energy equivalent method and does not represent an economic value equivalency at the wellhead.FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSThis news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the future operations of the Corporation 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 Corporation, 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. More particularly, it contains forward-looking statements concerning: (i) production (ii) planned drilling, reactivation, development and waterflood activities, (iii) the potential number of drilling locations at certain of the Transactions properties, (iv) timing and completion of the Transaction, including expectations and assumptions concerning timing of receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions to the completion of the Transaction, and (v) potential development opportunities associated with the Transaction.Although Prospera believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because Prospera can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward- looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general (e.g., operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve estimates; the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks), commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations and uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures.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 Pro PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 15:05:02 Recognized by Markets Media for Excellence in Service Providers Stacy Mallon of Vela Wins Women in Finance Award Melanie Budden The Realization Group melanie.budden@therealizationgroup.com Tel: +44 7974 937970 Vela, a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading, today announced that Stacy Mallon, Director, Infrastructure and Security, has been honored for her achievements by Markets Medias Markets Choice Women in Finance awards presented at a dinner in New York earlier this month. The winners were chosen from across the institutional trading and technology space and include buy-side investment managers, sell-side execution desks, hedge funds, exchanges and trading platforms, established technology providers, and emerging FinTech firms. Mohan Virdee, Chief Executive and Founding Partner of Markets Media, said, As a financial engineer, technologist, and people manager, Stacy Mallon is a perfect example of why we continue to celebrate the outstanding women who are changing the face of finance and it is our great pleasure to recognize their accomplishments and achievements. Adding, We are delighted that Stacy was able to travel from Belfast to attend our event in New York. We congratulate Stacy and wish her well for a long and successful career. Jen Nayar, CEO of Vela, commented, Once more, our strategy of investing in exceptional engineers and technologists such as Stacy is being recognized by the markets we serve. Adding, During the past year, Stacy has taken on several key initiatives including the direct management of the full global infrastructure team, bringing together engineers from last summers double acquisitions and integrating into the Vela organization. Her strong work ethics and expertise instill a culture of collaboration, inspiring excellence, and alignment on tools, applications, and work practices across the company. This award is very well deserved and I am so proud to see Stacy recognized for her excellence. Stacy commented, I am very pleased to have received this award from Markets Media. I want to thank all my colleagues and the team at Vela who nominated me and have made this year such a positive experience. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. About Vela Vela is a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading. Our software enables clients to rapidly access global liquidity, markets, and data sources for superior execution. We help firms successfully differentiate and innovate in an ever-changing, increasingly-regulated and fiercely-competitive landscape, while also reducing total cost of ownership. Velas ticker plant, execution gateways, trading platform, and risk and analytics software deliver a unique, ultra-low latency technology stack to simplify and streamline electronic trading. We leverage the latest innovations in technology to deliver cutting-edge performance, features and reliability. Our modular stack provides access to a comprehensive set of trading, data and risk APIs and can be delivered as-a-Service from multiple co-location data centers globally. With access to more than 250 venues, Vela provides global coverage across all major asset classes. Clients are supported by an award-winning team of technical and business experts available 24x7 from our multiple offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. Velas clients include traders, market makers, brokers, banks, investment firms, exchanges, and other market participants. Visit us at www.tradevela.com. Follow us on Twitter @TradeVela. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005 Stacy Mallon of Vela wins Women in Finance Award @marketsmedia @tradevela PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 07:43:03 ITC Order highlights that Hyteras new generation products do not infringe any patents Regional Court of Dusseldorf in Germany rejected MSIs requests to order the recall and destruction of the covered products US ITC Commission Rules in Favor of Hytera in its Final Determination Pinky Xu Marketing Manager pinky.xu@hytera.com On November 16, U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in Hyteras favor in its final decision regarding new designs recently developed by Hytera. ITC's final order makes clear that Hyteras new generation products do not infringe Motorola Solutions patents and can continue to be imported and sold in the United States. On November 20, the Regional Court of Dusseldorf in Germany rejected Motorola Solutions requests to order the recall and destruction of the covered products. Hytera is committed to broadening choice within the Australian market and for our dealers, said Terry Feng, General Manager of Hytera Australia. Any suggestion that Hytera may not sell DMR products in Australia as a result of legal proceedings in any other countries is misleading and incorrect. Hytera will continue to deliver a full range of innovative, high-quality, and cost-effective DMR products and professional mobile radio communications solutions to our dealers and customers here in this country, as we do globally. Hytera is pleased that the ITC commission review correctly allows the continued import and sale of its innovative new generation products. The company looks forward to continuing to grow within the United States and to enriching the U.S. land-mobile-radio marketplace with more choice and superior value. While Motorola unfortunately chooses to concentrate on inappropriate litigation instead of innovation, Hytera remains focused on the future for both its end-users and its dealers. Hytera has many patents that protect its products and respects the intellectual property of others. But if Motorola chooses to continue what Hytera believes to be anti-competitive behavior by bringing questionable legal actions against its competitors, Hytera will vigorously defend itself. Hytera believes Motorola will continue to use the United States legal system as another front in Motorolas quest to maintain its monopoly over two-way land mobile radios in the United States. While the ITC final decision is favorable to Hytera and its new designs, and the Regional Court of Dusseldorf in Germany rejected Motorola Solutions requests to order the recall and destruction of the covered products, the ITC and Dusseldorf court find that some of Hyteras legacy DMR products infringe certain of Motorolas asserted patents. Hytera is considering follow-up action regarding this portion of both the decisions. About Hytera Hytera Communications Corporation Limited is a leading global provider of innovative professional land mobile radio (LMR) communications solutions to governmental organizations, public security institutions, and customers from industries including transportation, oil and gas, and many others. Founded in Shenzhen, China, in 1993 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (002583.SZ), Hytera has ten research and development centers around the world and has partnered with companies in the U.S. since 2000. Hytera established its first US subsidiary, Hytera America, Inc., in 2004. It established Hytera Communications America (West), Inc., in 2016. Hytera owns PowerTrunk, Inc., and Sepura LLC, and has research and servicing facilities in Schaumburg, Ill. More information is at www.hytera.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181126005 On November 16, U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in Hyteras favor in its final decision regarding new designs recently developed by Hytera. Turkeys top diplomat, for the first time, described grisly details from audio tapes purportedly of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggis murder in Istanbul on October 2, in an interview with a German newspaper. A forensic doctor is instructing the others they should listen to music while he dismembers the body, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, told Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an interview published on Tuesday. You can tell he is enjoying it, Cavusoglu said, adding that he likes to cut up people. It is disgusting. Cavusoglu, for the first time, confirmed some of the content of the tapes, which have so far only been leaked by Turkish media. He said he listened to the tapes of the killing in Saudi Arabias consulate on October 2, but that the Turkish investigators would not divulge how they got the audio. He was killed within seven minutes. It was a premeditated murder, Cavusoglu said. On November 15, Riyadhs Chief Prosecutor said Khashoggi was killed by the head of a hit squad after having failed to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia. The crime included a fight and injecting the citizen (Khashoggi) with a drug overdose that led to his death, the prosecution spokesman said. They did not decide to kill him after they could not persuade him to return, Cavusoglu said. Turkey has called for an international investigation into the murder of the journalist, which President Recep Erdogan has previously said came from the highest levels of the Saudi government. Khashoggis remains have not yet been located. (dpa/NAN) Japanese authorities believe family troubles are likely to be behind the murder of six people, including a seven-year-old girl, at a home in a rural southern Japanese town, local media reported on Tuesday. Local police in Miyazaki prefecture identified the six as a 72-year-old farmer, his wife, his sons wife, the young couples two children and a friend of the son, Kyodo News Agency reported, citing police officials. The police believe the six were killed from Sunday evening to Monday morning, Kyodo reported. Police found knife wounds on some of the bodies, while a blood-stained machete was discovered at the site in the town of Takachiho, Kyodo said. The police also identified a man, who was found dead under a bridge as the 42-year-old son, according to the report. The site was about three kilometres from the house. The son appears to have killed himself, local newspaper Nishinihon Shimbun reported, citing police officials. The friend visited the house on Sunday evening to discuss some trouble between the young couple, the paper reported, citing neighbouring residents. The six bodies were found after the police went to the house, owned by the farmer on Monday after a family member told them that his calls had gone unanswered. (dpa/NAN) Greek Journalists have walked off work for 24 hours on Tuesday ahead of a nationwide strike as the Countrys Labour Unions press against protracted austerity measures. No news programmes are being broadcast on TV and radio, while newspapers will not be printed on Wednesday, the day of the general strike called by the umbrella labour union of private sector workers GSEE. The journalists walkout is part of the strike but is being held one day in advance to allow media coverage of the main protest. It is estimated that in nine out of 10 strikes, the Greek journalistic unions opt for a media strike a day before the general strike for the main days media coverage. The GSEEs demands in Wednesdays strike include pension increases, tax cuts and restoring the minimum salary to the pre-bailout level of 853 U.S. dollars, from the current 659 U.S. dollars. Up until now, it has been announced that the metro, tram and most buses will not be running on Wednesday as workers from most of the transport companies will join the 24-hour strike. All island passenger ferries will remain docked across Greece due to the strike. Greeces umbrella trade unions of the public sector ADEDY had called a 24-hour strike on Nov. 14, also demanding increases in wages and pensions of 1.14 U.S. dollars. (Xinhua/NAN) Nigeria will soon have a World Health Organisation (WHO) approved reference laboratory, an official has said. The laboratory would be used for, among others, confirmation of tests of epidemic diseases in the country. The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday. He spoke at a press briefing on Elimination of Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) strategy on the current campaign against suspected yellow fever outbreak in Edo State. We are prioritising it. But no matter how difficult it is to set up a laboratory, it makes no sense that with all the human and material resources we have in Nigeria, we have to go to Dakar for confirmation, the NPHCDA boss said. Mr Shuaib said the rot in the Nigerian health sector over the last few decades prevented the country from producing vaccines. There used to be a time that we were producing yellow fever vaccine in Nigeria. Now we dont produce any vaccine in Nigeria again. These are the problems we have with successive governments that have not prioritised technology, he said. Mr Shuaib said the government has a board in place focused on local vaccine production and will ensure the production of vaccines resumes in the country within the shortest possible time. He said the plan for a reference laboratory in the country will be implemented within the next six months. The federal government has prioritised the set up of this mechanism to ensure that we get a reference laboratory. With NPHCDA working with NCDC (National Centre for Disease Control), it is something we are committed to make happen. There should be no excuses, no reasons why Nigeria should not be confirming yellow fever cases in Nigeria, he said. He said Nigeria is targeting 90 per cent immunisation coverage through the mass campaign programme. While noting that 21 states are classified as high risk, Mr Shuaib said that the country has enough stock of preventive vaccines against yellow fever. He stressed that the goal of the yellow fever preventive mass vaccination campaign is to reduce yellow fever transmission. He said the ongoing campaign is the third in line of the governments efforts towards achieving total coverage of the country. He assured the general public that all the agencies involved were working swiftly to contain the spread and prevent further outbreaks of the disease. The NCDC had earlier confirmed the outbreak of yellow fever in Edo State. Executive Director of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the outbreak was reported in four local government areas. On the 21st of November 2018, nine cases tested positive for yellow fever. We await confirmatory results from the WHO Regional Reference Laboratory, he said. Nigeria, one of the 27 countries in Africa with high risks of yellow fever, sends tests for suspected diseases to the WHO reference laboratory for West Africa in Dakar, Senegal for confirmation. Yellow fever is a vaccine-preventable disease. After 21 years of silence, the disease resurfaced in the country in September 2017 in a seven-year-old girl at Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. The girl had no previous history of yellow fever vaccination. She also had no travel history outside her state two years before the illness. As of November 11, 140 cases had been laboratory-confirmed in Nigeria. A multi-agency yellow fever Emergency Operations Centre has been established at NCDC to coordinate the response. The symptoms of yellow fever include yellowness of the eyes, sudden fever, headache and body pain. Resident doctors say that about 12 of their colleagues leave Nigeria every week to practise overseas. The president of the Association of Resident Doctors Federal Capital Territory Administration, Abuja chapter, Michael Olarewaju, stated this at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday. He spoke when the association briefed journalists on activities lined up to mark the 2018 Annual Health Week under the theme, Brain Drain: A Consequence of a Failing Health System. The association every November holds the ARD-FCTA Health Week during which the members perform corporate social responsibility to the society, engage in capacity building and strengthen ties with management and affiliates, among a host of other activities. Mr Olarewaju said that less than 40,000 registered doctors are currently practising in the country of about 190 million population. He lamented that not only does the majority of Nigerians lack access to quality health care, over 88 per cent of doctors in the country desire to leave for greener pastures overseas. He cited poor pay, career advancement and insecurity as major reasons behind the mass exodus of doctors from Nigeria. Mr Olarewaju also noted that the work load of attending to a large number of patients per doctor was becoming unbearable, leading to situations where doctors were overstretched and unable to provide adequate care for patients in dire need of health services. Nigeria has about 80,000 doctors fully registered with the Medical and Dental Council, but less than 50 per cent of them currently practise in Nigeria, which has led to a precipitous decrease in the doctor-patient ratio and hence majority of Nigerians do not have access to quality healthcare, thus putting them at the mercy of substandard care from quacks. It has been estimated that at least 12 Nigerian doctors leave the shores of this country for greener pastures in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates on weekly basis. The NOI polls stated that 88 per cent of doctors currently practising in the country wishes to relocate from the country. This is an alarming tide because the country is losing a lot in human and financial resources to other countries, he said. The general secretary of the Association, Rowland Aigbovo, said the association believed the problem is solvable if priorities are set right. He said that the harsh reality still remains that doctors were leaving the FCTA in droves and something must be done to end the trend. President Donald Trump swats at the fake snow that was dropping from the ceiling as he arrives to speaks at a rally for Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Biloxi, Miss. (Alex Brandon / AP) A British radio presenter well-known in Lebanon, where he worked at a radio station, was found dead in his home in the North-East village of Beit Mery on Tuesday, police said on Tuesday. We suspect it is a murder, but we do not know the circumstances yet, a police officer, who requested anonymity, said. Gavin Ford presented a popular morning show on the Radio One FM music station in Lebanon. Reports say the breakfast show host was murdered in his apartment and his car was stolen. His body was found on Tuesday at his address in the town of Beit Mery, just outside Beirut. The station posted the sad news on its Facebook page. We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear Gavin Ford, a member of our team for many joyful years. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues all over the world, the statement said. According to police, the British embassy in Beirut is assisting local investigators. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that as many as 49 journalists were killed around the world in the first six months of 2018, according to the International Press Institute (IPI). (dpa/NAN) The decision of an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court for three sureties to pay N100 million each or produce separatist leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has continued to generate discussion among Nigerians. Mr Kanu, who is facing trial on alleged treasonable offences, disappeared in September 2017 after his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, accused the Nigerian army of attempting to kill him during a military raid at the defendants residence in Abia State. The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) disappeared five months after he was granted bail, in April 2017. Following his disappearance, the court, presided over by a judge, Binta Nyako, ordered Mr Kanus sureties, including a serving senator, Eyinnaya Abaribe to either produce the defendant or pay N100 million each, as contained in Mr Kanus bail condition. The judge also noted that the sureties stood the risk of going to jail, should they fail to produce Mr Kanu. You have only three options: produce Nnamdi Kanu, forfeit the bond (N100 million), or request for time to bring him back to court to face his trial. Once you sign to be somebodys surety, that person automatically becomes your responsibility, Mrs Nyako said, shortly after Mr Kanus disappearance while addressing a lawyer, representing Mr Abaribe in court. Following the recent reappearance of Mr Kanu in Israel, some lawyers viewed possible options for Mr Kanus return to include a diplomatic action between Nigerian government and the government of Israel. Such a thing (extradition) can only be done through diplomatic agreement by the two countries, said a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Simon Ameh. Mr Ameh added that the Nigerian courts cannot make a direct order for Mr Kanus return from Israel. Another lawyer, Folarin Aluko, however, explained the role of the court in the diplomatic action noted by Mr Ameh. Nigeria can apply for Mr Kanus extradition to Nigeria, following the procedures laid down in the Extradition Law of the foreign country, and the provisions of Nigerias Extradition Act. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe Looking at Nigerian law, for example, Section 1 of the Extradition Act provides for the judicial determination of an Extradition Application. The Federal High Court is vested with the jurisdiction by virtue of Section 251 (i) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), while the Extradition is within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, by virtue of Item 27 of the Exclusive Legislative list contained in Part 1, Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). Mr Aluko added that extradition laws globally frown at cases where its purpose is to prosecute someone for reasons including their political believes. During the last hearing, however, Mrs Nyako ordered the sureties; Messrs Abaribe, a Jewish Priest Ben El-Shalom and a banker, Tochukwu Uchendu to deposit the agreed bond to the court registrar within two months from November 14 when the order was made. The sum of N300 million expected from the sureties is to remain a temporary property of the court, for six months. The court ruled that the sureties would be forced to either produce Mr Kanu or forfeit the bond, after six months. Lawyers have, however, expressed divergent views on the recent order. While a lawyer Kasiemobi Oranugo views the position of the judge as a violation of the terms of contract, another lawyer, Monday Ejeh, says the sureties have a duty to produce Mr Kanu or forfeit their bond. In Kennys Outline of Criminal Law; bail is defined as contract whereby a person is delivered to a third person called surety on the understanding that the surety would ensure that the person is produced whenever his presence is needed. From the above definition, we ought to beam our search light on two important words that rear their heads, which are contract and surety, Mr Oranugo told PREMIUM TIMES in an attempt to explain the latest ruling on Mr Kanus bail. Citing parts of some previous Supreme Court decisions, Mr Oranugo gave what he described as the apex courts definition of a contract, as well as its pattern of determination. Contract is defined as an agreement between two or more persons which creates an obligation to do or not to do a particular thing. Its essentials are competent parties, subject matter, a legal consideration, mutuality of agreement and mutuality of obligation. A contract, generally, may be discharged through the following, namely (a) By performance if both parties have done all that is required of them, (b) By agreement if both parties have mutually agreed to put an end to their contractual relationship, (c) By frustration if some event outside the control of the parties take place, making performance impossible and (d) By breach where the innocent party is relieved and the party in default may be liable for damages. Pursuant to the above premises, it will be crystal clear that Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and two others only entered into a contractual agreement with the court with respect to the release of Nnamdi Kanu on bail. It will also be deduced that the contract was not in any way breached by either of the parties, but was frustrated by an event or a force outside the contemplation or control of the parties, Mr Oranugo said. In a different opinion, however, Mr Ejeh views that the FHC was right in its November, 14 ruling. The law is that the sureties are like guarantors. They hold themselves out as collaterals and guarantee the continuous availability of a defendant in a criminal case. In doing this, sureties enter into a bond; which simply means they tell the court that they will always provide the defendant whenever he is needed in court. And in the event they fail in this regard, they will be liable to forfeit, to the government, a particular sum of money on the bond. If they fail or neglect to pay the bond, they will be liable to be committed to prison for a period not exceeding six months. Thus, what Tochukwu Uchendu, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Ben El Shalom; who guaranteed the continuous availability of Nnamdi Kanu for his trial need to do is to provide him on the next adjourned date or ordinarily stand the risk of coughing out the sum of N300 million bail bond to the federal government or stand the risk of, at most, six months imprisonment for failure to so do. A new person will govern Osun State from Tuesday (today). Gboyega Oyetola will assume the position of the governor from Rauf Aregbesola after a handing over ceremony expected to be held in Osogbo, the state capital. Both men are members of Nigerias ruling party, APC. Both also have other things in common: they were both based in Lagos and are staunch loyalists of APC national leader, Bola Tinubu. Mr Aregebsola has governed Osun State for eight years. His tenure witnessed massive infrastructural development including construction of major roads and schools. His tenure, particularly his second term in office, was, however, also characterised by irregular payment of workers salaries. Mr Oyetola won the September Osun governorship election, narrowly defeating Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mr Adeleke and the PDP have cried foul and are currently challenging the victory in court. Eminent Nigerians on Monday in Osogbo eulogised Mr Aregbesola for giving his best to develop the state in the last eight years. They spoke at a colloquium to mark the end of Mr Aregbesolas administration. The colloquium has as its theme: Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in Eye of History. Atiku Bagudu, governor of Kebbi State, said the education policies of the outgoing governor was the best in the country. Mr Bagudu said Mr Aregbesola took a risk to develop Osun, adding that he was seen as controversial by many because his ideas were most times not easy to comprehend for some people. According to Mr Bagudu, when he was in the Senate, a Committee on Education, led by a late senator, Uche Chukwumerije, during a visit to Osun, discovered that the state had the best education policies, as well as best infrastructure in public schools. I got to know Governor Aregbesola through my colleague in the Senate, Prof. Sola Adeyeye. He told me a lot about Aregbesola before I eventually met him. When I met him, I was not disappointed. Our committee, while in the Senate, was in Osun to see some of his projects in (the) education sector. In our separate reports, we all concluded Aregbesola had best education policies in the country. He took (the) risk to develop Osun. He is a patriot, a nationalist. He is humble and a true believer in Nigeria, who has good thought about the country. Also, Owei Lakemfa said developmental projects that Mr Aregbesola left behind would continue to be a reference point in the state. The Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, also said Mr Aregesolas various innovations in the last eight years had relaunched Awolowo and Jakande educational policies of free education and infrastructure development. The Senate has reconsidered and passed seven bills that were initially sent to the Clerk of the National Assembly for onward transmission to the President Muhammadu Buhari. The bills are Nigerian Aeronautical Search and Rescue Bill, 2018; Climate Change (Est, etc) Bill, 2018; Chartered Institute of Pension Practitioner of Nigeria (Est, etc) Hill, 2018 and Chartered Institute of Training and Development of Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2018. Others are National Institute of Credit Administration (Est, etc) Bill, 2018; Digital Rights and Freedom (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 and Nigerian Film Corporation (repeal & Re-enactment) Bill, 2018. The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, explained that after critical examination of the Bills, the Directorate of Legal Services of the National Assembly observed some fundamental issues which required fresh legislative action on some clauses in the bills. The bills and the affected clauses are: Nigerian Aeronautical Search and Rescue Bill, 2018 Clause 2 (1)(2). Climate Change (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 Clause 2 (1)(4), 3(1)(f), 5(2), 7(1)(a) (2)(a), 8, 9, 17(1). Chartered Institute of Pension Practitioner of Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 Clause 11. Chartered Institute of Training and Development of Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 Clause 18 (2) & (6). National Institute of Credit Administration (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 Clause 7 (3)(5) and 8 (1)(3). Digital Rights and Freedom (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 Clause 4 (1)(2)(3). Nigerian Film Corporation (repeal & Re-enactment) Bill, 2018 Clause 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. He urged the Senate to rescind its decision on the affected Clauses of the Bills as passed and recommit same to the Committee of the Whole for reconsideration and passage in accordance with Order 1(b) and 53(6) of Senate Standing Order. The lawmaker also stated that a technical committee of the Senate, House of Representatives and Directorate of Legal Services met and worked on the clauses. The Senate then resolved into the committee of the whole, reconsidered and passed the bills. Five persons were confirmed dead on Tuesday while two others sustained injuries in an accident involving a Subaru car and a Honda bus at Orile Imo area on the Sagamu/Abeokuta expressway. Babatunde Akinbiyi, the public relations officer of the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps in Ogun, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria in Abeokuta. Mr Akinbiyi said the accident was caused by speeding which made the driver of the Honda bus with registration number EKY 365 FB to lose control. The TRACE spokesman said the driver veered into the opposite lane and collided with the Subaru car with registration number KTU 246 AT inbound Abeokuta. He said that seven males were involved in the accident, saying that five of them died while two others sustained injuries. The accident happened around 7:15 a.m. The Honda was coming from Abeokuta, lost control, veered into the other lane and collided with the Subaru car which was going toward Abeokuta. Three people were initially injured and four died instantly. However, post crash report indicates that another of the injured victims has also died bringing number of the dead to five and two injured, he said. Mr Akinbiyi said the bodies of the dead had been deposited at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) morgue, while the injured were receiving treatment at the same hospital. He urged motorists and other road users to be cautious and ensure that their vehicles were in good condition before embarking on any journey. (NAN) Some of the bronzes looted from the Benin Empire by British soldiers over 100 years will be returned to Nigeria, but with certain terms and conditions, CNN is reporting. According to CNN, the Benin Dialogue Group, which comprises of representatives of several European museums, the Royal Court of Benin, Edo State Government, and Nigerias National Commission for Museums and Monuments, struck a deal in October to have some of the most iconic pieces returned to Nigeria. The British Museum has agreed to loan the plaques back to Benin Royal Museum in Edo State for an exhibition within three years. More than 1,000 of the bronzes are held at museums across Europe, with the most valuable collection at the British Museum in London. Nigerian governments have sought their return since the country gained independence in 1960. The return of the artefacts is contingent on the completion of the Royal Museum of Benin, whose designs, according to spokesperson to Governor Godwin Obaseki, Crusoe Osagie, are being finalised. We are grateful these steps are being taken but we hope they are only the first steps. If you have stolen property, you have to give it back,Mr. Osagie said. Mr Osagie also called for more pressure on European governments to return looted artefacts from the colonial era. A spokesperson for the British Museum, according to CNN, said: The key agenda item (at the October meeting) was how partners can work together to establish a museum in Benin City with a rotation of Benin works of art from a consortium of European museums. The museums in attendance have all agreed to lend artefacts to the Benin Royal Museum on a rotating basis, to provide advice as requested on building and exhibition design, and to cooperate with the Nigerian partners in developing training, funding, and a legal framework for the display in a new planned museum. There are no details on the pieces to be returned at the moment. Meanwhile, in a related development, France is also set to return 26 Artifacts to Benin on the order of President Emmanuel Macron of France. This is according to a report by artnet.com an art market website, published on Monday. The site noted that the move is based on a proposal from the Quai BranlyJacques Chirac Museum and the French ministry of culture. The artifacts in question, which include three statues of the kings of Abomey, thrones and ornamental doors, and a statue of the god Gou, were looted during General Dodds bloody siege on the Behanzin palace in 1892. In Benin, they will be shared with the public in the context of an ambitious new museums project. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered over N540 billion through the Whistle Blower Policy, as at May 2018, the information minister, Lai Mohammed, said on Tuesday. President Muhammadu Buhari first made a similar declaration in May while delivering the Democracy Day speech, this year. According to a statement from Mr Mohammeds media assistant, Segun Adeyemi, the minister stated this at the 71st General Assembly of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Mr Mohammed, represented by Sunny Adejoh, also recounted his view of the many other achievements recorded by the anti-graft agency and other arms of government. To this end, as at May this year, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, through the Whistle Blower Policy, has recovered over N527 Billion, $53 million, and 122,890. Mr Mohammed reiterated the need for the media and other stakeholders to work with government to ensure the success of the governments goals. This effort should not be seen as the sole effort of Mr. President or the government alone. The media has a duty to ensure that the programmes of government, meant to uplift the lots of the citizenry, are projected as a national cause and not just as that of Mr President or the administration. Anything short of this would amount to a criminal abdication of a sacred duty which could spell doom for our collective national life. We have had enough sordid examples to learn from, that we ought not to allow a repeat at this critical time of our national development. It is therefore of utmost importance that the media and specifically, broadcast media, do not allow itself to become a purveyor of fake news and hate speeches, the minister said. The whistle blower policy, which was introduced to aid the war against corruption, was said to have resulted in the recovery of N29 billion as at the end of October 2017. That figure was provided by the EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu. As at the end of March, the former finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, gave the total amount of recovered funds through the policy to be N7.8 billion, $378 million and 27,800. That figure, totalling N143 billion, was provided then as part of the activities of Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA). The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, says over N600 billion has so far been allocated to the education sector in 2018. Mr Osinbajo disclosed this at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on sustainable funding for education in Nigeria held on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa Banquet Hall, Abuja. The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance. He said that in spite of the difficult economic situation, the federal government made sure that funding of education was not neglected. We were able to increase capital allocation to education; for instance, in the federal budget, capital allocation was increased from N23.53 billion in 2015 when we camethat was the allocation. In the budget that we did, we took up the capital allocation to N35.99 billion in 2016. Then in 2017, we took it to up to N56. 81 billion and this year, the current capital budget on education is N102.9 billion. So, this shows a substantial increase in education budget; in addition, there is the UBEC funding which in 2018 amounted to N109.86 billion. In fact, if you include the recurrent budget, the amount allocated to education by the federal government this year is more than N600 billion. Represented by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, Mr Osinbajo said that additional funds were also made available through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). He said, however, that the amounts were still insufficient to provide the high-quality education which the administration was determined to give to all Nigerians. Mr Osinbajo said Nigerians must seek ways of increasing funding to education from all the tiers of government. While government funding is important and critical, it is not the only source of funding for education. There are two broad sources of funding for education-the most important are the grants from governments at all levels; that is the federal and state and local governments in the form of capital budgets, recurrent budget and special allocation. The second source of funding are from non-governmental sourcesthese include contributions from sources such as school charges, private donations, corporate sponsors, alumni associations, charitable and faith-based associations and among others, he said. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said that funding education was a very crucial issue; hence the importance attached to the workshop. According to him, funding is key to the delivery of qualitative education which is the foundation for national growth and sustainable development. He said that upon his appointment, he met a lot of challenges in the basic, secondary and tertiary education as well as teachers professional development, technical education, access and quality of education. Mr Adamu said that against the foregoing, the ministry proposed the Ministerial Strategic Plan for Education hinged on ten pillars. He listed the pillars as -Out of School Children, Youth and Adult Literacy, Teacher Education, Basic Education, Curriculum Matters, Tertiary Education, Education Data and planning. Others are- Technical and Vocation Education and Training, Information and Communication Technology in Education and Library Services. He said increased funding of education had facilitated access to tertiary education in Nigeria but posed a huge financial burden on the funding of public institutions. (NAN) Obiageli Ezekwesili, the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) has said her number one priority if elected president is the replacement of dependance on oil with human capital. If history will remember me, its going to be the fact that at my time, the Nigerian person translated into a world- class human capital replacing oil, Mrs Ezekwesili said in an interview during a visit to PREMIUM TIMES office in Abuja on Friday. This for me is a signature mandate. This is top for me. That is visionary for me. I will be the president that takes us on a race to the top, not a race to the bottom while ensuring the equality of opportunities, she said. American billionaire and philanthropist, Bill Gates, had earlier in the year said the present economic template being used by the Muhammadu Buhari government does not have the ability to address the unique needs of Nigerians at present. Mr Gates said the implementation of the Nigerian governments Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), a multi-billion policy thrust for Nigerians which was meant to capitalise on human capital, did not fully reflect peoples needs. During Fridays interview, Mrs Ezekwesili said the first step in achieving her plan on human capital investment would be by lifting majority of Nigerians out of extreme poverty. Currently, Nigeria has the highest number of extremely poor people as it has taken over from India which used to hold the position. A Brooking Institution report in June said the number of Nigerians in extreme poverty increases by six people every minutes. Although the Nigerian economy is out of recession, many Nigerians are poor. In 2016, the prevalence of people living below the poverty line ranged between 54 per cent and 60 per cent. About 82 million Nigerians are estimated to currently live below the poverty line of access to less than $1.9 a day. I want to remove this trend of poverty. Just look at it, China, Nigeria and other African countries were almost at the same place some five decades ago but guess what? Chinas GDP today is over $14 trillion while Nigerias GDP depending on the exchange rate situation is below $400 billion. How did we get to this kind of painful stunted growth? We now know things that make economies grow and they are not rocket science. Sound policies, dynamic institutions anchored on the rule of law, the right priorities of investment in critical infrastructure in building the human capacity that supports citizens and businesses. We know that tackling poverty can happen in matter of decades because China lifted 700 million of their citizens out of poverty in less than four decades. She said she wants to take down this poverty because we cant have half of our population called extremely poor and be comfortable with it. Its not just about tackling poverty but also about growing wealth because what I will like us to become is a country that is prosperous, stable and harmonious because its not just about lifting does who are poor but also to have a growing economy that enables those who are already okay to keep being okay, she said. She also said for human security, the most essential thing is economic security. People always see security from a very militaristic perspective but if there is any lesson we have learnt from what happened in the North-east, it is the fact that human security is what enables sustainable peace in any society. It means that the matter of economic livelihood is at the centre, she said. When there are jobs in crisis prone areas, it is correlated to the fact that willingness to negotiate disagreements goes higher. So economic livelihood of every part of this country is going to be key and one of our signature projects, she added. Mrs Ezekwesili once served as minister of solid minerals and then as headed the education ministry during the second-term presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. She was the co-convener of #BringbackOurGirls which has been campaigning for the release of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. She will be contesting the 2019 presidential election alongside over 70 candidates. Olisah Metuh, the embattled former spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) on Tuesday asked the Federal High Court, Abuja to order the EFCC to unfreeze his bank accounts. Mr Metuh, who expressed shock over the development, said he learnt of the no-debit order placed on his account after his failed transaction on one of the accounts on Tuesday. Mr Metuh made the oral application while led in evidence by his counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu. The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Metuh and his Destra Investments Limited, on seven counts of money laundering and fraudulent receipt of N400 million from the Office of the NSA on November 22, 2014, for PDP campaign activities. Mr Metuh, who denied his involvement in the deal, said the continuous freezing of all his bank accounts by the prosecution had left him and his family starving. He, therefore, urged the court to compel EFCC to immediately unfreeze his accounts, adding that he remained innocent of the crime he was charged for. Mr Metuh further averred that he was terrified of the action of the EFCC, adding that: I do not know where to get my next meal from. The EFCC went ahead to freeze all my accounts yesterday and I cannot get any money to feed myself and my family. I do not even know how I am going to exist from now on. As it stands now, I cannot access both my Naira and Dollar accounts so I do not even have money to buy pain relief if I have a headache or even water to sustain my family, he said. Justice Okon Abang, therefore, instructed Mr Metuhs counsel to discuss with the counsel representing the federal government, Sylvanus Tahir, to resolve the issue. The judge adjourned the matter to Thursday and Friday for continuous hearing. (NAN) "This means they will be breaking into the houses of Ukrainians and not those of the aggressor nation," noted Tymoshenko, who is leading in various opinion polls. "They will be prying into personal mail, family affairs ... In fact, everything that is written here is a destruction of the lives of Ukrainians." Nigerias Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, said Nigeria will not go back to era when money meant for the development of the country was pocketed by few individuals. Mr Osinbajo stated this in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, while launching the 6th phase of a youth empowerment initiative. He said the All Progressive Congress administration is not stealing Nigerias money, adding that all monies accruing to it will be judiciously used. Nigeria is moving forward to next level. This is one of the reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari decided to fight corruption in Nigeria; because before now, a lot of the money that was supposed to empower the common man on the street were put in the pockets of those that led us before. When we came on board, we insisted that must stop, they can no longer be stealing peoples money, the money must be utilised for the well-being of all Nigerians, the vice president said. He said, When President Buhari started the fight, those who looted public treasury opposed him and theyre still fighting him till now. By Gods grace, Nigerians will see the benefits of the anti-corruption fight. He also said before the current government came on board, the previous one earned $383 billion in four years but wasted it. They didnt construct roads, no empowerment, they embezzled the money. For three years, the APC administration earned only over $115 billion. Thats (about) one-third of what they had and were doing five times more. Were doing more because were not stealing the money. If the money of our people is not stolen, there will be enough for us to do everything, he said. He also explained the rationale behind the governments Trader moni scheme. The Trader moni is one of the important policies of President Buharis administration. It is giving loans to 35,000 beneficiaries, petty traders in Jigawa; and were targeting two million beneficiaries across the country. The initiative targets those at the bottom of the pyramid, we will keep empowering them until they are lifted to become bigger traders. The vice president also commended the governor of Jigawa for the good work he has been doing. In his remarks, the governor, Muhammad Badaru, said his administration has so far empowered over 134,600 youth through various programmes across the 27 local government areas of the state. The National Industrial Court on Tuesday in Kano ordered the Kano State government to redeploy the 894 health workers it transferred to other agencies from the Hospital Management Board, and refund their salaries deducted for 27 months. The state government had on September 6, 2016, through the office of the Head of Service, redeployed the affected workers to other agencies and changed their salary structure from Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) to Harmonised Public Service Salary Structure (HAPSSS). Irked by the governments action, the affected workers, under Nigerian Civil Service Union, Kano Hospital Management Board Chapter, on July 3, 2017, dragged the state government to Industrial Court, challenging the action. The plaintiffs, through their counsel, Surajo Ali, told the court that being employees of Kano State Hospital Management Board, they were entitled to continue to enjoy the CONHESS salary structure. He added that his clients, having been employed by the state Hospital Management Board and in pursuant to Hospital Management Board edict 1995, were not subjected to any circular or directives given by the Head of Service. The Kano Hospital Management Board is a body established by law of Kano State, and saddled with the responsibility and powers to recruit, employ, train, transfer and promote its employees, he said. He argued that the complainants were subject to transfer within the zonal office of the Kano State Hospital Management Board, and their transfer was within its powers, not the Head of Service. Their transfer as a result of the circular issued by Head of Service, they were affected negatively to the effect of a transfer and posting out of Kano State Hospital Management Board and its zone. The plaintiffs, therefore, prayed the court to declare the circular as void and of no effect whatsoever to them. Delivering the judgment, Judge E. Isiele ordered the state government to redeploy the affected workers to their former station and refund all the salaries deducted for the 27 months. Speaking to journalists after the judgement, Mr Ali expressed happiness and satisfaction over the judgement. He also thanked the judge for granting five out of six of their prayers. However, In his remarks, the defence counsel, Mukhtar Daneji, faulted the judgement, saying they will file an appeal. (NAN) The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly was again thrown into turmoil on Tuesday as a faction made up of five All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers clashed with those loyal to Onofiok Luke, the Speaker, at the assembly premises. The APC lawmakers, Tuesday morning, made their way into the House chambers where they quickly held their sitting and passed a resolution suspending 11 lawmakers. The sitting was presided over by Nse Ntuen (Essien Udim State Constituency). The other four lawmakers were Gabriel Toby, Etim Ekpo/Ika; Otobong Ndem, Mkpat Enin; Victor Udofia, Ikono; and Idongesit Ituen, Itu. They were yet to leave the assembly when the state governor, Udom Emmanuel, who belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party, arrived with police officers, officials of the State Security Service (SSS), and some youth loyal to the state government and the PDP to chase away the factional lawmakers. Photos posted on Facebook showed some of the lawmakers fleeing for safety. A car was reportedly set ablaze during the fracas. Let nobody, party think they can intimidate us in Akwa Ibom State, the speaker, Mr Luke said during plenary, as he, alongside other lawmakers, took control of the assembly. The people of Akwa Ibom have shown solidarity as seen in what happened today. We will continue to stand with our governor. We will continue to make laws for our economic development of the state and for the betterment of the youth of the state, the speaker said. The House of Assembly, reacting to the latest development, passed a vote of confidence on Mr Luke. The House called on security agencies to arrest the five lawmakers and a former sergeant-at-arms, Godwin Ukpong. They also called for the redeployment of the new commissioner of police who is barely one week old in the state. The police spokesperson in the state, Odiko MacDon, refused to comment on the incident when PREMIUM TIMES contacted him. The Commissioner for Information in the state, Charles Udoh, told PREMIUM TIMES it was necessary for the governor to visit the assembly because of the crisis. The governor is the chief security officer of the Akwa Ibom State, so when there is a security threat, the governor has to physically supervise whats going on there, Mr Udoh said. The five dissident, sacked House members, aided by the police with thugs dressed in fake police and army uniform, had invaded the House of Assembly. The governor, being the chief security officer of Akwa Ibom state, has an obligation to be there. The governors presence helped to restore peace and calm at the assembly, especially when you consider the fact that the illegality perpetrated by the five sacked members of the House of Assembly, was aided and abetted by the Nigeria Police Force, he said. The five lawmakers, last week, defied the Constitution and announced the removal of Mr Luke after their seats were declared vacant for defecting from the PDP to the APC. The crisis snowballed into the sealing of the assembly by the police in the state which later vacated the premises on Friday. Last week, the Senate resolved to investigate the crisis after Albert Bassey, a PDP senator from the state, raised a point of order during plenary. A human right group, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), last week, cautioned against the withdrawal of the police from the assembly premises, saying such moves could leave room for an attack by hoodlums. In the face of the tensed situation currently in the House of Assembly, the withdrawal of the officers and men of the Nigeria police and other security agencies therefrom, is nothing but counter-productive, ill-timed, and could leave a leeway for hoodlums and even aggrieved lawmakers to once again resort to self-help, thereby threatening the peace at the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly and its environs, the chairman of CLO, Akwa Ibom state branch, Franklyn Isong, said on Friday, while briefing journalists in Uyo. As we speak to you right now, the hoodlums have converged near the House of Assembly. The CLO, therefore, call on the Inspector General of Police, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police and other security agencies to deploy their officers and men to maintain security, peace, and order at the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly until normalcy returns. While there, the security agencies should allow free access to the chambers by the legislators to carry on with their normal legislative business, Mr Isong said. The Katsina State High Court has terminated the trial of three former officials of the state government charged with misappropriating over N5.7billion SURE-P funds. The trial was terminated because the Katsina State prosecution team failed to secure the approval of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to continue with the trial. The Katsina justice ministry had written to Mr Malami asking him to direct the anti-graft agency, ICPC, to hand over the prosecution file. It was the ICPC that investigated the officials and planned to prosecute them. The accused persons are a former special adviser to former Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema, on SURE-P, Nasiru Ingawa; the director of account and finance SURE-P department, Abdulaziz Shinkafi; and chief store officer Katsina state civil service, Bello Bindawa. The court terminated the case and discharged the accused persons. Although an official of the Katsina government had told the court Mr Malami had asked the ICPC to forward the case file to his office for transfer to the state government, the attorney general days after the case was struck out denied giving such directive. At the last adjourned date, the permanent secretary in the state Ministry of Justice, Abdulsalam Sabiu, told the court Mr Malami had collected the case file from the ICPC but did not hand it over to the state government before he travelled out of the country; a claim Mr Malami denied in his December 3 statement. When the matter was called on Tuesday for hearing, counsel to the state government, Aminu Ibrahim, told the court the state government could not continue with the case because it had still not obtained the case file. He, therefore, appealed for an indefinite adjournment. My Lord, the case cannot go on today because we are still not in possession of the case file. We have not been given the case file by the ICPC, Mr Ibrahim said. Counsel to the accused persons, Adamu Yarima, did not object to the application of the prosecution counsel. My Lord, I leave the decision on the application of the prosecution counsel to the discretion of the court, he said. The trial judge, Maikaita Bako, in a short ruling said the appropriate order to make was to terminate the charges and discharge the accused persons. In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES shortly after the ruling, Mr Yarima blamed the ICPC for the failure to release the case file to the state government. Why did they (ICPC) refuse to hand over the case to Katsina state government so that they can prosecute the matter properly? It appears that the ICPC are the ones who dont want the case to continue. However, the prosecution counsel, Mr Ibrahim, told PREMIUM TIMES the court ruling did not acquit the accused persons but only discharged them from the bail granted them by the court. He said the ruling implies the state government may pursue the case when it obtains the case file from the ICPC. The termination of the case may have confirmed the fears of the ICPC when it initially objected to handing over the case. The ICPC and the opposition in the state had raised concerns that the move by the state government to take over the case was to frustrate the trial. The trial started in October last year, after the investigation by the ICPC into the alleged financial crimes committed by the officials of the state government in charge of SURE-P Department. But it could not proceed beyond the initial arraignment of the accused persons, following the decision of the state government to take over the prosecution from the ICPC. Sure-P was a showcase programme of former President Goodluck Jonathans administration that was designed to re-invest government savings from fuel subsidy removal on critical infrastructure projects and social safety net programmes with direct impact on the citizens of Nigeria. Though it was generally believed to be a well-intended government project to improve lives, it later turned out to be a cash cow for those managing it as well as most of the benefiting states. In Katsina State, it is believed that not less than N5.7 billion trickled into the state for key infrastructural projects since the programme was established in 2012. A former governor, Ibrahim Shema, is also facing trial for the alleged fraud before a federal court. Editors Note: This story was edited after the attorney general of the federation explained his role in the controversy. The House of Representatives has resolved to constitute an ad-hoc committee to investigate the utilisation of all funds appropriated for the Nigerian armed forces. The resolution followed a motion brought under matters of urgent national importance by the deputy minority leader, Chukwuka Onyema, at plenary on Tuesday. PREMIUM TIMES reported how no fewer than 118 Nigerian soldiers of the 157 Battalion were massacred by Boko Haram insurgents who now call themselves Islamic State West Africa on November 18, 2018 at the village of Metele, Borno State. The initial figures of casualty were put at 44 but as more details emerged, it is now confirmed at least118 soldiers and officers were killed with their commanding officer, Ibrahim Sakaba, while about 150 more soldiers and officers are still missing. Moving the motion, Mr Onyema noted that according to reports, the insurgents carted away a large cache of weapons from the Melete army base which security experts say would embolden them and pose a great danger to Nigeria. He noted that while the news of the attack and death toll continued to increase, the president and commander-in-chief, the minister of defence or the army authorities did not say anything about the report for more than five days. The President and C-in-C finally broke his silence six days after the attack in a statement issued on his behalf, the lawmaker noted. In the last one year, not fewer than 600 Nigerian soldiers have been killed by insurgents mostly in Borno State around the fringes of the Lake Chad. Mr Onyema recalled several other attacks on the military which he said questions the competence of the armed forces. On June 18, 2018, Boko Haram attack in Gajiram, Borno State led to the death of civilians and soldiers. On July 13, 2018, Boko Haram ambushed and killed soldiers at Alagaye village near Bama, Borno State and carted away nine gun trucks. On July 14, 2018, Boko Haram attacked at the 81 division Forward Brigade at Jilli village in Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe state and killed scores of soldiers, he listed amongst others. Contributing to the debate, Zakari Mohammed (Kwara, PDP), said the way the attacks were being coordinated indicated a lack of synergy between the armed forces, adding that there seemed to be a competition amongst them. For the first time, the police and DDS are on their own, he said. The monies they have been appropriating, what has been happening to them? We should bring them to the NASS to tell us where the problem is. Mr Mohammed alleged the authorities go for low quality ammunition and get defeated at the end of the day. Also lending his voice to the debate, Abdulsammad Dasuki (Sokoto, PDP), said the Nigerian armed forces used to be the pride of Africa but the recent attacks have proven otherwise. Mr Dasuki who is the chairman of the house committee on Navy also attributed the attacks to lack of adequate personnel In the armed forces. In the last three years, the number of recruitments in the armed forces are nothing to write home about. The combined armed forces are not up to 200,000. The issue of manpower is paramount for these young men to secure us. He said in the last three years, not a single person has been sacked for not doing his job, adding that service chiefs have not lived up to expectations. Mr Dasuki said President Buhari has failed Nigerians in that aspect and urged Nigerians to do the needful. It will not be wrong to say that the Commander in Chief has failed us. The man that says he will bring the killers to book (but) has not done so. If he doesnt bring them to book then it is high time we Nigerians bring them to book. The House also resolved to investigate the operational lapses that led to the killings of the soldiers and urged the military to after due consultation with families of the fallen heroes publish their names. In a similar vein, the House passed for a second reading, a bill for an act to Provide for Establishment of the Bureau of Military Veterans Affairs that will make Provisions for the Benefits and Welfare of Military Veterans and their Dependents; and for Related Matters. The bill was sponsored by Akeem Adeyemi (Oyo, APC). The trial of a former governor of Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja, and one of his aides, Waheed Akanbi, on criminal charges of alleged N4.7 billion fraud, ended on Tuesday after 10 years of legal battle at a Federal High Court Lagos. The trial ended before Justice Mohammed Idris, with Mr Ladoja mounting the witness box to give evidence in his trial. Mr Ladoja was charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with converting N4.7 billion from the states treasury, to his personal use. He was re-arraigned along with Mr Akanbi, his former Commissioner for Finance, on 11-count charge of money laundering and unlawful conversion of public funds. They pleaded not guilty to the charges, and were granted bail. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that after the close of prosecutions case, the accused had opted to file a no case submission before the court, contending that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against them. In its ruling, the court dismissed the no case submission, holding that based on a preponderance of evidence as put forward by prosecution, there was no doubt that the accused had some explanations to make. The court had then ordered the defence to open its defence. NAN reports that defence has since begun its case and called witnesses. On Tuesday in his lead evidence, Mr Ladoja denied authorising the sale of Oyo State shares at discounted prices. He said that the decision to sell the shares were taken by the State Executive Council, upon his return to office on Dec. 11, 2006, following the nullification of his impeachment by the Supreme Court. He added that proceeds generated from the sale of the shares were deployed towards execution of projects. On our return to office, we found out that most of the items we had in our budget in 2006 were not touched. We were then looking for money and the second defendant, who was the commissioner of finance, was saddled with the responsibility of looking for the money; he then came up with the idea of selling the shares. We later called functionaries at the Ministry of Commerce, but they told us that the shares have been tied down to the purchase of rice. We then found a way of freeing the shares and at that point, the second defendant made his submissions to the State Executive Council on the sale of the shares and it was approved. A memo was later raised by the commissioner of finance and I approved it; I had no dealings with either the Portfolio Manager, Fountain Securities Ltd or its Managing Director, Chief Kola Daisi, he said. Mr Ladoja added that he was not privy to the total amount of money that was realised from the sale of shares, neither did he personally benefit from it. He said: It is for the officials to follow up with the revenue; my job stopped at the point of approving the sale of the shares. The revenue generated from the sale of the shares were expended on certain projects, he said. During cross-examination by the prosecutor, Olabisi Oluwafemi, the accused said that he declared his assets on assumption of office in 2003. He added that the sold shares were purchased during his tenure as governor of Oyo State. After cross examination, the trial came to a close. Justice Mohammed Idris has fixed January 18, 2019, for parties to adopt their final written addresses. NAN reports that after adoption of final addresses in the case, judgment is expected to be delivered. Mr Ladoja was first arraigned in 2008. 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 their knowledge that it was proceeds from a criminal activity. Mr Ladoja was accused of removing 600,000 pounds from the state coffers in 2007 and sending it to his daughter, Bimpe, in London. In addition, the ex-governor was accused of converting N42 million belonging to the state to his personal use and subsequently used same to purchase an armored Land Cruiser. The EFCC added that Mr Ladoja converted N728 million and N77 million at different times in 2007 to his personal use and transferred same to Bistrum Investments for the purchase of a property in Ibadan. The offences contravene the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004, according to the EFCC. (NAN) The National Industrial Court on Tuesday in Kano ordered the Kano State government to redeploy the 894 health workers it transferred to other agencies from Hospital Management Board, and refund their salaries deducted for 27 months. The state government had on Sept. 6, 2016, through the office of the Head of Service, redeployed the affected workers to other agencies, and changed their salary structure from Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) to Harmonised Public Service Salary Structure (HAPSSS). Irked by the governments action, the affected workers, under Nigerian Civil Service Union, Kano Hospital Management Board Chapter, on July 3, 2017, dragged the state government to Industrial Court, challenging the action. The plaintiffs, through their counsel, Surajo Sabo Ali, told the court that, being employees of Kano State Hospital Management Board, they were entitled to continue to enjoy the CONHESS salary structure. He added that his clients, having been employed by the state Hospital Management Board and in pursuant to Hospital Management Board edict 1995, were not subjected to any circular or directives given by the Head of Service. The Kano Hospital Management Board is a body established by law of Kano State, and saddled with the responsibility and powers to recruit, employ, train, transfer and promote its employees, he said. He argued that the complainants were subject to transfer within the zonal office of the Kano State Hospital Management Board, and their transfer was within its powers, not the Head of Service. Their transfer as a result of the circular issued by Head of Service, they were affected negatively to the effect of a transfer and posting out of Kano State Hospital Management Board and its zone. The plaintiffs, therefore, prayed the court to declare the circular as void and of no effect whatsoever to them. Delivering the judgment, Judge E. Isiele ordered the state government to redeploy the affected workers to their former station and refund all the salaries deducted for the 27 months. Speaking to journalists after the judgement, the workers counsel, Mr Ali, expressed happiness and satisfaction over the judgement. He also thanked the judge for granting five out of six of their prayers. However, in his remarks, the defense counsel, Mukhtar Sani Daneji, faulted the judgement, saying they will file an appeal. (NAN) The United Nations (UN) has engaged Anambra State Government in a media partnership aimed to further strengthen the cordial relationship between the state and the United Nations (UN) system in Nigeria. It is the first ever in South-eastern Nigeria. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the special representative of Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, made this known while speaking at the official handover ceremony which held at Awka. He said he was delighted to add his voice to the on-going efforts of the United Nations to reach the worlds farthest through media partnership. The UN Media Partners initiative of the UN News and Media Division (NMD), Department of Public Information, New York, tells the UNs story through television, radio and the Internet, working together with partners in the media worldwide to raise awareness of the UNs goals and highlight its successes, he said. He emphasised that the United Nations (UN) goals are peoples goals, adding that its successes are peoples successes, and no doubt, peoples goals, aspirations and successes are also United Nations. If Anambra State, Nigeria, for instance, records a significant success in any of the SDGs, that is a success story that will interest the UN News and Media Division. With this partnership, we can jointly document how partnership between the UN and the Anambra State government is impacting lives and changing the narratives of poverty, health delivery, quality education, innovation as well as safe and sustainable environment, among others. He added, today, I have with me the Media Partnership Agreement between the United Nations headquarters, New York and the Anambra State Government, represented by the Anambra State Broadcasting Services (ABS). This is a major milestone for the UN, as this is the first in the entire South-East Nigeria, and the second in the country. The last time this type of ceremony took place was August 2015 when the former Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, presented this type of Partnership Agreement to Channels Television. He said, he was aware that the state government has been working very closely with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Nigeria, being the field office of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), New York, the custodian of this partnership agreement. The on-going weekly Igbo language programme titled, NjemMmepe (Development Strides) jointly produced by ABS and UNIC, has been generating a lot of positive feedbacks on the works of the United Nations, he noted. Please allow me to emphasise that multilingualism is important to the UN. The UN in Nigeria will continue to diversify its language of communication to the Nigerian people. We will continue to be deliberate in the use of local languages in order not to leave no one behind. Currently, we have weekly programmes running in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages across the country. With this partnership, UNIC can facilitate media access to senior UN officials; jointly produce special news documentaries that help to highlight issues that deserve greater visibility; and make available live and recorded audio from meetings and events. These audio materials are incorporated into programmes or newscasts. Sound bites and raw audio are also made available for your reporters to produce their own stories about the UN. A Federal High Court in Osogbo on Tuesday refused to grant bail to a former Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) lecturer, Richard Akindele charged with demanding sex to pass a student, Monica Osagie. The judge, Maureen Onyetenu, in her ruling ordered Mr Akindele to be remanded in Ilesa prison custody until December 17. Mrs Onyetenu ordered the prosecution counsel from the ICPC to produce video evidence of the lecturer and his student having fun. Earlier, ICPC Senior Legal Officer, Kehinde Adetoye had prayed the court to deny the defendant bail on grounds that he will not appear for his trial when released. Mr Adetoye argued that the defendant had refused to appear in their office in Abuja after a written agreement to honour any invitation extended to him particularly since his return from abroad after a medical trip. Defence counsel, Francis Omotosho, prayed the court to grant his client bail pending the final determination of the case. The lecturer was first arraigned on November 19 by the ICPC on four counts of alteration of age and demanding sex to pass his student. (NAN) Adegboyega Oyetola has been sworn in as the governor of Osun State. Mr Oyetola, who won the September 22 governorship election on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) took the oath of office at the Osogbo City Stadium, on Tuesday in the state capital. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that he arrived at the venue of the event with his wife, Kafayat, and children at 11:40 am. The Chief Judge of the State, Oyobola Adepele-Ojo, administered the oath of office on Mr Oyetola at 1:02 pm. His deputy, Benedict Alabi, took the oath of office at 12:55 pm. Mr Oyetola took over from Rauf Aregbesola, who came into power on November 27, 2010. Mr Aregbesola came to power after the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan sacked his predecessor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who had spent three and a half years of his second term in office. In his goodwill message, President Muhammadu Buhari urged Mr Oyetola to rule with a human face and with the fear of God. The president, who was represented by Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, also urged him to be a governor for all. Mr Buhari said the peaceful transition from one government to another was a demonstration that Nigeria democracy had matured. The president commended the people of the state for conducting themselves peacefully during the governorship election in spite of the hitches, adding that the victory was for the people. Mr Buhari also commended Mr Aregbesola for steering the ship of the state in the right direction in the last eight years and for handing over power to another APC governor. The president, however, said the Federal Government was committed to the completion of various infrastructure projects in the state. He said the FG had supported the state in the area of health, housing, water, economy and education. Also speaking, Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the ruling APC commended Mr Aregbesola for his achievements while in office. He said Aregbesola earned a progressive mandate for eight years, developed progressive programmes and handed over to another progressive governor. This is not a mere achievement, and we pledge our total support, both of us in office or out of office for the continuity of the progressive government established by President Muhammadu Buhari. And we are not going back to greed, selfishness, and corruption that held back our progress. Mr Tinubu, however, urged Mr Oyetola to embark on the same path that gave him the honour to become the governor, adding that the party was solidly behind him. In his speech, the governor said his administration marked a new beginning in the state. He said he would ensure that the people of the state felt positive effects of the progressive government in the state. He also said that his administration would ensure prompt payment of workers salaries. Mr Oyetola also said he would increase the revenue base, job creation, boost agriculture and food security as well as accessible education and health. While thanking President Buhari for his support for the state and the party, Mr Oyetola said Osun was ready for the next level. He promised to deliver Osun for the president in 2019. My administration will promote growth, job creation, social protection and upgrade the standard of living of the people, Oyetola said. Mr Oyetola, a former Chief of Staff to Mr Aregbesola for eight years, is a native of Iragbiji in Boripe Local Government Area of the state. Born on September 29, 1954, Mr Oyetola bagged Bachelor of Science degree in Insurance in 1978 from the University of Lagos, and a Master of Business Administration in 1999 at the same University. NAN reports that Mr Oyetola, a native of Iragbiji, defeated the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke during the governorship election. NAN further reports that Mr Oyetola scored 255,505 votes to defeat Mr Adeleke, who polled 255, 023 votes. Mr Adeleke is currently in court to challenge the polls which were marred by widespread irregularities. The journey of Mr Oyetola to the governorship seat started on July 20, when he won the partys governorship ticket. He scored 127,017 votes to defeat other 16 aspirants who participated in the direct primary held in Osogbo. NAN reports that APC governors at the event were Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo, and Yayaha Bello of Kogi. Also present were Adams Oshiomole, the APC National Chairman; Bola Tinubu, the APC National Leader, and his wife, Oluremi; Olusegun Osoba, a former Ogun governor; Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi; Alafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi; among others. (NAN) "Amy and I are raising an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old, and we spent the better part of the last two years not with each other, missing birthdays and anniversaries and time together," he said. "Our family could not survive more of that. We, we need to be together." Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on Tuesday introduced levies on churches, mosques, and other business organisations in the state. These levies, according to the state government, were imposed as part of efforts to generate funds to assist security agencies. The categories of these levies were contained in flyers made available to journalists at an emergency meeting convened by the state government which was held at the House of Chiefs, Parliament Building, Secretariat, Ibadan on Tuesday. At the meeting were the state commissioner of police, Abiodun Odude; representatives of the GOC of 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Odogbo Ibadan; police area commanders, DSS, Customs, NSCDC, NDLEA, chief executive officers of banks and representatives of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria. The flyers obtained by PREMIUM TIMES indicated that religious bodies in class A are expected to pay N60,000 while manufacturing and services in category A are to pay N100,000 annually. The approved levies for class A (Large) in the manufacturing sector is N100,000 while class B (Medium) is N80,000 and class C (Small) is N60,000 annually. The rest are those in the services. Class A are to pay N100,000, class B is N80,000 while class C will pay N60,000 annually. Those in class A, trading, agriculture and forestry and solid minerals are to pay N80,000 while those in the classes B and C are to pay N50,000 and N30,000 respectively annually. Other religious bodies including churches and mosques were asked to pay N60,000, N40,000 and N20,000 for classes A, B and C respectively. The notice said that payment of the above levies are necessary to support the state government to ensure lives and property are protected. This is to certify the general public that OYSSTF, in pursuance of its statutory function to continue to assist security agencies, is embarking on the implementation of the law (OYSSTF AMENDMENT LAW 2017) recently assented by His Excellency, Oyo State Governor Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Further to the above, the board of trustees of OYSSTF in conjunction with relevant stakeholders, having held several consultations, town hall meetings and discussions preceding the commencement of the law, hereby informs the general public that in accordance with section 11 (4) of the Oyo state security trust fund law 2017 which empowers the government to impose levies and rates on person which include residents, individuals, associations and corporate bodies or firms domiciled in the state. Meanwhile, Mr Ajimobi said the meeting was convened in reaction to an observation of a noticeable increase in the activities of criminals in neighbouring states and attacks on banks. Mr Ajimobi who was represented by his deputy, Moses Adeyemo, said, It is common knowledge that before the inception of this present administration, insecurity in form of armed robberies, arson and other violent crimes, as well as lawlessness from the nefarious activities of area boys, had been the order of the day. The prevailing peaceful atmosphere in the state has been the result of the zero tolerance for crime by this administration and also through the commitment of the state government to combating crime through steps such as the establishment of Oyo State Joint Security Patrol Squad code-named Operation Burst as well as the setting up of the Oyo State Security Trust Fund. I can confirm that the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) in black spots and business districts in the city to monitor the activities of criminals has been completed and is now operational. The chairman of the states Security Trust Fund, Bayo Adelabu, who is also the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state noted that the spate of recent armed robberies on banks and the killing of security personnel in neighbouring states had made it necessary to hold the emergency meeting. He was represented by the Executive Secretary of the trust fund, Femi Oyedipe. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stand guard along the U.S. and Mexico border in Tijuana, Mexico on Nov. 25, 2018. (Tomas Ayuso/Bloomberg) 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. Since starting its climb up the charts in 2017, the song has been streamed over 100 million times on China's music platforms, while its music video has been viewed more than 50 million times on video platforms. The popularity of the song has moved beyond China's borders into other markets. The original as well as versions in several languages have been widely shared. The music video has been viewed more than 6 million times on YouTube. Many foreign fans, who have professed a love for Chinese culture, have submitted video clips of their own attempts at the dance routine, in which, they are waving the emblematic red and white fan. The English version of the song presents a portrait of a modern, fashionable and vibrant China to the world. SING is Asia's first electronic Chinese style music girl band formed in 2015 by Qigu Culture, a producing agency owned by Tencent Music Enterainment Group, with members Lai Meiyun, Jiang Shen, Xu Shiyin, Qin Yu, Lin Hui, Wu Yao, Chen Li and Bian Li in the current lineup. With its own unique style and an expanding fan base, the band has rising commercial value, becoming the new favorite in the mobile game and animation industry and releasing some dozen songs in collaboration with several games, including Fantasy Westward Journey and King of Glory. This year, the band teamed up with popular Chinese animation series Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation to release the song "Bu Xian", which had more than 10,000 comments immediately following its release on KuGou and quickly swept the major authority list within a week. The release of "Moonlight Thoughts" is important for the girl band. The band members all said that they will continue releasing even more appealing electronic Chinese style tunes, doing their best to give more listeners around the world an opportunity to know SING and become more acquainted with what Chinese culture has to offer. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789890/SING_English_version.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789889/SING_Chinese_girl_group.jpg SOURCE Qigu Culture TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Drone Delivery Canada 'DDC or the Company' (TSXV: FLT) (OTC: TAKOF), is pleased to announce that Air Canada Cargo's, Mr. Tim Strauss, has joined DDC's Advisory Board to assist the Company to execute its commercial strategy. Mr. Strauss currently serves as Vice President of Cargo for Air Canada, Canada's largest domestic and international airline. Air Canada serves more than 200 airports on six continents and is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and serves more than 48 million customers each year. Mr. Strauss provides oversight for all aspects of Air Canada's cargo business, including leading, directing, developing and implementing customer-centric initiatives and solutions, and responsibility for commercial business and its profitability. "We are very pleased to have Tim join our team." commented Tony Di Benedetto, CEO of Drone Delivery Canada. "I have had the pleasure of knowing Tim for quite some time and his forward-thinking vision of logistics and solid industry experience are true assets for the Company in implementing our commercialization strategy in Canada and abroad." "I am delighted to join Drone Delivery Canada's Advisory Board. Tony and the staff at DDC are in the unique position of introducing world leading technology and a totally new approach to the distribution of goods across Canada and beyond. This is truly a revolutionary approach to the supply chain which will affect our industry for decades to come", commented Tim Strauss, VP Cargo, Air Canada. Mr. Strauss has more than 31 years of cargo experience in both the airline and freight forwarding industries. Prior to joining Air Canada, Strauss held leadership roles in global sales and operations at Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and in Hawaiian Airlines. He began his career with Emery Worldwide in 1987 (now UPS Supply Chain Logistics) where he held roles of increasing responsibility, starting as a cargo handler and completing his tenure as Vice President of Transportation and Logistics. Mr. Strauss advanced his understanding of the logistics industry via studies in management at The Ohio State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cambridge Institute. The Company is currently focused on strengthening its management team amongst all levels with a focus on enlisting the smartest minds to assist in driving commercial operations. About Drone Delivery Canada Drone Delivery Canada is a drone technology company focused on the design, development and implementation of its proprietary logistics software platform, using drones. The Company's platform will be used as Software as a Service (SaaS) for government and corporate organizations. Drone Delivery Canada Corp. is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX.V Exchange under the symbol FLT, on the U.S. OTC Q B market under the symbol TAKOF and on the Frankfurt exchange in Germany under the symbol A2AMGZ. For more information, please visit; www.dronedeliverycanada.com SOURCE Drone Delivery Canada Related Links http://www.dronedeliverycanada.com HOUSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) today announced the commencement of a cash tender offer (the "Tender Offer") for up to $500 million combined aggregate principal amount (the "Maximum Tender Amount") of its outstanding 3.45% Notes due 2024, 4.85% Notes due 2021 and 5.55% Notes due 2026 (collectively, the "Notes") in the priorities set forth in the table below. The purpose of the Tender Offer is to reduce the outstanding debt represented by the Notes purchased in the Tender Offer and reduce Anadarko's future interest expense. Notes that are accepted in the Tender Offer will be purchased, retired and cancelled by Anadarko and will no longer represent outstanding obligations of Anadarko. The following table sets forth certain information regarding the Notes and the Tender Offer: Title of Security CUSIP Number Principal Amount Outstanding Acceptance Priority Level Reference U.S. Treasury Security Bloomberg Reference Page(1) Early Tender Premium (per $1,000) Fixed Spread (basis points) Hypothetical Total Consideration(2) 3.45% Notes due 2024 032511BJ5 $625,000,000 1 2.875% U.S. Treasury Note due 31 Oct 2023 FIT1 $30 145 $955.53 4.85% Notes due 2021 032511BM8 $800,000,000 2 2.875% U.S. Treasury Note due 15 Nov 2021 FIT1 $30 85 $1,023.40 5.55% Notes due 2026 032511BN6 $1,100,000,000 3 3.125% U.S. Treasury Note due 15 Nov 2028 FIT1 $30 175 $1,042.66 (1) The applicable page on Bloomberg from which the dealer managers for the Tender Offer will quote the bid-side prices of the applicable U.S. Treasury Security. (2) Per $1,000 principal amount of Notes and shows a hypothetical Total Consideration based on the Reference Yield as of 11:00 a.m., New York City time on November 26, 2018, assuming that we elect to purchase the Notes validly tendered on or prior to the Early Tender Deadline, and assuming the hypothetical Total Consideration therefor is paid on the Early Settlement Date. All capitalized but undefined terms are defined below. The Tender Offer is being made upon and is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in Anadarko's Offer to Purchase dated Nov. 27, 2018 (the "Offer to Purchase") and the related Letter of Transmittal. The Tender Offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on Dec. 24, 2018, unless extended or earlier terminated by Anadarko (the "Expiration Date"). The consideration paid in the Tender Offer for each series of Notes that are validly tendered and accepted for purchase will be determined in the manner described in the Offer to Purchase by reference to a fixed spread over the yield to maturity of the applicable U.S. Treasury Security specified in the table above and in the Offer to Purchase (the "Total Consideration"). Holders of Notes that are validly tendered and not withdrawn at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Dec. 10, 2018 (the "Early Tender Deadline") and accepted for purchase will receive the applicable Total Consideration, which includes an early tender premium of $30.00 per $1,000 principal amount of the Notes accepted for purchase (the "Early Tender Premium"). Holders of Notes who validly tender their Notes following the Early Tender Deadline but at or prior to the Expiration Date will only receive the applicable "Tender Offer Consideration" per $1,000 principal amount of any such Notes tendered by such holders that are accepted for purchase, which is equal to the applicable Total Consideration minus the Early Tender Premium. The Total Consideration will be determined at 11:00 a.m., New York City time, on the day following the Early Tender Deadline, which is expected to be Dec. 11, 2018, unless extended by Anadarko. Tenders of Notes may be withdrawn at any time at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Dec. 10, 2018 and may not be withdrawn thereafter except in certain limited circumstances where additional withdrawal rights are required by law. Payments for Notes purchased will include accrued and unpaid interest from and including the last interest payment date applicable to the relevant series of Notes up to, but not including, the applicable settlement date for such Notes accepted for purchase. The settlement date for Notes that are validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline is expected to be Dec. 12, 2018, the second business day following the Early Tender Deadline (the "Early Settlement Date"). The settlement date for Notes that are tendered following the Early Tender Deadline but at or prior to the Expiration Date and accepted for purchase is expected to be Dec. 27, 2018, the second business day following the Expiration Date (the "Final Settlement Date"), assuming the Maximum Tender Amount is not purchased on the Early Settlement Date. Subject to the Maximum Tender Amount, all Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline having a higher Acceptance Priority Level (with 1 being the highest) will be accepted before any tendered Notes having a lower Acceptance Priority Level (with 3 being the lowest), and all Notes validly tendered following the Early Tender Deadline having a higher Acceptance Priority Level will be accepted before any Notes tendered following the Early Tender Deadline having a lower Acceptance Priority Level. However, even if the Tender Offer is not fully subscribed as of the Early Tender Deadline, subject to the Maximum Tender Amount, Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline will be accepted for purchase in priority to other Notes tendered following the Early Tender Deadline even if such Notes tendered following the Early Tender Deadline have a higher Acceptance Priority Level than Notes tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Deadline. Notes of a series may be subject to proration if the aggregate principal amount of the Notes of such series validly tendered and not validly withdrawn would cause the Maximum Tender Amount to be exceeded. If the Notes within an Acceptance Priority Level are accepted on a prorated basis, no series of Notes with an Acceptance Priority Level lower than such prorated series of Notes will be accepted for purchase. Furthermore, if the Tender Offer is fully subscribed as of the Early Tender Deadline, holders who validly tender Notes following the Early Tender Deadline will not have any of their Notes accepted for purchase. Anadarko's obligation to accept for purchase and to pay for the Notes validly tendered in the Tender Offer is conditioned on the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions described in the Offer to Purchase. Anadarko reserves the right, subject to applicable law, to: (i) waive any and all conditions to the Tender Offer; (ii) extend or terminate the Tender Offer with respect to any series of the Notes; (iii) increase or decrease the Maximum Tender Amount; or (iv) otherwise amend the Tender Offer in any respect. Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as dealer managers for the Tender Offer. The information agent and tender agent is D.F. King & Co., Inc. Copies of the Offer to Purchase, Letter of Transmittal and related offering materials are available by contacting D.F. King & Co., Inc. at (888) 605-1957 (toll-free), (212) 269-5550 (banks and brokers) or [email protected]. Questions regarding the Tender Offer should be directed to Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc. at (866) 807-6030 (toll-free) or (212) 261-7802 (collect) or Deutsche Bank Securities at (866) 627-0391 (toll-free) or (212) 250-2955 (collect). This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy or an offer to purchase or sell any securities. The Tender Offer is being made only pursuant to an Offer to Purchase dated Nov. 27, 2018 and a related Letter of Transmittal, which set forth the terms and conditions of the Tender Offer, and only in such jurisdictions as is permitted under applicable law. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141103/156201LOGO Anadarko Petroleum Corporation's mission is to deliver a competitive and sustainable rate of return to shareholders by exploring for, acquiring and developing oil and natural gas resources vital to the world's health and welfare. As of year-end 2017, the company had approximately 1.44 billion barrels-equivalent of proved reserves, making it one of the world's largest independent exploration and production companies. This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Anadarko believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions. No assurance, however, can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the projections, anticipated results or other expectations expressed in this news release, including the satisfaction of all conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase, not all of which are within Anadarko's control. See Risk Factors in Anadarko's 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other public filings and press releases. Anadarko undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Anadarko Contacts INVESTORS : Mike Pearl, [email protected] , 832.636.3271 Andy Taylor, [email protected] , 832.636.3089 SOURCE Anadarko Petroleum Corporation Related Links http://www.anadarko.com International Expansion Extends to 21 Countries TSX |NYSE: ACB EDMONTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Aurora Cannabis Inc. ("Aurora" or the "Company") (NYSE:ACB) (TSX: ACB) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) announced today that the company has received an export request, has secured the required export permit and has now completed its first shipment of medical cannabis products to the Czech Republic, making this the 21st country in which the company operates. The initial purchase order was placed by, and products will be shipped to Czech Medical Herbs s.r.o. ("CMH"), a Czech pharmaceutical wholesaler, who will subsequently supply pharmacies throughout the country. Czech Medical Herbs is a distributor of medicinal products with a specialization in Cannabis for medical use and medicinal products based on cannabinoids. "This supply arrangement demonstrates our ability to enter into new jurisdictions as the partner of choice in new markets with strong barriers to entry, and is testament to the strength and business execution of our European business development team," said Neil Belot, Chief Global Business Development Officer. "The Czech Republic represents the 21st country in which we operate, and exemplifies how we are rapidly expanding our global footprint in the medical cannabis space. We look forward to building a long-term relationship with our customer, CMH, and supplying patients in the Czech Republic with our high-quality cannabis products." Cannabis for medical purposes was regulated in the Czech Republic, a country with approximately 10 million people, in 2013 and has since been legal as a prescribed form of medication. The law allows patients a total of 180 grams of dry flower product per month, as prescribed by specialized physicians, and can be obtained using an electronic prescription form. While the country has some domestic production, product availability remains limited and importing products from federally licensed producers with EU GMP cultivation facilities, like Aurora, will continue to augment supply and help meet growing market demand. About Aurora Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with funded capacity in excess of 500,000 kg per annum and sales and operations in 21 countries across five continents, Aurora is one of the world's largest and leading cannabis companies. Aurora is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, derivatives, high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and retail distribution. Highly differentiated from its peers, Aurora has established a uniquely advanced, consistent and efficient production strategy, based on purpose-built facilities that integrate leading-edge technologies across all processes, defined by extensive automation and customization, resulting in the massive scale production of high quality product at low cost. Intended to be replicable and scalable globally, our production facilities are designed to produce cannabis of significant scale, with high quality, industry-leading yields, and low per gram production costs. Each of Aurora's facilities is built to meet EU GMP standards, and its first production facility, the recently acquired MedReleaf Markham facility, and its wholly owned European medical cannabis distributor Aurora Deutschland, have achieved this level of certification. In addition to Aurora's rapid organic growth and strong execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes 15 wholly owned subsidiary companies MedReleaf, CanvasRX, Peloton Pharmaceutical, Aurora Deutschland, H2 Biopharma, Urban Cultivator, BC Northern Lights, Larssen Greenhouses, CanniMed Therapeutics, Anandia Labs, HotHouse Consulting, MED Colombia, Agropro, Borela, and ICC Aurora is distinguished by its reputation as a partner and employer of choice in the global cannabis sector, having invested in and established strategic partnerships with a range of leading innovators, including: Radient Technologies Inc. (TSXV: RTI), Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. (TSXV: HEMP), Cann Group Ltd. (ASX: CAN), Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM), Choom Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO), Capcium Inc. (private), Evio Beauty Group (private), Wagner Dimas (private), CTT Pharmaceuticals (OTCC: CTTH), and Alcanna Inc. (TSX: CLIQ). Aurora's Common Shares trade on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol "ACB", and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite Index. For more information about Aurora, please visit our investor website, investor.auroramj.com Terry Booth, CEO Aurora Cannabis Inc. Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes statements containing certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur and include, but are not limited to the variety of cannabis products that Aurora will supply to the adult use market.. 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 Company 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 TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Aurora Cannabis Inc. Related Links https://auroramj.com/ WHIPPANY, N.J., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On this #GivingTuesday, Bayer announces the launch of Grants Fur Families, a new program providing life-saving support to domestic violence shelters across the country who understand the critical role of the human animal bond. Bayer is committed to more widely illustrating the power of the bond people share with their pets, includes providing options for families with pets to live safely, out of fear. This new program will give $10,000 grants to 12 domestic violence shelters throughout the country, providing more destinations for those fleeing physical, mental and emotional abuse with their pets. Noahs Animal House, located in Las Vegas, provides an option for domestic violence victims fleeing from a dangerous situation with their pets. While a strong network of domestic violence shelters exists to provide women and children a safe place, there is a significant unmet need existing for families seeking shelter with their pets. Nearly half of abused women stay in their abusive relationships out of concern for the welfare of her beloved pet.1 Nationwide, less than 5 percent of domestic violence shelters can accommodate pets on-site, forcing abuse victims to choose between staying in an abusive relationship and leaving their pet with the abuser. Shelters like Noah's Animal House offer a solution. Noah's Animal House, a non-profit on the grounds of the largest women and children's shelter in Nevada, has been partnering with Bayer for several years to keep both pets and their people away from the dangers of domestic abuse. Open for more than 10 years, Noah's Animal House has sheltered more than 1,200 pets for more than 90,000 safe nights, enabling their fur-ever family to live safely. A client of Noah's Animal House, Trish, shares her story, "In November of 2009 I was a mess. I found myself divorced, with no job and in an abusive relationship. I was emotionally, physically, spiritually and literary bankrupt. I had some people who said I could stay with them but I couldn't bring my pets and I wasn't about to leave them behind - they were the only thing I had left. I was ready to live in my car with them when a counselor suggested that we call Noah's. It was a lifesaver for me and my babies Arlo, Max & Kitty. They gave me a safe place to fall while I got my life together again." "We recognize the deep, life changing bond that people share with their pets," said Ray Kerins, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Bayer U.S. "We're humbled and honored to launch Grants Fur Families to help fill the gap that exists for families escaping domestic violence with their pets. We're also excited that come January, twelve shelters will be able to open their doors to pets. No one should have to choose between their safety and their pet." Grants Fur Families is open to all 501(c)(3) domestic violence shelters in good standing with an on-site pet facility or planned on-site pet facility. To apply for a grant or learn more about required criteria, click here. Deadline to apply is December 21, 2018, and recipients will be announced in January 2019. How can I help raise awareness? There are several ways people across the country can support Grants Fur Families, to support the human animal bond and raise awareness for this important cause. Those interested in this cause can take action by: Following @Bayer4Pets on Instagram and Twitter and liking, sharing and tagging your friends/family with the content posted there to help more people understand the need for pet-friendly domestic violence shelters. Sharing this information with a local domestic violence shelter in your community and encouraging them to apply. Sharing the educational video located on www.petandwomensafety.com on social media channels with the hashtags #GrantsFurFamilies and #GivingTuesday. Looking for additional resources? The Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh (WCS) is a nonprofit organization who understands the importance of the human animal bond, especially in times of fear and change. In addition to recently opening a pet suite at their facility, they also launched the RUSafe app. The app is a free tool, helping to connect users, nationwide, with nearby emergency services, many of which provide help for pets. App features include: Free to download Agency directory for domestic abuse support services Secure journal tool Questionnaires to assess safety of relationships Links to additional resources about safety and risk RUSafe can be downloaded here on both iOS and Android devices. WCS is providing all domestic violence and women's shelters who inquire with free RUSafe kits, including additional resources and referral cards. Bayer: Science For A Better Life Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2017, the Group employed around 99,800 people and had sales of EUR 35.0 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.4 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.5 billion. For more information, go to www.bayer.us. About Noah's Animal House Las Vegas was one of the first cities in the United States to address this important barrier facing victims of domestic violence. Noah's Animal House was built on the grounds of The Shade Tree shelter in 2007 to provide safety, shelter and support for the pets of the clients of The Shade Tree. A second location in Reno, Nevada will be opening in early 2017 with Committee to Aid Abused Women (CAAW). Approximately one million pets per year are abused from domestic violence that occurs in their home. In a national survey, 71% of women seeking safety in a domestic violence shelter reported pet abuse in their home. Often a woman will leave home after domestic violence and take refuge at a shelter with her pet only to be turned away because very few women's shelters in the US accept animals. Typically, an abused woman will return home to the abuser because the shelter was unable to take her and her pet. Contact : Carolyn Nagle Bayer U.S. Email: [email protected] Office: 862-404-5955 Mobile: 201-419-0337 Social Media Channels - Facebook: BayerUnitedStates - Twitter: @BayerUS and @Bayer4Pets - Instagram: @BayerUS and @Bayer4Pets - YouTube: BayerUS Bayer and the Bayer Cross are registered trademarks of Bayer. Forward-Looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments. 1 Source: http://www.rosebrooks.org/services/pet-shelter SOURCE Bayer Related Links http://www.bayer.us Those attorneys will spend the next few weeks examining and challenging the petitions of competitors, looking for mistakes. Theyll discuss strategy and resources and optics. Theyll assess strengths and weaknesses of opposing legal counsel. Even if a candidate files petition sheets loaded with errors, is it worth the effort to try to kick him or her off the ballot? Does anyone really want to go after businessman and philanthropist Willie Wilson, for example, who has helped hundreds of people pay their property taxes but whose petitions Im told are problematic? GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackford Capital, a national private equity firm based in Grand Rapids, Mich., is proud to share that it has been named Private Equity Firm of the Year by The M&A Advisor at the 17th Annual M&A Advisor Awards on Tuesday, November 6. Founded in 1998, The M&A Advisor is the preeminent organization for M&A, turnaround, and finance professionals and has been honoring the leading M&A transactions, companies, and dealmakers since 2002. "Blackford Capital was chosen from over 600 participating companies to receive the award. It gives us great pleasure to recognize Blackford Capital and bestow upon them our highest honor for M&A firms and professionals," said Roger Aguinaldo, Founder of The M&A Advisor. "Blackford Capital represents the best of the M&A industry in 2018 and earned these honors by standing out in a group of very impressive candidates." Finalists in the "Private Equity Firm of the Year" category included: Kayne Partners, L Chatterton, High Road Capital Partners, Thoma Bravo LLC, and Blue Wolf Capital Partners LLC. For a full list of this year's M&A Advisor Award winners, please visit maadvisor.com. Within the last two years, Blackford Capital has experienced significant growth and success. Since 2017, the firm has acquired four portfolio companies, experienced three exits, had seven different companies recognized on the Inc. 5000 list, added eleven new employeesincluding a new Managing Directorand opened satellite offices in Detroit, Mich. and San Diego, Calif. "We place a significant emphasis on growth initiatives, for both our portfolio companies and Blackford Capital," said Carmen Evola, Managing Director at Blackford Capital. "2018 has been a busy and exciting year for us. We continue to make significant strides in growing our portfolio companies, strengthening our team, creating equity value for our investors, and we look forward to continuing this momentum going into 2019." Blackford Capital has been recognized by The M&A Advisor, seven times in the last three years, including: Private Equity Deal of the Year (4x), Private Equity Professional of the Year (1x), and the Emerging Leader Award (2x). "We are thrilled to have been honored at this year's M&A Advisor Awards. This award represents the culmination of the last several, successful years for Blackford Capital," said Martin Stein, Founder and Managing Director at Blackford Capital. "We may not be the biggest or oldest private equity firm in the U.S., and we may not have the most assets under management, but according to The M&A Advisor, we earned the title of Private Equity Firm of the Year. I believe that we earned this award for three reasons: (1) our successful exits over the past three years, (2) the growth trajectory that we have achieved with our full portfolio, and (3) the thought leadership and perspective we contribute to the industry through published articles, webinars, and panel participation. After the time, effort, and dedication spent on these initiatives, it's truly humbling to see the hard work of the team be recognized." The Awards Gala was held in conjunction with the 2018 M&A Advisor "The Future of Finance" Summitwhich featured over 500 of the industry's leading M&A professionals. Jeff Johnson, Managing Director of Blackford Capital, who was invited to participate in the Summit, expressed, "It was an honor to have the opportunity to be involved in this year's Summit discussing industry trends for 2019, alongside M&A professionals from around the world." "We feel that Blackford Capital's approach to portfolio governance and our commitment to establishing an independent board of directors creates an attractive partnership for founder and family-owned businesses looking to grow," added Johnson. "We believe that Blackford Capital is leading the lower middle-market in these areas. Blackford Capital has had a successful and active 2018 and continues to believe that 2019 will provide a positive market to continue that success." Blackford Capital Founded in 2000, Blackford Capital is a private equity investment firm headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Blackford Capital makes majority control investments in lower middle-market manufacturing, distribution, and services companies. Blackford Capital partners with founder and family-owned businesses to achieve significant growth and has established itself as a thought leader in private equity. To discover more resources, please visit our media page or blackfordcapital.com. The M&A Advisor The M&A Advisor was founded in 1998 to offer insights and intelligence on M&A activities. Over the past twenty years we have established the premier global network of M&A, Turnaround and Finance professionals. Today, we have the privilege of presenting, recognizing the achievements of, and facilitating connections between the industry's top performers throughout the world with a comprehensive range of services. For more information, visit maadvisor.com. Contact: Melanie Jaroch Blackford Capital [email protected] SOURCE Blackford Capital Related Links http://www.blackfordcapital.com CHICAGO, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CCC Information Services Inc. (CCC) announced today it will be delivering a keynote address at next week's AI World Conference in Boston, MA. During the session, CCC will discuss how AI is transforming the insurance industry and how insurance organizations and consumers are adapting to the changes. The keynote address is scheduled for Monday, December 3rd at the Seaport World Trade Center. CCC is a leading software as a service provider to the automotive, insurance, and collision repair industries. "Mobile technology, digital photos, and AI are turning the claims process on its head," said Jason Verlen, SVP of Product Management for CCC. "These technologies are permeating nearly every aspect of our lives, and now it's the insurance industry's turn to benefit, both operationally and in its ability to deliver on consumer expectations for a smart, digital claims experience. The transformation before insurers isn't without its challenges. The implementation and execution of AI is complex, but the value can't be overstated." Key points to be covered in keynote, include: How enterprises can build and access the right data, resources, and tools to implement AI efficiently and effectively. Best practices for combining human and machine to create opportunities for insurers to deliver differentiated claims experiences to their customers. How mobile, AI, and IoT (telematics) is, and will continue to transform the 100-year-old auto claims process into a digital journey for insurers and policyholders. About CCC's AI Solutions CCC offers a suite of industry-first digital claims solutions that use AI, mobile, photos, and telematics and are powered by the CCC ONE Platform, a cloud-based hyperscale platform built for the massive-scale demands of today's business environment. CCC Smart Total Loss uses a single photo to help an insurer determine in real time and with a high degree of accuracy whether a vehicle is repairable or a total loss. The Damage Detection solution uses computer vision technology to automatically detect vehicle damage and visually depict that damage using CCC's unique heat maps, and Virtual Inspection makes claims assetslike AI photos and heatmapseasy to use and manage for fast, convenient, and highly confident deskside inspections. CCC Smart Audit delivers additional efficiencies by applying photo analytics and AI to flag line-level items which appear out-of-norm vs. industry averages and intelligently routes claims for reinspection. Nearly 200 million automotive claims have been processed using CCC products and services, and its solutions are in use by more than 350 carriers, 24,000 repair shops, OEMs, and third-party data and service providers. Learn more about CCC's AI solutions. Learn more about AI World Conference. About CCC CCC, together with its affiliates, provides cross-industry solutions to support the vehicle lifecycle. Founded in 1980, CCC's solutions and big data insights are delivered through the CCC ONE platform to a vibrant network of 350+ insurance companies, 24,000+ repair facilities, OEMs, hundreds of parts suppliers, and dozens of third-party data and service providers. Annually, over 24 million estimates and 16 million repairs in the U.S. are processed using CCC products and services and CCC also provides access to locating car-related services for millions of consumers via carwise.com. Additionally, Auto Injury Solutions Inc. a CCC company provides customizable, end-to-end, casualty solutions to auto insurers for the handling of first and third-party claims. The collective set of CCC's solutions inform decision-making, enhance productivity, and help customers deliver faster and better experiences for end consumers. Learn more about CCC at cccis.com. CCC and the CCC logo are registered trademarks of CCC Information Services Inc. SOURCE CCC Information Services Inc. Related Links http://www.cccis.com BEIJING, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cheetah Mobile Inc. (NYSE: CMCM) ("Cheetah Mobile" or the "Company"), a leading mobile internet company with global market coverage, today responded to an article issued by BuzzFeed News dated November 26, 2018 regarding attribution of app installations. Cheetah Mobile takes the issues raised in the article very seriously. The Company is in communication with all SDK providers to investigate the allegations. The Company is committed to preventing any SDKs integrated in its apps from engaging in inappropriate activities and will suspend the business cooperation with any SDK providers if they are found to be engaging in fraudulent activities. The Company is dedicated to complying with all relevant Google policies, GDPR, laws and regulations. Cheetah Mobile works with almost all major ad platforms in the advertising industry. Each platform supplies ads through its own SDK integrated with the Company's apps, then the SDKs decide which ads to display. The SDKs and third-party attribution platforms work together to determine attribution of app installations. Cheetah Mobile's apps themselves are not part of that process. About Cheetah Mobile Inc. Cheetah Mobile is a leading mobile Internet company with global market coverage. It has attracted hundreds of millions of monthly active users through its mobile utility products such as Clean Master and Cheetah Keyboard, casual games such as Piano Tiles 2, Bricks n Balls, and live streaming product LiveMe. The Company provides its advertising customers, which include direct advertisers and mobile advertising networks through which advertisers place their advertisements, with direct access to highly targeted mobile users and global promotional channels. The Company also provides value-added services to its mobile application users through the sale of in-app virtual items on selected mobile products and games. Cheetah Mobile is committed to leveraging its cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies to power its products and make the world smarter. It has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since May 2014. Investor Relations Contact Cheetah Mobile Inc. Helen Jing Zhu Tel: +86 10 6292 7779 ext. 1600 Email: [email protected] ICR Inc. Jack Wang Tel: +1 (646) 417-5395 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Cheetah Mobile BOSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Constant Pharmaceuticals today announced that it plans to begin a development program for its compound, TXA127, for the treatment of the rare pediatric disease, epidermolysis bullosa in collaboration with four EB focused charities - DEBRA (Austria), Cure-EB, the Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Partnership (EBRP), and the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation (EBMRF). The plan is for this program to first complete the development of an oral formulation of the TXA127 peptide and then conduct a Phase 2 clinical trial in Europe and the US with that formulation. In work done at the University of Freiburg under the direction of Professor Bruckner-Tuderman, TXA127 showed significant clinical benefit in the animal model corresponding to the most severe form of EB, Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (RDEB), and showed positive effects in related in-vitro models. TXA127 demonstrated substantial anti-fibrotic effects and showed a reduction in the fusion of digits, a symptom in RDEB mice that is analogous to mitten deformity common in patients with severe RDEB. "DEBRA Austria is delighted to be able to provide further support towards the clinical development of TXA127. This will build on the high-quality preclinical research in Freiburg that we have funded to date, that indicates the promise of TXA127 as a candidate to tackle the disabling effects of fibrosis. As a father of an EB patient, it is great to see advances in the development of drugs with possible major beneficial impact on the life of people who live with RDEB," said Dr. Rainer Riedl, CEO of DEBRA Austria. "We are very pleased to have had the support of DEBRA (Austria) in sponsoring the preclinical investigations of TXA127 for the treatment of RDEB, and thankful to each of the charities for their interest in this important program going forward. There are currently no approved therapies for EB, and TXA127 may represent the first systemic therapy capable of targeting the multi-organ symptoms of this severe disease," said Dr. Richard Franklin, CEO of Constant Pharmaceuticals. In the first part of the new program, Constant will complete the development of an oral formulation of TXA127. TXA127 is currently delivered as a daily subcutaneous injection, but this is not suitable for patients with EB. "EB Research Partnership's venture philanthropy model is focused on working together with companies like Constant Pharmaceuticals to accelerate life-changing treatments for people with EB. We look forward to partnering with Constant on the development of TXA127 and are proud to share with them a commitment to innovation and urgency to deliver results to patients," said Michael Hund, Executive Director of EBRP. The second component of the program will be a Phase 2 trial done in Europe and the US. That trial will examine a number of endpoints that are clinically important in EB, including systemic and cutaneous fibrosis. "Cure EB is pleased to assist in this collaboration that will accelerate development of TXA127 for RDEB patients. The development of 'mitten deformities' is an extremely severe consequence of RDEB and we thank Constant Pharmaceuticals for the great opportunity to move towards a therapy for RDEB alongside its programs for other conditions," said Sharmila Collins, Founder and Trustee, CureEB. About EB and RDEB Epidermolysis bullosa is a group of genetic conditions, often involving a mutation in the collagen gene, COL7A1, that cause the skin to be very fragile and to blister easily. Blisters and skin erosions form in response to minor injury or friction, such as rubbing or scratching. Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB) is one of the major forms of epidermolysis bullosa. The signs and symptoms of this condition vary widely among affected individuals. In mild cases, blistering may primarily affect the hands, feet, knees, and elbows. Severe cases of this condition, including RDEB, involve widespread blistering that can lead to vision loss, disfigurement, and other serious medical problems. About TXA127 TXA127 is a pharmaceutical grade formulation of the naturally occurring peptide Angiotensin (17), which Constant is developing for the treatment of a number of orphan and genetic diseases, as well as stroke recovery. TXA127 has Orphan Drug Designation and Pediatric Rare Disease Designation and is expected to enter Phase II in EB in 2020, following formal GMP development of an oral formulation, which is required for systemic therapy in EB. TXA127 has received orphan drug designation for the treatment of EB in Europe and the US. About Constant Constant Pharmaceuticals LLC (formerly Tarix Orphan LLC) is a private biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of stroke recovery and rare neuromuscular disorders and connective tissue diseases. The company's lead drug candidate is TXA127, a pharmaceutical formulation of the naturally occurring peptide Angiotensin (17). TX127 has shown therapeutic activity in animal models of RDEB, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Limbgirdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), congenital muscular dystrophy (MDC1A) and stroke recovery, where the drug is effective with treatment started weeks after the stroke. Constant has broad IP protection for TXA127, and Orphan Drug Designations (ODDs) have been granted for DMD, LGMD, and RDEB in the United States, and for DMD and EB in Europe. For more information on Constant Pharmaceuticals, please visit our website at www.constantpharma.com. About DEBRA Austria DEBRA Austria is a member of DEBRA International, the worldwide alliance of national DEBRA Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) patient support groups, working in over 50 countries and growing. Our aims are to support people with EB and their organizations to work together to maximize quality of life, and to promote the development of effective treatments for the condition as quickly as possible through research. http://www.debrainternational.org. About Cure-EB Cure EB (formerly Sohana Research Fund) exists to fund medical research to find effective treatments and eventually a cure for epidermolysis bullosa, an inherited skin condition that leads to blistering and skin loss. Our focus is on translating research to develop a combination of treatments to combat the multi-system disease condition and leading to a cure. It is a UK based charity founded by the parents of a young sufferer www.cure-eb.org. About EBRP EB Research Partnership is the largest nonprofit dedicated to funding research aimed at treating and ultimately curing Epidermolysis Bullosa, a group of devastating and life-threatening skin disorders that affect children from birth. EBRP works to treat and cure EB as quickly and efficiently as possible, fulfilling our mission through partnerships with non-profit and for-profit organizations, foundations, individual donors, and the EB and research communities. www.ebresearch.org. EB Research Partnership has raised $25 million to fund innovative research aimed at finding treatments and cures for EB. EB is a genetic disease, so many of the projects we fund involve groundbreaking gene therapy techniques. About EBMRF The Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation was established in 1991 by Gary & Lynn Fechser Anderson at the request of Dr. Eugene Bauer, then Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at The Stanford University School of Medicine. The EBMRF is unique in that the Foundation pays no salaries. All work, including executive, development and administrative, is done on a volunteer basis. The Foundation prides itself on its efficiency, keeping operating costs at less than 1% of incoming donations so that a full 99% of contributions can go directly to its research programs. www.ebmrf.org. Contact: Elizabeth Wagner, COO Constant Pharmaceuticals [email protected] SOURCE Constant Pharmaceuticals LLC Related Links http://www.constantpharma.com LONDON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise, Consumer, and Government Applications for Deep Learning Software, Hardware, and Services: Market Analysis and Forecasts for 125 Use Cases across 30 Industries Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5629013 Deep learning is a buzzword that has been hyped by the business and technical press for years, often with relatively meager results that failed to live up to expectations. But over the past 18 months, the true power of deep learning has been realized, thanks to advances in hardware and algorithms that use pattern recognition applied in a continuous learning loop, enabling them to train themselves to perform tasks without requiring explicit programming code. Indeed, some of the most successful deep learning use cases in use today center around incremental and practical advancements in areas such as image recognition, text analysis, product recommendations, fraud prevention, and content curation. The sheer power of deep learning, however, is likely to lead to the development of more powerful and disruptive applications of tomorrow, such as driverless cars, personalized education, and preventative healthcare. Deep learning has been a key point of focus for many companies, given its potential to transform entire industries. Current leaders in the deep learning market include Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Baidu, and others. Tractica believes the opportunity for deep learning spans a wide range of industries and geographies and is particularly disruptive in highly domain-specific markets with high-volume data needs and ontologies, and those with growing applications for machine perception. Deep learning software revenue is estimated to grow from $3 billion in 2017 to $67.2 billion by 2025. This Tractica report examines the practical application of deep learning within consumer, enterprise, and government markets. The report provides strategic analysis and market forecasts for 125 deep learning use cases within 30 industry sectors, including an assessment of benefits and implementation considerations along with a quantification of the market opportunity for each use case. Market forecasts include deep learning software, hardware, and services revenue, segmented by world region, for the period from 2017 through 2025. The report also includes profiles of 28 key players within the evolving deep learning market ecosystem. Key Questions Addressed: What is the current state of the deep learning market and what drivers and barriers will shape its development over the next several years? What are the critical technology issues and configuration considerations businesses should know during the planning and implementation process? How and where will businesses gain (in cost savings and/or revenues) from applying deep learning technologies to their business processes and objectives? What are the primary use cases for deep learning in consumer, enterprise, and government markets? Who are the key players in the enterprise deep learning market, what is their competitive positioning, and which are poised for greatest success? What is the size of the deep learning market opportunity and how does it vary by industry and use case? Who Needs This Report? Enterprise software companies Semiconductor and component manufacturers Service providers and systems integrators End-user organizations deploying deep learning systems Industry associations Government agencies Investor community Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5629013 About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904 Website: www.reportbuyer.com SOURCE ReportBuyer Related Links http://www.reportbuyer.com "We're excited to get the uKeg into the hands of more beer lovers with this pioneer of beer equipment in the EU," said Shawn Huff, GrowlerWerks' co-founder. "Brouwland's team of entrepreneurial beer experts embrace innovation and quality, values that we share." Draft taps are flowing at many popular breweries in the EU. A Society of Independent Brewers report shows about a third of small breweries now run a tap bar. And a recent story in The Guardian highlights how brewery tap bars are becoming as important as the local pub. Europeans are loving independent, local beer, and the uKeg has arrived to help them take draft beer to go, keep it fresh, and share it with friends and family. To keep good microbrew from going bad, three craft beer lovers with an engineering problem in Portland, Oregon, got together and designed the uKeg, a pressurized growler that keeps oxygen away from beer and maintains perfect carbonation from first to last pour. An easy-to-use regulator cap, equipped with a low-cost, food-grade CO2 cartridge, partners with a vacuum-insulated, stainless-steel vessel to make the uKeg's benefits possible. It's a miniature keg that fits in the refrigerator, looks good in the dining room and can go wherever you go. The uKeg also makes a perfect holiday gift for the beer lover in your life. "Beer brings people together," said Huff. "We're looking forward to sharing our love for the craft beer experience across two continents." To see the uKeg in action, and possibly win a free uKeg, our schedule follows: Nov. 29 -- uKeg demonstration at Craft & Draft in Amsterdam, NL , 17:00 - 21:00 Nov. 30 -- uKeg visits De Koninck Brewery in Antwerpen, BE , 13:00 - 18:00 Dec. 1 -- uKeg fun at Liquorette in London, UK , 15:00 - 20:00 SOURCE GrowlerWerks Related Links http://growlerwerks.com NEW YORK, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jewish Communal Fund, one of the largest donor advised funds in the country, is announcing on Giving Tuesday that it now offers impact investment opportunities in every asset class. JCF has also introduced an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Pre-Set Portfolio option, in addition to Israel Bonds and the Market Vector Israel ETF options that already exist on JCF's investment platform to enable Fundholders to invest their charitable assets in a way that aligns with their values. A trailblazer among its peer donor advised funds, JCF most recently launched the JCF Social Impact Loan Program, an innovative collaboration with the Hebrew Free Loan Society (HFLS), whose mission is to help New Yorkers within and beyond the Jewish community achieve financial stability and mobility through interest-free loans. JCF Social Impact Loan Program The JCF Social Impact Loan Program enables JCF Fundholders to facilitate two-year, interest-free loans from their charitable funds to HFLS borrowers. The interest-free loans make it possible for many lower-income borrowers to invest in their family's future or successfully manage the ups and downs of their financial lives without having to rely on risky and expensive loans or accrue overwhelming amounts of credit card debt. "Jewish Communal Fund is proud to continue to offer innovative ways to maximize the philanthropic impact of our Fundholders," says Susan Dickman, the Executive Vice President and CEO of Jewish Communal Fund. "The JCF Social Impact Loan Program is part of our commitment to increasing our Fundholders' ability to help society." The program allows JCF Fundholders with accounts of $100,000 or more to recommend that up to 10% of the charitable assets be lent out in the form of two-year, interest-free loans through the HFLS. HFLS's interest-free loans make it possible for many lower-income borrowers to invest in their family's future or successfully manage the ups and downs of their financial lives without having to rely on risky and expensive loans or credit cards. When the two-year term is up, 100 percent of the loan amount will be returned to the Fundholder's account to be granted out to charity or reinvested. Fundholders will not be charged administrative fees on funds lent to HFLS during the two years these funds are being used for interest-free loans. In less than a month since this program launched, nearly half a million dollars has already been raised to facilitate interest-free loans to HFLS borrowers. "The JCF Social Impact Loan Program is a game-changer for our ability to provide lower-income New Yorkers with access to affordable credit," says Rabbi David Rosenn, Executive Director of HFLS. "With the support of this program, HFLS will increase its lending by millions of dollars over the next few years, donors will get double impact from their charitable funds, and more borrowers get access to interest-free credit. It's a win-win-win proposition." A leader in the world of Jewish philanthropy, JCF continues to be the largest and most active Jewish donor advised fund in the country with over $1.8 billion in charitable assets under management. In FY 2018, JCF distributed a record $435 million in grants to charities in all sectorsrepresenting 26 percent of assets, well above the industry average. A donor advised fund at JCF enables Fundholders to organize their charitable giving with ease and tax-efficiency. JCF's educational events and webinars help Fundholders increase their philanthropic impact. In addition, JCF's robust investment platform enables fund holders to grow their charitable dollars tax-free, enabling them to give more to their favorite causes. About Jewish Communal Fund Jewish Communal Fund is one of the largest and most active networks of Jewish funders, currently managing $1.7 billion in charitable assets for more than 3,800 donor advised funds. JCF's donor advised funds make giving easy, flexible and efficient. The Chronicle of Philanthropy designated JCF a "Top 10" Donor Advised Fund in the U.S. on its Philanthropy 400 list. Learn more about JCF by visiting www.jcfny.org or calling (212) 752-8277. Visit JCF on LinkedIn, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. MEDIA CONTACT: Tamar Snyder Sr. Director, Marketing & Communication Jewish Communal Fund [email protected] 212-752-8277 SOURCE Jewish Communal Fund Related Links http://www.jcfny.org ROCKVILLE, Maryland, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The metal coatings market is projected to witness robust growth in the coming years, the demand is likely to surpass 6,000'000 tons by the end of 2018, according to the latest report by Fact.MR. The growth of the metal coatings market is largely influenced by the immense growth in the construction and automotive industry coupled with rising urbanization. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/713666/FactMR_Logo.jpg ) The substantial growth of new construction projects in the APEJ region is likely to influence the sales of metal coatings in the forthcoming years. China and India are the countries driving most of the demand in the metal coatings market. The demand for metal coatings with fewer layers and lower cure temperatures is also increasing by the industrial coatings customers. With new regulations, demand for the eco-friendly metal coatings with low or zero VOC is also visible in APEJ region. China is also planning to charge a tax on VOC emission for solvent-based paints and coatings. Request For Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=2381 The coating companies in China are also focusing on developing smart metal coatings for various industries. Meanwhile, research and development activities are also going on in the country, this is likely to result in some interesting opportunities for metal coatings companies worldwide. Fluoropolymers Hold Largest Share in Metal Coatings Market Providing excellent chemical and corrosion resistance, fluoropolymers are finding large application across various industries. The growth of fluoropolymers in metal coatings market is likely to remain positive with the demand exceeding 1,000'000 tons by 2018 end, as per the study by Fact.MR. Fluoropolymers coatings are finding large application in architectural coatings exhibiting low surface energies, high resistance to water, chemicals, oils, and UV radiation, especially in exterior application. Manufacturers in the metal coatings market are also focusing on designing new products to address concerns associated with perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid found in many fluoropolymer chemicals. Owing to the need and manufacturing of lightweight materials in aerospace, automotive, and semiconductor industry, the demand for fluoropolymers is increasing in these industries. Meanwhile, manufacturers in the metal coatings market have also started developing green fluoropolymers in response to the growing environmental impacts of various chemicals used in metal coatings. The demand for high-performance fluoropolymers is also rising with the large application in electronics, and non-stick coating on cookware. Browse Full Report on Metal Coatings Market with TOC- https://www.factmr.com/report/2381/metal-coatings-market Metal Coatings to Find Large Application in Architectural Industry The architectural industry is likely to use metal coatings on a large scale mainly in steel and aluminum substrate. Innovation in steel technology, with the development of lightweight and composite steels, has led to the rise in steel based structures. While constant threat of corrosion of steel structures is driving the demand for metal coatings imparting anti-corrosion properties. The use for metallic coatings and paints has also surged in the construction industry in order to provide a striking and vibrant surface effect. The rise in the use of standard metals including brass, aluminum, copper, and iron in the architectural and interior design projects has led to the increased demand for non-toxic and durable metal coatings. Liquid fluoropolymer coatings have been used for a long time in the construction of buildings in North America. However, with the growing trend of green building construction, especially in North America, the use and demand for metal coatings in powder form has increased as compared to the liquid metal coatings made using solvents and emitting VOCs. Meanwhile, new generation of power metal coatings are also under development providing capability of liquid coatings. The growth in the metal coatings market is likely to remain robust. The global demand for metal coatings is expected to reach 6.5% CAGR during the forecast period, 2018-2027. Ask Our Industry Expert for more details on Metal Coatings Market - https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=2381 Popular Chemical Industry Reports by FMR: Architectural Coatings Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Market Insights 2018 to 2027 - https://www.factmr.com/report/2374/architectural-coatings-market - https://www.factmr.com/report/2374/architectural-coatings-market Coating Solvent Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Market Insights 2018 to 2027 - https://www.factmr.com/report/2359/coating-solvent-market - https://www.factmr.com/report/2359/coating-solvent-market Cool Roof Coating Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Market Insights 2018 to 2027 - https://www.factmr.com/report/2364/cool-roof-coating-market About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports. Contact Us Rohit Bhisey Fact.MR 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.factmr.com/ Blog: https://factmrblog.com/ Read Industry News at - https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ SOURCE Fact.MR DUBLIN, Nov 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Military Navigation Market by Platform (Ammunition, Aviation, Ground, Marine, Unmanned Vehicle, Space), Application, Component (Hardware, Software, Service), Grade & Region - Global Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The military navigation market is projected to grow from an estimated USD 8.87 billion in 2018 to USD 12.07 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 6.36% from 2018 to 2023. Increasing preference for the use of UAVs in modern warfare and rising demand for missiles and artillery systems due to geopolitical instabilities and changing nature of warfare are the key factors expected to drive the military navigation market during the forecast period. The market has been segmented based on platform, application, component, grade, and region. Based on platform, the military navigation market has been segmented into aviation, ammunition, marine, ground, space, and unmanned vehicle. Increasing threats, advancements in technology, and futuristic conflicts have increased the need for navigation products in unmanned aircraft and defense aircraft, among other platforms. Based on application, the military navigation market has been segmented into command & control (C2); intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance (ISR); combat & security; search & rescue (SAR); and targeting & guidance. ISR systems are designed to process specialized communications and navigation protocols from tactical and national intelligence systems. They provide access to mission critical data without clogging tactical communications networks and dramatically increase situational awareness for operators. Based on component, the market has been segmented into hardware, software, and service. The service segment is expected to witness the highest growth among all due to the upgradation and overhaul services for old fleets of various defense organizations. North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and RoW (Rest of the World) have been considered in the regional analysis of the military navigation market. Europe is estimated to lead the military navigation market in 2018, owing to the presence of major military navigation manufacturers, such as Safran (France), Cobham (UK), Garmin (Switzerland) and Thales (France) in the region. The decline in defense budgets of developed countries, such as Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Belgium, and Canada, has affected the demand for these systems, which, in turn, acts a restraint to the growth of the military navigation market. Products offered by various companies operating in the military navigation market have been listed in the report. The recent developments section of the report includes information on strategies adopted by various companies between 2014 and 2017. Rockwell Collins (US), L3 Navigation (US), and Raytheon (US) are some of the major market players. These players have an extensive geographical reach and distribution channels. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 1.1 Objectives of the Study 1.2 Market Definition 1.3 Study Scope 1.3.1 Markets Covered 1.3.2 Regional Scope 1.3.3 Years Considered for the Study 1.4 Currency 1.5 Limitations 1.6 Stakeholders 2 Research Methodology 2.1 Research Data 2.2 Market Size Estimation 2.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation 2.4 Research Assumptions 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 4.1 Attractive Opportunities in the Military Navigation Market 4.2 Europe Military Navigation Market, By Platform and Country 4.3 Military Navigation Market, By Application 4.4 Military Navigation Market, By Component 4.5 Military Navigation Market, By Country 5 Market Overview 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Market Dynamics 5.2.1 Drivers 5.2.1.1 Rising Demand for Missiles and Artillery Systems Due to Geopolitical Instabilities and Changing Nature of Warfare 5.2.1.2 Availability of Miniaturized Components at Affordable Prices 5.2.1.3 Increasing Preference for the Use of UAVs in Modern Warfare 5.2.1.4 Increasing Use of UAVs By Defense Forces as Loitering Munition 5.2.2 Restraints 5.2.2.1 Decline in Defense Budgets of Developed Countries 5.2.2.2 Operational Reliability Associated With High-End Inertial Navigation Sensors 5.2.3 Opportunities 5.2.3.1 Demand for New Generation Air and Missile Defense Systems 5.2.3.2 Integration of Anti-Jamming Capabilities With Navigation Systems 5.2.4 Challenges 5.2.4.1 Measurement Errors From Inertial Navigation Systems 5.2.4.2 High Cost in the Development of Military Navigation Equipment 6 Industry Trends 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Technology Trends 6.2.1 Error-Free Digital Output Through Air Data Computers 6.2.2 Weapons Integrated Battlefield Management Systems (WINBMS) 6.2.3 Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Ins 6.2.4 High-End Ins 6.2.4.1 Ring Laser Gyro Inertial Navigation Sensor 6.2.4.2 Fiber Optics Gyro Inertial Navigation Sensor 6.2.5 GPS-Aided Ins 6.2.6 Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) 6.2.7 Multi-Sensor Data Fusion for UAV Navigation 6.2.7.1 Use of Sense & Avoid Technology 6.2.8 Advanced Inertial Navigation Systems for UUV 6.3 Innovations & Patent Registrations 6.4 Analysis of Key Trends in the Military Navigation Market 7 Military Navigation Market, By Platform 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Aviation 7.2.1 Combat Aircraft 7.2.2 Military Helicopter 7.2.3 Military Transport Aircraft 7.3 Ammunition 7.3.1 Missile 7.3.2 Rockets 7.4 Marine 7.4.1 Shipboard 7.4.2 Submarine 7.5 Ground 7.5.1 Armored Vehicle 7.5.2 Man-Portable Device 7.6 Space 7.6.1 Space Launch Vehicles 7.6.2 Satellites 7.7 Unmanned Vehicle 7.7.1 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) 7.7.2 Unmanned Marine Vehicles (UMVs) 7.7.3 Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) 8 Military Navigation Market, By Application 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Command & Control (C2) 8.3 Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) 8.4 Combat & Security 8.5 Targeting & Guidance 8.6 Search & Rescue (SAR) 9 Military Navigation Market, By Component 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Hardware 9.2.1 GPS Receiver 9.2.2 Inertial Navigation System 9.2.3 Anti-Jamming Device 9.2.4 Sonar 9.2.5 Personal Navigation System 9.2.6 Sense and Avoid System (SAS) 9.2.7 Thrust Vector Control 9.2.8 Radar Altimeter 9.2.9 Radar 9.2.10 Ais Receiver 9.3 Software 9.4 Service 10 Military Navigation Market, By Grade 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Navigation Grade 10.3 Tactical Grade 10.4 Space Grade 10.5 Marine Grade 11 Military Navigation Market, By Region 11.1 Introduction 11.2 North America 11.2.1 US 11.2.2 Canada 11.3 Europe 11.3.1 Russia 11.3.2 UK 11.3.3 France 11.3.4 Italy 11.3.5 Germany 11.3.6 Rest of Europe 11.4 Asia Pacific 11.4.1 China 11.4.2 Japan 11.4.3 India 11.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific 11.5 Rest of the World 11.5.1 Middle East 11.5.2 Latin America & Africa 12 Competitive Landscape 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Competitive Analysis 12.3 Market Ranking Analysis 12.4 Competitive Scenario 12.4.1 Contracts 12.4.2 New Product Launches 12.4.3 Partnerships 12.4.4 Joint Ventures 12.4.5 Certifications 13 Company Profiles 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Cobham 13.3 Esterline Technologies 13.4 Garmin 13.5 Ge Aviation 13.6 Honeywell International 13.7 Israel Aerospace Industries 13.8 KVH Industries 13.9 Lord Microstrain 13.10 L3 Technologies 13.11 Moog 13.12 Northrop Grumman 13.13 Raytheon 13.14 Rockwell Collins 13.15 Safran Electronics & Defense 13.16 Thales 13.17 Trimble Navigation For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/sz5ng2/military?w=5 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. 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 LEHI, Utah, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MX, the leader in actionable financial data, today announced that Nummo, a personal financial management platform that empowers people to live better by helping them manage, maintain and improve their financial health, has selected MX to aggregate all user account data as well as pull in transactions to allow its thousands of customers to invest their money in the way that is best for their financial futures. Nummo chose MX as the best in class solution, following a highly competitive and comprehensive review process, and will be an integral component of its growth strategy. "We selected MX based on the company's proven track record, best of breed technology and quality of clean data," said Roi Y. Tavor, co-founder and CEO of Nummo. "After a thorough evaluation, MX was the most closely aligned with our goals and had the most comprehensive data set available, with the ability to rapidly scale in order to ensure we have the depth and breadth to grow. MX will be instrumental in helping us empower our users with a comprehensive overview of their financial situation, setting them on the path to financial wellness." Nummo has developed a platform that simplifies how users can comprehensively combine their bank and financial accounts, in order to better understand and manage their finances. To meet customer demand, Nummo required a data solution that could access over 19,000 financial institutions and the corresponding transactional data. MX data enables financial institutions and fintech providers to grow faster, reduce costs, and deliver exceptional customer experiences; in doing so, it's empowering the world to become financially strong. By using the MX financial data API , Nummo customers can easily add their assets, spending, and overall financial situation on to the platform, enabling them to better assess their finances, learn how to better manage money, plan for retirement, and work towards improving their overall financial wellness. "MX will play a critical role in ensuring Nummo has the deepest level of insight into all the corresponding data it needs to better serve its users," said Don MacDonald, Chief Marketing Officer of MX. "Nummo selected MX because of our industry-leading data platform and its ability to increase user engagement and financial clarity through clean data, and we are committed to support their quest for success in whatever way possible. We're excited to be a part of Nummo's journey and look forward to helping other financial technology companies do the same." For sales and partnership inquiries please contact MX at +1 (801) 669-5500 or [email protected]. About MX MX, the leader in actionable financial data, enables financial institutions and fintech providers to grow faster, reduce costs, and deliver exceptional customer experience. In doing so, MX is empowering the world to become financially strong. Founded in 2010, MX is one of the fastest-growing fintech providers, partnering with more than 1,800 financial institutions and 43 of the top 50 digital banking providers. For more information, visit www.mx.com . About Nummo Nummo is an independent privately held company, with no ties to any financial institution or current product providers in any way. The company provides a personal financial management platform that empowers people to live better by helping them manage, maintain and improve their financial health by providing options based on each individual's financial situation. Founded in 2016, Nummo is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. For more information, please visit www.nummo.com . Media Contact: Steve Jensen Director of Communications, MX +1 801-669-5532 [email protected] SOURCE MX Related Links http://www.mx.com Ideally, every American manufacturer is a powerhouse, but GM lost that status decades ago. The company was in danger of collapse during the Great Recession, accepted a government bailout and then retooled as a profit-focused entity rather than one obsesssed with market share. Staying big for prides sake is a losers game. Look at Sears, which failed to reinvent itself and now sits in bankruptcy court. GM CEO Mary Barra said she made the decision to revamp even though the company is profitable because waiting around to respond to a crisis means waiting too long. The industry is changing very rapidly, Barra said. We think its appropriate to get in front of it while the business and the economy are strong. ATLANTA, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Power is inviting customers to join the company and The Salvation Army to help neighbors and local Georgia communities this winter through the Project SHARE initiative. Project SHARE, established in partnership with The Salvation Army in 1985, was one of the first fuel funds in America and provides assistance for expenses, such as utility bills, housing, food and medical necessities. Since Project SHARE's inception, approximately 370,500 households and more than 1,100,000 individuals throughout the state have received assistance with more than $70 million contributed to the program by Georgia Power and its customers. Last year, Georgia Power customers donated to the program leading to a total contribution, including Georgia Power's match, of more than $2.2 million. The program assisted 6,563 households and 17,310 individuals. By donating one to 10 dollars through their Georgia Power bill payment, customers can provide assistance to residents in the same community. The unique program is highly localized with more than one million Georgians benefiting from the program over the past three decades. "Improving the quality of life for all people in the communities where we live and work is important to us at Georgia Power and Project SHARE provides an opportunity for our customers to join us in this mission," said Kevin Kastner, vice president of customer services for Georgia Power. "Thanks to our long-standing partnership with The Salvation Army, Project SHARE continues to be one of our most successful charitable giving programs year after year." Donate to Project SHARE Although Georgia Power's support of the program continues throughout the year, the company highlights the work of Project SHARE annually on December and January Georgia Power bills. By enrolling in the program, customers have the option to make an automatic monthly donation of $1, $2, $5 or $10 simply by adding the amount to their bill payment. Georgia Power then matches the donation, dollar for dollar, up to one million dollars per year. Georgians can also make a one-time donation directly to Project SHARE through The Salvation Army by calling (800) 257-4273 or visiting www.salvationarmygeorgia.org. To learn more about Project SHARE, or to support the program with Georgia Power today, visit www.georgiapower.com/projectshare. About Georgia Power Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.5 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is consistently recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power). SOURCE Georgia Power Related Links http://www.georgiapower.com ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- American Trucking Associations' Technology & Maintenance Council announced it had opened registration for its 2019 Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition, to be held March 18-21 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Beyond the Frontier of Maintenance is the theme for this year's Annual Meeting, which includes a strong slate of educational sessions, and a complete technology tradeshow featuring experts from the trucking industry's top manufacturers and suppliers. "The trucking industry is literally the backbone of the U.S. economy delivering 70% of the nation's freight," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "That work is only possible thanks to the efforts of our industry's technicians and maintenance personnel who keep our nation's wheels turning. The TMC Annual Meeting is a critical part of that effort, setting standards and demonstrating the latest technology and trends for our industry." "In 2019, TMC will focus on fleet challenges that lie beyond the frontier of maintenance," said TMC Executive Director Robert Braswell. "The Council's 2019 Annual Meeting carries on its tradition of providing thought leadership with a special focus on developing, implementing and maintaining innovative technologies pertaining to automated and electric vehicles, smart trailers and advanced fuel saving strategies." During the week, more than 100 industry task forces will meet to resolve issues critical to trucking fleets, as well as a broad offering of technically oriented educational sessions, addressing fleet experience with the latest generation of active safety systems, proven strategies for fleet tire testing, spec'ing cabs and sleepers for driver safety and comfort, and preparing for next generation multi-voltage electrical systems. With more than 5,000 people in attendance every year, TMC's Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition remains the premier event for fleet management, offering a comprehensive array of information vital to the growth and success of the trucking industry. Highlights of this year's meeting include: Kickoff Breakfast Speaker Marc Bedard , founder and president, The Lion Electric Company; , founder and president, The Lion Electric Company; Graduation of the Council's first "TMC of Tomorrow" future leaders Class of 2019; TMC's Transportation Technology Exhibition featuring more than 400 exhibitors and 450,000 square feet of the latest in industry equipment offerings including a special Advanced Technology Pavilion focused on automated vehicles, electric powertrain and other cutting-edge technologies; Fleet-organized educational sessions ranging in topics from important considerations for introducing new FA-4 oils into fleet operations to using propane as a motor fuel for light- and medium-duty vehicles. Other sessions will focus on leveraging TMC key performance indicators and maintenance benchmarking metrics for fleet analysis; Technical sessions including: Fleet Experience Justifying and Implementing Active Safety Systems, International Forces Driving Electric Vehicle Standardization, Preparing Powerful Business Presentations, and the third annual TMC/SAE Symposium focusing on The Coming Impact of the New 21st Century Truck Partnership Initiative. Registration for the event is now open and meeting schedules, exhibitor prospectus, registration and lodging information for TMC's 2019 Annual Meeting will be available online at http://tmcannual.trucking.org or by calling TMC offices at (703) 838-1763. Media planning to attend TMC should contact Sean McNally in the ATA Office of Public Affairs at [email protected]. TMC is America's premier technical society for truck equipment technology and maintenance professionals. TMC features a diverse membership of equipment managers, service-dealers, owner-operators, industry suppliers and manufacturers, educators, academia and others that support the trucking industry. TMC member fleets represent the broad range of industry vocations, including truckload, less-than-truckload, municipal, private, on/off-highway, construction and other operations. Find out more about TMC online at http://tmc.trucking.org . American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook . Trucking Moves America Forward SOURCE American Trucking Associations Related Links http://www.trucking.org WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Between now and December 15th RTR Pilates will be collecting donations to support victims of the California fires. When arriving for classes, RTR Pilates is asking for participants to bring with them a check written out to one of the foundations listed below or a gift card to Target, CVS, Walmart, Costco or a credit card gift card. Currently, financial donations are the best and RTR Pilates is asking for $25 donations, but any amount will do. Tanya Edwards of RTR Pilates will be hosting two classes on Saturday, December 1st in the Potomac Studio at 2:15 & 3:15 PM in efforts to help victims of the California fires. Tanya's family has been directly affected by the fires in California. Tanya's brother David and sister-in-law Patty moved to Paradise, California in the mid-90's where they later had two children, Aric and Dominique. Tanya's brother, David, died suddenly in 2013, but his family continued to live in the area until they were recently evacuated from their home due to the raging fires. Thankfully, they have friends to stay with nearby while they await the news on their home. As of now, their house is still standing, but their places of employment are among the hundreds of businesses that have been burned down. Any and all contributions are welcomed to assist families like Tanya's. If you prefer to make your contribution online, please see below a list of foundations you may donate to below. North Valley Community Foundation is assisting the many community organizations serving evacuees and first responders. California Community Foundation Wildfire Relief Fund supports intermediate and long-term recovery efforts as well as mental health supports. Sierra Nevada Camp Fire Relief Fund to support the long-term rebuilding of Paradise, CA and assisting the communities that support the evacuees. RTR Pilates hopes to see their membership in Potomac on Saturday, December 1st and thanks the community for their support! For more information, please email [email protected] SOURCE RTR Pilates CLEVELAND, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stella's Music Club is taking it to the next level. The club is officially announcing Stella's Recordsa local record label sourcing artists and bands who perform at Stella's Music Club. The club partnered with Superior Sound Studios in Cleveland, Ohio to form the label. Artists who sign with Stella's Records will have their music produced by seventeen-time platinum producer, Jim Wirt, who traveled all the way from Los Angeles, California to find Cleveland's hidden musical talent. Sound Engineer, Jim Stewart, will assist Wirt in his efforts with the bands' recordings. The bands/artists who come through and gig at Stella's now have a huge chance of being noticed and potentially signed to the new label. The club will announce the label at the official launch party held at Stella's Music Club on December 12th at 6pm. The first band who signed with the label, Birds in the Boneyard who are Queens, New York natives, will be headlining and performing songs from their first album, Presenting Birds in the Boneyard. Their music will be distributed by Warner Music Distribution. The group has already performed at Stella's during a private show for staff and the media on November 14th, and will return on December 12th for a much larger crowd. The Black Moods (of Tempe, Arizona), Pale Hollow (of Cleveland, Ohio) and Disconnected (owner Michael Zweig's band of Cleveland, Ohio) will also be performing at the club in celebration of the launch. December 12th is open to the media and public. Stella's encourages local bands to attend the party and bring their CDs to distribute to local press/media. Jim Wirt will also be in attendance and meeting fans at a booth at the club. If you would like more information on this topic, call Nicole Bals at 216-626-6969 ext. 110 or email [email protected] Contact: Stella's Music Club Phone: 216.626.6969 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Stella's Music Club Related Links http://stellasmusic.com LONDON, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628114 The global nuclear air filtration market size is expected to reach USD 118.2 million by 2025. Government mandates regarding implementation of air filters in nuclear plants has added to the growth of this industry. Filtration equipment used in nuclear plants are continuously monitored as the emissions form power facility are radioactive in nature. This factor will also contribute to market development over the forecast period. Additionally, implementations of high-efficiency air filters to minimize emission of radioactive materials is projected to further drive the market. Construction of new nuclear power plants in emerging economies, such as China and India, is expected to support overall growth of the market. According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), 448 nuclear power reactors were in operation in 2017, while more than 55 nuclear plants were under construction. This highlights the potential need for nuclear air filters over the next few years. High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA), carbon, and pre-filters are the major types of these equipment. HEPA filters are relatively more efficient than their counterparts and are expected to witness high demand over the forecast period. HEPA enables effective elimination of particulate matter from air and prevents exhaust of toxins in environment. Many countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, Finland, France, India, and Ukraine, are investing in construction of new units for nuclear power generation. For instance, in China, approximately 19 power reactors were under construction in 2017, which makes it a potential market for nuclear air filters. Thus, growing number of new nuclear facilities is expected to fuel the demand for air filters over the forecast period. Stationary nuclear air filtration accounted for the highest market share and is projected to be the dominant product segment over the forecast period. It is expected to reach USD 100 million by 2025. High efficiency and large capacity over portable filters provide growth opportunities for the se products. Europe is the dominant regional market with a large number of operating nuclear reactors. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Western Europe commands around one-fourth of the global operating units; while central and Eastern Europe accounts for around 15.7%. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is expected to experience the fastest CAGR over the forecast period. The region has the highest number of under-construction nuclear facilities in countries such as China. Companies in the global nuclear air filtration market are focusing on providing efficient services to the new and existing facilities. Some of the key companies in the market include The Camfil Group; American Air Filter Company, Inc.; The MANN+HUMMEL Group; Hollingsworth & Vose; and Filter Service Company. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628114 About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904 Website: www.reportbuyer.com SOURCE ReportBuyer Related Links http://www.reportbuyer.com NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Forecasts by Type (Attack, Reconnaissance, Heavy Cargo, Medium Utility, Light Utility, Maritime, Search and Rescue), by Procurement Type (New Acquisitions, Upgrades) Contracts, Programmes, and Leading Companies. Hind, Blackhawk, VTOL, Black Shark, Chinook NH90 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05626794 The latest report from business intelligence provider Visiongain offers comprehensive analysis of the global Military Helicopter market. Visiongain assesses that this market will generate revenues of $26808.7mn in 2018. How this report will benefit you Read on to discover how you can exploit the future business opportunities emerging in this sector. Visiongain 's new study tells you and tells you NOW. In this brand-new report, you find 131 in-depth tables, 125 Figures all unavailable elsewhere. The 299-page report provides clear detailed insight into the global Military Helicopter market. Discover the key drivers and challenges affecting the market. By ordering and reading our brand new report today you stay better informed and ready to act. Report Scope - Global Military Helicopter market forecasts from 2018-2028 - Regional Military Helicopter market forecasts from 2018-2028 - Country Military Helicopter forecasts from 2018-2028 covering U.S. UK Germany India Turkey France Australia Italy South Korea Russia Japan China Brazil UAE Algeria Taiwan Saudi Arabia Canada Iraq Spain ROW - Military Helicopter submarket forecasts from 2018-2028 covering types - Analysis of the key factors driving growth in the global, regional and country level Military Helicopter markets from 2018-2028 - Profiles and market share of the leading Military Helicopter procurement types in 2018 at a global level and for leading countries How will you benefit from this report? - Keep your knowledge base up to speed. Don't get left behind - Reinforce your strategic decision-making with definitive and reliable market data - Learn how to exploit new technological trends - Realise your company's full potential within the market - Understand the competitive landscape and identify potential new business opportunities & partnerships Who should read this report? - Anyone within the value chain. - Business development managers - Marketing managers - Technologists - Suppliers - Investors - Banks - Government agencies - Contractors Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05626794 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global protein sequencing market to register a CAGR of 3.3% from 2018 to 2023 The global protein sequencing market is projected to reach USD 1,088 million by 2023 from USD 925 million in 2018, at a CAGR of 3.3% during the forecast period. Factors such as financial support from government and private bodies for proteomic research, advancements in clinical mass spectrometry and analytical techniques, and significant adoption of target-based drug development by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are expected to propel the growth of this market. However, high infrastructure costs are expected to restrain the growth of the protein sequencing market in the forecast period. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628216 Mass spectrometry technology segment to dominate the protein sequencing market in 2018 By technology, the protein sequencing market is segmented into mass spectrometry and Edman degradation.The mass spectrometry segment is expected to command the largest share of the protein sequencing market in 2018. The large share of this segment can be attributed to the advantages of mass spectrometry, such as high-throughput sequencing capabilities, cost efficiency, and identification of blocked or modified proteins. Market growth can also be attributed to the increasing focus of market players on launching technologically advanced mass spectrometry instruments and the increasing applications of mass spectrometry in proteomics research. Academic institutes and research centers to register the highest CAGR during 20182023 On the basis of end user, the protein sequencing market is segmented into academic institutes & research centers, pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, and other end users.Academic institutes & research centers are estimated to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Growth in this segment can be attributed to the increase in funding for proteomic research by public and private institutes. The protein sequencing market in the APAC is projected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period The protein sequencing market in the Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023. Factors such the availability of government funding for life science research, advanced sequencing infrastructure in research organizations, and the presence of a large number of protein sequencing service providers in the region are driving the growth of the protein sequencing market in the APAC region. Breakdown of supply-side primary interviews, by company type, designation, and region: By Company Type: Tier 1 (33%), Tier 2 (47%), and Tier 3 (22%) By Designation: C-level (48%), Director-level (19%), and Others (33%) By Region: North America (31%), Europe (33%), APAC (19%), and RoW (17%) The key players in the protein sequencing market are Shimadzu (Japan), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US), SGS S.A. (Switzerland), Waters Corporation (US), Rapid Novor (Canada), Agilent Technologies (US), Charles River Laboratories (US), and Selvita (Poland). Research Coverage This report studies the protein sequencing market based on product & service, technology, application, end user, and region.The report also analyzes factors (such as drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges) affecting market growth. It evaluates opportunities and challenges in the market for stakeholders and provides details of the competitive landscape for market leaders.The report also studies micromarkets with respect to their growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the total market. The report forecasts the revenue of the market segments with respect to four major regions. Reasons to Buy the Report: The report provides insights on the following pointers: Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on business strategies adopted by the major players in the protein sequencing market. The report analyzes the protein sequencing market based on product & service, technology, application, end user, and region Product Launches: Insights on the research and development activities and product & service launches in the protein sequencing market Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative emerging markets. The report analyzes the markets for various protein sequencing types across regions Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about recent developments and investments in the protein sequencing market Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, strategies, and products of leading players in the protein sequencing market Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628216 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com After years of efforts, the Hainan Carnival is now a featured celebration of tourism, and the highlight in tourism and culture of global influence. This carnival is of a larger scale, higher level, with more participants than ever before, and has attracted guests from more than 20 countries and regions, and from 21 provinces, cities and districts of China. "The Hainan Carnival shows the tourism and culture of Hainan, and is the festival of us all," Salote Pilolevu Tuita, Princess of the Kingdom of Tonga and President of the Tonga-China Friendship Association, who came to attend the carnival, appreciated Hainan's efforts to build an international tropical island resort. Mr. Vira Rojpojchanarat, Minister of Culture of Thailand, pointed out that the Hainan International Tourism Island Carnival is world-famous and promotes the protection and development of cultural heritage. Thailand has also sent art troupes to give a performance. Duan Qiang, Chairman of the World Tourism Alliance (WTA), said that as China's first region-wide tourism province, Hainan enjoys a sound momentum of tourism development. He believed that the central government's preferential policies for Hainan's development and construction will inject strong momentum into Hainan's tourism development. "We welcome tourists from home and abroad to Hainan to appreciate its unique charm," Fu Caixiang, Vice Governor of Hainan Province, extended a cordial invitation at the opening ceremony. The carnival is hosted by Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports, which is composed of Haikou Main Venue and five sub-venues in Sanya, Danzhou, Qionghai, Wanning and Lingshui. International main events such as the 2018 World Leisure Tourism Expo, the 4th Hainan International Tourism and Food Expo and the first World Tourism and Investment Conference will be held. The carnival will close in Sanya on December 31. SOURCE Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), an Irish sovereign development fund, WuXi NextCODE, the emerging global standard platform for genomics, and Irish life sciences company Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI), today announce details of a $400 million (350M) investment programme aimed at making Ireland an important hub for genomics research and development of new disease treatments and cures. Under the initiative, GMI will become a subsidiary of WuXi NextCODE, which serves as the technology engine for the leading population genomics efforts in Europe, the US and Asia. This will create up to 600 high-value jobs over five years and will position GMI as the cornerstone for a Silicon Docks-modelled International Centre for Advanced Life Sciences (ICALS). Under the terms of the investment, $225 million (197M) will be committed to GMI in the near term increasing to $400 million in line with the achievement of milestones as GMI expands and an ICALS develops in the medium term. Alongside ISIF, who are investing $70 million, major Silicon Valley and sovereign wealth funds and other global investors will also invest in the initiative through WuXi NextCODE and GMI. These include: Expansion of Genomics Medicine Ireland's Research Programme The launch investment will be focused on the expansion of GMI to undertake one of the world's largest whole genome sequencing programmes. The programme will target participation from 400,000 volunteers, or one in every ten people in Ireland, including patients with a range of common and rare diseases. This will help to deliver healthcare benefits to Irish patients and create a unique platform for research and discovery of new precision medicines for the treatment of life-limiting conditions which currently have no cure. The initiative builds upon Ireland's unique advantages for conducting population genomics research at scale: a relatively homogeneous population, which makes key genes easier to identify; a population large enough to have both common and rare diseases in significant numbers; high-quality healthcare and medical research facilities; and a demonstrable track record of high participation among the population in similar research programmes in the past. To kick-off the investment programme, the company proposes establishing a strategic advisory board comprised of experts and key stakeholders from academia, the health sector and industry to help foster the programme and maximise potential patient impact. Creation of an International Centre for Advanced Life Sciences GMI's sizable population genomics programme as well as WuXi NextCODE's genomics platform will be leveraged to provide core infrastructure of a global hub to attract Irish and international enterprises and organisations working in the life sciences industry including: Multi-omics Research and bioinformatics Precision medicine development Medical genetics services Digital health Cloud computing High performance computing and artificial intelligence In addition to the investments announced today, early-stage discussions to fund a genomics accelerator are already underway targeting further development of Ireland's ecosystem in this field to support new start-ups and early-stage companies with similar specialist skills and research capabilities. The potential for Ireland as an International Centre for Advanced Life Sciences can be seen from the experience of San Diego, California, which has a comparable population of about 3.3M people. San Diego has built an entire ecosystem around genomics and related life sciences sectors, yielding a $33.6B economic impact through more than 1,225 life sciences companies and 80 independent and university-affiliated research institutes together employing 37,790 people[1]. Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, TD, said: "GMI is a real Irish life sciences success story. In just three years since their founding they have proven their capacity to deliver and to grow and, in partnership with the State's Strategic Investment Fund, are now poised for a further exciting period of expansion. GMI's success is a reflection on the wider success of Ireland as a location for the life sciences industry for more than 50 years. Twenty-four of the world's largest pharma and biotech companies are located here, creating valuable employment and contributing to our economic success. As a country, we have continuously worked to attract and retain investment from the life sciences sector and we are now positioning for the next wave of knowledge-driven innovation being led by the genomics industry and the economic benefits that will bring. With this partnership between GMI, ISIF and WuXi NextCODE we are creating an ecosystem of expertise in advanced life sciences right here in Ireland. That, in turn, will ultimately deliver better health and wellness management to people and patients in Ireland and turn the advances we make here into benefits for people around the world." Paul Saunders, Senior Investment Director, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, said: "This investment shows ISIF's ability to act as a catalyst for major investment in high-value economic activity in Ireland by teaming up with top-tier co-investment partners from around the globe. Through ISIF's investment in WuXi NextCODE, GMI should be well positioned to scale its activities significantly and quickly, generating new jobs in Ireland, and enhancing Ireland's reputation as a centre for genomics research. This is an excellent example of ISIF's 'double bottom line' mandate of supporting economic activity and employment in Ireland while seeking a commercial return." Rob Brainin, CEO, WuXi NextCODE, said; "We are very excited by the singular potential of the Irish whole-genome sequencing programme, which aims to enrol and read the genome of some 400 thousand people, or 10% of the population. As a company that seeks to improve lives through genomics worldwide, I believe that this will be a unique platform for developing new medicine and better healthcare, to the benefit first of patients in Ireland but also people around the globe. Our experience in powering national genome efforts on three continents positions us well to accelerate the outstanding success of GMI to date. Leveraging that leadership, GMI will become the lynchpin of genomic sequencing and discovery for WuXi NextCODE in Europe, and the core of a significant hub in life sciences as a spawning ground for new globally oriented enterprises based in Ireland." Anne Jones, CEO of Genomics Medicine Ireland, commented, "WuXi NextCODE is a recognised global leader in the field and is helping to drive many national-scale precision medicine efforts. This landmark investment in GMI will enable us to rapidly scale our study capacity to upwards of 60 disease areas in research sites across Ireland, giving us operational independence backed by global connections and funding. In doing so, Ireland its people, hospitals, universities and enterprises will benefit from a globally leading position in the most important new fields in life sciences. As a native of Tipperary who has spent the bulk of my career in major research institutions and healthcare companies in the US and UK, it is a thrilling opportunity to come back and be able to leverage WuXi NextCODE's capabilities and global reach first for patients here, and in a way that will impact lives around the world." Today's announcement follows on from the recent announcement by WuXi NextCODE's sister company, WuXi Biologics, supported by IDA Ireland, that it is establishing a state-of-the-art biopharma facility in Dundalk that will create more than 400 jobs. WuXi NextCODE is also in discussions with IDA Ireland on this significant initiative. -------------------------------------------------- 1. Sources: Introduction: 1. Biocom Economic Impact Report, 2017 2. JLL, Life Sciences Outlook, 2017 3. EMSI, Educational Pipeline, 2016 4. San Diego Business Journal, "S.D. Life Science Leasing Footprint Increases 1.1 million square feet," 2017 5. San Diego Regional EDC, Traded Economies Analysis with BLS data, 2016 Contacts: MKC Communications Richard Magnier [email protected] +353-1-703-8600 Laurie Mannix [email protected] +353-1-703-8620 SOURCE MKC Communications PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Every entrepreneur needs to be willing to adapt to accomplish their goals. Many teams fail because they get stuck in the traditional methods they use to solve problems, when it may be wiser to adapt to new methods to solve the same problems. But how do those teams know how to change their process when it's obvious that they must? Brandon Frere, a successful entrepreneur and founder of Ameritech Financial, believes that ambitious entrepreneurs and teams may be able to find the most important answers by asking the most important questions. "A company needs to be adaptable to stay competitive," said Frere. "The ability to decide what is important, then adapt the company in order to achieve that vision, may be the best way to achieve that vision." The first step in coming up with a change in a company is coming up with a goal. Growth and profit are nearly universal desires, but the company needs to figure out what is necessary as soon as possible. An entrepreneur may be able to find that goal by looking at the strongest aspects of their product or service and building upon that strength to reach the target goal. After deciding on a goal, an entrepreneur may want to look for the most important metric relevant to their goal. If an entrepreneur is able to find the metric that will lead to success, they can start to develop strategies around that metric. For example, if a team decides their goal is to increase sales and their strength is customer service, then they may want to ask the single, unifying question: "How do I increase customer retention?" From this question, several new strategic possibilities emerge: Loyalty programs for clients and referrers of clients to encourage repeat visits. Reducing the friction it takes to make a sale, either by reducing the script or making customer alternatives. Increasing the number of ways that a customer can contact the company. Delivering all the information as plainly and simply as possible to the customer. It's easier to imagine some new ways that a company could change its processes by asking "How do I increase customer retention?" instead of a more general question like "How do we increase sales?" If any team is able to focus their goal into a single, unifying question and find the metric most relevant to their goal, then that may lead to new ways to accomplish that goal. By discovering what question to ask, it may be possible to then focus on figuring out how to accomplish it. This method still requires evaluating each idea, combining ideas and testing them, but by asking the right question, a team can start creating the right answers. "Everyone wants to find the answer to their problems," said Frere, "but a team may only know how to adapt to the problem if they look at their goals, analyze their data and decide on the right single, unifying question that focuses their team efforts." 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 roads-without-a-clear-path.jpg Roads Without a Clear Path Credit: digitalista/Bigstock image2.png Related Links Brandon Frere website SOURCE Brandon Frere Related Links http://www.BrandonFrere.com However in my opinion one glaring omission needs a serious look. We all know that leadership starts at the top, and that means the top cop. A strong superintendent of the Chicago Police Department would insure that those concerns are addressed, and that is where Chicago might be lacking. When former superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, he let it be known that the mayors office was constantly meddling in police affairs. When asked by reporters why he didn't resist, he's on record as saying he loved his job and wanted to keep it. Human nature dictates that in order to keep your job and your lofty salary, it's not wise to resist the person who selected you for the job. NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ardent Health Services and Ascension Sacred Heart Health System announced today they have signed a letter of intent for Ardent to sell its interest in 323-bed Bay Medical Sacred Heart (Bay Medical) to Ascension, including physician clinic operations in Panama City and Bay County, Florida. Bay Medical is a joint venture of Ardent and Ascension Sacred Heart, which is part of Ascension, the nation's largest non-profit health system. In Florida, Ascension includes three Sacred Heart Health System hospitals in Pensacola, Miramar Beach and Port St. Joe and St. Vincent's HealthCare in Jacksonville. Following damage from Hurricane Michael, Bay Medical is rebuilding in order to restore inpatient services in stages. Emergency services have been in continuous operation. Ardent Americas Division President Matt Maxfield described the strength of Ardent's joint venture partner Ascension, stating, "Ascension has demonstrated the power and value of our partnership throughout this post-hurricane period, especially with their ability to accept 230-plus patients who needed to be evacuated in the 48 hours following the hurricane." Patients were transferred by air and ground ambulance from Bay Medical to Ascension hospitals in Miramar Beach, Pensacola and Jacksonville. Ascension has continued to accept the facility's acutely ill emergency room patients who require hospitalization. "The caregivers and physicians of Ascension Sacred Heart put forth tremendous effort to help the region, working closely with our colleagues at Bay Medical and our partners at Ardent, during and after Hurricane Michael," said Tom VanOsdol, Senior Vice President, Ascension Healthcare, and Ministry Market Executive, Ascension Florida. "Going forward, we believe that Bay Medical will be best positioned to meet the evolving needs of the community as a full member of our Ascension Sacred Heart ministry. We look forward to the privilege of bringing the full strength, resources and clinical excellence of Ascension to bear in service to the families and individuals we are so blessed to serve in Panama City and Bay County." "We have engaged in a planning process with Ascension to determine the best possible path forward for Bay Medical. It became evident that becoming a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of Ascension Sacred Heart Health System will allow appropriate matching of services to the needs of the post-hurricane community. Additionally, it affords regionalization of certain services such as trauma and heart care," Maxfield said. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions. About Ardent Health Services Ardent Health Services invests in people, technology, facilities and communities, producing high-quality care and extraordinary results. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Ardent's subsidiaries own and operate 31 hospitals in seven states with more than 25,000 employees including 1,150 employed providers. Ardent facilities exceed national averages in Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating as ranked by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; 92 percent of its hospitals received a three-star rating or above in comparison with 73 percent of all hospitals ranked. Five of the company's hospitals were recognized by Modern Healthcare as "Best Places to Work" in 2018 - the eleventh consecutive year an Ardent facility made this list. Ardent operations are owned by an affiliate of Equity Group Investments (EGI), a Chicago-based private investment firm; Ventas, Inc., a leading real estate investment trust; and members of Ardent's executive management team. For more information, visit www.ardenthealth.com. About Ascension Ascension (www.ascension.org) is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world's largest Catholic health system, Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. In FY2018, Ascension provided nearly $2 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Ascension includes approximately 156,000 associates and 34,000 aligned providers. Ascension's Healthcare Division operates more than 2,600 sites of care including 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities in 21 states and the District of Columbia, while its Solutions Division provides a variety of services and solutions including physician practice management, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical engineering, facilities management, clinical care management, information services, risk management, and contracting through Ascension's own group purchasing organization. Will Condon Ascension Sacred Heart 850-416-1156 [email protected] Tyra Palmer Ardent Health Services 615-296-3146 [email protected] SOURCE Ardent Health Services Related Links http://www.ardenthealth.com HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An American has found his passion and calling providing Motorbike Tours in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to travellers from all over the world. As a Professional Cook coming from the United States, Fredrick fell in love with Vietnamese food and culture 5 years ago which eventually turned into the hospitality of his Motorbike Tours at Back of the Bike Tours. His tours are crafted to provide an intimate Anthony Bourdain like Food or Cultural experience that people crave when travelling to a new country or city. Fredrick, Owner of Back of the Bike Tours in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Bringing Green Papaya Salad across the street to a local park to share with Australian Travellers on his tour. Fox's Master Chef Winner, Christine Ha, Enjoyed a tour out with Back of the Bike Tours exploring new and interesting Vietnamese Food in Ho Chi Minh City Back of the Bike Tours local English speaking motorbike guides and drivers pick customers up from their hotel to bring them out onto their specially crafted food and city tours of Ho Chi Minh City. This is the ultimate cultural experience that travellers will never forget when visiting Vietnam. "This is what I left home to experience, I just got lucky that I was able to create a company and tour experience that allowed travellers to find that intimate piece of Vietnam that most people search for on their vacations," explains Fredrick Wilson, Owner of Back of the Bike Tours. "Most people want to get on a motorbike, meet real genuine Vietnamese people, and dig into some tasty Vietnamese food but just don't know how. So we crafted this experience which has really become more than I could have dreamed of." As a chef from St. Louis, Missouri, I left home in search of a calling and somewhere that my skills and passion would meet. Back of the Bike Tours has been that for me in Ho Chi Minh City. We are providing Travellers experiences of a life time with our tour company. We have had a chance to take out a few celebrities even including Master Chef Winner Christine Ha, who is Vietnamese. Back of the Bike Tours currently offers 3 types of group tours. Heartbeat of Ho Chi Minh City at $42, Big Eats & Small Seats Street Food Tour at $69, and their A Taste of Vietnam Tour at $77. If you want to read more about their amazing tours, visit https://backofthebiketours.com Media Contact: Fredrick Wilson Owner +84 93 504 69 10 [email protected] https://backofthebiketours.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jaOnvEbVX4&t=4s SOURCE Back of the Bike Tours Related Links https://backofthebiketours.com ZURICH and BOSTON, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BC Platforms, a world leader in genomic data management and analytics, announced that it has entered into a research collaboration with the UK's national biobanking platform in order to enable clinical and genetic data to be integrated, supported by the recently established Health Data Research UK; a research institute set up to help improve lives through better use of data. The biobanking platform - directory.biobankinguk.org - is hosted by the University of Nottingham's UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre (UKCRC TDCC) and run under the national registry for biobanks holding over 150 biobanks. Generation Scotland is the first biobank to be added to the system and will be demonstrated at the UK Biobanking Showcase conference, being held in London today. It is anticipated that this initial concept will be scaled to all UK biobanks and genomic cohorts and will be replicated across European countries wanting to adopt the UK model through working with European organisations such as BBMRI-ERIC and ELIXIR. Data protection and governance is changing how data research is undertaken. Increasingly there is a need to discover data from multiple sources in order to construct a research proposal - this is especially true with biobanks. Therefore, the challenge is how to preserve the security of the data whilst allowing search, discovery and analytics across multiple sources. The collaboration will see BC Platforms opening up its connector technology across the biobanking platform in order to develop an open standard that can be utilised and reimplemented by any accredited party. It has provided a licence to its query engine to the University of Nottingham and will allow any party in the biobanking platform to develop their own version of the query engine or connector based on the open standard. The aim of this research collaboration is to create the foundations that enable biobanks to be included within the eco-system, but then to allow academic groups, technologists and industry to drive the future direction via open-source development. Working together, BC Platforms and the University of Nottingham expect to have a full operational solution by the end of the first year that can then be utilised by biobanks using open interoperable connectors and standards. Dr Philip Quinlan of UKCRC TDCC, commented on the research collaboration, "We have been impressed by the openness and willingness of BC Platforms to make its technology platform available across the biobanking platform in order to improve data sharing and its interrogation across the network. We believe that by combining BC Platforms' technology with an open standards approach, we can propel the work of the national centre, UKCRC TDCC, by many years and are looking forward to a productive collaboration that will support us in being a leading platform for the discovery of genetic and clinical data for research." Tero Silvola, CEO of BC Platforms, said, "We are delighted to be working on this research collaboration with the UKCRC TDCC and look forward to implementing this solution across the UK biobanking ecosystem in order to progress standardized and systematic data sharing in a safe and secure manner." About BC Platforms BC Platforms is a world leader in providing powerful genomic data management and analysis solutions. Our high performing genomic data management platform enables flexible data integration, secure analysis and interpretation of molecular and clinical information. The company has launched and opened a global network of biobanks, known as BCRQUEST.COM, to provide genomic and clinical cohort data for pharmaceutical and medical research and development. BC Platforms' vision is to build the world's leading analytics platform for healthcare and industry by 2020, providing access to diverse genomic and clinical data and samples from more than 5 million subjects consolidated from a global network of biobanks. Founded in 1997 from an MIT Whitehead project spinoff, the Company has a strong scientific heritage underpinned by 20 years of working in close collaboration with a network of leading researchers, developers, manufacturers and vendors. BC Platforms has global operations with its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, research and development in Helsinki, Finland, and sales and marketing in London, Boston, and Vancouver. For more information, please visit www.bcplatforms.com or follow us on Twitter @BCPlatforms. The UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre (UKCRC TDCC) The UKCRC TDCC works to maximise the use, value and impact of the UK's human sample resources in the UK and beyond. It is guided by the belief that the biomedical research ecosystem should be based on open standards, open-science, and pre-competitive collaboration. To achieve this, the UKCRC TDCC has focused on helping researchers find samples and data, helping sample resources improve their data systems, and harmonising policy on the discovery and use of samples and data. It is run by a small dedicated team in the University of Nottingham and University College London and was mandated by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration. For more information, please visit www.biobankinguk.org or follow us on Twitter, @biobankingUK. Contact information: Tero Silvola BC Platforms AG Tel: + 358-40-590-5733 [email protected] Katja Stout Scius Communications Tel: +44-7789435990 [email protected] SOURCE BC Platforms BOSTON, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: BHLB) the parent company of Berkshire Bank, announced today that Michael P. Daly has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer, President and Director. Berkshire Bank President, Richard M. Marotta has been named Chief Executive Officer and President of the Company and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank; and he has also been appointed as a member of the Board of Directors. Additionally, Berkshire Bank Chief Operating Officer, Sean A. Gary has been named President of the Bank. Although these changes are effective immediately Mr. Daly will continue to be available to assist in the transition of the CEO role to Mr. Marotta. "Mike's commitment to the Bank, our customers and our communities has been instrumental in Berkshire's success. We thank him for his focus on creating the strong franchise we have today," said William J. Ryan, Chairman the Board of Directors. "Building on the Company's progress under Mike's leadership, Richard is in a strong position to step into the CEO role. He is deeply familiar with our strategy, our markets and our people. Richard, Sean and the rest of the executive team remain committed to growing Berkshire's operations, executing on the strategic plan and delivering strong results." "I am extremely proud of the accomplishments that the employees of the Company have achieved during my time as CEO," Mr. Daly said. "When I began my tenure 16 years ago Berkshire Bank was one of the smallest banks headquartered in Massachusetts with some 300 employees, the Company is now the largest with nearly 2,000 employees. I've built long lasting relationships with many employees during this time who I will continue to view as my family." ABOUT RICHARD M. MAROTTA Richard M. Marotta has been Senior Executive Vice President of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. and President of Berkshire Bank since 2015. Mr. Marotta joined the Company as EVP, Chief Risk Officer in 2010. From 2013-2015 he served as EVP, Chief Risk and Administrative Officer. Throughout his tenure in these key roles, Marotta was responsible for restructuring the entire Risk, Credit, Compliance, and Anti-Fraud programs of the bank; played a key role in mergers and acquisitions; and implemented the strategic plan for the Bank's move into Boston. Before joining Berkshire, Marotta spent over 20 years at KeyBank including senior leadership roles in lending, credit and asset recovery. In his final role as the Executive Vice President and Chief Restructuring Officer, he oversaw allowance capital planning, asset based lending, and commercial and business aviation restructures and workouts. Marotta graduated from Union College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Finance; he also earned an Advanced Certificate in Risk Management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. ABOUT SEAN A. GRAY Sean A. Gray has been Senior Executive Vice President of the Company and Chief Operating Officer of the Bank since 2015. Mr. Gray joined the Company as First Vice President, Retail Banking. From 2010-2015 Gray served as Executive Vice President, Retail Banking. During his time with the Company Gray has played a vital role in the operating teams of the Bank, including retail banking, mortgage banking, commercial banking, cash management, wealth management, insurance, and marketing and was the President of the prior Berkshire Municipal Bank. Gray further serves as President of Berkshire Insurance Group. Prior to joining the Bank, Gray spent 6 years with Fleet Bank, who was acquired by Bank of America, in multiple roles including Vice President and Consumer Market Manager in Waltham, Massachusetts. In this role he was responsible for the sales and services of an $8 billion region with emphasis on business banking, private banking, consumer banking and consumer operations. Gray graduated from Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance. ABOUT BERKSHIRE HILLS Berkshire Hills Bancorp is the parent of Berkshire Bank - America's Most Exciting Bank. The Company has approximately $12.0 billion in assets and 115 full service branches in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania providing personal and business banking, insurance, and wealth management services. The Company also offers mortgages and specialized commercial lending services in targeted national markets. CONTACTS James M. Moses; Senior Executive Vice President & CFO; 413-236-3379 Elizabeth Mach; Senior Vice President & Marketing Officer; 413-445-8390 SOURCE Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Body and Mind Inc. (CSE: BAMM) (USOTC PINK: BMMJ) (the "Company" or "BaM") is pleased to announce the company has delivered the first shipments of cannabis infused beef jerky products to dispensaries in Nevada. Meat snacks in the United States were a $ 2.8 Billion USD category for the year ended Feb 25, 2017 as reported by Nielsen Retail Measurement Services. Roughly $ 1.5 Billion USD was attributed to beef jerky and $ 1.3 Billion USD in sales were from beef sticks. "Las Vegas has roughly 44 Million annual visitors and cannabis infused beef jerky is a product that allows adults to consume cannabis without smoking," stated Robert Hasman, a Director at Body and Mind. "As more states move to legal adult medical and recreational cannabis there is increased interest in innovative, flavourful edible products. Our production staff perform an exceptional job creating premium distillate which is used to infuse our various flavours of beef jerky with an accurate, measured dosage of ~10mg of THC per piece of jerky. Our kitchen team have done a fantastic job working to create a host of flavours with very positive feedback from focus groups." Body and Mind beef jerky is available at dispensaries in Nevada in Pepper, Teriyaki and Sriracha flavours. In preparation for the holiday season, Body and Mind has launched a boxed set holiday offering. The boxed set includes three or five disposable vape pens in a contemporary gift box. Customers can choose to fill the holiday box from a wide variety of Raw Distillate Disposable Pens with award winning strains and flavours including Mandarin Cookies (89 % THC), Hardcore OG (85 % THC), Lime (86.65% THC), Strawberry (84.8 % THC), Tangerine (94.11% THC) and Guava (88.40 % THC). Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. About Body and Mind BaM is a publicly traded company investing in high quality medical and recreational cannabis cultivation and production and retail. Our wholly-owned Nevada subsidiary was awarded one of the first medical marijuana cultivation licences and holds cultivation and production licenses in Nevada and partial ownership of a production and dispensary license in Ohio. BaM products include dried flower, edibles, topicals, extracts as well as GPEN Gio cartridges. BaM marijuana strains have won numerous awards including the Las Vegas Hempfest Cup 2016, High Times Top Ten, the NorCal Secret Cup and the Emerald Cup. BaM continues to expand operations in Nevada and Ohio and is constantly reviewing accretive expansion opportunities. Safe Harbor Statement Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release constitutes "forward-looking statements" as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian laws. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any other 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 should be viewed as "forward-looking statements". Such 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 such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the actual results of activities, variations in the underlying assumptions associated with the estimation of activities, the availability of capital to fund programs and the resulting dilution caused by the raising of capital through the sale of shares, accidents, labor disputes and other risks. 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 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 contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release. Certain matters discussed in this news release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company may constitute forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this news release can be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities. For further information, please contact: Michael Mills +1-778-389-0007 [email protected] SOURCE Body and Mind Inc. TEL AVIV, Israel and BETHESDA, Maryland, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB: CNBX), a leader in personalized cannabinoid medicine focused on cancer and its side effects, today announced that Mr. Eyal Barad, CEO, will be presenting at the LD Micro Main Event. The presentation will provide an overview of the company's mission and activities and provide insight into the path forward towards bringing a valuable and needed service to cancer patients, who are using cannabis. Mr. Barad will also describe how the company plans on leveraging its technology to solidify partnerships which create long term value. Mr. Barad is scheduled to speak on December 5th, from 12:00pm 12:30pm PT. "It is important for us to bring our story and present it to the investment community at this important event," said Mr. Barad. "What differentiates us is our proprietary IP and our AI predictive platform based on our personalized approach to treating cancer and its side effects. "We feel honored to be one of the few companies in the world to be government licensed to do cancer and cannabinoid research, and we're looking forward to sharing our recent advancements and current plans." The LD Micro Main Event will take place December 4th, 5th, and 6th, in Los Angeles at the Luxe Sunset Bel Air Hotel. It will feature 250 companies and will be attended by over 1,200 individuals. About Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CNBX) is a U.S public company that is developing a platform which leverages novel drug-screening tools and artificial intelligence to create cannabinoid-based therapies for cancer that are more precise to a patient's profile. By developing tools to assess effectiveness on a personalized basis, Cannabics is helping to move cannabinoids into the future of cancer therapy. The company's R&D is based in Israel, where it is licensed by the Ministry of Health to conduct scientific and clinical research on cannabinoid formulations and Cancer. For more information, please visit www.cannabics.com. About LD Micro LD Micro was founded in 2006 with the sole purpose of being an independent resource in the microcap space. What started out as a newsletter highlighting unique companies has transformed into several influential events annually (Invitational, Summit, and Main Event). In 2015, LDM launched the first pure microcap index (the LDMi) to exclusively provide intraday information on the entire sector. LD will continue to provide valuable tools for the benefit of everyone in the small and micro-cap universe. For those interested in attending, please contact David Scher at [email protected] or visit www.ldmicro.com for more information. Disclaimer: Certain statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and/or other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and/or regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our latest 10-Q Report filed on July 16th, 2018. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time. Finally, the investing public is reminded that the only announcements or information about Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. which are condoned by the Company must emanate from the Company itself and bear our name as its Source. For further information, please contact: Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. +1-877-424-2429 [email protected] http://www.Cannabics.com SOURCE Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. Related Links https://cannabics.com/ GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 15th Annual Global Conference of International Finance Forum (IFF) was held in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, from November 24 to 25. As a platform for China to contribute to the reform of the global financial system and international cooperation, the event drew more than 200 leaders of finance and economics across the world. Open dialogues on the fundamentals of finance, were carried out to help sustain a global economic and financial system. Where in a new era of globalization are we heading? The world is facing the backlash against trade liberalization and multiplying trade disputes and financial risks. Given that, the financial community is discussing ways toward a stronger global economy and men of vision focus on China, which thrives due to its reform and opening-up policy. As one of the largest and most financially-dynamic and international economies in China, Guangzhou inspires the world with the long-time experience in development. In a new era of globalization, finance is playing a more prominent role. "Cooperation in finance will help us unlock greater potential for development as global financial markets are interconnected," said Shaukat Aziz, former Pakistani Prime Minister, at the event. International financial cooperation is an integral part of shaping a community with a shared future for mankind, as shown in the keynote report unveiled by IFF at the conference. "Financial Cooperation Along the Maritime Silk Road: Jointly Building the Greater Bay Area into an International Financial Hub" and other topics focused on the specifics and offered a glimpse of how China works with the world to promote financial cooperation for a stronger global economy. As a new Belt and Road center for international innovative financial services, Guangzhou's Nansha District is surely a highlight. "The conference centers on the future of economic globalization, international trading system and mechanism, innovation and the increasing globalization, and reform and opening-up. On that basis, participants are exchanging views and brainstorming, trying to find solutions to the challenges facing us," said Zhou Xiaochuan, IFF's president and former governor of the People's Bank of China. China's commitments to promote the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) it proposed and globalization are widely recognized. Chinese wisdom became a much-debated topic at the conference and in tune of international consensus. These Chinese solutions are a result of its successful practices. By implementing the BRI and constructing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou, IFF's permanent venue, has gained more opportunities for growth. James J. Shea, senior vice president of United Bank of Switzerland said, "China continues to improve its business environment and open up its financial market, and the Greater Bay Area, in which Guangzhou is situated, has a promising prospect." Fundamentally, financial connectivity is a driving force powering economy. "As finance is a new driver for global economic growth, it is hoped that international financial cooperation will lead to shared development," said Zhou. With China's modern finance originating here, Guangzhou is one of the most vibrant Chinese cities, economically and financially. It presents the world with a fine example where economy and finance can reinforce each other. Guangzhou ranks 19th in the twenty-fourth report on Global Financial Center Index (GFCI 24), which attributes to its commitments to emerge as an international exchange center and a pilot free trade area (or port). Beyond that, it has actively promoted cooperation with the Belt and Road countries, advanced the building of the Greater Bay Area and pressed ahead with the financial reform and opening-up so as to become more international. Steven M. Levitt, founder of Park Sutton Advisors believes that the constructing Greater Bay Area will inject fresh impetus for Guangzhou to shape an international financial center. As the world is seeing the emergence of new economies, the solutions China adopts to respond to an evolving globalization is for quality development and transformation. Given that, international finance particularly needs to be innovative. "Nansha, as the window demonstrating to the outside world its opening-up in finance, will deepen its financial cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao and enhance the ability serve the real economy. Companies here are able to go through formalities for business registration and tax invoice within a day," said Cai Chaolin, secretary of Nansha's party committee. Such an enabling environment, which can take on that of any other country on the planet, will accelerate the growth of the financial sector in Nansha and even Guangzhou. As a matter of fact, the conference attendees are on a significant mission to spot new economic drivers amid a slowing global economy. Such themed sessions as "Created by China and Made in China: Innovative Attitudes and Environment" and "New Capital Leading New Era" triggered hot debates. In recent years, Guangzhou has applied financial innovation to the real economy and combined new technology with finance in ways to build a sound financial ecosystem that is safe, streamlined and efficient, Rajesh Singh, general manager of the Model Development and Risk Management Department, Bank of America once said. These efforts, he added, would be a great opportunity to revolutionize the cutting-edge financial technology. To demonstrate its resolve in the financial innovation, Guangzhou has, in recent years, deepened financial reforms, as in Nansha New Area (15 policies approved) and Nansha Free Trade Area and the green finance, making it the city with the largest number of pilot financial reform programs in China. And Nansha, with over 6,000 financial firms there, has gained more resources for innovation. Pilot programs like the green bond, China's first cross-border leasing assets transactions in U.S. dollars, have been listed among the top 10 practices in free trade zones. Data shows that the adding value of Guangzhou's financial sector has grown by 106% over the past five years, overtaking any other Chinese city. All these striking figures might be an inspiration for the world. At the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, China is committed to opening wider and enhancing international cooperation. At a parallel session themed "Jointly creating the future of the Greater Bay Area -- the prospect of financial cooperation between Nansha and Hong Kong & Macao", experts attending the meeting generally believed that Nansha, with a prime location for financial cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, was a frontier for the province to connect with Hong Kong and Macao to go global and a window to attract international resources. In the face of the new development of globalization, Nansha as an epitome of China has built channels and platforms for drawing talents, capital and enterprises, to enhance the potential of fin-tech development through international cooperation. It is a worldwide consensus to build a community with a shared future for mankind that draws collective wisdom and delivers benefits to all, as demonstrated by the dialogues and exchanges at the IFF. SOURCE International Finance Forum BEIJING and PARIS, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CITICPE received a gold award in the Best Global Private Equity Fund category at the 2018 Private Equity Exchange & Awards, a major Pan-European private equity focused event hosted by the renowned media and rating agency, Leaders League, in Paris. To date, CITICPE is the only Chinese private equity firm to have won such an award for two consecutive years, highlighting the global investment community's continual recognition of CITICPE as a leading Chinese asset manager. The Private Equity Exchange & Awards aims to recognize the best performing private equity funds across the globe. A panel of 80 investment veterans, consisting of Limited Partners and Asset Managers, conduct comprehensive research on the companies' overall governance and performance, including strategic positioning, management teams, sector knowledge over the past ten years, as well as investment performance, realizations and distributions over the past three years, to select the final winners. Since its establishment in 2008, CITICPE has focused on the six key areas of Technology & Internet, Industrial & Energy, Business & Financial Services, Consumer & Leisure, Healthcare and Real Estate. It adopts a long-term investment approach, investing in Chinese companies and international firms linked to China's growth, and is strongly committed to facilitating the growth of its portfolio companies, bringing global best practices to its investment process and generating sustainable returns for investors. The Company currently manages over USD 15 billion (RMB 100 billion) for institutional investors globally. Lefei Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CITICPE, commented, "We are honored to receive a gold award from the Private Equity Exchange & Awards in 2018, the year of CITICPE's 10th anniversary. In the past decade, we have achieved superior returns for our investors, followed a value-based investment approach and established an asset management firm with strong corporate culture. Over the next ten years, we will continue to maintain a modest attitude and an open mindset, adopt domestic and international best practices, and join forces with our peers to improve investment capabilities and corporate governance of Chinese PE firms, gradually gain international recognition and support the economic development in China and globally." In the 2018 Best Global Private Equity Fund category, along with CITICPE, leading investment firm Apollo Global Management received a gold award. In the same category the previous year, CITICPE, along with KKR, Blackstone and other global investment firms received silver awards. Paris-based Leaders League is a media and rating agency, which has organized the Private Equity Exchange & Awards for the past 17 years. About CITICPE CITICPE is a leading alternative asset manager, with asset classes spanning private equity, mezzanine and the public market. Founded in 2008 by a world class team of investment professionals and supported by over 200 domestic and international investors, CITICPE knows China like no one else and is a globally minded long-term value investor. The firm uses its sector expertise to generate deal flow and drive the value creation work during the post-investment stage. CITICPE follows a disciplined investment approach to preserve and grow its investors' capital. The firm's private equity portfolio of more than 100 companies is highly diversified by sector and stage of investment. CITICPE takes pride in its forward-looking investment philosophy and works hard to create value over the long-term for its investors and a better world. For more information, please visit www.citicpe.com. SOURCE CITICPE Related Links http://www.citicpe.com The objective of the joint investment platform is to make long-term equity investments up to a total USD 1 billion in infrastructure projects and companies. in infrastructure projects and companies. Investments will be made in the energy sectors (including renewable energy), transportation, social infrastructure, telecommunications, water and basic sanitation, among others. Investments in the private capital fund will come from the Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional ("FDN"), and all Colombian pension fund administrators, and will be managed by a FDN affiliate. CDPQ is among the 10 largest institutional investors in infrastructure in the world. BOGOTA, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - An infrastructure co-investment platform was officially launched with the President of the Republic of Colombia, Ivan Duque, the President and CEO of Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ), Michael Sabia, and FDN President Clemente del Valle, as well as the presidents of all Colombian pension fund administrators in attendance. The FDN and Colombian pension fund administrators (AFPs) have created a new private capital fund of USD 490 million. This fund will co-invest with CDPQ through a platform whose objective is to make capital investments in infrastructure projects and companies for a total amount of up to USD 1 billion. CDPQ will contribute up to USD 510 million. The minimum size of each investment will be USD 50 million, split between the fund and CDPQ. "We are very pleased to invest in Colombia with the private capital fund created by the FDN and pension fund administrators. This partnership combines our partners' market knowledge with our expertise in infrastructure. We believe that together, we can find the best investment opportunities in a variety of sectors, generate returns for our respective pensioners and at the same time contribute to economic growth in Colombia", stated Michael Sabia, President and CEO, CDPQ. Following significant efforts to raise infrastructure debt financing, the FDN also identified a need for equity investments. This is how it came to spearhead the creation of the private capital fund, the co-investment platform and the partnership with CDPQ, a long-term strategic partner with a vast experience in infrastructure investment in various countries. Through these three initiatives, the FDN will be able to mobilize up to 10 times the invested resources. "With this private fund, capital will be invested in infrastructure, with the support of all Colombian pension fund administrators, who will be able to make long-term equity investments in projects and companies, hand-in-hand with a professional, highly reputable investor and global leader in infrastructure investment, CDPQ. This is a leap for the country in the field of infrastructure financing", said FDN President Clemente del Valle. The investment processes of the private investment capital fund will be conducted by the administrator, INFRAESTRUCTURA ASSET MANAGEMENT COLOMBIA SAS, a wholly-owned FDN subsidiary. Investors in the private capital fund will include the FDN, with up to 20% of the total, and the remaining 80% will come from Colfondos, Old Mutual, Porvenir and Proteccion. About the FDN The Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional (national development finance agency FDN) is a specialized, technical and independent private entity charged with mobilizing the players and resources necessary to successfully develop the country's infrastructure. Its specialization and knowledge of infrastructure and financing enable it to design solutions with sophisticated and innovative schemes and mechanisms aimed at adequately managing risks, and identifying and attracting other sources to participate in financing schemes. Through its objective of overcoming financing barriers and providing solutions, the FDN promotes efficient financing structures with the aim of obtaining competitive sources of long-term financing and mitigating the risks of refinancing. The arrival of the IFC, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and CAF Development Bank of Latin America as FDN shareholders bolstered the entity's independence by bringing international best practices and solid corporate governance. These investors also reinforced the FDN's technical capability by promoting financing of the country's infrastructure projects and strengthened its financial muscle by mobilizing all of the stakeholders needed to fulfill this mandate. About CDPQ Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec ("CDPQ") is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30, 2018, it held CAD308.3 billion in net assets. As one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages. SOURCE Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Related Links http://www.cdpq.com/ Candice Evertowski, Datix's Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, is proud of the company's accomplishment: "We are honored to be recognized by Epicor with the Marketing Excellence Award. Every day, we work hard to share our enterprise software expertise through daily content and social media posts. A certified Epicor partner, Datix stays on top of the latest industry trends, making us a thought leader in the Epicor community." Datix has distinguished itself as a leading software consulting firm by providing a variety of solutions and services for manufacturers and distributors across several industries. With ERP, CRM and eCommerce solutions under one roof, Datix is a single point of contact for enterprise software projects. Additionally, the firm developed Unity, a pre-built integration application designed to seamlessly connect Epicor with an array of front-office systems. The marketing team draws from this breadth of expertise to create enriching material throughout Datix's website, blog and e-books, informing businesses of innovative solutions and strategies. "Congratulations to our Partner Program Award winner, Datix, for enabling business growth through Epicor solutions," said Steve Murphy, chief executive officer, Epicor Software. "Our partners are an extension of our business and we are fortunate to have such a talented group of IT professionals aligned with us to support customers with business growth, innovation, and enhanced customer experience." Epicor Partner Program Awards The Epicor Partner Program Awards are designed to reward Epicor Channel Partner Program members who have demonstrated their ability to serve as an extension of Epicor's own salesforce to help businesses worldwide grow and transform. There are several different categories across different geographies in which partners are awarded, ranging from Global Partner of the Year to specific recognitions such as Rookie of the Year and Marketing Excellence. About Datix Datix is a premier software services company based in St. Louis. During our 20 years in operation, we have worked with clients in a wide range of industries. Our unique approach to optimizing business processes through software can be applied to almost any industry, from discrete manufacturing to product distribution. Besides being an Epicor Platinum Partner, we are also a certified partner with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce CRM as well as an expert in Magento and HubSpot. Datix specializes in Business Process Management and Enterprise Application Solutions, including customizable integration options. Unity is Datix's pre-built integration solution for ERP, CRM, eCommerce and Marketing Automation software, available to connect your solution seamlessly without any of the normal errors or bugs that can come with integration. Datix also provides a wide range of ERP, CRM and eCommerce support services, business consulting and software development to clients around the globe. Contact Datix today to learn more about our enterprise software solutions. Epicor and the Epicor logo are trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. The product and service offerings depicted in this document are produced by Datix and/or Epicor Software Corporation. Datix Media Contact: Candice Evertowski Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer 314.962.3466 x 1004 [email protected] http://www.datixinc.com SOURCE Datix Related Links http://www.datixinc.com As a result, she demonstrated the value of social media by showing the world that she wasnt all that easy to hate. Even the conservative blog RedState, which declared in one recent headline that Mocking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Not Only Fun But It Is The Right Thing To Do, actually complimented her use of live video captions so that the hearing impaired could follow along. NEW YORK, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation announced today it awarded Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM) a $585,000 grant to purchase a new mobile dental clinic to serve children in Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and the Bronx through the school's Community DentCare program. The new van, replacing an outdated model, will help CDM improve access to dental care for underserved children, many of whom rely upon the clinic as their sole source of oral health care. It will also reach previously inaccessible sites, reduce costs, and upgrade the clinic with state-of-the-art equipment custom-designed for CDM. At present, DentCare's mobile clinic visits nearly 70 Head Start, daycare, and foster care facilities, providing over 3,000 dental visits per year, regardless of ability to pay. Through six school-based clinics in underserved communities, DentCare provided approximately 26,000 dental visits in the last three years. The program also offers oral health screenings to the elderly at local community centers. "As the largest provider of oral health care in our upper Manhattan communities, Columbia University relies on our mobile clinic to care for children most in need," said Christian S. Stohler, DMD, DrMedDent, dean of Columbia University College of Dental Medicine and senior vice president of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. "Delta Dental's generosity will help us improve our facilities as well as our reach. We are deeply grateful for their generosity." "Our Foundation's mission is to increase access to quality dental care and we could not do so without dedicated partners such as Columbia University," said Karen Robinson, vice president of corporate affairs for Delta Dental and executive director of the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation. "Together, we can make a lasting impact to improve the health and enhance the lives of children and adults in New York." The grant is one of 20 given in New York 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 more than $2.5 million in grants to organizations throughout New York. About Delta Dental Community Care Foundation The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of New York, Inc., and its affiliated companies including Delta Dental of California, Delta Dental Insurance Company 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. About Columbia University College of Dental Medicine Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM), one of the nation's first dental schools, educates general dentists and specialists to practice dentistry as the oral health specialty of medicine. CDM provides comprehensive, precision care to over 30,000 patients each year through more than 130,000 visits, making CDM the largest source of oral healthcare to underserved upper Manhattan communities. A centerpiece of the school's offerings is the new Center for Precision Dental Medicine, a clinic that will personalize care and education through big data and first-of-its-kind technology. Other programs bring oral healthcare to local schools, seniors, and community centers. For more information, visit dental.columbia.edu. Columbia University Irving Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Irving Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cuimc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org. SOURCE Delta Dental Community Care Foundation Related Links http://www.deltadentalins.com FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DIGITALSPEC, LLC. (DSPEC) is pleased to announce an award under the GSA 8(a) STARS II contract with the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to create and manage Voice of America's (VOA), Enterprise Architecture (EA) program. This venture expands DSPEC's Social and Citizen Services platform to include the business consulting and technical services advanced by Enterprise Architecture IT expertise. The focus area of this project is on Voice of America's core business line: media production and distribution, including television, radio, web-based content, and social media. DSPEC will execute this program by deploying the leading, industry-recognized architectural frameworks, critical change management models, and a deep understanding of business strategies and drivers. Mr. Vishal Dadoo, President of DSPEC, said, "We believe Enterprise Architecture is evolving as a tool for transforming organizations by enhancing flexibility and agility. It focuses not only on IT, but on defining a foundational platform to implement business strategy and augment joint value creation between business partners and customers." DSPEC's Enterprise Architecture professionals will formulate an agile Enterprise Architecture program, define and review current business practices, and collaborate with Voice of America's leadership to compose a future standards-based architecture to catalog, map, and standardize the tools, technologies, formats, and processes that Voice of America employs to create and broadcast media. These models, in conjunction with Voice of America's leadership, will enable DSPEC to deliver an enterprise roadmap that measures, analyzes, and closes the gaps between Voice of America's current and future capabilities. This will enable Voice of America to introduce changes that streamline business practices, lower costs, eliminate redundant processes, and reduce workload while strengthening and enhancing it's core business operations. "DSPEC is excited to expand this market potential to showcase our technical expertise and deliver an impactful EA program to the Federal Government in a rewarding and necessary field," said Dr. Charles Dadoo, CEO of DSPEC. About U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America The U.S Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is a global media agency comprised of media organizations that fulfill a mission vital to U.S. national interests: to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. Voice of America delivers trusted and objective news and information in 45 languages to a measured weekly audience of 236.8 million people. VOA broadcasts content in digital, web, and mobile platforms. Radio and television programs are broadcast by approximately 3,000 affiliates, while satellite transmissions make media content available in countries where the freedom of speech is banned, or media outlets restricted. VOA's four mobile apps have registered more than 1 million downloads and cater to users on all major mobile platforms. Originally established to deliver free media content to occupied countries during World War II, Voice of America has expanded its offerings in recent years in response to many governments' decisions to curb media outlets' freedoms. About DIGITALSPEC, LLC DIGITALSPEC, LLC (DSPEC), is an SBA-certified 8(a), CMMI Level 3-Compliant, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 20000:2011, ISO 27001:2013 certified firm founded in 2005 and headquartered in Fairfax, VA, with metropolitan offices in Arlington, VA supporting federal and commercial clients throughout the greater Washington, DC area. This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. SOURCE DIGITALSPEC, LLC Related Links http://www.digitalspec.net COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EcoZapp A/C Efficiency of College Station is among the top 100 companies from around the world selected for the 14th annual Aggie 100 list of the fastest-growing companies owned and operated by former students of Texas A&M University. EcoZapp was recognized as number 60 with a compound annual growth rate of over 37%. Last year, this organization placed 22nd with 57% growth. The Aggie 100 is founded and sponsored by Mays Business School's McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University. http://www.aggie100.com EcoZapp A/C Efficiency EcoZapp A/C Efficiency is a unique company which has directed its focus on scaling its A/C Service to help address the needs of older Air Conditions and Heating systems before Jan 1, 2020, as the EPA phases out the use of R-22 needed to run older systems. EcoZapp thinks it is time for the A/C Industry to Evolve to achieve this they are building a team with a culture focused on both growth and excellence. According to owner and founder, Joshua Zapalac, "Earning this yearly growth award is to be expected by our young team. It's an opportunity to set a solid goal and hit the targets needed to achieve it. The Aggie 100 was one of my first goals as a student start-up, and now we're going work to see if we can win 12 of these straight!" EcoZapp is planning on expanding to service most of Texas within the next three-to-five years to fulfill the growing demands of the overall home services industry. Zapalac is confident his team focused on scaling an Air Conditioning and Heating Service can achieve consecutive Aggie 100 awards for a many years to come, saying it'll "Indicate success to some degree in a business environment where it's difficult to build a culture which can be flexible yet maintain focus as a team." Already servicing the College Station and Greater Houston Region, Zapalac quickly sketched out plans to link Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio to Austin into their expansions. EcoZapp A/C Efficiency is one of the original businesses from Startup Aggieland in College Station. Joshua Zapalac was also named the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 for the Houston Region by the SBA. He credits part of his success to the recent developments of EcoZapp in becoming involved in the local Bryan/ College Station's growing Chapter of the Entrepreneur's Organization and is excited about College Station's potential for becoming a hotbed for Millennial Entrepreneurs, several of which made the local list. The 100 Aggie-owned companies with the highest compound annual revenue growth from 2015 to 2017 were recognized at a formal celebration at the Hall of Champions at Texas A&M University's Kyle Field on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. The honorees were joined in celebration by family, friends, employees, faculty, administrators, current students, and fellow entrepreneurs. "We are extremely proud of the 14th class of the Aggie 100. We continue to be amazed at the drive and determination of these Aggie entrepreneurs. They embody all that Texas A&M represents," Stated Dr. Richard H. Lester, Executive Director of the Mays Business School's McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship. "The McFerrin Center has numerous programs to support the entrepreneurial endeavors of students but being part of this exemplary group is the pinnacle. Every young Aggie entrepreneur aspires to be a part of the Aggie 100. Congratulations to all for a job well done!" A complete Aggie 100 list can be viewed at www.aggie100.com. EcoZapp A/C Efficiency www.ecozapphvac.com 833.924.6100 Related Images focus-of-needs-of-older-a-c-systems.jpg Focus of Needs of Older A/C Systems expanding-service-fleet.jpg Expanding Service Fleet awards-received-in-past-24-months.jpg Awards received in past 24 months once-student-start-up-in-2011.jpg Once Student Start-up in 2011 Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHlaYwe8tO4 SOURCE EcoZapp A/C Efficiency Related Links http://www.ecozapphvac.com ZURICH and LONDON, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Will Work with Chairwoman Jill Ader to Drive Global Growth Egon Zehnder, the world's leadership advisory firm, today announced that Edilson Camara has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer. Edilson will work with Chairwoman Jill Ader to accelerate the firm's ambition to be the world's premier leadership advisory for Boards, CEOs and executive leaders across its suite of leadership services. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790064/Egon_Zehnder_Logo.jpg ) "I am very much looking forward to working closely with Ed as our new CEO. We bring complementary skills and styles deeply rooted in a shared view of the future and our unique firm values. He is already a very accomplished leader in the firm and advises clients at the Board and C-suite level internationally," said Jill Ader. Edilson Camara is Brazilian and began his career in Egon Zehnder's Sao Paulo office 20 years ago working with industrial clients. In 2001, he moved to Rio de Janeiro to open Egon Zehnder's first office there, ultimately becoming leader of the Brazilian practice while growing the business into the most profitable globally. He was appointed to the Firm's Executive Committee in 2009, where he has driven firm-wide topics in Technology, People, and Performance, and is a member of the Finance Committee. In 2013, Ed moved to Canada to lead the practice across three offices, doubling the firm's size across Canada and tripling its profits. He is now based in Toronto. "I feel humbled and honored to serve our firm as CEO, working together with Jill to continue shaping the distinctiveness of Egon Zehnder. Our firm is truly unique in its ability to respond to client needs in light of the convergence observed in various aspects of leadership advisory and executive search. For almost six decades, Egon Zehnder has been a disruptor, innovating the way we advise clients. This will continue, as we further bring to the market the unmatched strength of our equal, truly global partnership," said Mr Camara The process to appoint the CEO was run by the Chairwoman and a Nominations Committee. It was an inclusive process that included input from the entire partnership. Edilson Camara will be the sixth person to serve as CEO in Egon Zehnder's 55-year history and formally assumes his role immediately. NOTES TO EDITORS: About Egon Zehnder Egon Zehnder is the world's leadership advisory firm, sharing one goal: to transform people, organizations and the world through great leadership. We know what great leaders can do and are passionate about delivering the best leadership solutions for our clients. As One Firm, our more than 450 Consultants in 68 offices and 40 countries bring our individual strengths to form one powerful collaborative team. We partner closely with public and private corporations, family-owned enterprises, and non-profit and government agencies to provide Board advisory services, CEO search and succession, executive search, executive assessment, leadership and team development and organizational transformation. We share a commitment and pride in doing work that contributes to successful careers, stronger companies and a better world. For more information visit https://www.egonzehnder.com/, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. SOURCE Egon Zehnder MIAMI, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MDO PARTNERS expands with the addition of Isis Carbajal, a Board Certified education attorney with over 35 years of experience in the Florida State University system. Ms. Carbajal will serve as Compliance Counsel and lead the firm's new Higher Education Compliance Practice to represent colleges and universities on legal and compliance issues, including academic matters, employment and administrative law, and ethics. She will also assist higher education clients with compliance programs, including policies, training and internal investigations. "I'm excited to join MDO Partners' impressive team of lawyers and compliance professionals," said Carbajal. "I'm looking forward to contributing to the firm's success and expanding presence in higher education." "I'm also pleased to associate with a firm that embraces and empowers women and minorities in the workplace." "It is a privilege to have an attorney with Isis' remarkable experience join our firm," said Richard Montes de Oca, Managing Partner of MDO Partners. "With the increased complexity, global expansion, and regulatory scrutiny of higher education, Isis is highly sought after by colleges and universities worldwide." "We are thrilled to welcome her to our team and have her lead this important practice area." Formerly, Carbajal was a founding member of the Florida International University (FIU) General Counsel's Office where she served as a senior attorney for over 20 years. Prior to FIU, she served as Associate General Counsel at the University of Florida, immediately following her role as Staff Attorney with the US Department of Education. Carbajal was born in Cuba and is fluent in English and Spanish. She received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and her B.A., with high honors, from the University of Florida. About MDO Partners MDO Partners is a boutique law firm that focuses in Corporate, International, and Real Estate Law, as well as Global Compliance and Business Ethics. The firm is comprised of a solid team of attorneys and advisors with more than 100 years of combined experience, who are committed to the business goals and best interests of their clients. The firm delivers value-added services of the highest caliber, and serves as a trusted advisor to its clients, with a practical and business-savvy approach. To learn more about MDO Partners, please visit www.mdopartners.com . SOURCE MDO Partners Related Links http://www.mdopartners.com LONG BEACH, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson America, a leading provider of digital imaging solutions, today unveiled even more aggressive incentives for new channel partners joining its CaptureProSM Partner Program. With the help of its CapturePro partners, which doubled in growth over the past 12 months, Epson has been recognized as one of the fastest growing document scanner brands in North America by IDC1. Epson's CapturePro Partner Program has continued to drive growth in new markets and create additional revenue streams for its partners. The program features expanded discounts and incentives, including upfront margins, deal registration discounts and sales SPIFFs. The enhanced partner offer delivers up to a 10 percent credit memo with tiered goals starting at as low as $5K in scanner sales in the first six months. "We were searching for a channel partner that would deliver reliable, cost-effective document management solutions, address customer needs and provide extensive resources," said Fahim Hayat, co-founder of Hayats, LLC. "The CapturePro Partner Program is exemplary of Epson's dedication to its partners, making it easier for us to be successful and profitable while providing our customers with the best solutions and support." Epson CapturePro Image Solutions Highlights Epson's CapturePro program features a series of discount programs for partners, including: Upfront Margin: Channel partners who register a deal through our CapturePro Program receive an upfront discount as rich as 25 percent Channel partners who register a deal through our CapturePro Program receive an upfront discount as rich as 25 percent Deal Registration Program: Partners receive an additional 10 percent discount for registering a 10+ unit deal Partners receive an additional 10 percent discount for registering a 10+ unit deal Sales SPIFFs: As an additional bonus, partners can receive up to a $200 sales SPIFF per unit As an additional bonus, partners can receive up to a sales SPIFF per unit Volume Incentive Rebates and Marketing Development Funds: Tiered VIRs and customized MDFs are available for both new and existing partners Tiered VIRs and customized MDFs are available for both new and existing partners Eval/Demo Program: CapturePro partners and end users can take advantage of a 30-day free trial to test any of the Epson commercial scanners free of charge, including shipping both ways "Our goal with the CapturePro program was to make Epson one of the most profitable partner programs for resellers in the industry, and the results show that we achieved it," said Sean Gunduz, group product manager, Epson scanners. "The revised tiered VIR goals for new partners underscore Epson's commitment to our expanding partner community and supporting their growth of a sustainable and profitable business. We truly believe our CapturePro program is both profitable and advantageous for our partners." Epson scanners are backed by a 3-year limited warranty with Next-Business-Day Replacement2, and feature TWAIN and ISIS drivers across the product line, underscoring the portfolio's robustness and reliability. For more information about the Epson CapturePro Partner Program, please visit https://epson.com/epson-partners-program About Epson Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. With a lineup that ranges from inkjet printers and digital printing systems to 3LCD projectors, watches and industrial robots, the company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group comprises more than 81,000 employees in 85 companies around the world, and is proud of its contributions to the communities in which it operates and its ongoing efforts to reduce environmental impacts. Epson America, Inc., based in Long Beach, Calif., is Epson's regional headquarters for the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. To learn more about Epson, please visit: epson.com. You may also connect with Epson America on Facebook (facebook.com/Epson), Twitter (twitter.com/EpsonAmerica), YouTube (youtube.com/EpsonAmerica), and Instagram (instagram.com/EpsonAmerica). 1 IDC, North America Document Imaging Scanner Market Shares 2017: Digital Transformation Influences Scanner Market #US42614218, May 2018 2 For more information, go to www.epson.com/3yearscannerwarranty. Subject to limited warranty terms and conditions. Expedited shipping not available in all areas. Road Service orders must be in by 3 p.m. Eastern Time for Next-Business-Day delivery. EPSON is a registered trademark, EPSON Exceed Your Vision is a registered logomark of Seiko Epson Corporation. CapturePro is a service mark of Epson America, Inc. All other product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Epson disclaims any and all rights in these marks. Copyright 2018 Epson America, Inc. SOURCE Epson America, Inc. Related Links http://www.epson.com DUBLIN, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Europe & CIS Ride Hailing Market By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car & Micro Mobility Vehicle), By Internet Connectivity (3G, 4G, 5G & Wi-Fi), By Service Type, By Vehicle Connectivity, By Country, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2017-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Europe & CIS ride hailing market is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 21% by 2023, on the back of rising concerns about air pollution and increasing traffic congestion in many countries of the region. Growth in the market is anticipated on account of increasing penetration of internet, rising number of smartphone users, growing popularity of ride hailing services, and development of semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles. Moreover, growing collaboration between OEMs and ride hailing service providers is likely to positively influence the region's ride hailing market in the coming years. Europe & CIS Ride Hailing Market, 2017-2023 discusses the following aspects of ride hailing market in Europe & CIS: Ride Hailing Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car & Micro Mobility Vehicle), By Internet Connectivity (3G, 4G, 5G & Wi-Fi), By Service Type, By Vehicle Connectivity, By Country Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of ride hailing in Europe & CIS & CIS To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, ride hailing distributors and other stakeholders align their market-centric strategies To obtain research-based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players To avail of 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get the research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs Some of the major players operating in Europe & CIS ride hailing market include Uber Technologies Inc. Lyft Inc. Didi Chuxing BMW AG Aptiv PLC Robert Bosch GmbH IBM Corporation Gett Inc. ANI Technologies Private Limited TomTom International Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Europe & CIS Ride Hailing Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value 4.2. Market Share & Forecast 4.2.1. By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car Vs. Micro Mobility Vehicles) 4.2.2. By Internet Connectivity (3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, and 5G) 4.2.3. By Service Type (E-hailing, Car Sharing, and Station Based Mobility) 4.2.4. By Vehicle Connectivity (V2P, V2I, V2V, and Others) 4.2.5. By Country 4.3. Market Attractiveness Index (By Vehicle Type) 4.4. Market Attractiveness Index (By Internet Connectivity) 4.5. Market Attractiveness Index (By Service Type) 4.6. Market Attractiveness Index (By Vehicle Connectivity) 4.7. Market Attractiveness Index (By Country) 4.8. Europe & CIS Ride Hailing Market Country Analysis 5. Market Dynamics 5.1. Drivers 5.2. Challenges 6. Market Trends & Developments 7. Competitive Landscape 7.1. Uber Technologies Inc. 7.2. Lyft Inc. 7.3. Didi Chuxing 7.4. BMW AG 7.5. Aptiv PLC 7.6. Robert Bosch GmbH 7.7. IBM Corporation 7.8. Gett Inc. 7.9. ANI Technologies Private Limited 7.10. TomTom International 8. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dc3q2c/europe_and_cis?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. 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 LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EVgo, the nation's largest public electric vehicle (EV) fast charging network, officially launched the company's first fast charging station at a Colorado Whole Foods Market location with a ribbon cutting at the store at Denver Union Station. Representatives from EVgo, Whole Foods, the Colorado Energy Office, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, and Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) all participated in the ribbon cutting to celebrate more positive momentum in Colorado's path toward transportation electrification. EVgo's Whole Foods Market at downtown Denver Union Station location will feature four 50 kW EVgo fast-chargers, increasing the total number of EVgo fast chargers in Colorado to 29. The station marks EVgo's 23rd in the state, and its first at a Colorado Whole Foods Market location. Each EVgo fast charger is capable of delivering up to 90 miles of range in 30 minutes perfect for a shopping trip to Whole Foods Market. "Whole Foods Market and EVgo have been working together for years to make sure shoppers' cars are as green as their vegetables," said Cathy Zoi, EVgo CEO. "EVgo's new fast charging station at the Denver Union Station Whole Foods Market expands our model partnership to the Mile-High State as more customers look to take advantage of the environmental and economic benefits of electric vehicles." "Our partnership with EVgo has helped us provide quick and efficient charging options for our customers with electric vehicles," said Ryan Haney, Store Team Leader of Whole Foods Market Union Station. "We are thrilled to offer this service to our customers as they shop at our Union Station location." Colorado is a rapidly expanding electric vehicle market, with growing volumes of sales and a strong ecosystem for transportation electrification. The Colorado Energy Office, Denver Public Health and Environment Department, and Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) are among the leaders making Colorado the growing EV state that it is today. Partners since 2013, EVgo and Whole Foods Market have launched 35 fast charging stations with a total of 96 chargers at Whole Food Market locations across the country. Year to date, EVgo and Whole Foods Market have powered more than 190K charging sessions and eight million EV miles, avoiding 330K gallons of gasoline and 1800 metric tons of carbon emissions while at the same time offering a fast, easy, convenient, and reliable charging solution for Whole Foods Market customers. EVgo's reputation for reliability has earned the company PlugShare's highest customer satisfaction rating for a public charging network. (September 2018). About EVgo EVgo is America's Largest Public Fast Charging Network. EVgo's fast chargers deliver convenient, fast charges to EV drivers on the go, delivering up to 90 miles of range in 30 minutes. EVgo's fast chargers are compatible with all EV models currently on the market that accept DC Fast Charging. With more than 1,000 fast chargers and more than 1,000 Level 2 chargers in 66 metropolitan markets, EVgo's network in 34 U.S. states allows EV drivers to travel further while providing exemplary service by maintaining and operating its charging stations. EVgo offers a variety of flexible pricing options for drivers including Pay As You Go and low-cost Membership options. To find out more, or to join the EVgo network, download our app, visit EVgo.com, and follow EVgo on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Press Contact: Michael Blenner [email protected] 347-439-2158 SOURCE EVgo Pioneering new scientific research in the publication, Channels, explains the promise of targeting the ionotropic cannabinoid receptor TRPV1, for the treatment and reversal of heart failure. LAS VEGAS, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GB Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: GBLX) is pleased to announce the publication of a research article co-authored by GB Sciences and key collaborators in the peer-reviewed journal Channels, which explains the potential medical benefits of using cannabinoid receptor-targeting therapies for the treatment of heart disease. GB Sciences' own Chief Science Officer, Dr. Andrea Small-Howard, joins co-authors including University of Hawaii faculty member and President of Makai Biotechnology, LLC, Dr. Alexander Stokes, and researchers from the University of Kyoto, Japan. The link to the article as published in PubMed, the notable government source for medical studies, is found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30424709 . "People are becoming more aware that cannabinoid-based therapies can have significant medical benefits for patients, and this research study brings attention to the potential life-saving applications of cannabinoids for the treatment of heart conditions through the manipulation of specific-cannabinoid sensitive receptors," explains Dr. Andrea Small-Howard. "Our study highlights the involvement of the cannabinoid-sensitive ion channel, TRPV1, which is a newly-discovered component of signaling systems in the falling heart but it role is pivotal. Critically, our study shows, for the first time, effective reversal and remediation of this pathology with long-term administration of the drugs." "TRPV1 is a relatively newly recognized part of the endocannabinoid system and has previously been most studied as a pain receptor", explains Dr. Alexander Stokes. "TRPV1 receptors are abundant in the heart, and our data show that if we inhibit its function with promising orally-available drugs, we can effect an exciting rescue and reversal of failing heart pathology." In December of 2016, GB Sciences licensed patents on methods for the treatment of cardiac hypertrophy and associated pathologies through regulation of the cannabinoid receptor, TRPV1, from Dr. Stokes of Makai Biotechnology. GB remains committed to cannabis-based therapies for heart disease, as demonstrated by their filing original patent applications on the use of myrcene-based complex mixtures for heart disease in May of 2017 and another patent application on cannabinoid and terpenoid-based complex mixtures for the treatment of heart disease through manipulation of cannabis-receptors in May of 2018. John Poss, CEO of GB Sciences says, "Heart disease is still the leading global cause of death, and cannabinoid-based therapeutics are a promising new option for its treatment. At GB Sciences, we are committed to broadening the scope of scientific research using novel applications of cannabinoid therapies and rigorously demonstrating their effectiveness." About Makai Biotechnology, LLC Makai Biotechnology, LLC is a Hawaii-based cardiovascular therapy company established by Dr. Alexander J. Stokes, Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii, John A Burns School of Medicine. Makai Biotechnology is developing novel therapies for the treatment of heart failure. A novel ion channel target has been identified that modulates heart disease. Under the direction of Dr. Alexander Stokes, Makai Biotechnology has validated multiple effective compounds that regulate this target. Makai Biotechnology plans to establish alliances with major pharmaceutical companies to develop and test compounds from pre-clinical through phase II human clinical trials. About Chaminade University Located in the international city of Honolulu on the island of O`ahu, Chaminade is regarded for its remarkably diverse student bodystudents come from the Hawai`i, the mainland U.S., the Pacific region, and beyond. Class sizes are small, with a low student-to-faculty ratio. Here, students develop professionally through service learning projects, research and internship experiences, and leadership and community networking opportunities. At Chaminade, students receive a personalized education that prepares them for an ever-changing future. About GB Sciences, Inc. GB Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: GBLX) is a diverse cannabis company, focused on standardized cultivation and production methods; as well as biopharmaceutical research and development. The Company's goal is creating safe, standardized, pharmaceutical-grade, cannabinoid therapies that target a variety of medical conditions. To learn more about GB Sciences, Inc., go to: http://gbsciences.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain statements relating to future results or events, which are forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects", "intends", "plans", "may", "could", "should", "anticipates", "likely", "believes" and words of similar import may identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts, but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. It is possible that the Company's actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements. Further, information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's business and financial and other results, are contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or correct any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or of which we hereafter become aware. Note: Although the Company's research and development activities are not illegal, the production and sale of cannabis products violate federal laws as they presently exist. Contact Information Corporate: GB Sciences, Inc., 3550 West Teco Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89118 866-721-0297, or Tom Arcuragi, EVP, [email protected] www.gbsciences.com SOURCE GB Sciences, Inc. Related Links http://gbsciences.com Trillions of U.S. dollars have been spent on counterterrorism efforts since 2001, but we still know very little about why people become terrorists. New research shows individual relationships and social circles may be a major factor in attracting and preventing people from joining a violent organization. Funding and programs for understanding the "pathway to terrorism" are limited and largely localized. Orb Media examined programs in Germany and Indonesia to understand what some organizations are doing "on the ground." Drawing on data and definitions from START at the University of Maryland, Orb Media concluded that the acceptability of attacks against civilians has increased worldwide. Further, while the number of terrorists remains very small, their political, psychological and economical effect is monumental. The proportion of the global population that is very worried about terrorism has remained high since the 9/11 U.S. terror attacks, remaining between 65 - 85 percent for the past five years. Orb Media is pleased to partner with members of the Orb Media Network (OMN), a group of global agenda-setting media which collaborate to simultaneously publish stories together that catalyze global dialogue on critical issues, focusing the attention of government, industry, researchers, civil society, and the public. OMN members: CBC (Canada), Channels (Nigeria), Dhaka Tribune (Bangladesh), Folha de Sao Paolo (Brazil), SVT (Sweden), Tempo Media Group (Indonesia), The Hindu (India), Die Zeit (Germany), BBC (United Kingdom), Cadena SER-Prisa (Spain), YLE (Finland), El Comercio (Peru), El Pais (Uruguay), Mail & Guardian (South Africa), El Tiempo (Colombia), La Nacion (Argentina), eNCA (South Africa), South China Morning Post (China), Louisville Public Media (United States). About Orb Media Orb Media is a nonprofit journalism organization that reports on issues that matter to billions of people around the globe. Fusing original research, data analysis, on-the ground reporting, and an engaged public, Orb Media produces agenda-setting stories about the challenges we face together as one world. orbmedia.org/fightingblind. Media Contact: Lara Kline, [email protected]. SOURCE Orb Media Related Links http://www.orbmedia.org The overall outcome wasnt more obvious in the immediate aftermath in part because, even hours after the polls had closed, the online and cable vote crunchers werent calling a number of tight races where Republicans had at least a decent shot of preventing the Democrats from winning the 23 House seats they needed to gain control of that chamber. Apparent Democratic rising stars Beto ORourke, Stacy Abrams and Andrew Gillum were headed for defeat, and incumbent Democratic senators in Indiana, Missouri and Florida had either lost or had buzzards circling over them. Trump was end-zone dancing on Twitter. Clarivate Analytics names people with multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and year PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to enable researchers to accelerate discovery, today published its annual Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list . Now in its fifth year, the citation analysis identifies influential researchers as determined by their peers around the globe - those who have consistently won recognition in the form of high citation counts over a decade. The Web of Science serves as the basis for the regular listings of researchers whose citation records position them in the top 1% by citations for their field and year. David Pendlebury, Senior Citation Analyst at Clarivate Analytics explained: "This year, a new cross-field category has been added to recognize researchers with substantial influence in several fields but who do not have enough highly cited papers in any one field to be chosen. For example, an immunologist today is likely both a biochemist and molecular biologist, and a chemist is also a materials scientist and even an engineer. Breaking through the artificial walls of conventional disciplinary categories by the introduction of the new cross-field category aims to keep the Highly Cited Researcher list contemporary and relevant." Key findings show: Some 4000+ Highly Cited Researchers are named in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences. The United States is home to the highest number of HCRs, with 2,639 authors. The United Kingdom boasts 546. China (mainland) is gaining fast with 482. Harvard University keeps its pole position on the list. is home to the highest number of HCRs, with 2,639 authors. The boasts 546. (mainland) is gaining fast with 482. keeps its pole position on the list. Among the 4,058 researchers named as Highly Cited in the 21 Essential Science Indicator (ESI) fields, 194, or 4.8%, appear in two ESI fields. An elite 24 researchers, hailing from North America , Europe , Asia , and the Middle East , appear in three fields. , , , and the , appear in three fields. New for 2018 - approximately 2,000 additional researchers have also been identified as having exceptional performance based on high impact papers in several fields. Nations or regions with more than 40% of their Highly Cited Researchers selected in the cross-field category are Sweden (53%), Austria (53%), Singapore (47%), Denmark (47%), China (43%) and South Korea (42%). (53%), (53%), (47%), (47%), (43%) and (42%). This year's list continues to recognize researchers whose citation records position them in the highest ranks of influence and impact: it includes 17 Nobel laureates, including two announced this year: James P. Allison , Physiology or Medicine, and William D. Nordhaus , Economic Sciences. Also included are 56 Clarivate Analytics Citation Laureates - individuals who, through citation analysis, we have identified as researchers 'of Nobel class' and potential Nobel Prize recipients. , Physiology or Medicine, and , Economic Sciences. Also included are 56 Clarivate Analytics - individuals who, through citation analysis, we have identified as researchers 'of Nobel class' and potential Nobel Prize recipients. Australian research institutes continue to impress; the number of researchers recognized as Highly Cited has more than doubled in four years, from 80 in 2014 to 170 in 2018, among those selected in one or more of the 21 fields. Australian research institutions appear to have recruited a significant number of HCRs since 2014 as well as increasing their number of homegrown HCRs. China (mainland) continues to march its way up the list and has overtaken Germany to reach the third spot on the top 10 country/region list. (mainland) continues to march its way up the list and has overtaken to reach the third spot on the top 10 country/region list. Governmental research institutions also feature prominently with the US National Institutes of Health, the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research, appearing second in the list of Highly Cited Researchers. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Society also both feature in the top 10. government responsible for biomedical and health-related research, appearing second in the list of Highly Cited Researchers. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Society also both feature in the top 10. The Highly Cited Researchers represent more than 60 nations, but more than 80% of them are from the 10 nations listed in the table below and 70% from the first five - a remarkable concentration of top talent. Top 10 lists from 2018 HCR Countries/regions with no. of HCRs represented Institutions with no. of HCRs represented United States (2639) 1 Harvard University, USA (186) United Kingdom (546) 2 National Institutes of Health - (NIH), USA (148) Mainland China (482) 3 Stanford University, USA (100) Germany (356) 4 Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (99) Australia (245) 5 Max Planck Society, Germany (76) The Netherlands (189) 6 University of California Berkeley, USA (64) Canada (166) 7 University of Oxford, UK (59) France (157) 8 University of Cambridge, UK (53) Switzerland (133) 9 Washington University in St Louis, USA (51) Spain (115) 10 University California Los Angeles - (UCLA), USA (47) Annette Thomas, CEO of the Scientific & Academic Research group explained: "The advancement of scientific endeavor represents a critical activity for individual research institutions and entire nations. The Highly Cited Researchers 2018 list helps to identify the researchers who are having the greatest impact on the research community as measured by the rate at which their work is being cited by others and that contributes so greatly to extending the frontier and gaining knowledge and innovations for society - contributions that make the world healthier, safer, richer, and more sustainable." The methodology that determines the who's who of high-impact researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts from the Institute of Scientific Information at Clarivate Analytics. It uses Essential Science Indicators, a unique compilation of science performance metrics and trend data based on scholarly paper publication counts and citation data from the Web of Science, the premier web-based environment of scientific and scholarly research literature totaling over 33,000 journals. Read our methodology here. The 2018 Highly Cited Researchers list and executive summary can be found at h ttps://clarivate.com/hcr/ . Follow us on Twitter @WebofScience, LinkedIn.com/company/clarivate-analytics and Facebook.com/Clarivate. #HighlyCited2018 About Web of Science Web of Science is the world's most trusted and largest publisher-neutral citation index, powering global discovery and citation analytics across the sciences, social sciences and art & humanities. With over 1.4 billion cited references going back to 1900 and millions of users per day from leading government and academic institutions and research-intensive corporations the Web of Science citation network serves as the foundation for the Journal Impact Factor, InCites and other powerful and trusted citation-impact measures. The Web of Science helps researchers, research institutions, publishers and funders discover and assess the citation impact of over a century of research publications found in the most prestigious books, conference proceedings and journals. Clarivate Analytics Clarivate Analytics is the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including the Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission, to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com. Media Contacts: SOURCE Clarivate Analytics Related Links http://clarivate.com DUBLIN, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Luxury Packaging Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2019-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global luxury packaging market is anticipated to reach values of more than $21 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of approximately 5% during 2018-2024. The market research report also offers market share analysis in terms of volumes (mn tons) during the forecast period. The exponential growth of the luxury goods industry that includes products such as cosmetics and fragrances, watches and jewelry, drinks, fashion, leather goods, tobacco, confectionery, and handbags will create new investment opportunities. The luxury brands using parceling to promote a picture of high quality, elegance, and sophistication for their products will augment the development of the market. The global luxury packaging market is driven by the growing need for brand identity, integrate brand equity, and impact consumer decisions. The vendors are investing in deeply imaginative concept, designed to stimulate an extreme emotional response from the consumers in the market. The market research report provides in-depth market analysis and segmental analysis of the global luxury packaging market by material, end-users, and geography. Luxury Packaging Market - Dynamics Sustainability is becoming an integral part of the global luxury packaging market. Renowned brands and consumers are more concerned about presentation than eco friendliness of packaging. Customers are increasingly becoming environmentally conscious and are seeking out more sustainable lifestyle choices. There is growing pressure from the public and the industry on luxury brand owners to decrease the environmental impact of packaging, while maintaining its luxury quotient. With the rise of e-commerce, there has been a revolutionary shift in how goods are transported and exchanged in the global luxury packaging market. Some of the factors that are usually considered for designing packaging templates for e-commerce are packaging weight, durability, and total landing cost. Luxury good vendors for fashion accessories, cosmetics, jewelry, and watches are increasingly re-designing their packaging templates to suit omni-channel business models in the market. The increasing demand for personalized packaging is propelling the growth of the global luxury packaging market. There is a growing need to maintain a brands position innovative, fresh, and stunning to attract new and existing customers. The crucial obstacle for brand owners is to deal with the ever-growing lack of loyalty from customers. To differentiate from competitors, brand owners are continually building a perceivable and appealing image, which addresses consumers on a more personal note in the market. Luxury Packaging Market - Segmentation This market research report includes a detailed segmentation of the market by materials, end-users, and geography. The global luxury packaging market by the material is segmented into paper and paperboard, plastics, glass, metal, wood, and other. Paper and paperboard segment dominated the largest market share in 2018, growing at a CAGR of over 4% during the forecast period. The increasing use of a variety of substances to intensify the performance of substrates concerning heat resistance or peelability, grease proofness, or for improved printing, and finishing qualities is propelling the growth of this segment in the global market. The other major benefits of glass packaging are that it can be molded into several shapes and sizes, promoting its use across diverse industry verticals.Metal packaging is eco-friendly as it is 100% recyclable and can be reused any number of times without any quality loss.Plastic is widely adopted and the fastest growing material in terms of consumption for luxury packaging. The end-user segment in the global luxury packaging market is classified into cosmetics and fragrance, premium alcoholic drinks, fashion and leather goods, gourmet food and beverages, watches and jewelry, confectionery, tobacco, and others. Cosmetics and fragrance are the fastest growing segment, at a CAGR of around 7% during the forecast period. Glass and fragrance are two of the most commonly used material in the global market. The role of luxury packaging for premium spirits is to protect the product, strengthen brand identity and communicate brand values, give the product a presence on shop shelves, and a means of digital interaction with consumers. Europe remains the undisputed leader in the manufacture of quality leather products and subsequently the packaging for those products. Brands have increasingly resorted to designing watch variants to suit personalities and this has led to the need for customized packaging. Luxury Packaging Market - Geography The global luxury packaging market by geography is divided into APAC, Europe, North America, Latin America, and MEA. Europe occupied the majority market share in 2018, growing at a CAGR of more than 4% during the forecast period. The increase in tourism-based purchasing is driving the growth of the European region. Countries such as Italy, France, Germany, the UK, and Spain are the largest revenue contributors in the European market. Higher disposable incomes mean not only an increased consumption but also imply a growing preference for differentiated offerings in the APAC market. The US is home to about 48% of the brands in personal luxury space, the region is also a key hub for tourist shopping, particularly, attracting tourists from Latin America and APAC in the global luxury packaging market. Paper and paperboard are the most commonly used packaging material for luxury good packaging with a consumption share of 53% in the Latin American market. Key Vendor Analysis The global luxury packaging market is very fragmented and offers huge scope new players to enter and expand to emerging regions. The increasing middle-class income and rising infrastructure development are creating new avenues for leading vendors operating in the global market. The presence of diversified international vendors and regional players will intensify the competition. The top companies are developing new technologies to gain a competitive advantage. The increasing use of augmented reality (AR) technology to attract customers by retailers will encourage vendors to diversify their product portfolio in the global luxury packaging market. The major vendors in the global luxury packaging market are: Amcor Limited Crown Holdings Incorporated International Paper West Rock Owen - Illinois , Inc. Other prominent vendors include Ardagh Group BC Boncar Ch. Dahlinger GmbH & Co. KG Stolzle Glass Group Stolzle Glass Group. Fleet Luxury HH Deluxe Packaging Eurobox Keenpac MW luxury Packaging Key Topics Covered: 1 Research Methodology 2 Research Objectives 3 Research Process 4 Report Coverage 4.1 Market Definition 4.2 Base Year 4.3 Scope of Study 4.3.1 Market Segmentation by Material 4.3.2 Market Segmentation by End-users 4.3.3 Market Segmentation by Geography 5 Report Assumptions & Caveats 5.1 Key Caveats 5.2 Inclusions 5.3 Exclusions 5.4 Currency Conversion 5.5 Market Derivation 6 Market at a Glance 7 Introduction 7.1 Overview 8 Market Dynamics 8.1 Market Growth Enablers 8.1.1 Growth of e-commerce in emerging markets 8.1.2 Packaging and display creates competitive advantages for luxury goods 8.1.3 Rising disposable income in developing countries 8.1.4 Demand for technology-blended luxury packaging 8.1.5 Increased demand for personalized packaging 8.2 Market Growth Restraints 8.2.1 Luxury taxation to impact consumption in emerging economies 8.2.2 Volatility in raw material costs 8.2.3 Commoditization of luxury packaging industry 8.2.4 Subdued economic growth and consumption in developed nations 8.3 Market Opportunities & Trends 8.3.1 Less on-pack clutter with emphasis on functional product attributes 8.3.2 E-commerce to revolutionize packaging formats and templates 8.3.3 Sustainability to become integral part of luxury packaging 8.3.4 "Just-in-time inventories" to reinforce balanced supply chain 8.3.5 Innovation to drive and shape luxury packaging market 9 Global Luxury Packaging Market 9.1 Market Overview 9.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 10 By Material 10.1 Market Overview 10.2 Paper and paperboard 10.3 Plastic 10.4 Glass 10.5 Metal 10.6 Wood 10.7 Other materials (rubber, textiles, and leather) 11 By End-User 11.1 Market Overview 11.2 Cosmetics and Fragrances 11.3 Premium Alcoholic Drinks 11.4 Fashion and Leather Goods 11.5 Gourmet and Food Beverages 11.6 Watches and Jewelry 11.7 Confectionery 11.8 Tobacco 11.9 Others 12 By Geography For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/sx9p4w/global_luxury?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. 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 LONDON, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Synthetic & Bio Superabsorbent Polymers Market Size and Forecast, By Type (Bio SAP, Synthetic SAP), By Application (Agriculture, Diapers, Female Hygiene Products) And Trend Analysis, 2015 - 2025 Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628182 Global synthetic & bio superabsorbent polymers market is projected to reach USD 10.44 billion by 2025. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.7% over the forecast period. Growing application in agriculture sector and awareness regarding health and hygiene are anticipated to drive the industry. Biodegradable superabsorbent materials are still at nascent stage. The segment accounted for approximately 2.0% of overall market share in 2017. Growing demand for non-toxic biocompatible materials that do not have any kind of side effects on human health, is expected to further fuel market growth. Water absorbing capacity and biodegradable nature of bio superabsorbent polymer is expected to help it expand at the highest CAGR over the forecast period. In terms of application, diapers accounted for more than 60% of overall market share in 2017. Rising health concerns and disposable income are anticipated to propel growth of the synthetic and bio superabsorbent polymers market. Layered construction in adult diapers enables high absorption. High awareness regarding health and hygiene coupled with rising number of geriatric population and demand for adult diapers has created growth opportunities for the industry. Superabsorbent materials are the key components in baby diapers as well. Growing adoption of environmentally sustainable baby diapers is expected to fuel the industry expansion in the forthcoming years. Female hygiene products accounted for nearly 18.0% of overall market share in 2017 and is anticipated to be the fastest growing application segment over the forecast period. The use of disposable feminine hygiene products has been a key to managing menstrual health over the past few years. Increasing disposable income and awareness regarding feminine hygiene are anticipated to further fuel demand over the projected period. Asia pacific accounted for more than 30.0% of global market share in 2017. It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.0% over the forecast period. Presence of well-established companies and a large number of unorganized players are projected to drive the market for synthetic and bio superabsorbent polymers. Increasing application in baby and adult diapers, female hygiene products, and agriculture superabsorbent soil is expected to boost industry growth. North America was the second largest regional segment, accounting for over 29.0% of overall market share in 2017. The industry is highly consolidated in nature with the top five manufacturers accounting for nearly 70.0% of global market share. Several companies are investing heavily in Research and Development (R&D) of superior bio-based superabsorbent polymers. Joint ventures and collaborations are expected to be some of the key strategies adopted by the market participants over the forecast period. Key companies manufacturing finished products using synthetic & bio superabsorbent polymers are Rodenburg Biopolymers, BASF SE, Formosa Plastics Corporation, KAO Corporation, and Evonik Industries AG. Major players operating in the industry are Nippon Shokubai Co. Ltd, BASF, Evonik Industries AG, Formosa Plastics Group, Bayer AG, and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation. Top three industry players including Nippon, BASF, and Evonik contribute for approximately 51.0% of the overall revenue in this industry. These companies are investing heavily in research and development activities to boost their production capacities. Companies like Archer Daniels Midland Company, BASF and Exotech Bio Solutions Ltd are engaged in development of biodegradable superabsorbent materials. In 2014, BASF collaborated with Novozymes and Cargill to build manufacturing technologies for producing acrylic acid from renewable raw materials. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628182 About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904 Website: www.reportbuyer.com SOURCE ReportBuyer Related Links http://www.reportbuyer.com For a full list of categories and award winners, visit The Goddard School's website. "Ideas generated in workshops and time spent with fellow owners keep you up on latest trends and changes in the industry/business. Networking is paramount at these events and provides so much connection amongst GSI and Franchisees," said Barbra Bryan from Mooresville, NC. "As proven by this year's honorees, choosing to operate a School is more than just a good business decision," said Joe Schumacher, CEO of GSI. "Our franchisees choose to make a profound impact on the lives of future generations." The Goddard School focuses on learning through play for children from six weeks to six years old. This year marks the system's 30th anniversary in business. Learn more about franchising opportunities with The Goddard School at www.goddardschoolfranchise.com. About The Goddard School Learning for fun. Learning for life. Celebrating 30 years of continued growth in early childhood education, The Goddard School uses the most current, academically endorsed methods to ensure that children have fun while learning the skills they need for long-term success in school and in life. The Goddard School's Educational Advisory Board, comprised of acknowledged experts in various fields of early childhood education, contributes to the development of The Goddard School's F.L.EX. Learning Program (Fun Learning Experience), which helps children explore and discover their interests in a safe, nurturing environment. Goddard Systems, Inc., the franchisor of The Goddard School, earned AdvancED Corporation Accreditation and Middle States Corporate Accreditation for meeting high standards in early learning, child development and childcare. The Goddard School serves more than 65,000 students ages six weeks to six years in more than 480 Goddard Schools in 36 states and is poised to open its 500th School in 2018. To learn more about The Goddard School, please visit www.goddardschool.com. CONTACT Brandy Shuman | Konnect Agency [email protected] www.konnectagency.com SOURCE Goddard Systems, Inc. BOSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kyros Law Offices is alerting investors of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.(NYSE: GS) that it is investigating legal claims on behalf of investors against the company for possible securities fraud violations. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.(NYSE: GS) investors are urged to contact our law firm immediately to protect their rights. Visit our Goldman Sachs Shareholder Lawsuit webpage or call 1-800-934-2921 to speak to someone about your case. Kyros Law is investigating possible violations of US securities law that may have been committed by officers and executives of Goldman Sachs. Specifically, the law firm is investigating the effects of the recent 1MDB fraud scandal on Goldman Sachs investors. Kyros Law Offices urges Goldman Sachs investors to contact our law firm immediately to protect their rights. Visit Goldman Sachs Group 1MDB Fraud Shareholder Lawsuit or call 1-800-934-2921 to find out if you have a case. Receive alerts about potential class action lawsuits that may affect you by visiting the Class Action Lawsuit Center website . Learn about our latest cases here. Kyros Law specializes in a wide range of complex litigation, mass torts, and corporate governance matters, including the representation of whistleblowers, shareholders and consumers in securities fraud, false claims act and class actions. Our lawyers have been responsible for recovering hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients throughout the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe. Visit our website to learn more about our firm. SOURCE Kyros Law Related Links http://www.kyroslaw.com PORTLAND, Oregon, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, spiraling rise in geriatric population, and technological advancements would drive the growth in the global home medical equipment market Allied Market Research published a report, titled, Home Medical Equipment Market by Functionality (Therapeutic Equipment [Home Respiratory Therapy Equipment, Home IV Equipment, Home Dialysis Equipment, and Other Home Therapeutic Equipment), Patient Monitoring Equipment [Blood Glucose Monitors, Blood Pressure Monitors, Holter Monitors, Peak Flow Meters, Apnea Monitors, Heart Rate Monitors, Baby Monitors, Electronic Thermometers, and Coagulation Monitors], and Mobility Assist & Patient Support Equipment (Wheelchairs, Mobility Scooters, Walking Assist Devices, Medical Furniture, and Bathroom Safety Equipment) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023. The report offers detailed analyses of the top investment pockets, drivers & restraints, market size & estimations, key market segments, and competitive landscape. According to the report, the global home medical equipment (HME) market generated $23.36 billion in 2017, and is projected to reach $35.18 billion by 2023, registering a CAGR of 7.1% from 2017 to 2023. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg ) Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4424 Increase in incidence of chronic diseases, growth in geriatric population, cost-effectiveness of HME, and technological advancements in the sector drive the growth of the market. However, complications related to HMEs and limited knowledge of home-based users restrain the market growth. On the other hand, increase in demand for HMEs and lucrative potential in emerging economies create new pathways for the industry. Therapeutic equipment segment to lead throughout the forecast period Therapeutic equipment contributed nearly two-thirds of the total market share in 2017, owing to increase in incidence of chronic diseases including cancer, respiratory disorder, and kidney failure. This segment is expected to retain its lead throughout the forecast period. However, mobility assist & patient support equipment segment would grow at the highest CAGR of 7.8% from 2017 to 2023, owing to increase in obese population and surge in the number of accidents. The report also analyzes patient monitoring equipment. North America to maintain its dominance by 2023 North America contributed more than one-third share of the total revenue in 2017 and is expected to remain dominant throughout 2023. This is attributed to the large number of home healthcare equipment providers, better reimbursement policies, improved healthcare infrastructure, and rise in healthcare expenditure. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR of 8.3% from 2017 to 2023, owing to rise in the number of road accidents and large geriatric & obese population in the region. For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/4424 Leading market players The key market players analyzed in the report include Abbott Laboratories, Baxter International Incorporated, B Braun Melsungen Ag, General Electric Company, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Johnson & Johnson, Hill-Rom Holdings Incorporated, Medtronic plc, and Smith & Nephew plc. These market players have implemented various strategies including partnerships, collaborations, expansions, joint ventures, and others to gain a strong position in the industry. Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas. Purchase an enterprise user license and get 1 month complimentary access to our Knowledge Tree subscription. Offer valid till 15th November 201 8 . (*Terms and Conditions apply) Get subscription: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout/953385 Similar Reports: High Tibial Osteotomy (HTO) Plates Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017 - 2023 Safety Needles Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 - 2025 About Us Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com SOURCE Allied Market Research CHENGDU, China, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Honghua Group Ltd ("Honghua" or the "Group") (Stock Code: 0196.HK), a leading global land drilling rig manufacturer, is pleased to announce that recently, Honghua Golden Coast Equipment FZE ("GCE"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, and Kuwait Drilling Company ("KDC") officially signed an around US$30 million sales contract for land drilling rigs with certain specifications. This contract is an additional sales contract between Honghua Golden Coast and KDC for land drilling rigs after 2016. At present, Honghua's number of rigs in the Kuwaiti market has increased to 23 sets. The cooperation reflects that Honghua's products have gained great recognition from clients and the market, which will benefit the Company in expanding market share in Kuwait and consolidating the Group's leading position in the Middle East market. KDC is one of the largest holding companies in the oil and gas sector in Kuwait. It principally engages in drilling exploration, development and work-over businesses. Honghua began cooperation with KDC in 2008 and since then, the two companies have established long-term mutual trust and cooperation. Honghua has always given KDC strong support in terms of service, technical support and spare parts supply. About Honghua Group Limited (Stock Code: 0196.HK) Honghua is the only overseas listed company of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation ("CASIC"). It is CASIC's main platform for energy equipment development. As one of the leading land drilling equipment manufacturers in the world and the largest land drilling rig exporter in PRC, Honghua is primarily engaged in manufacturing conventional land drilling rigs, digital drilling rigs, accessories of drilling rigs, as well as the parts and components for the drilling rigs or for the maintenance of the drilling rigs in operation. Leveraging on the strong R&D strength, high-quality production facilities and mature international sales network, Honghua's 80% products have been sold to a large number of famous enterprises all over the world, including major oil-production regions such as North America, Middle East, and emerging markets including South America, India, Russia and Africa. In the future, Honghua and CASIC will have in-depth cooperation in advanced energy equipment manufacturing and oil & gas field services field and achieve synergy in R&D, project execution and market expansion, to become an international leading combining equipment manufacturing provider in oil & gas industry. SOURCE Honghua Group Ltd. GREENWICH, Conn., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a coming research report from Hunt Scanlon Media, the private equity sector can expect to see an expanding bidding war for top talent. Driving the trend: persistent global talent shortages across the C-suite in most industries and functions, including finance, healthcare and biotech, digital and technology. "Leadership is the new bottom line for private equity operating executives seeking top talent for their portfolio businesses," said Scott A. Scanlon, the firm's founding chairman and CEO. "The PE sector is in the crosshairs of a widening war for leadership." Hunt Scanlon is convening 300 private equity leaders, chief talent officers and executive recruiters on May 1, 2019 in New York City to further explore the topic of 'Private Equity Recruiting: Linking Talent to Value,' with PE experts presenting from General Atlantic Partners, Bain Capital, Korn Ferry, TPG, McKinsey & Company, The Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management, Egon Zehnder, Hellman & Friedman, and JM Search among others. "Value creation for private equity firms is no longer beholden to financial engineering," said Mr. Scanlon. "Instead, returns are best maximized by building top flight management teams to drive the top line, find operating efficiencies and transform culture. Our roster of experts will help us find solutions and tell us how to get it done." To sponsor the event or to purchase a ticket to attend, please contact Chris Hunt at [email protected] Hunt Scanlon Media has been informing the senior talent management sector for 30 years. Our global news and intelligence data comes in many forms, including daily newswires, talent leadership reports, newsletter briefings and social media alerts. The privately-held company is based in Greenwich, Conn. CONTACT: Chris W. Hunt, 203 252 7302, [email protected] www.huntscanlon.com SOURCE Hunt Scanlon Media Related Links http://huntscanlon.com/ DUBLIN, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Industrial Automation Market: 5G, Edge Computing, Robotics, and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) 2018 - 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This research evaluates the telecom and IT ecosystem in support of MEC including communications and computing infrastructure providers, managed services vendors, carriers and OTT providers. Our MEC analysis includes a focus on company strategies and offerings relative to current and anticipated future market needs. It also provides quantitative analysis of the Mobile Edge Computing market including segmentation by industry vertical, region of the world, application and services. It also provides forecasts for MEC based streaming data and real-time data analytics. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions are poised to transform many industry verticals including healthcare, retail, automotive, and transport. For many industries, IIoT will significantly improve reliability, production, and customer satisfaction. While, IIoT will initially improve existing processes and augmented current infrastructure, the ultimate goal will be to realize entirely new, and dramatically improved products and services. Successful companies will be those that understand how and where IoT technologies and solutions will drive opportunities for operational improvements, new and enhanced products and services, as well as completely new business models. Emerging areas for industrial robotics include Robotics as a Service, Cloud Robotics, and General Purpose Robotics. The fifth generation (5G) of wireless technology will provide the communications and bandwidth necessary to allow various industries to leverage the next phase of robotics evolution. Industrial users will capitalize upon new and enhanced 5G enabled robotics capabilities to enable new use cases and improved work flow. Many business processes will change as enterprise becomes more savvy about the flexibility of robotics uninhibited by bandwidth constraints. Cloud Robotics is distinguished from the general field of electromechanical automation through its use of Teleoperation as well as reliance upon various Cloud Computing technologies such as computing and storage as well as the emerging cloud-based business models enabling Robotics as a Service. In addition, Cloud Robotics will benefit greatly from Edge Computing technologies, such as Mobile Edge Computing, as well as commercial introduction of 5G. One of the important advantages of the Cloud Robotics market is the ability to make robotics and industrial automation equipment available to a much wider spectrum of users. One of the ways in which this is accomplished is via open APIs, which enable abstraction of the robotics control plane from the application user interface. This means that customers do not need to use proprietary user interfaces for robotic controllers. An essential component of 5G networks in support of industrial automation, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) facilitates optimization of fifth generation network resources including focusing communications and computational capacity where it is needed the most. Without MEC, 5G would continue to rely upon back-haul to centralized cloud resource for storage and computing, diminishing much of the otherwise positive impact of latency reduction enabled by 5G. In other words, MEC enables users and devices to store/access much higher volumes of data by way of direct access to the Internet rather than relying upon transport through the core of cellular networks. This research is critical to identifying opportunities for R&D, technology integration, and development of new solutions and applications across industry segments. Our findings, insights, data and forecasts are also a key part of capitalizing upon the market for new and enhanced hardware, software, platforms, and services for emerging IoT networks and systems. In support of these goals, the report provides critical analysis about IIoT technologies, companies, applications, services, and solutions. Report forecasts include overall global and regional IIoT outlook as well as IIoT by industry vertical, software, hardware, and services for the period 2018 to 2023. This research also evaluates enabling technologies and the market outlook for 5G Network slicing. It provides analysis of the market opportunities including Configuration Management, Performance Management, Service Level Agreements, and more. It also includes 5G Network Slicing by specific use cases such as Smart Manufacturing, which includes Remote Monitoring, Supply Chain Management, Asset Management, Real-Time Monitoring, and Network Monitoring. In addition, it provides an assessment of major segments such as 5G Network Slicing in consumer, enterprise, and industrial IoT. It provides global forecasts for each area covered as well as regional estimates for 5G Network Slicing by Segment, RF Band, Application, and Industry Vertical through 2023. This research also evaluates the Cloud Robotics market including technologies, companies, strategies, use cases, and solutions. The report provides global and regional forecasts for Cloud Robotics apps, services, and components from 2018 to 2023. Forecasts include the market outlook for Cloud Services support of Cloud Robotics including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Robotics as a Service (RaaS). Forecasting for Cloud Robotics by deployment model is also included covering Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and Community Cloud. It includes detailed forecasts for robotics by robot type, components, capabilities, solutions, and connectivity for 2018 to 2023. Select Research Findings: Global Cloud Robotics Market will reach $16.1 billion USD by 2023 by 2023 Certain industries will become early beneficiaries of 5G enabled robotics 5G Network Slicing support of Smart Manufacturing will reach $425.3 billion by 2023 by 2023 The 5G enabled autonomous robot market is expected to reach $14.6 billion by 2023 by 2023 North America will lead the 5G enabled autonomous robot market with 41% revenue share will lead the 5G enabled autonomous robot market with 41% revenue share Robotics are expected to transform functionality and usefulness across broad range of industries Research Benefits: Forecasts for 5G IoT, Network Slicing, Edge Computing, Robotics, and IIoT to 2023 Understand the role of network slicing and edge computing in industrial automation Identify key investment areas for Robotics as a Service and Cloud Robotics Platforms Understand the relationship between Teleoperation, Robotics, and Cloud Computing Learn how Cloud Robotics will become an important growth area for enterprise automation Identify opportunities and outlook by industry vertical for enterprise and industrial segments Target Audience: Robotics companies Telecom service providers Manufacturing companies Embedded systems companies Wireless device manufacturers Systems integration companies Sensors and actuators suppliers IoT and industrial service providers Key Topics Covered: 5G Technology and Solutions for IoT 2018 - 2023 1 Introduction 1.1 5G Technology and Spectrum Development 1.2 IoT Market Overview 1.3 5G Supported IoT 1.4 IoT Edge Computing in 5G 1.5 LPWAN Faceoff: Cellular vs. Non-Cellular IoT Network 1.6 LPWAN Public vs. Private IoT Network 1.7 5G NR Infrastructure and Massive IoT 1.8 CAT M for 5G 1.9 Enterprise Mobility and Cloud Development 1.10 Network of Things 2 5G IoT Ecosystem Analysis 2.1 5G IoT Value Chain 2.2 5G IoT Applications in Industry Verticals 2.3 5G IoT Trial and Demonstration 2.4 Regional Development 3 5G IoT Market Analysis and Forecasts 3.1 5G IoT Market 2020 - 2025 3.2 5G Telecom Infrastructure Market 3.3 5G R&D Investment 2017 - 2025 3.4 5G Edge Computing Market in IoT 2020 - 2025 4 5G IoT Device and Things Market Analysis and Forecasts 4.1 5G Connected IoT Device 2020 - 2025 4.2 5G Connected IoT Things and Objects 2020 - 2025 4.3 Edge Solution Connected 5G IoT Device 2020 - 2025 4.4 Edge Solution Connected 5G IoT Things and Objects 2020 - 2025 5 Company Analysis 5.1 Cisco Systems Inc. 5.2 Nokia Networks 5.3 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 5.4 Ericsson AB 5.5 Qualcomm Incorporated 5.6 Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. 5.7 Intel Corporation 5.8 AT&T Inc. 5.9 SK Telecom Co. Ltd. 5.10 LG Electronics Inc. 5.11 Verizon Communications 5.12 T-Mobile US Inc. 5.13 KT Corporation 5.14 China Mobile 5.15 NEC Corporation 5.16 Fujitsu Ltd. 5.17 ZTE Corporation 5.18 Deutsche Telekom AG 5.19 NTT DoCoMo Inc. 5.20 NTT DATA Corporation 5.21 Broadcom Corporation 5.22 LG Uplus Corp. 5.23 SingTel 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 6.1 MNO Strategy for 5G IoT 6.2 CSP Strategy for 5G IoT Mobile Edge Computing Market 2018 - 2023 1.0 Executive Summary 1.1 Global Market for Multi Access Edge Computing 1.2 Regional Markets for Multi Access Edge Computing 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Understanding Multi-access Edge Computing 2.2 Important Characteristics of MEC 2.3 MEC Benefits 3.0 MEC Technology, Platforms, and Architecture 3.1 MEC Platform Architecture Building Blocks 3.2 The Edge Cloud Computing Value Chain 3.3 MEC Technology Building Blocks 3.4 MEC Technology Enablers 3.5 MEC Deployment Considerations 4.0 MEC Market Drivers and Opportunities 4.1 Limitations of Cloud Convergence 4.2 IT and Telecom Network Convergence 4.3 Base Station Evolution 4.4 Cell Aggregation 4.5 Virtualization in the Cloud 4.6 Continually Improving Server Capacity 4.7 Data Center to Network Interactions 4.8 Open and Flexible App and Service Ecosystem 4.9 Fifth Generation (5G) Wireless 4.10 Edge Cloud and Data Transferability 4.11 Proximate Cloud Computing 4.12 Increasingly Faster Content Delivery 4.13 Advantages of MEC Small Cell Deployment 4.14 Overall Mobile Data Demand 4.15 Low Latency Applications 4.16 Integration of MEC with Cloud RAN 4.17 MEC Enhances Real-time Data and Analytics 5.0 MEC Ecosystem 5.1 The Overall Edge Computing Ecosystem 5.2 MEC Ecosystem Players 5.3 Individual Company Analysis 6.0 MEC Application and Service Strategies 6.1 Optimizing the Mobile Cloud 6.2 Context Aware Services 6.3 Data Services and Analytics 7.0 Forecasts Mobile Edge Computing 2019 - 2025 7.1 Mobile Edge Computing Markets by Components 7.2 Forecasts by Number of Mobile Edge Computing Users by Supporting Network 7.3 Mobile Edge Computing Markets by the End Use Technology 7.4 Mobile Edge Computing Markets by Applications 7.5 Mobile Edge Computing Markets by End-Users 7.6 Mobile Edge Computing Markets by Industry 7.7 Geographical Markets for Mobile Edge Computing 8.0 Appendix One: Real-time Data Analytics Revenue 8.1 Global Streaming Data Analytics Revenue 8.2 Global Real-time Data Analytics Revenue by App, Software, and Services 8.3 Global Real-time Data Analytics Revenue in Industry Verticals 8.4 Real-time Data Analytics Revenue by Leading Vendor Platform 9.0 Appendix Two: 5G Technology and Solution Outlook 9.1 Market Definition of 5G 9.2 Evolution of Mobile Communication Standards (1G to 5G) 9.3 Introduction to 5G Technology 9.4 5G Spectrum Options and Utilization 9.5 What can 5G Technology Offer? 9.6 Key Advantages and Growth Drivers of 5G 9.7 Challenges for 5G 9.8 5G Roadmap 9.9 5G Use Cases 9.10 Business Opportunities Network Slicing in 5G Networks 2018 - 2023 1 Executive Summary 2 Introduction 2.1 Network Slicing 2.2 Enabling Technologies 3 5G Network Slicing Market Analysis and Forecasts 3.1 Global Market Forecast 2018 - 2023 3.2 Regional Market Forecast 2018 - 2023 4 Conclusions and Recommendations Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Technologies, Solutions, Applications and Services Market Outlook and Forecasts 2018 - 2023 1 Introduction 1.1 Scope of Research 1.2 Target Audience 1.3 Key Findings in Report 1.4 Companies in Report 2 Executive Summary 2.1 IIoT Markets by Region 2018 - 2023 2.2 IIoT Global Markets by Products 2018 - 2023 3 Overview 3.1 Defining Industrial Internet of Things 3.2 Critical Focal Areas for IIoT Execution 3.3 IIoT Application Areas 3.4 Forming a Foundation for IIoT 3.5 Evaluating the Future Potential of IIoT 4 IIoT Technologies 4.1 Hardware Technologies 4.2 Software Technologies 4.3 IIoT and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) 4.4 Network Technologies in IIoT 5 IIoT Global Market Analysis and Forecasts 2018 - 2023 5.1 IIoT Markets by Region 2018 - 2023 5.2 IIoT Global Markets by Products Offered 2018 - 2023 5.3 IIoT Global Markets by Industry Sector 2018 - 2023 5.4 Market for Teleoperation and Tele-robotics in IIoT 6 Company Analysis 6.1 AGT International 6.2 ARM Holdings 6.3 AT&T Inc. 6.4 B+B SmartWorx 6.5 Bayshore Networks 6.6 Bosch 6.7 Cisco System Inc. 6.8 Contiki 6.9 Digi International 6.10 Echelon Corporation 6.11 Elecsys Corporation 6.12 General Electric 6.13 Jasper Technologies Inc. (Cisco) 6.14 Lynx Software Technologies, Inc. 6.15 Object Management Group (OMG) 6.16 OneM2M Partners 6.17 ParStream (Cisco) 6.18 RIOT 6.19 Real Time Innovation (RTI) 6.20 Sensata Technologies 6.21 Symantec 6.22 Unisys Corporation 6.23 Wind River 6.24 Worldsensing 6.25 Wovyn LLC. IoT Technology by Component, Infrastructure, Software, Platform, Application, Service, and Industry Verticals 1 Introduction 1.1 Executive Summary 1.2 Research Objectives 1.3 Select Findings 1.4 Target Audience 1.5 Companies in the Report 2 Overview 2.1 Defining the Internet of Things 2.2 IoT Technology 2.3 IoT Functional Structure 2.4 IoT Network Architecture 2.5 Economic Impact Analysis 2.6 Market Factors and Challenges 2.7 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 2.8 Edge Computing and Fog Computing 2.9 Digital Twin Technology 2.10 5G IoT Network 2.11 Blockchain Technology 2.12 Cloud Computing 2.13 Internet of Nanoscale Things (IoNT) 3 Technology and Value Chain Analysis 3.1 IoT Semiconductor Building Blocks 3.2 IoT Chipsets 3.3 Network Technology and Protocol 3.4 Real Time Operating System (RTOS) 3.5 IoT Software and Platform 3.6 IoT Industry Application 3.7 IoT Value Chain Analysis 3.8 IoT Investments and Market Alliances 3.9 Role of Mobile Network Operators 4 IoT Technology Market Analysis and Forecasts 2018 - 2023 4.1 Global IoT Technology Market 2018 - 2023 4.2 Global AI Equipped IoT Technology Market 2018 - 2023 4.3 Global 5G Driven IoT Technology Market 2018 - 2023 4.4 Global Edge Computing Enabled IoT Technology Market 2018 - 2023 4.5 Global Blockchain Based IoT Technology Market 2018 - 2023 4.6 Regional IoT Technology Market 2018 - 2023 4.7 IoT Semiconductor Unit Shipment Forecasts 2018 - 2023 4.8 IoT Software Unit Deployment Forecasts 2018 - 2023 5 Company Analysis 5.1 NVIDIA Corporation 5.2 IBM Corporation 5.3 Intel Corporation 5.4 Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. 5.5 Microsoft Corporation 5.6 Google Inc. 5.7 Qualcomm Incorporated 5.8 Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. 5.9 Fujitsu Ltd. 5.10 Juniper Networks, Inc. 5.11 Nokia Corporation 5.12 ARM Limited 5.13 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) 5.14 Oracle Corporation 5.15 SAP 5.16 General Electric (GE) 5.17 Wind River Systems Inc. 5.18 Cumulocity GmBH 5.19 SparkCognition Inc. 5.20 Amazon Inc. (AWS) 5.21 Cisco Systems 5.22 Atmel Corporation 5.23 Texas Instruments Inc. 5.24 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. 5.25 XILINX Inc. 5.26 Gemalto N.V. 5.27 Micron Technology 5.28 SAS Institute Inc. 5.29 General Vision Inc. 5.30 PTC Corporation 5.31 Analog Devices Inc. 5.32 Cypress Semiconductor Corp 5.33 Rohm Semiconductor 5.34 Semtech Corporation 5.35 Enea AB 5.36 Express Logic Inc. 5.37 Kaspersky Lab 5.38 Losant IoT Inc. 5.39 Thethings.io 5.40 Robert Bosch GmbH 5.41 Echelon Corporation 5.42 Symantec Corporation 5.43 NXP Semiconductors N.V. 5.44 STMicroelectronics 5.45 MediaTek Inc. 5.46 Microchip Technology Inc. 5.47 Renesas Electronics Corporation 5.48 Ayla Networks Inc. 5.49 Pepper 5.50 Helium Systems Inc. 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 6.1 Advertisers and Media Companies 6.2 Artificial Intelligence Providers 6.3 Automotive Companies 6.4 Broadband Infrastructure Providers 6.5 Communication Service Providers 6.6 Computing Companies 6.7 Data Analytics Providers 6.8 Equipment (AR, VR, and MR) Providers 6.9 Networking Equipment Providers 6.10 Networking Security Providers 6.11 Semiconductor Companies 6.12 IoT Suppliers and Service Providers 6.13 Software Providers 6.14 Smart City System Integrators 6.15 Automation System Providers 6.16 Social Media Companies 6.17 Workplace Solution Providers 6.18 Enterprise and Government Cloud Robotics Technologies, Solutions, Challenges, and Market Opportunities 2018 - 2023 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Cloud Robotics Overview 1.2 Traditional vs. Cloud Robotics 1.3 Cloud Robotics Architecture 1.4 Robot Types 1.5 Cloud Technology in Robotics 1.6 AI and Machine Learning Solution 1.7 Connectivity Technology including 5G 1.8 IoT, Industrial IoT and Cloud Robotics 1.9 Collaborative Robots 1.10 Market Challenges and Opportunities 2.0 Enabling Technologies 2.1 Teleoperation 2.2 Cloud Computing 2.3 Edge Computing 2.4 Fifth Generation (5G) Cellular 3.0 Cloud Robotics Ecosystem Analysis 3.1 Market Segmentation 3.2 Ecosystem and Players 3.3 Most Likely Applications 3.4 Anticipated Regional Adoption 3.5 Emerging Cloud Robotics Business Models 3.6 Robotics Production 3.7 Robotics Cost Structure 3.8 Robotics ROI 3.9 Cloud Robotics Intellectual Property 3.10 Research and Development Activities 4.0 Company Analysis 4.1 Rockwell Automation Inc. 4.2 KUKA AG 4.3 ABB Group 4.4 FANUC Corporation 4.5 Yaskawa Electric Corporation 4.6 Universal Robots 4.7 Tend.ai 4.8 Rapyuta Robotics Co. Ltd. 4.9 HotBlack Robotics Srl 4.10 Calvary Robotics 4.11 Motion Controls Robotics Inc. 4.12 Wolf Robotics LLC 4.13 Tech-Con Automation Inc. 4.14 Matrix Industrial Automation 4.15 Automation IG 4.16 Ortelio Ltd 4.17 SoftBank Robotics Holding Corp. 4.18 iRobot Corp. 4.19 Google Inc. 4.20 IBM Corporation 4.21 Microsoft Corporation 4.22 Ecovacs Robotics Inc. 4.23 CloudMinds 4.24 Ozobot & Evollve Inc. 4.25 Segway Inc. and Ninebot 4.26 Erle Robotics 4.27 Adept Technology 4.28 Ekso Bionics 4.29 Lockheed Martin 4.30 Mazor Robotics 4.31 Pv-Kraftwerker 4.32 ReconRobotics Inc. 4.33 Seegrid 4.34 Spacex 5.0 Cloud Robotics Market Forecast 2018 - 2023 5.1 Global Cloud Robotics Market 2018 - 2023 5.2 Regional Cloud Robotics Market 2018 - 2023 5.3 Robot Unit Shipment Forecast 2018 - 2023 6.0 Conclusions and Recommendations Global Robotics Equipment, Components, Solutions, Applications, and Services for Industrial, Enterprise, Military, and Consumer Markets 2018 - 2023 1 Executive Summary 2 Introduction 2.1 Market Segmentation 2.2 Market Overview 3 Robotics Companies and Solutions 3.1 Americas 3.2 Asia-Pacific 3.3 Europe 4 Robotics Market Analysis and Forecast 4.1 Total Robotics Market 2018 - 2023 4.2 Robotics Market by Sector 2018 - 2023 4.3 Industrial Robotics Market 2018 - 2023 4.4 Consumer/Personal Robotics Market 2018 - 2023 4.5 Enterprise/Commercial Robotics Market 2018 - 2023 4.6 Military and Government Robotics Market 2018 - 2023 4.7 Robot Unit Shipment Forecast 2018 - 2023 5 Conclusions and Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/smpt6w/industrial?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. 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 NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jones Walker LLP is pleased to announce the addition of nine new associates. Kaitlyn M. Daniel Kaitlyn M. Daniel joins the Corporate Practice Group in the New Orleans office. She earned her juris doctor, cum laude, from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center. While in law school, Ms. Daniel externed for Judge John W. deGravelles of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana and served as a production editor for the Louisiana State University Journal of Energy Law and Resources. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Louisiana State University. Tiffany Dupree Tiffany Dupree joins the Business & Commercial Litigation Practice Group in the Baton Rouge office. She assists clients in a wide range of business and commercial litigation and post-judgment recovery efforts, including energy and environmental issues. Before joining Jones Walker, Mrs. Dupree completed a summer law clerkship at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She received her juris doctor, cum laude, from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center and her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Louisiana State University. Jessica E. Gopiao Jessica E. Gopiao joins the Business & Commercial Litigation Practice Group in the Miami office. She assists in a wide range of banking and asset recovery matters, including fraudulent conveyance actions, alter-ego claims, corporate veil piercing, and post-judgment collections. Prior to joining Jones Walker, Ms. Gopiao completed several law clerkships at different firms and worked for the Honorable Karen E. Scott for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Ms. Gopiao received her juris doctor from The George Washington University Law School and her Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies, cum laude, from Chapman University. Katherine E. Herbert Katherine E. Herbert joins the Corporate Practice Group in the Baton Rouge office. She assists in public finance transactions, and her practice includes working with the firm's economic development consulting arm, Jones Walker Consulting, LLC. Ms. Herbert earned her juris doctor and diploma in comparative law, magna cum laude, from the Louisiana State Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where she was named to the Order of the Coif. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, and Bachelor of Arts in History, cum laude, from Louisiana State University. Amber L. Kipfmiller Amber L. Kipfmiller joins the Business & Commercial Litigation Practice Group in the Jackson office. She focuses on a broad range of business and commercial litigation, real property litigation, and construction law. She earned her juris doctor, cum laude, from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where she served as executive notes and comments editor of the Mississippi Law Journal and Honor Council Chair. While in law school, Ms. Kipfmiller completed a clerkship with the Honorable Katharine M. Samson, Chief Judge at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Sara B. Kuebel Sara B. Kuebel joins the Maritime Practice Group in the New Orleans office. Her practice focuses on maritime litigation, including allisions and collisions, claims under General Maritime Law, the Jones Act, the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Ms. Kuebel earned her juris doctor, summa cum laude, from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, graduating in the top two percent of her class. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, cum laude, from Louisiana State University. Leslie LaCoste Leslie LaCoste joins the Corporate Practice Group in the New Orleans office. Her practice focuses on drafting and negotiating commercial contracts and other transactional matters. Ms. LaCoste received her juris doctor, summa cum laude, from Tulane University Law School. While in law school, she completed two judicial externships at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for the Honorable Sarah Vance and the Honorable Nannette Jolivette Brown. She also served as a managing editor of the Tulane Law Review. Ms. LaCoste received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, summa cum laude, from Louisiana State University. Robert A. Mahtook, III Robbie Mahtook joins the Corporate Practice Group in the Baton Rouge office. He focuses on real estate and commercial transactions and also assists a range of business clients with asset sales and other corporate transactions. Mr. Mahtook received his juris doctor from Tulane University Law School, his Master of Business Administration from Tulane University Freeman School of Business, and his Bachelor of Science in Finance, cum laude, from Louisiana State University. Thomas C. Wicker, IV Thomas C. Wicker, IV joins the Business & Commercial Litigation Practice Group in the New Orleans office. Mr. Wicker focuses on criminal defense, commercial disputes, regulatory compliance, and other matters. Prior to joining Jones Walker, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Nannette Jolivette Brown, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He received his juris doctor from Tulane University Law School, cum laude, and his Bachelor of Arts in English and Government, cum laude, from Georgetown University. About Jones Walker Jones Walker LLP (www.joneswalker.com) is among the 120 largest law firms in the United States serving local, regional, national, and international business interests with offices in Alabama, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, and Texas. The firm is committed to providing a comprehensive range of legal services to major multinational, public and private corporations, Fortune 500 companies, money center banks, worldwide insurers, and emerging companies doing business in the United States and abroad. Contact: Betsy Fortin 504.582.8183 [email protected] SOURCE Jones Walker LLP Related Links http://www.joneswalker.com At Morkes Chocolates in downtown Huntley, which saw about 6 inches of snow, owner Claudia Kendzior chose to open a couple of hours later to keep her employees safe and off the roads during the worst of the storm. The store that typically opens at 6:30 a.m. to a rush of patrons opened Monday at 10:30 a.m. SOMERSET, Ky., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridgeway Wellness Group, LLC has opened the Bridgeway Institute - Kentucky. With nearly a decade of experience in treating hundreds of patients with drug and alcohol addiction, the Bridgeway Institute of Pensacola, has affiliated with Bridgeway Wellness Group, a Kentucky company, to open and develop up to 20 clinics in the US over the next two years. The initial clinic in Somerset, KY is strategically located to serve the needs of clients in Kentucky and its surrounding states. The Bridgeway Institute protocols are an out-patient program centered around the use of NAD+. NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is a vital coenzyme naturally found in all living cells. High doses of NAD+ given intravenously (IV) have been successfully used to help treat drug and alcohol addiction as well as PTSD, depression and other neurological disorders. This cellular level treatment when used collaboratively with other resources has proven to be a highly effective way to treat a variety of medical problems. Facing Addiction, a national organization focused on helping with addiction states, "One out of three households are impacted by addiction. Addiction costs over $500 billion per year and one person, usually a young adult, dies every 4 minutes from this problem." Kentucky, along with many of it its surrounding states leads the way for opioid abuse and deaths. Bridgeway Institute provides a unique and individualized treatment plan for every client and has shown remarkable success in its outcomes. Bridgeway Institute - Kentucky has chosen Melissa Dye, BSN. as its Clinic Director and Dr. Brock Barnes, MD as Medical Director. As Clinical Director, Dye, knows first-hand of drugs' devastating effects, having lost her son, Daris, to the power of this addiction. Dye is very well known as a speaker on the effects of drug addiction. As the founder of Project Daris, Dye created a drug awareness program to educate elementary school children on the dangers of drugs. Dr.Barnes, Medical Director of the Bridgeway Institute - Kentucky, is a dedicated and highly respected expert in the field of substance abuse. Dr. Barnes, working both in family and emergency medicine, along with his work at the VA, has first-hand knowledge on how addiction can affect all members of a family. By working with Bridgeway Institute, both Dye and Barnes hope to give people an exciting new choice and certainly a new option for their future wellness. Contact: Melissa Dye, BSN (833) 462-3457 [email protected] www.bridgewaywellnessgroup.com SOURCE Bridgeway Wellness Group, LLC Related Links http://www.bridgewaywellnessgroup.com "We invite you to celebrate #GivingTuesday by supporting Give a Meal, Share a Meal ," said Jessica Adelman, group vice president of corporate affairs. "Giving the gift of meals today is one way we can each help our neighbors this holiday season and create Zero Hunger | Zero Waste communities." For every dollar donated through midnight today, The Kroger Co. Foundation will match the donation, up to $200,000. Donors can gift the donation match in the name of a friend or family member. Every dollar when matched equals 20 meals, and the program aims to provide four million meals to families connected with Feeding America's network of food banks. For #GivingTuesday 2017, customers across the country took a pledge and engaged through social media to join Kroger to realize its vision of Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, resulting in a gift of 2.4 million meals to Feeding America, exceeding the original goal of 1.5 million meals. In the same year, Kroger directed 325 million meals to Feeding America and other hunger-relief partners. In August, Fortune magazine named Kroger to its Change the World 2018 list, earning the sixth spot. Kroger was recognized as one of the 50-plus large companies around the world using its resources to solve society's most complex issues, citing Zero Hunger | Zero Waste as the rationale for the top-10 ranking. To learn more about Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, visit www.thekrogerco.com. Follow the journey at #ZeroHungerZeroWaste. About The Kroger Co. At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit. We are nearly half a million associates who serve over nine million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and 2,800 retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site. SOURCE The Kroger Co. Related Links http://www.kroger.com VENICE, Fla., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Timeshare cancellation Attorney Susan Budowski is providing consumer protection warning to timeshare owners whose timeshare contracts may be paid off. Leading Timeshare Attorney Susan Budowski Issues Warnings to Timeshare Owners Attorney Budowski warns timeshare owners that need for whatever reason to get out of their timeshares to beware of Third Party Exit firms (TPE) soliciting services to get out of their paid in full timeshares. Budowski warns that some of these companies are charging thousands of dollars for these matters when several developers have inhouse programs that will work with timeshare owners either for free or a nominal fee. Budowski has had several consultations recently after these timeshare owners have consulted with one of these TPE firms who did not inform them that they should contact the developer first and may not need to pay for a third party to resolve the matter. "I personally find it not only unethical but reprehensible that any firm or company would knowingly charge an owner thousands of dollars for a service they know the timeshare owner could take care of themselves, simply by making a phone call to their timeshare developer. Just last week I had a consultation with a woman who spoke with one of these TPE firms many of which are currently being sued by the developers for their business practices after hearing a radio ad. They were going to charge her $6,995.00 to get rid of her paid in full timeshare when her particular developer would take it back for a small fee." Budowski also stated the timeshare industry has been laden with scams over the years with resale and transfer companies, but this takes the cake: "it's like not giving directions to a stranger in your hometown." Attorney Budowski wants to convey the following red flags to look out for and advises owners to stay away from: Companies advertising on television, radio and social media "these companies have hefty fees to pay for the advertising and sponsors they use, which of course are then passed on to you, the timeshare owner who is trying to reduce their expenses - not increase them." Any company that contacts you directly, unsolicited telemarketers, email or mail. "You are dealing with commissioned sales representatives in a call center contacting you from a database as if they know you and your situation." Companies that are not law firms yet trying to appear as a legal firm; never deal with a cancellation company. "they are DIY companies that write letters for you to send. Your letters will not reach the legal department because neither you or the cancellation company are attorneys." Transfer Companies "a very high risk situation where they tell you that they have a buyer or the developer agreed to take back your timeshare when in fact they did not, they transfer your timeshare to a dummy/shell corporation and months later when the maintenances fees have not been paid, and since the developer did not agree, you could end of with a foreclosure and a problem on your credit report." Attorney Budowski has created a developer page on her website listing developers that have a surrender department that may take owners timeshares back for free or a nominal fee. You can check to see if your timeshare developer is listed here: https://www.susanbudowski.com/timeshare-contract-cancellation/paid-full-timeshare/ If your timeshare developer is not on the list, Attorney Budowski advises timeshare owners to still call the developer first because they may be able to do something. If you still need help getting rid of your timeshare, you can schedule a free real time consultation on her website or call 888.265.7900. About Attorney Budowski Susan Budowski is the leading timeshare attorney in the United States. Operating out of Florida, considered the timeshare capital of the world, Attorney Budowski has helped thousands of timeshare owners since converting her law practice to exclusively handle timeshare matters in 2010. Ms. Budowski has been selected for AVVO's Client's Choice Award 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013, and she was honored with the Guardian ad Litem Award of Excellence 2016 by the Orange County Bar Association. She was admitted to the Florida Bar May of 2004 and was added to the Roles of the Law Society of England and Wales in August 2012 as an English Solicitor, allowing her to practice law in nearly 40 countries. Attorney Budowski is also the Chairman & CEO of Hope City United, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit corporation to bring awareness and the eradication of human and sex trafficking. Ms. Budowski previously worked at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley Virginia where she received multiple Exceptional Performance Awards from high-ranking members of the CIA, including former CIA Director Robert Gates, who also served as Secretary of Defense for both President Bush and President Obama. For more information visit any of Attorney Budowski's websites. www.susanbudowski.com www.susanbudowski.law www.mytimeshareattorney.com www.mytimeshareattorney.lawyer Contact: Michael E. Budowski THE LAW OFFICES OF SUSAN M. BUDOWSKI, LLC 871 Venetia Bay Blvd, Suite 202 Venice, Florida 34285 888.265.7900 407.545.7386 Fax [email protected] www.susanbudowski.com SOURCE The Law Offices of Susan M. Budowski, LLC RESTON, Va., Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology company, will participate in the Credit Suisse 6th Annual Industrials Conference. Jim Reagan, Chief Financial Officer, will present on Thursday, November 29th, 2018 at 1:15pm Eastern time. A live audio webcast of the event will be available on the Leidos Investor Relations website at http://ir.leidos.com, where related materials will be posted prior to the presentation. A replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation at the same link listed above for 30 days afterward. About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 32,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $10.17 billion for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2017. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. CONTACTS: SOURCE Leidos Related Links http://www.leidos.com Historic investment to meet growing demand and strengthen competitiveness of Canadian poultry sector Investment Community Conference Call Today at 5:30 pm EST TSX: MFI www.mapleleaffoods.com MISSISSAUGA, ON, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Maple Leaf Foods (TSX: MFI) today announced plans to build a $660 million value-added fresh poultry facility in London, Ontario. The new 640,000 square feet facility is expected to be one of the most technologically advanced poultry-processing plants in the world, with leading-edge food safety, environmental, and animal welfare processes and technologies. Funding for the project includes a capital investment of approximately $605.5 million from Maple Leaf Foods, an investment of $34.5 million from the Government of Ontario and a $20 million investment from the Government of Canada under the Strategic Innovation Fund. In addition, the Company is receiving a $8 million loan from the AgriInnovate Fund. As part of the federal funding agreement, Maple Leaf will invest a further $5 million over the next five years on projects that accelerate adoption of advanced manufacturing and production technologies and support the Company's goal to reduce its environmental footprint by 50% by 2025. "This world-class facility will enable Maple Leaf to meet the steadily growing consumer demand for premium, value-added poultry products, and strengthen Canada's food system," said Michael H. McCain, President and CEO. "It will incorporate leading edge food safety, environmental and animal care technologies that advance our vision to be the global leader in sustainable protein. This is a historic investment in the Canadian poultry sector, providing significant stakeholder and economic benefits and ensuring that Canada has sufficient domestic processing capacity to meet forecasted poultry production and demand." This strategic investment will deliver a solid return on capital and create significant shareholder value. The project is expected to deliver annualized benefits of $105 million to the Company's Adjusted EBITDA on a run-rate basis within 12 months of completing start-up, and by the end of 2023. Based on current sales, adjusted for recent acquisitions, we estimate this will contribute over 270 basis points to the current Adjusted EBITDA margin. The project is expected to be accretive to earnings beginning in 2022 and contribute to the Company achieving its Adjusted EBITDA margin target of 14% - 16%. "Once constructed, this new poultry facility will be a significant contributor to our overall Adjusted EBITDA margin target and will provide tremendous long-term strategic value in an important growing component of our business," added Mr. McCain. "Our government is excited to invest in Maple Leaf Foods' project to help bring new innovations to Canada's food processing industry, keep Canada competitive in the global market and create new middle class jobs in Ontario. This new state-of-the-art facility demonstrates how innovation is creating jobs and helping the environment with more sustainable poultry processing," said The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. "Canada's agri-food industry is a key driver of innovation and well-paying jobs across the country. Our government is proud to invest in Maple Leaf Foods, helping to position Canada as a globally competitive player in the food processing sector and to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of our agricultural sector," said The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. "This is the largest investment in the history of Ontario's agriculture sector, it demonstrates industry confidence in our growing economy, and it's another example of how we're making Ontario open for business. It's great to see a company like Maple Leaf investing here in London. This innovative new plant will modernize processing, and help make Ontario's chicken farmers more competitive," said The Honourable Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario. Chicken is the most consumed and fastest growing meat protein in Canada, offering versatility, nutrition and a lower environmental footprint. There is particularly high demand for raised without antibiotics and halal chicken products, where Maple Leaf has the leading national brands. This scale facility will address constraints in Maple Leaf's current Ontario network, enhance operating efficiencies, and expand its value-added product mix and capacity to meet growing consumer demand. The decision to proceed followed an extensive review by the Company's management and Board of Directors, led by a special working group that conducted a detailed analysis of all the strategic, capital and operational elements, risks and returns, and alternatives to optimize return on capital. As an indication of the rigor of this process, the new facility is approximately 90% design-engineered, providing a high degree of certainty about project costs and operational outcomes. Maple Leaf expects to incur one-time costs of approximately $140 million, including approximately $45 million in net cash restructuring and other related costs. The Company plans to finance this investment through a combination of cash flow from operations and debt. Construction at the London site is expected to begin in the spring of 2019, with start-up planned to commence in the second quarter of 2021. The new plant will initially support over 1,450 direct full and part-time jobs, with additional job growth as production volumes increase over time. Maple Leaf will work closely with local agencies to recruit and train people and provide skilled jobs in a safe and inclusive workplace. Construction is expected to generate approximately 300 jobs, with almost 85% of project expenditures supporting domestic construction and installation contractors. The facility is expected to create a further 1,400 indirect jobs in the supplies and services sector and generate an estimated $1.2 billion of annual economic activity once it is fully operational. "I would like to welcome Maple Leaf Foods to London," said His Worship Mayor Matt Brown. "London's commitment to world-class infrastructure and a robust industrial land strategy put London in a competitive position to attract an investment of this magnitude." Production from the Company's three sub-scale and aging plants in Ontario will eventually be consolidated into the new facility. The Company's plant in St. Marys is expected to close by late 2021, while its plants in Toronto and Brampton are expected to close by mid-late 2022. Each of these plants is 50 to 60 years old, with location, footprint and infrastructure constraints that limit opportunities to expand and modernize to meet growing market demand. Maple Leaf will work with local communities and government to find alternate uses for the facilities when they eventually close. "We deeply regret the impact that these eventual closures will have on our people and communities," said Mr. McCain. "While these closures are several years away we are informing our people well in advance, allowing us to openly communicate and support them through this long-term transition. We will provide them with job opportunities at the new facility and other Maple Leaf plants, and services to help them eventually secure new employment." Conference Call An investor webcast and conference call will be held at 5:30 pm EDT on November 26, 2018. To participate in the call, please dial 1-800-806-5484 or (416) 340-2217. For those unable to participate, playback will be made available in an hour at 1-800-408-3053. An investor presentation will be available at www.mapleleaffoods.com and can be found under the Investor Relations Section under the presentations & webcasts tab. A webcast presentation will also be available at: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/mj7if2xe ForwardLooking Statements This release contains statements, made by representatives of the Company in connection with this release, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which the Company operates, as well as beliefs and assumptions made by Management of the Company. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the new poultry plant and the Company's strategies, plans, actions and expectations including, among other things, expectations about technical capabilities of the new poultry plant, expected shareholder value creation, future earnings, Adjusted EBITDA margins, project costs, net cash restructuring and other costs, jobs generated, timing of plant closures, construction timelines and other expected benefits of the new poultry plant. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "attempt," "may," "will," "plan," "believe," "seek," "estimate," and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking information. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. These statements are based on and were developed using a number of factors and assumptions including, but not limited to: stability in the Canadian, U.S., U.K. and Japanese economies; stability in prevailing exchange rates among the Canadian dollar, the U.S. dollar, the British pound and the Japanese yen; stability in the availability and pricing of raw materials, energy and supplies; the ability to implement price increases successfully; stability in the competitive environment; no future product recalls; the continued ability of the Company to access cost effective capital when needed; and no unexpected or unforeseen events occurring that would materially alter the Company's current plans. All of these assumptions have been derived from information currently available to the Company including information obtained by the Company from third-party sources. Although these assumptions were considered reasonable by the Company at the time of preparation they may prove to be incorrect in whole or in part. In addition, actual results may differ materially from those expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's expectations only as of the date hereof. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as such statements are not guarantees of future performance. Factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from the results expressed, implied or forecasted by the forward-looking statements include risks associated with implementing and executing complex projects and plans including the availability and price of labour and construction materials and the risk of cost over runs; risks posed by food contamination, pandemics and product recalls; risks associated with the price of commodities and the inability of the Company to control commodity prices; risks associated with exchange rate fluctuations; risks associated with changing consumer tastes, preferences and buying patterns; and risks posed by competition; the risks associated with the supply management system for poultry in Canada and the availability of live chickens for processing; and the risks of attracting and maintaining sufficient labour for the plant . Additional factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from the results expressed, implied or forecasted by the forward-looking statements are discussed more fully in the Company's filings made with the Canadian securities regulators including in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2017. All of such filings are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Some of the forward-looking statements may be considered to be financial outlooks for purposes of applicable securities legislation including, but not limited to, statements concerning future Adjusted EBITDA margins, project costs and net cash restructuring and other costs. These financial outlooks are presented in order to provide measurable targets that the Company aims to achieve and for which the Company can use to benchmark its results. These financial outlooks may not be appropriate for other purposes and readers should not assume they will be achieved. The Company does not intend to, and the Company disclaims any obligation to, update any forward-looking statements (including any financial outlooks), whether written or oral, or whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. About Maple Leaf Foods Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a leading consumer protein company, making high quality, innovative products under national brands including Maple Leaf, Maple Leaf Prime, Maple Leaf Natural Selections, Schneiders, Schneiders Country Naturals, Mina, SWIFT, LightlifeTM and Field Roast Grain Meat Co.. Maple Leaf employs approximately 11,500 people and does business in Canada, the U.S. and Asia. The Company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario and its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MFI. SOURCE Maple Leaf Foods Inc. Related Links http://www.mapleleaffoods.com MOUNT GILEAD, N.C., Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- McRae Industries, Inc. (Pink Sheets: MCRAA and MCRAB) reported consolidated net revenues for fiscal 2018 of $73,892,000 as compared to $104,316,000 for fiscal 2017. Net earnings for fiscal 2018 totaled $2,190,000 as compared to $5,083,000 for fiscal 2017. Net earnings per diluted Class A common share were $0.91 for fiscal 2018 as compared to $2.11 for fiscal 2017. CONSOLIDATED RESULTS OF OPERATIONS, FISCAL 2018 COMPARED TO FISCAL 2017 Consolidated net revenues for fiscal 2018 amounted to approximately $73.9 million as compared to $104.3 million for fiscal 2017. Our western/lifestyle boot segment, which includes western wear, ladies fashion, and children footwear products under the Dan Post, Laredo, Dingo, El Dorado, and John Deere brand names, experienced a decrease in revenue of 5.6% from $48.8 million in 2017 to $46.1 million in 2018. The sales decrease was primarily made up of Dan Post higher priced fashion boots, John Deere children boots, and Laredo men's boots. These sale decreases were partially offset by increases in our Laredo Cowboy Approved products and our El Dorado brand of premium men's boots. Net revenues for our work boot segment, which includes Dan Post, Laredo, John Deere, and McRae Industrial work boot products along with our military boots, decreased by 49.6% from $54.4 million in fiscal 2017 to $27.4 million in 2018. The military boot sales were the vast majority of this decrease as they went from $45.6 million in fiscal 2017 to $20.2 million in fiscal 2018. Fiscal 2018 proved to be a difficult year for our military business primarily because of the United States Government's over inventoried position on the hot weather Army boots and not awarding the temperate weather boot contract until four months after McRae had completed its obligation on the expiring contract. Consolidated gross profit for fiscal 2018 totaled $18.7 million as compared to $25.6 million for fiscal 2017. Gross margins for the western/lifestyle segment increased from 34.2% for fiscal 2017 to 34.5% for fiscal 2018. Although gross margins on our military boots decreased from 12.1% in fiscal 2017 to -0.1% in fiscal 2018, gross margins in our work boot brands overall increased slightly from 34.7% in fiscal 2017 to 36.2% in fiscal 2018. The military boots decrease was due to manufacturing inefficiencies as a result of the lower volume of production. Consolidated selling, general and administrative ("SG&A") expenses amounted to $16.4 million as compared to $17.8 million for fiscal 2017. This decrease resulted primarily from decreased advertising and employee related expenditures. As a result of the above, consolidated operating profit totaled approximately $2.3 million for fiscal 2018 as compared to $7.8 million for fiscal 2017. FINANCIAL CONDITION AND LIQUIDITY At July 28, 2018, our financial condition and liquidity remained strong as cash and cash equivalents totaled $27.6 million as compared to $28.1 million at July 29, 2017. Our working capital totaled $55.4 million at July 28, 2018 as compared to $56.5 million at July 29, 2017. We currently have two lines of credit totaling $6.75 million, both of which were fully available at July 28, 2018. One credit line totaling $1.75 million (which is restricted to one hundred percent of the outstanding receivables due from the Government) expires in January 2019. The $5.0 million line of credit, which also expires in January 2019, is secured by the inventory and accounts receivable of our Dan Post Boot Company subsidiary. Net cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2018 amounted to approximately $4.1 million. Net earnings, as adjusted for depreciation, contributed approximately $3.4 million of cash, and a reduction in accounts receivable contributed approximately $1.7 million. The timing of payments for income taxes and lower accrued employee benefits used approximately $1.5 million of cash. Net cash used in investing activities totaled approximately $3.2 million. The majority was used for capital expenditures and the purchase of securities. This was partially offset by proceeds from the sale of securities. Net cash used to finance our dividend payments and the purchase of common stock totaled approximately $1.4 million. We believe that our current cash and cash equivalents, cash generated from operations, and available credit lines will be sufficient to meet our capital requirements for fiscal 2019. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release includes certain forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those projected, estimated, assumed or anticipated in any such forward-looking statements include: the effect of competitive products and pricing, risks unique to selling goods to the Government (including variation in the Government's requirements for our products and the Government's ability to terminate its contracts with vendors), changes in fashion cycles and trends in the western boot business, loss of key customers, acquisitions, supply interruptions, additional financing requirements, our expectations about future Government orders for military boots, loss of key management personnel, our ability to successfully develop new products and services, and the effect of general economic conditions in our markets. McRae Industries, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands, except share data) July 28, 2018 July 29, 2017 ASSETS Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $27,605 $28,057 Short term securities 2,211 505 Accounts and notes receivable, less allowances of $1,221 and $1,192, respectively 10,665 12,331 Inventories, net 18,427 18,273 Income tax receivable 1,127 329 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 154 550 Deferred tax assets 0 1,674 Total current assets 60,189 61,719 Property and equipment, net 7,375 7,391 Other assets: Deposits 14 14 Long term securities 3,899 3,804 Real estate held for investment 3,775 3,601 Amounts due from split-dollar life insurance 2,288 2,288 Trademarks 2,824 2,824 Total other assets 12,800 12,531 Total assets $80,364 $81,641 McRae Industries, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands, except share data) July 28, 2018 July 29, 2017 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable $2,968 $2,510 Accrued employee benefits 423 1,144 Accrued payroll and payroll taxes 630 809 Other 733 714 Total current liabilities 4,754 5,177 Deferred tax liabilities 621 2,263 Total liabilities 5,375 7,440 Shareholders' equity: Common Stock: Class A, $1 par value; authorized 5,000,000 shares issued and outstanding, 2,019,974 and 2,014,842 shares, respectively 2,020 2,015 Class B, $1 par value; authorized 2,500,000 shares; issued and outstanding, 374,272 and 383,254 shares, respectively 375 384 Unrealized losses on investments, net of tax (28) (5) Retained earnings 72,622 71,807 Total shareholders' equity 74,989 74,201 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $80,364 $81,641 McRae Industries, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In thousands, except share data) For Years Ended July 28, July 29, July 30, 2018 2017 2016 Net revenues $73,892 $104,316 $108,758 Cost of revenues 55,182 78,739 81,837 Gross profit 18,710 25,577 26,921 Selling, general and administrative expenses 16,431 17,755 19,782 Operating profit 2,279 7,822 7,139 Other income 443 357 366 Interest expense (1) - - Earnings before income taxes 2,721 8,179 7,505 Provision for income taxes 531 3,096 2,813 Net earnings $2,190 $5,083 $4,692 Earnings per common share: Earnings per common share: Diluted earnings per share: Class A 0.91 2.11 1.93 Class B NA NA NA Weighted average number of common shares outstanding: Class A 2,018,701 2,024,470 2,035,906 Class B 378,020 385,830 389,271 Total 2,396,721 2,410,300 2,425,177 McRae Industries, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands) July 28, July 29, July 30, For Years Ended 2018 2017 2016 Cash Flows from Operating Activities: Net earnings $2,190 $5,083 $4,692 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation 1,234 1,211 907 (Gain) loss on sale of assets - (2) (6) (Gain) loss on sale of land (37) - - Loss on sale of securities 2 6 62 Deferred income taxes 32 398 951 Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable, net 1,666 377 2,928 Inventories (154) 9,671 (2,187) Prepaid expenses and other assets 396 (117) 99 Accounts payable 458 (2,186) (903) Accrued employee benefits (721) 54 (537) Accrued payroll and payroll taxes (179) (398) (18) Income tax receivable/payable (798) 726 (933) Other 20 16 146 Net cash provided by operating activities 4,109 14,839 5,201 Cash Flows from Investing Activities: Proceeds from sale of assets - 13 15 Proceeds from sale of land 46 - - Purchase of land for investment (180) - (17) Capital expenditures (1,217) (465) (3,237) Proceeds from sale of securities 1,194 833 484 Purchase of securities (3,025) (1,040) (609) Net cash used in investing activities (3,182) (659) (3,364) Cash Flows from Financing Activities: Purchase of common stock (133) (545) (342) Dividends paid (1,246) (1,251) (1,259) Net cash used in financing activities (1,379) (1,796) (1,601) Net (Decrease) Increase in Cash and Cash equivalents (452) 12,384 236 Cash and Cash Equivalents at Beginning of Year 28,057 15,673 15,437 Cash and Cash Equivalents at End of Year $27,605 $28,057 $15,673 SOURCE McRae Industries, Inc. Related Links http://www.mcraeindustries.com "The launch of the AlphaJET comes at a time when print markets are experiencing a high demand for inline digital printing, embellishment and finishing," said Eric Owen, general manager at Memjet. "To capture that opportunity, MGI chose the modular nature of DuraLink its extremely fast speeds, 1600 by 1600 resolution and affordable cost to develop an industry-changing solution. This is a valuable partnership for MGI, Memjet and the print market as a whole." Michael Abergel, MGI's managing director, said, "Memjet has developed superb core technology with the DuraLink architecture and ink modules. In addition, their teamwork and technical support for the AlphaJET product has allowed us to quickly achieve unprecedented functional advancements. The AlphaJET has been designed to introduce a new model of printing, packaging and finishing productivity. For such an important product, we found an ideal business partner in Memjet. They understand the spirit of innovation that drives MGI." "All-in-One" Unified Decorative Printing and Packaging The AlphaJET consolidates the functionality of traditionally separate, disconnected operational workflows such as primer coating, printing and embellishment and converting them into a single, combined "All-in-One" Industrial Print Factory for complete job management. The AlphaJET utilizes the new Memjet DuraLink ink, modules and printheads for CMYK color impressions with 1600 dpi resolution. The white and clear varnish inks use UV inkjet technology for a revolutionary best-of-breed convergence of digital-printing methods. This powerful array of high-speed ink deposition processes allows the AlphaJET to both print and embellish corrugated flute board, paper, plastic and synthetic substrates at 1,800 B1 sheets (70.7 x 100cm/28 x 40") per hour. "The partnership with MGI is the latest in a series of agreements Memjet has announced in recent months," said Owen. "We look forward to sharing more DuraLink developments throughout 2019." About Memjet Memjet is a global leader in the development of digital inkjet technology that brings an unmatched combination of speed, simplicity and affordability, transforming what is possible in color printing. Memjet's original technology platform, VersaPass, is an aqueous dye-based, single-pass digital print system that enables on-demand printing in a variety of markets, including desktop labeling, mailing and addressing, wide format and commercial press. The DuraLink digital printing platform expands Memjet's industry-leading speed, simplicity, and affordability to a broader range of commercial, packaging and industrial printing markets. For more information, visit Memjet.com. About the MGI Group: International Printing Industry Leader Founded in 1982, the MGI Group is a public company with offices around the world and is registered on the Euronext/Alternext stock exchange (ALMDG). The MGI Group is a global digital printing technology leader composed of MGI Digital Technology, headquartered in Paris (Fresnes), France and KORA-PACKMAT, located in Villingendorf, Germany and CERADROP, located in Limoges, France. MGI USA, based in Melbourne, Florida, is a fully-owned subsidiary of the MGI Group that supports the North & South American, Caribbean, Indian and Asia Pacific markets. For more information, please visit www.mgiusa.com . SOURCE Memjet Related Links http://Memjet.com DENVER, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercer Advisors Inc. ("Mercer Advisors"), a national Registered Investment Adviser (RIA), today announced the acquisition of McDermott Advisory Group, a respected RIA firm located in Wilmington, Delaware. McDermott provides a full complement of financial planning, investment management, and related services to its affluent and high net worth clients. McDermott Advisory Group, LLC has more than $150 million of Assets Under Management (AUM), serves approximately 150 clients, and was founded in 2006 by Daniel M. McDermott, CFP, a 30-year industry veteran. This acquisition brings Mercer Advisors' total offices to 36 and AUM to nearly $15 billion and expands its presence on the East Coast. Dave Welling, Chief Executive Officer of Mercer Advisors, said, "We are delighted to be joining forces with McDermott Advisory Group and continuing to deliver services to their clients. McDermott is dedicated to delivering personalized financial planning and our partnership provides McDermott with enhanced services for clients, growth, and business continuity. Their clients will receive additional support from Mercer Advisors in multiple areas, including, tax planning, estate planning, retirement plan services, and more. In addition, the partnership provides business continuity to ensure advisors are available to provide trusted advice for generations to come." "Mercer Advisors' service model is second to none and they allowed me to customize my role with them post-transaction. Their approach to partnering with firms like mine was unique, and I had met with several serial acquirers before talking to Dave Barton, Mercer Advisors' Vice Chairman," said Founder Dan McDermott. "The ability to design my 'life after' sale was important to me as I transition from active operator to just focusing on doing things I love. Working with Mercer Advisors extends my career by creating work-life balance." David Barton, who leads the company's M&A activity, said, "Mercer Advisors is an excellent fit for Dan and his four member team because our national platform business allows him to offload back-office responsibilities and compliance work, and transition investment management to our 14-member Investment Committee, all while enhancing the client value proposition by increasing the investment product line-up, and adding Mercer Advisors' family office services like tax strategy and preparation, estate planning and corporate trustee advisory acumen to his clients in one seamless transaction." Barton added, "Mercer Advisors' M&A model allows the seller to design their 'ideal life after' and do that life planning Dan had been doing for his clients for decades. Dan realized this was his chance, his time, to create work-life balance, offload responsibilities he doesn't like to do, and focus on just doing those things he loves helping his clients achieve economic freedom." About Mercer Advisors Established in 1985, Mercer Advisors Inc. is a total wealth management firm that provides comprehensive, fee-only investment management, financial planning, family office services, retirement benefits and distribution planning, estate and tax planning, asset protection expertise, and corporate trustee and trust administration services. Mercer Advisors is the parent company of Mercer Global Advisors, one of the largest independent Registered Investment Advisers and financial planning firms in the U.S. with nearly $15 billion in client assets. Headquartered in Denver, Mercer Advisors is privately held, has over 300 employees, and operates nationally through 36 branch offices across the country. For more information, visit www.merceradvisors.com. Data as of November 27, 2018. AUM includes affiliates and wholly owned subsidiaries. Contact: Chris Tofalli Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC 914-834-4334 SOURCE Mercer Advisors Inc. Related Links http://www.merceradvisors.com More than one-third of workers in the U.S. (35 percent) and Canada (40 percent) wouldn't accept a job that was a perfect match if the corporate culture clashed. (40 percent) wouldn't accept a job that was a perfect match if the corporate culture clashed. Nine out of 10 U.S. (91 percent) and Canadian (90 percent) managers said a candidate's fit with the organizational culture is equal to or more important than their skills and experience. While a majority of workers across North America said their ideal corporate culture is supportive or team-oriented, most described their company as traditional. View an infographic about organizational culture. "In today's competitive hiring environment, employers risk missing out on strong candidates if they don't promote what makes their organizational culture unique," said Paul McDonald, senior executive director for Robert Half. "This research reinforces the notion that finding the right fit involves more than evaluating someone's qualifications and experience. There has to be a focus on what motivates that individual and the type of work environment in which they will thrive." "But the conversation shouldn't end with recruitment efforts," McDonald added. "To keep top performers, employers need to pay close attention to their corporate culture and continue nurturing and promoting those aspects of it that make their company a great place to work." About the Research The online surveys were developed by Robert Half and conducted by independent research firms. They include responses from more than 1,000 U.S. and more than 500 Canadian workers 18 years of age or older and employed in office environments, and more than 5,500 U.S. and more than 1,200 Canadian senior managers at companies with 20 more employees. About Robert Half Founded in 1948, Robert Half is the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm. The company has more than 300 staffing locations worldwide and offers job search services at roberthalf.com. For additional career and management advice, visit the Robert Half blog at roberthalf.com/blog. SOURCE Robert Half Related Links http://roberthalf.com WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA invites media to its headquarters in Washington for the announcement of new Moon partnerships with American companies at 2 p.m. EST Thursday, Nov. 29. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will make the announcement, which will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. Working with U.S. companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the Moon and Mars. In addition to the administrator and future partners to be announced, participants in the event include: Thomas Zurbuchen , associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington , associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Stan Love , NASA astronaut, NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston , NASA astronaut, NASA's Johnson Space Center, Andrea Mosie , Apollo sample laboratory manager, Johnson , Apollo sample laboratory manager, Johnson Barbara Cohen , associate project scientist for Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. , associate project scientist for Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, FIRST Robotics students from the Washington area To attend in person or receive dial-in information, media must send a request with their name, affiliation and phone number to JoAnna Wendel at [email protected] no later than noon on Thursday. The event also will be available through Facebook Live, Twitch TV, YouTube, and Twitter/Periscope. The public may ask questions on Twitter by using the hashtag #askNASA or by leaving a comment on the livestream of the event on the NASA Facebook page. Under Space Policy Directive-1, the agency will lead an innovative and sustainable exploration of the Moon together with commercial and international partners. SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov PHOTOS Steps recent college grads can take to build credit Youve graduated from college, secured that first full-time job and are ready to move out of your parents home. But before you move into that new apartment or buy a new car, you should probably start thinking about your credit. There are many misconceptions about credit and for recent college graduates, you might not know where to start when it comes to building it. Here are some of the steps you should take after you graduate from college. (Noah McGee, The Active Times) NEW YORK, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- INTRODUCTION The National Academy of Medicine indicates that as many as 100 million people in the US suffer from some form of pain, which has been shown to be associated with a socioeconomic burden of around USD 600 billion per year, in treatment costs and lost productivity. , Further, it has been estimated that nearly 1 million people in America suffer from Parkinson's disease, with approximately 60,000 new patients being diagnosed every year. Over the past few decades, the prevalence of such chronic disorders has grown at an alarming rate. In fact, a recent World Health Organization's Global Burden of Disease study recognized these chronic conditions as one of the leading causes of deteriorating public health in the world. Such clinical conditions have often been shown to result in serious physical, cognitive and psychosocial consequences in patients. This indicates an urgent need for novel and effective treatment methods as the drawbacks of existing treatment options (such as high risk of addiction / abuse associated with long-term use of oral opioids, and complications due to complex surgical procedures) are substantial. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628476 Extensive research in the field of neurostimulation has demonstrated the potential of this technique in providing therapeutic relief to a number of patients, who have developed resistance to conventional medication. Since the introduction of the first neurostimulation therapy in 1960s, their numerous observed benefits, such as reversible and minimally invasive nature of the procedures (to administer such treatments), targeted approach to therapeutic relief that can be modulated as well, provisions for integrating various safety mechanisms, and negligible use of opioids / other medications, have captured the interest of several stakeholders in the industry. In fact, since 2010, over 4,000 patents have been published in this domain, indicating the rapid pace at which research is being carried out. It is anticipated that such efforts are likely to boost the overall growth of this market in the coming years. SCOPE OF THE REPORT The 'Neurostimulation Devices Market (2nd Edition), 2018-2030' report features an extensive study of the current landscape and future outlook of the growing market for neurostimulation devices. The focus of this study is on invasive neurostimulation devices, such as devices for spinal cord stimulation (SCS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), spinal nerve stimulation (SNS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), other cranial nerve stimulation (Other CNS) and other variants of neurostimulation devices. Amongst other elements, the report features: A detailed assessment of the overall landscape of neurostimulation devices market, featuring the contributions of various companies engaged in this domain and highlighting key device specifications (size, weight, battery type, battery life, number of electrodes, type of programming, and MRI compatibility), along with information on different types of neurostimulation devices, target therapeutic areas, and regulatory approvals received across various geographies. A comprehensive product competitiveness analysis, taking into consideration the supplier power and specific device-related parameters, such as number of target indications, target nerves, regulatory approvals, and key device specifications. Comprehensive profiles of developers of leading neurostimulation devices (shortlisted on the basis of the product competitiveness analysis), featuring an overview of the company, its financial information (if available), and a detailed description of the device(s). Each profile also includes a list of recent developments, highlighting the achievements, partnership activity, and the likely strategies that may be adopted by these players to fuel growth in the foreseen future. An elaborate discussion on the regulatory landscape related to medical devices across various geographies, namely North America (the US and Canada), Europe (the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy), and Asia-Pacific (Australia, China and Japan). The information covers details on the payer mix, and the reimbursement processes of various public / private organizations across these geographies. A detailed brand positioning analysis of leading industry players (shortlisted on the basis of strength of product portfolio), highlighting the current perceptions regarding their proprietary brands across different device types, taking into consideration several aspects, such as strength / diversity of product portfolio, extent of patent portfolio, recent collaborations, number of target indications and regulatory approvals, and the overall market positioning of the players. An in-depth analysis of the patents that have been published since 2013. The analysis also highlights the key trends associated with these patents, including patent type, regional applicability, CPC classification, IP litigations, emerging areas, leading industry players (in terms of number of patents filed / granted), and patent benchmarking and valuation. A comprehensive clinical trial analysis of completed, ongoing and planned studies of various neurostimulation devices. For the purpose of this analysis, we looked at the clinical studies that have been last updated in 2013, and analyzed them on the basis of various parameters, such as current trial status, regional distribution, leading industry and non-industry players, key indications, and enrolled patient population across different geographies. An analysis of the partnerships that have been established in the recent past, covering product development / commercialization agreements, R&D collaborations, technology licensing deals, distribution agreements, mergers / acquisitions, and others. An analysis of investments made at various stages of product development / commercialization; these include seed financing, venture capital financing, debt financing and grants / awards received by the companies that are operating in this domain. A comprehensive list of non-invasive neurostimulation devices, along with information on their developers, various types of non-invasive technologies used, target therapeutic areas, and development / approval status of the devices. An elaborate discussion on the upcoming opportunities / trends in the field of neurostimulation devices that are likely to impact the evolution of this market over the coming years. One of the key objectives of the report was to estimate the existing market size and potential growth opportunities for neurostimulation devices. Based on multiple parameters, such as target patient population, likely adoption rates and expected pricing, we have provided an informed estimate on the likely evolution of the market over the period 2018-2030. The report provides sales forecasts for the overall neurostimulation devices market with detailed market segmentation on the basis of type neurostimulation devices (SCS, DBS, VNS, and other types), indication (chronic pain, dystonia, epilepsy, essential tremor, heart failure, major depressive disorder, Parkinson's disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, overactive bladder, sleep apnea), MRI compatibility (MRI compatible and MRI non-compatible), and the geographical distribution of the market (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, China, and Japan). In order to account for the uncertainties associated with some of the key parameters and to add robustness to our model, we have provided three market forecast scenarios portraying the conservative, base and optimistic tracks of the industry's evolution. The opinions and insights presented in this study were also influenced by discussions conducted with several stakeholders in this domain. The report features detailed transcripts of interviews held with the following individuals: Dave Rosa (President and Chief Executive Officer, NeuroOne Medical Technologies) Deborah Schmalz (Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research and Compliance, ReShape Lifesciences) and Diane Utzman-O'Neill (Vice President, Marketing, ReShape Lifesciences) Jan Pieter Heemels (Vice President, Commercial Operations, Mainstay Medical) Laura Tyler Perryman (Chief Executive Officer, Stimwave) Luca Ravagnan (Chief Executive Officer, WISE) Steve Goedeke (President and Chief Executive Officer, Cardionomic) All actual figures have been sourced and analyzed from publicly available information forums and primary research discussions. Financial figures mentioned in this report are in USD, unless otherwise specified. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The data presented in this report has been gathered via secondary and primary research. For all our projects, we conduct interviews with experts in the area (academia, industry and other associations) to solicit their opinions on emerging trends in the market. This is primarily useful for us to draw out our own opinion on how the market will evolve across different regions and technology segments. Where possible, the available data has been checked for accuracy from multiple sources of information. The secondary sources of information include Annual reports Investor presentations SEC filings Industry databases News releases from company websites Government policy documents Industry analysts' views While the focus has been on forecasting the market till 2030, the report also provides our independent view on various non-commercial trends emerging in the industry. This opinion is solely based on our knowledge, research and understanding of the relevant market gathered from various secondary and primary sources of information. CHAPTER OUTLINES Chapter 2 is an executive summary of the insights captured in our research. It offers a high-level view on the likely evolution of the neurostimulation devices market in the mid to long term. Chapter 3 is an introductory chapter that presents a general overview of the epidemiology and the growing prevalence of chronic clinical conditions, along with information on the limitations of conventional treatment methods. Further, it features a detailed discussion on neurostimulation devices, including a comprehensive history of development, information on their basic components and principle of operation, and associated advantages / challenges. It also features a discussion on the key types of neurostimulation devices, including SCS, DBS, SNS, VNS, Other CNS, and other device types, featuring information on the potential applicability of these devices across different disease indications. Further, the chapter features a discussion on the key growth drivers and road blocks related to neurostimulation and its use in treating various neurological conditions. Chapter 4 provides a detailed description on the regulatory landscape related to medical devices across various geographies, namely North America (the US and Canada), Europe (the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy), and Asia-Pacific (Australia, China and Japan). Further, it provides information on the payer mix, and details of the reimbursement processes of various public / private organizations across different geographies. Chapter 5 includes information on more than 125 invasive neurostimulation devices that are either commercialized or under development for the treatment of different disorders. It features detailed analyses of these devices based on key specifications (including size, weight, battery type, battery longevity, number of electrodes, and MRI compatibility), Further, we have provided information on different types of neurostimulation devices, target nerves, target therapeutic areas, and regulatory approvals received across various geographies. The chapter also highlights the contributions of various companies engaged in this domain, presenting a detailed analysis based on their year of establishment, size of employee base and geographical presence. Chapter 6 provides a detailed review of SCS devices, along with information on their historical evolution and associated surgical procedures (for implantation). The chapter also presents a comprehensive 2 X 2 matrix to compare device competitiveness, by taking into consideration the supplier power (based on size of employee base) and certain device-related parameters, such as number of target indications, target nerves, regulatory approvals, and key specifications of the devices (including size, weight, battery type, battery longevity, number of electrodes, type of programming, and MRI compatibility). In addition, the chapter includes elaborate profiles of the developers of leading SCS devices (shortlisted on the basis of device competitiveness analysis scores); each profile features an overview of the company, its financial information (if available), detailed description of the device(s) and the recent developments and future outlook with respect to the specific device(s) / overall neurostimulation domain. Chapter 7 provides a detailed review of DBS devices, along with information on their historical evolution and associated surgical procedures (for implantation). The chapter also presents a comprehensive 2 X 2 matrix to compare device competitiveness, by taking into consideration the supplier power (based on size of employee base) and certain device-related parameters. In addition, the chapter includes elaborate profiles of the developers of leading DBS devices (shortlisted on the basis of device competitiveness analysis scores); each profile features an overview of the company, its financial information (if available), detailed description of the device(s) and the recent developments and future outlook with respect to the specific device(s) / overall neurostimulation domain. Chapter 8 provides a detailed review of PNS devices (including SNS, VNS and Other CNS devices), along with information on their historical evolution and associated surgical procedures (for implantation). The chapter also presents three comprehensive 2 X 2 matrices to compare device competitiveness within each type of PNS devices, by taking into consideration the supplier power (based on size of employee base) and certain device-related parameters. In addition, the chapter includes elaborate profiles of the developers of leading devices within each type (shortlisted on the basis of respective device competitiveness analysis scores); each profile features an overview of the company, its financial information (if available), detailed description of the device(s) and the recent developments and future outlook with respect to the specific device(s) / overall neurostimulation domain. Chapter 9 provides an elaborative brand positioning analysis of the leading industry players (shortlisted on the basis of strength of product portfolio) highlighting the current perceptions regarding their proprietary brands across different device types. The analysis takes into consideration several aspects, such as strength / diversity of product portfolio, strength of patent portfolio, recent collaborations, number of target indications and regulatory approvals, and the overall market positioning of the companies. Chapter 10 provides an in-depth patent analysis to provide an overview of how the industry is evolving from the R&D perspective. For the purpose of this analysis, we considered those patents that have been published since 2013 related to the neurostimulation domain. The analysis also highlights the key trends associated with these patents, including patent type, regional applicability, CPC classification, IP litigations, emerging areas, leading industry players, and patent benchmarking and valuation. Chapter 11 provides a comprehensive clinical trial analysis of completed, ongoing and planned studies of various neurostimulation devices. For the purpose of this analysis, we looked at the clinical studies that have been last updated in 2013, and analyzed them on the basis of various parameters, such as current trial status, regional distribution, leading industry and non-industry players, key indications, and enrolled patient population across different geographies. Chapter 12 features an elaborate discussion and analysis of the various partnerships / collaborations that have been inked amongst players in this market. It includes a brief description on the various types of partnership models (such as product development / commercialization agreements, R&D collaborations, technology licensing deals, distribution agreements, mergers / acquisitions, and others) that have been employed by stakeholders in this domain, and analysis on the trend of partnerships inked since 2015. It also consists of a schematic representation showcasing the players that have established the maximum number of alliances related to neurostimulation devices. Furthermore, we have provided a world map representation of all the deals inked in this field, highlighting those that have been established within and across different continents. Chapter 13 provides information on the funding instances and investments that have been made in the neurostimulation domain. The chapter includes details on various types of investments (such as seed financing, venture funding, debt financing and grants) received by companies between 2015 and mid-2018, highlighting the growing interest of the venture capital community and other strategic investors in this domain. Chapter 14 features a comprehensive market forecast, highlighting the future potential of neurostimulation devices till 2030 based on multiple parameters, such as prices of devices, indication / region specific adoption trends, and competitive landscape. We have segmented the market on the basis of type of neurostimulation devices (SCS, DBS, VNS, and other types), indication (chronic pain, dystonia, epilepsy, essential tremor, heart failure, major depressive disorder, Parkinson's disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, overactive bladder, and sleep apnea), MRI compatibility (MRI compatible and MRI non-compatible), and the geographical distribution of the market (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, China, and Japan). We have adopted a bottom up approach, backed by robust data and credible inputs from primary research, to estimate the likely size of the market, both in terms of value (USD billion) and volume (number of devices). Chapter 15 presents a discussion on the upcoming opportunities / trends in the field of neurostimulation devices that are likely to impact the future evolution of this market over the coming years. These include (but not limited to) development of devices against unexplored therapeutic areas, integration of novel and advanced features, launch in different geographies, increased utilization of real world evidence-based insights, and implementation of cybersecurity measures in the devices. Chapter 16 is a collection of executive insights of the discussions that were held key stakeholders in this market. The chapter provides a brief overview of the companies and details of interviews held with Dave Rosa (President and Chief Executive Officer, NeuroOne Medical Technologies), Deborah Schmalz (Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research and Compliance, ReShape Lifesciences) and Diane Utzman-O'Neill (Vice President, Marketing, ReShape Lifesciences), Jan Pieter Heemels (Vice President, Commercial Operations, Mainstay Medical), Laura Tyler Perryman (Chief Executive Officer, Stimwave), Luca Ravagnan (Chief Executive Officer, WISE), and Steve Goedeke (President and Chief Executive Officer, Cardionomic) Chapter 17 is an appendix, which provides a comprehensive list of non-invasive neurostimulation devices, along with information on their developers, types of non-invasive neurostimulation technologies, target therapeutic areas, and development / approval status of the devices. Chapter 18 is an appendix, which provides tabulated data and numbers for all the figures provided in the report. Chapter 19 is an appendix, which provides the list of companies and organizations mentioned in the report. EXAMPLE HIGHLIGHTS 1. Over 120 implantable neurostimulation devices are presently available / under development for the treatment of chronic disorders. Of these, close to 31% are spinal cord stimulating (SCS) products indicated for managing different forms of chronic pain. Examples include (in alphabetical order, no specific selection criteria) Algovita, Altius System, Intellis, Precision Spectra, Proclaim Elite, Senza, and StimRouter. These are followed by deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices (20%) that are designed to stimulate globus pallidus / subthalamic nucleus, ventral intermediate of the thalamus and other portions of the brain for the treatment of neurological / movement-related disorders. Other therapeutic areas for which such devices are available / under evaluation include urological disorders, respiratory disorders, cardiovascular disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, sleep disorders and metabolic disorders. 2. Around 75% of the companies that are involved in the development of neurostimulation devices are small-sized firms / start-ups (less than 200 employees). Examples of such players include (in alphabetical order, no specific selection criteria) Cardionomic, Lungpacer Medical, Neuros Medical, Nyxoah, Respicardia, SPR Therapeutics and Stimwave. However, the overall market is currently dominated by a few well-established players that are actively developing / improving their proprietary technologies in order to further increase their footprint in this competitive domain. Examples of such players include (in alphabetical order, no specific selection criteria) Abbott (St. Jude Medical), Boston Scientific, LivaNova, Medtronic and Nevro. 3. It is worth highlighting that more than 45% approvals have been granted to various neurostimulation devices in the EU, followed by approvals granted by the US FDA, Australian TGA and Health Canada for the treatment of different chronic clinical conditions. In fact, close to 65 marketing approvals have been granted to these devices across different regions since 2015. Examples of devices approved in the year 2018 include (in alphabetical order, no specific selection criteria) Axonics r-SNM System (TGA approval for overactive bladder), SenTiva (CE Mark for epilepsy), Senza II (CE Mark for chronic pain), Spectra WaveWriter (US FDA approval for chronic pain), StimGuard's SNS system (CE Mark for overactive bladder), StimRouter (Health Canada approval for chronic peripheral nerve pain), and TransAeris System (CE Mark for ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction). 4. Close to 45% of the neurostimulation devices feature magnetic resonance (MR) conditional labeling, allowing patients to undergo safe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of full body / specific body parts. Further, around 40% of neurostimulation devices utilize rechargeable batteries in their implantable pulse generators (IPGs), while close to 15% of devices have battery-free IPGs in order to deliver minimally invasive therapies to the patients. 5. Extensive research efforts in this domain have resulted in the publication of over 4,000 patents since 2010. Stakeholders that have filed / been granted the maximum number of patents related to neurostimulation devices in the last 8-10 years include (in decreasing order of number of patents) Boston Scientific, Medtronic, LivaNova, Abbott (St. Jude Medical), NeuroPace, and Metavention. 6. Further, close to 1,000 clinical studies have been registered (completed / ongoing / planned) across different geographies. Based on the number of trials, North America (~380 trials) has emerged as a major research / innovation hub in this domain; about 55% of the total number of patients enrolled in the aforementioned trials were reported to have been recruited in centers in this region, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. Further, the maximum number (150) of trials evaluating neurostimulation devices were observed to be associated with chronic pain. 7. Capital investments, totaling USD 1.8 billion have been made across over 100 instances in this domain since 2015. Examples of companies that have received relatively more funding include (in reverse chronological order) Inspire Medical Systems (USD 108 million), Metavention (USD 65 million in 2018), NeuroPace (USD 74 million in 2017), ReShape Lifesciences (USD 61 million in 2017), and CVRx (USD 93 million in 2016), and Nevro (USD 173 million in 2016). Examples of prominent venture capital investors that have actively purchased equity in this domain include (in decreasing order of the number of instances) Action Potential Venture Capital, Atlante Ventures, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, Andera Partners, F3F, and KCK Group. 8. The market for neurostimulation devices is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 10.9% between 2018 and 2030. While SCS devices, intended primarily for pain management, are expected to occupy majority of the share (close to 57%) in the market, DBS devices (utilized for the treatment of neuropsychological disorders) are anticipated to grow at a relatively faster rate (14.8%) in the forecast period. Further, the major share (over 75%) of revenues is anticipated to be distributed between North America and Europe; however, we believe that certain Asian countries, such as China, are likely to grow at a faster rate as compared to other regions over the coming decade; this is attributed to the increasing awareness about the nature of these therapies and a less stringent regulatory environment. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628476 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com NEWPORT BEACH, California, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The Orange County Hispanic Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) held its 25th Annual Gala on Saturday, November 10, 2018 at the Hotel Irvine. The event is the organization's annual fundraiser to support its scholarship program for Hispanic youth in Orange County, and to recognize exceptional individuals who positively impact the lives and education of Hispanic students. The event featured a scholarship challenge by event emcee, Gaddi H. Vasquez, eighth United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, which raised $80,000 for next year's scholarships. Corporate sponsorships also raised $175,000. President's Circle Sponsors for 2018 included SVA Architects, Edison International, Wells Fargo, and the University of California, Irvine. The dinner celebration also honored the following individuals: Apple of Gold for Excellence in Education: Michael Matsuda , Superintendent at Anaheim Union High School District; and Vicki L. Ruiz , Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of California Irvine (retired) , Superintendent at Anaheim Union High School District; and , Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emerita at (retired) HEEF Scholar Alumnus Award: Martha Rivera , Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Coordinator at Santa Ana Unified School District (2008 HEEF Scholarship Recipient) , Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Coordinator at Santa Ana Unified School District (2008 HEEF Scholarship Recipient) Corporate Partner Award: SoCalGas, one of the initial corporate sponsors to help establish the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund SoCalGas, one of the initial corporate sponsors to help establish the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund Dr. Juan Francisco Lara Visionary Leadership Award: Sara Lundquist , Ph.D., Strategy Consultant at Lumina Foundation and Former Vice President of Student Services at Santa Ana College Shelley Hoss, president of the Orange County Community Foundation which stewards the HEEF endowment, says, "We are thrilled with all that HEEF has accomplished in 25 years to recognize extraordinary leaders and to meet the needs of so many promising and deserving Hispanic youth in our community." About the Orange County Hispanic Education Endowment Fund The Hispanic Educational Endowment Fund was founded in 1994 by a group of business and community leaders in Orange County who saw the need to support deserving students to reach their education goals. The focus of HEEF is to provide scholarships, mentoring, and support to Hispanic youth in Orange County, California. Funds are dedicated to students in early learning and pre-college stages, and on scholarships for those that are college-bound. Since its inception, the organization has awarded more than $2.7 million to over 2,200 students. For more information, visit www.heef.org. Media Contact: Beth Binger BCIpr 619-987-6658 [email protected] SOURCE Orange County Hispanic Education Endowment Fund Related Links http://www.heef.org The 16-night Fiji to Bali voyage departs April 11, 2020, from Lautoka, Fiji, and after a sea day visits Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu; At Sea; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands; At Sea; Samarai Island, Papua New Guinea; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; At Sea; Thursday Island, Australia; At Sea (2 days); Dili, Timor-Leste; At Sea; Komodo Island, Indonesia; and Benoa, Bali, Indonesia. In 2020, The Gauguin will also be showcasing its most sought-after itineraries: the 7-night Tahiti & the Society Islands; the 7-night Society Islands & Tahiti Iti; the 10-night Society Islands & Tuamotus; the 11-night Cook Islands & Society Islands; and the 14-night Marquesas, Tuamotus & Society Islands. The Gauguin returns to the tropical wonderland of Fiji on two voyages that also feature Tonga, the Cook Islands, and the Society Islands. Blessed with blue skies, high mountains, lush vegetation, ivory beaches, and shimmering azure waters, Fiji is the very picture of paradise. The 13-night voyage departs Papeete, Tahiti, on March 28, 2020, and visits: Moorea, Society Islands; Taha'a (Motu Mahana), Society Islands; Bora Bora, Society Islands (overnight); At Sea; Aitutaki, Cook Islands; At Sea (2 days); Vava'u, Tonga; At Sea; Savusavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji; Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji; Beqa Island, Fiji; and Lautoka, Viti Levu, Fiji. The 12-night reverse itinerary departs June 6, 2020, and calls at the same ports except Beqa Island, Fiji. Designed specifically to sail the pristine lagoons of these islands, The Gauguin provides an up-close, authentic experience of the South Seas and offers an elegant yet casual ambiance with luxurious accommodations, gourmet dining, trademark Polynesian hospitality, and extraordinary all-inclusive value. Guests also receive complimentary access to Paul Gauguin Cruises' two exclusive retreats. Off the coast of Taha'a lies the islet of Motu Mahana, where guests can enjoy a day of watersports, Polynesian activities, a sumptuous barbecue feast, and cocktails from full and floating bars. In Bora Bora, guests can relax on a private, white-sand beach and enjoy refreshments, a game of volleyball, and snorkeling in crystal-clear waters. To launch its 2020 voyages, Paul Gauguin Cruises is offering savings of 50% off standard cruise fares on all voyages, plus included airfare from Los Angeles. Past guests of Paul Gauguin Cruises enjoy additional savings of up to 15% off final cruise fares on select sailings as members of Paul Gauguin Society. For rates or more information on Paul Gauguin Cruises, please contact a Travel Professional, call 800-848-6172, or visit www.pgcruises.com. About Paul Gauguin Cruises Owned by Pacific Beachcomber S.C., French Polynesia's leading luxury hotel and cruise operator, Paul Gauguin Cruises operates the 5+-star cruise ship, the 332-guest m/s Paul Gauguin, providing a deluxe cruise experience tailored to the unparalleled wonders of Tahiti, French Polynesia, and the South Pacific. Paul Gauguin Cruises has been recognized by notable publications in travel and lifestyle and was voted "#1 Midsize-Ship Ocean Cruise Line" by readers in the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2018. The line was also recognized as one of the "Top Small Cruise Lines" in the Conde Nast Traveler 2018 Readers' Choice Awards and is honored on the publication's 2018 "Gold List." Paul Gauguin Cruises was also selected as "Best Small-Ship Cruise Line" in Global Traveler's Leisure Lifestyle Awards in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and received top honors as the "#1 Cruise Line for Honeymooners" in BRIDES Magazine's 2017 Honeymoon Awards and was listed in the publication's "Top All-Inclusives" in the 2018 Honeymoon Awards. Media Contact: Vanessa Bloy Paul Gauguin Cruises Director of Public Relations (425) 440-6255 [email protected] From Travel + Leisure Magazine, August 2018 Time Inc. Affluent Media Group. Used under license. Travel + Leisure and Time Inc. Affluent Media Group are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, Paul Gauguin Cruises. SOURCE Paul Gauguin Cruises Related Links http://www.pgcruises.com LONDON, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A delegation from PhosAgro took part in the Russian-British Business Forum, which was held in London for the fourth time. The Company delegation included Andrey A. Guryev, PhosAgro CEO and President of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers; Andrey G. Guryev, Deputy Chairman of PhosAgro's Board of Directors and Vice President of the Russian Union of Chemists; PhosAgro's Deputy CEO for International Projects, Siroj Loikov; and PhosAgro's Deputy CEO for Business Development, Roman Osipov. The purpose of the forum is to develop Russian-British economic relations and trade and investment cooperation between Russia and the international business community. At the annual forum, Russian and British experts assess market dynamics and international trade relations, identify trends in the economy and investor interests and determine ways to expand trade and economic cooperation. Speaking at a reception at the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom on the occasion of the forum, PhosAgro CEO Andrey A. Guryev thanked the Embassy and the Trade Delegation of the Russian Federation in the United Kingdom for their efforts to promote the interests of Russian business. He noted that ongoing dialogue between Russia and the United Kingdom had already brought qualitative results: "With overall growth in trade between Russia and the United Kingdom of 18.7% in the first half of 2018, non-resource exports increased by over 50%." During his speech at a panel session titled 'Innovations and technologies as a factor of export development', Andrey Guryev spoke about the successful experience of introducing innovative and best-available technologies and digital solutions based on the Industry 4.0 platform in the construction of new high-tech production facilities and the modernisation of existing ones at PhosAgro enterprises. It is these factors, along with the high quality and purity of the Company's products, constant work to improve labour efficiency and productivity, as well as to optimise business processes and costs, that strengthen PhosAgro's competitive advantages in non-resource-based export markets. According to Andrey Guryev, the development of both the mineral fertilizer industry and PhosAgro Group have always been centred around innovation. Long ago, the transition was made from delivering the main nutrient components - nitrogen, phosphate and potash - to offering a single product with the proper combination of these nutrients, after which complex solutions were devised to tailor fertilizer grades and their proper application to maximise yield. Modern solutions for managing the yield and quality of agricultural products are based not only on mineral raw materials, but also on the use of bio-additives and innovative agricultural technologies. In our mining and production operations, we are introducing robotic mining equipment, and we are implementing advanced data management technologies to further increase the efficiency of our operations. Innovative solutions in the production of mineral fertilizers are supported by the only research institute on fertilizers and insectofungicides in the industry in Russia, the Y V Samoilov Research Institute for Insectofungicides and Mineral Fertilizers, a subsidiary of PhosAgro, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. This institute was founded with the mission of creating a robust phosphate feedstock and mineral fertilizer production capabilities in Russia. PhosAgro also works with leading international agricultural research organisations to help farmers increase crop yields through the proper use of fertilizers. Recently, during a large-scale experiment with the International Plant Nutrition Institute in the Vologda Region, high-precision fertilizer application techniques were used to achieve an impressive 30% increase in yield, while the number of harvests per year increased from three to four. Over the past five years, more than RUB 150 billion (USD 2.5 billion) has been invested in R&D and the development of PhosAgro as a whole, i.e., which represents at least 50% of EBITDA. Together with UNESCO, PhosAgro promotes scientific and applied research in the field of green chemistry, thus contributing to higher production efficiency and environmental conservation, while involving young scientists from around the world. Commenting on the possibility of increasing the volume of high-tech, non-resource exports based on the example of PhosAgro's supply of fertilizers to the United Kingdom, Andrey Guryev noted that the Company is constantly analysing potential opportunities that will make PhosAgro's safe and pure fertilizers more accessible to local farmers producing products for British and other European buyers. "PhosAgro's annual supply of fertilizers to the UK varies in the range of 60,000 to 110,000 tonnes, which accounts for less than 10% of the country's imports of phosphate-based fertilizers, and we see significant growth potential," said Andrey Guryev, stressing that the removal of the EU's 6.5% customs tariff on fertilizers from Russia would contribute to this. About the Company PhosAgro is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a P 2 O 5 content of 39% and higher. The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with a P 2 O 5 content of 39%, a top-three producer of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP). PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, 39 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia. PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes. More information about PhosAgro can be found on the website: http://www.phosagro.ru . SOURCE PhosAgro WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The PURE Group of Insurance Companies (PURE Group), which includes Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE), the policyholder-owned property and casualty insurer designed for high net worth individuals and families, announced that it is changing its approach to insuring jewelry in Connecticut by offering even more protection for losses related to theft and disappearance on their homeowners policy, at no additional cost. While other carriers cap this limit at $5,000 and encourage policyholders to self-insure or pay higher premiums for designated jewelry policies, PURE has removed its $50,000 cap (which was already the highest available in the industry) and will instead cover all jewelry losses up to the full contents limits of the homeowners policy. This will dramatically reduce the chances of an out-of-pocket loss for its members. PURE is piloting this program in Connecticut and aims to make a similar offering available to members nationwide. This updated program is designed to supplement the more robust coverage that is provided through PURE's dedicated Jewelry, Art and Collections policies. "We are making this change to ensure more and more valuable items and priceless family heirlooms are covered, which will result in fewer out-of-pocket expenses for our members," said Lindsay Holden, President of the Eastern Zone, PURE Insurance. "This is an important step in fulfilling PURE's purpose to help our members pursue their passions with greater confidence." PURE's policies are complemented with a suite of services designed to provide the highest level of care, including: Repairs, recovery and replacements Following a claim, PURE's specialists can coordinate repairs on members' behalf and assist in the recovery process or locate a partner to craft a replica of the lost item. In-home appraisals PURE's specialists can visit members' homes to appraise the value of their jewelry at a time that is convenient for them, significantly reducing the burdens of the appraisal process. Risk management assessments A virtual or in-home risk management assessment can help address the condition of members' in-home safe, cameras, and alarm systems and advise on other safety protocols. Jewelry buying Should members need assistance with acquiring a new piece, PURE's specialists can connect them with one of its trusted vendors who can help locate it and consult on price negotiation. Couriers and transport PURE's trusted partners can assist with the shipping of high-value items in the event members are transporting a piece to be cleaned, repaired, or are traveling. Members who maintain contents limits equal to or greater than 50% of their dwelling coverage amount, as well as any members with at least $2,000,000 of contents coverage, will benefit from this change. There is no correlating adjustment in premium anticipated, enabling these members to enjoy this flexible coverage in advance of renewal. While the $50,000 aggregate sublimit no longer applies to Connecticut members, the $25,000 per item limit still remains. To learn more about PURE's dedicated jewelry or collections coverage, please visit pureinsurance.com. About PURE Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE) is a policyholder-owned insurer dedicated to creating an exceptional experience for responsible high net worth individuals and families. PURE provides customizable coverage for high-value homes, automobiles, jewelry, art, personal liability, watercraft, flood, fraud and cyber fraud to more than 75,000 responsible, high net worth families throughout the U.S. Inspired by some of the finest policyholder-owned companies, PURE emphasizes alignment of interests and transparency. PURE's low cost of capital, careful member selection and proactive risk management all contribute to highly competitive rates and a Financial Strength Rating of "A" (Excellent) from A.M. Best. In return for a fee, PURE Risk Management, LLC acts as Attorney-in-Fact for PURE. For more information or to find a local broker, visit pureinsurance.com. You can follow PURE on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. SOURCE The PURE Group of Insurance Companies Related Links http://www.pureinsurance.com LAS VEGAS and BENGALURU, India, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- QuEST Global, the pioneering engineering services provider, will be demonstrating a host of smart engineering solutions for the consumer electronics, semiconductors and automotive industries at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019. The solutions aim at addressing the increasing consumer demands in the areas of safety, comfort and enhanced user experience, which are in sync with QuEST's commitment towards the vision of connected living. The company will also discuss how it leverages multi-industry knowledge and rich experience in pervasive technologies like deep learning, artificial intelligence (AI), AR/VR, data analytics, security & block chain, connected engineering and mobility to enable their customers to achieve the digital edge in product engineering. Over the last two decades, QuEST has been working with the world's most recognized Fortune 500 companies in automotive, consumer electronics, semiconductor, computing and storage, communication, and software and Internet sectors, helping them to accelerate the product development process. With the convergence of mechanical and digital technologies, OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers have been finding it difficult to address the growing demand of providing connected engineering experience to its customers. By developing comprehensive engineering services and solutions, QuEST partners with its customers to overcome such challenges and make products safer and more reliable in today's digital age. During CES, QuEST will demonstrate how they engage with customers as an innovative partner in the areas of new product development and lifecycle management right from concept to commercialization across electronics, software and mechanical engineering. The company will showcase live demo of its latest connected engineering experience, encompassing multiple digital solutions around AI, vision analytics, omni-channel conversation platform, augmented reality and asset management, to deliver an intelligent, secure and immersive workforce management. QuEST will also exhibit its multi-platform test automation framework, next-gen automotive solutions including FOTA (Firmware-Over-The-Air) and augmented reality/mixed reality-based training and servicing at Westgate Booth # 515. Krish Kupathil, Head - Digital and Hi-Tech, QuEST Global said, "The digital wave created by the convergence of mechanical, software and digital technologies is disrupting the consumer and industrial worlds alike. The combination of our multi-domain knowledge, digital experience and industry partnerships enable the world's most recognized companies in automotive, consumer electronics, semiconductor, computing, communication & storage and software & Internet sectors to benchmark their offerings effectively. The solutions we are presenting at CES 2019 are perfectly in sync with our commitment towards the vision of connected living, and other consumer demands in the areas of safety, comfort and enhanced user experience." Berthold Puchta, Vice President and Global Industry Leader - Transportation, QuEST Global said, "By leveraging pervasive technologies like augmented reality, artificial intelligence, analytics and cloud, we are empowering our customers in the automotive domain to meet varying consumer demands. Our integrated local-global solution delivery approach and more than two decades of in-depth experience in the automotive domain, enables us to address the increasing market demand for safety critical and reliable products that provide superior customer experience." About QuEST Global QuEST Global is a trusted engineering services and solutions partner to many of the world's most recognized Fortune 500 brands in aero engines, aerospace & defense, automotive, medical devices, oil & gas, power, hi-tech, industrial and rail with 10,000+ associates. For more than 20 years, QuEST has been a trusted partner providing comprehensive support across the complete engineering lifecycle to help our customers improve efficiency, increase quality, create new products and open new markets. Through a collaborative and customized approach, QuEST enables its customers to manage traditional engineering requirements as well as convergence of digital and mechanical technology to help them create safe, dependable and high quality products and services. SOURCE QuEST Global CHICAGO, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Two new studies being presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) address the potential risk of cyberattacks in medical imaging. The Internet has been highly beneficial to health careradiology includedimproving access in remote areas, allowing for faster and better diagnoses, and vastly improving the management and transfer of medical records and images. However, increased connectivity can lead to increased vulnerability to outside interference. Researchers and cybersecurity experts have begun to examine ways to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks in medical imaging before they become a real danger. Medical imaging devices, such as X-ray, mammography, MRI and CT machines, play a crucial role in diagnosis and treatment. As these devices are typically connected to hospital networks, they can be potentially susceptible to sophisticated cyberattacks, including ransomware attacks that can disable the machines. Due to their critical role in the emergency room, CT devices may face the greatest risk of cyberattack. In a study presented today, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, identified areas of vulnerability and ways to increase security in CT equipment. They demonstrated how a hacker might bypass security mechanisms of a CT machine in order to manipulate its behavior. Because CT uses ionizing radiation, changes to dose could negatively affect image quality, orin extreme casespose harm to the patient. "In the current phase of our research, we focus on developing solutions to prevent such attacks in order to protect medical devices," said Tom Mahler, Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "Our solution monitors the outgoing commands from the device before they are executed, and will alertand possibly haltif it detects anomalies." For anomaly detection, the researchers developed a system using various advanced machine learning and deep learning methods, with training data consisting of actual commands recorded from real devices. The model learns to recognize normal commands and to predict if a new, unseen command is legitimate or not. If an attacker sends a malicious command to the device, the system will detect it and alert the operator before the command is executed. "In cybersecurity, it is best to take the 'onion' model of protection and build the protection in layers," Mahler said. "Previous efforts in this area have focused on securing the hospital network. Our solution is device-oriented, and our goal is to be the last line of defense for medical imaging devices." He added that it is also important to note that although these types of attacks are theoretically possible, there is no indication that they ever actually occurred. "If health care manufacturers and hospitals will take a proactive approach, we could prevent such attacks from happening in the first place," he said. A second study, to be presented tomorrow, looked at the potential to tamper with mammogram results. The researchers trained a cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN), a type of artificial intelligence application, on 680 mammographic images from 334 patients, to convert images showing cancer to healthy ones and to do the same, in reverse, for the normal control images. They wanted to determine if a CycleGAN could insert or remove cancer-specific features into mammograms in a realistic fashion. "As doctors, it is our moral duty to first protect our patients from harm," said Anton S. Becker, M.D., radiology resident at University Hospital Zurich and ETH Zurich, in Switzerland. "For example, as radiologists we are used to protecting patients from unnecessary radiation. When neural networks or other algorithms inevitably find their way into our clinical routine, we will need to learn how to protect our patients from any unwanted side effects of those as well." The images were presented to three radiologists, who reviewed the images and indicated whether they thought the images were genuine or modified. None of the radiologists could reliably distinguish between the two. "Neural networks, such as CycleGAN, are not only able to learn what breast cancer looks like," Dr. Becker said, "we have now shown that they can insert these learned characteristics into mammograms of healthy patients or remove cancerous lesions from the image and replace them with normal looking tissue." Dr. Becker anticipates that this type of attack won't be feasible for at least five years and said patients shouldn't be concerned right now. Still, he hopes to draw the attention of the medical community, and hardware and software vendors, so that they may make the necessary adjustments to address this issue while it is still theoretical. Dr. Becker said that artificial intelligence, in general, will greatly enrich radiology, offering faster diagnoses and other advantages. He added that there are positive aspects to these findings as well. "Neural networks can teach us more about the image characteristics of certain cancers, making us better doctors." Mahler's co-authors are Erez Shalom, Ph.D., Arnon Makori, M.D., Israel Goldenberg, B.Sc., Ilan Shelef, M.D., Yuval Elovici, Ph.D., and principal investigator Yuval Shahar, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Becker's co-authors are Lukas Jendele, Ondrej Skopek, Soleen Ghafoor, M.D., Nicole Berger, M.D., Magda Marcon, M.D., and Ender Konukoglu, Ph.D. Note: Copies of RSNA 2018 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press18 beginning Monday, Nov. 26. RSNA is an association of over 54,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists, promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org) Editor's note: The data in these releases may differ from those in the published abstract and those actually presented at the meeting, as researchers continue to update their data right up until the meeting. To ensure you are using the most up-to-date information, please contact us. For patient-friendly information on CT and mammography, visit RadiologyInfo.org. SOURCE Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Related Links http://www.rsna.org Company signs $27.5 billion in 31 commercial collaboration signings Saudi Aramco hosted its 4th IKTVA Forum & Exhibition this week at the Dhahran Expo Center in Dammam, attracting more than 1,000 local and international energy-sector service and equipment suppliers, manufacturers and small and medium enterprises to explore available investment opportunities with Saudi Aramco in the upstream, chemicals, utilities, non-metallic, IT and cybersecurity, and other areas. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789332/Saudi_Aramco_IKTVA_Forum.jpg ) The annual flagship event supports the In Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program, Saudi Aramco's localization strategy to build a world-class supply chain and establish Saudi Arabia as a globally-competitive energy hub in line with Vision 2030, the Kingdom's economic diversification program. Held November 26-27 under the patronage of HRH Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, governor of the Eastern Province, the Forum offered presentations, workshops and panels on best practices in navigating such areas as regulatory requirements, financing, R&D and talent development. In addition to the signing of MoUs and commercial collaborations, an awards program was held to celebrate the program's success stories for the year (awarded companies are listed below). IKTVA participation is mandatory for every Saudi Aramco supplier, as the program aims to attain 70 percent local content, create thousands of jobs and export 30 percent of local energy goods and services output by 2021. Partnerships support local content by contributing to job creation, technology transfer, training and development, and R&D. By 2030, the program aims to establish 30 training centers helping prepare 360,000 highly skilled graduates for jobs of the future. In return, companies with a local presence can take advantage of more than SAR 1.7 trillion being spent by Saudi Aramco on localization opportunities over the next decade. "Our 2018 IKTVA Forum marked the half-way point to our local-content goals, and the event has underlined the win-win nature of our program with many of our international suppliers increasing their market share or moving their manufacturing to the Kingdom," said Saudi Aramco President & CEO Amin H. Nasser. "Over the two-day event, we signed $27.5 billion in a total of 31 commercial collaborations. Companies that have invested here are ideally positioned to benefit further with our signing last month of SAR 125 billion in business at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, much of which will have a direct impact on IKTVA. As of now, 51 percent of each riyal Saudi Aramco earmarks for materials and services is spent locally." The annual IKTVA Forum & Exhibition is the leading global energy supply-chain event, driving additional domestic value and maximizing sustainable, long-term growth for the Kingdom's changing economy. The event attracted more than 1,000 companies; some 4,000 participants from 40 countries; and more than 80 exhibitors. The MoUs and commercial collaborations included the following companies and entities: Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. Sapura Fabrication Sdn Consortium of Lamprell Energy and Boskalis Westminster Consortium of Technip Italy and Malaysia Marine & Heavy Engineering National Petroleum Construction Company Baker Hughes, a GE Company Schlumberger Siemens Saudi Arabia Industrial Development Fund PowerChina ABB Leading National Academy, Technical & Vocational Training Corp, Human Resource Development Fund, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Development Gulf Chemicals & Industries Oils Company Yokogawa Schneider Electric Company Honeywell Emerson Saudi Mechanical Industries Weir Arabian Metal/Weir Group TechnipFMC Ensco Shelf Drilling Group Noble Larsen & Toubro Gulf Heavy Industries Al-Khonaini International Company Hadi Hammam Al Hammam Holding Company Company Leanardo Helicoptors & Lamar Holding Company Airbus & Al-Qahtani Aviation Leading National Academy (LNA) & National Power Academy (NPA) The IKTVA 2018 Excellence Awards winners: Best Overall IKTVA Performance, Schlumberger Middle East Best Year-on-Year Improved IKTVA Performance, Tecnicas Reunidas Best in Training & Development, Nasser S. Al-Hajri Corp. Best in SME Development, Baker Hughes General Electric Best in Saudization, Arabian Drilling Company Best in Exports, Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company. About Saudi Aramco Saudi Aramco is a world-leading integrated energy and chemicals company. We are driven by our core belief that energy is opportunity. From producing approximately one of every eight barrels of the world's crude oil supply to developing new energy technologies, our global team is dedicated to creating positive impact in all that we do. We focus on making our resources more sustainable and more useful, promoting long-term economic growth and prosperity around the world. http://www.saudiaramco.com SOURCE Saudi Aramco OMAHA, Neb., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Scoular Company announced today that Andrew Kenny will join Scoular as its Chief Financial Officer, effective January 2, 2019. Kenny will office in the company's headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, reporting to CEO Paul Maass. Kenny joins Scoular from Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) where he was based in Switzerland serving as the Vice President and CFO of its Global Trade business. "Andrew is a seasoned finance leader who also brings to Scoular operational expertise and vast international experiences in the agriculture and commodities industries. His diverse background is an ideal fit with Scoular's strategy of leveraging its historic strengths, while continuing to build new capabilities for the future," said Maass. "I'm excited to have Andrew join the Senior Leadership Team at Scoular and look forward to the contributions his leadership will make to the growth of our company." Kenny has served in commercial and finance leadership roles of escalating responsibility with ADM for the last eight years, both in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to joining ADM, Kenny served in domestic and international positions with Deloitte & Touche. Kenny is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. in Accounting and a M.B.A. from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. About Scoular A 126-year old employee-owned company with more than $4 billion in sales, Scoular's 100+ independent business units provide diverse supply chain solutions for end-users and suppliers of grain, feed ingredients, and food ingredients around the globe. From 100+ offices and grain-handling facilities in North America, South America, and Asia, 1000+ employees are engaged in the business of buying, selling, storing, handling, and processing grain and ingredients as well as managing transportation and logistics worldwide. In 2017, Scoular ranked 81st on Forbes magazine's America's Largest Private Companies listing. www.scoular.com Link to News Release on Scoular's Website: https://www.scoular.com/news/scoular-names-new-chief-financial-officer SOURCE The Scoular Company Related Links http://www.scoular.com WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In a letter filed today, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), alongside a broad coalition of energy trade and advocacy organizations, urges Congress to modify the tax code to include energy storage as an eligible technology for the investment tax credit (ITC). Following is a statement on the effort from SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper: "As our letter to Senate and House leadership details, energy storage systems are critically important to the modernization of America's electric grid and represent a massive opportunity for clean energy, particularly solar power. In the energy world, you'd be hard-pressed to find an example of two technologies that complement each other as well as solar plus storage. "Yet without clear rules of the road, companies continue to face financial uncertainty in their investments. Inclusion in the ITC is a crucial step if we're going to harness storage's full potential. SEIA, alongside our partner organizations, is urging Congress to enact the Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act, a common-sense bill that will encourage investment, jobs and accelerated deployment of solar plus storage projects." About SEIA: Celebrating its 44th anniversary in 2018, the Solar Energy Industries Association is the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry, which now employs more than 250,000 Americans. Through advocacy and education, SEIA is building a strong solar industry to power America. SEIA works with its 1,000 member companies to build jobs and diversity, champion the use of cost-competitive solar in America, remove market barriers and educate the public on the benefits of solar energy. Visit SEIA online at www.seia.org. SOURCE Solar Energy Industries Association Related Links http://www.seia.org BOLOGNA, Italy and HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Menarini Silicon Biosystems announced today that new hem-oncology research utilizing the company's DEPArray single-cell isolation technology will be featured at the upcoming scientific meeting of the American Society of Hematology. In two separate studies, the DEPArray NxT system was used for the detection, isolation and genetic characterization of single cells in two of the primary hematological malignancies - classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL) and multiple myeloma, respectively. "For classic Hodgkin Lymphoma, genomic analysis of pure tumor cells is crucial for identifying patients for whom immunotherapy will be truly beneficial. However, isolating these cells is extremely challenging, as they are typically present in a very small percentage with respect to normal cells," said corresponding author Nicolo Manaresi. "Our goal with this research was to identify a protocol utilizing the automated workflow of the DEPArray technology to disaggregate these cells and perform genomic analysis at the single-cell level, in a way that can be easily implemented for patient selection as well as research." The DEPArray System enables isolation of individual, intact cells, allowing researchers to study the biological significance of rare cells in disease development, progression, and therapeutic response. It is the only image-based sorting and isolation platform that delivers pure cells to facilitate molecular analyses on live or fixed cells with single-cell precision. "Single cell sorting of Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) Cells by the DEPArray NxT and copy number alteration profiles using our Ampli1 LowPass kits offers a valuable tool to uncover genetic alterations," said Bob Roda, President and CEO of Menarini Silicon Biosystems Inc., suppliers of the DEPArray NxT System and the Ampli1 range of kits. "This analysis of pure HRS could be helpful for patient stratification and the adoption of immune therapy." Details for the DEPArray-related presentation at ASH and its authors are: Saturday, December 1 Session: 621. LymphomaGenetic/Epigenetic Biology: Poster I Title: Unravel Inter-Tumor and Intra-Tumor Heterogeneity of Digitally Sorted Single Hodgkin and Reed Sternberg Cells Using Genome-Wide Copy Number Profiling Authors: Chiara Mangano, Petrini Edoardo, Marianna Garonzi, Rossana Lanzellotto, Francesca Marzia Papadopulos, Chiara Bolognesi, Genny Buson, Alberto Ferrarini, Claudio Forcato, Giovanni Martinelli, Francesca Fontana, Michela Ceccolini, Francesco Fabbri, Pietro Fici,Giulia Gallerani, Cecilia Simonelli, Gianni Medoro, and Nicolo Manaresi Location: San Diego Convention Center, Hall GH Time: 6:15-8:15 p.m. The additional study, "A High-Throughput Workflow for the Detection, Isolation and Genomic Analysis of Single Circulating Multiple Myeloma Cells" (Publication Number #5574) will be published online in the annual ASH abstract supplemental issue of Blood. The DEPArray System can analyze samples containing from one to tens of thousands of cells and is compatible with a wide variety of rare cell suspensions, including live and fixed cells; enriched cells; and samples with small cell loads, such as fine needle aspirates and tissue biopsies. It is unique in combining imaging technologies with the ability to manipulate and recover individual, viable rare cells from a heterogeneous sample. This technology is enabling advances in areas such as oncology research, drug response and fetal cell biology. Starting from a minute tumor biopsy, it can isolate and recover individual cells or groups of tumor cells, allowing a complete understanding of tumor biology and a medical decision to apply the most effective treatment. Moreover, the technology allows isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) cancer cells that escape from the primary tumor and enter the blood to spread elsewhere in the body. These cells are important to identify and characterize, especially in those patients where it is very difficult to reach the primary tumor to obtain a tissue biopsy. CTC analysis is useful in predicting the severity and course of the disease and the response to drug treatment. The 60th annual ASH Meeting and Exposition will be held at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California, December 1-4, 2018. About Menarini Silicon Biosystems Menarini Silicon Biosystems , based in Bologna, Italy, and Huntingdon Valley (PA), USA, develops technologies and products that help researchers understand the biological complexity of disease through the study of single cells. The company manufactures and markets the DEPArray NxT, the only image-based digital cell-sorting and isolation platform that enables clinical researchers to conduct molecular analyses on live or fixed cells with single-cell precision. In 2017 Menarini Silicon Biosystems purchased all the assets and relevant business related to the CellSearch Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) System. The integration of CellSearch and DEPArray provides an end-to-end workflow solution* for the enumeration, isolation, and molecular characterization of CTCs from a simple blood test in the clinical research setting. This will help drive the clinical utility and correlation of CTCs with the effectiveness of specific therapies. Menarini Silicon Biosystems is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Menarini Group, a multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics company headquartered in Florence, Italy, with a heritage of over 130 years and over 17,000 employees in more than 100 countries. *The workflow described is for research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. The performance characteristics and safety and effectiveness of the workflow have not been established and are not cleared or approved by the FDA. Contact: Liz Dowling, (415) 388-2794 Dowling & Dennis PR [email protected] SOURCE Menarini Silicon Biosystems Related Links http://www.siliconbiosystems.com WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TDS, a global leader in data center, cloud and hybrid migrations today announced that its TransitionManager software platform is available to customers of VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware Cloud on AWS brings together VMware's enterprise-class Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) software and elastic, bare-metal infrastructure from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to give organizations consistent operating model and application mobility for private and public cloud. TransitionManager enables customers to accelerate their cloud migrations to VMware Cloud on AWS to achieve a lower cost, more agile cloud environment. TransitionManager offers a powerful, proven approach to planning, orchestrating and executing IT initiatives. It aggregates data from multiple sources, such as Capacity Planner, vRealize Network Insight, vCenter Server, RVTools, CMDB, and is a solution that provides a single, consolidated view of all IT assets and application-level interdependencies which drives better visibility and decision making by the business. TransitionManager will connect VMware's solutions to: Consolidate / centralize planning Aggregate information across disparate business units Orchestrate rapid migration of mobile workloads Discover, analyze and execute larger, more complex workload migrations with an application focus Michael Bullock, president and co-founder of TDS commented, "TransitionManager on VMware Cloud on AWS enables clients in the financial services, technology and manufacturing industries to deliver increased agility and accelerated time to value with the cloud. Using a centralized collaboration and orchestration software has enabled our customers to proactively manage and address application interdependencies, rapidly identify and resolve business requirements for workloads, and accelerate their workload migrations." VMware Cloud on AWS technology partners enable customers to deploy the same proven solutions seamlessly in both the public and private cloud. VMware simplifies the deployment and eliminates the need for partners to refactor solutions for VMware Cloud on AWS. If a partner solution works on-premises in a VMware vSphere environment, it will easily support VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware technology partners complement and enhance native VMware Cloud on AWS service and enable customers to realize new capabilities. "VMware Cloud on AWS provides customers a seamlessly integrated hybrid cloud offering that gives customers the SDDC experience from the leader in private cloud, running on the leading public cloud provider, AWS," said Kristen Edwards, director, Technology Alliance Partner Program, VMware. "Solutions such as TransitionManager enable IT teams to reduce cost, increase efficiency, and create operational consistency across cloud environments. We're excited to work with partners such as TDS to enhance native VMware Cloud on AWS capabilities and empower customers with flexibility and choice in solutions that can drive business value." About VMware Cloud on AWS Delivered, sold and supported by VMware and its channel partners as an on-demand service, and running on elastic, bare-metal AWS infrastructure, VMware Cloud on AWS is powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, the unified SDDC platform that integrates vSphere, VMware vSAN and VMware NSX virtualization technologies. With the same architecture and operational experience on-premises and in the cloud, IT teams can quickly derive business value from use of the AWS and VMware hybrid cloud experience. For more information on the VMware Cloud on AWS partner ecosystem, visit: http://cloud.vmware.com/vmc-aws About TDS TDS empowers, enables and accelerates an IT organizations' ability to prepare for, orchestrate and manage through both planned and unplanned change. Recognized by industry analysts, chosen by Fortune 500 companies and standardized by some of the largest technology services firms, TDS's TransitionManager software has become the standard for accelerating the orchestration and execution of complex hybrid cloud and data center migrations, disaster recovery and operational resiliency initiatives and application rationalization programs. Since 2002, TDS has been successfully delivering results for complex IT transformation programs for enterprises and government entities around the world, having migrated over 1 million workloads and more than 250,000 applications while achieving close to 100% customer satisfaction. VMware, VMware Cloud, vSphere, Cloud Foundation, vSAN, and NSX are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. Media Contact(s): Michael Burke MSR Communications 510/432-3640 (cell); 415/989-9000 (office) [email protected] or Amy Weickert Director of Marketing TDS 508-589-6184 (office) or 978-821-3415 (cell) [email protected] SOURCE Transitional Data Services - TDS Related Links https://www.transitionaldata.com AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Telestax, the leader in CPaaS Enablement, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Paul Doscher as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective October 29. Paul has assumed the CEO role previously held by co-founder Ivelin Ivanov, who will remain in a key role within the company. Doscher's appointment is the result of a rigorous and comprehensive search for a leader that possesses the business and operational skills necessary to take the company forward to the next level. "During this next stage of growth, there is no better person to lead Telestax," said Ivelin Ivanov, Telestax Co-founder and Member of the Board of Directors. "Paul is a proven leader with whom the founders have built a strong relationship, having relied on his business acumen and counsel over the years. His vision for how RestcommOne will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Telestax needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth." "Telestax offers comprehensive cloud communications technology that is capable of bringing new life and opportunity to the communications service provider community (CSP)," said Krishna Srinivasan, Telestax Member of the Board of Directors and Founding Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners. "The hard work the founding team put into building our platform has resulted in its initial market success. Paul is a leader who will drive the company to the next level by capitalizing on the initial success and turning it into broad market penetration. We are looking forward to taking this journey together." Before joining Telestax, Doscher spent over 25 years in executive roles for noteworthy software companies including Oracle as VP Americas Alliances, Business Objects as General Manager Americas Subsidiary, JasperSoft as President and CEO and Lucidworks as President and CEO. He brings strategy, operations, sales and channels experience to complement Telestax and RestcommONE, a well-engineered and proven CPaaS Enablement platform. Telestax chosen as Frost & Sullivan CPaaS Enabling Technology Winner "I know that I speak on behalf of everyone at Telestax in thanking Ivelin for his leadership and tireless dedication to the company," said Doscher. "I am very excited to assume this new role and for the future of the company. Telestax has an exceptionally talented team that is focused on taking decisive actions to scale the business and to continue to innovate our cloud solution in new and diverse ways that will unlock future growth opportunities." About Telestax Telestax's award-winning RestcommONE platform is quickly becoming the catalyst for bringing real-time cloud communications into the mainstream. RestcommONE offers communications service providers (CSPs) a new strategic business model that promises to increase their revenue opportunities. CPaaS enabling CSPs in less than one week allows them to successfully and effectively compete against commercial CPaaS providers who are aggressively threatening their Enterprise customer base. Telestax RestcommONE CPaaS Enablement platform is generating a positive disruption in the real-time cloud communications market by changing the way organizations acquire and utilize their business software. Telestax is a privately held global company with headquarters in Austin, TX. Media Contact: Nancy Colwell [email protected] www.telestax.com SOURCE Telestax Related Links http://www.telestax.com NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628052 The application processor market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.63% from 2018 to 2023, to reach USD 38.2 billion by 2023 from USD 29.0 billion in 2018. High demand for application processors for use in smartphones is one of the major factors fueling the growth of this market. However, intense market competition and short life cycles of consumer electronic products are the main challenging factors companies operating in this market face. Application processor market for automotive industry to witness significant growth during forecast period The application processor market for the automotive industry is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period.Increasing demand for automotive ADAS is one of the key factors responsible for the growing requirement for application processors in the automotive industry. The rise in demand for ADAS can be attributed to the increasing consumer demand for safe, efficient, and convenient driving experience. Besides, various governments are introducing mandates and regulations for increasing safety features in vehicles with an intention of curbing road accidents. Application processor market in APAC to witness significant growth during forecast period Among all regions, the application processor market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.China, India, and Vietnam are some of the major contributors to the growth of the market in APAC. High demand for application processors from the consumer electronics industry, especially smartphones, feature phones, and PC tablets, is fueling the growth of the market in this region. In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews have been conducted with key officials in the application processor market. Following is the breakup of the profiles of primary participants for the report. By Company Type: Tier 1 35 %, Tier 2 45%, and Tier 3 20% By Designation: C-Level Executives 35%, Directors 25%, and Others 40% By Region: North America 45%, Europe 20%, APAC 30%, and RoW 5% The report profiles key players in the application processor market and analyzes their market rankings. Players profiled in this report are Qualcomm (US), Apple (US), Samsung Electronics (South Korea), Xiaomi (China), MediaTek (Taiwan), HiSilicon Technologies (China), Spreadtrum Communications (China), NXP Semiconductors (Netherlands), Texas Instruments (US), NVIDIA (US), Toshiba (Japan), Renesas Electronics (Japan), Ingenic semiconductor (China), LG Electronics (US), Garmin (Switzerland), Fossil (US), Lenovo (China), OPPO Electronics (China), Embitel (India), and Nokia (Finland). Research Coverage This report segments the application processor market by core type, device type, industry, and geography. The report also describes major drivers, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to this market, as well as includes value chain and market ranking analyses. Reasons to Buy This Report The report will help leaders/new entrants in the application processor market in the following ways: 1. The report segments the application processor market comprehensively and provides the closest market size estimation for all subsegments across regions. 2. The report will help stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provide them with information on key drivers, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to the application processor market. 3. The report will help stakeholders understand their competitors better and gain insights to improve their position in the application processor market. The competitive landscape section describes the competitor ecosystem. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628052 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628053 The CRISPR technology market is expected to grow from USD 562 million in 2018 to USD 1,715 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 25% during the forecast period.The CRISPR technology market is driven by various factors such as increasing funding and private investments and the growing adoption of CRISPR technology. However, the presence of alternate technologies can hinder the growth of the market. The CRISPR services segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The CRISPR services segment is the faster-growing segment in the CRISPR technology market, by product and service.Based on services, the CRISPR services market is segmented into gRNA design and vector construction, cell line engineering, screening services, and other CRISPR services (mediated transcriptome editing and epigenome editing services). The cell line engineering services segment is expected to grow at the highest rate. The biomedical applications segment, by application, is projected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period. The major biomedical applications of CRISPR include gene therapy, drug discovery, and diagnostics.Across the globe, various gene therapy clinical trials are currently underway. These factors are expected to drive the adoption of CRISPR technology in this segment.In drug discovery applications, CRISPR is used to develop more physiologically relevant models (cell lines and animal models) that correlate better to the clinical setting and thereby reduce drug candidate failure in the initial steps. The ability of CRISPR to modify endogenous genes can help study the effect of drugs on targets along with endogenous proteins, rather than having to rely on overexpression. Asia Pacific is expected to record the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Currently, 144 gene and cell therapy companies are based in the APAC that can potentially use CRISPR technology in the coming future.In China, gene editing using CRISPR has attracted strong government funding. China was among the first to allow the editing of human embryos using CRISPR-Cas9, while the US and European countries banned it. As reported by Goldman Sachs, by the end of February 2018, China had registered nine clinical trials based on CRISPR-edited cells on various diseases such as cancers and HIV infection, whereas the US had registered only one trial since the beginning of 2018. In-depth interviews were conducted with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), marketing directors, other innovation and technology directors, and executives from various key organizations operating in the CRISPR technology market. By Company Type: Tier 1: 28%, Tier 2: 42%, and Tier 3: 30% By Designation: C-level Executives: 25%, Directors: 32%, and Others: 43% By Region: North America: 38%, Europe: 24%, APAC: 28%, and RoW: 10% The CRISPR technology market comprises major providers such as Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Merck KGaA (Germany), GenScript Biotech Corporation (US), Horizon Discovery (UK), Agilent (US), Cellecta (US), GeneCopoeia, Inc. (US), New England Biolabs (US), Integrated DNA Technologies (US), OriGene (US), Synthego (US) and Toolgen (S. Korea). The study includes an in-depth competitive analysis of these key players in the CRISPR technology market, along with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies. Research Coverage: This market study covers the CRISPR technology market across various segments.It aims at estimating the market size and the growth potential of this market across different segments, on the basis of product, service, application, end user, and region. The study also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market, along with their company profiles, key observations related to their product and business offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies. Key Benefits of Buying the Report: The report will provide market leaders/new entrants in this market with information on the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall CRISPR technology market and its subsegments.This report will help stakeholders to understand the competitive landscape, gain insights to better position their businesses, and plan suitable go-to-market strategies. The report will also help stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provide them with information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628053 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com LONDON, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628053 The CRISPR technology market is expected to grow from USD 562 million in 2018 to USD 1,715 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 25% during the forecast period.The CRISPR technology market is driven by various factors such as increasing funding and private investments and the growing adoption of CRISPR technology. However, the presence of alternate technologies can hinder the growth of the market. The CRISPR services segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The CRISPR services segment is the faster-growing segment in the CRISPR technology market, by product and service.Based on services, the CRISPR services market is segmented into gRNA design and vector construction, cell line engineering, screening services, and other CRISPR services (mediated transcriptome editing and epigenome editing services). The cell line engineering services segment is expected to grow at the highest rate. The biomedical applications segment, by application, is projected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period. The major biomedical applications of CRISPR include gene therapy, drug discovery, and diagnostics.Across the globe, various gene therapy clinical trials are currently underway. These factors are expected to drive the adoption of CRISPR technology in this segment.In drug discovery applications, CRISPR is used to develop more physiologically relevant models (cell lines and animal models) that correlate better to the clinical setting and thereby reduce drug candidate failure in the initial steps. The ability of CRISPR to modify endogenous genes can help study the effect of drugs on targets along with endogenous proteins, rather than having to rely on overexpression. Asia Pacific is expected to record the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Currently, 144 gene and cell therapy companies are based in the APAC that can potentially use CRISPR technology in the coming future.In China, gene editing using CRISPR has attracted strong government funding. China was among the first to allow the editing of human embryos using CRISPR-Cas9, while the US and European countries banned it. As reported by Goldman Sachs, by the end of February 2018, China had registered nine clinical trials based on CRISPR-edited cells on various diseases such as cancers and HIV infection, whereas the US had registered only one trial since the beginning of 2018. In-depth interviews were conducted with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), marketing directors, other innovation and technology directors, and executives from various key organizations operating in the CRISPR technology market. By Company Type: Tier 1: 28%, Tier 2: 42%, and Tier 3: 30% By Designation: C-level Executives: 25%, Directors: 32%, and Others: 43% By Region: North America: 38%, Europe: 24%, APAC: 28%, and RoW: 10% The CRISPR technology market comprises major providers such as Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Merck KGaA (Germany), GenScript Biotech Corporation (US), Horizon Discovery (UK), Agilent (US), Cellecta (US), GeneCopoeia, Inc. (US), New England Biolabs (US), Integrated DNA Technologies (US), OriGene (US), Synthego (US) and Toolgen (S. Korea). The study includes an in-depth competitive analysis of these key players in the CRISPR technology market, along with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies. Research Coverage: This market study covers the CRISPR technology market across various segments.It aims at estimating the market size and the growth potential of this market across different segments, on the basis of product, service, application, end user, and region. The study also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market, along with their company profiles, key observations related to their product and business offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies. Key Benefits of Buying the Report: The report will provide market leaders/new entrants in this market with information on the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall CRISPR technology market and its subsegments.This report will help stakeholders to understand the competitive landscape, gain insights to better position their businesses, and plan suitable go-to-market strategies. The report will also help stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provide them with information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628053 About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904 Website: www.reportbuyer.com SOURCE ReportBuyer Related Links http://www.reportbuyer.com LONDON, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628177 The global naphthenic acid market size is projected to reach USD 67.9 million by 2025 expanding at a CAGR of 2.5% over the forecast period. Rising importance of wood preservatives to protect wooden products from decomposition, decaying, as well as fire, is expected to remain a key growth-driving factor in near future. Rising usage as a fuel additive in jet engines and locomotives, due to increased awareness regarding engine life protection, is also projected boost demand for naphthenic acid. Countries, such as Vietnam, are concentrating on increasing their wood product manufacturing and export capacity to meet the growing demand across the globe. The Vietnam government is aiming at doubling the wood product exports, to reach USD 18 to USD 20 billion by the end of 2025. Thus, increasing efforts by various countries to increase the manufacturing capacity of wood-derived products will provide new growth avenues for the naphthenic acid market. The demand for solvent-based wood preservatives is expected to rise in developing countries owing to high penetration and lower cost. Rapidly expanding construction sector in countries, such as China, India, Brazil, and UAE, is expected to provide growth opportunities for the wood preservative market over the forecast period. In Dubai, average spending on wood and timber based product was around USD 2,700 per home in 2017. In the same year, more than 100,000 hotel rooms and service apartments were under construction. Thus, the market for wood preservative is expected to witness high growth in near future. Naphthenic acid is used as anti-wear agent in jet fuels on account of its high lubricating properties. Rise in global aircraft fleet for commercial as well as defense purposes is expected to augment demand for jet fuel in the forthcoming years, thereby propelling the naphthenic acid market . In 2015, U.S. airlines consumed 16.73 billion gallons of jet fuel and in 2017 this consumption was increased to 17.3 billion gallons. China is a major contributor, in terms of revenue, to the market followed by U.S. and Germany. Furthermore, high penetration of ink manufacturers along with favorable government policies for investment in manufacturing sector is expected to offer growth opportunities. Moreover, owing to government policies and investments in chemical sector in developing countries, such as India and China, companies are focusing on building strong distribution networks to capture the growing markets. For instance, Umicore has a strong presence in India with its sales and distribution offices located at strategic places in the country. Companies are also focusing on local distributors to increase their product penetration. The Asia Pacific naphthenic acid industry is highly fragmented in nature owing to the presence top companies and chemical additive manufacturers. The regional demand is expected to grow owing to increasing construction activities. Buyers are focusing on cost-effective products and reliable alternatives to metallurgical upgrades. High temperature corrosion inhibitors fortified with naphthenic acid offer new alterative to phosphate esters, permitting refiners to consider the use of lower-cost high acid crudes. Thus, the emergence of cost-effective alternative to phosphate ester in industrial coating owing to its excellent anti-scaling properties is expected to provide growth opportunities for the market over the forecast period. The global market for naphthenic acid is consolidated. Merichem is a leading company and held around 18% of the overall market share followed by Umicore. Umicore is a prominent company in the Europe market and one of the largest suppliers of naphthenic acid to Asia Pacific. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5628177 About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904 Website: www.reportbuyer.com SOURCE ReportBuyer Related Links http://www.reportbuyer.com NEW YORK, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, November 29, 2018, seven judges of the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) will hear oral arguments as to why hundreds of thousands of infants born dependent on opioids should be allowed their own representation in a separate proceeding from the nationwide opioid litigation currently proceeding against several large pharmaceutical companies. Presently the JPML has consolidated all opioid-related cases before a single federal judge in Cleveland, Ohio, including states, cities, insurance companies, individuals, and infants born dependent on opioids. Attorneys with the Opioid Justice Team represent infants born dependent on opioids and are arguing to consolidate these cases in their own separate litigation against the pharmaceutical companies. As of 2010, nearly one-third of pregnant women in the United States were prescribed opioids. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) is a group of medical conditions faced by infants born dependent on opioids from their exposure in the womb due to their mothers' usage. Between 2000 and 2009, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported a five-fold increase of infants born with NAS. Data from multiple states that track NAS births continue to show growing numbers of newborns afflicted with it, and it is estimated that tens of thousands of NAS babies are born every year. "It will cost billions to evaluate, treat, and monitor these infants and children as they grow into adulthood," said Scott Bickford of Martzell, Bickford & Centola, one of the Opioid Justice Team's lead attorneys. "These babies not only require expensive after-birth care but exhibit lifelong problems, including profound learning disabilities and propensity toward future addictions." Lawyers for the NAS babies argue the infants of the opioid crisis are not similarly situated to governmental entities and other victims that have different and far less complicated legal remedies, whereas the babies and children will need decades of care and damages. The NAS baby and infant cases would be consolidated in a new MDL: Infants Born Opioid-Dependent Products Liability Litigation. "NAS babies need relief now to stem long-term developmental and learning disabilities," Bickford said. "In addition to personal injury damages, these babies and children need a medical trust fund established to pay for a lifetime of treatment and study. What must not happen is a repeat of the big tobacco litigation where public entities squandered settlement funds so that virtually no money remained for long-term solutions. These babies need attorneys who will fight for them." About the Opioid Justice Team The Opioid Justice Team is a nationwide group of attorneys working with doctors and national and local nongovernmental organizations fighting to end our nation's opioid epidemic. Contact: Attorneys: Scott Bickford (504) 581-9065 or Celeste Brustowicz (504) 399-0009 Media: Peter Mirijanian (202) 464-8803 or C. Brylski/D. Johnson (504) 897-6110 SOURCE Opioid Justice Team MAYWOOD, Ill., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine bestowed its highest honor, the Stritch Medal, to Kathy Albain, MD, FACP, FASCO, one of the nation's top breast and lung cancer researchers, during the Stritch School of Medicine 68th Annual Awards Dinner at the Hilton Chicago. Eva Bading, MD, FAAFP, received the AMDG award in recognition of her decades of service to medically underserved communities from Maywood to Haiti. The event raised funds to support medical education and student scholarships. The black-tie dinner was co-chaired by the 11 children of the late John and Joan Mullins and their spouses. The Mullins family started Mullins Food Products in Broadview and has a longstanding relationship with Loyola University Chicago and Loyola Medicine. Also honored at the dinner were 10 high school students who are members of the Stritch Junior Service League, a volunteer group that has performed hundreds of hours of service in local communities. The Stritch Medal recognizes outstanding accomplishments of a Loyola graduate or faculty member who exhibits dedication to research, education, and patient care. Dr. Albain, (pictured, right) the Huizenga Family Endowed Chair in Oncology Research, is a professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Dr. Albain is a leader in national clinical trials of new treatments for breast and lung cancer and her research in both diseases has changed standard of care. She also studies cancer survivorship. Dr. Albain has mentored many medical students, residents, fellows and junior faculty in clinical and translational research studies locally and nationally. Dr. Albain is an author of more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and textbooks. She recently was among the main co-authors of a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that a 21-gene test enables many breast cancer patients to safely avoid chemotherapy. Dr. Albain long has held key leadership roles in SWOG, a National Cancer Institute cooperative research group. She chaired SWOG's Committee on Special Populations since the committee's inception and is a member of SWOG's Cancer Prevention and Control Executive Committee and working groups on breast and lung cancer. She recently was named vice chair of SWOG in order to direct its new Clinical Trials Partnerships initiative. Dr. Albain is a member of the international Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group and its Steering Committee. She served on the National Cancer Institute Concept Evaluation Panel for lung cancer. She was a charter member of the NIH Committee on Research on Women's Health. She served on the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee and was a consultant to the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The AMDG award is derived from the Latin phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (for the greater glory of God). It is attributed to St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus. The award honors a person who has made a difference in the world by generously helping others. Dr. Bading is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She joined the department in 1998 and served as chair from 1999 to 2016. Under her leadership, the department opened clinics in Maywood, Elmwood Park and Melrose Park and grew to 17 full-time faculty treating 32,000 patients per year. Dr. Bading (pictured, right) has been a mentor, role model and inspiration for hundreds of medical students and residents. She is co-director of medical school courses on the healer's art and patient-centered medicine and has long served on Stritch's admissions committee, seeking students who understand medicine is about service. The Bading Community House, a home in Maywood where medical students immerse themselves in the community, is named in her honor. Dr. Bading long has been active in the Maywood community. She provides medical and fundraising support to the Maywood Fine Arts Association, a studio that provides high-quality arts instruction to children. She is director of Community Advocacy through Relationships and Education (CARE), which pairs medical students with families who need healthcare advocates. Dr. Bading has performed physicals at a Maywood high school and been an advisor to a gun buyback program in Maywood. Dr. Bading also has served overseas, leading medical students on mission trips to Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Dr. Bading has received previous Stritch awards for her service and teaching, including the Spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. award in 2009, Outstanding Community Service and Global Health award in 2011, Master Teacher award in 2014 and Jack MacCarthy Service in Medicine Award in 2018. The Stritch Awards Dinner was started in 1950 by Cardinal Samuel Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago. It originally was named the Cardinal's Dinner. After Cardinal Stritch's death, the dinner was renamed in his honor. This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise. For more information, visit http://www.newswise.com. SOURCE Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine The 2017 Spider-Man: Homecoming coin series brings to life the iconic character in all of its "Spidey" glory with three legendary coins struck from .9999 pure gold or .999 pure silver: 1 oz. Gold Black Proof High Relief , 1 oz. Silver Black Proof High Relief and 1 Kilo Silver Black Proof High Relief . Designated with the elite "First Day of Issue" label from PCGS, each coin is certified in the highest grades availablemuseum-quality 70 or near-flawless 69and comes inside a beautiful collector's box featuring vibrant Spider-Man artwork along with an individually numbered, retro-inspired Certificate of Authenticity. "This unique coin series is very appealing for both coin collectors as well as fans of Spider-Man," said John Rothans, Chief Numismatist at U.S. Money Reserve. "The release of these Spider-Man coins is something for fans to cherish, now more than ever." Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in the 1960s, the Spider-Man series broke ground by featuring Peter Parker, a high school student from Queens, who fights crime after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Audiences reacted positively not only to his special superpowers, but the easily relatable obstacles faced in his personal life. U.S. Money Reserve's Cyber Week Sale is offering an opportunity for fans to own a piece of a lasting keepsake of their childhood hero at lowest prices ever. This coin series appeals to coin collectors and Marvel fans alike, making it a beloved gift for the holidays. To take advantage of this limited-time offer, visit https://www.usmoneyreserve.com/cyber-week. For more information or to speak with company leadership, please contact Christol Farris at 512-568-9991 or [email protected] or Lacy Jansson at [email protected] or visit www.usmoneyreserve.com. About U.S. Money Reserve U.S. Money Reserve is one of the nation's largest private distributors of U.S. government-issued gold, silver, and platinum products. Founded in 2001, U.S. Money Reserve has grown into one of the world's largest private distributors of U.S. and foreign government-issued gold, silver, and platinum legal tender products. Hundreds of thousands of clients across the country rely on U.S. Money Reserve to diversify their assets with physical precious metals, primarily in the form of U.S. gold and silver coins. U.S. Money Reserve's uniquely trained team includes coin research and numismatic professionals equipped with market knowledge to find products for precious metals buyers at every level. U.S. Money Reserve goes above the industry standard to provide superior customer service, with the goal of establishing a long-term relationship with each and every one of its customers. U.S. Money Reserve is based in Austin, Texas. Like them on Facebook, connect on LinkedIn, and follow on Twitter. SOURCE U.S. Money Reserve Related Links http://www.usmoneyreserve.com We have a lot to be thankful for in Arlington Heights, Hayes said at the event, which also featured performances by the John Hersey High School Charles Dickens Carolers and the park districts Twirling Twisters baton students and Vibe dancers. DENVER, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivos Therapeutics, a company focused on addressing the root causes of mild-to-moderate sleep apnea, announced Brad Amman has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Amman will oversee the continued growth of Vivos Therapeutics and assist in achieving the company's long-term strategic goals. With over 20 years in the industry, Mr. Amman brings a wealth of experience at the financial helm of several public and private medical device, healthcare and biotech companies. Prior to joining Vivos Therapeutics Mr. Amman held executive leadership positions at CereScan and LifeVantage. Most recently, he served as CFO/COO at InLight Medical, which manufactures and distributes a polychromatic light therapy system. With his previous experience in the medical device field, Mr. Amman plans to broaden Vivos' position in the marketplace. "His experience with other high growth public companies is of utmost value to our organization and his contributions are going to play a major role in shaping a bright future for Vivos," said CEO Kirk Huntsman. "He joins us at an ideal time as we continue to streamline our operations, maintain discipline in capital deployment based on targeted returns, begin to generate free cash flow and optimize our balance sheet." Mr. Amman holds an MBA from the University of Notre Dame and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Denver. "I am delighted for the opportunity to bring my background, skills and leadership to help Vivos achieve great results for our people and shareholders," said Mr. Amman. ABOUT VIVOS Headquartered in Denver Colorado, Vivos Therapeutics Inc. is a company that provides training for dentists and health care providers, allowing them to integrate breathing wellness into their practice. The Vivos System is a proprietary, non-invasive, non-surgical treatment protocol, administered by a multidisciplinary team of highly-trained health care professionals. This revolutionary technology represents the first hope for a lasting solution to the problem of sleep apnea. Vivos Therapeutics has over 850 Certified and Integrated Providers throughout the US and two Canadian Provinces. For more information, please visit https://www.vivoslife.com/. Media Contact: Mollie Wagoner Live Wire Media Relations, LLC (703) 519-1600 Ext. 106 [email protected] SOURCE Vivos Therapeutics Related Links https://www.vivoslife.com SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Governors University (WGU) today announced that David Morales has joined as Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Technology. In this role, Morales will lead IT across divisions, and play a key role in shaping WGU's education technology agenda; including product management, design, development, cloud services, operations, and technical support. "I am excited to join WGU as I see the institution as a digital enabler. Since its inception, WGU has pushed the boundaries of technology in order to fulfill their mission," said Morales. "I want to be part of that journey and help WGU innovate in new ways to deliver an exceptional student experience. It's about helping change people's lives as they work to achieve their educational goals." Morales brings more than 15 years of experience leading innovative global IT teams, including more than eight years at Walmart, where he most recently served as Senior Director of Engineering for the Information Systems Division. In this role, Morales oversaw cloud systems for store operations and global infrastructure. His experience includes leading portfolio roadmap planning, designing products and applications architecture aligned to improving the customer experience, and leading a diverse, global team of more than 300 employees. Prior to joining Walmart, Morales served in leadership roles with Anamarc College and Altep in El Paso, Texas, with early development experience at Knowlysis, and NASA. "David brings with him a stellar track record for innovation and customer obsession, having led large-scale development and IT organizations at Walmart for more than eight years," said WGU president Scott Pulsipher. "David's experience running large-scale development and operations will be an asset to WGU as we continue to build out our infrastructure and scale during this period of exponential growth." About WGU Established in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors with a mission to expand access to high-quality, affordable higher education, online, nonprofit WGU has more than 109,000 enrolled students and 124,000 graduates in all 50 states. Driving innovation as the nation's leading competency-based university, WGU has been recognized by the White House, state leaders, employers, and students as a model that works in postsecondary education. In just 20 years, the university has become a leading force in changing lives through education. WGU is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, has been featured on NPR, NBC Nightly News, CNN, and in The New York Times. Learn more at www.wgu.edu. Follow WGU: http://www.facebook.com/wgu.edu http://www.linkedin.com/companies/western-governors-university http://twitter.com/wgu http://www.youtube.com/WesternGovernorsUniv http://google.com/+wgu http://news.wgu.edu/news/news.xml Contact for media inquiries: Contact for enrollment information: Joan Mitchell VP of Public Relations 866-225-5948 801-428-5463 wgu.edu [email protected] SOURCE Western Governors University Related Links http://www.wgu.edu BOSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week members of the Workers Freedom Coalition-MPS, along with several community leaders, rallied in support of workers from MPS Products Corp, a structural ironwork subcontractor. MPS works throughout New England on multiple projects and has completed work at several locations including the Norfolk Police Department, the Rowley Police and Fire Station, and the Rising Tide Charter School in Plymouth. Workers from multiple jobsites went on strike to address unsafe working conditions and wage theft at the company. MPS has repeatedly paid the lower apprentice wage rate on publicly-funded projects without having a certified apprenticeship program, an illegal practice. On other projects, employees were misclassified as workers from lower paid trades. These actions resulted in thousands of dollars in missing wages and some workers are considering a wage theft lawsuit. Keith Eddows, who went out on strike, said that MPS owner Mike Pimintel did not pay for all the hours he worked and is owed thousands of dollars as well. Eddows noted that upon hearing that workers were standing up for their rights, MPS began drug testing for the first time in several months, as well as other attempts to discipline and intimidate workers. Eddows also stated "you are constantly being talked down to and threatened" as verbal abuse and mistreatment happens frequently at the company. MPS fired Leiken Bodaro after he complained about a lack of drinking water on the jobsite and for simply talking about ways employees could work together to address their issues on the job. Other workers mentioned extremely hazardous jobsite conditions that have resulted in injuries including a ruptured spleen and two broken legs. By drawing attention to the company's abuse and mistreatment, these workers and their supporters hope to put pressure on MPS Products Corp to address workers' concerns as well as provide a safe and dignified workplace for employees in the future. For more information, please contact: Natalicia Tracy at [email protected]. SOURCE Workers Freedom Coalition Betul, Nov 25 : Unemployment has emerged as the biggest issue in the Betul Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh, which has earned the reputation of being a bellwether seat as to which party would win the elections in the state. Located in the southern part of Madhya Pradesh and lying almost wholly on the Satpura plateau, Betul is witnessing a direct contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. However, a BJP rebel, contesting on the ticket of the newly-formed Sapaks Party, has made the contest interesting. The ruling BJP has renominated Hemant Khandelwal (54), a former MP and sitting MLA, while the Congress has pitted Nilay Vinod Daga (40) against him. Daga is the son of former MLA Vinod Daga and Khandelwal is the son of four-term former MP Vijay Khandelwal representing Betul parliamentray constituency. Lata Raju Mhaski, a former Chairperson of the Zila Panchayat, is contesting her first Assembly polls on the ticket of Sapaks (Samanya, Pichhda, Alpsankhyak) Party, a political forum of people opposed to the SC/ST Act and the existing quota policy. Mhaski, a former office bearer of the BJP, belongs to Kunbi community which has a significant presence in this tribal-dominated Assembly constituency. Her presence is giving sleepless nights to Khandelwal as she has a good support in the community. A total of 13 candidates are in the fray. Ashok Kumar Raghuvanshi is a post graduate in management and holds an ITI diploma but earns only Rs 3,000 per month. He is the eldest among three brothers and the only breadwinner in the family. He claims that youth of the district are migrating to Maharasthra, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and other states in search of jobs. "Unemployment is the biggest issue here. There is no industry. Almost all the mines are closed. Lack of jobs is affecting even the businesses of the locals. Unless people have money, how can they buy anything? People don't have money to fulfill their daily requirements, how would they buy anything," Raghuvanshi told IANS. He said leaders come to the area only during elections and assure people of jobs. "But after the election, they never come. Every time we vote hoping that someone will work on this front," he said, adding that he has not yet decided whom to vote for but the issue of unemployment will play a major role when he does. Ghanshyam Rathore, a senior journalist, also acknowledged that the issue of unemployment is haunting the BJP as it failed to address it. "Although the issue of drinking water has been resolved by the BJP, unemployment continues to haunt them," he said, adding that medical and health services in the constituency needed special attention. Congress' Daga and Mhaski are also raising the issue of unemployment in their election campaigns, while Khandelwal is banking on the development works undertaken by the administration. Mhaski is attacking both her opponents on the issue of dynasty politics and calling for a Betul that is free of dynasty politics. While giving an account of his work, Khandelwal says a new Collector's office building and RTO office have been built and a new building for the district hospital is ready. He claims that he has taken a number of initiatives to promote tourism and water conservation. Manoj Deshmukh, another youth, said that both the Congress and BJP candidates are strong and the contest is likely to be close. "There is a close contest. No one can say who will win or who will lose. But what is evident is that Daga is attracting the youth while Khandelwal is focusing on the face of Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narendra Modi," he said. He also felt that the Sapaks candidate would not win, but she has the capacity to damage the prospects of the BJP candidate. Rahul Dhurve, a betel shop owner, said Chouhan is still popular, but the lacklustre performance of the local MLA seems to have turned many against his party. In the 2013 Assembly polls, Hemant Khandelwal won by defeating Congress's Hemant Wagadre by a margin of 24,347 votes. Khandelwal got 82,949 votes while Wagadre got 58,602 votes. In 2008, BJP's Alkesh Arya won, while in 2003 BJP's Shiv Prasad Rathore defeated Vinod Daga, the father of Congress nominee Nilay Daga, taking revenge for his 1998 Assembly defeat at his hands. The BJP is in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003. Betul elected Congress candidates in 1993 and 1998 and the Congress then formed the government in the state with Digvijay Singh as Chief Minister. In the 1990 Assembly polls, BJP came to power with Sunder Lal Patwa as Chief Minister and the Betul Assembly constituency had then elected BJP's Bhagwat Patel. Except in the 1980 Assembly election, Betul has always voted for the party which formed the government in state. In that election, BJP's Madhav Gopal Naseri won from Betul but the Congress formed the government by wining 240 seats in the 320-member Assembly. In the 1977 polls, Betul elected Naseri as an independent candidate and the Janata Party swept the polls by winning 230 seats. Kailash Joshi then became the chief minister. In the 1967 Assembly polls, Betul elected G. Khandelwal of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and Samyukta Vidhayak Dal formed the government in the state. Govind Narayan Singh, who formed a new political party called Lok Sewak Dal after quitting the Congress, became the chief minister. From 1951 to 1962, Congress had won in Betul and had formed governments during those elections. The number of educated jobless youth registering with the employment exchange has shot up from 15.6 lakh in 2015 to 23.7 lakh in 2017-- a spike of almost 53 per cent. (Brajendra Nath Singh can be contacted at brajendra.n@ians.in) Washington, Nov 27 : US President Donald Trump has said that he does not like the Brexit deal between Britain and the European Union (EU), noting it seems to favor the EU more and might block the trade between Britain and the United States. Speaking to the media at the White House, Trump said that the deal that specifies the manner of Britain's leaving the EU "sounds like a great deal for the EU", Xinhua news agency reported. "I think we have to take a look at, seriously, whether or not the UK is allowed to trade," he said. "Because, you know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn' t be a good thing." "I don' t think they meant that. I don't think that the Prime Minister meant that," he added, noting he hoped that Theresa May would "be able to do something about that". "But, right now, as the deal stands, she may not -- they may not be able to trade with the US," Trump noted. "And I don't think they want that at all. That would be a very big negative for the deal." European leaders on Sunday endorsed the Brexit deal at the EU summit in a major breakthrough since the lengthy Britain-EU Brexit negotiation started one-and-a-half years ago. The political document covered Britain's 39-billion-pound "divorce bill", citizens' rights and the Northern Ireland "backstop" -- a way to keep the Irish border open, if trade talks stall. Britain is scheduled to leave the economic and political union on March 29, 2019. May confirmed on Monday that the British parliament's vote on the Brexit deal is expected to be held on December 11. However, the main opposition leader, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, said that May's deal was a "botched" job, and that the negotiations between Britain and the EU had failed. New York, Nov 27 : A Pakistani-American woman has admitted in a federal court to using Bitcoin to finance the Islamic State terror outfit through fronts in China, Pakistan and Turkey. Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, made the admission before Judge Joanna Seybert in the Central Islip federal court in New York state on Monday. In an agreement with prosecutors, she admitted to committing credit card and loan fraud to raise money that she converted to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to send to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US government, law enforcement officials said. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced. An accused person can make an agreement with the prosecutors -- known as a plea deal -- to admit to guilt usually in exchange for leniency in order to avoid a lengthy trial and risk possibly stiffer sentences if found guilty. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are virtual computer-generated currencies that are difficult for governments to monitor and can be exchanged for cash beyond borders. An intriguing fact that emerged in court filings by US authorities is the mention of IS front organisations or individuals in China, a country tightly-controlled by a government that is currently carrying out a massive campaign against Muslim separatists in Xinjiang region. Shahnaz was arrested in July 2017 by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) as she was getting ready to go from a New York airport to Pakistan and travel from there to Syria via Turkey. "In the interest of empowering and enriching a terrorist organisation whose aim is to harm America, Zoobia Shahnaz turned her back on her country and her fellow citizens," said William Sweeney, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director-in-Charge. She came to the US on a visa meant for relatives of US citizens, according to Home Security Department spokesperson Tyler Houlton, and later became a US citizen. According to court filings, Shahnaz, who was a hospital technician in New York, got a fraudulent loan of $22,500 and raised money through more than a dozen credit cards obtained through fraud to buy Bitcoin and crytocurrencies worth $62,000. She then wired over $150,000 to individuals and shell outfits in the three countries that were fronts for the IS, according to court papers. While she was sending money to the IS, she was also looking up its propaganda "at various violent jihad-related websites and message boards, and social media and messaging pages of known IS recruiters, facilitators and financiers", officials said. In December Shahnaz's lawyer Steve Zissou told the National Public Radio, a broadcaster partially financed by the US government, that she had volunteered with the Syrian American Medical Society and "witnessed the suffering of the refugees firsthand." He added: "Her humanitarian efforts then and since were motivated by her commitment to helping alleviate the plight of the people in the Middle East." Washington, Nov 27 : Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, has "breached" his plea agreement with the Justice Department by lying to the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office two months after he started to cooperate in the Russia probe, prosecutors have alleged. Manafort lied "on a variety of subject matters", violating his agreement, prosecutors said on Monday in a three-page filing signed by both the defence team and prosecution, reports CNN. Both sides have asked to now move his case toward sentencing. The Special Counsel's office has said that it would provide more details at a later date. Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy and witness tampering on September 14. The former Trump campaign chairman has met prosecutors at least nine times, amounting to hours of discussions about what he knows. As part of his plea deal, Manafort admitted to committing a host of money laundering and foreign lobbying crimes and fraud, giving the federal prosecutors ample leverage over him. He has been held in a Virginia jail since June. San Francisco, Nov 25 : Apple will head to the US Supreme Court this week to block a group of customers from suing the tech giant for monopoly abuse, media has reported. The company is battling a group of iPhone owners who claim Apple forces them to overpay for apps by forbidding rivals to the multibillion-dollar App Store. After the customers won the right to launch a class action lawsuit against the company in 2017, Apple is now appealing to the Supreme Court to have the decision overturned, The Telegraph reported late on Saturday. If Apple fails, the business model of the App Store, one of the company's fastest-growing and most profitable divisions, could be threatened, it added. Apple makes billions each year by taking a 30 per cent cut of apps sold through the App Store, which are created by developers. App revenues grew by around a third in 2017 to $38.5 billion even as sales of Apple's iPhones and iPads stalled. The customers argue that its sizeable commission is evidence of the company exploiting its monopoly position over iPhone users. They argue that "iPhone consumers nationwide have paid (Apple) hundreds of millions of dollars more for iPhone apps than they would have paid in a competitive market". Apple is seeking to dismiss the case by appealing to a Supreme Court ruling made in 1977 that said only "direct purchasers" can seek damages for antitrust abuse. The company argues that because the app developers themselves set the price of apps in the App Store and not Apple, iPhone users are purchasing the apps from the developers directly. Its opponents claim that because Apple sets the rules about the App Store, such as the minimum price, it is effectively selling the apps on to users. The Supreme Court is due to hear the arguments on Monday, although it is likely to take months until its judges announce any decision. If Apple fails to overturn the previous decision, the company is likely to face years of legal wrangling in a case that dates back to 2011. Agartala, Nov 26 : After weakening the Election Commission, CBI, CVC and other Constitutional bodies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now interfering with court proceedings which is extremely dangerous, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said on Monday. "The Prime Minister alleged that the Supreme Court is under pressure, that Opposition parties are interfering with the court proceedings. By saying this, the Prime Minister himself and the government are interfering with the court proceedings. This is a very dangerous trend," Yechury told reporters here. He said: "The Prime Minister, during his election campaign, has threatened to subvert the legal process on the Ayodhya dispute. Out of frustration, Modi is making such undemocratic and unconstitutional comments. "No one should make any comment on issues that are before the court. The Ayodhya dispute is a very sensitive issue. How can a Prime Minister make coments on an issue which is before the Supreme Court?" Yechury, who came here on Sunday and attended a two-day Tripura state conference of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said the Modi government had truncated Parliament proceedings and was brazenly undermining the judiciary, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the RBI and other Constitutional and autonomous bodies. He claimed that the public mood in the five poll-bound states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telanganna, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram - was against the BJP and the Modi government. "Modi and his party are now seeking votes, giving priority to Hindutva and communal polarisation. They failed to implement every single promise they had made before the 2014 Lok Sabha election," the CPI-M leader said. He said that a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) will take shape just before the 2019 general election, like in 1977. "Ahead of the next Parliament session in the second week of December, anti-BJP parties will hold meetings in Delhi to explore the strategies about the 'mahagathbandhan' in the upcoming general election," Yechury said. He said a massive farmers' rally would be held in Delhi on November 30 and all the trade unions except the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh would observe a two-day nationwide shutdown on January 8-9 to protest against the government's failures. New Delhi, Nov 26 : Union Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday asked her Home and Health counterparts Rajnath Singh and J.P. Nadda to immediately constitute Internal Complaint Committees (ICC) under the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, 2013, in all police departments and hospitals. "I have been informed that while the ICCs have been put in place in most government offices, the same have not been constituted in the offices of police organisation in the states," the Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister said in her letter to Singh. In her letter to Nadda, she raised the same issue of absence of ICCs in some hospitals under the central and state governments. "I request you to look into this matter and issue suitable directions to the central government hospitals and state health departments to ensure that ICCs are immediately constituted and notified by all hospitals," Gandhi told Nadda. She also noted in both the letters that the police and hospital authorities should be advised to use the training material available on the WCD website to sensitise their staff as well as members of the ICCs. "We have created a fully integrated complaint management system wherein any women can complain regarding sexual harassment to us on our website which has been integrally linked to all ministries, all state governments and most of the districts in the country. "The National Commission for Women has also set up a separate cell to handle complaints of sexual harassment at workplace," she wrote. Even though the temperature is expected to drop from the low 20s Tuesday afternoon to the low teens at night in the area, 74-year-old Carl Brauer plans to stay at his Arlington Heights home, which has been operating on a back-up generator after the snowstorm knocked out power throughout his neighborhood. Kolkata, Nov 25 : With cruise tourism gaining momentum, a trans-border river cruise from the West Bengal capital, through Sunderbans to Bangladesh and then onwards to the Northeast is expected to start in March 2019, an official said. "There were secretary-level talks between India and Bangladesh in October. "It has been decided that one of the river cruise operators would be starting operations from March, 2019 from Kolkata through Sunderbans via protocol route to Bangladesh and then to the Northeast," Inland Waterways Authority of India's Member S.V.K. Reddy here. He said night navigation facility has been placed up to the Indian border and the neighbouring country was supposed to provide the same as per requirement. Reddy also informed that the Indian government has been funding up to 80 per cent of the dredging cost in some identified stretches within Bangladesh portion in the Indo-Bangla protocol route. He also said the route up to the Indian border is "navigable" and regularly 15-20 barges carrying fly ash are going to Bangladesh. Jaipur, Nov 25 : Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot, one of the chief ministerial aspirants in the state, maintains there is no confusion between him and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over the December 7 assembly elections and the decision on who will be the chief minister will be taken by the party and the elected MLAs. He feels "agrarian distress" and unemployment are key issues his party is taking up against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the assembly polls and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to overcome the "huge resentment" against the Vasundhra Raje government by his electioneering in the state. "We have never done that. In 70 years of Rajasthan's history, the Congress party has never selected an individual. I had the great honour of working as state party president. What the elected MLAs and Congress party decides will be acceptable to all of us," Pilot told IANS in an interview. He said the leadership issue was not creating confusion and the first first priority is to win the state and win it comprehensively. Asked if he would like to be chief minister given a chance, Pilot, 41, said he has always followed the party's decisions. He alleged that law and order has collapsed in the state, there was social disharmony, cases of mob lynching, cow vigilantism and social unrest were on rise and the BJP was seeking to use "caste, community and religion" to boost its prospects. The former Union minister said Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje "is very disliked". "When Modi comes here, he cannot dissociate himself from Vasundaraji. The five-year track record of Vasundhara government -- he has to be answerable for that also. You go to Karnataka and you start blaming the Congress government there, but here Vasundhara government is very disliked and people have a huge resentment against her. I don't think his campaign will be able to overcome that," Pilot said. He was asked about the perception that Modi is able to boost the BJP's prospects in assembly polls by his aggressive campaigning in the last few days. Modi is slated to address 10 rallies in Rajasthan beginning Sunday. Pilot, who was appointed Rajasthan Congress chief in 2014 after the Congress debacle in the 2013 Assembly polls, said Modi's campaign will have little impact and referred to his campaigns in Bihar and Delhi assembly elections which the BJP had lost. "We know what results were there," he said. Asked if Vasundhara Raje was a liability for BJP, he said: "I don't know what it is, but they have chosen to project her knowing fully well the resentment people have against her government. So they will have to pay a price." Pilot said anti-incumbency was a factor as BJP had won 163 of 200 seats in the 2013 assembly polls but had "betrayed the trust of people". "More than anti-incumbency, it is hope that people have from the Congress now," he said. Asked about the number of seats Congress will win given that surveys have predicted a clear majority for the party, Pilot said he cannot predict the future, but "with five years of my work and the party being strong on the ground, I am very confident that we will get a thumping majority". Asked about the main issues of the party, Pilot said the "agrarian crisis faced by the farmers was number one issue" in the state. "The crisis has led to farmer suicides, crippling of agriculture sector. Young people being unemployed and underemployed is so rampant that the future seems bleak. Unemployment and farmers' distress are the two biggest issues that Rajasthan is facing." Pilot said Rajasthan had a high average of rape cases despite having a woman chief minister. "Law and order has collapsed. There is social disharmony with cases of mob lynching, cow vigilantism and social unrest on the rise. The kind of negativity that is being spread in society. On the top of it (there is) corruption and privatisation of schools and hospitals." On the perception about BJP having better booth-level management, Pilot said it was propaganda and added that in the byelection for Ajmer parliamentary seat earlier this year there were many booths where the BJP did not get any vote. "It is a record of sorts. When people are with you, all the poll management, all money, all resources fall by the wayside. Their will prevails." On BJP fielding the lone Muslim minister Yunus Khan against him in Tonk, Pilot said he was glad that the ruling party's plan of replicating the Uttar Pradesh template has not been successful. He said Yunus Khan "was denied a ticket because of religion he belongs to, and, ironically, he had been given a ticket from Tonk only because of the religion he belongs to" and not because party workers from the area were demanding his candidature. "It is sad that BJP is looking at castes, communities and religion. They are clutching at straws. They are insecure. They have no answers to give for lack of development in Tonk. So they are trying to use communal politics to their advantage." On the Congress facing the problem of rebels, Pilot said a lot of them have withdrawn from fray and others will also come around. About Vasundhara government making changes in text books, he said it is myopic thinking. "They are trying to put religion into politics, they are trying to polarise our society; people are going to remember all that. Any wrong they have done will be reviewed and we will take action as appropriate." He said Congress had a very forward-looking roadmap which will revive industry, agriculture, create jobs and provide a safe environment to all residents of the state. (Prashant Sood can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in) Kampala, Nov 25 : The death toll in the boat accident on Lake Victoria in Uganda has risen to 30, police said on Sunday. Joint police and military marine teams, together with local divers, have so far rescued 27 people, Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying. The boat was reportedly carrying over 120 passengers, beyond its capacity of 100, when it capsized on Saturday. It was travelling from KK beach in the capital city of Kampala to Mukono district. New Delhi, Nov 26 : The India forces have successfully conducted a large-scale tri-service exercise involving assets of the Indian Navy, Army and the Air Force which aims to sharpen joint war fighting capabilities and enhance operational synergy, officials said on Monday. The exercise was conducted at sea off Goa and Karwar from November 17-23. This exercise was coordinated by the Indian Navy's Western Naval Command in consultation with the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) headquarters. It say deployment of many naval assets such as Kolkata class destroyers, landing ships, fleet support ship with ship-borne helicopters, naval commando MARCOS and other force levels from all the three maritime commands of the Indian Navy. The exercise saw participation of Amphibious troops and Special Forces of the Indian Army, and C-17, C-130J, IL-76 and AN 32 aircraft and Garud choppers of the IAF. The major activities conducted during this exercise included amphibious landing operations, air-landed operations, heli-borne insertion of Special Forces from sea, combat free fall by the tri-services Special Forces teams culminating in tactical follow-on operations on land, a senior official said. New Delhi, Nov. : New Delhi, Nov. Nov 26 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Karnataka police for not doing anything to unearth the murder of the rationalist M.M. Kalburgi outside his home in Dharwad on August 30, 2015. "What have you done so far? You are just fooling around," said the bench of Justice Fali Nariman and Justice Navin Sinha asking the state police to spell out how much time it would require to complete the investigation. The strong observation from the bench came in the course of hearing of a petition by Uma Mallinath Devi, the widow of Kalburgi, seeking an SIT probe into his murder. The top court had on January 10 sought the Centre's response on a plea for the SIT probe. Uma Devi had requested that the SIT be headed by either a retired judge of the top court or of a High court. The notice was also been issued to CBI, NIA, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa governments. New Delhi, Nov 25 : Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba is scheduled to visit Russia from November 26 to November 29 to consolidate bilateral defence relations and also to explore new avenues for defence cooperation. Lanba will be commencing his official visit from St. Petersburg where he is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with his counterpart, Admiral Vladimir Korolev, Commander-in-Chief, Russian Federation Navy (RuFN), an official release said on Sunday. The Admiral is also scheduled to lay a wreath at Piskarev memorial cemetery dedicated to the victims of the 'Siege of Leningrad' and visit the Nakhimov Naval School and Admiralty Shipyard. In Moscow, he will have discussions with Russia's First Deputy Defence Minister General V.V. Gerasimov and Director of Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) Dmitriy Shugaev. Admiral Lanba will also visit the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and deliver a talk on "Indian Navy's Perspective on Maritime Security". The Indian Navy cooperates with the Russian Navy on many fronts, including operational interactions, training, hydrography cooperation and exchange of subject-matter experts in various fields through the medium of Navy-to-Navy Staff Talks, the release said. The Indian and Russian navies have been conducting the bilateral maritime exercise 'Indra Navy' since 2003 and 'Indra Tri-Services Exercise' since 2017. The next edition of the exercise 'Indra-Navy' is scheduled off Visakhapatnam next month. Mumbai, Nov 25 : Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar, who is gearing up for the release of Tamil entertainer "2.0" as a film distributor, says the southern film industry has made Hindi movie makers feel inferior in a good way. Karan was interacting with the media at a press conference on "2.0" along with film's antagonist Akshay Kumar and director S. Shankar here on Saturday. South Indian cinema has been always ahead in term of budget, scale and technology. Asked about how Bollywood needs to up its game, Karan said: "I think the great moves of many of the filmmakers in the south have encouraged that movement even in Hindi cinema. I think it is because there is a '2.0' and there was a 'Robot' and a 'Baahubali', that there will be cinema spectacles which will actually follow them. "We had the gumption, glory and guts to make it because we have seen the success. In many ways, the southern film industry has pioneered this movement of meeting narrative and technology for like, decades. They get their stories, emotions, scale and technology bang on." Karan said the southern film industry has made Hindi filmmakers feel inferior, but in a positive way. "Some of us get stuck in a rut. We don't get out of that rut. We believe that we are in a safe spot but the truth is that we are not. They have taught us and made us feel inferior in a good way. "I say that with positivity because it encourages us to do much better. So far, we had very few big events in the last decade mainly by filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali who has given beautiful cinema spectacles. But now, you will see a flurry and a plethora of them and for that, thanks to the southern film industry. "So, more power. And may the force of technology, narrative, emotion and success always be with them." Since Karan has collaborated with two big South Indian films, when asked whether he will ever direct a south Indian film, he said: "No... I will always direct films in the language I know because I believe I will be able to justify the material much better but collaborating with their vision is something I hope I can always do. "I hope I will get the opportunity where films will come to us at Dharma Productions which are of course the best of the lot... I am hopeful that will happen. I am somebody who is a huge fan of Shankar sir's work, so I hope he brings back all his films to me and then we can do this together." "2.0" is a science fiction action film written and directed by S. Shankar, co-written by B. Jeyamohan, and produced by A. Subaskaran. The film serves as a sequel to the 2010 Tamil film "Enthiran", and features Rajinikanth reprising the roles of Dr. Vaseegaran and Chitti, alongside Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson. The film is set for a worldwide theatrical release on November 29. Mexico City, Nov 27 : Mexico deported 98 migrants who were involved in a clash with police in Tijuana when they tried to illegally cross the border into the United States, the National Migration Institute (INM) said Monday. The migrants were deported Sunday night, INM commissioner Gerardo Garcia Benavente explained in an interview with Televisa television, reports Efe news. He said that the 98 migrants -- who have already been deported -- were mostly from Honduras. Garcia Benavente recalled that the INM "has mechanisms of deportation and assisted-return that expel from (Mexican) national territory those foreigners who have violated" immigration laws. He also clarified that the actions of the US Border Patrol, which fired tear gas at migrants who were trying to cross the border, occurred "on the US side" of the boundary. In addition, Mexico's independent National Human Rights Commission demanded Monday that Central American migrants with the caravan "conduct themselves with respect regarding Mexican laws and refrain from causing harm or engaging in misconduct in the different communities through which they pass or where they find themselves". US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Mexico to send migrants trying to illegally cross the US border back to their countries of origin "by any means necessary", claiming that many are "stone cold criminals". He also threatened to "close the border permanently". Empoli (Italy), Nov 26 : A last-gasp goal by Empoli defender Matias Silvestre secured a 3-2 home win over 10-man Atalanta in Serie A. Switzerland midfielder Remo Freuler on Sunday opened the scoring for Atalanta in the 33rd minute, and Empoli came close to equalizing from the penalty spot in the 39th minute, but Italian striker Francesco Caputo's effort hit the post, reports Efe news. The goals came hot and heavy after that, as just one minute later, Atalanta midfielder Hans Hateboer doubled the lead. However, just two minutes later, Antonino La Gumina pulled one back for Empoli, and Atalanta went to the half with a 2-1 lead. After the intermission, Atalanta defender Andrea Masiello made an own goal to gift Empoli the equalizer in the 77th minute. In the 84th minute, Atalanta forward Josip Ilicic was shown a direct red card and was sent off the pitch. Empoli made the most of its numerical advantage, as centre-back Matias Silvestre secured the win in the second minute of stoppage time. With its third victory this season, Empoli climbed to 16th in the Serie A standings with 12 points, six points behind 10th-placed Atalanta. Bengaluru, Nov 27 : Global computer maker Dell Technologies is hosting for the first time in India its Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) meeting in this tech hub on Tuesday to focus on women funding women, said the US-based firm on Monday. "The event brings innovators, investors and influencers who dedicate to build high-growth firms led by women," said the company in a statement here ahead of the meet. About 100 women entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business leaders from across India will participate and deliberate on the startup ecosystem and investment opportunities in the sub-continent. "Women's entrepreneurship rates rose globally 13 per cent in 2017, reflecting the momentum of greater female representation across public and private sectors in many regions the world over," said the statement. Among the Indian women entrepreneurs participating in the event include Seedfund founder Bharati Jacob, Chumbak co-founder Subhra Chadda, Find Me A Shoe co-founder Shabari Raje, Ray IoT Solutions co-founder Ranjana Nair and Rehash Technologies co-founder Shruti Sinha. "As access to capital or technology and cultural and political barriers continue to limit the success of women-owned businesses, our mission is to empower them by removing the barriers to entrepreneurship and accelerate change to thrive," said DWEN Director Ingrid Devin in the statement. By hosting the global event in India, the company hopes to foster an ecosystem for women entrepreneurs across the country. "The event enables women entrepreneurs to learn and support each other and foster the growth of their community. Recognising the challenges and leveraging the summit will help accelerate their representation in India's startup ecosystem," said Dell Enterprise, Data and Mobile Engineering Vice President Sheenam Ohrie in the statement. Through the network, Dell connects women entrepreneurs the world over with networks, sources of capital, knowledge and technology, giving them the power to do more. Since its inception in 2010, the annual gathering of businesswomen from the world over was held at San Francisco in the US, Cape Town in South Africa, Berlin in Germany, New Delhi and Shanghai in China among other cities. New Delhi, Nov 26 : Doctors at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute here have performed the country's first successful MitraClip procedure to repair the leaking heart valve of a 69-year-old man, thereby avoiding the standard open heart surgery for such conditions, the hospital claimed on Monday. Till now, open heart surgery with repair or replacement of the valve had been the only possible treatment for such patients in India, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute said in a statement. "The MitraClip is a novel catheter based non-surgical repair of the mitral valve inside the heart and is performed in the catheterization laboratory like angioplasty," Ashok Seth, Chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute who led the team of doctors who performed the procedure on the patient explained. The patient had undergone a bypass surgery 13 years ago and more recently his heart was getting enlarged due to a severely leaking valve leading to breathlessness and heart failure. "Special catheters are inserted through the large vein in the groin and the catheter is passed from the right chamber of the heart to the left chamber of the heart by puncturing the partition called interatrial septum," Seth said. "Then, under echocardiography and X-ray guidance a clip is put on the leaking mitral valve to decrease the leak which improves the condition of the patient. The patient is normally ready to be discharged in 24-48 hours' time," he added. To perform the procedure, the doctors at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute were supported by Professor Saibal Kar of Smidt Heart Institute, Cedars Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles, US. "With the introduction of MitraClip to India, we hope to benefit a number of patients who are gradually deteriorating from leaking valves, despite medications and are unsuitable for valve replacement surgery," Kar said. Los Angeles, Nov 25 : Actor Al Pacino will star as King Lear in a new film adaptation of Shakespeares play. According to The Guardian, the Oscar-winning actor will be directed by Michael Radford, who worked with Pacino in 2004's "The Merchant of Venice" where the actor played Shylock, in "King Lear", the story of a once-great monarch who descends into madness. "Lear is the one that everyone aims for. Al has been toying with the idea for a long time. There's a difference between Shylock, who's only in five scenes, and Lear, who is in every scene, pretty much," Radford said in a statement. "It's enormous. I think (Pacino) would like to have that kind of kudos because he's a terrific actor." Pacino's casting for the film has been rumoured about for years. Producer Barry Navidi, who also worked on "The Merchant of Venice", said: "Before, we had the passion and the desire, but we never had a start date. We all have the energy to do ('King Lear') now. We're creating, hopefully, an epic. Pacino made his name as a Hollywood star in films such as "The Godfather" and "Scarface". Dubai, Nov 26 : A total of 190 countries will take part in Expo 2020 Dubai, it was announced here on Monday. The announcement comes on the opening day of Expo 2020's third International Participants Meeting (IPM), which will see hundreds of delegates from around the world gather in Dubai to receive information and updates on the delivery of the biggest event to ever be held in the Arab world. Reem Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, and Director General, Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, said: "In less than two years' time, Expo 2020 Dubai will welcome the international community to the UAE for a six-month celebration of human ingenuity and progress, allowing millions of people to experience the world in one place." The two-day IPM will cover a wide range of topics relating to the design, delivery and content of country pavilions. Vicente G. Loscertales, Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the governing body of World Expos, said: "As the first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, the UAE and Dubai has been working to create a platform to foster creativity, innovation and partnership globally." For the first time in the 167-year history of World Expos, each participating country will have its own pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. A number of nations will sign their official Expo 2020 participation contracts during the IPM, after confirming their chosen sub-theme and pavilion plot. Countries that have already unveiled their pavilion plans include Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Oman, Poland, Switzerland, the UK and the United Arab Emirates. More are expected to follow in the coming months. With 25 million visits expected between October 2020 and April 2021, and 70 per cent of visitors projected to come from outside the UAE, Expo 2020 Dubai will bring the international community together for a six-month celebration of human ingenuity and progress. Expo 2020 Dubai is slated to take place in October 2020. New Delhi, Nov 26 : India on Monday welcomed the release of the Joint Communication by the European Commission on India-EU partnership and said that it refers to the country as an emerging global power that plays a key role in the current multi-polar world and is a factor of stability in a complex region. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said India's engagement with the European Union has substantially intensified since the establishment of strategic ties in 2004. "The government of India welcomes the release of the Joint Communication by the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on 20th November, 2018 on the EU's vision for a strategy on India - 'A Partnership for Sustainable Modernisation and Rules-based Global Order'. "The strategy covers India-EU partnership over the next 10 to 15 years. The Joint Communication refers to India as an emerging global power that plays a key role in the current multi-polar world and a factor of stability in a complex region. The report recognises India's consistent economic growth, demographic dynamism and modernisation drive and calls for greater India-EU political, security and defence cooperation," the statement said. The statement said India-EU cooperation now spans over 30 dialogue mechanisms, covering foreign policy and security issues, trade and investment, sustainable development and modernisation, research and innovation as well as people-to-people contacts. With a bilateral goods and services turnover in excess of $100 billion, the EU is India's largest trading partner, said the statement, adding the EU is also a significant source of foreign direct investment for India with cumulative investment flows in excess of $91 billion from 2000 to June 2018. "India looks forward to engaging with the EU not only on a robust bilateral agenda, but also on regional and global issues of shared concern and for reforming the multilateral system and institutions to better reflect contemporary global realities," the statement added. Kolkata, Nov 26 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend four public rallies in West Bengal during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-organised "Rath Yatra" programme in the state in December, a senior state BJP leader said. "Modiji has agreed to attend four public rallies in West Bengal during the party-organised Rath Yatra programme. The venues of his rallies are yet to be decided. Party's state leadership is in discussion with the party high command about the same," BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha told IANS. "As of now, three of rallies by Modiji are scheduled to be held in December while the fourth will be held in Kolkata at the end of the Rath Yatra programme," he added. The saffron outfit is scheduled to hold three Rath Yatra rallies on December 7, 9 and 14 from north Bengal's Cooch Behar, South 24 Pargana district's Gangasagar and Birbhum district's temple town Tarapith, respectively. The rallies, to be inaugurated by BJP President Amit Shah, will cover all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state before converging in Kolkata in the second week of January. Washington, Nov 27 : The US has "slammed the brakes" on a UN Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia. An informed source told CNN on Monday night that the US "has slammed the brakes on", saying that "we can't support a resolution at the moment". The source also said the move was at odds with what US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has been signaling to her counterparts at the UN, since she was supportive of the planned resolution weeks ago. There has been no official comment on the matter by the White House. The draft resolution, crafted by the UK is already seen by human rights groups as disappointingly watered-down: It calls for a ceasefire only in Hodeidah, the principal Red Sea port through which some 80 per cent of humanitarian aid flows. The resolution is not at all critical of Saudi Arabia, and in fact compliments Saudi action; it is critical only of the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and have been fighting Saudi-led coalition forces while maintaining control of the capital, Sanaa. CNN reported earlier this month that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud, "threw a fit" when presented with an early draft of the document, leading to a delay and further discussions among Western allies on the matter. This latest delay comes a week after US President Donald Trump indicated that he would not take strong action against Saudi Arabia or the Crown Prince for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The situation in Yemen is now viewed as the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, with some 13 million Yemenis at risk of starving to death, according to the UN and human rights groups. Save the Children has said that an estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war began. The conflict, which began in 2015 as a civil war, gathered force when Saudi Arabia and allies entered the battle to counter what they saw as Iranian influence. The Gulf coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France, which have also been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. After nearly four years, the war has killed around 57,000 people. Washington, Nov 27 : US First Lady Melania Trump skipped the traditional press preview of the White House Christmas decorations, tweeting out a 56-second video of herself wandering through the rooms. Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham on Monday said Trump decided "to let the decorations speak for themselves." Members of the media were invited on a brisk 30-minute self-guided tour through the holiday wonderland of more than 20,000 feet of lights and 12,000 bows, put up over the past few days with the help of 225 volunteers. The theme this year is "American Treasures". The colour red was big, appearing in a dramatic forest of 40 towering crimson topiary trees in the East Colonnade and on 14,000 ornaments in the Grand Foyer and Cross Hall. The First Lady's office described the red motif: "The choice of red is an extension of the pales, or stripes found in the presidential seal designed by our Founding Fathers. It is a symbol of valour and bravery." Green Room decorations celebrate the country's harvest and include fruits, grains and vegetables, including aptly coloured artichokes and tomatoes, which were artfully arranged on mantels and antique tabletops. The East Room featured mantel pieces trimmed with silhouetted skylines of New York, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. The China Room presented table settings of three state dinners, including the Trump administration's sole such soiree for the President of France. "This is a joyous time of year when we decorate the White House for the Christmas season," the First Lady said in an official statement. "Our theme honours the heart and spirit of the American people.... On behalf of my family, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." This holiday season, the White House will host 100 December open houses and receptions, the same as last year. And they expect 30,000 visitors to walk through the halls on holiday tours. Srinagar, Nov 27 : An Indian Army soldier and two militants possibly of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group were killed on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district during a gunfight, police said. A sub-inspector and a constable of the Central Reserve Police Force were also injured in the encounter in Redwani village after the security forces surrounded it on receiving specific information that two to three terrorists were present. The exact identity of the slain militants was yet to be ascertained. A second encounter was also underway in Hafoo village in Tral area of Pulwama district. San Francisco, Nov 27 : Google has invested $1 billion on a large office park near its headquarters in Mountain View, California, the media reported. A Google representative confirmed the $1 billion purchase price for the office park but did not comment beyond that, The Mercury News reported on Monday. The newly acquired site is larger than the property that accommodates the company's Googleplex headquarters, according to the report. The purchase is being revealed as the largest real estate purchase in Bay Area and the second-largest property purchase in the US this year. The search giant started collecting properties in downtown San Jose for a proposed transit village and the company is said to have spent at least $2.83 billion in property acquisitions in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, downtown San Jose and north San Jose. Eearlier this year, Google also acquired the Chelsea Market in Manhattan for $2.4 billion -- which was disclosed as the biggest real estate purchase of the year in the US, media reported. Washington, Nov 27 : Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to federal investigators in breach of a plea agreement he signed two months ago, Special Counsel Robert Muellers office said in a court filing. Prosecutors working for Mueller on Monday said in the filing that Manafort's "crimes and lies" about "a variety of subject matters" relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement, reports The New York Times. But under the terms of the agreement, Manafort, 69, cannot withdraw his guilty plea. Defence lawyers disagreed that Manafort had violated the deal. In the same filing, they said that Manafort "believes he has provided truthful information". But given the impasse between the two sides, they asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia to set a sentencing date for Manafort, who has been in solitary confinement in a detention centre in Alexandria, Virginia. Striking a plea deal with Manafort in September potentially gave prosecutors access to information that could prove useful to their investigation. But the filing on Monday, a rare step in a plea deal, suggested that they thought Manafort was withholding details that could be pertinent to the Russia inquiry or other cases. A jury in Northern Virginia convicted Manafort of eight counts of financial fraud in August stemming from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. The jury deadlocked on 10 other charges. Faced with a second trial in the District of Columbia on related charges in September, he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and agreed to an open-ended arrangement requiring him to answer "fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly" questions about "any and all matters" of interest to the government. Manafort is scheduled to be sentenced in the Virginia case on February 8, 2019, The New York Times reported. Mueller's investigators have charged a number of Trump's former aides with lying to them. Three former Trump campaign officials or advisers have pleaded guilty to misleading federal investigators: Michael T. Flynn, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, who reported to prison on Monday to serve his 14-day sentence. A Dutch lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, who had business dealings with Manafort, also pleaded guilty to lying to Mueller's office. The Christmas tree atop the Leland goes back to the 1950s or even the 1940s. It disappeared sometime in the 1960s. But downtown merchants banded together to put it back up for the Christmas season in 2001, which is when the star also made its appearance. Hyderabad, Nov 27 : Ahead of his election rallies in Telangana on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought people's support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the December 7 Assembly polls. "Dear sisters and brothers of Telangana, I am eagerly looking forward to being in your state today. I will address a rally in Nizamabad followed by one in Mahabubnagar," Modi said in a tweet in Telugu. "I seek your support and blessings for BJP in the coming polls. Watch the rallies on NM (NaMo) mobile app." The BJP's campaign is set to gather further momentum with the PM's rallies. According to state party leaders, Modi will visit Telangana on December 3 to address a rally in Hyderabad. BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday addressed four public meetings in different parts of the state. He is scheduled to address more meetings on Wednesday and December 2. The BJP is contesting all the 119 Assembly seats on its own. Budhni (Madhya Pradesh), Nov 27 : Pitted against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) citadel here, former state Congress chief Arun Yadav is confident of emerging a giant-killer, asserting the alarming rise of the "sand mafia" and the Vyapam examination scam will be the Chief Minister's political Waterloo. A former minister in the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre, he admits the battle against Chouhan on his home turf is "challenging" but insists the people's anger against the BJP, particularly against the Chief Minister himself, will translate into votes for the Congress and bring the party to power in the state after 15 years. "Misrule is the hallmark of the BJP government and corruption is the hallmark of the Chief Minister. Contesting against him on his home turf is certainly challenging, but then the 15 years of misrule, complete absence of development and all-pervasive corruption will bring about Chouhan's and the BJP's downfall," Yadav told IANS in an interview. Talking about his constituency in Sehore district, Yadav says Budhni reflects the real picture of the Chouhan government. "On the one hand you have the sand mafia which has turned Sehore into a centre of crime. On the other hand you have no roads. The health infrastructure is in tatters. There is no employment. Budhni reflects the true picture of the state which has been ravaged by the BJP," said the two-time Lok Sabha member. Chouhan first won the Budhni seat in 1990. After a long tenure in the Lok Sabha, he returned to Budhni, where he was re-elected in 2006 and retained the seat in 2008 and 2013. The rise of sand mafia in Sehore and corruption have been the focal points of Yadav's campaign. "The Vyapam scam will be Chouhan's and BJP's Waterloo," said Yadav about the scandal concerning exams held by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board or the Vyavasayik Pareeksha Mandal (Vyapam). A high-decibel campaign witnessed Congress President Rahul Gandhi launching a frontal attack on Chouhan, alleging his involvement in the scam. The Congress has vowed to fast-track the probe into it if it came to power in the state -- particularly into the "mysterious deaths" of a number of people connected to the scam and its investigation. Talking about his and the Congress' prospects, Yadav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah's sole focus on abusing the Nehru-Gandhi family and Congress-bashing were itself an admission of the BJP's failure. "Modi, who never tired of talking about 'vikas' (development), is only indulging in abusing the Gandhi family and blaming the Congress for all ills. The fact that they are no more talking about vikas is testimony to the fact that there actually has been no development in Madhya Pradesh. You blame others only when you have nothing to show on the ground. "The BJP has been in power in the state for the last 15 years. Thousands of farmers have committed suicide and you have the Prime Minister saying that farmers would not have been ruined had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel been the country's first Prime Minister," said Yadav, pointing to Modi's Saturday rally in Mandsaur -- the epicentre of a farmers protests in June 2017 in which five farmers were killed in police firing. He said the Congress' promise of waiving farmers' loans within 10 days of coming to power has created a wave of anticipation in a state marred by agrarian crises and regular farmer suicides. While exuding confidence about the Congress coming to power in the state, Yadav, 44, expressed apprehension over the BJP using strong-arm tactics to influence the elections, particularly in Budhni. Fifteen candidates are in the fray in Budhni, with both the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielding their candidates. The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will go to the polls in a single phase on November 28, with the results out on December 11. An electorate of over five crore is eligible to vote. (Anurag Dey can be contacted at anurag.d@ians.in) Cagliari (Italy), Nov 27 : Cagliari held Torino 0-0 to edge up to 13th place in Serie A, with 15 points from 13 matches. Though the result on Monday extended the Sardinian side's winless streak to three, supporters could see the 0-0 as an improvement after Cagliari were outscored by a cumulative 14-4 in their last four meetings with the northern club, reports Efe. Torino, with 18 points, remain 11th, trailing Atalanta and Fiorentina on goal difference. Cagliari's next match will be away to Frosinone, while Torino are set to host Genova. Los Angeles, Nov 27 : Her drug abuse led her into a dark and sad world, says actress Amanda Bynes, who is now excited for the future and a return to acting. Bynes opened up about drug abuse in an interview for Paper Magazine's cover story, according to The Hollywood Reporter. After stepping away from the spotlight, Bynes described herself as being someone who had "no purpose in life" and spending her time being "stoned all day long." She also got into company comprising a "seedier crowd'. "I got really into my drug usage and it became a really dark, sad world for me," she said. Now four years sober, she has credited her parents with "really helping me get back on track." Bynes said she is finally "back to normal". "I have no fear of the future. I've been through the worst and came out the other end and survived it, so I just feel like it's only up from here," she added on a positive note. However, "ashamed and embarrassed with the things I said", she added: "I can't turn back time but if I could, I would." She hopes to design a clothing line, and is currently enrolled at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising to receive her Associate's of Art degree in Merchandise Product Development. But first she wants to "get back into acting". Bynes reflected on when she first started using drugs, recalling smoking marijuana at the age of 16: "Even though everyone thought I was the 'good girl,' I did smoke marijuana from that point on." She also explained that despite smoking, she "didn't get addicted" and "wasn't abusing it". But later she progressed to trying harder drugs such as MDMA, cocaine and ecstasy. When she got her hands on the drug Adderall, its abuse continued to grow worse while filming the 2010 film "Hall Pass". Ultimately, "the mixture of being so high that I couldn't remember my lines and not liking my appearance" prompted Bynes to pull out of the film, despite reports saying she was fired, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She even dealt with having a negative body image, and in hindsight, she believes her thoughts were possibly a result of her being "high on marijuana". Bynes also spoke about the time when she infamously announced her retirement on Twitter, something she considers "stupid" when looking back. "If I was going to retire (the right way), I should've done it in a press statement - but I did it on Twitter," the actress said. "Real classy! But, you know, I was high and I was like, 'You know what? I am so over this,' so I just did it." Patna, Nov 27 : The Bihar Assembly was on Tuesdsy adjourned till 2 p.m., after the opposition RJD members disrupted the proceedings demanding that Speaker Vijay Choudhary accept their adjournment motion to discuss the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator Samir Mahaseth warned that the opposition would not allow the Assembly proceedings if the adjournment motion was not accepted. Mahaseth's remark was echoed by senior RJD member Lalit Yadav. RJD members also shouted slogans against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Speaker Chaudhary urged the members to cooperate and allow the House to run smoothly. The five-day winter session began on Monday where the second supplementary budget of 2018-19 is expected to be presented. Bihar Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shravan Kumar said that apart from the second supplementary budget, some other important bills would also be presented. London, Nov 27 : Actor-comedian Russell Brand made his first red carpet appearance with wife Laura Gallacher months after welcoming their second daughter. They already have daughter Mabel, 20 months, and welcomed their second one over the summer, reports dailymail.co.uk. Despite previously admitting that fatherhood is "exhausting bliss", Brand looked full of life as he joined his wife in their first joint red carpet appearance at the British Curry Awards at Battersea Evolution here on Monday. The couple is notoriously private and have kept their personal life out of the spotlight. But they cosied up to one another at the event. Gallacher sported brunette locks instead of her usual blonde hairdo, which she styled in a chic chignon. The mother-of-two looked sensational in a glittering black jumpsuit, whilst she layered up with a satin blazer and accessorised with a small clutch bag. Meanwhile, Brand, who admitted last month that fatherhood had given him grey hair, donned an open blouse with leather trousers and a skinny scarf. The couple walked down the aisle in a romantic ceremony in Henley-on-Thames in August 2017. New Delhi, Nov 27 : India and the Maldives enjoy "a uniquely special, close and friendly relationship", President Ram Nath Kovind told Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Tuesday. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Kovind made the remark when the visiting Minister called on the Indian President. Welcoming Shahid and his delegation to India, the President said that New Delhi and Male "enjoy a uniquely special, close and friendly relationship. "The government of India's vision of inclusive development also extends to our neighbourhood including the Maldives. We are always ready to support the socio-economic development of the Maldives," he said. The President noted that the Maldivian government had launched a 100-day action plan that Kovind said was "people-centric and aimed at transforming the lives of the people of Maldives". Kovind stated that India would support the Maldives' efforts and work in alignment with its identified priorities. Dhaka, Nov 27 : A Bangladesh court on Tuesday ruled that people who have been jailed for more than two years with their appeals pending, cannot contest the December 30 general elections. The order was passed in response to an appeal seeking a stay order on the imprisonment of five opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders: Amanullah Aman, AZM Zahid Hossain, Wadud Bhuiyan, Md Moshiur Rahman and Md Abdul Wahab, reports bdnews24. As per the Constitution, if a person is sentenced to more than two years in prison, he or she will not be able to participate in elections until an Appellate Division rejects or suspends the verdict, according to the court observation. Tuesday's ruling will prevent BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from contesting the upcoming election as she was awarded a 17-year jail term in two graft cases. Gurugram, Nov 27 : Samsung India is planning to hire over 300 engineers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) this placement season to strengthen its Research and Development (R&D) operations in the country, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. Company officials from three R&D centres located in Bengaluru, Delhi and Noida, will visit the IITs at Delhi, Kanpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Varanasi and Roorkie starting December 1. The R&D centres will also hire engineers from the newer IITs at Hyderabad, Dhanbad, Ropar, Indore, Gandhinagar, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Mandi and Jodhpur. "Our R&D centres are focusing on cutting edge technologies, developing innovations for the Indian market as well as for the globe. We will continue to add engineers for research and development in these areas and further our commitment to making a strong research base in India," said Sameer Wadhawan, Head, Human Resources, Samsung India. Samsung has offered over 200 Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) to students at the IITs this year. "There's a tactical shift that we have made to spot talent early and offer PPOs. This year, we had a slightly longer internship period so that students can spend more time in the company, giving them opportunity to interact with the leaders and managers. "This helps us select bright talents amongst them," said Wadhawan. Apart from the IITs, Samsung will also be hiring from other top engineering colleges such as BITS Pilani, IIITs, NITs, Delhi Technological University, Manipal Institute of Technology and IISc Bangalore. Between the IITs and other engineering colleges, Samsung will hire close to 1,000 engineers. In all it has offered 350 PPOs this year. Mumbai, Nov 27 : Scientists have discovered six new species of bent-toed geckos (lizards) from different parts of northeast India, a team-member said here on Tuesday. These bent-toed geckos of the genus Cyrtodactylus are the most species-rich genus of geckos globally with over 250 species, said team spokesperson Ishan Agarwal. The description of these six newly discovered species has been published on Monday in the peer reviewed taxonomic mega-journal, Zootaxa, published from New Zealand, he added. Team member Varad Giri said just six species of these geckos were known from the Himalayas and northeast India, but in the past few months, nine new species have been described including four and 11 from these two regions respectively. Neighbouring Myanmar has also witnessed a huge increase with over 20 new species discovered since 2017 and is the outcome of surveying areas never sampled before within the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspots. The new Indian species have been named after the Assam capital, Guwahati, as Cyrtodactylus Guwahatiensis, or the Guwahati bent-toed gecko, making it the fifth lizard to be described from a major Indian city, the others being Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai. Similary one is named after Nagaland as Cyrtodactylus Nagalandensis, another as Cyrtodactylus Kazirangaensis after the famed Kaziranga National Park, and the largest bent-toed gecko is named as Cyrtodactylus Jaintiaensis after the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya. The other two are Cyrtodactylus Montanus after the Jampui Hills of Tripura and another one named Cyrtodactylus Septentrionalis of the Abhayapuri bent-toed gecko, said Agarwal. Though all these species hail from a single locality each, nothing is known of their natural history, ecology and distribution, except that they are nocturnal creatures living in rocks. Agarwal feels they are likely to be a narrowly distributed endemic species and northeast India may have several dozen more bent-toed geckos. The team included, besides Agarwal and Giri, R. Chaitanya, Stephen Mahony of Natural History Museum, London and global authority on geckos, Aaron Bauer of Villanova University, US. New Delhi, Nov 27 : Combined works of over 50 regional and international ceramic artists and sculptors, fresh out of a rolling arts residency in the heart of Madhya Pradesh, will greet those who visit the culture centre Triveni Kala Sangam here from Wednesday. Sprawled across its open amphitheatre, over 150 works -- ranging from abstract sculptures to representational art depicting human figures, faces and even cows -- have been commissioned and curated by art commune Art Ichol, located, as the organisers say, in the rural heartland of India. It is the first time they have been exhibited outside the organisation's cultural centre of Ichol, a village located between Khajuraho and Bandhavgarh. "The works have been created over the past three years by artists who come and stay with us as artists-in-residence. Because of the diverse portfolios of the artists, the works on display are equally diverse," Kolkata gallerist and Art Ichol head Ambica Beri told IANS. Beri, who thinks that the arts market has shifted from having more art investors than buyer-collectors, also shared that residencies are relaxed spaces where artists respond to their inner creativity, the instructor's demands and the space. "There was a local farmer who came to us, looking for ways to create animal figurines. We taught him ceramics, and now there's also a significant change in the ways in which he himself perceives his art. He's experimenting, doing square cows," said Beri, who has been running art gallery Sanskriti in Kolkata for 28 years. Among the participating artists are: Anjani Khanna, Saturo Hoshimo, Jacques Kaufmann, Madhvi Subramaniam, Anupam Sud, Laxma Goud, Sandra Black , Ketna Patel , Naidee Changmoh, Beri had previously said in a statement. The residency environment, on a close look, is visible in the plethora of works created in bronze, ceramic, stone and metal. Displaying traditional forms, mediums and glazes, as well as those with relative novelty, the works seem to be fused with an energy that comes with a relaxed space that allows creative freedom, and makes minimal demands. For a collector, buyer or even just a viewer not initiated into the arts, a walk through the pieces of art could prove an exercise in creativity itself. The works will be on view till December 9. Mathura, Nov 27 : Two persons, including a tourist guide, were arrested here on Tuesday for gang raping a young Non-Resident Indian (NRI) in this temple town, police said. The victim, settled in South Africa, had come with a woman friend to Mathura three days back and was allegedly raped in a beauty parlour at Dampier Nagar on Monday. After a friend of the victim lodged a police complaint, the two rapists were arrested. The guide apparently lured the NRI to the parlour in Dampier Nagar, promising her a body massage. She alleged that her drink was spiked and the two raped her. Superintendent of Police Shravan Kumar said the South African embassy in New Delhi had been informed about the crime. Aizawl, Nov 27 : Ahead of the voting to elect a new Assembly in Congress-ruled Mizoram on Wednesday, the authorities on Tuesday sealed India's borders along the northeastern state with Myanmar and Bangladesh, an official said here on Tuesday. A senior Mizoram Police official said that around 11,100 security personnel comprising central para-military and state security forces have been deployed to further tighten the security to foil any attempt to create any trouble during the Wednesday's polling. "In view of the Assembly polls, BSF and Assam Rifles troopers have been asked to seal Mizoram's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar and further intensify their vigil along the international frontiers to prevent any kind of cross-border movements by inimical elements," Mizoram's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Zorammuana told IANS. He said: "Following the directions of the Election Commission, the authorities also asked the security forces to further tighten the security along Mizoram's inter-state borders with Tripura, Assam and Manipur. No movement other than of those associated with the election process would be allowed at the inter-state borders." Mizoram shares 310-km unfenced borders with Bangladesh and 510-km boundaries with Myanmar without any fencing. The Border Security Force (BSF) troopers have been deployed along the Bangladesh borders, while the Assam Rifles, under the Army, have been posted along at the Myanmar borders. Zorammuana said around 7,075 electoral officials have been engaged to conduct the elections from 7 a.m to 4 p.m. Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said here that the electoral officials escorted by security personnel have already reached all the 1,164 polling stations across the state. The Election Commission has set up 15 special polling stations at Kanhmun, a village along the Mizoram-Tripura border, to facilitate voting by Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in Tripura for the past 21 years. Of the over 35,000 tribal immigrants, 11,232 are eligible to cast their votes in the Assembly elections. The CEO said that around 40 all-women managed polling stations have been set up across the constituencies in which the entire polling staff, including the police and security personnel, are women. "The VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines would be used along with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) in all the 40 constituencies to enhance transparency and credibility of the elections," Kundra told the media. Unlike in other states of the country, Church-backed Mizoram People's Forum (MPF) plays a unique role in ensuring free and fair elections in Christian-dominated Mizoram. Started in 2006, it launched an initiative equipped with a mechanism to name and shame any wrongdoing by a candidate or any individual on community loudspeakers for one and all to know. Significantly, the entire exercise is sincerely followed by each member of the deeply religious Mizo society. A total of 209 candidates, 67 higher than in 2013 state polls, are in the fray for the Wednesday's elections to the 40-member Mizoram assembly. Of the 209 candidates, 15 are women. In 2013, only six women had contested and none were successful. Like the previous elections, women voters once again outnumber the men in Mizoram. Of the 768,181 voters, there are 393,685 women and 374,496 men. The five-year term of the Mizoram Assembly ends on December 15. Besides two national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), many regional and local parties have fielded candidates in most of the 40 Assembly constituencies. They include main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF), People's Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM), Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) and Meghalaya-based National People's Party (NPP). However, the main contest is likely to take place between the ruling Congress and the MNF. The Congress has been in power, except for 10 years, since the Mizoram become a full-fledged state in 1987. The MNF, a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), ruled during those 10 years -- 1998-2003 and 2003-2008. Vote will be counted on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chattisgarh. Colombo, Nov 27 : Sri Lanka's political crisis entered its second month on Tuesday with legislators loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa boycotting parliamentary sessions for a second time, against Speaker Karu Jayasuriya's decision to not recognize them as the legitimate government. Several MPs including Rajapakse, who was appointed as the Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 26 after Sirisena surprisingly sacked his then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, said they would boycott sessions till such time the Speaker recognizes them as the ruling party, Xinhua news agency reported. Speaker Jayasuriya, during a parliamentary session last week, said there was no Prime Minister or government any more as Rajapakse and his government had been defeated in a no-confidence vote. "We have clearly said that the Speaker does not have the powers to oppose the decisions of the President and neither does he have the power to select a Prime Minister. We will not recognize the Speaker as the legitimate Speaker any more," Wimal Weerawansa, Leader of the National Freedom Front, a party loyal to Rajapakse, told journalists. He said that Rajapakse's government would continue to call for a parliamentary election in order to resolve the ongoing political crisis. Legislators from ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) informed the Speaker that the purported government had failed to show a majority after it was defeated in two no-confidence motions in Parliament. UNP MP Eran Wickramaratne requested the Speaker to inform President Sirisena to appoint a new Prime Minister and government from the party which had shown its majority in Parliament in order to end the political instability. Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a severe political crisis after President Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed former President Rajapakse as the new Prime Minister last month. The UNP has alleged that the removal of Wickremesinghe was "unconstitutional" and said the new caretaker government could not continue in office as it had been defeated in no-confidence motions. Sirisena has rejected the results of the no-confidence votes, saying it had not been conducted in a "constitutional manner" and requested Parliament to conduct the vote again. Sirisena has maintained that the present crisis was not serious and would not affect the daily lives of citizens and that the political unrest would end soon. New Delhi, Nov 27 : Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not being able to provide security to the Delhi Chief Minister, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday questioned Modi's claim of protecting the nation and women. AAP Spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj told reporters that attacks on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are planned by the Bharatiya Janata Party. "Either the attacks are planned by him (Modi) or he is not able to work properly. So, how can the Prime Minister, who is not able to provide security to the Delhi Chief Minister, provide security to the people and women," he said while addressing the media during the special session of the Delhi Assembly called to discuss the attacks on Kejriwal. Calling the attacks on Kejriwal a "serious matter", the AAP MLA requested the Centre to stop politics and take steps to prevent such attacks. Islamabad, Nov 27 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit, a senior Foreign Office official said on Tuesday, raising hopes of a possible thaw in bilateral relations amidst the goodwill over the opening of Khartarpur Corridor. Pakistani newspaper Dawn quoted Foreign Office spokesman Mohammed Faisal as saying this while addressing a Kashmir Conference here. Faisal recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his first address after taking power, had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. The Saarc Summit, which was to be held in Pakistan in 2016, was cancelled after India boycotted the event, triggering a pullout by Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Faisal said Imran Khan had expressed Pakistan's openness to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue with India. "We fought wars with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly," Faisal said. The decision to extend an invite to Modi for the Saarc comes at a time when the two countries have broken the ice with a decision to build the Kartarpur Corridor for visa-free travel for Sikh pilgrims to visit gurdwaras in Pakistan. While the ground breaking ceremony on the Indian side was done on Monday, the Pakistan will complete the formality in Lahore on Wednesday at a function in which Imran Khan will participate. The Saarc Summit has been the casualty of strained ties between India and Pakistan after the Pathankot terror attack in 2016 which New Delhi blamed on elements from Pakistan. Ever since, there have been no high-level contacts between the two sides. A Foreign Ministerial level meeting in September on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York was aborted by India surprisingly a day after announcing it. The Foreign Office spokesman said the Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the travel of members of Indian Sikhs to their religious site in Pakistan, will be inaugurated on Wednesday and is expected to be completed within six months. He added that Indian media had been invited to cover the inauguration ceremony. "In this century, diplomacy has completely changed," he said. "Now policies are made based on citizens' emotions and wishes." Jaipur, Nov 27 : The Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan has promised a monthly unemployment dole of Rs 5,000 and 30,000 government jobs in five years, according to the party manifesto released on Tuesday for the ensuing Assembly elections due on December 7. The manifesto was unveiled by Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Prakash Javadekar and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at BJP's media centre in the state capital. Raje said the manifesto is titled 'Rajasthan Gaurav Sankalp 2018' as her government has "fulfilled 95 per cent" of promises made in the 2013 manifesto. The manifesto promises 30,000 government jobs, with Raje emphasizing 50 lakh additional jobs in the private sector in next five years. Besides an allowance of Rs 5,000 per month to the eligible unemployed youths over 21 years of age, the manifesto also promises a transparent process to strengthen the minimum support price to double farmers' income, Raje said. The manifesto also mentions a rural start-up fund of Rs 250 crore, adding that cooperative agriculture loans worth Rs 1 lakh crore will be given in the next five years. This initiative, Raje said, will help in extending the benefits of cooperative agriculture loans to new members. "The manifesto promises a Yog Bhavan in each district. It also promises to set up Parashuram Board and Rajasthan Vedic Studies Board in the state," Raje said. "All districts will be linked to the four-lane highway in the state. The youths will be trained for jobs in the Army in each sub-division three months before Army recruitment camps are held," Raje added. The Chief Minister said 'happiness index' will be set as a parameter for implementing these policies. Sharing credit for releasing the manifesto ahead of its rival, the Congress, she said: "The BJP has been a leader; it was first in announcing names of candidates and now it is first again in declaring the manifesto." Jaitley said the BJP was also first in announcing the CM candidate, adding that the "biggest factor to influence the Rajasthan assembly elections is the rural outreach programme that has taken place during the BJP tenure in the state." Kathmandu, Nov 27 : An Indian national wanted in his country on charges of allegedly duping investors to the tune of Rs 260 crore was arrested from Pokhara city in Nepal, police said here on Tuesday. The man was arrested late last week from a hotel, Xinhua news agency reported. Official sources said he would be extradited to India soon. Chennai, Nov 27 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the permission given to Karnataka for the preparation of a project report for Mekedatu reservoir across the Cauvery river. In a letter to Modi, text of which was released to the media here, Palaniswami requested the Prime Minister to direct the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation to instruct the Central Water Commission to withdraw the permission given to Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd for conducting a detailed project report (DPR). The Cauvery Neeravari Nigam, Karnataka, plans to prepare the DPR for Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir-cum-Drinking Water Project. "The Government of Tamil Nadu has already conveyed its decision to the Government of India that the Feasibility Report of Karnataka for constructing a Balancing Reservoir at Mekedatu across the river Cauvery is not acceptable and also furnished detailed comments to the Feasibility Report," Palaniswami said. He said the proposal for the reservoir is not just for drinking water as claimed by Karnataka. It will also increase the extent of irrigation which is in clear violation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal Award as affirmed by the Supreme Court. "The Central Water Commission, without considering the genuine and justifiable objections of Tamil Nadu, has given permission to Karnataka to prepare the DPR," Palaniswami said. Kolkata, Nov 27 : With the rapidly increasing incidence of prostate cancer in India, which is set to double by 2020, everyone needs to start talking about it for early detection, a panel of experts said here on Tuesday. "Prostate cancer is a slow-going cancer, so if detected at an early stage, it can be cured. It is not only important to cure but also to spread awareness among the masses," Abhay Kumar, Urology and Euro-Oncology Consultant at Narayana Super speciality Hospital, Howrah, said at a press meet on prostate cancer awareness commemorating "No-Shave November". Radiation Oncologist Sayan Das said according to the Indian Medical Council of Research (IMCR), prostate cancer is the second leading cancer among males in large Indian cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram, and third in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai. Also, the incidence rates of prostrate cancer are constantly and rapidly increasing in all the population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) of India. The IMCR projection data shows that the number of cases will become double by 2020. Talking about the reasons for it going undetected, Kumar said: "People usually neglect the symptoms of difficulty in passing urine, urinary frequency and burning sensation, thinking it to be a part of normal ageing process. Hence, one should get himself screened after crossing 40 years of age." The doctors mentioned that enlargement of prostate is a normal physiological process and usually starts after 40 years. But at times it creates problems and becomes cancerous. Explaining about andropause, Kumar said: "Andropause is a condition that is associated with decrease in the male hormone testosterone. Hot flashes, anaemia, depression and cognitive decline are some of the side effects. It is very prominent in men undergoing hormonal ablation therapy for prostate cancer." Earlier, prostate cancer was common in western countries but now it is increasing in India. The reason is the detection of more cases, family history, genetic problem and a sedentary lifestyle. "The (high) increase rate is mainly due to ignorance. So, we thought about spreading awareness by doing the 'No-Shave November' campaign which started the conversation," Suman Mallik, chief of Radiotherapy said. The idea of this campaign adapted from the West is to grow one's beard and tell everyone about the logic behind it. Also, those who save money by not shaving can contribute it to the funds for cancer patients. New Delhi, Nov 27 : Asserting that bailing out debt-ridden farmers would revive Madhya Pradeshs economy, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday blamed the BJP government for the state's agrarian crises, unemployment and deteriorating law and order. Appealing to the people of Madhya Pradesh on social media, Gandhi said the state in 15 years of BJP rule had been in the news more for Vyapam scam, crime against women, malnutrition and rise of sand mafia. "The farmers are on the streets, youth running from pillar to post looking for jobs, daughters afraid of coming out their houses. The state is known for its tribals but their rights and livelihood are being snatched," said Gandhi on the eve of Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls on Wednesday. Reflecting on Congress' assurance of farm loan waiver, Gandhi said bailing the debt-ridden farmers would revive the economy. "If the farmers are financially stale, then only the economy will come on track. I can't understand why the BJP is opposing this. Because of the efforts of the Congress, the country's politics is now farmer-centric. Otherwise, (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, for the sake of capitalist cronies, was bringing ordinance one after the other to snatch farmers' land," he added. New Delhi, Nov 27 : Thousands of farmers from across the country will hold a protest march from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street in the national capital on Friday to pressurise the government for higher crop prices and farm loan waiver. According to the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an umbrella organisation of over 184 farm outfits, the two-day protest starting Thursday would be the culmination of efforts being made by the distressed farmers over the past one-and-a-half years. "We had held our first rally after the Mandsaur firing. We have received a huge response from not just farmers but people in the country as well. The AIKSCC has brought all ideologies together for the cause of farmers," Yogendra Yadav, President of Swaraj India, told reporters. AIKSCC Convener V.M. Singh said farmers coming from different parts of the country would hold marches on Thursday from the stations they arrive at to the Ramlila Maidan. Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader and Member of Parliament Raju Shetti, who is also a part of the AIKSCC, has introduced two Private Member's Bills in the Lok Sabha seeking a loan waiver for farmers across the country and a guaranteed remunerative price for agricultural commodities. "We want the government to pass these Bills for the benefit to farmers," Singh said. The AIKSCC said 21 political parties have extended their support to the Bills and their representatives may visit the protest march on Friday. Left-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Ashok Dhawale said the government had failed to do anything with regard to the Private Member's Bills in the last one year. "Over 3.5 lakh farmers in the country have committed suicide so far. We have never seen such a bad condition of farmers. Now, the Agriculture Ministry itself is saying that demonetisation had a bad impact on farmers," Dhawale said. Social activist Medha Patkar, Major General (retired) Satbir Singh, who has been spearheading the agitation for implementation of the One Rank One Pension, and noted journalist P. Sainath were among those who briefed the media. Sainath said a special session of Parliament was convened on short notice for the GST but the Swaminathan Commission's report had been lying in Parliament without any discussion since 2006. "The government has stopped giving data about farm suicides. It is not just farm woes; it is beyond. There is a national crisis now. We have to show solidarity with farmers," he said. The AIKSCC has demanded Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 23 agriculture commodities based on the 'C2' input cost factor recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. It has expressed its disapproval over the government's decision to use 'A2 +FL' factor citing lower remuneration. Satbir Singh said his organisation extended its support to the protests as 70-80 per cent of servicemen were sons of farmers. Two special trains -- one from Maharashtra's Miraj and the other from Bengaluru -- have been arranged to bring farmers to Delhi, the AIKSCC leaders said. New Delhi, Nov 27 : The Delhi High Court on Saturday directed Mandoli Jail in the capital to conduct a correction course through meditation therapy for a man convicted of raping a mentally challenged minor girl. Justice Anu Malhotra directed Superintendent of Mandoli Jail to consider correctional courses through meditation therapy for the convict, Chattu Lal. The court also directed the jail to consider a programme related to educational opportunity, vocational training and skill development programme and shaping of post release rehabilitation programme for the convict. The court direction came with a prospect of rehabilitation and said that "the sentence acts as a deterrent and is simultaneously reformative." The court observation came while upholding a trial court order that sentenced Lal to 15 years rigorous imprisonment after convicting him under the provision of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court also directed jail to keep the convict away from getting associated with criminal elements and conduct adequate counselling to sensitise him and make him to understand why he is in prison. The court also directed to conduct psychometric tests to measure the reformation taking place and allowed him to keep connected with his family members as per the jail rules. The court directed to submit a bi-annual report on the programme related to reformation and rehabilitation of the convict Lal. Lal was facing trial for raping a 12-year-old mentally retarded child in August 2013. Hyderabad, Nov 27 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi how he was affected by his beliefs. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief responded to Modi's comments made at an election rally in Nizamabad earlier in the day that he (Rao) was so insecure that he relied on astrologer, 'pooja paath' and 'nimbu mirchi'. "How are you affected by my beliefs? What is your loss if I perform poojas? I will perform 10 yagnams a year. Did I ever trouble you?" asked Rao at an election rally in Mahabubnagar. "I offer food and 'teertham' (holy water) to those believers who attend my yagnams. If you are also a believer, come, attend my yagnam and take holy water. I am a believer. I believe in God. What is your worry?" asked KCR, as Rao is popularly known. The TRS leader also slammed Modi over his opposition to reservation for Muslims saying he (Modi) was afflicted with Hindu-Muslim disease. KCR said since the population of Muslims had gone up to 12 percent in Telangana, his government sent a resolution to the Centre to hike the quota from 4 percent to 12 percent. Exuding confidence that TRS will return to power in Telangana by winning over 100 seats in he 119-member Assembly, KCR urged people to ensure that TRS won all 17 Lok Sabha seats in the next election. "A non-BJP and non-Congress government will come to power at the Centre. This government will follow people's agenda, fulfil their aspirations and understand their emotions," said KCR. The TRS chief defended friendship with Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). He said both TRS and MIM were 'pucca' local parties. He claimed that it was MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi who alerted him about the conspiracy being hatched in Delhi to topple his government and extended the support of his party to foil the designs of the BJP and TDP to impose President's rule. New Delhi, Nov 27 : The Central government will divest 100 per cent stake in Air India's ground handling subsidiary to partially retire the national passenger carrier's accumulated debt. Accordingly, an inter-ministerial panel, Air India Specific Alternate Mechanism, decided on Tuesday to divest the government's stake in Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL). The decision was taken after the panel which is headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met here. It assumes significance as the amount raised from the divestment of AIATSL will be used to retire some of the accumulated debt of Air India. A senior government official said the strategic disinvestment of ground handling subsidiary AIATSL will be done after the ground handling unit is transferred to a SPV (special purpose vehicle). The official told reporters that the EoI (Expression of Interest) document for the subsidiary will be issued after its transfer to the SPV. AIATSL provides ground handling service at most of the airports in India. It was operationalised in February 2013 and in 2016-17 the subsidiary earned a profit before tax of Rs 61.66 crore. Earlier, the inter-ministerial panel had decided to revive the national passenger carrier through sale of land and other assets and to offload its debt to an SPV which has already been incorporated. Prior to the current move, the government had offered to sell 76 per cent stake in Air India. However, the state-owned carrier, which has accumulated losses of over Rs 48,000 crore, failed to attract any bidder. On May 31, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that "no response" was received even during the extended submission deadline for the EOI bids under Air India's divestment process and the "further course of action will be decided appropriately". The government on May 1 had released a detailed document on clarifications sought by interested bidders regarding the divestment process. This had outlined that net current liabilities were Rs 88.16 billion (Rs 8,816 crore) and "these will remain with AI and AIXL (Air India Express) as these have been incurred in the course of business". On March 28, a Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) inviting EOIs for the strategic divestment of AI was issued, along with the airline's shares in AIXL (Air India Express) and AISATS (Air India SATS Airport Services) from private entities including the airline's employees. The Central government owns 100 per cent equity of Air India. Kolkata, Nov 27 : Pointing out that India will witness a steady surge in urbanisation during the next two decades, a senior German envoy on Tuesday said a sustainable, inclusive and socially balanced process of urbanisation is required in the South Asian country to achieve the current government's smart cities aspiration. Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to build 100 smart cities in the country as a "good starting point" for urban development, Germany's Consul General in Kolkata Michael Feiner said his country is providing support to India in three major sectors including sustainable urbanisation. "India on a global scale is still lagging behind in terms of urbanisation. The current percentage stands at little over 30. That means, if global patterns are to be repeated, India will see a surge in urbanisation over the next two decades. The number of Indian cities with more than one million residents has grown from 31 in 2001 to 53 in 2011," Feiner said at a conference on sustainable urban development, organised here by Heidelberg University of Germany and Observer Research Foundation. "Germany is aiding India in three core areas one of which is urbanisation. The other two are environmental and resource protection and energy conservation. The measures for urban development include sanitary provisions, sewage and garbage planning, urban development, good governance and consultancy for urban administration and lastly climate-friendly urban development. Feiner said administration needs to be ready to handle challenges of rapid urbanisation like improving sanitation services, electric supply, sewage and garbage collection, health services, education and better transport and infrastructural facilities. "Seventeen per cent of urban Indian population lives in slums and another 25-30 per cent in formal settlements. Air pollution is a cause of major health problems. Also, at present there is no sustainable solution to control the massive amount of residential and industrial waste and plastic materials," he pointed out. Highlighting the positive side of urbanisation, the envoy said in spite of the challenges the process will lead to employment generation, economic growth and qualification of manpower in the country. Talking on the topic, des Radu Carciumaru, Resident Representative, Heidelberg University, said a smart city should have a network of primary as well as higher education institutes, sustainability and ecology-friendly attributes. "It should also encourage a vibrant creative and cultural life, make the civil society a quintessential in policy making and have multi-level comprehensive dialogue between the government representatives and universities, researchers and common people," he added. Hyderabad, Nov 27 : The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday set aside the election of TDP MLA K. Eeranna to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Madakasira constituency. The court directed that M. Thippe Swamy of YSR Congress Party, who had finished runner-up in 2014 election, be treated as the legislator. Eeranna of ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was elected to Assembly from Madakasira (reserved for scheduled castes) in 2014. Thippe Swamy had challenged Eeranna's election on the ground that Eeranna violated People's Representation Act by not providing all details in his election affidavit. The YSRCP leader argued that Eeranna did not give details of the cases pending against him in Karnataka and also about his wife's job. After hearing both sides, the high court set aside Eeranna's election. New Delhi, Nov 27 : The Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday made a U-turn on its earlier assessment on the adverse impact of demonetisation on the farm sector by giving a revised note to a parliamentary panel. The Ministry had in its report to the Standing Committee of Finance had said last week that many farmers were unable to buy fertiliser and seeds for winter-sown crops due to demonetiation of high value currency in November 2016. The ministry on Tuesday told the committee the exact opposite of its earlier version, a member said, requesting anonymity. Official sources said the earlier report was based on the statement of the Chairman of the National Seeds Corporation which did not take into account seed distribution by various other channels. They said the higher farm output in 2016-17 and 2017-18 showed that demonetisation did not hurt farmers. The committee member quoted the ministry as saying that demonetisation actually benefited farmers in purchasing seeds and fertliser and caused the farm area under sowing to increase, the member said. The development came in the midst of the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is facing strong anti-incumbency on account of various factors, including the agrarian distress and the adverse effects of demonetisation. Congress President Rahul Gandhi had on November 21 targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "making fun of our farmers' misfortune" following the reports of the Agriculture Ministry admitting that millions of farmers were unable to buy seeds and fertilizers because of demonetisation. New Delhi, Nov 27 : A minor boy was on Tuesday killed and two other students injured in a collision between an overcrowded school van they were travelling in and a speeding auto-rickshaw in north Delhi, police said. Police said the accident occurred around 2.30 p.m when the school van reached a roundabout near Nirankari Sarovar-Timarpur road. The auto was loaded with some goods. "Vaibhav,8, was declared brought dead in a nearby hospital, while two other students received minor injuries. They were later discharged after first-aid," said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Harender Singh. "Vaibhav was a student of class III in Rosary Public school, Model Town. He was the only son of his parents. Vaibhav's father, Vinod Kumar, works with Delhi Police as Assistant Sub-Inspector and is a resident of Wazirabad village," Singh said. "The school van turned turtle after the accident. There were around 20 minor students inside the van. They were returning home from their school," Singh said. "The auto driver, identified as Salman, 21, also suffered injuries. He was later arrested by the local police," the officer said. Chandigarh, Nov 27 : Amid controversy over Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan for Wednesday's foundation stone laying function of the Kartarpur Corridor, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said he had asked Sidhu to "reconsider" his decision. "I had asked Sidhu to reconsider his decision to go to Pakistan for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor, but had acceded to his (Sidhu's) request for permission to go since I did not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a personal visit," Amarinder told media on Tuesday. "Sidhu was in Madhya Pradesh when I told him to reconsider his decision. Sidhu told me he had already committed himself. When I informed him of the stand I had taken, he said it was his personal visit but he would get back to me. But I did not hear from him," said the Chief Minister. Amarinder said the minister sent him a request for going and he cleared it. "I do not stop anyone from going anywhere on a private visit. It (Sidhu's trip) is not an official visit," the Chief Minister said. Sidhu, who arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, had on Monday defended his decision to go to Pakistan saying he had the "Chief Minister's permission." Standing by his own decision to decline Pakistan's invitation for the ceremony, Amarinder said he believed in saying what he felt. "I have strong feelings on the issue. I have a strong bond with the Army and cannot stand seeing my people getting killed," he said. The Congress had always stood against terrorism and would never allow anyone to destroy the peace of the country or its people, Amarinder said. Terming the situation in Pakistan as "very uncertain and fluid", Amarinder said nobody knew who was running the government there or what was happening in that country. "If Imran Khan is running the government, then he should rein in (the Pakistan army and the terrorist groups). If he cannot do that, then he obviously has nothing in his hands," the Chief Minister said. "My message is very clear: don't mess with Punjab," declared Amarinder, reiterating his warning to Pakistan against any attempt to disrupt peace in Punjab and India. Vowing not to allow terrorism to return to Punjab at any cost, the Chief Minister said the times had changed now. "Punjab then had a police force of less than 20,000, but now has 81,000 police personnel to keep it safe and protected. However, if things do get out of hand, then there is the Indian Army, which is well equipped and prepared to counter any threat. The Army will not allow them (Pakistan) to create trouble in India," he said. Referring to the Kartarpur Corridor, the Chief Minister said that every Punjabi was very happy with it and that there was no question of it being used by terrorists to infiltrate into India. "No one should worry about that as there would be a high level of security in the corridor," he said. Pointing out that the issue of the corridor was raised by former Prime MInister Manmohan Singh on the 400th anniversary of Guru Granth Sahib in 2004 and he himself had raised the issue with Pakistani leaders Parvez Musharraf and former Pakistan Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, Amarinder said he was completely in favour of the corridor as he wanted peace, backed by increase in trade, with Pakistan. "It is the killing of innocent Indians and Indian soldiers that I cannot tolerate. Kargil had happened during peace talks with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Pakistan could not be trusted in the current circumstances," Amarinder said. Shillong, Nov 27 : The Meghalaya Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to include Khasi and Garo languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. The fresh resolution replaces the earlier one which was passed by the Assembly on September 27. Chief Minister Conrad Sangma tabled the new resolution in the House during the one-day special session on Tuesday. The resouition was passed by voice vote. "The State Government found that the contents of the September 27 resolution should be further strengthen, and in consultation with the Khasi Authors' Society, and A'chik Literature Society, it was felt necessary to pass a fresh resolution to replace the earlier resolution," Conrad told the assembly. Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma said a team of dedicated officers should be formed to pursue the matter while demanding that necessary support should be provided to the two organizations - Khasi Authors' Society and Achik Literature Society. Independent legislator S. K. Sun said that the two organizations should be recognized by the Government in the line of Sahitya Akademi as in the case of Konkani and Kannada languages. The resolution stated that according to the Census 2011, Garo has a language population of 936,496. Garo belongs to the Tibet-Burman group of languages. Khasi belongs to the Austro-Asiatic family in the Mon-Khmer group. It is widely spoken in Meghalaya and in parts of Assam and Bangladesh. The only language belonging to this family which has been included in the Eighth Schedule so far is Santali. Bengaluru, Nov 27 : French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler will confer global software major Wipro Chairman Azim Premji with the highest French civilian award Chevalier del la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) on Wednesday here, said its consulate on Tuesday. "The award is in recognition of Premji's contribution to developing the IT (Information Technology) industry in India, his economic outreach in France and his contribution to society as a philanthropist through the Azim Premji Foundation and University," said the consulate in a statement here. Ziegler said it would be a privilege for him to confer the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honour on renowned tech magnate and philanthropist Premji. The 73-year-old Bengaluru-based Premji is a billionaire with $15.6 billion net worth and gave the fifth-highest amount ($8 billion) to charity. Ziegler will also meet representatives of 30 French innovative firms in the city on Wednesday evening. The firms include early stage and large technology firms specialising and developing digital solutions in artificial intelligence, big data, cyber security, cloud computing, connected devices, machine learning and super-computing. Large French digital firms have a footprint in India, employing over 1,30,000 people at their research and development (R&D) centres and facilities. "The meeting will facilitate the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem that draws inspiration from the French Tech movement, a global community made up of a new generation of entrepreneurs, investors, engineers and innovators under one banner," added the statement. "Ziegler's two-day visit to India's tech hub will foster the partnership between the two countries in IT and innovation," it said. The French envoy will also attend the Bengaluru Tech Summit on Thursday in the city centre and attend a leadership meeting on the campus of global software major Infosys in the city's southern outskirts. In June 2018, Infosys opened a digital centre of excellence at Marseille expanding its footprint in France. New Delhi, Nov 27 : The government on Tuesday conferred the National Projects Construction Corporation (NPCC) with the status of 'miniratna', empowering it to "taking speedy decisions". Incorporated in 1957, NPCC is a premier construction company "having mandate with creation of infrastructure to provide impetus for economic development of the country," said the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in a statement. "The Corporation is making continuous profit since 2009-10, having positive networth for the last six years and has ambitious business plan with enhanced order book position of Rs. 11,833 crore," it added. Bengaluru, Nov 27 : About 50 Indian star tortoises were flown to Bengaluru on Monday, two years after they were allegedly smuggled from India to Singapore, an animal welfare organisation said on Tuesday. "The tortoises were smuggled two years ago into Singapore illegally where they were confiscated by the authorities. With the cooperation from Indian and Singapore governments, the tortoises have returned to Karnataka," Delhi-based Wildlife SOS said in a statement here. Even though the star tortoises, which are native to India and Sri Lanka, Awere allegedly smuggled two years ago, they have been kept under the protection of Singapore-based Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES), a non-governmental animal welfare body, till they could be returned to India. "It took two years to get required permissions from the government authorities to fly these tortoises back to Karnataka, from where they were smuggled according to the investigation by authorities," Wildlife SOS press officer Arinita Sandilya told IANS. The animal welfare organisation worked with the Indian Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Karnataka's Forest Department, Customs officials from Singapore and India and ACRES so as to bring these tortoises back. The star tortoises have been kept in isolation (quarantined) at the Bannerghatta National Park in the city's southern suburb and will remain there for three months before being released into the southern state's forests. Wildlife SOS, however, did not disclose the name of the forest the tortoises will be released to, so as to keep the poachers away. Once the tortoises complete their three-month quarantine period, Wildlife SOS plans to radio tag (attaching radio transmitters to track location) and monitor the animals for their survival. The Indian star tortoise, which is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, is among one of the most trafficked tortoise species in the world owing to the unique star-like radiating pattern on their shell. It is poached for its meat and use of body parts in traditional medicine and for exotic pet trade. "We are relieved that the tortoises have returned to where they belong," the co-founder of Wildlife SOS Kartick Satyanarayan said in a statement. "This landmark project not only helps augment the endangered populations in India, but will also demonstrate the commitment from the governments of India and Singapore and their zero tolerance to illegal wildlife trade," it added. The tortoises were transported in specially designed boxes for the five-hour-long flight journey from Singapore to India. Singapore Airlines had transported the tortoises for free, the statement said. Kolkata, Nov 27 : Attempting to regain the ground from the very rural hamlet where the seeds of their ouster from power after a 34-year rule in West Bengal were sown following peasant protests around a decade back, the Communist Party of India-Marxist's farmer arms would take out a march from Singur in Hooghly district from Wednesday. Around 10,000 farmers, share croppers and agricultural workers will take part in the 'Singur to Raj Bhavan Abhijan' (Singur to Raj Bhavan march) to highlight a series of crises engulfing the agrarian sector in the eastern state and press for a eight-point charter of demands. Singur was the original site for Tata Motors' Nano small car factory as per a pact signed by the state's erstwhile CPI-M led Left Front government in 2006, but following volatile farmer protests, the company decided to shift the plant to Sanand in Gujarat. On the other hand, the then principal opposition Trinamool Congress led agrarian protests turned the state's political dynamics upside down and the party rode to power in 2011 decimating the Leftists in the once impregnable 'red fort'. Since then in election after election, the LF's marginalization has continued unchecked, with the BJP capturing the main opposition space from the Leftists in recent by-elections and rural body polls. But over Wednesday and Thursday, the CPI-M's peasant bodies -- All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) -- would jointly organise the march from Singur where the Trinamool Congress government has returned the land, acquired by its predecessor LF regime for the Nano plant, following a Supreme Court order in 2016. The marchers are expected to be joined by 40,000 others from various parts of the state, who would conduct rallies and campaigns demanding the state's present rulers take initiative to set up industries on lands earlier acquired by the state government for industrialization including Singur. Among other demands of the marchers are work for all, waiver of agricultural debt, end of discrimination among Singur's farmers, peasant and sharecroppers in providing government welfare schemes and implementation of the M S Swaminathan Commission recommendations. The march forms an important part of the all India 'Kisan Mukti March', that will culminate in New Delhi on November 30. The New Delhi farmer mobilisation is being organized by the All India Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an umbrella organization of nearly 180 unions. AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah would inaugurate the march from Ratanpur, Singur, from where 2,500 people will proceed towards Kolkata. On November 29, nearly 16,000 farmers and agricultural workers would start their march towards Kolkata. On the way, they would be joined by rallyists from East & West Medinipur and other districts. They would then proceed towards central Kolkata. "The farmers of Singur are able to cultivate only a paltry 11 out of 997 acres of land acquired by the state government for the automobile manufacturing project. "More than two years ago, this land was 'returned' to land-holders after a Supreme Court order, but the state government failed to hand over the plots in a cultivable condition, as mandated by the court. The landholders and youth of Singur are now in extreme distress, as farming is no longer viable in this area," said AIKS state secretary Amal Haldar. Washington, Nov 28 : Three US soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Citing U.S. military officials, the report said that the incident took place during a US military patrol near Ghazni city, which left three other service members and a military contractor wounded, Xinhua news agency reported. The survivors were evacuated from the area and received medical attention, according to the report. The official website of NATO Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan confirmed the casualties in the attack on Tuesday. The attack appeared to be the deadliest attack on US forces in Afghanistan in the last 17 months. A US service member was killed last Saturday while conducting an operation in Afghanistan, according to the official website of NATO Resolute Support Mission. Earlier this month, a major of US Army National Guard was killed in Afghanistan in an insider attack launched by a member of the Afghan security forces. US military deaths have surpassed 2,400 since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Rome, Nov 28 : The Italian government will do all it can to avoid being slapped with billions of euros of European Union fines over its planned 2.4 percent budget deficit in 2019, Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday. "We will do our utmost to avoid the EU's excessive deficit procedure," Salvini said. "We are re-doing all our calculations." Salvini's remarks came after he, deputy premier Luigi Di Maio and premier Giuseppe Conte issued a joint statement on Monday, saying the objectives for the 2019 budget had already been fixed. The European Commission announced last Wednesday that Italy was "sleepwalking into instability" with its big-spending budget which will not cut its massive public debt and which breaches EU borrowing rules. Opening a case against Italy under the eurozone's "excessive deficit procedure" was now on the cards, the EU executive said. Fines under that procedure could start at 0.2 percent Italy's entire economic output (GDP) -- which would measure in the billions of euros. Moscow, Nov 28 : The Kremlin said Tuesday that Ukraine's decision to enforce martial law in several of its provinces would risk heightening tensions in the country's east, where Ukrainian forces loyal to Kiev have been pitted against pro-Russian rebels for years. Ukrainian lawmakers on Monday passed a motion to impose martial law in 10 of its 27 regions starting Wednesday, after Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels on Sunday in waters near the disputed Crimean peninsula, an act that has been condemned by Western institutions such as NATO and the European Union. "The imposition of martial law in several regions could potentially raise the risk of an escalation in the regions of conflict," Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, said, Efe news reports. Insurgents allegedly backed by Russia have been in control of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk -- an area collectively known as the Donbass -- since 2014, the same year that Moscow annexed Crimea following the revolution in Ukraine that ousted the pro-Russia former president Viktor Yanukovych. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier Tuesday to express his concern over the growing tensions between Moscow and Kiev. Putin told Merkel in a telephone conversation that the Ukrainian government "bears full responsibility for creating another conflict situation and for risks associated with it". The Russian leader also described the presence of Ukrainian vessels near the Kerch Strait in Crimea on Sunday as "provocative" and in "gross violation of norms of international law", according to the Kremlin. "Vladimir Putin expressed hope that Berlin will influence the Ukrainian authorities and keep them from making further hasty decisions," a Kremlin statement said. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has called on the international community to impose more sanctions against Russia for seizing the three vessels. Moscow said the ships were seized in Russian waters after they tried to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea into the Azov Sea, a journey that skirts the Crimean peninsula. Moscow recently completed construction on a bridge over the strait, connecting mainland Russia to the Crimea. At the time of the incident, a Russian cargo ship blocked the passage underneath the $3.69 billion bridge. Meanwhile, in a joint press conference with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drain, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that no mediation was necessary between Russia and Ukraine over the seizing of the three Ukrainian naval vessels. Lavrov accused Ukraine of intentional provocations, claiming the Ukrainian ships could have taken an alternative route and avoided the clash altogether. The Russian diplomat went on to state that neither the United Nations Security Council nor the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe or any other supra-national organisation had any business in the matter. Lavrov also said he would correct the EU by stating that the naval conflict did not take place in the Sea of Azov but the Black Sea, both of which are connected by the narrow strait of Kerch. San Francisco, Nov 28 : Facebook has a "black people problem" as the leading tech company fails to give enough support to its black employees or users, a former Facebook employee said in an internal memo publicly released on Tuesday. In the memo circulated to all Facebook employees early this month shortly before he left the company, Mark Luckie, former strategic partner manager for global influencers at Facebook, wrote that many black people felt they were marginalised and feared to speak up about their experience at the company, Xinhua news agency reported. Facebook's disenfranchisement of black people on the platform mirrors the marginalisation of its black employees, he said. "Black people are finding that their attempts to create 'safe spaces' on Facebook for conversation among themselves are being derailed by the platform itself," said Luckie, who is black himself. Black people also have seen their content taken down repeatedly, "despite them often not violating Facebook's terms of service", he noted. He went on to say that at least two or three times every day his colleagues working at Facebook's headquarters at Menlo Park in Silicon Valley would look "directly" at him while holding their wallet or shoving their hands down their pocket to clutch it tightly until he passes. "To feel like an oddity at your own place of employment because of the colour of your skin while passing posters reminding you to be your authentic self feels in itself inauthentic," he said. Luckie complained that black people are not properly represented at the world's largest social media network. "In some buildings, there are more 'Black Lives Matter' posters than there are actual black people. Facebook can't claim that it is connecting communities if those communities aren't represented proportionately in its staffing." Facebook said in July that four per cent of its US workforce is black, an increase of two per cent from the figure in 2014, when the company published its first workplace diversity report. Responding to Luckie's note, Facebook spokesman Anthony Harrison, in a statement provided to CNBC, said the company has "been working diligently to increase the range of perspectives among those who build our products and serve the people who use them throughout the world". "The growth in representation of people from more diverse groups, working in many different functions across the company, is a key driver of our ability to succeed," the statement said. Washington, Nov 28 : President Donald Trump will have a "trilateral meeting" with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday. In a press briefing at the White House, Bolton said that Trump's bilateral with Abe "will transform at some point during that meeting into a trilateral meeting" with Prime Minister Modi. The G20 summit is scheduled for November 30 and December 1. Trump, however, is not expected to hold a formal bilateral meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with Bolton saying that the President's "bilateral schedule is full to overflowing at this point", Xinhua news agency reports. However, he did not exclude the possibility of the two leaders' informal meeting. Bolton also said that Trump, during his stay in the South American nation, is expected to meet with the presidents of Argentina, South Korea, Turkey and Russia. White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said that Trump's "participation in the G20 summit is a key opportunity to reiterate his commitment to domestic and global economic growth and prosperity, cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system that is based on fair economic competition and free, fair and reciprocal trade." Speaking of the prospect of the US-Saudi leaders' meeting, Sanders said she would not rule out any interaction, adding that Trump will also meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Washington, Nov 28 : An "all clear" has been given after reports of an active shooter at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, authorities said Tuesday afternoon. "No active shooter was found" and "personnel may now move freely", tweeted Naval Support Activity Bethesda. US Navy tweeted that it was an "ad hoc drill by tenant command", Xinhua news agency reported. Local news outlets said earlier that police were responding to reports of an active shooter who was said to have been in the basement of a building at the Maryland base. The basement was cleared at around 3:00 p.m. local time, according to the base. US Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger tweeted earlier that he and about 40 other people were safe in a conference room at the medical center and that they had been told "there is an active shooter." "At no point was there any indication that this was a drill," Ruppersberger said in a tweet later. Dexus and GIC, Singapores sovereign wealth fund, have joined forces for a new unlisted trust. The circa $2 billion fund will be known as the Dexus Australian Logistics Trust (DALT) and will look to invest in logistics properties in Australia. The venture will be with a $1.4 billion logistics portfolio of assets mostly located in Sydney and Melbourne. The weighted average lease expiry of the portfolio is 5.3 years with occupancy at 98%. DALT will also add three further sites with development potential and a total future completion value of $0.5 billion. Subject to FIRB approval, GIC will be DALTs foundation investor, taking an initial 25% investment in the core portfolio, with put and call rights to acquire an additional 24% by June 2020. Lee Kok Sun, Chief Investment Officer, Real Estate, said: This investment reflects GICs confidence in the long-term potential of Australias logistics sector. We believe the structural and consumption growth in Australia, particularly from favourable demographics and growth in e-commerce, will continue to drive demand for logistics properties. This portfolio of quality assets in strong locations is well-positioned to capitalise on this and generate steady income over the long term. We look forward to partnering Dexus, a leading manager and developer of industrial properties in Australia, to establish and scale this venture. 4 Turnbull Close, Greystanes, NSW (pictured above) 27 Distribution Drive, Truganina, VIC (pictured above) 50 Foundation Road, Truganina, VIC (pictured above) GUEST OBSERVATION After years of strong housing market growth, Sydneys property market is slowing. Despite this, housing stress remains a reality for many Sydneysiders, with rents remaining largely untouched. Public housing is a lifeline for those who cant afford to rent in the private market, but the numbers of households in this position means many must wait years for a place. Median rents for apartments in Sydney fell only 0.9% in the September quarter, to $545 a week. This means a household needs to earn about $94,000 a year to avoid housing stress. About half of the households in Sydney earn less than this. Adding to these cost pressures, tenancy laws are strongly weighted in favour of landlords. This gives tenants little security of tenure and exposes them to frequent upheaval, inadequate conditions and rental hikes. But public housing tenants are also facing upheaval and uncertainty in inner-city areas such as Waterloo and Redfern, as a result of redevelopments that they feel are aimed at pushing their communities out of the city. What is happening to public housing? The lack of public housing investment in New South Wales and the costs of private rental mean over 50,000 people are on the state waiting list. In inner-city areas, they face a wait of five to ten years for public housing. Through the Communities Plus program and the Social and Affordable Housing Fund, the NSW government plans to build 27,000 more social and affordable homes. But this figure is somewhat misleading. In the last three years, the government has sold off half as much public housing as it has built. And the figure of 27,000 looks more like 9,900 when you consider that this includes around 17,000 dwellings that will be demolished and rebuilt. Several of the housing estates that remain will undergo massive redevelopment. One of these projects involves Sydneys largest inner-city public housing estates, in Waterloo. The redevelopment will transform it into a mixed estate of 70% private housing and 30% social housing, going from just over 2,000 dwellings to potentially more than 7,000. Residents fear being pushed out Carol Tang, Author provided Since the redevelopment was announced in 2015, we have been working with the residents of Waterloo to understand their experience of the redevelopment. Many residents feel the project is a ploy to move the poor people out of the city, as one of them put it. While the government has promised everyone the right to return, there is still a huge amount of uncertainty. And this is justified given that, like many large infrastructure projects conceived during Sydneys boom time, the Waterloo project will be subject to many changes and delays. Nic Waler, Author provided The residents of Waterloo, however, will not go quietly. People are trying to speak up, says Maryanne Laumua, a Waterloo tenant and key team member of the WeLiveHere2017 project. One of the ways that residents are speaking up is by making their presence known on Sydneys skyline. In September 2017, residents in the tallest of Waterloos towers, Matavai and Turanga, installed coloured lights in their apartment windows to make a statement: We live here. The residents efforts are chronicled in a new ABC documentary, There Goes Our Neighbourhood. A long history of displacement A history of displacement through colonialism, redevelopment and evictions has shaped Waterloo and neighbouring Redfern. The Gadigal people were violently dispossessed of their country after European invasion. Throughout the last century, slum clearance displaced many working-class households. The demolition of The Block in Redfern removed many Aboriginal families from their homes. The redevelopment in neighbouring Waterloo comes at a time when approval has been given to redevelop The Block. The Redfern development includes construction of student housing that seems to have priority over affordable Indigenous housing. These areas also have a long history of organising against displacement. Waterloo residents joined with the unions as part of the 1970s Green Bans campaigns to limit the destruction of working-class housing in the suburb. Jenny Munro and other Aboriginal leaders have campaigned tirelessly for the rights of their community, which includes a years-long tent embassy protest on the site of The Block. The redevelopment of Waterloos public housing estate will hardly make a dent in easing housing pressure in Sydney. And as Waterloo resident Karyn Brown puts it: "To solve the citys housing crisis, they are picking on public housing tenants, those on the second rung of the housing ladder." Waterloo tenants resisting the redevelopment are concerned that its a form of state-led gentrification. They see the notion of social mix the idea that introducing private owners and tenants can fix disadvantaged communities as a smokescreen for the class upgrading of their neighbourhood. Indeed, there is little empirical evidence to support the notion that social mix can solve a communitys problems. Rather than a project intended to alleviate their disadvantage, many tenants feel that social mix is both classist and racist. As Lorna Munro and Joel Sherwood-Spring put it, the dilution of the existing community including the Aboriginal population is simply a continuation of the colonial project. The residents of Waterloos public housing might be far from the citys wealthiest residents, but theyve got fighting spirit and community pride in spades. As There Goes Our Neighbourhood shows, this community is diverse, creative and determined to fight for their right to remain in the city. Pratichi Chatterjee, PhD Student, Urban Geography, University of Sydney Alistair Sisson, PhD Candidate, Urban Geography, University of Sydney Jenna Condie, Lecturer in Digital Research and Online Social Analysis, Western Sydney University Laura Wynne, PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, UTas and Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS, University of Tasmania This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. GUSET OBSERVATION Glossy Black-Cockatoos used to be common on South Australias Kangaroo Island until possums started eating their eggs and chicks. After volunteers helped protect nest hollows and erect safe nest boxes, the population more than doubled. But how do you measure such success? How do you compare cockatoo nest protection with any other investment in conservation? Unfortunately, we have few ways to compare and track the different efforts many people may be making to help conserve our natural treasures. Thats why a group of us from a dozen Australian universities along with scientists and private researchers around the world have created metrics of progress for both our understanding of how to manage threats of different intensity, and how well that management has been implemented. We also provide guidance on what still needs doing before a threat no longer needs active management. For the first time, we looked at every threatened bird in Australia to see how well or not they are managed. Hopefully, we can use this to avoid compounding our disastrous recent track record of extinctions in Australia. The state of Australian birds What we did differently was collect the same data across different species, which meant we could compare conservation efforts across all bids. Nik Borrow/Flickr When we applied these metrics to Australias 238 threatened bird species, the results were both encouraging and daunting. The good news is that we understand how to reduce the impact of about 52% of the threats although of course that means we know little about how to deal with the other 48%. But the situation is decidedly worse when we consider how effectively we are putting that research into practice. Only 43% of threats are being managed in any way at all and just a third of the worst threats and we are achieving good outcomes for just 20%. But at least we now know where we are. We can celebrate what we have accomplished, appreciate how much needs doing, and direct our efforts where they will have the greatest benefit. The threats to our birds Introduced mammals, particularly cats, have been (and continue to be) a significant threat to Australian birds. Although we have successfully eradicated feral animals on many islands, saving many species, they remain a grave threat on the mainland. The effect of climate change is becoming the top priority threat for the future. About half of all threatened birds are likely to be affected by increases in drought, fire, heat or sea level. Given the policy prevarication at a global level, targeted research is essential if birds are to be helped to cope. By looking at multiple species, we can also identify what helps successful conservation. Monitoring, for instance, has a big impact on threat alleviation better monitored species receive more attention. There is also unsurprisingly a strong connection between knowledge of how to manage a threat and successful application of that knowledge. Often policy people want instant action, but our work suggests that action before knowledge will squander money. Where to from here? So what can we use this analysis for? One use is helping species close to extinction. Using the same approach for multiple species groups, it is apparent that, while birds and mammals are in a parlous state, the most threatened fish are far worse off. We can also identify some clear priorities for action. Finally, we must acknowledge this work emerged not from a government research grant, but from a non-government organisation (NGO). BirdLife Australia needed an overview of the countrys performance with threatened birds and was able to draw on the volunteered skills of biologists and mathematicians from around the country, and then the world. Indeed, one of the future projects will be using the new assessment tool to see just how much of the conservation action around the country is being driven by volunteers, from the many people who contributed their knowledge and skills to this paper through to those keeping glossy black-cockatoo chicks safe on Kangaroo Island. Stephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University Alienor Chauvenet, Lecturer, Griffith University April Reside, Researcher, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland Brendan Wintle, Professor Conservation Ecology, University of Melbourne David Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University David M Watson, Professor in Ecology, Charles Sturt University Elisa Bayraktarov, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Conservation Biology, The University of Queensland Hayley Geyle, Research Assistant, Charles Darwin University; Hugh Possingham, Professor, The University of Queensland Ian Leiper, Geospatial Scientist, Charles Darwin University James Watson, Professor, The University of Queensland Jim Radford, Principal Research Fellow, Research Centre for Future Landscapes, La Trobe University John Woinarski, Professor (conservation biology), Charles Darwin University Les Christidis, Professor, Southern Cross University Martine Maron, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland Molly K Grace, Postdoctoral Fellow in Zoology, University of Oxford Paul McDonald, Associate professor, University of New England Sarah Legge, Associate Professor, Australian National University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Property spruiker Rick Otton has listed his Bondi Beach semi for December auction. It comes after his $18 million fine for misleading investors by the Federal Court for breaches of the Australian Consumer Law, $12 million against Ottons business We Buy Houses and $6 million against him personally. Mr Otton was also banned from managing corporations for 10 years in Australia. It has been scheduled for a December 15 auction with a $3.2 million to $3.5 million price guide. The four-bedroom Roscoe Street semi listed by by Di Baker, of Di Baker Prestige Properties was bought it in 2007 for $1.6 million through Adrian Bo at McGrath. Records show it is the only NSW property held in Ottons name. It is held with Jane Otton. There are two Westpac mortgages. EXPERT OBSERVER Our quarterly surveys of sales activity always reveal key trends and the latest shows just how many growth markets we have in the different markets across Australia. The smaller capital cities and in particular regional Australian are providing some compelling growth areas which provide an attractive combination of affordable prices and solid rental yields, compared to the now-fading markets in the biggest cities. Here are four key findings from the new edition of The Price Predictor Index:- 1. Adelaide Is the Unsung Hero Hotspottings latest survey confirms that Adelaide is the standout market in capital city Australia and is largely an unheralded star although we note the latest report from realestate.com.au which lists Adelaide alongside Hobart as the fastest-selling markets in the country. Adelaide seems destined to always fly under the radar screen of national media, but it has a noteworthy property market. We reported in the previous edition that Adelaide had become the nations leading market jurisdiction, with 61 suburbs with rising sales activity. Our new survey reveals Adelaide has improved further and now has 71 growth suburbs. The next best city is the recovering Perth market, which has 49 (up from 45 in the winter survey). Canberra is also travelling well, with a solid (relative to its size) 22 upwardly-mobile suburbs. Brisbane remains lukewarm, but with promise of better things, and Hobart, which is currently the leading city on price growth, looks to have passed the peak of its up-cycle. Darwin remains mired in its downturn. As noted in previous reports, Sydney and Melbourne are well past their peaks and have few growth markets. 2. Regional Markets Out-do Their Capital Cities Regional areas continue to out-perform their capital cities in the eastern states. Regional NSW is the only serious challenger to Adelaide as the market jurisdiction with the most rising markets and now has considerably more growth markets than Sydney. Regional Victoria is also pumping and is out-performing the fading Melbourne market. Regional Queensland is out-doing Brisbane, which is yet to fire. And Regional Tasmania is raging in the wake of Hobarts mini-boom. This is also being reflected in price performance. The strongest price growth in the past 12 months has occurred in selected Regional Victoria markets, while Regional NSW has multiple precincts where double-digit annual price growth has been recorded. The strongest market in Queensland is the Sunshine Coast and we are seeing a return to solid price growth in recovering Central Queensland markets like Mackay. A recent REIQ report confirmed that Regional Queensland was out-doing Brisbane on price uplift and a CoreLogic analysis in November listed Regional Tasmania as a national leader on price growth. 3. Price Patterns Confirm The Importance Of Demand Data Price performance around Australia in the past 12 months has emphatically confirmed the basic premise of The Price Predictor Index: that increases in sales volumes (buyer demand) in a location leads to price growth, but with a time lag. The time lag factor often means that price uplift continues for a considerable time after sales activity has started to taper off. Right now, many of the locations around Australia with the biggest price growth are what we classify as plateau markets places where sales activity has passed its peak and tapered off at still-solid levels a little below the peak. A prime example is provided by the outer ring suburbs of Melbourne, where sales were previously rising strongly and have now tapered off but prices are still rising. This is true for suburbs in the Whittlesea, Hume, Casey and Wyndham LGAs, where most suburbs have recorded growth above 10% in the past 12 months, including many which have recently topped 20% growth. This is also true for the suburbs of Greater Geelong and other areas just outside Melbourne, including Pakenham, Officer and Warragul in the south-east. New South Wales examples include the Central Coast and the City of Newcastle. 4. Big City Prices Stronger Than Media Suggests Mainstream media is over-stating price decline in our two biggest cities, partly caused by dodgy data and analysis from some of the research companies and partly through the ineptitude of economists, who pontificate on subjects beyond their area of expertise, notably residential property markets. Our detailed analysis of recent activity in Sydney and Melbourne has found evidence of price decline in some markets, but not the wholesale large decreases claimed in daily newspaper reporting. In our analysis of Melbourne we say this: A feature of Melbourne is the number of locations where prices remain strong Our survey has found over 100 suburbs across the metropolitan area where median prices have recorded double-digit growth in annual terms, including 85 where prices have risen further in the most recent quarter. This finding contradicts media coverage, which suggests prices are falling across the Melbourne metropolitan area. The general theme, based on our survey, is that the top end suburbs are experiencing price decline, the middle market areas are holding firm on pricing and the cheaper areas are still rising. Prices are weaker in Sydney, but we can find few locations with sufficient decline to justify claims that Sydney prices are down 8% in annual terms (CoreLogic figures). Few individual suburbs have fallen that much, as yet. And I note that the latest figures from other research sources, including SQM Research, Domain and the ABS, record Sydneys price decline in smaller numbers. Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au [email protected] twitter.com/hotspotting SRQ Movers is winning rave reviews for its local moving services in the Sarasota, Florida area. They also provide moving services to or from anywhere inside the state of Florida with well-trained and caring moving professionals that have over 10 years of moving experience. They work hard to maintain their reputation as a safe, secure and efficient transport service to all of their residential customers whose complete satisfaction is their first priority. They continue to have success at building lasting relationships with clients and are ready to do a great job for you too. SRQ Movers also wants potential clients to be informed when choosing a local moving service and has provided the following questions and answers as a starting point to consider them for your future move. Q: Do you charge by the hour or do you charge a flat rate? A: We charge hourly rates and we charge by the half-hour after the 2nd hour. Q: Do you have a travel charge? A: We do not have a hourly travel charge for local services. Q: When does my time start for the hourly rate? A: When we arrive at your starting location (for local services only- please ask if your move is in our local service area). Q: How long does it take to move? A: The amount of time it takes depends on variables such as: the size of the current location you are in, how far away you are moving, the amount of items you have, the total number of boxes, degree of difficulty of moving large items, stairs, tight turns, how far away the moving truck is to the entrance of the home, etc. Once you have given us a description of your move we should be able to give you a good estimation of the time it will take. Q: How can I keep costs down during my move? A: When speaking with the owner, mention any concerns you have. After getting a thorough description of the items being moved, the owner will be able to give you a good estimate of time and cost. However, keep in mind that moving is not an exact science and that figure could change a little bit on the day of the move. But a good way to keep costs down is to be as prepared as possible for when the movers arrive to cut down on using any unnecessary time. Money Saving Tip: Moving boxes are one of the most time consuming areas of a move, so try to use the same size boxes as much as you can. Be sure they are taped up and labeled correctly for the movers. Get all boxes plastic tubs/bins stacked up as close to the front door as you can so the movers can just place them on the dolly and go (99% of time boxes are the first thing the movers will put on the truck). Be sure each box is less than 40 pounds(overloaded boxes can be dangerous to move and they also take up more time and manpower to move). Money Saving Tip: Also, while the movers will be happy to do so, disassembly of furniture takes up time as well. Try to disassemble any beds, desks and tables. Money Saving Tip: You should also try to move as many small and loose items as you can before the movers arrive so they can concentrate on the big stuff. Loose items around the house and garage areas can add as much as 50% more time to your move. Q: Should I clean my furniture before the movers arrive? A: Please do not be clean with furniture polish or cleaner because it may make the furniture very slippery to hold on to. We do require that you remove dust and pet hair from all furniture items before we arrive (A cotton rag, vacuum cleaner and/or duster work well). Q: Should I tip my movers? A: While there are not set guidelines for gratuity, keep in mind that the moving industry is a service industry. If you feel that the job was done efficiently and accurately, feel free to tip your movers accordingly. You may give it to the crew leader who will later disperse the amount evenly throughout the crew. Q: What should I do with hazardous items? A: By law moving companies are restricted from moving items such as flammables and firearms. We will be happy to answer any additional moving service questions or listen to any concerns you may have about your upcoming local move so our Sarasota movers can provide the best moving service possible. We provide local movers and moving services in Sarasota, Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch. We offer three locations in the Sarasota-Bradenton areas for clients to inquire about moving services. Dave the owner can be reached at 941-320-0437. TPGs success in delivering industry leading front-to-back office investment accounting solutions aligns well with Best Credits mission to deliver high quality evaluations to institutional investors Best Credit Data, Inc. (BCD), a leading vendor of market data pricing, analytics and reference data for municipal bonds, corporate bonds, private placements, broadly syndicated and middle market loans today announced a partnership with TPG Software, Inc. (TPG), a developer of streamlined front-to-back office investment accounting and management software solutions, to deliver end-of-day evaluations to TPGs clients. With this new partnership, TPG Software now has an interface to import BCD municipal bond prices to its Portfolio Genius portfolio management system, available to those clients who want a high-quality alternative to traditional pricing services. BCD provides evaluated pricing for over 1 million U.S. municipal bonds every day including eight years of end-of-day history to clients across a range of use cases including banks, brokers, mutual funds, hedge funds and insurance companies. We are excited to provide TPGs clients with the data they need to power their daily portfolio valuations, said Mark OBrien, President of Best Credit Data, Inc. TPGs success in delivering industry leading front-to-back office investment accounting solutions aligns well with Best Credits mission to deliver high quality evaluations to institutional investors. Slavek Rotkiewicz, President and co-founder of TPG Software, Inc., said, TPG customers rely on the Portfolio Genius System for full coverage of the fixed income and liability instruments in their portfolios. We strive to deliver the most accurate information to our clients, and thats why partnering with Best Credit Data was the right decision for us. BCD provides the high quality evaluations, coverage, and timeliness that is so critical for our client base. Best Credit Data, Inc. delivers daily and historical evaluations via data feeds, API and the intuitive and easy-to-use BCD portal. The portal is a cost-effective method to quickly view and download municipal and corporate bond data into a clients workflow. About Best Credit Data, Inc. Founded in 2013, Best Credit Data, Inc. is a Boston based market data vendor focused on leveraging Cloud computing technology to deliver high quality municipal bond, corporate bond, private placement, broadly syndicated and middle market loan evaluations to service institutional portfolio accounting, risk management, and compliance use cases. BCDs clients include banks, brokers, mutual funds, hedge funds, and insurance companies. For more information, please visit https://www.bestcreditanalysis.com/. About TPG Software, Inc. Founded in 1991, TPG Software, Inc. provides investment accounting software solutions that support trading, comprehensive investment analysis and reporting, investment, liability, and derivative accounting, client safekeeping, and risk and collateral management. TPGs mission is to provide software tools that support the complicated securities created by Wall Street, maintain solutions to comply with regulatory guidelines, and deliver products built on industry-standard software platforms while utilizing the newest technologies available. For more information, please visit https://www.tpgsoftware.com/. . This company treats us like a family, said Mike McKeever, Shipping & Receiving Supervisor. Ive worked in warehousing for over 20 years and have never seen anyone share good news this way. I love this company. The employees of S.S. White Technologies and its subsidiary Shukla Medical in St. Petersburg, Florida went home happy last Thursday. In todays cost-cutting climate, most small to medium size manufacturing companies in Florida are struggling to make the ends meet and do not have much cash left to give workers a raise much less an unexpected cash bonus. At S.S. White, at a monthly employee town hall meeting, the CEO, Rahul Shukla, announced that their September sales exceeded all prior months. The company relocated its entire headquarters from Piscataway, NJ to St. Petersburg, FL in January of 2018 and brought with them 125 jobs. When S.S. White purchased the Essilor building on Sheen Drive in Seminole and moved 40 truckloads of machinery, the employees and the management expected to take many months to get to normal production. We not only got settled in beautiful Florida in record time but this month we broke our all-time monthly billing records, said Shukla to the employees. Then he said something that the employees had not expected, To thank you just with words is not enough. At the end of my speech, we will give a cash bonus of one hundred dollars to every employee. There was a thunderous applause in the meeting room. The employees had a smile from ear to ear and some even got misty eyed. This company treats us like a family, said Mike McKeever, Shipping & Receiving Supervisor. Ive worked in warehousing for over 20 years and have never seen anyone share good news this way. I love this company. The money will help. said David Kleer who works as a CNC operator, But for the owner to reach into his pocket and give this bonus to every worker is unbelievable. He will be blessed for this. At the end of the speech, the HR Manager, Sheryl Sheppard, and her HR team were standing ready with $12,000 in crisp one hundred dollar bills and handed out one bill to each employee. They reminded the employees that even though the bonus was paid in cash, it will be duly reported as their income through payroll. This is not the only time the owner has surprised us, said Nancy Santiago who joined S.S. White in January. At that time, he called us all in a meeting and told us that the company will pay 100% of the premium for medical, dental, and life insurance. I nearly cried. S.S. White Technologies, founded in 1844, is one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the USA. They make highly engineered products. They proudly state that 98% of all the airplanes made in the world have at least one S.S. White part on them. Their subsidiary Shukla Medical, also in the same building, makes orthopedic surgical tools designed to extract worn or broken implants. S.S. White has subsidiaries in UK and India. S.S. White purchased the Essilor building in Seminole that was unoccupied for over five years. The company has several unique distinctions, one being, it is one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the country. It was founded by legendary dentist Samuel Stockton White in 1844. Its original products are displayed in Smithsonian. In 1973, Shukla, after finishing his studies, took a low-level factory job at S.S. White. Fifteen years later, he ended up buying the company. Today, S.S. White is considered the worlds number one company for flexible shafts and orthopedic extraction tools. When asked why they paid a surprise bonus, Shukla replied, This was our way to tell employees that they all can celebrate our successes. Sheryl Sheppard, HR Manager said, Since moving to Seminole, we have hired over 75 factory and office employees from the local market and we are still hiring. For additional information Sheryl Sheppard Human Resources Manager (727) 626-2831 sheryl(AT)sswhite.net For more information on these companies: http://www.sswhite.net and http://www.shuklamedical.com AFWERX Challenge Thanks to AFWERX, we have emerging technologies at our fingertips, ready to integrate into systems for our warfighters. We are executing our leadership's rapid-prototyping direction & bringing the future faster, Lt. Naomi Harper, Program Manager, US Air Force Aircrew Performance Program Office. AFWERX the Air Forces program dedicated to solving some of the toughest problems it faces via collaborations between the nations top entrepreneurs, industry experts, academic professionals, and non-traditional contributors recently asked for innovators to submit components, materials, or technologies that could specifically improve the USAF Fixed Wing Helmet used by many of its pilots and aircrew. On November 14th, AFWERX showcased 37 solutions selected from the 100+ submissions from across the US, UK and Australia to an audience of USAF Airmen from the nearby Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases and members of the program management office from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. Also present for the showcase were members of the local technology and manufacturing community eager to experience these modern Air Force advancements firsthand. The following day, 16 of the most promising teams were invited for follow-on discussions at the AFWERX Vegas Innovation Hub for individual detailed reviews and the opportunity to attain prototype funding to further advance their solutions and have them tested that could lead to a $20M+ government contract. The outcome of the showcase is that 3 full-helmet solution providers and 7 component companies have been selected to continue. These companies will potentially be awarded prototyping funds to further develop their solutions and integrate components. Ultimately, these prototypes will be submitted to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center on or before May 15th, 2019. The companies selected to continue officially include: Lift Aviation, Gentex, Aviation Specialties Unlimited, Rockwell Collins / Elbit (RCEVS), Vicis, Spotlight Labs, Specialized Bicycles, Bell Helmets, Banzai Defense, and BAE Systems. It is amazing to see the diversity of ideas and innovative solutions from both non-traditional companies and those who are well-established in this industry. We are moving forward with companies of all sizes and those who have expertise never considered in an effort like this before. It is extremely exciting and our hope is to leverage the best of each contributor to ultimately deliver an amazing product to our deserving Air Force Airmen. - Colby Edwards, Deputy Director AFWERX Vegas Innovation Hub. Its not only exciting but very impressive what weve been able to accomplish over a span of 20 weeks. We have been able to reach many non-traditional defense companies, that until now have been unresponsive to traditional market research methods. Now, thanks to AFWERX, we have emerging technologies at our fingertips, ready to integrate into systems for our warfighters. We are executing our leadership's rapid-prototyping direction and bringing the future faster, exciting times ahead! Lt. Naomi Harper, Program Manager, US Air Force Aircrew Performance Program Office. Since it was first established in 2017 by the Secretary of the Air Force, AFWERXs core mission has been to improve Air Force capabilities by connecting innovators, simplifying technology transfers, and accelerating results to the warfighter. This most recent event has propelled the collaboration program to new heights. To learn more about the event, as well as future challenges, visit: afwerxchallenge.com All but three of the people taken into custody were released without charges, but three juveniles were subsequently charged with crimes that had taken place in other south suburbs, including Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, Matteson and Sauk Village, according to Sauk Village Police Chief Malcolm White. No charges have been filed related to the shooting in Sauk Village, he said. With Singapores focus on Smart Nation, IoT, and supporting next generation innovation such as driverless cars and 5G wireless, our Innovation Center ensures more regional companies have access to technologies that can support the speed, bandwidth and clean power required by these applications. Palomar Technologies, a global leader in delivering total process solutions for advanced photonics and microelectronic device packaging, announced today the launch of its Innovation Center in Singapore. The launch is in partnership with the LUX Photonics Consortium and DenseLight Semiconductors, a division of POET Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of optical light source products. LUX Photonics Consortium, supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore, is an initiative by Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore to aid the translation of photonics research into diverse applications. As the first-of-its-kind in Southeast Asia, Palomar Technologies Innovation Center Asia offers local companies unprecedented access to expert-designed, automated, complex, photonic and microelectronic assembly processes that are both cost-effective and reliable. It will also offer companies low-volume prototyping and process development service for the assembly of high performance packages that enable the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and 5G wireless networks. Palomar Technologies Innovation Center Asia signifies the companys commitment to the region and empowers Singapore businesses to step-up their photonics/microelectronics manufacturing efforts by giving them access to Palomars process development and package assembly expertise, which was previously only available in America. With Singapores focus on Smart Nation, IoT, and supporting next generation innovation such as driverless cars and 5G wireless, our Innovation Center ensures more regional companies have access to technologies that can support the speed, bandwidth and clean power required by these applications, said Mr. Rich Hueners, VP of Global Sales and Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Palomar Technologies. Photonics is the cornerstone of Singapores Smart Nation initiative, powering next-generation, world-class connectivity, ensuring companies stay cost effective, and Singapore retains its crown as the regions technology hub. With photonics leading the way, it is estimated by 2025, over 75 billion IoT devices will be connected to networks with data transferred at 100 times the speed of today. The rise of IoT in our homes and cities requires the need for higher data transfer speeds, increased computing power, and more efficient capacity handling, while photonic devices must be smaller in size and more sustainable thereby transforming the core of technology development. Photons, not electrons, are the essential means to transmit the data generated by millions of devices at high speed over vast distances. Photonics is an enabling technology that has revolutionized the way we communicate and will continue to do so with the ever-increasing demand for more data and faster data rates. Without the toolsets to integrate photonics into the current technology platforms, it will not be possible to achieve our vision of a smart nation, said Prof Tjin Swee Chuan, Chairman of LUX Photonics Consortium. The opening of the Palomar Technologies Innovation Center will enable Singapore manufacturers to translate cutting-edge research in photonics into diverse applications. We are glad to finally have an established provider like Palomar Technologies bring its unique device assembly solutions to Singapore, said Mr. Rajan Rajgopal, President & GM, DenseLight Semiconductors. Palomar Technologies has enabled us with the flexibility and affordability, and to give our clients access to the latest technology at the best value. This will help us remain competitive in an increasingly crowded industry. Media Contact: Tanya Netto / Ellyne Phneah / Annette Lee Phone: +65 6333 3449 Email: palomar(at)klarecocomms(dot)com Palomar Contact: Rebecca Janzon Phone: (+1) 760-409-7453 Email: rjanzon(at)bonders(dot)com About Palomar Technologies Palomar Technologies makes the connected world possible by delivering a Total Process Solution for advanced photonic and microelectronic device assembly processes utilized in todays smart, connected devices. With a focus on flexibility, speed and accuracy, Palomars Total Process Solution includes Palomar die bonders, Palomar wire and wedge bonders, SST vacuum reflow systems, along with Innovation Centers for outsourced manufacturing and assembly, and Customer Support services, that together deliver improved production quality and yield, reduced assembly times, and rapid ROI. With its deep industry expertise, Palomar equips customers to become leaders in the development of complex, digital technologies that are the foundation of the connected world and the transmission of data generated by billions of connected devices. Palomar solutions are utilized by the worlds leading companies providing solutions for datacom, 5G, electric vehicle power modules, autonomous vehicles/LiDAR, enhanced mobile broadband, Internet of Things, SMART technology, and mission critical services. Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Palomar offers global sales, service and application support from its offices in the USA, Germany, Singapore and China. For more information, visit: http://www.palomartechnologies.com About LUX Photonics Consortium LUX Photonics Consortium is an initiative by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS); and is supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore. Their vision is to serve as a catalyst and a networking platform to translate cutting-edge research in photonics into diverse applications underpinned by the value chain created. About DenseLight Semiconductors DenseLight is a Singapore-based division of POET Technologies. It provides one-stop design and manufacturing solutions, from photonics design and simulation, epitaxial growth, wafer fabrication, chip production, in-line optical coating, sub-mounting, photonic measurements, product tests and screening. Cindy Casey, Executive Director of the Charles E. Holman Morgellons Disease Foundation, giving her presentation in Augsburg, Germany. Morgellons is a rapidly growing problem in Europe. We were very pleased with the outcome of this first European conference and plan to make it an annual event stated Carsten Nicolaus, MD, PhD. The Charles E. Holman Morgellons Disease Foundation (CEHMDF) based in Lone Star, TX in collaboration with the BCA-Clinic in Augsburg, Germany, held the 1st Annual European Medical-Scientific Conference on Morgellons Disease at Augsburgs Alpenhof Hotel on October 20, 2018. Morgellons Disease (MD) is a multi-system illness uniquely characterized by the formation of unusual fibers within the skin. MD is a debilitating, painful and life impacting condition consisting of slow-healing skin lesions, overwhelming fatigue, GI disturbances and an array of neurological deficits. Patients with Morgellons may shed unusual appearing particles from the skin described as fibers, sand or seed-like, black specks, or crystalized particles. Despite multiple published studies in the peer reviewed medical literature detecting multiple species of Borrelia and other tick borne pathogens in Morgellons skin tissue, the majority of mainstream medicine continues to hold the erroneous belief that Morgellons is purely psychiatric in origin. The CEHMDF began holding annual conferences on Morgellons in Austin, TX in 2008 states Cindy Casey Holman, CEHMDF Director. After our 11th Annual Austin Conference in 2018, we decided to branch out to hold a conference in Europe Speakers for the European event included Carsten Nicolaus, MD, PhD, Director of the BCA-Clinic. Dr. Nicolaus treats a large number of European patients with Morgellons and other tick borne illnesses in his Augsburg clinic. His presentation covered diagnostic testing as well as conventional and alternative treatment approaches. Cindy Casey Holman, RN, Director of the CEHMDF presented her personal battle with Morgellons, a historical perspective on how the CEHMDF came about as well as the current role of the foundation in empowering Morgellons patients through research funding, medical education and patient advocacy. Marianne Middelveen, Microbiologist from Calgary, Alberta and author of several peer reviewed studies on Morgellons presented a review of scientific data which has confirmed the presence of Borrelia spirochetes and other tick borne pathogens in Morgellons study subjects. With over 15 years experience in treating Morgellons patients, Ginger Savely, DNP from Washington DC, gave a presentation on treatment of Morgellons and what experience has taught her about treating this condition. Carlo Maria Mortellaro, DVM, Professor of Veterinary Medicine from University of Milan, Italy, gave a presentation on Bovine Digital Dermatitis, a disease still under debate which affects dairy cattle and bears some similarities to Morgellons in humans. Jenna Luche Thayer, Consulting Senior Advisor - U.S. Government, United Nations, non-profits and corporate social responsibility programs, discussed Morgellons as a human rights violation and the process by which ICD codes are obtained for newly recognized conditions. Morgellons is a rapidly growing problem in Europe. We were very pleased with the outcome of this first European conference and plan to make it an annual event stated Carsten Nicolaus, MD, PhD. The BCA-Clinic specializes in diagnostics and treatment of tick-borne disease Dr. Nicolaus continued, Our Clinic is unique in that it offers different service providers in one building so that patients are offered medical consultations, diagnoses, laboratory tests, special therapies and rehabilitation all under one roof. A short video clip of the conference is available and the powerpoint slides are accessible on the BCA-Clinic website. The CEHMDF would like to thank Dr. Nicolaus and his team at BCA-Clinic for organizing this 1st European conference which brought physicians, scientists, patients and their families together from over 11 different countries to discuss the latest in Morgellons disease research and treatment. About the Charles E. Holman Morgellons Disease Foundation: The Charles E. Holman Morgellons Disease Foundation, based in Austin, TX, is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization committed to advocacy and philanthropy in the battle against Morgellons disease. Director, Cindy Casey-Holman, RN, leads the foundation, named for her husband, Charles E. Holman, a pioneer in the fight against Morgellons disease. Currently there is no public funding and very limited private funding to support research for this disease, and the CEHMDF is the recognized authority and primary funding source for Morgellons disease medical/scientific research. Donations are tax deductible in the US. To learn more about Morgellons disease go to: http://www.MorgellonsDisease.org St. Louis Motorcars provides exotic and high-end luxury vehicles to drivers across the country with available nationwide transport. Not long ago, St. Louis Motorcars launched a new website, and with this website came new resources for drivers researching the world of high-end luxury and exotic cars. Consumers interested in purchasing such a vehicle can use the St. Louis Motorcars website to learn more about individual car models and their history. Recently, the dealership added pages to its website containing information on recent Bugatti and Lotus vehicles, though pages also exist for Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, all of which are available in brand-new varieties from St. Louis Motorcars. Some models, such as the 2017 Lotus Evora 400, 2018 Rolls-Royce Ghost and 2019 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe, are currently available to lease at the dealership. The informational pages for each automaker help consumers learn about the standout features for each brand and its top models before deciding to purchase or lease the car. This information can also include details regarding St. Louis Motorcars nationwide shipping. The dealership offers shipping across the United States for consumers who do not live in the St. Louis area but wish to purchase a vehicle from St. Louis Motorcars. Enclosed transporters are used and are operated by experienced drivers. The transportation service is also available for maintenance and repairs after the purchase is made. More information about the cars offered at St. Louis Motorcars can be found on the dealerships website at http://www.stl.cars, where users can also find the dealerships website blog containing the latest news and articles of interest for driving enthusiasts, as well as the latest exotic and high-end luxury car lease offerings. Questions can be directed to the dealership staff by calling 636-489-3788 or by visiting St. Louis Motorcars at 1 Arnage Blvd. in Chesterfield, Mo. We are moving at an accelerated pace of innovation and setting a higher level of expectations for EDU leads in the industry. I look forward to leading this next stage in EduMax growth for our company and for our partners. EduMaximizer, the leading provider of EDU contact center technology and all-in-one inquiry generation, today announced the promotion of Mark Paetz to the role of Vice President. Paetz will be responsible for leading business operations and all strategic planning related to partnership development, product innovation, and other growth-oriented activities to drive company and client performance. I am honored and excited for the opportunity to further shape EduMaximizers position as a market leader in higher education, said Paetz. "Since joining the team nearly seven years ago, I've been focused on driving quality and efficiency for our partners at every step in the EDU inquiry generation journey. This expanded role will allow me to drive future EduMax innovation further, faster. In conjunction with EduMaximizers move to become a separate entity and offer an expanded set of services in January 2018, Paetz most recently served as Director of Strategic Relationships. He brought more than a decade of management and quality assurance experience to the role and was responsible for the development of key partner and client networks including account management, optimizations, technology maintenance, and third-party API integrations. In its first year as an independent business venture, client acquisition increased by 27 percent as a result of such strategic partnerships, technology advancements and new integrations. I am proud to have been a part of the trusted and experienced team at EduMaximizer and this pivotal year for our company, added Paetz. We are moving at an accelerated pace of innovation and setting a higher level of expectations for EDU leads in the industry. I look forward to leading this next stage in EduMax growth for our company and for our partners. Previously, Paetz spent more than five years in Integration Specialist and Director of Quality Assurance roles for Higher Ed Growth (HEG), the parent company of EduMaximizer. He oversaw account management activities, developed agent improvement processes, and provided systematic monitoring to ensure optimal quality. Paetz played a key role in the early conceptualization and initial development of the EduMaximizer SaaS tool. Prior to joining HEG, he served as Protection Services Executive at PayPal. A graduate of Arizona State University, Paetz holds a Masters degree in Information Management from the W. P. Carey School of Business and a Bachelor's degree in Organizational Leadership. About EduMaximizer EduMaximizer offers a full suite of services and solutions for all-in-one EDU lead generation and centers on its flagship product, EduMaximizer. The proprietary SaaS tool streamlines the entire call center process and is the leader in EDU lead generation technology. EduMaximizer services are data-driven and supported by an expert EDU team for true Business Intelligence. Every aspect of EDU lead generation is managed, measured and maximized. To learn more or set up a demo, visit http://www.edumaximizer.com. As leaders in the flexible and remote job market, FlexJobs is happy to share this detailed state and national view of the remote work landscape, said Sara Sutton, CEO & Founder of FlexJobs Today FlexJobs announced a new feature to its site, an interactive Remote Job Market Map, which provides an in-depth look at the remote job market in each U.S. state. This resource highlights important U.S. remote work statistics, such as the remote worker population in each state, top cities within states for the most remote workers, the average commute time for each state, and general national remote work facts. As leaders in the flexible and remote job market, FlexJobs is happy to share this detailed state and national view of the remote work landscape, said Sara Sutton, CEO & Founder of FlexJobs. As these numbers demonstrate, remote work overall is on the rise, which is a trend we expect will continue growing in 2019, especially given the tight labor market and demand for remote work options from job seekers, Sutton concluded. The U.S. Remote Job Market Map details the following information (based on U.S. Census data as of Aug 2018) in each state and Washington, D.C.: 1. Percentage of remote workers in each state 2. Percentage of remote workers in the major cities within each state 3. Ranking of which states have the most remote jobs posted 4. Remote-friendly companies headquartered in each state 5. Examples of successful remote job seekers/workers 6. Average daily commute time in each state 7. Statewide flexible and remote work policies and legislation Additional statistics that clarify the makeup of the U.S. remote job marketplace: -- The national average of remote workers in the U.S. is approximately 5%. -- Colorado has the highest remote worker population (7.9%) with Mississippi coming in last (2.2%) -- New England and Mid-Atlantic region employers are the most likely to offer remote work options. -- The average U.S. worker can save at least $4,600 annually by working remotely. -- The average daily commute is 26.1 minutes. Half-time remote workers gain back 11 days a yeartime they would have otherwise spent commuting. -- The top 7 career fields with the most remote jobs in the U.S.: Medical and Health, Computer and IT, Education and Training, Sales, Customer Service, Accounting and Finance, Travel and Hospitality -- Most common remote job titles in the U.S. include: account executive, accountant, business development manager, consultant, engineer, project manager, teacher, tutor writer. -- The top 10 companies consistently hiring U.S. remote workers since 2014: 1. Appen 2. Dell 3. Kelly Services 4. UnitedHealth Group 5. Kaplan 6. K12 7. Anthem, Inc. 8. Salesforce 9. ADP 10. BCD Travel For additional information on the state of the remote job marketplace, please visit https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/state-of-the-remote-job-marketplace/ or contact Kathy Gardner at kgardner(at)flexjobs(dot)com. About FlexJobs FlexJobs is committed to helping people find a better way to work. As the leading online service for professionals seeking remote, flexible schedule, part-time, and freelance jobs, FlexJobs offers opportunities in over 50 career categories, ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time. FlexJobs also sets itself apart by providing job seekers with a better, safer, and more efficient way to find professional and legitimate flexible jobs. Having helped over three million people in their job searches, FlexJobs has appeared in CNN, CNBC, TIME, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and hundreds of other trusted media outlets. To further assist people in bettering their lives through flexible and remote work, FlexJobs' Founder & CEO Sara Sutton Fell has also launched two additional partner sites, Remote.co and 1 Million for Work Flexibility, to help provide education and awareness about the viability and benefits of remote working and work flexibility. Sutton Fell is also the creator of The TRaD* Works Forum (*Telecommuting, Remote, & Distributed), dedicated to helping companies leverage the benefits of telecommuting, remote and distributed teams. As a reliable and experienced contingent workforce provider, TBW Global successfully recruited and language tested over 1,600 multilingual amateur RPs in just 9 weeks. Global defense and contingent workforce company, TBW Global, has recruited over 2,000 contractors to work alongside The US Army in Europe. In preparation for a major training project, The US Army required over 1,600 civilian contractors to act as Role Players (RP) in order to simulate as accurately as possible the challenging environment their forces will face when deployed in overseas theatres of operation. These RPs needed to be multilingual to recreate an authentic environment. As a reliable and experienced contingent workforce provider, TBW Global successfully recruited and language tested over 1,600 multilingual amateur RPs in just 9 weeks and have managed to date the delivery of 5 rotations each requiring between 200 to 450 PRs at a time, who all lived onsite. In addition, RPS went through a thorough police security check to ensure they were clear to gain access to a military base. TBW Global engaged with thousands of potential applicants by utilizing targeted social media campaigns, deep learning AI and predictive data to create a custom web address to capture leads. The company was also able to engage with the local community, for example working closely with universities to attract new recruits for the project. Approximately 60% of candidates came from its successful social media campaigns, highlighting its ability and power to spread a consistent message. TBW Global sourced role-players from several countries including Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and the UK. In order to manage high volume of applicants, TBW Global developed a highly automated three -stage recruitment process whereby applicants were encouraged to proactively obtain a language assessment with a multilingual in-house member of TBW Globals staff. They were assessed on their level of fluency in a number of languages including German, Arabic, Pashton and Dari. Once successful, candidates were trained to an impeccable standard, starting with TBW Globals recruitment team creating and sending them a guidebook and glossary for revising common conversations and sentences followed by RP workshops and finally onsite guidance from TBW Globals in country management team. Defense Recruitment Manager, Sabina Green, said: Reliability and efficiency are the cornerstones of our business and our team are constantly seeking ways to improve the quality of our recruitment process. We strive for the best quality of candidates and take pride in utilizing our multilingual team to assist the smooth running of this process. Josh Gould, CEO of TBW Global said: Our talent acquisition team is attracting the best talent in the industry to ensure our clients receive the best possible service. It is the combination of having the leading technology, automation, data analysis, talent and leadership that makes our company the most reliable and leading edge provider in the industry. About TBW Global: TBW Global provides defense and multilingual communication services to NATO member countries and customers including the UK MOD, the US Department of Defense, the Canadian Armed Forces and a number of global defense and aerospace prime contractors. Services include secure interpreting and translation, cultural analysis, travel risk management, multilingual intercepts, role-plays and situational scenarios, learning management programmes and staff augmentation. TBW Globals expert linguists are deployed in countries such as Ukraine, Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, northern Africa and Jordan. NewsMatch, the largest grassroots campaign for nonprofit news, is uniting newsrooms around the country on Giving Tuesday as part of a nationwide #GivingNewsDay to support trustworthy journalism. The day is intended to drive as many donations to nonprofit news as possible to sustain quality journalism that keeps communities informed. #GivingNewsDay will leverage the energy and momentum in the nonprofit community on Giving Tuesday to increase support for nonprofit journalism which covers vital issues facing our nation and local communities, from education to the environment to the economy. #GivingNewsDay is a chance for people to support the issues they care about and the journalists who report on them. NewsMatch is doubling individual donations, up to $1,000, to 155 nonprofit newsrooms, each of which is eligible for up to $25,000 in matching funds through Dec. 31, 2018. Individuals can easily find and support trusted reporting in their community and on issues they care about at newsmatch.org. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. "We are thrilled to see the growth of this year's GivingNewsDay campaign and support its efforts to strengthen nonprofit journalism," said Asha Curran, Chief Innovation Officer at the 92Ys Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact in New York City, the founders of Giving Tuesday. "As millions of people all across the world come together to bolster a myriad of nonprofit and philanthropic causes as part of Giving Tuesday, GivingNewsDay is an important reminder that quality journalism shines a spotlight on those issues every day." No matter what issue you are donating to on Giving Tuesday, there are nonprofit journalists who are reporting on those issues and they need your support too, said Josh Stearns, Director of the Public Square Program at the Democracy Fund. GivingNewsDay is a reminder that nonprofit news is part of making our world a better place through reporting that reveals injustice, seeks accountability, and helps find solutions. NewsMatch is an innovative platform for giving which combines individual donations with foundation and corporate support and long-term capacity building for news organizations. It is driven by the Institute for Nonprofit News and the News Revenue Hub, two organizations helping build more sustainable models for journalism in the U.S.. The campaign is supported by a diverse group of foundations and corporations including Democracy Fund, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the Facebook Journalism Project, the Gates Family Foundation (through the Colorado Media Project), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and additional supporting partners. The Miami Foundation serves as fiscal sponsor for the fund. NewsMatch is not just a fundraising campaign for nonprofit news organizations. Its an opportunity to be part of a movement to build a strong future for quality, trusted journalism. By taking connected action on GivingNewsDay supporters can propel momentum and generate awareness around this important work, said Karen Rundlet, Knight Foundation director for journalism. Knight Foundation launched the inaugural NewsMatch in 2016, helping 57 nonprofit news organizations raise more than $2.4 million. In 2017, the campaign expanded to include a coalition of funders and helped support important coverage of a wide range of topics including education, immigration, conservation, local government and criminal justice. It raised $4.8 million for nonprofit news organizations, equipped them with professional fundraising, tools and technology and cultivated over 43,000 new donors. Participating nonprofit news organizations are all members of the Institute for Nonprofit News and abide by guidelines of editorial independence and financial transparency. They include: In the Northeast: Adirondack Explorer; Baltimore Brew; CivicStory; Connecticut Health Investigative Team; City Limits; Delaware Currents; ecoRI News; Hidden City Philadelphia; Highlands Current; Hummel Report; Investigative Post; Lower Cape TV/Lower Cape News; Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting; Maryland Matters; MarylandReporter.com; NancyOnNorwalk.com; New England Center for Investigative Reporting; New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism; New Haven Independent; NJ Spotlight; Philadelphia Public School Notebook; PublicSource; The CT Mirror; The GroundTruth Project; VTDigger.org; and WHYY. In the Midwest: Belt Media Collaborative; Better Government Association; Block Club Chicago; Bridge Magazine; City Bureau; Flint Beat; East Lansing Info (ELi); Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism (IowaWatch); KCUR-FM; Madison365; Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service; MinnPost; Eye on Ohio (Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism); South Dakota News Watch; St. Louis Public Radio; The Chicago Reporter; The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting; Wausau Pilot and Review; WDET Detroit Public Radio; WFYI Public Media; and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. In the South: Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism (BirminghamWatch); Arkansas Nonprofit News Network; Austin Monitor; Breckenridge Texan; Carolina Public Press; Center for Sustainable Journalism; Centro de Periodismo Investigativo; Charlottesville Tomorrow; Daily Yonder; Florida Bulldog; Florida Center for Investigative Reporting; Georgia Health News; Insider Louisville; Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting; KYForward.com; LkldNow.com; Mississippi Today; North Carolina Health News; Northern Kentucky Tribune; Oklahoma Watch; Scalawag Magazine; Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation; Texas Observer; The Austin Bulldog; The Frontier; The Lens; and The Texas Tribune. In the West: Alhambra Source; Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting; Aspen Journalism; Bay Nature Institute; BenitoLink.com; Borderzine; California Health Report; CALmatters; Crosscut; EdSource; High Country News; Honolulu Civil Beat; inewsource; InvestigateWest; KPBS; Mission Local; Montana Free Press; Mountain Independent; New Mexico In Depth; NowCastSA; Rivard Report; Rocky Mountain Public Media; Searchlight New Mexico; San Francisco Public Press; The Colorado Independent; The Nevada Independent; The Seattle Globalist; TucsonSentinel.com; Voice of OC; Voice of San Diego; Voices of Monterey Bay; WitnessLA; and WyoFile. National/Global Publications: 100Reporters; Anthropocene Magazine; Center for Responsive Politics/OpenSecrets; Chalkbeat; Civil Eats; Current; Energy News Network; Ensia; FairWarning; Food and Environment Reporting Network; Fostering Media Connections; Futuro Media Group; Grist; Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance; In These Times; Injustice Watch; InsideClimate News; International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; Investigative Reporting Workshop; Mother Jones; MuckRock; Next City; Orb Media; PassBlue; PBS NewsHour; PolitiFact; ProPublica; Public Radio International; Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; Religion News Foundation; Retro Report; Science News; Solitary Watch; The Center for Investigative Reporting; Tarbell; The Center for Public Integrity; The Conversation US; The Forward; The Hechinger Report; The Intercept; The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute; The Marshall Project; The New Food Economy; The Trace; The War Horse; Threshold; Washington Monthly; and Youth Radio. Contact: Elle Communications Prerana Swami 855.438.3553 newsmatch(at)ellecomm(dot)com About Democracy Fund: Democracy Fund is a bipartisan foundation established by eBay founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar to help ensure that our political system can withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people. Since 2011, Democracy Fund has invested more than $100 million in support of effective governance, modern elections, and a vibrant public square. For more, visit democracyfund.org. About the Facebook Journalism Project: The Facebook Journalism Project was created in January 2017 to establish stronger ties between Facebook and the news industry. FJP is dedicated to ensuring high quality journalism thrives by delivering value through new products, partnerships with the news industry and programs. FJP works in three ways: collaborative development of new products; providing tools and trainings for journalists; and providing tools and trainings for people. About the Gates Family Foundation The Gates Family Foundation is a place-based philanthropy dedicated since 1946 to advancing long-term quality of life in Colorado, through support for educational equity, vibrant and sustainable communities, and stewardship of the states extraordinary natural resources. The Foundation has supported public and independent media for decades, especially as vital issues such as public education, rural issues, and natural resources have faced decreasing media coverage from commercial outlets. Gates also provides underwriting support for the Colorado Media Project, which aims to strengthen and accelerate sustainable, civic-minded journalism that meets the information needs of Coloradans in the digital age. About the Institute for Nonprofit News: The Institute for Nonprofit News is a network of more than 190 nonprofit, nonpartisan news media, together strengthening the sources of trusted information for thousands of diverse communities. INN was founded in 2009 to foster a new collective of newsrooms serving the public interest. Today it functions as an innovation network, helping members develop new ways to support journalism and engage communities, providing business, technology and leadership support and a framework for collaboration. INNs work helps newsrooms bring investigative and civic news to more people, hold the powerful accountable and strengthen democracy. About the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation: The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. MacArthur is placing a few big bets that truly significant progress is possible on some of the worlds most pressing social challenges, including over-incarceration, global climate change, nuclear risk, and significantly increasing financial capital for the social sector. In addition to the MacArthur Fellows Program, the Foundation continues its historic commitments to the role of journalism in a responsible and responsive democracy, as well as the strength and vitality of our headquarters city, Chicago. More information is available at macfound.org. About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit knightfoundation.org. About the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation: Founded in 2016 and based in Berkeley, CA, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation supports organizations that advance social justice by promoting world-changing work in investigative journalism, the arts, the environment, education, equity and inclusion and documentary film. About the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation: Founded by Edith Kinney Gaylord, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundations mission is to invest in the future of journalism by building the ethics, skills and opportunities needed to advance principled, probing news and information. For more, visit journalismfoundation.org. About The Miami Foundation: Since 1967, The Miami Foundation has used civic leadership, community investment and philanthropy to improve the quality of life for everyone who calls Greater Miami home. We partner with individuals, families and corporations who have created more than 1,000 personalized, philanthropic Funds. Thanks to them, we have awarded over $250 million in grants and currently manage more than $300 million in assets to build a better Miami. As the Foundation marks our 50th anniversary, we are celebrating great Miamians who have championed what matters to them, encouraging all residents to share their Miami stories and unite around the causes they care about. For more, visit miamifoundation.org. About the News Revenue Hub: The News Revenue Hub helps news organizations build the trust and financial support of their audiences by providing customized technology tools and proven strategies to create and sustain successful digital membership programs. For more, visit fundjournalism.org. About the Wyncote Foundation: The Wyncote Foundation, based in Philadelphia, was founded in 2009 with funds from the Otto and Phoebe Haas Charitable Trusts, at the direction of John C. Haas. Its mission is to support efforts that strengthen and enrich culture, community and the natural environment. Wyncotes Public Media & Journalism program works to further a thriving public media ecosystem that is vital to animating and sustaining democracys public sphere. Learn more at wyncotefoundation.org/public-media-journalism. AdvicePeriod, an advisory firm built for advisors, by advisors, was shortlisted for the Family Wealth Report Awards 2019 in the Wealth Planning category. The firm has been recognized on several occasions for their role innovating wealth management for clients and advisors alike. Most recently, WealthManagement.com named them Best Family Office and Innovator of the Year for 2018. Showcasing the best providers in the global private banking, wealth management, and trust advisor communities, the Family Wealth Report awards recognize companies, teams, and individuals that have demonstrated innovation and excellence. We are thrilled to have been selected as a finalist for these prestigious awards, shares Jonathan Straub, AdvicePeriod Principal. This recognition reflects the dedication of our team to the mission of reinventing wealth management. The firms who have been shortlisted in these awards are all worthy competitors, and I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations, said Stephen Harris, ClearView Financial Medias Chief Executive, and Publisher of the Family Wealth Report. These awards are judged solely on the basis of entrants submissions and their response to a number of specific questions which has to be answered focusing on the client experience, not quantitative performance metrics. Winners will be announced at a gala awards dinner which will be held in New York on March 20, 2019, at the Mandarin Oriental. About ClearView Financial Media Ltd.: ClearView Financial Media was founded by Chief Executive, Stephen Harris in 2004, to provide high quality need to know information for the discerning private client community. London-based, but with a truly global focus, ClearView publishes the Family Wealth Report group of newswires, along with research reports and newsletters, while also running a pan-global though-leadership events programme. About AdvicePeriod: AdvicePeriod is a leading, SEC-registered investment advisor dedicated to focusing clients on the critical decisions necessary for managing their wealth. Our mission: to make wealth management more fair, effective, and successful; for clients and advisors alike. To learn more, visit: http://www.adviceperiod.com. This is what its all about for ussolving real human needs. Applications truly can cure human pain, if they are designed from a human-centric perspective. Skuid, the leading cloud application platform, today announced that the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the worlds first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research, selected the Skuid no-code platform to transform its member portal and streamline its onboarding and renewal processes. The AACR team selected Skuid to create a tailor-made portal, dramatically improving the features, reliability, and maintenance ease of Skuid, as compared to their previous portal. With a member base of more than 37,000 healthcare professionals and patient advocates spread across more than 100 countries, AACR needed the new member portal to connect more intimately with their constituents, connecting them to their strategy and mission. As a major organization with a global member base, we needed a reliable and effective way to manage member data, communicate with and unite our members behind the cause, said John McKenney, Architect at AACR. We created a portal with Skuid to deliver exactly what our members needed to onboard and renew, while giving our teams the ability to maintain and iterate features with ease. Now we can be so much more efficient, drawing our members together to achieve more. The new portalbuilt with Skuid in just two weekscan be easily maintained by AACR staff without writing code. The portal connects to the existing AACR tech stack and back-end systems to streamline the administrative tasks associated with onboarding and renewal processes. The Skuid drag-and-drop platform provides a simple and intuitive interface for users and administrators, saving time and increasing operational efficiency. This is what its all about for ussolving real human needs, said Ken McElrath, founder and CEO of Skuid. Applications truly can cure human pain, if they are designed from a human-centric perspective. Its so awesome that AACR can now focus more on the needs of its members and advocacy, rather than getting bogged down in cumbersome technology. And together we all get closer to finding a cure for cancer. To learn more about how you can use Skuid to create customer, partner, and employee portals that provide secure, personalized access to your business information, click here. About Skuid Skuid was founded in 2013 on the simple belief that enterprise software should stop forcing people to behave like machines. Instead, apps should behave more like the humans who use them, so everyone can thrive in the digital world. With Skuids simple-to-use but incredibly robust cloud front-end design-and-deploy platform, anyone can connect to disparate data sources, assemble highly complex, made-to-order applications, and instantly make changesall without writing code. More than 5 million users across 32 countries use Skuid to engage with each other, with data, and with new customers in meaningful ways. For more information, visit https://www.skuid.com/. About the American Association for Cancer Research American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the worlds first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer. AACR membership includes more than 37,000 health care professionals and patient advocates residing in 108 countries in order to cover the full spectrum of expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, biology, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. The AACR funds meritorious research directly as well as in cooperation with numerous cancer organizations. AMPAK Company, Inc. unveiled a new corporate logo and an enhanced corporate website (www.ampakcompany.com), while exhibiting at SupplySide West in Las Vegas this past November 2018. Our new logo gives AMPAK Company, Inc. a bright and refined look; one that visually captures our finest qualities trust, quality and innovation and reinforces our mission to remain a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and ingredients," stated Parikh. AMPAK Company, Inc., a full line importer and supplier of specialty chemicals and ingredients serving nutritional, food & beverage, fragrance, personal care and pharmaceutical manufacturers worldwide, unveiled a new corporate logo and an enhanced corporate website (http://www.ampakcompany.com) as part of a strategic re-branding effort to reflect the company's commitment as a diverse solutions partner in the global sourcing of high-quality ethical ingredients, while exhibiting at SupplySide West in Las Vegas this past November 2018. The turnout for SSW 2018 was excellent and our new corporate logo and website was well received, expressed Amarish Parikh, President of AMPAK Company, Inc. The refreshed look helped to re-introduce AMPAK Company, Inc. and highlight its expanded product portfolio of domestically and globally sourced high-quality, functional ingredients for multiple industries. Our new logo gives AMPAK Company, Inc. a bright and refined look; one that visually captures our finest qualities trust, quality and innovation and reinforces our mission to remain a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and ingredients," stated Parikh. "Our new website provides greater opportunity to interact with our many current and potential clients and partners. In addition, it provides a platform to promote our wide range of regional availability, specialized technologies and ability to deliver a broad range of competitively priced, high quality ingredients." Visitors to the website can also browse the companys many achievements and plans to participate in upcoming trade and networking events, such as the upcoming International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in February 2019, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA. The IPPE trade show focuses on Innovation, Education and Global Reach, serving as the perfect venue for AMPAK Company, Inc. to connect with leaders of multiple industries to discuss how they can become their global source of high-quality ethical ingredients. Trade Shows and Networking Events for 2019: AMPAK Company, Inc., will be exhibiting and attending a variety of conferences to connect with the worlds leading ingredients industry professionals in 2019. While showing off our new look we look forward to developing new business and future partnerships during each and every trade show, said Parikh. A list of conferences that AMPAK will be attending or exhibiting can be found on the new website under Contact Us. Suppliers and formulators who will be attending these conferences can contact us ahead of time at (914) 833-7070 or info(at)ampakcompany.com to make an appointment or to discuss how AMPAK can become their global source of high-quality ethical ingredients. About AMPAK Company, Inc.: AMPAK Company, Inc. is a diverse solutions partner in the global sourcing of high-quality ethical ingredients which provide functional benefits in a wide range of products across key market segments. For more than four decades, AMPAK Company, Inc. has served nutritional, food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and personal care manufacturers worldwide, with customized sourcing programs, providing over 400 products from more than 20 core suppliers. AMPAK Company, Inc. considers customer service and support a top priority and their experienced commercial specialists ensure that every customer has the necessary tools to succeed. As a minority certified supplier, AMPAK Company, Inc. satisfies supplier diversity objectives. This spring, the forest preserve reached a deal with Homer Glen in which the village agreed to pay $1.2 million to the district to allow it to construct a sewer line through Fiddyment Creek, north of 159th Street. That money also will be used to provide matching grant funds, Schultz said. Attorney Matt Caraway Sam C. Mitchell & Associates in Southern Illinois has long been known as a personal injury law firm dedicated to excellence and the utmost client satisfaction. In continued pursuit of this goal, the firm has recently named Attorney Matthew H. Caraway as a partner of the firm. Attorney Caraway has a decorated past of service to those who need a voice, protection, and representation. He served for seven years in the Illinois Air Nation Guard and became a Staff Sergeant in Operation Enduring Freedom and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Upon his return from the Middle East, he interned with the Air Force Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) Office, sparking his passion for the law and ensuring justice. After receiving an honorable discharge in 2008, he would soon graduate from the University of Illinois, Magna Cum Laude. Prior to joining Sam C. Mitchell & Associates, he was able to gain unique and powerful insight as a defense attorney for major Fortune 500 companies in injury lawsuits. Taking this incredible experience to the other side of the courtroom has been a boon for his clients today. Thanks to his constant focus on bettering himself and doing what is right for people in need, he has been granted membership to numerous associations, such as the Lions Club and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Attorney Caraway has also been selected by The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40. Sam C. Mitchell & Associates believed in putting up the good fight for people who have been seriously injured due to the negligence and wrongdoing of others. As a partner, Attorney Caraway embodies exactly what makes the firm strong and stand out. To learn more about Attorney Caraway or Sam C. Mitchell & Associates in South Illinois, inquiring parties can visit https://www.scmitchell.com/. Beth Hanley-Adams, a visual artist and mother of four, has completed her new novel The Beast of Tapley Woods: an excursion across centuries and landscapes. I always had a creative streak with drawing, but it wasnt until I entered art school at UW-Green Bay that I learned to fine tune my painting skills, and was afforded the opportunity to travel to London, England, a life changing event, Beth Hanley-Adams explained of her inspiration to write this novel. It wasn't until the late 1990's however that writing became a natural evolution in my creative endeavours. Although Ive started stories before, this is my first publication. Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Beth Hanley-Adams tale follows Keely Young, a woman from contemporary Iowa whose dream vacation to Ireland is transportive in more ways than one. While exploring the historic tower of Tapley Folly, Keely comes across the ruggedly handsome Liam Tapley, who appears beaten and close to death. While she cares for him, she discovers that he is a laird from the Scottish Highlands...from the 18th Century. Fairy magic, portal stones, and Celtic magic all play a role in this story which gets complicated by romantic feelings arising between Liam and Keely, crossing timelines, and Liams desire to return to his time period after discovering that his reputation as a kind landlord has been tarnished in his absence, making him the eponymous beast of Tapley Woods. Readers who wish to embark upon this journey can purchaseThe Beast of Tapley Woods at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional New York based full-service publishing house that handles all of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex and time-consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. We are excited to be working with Cathay Bank and other financial institutions that are dedicated to strengthening AML compliance, explained David McLaughlin, CEO and Founder of QuantaVerse. QuantaVerse, the first in the market with artificial intelligence (AI) solutions purpose-built for identifying financial crimes, today announced it has signed an agreement with Cathay General Bancorp, a holding company for Cathay Bank, a California state-charted bank. Cathay Bank selected QuantaVerses AI financial crime solutions as a fully built and tested anti-money laundering (AML) platform to reduce costly, manual financial crime investigations. Cathay Bank will deploy the following QuantaVerse solutions to improve the effectiveness of its AML compliance program and financial crime investigations while expanding its correspondent banking services. QuantaVerse Pre-TMS Entity Resolution & Risk Scoring (TM) reduces transaction monitoring system (TMS) false positive alerts by classifying the risk of each transacting party, down to the pseudo-client level. In the vast majority of transaction messages, who the transacting parties are is often ambiguous which forces an expensive manual intervention. QuantaVerse Alert Investigator (TM) automates investigations when an alert is produced by a TMS. By replicating much of the human investigative process which analyzes entity, transaction, and intention (or economic purpose) variables, up to 70 percent of an AML case investigation can be successfully completed by QuantaVerse. QuantaVerse False Negative Identification and Investigator (TM) examines transactions for financial crime risks missed by a TMS. According to industry estimates, up to 70 percent of financial crimes go unalerted and are therefore uninvestigated and unreported. These false negatives have the potential to cause significant risks to both the organization and their accountable employees. QuantaVerse Third Party Risk Management (TM) provides risk managers with better insights into the variances in correspondent bank account activity that might indicate risks of financial crimes, or that suggest an account is being used for something other than its stated purpose. The Alert Investigator and False Negative Identification and Investigator solutions provide QuantaVerse Financial Crime Reports (FCR) that automate alert investigations, detailing suspicious activity and providing risk scores for both entities and transactions. The QuantaVerse FCR also includes the supporting documentation necessary for the case to be efficiently analyzed by an AML investigator and for creating a suspicious activity report if indicated. We are excited to be working with Cathay Bank and other financial institutions that are dedicated to strengthening AML compliance, explained David McLaughlin, CEO and Founder of QuantaVerse. Our full suite of AI financial crime solutions will better utilize the banks resources to identify financial crimes, streamline its AML investigation process and eliminate bad actors from the global banking system. About Cathay General Bancorp Cathay General Bancorp is the holding company for Cathay Bank, a California state-chartered bank. Founded in 1962, Cathay Bank offers a wide range of financial services. Cathay Bank currently operates 43 branches in California, 12 branches in New York State, three in the Chicago, Illinois area, three in Washington State, two in Texas, one in Maryland, one in Massachusetts, one in Nevada, one in New Jersey, one in Hong Kong, and a representative office in Taipei and in Shanghai. Cathay Bank's website is found at http://www.cathaybank.com. Cathay General Bancorps website is found at http://www.cathaygeneralbancorp.com. About QuantaVerse QuantaVerse is the leader of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning solutions purpose-built for identifying financial crimes. QuantaVerse utilizes its AI Financial Crime Platform to reduce financial crime risk by identifying patterns and discerning anomalies that current approaches and systems regularly miss. The QuantaVerse solutions have helped customers more efficiently comply with AML (Anti-Money Laundering), KYC (Know Your Customer) and FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) regulations. Most importantly, QuantaVerse is helping to rid organizations of money laundering and other financial crimes that support our greatest global ills the drug trade, human trafficking, terrorism and political corruption. For more information, contact QuantaVerse at (610) 465-7320 or visit http://www.QuantaVerse.net. City of Leadville joins the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System Registered vendors can access bids, related documents, addendum and award information. The City of Leadville has officially joined the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, one of BidNets regional e-procurement solutions, providing vendors throughout Colorado & Wyoming easy online access its upcoming solicitations. The City of Leadville invites all vendors to register online at http://www.BidNetDirect.com/Colorado. The regional purchasing group connects local governments with vendors looking to do business with public agencies. On the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, vendors seeking business with over 200 participating agencies can register online to gain access to a single point of entry for opportunities throughout Colorado & Wyoming. By posting upcoming bids and RFPs on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, the City of Leadville ensures an entire community of vendors can view their solicitations, download documents, and receive notification of addenda. The vendors self-register and ensure their contact information is up to date. Were excited about joining the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing system, said City of Leadvilles Administrative Services Manager Sarah Dallas. This allows us to take advantage of new technology that makes the procurement process more efficient and cast a broader net for more skilled professionals. Of course were always happy to answer questions in person and on the phone but were confident that the online system will make it much easier everybody. The City of Leadville invites all local vendors to visit http://www.BidNetDirect.com/Colorado and register to receive access to its upcoming solicitations as well as the upcoming bids and RFPs from over 200 additional public agencies participating on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System. Registered vendors have the option to upgrade their service to receive customized bid alerts, notification of term contract expiration, and notification of a real-time addendum. About the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System: The Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System is a part of BidNets regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. With years of input from procurement professionals, BidNet specifically developed the bid system to fill the need for a robust bid and supplier management solution for local government agencies. BidNet runs 40 regional purchasing groups used by over 1,300 local governments. To learn more and have your government agency gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit http://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyers Cloud Daddy, creator of Cloud Daddy Secure Backup (CDSB), the worlds most secure and easy to use AWS-native data protection solution, today announced version 1.3 of its software platform. The update incorporates Amazon GuardDuty intelligent threat detection capabilities and real-time cost estimation of backup jobs, as well as advanced restore features for Instances, Volumes and AWS Databases. Cloud Daddy will be exhibiting at Amazons re:invent conference, November 26-30 in Las Vegas, Nev. If you are attending AWS re:invent 2018, please visit Cloud Daddy at the Cloud Daddy Booth #2525. CDSB Version 1.3 has been launched on the AWS Marketplace prior to the conference. Using Amazon GuardDuty on the CDSB platform underscores our commitment to providing modern-era data protection, said Cloud Daddy CEO and Founder Joe Merces. The ongoing barrage of cyber threats and ransomware attacks from malicious actors makes it essential for organizations to have intelligent threat detection as a security countermeasure to strengthen overall data protection. Cloud Daddy plans to introduce its own patent-pending artificial intelligence engine in the next major CDSB version 2.0 to protect the backup organizations rely on in case of disaster. Amazon GuardDuty continuously monitors for malicious or unauthorized behavior to help enterprises protect their AWS accounts and workloads. Cloud Daddy provides users with a GuardDuty dashboard, providing alerts of malicious IP address ranges and maps of those alert locations. The dashboard also lists all GuardDuty findings, with filtering capabilities. In addition, CDSB 1.3 includes a new module with backup statistics that has been added to the backup dashboard. Jobs and schedules can be created immediately from the dashboard, with the capability of interacting with pie charts that display details related to protected and unprotected instances. To give users a better idea of potential additional storage charges from AWS, CDSB 1.3 provides real-time cost estimation of backup jobs as they are being created, as well as a consolidated, total cost estimate for all existing backup jobs. CDSB 1.3 also provides unparalleled control of instance, volume and AWS Database restoration options. Users have control over the actual instance and volume details including instance type and related configuration. Restoration preferences governing availability zones, VPC, subnet and security characteristics are now configurable options for any volume or instance restoration. Security threats are becoming more sophisticated over time and threaten to compromise the very backup meant to protect organizations when they need it most, said Cloud Daddys Merces. Organizations need a holistic solution that also protects backup with security countermeasures, whether responding to natural disasters or a manmade cyberattack. Incorporating Amazon GuardDuty with CDSB on AWS strengthens overall data protection today and provides a bridge to the patent-pending artificial intelligence we plan to release in our next major 2.0 version update. ABOUT CLOUD DADDY Cloud Daddy is the worlds most secure AWS-native data protection solution, offering holistic backup, disaster recovery and advanced security countermeasures. Available directly from the AWS Marketplace (and up and running in minutes), Cloud Daddy assures enterprises of all sizes a comprehensive solution providing modern data protection for the AWS elastic cloud. With Cloud Daddy, enterprises add value, save money, increase manageability, and mitigate security risks to their AWS infrastructure, without the costs typically associated with datacenter hardware installation. For more information, visit Cloud Daddy on the web at https://www.clouddaddy.com. Contacts Waters Communications Declan Waters, 408-510-0414 declan(at)waterscomms(dot)com Jennifer Hupke I am honored to do my part for Toys for Tots. We will also be hosting an event on December 15 for people to drop off gifts and also be able to take a picture with Santa. However, you must make an appointment to get a Santa photo by calling 262-613-2548. Hupke, founder of the Hupke Team, is hosting the toy donation drive for Toys for Tots as part of the NALAs collective cause marketing program, which encourages business across the country to collect during this time of year. New, unwrapped toys can be dropped off at 20350 Water Tower Blvd., Brookfield, WI 53045, December 1-15. I am honored to do my part for Toys for Tots. We want to show children in need they are not forgotten at Christmas, or at any time, said Hupke. We will also be hosting an event on December 15 for people to drop off gifts and also be able to take a picture with Santa. However, you must make an appointment to get a Santa photo by calling 262-613-2548. Toys for Tots, whose mission is to collect new, unwrapped toys each holiday season and distribute them as Christmas gifts to children in need, is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve, which distributes toys to children who may not otherwise receive a gift for Christmas. Toys for Tots plays an active role in developing one of our nations most valuable resources, its children. It also unites members of local communities in a common cause each year during its annual toy collection and distribution campaign. Toys for Tots was founded in 1947, and since its inception the Marines have distributed over 530,000,000 toys to more than 244,000,000 children across the United States. Hupke is committed to providing outstanding service and treating each property as if it were her own. She offers four local branches servicing all of Southeastern Wisconsin and has a full-service and full-time marketing department that offers maximum exposure for all of her properties and featured listings in sites such as Redfin, Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com. About Jennifer Hupke, Coldwell Banker Jennifer Hupke specializes in residential real estate and has an abundance of experience with bank owned properties (REO), short sales and probate properties. Jennifer is a master of her area of Southeastern Wisconsin covering six major counties including: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington, and Jefferson. For more information, call 262-613-2548, or visit http://www.jenniferhupke.com. For media inquiries, please call the NALA at 805.650.6121, ext. 361. Boston-based InsurTech company, Corvus, announced a $10 million Series A investment led by .406 Ventures and Hudson Structured, along with expanded funding from previous investor, Bain Capital Ventures. Corvus partners with major insurers and acts as a Managing General Agency (MGA) to create broker-distributed, tech-enabled commercial insurance products that use novel data sets to predict and prevent commercial insurance claims. Corvus has already launched two Smart Commercial Insurance products: Smart Cyber Insurance and Smart Cargo Insurance. Corvus plans to use the new capital to expand into additional commercial lines of insurance. In connection with the financing, Graham Brooks, Partner of .406 Ventures, will be joining Corvus' Board. Corvus goal is to accelerate the pace of innovation and increase transparency in the insurance industry. Corvus delivers a clear digital experience and insurance products featuring smarter coverage, lower premiums and software-driven loss prevention tools. Their proprietary, digital platform, the CrowBar, applies customer specific data to create Corvus Scores that inform underwriting decisions and pricing. This same data is also converted into free data analytics and business intelligence for commercial insurance brokers and their policyholders. Founder and CEO Phil Edmundson, who previously built a top-50 tech-focused commercial insurance brokerage and sold it to Arthur J. Gallagher in 2015, stated: Commercial insurance brokers and their clients deserve more from their insurers. Built by brokers, Corvus delivers more informed underwriting, more data analytics on each account, and more business intelligence that helps brokers and policyholders to manage risk effectively. Founded by a group equally weighted in technology and insurance, Corvus puts new data to work for everyone in the value chain of commercial insurance. Corvus is developing additional commercial insurance products leveraging data from a variety of sources including private sources, government sources, mobile phones, cyber security scans, social media, Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors and satellite imagery. Corvus has now raised $14 million in two rounds of funding. Liam Donohue, Co-Founding Partner of .406 Ventures, said: We are very excited to partner with Corvus as they have demonstrated the ability to build a world-class team and to attract over 100 clients early in their launch of Smart Commercial Insurance products. Edmundson added: Our new investors bring us greater depth in leveraging new data sets and driving more value from them for our brokers and policyholders. About .406 Ventures .406 Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm investing in market-changing enterprise technology companies founded by visionary entrepreneurs. With over $650M under management, the .406 Ventures team comprises former entrepreneurs and operators who apply real-world experience and strong company-building skills to assist their entrepreneurs in creating value. .406 Ventures cybersecurity investments include Randori, Carbon Black, Edgewise Networks, GreatHorn, Onapsis, Terbium Labs, Threat Stack, Vaultive and Veracode, among others. For more information, please visit http://www.406ventures.com. About Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. is a premier investment adviser that specializes in investing in the (re)insurance, insurtech and transportation sectors, on a global basis. Launched in 2015 with the financial support and backing of one of the worlds largest and most respected publicly-traded private equity firms, HSCM is structured as a private partnership. HSCM focuses on core economic sectors that it expects to outgrow global Gross Domestic Product, offer low correlations with broader markets and are experiencing a shift from balance sheet to market financing. The firm currently has offices in Bermuda and Connecticut, U.S.A. As of November 18, 2018, HSCM had capital commitments and managed assets of approximately $1.25 billion. Biographies and additional information available at: http://www.hscm.com About Bain Capital Ventures Bain Capital Ventures partners with disruptive founders to accelerate their ideas to market. The firm invests from seed to growth in startups driving transformation across industries, including SaaS, infrastructure software, security, commerce, fintech and healthcare. The firm has helped launch and commercialize more than 240 companies, including DocuSign, Jet.com, Kiva Systems LinkedIn, Rapid7, Rent the Runway, SendGrid, SurveyMonkey, Taleo, TellApart and Turbonomic. Bain Capital Ventures has $4.9 billion in assets under management with offices in San Francisco, New York, Boston and Palo Alto. Follow the firm via LinkedIn or Twitter. About Corvus Insurance Holdings, Inc. Corvus Insurance Holdings, Inc., founded in 2017, is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Corvus underwrites on behalf of Hudson Specialty Insurance Company (A, XV) and Argo Insurance Company (A, XIII). More information about Corvus can be found at the Corvus website, http://www.corvusinsurance.com and connect on LinkedIn and Twitter. Media Contact Gerritt Graham, Chief Commercial Officer press(at)corvusinsurance.com Cross Border Xpress Cross Border Xpress (CBX) will celebrate its third year of service and operations for travelers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 9, 2018. Having recently welcomed its five millionth passenger in October 2018, the first-of-its-kind pedestrian skybridge is slated to surpass previous annual passenger flow benchmarks by servicing more than two million travelers this year. Our team is incredibly proud of the tremendous growth we have accomplished since opening three years ago, said Jorge Goytortua, CEO of CBX. The expansion that CBX has seen year-after-year is a testament to our dedicated staff and commitment to changing the way people travel. Wed like to thank the Tijuana Airport for their assistance and support in reaching this milestone. Opened in 2015, CBX was designed to streamline international travel as the first-ever U.S. facility to connect directly into a foreign airport terminal. Designed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection, the 390-foot-long enclosed pedestrian skybridge connects a state-of-the-art passenger building in San Diego directly to the Tijuana International Airport (TIJ), servicing more than 6,000 ticketed airline passengers daily. Passengers moving through CBX can expect: $30 round-trip ticket or $16 single-trip ticket for access through CBX terminal Accelerated transportation across the U.S.-Mexico border Easy check-in for all TIJ airport flights Bilingual terminal attendants On-site parking starting at $15 per day More direct flights to destinations in Mexico than any other Southern California airport Direct flights to Beijing and Shanghai, China Food and beverage options CBX has achieved dynamic passenger growth, received widespread industry recognition and continues to boost the cross-border economy. With more than two million passengers anticipated to use the terminal in 2018, CBX is slated to register a 38 percent increase over 2016 levels recorded during its first full year in operation. In acknowledgement of the terminals success, Air Transport Worlds 44th Annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards honored the facility with the Passenger Experience Achievement. CBX also boosts the globally competitive cross-border economy by providing the region with more than 300 jobs and offering a secure way for business travelers and tourists to cross into the U.S. from TIJ. Furthermore, CBX assists in efforts to keep up with the continued growth of international travel by using privately funded money from Mexican and American investors during a time of small federal budget increases. The terminal is currently gearing up for a multi-million dollar renovation and relaunch at TIJ, slated for early 2019. For more information on CBX, or to purchase tickets and sign up for special offers, visit the CBX website: http://www.crossborderxpress.com. About Cross Border Xpress: Launched in December 2015, Cross Border Xpress (CBX) streamlines the means of travel for Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) passengers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The sleek terminal and 390-foot-long enclosed pedestrian skywalk bridge services more than 6,000 travelers daily. As the first ever U.S. facility to connect directly into a foreign airport terminal, CBX offers a faster, more secure and hassle-free alternative for ticketed airline passengers to cross the border, eliminating additional traffic from the already congested San Ysidro and Otay Mesa land ports of entry. TIJ passengers can use the skywalk to connect from Southern California to more than 30 destinations in Mexico and around the world. Many of the flight routes are either direct or at a reduced cost as compared to other Southern California airports. CBX is headquartered in Otay Mesa, Calif. and located at 2745 Otay Pacific Drive, San Diego, Calif. For more information on CBX, or to purchase tickets and sign up for special offers, visit the CBX website: http://www.crossborderxpress.com. Travelers can also join the conversation on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/crossborderxpress), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/CrossBrdrXpress) and Instagram (http://www.instagram.com/crossborderxpress). At Dealer-FX, we manage every stage of service and the customer experience with mobile applications, data driven insights and powerful reporting. Dealer-FX announced today that it has been named one of the fastest growing companies in North America in Deloittes Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. Dealer-FXs President & CEO, Gary Kalk, credits the strength of its OEM partnerships, and a commitment to always thinking forward, for the companys continued revenue growth. "At Dealer-FX, we manage every stage of service and the customer experience with mobile applications, data driven insights and powerful reporting, said Kalk. This is resonating with our OEM partners and their retailers." Congratulations to the Deloitte 2018 Technology Fast 500 winners on this impressive achievement, said Sandra Shirai, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP, and U.S. technology, media and telecommunications leader. These companies are innovators who have converted their disruptive ideas into products, services and experiences that can captivate new customers and drive remarkable growth. Software, which accounts for nearly two of every three companies on the list, continues to produce some of the most exciting technologies of the 21st century, including innovations in artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and robotics, said Mohana Dissanayake, partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and Industry Leader for technology, media and telecommunications, within Deloittes audit and assurance practice. This years ranking demonstrates what is likely a national phenomenon, where many companies from all parts of America are transforming the way we do business by combining breakthrough research and development, entrepreneurship and rapid growth. Overall, 2018 Technology Fast 500 companies achieved revenue growth ranging from 143 percent to 77,260 percent from 2014 to 2017, with median growth of 412 percent. About Deloittes 2018 Technology Fast 500 Deloittes Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2014 to 2017. In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least $50,000 USD, and current-year operating revenues of at least $5 million USD. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. About Dealer-FX Dealer-FX is transforming how consumers interact with automotive brands and their retailers. Our customer experience management platform uses advanced data analysis and mobile applications to deliver convenience, transparency and trust to consumers, and increased efficiency, profitability, retention and brand loyalty to OEMs and dealers. The company is backed by the strength and resources of HGGC. Dealer-FXs core offering, ONE Platform, is comprised of seven components, which along with the Service Dashboard, manage the entire service experience from initial contact through drive-off and to next visit. It delivers the best dealer service experience. Period. Dealer-FX is the exclusive or preferred service technology provider for FCA, Nissan, Infiniti, Toyota, Lexus, Audi, VW, Mitsubishi and several other OEMs in the US and Canada, and has more than 2,500 dealership clients. Dealer-FX is based in Toronto, ON, and maintains an office in Rochester Hills, MI. For more information please visit, dealer-fx.com. The Dealer-FX Team will be at the NADA 2019 Expo in San Francisco, January 25-27, 2019, in booth #3625S to demonstrate the features and benefits of ONE Platform to OEMs and dealers. All cycle long I've been marveling at how much more effective the DLCC-- the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee-- is that the DCCC, the DSCC or the DNC. They seemed to be able to win races and without all the typical bullshit and lies from the other committees. Well... that just ended. They sent out 4 mass mailings this weekend for a candidate in Virginia strongly implying-- absolutely trying to mislead donors-- that what was at stake was control of the Virginia state Senate. One of the e-mails started like this: A snap special election has just been called in Virginia for January 8th, and its a BIG deal: Democrats are just ONE seat down from taking back control of the state Senate, which makes this race critical to our chances of winning back the chamber. Two attempts to mislead recipients of the e-mail. First of all, it may sound dramatic and exciting, but the election was not "just called." In fact, the primary was held November 17. Still, not that serious of a lie. The real attempt at manipulation was in the next phrase, meant to make the reader think that this race would decide the fate of the state Senate. It will not. The seat, for the 33rd district, which takes in portions of Faifax and Loudon counties in the DC suburbs is held by Democrat Jennifer Wexton, who was just elected to replace Republican Barbara Comstock in Congress. So, of course, Wexton is resigning. It's a pretty blue district and Wexton won it in 2014 in a 3 way contest: Jennifer Wexton (D)- 11,431 (52.7%) John Whitbeck (R)- 8,133 (37.5%) Joe May (I)- 2,117 (9.8%) A little tangent here-- Joe May served in the House of Delegates, as a Republican, from 1994 to 2014. He quit the GOP in 2013 and became an Independent, after he was defeated in the primary by a more right-wing Dave LaRock. The next year he challenged both Wexton and the GOP candidate as an independent. He didn't get anywhere and... now he's back as a Republican and the reason I'm bringing this all up is because, he won the Republican firehouse primary on November 17, the same day that 2-term state Delegate Jennifer Boysko won the Democratic nomination. The first time Boysko ran-- in 2013-- she challenged Republican incumbent Tom Rust. Rust defeated her by 54 votes-- 10,389 to 10,335. She decided to seek a rematch in 2015 and Rust figured out which way the wind was blowing and retired. She won the seat with 54.5% and was reelected in 2017 with a very healthy 68.64%. Boysko's been a good member of the Assembly where she fought successfully to expand Medicare, to protect voting rights and has been working on effective gun safety legislation. She's a good contender to hold the state Senate seat which, like I said, will not change the numbers at all. The Democrats will still need one more seat to take over. The DCCC is really hated by the Democratic grassroots. The DLCC isn't. But it won't take long if they pull a few more stunts like the bullshit they tried over the weekend. They have a good candidate. They don't have to lie to get people to support her. We started talking to each other and one thing led to the next, Sliozis said. We knew their contract was coming due in a year. We took a look at the economics. We realized we could do for them what we were doing for Bannockburn and Riverwoods. By partnering with MDR, Elmers reached hundreds of thousands of teachers around the country with great ideas for infusing lessons across the curriculum with creativity. MDR, a division of Dun & Bradstreet, together with its client, Elmers, today announced winning platinum honors in the 2018 MarCom Awards for its campaign for schools, Create. Learn. Play. The MarCom Awards are an international competition administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. Following the launch of its new Elmers Glow in the Dark Glue, the company aimed to increase teacher and student awareness of the ways math, science, art and other disciplines come to life in the classroom. Elmers collaborated with MDRs award-winning digital media brand, WeAreTeachers, to create fun and educational activities featuring Elmers glue and share them with teachers across the country through emails, classroom posters and social media. WeAreTeachers, the number one media brand for educator engagement, is an online community for educators. Its mission is to inspire teachers and help them succeed by sharing practical classroom ideas, the best freebies and giveaways, and teacher-to-teacher advice and humor. Elmers and MDR were recognized in the MarCom Awards for the impressive results of this campaign, which served nearly 2.5 million impressions with the Elmers brand to educators, including hundreds of thousands of visits to Elmers content on WeAreTeachers.com. Elmers now has content tied to educational standards, such as the Geology Slime Challenge and Fractions With Slime, for use across multiple digital platforms including 10 downloadable classroom activities, classroom posters, a Facebook Live event, Pinterest pins and a social video. By partnering with MDR, Elmers reached hundreds of thousands of teachers around the country with great ideas for infusing lessons across the curriculum with creativity, said Kristina James, director of marketing, MDR. We congratulate them for earning this recognition for investing in resources to bring the power of Create. Learn. Play. to students nationally. About Elmers Products, Inc. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Elmers Products, Inc., has been providing creative adhesive solutions that support success and turn ideas into reality. By continuing to develop innovative new products, Elmer's has become the trusted brand when it comes to fueling creativity and providing outstanding product performance in the classroom, at home, in the workshop and at the craft table. Elmer's inspires people to create, build and learn for life. For more information, visit http://www.elmers.com. Follow Elmers at http://facebook.com/elmers, http://twitter.com/elmers and http://pinterest.com/elmersproducts . About MDR MDR is a full-service school and community engagement partner. A division of Dun & Bradstreet, MDR is a different kind of integrated marketing services agency that combines rich data with unique digital, creative, and branding capabilities. Weve been connecting brands through data and marketing services to educators, youth, and parents for nearly 50 years. Reach targeted audiences through our database and digital communities SchoolData, EdNET, WeAreTeachers, WeAreParents, and School Leaders Now. For more information, visit mdreducation.com. About MarCom Awards MarCom Awards, administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work and generosity of industry professionals. Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into one of the largest, most-respected creative competitions in the world. Each year about 6,000 print and digital entries are submitted from dozens of countries spanning corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers. A complete list of winners can be found on the MarCom Awards website here. Lidl came to the U.S. with ambitious growth plans, only to have to tap the brakes to avoid making the Fresh N Easy mistake their fellow European company Tesco had made a couple years prior. Industry-leading retail consulting firm Information Clearinghouse, Inc. (ICI), through its F&D Reports division, has announced the release of its Lidl US Private Company Overview (PCO). Lidl arrived in the U.S. in June 2017, opening 20 stores in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina; its initial plans called for as many as 100 stores by the end of the summer of 2018. At the outset, it appeared the Company was the threat it was touted to be, but like many bright shiny objects, the luster quickly wore off. Our analysis examines what went wrong with the launch and recent steps the Company has taken to propel the brand forward. The report also includes a map of the Companys store concentrations and the proposed acquisition of 26 Best Yet Market stores located mostly in New York. Currently standing at 59 stores, Lidl is on track to hit its revised estimate of opening about 20 stores in 2018. The Company has kept its future store expansion plans close to the vest, but F&D Reports has already confirmed the specific locations of several dozen stores scheduled to open next year. Detailed information on all of Lidls confirmed future store openings (and 6,000+ other retail openings occurring through 2019) is currently available via F&D Reports/Creditntells Future Store Openings/Closings database. Commenting on the analysis, ICI CEO Lawrence Sarf stated, Lidl came to the U.S. with ambitious growth plans, only to have to tap the brakes to avoid making the Fresh N Easy mistake their fellow European company Tesco had made a couple years prior. They now believe they have found the right pace and the right footprint to deliver on a revised plan while also trying to reverse some early real estate blunders. Anyone with an interest in Lidl will find our brand new Private Company Overview a must read. Click here to request a copy of the full report or to request more information on future retail openings/closings. Information Clearinghouse, Inc. (publisher of F&D Reports & Creditntell) is a leading credit consulting firm specializing in the analysis of public and private companies in numerous retail segments. The focus of its analysis is to deliver the key intelligence todays busy credit executive needs to make a highly informed decision without sifting through pages of non-essential data. To learn more, visit our websites at http://www.fdreports.com and http://www.creditntell.com. Captain Sean Dwyer, from the Deadliest Catch series, and his sister Brenna Dwyer presenting this year's check from Dwyer's Crab and Fish Company to the ALS Therapy Development Institute in Boston, MA The Dwyer family has strong ties to Ketchikan and Alaska. Jenny Gore Dwyer was born and raised in Ketchikan. She can trace her family roots back to captain John Gore who sailed with Captain Cook as they tried to discover the "infamous" Northwest Passage. Jenny met her husband Pat on board a fishing vessel in Ketchikan in the mid 1980's and together they started their fishing business, St. George Marine Inc. After her beloved husband passed away from ALS in June 2013, Jenny became sole owner and president of St. George Marine, working with her children Sean and Brenna to continue to run and grow the family business. Captain Sean Dwyer is currently featured in the Discovery Channels hit series Deadliest Catch. More importantly the Dwyer family has become relentless in their goal of eradicating ALS through the Pat Dwyer Fund. In 2017 Jenny received a call from an old high school friend, Doug Andrew, from Ketchikan who happens to own hotels and restaurants. His idea was to rebrand one of his restaurants with the purpose of raising funds for ALS. As fate would have it Doug witnessed the scourge of ALS through two long time Ketchikan residents and friends, Bob Norton and Sandy Wendte. With much collaboration and thought Dwyers Crab and Fish Company was opened in time for the 2017 season and raised $24,000 in its first year of operation. This season Dwyers Crab and Fish Company was able to donate $26,500 towards ALS research in honor of Pat Dwyer, Bob Norton and Sandy Wendte. This labor of love has been made possible with the support of the residents of Ketchikan as well as the thousands of tourists that flood the area during the summer season. Dwyers is located on the dock where cruise ships disembark and fittingly oversees the ocean that Pat and Jenny worked on together. Mother Teresa once said I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. In Ketchikan, Alaska one united family, two longtime friends and a restaurant specializing in King Crab are doing just that; fighting ALS one crab leg at a time. Ketchikan is an Alaskan city facing the Inside Passage, a popular cruise route along the state's southeastern coast. It's hailed as the Salmon Capital of the World and known for its many Native American totem poles on display throughout town. Nearby Misty Fiords National Monument is a glacier-carved wilderness featuring snowcapped mountains, waterfalls and salmon spawning streams. It's also home to rich wildlife including black bears, wolves and bald eagles. For more information on the Pat Dwyer Fund visit: http://www.als.net/affiliate/pat-dwyer-fund/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Doug Andrew Direct Phone: (907) 821-1251 dougktn@gmail.com Staying on top of key trends and changes in the commercial real estate industry is vital; the five takeaways from The Counselors of Real Estate 2018 annual convention is an important summary. Just when you think youve heard it all, speakers at The Counselors of Real Estates 2018 Annual Convention in Charleston, S.C. proved why staying abreast of trends and changes in the real estate industry is critical. The Counselors of Real Estate (CRE) is the global invitational organization for leading commercial real estate advisors. The five key takeaways from this meeting focus largely on factors that fuel or derail economic reinvention and development in smaller cities, and personal adaptability in the wave of escalating technology: 1. If Your Job Can Be Coded, It Will Be. Plan Accordingly. If blockchain fulfills its promise of changing how real estate (and other kinds of) transactions are processed, documented and archived, its only a matter of time before professional positions involved in any aspect of real estate transactions will be impacted by this relentlessly advancing technology. In fact, entire sections of the transaction chain will be disrupted, including escrow and title agencies, because blockchain is designed to establish an easily-accessible, centralized title information repository. In a discussion led by Geoffrey Kasselman, executive managing director, Newmark Knight Frank, the benefits of blockchain hyperefficiency, transparency, and trust were emphasized. But the so-called middlemen in the transaction process will almost certainly be eliminated. Speakers Hugh Kelly, CRE, Ph.D., special advisor, Fordham University; Todd Jones, CRE, principal, Realadvice; and Rik Willard, CEO, Agentic Group agreed that if what is produced by your profession cannot be easily coded, theres nothing to fear from blockchain. AI (artificial intelligence) cannot (yet) provide the advanced, expert advisory services and client guidance that Counselors of Real Estate provide. 2. There is a Shortage of Talent in Logistics. Jim Newsome III, president and CEO, South Carolina Ports Authority, noted the difficulty of filling employee positions in the logistics sector of the manufacturing supply chain. E-commerce creates escalating demand for ever-faster delivery of goods; but reliability depends on training more and more young people for jobs all along the manufacturing-to-final-delivery spectrum. Schools and colleges in the Charleston area have instituted programs to acquaint and instruct students to become qualified entrants into the logistics industry. 3. Successful Ports and Port Cities are Created, Not Naturally Evolved. Location alone does not ensure that a city situated on water will becomeor remaina vital port city. In fact, the historic rapid growth of industry in such cities, including Charleston, was largely based on proximity to shipping. Yet the factories and textile mills operating there in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries did not survive globalization and advancing technology -- multiple thousands of jobs in South Carolina were lost to offshore facilities within the past 50 years. Robert (Bobby) HItt, III, South Carolinas secretary of commerce, told attendees that Charleston city officials worked together with his office to make the case for attracting advanced manufacturingwhich has grown to include Boeing aircraft, BMW and Volvo auto manufacturing plants and a large number of automotive aftermarket suppliers. To handle the increased shipping for finished goods--especially to non-U.S. locations--the Port of Charleston needed modernization, a process that is still continuing. But for a state dependent on international trade South Carolina is the most dependent of all U.S. states that didnt mean simply cosmetic port property updates it meant deepening the harbor to accommodate larger ships. These post-Panamax ships named for their size and ability to utilize the larger dimensions of the newly-improved Panama Canal now comprise the majority of business at Port of Charleston, carrying 72 million containers per year. South Carolina also operates a railway company to handle short hauls on rail lines from the port to truck terminals near the interstate highway, reducing truck traffic on local roads. 4. Plan Strategically or Fail at Economic Development. Access is key to developing a thriving community. That was the message from Helen Hill, CEO of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Charleston successfully attracted expanded air service in 2008 (Southwest) but has since added Jet Blue and Alaska Airlines, and an international connection. The citys hop system was created to transport hospitality workers to and from a parking lot keeping street parking clear for tourists, but assuring safe and convenient transit access for workers to their hospitality jobs. Dan Battista, senior vice president, Lowe hospitality group, discussed the need for taking a strategic approach to economic development planning. He cited the need for both a daytime and a nighttime economyincluding safety on city streets for tourists and residents alike. Limiting the number of cruise ship stops in Charleston is one way the city manages demands on local businesses and ensures a positive customer experience for large numbers of tourists. Lowe also invested in infrastructure, including a water treatment plant and storm drainage management system so that city facilities would not be overtaxed by tourist resort properties. 5. Dont Assume Expert Advice to Solve Real Estate Problems Is Unaffordable. Non-profit organizations -- municipalities, charities, religious and educational institutions--are always on tight budgets. Anthony Morlando, director, diocesan properties, Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte; and Lydia Doyle, director of planning and operations, Diocese of Charleston, discussed their experiences utilizing credentialed member volunteer teams from The Counselors of Real Estates Consulting Corps, to help them plan property portfolio management processes. As a way of giving back, CRE members donate their professional services in more than 50 real estate specialties and sectors, to help not-for-profit entities solve a variety of challenging real estate problems. About The Counselors of Real Estate The Counselors of Real Estate is an international consortium of recognized problem solvers who provide reliable, state of the art advice on real property. Membership is extended by invitation and includes principals of real estate, financial, legal, and accounting firms as well as developers, economists, futurists, and leaders of Wall Street and academia. Counselors of Real Estate endowed the MIT Real Estate Center, brought parking garages to China, developed a master plan for the Philadelphia Public Schools and valued Yale University and The Grand Canyon. Award of the CRE Credential attests to the exceptional real property experience and decision making skills of the recipient. Counselors reside in 20 countries and U.S. territories. For more information, contact The Counselors of Real Estate, 430 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611; +1 312/329.8427; http://www.cre.org. Supply chain attacks are difficult to diagnose because there is little evidence of a breach on the store itself. The store may follow network and web security best practices and be infected anyway. Future Hosting, a managed server hosting provider, has advised eCommerce retailers to be vigilant of the risk posed by supply-chain attacks. The advice comes in the wake of a number of massive data breaches caused by third-party libraries infected with malicious code. The Magecart credit card scraper is the most prominent example of malware injected via third-party JavaScript libraries. In recent months, several large eCommerce stores and innumerable smaller stores have been infected with Magecart. The malware scrapes credit card numbers and sends them to servers under the attackers control. Rather than attacking eCommerce stores directly, supply chain attacks focus on third-party libraries and tools. In the case of Magecart, one vector was a JavaScript library developed by an AI company. The attackers injected malicious code into the library, which was then imported into numerous eCommerce stores. As a server host, Future Hosting supports thousands of eCommerce stores. We are concerned that the current rash of supply chain attacks is likely to damage confidence in the eCommerce market, especially in the run-up to the holiday season, said Maulesh Patel, VP of Operations of Future Hosting. Supply chain attacks are difficult to diagnose because there is little evidence of a breach on the store itself. The store may follow network and web security best practices and be infected anyway. The number of supply chain attacks has increased because software repositories are an easier target than well-secured eCommerce stores. A supply chain attack can infect hundreds or more stores and sites with minimal investment from the attacker. Although supply-chain attacks are difficult to find, they are not impossible to prevent. Modern web applications typically rely on dozens, if not hundreds, of third-party libraries. It may not be feasible to thoroughly vet everyone, but eCommerce retailers should attempt to audit the code running on their servers. Web security safeguards such as Content Security Policy (CSP) can reduce the risk. CSP specifies whitelisted sources from which code can be loaded, limiting the effectiveness of some Magecart attacks. CSP can be used in concert with Subresource Integrity (SRI) to ensure that malicious code is not executed in users' browsers. About Future Hosting, LLC Founded in 2001, Future Hosting is a privately held leading Internet solutions provider specializing in managed hosting, including Dedicated Servers, Virtual Private Servers, and Hybrid Virtual Private Servers. The company has built a strong reputation for its high-quality service, innovative pricing models, and 3-hour Service Level Agreement. Future Hosting is based in Southfield, Michigan. For more information, visit http://www.futurehosting.com Thrush Aircraft Manufacturing Plant in Albany, GA The aerospace industry benefits greatly from the depth of manufacturing capabilities in Georgia, said Eric Rojek. Members of the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance toured Thrush Aircraft in Albany, GA on November 13th. Thrush is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of agricultural aircrafts producing 50 planes a year with 70% of these being exported outside of the U.S. Eric Rojek, Thrush Vice President, led the tour which gave GMA members an in-depth, behind the scenes look at the superior craftsmanship that goes into building each plane. Watch this Georgia Manufacturing News video: https://youtu.be/rDniALmbHDE to learn more about Thrush and their manufacturing process. The aerospace industry benefits greatly from the depth of manufacturing capabilities in Georgia, said Eric Rojek. Capabilities that are not only vital to the success of our nation but that allow us to continue building upon Georgias rich legacy of success in aviation. Headquartered in Albany, Georgia, Thrush Aircraft manufactures a full range of aerial application aircraft used in agriculture, forestry, and firefighting roles worldwide. Founded in 2003, Thrush is well-known for building the most durable aircrafts in the aerial application industry, and the best flying from both pilot and operator perspectives. Today there are more than 2,200 Thrush aircraft operating in some 80 countries. This versatility has made Thrush a favorite of operators, both large and small. Major operators who rely on Thrush include such familiar names as Dole Fresh Fruit, Del Monte Fresh Fruit, Aerovic, FumiPalma, as well as many governments around the world. Thrush is an impressive turn key operation that handles the entire manufacturing process from sheets of aluminum and steel to a finished plane, said Jason Moss, CEO of the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance. Their team members are focused on producing a high-quality product that is helping to feed the world. To view photos of the tour, click on this link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bac-b0S4E-iBxTRoW6SrpNv2EoEDrN7T About the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance: The Georgia Manufacturing Alliance (GMA) is a membership-based industry organization founded in 2008 to support Georgias manufacturing community. GMA provides over 100 events annually such as plant tours, educational sessions, tradeshows, and unique networking opportunities. These events are designed to share best business practices and to help make strategic alliances for its members. The Georgia Manufacturing Directory, Georgia Manufacturing Summit, Georgia Manufacturing Calendar, and BuyFromGeorgia.com are additional resources produced by GMA. To learn more about the organization, membership, and upcoming events, please call 770-338-0051 or visit their website http://www.GeorgiaManufacturingAlliance.com. People need insurance for a variety of reasons people need life insurance, homeowners need flood insurance, auto insurance, medical insurance, and so on. Leading software development company, HashCash Consultants, is set to make the cumbersome operations of the insurance sector significantly effortless with blockchain. Insurance industry contributes nearly 40% GDP of the financial institutions, making for a crucial part of the financial services sector in the United States. It is also responsible for employing more than 2 million people. The paperwork generated by this industry is massive and involves numerous copies of the same reports to be individually distributed across a wide network. This is one of the primary problem areas that have made blockchain a favored technology for insurance companies. A blockchain is a decentralized ledger that records economic transactions as well as data of any value. Information held on a blockchain is immutable and exists as a shared and continually reconciled database. The benefits of utilizing a network this way are numerous in the field of insurance, and can be broadly categorized into two divisions: Short to medium-term benefits (2 - 5 years) 1. Use of automation Blockchain implements smart contracts, which is especially relevant to processing parametric insurance claims. Since smart contracts are programmed to respond a certain way to a particular set of stimuli, it can be instrumented in disbursing payouts triggered by predetermined conditions. 2. Reduced processing time Since the data is distributed across nodes in a blockchain network, relevant information is accessible to various players in the market. The blockchain database allows for real-time reconciliation to mitigate the chances of fraud and makes verification of data quick. 3. Provenance tracking of insurable assets Data stored in a blockchain is immutable, easily accessible and validated by predetermined programmes. This makes tracing the origin of valuable assets such as diamonds easy in value chains. Medium to long-term benefits (5 -10 years) 1. Development of P2P business models The transparency, reliability, and scalability a blockchain infrastructure can bring business models like P2P insurance could open up many possibilities for startups. 2. Risk transparency - Blockchain could be used as a decentralized distributed ledger for sharing sources of data for enhanced risk assessment, pricing, and mitigation. Such an archive would be instrumental in developing novel ideas such as real-time adaptive pricing, on-demand insurance, and hybrid insurance products for the sharing economy. HashCash and Insurance With HC NET Blockchain, clients can convert multiple policies into smart contracts to give a single, comprehensive view of policy data and documentation, all in real time. The solution by HashCash Consultants presents a clear understanding of coverage and premium payments, delivers automated notifications to network participants following payment events. The blockchain company has developed its product to cover core issues in the industry including fraud detection and risk prevention; false claim prevention and management; distribution and payment models; and, reinsurance. HashCash has identified the need for trust in a sector dedicated to protect one from the unexpected, and has incorporated a technology best suited to provide it in its products. About HashCash Consultants HashCash Consultants started as a Blockchain Consulting Company in California. Today, HashCash products enable enterprises to move assets and settle payments across borders in real-time using HashCash Blockchain network, HC NET. Financial Institutions use HC NET for Retail Remittances, Corporate Payments, Trade Finance, and Payment Processing. HashCash also runs the US-based cryptocurrency exchange, PayBito and the leading Cryptocurrency payment processor, BillBitcoins. HashCash offers white label cryptocurrency exchange and payment processor solutions, comprehensive ICO services and customized use case design and development. HashCash propels advancement in the field of blockchain through the Blockchain1o1 program and its investment arm Satoshi Angels. Kount, a leading provider of fraud prevention solutions, today announced that Elizabeth Davis, the companys Director of Finance and Strategic Planning, has been honored as a winner in the Idaho Business Reviews 2018 IBR Excellence in Finance Awards. Recognizing the best of the best in the financial sectors of banking, corporate, investment and professional, the IBR Excellence in Finance Awards highlights 15 professionals each year for their dedicated efforts in their respective financial areas and their service to the greater Boise business community. Submissions were determined by a selection committee of past IBR Excellence in Finance honorees, who reviewed and rated nominees in the areas of leadership, mentorship, achievements, community leadership, and community service. Those scoring highest are this years winners, including Kount among other distinguished companies such as Zions Bank, Lamb Weston Holdings, Scentsy, and Idaho Trust Bank. Elizabeth hit the ground running the moment she joined Kount and has played an invaluable role by helping make strategic decisions in all aspects of our organization, said Brad Wiskirchen, CEO, Kount. Were thrilled to honor her alongside the Idaho Business Review and look forward to all that she will continue to accomplish. As the Director of Finance and Strategic Planning, Davis focuses on scenario modeling, creating and tracking business cases, and the development, measurement, and presentation of financial and strategic metrics. Working cross-functionally within Kounts various departments, she ensures that the business is thinking through strategic and financial opportunities holistically. Prior to Kount, Davis worked at Bodybuilding.com where she spearheaded financial strategy, among other company initiatives. Davis started her career in accounting at a commercial real estate firm, before moving to Micron Technology where she earned several promotions throughout her nearly eight years there. I am so excited to be recognized by the Idaho Business Review and to work for a company that enables employee professional growth, said Davis. Im proud to work at Kount as we enable thousands of customers to deliver frictionless digital and mobile commerce across many digital touchpoints while protecting their businesses and millions of customers from fraudulent activity. Outside of Kount, Davis dedicates time to supporting the community by volunteering for organizations like Ironman Boise and St. Lukes FitOne Boise, as well as serving on the Executive Leadership Team with American Heart Walk. About Kount Kount helps businesses boost sales by reducing fraud. Our all-in-one, SaaS platform simplifies fraud detection and helps online businesses accept more orders. Kounts turnkey fraud platform is easy-to-implement and easy-to-use. Kounts proprietary technology reviews billions of data points and provides maximum protection for some of the worlds best-known brands. Merchants using Kount can accept more orders from more people in more places than ever before. For more information about Kount, visit https://www.kount.com. Imperfect Produce Logo Thanks to weekly donations of fresh fruits and vegetables straight from Imperfect Produce, the Superfeed program is able to feed much more people than it was able to before. San Francisco-Based Imperfect Produce To Support Sunshine Awakenings Superfood Project Weekly Imperfect Produce is an incredible company for more reasons than one. Not only do they provide discounted fruits and vegetables to homes along the west coast, but they are also passionate about helping the community. Imperfect Produce has recently announced that it will be sponsoring Portland-based Sunshine Awakenings Superfeed program on a weekly basis. The community-driven Superfeed program provides the Portland homeless population with healthy and nutritious food. San Francisco-based company Imperfect Produce is redefining how the world views produce. Grocery stores have very high standards for the produce that they allow in their shops; each and every item needs to be near perfect. If a carrot is misshapen or an asparagus is bent the wrong way, theres no chance theyll make it into a supermarket. So what happens to these products? Thanks to Imperfect Produce, they can still be eaten and enjoyed from those in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland- and at a discounted rate! Imperfect Produce strongly believes in providing affordable and healthy food to Americans. Thats why they decided to partner with Sunshine Awakenings for the non-profits Superfeed Project. Sunshine Awakenings is a charity in Portland that focuses on spreading positivity and kindness throughout the community. While the organization has many programs ranging from art circles to free hug days, Superfeed Portland is their flagship program. This program helps to improve the lives of those without a home by providing them with healthy, nutritious food like pressed juices and sprout sandwiches. Portlands homeless population increased 10% between 2015 and 2017. Studies performed in 2017 show that there are over 4,177 people in the major city without permanent housing. While there are less people sleeping on the streets- and more in shelters- these people still lack access to basic necessities such as housing and nutritious food. Thats where Superfeed comes in. With this program, Sunshine Awakenings provides the Portland homeless population with access to food that is not only delicious- but that will also nourish their bodies. Sunshine Awakenings Superfeed Portland project is extremely beneficial to the community and wouldnt be possible to maintain at the current scale without Imperfect Produce. Thanks to weekly donations of fresh fruits and vegetables straight from Imperfect Produce, the Superfeed program is able to feed much more people than it was able to before. If youre interested in learning more about the Superfeed Portland program, click here. To find out more information on Imperfect Produce visit http://www.imperfectproduce.com. November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, an observance dedicated to raising awareness of the benefits of hospice services. Every year, nearly 1.4 million Americans living with a life-limiting illness receive hospice care, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. The demand for this care is projected to surge as the aging population significantly increases nationwide and more people prefer to stay in their homes. Based on a philosophy of improving the quality of life when quantity of time is limited, many of Interim HealthCares franchisees across the country have been personally moved to serve their communities because of their own life experiences: Interim HealthCare Hospice is devoted to meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the patient while supporting the patients family during the caregiving, grieving and bereavement process. To learn more about Interim HealthCares hospice offerings, click here. About Interim HealthCare Inc. Interim HealthCare Inc., founded in 1966, is a leading national franchisor of home care, hospice and healthcare staffing. It is part of Caring Brands International which also includes UK-based Bluebird Care and Australia-based Just Better Care, both well-known franchise brands in their countries. With more than 530 franchise locations in seven countries Caring Brands International is a global health care leader. Interim HealthCare in the United States is unique in combining the commitment of local ownership with the support of a national organization that develops innovative programs and quality standards that improve the delivery of service. Franchisees employ nurses, therapists, aides, companions and other healthcare professionals who provide 25 million hours of home care service to 190,000 people each year, meeting a variety of home health, senior care, hospice, palliative care, pediatric care and healthcare staffing needs. For more information or to locate an Interim HealthCare office, visit http://www.interimhealthcare.com. By limiting the grants to $2,000, Buckley said the foundation is able to impact a lot of lives and not turn down people in need. The funds could be used for groceries or to help keep treatment going. She said so far this year the foundation has given more than 60 grants. As a fifth-generation, family-owned company, we understand the importance of giving back and supporting charitable organizations, said Senior Vice President and Family Owner Todd Simon. This holiday season, support #GivingTuesday, and non-profit organizations across the country, through Steaks for Good, a charitable fundraising platform from Americas Original Butcher, Omaha Steaks. Both Steaks for Good, which helps non-profit organizations raise funds through the sale of Omaha Steaks products, and #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving that kicks off the charitable giving season, create the perfect opportunity for holiday shoppers and end-of-the-year charitable donors to purchase the perfect gift or enjoy an unforgettable meal, all while supporting their favorite charity. As a fifth-generation, family-owned company, we understand the importance of giving back and supporting charitable organizations, said Senior Vice President and Family Owner Todd Simon. Thats why Omaha Steaks donates 10 percent of every purchase made through Steaks for Good directly to the chosen non-profit organization. Organizations like Wounded Warriors Family Support are among more than 80 non-profits featured on Steaks for Good for #GivingTuesday. Supporters can shop online through SteaksforGood.com or in any of Omaha Steaks more than 60 retail stores nationwide, and Omaha Steaks will give 10 percent of every purchase to customers chosen fundraising campaign. There is no cost for organizations to participate and customers can shop with confidence with the Omaha Steaks 100-percent satisfaction guarantee. For more information or to learn how to sign up your organization and start a campaign, visit SteaksforGood.com. About Omaha Steaks Americas Original Butcher, Omaha Steaks, founded in 1917, is an Omaha, Nebraska-based, fifth-generation, family-owned company that markets and distributes a wide variety of the finest quality USDA-approved, grain-fed beef and other gourmet foods including seafood, pork, poultry, side dishes, appetizers, complete meals and desserts. Today, Omaha Steaks is recognized as the nations largest direct response marketer of premium beef and gourmet foods, available to customers by calling 1-800-228-9055, online at http://www.OmahaSteaks.com or at retail stores nationwide. This work by Tristan Eaton, capturing classic Las Vegas, is the cover for the new Street Art Las Vegas book that documents street art and graffiti in the Las Vegas area. Life is Beautiful created more acceptance and a new lens for street art in Las Vegas that had not previously existed, and we want to show its artistic value, said William Shea, one of the Street Art Las Vegas photographers. The unseen talent and hidden benefits that street art contributes to the art community is being highlighted in a new book documenting the art form in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Street Art Las Vegas includes murals and other works by well-known street artists, such as Shepard Fairey and Retna, to creations by anonymous artists and those without a signature style. Las Vegas photographers William Shea and Patrick Lai spent countless hours researching and photographing street art throughout Las Vegas and surrounding areas, including abandoned mines. Street Art Las Vegas is the culmination of their efforts from July 2012 and through to September 2018, and is scheduled for release next spring by Smallworks Press, an independent publishing company specializing in limited edition, exquisitely printed books focusing on contemporary art and culture. Street Art Las Vegas expands on Shea and Lais Fade to Gray, the well-received first ever photo documentary about the Las Vegas street art and graffiti scene published in 2015. This new work takes into account a new appreciation by the public for the art value of graffiti and street art, particularly with the 2013 debut of Life is Beautiful, the now annual music and art festival in downtown Las Vegas. The three-day event features work by prominent international street artists and has continued to grow, becoming a symbol of unity, optimism and creativity. With Street Art Las Vegas, we want to continue to show the artistic value and expression of street art against the Las Vegas canvas and create more awareness about this organic art form in a way that hadnt been captured here before Patrick and I started documenting it, said Shea. Life is Beautiful created more acceptance and a new lens for street art that had not previously existed, in addition to amazing work by very talented artists. The 200-page 8 x 10 book contains 252 high quality full color images, including photographs of work from Life is Beautiful, as well as Fade to Gray and remote locations. One of the abandoned mine sites is particularly notable in that the art is permanent on the structure. It was made by a cutting torch and can only be removed by demolishing the source, said Shea. Traditional street art and graffiti can be painted over, hence our earlier Fade to Gray title. Journalist Ed Fuentes provides the interpretive introduction, and the original cover art is by street artist Tristan Eaton. Publication is scheduled for April 12, 2019, with distribution through Midpoint, a subsidiary of Ingram Content Group. Street Art Las Vegas will list for $24.99, and is available for pre-sale for $21.99 through Amazon and Smallworks Press. For information, visit http://www.smallworkspress.com, email info@smallworkspress.com or call 702-577-6592. About William Shea William Shea is a professional photographer, writer, and artist living in Las Vegas. Originally from the Boston area, he moved to New York City in 1997, and Las Vegas in 2005 to further his career in the casino business. Shea left gaming in 2010 to return to school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to pursue his passion for photography and writing. In January of 2011, he began working on new projects that focused on improving the awareness of art and culture in Las Vegas. As of November 2016, Shea works as a graphic and editorial designer while serving as the treasurer of the Las Vegas Arts District. About Patrick Lai Patrick Lai is a professional landscape and street art photographer who immigrated to the United States from China in 2005. He worked diligently to master various photo editing programs and earned his degree in commercial photography from the College of Southern Nevada. After graduating, he turned his focus toward learning computer languages and later enrolled in the computer science and fine arts degree program at UNLV. Lai later became instrumental in the creation of the first published book that focuses on graffiti and street art in Las Vegas. About Smallworks Press Founded in 2006, Smallworks Press specializes in arts and culture publications and treats each book with a commitment to impeccable production, design and marketing. With more than 100 years of collective experiences, the Smallworks Press team has enjoyed collaborating with a wide-spectrum of artists, authors and talent to create works and beautiful chromatic illustrations and stimulating interpretation with the finest print quality. Smallworks Press has fulfillment through Midpoint (North America), a subsidiary of Ingram Content Group, and CBL Distribution (United Kingdom). For information, visit http://www.smallworkspress.com, email info@smallworkspress.com or call 702-577-6592. For Book Cover and Page Examples: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vtcd9l1wumswms5/AAD5S3YCb0JIyNKRg5Hc4aLfa?dl=0 M-Files Corporation, the intelligent information management company, today announced that M-Files is joining Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila on his visit to Washington D.C. this week. Miika Makitalo, CEO of M-Files, sees the visit as a possibility to strengthen M-Files position in the United States. During his visit to Washington D.C., the Finnish Prime Minister will meet with US political and economic leaders. Besides M-Files, the business delegation led by the Prime Minister also includes representatives from ABB, Fortum, Nokia and Wartsila. M-Files has systematically built its presence in the United States over the years, starting with the U.S. headquarters in Dallas founded in 2009. Today, M-Files serves thousands of customers in the U.S with the support of hundreds of local M-Files partners. For this achievement, among others, M-Files has recently received the Internationalization Award of the President of the Republic of Finland. It is a great honor to accompany the Finnish Prime Minister on his visit to Washington D.C. and to represent the next-generation of Finnish technology there. We already have a strong presence in the United States, and this visit will help us further strengthen our position in the market, says Miika Makitalo, CEO at M-Files Corporation. Gartner recognized M-Files as a Visionary in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, and Forrester Research named M-Files as one of the leading information management service providers in its industry report in 2017. M-Files grew revenue by more than 37 percent in 2017 over 2016. The company also achieved a 121 percent increase in cloud revenue in 2017 and sustained a cumulative revenue growth of more than 2,500 percent over the last eight years. M-Files received EUR 27 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support this international growth, partner channel expansion and acceleration of R&D. About M-Files Corporation M-Files provides a next-generation intelligent information management platform that improves business performance by helping people find and use information more effectively. Unlike traditional enterprise content management (ECM) systems or content services platforms, M-Files unifies systems, data and content across the organization without disturbing existing systems and processes or requiring data migration. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in its unique Intelligent Metadata Layer, M-Files breaks down silos by delivering an in-context experience for accessing and leveraging information that resides in any system and repository, including network folders, SharePoint, file sharing services, ECM systems, CRM, ERP and other business systems and repositories. Thousands of organizations in more than 100 countries use M-Files for managing their business information and processes, including NBC Universal, OMV, Rovio, SAS Institute and thyssenkrupp. For more information, visit http://www.m-files.com. Onyeje Ijaolas, book, "My Journey to Victory" is a story of her overcoming grief and lifes challenges . To describe her work in general, this author has used the Bible passage, Rise from the ashes and put on beauty. Clothe yourself with the garment of praise. Exchange sorrow for the oil of joy Rise up in power and walk in the fullness of who God has created you to be. -- Isaiah 61:3 Holy Fire Publishing (http://www.holyfirepublishing.com) releases the book "My Journey to Victory" 978-1-60383-576-3. It is an inspiring story of how Onyeje was first introduced to Christ and experienced transformation in life. This author tells her readers how, in the process of healing, she was able to harness her inner convictions strength and got her determination to live and start her life all over again along with the home and comfort she got from that transformation. This book, indeed, is this authors commitment to helping people especially in their lowest time of grief, pain, and disappointment. Through her book, Onyeje Ijaola serves as every womans voice--the woman who does not dare or does not have the guts to cry for help. Her work is an expression of her desire to hold the hand of another woman and tell her everything will be just fine. More so, this author hopes for the law to change--a change in favor of women in the African culture particularly the widowhood practices. My Journey to Victory highlights the author's personal journey to survival in life. Onyeje shows the transition of practices, beliefs, and traditions from her grandparents era, to her and her siblings generation. She begins her story describing how women, during the time of her mother, were deprived of their right to study. Her childhood, as she describes in the first few chapters of her book, was a combination of happy and sad memories. She and her siblings were able to enjoy their right to study. But despite this, she experiences bullying in school because of a protruding umbilical hernia, which she described as very ugly each time she had her uniform on. The message Onyeje wants to convey in her book is that she hopes for her readers to find hope, reassurance, comfort, and empowerment. For them to know that regardless of the situation they are in, God can bring them out and give them His beauty from ashes. In general, Onyeje conveys a message to her readers that healing and restoration are for everyone and, it was indeed, the price paid for every child of God. More so, her message tells her reader that it is for every individual to believe and release the burden. Specifically, this author is encouraging every woman to read her book so she can take one step at a time toward healing and eventually realize her worth in the world. Onyeje shares her main objective in writing this book, is for the women to find healing, comfort, and restoration. She adds that she wants them to be able to know and relate that people, men and women alike, have their own story, and it is important to go through the healing process the right way. This author also wants to uplift the spirit of women, for them to rise up and take their place. Personally, Onyeje wants her children to read her story and fully understand who their mother is, the things she went through, and how she overcame her struggles. She has this ardent desire for her children to read her story because she believes that everyone must tell his or her own story and when they do, they may be unveiling treasure for another persons healing and restoration. Three main themes are highlighted in this book and these include grief, restoration and overcoming adversity. These themes also highlight the authors main goal for the book. The objective brings awareness and focuses to widowhood, specifically in a majority of the African cultures. Married to Olusegun Ijaola, with who she has three children, Onyeje Ijaola hails from High Point, North Carolina. She loves to meet with people and make new friends, cook, bake, sew, dance and go shopping. Aside from the aforementioned hobbies, this author is a volunteer of her churchs childrens department. Who would have thought that shed find passion and joy in writing when her educational background is quite far from being a writer. She finished Bachelor of Science in Accounting (BSA), earned the Associates Degree in Nursing or ADN, took and completed the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), and a Family Nurse Practitioner (MSN) student. Holy Fire Publishing (http://www.holyfirepublishing.com), a publisher of hundreds of Christian books, helps Christian authors reach the world through the printed word. NASFAA Board of Directors meet with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at 2018 FSA Training Conference The financial aid community stands ready to work with policymakers to find and implement solutions that will help keep college affordable without burying families in levels of debt that cannot be repaid. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Tuesday in her opening remarks at the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Training Conference spoke of a crisis in higher education and needed policy changes in the way we distribute, administer, and manage federal student loans. NASFAA President Justin Draeger issued the following statement in response to DeVoss remarks: We applaud the Secretary for highlighting a national issue that is affecting millions of students and families across the country. We agree with her assessment that it will take a joint effort between schools, students, lawmakers, researchers, federal agencies and others to reduce the negative impacts of over-borrowing. The financial aid community stands ready to work with policymakers to find and implement solutions that will help keep college affordable without burying families in levels of debt that cannot be repaid. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) has issued the following recommendations to help curb overborrowing: Give schools authority to limit loans and ability to require additional loan counseling. Grant financial aid administrators the authority to limit loans for specific populations, academic programs, credential levels, or other categories established by the school and mandate forms of additional counseling, such as financial literacy workshops, on top of required one-time entrance and exit counseling. Eliminate origination fees. Origination fees act as a tax on student loan borrowers and stand in clear opposition to the overwhelming congressional support for simplification, transparency, and affordability in the federal student aid system. Simplify annual loan limits. Eliminate annual loan limit differences by establishing a single undergraduate subsidized and unsubsidized loan limit. Link aggregate borrowing to year in school. Lower limits would apply to undergraduate students who have not yet successfully completed the second year of an undergraduate program. This would prevent students who are not progressing toward degree completion from continuing to borrow. Preserve and solidify the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. PSLF encourages students to pursue and commit to careers in public service like social work, teaching, and law enforcement without fear that their student loan payments will follow them for decades. There have been several proposals to eliminate PSLF entirely, but NASFAA urges Congress to remember that there are thoughtful alternatives to ending the program. A cap on the maximum amount of forgiveness combined with proportional forgiveness may ensure that students are discouraged from over-borrowing. Several other points of welcome news were also announced during the secretarys remarks including: To request an interview with a NASFAA spokesperson on the secretarys remarks, or NASFAAs recommendations to reduce student loan indebtedness, please contact Erin Powers, NASFAA's director of marketing and communications. About NASFAA The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is a nonprofit membership organization that represents more than 20,000 financial aid professionals at nearly 3,000 colleges, universities, and career schools across the country. NASFAA member institutions serve nine out of every ten undergraduates in the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., NASFAA is the only national association with a primary focus on student aid legislation, regulatory analysis, and training for financial aid administrators. For more information, visit http://www.nasfaa.org. Fully compatible with Marvis, the first complete solution that combines Datalogics Laser Marking and AutoID products into a unified software environment, and with all previous Arex accessories, AREX400 is the ultimate solution for the contemporary automotive industry Datalogic, a global leader in the automatic data capture and process automation markets, introduces the new AREX400 family of laser markers based on fiber technology for industrial applications. Equipped with an exceptionally small and robust scanner head machined from solid aluminum, the AREX400 laser markers are unbeatable in tight space installations where a small footprint is mandatory and reliability is a must. Traceability is a core competence of Datalogic, whose laser markers are unbeatable in Direct Part Marking (DPM) products identification codes such as serial numbers, lot and batch numbers, 1D and 2D bar codes and human readable codes. AREX400 is ideal also for personalization and branding, as well as in industrial environments like automotive, tooling and precision mechanics, industrial electronics, home applications, surgical and medical devices. The AREX400 laser markers now incorporate Datalogics patented Green Spot technology, the award-winning programmable visual indicator for immediate good read feedback directly on the scanning area. Among the features most appreciated by the market, are the ultra-compact format, the high stability, the easy integration in laser processing machines, the Ethernet embedded communication protocols, and the fact that AREX400 has been tested and verified by UL (Underwriters Laboratories), one of the most recognized and trusted authorities for product safety testing and certification. Fully compatible with Marvis, the first complete solution that combines Datalogics Laser Marking and AutoID products into a unified software environment, and with all previous Arex accessories, AREX400 is the ultimate solution for the contemporary automotive industry stated Lorenzo Bassi, Product Marketing Manager of Datalogic. Manufacturers who are looking for laser marking products, have to answer to several questions before selecting a product. First of all, is there a model that can solve my actual applications? Will it comply with my severe environment and with my complex installation? Will it fit in the tight space constraints in my production line? How long will my investment be up-to date? What if I need future additional features? AREX400 by Datalogic addresses all of these questions. Several models are available with various power levels, technologies and configurations that cover virtually any industrial application, both in harsh environment and complex installation. Also included is a software upgrade program that will maintain the value of the investment, introducing new important features on regular basis, and a complete program of modular add-on accessories that will ensure hassle free laser traceability, concluded Lorenzo Bassi. Datalogic is a global leader in the automatic data capture and process automation markets, specialized in the designing and production of bar code readers, mobile computers, sensors for detection, measurement and safety, RFID vision and laser marking systems. Datalogic solutions help to increase the efficiency and quality of processes in the Retail, Manufacturing, Transportation & Logistics and Healthcare industries, along the entire value chain. The world's leading players in the four reference industries use Datalogic products, certain of the attention to the customer and of the quality of the products that the Group has been offering for 45 years. Today Datalogic Group, headquartered in Bologna (Italy), employs approximately 2,900 staff worldwide, distributed in 30 countries, with manufacturing and repair facilities in the USA, Brazil, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Vietnam. In 2017 Datalogic had a turnover of 606 million Euro and invested over 55 million Euros in Research & Development, with an asset of more than 1,200 patents in multiple jurisdictions. Datalogic S.p.A. is listed in the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001 as DAL.MI. More information about Datalogic at http://www.datalogic.com. Datalogic and the Datalogic logo are registered trademarks of Datalogic S.p.A. in many countries, including the U.S.A. and the E.U. AREX is a trademark of Datalogic S.p.A. and/or its affiliates. Love never ends for author Carol Scutt. Born out of a desire to give her family a record of the love story that existed between her and her husband Paul, she penned Lost Without Him (published by Xlibris), an autobiography charting their journey spanning over 50 years propelled with commitment, determination and devotion to each other and their love of God. Lost Without Him relives a story of love, faith and a relationship that stands the test of time. In the summer of 1967, two teenagers from opposite kinds of upbringing, met in Columbia City, Indiana. She was 16 and he was 17. The book follows their journey as they fell in love and survived heartache and loss but went from poverty to affluence while keeping their ethics and integrity intact. Our journey was not without struggles. There was a time when we nearly divorced but, did not, Scutt says. This is an inspirational story for everyone whom desires a true, loving relationship with both God and their spouse. It will remind them that God will always be faithful. An excerpt from the book: It was so emotional and heartbreaking for me. The reality of seeing his name carved in stone nearly broke me. I knew he was not there, and I was so grateful to God for that. Yet, knowing that the body of the man I loved more than life was there hit me like a ton of bricks. I printed and laminated a sign that I taped under my name, which read: With Paul to His Grave Went My Heart. To purchase a copy and know more about the book, readers may visit https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Without-Him-Carol-Scutt/dp/1984562118. Lost Without Him By Carol Scutt Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 190 pages | ISBN 9781984562128 Softcover | 6 x 9in | 190 pages | ISBN 9781984562111 E-Book | 190 pages | ISBN 9781984562104 Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble About the Author Carol Scutt is a 69-year-old widow living in LaFollette on Norris Lake. She is a mother and grandmother with two children and six grandchildren. Lost Without Him is her first book, born out of a desire to give her family a record of the love story that existed between her and Paul. Xlibris Publishing, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider created in 1997 by authors, for authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles. For more information, visit xlibris.com or call 1-888-795-4274 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisPub on Twitter for the latest news. Karla Jo Helms, CEO for JoTo PR, stresses the need for innovation and enhanced value within the reinsurance market. There is a need for innovation to bring more value to the [reinsurance] industry, Karla Jo Helms, CEO for JoTo PR said. Thats what COIN Re is bringing to the market. The North Atlantic hurricane season, combined with California wildfires, led to $144 billion in losses for the reinsurance industry in 2017.(1) Nonetheless, even with a total estimated insured loss of more than $2.1 billion from last months Hurricane Michael,(2) the reinsurance industry is expected, as usual, to turn a profit.(3) New JoTo PR client Ted Blanch, a reinsurance industry veteran for decades and CEO of reinsurance firm COIN Re, says the reason for this is that the reinsurance market is heavily tilted in favor of reinsurers, who possess significant advantages in terms of size and the ability to negotiate rates. This, says Blanch, has led to an economic imbalance between frictional costs and value received by the clients served. To help even the playing field, COIN Re plans to align with clients and collectively provide client investors with ownership of more than 50% of the companywhich will result in improved reinsurance program pricing, lowered frictional costs, and lower insurance premiums for consumers. COIN Re was founded in 2018 under the leadership of E.W. Ted Blanch. After joining E.W. Blanch & Co. in 1958 he became CEO in 1977 and held the position until 2000. He formed Ted Blanch & Associates as a consultancy to the reinsurance industry. There is a need for innovation to bring more value to the [reinsurance] industry, Karla Jo Helms, CEO for JoTo PR said. Thats what COIN Re is bringing to the market. JoTo PR has a history of innovative PR services that demonstrates their ability in gaining consistent news traction within the media for national and international organizationshelping provide front-line information to the media about industry disruptions and technological solutions aimed at making markets better for consumers. The firm is a trailblazer in the PR industry, blending traditional PR expertise with disruptive digital media to harness the advantages of the current media landscape. JoTo PR specializes in the healthcare, finance and technology sectors, but has worked for a variety of industries and non-profits, using a proprietary process to consistently identify, communicate and distribute to the press the newest news thats most valuable to its readers, viewers and listenership. About JoTo PR: After doing marketing research on a cross-section majority of 5,000 CEOs of fast-growth trajectory companies and finding out exactly how they used PR, how they measure it and how they wanted the PR industry to be different, PR veteran and innovator Karla Jo Helms created JoTo PR and established its entire business model on those research findings. Astute in recognizing industry changes since its launch in 2009, JoTo PRs team utilizes newly established patterns to create timely PR campaigns comprising both traditional and the latest proven media methods. This unique skill enables JoTo PR to continue to increase the market share and improve return on investment (ROI) for its clients, year after yearbeating usual industry standards. Based in Tampa Bay, Florida, JoTo PR is an established international public relations agency. Today, all of JoTo PRs processes are streamlined PR services that have become the hallmark of the JoTo PR name. For more information, visit JoTo PR online at http://www.jotopr.com. About Karla Jo Helms: Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR Strategist for JoTo PR. Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the lineand how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumna of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators and the media to help restore companies of goodwill back into the good graces of public opinionKarla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances, and doing what it takes to excel. Karla Jo has patterned her agency on the perfect balance of crisis management, entrepreneurial insight and proven public relations experience. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of PR to drive markets and impact market perception. 1. Schneider, C. Brian, Whats Ahead for Reinsurance Industry in 2018: Fitch, Insurance Journal, June 27, 2017. 2. Staff, Writer ; Insurers, Reinsurers Can Handle Hurricane Michael Losses: Fitch, Insurance Journal, October 12, 2018. 3. Staff, Writer; Reinsurers set for profitability gains in 2018: Moodys, Reinsurance News, March 2, 2018. World Vision's 2017 Give-Back Gift Shop This holiday season, the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision is inviting Christmas shoppers to catch the spirit of generosity at a unique interactive pop-up shop inside Bryant Parks iconic Winter Village. The Give-back Gift Shop (open November 25-27, 11 a.m. 8:30 p.m.) gives visitors a chance to experience World Visions life-changing work firsthand and learn how they can delight loved ones with a unique gift that will light up the life of a child in need. What can you do at the Give-back Gift Shop? Families will see, touch, and experience how one act of generosity can light up an entire community and ignite generosity and kindness among their own family and friends. Proceeds from the shop will go to World Visions programs around the world and right here in the United States. Through the combined efforts of World Vision and the support of donors: every 60 seconds a family gets water, a hungry child is fed, and a family receives the tools to overcome poverty. All the charitable gifts featured at the shop also appear online at http://www.worldvision.org At the shop, holiday shoppers will get the chance to: Snap a selfie with a goat, alpaca or dozens of other live farm animals and learn how these animals transform communities. Use a working water pump and experience what its like for a child who walks an average of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) a day to collect water. Snuggle up inside a huge Mongolian Ger and feel how these homes protect families from temperatures below -40 degrees. Build a Hope Kit for U.S. women escaping abuse, poverty, trafficking or addiction. Take a virtual tour to a village in Africa to learn how sponsorship can help change a childs life. #ShineBright by committing to pray for a message of hope to better the world collected from people across America and displayed on World Visions Give-back Tree. The Give-back Gift Shop is part of the organizations #ShineBright movement, an effort to unite people through the power of hope this holiday season. Messages of hope collected on social media from across America will be displayed at the Shop for visitors to read and pray over. Exclusive celebrity appearances at the Give-back Gift Shop (Tuesday, November 27): --Emmy-award winning actress and founder of World Visions celebrity ambassador network, Patricia Heaton makes an appearance at the shop to inspire fans to give back on Giving Tuesday. This year, Heaton was honored at the Creative Coalitions Television Advocacy Awards for her humanitarian work with World Vision, she has traveled to multiple countries advocating on behalf of the poor. Inspired by her sponsored child, Heaton has also designed a new accessory collection featured at the Give-back Gift Shop and in World Visions 2018 Gift Catalog. The Grace Collection by Patricia Heaton is made by fair-trade artists in India and goes to fund World Visons work. --Grammy-award winning country duo Sugarland will make an appearance at the Shop, using their star power to shine a spotlight on children living in poverty. During their Still the Same reunion tour Sugarland encouraged fans to #LoveBIGGER by sponsoring a child with World Vision. Give and Have Twice the Impact on Giving Tuesday On Giving Tuesday any donation given to World Vision will have twice the impact, thanks to a partnership with Thirty-One Gifts. For every donation to World Vision on November 27, Thirty-One Gifts will provide up to $2 million in product helping families around the world with items to keep babies warm, deliver medical supplies, and keep girls in school. World Visions Gift Catalog began in 1996 with a handful of humanitarian gifts. Today, the catalog gives shoppers more than 250 tangible ways to improve the lives of children and their communities. Gifts range in price from $16 to $50,000. Last year, more than 146,000 people donated more than 310,000 items from the Gift Catalog that helped families in need around the world. To order from World Visions Gift Catalog, visit http://www.worldvision.org or call 1-855-WV-GIFTS (1-855-984-4387). For more information contact David Pickard, david@wilksgrp.com, 708-434-5006 (o) About the World Vision Gift Catalog Since 1996, the World Vision Gift Catalog has given people the opportunity to better the lives of children, adults and communities in the U.S. and around the world through hundreds of gifts in all different areas of need: clean water, food, education, sexual exploitation, job training and others. In fiscal year 2018, 146,000 people donated more than 310,000 items from the Gift Catalog that helped people around the world raising over $30 million. To order from World Visions Gift Catalog, visit http://www.worldvisiongifts.org or call toll-free at 1-855-WV-GIFTS. About World Vision World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information, please visit http://www.worldvision.org or follow on Twitter @WorldVisionUSA. This recognition is the latest recognition of Prime TSRs rapid growth trajectory and broadened focus around infrastructure, applications and data platforms. Prime TSR, a Chicago-based technology modernization consultancy, today announced it has been named #14 on the consulting industrys Fastest Growing Firms. Published by ALMs Consulting Magazine, this years national list includes the top 65 firms fastest growing firms based on revenue growth between 2014 and 2017. Prime TSR was on hand to accept its top ranking at a gala and celebration at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront and is currently profiled in the November issue of Consulting Magazine. This recognition is the latest recognition of Prime TSRs rapid growth trajectory and broadened focus around infrastructure, applications and data platforms. Prime TSR also made its debut on this years Inc. 5000--the most prestigious ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. This ranking by ALMs Consulting Magazine is a testament to the rapid expansion among consultancies beyond an elite few not only in quantitative measures but also in terms of the growing demand for nimble, strategic firms with specialized focus areas like Prime TSR, said Eugene Khazin, principal and co-founder, Prime TSR. In its own press announcement of the Fastest Growing Firms, Consulting magazines publisher & editor-in-chief, Joseph Kornik commented: This recognition and awardConsultings Fastest Growing Firmsis aimed squarely at these up-and-coming firms that all too often fly below the radar because theyre not the biggest or the best-known firms. We want to shine a light on these firms because they are the future of consulting. To determine the rankings, Consulting evaluated revenue over a three-year period (2014-2017). To participate, firms needed to have generated at least $500,000 in revenue in 2014. In all, 65 firms qualified for ranking with a minimum of 10 percent growth. Prime TSRs #14 ranking reflects 275% revenue growth, significantly higher than the 198% average growth for all winners. About Prime TSR Founded in Chicago in 2013, Prime TSR is the strategic technology modernization partner for Fortune 1000 organizations, including some of the best-known names in professional services, healthcare, insurance, financial services, manufacturing, distribution and logistics. Prime TSRs diverse team of highly-skilled technologists focuses on three primary areas: Application Development & Integration, Data Platforms & Analytics and Infrastructure & Operations. Initially gaining credibility for behind the scenes work resolving mission critical IT system challenges and enterprise breakdowns, today Prime TSR applies the same ingenuity and pragmatic approach to developing insightful, long-term technology solutions to its clients most pressing business challenges. For more information visit: primetsr.com. About Consulting magazine Consulting magazine is the flagship publication of the consulting profession featuring the latest information on consulting careers, thought leadership and corporate strategies. In addition to providing industry insights, Consulting hosts award dinners as part of our Achievement Awards serieshonoring Women Leaders in Consulting, The Top 25 Consultants, The Rising Stars of the Profession, The Best Firms to Work For, and The Global Leaders in Consulting. Please visit http://www.consultingmag.com for more information and follow @Consulting_Mag on Twitter. 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. Design-build commercial modular construction firm Ramtech Building Systems of Mansfield, Texas has announced that the company has secured a contract to provide a 17,284 square foot modular building complex at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. The single-story complex will be used for pilot training as part of a program aimed at addressing the shortage of pilots that currently exists across the U.S. Air Force. The square profile relocatable modular building provides space for eight training classrooms, 15 offices, a squadron briefing room, conference room, and an administrative reception area. Provided on a five year operating lease, the building exterior is designed with R-Panel metal siding and a TPO roof. The interior will utilize vinyl covered gypsum on the walls and a combination of carpet tiles, vinyl composition tile, and sheet vinyl for the flooring. The heating and cooling of the facility will be accommodated by 14 Bard Exterior Wall Mount ducted air-conditioners. As part of the contract, Ramtech will be responsible for providing the office and classroom furniture throughout the building, along with the development of the site including the building pad, the extension and connection of all utilities, and the fire sprinkler and alarm systems. Located 90 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, Vance Air Force Base is the northernmost Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training base in the Air Education and Training Command. The base has 1,200 active duty and reserve military along with 1,300 civilian employees that support approximately 500 student pilots in their training pipeline. In order to meet the current shortage of pilots in the Air Force, Vance has been tasked with increasing its pilot output by about 30 percent by 2021. Ramtech will start the manufacturing of the pilot training facility during the last week of December and commence the site development beginning in mid-January. The modular building project has an expected completion date of late April of next year. The Air Force expects to occupy the building beginning June 1, 2019. About Ramtech Building Systems Since 1982 Ramtech Building Systems has been providing innovative relocatable and permanent modular buildings for commercial companies, educational institutions, government agencies, and healthcare providers throughout the Southern United States. As a vertically integrated design-build construction company, Ramtech provides full in-house design, a manufacturer direct product, and complete site construction services all within a single-source solution. Ramtech can offer facilities built using permanent modular construction on both a pier and beam or concrete slab foundation. Both options combine the best of off-site manufacturing and on-site construction techniques to produce a building faster and with less cost, but identical in the look, functionality, and life expectancy of a completely site-built structure. By emphasizing a value engineering approach, Ramtech has successfully completed over 4,000 diverse projects of all sizes. For more information, visit the company's website at RamtechModular.com. The Lotus Cross: a suspenseful story of Michael Drake and his team of archaeologists and their mission to find and unveil the secrets of a famed artifact, the Lotus Cross. The Lotus Cross is the creation of published author, Ray Anderson, an ordained minister in the United States for Spiritual Living, an organization based on the teachings of Ernest Holmes. Anderson shares, For over a thousand years, history has kept secret the Lotus Crossan artifact with a hidden treasure within it. Now that its existence has been confirmed, many will do anything to have it. Join Michael Drake as he sets off to find the artifact with the help of two archaeologists, the British Secret Service, and members of a secret group in India. Brimming with danger, intrigue, and suspense, this novel is a thriller that will keep you engrossed until you turn the last page. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Ray Andersons new book contains gripping scenes of danger, intrigue, and suspense that readers will surely find entertaining and mesmerizing. This fictional read is truly a thriller that will keep its readers engrossed and at the edge of their seats as they delve into a plot full of unhinging twists and turns. View a synopsis of The Lotus Cross on YouTube. Consumers can purchase The Lotus Cross at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Lotus Cross, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Frogs, like humans, are not wise when they are tadpoles. Wisdom is learned from others who have gone before. So frogs sit on, and leap from the shoulders of others. And humble and grateful frogs must identify and commend their instructors. Amphibian Diaries: A Field Guide for Truth-Seekers is John Hansel, Jr.s latest book chronicling a series of enlightening conversations with the least expected individual. Homeward-bound after a trip to Louisiana, the author finds a talking frog in his bag. The amphibian introduces himself as BP, honoring philosopher Blaise Pascal, whose idea of The God Wager is part of the inspiration for the book. From then on, BP urges John to be more reflective about life and the direction he is going, and the mans views and beliefs are turned upside down. The many tidbits of wisdom shared by the frog are melodiously poetic, the first of his six main principles being: Each of us is a soul with a hole, so we run and run yet fall short of our goal. We reset the bar expecting the good, yet never get far as we think we should! This begins Johns journey to figuring out the direction his life is headed. BP and John go back and forth about mankinds shared desire for answers to the ultimate questions in life about our origin, destiny, morality, and lifes meaning. Surely there must be answers, BP says, yet we must make our way through this shadowy life, strutting and fretting without answers for questions we most certainly want to answer. The frog says that despite peoples personal or religious backgrounds, everyone has their own version of answers to these ultimate questions. BP states that the issue with answering these questions transcends mans natural ability to understand with surety, invoking faith in each of us. Hours go by, and while the young man throws one retort after another, the frog delivers sufficient answers, usually in the form of a Socratic, didactic question that John and the reader need to answer by critical reflection. Back in the city and in the days that follow, John learns the remaining five foundational principles essential for genuine truth-seeking and testing our ideas of faith and worldview. He also discovers he is not the only one who has had such an eye-opening conversation about God and life. As a close friend invites him to a more in-depth discussion on these topics, John (and the reader by proxy) needs to decide if he is ready to commit to a one-on-one dialogue with an open mind while listening with an open heart. Before immortalizing his discussions with BP Frog in his book, John Hansel, Jr. earned his degree in Communication at Ohio State University, followed by his Masters of Biblical Studies at the Dallas Theological Seminary, and his doctorate in Educational Leadership Development at Ohio State University. A spiritual man who loves writing, John spends most of his time sharing about BPs principles of truth-seeking. John served as a senior pastor, worked with The Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and became an area director for Search Ministries. Other than Amphibian Diaries, Johns recent achievement as a spiritual mentor is his tenure as Director of The Heart for Homea group dedicated to encouraging people to talk about God and life. The ultimate thesis of the Amphibian Diaries is that a humble and honest quest using the six principles of truth-seeking introduced in this book (remembered by the SEARCH acrostic and its poetic presentation) will ultimately lead to the Good News of the Way, the Truth, and the Life of abundant Love. The book is also creatively interactive for readers with the website by the same title: http://www.AmphibianDiaries.com. The author welcomes personal, ongoing dialogue from readers of his book and website visitors alike. The book has already been endorsed by popular philosophers, such as Dr. Gary Habermas, the author of Resurrected?: An Atheist and Theist Dialogue and chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty University; Kelly Monroe-Kullberg, author of Finding God at Harvard and founder of The Veritas Forum; and Dr. Kenneth Boa, author of Faith Has Its Reasons and president of Reflections Ministries. It is published with Elm Hill, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Saladin Shabazz-Allah, a Brooklyn, New York native who was educated in the New York school system, has completed his new book Saladin: an intriguing exploration through history, where the author explains undisputed facts of the American conspiracy to destroy black people as America presents its version of events. According to Shabazz-Allah, It was here in the New York educational system where (I) began to recognize the distortion as well as unfairness in the educational system in the late fifties and early sixties and it was then when things began changing drastically for (me). After seeing a live speech by Minister Malcolm, (my) life began to change. In 1964 when the Holy Messenger, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad came to New York at the 369th armory, he reclaimed his own. Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Saladin Shabazz-Allahs riveting work shares his thoughts about how, black people have the right to choose for themselves. They have a right to reject the lies and atrocities that America has committedand is still committing. Black people have the right to a true history, not the distorted American history taught in schools. It is their right to be free of everything America does; they have nothing to gain. Readers who wish to experience this intriguing work can purchase Saladin at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional New York based full-service publishing house that handles all of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex and time consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. Presenting the Satin Fine Foods donation to HVHF. Satin Fine Foods is honored to have contributed to such a special cause. This donation to HVHF helps give our American veterans the acknowledgement they deserve for their selfless sacrifices. -Jeff Caron, Director of Global Sales Satin Fine Foods, a manufacturer of cake decorating products based in The Hudson Valley NY, presented a donation of $2,400 to Hudson Valley Honor Flight on Sept 28th 2018 at the HVNY office in Walden NY. The proceeds were generated from a recent sales incentive campaign and presented to HVHF by Kevin OReilly, Founder and CEO of Satin Fine Foods, Inc. Giving back is an essential part of our mission and culture, said Kevin OReilly. Since our company was founded in 2001, Satin Fine Foods has always dedicated our resources to supporting local, national and global charities. Hudson Valley Honor Flight is right in our back yard and supports a wonderfully generous cause. Hudson Valley Honor Flight (HVHF) is a local nonprofit based in Walden which honors Hudson Valley area veterans for all their sacrifices by bringing them to Washington, D.C. to visit their respective war memorials at no cost to them. HVHF is also the local hub of the National Honor Flight Network, which has more than 100 independent nonprofit hubs nationwide. You can be sure we will put your donation to good use! said Jennifer DeFrancesco, Executive Director of HVHF. It really is an honor and a privilege to be able to do what we do for these heroes. October 6th, 2018 marked mission #21 for HVHF. The flight departed New York Stewart International Airport in New Windsor and escorted veterans on an all-expense paid trip to our nations war memorials. Veterans traveled by police escort bus convoy while in D.C. for the daylong trip. Satin Fine Foods is honored to have contributed to such a special cause, said Jeff Caron, Director of Global Sales, Satin Fine Foods. This donation to HVHF gives helps give our American veterans the acknowledgement they deserve for their selfless sacrifices. HVHF continues its fundraising efforts all year long to help make the trips for the American heroes a reality. For more information on HVHF and how you can help please visit http://www.hvhonorflight.com. About Satin Fine Foods, Inc. Satin Fine Foods, Inc. is a world-leading rolled fondant manufacturer, distributing to more than 60 countries worldwide. Established in 2001, Satin Fine Foods developed the Satin Ice range of products to satisfy the demands of the worlds best cake artists. Known for its superior workability, consistency and taste, Satin Ice has become the premium fondant of choice for professional cake artists around the globe. For more information please visit http://www.satinice.com. About Hudson Valley Honor Flight: Hudson Valley Honor Flight (HVHF) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization which Honors American Veterans for all their sacrifices. HVHF transports these heroes to Washington, D.C. to visit their memorials at no cost to them. It is the local hub of the National Honor Flight Network (which consists of more than 100 independent nonprofit hubs across America). HVHF flies multiple times a year out of Stewart International Airport and Westchester County Airport. It serves veterans from the following counties: Orange (N.Y.), Ulster (N.Y.), Dutchess (N.Y.), Westchester (N.Y.), Rockland (N.Y.), Sullivan (N.Y.), Putnam (N.Y.), Pike (Pa.), Bergen (N.J.), and Fairfield (Conn.). Veterans from other surrounding counties are considered as well. Top priority is given to those of the Greatest Generation, that of World War II, and terminally ill veterans from other wars. HVHF plans to take ALL veterans from other wars on future flights. Applications are kept on file. For more information, visit hvhonorflight.com Past News Releases RSS Sensys America, a leading provider of advanced technology for traffic safety enforcement, announces the program for red light camera photo enforcement with the City of Crestview, Florida will begin its enforcement with a 30-day warning period on December 1st. Sensys America is working with City officials to encourage safe driving at the most dangerous red light intersections. The warning period will give motorists time to change their driving habits before payable notices of violation begin January 1 with a fine of $158. Accidents from red light running are among the most preventable type of accidents, while T-bone crashes can cause severe injuries and deaths. The following dangerous intersections will be monitored: Ferdon Boulevard @ Redstone Avenue Ferdon Boulevard @ James Lee We are proud to provide our life-saving technology to other North Florida cities as well, such as Gulf Breeze and Midway. These cost-neutral programs are saving lives while also providing law enforcement with investigative tools to catch criminals. We want Crestview to be a Zero Fatality City with no injuries or deaths. said Carlos Lofstedt, CEO, Sensys America. Photo Enforced signs are already clearly posted at the intersections and the system will be monitoring 24/7 beginning December 1st with advanced photo enforcement technology from Sensys America. The monitoring systems capture high resolution photos/videos of vehicles that run red lights. About Sensys America Sensys America provides the most tested and widely used photo enforcement systems in the world with advanced technology for traffic safety and a commitment to reducing fatalities to zero. Sensys America, is a privately held company headquartered in Orlando, Florida with a US client base that includes customers in Florida, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Washington State. Sensys team of photo enforcement experts provides decades of combined experience developing, installing and operating photo red light and speed programs in the United States and throughout the World. For more info: https://www.sensysamerica.net/ Skuid, the leading cloud application platform, will demonstrate the success of no-code, scalable enterprise applications at the Gartner Application Strategies & Solutions Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada. As part of their sponsorship, Skuid pre-sales engineer, Danny Gans, will present on how enterprise companies can build customized applications to drive business productivity and application adoption. Skuid Session Title: Data, Right User, Right Time: How to Do It When: Thursday, November 29; 11:45 a.m. PST Where: Theater 2, Exhibit Showcase, Forum Ballroom More info here. Gartners Application Strategies & Solutions Summit is a three-day conference in Las Vegas, Nevada for IT and business leaders. The event focuses on modernizing legacy systems, exploring the most innovative approaches to enterprise applications and infrastructure, and driving business transformation. When: November 2729, 2018 Where: Ceasars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV 89109 To learn more about how market-leading companies are using Skuid to drive business productivity and digitally transform, click here. About Skuid Skuid was founded in 2013 on the simple belief that enterprise software should stop forcing people to behave like machines. Instead, apps should behave more like the humans who use them, so everyone can thrive in the digital world. With Skuids simple-to-use but incredibly robust cloud front-end design-and-deploy platform, anyone can connect to disparate data sources, assemble highly complex, made-to-order applications, and instantly make changesall without writing code. More than 5 million users across 32 countries use Skuid to engage with each other, with data, and with new customers in meaningful ways. For more information, visit http://www.skuid.com. As a combined company, we will leverage the best practices that each organization brings to the table, with a deliberate focus on creating the best value and experience and innovation roadmap for our clients. SPH Analytics, the top-ranked patient satisfaction measurement firm in the Health Plan market, announced today that it has reached an agreement with Market Strategies International-Morpace to merge the Morpace Health division into SPH Analytics to create the nations largest member experience measurement and analytics firm. The two companies anticipate closing the transaction by December 31, 2018. I am thrilled to bring together leaders in the patient engagement and market research space, said Amy Amick, President and CEO of SPH Analytics. We have a lot of respect for the capabilities of Morpace Health, and we strongly believe that our strengths as organizations are highly complementary. As a combined company, we will leverage the best practices that each organization brings to the table, with a deliberate focus on creating the best value and experience and innovation roadmap for our clients. Our expectation is to provide clients with best-in-class solutions that help them better understand and engage their members. The acquisition will also accelerate our investment in innovation to help drive progressive change that improves the overall care environment. The healthcare sector is rapidly shifting from fee-for-service to value-based care, designed to achieve healthcares Triple Aim goals. Morpace Health provides research expertise focused on member experience and quality of care, expanding SPH Analytics extensive portfolio of patient and member experience surveys and engagement programs offering health plans additional ways to improve care outcomes, reduce costs, and deliver patient satisfaction. We are confident that our clients and employees will benefit from the new combined company, stated Susan Semack, Senior Vice President, Health at Morpace Health. We will continue to serve our clients with relentless focus, providing meaningful insights, but now with the added benefit of SPH Analytics resources, technology and much broader solution portfolio. The combined company will enable Morpace Health clients access to SPHs Triple Aim solutions, including advanced SaaS analytics and reporting, member engagement solutions, population health and quality measure solutions, and financial risk analytics. Furthermore, Morpace Health clients will now have access to additional regulatory and insight surveys in the SPH portfolio, as well as omni-channel patient/member outreach via SPHs Nexus Platform. This, coupled with Morpace Healths deep custom research capabilities and tenured healthcare research professionals, will clearly differentiate the newly combined company in the market. The combined company will also hold 12 accreditations to meet CMS and NCQA regulatory requirements. Terms of the deal will not be disclosed. Semack will join the SPH Executive Leadership Team as Senior Vice President, Consumer Experience, and in addition to other leadership responsibilities, will spearhead the integration and transformation of the combined businesses. The Morpace Health team will continue to operate from Farmington Hills, Michigan, with SPH Analytics headquarters in Alpharetta, GA. This agreement does not impact Market Strategies International health clients. Given the complementary nature of MSI and SPH solutions, the companies anticipate go forward collaboration and partnership opportunities. About SPH Analytics SPH Analytics (SPH), a leader in healthcare analytics and population health management, empowers clients to analyze and interpret their clinical, financial, and consumer experience data to maximize their performance. SPHs Population Care, Population Value, and Population Engage solutions are built on the innovative Nexus Platform, providing insights and impact to integrated health networks, ACOs, hospitals, ambulatory care providers, physician groups, and health plans. SPHs quality measure dashboards, financial risk measurement, healthcare survey and patient outreach solutions, and consulting services empower clients to meet the Triple Aim by improving population health, reducing overall cost of care, and improving the patient experience. SPH Analytics is a recognized leader in the industry, earning accolades as a top ranked population health vendor by KLAS, ranked the number one analytics firm out of the top 50 disruptive health IT companies by Black Book Research, and ranked number one in MACRA and MIPS Support Technology for Value-Based Care by Black Book Research. SPH Analytics has been providing insights to clients for more than 25 years and serves clients in all 50 states. Corporate headquarters are in metro Atlanta. SPH Analytics is a portfolio company of the $3 billion STG Partners. For more information, call 1-866-460-5681 or visit SPHAnalytics.com. About Market Strategies International-Morpace Leading market research firms Market Strategies International and Morpace bring clients closer to their customers through exceptional insights. The firms specialize in brand, customer experience, product development and segmentation research, and are known for blending primary research with data from syndicated, benchmarking and self-funded studies to help clients succeed. They have earned the trust of many of the worlds top brands across the automotive, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, health, technology and telecommunications industries. Market Strategies and Morpace are combining into one firm, as part of an acquisition of both firms by STG Partners and will be rebranded under a new name to be announced later in 2018. With more than 450 research professionals, the collective firm is now the 15th largest market research firm in the US and top 25 globally. exceptional talent. specialized solutions. Our familiarity of the STEM community in combination with our long standing presence in the Pittsburgh region make us a unique fit to support the areas ecosystem of 500 biotech, life sciences and healthcare technology companies that call Western Pennsylvania home. System One, a leading provider of specialized workforce solutions and integrated services announced today a strategic partnership with Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) and its newest initiative, Health IT Pittsburgh. The partnership establishes System One as a workforce and talent solutions provider across the entire PLSG portfolio of companies and Health IT Pittsburgh. The collaboration will allow entrepreneurs and start-ups businesses in Western Pennsylvania to capitalize on System Ones extensive expertise in scientific, clinical, healthcare and integrated IT services. As part of the alliance, the PLSG and Health IT Pittsburgh communities will have direct access to System Ones service delivery teams located throughout Pennsylvania, including more than 30 specialized clinical, scientific and healthcare recruiters located within Pennsylvania and 50 specialized technology recruiters nationwide. System One, and our scientific, clinical and healthcare division, Joule, are excited by this new partnership, said Tim Bosse, Senior Vice President, Talent Solutions, System One. He continued, Its an honor to align and partner with a new generation of life sciences and healthcare technology innovators. "The Health IT Pittsburgh cluster initiative aims to collaborate with industry leaders and partners who share our vision: to make our region a leader in all aspects of Health IT. We are excited to partner with System One as they truly share the goals of our initiative in growing companies, creating jobs and attracting people into the healthcare workforce in Pittsburgh, said Delvina Morrow, Director of Development and Community Engagement at PLSG. She continued, The partnership will advance new life sciences technologies, expand business opportunities and continue to position Pittsburgh as an innovation hub. We are eager to engage our team of scientific, clinical and healthcare recruitment experts to support the Health IT community attract the talent to advance new technologies and innovations in the market. Our familiarity of the STEM community in combination with our long standing presence in the Pittsburgh region make us a unique fit to support the areas ecosystem of 500 biotech, life sciences and healthcare technology companies that call Western Pennsylvania home, said Greg Lignelli, Chief Operating Officer, System One. About System One System One is a leader in delivering specialized workforce solutions and integrated services. We help scientific, clinical and healthcare clients get work done more efficiently and economically, without compromising quality. With nearly 40 years of expertise, weve built our reputation on exceptional talent, flexible delivery and full accountability. System Ones national network spans energy, engineering & transit, technology, scientific & clinical, healthcare, creative & digital, government services, commercial & industrial, telecom, legal, professional and marketing. System One is based in Pittsburgh, PA. About Joule Joule specializes in scientific, clinical and healthcare staffing solutions and equipment services delivery. As a dynamic specialty workforce solutions and integrated services provider, we deliver personalized attention backed by deep corporate resources. Joule businesses provide best-in-class niche services in their industries. Small enough to customize solutions for your business, were large enough to deliver comprehensive results. Joule is a division of System One. About Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse is a comprehensive life sciences economic development organization. We are dedicated to advancing life sciences in western Pennsylvania by building on the regions strengths in research, clinical care and life sciences entrepreneurship. We serve our community by providing knowledge, connection and capital to help companies grow, create jobs and improve the health of all humanity. About Health IT Pittsburgh Health IT Pittsburgh is a cluster initiative committed to connecting healthcare & information technology; growing companies, developing our workforce and creating jobs in Western Pennsylvania. TailWind will continue to expand our offerings and our reach to offer game-changing solutions to our clients. TailWind is moving its headquarters from the Plymouth suburb of Minneapolis to Minnetonka. The move is a reflection of the company's national strategy and is being made for three key reasons that will positively impact both employees and customers. Once the move is made, "TailWind will continue to expand our offerings and our reach to offer game-changing solutions to our clients," according to Andy Siemens, TailWind CEO. The move is being executed primarily to accommodate expansion and become more customer-centric, as well as for the convenience of the location. TailWind will have a larger overall space for its employees as the business continues to grow. With TailWind's focus on managed services and adoption of their three pillars, the company is delivering deeper and wider services to its customers. As a result, TailWind needed a way to organize customer-facing resources that incorporated all their specialties. The move helps remove departmental boundaries and allows the company to adopt a more customer-centric approach. TailWind also needed to build out unique spaces for their expanding set of services. The new facility features a Network Operations Center (NOC) housing their tier 1 and tier 2 engineers. Further, their growth in asset management required a larger and more sophisticated stage and configuration lab. The new location will also have better-configured warehousing and material handling. And to better align with TailWind's national strategy, the new facility is significantly closer to MSP International Airport and travel-related services like hotels and restaurants. The company has experienced an increased pace of travel to and from their facility by employees, customers, and partners, and the move is conducive to catering to related needs. "TailWind is dedicated to being a resource across North America that multi-location enterprise clients can look to for a comprehensive solution to their IT/telecom needs across their organization," said Siemens. TailWind's broadband aggregation service bundles internet and circuits for multi-location businesses and streamlines managing those connections with a single invoice. To learn more about how TailWind can be a true partner to your enterprise, reach out today. Some of the language changes in the draft plan include a call for any redevelopment to include changes to hospital parking lots to eliminate barriers and conceal parking in new decks or behind new buildings, If redevelopment is to occur, Cusack and his neighbors want any annexation decisions to include impacts compliance with stormwater code requirements and consideration for the overall potential fiscal impact on the city. St. Kates strong commitment to womens education is grounded in a solid culture of learning and the universitys longstanding values of academic excellence, community, integrity, social justice and reflection," said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd. The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi will install its 350th chapter at St. Catherine University in Minnesota today, November 27. Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nations oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society. The installation of the St. Catherine chapter comes after a thorough petitioning process and approval from the Societys board of directors. To be eligible, an institution must be a regionally accredited four-year college or university with an established reputation of excellence and an expressed commitment to upholding the values of the Society. The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is pleased to welcome St. Catherine University to its community of scholars, said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd. St. Kates strong commitment to womens education is grounded in a solid culture of learning and the universitys longstanding values of academic excellence, community, integrity, social justice and reflection. Officers elected by the chartering group to serve the newly installed chapter include President Rafael Cervantes, President-Elect Colleen Carpenter, Secretary Paula C. Furey and Treasurer Teresa F. Lyons-Hegdahl. Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 when Marcus L. Urann, a student, brought to his professor the idea of creating a different kind of honor societyone that recognized excellence in all academic disciplines. Today, the Society has chapters on more than 300 select campuses in the United States and the Philippines and inducts approximately 30,000 new members each year. Membership is by invitation only to the top 7.5 percent of juniors and the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students, along with faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction. About Phi Kappa Phi Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The Societys mission is "To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others." Since its founding, more than 1.5 million members have been initiated. Some of the organization's more notable members include former President Jimmy Carter, NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, novelist John Grisham and YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley. Each year, Phi Kappa Phi awards nearly $1 million to qualifying students and members through graduate and dissertation fellowships, undergraduate study abroad grants, and grants for local and national literacy initiatives. For more information about Phi Kappa Phi, visit http://www.PhiKappaPhi.org. Above all else, Top Ten Web Hosts commends Sunshine Awakenings for their desire to bring the Portland community closer. Sunshine Awakenings intentional and thoughtful programs help to inspire a culture of love, support, and positivity. It seems that more and more companies these days are realizing the importance of community and opting to support non-profits. Up-and-coming website hosting review platform Top Ten Web Hosts is one of these such companies. Recently, Top Ten Web Hosts announced its support for Portland-based non-profit Sunshine Awakenings. Sunshine Awakenings is a non-profit that works to spread positivity across Portland through several community-based initiatives. Their initiatives include art programs, music programs, and feeding nutritious and sustainable food to the local homeless population. So what do a website hosting review platform and a community-driven non-profit have in common, you might ask? Plenty, as it turns out. Both Top Ten Web Hosts and Sunshine Awakenings believe in the importance of community. Everyone in a community has something unique to offer; however, not everyone has the same opportunities. Top Ten Web Hosts helps its own community members by providing them with accurate and detailed ratings and reviews for website hosting companies. This information allows their website visitors to gain valuable information as to which website hosting platform would most benefit them. In this day and age, there are hundreds of website hosting platforms to choose from; it can be quite overwhelming. Whether you plan to start a blog or grow your business, its important to have a reliable website and hosting partner. However, Top Ten Web Hosts has a desire to impact a larger community, which is why they are offering their support to another like-minded organization- Sunshine Awakenings. The core goal of Sunshine Awakenings is to propagate positivity in the community through right-brain thinking. Sunshine Awakenings offers a wide variety of programs for Portland community members including free juggling lessons, free hugs, and Superfeed. Arguably the most impactful Sunshine Awakenings initiative, Superfeed Portland is a program that helps alleviate hunger in Portlands homeless population by providing individuals with healthy and nourishing meals. The Superfeed program is one that Top Ten Web Hosts is particularly interested in and supportive of. Above all else, Top Ten Web Hosts commends Sunshine Awakenings for their desire to bring the Portland community closer. Sunshine Awakenings intentional and thoughtful programs help to inspire a culture of love, support, and positivity. We need that environment today more than ever. If youre interested in learning more about Top Ten Web Hosts, please click here. To learn more about Sunshine Awakenings, click here. Roberts Toyota's Fresh Start Program is available to help customers in need of financial help. Toyota customers in the Columbia area are able to get help from local dealership, Roberts Toyota, when they are going through bankruptcy. Roberts Toyota, located at 1027 Nashville Highway in Columbia, Tenn., offers a Fresh Start Re-Establishment Program to select customers who are looking to get back on track. The Fresh Start Program offers secure financing options to members with no money down required. Each loan that is offered is tailored to the customers county/state taxes. Customers who have filed a Chapter 7 or converted a Chapter 13 to a Chapter 7 are able to have their vehicle sold as soon as the day they file. Customers who are in Chapter 13 will need a letter to incur debt that is signed by their trustee. If customers are surrendering their vehicle in bankruptcy, Roberts Toyota can help them to secure a new loan to replace their current vehicle before having to surrender it. This will be done the day that it is filed, there is no need to wait for a 341 meeting with the creditors. Having an auto loan is one of the fastest ways to rebuild credit after bankruptcy. The Roberts Toyota Fresh Start Program is a great opportunity for customers to get back on track with a new Toyota or a quality pre-owned vehicle. This offer is available to residents all over the South East region. Customers who are in need of this Fresh Start Program can easily be approved by filling out a secure online credit application or by calling 931-375-3366. By calling this number or filling out this form, a member of the Roberts Toyota Finance Department will be in contact with the next steps. "We're just beginning to learn about the microbes that live on and inside our bodies, and how those microbes interact with us to affect our health. I'm excited to see how uBiome is using DNA sequencing to help doctors and patients understand this rich, complex microbial environment." - Dr. Salzberg uBiome, the leader in microbial genomics, announces the addition of Dr. Steven Salzberg, PhD, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University, to its Scientific Advisory Board. Joining the board of leading scientists and doctors from around the world, Dr. Salzberg will bring to uBiome his extensive knowledge in sequencing technologies and the computational methods for analysis of DNA. The appointment will help uBiome continue its advancement in human microbiome research. Dr. Salzbergs expertise on DNA and RNA sequencing is invaluable for uBiomes progress towards harnessing the latest technology developments to provide insights on patient health, said Jessica Richman, PhD, co-founder and CEO of uBiome. We are very fortunate to welcome Dr. Salzberg to uBiomes Scientific Advisory Board. In addition to his role as a faculty member in the top-ranked Biomedical Engineering department at John Hopkins University, Dr. Salzberg is also Director of the Center for Computational Biology and a member of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine. Previously, he served as the Horvitz Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Salzberg has also worked at The Institute for Genomic Research, where he sequenced the genomes of many bacteria, including those used in the 2001 anthrax attacks. While there, he was part of the Human Genome Project and the co-founder of the influenza virus sequencing project. Throughout the course of his career, he has published more than 250 scientific papers. About joining uBiome's Scientific Advisory Board, Dr. Salzberg said, "We're just beginning to learn about the microbes that live on and inside our bodies, and how those microbes interact with us to affect our health. I'm excited to see how uBiome is using DNA sequencing to help doctors and patients understand this rich, complex microbial environment." In addition to Dr. Salzberg, the uBiome Scientific Advisory Board also includes Dr. Joseph DeRisi (MacArthur Genius and UCSF professor), Dr. Atul Butte (head of the Institute for Computational Health Sciences at UCSF), Dr. Katherine Pollard (Director, Gladstone Institute for Data Science and Biotechnology), Dr. Joel Palefsky (UCSF School of Medicine professor), Dr. George Church (leading geneticist at Harvard University), Dr. Liz Lipski (Academic Director of Nutrition and Integrative Health Programs at Maryland University of Integrative Health), Dr. Elaine Hsiao, PhD (UCLA), and other leading scientists. The companys Medical Advisory Board includes Dr. Alan Green (Society for Participatory Medicine), Dr. Leo Treyzon (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), Dr. Cynthia Geyer (Medical Director of Canyon Ranch, Lenox), Dr. Robynne Chutkan (Georgetown University Hospital), Michael Docktor (Boston Childrens Hospital), Dr. Tiffany Lester (Medical Director of Parsley Health in San Francisco), Dr. Joel Kahn (Founder of of the Kahn Center for Cardiac Longevity), as well as other accomplished clinicians. _____ About uBiome Founded in 2012, uBiome is the leader in microbial genomics. The Companys mission is to advance the science of the microbiome and make it useful to people. uBiome combines its patented proprietary precision sequencing with machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop wellness products, clinical tests, and therapeutic targets. uBiome has filed for over 250 patents on its technology, which includes sample preparation, computational analysis, molecular techniques, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic applications. uBiomes commercial products include SmartGut, the worlds first sequencing-based clinical microbiome test, which identifies microbes in the gut for patients with chronic gut conditions such as IBD, IBS, Crohns Disease, and ulcerative colitis; SmartJane, the first sequencing-based womens health screening test, which genotypes all 19 clinically relevant strains of HPV, identifies four common STDs, and surveys more than 20 vaginal microbes associated with bacterial vaginosis and other conditions; and Explorer, a health and wellness product to understand the role that food and lifestyle can play in wellness. uBiomes platform has been used by hundreds of thousands of consumers, patients, and doctors and more than 200 research institutions around the world, including the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Harvard University, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California, San Francisco, Oxford University, and the University of Sydney. Since its launch, the company has received widespread recognition including CNN 10: Startups to Watch, the IVY Technology Award, CNN Future 30, and was named one of Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare in 2016 and in Data Science in 2018, as well as a Technology Pioneer from the World Economic Forum in 2018. For more information, visit http://www.uBiome.com. Upfront prices, free luxury car delivery in Texas, no gimmicks and no pressure are highlights of the Autos of Dallas experience. Luxury comes at a premium in the automotive world that puts ownership out of reach for many car shoppers on a budget. Autos of Dallas, a pre-owned luxury car dealership in Plano, Texas, will cater to budget-minded luxury car shoppers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with no haggle prices, no gimmicks, free luxury car delivery in Texas and a no pressure experience. Individuals who are interested in a used luxury car, truck or crossover may find their dream vehicle at the dealership with a more affordable price tag. Autos of Dallas possesses an extensive inventory that houses more than 1,100 pre-owned luxury vehicles that features many popular luxury brands Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Cadillac and more. With used car prices, luxury car shoppers on a tighter budget can find the car of their dreams at the dealership. In an effort to make the car-buying process less stressful for potential owners, the dealership sticks to a no haggle, no gimmick and 100-percent transparency policy. Autos of Dallas provides luxury car shoppers with the best price upfront, that when coupled with an extensive inventory, allows consumers to find their dream car at a dream price. Online car buyers who choose the Dallas-Fort Worth area dealership will have the opportunity to take advantage of free luxury car delivery within the state of Texas and nationwide delivery at an affordable price. Luxury car shoppers who would like to learn more about how Autos of Dallas provides a one-of-a-kind car-buying experience or are interested in a pre-owned luxury vehicle can find more information online at http://www.autosofdallas.com. Interested consumers who prefer a more personal interaction can visit the dealership showroom in person at 4472 W. Plano Pkwy. Plano, Texas 75093 or can contact a sales representative by phone at 972-484-9200. With each new wave of technological advancement in marketing and print production, Vya has discovered new ways to support and contribute to the success of our customers. And, we are truly excited for the next 25 years! Vya, a leading provider of simplified marketing execution for distributed organizations, is celebrating 25 years delivering marketing execution and print production services to customers in a variety of industries, including financial services, franchising, manufacturing and insurance. Since its launch in 1993 as DocuStar, a wholesale provider of copy services to the printing trade, Vya has successfully navigated a changing marketplace. The company rebranded in 2015 as Vya, and has evolved into a provider of end-to-end marketing resource management solutions designed to help companies customize, localize and efficiently manage their marketing, messaging and materials for more relevance, impact and overall business success. Technology has dramatically changed marketing execution and fulfillment, since DocuStar launched a quarter century ago, said Jay Brokamp, CEO of Vya. What hasnt changed, is our highly personalized approach to customer service, which has enabled us to grow and evolve in partnership with our clients. The companys longevity is due in part to its ability to predict and adapt to industry trends, and its future continues to be tied to investing in technology. With each new wave of technological advancement in marketing and print production, Vya has discovered new ways to support and contribute to the success of our customers, said Kandi OConnor, COO, Vya. We are truly excited for the next 25 years! Vyas seasoned team of design, data, development, marketing, production and programming personnel guides its clients throughout each successful campaign by understanding their business, their objectives and their budgets. Highlights from 25 Years of Business Success In concert with its leading MRM platform, Vya continues to invest in the latest technologies and equipment for delivering cutting-edge print production services. Below are a few of the highlights and milestones from Vyas 25 years of business success. DocuStar is founded in 1993 with four employees, providing wholesale copying services to the printing trade First commercial printer in Cincinnati to install Xeroxs DocuTech, the first commercial digital printer. One of the first companies to use a Canon 300 color copier. In its first five years, DocuStar grew by 30-40% per year, with almost 600 customers By the year 2000, with the emergence of desktop publishing, DocuStar evolved to meet changing market conditions, offering new services, advising graphic designers, marketers and business owners on how to get files from workstations to printers. In 2000, as desktop publishing proliferated, DocuStar recognized the need for document control in corporate America to maintain branding standards and compliance. This led to the development of marketing resource management software that allowed a company to control what was printed across its distributed organization. In 2005, DocuStar left copiers behind and went all digital, hiring people with skillsets necessary to become digital press experts. In 2015 DocuStar rebrands as Vya, to more accurately represent the company as a provider of viable, simple solutions, seamlessly integrating technology, custom print and fulfillment services, for end-to-end marketing resource management. Since 2015, Vya has continued to enhance its MRM platform and print production capabilities with the addition of compliance features, creative production systems, ad systems, local profile management and custom creative request management tools, and the acquisition of a large-format LED printer and new Xerox presses. As of 2018, Vya has grown the user community of its MRM platform to nearly 53,000, across a diverse range of client organizations nationwide in industries such as financial services, franchising, insurance and manufacturing. About Vya Vya (@vya_systems) offers businesses a full range of integrated marketing resource management tools to help customers simplify and localize marketing efforts. The company combines 25 years of print fulfillment experience with the latest technology to provide a platform to help companies customize their marketing, messaging and materials. Learn more about Vya at vyasystems.com or contact Vya at 800-426-7921 or sales(at)vyasystems.com. The Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness program is unique because it allows our customers to give back through the purchase of a new home during the holiday season. Wayne Homes, an Ohio-based home builder that specializes in on-your-land custom homes, has announced the start of their annual Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness program. Each year during the holidays, Wayne Homes joins with their customers to raise money for charities in their local community. For every home sold during that period, Wayne Homes will donate $150 to the customers charity of choice. The program will begin on Monday, November 26 and will run through Monday, December 31. Each office has selected three charities for customers to choose from, including St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, American Cancer Society, Wounded Warrior Project, and a number of local humane societies and homeless shelters. The Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness program is unique because it allows our customers to give back through the purchase of a new home during the holiday season, George Murphy, CEO and President of Wayne Homes, said. We are thrilled that we have the opportunity to collaborate with our customers and are happy to continue this program each year during the holiday season. Wayne Homes has held the Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness program for the last ten years and has donated more than $60,000 to charities through the program. With this program, Wayne Homes hopes to make a meaningful difference to those less fortunate this holiday season. The Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness program is one of the many community involvement programs Wayne Homes carries out every year. For more information about Wayne Homes community involvement programs, Ask Julie by live chat. To find out more about becoming part of the Wayne Homes team, see current job opportunities. About Wayne Homes Wayne Homes is a custom home builder in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, and West Virginia (see all Model Home Centers). We offer nearly 50 fully customizable floor plans and a team dedicated to providing the best experience in the home building industry. For more information, Ask Julie, our online sales team, by Live Chat or call us at (866) 253-6807. The WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA), a global industry organization enabling sharing of underutilized spectrum, is applauding a recent United States government initiative to develop a national strategy for utilizing next generation radiofrequency spectrum. The Presidential Memorandum acknowledges the critical importance of wireless technologies to the nations economy and security. It directs executive departments and agencies to identify anticipated spectrum requirements for government and non-government users, and develop a plan for improving spectrum utilization to meet those needs. Specific requirements of the national plan include: expanding spectrum access for all stakeholders; developing appropriate standards, incentives and management schemes to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of spectrum utilization; and research and testing to support ongoing technical innovation and leadership. We are pleased that a comprehensive, robust approach to spectrum access has been recognized as a national strategic imperative, said Dr. Apurva N. Mody, Chairman of WhiteSpace Alliance. WSA has been a major contributor to education, technology development, regulatory frameworks, and testing and evaluation for shared spectrum solutions around the world. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the governments efforts. New technologies to identify, monitor and control spectrum continue to evolve to support more efficient spectrum sharing. Current methodologies such as cognitive and software defined radios, spectrum sensing and beaconing techniques, and spectrum databases and management systems can dramatically expand access to communications services while ensuring users are protected from interference. Efficient sharing of spectrum allows a variety of commercial and government users to flexibly coexist within frequency bands, and enables all users to take advantage of emerging technical advances. WhiteSpace Alliance, developer of Wi-FAR and WSAConnect interoperability specifications, has a following of more than 200 major commercial, academic, government and regulatory organizations around the world. WSA member organizations benefit from access to technical specifications that decrease development costs; expanded access to global markets, regulators and government agencies; and ongoing marketing support at no additional cost. Consumers benefit from a multi-vendor, interoperable ecosystem that brings down the overall cost of broadband access. For more information on WhiteSpace Alliance, please visit http://www.WhiteSpaceAlliance.org About WhiteSpace Alliance The mission of the Whitespace Alliance (http://www.whitespacealliance.org) is to promote the development, deployment and use of standards-based products and services as a means of providing broadband capabilities via WhiteSpace spectrum. By promoting the use of standards, the Alliance will enable companies to provide broadband connectivity at reasonable cost. The WSA will also act as an enabler of the emerging white spaces ecosystem by helping to put in place interoperability, conformance, and compliance testing to make sure that our member stakeholders get the needed information & collaborations to succeed both in the market place and with regulatory requirements. Interoperability specifications will allow multiple vendors to enter the market and help to reduce the costs for the consumers. WhiteSpace Alliance promotes the use of IEEE, 3GPP and IETF Standards for use in the WhiteSpaces. 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. The third annual Colorado Teen Book Con was hosted by Tattered Cover Book Store on November 3 at Littleton High School in Littleton, Colo., bringing together 26 YA authors for a celebration of teen lit. The event, which was free and open to young readers ages 13 to 20, featured two keynote presentations, panels and workshops, food trucks, and an author party and signing. In addition, on November 2, Tattered Cover Colfax Avenue hosted a YA Author Happy Hour for adult fans of YA. Weve gathered a selection of highlights from the festivities. All photos by Ashley Lyons at Tattered Cover. Newbery Honor and Printz Honor author Jason Reynolds (For Everyone; Long Way Down) delivered the keynote address. Teen Advisory Board members getting ready to serve as author escorts. Strange the Dreamer author Laini Taylor with fans. Graphic novelist R. Alan Brooks (The Burning Metronome). Will Walton, author of I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain. The Astonishing Color of After author Emily X.R. Pan signed copies of her debut novel. Guests mingled with fellow book lovers at the YA Author Happy Hour. Mark Oshiro, author of the YA debut novel Anger Is a Gift. Andrew Smith signed his new science fiction novel, Rabbit & Robot, and spoke with young readers. Shadow of the Fox author Julie Kagawa (second from r.) with Book Con staff and guests. "To me, it's so exciting to help share a family event with these cadets who couldn't be with their own families," Marshall said. "This is a day we want to share our thanks with them for what they're going to be doing for our freedom." According to the Minister, AFRIMA will give Ghana the opportunity to boost its tourism and creative arts. This explanation has not gone down well with many Ghanaians who believe that the government could have used the money for other developmental projects. However, the government thinks otherwise. 1. Arrivals The event was organised in Accra from November 21-24. The other African artistes and stakeholders who were present started arriving on Wednesday (November 21, 2018). They had the opportunity to use Ghanas new Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) which has been receiving some praises from Ghanaians and foreign nationals who visit the country. 2. Hosting the guests - Hospitality industry They were hosted at the Kempinski Hotel and Movenpick Ambassador Hotel both in Accra. It is said that Ghanaian hospitality is always great. At the five-star hotels where all non-Ghanaian participants were hosted was state of the art bedrooms, lounges and every other thing they will need to make their stay enjoyable so they can always come back. 3. Music Summit - Networking (Stakeholders) On Thursday (November 22, 2018) the Africa Music Business Summit was held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast, Accra. Present at the summit were the partners and stakeholders in the music industry in Africa and the rest of the world. Others who came include African Union officials, Ministers of Industry & Trade, Culture, Arts and Tourism from across Africa, record companies & other stakeholders. This allowed for networking with other stakeholders for better partnerships. This can lead to some beautiful music and art collaborations between some of Africas great people in the industry. The upcoming ones can also get enough mentorship to help grow their career. 4. Selling Ghana music to Africa There was also the AFRIMA Music Village where many people went to the Independence Square to enjoy the songs of some African artistes. Some of the artistes who performed include Sarkodie, Stonebuoy, P-square among others. This was to show others what Ghana and other African countries have when it comes to music. 5. Tour On Friday the people present went on a city tour of Accra. This was to show the people from other African countries what Ghana has and the beauty of the city. A tour guide who took some of the people round said most people enjoyed the city tour and promised to come back to Ghana for a visit. Other people said they would recommend Ghana as a tourism destination country to other people. 6. AFRIMA 2018 (Organisation) AFRIMAs organisation saw collaborations from Ghanaians and people all over Africa coming together for the greater good. Having knowledge of how things work in other countries is key to tailoring ones tourism plans. Ghanas Tourism Minister seems to be aware of this, creating an avenue for collaborative planning for the first year before Ghana takes full charge in the second and third year of the current contract. 7. Main Event - Promo to sell Ghana Ghana made it a point to tell the world their story by orchestrating the event in what seemed best in a tourists eyes. With the main awards night getting coverage across various TV networks in Africa, this was Ghanas time to shine and so it was. Short promo videos played during the events broadcast gave a fair idea about how rich tourism in Ghana is. Award presenters from the country also found avenues to tell how Ghana is helping the world in diverse ways. For an average tourist, these were stories well told. 8. Fashion Every Ghanaian who was present at the event did their best to sell Ghana through what they wore. Some non-Ghanaians at the event also wore made in Ghana products all contributing to the economy in diverse ways. Other stakeholders obviously would find some of the Made in Ghana products attractive and invest in some good Ghanaian fashion pieces. Over a week ago, the SM boss sparked controversy after referring to Ghana as a village during his performance at Indigo, 02 in London. READ ALSO: Whiles performing his numerous hit songs, the artiste paused and told his fans to disregard any negatives news about him on the internet which emanates from Ghana. He went further by ordering the fans to repeat after him that Ghana is a village, to which they duly obliged. Shatta Wale is a very nice guy, all that you read on Google from Ghana [are not true]. Ghana is village, say Ghana is a village, say village, he said, as the fans repeated after him. ece-auto-gen Though it turned out to be sold out concert, Shatta Wales comments did not enthuse many Ghanaians back home. READ ALSO: But in a move that is bound to spark more controversy, the Zylofon Media signee is set to release a new song titled Ghana be village. In a video that has gone viral on social media, Shatta Wale is captured busily singing the said song which is yet to be released. Godwin Banchir, according to reports used a stick to beat his mother to death on January 21, 2016. The young man was then arrested by neighbours and handed over to law enforcement authorities who arraigned him on June 6th 2016 with a charge of culpable homicide, contrary to Section 221 of the Penal Code punishable with death upon conviction. During interrogation, the then suspect reportedly admitted to the crime, saying he returned from farm and greeted his mother and she ignored him, hence he got infuriated and attacked her with a stick of an axe, leading to her death. I got angry when she did not respond to my greetings, so I picked the stick of an axe and hit her around her ribs. She fell down and started shouting, which attracted our neighbours who came to beat me up and later took me to the police station. READ ALSO: Lady resigned from office job to sell sexy videos on Snap Chat for huge money I have been having misunderstandings with my mother each time I return from the farm, she doesnt cook for me on time, and she always quarrels with me whenever I want to bathe with the water she fetched from the stream. Her actions always annoyed me, I did not know that she was going to die from the beating she received from me, Banchir told police. Apparently, Banchir virtually took his mother for his wife and thought she was obliged to serve him. Meanwhile, having gone the full trial process, the court presided over by Justice Longji found him guilty of the heinous crime. My hope is Light the Lights becomes a holiday tradition for the community in the bigger way that it is this year and next year, Kiraly said. That is what we are going to be working toward. Police have been reported as saying the suspect, Sombat Tonwong allegedly raped the elderly woman during the night of November 17. The Nation Thailand reports that the victims 37 year old daughter filed a police complaint against Sombat with the Tha Rua Police Station on November 20. She told the law enforcement officers that she had noticed her mothers troubled state of mind and coerced her to disclose what could have been bothering her. The victim then narrated her ordeal to her daughter. Following a complaint to the police, Sombat was reportedly arrested under an arrest warrant issued by the South Bangkok Court on November 22. Police said the accused was taking drugs with the victims son-in-law at the victims home at the time of the incident. According to him, Nana Addo is not God to determine who leads the country after the 2020 general elections. Speaking on his tour of the Eastern region, President Akufo-Addo hit out at the NDC, insisting the party has been peddling lies about his government. He went on to pronounce that the NDC will stay in opposition for a very long time if it continues with its agenda to make his government unpopular. these are people who are looking at a long period in opposition, the President said, adding that the NDC will only create, loot and share should they return to power. Reacting to this, Mahama said President Akufo-Addo is not God to decide who will lead Ghana in 2020. ece-auto-gen When we started our campaign, the president said he would not respond to presidential aspirants but he has since started responding to us and at Somanya, he said NDC would not come to power again, but I say that he is not God, as only God chooses a leader and God is big, so, we are hopeful that the NDC will win the 2020 general elections, he told some NDC delegates in Bekwai in the Ashanti region. READ ALSO: My opponents are blind; they cant see good things Nana AddoMy opponents are blind; they cant see good things Nana Addo Mahama, who is currently in the second phase of his Ashanti Regional campaign tour, criticised government for failing to complete the Bekwai Hospital. He claims he bought the car from the presidential pool of the erstwhile NDC administration, however, he was instructed by the Director of Security at the Presidency, Captain Edmund Koda to return it and be refunded. READ EXCERPTS OF HIS PETITION BELOW In a letter dated 28th March 2018, Captain Edmund Koda, writing in his capacity as Director of Security specifically requested me to surrender to him the aforementioned vehicle on the ground that it was part of the pool of vehicles that were handed over to the current administration on 7th January 2017. In the said letter, he also directed that I furnish his outfit with all the relevant documentation regarding the purchase of the vehicle in order to ensure that the entire amount would be refunded to me after I had surrendered the vehicleFor the avoidance of doubt, I must state that in my quest to demonstrate that I acted lawfully in good faith and without knowledge that that said vehicle was part of the pool of vehicles handed over to the current administration, I wrote a letter to Captain Edmund Koda and explained the full circumstances regarding the purchase of the car. As a law-abiding citizen, in the same letter, I reiterated my readiness to expeditiously surrender the vehicle to this outfitREAD ALSO: Corruption Former NDC Minister reveals why politicians are corrupt Even though I surrendered the vehicle to Captain Koda as far back as on the 22nd of April, 2018, Captain Koda has only acknowledged receipt of same, but has neglected, failed and or refused to take steps to ensure that the consideration I paid to acquire the vehicles is refunded to me despite repeated demands". it smacks of extreme bad faith that long after the vehicle and all relevant documentation have been provided, the refund has not been effectuated. Till date, I have not received any communication from him with respect to when the refund will even be done. ece-auto-gen This was made known on Monday, November 26, 2018, during a presentation of an analysis jointly inaugurated by the Human and Environmental Development Agency, Global Witness, RE: Common and The Corner House. Industry experts at the Resources for Development Consulting, a research-focused organisation conducted the analysis. Revelations from the report According to the report, leaked documents from Shell had suggested the oil giant capitalised on the 2011 presidential election to get the federal government to sign the deal. Shell and Eni have denied any wrongdoing, reiterating that they had acted correctly in the purchase of OPL 245. The two oil giant along with a number of their senior executives have involved in lawsuits for their alleged role in the deal. What Nigeria lost The Resources for Development Consulting projected that Nigeria lost an estimated $4.5 billion based on 2003 fiscal terms on the deal. Projecting further, they said the federal government lost N5.86 billion over the lifetime of the project based on 2005 fiscal terms. The firm used a discounted cash flow analysis model made up of elements including fiscal terms, field data from various sources, an oil price assumption of $70 a barrel to arrived at the figure. Don Hubert, founder and president of Resources for Development Consulting, said the fiscal terms governing the OPL 245 deal only favoured Shell and Eni. The payment of $1.1 billion dollars in 2011 was not only a payment to secure rights to OPL 245, but the payment also served fiscal terms that were highly generous to the IOCs (International Oil Companies) but were highly detrimental to the government of Nigeria, he said. The lack of profit oil in the current fiscal terms that is governing OPL 245 will result, our analysis shows, in a loss to the Nigerian people of at least $4.5 billion. Barnaby Pace from Global Witness said the report shows how the terms of the agreement were in the favour of the two oil giants. Pace said globally there is call on the Nigerian government to revoke the licence so that its estimated $6 billion losses will be stopped in its track. "We also call for contracts to be made public. Middlemen in the controversial Malabu deal bag jail terms In August 2018, a Milan court sentenced Nigerian man, Emeka Obi and an Italian middleman to four-year jail terms over $1.1 billion Malabu oil fraud. Shell and Eni denied the two 'middlemen'. Brief background issue on Malabu oil deal The two international oil and giants - Royal Dutch Shell and Italian Agip-Eni - paid out about $1.1 billion to Dan Etete, Nigeria's former petroleum minister who had previously been convicted of money laundering in France. The payment and oil deal became a subject investigation and several Nigerian government officials were believed to have received several million dollars in bribes for the enabling roles they played. Despite being the most devout region in the world, according to the Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism, a growing number of people are beginning to identify as atheists. In the past year, Atheist Alliance International reports that they have organised their first conference, started chapter groups, and are openly monitoring the government. Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa reached out to one of the three registered three pro-secular organisations - Atheist Society of Nigeria - in order to find out what is like to live in this country, where religion is considered the way of life. Heres an excerpt from the interview: Tell us about the Atheist Society of Nigeria? On one level we are about providing a place where atheists and freethinkers can meet and socialise. We find that a lot of atheists in Nigeria have only met fellow atheists on social media. On another level, we believe science and critical thinking are important and could help all of us in this country. So we champion rationality and try to show people that superstitions can be damaging. When was it founded? We registered the society with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), an autonomous body charged with the registration and regulation of companies and organisations in Nigeria, in April 2017, though we have had many Atheist and Atheist-friendly groups in social media before then. How many members do you have? We have close to 100 registered members, but we have hundreds more who attend our events and participate in social media groups and activities with us. What is it like having an atheist organisation in such a religious country like ours? There is the shock some people feel when they find out that there are atheists in Nigeria. But for the most part, we find Nigerians are tolerant and love to speak their minds when they disagree with you. So we have plenty of discussions but very few instances of being threatened or bullied. We believe in the power of conversation to help each other understand different opinions and worldviews. ece-auto-gen Have you been fully accepted? There were a few issues in getting to register with the CAC in the first place, but in the long run, we haven't had any enduring issues. What is your organisation's opinion of people in God? We believe people have a right to believe in and practice any religion they like, just as they have the right to not believe or practice any. In almost all cases people believe in the god they were raised to believe in. That's why you don't see Christians and Muslims spread randomly through the population. Christians almost always come from Christian homes and Muslims almost always come from Muslim homes. That's just how humans are. Of course, we don't think people who believe in God have thought it through properly but that's another matter. Whatever religion people have, we see them as our brothers and sisters. Do atheists believe in an afterlife? Typically, the answer is NO. As I said, we believe in critical thinking so we won't believe in anything unless we can find good reasons to believe. We see no evidence that an afterlife exists, so we don't believe in it. What about sin, premarital sex for instance? Atheism is lacking a belief in God. That is the only thing all atheists have in common so we don't have a standard view on matters such as premarital sex. We also do not have a notion of sin. There are things that are morally wrong, based on society's definitions, but we don't refer to them as sin. We think there are rational ways to decide what's right and what's wrong. What guides your principles of right and wrong? Morality is mostly about how we treat each other. Being moral is about helping others rather than harming them. It's about being concerned about other people's well-being. We are all humans so we have a pretty good idea what helps people and what harms them. That means we can use reason and knowledge to decide what is moral and what is not. There is also the issue of the values of society. What are the things we hold dear as a society? How can we promote values that bring us together, increase happiness and well-being, and give us a sense of belonging? Christians have the Bible, Muslims the Quran, what do atheists have? We have logic, we have science, we have critical thinking. Everybody else has these tools as well, but we consider them more useful for navigating reality than books that people claim to have either been written or inspired by deities we have no evidence even exist. Apart from your strong belief in the non-existence of a God, are there any other principles that guide your organisation? An atheist does not need to have a "strong belief in the non-existence" of a god. In fact, most atheists I know simply have not seen good enough reasons to believe any gods exist. Our society is guided by 2 basic ideas: Reason and Humanity. We try to base our decisions on rationality and logic, and we try to cater to the well-being of members and other atheists, agnostics and freethinkers in Nigeria. In your own words, what would you like people to know about atheists? He was selected over five other shortlisted candidates after a long process which included presentations by the six candidates to a joint meeting of the Council, Senate and Institutional Forum. In his statement of intent, Professor Kupe said, "Universities have a responsibility to develop educated, well-informed and professionally skilled people who can address local and global challenges and contribute towards creating successful and thriving societies. To be able to play these critically important roles, universities must enjoy academic freedom and institutional autonomy, allow for freedom of inquiry and be transparent, accountable and ethical in their practices in all respects." The procedure for the University's Regulation and Procedure for the Appointment of the Vice-Chancellor and Principal also included voting by the Senate and Institutional Forum and interviews with the shortlisted candidates by the Joint Committee of Council. Professor Kupe made it through the long assessment as announced by the university at a meeting held on November 21, 2018. Reacting to the appointment, Ms Futhi Mtoba, Chairperson of the UP Council, said, "We believe that Professor Kupe comes to the position with considerable experience at executive level and is the best candidate to lead the University into the future." The university's first black VC and principal has a BA Honours degree, Masters in English from the University of Zimbabwe and a DPhil in Media Studies from the University of Oslo in Norway. Prior to this appointment, he was the Vice-Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand and served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Advancement, Human Resources and Transformation from January 2013. The Professor has also been the Executive Dean of the Wits Faculty of Humanities for six years (January 2007 - December 2012), and a lecturer at Rhodes University between 1999 and 2001. 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 special counsel Robert Mueller is inquiring about a 2017 meeting between Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Donald Trump's campaign, and Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno, CNN reported. Mueller is said to be asking, in particular, about whether Manafort and Moreno discussed the radical pro-transparency group WikiLeaks, or its founder Julian Assange, during the meeting. Assange has been seeking refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012. CNN's report comes hours after The Guardian reported that Manafort visited the embassy at least three times since Assange began living there, including once in March 2016, around the time he joined the Trump campaign. In a statement to INSIDER, Manafort forcefully denied the Guardian's report. Manafort was spearheading the Trump campaign when WikiLeaks published thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign at the height of the 2016 election. The US intelligence community believes the breaches and subsequent dissemination of emails were carried out on the Kremlin's orders and that Russia used WikiLeaks as a propaganda tool. WikiLeaks dumped the first batch of hacked Democratic emails on July 22, 2016. Days later, on August 2, Manafort met with the Russian military intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik and later said they discussed the Trump campaign and the DNC hack. Kilimnik said they did not discuss the campaign but talked about "current events" and "unpaid bills," believed to be a reference to Manafort's financial debt to the Russian-Ukrainian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Manafort pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy and obstruction and has been cooperating with Mueller since. But prosecutors said in a late Monday court filing that Manafort has lied to investigators in breach of his agreement, potentially jeopardizing his cooperation deal. The agreement between the two sides had been rocky for at least the last few weeks. Earlier this month, ABC News reported that talks between Manafort and Mueller broke down because prosecutors felt the former Trump campaign chairman wasn't being forthcoming about what he knew. Among other things, Mueller is known to be asking Manafort what he knows about the Trump campaign's ties to the transparency organization. Assange and WikiLeaks are at the center of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The DOJ has been investigating Assange since 2010 for his role in obtaining and disseminating sensitive information pertaining to US national security interests. It recently surfaced that the DOJ is preparing to indict Assange. In a recentlyunsealed court filingin an unrelated case, assistant US attorney Kellen S. Dwyer asked a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia to keep the matter sealed. Dwyer wrote that "due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged," adding that the charges would "need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested." Dwyer was reportedly also working on the WikiLeaks case, and people familiar with the mattertold The Washington Postthat what Dwyer had revealed in the filing was true but unintentional. The grant according to Punch is meant to conduct researches on infectious diseases, tropical diseases and reproductive health in Africa. The National Universities Commission (NUC) announced this development in a statement signed by its Director of Press and Public Relations, Ibrahim Yakasai. ece-auto-gen ALSO READ: ASUU president gives conditions to suspend strike According to the NUC, the universities that are going to benefit from the World Bank funded project include Ahmadu Bello University, Redeemers University, Bayero University, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Benin, University of Port Harcourt, University of Lagos, Lagos State University, University of Nigeria, and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. The Commission said, West and Central African countries, with support from the World Bank, unveiled the regional Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence in 2014. The project is focused on scaling up postgraduate education and applied researches that are fundamental to the economic growth of the region. The supported universities should meet the global standards for quality of education, recruit students across the region and collaborate with other African Universities. On Monday, November 26, 2018, the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had a meeting to resolve their agreement in order to suspend the lecturers' strike. However, the meeting that reportedly started at about 5 p.m. at the Federal Ministry of Education ended in another deadlock. ece-auto-gen Speaking with journalists after the meeting, the National President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi said the lecturers' meeting with the Federal Government would continue at a later date. All I can say for now is that negotiation continues and the meeting has been adjourned to a later date, he said. ASUU president gives conditions to suspend strike Before the meeting, Ogunyemi had stated two conditions the government had to meet before the union could suspend the ongoing strike in an interview with Premium Times The union's president said one of the conditions for the suspension of the strike is the ''full implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) the two parties willingly signed in October 2017. ALSO READ: All the times ASUU has gone on strike since 1999 He said, ''the MoA must be implemented fully before we can even talk of suspension of the strike. If they implement the outstanding issues in the MoA fully and change the leadership of the negotiating team, then we can go back to the negotiation''. Recall that the first meeting between the lecturers and the government on Thursday, November 15, 2018, ended in deadlock as both parties failed to reach an agreement to call off the strike. "The initial budget was N120m in development, that is about 300,000 Euros. We have opened up for people to have equity of 35%. We are looking at a N30m budget for marketing amongst other things," the Wedding Party II director disclosed. ALSO READ: Niyi Akinmolayan drops first teaser of animation film, Frogeck Speaking further, Akinmolayan, whose company has signed a collaboration deal with a foreign firm in producing the animation feature film further gave other details about the film. "The second teaser of the movie will be released in February 2019. We are not creating only Nigerian characters but adding characters in French and Swahili names as well as distributing internationally. We need 'Frogeck' to travel and reach every part of Africa. ece-auto-gen "It will be distributed by filmone. it is a Nigerian film worked upon by Nigerians while collaborating with a lot of studios and doing some sort of exchange," he said. About 'Frogeck' On November 5, 2018, Niyi Akinmolayan released the first teaser of his animation film project, Frogeck on his Twitter handle and YouTube page. The the teaser of the full animation film is coming few days after a Tunisian game studio, Saphir Production signed a partnership deal with Akinmolayan's Anthill studios. ece-auto-gen Frogeck tells the story of a young alien who was abandoned on a hill somewhere in Ibadan, Nigeria and how he was found by three kids living in an orphanage. Outside the new generation of rappers, who are constantly at the receiving end of online criticism, another community that gets the stick of angry Nigerians are the present day alternative artists or 'alte', a coined term credited to members of the group, LOS, and I choose not to be bothered by how it is pronounced. Over the weekend, pictures surfaced on social media of notable faces of the alte movement like Odunsi, Santi, Zamir and others decked in all black outfit in a room lit by candle lights in what on first glance appeared more like an occultic procession rather than a music video, generating varied reaction online. Then there was the damning definition of the 'alte' term circulated on Twitter and this has sparked a large debate on not just who or what the 'alte movement' stands for, but on a larger scale, a criticism of the music they create and an attack on one of the genre's major flagbearer, Odunsi. First, what really is your problem with the Alte group? Let's be clear, the 'Alte' community have sometimes been unfairly criticized, from what they wear to how they look and we really need to calm down. ece-auto-gen One of its leading lights, Odunsi, who recently released his debut project ''rare.'' and had a short deal with top label, Universal Records was scapegoated for his music with many calling it 'boring.' I recently reviewed the album and even though I don't sit on the same table as the Grammy judges, one thing I do know is that album is definitely not a poor album. Soundwise which is a major criterion in judging projects in this era, ''rare.'' is one of the most sonically pleasing and cohesive tapes you will hear from a Nigerian artist this year, although it stumbles a bit in other areas like lyrics and content but that doesn't make it a poor album in any form. In our minds, we have also unconsciously identified 'alternative' to be elitist and 'negative'. That music from a clique of rich kids with too much time on their hands, whose stories majority of us don't seem to identify with, perfect music for the yuppy and unadventurous lot delivered in a strange and avant- garde influenced way. A lot of listeners don't seem understand them in terms of their eccentricity and vibe, what they offer is not regular and it just doesn't sit well with us making them easy preys for criticism, which is a common human trait as aptly stated by the godson, Nas when he rhymed, ''People hate what they don't understand.'' Alternative music is not for everyone, so it is fine if you can't relate to it. To the Alte Guys ece-auto-gen From a couple of years back where they only existed on a few online streaming platforms and frowned at the ''SoundCloud artists'' tag, a number of them have worked their way from word of mouth to genuine organic rise in rotations and streaming numbers. There is a tangible movement to the next level propelled by the community through discussion, disruptive aesthetics and whose major strength lies in their close association with each other, the industry is taking notice. Odunsi, as we stated is associated with one of the biggest labels in the land, Lady Donli rolls with the likes of Mr Eazi and Wavvy, is being called the 'Shaku Shaku' queen by Vogue [wrongly though], which means the community is doing something right and this has also been witnessed in their significant impact on concert lineups with a special 'New Age' stage created for them at the last edition of GidiFest. They should also be credited with the recognized existence of a proper subgenre where people who just want to be themselves and make music as they identify with can tap into, especially in a structureless industry where what exists is to simply 'be one of them.' ece-auto-gen However, when alternative music became fully fledged in the US in the 80s referring to a bunch of acts who could not get signed to labels at the point and as such almost could not make mainstream success, its major weapon was in its music, even though it was not popular, it was really good and it resonated with its cult followers, such that in the 90s, it caught the attention of top labels leading to a mainstream boom. The music is the most important thing, it is what brings the artists and its audience together and the power of good music lies in its instant appeal to its listeners who consumes it in whatever form. Even though at times there are layers or certain veiled details to the lyrics or its storyline that will require multiple listens and attention to unravel. But all in all, music is made to be enjoyed and in understanding and relatability comes appreciation. So when next the people who consume it criticize it, don't be quick to dismiss it or insist that they do not get you, everyone gets good music, even if it's not exactly their taste. Intentionally choosing to go 'left' when the sound that prevails heavily on the 'right' side has not even been fully expanded to its creative limits sure makes you different, but not special or more talented than those on the other side. Aesthetics are important, they are good for the brand, but when it is placed ahead of the music in a bid to create this unrealistic depth and sense of mystery, it begins to lose its plot and the music no longer has form or purpose. I once read an article on UrbanCentral where Dolapo Amusat of WeTalkSound said, ''I'm not exactly sure if 'Alternative Music' remains a genre or it's just a tag that says: ''Yo, we're different. Don't categorize us with these regular mainstream people.'' He then concluded with a statement that I fully agree with, ''I know one thing, though: if it totally becomes a box that's inaccessible to all but a few, it's not going to pan out well for the entire ecosystem.'' So there is a novelty to your art and only you seem to understand it, but what next? is it still as fresh and 'rare' as when you first started or have we seen it all and it is no longer inventive? who is your music inspiring? are you really providing a true alternative to the mass noise in saturation or are you different in a confusing, unprogressive and undefined way? or is your music just an insipid imitation of disco and funk sound that was abandoned in the 70s? A final year Biochemistry student of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, named Olabisi has been arrested for allegedly killing her boyfriend, Adegun Lekan and has been remanded to Iyanganku police station, Ibadan. ALSO READ: Benue youth kill 13 'cultists' who murdered an okada man The infamous event reportedly happened on Thursday, November 22, 2018. Adegun is reported to be a recent graduate of the Department of Transportation, LAUTECH, waiting for clearance. Several reports also claim he is the only son of his parents. According to a report referenced by The Guardian, about 90% of Africas cultural heritage, as well as other kingdoms colonised, currently lies outside the continent. For Benin Bronzes taken from Nigeria alone, there are more than 1,000 of them being held at museums across Europe, with the most valuable collection at the British Museum in London. ece-auto-gen Countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia, Easter Island, China, India have been pushing for sacred artifacts that were plundered by British, German, French, Portuguese soldiers, to be returned to their rightful places. Nigeria is not absent in this fight. In fact, Nigeria has been brazenly demanding for the return of its looted artifacts right from time. In 1977, the Nigerian government offered to pay Britain 2m to loan us the Queen Idia ivory mask for the second pan-African Festival of Black & African Arts & Culture (FESTAC). The plea fell on deaf ears and the pride of the Benin people didn't make it home for one of the largest celebration of black arts and culture, FESTAC 77. So why is Europe changing its mind now? Who is bringing the heat? ece-auto-gen In an epic scene in one of the biggest movies of 2018, Black Panther, a white female guide at the British Museum was schooling Killmonger, an African-American anti-hero, about historical art pieces from Ghana, Nigeria and Wakanda. The female guide mistakenly attributed an ancient mask to Benin but Killmonger corrected her by stating it was from Wakanda, and proceeded to reclaim it for his home country. This scene is just one of the many reasons why the world could not continue to pretend that these artifacts were not actually stolen. ece-auto-gen Another heat-packer is the French President Emmanuel Macron. The President recently called for a Euro-African conference on the return of African artifacts to be held in Paris by next April and has also declared that France would restitute 26 objects pillaged by French troops from King Behanzins palace in Abomey, Benin in 1892. This development puts more pressure on other European countries and intensifies Africas push for the return of its cultural heritage items. We cannot talk about these reasons without referring to the recent visit by the British Prince Charles and his wife to Nigeria, and other West African countries. In a meeting with prominent rulers from all the geo-political zones of Nigeria, the Oba of Benin, Eheneden Erediauwa Omo NOba Ewuare II, used the opportunity to bring up the return of the Benin bronzes to the Prince, saying: "Suffice to say that Nigerians in general and Benin people in particular, will be most delighted to have Your Royal Highness throw his royal weight behind our efforts to have some of our ancient artifacts that were taken in 1897 from the Royal Court of Benin returned to Benin to establish Oba Palace Museum for the promotion of tourism in Benin city, Edo state." Talk about taking advantage of a good opportunity. The conditional return of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria So far, reports have been hopeful. However, the reality of the return of stolen artifacts to Nigeria is not as it seems. According to CNN, a deal was struck last month by the Benin Dialogue Group (BDG) that would see "some of the most iconic pieces" in the historic collection returned on a temporary basis to form an exhibition at the new Benin Royal Museum in Edo State within three years. In other words, the items will be "loaned" to Nigeria, to pacify agitations. ALSO READ: Britain should unconditionally return all stolen artifacts to Nigeria The BDG consists of representatives of several European museums, the Royal Court of Benin, Edo State Government, and Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments. A spokesperson for the British Museum says to CNN, that the return is dependent on the completion of a new standard museum in Benin City, Edo state, that can suitably house a rotation of highly delicate Benin works of art from a consortium of European museums. ece-auto-gen "The museums in attendance have all agreed to lend artifacts to the Benin Royal Museum on a rotating basis, to provide advice as requested on building and exhibition design, and to cooperate with the Nigerian partners in developing training, funding, and a legal framework for the display in a new planned museum,"the spokesman said. The new Royal Museum is to be adjacent to the Royal Palace that once housed many of the bronzes. The group is still to converge to discuss which pieces will be returned and how many. Director of the DPR, Mordecai Ladan, says Nigeria has lost its most valued crude oil buyers due to the renewed dislike and global war against fossil fuels. Speaking at the 18th edition of the International HSE Biennial Conference on the Oil and Gas Industry in Nigeria, Ladan noted that the oil and gas industry was under threat with erstwhile gas customers are now competing with it. AFP Over the years, the threat against fossil fuels had always been on paper, but today, it is more real than ever, based on some clear evidence I like to draw our attention to, he said. According to , the director said three among the biggest technology companies, including Google and Apple, had made attempts at electric cars to replace petrol and diesel engines, with that of Tesla taking the world by surprise. ece-auto-gen Not only did the first two releases of Tesla outsell sales forecasts, they were actually oversubscribed, and the demand keeps rising while new models are being added. As we speak, some of the big international oil companies here seated are funding gigantic researches into alternative fuels, which include the use of cheap, common algae, Ladan disclosed on Monday, November 26, 2018. The Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, made the disclosure in Dutse on Tuesday when he paid a courtesy visit to Emir of Dutse, Dr Nuhu Sunusi. Osinbajo said the petty traders would be given either N5,000, or N15,000 or N20,000 to enhance their respective businesses. We are here today in order to deepen our work with common man, because our major concern is how to improve the life of common man in Nigeria. So, I want to assure you a minimum of 30,000 traders will benefit from this programme. In the first instance, a trader will be given N10,000 loan, after settling that it will be increased to N15,000 and up to N20,000, Osinbajo said. In his remarks, the Emir thanked the Vice-President for the visit. We thank you for coming to explain to us what the Federal Government is doing to assist the common man in Nigeria. Weve seen the difference already, particularly with regard to women empowerment and school feeding programme," the monarch said. He, therefore, urged the beneficiaries to make good use of the money to enhance their businesses. The village saw a .86 percent growth in new property last year, which means the village will increase its levy amount by approximately $103,600 and the library will increase approximately $53,600, Bosley said. The library is not able to levy, so the village does so on its behalf, she said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the President had planned to visit his home country, Daura, Katsina State from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2. The president, according to NAN, had earlier cancelled his official trip to Benin City, Edo, where he was initially billed to inaugurate the Edo-Azura Power Plant and grace the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference. NAN reports that already the advanced teams of the president, who left Abuja for Katsina and Benin on Sunday, had been asked to return. NAN gathered that the cancellation of the trips would also enable the president to continue his ongoing meetings and consultations with relevant security and intelligent community aimed at addressing the nations security challenges. However, the president is expected to declare the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference, which was moved from Benin City to Maiduguri, Borno, on Nov. 28 at the Government House Conference Hall (CGH). President Buharis aide on New Media, Alhaji Bashir Ahmad, had on Sunday confirmed this development on his tweeter handle. He said: President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to declare the COAS Annual Conference on Nov. 28, 2018 at the Conference Hall CGH in Maiduguri, Borno state. The conference was earlier scheduled to take place from 26 -28 November 2018 in Benin, Edo state." NAN also gathered that the shifting of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference from Benin City to Maiduguri might not be unconnected with the killing of Nigerian soldiers at Metele, a remote village bordering Nigeria and Chad. NAN learnt that President Buhari would use the opportunity of the COAS conference to address the Nigerian soldiers at the battlefields to further boost their morale. It would be recalled that President Buhari had on Sunday presided over a meeting of security chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as part of the ongoing efforts to engage military and intelligence community towards addressing Boko Haram insurgency. In a tweet in Abuja on Sunday, the Presidents aide on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, said all the service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, Idris Ibrahim and the Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi were part of the meeting. All the Service Chiefs, I-G of Police and DG of DSS were at the State House this morning. As President Buhari said (Saturday) yesterday, in the coming days, he will be engaging the Military and Intelligence Chiefs in extensive discussions on the next steps we shall be taking, Ahmad said in the tweet. President Buhari had pledged on Saturday to ensure that the loopholes, which led to the fatalities are blocked once and for all. On 18 November, the Al Barnawi faction of Boko Haram attack the 157 Task Force Battalion based at Metele in northern part of Borno state, killing scores of Nigerian troops. The military authorities are yet to give the specific number of casualties. Buhari in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu in Abuja on Saturday, reiterated his administrations commitment to the security of military personnel and other citizens. No responsible Commander-in-Chief would rest on his oars or fold his hands to allow terrorists to endanger the lives of military personnel and other citizens, Shehu quoted the president as saying. Our loyal forces have proved their strength over the terrorists and we are ready to give them all the needed support, in terms of equipment and manpower, to succeed in ending the renewed threat. In the coming days, I am engaging the military and Intelligence Chiefs in extensive discussions on the next steps we shall be taking. ALSO READ: The President noted that fighting terrorism had taken a global dimension, which necessitated international collaboration among states facing similar security challenges. He, therefore, reassured Nigerians of his continued commitment to their security and of his efforts to sustain the momentum in the previous significant successes recorded against the terrorists. The seats of the lawmakers were declared vacant on November 19, 2018, by the after they dumped the People's Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives' Congress (APC). Governor storms House of Assembly Earlier on Tuesday, Governor Emmanuel stormed the House of Assembly to stop the sacked lawmakers from sitting and holding proceedings. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there was chaos when the Governor got to the Assembly complex. According to the report, the intention of the sacked lawmakers led by Nse Ntuen were planning to begin the Governors impeachment proceedings. ALSO READ:DPR discovers 50 illegal filling stations in Akwa Ibom Buhari has ignored me Governor Emmanuel also said that his petitions to President Buhari and the police boss, Ibrahim Idris, on the matter have been ignored. He regretted that the police force which he equipped with the states funds has turned around to fight his government. The Lagos Chairman of IPAC, Malam Shakirudeen Olofin, gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. President Buhari had, on Monday, told visiting members of the Police Service Commission (PSC) in his office that the enhanced salary and allowances was to motivate personnel to do their job efficiently. He said the need for officers to respond more effectively to security challenges across the country also informed the enhanced package. From Taraba to Sokoto to the South South, people dont feel secure until they see the military. I am pleased to make the increase in salaries and allowances in the hope that it will increase the performance index of the police and and strengthen Nigerias internal security, he said. Reacting, Olofin described the salary review as a welcome development, saying it would go a long way to boost officers morale to provide security. He said low morale due to poor remuneration of officers had affected the performance of the police, noting that the development was a right step in the right direction. The IPAC chairman, however, urged the government to match the salary increase with increased equipment for the police to enable them perform optimally. The increase in the salaries of the police is a welcome development. We, at IPAC, commend the Federal Government for taking the bold step to address one of the fundamental issues in the police. We agree with the government that the gesture will go a long way to boost the performance of our policemen and strengthen security across the country. As much as we laud the governments step ,we urge the present administration to match the increase with increased provision of equipment to the police to enable them do their job more efficiently, he said. Olofin also urged the police to reciprocate the governments gesture by living up to expectations to secure lives and properties across the country. The IPAC chairman said workers in all sectors deserved reasonable remuneration and urged the Federal Government to expedite action on a new minimum wage for workers. He said N18,000 had turned to what he called poverty wage owing to the realities in the economy, adding that payment of N30,000 recommended by the tripartite committee would alleviate workers sufferings. On the 2019 elections, Olofin urged politicians, political parties and other stakeholders to play by the rules and refrain from acts that could undermine the process. Eyewitnesses told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the five lawmakers had earlier assumed their seats and started an impeachment process against the state Govermor, Udom Emmanuel. The atmosphere however became rowdy when the governor arrived at the assembly complex at Udo Udoma Avenue. NAN also learnt that immediately Gov. Emmanuel entered the premises, gunshots were fired by those described by eyewitnesses as security operatives and thugs who were around the premises. According to the witnesses the newly acclaimed speaker, Mr Nse Ntuen, who had earlier sat with the four other lawmakers, were also harassed by security personnel in the assembly premises. Ntuens vehicle was said to have been damaged while he escaped a mob action by some persons believed to be Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members. The eyewitnesses said: As the governor entered the assembly hall, youth started shouting eight years, eight years. Some journalists who were in the assembly for the days duty, had to scamper for their lives, scaling the fence. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Odiko Macdon, who was in the assembly, premises, however, said he was gathering information and had yet to speak. Trouble started in the house on Nov. 19, when the Speaker, Mr Onofiok Luke, declared vacant, the seats of the five lawmakers who defected from the PDP to the All Progressive Congress (APC). Adedoyin lured Jackson through social media, held her hostage for a period of time and repeatedly raped her as he sought for ways to fleece her of money, according to the DSS. DSS Director in Lagos, Mrs Betty Adoki, confirmed the rescue operation to newsmen at her Shagisha office. According to Adoki, 46-year-old Jackson arrived Lagos on November 11 and was received at the airport by Adedoyin. The suspect then held the victim hostage on November 21, and took to raping her repeatedly, the DSS alleges. Jackson is a mother of five DSS boss Adoki says the American Embassy in Lagos reported Jacksons abduction to the command and the agency swung into action by commencing investigation. Adoki added that there was a raid on the hideout of the criminal suspect by a team of security operatives and military personnel of the 9 Brigade, Nigeria Army, Lagos. Adoki said the suspect had lured the black American mother of five through social media to Nigeria, purportedly for a visit. He told the victim that he is a wealthy prince from Arogbatesu, a royal family in Ile-Ife, Osun State, with the intention of forcefully extracting money from her, the DSS claims. ece-auto-gen She explained that online, Adedoyin, 40, lied to the victim that he was an exporter of ginger and bitter cola, with a large cocoa plantation. He claimed that he had a lot of slaves working for him. According to DSS boss Adoki, "on November 26, 2018 at 2am, Jackson was rescued from the captivity of these criminal elements who are suspected to be internet fraudsters and kidnappers. Jackson was held hostage at No. 7, Akanbi Street, Abule Egba, Lagos by one Mathew Adedoyin and his accomplice. Adedoyin told the victim that his father was a former king in Osun State, and that he was the heir apparent to the throne. He also lied that he owned several buildings in Lagos, including where Jackson was held hostage. But the victim started to suspect foul play when he was losing patience and said he rented the place, Adoki said. The suspect, in furtherance to his deceit, reserved Protea Hotel, Ikeja, as accommodation for the victim while in Nigeria, but deliberately moved her to another hotel, to prevent the monitoring of Jackson by the US Embassy. He eventually seized the international passport, credit card and the United States Identity card of the victim, to prevent her possible escape." Adoki disclosed that the DSS had intensified investigation and would ensure that the suspect is prosecuted in accordance with the laws of the land. Adedoyin denies that Jackson was kidnapped Speaking to the Adedoyin, who claimed to be a real estate agent, denied abducting the victim or raping her. He said all they had was consensual sex. He claimed that Jackson wilfully flew to Nigeria because they had both agreed to get married. Adedoyin admitted that upon arrival, Jackson was lodged at the Turn Up Hotel. He said he had to move her to his friends house pending when he could raise money for her return trip to the United States. He also denied seizing the victims passport, saying that he only helped her keep it safe after he realised that she was careless with her bag containing documents, whenever they went out. His suspected accomplice, Idowu Ayeni, said he was uncomfortable when the suspect brought the victim to his house, with no concrete plans on when they intended to leave. Ayeni, who claimed he works as a litigation officer with a law firm, denied having anything to do with the suspects plans, saying all he did was allow them put up with him for a few days. Ochanya died on October 18, 2018 after years of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by Felicia's husband, AndrewOgbuja, and their son, Victor, a student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. The 13-year-old died of vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) and other health complications at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi. According to a statement by NAPTIP, Felicia was arrested on Friday, November 23, because she's suspected of having knowledge of the repeated rape of the late teenager without reporting to the appropriate authorities. Felicia had been evading arrest for the past four weeks by escaping first to Lagos and then Abuja before returning to Makurdi where she was arrested. NAPTIP's Director-General, Julie Okah-Donli, said Felicia will be investigated to ascertain her level of connivance before she's charged to court. She said, "I am still pained by the tragic death of the late Elizabeth Ochanya Ogbaje and the only thing we can do to ensure that her groaning spirit rests in peace is to ensure that full dose of justice is served on all those that are directly or indirectly involved in the unwholesome act that led to her death. "It is important to establish the status of people around the late girl who had knowledge of her ordeal and yet refused to report to the Law enforcement Agencies who would have rescued her. "We cannot continue to fold our hands while our children are been sexually molested and assaulted by people that ought to have protected them. This case at hand will be a case that will be monitored and all those linked in one way or the other shall all be made to face the full weight of the law." Ochanya had left her family to start living with the Ogbujas in Ugbokolo town in 2013 because there was no school in her village. Before her death, Ochanya narrated how Victor first raped her when she was eight, a crime that was eventually brought to Andrew's attention who also started sexually abusing her afterwards. She was molested, defiled, drugged and abused for a period of five years. According to reports, Boko haram attacked a military base in Metele on Monday, November 19, 2018. According to Daily Post, the President of the group, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro said We, the youth under the umbrella of Ohanaeze Youth Council received the news of our soldiers who were massacred last week by the Boko Haram insurgents in Maiduguri with great shock and wish to issue a statement concerning that, because it is a national loss and a great stain to our security, if not checked. To save this, our security should be paramount to Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, who on 29th May,2015 vowed to protect our sovereignty which is presently under threat by Boko Haram, when he was sworn in as the president of our beloved country Nigeria. On this, we members of Ohanaeze Youth Council, therefore, stand firmly to ask Mr. President to rise to his basic constitutional responsibilities which is to eliminate the occasional killings, kidnap, disruption of property in some states like Jos, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Taraba and Beune. On this note, therefore, we recommend that Mr. President should issue compulsory retirement to all serving chiefs including those top military commanders deployed to Maiduguri. This is because of the alleged corruption among some top military officers who have turned adventitious in the North East to enrich themselves. Is for Mr. President as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of our nation should take a drastic action against our neighbouring countries like Chad, Cameroon and Niger who occasionally give access to Boko Haram to attack our people in the North East. Also, we suggest to Mr. President to equip our military to fight this course. Our military can do it, they conquered in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Serbia and many other international missions. So we are very confident that they can end Boko Haram in the North East and bring lasting peace in Jos, Kaduna, Zamfara and Benue, including Taraba. I also ask my fellow Igbo youth and Nigerians in general not to play politics with our security but to support Mr. President to fight this course. Afenifere speaks Also, the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere has called for the sack of the security chiefs. The group made this known in a communique after its monthly meeting in Ondo state. Speaking on behalf of Afenifere, its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin wondered why the service chiefs who have reached their statutory retirement age are still in office. Odumakin also said that Buharis decision to keep them has dampened morale in the military and stagnated careers. According to the communique, The sack of the service Chiefs should be followed with a probe of what has happened to defense allocations as we as a people cannot reconcile our extremely vulnerable troops and wailing solders in the forest with the heavy spending the government claimed it has committed to security. First, it kept quiet for six days after the incident and when it found its voice, there were no soothing words for the bereaved families. It had hardly made the bland statements before descending into the gutter of political quarreling over the killings at a time a more sensitive leadership should have declared national mourning for the high casualties recorded which many countries never matched in wars that lasted for several years. Our hearts go to all bereaved families and officers and men of our armed forces at this grievous moment. It is our prayer that God will comfort them and intervene in the affairs of our country and give us a leadership that is more than equal to the challenges we face. Meanwhile, a member of the House of Representatives, Gudaji Kazaure, has called on President Buhari to appoint him as head of the task force on Boko Haram. The presidents condolence message was contained in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina in Abuja on Monday. President Buhari also extended heartfelt condolences to Okes family, the literary and creative community on the painful demise of the award-winning poet. He affirmed that as an author, journalist and poet, Oke exuded vibrancy, intelligence and innovation in his works. According to him, Oke as a social commentator, was constantly in search of plausible answers and solutions to contemporary issues bedeviling his society. The president believed that Oke through his poetry had enriched Nigerias literary genre and his legacy would live on in his works. He noted that Oke was incredibly proud of and committed to his work as he wrote in his epic Epitaph: The president encouraged all Nigerians, the literary community and lovers of art to honour Ikeogu Okes memory by imbibing the didactic message of his works. He prayed God to console all who mourned the departed poet and grant the soul of the departed eternal rest. ALSO READ:Those who say Buhari is Jubril from Sudan need help NAN reports that Oke came into the limelight in 2017 when he won the Nigeria Prize for Literature for his book, The Heresiad. He won 100,000 dollars (N37m) in 2017 Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (NLNG) sponsored Prize for Literature. His poems and other writings have appeared in journals, anthologies and other publications worldwide. The president summoned a meeting with his service chiefs on Sunday, November 25, 2018, a week after the Metele massacre. One Aso Rock source told Pulse that the military bosses who attended this meeting were Minister of Defence Dan Ali Monsur, Chief of Defense Staff General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen. Tukur.Y. Buratai, Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral IE Ibas and Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar. National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno, Director of State Security (DSS) Yusuf Bichi, Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris and members of the police service commission, were also part of the meeting. After the president laid into his military chiefs for the attack on the 157 Task Force Battalion, he asked them to prepare a plan of action detailing how to prevent terrorist attacks of that nature, a source at the nations presidential villa told Pulse on condition of anonymity because he had not been permitted to speak to the press on the development. At the end, it was a fruitful meeting because everyone agreed to sit up, the source disclosed. Buhari asks military bosses to do better on intelligence gathering ThisDay also reports that President Buhari received security briefings from his service chiefs and told them to do better as it concerns the intelligence component of the war against Boko Haram insurgents. ece-auto-gen The Commander-in-Chief wanted to see an effective work plan that would prevent this kind of breach (in the future), ThisDay writes. There have been stories suggesting that senior military officers feed fat on monies earmarked for the purchase of sophisticated weaponry for fighting troops. According to ThisDay, President Buhari dwelt on the allegations as well. He (Buhari) was also interested, and particularly demanded a quick update on the state of armoury, recent purchases and the state and quality of the arms and ammunition available, the newspaper adds. Buhari says attack left him in shock On Saturday, November 24, President Buhari released a statement to say the killing of soldiers in dusty Metele had left him shell shocked. No responsible Commander-in-Chief would rest on his oars or fold his hands to allow terrorists to endanger the lives of its military personnel and other citizens. Our loyal forces have proved their strength over the terrorists and we are ready to give them all the needed support in terms of equipment and manpower to succeed in ending the renewed threat. In the coming days, I am engaging the Military and Intelligence Chiefs in extensive discussions on the next steps we shall be taking, the president had said. Boko Haram's war with Nigeria Reports say the Abu Musab al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram, known as the Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), masterminded the Metele attack. Nigeria has been waging a war against Boko Haram since 2009. The terrorist sect is hell bent on establishing a hard-line Islamic caliphate in Northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram has killed more than 50,000 people while displacing millions, since the commencement of its insurgency against the state. Some soldiers have lamented the obsolete equipment they have been handed to wage war against the terrorists. The Buhari administration often claims that Boko Haram is now a spent force that has been sufficiently degraded and technically defeated, but the terrorist sect continues to mount soft target attacks, abduct school kids and overrun military bases. The PDP, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan on Sunday, November 25, 2018, accused Dan-Ali of using funds meant for the military to sponsor the APC. God forbid In its reaction, the ruling party said God forbid that the APC inherits and apply such morbid practice as brazenly displayed during the immediate-past PDP administration where funds allocated to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast were shared among PDP leaders and their cronies. According to the spokesman of APC, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the PDPs accusation stems from their retrogressive practice when they were in power. It is clear that the PDP and its Presidential candidate, Alh. Atiku Abubakar have decided to dance on the graves of our valiant and patriotic soldiers by politicising their deaths in the recent Boko Haram attack on the Nigerian Army Metele base, the party said. Desperate politics Issa-Onilu also said that Atiku and the PDP are playing what he described as desperate politics. The PDP and Atiku are playing desperate politics where even the blood of our fallen heroes is fair game. Their actions are callous and insensitive to the families and dependants of the late soldiers and indeed our military which battles daily to ensure our territorial integrity. Nigerians see through PDPs ploy to score political points as elections approach and it will surely backfire. While the APC mourns the death of our military and other security personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty, we urge them to remain focused on the brave task of securing the nation. The President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration remains solidly committed to bringing lasting peace and security to all parts of the country and ensuring that previously displaced persons are rehabilitated to resume their normal and productive lives, he added. Soldiers who survived the recent Boko Haram attack on a military base at Metele in Borno state have also called on President Buhari to probe the quality of weapons procured by the military authorities. About $7 million will be invested in city infrastructure during the coming year. Planned projects include design engineering for the reconstruction of Green Bay Road from Central Avenue to Clavey Road and the start of a major reconstruction of Clavey Road from Route 41 to Green Bay Road with federal Surface Transportation Program funds. The latter project is expected to be completed in 2020. According to reports on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, five lawmakers who were sacked by the Akwa-Ibom state House of Assembly for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) tried to commence impeachment proceedings against the Governor. Emmanuel however stormed the Assembly compleand stopped the lawmakers from sitting, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Threat to democracy According to Daily Post, the PDP presidential candidate called on the Federal Government to deploy security agencies to bring the situation under control. The ongoing siege of Akwa Ibom House of Assembly is reprehensible and stands condemned. ALSO READ:Akpabio says he regrets supporting Gov Udom Emmanuel Such action is a threat to democratic institutions and portends grave danger to our democracy. The Federal Government should direct security agencies to rein in these anti-democratic elements and restore peace, Atiku added. Governor accuses police commissioner Governor Emmanuel also accused the Akwa-Ibom state Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo of working with the lawmakers to take over the House of Assembly. She said this at a dinner in Lagos where Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former president of Liberia, endorsed her presidential ambition. During the dinner, which was organised by Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), Ezekwesili narrated her age-long friendship with Sirleaf, part of which was her role as a senior adviser on economic reforms to the ex-Liberian president. The ACPN presidential candidate explained that the exemplary leadership of Sirleaf showed that when a woman stands up to say 'I want to lead', she is ready to serve. Ezekwesili said that Nigerians needed a leader that is willing to give their all in character, competence and capacity to serve the people and take the country out of stagnation, mediocrity and cycles of failure in the hands of old order politicians. According to her, women and youths must find their voice in our country, and demonstrate that they are fed up of poor quality leaders who have held the country down regardless of which political party holds sway. "It is time to vote them out so we can build a prosperous, stable and harmonious nation where everyone has equal opportunity to do well," she added. While urging Nigerians not to give up on the country, she said, It is either we all resigned to hopelessness, surrendered and said thank you Nigeria, you defeated us, or we did one more thing; and that is, to mobilize ourselves as citizens and elect as President in 2019, a person whose track record of service to Nigeria and Nigerians is well known. That person is Oby Ezekwesili. I detest the bad leadership by old order political class while the country totters. I am therefore ready to mobilise my fellow citizens to #Fight4Naija. Nigeria needs all of us to fight for her rescue from the grips of those who are planning to be re-elected or elected again so that they can fail even more and watch more citizens join the already 87 million extremely poor Nigerians. "The 2019 election is our opportunity to say No with finality. It is truly now over for those who cannot offer any innovative ideas for the development of our country. In recent time, we havent seen people break out of poverty as it used to happen. A lot of our politicians and elite like me all had the opportunity to break out of poverty through access to education. Sadly these days, our people are trapped in poverty and parents cannot give qualitative education to take their children out of poverty. It is an entrapment that we must urgently destroy. ALSO READ: Ezekwesili says Nigerian lives have become cheap under Buhari She warned that Nigeria cannot make progress with the increasing rate of poverty and declared that she was ready to rescue Nigeria from mismanagement. She said, How long are we going to last if we keep growing a an inter-generational dynasty of poverty? Nigeria has now taken over from India (which is 1.3 billion people and also seven times our population) as the world headquarters of extreme poverty. On the day that statistics came out, there wasn't even an outrage from our politicians. Instead, political parties were busy passing the buck, defending their administrations and blaming others. No sense of embarrassment of such massive failure of our country. There is no better evidence of failure of our political class. The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) has applied for environmental approval from the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) to be allowed to build the transmission line. Ketraco wants approval to build 12 transmission lines and 14 sub-stations which will provide high-voltage power for use by trains and train stations operating between Nairobi and Mombasa. ece-auto-gen 14 substations Nema has already called for members of the public and other concerned stakeholders to give their views on the project. The assessment and approval are expected to take about 28 months. The proponent, Ketraco, is proposing to construct 12 transmission lines and 14 sub-stations for supply of high voltage power to the Nairobi-Mombasa SGR line and the economic belt along the railway line, said in a public notice. The project is capital-intensive, with most of the funding expected to come from the China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited (CET). ece-auto-gen Sh65 billion Ketraco has already received Sh25 billion from CET for the SGR electrification project, with the total project expected to cost at least Sh65 billion. The project is also expected to consume a significant portion of the power in the national grid, with experts estimating 1000MW - more than a third of the power currently produced in the country. Moodys said that China has not been transparent in the debt agreements it has made with most African countries - exposing them to loss of natural resources and strategic national assets in the event of inability to service debt. The report makes reference to the Sh324 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project and the port expansion projects as some of the important assets that could be acquired by the Chinese if the loans are defaulted. ece-auto-gen Strategic Assets Countries rich in natural resources, like Angola, Zambia, and Republic of the Congo, or with strategically important infrastructure, like ports or railways such as Kenya, are most vulnerable to the risk of losing control over important assets in negotiations with Chinese creditors, the report reads in part. The credit rating agency noted that seizure of natural resources or strategic assets would negative affect the debtor-countrys economy through loss of revenue. Even if debt restructuring alleviates immediate liquidity pressure, the loss of natural resources revenue or other assets is credit negative, Moodys adds. ece-auto-gen SGR Phase 2 According to the Central Bank of Kenya, Kenyas external debt as at March 31, 2018 was Sh2.51 trillion made up of; Sh832.22 billion multinational debt, Sh799.19 billion commercial debt, Sh741.04 billion bilateral debt and Sh140.04 billion guaranteed debt. Chinese loans contribute to Sh534.07 billion and is expected to grow further by the time the second phase of the SGR is completed (Nairobi-Malaba). Speaking during the official opening of the conference, Museveni noted that he had feared that the conference would propergate the agenda of "external people". "I first had reservations about this summit, fearing that it was another of cliche arrangements spearheaded by our external friends," he said in his address to the delegates. Museveni has, in the past, blamed foreigners for funding his political opponents to undermine his rule in Uganda. In the case of MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, the Ugandan Head of State insinuated that "foreign money" had been channelled through an NGO to "show the world Uganda is not stable". ece-auto-gen Museveni's Change of Heart "However on deep scrutiny, I noticed this is about our survival, linked with the Sustainable Development Goals. The linkage between our water resources and survival cannot be over-emphasized. "The greatest challenges to a sustainable blue economy are; soil erosion, pollution, population pressure, bad farming practices like cultivation on steep slopes and need to politically appease the population hence failing to enforce certain regulations," the 74-year-old president elaborated. The three-day, Sh800 million conference kicked off on Monday with 17,600 participants sourced from 183 countries, as well as various of organizations and agencies. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was at hand to welcome foreign heads of state and pledged his administration will adopt appropriate policies, strategies and mechanisms to harness the blue economy, confront, head-on, the challenge of waste management and plastic pollution, ensure responsible and sustainable fishing, and ensure safety and security in the high seas. Avi Loeb, chairman of the astronomy department at Harvard University on the crucial insights the just-touched-down NASA Insight lander will offer after arriving on Mars following a a six-month, 300-million-mile journey that has come at a cost of $1 billion. Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says spying from foreign nations is inevitable, but the fixation on Chinese influence boils down to racism. A University of Canterbury professor recently alleged that repeated burglaries at her home are linked to her research on Chinas foreign policy. "You'd be terribly naive to think that New Zealand citizens are not being spied on by foreign powers," Mr Peters told RadioLIVE. "It's been going on for decades but the issue in this case is from whence it's happening." When Mark Sainsbury suggested that people are naturally suspicious of the communist nation, Mr Peters said Sainsbury is putting it too lightly. He said some New Zealanders have suspicions of Chinese influence because they dont like Chinese, full stop. The Chinese work hard, they save hard, they are family-oriented and more importantly they have a long-range focus, like all great countries do, Mr Peters told RadioLIVE. Chinese work decades, generations to achieve their long-term goals. Thats very admirable. A lot of New Zealanders cant handle that. Listen to the full interview with Winston Peters above. Morning Talk with Mark Sainsbury, 9am - 12pm Weekdays and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. URUGUAY: The national court of auditors has given the go-ahead for the government to formally award the Ferrocarril Central public-private partnership contract to the Via Central consortium. ASIA: Kerry Logistics Network has launched a rail and road multimodal freight service between Lanzhou in China and Islamabad in Pakistan, operated by its member company Lanzhou Pacific Logistics Corp. The institutional promotion of freedom and democracy by the United States might have had its philosophical and logical justification during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. As the United States enjoyed a historical uni-polar moment, the U.S. foreign policy establishment worked on expanding the principles of freedom and democracy over the ruins of communism, and later worked on replacing the hostility prone dictatorships in the Middle East.[1] Idealism (known also as liberal internationalism) has remained at the heart of U.S. policy toward China and Russia in the past two decades. This policy, especially during the George W. Bush and the Obama administrations, was based on free trade and democratization and aimed at creating a prosperous middle class in both Russia and China that would in turn demand political and human rights, gradually ushering Western style peaceful democracies into these nations. This scenario seems far-fetched and downright delusional now. Variations of this idealist theory also motivated U.S. foreign policy interventions in Iraq 2003 and Libya 2011. Assuming simple linear causality between free trade and democracy is unrealistic. Believing it would apply in foreign complex societies is a perplexing proposition, as is the notion that regime change will resolve the underlying cultural complexities stifling democratization in these nations. This approach, however, was the constant theme of the National Security Strategies from the Clinton administration through the Obama administration.[2] There are historical reasons why idealism had persisted among consecutive U.S. administrations since World War II. However, the detrimental consequences of basing U.S. national security on this policy as great power competition transitions the international system back to a multi-polar order cannot be overstated. The harmful consequences of conflating national principles of human rights such as freedom of religion and speech with U.S. national security are at the heart of the idealism versus realism debate, and contending with the limitations of Idealism might be our generations biggest challenge. The emergence and reach of Chinese economic and military power and re-emergence pf Russian military assertiveness have physically manifested outside the Eurasian sphere. From claiming control over the North Pole, infrastructure investments in Eurasia and Africa, joint naval exercises in the Baltic Sea, to their involvement in Afghanistan, both nations are competing with the U.S. within American spheres of influence.[3] China and Russias symbiotic and strategic relations emanate from a similar worldview invested in charting an alternative international order not under American influence.[4] One of the lesser understood consequences of Idealisms dominance in U.S. foreign policy circles is that it, over many generations, shaped the understanding and perception of foreign policy in non-democratic states. Idealism perceives non-democratic states as perpetually afflicted with internal concerns, assigning to these states a relative inability to influence their near abroad.[5] A thorough review of U.S. published assessments of Russian and Chinese military and economic power between 2007 and 2015 reveals an unmistakable pattern of underestimating China and Russias capabilities, and dismissing strategic intent in their foreign policy.[6] This is perhaps surprising, since such power projection strategies have been explicitly stated in Russian and Chinese foreign policy and defense doctrines between 2010 and 2015.[7] The cues of Russian and Chinese intent and capability buildup were evident prior to 2015, but were either systemically dismissed or ignored. As a result, U.S. policy makers were consistently deprived of crucial scenario assessments due to idealisms monopoly on national security and foreign policy agenda discussions. Idealism in International Relations: A King Without Clothes? Idealism still persists despite a series of less than desirable outcomes for U.S. foreign policy interventions in the Middle East and South Asia in the past two decades. Iraq and Afghanistan in 2018 are fragile states at best, and would qualify for failed state status with respect to territorial integrity and government capacity.[8] In Iraq, the consecutive governments, plagued with sectarianism and corruption, are still not able to reconcile national differences to allow effective governance, fend off Iranian meddling, or provide basic public goods such as electricity and access to clean water.[9] The Fragile State Index for 2018 places Iraq and Afghanistan at the high alert level, both scoring a 102.2 and a 106.6 respectively, out of a possible score of 120. (For reference, state with the lowest assessment is South Sudan at 113.4, the U.S. scores 37.7, and the best score is from Finland at 17.9.)[10] Weak central authority in these Iraq and Afghanistan has increased Iranian, Russian, and Chinese influence. Russia, China, and Iran are currently involved in infrastructure, security, and arms sales in Iraq and Afghanistan, citing their own national interests.[11] Good intentions among idealists who intend to expand freedoms and introduce democracy in other nations cannot justify the persistence of Idealism in U.S. foreign policy if the outcome is consistently incompatible with and downright harmful to U.S. national interests. While realism is gradually regaining ground among foreign policy strategists, the foreign policy establishment in the United States is unsure how to disassociate from its idealist/liberal orientation without losing its distinct and exceptional foreign policy character as a protector of human freedoms.[12] The United States is without doubt an exceptional republic with a state-of-the-art constitution that will remain the guiding light for nations that seek freedom and liberty. Granted, this is an intellectual and a generational dilemma, but one that should not delay strategic adjustments to U.S. trade and defense policies in the light of an existential competition with determined rising powers. The reorganization of the U.S. State Department that started in 2017 under State Secretary Tillerson and continues under State Secretary Mike Pompeo, included selective foreign aid reductions and revised budgets for civil society projects and asylum procedures. Furthermore, the United States 2018 National Defense Strategy stated clearly that the central challenge to U.S. prosperity is the reemergence of long-term strategic competition byrevisionist powers.[13] All of these are signs of institutional readjustment, but is this sufficient without reexamining the underlying school of thought that led to the pattern of past foreign policy outcomes? Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and current Secretary Mike Pompeo (WILX) All three city council incumbents whose terms expire next year Anthony Blumberg, Michelle Holleman and Adam Stolberg have filed for spots on the April 2 ballot. Also vying for a city council seat is architect Yumi Ross, who is completing her second term on the school board in North Shore School District 112. Summary Through 2025, Russia will continue to enjoy the prominence it now possesses in the Middle East and can be expected to succeed in this quest because it has strategically built and deployed the instruments of power necessary to sustain such a position, all things being equal. Those instruments comprise diplomatic, military and economic elements of power as well as the fact that Russia has leveraged its position in Syria to obtain partners and even enablers for itself who now have and will continue to have over time a serious stake in the success of Russian regional policies. Moreover, Russia is eagerly building up military sinews to retain power projection capabilities throughout the Middle East and Africa for the period up to and even beyond 2025. Introduction Forecasting events and trends in the Middle East is an inherently precarious enterprise. But from the vantage point of mid-2018, we must consider what Russias posture and the scope of its presence in the Middle East will be in 2025 and why. Compelling reasons exist for doing so today, and not only because 2025 is a little over six years from now. More importantly, it is clear that Moscow, by its own strategic prowess, has seized an ascending position in the Middle East that goes far beyond Syria. That position enables it to be a major actor in the region for years to comeas it has long intended to be. All this underscores the fact that Russian actions, for all their tactical adaptation to a kaleidoscopic reality and flexibility, appear to be part of a larger strategy. In other words, despite the incessant writing of American and even some Russian writers that Putin has no strategy, he is a strategist, and we are confronting a strategic plan that, like any sound blueprint for action, permits tactical adaptation and flexibility in the face of unforeseen events.[1] Moreover, by employing that strategy, Putin has maneuvered through the storm of events to bring Russia to an unprecedented level of prominence in the Middle East. And in so doing he has created mechanisms that will likely ensure retention of that position until 2025, barring some major unforeseen catastrophe. Without arguing over the merits of Putins ability as a strategist in general (and we do not need to do so by merely noting there is a strategy), we can say with confidence that in Syria and the broader Middle East (in no small measure thanks to the victory in Syria), Russia has produced a winning military-political strategy. That strategy has allowed it to expand its regional position since the intervention in Syria. The economic, diplomatic, political, and military mechanisms that Putin has created and fostered, as well as the outcomes they have generated, create the momentum and impetus that will boost Russias position as a major player in the Middle East through 2025, compared to its current roleagain, barring any unforeseen catastrophe. While Moscow must now convert that military victory into the legitimacy of a functioning Syrian authority that commands popular support, there is no a priori reason to assume, in the absence of other contending forces, that Russian policy will fail to bring about that outcome in the future. Instead, there is abundant evidence that Moscow is steadily gaining traction across the entire Middle East thanks to its multi-dimensional strategy. Failing to recognize that fact by the United States and much of the West is an act of willful blindness. Despite the regions inherent volatility, by 2025 Moscow will probably enjoy a position similar in nature but greater in substance compared to today. We can also expect that it will not willingly yield its gains except in return for massive Western political and strategic payoffs, which are unlikely to occur between now and then; there are no visible regional or other forces ready to undertake such an arduous task. Meanwhile, Russia has substantially enhanced its arsenal and therefore its overall capabilities and regional presence for defending and advancing those interests. It is highly unlikely that anyone can currently muster sufficient military forces to evict Russia from the Middle East. Already Moscow is the acknowledged arbiter between Syria and Jordan.[2] Russia is also maintaining or attempting to maintain the equilibrium between Israel and Iran. One account even likens Russia to being a ringmaster between them.[3] In that capacity the Kremlin now has Military Police and observers stationed in the Golan Heights.[4] Moscow has also enmeshed Ankara. For example, Turkey is now dependent on Russia to be able achieve its objectives with respect to domestic Kurds and those residing in Syria. Moreover, Russia provides 6070 percent of Turkish natural gas supplies. Similarly, already in 2016, Turkey had to ultimately surrender to Russian economic pressure following the period of chilly bilateral relations caused by the November 2015 incident involving a Russian jet shot down by Turkey over the Syrian-Turkish border. So despite Turkish claims that it is not excessively dependent on Russia, contradictory proof certainly exists. Furthermore, the closeness of Russias economic, political, and military ties with Turkey is well known and may grow given the crisis into which Ankara has plunged US-Turkish relations by having incarcerating Pastor Andrew Brunson and buying S-400 air defenses from Russia. The long-standing complex strategic rivalry with Russia in the Black Sea, Caucasus, and now Syria is unlikely to reverse those trends of ever closer Russian-Turkish links.[5] In the Gulf, Russia and Saudi Arabia alone have essentially set the bar for current energy prices, reducing OPEC to a shadow of its past self. Moreover, Russia is now discussing bringing Iran into the Eurasian Economic Union, clearly cementing its economic ties to the Islamic Republic even as it restricts Iranian policies against Israel.[6] Finally, Moscow is, in fact, effectively supplanting Washingtons former leadership role in the region. Russia has been able to regionally come out on top in this way thanks to, inter alia, the totality of Turco-Russian relations, Russias cooperation with Iran and Turkey in Syrias civil war, diverse Russian energy and investment deals with the Gulf states, its ties with Israel, its push into the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa based on its accomplishments in the Middle East, as well as Moscows proliferating relationships across North Africa. Those relationships along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, in fact, could well lead to a ring of naval and airbases there.[7] Therefore we have every reason to believe that Moscow will fight to retain and augment this status as we approach 2025. As the Helsinki summit showed, Putin apparently believes he can compel the US into reaching an agreement on Syria that reflects more of Moscows interests than Washingtons.[8] In addition Russia has learned a great deal since 1990 and in many ways behaves differently than did the USSR, even if a certain level of continuity between the two regimes is apparent. Thus, the Russian state and militarys ability to learn and then shift gears accordingly represent a growing challenge to the United States. Pointedly, Moscow has avoided becoming entrapped in intra-Arab or Arab-Iranian rivalries and is free to make deals with everyone in the Middle East, whether they be Sunni, Shia or Israeli. Read the entire report. Download Report PDF. Dr. Stephen Blank is a Senior Fellow and resident Russia expert at the American Foreign Policy Council. Previously, he worked as a professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA. The views expressed here do not represent those of the U.S. Army, Defense Department or the U.S. Government. South Korean president Moon Jae-in wants to build a so-called peace regime with North Korea. The idea isnt new, but it remains unclear what such a regime would entail. At the very least, Seoul wants a peace declaration or treaty with Pyongyang that will re-establish trade. This would be one step of a process the goal of which is unification -- a goal both Koreas have shared since their division at the end of the Second World War. But all too often Seoul avoids bringing up human rights during negotiations or in its public statements, for fear of derailing negotiations or provoking Pyongyang. As a result, the voices of North Korean defectors who live in the South are ignored. This is just one of the ways in which the needs of defectors from North Korea are ignored. Seoul must begin to include refugees in any potential unification process by looking at the struggles they still face. Those who have lived in both Koreas can help guide a viable unification solution that will protect human rights. And because of the closed nature of totalitarian North Korea, defectors provide a valuable source of information on Pyongyangs economic reforms and North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns intentions. More than 30,000 North Korean refugees have fled to South Korea since the devastating famine of the 1990s. They hold a lot of valuable information from which the South Korean government should learn. Defectors have warned that security-driven conversations over nuclear weapons and trade fail to consider human rights. The idea of political and economic unity with the system theyve escaped worries them enough to make them speak out. But Seoul isnt listening. Last month, for instance, South Koreas government erred by excluding a North Korean defector-turned-journalist from covering a summit with Pyongyang. Seoul asked for the reporter, Kim Myung-sung of the news outlet Chosun Ilbo,to be replaced for vaguely defined security reasons -- but the Chosun Ilborefused. In response, Seoul removed him from the press pool. South Korean media denounced Seouls decision, but few outlets outside of the country noticed the incident, and the news cycle moved on. When it comes to integration, Seoul should take cues from defectors on what will work in a peace deal. Such a dramatic melding sparks questions about how two such different cultures and socioeconomic systems would ever fuse. Integration will increasingly matter as borders loosen, South Korean companies recruit North Korean labor, and more defectors flee oppression. Hence, Seoul must ensure that integration support is robust, effective, and scalable. For instance, though both countries speak Korean, the difference in accents and slang can lead to employment discrimination from South Koreans. And North Koreans, unlike their native neighbors, arent taught English at all -- assuming they even finish high school. This causes problems in work and during studies, because most South Koreans speak and use English daily. Meanwhile, 35 percent of defectors are unemployed and 30 percent of those in college have considered halting their studies. All of this makes current integration difficult. If these policies dont change, its hard to imagine how hard it will be to provide for a refugee population doubled or tripled in size. Thats not to say its all misery for defectors. South Korea does provide them some financial or vocational assistance. They get preferential admission to universities and are given $6,450 in the first year they arrive in the South. Non-profits such as Teach North Korean Refugees provides English classes, and Liberty in North Korea helps defectors escape and change the integration narrative. But current government programs are insufficient. Certainly they are not readily scalable for the heavy flow of refugees that would accompany the unification South Korea wants. Regulations create hurdles for defectors, too. Its true that many North Korean degrees and much of the countrys technical training isnt readily comparable to whats on offer in South Korea, but they don't deserve to be unrecognized as they are now. Forcing refugees to start over with their education is demoralizing. It punishes defectors by forcing them into menial jobs when they might have otherwise earned high salaries. An extensive 2017 review in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology found that the refugees had a high prevalence and severity of psychiatric symptoms, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. Even so, Moon cut the budget of the North Korean Human Rights Foundation by 92.6 percent and assistance for North Korean refugees by 31 percent. And this will inevitably weigh on defectors whenever they try to speak up in any future policy proceedings. Many North Korean refugees have made lives for themselves and participate as active members of South Korean culture. But they often struggle needlessly, and that simply wont do if unification is ever to take place. Nevertheless, a humanitarian crisis can be avoided if Seoul will only see the refugees within their borders for what they are -- fellow Koreans with valuable insights for the day it finally finds peace with North Korea. John Dale Grover is a Free Society Fellow at Young Voices. He is also an Assistant Managing Editor at The National Interest and a Fellow at Defense Priorities. His articles have appeared in The American Conservative, Real Clear Defense, and Fox News. The views expressed are the author's own. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate , We're sorry, this article is not currently available On Sunday, the US Border Patrol fired tear gas into Mexico at migrants, including children, attempting to enter the US near the San Ysidro border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego. The use of a chemical weapon banned in war against families rightly provoked widespread condemnation (Border Patrol agents also used pepper spray against migrants in 2013, fired tear gas and pepper spray into Mexico in 2007, and have killed rock throwers at the border in the past). Migrants attempting to enter the US are frustrated by the Trump administrations restriction of the process of seeking asylum, a legal right under US and international law, a situation that wont be solved by processing asylum seekers on Mexican soil. Most of those who attempted to scale the border fence were reportedly from Honduras, the country with the worlds second-highest homicide rate. Young people there are caught between murderous gangs, violent and corrupt police, and paramilitary social cleansing squads who target young men, while gender-based violence rates are also high. There are similar, if slightly less violent, dynamics in El Salvador and Guatemala, and increasing state repression in Nicaragua. Despite changes in US immigration policy and enforcement under the Trump administration, the US remains for many Central Americans a place of hope for a better, more secure life. In this environment, deterrence efforts will have limited effectiveness. Globally, while the absolute number of migrants is rising, this has been as the world population has also increased, so the percentage of migrants has remained relatively stable. Wealthier, more stable countries like the US, Western European countries, Canada, and Australia will always be destinations for economic migrants and refugees, as well as countries like Costa Rica and South Africa in their regions. Millions of people are willing to risk their lives on perilous journeys across Central America and Mexico, the Sahara and Mediterranean, and the seas of Southeast Asia, despite increasingly harsh immigration enforcement regimes because conditions at home are so bad. Lets set aside that immigration is in fact a net benefit for receiving countries economically, that immigration does not dampen the economic prospects of native-born US workers, that multiple US industries depend on immigrant labor, and that immigration either reduces or has no effect on crime rates. If the Trump administration actually wanted to engage in good faith efforts to reduce the flow of migrants and refugees northwards from Central America, what should they do? Work to improve Central American states and societies. As Eric Levitz puts it, the US owe[s] Central American migrants much more than their current cruel treatment, and accepting asylum-seekers and economic migrants is arguably fair repayment for the US role in destabilizing the region. There is a long and sordid history of US military intervention and subversion in Latin America, alongside support for despotic regimes and coups like that in Honduras in 2009, and economic exploitation. The US also bears responsibility for deporting gang members who helped MS-13 become so powerful in Central America and for US consumers habits driving the drug trade. There is no appetite, of course, for military intervention in Central America, but the US can help stabilize the Northern Triangle countries and Nicaragua through a combination of aid and diplomacy. Central American governments have tended to resort to mano dura, iron-fisted approaches to policing gangs and drug trafficking organizations, but this has not stemmed violence in the region. Evidence from Mexico suggests that government crackdowns simply displace and may actually increase violence. Increasing use of violence by the security forces leads to abuses, outsourcing of security, and greater fear among citizens, reducing trust in the state. Therefore, increasing security assistance is also not a panacea for stabilization in Central America. Instead, there is a need for a multipronged approach that strengthens the state and rebuilds citizens trust in it; supports civil society and community-based efforts for peacebuilding and economic opportunities; and allows for the increased flow of resources from the US to Central America. There is bipartisan consensus that US economic aid to Central America is vital for stabilization and helping address the root causes of migration from the region, yet President Trump has threatened to cut off aid to the region, alongside the military deployment to the border. This would only make things worse, since, as Shannon ONeil points out, aid goes to violence prevention programs, helping youth at-risk programs, helping people start small businesses, anti-corruption measures, trying to strengthen the rule of law, police training, trying to make life better, particularly in violent or difficult neighborhoods. While violence prevention is an understandable priority, working toward government accountability and increasing economic opportunities in northern Central America are equally important in ensuring people want to stay in their home countries. Corruption, ineffectiveness, and repression have diminished citizens trust in government institutions, which limits cooperation with authorities for crime prevention and disincentivizes political engagement and economic investment. The Trump administration, however, has paid little attention to Central America, beyond the occasional statement of concern from the State Department, as Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez crushed protests amid credible fraud allegations around his reelection; Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has repeatedly interfered with his countrys UN-backed anti-corruption commission; and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortegas government has killed and arrested hundreds of opponents since April of this year. In addition to supporting programs to build accountability and trust, the US should apply diplomatic pressure to ensure that leaders cannot run roughshod over society. Finally, the US can help stabilize Central America by stopping the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agencys terrorization of immigrant communities in the US. Militarized immigration enforcement and the targeting of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record not only tears apart families and communities, it reduces employment among immigrant communities and thus decreases the remittances immigrants send home. Remittances drive economic growth in Central America and improve life there for the family members immigrants have left behind. So if the goal of US immigration policy were to reduce undocumented migration, rather than performative toughness, the less ICE, the better. We can expect none of these reasonable measures to be implemented by the Trump administration, but it is important amid the media maelstrom around the migrant caravan to continue discussing feasible, humane immigration reforms and policies aimed at helping Central Americans live better lives in their home countries. With the holidays right around the corner, buying presents for loved ones becomes a main worry in many peoples minds. A good way to support l The Three Minute Thesis competition is an annual competition for masters and doctoral students to communicate their research in just three minutes. On Feb. 25 at 12:15 p.m. in room 200C of the Geography/Geology room, the graduate school is holding an information session for interested students to learn more about 3MT. The competition provides students with more than just a chance to win a cash prize. It allows students to develop their presentation and research communication skills. 'The years after the financial crisis of 2008 were tough for brokers as volumes dwindled and retail investors stayed away.' Ashley Coutinho reports. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters. Kindly note the photograph has only been published for representational purposes. The number of brokers operating in the cash segment has almost halved in the past three years as high compliance costs, declining margins and the closure of regional stock exchanges have forced nearly 3,400 brokers to shut shop. The count has reduced to a third since 2013. The broker count stood at 2,773 as of September 2018, down from 9,606 in the corresponding period five years ago, the data collated from the Securities and Exchange Board of India shows. "Business is moving to larger brands, compliance costs have risen significantly in the past few years, and margins have declined. All this has forced many brokers to shut shop," said Rahul Rege, business head -- retail, Emkay Global Financial Services. Between 2014 and 2017, as many as 13 regional stock exchanges ceased operations under the exit policy of Sebi. Brokers affiliated with these exchanges have gone out of business. The proliferation of discount brokerages, on the other hand, has been instrumental in driving down costs, impacting margins. "The years after the financial crisis of 2008 right up to 2014 were quite tough for brokers as volumes dwindled and retail investors stayed away. Much of the lower rung of brokers went out of business during this period," said a broking official. Discount brokers typically charge a flat fee of Rs 20 per trade. In the full-service segment, brokerage varies between 10 paise and 30 paise for delivery-based trades and below 4 paise for intra-day trades in the cash segment. Charges in the options segment are Rs 20 to Rs 50 per lot. "The number of active clients at the retail end has come down. Customers have migrated to discount brokers, and brokers that have not been able to evolve have either shut shop or turned prop traders," said Rege. "Ten years ago, it was safely assumed that if market went up, revenues and the number of clients would go up too. That's no longer the case now." To make matters worse, most of the retail money that came in after 2015 in shares has come in through the mutual fund route, and not direct equity. The assets under management of equity mutual funds stood at Rs 7.2 trillion as of September 2018 (excluding tax-saving schemes) compared with Rs 1.4 trillion five years ago. The sub-broker number has declined as well. The number stands at 23,143 as of September compared to 57,387 five years ago, a decline of 60 per cent. The segment, however, is being phased out by the market regulator and all sub-brokers will have to register as authorised persons by the end of the next financial year. 'The majority community needs to accept that the Indian Muslim is peace loving, not communal and treat them accordingly,' says Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah, the soldier-educationist on a mission. IMAGE: Lieutenant General Zamir Uddin Shah, PVSM, SM, VSM (retd) served the Indian Army for 40 years and was the vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University for 5 years. General Shah seen here at a riding event when he was at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Photographs: Kind courtesy Lieutenant General Shah's memoir The Sarkari Mussalman, with his permission. Soldiering is a tradition in Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah's family. Members of his family fought in both the World Wars; his father was a civil refugee officer with the 14th Army stationed in Kohima during World War II. General Shah continued the tradition and joined the National Defence Academy at 18 -- he was the only Muslim officer in his batch -- and retired as deputy chief of army staff after 40 years. In those years he fought Pakistan in the 1971 War, led counter-insurgency operations in the north east -- the walls of his tin hut had become a breeding nest for cobras, with one slithering on to his mat while he was doing yoga one morning. He was defence attache at the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia and commander of the Indian Army deployed in Gujarat after the post Godhra riots in 2002. His selection for the task in view of him being a Muslim raised eyebrows revealed then army chief General S Padmanabhan. 'I told them that the choice of troops and their leader was a military decision and not open to debate,' General Padmanabhan said. General Shah spent over two months in the riot-torn state and was awarded a Sena Medal for distinguished duty. His nickname 'Zoom' -- a name he acquired in boarding school for being part of the relay team -- has remained with him through his days in the Indian Army and after. After his retirement, he was appointed vice chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University, alma mater to many in his family, including his younger brother Naseeruddin Shah, the celebrated actor. The five-year tenure brought him head on with then HRD minister Smriti Irani and ushered big changes at AMU. After demitting office as VC last year, the general wrote a memoir, The Sarkari Mussalman, an engaging account of his experience as a soldier and educationist. His next mission is improving education for Muslim children as president of the Sir Syed Foundation. The Shah family has bequeathed its ancestral haveli in Sardhana, near Meerut to be converted into a school. General Shah believes Indian Muslims need education because discrimination is against the less educated. "I gained so much from a secular and modern education after I left the madarsa. I came out so well equipped that even if there was discrimination I cut through it and pierced through those barriers," the general tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih over the telephone. "My request is that whatever you write should not snowball into anything communal," the general cautions at the end of the conversation and signs off with the message "Ensure peace and harmony." Part 1 of a two-part interview with a distinguished soldier whose son, son-in-law, nephews all have served in the armed forces. Your book describes India as 'salad bowl' and 'harmonious orchestra' -- adding that a person who understands the din of drums won't understand the worth of bagpipes. Is India currently dominated by the din of majoritarianism? It has become fashionable to be hate mongers. I am concerned. Has this sentiment become more heightened than what you encountered before? Being an army officer with the name 'Shah', very few people could identify who I was. I did overhear a lot of anti-Muslim talk when I was travelling in trains in other places, but it was never as virulent. Now it is out in the open. The moment they discovered who I was, they would shut up or apologise and say some of their best friends are Muslims. I am wary of such people because they are trying to conceal something. People feel they have the latitude to express themselves in anonymity on social media. I am a member of many army groups. I always challenge such quotes. When people say they are just sending forwards, I tell them by forwarding it you show you are approving it. I have never encountered any discrimination or bias at all in the army, but now I see retired officers openly expressing hatred about a particular community. IMAGE: General Shah with Lieutenant General G M Nair at an Eid namaaz at a military mosque. You first experienced anti-Muslim sentiment in a train after Dr Zakir Husain's passing; your Muslim identity was questioned when you were personally picked by General J F R Jacob for appointment in the military secretary's branch and then again as VC of Aligarh Muslim University when you were asked how you felt as a Muslim on Independence Day. A distinguished person like you also has to prove his Indian-ness. Has the Muslim become 'The Other' in India? Unfortunately, we are heading towards that. The Indian Muslim is most secular. The Indian Muslim has accepted the fact that this is our country. There have been a few cases of Muslims volunteering for ISIS. If you keep driving people up the wall, there is a limit to which they will accept it, after that I am afraid they will rebel and it can take any direction. The majority community needs to accept that the Indian Muslim is peace loving, is not communal and treat them accordingly. You wrote a letter to the prime minister expressing your anguish at the treatment meted out to the deprived by gau rakshaks. Have you received any acknowledgement? I did not -- because, of course, the PM is very busy. I wanted to draw the attention of my countrymen to the concerns of Muslims. Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the slayings continue. It certainly has drawn some attention. People have become aware of our concerns. I have quoted Martin Luther King -- 'In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' Seeing this injustice being perpetrated, I cannot remain silent. You were the senior most serving officer in the Indian Army at one point, and the only Muslim in your NDA course. There are very few Muslims in the armed forces. When you were AMU vice chancellor did you inspire young men and women to opt for the armed forces? My pro vice chancellor was a retired brigadier. The registrar was a retired air force officer. I wanted to show that avenues in the armed forces are open to Muslims. I stressed that this is our country and it is our responsibility to protect it. But somehow the Muslim community is under the mistaken impression that they would be discriminated against in the armed forces which is a totally incorrect impression. We selected 100 boys from the Sir Syed School and trained them for the NDA. Some advised me not to do this saying it was an unpopular subject. I told them it was a way to strengthen the community. I gave the example of the Sikhs who are 2% of the population and 30% of the officer cadre. The Muslim community is patriotic. To a large extent, the Muslims are themselves responsible for the low percentage in the armed forces. Any young Muslim, including my nephew, nieces, my son-in-law, son -- they did not have to pull any strings. They opted and were selected. Unfortunately, the level of education in the Muslim community is so low that they cannot qualify for institutions of high learning. My next mission is to correct that. IMAGE: General Shah, left, during the Battle of Longewala in the 1971 War with Pakistan. He was battery commander of guns that defended the post of Longewala in Rajasthan. Why do you think AMU's minority status should not be tampered with when the university is open to students of all religions? I am against ghettoised education and I don't think reservation helps. But seeing the present state of Muslim education we are trying to make up the inability of young Muslims to graduate from institutions of higher learning. How many Muslims go to IITs/IIMS or medical colleges? Unfortunately, Muslim kids don't qualify because they haven't had proper schooling. At least some affirmative action is required for giving them a chance for higher education. AMU is providing that and that's why I maintain that the minority character of the university should not be meddled with. There was a morphed image of you wearing khaki shorts. What was your experience of dealing with the RSS while you were at AMU? I did interact with RSS leaders. I found them very well educated and their standards of living very moderate, very spartan which is something religious leaders don't follow. They (religious leaders) live rather lavishly. They always heard me out. I don't know their inner feelings, but outwardly they appeared very understanding. My mission was to keep the channels of communication open. I followed Sir Syed's (Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, AMU's founder) example. After the mutiny of 1857 he kept the channels of communication open with those who were hostile to the Muslim community. We should continue doing that. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi meets an Aligarh Muslim University delegation led by General Shah, November 2015. General Shah had sought the PM's support in restoring AMU to its former glory. What efforts are you making towards improving schooling for Muslim children? I am greatly against ghettoised education in both communities. Children studying in such schools get a wrong impression of the other community which is dangerous. My mission is the modernisation of madarsas. I proudly say I began my education in a madarsa. These institutions are much demonised all over the world. Madarsas are one of the largest education networks, if not for them three-quarters of Muslims would be uneducated. At least they provide some modicum of education where there is no government school. But time has come to change that. I dared to impress upon the senior authority of the madarsas in Deoband and Lucknow aiming at a top down approach, but it did not work, so we started the bottom up approach which we started in AMU. We started training 100 madarsa students for a normal education. In one year we give them a dose of English, computers and social sciences. I am proud of the fact that some of our pass outs have got admission on their own merit in leading universities. Those who memorise the Quran have memories of computers and can learn anything. This is the way forward -- school for Muslim kids in a secular environment instead of madrasa education. That should be priority area of Muslims. The foundation headed by you started a school in the worst affected village of the Muzaffarnagar riots. It was in a Muslim area, but now we have 10 non Muslim kids. We want to encourage all students that is why we called it Sir Syed National School. It is for nation building, we want to create good citizens of the country. Forty families have offered me land to build schools, we need Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) per school for a good school. The first is already running, for the second school our family has volunteered our old ancestral haveli in Sardhana. It is being modified and by March we'll have the school running. That's my mission. I gained so much from a secular and modern education. I was entrusted to Irish Christian Brothers after I left the madarsa. I came out so well equipped that even if there was discrimination I cut through it and pierced through the barriers of discrimination. That's what I want to equip young Muslim girls and boys. The great thing about the show is that its so free and fun, Beadle said. You can come in, just relax and have a great time and de-stress during the holidays. Take a break and forget about the shopping and all the logistics of who, where and when. The message of the play is to enjoy yourself and have fun and not be so serious. Theres the element of letting yourself breathe not letting all of the hardships be in control of you. In remarks that could embarrass the Centre, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said had he "looked to Delhi", he would have had to install a government led by Sajad Lone, a claim which the opposition said on Tuesday vindicated its charge he was under pressure to put in place a "BJP-supported government". IMAGE: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik addresses the media in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo There was no immediate reaction from the Centre or the Bharatiya Janata Party to the remark made on Saturday by Malik, who said history would have remembered him as a "dishonest man" if he had asked Lone, the leader of the People's Conference, to form the government. But a Raj Bhavan spokesperson in Jammu on Tuesday clarified that the governor while taking the decision to dissolve the J and K legislative assembly on the night of November 21 acted in an "objective and impartial" manner. "There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter," he said in a press statement. As the comments by Malik created a flutter, the chiefs of Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference -- Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, both former chief ministers -- complimented the governor for not taking "instructions" from Delhi thereby stopping the installation of a government of the "BJP and its proxies". Malik abruptly dissolved the assembly after the PDP staked claim to form a government with the backing of arch rival NC and the Congress. Mehbooba claimed the support of 57 MLAs in the 87-member assembly. The PDP claim was quickly followed by another bid from the People's Conference which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties. The BJP had 25 MLAs while the strength of the People's Conference was 2. "Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jata...(Had I looked to Delhi, I would have had to install a government led by Lone, and history would have remembered me as a dishonest man)." said Malik during a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior on Saturday. "Therefore, I ended up the matter. Whosoever wants to scold, can do so now but I am convinced that whatever I did, was right," he said in his address after noted journalist Ravish Kumar in his speech referred to the faulty fax machine at Raj Bhavan in Jammu on a day of fast paced political developments last Wednesday. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the more the governor tries to justify his decision to dissolve the assembly the more he is "tying himself up in his knots". The action by the governor was nothing short of a "command performance", Tiwari said, alleging he did it on the "instructions of Delhi". "The governor of J&K has done long term damage to India's interest in J&K. That is a reality which unfortunately will have implications in the future also," he told reporters in the national capital. "So, what Governor Satya Pal Malik is trying to do is really emulate his masters in Delhi who have done a Phd in flip-flop, U-turns, somersaults and the reality is that NDA-BJP Government has no policy towards J&K." Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the governor has exposed Modi government's alleged "sinister design of installing an illegitimate government by horse trading and coercion". Abdullah and Mehbooba took to Twitter to react to the governor's claim. "My compliments to Governor Malik for not looking to Delhi & for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & it's proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money," Abdullah said. "I really don't know what to make of Governor Sahib's revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & it's proxies were desperate to form a government through horse trading & use of money but we've also never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the Centre," he added. Mehbooba said it is good to see that the governor refused to take "dictation from Delhi". "Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sahib refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state." J and K Pradesh Congress Committee chief Gulam Ahmed Mir said Malik's "admission" has vindicated the opposition charge that BJP wanted the governor to install a government through defections against all constitutional norms. "As the governor had no option except to invite the single largest party claiming majority to form the government, the governor resorted to dissolving the assembly to prevent the government formation, since he was under pressure to install BJP supported government," he added. "But the cat is finally out of the bag now, that Modi government was pressuring governor to install a chief minister with the backing of BJP by arranging numbers apparently through horse trading," he claimed. At the Gwalior event, Malik said that without seeking any advice or direction or holding any discussion with Delhi, he took the decision of dissolving the assembly. The governor noted that Lone had been saying he had sent his letter on WhatsApp and Mufti said she tweeted staking claim for government formation. "I never knew that governments were formed on WhatsApp and tweet messages. Staking claim for the formation of the government are not made on WhatsApp,"he said. A 39-year-old man, who was going to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his residence in New Delhi, was arrested after a bullet was found in his purse during frisking, police said on Tuesday. Mohammad Imran, a caretaker of a mosque in Karol Bagh and resident of Seelampur locality, was arrested when he was going to attend a Janta Darbar (public meeting) at the chief minister's residence on Monday, they said. He is a mauzzim at the Masjid Bawli Wali. Last week, a man threw chilli powder at Kejriwal inside the Delhi Secretariat. Imran had come to meet the chief minister at the Janta Darbar around 11:15 am, a senior police officer said. He had come with 12 imams and maulvis to discuss the issue of increasing salary of staff working at the Delhi Waqf Board, he said. During the search, a live cartridge of .32 bore was recovered from his purse by security staff deputed at Kejriwal's residence, the officer said. Imran was handed over to the local police and accordingly, a case was registered at the Civil Lines police station under relevant sections of the Arms Act, he said. During interrogation, Imran said he was a mauzzin at Masjid Bawli Wali in Karol Bagh and two to three months ago, he found a cartridge in the mosque's donation box. He said he had planed to throw it in the Yamuna river but did not do so and kept it in his purse, the officer said. Further investigation is underway. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Argentina from November 28 to December 2 to participate in the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires during which he will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of other participating nations, the ministry of external affairs said on Tuesday. Modi will also highlight the risks posed by oil price volatility and raise the issue of combating terror financing and money laundering, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said. One of the issues that will be discussed is strengthening of the World Trade Organisation, he told reporters. The meeting is being held amid the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. "Our interest is two-fold that the G20 issue is not hijacked by the single issue of trade, whether it is between two countries or otherwise. "And secondly how we can constructively reform the WTO which serves India's interest and which is multilateral. That is going to be one of the focal points of this G20 meeting, or certainly of India's position at the G20 meeting," Gokhale said. He said the G20 Summit must cover the entire gamut of economic issues, including the agricultural sector reform, the challenges climate change poses and health-care issues faced by the world. The theme of the G20 Summit is 'Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development'. Detailing Modi's visit, Gokhale said the prime minister will make a lead intervention in a session on 'Putting People First' that is essentially on the global economy. The second session is on talks of building consensus which will deal with trade, finance, taxation, sustainable development and climate change. The third session will be on 'Embracing Opportunities' and these are related to energy infrastructure, sustainable food security. The prime minister will be making subsidiary interventions in the other two sessions, Gokhale said. There will be a number of bilateral meetings during the visit. When asked the agenda of the Modi-Xi's visit, Gokhale declined to go into details, but said the purpose of the meeting is to build a mutual trust and understanding. He noted that the meeting will be fourth between the two leaders in last seven months. "It was decided in (the) Wuhan (Summit between Modi and Xi) that they would take the opportunity whenever and wherever they could meet. They could discuss issues on either leader's mind or issues of mutual concern," Gokhale said. When asked about a possible meet with the US President Donald Trump, Gokhale said the ministry was working on various bilaterals. The foreign secretary said Modi will also meet United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Mauricio Macri, the President of Argentina; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He will also meet the prime ministers of Spain, Jamaica, the Netherlands and the president of European Union and European Council. A bilateral meeting between Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron is also being worked out, Gokhale said. The prime minister, he said, will also speak on his flag programmes like the Jan Dhan Yojana, the Mudra scheme, Ayushman Bharat, soil health card in the G20 Summit. The prime minister will also make a pitch to countries who are not in the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn to join the International Solar Alliance. Gokhale said the issue of disaster relief infrastructure will also be discussed. There is a space of major countries, particulary the G20 nations, to have some kind of informal arrangement where they can share capacity building, technical know-how with countries hit by disasters, Gokhale said. India has shared a concept paper with the G20 countries and it has received a positive response, he added. The imprudent, not to mention immature, attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Congress leaders, especially on the election trail, can only be read as a sign of nerves on the eve of an important poll battle. Illustrations: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com It's a 133-year-old political party, so perhaps the verbal incontinence exhibited by its leaders from time to time is a sign of advanced dotage. But despite making such leeway, the imprudent, not to mention immature, attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Congress leaders, especially on the election trail, can only be read as a sign of nerves on the eve of an important poll battle. If Mani Shankar Aiyar famously set the ball rolling in 2013 (see below), and caused untold damage to his party's electoral fortunes, the roll of honour is being carried forward by a distinguished lineup of Congress politicians. Of whom only the latest is: C P Joshi The word on the street has it that the Congress stands a very good chance of dethroning Chief Minister Vijaya Raje Scindia in Rajasthan. Some ex-Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who have crossed over to the Congress too believe the same. Now if the election machinery is running so smoothly, and perceptions favour you, who would someone chuck a spanner in the works? Only C P Joshi, the Congress candidate from Nathdwara for the assembly elections, can answer what prompted him to, well, become a cheerleader for brahminical patriarchy. Thats what the former Union minister became, when he said things like "Uma Bharti is a Lodhi, and she talks about Hinduism. Modiji talks about Hinduism, it's Brahmins who don't talk about it. "In 50 years they have lost their minds If anyone knows about religion in this country it is only the Brahmins." Rapped on the knuckles by the party high command, Joshi put out a bland retraction and apology. Shashi Tharoor Before entering the murky world of politics, Shashi Tharoor was a distinguished diplomat. Plus, he was an author with a string of books to his credit. So it is strange how easily politics, in which he has barely spent 10 years, affects his Brocas area, the part of the brain that controls speech. What else could explain why the erudite Tharoor would launch a broadside against his party's bugbear, Prime Minister Modi? In August Tharoor had said, "You see him (Modi) in hilarious Naga head-dress with feathers, various kinds of extraordinary outfits, which is right thing for PM to do... "Indira Gandhi has also been photographed wearing various kinds of costumes. "But Why does he always refuse to wear a Muslim skull cap? Why does he refuse to wear green?" The previous month, his comment that India would turn into a Hindu Pakistan if the BJP won the 2019 elections led the BJPs youth wing to vandalise his office in Thiruvananthapuram, which in turn spurred him to ask if the BJP had started a Hindu Taliban. As they say, never a dull moment if you are a man of letters.. Sanjay Nirupam His name may not carry much resonance beyond Mumbais shores but the city Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam is known for being combative. Which explains his criticism of the prime minister in September, calling him an 'anpadh-gawaar' (uneducated country bumpkin). Nirupams outburst was sparked off by the Maharashtra governments decision to screen a short film on Modis life in schools. What will children learn from the life of an anpadh-gawaar?" Nirupam asked. "They should be kept away from politics." Even as his words set off a storm of words, Nirupam remained unapologetic, insisting the words he used to describe the prime minister 'were not undignified'. Digvijaya Singh The veteran leader has held a variety of offices in the course of an illustrious career, so it makes little sense that someone of his calibre, seniority, experience, not to leave out gravitas, would invite opprobrium by forwarding a scurrilous WhatsApp fwd. The meme forwarded by Digvijaya Singh in September 2017 had Modis photograph with the following words: Mere do achievements -- bhakton ko ******* banaya aur ******** ko bhakt banaya (I have two achievements -- fooling the bhakts and making bhakts out of fools). If Singh hoped that his explanation -- -- 'Not mine but couldn't help posting it. My apologies to the person concerned. He is the best in the 'Art of Fooling!'' would spare him criticism, he was sadly mistaken. As the BJP stepped up its offensive, Singh stuck to his guns, "The PM is fooling the people from the ramparts of the Red Fort. He has not fulfilled his promises. My simple statement is the PM is master in the art of fooling. Those words are mine," he insisted. And signed off with the classic: "Retweets are never endorsements." Mani Shankar Aiyar In the world of booboos, Mani Shankar Aiyar, one suspects, occupies a special, hallowed place. For, in the runup to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when Narendra Modi was not a cinch as the next prime minister, it is widely acknowledged that Aiyars jibe during an All India Congress Committee meeting in New Delhi targeting the BJPs prime ministerial candidate was among the factors that turned the tide in the latters favour. I promise you in 21st Century Narendra Modi will never become the prime minister of the country. But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him, the patrician Aiyar said, years before brahminical patriarchy as a term would enter the popular lexicon. And he refused to withdraw his remark despite the storm that broke out over his head following the remark. Not only that, three years later, he showed that he had learnt no lesson at all, when he referred to Prime Minister Modi as a 'neech aadmi, not civilised. Once again it was a runup to an important election, this time to the Gujarat assembly. The Congress till then looked like it would nose ahead of the BJP in Modis redoubt. That didnt come about, many agree, because of Aiyars loose tongue. On the 10th anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attack, President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States stands with the people of India in their quest for justice. In the barbaric attack unleashed on November 26, 2008 by 10 LeT fedayeen from Pakistan, 166 people, six of whom were US nationals, were killed. On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice, Trump tweeted. The attack killed 166 innocents, including six Americans. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning! he said. Kia Scherr, whose husband and a 13-year-old daughter were killed in the attack, thanked the President for his tweet. May this day serve to remind us that love overpowers hate. This is the strength no bullet can kill. This is our true power. Thank you, she said. At a solemn event in memory of the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks at the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, a top American counterterrorism official called on Pakistan to bring Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives and other terrorists to justice. "We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to do their parts in bringing the perpetrators to justice. All countries must uphold their international obligations to take action against this UN sanctioned terrorist group and its leaders," said Nathan Sales, State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism in his brief remark. Noting that a day earlier, the State Department had announced to offer up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction to anyone who committed or assisted the horrific attacks, Sales said, "With this, we remind the world that we have not forgotten those who perished 10 years ago and we will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice." It is an absolute affront to the victims of Mumbai and to their families who grieve them to this day, that after 10 years, those who planned these despicable acts have still not been convicted for their crimes, Sales said, echoing the statement of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a day earlier. "Our citizens died together. So we must all work together to end the scourge of terrorism. We must prevent the terrorists who committed this act of barbarism, LeT from ever threatening our people again," Sales said as he warned the terrorist group and its leaders that the US will go after them wherever they are. In his remarks, the Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Singh Sarna, paid tributes to the innocent lives lost during these attacks which included Indians and citizens from 14 other countries, including those from the United States. He condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and urged the international community to call upon Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist attacks to justice. Sarna thanked the State Department for instituting a Rewards for Justice programme announcing a bounty for any information leading to arrest or conviction of any individual involved in planning or facilitating the attacks. To honour the memory of the victims, a moment of silence was observed by the attendees followed by lighting of candles. Extracts from an article written on this occasion by Kia Scherr, the co-founder of a charity 'One Life Alliance' and a family member of US victims in this tragedy, was also read out. The event concluded with the screening of HBO documentary on 26/11 Mumbai attacks, titled 'Terror in Mumbai'. The event among others was attended by Basant Sanghera and Jennifer Whethey, Director in the US National Security Council at the White House. Rabbi Levi Shemstov, Executive Vice President, American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) recounted his personal encounter of the events of the day 10 years ago, when he desperately tried to save his friends and colleagues in Mumbai and talked with one of the terrorists over phone. In a separate statement, Congressman Eliot L Engel, Ranking Member of the powerful House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said 10 years ago, the world watched in real time as a horrific terrorist attack unfolded over the course of 60 hours in Mumbai. I join the friends and families in remembering the 166 victims, including the six American citizens killed during the attack, and I stand in solidarity with the people of India who have demonstrated their resilience in the face of such violence, he said. It remains imperative, as it was 10 years ago, to bring the perpetrators of such heinous and senseless violence to account," said Engel, who in all probability will be the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee next year. 10 years ago the people of Indian fell victim to a heinous terrorist attack in Mumbai. Today we remember the victims and stand with India in the fight to end violent Islamist extremism, Congressman Ted Yoho said in a tweet. The deadly northern California wildfire that destroyed the mountain town of Paradise has been fully contained after burning for more than two weeks. The catastrophic Camp Fire in northern California's Butte County that ignited on November 8 and indiscriminately devoured thousands of homes and structures and claimed at least 85 lives was fully contained by firefighters, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection, also known as Cal Fire. According to the Butte County Sheriff's Office, at least 296 people remain unaccounted for. At least three fire-fighters were injured battling the Camp Fire. The Camp Fire has destroyed 13,972 residences and 528 commercial buildings as it burned 153,336 acres, according to the Cal Fire incident report. The fire began in the parched Sierra Nevada foothills and quickly spread across 620 square kilometers, destroying most of Paradise town in a day. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters The blaze exploded as strong winds fanned the flames southwest, enveloping Paradise, a bucolic community of 27,000 people in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The fire has virtually decimated the entire town. Photograph: Terray Sylvester/Reuters Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said they were in the last phase of repopulating Malibu and unincorporated areas of the county. At the height of the fire, 250,000 fled their homes. Photograph: Terray Sylvester/Reuters In southern California, more residents returned to areas evacuated in a destructive fire as crews repaired power, telephone and gas utilities. Photograph: Terray Sylvester/Reuters Rain that soaked the Butte County fire area in the past days helped douse the remaining flames, but also made it more difficult for crews searching for bodies.. Photograph: Terray Sylvester/Reuters The fire fighting crew continue sifting through muddy ash for human remains in and around the devastated town of Paradise. Photograph: Terray Sylvester/Reuters United States health and human services secretary Alex Azar has declared a public health emergency in California, where the wildfires forced the evacuation of at least two hospitals and eight other health facilities. The smoke from the flames descended across the Golden State and choked the air in major cities. Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC summit, foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after a deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances". The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet. Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative. Addressing a conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, Faisal recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan in his victory speech had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. Prime Minister Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the SAARC summit, Faisal was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. He said that Prime Minister Khan, in a letter to his Indian counterpart, had expressed Pakistan's openness to resolving all outstanding issues through dialogue with India. "We fought a war with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly," Faisal said. SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association. The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Modi. Faisal also said that the Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, is expected to be completed within six months. "In this century diplomacy has completely changed," he said, adding policies are now made based on citizens' emotions and wishes. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. It was established by the Sikh Guru in 1522. The first Gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was built here, where Guru Nanak Dev is said to have died. Both India and Pakistan have decided to build a corridor, linking Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district with the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. Brown said he wrote the concerto to invoke a deeper sense of what Christmas is about. He described three of the four movements as bombastic. The third is quieter and features the marimba and chimes. It will be an interesting texture to offset the other three movements, he said. A new entrepreneurial program being launched by the founders of a Hartford-based co-working space will be getting a $3.9 million boost from Connecticuts technology investment agency. The funding Connecticut Innovations is providing for Upward Labs will be spread across a two-year period, according to officials with the Rocky Hill-based venture capital agency. The money will be used to develop and nurture early-stage companies looking to develop pilot programs in the smart building and aged care technology market sectors. The program Connecticut Innovations is funding is the latest entrepreneurial effort launched by the brain trust of Upward, a 34,000-square-foot working space that opened last year in Hartfords Stilts Building. Upward Labs will use funding from the agency to invest in companies accepted into the program. Some of the money wil go toward supporting recruitment efforts for those companies as well as providing necessary infrastructure. Upward Labs is establishing two physical labs in downtown Hartford, where companies in the smart building and aged care industries will live and work for six consecutive months. Samantha Wanagel, general manager of Upwards co-working space, said the companies that will be part of Upward Labs already have beta-test ideas, but they cant get a pilot launched. I dont think people appreciate how difficult it is to get a pilot launched and to find the right partner do it, Wanagel said. The two industry segments on which Upward Labs will focus were selected in part because of their potential to be transformed by technology. People dont stop aging and, as they do, they want it to be done in their homes, as much as possible, she said. Technology can help make that happen. Philip Siuta, Connecticut Innovations chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said early-stage companies often lack the resources and direct access to larger organizations where they can test ideas, pilot projects and demonstrate proof of concepts. This initiative (Upward Labs) will allow larger corporations to identify and connect with innovative technologies and continue to grow the talent in the city, Siuta said in a statement. We are excited to announce this investment and look forward to welcoming a host of young and innovative companies to Hartford in the coming years. Companies selected for the Upward Labs program will have the opportunity to pilot their product with well-known commercial, residential and senior care program partners and to work closely with established corporations to test their pilot programs and prove efficacy. The program is expected to invest in a total of 40 companies and execute four different six-month cohorts with 10 companies in each. Michael Cantor, comanaging partner at Cantor Colburn LLP and chairman of Connecticut Innovations board of directors, said Upward Labs is an example of a public-private partnership that is uniquely suited to helping transform Hartford into a thriving environment where millennials and others want to work, live and play. There is a tremendous opportunity to establish and foster an ecosystem of young innovators and tech-forward thinkers in Hartford, Cantor said in a statement. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com A coalition of utility ratepayer and consumer advocacy groups are appealing a decision made last month by a U.S. District Court judgein New Haven, claiming Connecticut government officials violated state and federal law by raiding energy efficiency and clean power programs in order to balance the state budget. Attorneys for the groups in the coalition filed their appeal Monday with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, according to Stephen Humes, a partner at Holland & Knight and co-counsel on the case. Humes said the federal appeals court has a backlog of cases, so it could be well into 2019 before we even get a hearing. Its likely to be quite a while after that before we get a ruling, Humes said of the three-judge panel that will hear their case. It could be 2020 before a decision is rendered in the appeal. U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall issued a 27-page ruling on Oct. 25 in which she said the legal language that allows the states electric utilities to collect ratepayer money for projects that improve energy efficiency and pay for renewable energy doesnt explicitly prohibit those funds being used for any other purposes. There is no dispute about the facts in the case, said Humes, who noted the energy efficiency and clean-power programs utility customers for as part of their monthly bills constitutes a contract. The question is whether or not ratepayers can enforce the terms of that contract. A spokeswoman with Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsens office, which represented state officials in the case, declined comment on the appeal. The plaintiffs in the case are seeking to force the State of Connecticut to restore $145 million in ratepayer dollars intended to save families money on energy bills and reduce climate pollution. The original lawsuit against state officials to stop the 2017 raid the of energy efficiency and clean energy funds as well as prevent any future moves of that nature was filed on May 15. Part of the the central premise of the plaintiffs legal challenge is that using ratepayer money for anything other than its intended purpose violates the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs also contend that using the ratepayer payments to reduce the states budget deficit makes the raided funds a tax that is not applied equally to all residents because some communities have municipally owned utilities whose customers dont pay the energy efficiency and clean power fees. Roger Reynolds, chief legal director at Connecticut Fund for the Environment, which is one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the fund raids break an implied promise to utility customers. Residents trusted that their ratepayer dollars would go where their electric bills said they would toward energy efficiency and clean energy programs that save money and cut climate pollution, Reynolds said in a statement. Instead those hard-earned dollars were used to plug a hole in the state budget. We believe the appellate court will see that the states action violated federal contract and tax law, and ask them to correct that mistake to put Connecticut back on the path to a healthier energy future and a stronger economy. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com Ever since Jose Andres and his small nonprofit group took it upon themselves to feed hungry Puerto Ricans following the near knockout punch of Hurricane Maria last year, the celebrity chef's name has been whispered as a potential nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize. Today, Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., confirmed that he has nominated the restaurateur and humanitarian for the 2019 award. Delaney, who has already announced his presidential campaign for 2020, said he could not discuss any specifics of his nomination or what motivated it. The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the annual prize, discourages nominators from making any public announcements. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 1, and the committee will announce the laureates next October. The Nobel Foundation did not immediately respond to an email about Andres' nomination, which is par for the course. According to its website, the Nobel committee "does not itself announce the names of nominees, neither to the media nor to the candidates themselves." The committee also doesn't reveal any information about nominees until 50 years after the award is first announced. Last year, according to the committee, there were 331 candidates, the second highest number ever. The record was 376 candidates in 2016. Only certain individuals are allowed to submit nominees. They include people who have previously won, past and current members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and current members of a national assembly, such as the House of Representatives. The Washington Post obtained some of the language from Delaney's nomination submission for Andres. In the section where the congressman explained why he nominated Andres, Delaney wrote: "Because of Mr. Andres's work, millions of people have been fed. This is the most basic human need and Mr. Andres has proven to be world-class in this essential humanitarian field. With an incredible spirit and an innovative mind, Mr. Andres is solving one of the world's ancient problems and supplying world leaders with a new road map to provide more effective disaster relief in the future." When reached by phone, Andres characteristically downplayed the nomination. "Oh, wow," he said, after a long pause. "They nominate everybody." But on further reflection, Andres said the nomination just underscores the growing importance of food in U.S. politics. Food plays a role in national security, public health, even in immigration given that so many restaurant kitchens are run by immigrants from Central America. "In the end," he added, "you see that food every day is having a bigger impact." Andres' nomination comes as little surprise. As the face of ThinkFoodGroup, the parent company behind Jaleo, Oyamel, Minibar and other Washington-area restaurants, Andres has been spending as much time in disaster zones as in kitchens over the past year or so. His Twitter account has been a real-time diary of his humanitarian efforts in Puerto Rico, Florida, North Carolina, Guatemala and many other locales served by the volunteers of World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit group he founded after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. This Thanksgiving, Andres was not at home, carving a turkey with his friends and family. He was in California, preparing hot meals for survivors of the Camp Fire, along with fellow chefs Tyler Florence and Guy Fieri. They served 15,000 meals on Thanksgiving Day. "The least we can be doing today on Thanksgiving is all coming together to show these people what they deserve: Love and support, one plate of food at a time," Andres said in a video posted on his Twitter feed. The chef's experiences in disaster zones, especially World Central Kitchen's long stay in Puerto Rico, has given Andres a unique perspective on food relief. Earlier this year, he and journalist Richard Wolffe co-wrote a book, "We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time," which argued that the United States and major nonprofit organizations need to rethink how they feed people after natural disasters. He wants relief groups to embrace complexity, rely on local resources and ditch the authoritarian, top-down leadership. "What we did was embrace complexity every single second," Andres wrote in his book. "Not planning, not meeting, just improvising. The old school wants you to plan, but we needed to feed the people." Andres' humanitarian efforts have often pitted him against President Donald Trump. The pair famously clashed in court after the chef withdrew his planned restaurant at Trump International Hotel. The lawsuit was settled last year, the terms undisclosed. Andres' public fights with Trump, of course, may play well to voters as Delaney makes his run for the White House. BRIDGEPORT - The GraTaTa Guy is on his way home. State prosecutors nolled or dropped the domestic violence case against social media sensation Bryan Silva on Tuesday on the condition that he return to his native Virginia. Senior Assistant States Attorney Stephanie Damiani had told a judge that there didnt appear from the police report evidence that Silva had done anything except get punched in the mouth by his wife, Melissa Barney, after she claimed she found evidence on Silvas cell phone that he was cheating on her. Barney is charged with disorderly conduct and must return to court on Dec. 21. Silva, 27, a body builder and rapper, known as the GraTaTa Guy for the machine gun sound he made in his last rap video, was arrested outside the Easton home of his wifes parents on Thanksgiving night. In October 2016, Silva was sentenced in Virginia to more than a year in prison for an armed standoff with Charlottesville police. It was while he was in a Virginia prison that he met his 23-year-old wife. More for you GraTaTa Guy arrested in Easton domestic violence case On Thursday, police said Silva came to his wifes parents Easton home to reunite with his bride of less than a year. But police said things did not go well. After the traditional turkey dinner, police said Silva fell asleep. While he was out his bride decided to go through his cell phone and discovered what she believed to be evidence that he was cheating on her. Police said Barney became so enraged that she punched her sleeping husband in the mouth. She claimed he then punched her in the head. At any rate, police said Silva then grabbed his suitcase and was heading out the door when his wife called 911. Barney stated that she loves Silva and didnt want him to leave so she called police, police related. When officers arrived, on the call of an assault, they confronted Silva who was kneeling in the driveway trying to close his suitcase, police said. They said they saw blood on Silvas mouth. Police said Silva told them he never really knew what his wife was like and was now thinking of divorcing her. Both Silva and Barney were charged with disorderly conduct. She was previously released on a promise to appear. BARKHAMSTED Many of the storm-damaged trees that were felled by multiple tornadoes in May in state forests and wildlife management areas will likely be turned into lumber for construction, furniture, or even railroad ties. Gerald Milne, Western Division forest supervisor for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, who is based in Pleasant Valley, said more than 500 felled or damaged trees could be salvaged by certified foresters who bid on the states request for proposals to remove the trees. The harvests will, or have occurred, in the Upper Paugusset State Forest in Newtown, Pootatuck State Forest in New Fairfield and Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden. The total of the three harvest operations could bring in at least $10,000 based on bids of $4,741 for the state forest in Newtown and $4,671 for the state park in Hamden. The New Fairfield harvest bid document is pending, Milne said. The hardwood logs that were salvaged at Sleeping Giant State Park were delivered to the wood lot at E.R. Hinman & Sons sawmill in Burlington. Their parent company, Supreme Industries of Burlington, was awarded the bid to clear the felled trees, Milne said. They were allowed to keep any wood that was still salvageable for lumber while doing the clean up, Milne said. The fifth-generation sawmill was founded in 1850 by Ernest Hinman, making it one of the oldest sawmills in continuous operation in New England. Two descendents of the founder, Mike and Paul Hinman, work there today. Receiving felled timber from a state park is a rarity, experts say. Normally, the timber processed at the Hinman mill is harvested from state forest lands by certified loggers. The harvests are done by logging crews who cut specific trees that are selected and marked by state foresters, such as Milne. The Hinman mill buys harvested logs from a variety of logging companies. The logs are trucked to their wood yard at 77 Milford St., adjacent to the sawmill. The timber is then measured and graded. The logs are sawn into boards, large slabs, for table tops and other wooden furniture, or railroad ties. We primarily work with hardwoods, said Patrick Sullivan, the lumber mill manager, who is a state certified forester. The company sells over one million board feet of lumber a year, Sullivan noted. For example, an 8-foot-long log with a 12-inch tip (the top of the log), and a thickness of 19 inches would have 152 board feet. From October, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018, the mill has processed more than 198,500 board feet of red oak, Sullivan said. Red oak is always very good and strong, Sullivan said. The nicest in the country comes from this region, said Wayne Horn, a sawmill employee who was in the logging and forestry business for 35 years, before joining Hinmans. The best is from Salisbury, Sharon and Kent, he noted. Horn is responsible for tagging logs that are delivered by forestry companies. I tag where they were cut, who brought them in, their length, grade and board footage. I grade a couple hundred logs a day, he said. While quite a few sawmills now use band saws, Hinmans uses the more traditional circular saws to cut the logs. The top blade is 36 inches in diameter; the bottom blade is 54 inches. The logs are sawn into boards just like a deli slicer, Sullivan said. We use 100 percent of the logs, said Sullivan. The bark is used for mulch, wood chips become playground safety fiber and the sawdust is sold to farms that use it for bedding, he said. Logs that have too many knots or scars are still in demand, Sullivan said, as railroad ties. Its C-grade timber. We saw them to be 9 inches wide by 7 feet long, Simmons said. The railroad ties are sold to a Pennsylvania company that picks up 200 ties at a time, he added. We support sustainable forests, Sullivan noted. Larger, older trees are harvested to save younger, healthy trees, which will mature faster, he added. Timber harvesting is not a type of clear-cutting. The opposite is true, Sullivan said. When driving along streets or highways, the public sees trees that are being clear cut from roadside property or in neighborhoods. They think all tree harvesting is like that, Sullivan said. But the complete removal of those trees is not done by foresters, Sullivan added, but by private property owners who are selling land for commercial or residential uses. Were not going out and wiping out trees, Sullivan said. With a good job site, you cant really tell (foresters) were there, because only selected trees are removed. Its an underground industry. Foresters do work far the from roads, Milne said. Thats why many people dont have a better understanding of timber management, he noted. We are like forest doctors, Milne added. We dont clear all, we want it to grow back. State foresters follow a selective harvest management program so there is always has a canopy of trees in the forest, Milne noted. Forty percent of length of tree should be in green canopy (leaves). If its not, the tree isnt healthy, Milne said. That means if a tree is not getting enough light, it will decline, possibly get a disease, or rot. Mature trees need successional growth. Milne said, which allows for different types of plants to grow nearby. Thickets (dense, low shrubs or small trees) are created by young forests, he added. Wildlife needs thickets. Ruffed grouse, cottontail, need this. I dont see ruffed grouse anymore, said Milne, who has worked for the state forestry division since 1981. New England cottontail rabbits, a once nearly endangered species, were identified this month in Washington at a nature preserve. Forest management also benefits drinking water supplies. Jonathan Zeine, a certified forester for The Torrington Water Co., manages 5,400 acres that contain four reservoirs that provide water for nearly 40,000 residents in five area towns. He undertakes selective forest management to keep trees healthy. Experts note forests prevent soil erosion and act as a natural filter for rain water. The best way to protect a reservoir is to have forests around them, said Zeine, whos worked for the water company for 30 years. The main objective is water quality, but timber is in high demand on a global basis, he said. The company sells from $50,000 to $100,000 a year worth of timber, he noted. The most popular woods the water company sells are oak, sugar maples, cherry and birch, Zeine said. They are a renewable resource, we manage (forests) so we we never run out of resources. After an area is selectively harvested, regrowth occurs quickly, Zeine said. Mother Nature does a very good job. A harvest provides shelter, wood, seeds for new trees, he added. The value is that two smaller trees next to (a mature tree) ...will grow if we remove the mature tree. Zeine said long-term forest management and density management, provides the optimum level of growth. Certain areas of trees at Charlene Susan Besse Park in Torrington are expected to be harvested next year, said J. Brett Simmons, superintendent of the Parks & Recreation Department. All but 10 acres of the 90-acre park are forested, according to city documents. We want to improve the health of the forest and regenerate (growth) and remove hazardous trees, Simmons said. Areas of the forest, called stands, have been selected by the city for selective harvesting, according to a 2017 management plan. Fifty percent of the funds for the harvest project and trail clearing were provided by a matching grant from the America the Beautiful organization, Simmons said, through the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Forester Andrew Bosse, of New Hartford, has been hired to choose which trees should be harvested in the selected stands. Bosse reported that a good quality of oak and hardwoods are available. Im getting started on the field work. Ill mark the timber and tally it for a timber sale, he said. The next step, Bosse added, is to send out bid packages and set a date. He will the do a site walk with the interested bidders, such as limber companies and loggers. They will see the quality and decide whether they want to bid, Bosse noted. He doesnt know how much the winning bid will amount be. I never cease to be surprised. The prices can be all over the map. It depends on if the logger needs work, or how badly a company wants it. There is now more forest in Connecticut than in the mid-1800s, Milne said. During the Industrial Revolution, people clear cut trees to get wood for charcoal. The best wood for the process was red oak and chestnuts. They cut a lot of them, he noted. Then, American chestnut trees were decimated by the chestnut blight beginning in the early 1900s. The forest is lower quality now, there are no chestnut trees, which had been 25 percent of forest, Milne said. Oak, hickory, and other hardwoods grew in place of chestnut in Connecticut, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures Northeastern Research Station. Settlers used wood for wagons, heat, building a house and cooking, Milne said. A family used 25 cords of wood a year, which is an acre of timber. Its important for people to understand that we use wooden products everyday. Chairs, writing paper, packaging, said Zeine. When they wonder, why cut something so beautiful? its to utilize management of the forest so other trees will grow. A familiar face has returned to the Community Culinary School of Northwest Connecticut in New Milford. Chef Blythe Roberts recently assumed the position as chef instructor, a position he held from the schools inception in 2007 through mid-2016. I think its awesome, said John Mosca, a 2013 graduate, of the chefs return to the school. I think hes home. The school offers culinary training and job placement to unemployed and underemployed adults age 18 and over who are interested in starting a new career in the food service industry. Roberts stepped away for a year and a half to pursue an opportunity in a restaurant and country club; Justin Elander, a 2009 graduate of the school, followed as chef instructor. I always missed teaching, Roberts said. Having had some time away to get recharged and reflect on how he had helped inspire individuals for several years at the school reinforced his decision to say yes when Dawn Hammacott, the schools executive director, asked him to return after Elander sought another opportunity. Its been a great experience (working here), and hopefully as good of an experience for the students, Roberts said of his years at the school. Youll get students who realize I love this or have a passion (for it), Roberts said. The passion is something thats a rarity. Founded in 2007 by Peg Molina and Hammacott, the school teaches students life skills and skills necessary for a career in the food service industry. We encourage them to seek employment where they will have benefits and opportunities for advancement, Hammacott said. We want them to think about a career, not just a job. A variety of topics, including professional techniques, food safety, nutrition, work habits and professionalism are among the topics addressed during each 12-week session that meets Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at St. Johns Episcopal Church on Whittlesey Avenue. The next session begins Jan. 7. The school arranges for internships at area food establishments. Julie Elwood, a New Milford resident who graduated in 2017, completed her internship at New Milford Hospital. After, she gained more hands-on experience at a nursing home before becoming a cook a Maplewood at Stony Hill in Bethel. They give you a crash course on everything you need to know, Elwood said of the school. Dawn is really good about making sure youre in the right direction and if you need an extra push. The school has a positive record thus far. It has graduated 278 students, including those who will graduate this week, on Friday. And it has a 96 percent job placement rate. Students have assumed jobs in health care, schools, hotels and restaurants. Many graduates have become chefs, including Mosca, who is a banquet chef at the Preston Barn at Old Drovers Inn in Dover Plains, N.Y. I had the privilege of working with him a few weeks ago, said Roberts, who described how Mosca reached out to him to help at an event. I stood there and I worked for him. I watched him in awe. I was the proud dad. In addition to learning culinary and life skills at the school, the school is focused on the community. The meals students prepare are distributed to those in need through the towns food bank. Since 2007, the school has provided 91,000 meals. The students get hands-on experience, but they feel like theyre giving back, Hammacott said of meal program. Community dinners held in June, October, February and May are another way the school taps into the heart of New Milford. It started as a way to bring the community together, to break bread, Hammacott explained, noting individuals can come with friends, make new friends or sit down with their family. Cooking classes for children 8 and older have also been offered. Eat Outside Day annually draws a crowd to the Village Green, too. Although its offered when the school is not in session, graduates return to assist with the special fundraiser day that provides boxed lunches for those who want to participate. We are fortunate to have graduates who come back, Hammacott said, noting many return regularly to support the schools ongoing activities. Tuition for the culinary school is free for qualifying candidates. Eighty percent of students qualify for sponsorships, paid by the school. For more information, call the school at 203-512-5791 or email culinaryschool@sbcglobal.net. The most challenging thing is to make the sure the voice quality changes enough between characters, Reynolds said. If someone has four characters in one page and their voices sound too similar, Ill ask them to make the pitch go up or change the pace, she said. She also has them assume different poses when playing different characters, such as leaning in with a shoulder or tipping the head. TORRINGTON Deck the Halls Martini Tasting Party at Five Points Gallery,33 Main St., Torrington, will be held Dec. 5, 5:30-7:30 p.m. to benefit FISH/Friends in Service to Humanity of Northwestern Connecticut, which runs a food pantry and homeless shelter in Torrington. Arriving guests will be greeted by holiday musical favorites as they enter the art gallery. A silent auction will also be held. Entries are wanted for a martini recipe competition to be prepared and served at the party, with guests voting for their favorite People's Choice. Up to nine entries for martini recipes will be accepted until Dec. 3. Entries are accepted for a $300 sponsorship donation; a few spots remain, according to event organizers. A display of vintage martini shakers will also be displayed. Charlene Dutka of Ciesco Catering, is preparing refreshments, appetizers and beverages including cocoa, wine and mulled cider. Money raised during the holiday gala will be donated to FISH NWCTs homeless shelter and food pantry. Event organizers include Judith McElhone, Deirdre DiCara, Noel Croce, Charlene Dutka, Nancy Strini, Edward Cannata, and Cara Blazier. Deirdre Houlihan DiCara, Executive Director of FISH NWCT, and Steven Caruso, Board President, who both work diligently to improve and guide the lives of those in need; and Judith McElhone, Executive Director of the Five Points Gallery and generous venue host, who provides inspiration through the arts; will all be on hand to greet supporters. The mission at FISH NWCT is to provide food, shelter and hope to those neighbors facing an economic crisis and desperate need. At FISH NWCT, the focus is to improve residents' lives by providing them with the resources, guidance, medical assistance, and educational and work opportunities needed to be independent and able to manage their own households, DiCara said in a statement. Last year the FISH Food Pantry distributed enough food to provide 108,439 meals to its nearly 1,800 registered food pantry clients At the FISH Homeless Shelter, there were 147 residents served, representing all ages from infants to seniors and Veterans, at the 35 bed shelter, with 75 of those homeless residents relocated into permanent supportive housing. Tickets for the party are $35 per person and $60 per couple and can be reserved in advance or purchased at the door on Dec. 5. For tickets, visit FISH NWCT at 332 South Main Street in Torrington at the side pantry entrance; call 860-482-7300; or go to www.fishnwct.org. GUILFORD A juvenile has been charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of Ethan Song, police said Monday. Song, 15, died of a gunshot wound at his friends house on Jan. 31. He accidentally shot himself in the head, the Waterbury states attorneys office said last week after concluding its investigation. The Guilford Police Department said Monday it has concluded its investigation into the shooting, resulting in the arrest of a juvenile, whose identity will not be released. The juvenile is charged with second-degree manslaughter. The investigation also identified an incident that occurred prior to Ethans death, police said. The same juvenile was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment in connection with that incident and was referred to juvenile court in Waterbury, according to the release. After investigating the shooting, Waterbury States Attorney Maureen Platt did not bring charges against Daniel Markle, owner of the gun Ethan used to shoot himself. Ethan Song was the son of Michael and Kristin Song of Guilford. Mr. Songs death was a tragic event in that he accidentally shot himself in the head with a .357 magnum handgun which was stored in a master bedroom closet at the location where he was shot, Platt said in her report last week. The boys regularly had played with three guns kept in a closet in Songs neighbors house, Platt said. Markle, owner of the house at 104 Seaside Ave. where Ethan was shot, kept three weapons in a cardboard box inside a large Tupperware container in the master bedroom closet, according to the report. Each gun was secured with a gun lock, the report said. In this case, there is no evidence that the gun owner knew that the juvenile had actual knowledge of where the guns were stored, Platt wrote. Kristin and Michael Song have sued Markle and his business, Markle Investigations, claiming that Markle had failed to properly store, keep and/or secure a gun on the premises when he knew or should have known that minors might gain access to the gun and that he permitted unaccompanied minors on the premises, according to the Songs complaint. The Songs are expected to hold a press conference in Guilford Tuesday morning. Kristin Song, working with a friend, helped to get The Say Something Anonymous Reporting System introduced at Abraham Baldwin Middle School, Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School and Guilford High School in the next couple of months. Sponsored by Sandy Hook Promise, the youth violence prevention system is an anonymous reporting procedure to help identify and intervene with bullying, fighting, gun violence, substance abuse and suicide threats, among other at-risk behaviors. The programs focus is on students, but any concerned citizen will be able to submit a tip using the Say Something app, website or by calling a dedicated 24/7 crisis center. SHPs crisis center then communicates it back to the school district contacts and, as needed, to law enforcement. Sarah Page Kyrcz contributed to this story. Home Depot had no big generators to rent Tuesday at any of its stores in Lake County, although the Vernon Hills store did have six 6,500-watt generators for sale for $699. The Lowes in Vernon Hills had sold out all its generators and was ordering more, according to an associate. A television screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping delivering a speech at the closing session of the annual National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 20, 2018. The Chinese government is inviting foreign journalists to Beijing on international relations fellowships, on the understanding that they write "positive stories" about China, an online newspaper in India reported. The Chinese foreign ministry has been running the 10-month programs for journalists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and more than a dozen countries from Southeast Asia and Africa since 2016, The Print news website reported. "They have been given the red-carpet treatment: Apartments in one of Beijings plush residences ... and free tours twice every month to different Chinese provinces," the article said. The initiative follows a call from Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2016 for journalists to "tell China's story better" to the rest of the world, it said. Participants are also given language classes, access to Chinese government officials and ministries, and degrees in international relations from a Chinese university, the paper said. The journalists carry accreditation from regional press centers run by the Chinese government, rather than from their own organizations, but some news organizations, including the Indo-Asian New Service (IANS), Jansatta, and The Indian Express, have run stories that were written as part of the programs. Journalists who take part in the programs travel everywhere with a government "minder" and are therefore unable to cover more "sensitive" stories, The Print reported. It quoted The Indian Express as saying that it had paid its participating journalists full salaries on top of a Chinese government stipend, and was satisfied with their coverage. "There are no terms or conditions, no 'caution' or advisory imposed on what they report from there," it said. According to Cedric Alviani, East Asia director for the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), China actually started buying foreign journalists before 2016, with attempts to influence international media reporting dating back to 2011. "The Chinese authorities are constantly trying and influencing journalists narratives about China," Alviani told RFA on Monday. "Inviting these journalists to go China, where everyone is very nice to them, is one way to make friends with journalists and to train up supporters," he said. Buying shares of media companies But the government has other ways of influence overseas media coverage, Alviani said. "The Chinese government and Chinese companies have been aggressively buying shares in foreign media organizations in the past year," Alviani said. Andrew Nathan, professor of political science at Columbia, said China has also boosted its influence overseas by providing free news. "They also have a lot of influence in the Chinese media in Africa," Nathan said. "Take, for example, Xinhua News Agency. More than 90 percent of its news is fairly objective, and contains valuable information, but about 10 percent of it is information that has a pro-China bias." "Xinhua is huge in Africa, because African news organizations don't have much money, so Xinhua supplies a lot of stories to them free of charge," he said. "So, of course, they are going to use Xinhua copy." Xinhua News Agency is directly controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party and answers to the country's cabinet, the State Council, while CGTN is the English-language network of Beijing-based state broadcaster CCTV, under the direct control of the ruling party's Central Propaganda Department. In September, the U.S. Justice Department demanded that Xinhua and state-owned international broadcaster CGTN register as foreign agents, which could limit their access in Washington, according to media reports at the time. The power of propaganda In March, the administration of President Xi Jinping strengthened its hold on all forms of public expression, enlarging its powerful propaganda department to absorb agencies responsible for regulating the mass media, as the president himself embarked on an unlimited and controversial term in office. 'The new leadership structure was introduced to "strengthen the partys centralized and unified leadership in public opinion work by the media," the party's central committee said in a directive at the time. "After this adjustment, the main responsibility of the Central Propaganda Department will be to implement the partys propaganda guidelines," it said, adding that the department will also formulate and implement media and publication policy and manage the sectors. The country's international broadcasters will be tasked with "propagating the party's theories, directions, principles and policies" as well as "telling good China stories," it said. Reported by Lin Ping for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. His ideas and views about race and international relations, and how flawed America still was dealing with them, struck me as astonishing given when they were written, Hathaway wrote in an email. The more of his work I read, the more I realized I had missed not only the point, but the value in them when I was younger. Beijing on Monday appeared to stand by a "confession" recorded by its state broadcaster from former detainee Peter Humphrey, who has filed a complaint with the U.K.'s media regulator over the role played in its production by Chinese state television, CCTV. Humphrey said he has filed a complaint with Ofcom calling on the body to revoke CCTV's U.K. broadcast license and accusing its journalists of colluding with Chinese police to extract his "confession," which was obtained in connection with an investigation into the activities of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2014. In the complaint, he accuses Shanghai police of drugging him and locking him in a chair inside a small metal cage to conduct the confession, with the help of journalists from CCTV and its global arm, CGTN, on Aug. 26, 2013 and again on July 12, 2014. "In the first instance ... CCTV was represented by one male cameraman and one female interviewer who withheld their names," Humphrey writes. "I was drugged in my cell with a sedative half an hour beforehand, I was led out in handcuffs, and in an orange prison uniform, I was led into an interrogation cell, placed into a steel cage, and locked into an iron chair commonly referred to in China as a tiger chair, with a locking bar across my lap." He said the journalists pointed their cameras at him and filmed him without his consent, following a period of "immense duress" in a Chinese detention center. "In the second instance ... I was not handcuffed or caged but was a captive, and was also forced to appear before journalists against my will by the police," the complaint reads. "In both instances, CCTV was present. In the second instance CCTVs female interviewer led the questioning based on a police script in a very hostile manner." "Both fake interviews procured under conditions tantamount to torture were broadcast and rebroadcast, by both CCTV and its international arm CGTN, upon orders from the Chinese state and without my consent," the complaint states. "Neither of these instances qualify as journalism or true media activity. CCTV was working in active collusion with the police and the Chinese state," Humphrey writes. Power to revoke licenses Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Monday that Humphrey had pleaded guilty and "repented" of his crime. "China's judicial departments handle cases according to the law, and safeguard the legal rights and interests of foreigners in China," Geng said. "I hope Britain can support and facilitate the reporting work of international media in the U.K.," Ofcom, which has the power to revoke broadcasters' licenses that engage in serious breaches of U.K. rules, confirmed it had received a complaint which it was "assessing as a priority." "If, following investigation, we find our rules have been broken we would take the necessary enforcement action," a spokesman for the regulator said. Humphrey and his wife, U.S. national Yu Yingzeng, were detained in connection with a corruption case in China involving GSK. They had been hired to investigate a sex tape of the company's then China boss and other issues, shortly before the the company was itself investigated. Humphrey was sentenced to more than two years in prison by a Shanghai court for breaching privacy laws, but was released seven months early and deported in 2015. Ofcom is tasked by law to regulate media broadcasters in the U.K. and to uphold the country's broadcasting code. Tools of propaganda In January 2012, it revoked the U.K. license of Iranian state broadcaster Press TV after deciding that the London-based license holder did not have proper control over its editorial output. A month earlier, the network had incurred a 100,000 (U.S.$128,000)fine for broadcasting an interview with a Newsweek journalist deemed to have been conducted under duress. In April, international rights group RSDL Monitor called on the United States to use sanctions to target Chinese state media organizations that produce and air stage-managed, forced confessions from detainees, often through the use of torture and threats to loved ones. "Chinas televised confessions are routinely forced and extracted through threats, torture, and fear," RSDL Monitor said in a statement at the time. "Police routinely dictate and direct the confessions [and] there is strong evidence that in certain cases they are used as tools of propaganda for both domestic audiences and as part of Chinas foreign policy." "These confessions are made before trial and often even before formal arrest," the group said, adding that "every single interviewee for this study said their interrogators had forced them to confess." It said the practice deprives suspects of due process by infringing on the right to a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, the right to remain silent, the right not to self-incriminate and the right to be protected against giving a forced confession and torture. The group identified China Central Television (CCTV), including CCTV1, CCTV4, CGTN and CCTV13 as the main channels responsible for airing video footage of forced confessions, and called for travel bans and asset freezes for top CCTV executives. Reported by He Ping for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Myanmar authorities seize a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine state en route to Malaysia, off the coast of Dawei district in southern Myanmar's Tanintharyi region, Nov. 25, 2018. Myanmar authorities have seized a boat carrying 93 Rohingya Muslims who fled a displaced persons camp in Rakhine state and were heading to Malaysia, a police official from Tanintharyi region said Wednesday. The boat carrying 28 men, 33 women, and 32 children from the Darpaing displacement camp in Rakhines Sittwe township was seized on Nov. 25 off the coast of Tanintharyis Dawei district in southern Myanmar, according to a police document. We will send them back to their former places [of residence], said Police Lieutenant Colonel Sein Win of the Tanintharyi Regional Police Force. The Union government has provided a ship in which to place them for the time being, and the military has provided them with whatever they need. Some of the Rohingya onboard had temporary identity cards, known as white cards, given mostly to members of the minority group who have yet to be verified as citizens of the country, while others have official documents that show they lived in Sittwes Thaechaung village tract, the police document said. The Rohingya who left their camp on Nov. 18 had to pay human traffickers 500,000 kyats (U.S. $312) each to take them to Malaysia, it said. A naval boat found the Rohingya adrift in the Andaman Sea after their vessel had lost its way. Authorities are detaining the Rohingya while they conduct an investigation to determine if the boat people should be prosecuted for trying to cross an international border illegally, and police are waiting for instructions from the central government as to what to do with them next, according to another officer who did not provide his name and to regional lawmaker Bo Htway. Held at sea The Rohingya have been given medical care and meals while they stay temporarily on a large ship near a port, Bo Htway said. The navy is keeping them at sea because it fears that locals may attack the Rohingya, who are despised and persecuted in Myanmar and have been blamed for terrorist attacks in Rakhine state, if they were brought ashore, the online journal The Irrawaddy said. When RFA contacted Soe Aung, Myanmars deputy minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, about what the central government plans for the latest group of Rohingya boat people, he said he didnt know anything about it. No one has informed our ministry about it yet, he said. If we need to do something for those who were arrested in Launglon township [in Dawei district], we just need to inform our regional office in Tanintharyi region, he said. Ho Pin, Tanintharyis social affairs minister, said he had not been in contact with the regional government for two days while attending a meeting in Yangon, but added that the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement called him Tuesday morning to inform him about the boat people. They said their ministry will provide some food to the refugees, he said. The third attempt The incident was the third time that Rohingya from displacement camps in Rakhine state have attempted to reach Malaysia by boat since the monsoon season ended in late October. On Nov. 16, naval authorities rescued a group of 106 Rohingya from Rakhine camps who paid traffickers to take them to Malaysia in hopes of a better life when their boats engine failed and they were stranded in the Andaman Sea offshore of Kyauktan township in Yangon region. Also last week, another vessel with dozens of Rohingya from the Darpaing displacement camp who left Sittwe on Nov. 18 was detained in Rakhine state shortly after setting sail. Communal violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine state in 2012 left more than 200 people dead and displaced about 140,000 others, mostly Rohingya who ended up in displacement camps. In the last few years, tens of thousands of them have fled or attempted to flee persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar on boats organized by human traffickers and bound for other Southeast Asian nations. Authorities had to rescue many Rohingya stranded on rickety boats in 2015 after smugglers left the boats adrift in the Andaman Sea, amid a crackdown on their illegal activities by Thai authorities. Reported by Thiri Min Zin for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. A 30-year veteran editor is among more than a dozen staff members arrested after their Uyghur-run publishing house in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) released books deemed problematic because of improper political content, according to sources. At least 14 staff members of Kashgar Publishing House in the XUARs Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) city have been arrested since last year, a source with ties to the region recently told RFAs Uyghur Service, speaking on condition of anonymity. In addition to Kashgar Publishing Houses current deputy editor-in-chief and two former editors-in-chief, the source said that 60-year-old Memetjan Abliz Boriyar, who worked as a manager and editor at the company since 1987, was taken into custody in early October because he had approved the release of more than 100 books that were later blacklisted by the government. The arrests are part of a sweeping campaign in the XUAR since the beginning of 2017 to censor literature based on political content, the source said, with sensitive books being categorized as dangerous or problematic, and anyone deemed responsible for publishing them targeted for detention. Kashgar Publishing House office manager Zhao Li deferred questions about Boriyar to the relevant departments when contacted by RFA, saying he could not provide any information over the phone. A security officer at the publisher said that he had heard Boriyar was taken into custody about two weeks earlier, but said he did not know where the editor is being held or any details about his case. An officer at Kashgars Dong Hu district police station, which oversees Kashgar Publishing House, confirmed to RFA that Boriyar was taken into custody one morning in October by a male police officer in his 40s, but said he did not know the reason for his arrest. While the officer did not provide Boriyars location, he said that the editor was not being held at a political re-education camp, where authorities have detained Uyghurs accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect ideas throughout the XUAR since April 2017. An official in Kashgar, who asked to remain unnamed, told RFA that Boriyar had submitted an application for retirement at the beginning of the year, but was refused because he was under investigation for his responsibility for problematic books. The investigation had lasted for many months before his arrest about a month ago, the official added. Besides working at Kashgar Publishing House, Boriyar was also involved in researching and systematizing Uyghur childrens literature, and had also published books about the Uyghur language. Intellectuals targeted Earlier this month, sources told RFA that the 14 arrested Kashgar Publishing House staff members include Ablajan Siyit, the publishers current deputy editor-in-chief, Osman Zunun, a former editor-in-chief who retired 10 years ago, and Abliz Omer, another former editor-in-chief who retired 20 years earlier, adding that they were detained on Oct. 15, in the beginning of the year, and last year, respectively. A staff member at the local office of the judiciary in Kashgar told RFA that more than 600 books issued by Kashgar Publishing House had been listed as problematic, resulting in the arrests of their authors, editors, and those who greenlit their publication. The investigation into problematic books began two years ago, he said, adding that books can be blacklisted even if they contain only one sentence that is now restricted in use, regardless of whether it was at the time of publishing. Several prominent Uyghur intellectuals have gone missing from the XUAR in recent months and are believed detained in re-education camps, and sources in the exile community have said the trend shows that Chinese authorities are committing cultural genocide by attempting to eliminate the best and brightest Uyghur minds. RFA has confirmed the arrests of Qurban Mahmut, the editor-in-chief of the Xinjiang Cultural Journal; Abdurahman Ebey, the head of the Xinjiang Peoples Publication House; and the deputy editor-in-chief and three Uyghur directors of the Xinjiang Daily newspaper. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. The European Union has announced 474 million euros ($535 million) in financial aid for Afghanistan as international donors gathered for a UN-backed conference focusing on development, peace, and security in the country. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appealed for investment as the two-day conference opened on November 27 with top diplomats from dozens of countries in attendance. The meeting aims to measure the progress of the Afghan government in using billions of dollars in foreign aid for education, health care, infrastructure, and fighting corruption since the last donors conference in 2016. The European Commission said the new funding would go toward reforms in the public sector, health, justice, and migration and displacement issues, with 311 million euros aimed for supporting Afghanistan's "reform agenda." International donors are expected to pledge billions of dollars in support to aid-dependent Afghanistan during the conference. Ghani promoted his government's reforms that are meant to improve the business environment, ease trade, improve infrastructure, and unlock natural resources. "It's a different Afghanistan," Ghani said. "We are open for business. I hope you are open for partnerships." Dozens of countries are attending the high-level talks on November 27-28, during which the Afghan delegation is expected to renew its commitment to reform and discuss aid contributions in its bid to achieve stability and security. "This is one of the worst moments for the people of Afghanistan, but on many fronts important progress has been made in the last 24 months," Toby Lanzer, the deputy chief of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told a press conference on November 27. The UN, which is co-hosting the summit with the Afghan government, said in a statement that the conference will be "crucial in measuring results against the $15.2 billion committed by the international community for Afghanistan" at the last funding meeting in Brussels in 2016. The Afghan delegation is expected to present its growth strategy, ranging from maintaining security and building infrastructure to fighting corruption and female empowerment. The conference comes at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is actively seeking to launch a formal peace process with the Taliban. The Afghan delegation is expected to call on the international community to "support an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process" amid efforts to end the 17-year conflict. With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and Al-Jazeera Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a staunch Kremlin critic who went from Russia's wealthiest man to its highest-profile inmate, remains upbeat about the country he fled upon his release from prison in 2013. His vision of a future democratic Russia would be anchored by a decentralized government, including improved criminal investigations, and also offers a few surprises. For one, he told Current Time TV in a wide-ranging interview, Russia is on a European path and has been for centuries. For another, he says, Russian citizens should be armed to defend themselves not from "criminals" but their "own government." "I think that if we want to be a free people then people should have weapons. And these weapons should allow them not to defend themselves from criminals; criminals should be dealt with by the politicians working in conjunction with law enforcement authorities. The people should have weapons to defend themselves from their own government," the 55-year-old tells the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. After running afoul of the Kremlin in the early 2000s, Khodorkovsky was imprisoned for more than a decade on financial-crimes charges his supporters said were trumped up. His oil company, Yukos, was dismantled, its largest assets sold off to state oil giant Rosneft. 'We Could Be Killed' Khodorkovsky, who today lives in London and runs his pro-democracy Open Russia foundation, said the assassination of prominent opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in 2015 served as a chilling reminder of the dangers faced by activists in President Vladimir Putin's Russia. "When they killed Boris Nemtsov, we all knew that beyond the people who were immediately detained there were those in higher levels, which became clear immediately. Nevertheless, Putin without much deliberation decided to limit the investigation to that lower echelon, and not those higher up," Khodorkovsky explains. After Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister, was gunned down not far from the Kremlin walls, a jury found five ethnic Chechen men guilty of the crime. But friends and family fear those who ordered the assassination may never be caught. Khodorkovsky says he and other activists -- including Aleksei Navalny, another high-profile Kremlin gadfly -- would stand little chance if Putin wanted them dead. "I know that in the current situation if Putin were to decide to have Aleksei Navalny or me, or anyone, killed, then it is doubtful we'd be able to defend ourselves. But for whatever reason that decision hasn't been made," Khodorkovsky says. Navalny, 42, has organized large street protests on several occasions since 2011 and has published a series of reports alleging corruption in Putin's inner circle. He has repeatedly been jailed for periods ranging from 10 days to a few weeks, usually for alleged infractions of laws governing public demonstrations. Navalny has spent nearly 200 days in jail since 2011, including 140 days since the start of his attempt to challenge Putin in the March 2018 presidential election, according to his spokeswoman. Russia On 'European Path' Despite the gloomy current climate in Russia, Khodorkovsky says the country's history gives reason for hope. "The experience of Russia shows that we are still developing along the European path, and we haven't deviated from this European path over 500 years. We lagged behind, we went off the track, but came back. And even if we talk about the current regime, which is extremely unpleasant for you and me, it is nevertheless not so horrible as the regime during Stalin or right after Stalin," Khodorkovsky explains. He "dreams" of a "constitutional republic" with more power diffused to the regions in a more decentralized system -- with not one megapolis, but 10 or 12 "minimally." "The idea that this will lead to the collapse of Russia, I completely reject. That's because the country's territorial profile would mean that if one part were to break away, its future would likely be bleak," Khodorkovsky predicts. But to get to that democratic promised land and "European integration," Khodorkovsky predicts Russia will likely go down an even more overt nationalistic path. "In this regard, Russia is a fairly monoethnic country; the [ethnic] Russian population is about 85 percent. That's enough for a mono-nationalistic Russian government to call itself [ethnically] Russia." Asked whether he's observed a rise in xenophobia across Russia, Khodorkovsky is dismissive. "I don't see any problem with ethnic exclusion, with xenophobia inside Russia. In opinion polls, people do say some absolutely terrible things, that, for example they don't want foreigners as members of their families; that they don't want foreigners at work with them, Khodorkovsky says. "But when we look at what is actually happening in real life, no real xenophobia exists inside Russia." Written by Tony Wesolowsky, based on an interview conducted by Current Time TV's Timur Olevsky BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz lawmakers have given preliminary approval to a bill that would eliminate immunity for ex-presidents, potentially opening the path for the prosecution of former leader Almazbek Atambaev. The parliamentary committee for legislation, state structures, and judicial issues approved the bill on November 27, meaning it is now likely to go to the full parliament for debate. The committee's backing comes amid persistent tension between Atambaev, who heads the ruling Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SPDK), and his successor, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a former ally. Hours before the decision was announced, opposition groups and parties told reporters in Bishkek they want to hold Atambaev responsible for what they called "usurping power and betrayal of the April 2010 revolution's ideals." That was a reference to the antigovernment protests that pushed President Kurmanbek Bakiev from power five years after this predecessor, Askar Akaev, was ousted in similar fashion. Representatives of opposition parties and organizations said that they came to the conclusion that Atambaev -- the Central Asian country's president from 2011 to 2017 -- must face trial when they held a Kurultai (Congress) last week. They said they will urge the Prosecutor-General's Office to launch an investigation focusing on Atambaev, who was elected after an interim period following Bakiev's ouster. Emil Kaptagaev, a former governor of the northern Issyk-Kul region, said that Jeenbekov "has inherited a corrupt system of governance." In October, Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court ruled that the immunity enjoyed by the country's former presidents is unconstitutional. Only two post-Soviet Kyrgyz leaders currently enjoy the official status of ex-presidents: Roza Otunbaeva, who was interim president in 2010-11; and Atambaev. Akaev and Bakiev were stripped of the status when they fled Kyrgyzstan following their ousters. Both have been sentenced in absentia to lengthy prison terms on charges including corruption and abuse of office. In recent months, some politicians and lawmakers have called for an investigation into some of Atambaev's decisions while in office. Several of his close allies have been arrested on suspicion of corruption this year. Atambaev helped steer Jeenbekov, who had been his prime minister, into the presidency in an October 2017 election. But the two have have exchanged public accusations of unprofessionalism in recent months. George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, began serving a two-week prison sentence on November 26 after a judge rejected his last-minute bid to remain free. Papadopoulos was the first campaign aide sentenced in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between Russia and Trump's campaign. His contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries during the campaign are believed to have triggered the Russia investigation. He was sentenced in September after admitting that he lied to the FBI about those contacts. He had sought a postponement of his prison term until an appeals court ruled in a separate case challenging the constitutionality of Mueller's appointment. But U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss said Papadopoulos waited too long to contest his sentence. The White House has said Papadopoulos, 31, was a low-level volunteer on the campaign. But he has been a central figure in the Russia investigation. According to an indictment handed up this summer, Russian intelligence officers had stolen Democratic e-mails that were damaging to Trump opponent Hillary Clinton by April 2016, the same month Papadopoulos was informed by a professor in Malta that Russia had "dirt" on Clinton in the form of "thousands of e-mails." After an allegedly drunken Papadopoulos related the conversation to an Australian diplomat who passed the information on through intelligence channels, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a probe into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. Papadopoulos later used his connections with the Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, and other Russian nationals in an attempt to broker a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Papadopoulos repeatedly reported his Russia contacts to the Trump campaign, raising suspicions of collusion at the FBI. Based on reporting by AP and AFP A vocal critic of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his government, fugitive former banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, has been convicted in absentia on a murder charge and sentenced to life in prison. The court in the southern city of Taraz pronounced the sentence on November 27 after finding Ablyazov guilty of organizing the 2004 murder of Erzhan Tatishev, the head of TuranAlem bank -- which was later renamed BTA. Ablyazov, a former BTA head who lives abroad, is wanted by Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine on suspicion of embezzling some $5 billion. In March, jailed businessman Muratkhan Toqmadi was convicted of killing Tatishev and sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison. Toqmadi pleaded guilty to murdering Tatishev on a hunting trip and said he killed the banker at the behest of Ablyazov. After Tatishev's death, which was ruled an accident at the time, Ablyazov became the bank's chief. He has been living abroad since 2009. In a separate in absentia trial that ended in 2017, Ablyazov was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of office, and organizing a criminal group and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Ablyazov denies all the charges, saying they are politically motivated, and has called the claim that he ordered Tatishev's killing a "lie." Several politicians and activists have fled Kazakhstan in recent years, fearing for their safety or anticipating politically motivated prosecution. Opponents and rights groups say that Nazarbaev, who has held power in the energy-producing Central Asian nation since before the 1991 Soviet breakup, has taken systematic steps to suppress dissent and sideline potential opponents. Based on reporting by Tengrinews and KazTAG A Russian man who says he was abducted and beaten by police in Chechnya because he is gay has vowed to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights after unsuccessful efforts to "find justice" in his home country. Maksim Lapunov spoke on November 26 after an appeals court upheld the decision of a lower court that backed investigators who refused to open a criminal case based on his allegations. Lapunov, the only person to publicly claim that he was a victim of an antigay crackdown in Chechnya in the spring of 2017 that triggered a global outcry, has not commented on the matter since he made his accusations. "This was my last chance to find justice in Russia," Lapunov said of the ruling by the Stavropol Regional Court, which upheld an earlier decision by the Yessentuki City Court. "Now I will be doing that with the ECHR," he said in a video posted on Facebook. "I do not know what further developments [will take place], but I will be fighting for justice." Lapunov's lawyer, Vladimir Smirnov, confirmed the ruling in comments to RFE/RL on November 27. In October 2017, Lapunov told a news conference in Moscow that he was apprehended by men in civilian clothes that March and was subjected to vicious beatings and psychological terror during nearly two weeks of detention. He said he saw and heard others being beaten and tortured in a cellar where detainees were held, publicly providing evidence of what rights groups said was a campaign of abuse against gay and bisexual men by authorities in the North Caucasus region. Lapunov filed a lawsuit against police in Chechnya, accusing them of torturing him in illegal custody. But investigators refused to launch a probe into his complaints and the Yessentuki City Court upheld that decision in August. Representatives of Russia's Committee Against Torture group also said it will appeal the Stavropol Regional Court's ruling with the ECHR. With reporting by Novaya Gazeta Hungary has denied a U.S. request to extradite two suspected Russian arms dealers and instead sent the two men to Russia, the State Department says. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on November 27 that the United States was "disappointed" in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite Vladimir Lyubishin Sr. and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr. to Russia. The United States had a strong case against the Lyubishins, Nauert said in a statement, adding that it was unclear whether the two Russian suspects will face trial in Russia. She also said that Budapest's decision "raises questions about Hungary's commitment to law enforcement cooperation." "This decision is not consistent with our law enforcement partnership, undercuts the work that our agencies had done together to build this case, and will make citizens in the United States, Hungary, and the world less safe," Nauert also said. Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs responded on Twitter that the decision was based on a court ruling and "relevant international agreements." He said over the last five years, Hungary had sought extraditions on nine occasions from the United States, but eight of those were rejected. Critics accuse Prime Minister Viktor Orban of dismantling democracy in Hungary and repressing the independent media. He's also been accused of being too accommodating to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lake Forest made the proposal to Lake Bluff after entering into an agreement earlier this year with the Rockland Fire Protection District where Lake Forest now provides fire and EMS protection to the southern half of the area. As part of that agreement, Libertyville provides similar services to the northern part of the RFPD. A Sunni cleric has been shot and killed in Iran"s northern Golestan Province, Iranian media report. Abdolghafour Jamalzai, the Friday Prayers leader of Reza Abad village, was reportedly shot in the back with a hunting rifle early on November 27. Iranian government news agency IRNA said Jamalzai, an ethnic Baluch, was shot four times as he returned home from Reza Abad mosque near the northern city of Ramiyan, around 120 kilometers northeast of the capital, Tehran. IRNA quoted an anonymous source as saying the killing could be linked to "personal hostilities and tribal strife." A senior police official said an investigation has been launched. Abdolreza Cheraghali, a local official in Golestan, said the motive for the killing was not clear. But he denied that the killing could have been a "terrorist" attack. Sunnis constitute about 10 percent of Iran's mostly Shi'ite population of 80 million. In July, gunmen assassinated a Sunni cleric in southeastern Iran. Based on reporting by IRNA, ILNA, Tasnim, and AFP Montenegro has summoned the Serbian ambassador to Podgorica after a suspect on trial over a failed 2016 coup attempt fled to Serbia's Embassy to avoid detention. Montenegros Foreign Ministry said it requested Serbia's official position on the matter on November 26, three days after Branka Milic walked out of the courtroom during a hearing, complaining that her rights had been violated. Podgoricas High Court ordered Milic detained, but the accused later surfaced at the Serbian Embassy. The Montenegrin Foreign Ministrys statement said Serbian Ambassador Zoran Bingulac confirmed Milic was at the embassy and that Serbia was "aware of the legal procedure and the necessary obligations." Milics defense lawyer, Jugoslav Krpovic, urged authorities to provide guarantees that the psychological violence against her client ends. She didnt escape from the trial. She escaped from abuse by the court, Krpovic said. Milic, who holds Serbian citizenship, was detained in October 2017. She is among 14 suspects on trial for plotting to overthrow Montenegros government in October 2016. Montenegrin authorities say Serbian and Russian nationalists plotted to occupy parliament during parliamentary elections, assassinate then-Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, and install a pro-Russian leadership to prevent the small Balkan nations bid to join NATO. The authorities accuse two Russian GRU military intelligence officers of organizing the failed coup plot. The investigative group Bellingcat and Russian website The Insider said they had identified the two GRU officers allegedly involved. Moscow denies involvement, however. Montenegro in June 2017 became the 29th member of NATO, a step that was bitterly criticized by Russia and opposed by some Montenegrins who advocate closer ties with Moscow. With reporting by AP Russia says it will not accept an international arbitration ruling obliging Moscow to pay Ukraine's biggest state-run bank $1.3 billion in compensation for loss of business and assets in Crimea following Moscow's annexation of the peninsula in 2014. The Russian Justice Ministry said in a statement that the arbitration court's November 26 decision was invalid because "the arbitration panel does not have jurisdiction to consider the lawsuit of Ukraine's Oshchadbank against the Russian Federation." "The Justice Ministry of Russia will take all necessary measures to ensure the representation and protection of the Russian Federation's interests over this arbitration ruling," the ministry said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on November 27 declined to comment on the matter, saying he did not have any information about it. Oshchadbank said on November 26 that the court ruled in the bank's favor, and the bank will now take "all possible measures" to get the money back from Russia. Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represented Oshchadbank in the case, said the decision to award the sum had been made unanimously by three members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The announcements came amid new tensions between Moscow and Kyiv over Ukrainian Navy ships seized by Russia near annexed Crimea. Russia and Ukraine have been embroiled in a military conflict for several years. Entities from both countries are caught up in a series of lengthy court cases in several countries. Oshchadbank official Andriy Pyshnyy encouraged other Ukrainian companies to seek international arbitration "to restore justice" over property seized in Crimea. Based on reporting by RBK, Interfax, Reuters, and AP Russia's communications watchdog is accusing tech giant Google of failing to comply with a law requiring it to delete search results for organizations that are banned in Russia. Roskomnadzor said on November 26 that it could hit Google with its maximum fine of 700,000 rubles ($10,450) if it is found guilty of the allegations. The move against Google came as Reuters, citing anonymous industry sources, reported that Russia is planning to impose much stiffer fines on global technology firms that fail to comply with Russian laws, raising the stakes in the Kremlin's ongoing struggle with technology giants like Google and Facebook. In the latest case, Roskomnadzor charged that Google had not joined a state registry that lists banned websites that Moscow believes contain illegal information, putting it in violation of the law. A final decision in the case will be made in December, the watchdog said. Google declined to comment. Over the past five years, Russia has introduced tougher Internet laws that require search engines like Google to delete some search results, as well as requiring messaging services to share encryption keys with security services, and social networks to store Russian users' personal data on servers within the country. At the moment, the only tools Russia has to enforce such rules are fines that typically amount to only a few thousand dollars -- a small penalty to Silicon Valley's multibillion-dollar tech firms. Russian authorities can also block the online services, though doing so has proved to be technically difficult. Russian regulators would retain their authority to block social-media firms under a draft of the new regulations seen by Reuters. Three industry sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on November 26 that Russia in the future plans to impose stiffer fines on technology firms that fail to comply with its laws. Under the draft legislation seen by Reuters, if it is approved, tech giants that breach Russian rules could face fines equal to 1 percent of their annual revenue in Russia. That could lead to substantial fines. Google's Russian subsidiary, for example, had revenue of 45.2 billion rubles ($687 million) in 2017, according to the SPARK database. The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment. Roskomnadzor has repeatedly accused Facebook and Google of failing to comply with Russian laws. It blocked access to LinkedIn in 2016 and tried to do the same to the Telegram encrypted messenger service in April. The botched attempt to block Telegram inadvertently stopped Russian users from having access to voice calls on the Viber messaging service and cloud-based applications for Volvo cars, among other services. Telegram is still accessible in Russia today. With reporting by Reuters and Interfax Vyacheslav Maltsev, an outspoken Kremlin critic and leader of an outlawed Russian nationalist opposition movement, says he received political asylum in France. In a video posted on YouTube on November 26, Maltsev said that the "political leadership of France has granted me political asylum." Russian authorities charged Maltsev in absentia with publicly calling for extremist activities after he fled Russia in July 2017. Hundreds of supporters of Maltsev and members of his Artpodgotovka (Artillery Bombardment) movement were detained on November 5, 2017, at rallies in Moscow and other Russian cities ahead of the centennial of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Maltsev had declared the day the start of "new revolution" to topple President Vladimir Putin's government. Artpodgotovka was banned in October 2017 by an order from a regional court in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. In his November 26 statement, Maltsev said he planned to fight the ban by filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. He said that France had provided him with "legal, physical, and other types of protection." Georgia's billionaire former prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, isn't one of the two candidates in a presidential runoff vote this week. But you wouldn't know that from the wave of billboards that have flooded the country. His Georgian Dream party has backed Salome Zurabishvili, a 66-year-old former foreign minister who is running as an independent. But with her support foundering and opposition candidate Grigol Vashadze, 60, making a strong showing in opinion polls, Ivanishvili's face has replaced Zurabishvili's in ads ahead of the November 28 vote. The move has led some to question the French-born Zurabishvili's independence, with analysts speculating that even though presidential powers have been watered down, Ivanishvili is likely trying to keep his party's dominance over the country's levers of power. While the president ensures adherence to the constitution by state bodies, the position's crucial function lies in foreign policy, as the main negotiator of international treaties and accords. The president also appoints ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives. Both candidates espouse a pro-European foreign policy looking to deepen ties with Western structures such as NATO and the European Union. But Vashadze has accused Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream's government of meddling in the judiciary and fostering corruption while failing to address poverty in the Caucasus state. Testing Georgian Dream By backing Zurabishvili, Georgian Dream has made the vote a test of its support. A poll conducted by U.S.-based Edison Research for private television station Rustavi-2 from November 12-18 showed Vashadze with a four-point lead over Zurabishvili in the second round. That compares with first-round results that put Zurabishvili in first place with 39 percent against 38 percent for Vashadze. "From the new billboards, it is obvious that Salome Zurabishvili's political portrayal hasn't worked," sociologist Iago Kachkachishvili tells RFE/RL. "New billboards can't change those who don't like Salome Zurabishvili's candidacy specifically. But it may also have another effect: It may anger some who see it as an attempt by the government to overthrow the presidential institution." Georgian Dream has explained the move by saying it has never hidden its support for Zurabishvili, who has complimented the strategy, and that there is nothing wrong with the head of the party or other leading officials being in its advertisements. It also points out that Zurabishvili still appears in some posters and billboards. Negative Campaigning This election has been an especially bruising one, even by Georgia's standards, with the release of secretly recorded audio recordings feeding allegations of corruption and murder plots overshadowing the country's economic and social woes. So while the move to change the focus of the campaign may anger some, it appears to have lightened the mood for others. Memes replacing Ivanishvili with pictures of his pet zebras, the ancient trees he has purchased and moved to his own private arboretum, and even Vincent Vega, John Travolta's character in the movie Pulp Fiction, have raced through the Internet during the two-week runoff campaign. In one post, a picture of a Georgian identity card has been doctored to show all of the written details for Zurabishvili next to a picture of Ivanishvili. Several others have altered Ivanishvili's picture to include earrings, a satirical nod to Zurabishvili's candidacy being taken over by men. A recent news talk show on Rustavi-2 went so far as to show an empty suit that resembled one Zurabishvili had worn, and then have an Ivanishvili impersonator dress up in the outfit. "Zurabishvili basically exhausted her base in the first round of elections, and it appears she is not able to attract more voters," political analyst and constitutionalist Vakhtang Dzabiradze says. "Georgian Dream instead is now trying to unite people against the United National Movement by replacing the billboards." The United National Movement, founded by former two-term President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been named by the subsequent administration in charges that he calls politically motivated, has backed Vashadze. One person who is not laughing at the move is Baia Pataraia, a lawyer who runs the Georgian women's rights organization Union Sapari. She sees the replacement of Zurabishvili in the campaign ads as "insulting to all women," including the candidate, and an affirmation of the attitude in Georgia that women cannot succeed in the country without the help of males. Another prong in the campaign has been to characterize leading opposition figures as evil and urging voters to say "No to the Nazis!" "Georgian Dream is crossing the line from negative campaigning to outright incitement," Christina Pushaw, a Washington-based political consultant and adviser to the opposition, tells RFE/RL. ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The high-profile trial of three Kazakh men charged with propagating terrorism was adjourned after two of the defendants cut themselves with sharp metal objects in the courtroom in the city of Almaty. Gulnara Zhuaspaeva, a lawyer for one of the defendants, told RFE/RL that Almat Zhumaghulov and Oralbek Omirov inflicted deep cuts to their arms after the judge rejected the defendants' motion to summon additional witnesses and experts to the stand. The two defendants received medical treatment before the trial was adjourned until an unspecified date, Zhuaspaeva said. Zhumaghulov, 44, Omirov, 48, and Kenzhebek Abishev, 52, were arrested in November 2017 and charged with propagating religious extremism and terrorism. Zhumaghulov was also charged with inciting ethnic hatred. All three are residents of Almaty, Kazakhstans largest city. Investigators say the three men planned an armed holy war, or jihad, by propagating the ideas of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov. Ablyazov, a fugitive tycoon, has been a vocal critic of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his government. All three defendants pleaded not guilty when the trial started on October 1 and called the case against them politically motivated. Only one of them, Zhumaghulov, said he shared the ideas of Ablyazov's DVK, which was branded an extremist organization and banned in Kazakhstan in March. The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights considers Zhumaghulov, Omirov, and Abishev political prisoners. The U.S. Army says three of its soldiers have been killed in a roadside bombing near the central Afghan city of Ghazni. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which brings the number of U.S. soldiers to have died in the country this year to 12. Three other U.S. soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on November 27, the military said. One U.S. contractor was also wounded in the blast. There were no further details on the identities of the soldiers or the location of the explosive device. Taliban militants have an active presence in several parts of Ghazni Province. The provincial capital, also named Ghazni, was overrun by the militants earlier this year before being driven off by Afghan and U.S. forces following days of heavy fighting. The casualties came after another U.S. soldier was killed in the southwestern province of Nimroz on November 24. A NATO statement on November 27 said an initial review showed that the soldier in Nimroz was "likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force," adding that the "tragic" incident occurred as they engaged in a battle with Al-Qaeda militants. The soldier's death follows a spate of so-called "insider attacks" that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting Afghan security forces. Some 14,000 U.S. soldiers are currently serving in Afghanistan, where the United States and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in 2014. Most of the remaining Western forces mainly train and advise the Afghan security forces, which have been struggling against attacks from a resurgent Taliban and other militant extremist groups. There are also several thousand U.S. Special Forces conducting counterterrorism missions. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said earlier in November that 58 Americans had been killed in the country since the start of 2015, when Afghan troops took over primary responsibility for security. During the same period, nearly 29,000 Afghan police and soldiers had been killed, Ghani said. Washington is trying to reach a peace settlement with the Taliban to end the 17-year war. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is spearheading efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban before Afghanistan's presidential election, scheduled for April next year. With reporting by AP and AFP The ethnic Serb mayor of North Mitrovica says he is resigning in protest over Kosovo's tariffs on imports from Serbia and alleged human rights violations against Serbs living in the country. Mayor Goran Rakic made the announcement on November 27, and the president of the local assembly in North Mitrovica, Dejan Guresic, said the mayors of the three other predominantly ethnic Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo -- Leposavic, Zubin Potok, and Zvecan -- followed suit. The moves come amid heightened tensions in the region since Kosovo earlier this month imposed a 100 percent tax on products from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in retaliation for what it said were Belgrade's efforts to undermine the young republic in the international stage. Demonstrators rallied in North Mitrovica against the tariff hike, holding placards with slogans such as "We want peace, not wars" and "Do not lock us in a ghetto." In announcing his decision to step down, Rakic said that Pristina's "inhumane" decision prevented "the normal supply and distribution of goods from Serbia to Kosovo." He also cited "continued institutional violence" against ethnic Serbs, "unlawful" arrests, and "an attempt to kill" Serbian political leader and businessman Milan Radoicic. A statement posted on the main Kosovo Serb political party Serbian List's official Facebook page on November 25 and attributed to Radoicic alleged that Kosovar police raided his home last week in order to kill him. Kosovar authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of Radoicic, who has been on the run since the police raid on November 23. He is wanted as a suspect in the January killing of rival politician Oliver Ivanovic. Three other ethnic Serbs, including two police officers, were detained in the same operation in Mitrovica on suspicion of involvement in Ivanovic's killing. The arrests sparked protests by groups of ethnic Serbs in the divided town. Relations between Pristina and Belgrade have been tense since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Although more than 110 countries recognize Kosovo, Serbia -- and Bosnia -- do not. Both Kosovo and Serbia have been told they must resolve their differences in order to make progress toward EU membership. However, EU-sponsored normalization talks between the two countries' leaders have been stop-and-go in recent months. Kosovo's November 21 decision to impose the 100 percent taxes on Serbian and Bosnian products drew angry reactions from Belgrade and Sarajevo and calls from the European Union and the United States to revoke the measures. Meeting with Kosovar President Hashim Thaci in Washington on November 26, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the country to rescind the tariffs and to work with Belgrade to "avoid provocations and deescalate tensions," according to the State Department. Pompeo also "reaffirmed steadfast U.S. support for a sovereign, independent Kosovo, fully integrated into the international community" and encouraged Pristina to "reach a historic, comprehensive normalization deal" with Belgrade, department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. "Normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia is the only way to clear the path to both countries' future integration into the Western community of nations," the statement said. Meanwhile, Thaci called his meeting with Pompeo "excellent." "Kosovo blessed to have US support in all stages of our fight for freedom & independence. We are now working together to achieve comprehensive agreement [between] Kosovo & Serbia to ensure peace & guarantee #Kosovo membership to UN, NATO & EU," he tweeted. Also on November 26, Albania, another key ally of predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo, lent support to the tariffs imposed on Serbian goods, with Prime Minister Edi Rama saying the move was a justified "political reaction." He was speaking in the western Kosovo town of Pec, where the Kosovar and Albanian governments met to sign a deal to eliminate trade barriers on the two countries' border by mid-2019. The Ukrainian parliament has voted to impose martial law for 30 days after Russian forces fired on Ukrainian ships and seized 23 sailors in the Black Sea. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has accused President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, of lying and violating his deal with prosecutors to cooperate with their investigation into ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 election campaign. The apparent breakdown of Manafort's plea deal, disclosed in a court filing late on November 26, puts him in jeopardy of facing a lengthier jail sentence and more criminal charges from Mueller, while apparently eliminating any possibility that he might appear as a top-level witness for the prosecution. Manafort was the most senior former Trump aide to plead guilty to charges in exchange for cooperation and a more lenient prison sentence. He was present at several key events Mueller is probing as part of his wide-ranging Russia investigation. In the plea agreement announced in September, Manafort agreed to provide Mueller with information about those events. Investigators were known to be focusing on a Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 between Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and several Russians, including a Russian lawyer Trump Jr. was told had damaging information on his father's Democrat opponent, Hillary Clinton. In the new court filing, Mueller's team said that after Manafort agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation, he "committed federal crimes" by lying about "a variety of subject matters." Prosecutors said they will detail the "nature of the defendant's crimes and lies" in writing at a later date to the judge. Through his attorneys, Manafort denied lying, saying he "believes he provided truthful information" during a series of sessions with Mueller's investigators. He also disagreed that he breached his plea agreement. Still, both sides said they now agree they can't resolve their conflict, and both sides asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to set a date for Manafort's sentencing. The breakdown in Manafort's agreement with prosecutors raises the possibility that he is seeking to curry favor with Trump in a bid to get a presidential pardon by protecting others who worked on Trump's campaign from prosecution, a former U.S. prosecutor told Reuters. "It seems to me hes angling for the pardon," said David Weinstein. Trump has hinted that he might pardon aides who remain loyal to the White House. Manafort has been in jail since pleading guilty in September to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He made the plea deal to head off a second trial after being convicted last summer on eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from U.S. tax authorities in offshore bank accounts. Both cases stemmed from Manafort's political work for the former pro-Russia president of Ukraine, and undisclosed lobbying work he admitted to carrying out on behalf of Ukraine in violation of U.S. law. As part of his plea agreement, Manafort not only pledged to fully cooperate with prosecutors, but he also forfeited many of his rights, including to withdraw from the deal if he broke its terms. In return, prosecutors agreed to ask the judge for a reduction of his sentence if he provided "substantial assistance" to the Russia investigation. But with prosecutors now saying he breached the agreement, Manafort faces serious consequences such as the possibility of facing additional criminal charges, including those prosecutors dropped when he signed the plea deal. Manafort already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his plea agreement. In addition, prosecutors have said he could face as much as 10 years in prison for his conviction on tax evasion-related charges this summer. Before he worked on Trump's campaign for several months in mid-2016, at a critical juncture in the run-up to the November election, Manafort made tens of millions of dollars working for the party of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted by pro-Western street protests in 2014. Mueller's investigation has produced two cases charging Russians with alleged interference in the election, including one in which Russian intelligence agents were charged with hacking Democratic party e-mails that were embarrassing to Clinton and leaking them to WikiLeaks during the campaign. Clinton has blamed the leaks in part for her defeat by Trump in the election. Another Mueller case charged that Russians working for and associated with a St. Petersburg troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, ran a social-media disinformation campaign during the election that was aimed at stoking divisions between U.S. voters on controversial issues such as immigration, race, and gun control. Russia has denied the allegations, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow will not extradite any of those charged to the United States to face trial. With reporting by AP and Reuters SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- A Russian court has ordered 12 of the 24 Ukrainian sailors who were captured by Russian coast-guard forces during a confrontation at sea off Crimea to be held in custody for two months, while the UN chief called for restraint from both Moscow and Kyiv and Estonia's president accused Russia of waging "war in Europe." The November 27 rulings by the court in Simferopol, the capital of Russian-controlled Crimea, signaled the Kremlin's defiance of calls by Kyiv and the West to release two dozen crew members who were seized along with three Ukrainian Navy vessels following hours of hostility at sea two days earlier. Raising the stakes after tension spiked when Russian coast guard craft rammed and fired on the Ukrainian boats on November 25, the court held custody hearings for 12 of the crew members and ordered them all to be held in custody for two months. The other 12 sailors are expected to appear before the court on November 28. Aider Azamatov, the lawyer for one of the defendants, said the sailors were charged with illegal border crossing by a group of individuals acting in collusion, or by an organized group, or with the use of or the threat to use violence. He said the sailors faced up to six years in prison if convicted. International Concern UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "greatly concerned" about the incident at sea and called on "both parties to exercise maximum restraint and to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions," his spokesman said in a statement. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking after talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, called on "all sides to show restraint." Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said Russia's actions constituted "war in Europe," adding that this "will not, shall not and cannot ever again be accepted as business as usual" and urging the international community "to condemn the Russian aggression clearly, collectively and immediately and demand a stop to the aggression." Lavrov, responding to a suggestion from German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas that Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine could work together to resolve the conflict, said: "I don't see a need for any kind of mediators." Repeating Russia's stated position, he said Western countries should send a "strong signal" to Kyiv to avoid any future "provocations." The 12 Ukrainians have been ordered held in pretrial detention -- which usually means custody behind bars in a jail -- until January 25. Under Russian law, detention terms can be extended by courts at the request of prosecutors, and it was not immediately clear when the sailors might face trial. The court hearings came hours after Western leaders, speaking on November 26, condemned what they called Russia's "outrageous" violation of Ukraine's sovereignty as well as international maritime treaties, and called on Moscow to immediately release the detainees. Conflicting reports have put the number of Ukrainians detained at 23 and 24. The court rulings put them in a situation similar to that of several Ukrainians, including film director Oleh Sentsov, who are being held in Russian prisons and jails for what Kyiv and Western governments say are political reasons. In the running confrontation off Crimea on November 25, a Russian coast-guard vessel rammed the Ukrainian tugboat in an initial encounter, and a few hours later the Russian vessels opened fire before special forces stormed the three Ukrainian boats. Six Ukrainians were injured. The hostilities injected yet more animus into the badly damaged relationship between Kyiv and Moscow, which seized Crimea in March 2014 and backs armed separatists in a simmering war that has killed more than 10,300 people in eastern Ukraine since that April. Those Russian actions, a response to the downfall of a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president who was pushed from power by the pro-European protest movement known as the Euromaidan, have also severely damaged its ties with the West. The confrontation came days before Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump ion the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30-December 1. It followed months of growing tension over the waters in and around the Kerch Strait -- the narrow body of water, now spanned by a bridge from Russia to Crimea, that is the only route for ships traveling between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, where Ukraine has several ports, including Mariupol. On November 26, Ukraine declared martial law in 10 of its 27 regions -- including all of those that border Russia or have coastlines -- following what it called a Russian "act of aggression." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned "this aggressive Russian action," and called on Moscow to return the vessels and crews, and abide by Ukraine's "internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters." Pompeo said both sides should "exercise restraint and abide by their international obligations and commitments" and said Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, should "engage directly to resolve this situation." Speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on November 26, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the incident an "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory" and a "reckless Russian escalation" of its conflict with Ukraine. Britain's Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen said Russia "wants to consolidate its illegal annexation of Crimea and annex the Sea of Azov." The international community will not accept this, he said, insisting that Russia "must not be allowed to rewrite history by establishing new realities on the ground." Martial law will come into force on November 28 in 10 Ukrainian regions that Poroshenko said are the most vulnerable to "aggression from Russia," and will be in place for 30 days. The measure includes a partial mobilization of forces, a strengthening of Ukraine's air defenses, and other unspecified steps "to strengthen the counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and countersabotage regime." Putin expressed "serious concern" over the Ukrainian decision in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Kremlin said on November 27. The Russian leader also said he hoped "Berlin could influence the Ukrainian authorities to dissuade them from further reckless acts," a statement said. "The imposition of martial law in various regions potentially could lead to the threat of an escalation of tension in the conflict region, in the southeast" of Ukraine, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later told reporters. Hours before the court hearings, Russian state-run TV channel Rossia-24 showed images of several of the detained Ukrainians that were apparently recorded during interrogations by Russia's security services. One of them parroted the version of events put forward by Russian authorities, saying, "The actions of the Ukrainian armed vessels in the Kerch Strait had a provocative character." One of the detained appeared to be reading his statement. Russian law enforcement agencies frequently provide state media with footage of suspects being questioned under duress. In Kyiv, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) confirmed that a number of its officers were among those captured. One of them was seriously wounded after a Russian aircraft fired two missiles at the Ukrainian boats, SBU head Vasyl Hrytsak said in a statement. Calling Russia's capture of Ukrainian crews "unacceptable," the European Union's foreign-policy chief, Federica Mogherini, urged Russia to "immediately release" those detained and provide them with medical aid. She also called on both sides to use "utmost restraint" to prevent the only live war in Europe from escalating. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia has to understand that its actions have consequences. We will remain in contact with the Ukrainian government to underline our support." Unlike other U.S. officials, who vocally backed Ukraine and criticized Russia, President Trump did not name either country in a brief response to a reporter's question about the confrontation. "Either way, we don't like what's happening. And hopefully they'll get straightened out. I know Europe is not -- they are not thrilled. They are working on it, too. We are all working on it together," Trump said. Russia's acting UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, accused the Ukrainian Navy of "staging an aggressive provocation," which he claimed was aimed at drumming up public support for Poroshenko ahead of Ukraine's presidential election in March. "They have no hope to remain in power otherwise," he said, while condemning Western leaders for condoning what he called their "puppets" in Kyiv. "I want to warn you that the policy run by Kyiv in coordination with the EU and the U.S. of provoking conflict with Russia is fraught with most serious consequences," Polyansky said. At the outset of the UN Security Council meeting on the incident, Russia suffered a setback after it sought to discuss the clash under an agenda item that described the incident as a violation of Russia's borders. This was rejected in a procedural vote, with only China, Bolivia, and Kazakhstan siding with Russia. The Security Council then discussed the clash under terms laid out by Ukraine. The naval confrontation took place as the Ukrainian vessels were approaching the Kerch Strait, the only access to the Sea of Azov. A 2003 treaty between Russia and Ukraine designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters. But Moscow has been asserting greater control since its takeover of Crimea -- particularly since May, when it opened a bridge linking the peninsula to Russian territory on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait. "I have to emphasize that, according to the international law, Crimea and respective territorial waters are the Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation," Ukraine's UN Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko told the Security Council. "Hence, there are no Russian borders in the area where the incident happened. I repeat -- there are no Russian state borders around the Crimean Peninsula," he said. With reporting by Current Time TV, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP, TASS, and UNIAN Because McElroy was the last to file, his name will appear last on the ballot. A lottery will determine ballot place for the nine council candidates who filed Nov. 19, the two council candidates who filed Monday and the mayoral candidates. Home invader arrested on Isla Mujeres after reports, police say citizens will not file complaint Isla Mujeres, Q.R. A man who has been arrested by police for alleged home thefts may be released since citizens have not come forward to file an official complaint. Members of the preventive police of Isla Mujeres have arrested a man after receiving an emergency call that someone aboard a motorcycle was entering homes and committing robberies. However, since his arrest, no individual citizens have come forward to file an official complaint. Jaime Ongay Ortiz, general coordinator of Public Safety explained that despite the complaints made on social networks, so far no one has wanted to make an official complaint. He explained that the arrest happened Sunday when an emergency call was received about a subject on board a rented motorcycle entering several homes to steal. As a result of this denunciation, an operative was mounted and the suspect was arrested, unfortunately the person who made the call does not want to file an official complaint which he says, is a basic principle so that the person can be subject to a criminal process, he explained. The police chief made the invitation for people to understand the necessity to file complains which would result in more criminals behind bars. He said that it is not enough to only complain about things and report them on social media because a corresponding complaint must be filed and thus prevent these people from committing crimes again. The police chief says the man arrested is 47 of Belizean origin who has been suspected of committing similar crimes in other municipalities. He was taken into custody for 36 hours and will likely be released unless someone comes forward to file a complaint. GULU-Gender Base violence has been accredited as the most contributing factors thats enabling successful early pregnancy among young girls in northern Uganda This is in accordance to the research presentation done buy some of the Gulu University students during the 5th Gulu university annual research conference recently According to the report, over 63 per cent of teenagers dropped out from school due to the high level of gender bases violence in their families arising from several community household Factors Stories Continues after ad Stella Achiro the senior Community Development Officer Amuru District Local Government says they experience a lot of cases of teenage pregnancy within the district and resulting from gender base violence in the community which are mostly domestic violence, land related, cases drug abuse, physical violence, denial responsibility among others and all these forms tends to create inconvenient environment for young girls to live in comfortably fostering them to rush for early marriages leading to teenage pregnancies. Shs further said as the district they are emphasizing on community sensitization and uses of law as an intervention to curb down the raising cases. Amuru District community Development Office receives from 30 to 35 reported cases of teenage pregnancy after every six months yearly The chairman Omoro District Local Government Peter Okello Douglas Okao revealed during an engagement with him that the current teenage pregnancy rates in the recently newly created Omoro district is standing at 28 per cent per annum which is higher than the national Average of 25 per cent he said the percentage is very scaring since it has higher rates than any other districts in northern Uganda which is standing at 27 per cent He added that that in the year 2015/17 the survey report that was conducted focusing on retention and school dropout rates in northern Uganda , Omoro district reported the highest number of teenage pregnancies which is blamed on gender base violence , war , poverty , cultural norms and beliefs The major factors that lead to 28 per cent teenage pregnancy is the two decades of war in northern Uganda, which led to child-headed families in our community, who are not able to provide for themselves and run away from family discomforts is early marriage gearing them to teenage pregnancies . Today the teenage pregnancy which occurred on young girls adolescence ages 12 to 19 years old is putting most of them at risk of pregnancy complications like unsafe abortion, childbirth and death. The factors that contribute to our success would be common school-wide goals, he added. The teachers are leaders in their classroom, and they strive to succeed as a group. Principal Julie Borner does an amazing job building student and staff morale and providing our staff with the tools they need to be successful. Mrs. Borner listens to her staff and works with them to focus on target growth areas. Victim Jill Hibberd A CRACK cocaine addict stabbed a massage parlour boss savagely and repeatedly to death before stealing her car and selling it to buy drugs, a court has heard Lee Fueloep (40), of Willow Garth, Wombwell, went on trial at Sheffield Crown Court today (Tuesday) accused of killing 73-year-old Jill Hibberd at her home on Roy Kilner Road, Wombwell. Ms Hibberd, who was the owner of Attercliffe massage parlour Fantasia, was found dead at her home on the morning of Thursday, May 31, with 70 stab wounds, prosecutor Ms Kama Melly QC told the court. Fueloep claims he went to Ms Hibberd's home to try and get money from her but found her dead body. The defendant claims he was too scared to report it to police because he was a known burglar. Ms Hibberd was an independent woman who was in good physical health and lived on her own. The day before she was found dead she was seen returning home in her Audi TT, Ms Melly said. However, the following morning, Ms Hibberd's neighbours called round and found obvious signs of a disturbance at her home, said Ms Melly. "They found the Audi had been taken and found Ms Hibberd dead on the floor of her living room. "She had been repeatedly stabbed all over her body and it was clear to her neighbours that she was dead when they found her on the floor of her living room. A pathologist found Ms Hibberd had suffered 70 stab wounds to her body, face, neck, arms and legs which penetrated her heart and other internal organs. "The evidence in this case will show you that in the period prior to Jill Hibberd's death, Lee Fueloep went by foot to Jill Hibberd's home, Ms Melly said. "They had a violent confrontation, the defendant lost control and stabbed Ms Hibberd savagely and repeatedly and then moved the body, dragging it by her ankles, so the body could not be seen easily by passers-by. "Mr Fueloep rifled through the handbag of Ms Hibberd and left the home using the Audi TT which he later that evening disposed of by passing it on to Andrew Ashby." Ashby (22), of Woolgreaves Avenue, Wakefield, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday (Monday) and will be sentenced at the conclusion of the trial. The prosecutor said after Fueloep murdered Ms Hibberd he then returned to his home to change and dispose of the clothing he was wearing. He then enjoyed the proceeds of his evenings work by using funds from the sale of the Audi to take crack cocaine and heroin with other users, she said. Ms Melly said the following day, amid police activity in Wombwell following the discovery of Ms Hibberds body, Fueloep told a neighbour: I hope they dont think its me, with my record. Fueloep told the police during an interview that he was "desperate for money" and went to Ms Hibberd's house at around 11pm on the night of her murder to try and get some money from her, Ms Melly added. "He said he found the door open and he went into her house where he immediately saw her body. "He touched the body half-heartedly for a pulse around the thigh and neck. "He said he ran from the house and did not dare report it because he was known to the police as a burglar." Fueloep denies murder. His trial is due to last four weeks. De Beers rough diamond sales slide De Beers earned $430 million from its ninth sales cycle of 2021 compared to $492 million during the eighth sales cycle or $62 million, a year earlier. Chow Tai Fooks H1 profit up 60.4% to $460 mn In the first half of its fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, Chow Tai Fooks (CTF) profit rose by 60.4 per cent to around $460 mn while revenues were up 79.1 per cent to around $5.67 bn. BlueRock Diamonds restarts mining at Kareevlei AIM-listed diamond producer BlueRock Diamonds has resumed operations at its Kareevlei diamond mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa after a safety breach notice. The diamond company had temporarily suspended operations after South Africa's... Mountain Province Diamonds adds strategic claims to the Kennady North Project Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. provided an update for its 100%-held Kennady North Project. Following staking in early 2020 that increased the Kennady North Project area by 35 percent, three additional claims have now been staked and filed with the... The Kiwanis Club of Sidney bought a christmas tree made by the Sons of Norway at the annual Parade of Trees auction on Nov. 23. The club will donate the tree to Sidney High School. Representing Kiwanis are Jamie Larson (left) and Tami Christensen. Public encouraged to weigh-in through online survey and public meeting Sidney, Mont.- Roadway users will have an opportunity to weigh-in on potential improvements to Highway 201 (MT-201) west of Fairview through an online survey launched by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) this week or a public meeting on Nov. 29 at the Fairview Senior Center. The efforts are being undertaken by MDT to garner feedback on a proposed reconstruction project aimed at improving safety along MT-201 and alleviating the impact of commercial truck traffic on the town of Fairview. The project, known as Fairview West, would reconstruct 6 miles of highway west of Fairview, including 2 miles of brand new alignment between the airport and North Dakota border. To accommodate the new alignment, a separate intersection would be constructed at the junction of MT-201/ MT-200 north of the existing intersection near Interstate Avenue. Survey respondents are asked to rank their priorities for the new intersection among choices like safety, value, and construction impacts. The next question allows respondents to rate different scenarios on a five-star scale and provide feedback on each one. At the end, users are asked questions about how frequently they travel in the area and what type of vehicle they drive. MDT wants to understand how local residents use the roadways, so we can deliver a safe and efficient intersection that makes sense for the community, said Wade Salyards, adding that feedback from the survey and public meeting will help MDT select one of 3 possible configurations for the new intersection. Salyards said the project team is also interested in learning if there are additional configurations outside of the identified alternatives that could meet the projects objectives. According to MDT, MT-201 was first identified for improvement in response to a large influx in traffic volumes, especially commercial truck traffic related to Bakken oil development, and the desire to improve safety by bringing the roadway up to current standards. Over a 10-year period the segment proposed for reconstruction experienced 91 reported crashes, including 1 fatality and 5 incapacitating injuries. Off road right, rollover, and embankment crashes were among the main trends, indicating a high potential for crash reduction through reconstruction. The project is in the preliminary design phase and is expected to be ready for construction by 2022. Members of the public are encouraged to take the Fairview West Improvements Survey by visiting fairview.metroquest.com. For those who would prefer to provide feedback in-person, a public meeting is scheduled for Thurs. Nov. 29 from 5:00-7:00 pm at the Fairview Senior Center (217 5th St. W). For more information, visit: https://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/fairviewwest/ or call Chris Puyear at 406-431-2499. The Pioneer Museum of McKenzie County, located in the Long X Visitor Center, 100 2nd Ave SW, Watford City, ND will host the author of Pacing Dakota, Professor Thomas D. Isern, for a booktalk and autograph session on Thursday, December 6, 2018. The author will be in the house from 3 to 7 p.m. to meet readers and sign books for purchasers. At 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Prof. Isern will present a booktalk and reading, which also will include original song based on stories in the book. The book will be available at the museum gift shop as well as Pride of Dakota refreshments. Isern is Professor of History and University Distinguished Professor at North Dakota State University, where he has served since 1992. Pacing Dakota is his seventh book. The publisher of the work is North Dakota State University Press (ndsupress.org). Pacing Dakota was published in July by NDSU Press and has received enthusiastic response from readers and reviewers alike. Dr. Isern is no stranger to the prairie, observes the High Plains Reader; he searches out real things in real places and makes it his habit to follow the road less travelled. Betsy Jameson, former president of the Western History Association, says, Pacing Dakota is the work of a consummate regional historian and firmly-rooted plainsman. The work is sensate, literate, socially rooted, and thoughtfully situated. It is a book to savor. People across the northern plains know Isern for his voice in the radio feature, Plains Folk, heard weekly on Prairie Public. Pacing Dakota came together as a collection of sketches, drawing on radio scripts written to read on radio. Somewhere in the process, as the author wrote transitions and added reflections, looking back on forty years as a working historian and regional author, the work crossed the line into the domain of memoir. The narrative transitions from the close confines of historical archives into the prairie landscapes of the northern plains. It speaks with the mingled voices of scholarly historian, outdoor sportsman, culinary enthusiast, lifelong Lutheran, and prairie farmboy. This book might have been called My Life on the Plains, Isern jokes, but that title was taken! I am a storyteller. The stories in Pacing Dakota come from all over the state. But Im sixty-six years old, I have lived all my life on the plains, and so I am part of the story, too. Pacing Dakota is available locally from the Pioneer Museum of McKenzie County. The book also can be purchased from independent bookstores across the region, direct from NDSU Press at ndsupress.org, or from other online booksellers. Foleys novel, The Blue Circus, was released this fall and offers a look at South Side Chicago; McNairs book of essays called And These Are The Good Times: A Chicago gal riffs on death, sex, life, dancing, writing, wonder, loneliness, place, family, faith, coffee, and the FBI (among other things) was published last year. Preiser said Foley has appeared at the library before. Brown had filed a lawsuit in 2016 asking a judge to find that she was not in violation of the law by retaining both her positions, according to court documents, and should not have to repay any salary. Court filings claim the Attorney Generals Office gave her conflicting opinions on if the Common Council is the overseeing body of the Sanitary District, which would determine whether she should resign. I had no idea it would turn out to be this popular, he said, as he readied his two children for their trip up the Dunes. We found that many people wanted to celebrate the holidays by being outside instead of at the crowded stores. "Not in front of the kids." It's an age-old plea for parents to avoid showing conflict and strong negative emotions around their children. But new research from a Washington State University scientist disagrees, showing that it's better to express negative emotions in a healthy way than to tamp them down. Sara Waters, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development on the WSU Vancouver campus, and co-authors from the University of California, Berkley and the University of California, San Francisco, write about their findings in the journal Emotion. "We wanted to look at how we suppress emotions and how that changes the way parents and kids interact," Waters said. "Kids pick up on suppression, but it's something a lot of parents think is a good thing to do." The study was conducted on 109 mothers or fathers with their children in San Francisco. The sample was split almost evenly between mothers and fathers, as the scientists wanted to see if any differences existed in the results between genders. First, the researchers gave the parent a stressful task: public speaking with negative feedback provided by the audience. Then, the parents were given an activity to complete with their children, with some randomly told to suppress their emotions. The others were told to act naturally. advertisement The activity was the same for all pairs, working together to assemble a Lego project. However, the kids, ages 7-11, received the paper instructions, but weren't allowed to touch the Legos. The parents had to assemble the project, but couldn't look at the instructions. This forced them to work together closely to succeed. "We were interested in behaviors," Waters said. "We looked at the responsiveness, warmth, quality of the interactions, how the parent provided guidance for the child." Waters and her co-authors had a team of undergraduate research assistants from WSU Vancouver watch all 109 videos of the interactions to mark every instance of warmth, guidance, and other emotions. Both the parent and the child were also hooked up to a variety of sensors, to measure heart rate, stress levels, etc. The study authors combined that data with the coding done by the assistants to get their results. "The act of trying to suppress their stress made parents less positive partners during the Lego task," Waters said. "They offered less guidance, but it wasn't just the parents who responded. Those kids were less responsive and positive to their parents. It's almost like the parents were transmitting those emotions." Gender differences advertisement Since the team made such an effort to get an equal mother/father split, they were able to make further discoveries. It turns out that emotional suppression made kids more sensitive to their mothers. The children showed less change in their responses when a father was suppressing his emotions, Waters said. For now, there isn't enough data on fathers and their children in emotion studies to say why that is. "We just don't have much research on dads because it's really hard to get dads to participate in research projects," Waters said. "It took a LOT of work to get enough dads in this study." In previous research, it has been found that, in general, men are more likely to suppress their emotions. Waters suspects that it's possible a father suppressing his emotions isn't unusual, so it didn't have as much impact on the kids in this study. Kids pick up emotional residue Waters said there are dozens of studies that show kids are good at picking up "emotional residue" from their parents. "Kids are good at picking up subtle cues from emotions," she said. "If they feel something negative has happened, and the parents are acting normal and not addressing it, that's confusing for them. Those are two conflicting messages being sent." Rather than suppressing emotions in front of your children, Waters suggests the best course of action is to let kids see a healthy conflict, from start to resolution. "Let them see the whole trajectory," she said. "That helps kids learn to regulate their own emotions and solve problems. They see that problems can get resolved. Its best to let the kids know you feel angry, and tell them what youre going to do about it to make the situation better." When is high blood pressure dangerous? Medical associations offer widely differing answers. In the USA, for example, patients are seen as hypertensive much sooner than in Germany. A team working with Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig of the Technical University of Munich and the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen has concluded that treating patients sooner does not reduce the risk of deadly heart disease. It could even negatively affect their mental health. In 2017 the American College of Cardiology added a new category to its guidelines for high blood pressure: "Stage 1 Hypertension." Under the new standards, doctors are advised to place patients in this category (130-139 mmHg / 80-89 mmHg) on treatment. For the European Society of Cardiology, that range is defined as "high normal" blood pressure, with no specific action recommended. "The idea behind the US guidelines is to lower blood pressure as early as possible and, by presenting patients with a diagnosis, to encourage them to adopt a healthier lifestyle," explains Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig, a researcher at the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the TUM University Clinic rechts der Isar at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen. Motivation factor questionable Using data from approximately 12,000 patients, Ladwig and his team assessed the situation in Germany. "We studied the 10-year risk of mortality from cardio-vascular disease (CVD) among people in the various hypertension categories in the context of the other risk factors affecting them," says Seryan Atasoy, the first author of the study, who is working as an epidemiologist at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen. In the newly created category "Stage 1 Hypertension," the CVD mortality risk was not significantly higher than among patients with normal blood pressure. "The motivation effect is questionable, too," says Karl-Heinz Ladwig. Patients in the high-risk category "Stage 2 Hypertension," where medication is recommended under both the US and the European guidelines, have a much greater risk of dying of heart disease, he explains. "At the same time, risk factors such as smoking and a lack of exercise are far more frequent in that group. That shows that many people do not change their lifestyles despite the diagnosis." Dangerous depression Although the incidence of depression is generally lower among people with dangerously high blood pressure than in the general population, depression was significantly more common in one subset of that group: those taking medication to treat their serious hypertension. Here, depressive moods were reported by around half of all patients, as opposed to just one-third of those not receiving treatment. "We believe that this should be seen as a labeling effect," says Ladwig. "When people are officially labeled as 'sick', that has an impact on their mental health." A previous study by Ladwig and his team showed that, in terms of mortality risk from cardio-vascular disease, depression is comparable to high cholesterol levels or obesity. New guidelines mean more sick people "The American College of Cardiology itself has calculated that the proportion of adults diagnosed with high blood pressure will increase from 32 to 46 percent," says Karl-Heinz Ladwig. "That means 14 percent more who have to deal with the additional mental stress -- although their risk of developing a potentially deadly cardio-vascular condition is not significantly higher, and despite no real expectation of extra motivation through the diagnosis." For those reasons, Ladwig believes that it would be a serious mistake to adopt the US guidelines in Europe. Steroids are essential molecules for life in all complex organisms such as animals and plants. Researchers from the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, the University of Technology Sydney Climate Change Cluster and the University of Queensland have now discovered a new central enzyme in the steroid biosynthesis pathway in some modern organisms. This might not only lead to an evolutionary "re-think" but also opens new ways to control toxic algae in aquaculture. Their findings have been published in Nature Microbiology. The increasing availability of genome editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 is giving scientists unprecedented access to many of the inner metabolic processes that have evolved over billions of years to shape the tree of life. A new study exploring steroid biosynthesis pathways in a group of microalgae called diatoms, urges a rethink on key evolutionary aspects of eukaryotic life, the scientists say. Knowing the underlying natural metabolism of diatoms is necessary to design synthetic biology and metabolic engineering strategies for the growing biotechnology sector. In addition, the findings, published in Nature Microbiology, have potential practical applications for the aquaculture industry providing insight into ways to inhibit toxic algal infections. The study is an international collaboration co-led by the University of Technology Sydney Climate Change Cluster (UTSC3) and VIB-Ghent University scientists together with the University of Queensland. Dr Michele Fabris, co-author and CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform Fellow at UTSC3 says that the team's interest was sparked by earlier research suggesting a novel, alternative enzyme for steroid biosynthesis might be "hiding" in some microalgae species. "Sterols are essential components of all eukaryotic cells. Without sterols plants, animals, and fungi couldn't live. We all rely on the same ancient metabolic machinery in our cells that emerged more than two billion years ago. Or so we thought," he says. advertisement Prof Alain Goossens, a leading specialist in plant metabolism at VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology says that according to the biochemistry textbooks the enzyme responsible for the first and most important step in sterol biosynthesis, squalene epoxidase, SQE, was believed to have been carried on by all modern organisms from their common ancestor. Lead author, VIB-UGent researcher Dr Jacob Pollier says that to the contrary they found "many organisms use an alternative, completely different enzyme, an alternative SQE (AltSQE)." "Nature has come up with a different way of carrying out a function that is key to life. We don't know why yet, but it has profound implications on our understanding of the evolution of life as we know it," he says. A rethink on accepted view about steroid biosynthesis may also open potential routes to control harmful toxic algae and parasitic infections that impact the aquaculture industry, causing seafood poisoning in humans and economic damage, respectively. Although not the focus of this study, the discovery of this novel enzyme could find applications in this space. "Because the sterol pathway is a necessary function for these organisms, the enzyme carrying out the key step may offer a novel, potential 'kill' switch, if properly targeted," Dr Fabris says. The researchers also found one more surprise. The same AltSQE gene was discovered in a class of marine viruses associated with infections and large-scale die offs in algal blooms, which could seed cloud formation. "Algae blooms are thought to influence cloud formation and thus, ultimately, the Earth's climate system. These marine viruses are known to hijack algal steroid metabolism, so AltSQE could play an important role in marine cloud formation and climate regulation," Dr Pollier says. New data has found that natural habitats occupying an area larger than Greece have been created to offset economic developments. This data could eventually provide a basis to help improve our understanding of the benefits of protecting and preserving wildlife. Called 'biodiversity offsets', human-made conservation areas are created to compensate for economic developments and are a growing trend. They include major industrial projects like the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia and the Bujagali hydropower project in Uganda and at the other end of the scale, grassland restoration offsets only one hectare in size to compensate for housing developments in the UK. Until now, no one has had enough information to assess whether they work on an international scale. Dr Joseph W. Bull, a conservation scientist at University of Kent worked with Dr Niels Strange from the University of Copenhagen to collate data on over ten thousand examples of nature sites created specifically to compensate for industrial impacts. The researchers found that across the world businesses are offsetting their development at a 'rapid rate' -- from international corporations to smallscale landowners. The researchers also found there were more offsets than they expected -- 12,983 projects across 74 countries. Dr Bull said: "This is the start of something major. Biodiversity offsets are being implemented very quickly despite being quite a recent policy idea. More than 153,000 square kilometres is a big chunk of land and -- for the first time -- we now have a dataset that can and will be used by two hundred countries across the world to refine "no net loss" policies, seeking to protect our natural environment." 'No Net loss' policies are the point at which the project-related impacts on biodiversity are balanced by measures taken to avoid and minimize their impacts. Such a global dataset is the prerequisite for assessing how well offsets compensate for biodiversity impacts associated with economic development, adds Dr Strange. The data also showed that emerging economies (particularly in South America) were more dominant in terms of global offsetting and most projects are very small. However, the researchers also note that the overwhelming majority (99.7%) of projects are implemented by law rather than on a voluntary basis. The data is being made available to the Global Inventory on Biodiversity Offset Policies (GIBOP), currently being officially promoted at the thirteenth meeting of the international Convention on Biological Diversity, to be attended by up to 196 member countries in Egypt from the 17th-29th November 2018. The global extent of biodiversity offset implementation under no net loss policies, by Joseph W. Bull and Niels Strange, is published in Nature Sustainability. The Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology DICE is based in the School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC), University of Kent, Canterbury, UK and worked in collaboration with the Department of Food and Resource Economics and Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. The citys Fund 224, also known as the EMS expenses fund, has been the focus of local government officials, who say they discovered earlier this year it was short some $8.1 million because of money transferred to other parts of the city budget for payroll and other expenses. Revenue from our sales isnt used to pay shareholders or buy old water utilities. Its used to maintain, repair and our infrastructures, Uran said. One of those utilities is in Lake Station. Indiana-American Water Co. entered into a purchase agreement with the city to buy its water utility plant for $20.7 million earlier this year and the IURC approved the sale in August. U.S. District Court Judge Judge Jon E. DeGuilio sentenced Robles on Monday to 324 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. At sentencing, he was found responsible for the two murders, a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Indiana states. Federal prosecutors said Snyder has not presented any evidence that shows his email communications were used in any improper way during the investigation, according to court documents, and that a judge should not disqualify the prosecutors on the case or dismiss any charges against the Portage mayor. On November 9, 2018, the Honorable Nicholas G. Garaufis of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment against defendant Steven A. Newman. The final judgment imposes on Newman a permanent injunction against future violations of certain antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and bars Newman from serving as an officer and director of a public company. The SEC's complaint, filed on October 19, 2007 and amended on March 23, 2015, alleged, among other things, that Newman and other officers and directors of Xybernaut Corp., signed registration statements for private investment in public equity transactions (PIPE transactions) that were all false and misleading because those registration statements named nominee entities and nominee directors as the control persons and concealed the identify of an investor group that controlled large blocks of Xybernaut's shares. The final judgment permanently enjoins Newman from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, as well as the books and records provisions of Section 13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-13, and 13a-14 thereunder. The final judgment also bars Newman from serving as an officer or director of a public company. In addition, the final judgment provides for disgorgement of $429,100, representing Newman's ill-gotten gains, and that the disgorgement shall be deemed satisfied by the criminal restitution paid by Newman in U.S. v. Steven Newman, 07-CR-641 (E.D.N.Y.). Newman consented to the entry of the final judgment. The Commission's action against the other remaining defendants continues. For further information, see Litigation Release No. 20341 (October 19, 2007) No. 23462 (February 8, 2016), and No. 23744 (February 7, 2017). The Google Home Hub, the one with the display, now supports speakable markup. When the Google Home Hub first launched it did not support speakable markup, like the Google Home without the display. But now it does and here is a video of the Google Home Hub showing off speakable markup working on this site. Like I said, speakable markup simply was not supported when the Google Home Hub with the display first launched. Now it does. I do have to say that I am more easily able to trigger speakable markup on the Google Home without the display than the one with the display. It might have to do with Google Home Hub trying harder to show video news clips over speakable markup. But I am not 100% sure about that, that is just my guess. Forum discussion at Twitter. WeWork became the worlds largest co-working company with the belief that people want to share offices. Now it is operating headquarters for midsized companies and satellite offices with no strangers allowed. Since August, WeWork has offered stand-alone private offices with a new program called HQ by WeWork. As with its co-working spaces, WeWork signs the office lease, designs and builds the interiors, and manages the facilities. Then it rents space to companies for one to three years, shorter periods than traditional headquarters deals but longer than month-to-month co-working commitments. WeWork can now operate in smaller buildings that arent big enough for co-working centers and can capture demand from companies that have outgrown shared offices, said Jon Slavet, WeWork managing director of U.S. and Canada West. It came from organic member demand and anecdotal feedback, Slavet said. You cant get something comparable out in the sublet market or the traditional market. WeWorks ambitions also encompass housing, retail and education. The company is dual-headquartered in San Franciscos Salesforce Tower and in New York, two of the companys busiest markets. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle WeWork has five HQ by WeWork locations in San Francisco: at 800 Market St., 166 Geary St., 222 Kearny St., 732 Sansome St. and 755 Sansome St. Demand for the offering has far exceeded supply, and every HQ by WeWork is occupied by a company at opening, said Michael Hershfield, senior director of WeWorks medium business segment, in a statement. The spaces include typical WeWork perks like a pantry, private phone booths and lounges. WeWork also offers internet and key-card services. But the spaces dont include WeWork community managers or its ubiquitous fruit-infused water or beer. Not everyone is happy about HQ by WeWork. Co-working rival IWG plc, which operates Regus and Spaces brands, sued WeWork last month, alleging trademark infringement over IWGs HQ Global Workplaces program. WeWork denied wrongdoing and said HQ is a generic term. WeWork signed its first HQ by WeWork deal at 800 Market St. with Movable Ink, a marketing software company that moved in this month. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Movable Ink, headquartered in New York, started searching for a new San Francisco office in May and grappled with few options in the expensive market. Were a midsized, growing team, and it was really challenging for us, said Dee Anna McPherson, Movable Inks senior vice president of marketing. The market for our size of space is brutal. Large spaces with extremely long leases or really small subleases are available. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Movable Ink wanted to stay downtown near transit and liked the idea of a short-term commitment. It signed a 5,445-square-foot, two-year lease with WeWork. The 27-employee office now has space to grow to around 42 people. Hiring has been challenging and costs are high, but San Francisco is full of tech talent and is a critical place for Movable Ink to be, McPherson said. Its something that San Francisco has to watch out for: How do growth companies afford to stay in this market? she said. Roland Li is a Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf The future of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., in jeopardy after two years of devastating wildfires, will be one of the most pressing concerns before California lawmakers when they resume meeting next week. PG&E could face billions of dollars in potential liabilities due to last years Wine Country wildfires and the recently contained Camp Fire in Butte County which left at least 88 people dead casting doubt onwhether the states largest utility can stay financially viable in the long run. Lawmakers have already floated new measures, including one to let PG&E pass on to consumers more wildfire-related costs and another that could break up the company. Legislation could be introduced as soon as Monday, when new members will be sworn in. Lawmakers wont meet again until January. Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, said legislators need to more closely understand the intricacies of the states electrical grid, and whether they should hold utilities to a higher standard in light of climate change and technological advancements. These are all questions that are very important, Dodd said. At this point, to discount any of this is probably foolish. We should do everything we can to try to understand what we have and how we can do it better. Dodds bill, signed into law this year, gave PG&E the ability to pass some costs related to last years fires on to its customers. As of Friday, he was not working on another fire- and utilities-related bill. But he was eager to learn more about another measure being developed by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, who chairs the Assemblys utilities and energy committee. Holden wasnt available for comment Monday, but Bloomberg reported his measure would allow PG&E to use bonds for costs arising from the Camp Fire. An unstable utility grid will drive up costs and is bad for consumers, Holden said in a statement. Our priority will be on maintaining reliable and affordable utility service for all Californians, not on the fate of any utility provider we will proceed with that principle in mind. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle 2018 The cause of the Camp Fire, which ignited Nov. 8 and quickly became the most destructive and deadly wildfire in state history, is still under investigation. But PG&E has told state regulators of two equipment malfunctions in the area, one shortly before the fire started and another shortly after, fueling speculation it will ultimately be blamed for the massive blaze. The company, already under financial pressure due to those revelations, warned that if its equipment is found to be responsible for the inferno, the costs would exceed its insurance coverage. Shares of the utilitys parent company, PG&E Corp., have dropped by about half since the fire started. Lawsuits against PG&E began piling up just days after the Camp Fire started. It will have to fend off the new legal threats as it continues to battle potentially costly claims related the Wine Country fires of 2017. PG&E has so far declined to publicly detail its legislative plan in the wake of the Camp Fire. There will be a time and a place for discussing this and other matters, but right now we are solely focused on supporting the first responders and helping our customers recover and rebuild, said Lynsey Paulo, a spokeswoman for the utility. Paulo added the utility has not talked with Holdens office about his plan. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle 2018 Before the Camp Fire started, PG&E CEO Geisha Williams said the company still wanted to change Californias strict approach to liability under which utilities can be held financially responsible for fires caused by their equipment even if they were fully compliant with safety rules. The utility would face a difficult path changing the legal principle, known as inverse condemnation. Dodd said he found it very hard to believe lawmakers would move forward on any type of legislation that would eliminate inverse condemnation. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California They needed to do a better job on making sure their grid was more resilient and didnt spark these fires in the first place, he said. That would be letting them off the hook. That also, at the same time, would victimize victims once again. Meanwhile, the office of Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, is researching its own proposal, which could include breaking up PG&E. But Hill, who has often criticized PG&E, said hes still exploring options. Were looking at trying to create the opportunity for a change in the business model, a change in the structure of PG&E, he said. The key is, we want to do something that is viable or workable and that is practical in the sense of doing the job that we think needs to be done. Patrick McCallum, a longtime Sacramento lobbyist who runs an advocacy group started to hold PG&E accountable after the fires last year, predicted Hills efforts may get more traction due to the Camp Fires catastrophic loss of life and property. McCallum said lawmakers could also be more amenable to pursuing a structural review of PG&E a direction for which his group, Up from the Ashes, unsuccessfully advocated after last years fires. Im just hearing more legislators (ask) what is it about this company that just historically has made so many horrific mistakes with impact on peoples lives and homes and everything else? McCallum said. Somethings wrong. You heard it after San Bruno, but youre just hearing it more. McCallum, whose Santa Rosa home was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire last year, said the structural review should be advanced by lawmakers or regulators right away. The California Public Utilities Commission is conducting its own investigation into PG&Es commitment to safety in its corporate culture. That review, spurred by the September 2010 San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and injured more than 50, may soon be expanded to include wildfires. A federal jury found PG&E guilty of obstructing justice in the San Bruno case by lying to regulators about its pipeline-testing policy. Editors note: This story has been updated to clarify Patrick McCallums relationship with Up from the Ashes. J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris A federal grand jury in Oakland indicted a former state assemblyman Monday for allegedly defrauding investors during his time as CEO of a coffee shop chain that operated in BART stations, authorities said. Terrence Patrick Goggin, 76, faces four counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money-laundering stemming from his time overseeing Metropolitan Coffee & Concessions (MC2), which owned four Peets Coffee & Tea shops in high-traffic BART stations. BART gave Goggin a station retail permit in 2007, which he used to build storefronts at the Montgomery, Embarcadero, Downtown Berkeley and Pittsburg/Bay Point stations, officials said. Between 2007 and 2014, Goggin sought funding to expand the existing shops and build new storefronts at Balboa Park and Civic Center stations, according to court documents. The former San Bernardino assemblyman allegedly told investors they would receive a reliable, high-rate of return on their money. But prosecutors said that Goggin did not tell private equity investors about his companys financial troubles or about the state of negotiations between MC2 and BART for a planned shop at the Civic Center station. Per the terms of the permit, BART was to collect a percentage of gross revenues with minimum monthly guarantee base rent, said Jim Allison, a spokesman for the transit agency. For most months, BART only received the minimum guarantee base rent. BART officials confirmed Tuesday that MC2 operated at BART until it went bankrupt, and the retail permit was purchased by an unrelated operator in 2015. The company received $585,000 from Lakeshore Partners, an Oakland-based LLC created by investors to funnel money into the Civic Center project. But Goggin diverted the funding to another bank account and a non-approved business project in New York City, according to Department of Justice filings from September. Prosecutors also accused Goggin of using investor funds for personal expenses, including transferring thousands of dollars to a lover in Thailand. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. A San Bernardino Democrat, Goggin served in the state Assembly between 1974 and 1984 and oversaw the Assembly Natural Resources Committee in the early 1980s. Goggin is also a licensed attorney in California who has practiced in San Francisco. The state bar reprimanded him in 2009 for failing to repay $5,500 to a client after receiving a $10,000 advance for attorney fees. The state bar also suspended his license to practice in 2010 and 2014 for failing to pay dues. Prosecutors sealed the original indictment in September, citing the need to protect against the potential destruction of evidence, and to prevent the possible flight of the defendant. If convicted, Goggin would face a maximum of 20 years in prison. He is expected to appear in court Dec. 5. Gwendolyn Wu and Bob Egelko are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com, begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu @egelko Engineering Pathways is intended to facilitate a link to the university for students looking to save money as they look to get their undergraduate degree, and is also for those who would like to remain at home before heading off to downstate Champaign, officials said. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle Former 49ers and Raiders linebacker Aldon Smith pleaded no contest Monday to two misdemeanors stemming from a March domestic-violence incident in San Francisco. As part of a negotiated plea agreement with prosecutors, Smith, 28, entered no-contest pleas to violating a court order and false imprisonment for the attack on a woman in a home on the 600 block of Bush Street on March 3. Tampa police on Monday released audio of the 911 call alleging an attack by Reuben Foster, the former San Francisco 49ers linebacker who was released from the team following his weekend arrest on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence battery. My ex-boyfriend took my phone and broke it, and slapped me in my face, a woman told the dispatcher, noting that she was at a Grand Hyatt in Tampa, Fla.. Hey, Giants, whos your daddy? In a statement released Monday by CEO and President Larry Baer, the Giants did not mention Charles Johnson, principal investor, but did stress that the team has more than 30 owners. Its a group. Sorry, Giants. Most of us are not moguls or tycoons, so we keep it simple. Charlie, as friends call him, is the Giants owner. He lives in Florida and doesnt have a lot to do with running the team. Hes no Joe Lacob. For Johnson, the Giants are an investment. But he sits atop the Giants food chain and therefore is a symbol of the San Francisco Giants. In sports, symbols are important. So even though Johnson is 3,000 miles away, rooting for piles of money, he has put the Giants in a very sticky situation. Because Johnson recently contributed to two political campaigns with frighteningly racist overtones, the Giants are being threatened with boycotts. Amos Brown, noted San Francisco pastor and president of the citys branch of the NAACP, is calling for a local and national boycott of the Giants. Some fans and media pulpiteers are expressing outrage at Johnson and the Giants and calling for boycotts. Brown said he would call off the NAACP boycott if Johnson demands the return of his contribution to Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. (Noted civil-rights activist John Burris isnt willing to let the Giants off that easily.) Is this a momentary hissy fit by us Bay Area snowflake libtards? Thats not the way I read it. Not the momentary part. Johnsons reaction to Bay Area outrage over his first donation, which helped finance racist campaign ads in Arkansas, was to ask for the return of his donation and say (in a statement) that he didnt realize what the money was used for. Not exactly an apology. Apology lite? But after Giants fans and others again reacted with outrage upon learning of Johnsons more recent donation to the campaign of Hyde-Smith, Johnson had no immediate response. Then on Monday, his San Francisco attorney, Joe Cotchett, said Johnson told Cotchett he would ask for his donation back if shes a racist. So now we will quibble politics and semantics. Some defend Johnson by explaining that he simply writes a bunch of checks to candidates on right-wing lists, doing little or no research. But after the first incident and uproar, one might expect Johnson to start taking a closer look where his money is going. About Hyde-Smith: After public statements that she would sit in the front row at a public hanging and that she encourages voter suppression, she scoffed at the backlash. She said she was joking. If Hyde-Smiths lynching joke failed to make people like Brown laugh, maybe thats because her state led the nation in lynchings between 1882 and 1968 with 581 (per the website famous-trials.com). All but 42 of the victims were black. Brown is black and from Mississippi. He was born in 1941, so when he was 27, they were still lynching his neighbors. 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. Baer said in his statement that the Giants dont condone racist language or behavior. In terms of responsible corporate behavior, thats a pretty low bar, but OK. However, as Forrest Gumps mom said, Stupid is as stupid does. The actions of a teams main man trickle down all over the rest of the organization. Cant someone at the Giants HQ beg old Charlie to back off, or be more selective in who he supports? Apparently not. Baer is in a tough spot. He basically runs the team, but I know I dont give orders to my boss. This is all on Charles Johnson, symbol of the Giants. Im sure hed rather give that job to Lou Seal, but this is one call in which Johnson doesnt have a say. If Johnson chooses to stand on principle and on the strength of his political and moral convictions, then he should expect his teams fans to do the same. Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler WASHINGTON Paul Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to federal investigators in breach of a plea agreement he signed two months ago, the special counsels office said in a court filing late Monday. Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller said Manaforts crimes and lies about a variety of subject matters relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement. But under the terms of the agreement, Manafort cannot withdraw his guilty plea. Defense lawyers disagreed that Manafort has violated the deal. In the same filing, they said that Manafort has met repeatedly with the special counsels office and believes he has provided truthful information. But given the impasse between the two sides, they asked District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington to set a sentencing date for Manafort, who has been in solitary confinement in a detention center in Alexandria, Va., since June. The dramatic development in the eleventh hour of Manaforts case is a fresh sign of the prosecutors aggressive approach in investigating Russias interference in the 2016 presidential race and whether anyone in the Trump campaign knew about or assisted Moscows effort. Manafort had hoped that in agreeing to cooperate with Muellers team, prosecutors would argue that he deserved a lighter punishment. He is expected to face at least a decadelong prison term for 10 felony counts ranging from financial fraud to conspiracy to obstruct justice. Instead, after at least a dozen sessions with him, federal prosecutors have not only decided Manafort does not deserve leniency, but also could seek to refile other charges that they had agreed to dismiss as part of the plea deal. The prosecutors did not describe what Manafort lied about, saying they would set forth the nature of the defendants crimes and lies in an upcoming sentencing memo. A jury in Northern Virginia convicted Manafort, 69, of eight counts of financial fraud in August stemming from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. The jury deadlocked on 10 other charges. Faced with a second trial in the District of Columbia on related charges in September, he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and to an open-ended arrangement requiring him to answer fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly questions about any and all matters of interest to the government. Sharon LaFraniere is a New York Times writer. Uganda College of Commerce Aduku over the weekend held its eighth graduation where over 1000 students graduated with diplomas and certificates in various disciplines at the college campus in Kwania District. A total of 581 students graduated with diplomas, ranging from Accounting, Business Administration, Hotel and Institution Catering, Procurement and Secretarial Studies while 446 students were awarded Certificates in ICT, Accounting, Finance Management and Logistics. In a speech read for him by the Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi at the function, President Yoweri Museveni urged the graduands to put to use the knowledge and skills they have acquired to generate jobs without necessarily waiting for others to employ them. Stories Continues after ad He said the college has over the years done a commendable job in training student and producing capable students who have contributed to Uganda work in responding to challenges of the country. He said that Uganda now needs a workforce of individuals with the right capacity and attitude to serve community and commended teachers and parents of the college for supporting the students. Museveni said that government has positioned education as an engine of development by making accessible at all levels saying education plays a central role in the transformation of society by instilling in professionals the relevant and right skills and attitude capable of responding to the challenges any society. He said government would continue to prioritise skills development in the training of the labour force for the county to be able to achieve its vision 2040 saying Africa cannot develop if it continues importing technical ability from out if it cannot to develop its own capacity while creating conditions that curb the brain drain. He commended the college for introducing practical based skill programs saying one of the biggest challenges facing Africa is the high level of un employment of many of university graduates blaming it on Africas education system which he said produces students with limited or no skills making them job seekers. The President urged graduands to be role models in community by promote high moral standing even if it means standing alone and always treasure integrity, honesty and hard work saying they are values to and drivers to success. The Principal, Sam Nabwana, said the training at the college is based on skills acquisition even though he said they are currently challenged by limited funding, saying the government provision of Shs500 per student per day was not sustainable, given the increasing food prices, utilities and other necessities. Founded in 1983 alongside four other colleges of commerce like; Kabale, Tororo, Pakwach and Soroti, Uganda College of Commerce Aduku trains secondary and high school leavers in various business and management skills for certificate and diploma levels. We want to make sure we understand the information and where we can identify areas of improvement, Isoye said about the new achievement numbers. Regardless of being commendable, over time these numbers are going to change and we know we have to consistently look at them to see how we can serve our students better. Tom Brenner / New York Times The Trump administrations war on reality has entered a new phase of absolute and simultaneous self-contradiction. Having issued an extensive report on the depredations of climate change, the White House pretended it didnt exist. Concluding that unchecked climate change could diminish the economy by a tenth and cause 9,000 more temperature-related deaths a year by centurys end, the Fourth National Climate Assessment is backed by 13 federal agencies and more than 300 experts. Rather than contend with these formidable facts by argument, alteration or suppression, the White House simply released the document amid maximum national distraction on the Friday after Thanksgiving and proceeded as if it hadnt. Hola from the front row of the caravan crisis. The U.S.-Mexico border is just 17 miles from Americas Finest City, where I live San Diego. So here are 17 observations: From perches in New York and Washington, the liberal media showed again how little they know about immigration when some commentators claimed, after the election, that the caravan was fake news. Its here. Conservatives are so eager to dismiss the idea that these arrivals from Central America are seeking asylum that they pounce whenever one of them says in an interview that theyre actually coming to work. Remember when those on the right used to say they wanted immigrants to work? When entering a foreign country, a little humility goes a long way. Many of the refugees have been on their best behaviors. Others threw rocks and tossed tear gas canisters back to the U.S. Border Patrol agents who fired them. We have enough homegrown arrogance, belligerence and entitlement in the United States, we dont need to import more of those things. Who knew that border hawks are so easily distracted by non-issues? Many are fixated on the fact that so many members of the caravan are not women and children but young men. So what? Does that mean they are any less in need of refuge? It is not a good idea for immigrant advocates to downplay allegations of rock throwing by caravan members. Its a real act of violence, and a real threat that has for years resulted in Border Patrol agents being wounded and, in some cases, permanently blinded by border crossers. Its not productive for anti-immigrant forces to blame migrant parents for putting their children in harms way. As opposed to what? Staying in Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador so their children could be harmed, or killed, there? According to media reports, there was an argument in the White House over whether to allow U.S. troops on the border to use lethal force. Those opposed: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and her predecessor, Chief of Staff John Kelly. That is, folks who understand the border. President Trumps threat to close the border if Mexico doesnt keep the Central Americans south of the Rio Grande is hot air. Forget that closing down a nearly 2,000-mile border might be illegal. The real snag: Its not possible. Its also not practical to go to the other extreme and maintain an open border. Federal immigration agents have to hold off those who try to crash the gate. Thats their job, and they must be free to do it. This doesnt mean that Border Patrol agents should not be held accountable for their actions. They should be. Spraying migrants with tear gas, including women and children, raised eyebrows a few weeks ago on the Mexico-Guatemala border. And its raising eyebrows again now that it is happening on the U.S.-Mexico border. Right-wingers went nuts when Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said that seeking refuge isnt a crime for Central Americans any more than it was for Jewish families fleeing Germany. She wasnt making comparisons. She was making a point: Americans can be fickle depending on whos at the door. Speaking of racists, all they see is color. Like when Ron Colburn, president of an outfit called the Border Patrol Foundation, told Fox News that the Border Patrol agents were fending off migrants with a pepper spray so natural that you could actually put it on your nachos and eat it. The hostility that Central Americans are facing in Mexico isnt about racism. Its about other -isms that arent any better: elitism and classism. It is appalling that Mexicans who expect to be treated well by their northern neighbors treat their southern neighbors so poorly. As badly as the Trump administration has bungled immigration, Democrats are no prize. They have no ideas, no integrity and no credibility with immigrant activists given that they often overcompensate on deportations and enforcement as if to prove theyre not weak on border security. Reportedly, there is a deal between the United States and Mexico in which Mexico houses asylum seekers on its side of the border while their applications are considered by the U.S. This is not a solution. Its just a way to create more problems. The photo of a young girl in the caravan, smiling and waving the American flag against a backdrop of makeshift tents, is both haunting and poetic. Is this who were supposed to be afraid of? Many of these people are exactly the sort we want in this country: bold risk takers who will walk hundreds of miles and literally crawl under barbed wire to get a taste of what so many native-born Americans take for granted. This is a complicated problem and a recurring one. Why do people from Central America keep coming to the United States? Weve hired them, and their family members, for years. They come because they know the way. 2018, Washington Post Writers Group Email: ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, Navarrette Nation, is available through every podcast app. With a criminal justice system plagued by persistent racial inequities, staggering incarceration rates and costs, and one of the highest recidivism rates in the country, our justice system is in dire need of reform. But theres a right way to reform the system, and theres a wrong way. The wrong way is to simply release tens of thousands of people from prison, having done nothing to address their underlying issues or to prepare them to re-enter society, and then throw up our hands when crime rates increase as have property crime rates in San Francisco. The right way is neither quick nor easy. To ensure lasting safety and justice for victims and defendants alike, we must reduce incarceration rates by reducing crime rates. Not by reducing the reporting of crimes, or re-categorizing harmful conduct so that it no longer is a crime. We need to address the societal drivers of criminal conduct, and the specific issues that cause an individual to re-offend. Four steps to get us there: Move away from a system focused on punishment and toward a rehabilitative and restorative justice model. The juvenile justice system provides a path. The sole purpose of our juvenile system is to rehabilitate young people. Every sentence, every probation condition, every placement is targeted at the underlying cause of a young persons problem, whether it be mental health or substance abuse, a lack of economic opportunity, or gang influence. Working to address root causes has allowed San Francisco to significantly reduce the number of kids entering our justice system without a corresponding uptick in juvenile crime rates. There is no reason a 19-year-old should be denied this rehabilitative focus while a 17-year-old benefits from it. We should incrementally expand these rehabilitative programs to the adult population, beginning with 18- to 24-year-olds. Once we show that such a focus can reduce incarceration and crime rates for transitional age youth, we can expand it to the rest of the adult population for qualifying offenses. Adopt victim-centered reform. The San Francisco Police Department and District Attorneys Office came under scrutiny this year for their (mis)handling of sexual assault cases. Survivors bravely came forward to describe a system of delays and disrespect from investigators and prosecutors that denied them the justice and dignity they deserve. So long as survivors are forced to wait hours for medical examinations, a statewide rape kit backlog exists, and police and prosecutors tell survivors that their word is not enough, these heinous crimes will go unreported, predators will remain free and others will be victimized. Rethink the prosecutors role, starting with the measures of their effectiveness. Rather than a single-minded focus on conviction rates, we should judge district attorneys on the recidivism rates of those they prosecute. By doing so, we would shift their incentives from simply obtaining a guilty verdict to addressing the actual needs of the defendant. Prosecutors are well positioned to help in that assessment. In fact, the San Diego district attorneys office has had early success with a project in which prosecutors work with the defense team, probation department and court to develop a plan for defendants so they can seek out the programs and skills while incarcerated that they will need to successfully re-enter society. Prosecutors can highlight the staggering costs to the taxpayer of the prison industrial complex, costs that should be a factor in deciding whether (and how much) prison time is appropriate for a given crime. Reduce barriers for formerly incarcerated people re-entering society. For decades, we have erected barriers to housing, jobs, voting and government services for people with criminal records. Not only is there no evidence these restrictions deter criminal conduct, there is mounting evidence that they increase the chances someone will re-offend. We need to eliminate these barriers and, for example, allow the inmates who fought the devastating Tubbs, Thomas and Camp fires the opportunity to become firefighters when released. We should allow people on parole to vote, just as those on probation can. We cannot expect returning individuals to buy into a society that denies them a voice. Such a fundamental shift in how we approach criminal justice will not occur overnight. But if we want a legal system that truly keeps us safe, its imperative that we start now. Leif Dautch is a prosecutor, the former president of the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Commission, and a candidate for district attorney of San Francisco. Californias legal challenge to the Trump administrations addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census should be dismissed because the state which fears the loss of congressional representation and billions in federal aid cant show it would actually be harmed, the Justice Department told a federal judge Monday. xx The states fears of an undercount are highly speculative and can be addressed by the Census Bureaus plans to follow up with households that fail to respond to the population survey, Trump administration lawyers said in a filing in San Francisco federal court. The last time the once-per-decade census included a question about U.S. citizenship was in 1950. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross decision to add the question in 2020 has prompted lawsuits by states and cites with large immigrant populations, contending the purpose was political: to reduce participation by families that include noncitizens. Lawyers in Californias suit, joined by local governments in Oakland, Fremont, Stockton and Los Angeles, say the state would lose one to three House seats and electoral votes, and billions of dollars in aid based on population. A separate suit by 15 states has gone to trial in New York and awaits a verdict from a federal judge. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, is considering the administrations request to prevent the states lawyers from questioning Ross about his motives. Ross, whose department oversees the Census Bureau, initially said the Justice Department had requested the citizenship question to aid its enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. He backtracked when evidence surfaced that Ross had proposed the addition before receiving a letter from the Justice Department in December. The states also noted that Ross had consulted with Trumps then-political strategist Steve Bannon and with Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, who opposes including noncitizens in the census count. But Trump administration lawyers said Monday that Ross subjective deliberative process was irrelevant as long as he sincerely believed that reinstating a citizenship question on the census would aid enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The lawyers also challenged Californias argument that courts should consider President Trumps actions and rhetoric against undocumented Latino immigrants in assessing the fears that a citizenship question might cause. If individuals elect not to respond to the census because of fears about the Trump administration sharing their data, or the Muslim ban or other elements of the current political climate, then their non-response and any resulting undercount will not be redressed by revisiting the secretarys decision, the government lawyers said. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg will decide whether to dismiss the suit or let it proceed to trial. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko California Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman went on leave Monday amid sexual misconduct accusations by another party leader. Bauman started his leave while an independent investigation into the allegations by Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall, the partys third-in-command, got under way. Bauman made the decision after taking the holiday weekend to consider the most constructive path forward for the work of the California Democratic Party, party spokesman Mike Roth said. He could not immediately say whether it was a paid leave. First Vice Chairwoman Alexandra Alex Gallardo Rooker, will act as chairwoman during Baumans leave, Roth said. Chair Bauman believes this decision is the best way to ensure the independence and integrity of the process, Roth said. The party is confident that the procedures in place will allow for all parties to come forward freely and provide for a thorough and complete review. Christine Pelosi, chairwoman of the California Democratic Party Womens Caucus, called Baumans move a good first step. Now, Pelosi wrote on Twitter, let us hope for respect and integrity as we undergo an investigation. Larimore-Hall sent an email to the partys executive board on Saturday saying he had filed a complaint with the partys human resources department. He called for Bauman to be removed as chairman in light ofcredible, corroborated and utterly heartbreaking allegations. He included no details about the alleged incidents. Bauman won the party chairmans job last year by just 62 votes over Kimberly Ellis of Richmond out of nearly 3,000 cast by state Democratic convention delegates. That contentious race exposed deep fault lines within the states Democratic Party between the partys more progressive wing and its moderates. Bauman, a longtime party insider who served 17 years as chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, was seen by the partys more left-leaning faction as insufficiently progressive and out of touch with the demands of the partys grassroots members. Before Baumans announcement Monday, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom said, These allegations are very troubling and deserve a full and thorough investigation. Sexual harassment has no place in the California Democratic Party, and people who are victims deserve to have their voices heard, free from intimidation and judgment. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli When it comes to the citys homelessness crisis, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman says there is a discrepancy between the narrative of improvement coming from the mayors office and the reality of tents, needles and mentally ill people in places like Castro Street and Dolores Park. On Tuesday, Mandelman asked Mayor London Breed during her monthly appearance before the Board of Supervisors what specific changes residents of District Eight, which includes the Castro, Dolores Heights, Noe Valley and Glen Park, can expect to see in their neighborhoods and when. Later in the meeting, he called for a hearing to ask what policies the city has in place to address homelessness in San Franciscos residential areas. Its not for a lack of trying, attention or response, but it feels a little more like, structurally, something is off, Mandelman said. The claim of success (from the mayors office) seemed to be an opportunity to talk about the areas where we may not be having much success, and to do it publicly. Breed reiterated her commitment to working with Mandelman to increase outreach in District Eight, and her ambitious goal of adding 1,000 beds for homeless people by the end of 2020. If the investment in the new shelter beds goes as planned, she said, residents all around the city including Mandelmans constituents can count on seeing a change. If we can invest in those (beds), which Im hoping we will be able to do early next year, we should be able to open up close to 1,000 possible beds, said Breed, who is working with Mandelman on implementing the states conservatorship laws on a local level. Unfortunately, homelessness is not an issue that stops at district lines, she said. As mayor, I have to look at homelessness on a citywide level and address this from a regional level. ... While we still have a lot of work to do, there are some encouraging signs. Mandelmans inquiry into the true nature of improvements in the citys homeless situation comes a few weeks after the mayors office publicly listed the strides the city has made: a 34 percent reduction in tent camps, the addition of 140 beds in Navigation Centers, 54 new psychiatric beds, and an expansion of the Healthy Streets Operations Center, which coordinates the many city agencies involved in addressing homelessness. One of Breeds chief campaign promises was that she would reduce the citys blight tents, feces, needles, and people clearly in mental distress shortly after she took office. And in some areas, like Civic Center Plaza, the nearby BART stations and parts of SoMa, there have been anecdotal improvements of less open drug use and fewer people sleeping on the sidewalks. But regardless of the improvements in other parts of the city, Mandelman said his office is constantly flooded with constituent complaints, ranging from business owners on Castro Street who find homeless people sleeping outside their shops in the morning, to students and parents at Mission High and Childrens Day School who navigate around homeless people on their way to class. Im not calling her (the mayor) out, he said. But Im raising my hand pretty high and saying pretty loudly, Madame mayor, we need some help over here. When it comes to numbers, District Eights homeless population is much smaller than other parts of San Francisco. According to the citys latest count, there were 301 homeless people in Mandelmans district. That compares with 552 in District Nine, which includes the Mission, and 3,680 in District Six, which encompasses the Tenderloin and SoMa. But people who find themselves dealing with the homeless every day, like Daniel Bergerac, co-owner of Mudpuppys Tub & Scrub on Castro Street, are growing increasingly frustrated. He said tent encampments, needles and the mentally ill are a common sight on the street outside his business. There seems to be an ebb and flow, Bergerac said of the areas homeless population. Things start to get better and then they get worse. And then they get better and then they get worse. It depends on the time of day and the day of the week as to what we see. Randy Quezada, a spokesman for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said there has been a steady decrease in the number of tents over the past two years. The latest tent count in November showed 375 tents, which is far less than two years ago when the city estimated there were more than 1,000. But for Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, the reduction of tent camps isnt a bellwether for an improving homeless problem. If anything, she said, it made things worse by just moving homeless people to other neighborhoods. From homeless peoples perspective, that has been a disaster, she said of the reduction in tent camps. We havent noted a decrease in homelessness ... and there hasnt been a decrease in a request for shelter its as high as its always been. One glimmer of hope, she said, is that the city will eventually get an influx of money from Proposition C, which voters passed this month and which would bring in as much as $300 million a year through a tax on the citys biggest businesses. Breed initially assailed the measure as well-intentioned but ill-conceived. Even though it received more than 50 percent approval, it did not get the two-thirds vote it needed to avoid possible litigation, meaning the money could be held up for months, maybe even years. Last week, Breed introduced an ordinance that would help ensure that the measure becomes law. But until that money is available, Mandelman said he needs more assurance that the city is doing everything it can to address the issue with the resources it has. I dont think the answer is just a few more police officers being deployed. I think the question is do we need to radically rethink our approach to shelter? he said. Were continuing to get jammed by our constituents. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani James Bond wouldve felt right at home in the glamorous Getty manse as decked-out guys and dolls (including House of Cards star Robin Wright, her co-host Ken Fulk, and model Karolina Kurkova), upped the fundraising ante at amfARs Charity Poker Tournament. The spirited fete featured caviar, Champagne and pro tables in the Gettys music room, atrium and atop their covered pool, where card sharks tried their best to bluff opponents. I always smile, said Nicole Lacob (who wed her longtime love, Warriors owner Joe Lacob, over the summer) of her poker prowess. Its very disarming, and no one knows what youve got in your hand: You could have a full house or nothing. Lacob is also president of the Warriors Community Foundation, which hosts its seventh charity poker tournament in January. This new generation of philanthropists doesnt have the attention span to sit through a long dinner program, she noted. So gaming, bowling or an interactive cultural event is exciting. I think this is the next wave of fundraising. But still there was a live auction and talking points by Wright, subbing for Aileen Getty, a dedicated HIV/AIDS activist and trustee of the Foundation for AIDS Research who is HIV-positive. The charitable organization is in the midst of a new campaign, Countdown to a Cure, a $100 million research initiative to find an HIV/AIDS cure or vaccine by 2020. Dr. Mervyn Silverman, an amfAR trustee and former San Francisco health director in the early days of the citys HIV/AIDS crisis, noted that U.S. transmission rates are declining. Were light-years ahead from 30 years ago. But in a population with such high literacy and access-information awareness, even one new infection is disappointing, Silverman said. The tragedy is HIV is spreading rapidly in developing nations. And here in the states, women, Latinos and African Americans are feeling the brunt of this disease. Bright light: As philanthropist Dede Wilsey took the stage at the Four Seasons Hotel where the Episcopal Impact Fund honored her at its Night of Light fundraiser, the Bohemian Clubs a capella OffBeat Band serenaded her with Hey, Big Spender. The honoree, also president of the Fine Arts Museums board, enjoyed the musical joke as much as 330 guests who raised more than $500K for the fund to provide grants, volunteers and professional support to Bay Area poverty-fighting organizations. Beaming, Wilsey enthused: Im thankful to have participated in so many organizations that mean so much to me, including four-legged causes. Its so much fun to raise money! The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, bishop of California, led a lively program of tributes by Wilseys fellow philanthropists: S.F. Opera Board chairman emeritus Pitch Johnson, FAM trustee Cynthia Gunn and her husband, SF Opera Board chairman John Gunn. Aside from Wilseys wallet-opening wiles ($16.6 million for Grace Cathedral renovations, $3.2 million for Immaculate Conception Academy), shes a trustee to the Opera, S.F. Ballet and UCSF Foundation. In her spare time, she has spearheaded campaigns for the $22 million Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera, the $200 million de Young Museum and the $1.5 billion UCSF Mission Bay Campus. A great city depends upon its philanthropists, and thats why were honoring Dede Wilsey, toasted John Gunn. She not only gives her treasure, she gives her talent and time, too, improving the arts, music, education and health care. As Episcopal charities largest contributor, Dede has helped the diocese expand its scope to strengthen communities. Best seller: It was an award-winning lineup at the National Kidney Foundations 30th Authors Luncheon headlined by literary stars Dame Tina Brown, Susan Orlean and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer. Led by chairwoman Sheila Gordon, with emcee Liam Mayclem, 900 book lovers raised almost $500K for the foundations research, advocacy and organ transplant programs. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. In conversation with author Tom Barbash, Brown recalled it was under her Vanity Fair editorship that the magazine debuted the Donald nickname. We covered the real Donald Trump, which centered on his bankruptcies, she said. He also appears in my new book (The Vanity Fair Diaries), like a sort of a recurring virus. Book Passage owner Elaine Petrocelli sets up shop for the authors with signed copies of their books a portion of sales benefiting the Kidney Foundation. This year her husband, lawyer Bill Petrocelli, starred, too, with his latest, Through the Bookstore Window. Rich Table restaurateur-chefs Sarah and Evan Rich presented a hilarious dialogue about moving to the West Coast and the debut of their new cookbook, Rich Table. These are the dishes that came to define our restaurant, Evan Rich said, joking. Theyre the ones that make it difficult to get a reservation. Like his award-winning Less, A Novel, Greer delivered a satirical stand-up set, recounting interviews with earnest reporters and his middle-school English teacher. Claiming hes an author since hes not particularly funny, cosmopolitan or even kind, Greer had the crowd in stitches. People ask me how to become a writer and I tell them: The trick is to not be good at anything else. If you cant drive or cook or answer a hotel-room phone, youre on your way, he said, with a laugh. But my point is, in all of this, you should donate your kidneys. Catherine Bigelow is The San Francisco Chronicles society correspondent. Email: missbigelow@sfgate.com Instagram: @missbigelow THE HAGUE, Netherlands The global chemical weapons watchdog is considering sending inspectors to investigate an alleged poison gas attack by rebels in Syria that wounded dozens, its director-general said Monday. Syrias state-run SANA news agency said the suspected chemical attack late Saturday was carried out by terrorist groups positioned in Aleppo countryside that fired shells containing toxic gases on three neighborhoods in the city. Syria has asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate and officials at the Hague-based agency have been in touch with U.N. experts to assess the security situation on the ground for a possible deployment of a fact-finding mission, Director-General Fernando Arias told a meeting of the organizations member states. Arias said different sources put the number of wounded at between 50 and 100. The OPCWs fact-finding mission is tasked with investigating alleged chemical attacks in Syria and reporting back to the organization and the United Nations. It has probed several attacks in Syria blamed on both government forces and rebels. The OPCW also has recently been empowered against the wishes of Syria and its ally Russia to apportion blame for chemical attacks. The OPCW experts will continue to work independently to verify all allegations of use of chemicals as weapons in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, Arias said. Following the alleged attack, Russian warplanes attacked rebel-held areas in northern Syria for the first time in weeks on Sunday. The rebels, who deny carrying out any poison gas attacks, accused the government of trying to undermine a truce reached by Russia and Turkey in September. 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. Russian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said warplanes destroyed militant positions in northern Syria linked to the alleged gas attack. The announcement in the Hague came shortly before President Bashar Assad reshuffled his Cabinet, replacing nine officials including the minister in charge of internal security. Such cabinet reshuffles are not uncommon in Syria. Mike Corder is an Associated Press writer. One of the things that was part of planning of the addition from the start was to make sure there was adequate space to support early childhood programming, said Clauson. We were able to offer additional space, which allowed us to then competitively go for additional funding to double the size of our preschool. TravelSkills on SFGate is brought to you by Visa United Airlines said it will start flying out of Washington State's Paine Field on March 31, operating four flights a day to San Francisco International and two to Denver. Tickets are on sale now. Located in Everett, Washington, about 24 miles north of downtown Seattle off Interstate 5, Paine Field has constructed a passenger terminal for the beginning of commercial flights there next year. The airport is currently used mainly for general aviation and by the adjacent Boeing plant. United said all its Paine Field flights will operate as United Express service with E175s. (See slideshow at the top for the full schedule) Two weeks ago, Alaska Airlines announced plans to introduce its own service out of Paine Field on February 11. Alaska will operate up to 18 flights a day out of Paine Field to San Francisco International, San Jose, San Diego, Portland, Phoenix, Orange County, Los Angeles International and Las Vegas, using Horizon Air E175s. Southwest Airlines had also been planning to fly out of Paine Field to Oakland and Las Vegas, but it changed its mind and recently gave up its slots and gate space at Paine to Alaska. Also known as Snohomish County Airport, Paine Field is expected to attract passengers from Seattle's northern suburbs, sparing them the long drive down to Seattle-Tacoma International, not to mention the congestion there. Sea-Tac is 14 miles south of downtown Seattle. Google Maps United noted that North Seattle and northwestern Washington State "are among the fastest growing areas in the nation." The airline currently offers up to 40 flights a day from Seattle-Tacoma International to its U.S. hubs. Will you fly into Paine Field instead of Sea-Tac? Why or why not? Please leave your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. A federal grand jury in Oakland indicted a former state assemblyman Monday for allegedly defrauding investors during his time as CEO of a coffee shop chain that operated in BART stations, authorities said. Terrence Patrick Goggin, 76, faces four counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money-laundering stemming from his time overseeing Metropolitan Coffee & Concessions (MC2), which owned four Peets Coffee & Tea shops in high-traffic BART stations. BART gave Goggin a station retail permit in 2007, which he used to build storefronts at the Montgomery, Embarcadero, Downtown Berkeley and Pittsburg/Bay Point stations, officials said. Between 2007 and 2014, Goggin sought funding to expand the existing shops and build new storefronts at Balboa Park and Civic Center stations, according to court documents. The former San Bernardino assemblyman allegedly told investors they would receive a reliable, high-rate of return on their money. But prosecutors said that Goggin did not tell private equity investors about his companys financial troubles or about the state of negotiations between MC2 and BART for a planned shop at the Civic Center station. Per the terms of the permit, BART was to collect a percentage of gross revenues with minimum monthly guarantee base rent, said Jim Allison, a spokesman for the transit agency. For most months, BART only received the minimum guarantee base rent. BART officials confirmed Tuesday that MC2 operated at BART until it went bankrupt, and the retail permit was purchased by an unrelated operator in 2015. The company received $585,000 from Lakeshore Partners, an Oakland-based LLC created by investors to funnel money into the Civic Center project. But Goggin diverted the funding to another bank account and a non-approved business project in New York City, according to Department of Justice filings from September. Prosecutors also accused Goggin of using investor funds for personal expenses, including transferring thousands of dollars to a lover in Thailand. A San Bernardino Democrat, Goggin served in the state Assembly between 1974 and 1984 and oversaw the Assembly Natural Resources Committee in the early 1980s. Goggin is also a licensed attorney in California who has practiced in San Francisco. The state bar reprimanded him in 2009 for failing to repay $5,500 to a client after receiving a $10,000 advance for attorney fees. The state bar also suspended his license to practice in 2010 and 2014 for failing to pay dues. Prosecutors sealed the original indictment in September, citing the need to protect against the potential destruction of evidence, and to prevent the possible flight of the defendant. If convicted, Goggin would face a maximum of 20 years in prison. He is expected to appear in court Dec. 5. Gwendolyn Wu and Bob Egelko are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com, begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu @egelko San Francisco police are searching for a 30-year-old man who punched another man and left him with life-threatening injuries Monday evening in the Mid-Market neighborhood. The aggravated assault occurred at 7:19 p.m. on Jones and Market streets, authorities said. The victim, who is in his 30s, fell on the ground and was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition. Village officials have said the new Well No. 5 will increase water capacity in the village and would not require the village to use Well No. 1, a shallow well now used as a backup if one of the other two are down for maintenance or a problem. A 31-year-old gunman wearing a red bandana and said to be on a narcotics binge was wounded and arrested in east San Jose after firing shots at police and barricading himself inside a residence the day after Thanksgiving, police said Monday. The exchange of gunfire and 10-hour standoff began Friday shortly after 10 a.m. in the 2800 block of Barrow Court, San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said. Three officers responding to a 911 call of a disturbance were confronted outside the home by a gunman who fired a single shot, Garcia said. Police identified the shooter as Mario Manuel Caballero. An officer armed with a rifle returned fire and forced Caballero to retreat inside the house, Garcia said. To stand there the way (the officer) did and to fire back the way he did was absolutely heroic, Garcia said. I need to tell you how proud I am of this responding officer who held his position successfully, returning fire, protecting his brother and sister officers. That bravery should not be taken for granted. Officers heard more shots being fired from inside the residence. About an hour later, the gunman again fired a single shot at officers who actually heard the shot whizzing by, Garcia said. Nine hours later, police said, officers fired unspecified chemical agents into the house, forcing Caballero to flee through an upstairs window. SWAT officers, accompanied by a police dog, arrested him and took him to a local hospital. His injuries were not considered life-threatening. Caballero was booked into Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of attempted homicide of a police officer and for possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a stolen firearm. was not immediately clear if Caballero lived in the house on Barrow Court. Garcia called the suspect a validated gang member who at the time of the shootout was on probation for several weapons convictions and had also been convicted of burglary and assault. Garcia said he did not know what triggered the incident but noted Caballero was on a narcotics binge for a while. Officers recovered two stolen handguns inside the home, one of which was believed to have been the one used to fire at officers, Garcia said. Officers also found spent bullet casings inside and outside the home. The officer who returned fired was placed on administrative leave while the incident was being investigated. His name has not been released. Body cam video footage of the incident was being turned over to the Santa Clara County district attorneys office, Garcia said. Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF Looking to improve on their first division title in five years, the Braves agreed Monday to one-year contracts with former As third baseman Josh Donaldson and catcher Brian McCann two low-risk moves that give the team a chance to make another postseason run while not hindering the long-term development of all those young players. Donaldson, who spent four seasons (2010, 2012-14) with the As before winning the AL MVP award with Toronto in 2015, agreed to a $23 million deal that matches what he made during a forgettable 2018 season, a person familiar with the agreement said. The deal was subject to a successful physical. A member of Antioch's Church of God Holy congregation arrived at church Monday morning to a shock: Swastikas had been spray-painted on the side of the church. According to KRON, the pastor at the church says they've never had any trouble with vandals in the past, and that they "cannot believe something like this happened." HOOVER, Ala. Police in Alabama offered sympathy Monday to the family of a black man fatally shot by an officer responding to gunfire at a shopping mall, but said the mans decision to pull out a weapon heightened the sense of threat to police in an already chaotic scene. Hoover Police initially described its officer as heroic for bringing down Emantic EJ Bradford Jr., 21, after two people were wounded at the Riverchase Galleria mall outside Birmingham Thanksgiving night. They then retracted the statement, saying he was likely not the gunman responsible for the initial shooting who remains at large. Bradfords father said his son had a permit to carry the handgun. The familys lawyer said witnesses told them Bradford was trying to help by waving people to safety, and was shot within milliseconds by an officer who didnt say a word to him. He saw a black man with a gun and he made his determination he must be a criminal, Ben Crump, a lawyer for Bradfords family said during a Sunday news conference in Birmingham. Police and the city of Hoover issued a more detailed statement Monday on the status of the investigation, the possible eventual release of body camera footage and the officers decision to shoot. We can say with certainty Mr. Bradford brandished a gun during the seconds following the gunshots, which instantly heightened the sense of threat to approaching police officers responding to the chaotic scene, the statement says. Bradfords parents said Monday that police still havent spoken with them. They want to see body-camera video. We dont trust the police department because theyve already lied to them. They released his picture all over the world saying he was the shooter and the police officer was a hero, Crump said. The Monday police statement says body camera video and other available video was immediately turned over to the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department as part of the investigation. Now, all evidence has been handed over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to lead the investigation. Release of any video will be done as ALEA deems appropriate. DESTIN, Fla. When Polly Varnados 9-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, it didnt take long for the family to hear about insulin pumps. In September 2012, the girl picked out a purple one her favorite color. Over the next seven months, she proceeded to be hospitalized four times in a McComb, Miss., medical center with high blood sugar. But when Varnado asked about all her daughters problems, she said, her doctor blamed user error. They said it wasnt the insulin pump, it was my daughter, said Varnado, who became a registered nurse so that she could better care for the girl. When it comes to medical devices, none have had more reported problems over the past decade than insulin pumps, a product thats used by hundreds of thousands of diabetics around the world, many of them children. Collectively, insulin pumps and their components are responsible for the highest overall number of malfunction, injury and death reports in the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations medical device database, according to an Associated Press analysis of reports since 2008. In terms of injuries alone, insulin pumps were second only to metal hip replacements, whose problems with metal shavings in the body causing damage to bone and tissue and other issues, have been well-documented and widely reported. By contrast, problems with insulin pumps largely have flown under the radar. Medical device companies and many experts say insulin pumps are safe devices that can help diabetics lead more normal lives. They blame user error for most reported problems, noting that the pumps are complicated devices requiring special training for patients. The FDA notes that diabetes is a dangerous disease, and people with diabetes who rely on insulin are at higher risk. The agency said it has played a critical role helping to identify and address safety concerns for devices ... including pushing manufacturers to improve the safety of their designs. Over the past decade, insulin pumps and pump parts made by Medtronic Inc. were subject to 20 manufacturer recalls and about 100 lawsuits alleging pump malfunctions, according to a joint investigation by the AP and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. In a statement, Medtronic said it monitors the safety of its products through clinical trials and observational studies, and that data supports both the safety and efficacy of our insulin pumps, which have helped hundreds of thousands of patients manage their diabetes. Still, a 2015 study he co-authored found that 40 percent of insulin pump users experienced problems, with a minority, particularly in children, requiring hospital management. The study also said it is noteworthy that overall pump failure rates do not appear to be improving with technological advances. Holbrook Mohr and Mitch Weiss are Associated Press writers. CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. Jury selection is continuing at a slow pace in the trial of an Ohio man accused of killing a woman during a white nationalist rally in Virginia last year. James Alex Fields Jr. is charged with first-degree murder and nine other charges for allegedly driving his car into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. A 32-year-old woman was killed and dozens of others were injured. Although the introductory vote was unanimous, council member Penny Lanphier said she did not think art should be singled out with its own ordinance. She said she would have preferred art installations to be considered in the same way as sidewalk signs, and outdoor cafe tables and chairs. TUPELO, Miss. President Trump brought back the playbook he used during the lead-up to the midterm elections, warning of the dangers of illegal immigration and painting Democrats as radical socialists, as he returned to the campaign trail Monday to try to keep a Mississippi Senate seat in GOP hands. A day after U.S. border agents deployed tear gas on a group of migrants after some tried to charge the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump returned to the campaign scare talk that had largely disappeared following the Nov. 6 midterms. Trump had made the approaching Central American caravan a central issue of the 2018 elections. The president has stressed his desire for bipartisanship in the days since the midterms, when Democrats took control of the House. But on Monday, he painted Democrats as radical and dangerous as he stumped for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing Democrat Mike Espy in a Tuesday runoff election that could pad the GOPs current 52-47 advantage in the Senate. At his first rally of the day in Tupelo, Trump told the crowd that the runoff would decide whether we build on our extraordinary achievements or whether we empower the radical Democrats to obstruct our progress. He claimed Espy would vote in total lockstep with Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and the legendary Maxine Waters, drawing resounding boos even though Trump has said that Pelosi deserves to become the next House speaker and that he could find Republican members to vote for her. Later, at a Christmas-themed rally in Biloxi, where Trump emerged on the stage from a chimney, he said that Democrats want to impose an extreme job-killing agenda and that a vote for Espy would be a vote for a Democrat agenda of socialism and open borders. Democrats will also destroy your health care by inviting caravan after caravan after caravan of immigrants into the country illegally, he claimed, warning they would wreak havoc and bankrupt the Treasury Department. The comments foreshadow the messaging dissonance that could mark the next two years of his presidency as he faces a divided Congress a Republican-majority Senate and a Democrat-controlled House after two years of across-the-board Republican power. Trump was in Mississippi in an eleventh-hour effort to keep the seat in GOP hands. Hyde-Smiths runoff against Espy, a former congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary, has been far closer than expected thanks to a series of racial controversies, including a photo that emerged of Hyde-Smith wearing a replica hat of a Confederate soldier, and a video in which she said shed be on the front row if invited to a public hanging. Jill Colvin is an Associated Press writer. Data from the jetliner that crashed into the Java Sea last month shows the pilots fought to save the plane almost from the moment it took off, as the Boeing 737s nose was repeatedly forced down, apparently by an automatic system receiving incorrect sensor readings. The information from the flight data recorder, contained in a preliminary report prepared by Indonesian crash investigators and scheduled to be released Wednesday, documents a fatal tug-of-war between man and machine, with the planes nose forced dangerously downward more than two dozen times during the 11-minute flight. The pilots managed to pull the nose back up over and over until finally losing control, leaving the plane, Lion Air Flight 610, to plummet into the ocean at 450 mph, killing all 189 people on board. The data from the so-called black box is consistent with the theory that investigators have been most focused on: that a computerized system Boeing installed on its latest generation of 737 to prevent the planes nose from getting too high and causing a stall instead forced the nose down because of incorrect information it was receiving from sensors on the fuselage. In the aftermath of the crash, pilots have expressed concern that they had not been fully informed about the new Boeing system known as the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, or MCAS and how it would require them to respond differently in case of the type of emergency encountered by the Lion Air crew. Its all consistent with the hypothesis of this problem with the MCAS system, said R. John Hansman Jr., a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and director of the international center for air transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boeing has said that the proper steps for pulling out of an incorrect activation of the system were already in flight manuals, so there was no need to detail this specific system in the new 737 jet. In a statement on Tuesday, Boeing said it could not discuss the crash while it is under investigation but reiterated that the appropriate flight crew response to uncommanded trim, regardless of cause, is contained in existing procedures. A fuller account of problems with the sensors on the fuselage, called angle-of-attack sensors, is expected to be part of a full report on the crash by Indonesian investigators. But one of those sensors was replaced before the planes next-to-last flight after having transmitted some angle and speed data incorrectly, investigators say. The pilots fought continuously until the end of the flight, said Capt. Nurcahyo Utomo, head of the air accident subcommittee of the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee, which is leading the crash investigation. Nurcahyo said that the MCAS system had been activated and is a central focus of the investigation. Details of the black box data were contained in a briefing for the Indonesian Parliament and were first disclosed publicly in the Indonesian media. The data was subsequently posted and analyzed in a blog post by Peter Lemme, a satellite communications expert and former Boeing engineer. Much remains unknown about the doomed flight, including why a plane that had encountered problems with the sensors was permitted to fly in the first place. Investigators have yet to recover the cockpit voice recorder, which could provide further insight into the steps taken by the pilots and whether they followed the correct procedures. The pilot had handed control of the plane to the co-pilot just before the plane went into its final dive. Despite Boeings insistence that the proper procedures were in the handbook, also called the emergency checklist, pilots have said since the accident that Boeing had not been clear about one potentially vital difference between the system on the new 737s and the older models. In the older versions, pilots could help address the problem of the nose being forced down improperly a situation known as runaway stabilizer trim by pulling back on the control column in front of them, the pilots say. In the latest 737 generation, called the Max, that measure does not work, they said, citing information they have received since the crash. The pilots on Lion Air Flight 610 appear to have forcefully pulled back on their control columns to no avail, before the final dive, according to the information from the flight data recorder. Capt. Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the American Airlines pilot union and a 737 pilot, said he could not comment on any aspect of the investigation. But, he said, in the previous model of the 737, pulling back on the control column, Boeing says will stop a stabilizer runaway. Information provided to American Airlines from Boeing since the crash, Tajer said, specifically says that pulling back on the control column in the Max will not stop the runaway if MCAS is triggered. That is an important difference to know. Boeing said in its statement on Tuesday that the existing procedures covered the latest 737 model. Bulletins from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States since the crash indicate that pilots could overcome an incorrectly activated MCAS with a series of steps. First, they would have had to activate switches on the outside of the control columns in front of both the pilot and co-pilot. Those switches are for electrically controlling the trim the angle of the stabilizers on the planes tail. The pilot of Flight 610 appears to have done that repeatedly to bring the nose up, but the MCAS reactivated each time, as it was designed to do, forcing the nose back down, and the pilot had to repeat the process again and again. The stabilizer is the larger of the two surfaces on the tail wing, and is ordinarily controlled by an electrical motor. Behind the stabilizer is the elevator, activated by the control columns in front of both the pilot and co-pilot. Both can move the nose up and down. From there, the pilots should have hit two electrical cutout switches to shut down the MCAS and turn the stabilizer movement over to manually controlled wheels at the ankles of the pilot and co-pilot wheels connected to cables that would move the stabilizer. It is not clear whether the pilots of Flight 610 tried that procedure. The futile struggle by the pilots to regain control can be seen in colorful jagged lines in graphs contained in the report to the Indonesian Parliament, documenting the seesaw motion of the nose as the system pushed it down at least two dozen times before the planes fatal nose-dive. From the moment Flight 610 took off just after dawn from the airport in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, the Max 8 jet was recording errant data from one of the two angle-of-attack sensors on the nose of the plane that records the pitch at which a plane is climbing or descending. Angle-of-attack sensors are crucial in determining if a plane is stalling. It is not clear whether the false data, which was on the pilots side of the plane, was attributable to a problem with the sensor itself or with the computer that processes the sensors information. But hours before the plane took off on its final flight, it had also recorded problems with an angle of attack sensor as it traveled from the resort island of Bali to Jakarta. On that next-to-last flight, the angle discrepancy between the two sensors was 20 degrees, according to officials from Indonesias National Transportation Safety Committee, which has been leading the investigation into the crash. On the final flight, the discrepancy was also 20 degrees, Nurcahyo said. Plane crashes rarely can be blamed on a single, catastrophic malfunction. More often, a problem spirals out of control as maintenance crews fail to spot or address an underlying issue and then the flight crew takes a series of steps that lead to a fatal outcome. Lion Air, Indonesias largest airline, has a notoriously flawed safety record. Government investigators have accused the carrier of ignoring their commands to ground planes with proven problems. The plane that crashed on Oct. 29 had experienced days of incorrect data readings, according to Indonesian officials. In fact, before the penultimate flight, engineers had replaced one of the angle-of-attack sensors. Why the plane recorded incorrect angle-of-attack data after the sensor had been changed is not clear. Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesias National Transportation Safety Committee, said that the replacement part was not new but was serviceable and had certification from the FAA of the United States. This article originally appeared in The New York Times The country's novelists are finding fame and acclaim beyond the borders of their motherland. Drinks, cheers, and applause. It's the world's biggest book fair. The Frankfurt, in its 70-year history, has never hosted a themed event dedicated to a Chinese author, until a few weeks ago. Mai Jia, China's Dan Brown, brought his spy thriller The Message to the event, where rights for more than 15 countries were sold or agreed upon within hours. Previously, his Decoded has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in 33 languages - a hardwon success for Chinese authors, as Western publishers rarely put translated novels before their own best-sellers, according to Gray Tan, Mai Jia's literary agent. Matching a well-written, smartly-translated story with a top publisher is the key to success in foreign markets. In short, "it's all about picking up the right book and taking it to the right people," Tan said. Readers around the world have been captivated by John le Carre's Cold War mysteries and Ian Fleming's James Bond series. Mai Jia's novels are unique for adding a Chinese touch into the genre. His Decoded is a legend about an orphaned math genius devoted to cryptography and deciphering, while The Message features a locked-room spy game set in China in the 1940s. Wang Dewei, a Harvard professor of Chinese literature, said the story intrigues readers with a riddle to solve. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] A national street dance festival was held at Heyuan Grand Theater, in Guangdong province, on Nov 21 and 22, with 30 original shows chosen from 16 cities and provinces across the country. One of the highlights was the award-winning street dance show, Yellow River, which was choreographed by Xia Guangxing and Mao Weiwei, both from China National Opera & Dance Theater, and Kong Xia, the director of the Henan Dancers Association, and integrated hip-hop, locking, popping, breaking and jazz into the music of Yellow River Cantata by Chinese composer Xian Xinghai (1905-1945). Other original street dance shows were Neighbors, which, brought by street dance troupe, CGS, from Zhongshan, Guangdong province, snd inspired by the local tea culture; and Guard, which was performed by a street dance troupe from Shenzhen, and portrayed the young generation border guards. Algeria and China on Monday signed cooperation documents for the implementation of a mega integrated project worth 6 billion U.S. dollars for the exploitation of phosphate in the eastern region of Algeria. The deals were signed by CEO of Algerian energy giant Sonatrach Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour and Chairman of CITIC Construction Chen Xiaojia in province of Tebessa in east Algeria. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and his cabinet officials, in addition to prefects of four eastern provinces involved in the project. The two parties are due to meet again in December to sign the shareholder pact for the establishment of the consortium group, as a final step that precedes the start of the construction stage of the project due early 2019. The production phase is planned for 2022. The project will be realized in partnership between CITIC Construction and three Algerian groups, namely Sonatrach, Asmidal and Manal. Ouyahia hailed the project as "the largest industry project in the last decade in Algeria, as it marks the beginning of a real partnership between Algeria and China." Chen said that "the project reflects a profound wisdom of Algeria in terms of serving its people, and we are proud to be selected to contribute in this process." For his part, Kedour said that "the sharp fall of oil prices forced Algeria to adopt a new strategy that is based on diversifying its oil-dependent economy, and this mega phosphate project is in big step toward reinforcing this strategy." "This is not the project of Sonatrach or CITIC; it is rather a federating project that will reinforce our partnership," he added. It will enable Algeria to increase its phosphate output to 10 million tons a year, thus becoming the third largest phosphate reserves in the world. China's share in this mega project is estimated at 49 percent, while the Algerian party will hold the majority share of 51 percent, in accordance with investment law of the North African country. This integrated phosphate project is spread through four main places, namely El Hadaba mine in the easternmost province of Tebessa with an investment budget worth 1.2 billion dollars, "Sulphur Stone" area in the easternmost province of Souk Ahras with an investment worth 2.2 billion dollars, "the Black Stone" area in the north-eastern province of Skikda with an investment worth 2.5 billion dollars, and the extension of the port of the northeastern province of Annaba with an investment worth 200 million dollars. The project will include the duplication of the railway connecting the production site to the port of Annaba, and connecting the sites with industrial water, gas and power. In its construction stage, the project is due to generate more than 14,600 direct jobs. Algeria aims through this project to be able to export annually fertilizer quantities worth 2 billion dollars, and gradually manage to increase its phosphate and natural gas reserves through the establishment of structured transformation and wealth-generating industry, which would pave the way for Algeria to become the third largest exporters of fertilizer in the world. WASHINGTON A British newspaper alleges that Paul Manafort secretly met WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London within days or weeks of being brought aboard Donald Trumps presidential campaign. If confirmed, the report Tuesday suggests a direct connection between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which released tens of thousands of emails stolen by Russian spies during the 2016 election. Zhang Ruimin, chairman and CEO of Haier Group, delivered a speech at the Institut Europeen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) on Nov 23, shedding new light on the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT). In his 90-minute speech titled "Create a World-class IoT Model," Zhang elaborated on how the Rendanheyi Model overturned traditional management theories, how Haier inspired the innovative spirit in the organization with user needs, and built an ecosystem brand for the IoT era which is created and shared by employees, users and stakeholders. Deputy Dean and Dean of Innovation Peter Zemsky said after the speech, that in the past several years, INSEAD has been studying the Haier Model, and this speech intrigued the audience's further interest in the Rendanheyi Model and the 3E Model, which would bring about more studies of the Haier Model around the world. Professor of Strategy Felipe Monteiro said that Haier's organization innovation model is the global benchmark when it comes to bringing entrepreneurship to large corporations. As a world class business school, and one with the largest Master student bodies, the INSEAD would further explore joint research opportunities with Haier. They believe that the Chinese management model would be learnt in Europe just as the Japanese model has been before. Change is happening INSEAD is one of the most influential independent business schools in the world, and it is ranked the No.1 business school by the Financial Times; and its MBA program was ranked No.1 by the Bloomberg Businessweek. Many CEOs of top European companies came from this school. Zhang's speech was broadcast live on its the Singapore campus at 12:00 noon local time. In the speech, Zhang explained how Haier is subverting the management model under the traditional bureaucracy through the practice of "delegating three powers," "the 3-self organization" (self-employed, self-organized, self-driven), and the "paid-by-users system". Since its establishment 34 years ago, Haier constantly reviewed its practice along the way. As a result, the company maintained the dynamics to live up to the time, and to competition in the market. As the president of INSEAD, Ilian Mihov has always followed the vision of INSEAD, which is to bring about value-driven business leaders with a global perspective. Seeing the significance of Zhang's management ideas and practices in the IoT era, the school invited him to give the lecture. Zhang said the Rendanheyi Model reflects Haier's value pursuit in the IoT era. The company believes that enterprises are born for the market, that employee value and user value should be well combined, and that employees are the source of innovation for enterprises. The subversion of the traditional organizational method and the innovative value system construction are great explorations, and they also bear significant practical meanings. In the global market, a revolution of going digital and building platforms is happening to get ready for the era of IoT. Haier's practice helps management scholars to better understand the nature of IoT, which is without border, without standard pricing, and without set orders. From silos to entrepreneurial platforms, bureaucracy is subverted; from transaction customers to interactive users, marketing is redefined; from product revenue to ecosystem revenue, the theory of income is rewritten. Haier has redefined the boundaries of the enterprise, the concept of marginal cost, the structure of linear management; and Haier has built the flexible and effective self-organization by the self-driven network featuring zero distance with the user, zero signature during the process, and zero delay in customer experiences. Starting the new era On Sept. 20, Haier held the 2nd International Rendanheyi Model Forum, marking the 14th anniversary of the Rendanheyi Model. The 3E Model ignited the research in academia, in the business and consulting circle, as well as in the media. Rendanheyi entered a new era of global duplication. In the 3E Model, Haier subverted the traditional bureaucracy with its open innovative spirit, and received acknowledgement in the management field globally. In November, the international edition of the Harvard Business Review published the "The End of Bureaucracy" as its cover article. This article is a case study of Haier and introduced the new era of management. Haier's practices support the opinion of the authors Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, two world-renowned strategists from the MLab, that bureaucracy has come to an end. The Rendanheyi Model overturned corporate bureaucracy, which has been around for more than 100 years. Haier took the lead in exploring a management model that truly suits the internet era, and launched a new era of management studies. On Nov. 30, Zhang will be invited to speak at the Global Drucker Forum in Vienna, Austria. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Forum, global management experts will gather to discuss the topic "Management, in People's Dimension" and explore whether leaders in the 21st century should be adept in understanding people-related management technology just as they do with the latest scientific discoveries. By then, the Rendanheyi Model, with its emphasis on human value, will provide new insights for the community to challenge the prevailing management pattern, and develop new management model for the IoT era. General Motors will cease production in five North American plants next year to accelerate its transformation strategy, the leading U.S. automaker announced on Monday. Assembly and supporting propulsion plants which would be "unallocated" by the end of 2019 include Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit; Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio; Baltimore Operations in White Marsh, Maryland; Warren Transmission Operations in Warren, Michigan; and Oshawa Assembly in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. "GM is continuing to take proactive steps to improve overall business performance including the reorganization of its global product development staffs, the realignment of its manufacturing capacity and a reduction of salaried workforce," General Motors said in a statement. These actions are expected to increase annual adjusted automotive free cash flow by 6 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2020. "The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future," GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra was quoted as saying. In the past four years, GM has refocused capital and resources to support the growth of its crossovers, SUVs and trucks. According to Barra, GM's cost-cutting effort will lead to more investments in autonomous and electric vehicles. Thousands of affected workers in the United States will have the opportunity to be transferred to GM's other plants. Other choices include buyout or layoff. In addition to the previously announced closure of an assembly plant in Gunsan, South Korea, GM will also cease the operations of two unnamed plants outside North America by the end of 2019, said the automaker. OAKLAND (BCN) Two men pleaded no contest to first-degree murder today for their roles in the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man during a robbery near the MacArthur BART station in Oakland four years ago. Amari Harmon, 21, of San Leandro, and Tony Reed, 27, of Oakland, entered their pleas shortly before they were scheduled to stand trial with two other defendants for the shooting of Hamilton Rodriguez-Ramos in the 500 block of 37th Street, near West MacArthur Boulevard and Telegraph Avenue, at about 9:50 p.m. on Dec. 5, 2014. Rodriguez-Ramos was transported to Highland Hospital in grave condition after he was shot and died there four days later. The plea agreements for Harmon, who was the person who fatally shot Rodriguez-Ramos, and Reed call for them to receive state prison terms of 25 years to life when they are formally sentenced on Jan. 9. They could have faced life in prison without the possibility of parole if they had gone to trial and been convicted of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing a murder during a robbery. Prosecutor Butch Ford said co-defendants Steven Hall, 27, of Oakland, and Joel Robinson, 24, of Berkeley, who also were charged with murder, are expected to plead no contest to carjacking later today and face eight-year prison terms. Police said Harmon knew Rodriguez-Ramos, who was a security guard at a hair supply business in East Oakland, because they had both attended Encinal High School in Alameda. Police said Harmon and the other suspect lured Rodriguez-Ramos to the 500 block of 37th Street, where they robbed him of cash and other items. Harmon's lawyer William Linehan said Harmon, who was arrested on Jan. 9, 2015, will be eligible for parole after he's been in custody for 20 years because he was only 17 at the time of the shooting. Rodriguez-Ramos' parents attended the plea entry hearings today. 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. Three people who died in a crash last Wednesday on U.S. Highway 101 near King City have been identified by the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. King City residents Fausto Cervantes Sarmiento, 51, Nemorio Ramos, 50 and Margarita Cervantes Pacheco, 24, were killed in the crash that involved nine people. Family members of Sarmiento and Pacheco are now trying to raise money to bring their bodies back to Oaxaca, Mexico, according to their cousin, Delphin Hernandez, who lives in New Jersey. Sarmiento and Pacheco were from the Santa Cruz Zenzontepec area of Oaxaca and worked at a farm in King City, Hernandez said. He created a GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/mueren-mis-2primos-accidentes-automovilistico but has only been able to raise $120 of a $15,000 goal in the last five days. "It's very sad because they both left behind children," Hernandez said. He began raising funds when he learned about their deaths because transporting bodies is very expensive, he said. The crash happened at about 6:10 a.m. last Wednesday near Central Avenue on the highway. A 2003 Chevrolet Astro van turning west carrying eight people failed to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic, according to the California Highway Patrol. The van was struck by a Dodge Journey on its passenger side, and three people inside the van were killed. The Dodge driver, a 60-year-old Atascadero woman, suffered major injuries to her chest, ribs and legs. Four other people in the Chevrolet van ages 25 to 61 suffered head, neck, arm, chest and leg injuries, according to the CHP. Officers are still investigating the crash and do not know if alcohol or drugs were factors. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) An educational campaign aimed at youth, to dispel myths about cannabis use and warn of risks, was announced today by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Developed with the help of middle and high school students, the "Truth or Nah" multilingual campaign will appear on Muni bus ads, a website and posters and several locations throughout the city. A question-and-answer theme features three colors reflecting three answers, 'truth, meh and nah' and encourages youth to ask "ask the right questions," according to the health department. Two messages about health impacts from cannabis will be part of the campaign's first phase: smoking weed can damage lungs just like cigarettes; and edibles can contain more THC and can kick-in unexpectedly. The second phase will include social media advertisements on Instagram and video public service announcements. Posters and postcards will also be available at clinics within the San Francisco Health Network. "It's more imperative than ever that young people understand the potential dangers of cannabis use," said Gentle Blythe, a deputy superintendent with the San Francisco Unified School District. A 2016-17 survey by the district found that by 12th grade, 20.5 percent of San Francisco youth reported using marijuana in the past 30 days. Voters in California approved Proposition 64 in 2016, legalizing the use, possession, transportation and retail sale of cannabis for adults age 21 or older. The law took effect on Jan. 1, 2017. The campaign's website is located at https://www.truthornahsf.org. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. OAKLAND (BCN) A former state assemblyman has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Oakland on charges of an investment fraud scheme related to plans for coffee shops at BART stations. Terrence Goggin, 77, now a lawyer in San Francisco, was a Democratic assemblyman from San Bernardino from 1974 to 1985. He was charged under seal in a superseding indictment on Sept. 13 with four counts of wire fraud and nine counts of laundering the money he allegedly fraudulently gained from investors. The charges were unsealed after Goggin's initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Kandis Westmore in Oakland on Monday. He will return to Westmore's court on Dec. 5 for identification of a defense lawyer, arraignment and a detention hearing. According to the indictment, Goggin formed a company called Metropolitan Coffee and Concession Co. to build Peet's Coffee & Tea shops at BART stations. The indictment alleges that after building shops at four stations, Goggin solicited $685,000 from two investment companies to build two more at the San Francisco Civic Center and Balboa Park stations. He allegedly spent the money instead on personal expenses, a project in New York and gifts to a girlfriend in Thailand. If convicted, Goggin could face up to 20 years in prison for each fraud count and 10 years for each money laundering count, plus payments of fines and restitution. The Sept. 13 superseding indictment replaced a three-count indictment issued on Sept. 6. The four coffee shops previously built by Goggin were at the Downtown Berkeley, Pittsburg/Bay Point, San Francisco Embarcadero and San Francisco Montgomery stations. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A man in his 30s suffered life-threatening injuries after being punched on San Francisco's Market Street on Monday evening, according to police. The assault was reported at 7:19 p.m. in the area of Market and Jones streets. The victim fell to the ground after being punched. He was taken to a hospital and an update on his condition was not immediately available this morning. The suspect, also believed to be a man in his 30s, has not been arrested, police said. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. ANTIOCH (BCN) Antioch police said on Tuesday that they've arrested a 24-year-old man on suspicion of spray-painting anti-Semitic and racist graffiti on the door of City Hall, three city vehicles and a church. Laurence Phipps, an Antioch resident, was taken into custody after a search of his home allegedly turned up evidence connecting him to the crime, according to police. Around 9 a.m. Sunday, a witness reported that a suspect was observed tagging city-owned vehicles downtown. Investigating officers discovered that the door at City Hall had also been vandalized, as well as a local business. Then Monday morning, additional graffiti was found in numerous locations, including the Church of God Holy, near the intersection of A Street and West 18th Street. The graffiti included swastikas, racial slurs and other vulgar language, according to police. Based on surveillance video and tips from the community, Phipps was identified as a suspect. He was taken into custody this morning. Politicians are marking the 40th anniversary of Harvey Milk and George Moscone's assassinations today with ceremonies in San Francisco and Oakland. Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and served until his assassination in 1978. He was known as a leader in the LGBT movement and the first openly gay American to be elected into public office. Moscone was a state senator before being elected as mayor in 1975. He and Milk were killed by Dan White, who had recently resigned from the Board of Supervisors. Mayor London Breed issued a statement today honoring the two slain politicians. "Supervisor Harvey Milk's impact was transformative not just for San Francisco, but the nation. His very presence on the Board of Supervisors as the first openly gay elected official in California opened the doors of opportunity for future leaders in our LGBT community," Breed said. "Mayor George Moscone made many contributions leading the city where he was born and raised, including his work to make our government reflect the diversity and backgrounds of the people of San Francisco," she said. "As a black woman who served as a commissioner before becoming supervisor, I know these opportunities opened up paths for people like me to serve our city in ways that were not possible before." State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who is gay and a former San Francisco supervisor, also issued a statement marking the anniversary. "I had the honor of representing Harvey's old district on the Board of Supervisors. For those of us who are LGBT and serving in elected office, Harvey continues to be an inspiration and role model for what it means to be out, proud, and making change in our communities," he said. Breed and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman will host a commemorative event at San Francisco City Hall at 12:30 p.m. along with former Mayor Willie Brown, Cleve Jones and members of the Moscone family. At tonight's Oakland City Council meeting, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland's first openly lesbian councilmember, will offer an "in memoriam" to honor Milk's legacy. "Harvey Milk was an inspiration and role model for me," Kaplan said in a statement. "His outspoken leadership, commitment to justice and hope, and proud fight for LGBT rights while also actively working with broad coalitions for workers' rights and racial and social justice, have helped inform my own work and been a beacon of hope to many." 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. Chinese consumer goods brands are posting faster growth in terms of consumer penetration and expansion of consumer base in the past year, a recent study by Kantar Worldpanel reveals. P&G and Yili were the top two companies with the widest consumer bases, reporting 92.4 percent and 90.9 penetration among urban consumers respectively, according to the study which tracks urban shoppers' purchasing behavior in 24 provinces and municipalities across more than 100 product categories. Nongfu Spring, Haday and Dali are the fastest growing brands with more than 5 percent increase in penetration from a year ago. Chinese companies continued to outpace multinationals in recruiting new shoppers faster through braver innovations, agile go-to-market capabilities and successful activation of omni-channel strategies. "The brands with the biggest gains are those who have been innovating in ways most relevant to todays Chinese consumers, making their lives healthier, happier and easier," commented Kantar Worldpanel China general manager Jason Yu. "In a challenging environment for brands and retailers, companies that constantly innovate and evolve within the new retail era are best placed to succeed," he added. Despite China's aging population, winning the love of millennial consumers is critical for brands to thrive as the younger generation offer new opportunities to unlock future growth with more disposable income and desire to express their individuality. For example, Nongfu Spring managed to grow its shopper base amongst young singles and couples by 30 percent in the last 12 months through the launch of their "Victory" vitamin water, which gained popularity through its sponsorship of popular reality show Idol Producer.' Similarly, Coca Cola is also seeking growth through smaller packages and new product lines such as fiber drinks to balance young consumers needs for both nutrition and good taste. A total of 21 fast-moving consumer goods companies reached over 100 million urban households, 13 of which are local companies and eight are multinational brands. The latest Kantar Worldpanel report indicates that companies successful in growing customer numbers are those who achieved balanced penetration gains across both online and offline channels. Yili, for example, grew its online and offline buyers by 4 and 6 million respectively, and offline distribution channels brought more shopper growth for companies like Mengniu, Hengan and Dali. Consumers now have plenty of choice regarding shopping channels as the boundary between online and offline channels are increasingly blurring. Emergency crews are at the scene this afternoon of a vehicle that crashed into a building in San Francisco's Parkside neighborhood, according to fire officials. ALSO: Modesto woman burying pet discovers body in backyard Two people have been extricated from the vehicle, which hit a building at 1404 Taraval St. shortly after 3 p.m., fire officials said. The condition of the car's occupants was not immediately available. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Crews are installing temporary flood barriers in a low-lying part of San Francisco's Mission District in anticipation of heavy rain this week, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials said today. According to the National Weather Service, rain is expected in San Francisco later today as well as on Wednesday and Thursday and into the weekend. The interlocking barriers are being placed along 17th and Folsom streets, an area with increased flood risks. The SFPUC is also deploying crews to clean catch basins with high-powered vacuum trucks and assigning employees to monitor other low-lying areas in the city that are prone to flooding. Free sandbags are available for residents to pick up at the Public Works Operations Yard at 2323 Cesar Chavez St. More information on ways the city is helping prepare for the rainy weather can be found at www.sfwater.org/RainReadySF. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. A man suspected of killing a Palo Alto woman in a 1973 cold case was arraigned in a packed Santa Clara County courtroom this afternoon as the victim's sister shared her account of the grisly murder. Arthur Getreu, 74, was arrested in Hayward on Nov. 20 after Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies found a match on his DNA through an online genealogy database. He has been charged with murder and the attempted rape of 21-year-old Leslie Marie Perlov on Feb. 13, 1973. Diane Perlov, Leslie's sister, traveled from Southern California and spoke in front of Judge Cynthia Sevely today detailing the siblings' close bond and lasting effects of Leslie's murder. She directed her comments at Getreu, who didn't make eye contact with her as he sat wearing black-rimmed glasses in a wheelchair behind the bar. Diane said Leslie was always a "protector" as the oldest sibling in the family. Diane and her brother Craig, now 66 and 64, held hands as she repeated her statement outside the courtroom after the arraignment. "When [Leslie] left home to attend Stanford, I cried the first night," said Diane, who was 20 at the time. "Not because I needed her to apply to college, but because with Leslie, we laughed so hard our sides ached and no sound came out." Leslie had attended Stanford University and gotten a scholarship to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania when her life was cut short, Diane said. On the afternoon of her disappearance, Leslie left the North County Law Library in Palo Alto and drove to the hills at Old Page Mill and Page Mill roads before parking her 1972 orange Chevrolet Nova at the gate of an old quarry. She was last known to have walked to the hills northwest of her car, according to sheriff's deputies, and was found three days later buried under an Oak tree in unincorporated Santa Clara County near Palo Alto. She was found face down with her skirt hiked up above her waist, and her underwear and pantyhose in her mouth, according to sheriff's deputies. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation by ligature. The case went cold until 2016, when officers reopened the investigation. On Nov. 20, Diane received a call from Sgt. Noe Cortez saying, "Diane, we got him." A "Snapshot DNA" match from Parabon NanoLabs, a genetic technology company, whittled down the possibilities to find Getreu. The possibility that a random individual could have matched the existing profile is extremely low, according to sheriff's deputies. "I don't think that anybody expects somebody to be held accountable for a case that happened so many years ago," said Sgt. Shannon Catalano, an investigator on the case. "I think that that's always a surprise for all parties who are involved or associated." Sgt. Catalano and Noe said they are very confident in the arrest and continuing to investigate the case for the possibility of additional victims. For Diane, her sister's murder left a palpable mark on daily life. She said she no longer walks to her car with a scarf around her neck, like the one Leslie had borrowed from her the day she died, and can't walk alone in the woods. Her son was born exactly 10 years after Leslie's death on Feb. 13, 1983, and she said he was luckily able to retrieve an oil painting of his late aunt as he evacuated his home during the Woolsey Fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties earlier this month. "I was stunned, I still am. I am grateful to the dedicated heroes of law enforcement. I am relieved that this person will not hurt other women, and that perhaps there will be justice," Diane said. "But mainly, I still miss my sister." District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Getreu now faces the possibility of life in prison, but will be held to penalties in effect at the time of the murder. The maximum sentence for homicide in 1973 was seven years to life, meaning Getreu could be eligible for parole after seven years if he is convicted. He is currently being held without bail and represented by public defender Kelley Kulick. Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker will be prosecuting the case. Getreu is scheduled to return to court to enter a plea on Dec. 17. 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. Former San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders player Aldon Smith pleaded no contest on Monday to two misdemeanors for a domestic violence case earlier this year, prosecutors said. Smith, 29, entered the pleas to charges of false imprisonment and violating a court order. He was sentenced to three years of probation, 90 days in jail that can be served in a residential treatment center, 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling and 25 hours of community service, San Francisco District Attorney's Office spokesman Alex Bastian said. Around 8:30 p.m. on March 3, officers responded to an apartment in the 600 block of Bush Street on a report of domestic violence involving Smith that left a woman injured. Smith had left the scene before officers arrived, police said. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Smith and he turned himself in days later. On March 23, he had to turn himself in to police again after violating a protective order prohibiting him from contacting the victim in the case. A judge ordered Smith to be placed with an ankle monitor and to abstain from alcohol, but when he showed up in April to get the ankle monitor, he had a blood-alcohol content of .40, prosecutors said. The Raiders released Smith in the days after his initial arrest. He had played for the 49ers starting in 2011 but the team released him in August 2015 following an arrest for a DUI hit-and-run in Santa Clara. Smith's defense attorney Josh Bentley was not immediately available for comment on the case. A San Jose man who was shot by police and taken into custody at the end of an hours-long standoff on Saturday has been identified by police as 31-year-old Mario Caballero. The standoff began at about 10 a.m. at a house on Barrow Court after police received a report of a family member armed with a gun. Officers had also responded to a call at the house the previous night but hadn't made an arrest, according to San Jose police Chief Eddie Garcia. Garcia said at a news conference Monday morning that Caballero is a validated gang member who is believed to have been on a "narcotics binge." When officers arrived, Caballero allegedly emerged out of the house with a red bandana covering the lower half of his face and fired a single shot at police. An officer shot back with a long rifle and injured Caballero, at which point he barricaded himself inside the house and refused to come out. He then shot again at police about an hour later while still barricaded, according to Garcia. The chief described body camera footage of bullets whizzing past the officers. No one else in the neighborhood was injured. A tactical team and SWAT officers responded to the scene and police drew Caballero out of the home hours later with tear gas and a police canine. He was arrested at about 8:20 p.m. and was taken to the hospital for his injuries, which were not life-threatening. He is still in the hospital but was booked on suspicion for three counts of attempted homicide, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a stolen firearm and ammunition. Caballero was on supervised release for similar violations at the time he was arrested, and has a lengthy criminal history involving burglary, assault, narcotics, firearms and gang-related activities. Police found a 9mm-caliber handgun at the scene allegedly used by Caballero to shoot at the officers, as well as a 40mm-caliber handgun. Both had been reported stolen in residential burglaries last year, according to Garcia. They also located three shell casings from Caballero's gun outside the home and two shell casings inside the home. It is possible he may have fired at officers from inside the house, according to police. Garcia said the officer who fired back at Caballero was "heroic" for standing his ground and protecting other officers at the scene. The officer is currently on paid administrative leave, which is routine for police shootings. "To tell you that it keeps me up at night is not an exaggeration," Garcia said, explaining that officers take many guns off the streets but frequently encounter violent individuals with firearms. "The individuals who are carrying those guns could very easily be turning on officers at any point." San Jose police, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, police internal affairs and the city's Independent Police Auditor are investigating the case. A man suspected of killing a Palo Alto woman in a 1973 cold case was arraigned in a packed Santa Clara County courtroom Monday afternoon as the victim's sister shared her account of the grisly murder. Arthur Getreu, 74, was arrested in Hayward on Nov. 20 after Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies found a match on his DNA through an online genealogy database. He has been charged with murder and the attempted rape of 21-year-old Leslie Marie Perlov on Feb. 13, 1973. Diane Perlov, Leslie's sister, traveled from Southern California and spoke in front of Judge Cynthia Sevely on Monday detailing the siblings' close bond and lasting effects of Leslie's murder. She directed her comments at Getreu, who didn't make eye contact with her as he sat wearing black-rimmed glasses in a wheelchair behind the bar. Diane said Leslie was always a "protector" as the oldest sibling in the family. Diane and her brother Craig, now 66 and 64, held hands as she repeated her statement outside the courtroom after the arraignment. "When [Leslie] left home to attend Stanford, I cried the first night," said Diane, who was 20 at the time. "Not because I needed her to apply to college, but because with Leslie, we laughed so hard our sides ached and no sound came out." Leslie had attended Stanford University and gotten a scholarship to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania when her life was cut short, Diane said. On the afternoon of her disappearance, Leslie left the North County Law Library in Palo Alto and drove to the hills at Old Page Mill and Page Mill roads before parking her 1972 orange Chevrolet Nova at the gate of an old quarry. She was last known to have walked to the hills northwest of her car, according to sheriff's deputies, and was found three days later buried under an Oak tree in unincorporated Santa Clara County near Palo Alto. She was found face down with her skirt hiked up above her waist, and her underwear and pantyhose in her mouth, according to sheriff's deputies. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation by ligature. The case went cold until 2016, when officers reopened the investigation. On Nov. 20, Diane received a call from Sgt. Noe Cortez saying, "Diane, we got him." A "Snapshot DNA" match from Parabon NanoLabs, a genetic technology company, whittled down the possibilities to find Getreu. The possibility that a random individual could have matched the existing profile is extremely low, according to sheriff's deputies. "I don't think that anybody expects somebody to be held accountable for a case that happened so many years ago," said Sgt. Shannon Catalano, an investigator on the case. "I think that that's always a surprise for all parties who are involved or associated." Sgt. Catalano and Noe said they are very confident in the arrest and continuing to investigate the case for the possibility of additional victims. For Diane, her sister's murder left a palpable mark on daily life. She said she no longer walks to her car with a scarf around her neck, like the one Leslie had borrowed from her the day she died, and can't walk alone in the woods. Her son was born exactly 10 years after Leslie's death on Feb. 13, 1983, and she said he was luckily able to retrieve an oil painting of his late aunt as he evacuated his home during the Woolsey Fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties earlier this month. "I was stunned, I still am. I am grateful to the dedicated heroes of law enforcement. I am relieved that this person will not hurt other women, and that perhaps there will be justice," Diane said. "But mainly, I still miss my sister." District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Getreu now faces the possibility of life in prison, but will be held to penalties in effect at the time of the murder. The maximum sentence for homicide in 1973 was seven years to life, meaning Getreu could be eligible for parole after seven years if he is convicted. He is currently being held without bail and represented by public defender Kelley Kulick. Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker will be prosecuting the case. Getreu is scheduled to return to court to enter a plea on Dec. 17. Four people who were attending a vigil in West Oakland on Sunday night were wounded in a drive-by shooting, police said. A 54-year-old woman and three men ages 29, 36 and 41 were shot at the intersection of 24th and Chestnut streets at about 11:05 p.m. Sunday while they were at the vigil for a neighborhood resident who had recently died from natural causes, police said. The victims are expected to survive, according to police. Police have not released any suspect information in the case. Police in Antioch are continuing to review surveillance video from Sunday and Monday morning, following two separate incidents of vandalism in the city's downtown area. According to police, a suspect was seen on surveillance vandalizing a city owned vehicle on Sunday morning. The same person was also seen in the area on surveillance Monday morning, although he was not seen committing a crime. Although several locations were vandalized, including Antioch City Hall on Sunday and a church Monday morning, police said they do not believe the suspect targeted any specific places. The first incident happened on Sunday around 9 a.m. after someone reported the vandalism in downtown. When officers went to investigate the area, they found three city vehicles, a City Hall door and a business had been vandalized with spray paint. On Monday morning, officers again received a report of vandalism in the area. Upon arrival, officers found black spray paint on numerous locations, including the Church of God-Holy near West Third and G streets, police said. The vandalism consisted of swastikas, racial slurs and vulgar words and phrases. In a video posted to the Church of God-Holy's Facebook page, Pastor Eugene Jackson showed the extent of the vandalism at the church. Antioch Mayor Sean Wright said the vandalism "is not part of our community and doesn't represent our community." Police have released images of the suspect. Anyone with information is being asked to call Antioch police at (925) 778-2441. A pedestrian died after they became trapped under a semi-truck Monday morning in Pinole, police said. Around 9:50 a.m., officers responded to a collision at the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Appian Way involving a pedestrian. There, officers found the male pedestrian trapped underneath the truck. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. The truck's driver remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation. Police are working with the coroner to determine the victim's identity. The fatal collision caused San Pablo Avenue to be closed between Appian Way and Jones Avenue as officers investigated with help from the California Highway Patrol. The roadway reopened around 4 p.m. Anyone with information about the collision is being asked to call Pinole Police Officer Eugene Lew at (510) 724-8950. 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. Tuesday, November 27, 2018 New religious bill can have serious impact on Christian communities in Bulgaria MEP's of the European Christian Political Movement have expressed their concern towards the proposed legislation titled Bill for the Amendment and Supplement of the Law on Religions currently progressing through the National Assembly of Bulgaria. The MEP's said they were uncertain about the proposed law that has the potential to significantly interfere with religious freedom in Bulgaria. In recent weeks, they have been made aware of a growing disquiet from a broad range of Christian communities in Bulgaria regarding the possible negative impact of this proposed law on Christian life. Among the various aspects of the new proposed law are provisions that significantly raises the registration criteria for the number of members; allows governmental body to insensitively interfere by checking the church doctrines and rituals; and gives right to the governmental body to make a claim if registered religious communities don`t fulfil new requirements of the bill. In their letter to Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, they wrote: Freedom of religion and belief is considered a fundamental right of all EU citizens and a pillar of European democracy. We thoroughly believe that the wellbeing of Bulgarian people and development of Bulgarian society is your uttermost priority. Our experience from the nations we represent shows that respect for the principle of non-discrimination of Christians of every denomination always results in a harmonious and prosperous society. In the end ECPM MEP's are encouraging Bulgarian legislators to take these arguments into account and consider necessary steps that will safeguard the rights of religious minorities living in Bulgaria. The letter was sent to the President of the European Parliament, Mr Antonio Tajani, with a plea for intervention in this matter too. You are here: Business The founder of China's Hong Kong-based industry conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, Li Ka-shing, has donated 4.5 million Australian dollars (3.25 million U.S. dollars) to a world-first immunotherapy trial in Australia. Targeted to mesothelioma and advanced pancreatic cancer sufferers, the trial is also expected to hold huge potential for a range of other diseases including lung, ovarian and breast cancers. Named the Li Ka-shing Cell and Gene Therapy Initiative, the project will be headed up by the University of Sydney, along with a range of other Aussie partners. "This visionary act of generosity from the Li Ka-shing Foundation unlocks the potential to create new-generation gene therapies that could offer new hope to cancer patients," Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sydney Dr Michael Spence said on Tuesday. According to researchers, developing treatments for rare cancers like pancreatic cancer is a major challenge, due to the lower numbers of patients and perceived lack of commercial return. But with a survival rate of just 7 percent, every year around 500,000 worldwide succumb to the tragic disease. However, by genetically reprogramming white blood cells, the team believes it's possible to use one's own blood to specifically target and kill cancer cells. "This groundbreaking trial will be the first in Australia to test CAR T-cell immunotherapy in a solid tumour," trial lead Professor John Rasko said. "With support from the Li Ka-shing Foundation, we propose to expand capability by undertaking a potentially curative clinical trial." The output of China's building materials sector expanded steadily in the first 10 months with growing profitability, official data showed. Major building materials all posted a rise in their output. The output of cement and flat glass went up by 2.6 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, according to data from the National Development and Reform Commission. Cement and flat glass, which used to suffer from serious oversupply, have both become more profitable in this period. The profits of cement businesses rocketed by 123.1 percent, while that of flat glass increased by 40 percent year on year. The data came as the property sector, a major consumer of cement and flat glass, saw growing investment in the first 10 months. China's real estate investment increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. A Chinese scientist's attempt to produce the world's first gene-edited babies who are immune to HIV has sparked heated controversy among those in academia and the public. In an online video posted on Monday, He Jiankui, a biological researcher, announced that a pair of twin baby girls, Lulu and Nana, were born healthy a few weeks ago through in-vitro fertilization with genetic editing technology that can prevent them from being infected with HIV. "The mother started her pregnancy by regular IVF with one difference: right after sending her husband's sperm into her eggs, we also sent in a little bit of protein and instruction for a gene surgery," He, from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, said in the video. "Lulu and Nana were just a single cell when the surgery removed the doorway through which HIV enters to infect people." He, who was believed to be in Hong Kong on Monday to attend the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, a three-day conference due to open on Tuesday, could not be reached for comment. But his announcement sparked heated controversy among regulators and academics concerning medical ethics and effectiveness. The Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission said on Monday evening that it had not received any ethical assessment application for the study, which is a prerequisite for such experiments. A report by The Associated Press on Monday said He sought and received approval for his project from the ethics committee of the Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital, and an approval document from the hospital circulated online on Monday. However, the Shenzhen commission said the hospital's ethics committee was invalid, as the hospital did not register as required with the commission about the establishment of such a committee. The commission started an ethics investigation into the issue and will release the result to the public, it said. The hospital would not comment on Monday. The Southern University of Science and Technology said in a statement on Monday that the university was not aware of the research, as He did not report it to the school. The university said the academic council of its Biology Department, where He works as an associate professor, believes that the research has seriously violated academic ethics and rules, and the university would immediately set up an independent investigation team on the matter. A regulation released in 2016 by the previous National Health and Family Planning Commission the current National Health Commission requires health institutions to establish ethical committees for ethical inspection over biological or medical research that involves humans before they get approval, while the national health authority is responsible for researching into major ethics issues concerning such research and providing guidance to local health authorities. The National Health Commission did not reply to questions sent by China Daily on Monday. Bai Hua, head of Baihualin, a nongovernmental organization that promotes the interests of people with HIV/AIDS, told China Daily on Monday that the parents of the two babies are people with HIV. He Jiankui talked to Bai in April last year, hoping to find people with HIV for the research, Bai said, adding he spread the news to such people he knew, and about 200 showed interests. "Of the group infected with HIV, many are with special conditions, such as they are unable to naturally conceive, but the reality is that they cannot get babies through IVF in hospitals," he said. "Many of them think the research gives them a chance to have babies without the risk of getting HIV as they do." The fear of opening "Pandora's Box" On Monday, more than 120 scholars from prestigious universities and institutes from China and abroad, such as Tsinghua University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, strongly condemned the research in a signed statement, saying the "research" lacks effective ethics inspection, and it amounts to human experimentation, which is "crazy". In the statement, published on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, the scientists said any attempt to make changes to human embryos with genetic editing and give birth to such babies entails high risk, due to inaccuracies in existing genetic editing technologies. "Scientists all over the world dare not make such attempts due to the huge risks and more importantly, ethics," the statement said. Once a living human is produced in this way, his or her genes will be mixed with human genes of others, and no one can foresee the consequences, it said. "The government must make quick legislative moves to strictly supervise such research," it said. "The Pandora's Box has been opened, and we may still have a chance of closing it before it is too late." Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said he was astounded to hear of the birth of twins with edited genes. "Genetic editing technology is far from mature and could have unforeseen consequences on the subjects," he told China Daily. "It is improper to do such research on humans." Right now there are some researchers trying to use genetic editing technology to treat people infected with HIV, so the virus will not duplicate and transmit to others, he said. "But the research is still confined to labs," he said. "Animal experiments should be done to assess both gains and risks for the subjects, before the possibility of application to humans." Some scientists attending the summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday think it could introduce serious problems to the human immune system, while others think people should not be overly concerned or frightened as it would not affect the core genome, and families of HIV patients could benefit from it, if the test is true and successful. Tsui Lap-chee, president of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong, said a lot of issues may occur in gene editing. If one gene is edited, it will affect others that interact with it. And the whole genome, a collection of genes, may also be affected. "As genes play a role in the immune system, if you take away a certain gene, maybe the immune system is compromised," explained Robin Lovell-Badge, group leader and head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute. Though people are immune to certain diseases, saying they have the ability to resist the AIDS virus, there are perhaps other diseases that people are more susceptible to, Lovell-Badge said. However, Lovell-Badge said, "Gene editing is not something to be afraid of", adding that he doesn't think what He has done will affect the core human genome. As for side effects, they may not be very serious, as there are millions of people having the exact same mutation living healthily. "Gene editing is something we need to think deeply about what should be committed to and what should not," he said. "How to regulate the work really matters." Monday marked the start of the fifth round of math teacher exchanges between the United Kingdom and China, as 86 math teachers from primary schools in the UK arrived at Shanghai Normal University for a two-week program. After a day of training, the teachers will visit 62 primary schools in the city for immersive teaching and learning activities. Launched in 2014, the exchange involves teachers from the UK visiting China, and teachers from China visiting the UK for two to three weeks, enabling them to learn from each other's education systems. A delegation of 86 Shanghai math teachers will visit 43 primary schools in the UK in January. The UK-China Math Teachers' Exchange and Cooperation Program has deepened the sharing of math teaching between two countries, Paul Kett, director general for education standards at the UK's Department for Education, said at the launch of the program on Monday. More than 500 teachers from the two countries have been involved in the exchange program over the past four years, and another 12,000 teachers in the UK have learned from demonstrations by the Shanghai teachers, Kett said. According to Du Kewei, director general of the Ministry of Education's China Center for International People-to-People Exchange, the program includes research on math education theory, immersive teaching communication, field trips and experience sharing. Chinese students have demonstrated their excellence in math in the Program for International Student Assessment, an international study assessing 15-year-olds on key knowledge and skills, mainly in reading, math and science. Students from Shanghai placed first in the PISA in 2012. British participants were 25 places behind. The assessment has been conducted every three years since 2000. In 2014, the UK's education department said it would spend $53 million on a four-year program to spread the Shanghai math teaching model nationwide in the next four years to improve students' proficiency. A two-year extension of the program was announced earlier this year during British Prime Minister Theresa May's visit to China. By 2023, around 11,000 students will have learned through the East-Asian style of math teaching in British schools thanks to the exchange program. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will continue cooperating with China on farm animal welfare to help improve animal health and food safety, the organization's China representative said. China has made quick progress in farm animal welfare, although it is taking time for full public recognition of the issue, said Vincent Martin, the UN's FAO representative for China and the DPRK. "We want to support China in this endeavor. ... We are now promoting awareness of farm animal welfare," he said. "We have a lot of projects with the Chinese government in many different areas, but we have never conducted any joint technical pilot project to promote farm animal welfare." He added that farm animal welfare is crucial to food safety. "There is a strong link between animal welfare and food safety," he said. "If you improve animal welfare, their immunity to diseases will be improved, and you can use less antibiotics. If the animals are happier, fit and living in better conditions, the meat is healthier." Xi Chunling, vice-president of the China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation, which hosted the second World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare with the FAO in Beijing last month, said China has promoted raising farm animals, such as pigs, cattle and chicken, in a healthier and more environmentally friendly way, and in certain areas it has been on par with some developed countries in ensuring welfare for farm animals. "For example, animal welfare is ensured in most slaughterhouses in China, where pain-free means of slaughtering, such as using carbon dioxide, have been commonly adopted," she said, adding that welfare practices need to improve in some other parts of the animal industry, such as transport. "Promoting welfare in raising, transporting and slaughtering farm animals not only benefit animals, it can help ensure the safety and quality of meat products at the source," she said. For example, animals living in lower-density groups are less susceptible to diseases, such as African swine fever, which has broken out in China recently. It can also mean less use of antibiotics, she said, and meat from animals slaughtered in a more humane way has proved to be healthier and tastier. Philip Lymbery, chief executive of Compassion in World Farming, an organization based in the United Kingdom that promotes farm animal welfare, said China has made a lot of progress in promoting animal welfare over the past 15 years. "Fifteen years ago, I think there was very little recognition of animal welfare or the importance of animal welfare in China," he said. "China has progressed so fast in that recognition. And from what we've seen, the government and the animal farming industry have been keen to improve. We've seen this particularly in the pig and poultry sectors where there's been a lot of interest in improving animal welfare." More than 50 pig and poultry companies in China have received special award certificates issued by the organization over the past four years for their good animal welfare practices, Lymbery said. "This means nearly 2 million pigs and 300 million chickens in China live in better conditions because of the actions and commitment of the companies," he said. Xi, from the international cooperation group, said compared with some European countries China still needs a sustained effort to improve farm animal welfare. "But China is a vast country with huge differences between regions, which requires local authorities to set standards and rules that suit their own conditions," she said. Considering China's huge population, which brings with it a great need of food, China should promote a moderate mode of farm animal welfare to strike a balance between feeding the people and ensuring the rights and interests of animals, she said. "It is crucial that people's thinking continues to upgrade, along with the upgrading of China's meat industry," she said. "They should realize that taking good care of animals can really bring benefits for production and to the whole industry." Pets remembered: Pennylane Perry Pennylane joined the Perry family when she was 8 weeks old in Atlanta GA. Our lives together have taken us to many places. Vancouver BC, Seattle WA, Chicago IL, Doha Qatar, San Francisco CA, Santiago Chile and finailly Reno NV. Everyone she encountered was impressed with her ability to communicate with people and her strong personality. She overcame several injuries but never slowed down when chasing a ball. On Genoa Bay in British Columbia, the green tin roof of an enormous estate commands attention. The home sits on the Genoa Bay point and offers unmatched waterfront views of the blue-green bay. The exterior stands as a statement piecewhich was precisely what owner George OBrien wanted when he added the bright-green roof. However, the interior reveals an even bolder statementa 41-foot sailboat hull adorns the ceiling in the homes main living and dining space. O'Brien was a sailing enthusiast as well as a member of the Cruising Club of America. "This was OBriens legacy piece," says listing agent Brian Danyliw. "He wanted people to remember him for something." Mission accomplished. Now, a new owner can drop anchor in the one-of-a-kind home for $2.25 million CAD. Exterior The Agency The fully functional racing hull was purchased by OBrien from Cooper Industries, a sailboat manufacturer that met its demise in a 1970s fire. Only a few sailboat hulls survived. Two years after purchasing the hull, OBrien decided he wanted to make it part of the homes interior. Simply getting the full-sized boat into the living room was a huge logistical hurdle. He had to have a wooden dolly custom-built. It looked kind of like train tracks. He and a team of people attached the hull of the sailboat and rolled the thing into the living room, says Danyliw. And in order to fit the boat into the house, OBrien had to remove the entire west wall. Furniture was covered with sheets and shoved out of the way to make space for the hull. Once the boat was safely inside, a new wall was constructed. Dining room The Agency But wait, there's more! Four sturdy beams of fir wood were then affixed to the floor below and the ceiling above to create a frame of vertical support for the hull. Two additional beams were attached to the upright beams and a metal bar the length of the hull was attached to the boats top. Living space The Agency A small crane was then used to lift the boat into place, and it was finally secured to the ceiling for evermore. Now the sailboat floats elegantly above the room without any tether to the ground below. For a buyer who craves a touch of the life aquatic, this fabulous feature would be nearly impossible to replicate. Best of all? The massive boat taking up ceiling space in the main living area doesn't make the 7,500-square-foot home, with its eight bedrooms, feel cramped. The living space stretches the entire length of the house and offers an abundance of room to spread out. A huge wraparound deck ensures water lovers will have more than just a sailboats hull to enjoy the feeling of life at sea. The post If You're Considering Putting a Sailboat Inside Your House, Read This First appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. A: This question is impactful given the recent firestorms and the devastation it left behind. Let me talk about how Im most appreciative for being in the real estate industry. The brokerage that I work with, Paragon Real Estate (now Compass), started a community fund at its inception to support local non-profit organizations. Agents within the company contribute a portion of their commissions, which is then donated to diverse non-profits. Im incredibly grateful that through this fund, we were able to donate $10,000 toward helping victims of fires in northern California. Additionally, a colleague and I personally donated 18 pies to Fraternite Norte dame. These are the infamous French nuns that feed almost 300 people in the Tenderloin. We have worked on Habitat for Humanity building projects. California Association of Realtors collected donations, and provided grants to agents who lost their homes recently. Time and time again my colleagues have raised funds to help other agents in time of need. We are not salaried, so its dire if were not working. Through the Paragon Community Fund, we have donated close to $1 million dollars since the program started in 2002. Im grateful that I not only get to run my own business, but Im most gratified that the generosity and kindness of my industry always shows up for the community. Par Hanji, Compass, 415-307-5110, par@parhanji.com. A: Homeownership is the way Americans build wealth and I get to help people do that. I love the variety of homes: Victorians, Eichlers, and Art Deco that we have here. Our clients buy property that grow in value quickly, and Im grateful to help them with that. Competition is stiff, but its created a market thats hard working and professional. The hills and views that come with them are wonderful! Our cities and neighborhoods are distinct and no two neighborhoods are the same. The Bay Area market is at once competitive, but also collaborative because we all want to help our clients get what they want. I love visiting houses that are traditional on the outside, and discovering that theyve been completely renovated inside! Im part of a real estate ecosystem that gives tilers, painters. contractors, designers, etc. work. Lastly, I love being the ambassador for San Francisco to the many people who move here from other places. I couldnt have a better profession. Maitri Ratanasene, Haven Group/Compass, 415-215-5505, maitri@havengroupsf.com. A: I am most thankful for the powerful sense of community that we share here in the Bay Area. In times of need, it is remarkable to see my colleagues, clients and businesses come together and unite for a greater purpose. We rely heavily on our neighbors to foster a safe and welcoming atmosphere in which to live. It is this strong sense of community and investment in each other that makes living here better than almost anywhere else in the world. I am also honored and grateful to work with extraordinary clients from many different backgrounds who are drawn to our unique and vibrant local culture. The Bay Area offers an incredible variety of neighborhoods and architectures to choose from, which makes buying and selling real estate here an exciting and intimate experience. Allison Fortini-Crawford, 415-297-9596, allison@fortini-crawford.com. Around a hundred thousand people took part in close to a thousand protests all around France on Saturday, according to a BBC report quoting the French interior ministry. While most of them were peaceful, the ones in Paris were violent, with approximately eight to thirty thousand protesters rioting at any given time. The smell of burned tires, and the sight of broken barricades greeted international journalists in what looked similar to the Euromaidan protests in Kiev in 2014. Although the massive clashes in the capital were smaller in size compared to past French riots, they were still significant enough to shake the foundation of the current standard bearer of the "liberal international order" French President Macron, whose current approval rating is in the low twenties a sharp contrast for someone who until recently was considered the next European hero. Macron was of course disappointed. In a strange twist of irony, he tweeted that the republic should be thankful for the law enforcement and police officers, and argued against hooligans and violent provocateurs determined to create havoc. Over five thousand police were deployed in Paris, and the scenes of violence were incredible. With more than 600 injured, and two dead across France, the only hushed voices are talking about how Russian intelligence might have used social media to organize the protests which were arguably infiltrated by the far right and the far left. The protesters of course disagreed. The reality is different. The protesters are frustrated and some of them told the New York Times they were there to protest because they felt abandoned by the elites. In a country with a leader who is more obsessed with European unity, and who has repeatedly made comments about how "Gauls are resistant to change" and how Nationalism and national interests are incompatible in today's society and France's idea is to create a European empire, the common people feel abandoned. The protests which are known as the "yellow vest protests" after the drivers who have to wear them, are primarily over fuel tax, as people have said they don't have enough weekly money to buy extra food in the face of such stark austerity. This highlights two important things. First, even in the most liberal of states, there are times when order breaks down and needs to be retrieved through force. The idea of a liberal order is paradoxical as order, at times, needs to be enforced, and that by definition means that not everyone will be satisfied. Some European states, which believe the world has entered a post-modern age, are increasingly baffled as they realize that nothing has changed. Austerity measures imposed upon the people of Europe, combined with stunted growth and mass migration has led to decreased jobs, productivity, and social welfare -- breeding discontent and violence, with no end in sight. Second, social media is an incredible medium of chaos. Western states were cheering on social media when Arab regimes were being toppled, and protests were happening in Ukraine, but now uncontrolled social media is being used to organize mass movements in Europe and the U.S. and no one has any idea how to control that. Finally, any leader who fails to heed the discontent of their own people sooner or later will face trouble. The chief cause is a country's economy and France has one of the highest unemployment rates in Southern Europe. France especially is quite allergic to imperial presidents, and Macron would soon realize that to his own peril, as the liberal international order, so to speak, once again eats one of its own. Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. The National Weather Service issued a high surf advisory Monday as a brewing storm is expected to bring waves up to 25 feet high to beaches along the coastline of Northern California. In effect from Tuesday morning to Friday at 4 p.m., the advisory warns that breaking waves will likely reach heights between 18 and 24 feet on west-to-northwest-facing beaches between Monterey and Sonoma counties. In some locations, the waves may exceed 25 feet. High surf can bring rip currents, large shore breaks and sneaker waves onto beaches, spurring the NWS to advise beach-goers never to turn their backs to the ocean. READ ALSO: More storms in forecast are good news for firefighters, reservoirs, Tahoe resorts Drew Peterson with the NWS in Monterey says sneaker waves up to 20 feet high are most concerning as these appear suddenly and run farther up the beach than any other breakers in a set. "The main threat is these larger sneaking waves, hitting once every 20 or 30 minutes, hitting that person by surprise out on a jetty," Peterson said. The massive waves are churned by a storm system forecast to hit the North Bay on Tuesday morning, before moving into San Francisco by midday, NWS said. After a brief letup, rain is expected to return again Wednesday night, bringing heavier precipitation and strong gusts to the Bay Area. Another storm is likely to move into the region over the weekend. SFGATE staff writer Amy Graff and San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Kurtis Alexander and Gwendolyn Wu contributed to this report. 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. GHAZNI, Afghanistan Three American soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a bombing in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said, in the worst loss of life in the country for the United States this year. Three other soldiers and an American contractor were wounded. The deaths took place near Ghazni City, in the southeastern province of the same name, from the detonation of a roadside bomb, the military said in a statement. A witness said the bomb went off as a U.S. convoy passed on the highway. MOSCOW Ukraines parliament voted Monday to impose martial law in the country to fight what its president called growing aggression from Moscow after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. Western leaders and diplomats urged both sides to calm the conflict, and the U.S. blamed Russia for what it called unlawful conduct over Sundays incident in the Black Sea. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other in the dispute that further ratcheted up tensions ever since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine with clandestine support, including troops and weapons. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked lawmakers in Kiev to institute martial law, something the country has not done even during the worst of the fighting in the east that has killed about 10,000 people. Lawmakers agreed, voting to impose martial law for 30 days. Poroshenko said it was necessary because of intelligence about a highly serious threat of a ground operation against Ukraine. He did not elaborate. Martial law doesnt mean declaring a war, he said. It is introduced with the sole purpose of boosting Ukraines defense in the light of a growing aggression from Russia. The approved measures included a partial mobilization and strengthening the countrys air defense. It also contained vaguely worded steps such as strengthening antiterrorism measures and information security that could curtail certain rights and freedoms. Poroshenkos critics reacted to his call for martial law with suspicion, wondering why Sundays incident merited such a response. Poroshenkos approval ratings have been plunging, and there were concerns that he would postpone a presidential election scheduled for March. Russian coast guard ships fired on the Ukrainian navy vessels near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian seamen and eventually seizing the vessels and their crews. It was the first open military confrontation between the two neighbors since the annexation of Crimea. While a 2003 treaty designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, Russia has sought to assert greater control over the passage since the annexation. Nataliya Vasilyeva and Efrem Lukatsky are Associated Press writers. TIJUANA, Mexico Mexico looked set to shore up security near its border with the United States on Monday, as police lined up outside a shelter in the city of Tijuana and told Central American migrants they couldnt walk toward the border area. Mexicos National Migration Institute said 98 migrants were being deported after they tried to breach the U.S. border on Sunday. U.S. agents fired tear gas into Mexico to stop them. Mexicos Interior Department said about 500 migrants were involved in the attempt to rush the border, while U.S. authorities put the number at 1,000. Mexican officials said the migrants had taken part in violent chaos, which originally began as a peaceful march to appeal for the U.S. to speed processing of asylum claims for Central American migrants marooned in Tijuana. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said on a call with reporters that 69 migrants who tried to cross the border illegally were arrested on the California side. He said the Border Patrols use of force policy allows agents to use tear gas and other non-lethal methods, but the incident would be reviewed and the situation was resolved without serious injury. As the events unfolded, quick, decisive and effective action prevented an extremely dangerous situation, he said. But on Monday, the incident had left many migrants sullen, wondering whether the unrest had spoiled whatever possibilities they might have had for making asylum cases. Isauro Mejia, 46, of Cortes, Honduras, looked for a cup of coffee Monday morning after spending the day prior caught up in the clash. The way things went yesterday ... I think there is no chance, Mejia said. The Sunday incident began after a large group marched to the U.S. border to make the migrants plight more visible to the governments of Mexico and the U.S. Some attempted to get through the fencing and wire separating the two countries, leading U.S. agents to fire the tear gas. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement that U.S. authorities will continue to have a robust presence along the Southwest border and that they will prosecute anyone who damages federal property or violates U.S. sovereignty. Christopher Sherman is an Associated Press writer. CAIRO Egypt has created a high-powered human rights watchdog agency, but its primary mission isnt to protect Egyptians from violations. Instead, the body is foremost aimed at protecting the government from allegations of rights abuses and defending it on the international stage. The new body reflects an attitude of the state under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi that sees criticism over human rights as intended to undermine the government and cause instability at a time when it is facing militant threats and trying to rebuild a battered economy. Officials already have started a campaign against false rumors and fake news and have in some cases detained those who speak out. At the same time, the government has sought to redefine human rights, declaring new rights to fight terrorism and protect the state. Critics see that as an attempt to legitimize and draw international attention away from alleged abuses by security forces. Human rights cannot be divided, nor can some be given priorities over others, said Nasser Amin, a prominent rights lawyer. The High Permanent Commission for Human Rights does not include any rights activists. Its main members are representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the military, the intelligence agencies and the Interior Ministry, which oversees a police force accused of torture and forced disappearances, claims that are categorically denied by the government. The mission of the body, according to a Cabinet statement, is to respond to claims made against Egypts human rights record and formulate a unified Egyptian vision to be stated in regional and international forums. One key role will be to deal with the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is to review the situation in Egypt in 2019. This is a body that will seek to improve the image of the country, not actual human rights, said Gamal Eid, a leading rights lawyer. Rather than fight the root causes of human rights violations, it has been customary for Egypt to set up committees to confuse the scene. Egyptian diplomacy has been effective at drawing attention away from violations. Egypts human rights record is being scrutinized more closely than at any time in decades, chiefly because of the large-scale crackdown that followed the 2013 ouster by the military, then led by el-Sissi, of an Islamist president whose year in office proved divisive. Authorities have jailed thousands of Islamists, along with secular activists, silenced critics in the media and slapped travel bans on dozens of activists. Human Rights Watch said in September that Egypts crackdown on freedom of expression has reached alarming new levels. Hamza Hendawi is an Associated Press writer. A car plunged into a bus stop killing seven and injuring four in southern China. In the aftermath video, filmed in Leshan City in Sichuan Province today (November 27), smoke can still be seen around the car which crashed into the bus stop, after the fire has been put out. Firefighters and policemen can be seen doing search and rescue on site. According to an onlooker named Ms Dong, after the car stopped the driver knocked his head into the steering wheel violently, and tried to use a knife to cut his neck as the car burst into flames. However, nearby people dragged the man out of the his vehicle. According to reports, the car drove into a pedestrian and hit a bus stop with lots of commuters waiting for the buses. The driver suffered minor injuries and was arrested by the police. The case was being investigated by authorities. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. This includes cookies from third party social media websites and ad networks. Such third party cookies may track your use on Sharedots sites for better rendering. Our partners use cookies to ensure we show you advertising that is relevant to you. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on Sharedots website. However, you can change your cookie settings at any time. Learn more Flash Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a visiting delegation of permanent representatives of the UN Security Council members in Beijing on Monday. Calling the UN a symbol of multilateralism, Wang stressed that all parties should adhere to international rules such as the purposes and principles of the UN Charter to maintain the healthy development of multilateralism. He said that international society needed the UN to play a stronger role, and the Security Council, with the responsibility of maintaining international security and stability, should jointly safeguard multilateralism and international rules. "China firmly upholds the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, determines its position on the merits of each case, and is committed to boosting cooperation among the members of the Security Council," Wang said. The permanent representatives said they appreciated China's safeguarding of multilateralism, its support to the UN, and its outstanding contribution to UN peacekeeping operations and to promotion of global development. They expressed willingness to work with China to safeguard international peace and security. Page Content California voters approved a measure requiring private-sector ambulance workers to be reachable during their work breaks. The new law is significant for employers in light of the California Supreme Court's 2016 decision in Augustus v. ABM Security Services, which held that on-call breaks are prohibited under state law. The Augustus case involved an employer that required its security guards to carry radiophones and pagers during rest periods, keep those devices on and respond to calls if necessary. However, since Californians approved Proposition 11 on Election Day, the Augustus decision won't apply to emergency ambulance workers in the private sector. "The law is clear that this is carving out an exception to the Augustus ruling for people employed by emergency ambulance providers," said Jeffrey Polsky, a San Francisco attorney at Fox Rothschild. Break Interruptions During their meal and rest breaks, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics sometimes have to deal with interruptions. These include taking incoming 911 calls and requests to change locations in the field. Proposition 11 states that these emergency workers must be reachable during their entire work shiftdespite the Augustus decision. "In effect, the measure continues the industry practice of requiring EMTs and paramedics to remain on call during breaks," the voter guide states. Supporters of Proposition 11 contend that the measure is necessary for safety reasons. "Prop. 11 is needed because a recent California court ruling could stop this longstanding practice and require EMTs and paramedics to be completely unreachable while on break," the supporters stated in the voter guide. "This means if the closest ambulance to your emergency is on break when you call for help, 911 dispatchers would have no way to reach the ambulance crew because all communication devices would be turned off." Another argument in favor of Proposition 11 states that the measure provides workplace protections for emergency responders. Emergency medical crews will continue receiving an additional hour of pay if they miss a break that cannot be made up during their work shift, supporters added in the voter guide. There were no arguments against Proposition 11 submitted. Meanwhile, the ballot measure also called for ambulance companies to provide emergency workers with specialized resources. They must provide annual training on dealing with natural disasters and other emergencies. The companies also must offer mental health education, counseling and services. It's a common-sense law, said William Sung, an attorney with Lewis Brisbois in Los Angeles. "It strikes the right balance to protect the public safety and employee rights." On-call work breaks are warranted for certain types of jobs, according to Judith Keyes, an attorney with Davis Wright Tremaine in San Francisco. "It does make a certain amount of sense in positions of public health and safety to provide for a mechanism where employees can be required during break periods to be on call," Keyes said. However, Sacramento attorney Jennifer Shaw, founder of Shaw Law Group, raised some concerns about the ballot measure. The Augustus decision held that employees need to take rest breaks as a matter of public safety, she said. "I think [Proposition 11] is a good idea if you're an ambulance company and a bad idea if you're a worker." Takeaways for Employers The Augustus ruling still applies to most California workers even if it doesn't cover private-sector ambulance employees and certain other workers. "It's one of the most important cases ever to come out of the California Supreme Court," noted Melinda Riechert, an attorney with Morgan Lewis in Palo Alto. In order to comply with the Augustus decision, covered employers shouldn't require hourly workers to carry employer-provided pagers, radiophones or similar electronic devices during work breaks, Polsky said. According to Riechert, if the employee carries one of these devices and is required to respond if contacted, then the employee didn't actually get a duty-free break. Also, to comply with Augustus, employers shouldn't require hourly workers to monitor their own personal phones for work-related messages during their breaks, Polsky added. "You can't restrict their rest period at all," Shaw noted. The company would owe the employee one hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation for every workday that the rest break isn't provided. So if the employee's break is interrupted, the employer should either provide that worker with a complete, uninterrupted break or pay the one-hour penalty for noncompliance, Polsky said. [SHRM members-only HR Q&A: What are the meal and rest break requirements for California employees?] According to Shaw, employers should pay the premium if a worker doesn't get a complete, uninterrupted rest breakbut that might not absolve the company of all liability under the Augustus decision. Employers should review and revise their policies to make sure there are no restrictions on rest periods, she said. Companies also should train managers and supervisors on the requirements imposed by the Augustus ruling. "Let's say you're on a 10-minute rest period, and the boss calls and asks you a question," Polsky hypothesized. "What the boss should do is say, 'OK, after you hang up, the 10 minutes starts again.' " UTS Insearch, a pathway college of University of Technology Sydney (UTS) collaborates with Bangalore-headquartered social enterprise, Pollinate Energy in its goal to directly impact one million lives in urban slums and undeserved villages by 2020. With this association, Pollinate Energy will launch its own training programs and materials to help Hive Managers, who lead local sales team of Pollinators to sell basic amenities, excel in their management roles, taking charge of 5-15 Pollinator team members. Through intensive training, the teams will be able to expand the reach to 4,000 families by year 2020. Alexie Seller, Co-Founder & CEO, Pollinate Energy, says, Our Hive Training Program is one big step towards our goal to empower 1,000 women by 2020, and we are thrilled to have UTS Insearch as one of our key supporters. We are focusing on improving the skills of our current managers who will become future leaders of growth for the company. Partnering with a professional education institution helps us quickly and effectively develop the training and curriculum needed to meet our goal. Being the leading education partner for this new training program, UTS Insearch will be supporting more than 50 percent of the funding required over the next two years. A dynamic and innovative university based in Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has a distinct model of learning, outstanding research performance and a leading reputation for engagement with industry and the professions. Speaking about the partnership, Belinda Howell, Chief Market Development Officer, UTS Insearch, says, We have always encouraged deep partnerships between India and Australia with the goals of sustainable growth towards a better future. The idea of using renewable energy and social entrepreneurship to create better living conditions for urban slums dwellers is incredible. UTS students have also participated in various Pollinate Fellowships Programs in the past, and we have supported the Fellowship program for four years. The new financial support for the Hive training program is a further commitment towards this cause. Established in 2012, Pollinate Energy brings life-changing products to people who need them most and it provides access to sustainable products, empower local entrepreneurs to be a positive force for change in undeserved communities, and make social business enterprises mainstream by raising awareness and supporting the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Pollinate Energy also gives a unique opportunity for women with low incomes to increase their income, increase mobility and learn valuable business skills that can be developed into positions of leadership. Read more news: What's the Legal Situation of Gambling in India? A big earthquake might be waiting to strike Delhi NCR. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Richmond County Savings Foundation provided $105,000 to fund a variety of community programs serving thousands of Staten Islanders during a ceremony last week in its Bloomfield office. The organizations and the programs receiving funding include: The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, Team Reeve NYC; Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation, 22nd annual Teddy Dinner; Liberian Cultural Association, Adult Literacy / ESL Programs; Hillel, The Foundation for Jewish Life, Hillel Initiative; Illuminart, Touring Company; Daughters of St. Paul, Christmas Concert; Project Renewal, Scan Van Mobile Mammography Program; Central Family Life Center of Staten Island, Mentorship for Life Project & Saturday Academy; Fugazzi Memorial Award, Fred Fugazzi Senior Bowl; Project Hospitality, RCSF Food Pantry Program; Community Health Action, RCSF Food Pantry Program; Bikur Cholim, RCSF Food Pantry Program; St. Teresas Church, RCSF Food Pantry Program; and Salvation Army, Port Richmond Corps, RCSF Food Pantry Program. Those who staff the food pantries programs thanked the Richmond County Savings Foundation for its ongoing support and noted the importance of the pantries both during the holiday season as well as during the off-season months when pantry shelves are not as fully stocked. Since April of 2012, the RCSF Food Pantry Program has provided approximately $650,000 in direct support for food purchases for those in our community in need, said Kim Seggio, senior program officer at the Foundation. Additionally, as one of the foundations signature funding initiatives, over the past 10 years, the foundation has distributed more than $1.8 million in support of feeding programs in the Staten Island community. The Richmond County Savings Foundation was established in 1998 as part of the conversion of the Richmond County Savings Bank to a public company. To date, the foundation has provided more than $64 million in funding to not-for-profit organizations serving the communities in which the bank operates. Richmond County Savings Bank is a division of New York Community Bank. STATEN ISLAND -- The Department of Transportation claims security at the Staten Island Ferry was able to make an on-the-spot call that a bag in a controversial security video that underwent a routine inspection posed no risk because the bag owner opened it after a bomb detection dog and its handler approached him. But security experts, former New York City Police Department detectives, and current and former bomb detection dog handlers, say there is no way a determination the bag was no threat could have been made so fast. Actions speak louder than words and perception equals reality, and the reality of that situation was, they thought they had some type of threat or else they wouldnt have taken the measures that they took, said Ryan Morris, a former bomb squad commander and the founder and CEO of Tripwire Operations, which provides explosive detection training to first responders. A video taken during a busy morning rush hour commute at the St. George terminal on Oct. 5 and obtained by the Advance showed a trained explosive detection canine sitting down twice to alert its handler of something suspicious in a mans bag. Despite warning from the dog -- provided by private security firm MSA Security, which patrols the perimeter of the ferry -- the handler turned his back on the man, and security officials at the ferry let the bag sit in the middle of the terminal for minutes as commuters and children passed by before they secured the area. Immediately after the dog alerted its handler to the bag, the man opened it for the handler to take a quick look inside. It wasnt until several minutes later, after authorities sealed off the area, that they moved passengers from one side of the terminal to the other, and brought the bag owner off to the side to have him remove things in his bag. Morris said security should not have allowed the man to open the bag himself right after the dog alerted the handler. He said the man and the bag should have been secured immediately if the dog believed there was an explosive device in it. At a minimum, Morris thinks officials should have used an X-ray detection device to further inspect the bag. WHATS THE PROTOCOL? DOT REMAINS SILENT Currently, four entities provide security at the Staten Island Ferry: Private security firms MSA and Allied Universal, which patrol the perimeter; the Department of Transportation, which operates the ferry, and the New York Police Department. DOT has declined to elaborate on what its security protocol is when a potential explosive device is found at the ferry, and which of the four security entities has primary control over security at the ferry. However, multiple sources familiar with ferry security protocol, have told the Advance that anytime a dog finds something suspicious at the ferry, they must notify DOT first because the agency is considered MSAs client they are advising. DOT will then determine whether to involve the NYPD. Following an initial story about the Oct. 5 incident, DOT told the Advance: Its important to note that a determination was made immediately that the bag posed no threat as the passenger opened his bag for inspection as soon as the canine unit approached. DOT and NYPD personnel stationed in the terminal were on site and fully aware of this situation. Please note NYPD makes the final determination and this could impact how and when passengers are moved in the terminal. If something was found to be suspicious in the package the terminal would be cleared. When further pressed on how they made the determination so quickly, why the area was eventually sealed off, and why the man was asked after several minutes to remove his belongings, DOT further insisted it was because the bag owner opened the bag immediately upon inspection and directed further inquiries to the NYPD. The NYPD, however, directed inquiries to DOT about how the bag was handled before NYPD arrived and deemed to not contain any explosive devices. YOUD HAVE TO BE AN IDIOT' TO BELIEVE DOT, EX-LIEUTENANT SAYS Retired NYPD Lt. Lloyd Thompson, a former commander of the Staten Island Task Force, was highly critical of DOTs response. Thompson said, at a minimum, the New York City Police Departments Emergency Service Unit should been the ones to make that call. Patrol officers arent going to be able to make that call, a dog handler is not going to be able to make that call, Thompson said. Security guards down there would not be able to make that call. The only person that could probably make that call is probably Emergency Services in the least. That whole thing just doesnt make any sense, youd have to be an idiot to believe what [DOT is] telling you, Thompson said. Another NYPD detective said that only by removing everything from the bag would authorities have been able ro determine on the spot whether the bag contained something suspicious. If they opened the bag and they did a cursory glance, how do you know there wasnt an explosive sewn into the side of that bag? a former NYPD detective said. Current and former MSA dog handlers, who also worked as detectives in the NYPD, also slammed the DOTs response. To me watching that video, it wasnt immediate, a former MSA dog handler and NYPD detective said. If it was immediate, the bag would have been emptied out. You dont have the bag owner open it, you get him away from the bag, said another current MSA dog handler. If theres something dangerous in there you dont want him going in for it. Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) said she plans to speak to the head of the City Councils Transportation Committee to call for an oversight hearing on security procedures at the Staten Island Ferry. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. With the dramatic shift in power in Congress--Republicans are expected to lose nearly 40 seats in the House--many are wondering whether it is the responsibility of outgoing lawmakers to pass any new legislation. The time between an election and the swearing-in of new lawmakers is known as a "lame-duck session." Some say lawmakers should not pass any kind of major legislation during a lame-duck session, as the American public has voted them out of power. Others say they still have a job to do. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES A 1982 New York Times article explains where the term originated: Congress has an especially full plate during this lame duck session, attempting to pass long-gestating legislation as well as beat fast-approaching deadlines. Per the New York Times: In 2016, Sen. Mitch McConnell used the lame-duck session as an excuse not to hold hearings for Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. McConnell argued the American people would elect a president and it would be the new leader's right and responsibility to fill the seat. However, in 2010, when the American people elected a wave of hyper-conservative lawmakers during the height of the Tea Party movement, outgoing Democrats rushed to pass huge swaths of their agenda. Vox reports: The New York Times reports that many lawmakers are urging McConnell to allow them to vote on the criminal justice reform bill, worried after the new Congress takes power they will lose the momentum they currently have. Not all pieces of the current legislative agenda hold bipartisan support. According to the Hill, Democrats are hoping lawmakers hold off on judicial hearings until after the new Congress is sworn in. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Theres a simple reason that President Donald Trump turns so many encounters with the press into World War III: The people who support Trump eat it up. Those voters havent trusted the mainstream media for years. So they cheer whenever they see Trump go after them. Finally, somebodys standing up to the mavens of fake news, holding them accountable. As someone whos been in the business for 30 years, I know all too well that people dont have much faith in the media anymore. People get too much of their own information from too many of their own sources these days. They dont need me or anybody else to tell them whats what. Long gone are the days when Walter Cronkite could tell the nation what to think about Vietnam or Watergate. Which is not to say that CNN reporter Jim Acosta isnt an insufferable prig. He is. As a reporter whos covered my fair share of press conferences over the years, I can tell you that its positively maddening when one reporter turns a presser into their own personal soapbox, turns a Q&A session into a debate. We saw it for years with Dan Rather. Now Acosta wants to play that role to also show off for his bosses and his viewers how tough he can be on the president. Its theater. If Acosta wants to debate Trump, Acosta should run for president and get up on stage with him. Other than that, ask your question, Jim, and then cede the floor to somebody else who also has a deadline to meet. But Trump shouldnt rise to the bait so often. All hes doing is giving Acosta pages and pages of stuff for Acostas autobiography. All hes doing is giving Acosta more airtime that Acosta already gets. Making Acosta a top dog among all the other rarefied-air Washington reporters who chase celebrity as much as they chase the next big story. Acostas been parodied on Saturday Night Live. Theres no more valuable coin in the realm these days. Trust me, hell be telling these stories until the day he dies. But is vanity the same thing as speaking truth to power? You want to do a reporter the biggest favor in the world? Make a big stink about taking away their credentials. Or threaten them with jail if they wont reveal a source. It would be the best thing that ever happened to their careers. And Trump ought to remember that the vast majority of reporters are just men and women doing their jobs. Give them a break, Mr. President. Not that Trump is wrong to think that some segments of the press are against him. CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post have made it pretty clear. And that helps them with their viewers and their readers, who loathe Trump. But holding powerful people accountable is one thing; trying to run them out of town because you dont like the outcome of an election is another. And reporters wonder why people dont trust them. Rooting openly for one side or the other will do that. We hear a lot of talk about the First Amendment these days. As if the First Amendment is some kind of Willy Wonka golden ticket, as if it entitles the press to anything and everything. What it means is that the government cant shut down your website or your printing press or your blog spot. It doesnt guarantee endless access. It doesnt give you the right to have a temper tantrum at a White House press briefing. That being said, its never a good idea for an elected official to consider the press an enemy. And vice versa. Its too often a symbiotic relationship. That elected official is going to make news, and theyre going to want the press to trumpet it. Those reporters are going to need information, and the government is frequently the only place to get it. And lets be honest: Trump is a reporters dream. Hes controversial. Hes flip. He makes mistakes that you can fact-check him on. Hes accessible, holding spur-of-the-moment press conferences. Hes unguarded and opinionated. What you see is what you get. Someday Trumps going to be gone. Who will the press rail at then? In writing skeptically about the citys efforts to curb speeding, Tom Wrobleski buries the lede when he notes in passing that traffic fatalities are down this year on Staten Island. (Distracted Driving, Not Speeding, is the Real Menace, 11/18/18) Fatalities are not simply down this year. Staten Islands five fatalities so far this year are a dramatic decline from 2017s total of 15 traffic deaths. DOT statistics show that this years total is not simply a decline, but an all-time borough low. (The previous fewest fatalities borough-wide was 11 in both 2011 and 2014.) In fact, as of today, Staten Island has now gone 144 days without a traffic fatality -- the longest such period for any borough in New York Citys recorded history. And citywide, we are now in what will likely be our fifth year of declining fatalities down from 299 in 2013 to 222 last year and on track at the moment to be even lower in 2018. And, of course, these are not simply numbers: They are our families, friends, co-workers, neighbors and fellow New Yorkers, some of whom are alive today because of Vision Zero. We believe that our focus on speed management has been one of the most significant factors in dramatically improving roadway safety in NYC. It is not hard to understand why. Regardless of what other causes might be at play, excessive speed is a factor in the majority of the fatal crashes we see in NYC. Drivers, distracted or not, who face something unexpected like a child running into the street, will have more time to react if they are driving at a safer speed. And, should they crash, they will be much less likely to kill or seriously injure someone if they drive more slowly, especially during turns. We do agree with Wrobleski that driver attentiveness can be a critical factor in crashes, and the NYPD and DOT have targeted distracted driving through both robust public education and enforcement. But, no serious roadway safety effort would neglect the type of proven speed reduction strategies that we have implemented in NYC better street designs, a lower speed limit, targeted NYPD enforcement and school zone speed cameras. As we head into December, the darkest and most dangerous weeks of the year on our roadways, we urge Advance readers to please help us make this the safest year ever on Staten Island. Dont get behind the wheel if you are drunk, drugged, drowsy or distracted and please always drive at a safe speed. Lets make sure that all our fellow New Yorkers get home safely for the holidays. (Polly Trottenberg is New York Citys transportation commissioner.) 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! Flash UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday urged both Russia and Ukraine to step away from further confrontation at sea. Briefing the Security Council, in the wake of Sunday's confrontation between vessels from the two neighboring countries off the coast of Crimea, DiCarlo urged them "to refrain from any ratcheting up of actions or rhetoric." An "immediate de-escalation" of tensions is needed in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, she said, underlining the importance of "earnest attempts" to find a peaceful resolution to years of simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine. "(We) remind both (Russia and Ukraine) of the need to contain this incident so as to prevent a serious escalation that may have unforeseen consequences," she said. DiCarlo also recalled her previous calls on all parties to avoid any unilateral steps that could deepen the divide or depart from of the spirit and letter of the Minsk Agreements, which set out the necessary steps to restore peace in eastern regions of Ukraine. DiCarlo noted that the UN fully supports regional efforts to find a peaceful settlement, and that the "renewed and constructive action" was needed by all concerned to overcome the apparent impasse in diplomatic negotiations, she added. The Security Council meeting followed a procedural vote rejecting the agenda of the day's first meeting on the issue, requested by Russia, which argued that its borders at sea had been violated by Ukraine. Dmitry A. Polyanskiy, the first deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, argued that Ukrainian naval vessels had "illegally' crossed into Russian territory and did not acknowledge efforts made by Russian ships to warn them off. Such actions were in violation of the UN Charter and norms of international law, he said. He said responsibility was "borne by those people" who gave the Ukrainian crew "the illegal command." Polyanskiy told Security Council members that the Ukrainian ships were being held in Russian ports, pending an investigation. In a second meeting the same day, Volodymyr Yelchenko, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN, informed the Security Council of his country's account of events, stating that what the Russian representative spoke earlier were an "outright lie." On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Mr Elliott confirms that this year four executives including himself had their bonuses cut for reasons related to risk, compliance or conduct. It was a recognition that we had not met the standards we had set ourselves for risk management, some of which has actually been publicly discussed here at this royal commission. So, for example, the failure to remediate issues on time would be a good example, he says. The managers' bonuses were cut to 60 per cent of target, he says. But this was not made public in the banks annual report, and there has been a non-publication order against the executives names being published by the commission (except for Mr Elliotts name). Ms Orr wants to know why not make it public, given this would be a powerful to hold executives to account. Mr Elliott says he understands the attraction of the idea, but would prefer not to go down this path. So I wish to retain their engagement and their motivation. That does not mean I do not hold them accountable when things have gone wrong," he says. "But I think some sort of ritualistic public shaming of individuals would be of little value and, in fact, [could have] potentially significantly negative consequence in terms of attracting, retaining, motivating the very best people for the future, he says. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne challenges him on that view. Commissioner: "If you're accountable, you're responsible for what happened and responsibility carries with it the observation by the external viewer he/she did/didn't...?" Mr Elliott: "Yes." Commissioner: "... what was required?" Mr Elliott: "So I see - look - I see merit in what you're saying. And I, with respect, I can understand that perspective to give a richer evaluation or - or a summation of how decisions were made or how to make linkages between the outcomes and performance. All I'm suggesting is that there could be - and I'm not being defensive - but there could be unintended consequences. And I would just want to think that through. "And if I may, I - I think it's a reasonably well accepted - it may not be - but reasonably well accepted view that actually the regime of disclosing senior executive compensation has actually led to inflation in executive compensation." Commissioner: "Well, there's an inevitable arm's race aspect to it?" Mr Elliott: "Correct." 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. Flash Istanbul's chief prosecutor said on Monday that one of the suspects implicated in the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi had discussed "the disposal of the body" with a Saudi citizen in Turkey's northwestern province of Yalova. "It was found that one of the suspects who was involved in the killing of Khashoggi contacted a Saudi Arabian citizen residing in Yalova, a day before the incident," the prosecutor said in a written statement. "It is assessed that this conversation was accomplished to discuss the disposal or the hiding of Jamal Khashoggi's body after its dismemberment," said the statement. The prosecutor's office identified the suspect as Mansour Othman M. Abbahussain, a member of the Saudi hit squad sent to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi, and named the Saudi citizen he discussed with as Mohammed Ahmed Alfaozan. Earlier in the day, Turkish police launched a comprehensive search into two adjoining villas in Yalova as part of the ongoing investigation. According to the Istanbul chief prosecutor, Khashoggi was strangled to death after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body was dismembered and destroyed thereafter. The Saudi public prosecutor has demanded death penalty against five of the suspects implicated in the murder of Khashoggi. National Australia Bank chairman Ken Henry has admitted the board should have cut executive bonuses earlier than it did over a suite of risk problems at the bank, and he "wishes" the board had pulled management into line at least two years ago over the fees-for-no-service scandal. In a testy appearance before the commission, Dr Henry conceded it was "absurd" that the bank spent three years negotiating with the regulator over how to compensate customers who had been charged for financial advice that was never given. He was "appalled" to see a scathing latter from the watchdog over this issue, he added. NAB chairman Ken Henry said he was "appalled" by its dealings with ASIC on the "fees for no service" scandal. Credit:Chris Hopkins It also emerged the NAB board had this year demanded bigger cuts in executive bonuses than had been proposed by management, because it was not happy with the proposal for there to be no risk-related changes to the bonus pool. The former Treasury Secretary was grilled over the bank's drawn-out negotiation with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over the fees-for-no-service failings; and the consequences it imposed on executives over failures to manage such risks. The cut-throat fight among luxury retailers for premium space in upmarket Collins Street has seen global brand Balenciaga negotiate an off-market deal to take over rival Ralph Laurens prime Melbourne store. The secretive deal, struck two years before Ralph Laurens lease is set to expire, will enable Balenciaga to establish a flagship presence in the citys most sought-after shopping strip. The brand is understood to have signed a deal with wealthy Smorgon family the landlord of 181 Collins Street. Balenciaga negotiate an off-market deal to take over rival Ralph Laurens prime Melbourne store. Credit:Nicole Emanuel The 300-square metre ground floor shop at the "Paris" end of Collins Street in the Regent Place Apartments building is still leased to Ralph Lauren on a 10-year tenancy and owned by the Smorgons through their VBS Investments vehicle. The Max Brenner cafe chain, once marketed with the tag line chocolate by the bald man, is now owned by an Italian-born opera singer with a quiff that would put Elvis to shame. BDO's Andrew Sallway confirmed to Fairfax Media that the failed chocolate cafe chain had been sold to United Cinemas owner Roy Mustaca. United Cinemas owner Roy Mustaca. Credit:Jonathan Ng Mr Sallway said the Mustaca family did not wish to comment on the purchase. Mr Mustaca acquired the Collaroy Cinema on Sydneys northern beaches more than 30 years ago and went on to set up a chain of independent cinemas across Australia under the United Cinemas banner. The home of bar and eatery Madras Bros on Smith Street has sold under the hammer for $2.01 million. Fitzroys Terence Yeh, Lewis Waddell and Chris Kombi sold 129 Smith Street on a sharp 3.5 per cent yield on behalf of a private investor. It was the first time in 35 years that the two-storey building on a 207 sq m site had been offered. It is leased to Madras Bros on a 5 x 3 year deal for the ground floor restaurant and first floor apartment. North Melbourne A private syndicate with interests in Warrigal has offloaded a multilevel office. A private syndicate with interests in Warragul has offloaded a multilevel office and showroom at 113-117 Dryburgh Street for $2.71 million. The property was snapped up by Russell Williams, a local investor who owns several properties in the precinct. He intends to lease it out and eventually capitalise on the higher and better use of the land, said selling agents CBREs Guy Naselli, Jake George and Ben Quennell. Fairfield A fully leased industrial property at 172A Perry Street sold at auction through Gray Johnson for $1.15 million on a tight yield of 4.6 per cent. The 495 sq m factory was leased to soy bean product distributor Max Bean Pty Ltd at current passing annual rental of $53,045 plus GST until 2020. We are seeing demand for securely leased industrial and commercial investment opportunities across a range of price brackets, Rory White said. Oakleigh Colliers Internationals Andrew Chrapot, Andrew Ryan and Harry Larwill have sold two industrial properties at 3 Kingston Town Close in in quick succession. After running a successful EOI [expressions of interest] campaign for 3,4 and 5 Kingston Town Close, in which Building 5 was sold before the campaign ended, we have now also sold Building 3, Mr Chrapot said. It sold for $2 million to Peter and Jay Holdings Pty Ltd. Dromana A shortage of serviced industrial land on the Mornington Peninsula is pushing up prices. 4 Brasser Avenue, a 1235 sq m site, sold under the hammer for $595,000. Nichols Crowders Jamie Stuart and Tom Crowder handled the transaction. Beaumaris A crowd of around 40 people watched a small 91 sq m corner shop at 5 East Concourse sell under the hammer for $950,000. Lachlan Mackenzie and James Glen from Nichols Crowder said it transacted with an effective yield of 4.73 per cent. LEASES Camberwell Dealcorp has secured two new tenants at its commercial property at 695 Burke Road. Enervest has taken 170 sq m while Kyocera signed up for 435 sq m. Both signed five-year leases with the net annual rentals equating to $290 per sq m, Knight Franks Nick Sharkey and James Treloar said. South Yarra Lanzhou Beef Noodle Bar has secured a tenancy in Shop 2 at 199 Toorak Road. Gorman Commercials Alex Browne negotiated the deal at annual rent of $95,000 per annum, reflecting $655 per sq m. Notting Hill John Nockles and Daniel Philip of CVA have leased two retail, office, showroom/warehouse properties located on the corner of Ferntree Gully Road and Blackburn Road. Units 1 and 2 at 398 Ferntree Gully Road were leased for $65,000 and $75,000 per annum respectively. West Melbourne Investors are set to pour close to $1 billion into the Sydney office market with several key deals nearing completion in the lead-up to the end of the calendar year. It is understood Blackstone is looking to buy a half share of the 60 Margaret Street tower, being sold by the Pacific Alliance Group. PAG paid about $300 million for the stake in 2015. Mirvac will retain the other half of what was its former head office. Charter Hall is said to be the front-runner for the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC's half share in the $900 million Chifley Tower and plaza, although there are suggestions the price offers are coming in lower than expected. 19 Harris Street, Pyrmont has been sold for $143 million. Credit:Mark Merton Buyers are also in the throes of looking at the sale of a half share of the 10 and12 Shelley Street office towers at Kings Street Wharf, being sold by Brookfield, worth more than a combined $300 million. Harvey Norman shareholders have delivered a slapdown to the retailer's board and management by voting to reject its remuneration report. At its annual general meeting in Sydney on Tuesday, 50.6 per cent of votes cast went against the adoption of Harvey Norman's executive and directors' pay packets - marking a "first strike", which, if repeated next year, will see investors vote on whether to spill the company's board. Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey. Credit:Ben Rushton The Australian Shareholders' Association had urged investors to reject the report over what it says is the absence of independent directors on the company's board; money burnt on investments in a dairy farm and a mining camp, and loans made to a franchise. But executive chairman Gerry Harvey fired back at "agitators" who he said ignored the fact Harvey Norman was not like other publicly listed companies given it was majority (55 per cent) owned by the Harvey family and other company insiders (who were not able to vote on the remuneration report). I wonder if you can tell me what proportion of the ASX 200 is made up of banks and other financial services companies? If you said about one-third, youre dead right. What about materials (think miners)? Thats a hefty 17.8 per cent. And energy (oil and gas) weighs in at another 5.5 per cent. In other words, two broad sectors - finance and resources - make up 56 per cent of our market. That is enormously concentrated in anyones language. The banks and other financial services firms account for about a third of the ASX 200. Credit:Jesse Marlow Worse, if we look at the challenges facing those sectors, its hard to feel particularly bullish. While the financial services royal commission is laying bare the wrongdoings of what seems like almost the entire sector, were yet to see what Commissioner Kenneth Hayne recommends, and what our political representatives will do with those recommendations. But you dont have to be Nostradamus to figure that profits will be harder to come by in a more restrictive regulatory environment. Add in the sluggish (at best) credit environment, where house prices are falling and banks are reluctant to lend, and its hard to see a lot of growth from companies that represent one-third of the ASX. And resources? Thats a little trickier, given pricing for oil, gas, iron and gold can fluctuate daily. Plus we have some of the best operators in the business in Australia. But those who were predicting oil at $100 a barrel are looking down the, ahem, barrel, of a price thats half of those expectations, while iron ore is falling to much more reasonable - and realistic - levels. With just under a quarter of our market made up by companies reliant on global commodity pricing, you could be excused for being less than confident. Canberra has every right to legalise cannabis, and the federal government would be ill-advised to try and overturn such a law, according to a prominent barrister. Greg Barnes, who is national president of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said a bill being introduced in the ACT Legislative Assembly this week that would make small amounts of cannabis for personal use legal would not be in contravention of federal drug laws. Legalising cannabis is something that is well within the jurisdiction of states and territories, he said. Cannabis plants grow in a greenhouse at the Hexo Corp. facility in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Credit:Chris Roussakis They have responsibility for drug policy, as does the Commonwealth, but there is nothing stopping, in my view, the legalisation of any drug in a state or territory. A speeding Canberra driver who ran a red light in peak hour traffic, causing an accident that seriously injured a grandmother, has been banned from driving and handed a suspended jail sentence. Ashleigh Rose Fountain, 26, was going 90km/h in an 80km/h zone when she ran a red light through the intersection of Belconnen Way, Lathlain Street and Catchpole Street, and hit a Toyota Corolla, driven by a Canberra grandmother, about 5.15pm in April last year. The grandmother was rushed to hospital and required emergency surgery for her injuries, which included a punctured lung, a perforated intestine, and fractured vertebrae, ribs, and pelvis. She spent a week in intensive care and three months in hospital recovering. A victim impact statement, tendered in the ACT Supreme Court, described how, at one point in her recovery, the grandmother "lost all hope" and "wanted to die". A development application has been lodged for 10 townhouses to be built across three single dwelling residential blocks in Lyneham. The application proposes consolidating and demolishing the three buildings, on blocks 7, 9 and 8 of section 45, and building 10 two-storey townhouses with basement car parking. An artist's impression of a proposed 10-townhouse development in Lyneham which, if approved, would take over three single dwelling blocks. The project is estimated to cost $3.6 million. The Oliver Street blocks are owned by Canberra developer Zdravko Tokic of Domain Design Projects, who has just finished building 12 townhouses on nearby Murdoch Street. Flash U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before departing from the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Nov. 26, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday defended the use of tear gas by border patrol on migrants near the southern border with Mexico as the action drew criticism. "They had to use because they were being rushed by some very tough people," Trump told reporters before leaving the White House for rallies in state of Mississippi. "Here's the bottom line. No one is coming into our country unless they come in legally," the president added. The comments came after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants who sought to enter the United States near border city San Diego on Sunday. U.S. border patrol said it used tear gas and pepper spray after several migrants struck agents with rocks. No injuries were reported. Video of the scene also showed a cloud of tear gas that sent people running, including families with children. The interaction led to U.S. officials shutting down the San Ysidro Port of Entry between San Diego and Tijuana, a border city on the Mexican side, for more than six hours and dozens of arrests. U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, tweeted on Monday that using tear gas on migrants at the border is "shameful and disgusting," adding that "seeking asylum is LEGAL." Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic senator, said the action is "horrendous" while slamming the administration's asylum policies as "diminishing America's promise and project weakness, not strength." Caravans of migrants, many of whom say they were fleeing from persecution, poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, were making their way through Central America towards the U.S. border for weeks. Many of them want to claim asylum. Several thousands of migrants, including women and children, are in Tijuana. Nearly 100 migrants were being deported after they tried to breach the U.S. border on Sunday, according to Mexican authorities. Mexican officials said the migrants had taken part in "violent" chaos, which started as a peaceful demonstration to appeal for the U.S. authorities to speed processing of asylum claims for Central American migrants in Tijuana. Trump on Monday urged Mexico to send those Central American migrants back to their home countries, as he renewed a threat to shut down the border and called for the funding of his long-promised border wall. Thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed along the country's southern border with Mexico to help strengthen border security while offering only engineering, logistic and medical support. However, Trump said last week that he has given the troops the "OK" to use lethal force against migrants "if they have to." The president issued a proclamation earlier this month, saying that only people who enter the country at official checkpoints can apply for asylum, but it was temporarily blocked by a federal judge. The man accused of murdering a home invader with a samurai sword on a Sydney street has been granted bail, with his parents agreeing to provide almost half a million dollars as security. Blake Davis, 29, whimpered and shook throughout his NSW Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday when Justice Stephen Rothman granted him bail on strict conditions including a 6pm to 9am curfew, daily police reporting, electronic monitoring and $493,000 surety. Blake Davis, who is accused of murdering Jett McKee with a samurai sword in Forest Lodge. Credit:starnow.com.au The 29-year-old said "thank you very much, your honour" via video link from Long Bay Hospital after the ruling. Mr Davis and his girlfriend Hannah Quinn, 24, are each charged with the murder of 30-year-old aspiring rapper Jett McKee, who was found dead in the middle of a street in Forest Lodge in August 2018 with a balaclava and replica pistol nearby. A dead priest holds the key to proving former archbishop Philip Wilson was innocent of covering up child sex abuse by a paedophile priest in NSW to protect the Catholic Church, a court has heard. Defence barrister Stephen Odgers told the Newcastle District Court on Tuesday that previous statements given by Father Greg Walsh, who died last year, showed Wilson was not motivated to keep child sex abuse allegations quiet. Former archbishop Philip Wilson outside Newcastle Local Court in July. Credit:AAP Mr Odgers made the claim when outlining key parts of Wilson's appeal against his conviction. The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions is also appealing against magistrate Robert Stone's decision to order Wilson, 68, serve 12 months' home detention. The DPP argues the sentence is too lenient. Townhouses and apartments could be restricted in Brisbanes outer suburbs and the city will get new multi-storey retirement and aged-care zones to cope with an extra 44,000 people aged over 70 in eight years. It is being framed as a new attempt to save Brisbanes suburban backyards from townhouses, while the opposition says the council is too close to developers. A push to remove townhouses in Brisbane's outer suburbs is framed as the new battle for Brisbane's backyards Today this is about proceeding quickly with the protection of the backyard and it will be very interesting to see what the state governments position in relation to this, lord mayor Graham Quirk said. The major changes to the city plan were ushered in at Tuesdays Brisbane City Council meeting, which acknowledged more needed to be done to accommodate the city's ageing population. Two boys and two men have been charged following investigations into a fire that damaged a number of classrooms at a a south-east Queensland school on Sunday night. Police and emergency services were called to to Laidley State High School after black smoke was seen coming from a single-storey building about 6.30pm on Sunday. A suspicious fire in a south-east Queensland school has destroyed two classrooms. Credit:Carissa Kemp/7 News Toowoomba The fire was quickly located and brought under control, however two of the classrooms in the block sustained substantial damage from the blaze. Two boys have been charged with one count of arson. Fairfaxs latest investigation demonstrates the Australian governments alarming lack of capacity to effectively combat corruption. The latest allegations that a corrupt Border Force official was helping criminal gangs traffic drugs, and that the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement knew this but could not effectively prosecute the matter, is truly worrying. Australian Border Force (ABF) officers and NSW Police during a drugs intercept. The current anti-corruption regime is just not fit for purpose and is leaving all Australians at risk of serious security and criminal threats. There are too many gaps, poor co-ordination and a lack of resourcing across government agencies to tackle corruption effectively. This latest corruption scandal demonstrates yet again the urgent need for a national body that has broad oversight of federal corruption issues, that can tackle cross-jurisdictional challenges, and help ensure cases such as this are investigated fully and not left to fall through the cracks of the existing patchwork of enforcement agencies. "It was our view given the nature of the concerns ... that this broader interpretation would be of greater value and more respectful to the community and the West Australian government," Dr Hatton said. The inquiry involved 12 months of reviews and analaysis and resulted in a highly technical, detailed and lengthy report that needed to be read in full, he said. Dr Hatton presents his findings. Credit:Nathan Hondros. The consultation had attracted massive interest, attendance at public meetings, 9500 pro-forma submissions and 400 written submissions. These complemented the panel's assessment of diverse scientific literature that was both complex and at times contested. The report was "silent" on whether the moratorium should be lifted; that was the governments decision, Dr Hatton said. But it made 91 findings and 44 recommendations, which Dr Hatton emphasised were independent views based solely on an unbiased review of the available evidence. The principal recommendation was for an enforceable code of practice aimed at further reducing the risks, most of which were associated with the integrity of the wells used and depended on the location and scale of development. Strict adherence to global design and construction standards would limit risk to a low level. The panel had considered plausible scenarios of development, for how big projects might become and where they would be. The state already had systems to assess risks to animals and vegetation, but the current process was limited to considering individual wells and not of potential oil and gas field development. The panel therefore recommended development proposals for any gas fields go to the federal government for assessment. The panel concluded that water availability was not a significant issue and access was already well regulated. The risk to water quality emphasised the importance of long-term integrity of wells but risks of below ground-pathways for contaminants was generally low, if well integrity was maintained. Premier Mark McGowan alongside Environment Minister Stephen Dawson. Credit:Nathan Hondros. Chemical spills and wastewater spills above ground were a greater risk, and a degree of precaution was justified to protect human health. A number of recommendations were made regarding this. They recommended wells be at least 2 kilometres from human drinking water sources and towns. Links between air pollution and health impacts had not been definitely proved but the link was plausible enough that caution was warranted and the panel recommended full monitoring systems. The report presents estimated volumes of greenhouse gas for plausible development scenarios over their full life cycle and considers these estimates in the context of Australias emissions and commitments," Dr Hatton said. Again, the scale of those impacts depends on how big the industry is. The recommendations that we have included in the report extend to baseline measurement of greenhouse gas levels, monitoring for leaks and their remedy over the full development lifecycle of the gas field, a requirement ... to limit methane released ... and appropriate offsetting of emissions. The report also recommended industry contribute to a fund for "remediation of any legacy issues" and that "penalties for any environmental issues should increase as an incentive to compliance." The Premier's announcement Premier Mark McGowan said that as a responsible government he needed to respect what the science told him and also take into account what people expected of their government. He said to impose a blanket ban would undermine the states reputation as a safe place to invest and he could not turn his back on industry. He believed the government had struck the right balance to support economic development, the environment and landowners. The government accepted all 44 recommendations of the report. The iconic Dampier Peninsula, national parks and other icons would be off-limits and beyond these areas, fracking would be restricted to existing petroleum titles representing just two per cent of the state. That meant 98 per cent of Western Australia would be "frack-free". This map represents existing and potential future petroleum leases in the Kimberley's Canning Basin. Credit:Department of Mines , Industry Regulation and Safety. Farmers, landowners and traditional owners would, for the first time, have the right to say yes or no to gas production on their land. "This is a fair and reasonable approach," he said. The industry would not enjoy a royalties discount; the royalty rate for unconventional oil and gas would increase to 10 per cent, the same rate that applied to conventional petroleum production. The government would use any royalties to support new renewable energy projects via a special Clean Energy Future Fund with a $9 million seed allocation. Dissent in the ranks Three unions attended a recent anti-fracking rally in Perth: United Voice, including chief executive Carolyn Smith who is also President of WA Labor; the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union; and the Maritime Union of Australia. The McGowan government also faces potential revolt from backbenchers; insiders told The Australian the issue had divided caucus and there was deep anger. Kimberley and Swan Hills MPs Josie Farrer and Jessica Shaw have already publicly broken ranks to call for a ban. But the Premier said he was confident of support from his back bench. The protest campaign The protest campaign is backed by Australian scientists including WA Scientist of the Year Peter Newman, 2003 Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley, former premier Carmen Lawrence, former CSIRO atmospheric research team head Graeme Pearman and Climate Council chief Tim Flannery. It is also backed by public figures including Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes, John Butler, Peter Garret, Missy Higgins, Tim Winton and Janet Holmes a Court. Weekend reports the Premier was about to open up the Kimberley to fracking prompted a strong reaction on Monday. In Broome, more than 250 people turned out with just 24 hours notice to protest at Entrance Point beach. There were further demonstrations on Monday night at Parliament House and in Geraldton and Exmouth. Four Kimberley Aboriginal groups are now officially opposed to fracking on traditional lands including Nyul Nyul, Nyikina Mangala and Ngurrara, though the Yungngora group is pro-fracking because it wants jobs for at-risk young people. The Conservation Council of WA says that the government has broken the promise made in its 2016 election platform document "to analyse the full life-cycle of greenhouse gas emissions prior to any fracking activity". CCWA president Piers Verstegen said the inquiry considered only direct greenhouse gas emissions from fracking, not counting pollution from burning the gas for energy, and therefore that it had likely underestimated the real climate impacts by up to 90 per cent. Pollution from conventional LNG production in WA is already preventing Australia from meeting Paris Agreement pollution targets," he said. The Wilderness Society WA state director Kit Sainsbury said the 2 per cent of WA where fracking would be allowed represented almost 5.2 million hectares of land. The fracking ban is being upheld in the South West but why allow this to occur in other areas of the state? Are they less valuable? It alienates those who are now going to be affected directly by fracking and those who are not. We are deeply concerned about how this will impact the communities where fracking is permitted and upon our wider commitments to meet the Paris agreement levels due to the expected carbon emissions." Industry response The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA said the government should have lifted the ban from the South West, Peel and Perth. Chief executive Paul Everingham said the announcement was a missed opportunity to tap into WAs potentially massive shale and tight gas assets and provide the WA community with a greater domestic gas supply. Two men who picked up a drunk woman outside a pub then took turns raping her in the back seat of a car at a Perth park will face a sentencing hearing. Mohamed Al Maialy and Fahed Shgahy were each found guilty earlier this month of aggravated sexual penetration without consent. Credit:Bombaert Mohamed Al Maialy and Fahed Shgahy were each found guilty earlier this month of aggravated sexual penetration without consent over the April 2015 incident. During the West Australian District Court trial, the jury heard the woman had a blood alcohol reading of 0.29 per cent on the night she was attacked and did not recall many details. She had been drinking at a Northbridge pub with friends, who had left when Shgahy and Al Maialy approached her outside. Dick Smith has slammed the ACT's renewable energy target as a "lie" in a new video in which he impersonates Prime Minister Scott Morrison - complete with his own lump of coal - and declares no energy will ever be as cheap as fossil fuels. The ACT government reports it is on track to become 100 per cent renewable by 2020 but, speaking to The Canberra Times on Tuesday, Mr Smith accused the territory of deliberately hoodwinking the public into believing all their power would soon be coming from solar and wind. A video released on Tuesday in which Dick Smith (pictured) holds a lump of coal and impersonates Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:Dick Smith Given the ACT has no plans for large-scale battery storage, it will continue to rely on the national grid, which is still largely powered by fossil fuels, he said. "It's just completely dishonest, for a government to be part of a lie like that, it's tokenism," the millionaire businessman said. Flash Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday said that China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) should make good use of platforms such as the governor meeting to enhance communication and cooperation, and advance bilateral ties. Li made the remarks when meeting with 17 participants of the second governor meeting between China and the ROK. Commending the stable development of bilateral relations, Li said trade and investment between China and the ROK had increased rapidly and had broad growth space. "China stands ready to work with the ROK to push forward a long-term and stable development of bilateral ties in line with the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit," he said. The governor meeting between the two countries has yielded positive results, especially in facilitating in-depth exchanges in fields such as people-to-people and environmental protection, which shows that local governments of the two countries have strong will and there is great potential for cooperation. Representatives of the ROK congratulated China on the great development achievements it has made over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up. They said the achievements not only benefited China, but also promoted peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia. They said the ROK is ready to work with China to cement trade and investment cooperation as well as people-to-people exchanges, enhance cooperation between local governments, activate folk exchanges, and make new contributions to the development of bilateral relations. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is still waiting for a decision from Prime Minister Scott Morrison as to whether Canberra's local police force can be covered by a proposed territory integrity commission, months after asking for his agreement. Mr Morrison's agreement is needed to ensure Federal Parliament can debate changes to the territory's self-government act, to allow the ACT integrity commission to be able to investigate allegations of corrupt activity by police. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is still waiting for an answer from the Commonwealth on the ACT's proposed integrity commission. Credit:Karleen Minney This final hurdle for the integrity commission is due to the territory's police force being a branch of the Australian Federal Police, which the ACT government contracts out from the federal government. It is understood Mr Barr previously wrote to then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull seeking his agreement, but the issue was not clarified. He then wrote to Mr Morrison about the issue in August, but has not yet received a response. Voters are all but certain to go to the polls in May after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the Coalition would deliver an early budget in April. The decision on Tuesday puts an end to months of speculation over a possible early election and indicates the government will wait until the last possible moment before asking voters to choose between them and Labor. Mr Morrison said the April budget will deliver a surplus for the first time in a decade, effectively launching a pre-election campaign based on economic management from the Prime Minister's courtyard. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday morning. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer The surplus will come a year ahead of expectations with the preliminary details to be revealed in the mid-year economic update from Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in December. Academics will be required to explain in 100-150 words how their investigations might deliver "economic, commercial, environmental, social or cultural benefits" to Australia under a new national interest test for Australian Research Council grants introduced by the Morrison government on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Education Minister Dan Tehan announced the government's plan to change how grants are doled out and "improve the public's confidence" in the system after his predecessor Simon Birmingham controversially vetoed funding applications for 11 projects that had received approval from the council. Education Minister Dan Tehan. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen According to the newly announced details, the Research Council will only recommend projects to the minister if they satisfy the national interest test definition with a short "plain English" explanation. The minister will also be able to veto projects based on their own judgment of the projects' compliance with the test. "Applicants will be asked to explain 'the extent to which the research contributes to Australias national interest through its potential to have economic, commercial, environmental, social or cultural benefits to the Australian community'," Mr Tehan said in a statement. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been blindsided by a shock resignation that drives him further into minority government, undercutting his bid to seize the initiative with a new plan for a federal budget in April and an election in May. Mr Morrison was kept in the dark over the damaging blow to his hold on power in another sign of the rupture within the Liberal Party over the power of its "regressive right wing" to set its policy direction. Prime Minister Scott Morrison during question time. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer The extraordinary defection of Victorian MP Julia Banks from the Liberal Party to the crossbench sets up a brutal contest in Parliament over whether to refer Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to the High Court regarding his eligibility to sit in the House of Representatives. Ms Banks savaged her former party over its treatment of women, its removal of Malcolm Turnbull as leader in August and the rise of conservatives who "talk to themselves" rather than working on practical policies for the Australian people. Former prime minister John Howard says the Liberal Party should not be worried about its trouncing at the hands of voters in centre-left Victoria - "the Massachusetts of Australia". The size of the Daniel Andrews landslide shocked Liberal MPs in that state, but also in Canberra, with the federal Coalition poised for a drubbing at the polls in May next year. Former prime minister John Howard warned the party should not allow itself to be defined by its enemies. Credit:AAP Jobs Minister Kelly O'Dwyer, a senior federal Liberal from Melbourne, reportedly warned Prime Minister Scott Morrison the party was seen by voters as homophobic, anti-women and in denial about climate change during a crisis meeting on Monday. Mr Howard, who served 11 years as Liberal PM, said the party faithful were "understandably depressed" about the dismal results in Victoria, but this was no reason to panic or change course dramatically. Mosocw: Richard Gere, the actor, made a guest appearance on Tuesday at a star-studded yet secretive business forum in Moscow that provoked controversy after twin female business assistants were offered as a contest prize. Richard Gere Organisers of the Synergy business school warned London's Telegraph that "there should not be any information about Richard Gere" in its coverage because of a condition in his contract allowing them to "invite only Russian press". Gere, 69, was headline speaker at the Synergy Global Forum, which also hosted Malcolm Gladwell, the author, and Steven Seagal, the actor. Tickets ranged from 175 ($304) to more than 5000 for VIP access. The Hollywood leading man told the crowd at the Olympic stadium that Moscow, once dark and repressive, was now a "city of light" that "feels like it's a part of Europe". "I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him," Manafort said. "I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter." The Guardian cited two unidentified sources as saying Manafort first met Assange at the embassy in 2013, a year after Assange took refuge there to avoid being extradited to Sweden over sex crime allegations. The Guardian said Manafort returned there in 2015 and 2016 and said its sources had "tentatively dated" the final visit to March. The newspaper added that Manafort's visit was not entered into the embassy's log book and cited a source as saying Manafort left after 40 minutes. Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Credit:AP There was no detail on what might have been discussed. The Trump campaign announced Manafort's hire on March 29, 2016, and he served as the convention manager tasked with lining up delegates for the Republican National Convention. He was promoted to campaign chairman in May 2016. An AP investigation into Russian hacking shows that government-aligned cyberspies began an aggressive effort to penetrate the Clinton campaign's email accounts on March 10, 2016. Separately, US prosecutors acknowledged to a judge that they erred when they mistakenly referenced criminal charges against Assange in an unrelated case. But they insisted the need for secrecy in the case still remains as a federal judge heard arguments on a request by a free-press group to unseal criminal charges against Assange. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press argued that the inadvertent disclosure by prosecutors about charges against Assange obliterates the usual need for secrecy. Typically, criminal charges remain under seal until a defendant has been arrested to prevent a target from fleeing arrest or destroying evidence ahead of prosecution. In this case, the free-press advocates pointed out that Assange has been holed up since 2012 under a grant of asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for fear of prosecution in the US. Now that any doubt about those charges has been removed, there no longer exists a reason to keep the charges against him secret, lawyer Katie Townsend argued. But prosecutor Gordon Kromberg said no precedent exists for a judge to require disclosure of criminal charges before a defendant's arrest. He acknowledged the error in which court papers in an unrelated case say that Assange "has been charged" but he said the mistake is not confirmation that Assange is actually charged. The Associated Press and other outlets have reported that Assange is indeed facing unspecified charges under seal, but Kromberg said there is a significant difference between reporting based on anonymous sources and speculation versus official confirmation backed by the release of court documents. He said court precedent also recognises the distinction between the two. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema pressed Townsend for any precedent requiring criminal charges to be unsealed prior to arrest. She deferred ruling on the request to give Townsend a few days to research the issue. Brinkema, though, also questioned government lawyers closely on why there would be a need to keep charges under seal when there has been an inadvertent disclosure. "This is an interesting case, to say the least," Brinkema said. While Assange remains protected in the Ecuadorian embassy, there have been indications that officials in that country are losing patience with the Australian. They recently placed restrictions on his use of the embassy, including a requirement that he clean up after his cat. While the exact charges against Assange remain unclear, WikiLeaks has served as a vehicle for release of thousands of classified US military and diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks' role in releasing emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee in 2016 has also been under scrutiny as special counsel Robert Mueller has investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the campaign of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was involved. Washington: Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to the FBI and special counsel investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges, breaching his plea agreement, according to a court filing on Monday. Paul Manafort is US President Donald Trump's former campaign adviser. Credit:AP Manafort said in the same filing he disagreed with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's assertion that he lied to investigators. Both the special counsel and Manafort's attorneys agreed there was no reason to delay his sentencing and asked the court to set a date for that. Mueller, who is probing Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, said in the filing that after signing a plea agreement: "Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsels Office on a variety of subject matters." New York: When iconic car manufacturer General Motors announced it would cut almost 15,000 jobs, many of them in his political heartland, US President Donald Trump seemed to take it as a personal slight. On Monday local time, the iconic car maker announced it would close assembly plants in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland and in the Canadian province of Ontario. The cuts amount to almost 15 per cent of the General Motors' workforce. A big part of Trump's appeal in the so-called "rust belt" in the midwest was his promise to bring back stable and well-paying manufacturing jobs, especially in the car industry. The General Motors plant at Lordstown, Ohio, is located in a county that recorded a 29 percentage point swing towards Trump at the 2016 election. Washington: Last year, 238 women across the globe were killed every day. Six women were killed every hour, at least four of them at the hands of someone they knew. Roses are laid at a Red Rose rally, outside the Queensland Parliament House, honouring women lost to violence. Credit:AAP According to the 2018 report on the killing of women and girls released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, about 87,000 were killed worldwide in 2017, 58 per cent of them by an intimate partner or relative. Many of these deaths could have been prevented. Saturday night was the worst night of my entire life. We were 50 kilometres into a 5-day tramp on the remote west coast of Stewart Island in New Zealand's south. As we wandered back to our camp, after foraging for paua on an island at low tide, we came across hundreds of pilot whales becoming beached in the low surf. At first we thought they were seals, but when we realised what we were seeing, we dropped everything and ran straight into the water. Liz Carlson and Julian Ripoll were hiking on Stewart Island, NZ, when they stumbled upon a mass whale beaching. Credit:Liz Carlson We desperately grabbed at their tails and pushed and yelled, before we got hammered by their bodies thrashing around. It was useless - they were so big and heavy and the realisation we could do nothing to save them was the worst feeling I've ever experienced. We were in a place with no people, no service, no help. Trump insisted that Washington should nonetheless continue to back the prince, calculating that it was in the nation's economic and strategic interest to do so: because Saudi Arabia is a valuable customer for US weapons, an important source of oil and a useful partner in containing Iran. Bolstered by Trump's support, Mohammed recently embarked on a week of visits to Saudi allies in the region, where Saudi news organisations photographed him smiling and shaking hands with fellow Arab rulers, with no mention of the Khashoggi case. Loading But the move by Argentinian prosecutors now threatens to interrupt his victory lap just as it reaches its finish, at the meeting where he was set to mingle with Trump and other Western leaders. "Mohammed bin Salman should know that he may face a criminal probe if he ventures to Argentina," Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. The law in Argentina is unusually favourable for bringing international human rights cases because of the legacy of the country's transition from a military dictatorship. During the military's rule from 1976 to 1983, some 30,000 people were killed or disappeared. Argentina's own immunity laws were overturned in the early 2000s, and its prosecutors have since charged thousands with human rights violations committed under military rule. Loading Argentinian law has incorporated a broad interpretation of universal jurisdiction, the doctrine that some serious rights violations constitute offences against humanity and should be subject to prosecution anywhere. Carlos Rivolo, head of the prosecutor's association, said a complaint against the crown prince was referred to a prosecutor on Monday, and that prosecutor would decide whether to open a formal investigation. Such cases are assigned by draw in Argentina, and the prosecutor assigned to evaluate the potential charges, Ramiro Gonzalez, could not be reached for comment. Gonzalez has a record of handling international human rights cases, including leading an eight-year-old Argentinian prosecution of crimes committed during the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco in Spain. (Spain used the same principle of universal jurisdiction to bring charges against an Argentinian military official, who was sentenced in 2005.) Although it is the killing and subsequent dismemberment of Khashoggi by Saudi agents in a consulate in Istanbul that has most damaged Mohammed's international image, the Argentinian inquiry appears to centre on potential crimes committed during the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. Loading The prince, who is the kingdom's defence minister as well as its de facto day-to-day ruler, has led a 3-year bombing campaign and naval blockade of Yemen by a coalition of Arab allies seeking to dislodge from power a Yemeni faction allied with Iran. The conflict has resulted in widespread famine and disease as well as thousands of civilian casualties. The United Nations has called the results of the Yemen conflict the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and UN experts have said that both sides in the conflict may be guilty of war crimes. The Human Rights Watch petition, delivered to the Argentinian judicial system on Monday, argues that Mohammed was responsible for multiple violations of international law in Yemen, including "indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes on civilians" as well as the use of internationally prohibited munitions known as cluster bombs. Human Rights Watch has documented as many as 90 "apparently unlawful coalition airstrikes," which "hit homes, markets, hospitals, schools and mosques," while UN agencies and other organisations have identified scores of others, Roth wrote in the petition. An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in August 2018 killed at least 26 Yemeni children and wounded 19 others in or near a school bus. An airstrike in October 2016 killed or wounded thousands of civilians at a crowded funeral. A series of bombings at a well in September 2016 killed 31 civilians as well as others who sought to remove the bodies. "Some of these attacks if ordered or carried out by individuals with criminal intent may amount to war crimes," Roth wrote. By restricting critical food imports, the Saudi-led coalition "may also have violated the prohibition against using starvation as a method of warfare, which is a war crime," the petition argued. Auryn Identifies Multiple Copper-Gold Drill Targets at Sombrero Posted by Publisher Internet Auryn Resources Inc. (TSX: AUG, NYSE AMERICAN: AUG, ?Auryn? or the ?Company?) has identified several kilometer-scale targets under copper ? gold surface mineralization at it?s Sombrero project in Southern Peru.? The targets identified tend to begin at surface and can continue to a depth of 600 meters, representing more than one substantial opportunity for skarn and porphyry mineralization. Ivan Bebek, Executive Chairman and Director: ?The Sombrero project continues to evolve as a globally significant exploration opportunity due to it?s scale and analogous features to the world-class mines nearby. ?It is a rare opportunity to explore a project with this size and scale that has never been drilled before. We still don?t know the full extent of the mineralized system, on surface or at depth however, we anticipate drill permits in the second quarter of 2019.? The Targets: The targets are based on extensive geological mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys.? The results of the targeting have outlined a large copper ? gold system that is exposed over a 10 x 5 kilometer area (Figure 1).? This scale of alteration and mineralization is similar in scale to the Las Bambas complex and demonstrates the potential magnitude of the opportunity at the Sombrero project (Figure 1).? Auryn has recognized three superimposed separate target types within the observed Sombrero mineralized system: Exoskarn high-grade gold: copper ? gold targets located along the boundary between monzonitic to dioritic intrusives and the Ferrobamba limestone. Endoskarn bulk tonnage: copper ? gold targets hosted within the monzonitic to dioritic intrusive rocks Porphyry bulk tonnage: copper ? gold targets that are spatially associated with monzonitic intrusive dykes and plugs. The area currently being drill permitted (Figure 1) allows for 40 drill pads, giving Auryn?s technical team flexibility in the initial program to make adjustments based on the geology identified while drilling.?? There are a total of 7 high-priority exoskarn targets over a 4.5 kilometer strike length at the contact between the multiphase intrusive complex and the Ferrobamba limestone (Figure 2).? In addition, there are a total of 6 high-priority chargeability (IP) targets over a 7.25 kilometer strike length that represent the potential for bulk tonnage endoskarn and porphyry-styles of disseminated copper ? gold mineralization.? Typically, these chargeability anomalies are situated between 100 ? 150 meters below the surface, with several of them situated underneath mineralized trenches.? The 2019 drill program will test for exoskarn targets, endoskarn targets and porphyry-style targets (Figure 3) with drill holes ranging from 200 ? 800 meters in depth. Technical Rationale: Geologic and Geochemical Summary: The defined targets are centered around three exposed copper ? gold systems at the Sombrero Main, Nioc and Good Lucky areas, which are situated within a larger Pb-Zn mineralization alteration halo (15 x 10 kilometers) (Figure 4) that defines the known extent of the mineralization and alteration within the project area.? There are three recognized stages of mineralization present within the area, which are defined below: Stage 1: Prograde exoskarn and endoskarn development associated with the emplacement of large diorite bodies into the Ferrobamba and Gramadal limestone sequences. As part of this event fracture network copper ? gold mineralization is observed within the underlying sediments within the Hualhuani and Labra Formations (Figure 3).?? Stage 2: Retrograde gold ? copper breccias and vein development overprinting both calcsilicate alteration within the endoskarn mineralization as well as the marble/wollastinite alteration within the Ferrobamba limestone (Figure 3). Stage 3: Porphyry staged copper ? gold veins and breccias associated with intense clay alteration and the emplacement of evolved monzonitic intrusive dykes and plugs. These evolved porphyry staged dykes and plugs are associated with a molybdenum geochemical signature (Figure 4).? These porphyry targets are developed both within the larger diorite intrusive bodies as well as within the sediments of the Hualhuani and Labra Formations (Figure 3). Geophysics Summary: The use of geophysics data has proven integral to the development of targets at the Sombrero project.? Through the integration of geologic mapping and magnetic and induced polarization data, Auryn has been able to identify all of the target types listed above.? Magnetics Data: Magnetic highs have a direct spatial correlation with mapped exoskarn bodies which allows us to target, under the volcanic cover, the exoskarn that flanks the large multiphase intrusive body at the Sombrero and Nioc targets (Figure 2).? ?A total of 4.5 kilometers of strike length of exoskarn targets have been defined along the flanks of the multiphase intrusive center, defining the Sombrero target and again demonstrating the potential size of the mineralized system at the project. Induced Polarization (IP) Data: A comprehensive IP geophysical survey was completed in an effort to image disseminated sulphide bodies defined by chargeability highs above 25 millivolts.? These chargeability highs are interpreted to have the potential to host significant copper ? gold mineralization (Figure 2).? Figure 3 illustrates two cross-sections through the Sombrero target area that demonstrate the distribution of exoskarn and endoskarn target types being observed on the surface and at depth through the use of magnetics and IP geophysical surveys.? These cross-sections integrate geological mapping, surficial geochemical data from soils, rocks and trenches as well as the geophysical data.? Critically, all data sets support the potential for a large-scale copper ? gold mineralized system, both in skarn and porphyry-styles of mineralization, hosted within the Ferrobamba limestone, the multi-phase intrusive complex and the Hualhuani sediments. District-Scale Opportunity: The drill targeting exercise has been completed over the Sombrero and Nioc target areas, an area of approximately 5 x 5 kilometers.? To date, work in the Sombrero district has focused on the Sombrero North licences, which includes 62,000 hectares. Auryn controls an additional 58,000 hectares in the Sombrero South project area, which is situated approximately 50-75 kilometers to the southeast of the Sombrero North project area (Figure 5).? Initial follow-up work on these anomalous drainage basins has included higher resolution stream sediment surveys, reconnaissance mapping and rock sampling.? The goal of this work is to identify the next mineralized system to advance towards drill targeting.? Results from this work are anticipated to be released over the next several months as Auryn continues to develop new targets within the district. Michael Henrichsen, C.O.O. and Chief Geologist: ?The drill targeting process has demonstrated that the Sombrero project has the scale, continuity of mineralization on surface and required geophysical signatures to deliver a major copper ? gold discovery.? ?We are very impressed with the geologic similarities between Sombrero and Las Bambas and are looking forward to drilling the three target types of high-grade exoskarns, bulk tonnage endoskarns and porphyry-styles of mineralization.? Michael Henrichsen, P.Geo, COO of Auryn, is the Qualified Person who assumes responsibility for the technical disclosures in this press release. About Auryn Auryn Resources is a technically driven junior mining exploration company focused on delivering shareholder value through project acquisition and development. The Company?s management team is highly experienced with an impressive track record of success and has assembled an extensive technical team as well as a premier gold exploration portfolio. Auryn is focused on scalable high-grade gold deposits in established mining jurisdictions, which include the Committee Bay and Gibson MacQuoid gold projects located in Nunavut, the Homestake Ridge gold project in British Columbia and a portfolio of gold projects in southern Peru, through Corisur Peru SAC and Sombrero SAC. About Sombrero This project consists of the North Sombrero and South Sombrero properties, comprising approximately?100,000 mineral claims owned or optioned by Auryn Resources. The copper-gold Sombrero mining concessions are located 340 kilometers SE of Lima in southern Peru and are?hosted in the Andahuaylas-Yauri belt. This belt is interpreted to be on the north-western margins of this Eocene-Oligocene aged copper-gold porphyry and skarn belt that hosts the Las Bambas, Haquira, Los Chancas, Cotambambas, Constancia, Antapaccay and Tintaya deposits.?The project is characterized by a strong structural control and significant copper and gold values from historical surface samples.?The principle targets at Sombrero are copper-gold skarn and porphyry systems and precious metal epithermal deposits. Forward Looking Information and Additional Cautionary Language This release includes certain statements that may be deemed ?forward-looking statements?. Forward-looking information is information that includes implied future performance and/or forecast information including information relating to or associated with the acquisition and title to mineral concessions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different (either positively or negatively) from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to the risks discussed in the Company?s Annual Information Form and MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2017 and subsequent continuous disclosure filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at?www.sedar.com?and the Company?s registration statement on Form 40-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and available at?www.sec.gov. The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. ? hte equips IFPEN with high throughput technology for naphtha reforming applications hte ? the high throughput experimentation company is proud to announce that IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN) has selected hte?s proprietary technology for catalytic naphtha reforming testing applications to speed up catalyst and process development. hte will supply a high throughput reactor system which is highly optimized for constant RON operation under both industrial semi-regenerative and continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) reforming conditions. hte will supply a flexible high throughput reactor system for catalytic naphtha reforming testing applications to IFPEN. The test unit is ideally suited for catalyst and process development purposes. It will be installed at IFPEN?s research center in Solaize, France at the beginning of 2019. The fully integrated catalyst testing solution is fitted with unique features such as automated parallel adjustment of temperature profiles, operation at a constant research octane number (RON) under both industrial semi-regenerative and continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) reforming conditions, and enhanced online analytics. Furthermore, it includes the latest software solution, myhteTM, for integrating, storing, retrieving, analyzing, and visualizing data. ?After a thorough market evaluation, we selected hte?s technology because of its proven expertise in test units for catalyst and process development. This technology and fully integrated software solution will contribute significantly to reducing the time and costs associated with the development of new processes and new catalysts,? says Denis Guillaume, Director of the Process Experimentation Division at IPFEN. ?This unit will supply data for catalyst screening and for process development, providing representative data for industrial scale,? says Cecile Thomazeau, Reforming Project Leader at IFPEN. Wolfram Stichert, CEO at hte, comments: ?We are proud to work with such a renowned research institute. We have invested significantly in the development of this technology over the past years and are happy to see the market acceptance it has received.? At hte ? the high throughput experimentation company, we make R&D in the area of catalysis faster and more productive. We enable cost-effective innovations and reduced time to market for new products, thereby allowing our customers in the energy & refining, chemical & petrochemical, and environmental industry to keep ahead of the competition. Our technology and services comprise: R&D Solutions: highly efficient contract research programs at hte?s state-of-the-art laboratories in Heidelberg, Germany Technology Solutions: integrated hardware and software solutions, enabling our customers to establish high throughput workflows in their own laboratories. Our customers benefit from a broad technical and scientific expertise, an exceptional customer orientation, complete end-to-end solutions, and an outstanding data quality. Our close ties with BASF guarantee long-term orientation and stability. For more information, visit our website www.hte-company.com. Rohde&Schwarz Adds Secure Shell (SSH) Classification to Acclaimed R&S PACE 2 Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) Engine Posted by Publisher Telecommunication ipoque GmbH, a Rohde & Schwarz company, today announced new Secure Shell (SSH) metadata extraction capabilities for its acclaimed R&S PACE 2 deep packet inspection (DPI) engine. These new enhancements enable its vendor customers to offer greater security for network services over unsecured IP networks. Optimal use of the SSH protocol requires proper configuration of parameters to prevent and avoid potential vulnerabilities. R&S PACE 2\-\-s new capabilities enable it to inspect and extract metadata, provide complete visibility into SSH connection security, and detect/prevent vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and other malicious network intruders. The latest release 18.11.16 of PACE 2 features an advanced SSH decoder that extracts metrics and measures such as the MAC algorithm, key exchange (KEX) algorithm, public keys, certificates and various other connection parameters. As a result, vendors of network equipment such as firewalls or secure SD-WANs can evaluate the strength of the security mechanisms implemented by the SSH protocol and apply policies to avoid misconfigurations that negatively impact the security of SSH connections. These include weak MAC hashing algorithms (such as MD5), short hashing values for MAC (such as 96 bits), or encryption algorithms with known issues (such as RC4). \There\-\-s no alternative to for actually monitoring all network traffic and ensuring it meets rigorous security standards,\ said Alexander Muller, senior product manager for ipoque\-\-s DPI technologies. \By providing greater visibility into SSH traffic and communications, R&S PACE 2 enables security vendors to apply rigorous security policies and offer higher levels of security for corporate networks to differentiate their offerings from competing products.\ To learn more about how IT security equipment vendors use the DPI engine R&S PACE 2 to enhance their network protection products and add value for their customers, read the network security white paper or read the network security case studies. The Rohde & Schwarz team will also be offering a demo of R&S PACE 2 at Black Hat Europe, taking place Dec. 5-6 in London. Rohde & Schwarz can be found at Booth #409, and will be featured in a session, ?Leveraging Encrypted Traffic Intelligence in Cybersecurity Solutions? on Dec. 6 at 11:35 am ET in Business Hall Theatre A. More information here. About ipoque ipoque, a Rohde & Schwarz company, is a leading vendor of deep packet inspection software that adds protocol and application classification capabilities to network analytics, traffic management and cybersecurity solutions. Rohde & Schwarz also provides a holistic network traffic analytics system for communication service providers that allows deep insights into network behavior, network performance and trends to optimize both quality of experience and quality of service. For more information, visit www.ipoque.com. Rohde & Schwarz The Rohde & Schwarz technology group develops, produces and markets innovative communications, information and security products for professional users. The group\-\-s test and measurement, broadcast and media, aerospace | defense | security, networks and cybersecurity business fields address many different industry and government-sector market segments. On June 30, 2018, Rohde & Schwarz had approximately 11,500 employees. The independent group achieved a net revenue of approximately EUR 2 billion in the 2017/2018 fiscal year (July to June). The company has its headquarters in Munich, Germany. Internationally, it has subsidiaries in more than 70 countries, with regional hubs in Asia and America. R&S is a registered trademark of Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG. Made in China does not immediately mean dangerous or risky, but when a company is state-sponsored and has government majority-ownership, that is when one should have concern. Should that government give an order to spy or enact an operation against the customers authorisation or knowledge the manufacturing company cannot decline. Non-government majority-owned camera manufacturers can say No to any outside demands and go to court to reinforce their rights. More than the source of origin, the discussion should be more broadly about whether the vendor has the best interests of the customer at heart. Customers need to choose security vendors that can be relied on, and that wont create a breach in their network. They should ask the right questions when evaluating manufacturers, and this is not only about ownership, business model, partnerships or identified vulnerabilities. There needs to be a network of trust between customers, manufacturers, integrators and consultants. An artist's depiction of the ICON spacecraft at work studying the boundary between Earth and space. Sitting above the majority of Earth's atmosphere is a little-explored layer called the ionosphere. NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) is set to become the first space-based mission to investigate this region's mysteries in depth. ICON was slated for development in 2013, along with the complementary Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission, as part of NASA's Heliophysics Explorer Program. Both satellites will study the ionosphere, an important atmospheric layer stretching from around 30 to 600 miles (50 to 1,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface. ICON is 76 inches (193 centimeters) tall with a 42-inch (106 cm) diameter roughly the size of a large refrigerator, according to NASA. It weighs 634 lbs. (287 kg), which is about as much as a small motorcycle. The mission is operated by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. What is the ionosphere? Atoms and molecules in the ionosphere are bombarded with radiation from the sun, which splits them apart into their constituent particles, such as protons and electrons. This process is called ionization hence the name of the layer. Many satellites orbit our planet within the ionosphere, as does the International Space Station. This is also the region where beautiful glowing auroras are created when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's magnetic field. The ionosphere is constantly in flux. During the day, the sun's energy continually severs the connections between protons and electrons. But as Earth turns and the ionosphere enters nighttime, the particles have the opportunity to slowly recombine, creating an ever-changing and turbulent region. The sun regularly produces enormous explosions of radiation and charged particles known as solar storms, and these also drive instabilities in the ionosphere. For many years, scientists thought the sun caused most of the changes in the ionosphere, but more recent work has shown that a great deal of variability occurs in this region, even when the sun is relatively quiet and not producing storms. Terrestrial weather patterns also appear to be involved in the ionosphere's fluctuations, meaning it is caught in a "tug-of-war between Earth's atmosphere and the space environment," as described on UC Berkeley's ICON website. The key to communication The ionosphere is important for communication on our planet. Radio waves used for navigation are often sent through the atmosphere, and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, which fly high above the ionosphere, have to send their signals directly through this turbulent layer. Patches of ionized material "can act like bubbles in a lens or scratches in a mirror, distorting the signal, sometimes to the point of unintelligibility or unusability," according to UC Berkeley. That is why ICON will monitor a region between 60 and 300 miles (100 and 500 km) above our world, constantly watching to see how the ionosphere changes in response to both Earth's atmosphere and incoming radiation. It will do so using a suite of four instruments. Built by the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) will look at particles in the bottom-most region of the ionosphere, monitoring how they interact with Earth-based weather systems. The Ion Velocity Meter (IVM), built by the University of Texas at Dallas, will measure the speed of charged particles such as protons and electrons, watching how they move in response to the ionospheric winds. And finally, the Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) instrument and Far Ultra-Violet (FUV) instrument, both built by UC Berkeley, will capture images of the ionosphere that scientists can study to investigate changes in its daily cycles. A delayed start ICON was originally scheduled to launch at the end of 2017 on a Pegasus XL rocket, a vehicle that is dropped from an airplane at around 40,000 feet and then ignites its engines to carry small satellites into space. But problems with Pegasus XL have caused consistent delays. The mission was most recently set to launch on Nov. 7, 2018, but the attempt was called off when engineers noticed a slight but undisclosed problem with the rocket. "NASA and Northrop Grumman are continuing to investigate the off-nominal data observed during the Pegasus XL rocket's Nov. 7 launch attempt for the agency's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, mission. The next launch attempt will be evaluated once the investigation is complete. The ICON spacecraft remains healthy," NASA said in a blog post after the attempt. A camera calibration target sits on the deck of the NASA's InSight lander, adorned with the flags of the countries participating in the mission, as well as an "easter egg," a message in coded in braille. PASADENA, Calif. NASA's InSight, newly arrived on the surface of Mars, will study what cannot be seen and includes a nod to those without sight. The robotic lander, which touched down on the Red Planet on Monday (Nov. 26), is equipped with a seismometer and self-hammering "mole" to probe into the deep interior of Mars. The data returned from the U.S.-led international mission will help inform scientists on how worlds such as our own were formed. As with previous NASA landers and rovers, InSight is adorned with the flags and logos of the countries and space agencies involved in its mission (or at least most of them, more on that below). It is also decorated with a look-and-you-might-miss-it pattern of dots that continues a tradition started by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. [NASA's InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage] "I was thinking what else could we put on there that could be a kind of code that people in the know could look at and figure out?" said Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator at JPL, in an interview with collectSPACE.com. "I thought, 'What about braille?'" Target in sight InSight's braille "code" can be found on its camera calibration target. To take precise measurements, InSight will use its robotic arm to deploy its two primary science instruments directly on the surface of Mars. Before it can do so though, it will use a camera mounted on the arm to produce a digital terrain map of its immediate surroundings. Mission managers will then use the imagery to select the best places to deposit the hardware. "The arm takes a picture and then moves and takes another picture and we create a stereo pair. We then process that to create three-dimensional terrain maps," said imaging scientist Justin Maki, of JPL. First though, Maki and his team must verify that the camera can produce accurate images after being subjected to the rigors of launch, the nearly seven-month cruise from Earth to Mars and the landing. To do that, InSight is equipped with a calibration target. This image of the deck of NASA's InSight lander where the camera's rectangular calibration target can be seen in the middle was taken by the Instrument Deployment Camera during the assembly, test and launch operations phase at Lockheed Martin Space, Denver. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin Space) Mounted at the rear of InSight's deck is a 7-by-4-inch (17-by-10-centimeter) plate that serves as both the camera's target and the mission's symbolic marker. The lower half of the plate has colored circles, tilted squares (referred to as "slanted edges") and a grayscale gradient scale that will be used to confirm and calibrate the camera's sharpness, contrast and geometry. "We verify the camera is taking in focus pictures and then we verify the geometry is good to go. Then, at that point, we've checked it out and we can use that to help validate the digital terrain maps," Maki told collectSPACE. At the top of the calibration target plate, above the circles, are the logos of NASA, CNES (the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France's national space agency, which provided InSight's seismometer) and DLR (the German Aerospace Center, which built the mission's burrowing heat flow probe). Also displayed are the flags of the United States (twice the size of the others), France, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Poland, Japan, Austria, Belgium, Spain and Canada. Italy, which contributed a small laser retroreflector mounted next to the calibration target on InSight's deck, joined the mission after the plate was installed and so its flag is missing from the lander. [NASA's InSight Mars Lander: Amazing Landing Day Photos!] Custom code The target plate, which was made by JPL engineer Jesse Grimes-York, has one more feature: on either side of the flags, logos and calibration tools, are a set of red dots. "J-P-L" is spelled out in braille, the tactile writing system that is used by the blind and visually impaired. "JPL has a tradition of trying to put some type of 'easter egg' on its missions," said Banerdt. "One of the rovers [Curiosity] has morse code encoded into the wheels so as it goes through the Martian soil, it leaves behind imprints of 'J-P-L' in code." "Braille is another kind of a code, an international code that anybody, anywhere in the world could try to interpret. So we tried putting it on there and it looked cool, so we did it," Banerdt told collectSPACE. The first photographs of the calibration target are expected on Earth within the first week of the mission, pending other engineering checkouts proceeding as planned. Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's mini-DVD included a secret message in braille along its edge. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/The Planetary Society) InSight is the second mission to land braille on Mars. On Jan. 25, 2004, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity touched down with a mini-DVD decorated in part with a secret message in braille. The disc, which also featured the image of a LEGO astronaut minifigure, was part of a public outreach program organized by The Planetary Society. "Explore to learn," read the message in braille, as was revealed after photos of the DVD were sent back to Earth. Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2018 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. Retro 51's new Space Race Series of limited edition pens are styled after NASA's iconic Mercury-Redstone (right), Gemini-Titan II (left) and Saturn V rockets. They became iconic by powering some of NASA's most historic missions, and now the rockets that lofted the first astronauts into space and boosted humans to the moon can help launch your next letter, school assignment or office memo. Retro 51, maker of the Tornado line of collectible rollerball pens, has announced its Space Race Series, a trio of writing instruments that are styled after NASA's early astronaut launch vehicles. The pens, issued in partnership with the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, are in celebration of next year's 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. "The Space Race Series puts in the writer's hand miniature tributes to three iconic rockets that helped put the first humans on the moon," Retro 51 writes. "Each pen is made from solid stainless steel and is silkscreened with graphics that evoke the original rockets." [Fisher Space Pen celebrates 50 years in space with Apollo 7 pen set] The pens are modeled after the Mercury-Redstone, Gemini-Titan II and Saturn V historic boosters. Alan Shepard, the United States' first astronaut to reach space, rode on top of a Mercury-Redstone rocket on May 5, 1961. Three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress, stating in part, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." To gain the skills needed to achieve Kennedy's goal, NASA launched the Gemini program. Ten crews of two astronauts each lifted off on Gemini-Titan II rockets to practice and perfect rendezvous, docking and spacewalking ("extravehicular activities"), as well as demonstrate that humans could live and work in space for up to two weeks at a time. The Retro 51 Space Race Series pens each come packaged in commemorative gift tubes. (Image credit: Retro 51) The Apollo-Saturn V rocket, which remains to this day the most powerful launch vehicle successfully flown, lifted off with 10 crews of three people each, including all 24 astronauts who voyaged to the moon and among them, the 12 who landed on the lunar surface, between 1968 and 1972. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins launched atop a Saturn V on the historic first mission that landed humans (Armstrong and Aldrin) on the moon. Each pen in the Space Race Series is individually numbered and limited to a total of 1958, a nod to the 60th anniversary of NASA's founding. The pens come separately packaged in commemorative gift tubes. The Mercury and Gemini pens retail for $50 each. The Apollo pen is priced at $60. The pens are also offered as a boxed set with matching serial numbers for $170. Retro 51 will be donating a portion of the proceeds from each pen to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). Over the course of the past three decades, the Foundation has awarded more than $4.5 million to more than 500 U.S. college students excelling in science, technology, mathematics and engineering degrees. The Space Race Series pens with the lowest serial numbers have been paired with an Apollo astronaut's autograph and are being sold exclusively by the ASF as part of its "On the Shoulders of Giants" fundraising campaign. Astronauts Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), Jim Lovell (Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, Apollo 13) and Al Worden (Apollo 15) have each signed a print chosen to compliment the pens they accompany. "Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission. Retro 51 is proud to partner with the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation to honor and support the brave men and women who made such an achievement possible and who continue to reach for the stars," the company said. In September, Retro 51 kicked off its partnership with the ASF by producing an exclusive pen for the "On the Shoulders of Giants" campaign. Retro 51 previously offered three limited edition space-related pens, including one themed to Project Apollo and a "Mission to Mars" model inspired by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Retro 51's first pen to celebrate space history, the Saturn V inspired-"Lift Off," was voted its most popular pen to date. See more photos of Retro 51's Space Race Series of limited edition pens at collectSPACE. Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2018 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. Shaheed Alhafed, November 26, 2018 (SPS) - The Council of Ministers has condemned the maneuvers carried out by European bodies aimed at circumvention the ruling of The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which nullify any agreement with the Moroccan occupation state that includes the natural resources of Western Sahara. In its meeting today, Monday, chaired by President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, the Council stressed that these maneuvers are clear complicity with the Moroccan occupation and a real obstruction of the efforts of the international community aimed at decolonization of the last colony in the African continent. The Council commended the African Union's adherence to its founding charter based on respect for the right of peoples to self-determination and independence, and the sanctity of the borders inherited from independence, valuing the unity of its members in the face of maneuvers aimed at dispersing the African continent and weakening its position. It reiterated the willingness of the Sahrawi party to enter into the round of negotiations to be held in Geneva, on the basis of United Nations resolutions affirming the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence. (SPS) 062/SPS/TRA At least one thing is clear from local elections in Taiwan over the weekend - President Tsai Ing-wen and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party lost badly. Less clear, however, is how well Beijing won. In a slew of polls and referendums on the self-governed island, Tsai's DPP lost key races in the party's longstanding local strongholds and saw its progressive agenda on gay marriage and a tougher line against Beijing repudiated. The results bode poorly for the independence-leaning DPP and mark an unexpectedly strong comeback for the Kuomintang, or KMT, which suffered a humiliating defeat in the presidential elections in 2016. Beijing, which favors the KMT as the party of reunification, was thrilled and announced publicly that the results reflected the "strong will of the Chinese public" for better relations with the mainland. Tsai will now be looking forward to the January 2020 presidential elections with dread, while the KMT - written off as a spent force only two years ago - has been rejuvenated and emboldened. The repudiation of Tsai by the electorate is, on the face of it, unambiguously good for Beijing, which has increased economic and political pressure on Taiwan over the refusal of the DPP to toe the line on the one-China policy . It is less clear, though, how much cross-strait issues had to do with the result. For outsiders and Taiwanese alike, it has always been difficult to disentangle ordinary domestic politics - about the economy and the environment and such issues - from the perennial debate about how to handle China. This election is no different. Take, for example, the biggest upset of the night - the KMT's victory in the southern metropolis of Kaohsiung, a city that has been a bastion of DPP power for more than two decades. The DPP's overconfidence about its prospects in the city, and the KMT's quirky candidate, Han Kuo-yu, produced an upset. Older voters liked Kuo's unabashed brand of KMT patriotism, while younger Taiwanese admired his taste in hip-hop music and straight-talking. But there was another factor, more difficult to measure, that helped Kuo across the line: the role of Beijing and its backing of the KMT and its grassroots party organizations. Beijing's so-called influence operations have been in the news around the world in western democracies, in countries like the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Canada, with critics accusing China of using local ethnic-Chinese front groups to influence domestic politics. Such operations are conducted by the Communist Party through multiple bodies, ranging from the People's Liberation Army to the United Front Work Department, a ministry-level body dedicated to bolstering the party's friends and marginalizing its enemies. Although much of the high-decibel debate has been in the West lately, pro-Beijing activists have always been more focused on places closer to home, notably Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the past, Beijing has been rightly accused of being tone-deaf about how its aggressive rhetoric on reunification plays out in Taiwan's democratic politics - most notably when it lobbed shells near the island before elections in 1996. The Communist Party may be getting smarter though, digging in behind the lines in Taiwan and openly favoring grassroots KMT groups that are crucial in gathering votes, especially in the countryside. This is what we might call the Communist Party's ground game in Taiwan: bolstering rural community organisations that had fallen on hard times in recent years as the KMT went backwards in successive elections. The Communist Party is nothing if not a learning organisation. It has now accumulated, quietly, over a number of years, great details on Taiwanese voters at a county-by-county level, according to Taiwanese officials I've spoken to. Beijing's support for rural groups was fortified by the distaste of these conservative voters for gay marriage, and a proposal to change the name used for the island internationally, from "Chinese Taipei" to "Taiwan." Beijing still issues periodic threats to Taiwan's leaders about the need to stick with one-China policies, but it seems to have added to its arsenal by building an operation at the grassroots as well. Not everybody thinks the election turned on Beijing's tactics. "The elections were a poll on how the DPP government is performing," Bruce Jacobs, a veteran Taiwan watcher, wrote in the Taipei Times Monday. "The government has become so cautious that it appears paralyzed." Local factors were no doubt important, including increasing questions about Tsai's competence. But equally, after the setback of the 2016 presidential elections, there is little doubt that Beijing will think its new tactics are gaining ground. Some caution is needed. Beijing has learned the hard way that in democracies (in Taiwan and elsewhere) you can win one day, and lose the next. And just as the KMT hasn't turned out to be a spent force, the independence-leaning DPP won't be going away either. Taiwan's next presidential election is in 2020. The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party is in 2021. Despite Beijing's success on the weekend, we could still see sparks flying around those two events. - - - McGregor is a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. He has been the bureau chief for the Financial Times in Beijing, Shanghai and Washington, and is the author most recently of "Asia's Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century." Its Giving Tuesday, the day when folks are supposed to dig deep into their hearts and give money, time, or gently used items to the charitable cause of their choice. And, according to the financial web site WalletHub, a lot of Connecticut residents will likely be taking on that philanthropic task. In its latest survey, the site ranked states from most to least charitable, based on such factors as volunteer rate and share of income donated to share of sheltered homeless. Connecticut scored as the fifth most charitable state, and had the third highest percent of state residents who donated money to charity. It also had the eighth highest number of charities per capita, the 18th highest percentage of donated income, the 19th highest volunteer rate and the 25th highest number of volunteer hours per capita. Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media TRUMBULL A Bridgeport man faces assault and other charges after reportedly groping a woman while at the Westfield Trumbull mall on Saturday. According to police, around 1 p.m. Saturday, a female shopper reported that while she was walking through the mall, she felt a male walk up extremely close behind her. Soon after, police said, the male intentionally grabbed her buttocks and kept walking. Police report that the woman, though startled, was able to photograph the male after the encounter and immediately contacted security. STAMFORD The policy for hiring substitute teachers and reporting misconduct in the citys public schools will be re-examined Wednesday night. The Board of Representatives Education Committee will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Democratic Caucus room on the fourth floor of the government center to discuss the protocol for hiring daily substitute teachers, performing background checks and screenings and procedures for reporting substitute misconduct on the district level. The re-examination was prompted by the October arrest of former Stamford substitute Joseph Lombardo, 60, who has been charged with destroying evidence. Police said Lombardo deleted text messages he exchanged with a Stamford High student. Police said the student complained Lombardo repeatedly called and texted her, among other displays of inappropriate behavior. Prior to the Stamford High incident, Lombardo had been banned as a substitute at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering after students there complained about his behavior. The districts human resources department and executive leadership has already examined and made changes to the substitute policy following Lombardos arrest. Stephen Falcone, executive director of human resources for the district, said at a Board of Education meeting earlier this month that a new process has been launched to remove substitutes from all schools while a complaint is investigated. We want to make sure when a complaint is made, the sub is removed from all schools, not just the assignment, Falcone said. The new policy also requires administrators to provide additional documentation to ban a sub from a school that would be more widely shared within the human resources department. At a Board of Education meeting last month, Superintendent Earl Kim said the so-called exclusion policy allows administrators to ban substitutes for various reasons. For example, he said, a sub might not do well at a high school, but thrives with younger students. The exclusion list would only allow that person to work in the high schools. Kim said the complaints against Lombardo violated district policy, but did not rise to the level of reporting to the state Department of Child and Family services. The incident linked to Lombardos arrest was reported to DCF, but no action was taken. They did not feel it met one of the criteria around abuse and neglect, Kim said. erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2265; @erin_kayata Starting a new business isnt easy and it, of course, has its share of ups and downs. Some months are outstanding (financially), while others arent. Some months youre in pitch mode to land new business and others youre delegating work to be performed, hiring new team members, firing ones who arent working out and doing all the things that nobody on social media will ever know, hear or see. For a person whos historically been a corporate intrapreneur -- otherwise referred to as someone who acts entrepreneurial yet is paid a salary as an employee of a company -- to have full autonomy to show up and do your work on your terms while having the security blanket of a paycheck can be rewarding. However, the thought of not having that direct deposit hit ones bank account every 15th and 30th of the month can also be terrified to the point of paralysis by analysis. How will I pay my rent? How will I make my mortgage next month? How will I sustain my lifestyle? How will I be able to afford expensive dinners and vacations? These are all questions that run through the minds of corporate intrepreneurs -- who have an entrepreneurial mindset -- and lead them to stay put more times than none. Its fear. Its self-doubt. And, its real. On Oct. 1, 2018, when my LinkedIn inbox became flooded with Congrats on your work anniversary! messages, I took a moment to reflect on what it took for me to walk away from a job that previously paid me over $150,000 per year. For beginners, working a full-time job with a salary and benefits isnt a bad thing if you look at it from the perspective of youre being paid to learn new tasks and gain experience(s) which will you take with you for the rest of your career. Experience which someday you can charge large sums of money for. Post-recession, circa 2012, I had to temporarily step away from being self-employed and go work for corporations to rebuild my credit and save up money, which had been nonexistent in the previous four-year period. One of those jobs led me to start social media for Winn-Dixie, one of the largest supermarket chains in the U.S.; the other was working at LinkedIn, which relocated my family and me to San Francisco and opened up a new world of opportunities which previously didnt exist. However, there comes the point when the paycheck, company logo or work culture does not fulfill your needs, and you have to assess whether your purpose and passion are more important than a paycheck. If youve been contemplating ditching your 9-to-5 for self-employment, here are five things that will make your transition easier in the long-term: 1. Have a bigger objective in mind outside of your day job. If you cannot answer that you love your job, then youre in the wrong position. I often will meet gainfully employed professionals who dislike their boss or the company that they work for but feel that staying put outweighs the risk of going elsewhere -- including on their own. If you have years of experience and dont think that your value is recognized within your organization and are being held down, perhaps think about freelance consulting on the side to get a feel for what its like cutting your invoices, sending out proposals and doing work independently. 2. Start building an identity outside of your current job title. As soon as you get the itch to work for yourself, make your priority not what you will do but how you will do it. Begin with building a professional identity outside of your job title or company logo. Many working professionals are known as James at X Company or Susan from Y Company because theyve built their entire legacy around being an employee of a high-profile organization -- which is fine, but there comes the point where you need to create your own identity independent of that employer. Begin writing for publications in your industry as your name only -- unaffiliated with your employer or current job title. Start speaking more at industry conferences. Participate in online groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to grow your identity and thought leadership but also to network. 3. Secretly network within your network. For two years before I exited my corporate job to start my social media marketing agency Gil Media Co., I met privately with close colleagues to share with them my vision for next steps, either at industry conferences or by phone. While you dont want to share your intentions publicly with the world just yet, what you do want is for your closest colleagues to act as informal advisors who may have a job for you (on a freelance basis) or can introduce you to someone that might be looking for your expertise. Youd be surprised at exactly how many major corporations are looking for consultants or freelancers with your skill set and expertise. 4. Dont quit without paying clients. Unless youre fired or laid off from your job, do not quit unless you have a paying client or two. Not having guaranteed income will bring you stress which will make it harder for you to focus on the basics of getting a business up and running. Therefore, it is critical that you have income coming in from other sources before you become self-employed (by choice). You should also have at least six months of salary in liquid cash saved up to help you bridge the period between going out on your own to bringing in consistent business. In my case, a year before leaving my corporate job I picked up a client (ironically from a free speaking gig) which afforded me the ability to save cash that would eventually buy me a runway. 5. Document the process. Sharing your story is a competitive advantage. Why? Because its your story. Strangers will be more inclined to help you when they see someone whos sharing their vulnerabilities. As I share in the video and short documentary above titled Chasing Opportunity, a layoff in the financial services industry in 2008 led me to discover social media as a gateway to rebuilding and rebranding myself, which led me down a new career path to where I find myself today. While my story is unique to me, its also real and relatable. As youre growing a new business document the process of growth -- and sometimes failure -- through daily stories on Instagram or Facebook. Leverage mediums like YouTube and LinkedIn, too, to amplify awareness around whatever your hustle is. You will find that theres a world of opportunity waiting for you outside of your city or state if you see it. However, sharing who you are, what you do and what you want to accomplish is critical to unlocking it. If you need advice to help with your transition, lets connect on social media and discuss. Watch more videos from Carlos Gil on his YouTube channel. Follow Carlos Gil on Instagram @CarlosGil83. Related: How to Use Instagram for Lead Generation Related: How to Transition From a Corporate Job to Being an Entrepreneur 12 Signs You're Financially Ready to Quit Your Job Why Leaving Your Job Could Be the Smartest Career Move You'll Ever Make Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved F rom Vampire Facials to snail slime sheet masks, the list of strange things we are prepared to put on our faces in the search of a youthful glow seems to get weirder and weirder. And this week Kate Beckinsale revealed her that her glowing skin is thanks to perhaps the weirdest treatment of all; a foreskin facial. The 45-year-old actress has revealed she tried a 465 ($650) facial for the first time which uses serum containing the "liquefied foreskins" of South Korean baby boys to maintain her youthful looks. No, really. Taking to Instagram, the star posted a fresh-faced snap with the caption: "After a long flight I do like to lie down and be covered in a mask of liquified cloned foreskins - frankly who doesnt?" She then thanked British-born beautician Georgia Louise, who has a salon in New York, for the "amazing facial", adding: "I especially liked you reassuring me it would be 'light on penis' as it was my first time." So what is it? Professionally known as an EGF (epidermal growth factor), the 465 penis facial uses a serum containing epidermal growth factor proteins, which are taken from the dermal fibroblasts skin cells responsible for generating connective tissue of circumcised baby boys. These stem cells, which produce collagen and other fibres, work to encourage skin cells to turn over rapidly and regenerate, so theyre often used for brightening, exfoliating, and healing the skin similarly to enzyme facials. And how does it work? Once the stem cells are harvested from foreskins, theyre infused into the skin using a microneedling technique to stimulate regeneration and collagen production. The facial includes a cleanse, followed by an intensive TCA peel, micro-needling machine and an electrifying mask to calm the skin, followed by her secret box of EGF serum (Epidermal Growth Factor), Georgia Louise explains on her treatment menu. EGF is derived from the progenitor cells of the human fibroblast taken from Korean newborn baby foreskin which helps to generate collagen and elastin. FDA approved stem cells and peptides are penetrated deep into the skin using a special electric micro-needling wand. This process allows the active ingredients to be transported deep in the skin by creating temporary micro-channel. Getty Images Which celebs have got it? The treatment first came onto our radar earlier this year when Cate Blanchett revealed to Vogue Australia that she and Sandra Bullock had also been to visit Georgia Louise to get the facial done while filming Oceans 8. [We] saw this facialist in New York, Georgia Louise, and she gives what we call the penis facial, Blanchett admitted. Its something I dont know what it is, or whether its just cause it smells a bit like sperm theres some enzyme in it so Sandy refers to it as the penis facial. Georgia Louises website also has glowing testimonials from Emma Stone and Katy Perry. Throw Kate Beckinsale in the mix and thats one glowy faced fan base. PA Images on behalf of So TV Does it work? S ausages producer Cranswick on Tuesday revealed it has bought three more farms so it can be less reliant on European suppliers once Britain leaves the bloc. Chief executive Adam Couch said his firm acquired the land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire in the six months to September 30. He told the Evening Standard: This will allow us to take more control of our own supply and prepare for Brexit. The group gets around 20% of its annual pig meat from Europe. Cranswick, which also has poultry and cooked meats divisions, warned of challenges, including uncertainty created by the Brexit negotiations. The FTSE 250 firms first-half pre-tax profit decreased to 42.6 million from 44.5 million owing to softer pricing in some key export markets including the Far East and UK. The shares fell 122p to 2750p. It saw revenues edge up 0.6% to 719.2 million. The firm expects to see an uplift in pig meat exports to China in the second half while farmers there grapple with the recent outbreak of African Swine Fever. S amuel Johnson called patriotism the last refuge of a scoundrel. Yet this is precisely the quality Theresa May is appealing to as she attempts to garner support for her Brexit deal. It has become well-nigh impossible to turn on the radio or television, or open a newspaper, without being assailed by the Prime Minister or one of her Cabinet colleagues lecturing us that it is in the national interest for everyone to back the withdrawal agreement she has negotiated with the European Union. As though not to back it would, in some way, be a gross display of unpatriotic behaviour, if not outright treachery. For some bizarre and poorly constructed reason, the business lobby in the shape of the CBI is backing this line of attack even though it strained every sinew before the referendum to campaign for a Remain vote, much good that it did. We will hear a lot more patronising and tendentious guff about doing the patriotic thing in the run-up to the House of Commons vote on Mrs Mays Brexit deal in two weeks time. Because the parliamentary arithmetic looks to be hopelessly stacked against the PM, she has decided to go over the heads of MPs, urging them to listen to the views of their constituents, again, in the national interest. It is far from obvious, however, that she has a popular mandate from the country, either. The nation may collectively be fed up to the back teeth with the protracted Brexit negotiations and exasperated that it has taken two and a half years to get precisely nowhere. But the latest polls still suggest that voters are opposed to Mays withdrawal deal by a margin of two to one, irrespective of whether they voted leave or remain. Why should constituents any more than their representatives support a deal that ties the UK to EU rules and regulations for the indefinite future without any say over how those rules and regulations are formulated? And a deal, moreover, which could inexorably partition Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, thereby undermining the Union? Repeatedly invited to say whether remaining in the EU is a better deal than leaving on the terms she has negotiated, May has flunked the answer. What happens if MPs vote down Mays deal? Then we are, as they say, in uncharted territory. The EU could agree to amend the deal but it shows no inclination to entertain that, even hypothetically. We could crash out with no deal but Mrs May has said there are no circumstances under which this would be allowed to happen. On that, at least, she surely would command an overwhelming Commons majority. The remaining options are to go to the polls and risk letting in a Corbyn-led government or hold a Peoples Vote. If events were to lead us in the direction of a second referendum, then we must hope that May (or whoever is in No 10) avoids the botched job that David Cameron unforgiveably made of the first one. The choice on the ballot paper would presumably be: Mays Deal, Exit with No Deal or Remain. The polls suggest that Remain would win. But equally, we may discover there is so much pent-up frustration at the perfidy and sophistry of the EU and simmering resentment at the way the past two-and-a-half years have been wasted, that the Leave camp emerges with a bigger majority. My hunch, for what it is worth, is that another referendum would produce a much more decisive result and lay the issue to rest, one way or the other, more quickly than many people think. If nothing else, the British are pragmatic. If the result is emphatically in favour of Leave, then it gives a mandate to the extreme Brexiteers to press for a hard exit. If it is emphatically in favour of Remain, it gives the UK a legitimate case for encouraging a serious debate in Brussels about the key issue on which the first referendum was fought and which concerns citizens in many other EU states namely free movement of labour. May has many qualities not least her determination to fight on despite the repeated body blows she suffers, rather like the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But in playing the patriotism card, she is doing herself a disservice. T he rush for Black Friday bargains boosted footfall at Westfields two London centres in White City and Stratford by 7% to 910,000 over the weekend, it emerged on Tuesday. Owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield formed out of a takeover of the shopping centres owner by a European commercial property business last year also said that Stratford had attracted a record 50 million visitors in the last year. That was up from 49.5m in the prior 12 months. The landlord said the East London destination has now welcomed more than 323 million visitors since its opening in 2011, generating retail sales of more than 7.4 billion. Michel Dessolain, chief operating officer Europe for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said: It is fitting that a destination at the heart of the Olympic legacy story continues to break records." D onald Trump and Chinas leader Xi Jinping meet later this week for their High Noon in the trade wars at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. No one expects a quick end to the stand-off of two economic prize-fighters but a lot depends on whether the outcome is ceasefire or escalation. One China analyst likens the result to a drinking contest thoroughly bad for both sides but intensified in the hope that the other side will collapse first. Trump has revved up for the event, announcing that he has been preparing for the negotiations my whole life: I know every ingredient, every stat better than anyone else knows it. Beyond this presidential bragfest, a more substantial attack by Vice-President Mike Pence on Chinas poor record on intellectual property theft has deepened the pre-summit freeze. Progress on North Korea has stalled and it is Americas turn to raise the rhetorical temperature on foreign affairs by warning Beijing of vague but dire consequences if territorial disputes should escalate over Taiwan and the South China Sea. But if Trump has taken a risk by embracing protectionism as a response to Chinese manipulation of the trade system, the stakes are also high for Beijing and a generation who expected the Xi period of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to build on the past golden decade. The era of Xis children looked promising when it dawned six years ago an assertive new leader and expectation from the gains of technological and AI efficiency. Today the mood feels edgier, even in the prosperous cities of the east coasts Yangtze Delta, home to boom industries and tech clusters. A generation reared in the excitement of start-ups was prepared to take the constraints of an undemocratic system in return for the red capitalism of rising growth and technological wins. Anne McElvoy Now a young friend running a big start-up in Shanghai vents that the Xi era feels too harsh, with authority too firmly centred on the whim of one ruler. These are not the views of a dissident class, but mounting grumbles from educated Chinese who have gained much from the countrys rapid rise to the middle-income status. Growth and the record levels of urban development are falling, the splurge that kept cities sprouting subway systems and prestige tower blocks is waning. Piles of uncounted debt lurk like monsters in the cellars of the financial system. There is a new Chinese version of austerity, rebranded as responsible spending. Cities have been told to cut back on housing and transport projects as fewer Chinese move from the countryside to urban centres. The wider Xi vision is intact but more questioned than it was. The vast Belt and Road initiative sucked in bankers, strategists and investors, but now attracts criticism from those who fret that the showpiece of Beijings power abroad diverts resources with ill-defined aims. A prominent ghost at Xis feast is that of the late Deng Xiaoping, whose instruction to avoid the concentration of power in the leadership of a single person is being invoked as a sideswipe at the present incumbent. The Communist Partys declaration early this year that the Presidents term in office was theoretically unlimited looks like an unwise overreach. One veteran party figure earnestly explains that the interpretation of the ruling has been misinterpreted by foreigners (the old excuses are the best). "An elephantine trade clash will stymie growth for a Brexit-bashed Britain and a sluggish eurozone" Uncle Xi is a nickname which seems to have sprung fully formed from the partys propaganda machine to warm up the perception that the leader is distant from younger Chinese. A blitz of social media viral videos features youngsters dancing to music while singing about the Belt and Road initiative. They have eclipsed more Xi-centred social media games, in which players raced to see how many times they could like the Presidents image. Watching China evolve by visiting schools in various cities over the past few years has been a fascinating glimpse into the Xi generation and its aspirations. The education system, once admired and derided for its centralising rigour, has pockets of innovation that would shame Britains stop-start education progress. A sixth form in high-performing Shanghai confidently discusses the pros and cons of third-wave feminism in an English debate class. An 18-year-old girl gives me a copy of a book on 19th-century calligraphy that she has translated by hand, starting at the age of 13. In the round, red capitalism has proved remarkably good at the capitalism and aspiration parts, less benign at reinterpreting the red bit for a new era. Clampdowns on protests by student radicals backing workers rights, mass detentions of the countrys Muslim Uighur minority and anti-corruption crusades too obviously interlaced with personal score-settling mean that Xis tightening is widely felt and feared. Inventive teachers say they delve far back into Chinese history to explore more sensitive social periods, rather than risk being on the wrong side of reinterpreting Chairman Mao. Political narrowing, economic headwinds and the uncertainties of the trade wars outcome mean that the Xi era, however long it lasts, is unlikely to be smooth. The consequences of an elephantine trade clash will be felt across the world curtailing growth at a time that neither a Brexit-bashed Britain nor a sluggish eurozone can easily withstand another hit. The G20 this week sees a determined but reckless US President bearing justified grievances confront a stubborn Chinese leader with a wall of problems mounting at home. Turning that fraught dynamic into a stand-off about the distribution of economic power is the easy part. Figuring out how to call it off will prove a lot harder. . Health Secretary Matt Hancock is full of smiles and fresh-faced at 8am, ready to discuss the health service he oversees before he has to dash off to key Cabinet talks. Wearing his NHS badge set in an LGBTQ flag, and a crisp navy-blue suit, he brims with optimism and determination as he talks about the future of the NHS which, he says, is digital. Theres big pressure on the NHS now. With an ageing population and increasing demands, the expectations for the NHS keep on rising. The first thing weve got to do is make sure that the basic data and infrastructure for the NHS is so much better. But there is enormous excitement for the long term if we get those underpinnings right to use AI and genomics and the increasing amount of data about how people live their lives to learn how people can stay healthier for longer and then also be treated better when they become ill. He nods to the project carried out by Moorfields Eye Hospital in association with Google DeepMind for its work in detecting macular degeneration from patient scan results (OCT imaging). The project fed one million eye scans into a computer to teach it how to spot the early signs of the condition. The Health Secretary emphasises diagnosis in particular as a key area in which AI can make a difference, by spotting conditions as early as possible to increase the chance of a patient surviving a chronic illness, citing sepsis in particular. Its simple; early diagnosis is better for the patient and the NHS. Spotting sepsis is one of the most difficult things to do early and the urgency is critical to whether people survive. Researchers at Imperial College London have created AI systems to identify patients with sepsis. But, he notes, these AI systems will not replace clinicians. What matters is the interaction between the technology and the clinician. In sepsis, AI puts up a flag to say there is a sepsis risk. Ultimately, the clinician can make the judgement but its hugely augmented by AI. AI can augment the human factor. It will never replace it. Throughout the ages technology has enabled people to perform better in their jobs and it is just as true now. If technology can remove some of the labour-intensive tasks where the computer can do better than the human eye; that helps. But nothing can replace the doctor-patient relationship. And, he emphasises the value of clinicians. After his sister was in a horse-riding accident last year, he visited Southmead Hospital where she had been treated, to thank staff for treating her. His chirpy tone drops as he recalls the days she spend in intensive care. She very nearly died last year. She had a very serious accident and was in a coma for four days. She was riding at Badminton Horse Trials she was a very serious eventer and she fell off a fence. The ground was very hard and she went headfirst, straight into the ground, 6ft above the top of a jump. He describes that hospital visit to thank the staff as one of the best things Ive done since taking the job. Its hard not to like this Cabinet Minister, his enthusiasm is irrepressible and his own experience of the NHS gives him admirable credibility. Hancock has always been an outspoken supporter of technology, which has not been without controversy. On his phone, his many apps include GP at Hand, created by Babylon, the healthcare company which partners theFuture London Health project. This led to criticism that he was endorsing an app that may encourage people to leave their own GP practice, causing GP practices to lose money, while others suggested the service was cherry-picking younger, more tech-savvy patients. Ive become known for using this GP at Hand app, he chuckles. He is also happy to talk about his health apps curious about all technology that can make a difference. Hancock insists the GP app is a force for good within the NHS: Serving some people more efficiently allows more resources for the people who dont want to use the technology. We should embrace technology that helps patient outcomes. Here are some of Matt's apps Click on the apps to find out more Loading.... The Department of Health says the funding concerns surrounding the app and others like it will be discussed at the annual GP contract negotiations, but could not comment further. With technology on the horizon for a health service to which we cherish so dearly, there are some understandable questions that need to be answered. For example, will the incorporation of technology in UK healthcare provide an opportunity for private companies to profit from? I am completely against the privatisation of the NHS, he says, insisting our health service is safe in his hands. He is passionate about that and says free at the point of delivery is key. Its hard to argue that government plans to implement AI which involves the collection of data on a large scale in the NHS will be met with some scepticism. For many it will invoke memories of the care.data programme, which was abandoned in 2016, three years after it was launched, costing the taxpayer millions of pounds. One of the reasons for its abandonment was that one million people had opted out of sharing their data. The Health Secretary says patients concerns about the use of their data are understandable, and insists there are more safeguards than ever in place to keep data secure. The Department of Health has set out a new code of conduct that encourages companies to meet a gold standard set of principles when dealing with data. While the government pushes a positive outlook for the future of the NHS with the help of AI, todays healthcare system is under increasing pressure and scrutiny as its capacity is pushed to the limits. In October, the NHS warned its hospitals were set for an even harder winter than last year, during which time A&E bosses warned of patients being treated in corridors due to lack of space. So could technology start to fix these immediate problems? Ive had people say to me: Its all very well and good youre interested in technology but we need more nurses, Hancock says. But he insists AI can help here too, suggesting technology can help cut waste and improve patient experience. A spokesman for the Department of Health explains systems that can speed up early diagnoses will help improve the patient experience by freeing up the time of clinicians, which will hopefully encourage more doctor-patient contact time. The Government has promised an extra 20 billion for the NHS over the next five years, which will come into effect in 2019. That money has to come alongside how to use the best possible technology, the Health Secretary says. Why would you not use the best technology to deliver for your patients? I n art venue Hauser & Wirth on Savile Row, Martin Creeds latest exhibition is taking shape. Its bustling and close to completion, with some works on the floor waiting to be hung and others, rejected, ready to be removed. We sit with a view of the gallery. He admits to being really stressed. Hanging shows is torture. When I first met him in 2000, he was agonising over where to put a one-inch cubic stack of masking tape on a bare wall at Tate Britain. His best-known work, Work No 227: The Lights Going On and Off, which helped him win the 2001 Turner Prize, is a brilliant relief for Creed in that all options the gallery lights being on for five seconds and then off for five in the otherwise empty gallery remain present in the work. It avoids the peril of choice. If anything, I feel like that anxiety has got worse over the years, he tells me when I recall the masking-tape moment. He adds in the summer of 2016, after his last Hauser & Wirth show, in Somerset, and a big New York exhibition, he just crashed. Hes delayed exhibiting until now, and my immediate impression of the new stuff is of a big shift into painting. Creed, 50, has always hated his characterisation as a conceptual artist. He studied painting at the Slade and has long continued wielding a brush. However, his new paintings are strikingly less ordered and more improvised than ever, teeming with words and figurative imagery. They relate to a group of tiny coloured-pencil drawings, done at the kitchen table in his Barbican flat. I started doing these drawings, I think, because I was really upset Ive just been having a lot of difficult things going on. Theyre unpremeditated, starting as what you might call doodles. Theyre trying to draw whats going on, basically. So its not like a doodle, actually, more like a stream-of-consciousness thing. London art exhibitions you have to see in autumn - In pictures 1 /17 London art exhibitions you have to see in autumn - In pictures Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-Garde October 10 - January 27 2019, Barbican; barbican.org.uk Courtesy Rodchenko and Stepanova Archives, Moscow Videogames September 8 - February 24 2019, Victoria & Albert Museum; vam.ac.uk 2015 Nintendo Klimt/Schiele November 4 - February 3 2019, Royal Academy; royalacademy.org.uk The Albertina Museum, Vienna Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the Albertina Museum, Vienna Yayoi Kusama October 3 - December 21, Victoria Miro; victoriamiro.com AFP/Getty Images Gainsborough's Family Album November 22 - February 3 2019, National Portrait Gallery; npg.org.uk Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery Space Shifters September 26 - January 6 2019, Hayward Gallery; southbankcentre.co.uk The Bunny Smash exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo/Eiji Ina Pierre Huyghe October 3 - February 10 2019, Serpentine Gallery; serpentinegalleries.org Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Serpentine Galleries; Kamitani Lab / Kyoto University and ATR The Sun: Living With Our Star October 6 - May 6 2019, Science Museum; sciencemuseum.org.uk Image courtesy of NASASDO and the AIA, EVE and HMI science teams. Mantegna & Bellini October 1 - January 27 2019, National Gallery; vam.ac.uk Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid/Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado 100 Figures: The Unseen Art of Quentin Blake October 5 - January 27 2019, House of Illustration; houseofillustration.org.uk Night and Day: 1930s Fashion and Photographs October 12 - January 20 2019, Fashion & Textile Museum; ftmlondon.org Private collection Turner Prize 2018 September 26 - January 6, Tate Britain; tate.org.uk Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andy Keate. Hyundai Commission: Tania Bruguera September 8 - February 24 2019, Tate Modern; vam.ac.uk Tate Photography Ribera: Art of Violence September 26 - January 27 2019, Dulwich Picture Gallery; dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao I Object: Ian Hislop's Search For Dissent September 6 - January 20, British Museum; britishmuseum.org J.Fernandes/D.Hubbard/Trustees of the British Museum Christian Marclay: The Clock September 14 - January 20 2019, Tate Modern; tate.org.uk The Artist. Photographer: White Cube (Ben Westoby) Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet to Cezanne September 17 - January 20 2019, National Gallery; nationalgallery.org.uk The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London His description makes me think of the Surrealists automatic drawings attempts to penetrate the unconscious, part of their fascination with Sigmund Freud. And psychoanalysis has loomed large in Creeds life in recent years, not least because hes in a relationship with the psychoanalyst Anouchka Grose. Creed admits he stopped seeing his analyst last year, coinciding with when he began making the drawings. He points out a painting, Work No. 3124: Jealousy Bridge. Jealousy is the most horrible feeling of all to have, he says. And so it was to do that, and try to make a bridge out of the word jealousy, which came up in one of the drawings. The words envy and rivalry are also on the bridge. Words have loomed large for Creed ever since his breakthrough piece the neon Work No 203: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT, adorned the portico of a disused Clapton church in 1999. Numerous other emotional neons have followed: DONT WORRY, one exhorts; another simply says: FEELINGS. The expressions in the new paintings seem less insistent, more equivocal. You cant capture your feelings with words, its just a failure, Creed says. To get any direct hit, you have to throw loads of words, even just to catch one feeling. Thats what it feels like to me now, really. Maybe thats why it is like this [in the paintings] and not these certain signs. If the drawings and paintings suggest turbulent emotions, one presence within them is more calming: Creeds chihuahua, Jimmy. I find him so helpful. Im a true believer in therapy dogs, and the therapeutic quality of dogs, he says. A sculpture of Jimmy sits on a shelf above us. Its a 3D scan I did of him, Creed explains. The reason its up high is that he was on a tripod with cameras all around him and I was underneath. Creed is painting him in situ photographs of Jimmy are on the wall to help him. Painting him is a bit like stroking him, he says with a laugh. Work No. 3071, Peanut Butter On Toast, 2018 / Martin Creed As well as Jimmy, theres much that clearly gives Creed pleasure, amid the troubling emotions elsewhere in the show. Hes had a beautiful 12-string guitar made using dozens of different types of wood, which revolves in a display case. And slowly spinning on a plinth near us is Work No 3017: Peanut Butter on Toast. The toast is bronze and the peanut butter is in gold leaf. It was inspired by Creeds experience in a French monastery retreat, where, at the breakfast buffet, amid the otherwise wholesome food items, were jars of processed peanut butter. The monks would line up, Creed says with a chuckle, and theyd literally have almost a whole jar of peanut butter on one piece of toast. Everything that theyve given up greed or that they were trying to give up, was all in that peanut butter. He admits the exhibition just seems all over the place. I think this would be considered the wrong way to do it by most galleries, because you shouldnt show too much. Basically, this is not cool. But then, he says, hes excited to show his new work, even if the process is agonising. And also, trying to be cool is a really bad idea. If this is uncool, I hope Creed stays this way. He helps the art world feel a bit more human. Tomorrowland Winter, March 16-19 Legendary Belgian dance festival Tomorrowland is launching a sister event in the French Alps this March, with Tomorrowland Winter taking place for the first time in the village of Alpe dHuez. As youd expect with the organisers pedigree, some of the worlds biggest DJs are in town, with Armin van Buuren, Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike performing at the festival. It promises to be a huge event, with around 30,000 people attending from around the world. Tickets are already proving very popular those wishing to attend should sign up to the waiting list. Nirvana Nirvana united a generation in the early 90s when Kurt Cobain become an unlikely poster boy for the disenchanted, disenfranchised twenty-somethings of the age. The groups raucous rock arrangements and Cobains trademark drawl spoke to Generation X in a way that few had done before, but that was far from the extent of their appeal. Their finely-crafted songwriting and keen pop sensibilities also gave the group an inter-generational musical appeal which many bands involved in the 90s alternative rock movement would never manage. The universal quality and fervour to the bands music helped to make them one of the greatest bands ever, with Cobain rightly remembered as the great rock anti-hero of his time. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic L ike all space travel, the idea of exploring Mars isnt really to do with technology; its about romance and adventure idealism, even. And so it was with the landing of Nasas InSight spacecraft on the planets surface after six and a half heart-stopping minutes, when the whole $1 billion exercise could have ended abruptly. The photos sent back by Insight were admittedly unprepossessing... a white and beige orb with dust particles. But its whats below the surface that counts. According to Bruce Banerdt, the missions main investigator, We are going back in time 4.5 billion years to the formation of the solar system ... When we look at the crust of Mars, thats a snapshot into the past of what the Earth would have looked like [then]. Sending landers to Mars is impressive, but for the full romance of the project you want men there. Cue Elon Musk, who has announced that he is close to the test flights intended to produce a reusable vehicle that will reach Mars. He said this week that if successful, hed consider moving there. You could see Musk as the new Ernest Shackleton in an age when, like Alexander the Great, any would-be explorer must weep that there are no more worlds to conquer. And for all the drama of the six and a half minutes when the Insight lander might have come unstuck, just think of the same scenario with an actual person at the helm: heartstopping. But thats what men such as Musk want: to colonise the planet. Yet Mars is a foul place: its red, airless, freezing, barren, waterless and subject to violent storms. And, being destitute of human history, or any trace of intelligent life, its really rather dull. Moreover, it takes three years for a round trip. Professor Raman Prinja, of UCL, observes there are other dangers: Isolation chamber experiments on earth suggest that mental health is an issue these are long periods confined in a very small space. Theres political will behind the Mars project too. Donald Trump, who has bolstered Nasa funding, is all for getting to Mars as soon as possible: We want to try to do it during my first term, or at worst during my second term okay? Astronauts are up for the challenge, including the remarkable Russian, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. At the age of 80, she declared she was ready for a (potentially one-way) trip to Mars. For her, as for almost everyone involved, the challenge is human, psychological and romantic. The aspiration to conquer the universe has long antecedents; in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th century, the idea was essentially spiritual. The most influential proponent of space colonies was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: Earth, he said famously, is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever. It must be said, Mars seemed a good deal more inviting when it still offered the prospect of intelligent life, present or past. Today, alas, all we can hope for are traces of microbial life. And yet the fascination of the planet remains. Until, that is, Elon Musk gets his way. He thinks Mars presents an explosion of entrepreneurial opportunities for the early colonists including pizza parlours. I think Mars should have really great bars, he says. A Mars bar. . The north-west coast of France almost feels too near to count as a real holiday, but beautiful seascapes, sleepy old towns and traffic-free motorways make this feel a world away from the bustle of London. Getting an early start, my friends and I arrived in Calais in the afternoon and headed straight down the coast. Picardy is better-known for its First World War history, however, the region has tranquil stretches of coastline and one of Frances few nature reserves. The Somme Bays estuary is home to several species of birds including regal herons and spoonbills. As spotting these birds calls for quiet, youll be forced to slow down and take in the marshy surroundings at a more leisurely pace. However, should you want to be a little bit more active, visitors are able to hire bikes and explore the reserve's trails on two wheels. After a peaceful few hours at the estuary, we hopped back in the car and headed inland past Rouen, to our stopover destination, the quiet village of Montreuil-LArgille. Beautiful seascapes and sleepy old towns make this feel a world away from the bustle of London The next day we set off for Mont Saint-Michel, around a three and a half hour drive away from Rouen. In some ways the town is best admired from the outside. There are daily barefoot walking excursions when the tide is out to the nearby island and bird reserve of Tombelaine. We were feeling adventurous, so booked a kayaking trip around the bay with local British expat Ian Wood at Sea Kayak Mont St Michel. Wetsuits were provided, which made us brave enough to take a quick dip in the chilly water afterwards. After our kayaking excursion, we made the three-hour drive to Brittany, staying in the countryside near the small and sleepy Goulven. Brittany has a proud heritage with its own Breton language and road names in both French and the local dialect. Dining out: Aimee and her friends enjoy a meal We wanted to enjoy Brittany's coastline, so the next morning we stocked up on picnic food and headed to Ploumanach, which has beautiful granite rock formations lapped by crystal clear waters. Swimming is permitted but we limited ourselves to just dipping our toes in. The bay has plenty to explore, but for those wishing for an extra challenge, there are walks of varying degrees of difficulty along the coast. We then set off for Pointe de Pen-Hir, a more westerly part of the coast, stopping off for a picnic on the beach at Saint-Michel-en-Greve on our way. Winding through the Armorique Regional Natural Park with its rows of stately pine trees and flashes of rugged seas, the drive to Pointe de Pen-Hir is almost as enjoyable as the destination itself. A particular highlight is driving across the Terenez Bridge, with cable stays that seem to fan out around you as you travel across. Pointe de Pen-Hir itself is, of course, spectacular: staring out into the sunset 70 metres above the sea is a pretty breathtaking end to a holiday. Along the way - Mont Saint-Michel Mont Saint-Michel makes for an exciting drive, as the monastery that gives the commune its Disney castle-like appearance is visible in the distance. Walking around doesnt take longer than half an hour and there are plenty of restaurants to enjoy and shops to browse. Alamy / Alamy While youre there - Pointe de Pen-Hir With islands of spiky rock that were once promontories stretching out into the sea, its no wonder that Pointe de Pen-Hir is popular with climbers seeking an adrenaline rush. But for those after a more meditative feel, there are plenty of places to perch and simply contemplate the view. Alamy . Belgium gets a bit of an unfair rep not considered as cool as neighbouring France, Germany or the Netherlands, it can get easily overlooked. And yet, Bruges has been on our must-visit list for a long time. And once we realised that Belgium is so small, we could tick off three cities in one trip, we knew we had to go. My husband, Matt, and I (below) decided to spend two nights in Bruges before heading to Brussels via Ghent. Only an hour and a half from Calais by car, beautiful Bruges is a straightforward drive but we wanted to make the most of having the car, so took a detour via the coastal city of Ostend. Our trip to the seaside didn't add too much on to our journey, and less than 40 minutes later via very flat, easy roads Bruges felt like a world away. A chocolate box town, its small and easy to navigate and is instantly welcoming. We decided that the best way to really get to know Bruges was through its cuisine, so we ate and drank, seeking out little winding streets with foodie recommendations, safe in the knowledge that we would walk it all off sightseeing the next day. After all, once youre in Bruges everywhere is walkable. We wandered through the main square to a local food market that had been recommended to us. After a breakfast of waffles, naturally, we tackled the 366 steps to the top of the iconic Belfry tower, where we were rewarded with a view stretching out as far as the eye could see. We finished the day with a walk to the edge of the city to discover the only four remaining windmills, before a customary Belgian Blonde beer. We finished the day with a walk to the edge of the city to discover the only four remaining windmills, before a customary Belgian Blonde beer It was onwards to Brussels for our next stop. Our route took us via Ghent, where we were charmed by the architecture, art and historic Gravensteen castle. After a lunch by the Leie River we said goodbye to Ghent and made the 35-mile drive to Brussels. The Belgian capital is best known for moules, chocolate and the European Parliament all things we checked out. We opted for a bike tour, and despite the cobbled streets and steep hills, saw the sights and managed a frites stop in three hours. Brussels feels more energetic than Bruges and experiencing both in a short trip showed us different sides of this varied country. An evening of people watching over drinks, moules frites and locally made chocolates ended our time in the capital of Europe, and confirmed Belgium should no longer be overlooked. Along the way - Ostend Alamy This seaside town is not well known outside of Belgium, which is a shame as the miles of sandy beaches and great restaurants make it an ideal summer spot. Devastated during the Second World War, the architecture is a contrary mix, but that only adds to the overall feeling of a shared secret. On the North Sea the winds can be bracing but that makes it a perfect sailing spot as all the moored yachts can attest. While youre there - Ghent No trip to Ghent is complete without a trip to Gravensteen castle, which has been extensively restored and turned into a cultural destination complete with torture room where you can see all the weapons and torture instruments of the past and throne room. If acting out Game of Thrones is not for you then the city's design and art scene is not to be missed, particularly the Design Museum. A police officer fired her Taser at a gunman as she challenged a gang fleeing a suspected cannabis factory. Pc Christie Donald challenged the gunman who charged at her as she reached the scene in Hendon at 4am today. A handgun fell from the suspects jacket pocket as he collapsed to the ground. Pc Donald, a response team officer from Barnet, was one of five officers called to reports of a break-in at the semi-detached house in Hall Lane. She and colleague Pc Russell Adkins arrived first and saw the group burst from the property. As she jumped from her car to confront them, other suspects in a BMW rammed the police car. Her colleague chased the BMW but was forced to abandon the pursuit because of the suspects extremely dangerous driving. Commander Simon Rose, in charge of the North West area policing, today praised the bravery of his team. He said: The response by my officers, including Pc Christie Donald, challenging the suspects as they ran towards her, Tasering one and recovering the firearm demonstrates the split-second, potentially life or death decision making, that officers are required to make every day ... We have arrested two suspects but still have outstanding suspects to apprehend. A firearm and ammunition were recovered. Police were alerted at 4am by an off-duty special constable from Barnet who saw what he thought was a burglary in progress. A Met spokeswoman said: There are between four and six outstanding suspects. Some of whom made off on foot while the others left in two vehicles. A student who fought back after two masked muggers threatened him with a machete said today: Im a Geordie ... I wasnt taking that. Ross Leonard, 26, was walking home in Walthamstow after a night out early on Saturday when he was grabbed from behind. He said the two robbers, both wearing balaclavas, strangled me until I dropped and pinned him to the ground in Jewel Road. Mr Leonard told the Standard: They pulled me to the floor and one produced this huge knife from his pocket and I panicked. It was shaped like a machete ... It was big bloody knife. He said the robbers then shoved the blade into his jacket and took his broken iPhone and bank card. The armed mugger took his iPhone and bank card / Nigel Howard At that point, my body went into shock and I didnt know if the knife had gone through me, he said. I was really scared. The armed mugger fled with Mr Leonards belongings leaving his accomplice hiding behind a car, where he removed his mask. Mr Leonard, who moved from County Durham to London in 2012, said: I was angry and shouted at them, You b*****ds. Im a Geordie, Im not a very tough Geordie, but I thought Im not taking this. It was a stupid thing to do but I was being instinctive. I ran over and hit him in the face, and then he punched me back and scarpered. The shoe shop worker, who also studies graphic design at London Metropolitan University, said the thieves have attempted to use his card twice in Edmonton Green Shopping Centre and in Tottenham. Mr Leonard posted about the attack on Facebook to raise awareness and received dozens of messages of support. One well-wisher has started a collection to buy him a new phone. He added: I have been very touched by the response. Ive had a lot of really lovely people sending me messages. A Met Police spokeswoman said: The robbery is being investigated, no arrests have been made at this time. Enquiries are ongoing and the victim will be contacted updating him on the progress of the case. P olice have hit back at shadow home secretary Diane Abbott after she criticised the Mets new controversial tactic of ramming fleeing moped gangs. The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington blasted police for the new tactic saying officers are "not above the law" and that "knocking people off bikes is potentially very dangerous". But Camden police officers hit back, saying that someone who is responsible for law-making should realise that using tactical contact to terminate dangerous pursuits was "entirely within our lawful power". The Hackney MP tweeted on Tuesday: Knocking people off bikes is potentially very dangerous. It shouldnt be legal for anyone. Police are not above the law. The Met's new hardline war on moped gangs was unveiled last week with footage of officers using the tactic of ramming fleeing moped thugs. The method has been widely praised by some members of the public and former officers alike, but also attracted criticism. Officers from Camden Police one of the London boroughs with the highest rates of moped-enabled crime responded to the Shadow Home Secretary tweet. Tactical contact: dashcam footage shows a thug sent tumbling over the bonnet of a police car Camden Police said: Someone who's responsible for law-making (or at least debating and ratifying new legislation) should probably realise that using tactical contact to terminate dangerous pursuits is entirely within our lawful power... And our responsibility. In response, a member of the public asked the police: Surely you can terminate a dangerous pursuit by ceasing to pursue?! Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott / Getty Images To which the force replied: There are plenty of instances where a terminated pursuit has later ended up with the suspect vehicle crashing, and causing more injury and damage than if it had been terminated as safely as possible in the circumstances at an opportune moment. Officers from Waltham Forest also replied to Ms Abbott's tweet, saying: "To mitigate risk to the public & also offenders, we use a range of tactics including tactical contact. There has been a significant reduction in motorcycle & scooter crime with a decrease of 10,974 offences to date this year in comparison to 2017. Ms Abbott is yet to respond to the officers. A suspect is knocked into the road Earlier this week, a retired police officer defended the use of the tactic. Author John Sutherland said those who commit crimes, should choose the consequences. Mr Sutherland added: If the crime hadnt been committed, there would be no need for the police to act. If the rider hadnt failed to stop, there would be no need for the police to intervene. Its strange how easily we can forget these things sometimes. F ive people alone racked up more than 8,650 calls to the Metropolitan Police last year, which cost the force 70,000 to answer. The shocking figure was released by a watchdog for the countrys police forces to show how the services have become the default to deal with mental health. The top five repeat callers to Londons police force all have mental health problems, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said. And officers receive a call about a mental health concern once every four minutes, with staff responding to a call related to mental health every 12 minutes, it added. Police have been left to pick up the pieces amid a national crisis in mental health care, the watchdog warned in a report published on Tuesday. Stretched forces are responding to tens of thousands of cases that would be better dealt with by other agencies, the body added. Officers are often required to step in after more suitable services have gone off duty, the assessment found. It noted that the "intolerable burden" comes at a time when police are facing demands in other areas including a heightened terror threat and mounting levels of knife crime. HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham said the inspection found police respond to people with mental health problems with care and compassion. "But we cannot expect the police to pick up the pieces of a broken mental health system," she said. "Over-stretched and all-too-often overwhelmed police officers can't always respond appropriately, and people in mental health crisis don't always get the help they need. "It is a national crisis which should not be allowed to continue." Ms Billingham said other services "need to stop relying on the 24/7 availability of the police". She added: "The police should be the last resort, not the first port of call. "We are seeing forces attending less other crimes because they are focusing on mental health-related incidents." HMICFRS assessed the response provided by forces in England and Wales to people with mental health problems. Police involvement could include responding to emergency contacts from concerned relatives or friends, making welfare checks at the request of social services or GPs, supporting victims of crime who have mental health problems, attending incidents where someone is suicidal or searching for missing people. The full extent to which people with mental health problems place demands on police is not fully understood, the watchdog found. Half the time police rather than the ambulance service transport people who are detained under the Mental Health Act to a "place of safety", according to HMICFRS. Its analysis found that the peak time for calls to police for support with mental health-related incidents is between 3pm and 6pm Monday to Friday. Noting that GP surgeries, social care and community mental health teams "tend to finish work at 5pm", the report said: "Often, as a 24/7 service, police are the only professionals available to respond because the person is in crisis 'out of hours'." Examples of police stepping in to fill shortfalls in health services could include transporting someone to hospital when an ambulance is not available or waiting at hospital until a mental health place is found. The findings come amid intense scrutiny of police funding and performance. Arrests in England and Wales have halved in a decade, while recorded crime has risen recently in a number of categories including homicide and knife-related offences. Police funding has fallen by 19 per cent in real terms since 2010, while officer numbers have dropped by more than 20,000 over the same period. A Government spokesman said: "The NHS has worked closely with policing partners to reduce the use of police custody as a place of safety by 95% since 2011/12. "We are investing 2 billion in mental health services, including mental health liaison in A&E departments, and community crisis services, and NHS England will shortly be setting out its proposals to improve all mental health services in the long-term plan. "Police officers do an excellent job protecting those facing mental health problems in often difficult and distressing circumstances and it is right that this report acknowledges police leadership in this area to be strong." Dr Paul Lelliott, lead for mental health at the Care Quality Commission, said: "People experiencing a crisis with their mental health need expert and prompt help. All too often this isn't available at the time and place that they need it. E XPELLED Labour MP George Galloway, is making a film about the death of Dr David Kelly, the scientist who committed suicide in 2003 after being revealed as the source for the claim that the government had sexed up a dossier on WMDs used to justify the war in Iraq. But Galloway looks set to be using the story to continue his ongoing vendetta with Tony Blair, the subject of an earlier film he made, which flopped. The discredited politician who was thrown out of Labour in 2003 says he was inspired by Miles Gosletts book An Inconvenient Death: How the Establishment Covered Up the David Kelly Affair. The book, published last April, questions whether Dr Kelly committed suicide but comes to no concrete conclusion. However, Galloway is determined to hijack the story. He told The Londoner in his distinctive knife-grinders growl that he has no idea where this story goes though I have my suspicions. However, Galloway has launched a Kickstarter campaign that makes his intentions clear: It will be my case that [Kelly] did not commit suicide as the farcical Hutton Inquiry said, but that he was murdered. Goslett stresses that the film is independent of his work. He has always been very careful to avoid speculating what happened to David Kelly, according to a source. So far Galloway has raised over 20,000 but hopes to reach 50,000 in the next 29 days. He released his documentary The Killing$ of Tony Blair in 2016 but it tanked by its third week it had made only 17,730. In 2003 Galloway saw himself as an ally of Saddam Hussein once praising the dictators courage and indefatigability and his disdain for the New Labour leadership is undimmed. Asked if he was in contact with Kellys family, Galloway said: They dont have a voice in my film. --- Duncan plagued by ERG Monkeys SIR Alan Duncan, the minister for Europe, noted that his life and that of Gibraltars chief minister Fabian Picardo who this week risked a diplomatic incident by comparing Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez to General Franco had similarities. Both studied at Oxford, both spent their childhood in Gibraltar and both are surrounded by pesky characters who make our life a general misery. Fabian calls them barbary macaques those are the furry little apes who are native to Gibraltar. I call them the European Research Group. --- HAVE you noticed that the Tory Brexiteers have triple-barrelled names, Rory Bremner, the political satirist and impressionist, observed while hosting the Foreign Press Awards last night. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Iain Duncan Smith Boris F***ing Johnson. --- BREMNER said hed been asked to present the awards two years ago and how the world has changed. Theresa May had just been made Prime Minister. People were thinking: How long is she going to be there? Is it going to be a week, is it going to be a month? Two years ago we had no idea what was going to happen with Brexit, whereas now Oh, hang on. Paul talks grand designs while Peter admits he's a jolly old soul Design Duo: Paul Smith and Thomas Heatherwick (Photo: Dave Benett/Getty Images) / Dave Benett/Getty Images BRITISH design was celebrated at Westminster yesterday. Lord Mandelson and Paul Smith co-hosted the reception. Smith reminisced about the early career of one great designer: Im old enough to remember Jony Ive when he worked for a company called Tangerine... Smith said. Thats funny, isnt it? Because obviously its a fruit. And designed a loo, a bidet and a sink. But from great loos, big apples grow. Meanwhile, Mandelson told us he is confused by shadow chancellor John McDonnells assertion that he couldnt befriend a Tory. Im sure [hes] on nodding acquaintance with many Tories, the Labour grandee said. Its difficult to avoid in Parliament. He added: Im perfectly friendly to Tories if theyre nice. Youre friendly to everyone, fellow peer Baroness Nye interrupted. Youre a jolly chap. The Prince of Darkness allowed himself a smile. Yeah, he drawled. I am jolly. Bravely Chuckling PAUL Elliott, the remaining half of comedy duo the Chuckle Brothers, is coping after the death of his beloved brother Barry in August. Its a little hard, but its life, he told us at the Childrens Baftas. I have to carry on. He hopes to return to comedy some time in the future but is currently DJing in student nightclubs. Its sold out everywhere I go. I play all dance anthems. Its hard when Im drifting off at night and I get a call around midnight to say my cars outside. But he says, Off I go to the club to do my thing. I manage to keep up. YOU wont find catwalk queen Claudia Schiffer on the high street any time soon. The model shared a snap of herself doing a spot of Christmas shopping yesterday, but from the comfort of her own desk. Lets do this! #CyberMonday, she commented. SW1A JOHN Bercow may be embroiled in a bullying row, but yesterday he spoke out against discrimination. The Commons Speaker was at the Sara Conference an anti-misogyny event: Ive experienced anti-Semitism in my life, he said, [but] it dwindles into complete insignificance in comparison with what female Jews experience. He cited robust MPs Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth. It ought to be possible... not to have to contend with this vitriol. Hear, hear. --- FAREWELL Baroness Trumpington, who passed away yesterday. During a punishing late-night sitting in the Lords she once turned to a fellow peer and sighed: This is like the Blitz... only without the sex. --- THERESA May hosted business leaders at Downing Street last night to discuss Brexit. One man raised his hand and asked why she used the term transition, which suggests we know where we are going. Quote of the Day Is smooth and orderly the new strong and stable? Labours Angela Eagle, below, got some laughs in the Commons yesterday when she asked Theresa May for clarity on the Brexit dea B aroness Trumpington, a Bletchley Park code-breaker and long-serving peer, has died at the age of 96, her son has said. The former Tory peer, who retired from the House of Lords last year after a 37-year tenure, died on Monday afternoon. Penny Mordaunt, international development secretary, was among those to pay tribute. She described Lady Trumpington as a trailblazer, heroine and an utter joy. Baroness Trumpington with the Yeomen of the Guard in the House of Lords / PA Tributes came from across the political spectrum after her son Adam Barker announced her death saying she had a bloody good innings. In a tweet, he added: My mother passed away this afternoon in her sleep. Lady Trumpington spent 37 years as a Conservative peer and had spells as a minister and a government whip. She was also famed for flicking two fingers up at a fellow Tory peer. The Duchess of Cornwall talking with Baroness Trumpington as during a reception in support of The Women Of The World Festival 2015 / PA James Cleverly, MP and deputy chairman of the Conservative party, tweeted: "So sad to hear that code breaking, two finger wagging, Baroness Trumpington has passed away. Ma'am, we salute you." Ms Mordaunt wrote: "Deepest sympathies to all who knew and loved this incredible woman. Socialite, mother, Bletchley Park code breaker, Baroness, Minister, trailblazer, heroine and an utter joy." Tim Farron, MP and former Liberal Democrat leader, said she was "admirable, decent and unique" Baroness Sayeeda Warsi added: "She always had time to deliver a good telling off, give advice or pay a compliment. I had the privilege of being at the receiving end of all three! A huge inspiration." Lady Trumpington shot to fame in 2011 when she was caught on camera in the Lords chamber flicking a V-sign at a fellow Tory peer over what she perceived as a rude remark about her age. During the Second World War, she was a "Land Girl" for David Lloyd George before working in naval intelligence at the Bletchley Park code-breaking headquarters. Before entering Parliament, Lady Trumpington was a Cambridge councillor, rising to become mayor in 1971. T heresa May's plan to rush out a blunt clampdown on low-skilled immigration to give her Brexit deal a boost is being held up by a major Cabinet dispute, the Evening Standard has learned. At least three Cabinet ministers, including Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark, want the Prime Minister to soften her plan to axe visas for low-skilled Europeans. The Cabinet ministers fear the supply of vital workers to industry could be choked off during the transition period as Britain leaves the EU and prefer a less blunt approach, sources said. The policy, which Mrs May hopes to unveil next week, is stuck at No 10 after Home Secretary Sajid Javid proposed pro-business changes to allow workers on temporary visas. A senior source said Downing Street originally wanted to announce the long-awaited immigration policy this week. Chancellor Philip Hammond is said to be among those against the PM's plans / REUTERS A Cabinet source said: It is not at all clear it will be ready for next week, or even before the vote on Brexit. We are all waiting to see the details because No 10 have yet to circulate it. Another source said: It could be expedited by Downing Street, but that would not go down well on a policy as important as this one. Business groups urged Mrs May to protect visas for low-skilled workers. Edwin Morgan, director of policy at the Institute of Directors, warned: Its crucial that this new system reflects the needs of our economy, rather than arbitrary political targets. TODO: define component type apester Business lobby group London First rejected the idea of a numbers-based ceiling and called for the salary threshold for skilled-worker visas to be dropped from 30,000 to 20,155, the level of the London Living Wage. Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: It would be irresponsible for the Government to bring the shutters down overnight, especially to those in important lower-wage roles such as care workers. Mrs May admitted yesterday in the Commons she had been wrong to describe EU workers as queue jumpers. But she remains adamant that Britain must be seen to be taking control of our borders after Brexit by reducing net migration and granting visas only to those earning over 30,000. T heresa May has challenged Jeremy Corbyn to a Brexit showdown on live television as she launches a campaign to push her divorce deal through Parliament. The Prime Minister went on the offensive and urged her deal is the best possible option, saying she is ready to debate it with the Labour leader because Ive got a plan. He hasnt. Mrs May said how the showdown would come about is a matter for broadcasters to determine, but added: I am willing to stand up and explain why I think it is the best possible deal available for the UK. She told the Sun: "I am going to be explaining why I think this deal is the right deal for the UK - and yes, I am ready to debate it with Jeremy Corbyn. Because I have got a plan. He hasn't got a plan. Corbyn, centre, has agreed to the offer. A Labour spokesman said he would 'relish' a debate over her 'botched' deal / AFP/Getty Images "Exactly how it might be done, if he takes it up, would be a matter for the broadcasters to determine. What I think is important is that people are able to see the issues around this plan. "I am willing to stand up and explain why I think it is the best possible deal available for the UK." Responding to her request for a television debate, a Labour spokesman said Mr Corbyn would relish a head to head debate with Mrs May about her botched Brexit deal. It comes Donald Trump appeared to undermine Mrs May's Brexit deal by saying it would be bad for trade between the UK and US. The US President said the agreement sounds like a good deal for the European Union. Donald Trump: Brexit deal may stop trade with the US "I think we have to take a look at, seriously, whether or not the UK is allowed to trade. Because, you know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us. And that wouldn't be a good thing, Mr Trump said. "I don't think they meant that. I don't think that the Prime Minister meant that. And, hopefully, she'll be able to do something about that. But, right now, as the deal stands she may not, they may not, be able to trade with the US. And, I don't think they want that at all. "That would be a very big negative for the deal." TODO: define component type apester In response to Mr Trump's comments, a Downing Street spokesman said: "The political declaration we have agreed with the EU is very clear we will have an independent trade policy so that the UK can sign trade deals with countries around the world - including with the US. "We have already been laying the groundwork for an ambitious agreement with the US through our joint working groups, which have met five times so far. "The US Trade Representative also issued a call for views from the public on a future UK-US free trade agreement earlier this month." Mr Trump's intervention came as it was confirmed that MPs will vote on Mrs May's Brexit deal on December 11 after five days of debate. The timing gives Mrs May a fortnight to avert what threatens to be a humiliating defeat at the hands of scores of Conservative rebels. T ributes have flooded in for 'Legend of the Lords' Baroness Trumpington, who passed away aged 96. She was hailed by TV viewers in 2011 after she made a V-sign at Tory Lord King, a former defence secretary, after he made a jibe about her age. The video went viral again today after the Baroness, who retired last year, passed away in her sleep last night. Her appearance on the BBC panel show Have I Got News For You led to calls for her to have her own series. The former Tory minister and government whip also drew attention for her comments on former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles when she appeared on HIGNFY. Baroness Trumpington with the Yeomen of the Guard in the House of Lords / PA She said: "I have heard of him, I didn't realise he was that large." The 'trailblazer' also drew controversy for her comments about growing old disgracefully, smoking and suggesting that the military used sheep to detonate mines during the Falklands War. In her defence, she said: "My point was that you can put a sheep out of its misery and eat it. You can't do that to a man." Former Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to the Baroness on Twitter. He said: "So very sad to hear that Baroness Trumpington has passed away. "She was one of a kind - they simply dont make politicians like that anymore. "She will be sorely missed in Westminster but long remembered for her outstanding ability and great humour. RIP Trumpers." The Duchess of Cornwall talking with Baroness Trumpington as during a reception in support of The Women Of The World Festival 2015 / PA International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt added: "Deepest sympathies to all who knew and loved this incredible woman. "Socialite, mother, Bletchley Park code breaker, Baroness, Minister, trailblazer, heroine and an utter joy. "Thank you Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington." In World War Two, the Baroness worked in naval intelligence at Bletchley Park, before entering politics as a councillor in Cambridge, where she later became mayor. Ater entering government in 1980, she served under prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, working in the Department of Health and Ministry of Agriculture. Baroness Trumpington, who retired from the House of Lords at the age of 95 last year, has died / PA Others who paid tribute to the iconic Peer included Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who praised a "huge inspiration", and said: "She always had time to deliver a good telling off, give advice or pay a compliment. "I had the privilege of being at the receiving end of all three!" Conservative Deputy Chairman James Cleverly added: "So sad to hear that code breaking, two finger wagging, Baroness Trumpington has passed away. Ma'am, we salute you." TODO: define component type apester Lady Trumpington was born Jean Alys Campbell-Harris on October 23, 1922 and educated privately in England and France. D efiant Theresa May today phoned Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker to insist her timetable for Brexit will stay on course. The Prime Minister insisted she would not be derailed despite a warning from Nick Clegg, her former Lib Dem Coalition colleague, that MPs and peers would refuse to let Brexit go ahead except on soft terms and coupled with a pledge of yet another referendum. Mrs May called the German chancellor, the European Unions most powerful politician, after breakfast to say she was still aiming to move Article 50 by her promised deadline of the end of March 2017. Mrs May then rang Mr Juncker, president of the Brussels-based European Commission, with the same message, that she would not be derailed by losing a key High Court judgment requiring her to give Parliament a vote. However, leading opponents of Brexit this morning made clear they would use the opportunity of parliamentary votes to amend any Bill to try to bind Mrs Mays hands in the negotiations. Nick Clegg, the former Deputy PM, said MPs and peers could block the exit process - unless the Government agreed to seek a soft Brexit and potentially a fresh public vote on the final deal. Anger among Cabinet ministers at the High Court ruling that MPs should be given a vote was laid bare when Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, attacked the case brought by anti-Brexit campaigners as an attempt to frustrate the will of the British people and it is unacceptable. It emerged that all 11 Supreme Court Justices will hear the Governments appeal, which is likely to be brought in early December, because of its constitutional significance. It would be the first time that more than nine Justices have sat in modern times. No 10 is hoping for a judgment just before Christmas or shortly after. Loading.... Mrs Mays appeal will defend her argument that Junes 52-48 referendum victory for Vote Leave gives her the prerogative to begin the process of Brexit by moving Article 50 without asking parliaments further permission. Officials say both the Commons and Lords debated the process thoroughly when it passed the Act enabling an in-out referendum to take place. But Mr Clegg said that if the Supreme Court upheld this weeks ruling he expected Mrs May to bring a short Bill to Parliament that MPs and Peers would amend, possibly to include staying in the EU single market and the customs union. He said a second referendum would be demanded on the outcome of the two-year exit talks. He said: We will seek, with other parties, in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, to amend the legislation such that Parliament would say to Government that it should pursue a soft Brexit not a hard Brexit and that there should be some means by which the British people can have a say on the final deal when the negotiations with the EU are finally completed in the years ahead. Mr Clegg added: If were to be able to marshal opinion behind that approach then people will vote in favour of Article 50 triggered on that basis. If the Government, on the other hand, digs its heels in and says we are going to go for a more self-harming, hard Brexit and not give anyone a say on the final package then of course I think people will say hang on a minute, we are not sure we are going to give you the consent to proceed on that basis. Tory former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers branded his plan outrageous. I think it would be a constitutional outrage if unelected Liberal Democrat peers were to stand in the way of implementing the clear result of a referendum in which 33 million people took part, she told BBC radio. Ex-chancellor George Osborne said the UK must redouble our efforts to attract Chinese investment to avoid some of the dangers and difficulties that Brexit might offer up to our country. No 10 said Mrs May was speaking to European Council president Donald Tusk this afternoon with the same message. B oris Johnson today called for the Prime Minister to debate with "someone who believes in Brexit", saying there was "no point" in holding a televised head-to-head with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Theresa May has challenged Mr Corbyn to a debate on Brexit ahead of the December 11 vote in Parliament on her Withdrawal Agreement. But the former foreign secretary said the face off between the two main party leaders would "narrow" the discussion over the issue because neither's plans "are Brexit". His intervention came after Mrs May had rejected calls for leaders of smaller political parties to join the two main party leaders in a televised debate. Mr Johnson, who has made repeated attacks on Mrs May's Withdrawal Agreement, wrote on Twitter: "Debates are great for democracy - but rather than widening discourse, this debate is narrowing it by offering a false choice between May's failing deal and Corbyn's vague proposals - neither of which are Brexit. "There is no point having a debate with two people who voted Remain & deals that don't take back control. "Any debate must involve someone who believes in Brexit & the British people being fully in control of their laws, rather than giving back control to the EU like the PM's deal." Mr Johnson said there was 'no point' in the PM holding a debate with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn / AFP/Getty Images His criticism stopped short of putting himself forward to challenge the PM in a live broadcast. After groups with almost every possible position on Brexit said they should take part in any broadcast ahead of the meaningful vote, Mrs May said on Tuesday she and the Labour leader represented almost 90 per cent of MPs in the Commons. Her comments to reporters during a visit to Wales followed demands by the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, The Green Party, Plaid Cymru and campaigners for a second Brexit referendum to join them. TODO: define component type apester During a visit to the Royal Welsh Winter Fair in Builth Wells in Powys, Mrs May said: "Of course I am going to be debating in the House of Commons with all parties on the issue of the Brexit deal. "Jeremy Corbyn and I are leaders of parties that cover getting on for 90 per cent of all MPs in the House of Commons. "This is a really important moment for our country. "I have a clear deal that I believe is in the interests of the UK and I think it is right for people to hear what Jeremy Corbyn's views are as those have been a little uncertain recently about exactly where he stands." Theresa May dismisses Donald Trump's trade deal claims Labour is also behind plans for the head to head, saying Mr Corbyn would "relish" going up against the Prime Minister over the Withdrawal Agreement. Labour Brexiteer Gisela Stuart also attacked the proposed line-up, saying it was limited to "two politicians who voted and campaigned for Remain". Mrs Stuart, the chairwoman of the Change Britain group, said: "Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn want to keep the EU in charge of our trade policy and sign the UK up to a swathe of Brussels regulations. These are at odds with the referendum mandate of taking back control. "Any debate must include an advocate of a clean Brexit who wants to fully deliver on the wishes of the British people." Donald Trump appeared to suggest the PM's Brexit plans could stop the two countries securing a trade deal / AP The Prime Minister was on Tuesday forced to insist that Britain is working "very well" with the United States over future trade after Donald Trump appeared to "pour cold water" on her Brexit plan. The US president suggested her proposals could stop the two countries sealing a deal by describing the agreement as "a great deal for the EU". But Mrs May said the Political Declaration meant "we will be able to negotiate trade deals with countries around the rest of the world". Mr Trump's comments prompted a warning from Sir Michael Fallon, a former May loyalist, who said he could not vote for her deal because it represented "the worst of all worlds - no guarantee of smooth trade in the future and no ability to reduce the tariffs that we need to conclude trade deals with the rest of the world". Mrs May and Mr Trump will both head to Argentina for the G20 conference at the end of the week but Downing Street aides there were no plans for private talks between the two leaders. Downing Street on Tuesday revealed that an economic analysis of Brexit scenarios will be released on Wednesday afternoon. B reathtaking images have shown scores of fighter jets soaring above the English Channel in a joint show of force between the UK, America and France. The RAF joined its French and American allies in a training exercise above the Channel with dozens of aircraft taking to the skies. More than 40 aircraft participated in Operation Point Blank on Tuesday including two of the RAF's F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jets based at Marham in Norfolk. Amazing photographs show the aircraft soaring through the skies above the English channel. An RAF F-35B Lightning, a USAF F-15E Strike Eagle and a French Rafale fly over / REUTERS Close-ups also show the pilots in the cockpit during the training exercise. A French Rafale fighter flies over The English Channel during the "Point Blank" exercise / REUTERS Planes took off from bases around the country and the exercise was led by the US Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk. Fighter jets soar over the English Channel in joint show of force between UK, US and France The exercise has taken place before, but this year's is the largest to date, with almost double the aircraft, and it is the first time the French air force has participated. The flights took place on Tuesday / REUTERS Aircraft from the three air forces, including the French Rafale fighter and US F-15, worked as a team against "threats" in the training environment. A pilot of a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker is seen at work in the cockpit during the "Point Blank" exercise after taking off from RAF Mildenhall / REUTERS Air Commodore Jez Attridge, of the RAF, said: "It really is a case of us staying ready so that we can be used if we need to. "It's a great insurance policy." A USAF F-15E Strike Eagle / REUTERS He described the inclusion of the two F-35s as a "huge milestone" which "really shows the progression that Lightning Force is making". P rosecutors have admitted they were wrong to accidently reveal secret criminal charges against Julian Assange in an unrelated case. But while they acknowledged the mistake, the prosecutors insisted the need for secrecy in the case still remains. A federal judge heard arguments on a request by a free-press group to unseal the criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder. The group argued that the inadvertent disclosure about charges obliterates the usual need for secrecy. Such charges typically remain secret until a defendant has been arrested. This is to prevent a target from fleeing arrest or destroying evidence ahead of prosecution. In this case, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said Mr Assange has been holed up since 2012 under a grant of asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for fear of prosecution in the US. Now that any doubt about those charges has been removed, there no longer exists a reason to keep the charges against him secret, lawyer Katie Townsend argued. But prosecutor Gordon Kromberg said no precedent exists for a judge to require disclosure of criminal charges before a defendant's arrest. He acknowledged the error in which court papers in an unrelated case say that Mr Assange "has been charged". But he said the mistake is not confirmation that Mr Assange is actually charged. Mr Kromberg said there is a significant difference between reporting based on anonymous sources and speculation versus official confirmation backed by the release of court documents. He said court precedent also recognises the distinction between the two. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema pressed Ms Townsend for any precedent requiring criminal charges to be unsealed prior to arrest. She deferred ruling on the request to give Ms Townsend a few days to research the issue. Judge Brinkema also questioned government lawyers closely on why there would be a need to keep charges under seal when there has been an inadvertent disclosure. "This is an interesting case, to say the least," Judge Brinkema said. While Mr Assange remains protected in the Ecuadorian embassy, there have been indications that officials in that country are losing patience with him. They recently placed restrictions on his use of the embassy, including a requirement that he clean up after his cat. While the exact charges against Mr Assange remain unclear, WikiLeaks has served as a vehicle for release of thousands of classified US military and diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks' role in releasing emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee in 2016 has also been under scrutiny as special counsel Robert Mueller has investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, and whether the campaign of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was involved. A nurse who claimed she was showered with luxury gifts by her wealthy fiance hurled her engagement ring across court as she was ordered to pay him back more than 100,000. Trish Garikayi, 37, claimed she was a kept woman during her six-year relationship with 58-year-old businessman Wisdom Penfold, receiving presents including a Porsche 911 and a 100,000 diamond bracelet from Mayfair jewellers Aspreys. However, Mr Penfold insisted Miss Garikayi misappropriated money while he was blinded by love, spending large sums that he had earmarked for them to buy a home together. The couple split in 2015 when Mr Penfold found her in bed with another man, leading to a bitter court fight over money. Judge Alexander Hill-Smith yesterday ruled in Mr Penfolds favour, ordering Miss Garikayi to pay back 116,000, hand over 20 per cent of her 340,000 home, and settle 62,000 of legal bills. Split: Wisdom Penfold's fiancee was ordered to pay him back over 100,000 After the judge said Miss Garikayi had her eyes firmly on winning the case and he did not believe her evidence, she took off her 2,500 engagement ring and threw it across the courtroom towards Mr Penfold. The businessman, a tree importer and exporter, calmly picked up the discarded jewellery and handed it to his solicitor. Central London county court heard the couple got together after meeting in a hospital cafe in 2009, and they became engaged four years later. But Mr Penfold was left devastated when he returned home in 2015 to find Miss Garikayi in bed with another man, and was so shaken up he needed to be rushed to A&E. Miss Garikayi claimed the couple had already split, but Judge Hill-Smith said he believed Mr Penfolds compelling account of the end of their perfect relationship. The court heard 218,000 had been paid into Miss Garikayis account after Mr Penfold sold two investment properties, but she insisted it was a gift because if I wanted something, I would get it. The nature of the relationship was one where Mr Penfold bestowed and showered Miss Garikayi with lavish gifts, argued her lawyer Chike Ezike. It was claimed Mr Penfold whisked her away on luxury holidays to Paris, Spain, Indonesia, and Dubai, and bought her a Porsche, a BMW and a Mercedes and the 100,000 bracelet. But Mr Penfold denied being so generous: I think if I gave 100,000 for a bracelet I would quite remember it. I think it would be welded in my brain for the rest of my life. He accepted buying Miss Garikayi presents, including a Burberry coat and Jimmy Choo shoes, but denied handing over large sums of money or ever buying her a car. His barrister Richard Alford said Miss Garikayi insisted on the 218,000 deposit into her account to mark the seriousness of their relationship. He did as requested, instructing her that the funds were to be held in the account and not used unless he said so, said Mr Alford. However Miss Garikayi then spent money on herself, including 91,000 to buy a property in Harare, Zimbabwe, without his permission, the court heard. The judge ruled that Mr Penfold had also paid a 35,000 deposit on Miss Garikayis property in Guildford which she bought for 275,000 in 2015, and funded refurbishments and two mortgage payments. This spending now entitled him to a share of the property. The judge said the Zimbabwe house purchase was in breach of trust as he ruled in Mr Penfolds favour on his financial claims. Miss Garikayi now has six months to buy her ex out of the Guildford property or it will be sold and the proceeds divided. P ets at Home has imported a couple of million pounds worth of goods as it prepares for the potential ramifications of a no-deal Brexit. The chief executive of the chain, Peter Pritchard, said the company took action amid fears customers will be unable to feed their animals if stocks are dilapidated. He said: We don't want families to run out of food for their pets." Some 17 per cent of the stores supplies come from outside of the UK leading to fears that port and border delays could cause issues for stock. Commenting on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal, Mr Pritchard pleaded for clarity. The chain's chief executive wants to make sure pets stay well fed (Free-Photos/Pixabay ) / Free-Photos/Pixabay He said: "The most important thing is that business needs clarity. "We can cope as long as we know what (the deal) is. "We just want clarity and certainty." Pets at Home is also worried over the impact of Brexit on its workforce, with a "significant" number of employees from the EU. A particular concerns is with its vets and distribution centre staff. "Brexit may result in changes to UK immigration policy which increases the risk around the availability, recruitment and retention of these individuals," the group said. The group's Brexit plans see it join a growing list of firms launching contingency efforts due to concerns Mrs May will not get parliamentary support for her EU withdrawal deal. Topps Tiles also stated it had aims to begin stockpiling key products ahead of Brexit. This followed recent confirmation of similar plans from the likes of Mr Kipling cakes firm Premier Foods, Majestic Wine and catering giant Compass. T he Prince of Wales praised an absolutely irresistible sloe gin as he visited a winter market in Cambridgeshire. Prince Charles braved the cold to meet market traders with wife, the Duchess of Cornwall. The couple toured stalls in Ely, both stopping to sample apple juice, Camilla buying some brownies and Charles pausing behind a gin stall. Charles said: Shall I try a drop?, while next to the stall, before joking the gin was served in the biggest glass, [as] big as my whole face! Prince Charles visited Ely Market Place / PA Charles tasted the sloe and cherry gin, before describing it as absolutely irresistible. The Prince thanked stallholder Nancy Decleir and wished her a happy Christmas, before he was given a bottle of the spirit. Ms Decleir, who founded Ely Gin in the market seven years ago with her husband, James Clark, said afterwards: "What an honour to be able to present your product to such an audience. The Prince of Wales spoke with market traders during his visit / PA "It's incredible." She added: "He tried it neat, he enjoyed it, and I think, with these temperatures today, he can definitely use it." Charles and Camilla took time to speak to crowds of well-wishers as they carried out a series of engagements. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall carried out a series of engagements in Cambridgeshire / PA Krista Richardson, 34, of Littleport, was with her five-month-old daughter, Alexis, who squeezed Charles's finger as he spoke to them. "He just said she was bundled up really warm, wrapped up really warm, then she grabbed his finger and he said 'She's got a very strong grip'," she said, adding it was "lovely". Maddy Boning, aged three, who was with a group of children from Rainbow Pre-School in Ely, gave Camilla a bunch of flowers. The Prince of Wales took time out to speak to the crowds / PA Debbie Reed, manager of the pre-school, said the children were excited about the royal visit. T he UK's only male giant panda has undergone an operation to remove both testicles after tumours were discovered. Yang Guang (Sunshine), who arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in 2011, had the surgery following a group consultation involving British and Chinese giant panda specialists. The zoo said the tumours developed recently and have not been a factor in Yang Guang and female panda Tian Tian (Sweetie) not having had a cub. The operation took place on Saturday November 17, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) said. Edinburgh Zoo will now look into future breeding opportunities. Yang Guang arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in 2011 (file photo) / PA Archive/PA Images Darren McGarry, head of living collections at the zoo, said: "We are pleased Yang Guang is recovering well. "Testicular tumours have previously been reported in giant pandas. "The tumours we removed developed recently so they have not been a factor in Yang Guang and Tian Tian not having had a cub. "We will discuss next steps, including future breeding possibilities, with our partners in China over coming weeks." The black and white bears arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and are due to remain at Edinburgh Zoo for a decade. Tian Tian has had cubs in China but not in the UK. TODO: define component type apester The zoo tried natural breeding in 2012 and has attempted artificial insemination each year since 2013. Earlier this year, RZSS said no efforts to breed the pair would take place in 2018. A group of vegan activists stormed a Brighton steakhouse and played audio of of animals being slaughtered in an attempt to put people off what they were eating. About 20 members of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), an international grassroots network of animals rights activists, entered Touro Steakhouse on Saturday night holding signs with pictures of the animals the restaurant was serving up and chanting "there's no excuse for animal abuse." They also held placards with messages such as "it's not food its violence" and "until every animal is free." One activist gave a speech claiming: No good person could look into the eyes of an animal and think that a meal was more important than their suffering. During their protest, the group played audio of animals in a slaughterhouse and implored the diners to "listen to their screams." The activists were at the steakhouse for about half an hour before being hounded out of the establishment by other diners. "Through these actions we aim to get the conversation at the forefront of people's minds and get people questioning everyday norms," a spokeswoman for DxE said. "Human beings sat in a restaurants munching on chopped up bodies is whats really extreme. Legality does not equal morality and using animals in the way we do is not moral." After leaving the restaurant, the group stood outside and continued singing and shouting: "What do we want? Animal liberation! When do we want it? Now" It was the second round of action held by the group in two months. TODO: define component type apester A Sky News correspondent has branded Virgin Trains a "national disgrace" for charging more than 300 for an open return from London to Manchester. Sports broadcaster Martha Kelner blasted the rail operator over the 338 standard class ticket in a tweet on Monday. She wrote: "Just bought London to Manchester open day return. 338. Thats a national disgrace @VirginTrains." Ms Kelner's claim prompted a huge response online, gaining 8,500 likes and hundreds of comments as frustrated rail passengers said it was cheaper to fly to countries around the world than purchase the ticket. A spokesman for Virgin Trains said: The vast majority of our customers pay far less than Martha, with fares between London and Manchester starting at 23. "Martha could have booked and travelled that same day for just 39 by choosing her train and buying an advance fare. Many people online suggested that the journalist could have flown to several destinations using the same amount of money. Jeremy Cross replied: "It's cheaper to fly." Cheaper destinations to fly to from London Prices from Skyscanner for return flights departing Nov 28 New York, United States - from 256 Valencia, Spain - from 147 Marrakech, Morocco - from 77 Nice, France - from 48 Dubai, UAE - from 310 Moscow, Russia - from 91 To which Ms Kelner quipped back: "to New York!" Fares on a return flight to New York departing from London on Wednesday start from 276, according to Skyscanner. One man, Tim Rich, suggested that Ms Kelner could fly to Moscow from London Heathrow and enjoy a night in the five star Sheraton Palace hotel for the same price. While Simon Miller said he is flying to Valencia for three nights on Thursday, costing 315 for flights and the hotel. And Patricia Barraclough claimed she can fly from Sydney to London for around the same price. A one way ticket to the Australian city in February starts at 357. But others admitted that last minute travel is "often more expensive" as they suggested Ms Kelner should have booked her ticket in advance. TODO: define component type apester Dave Haslam wrote: "Agree it's madness and indefensible but all the same I travel approximately once a month to London from Manchester (and back). I have never paid more than 90. Last time I paid 55 return. Last minute travel is often more expensive; flights, hotels, etc." T he wife of British academic Matthew Hedges says she is so happy to have my Matt home and has thanked the Foreign Office for their support. Mr Hedges, 31, touched down in Heathrow just 24 hours after he was granted a presidential pardon from a life term for allegedly spying on security operations in the UAE. Following his arrival in the UK, Daniela Tejada said: Thank you once again for the overwhelming support we have received, especially from the embassy in the UAE and the Foreign Office in ensuring that Matt was safely returned home. We are overjoyed and exhausted. "Thank you once again as well to the international community and the international media who were very supportive from the beginning. Ms Daniela Tejada says they need time to process everything they have been through / AFP/Getty Images "I hope you can all understand that Matt and I, as well as his family, really need some time to process everything that we have been through. No one should ever have to go through what he did and it will take him time to heal and recover. He is very overwhelmed. Mr Hedges was convicted for spying after a brief court hearing last week, sparking a diplomatic storm. Mr Hedges was kept in solitary confinement for months and suffered panic attacks. Just minutes before the pardon was announced, UAE government spokesman Jabel Al Lamki showed journalists a video of Mr Hedges which purportedly showed him confessing to being a captain in MI6 researching which military systems the UAE was buying. Mr Hedges was released on Monday following a presidential pardon / EPA He was part-time PhD researcher, part-time businessman, but he was 100 per cent a full-time secret service operative, alleged Mr Al Lamki. Mr Hedges thanked his brave and strong wife as he touched down at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday morning. He said: I dont know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release. Mr Hedges thanked his "brave and strong" wife for her support / AFP/Getty Images I have not seen or read much of what has been written over the past few days but Dani tells me the support has been incredible. Thank you so much to the British Embassy and the FCO for their efforts in ensuring I arrived safely back home. "I could not have done this without Daniela, I hear her face is everywhere! TODO: define component type apester U S Democrat Bernie Sanders has signalled that he plans to run for President in 2020 - unless someone else can do a better job. The Vermont Senator told New York Magazine: "If it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run." But he added: "Im not one of those sons of multimillionaires whose parents told them they were going to become president of the United States. "I dont wake up in the morning with any burning desire that I have to be president. "If theres somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, Ill work my ass off to elect him or her." Unity: Bernie Sanders addresses crowds with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton / AP The 77-year-old left-wing candidate narrowly lost out on becoming the Democratic Presidential nominee to Hillary Clinton in 2016. He also told ABC's The View on Monday: "I would not be honest with you if I did not say that I am thinking of that. "Also, there are other great candidates out there, many of them personal friends of mine. "I think what is more important right now is that Trump be defeated, his hateful rhetoric and his divisiveness, and that we come together as a nation respectfully." Mr Sanders said Donald Trump 'must be defeated' / AP "There is so much work to do that we dont need to spend our time listening to someone trying to divide us up. "The job of our president in these difficult times is to bring our people together, not to divide people up with cheap votes." Mr Sanders is one of Mr Trumps most vocal critics, having called him the "most racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted president in history". However, Mr Sander's advisers reportedly fear another run could be more difficult than anticipated. In July, over 200 centrist Democrats will meet in Columbus, Ohio, to plan how to beat both him and Mr Trump. Despite this, in recent months, his allies have talked about 2020 roles with dozens of former and potential campaign workers. TODO: define component type apester Mr Sanders, along with many other rumoured 2020 Democratic contenders, campaigned across the country in support of Democratic candidates ahead of the November midterm elections. A British radio presenter has been found dead in Lebanon after he was allegedly strangled and struck over the head. Gavin Ford, who had been living in Lebanon for years, was found dead in his apartment in a mountain town near Beirut, after apparently being murdered, Lebanese officials said. Mr Ford had been known for presenting his popular morning radio show on Lebanese station, Radio One. News of his death had led to an outpouring of shock and sadness on social media from fans of the show, after he gained a number of fans in Lebanon. The 65-year-old had worked for the station since the 1990s, for many joyful years, according to Radio One. One official said Mr Ford's body was found on Tuesday morning but refused to provide further details about his death. LBC TV said Mr Ford was strangled and struck on the head, leading to his death. Another official confirmed Mr Ford was strangled and said security agents are questioning his neighbours for details about who visited him in recent days. Mr Ford's apartment is in the town of Beit Mery, east of Beirut. He celebrated his birthday on Monday, according to his Facebook page, which was filled with posts of people grieving his death. "We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear Gavin Ford, a member of our team for many joyful years," Radio One posted on its Facebook page. Britain's ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling tweeted: "I am shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Gavin Ford, one of Lebanon's most popular morning breakfast hosts. "The thoughts of all at the Embassy are with his family, friends and colleagues at this terribly difficult time." In December, British embassy worker Rebecca Dykes was found dead on the side of a road near Beirut. T heresa May's Brexit deal could leave the UK economy up to 5.5 per cent smaller in a decade's time than it would be if Britain remained in the EU, experts have warned. If the UK leaves without a deal, the hit on GDP may be as high as 8.7 per cent, according to a new report into the financial impact of Britains departure from the bloc. The cost of public finances could be up to 1.8 per cent of GDP under the Prime Ministers deal, or 3.1 per cent in a no-deal scenario, according to the report by think tank Changing Europe. Income per capita would fall by more than 1.5 per cent in the UK under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement and almost 3.5 per cent with no deal, the research by the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance, King's College London and the Institute for Fiscal Studies found. Brexit: What happens next for Theresa May's deal? One of the authors of the report said the UK economy could be expected to be "significantly smaller" than it would have been had Britain stayed in the EU, resulting in higher taxes or lower public spending over the medium to long term. The report analysed the likely impact of Mrs May's Brexit deal or a no-deal withdrawal over the period to 2030, compared to the baseline projection of how the UK economy would develop under continued EU membership. Researchers did not factor in the expected impact of any short-term disruption to trade as a result of a possible cliff-edge departure. Theresa May wants to persuade politicians in the UK Parliament to back the latest Brexit deal / REUTERS The report estimated the cut in GDP after 10 years, compared to the remain scenario, at 1.9 per cent to 5.5 per cent under Mrs May's deal and 3.5 per cent to 8.7 per cent in a no-deal outcome. The cost to the Treasury from reduced revenues such as taxes would be 0.4 per cent to 1.8 per cent of GDP under Mrs May's deal and 1 per cent to 3.1 per cent with no deal. King's College Professor Jonathan Portes, a co-author of the report, said: "The Brexit deal would leave us in a customs union with the EU for the indefinite future - but it is a long way from frictionless trade. Donald Trump: Brexit deal may stop trade with the US "The additional trade barriers, combined with reductions in both skilled and unskilled migration from the ending of free movement, would leave the UK economy significantly smaller than it would otherwise have been over the medium to long term. "That in turn would mean higher taxes or lower public spending." TODO: define component type apester Co-author Professor Anand Menon, director of The UK in a Changing Europe, said: "Obviously, this kind of economic modelling needs to be treated with appropriate caution. However, our estimates provide a clear indication of the broad scale of the impact of the deal negotiated by the Prime Minister." Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: "This analysis confirms what everyone knows: that this deal will be bad for growth, incomes and the public finances. T errifying footage shows how a first-time hang glider was forced to cling on for dear life throughout a flight after his pilot apparently forgot to strap him in. The heart-stopping video is from YouTuber Chris Gurskys first day on holiday in Switzerland, when the activity turned into a dramatic near-death experience. He was forced to hang on for his life after taking off from a mountain edge as the pilot desperately tries to steer him towards the ground as quickly as possible before he loses grip. Seconds after taking off, Mr Gursky and his instructor realise he is not strapped in correctly. Mr Gursky grabs hold of a metal bar and the instructor's back as they glide high over fields and trees. As they finally begin to descend the YouTuber, who is also a photographer, manages to grab hold of the pilots leg but begins losing grip on the metal bar. The nail-biting footage, uploaded to YouTube on Monday, shows the passengers struggle to keep hold of the bar as the pair make their emergency descent. After an intense two-minute flight they get close enough to the ground so that Mr Gursky can let go. He said he suffered a fracture in his wrist and tore his left bicep in the fall. Of the injuries he suffered, Mr Gursky said: it beats the alternative. The YouTuber said he would even dare to go hang gliding again, saying he plans to have another go because I did not get to enjoy my first flight. Mr Gursky said that while the pilot made a critical error by not attaching him to the glider, he did all he could to get me down to the ground as quickly as possible. Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Jerome Corsi, an associate of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, has decided to reject a plea deal he says was offered to him by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In an interview with ABC News on Monday, Corsi said the special counsel offered to allow him to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators in exchange for cooperation in the probe and leniency at sentencing. He provided ABC News with copies of a plea agreement he says was drafted by Muellers prosecutors that would have exposed Corsi to a prison sentence of up to five years for knowingly [making] materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements to the FBI about communications with an unidentified associates request to get in touch with an organization that he understood to be in possession of stolen emails and other documents pertaining to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The unknown associate mentioned by Mueller matches the description of Roger Stone, who hired Corsi to do research for him during the 2016 election. Corsi, a former Infowars bureau chief known for promulgating political smear campaigns and conspiracy theories, told ABC News that he could not sign on to a plea deal for a crime he says he did not commit. If I have to go to jail for the rest of my life, so be it, Corsi said. Have at it. I will not tell a lie to a federal judge or anybody else. They will not get me to commit a crime. A spokesperson for the special counsel declined to comment. Over the course of his 18-month long probe, Mueller and his team of prosecutors have indicted 32 individuals and three Russian businesses on charges ranging from computer hacking to conspiracy and financial crimes. Earlier this month, Corsi told ABC News that he expected an indictment from Mueller to be imminent, but was unaware of what crime he might be charged with committing. Last week, Corsi confirmed to ABC News that after two months of closed-door talks with investigators, plea negotiations between his legal and the special counsel were underway. In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Silent No More: How I Became a Political Prisoner of Muellers Witch Hunt, Corsi describes feeling incensed by the special counsels plea deal offer, which he says was drafted by Muellers henchmen. After reading the proposed deal, Corsi wrote a memo to his attorney maintaining that he never willfully and knowingly gave false information to the FBI or the Special Counsel. As one of more than a dozen individuals associated with Stone who have been contacted by the special counsels office, Corsis involvement in Muellers probe is believed to be related to the hacking and leaking of emails between Democratic National Committee insiders meant to undermine then-candidate Hillary Clintons campaign. Those individuals, many of whom have appeared before the grand jury impaneled by Muellers team, have told ABC News they were asked about Stones activities during the 2016 election and what, if any, contact he may have had with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange through an intermediary. Stone has told ABC News multiple times that he had never met or spoken with Assange. According to an email correspondence between Stone and Corsi, obtained exclusively by ABC News, Stone sought to connect with Assange in July 2016 using Corsi and London-based conservative author Ted Malloch. Stone told ABC News that the message "proves I had no advance knowledge of contents of WikiLeaks' DNC material, and like every politico and journalist in America, I wanted to know what the content matter was." Corsi insists he simply forgot about email exchanges with Stone and only remembered them after turning over evidence and communications, including his laptop, to federal investigators. When I got my laptop back from the FBI, I reloaded 2016 and found the email dated July 25, 2016, in which Roger Stone asked me to Get to Assange. I had passed that email onto Ted Malloch in London, as I explained earlier, Corsi wrote in his book. I had totally forgotten about this email, as it turned out I forgot about virtually all my 2016 emails in the intervening time. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. A mother photographed running with her daughters from tear gas at the US border with Mexico has told of how she thought she was going to die with her children because of the gas. After travelling north from Honduras and spending a week at the Mexican border town of Tijuana, Maria Meza ,35, set out with her five children to claim asylum in the US however she became caught up in tear gas fired from the US side. Crowds of migrants were stopped by Mexican police and staged a protest in front of the border. She said she never expected the US border patrol to fire gas canisters at children and families. Maria Lila Meza, a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, sits with her five-year-old twin daughters Cheili Nalleli Mejia Meza and Saira Nalleli Mejia Meza inside their tent in a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico / REUTERS "The first thing I did was grab my children," said Ms Meza. A photo of her clutching the hands of twin five-year-old daughters Saira and Cheili, as her 13-year-old daughter Jamie runs alongside, has gone viral and sparked angry reactions from some lawmakers and charities. "I was scared, and I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas," said Ms Meza. Her young son James nearly fainted when a canister landed near him. She fell and struggled to get up amidst the gas. A young man gave her his hand and pulled her to her feet. "We never thought they were going to fire these bombs where there were children, because there were lots of children," she said, sitting in view of the rusted-steel U.S. border fence. "It wasn't right, they know we are human beings, the same as them," said Ms Meza. Mexico's Federal Police walk out of a cloud of tear gas released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection / REUTERS The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were struck by projectiles thrown by the migrants. Around 5,200 people who travelled in a caravan across Mexico are packed into the shelter in a stadium in Tijuana, living in makeshift tents. President Donald Trump has taken a hard-line stance against the migrants, who have made their way north from violent and impoverished Central American countries. On Monday, he said Mexico should send them back to their home countries. The U.S. Border Patrol said most of those assembled at the border were economic migrants who would not qualify for asylum. Maria Lila Meza Castro (2nd from R), a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, runs away with her daughters Jamie Jisel Mejia Meza, aged 13 and her five-year-old twin daughters Saira Nalleli Mejia Meza and Cheili Nalleli Mejia Meza / REUTERS "I came here for one reason, and that's because there is a lot of violence in Honduras," said Ms Meza, as her children played with empty tear gas canisters shot by the Border Patrol. The United States shut the crossing for several hours on Sunday and Trump has threatened to close the border entirely. "If they close the border I ask God that here in Tijuana, or in another country they open doors to us, to allow me to survive with my children," said Ms Meza. N ASA has shared an incredible first image from its InSight probe of the surface of Mars after it landed on the red planet. The breathtaking photo, shared online by the space agency, showed a rarely seen view of the planet from ground level. The space agency posted the picture on Twitter alongside the caption: Theres a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home. Viewers were left stunned, with many commenting that just seeing the image reduced them to tears. One wrote: Tears of relief & joy. What an amazing journey. If were feeling this, imagine all the engineers & scientists globally who made this happen. Another said: Wow. Sometimes, we are truly an amazing species. Just look what wonders we can achieve. NASA InSight spacecraft lands on Mars And another wrote: This image encapsulates humanity's dreams. Maybe one kid will see this photo and decide that he or she wants to become a scientist or engineer and to build a bigger robot to land on Mars. NASA earlier released an image of debris on the lens of the probes camera after landing, but this is the first clearly showing the amazing detail of the planets surface. Debris seen on the lens in the first image from NASA's InSight lander after it touched down on the surface of Mars / AFP/Getty Images It is space agencys first attempt to land on Mars in six years. Only around four in 10 missions ever sent to Mars have been successful and all of them have involved spacecrafts from the US. An artist's impression of what the Mars Insight Lander might look like as it touched down / AP Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles clapped, high-fived and hugged one another in relief. TODO: define component type apester O ne person has died and six more are injured after a minivan ploughed into pedestrians on a busy street in New York, police have said. The vehicle reportedly mounted the curb before crashing into people in Chinatown, Manhattan, on Monday night. Of the six injured in the collision, in Canal Street, one remained in critical condition in hospital following the incident that unfolded shortly before 7pm (local time). Police told local media the driver lost control of the van while attempting to parallel park. Police sealed off the scene in Chinatown, Manhattan / REUTERS New York Police Department were advising people to avoid the area or expect heavy delays on surrounding roads. In a statement on Twitter, the force said: Due to a vehicle collision in the vicinity of Forsyth St & Canal St in Manhattan, please avoid the area until further notice and expect heavy delays. Police said the injured pedestrians were taken to hospital, including one in a critical condition. B ritish academic Matthew Hedges has thanked his brave and strong wife as he touched down in Heathrow following his release from a UAE prison. Mr Hedges, 31, was granted a presidential pardon from a life term for allegedly spying on security operations in the UAE. He said: I dont know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release. I have not seen or read much of what has been written over the past few days but Dani tells me the support has been incredible. Thank you so much to the British Embassy and the FCO for their efforts in ensuring I arrived safely back home. "I could not have done this without Daniela, I hear her face is everywhere! "She is so brave and strong, seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. I thank you all once again, this is very surreal." Matthew Hedges pictured with his wife / AFP/Getty Images Mr Hedges was convicted for spying after a brief court hearing last week, sparking a diplomatic storm. He arrived at Heathrow airport early this morning, 24 hours after he was freed from prison. Mr Hedges' wife Daniela Tejada said that having her husband back was "overwhelming." She told Sky News: "It's overwhelming, of course i'm elated about it but also it's the kind of thing that no one ever prepares you for. No one ever prepared me to face this situation let alone celebrate it so I am just happy to have him back." Mr Hedges' release was announced on Monday during a press conference / EPA On Monday, she denied claims that he had been spying on security operations in the UAE. "In my heart, I know what Matt is, hes a PhD researcher. "His colleagues know it, and his family know it and hundreds of academics round the world know it. The most important thing now is that we will have him back home." Mr Hedges was kept in solitary confinement for months and suffered panic attacks. Just minutes before the pardon was announced, UAE government spokesman Jabel Al Lamki showed journalists a video of Mr Hedges which purportedly showed him confessing to being a captain in MI6 researching which military systems the UAE was buying. TODO: define component type apester He was part-time PhD researcher, part-time businessman, but he was 100 per cent a full-time secret service operative, alleged Mr Al Lamki. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday welcomed the news of his release. Mr Hedges returned to the UK on Tuesday / AFP/Getty Images He said: "We never saw any evidence for these charges against Matthew Hedges and we made that clear. The UAE authorities, to their credit, have been willing to listen to us in the last few days. Matthew Hedges is coming home. Professor Stuart Corbridge, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said: We are absolutely delighted to learn the news of Matts impending release. It is paramount that he is now allowed to return home to Daniela and his family as quickly and safely as possible. P aul Manafort allegedly held secret talks with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London within days or weeks of joining Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Mr Manafort went to see Mr Assange in 2013, 2015 and "around March 2016", according to a report by the Guardian. WikiLeaks has denied the claims, saying it was "willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange". But the newspaper claims a well-placed source said that Mr Manafort met with Mr Assange around the time he was hired by Mr Trump as his campaign manager. Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy / AP It also quotes a document written by the Ecuadorian intelligence agency SENAIN which lists "Paul Manaford [sic]" as a "well-known guest" of Mr Assange. Mr Manafort's final visit is said to have taken place in spring 2016, just months before WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of emails stolen by Russian spies during the 2016 election. The Trump campaign seized on the emails to undermine the president's rival, Hillary Clinton. Mr Assange's Ecuadorian lawyer, Carlos Poveda, said the Guardian report was false. The Guardian cited two unidentified sources as saying Mr Manafort first met Mr Assange at the embassy in 2013, a year after the Wikileaks founder took refuge there to avoid being extradited to Sweden over sex crime allegations which he has always denied. The Guardian said Mr Manafort returned there in 2015 and 2016 and said its sources had "tentatively dated" the final visit to March. The newspaper added that Mr Manafort's visit was not entered into the embassy's log book and cited a source as saying Mr Manafort left after 40 minutes. There was no detail on what might have been discussed. TODO: define component type apester The Trump campaign announced Mr Manafort's hire on March 29, 2016, and he served as the convention manager tasked with lining up delegates for the Republican National Convention. He was promoted to campaign chairman in May 2016. Mr Manafort, who remains in jail, was convicted last summer of eight financial crimes following a trial in Virginia. He then agreed to plead guilty to charges relating to his Ukrainian consulting work as past of a co-operation deal with prosecutors in the Robert Mueller investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. On Tuesday, special counsel Mr Mueller accused Mr Manafort of lying to federal investigators in the probe. S ix dead sea lions found washed up on the US coast had suffered gunshot wounds, an animal welfare group said as it warned that the number of animals killed for this time of year is "alarmingly" high. Some 13 of the mammals have been found at Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington, since September - six times more than usual. The other seven had also suffered wounds likely caused by humans. The Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network said although it is not uncommon for California sea lions to be killed, current numbers are higher than usual for this time of year. Seal Sitters MMSN Co-Investigator Lynn Shimamoto responds to a dead California sea lion in West Seattle. / Robin Lindsey They are most often killed by fishermen, who believe the animals are reducing salmon populations. In a blog post, the group said: "In what is an alarming trend in Puget Sound, dead California sea lions continue to be found along the shoreline as biologists scramble to perform necropsies and determine cause of death. "Since September, 13 have been reported dead: 12 in Central Puget Sound and 1 on the Kitsap side of Hood Canal. "All 13 animals are acute trauma cases (suspected from human interaction), based on body condition, other observations and photos. "Sadly, this is just the beginning of what is likely to be a very deadly Fall/Winter season for sea lions and seals. "Shootings not so coincidentally increase in correlation with fish runs, year-round. "According to those who live and work along the Elliott Bay and Duwamish waterfront, shots are being heard even more frequently this year." TODO: define component type apester Sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and harming one can result in a fine of up to 19,605 ($25,000) and a year in prison. Since 1998 more than 700 California sea lions have been found shot or stabbed in the United States. Greg Busch, assistant director of the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, said: "We are concerned about a number of recent reports of marine mammal deaths caused by gunshots in the greater Seattle area. D onald Trump has strongly defended the use of tear gas at the Mexican border to repel a crowd of migrants, including children, blaming their parents for "running into an area where tear gas is." At a roundtable in Mississippi on Monday, the US President kept a hard line while critics called the border agents' actions overkill. "They were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas," Mr Trump said. "Here's the bottom line: Nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally." He asked: "why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it's going to be formed and they were running up with a child?" A migrant family flees tear gas thrown by border agents at the US border with Mexico / Reuters Mr Trump assured the tear gas was "a very minor form" and "very safe." The President also claimed, without offering evidence, that some of the migrant women were "grabbers" who steal children so they have a better chance of being granted asylum in the US. The actions of the border agents on Sunday were blasted by Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights groups. "These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas," California Governor-elect Gavin Newsom tweeted. "Women and children who left their lives behind - seeking peace and asylum - were met with violence and fear. That's not my America." U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said four agents were struck with rocks but were not injured because they were wearing protective gear. Border Protection agents launched pepper spray balls in addition to tear gas in what officials said were on-the-spot decisions made by agents. A migrant child crying after tear gas is thrown by US border agents at the Mexico border with the US. / Reuters The showdown at the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing has highlighted two opposing narratives of the caravan of migrants headed towards the US in hope of applying for asylum. T he Ukranian Parliament has approved martial law after reportedly Russian border forces opened fire on three of the countrys naval vessels. President Petro Poroshenko said the 30-day order would affect border regions at risk from Russian attack. Russia captured three of Ukraines naval vessels and 23 crew members on Sunday after the altercation, in which Ukraine accused Russia of violating international law. This latest incident comes after a big rise in tensions between the two countries over access to the Black Sea and Sea of Azov which are disputed waters. The vote has raised serious concerns for international leaders, including Russias President Vladimir Putin. But what will a martial law mean for the Eastern European nation? Heres everything you need to know: What happened? An image purporting to show a clash between the Russian coast guard and a Ukrainian tugboat / AP On Sunday 25 November, three Russian ships sailed into the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. A bilateral treaty gives both countries the right to patrol the waters. According to Ukraine, it was here that the vessels were intercepted by the Russian coast guard. Ukrainian government releases footage purporting to show Russian boat ramming ship Footage posted by the Ukrainian Interior Minister shows the Russian boats ramming into one of their tugboats. Russia's border force say the vessels had illegally entered the country's territorial waters, whilst Ukraine maintains that because the incident unfolded in the Black Sea, which is free for shipping, there was no wrongdoing on their part. A 30-day martial law has since been imposed on a handful of Ukrainian regions after being approved by the Ukranian Parliament. How serious is the clash? Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko gestures during a parliament session in Kiev on Monday evening as martial law was imposed / Efrem Lukatsky/AP Ukraine condemned the attack, calling it an "act of aggression" and parliament voted to enact martial law in border territories. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, warned the decision could provoke further hostilities to erupt and the Russian President himself has expressed serious concern at the developments. The altercation could also spell trouble for President Donald Trump's administration as it faces continuing accusations about failing to hold Russia to account. Mr Trump has even warned he might cancel a meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week. He said: "Maybe I won't have the meeting. I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." What is martial law and what will it mean for Ukraine and Russia? A protest in Ukraine / EPA Martial law is defined as the temporary imposition of military rule over a state or region in times of national crisis when civil authority has broken down or when wartime operations are under way. The order was imposed at 9 am local time (7:00 GMT) on Weds and will end on 27 December. The law is imposed on 10 of Ukraines 27 regions, including five regions bordering Russian territory, two regions bordering Moldovas breakaway Trans-Dniester region, where Russian troops are stationed and three regions on the Black Sea/Sea of Azov coast. Under martial law, the military would have the power to ban further protests and strikes and call citizens for national service. Why are there tensions between Russia and Ukraine? Ukrainian Nationalists burn flares and smoke grenades during their rally in front of Parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine, 26 November 2018 as they demand to break the diplomatic relations with Russia and nationalization of Russian property in Ukraine. / EPA Ukraine, which sits between the EU and Russia both literally and figuratively, was under the control of the Soviet Union until 1991. In 2013, the Ukrainian government was due to sign a deal intended to open the EU markets for Ukrainian goods and put the country on a pathway to a possible EU membership. Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's president at the time, backed out of the deal at the last minute. Many Ukrainians were angry at what they saw as the collapse of a last-ditch attempt to secure the country's economic future. Protests ensued, and Yanukovych was eventually ousted and replaced with President Petr Poroshenko. In 2014, Russian troops arrived in Crimea, which is officially part of Ukraine, and sealed annexation. The annexation is not recognised by the United Nations. Separatists began taking over towns and villages in eastern Ukraine, which tends to favour Russia. The conflict in eastern Ukraine has since killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 1 million. Wanting to link Crimea to Russia, a 12-mile bridge was constructed and opened in 2018, with President Vladimir Putin proudly driving a truck across it. P M calls for Brexit showdown with Corbyn Theresa May has challenged Jeremy Corbyn to a Brexit showdown on live television. The Prime Minister went on the offensive and urged her deal is the best possible option. Mrs May said she is ready to debate it with the Labour leader because Ive got a plan. He hasnt. Labour has taken up the offer, saying Mr Corbyn would relish a debate with the Prime Minister over her botched deal. It comes after Donald Trump appeared to undermine Mrs Mays Brexit deal by saying it would be bad for trade between the UK and US. Mental health: police forces under pressure Five people with mental health problems called the Metropolitan Police 8,655 times in 2017, according to a new report. The figure was released to show the pressure police forces are being put under due to a national crisis in mental healthcare. It formed part of a report by a police watchdog that says officers often need to step in when more suitable services close after working a nine to five day. Lady Trumpington dies aged 96 Baroness Trumpington, a Bletchley Park code-breaker and long-serving peer, has died at the age of 96. The former Tory peer, who retired from the House of Lords last year after a 37-year tenure, died yesterday afternoon. Tributes came from across the political spectrum after her son Adam Barker announced her death saying she had a bloody good innings. Lady Trumpington had spells as a minister and a government whip. She was also famed for flicking two fingers up at a fellow Tory peer. Manafort 'lied in Russia probe' Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused Paul Manafort of lying to federal investigators in the Russia probe, breaching his plea agreement. The allegation could expose the former Trump campaign chairman to a lengthier prison sentence - and potentially more criminal charges. Mr Mueller's team said after Manafort agreed to cooperate he "committed federal crimes" by lying about "a variety of subject matters". Through his lawyers Manafort denied lying, saying he "believes he provided truthful information". Breathtaking first image from NASA's Mars probe NASA has shared an incredible first image from its InSight probe of the surface of Mars after it landed on the red planet. The breathtaking photo, shared online by the space agency, shows a rarely seen view of the planet from ground level. It comes after the probes 300-million-mile journey came to a grand finale as it touched down successfully on the planets surface yesterday. It is space agencys first attempt to land on Mars in six years and only around four in 10 missions ever sent to Mars have been successful. On this day... 1914: The first two trained policewomen to be granted official status in Britain, Miss Mary Allen and Miss E F Harburn, reported for duty at Grantham. 1919: A massive meteor landed in Lake Michigan. 1944: Between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of high explosives went off in a cavern beneath Staffordshire, killing 68 people and wiping out an entire farm. 1967: President de Gaulle vetoed Britain's entry into the Common Market. Star Wars: Episode IX director J. J. Abrams and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy recently shared a few details about the filming process of the sagas highly-anticipated ninth chapter as it relates to the recently-completed leg of filming in Wadi Rum, Jordan. Jordan-based local news outlet Roya News recently managed to score an exclusive in the form of a couple of brief comments from both Abrams and Kennedy about the filming process on Episode IX. Abrams immediately issued a statement of how grateful he was to film in this location: Wadi Rum is breathtakingly beautiful and the perfect location for our film. I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to shoot in Jordan. Between the warm welcome from the government and the dedication and hard work of the local film professionals, we couldnt have had a better experience. We are enormously grateful. Kennedy, who is also producing the film, added something of interest to the conversation: apparently, the set for Star Wars Episode IX is so secretive, that it requires Jordans army to safeguard it! I also want to thank the Royal Film Commission Jordan, and the Army, whose tremendous support has been invaluable, and helped make this shoot possible. Roya News explained that the armys help was requested and given for figuring out the logistics of the film shoot. Filming lasted for three weeks, likely indicating that a major set piece was filmed in the location. (The Force Awakens filmed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for a similar length of the films shoot.) Star Wars Episode IX will be released on December 20, 2019. Its cast includes Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Billy Dee Williams, Lupita Nyongo, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Jimmy Vee, Brian Herring, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Greg Grunberg, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan, and Matt Smith. Archive footage of Carrie Fisher will also be utilized. 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 President Klaus Iohannis on Monday stated that Romania is prepared for "any scenario, for any measure" in relation to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, while he pleaded, at the same time, for the parties involved to approach the situation with calm. "We are prepared for any scenario, for any measure, but we have the same opinion as our allies in NATO and our friends in the EU, that the parties involved need to approach the situation with calm and try to release the tension, so that the things easily turn to normality," said President Iohannis, at the Romanian Embassy in Paris, where he met with the representatives of the Romanian communities. At the same time, the head of the state underscored that Romanians have no reason to worry. "At this point, we are further watching how the situation unfolds and we are prepared to react accordingly, but Romanians have no reason to worry," assured Iohannis. He also said he was informed about the development of the conflict since the very beginning and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) standpoint has been established after consulting with the Presidency. "Ever since it all started I requested to be informed about the entire development. Our intelligence services always kept me informed. An official standpoint on behalf of Romania has been released by the MAE after consulting with us first and we further watch, very closely and in real time the developments in Ukraine and the Kerch Strait area, where the incident took place," said Iohannis. President Klaus Iohannis on Monday stated that he has "a very reasonable" amount of time to respond in case of the proposals for Development and Transport ministers, underscoring that the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has nothing to say in this matter. The head of state was asked how he sees a possible involvement of the CCR in the matter of the appointment of the two ministers. "In an way. For now, the Government made me a request and I said I will respond after December 1, if they are in such a hurry, this concerns only them, but I do have a very reasonable amount of time left to respond. Practically, the CCR has no saying here. (...) The government isn't by any means blocked. The Government doesn't do its job because it probably has other things more pending to deal with. The Government is complete and, I said this before, nothing stops it from doing its job," the head of state said at the Romanian Embassy in Paris, where he met with representatives of the Romanian community. He reiterated that a decision with respect to the new ministers of Development and Transport will be made after the celebration of Romania's National Day. "As I already said, after the celebrations dedicated to the National Day. I have no intention during these days of celebration to discuss such unpleasant topics of reshuffle and various differences of opinion between some and others," said Iohannis. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea stated on Monday that at the meeting of the governing coalition to be held in the beginning of next week a decision will be made on what to do if the head of state, Klaus Iohannis, refuses to meet with its legal role in appointing some new ministers, while underscoring that Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader will put together a draft for a possible notification of the CCR related to a legal conflict of a constitutional nature. Nile BOWIE When Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first-ever state visit to Singapore this month for the East Asia Summit (EAS) a regional gathering never before attended by the Russian leader observers saw the move as a signal of Moscows bid to play a larger role in regional affairs. Despite a stronger emphasis on developing political and commercial ties with Asia-Pacific nations in recent years, Russia has largely focused on alignment with China and deepening relations with Japan, South Korea and India. The Kremlin has paid comparatively less attention to Southeast Asia, but there are signs that is now changing. From new trade opportunities to arms purchases and diplomatic protection, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) appear to broadly welcome greater political, economic and defense cooperation with Russia and its moves to step up participation in the regions multilateral institutions. Moscow, for its part, aims to win new markets for its defense industries and vast energy sector amid tightening sanctions leveled by the United States against individuals, entities and third parties for their dealings with the Russian military and targeted defense companies. US attempts to limit Russias arms exports could, however, meet resistance from regional buyers. In Southeast Asia, Russian defense companies sold US$6.64 billion worth of armaments between 2010 and 2017, outpacing their American counterparts US$4.58 billion in sales over the same period, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank. Vietnam is Russias largest arms purchaser, trading partner and ally in the region, a legacy of their Cold War ties. Hanois defense purchases accounted for 78% of Russias total arms exports to the region over that same period. Vietnam is also the only Asean member to have signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a trade grouping informally led by Russia but also comprising Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Since the trade deal came into force in 2016, two-way trade between Moscow and Hanoi reached US$5.2 billion in 2017, an increase of 29% from the previous year. Both sides recently agreed to target a US$10 billion turnover by 2020. Similar agreements with other Asean members are in the works and more could follow if Russia intensifies its regional trade push. Putins visit to Singapore saw the Russian leader and his counterpart Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterate their commitment to conclude an EAEU-Singapore FTA now under negotiation. Bilateral trade has risen from US$1.38 billion to US$5.38 billion over the last decade as Russian companies have expanded their operations in the city-state. Analysts believe clinching a trade agreement with an advanced economy such as Singapore would be a boon for the EAEU, particularly if the deal facilitates services and investments rather than just tariff reductions on the current relatively small volume of exchanges. As a close strategic partner of the US, Singapore is unlikely to pursue defense purchases from Russia. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, however, signaled his willingness to seek deeper cooperation on defense and trade during a bilateral meeting with the Russian leader during his visit to Singapore. Their discussions saw the Malaysian premier reportedly ask Moscow for help in maintaining the countrys fleet of Russian-made fighter planes. Mohamad Sabu, Malaysias defense minister, said in July that only four out of 28 Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30MKM and MiG-29 fighter jets owned by the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) are currently operational owing to maintenance problems and a lack of spare parts. Former premier Najib Razak last year committed to a US$2 billion aircraft purchase of MiG-35 jets to replace the aging fleet of MiG-29s. But Mahathirs administration suspended the purchase after taking office in May due to budgetary constraints. Analysts see Putrajayas request for fighter maintenance assistance as an opportunity for Russia and Malaysia to deepen military-technical cooperation. Both leaders also affirmed their desire to increase and diversify their trade cooperation. Russia is making inroads elsewhere in the region, too, forging closer defense links with the Philippines and Indonesia, the latter of which agreed last year to purchase 11 Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jets worth US$1.14 billion. Russias state-owned petroleum company Rosneft and nuclear energy corporation Rosatom are both pursuing multi-billion dollar projects with Jakarta. Trade between the EAEU and Asean hit US$35.7 billion last year, an increase of 40% from 2016. At the Asean-Russia Summit held alongside the EAS, a memorandum of understanding signed between the two blocs signaled their intent to cooperate on customs procedures, trade facilitation, investments and business development. Russia shares with Asean a belief in the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of other states. Momentum on Russian trade and diplomatic outreach is all the more applauded as certain Asean member states with poor human rights records continue to seek reliable, cost-effective arms without the political conditions or limitations required by Western arms suppliers, including the US. The prospect of greater Russian engagement with Southeast Asia comes amid rising trade and geopolitical tensions between China and the US that Asean leaders such as Singapores Lee believe could lead to the emergence of rival blocs. Against a backdrop of US-China competition for regional influence, Moscows role as a rising major player could be welcomed by states looking to hedge their diplomatic bets. There is clearly a demand for balancing arrangements in Southeast Asia, says Anton Tsvetov, an expert at the Center for Strategic Research, a Moscow-based think tank. Russia is unlikely to be positioning itself as a third force on par with the US and China, he says, as doing so would run the risk of jeopardizing Russias burgeoning relations with Beijing. Russia is unlikely to project significant military power to the region and cannot afford to lead on major investment like the larger economies, he told Asia Times. The Russian foreign policy community orients itself very much along the lines of the presidents signals and his trip may be taken as such a signal, thus launching a campaign of sorts, he believes. Russia could put its weight behind Asean-centered multilateral institutions and it tries to do so. This will benefit what is left of the regional rules-based order and pay credit to Asean as the convening center for regional mechanisms, says Tsvetov, who believes Russia can play a useful role in counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The key here for Moscow is not to play power politics in a region where it has a footing not nearly as strong as the US, China or even Japan, focusing instead on concrete issues in demand from Southeast Asian countries. US-imposed sanctions, however, could turn out to be a major impediment for Russias increased presence in Southeast Asia, he says. In August, US President Donald Trump signed the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act into law, aimed at isolating Moscow and reducing its arms exports by targeting third parties who deal with US sanctioned Russian defense companies. Critics of the law believe it could backfire on Washington through the unintended effect of enhancing Beijings influence by undermining the military capabilities of Southeast Asian countries that have for decades relied on Russian arms and equipment to deter China. US sanctions on Russia may turn out to be self-defeating in Southeast Asia. Russian arms provisions to Asean states most importantly, Vietnam are exactly what creates the deterrence capability against Chinese assertiveness, says Tsvetov, referring in particular to Beijings militarization of the contested South China Sea to underwrite its sweeping territorial claims. The CAATSA includes a narrow presidential waiver intended to wean countries off of Russian equipment and allow for things such as spare parts for previously-purchased equipment, according to the White Houses National Security Council (NSC). But countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and India would still be susceptible to US sanctions as they seek multi-billion dollar Russian arms deals to upgrade their capabilities. Being the target of American sanctions is a risk that some may not be ready to take in pursuit of arms deals with Moscow, Tsvetov says. If sanctions inhibit the deterrence capacity of Asean members, however, regional states are sure to become irritated by the way US differences with Russia over issues elsewhere are transferred into the Southeast Asian context. atimes.com The latest potentially disastrous flare-up in violence between the Kiev regime and Russia near the Black Seas Kerch Strait is clearly a blatant provocation aimed at strengthening the autocratic regime under President Petro Poroshenko. Its also a reckless gambit to push Kievs madcap agenda for joining NATO and the European Union. No matter, it seems, if that gambit risks igniting a full-scale war between Russia and NATO. The US-led NATO military alliance and the European Union appeared to back Kievs claims of aggression by Moscow following the latest escalation in the Black Sea. That response fits Poroshenkos long-held narrative of casting Russia as an aggressor and to mobilize support from NATO and the EU. Ironically, Western news media featured pro-NATO pundits who have claimed that the weekend confrontation was vintage Putin. It is speculated that the Russian president was taking advantage of several political distractions for Western governments Trumps public relations problems with Saudi Arabia over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Brexit debacle and so on to strike a heavy hand at Kiev. That typically cynical anti-Russian view completely overlooks the glaring facts that the naval clash between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Black Sea plays conveniently for the Kiev regime and Poroshenko. Its less a case of vintage Putin and more the dregs of Poroshenkos intrigue. The prompt declaration by Poroshenkos national security council for imposing martial law in Ukraine within hours of the naval confrontation on Sunday effectively strives to give Poroshenko and his Kiev regime dictatorial powers. Potentially, a state of emergency could permit Poroshenko to call off presidential elections due in March next year. With his poll ratings trailing at around 10 per cent, it is looking very likely that the chocolate-tycoon-turned-politician is heading for a meltdown in the forthcoming election. If Poroshenko doesnt actually call off the ballot, the ramping up of security drama may still allow him to rally voters around the flag and his leadership. Not only that, but if martial law is imposed it allows the Kiev regime to outlaw public protests, which had been growing out of popular discontent with corruption and social deprivation. The Kiev regime can also tighten its censorship of news media, impose dusk-to-dawn curfews and dragoon more men into military service. On Sunday, three Ukrainian navy warships were commandeered by Russian forces near the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea. The Russians claim that the Ukrainian vessels violated territorial limits, acted dangerously and ignored warnings to back off. The Ukrainian side claims that their vessels were in international waters trying to transport from Odessa via the Kerch Strait to the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Tensions have become particularly sharp since Russia opened a new bridge earlier this year over the Kerch Strait, linking its mainland with the Crimea Peninsula. Crimea seceded from Ukraine in March 2014 after a referendum on the peninsula called for joining the Russian Federation. That event is routinely referred in Western media to Russias annexation of Crimea. Such pejorative Western reports ignore the fact that Crimeas popular mandate followed a CIA-backed coup detat in Kiev by Neo-Nazis in February 2014 which illegally overthrew an elected government. The incumbent Ukrainian President Poroshenko owes his office to that violent putsch in Kiev. Several Kiev political and military figures have called for acts of sabotage against the $4 billion bridge over the Kerch Strait. That has in turn touched off Russias stepped-up security patrols in the area. On the latest naval clash, Russias deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin said it appeared to be a premeditated provocation by the Kiev regime. The swift suite of actions taken by Poroshenko do indeed suggest that the drama was following a script. In addition to wanting to impose martial law and all the dictatorial benefits that engenders, Poroshenko also called for Western governments to impose more anti-Russian sanctions, and for NATO partners to take action in defense of Ukraine. Kiev demanded that its three detained warships and over 20 crew members be returned immediately. Poroshenko asserted, somewhat unconvincingly, that any martial law regime would not be a declaration of war against Russia. He claimed that the Kiev regime was seeking to settle the nearly four-year conflict in eastern Ukraine through political means and in accordance with the Minsk 2014 and 2015 treaties. Poroshenkos peacemaking rhetoric is acutely contradicted by the unremitting aggressive actions of his military forces towards the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Immediately following the naval showdown at the weekend, there were reports of Ukrainian forces launching heavy artillery attacks on Donetsk and incursions by assault drones across the truce line near Gorlovka. It seems significant that only three days before the naval clash in the Black Sea, President Poroshenko addressed the parliament in Kiev, saying that a constitutional amendment explicitly outlining his states plans to join NATO and the EU would be a final repudiation of Russia. Poroshenko declared that Moscow would not have a veto over Ukrainian aspirations to join the Western blocs. Russia has repeatedly warned that the bordering state of Ukraine joining NATO would be an unacceptable breach of its national security. Too, it appeared that both NATO and the EU had gone cool on Ukraines prospective membership owing to disturbing reports about systematic human rights violations, political corruption and the woeful state of its economy. The ever-petulant Poroshenko and his Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev are pushing confrontation with Russia in order to bolster their madcap plans to join NATO and the EU. And by buying into this latest provocation, it appears that NATO and the EU are drinking down the dregs that the Poroshenko regime is serving up. What had seemed almost unachievable was achieved on Nov. 25 at a special EU summit. This is a fateful moment. The first hurdle has been passed. The EU has reached a portentous turning point that will have a dire impact on its future. The damage to the blocs global standing will be considerable and irreparable. This separation may expedite a further partition of multi-speed Europe" along north-south lines, with Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the Scandinavian and Baltic states breaking away and thus putting an end to the very idea of European unity. After 18 months of tough negotiations, the leaders of the EU endorsed the 585-page Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration on the future of EU-UK relations, which details the terms and conditions under which Britain will leave the bloc on March 19, 2019. The proposed deal details financial matters, citizens' rights, the impact on Northern Ireland, and outlines how the UK can access the EU market once the two- to four-year transition period is over. All of Great Britain will be part of a customs union with the EU. Northern Ireland will remain within certain elements of the EU's common market. The deal must still be approved by the House of Commons in early December. All the opposition parties and some 70 Conservative MPs vigorously oppose it. Some of those who support the deal in general are not happy about the backstop aimed at preventing the reestablishment of a hard border with Ireland. Some 60 Tory Euroskeptics and 10 Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MPs who prop up the minority government insist that the agreement will preserve an overly intimate relationship between the UK and the bloc. The DUP lawmakers are threatening to withdraw their support for the Tories if the deal passes parliament. The backstop is not something they can reconcile themselves to. Some see it as the path to separation. According to former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, It is a choice between the break-up of this country, or the subjugation of this country, between separation or submission. It is between treating Northern Ireland as an economic colony of the EU, or treating the whole of the UK as such a colony. It is a choice between protecting the Union or saving Brexit. Their intransigence might destroy the country they profess to protect. The dissatisfaction is strong enough to trigger rumors about a possible rebellion inside the ruling coalitions ranks. The calls for a second referendum on Brexit have been getting louder. But will it change anything and is there time before the end of March? A general election, effectively another form of a referendum on the deal, is also a realistic option. If the government won a majority, it would be in much better shape to tackle the never-ending problems caused by this farewell to the EU. But nothing can be changed; EU leaders have warned that they are not prepared to renegotiate the deal. The aftermath impacts not only Europes future but the kingdoms fate as well, because the British public is divided over the issue and those differences are extremely hard to reconcile. The nation could crumble from within. The British public no longer identify themselves as either Labor or Conservative, but rather as Brexiteers and their opponents, with England strongly supporting the EU withdrawal while Northern Ireland and Scotland want to remain. In October, a study by the Centre on Constitutional Change showed that a clear majority of Brexit supporters believe its more important to leave the EU than to retain pro-EU Scotland and Northern Ireland. They see ditching them both as an acceptable price to pay for independence from Brussels. Fifty-two percent of all voters in Northern Ireland and 52% of voters in Scotland would opt for independence from the United Kingdom if Brexit moves forward, according to a recent survey by Deltapoll. With the backstop making it possible to treat Northern Ireland as a special case, Scotland will inevitably ask the pointed question, What about us? It is not part of the Brexit deal, but the Scots voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining in the EU. Londons disregard for this fact will most certainly thrust the issue of Scotlands independence to center stage and add another referendum on independence to the agenda. Scottish PM Nicola Sturgeon is mulling this option. Besides, the Scottish parliament could declare independence without holding a referendum. The minimum Edinburgh would agree to is a special status that would allow it to stay in the EU. If Scotland leaves, the issue of Britains strategic nuclear deterrent, which is currently based in Scotland, will rise to the fore. No immediately viable alternative location in England exists. Or will that arsenal be shared, thus turning Scotland into a nuclear power? If formal unity is preserved, Northern Ireland and Scotland would each receive special status and at least three of the nations that make up that kingdom would then be living in accordance with their own laws. The country will have factually disintegrated. The calls for Welsh independence will also grow louder. Great Britains seat at the head table will no longer be assured, even though it will most likely retain its UN Security Council seat. The UKs withdrawal from the EU could mark the start of its disintegration. Nor is NATO as united as it once was. Theresa May rejects the idea of holding another referendum or nationwide election that in theory could be won by EU supporters which would be the only chance to keep the kingdom together. So, were in for major changes on the European continent. Its extremely hard to make any precise predictions about whats in store, but one thing is certain the unity of the West has been dealt a severe blow. The idea of creating a common army for the countries of the European Union has been repeatedly proposed by numerous advocates of the globalist elite for at least a decade. The latest example came from French President Macron, who took the opportunity during commemorations of the end of WWI in Paris to revive an idea that represents more a fantasy than a real possibility. First the good news. Richard Shirreff, a retired senior British Army officer, stated: "I think we have got to be very careful about loose talk of a European army. An army is a legally constituted armed force operating under the authority of a sovereign Government. So, if you accept that definition, the notion of a European army is impossible until and unless there is a sovereign European Government, which is obviously not in existence. And I think it is some way off." The question then arises as to why Macron and Merkel are so interested in talking about something that seems unrealistic at the moment? The answer is simple and obvious. It is a strategy aimed at striking at Trump directly, as evidenced by the words of Merkel, who also voiced her support for the creation of a European army. The Chancellor has indeed stated that "[t]he times when we could rely on others are over". By others she is clearly referring to the United States. Also, putting to one side the tense personal relationship between Macron and Trump, the Frenchman, like Merkel, is an exponent of globalism. The agreement between Berlin and Paris is intended to move Europe in a direction more agreeable to them, focussing on the need to attract more investment in European weapons, coupled with a desire to decrease dependence on US weapon systems. As Macron stated: "Europe must increase military spending, but the money should go to European, not American companies." The main issue, therefore, revolves around the economics of the import and export of arms in Europe and around the world, a business worth tens of billions of dollars a year. As SIPRI's annual report reminds us, The five largest West European suppliers France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy together accounted for 23 per cent of global arms transfers in 2013-17. The combined arms exports by European Union (EU) member states accounted for 27 per cent of the global total in 201317. Specifically, France and the UK increased their exports by 27% and 34% respectively, while Germany had a decline of 14% over the last 5 years. It should be remembered that the data is only up to 2017, and many agreements have since been concluded, especially between European countries, with France and Germany leading in exports. The SIPRI report presents us with a fairly clear picture of imports from countries like Greece and Italy,even as the US dominates market share, with 20 out of 40 importing countries having the US as their main supplier. France, the fourth country to have increased exports from 2008-2017, has gone from 5.8% of world exports to 6.7%, increasing exports by 27%. The United Kingdom, the 18th largest importer in the world, imports about 80% from the US. Italy is the 22nd largest importer in the world, importing 55% from the US and about 28% from Germany. Italy is the European country that imports most arms from another European country (Germany), about 28%, about 55% from the US, and the remaining 8.4% from Israel. In terms of imports, Greece is the 28th in the world, importing 68% from Germany, 17% from the US, and 10% from France. Of the top 40 importers, the US is the leading supplier for 20 of the 40, followed by Russia with seven countries, China with three, and seven for the UK, France and Germany combined. In addition to the creation of a conglomerate that would combine mainly French and Germany industries, Merkel emphasized that such a European army would not be for the purposes of ensuring greater sovereignty for the EU, but rather complement NATO, thereby strengthening the imperialist and ultra-neoliberal positions that have devastated the world in recent decades. As the German chancellor has emphasized, "This is not an army against NATO, it can be a good complement to NATO, also pointing out the logistical difficulties Europe faces to integration, with more than 150 different weapons systems as opposed to the 50 to 60 of the US. Such veiled wording indicates the desire of Merkel and Macron to further decrease the importation of arms from American companies, even if overall Germany and France import less than 100 million euros a year from the US. France and Germany will face a critical need to modernize their armed forces in the coming decade, given Europes relative backwardness when compared to recent strides made in Russia, China and even the United States. Macron stated that it is crucial to devote 2% of GDP to military spending within four to five years. The new French defense budget, Macron said, would allow for the acquisition of: "1,700 armored vehicles for the Army as well as five frigates, four nuclear-powered attack submarines and nine offshore patrol vessels for the Navy The Air Force would receive 12 in-flight refueling tankers, 28 Rafale fighter jets and 55 upgraded Mirage 2000 fighters This year will see a 1.8 billion increase (US $2.1 billion) in the annual defense budget to 34.2 billion, of which 650 million is earmarked for overseas deployment of combat troops The modernization strategy will not be just about numbers, as performance should be pursued and the equipment should meet the requirement for balanced cooperation between the services and the Direction Generale de lArmement procurement office. The idea of creating a European army also contributes towards budgetary planning, which will start mainly from 2022, as "a large part of the money would only be released in 2024 and 2025, after a budgetary review in 2021." This all represents the perfect excuse to increase defense budgets, aiming at a European army that will apparently establish some sort of independence from Donald Trumps America while simultaneously warding off Vladimir Putins Russia. Both Trump and Putin are hated by the globalist elite, being seen as their absolute enemies, and are both used by Macron and Merkel as boogeymen threatening European security, as if Moscow were intent on invading the Baltic countries as NATO analysts constantly claim. Such analysts need to make such claims in order to justify the existence of NATO and their accompanying salaries, with the defense sector being among Europes main industries, accounting for about half a million jobs directly (plus half that number indirectly), in more than 1,300 companies". That pretty much sums up the reason behind an EU army. The American and European military-industrial complexes are huge employers. This represents a pool of voters that Merkel and Macron need to keep onside, just as they need financial support from the CEOs of large arms manufacturers in exchange for billion-dollar contracts, something that would simply be called corruption if practiced in other parts of the world. With the economic crisis of 2008, European spending on arms fell by 22%, But with the provocations in Ukraine in 2014, and then the aggression directed against the Donbass region, creating tensions between Russia and the EU, there was new justification for an increase in military spending, especially since 2017. For example, Poland, Romania and Sweden have each decided to acquire long-range air-defense systems from the US, and Lithuania ordered medium-range air-defense systems containing components coming from Norway and the US. Thankfully the use of Trump and Putin as boogeymen to justify the creation of a European army is a bluff that will not lead to any concrete action. It all comes down to the money to be made in this multi-billion dollar market. Once again, SIPRI's study reminds us that Washington is dominant in this field, especially in the private sector, with "[f]orty-four US-based companies accounted for over 60 percent of all arms sales listed by SIPRI. The 30 European companies on the list make up just under 30 percent. France and German lead the pack, followed by the United Kingdom." This is while taking into account that EU member states "are not even legally obliged to declare what their companies sell. Their code has achieved neither transparency nor consistency." The question may arise as to how Europe is to be prevented from developing imperial ambitions. The simple if banal answer is that this is not possible so long as Europe remains dependent on the United States and her imperialist and ultra-capitalist ambitions. European countries would in the first instance need a sovereign central bank with their own currency, in addition to a national army that could defend European territory. European elites are in fact moving in the exact opposite direction, and this can be seen almost in the daily activities and statements by leaders like Merkel and Macron. The creation of a European army, instead of guaranteeing greater political freedom and distancing the EU from the US, would only actually serve to buttress the ideology of Washington as the only world superpower. Contrary to what would in actual fact be needed more military and economic sovereignty of EU member states the EU leadership seems to be heading in the other direction. In a world that is becoming more multipolar, the abdication of any kind of political, economic and military sovereignty is a recipe for disaster. Macron and Merkel, instead of balancing Europes political weight with China, Russia and the US, are hoping and waiting for a new Obama after the 2020 presidential election, so as to subjugate the whole of Europe to Washingtons rule, with Paris and Berlin acting as local satraps, treating the remaining 25 states of the EU as provinces of the Franco-German sub-empire. Tyler DURDEN The UK's Secret Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6, has been scrambling to prevent President Trump from publishing classified materials linked to the Russian election meddling investigation, according to The Telegraph, stating that any disclosure would "undermine intelligence gathering if he releases pages of an FBI application to wiretap one of his former campaign advisers." Trump's allies, however, are fighting back demanding transparency and suggesting that the UK wouldn't want the documents withheld unless it had something to hide. The Telegraph has talked to more than a dozen UK and US officials, including in American intelligence, who have revealed details about the row. British spy chiefs have genuine concern about sources being exposed if classified parts of the wiretap request were made public, according to figures familiar with discussions. It boils down to the exposure of people, said one US intelligence official, adding: We dont want to reveal sources and methods. US intelligence shares the concerns of the UK. Another said Britain feared setting a dangerous precedent which could make people less likely to share information, knowing that it could one day become public. The Telegraph The Telegraph adds that the UK's dispute with the Trump administration is so politically sensitive that staff within the British Embassy in DC haver been barred from discussing it with journalists. Theresa May has also "been kept at arms-length and is understood to have not raised the issue directly with the US president." In September, we reported that the British government "expressed grave concerns" over the material in question after President Trump issued an order to the DOJ to release a wide swath of materials, "immediately" and "without redaction." Trump walked that order back days later after the UK begged him not to release them. Mr Trump wants to declassify 21 pages from one of the applications. He announced the move in September, then backtracked, then this month said he was "very seriously" considering it again. Both Britain and Australia are understood to be opposing the move. Memos detailing alleged ties between Mr Trump and Russia compiled by Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, were cited in the application, which could explain some of the British concern. The Telegraph The New York Times reported at the time that the UK's concern was over material which "includes direct references to conversations between American law enforcement officials and Christopher Steele," the former MI6 agent who compiled the infamous "Steele Dossier." The UK's objection, according to former US and British officials, was over revealing Steele's identity in an official document, "regardless of whether he had been named in press reports." We noted in September, however, that Steele's name was contained within the Nunes Memo the House Intelligence Committee's majority opinion in the Trump-Russia case. Steele also had extensive contacts with DOJ official Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie, who along with Steele was paid by opposition research firm Fusion GPS in the anti-Trump campaign. Trump called for the declassification of FBI notes of interviews with Ohr, which would ostensibly reveal more about his relationship with Steele. Ohr was demoted twice within the Department of Justice for lying about his contacts with Fusion GPS. Perhaps the Brits are also concerned since much of the espionage performed on the Trump campaign was conducted on UK soil throughout 2016. Recall that Trump aid George Papadopoulos was lured to London in March, 2016, where Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud fed him the rumor that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton. It was later at a London bar that Papadopoulos would drunkenly pass the rumor to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer (who Strzok flew to London to meet with). Also recall that CIA/FBI "informant" (spy) Stefan Halper met with both Carter Page and Papadopoulos in London. Halper, a veteran of four Republican administrations, reached out to Trump aide George Papadopoulos in September 2016 with an offer to fly to London to write an academic paper on energy exploration in the Mediterranean Sea. Papadopoulos accepted a flight to London and a $3,000 honorarium. He claims that during a meeting in London, Halper asked him whether he knew anything about Russian hacking of Democrats emails. Papadopoulos had other contacts on British soil that he now believes were part of a government-sanctioned surveillance operation. Daily Caller In total, Halper received over $1 million from the Obama Pentagon for "research," over $400,000 of which was granted before and during the 2016 election season. Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying about his conversations with a shadowy Maltese professor and self-professed member of the Clinton Foundation, has publicly claimed he was targeted by UK spies, and told The Telegraph that he demands transparency. Trump's allies in Washington, meanwhile, have suggested that the facts laid out before us mean that the ongoing Russia investigation was invalid from the start. In short, it's understandable that the UK would prefer to hide their involvement in the "witch hunt" of Donald Trump since much of the counterintelligence investigation was conducted on UK soil. And if the Brits had knowledge of the operation, it will bolster claims that they meddled in the 2016 US election by assisting what appears to have been a set-up from the start. Steele's ham-handed dossier is a mere embarrassment, as virtually none of the claims asserted by the former MI6 agent have been proven true. Steele, a former MI6 agent, is the author of the infamous and unverified anti-Trump dossier. He worked as a confidential human source for the FBI for years before the relationship was severed just before the election because of Steeles unauthorized contacts with the press. He shared results of his investigation into Trumps links to Russia with the FBI beginning in early July 2016. The FBI relied heavily on the unverified Steele dossier to fill out applications for four FISA warrants against Page. Page has denied the dossiers claims, which include that he was the Trump campaigns back channel to the Kremlin. Daily Caller That said, Steele hasn't worked for the British government since 2009, so for their excuse focusing on the former MI6 agent while ignoring the multitude of events which occurred on UK soil, is curious. ZeroHedge Photo: Flickr Yves ENGLER Given that people who espouse neo-Nazi ideology are attracted to the military, it is disappointing to learn what a poor job the generals do to uncover and expel them. Or perhaps the inaction reflects a deeper problem. A recent stream of stories about right wing extremists in the Canadian military prompted the leadership to scramble to get ahead of the story. But, the Chief of the Defence Staffs effort to simply blame low-ranking individual members was neither convincing, nor satisfying. Ricochet reported that three soldiers in Alberta operated an online white supremacist military surplus store that glorifies white ruled Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). VICE concluded that Nova Scotia reservist Brandon Cameron was a prominent member of the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division. The three founders of Quebec anti-Islam/immigrant alt right group La Meute are ex-military. Radio-Canada found that 75 members of La Meutes private Facebook group were Canadian Forces members. On Canada Day 2017 five CF members disrupted an indigenous rally in front of a statue of violent colonialist Edward Cornwallis in Halifax. The soldiers were members of the Proud Boys, which described itself as a fraternal organization of Western Chauvinists who will no longer apologize for creating the modern world. The CFs response to these embarrassing stories is to claim these soldiers dont reflect the institution. In a Toronto Star article titled Right-wing extremism not welcome in Canadian Armed Forces but clearly, its in here, says top soldier, John Vance claimed racist individuals slip through unknown to the chain of command.But, is that answer convincing or does the CF hierarchy share blame for far rightists in the force? Over the past four years over 1,000 Canadians troops (a rotation of 200 every six months) has deployed to the Ukraineto train a force that includes the best-organized neo-Nazis in the world.Far right militia members are part of the force fighting Russian-aligned groups in eastern Ukraine. Five months ago Canadas military attache in Kiev, Colonel Brian Irwin, met privately with officersfrom the Azov battalion, who use the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol and praise officials who helped slaughter Jews during World War II.According to Azov, the Canadian military officials concluded the June briefing by expressing their hopes for further fruitful cooperation. Sympathy for the far right in Ukraine has been displayed by the CF on other occasions. In February 2016, for instance, nearly 200 officer cadets and professors of Canadas Royal Military College attended a screening of Ukrainians/Les Ukrainiens: Gods Volunteer Battalion, which praised far right militias fighting in that country. More generally, Canadians have fundraised for and joined rightist militias fighting in the Ukraine.For their part, top politicians have spoken alongside and marched with members of Ukraines Right Sector, which said it was defending the values of white, Christian Europe against the loss of the nation and deregionalisation. (In a story titled US-Funded Neo-Nazis in Ukraine Mentor US White Supremacists Max Blumenthal recently described how Washingtons support for the far right in the Ukraine has blown back. Hereported, an unsealed FBI indictment of four American white supremacists from the Rise Above Movement (RAM) declared that the defendants had trained with Ukraines Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia officially incorporated into the countrys national guard.) In addition to supporting fascistic elements in Eastern Europe, the CFs authoritarian, patriarchal and racist structure lends itself to rightist politics. Ranging from Private Basic/Ordinary Seaman to General/Admiral,there are nineteen ranks in the CF. In deference to authority, lower must salute and obey orders from higher ranks. In addition to the hierarchy,the CF has been highly patriarchal.Until 1989 women were excluded from combat roles and the submarine service was only opened to women in 2000. As has been discussed elsewhere, extreme patriarchy represents a sort of gateway ideology to the far right. The CF has also been a hot bed of white supremacy.For decades institutional racism was explicit with coloured applicantsexcluded from enlisting in several positions until the 1950s.Despite making up 20 percent of the Canadian population, visible minorities represent 8.2percent of the CF (it may be slightly higher since some choose not to self-identify). In 2016 three former CF members sued over systemic racism. Their suit claimed that derogatory slurs, racial harassment and violent threats are tolerated or ignored Victims of racism within the Canadian Forces are forced into isolation, subjected to further trauma and, in many cases, catapulted toward early release. Chief of the Defence Staff John Vances effort to blame right wing extremism on a few bad apples wont do. The CF needs to look at how its decisions and culture stimulates right-wing extremism. counterpunch.org On Nov. 25, three Ukrainian naval ships made an unauthorized crossing through Russian territorial waters. The Russian Coast Guard took measures to force them to comply with the rules. They did not. There can be little doubt that Kiev sent those ships to deliberately provoke Russia. Every ship that passes through that waterway must contact the Kerch Sea Port authorities, report her route and destination, and be given permission to sail through. Its really that simple, but Ukraines group of ships had not notified Russia in advance of their plans. Warnings to stop their dangerous maneuvering were met with a deaf ear. The Ukrainian vessels defiantly ignored the requests to leave Russia's territorial waters. Kiev has rushed to accuse Moscow of military aggression. The incident immediately captured the headlines, with Western leaders raising their voices to back Ukraine without even offering any details about exactly what had happened or what had sparked this dangerous turn of events. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wasted no time to express the blocs full support for Ukraines territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law. Canada, Poland, and Denmark, in addition to some other countries, were quick to join their voices to the anti-Russian choir. It serves their purpose to brush aside both the details as well as any attempts to try to gain insight into the real causes of this incident in particular or the deterioration of the situation in the Azov Sea in general. On Nov. 26, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill imposing martial law. Once approved by parliament, it will remain in effect for at least one month. Afterward it can be extended. The Ukrainian president did not raise the question of imposing martial law in 2014, when Crimea requested via referendum that it be incorporated by Russia. Nor did he take that step in 2015 during the battle of Debalsevo Bulge in the heat of the fighting in the eastern part of the country. The ongoing conflict with the self-proclaimed republics has never prompted him to consider a state of emergency. But he found the recent sea incident grave enough to justify the imposition of martial law prior to the presidential election that polls indicate he has a slim chance of winning. The move would curb civil liberties and give state institutions greater powers during the election scheduled for March 31, 2019, if it is not postponed. Presidential, parliamentary, and local elections, as well as strikes, protests, rallies, and mass demonstrations, are all forbidden during a time of martial law. The incident at sea may not be the only provocation that is planned. The situation along the border with the self-proclaimed republics began to deteriorate as soon as the reports about the sea incident started to pour in. Heavy shelling by Ukrainian forces of residential areas in eastern Ukraine was reported during the evening of Nov. 26. Another motive the provocation was staged to expedite the procedure of joining NATO. The 2003 Russia-Ukraine agreement, which states that the Azov Sea is considered to be the domestic waters of both the two countries, can be annulled. A bill to repeal the treaty was introduced in the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) last summer. It forbids any warship from entering the sea without the consent of both nations. If that agreement is torn up, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea would take effect. Russias and Ukraines territorial waters would extend for 12 nautical miles from their respective coasts. The interior of that sea would become international waters, allowing NATO ships to enter the Azov Sea without restrictions. Kiev also hopes that military aid from NATO countries will increase, allowing it to build a powerful navy and coastal defenses. It would like to have an international monitoring mission stationed in the Azov Sea, probably under the auspices of the OSCE and with the participation of navies that are unfriendly to Russia. Another thing the Ukrainian president would like to see happen is for US President Trump to cancel his meeting with Russian President Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina. What has prompted Kievs actions? It was the backing of the West. On Oct. 25, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the Azov Sea to express its support of Ukraine. On Nov. 19, UN High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini stated that the EU foreign ministers had discussed taking relevant targeted measures against Russia due to the situation in the Azov Sea. The US continues to expand its military assistance to Ukraine. The US already has a military facility in Ochakovo. Once the Oliver H. Perry-class frigates arrive in Ukraine, they will be followed by American naval instructors. The US presence and military infrastructure will gradually expand. Great Britain is doing the same thing. The Wests support is encouraging Ukraine to escalate the tensions. Ukraines Constitutional Court has just okayed an amendment to proclaim NATO and EU memberships as official foreign-policy goals. If approved by parliament, the Minsk accords will then become null and void, because Russia originally agreed to comply with them on the condition that Ukraine remain a neutral state. No one needs such heightened tensions in an area with so much ship activity. All seafaring nations want shipping lanes to be free and protected by law. The more political and military support Kiev gets, the greater the chance that a spark will kindle a fire in the Azov Sea that will spread further. The responsibility rests with those who are egging Kiev on and thus whipping up tensions in pursuit of political goals. Israeli military leaders believe they are winning their battle to keep Iran from establishing a permanent presence in Syria. This has been achieved via a combination of force (air and artillery strikes on Iranian forces in Syria) and diplomacy (convincing Russia to persuade Iran to keep their forces 100 kilometers from the Israel border or suffer Israeli attacks the Russians will not interfere with). Other diplomatic activities involved the Americans and Arab nations. There is general agreement by Israel and their Arab allies that the forces Iran has assembled in Syria and Lebanon are a far greater threat than Hamas. But this war is not yet won and whether it is depends more on what happens in Iran. As a practical matter, no one is really winning in Syria. The Turks are thwarted (by the U.S.) in their effort to destroy the military power of the Syrian Kurds. Turkey still has a problem with over a million potential refugees in Idlib province trying to get into Turkey if the Idlib showdown cannot be settled peacefully). Syria and Iran dont care if there is a bloodbath in Idlib they just want to get it over with. No wonder Turkey doesnt get along with Iran and their sidekick Syria. Russia is in Syria mainly to sell its new and expensive weapons. That is done by not doing anything that makes Russia look foolish. That is difficult to do with allies like Iran, Syria and the current Turkish government. Russia does not want to fight anyone who can fight back; especially Israel or the Americans. At the same time, Russia wants to appear unafraid of the Israelis and Americans. ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) is still around as are many less fanatic Islamic terrorists. November 26, 2018: In the east (Deir Ezzor province), SDF (Syrian Kurd rebels) forces repelled a complex and desperate attack by as many as 500 ISIL fighters seeking to protect their last stronghold near Hajin city and the Iraqi border. The attack began on the 23rd and involved numerous attack groups and dozens of suicide bombers advancing out of a widespread fog. The SDF lost 92 dead over three days, the most ever in a single battle. Since SDF began moving against this ISIL stronghold in early September the primarily Kurdish group has lost over 450 dead. The three day ISIL offensive was stopped by stubborn SDF defensive tactics, which had American artillery and airstrikes on call. ISIL lost over a hundred known dead but many of the ISIL bodies are in what is still ISIL territory where airstrikes hit any group seen moving during the battle. Because of that a lot of the ISIL attackers never reached SDF positions. Many of the attackers, especially suicide bombers, got close to SDF forces by claiming to be civilians fleeing ISIL. There are a lot of civilians in this ISIL controlled area. Many of them are wives and children of ISIL fighters but many are not and are discouraged from leaving the area. ISIL wives are often willing to participate in suicide attacks and take the kids with them. Soon SDF forces will advance into this last ISIL stronghold and have to deal with landmines, explosive traps and suicide bombers that appear to be civilians. This is why ISIL is often described as a suicidal death cult. The hundreds of ISIL fighters surrounded near Hajin are all diehard and desperate Islamic terrorists who realize this is their last stand and the possibility of getting out is very low. After this most recent battle and the heavy losses SDF suffered, there is, even more, resolve by the SDF to ensure that none of the ISIL personnel escape. Taking prisoners is unlikely because the trapped ISIL men know about the growing number of captured ISIL men and women being sentenced to long prison terms or execution. November 25, 2018: Syria is apparently granting citizenship (and Syrian passports) to thousands of Iranian mercenaries like Hezbollah from Lebanon, some Iranians and Shia from other countries Iran recruited to fight in Syria. These newly created Syrians will be wearing Syrian Army uniforms as they take up position near the Israeli border. Israel suspected that Iran was planning this and now has to respond before these Iranian forces can carry out any attacks (as Iran has vowed to do) on Israel itself. Iran is desperate for a win because their recent efforts to hurt Israel have all been very embarrassing failures. November 24, 2018: In the north (Aleppo), fighting between government and rebel forces lead to a government-held residential area being hit by what appeared to be rockets with warheads containing poisonous gas which many in the target area suspected was a noxious industrial chemical, probably chlorine. At least fifty people in the area fell ill and received medical treatment but none have died. Chemical tests are being carried out to find out what happened. The government blamed the rebels and the rebels blamed the government. This is the second incidence of chemical weapons use this year. The last one was in April outside Damascus as government forces sought to drive rebels out of a suburban area. Syria has often been accused of using primitive (World War I type) chemical weapons that attack the respiratory system. These older chemical weapons are often nothing more than industrial chemicals (like chlorine) in large (and dangerous) doses. But the April attack and one before it apparently also included some nerve gas. In the last two years, the U.S. has twice bombed Syrian forces in retaliation for Syrians using chemical weapons and threatens to do so again if the Syrians use chemical weapons in Idlib or anywhere else. Syria apparently plans to do so in order to reduce casualties among their own troops. Thus the belief that the Aleppo incident was the work of government forces, not rebels and done in such a way as to avoid retribution (as was the case in April). Russia believes that industrial chemicals (like chlorine) dont count as chemical weapons (according to the 2013 Russian brokered deal to rid Syria of chemical weapons) and the Iranians apparently dont care. The evidence indicated that the April attack involved a combination of chlorine and a nerve gas. Israel fears Iran is permitting Syria to use these chemical weapons to test their effectiveness and the degree of international outrage. The Aleppo attack will not be investigated as thoroughly as the April one because there are no outside observers and the Syrians can control what information gets out. Russia believed the Syrian version of what happened in Aleppo and broke the truce and launched several airstrikes on rebel positions in Aleppo and nearby Idlib province. November 22, 2018: In the east (Deir Ezzor province), SDF forces captured Osama Abu Zeid, who was known to be ISIL founder and leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadis deputy and one of the few men who knows where Baghdadi is. Zeid was caught east of the Euphrates River, possibly headed for Iraq. November 21, 2018: In the east (Deir Ezzor province), SDF reinforced their forces based east of the provincial capital in order to protect the Tanak oilfield from ISIL attack. The 300 reinforcements increased the SDF defenders to about 650. The Americans sent some artillery and air controllers. The attacks, which began on the 23rd were larger and more numerous than expected. November 20, 2018: Iraqi F-16s again hit ISIL targets in Syria, destroying an ISIL base and a warehouse used for storing weapons and ammo in two separate attacks. At least 40 ISIL members were killed. Iraqi artillery units also fired across the border at ISIL forces spotted approaching the border. November 19, 2018: In the northwest (Aleppo province) the formerly Kurdish controlled (until March 2018) town of Afrin was the scene of Turkish forces fighting several hundred members of Al Sharqiya Martyrs. This group is technically working for the Turks but went rogue and was openly plundering areas the Kurds had retreated from. The hours of fighting left 25 dead, most of them rebels, and the remainder of the 200 or so Al Sharqiya Martyrs were arrested or fled. While the Turks can depend on secular Syrian rebels, like the FSA, many of the Islamic terrorist rebels are tempted to make a deal with the Turks and then go rogue because many of the Islamic radical rebels still see themselves on a mission from God and thus free to do whatever they like because the Turks arent real Moslems and you can lie to them. This is a big problem for the Turks who are trying to get most of the thousands of Islamic terrorist rebels surrounded to surrender and disperse. That will be a less than acceptable solution if many of these rebels return to being active Islamic terrorists. The Syrians dont that and neither do the Russians or anyone else (even Iran). At the same time, the Turks dont want a major battle to deal with the many Islamic terrorists in Idlib province because that would get a lot of civilians killed and many more desperately trying to get into Turkey. The United States sanctioned four companies and many individuals involved in smuggling Iranian oil to Syria. This announcement was a warning to Iran that their illegal dealings with Iraq were also not as secret as the Iranians and Iraqis had hoped. Sanctions on Iraqi companies and individuals can be very effective and costly to the Iraqis involved. Israeli officials revealed that the Russians had recently proposed to the Americans and Israelis that Iran was willing to withdraw its troops and mercenaries from Syria in return for the United States lifting some of the sanctions. Such a deal is would be difficult to implement. Israel and the U.S. do not trust Iran to observe the terms of any such deal and it is unclear just how many sanctions Iran wants to be lifted. The Syrian government and the Turks have a say in this but the big problem is trust and the fact that Iran is in big economic and political trouble back home because of how the corrupt religious dictatorship has mismanaged the economy for decades. Within a week the Americans made it clear that they had no intention of lifting sanctions for anything Iran does in Syria. November 17, 2018: In the southeast (Suwayda province) Syrian army and Iranian mercenaries forces pushed ISIL out of their last stronghold in the region. For three months the Syrians have been fighting ISIL fighter dug in atop hills in the desert area. Suwayda province is one of the four that border Jordan and ISIL has been trying to use the remote area as a base since early 2017. In mid-2017 the Syrian forces pushed ISIL away from the Jordanian border and began over a year of fighting to push ISIL out of the province. That campaign apparently ended with the ISIL force not just retreating but dispersing into much smaller groups or individuals and attempting to get out of the country. Some of the ISIL members headed for the Jordan and Saudi borders. It is suspected that this is another negotiated retreat with ISIL abandoning most of their weapons and equipment in order to avoid a violent pursuit. Syrian and Russian warplanes are able to enforce the agreement by patrolling the escape routes and attacking any group of travelers that appear to be armed or simply too large. Turkey and Iraq have been seeing a lot more of the dispersed ISIL, some of them with their wives. The foreign ones are being caught at the Turkish border as they try to return home to Europe. November 16, 2018: In the northwest (Idlib province), Islamic terrorists trapped in the province attacked Turkish forces killing 22 defenders. The Islamic terrorists used suicide bombers and gunmen and were quickly repulsed. The next day Syrian and Russian forces used artillery and airstrikes to hit the bases of the attackers. Islamic terrorist losses appear to be over fifty dead during the two days of violence. November 14, 2018: Israeli commercial satellite photos show that the Russian S-300 air defense systems delivered to Syria six weeks ago are still not operational. November 12, 2018: In the east (Homs province) an Iranian automobile assembly plant, built just before the 2011 civil war began, managed to survived years of fighting and production was resumed in 2016. Components were brought in from Iran by ship but production never returned to pre-war levels (60 cars a day). Few Syrians can afford a new car so production limps along at less than six cars a day and many of those gather dust in a warehouse awaiting buyers. With the return of economic sanctions on Iran, it has become economically difficult to justify keeping the factory open. But it is a symbol of Iran helping Syria so the Iranian government covers the losses. Iran has also announced that it will build and operate a branch of an Iranian university in Syria that will teach secular and religious subjects for undergraduates and graduate students. Iran is also financing a revival of the long-sought railroad from Basra in southern Iraq to the Syrian port of Lattakia. The railroad will be owned by Iraq, which will eventually repay Iran for the construction loans. Iran will be able to use the railroad to get all sorts of cargo to the Mediterranean coast at low cost. November 11, 2018: The Kurdish led SDF agreed to resume its offensive against ISIL. At the end of October, the SDF had halted their offensive against an ISIL stronghold near Hajin city. The SDF had to move more of their forces to the Turkish border where the Turks were again threatening to attack SDF controlled Syrian territory. The United States negotiated a deal with the Turks that reduced the Turkish threat to the SDF by placing American observations posts near the Turkish border to serve as a buffer between Turkey and Kurdish controlled areas of northeast Syria. With that agreement the SDF could move more troops south to deal with the remaining groups of ISIL there. November 7, 2018: In the northwest (Idlib province) the new (since 2012) the Russian RKhM-6 CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) detection vehicle showed up in a combat zone for the first time. Based on the BTR-80 14 ton 8x8 wheeled armored vehicle, the turret is augmented a similar structure containing sensors for various toxic materials. There is also thermal imaging sensors. CBRN vehicles were more common during the Cold War but still exist in smaller numbers. Russia is using the RKhM-6 to patrol the truce zone. This is the last area where Islamic terrorist rebels might possibly use CBRN type weapons. ISIL released a recruiting/morale building video on the Internet that detailed their operations for the last six weeks. The numbers seemed inflated, which isnt unusual for Islamic terrorist press releases. Yet some of what the video claimed did correspond to reality. Thus ISIL reported that 80 percent of their attacks were occurring in Syria and Iraq. Nearly half of ISIL activity was in Iraq (and a few provinces at that) while nearly a third were in Syria (mainly in the east). Nearly all the attacks reported can be classified as terrorism. This reflects a known trend that began in early 2018 as ISIL increased its guerilla-type attacks. Bay of Plenty If you love working out doors and in a small team then we have the role for you. We are needing someone who has either maintenance... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz A couple of months ago, back in August, students at Tahatai Coast School were fundraising and getting ready for their sister school partnership with Supsok Elementary School in South Korea, located an hour out of Seoul. Now, as of last Thursday, the students have landed back in New Zealand after spending 10 days in South Korea and are returning back to a normal school routine. Earlier this month, the Korean students spent ten action-packed days with their New Zealand host families, climbing Mauao, visiting a marae, soaking in hot pools, and touring Rotorua. After soaking up the Kiwi lifestyle and getting to know their Tahatai buddies and their host families, the Korean students returned home, and were joined by their Kiwi buddies five days later in Seoul. Student Belle Rowes highlight from the trip was getting dressed in tradition Korean clothing, called hanbok, and visiting a Korean folk village. Some of the students bought a hanbok as a special souvenir. Meanwhile, student Zach Davies inner daredevil was satisfied by visiting several amusement parks, including the mind-blowing Lotte Adventure World. The students also visited Gyeongbok Palace and took the cable car up to Seoul Tower. Trying new foods was also a big part of the experience. The Tahatai students were not used to eating this like octopus soup, kimchi or spicy noodles for lunch, or rice and fish for breakfast. They became quite fond of some of the food like bibimbap, which is meat, vegetable and rice served separately that you mix together in a hot bowl with chopsticks. However, it was the homestay experience that defined the trip for the students. The opportunity to live, play and attend school in South Korea is likely to leave a lasting impact on the Kiwi students. The students found apartment living very different from typical Kiwi houses with room to kick a ball around. Some of the students stayed in apartments as high as 27 floors. The exchange has seen many firm friendships emerge, and the students were teary as they said their goodbyes to each other in Seoul, with promises to keep in touch. Its been like a giant playdate across two countries, says student Niko Preston, who says he will really miss his host family and South Korea. Everyone was quite emotional when it came time to say goodbye, says Jude Barback, who accompanied the group as a parent helper. While the kids were looking forward to returning to New Zealand to see their families, they were sad to leave their new Korean friends and host families. It is neat to think that a such strong connection has been made through this process. Tahatai Coast Schools international student manager Rowan Barton, who also accompanied the students to South Korea, is delighted with the success of the inaugural exchange, as is Principal Matthew Skilton. Rowan hopes the sister school partnership will complement the schools growing international student programme, which sees a number of Korean students attend Tahatai each year on a longer-term basis. The exchange will give domestic students a greater insight into Korean culture. It will help them to make more of a connection with visiting international students, making them feel accepted and included, says Rowan. Based on the success of the first exchange, both schools are eager to keep the partnership going with plans already underway for next year. AUBURN, N.Y. -- A man has been charged with rape and accused of assaulting his 9-month-old son in Auburn. Eugene H. Scott Jr., a registered sex offender, was arrested Tuesday by the Auburn Police Department after he was indicted by a Cayuga County grand jury for injuring his son. The 37-year-old man was also indicted for raping a teenage girl. Police launched an investigation in May when a babysitter brought a baby boy to the hospital, said Auburn Police Detective Bryant Bergenstock. The boy's mother brought him to the babysitter on May 4, Bergenstock said. After noticing the baby had bruises and rug burns across his body, the babysitter brought the boy to Auburn Community Hospital's emergency room, he said. The child's mother told detectives her boyfriend -- Eugene Scott -- had watched the baby from late May 3 to early May 4, Bergenstock said. Scott told detectives he accidentally hurt the baby, who police later determined was his biological son, Bergenstock said. But the detective said the evidence showed the child's injuries were not accidentally inflicted. The assault happened at the Grant Motel at 255 Grant Ave. in Auburn, Bergenstock said. Detectives also determined Scott had raped a teenage girl who was under 17 years old, Bergenstock said. The case was presented to a grand jury. Six months later, Scott was indicted for second-degree assault, two counts of third-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child. He is being held in the Cayuga County Jail without bail. The baby boy was placed in foster care and made a full recovery, Bergenstock said. Additional charges are expected. Scott was convicted in October 2007 of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in Texas, according to New York's sex offender registry. The assault happened in 2002 when Scott was 21, the registry shows. Scott is registered as a level two sex offender. Level two offenders are considered to pose a moderate risk of reoffending. Police thanked Cayuga County Child Protective Services, Auburn Community Hospital, the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office, the Child Advocacy Center of Cayuga County and the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office for assisting with the investigation. Police asked anyone with information about Scott or the case to call (315) 258-9800 or (315) 253-3231. CENTRAL SQUARE - A man was shot about 8:30 p.m. today at a residence in Central Square, according to New York State Police. Troopers said the shooting took place at 3257 Fulton Ave. in the village of Central Square. The man was transported to Upstate University Hospital, said Trooper Jack Keller. No other information is available at this time, police said. Police were searching for three suspects, according to unconfirmed 911 reports. This story will be updated as more information is released. SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A 27-year-old Syracuse man was shot in the chest shortly after 2 p.m. Monday in Syracuse, according to the Syracuse Police Department. The man was taken to Upstate University Hospital in a private vehicle, police said in a news release Monday. The man's injuries do not appear to be life threatening, police said. The victim provided varying accounts of where the shooting occurred, police said. The man said he did not see who shot him; there is no suspect information at this time, police said. Shortly before the man arrived at the hospital, police responded to a report that shots were fired at 2:03 p.m. Monday at Midland and West Glen avenues, police said. Officers found several shell casings in the 3600 block of Midland Avenue. Police ask that anyone with information about the shooting 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" app. or through our website at Syracusepolice.org Deputies say the suspect pictured in these surveillance photos robbed the Dunkin Donuts inside Express Mart, located at 2723 Brewerton Road in Salina, at gunpoint on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. SALINA, N.Y. -- Employees at two stores were robbed at gunpoint in less than an hour Sunday in Salina, police said. The first robbery happened at the Gulf Gas Station at 2300 Court St. The second was reported at the Dunkin Donuts inside the Express Mart at 2723 Brewerton Road. Investigators said the two robberies are similar. Two men entered the Gulf Gas Station at 9:15 p.m. and demanded money from a cashier, according to the New York State Police. One suspect brandished a handgun, troopers said. The suspects fled from the gas station in a stolen, white Chevrolet Malibu, troopers said. The car was last spotted traveling toward Darlington Road East. Less than 40 minutes later, a second robbery was reported just over two miles north of the Gulf Gas Station. A man walked into the Dunkin Donuts on Brewerton Road at 9:53 p.m. brandishing a handgun and demanding money from an employee, said Sgt. Jon Seeber, Onondaga County Sheriff's Office spokesman. The suspect then fled the store with an undisclosed amount of cash and climbed into a stolen, white Malibu, he said. The Syracuse Police Department later found the stolen car abandoned on Culbert Street in Syracuse's North Side. Here's how troopers described the two suspects in the Gulf Gas Station robbery: The first suspect appeared to be a black male in his teens. He wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and carried a gun. The second suspect also appeared to be a black male in his teens. He wore a black jacket. Here's how deputies described the suspect in the Dunkin Donuts robbery: The suspect appeared to be a black or Hispanic man in his early 20s. He was about 5 feet 7 inches and had a thin build. Deputies asked anyone with information about the Dunkin Donuts robbery to call (315) 435-3051 or send anonymous tips through the tips411 app. Troopers asked anyone who recognizes the suspects or has information about the Gulf Gas Station robbery to call (315) 366-6000. By Cara Luddy, Communications Assistant at Central Library Did you dread the thought of politics coming up at Thanksgiving? Did you feel like once the conversation started, your family dinner became less of a joyful reunion and more of a contentious debate? Talking about politics, especially issues centered on race, gender and culture can be difficult for a lot of families. It's normal for us to get angry and frustrated when our loved ones just can't see a situation the way that we do. Luckily there's a wealth of information at your local library to help you handle the conversation. And even if you aren't comfortable having that conversation at the next holiday dinner, the information presented in these books will expose you to histories you may not be familiar with and statistics to help you understand pressing issues. Visit your local Onondaga County Public Library or go to www.onlib.org to search the catalog for the following books. What You Should Know About Politics... But Don't by Jessamyn Conrad This nonpartisan guide to the 2016 presidential election is still relevant for helping the reader understand contentious political issues. There's no political spin or lean, just the issues, who stands for what and why. These Truths by Jill Lepore Starting in 1492, Lepore compiles an impressive narrative of America's history. Focused on facts, the author puts the American experiment under scrutiny to see if it's held up Thomas Jefferson's "truths" of political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson Wilkerson's comprehensive history of the Great Migration does justice to telling the story of how millions of African Americans moved out of the South, seeking opportunity in the cities of the North from 1915-1970. Not only does Wilkerson shed light on this often untold chapter of American history, she also offers detailed context for the reasons and motivations that prompted this movement and its lasting effects. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance In his autobiography, J.D. Vance uncovers the intense poverty, substance abuse, and instability of growing up in Appalachia and the Rust Belt. Escaping the vicious cycle by becoming a Marine and attending Yale, he reflects on the frustrations of the white working class and dissects the causes and consequences of it. United by Cory Booker Senator Cory Booker calls for solidarity in the face of a deeply divided political landscape. He argues for a shared purpose, to focus on principles of compassion and hope. Booker describes his upbringing and the people who inspired him to pursue a career in politics while sharing his observations on race, crime and other issues. Strangers In Their Own Land by Arlie Hochschild Sociologist Arlie Hochschild journeys from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California to Louisiana's conservative bayou country. She reveals the struggles of the people living there while finding political common ground in a belief for strong communities and hope for the future. John F. Brusa Jr. became president and CEO of Barton & Loguidice in January 2017. The privately held engineering and consulting firm started in 1961 as Barton, Brown, Clyde and Loguidice. The four founding partners were Ed Barton, Ken Brown, Jim Clyde, and Frank Loguidice. The firm is now owned by 22 partners, including Brusa, who has spent his career at the company. The name was shortened to Barton & Loguidice in 1980, but growth continued. The firm, headquartered in Liverpool, operates 12 offices across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. Employment this year exceeded 300 for the first time. Tell me about growing up and early leadership roles. I grew up in Solvay and went to Solvay High School (Class of 1991) and then to Clarkson University (Class of 1995) for engineering. I still live in Solvay today. I played a lot of sports. That taught me the teamwork side of leadership. I'd say I always had an entrepreneur spirit. When I was in middle school I started my own little lawn-care business and serviced 11 properties in my neighborhood. It gave me some good pocket change, but, looking back, probably the most satisfying thing was helping my neighbors. A lot of times by the time you're done with their lawn, they'd asked you to help hang a picture or change a light bulb or whatever else they needed. I didn't get paid anything additional, but it really was satisfying to help. I think that's one of the most important qualities of being a leader - servanthood, helping people. My parents (John and Theresa) were a big influence. Early on, they instilled in me a strong work ethic. They taught me how to prioritize things, and they taught me about the importance of faith. I had a lot of siblings (six sisters and brothers). You learn a lot in a big family. My mom passed away when I was in college. My father has since remarried to a great woman, Teresa McCarthy, and they still live in the area. Tell me about Clarkson and leadership influences there. I received a civil engineering degree with a concentration in environmental engineering. I'm still active today at Clarkson, and B&L does a lot with the university. Tony Collins, who's now the president of the university, taught me a lot. Tony was chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. I had some good classes with him. I once gave a presentation, and he pulled me aside afterward. He didn't think it was my best work and he let me know it. He basically said: If you're going to represent this school or some day represent a business, you've got to give it more than that. He was a big help with my mom passing away. Tony gave me a lot of support because that came right in the middle of the semester (October 1993) and it was difficult. He was always accessible. It was easy to go see him with his open-door policy. He gave me the confidence knowing the school had my back, and I could go take care of family matters. He contacted all my professors, and he held true to his word. He did everything that he said he was going do, followed up, and helped me through it. That was probably the biggest thing, just knowing I had that support. What's your advice for effective leadership? First off, you have to know yourself, and you have to realize everybody's different. You can't try to put everybody in the same mold. Everyone's cast different, everybody's wired different, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. So the first thing is to know your own personal strengths and learn how to use those to the best of your ability. Then, know your weaknesses and try to adjust. After that, you need to have a strong personal vision. You have to have your goals in place and the steps that you're going to take to achieve those goals. It's not just your career goals. It's got to be your whole life. It's got to be your spiritual goals and your family goals. They're all together. Everything crosses. You have to have that plan in place and have your core values in place. After that you have to be able to read people. Like I said, everyone's different. Everybody receives communication differently. Everybody is motivated by something a little different. You have to take a step back to read your audience, read who you're dealing with. Knowing others is key and that translates into proper communication. Being able to communicate to motivate and engage people is important, but the pinnacle is personal integrity. Without integrity, you won't go far. In my opinion, people won't follow somebody too long if integrity is not there. That's actually built into our family core values here at B&L: Teamwork, trust, integrity, inspiration, and motivation. When you see a leader who is effective, what qualities do you see in that person? Integrity, as I mentioned, is obviously the key. I mentioned servanthood early on. Leadership is not about your title, it's not about your position. It's about your people. That is the key to leadership. You need to check arrogance at the door; it's a huge detractor. Communication goes hand in hand - if someone's a poor communicator, it shows. If you don't care about your staff, it will show through in your communication as well. If they don't believe in you, it doesn't matter what you get up and say. You can be as charismatic as you want, but if you have the wrong message, it's not going to take you far. What attributes do you see in a poor leader? They're self-centered and arrogant. They don't have their core values in place. They don't have their personal vision. They're more worried about the bottom line than they are about the team, the family. A business leader has to worry about the bottom line, right? Yes. But if you take care of your staff, you take care of your clients, you put your clients first, your staff first, financially the company will do well. If you have the right people on your team, the financials will come. Our business core values are client first, financial sustainability second. Profit is a core need. It's not a core value. I've seen tweets and other social media posts about B&L's focus on leadership training. Tell me about it. We're establishing what I like to call a leadership culture. We have programs in place to help with that. One of them is an internal training program called B&L University. It can be simple things like training for Excel or CAD or it can be about project management or new technologies. Our offices are video linked. So if you do a presentation here, it can be broadcast through our entire footprint, all of our offices, to your cell phone, or wherever. It allows easy access for all of our staff. Everyone learns from mentors and supervisors. We're trying to make sure that supervisors throughout B&L are on the same page for corporate policies, family values. We have external trainings, geared for mid-level project management and for leadership. One of the outside trainers is CTEL (Center for Technical and Engineering Leadership) from Rochester. It's a two-year-long process with meetings every couple months. Some classes are focused on emotional intelligence - understanding others. You have to develop emotional intelligence, how to read people, what motivates them. We also have training through ACEC, American Council of Engineering Companies. The council has a leadership institute, which many of our owners have graduated from. It's an eight-month course, focused on emotional intelligence and how to apply it, how to deal with conflict, how to lead through change, how people see differently, what puts them into conflict, how they deal with change, and how they adapt to it. Give me your advice for effectively leading change. It comes about with effective communication. People need to know the leader is looking forward, trying to innovate and make improvements or changes. Otherwise, your company is stagnant and you're not going to last too long. It's communicating what the company needs to be going forward. I think that is important, and why you always need to be looking at change communication. If change isn't properly documented and if it's not communicated properly throughout the organization, there can be angst. So the proper way I've found to roll out change is to do it in stages. The first step is to get your confidante group on board. Make sure they understand the pros and cons of the change and who may be affected. Once you get it to that initial core group, then you roll it out to a larger group. It could be your board or committee. After that you can go a step further. Here at B&L we have a larger managers group. It's important to get in front of them to make sure they understand it. Then, when you explain it to the entire staff, you have a larger group that understands exactly what your plans are and they help you implement it. People can go to them with questions and they can carry the message forward. If you do changes as a blanket without staged communication, it's difficult to implement. Once in a while, there may be a need for an immediate change, but the goal should be to do it in stages. That's the key for successful change overall. You don't want surprises. When you do your presentations and roll out a change in staged groups, if there is a chink in that armor, someone might be able to identify it and you can make an adjustment before it goes out to the entire company. A chink in the armor sounds like you're looking for feedback, you're looking for advice to improve. Right? You don't want to force change on everybody if there is a flaw. In those initial meetings, you are explaining it, your sense of it. You're seeking input. You want feedback. You want to involve your staff. At the end of the day, it's about them and your clients and what's going to help them. What's your advice for a leader to spark innovation and create that culture of change and willingness to try new things? It's easy in any organization to do the same old same old, because a lot of practices have been successful. They may have been in place for years, but technologies and circumstances and clients' needs change. There may be ways to do things more efficiently. There may be ways to provide greater benefits to the customer. So, a leader needs to encourage and push for innovation, for new ideas. At B&L, we started an internal innovation program called B&L Bright Lights. We encourage staff to bring forward ideas. We have a process for review. If it's something that has merit, we take it to the next step. If it's approved to go forward, we will invest in it. We will allow people to work on innovative ideas even if we can't immediately make money at it. We'll allow them the time to develop the idea and to bring it forward. Innovation is so important, we want to encourage and incentivize people to bring the ideas forward, and then implement them if they make sense. The weekly "CNY Conversation" features Q&A interviews about leadership, success, and innovation. The conversations are condensed and edited. To suggest a leader for a Conversation, contact Stan Linhorst at StanLinhorst@gmail.com. Last week featured nurse manager Sara Meneilly, who oversees 55 people in an emergency room. She says: "Leaders are here for the people they lead. They're not here for the leader." The Central New York Chapter of the American Red Cross has established a shelter for village of Phoenix and town of Schroeppel residents in Oswego County affected by a water main break. The shelter is located at the Palermo United Methodist Church, 11 County Route 35 in Fulton, The water main break, which is on Lock Street and has affected the entire village of Phoenix, forced Phoenix schools to dismiss early today. Phoenix has about 2,400 residents. Crews are working to repair the break. Egon "Opa" Albert Ehrlinspiel, 91, of Fayetteville, died Wednesday, November 21, 2018, in Palm Coast, Fla. According to his obituary, he was born in Alzey, Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1954. He was the founder and owner of Egon Ehrlinspiel Jewelers in East Syracuse. > See all of today's obituaries from syracuse.com > View local and national obituaries on syracuse.com > See a list of previous feature obituaries If you have a suggestion for a feature obituary, please email the link and any other information you'd like to share to Brenda Duncan at bduncan@syracuse.com PHOENIX, N.Y. -- A day after a broken water main left Phoenix residents without water, the pipe has been fixed. A water main broke on Lock Street on Monday morning, leaving the entire village without water. The break was repaired and water service was restored Tuesday morning, the village announced. Residents should boil their water until further notice, the village said. The Phoenix Central School District sent students home early on Monday after the water main broke. The American Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at the Palermo United Methodist Church in Fulton for residents. After water pressure was restored, Phoenix schools reopened on time Tuesday. Five-gallon water tanks will be placed in each Phoenix school during the next few days to provide students and staff with drinking water, said Superintendent Christopher J. Byrne in an email to parents. Phoenix has about 2,400 residents. Donald E. Graham is chairman of Graham Holdings and co-founder of the scholarship fund TheDream.us. By Donald E. Graham | The Washington Post A lame-duck session of Congress isn't a time for creativity and new initiatives. But there is a simple bill that could pass both chambers, be signed by this president and help some deserving people throughout the United States. The Republicans control Congress for a few more weeks. And, as President Donald Trump keeps saying, he would like money appropriated to build his wall along the southern border with Mexico. He surely won't get that money any time in the next Congress, with a Democrat-controlled House. Earlier this year, the president offered to give a chance for legal status not only tonearly 700,000 "dreamers" -- those undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children -- through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program but to a million others who were either too young to apply or chose not to. (I presume that, to get legal status or a path to citizenship, all 1.7 million would have to show, as DACA recipients do, that they have never been convicted of a felony or a serious misdemeanor.) Why not pass a simple bill: an appropriation for the wall, alongside an eventual path to citizenship for DACA recipients and long-term legal status for the rest? This would give each party something it badly wants. To Democrats who do not want to give Trump a victory by appropriating money for the wall, I would say: Have mercy on the dreamers and do it. To Republicans who say this constitutes "amnesty," and will set off another wave of migration, I would say: Really? The newest dreamers have been in the United States for more than 11 years. Migrants will come here with the hope that, if they wait that long, Congress will finally give them a chance at an education or a career? To those who say "The wall is a waste of money," I would say: In taxes and other contributions to our country, the dreamers will pay much of that money back. I know enough of these young people to believe that their potential is great. And DACA brings them no benefits: no Pell Grants, not even access to federal loans. Codifying DACA costs the government nothing, and the country will collect a lot in future tax payments. If Congress does not act, can dreamers rely on the federal courts to keep DACA available to them? Absolutely not. But don't listen to me. In his decision earlier this year to issue an injunction to keep DACA in place, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote that the government "indisputably can end the DACA program," but he also said the United States had failed to offer legally valid reasons for the termination. This is not a high hurdle. Even if the Supreme Court ultimately upholds Garaufis' decision, DACA will not be in place much longer. While the debate has gone on, the dreamers have quietly gone about their work. Many would love a chance at college. I work at the scholarship program TheDream.us, which is helping 3,400 scholars working toward graduation. Their success rate is outstanding. Those I know seem to have extraordinary levels of motivation. If DACA is abolished, not one of those students will be able to work legally for an employer in the United States. DACA recipients who are teachers, of which there are many, will have to be fired. So will hundreds of nurses. Jin Park, a Harvard senior from South Korea, just won a Rhodes scholarship and wants to do advanced work in molecular biology, aimed at helping cure diseases. If DACA is abolished, he will return from his studies at Oxford unable to work for any U.S. university or research firm. More than 85 percent of Americans support allowing dreamers to stay, study and work. Trump has spoken up for the dreamers in the past -- and he wants his wall. Do it, Congress. Do it now. Jim, one of my hunting buddies, recently told me a story about when he and his Dad were hunting years ago and Jim took a long shot at a buck as it was jumping over a log. "I was proud of myself, it was quite a shot," he said. "I waited after it went down for a couple of minutes. And then it got up and took off." Jim and his dad then followed the blood trail for about 15 minutes and then another shot rang out. The two went a little further and came across another hunter standing over Jim's buck. The hunter claimed he was the only one who had hit it, until Jim turned the deer over and showed him the wound from his shot. Whose deer was it? What would you have done? The state Department of Environmental Conservation has no ready answer. "DEC does not regulate this issue. Most times, hunters decide who has ownership of the deer. Local courts can be called upon to settle any disputes that arise over this issue," DEC said in a written statement. The bottom line is that many hunters abide by the rule that the person who killed the animal is the one who gets to keep it. Proving who actually fired the fatal shot, though, can in some situations be difficult to ascertain. Issues can also arise depending on where the deer was recovered. An example would be if it ran onto posted or private land and whether it was shot a second time by someone else lawfully on posted property. According to a 2017 article on grandviewoutdoors.com entitled "Deer disputes: How to decide who gets the deer," legal precedents in such matters go back centuries. The article quotes Gaius, a second-century Roman patriarch, who said: "One does not become the proprietor of a wild beast which he has wounded, but which he has not effectually taken. Pursuit alone vests in the sportsman no property in the animal pursued; and even pursuit accompanied by wounding is equally ineffectual for the purpose, unless the animal is actually taken." This idea was incorporated into English and later American law, the article said. Sometimes courts deviate. In one case, a Wisconsin judge considered the possibility that the first hunter's shot was indeed the fatal shot and the deer was awarded to the first hunter. Thus, it's not clear in all cases how a judge today would rule on the matter, the article said. Fortunately, such cases rarely end up in court and one hunter usually concedes to the other - or sometimes it comes down to simply flipping a coin. In the case of my friend Jim, when he turned over the deer and showed the other hunter the wound from his shot no consensus was reached by the three hunters. "We just shook our heads and walked away," Jim said. **For more Upstate New York outdoors on Facebook, go to Upstate NY Outdoors on NYup.com. We'd appreciate a "like." Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement by lying repeatedly as they questioned him in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Manafort denies doing so, and both sides agree that sentencing should be set immediately. The apparent collapse of Manafort's cooperation agreement is the latest stunning turnaround in his case, exposing the longtime Republican consultant to more than a decade behind bars after pleading guilty in September on charges of cheating the IRS, violating foreign lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice. The court filing indicated that Mueller's team also had suffered a potential setback, after gaining access to a witness with potential knowledge of several key events relevant to the probe during his tenure with Donald Trump's presidential campaign from March to August 2016, including a Trump Tower meeting attended by a Russian lawyer and the Republican National Convention. "After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement," prosecutors wrote. The government will file a detailed sentencing submission to the Probation Department and the Court in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies." Prosecutors did not elaborate on areas where they contend that Manafort lied. Manafort disputes that characterization; his attorneys write in the joint filing that he "has provided information to the government in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations." Manafort pleaded guilty on Sept. 14, days before trial in Washington, to two charges - conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice - admitting to years of financial crimes related to his undisclosed lobbying work for a pro-Russian political party and a politician in Ukraine. Under an agreement with prosecutors, Manafort faces a maximum prison sentence of about 10 years, not counting a sentence for his August conviction in Virginia for bank and tax fraud. He was ordered to forfeit an estimated $15 million he hid from the IRS but is permitted to keep some property held with family members. Before the plea, Manafort's defenders had long insisted that he would not cooperate with Mueller and that he does not have information that would incriminate the president. But in plea papers, Manafort agreed to cooperate "fully and truthfully" with the investigation conducted by the office of special counsel, including participating in interviews and debriefings, producing any documents in his control, testifying, and agreeing to delay sentencing until a time set by the government. In return for his cooperation, Manafort hoped to have prosecutors recommend leniency, possibly slicing years off his term of incarceration. The filing came after Manafort talked in detail to prosecutors before his plea, and despite numerous visits by him and his lawyers to prosecutors' offices. Kevin Downing, an attorney for Manafort, said at the time of Manafort's plea that it included a full cooperation agreement. "He wanted to make sure his family remained safe and live a good life," Downing said outside the courthouse doors. "He has accepted responsibility." WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney has not conceded her election loss to Rep.-elect Anthony Brindisi, a week after a count of absentee ballots made it mathematically impossible for her to win the race. Brindisi, D-Utica, said Tuesday he has exchanged several text messages with Tenney, R-New Hartford, but the two have not talked since before the Nov. 6 election in the 22nd Congressional District. Brindisi said he doesn't know whether to expect a formal concession from Tenney, who reached out to him via text message on Tuesday morning to try to arrange time to talk. Such concessions are a tradition in politics but not a requirement. "I'm in D.C. all week, so let me know when you get a break in orientation," Tenney texted Tuesday morning, according to Brindisi, who will join other incoming House freshmen this week for orientation sessions at the U.S. Capitol. The exchange of text messages began Friday, Brindisi said, when Tenney reached out with a message, "Are you free? I'm home and not traveling." Brindisi was away with family celebrating Thanksgiving and his 40th birthday. Brindisi said he offered to call Tenney on Sunday but didn't hear back from her until this morning. Tenney last week acknowledged in a radio interview that she did not see a path to victory after a count of absentee and affidavit ballots increased his lead from 1,293 votes on election night to almost 4,000 votes on Wednesday. He led Tenney, 125,925 to 121,957, with only about 1,800 votes remaining to be counted in the eight-county 22nd Congressional District. "I don't think we have a chance of prevailing," Tenney told WUTQ-FM (100.7) in Utica on Wednesday. But she explained why she hadn't formally conceded the race. "I want to make sure everyone who voted gets their vote counted," Tenney said. She added, "I haven't had a chance to speak to Anthony yet. Of course, we will. My office will do everything it can to coordinate with him and make sure he has a smooth transition." Tenney's spokeswoman and a campaign official did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. In a previous election loss in 2014, Tenney never spoke with former Rep. Richard Hanna to concede defeat in a Republican primary that she lost by about 1,600 votes. Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 New York -- A Long Island woman admitted on Monday to aiding the Islamic State with a scam involving bank fraud and bitcoin. Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, pleaded guilty to providing material support to the group and admitted laundering stolen money to support terrorists, according to CNN. Shahnaz, a U.S. citizen, admitted wiring over $150,000 to individuals and shell entities that were fronts for the terrorist group in Pakistan, China and Turkey in 2017, according to CNBC. The same year, she was intercepted trying to leave the United States for Syria, a hotbed of Islamic State activity, CNBC said. Shahnaz has been in custody since her arrest last December. She faces up to 20 years in prison. "The warning here is for people to stop paying attention to the caravan and to focus on the real threat ... the growing number of American citizens who have been seduced by this imaginary caliphate in the Middle East," Steve Zissou, an attorney for Shahnaz said, according to CNN. "The folks in Washington - the president has really got to get his eye on the ball." Shahnaz's scam began in March 2017 and involved fraudulently obtaining credit cards, which she used to buy over $62,000 in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Most of the currencies were then converted to U.S. dollars and transferred into Shahnaz's checking account, according to CNBC. Shahnaz also fraudulently obtained a loan of over $22,000 from a bank in Manhattan. She later made overseas wire transactions designed to avoid financial reporting requirements and conceal the source of the funds, CNBC said. She then prepared to travel to Syria. Authorities, who were already aware of the suspicious wire transfers, took her into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport. "In the interest of empowering and enriching a terrorist organization whose aim is to harm America, Zoobia Shahnaz turned her back on her country and her fellow citizens," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney said, according to Newsday. "This conviction sends a message to anyone who seeks to manipulate our financial systems to provide support to our adversaries: you too will be discovered, investigated, and brought to justice." Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 American Eagle Outfitters is investigating reports of bed bugs at a store located in a Florida mall. Several shoppers have claimed that they've been encountered bed bugs after buying clothing at an American Eagle store in Port Charlotte, Fla. "Me and my boyfriend who are just visiting port charlotte shopped there about 2 days ago , and i bought a sweater, the next morning he woke up with these [red marks] on his legs and there's a couple more other places??" one woman wrote on Facebook, sharing photos of apparent bug bites on her boyfriend's legs. NBC reports another woman who lives in Port Charlotte said she found bugs in jeans she bought for her husband during Black Friday shopping. The company said it takes the claims very seriously and is investigating the allegations. According to NBC, it's unclear if the alleged bed bugs came from the Port Charlotte Town Center mall or were picked up someplace else. Representatives for the shopping center have not commented. Another Facebook user said she saw a bed bug on a sweater at a Rue21 store, also located in the Port Charlotte Town Center. "My niece found a sweater that she liked and was getting ready to pick it up and we noticed this little guy (bedbug) on the new clothes!!" she wrote. Rue21 has not commented on the alleged incident. Kenneth Haynes, an entomologist from the University of Kentucky who studies the behavior of bedbugs, says bedbugs are most commonly found in hospitals, hotels and bedrooms. Typically, bed bugs hide in the cracks, crevices or seams of a mattress, he said; they can be transported to other locations by people sleeping on beds with bugs. Haynes said bed bugs can be seen with the naked eye; they're about the size of a green pepper seed, but can grow in size after feeding. The bugs only feed on blood, Haynes said. i don't know if this is relevant to what's going on about the guy who was on the news about american eagle having bed... Posted by Summer Rose on Monday, November 26, 2018 Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort secretly met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to a new report. The Guardian reports Manafort had private conversations with Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London around the time he joined President Donald Trump's campaign in 2015. The pair reportedly met in 2013, 2015 and the spring of 2016. According to the publication, the latter meeting could especially raise alarms in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Months after the meeting, WikiLeaks released a trove of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers, targeting Trump opponent Hillary Clinton. Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012, fearing extradition to Sweden in a sex crimes case. A U.S. court filing earlier this month revealed Assange has been charged in the U.S. under seal; possible charges include conspiracy, theft of government property or violating the Espionage Act. WikiLeaks has denied Assange met with Manafort in a tweet: "@WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange." Mueller called for Manafort to be sentenced immediately Monday after he allegedly violated his plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators. A filing said Manafort "committed federal crimes" by lying about "a variety of subject matters" even after he agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation. Manafort has denied lying to investigators and said he has not breached his plea agreement, according to his attorneys. Manafort remains jailed after pleading guilty in September to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice; the plea deal came after being convicted last summer of eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from the IRS in offshore accounts. In he plea, Manafort admitted to undisclosed lobbying work for a pro-Russian political party and a politician in Ukraine. He already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his agreement; breaking the plea deal could add more time to his sentence. Manafort was also part of the Trump Tower meeting with the president's son, Donald Trump Jr.; the president's son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner; and Kremlin-aligned lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. President Donald Trump has repeatedly denied knowing about the meeting and denied any collusion occurred between his campaign and Russia. Video released by the U.S. Forest Service on Monday shows the exact moment an off-duty Border Patrol agent sparked a wildfire in Arizona that burned over 45,000 acres. The 2017 Sawmill Fire caused about $8 million in damage in southern Arizona before it was brought under control, according to the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. The fire began when the agent, Dennis Dickey, fired a gun at an explosive target as a part of a gender reveal stunt, according to the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. The target spewed blue smoke after the shot hit, indicating that Dickey's wife was pregnant with a boy. But the target also contained Tannerite, an explosive substance designed to detonate when shot, the Daily Star said. Tannerite is legal, but has been linked to wildfires in several states. The video shows the target exploding when Dickey's shot hits. The blast quickly ignites dry grass surrounding the area. A voice in the video can then be heard saying "Start packing up!" Dickey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of causing a fire without permit in September. He agreed to pay restitution totaling $220,000, according to the Daily Star. Dickey agreed to pay $100,000 up front and will make monthly $500 payments for the next 20 years, according to KVOA in Tucson. The Sawmill Fire did not result in any injuries and no homes were lost, but it did burn timber, trees, brush and grass in the Coronado National Forest, KVOA said. The fire burned for over a week. Dickey immediately reported the fire to law enforcement, cooperated and admitted he started the blaze, according to the Republic. Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 In context: The only thing that seems to dissuade solicitors is if you waste their time, but with thousands of legitimate and scam firms out there and dozens dialing you daily, who has the time to lead these clowns along until they finally hang up? Enter Lenny. Unless you happen to be very lucky, you probably receive multiple calls per day from telemarketers. Just in April of this year, more than 3 billion robocalls were placed in the United States. Efforts to block the numbers of these firms are usually ineffective as most use spoofing to trick you into answering, so blocking just prompts their systems to spawn a different number. Personally, my list of blocked numbers is now into the hundreds. Relief is only a forward away. According to Motherboard, Lenny is a chatbot that was created almost a decade ago by an anonymous IT professional who was sick of fielding these tiresome calls day after day. So he set about designing an automated message system to troll telemarketers and scam callers. According to a Reddit post by someone claiming to have recorded the voice for Lenny, the bot is designed to simulate a telemarketers worst nightmare. That is to say that it replicates an elderly man who is a bit senile and slightly hard of hearing. The system consists of 16 pre-recorded phrases, so the voice is authentic sounding and not synthesized. The first four phrases are used to hook the caller into throwing their sales pitch. The other 12 messages are scripted to keep the telemarketer on the line without committing to anything. After each recording, a voice-detection algorithm listens for 1.5-second pauses in the conversation to start the next message. These 12 interactions will then continue looping until the caller finally hangs up. Lennys personality is such that the when he starts to repeat himself, it is easily confused with him just being a forgetful old man. The call above has him stringing on a Microsoft scammer for over 11 minutes. According to research into Lenny's effectiveness, most telemarketers (about 75%) figure out they have been duped after about two minutes. However, some calls have reportedly gone as long as an hour. Although it has been around for almost 10 years, I had never heard of Lenny until now. The chatbot resides on a publicly accessible server maintained by a programmer who goes by Mango on Reddit. To use Lenny simply forward, transfer, or initiate a conference call with the number (347) 514-7296. If you use the conference call and mute your mic, you can record the hilarity. Some restrictions apply, so check out the r/itslenny subreddit for more information. Bottom line: Instead of building a better AI system or giving users a choice of suggestions, Google is removing all gender-specific terms from Gmail's Smart Compose suggestion tool over fears of backlash from easily offended users. Earlier this year Google introduced an AI-assisted autocomplete feature on Gmail that is meant to make writing emails faster and easier. Apparently political correctness is getting in the way of improving the AI engine. Instead of analyzing profile data, names, photos, and other information passed through Gmail, Google is removing gender pronouns so as not to offend users. Google will no longer use words such as "her" or "him" in autocomplete suggestions. According to Gmail product manager Paul Lambert, this alleged issue was brought up by a Google employee in January of this year. When writing about meeting with an investor, the AI engine suggested "Do you want to meet him?" as a potential follow-up question instead of offering the possibility that the investor could be a woman. Currently, Google is up to around 1.5 billion Gmail users worldwide. Smart Compose is now being used on around 11 percent of emails sent through Gmail's web interface. Lambert has said that certain mistakes are far more forgivable than others, calling a mistake of gender "a big, big thing." According to Lambert, a team of around 15 employees were tasked with removing any form of bias from Smart Compose, but ultimately were not successful in correctly determining user gender with high enough accuracy. Removal of the pronouns is said to affect less than one percent of suggestions. Even though Google is taking the easy way out of simply removing functionality from its AI, other tech giants have done the same. On mobile devices, Apple has already removed several suggestions that could imply a gender. Microsoft and Amazon have been offering feminine words in translations whenever there is doubt. Microsoft has also removed gendered pronouns from LinkedIn's Smart Replies feature. The big picture: The 2018 holiday shopping season is in full swing. With a lucrative Turkey Five already in the books, there's little evidence to suggest retailers won't clean up in the coming weeks. Cyber Monday 2018 was expected to be massive for online retailers and, well, consumers didnt disappoint. Amazon today announced that Cyber Monday was its single biggest shopping day as more products were ordered yesterday than any other day in the companys history. During the Turkey Five, the five shopping days starting with Thanksgiving Day and running through Cyber Monday, shoppers in the US ordered more than 180 million items from Amazon. By comparison, Prime members worldwide purchased more than 100 million products during Amazons annual Prime Day event this past summer. Amazon said the best-selling products on its website during Cyber Monday included the Echo Dot, the AncestryDNA genetic testing kit, Bose QuietComfort 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones for Apple devices, Jenga, Becoming by Michelle Obama and Instant Pot DUO60 6 Quart. Online spending in the US reached $7.9 billion on Cyber Monday, topping Adobes prediction of $7.8 billion. The record-setting day helped push total monthly spending to $58.52 billion. According to Adobe, top-selling products on Cyber Monday included Fingerlings, L.O.L Surprise, Nintendo Switch, laptops and LG televisions. Lead image via Graphic Box, Shutterstock A Chinese researcher claims that he has helped make the world's first genetically-edited babies, a practice banned in the United States. The First Gene-Edited Humans Jiankui He of Shenzhen, China explained that he altered the embryos for seven couples, but only one resulted to pregnancy thus far. The parents of the babies refused to be named, but he revealed that the goal was not to cure an inherited disease. The researcher said that he wanted to give the children an ability only a few people in the world have to resist the infection of the HIV/AIDS virus in the future. "I feel a strong responsibility that it's not just to make a first, but also make it an example," He exclusively told The Associated Press. "Society will decide what to do next" in terms of allowing or forbidding such science." There is no independent confirmation that He participated in gene-editing the twin babies, according to the report. The researcher also did not say where it was done. Is China Making CRISPR Babies? The exclusive report by The Associated Press was published shortly after the MIT Technology Review had pushed out another story about medical documents that were uploaded online by a team of researchers from the Southern University of Science and Technology. The documents were looking for couples in an effort to create the first gene-edited baby by eliminating a gene called CCR5, which plays a crucial role in the infection of HIV. The medical documents were reportedly posted earlier this month. He was also involved in the effort. In 2015, Chinese researchers did a gene-editing experiment for the first time using non-viable human embryos in a lab dish. This caused a major outcry from the scientific community around the world. Ethical And Medical Concerns Of Gene-Editing He explained that he chose to remove the CCR5 gene and therefore, prevent the children from catching HIV/AIDS in the future because these infections are becoming a major issue in China. Some scientists have condemned the claim. Kiran Musunuru, a gene-editing expert from the University of Pennsylvania, called it "unconscionable," arguing that the effort was "an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible." CRISPR made gene-editing easier in the past couple of years. It has only recently been green-lighted to be tried on adults in order to treat deadly diseases. However, editing the embryos has raised serious concerns because the changes made in the DNA can be inherited by future generations and could, therefore, affect the entire gene pool. Moreover, the effects of the process on a child are not fully known yet. Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, who reviewed materials of He's experiment, said that there are no sufficient tests to say if the gene-editing worked to rule out the possibility that the child will be protected from the HIV virus. They also explained that at least one twin was a patchwork of cells with various alterations, but infection can still occur. In addition, even if the gene-editing worked, Musunuru revealed that the removal of the normal CCR5 gene comes with higher risks of getting other viruses such as West Nile. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. An experimental Alzheimer's disease vaccine that could reduce the number of new cases of dementia by half is on the horizon. Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center reported that the vaccine, which has recently come out of animal testing, has shown promising results. They hope that it will soon continue to clinical trials. Alzheimer's Vaccine According to a paper published by the journal BMC, the vaccine reduced the buildup of the proteins amyloid and tau, the substances associated with Alzheimer's disease, in monkeys and rabbits. It works by telling the body to produce more antibodies that attack Alzheimer's plaques before they begin to destroy the brain. If the vaccine could be proven safe and effective in humans, researchers claimed it could significantly reduce the number of people diagnosed with dementia and delay the effects of the degenerative disease by five years. "If the onset of the disease could be delayed by even five years, that would be enormous for the patients and their families," stated Doris Lambracht-Washington, a professor of neurology and neurotherapeutics and a co-author of the paper. "The number of dementia cases could drop by half." There had been previous attempts to develop a vaccine for Alzheimer's, a disease that affects millions around the world. However, the vaccines often have serious side effects such as inflammation of the brain, and not as effective. This new experimental vaccine from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is only one of the promising treatments that are currently in development aimed to address Alzheimer's disease. There is currently no cure for patients diagnosed with this degenerative disease. Only symptomatic treatment options are available to those who are affected. Alzheimer's Problem Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia, a term that is used to describe symptoms of cognitive decline. In the United States, more than 5 million people have been diagnosed with the disease in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2060, the public health agency predicts that the number of people with Alzheimer's in the United States would double to nearly 14 million. Age is a risk factor for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The most common symptom is memory loss, which becomes progressively worse until the patient loses the ability to carry on conversations or respond to the environment. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and founder, says that there is a 70 percent chance he will go and perhaps settle in Mars. In a recent interview with Axios, a documentary on HBO, the tech executive spoke about his dream of personally voyaging toward the Red Planet and the role that Starship (formerly BFG) will play in it. Elon Musk Is Heading To Mars "We've recently made a number of breakthroughs that I... am just really fired up about," Musk stated. "I'm talking about moving there." Even if he wants to come back, he, or any one of the people who want to explore Mars, do not have a guarantee that they would be able to return. The Red Planet is 54.6 million kilometers away from Earth the minimum distance between the two planets. Moreover, there is an incredibly high risk of dying during the months-long voyage in deep space and then when humans arrive on the barren world. Musk said that the chance of dying in Mars is so much higher than on Earth. When the idea of Mars becoming an "escape hatch" for the rich was floated around by the host, the 47-year-old responded that the Red Planet will not likely be a holiday destination. He explained that even if people do survive the journey and then the harsh conditions in Mars, they probably spend the entire time working nonstop building a base. That said, it would be rather costly to travel from Earth to Mars onboard SpaceX's Starship. Musk said that the one-way ticket is priced around $200,000. Still, he wants to go. "There's lots of people who climb mountains. People die on Mount Everest all the time," he added. "They like doing it for the challenge." SpaceX's Mars Ambition Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the hopes of one day colonizing Mars. The company is still currently developing its primary rocket, the Starship, with plans to test-launch as early as 2019. The same ship will fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his artist guests on a trip around the moon. By 2022, SpaceX wants to make an unmanned mission to Mars that will deliver cargo and supplies. If successful, Musk hopes to send the first crew to the Red Planet as early as 2024. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. When Neanderthals and early humans shared Eurasia for over 35,000 years, they had sex far more often than scientists first imagined, a new research suggests. Researchers from Temple University explained what had happened more than 75,000 years ago when early humans left Africa and explored Europe and Asia where they started to mingle with Neanderthals. As established, most humans nowadays have about 2 percent of Neanderthal DNA, a proof of what is passed down after the interbreeding took place ages ago. Those who do not have Neanderthal genes were probably because their ancestors were not with the group who traveled into other parts of the world, meaning, they just stayed in Africa. Interestingly, people from East Asia have 12 to 20 percent more Neanderthal DNA than those from Europe, which strongly suggested the multiple times of interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals. Other experts still believe that small percentage of Neanderthal genes, which still has an effect on today's immune system and the development of diseases present in modern-day humans, was a product of just a one-time encounter. Prior to the recent findings, the frequency of interbreeding among the two species was unclear. Study Using AI Researchers Joshua Schraiber and Fernando Villanea, whose hypothesis explained that different species that stayed over a certain area for a period of time had sexual encounters, tried to see if their guess was right. With artificial intelligence, they found that, indeed, varying DNA patterns is a result of multiple times of interbreeding between East Asians, Europeans, and Neanderthals. "These findings indicate a longer-term, more complex interaction between humans and Neanderthals than was previously appreciated," Schraiber explained. Oase 1's Skull Another proof of the frequent interbreeding was the skull that belonged to Oase 1, which was unearthed from Romania 16 years ago. The cranium, which is about 37,000 to 38,000 years old, showed it had Neanderthal ancestors. This means there was interbreeding just less than 40,000 years ago. This study clarified what people had initially thought of Neanderthals. These species that were classified in 1864 were perceived to have failed in mating but was debunked by the latest study on interbreeding. Also, about 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals living in France reportedly knew how to start a fire. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The head of Roscosmos, Russia's own space agency, wants to verify if the American moon landing in 1969 really happened. Roscosmos Head On Moon Landing Conspiracy In a video posted on Twitter, Dmitry Rogozin talked about the popular conspiracy theory claiming that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin never really walked on the surface of the moon nearly 50 years ago. He proposed the creation of a Russian mission that will be tasked if the historic scientific achievement really happened or was it a Hollywood production all along. "We have set this objective to fly and verify whether they've been there or not," he said. : , @roscosmos ? https://t.co/IRV3HUT6Sz (@Rogozin) November 24, 2018 Rogozin appears to be joking. After all, NASA and Roscosmos are still in good terms, with the former still relying on Russia's Soyuz program to send astronauts to the International Space Station. However, the conspiracy surrounding the 1969 lunar landing is common in Russia. In 2015, an article was published in the newspaper quoted Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin, questioning the disappearance of the film footage of the event. He proposed that an international probe should be launched. NASA lost the footage along with other 200,000 videotapes that were intentionally wiped to make space for new data and to save money. Since then, the U.S. space agency has turned to Lowry Digital to restore the footage from broadcast videos of the landing. The Soviet Union, which was locked in a space race with the United States during the Cold War, abandoned its lunar program in the 70s after four of its rockets exploded. NASA Returning To The Moon Earlier this year, NASA laid out a sustainable campaign to put humans back to the surface of the moon and eventually, to Mars. Part of the agency's plan is to launch an orbital platform that will host scientists, as well as scientific equipment to study Earth's natural satellite. It will also serve as the jump-off point for astronauts who want to walk on the surface of the moon. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. An overnight fire at Fezzo's Seafood, Steakhouse and Oyster Bar in Broussard has forced the restaurant to close until the middle of the week. Broussard Fire Chief Bryan Champagne said the fire, at 6701 Ambassador Caffery Parkway, occurred sometime after 11 p.m. Sunday and was still burning when fire crews arrived. An investigation is ongoing, but Champagne said he does not believe foul play is involved. Surveillance footage is being reviewed to determine the cause of the fire. The fire started in the back of the building in the loading area, in which the fencing and the wall and roof of the back of the building leading into the kitchen were damaged or destroyed. The kitchen received only minor damage from the fire; one cooler unit was destroyed. Water collected on the floor in the dining area and bar because of the firefighting efforts and a clogged drain. Fezzo's owner Pat Bordes said repairs are underway and the restaurant is expected to reopen Wednesday. "We just cant thank the Broussard and Youngsville fire departments for their quick response and ability to contain the fire so quickly," Bordes said. "Were very appreciative. Its scary to see part of your building on fire." The Broussard location, the third Fezzo's operation, opened in January 2016. Fezzo's also has restaurants in Scott and Crowley. The Broussard restaurant employs between 65 and 70 people, Bordes said. An ex-LSU student charged with negligent homicide in the September 2017 alcohol-related hazing death of fraternity pledge Max Gruver is vigorously fighting prosecutors' attempts to obtain the password to his cellphone. The East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office seized Matthew Alexander Naquin's phone through a court order last November but has been unable to access its contents because the phone is passcode-protected. Prosecutors have filed a motion asking state District Judge Beau Higginbotham to order Naquin, 20, of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, to turn over the code. Naquin's attorney claims such an order would violate Naquin's constitutional right against self-incrimination. Gruver, 18, of Roswell, Georgia, died following a hazing ritual that senior Phi Delta Theta members called "Bible study," in which pledges were required to chug hard liquor when they gave wrong answers to questions about the fraternity, authorities said. In the fight over Naquin's cellphone, defense attorney John McLindon and District Attorney Hillar Moore III both say the issues raised by Naquin have never been directly addressed by either the Louisiana Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court. The stakes are high, according to both men. "I don't think many citizens want the government rummaging through their phone," McLindon said in an email. "I believe the manufacturers of smartphones believe in privacy as well; otherwise, the phones would be made in a way that they could be accessed easily." Can't see video below? Click here. Moore contends that if Naquin is not compelled to provide his passcode, "it would indeed set a harmful and dangerous precedent for Louisiana and the nation." "Deeming the passcode protected under the 5th Amendment would lead to absurd consequences criminals would know not to use face recognition or fingerprints to lock their phones and instead always use passcodes to avoid access to law enforcement," the district attorney also said Wednesday in an email. Higginbotham is scheduled to hear the state's motion next Tuesday. McLindon argues in Naquin's opposition, filed Nov. 15, that Naquin's phone is unrelated to the alleged crime of negligent homicide. Moore's office disputes that argument. The state's motion includes the affidavit for search and seizure warrant that District Attorney's Office investigator Jeff Malone filed with the 19th Judicial District Court to obtain permission to confiscate Naquin's phone. Malone states in the affidavit that, throughout the investigation into Gruver's death, Naquin "was found to be a main participant during the hazing event," and LSU police reports indicate Naquin was "the most aggressive, and in charge of the hazing incident." The affidavit also says witness statements and electronic records indicate Naquin "communicated with other defendants through the use of mobile devices regarding the criminal conduct at issue before, during, and after the death of Maxwell Gruver." 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 "Witness statements provided by LSU police further indicate that additional communication exists regarding other hazing incidents and criminal conduct prior to" Gruver's death, Malone wrote in the affidavit. McLindon argues in Naquin's opposition to the motion to compel that the state "can speculate what a college-aged male might have on his smartphone, but that speculation is woefully insufficient to satisfy the onerous burden necessary to trample Naquin's Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination." Can't see video below? Click here. Moore previously went to court seeking access to a phone owned by Naquin co-defendant Sean-Paul Gott. Gotts lawyers argued the state wanted their client to waive his constitutional right against self-incrimination, though Gott ultimately shared his passcode. And there have been other similar cases locally and nationally. After Brittney Mills, 29, was shot to death in 2015, Moore and the FBI asked Apple for help accessing her phone. The company did not comply, citing its customers privacy rights. Moore found a private company that accessed her phones contents, but after reviewing it, the homicide case remains under investigation. And following the deadly December 2015 terrorist attack at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, Apple refused to help the FBI break into one of the suspects phones, fearing its help could set a precedent. A private company accessed the data for agents. +3 Ex-LSU student 'vocal' about not wanting Max Gruver in fraternity before hazing death, new court filings show A former LSU student accused of negligent homicide in the fatal 2017 alcohol-related hazing of Phi Delta Theta pledge Max Gruver was "vocal" a Other court documents filed previously in the Gruver case claim Naquin was vehement about not wanting Gruver in Phi Delta Theta, and that Naquin was warned by members of the fraternity just days before Gruver died to tone down his interaction with pledges. He was told his actions with pledges were extreme and dangerous, the documents state. Naquin is set for trial July 8. Negligent homicide is punishable by up to five years in prison. His former roommate, Ryan Matthew Isto, 19, of Butte, Montana, and Gott, 22, a former LSU student from Lafayette, pleaded no contest in September to misdemeanor hazing in the Gruver case and agreed to testify at Naquin's trial. Another former LSU student charged with hazing, Patrick Andrew Forde, 21, of Westwood, Massachusetts, has pledged his cooperation and truthful testimony at the trial. Prosecutors said they will decide later about whether to prosecute Forde. An autopsy revealed Gruver's blood alcohol level was 0.495 percent, more than six times the legal limit to drive in Louisiana. The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office attributed his death to alcohol poisoning and aspiration, meaning he suffocated on his own vomit. Phi Delta Theta is banned from LSU's campus until at least 2033. Baton Rouge firefighters battled a blaze early Tuesday on Evangeline Street thought to be caused by an unattended space heater as colder weather moved through the Baton Rouge area. Firefighters arrived just before 7 a.m. to find a bedroom of the home in the 5600 block of Evangeline Street. Investigators say they believe it was caused by a space heater placed too close to combustibles and left unattended. Nobody was injured, according to the Baton Rouge Fire Department. According to the National Weather Service data, the Baton Rouge site recorded a temperature of 35 degrees just before 7 a.m. Tuesday. Officials say fires are generally more common in the winter months, and more than a dozen Baton Rouge area residents were killed in house fires over the last year. Louisiana fire officials warned residents to be aware of fire hazards in the home in October, when three residents died within a week due to house fires they called "preventable," though at least one of those incidents was thought to be caused by discarded smoking materials. Sippin' Santa, the Christmas-themed tiki pop-up, is back at Beachbum Berrys Latitude 29. The annual holiday pop-up was started by Miracle, the New York-based pop-up bar launched in 2014, with the help of tiki cocktail guru Jeff Beachbum Berry. The Sippin' Santa spin-off features a tiki-centric menu developed by Berry, owner of Latitude 29 and bartender Brad Smith. The holiday-themed tiki cocktails are featured at 11 Sippin Santa pop-up locations across the country. Review: Beachbum Berrys Latitude 29 Tiki-inspired cocktail bars are having a moment, and Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29, which was named recently to Esquire's list of the nation's The French Quarter tiki bar gets decked out in holiday lights and Santa-themed paraphernalia. The menu includes a bright blue Blue Christmas cocktail and new drinks such as the Kris Kringle Colada, made with dark Jamaican rum, Cynar, allspice, lime and pineapple juices and cream of coconut, and the Mele Kalikimaka, a drink made with London dry gin, Grand Marnier, lime juice, cranberry syrup, allspice liqueur and Herbsaint. Sippin' Santa launched Nov. 23 and runs throughout December. Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29 named to Esquire's list of top bars Esquire issues a couple of annual lists naming the nation's top bars and new restaurants. Drinks expert David Wondrich compiled the magazine's Migrants run from tear gas launched by U.S. agents, amid photojournalists covering the Mexico-U.S. border, after a group of migrants got past Mexican police at the Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. The mayor of Tijuana has declared a humanitarian crisis in his border city and says that he has asked the United Nations for aid to deal with the approximately 5,000 Central American migrants who have arrived in the city. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) For World War II buffs, this weekend in New Orleans is something to look forward to. The International Conference on World War II, this weekend at the National WWII Museum and the Hyatt Regency, is considered the biggest and best gathering of its type three days of lectures and discussions led by some of the top authorities on the conflict that, nearly three-quarters of a century after its end, continues to command interest on both a popular and academic level. World War II was, in the words of British author Sir Antony Beevor, the conferences keynote speaker, more than any other war in history, one of moral choice, a triumph over totalitarianism in which the Allies were the good guys. And that victory was decisive. Some 400,000 American veterans survive from that war, along with millions who were part of the home front. For the generations that followed, World War II, although horrendous in its death toll, remains The Good War, at least in America. That perception, perhaps, is what has made the conference so successful. It debuted in 2006 to help restore the museums world-class status after Katrina had shut things down for a year, with serious discussions about the war in a style that appeals to anyone with an interest in it. It was precisely that approach to history popularized by the late Stephen Ambrose, the UNO history professor whose 1994 book on D-Day was the catalyst for the museum. We arent presenting peer review papers, museum president emeritus Nick Mueller said. Our speakers are told that instead of talking for 45 minutes, they should plan for 15 or 20 minutes and leave the rest of their time open for questions and answers. Those are the most interesting parts, because they lead to contested or controversial ideas. Its also why, Mueller added, the museum looks for authors who arent just great writers but who can speak to an audience in an entertaining way. About 500 people from around the world will pay almost $1,400 to attend all three days of the conference, which opens Thursday with a symposium on the connections between World War I and World War II. For those who cant afford that, the entire conference will be streamed live for free on the museums website, nationalww2museum.org. While the price of attending live may be a little steep, the fact 500 people, the majority of whom are not locals, turn out comes as a pleasant surprise to many of those used to participating in such gatherings. At some of them, youre talking to about 20 people, said Rob Citino, the museums senior historian. Here, its 8:30 on a Friday morning and youve got lively discussions going on with 500 people in the audience. Citino will join two panels one on the World War I experiences of the future commanders of World War II, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Edwin Rommel, and another on Why Germany Lost. The fall of Hitler may seem inevitable to us today, but Citino contends that after the fall of France, Germany had a 35 percent chance to prevail. Did Hitler not listen to his generals or was it a matter of productivity, especially after America entered the war? asked Citino, whose specialty is the German army. And then he chose to get into a death struggle with the Russians, and in the end, ideology overcame national interest. Those are the kinds of issues which make for great audience participation. Theyll take the discussions to the hotels restaurants and bars, Citino said. Weve got regulars who come to the conference every year, and youre always seeing old friendships renewed. +7 Gifts of Gratitude: National WWII Museum art project connects young people with veterans During his decadelong career in the military, Anthony Thibodeaux traveled the world. A so-called Seabee in the U.S. Naval Construction Battali The conference draws a diverse crowd. About 30 percent of those present are female, and the number is growing. Veterans in their 90s sit next to high school students who won scholarships to attend. While this years opening day is built around the influence of WWI on its successor two decades later, the Friday and Saturday sessions will feature leading historians on a variety of subjects such as Battles Not to Fight, The Lost Cause: Japans War, 1943-45, Greatest Unheralded Commanders, (Gen. Troy Middleton, later president of LSU is one), and Churchill: Walking with Destiny, by Andrew Roberts, based on his new biography of the British leader. To Mueller, new works such as Roberts also keep history fresh. History is constantly being reviewed and reinvented in different ways thanks to new research, documents becoming unclassified and new insights, he said. And history can also be entertaining, which is something weve always emphasized at the museum along with being serious about our purpose. Part of that purpose since the museum opened in 2000 has been telling the story of the war through personal accounts of those who were there on the ground, not just the generals and political leaders. +6 Air, land, sea and kids: Students to storm World War II expo Almost since the beginning of the school year, Mary Beth Almericos students at Mildred Harris Elementary in Bridge City have been asking her Thats the emphasis of Muellers own forthcoming book, Everything We Have. Its an account of D-Day told mainly through the oral histories of veterans from the Normandy invasion, which was the focus of the museums early days. The book, which will be published early next year, is the leadoff event for the museums extensive commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It's probably the last time a significant number of the men who fought that day will be together, Mueller said. This museum has always been about them. This book is not so much a narrative but a historical manuscript. UNO professor of international history Gunter Bischof will conduct a discussion of the book with Mueller. Nicks too modest to talk about the significance of his book, Citino said. Its part of the museums contribution to the anniversary. Its going to be the one part of the conference that nobodys going to miss either. For more information, visit ww2conference.com. The father and daughter credited with much of the visual flavor of the French Quarter will be featured in an exhibit opening Sunday, Dec. 2, at the Cabildo, located on Jackson Square. Father and daughter Don Andres Almonester and Micaela, the Baroness de Pontalba, will be seen in portraits hanging side-by-side for the first time in history. The duo was instrumental in reviving what is now Jackson Square, including the cast-iron gates that are symbolic of New Orleans architecture. Organized by the Louisiana State Museum and guest curator Randolph Delehanty, Ph.D., the exhibit will draw on portraits, rare documents and treasures from the Pontalba family chateau in France, historical drawings, and historic and commissioned photographs to revisualize New Orleans iconic urban core: Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, the Presbytere, and the twin Pontalba Buildings. Charles-Edouard and Isabelle, the current baron and baroness Delfau de Pontalba of le chateau de Mont-l'Eveque in France, will be traveling to the opening. The exhibit, which runs through the fall of 2019, will be featured at the black-tie Founders' Ball Saturday, Dec. 1 at the Cabildo. The exhibit will then open to the public Sunday and be on view Tuesdays to Sundays. Michaela de Almonester y Roxas, the baroness, was a New Orleans-born aristocrat, business woman and real estate developer. Her life was filled with wealth and tragedy, including surviving a gunshot wound to the chest in an attack by her father-in-law. Her father started the transformation of the square by funding the rebuilding of the Cabildo, St. Louis Cathedral and the Presbytere following the 1788 fire. The baroness continued rejuvenating the square, once named Place DArmes, with the Upper and Lower Pontalba buildings. In addition, she helped pay for the statue of Jackson, and converted the once-muddy grounds into a public park. For information, visit thelmf.org. St. Bernard Parish Sheriffs Office deputies were involved in two shootings over the course of a chaotic Monday that left one suspect and four deputies wounded. The incidents both involved stolen vehicles, but authorities said they could not yet say whether they were related. In one incident, deputies spotted a vehicle reported as stolen by a license-plate recognition camera near West Judge Perez Drive and Government Street about 10:30 a.m., according to the Sheriffs Office. Deputies said the driver, Tyrin Hamilton, 21, of New Orleans, sped toward a deputy and hit him with the vehicle. The deputy opened fire and struck Hamilton, the Sheriffs Office said. Hamilton was arrested at the hospital after treatment, the Sheriffs Office said. He was booked on two counts of possession of stolen property and aggravated assault with a motor vehicle upon a police officer. The injured deputy was treated at a hospital and released. A booking photo showed a bloodied bandage over Hamilton's lower face. Deputies also arrested Maurice Hicks Jr., 19, also of New Orleans, on two counts of possession of stolen property in connection with the same incident. Devonte Smith, 19, of New Orleans, is wanted on the same counts. In a separate incident, deputies tried to stop a vehicle on Judge Perez Drive near Packenham Avenue. When they did, shots were fired and three deputies were injured, according to a press release from State Police. The agency did not say who did the shooting. 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 three deputies were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, police said. The unidentified suspect, who was not injured, was taken into custody. Trooper Melissa Matey, a State Police spokeswoman, said the suspects vehicle was later confirmed to have been stolen in Mississippi. Matey said the St. Bernard Parish Sheriffs Office tasked her agency with leading the investigation into the second shooting because it was already busy investigating the first incident. Matey said she could not say whether the two incidents were related. Everythings still under investigation, she said. Neither agency identified any of the deputies involved in either incident. St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said his agency would mount an aggressive response to criminals who flee from deputies in stolen vehicles. Youre not going to put my citizens at risk and my deputies at risk and not have any consequences, he said in a statement. We are going to catch you, and we are going to take you to jail. And if you try to run over a deputy, you are putting yourself at risk as well. The New Orleans Police Department has a strict policy against shooting at moving vehicles to avoid injuries to officers and bystanders. The department bans officers from using force against a moving vehicle unless they are faced with a second deadly threat, like gunfire. AMP is facing a fresh fees-for-no-service scandal in its corporate superannuation division while the cost of its existing financial advice debacle could top $1 billion and take nine years to fix. The revelations came from AMP's interim chief executive, Mike Wilkins, at the banking royal commission on Tuesday. AMP interim chief executive Mike Wilkins arrives at the Banking Royal Commission. Credit:Wayne Taylor, AAP Mr Wilkins told the commission that AMP expects it will complete its targeted remediation program to refund customers charged fees for services they did not receive in three years' time and cost the company $778 million. AMP expects its compensation over that issue and also for inappropriate advice to top $440 million. However, under examination by counsel assisting Michael Hodge, QC, Mr Wilkins revealed AMP could take as long as nine years to finish the process and cost the company $1.185 billion. Senior counsel assisting Michael Hodge, QC, has wrapped up proceedings for the day. He will spend another 30 minutes questioning AMP interim chief Mike Wilkins tomorrow, starting at 10am. Before he finished, Mr Wilkins was being questioned about how AMP decided to implement the governments Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) in a way that was less disruptive, but also left the CEO out of the new set of rules. Mr Hodge took Mr Wilkins to documents that show it was thinking of two models to implement the BEAR - designed to hold executives within banks to account over prudential issues. It decided on a hybrid model that applied only to the AMP Bank, because this was flexible and more pragmatic in meeting AMPs long-term objectives. Mr Hodge wants to know why the bank didnt use the introduction of BEAR as a chance to re-think its organisational structure, Why implement BEAR in a way that preserves the processes, systems and controls that AMP has in place or doesn't disrupt them? he asks. I think that BEAR needs to be implemented in a way that also works for the organisation. AMP is on a journey in terms of what it is looking to do with its risk processes and controls, Mr Wilkins replies. Mr Wilkins confirms that under the hybrid model AMP opted for, the CEO of the total AMP group doesnt need to be registered as an accountable person. Global infrastructure and development group Lendlease is looking at all options to exit its troubled engineering business, such as a direct sale or demerger, as it not critical to its more profitable development business. In a briefing session for analysts, the company provided a more comprehensive update of the issues besetting the division, which forced the group on Friday November 9, to make a further $350 million impairment to the engineering business. That saw close to 30 per cent wiped off Lendlease's market value and prompted the chief executive Steve McCann to acknowledge that investors had lost some faith in the group. The NorthConnex construction caused some issues for Lendlease. Credit:Brook Mitchell Having dipped to a low of $12.76, the share price is at $13.05. Peta Tait believes truths about our present can be discovered in the pieces of history we've overlooked. A few years ago, the Melbourne-based playwright learnt about the friendship between the American diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt and Australian modernist artist Mary Alice Evatt. Petra Kalive, who plays Mary Alice Evatt, with cellist Adi Sappir. Credit:Simon Schluter She found their bond had an invisible influence on post-World War II politics. It also helped steer a chain of events that led to the adoption of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. "Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary Alice met at two crucial periods through history," says Tait, whose play, Eleanor and Mary Alice, is based on their relationship. I am that parent who is so jumpy re children's safety she literally has jumped, clothed, into a friend's pool fearing her six year-old has been under too long ("I can't see him! What if he's stuck under that massive inflatable lounge?") I have fretted over yo-yo strike (you only get one set of eyes), and silently cursed friends for having unenclosed trampolines, or enclosed trampolines ("you know they can get double-bounced right up and over those netting things!"). I have worried, while feeding ducks with my toddler, about the risk of swan bite. Arlo (7) and Mina (4) love the monkey bars at their local park. Safety experts are calling for monkey bars to be banned, but others argue they keep kids active and get them outside. Credit:Chris Hopkins When my 12 year-old son turned up quiet and dazed, having broken both bones in his wrist during a "horizontal climbing equipment" fail, I was distraught. He lunged, he missed, he crashed forearm first onto a metal step. A whale expert has told 3AW that the humpback found stranded with 27 pilot whales may have already been at the area of coast in the Croajingolong National Park. Asked whether it was rare for the different types of whales to be found stranded together, he said the humpback may arrived there first. Parks Victoria incident controller Michael Turner also said he didn't know why there had been so many beaching events in Oceania in recent days or whether they were linked. He said it's thought that human-made environmental conditions can cause them to become disorientated. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority approved a household delivery drone service for Canberra's south, despite the ACT government warning it could expose it to a community backlash and possible legal action. Documents released under freedom of information have revealed the scope of concerns about Wing's operation in Bonython, including fears about noise pollution, intrusion of privacy, harm to animals and potential exposure to civil litigation. It comes as Bonython residents on Tuesday delivered a 1000-signature petition to the ACT Assembly, calling on parliamentarians to block future household drone delivery services in the capital, including Wing's planned operation in Canberra's northern suburbs. Bonython residents Elizabeth Stokker, Nev Sheather and Margaret Sinfield presented a 1000-signature petition to the ACT Assembly calling on parliamentarians to block future household drone delivery trials in the capital. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos The US-based tech company has faced constant opposition during its trial in Tuggeranong, with residents' and parliamentarians' concerns about the service, as well as the process for approving and overseeing the operation, prompting the assembly to launch an inquiry into delivery drones in the ACT. A major class action against Uber will be opened up to another three states, which could make it the largest class action in Australian history. Law firm Maurice Blackburn is widening its Victorian lawsuit against Uber to thousands of taxi and hire-car drivers, operators and licence holders in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia. Lawyers will allege the ride-sharing company engaged in conspiracy by unlawful means, causing harm to drivers and operators in the industry. A major Maurice Blackburn class action against Uber will go nation-wide. Credit:Reuters The case, which will be heard in the Victorian Supreme Court, has 1200 people registered in Victoria so far. Queensland's peak motoring body has responded to more than 1000 calls for help to rescue children or animals from a vehicle over the past six months. On Tuesday RACQ revealed the data, which showed about five rescues of children or animals from hot cars were made every day. Of the 1042 calls made, 611 were for a child locked in a car and the remaining 431 were to rescue a pet. June had the highest number of calls with 183 while September had the lowest with 167. As shock swept across their blood-stained faces, the worst nightmare of a group of airline passengers played out in front of their very eyes. Three bodies lay on the tarmac of Avalon Airport after a military aircraft collided with the rear of a stationary passenger plane. Another 18 injured people were scattered across the regional airstrip south-west of Melbourne. One of the volunteers who portrayed an injured passenger during Tuesday's emergency training exercise at Avalon Airport. Credit:Joe Armao Nearby, 1000 litres of aviation fuel was pooling on the runway and threatening to ignite. Luckily all this was just a drill rather than a full-blown major emergency. After raping Julie, then aged 30, with whom he had been drinking and dancing hours earlier at an awards night, Empey walked out of the building, looked up and down the street, and then returned to stomp on and kick her head. "You try to put it behind you and move forward but it never leaves you," she says. "This has just brought it all back up for me again. "The fact he is out there somewhere makes me fear for my own life, but more than that, I am worried he will hurt somebody else. Police believe Empey may be riding a yellow 2005 Suzuki DR650 motorcycle registration GD531. "He's just a monster. I don't believe a person like him can be rehabilitated. Hes out there somewhere and clearly hes not fit to be out in society. Hes going to do something to someone... he cant help himself." Empey was released on parole in January 2015, and in July this year, an interim supervision order was issued to register the rapist as a serious sex offender. He failed to attend a scheduled court hearing on Friday, were he was made a registered sex offender by the Supreme Court with obligations to report for 15 years. Empey has prior violent convictions dating back to 1989. Police say Empey has 'significant' bush survival skills and believe he may be hiding out in Victoria's alpine foothills or off the grid in a remote location. Empey's GPS monitoring bracelet was deactivated on Thursday. The last known location of Empey was at 5.53pm on Thursday on the corner of Baddaginnie-Warrenbayne Road and Mack Road in the Baddaginnie area. Police found one of his GPS bracelets on the Baddaginnie-Warrenbayne Road just near the entrance to the Hume Highway on Saturday. Julie is breaking her silence to call for tighter monitoring of violent sex offenders, arguing existing protocols don't go far enough to protect the community. "The only thing between him and absolute freedom was these shoddy plastic bracelets," she says. "But he's been able to tamper with that...to hack them off and then just disappear." She has written numerous submissions to the Victim's of Crime Commissioner requesting Empey be monitored by police until the day he dies. "Each time I write... it re-traumatises me," she says. "I had to say to them last time to just use the words of my previous submission because I couldn't bring myself to write about it again." The attack, she says, has affected just about every aspect of her life since. "I've had many ongoing issues, not just mentally," she says. "I couldn't give birth to my children naturally, I had to have caesareans due to the extent of my injuries... it's almost like just when I think I can move forward something else will happen and it takes me right back there." She says without the support of her loving husband, she's not sure how she would have made it through. "He's the reason I'm still here," she says. Police knew around lunchtime on Thursday that Empey was missing, but did not alert Julie until about 6pm on Friday. "The detectives told me this is because they don't want to cause me undue distress in case they caught him and I appreciate that," she says. "But as each day passes it has never left the forefront of my mind. I won't be able to relax until he is found." Julie also questioned why Empey is allowed to have a passport and access to such a significant amount of money, while he is under police surveillance. "I find it staggering he had access to passport," she says. "I believe he should have been stripped of that." As well as his passport, Empey removed about $10,000 from a safe at his home, police revealed on Saturday. It is believed Empey may be riding a yellow 2005 Suzuki DR650 motorcycle, with the registration GD531, which he purchased in cash earlier on Thursday, the day he disappeared from police surveillance. He dumped his own vehicle nearby. Police consider the former Tasmanian businessman a violent offender and have warned members not to approach him. "When we talk about rape offences, they are horrific offences anyway. But this one involved unusually high levels of violence," Assistant Commissioner Neil Patterson of Intelligence and Covert support command told reporters on Saturday. "Our concern [is] that after such a lengthy amount of time in prison and then on parole, that he's now cut off his electronic monitoring bracelets and is now on the run. "We know that when sex offenders are non-compliant with their obligations that their risk of reoffending increases". At the time, Justice Bernard Teague of the Supreme Court described Empey's crimes as "the acts of a monster", sentencing him to a minimum of 12 years prison. Although Empey has his passport, he will be unable to leave Australia with a warrant for his arrest in place. Anyone who sights Empey is urged to contact triple zero (000) immediately. Security cameras have captured the moment a motorcyclist grabbed a metal pole from a truck driver and struck him, during a suspected case of road rage in Melbourne. About 8pm on Monday, the motorcyclist and the truck driver turned off Mickleham Road in Tullamarine, into a service road. The footage shows the truck driver approach the motorcyclist with what appears to be a metal pole. After exchanging words, the motorcyclist seizes the pole off the driver and starts swinging it, hitting the drivers legs. A Melbourne mother was held-up at gunpoint in a home invasion so violent police have used an unprecedented court order to release the alleged suspects' names and photos. Police released the photos and names of three alleged offenders, whom they wished to speak to in relation to the home invasion in Manor Lakes, in Melbourne's south-west. Police described it as "a hugely concerning crime". It was one of the few times the Children's Court granted permission to publish the names and images of alleged youth offenders. That permission was later rescinded. Joy Menzel, 57, was woken by a loud bang on the morning of Saturday, November 17, when she was confronted by teenagers, armed with a gun, who had smashed their way into her Manor Lakes home. The son of former West Australian premier Colin Barnett will fight a charge of breaching a violence restraining order when the case goes to trial next year. Sam Barnett faced Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday and through his defence lawyer Patti Chong entered a not guilty plea over the alleged incident on September 1 in Claremont. He is scheduled to face trial on March 13. Sam Barnett leaves Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday after pleading not guilty to breaching a violence restraining order. Credit:AAP/Rebecca Le May Mr Barnett had previously faced court for his actions during an argument with his ex-girlfriend at a Queensland hotel in 2016. Charlie and Tam Hutchins had only been home with their newborn daughter Callie for a week when she was struck down by a potentially deadly virus. The Mt St Thomas couple had never heard of human parechovirus but its a disease thats on the rise in Australia, with epidemics occurring every two years since 2013. Infectious disease: Tam Hutchins with 13-month-old Callie who contracted a little-known, but life-threatening, virus at seven days old Credit:Adam McLean And while most infections cause mild respiratory or gastrointestinal illness, it can have serious even life-threatening implications for young babies. For little Callie, born on October 24, 2017, it nearly proved fatal. The Morrison government has conceded it botched scrutiny of a plan to bulldoze 2000 hectares of pristine Queensland forest near the Great Barrier Reef and has been forced back to the drawing board following a legal challenge by conservationists. The development comes as confidential documents show government MPs lobbied environmental officials to wave through the proposal, which would raze land almost three times the size of the combined central business districts of Sydney and Melbourne. Old growth forest in the vicinity of Kingvale Station, where 2000 hectares is set to be cleared. Credit:Australian Conservation Foundation. As Fairfax Media reported in May, the Department of the Environment and Energy in a draft report recommended that the government allow the mass vegetation clearing at Kingvale Station on Cape York Peninsula. The finding, which prompted public outrage, came despite the department conceding the native forest was likely to contain endangered species, and despite expert warnings that runoff caused by the clearing may damage the Great Barrier Reef. The government has claimed cabinet confidentiality over a report that it says shows contractors answer more Centrelink calls than public servants, thwarting a Greens plan to make the document public. The Senate had agreed to a Greens motion to compel the government to table the report from consultants KPMG, but it is set to remain secret. Human Services Minister Michael Keenan has told the Senate it can't have a report on Centrelink contractors. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Greens, Labor and the main public sector union have lined up to criticise the government over the move but Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said cabinet processes must be maintained. He also disputed claims that contractors were not delivering quality call centre services for Centrelink clients. Around 2750 contractors will soon be answering Centrelink calls around the country, under contracts with four private labour hire companies. The extra numbers will assist with the government's efforts to drive down waiting times for Centrelink callers and reduce the number of calls that meet a busy signal. Debate over sexism was once again at the fore of Australian politics on Tuesday after former Liberal MP Julia Banks quit the party to sit on the crossbench and Greens leader Richard Di Natale was suspended from the chamber after defending a fellow senator over what he considered a sexist slur. Announcing her defection, Ms Banks echoed former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull when she declared respect for women in Australian politics was "years behind the business world". Her resignation left the Coalition with just 12 female MPs out of 74 in the lower house. Ms Banks' speech to Parliament followed an emergency meeting on Monday between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and federal Victorian MPs in the aftermath of the Liberals' disastrous state election loss, during which Jobs Minister Kelly O'Dwyer reportedly said the party was viewed as "anti-women". South Australian Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi, who slammed the behaviour of male "bullies" in the party during the August leadership coup, said the Liberal Party had to "stop beating up our women". Women will make up 50 per cent of Victoria's state government ministry for the first time. Premier Daniel Andrews named his new cabinet on Tuesday, promoting three new women including one who was elected to parliament just three days ago.. Mr Andrews has also elevated a man to his new-look ministry a factional powerbroker who he dumped from cabinet in 2015 amid accusations the minister bullied a female staffer. Jaclyn Symes, Gabrielle Williams, Melissa Horne and Adem Somyurek will provide the "fresh legs" in cabinet, as foreshadowed by Mr Andrews on Monday to help rejuvenate the government in its second term. A fuller account of problems with the sensors on the fuselage, called angle-of-attack sensors, is expected to be part of a full report on the crash by Indonesian investigators. An investigator walks amid debris of Lion Air Flight 610 retrieved from the waters off Tanjung Priok in Jakarta. Credit:AP But one of those sensors was replaced before the plane's next-to-last flight after having transmitted some angle and speed data incorrectly, investigators say. "The pilots fought continuously until the end of the flight," said Captain Nurcahyo Utomo, head of the air accident subcommittee of the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee, which is leading the crash investigation. Nurcahyo said that the MCAS system had been activated and is a central focus of the investigation. Loading Details of the black box data were contained in a briefing for the Indonesian Parliament and were first disclosed publicly in the Indonesian media. The data was subsequently posted and analysed in a blog post by Peter Lemme, a satellite communications expert and former Boeing engineer. Much remains unknown about the doomed flight, including why a plane that had encountered problems with the sensors was permitted to fly in the first place. Investigators have yet to recover the cockpit voice recorder, which could provide further insight into the steps taken by the pilots and whether they followed the correct procedures. The pilot had handed control of the plane to the co-pilot just before the plane went into its final dive. Despite Boeing's insistence that the proper procedures were in the handbook, also called the emergency checklist, pilots have said since the accident that Boeing had not been clear about one potentially vital difference between the system on the new 737s and the older models. In the older versions, pilots could help address the problem of the nose being forced down improperly a situation known as "runaway stabiliser trim" by pulling back on the control column in front of them, the pilots say. In the latest 737 generation, called the Max, that measure does not work, they said, citing information they have received since the crash. Loading The pilots on Lion Air Flight 610 appear to have forcefully pulled back on their control columns to no avail, before the final dive, according to the information from the flight data recorder. Captain Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the American Airlines pilot union and a 737 pilot, said he could not comment on any aspect of the investigation. But, he said, "in the previous model of the 737, pulling back on the control column, Boeing says will stop a stabiliser runaway." Information provided to American Airlines from Boeing since the crash, Tajer said, "specifically says that pulling back on the control column in the Max will not stop the runaway if MCAS is triggered. That is an important difference to know." Boeing said in its statement on Tuesday that the existing procedures covered the latest 737 model. Bulletins from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States since the crash indicate that pilots could overcome an incorrectly activated MCAS with a series of steps. First, they would have had to activate switches on the outside of the control columns in front of both the pilot and co-pilot. Those switches are for electrically controlling the trim the angle of the stabilisers on the plane's tail. The pilot of Flight 610 appears to have done that repeatedly to bring the nose up, but the MCAS reactivated each time, as it was designed to do, forcing the nose back down, and the pilot had to repeat the process again and again. Loading The stabiliser is the larger of the two surfaces on the tail wing, and is ordinarily controlled by an electrical motor. Behind the stabiliser is the elevator, activated by the control columns in front of both the pilot and co-pilot. Both can move the nose up and down. From there, the pilots should have hit two electrical cutout switches to shut down the MCAS and turn the stabiliser movement over to manually controlled wheels at the ankles of the pilot and co-pilot wheels connected to cables that would move the stabiliser. It is not clear whether the pilots of Flight 610 tried that procedure. It is not clear whether the false data, which was on the pilot's side of the plane, was attributable to a problem with the sensor itself or with the computer that processes the sensor's information. But hours before the plane took off on its final flight, it had also recorded problems with an angle of attack sensor as it travelled from the resort island of Bali to Jakarta. On that next-to-last flight, the angle discrepancy between the two sensors was 20 degrees, according to officials from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, which has been leading the investigation into the crash. On the final flight, the discrepancy was also 20 degrees, Nurcahyo said. Plane crashes rarely can be blamed on a single, catastrophic malfunction. More often, a problem spirals out of control as maintenance crews fail to spot or address an underlying issue and then the flight crew takes a series of steps that lead to a fatal outcome. New York: A brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been charged in the US with scheming for years to bring tonnes of cocaine into the country, with prosecutors calling him a big-time trafficker so enmeshed in the trade that the drug was sometimes stamped with his initials. Antonio "Tony" Hernandez, brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Fernandez, was arrested in the US on drug conspiracy and other charges. Credit:Screengrab/YouTube Federal prosecutors in New York announced drug conspiracy and other charges against Antonio "Tony" Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman on Monday, local time. He has previously denied doing anything illegal. He was appearing in court in Miami, where he was arrested on Friday. His lawyer's name wasn't immediately available. The drug-related corruption allegations that swirled around Tony Hernandez have cast a shadow over his brother's government in a Central American country that is a major transit hub for cocaine. Germans Skeptical of Robo-Taxis New Report A new report on mobility has found that Germans are significantly more skeptical about autonomous robo-taxis than respondents in China, Japan and the U.S. Four out of five Chinese people says they could imagine using a robo-taxi, along with almost half of respondents in the U.S. and Japan. However, just one third of German respondents says they would use them. Continentals 2018 Mobility Study also found that women are the most skeptical, with three quarters saying they would not use a robo-taxi. Chinese respondents are particularly excited by the prospect, with just 2 percent rejecting the idea completely. In response to the findings of the study, Dr. Elmar Degenhart, Chairman of Continentals Executive Board says: We are convinced that, in the future, driverless vehicles will form the backbone for transporting people and goods in the ever-expanding metropolitan regions around the world. As part of modern mobility, robo-taxis will help to not only reduce traffic jams, accidents and air pollution, but also free up parking spaces in cities. When asked about mobility solutions such as carsharing and carpooling just one third of motorists in Germany, the U.S. and Japan are open to using them. By contrast, around half of those aged 30 and under in all three countries would be open to these services. Most drivers over 60 in Germany and the U.S. says they would refuse to use such services. Continental says the study is one of the most comprehensive of its kind worldwide on the acceptance of advanced driver assistance systems and automated driving. 1 Dead, 5 Injured in Downtown Manhattan Crash: Reports At least one person was killed and several people were injured when a vehicle hit pedestrians in downtown Manhattan on Nov. 26. The New York Daily News reported the incident occurred in the Chinatown district. First responders arrived at Canal and Forsyth streets at around 6:50 p.m. local time. They found a victim dead on the scene and several seriously hurt, the Daily News reported. Pix11 reported that the driver lost control of the vehicle. That report said six others were injured. According to a New York Times reporter, an elderly man attempted to park, but instead mounted a curb, and hit several people. BREAKING: Several struck, seriously injured when minivan mounts curb in Chinatown pic.twitter.com/bOm8xVnc4s Myles Miller (@MylesMill) November 27, 2018 A fruit cart was also hit by the motorist who was reportedly operating a van, police officials told Pix11. The crash took place when an elderly driver was parking his car, an official with the New York Police Department told the paper. It looks like a straightforward traffic collision, said the official. The driver stayed at the scene of the crash. Other details about the crash are not clear. Traffic Deaths Down For the first half of 2018, traffic deaths in the United States fell 3.1 percent, according to preliminary figures released in October 2018, Reuters reported. The U.S. traffic death rate dropped to 1.08 deaths per 100 million miles traveled for the first half of 2018. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated that 2017 traffic deaths had also fallen by 1.8 percent to 37,133 after traffic deaths rose sharply in the previous two years. The fatality rate in 2017 was 1.16 million deaths per 100 million miles traveledthe second highest rate since 2008. This is good news and bad news, said Deborah Hersman, CEO of the National Safety Council, CNBC reported. The total number of fatalities is not getting worse, but the situation is not getting better, she explained. Hersman cited distracted driving and higher speed limits for the number. Reuters contributed to this report Tom Arnold speaks during the A&E segment of the Summer 2018 Television Critics Association Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 26, 2018. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) Secret Service Visits Tom Arnold After Threats Made Against Trump Secret Service agents visited ardent President Donald Trump critic Tom Arnold after he posted a threat against the president. Arnold, 59, sent a video to the openly left Mother Jones publication that showed him speaking with agents inside his Los Angeles home. He said the video was recorded on Oct. 25. Were not the First Amendment police, one agent says in the clip. Youre free to say whatever you want [but] once a certain line is crossed what were concerned with a lot too is the type of audience it could reach, that it could incite somebody. Arnold said he did see a reaction to his threat from some people and he understood why the agents were visiting him. I did see a crazy reaction to it from people. I get a lot of death threats. Theres a certain elementI dont know if theyre botsI just ignore it But I also see how they take something and they blow it up like, He is literally threatening to,' Arnold said. And I find that absurd, but I can see how obviously if people are tweeting they can call you guys and have you come over. Thats ridiculous, but I understand why youre here. One of the agents explained to Arnold that assassination attempts on presidents are often motivated by somebody else. What we have to worry about is your type of audience and you say something inciting those that follow you, the second agent concurred. You might be using it in a comedian-type sense or whatever, you knowbeing very comical about itbut theres a lot of people out there who may really follow Tom Arnold: He said this, and thats the exact thing, I needed that. I need to go get this and go ahead to the next rally and carry this out.' Arnold said in a statement on Twitter on Nov. 26 that he appreciated how agents are helping the country. Thank you US Secret Service for risking your lives keeping democracy safe. I appreciate you coming to my home on what mustve been a busy day. I heard your message loud & clear, he said. Words matter. Tone matters. Words can incite violence. Be responsible. The visit was allegedly triggered by a missive Arnold posted on Twitter on Oct. 19, challenging the president to a fight. I say put up or shut up @realDonaldTrump Me vs You. For America, Arnold said. First body slam wins. Any Rally. Any Time. Between now & the midterms. #FridayFeeling. He then referenced photos that showed Kathy Griffin holding a severed head that appeared to be in Trumps likeness. Next time Kathy wont be holding his fake head! Arnold claimed. Arnold has also made other threats in the past, saying he was going to show up at the private school Trumps son Barron Trump attends. Were going to make you uncomfortable, Arnold said at the time. He also threatened to show up at the school that the children of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump attend. Arnold promised the agents that he would avoid sending tweets and statements that could incite others to violence. 4,300 VA Employees Fired, Demoted, or Suspended for Negligence Under Trump WASHINGTONSome 4,300 Veterans Affairs (VA) workers have been demoted, fired, or suspended since President Donald Trump took office, Vice President Mike Pence told a room of veterans caregivers on Nov. 26. Pence said that proves the president has taken decisive action to restore accountability to the VA, a statement that drew loud applause and cheers from the audience. Data from the VA shows that some 2,058 employees were removed, demoted, or suspended in 2017, the majority of whom1,484were removed. In 2018, through the end of August, some 2,299 were removed, demoted or suspended, of which the majority2,148were removed. The suspensions lasted 14 days or more; some of the removals in 2018 were done during a probationary period. The numbers arent limited to the VAs health care operations, though. They include agencies such as the National Cemetery Administration, the Office of Information and Technology, and the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection (OAWP). This year, the OAWP was involved in the removal of three senior leaders: two in the Veterans Health Administration and one in the Veterans Benefits Administration. Another two in the Veterans Health Administration, one a senior leader and the other a health-system specialist, were suspended. The Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, signed by the president last June, created the OAWP to change the culture of bureaucracy that spawned stories of veterans dying while waiting to get treatment at VA facilities. Trump created the office by executive order last April, but it took the act to make it a permanent part of the VA. As the title suggests, it also offers protection to whistleblowers, as a way to encourage the reporting of negligence. When Trump signed the act, he called it one of the largest reforms to the VA in its history. Outdated laws kept the government from holding those who failed our veterans accountable. Today, we are finally changing those laws, he said. VA accountability is essential to making sure that our veterans are treated with the respect they have so richly earned. The issue ignited in 2014 when Army veteran Barry Coates told the House Veterans Affairs Committee that the gross negligence and crippling backlog at the VA handed him a death sentence and ruined the quality of his life. He died in January 2016 of cancer that went undetected by VA doctors for almost a year. He became the face of what would become a larger scandal, when the same year, some 18 vets who were put on a secret waitlist at a Phoenix VA died while waiting for appointments. Thats in addition to another 17 cases that were under investigation at the same hospital. Robert Grier, who is a caregiver for his veteran father, has experienced the sluggishness of the VA firsthand. You have to be patient, he said of his experience at the H.J. Heinz campus of the Pittsburgh VA. Its so busy, you wait in line for the parking garage for an hour. He doesnt blame the system, though. He says all humans are flawed, and the systems that humans create are likely to be flawed as well. The doctors he sees are under enormous pressure from overwhelming caseloads, but he says that when he does get his father to treatment, they do a great job. Grier has also experienced the effect of another Trump-signed bill, called the VA Mission Act. Thats aimed at cutting wait times for veterans to be able to get care outside the region where they live. Once, while on vacation in Florida, his dad had a medical episode that required him to get care immediately. Grier called the VA and was told there wasnt a VA facility nearby, but that he could go to a local hospital and his fathers care would be covered. They assessed him, they gave him treatmentit took a couple of hours until we were finishedand it was fantastic, he said. Alibaba Group co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma attends the World Trade Organization (WTO) Forum "Trade 2030" in Geneva, Switzerland on Oct. 2, 2018. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters) Alibabas Jack Ma is a Communist Party Member, China State Paper Reveals SHANGHAIBusiness and politics are inextricably linked in communist China. Jack Ma, the head of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Chinas best-known capitalist, is a Communist Party member, the official Party newspaper said on Nov. 26. The Peoples Daily revealed Mas Party membership in a list of 100 people it said had helped drive the country reform and opening up process. Ma is Chinas richest man with a fortune of $35.8 billion, according to Forbes. It was unclear why the paper chose to mention Mas affiliation now but it comes amid a push by Beijing to bring the countrys private enterprises more in line with Party values, especially in the technology sector that has grown rapidly, driven by the successes of private firms. Ma, who announced in September he would step down as Alibaba chairman next year, is Chinas highest-profile business leader. He has acted as an adviser to political leaders in Asia and Europe and fostered big ambitions in the United States. He has driven Alibaba to become a $390 billion giant, which dominates Chinas online retail market, stretches from logistics to social media, and has spawned a separate fintech empire around popular payment platform Alipay. Mas political affiliation came as a surprise to many. Results from domestic search engine Baidu Inc, when asked is Jack Ma a Communist Party member, also mostly said that he was not. Teng Biao, U.S.-based Chinese human rights lawyer, told Radio Free Asia on Nov. 27 that Mas relationship with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was an open secret. Without the support of the CCP, it would have been impossible for Ma to accumulate such wealth, he said. Teng believes the CCP wants Ma to undertake more political tasks after he steps down from Alibaba. Alibaba declined to comment on Mas Party membership. The Peoples Daily list also included Baidu head Robin Li and Tencent Holding Ltd chief Pony Ma, though did not name either of them as Party members. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent together make up the BAT trio of Chinas top tech firms. The paper did not say when Ma had become a Party member. According to a survey, one-third of Chinas private entrepreneurs are CCP members, said Kellee Tsai, dean of humanities and social science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, reported the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 26. Having a Party membership and friendly ties with the Party elite helps businessmen secure top projects and investment in Chinas hugely competitive business environment. In turn, the Party co-opts these businessmen into their political meetings and events to give a sign of inclusiveness. For instance, Jack Ma was part of the group of Chinese businessmen who accompanied Party leader Xi Jinping on his first formal state visit to the United States. A July 2014 article by the New York Times found that four Chinese companies investing in Alibaba are helmed by either the sons or grandsons of former top Party officials. Alibaba, however, was chastised by Chinese authorities in January 2015 for selling counterfeit goods and other violations. The attack on Mas company was viewed in some quarters as spillover from a fierce Party factional struggle. Alvin Jiang Zhicheng, grandson of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, has a 5.6 percent stake in Alibaba. Jiang, his family, and associates are the primary targets in current Party leader Xi Jinpings anti-corruption campaign. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. Are Smartphone User Agreements and Harmful Technology Legal? (Part 2) 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, smartphones and their harmful effects. Part 1 of this article can be read here. Before I explain why I believe the collective terms of use that support telecom-related products, such as a smartphones, are misleading and possibly illegal, there are several things you need to understand about the terms of use. When a smartphone owner clicks on I Agree, to accept the collective terms of use that support a smartphone, he or she is accepting: Published (online) terms of use that include terms and conditions (T&Cs), privacy policies, and end user licence agreements (EULAs). Unpublished (hidden-in-device) terms of use that include application permission statements, application product warnings, and interactive application permission command strings. Multiple sets of published and unpublished terms of use associated with each company that is responsible for developing the pre-installed (rooted) content, such as apps that support a smartphone. Depending on the number of pre-installed apps, the collective terms of use authored by numerous companies can exceed well over 3,000 pages of legal text, written in a manner that enables the content developers to exploit the smartphone user for financial gain. Telecommunication subscribers (paying customers, both individuals and businesses) and authorized device users (spouse, children, and employees) arent indemnified (protected) from harm even if companies such as AT&T and Google are negligent with the telecom-product users personal and professional information (digital DNA). Smartphone terms of use are written in a manner to protect companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint from costly lawsuits due to protective measures such as the use of arbitration clauses. However, if the collective terms of use can be proven to be illegal, that would open the door for a class-action lawsuit, rendering the safety measures such as an arbitration clause to be non-binding. I hope that my research, analysis, and findings regarding the terms of use can prove the collective terms of use are, in fact, illegal, according to existing consumer laws governed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state attorneys general (AGs). The legality regarding smartphone terms of use will have to be determined by legal experts coupled with the FTC, FCC, Department of Justice (DOJ) and state AGs. I will present the evidence and let all parties concerned, including the public, decide. First, in order to understand the law, U.S. telecommunications subscribers and authorized device users need to realize that a smartphone is an integrated cellular phone and computer supported by protected (due process/Fourth Amendment) telecom infrastructure governed by the FCC. Protected telecommunications mean that telecom-product users are covered by numerous telecom and consumer laws that are meant to protect their privacy, plus protect them from fraud and deceptive trade practices associated with products that require payment, such as smartphones. Now that we understand that telecom-product owners and users have rights, we can move forward. Forced Participation and Express (Lawful) Consent I want to state that Im not against surveillance and data-mining business practices, as long as the telecom-product user has the freedom to opt in or out of said practices at any time. I also believe that telecom service providers (e.g. AT&T), smartphone manufacturers (e.g. Samsung), operating system (OS) developers (e.g. Apple, Google, Microsoft), and pre-installed content developers (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Baidu, etc.) should be required by law to fully disclose, in fine detail, all surveillance and data-mining business practices associated with all products concerned, especially telecom-related products such as smartphones. Due to unpublished (hidden-in-device) application legalese and application product warnings that support the pre-installed content, such as smartphone apps, I believe that telecom subscribers and authorized device users are being forced to participate in a highly exploitative surveillance and data-mining business model. Surveillance and data-mining business practices enable the telecom provider, smartphone manufacture, OS developer, and pre-installed content developers with the ability to monitor, track, and data-mine the smartphone user for financial gain. Smartphone users are surveilled and data-mined at the expense of their civil liberties, privacy, cyber security, and safety, regardless if the user is an adult, child, or business professional. Due to misleading terms of use, the smartphone user becomes an uncompensated information producer who is being exploited by the very telecom and technology companies the product owner patronizes with their loyalty, trust, and hard-earned money. Tech-product user exploitation occurs when a person pays for a smartphone while the content developers are enabled to exploit the smartphone users digital DNA for financial gain, without compensating the product user for their digital DNA. I believe that tech-product user exploitation is illegal due to misleading terms of use. How do I know that the terms of use may be illegal? Because, according to consumer laws governed by the FTC and state AGs, it is illegal to hide application legalese and application product warnings associated with pre-installed content from consumers, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note/Android (Google) OS examples below: Social media app includes a product warning to censor speech: Allows the app to access and sync social updates from you and your friends. Be careful when sharing informationthis allows the app to read communications between you and your friends on social networks, regardless of confidentiality. Note: This permission may not be enforced on all social networks. Calendar app includes a product warning: Allows the app to read data about your contacts stored on your phone, including the frequency with which youve called, emailed, or communicated in other ways with specific individuals. This permission allows apps to save your contact data, and malicious apps may share contact data without your knowledge. According to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), chapter 17, statute 17.12 (deceptive advertising), I believe that the telecom subscriber is fraudulently induced into purchasing all products concerned, due to misleading advertising, which doesnt disclose surveillance and data-mining business practices associated with telecom products such as a smartphone. From my own research and analysis regarding the Texas DTPA, coupled with the terms of use that support smartphones, I have concluded that individuals, children, and business professionals arent giving express (lawful) consent regarding surveillance and data-mining business practices employed by telecom providers, smartphone manufacturers, OS developers, and pre-installed content developers. Furthermore, telecommunication subscribers are being fraudulently induced into purchasing addictive, intrusive, exploitative, and harmful technology, developed by companies such as Google and Facebook. Dont take my word for this claim: T-Mobile and Verizon, plus former executives and product developers for Alphabet Inc. (Google) and Facebook, admit that social media platforms, smartphones, tablet PCs, and connected products are supported by addictive, intrusive, exploitative, and harmful pre-installed content that the product owner or user cant uninstall nor in many cases control or disable. As noted in previous articles of this series, T-Mobile and Verizon admit that smartphones arent private, secure, or safe forms of telecommunications and computing, due to uncontrollable pre-installed addictive, intrusive, exploitative, and harmful content. Advertisements for smartphones dont disclose this. Furthermore, ads dont disclose that the pre-installed content that supports a smartphone is supported by intrusive and exploitative application legalese that includes numerous application product warnings. Deceptive Trade Practices I will provide examples of what I believe are deceptive trade practices associated with misleading terms of use, plus unpublished application legalese that includes application product warnings that arent transparent to the telecom subscriber (smartphone owner) or the authorized device user. 1. Locating Unpublished (Hidden-in-Device) Terms of Use: Application Legalese and Product Warnings Its impossible for a smartphone owner or user to locate unpublished application legalese and product warnings without proper instruction. Heres how to locate Android (Google) application legalese associated with the pre-installed apps that support a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 smartphone. Step 1: Swipe down top of screen to locate settings. Step 2: Tap settings icon located in top right-hand corner. Step 3: Tap Apps. Step 4: Tap on an app. Step 5: Tap on Permissions. Step 6: Locate and tap navigation buttons located in top right-hand corner. Step 7: Tap on All Permissions. Step 8: Tap on a master permission to reveal application permission statements and application product warnings. Step 9: Read hidden application permission statement. A device user must know that pre-installed app permissions exist in order to try to locate the permissions. The device user has to know what navigation buttons are and how to use them to locate the hidden pre-installed app permissions. The user is led to believe the Calendar app (used in this example) only has five permissions that can be controlled. The user has to know to click on the navigation buttons to locate the All Permissions navigation button to find all of the permissions and hidden app legalese attached to the Calendar app. The other hidden app permissions cannot be controlled. The above example shows that Google, Samsung, and AT&T are potentially violating consumer laws associated with deceptive trade practices by hiding application legalese and product warnings from the smartphone owner, which, in this case, was me. Without knowing where to start, plus knowing the exact order of taps, swipes, and touches, the product owner and/or user will never know how to find the application legalese and product warnings that support the pre-installed apps associated with the Galaxy Note 8 or any other smartphone for that matter. 2. Contradictory Published (Online) and Unpublished (Hidden-in-Device) Terms of Use Smartphone users have no idea that the apps can actually identify the product user, plus forward the users ID and profile information to the content developer and others. That content developers can identify smartphone users when sharing the users ID with other third parties contradicts the published terms of use that state users arent identified when the content developer shares their personal information with third parties. Heres an example of the T-Mobile and Google published (online) terms of use vs. an Android application permission statement, Your Personal Information. T-Mobile online privacy policy 2018: De-identified Data. We many provide your de-identified information to third parties for marketing, advertising, or other purposes. (Implies the device users personal identity is protected.) Google online privacy policy 2018: We may share non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partnerslike publishers, advertisers, developers, or rights holders. For example, we share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services. We also allow specific partners to collect information from your browser or device for advertising and measurement purposes using their own cookies or similar technologies. (Implies personal information is protected.) Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Personal Profile App Permissions: Allows apps to read personal profile information stored on your device, such as your name and contact information. This means apps can identify you and may send your profile information to others. 3. The Practice of Separating Critical Legalese and Product Warnings from Published (Online) Terms of Use One misleading tactic that needs to be investigated by the FTC and state AGs is the practice of separating unpublished (hidden-in-device) terms of use from published (online) terms of use. Examples of Android, Apple, and Microsoft unpublished application legalese hidden in the OS or within settings of smartphones, tablet PCs, and PCs, in general, include statements on accessing your location (determined from network location sources such as phone towers, Wi-Fi, and GPS) or tracking of PC use. The unpublished terms of use such as application permission statements (app permissions) and application product warnings are the most important terms of use to the smartphone owner. Unpublished legalese such as app permissions explains to the connected-product user the level of surveillance and data mining that the content developer can conduct on them via pre-installed apps. In addition, many app permissions contain application product warnings, which are not transparent to the product user. After all, how can a product user heed a non-transparent product warning such as the Android (Google) examples below? Phone data product warning: Allows the app to call phone numbers without your intervention. This may result in unexpected charges or calls. Note that this doesnt allow the app to call emergency numbers. Malicious apps may cost you money by making calls without your confirmation. Phone log product warning: Allows the app to read your phones call log, including data about incoming and outgoing calls. The permission allows apps to save your call log data, and malicious apps may share call log data without your knowledge. This leads to two questions: How can product owners and users be legally bound to non-transparent legalese associated with a legal contract? And What kind of company feels that it is necessary to not publish application legalese that includes application product warnings within the published (online) terms and conditions, privacy policies, or end-user licensing agreements? Google, Apple, and Microsoft should have to explain why each company separates application permissions and application product warnings from online terms of use. I believe the practice of separating application legalese from published terms of use is an illegal practice because the application permissions and product warnings arent clearly disclosed to the product owner. Additionally, unpublished application legalese that includes application product warnings arent disclosed within TV ads, the sales process, or published within product packaging. 4. Predatory App Permissions are Defaulted to On Another example of a deceptive trade practice is that content developers default controllable application permissions to on. When a consumer or business first purchases a smartphone and then activates the smartphone, controllable application permissions are defaulted to on. This means that if the smartphone owner doesnt know how to configure his or her device for optimum privacy, the predatory apps will enable the developers to monitor, track, and data-mine the product user for financial gain without the users consent or knowledge. Without proper instruction, the smartphone owner wont even know he or she can disable some intrusive permissions associated with some pre-installed apps. However, the dirty secret is the fact that the smartphone owner only has control over some app permissions but not all app permissions, because the apps are supported by two sets of app permissions that include controllable permissions and uncontrollable permissions. This leads to another question: What kind of company intentionally sets controllable application permissions to on while not disclosing instructions on how to configure the product for optimum privacy? The smartphone user is left with a false sense of security, believing they are in control of their device when the fact is, they are not in control, even though they paid for the product. 5. Two Sets of App Permissions: Controllable and Uncontrollable As just mentioned, another example of a deceptive trade practice is that some pre-installed apps are supported by two sets of app permissions, of which the smartphone user can control some permissions that are transparent to the user. However, some pre-installed apps are actually supported by application permissions that arent transparent to the smartphone user unless the user knows how to locate the hidden second set of application permissions and application product warnings. 6. User App Permissions and System App Permissions Yet another example of a deceptive trade practice is that the smartphone is supported by user apps and systems apps, both of which are supported by intrusive and exploitative application permissions and application product warnings. The user apps are transparent to the smartphone user, yet the system apps arent transparent to the user unless the user knows how to locate the system apps. I believe examples 16, discussed above, are all clear violations of consumer laws that are enforced at the state and federal level, which are governed by the FTC and state AGs. Impossible to Read and Understand Terms of Use The collective terms of use that support a smartphone are too torturous to read and understand, due the total number of pages of complicated published and unpublished legalese, validating that the terms of use are misleading and impossible to read. According to the Texas DTPA, chapter 17.46, statute 24 (failing to disclose goods and services) and the FTC, the contracts are illegal because the contracts cannot be read and understood by the smartphone owner prior to making a product purchase or prior to using the product due to misleading terms of use. In closing, my analysis of the Texas DTPA revealed numerous violations that Ive documented and reported to the Texas AGs office, plus I have reported numerous violations of federal consumer laws to the FCC and FTC. To date, neither the FTC, FCC, nor the Texas AGs office has investigated the violations that Ive reported. As it remains today, telecom and tech giants may be actively violating consumer laws at the state and federal level if my analysis is correct. Its clear that numerous laws are possibly being violated by all parties concerned, yet the FTC, FCC, DOJ, state AGs and law makers arent willing to protect citizens, children, and business professionals from predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices rooted in surveillance capitalism. Its time they did so. In the next article, I will reveal numerous privacy and cyber security threats associated with the use of smartphones, tablet PCs, and connected products within the defense industry, critical infrastructure, and enterprise business. Rex M. Lee is a privacy and data security consultant and an analyst and researcher for Blackops Partners. You can read of his analyses on his website, MySmartPrivacy.com Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. File photo of a man at a Bank of America ATM branch in New York City, N.Y., Oct. 6, 2008. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Bank of America ATM in Texas Accidentally Dispenses $100 Bills but Customers Can Keep It A malfunctioning Bank of America ATM in Texas dispensed $100 bills instead of $10 bills, with people eager for an extra helping of cash swarming the machine, sparking several fights. I wanted to know was the ATM still open and if they were still giving away any money, area woman, Stephany Gundy told Houstons ABC 13 on the scene,I wanted to slide on in. Authorities in north Harris County said when a customer proceeded to withdraw $20 on Sunday, Nov. 25, at around 11 p.m., the machine instead disbursed a $100 bill, Houstons KPRC-TV reported. Deputies said that a crowd rushed to take advantage of the malfunctioning ATM after the man wrote on social media about his unexpected windfall. The line was massive, Gundy added, [people] trying to come in and get a lot of cash. The station reported that a number of fights broke out as people waited in line to capitalize on the ATM glitch. Police arrived about two hours after the commotion began and put an end to the illicit bonanza. No one was arrested and in an extraordinary turn of events, the Bank of America let customers keep the money. This was an incident at a single ATM in Houston caused when a vendor incorrectly loaded $100 bills in place of $10 bills. We have resolved the matter. Customers will be able to keep the additional money dispensed, the company said. Standard practice is for a bank to send a letter demanding repayment to anyone who overdraws from an ATM. If the beneficiary of the glitch ignores the banks calls to return the mistakenly dispensed funds, deputies may open an investigation on suspicion of theft. No Free Lunch Law enforcement told Click2Houston that if the bank had asked for the money back, criminal charges could have been filed. Theres no free lunch. If you receive money that you know it is not yours, and you refuse to give it back upon demand, you can, at the discretion of the district attorney, be charged with theft, Sgt. Joshua Nowick of the Harris County Sheriffs Office told the station. Several years ago, a Georgia teen found his bank had accidentally deposited over $30,000 into his account, according to CBS, and the 18-year-old spent most of the money on a BMW. Madison County Sheriffs Chief Deputy Shawn Burns told reporters at the Athens-Banner Herald that Steven Fields first withdrew $20,000 of the erroneously deposited cash and later spent another $5,000 with his ATM card. Fields was eventually informed of the mistake by the bank and was asked to return the money. He eventually admitted the money wasnt his, but he couldnt pay it back, Burns said, adding that Fields was charged with felony theft and received a 10-year sentence. Doug Johnson, senior vice president for payments and cybersecurity policy at the American Bankers Association, told NBC news that keeping money from an accidental deposit or overdraft is against the law and could have unpleasant consequences. Dont keep it, is the firm advice, Johnson said, according to the report. Eventually, the bank will come back to the customer. First, theyll reverse the transaction but also potentially generate a police report after effective research, meaning the bank will contact the customer and ask the logical questions: Did they notice that it was inadvertently deposited, why didnt they alert the bank, why didnt they return the funds. It creates a whole confluence of events that are not attractive. Journalists crowd a press conference for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 2, 2018. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images) Beijing Resorts to Media Fellowship Program to Influence Foreign Journalists Coverage of China Beijing is paying foreign journalists from Southeast Asia and Africa to spread the Chinese regimes propaganda. Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recruited dozens of journalists from the two regions every year since 2016 for its 10-month fellowship program, according to Indias news site The Print. The program was launched to prop up Beijings One Belt, One Road (OBOR, also known as Belt and Road) initiative announced in 2013. The program also responds to a call by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to tell Chinas story better to the world, according to the Nov. 24 article written by Ananth Krishnan, a former China correspondent with Indias English-language news magazine India Today. Beijing launched OBOR to enhance its geopolitical influence around the world by building up trade routes that link China to Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Chinas fellowship program trains journalists from two key OBOR regions to report positively on OBOR projects, which have been increasingly scrutinized for burdening countries with crippling debt. Chinas foreign ministry and Chinese nonprofit organization China Public Diplomacy Association run the program. While in the program, foreign journalists work for three domestic press centers operated by the Chinese regime: the China Africa Press Center (CAPC), China South Asia Press Center, and the China Southeast Asia Press Center. During their stay in China, the foreign journalists get the red-carpet treatment. They stay in apartments in the Jianguomen Diplomatic Compound, one of Beijings high-end residential neighborhoods; receive a 5,000 yuan (about $720) monthly stipend; and get free tours twice a month to different provinces in China. Additionally, after taking language classes at a Chinese university, they receive a degree in international relations, according to the article. The program comes with other privileges. These participating journalists get more prominent placement than other foreign media while covering major Communist Party political meetings, such as the annual session of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature, the National Peoples Congress. Aside from trips to different parts of China, journalists have a two-month internship at different state-run media, such as Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, Peoples Daily, China Radio International, and China Global Television Network (CGTN), according to Khmer Times. CGTN is the international arm of Chinas state broadcaster CCTV. However, the program has a very strict rule. These journalists cannot undertake individual reporting trips unaccompanied by government minders, meaning they cannot report on sensitive issues such as human rights violations in Tibet and Xinjiang. Beijing has carried out systematic persecution against Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Tibetans in Tibet. Human rights group estimate up to a million Uyghur Muslims have recently been rounded up and thrown into concentration camps, while the Tibetans face severe restrictions in practicing their religious faith and cultural traditions. Participating journalists also cannot freely report on sovereignty issues in the South China Sea. They can only report on the South China Sea dispute based on daily briefings provided by Chinese foreign ministry officialsin other words, repeat Beijings propaganda. China has drawn criticism for its aggressive militarization in the region through building outposts on existing and artificial islands, in an effort to bolster its territorial claims. The Print pointed out that there is often no clear application process for the program. Instead, it is the Chinese Embassy that invites particular journalists to participate. In 2016, 28 African journalists from 27 African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, and Cameroon, took part in the program, according to the Chinese Communist Partys mouthpiece newspaper, Peoples Daily. It is not known how many journalists from Southeast Asia took part that year. In 2017, 42 journalists from Africa and Southeast Asia took part, according to a March 2018 article by Cambodias English-language newspaper Khmer Times. This year, 46 foreign journalists from 33 countries, including Cambodia and the Philippines, joined the program, which will end in December. It is not known if the 46 foreign journalists are the only ones participating this year. The municipal government of Beijing posted on its website that 29 media professionals from 28 African countries took part in this years program. Cedric Alviani, head of the East Asia bureau of the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders, said Beijings effort to influence foreign journalists began well before Chinas foreign ministry launched its own fellowship program, according to a Nov. 26 article by Radio Free Asia. Beijing has also aggressively acquired shares of foreign media companies in the past year, he said. XEWW, a major Spanish-language radio station in Mexico, was purchased by H&H Group, a New York-based investment firm with ties to a pro-Beijing television network, in October this year. The purchase raised concerns about Beijings propaganda being spread among Chinese communities in the United States, given that the radio stations coverage reaches into much of Southern California. British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, on Sept. 26, 2018 (PETER FOLEY/AFP/Getty Images) Brexit Deal Threatens USUK Trade Talks, Trump Says The current agreement has significant obstacles to UK trade liberalization WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump said that British Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit deal approved by the European Union would hurt the UKs trade relationship with the United States. The withdrawal agreement sounds like a great deal for the EU but may not allow Britain to negotiate a free trade agreement with the United States, Trump told reporters on Nov. 26. We have to take a look at, seriously, whether or not the UK is allowed to trade, Trump said. If you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldnt be a good thing. I dont think they meant that. I dont think that the prime minister meant that, and hopefully, shell be able to do something about that. May responded to Trumps criticisms on Nov. 27, insisting that the Brexit deal clearly identifies that the UK will have an independent trade policy. Speaking to the public in Wales, May said that Britain would be free to strike trade deals with countries around the world. As regards the United States, we have already been talking to them about the sort of agreement that we could have in the future, she said. We have a working group set up and that is working very well, has met several times and is continuing to work with the U.S. on this. The United States is the single largest source of inward investment into the UK. Both countries invested more than $1.2 trillion in each others economies, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). And the trade between the two countries is valued at over $230 billion a year. The United States is the largest export market for British goods. UK exports to the United States are valued at nearly 100 billion pounds a year, more than twice that of Germany, its second-biggest market. Significant Obstacles According to an article by The Guardian, Trump is indeed right, as the current Brexit deal has significant obstacles to the UKs trade liberalization. The withdrawal agreement expects a 21-month transition period, during which Britain will continue to be part of the single market and customs union without any decision-making representation in Brussels. The UK would continue to be subject to the EUs trade policies, tariffs, and standards during the transition period, which could be extended for two more years if the Brexit deal hasnt been ratified by July 2020. Moreover, the UKs customs relationship with the EU wont be clear until late in the transition period, the Guardian reported, which will make groundwork for a U.S.UK trade deal difficult to do. British trade minister Liam Fox claimed earlier that when the EU barriers to trade such as tariffs and standards are removed, U.S.UK trade could rise by 40 billion pounds ($51 billion) a year by 2030. In terms of standards, Fox hinted there would be general relaxation of rules on U.S. goods. According to a recent report by the USTR, many products that conform to international standards cant meet the stricter EU standards. Hence, these create challenges for U.S. exporters in accessing European markets. When it comes to post-Brexit trade deals, the top priority will be a bilateral deal with the United States, said Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the United States. Speaking at the Hudson Institute event on Nov. 26, Darroch said that the UK would be able to run two negotiations in parallel, one with Brussels and another with Washington. The UKs objective is to keep the trade with the EU as frictionless as possible while gaining the freedom to do the kind of deal they want to do with the United States, he said. Darroch also said there wouldnt be a formal bilateral meeting between May and Trump on the margins of the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Argentina this week, even as they will be sitting next to one another in the plenary sessions, according to the seating plan. So they will have plenty of opportunities to talk. I am sure they will talk about Brexit, he said. Mays Brexit Deal May will be watched closely during the summit in Buenos Aires as she faces leadership challenges in her country over Brexit. After 20 months of negotiations, EU leaders approved the UKs 585-page withdrawal agreement on Nov. 25. The deal now needs to be approved by the UK Parliament. May, however, faces intense opposition from both the Labor Party and her fellow Conservatives who threaten to veto the treaty. Brussels has warned that the UK wont be able to get better terms if the British Parliament votes against the deal. The House of Commons will vote on Dec. 11, and the UK is scheduled to withdraw from the Union on March 29, 2019. Global markets are affected by the Brexit events, said Heather Conley, senior vice president and director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic International Studies. The potential for failure for the House of Commons to pass the withdrawal agreement is certainly one of those shocks, she said. No deal on March 29, 2019, would be very impactful, she added. British academic Matthew Hedges in an undated photo supplied by his wife Daniela Tejada. (Daniela Tejada/Handout via Reuters) British Academic Matthew Hedges Back Home After UAE Spy Case Pardon LONDONBritish academic Matthew Hedges arrived back in the UK on Nov. 27 and thanked his brave and strong wife for helping secure his release, nearly seven months after he was detained in the United Arab Emirates on espionage charges. Hedges arrived at Londons Heathrow airport early in the morning on a flight from Dubai, a day after the UAE pardoned him from a life sentence in the spying case. I dont know where to begin with thanking people for securing my release Thank you so much to the British Embassy and the FCO [Britains foreign ministry] for their efforts in ensuring I arrived safely back home, Hedges said in a statement. I could not have done this without Daniela, he added, referring to his wife, Daniela Tejada, who lobbied the governments of the UK and UAE for his release. She is so brave and strong, seeing her and my family after this ordeal is the best thing that could have happened. I thank you all once again, this is very surreal. Hedges was escorted to the departure gate at Dubai International Airport by three people earlier on Nov. 27. He stood in the tunnel leading to the aircraft for several minutes before being greeted by what appeared to be two UAE security officials and then boarded the flight. The UAE pardoned Matthew Hedges on Nov. 26 after showing a video of him purportedly confessing to being a member of Britains MI6 intelligence agency. Britain has denied he was a spy and welcomed his pardon. Hedges, a 31-year-old doctoral student at Durham University, had been held in the UAE since May 5, when he was arrested at Dubai airport after a two-week research visit. His family have described him as a dedicated researcher who fell foul of the UAEs security and justice system. The UAE said he was a British spy who was given a fair trial for grave espionage offences. The presidential pardon for Matt is the best news we couldve received. Thank you friends, family, media, academics, and the wider public for your undivided support Ive been brought back to life. pic.twitter.com/vruok0ST6O Daniela Tejada (@dtejadav) November 26, 2018 The case has strained ties between the long-time allies, leading London to issue a forceful diplomatic response after last weeks verdict was handed down, with a warning that it could hurt relations. The UAE president issued the pardon as part of a mass clemency of more than 700 prisoners to mark the countrys National Day. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt welcomed the pardon, which he called fantastic news. Although we didnt agree with charges we are grateful to UAE government for resolving issue speedily, Hunt said. Gulf Security The UAE had signaled on Nov. 23 that it was working on an amicable solution to the case after Prime Minister Theresa May had described last weeks sentence as deeply disappointing. Hedgess wife said he was kept in solitary confinement for more than five months and the evidence presented against him consisted of notes from his dissertation research. Last weeks hearing lasted less than five minutes, she said. Welcome home Matt Hedges! The whole country is relieved and delighted to have you home. Thanks to @PatrickMoodyFCO and the FCO team in UAE for your tireless work behind the scenes to make today possible Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) November 27, 2018 The UAEs ambassador to the UK has disputed the account, saying the case was extremely serious and there had not been a five minute show trial. Minutes before the pardon was announced, a UAE government spokesman showed journalists a video of Hedges purporting to confess to belonging to Britains Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and researching which military systems the UAE was buying. In the video, which was sometimes inaudible and shown with subtitles that could not be independently verified, Hedges appeared to say he approached sources as a doctoral student. The spokesman, Jaber al-Lamki, said Hedges was 100 percent a secret service operative and aimed to steal the UAEs sensitive national secrets for his paymasters, but did not take questions on the case. He said Hedges aimed to gather information on government figures including members of the UAEs ruling families and their networks and economic data related to strategic firms. Hedges had built an extensive network of contacts while working with Dubais Institute for Near East & Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA), then returned to the UAE on assignment as an undercover student on research trip, Lamki said. His family dispute the UAE account. They said he was an academic whose dissertation research focused on sensitive topics in the UAE such as security structures, tribalism, and the consolidation of political power in Abu Dhabi. Like most Gulf states, the UAE brooks little public criticism of ruling family members, senior officials, or policy and has prosecuted pro-democracy activists for what it calls insulting the countrys leaders. By Ahmed Jadallah Then Chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Eric Bauman (R) speaks onstage during the Yes on Prop 62 Coalition Announcement at Los Angeles Grand Park in Los Angeles, Calif. on July 14, 2016. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images) California Democratic Party Chair Announces Leave of Absence Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations California Democratic Party (CDP) Chairman Eric Bauman announced on Nov. 26 that he will take a leave of absence until several investigations into sexual misconduct allegations against him are over. The allegations came through his deputy last week, leading to pressure from his party for him to step down. The investigation was initiated after Daraka Larimore-Hall, the second vice-chair of the California Democratic Party, revealed multiple sexual misconduct allegations against Bauman in an email. During the weekend of the recent CDP Executive Board meeting, I was approached by a number of Party staff who confided in me their stories of sexual harassment and assault by Chairman Eric Bauman, said Larimore-Hall in a statement to party members. Larimore-Hall didnt identify the victims or provide details about the allegations but mentioned that some of the victims are just starting their careers. In the statement, he also called for the removal of Bauman, whom he said didnt respond to the resignation request. Obviously, it is completely unacceptable for Chairman Bauman to remain in office given these credible, corroborated, and utterly heart-breaking allegations, said Larimore-Hall. Ro Khana, a Democratic House Representative from Fremont, wrote on Twitter last Friday, Nov. 23, asking for a replacement shortly after the allegations were revealed. The allegations of sexual assault that @DarakaKenric is filing against @EricBauman are shocking. CalDems should replace him with @mldauber who is one of the nations foremost scholars on sexual harassment & led the Persky recall campaign. We need a bold feminist to lead for 2020. Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) November 24, 2018 According to the Sacramento Bee, Bauman confirmed Nov. 24 in a statement that an independent investigation of the allegations has been carried out with the effort from a respected outside investigator. However, he didnt respond specifically to the sexual misconduct accusations against himself. I look forward to putting these allegations behind us and moving forward as unified Democrats, Bauman said in the statement. The California Democratic Party confirmed the investigation as well, according to the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party. It is also said that Eric Bauman will stay in his position until the investigation draws a conclusion. Eric Bauman was elected Chair of the California Democratic Party in May 2017 after served as Vice Chair of the CDP for 8 years. Before that, he was the Chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and stayed in that position for 17 years, according to his biography. Watch Next: How They Brainwash You: Government, Media, and Special Interest Group Tactics A false reality is being painted by news outlets, governments, activists, and special interest groups that is warping psychology and concepts. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (R) and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang leave the stage after posing for a group photo before the start of the 13th East Asia summit plenary session on the sidelines of the 33rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore on Nov. 15, 2018. (ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images) Southeast Asia Needs to Choose Between the US, China on Principles, Experts Say WASHINGTONWith the intensifying rivalry between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China, Southeast Asian countries can no longer sit on the fence, and have a tough choice to make. That choice should be made based on worldviews and principles, experts say. John Lee, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, who worked for the Australian government as a senior national security adviser until April, said that with the discussion of Southeast Asias tough choice between the United States and China, recent comments by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs could very well reflect the situation. If you are friends with two countries, which are on different sides, sometimes it is possible to get along with both. Sometimes, it is more awkward when you try to get along with both. I think it is very desirable not to take sides, but the circumstance may come when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] may have to choose one or the other. I am hoping that it will not come soon, the prime minister said Nov. 14, during the final day of the annual ASEAN summit, which was held in his city-state. John Lee said at a panel discussion on the U.S.China Rivalry: Southeast Asias Tough Choice at the Hudson Institute on Nov. 19, that when he met with people from Southeast Asian countries, he always made three points. First, Southeast Asian nations must live in a world they find for themselves. And it is time for Southeast Asian nations to choose. But is it not [an] inherent choice between two countries, the U.S. and China, It is a choice between two different worldviews. And more specifically, a choice between two different sets of principles which should rule and govern the region, he said. Second, as an organization which seeks diplomatic centrality, ASEAN centrality will be lost. Its relevance will decline if it continues to remain silent on alternative sets of principles with which it chooses to endorse and engage. Third, if ASEAN does not choose between principles, ASEAN will itself begin to fracture, to the point where several of its own members will begin to abandon ASEAN centrality in substance, and pay minimum lip service to ASEAN centrality. Reaffirmation of Principles Hudson Institutes Lee said that while many political officials in Southeast Asia are uncomfortable with the Australian, Japanese, and U.S. notions of a free and open Indo-Pacific, it is, in his view, essentially a reaffirmation of economic and security principles that have evolved after World War II. He said, in terms of economic affairs, the free part should include freedom from economic coercion, and from the use of debt to acquire leverage over another countrys decision-making process. In short, economic relations in free and open Indo-Pacific should not entail the diminishing of a countrys sovereignty, Lee said. Lee said that while the Southeast Asian countries were sitting on the fence, things were not standing still. The grounds are shifting to their disadvantage, especially in the South China Sea. So in my mind, a wait and see approachthe so-called small target approachis actually a guaranteed strategy for them to lose, Lee said. I grant that there are key Southeast countries working hard behind the scenes to support the U.S. and ally countries strategically and militarily, but the refusal to overtly choose and support a set of principles gives China diplomatic cover to do what it does. The other side of the coin is that support for the principles of a free and open Indo-Pacific will make it easier diplomatically for the U.S. and allies to give meat to the bones of this free and open Indo-Pacific concept. Positive Message Amy Searight, senior adviser and director of the Southeast Asia program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while the U.S.China strategic rivalry is intensifying, both countries in recent years have been sharpening the differences between their visions for Asia. Unlike Lee, Searight sees continued room for Southeast Asian countries not to make a definite choice between the United States and Chinas differing visions. For many of these countries, hedging these two powers and other regional players is really an attractive and reasonable option. And I dont think hedging, for the most part, is necessarily problematic, as long as countries that are hedging do two things, Searight said. First, they stand up for their own interest, and make decisions that are good decisions, that are informed, that are transparent, that will lead to good outcomes for the country. Searight said the second thing the countries need to do is not to accept Chinese bribes, to accept a financing package from China that will lead to unsustainable debts. Patrick Cronin, director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said that although China swore that it wasnt going to be a hegemon, it would never be hegemonic, the Beijing regime was already acting in that way. And the region understands that. Cronin said what the United States needs to do is to show to the region that it will support them. For Southeast Asia, at the end of the day, we have to have a positive message about their future, and about why we are committed to their future. And its not their future as a means for us to get to China; its their future for us to both have better, brighter, prosperous, more secure tomorrows. Cronin said the world should guard against Chinas attempts to export its model to other countries. This is why that the Xinjiang detention is such a warning sign for the region. If China were to export its domestic policy, what would it mean? Cronin said. Just this weekend, they were lecturing the Europeans that because of their lassitude on dealing with terrorism and jihadism in Europe, they should look to Chinas model of detention camps in Xinjiang. No, we reject that. A visitor walks past a display of "Peanuts" cartoons by the late Charles Schulz at the Frankfurt Book Fair, on Oct. 15, 2008. (John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images) Charlie Brown Thanksgiving TV Special Accused of Being Racist A holiday TV special titled A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving that has aired since 1973, has made news around the world after some viewers took to Twitter to point out elements of a scene that they thought to be in bad taste, or even racist. Following the complaints, other Twitter users responded to clarify the situation. The 22-minute special first aired on Nov. 20, 1973, on CBS, and was aired there every year until 2000. In 2001 it moved to ABC and has continued to air annually, around Thanksgiving day. Its latest airing was on Nov. 21. The scene under scrutiny shows the Peanuts characters seated at a table for an impromptu Thanksgiving feast where Snoopy had served the guests buttered toast, jelly beans, popcorn, pretzel sticks, and ice cream. Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired in 1973. People interpret this scene differently. Some say it's offensive, some say Franklin has the best seat at the table. How do you see it? pic.twitter.com/LeH2NxNjul Trevor Donovan (@TrevDon) November 23, 2018 Viewers pointed out that Franklin, the only black character in the cartoon, is drawn seated alone on one side of the table, while on the other side of the table are the rest of the characters. They also pointed out that he is seated on a lawn chair instead of a dining chair like the other characters. Watching Charlie Browns Thanksgiving is hard knowing they put Franklin at the end of the table by himself, Twitter user Sincerely AJP wrote. Not watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving anymore, until they sit some people on the same side of the table as Franklin, user ASharp52 wrote on Twitter. Why is Franklin in Charlie Brown Thanksgiving sitting all by himself at the table. Man. Things that I did not notice as a child, Twitter user cmass4eva wrote. When Franklin first tries to sit in the chair, it topples over. They give our friend the busted chair and wont even sit on the same side of the table, more proof that Charlie Brown and his cohorts are RACIST, one Twitter post read; but the user later noted they were being sarcastic. If yall dont think racism exist..check out Charlie Brownso you mean to tell me, no one wanted to sit by the lil black kid and why they give him the worse chair.think about it one Twitter user TheScorpioBaby wrote. Clarification Over Thanksgiving Cartoon One Twitter user responded to the claims of racism with an explanation of the interpersonal relationships between the Peanuts characters. Does anyone even know the characters? Thats Charlie, his sister, sally, is to the right closest to her crush Linus, and peppermint patty is to the left cause shes crushing on Charlie and then theres his dog. Marcy is sitting by herself in a metal chair, user Brookesalvation wrote in a Twitter post. The same user explained the situation in pictorial form: Come on people anyone who knows Charlie Brown knows whats really going on here pic.twitter.com/Q0u7p8qZbi Brookesalvation (@Brookesalvation) November 24, 2018 Twitter users also pointed out that the creator of the Peanuts cartoon, the late Charles Schulz, had added Franklin in a move to combat racism at the time. Seriously please get some historical context. Charles M. Schultz was a trailblazer and bucked racism in those days by adding Franklin to reflect the issue and challenge what was then going on in society, California radio show host Mark Larson wrote. Schulz added Franklin to the Peanuts cast in 1968, just after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. A teacher by the name of Harriet Glickman had written a letter to Schulz to suggest that he include a black child in the cartoon to do something about the environment at the time, which she described as a vast sea of misunderstanding, fear, hate and violence. The head of the cartoons publisher, United Feature Syndicate, had asked Schulz whether he was sure if he wanted to include Franklin. Either you run it the way I drew it, or I quit, Schulz said, according to The Washington Post. Franklin has since become a cherished Peanuts character, and in July, the Schulz Museum celebrated 50 years since his first appearance. Happy 50th Anniversary, Franklin! Franklin first appeared in Peanuts 50 years ago today in this strip originally published on July 31, 1968. pic.twitter.com/b1LlNsgoKZ SchulzMuseum (@SchulzMuseum) July 31, 2018 Charles Schulz bravely added an African American character to his comic strip at a time when many people frowned upon such things. He was helping to break down racial barriers in his own way, user JamieERatliff wrote. When this animated special was created it was during a time when having characters of mixed race interacting with each other was still offensive too many people. It should be applauded for what it was doing during its place in history, he added. From NTD News A man works in front of a furnace at a steel plant of Dalian Special Steel Co Ltd. in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China on June 20, 2018. (Reuters) China Steel Mills Brace for Hard Times MANILA/BEIJINGChinese steel producers ran up losses for the first time in three years this month as prices slid into a bear market on weak demand and near-record supply, ending years of solid profit margins. And with the worlds No. 2 economy cooling and facing increased risks from a growing trade war with the United States, Chinas steelmakers are likely to feel more pain unless Beijing launches fresh stimulus measures, traders and analysts say. Amid tumbling prices, Chinese millswhich make half the worlds steelare reining in costs by returning to cheaper, low-grade raw material iron ore, in a boon for miners like Australias Fortescue Metals Group. Chinas steel production hit a record 91 million tons in October, but steel prices and margins have since shrunk as China dialed back on winter output curbs aimed at cutting smog, while demand weakened as cold weather slows the construction sector. Fat margins were caused by firm demand and tight supply, which is unsustainable in the long term, said CRU analyst Richard Lu. This decline is not temporary but the start of a downward trend. Chinas steel makers tighten belts as margins erode: Chinas steel producers had been in party mode since 2016 when prices doubled as a strong infrastructure push boosted demand, and supply tightened as the countrys anti-pollution campaign disrupted production. Beijing also removed 154 million tons of low-end steel capacity in 2017, equal to about 17 percent of that years total output. Profit margins surged to a record 1,706 yuan ($246) a ton for rebar and 1,326 yuan for hot rolled coil in December 2017 and have stayed high this year, pushing mills to ramp up output. China steel production margins for hot-rolled coil & rebar steel products: But as demand began to falter this month, mills were left with surplus steel, compounded by more lenient production curbs this winter as China allowed regions to set their own output restrictions based on emission levels. The price of Chinas rebarused in constructionhas fallen 21 percent to a low of 3,496 yuan a ton on Nov. 26 from a seven-year peak reached in August, putting it in a technical bear market. Profit margins fell. Rebar producers in top steelmaking city Tangshan saw margins narrow to 297 yuan a ton on Monday from 889 yuan at end-October, according to data tracked by Jinrui Futures. Makers of hot rolled coil (HRC)used in manufacturingincurred a loss this month for the first time since November 2015, Jinrui Futures said, estimating it at 130 yuan ($18.75) a ton on Nov. 21. Tivlon Technologies, a Singapore-based steel and iron ore data analytics company, expects Chinese HRC producers to realize a loss of 150 yuan per ton in the second half of November compared with a loss of 200 yuan in the first half. Most rebar producers are at breakeven, according to Tivlon. High-Grade Ore Premium Drops Anticipating further steel price declines, traders who typically replenish over winter ahead of a pickup in demand by spring are shunning restocking, pulling inventories to the lowest this year. The risk of hoarding physical steel products right now is too high, said a rebar trader from Chinas northern Liaoning Province who gave his surname as Wang. The market generally believes prices will not stop falling unless steel mills voluntarily cut output. Amid weaker steel prices, the average utilization rate at Chinese mills dropped to 67.54 percent last week after rising for three straight weeks, data compiled by Mysteel consultancy showed. Chinas steel, iron ore prices slump amid trade war with the U.S.: Mills which had previously favored high quality iron ore to achieve maximum output with lowest emissions are also reining in costs by using more lower grade material with iron content below 60 percent. The shift is benefiting miners like Fortescue, which have been marked down against high-grade producers like Brazils Vale. We have seen increased demand recently with mills procuring more 58 percent material in response to declining steel margins, Fortescue Chief Executive Elizabeth Gaines told Reuters by email. The price of 65-percent grade iron ore for delivery to China fell to a 7-1/2-month low of $81 a ton on Monday, while 58-percent ore similarly slid to $36.50, its weakest since June, according to SteelHome consultancy. That cut the premium for high-grade to $44.50, the smallest since March. In July, the premium hit a record $54.70 as Chinas bid for clearer skies increased preference for higher quality ore. If the margins continue to drop, more mills will use low-grade iron ore, said a senior manager at a mill in southern China that produces both rebar and HRC. ($1 = 6.9397 Chinese yuan) By Manolo Serapio Jr & Muyu Xu Trump Talks Border, Jobs at Tulepo Rally Ahead of Mississippi Election President Donald Trump attended a campaign rally in Tulepo, Mississippi, on Nov. 26 to support the states Republican candidate the incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing Democrat candidate Mike Espy in a Senate runoff election Nov. 27. This election is about jobs and judges, borders, and protecting the blessings of freedom and prosperity for our children, Trump said at the start of his roughly 40-minute address to a cheering crowd. Its about preserving a strong military, a safe community, and a soaring economy. Were doing great, he added. The special election will determine whether Republicans will secure 52 or 53 seats in the Senate. The run-off election marks the second time Mississippians will head to the ballot boxes to vote for their preferred senator. In the Nov. 6 special election, which was scheduled after Republican Sen. Thad Cochran decided to resign in April, no candidate won a majority of the vote, triggering the run-off election. Hyde-Smith had been appointed to temporarily fill in Cochrans seat in March, at which point she left her former role as the state agriculture and commerce commissioner. Hyde-Smith appeared briefly on stage at the rally and told the crowd: This campaign is not about me. Its about you. Its about the people of Mississippi and what you believe in: lower taxes, less government, less regulation, supporting our veterans, our military, our law enforcement, standing up for pro-life issues. It is about defending the Second Amendment rights every single day, she said. Ive worked very hard for you. You know I will continue to stand up for the conservative values of Mississippi. In Trumps speech, he drew contrasts between Hyde-Smith and her opponent, Mike Espy, a former secretary of agriculture under President Bill Clinton and a former congressman from Mississippi. Cindys far-left opponent, hes far left. How does he fit in with Mississippi? Trump asked. Mike Espy supported one of the largest tax increases in American history. He co-sponsored legislation that provides late-term abortion on demand. He backed a total government takeover of health care and he even sponsored legislation to provide free taxpayer-funded health care to illegal aliens, which Im sure you love paying for. Mike Espy would rather protect illegal aliens than the people that live in Mississippi and Mississippi workers, it just cant work that way, Trump said. He added, We want to be nice, and we all have a big heart, but it cant work that way, because it doesnt work. No matter where you go in the world, that doesnt work. Trump also spoke at length about employment and trade, the immigration and the border, and health care. Under Republican leadership, America is booming, America is thriving, America is winning again, winning like never before. Were respected again. Were respected again as a nation, he said. Last month alone, 10 states hit their lowest unemployment rates in the history of our country. Nationwide, African American unemployment has reached its lowest rate ever recorded, he said, to which the crowd cheered in response. African American youth unemployment has reached an all-time historic low. The African American poverty rate has reached the lowest level ever recorded. Trump noted the recent attacks on the border as he reminded the crowd of the Republican partys stance on border protection. Democrats have become the party of caravans and crime because when you have open borders, you have crime. When you have sanctuary cities, you have crime, Trump said. Republicans are committed to halting this incursion and defending the sovereign territory of the United States of America. We will not tolerate any form of assault or attack upon our border agents, like [what] happened yesterday, or any attempt to destroy federal property, overrun federal authority, or bring chaos and violence to American soil. Trump told the crowd that their vote would have an impact on the future of Medicare benefits. Also at stake is your Medicare benefits. Democrats want to raid the Medicare to fund Socialism, he said. Democrats will also destroy your health care by inviting millions upon millions of aliens to violate our borders. Once they arrive, they want to sign them up for free health care, free welfare, free education, and the right to vote, Trump added. The president said that the country is in need of workers who can love our country and that immigrants must enter the United States legally. Were not letting people into our country unless theyre coming legally, and we want people to come in through merit, he said. We have great companies coming into our country, we need workers, we want them to come in but they have to be talented people that can love our country. They have to come in through merit. Not through lottery. From NTD News The towers of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Jan. 26, 2017. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir) EUs Top Court Plans to Give Quick Verdict on Whether UK Can Reverse Brexit LUXEMBOURGEuropes top court said it would decide quickly on whether Britain can unilaterally reverse its decision to leave the European Union, a ruling that supporters of EU membership hope could lead to a second referendum and ultimately stop Brexit. Lawyers for a group of Scottish politicians want the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to interpret whether Britain can revoke its notice to withdraw from the EU under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, without the agreement of the other 27 states. Some opponents of Brexit want a second referendum giving British voters the option to remain in the EU. The ECJ said on Nov. 27 it would deliver its decision quickly, but gave no specific date. The British government doesnt seem to want [lawmakers] and the public to know that Article 50 can be revoked. Thats why they fought this case so hard, Joanna Cherry, a Scottish National Party lawmaker and one of the cross-party group of pro-EU politicians that brought the case, told Reuters. The case was referred to the Luxembourg justices for a ruling by Scotlands top court and expedited for an urgent one-day hearing before a full court of judges. Article 50 of the EU treaty, which sets the rules for leaving the bloc, states that if a country decides to withdraw, it has two years to agree on an exit deal, a deadline which can be extended only if the remaining EU states unanimously agree. There is no mention of whether a state can change its mind. No other member state has ever left the 60-year-old bloc. Aidan ONeill, lawyer for the politicians, told the ECJ a ruling was necessary so lawmakers could make informed decisions. These petitioners need to know the options for revocation which are open to withdrawing member states now, to allow themproperly and in a fully informed wayto carry out their duties as democratically elected representatives, he said. By Michael Holden First Lady Melania Trump Visits Red Cross to Assemble Kits for Troops First Lady Melania Trump visited the Red Cross on Nov. 27, to help assemble comfort kits for American troops deployed overseas. Trump and Second Lady Karen Pence, along with wives of some cabinet secretaries, visited the organizations headquarters in Washington. Trump spoke at the headquarters, telling the crowd after receiving a standing ovation that volunteering for the Red Cross was a sincere opportunity for us to honor and thank our troops. These comfort kits are one small way we can say thank you, she said. She also asked for prayers for the troops, noting how three American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Three others were wounded, along with an American contractor. Pence praised Trump, saying: Melania has a natural gift of being kind and loving to others. She said they took a trip together to Texas last winter in support of hurricane victims. The kits were slated for troops serving in Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, and Poland. They included a number of items, including brownie mix, hot chocolate, peanuts, playing cards, tissues, hand soap, and shampoo. Susan Pompeo, the wife of Secretary of State, attended the event along with six other wives of cabinet secretaries. Vide footage showed Trump and the other women each placing one item inside the blue bag before passing it down a line. A card that was inserted into each kit said that they were packed by the spouses of President Trumps cabinet along with spouses of military service members. We joined these spouses to pack this kit as a way to honor your service, the card stated. It is a token of appreciation from home during this Christmas season and an expression of our countrys deep respect and gratitude for your military service. We stand with you and extend our best wishes for a joyous Christmas and happy New Year. It was signed by Trump and Pence. In a statement issued earlier in the day, President Trump and the First Lady thanked people who have contributed to charities. Melania and I thank all those who have dedicated their time, talents, and resources to charitable causes over this past year, and we encourage you to look for opportunities to contribute this coming year, President Trump said. May this holiday season be a reminder of the blessings we enjoy and of our duty to ensure that the spirit of American greatness continues to lift up people in need throughout our communities. From NTD News Daniel Enrique Fabian, 18, is accused of sexually assaulting two girls in two incidents in June. (Pasco County Sheriff's Office) Gamer Accidentally Leaves PlayStation Mic On, Another Player Overhears Him Committing Assault A Florida man was arrested last week after he apparently paused his video game and left his PlayStation 4 microphone on, which apparently captured him sexually assaulting a girl. Daniel Enrique Fabian, 18, of New Port Richey, is accused of sexually assaulting two girls in two incidents in June, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which added that the second incident occurred when he paused his Grand Theft Auto on his PlayStation 4. Fabian was arrested by the Pasco County Sheriffs Office on Nov. 21, and was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor after an investigation was conducted, the report said. Hes already facing similar charges in connection with the alleged assault of another teen girl. He was arrested in June for another case involving a different 15-year-old girl, where he allegedly raped her in his home as well, said Kevin Doll, Pasco Sheriffs Office spokesman, WFLA reported. In the second incident, an unidentified gamer who was playing with the suspect online said he heard the assault being committed. He could hear the girl in distress and saying, No, WFLA reported. A 15-year-old girl told detectives she was sitting on his bed when he put his hand over her mouth and committed the assault. Police had to complete a medical exam in the second case before charges were filed, Fox News reported. I had no idea it was this close to us, neighbor Ed Holtzman told WFLA. Being a father, I just try to put myself in that same situation. Its heartbreaking. According to an arrest report in the first case, Fabian was born in Peru and isnt an American citizen. Its not clear if he is in the country illegally. The report says he is a student. He is currently being held at the Land O Lakes Detention Center. His next court appearance in the June 4 case is slated for Jan. 16, 2019, according to jail records. The Pasco Sheriffs Office did not identify either girl or the person who heard the second assault, the Tampa Bay Times reported. It took about five months for the results for a DNA test to come back, which linked him to the assault, officials said. Officials didnt reveal how deputies tracked down the Grand Theft Auto witness. New Port Richey is located in Pasco County north of Tampa and Clearwater. Violent Crime Down, Sexual Assault Up The FBI says in 2017, violent crime has dropped by 0.2 percent, according to a release, but aggravated and rape offenses increased by a respective 1.0 percent and 2.5 percent. In 2017, there were an estimated 1,247,321 violent crimes. The estimated number of robbery offenses decreased 4.0 percent, and the estimated number of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses decreased 0.7 percent when compared with estimates from 2016. The estimated volume of aggravated assault and rape (revised definition) offenses increased 1.0 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, says the FBI. The agency added: By violent crime offense, the arrest rate for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter was 3.8 per 100,000 inhabitants; rape (aggregate total using the revised and legacy definition), 7.2; robbery, 29.3; and aggravated assault, 120.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. The Google name is displayed outside the company's office in London on Nov. 1, 2018. (Toby Melville/Reuters) Google Employees Push to Stop Project Dragonfly Eleven employees comprising engineers and managers at Alphabet Incs Google published an open letter on Nov. 27, demanding that the company end development of a censored search engine for Chinese users, escalating earlier protests against the secretive project. Google has described the search app, known as Project Dragonfly, as an experiment not close to launching. But as details of it have leaked since August, current and former employees, human rights activists and U.S. lawmakers have criticized Google for not taking a harder line against the Chinese regimes policy that politically sensitive results be blocked. Human rights group Amnesty International also launched a public petition on Tuesday calling on Google to cancel Dragonfly. The organization said it would encourage Google workers to sign the petition by targeting them on LinkedIn and protesting outside Google offices. About 1,400 of Googles tens of thousands of workers urged the company in August to improve oversight of ethically questionable ventures, including Dragonfly. They sent a letter to the company leadership, saying Dragonfly broke the companys ethics rules for artificial intelligence development. They also demanded transparency, saying the secretive development of Dragonfly denied them information to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment. The text of the letter was published by Gizmodo. Google has long sought to have a bigger presence in China, the worlds largest internet market. It needs government approval to compete with the countrys dominant homegrown internet services. The employees who signed their names on Tuesdays letter said they had seen little progress, and expect more colleagues to publicly back the push to cancel Dragonfly. The letter expresses concern about the Chinese regimes tracking dissidents through search data and suppressing truth through content restrictions. We object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be, the employees said in the letter published on blogging service Medium. The Chinese communist regime runs the worlds most sophisticated system of internet censorship and requires foreign companies to censor topics it deems sensitive, such as democracy, human rights, and the ongoing persecution in China of Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, human rights activists, and others. Companies are also forced to share with the regime any data stored in China. The employees said they no longer believe Google is a company willing to place its values over profits, and cited a string of disappointments this year, including acknowledgement of a big payout to an executive who had been accused of sexual harassment. That incident sparked global protests at Google, which like other big technology companies has seen an uptick in employee activism during the last two years as their services become an integral part of civic infrastructure. Google was not immediately available for comment. By Paresh Dave. Epoch Times staff member Petr Svab contributed to this report. Hunter Spots 12-Point Albino Buck in Tennessee: Like Seeing a Ghost A Tennessee hunter said she had a once-in-a-lifetime experience when she spotted a 12-point albino buck. Amy Henderson Hall posted photos and a video of the rare specimen on Facebook, saying the buck walked right underneath me and hung out with me for 30 minutes. I teared up and was totally amazed, she wrote. In an interview with Fox News, Hall said she spotted the animal Williamson County, located outside of Nashville. It was a very eerie, ghostly feeling, she told Fox, adding it was the first time she spotted an albino deer. It took my breath away. Hall, who hunts deer for meat for her family, told Fox that she wanted to share the photos to remind people that hunting albino deer is illegal in Tennessee. It enjoyed the space, nothing ever bothered it, she said. This experience was amazing; it was like seeing a ghost. Hall then sent the photos and video of the deer to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Had a once in a lifetime experience today. This albino 12 point buck walked right underneath me and hung out with me for 30 minutes. I teared up and was totally amazed. Amy Henderson Hall Albino deer are illegal to harvest in Tennessee and are rare, said the agency in a Facebook post. It also included a statement from Hall: He was marvelous. He hung out with me for about 30 minutes. He couldnt hear. Nothing spooked him at all. Getting so close to an albino was a once in a lifetime thing. It made me tear up a bit. Just special. According to website ProtectTheWhiteDeer.com, It is currently illegal to shoot albino and white deer in most of Wisconsin as well as in Illinois and Iowa. The white deer are entirely unique and beautiful. Most people describe them as striking, mesmerizing, and even magical. Whether you subscribe to the myths and superstitions of white deer or not, theres no doubt they are beautiful and special to see. There is a reason people are so awed in their presence and so devastated when one is killed, says the website. It adds: White deer are ordinary white-tailed deer with an extraordinary color. They are white or mostly white in color. The color is a genetic trait and is inherited but is extremely rare. White deer that lack all color pigments are called true albinos. These animals are typically identified by their pink nose and eyesthe result of blood vessels showing through the skin and clear lens of the eyes. Another Rare Find: A Deer with Two Heads In nearby Kentucky, another hunter made a rare find. A hunter in Kentucky shot and killed a deer with an additional head attached to it, according to a Facebook post from a local government agency this week. Bob Long said he saw large antlers before he took aim at the animal in Ballard County. However, what he found upon recovery was astounding, said the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Deer Rut Double Take: Check out this unique Ballard County harvest!Bob Long saw big antlers when he took aim at his Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on the eve of the U.S. mid-term elections at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, U.S., November 5, 2018. (Reuters/Carlos Barria) Impeachment Talk May Backfire Commentary With a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, you may hear more talk about impeaching President Donald Trump. The Constitution states that federal officials shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. The House has the power to impeach, which is a form of accusation, while the Senate tries the case. Although a mere majority of the House is sufficient for impeachment, two-thirds of senators must vote for a conviction. One problem the presidents opponents face is that unless they can uncover specific instances of treason, bribery, or felony, they will have to rely on the presidents alleged high misdemeanors. And that could backfire. Constitutional experts agree that a high misdemeanor is much more serious than the petty offenses we commonly call misdemeanors today. In a recently published article in The Federalist Society Review, I explained that the Constitution uses the phrase high misdemeanor to mean a breach of fiduciary dutywhat the American Founders called a breach of public trust. The Rules Nearly all of the Founders believed legislators and public officials should be subject to fiduciary standards. This means public officials should be held to the same standards of conduct the law imposes on private trustees, agents, guardians, attorneys, and so forth. The idea that government is a public trust is old. Its in the writings of Aristotle (367347 B.C.). The Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero (10643 B.C.)one of the Founders favorite authorstransmitted it to the Western European tradition. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, important Christian writers promoted it. Among them was John Locke (16321704), arguably the political theorist most influential among the American Founders. The rules governing trustees, guardians, executors, attorneys, and other fiduciaries were, and are, deeply influenced by our moral ideas of how we should treat those entrusted to our care. The rules today are much the same as when the Constitution was written, although sometimes the labels are different. The most important rules impose six obligations (fiduciary duties) on trustees, guardians, and the like: The obligation of good faith. This means the trustee or other fiduciary must act honestly. The obligation of loyalty to those servedeven against the fiduciarys personal interest. The obligation of reasonable carethat is, to act as a reasonable manager in the circumstances. The obligation of impartiality. If you serve several people with conflicting interests, you have treat to them all fairly and as equally as possible. The obligation to accountthat is, provide accurate records of all transactions. The obligation to follow instructions in the documents governing the trust or other fiduciary relationship. The political difficulty for the Democratic House if it tries to impeach the president is that the last time that party was in control, its own conduct fell far short of fiduciary standards. Republicans may counterattack at this very point. Obamacare Enactment in 2010 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the ACA or Obamacare) provides a rich store of examples. First, when the Democratic Congress and president passed the ACA, we already had 50 years of experience with the federal governments third-party payer health care system. (A third-party payer system is one where government or insurance companies intervene between patients and doctors.) It rendered health care unduly bureaucratic and very, very expensive. Yet, in passing the ACA, Congress didnt correct those policies. It doubled down on them. This was a breach of the fiduciary obligation of reasonable care. Second, leading politicians promoting the ACA made promises they knew, or should have known, couldnt be kept. Perhaps the most famous example was President Barack Obamas promise that a patient happy with his or her physician and insurance coverage could keep them. By making such a promise, Obama violated the fiduciary duties of good faith and due care. Third, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosis comment that we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it indicates either a violation of the obligation of due care or a conflict between Congress and its constituents, amounting to a breach of the obligation of loyalty. Fourth, the Senate created the ACA by gutting a revenue bill that had been passed by the House and inserting entirely new material. As some court cases have suggested, the Senates constitutional power to amend a revenue bill allowed the Senate to substitute new taxes and fees. But the Senate went much further: It also inserted a massive set of new regulations. The latter action violated the Constitutions Origination Clause. In other words, Congress breached the fiduciary obligation to follow instructions. Fifth, along the same lines, during questioning, a key House leader, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), demonstrated he had no idea of the constitutional justification for the ACA. Yet, Conyers then chaired the House Judiciary Committeewhich handles constitutional mattersand had served on that committee for more than 50 years. Failure to inform oneself on such a basic question suggests breach of the obligations to follow instructions and of reasonable care. Finally, once the bill was passed, the Obama administration issued exemptions from its mandates to favored interest groups, and Congress secured exemptions for itself. These were breaches of the fiduciary duties of loyalty and impartiality. Thus, even if the House of Representatives does find that the president had breaches of fiduciary duty that justify impeachment, one effect of doing so may be to focus public attention on previous conduct the House may wish the public to forget. On political grounds alone, the House Democratic leadership may decide that proceeding with impeachment would be ill-advised. Robert G. Natelson, a widely known constitutional scholar, was a law professor for 25 years, and is now a senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver. He is the author of The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Jury Sides With Idaho Family in War on Christmas Lawsuit A federal jury sided with an Idaho family in a so-called war on Christmas lawsuit that was filed after a homeowners association (HOA) openly discriminated against Christians. The Morris family held a huge Christmas event at their house every year in Hayden, inviting members of the public to the free event and paying for it entirely out of pocket. They did ask for donations for a local charity, the Childrens Village. At the event, visitors saw an array of lights, learned about the story of the nativity of Jesus Christ, and sang traditional hymns. The Morris family planned to move to a new home and put an offer on another house in Hayden that was under the authority of the West Hayden Estates Homeowners Association. Jeremy Morris reached out to the HOA to ask how he could configure the annual Christmas event so it would fit into the neighborhood. The offer went through and the Morris family bought the house. But the couple who previously owned the house said that the HOA had sent a letter to the Morris family that openly discriminated against Christians. In the letter, the HOA included a statement that they did not want the Morris family to push their religious beliefs on others in the neighborhood due to there being non-Christians living here, reported The Coeur dAlene Press. I am somewhat hesitant in bringing up the fact that some of our residents are non-Christians or of another faith and I dont even want to think of the problems that could bring up we do not wish to become entwined in any expensive litigation to enforce long-standing rules and regulations and fill our neighborhood with the hundreds of people and possible undesirables, the final draft letter stated. An earlier draft had said that some of the residents were avowed atheists and said the HOA didnt want to ill our neighborhood with the riff-raff you seemed to attract over by WalMart We dont allow those kind in our neighborhood. During the trial, Angie Cox, who lives next door to the house the Morris family bought, testified that she called HOA head Jennifer Scott one day on the phone. She said shed asked Scott, Is it hes really breaking the lawor breaking the rules or you guys just dont want him here? And she [Scott] told me [Cox], We just dont want him here.' Jury sides with Morris family in this unusual Christmas story https://t.co/V2bKISPvRS pic.twitter.com/4Q38lTYvk0 CDA Press News (@CdAPressNews) November 23, 2018 Jury awards $75,000 to Hayden couple in war on Christmas lawsuit | The Spokesman-Review https://t.co/kdY92WqVHn Kelly L Russell (@MomOfGeek49) November 25, 2018 Jury Verdict The unanimous verdict was decided in early November. The jury found that the West Hayden Estates HOA had discriminated against the Morrises during and after their purchase of the home, reported the Idaho Spokesman-Review. The jury also found that the letter that showed a preference that a non-religious individual should purchase the home would violate the HOAs own covenants, conditions, and restrictions. The jury awarded the couple $60,000 in compensatory damages and $15,000 in punitive damages. Jeremy Morris said after the ruling that the crux of the complaint was rooted in religious discrimination. The letter talks just like normal people talk every day, he told the outlet. Normally, people dont say, Listen, youre fired because I dont like the color of your skin.' He said his family plans to move from the neighborhood to a piece of land that will have more room for their Christmas programs, which have exploded in popularity thanks to the media attention from the lawsuit. Our family will live wherever we want to live to spread the message of Jesus Christ and the birth of our savior, he said. Were looking forward. Were positive. Were excited. From NTD News Migrant Caravan Members Are Mostly Male, 90 Percent Wont Qualify for Asylum: Top US Official A top United States official confirmed that the migrant caravan is made up mostly of males and that an overwhelming percentage of them wouldnt qualify for asylum. The caravan members are predominately male, Department of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement. It appears in some cases that the limited number of women and children in the caravan are being used by the organizers as human shields when they confront law enforcement. Guatemalan officials previously said when the caravan violently forced its way into Mexico that the caravan used babies, women, and elderly persons as human shields. Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the department, shared a video clip from an MSNBC correspondent reporting from a caravan camp in Tijuana who said most of the migrants hes seen are male and wouldnt seem to qualify for asylum. Officials have said that at least 75 percent of the caravan are fighting-age males while some reports indicated that many of the migrants who have accepted Mexicos asylum offers have been women with children. Wouldnt Qualify for Asylum Nielsen also noted that most of the caravan members wouldnt qualify for asylum. The overwhelming majority of these individuals are not eligible for asylum in the United States under our laws. Historically, less than 10 percent of those who claim asylum from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are found eligible by a federal judge. 90 percent are not eligible, Nielsen added. Most of these migrants are seeking jobs or to join family who are already in the U.S. They have all refused multiple opportunities to seek protection in Mexico or with the United Nations. Seeking employment or family reunification are not grounds for asylum under our laws, or any international obligation, she continued. Only about five percent of Hondurans who applied for asylum in the fiscal year 2016, for instance, were accepted, reported The Epoch Times. Up to 90 percent of those at the border who claim fear of returning to their home country pass an initial credible fear screening. Of those who show up at court, only 13 percent are deemed eligible for asylum. Many of the migrants who have spoken to news agencies have said theyre traveling to the United States for work or to escape gang violence, neither of which fall under asylum requirements. 600 Convicted Criminals As one of President Donald Trumps top Cabinet members, Nielsen also noted that her department has confirmed that there are over 600 convicted criminals traveling with one of the caravans, including people known for rape, drug crimes, and child abuse. There are 8,500 caravan members currently in Tijuana and Mexicali, with more on their way. The statement came after clashes between migrants and Border Patrol agents at the border north of Tijuana on Nov. 25 following days of planning. The clashes included migrants hurling projectiles at agents before agents fired tear gas at the crowd, dispersing them. She pushed back against criticism that Border Patrol agents shouldnt have used tear gas to defend themselves from attacks. I refuse to believe that anyone honestly maintains that attacking law enforcement with rocks and projectiles is acceptable. It is shocking that I have to explain this, but officers can be seriously or fatally injured in such attacks. Self-defense isnt debatable for most law-abiding Americans, she said. Migrant Caravan Used Women, Children as Human Shields, Says Homeland Security Secretary The caravan of Central American migrants seemed at times to have put women and children in the front when storming the U.S. border on Nov. 25, according to Kirstjen Nielsen, Department of Homeland Security secretary. It appears in some cases that the limited number of women and children in the caravan are being used by the organizers as human shields when they confront law enforcement, she said in a Nov. 26 statement. They are being put at risk by the caravan organizers. The caravan is one of several that have embarked since October from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, bent on reaching the United States. On Nov. 25, some 1,000 of the migrants attempted to break through the U.S.Mexico border in Tijuana, but were repelled with tear gas after they threw stones and other projectiles at U.S. law enforcement officers, U.S. border security officials stated. While Nielsen said the caravan members are predominantly male, some media focused on women and children among the migrants who were close enough to be affected by the tear gas. Nielsen said the Border Patrol responded to violence with non-lethal means, just as it did in the past during the Obama administration. Our Border Patrol agents and officers responded admirably and responsibly to the events on Sunday, she said. It is a testament to their training and professionalism that no one was injured. She asked parents who try to enter the United States with their children to avoid violent caravan groups and refrain from attempts to illegally enter our country. These acts will put your children in danger, she said. A representative of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the group that is helping to organize the migrants, objected to Nielsens use of the word shields. We reject the representation of women and children as sheer instruments of the men. They have bravely assumed the struggle to defend their own rights, and portraying them as shields undermines the legitimacy of their demands and their human standing as well, the person told The Epoch Times via the Facebook Messenger app. The migrants commonly seek asylum in the United States, but historically, 90 percent of those who claim asylum from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are found not eligible by a federal judge. Based on media interviews with the migrants, most seek jobs or better-paid jobs and many mention violence in their home countries. Neither represents grounds for asylum, which is reserved for people facing certain kinds of persecution from their governments. Update: The article was updated with a response from Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Mother and Daughter Found Dead After She Complained Neighbor Stalked Her An Ohio man was arrested in the deaths of a woman and her 8-year-old daughter, and reports have indicated that he was her neighbor and allegedly stalked her for months before the incident. Dominique Swopes, 27, was charged with killing 41-year-old Rebecca Pletnewski before setting her home on fire, killing her daughter, Olivia Schneider, Fox8 reported. The early morning hours of November 20th changed many people lives. Two bright and beautiful people perished in a home Mayfield Education Association The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office later determined the girl died of smoke inhalation, People magazine reported, which added that Pletnewski was stabbed before the blaze. During the investigation police were able to collect incriminating evidence against Swopes, Cleveland.com reported. Pletnewski, who worked as an intensive care nurse at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, leaves behind another daughter, 4-year-old Vivienne. The girl wasnt home at the time. Police charged Swopes with aggravated murder and aggravated arson. Swopes is still in custody, according to People magazine. Mayfield Heights Police Chief Fred Bittner told Fox8 that the suspect may have stalked Pletnewski. He became a subject of interest that day because what family and friends had told us, that Rebecca had warned them or told them of instances of potentially stalking by the neighbor, he said. He became our primary suspect at the time after talking to family. Her family told investigators that she was worried about his advances for months. He just apparently had left her notes occasionally or talked to her outside. There were other advancements made through maybe social media, and she told him she didnt want anything to do with him, she had a boyfriend, Bittner said. Swopes was arrested without incident on Nov. 23, and charges were filed in Lyndhurst Municipal Court on Nov. 26, officials told Cleveland.com. Meanwhile, responding investigators suspected the house was intentionally burned down after a K-9 detected an accelerant in the house, according to Cleveland.com. The accelerant obtained from the home was sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for testing. A GoFundMe page was set up for the girl, and it reads: The early morning hours of November 20th changed many people lives. Two bright and beautiful people perished in a home fire. A funeral for Olivia and Pletnewski was held on Nov. 26. Violent Crime Down in 2018 The FBI says in 2017, violent crime has dropped by 0.2 percent, according to a release, but aggravated and rape offenses increased by a respective 1.0 percent and 2.5 percent. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent, the agency said. In 2017, there were an estimated 1,247,321 violent crimes. The estimated number of robbery offenses decreased 4.0 percent, and the estimated number of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses decreased 0.7 percent when compared with estimates from 2016. The estimated volume of aggravated assault and rape (revised definition) offenses increased 1.0 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, says the FBI. The agency added: By violent crime offense, the arrest rate for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter was 3.8 per 100,000 inhabitants; rape (aggregate total using the revised and legacy definition), 7.2; robbery, 29.3; and aggravated assault, 120.4 per 100,000 inhabitants Paul Manafort departs U.S. District Court after a motions hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., May 4, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Mueller Says Manafort Breached Plea Deal by Lying to Investigators Prosecutors from the office of special counsel Robert Mueller alleged that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to investigators and breached his plea deal. Muellers team made the allegations on Nov. 26 as part of a joint filing (pdf) with the defense team. After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsels Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement, Muellers team alleged in the filing. Prosecutors for the special counsel said they plan to detail the nature of the defendants crimes and lies in a separate filing ahead of the sentencing. Manaforts attorneys disagreed with the allegation, telling the court that their client met with investigators on many occasions to answer their questions. Manafort has provided information to the government in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations, Manaforts attorneys stated. He believes he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the governments characterization or that he has breached the agreement. Unable to resolve the conflict, the two sides asked the U.S. District Court in Washington to set a sentencing date. Manafort pleaded guilty in August to two charges of criminal conspiracy as part of a plea deal with Mueller. The deal required Manafort to cooperate with investigators and barred him from engaging in criminal conduct. A breach of the agreement relieves the government of its obligations but leaves Manaforts guilty plea intact, according to the prosecutors. Manafort was already convicted of eight felony charges of financial wrongdoing in a separate case in Virginia, where he is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8. The jury in the Virginia case deadlocked on 10 of the 18 charges. The court dismissed the deadlocked charges in October. Mueller indicted Manafort as part of an investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. None of the charges against Manafort, or any of the other people Mueller indicted, are related to collusion. Manafort, 69, faces up to 31 years in prison depending on the sentencing decisions of the judges in Virginia and Washington. He has been held in solitary confinement at a detention center in Virginia. President Donald Trump is a fierce critic of Muellers investigation. On Nov. 27, the president called the probe a phony witch hunt led by a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue. Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie, Trump said on Twitter. The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. On the same day as the latest development in the Manafort case, former Trump-campaign associate George Papadopoulos started serving a 14-day sentence for lying to the FBI. Mueller has secured guilty pleas from four people accused of lying to investigators: Alex van der Zwaan, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, and Papadopoulos. Navy SEAL Challenges Iconic Image of Teargassed Migrants at Mexico Border The former U.S. Navy SEAL who fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden has weighed in on an iconic photograph of a migrant mother with two barefoot children against a backdrop of a smoking tear gas canister. A good rule for parenting: Dont bum-rush the border of a sovereign nation with your toddlers, wrote former special warfare operator Robert J. ONeill, in a post on Twitter, referring to the Nov. 25 photo taken moments after a group of Central American migrants rushed the border crossing into San Diego and were forced back by tear gas. A good rule for parenting: Dont bum-rush the border of a sovereign nation with your toddlers. Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) November 27, 2018 ONeills post sparked a flurry of comments. One of these, by Twitter user Ali Alexander, shows a series of screenshots of news coverage of the incident by CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS This Morning, and NBC News. Choking on Tear Gas If journalism is filled with honorable pursuers of the truth, Alexander writes, why havent any of them called out their colleagues for scribing the news instead of objectively reporting it? He captioned the collage, Youre allowed to think just this one thing, in an apparent reference to the single-minded framing of the story. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents fired tear gas at a group of migrants at a major U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Diego, after they rushed the border area on the Mexican side, reads the CNN caption. These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas, the Washington Post wrote. A comment to Alexanders post is a meme showing a group of men tearing down what appears to be a border fence in one panel, while a second panel shows the same group transformed into a group of innocent children, after the observer had donned a pair of eyeglasses with a filter labeled CNN. Questionable Parenting Conservative commentator Stefan Molyneux echoed ONeills critical take on the womans decision to bring her children to the attempted forced border crossing and expose them to harm. You can get in serious trouble in America for letting your 10-year-old child walk home from a park unaccompaniedor ride a bike without a helmet, wrote Molyneux, but if you drag a helpless toddler to a very dangerous border invasion, you are a hero. You can get in serious trouble in America for letting your 10-year-old child walk home from a park unaccompanied or ride a bike without a helmet but if you drag a helpless toddler to a very dangerous border invasion, you are a hero. Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) November 26, 2018 The Canadian media personality later tweeted emphatically, Children are not to be carried as photo-op props into the war zone of an illegal border attack! What is WRONG with these parents? he added. Repeat after me, anyone who has a conscience: CHILDREN ARE NOT TO BE CARRIED AS PHOTO-OP PROPS INTO THE WAR ZONE OF AN ILLEGAL BORDER ATTACK! What is WRONG with these parents? Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) November 27, 2018 Fake Tears vs Real Tear Gas In a later tweet, Molyneux suggested coverage of the incident was unfairly biased against President Donald Trump. Obama administration used tear gas at border once a monthWashington Times, the Canadian media personality wrote. Real tear gas under Obama. Fake tears under Trump. Obama administration used tear gas at border once a month Washington Times https://t.co/6e102Hez3p Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) November 27, 2018 The Washington Times article cited by Molyneux referred to Homeland security data showing that the same tear-gas agent that the Trump administration is being criticized for deploying is used routinely, and during the later years of President Barack Obamas administration, as frequently as about once a month. Minimum Force Necessary Trump defended the use of tear gas by border officials, saying, They had to use it because they were being rushed by some very tough people. Heres the bottom line. Nobodys coming into our country unless they come in legally. Border agent and National Border Patrol Council President Hector Garza told Foxs Laura Ingraham that on the day in question all manner of projectiles were thrown at U.S. border agents, yet they responded with minimal force. Our agents were actually under attack, they were assaulted. These migrants were throwing rocks, they were throwing glass bottles, and they were also throwing other debris that was in the area, Garza said. Some of our agents were hit on their head, on their helmets, with these rocks, and there were minor injuries. There was also damage to government vehicles and windows were broken, so this was an assault, this was an invasion on our agents, on our country, and our agents had to respond with a very low-level force, which is the tear gas, he continued. People Were Screaming Reuters photojournalist Kim Kyung-Hoon, who took the photograph, told NBC he started shooting after hearing screams and seeing a commotion. When the tear gas started, some people were screaming and everybody started running away, Kim told NBC News on Monday. I saw the woman and two children running away. One girl was barefoot from the beginning. The other was wearing beach sandals and lost them in the chaos. One canister fell by the family and they started running away, he added. NBC News tracked down the woman, identified as Maria Meza, a 39-year-old mother of five from Honduras, inside a tent at the Benito Juarez Shelter in Tijuana. I grabbed my children and ran, Mesa said of her 5-year-old twin daughters Saira and Sheilly. Kim told NBC that after photographing Meza and her children near the border, he stayed with them as they fled back to the migrant encampment. Asked if he was rattled by what he witnessed, Kim said, My job is to document what is happening. I try not to let my emotions get involved in my work, he said, according to the report. Meza and her children told Reuters they had already spent a week at a Tijuana shelter, but they will likely have to wait longer for a chance to plead their case before U.S. Customs officials. She said she hopes to be granted asylum in the United States due to rampant crime back home, and if successful will travel to Louisiana, where the girls father lives. Haitian activists protest in front of the Clinton Foundation on the eighth anniversary of the Haitian earthquake, in New York City, on Jan. 12, 2018. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) New Reports Reveal Donations to Clinton Foundation Dropped by Almost 58 Percent After Election Loss Recent reports exposed a massive drop in donations to the Clinton Foundation after Hillary Clintons 2016 election loss. Donations dropped by almost 58 percent, according to the New York Post. Recently released tax filings show donations dropped from $62.91 million in 2016, to $26.57 million in 2017. Another source of Clinton cash, fees from speaking engagements, also did a major dip. In 2015, the Clintons received $3.6 million in speaking fees. In 2017, that number dropped to $300,000, according to the Post. The foundation said the drop is due to internal moves. We anticipated a decline in both revenue and expenses for 2017, largely attributable to the absence of sponsorship and membership contributions for CGI, a foundation spokesman told the Post. CGI refers to the Clinton Global Initiative, a foundation project that was shut down. Travel expenses through the foundation that pay for the Clintons to fly first class or by private jet also fell slightly. The $3,917,419 spent in 2016 fell to $2,300,601 in 2017, according to the Post. Ongoing Corruption Probe The foundation has long been the subject of an investigation into misuse of funds along with a pay-to-play scheme during Hillary Clintons time as secretary of state, according to the Post. The investigation was initiated by the FBI in the Clintons home state of Arkansas, and is overseen by the local U.S. attorneys office, CNN and the Post reported. Leading up to the presidential election, Hillary Clinton was asked specific questions about accusations against the foundation during a debate between Clinton and Donald Trump, via PBS NewsHour. (E)mails show that donors got special access to you. Those seeking grants for Haiti relief were considered separately from non-donors, and some of those donors got contracts, government contracts, tax payer money, debate moderator Chris Wallace asked Clinton. Clinton went around the topic, never directly addressing or denying the allegations. She goes on to just praise the work of the foundation. Wallace stops her and tries again to get a direct answer. The specific question went to pay-for-play. Do you want to talk about that ? Clinton doesnt stop to pick up the question. Wallace then asked Trump to talk about his knowledge of the foundation, while Clinton tried to heap more praise on the foundation. Its been very well studied. And its a criminal enterprise and so many people know it. Its a criminal enterprise, said Trump. So Id like to ask you right now: Why dont you give back the money that youve taken from certain countries that treat certain groups of people so horribly? Why dont you give back the money? Trump goes on to talk about the hatred that has built up in Haitian-American communities as a result of the Clintons alleged taking of donations from the 2012 Haiti earthquake relief initiative, where there are questions as to whether or not that money ever reached Haiti. At the time of the earthquake, Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and Bill Clinton was the UN special envoy to Haiti. Many Haitians blame them for the extremely slow recovery efforts despite the massive aid and donations that were supposed to reach the nation, BBC reported. From NTD News A noose hangs on a tree on the state Capitol grounds in Jackson, Miss., on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. A Mississippi official said nooses and signs were found on the grounds of the Mississippi state Capitol. (WLBT-TV via AP) Nooses and Hate Signs Removed From Mississippi State Capitol on Eve of Heated Senate Runoff Nooses were found hanging from trees and hate signs posted on the lawn of the Mississippi State Capitol building, on the eve of a U.S. Senate runoff election that has focused attention on the states troubled history of race relations. The nooses and signs were removed after being reported to the Capitol Police. Officials with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety posted photos of the signs on social media and called on the public to help identify the perpetrators. Chuck McIntosh, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees the Capitol, said the nooses and signs were found starting shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26, outside the Capitol in downtown Jackson. In the early hours of Monday morning, authorities believe several suspects were responsible for posting the signs shown Mississippi Department of Public Safety (Official) Reprehensible The perpetrators of this act will be identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement released on Monday. I have contacted the Department of Public Safety and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for assistance. Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has an office in the Capitol, called the placement of the nooses and signs a reprehensible act and said he would support the resources necessary to find those responsible. The matter is under investigation by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Mississippi Capitol Police, and the U.S. Attorneys Office. With our law enforcement partners, we are actively looking into these acts of hate and intimidation, U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst said in a statement. Let me be perfectly clearthere is absolutely no place in our state for these unacceptable symbols or tactics to intimidate others. If we find evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that a federal crime has occurred, these criminals will be swiftly prosecuted. Hurst added, Let us all respond to these despicable acts by voting, working, raising our families, practicing our faith, and pursuing the American dream here in our great state without fear or trepidation and in harmony with our fellow citizens. The Runoff The nooses and signs, referring to Mississippis history of lynchings and racial violence, were found one day before the runoff between Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy. Hyde-Smith has drawn fire for a photo showing her wearing a replica hat of a Confederate soldier, and a video showing her praising a supporter by saying, If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be on the front row. She said the hanging remark was an exaggerated expression of regard for the supporter and apologized to anyone that was offended, adding that there was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in her remarks. Hyde-Smith said the comment had been twisted and turned into a political weapon used for nothing but personal and political gain by my opponent. Espy, meanwhile, said on Monday he knew nothing about the nooses or signs, and added it would be unfair to make any connection between the items and Hyde-Smith. An election victory would see Espy become the first African-American U.S. senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction. Hyde-Smith campaign spokeswoman Melissa Scallan condemned the nooses by saying, Obviously, this behavior is offensive and has no place in a civilized society. Bryant commented earlier on Hyde-Smiths remarks by saying that the real issue was how abortion was creating a Black genocide. We have been sensitive to race relations in this state, Bryant said, Think Progress reported. Today, I talked about the genocide of over 20 million African-American children. See, in my heart, I am confused about where the outrage is at about 20 million African-American children that have been aborted. President Donald Trump said he had spoken to Hyde-Smith about the lynching comment and said she felt very badly. Well, I know her and I know she apologized, and she misspoke, Trump told reporters on Moday at the White House, according to Politico. Ive known her for a period of time now as senator, Trump told reporters Monday afternoon. Shes been an excellent senator. Shes done a great job. Shes somebody thats respected in the Senate. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Sunrise on the Yalu River in the border city of Dandong, Liaoning Province in northern China on May 24, 2017. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Chinese Province Steps Up Persecution of Minority Faiths, According to Leaked Document A leaked document purportedly from Chinese authorities in the northeastern area of Liaoning Province indicates that they have intensified the persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong and other groups. Bitter Winter, an online English-language magazine covering human rights in China, made the document public on Nov. 21. The website previously has leaked similar internal Chinese Communist Party directives. The latest document, released with redactions, is from the 610 Office branch in Liaoning Province. The 610 Office is a secret police force established by former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin in 1999 expressly to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong. Jiang, feeling threatened by the groups enormous popularitythere were about 70 million to 100 million practitioners in China by the late 1990s, according to official estimatesordered adherents around the country to be thrown into prisons, brainwashing centers, and labor camps, in an effort to force them to abandon their faith. The 610 Office, officially assigned to deal with heretical teachings, played a central role in gathering intelligence on Falun Gong practitioners, tracking them down, and placing them in detention, where they were often tortured. The Chinese regime has labeled Falun Gong and other minority faiths as heretical sects in order to turn public opinion against such groups. The document details a campaign launched in October and to be carried out until December that will target heretical believers and punish them for their online activities, naming both Falun Gong and other targets, though with a strong emphasis on the former. The document was circulated to all 610 Office branches as well as the Liaoning Propaganda Department, Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, Public Security Bureau (akin to police), Justice Bureau, provincial court, and prosecutors office, according to Bitter Winter. The document outlines a mission to crack down on Falun Gong practitioners activities. Attack at first sight, and use high-pressure intimidation, it said. This is chiefly done by finding the key coordinators among Falun Gong adherents, locating their underground site of activities, and destroying the locations where they manufacture counter-propaganda. Many Falun Gong practitioners in China work to spread awareness about the Chinese regimes ongoing persecution while evading the authorities, through methods such as printing fliers and copying CDs at home. Another focus of the campaign is cracking down on Falun Gong practitioners online activities, such as on popular social media platforms like QQ and WeChat, in order to prevent them from communicating with each other and spreading information about Beijings persecution online, the document said. The document also calls for ramping up the knocking on doors campaign to catch any Falun Gong adherents who were not accounted for previously. According to the U.S.-based website Minghui.org, the knocking on doors campaign began in March 2017, whereby a team of police visit the homes of practitioners to probe whether they are still practicing the faith. Anyone found in possession of Falun Gong-related literature or materials is usually detained. The 610 Office particularly mentions Minghui.org, as well as the Chinese-language Epoch Times and its sister media, NTD, as sources for detecting whistleblowers who spread internet political rumorsin other words, information about the persecution. Correspondents for Minghui.org have tracked individual cases of Falun Gong practitioners persecution since 1999, while both The Epoch Times and NTD have covered the subject extensively, sometimes with the assistance of anonymous sources within China. Liaoning Province authorities emphasis on exposing and targeting whistleblowers is a heretofore unheard-of effort to stamp out information about the Falun Gong persecution from reaching domestic citizens and the outside world. The amped-up crackdown is also a reversal of the central authorities decision in March to weaken the 610 Offices power, after the Chinese Communist Party decided to merge the 610 Office and two other offices dedicated to suppressing dissent as part of broader structural reforms. Observers at the time believed the move meant the Falun Gong persecution was becoming a lesser priority. It is unclear whether the aggressive campaign in Liaoning Province is an anomaly or indicative of a larger developing trend. The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2018. (Reuters/Erin Schaff) Oklahoma Death Penalty Case Could Restore Indian Lands A Native American mans legal challenge to his murder conviction in Oklahoma could cause massive disruptions if it is upheld, because it could force the redrawing of legal boundaries in a sizable chunk of the state, a lawyer for the state told the Supreme Court on Nov. 27. The murder case, known as Carpenter v. Murphy, has given rise to a boundary dispute that covers 4,600 square miles of land, including most of Tulsa, Oklahomas second-largest city. Shifting the internal border would have an impact on thousands of criminal cases and cause social, economic, and governmental upheaval, the state argues. The Trump administration supports the states position. If the state loses this case, it says almost half of the states population would suddenly be subject to tribal jurisdiction and that the same kind of transformation could happen in other states with Indian reservationsclaims rejected as fear-mongering by opposing counsel. There will be earth-shattering consequences if the Supreme Court finds in favor of respondent Patrick Dwayne Murphy, the attorney for the state, Lisa S. Blatt, told the eight justices during oral arguments. (Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from the case.) There are 2,000 prisoners in state court who committed a crime in the former Indian territory who self-identify as Native American. This number is grossly under-inclusive because, if the victim was Native American, the state court also lacked jurisdiction. Thats 155 murderers, 113 rapists, and over 200 felons who committed crimes against children, Blatt said. Reopening these cases would re-traumatize the victims, the families, and the communities, Blatt said. Nor is it clear that the federal government could retry any of these cases because the evidence is too stale or the statute of limitations has expired, which appears to be the case in about half of them. Ruling in favor of Murphy raises a specter of tearing apart families all across eastern Oklahoma, and probably beyond, for years and years and years and years after the fact, she said. Thats because under the Indian Child Welfare Act, any tribe, any parent, and any child can undo any prior Indian child welfare custody proceeding if the state court lacked jurisdiction because the Indian child lived on a reservation. Crime and Appeal Murphy, a member of the Muscogee tribe, was convicted in 2000 by a state court jury in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, of murdering another Muscogee man named Greg Jacobs, and was sentenced to death. The two men fought over a woman who lived with Murphy but had previously been in a relationship with Jacobs. Murphy stabbed Jacobs, sliced off his genitals, and left his body by the side of a road. Murphy contends the state had no legal right to try him because the victim was also an Indian and the crime took place on Indian territory, as established by an 1866 treaty. A federal law known as 18 U.S.C. 1153 grants the federal government exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by or against Native Americans in so-called Indian country. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit threw out the conviction, agreeing with Murphys reasoning. Murphy had raised the same territorial argument before state courts without success. He also previously argued unsuccessfully that his legal counsel at trial was ineffective and that he was intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Murphys territorial argument and determined the crime took place on state land. The 10th Circuit disagreed. Mr. Murphys state conviction and death sentence are thus invalid, the circuit court stated. The OCCA erred by concluding the state courts had jurisdiction, and the district court erred by concluding the OCCAs decision was not contrary to clearly established federal law. Whenever a Native American is charged with murder on an Indian reservation, that person has to be tried in federal court, the circuit court ruled, citing earlier precedent. The circuit court determined that the crime took place on land that was part of an Indian reservation that was never formally disestablished by Congress. Tribal Sovereignty During oral arguments, Blatt got into an extended back-and-forth with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan about the history and current status of the reservation. Eastern Oklahoma, where the crime took place, isnt an Indian reservation because Congress destroyed all features of a reservation by terminating all sovereignty over the land in the march up to statehood, Blatt said. Congress stripped the former Indian territory of reservation status by terminating all tribal sovereignty over the area to create Oklahoma. Sotomayor interrupted, asking for the exact date when this disestablishment of Indian sovereignty took place. Our position is it was done by statehood, Blatt replied. Sotomayor countered that at the time Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the tribe still existed. We dont have to give you a date, Blatt said. Rome did not fall in a day. We know it fell by 476, but it was sacked several times before that. But Kagan told the at-times abrasive Blatt that things were less clear-cut. In 1901, Congress planned to terminate all sovereignty by 1906, but then extended tribal government in order to wind things up, Kagan said. Then Congress extended tribal government again, she said. Whatever Congress thought it might want to do, it decided it didnt want to do it in the end. After a few minutes, Kagan expressed frustration. Im still not getting it, she told Blatt. Justices Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh asked Murphys lawyer, Ian Gershengorn, why they should make a ruling that would potentially be so disruptive to Oklahoma. Kavanaugh said, Stability is a critical value in judicial decision-making, and we would be departing from that and creating a great deal of turmoil. Breyer said, There are 1.8 million people living in this area what happens to all those people? Gershengorn said, The states concerns are dramatically overstated. He acknowledged there would be significant but not existential ramifications. There will be limits on state authority over income tax and sales tax of tribal members on the reservation. But the kind of seismic change Blatt identified wont happen, he said. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks to the media with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on Oct. 27, 2015. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) President of Honduras Brother Arrested, Charged With Drug Trafficking in United States One of the brothers of the current president of Honduras was arrested and charged with drug trafficking and weapons charges, United States officials announced on Nov. 26. Antonio Tony Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman and a brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, was arrested on Nov. 23, officials said while announcing the charges. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said that Hernandez and other politicians and law enforcement officials helped multiple drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras send loads of cocaine from the country to other countries, including Colombia, with the ultimate destination of the United States, in return for bribes. From at least in or about 2004, up to and including in or about 2016, Hernandez was involved in processing, receiving, transporting, and distributing multi-ton loads of cocaine that arrived in Honduras via planes, go-fast vessels, and, on at least one occasion, a submarine. Hernandez had access to cocaine laboratories in Honduras and Colombia, at which some of the cocaine was stamped with the symbol TH, i.e., Tony Hernandez,' the DEA stated. Hernandez also coordinated and, at times, participated in providing heavily armed security for cocaine shipments transported within Honduras, including by members of the Honduran National Police and drug traffickers armed with, among other weapons, machine guns. In one case, Hernandez met with Devis Maradiaga, the former leader of the drug trafficking organization known as the Cachiros, for a meeting. $50,000 Bribe Video and audio obtained by DEA agents showed that Hernandez agreed to help the criminal in return for $50,000. Maradiaga, testified last year in New York that Tony Hernandez asked him for a bribe in exchange for government contracts. Rivera was trying to get Honduras government to pay its debts to a company his cartel used to launder money. In a statement after the testimony, Tony Hernandez denied involvement in illegal activities and said he was at the disposition of Honduran or international justice for any investigation. He noted that hed given voluntary testimony to U.S. authorities in Miami in 2016 and testified to Honduras Public Ministry last year. I reaffirm strongly that I am ready to collaborate with any investigation that is carried out in a serious fashion, he said. And like I did before, I am ready to present myself again to authorities in the United States if it is required because he who doesnt owe, doesnt fear. Hernandez, 40, was charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, using and carrying machine guns during the conspiracy, conspiracy to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices to further the conspiracy, and lying to federal agents. No One is Above the Law The first count carries a sentence of at least 10 years, and up to life, in prison; the second count carries a sentence of at least 30 years, and up to life, in prison. If convicted of the third count, Hernandez faces up to life in prison. The fourth count has a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Drug trafficking and corruption around the world threatens the rule of law, fuels violence and instability, and harms innocent families and communities, said DEA Special Agent in Charge Raymond Donovan, who leads the Special Operations Division, in a statement. Hernandez and his criminal associates allegedly conspired with some of the worlds most deadly and dangerous transnational criminal networks in Mexico and Colombia to flood American streets with deadly drugs. DEA looks forward to Hernandez facing American justice and answering for his alleged crimes. After his brothers arrest Friday, the presidents administration reiterated an earlier statement that no one is above the law, and every person must have the right to a legitimate defense and be presumed innocent. The statement also said that the president maintains that everyone is responsible for his or her actions and cant shift accountability to other people. The government said it would see that justice was carried out with absolute openness and strict observance to the law. The Associated Press contributed to this report. From NTD News Russia Starts Prosecuting Ukrainians After Sea Clash KIEV, UkraineRussia on Nov. 27, began prosecuting the crew of Ukrainian navy vessels captured over the weekend in a confrontation off Crimea, putting some of the seamen on camera, where they confessed to intruding into Russian waters. Ukraine demanded that Russia stop using psychological and physical pressure on the sailors, as tensions between the two neighbors escalated. Ukraines top diplomat called the men prisoners of war, telling The Associated Press that displaying them on TV was a crime. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for Sundays clash in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The incident has drawn strong criticism of Russia by the United States and its allies and fueled fears of a full-blown conflict in eastern Ukraine. Ukraines parliament on Monday adopted a motion by President Petro Poroshenko to impose martial law for 30 days in parts of the countrya measure that Kiev avoided even when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 or sent clandestine troops and weapons to separatists in eastern Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned the move could cause hostilities to flare up in eastern Ukraine. The introduction of martial law could potentially raise the threat of escalation of tensions in the region of conflict, he told reporters. Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014, a conflict that has left over 10,000 dead, but fighting has eased since a truce in 2015. Martial law went into effect in several parts of Ukraine, including areas bordering territory held by the separatists. In Sundays confrontation, Ukraine sent three small naval vessels from their Black Sea base in Odessa to Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov. The Russian coast guard blocked their way near the Kerch Strait and at one point rammed one of the Ukrainian vessels to keep it from passing through the narrow waterway. The ships had spent tense hours maneuvering until the Russians opened fire and seized the Ukrainian vessels and crew. The Ukrainian navy said that six of its seamen were wounded, while Russia said that three Ukrainian crewmen were slightly injured. Ukraine said 24 of its sailors were taken into custody. Russian state television broadcast separate interviews with three of the seamen, who said that the Russian coast guard repeatedly warned them that they were violating Russias territorial waters and urged them to leave. It was not clear if the men were talking under duress, but one was clearly reading from a script on camera. Ukraines National Security Service, or SBU, demanded that Russia stop using psychological and physical pressure on the menan apparent reference to the interviews. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the AP in an interview that he has asked the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross to arrange a visit with the captives and is awaiting a Russian response. He said some of the seamen had been seriously injured in the clash. Its not a political issue here, because we can have an argument about the legal status, but its about simply concentrating on protecting them and helping them, Klimkin said. When asked about the seamen shown on Russian TV, Klimkin said: even to put prisoners of war on television is already a crime. A court in the Crimean regional capital of Simferopol put 12 of the Ukrainians in custody for two months pending trial on charges of violating the Russian border. One of the seamen, Yuri Budzylo, commented briefly to media while awaiting the court decision, saying his vessel was sent into the Sea of Azov with the understanding that an agreement was in place for free passage for Ukrainian ships. Ukraine said its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules, while Russia alleged they had failed to get permission to pass. A 2003 treaty between the two countries designated the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, but Russia claimed the strait in its entirety after annexing Crimea and has sought to assert greater control over the passage. Klimkin said the use of force against the Ukrainian vessels was a show of strength by Russia intended to buttress Russian President Vladimir Putins falling approval ratings. He needs a permanent crisis with Ukraine, he told the AP. Declaring martial law was needed to protect Ukraine from a possible Russian invasion, Klimkin said. But Russian officials and state media cast the incident and the imposition of martial law as an attempt to shore up Poroshenkos own sagging popularity ahead of a presidential election in March. Martial law allows the current government to flex its muscles and try to bolster public support, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. Or they could be looking at canceling the election as an ultimate move. NATO on Tuesday emphasized its full support to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, noting there is no justification for Russias use of military force against Ukrainian ships. It urged Russia to release the Ukrainian seamen and vessels promptly. Russia insisted it was protecting its waters against an illegal intrusion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that Ukrainian ships in the past had sought and quickly got permissions to pass through the strait. Speaking on a visit to Paris, Lavrov accused Ukraine of a deliberate provocation and urged the West to warn Ukraines leadership against playing with fire. Putin spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel early Tuesday, expressing serious concern about what martial law in Ukraine might entail. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Berlin has urged both Russia and Ukraine to show the greatest possible restraint and suggested that Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine could work together to resolve the tensions. Lavrov rejected that offer, saying he did not see a need for any kind of mediators. He spoke after meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who appeared to soften his criticism of Moscow. Frances Foreign Ministry said shortly after the incident that nothing justifies Russias use of force, but after long talks with Lavrov, Le Drian blamed the standoff on the high level of militarization in the region and avoided pointing the finger at Russia. The U.S. and the European Union have slapped sanctions on Russian businesses, tycoons, and banks over the annexation of Crimea. By Nataliya Vasilyeva, Kate De Pury and Niko Price Paramilitary policemen gesture to stop a photographer from taking pictures as they stand guard after an explosives attack hit downtown Urumqi in Xinjiang, China, on May 23, 2014. (Petar Kujundzic/Reuters) Scholars Condemn China for Mass Detention of Muslim Uyghurs WASHINGTONCountries must hit China with sanctions over the mass detention of ethnic Uyghurs, hundreds of scholars said on Nov. 26, warning that a failure to act would signal acceptance of psychological torture of innocent civilians. Beijing has in recent months faced an outcry from activists, academics and foreign governments over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the Muslim Uyghur minority and other ethnic groups in the restive western region of Xinjiang. In August, a U.N. human rights panel said it had received many credible reports that a million or more Uyghurs and other minorities are being held in what resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy in the region. Representatives from a group of 278 scholars in various disciplines from dozens of countries called on China at a news briefing in Washington to end its detention policies, and for sanctions directed at key Chinese leaders and security companies linked to the abuses. This situation must be addressed to prevent setting negative future precedents regarding the acceptability of any states complete repression of a segment of its population, especially on the basis of ethnicity or religion, the group said in a statement. Countries should expedite asylum requests from Xinjiangs Muslim minorities, as well as spearhead a movement for U.N. action aimed at investigating this mass internment system and closing the camps, it said. But after initial denials about the detention camps, Chinese officials have said some people guilty of minor offenses were being sent to vocational training centers, where they are taught work skills and legal knowledge aimed at curbing militancy. However, a report published on Nov. 5 by U.S. think-tank the Jamestown Foundation found that despite the purported large vocational training campaign, employment outcomes had not markedly improved, according to Xinjiangs own official employment figures. Xinjiangs budget figures do not reflect increased spending on vocational education Rather, they reflect patterns of spending consistent with the construction and operation of highly secure political re-education camps designed to imprison hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs with minimal due process, said the reports author, Adrian Zenz, an anthropologist at the European School of Culture and Theology in Germany. The Chinese regime has used the excuse that Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tensions with the ethnic Han Chinese majority to crack down on the local population in Xinjiang. Michael Clarke, a Xinjiang expert at Australian National University who signed the statement, told reporters that China sought international respect for its weight in global affairs. The international community needs to demonstrate to Beijing that it will not actually get that while its doing this to a significant portion of its own citizenry, Clarke said. U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Nov. 14 urging a stronger response by the Trump administration to Chinas crackdown on minority Muslims, including possible sanctions against officials, such as Xinjiang Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo, and companies linked to accusations of human rights abuses. Other sanctions raised for consideration by the proposed act include a ban on sales or provision of U.S.-made goods or services to Xinjiang state agents and the barring of certain Chinese entitiesincluding the Xinjiang police bureaufrom purchasing U.S.-made equipment that could be used for surveillance. By Michael Martina & Philip Wen. The Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. Houses destroyed by fighting between Syrian Democratic Forces and ISIS terrorists are pictured in Raqqa's old city in Syria Oct. 5, 2017. (Reuters/Erik De Castro) Syrias Raqqa Struggles to Revive Schools RAQQA, SyriaIn the Syrian city of Raqqa, children wear hats, scarves, and coats to guard against the winter cold as they struggle to catch up on years of lost learning in a classroom with no doors or glazed windows. More than a year since conflict at Raqqa has ended, many of the citys schools still look like battlefields with buildings left lying in rubble and playgrounds dotted with wrecked cars. When the crisis started, we stopped studying, the schools closed. Now weve come back to study and we need help. Fix the windows, doors, were dying of cold, said 12-year-old Abdullah al-Hilal at Uqba bin Nafie school. ISIS terrorist group, which turned Raqqa into the Syrian headquarters of its self-declared caliphate, kept schools shut as it tried to impose its ultra-radical vision of Islam through its own education system. Since ISISs defeat there in October 2017, 44 schools have reopened with 45,000 children enrolled, said Ali al-Shannan, the head of the education council set up by civilian authorities in Raqqa. The children have lost out on five years of schooling. Very basic aid had allowed for some renovation work, covering only 10 percent of needs, Shannan told Reuters. The schools generally have no doors, no windows, in addition to the sanitation systems that are in a deplorable state, he said. At Uqba bin Nafie school, one classroom looks out onto a wrecked building, its floors collapsed on top of each other and a car flipped on its side nearby. In the yard, children stand around large pools of dirty water while others eat snacks by the crumpled wreckage of another vehicle. Stabilization ISIS used Raqqas schoolslike much of the cityfor military purposes, digging tunnels under some of them. Some of the schools were hit by air strikes, Raqqa residents say. Amnesty International has said 80 percent of the city still lies in ruins, with thousands of bodies under the rubble. The United States has provided assistance in Raqqa focusing on basic necessities including demining, water, and electricity allowing inhabitants of Raqqa to stabilize themselves, but there is still a lot that needs to be done. The coalition has also supported the reopening of schools. UNICEF, the U.N. childrens agency, estimates that 2.1 million children in Syria are out of school. In Raqqa, UNICEF is providing textbooks to more than 121,000 children so they can get a start while waiting for a classroom, said Juliette Touma, UNICEFs regional chief of communications. The self-learning program allows children who are out of school to learn at home, an NGO or community learning center, she said. Shannan said 57,000 books have been received so far, short of 95,000 he said had been requested. The need was growing as the number of children registered for school increases, he said. As winter sets in, the dilapidated state of the schools is leading some children to miss out on yet more lessons. Ayman al-Qurt, the director of at Uqba bin Nafie school, says attendance in one of his classes is just 11 of 38 pupils because of the bad state of the school and the bad weather. By Aboud Hamam The Great Divide: Sex and the Rise of Anti-Christian Bigotry Commentary In his dissent from the 2015 Supreme Court decision in the case that required all states to recognize same-sex marriage, Justice Samuel Alito noted that the decision will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy. He is skeptical of the majoritys reassurance that the conscience rights of those who maintain a traditional view of marriage would be protected. We will soon see whether this proves to be true. I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools, Alito writes. How quickly he was proved right. How abruptly the tone changed from one of love and tolerance and assurances that same-sex marriage would have no effect on those who did not believe such a union was a real marriage. The vindictiveness of the victors toward the vanquished was swift and relentless. In the blink of an eye, progressive rhetoric went from live and let live! to punish the wicked!, as gay megadonor Tim Gill put it regarding his determination to go after Christians who hold traditional views about sexual morality. Small businesses owned by Christian bakers, florists, photographers, and even a pizza chef were targeted aggressively by pro-LGBT organizationsnot for refusing to serve gay customers, but for refusing to use their art to celebrate homosexual unions. Many were harassed, and some were driven out of business by ruinous lawsuits. Live and let live! gave way to bake the cake, bigot! A New Target Now it seems the Antifa group in Berkeley has targeted a new enemya soft-spoken Asian member of the student government named Isabella Chow, the daughter of Malaysian-Cambodian immigrants who campaigned on a platform of representing Cals Christian community,' Nancy Pearcey wrote in the Daily Caller. Chows crime was, as Antifa put it on Twitter, her horribly homophobic and transphobic ideas and her disgusting position. Chow had abstained on a resolution to condemn the proposed restoration of the word sex in Title IX to its original meaning of biological sex. In her mild and civil statement, Chow spoke out against bullying and discrimination and for love and compassion. That said, she stated, I believe that God created male and female and designed sex for marriage between one man and one woman. She could not vote for the student senates bill without compromising her values and her responsibility to the community that elected her to represent them. Chow was harassed and lambasted across campus, not least by the student newspaper, which denounced her but refused to allow her to publish a response, and by the student senate, which harangued her for three hours in a packed meeting. The student senator who introduced the original resolution for the Queer Alliance and Resource Center expressed outrage that Chow would actually ask the senate to respect her beliefs as she does ours. He said in a statement, What Senator Chow expressed tonight were not beliefs at allthey were hateful prejudices that deserve nothing less than the strongest condemnation. Overheated as the anti-Christian rhetoric may be, it points to a profound divide that has opened upor rather become more evident than it was before. Rationality and Marriage Views of sex and marriage that had been uncontroversial across the political spectrum and the centuries now become incomprehensible to cultural elites. Some proponents of the new orthodoxy claimed that marriages of same-sex couples had been excluded in all cultures throughout history purely out of prejudice and bigotry. Inconveniently for this theory, in cultures where homosexual relationships were highly valued, they were not confused with or seen as equivalent to marriage. It is true that, as orthodox Jews and Christians taught, the Bible condemns all sexual acts, fornication, and adultery as well as homosexual acts that occur outside marriage between a man and a woman. In the anti-Christian, sexually liberal view, this strict sexual morality simply demonstrates the irrational and pleasure-denying nature of the God Jews and Christians created and worshiped. They can see no rational basis for Gods moral instructions to his people, other than the arbitrary exercise of will and power. But, at least in the central Catholic tradition, Christians emphasize precisely Gods rationality. He wills that we follow his commandments because that is how we are made and how we flourish as individuals, families, and societies. Following the moral law makes us free to live and thrive without destructive habits or vices that enslave us. From this perspective, Christians behave rationally when they follow the moral law; they do what is good for themselves, their families, and societies, as well as their souls. So there is no contradiction between what Christianity teaches on one hand and, on the other, what is rational and based in the realities of our nature and what is needful for human flourishing. In cultures across the world, in different faith traditions, marriage has been recognized and ordered in the very earliest legal codes, because of the importance of sex and babies to the survival and flourishing of any human society. It is the way every human society adjusts to the realities of human reproduction. That is, it expresses societys dependence on the sexual union of a man and a woman in the one and only sexual act that can in principle create new life. Marriage takes account of the long maturation period human babies require to reach adulthood. Children depend on the mothers care (or a substitutes where necessary) over many years, and the fathers provision and protection of mother and children. Marriage exists, with its legal, social, cultural, and emotional norms and requirements, in order, as an early pagan lawgiver put it, to create fatherhood. That is, it was to ensure, as far as possible, the optimal social arrangement for the bearing and raising of children. Most striking about the new progressive orthodoxy is the extent to which it is based on a denial of reality, breaking the links that connect marriage to sex and both to children. It strips from marriage any clear rationale for its central featuresan exclusive sexual union between a man and a woman in a social context that supports the bearing and raising of children. Instead, marriage is reduced to a kind of state-registered friendship, with no rationale for sex as a defining feature, for exclusivity, or for sexual complementarity. The disastrous results of this sexual revolution for women, children, and the flourishing of society are increasingly clear and undeniable, but that is the subject for another column. Here I maintain, more modestly, that it is not at all clear, as those who harass and denounce Chow at Berkeley think, that it is the Christians, not their enemies, who are bigots and deny reality. Paul Adams is a professor emeritus of social work at the University of Hawaii and was a professor and associate dean of academic affairs at Case Western Reserve University. He is the co-author of Social Justice Isnt What You Think It Is and has written extensively on social welfare policy and professional and virtue ethics. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Mirage of the Chinese Dream A look at The American Dream is Alive. In China by The New York Times The American Dream is Alive. In China. This headline not only pits the concepts of the American Dream and the Chinese dream against each other, it also turns the century-old mainstay of American newspapers, The New York Times, into a main front in this battle. Aside from raising eyebrows from the Chinese Twitter community, a careful parsing of the article uncovers a sobering subject for Americans the onslaught of globalization against the American Dream. Upward Mobility in Chinese Society Has Long Been a Thing of the Past The official Twitter account of The New York Times published the following tweet on November 19: There are two 18-year-olds, one in China, the other in the United States, both poor and short on prospects. You have to pick the one with the better chance at upward mobility. Which would you choose? Not long ago, the answer might have seemed simple. The American Dream, after all, had long promised a pathway to a better life for anyone who worked hard. But the answer today is startling: China has risen so quickly that your chances of improving your station in life there vastly exceed those in the United States. These words are excerpts from The American Dream is Alive. In China., with the key word being upward mobility. This is precisely the essence of the American Dream that Americans hold in such high esteem. As to interpretations of the Dream, there are many versions. The one that has long captured the imagination of the general public is: no matter what ones class is at birth, one is able to, through determination and hard work, climb up the ladder of society. In short, the essence of the American Dream is the possibility of upward mobility through ones own efforts. Because I live the United States, I find the perspective that this article takes quite interesting. The article cites the 49-year-old Xu Liyaa poor farmer whose family rose to middle-class affluence. This is a common occurrence in the coastal areas of Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian and other provinces. However, the focus is not on such stories, but on the the point that specifically within Chinas growing middle class, children have higher incomes than their parents. This has indeed been the reality in China over the past 40 years, and especially so for those born in the 1940s and 1950s, having experienced tremendous changes resulting from Chinas evolution from extreme poverty to being the second largest economy in the world. Except for the large number of workers in state-owned enterprises who were laid off in the mid-1990s, the income of most Chinese was indeed increasing, and peoples social status improved, to various degrees. Income during the latter half of life was also much higher than the first half. But this upward flow in China was short-lived. It began in 1978 and lasted to around 2004, or only a couple decades. As early as 2005, Peking University instructor Wen Dongmao wrote a survey report titled The Influence of Family Background on Higher Education Opportunity and Graduate Employment in China. The survey subjects were college and university graduates from around the country, and their fathers occupations and education level were taken as indicators of family background. One section of the report analyzed the influence of family background on graduate employment, and found that the fathers occupational status tended to determine his childrens employment opportunities. Other factors, such as salary level and chances for promotion, were also directly related to the social status of ones parents. The survey showed that, in terms of salary, the higher the fathers social class, the higher the average starting salary of the graduates. The average monthly income of the graduates whose fathers are peasants were on average 400 and 300 yuan less than fathers who held positions in administrative and managerial work, respectively. The survey revealed that the overall trend in Chinese society pointed to a cruel reality of increasing stratification. Later, more of these kinds of surveys were published surveys, verifying that rural and urban children without any connections have a hard time seeking employment. Chinese born after the 1970s and 1980s did not experience the Cultural Revolution. Although their wages are much higher than their parents generation, increases in the pricing of housing, childrens education and other expenses have been climbing faster than wages. In particular, those born after the 1980s, even if they graduate from college, are deeply aware that the path to success has become extremely narrow. Unless we naively accept the existence of people like the Party-approved internet celebrity Zhou Xiaoping as an example of how social mobility in China is still smooth, it is obvious that China has long suffered from social stratification. And with opportunities to ascend in Chinese society being increasingly scarce, pent-up frustration has made the downtrodden more prone to violence than ever before. The expansion of the middle class has long since ceased. This class reached the most brilliant point of its expansion 10 years ago when it made up 23 percent of the population, but it has been shrinking ever since. The latest survey data released by Professor Li Qiang of Tsinghua University in 2017 says that the middle class makes up only 19.12 percent of the population. As to the happy life that the middle class enjoys, an article recently published and widely shared in China called The Pains of 200 Million New Members of the Middle Class cited an online survey concluding that the new middle class was being suffocated by home loans, costs of education, and expenses for taking care of elderly parents. Members of this class have been colloquially dubbed the green pepper crowd, as the Chinese for green pepper meaning pronounced the same as that word that means anxiety. The author of The American Dream is Alive. In China. appears to be quite unfamiliar with these recent occurrences. As the American Dream Fades, Young People Gravitate Toward Socialism The reason the New York Times makes this comparison is because in the past 20 years, the income, job opportunities, and opportunities for upward mobility of American youth have not been as good as their parents. Harvard professors Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Brown University professor John Friedman jointly established a series of research projects titled The Equality of Opportunity Project to explore changes in class mobility and the social factors behind these changes of the American generation spanning the past half-century. The researchers collected income tax return data from 1996 to 2012 and investigated 6.3 million U.S. citizens born between 1980 and 1981. Through the family kinship declared on the forms, they were able to successfully match 95 percent of the respondents with their parents. Their research shows that American social mobility has declined significantly over the past half-century. About 90 percent of the population born around 1940 have a higher income level than their parents, but for those born in 1980, that figure had slipped to just 50 percent. For the American public, the simple American Dream of living a better life than ones parents looks increasingly out of reach. In January 2017, a report issued by the American youth organization Young Invincibles showed that compared to baby boomer parents from post-World War II, although the overall level of education increased, members of the Millennial Generation (also known as Generation Y) born between 1980 and 1995 lagged in terms of income and real estate. Using data from the Federal Reserve, the report compared millennials between the ages of 25 and 34 in 2013 with baby boomers of the same age in 1989. The findings were that millennials had a median annual income of $40,581, 20 percent less than their parents generation, a median net worth of $10090, or 56 percent less than the baby boomer generation, and had a house ownership rate of 43 percent, also 46 percent lower than their parents on average. The Associated Press noted that the report revealed painful gaps between the two generations. Understanding these gaps helps us to understand why 52 percent of millennials wish they lived in a socialist country, and why 6 percent of young people see communism as the optimum choice in ideology: it is because the American Dream is fading. Whats Behind the Misconception? The misconception that opportunities for upward social mobility are greater in China than in the United States is an illusion created by the social upheaval in China over the past 40 years. From the 1980s to the present, by means of state-commercial relations characterized by transactions of power and money, China has produced a cohort of super-rich who started from rock bottom. In 2018, China had 819 billionaires, outstripped the United States 571 billionaires for the third consecutive year. For the world outside China, the behind-the-scenes opacity of Chinese-style state-commerce relations is seemly unimportant. To them, the long list of rich Chinese individuals is enough to prove that China must have afforded its population many opportunities for development and upward social mobility. Meanwhile, in the United States, the progressive ideology is currently mainstream, and as such is difficult to challenge. Because of this, it is inconvenient to recognize the obvious fact that the decline in income and increase in unemployment among young Americans corresponds directly to the globalization that began in the 1990s. In May 2016, former World Bank senior economist Branko Milanovic and Yale University political science professor John E. Roemer published an article in the Harvard Business Review, pointing out that following the trend of globalization and the rapid rise of China and India, inequality around the world had been greatly reduced. But within many countries, the polarization between rich and poor continued to expand. From 1988 to 2011, the income of middle- and lower-class families in developed countries had barely changed, and the growth rate was quite slow. In most countries, especially big countries like the United States and Russia, the gap between rich and the poor is increasing. The process of globalization began in the 1990s after Bill Clinton took office as U.S. President. At the time, the United States began opening its arms to immigrants from all over the world. During the Obama era, the door was opened even wider. No matter old or young, as long as you wanted to come, it was usually possible to get in. This generosity gave many people in developing countries the opportunity to improve their living conditions. But the United States has also changed from a melting pot to a salad bowl. An unexpected problem for American society is that American youth must now compete with the best young people from all over the world, which greatly increases the difficulty of finding a job. It is not merely the case that immigrants are competing for job opportunities with American blue-collar workers; elite universities have also continuously produced foreign academic refugees. According to a New York Times report in December 2013, a 2011 National Science Foundation survey of elite universities showed that 35 percent of new PhD degree holdersand 43 percent of humanities PhDsdid not sign an employment letter of intent upon completing their studies. It is expected that less than half of the doctorates intend to pursue a lifelong career as an educator. The American Dream is Alive. In China. ignores the vast differences between the Chinese and American social and political systems, as well as their degree of openness. It compares Chinas flash-in-the-pan upswing of a little over 20 years with a short-term decline in the United Statess greater trend of upward flow. It is the study of a discrete point: the speed with which a minority of people got rich is lost in the articles bias, and its conclusions border on absurdity. He Qinglian is a prominent Chinese author and economist. Currently based in the United States, she authored Chinas Pitfalls, which concerns corruption in Chinas economic reform of the 1990s, and The Fog of Censorship: Media Control in China, which addresses the manipulation and restriction of the press. She regularly writes on contemporary Chinese social and economic issues. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Trump Puts African-Americans Before Illegal Caravan Aliens at Biloxi Election Rally Illegal immigration has to be stopped because it hurts employment opportunities for African-American workers, U.S. President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally on Nov. 26 in Biloxi, Mississippi. President Trump told thousands of voters who came to support the Mississippi Senate runoff campaign of Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) that illegal aliens, including those who join the caravans between Mexico and the United States, are putting American workers at a disadvantage. Illegal immigration is also deeply unfair to American workers, including African-American workers. People do not realize what happens, Trump said. My administration will always put the citizens of our country first. The policy of open borders are a threat to every community. The Economic Policy Institute found that in the third quarter of 2018, black unemployment was at least double the white unemployment rate across the United Statesat 6.3 percent compared to 3.2 percent respectively. Asian worker unemployment was just 3 percent, according to the institute. The president sent a clear message to the people in the caravans who still believe they might make it into the United States. To the lawless caravans and illegal trespassers marching toward our border, it is very simple: Turn back now, go back home, we will not let you in, Trump said, as people attending the rally repeatedly chanted, Build the wall. Frankly, if we did not show them strength and a strong border, if we did not do that, you would have hundreds of thousands of people pouring into our country. We are doing a job and will continue to do a job. We are doing whats right. The runoff was triggered in Mississippi when neither incumbent Sen. Hyde-Smith or her main competitor Mike Espy (D-Miss.) secured the majority of the vote needed to win the Nov. 6 election. Hyde-Smith won 42 percent of the votes while Espy won 40 percent. According to ballotpedia.org, the runoff decides through a secondary primary election which of the top candidates from the first primary election will be elected to office. The outcome of the runoff will be decided on Nov. 27. Data Shows Link Between Illegal Immigration and Crime Since November 2016, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 235,000 illegal aliens with criminal records, according to Trump. The president also said the Texas Department of Public Safety found that illegal immigrants committed more than 663,000 crimes between the years 2011 and 2018. You hear these stories about, Oh, they do not commit crimes, we commit crimes. They do not commit crimes. Always, it is us. No, no, it does not work that way. It is fake news, Trump said as the audience applauded. Election Will Boil Down to Traditional Values Hyde-Smith agrees that the Nov. 27 election will be about a variety of issues, including lower taxes, lighter regulations, protecting the life of unborn babies, and better support for the military, police, and war veterans. I have worked very hard for you, and you can count on me when it comes to your conservative values, she said. It is such a critical election tomorrow [Nov. 27] we have got to go out. Whats on the ballot tomorrow is not just my name, Cindy Hyde-Smith, it is your conservative values. That is what is on the ballot tomorrow. Trump, Some Experts Reject Conclusions of Climate Report President Donald Trump was not alone on Nov. 26, when he dismissed the findings of a congressionally mandated report on climate change. Environment and energy experts from three prominent think tanks agree that the report was prepared by politically motivated holdovers from the Obama administration and is based on bad science and flawed models. The report, prepared by more than a dozen government departments and agencies, forecasts that the United States stands to lose billions of dollars if it continues with current environmental policies. The report asserts that unless drastic measures are taken, the effects of climate change will harm humans, limit water availability, damage infrastructure, and alter coastlines. Ive seen it, Ive read some of it, and its fine, Trump told reporters at the White House on Nov. 26. I dont believe it. Some experts agree. Patrick Michaels, director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute and a former president of the American Association of State Climatologists, said in a statement that there was little change between the final report released last week and the draft assessment published in February. The final version contains the same fatal flaws we noted earlier this year, Michaels said. Its based upon a family of climate models that are predicting far more warming than has been occurring in the all-important tropical atmosphere. While media outlets often present key climate change issues as settled science, there is no consensus on the major topics, including how much human activity is contributing to climate change and whether humanitys current course will lead to catastrophic outcomes like those outlined in the report, according to H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the Heartland Institute and the managing editor of Environment and Climate News. The interesting thing about the difference between the draft report and this report is they make much more alarming claims about disaster than they made in the [draft] report despite the fact they are using the same data, Burnett told The Epoch Times. They make all these assumptions about the future and they ignore basic science. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to undo Obama-era policies that he said harmed the interests of the United States. Last year, the president announced his intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. Trump has also rolled back Obama-era environmental and climate rules such as the Clean Power Plan, while enacting policies to boost output of oil, gas, and coal. Under Trump, the United States became the largest crude oil producer in the world, outpacing Russia and Saudi Arabia. The National Climate Assessment was produced by the Obama administration and released by the Trump administration. It was produced to support President Obamas climate agenda, including his anti-energy policies and regulatory onslaught, which were designed to raise energy prices and control how much and what kinds of energy people can use, Myron Ebell, director of CEIs Center for Energy and Environment, said in a statement about the climate report, adding that the assessment is full of dubious and outright junk science. The alarmists claims about the rate and impacts of global warming are based on discredited computer models rather than data. The U.S. government released the climate report two weeks before the U.N. climate change convention was to take place in Poland. During the conference, the Heartland Institute plans to publish a 1,000-page critique of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended the presidents stance during a press briefing on Nov. 27. Even Obamas undersecretary for science didnt believe the radical conclusions of the report, Sanders said. The biggest thing that we can do is focus on how to make sure we have the cleanest air and the cleanest water and the president is certainly doing that and certainly leading on that front. Trump Says He Expects to Raise China Tariffs WASHINGTON/BEIJINGU.S. President Donald Trump said on Nov. 26 he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump said it was highly unlikely he would accept Chinas request to hold off on the increase, which is due to take effect on Jan. 1. The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States, Trump told the Journal. As far as other countries are concerned, thats up to them. Trump, who is due to meet Xi on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, said that if negotiations were unsuccessful, he would also put tariffs on the rest of Chinese imports. If we dont make a deal, then Im going to put the $267 billion additional on, at a tariff rate of either 10 percent or 25 percent, Trump told the Journal. A Chinese official told reporters last week that the two leaders would look to set guidelines for future talks. The main issue is how to settle down the trade war, the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of preparatory negotiations. I am conservatively optimistic that can be done, he added. At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated Chinas hope that both sides could work towards a positive outcome from the meeting between the two leaders, citing a consensus they reached during a Nov. 1 telephone call. Tech Goods Trump said the next round of tariffs could also be placed on laptops and Apple Incs iPhones imported from China, which are part of that $267 billion list of goods not yet hit by tariffs. Cell phones and computers, among Chinas biggest exports to the United States, have been spared as the administration has sought to minimize the impact on U.S. consumers. Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is, Trump said, referring to the possibility of tariffs on mobile phones and laptops, according to the Journal. I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily. Additional reporting by Philip Wen Trump Threatens to Cut GM Subsidies in Retaliation for US Job Cuts WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump threatened on Nov. 27 to cut subsidies for General Motors Co. after the largest U.S. automaker said it would halt production at five plants in North America and cut nearly 15,000 jobs. Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! Trump wrote on Twitter. We are now looking at cutting all GM subsidies, including for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) dont think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect Americas Workers! Trump has made boosting auto jobs a key priority during his almost two years in office and has often criticized automakers for not doing enough to boost U.S. employment. GM electric vehicles are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit under federal law, but it is not clear how the administration could restrict those credits or if Trump had other subsidies in mind. GM shares declined after Trumps tweets and were down 2.6 percent in late trading. A GM statement noted that the company was committed to maintaining a strong manufacturing presence in the United States after investing $22 billion in operations here since 2009 and will add new jobs in electrification and autonomous vehicles. The cuts will position the company for long-term success and maintain and grow American jobs, according to the statement, adding that many workers at impacted plants will be able to move to other GM factories. GM Chief Executive Mary Barra spoke to Trump over the weekend to discuss the cuts and was at the White House on Nov. 26 to meet with economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Kudlow told reporters on Nov. 27 that the administration had helped GM with fuel efficiency standards and other regulations. Weve done this to help you and I think his disappointment is, it seems like that they kind of turned his back on him, Kudlow said. Trump also criticized GM for not closing facilities in Mexico or China. GM currently builds just one vehicle in China that it exports to the United Statesthe Buick Envisionand has sold about 22,000 through September. GM sold nearly 2.7 million vehicles in China through September, nearly all of them built in China for the market. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that the president is looking at options. The president wants to see American companies build cars here in America, not build them overseas; and he is hopeful that GM will continue to do that here, she said. GM, along with Tesla Inc., has been lobbying Congress to lift the current cap on electric vehicles eligible for tax credits, but any action by Congress before 2019 is a long-shot, congressional aides said. Under current law, once a manufacturer sells 200,000 electric vehicles, the tax credit phases out over time starting in the following quarter. GM has said it expects to hit the 200,000-vehicle threshold by the end of the year and Tesla hit the cap in July. GM announced on Nov. 26 that it will halt production at one Canadian plant and four U.S. factories, including the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant that builds the plug-in hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt. GM is ending production of six vehicles, including the Volt, as it cuts more than 6,500 factory jobs. GM will continue to build the electric Chevrolet Bolt in Michigan. Trump told GM on Nov. 25 that it must find a new product for Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio that will halt production in March. GM has said sagging demand for small cars largely prompted the cuts, but also cited factors including higher costs from U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. GM said it also plans to close two unnamed plants outside North America by the end of 2019. Reporting by David Shepardson. Epoch Times staff writer Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report. Ukraine Introduces Martial Law Citing Threat of Russian Invasion WARSAWUkraine has imposed martial law for 30 days in parts of the country most vulnerable to an attack from Russia after President Petro Poroshenko warned of the extremely serious threat of a land invasion. Poroshenko said on Nov. 26 that martial law was necessary to bolster Ukraines defenses after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships and took their crew prisoner over the weekend. The Ukrainian Parliament approved the introduction of martial law after Poroshenko reassured some skeptical lawmakers that it would not be used to curb civil liberties or delay elections scheduled for next year. It came at the end of a day when Ukraine and Russia traded accusations about Sundays standoff and Kievs allies weighed in to condemn Moscows behavior. International Response U.S. President Donald Trump said he was working with European leaders on the situation. We do not like whats happening either way and, hopefully, it will get straightened out, Trump said, according to ABC news. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Russias seizure of the Ukrainian vessels a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law and called for restraint from both countries. The United States condemns this aggressive Russian action. We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and to respect Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, Pompeo said in a statement. With relations still raw after Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the crisis risked pushing the two countries into open conflict. Russia has been waging a hybrid war against our country for a fifth year. But with an attack on Ukrainian military boats it moved to a new stage of aggression, Poroshenko said. All Hell Broke Loose Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraines ambassador to the U.N., told the officials at an emergency meeting of the Security Council that Russia orchestrated the incident. Yelchenko claims to have tapes of radio traffic that would prove his claim. Yelchenko said all hell broke loose when border patrol boats belonging to Russias FSB security service seized two small Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tugboat after opening fire on them and wounding three sailors on Nov. 25. The skirmish occurred in the strategically significant Kerch Strait, where a Kremlin-built bridge connects Russia to the southeastern portion of Ukraine thats occupied by Russia-backed forces. Russia said the Ukrainian ships illegally crossed into Russian waters and called the crisis a planned provocation. Ukraine contends that its vessels followed international maritime rules. A video filmed from aboard a Russian vessel shows Russians chasing the Ukrainian tugboat and ramming the vessel. A photograph of the damaged Ukrainian vessel was published Nov. 26 on a military news website, showing the damage allegedly from a Russian 30mm naval cannon projectile. 12:00 27 ' "". 30- -630 "" : https://t.co/Q00QAqsSnu pic.twitter.com/0MuhnBRq58 (@mil_in_ua) November 27, 2018 Interfax news agency quoted Russias human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, as saying on Nov. 26 that 24 Ukrainian sailors were being detained. Three of the sailors were wounded but were not in serious condition. The FSB said the Ukrainian ships had ignored warning shots, forcing Russian vessels to open fire for real, after they illegally entered Russian territorial waters. Forced Confessions? Russian FSB officials published footage of the sailors on Nov. 26 showing fragments of their interrogation. In the recordings, the sailors appear to admit to breaching Russian territorial waters. En route to Mariupol via the Kerch Strait, we entered Russian territorial waters, one of the sailors can be heard in the video. Border patrol officials of the Russian Federation warned us that we were in violation of Russian law. The ordered us multiple times to leave Russian territorial waters. Another sailor said that the actions of the Ukrainian crew were provocative. - "" " " pic.twitter.com/soSGtvWzCc (@mil_in_ua) November 26, 2018 Ukrainian media has denounced the confessions, saying they were most probably coerced. As expected, following moral, psychological, and most likely physical pressure against the Ukrainian soldiers, the Russian FSB published a recording of their interrogation' wrote Polish news service Gazeta, citing a Ukrainian military affairs news service. Reuters contributed to this report. Unethical Claimed Genetic Experiment Highlights Chinas AIDS Crisis Chinese researchers claimed to have modified DNA of twin girls to be AIDS-resistant Chinese researchers in southern China claim that they have produced the worlds first genetically modified childrena pair of twin girls with resistance to infection by the HIV virus. Apart from the ethical issues inherent to the experiment, as well as doubts about the supposed results, the development emphasizes the seriousness of Chinas AIDS crisis. He Jiankui is a researcher at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. On Nov. 26, the day before an international genetic engineering conference in Hong Kong, He said the twin girls were born this month with modified genes, and will be AIDS-free for life. Prior to making his claim, however, He hadnt published any articles about his experiments or provided any proof for what he claims to have accomplished. Meanwhile, international medical scholars criticized He for attempting such a risky and unethical experiment. Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) announced on Nov. 23 that by the end of 2018, there will be 1.25 million AIDS patients in China. Additionally, that figure could be bigger by about a third, owing to the estimated number of people who do not know that they have been infected. At the fifth China AIDS Academic Conference held in Kunming of western Chinas Yunnan Province from Sept. 26 to Sept. 29, AIDS experts announced that there were over 40,000 newly infected patients in the second quarter of this year, and that 93.1 percent of them had contracted the disease due to sexual activity. This came as a shock, since previously, the primary vector of HIV and AIDS transmission was transfusions from unsanitary blood donations, which are popular among rural Chinese as a means of supplementing their meager incomes. Gao Yaojie, an AIDS activist who won the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights, said in 2014 that there were at least 10 million AIDS patients in China, which is 10 times the official data, and that most of them had been infected in the process of giving or receiving blood. But on Nov. 23, Wang Bin, vice director of CCDC, said the main means of AIDS infection in China today is via sexual contact, at 95.4 percent of total cases, slightly higher than other estimates. Around 70 percent of current AIDS cases were contracted via heterosexual relationships, and 25.5 by homosexual activity. The CCDC stated the increase of AIDS cases among students is particularly dramatic. While it didnt produce statistics to back up its claims, it listed international students from African countries as a primary cause for the increase. According to Chinas Ministry of Education, 50,000 international students come to China from Africa annually, making more than 10 percent of all international students in the country. The state-run China Daily reported that many HIV-positive African students have entered China since 2010, when the authorities relaxed disease controls at immigration customs. The China Daily report stated that the international students tend to lead promiscuous lifestyles with local women, helping spread AIDS more quickly. Update: Border Patrol Releases Photo of Migrant Woman Who Was Impaled by Border Fence Rebar Video: Migrants try to get through border, are hit with gas Officials have released a photo of a woman, a mother of two, who was impaled after falling from the border wall and landing on a piece of rebar as she tried to scale the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, California. It released a photo of the woman on Nov. 25, showing her lying on the dirt, with someone lifting her body. A dark pool of liquid, presumably blood, can be seen behind her. The woman, who was not identified, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries while her children were evaluated for potential fall trauma, said the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The two young children were released into the Border Patrols custody. The agency said it found the woman and her children, ages 3 and 5, on Nov. 23, east of the San Ysidro port of entry, which is a crossing point between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, where migrants have tried to rush the border only to be repelled by agents. The woman and kids, who are from Guatemala, were discovered in an area that the Border Patrol called an active construction site, adding that 14 miles of new walls were being constructed to replaced old barriers. Border Patrol officials said the rebar piece pierced her side and buttocks. Agents rendered aid and requested EMS and the San Diego Fire department for assistance. The woman was also taken to a local hospital and is currently being treated for non-life threatening injuries, said the release. Entering our country illegally, particularly over our walls is not only dangerous, but also very foolish, San Diegos chief Border Patrol agent, Rodney Scott, wrote in a statement on Nov. 24. He added: This woman placed her own life and her childrens lives in peril. She could have easily died if not for the quick response by our agents and EMS. Caravan Members are Predominately Male On Nov. 26, the Department of Homeland Security said that most migrant caravan members who are trying to get into the border are male and about 90 percent wont qualify for asylum. The caravan members are predominately male, Department of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen wrote in a statement. It appears in some cases that the limited number of women and children in the caravan are being used by the organizers as human shields when they confront law enforcement. She elaborated on the requirements for asylum-seekers trying to gain entry into the United States. The overwhelming majority of these individuals are not eligible for asylum in the United States under our laws. Historically, less than 10 percent of those who claim asylum from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are found eligible by a federal judge. 90 percent are not eligible, Nielsen added. Most of these migrants are seeking jobs or to join family who are already in the U.S. They have all refused multiple opportunities to seek protection in Mexico or with the United Nations. Seeking employment or family reunification are not grounds for asylum under our laws, or any international obligation, she explained. Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, was arrested on one count of first-degree aggravated murder for allegedly killing her ex-husband's girlfriend. (Salt Lake County Jail) Utah Teacher Allegedly Kills Ex-husbands Girlfriend in Front of Toddler Children A Utah teacher is accused of killing her ex-husbands girlfriend in front of their children on Nov. 26, according to officials. Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, went to her former husbands home in suburban Salt Lake City to deliver cold medicine to their 3-year-old twins on Sunday, police said. Then, according to a probable cause affidavit, Cook shot Lisa Williams, 26, at her ex-husbands apartment. Before the shooting, Travis Cook, the ex, told police he was in the parking lot when Chelsea reportedly entered the residence, according to KUTV. The children were present during the entire ordeal, police wrote in a probable cause statement. After Travis called the police, Chelsea then allegedly locked herself in the bathroom. When she left the bathroom, she appeared to go for her coat but instead pulled out a gun and shot Williams three to five times. Travis alleged that his children witnessed the incident. After Chelsea tried to flee, Travis took the gun, pinned her against the wall until police arrived. Williams was pronounced dead in a hospital, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Travis was able to take the handgun away from Chelsea and sat on the recliner chair while the witness tried to help the victim, according to the probable cause statement. Chelsea then stood up and began to walk back to her coat and thats when she was pinned until officers arrived. KSTU reported that Chelsea Cook is also facing domestic violence charges in connection with the Oct. 16 incident. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges. In a statement, the Alpine School District district issued a statement to Fox13: This morning we learned about a situation involving one of our Skyridge teachers, Ms. Cook. She was arrested and charged with a serious crime. We know there will be information in the media regarding this incident. We want you to be aware of what we have learned, so we can help you process and provide support to any of you who may be in need. This type of news is hard to comprehend and we want you to know that teachers, counselors and your parents can help provide support in this difficult time, it says. According to the Fox affiliate report, Chelsea worked as a health and yoga teacher at Skyridge High School. Violent Crime Down in 2018 In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rateincluding offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assaultdropped by almost one percent and is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent. After historic increases in violent crime in 2015 and 2016, we are beginning to see encouraging signs, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement at the time. But our work is not done. While we have made progress, violent crime and drug trafficking continue to plague our communities and destroy the lives of innocent, law-abiding Americans. Of the estimated 17,284 murders in 2017, more than half occurred in larger citieswith populations of more than 100,000. Reuters contributed to this report. What Tesla Did for Luxury Cars, Rivian Wants to Do for Pickups PLYMOUTH, Mich.Rivian Automotive plans to debut its all-electric pickup truck at the Los Angeles auto show on Nov. 26, and its founder and chief executive exudes optimism about his desire to do for the U.S. auto industrys most lucrative segment what Tesla did for luxury cars. Not everyone is so sanguine. R.J. Scaringe, Rivians 35-year-old CEO, said he and his financial backers believe that demand for electric pickups is massively underserved. Rivian intends to begin selling its R1T, the pickup it will debut in Los Angeles, in the fall of 2020. That would not make Rivian the first to the U.S. market with an electric pickup. Cincinnati-based truck maker Workhorse Group Inc. is developing an electric pickup that is slated for production in 2019. Let the #ElectricAdventure begin! Introducing the worlds first Electric Adventure Vehicle, the Rivian R1T truck. Visit our website for all the juicy details: https://t.co/VeYGvV5etX pic.twitter.com/oX3UwtGHR6 Rivian (@Rivian) November 26, 2018 But while Workhorse is aiming to sell its pickup to utilities and municipalities for use on limited routes, Rivian said its pickup is aimed at consumers. Rivians truck will have a range of up to about 400 miles, which would be the longest among its three different battery packs. Scaringe sees the U.S. pickup market, which accounts for the bulk of global profits for the Detroit Three automakers, as ripe for change. What were talking about here are cars that dont drive particularly well, dont handle particularly well, have fuel economy thats really quite bad, he told reporters at Rivians headquarters in Plymouth, Mich., before the L.A. show. Rivian has not disclosed prices for its truck, but Scaringe said it will start at just under $70,000 before federal tax credits for the entry-level model. A stripped-down version with the most powerful battery pack will sell for less than $90,000. Current large, luxury pickup trucks can sell at that price or higher. Some Doubts About Demand Many auto industry officials and analysts are skeptical that electric pickups can sell in large numbers unless battery technology vastly improves in driving range and cost. Buzz about electric pickups vastly outweighs their near-term significance to the U.S. market, because making a pickup electric can compromise other key attributes of such vehicles, such as load-hauling capability. Rivians truck will offer a payload of 1,760 pounds and a towing capacity of 11,000 poundsattributes more comparable to the Detroit Threes mid-sized trucks than to best-selling large trucks such as the Ford F-150 or GMC Sierra. That will put Rivians truck in a tough place as it lacks the power and payload of the larger models, but will cost more than the mid-sized trucks. A hybrid makes more sense, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at Auto Forecast Solutions. The Detroit Three automakers have not jumped into the market for electric pickups. Teslas CEO, Elon Musk, told investors in August that an electric pickup is probably my personal favorite for the next product from the company, though he has spoken only in general about a potential launch, saying that it would happen right after Teslas Model Y, which the company has targeted to start production in 2020. Ford Motor Co. has promised a hybrid F-150 pickup by 2020 and hinted at a fully electric model some day. General Motors Co.s CEO, Mary Barra, has said the U.S. automaker has given a tiny bit of thought to developing all-electric pickups. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has a hybrid electric-gasoline version of its Ram pickup. Japans Toyota Motor Corp. said it hopes to make electric options on all models available by 2025. For the most part, the U.S. pickup market leaders are doubling down on petroleum-fueled models such as Fiat Chryslers new Jeep Gladiator mid-sized pickup that will be officially unveiled in Los Angeles. The Gladiator is aimed at consumers who want a lifestyle truck that has car-like amenities in the cab, and can haul recreational toys such as jet-skis, campers or dirt bikes. Rivian, which last year bought the former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Ill., for $16 million to build its truck, will also likely face financial challenges and the need to raise more money as it moves into production, if Teslas experience is any guide. Tesla has raised billions of dollars in financingincluding secondary share offerings and bond salesas it has struggled to ramp up production. Rivians financial backers include Saudi auto distributor Abdul Latif Jameel Co (ALJ), Sumitomo Corp. of America and Standard Chartered Bank. ALJ has agreed to provide almost $500 million in funding, Sumitomo invested an undisclosed amount, and Standard Chartered provided debt financing of $200 million. Like the new Jeep Gladiator, Rivian is targeting recreational customers. Autotrader analyst Michelle Krebs said those types of customers tend to prefer the mid-sized trucks like the Toyota Tacoma and Chevrolet Colorado, but they are much less brand loyal than owners of the full-sized trucks. But Scaringe said that Rivian sees an advantage in its trucks foundation, a skateboard that packages the vehicle drive units, battery pack, suspension system, brakes, and cooling system all below wheel height to allow for more storage space and greater stability due to a lower center of gravity. The skateboard could be used for other models including an SUV. Scaringe said Rivians goal is to reach about 50,000 sales a year by 2025. Rivian also plans to sell the skateboard to other automakers, he said. And Scaringe said Rivian has another business strategy: Most of its revenue will not come from selling vehicles, but eventually selling experiences like renting vehicles for a weekend trip. By Ben Klayman Woman Describes Torture, Beatings in Chinese Detention Camp WASHINGTONA member of the Uyghur minority on Nov. 26 detailed torture and abuse she says she experienced in one of the internment camps where the Chinese regime has detained hundreds of thousands of religious minorities. Mihrigul Tursun, speaking to reporters in Washington, said she was interrogated for four days in a row without sleep, had her hair shaved and was subjected to an intrusive medical examination following her second arrest in China in 2017. After she was arrested a third time, the treatment grew worse. I thought that I would rather die than go through this torture and begged them to kill me, Tursun, 29, told reporters at a meeting at the National Press Club. Human rights groups say China has detained up to 2 million Uyghurs to promote what the government calls ethnic unity in the countrys far west. On Monday, over 270 scholars from 26 countries released a statement drawing attention to mass human rights abuses and deliberate attacks on indigenous cultures taking place in China. In the camps, these detainees, most of whom are Uyghur, are subjected to deeply invasive forms of surveillance and psychological stress as they are forced to abandon their native language, religious beliefs and cultural practices, the statement said. Outside of the camps, more than 10 million Turkic Muslim minorities in the region are subjected to a dense network of surveillance systems, checkpoints, and interpersonal monitoring which severely limit all forms of personal freedom. Raised in China, Tursun moved to Egypt to study English at a university and soon met her husband and had triplets with him. In 2015, Tursun traveled to China to spend time with her family and was immediately detained and separated from her infant children. When Tursun was released three months later, one of the triplets died and the other two developed health problems. Tursun said the children had been operated on. She was arrested for a second time about two years later. Several months later, she was detained a third time and spent three months in a cramped, suffocating prison cell with 60 other women, having to sleep in turns, use the toilet in front of security cameras and sing songs praising Chinas Communist Party. Tursun said she and other inmates were forced to take unknown medication, including pills that made them faint and a white liquid that caused bleeding in some women and loss of menstruation in others. Tursun said nine women from her cell died during her three months there. One day, Tursun recalled, she was led into a room and placed in a high chair, and her legs and arms were locked in place. The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head, and each time I was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins, Tursun said in a statement read by a translator. I dont remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness, Tursun said. The last word I heard them saying is that you being an Uyghur is a crime. She was eventually released so that she could take her children to Egypt, but she was ordered to return to China. Once in Cairo, Tursun contacted U.S. authorities and, in September, came to the United States and settled in Virginia. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not return a request for comment. The State Department estimates that since April 2017, the Chinese government has detained 800,000 to possibly more than 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims in political re-education camps. The United States will continue to call on China to end these counterproductive policies and free all those arbitrarily detained, the State Department said. We are committed to promoting accountability for those who commit human rights violations and abuses, including by considering targeted measures against Xinjiang officials. By Maria Danilova A two-year-old Yemeni boy suffering from malnutrition has his weight measured at a hospital in the northern district of Abs in the northwestern Hajjah province on Sept. 19, 2018. (ESSA AHMED/AFP/Getty Images) Yemens Nightmare: War Brings Famine A Washington Post headline recently declared, 85,000 Yemeni children have starved to death during the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. Yet this humanitarian crisis for many still needs context. With settlements in its northern mountains as early as 5000 BC (BCE), Yemen has long been a crossroads of cultures on the Arabian Peninsula. In the early 20th century, it was divided between the British and Ottoman empires, with South Yemen becoming a British colonythe Aden Protectorateuntil 1967. The two parts united in 1990 to form the Republic of Yemen. President Ali Abdullah Saleh ruled the new country badly for years. He finally stepped down in early 2012 and was replaced by his vice-president, A.M Hadi. In 2014, Saleh helped the Houthi militias, assisted by the Iranian regime in another one of its proxy wars against Saudi Arabia, to overthrow a legitimate Yemeni government and take over the country. President Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in early 2015, following which the Saudis formed a coalition that started massive air strikes against the Houthis that in many cases killed civilians. In 2017, Saleh announced his attention to abandon the Houthis, who soon afterwards assassinated him. The war has blocked essential food imports, leading to the current famine across the country. A lack of safe drinking water, caused mainly by the destruction of the countrys water infrastructure, has led to an outbreak of cholera, with the number of suspected cases now approaching an astonishing one million. In 2016, the United Nations reported that Yemen was then the country with the most people in need of humanitarian aid. It warned last month that up to 14 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine. Fighting escalated in 2015 when the Saudi war coalition launched an air campaign against the Houthi rebels, which in turn forced President Hadi to flee abroad. At least 6,800 civilians have been killed and 10,700 injured in the war, according to the UN. Aid workers in Yemen say many deaths go unreported because only half of the countrys health facilities function and many are too poor to access ones that remain open. Rising food prices and the falling value of the countrys currency as a result of the civil war are also leaving more families at risk. A blockade of the port of Hudaydah is placing more people in danger of famine, with the continued heavy fighting around it. The rebel-held port, through which the country has traditionally imported 90 percent of its food, has seen commercial imports fall by more than 55,000 metric tonnes a month. The international charity Save the Children calculates that approximately 84,700 children died between April 2015 and October 2018. It bases these figures on mortality rates for untreated cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five. The charity adds that it was forced to bring supplies for the north of Yemen through its southern port of Aden, which has significantly slowed aid deliveries. Based on historical studies, it estimates that if acute malnutrition is left untreated about 20-30 percent of Yemens children will die each year. For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and its entirely preventable, said the charitys Yemen director Tamer Kirolos. Kirolos stresses: Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stopParents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it. He warns that an estimated 150,000 childrens lives are at risk in Hudaydah with a dramatic increase in air strikes over the city in recent weeks. UN envoy Martin Griffiths is in Sanaa this week for talks with the Houthi rebels in a bid to create a groundwork for peace talks to take place in Sweden. The visit comes after a lull in violence was broken recently, with fighting erupting between the Saudi coalition and Houthi rebels in Hudaydah. The United Kingdom presented a draft resolution last week to the UN urging an immediate truce in the port city and giving both sides of the conflict a two-week deadline to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid. The responsible international community should stand together. Dr. Abdulla Nasher, a former health minister in Yemen and earlier its ambassador to Canada, urges the international community to stop the war, end hunger, and start a country rebuilding project like the Marshall Plan funded by the United States for Germany from 1948 to 1961. David Kilgour, a lawyer by profession, served in Canadas House of Commons for almost 27 years. In Jean Chretiens Cabinet, he was secretary of state (Latin America and Africa) and secretary of state (Asia-Pacific). He is the author of several books and co-author with David Matas of Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Facebook on Tuesday faced a fresh lashing from regulators representing Canada, France, Britain and six other countries for the social-networking giant's inability to stop the spread of misinformation online and protect its users' personal data. The series of rebukes - delivered at a rare joint hearing featuring policymakers around the world - reflected the vast magnitude of growing global unease with Facebook's business practices and mounting frustration with the company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who declined to appear in front of lawmakers and address those criticisms directly. "While we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions, our form of civil conversation, seem to have been upended by frat boy billionaires from California," said Charlie Angus, the vice chair of a top privacy committee in Canada, who criticized Zuckerberg for his decision to "blow off" the hearing. "I put it to you that you have lost the trust of the international community to self-police," Angus continued, "and we have to start looking at a method for holding [Facebook] accountable." Damian Collins, a member of Britain's House of Commons who convened and chaired the hearing, lamented a "consistent pattern of Facebook failing to disclose" critical information to regulators. He pointed to newly obtained evidence, including an unreleased document that may show Facebook data was vulnerable to Russian actors in 2014, as he asked the company: "Can you not see this has caused a massive breach of trust?" Appearing in Zuckerberg's place was Richard Allan, Facebook's vice president of policy solutions. Immediately under siege from the legislators, Allan at one point acknowledged that Facebook had "damaged public trust by some of the actions we've taken." Asked how Zuckerberg's absence might appear, though, Allan later said it was "not great." Joining Britain were legislators from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia and Singapore. The nine countries in total represent more than 446 million people - and have grappled firsthand with the real-world consequences of social media's digital ills. Some, including Brazil, have confronted the rapid proliferation of falsehoods around national elections on both Facebook and its messaging service, WhatsApp. Others belong to the European Union, which has threatened even further, tougher regulation of the way Silicon Valley tech giants collect private data and police their platforms for abuse. "We recognize we are doing something new," Allan said in response Tuesday. "There were things we missed, that we were either not sufficiently focused on or too slow to react to." Later Tuesday, the nine countries are expected to sign a set of "International Principles for the Law Governing the Internet," they said last week, signaling even greater scrutiny of Facebook and other social media companies still to come. In the United States, meanwhile, senators are preparing to hold a hearing of their own - grilling members of the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that's currently investigating Facebook for its privacy mishaps, later Tuesday. For months, Zuckerberg has resisted testifying in Britain as members of Parliament probe the spread of misinformation and the role played by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica around Britain's vote to withdraw from the European Union. The firm had improperly accessed data on millions of Facebook users, prompting Britain's regulators to fine Facebook earlier this year for the security lapse, though the company has said it intends to appeal. More Business Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg is tainted by crisis after crisis But concerns about political manipulation on social media - particularly during national elections - have gone global. Countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Singapore began in October to add their voices to Britain's calls for Zuckerberg to testify. Repeatedly, though, Facebook said its top executive was unable to appear, only opting earlier this month to send Allan, a former member of British parliament, in his place. Those legislators came to the hearing Tuesday - the first such joint session hosted by the House of Commons since 1933 - incensed and armed with a litany of complaints. Many countries expressed fear that Facebook remains ill-equipped to battle back foreign actors, including Russian agents, that seek to manipulate elections. British policymakers took issue with reports about Facebook's political activities to battle back regulators in the United States. And one lawmaker from Canada suggested taking apart the social network and the services it owns, including WhatsApp and the photo-sharing service Instagram. "Perhaps the best regulation is antitrust," Angus said. "Perhaps the simplest form of regulation would be to break Facebook up or treat it as a utility." For representatives from Singapore, meanwhile, the chief source of frustration was Facebook's inconsistent approach to hate speech and its ability to trigger real-world violence. One member from the country's parliament, Edwin Tong, referenced a post that went viral in Sri Lanka that called for killing Muslims. "If it's not down, it should be," Allan told Tong before the lawmaker revealed a communication from Facebook saying the post in question did not actually violate the company's policies. Adding to Facebook's woes were a trove of documents obtained by British lawmakers last week that - if released - could call its privacy protections into further question. The materials came from Six4Three, an app company that has sued Facebook in California for changes to its policies in 2015 that limited its ability to access data it needed to function. In the United States, a judge has shielded those documents from public view by placing them under seal. But Britain's legislators led by Collins obtained them after the founder of Six4Three traveled to London last week. On Tuesday, Collins pointed to a communication from the newly acquired trove that appeared to show a Facebook employee in 2014 had found suspicious activity with potential Russian ties trying to capture large swaths of data on the site. In response, Allan said at the hearing that the documents generally are "potentially misleading." A spokesperson for Collins declined to elaborate on the document, and Facebook said in a later statement that it "found no evidence of specific Russian activity." BERLIN - Sometimes, even in the best of relationships, perceptions fail to align: One side senses that all is going swimmingly. The other is miserable. So it is, apparently, with the United States and Germany. Ask the average American, and the German-U.S. partnership is hale and hearty. The average German has the opposite view, seeing a friendship gone sour. Those were the findings of a joint survey conducted by the U.S-based Pew Research Center and Germany's Korber Foundation. The results were released overnight Monday, and presented Tuesday at a foreign policy forum in Berlin. The findings show anew just how alienated Germans have become in the age of Trump from their traditionally closest overseas partner. The U.S. president is spectacularly unpopular in Germany, Europe's largest economy and political heavyweight, as numerous surveys have shown. But the latest findings suggest German dissatisfaction with the United States runs even deeper than it did earlier in Trump's presidency, with a profound effect on German views of the relationship at a time when trade, defense spending, energy and Middle East policy are all causing friction. Germans and Americans "are divided not only on the overall state of the relationship, but also on future levels of cooperation, the importance they ascribe to each other on foreign policy and the efficacy of retaliatory tariffs," Pew's Jacob Poushter and Alexandra Castillo write. Seven out of 10 Americans say the U.S. relationship with Germany is in good shape, with only a quarter saying it's bad, the study found. German results were the mirror opposite: Nearly three-quarters say the relationship is bad, while less than a quarter say it's good. Among Germans, views have sharply deteriorated from last year, when just over half of survey-takers said the relationship was in bad shape. Since then, Trump has escalated his criticisms of Germany, which has become a favored target on Twitter. The U.S. president frequently lashes out at Germany for not spending more on defense and has threatened to slap tariffs on Germany's beloved automotive sector. He's also warned of sanctions against German companies involved in the construction of a Russian gas pipeline while canceling U.S. participation in an Iranian nuclear deal that German officials see as critical to global peace. An earlier Pew survey showed that just 10 percent of Germans had faith in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs. The latest findings deepen the picture of disaffection. Fewer than half of Germans want more cooperation with the United States. Meanwhile, more than half want stronger ties with China and Russia, two traditional adversaries. Nearly three-quarters of Germans want their country to be more independent of the United States, compared to only 3 in 10 Americans who say the same about Germany. That desire among Germans for greater autonomy from the nation that has long been the guarantor of European security was echoed Tuesday by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who called in a speech in Berlin for Europe to step up as U.S. engagement on the continent diminishes. "Either we succeed in strengthening a united Europe, or, and this isn't an exaggeration, we risk the future of this singular project of peace," Maas said in a speech at the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum. The U.S. role in Europe, he argued, had been declining even before Trump took office. The European response should be to "invest more," to "compensate and rebalance." Amid Trump's hectoring, Germany has modestly increased its defense spending in recent years but is still nowhere near the NATO target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. Fewer than half of Germans want the military's budget to rise further. One area where Americans and Germans agree is on NATO: Nearly two-thirds in both countries have favorable views of the alliance. The Pew-Korber survey was based on a telephone survey in September of 1,006 Americans and 1,002 Germans. - - - The Washington Post's Luisa Beck contributed to this report. NORWALK Construction hasnt resumed but blight conditions are being addressed at the stalled redevelopment project known as Wall Street Place, according to a city official. William D. Ireland, Norwalks blight-prevention officer, said he toured the site off Isaacs Street on Tuesday with a representative of Viking Construction, Inc., the company handling the blight citation on behalf of property owner Municipal Holdings, LLC, an affiliate of Citibank. We did a preliminary walkthrough and a lot of progress was made and they (Viking) expect the blight issues to be completed by Friday, weather permitting, said Ireland, who is also Norwalks chief building official. Citibank didnt respond immediately for comment Tuesday. On Sept. 18, Ireland issued Municipal Holdings a Notice of Blight, citing water entering the building and causing mold, unprotected openings throughout the structure, overgrown vegetation, missing windows, doors and siding, accumulation of junk and trash on the property, and other blight conditions. Ireland said Viking Construction began addressing the issues Nov. 21. As of Tuesday, all doors and access to the building as well as the fence around the property had been secured, vegetation growth had been removed, a door against an alleyway had been blocked with plywood, and storm drains had been rerouted, according to Ireland. They repaired the Tyvek that was torn by the wind, Ireland said. They secured all the doors on the second floor. They screwed them tight and they flashed the lower part of the doors, so water cant come in off the roof. Starting Oct. 19, Municipal Holdings became subject to a fine of $100 per day for each day that the blight conditions continued. As of Nov. 22, Citibank hadnt paid the fines, according to Ireland. Jason Milligan, a commercial-real estate developer who has described the unfinished building as the Tyvek Temple, based upon the trademark protective material covering it, saw little improvement Tuesday afternoon. They fixed a little flapping Tyvek and they boarded up some areas. Its still a disgusting alleyway between the El Dorado club and the fence, said Milligan, referring to a closed adjacent business. How about some lighting? How about putting something on the fence so its decorative? They chopped the weeds down, but theres still standing water in there. Theres still construction materials there. That thing still looks like blight to me. Theyre not building it anymore, Milligan said. POKO Partners, the citys designated developer for Wall Street Place, halted construction on phase one 101 apartments and parking in the area of the former Isaacs Street municipal lot in 2016 amid financing issues with lender Citibank. Citibank since acquired the property. In 2017, an inspection crew at the development site confirmed that Stamford-based real estate developer John McClutchy was exploring taking over phase one of Wall Street Place. Mayor Harry W. Rilling, who helped get construction under way in 2015 amid years of delays, said earlier this month that the city has been diligent in trying to resolve the issues and remains cautiously optimistic that things will get moving soon. The city, Norwalk Redevelopment Agency and the property owner first POKO Partners and later Citibank are subject to tri-party Land Disposition Agreement governing Wall Street Place. The city and Redevelopment Agency requested and were granted a mediation hearing, set for Dec. 13 in Stamford, to resolve their differences over compliance with the agreement, according to attorney Joseph P. Williams of Shipman & Goodwin LLP, the law firm representing the agency. The Phase I Construction has not advanced since the fall of 2016 despite Citis obligations under the LDA, wrote Williams in his request for mediation. The existing partially constructed structure on the Phase I Property has been left to become of significant concern for the City. Despite 18 months having passed since Citibank took ownership of the phase one parcels, the bank has failed to advance a plan that complies with the Land Disposition Agreement, according to Williams. WOOD RIVER The unemployment rate inched up in October despite moderate job growth as more people join the Illinois labor force. Nonfarm payrolls were up over-the-month led by gains in trade, transportation and utilities, information and manufacturing, said IDES Director Jeff Mays. The unemployment rate was about unchanged in October, inching up only slightly but lower than it was a year ago. There were increases in 10 of 12 metro areas in the state, including the Metro East. The unemployment rate increased over the year in most metro areas across the state, said IDES Director Jeff Mays. The increases were mostly due to more people reentering the job market and not immediately securing a job. According to the latest figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the statewide unemployment rate increased to 4.2 percent in October, up from 4.1 percent in both September and August. Locally the unemployment rate in the St. Louis MSA jumped to 4.4 percent from 4 percent. The St. Louis MSA includes Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties. Some were surprised by the change. I have no good explanation for the increase, Tony Fuhrmann, director of Madison County Unemployment and Training. Were not seeing that with the flow were seeing, and the job openings would not indicate there should be a rise in unemployment. Everythings strong. You can drive down the road and all you see is help wanted ads, he added. Were seeing the need out there. Like the rest of the state, the Metro East has seen some increase in the labor force. The number of Metro East residents with jobs increased to 336,126 in October, up 8,972 from the previous year, while the labor force increased to 351,517, up 10,244, during the same period. Weve seen a consistent rise in that number from the beginning of the year to now, Fuhrmann said. That tells us that group of individuals that are discouraged and not looking are looking. One concern is that some of these people have barriers that need to be addressed. Among those are specific training needs, including soft skills; substance abuse; and returning from the workforce after incarceration. Fuhrmann noted that both locally and statewide, Illinois is at what is considered full employment. That means there are more jobs than there are people looking for jobs, Fuhrmann said. Traditionally among economists, full employment is between 4-6 percent and can change with circumstances. That does not mean there will not be unemployment. He said a percentage of the workforce will be in transition, such as moving from one job or industry to another. There will also be a percentage of the workforce that is considered unemployable for various reasons. A big concern right now is drug use, which can bar employment in a number of occupations, either through company policy or state or federal law. Statewide, the three industry sectors with the largest monthly gains were Trade Transportation and Utilities (5,300), Information Services (2,000) and Manufacturing (1,300). Declines were seen in Professional and Business Services (-2,000) and Financial Activities (-600). Several factors that have been noted in previous months are outmigration, or people leaving Illinois, and the large numbers of people taken out of the workforce because of the opioid crisis. A recent study by the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank based in Washington, D.C., said the ongoing opioid crisis is having a major impact on labor force participation, knocking almost 1 million people out of the workforce and costing the U.S. economy more than $700 million between 1999-2015. There are also sometimes discrepancies in the rates announced by the IDES because statewide figures are seasonally adjusted, meaning they are manipulated to remove seasonal variations. Local figures are not seasonally adjusted. There are also revisions from month to month as data from the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics becomes clearer. ALTON Gray Thursday through Cyber Monday was for taking care of friends and family, but for the past six years #GivingTuesday has been about everybody else. The first Tuesday after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the Christmas holiday shopping season, #GivingTuesday was created by organizers in the 92nd Street Y in New York City as a way to celebrate and encourage giving worldwide. Last year more than $300 million was raised online, in addition to the value of volunteer hours, food and clothing donations and other types of giving. About a dozen local organizations, ranging from Senior Services Plus in Alton to Jerseyvilles Kids Shouldnt Have Cancer Foundation in Memory of Jonny Wade, are among those that benefit from the charitable day. Last year, as part of its fundraising drive for construction of a new wellness center, SSP raised nearly $40,000 on the day. For #GivingTuesday specifically, its an opportunity for people to donate back during the holidays after the large marketing weekend, said Sarah Neal, of the Alton YWCA, one of the local participating organizations. Tuesday is the opportunity, instead of buying for personal use, to be thinking about giving back to the community. She said by going to the YWCAs website at www.altonywca.com, people can give either to the organization as a whole or specific projects including child enrichment, racial justice or youth. Another group benefiting from the day will be the Friends of the Madison County Child Advocacy Center. The CAC is used as a safe space for children needing to be interviewed because of allegations of sexual or severe physical abuse in a child-friendly environment. The interviews are conducted at the request of law enforcement or the Department of Child and Family Services. Because of an increase in the number of interviews conducted each year, the CAC is increasing staff, and the physical changes are necessary to accommodate a second interview room. The project needs to be completed around the end of June for the CAC to submit grant proposals for the staff increases. The renovations would utilize the facilitys existing space at the countys Wood River Annex to create a second interview room and several waiting rooms. The agency is an unusual mix of public/private, with about 65 percent of its funding coming from grants or donations, and the rest from Madison County. Carrie Cohan, the centers executive director, said they have been participating in the #GivingTuesday program for several years. The focus on charity and giving back to the community is whats so inspiring about it, she said of #GivingTuesday. Our plan is to do some promotions on social media tomorrow, Cohan said Monday afternoon. What were really pushing this year is our new Rooted in Hope campaign, which is a monthly campaign that would allow donors to make an impact all year long. She said they are also collecting donations for holiday baskets that include food, family games and other items for some of the families the agency deals with that need help. Were going to continue this momentum through the end of the year, she said. If folks cant donate tomorrow, were willing to work with them. For more information or to donate to the CAC visit www.madco-cac.org We are incredibly inspired by the way the #GivingTuesday community has embraced this concept for a worldwide movement, said Henry Timms, founder of #GivingTuesday and Executive Director of 92nd Street Y. As we prepare for November 27, were energized and encouraged by the communitys generosity. The levels of creativity, effort and the quality of the new ideas people have contributed and shared are phenomenal. Local participating groups include the Alton Volunteer Emergency Corps; Boys & Girls Club of Alton; Challenge Unlimited Inc.; Junior League of Greater Alton; Riverbend Head Start and Family Services; Senior Services Plus; The Restore Network; YWCA of Alton; Friends of Madison County Child Advocacy Center; Power of the Giraffe; Kids Shouldnt Have Cancer Foundation in Memory of Jonny Wade; Pound Pets Inc.; and United Child Advocacy Network. For more information about participants, activities or to give, visit www.givingtuesday.org, visit www.facebook.com/GivingTuesday or twitter.com/GivingTues; or contact the local agencies. ALTON The Rotary Club of Alton-Godfrey is hosting a sneak preview of the musical Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming on Thursday, Dec. 6, at Alton Little Theater Showplace, 2450 N. Henry Street, Alton. Social hour begins at 6:30 p.m., and the curtains go up at 7:30 p.m. The show features the unforgettable Singing Sanders Family returning for the third installment of Smoke On The Mountain, bringing bluegrass gospel singing, heartwarming stories and zany antics. The price of tickets is $25 and includes complimentary appetizers and desserts. ALTON Police were on the hunt Monday night for a man suspected in the robbery of Kay Jewelers, 1702 Homer Adams Parkway, after he allgedly threatened an employee with a hammer and made off with cash and other items. The incident occurred at approximately 7:28 p.m. An employee at the store reported that a black male, covering his face with a white mask and wearing a black jacket and jeans, wielded a hammer with a red handle and made off with cash, several watches and the employees cell phone, police radio traffic indicated. EDWARDSVILLE A man facing an attempted first-degree murder charge will spend six months in the Madison County Jail after he continued to talk, despite a judges orders to remain silent, in a hearing Monday. Arthur Smallwood, 54, of the 1100 block of West Ninth Street, Alton, was cited with contempt of court for continuing to talk when Circuit Judge Kyle Napp told him to keep quiet. He was in court for a hearing on whether the Public Defenders Office would be allowed to withdraw from the case upon his request. He told the judge that he did not want a public defender, nor did he want to hire a private attorney. He claimed Assistant Public Defender Tyler Bateman said that he was guilty, but Bateman said that he told his client that the evidence is overwhelming. Smallwood interrupted the judge several times, then said he wanted to talk to his brother. He then turned his back on the judge and continued to talk, despite Napps warnings. The court attempted to inquire of the defendant to determine if he was going to hire private counsel. The defendant continually interrupted the court and would not let the court finish a sentence without interrupting, the judge wrote in her order. The defendant was admonished to stop interrupting. The defendant then turned his back on the court but continued to try to speak over the court. The court informed the defendant he was being held in contempt of court, and he continued to speak during the admonishment. The conduct of the defendant, which occurred in the presence of this court while this court was in open session, impeded and interrupted this courts proceedings, lessened the dignity of the court, demoralized the courts authority and tended to bring the administration of justice into disrepute. To allow the defendants conduct to proceed would permit the defendant to make a mockery of our courts and our justice system, the judge said in her order. The judge allowed the Public Defenders Office to withdraw. Smallwood was charged Aug. 9 with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery for allegedly stabbing a cab driver in the back, neck and shoulder more than 12 times. Smallwood has a record dating to 1982 when he was convicted of theft and sentenced to six months in jail; however, he allegedly violated probation and was sentenced to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He also has a convicted for armed robbery, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In addition, he has convictions for aggravated battery, domestic battery, attempted murder, possession of a controlled substance, burglary, armed robbery and nine misdemeanor convictions. His bail is $1 million. Before Mondays day in court, Smallwood was examined for fitness to stand trial. The judge ordered an evaluation, citing a bonafide doubt as to his fitness. However, a court psychologist found that he was fit, so the judge ordered the case to proceed. Reach reporter Sanford Schmidt at 618-208-6449. For the Intelligencer EDWARDSVILLE It was a cold day outside but the office of Miracle-Ear was all warm and toasty. The office was filled with smiles, food, drinks, and patients receiving free hearing tests, as the citys chamber of commerce helped welcome Miracle-Ear to the community. Tiffany Davis, owner of the Miracle-Ear franchise store, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday at the businesss new location, at 5 Club Centre Court, Suite B, in Edwardsville. GLEN CARBON State Sen.-elect Rachelle Aud Crowe says shes not ready to join state Democrats campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Illinois next year. However, I will have to review the specific proposal and consult with local law enforcement before making a decision regarding the legalization of marijuana, she said in an emailed response when asked by The Telegraph where she stands on the subject. Gov. J.B. Pritzker hopes Illinois will pass a plan nearly right away when the 101st Illinois General Assembly convenes in 2018. House Speaker Mike Madigan this month flipped his stance and now says he will support the legislation. A study released earlier this month by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) predicts that if recreational marijuana would be legalized, Illinois would save $18.4 million annually in incarceration costs, generate $525 million in tax revenue ($20 million for local governments), create 23,600 new jobs and boost Illinois economy by $1 billion annually. Crowe, a prosecutor who was assigned to the Madison County Drug Court Program, says she does support the use and expansion of medical marijuana as a substitute for prescription opioids. I have seen first-hand the tragic effects of the opioid epidemic, she said. I support expanding the medical marijuana program to ensure patients have options when treating chronic pain without having to rely on highly-addictive opioid prescriptions that can have tragic long-term effects. There is no current pot plan yet written to paper the consensus is smokers would have to be 21. If passed, there would be an additional six-month planning period to issue associated licenses and hammer out other details. The issue has largely been split by party lines. I will never support legalization, House Republican leader Jim Durkin said to the Chicago Tribune, as reported by The Associated Press. I dont like how quickly we are moving. Illinois should not be part of this lab experiment. I see no societal value. Crowe will be taking the seat of retired state Sen. Bill Haine, of Alton. Shell be part of a super majority, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans 40-19 in the Senate and 74-44 in the House. For the Intelligencer EDWARDSVILLE Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has formalized a Sino-American Dual Degree Program with Changshu Institute of Technology (CIT) in Changshu, China. An SIUE delegation visited CIT in early November to meet and welcome 25 CIT students to the SIUE School of Engineerings Mechatronics and Robotics program in January 2020. The SIUE delegation included Mary Weishaar, executive director of international affairs; Scott Belobrajdic, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management; Keqin Gu, distinguished research professor in engineering; and Jim Monahan, director of international and graduate admissions. The group attended the International Forum for Jiangsu Association of Sino-American Universities. They met with representatives from the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Jiangsu Province Education Department and the Jiangsu Association of Sino-American Universities, which involves 12 institutions. Home >Police Enforcement > Checkpoints and Stops > Montana Supreme Court: Messy Cars Are Not Suspicious General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President Nguyen Phu Trong and Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba Leopoldo Cintra Frias (Source: VNA) During a reception in Hanoi on November 26th for Politburo member of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) and Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba Leopoldo Cintra Frias, the host congratulated the Party, State, and people of Cuba on their achievements in updating their socio-economic model in the spirit of the sixth and seventh Congresses of the CPC. He also congratulated their success in amending the Constitution of Cuba, with the involvement of people from all walks of life. The Party chief expressed his belief that the two armies deserve the trust of the two countries parties and people, and stand ready to fight for national independence, freedom, and socialism. Frias, for his part, informed his host about the outcomes of his working sessions with the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence agencies, the implementation of the 2017-2019 cooperation plan between the two defence ministries, as well as measures to foster bilateral defence links./. Labour minister in Phuket orders development of Andaman Super Workers PHUKET: Minister of of Labour Maj Gen Adul Saengsingkaew in Phuket on an inspection tour today (Nov 27) ordered all relevant offices in the Andaman area under his ministry to co-ordinate to develop a superior-quality workforce he dubbed Super Workers. tourismeconomics By The Phuket News Tuesday 27 November 2018, 07:23PM Minister of of Labour Maj Gen Adul Saengsingkaew in Phuket today (Nov 27). Photo: PR Dept The order was handed down at during an inspection of the Phuket Institute for Skill Development located in Bang Jo, Srisoonthorn, in central Phuket. At the centre, Gen Adul explained his 13-point Super Worker policy to the heads of many government agencies of Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi and Ranong. He ordered the provincial offices of the Department of Labour to play the central role in developing action plans to achieve the targets laid out in the policy, which aims to drive better skills and knowledge training for people to join the workforce as superior-skilled workers. Gen Adul highlighted that the Phuket Institute for Skill Development itself played a key role, as it provided training programs to create skilled workers for the Andaman tourism industry. This year, 6,408 people have been enrolled in courses at the centre, with 1,065 people graduating in skills courses and a further 565 graduating in theory courses. The graduates this year have been hired by 204 businesses, with those businesses having a combined workforce of 33,425 employees, Gen Adul pointed out. The training provided by the centre targets 10 industries, and includes skills courses in bartending, Thai and international cuisine, waiter skills, nutrition management on boats, techniques for serving wine, holistic health, Western spa and Thai massage for health, e-commerce development, online stores and even yacht painting and foreign languages, among others, Gen Adul noted. The Labour Minister also called for an update on the visa service centre and the issuing of work permits at the Phuket Provincial Employment Office to make sure the office, staff, equipment and operation systems were adequate. Gen Adul related his report, nothing that in Phuket 321,440 people are of employment age, with 317,022 employed and 4,418 unemployed giving a government-calculated unemployment rate of 1.37%. Of note, according to government statistics, there are 84,478 foreign workers in Phuket, working at 10,925 establishments, Gen Adul added. There are 19,257 skilled foreign workers registered at Phuket Employment Office, of which 17,661 are considered temporary workers, with 247 people issued work permits under the Single Window for Work Permit government policy to attract skilled foreign workers**. Of those who applied in Phuket for work permits under the Single Window policy, the most popular industry categories were sales administration, hotel work, e-commerce, aquariums and software development, Gen Adul noted.. ** For the Board of Investment explanation of the Single Window for Work Permit government policy, click here. Phuket light-rail budget jumps B594mn, to B40bn PHUKET: The estimated budget required for building the Phuket Light Rail system has jumped by more than B500 million, according to announcement issued by the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP). tourismtransportconstructioneconomics By Chutharat Plerin Tuesday 27 November 2018, 05:55PM OTP Director-General Sarawut Songsriwilai will be presiding over the public meeting in Phuket Town this Sunday (Dec 2). Photo: OTP The estimated budget for the Phuket light-rail project has jumped by B594 million, to a total of B40 billion. Image: OTP The estimated budget for the Phuket light-rail project has jumped by B594 million, to a total of B40 billion. Image: OTP The estimated budget for the Phuket light-rail project has jumped by B594 million, to a total of B40 billion. Image: OTP The estimated budget for the Phuket light-rail project has jumped by B594 million, to a total of B40 billion. Image: OTP The estimated budget for the Phuket light-rail project has jumped by B594 million, to a total of B40 billion. Image: OTP The new budget figure of B40 billion was revealed in announcement issued by the OTP yesterday (Nov 26) calling for people to join a public information and feedback meeting about the light rail project. The public meeting is to be at Queen Sirikit Park, on Thalang Rd in Phuket Town, this Sunday (Dec 2). OTP Director-General Sarawut Songsriwilai will be presiding over the public meeting this Sunday, with Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana also to attend. The total track length of the light-rail will be 58.5km, from Tha Noon in Phang Nga to Chalong Circle be built under a joint venture Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with estimated budget B40 billion, the announcement said. At last report, Niran Kaetkeaw, Director of the OTPs Regional Bureau of Transportation and Traffic Promotion, on Oct 26 publicly announced that the entire project was tabled with a defined estimated budget of B39.406bn. (See story here.) No explanation was given for the extra B594 million now deemed required to complete the project. The description of the project in the announcement explained no changes to the project as already repeatedly defined, and to open to the public for its first-year trial run by 2023. The aim of the public meeting is to encourage local residents and even tourists to use public transportation instead of private vehicles, and to highlight road safety issues after the light-rail is built. (See story here.) Officers from Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning Office, local residents and (officials from) involved departments are asked to participate in this activity, the statement said. ZUMA returns to Anantara Layan Start From: Saturday 15 December 2018, 10:00AM to Friday 15 February 2019, 05:00PM Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun. Award-wining contemporary Japanese restaurant, ZUMA, returns for a third season to the beachfront at Anantara Layan Phuket Resort between 15 December 2018 and 15 February 2019. For more information and bookings, please call + 66 (0) 7631 7200 or email zuma@anantara.com Read the South Dakota Supreme Court ruling on recreational marijuana The ruling, released Wednesday morning, ended months of speculation about how the issue on recreational marijuana in South Dakota would play out. The tech industry should throw its full support behind Bay Area Congressman Ro Khannas Internet Bill of Rights proposal, which would end the United States distinction as the only major developed nation without fundamental online user protections. The beauty of Khannas proposal is that it walks the tightrope of protecting consumers basic rights without damaging the tech industrys ability to innovate. Khanna sought input from dozens of consumer groups and tech companies before making his proposal public last month. The initial response offers reason for optimism. Its generating widespread support from consumer advocates and such tech luminaries as Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. Getting anything especially legislation emanating from California passed through Congress and signed by the president wont be easy. But this issue offers an opportunity for bipartisan compromise that would benefit both business and consumers. The need is greater than ever before. Four years ago this newspaper editorialized that consumer confidence in tech products was falling at alarming rates around the world and that it was urgent that the tech industry work with the federal government on fundamental online user protections. That didnt happen. Today, some of Silicon Valleys giants are being properly chastised for a multitude of sins. They have a lot of work to do if they hope to win back the nations trust. Khannas 10-point proposal includes these basic rights: 1) To have access to and knowledge of all collection and uses of personal data by companies; 2) To have opt-in consent to the collection of personal data by any party and to the sharing of personal data with a third party; 3) Where context appropriate and with a fair process, to obtain, correct, or delete personal data controlled by any company and to have those requests honored by third parties; 4) To have personal data secured and to be notified in a timely manner when a security breach or unauthorized access of personal data is discovered; 5) To move all personal data from one network to the next; 6) To access and use the internet without internet service providers blocking, throttling, engaging in paid prioritization, or otherwise unfairly favoring content, applications, services, or devices. 7) To have internet service without the collection of data that is unnecessary for providing the requested service absent opt-in consent; 8) To have access to multiple viable, affordable internet platforms, services, and providers with clear and transparent pricing; 9) Not to be unfairly discriminated against or exploited based on your personal data; 10) To have an entity that collects your personal data have reasonable business practices and accountability to protect your privacy. How these principles would be implemented remains a work in progress. The details matter. But the general approach would go a long way to setting standards that will ease the mind of consumers and help guide industry as new products emerge. Democrats gaining control of the House should raise the profile of the proposal. It was the likely new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who asked Khanna to create the proposal. He will need the support of other Bay Area members with tech expertise to help guide it through Congress. Any legislation would first need to pass the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Palo Alto Democrat Anna Eshoos presence will be invaluable. San Jose Democrat Zoe Lofgrens leadership on the House Judiciary Committee will also be critical. Its crucial that the tech industry restore public trust in its products. The first step in that direction is getting behind the effort to finalize a strong Internet Bill of Rights. The Mercury News, Digital First Media Once the smoke clears the ripple effect of General Motors pulling out of Oshawa will reverberate across the region with ebbing donations to community agencies like United Way of Durham mirroring GMs ongoing decline. Agencies across the Durham Region are already dreading the worst about the impact proposed cuts at the Oshawa plant will have on the ability of the corporation and its employees to support numerous commitments. The cuts present a host of challenges for United Way, which has previously had to remodel its campaign to survive the hit from the combined GM corporate and employee donations being slashed significantly over the past decade. Roughly a decade ago, General Motors employee and corporate donations accounted for 58 per cent of the United Ways approximately $3.5 million annual campaign, said Robert Howard, United Way of Durham Regions VP of external relations. Last year they were in the vicinity of about $600,000, Howard said. Not only are donations from GM facing an uncertain fate, but so too are the workplace campaigns at a handful of feeder-plants, that provide various services to the automaker. Read more: Anger, sadness and uncertainty for GM workers as Oshawa plant closure announced Why impending closure of GMs Oshawa plant is a wake-up call for Canadians Opinion | Susan Delacourt: Union leader Jerry Dias channels his inner Donald Trump in fighting GM Canada As GM shrunk, each of them shrunk or disappeared entirely, Howard said. In the vicinity of two-thirds of our campaign was a derivative of employment in the automobile industry. The announcement is going to have a devastating impact, Howard said Monday. Its been a juggling act to generate new revenue streams to fill the void left by GMs ongoing contraction. A working group led by the United Way has been formed to address declining revenue leading the agenda is GMs dwindling support. He said it will definitely mean fewer dollars to fuel poverty abatement initiatives. GM says there are about 2,600 hourly workers and about 300 contract and salary employees in Oshawa. The reduction in donations from that pool of donors translates to a smaller pot of funds to be shared by two dozen social service organizations dependent on United Ways financial support. Among those fearing the worst is Jaki MacKinnon, executive director of Claringtons Bethesda House, a non-profit that offers shelter and programs for victims of domestic abuse and their families. Bethesda has been the beneficiary of GM support in recent years. Charities take a big hit because people no longer feel safe sharing their income the way they use to, she said. Its bad news for Bethesda House. Staff at GM have chipped in to keep Bethesda afloat over the years. Womens groups at the plant have also been staunch advocates of the agency. The workers and the company have a been a big help, she said. The women volunteer and if there is someone who has been dealing with domestic abuse, the womens committee are the people who typically steer them to local shelters. Of greater concern, is the potential of domestic abuse incidents spiking due to the destabilizing effects the stress from job losses can have on the household. We do know that when people lose their jobs the incidents of domestic abuse increases in the community, she said. The support will decrease and the demand will increase. GMs continued decline will also be felt to a lesser extent at the local post-secondary institutions, where the company was a catalyst for the development of an automotive research and testing facility at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), once dubbed the General Motors of Canada Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE). The company is credited as an anchor partner behind the launch of ACE in 2011, said Justin Gammage, ACEs industry liaison specialist They basically were very supportive in the first few years of ACEs operation, to allow us to get our feet under us and create a business model which is now sustainable, he said. The GM moniker has since been removed from its name and General Motors product development group is only one of several entities currently using the facility for testing. Revenue generated from clients like GM is used to hire about six undergraduate students at ACE. GM is a close and important partner for the university; there are also ties as far as co-ops and the hiring of graduates, said a statement from the school. Hopefully it remains a strong relationship going forward. It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Read more about: Maybe it was a brother. Or a sister. An uncle, a cousin, a friend. Maybe even like this writer it was your own dad who once worked within that wonder of industrial wonders, GMs sprawling auto plant in Oshawa. Almost a million square metres under a single roof. A facility so vast you could fit 600 hockey rinks inside and still skate circles around General Motors Canadas crown jewel without getting snow on your face. And now, unthinkably for multiple generations of middle-class southern Ontarians who knew its power to change lives to feed, house and bankroll futures, so that the children of autoworkers could spring forth with college-educated hope GM Oshawa will be mothballed. A manufacturing behemoth whose roots stretch all the way back to the horse-and-buggy era is soon to be dust. Can we still call ourselves the Golden Horseshoe, now that GM is about to strangle what for decades was the golden goose? For those raised to understand Ontarios place as the engine of industrial Canada, Oshawa was, decade upon decade upon decade, the spark plug. I owe my entire livelihood to GM, Oshawa native Bronwyn Cawker, a Toronto chef, told the Star. From my grandpa, who worked managing the stamping plant to support a family of eight, to my father, who apprenticed there as an electrician and worked there for over 30 years to support our brood of eight, every adult I knew as a kid worked at GM in some capacity. I even spent a summer working on the line at GM when I was 21. This place is woven in the fabric of my being. Of the towns being. Read more: Anger, sadness and uncertainty for GM workers as Oshawa plant closure announced GM plant closure in Oshawa part of companys shift to electric, self-driving autos Opinion | Martin Regg Cohn: GM shows Doug Fords Ontario isnt so Open for Business For anyone paying more than passing attention, Oshawas pain has been slow-motion agony, as the city, like the rest of the Canadian auto industry, has struggled with the twin forces of globalization and automation and now, a wholesale shift to retool for the age of autonomous, electric vehicles. Oshawa has withstood and survived a generation of cuts that reduced the plant from its million-vehicles-per-year peak involving a payroll of 40,000 to a workforce now less than a tenth of what it was. But amid the bailouts, buyouts, outsourcing and downsizing, GM Oshawa was still there. And if shrinking numbers showed the majority of the economic pain had already been felt, nothing quite kills like actual death. And barring what would almost certainly be controversial government intervention, GM now appears determined to mothball the facility, ending an Oshawa legacy of car-making that stretches back 111 years and beyond, back to horse-and-buggy era. As many online commenters have noted, the symbolic heft of mothballing Oshawa means, among other things, that Col. R. Samuel McLaughlin is spinning in his grave. In 1887, McLaughlin started out as an apprentice in the upholstery department of his fathers company, the McLaughlin Carriage Works, which was doing a thriving business building and exporting horse-drawn buggies throughout the British Empire, and went on to re-engineer the vehicles for the motor age, using Buick engines. In 1907 his McLaughlin Motor Car Company roared to life in Oshawa and soon thereafter, in partnership with GM, he became president of the newly formed General Motors of Canada. He remained on the board until well into the 1960s, when the already thriving Oshawa plant expanded into a facility that would command global interest with the arrival of the 1965 Auto Pact, the forerunner to our modern-day NAFTA free-trade agreement. In the 1970s China sent a large trade mission to Canada and all they wanted to do was go to Oshawa and see the GM Autoplex they wanted to build what we had and 40 years later we are slowly but surely losing it, said Dimitry Anastaskis, a history professor with Trent University and the author of three books on Canadas auto sector. Im not being nativist here, Im not saying, Oh it would be nice to go back to the 1950s. The fact is that manufacturing in Canada is going to continue to shrink, inevitably. But the reason the Golden Horseshoe is the Golden Horseshoe is because of the high-paying manufacturing jobs and the idea that we just walk away from that is just silly. I am an advocate for managing that shrinkage in the least painful way possible, while still retaining enough of it so that you are still a player, Anastaskis told the Star in an interview during the three-way negotiations to update NAFTA. The goal needs to be managing that transition to a post-industrial economy where you still have some left because the alternative is an entirely service-based economy that exacerbates problems around inequality and leads to a precariousness in the workforce that is so destructive and unhealthy for ordinary workers. McLaughlin, a noted philanthropist, steered much of his fortune to public works, donating generously to York and Queens universities, University of Montreal and Oshawa General Hospital, and, perhaps most memorably, establishing the planetarium in Toronto that bears his name. East of Toronto McLaughlins name echoes still in such donated sites as Camp Samac, a 66-hectare (163-acre) scouting retreat in Oshawa. His former mansion, the 55-room Parkwood Estate, now a National Historic Site, occupies an entire city block in central Oshawa, where it has served as a film and TV backdrop for productions ranging from X-Men and Murdoch Mysteries. He lived to age 100 before his death in 1972, and once was described by Toronto financier E.P. Taylor as a man with a voice of brass, a body of iron and a heart of gold. McLaughlin and Oshawa, it is worth remembering, had experienced industrial disaster once before. In 1899, the McLaughlin factory in Oshawa was destroyed by fire, leaving its founders destitute and a crew of 600 jobless. But within a month, McLaughlin was able to move the men to a temporary plant in Gananoque, personally walking door-to-door in search of people willing to lend his team a place to sleep. There they were able to produce 3,000 carriages in six months, keeping the firm solvent, while the Oshawa plant was rebuilt with the help of a $50,000 loan from the city. Years later, McLaughlin reflected upon that struggle, saying, The Gananoque operation confirmed my belief that the willing, conscientious worker is the backbone of any business. Backbone. Brass. Iron. Gold. If theres another like that today, please let Oshawa know. It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Read more about: U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told General Motors Co.s Mary Barra to stop making cars in China and open a plant in Ohio to replace one slated to close next year. GMs global sales trends show why this would be a lousy idea. GM has been selling more cars in China than in all of North America since 2014. Chinese consumers first bought more Chevrolets, Buicks and other GM vehicles than Americans did five years earlier. The gap widened to more than 1 million units in 2017. GMs chief executive officer is far from alone in wanting to build vehicles close to where theyre sold to reduce logistical costs. Labor also is cheaper in China. And shutting down production there a suggestion Trump told the Wall Street Journal he made to Barra would be especially ill-advised given the 40 per cent tariffs Beijing has slapped on U.S.-built cars. China raised the levies in July as part of a broader retaliation against Trump. Read more about: The Bank of Nova Scotia plans to sell its banking operations in nine Caribbean countries and its insurance operations in two other regional markets and its chief executive expects more international divestments in the pipeline. Scotiabank said Tuesday it has signed an agreement to sell its banking operations in nine non-core markets including Grenada, St. Maarten and St. Lucia to Republic Financial Holdings Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. The bank also said its subsidiaries in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago will sell their insurance operations to and partner with Sagicor Financial Corp. Ltd. to provide products and services in the two countries, for an undisclosed amount. These exits are part of Scotiabanks broader strategy to sharpen our focus, increase scale in core geographies and businesses, improve earnings quality and reduce risk to the bank, said its chief executive Brian Porter. The bank intends to remain in its core Caribbean markets as well as the Pacific Alliance countries of Peru, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, but there are more divestitures on the horizon, he told analysts on a conference call. Weve got a couple more to go and youll hear more from us in 2019, but they dont pertain to Latin America or the Pacific Alliance, Porter said. The divestitures were announced as the Toronto-based lender reported its earnings for the three months ended Oct. 31, capping off its 2018 financial year with a nearly 10 per cent increase in its fourth-quarter profit compared with a year ago, but falling just short of market expectations. Scotiabank earned $2.27 billion or $1.71 per diluted share for the three months ended Oct. 31, up from $2.07 billion or $1.64 per diluted share in net income during the same time last year. On an adjusted basis, the bank reported earnings per share of $1.77 compared with $1.65 a year ago. Analysts on average had expected adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.79 during the banks fourth quarter, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon. Scotiabank is the first of its peers to report its quarterly and full 2018 financial year earnings. Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce report later this week. For its full 2018 financial year, Scotiabank says it earned $8.72 billion or $6.82 per diluted share, compared with a profit of $8.24 billion or $6.49 per diluted share in 2017. The banks recent acquisitions including a majority stake in a Chilean bank weighed heavier on the bottom line than anticipated, said John Aiken, an analyst with Barclays in Toronto. Further, Scotia could not escape the capital markets weakness in the quarter, despite a lower relative exposure, he said in note to clients. Despite the miss, we believe that there are significant reasons for optimism going forward, including likely operating leverage improvements as the acquisitions are integrated and an improving sentiment with the disposal of certain operations in the Caribbean deemed as non-core. The Toronto-based banks latest results were fuelled by its international banking division which saw quarterly net income rise more than 21 per cent to $804 million. For the full financial year, the banks international operations saw adjusted earnings growth of 18 per cent on a constant currency basis, Porter said. This was driven by Scotiabanks operations in the Pacific Alliance trading bloc, which saw double digit loan and deposit growth, partly reflecting the lenders recent acquisitions in the region, said Porter. The bank has been on a buying spree at home and abroad over the past year, including completing its purchase of a majority stake in Chilean Bank BBVA Chile in July. The lender also earlier this year announced deals to buy Citibanks consumer and small and medium enterprise operations in Colombia for an undisclosed amount and buy Banco Dominicano del Progreso, which has operations in the Dominican Republic, in August. The next year will be focused on integrating Scotiabanks recent acquisitions in Chile, Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, Porter said. Scotiabank has the most international footprint among its peers and has been targeting Latin America for its strong growth prospects as activity in Canada slows. The refocusing of its Caribbean strategy stemmed from increasing regulatory complexity and the need for continued investment in technology to support our regulatory requirements, said Ignacio Deschamps, Scotiabanks group head of international banking, in a statement. The banks decisions in were guided, in part, by size. Jamaica, for example, has a population of roughly 2.8 million people while the Dominican Republic where Scotiabank expects to be the number three bank has roughly 11 million, said Porter. The other markets where Scotiabanks operations will be sold to Republic Financial Holdings are Anguilla, Antigua, Dominica, Guyana, St. Kitts & Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. When you look at what weve retained in the Caribbean, thats 90 per cent of the population, Porter said. This strikes at the core of our strategy to bulk up and get scale in markets and geographies and businesses that we deem important, where we can turn the dial for our customers and shareholders. CALGARYPlans to make Calgarys mature neighbourhoods more inviting to cyclists and pedestrians could be hamstrung by a funding plan that falls far short of whats needed, advocates warned Monday as budget deliberations officially got underway. Representatives from the Alliance into Main Streets (AIMS), a group of more than 50 community associations and developers, spoke Monday at the first public hearing, arguing that the proposed four-year budget is much less than whats needed to finish critical upgrades in older communities. We do feel were falling short of the promise of the program, said CivicWorks planner Dave White, who noted the cost of each street project can top $20 million. What are expected to be tough budget talks began with public hearings this week as the city faces strained capital funding and a long list of priorities. A property tax increase of up to 3.45 per cent in 2019, and 3 per cent each of the three years after that, is currently on the books for this budget that accounts for population growth, including in the citys new and developing neighbourhoods. But AIMS says mature neighbourhoods are paying an outsize price: according to its presentation, only three of the 24 streets identified for revamping in Calgarys Main Streets project are currently funded. That initiative offers streetscape renovations, from better cyclist and pedestrian connections to more trees and street lights, to make streets more accessible and inviting. Advocates say those changes are crucial for improving the public realm in established neighbourhoods, and this budgets one-time investment of $190,000 plus $30 million of capital funding isnt enough. The AIMS group says the improvements are viewed as part of the justification for land use changes for increased development and densification. Read more: Restrained and constrained: Calgary facing tight budget for next four years This is our hot potato: No easy solution for Calgarys property tax shift Council approves 14 new neighbourhoods, but experts say plans will worsen sprawl The total investment calculated really requires a promise, to fulfil the 24-street program, of $500 million or more over the course of time, White said. At this current rate of investment, it would literally take a generation to fulfil the mandate of the program. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the budget in its current form is underfunding that development. I think that is legitimately a mistake that was made in the first iteration of this budget because weve made promises to these communities, Nenshi said. He added that because part of the proposed property tax increase over the next four years is geared toward supporting new and developing communities, that raises questions for people elsewhere in the city. That means the vast majority of Calgarians who live in older neighbourhoods are saying, What about my cracked sidewalks? What about the need for me to build out my sewer lines? the mayor said. Should we think about funding that in an explicit, transparent way as well? And I think that is going to be a very good conversation for council to have this week. Ward 9 Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra offered a proposed amendment to the budget for Main Streets, which council will examine later in the week as the budget debate gets underway. Hopefully we can move a lot, toward the end of this week, in the direction we need to go, he said. Carras amendment includes creating a way to fund the program in the long term, and asking for a report on long-term funding options. He also suggests, if tax room is available, establishing a tax increase of 0.5 per cent per year over the next three years, and 0.65 per cent in 2022 to fund the program, similar to the way tax increases support new and developing communities. Ward 7 Councillor Druh Farrell said she sees the lack of a sustainable funding model as the biggest issue facing development in established neighbourhoods. Weve assured communities as they go through significant change to meet our long-term density goals that we would be reinvesting. So theres a lot of disappointment in this four-year budget that there wasnt a sustainable funding model. Montgomery Community Association president Marilyn Wannamaker also spoke in favour of more Main Streets investment. She read several letters from residents to council, including one that expressed feeling betrayed by the lack of investment in her neighbourhoods Bowness Rd. N.W. project. Montgomery needs infrastructure. We need it super bad, Wannamaker said of the northwest Calgary neighbourhood. City council heard presentations on everything from accessible playgrounds to the impact of the low-income transit pass to fears about possible tax increases resulting from continuing high vacancy rates in the citys downtown office space. Nenshi said he would rather not deal with the tax shift until after the budget is done, since council isnt expecting reports back about the issue until January. The city doesnt finalize tax rates until after the provincial budget comes out in the spring. Read more about: Following a string of romaine lettuce scares this year, experts say there has been an erosion of consumer trust and they question whether the leafy vegetable will keep its prominent place on peoples plates. Concerns over romaine lettuce contaminated with E. coli came to a head last Tuesday when the U.S. Center for Disease Control advised Americans to avoid the vegetable entirely. The Public Health Agency of Canada later advised Canadians living in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick to avoid it until further notice. The ubiquitous green is a top-selling high margin product, particularly at this time of year, according to Sylvain Charlebois, food policy professor at Dalhousie University. The entire supply chain is paying for this, including grocers, agents and brokers, Charlebois said. Everyone is hit by an alert like that. As of Monday afternoon, Canada had seen 22 reported cases of infection. Major grocery store chains across Canada, such as Sobeys and Safeway, have pulled romaine lettuce from their shelves, even in Alberta and British Columbia. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later updated their alert to suggest that lettuce recently harvested in Arizona, Florida, Mexico and Californias Imperial Valley is safe to eat. Lettuce from Californias Central Coast region is believed to be tainted. Read more: Romaine lettuce particularly susceptible to E. coli outbreaks Canadians, Americans are warned not to eat romaine lettuce Canadas E. coli outbreak steps lag U.S. because of caseloads, say experts Canada imported roughly $4 billion in vegetables in 2016, Statistics Canada data shows, with roughly $2.2 billion coming from the United States. Canada also grows vast quantities of lettuce, especially in Ontario and Quebec, but depends heavily on imports to fulfil consumer demand year-round. This is the third lettuce-related alert this year, Charlebois noted, recalling pyramids of lettuce stacked in grocery stores that nobody would touch following a 2017 advisory. Have your say But its not just romaine lettuce that will bear the burden. Charlebois suspected that all lettuce sales will be affected, as consumers may just avoid the aisle altogether. The reason why we are seeing frequent problems is because of consumer demand, he said. Consumers are looking for affordable food products. It is concerning that the public ends up not knowing what actually happened or exactly where the contamination source may be, he added. StarMetro reached out to Sobeys, Safeway and the Overwaitea Group but received no response as of publication time. However, at a Vancouver Safeway location and a Nesters Market location on Sunday, signs advising against romaine were posted on the doors and all along the produce section. In a precautionary move, the vast majority of restaurants in B.C. opted to stop selling romaine, said Ian Tostenson, president of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association. Since Caesar salads arent often a main dish, he said, most restaurants were able to work around it. Calgary Co-op also followed suit and pulled between 15,000 to 20,000 units individual products ranging from romaine lettuce itself to packaged salads from its shelves, according to a statement from produce operations director Lawrence Wright. Calgary Co-op said it relies on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to inspect imported food and ensure it isnt contaminated, but more must be done. There is a very large focus in the industry to improve the traceability of fresh produce, but we are not where we need to be currently, Wright said in the statement. The challenge for food safety investigators is identifying the specific origin of the product the farm and date of harvest according to a statement from the CFIA. The agency begins its sleuthing process based on the food history of patients, collected by public health officials. Once common products, stores or restaurants are identified, a further investigation is conducted with suppliers, distributors or wholesalers, the statement reads. But the lag between the consumption of the food, the onset of symptoms and the completion of the tracing process is often longer than the shelf life of the product, it adds. This means that by the time an investigation starts into potential food items, the perishable goods are no longer in the marketplace ... available for testing, the statement says. According to Lawrence Goodridge, professor of food safety at McGill University, fruits and vegetables are more prone to outbreaks because consumers ingest them raw. Goodridge said its difficult to determine the source of an outbreak because of how we detect contamination in the first place. In order for a public health alert to happen, a sick person has to go to a medical professional and typically give a stool specimen. But many people who are sick dont go to the hospital, and even if they do, doctors may not take a sample. Instead, they send them home to drink fluids and rest, he explained. For every person that is sick with a food-borne illness, theres likely 25 more people that we dont know about, he said. It takes a lot of time for officials to know theres an outbreak. Meanwhile, researchers have yet to fully understand all the ways that veggies can be contaminated, and questions remain around whether there is something specific to romaine that makes it more susceptible to bacteria. Once we figure that out, we need better ways to control these risks, he said. We know that climate, extreme rain or wind can cause and have caused outbreaks. Goodridge said growing vegetables in greenhouses is one way to decrease but not eliminate the risk, as it keeps the plants indoors and away from wild animals. According to Health Canada, leafy greens can become contaminated in the field by soil, water, animals or improperly composted manure. But despite the public-health alerts in both Canada and the U.S., some vegetable producers in Western Canada arent too worried. Some are even optimistic that these scares may increase consumer interest in buying locally grown greens. Weve seen these things before, and they tend to blow over, said Gert Lund, who owns Lunds Organic Farm out of Innisfail, Alta. Once this stuff is no longer in the daily news, people tend to just go along with their lives and forget about it. Its not a long-term impact for us. The organic farmer said his operation only grows in season and, right now, theyre down to selling root vegetables turnips, onions and carrots out of cold storage. Had the contamination warnings hit in July or August, Lund said, he may have been in some trouble. There are also crucial differences between farms like Lunds and major farms in California. The farmer said hed visited California lettuce farms before and described them as very intense operations. Some grow three monocrops of produce a year, which puts a lot of stress on the soil and environment. This means farmers often spray their fields with pesticides very heavily to kill microbes that would themselves actually kill E.coli. Were a small family farm here, he said. Down there, theyre gigantic farms. They have hundreds of people working there. E. coli also tends to thrive in wet, warm environments and Californias growing season fits the bill. This can pose a serious risk of contamination, especially given the way lettuce is actually eaten. The leaves themselves are the crop, so its not like a fruit, said David Karwacki, CEO of The Star Group, a Canadian organization of fresh produce companies. Youre growing these actual leaves in an environment that needs to be pristine because thats what people are consuming. The organizations Inspired Greens greenhouse facility in Coaldale, Alta., grows roughly 12 million heads of lettuce a year inside pathogen-free pots that are also biodegradable. A trio of lettuce types can be seeded and transplanted without ever being touched by human hands, The Star Group said in a statement. Harvesting at the greenhouse facility is still done by hand, but Karwacki said workers are dressed up like theyre in an operating room. Several small-scale B.C. farmers told StarMetro that buying local helps consumers know the farmer and how the food got to their plate. In addition, many small farms do not use raw manure. Yet Charlebois disagreed, arguing people can get just as sick from buying local food as much as imported produce. You are a consumer exposed to risks no matter what you buy. That said, the scale of these alerts are massive as a result of building these incredible economies of scale, he explained. If Arizona makes a couple of mistakes, an entire continent is affected as a result. Thats why better traceability systems knowing lettuces journey from farm to plate are needed to limit the impact of outbreaks, he added. I do think we will spend a romaine-lettuce-free holiday this year, Charlebois said. Why bother importing when you know nobody is going to buy it? Goodbye romaine lettuce, hello baby kale. It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Read more about: CALGARYThe Alberta government is cracking down on the provinces oil and gas sector by asking the provinces industry-funded energy regulator to step up, Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd said Monday. On Friday, the Star and National Observer published a joint investigation that found the oil industrys strategy to deal with a trillion litres of toxic bitumen mining waste called tailings is centred on an unproven process. Despite years of promises from public officials that the ponds where the tailings are stored would shrink and go away, they continue to grow and appear to be leaking into the nearby Athabasca River system, the investigation found. McCuaig-Boyd declined to comment on the tailings issue in an interview Monday. However, she did blame the looming costs of cleaning up the oilpatch on the previous conservative government, and said she has directed the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), which is industry-funded, to tighten its rules in key areas to keep bad actors off the landscape and ensure responsible companies are protected. Its a problem thats built up over decades, she said. Its not an overnight fix but (the AER is) working with us ... Well be able to report more soon. Earlier this month, the joint investigation revealed the cost of cleaning up Albertas oilpatch could be as high as $260 billion. The AER had previously said the cost was just over $58 billion. The joint media report was based on a presentation given by one of the regulators vice-presidents, released through Freedom-of-Information legislation. The regulator has since said its use of the higher figure, which was calculated by its own experts, was a mistake and it stands by the lower figure. Read more: What would it cost to clean up Albertas oilpatch? $260 billion, a top official warns Off the chart air quality readings in Saskatchewans southeast raise new concerns but little public warning Toxic gas nearly killed this oil worker. His employer never told the province The liability estimate factors in the costs of shutting down and cleaning up oil-and-gas sites at the end of their usefulness. That includes inactive wells, pipelines and tailings ponds in the oilsands. So far, companies have only submitted about $1.6 billion in security deposits to cover the cost. Alberta has also seen an increasing number of inactive wells becoming orphans sites at the end of their useful lives that need to be cleaned up, but no longer have owners who can pay for the job. In recent years, the number of orphan wells designated for abandonment has climbed from fewer than 800 to more than 2,000, according to industry data. Earlier this year, for instance, Sequoia Resources Ltd. went bankrupt and left the province without decommissioning and cleaning up 4,000 wells, pipelines and other facilities. On Monday, the Alberta Liberal Party called for the NDP government to create a bond program that would require companies to put up cash for cleanup cost, a measure party leader David Khan said could protect the government from picking up such costs in the event of financial disaster. Obviously the whole industry is struggling ... but we have to have a higher-level discussion about how to meet these challenges, Khan said. Its just not something we can continue to ignore. Khan compared the idea to the system used in Texas, which successfully adopted such a program in 2002. We dont have all the specific silver bullet answers, but we want recognition that this is a serious problem and high-level government examination of the situation, he said. If we allow companies that are owned by offshore entities to go bankrupt and transfer their liabilities to the public purse or to the rest of the oil and gas industry, its going to hurt our homegrown oil and gas producers and it could create a huge liability for everyone in the future. McCuaig-Boyd said the government has looked at the bond idea and has a variety of measures in the works, though she declined to share details or a timeline. Canadians shouldnt be on the hook for actions of irresponsible operators, she said. In response to the tailings investigation, United Conservative Party MLA Jason Nixon said liabilities and environmental issues in the oilpatch are not a new thing in Alberta. It is an issue that needs to be addressed by the government long term for the sustainability of our industry and our province, he said. We have to do that at the same time right now as trying to balance an economic crisis and being able to make sure we keep our industry going. With files from Claire Theobald, StarMetro Edmonton Emma McIntosh is an environment, justice and investigative reporter with StarMetro Calgary. Follow her on Twitter at @EmmaMci It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Read more about: Zora may not look like much more cute toy than futuristic marvel but this robot is at the centre of an experiment in France to change care for elderly patients. When Zora arrived at a nursing facility an hour outside Paris, a strange thing began happening: Many patients developed an emotional attachment, treating it like a baby, holding and cooing, giving it kisses on the head. Zora, which can cost up to $24,000, offered companionship in a place where life can be lonely. Families can visit only so much, and staff members are stretched. Patients at the hospital, called Jouarre, have dementia and other conditions that require round-the-clock care. The nurse at Jouarre who oversees Zora controls the robot from a laptop. He often stands out of view so patients dont know its him at the controls. The robot can have a conversation because the nurse types words into a laptop for the robot to speak. Some patients refer to Zora as she, others he. Zora often leads exercises and plays games. Not everyone is enamored. Robotics still has a long way to go before theres a realistic chance of having a humanoid nurse. Zora doesnt dispense medicine, take blood pressure or change bedsheets. At Jouarre, Zora was viewed by some as a superfluous tool that just keeps the patients busy, according to a nurse, Sophie Riffault. Another nurse, Nathalie Racine, said she wouldnt let a robot feed patients even if it could. Humans shouldnt delegate such intimate moments to machines. Nothing will ever replace the human touch, the human warmth our patients need, she said. The experience at Jouarre provides a window into a future when we will rely more on robots to help care for loved ones as they age. Zora Bots, the Belgium-based provider of the robot at Jouarre, says it has sold over 1,000 of the robots to health care facilities around the world, including in the United States, Asia and Middle East. It is part of a growing emphasis on robotics focused on care. A robot dog made by Sony has been marketed as a companion for older adults. We need to help with loneliness, said Tommy Deblieck, the co-chief executive of ZoraBots. Giving robots more responsibility to care for people in the twilight of their lives may seem like a dystopian prospect, but many see it as an inevitability. In nearly every country, the population of older adults is rising. The number of people over 60 will more than double to 2.1 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations. The figures point to an emerging gap. There simply wont be enough people for the required health care jobs. Proponents argue new technology must be created to help fill the void. The challenge is particularly acute in France, where hospitals have been facing a national crisis, with health care professionals striking and protesting budget cuts and staff shortages. A rise of suicides of nurses and doctors has made national headlines, and Frances health minister acknowledged that the hospital system was running out of steam. The challenge will be creating machines capable of doing more complex jobs. Lifting a patients mood with a song is different from providing health care. The French hospital, which bought the robot with the help of a charitable grant, brings out Zora just a few times a month. In Australia, a hospital using a Zora robot studied the effects on patients and staff. The researchers found that it improved the mood of some patients, and got them more involved in activities, but required significant technical support. The experience of the French hospital staff has been similar. Staff members have been continually surprised by how attached patients have become. One nurse, Mickael Feret, said some patients get jealous of others spending time with Zora. Patients have told the robot things about their health they wouldnt share with doctors. A woman who had bruises on her arms wouldnt tell hospital staff what had happened, but shared with Zora that shed fallen out of bed while sleeping. It puts some cheerfulness in our lives here, says Marlene Simon, 70, who underwent a tracheotomy and has been in the hospital for more than a year. We love her, and I miss her when I dont see her. I actually think about her quite often. When we visited Jouarre in late August, it had been a long day for Zora. The machine visited individual patients in the morning, and then was needed to help with group exercises and other areas later in the day. Eventually it was put away in the small suitcase where it lives at night, stored away inside a closet in the secretarys office. The battery had run out. BERKELEY, Calif.With 30 days notice, the Rawas family were plucked from their temporary home in Jordan, where theyd fled the Syrian civil war, and resettled in Oakland, Calif. As refugees, they knew no one, had no job prospects and didnt speak a word of English. Three years later, Mohammed Aref Rawas, Rawaa Kasedah and their four children are running a budding catering business that serves authentic Syrian food such as smoked basmati rice, falafel and fattoush salad. Theyve hired their first employee. Their clients include big tech companies. And the days when starting over seemed impossible are far behind them. They are among a large population of refugees who, after fleeing a homeland overrun by violence and political turmoil, started a business, integrating quickly into the economy and life of a new country. The familys entrepreneurial approach is common among immigrants, studies show. An estimated 11 per cent of all Syrian immigrants in the U.S. labour force are business owners nearly four times the rate of U.S.-born business owners, according to a study by the New York-based Fiscal Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress. A significant part of that success has been the ability to master the English language, the report said. Meanwhile, a 2016 study by the institute that followed Bosnian, Burmese, Hmong and Somali refugees found that they, too, moved up the occupational ladder and started businesses after settling in the U.S. Thirty-one out of every 1,000 Bosnian refugees in the labour force are business owners, as are 26 out of 1,000 Burmese, 22 out of 1,000 Hmong, and 15 out of 1,000 Somalis, the study found. Theres a hunger for dignified work, said Thane Kreiner, executive director of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University. Kreiner launched an accelerator program known as Social Entrepreneurship at the Margins, which assists businesses and organizations around the world that are run by refugees, migrants or victims of human trafficking. The Rawas family started Old Damascus Fare last year. Rawas had owned a successful clothing factory in Syria, where he oversaw about 50 employees. The family lived comfortably in a suburb in their native Damascus. But increasing gunfire, kidnappings and the presence of military groups forced them to leave, and their temporary escape to Jordan in 2012 lasted until they immigrated to the U.S. in 2015. More than 500,000 Syrians have died and nearly 6 million have fled during a civil war that began seven years ago with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. After the Rawas family settled into the Bay Area, new friends and acquaintances in the Arab community asked Kasedah to cater birthday parties and other events. Soon they were catering events for area tech companies, including Facebook and LinkedIn. We got to the point where we realized its not only about food, said Batool Rawoas, one of the couples daughters. We are making new friends, we are hearing about new opportunities. Its a way to share our culture with the people here. The family admit theyre still struggling. Their expenses regularly exceed their income, and theyre overwhelmed by the painstaking details of operating a business. The main challenge for any refugee family is navigating how to survive in the Bay Area because its so expensive, said Rawoas, who is attending community college and hopes to transfer to a four-year university to study psychology and public health. We lived in Syria, we were from the middle class and we had a very comfortable life. We owned our own house, our own land, she said. But were hoping, in the future, this will be a good thing to support us financially. Because refugees like the Rawas often have to reinvent their lives, that makes them resilient entrepreneurs, said David Miliband, a former British foreign secretary and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, which resettled the family three years ago. In a way, being a refugee, having to flee for your life, having to figure out who to trust, having to figure out new ways of survival ... there could hardly be a more effective job-training program, he said. Those qualities of co-operation, determination, courage, trust are important for any entrepreneur. What do you do when a hacker comes phishing, threatening to spill your photos, videos and online secrets unless you pay a hefty ransom? The Royal Canadian Mounted Police want you to call them so detectives can get a handle on the magnitude of this growing crime. Anybody who wants to monetize criminality has found a niche on the dark web, said Staff Sgt. Maurizio Rosa, a senior detective at the RCMPs national cybercrime unit in Ottawa. We definitely have an appetite to go after these people. RCMP records show 21,000 reported complaints of phishing attacks against Canadians in the past three years, but Rosa and his growing team of cybercops believes the number is grossly under-reported. . Most people receive an extortion attempt and press delete. Some pay and never speak about it. Thousands more are reported to local police, and not captured in the RCMPs files. This crime is definitely growing, Rosa said. We are seeing physical crime decreasing, cybercrime increasing. Conventional belief is that these attacks come from overseas. But Rosa was the lead officer in a case before the courts next week, in which a 27-year-old Thornhill man is alleged to be behind a domestic scheme that offered to sell portions of three billion email accounts and passwords for a fee. Jordan Evan Bloom is charged with trafficking in identity information and mischief to data in relation to LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and other sites that fell prey to major hacks. None of the charges have been proven in court. Blooms preliminary hearing begins in Toronto on Monday and is expected to run for three days. One phishing attack making the rounds in Canada this fall is using stolen credentials from breaches at LinkedIn and numerous other sites. The email extortion scheme demands that targets pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in untraceable Bitcoin, or the hacker will expose their secret life online, including photos, videos and browsing history. Read more: A hacker tried to extort Star investigative reporter Kevin Donovan. So he investigated Ransomware attack hits business that sells Ontario residents data Facebook hack exposed millions search history and location data Joyce Litster of Dundas, Ont., was happily settled into retirement from a career at McMaster University when she received one of these emailed threats last month. She found it particularly chilling that the hacker had a password which she had used in the past. She called local police, who assured her it was a scam and that the hacker did not actually have access to her phone and computer. How many 76-year-old women waste their time looking at salacious garbage on their computers? Litster said. Still, it was very unsettling to receive something like that. A recent Toronto Star story delved into these phishing attacks. Hackers purchase passwords from the darkweb from data breaches at previously attacked sites. The RCMPs Rosa described the dark web as a marketplace for all sorts of commodities, including stolen credit card numbers complete with expiry date and CCV, and login credentials including passwords. I was struck by the sites of intimate content that you often visit, the hacker wrote in one of a series of emails to a Star reporter. Like the email to Litster and thousands of others, it showed up without warning. The hacker includes a password the recipient used, putting it forward as bait to show he has, or could gain, intimate knowledge of your electronic history. I am in shock of your fantasies! Ive never seen anything like this! the hacker writes, then explains that he is actually a hacker with a soul, and will return your secret life to you for a payment in Bitcoin. When the Star published the story, roughly 300 people came forward to report receiving a similar phishing email. Some said they were panicked, some took it in stride, and some said they had been unable to get police interested in pursuing what clearly seemed to be a crime. Readers had a lot of questions. Who had obtained their password? Where was the hacker in Canada, or overseas? Had the hacker uploaded malware as he/she said had been done? Did the hacker have the ability to control a cellphone camera and take intimate photos? Gerry from Saskatoon (who did not want his last name used to preserve his cyber safety) told the Star he had received a series of these phishing attempts, beginning with a request for $7,000 in Bitcoin, and when he refused to bite, the ransom request dropped steadily, ending up at $899. In his mind, the phisher was a poor miserable sad soul. Marvin Zuker, an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said he received a threatening email from a hacker demanding $857 in Bitcoin within 50 hours or that was that. Zuker changed all of his passwords as a precaution and had his IT department scan for viruses. Around the same time, he received calls from a person saying he was from the Canada Revenue Agency (another current scam where fraudsters try and get people to pay money to avoid going to jail.) In that instance, Zuker said he called the CRA agent back to show the fraudster he was not scared by the scam. Typically, email phishing attacks appear to come from the recipients own email, a scheme known as spoofing making it appear that the hacker has control of your email. Some readers said they had been playing detective, trying to figure out where the breached password came from. Peter Draksler, who works in information technology in Hamilton, said he is always very careful to use different passwords. Back in 2000, he created a discreet email and password to enter a popular magazines contest. Bingo, he thought when the hacker referenced those credentials in a phishing attack this year. Even though it was a one-time password and email, Draksler said it was concerning that someone had accessed those credentials. While some people use a distinct password for each site, many people reuse passwords containing, perhaps, their last or first name, dogs name or street address. James Heeringa from Mississauga showed a phishers threatening email to his IT people at work and was told to delete and ignore them. I must say I felt very threatened by them because he had a password of mine, Heeringa said. Policing cybercrime is a far cry from pursuing suspects of physical crime. Rosa said the internet was created to protect the identity of people. Rosa began his career 20 years ago on Vancouver Island in a local detachment. Before that he was an electrical engineer. The team he has assembled in Ottawa includes 12 police officers and nine civilian members, the latter including people hired right out of university with strong computer or engineering backgrounds. They lack the resources to investigate individual phishing attacks but want all Canadians to report phishing and ransomware attacks so they can discover patterns that will aid larger investigations. What he has discovered is that unsophisticated criminals are purchasing a variety of credentials stolen by sophisticated criminals and placed on the dark web marketplace. Often, credentials are sold a multitude of times and that means one individual may be targeted by a multitude of phishers. And he said there is a sort of honour among thieves approach on the dark web. When someone pays $2,000 for a batch of credentials, say credit card information, the seller warrants that while some may no longer be valid, a decent number will be. When Project Adoration hits court next week, Rosa said all the complexities of this type of case will be on display. In that case, the RCMP was tipped off by Dutch authorities in 2016 to the alleged involvement of the Lamborghini-driving Bloom, who police allege earned $247,000 through involvement in Leakedsource.com, which housed billions of stolen credentials in a computer server farm located in Quebec. RCMP officials say they are encouraging people who receive a phishing or ransomware attack to call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or go online at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca to make a complaint using their secure reporting system. And people have to take precautions, said Rosa, including creating difficult passwords, not reusing passwords and not opening documents that seem suspicious. Make yourself a harder target. VICTORIAGreen party Leader Elizabeth May is engaged and is making plans for a wedding next spring. May said Monday she and John Kidder will be married in Victoria on April 22 and are planning a train trip from Vancouver to Ottawa shortly afterwards as their honeymoon. She said the couple have known each other for about five years, but the sparks flew at a Green Party convention in Vancouver in September. Kidder, who is from Ashcroft, B.C., popped the question about a month later. Kidder, 71, has deep roots in the Green party, running federally for a seat in B.C. and is a founder of the provincial party. May says he is a retired technology entrepreneur who operates a hops farm in Ashcroft, but also spends time in Vancouver. Read more: Opinion | Rosie Dimanno: Elizabeth May says shes a nice person. But so what if she isnt? Investigation clears Green Party Leader Elizabeth May of workplace harassment Three former Green Party staffers accuse Elizabeth May of workplace bullying I had a crush on him and he had a crush on me, said May, who represents the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands in the House of Commons. It was kind of like high school. She said once the pair decided they were an item, the proposal came quickly. When you know its right, its right. Whirlwind, she added. Kidder is the brother of the late actress Margot Kidder, May said. He has three children and four grandchildren. May, who has a daughter, three stepchildren and seven grandchildren, credited her friend Sylvia Olsen with playing matchmaker. Olsen is the mother of Adam Olsen, the Green member of the B.C. legislature for Saanich-North and the Islands. She said Olsen told her she would encourage Kidder to make the move. Lets face it, said May. I didnt have time. I said, I dont need a partner. Im really busy. Im quite happy as a single woman. But now May said shes thrilled. I feel pretty goofy, she said. Read more about: Police are calling for help identifying a vehicle of interest in a September hit-and-run collision in Scarborough that killed an 80-year-old pedestrian. The collision happened shortly before 8:30 a.m. in the area of Esquire Rd. and Victoria Park Ave. on Sept. 29, Toronto police said in a news release Tuesday. The 80-year-old man was hit while crossing Esquire Rd. when a driver police believe was travelling eastbound struck him and fled the scene. Police found the 80-year-old man suffering from serious injuries at the scene. He was taken to hospital, where he died on Nov. 10. His death had not been previously reported. Toronto police Traffic Services were able to obtain images of a pickup truck described as a vehicle of interest to the case. They are asking anyone with information to come forward. Thirty-eight pedestrians and five cyclists have been killed on Toronto streets so far this year, according to figures compiled by the Star. The combined total of 43 cyclist and pedestrian deaths is the highest by this date in any year since 2007, which is the earliest available year in police data. The Stars traffic fatality numbers are higher than the official police count. Thats in part because Toronto police figures dont include deadly collisions that happen on private property, such as in the parking lots of apartment buildings or malls, or on provincial 400-series highways within Toronto. November is often one of the worst months for traffic collisions in the city. From 2007 to 2017, 43 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on Toronto streets in the month of November the highest total for any month over that period. Correction Dec. 3, 2018: This article has been edited from a previous version that misstated the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed in Toronto in the month of November between 2007 to 2017. With files from Ben Spurr Its the city that built General Motors and became a beacon for good manufacturing jobs. And Oshawa has never been shy about fighting for them. In 1996, strikebound workers got wind that GM was planning to outsource work by moving tool and die equipment to another factory. In response, then-president of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, Buzz Hargrove, warned management they would not get one goddamn die out of the city of Oshawa. He was right: workers stormed the gates, broke into the plant, and welded the doors shut to stop the parts leaving. Two decades later, retail workers outnumber manufacturing in a city where good jobs dwindle. Oshawas unemployment rate sits at 5.8 per cent, compared to 5.6 per cent for the rest of the province. Across the GTA, around half of all jobs are low-wage, temporary, contract, or lacking benefits. Thats why the battle for GMs 2,500 at-risk jobs is just as crucial today as it ever was, says Bill Murnighan, director of research at Unifor, the union that grew out of CAW and represents GM employees. Read more: Canada and United States urged to work together to fight General Motors GM Oshawa suppliers cushion the blow with wider reach Opinion | Jennifer Wells: GM Oshawa throws the governments innovation talk a curve Overall, the labour market is fairly strong, but there are still far too many precarious jobs. So its incredibly frustrating to see the Ford governments reversal of many of the changes that were meant to make precarious jobs better, he said, referring to recent legislation that removed many new protections for low-wage workers. At the same time, (theyre) stepping away from a challenge to stand up for good jobs where we already have them. Premier Doug Ford said Monday that GM told him straight up theres nothing we can do about the closure of the plant, which once employed 40,000. Thats exactly the wrong argument to make at this moment, said Murnighan. We have a contractual obligation from GM to keep our operations open through the life of the collective agreement. Story Behind the Story delivers insights into how the Star investigates, reports, and produces stories. Beyond that, he says all levels of government need to promote things like workforce development, research and development and capital investment that make Ontario and Canada an attractive place to keep auto jobs. The cost of labour, while its important, its less than 5 per cent of the cost of a vehicle, even those made in Canada and the U.S. Its the research and development, the skill of the workers, having a supply base that increasingly matters. Moving up higher up the technology chain this requires more skill, not less. Ontario by every measure has the highest quality of skill, he added. Regardless of the ultimate outcome at GM, University of Toronto post-doctoral fellow in Canadian labour history, Christo Aivalis, said the news is a wake-up call for Canadians that too many of our decisions in our society are dictated by profit motive. The reality is the cars still need to be built and we have the raw materials to produce them. So I dont think we need to move too far off the question of, why do these workers need to be laid off? For most of those workers under the current status quo, they will not find the kind of job that offers them the same level of security and compensation. They just will not, he added. With the new labour law scale backs, the minimum wage or near-minimum wage positions are going to be that much more unpleasant to work. Cammie Peirce has already had a glimpse of what instability in the auto sector can do to workers. She co-ordinated CAWs job action centre in Brampton for Chrysler employees when the company decided to can its third shift, putting about 1,100 people out of a job. The GM jobs havent gone yet, she notes, and might yet be rescued but the unknown can be pretty terrifying for workers, she said. My initial concern is for people who are in this state of flux between now and whenever something happens. Immediately in my mind, people need to know that mental health supports are going to need to be there. If job cuts do come to pass, she says retraining efforts need to be as holistic and accessible as possible. I really think that the group philosophy keeping people with their peers is really important, she said. Im very fond of peer-led action centres. You invite people in for a coffee, get them out of their house because you dont want someone to just sit at home and just fall down that deep, dark hole. Just as crucial, she argues, is income support for workers who are retraining and ensuring they find employment that is both sustainable and is going to replace the standard of living that is close to what they currently have. To me, everybody there is going to face the challenge of the changing labour market, the shift to contract and temp work, Peirce added. Potential job losses at GM could have a far reaching impact, she notes. Its not just 2,500 jobs. We have auto parts that are tied to that, adding that workers in that sector often face additional barriers to finding new jobs, such as literacy and fluency in English. A 2015 report commissioned by Unifor on the potential impact of closing the Oshawa plant found that it would cost the Canadian economy over 50,000 jobs and $1.3 billion in public revenue. It is like the goose that lays the golden egg, said Murnighan. Its really kind of unacceptable to us to close that door. It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Correction November 30, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated Oshawa's unemployment rate as 9.8 per cent. Incorrect information was provided to the Star. Read more about: Inside the New Brunswick Heart Centre, workers toil away in the surgery department and special examination rooms, assigned to cut costly bottlenecks so more patients can be seen more quickly. These workers are not hospital employees, however. Theyre from a branch of Medtronic, a medical device giant that makes life-changing products from insulin pumps to pacemakers. Medtronic doesnt just sell medical devices. The companys burgeoning Integrated Health Solutions (IHS) business has consulted and partnered with more than 100 hospitals around the world, often with units that specialize in health conditions for which Medtronic makes devices. Under the deals, Medtronic does everything from managing cardiac catheterization labs to overseeing inventory to consulting services. This is a new frontier of public healthcare, where cash-strapped hospitals open their operations to a private company a multinational that has paid the U.S. government millions to settle claims that it defrauded federal health programs and gave kickbacks to doctors to implant its devices. An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its 58 media partners, including the Star/CBC/Radio-Canada, has found some of these international partnerships include incentives for the hospitals, such as staff donated by Medtronic. In return, the company would benefit from increased sales a hospital generated as a result of more efficient management. Neither Medtronic nor Horizon Health Network agreed to interviews about the partnership involving the New Brunswick Heart Centre. In statements, Medtronic said it has an unwavering commitment to ethical business practices, and its Integrated Health Solutions branch operates behind a firewall that separates it from the companys device-selling operations. We believe that integrated healthcare is the future of healthcare delivery and that IHS and value-based initiatives will be instrumental in reducing healthcare costs and improving quality of care, a Medtronic spokesman said. This leads to better patient outcomes at lower costs. The motive behind the partnerships, according to a former U.S. Medtronic director who oversaw contracts the company had with hospitals, is simple: To entrench Medtronic in the inner-workings of the hospital. Well help you be better and more efficient. But we need to get more business out of it, the former director told the Star. He asked not to be named because he still interacts with the medical device industry in his new job. Medtronic wants to get you to the point where you cant live without them. By tying perks like free staff or better pricing to hospital revenue growth, these partnerships will turn these healthcare systems into cash cows rather than service professions, said Dr. Nortin Hadler, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I can envision a marketing slogan for my hospital along the lines of Whats good for Medtronic is good for the patient. Read More: Biocell breast implants at centre of biggest controversy in plastic surgery Faulty and unproven medical devices implanted in Canadian patients despite known risks Breast-implant-related complications, including cancer, kept secret thanks to broken reporting system Medtronic began in a Minneapolis garage in 1949, where Earl Bakken, an electrical engineer, fixed lab equipment with his brother-in-law. In the late 1950s, Bakken created the first wearable, battery-powered pacemaker, an innovation that would help save millions of lives and set the small company on its way to become a global behemoth. In a July speech to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, Medtronics CEO Omar Ishrak boasted that the company has excelled in not only developing innovative technologies but inventing new markets, through which Medtronic helps more than 70 million patients a year, or two people every second. In its meteoric ascension, the company has repeatedly landed in court. Medtronic has agreed to pay at least $115 million to the U.S. government over the last decade to settle claims that it broke the law. In paying the settlements, Medtronic denied any wrongdoing. The settlements all stemmed from lawsuits filed by whistleblowers, mostly former company insiders. Under U.S. law, the government can pursue lawsuits filed by whistleblowers against companies that allegedly defrauded the government. The whistleblowers receive a portion of the proceeds if the case is successful. Medtronic has also been ensnared in thousands of lawsuits from patients around the world and at least one Toronto hospital seeking money for alleged damages caused by Medtronic devices. Chief among those devices are the Sprint Fidelis leads, insulated wires connecting implanted defibrillators to patients hearts that were prone to fracture, causing unnecessary shocks. The first-ever Sprint Fidelis lead was implanted inside a London, Ont., operating room in early 2004. By late 2007, more than 268,000 Sprint Fidelis leads were implanted worldwide, including into chests of some 5,900 Canadians. One of them was Sherry Robinson of Sechelt, a coastal community northwest of Vancouver. Robinson had suffered from passouts since she was a kid. But by 2005, they were getting worse. It was taking longer to regain consciousness. I knew I was getting to the point where I wasnt going to survive these, she said in an interview. Robinson, then 32, was given an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) with a Sprint Fidelis lead after she suffered cardiac arrest. It was a life saver. She finally felt comfortable doing something as simple as vacuuming while she was home alone, no longer afraid she would over-exert and pass out. One night in January 2007, just before going to sleep, a jolt thrust her forward in bed. I saw this white light through my eyes. It hurt like hell. I thought, Ive been hit by lightning, she said. It took me a couple of seconds to catch my breath and realize: Oh my God, thats my defibrillator. She was rushed to hospital and, after tests showed her heart was fine, she was sent home. The following two nights, she again received shocks. Then, while hooked up to a monitor at the hospital, her defibrillator rattled off a firing storm six consecutive shocks. An air ambulance flew her to a Vancouver hospital, where she suffered another firing storm. By the time her ICD was deactivated, she had received 18 shocks. Doctors determined the lead had fractured, causing it to shoot false signals to the defibrillator. On Jan. 24, 2007, she had the lead removed and replaced with a new one. Again, it was a Sprint Fidelis. Around that time, a U.S. doctor was flagging problems with the thin wires and approached Medtronic. The company sent a notice to surgeons, attributing the fractures to improper handling by physicians. By October 2007, Medtronics message changed. Stop implanting the leads, the company warned, as the wires had a risk of fracturing that could cause an implanted defibrillator to fire inappropriate shocks or stop working completely. Medtronic halted sales of the leads across the world. The fractured leads may have been a contributing factor in 13 deaths, the company later announced. Robinson remembers sitting in a room with other patients at a Vancouver hospital as doctors explained the companys safety warning. I was very mad and upset, she said. Long before (Medtronic) told us, long before they informed the doctors, they had to know that things were wrong with these leads. Medtronic has said the leads had met rigorous safety, effectiveness and quality standards before being approved in Canada, and the company closely monitored how the products performed in patients. Safety is our first priority, and we categorically reject any suggestion that Medtronic puts innovation and profits over patient safety, the company said in a statement. For four more years, Robinson lived in fear her second Sprint Fidelis lead would cause her defibrillator to misfire again. In 2011, she underwent a risky procedure to have the lead removed. Robinson is the lead plaintiff in an ongoing Canadian class-action lawsuit against Medtronic over the leads. And its not just patients suing. In a separate lawsuit, Torontos Health Network demanded $750,000 from Medtronic for the recovery of costs, expenses and damages incurred as a result of purchase and implantation of Sprint Fidelis leads. The two sides settled, a hospital spokesperson said, adding that the terms are confidential. Current healthcare systems are wasteful, unsustainable and in need of fixing, Medtronic has said time and again. Think of the healthcare system itself as a sick patient, Neil Fraser, president of Medtronic Canada, said on the companys website about the companys partnerships with hospitals. What were trying to do is address an illness that can be helped through technology, innovation and collaboration. A partnership would be a win-win, the company described in a 2014 presentation to investors. A hospital would save by reducing the cost of providing care, and Medtronic would make tens of millions of dollars in incremental device and service sales. It was part of how, as enthusiastic analysts at PriceWaterhouseCoopers put it, Medtronic would own the disease. The company would earn money not for selling pacemakers but for preserving heartbeats. By January 2014, Medtronic was ready to push its blossoming health solutions business into Canada. The company had hand-picked the Brampton Civic Hospitals Diabetes Education Centre as a pilot project to prove its optimization services would work here. In Peel, one in 10 adults has diabetes, a number that could rise to one in six by 2025, according to Medtronic. For 12 months, Medtronic reps hosted workshops and trained clinic staff to identify and correct bottlenecks and gaps in the system. The goal, the company said, was to cut down on administrative burden to give the healthcare providers more time to spend with their patients. Medtronic did it all for free. In the end, the number of new patients visiting the clinic increased by 33 per cent. More patients are good for business, the former Medtronic director said. Finding these efficiencies cutting down on re-admissions, seeing more patients, it helps a hospitals bottom line. It all goes to Medtronics bottom line, too, because it helps them sell more products, he said. In February 2014, one month after putting together the deal with the Brampton hospital, Medtronic partnered with a newly formed neuroscience department at the University of Alberta hospital. The contract outlined how Medtronic would review the programs patient experience map from referral to surgeries to out-patient care. The hospital signed a five-month contract and renewed it twice. As in Brampton, Medtronic offered its services for free. Its reward, the contract notes, would include expanding Medtronics network within the field of neurosciences. The former U.S. Medtronic director said the company is deliberate in what hospitals it approaches for prospective partnerships. These things dont necessarily get pitched to customers who dont have Medtronic business, he said. You only bring it up to a customer when its going to benefit you. He said the company sometimes laces incentives into the agreement, such as free training or consulting services, some on paper, some not. In the United Kingdom, Medtronic secured contracts to manage two healthcare centres catheterization labs, which produce diagnostic images of patients hearts and arteries. A 2013 Financial Times article quoted a Medtronic official saying the agreement would include a negotiated minimum quota of purchases of Medtronic equipment. Doctors would ultimately choose what medical devices to use on patients, the official said. The agreement saved Imperial College in London nearly $2.6 million each year, according to a presentation by the health centres head of cardiology. Spokeswomen from both the Brampton and Alberta hospitals say there were no procurement quotas built into their agreements with Medtronic. All of (Alberta Health Services) procurement decisions as it relates to Medtronic were, and are, made independent of this arrangement, a spokeswoman said. The alleged incentives Medtronics offers to drive sales of its devices have been the subject of lawsuits in the U.S. The company paid the U.S. government $23.5 million in 2011 to settle claims that Medtronic gave kickbacks to induce doctors to implant its pacemakers and defibrillators. Medtronic denies the allegations and said the settlement was not an admission of liability. Medtronic solicited physicians to run studies and device registries, paying them as much as $2,000 per enrolled patient, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged. But the payments for the research were a guise to sway physicians away from using competitors products or to reward doctors for continuing to use Medtronic devices, the government alleged. In one of the whistleblower complaints that led to the settlement, a former Medtronic employee alleged the kickbacks were part of the companys broader effort to corner the market on cardiac rhythm devices, and many of the studies were bogus and had no utility to the medical field whatsoever. One of those alleged kickback schemes named in the 2011 settlement was the TRENDS study, whose lead investigators included Canadian doctor D. George Wyse, who is internationally recognized for his work in heart rhythm management. In an interview, Wyse said he never received any kickbacks and wasnt aware of the allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice. The only payments he would have received from Medtronic would have been honoraria for participating in the studys advisory committee or for presenting the research findings, Wyse said, which are common for professionals conducting industry-funded research. The focus of the study was novel and important, Wyse said. Researchers used heart monitoring capabilities in already-implanted Medtronic ICDs to see the relationship between atrial fibrillation an abnormal heartbeat that can lead to blood clots and the risk of stroke. Its findings, published in 2009, have been cited at least 359 times, and Wyse said the topic continues to be pursued by researchers. I definitely would say TRENDS was not a bogus study by any stretch of the imagination, Wyse said. Im pretty sure (kickbacks from industry) happen but I dont have any personal knowledge of that. In a statement, Medtronic said it has long been a leader in promoting ethical practices in collaboration between industry and the medical community. We stand behind the integrity of our corporate governance systems and our unwavering commitment to ethical business practices. In an ongoing U.S. whistleblower lawsuit, former Medtronic sales manager Adam Witkin alleged the company would pay certified pump trainers upwards of $425 to teach a new patient how to use the companys insulin pumps, what he called a kickback disguised as a training payment. Medtronic told the court these payments were not illegal and that the company has an ethical obligation to provide the training and education. Christine Landry, a registered nurse from Cornwall, began giving training sessions on behalf of Medtronic in 2009, a few months after getting one of the companys insulin pumps for her own use. About the size of a deck of cards, the pump is worn outside the body and delivers the insulin through a small tube that is inserted into a layer of fat under the skin. Its up to the pump user to monitor her glucose level and manage the amount of insulin delivered around mealtimes. Landry trained pump users and led diabetic support groups until 2012. That year, in July, Landry called Medtronics 24-hour helpline. Her pump was malfunctioning. The company calltaker said Medtronic would send a new pump and advised her to use a back-up plan to administer her insulin. When a Medtronic rep called back a short time later to confirm her address, Landry was disoriented. The 48-year-old could barely remember her birth date. The next morning, her adult son found her unconscious in her bed. She needed constant care for six years until she died in September 2018. In court documents responding to a lawsuit by the Landry family alleging its pump was defective, Medtronic said it had tested the pump and found no problems. Landry was fully aware of the risks associated with the pump, Medtronic alleged, and any damages suffered by her or her family were caused by her own negligence. But listening to his mothers last phone call hearing her struggle with basic details Philippe Landry questions why the Medtronic rep didnt contact 911 or do more to make sure she was okay. You can clearly tell that she wasnt okay and he didnt ask anything about that, the son said. In 2016, Medtronic signed a five-year partnership with the New Brunswick Heart Centre. No stone would be unturned in the quest for efficiencies at the heart centre, the main provider of adult cardiac care for New Brunswick and the surrounding areas. Medtronic representatives began in the heart surgery department, and then moved to advising the cath lab, which uses diagnostic imaging equipment to detect abnormalities in a patients arteries. Within six months, they increased operating room capacity by 14 per cent and reduced the average wait times by nearly half, according to a Medtronic press release. Hopefully, this is a model that we can apply to other institutions and other provinces not only in Canada but around the world, Medtronic CEO Ishrak said in a company video. But little is known about the partnership beyond the companys promotional material. A copy of the nine-page contract, released under freedom of information legislation, is marked confidential. The hospital said it contains Medtronics trade secrets. And so, page after page, are big black boxes, blocking out any detail of what the public hospital is getting from the services and what its giving Medtronic. With files from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Its not chicken feed. Ontario taxpayers are giving Maple Leaf Foods $34.5 million toward a new $660-million poultry-processing plant in London, Premier Doug Ford announced Tuesday morning. The investment in this facility its not only the largest investment in the poultry industry, but the largest investment in food-processing ever in Canada, Ford said in the southwestern Ontario city. Thats why we put up the $34.5 million, creating great jobs 1,450 directly, plus 1,700 construction and spinoff jobs, said Ford. The London plant is also receiving $20 million from the federal government, and Ford said the facility will modernize processing and help make Ontarios chicken farmers more competitive by boosting food safety, productivity and animal welfare. News of the money for the London plant comes on the heels of Maple Leafs announcement that it will close three plants by 2022, including one in Toronto, which employs about 680 United Food and Commercial Workers. Read more: Maple Leaf Foods to build new London plant, shutter three others in Ontario Opinion | Martin Regg Cohn: GM shows Doug Fords Ontario isnt so Open for Business In sobering news for the Ford government, Ontario lost 80,000 jobs in August The other two are in St. Marys and Brampton, and, together, employ about 800 UFCW workers. The UFCWs Don Taylor said members have been told they can relocate. It is an old plant, and given the area its in, its pretty much at capacity and theres no room for expansion, said Taylor, central region director for UFCW Canada Local 1006A, of the Toronto plant. The company confirmed that they will be provided with opportunities to go to the London plant, and they do have other plants in the Toronto area where there are opportunities, and they will be offering opportunities to our members. The 640,000-square-foot London facility will be state-of-the-art and comes at a time when chicken has become the most popular, and fastest-growing, protein choice in the country. Maple Leaf CEO and President Michael McCain said in a written statement that this world-class facility will enable Maple Leaf to meet the steadily growing consumer demand for premium, value-added poultry products, and strengthen Canadas food system. This is a historic investment in the Canadian poultry sector, providing significant stakeholder and economic benefits, and ensuring that Canada has sufficient domestic processing capacity to meet forecasted poultry production and demand. Have your say: The London plant is expected to open in 2021, and will lead to 300 construction jobs and another 1,400 spinoff positions. Ontarios food and beverage processing sector brings in more than $39 billion a year. It is the third largest in Canada and the U.S., based on employment. Economic Development Minister Todd Smith said the government decided to go ahead with the taxpayer aid for Maple Leaf while all business support programs are under review because the London area has been hit hard by job losses in manufacturing for years. We felt that this was a commitment that we could make, he told reporters at Queens Park. It was really important in the eyes of our minister of agriculture and our premier and our cabinet and team that we make this significant investment in agri-food. Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman is from the riding of Oxford, just east of London. LOS ANGELESSam Little had been arrested for murder at least twice in the 1980s. Both times, he walked away a free man. It would take three decades before DNA evidence would conclusively link him to the brutal strangulations of three women in Los Angeles. At his 2014 trial, survivors of attacks in other cities recounted their experiences with Little, a onetime boxer who seemed to wander aimlessly across a wide swath of the nation. But after his conviction, the cops who had chased him wrestled with an uncomfortable suspicion they knew Little had killed more women. But they didnt know when or where. Time passed. Witnesses disappeared or died. Little refused to speak with the LAPD detective who captured him, a woman he despised. All the while, questions that have tormented scores of families across the nation went unanswered. That is until Little began talking earlier this year after a Texas Ranger who suspected him of a murder in that state paid a visit and won the trust of the convicted killer. Since September, Little has been giving Texas authorities details of at least 90 slayings he claimed he committed across the country between 1970 and 2005, a bloody ledger that would make him one of the deadliest serial killers in U.S. history, authorities said. In almost every case, investigators say he targeted prostitutes and drug addicts women that wouldnt be missed, as one detective put it. Of the 90 slayings he claimed credit for, at least 30 have already been corroborated by police in about 19 states, said Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland, who is prosecuting Little in connection with a 1994 killing in Odessa, Texas. Little confessed to killing 20 women in Los Angeles in the 1980s including the three he was convicted of murdering and claimed credit for a homicide in San Bernardino, authorities said. Investigators here have not corroborated his claims in any of the California killings. But unlike other infamous serial predators, who were able to continue killing behind a veil of anonymity, Little was in law enforcements grasp more than once. Each time he slipped away, his body count grew, to the frustration of those who finally took him down. Did he kill 10 women? Did he kill 20? asked Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, who secured Littles 2014 conviction. I think he made a mockery of the justice system up and down the United States. Despite Littles readiness to talk, some cautioned against assuming hes being entirely truthful. Silverman said Little opened up only after he was granted a request to transfer from the California prison system to a Texas jail, and police will have to conduct exhaustive investigations to corroborate his statements. Little was sentenced to life in prison without parole in California in 2014, and providing information on other crimes grants him attention and recognition, which Silverman believes Little craves. For years, Little had refused to speak with investigators, said LAPD Detective Mitzi Roberts, who guided the effort to capture him in 2012. She and Silverman have long believed Little killed for sexual gratification, that he took a perverse glee in having power over a womans life, and he resented the idea that he had been captured and jailed by two women. So when Texas Ranger James Holland visited California in May 2018 to talk to Little about a cold case, Roberts said she urged Holland to play into that hatred. The move proved integral to building a rapport between the two, Roberts said, and Little finally started to share tales of horrific violence against women that stretched back decades. In most cases, Little did not provide the names of the victims he said he killed, according to Silverman, who has observed some the Texas interviews, and Roberts. But he offered locations and approximate times, they said. In a few cases, he may have actually drawn images of crime scenes. Officials said it might be possible to match Littles descriptions to specific cases in smaller cities across the Southeast, where hes been linked to several killings. But in Los Angeles, where Little says he is responsible for the unsolved murders of at least 17 women in the mid to late 1980s, the task could prove herculean, Silverman said. The time period overlaps with the acts of other notorious serial killers, including the Grim Sleeper, Lonnie Franklin Jr., and a drug boom that claimed the lives of vulnerable women the type Little targeted. During the time period that he was convicted of murdering three women here in L.A., we were in the middle of a crack cocaine epidemic, Silverman said. During that time period, there were more than 100 women of colour who wound up dead in alleyways in South L.A. Bland, the Ector County district attorney, insisted Little was volunteering information on his own, rather than responding to prompts from cold-case investigators. He declined to comment on specific cases or details provided by Little, who has been indicted in the 1994 slaying of Denise Brothers in Odessa, Texas. Justice for the victims of Samuel Little may have been delayed, but because of these efforts, justice is no longer denied, Bland said in a statement this month. The Texas Department of Public Safety declined a request from a Los Angeles Times reporter to interview Holland, and a spokesman declined to answer specific questions about the case. His attorney, Jason Leach, did not respond to a request for comment. Little was born in Reynolds, Ga., in 1940 and raised in Lorain, Ohio, according to Roberts. A former boxer and artist, he quit school in the eighth grade and it was unclear if hed ever held a steady job, she said. Property records also show Little lived in Florida and Louisiana for several years, but investigators mostly described him as a transient who tended to float in and out of cities throughout the Southeast. Court records show he has been arrested at least 30 times on minor offences, including shoplifting, petty theft and battery, in Ohio, Florida and Mississippi. Often, investigators said, Little would stay in either halfway houses or hostels, eschewing a permanent address as he moved from city to city. Each place he went, they said, a similar pattern would emerge: Little would pick up a prostitute oftentimes a black, Hispanic or Latino woman and she would wind up fighting for her life. Rarely would the woman win. All of his known victims died by strangulation, investigators said. Police believe that in the early 1980s, Little brutalized several women in Pascagoula, a city on the Gulf of Mexico in southern Mississippi, leaving at least one dead and two lucky to escape, according to Pascagoula police Lt. Darren Versiga, who has reviewed the cases. Versiga said Little picked up 24-year-old Melinda LaPree outside a low-income housing complex known for prostitution in 1982. LaPree had recently given birth and was being forced into prostitution by her boyfriend when she crossed paths with Little. A month later, police found her body in a cemetery six miles outside the city, he said. Little was arrested and police located at least two other women who claimed he tried to choke them, but prosecutors were unable to build a case against him. LaPrees body was badly decomposed, and several witnesses refused to testify, Versiga said. The case would highlight a recurring issue for police and prosecutors trying to hunt down Little. His choice of victim almost seemed to insulate him from punishment. At that time frame, through societal ways, we just didnt believe prostitutes when they cried rape, Versiga said. Little confessed to LaPrees murder while in custody in Texas earlier this year, Versiga said. He also said he killed a second woman in Pascagoula during the period, though investigators have found no evidence of a slaying that matches his description. Versiga said he believes Littles claims, adding that the killer seems to want credit for what he did. Despite his hatred of women, Little often travelled with a female companion who some investigators described as his girlfriend. An older woman, estimated to be in her 70s at the time of the Pascagoula attacks, was spotted with Little in several cities across the Southeast, according to Versiga. While he did not describe her as an accomplice to the murders, Versiga said she likely was aware of Littles actions since she often cleaned his car, which he sometimes used as a killing ground. She died of an aneurysm in 1997, according to Versiga, who said Little had been accused of beating her as well. Pascagoula was not the only place where police tried, and failed, to end Littles spate of killings. In October of this year, he claimed to have killed Patricia Mounts in Gainesville, Fla., in the early 1980s, according to Art Forgey, a spokesman for the Alachua County Sheriffs Office. Little had been tried, and acquitted, of that murder more than 30 years ago, Forgey said. In 1984, Little attacked and choked two women in San Diego, authorities said. At his 2014 trial in Los Angeles, one of the San Diego survivors told a harrowing tale: Little kidnapped her off the street, bound her hands with stockings in the backseat of a car and began choking her near the point of unconsciousness. Then hed let her breathe. Then hed start over again. He liked to feel me swallow with his thumb on my neck, she told jurors. It became a game right before Id go unconscious, as my eyes started rolling back, hed let go and ask me to swallow again. Little was convicted of assault and false imprisonment, but sentenced to only 30 months in prison. By 1987, he was released and headed to Los Angeles. In July of that same year, Carol Alford was found dead in South L.A. Two years later, Audrey Nelson and Guadalupe Apodaca were also found strangled in Los Angeles. Each victim was found in the Central Avenue-Alameda Street corridor, just south of downtown. He would answer for those killings nearly 25 years later, when Roberts led an LAPD investigation into the cold-case slayings. After obtaining warrants for his arrest in 2012 based on DNA evidence found at the original crime scenes, Roberts and other investigators traveled to several cities throughout the Southeast where Little had been arrested or linked to attacks. But Littles flighty lifestyle made him hard to track, according to Roberts. We were always two days behind, she said. Eventually, Roberts learned that Little often used a prepaid benefits card to cover expenses and got the account information from a local law enforcement official. By calling the cards customer service line and entering the account information, she was finally able to find Little through his most recent purchases. He was arrested in Louisville, Ky. Little was convicted of each murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2014, after a trial that hinged on both the forensic evidence and testimony delivered by women who had managed to escape during attacks in San Diego and Pascagoula, Miss. Silverman, the L.A. prosecutor, said that during portions of Littles confession he also claimed to have killed women in Omaha; Las Vegas; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Phoenix; Jackson, Miss.; Portland, Ind.; and San Bernardino, although many of the assertions are still uncorroborated. Police in San Bernardino and Phoenix said they are reviewing his claims, and officials in Gulfport, Miss., are probing Littles connection to a killing there. In a statement, the FBI confirmed it has provided assistance in tracking Littles alleged killings, but declined to provide a full timeline of his crimes or a complete account of his confession. While some officials said they were hopeful that Littles confessions would bring closure to dozens of victims relatives across the country, Silverman said the full accounting of his crimes is anything but a victory for law enforcement. Its simply a tally of the carnage he caused. The amount of women who lost their lives. The amount of children who lost their mother. The amount of parents who lost their kid, she said. DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATESSaudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans first trip abroad since the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi will offer an early indication of the repercussions he faces from the gruesome slaying. The prince is visiting close allies in the Middle East before attending the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Nov. 30, where he will come face to face with President Donald Trump, who has defended U.S. ties with the kingdom, as well as European leaders and Turkeys president, who has kept pressure mounting on Riyadh since Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Its really going to be about can you travel to the rest of Western capitals for the foreseeable future and expect to sort of shake peoples hands, and Im not sure that thats the case, said H.A. Hellyer, a scholar at the Royal United Services Institute and Atlantic Council. The trip, aimed at rebuilding his image and reinforcing ties with allies, promises to offer a contrast to the princes lengthy tour across the United States in April, where he met Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, Disney chief Bob Iger, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Apples Tim Cook and former President George H. Bush, among many others. Theres no way he could do that sort of trip right now, Hellyer said. The crown princes plan to attend the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires tells me that he feels that hes ridden out the storm, or that in order for him to ride out the storm this is exactly what he needs to do. The crown prince faced an early rebuke during his stopover in Tunisia, where hundreds of protesters gathered late Monday to protest his visit. A large banner showing a doctored image of the prince holding a bone saw hung on the headquarters of the Tunisian journalists union. Turkish officials say Saudi agents used a bone saw to dismember Khashoggi after he was killed. His remains have yet to be found. Read more: Opposition growing against Saudi crown prince Charities call for U.S. to halt support for Saudis in Yemen After denying any knowledge of Khashoggis death for weeks, Saudi authorities eventually settled on the explanation that he was killed in an operation aimed at forcibly bringing the writer back to the kingdom. Saudi prosecutors say the plan was masterminded by two former advisers to the crown prince and are now seeking the death penalty for five people allegedly involved in the killing. That seems to have settled the matter for Trump, who issued an extraordinary statement last week saying the U.S. would not take further action after sanctioning 17 individuals linked to the killing. Trump has brushed aside assessments by U.S. intelligence and other experts that the crown prince must have been involved in the high-level operation, and said he would maintain close relations with Saudi Arabia in part because of its oil wealth and its multi-billion-dollar purchases of U.S. arms. Trumps contention that maybe he did, maybe he didnt order the killing appears to have helped pave the way for the crown princes return to international forums. But even if Trump shakes his hand at the G-20 summit, the crown prince could still remain persona non grata within Washingtons beltway, where members of Congress from both parties have demanded stronger action, as well as Wall Street and Silicon Valley. He could also get an icy reception from other leaders at the G-20. In Europe there have been calls to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and Canada could still be smarting from a diplomatic row sparked by Saudi anger at its criticism over human rights in the kingdom. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is expected to attend the summit, was instrumental to the global backlash the prince now faces. In Argentina, a judge is examining a Human Rights Watch submission related to the crown princes involvement as defence minister in alleged violations of international law committed by the Saudi-led coalition at war with Yemens Houthi rebels, and his possible complicity in the murder of Khashoggi. Despite the international outrage, the crown princes decision to travel to Argentina signals that he still has the strong support of his 82-year-old father, King Salman, and faces no major threat at home. On his first stop on the tour, in the United Arab Emirates, the crown prince was embraced on the tarmac by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, a close ally who has reportedly served as a mentor to the 33-year-old royal. The crown prince attended the Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, where he was filmed in a VIP box chatting with the former King of Spain Juan Carlos and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. In possible a sign of changes underway, Prince Mohammed embarked on his foreign tour with figures who may take on greater prominence as he redraws his circle of advisers. Those include Minister of State Mohammad Al Shaikh, Chief of General Intelligence Khalid al-Humaidan and royal court adviser Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Fahd, among others. The two close advisers implicated in the Khashoggi killing Saud al-Qahtani, a royal court adviser who was a friend of the crown prince, and Ahmed al-Assiri, a general whom the crown prince had promoted to a top intelligence post were fired last month. The crown prince himself oversees all major levers of power in the kingdom, including the military and security forces. Saudi analyst Mohammed Alyahya said that over the past two years many state institutions in the kingdom were marginalized in favour of a quicker, ad hoc decision-making process led by people with newfound power. Theres a real understanding, I think, in the kingdom, that there needs to be serious structural change to ensure that something like this can never happen again, Alyahya said. I think were going to see definitely some return to institutionalism, some return to a consensus-based decision-making process and commitment to defined procedures. Still, it remains to be seen whether a wider circle of advisers will be consulted, whether they will challenge the crown prince and whether he will listen to them. Im unaware that he employs anybody deliberately who will tell him thats a really bad idea, said Simon Henderson, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has written extensively about the crown prince. He is not getting that challenging advice, nor is he seeking it from within his inner circle and from outsiders. He may listen, but he doesnt absorb, Henderson said. Read more about: Facebook Inc. knew that Russian-linked entities were using a feature on the social network that let advertisers harvest large amounts of data as early as October 2014, according to an internal email a U.K. lawmaker said he had reviewed. Previously, Facebook has said it was unaware of this sort of Russian activity on the social network until after the 2016 election. Damian Collins, head of a committee of British lawmakers investigating the impact of fake news, said he had reviewed an email from a Facebook engineer highlighting suspicious Russian-linked data harvesting on Facebook two years before that. Collins committee obtained the email after it compelled the founder of a U.S. software company, Six4Three, to hand over a large cache of documents during a business trip to London. The Six4Three founder had obtained the documents as part of a legal discovery process in a lawsuit against Facebook that his company has brought against the social network in California. Facebook said that the document cited by Collins was taken out of context. The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity, the company said in an email to Bloomberg Tuesday. Richard Allan, vice president of policy solutions at Facebook, said in testimony before Collins committee Tuesday that he would not discuss the documents, which have been sealed by the California court. Collins said his committee would not release the full cache of documents at this time. Lawmakers from the U.K. and other nations lambasted Facebook during the hearing for abusing public trust and failing to provide honest answers to questions about the misuse of user data. The lawmakers had wanted Mark Zuckerberg, the companys founder and chief executive officer, to appear as well, and they repeatedly hammered Allan over the companys decision not to send the CEO to testify. The committee laid out a place card marked Mark Zuckerberg, which remained unoccupied during the hearing. I have a role supporting my company as it tries to grapple with the issues we are discussing today and when we are trying to decide where senior officers of the company should be, we need to balance that out, Allan said in response to repeated questions about why he was appearing instead of Zuckerberg. Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus asked Allan whether Facebook had lost public trust and should now be regulated by governments. I am not going to disagree with you that we have damaged public trust in some of the actions that weve taken, Allan said. Allan said that Facebook would welcome clear laws globally around political communication and was willing to accept some further regulation. To the extent this is all clarified and we have a clear playbook to work from, that would be very helpful, he said. But Allan said the company had not violated existing laws or a consent decree the company had signed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission concerning users privacy. And in a testy exchange with Angus in the closing minutes of his testimony, Allan said people would be worse off if governments used antitrust powers to break Facebook apart. The problem is Facebook, thats the problem, Angus said. We are talking about symptoms but the problem is the unprecedented economic control of every form of social discourse and communication that is Facebook. That is the problem that we need to address. Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, another member of the Canadian Parliament, pressed Allan over whether a user signing up for Facebook could reasonably be seen as meaningful consent the standard under Canadian privacy law for the company allowing others to access that data. Our view is when you signed up for Facebook it was sufficiently clear that as part of the social experience that when you shared information with friends that they might share it on, Allan said. Erskine-Smith also asked Allan about whether the company ever sought to tie the purchases of mobile advertising to further access to user data. Allan said he was unaware of any such discussions and would have to get back to the committee with an answer. In another exchange with the deputy speaker of the Latvian parliament, Allan said that in an ideal world, Facebook would charge users a monthly subscription fee, rather than relying on advertising for revenue. But he said that in reality most people accept a model where it is free at the point of use and they accept a certain amount of advertising. Allan said the advertising-driven business model was unlikely to change. Our job is to make sure the content and the advertising are as high quality as possible, he said. Six4Three allowed users to find photos posted of friends in bikinis. Facebook effectively shut down the app which was deemed creepy by the Silicon Valley trade press when it cut off third-party developers from the data users share about their friends in 2015. That was about a year after the same backdoor channel allowed a Soviet-born American researcher, linked to Cambridge Analytica, to gather basic profile information on millions of Facebook users. Since the revelations in mid-March that Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political ad consulting firm, governments in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe have been grilling executives, industry insiders and whistle-blowers to understand exactly how much information the company collects on people and what they do with it. Cambridge Analytica and Nix have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions during U.S. congressional hearings in April, but has repeatedly refused to appear before U.K. lawmakers. The social networks chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, was sent to answer questions in April. Allans hearing comes about a month after Facebook announced it had hired Nick Clegg, Britains former deputy prime minister, to run its lobbying efforts. Read more about: Paul Manafort met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange around the time he was appointed to his high-profile post atop Donald Trumps presidential campaign, according to a report Tuesday. Manafort held a private conversation with Assange inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in March 2016, just months before WikiLeaks published thousands of emails stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers, the Guardian reported. His visit was not logged with guards as is typical for such face-to-face meetings. Trump hired Manafort to run his White House bid the same month. Both Manafort and Assange denied the report. Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the papers reputation, WikiLeaks tweeted shortly after the publication of the report. (WikiLeaks) is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editors head that Manafort never met Assange. Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy since seeking political asylum in 2012. Read more: Ex-Trump campaign chair lied, broke plea agreement, says Mueller Analysis | The clear timeline suggesting Donald Trump Jr. co-ordinated with WikiLeaks Two bombshells in one day for Trump as Michael Cohen pleads guilty, Paul Manafort convicted by jury According to the Guardian, Manafort also met with Assange in both 2013 and 2015. The report comes a day after special counsel Robert Mueller said in court papers that Manafort lied to investigators and violated his recent plea deal. Its unclear what Manafort lied about. Mueller has been investigating the longtime Trump associate as part of a larger probe into Russian election meddling and possible coordination between the presidents campaign and the Kremlin. The Guardian cited an internal document written by Ecuadors Senain intelligence agency, which lists Manafort and Russians as guests of Assange. Manafort is currently serving time in a Virginia jail after his August conviction of bank and tax fraud stemming from Muellers probe. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the New York Daily News that Trump knew nothing of the alleged clandestine meeting between Manafort and Assange when he hired the 69-year-old GOP consultant. I dont know about it and if I dont know about it, he doesnt know it, Giuliani told the Daily News. The president knows very little of Julian Assange. Giuliani also said the U.S. president hasnt ruled out pardoning Manafort, although he stressed there hasnt been any recent discussions on the matter. Pardons are never really ruled out, Giuliani said. Trump has railed against the special counsel probe since Muellers appointment last year, often calling the investigation a witch hunt and a hoax. Mueller has reportedly been investigating possible contacts between WikiLeaks and a slew of Trump associates including Roger Stone and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. Stone, who reportedly recommended Trump hire Manafort and tweeted out cryptic notes during the lead up to the election, has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said publicly he had no knowledge of where the Democratic emails came from. On Tuesday, he further denied any knowledge of Manafort, his one-time business partner, and Assange meeting one-on-one. This is the first I have heard about it, and I have no idea whether or not it is true, he told the Daily News. Mueller has been interviewing Stone associates for months. Conspiracy theorist and Stone pal Jerome Corsi said Monday he is rejecting a plea deal from the special counsels office and expects to be indicted. Read more about: WASHINGTONWhite House economic adviser Larry Kudlow cast doubt Tuesday on hope that U.S. President Donald Trump will agree to a cease-fire in the US-China trade war when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, calling Beijings response to Trumps demands disappointing and unsatisfactory. But Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said the presidents meeting offered a rare chance to break a deepening deadlock between the worlds two largest economies, which account for roughly 40 per cent of global output. President Xi has an opportunity to change the tone and the substance of these talks. Its a big opportunity, Kudlow said. He later added: They have to do more. Still, just days before the two men are set to meet over a working dinner Saturday, following the Group of 20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, plans remain fluid. The list of those attending including the question of whether the presidents spouses will join them and the agenda are a work in progress. This is a big deal, this meeting, and the stakes are very high, Kudlow told reporters at the White House. President Trump has a terrific track record as a negotiator and he will know through facts and instincts how to handle this. And my suspicion is that President Xi, likewise. Later, at a White House press briefing, Kudlow said Trump believes there is a good possibility that a deal can be made, but that certain conditions have to be met with respect to fairness and reciprocity. I think we are in far better shape to weather this than the Chinese are, Kudlow said, noting that Trump has said in recent days that if things dont work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267-some-odd billion in tariffs. The United States and China have been locked in an escalating trade conflict for much of this year. Trump has slapped tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products, supported new limits on Chinese investment in the U.S. and taken steps to restrict of advanced technologies to China, saying Beijing has treated U.S. companies unfairly for decades. Earlier this year, the office of the U.S. trade representative produced a voluminous study that assailed China for coercing U.S. companies into surrendering their trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market, pilfering American technology via cybertheft and violating global trade rules. Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, said in an update this month that China has not fundamentally altered its unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices despite sustained U.S. complaints. Chinese officials are hoping to convince Trump to pause his plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 per cent on Jan. 1 from 10 per cent. The president earlier this week told the Wall Street Journal that it was highly unlikely he would refrain from the planned tariff increase. The president also has threatened to impose tariffs on the remaining $267 billion in products that the U.S. imports from China. Kudlow said those measures could take effect if the summit fails to make headway. Theres a gap, he said. I hope we can bridge that gap. U.S. and Chinese officials have held frequent conversations at all levels in the run-up to the presidents scheduled meeting, Kudlow said. But apart from the dinner, there are no other planned meetings between the two sides during the two-day summit, he said. Kudlow, who said he had never visited China before joining the administration in April, said he was not so sure whether the two governments would issue a joint statement after the dinner. He left open the possibility that additional talks at the staff level could follow the presidents meeting. Chinese officials may be hesitating about offering concessions because they are flummoxed by Trump, Kudlow suggested. Maybe Chinas not accustomed to dealing with a strong president who will not relent, he said, adding that Trumps predecessors from both parties had offered only lip service to addressing Chinese trade cheating. Kudlow also touted the U.S. economys strength, saying it gave the president an advantage in the bargaining with Xi. Were strong. Theyre not, from an economic standpoint, he said. I like the position were in. Read more about: PARISThe European Court of Human Rights issued a fresh rebuke to the Kremlin on Tuesday, ruling that Russias continued ban on LGBT rallies is discriminatory and represents a violation of human rights. Judges at the court based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg called on Moscow to introduce systemic measures to remedy the breaches to the European Convention of Human Rights that the Russian Federation became a signatory to in 1996. Its unlikely Russia will implement the courts recommendation of the need for a sustained and long-term effort to adopt general measures to ease the freedom to march and counter LGBT discrimination. The current case was brought by seven Russian activists over the period 2009-2014 who were concerned by the impact of the ban. Russian authorities have been putting obstacles on LGBT rallies for years, and systematically turning down LGBT permit requests. The court said Russias blocking of public LGBT events couldnt be justified by any concern about public disorder and it breached the right to freedom of assembly. The ban had clearly been motivated by the authorities disapproval of the theme of the demonstrations, the court concluded. Several Russian politicians and lawmakers have recently hit back against the court, calling on the government of President Vladimir Putin to break with the ECHR over a perceived politicization in its rulings. Its not the first time the court has had sharp words against Moscow on LGBT issues. In what was perceived as a bid to legalize what was in practice a permanent ban on gay rights gatherings, Russia in 2011 adopted a vaguely worded legislation on gay propaganda that outlaws LGBT gatherings anywhere near where children might be. In June 2017, the court decided that this propaganda law encouraged homophobia and discrimination and Russia was ordered to pay 43,000 ($49,000) in damages. One of the applicants who brought that case was arrested after appearing at a high school in Ryazan with a placard reading homosexuality is normal. Read more about: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIAA commercial pilot is under investigation after falling asleep in the cockpit of a freight plane and overflying his Australian island destination by 46 kilometres, officials said Tuesday. The pilot, who has not been identified, was the only person aboard the twin-propeller Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain and was flying on autopilot during the early morning flight on Nov. 8 from Devonport city on Tasmania 250 kilometres northwest to King Island in Bass Strait, his employer, Vortex Air, said in a statement. The pilot unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft, the Melbourne-based airline said. The issue became apparent when air traffic control was unable to contact the pilot in-flight, and the aircraft travelled past the intended destination point while operating on autopilot, the statement said. Air traffic control recordings showed several radio calls were made to the unresponsive pilot, The Australian newspaper reported. The pilot landed safely on King Island, Vortex Air said. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, a crash and risk investigator, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the aviation industry regulator, are investigating the incident and the companys management of pilot fatigue. The bureau confirmed that the plane had overflown the King Island Airport by 46 kilometres due to the pilot sleeping. It said it would interview the pilot and review Vortex Airs operational procedures before a report on the incident is made public. Vortex Air said the 6:20 a.m. flight had been the first on the pilots first day back at work after taking leave. He continued flying that day. The newspaper said the pilot reported for duty despite having had little or no sleep the previous night due to a personal crisis. Vortex Air takes the safety of our passengers, crew and pilots extremely seriously and always abide by all safety procedures, the airline said. This is an extremely rare occurrence, as demonstrated by the companys excellent safety track record, it added. The company said it was assisting the pilot to safely return to full duties. For more than a month, business leaders across the country have been waiting to get a definitive answer from Washington about what turn the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia may take in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and how it might impact their business relationships with the kingdom. Despite offering public condemnations over Khashoggis death and distancing themselves from the kingdom by pulling out of a major investment conference, many executives appeared to expect that business would quickly, if not quietly, return to normal. Keep in mind, it is a big country, Larry Fink, the BlackRock chief executive, said early this month. There are many fine people in country, like there are many fine people in every country. These things are not black and white, and theyre very complex. But things have changed drastically since then. President Trump has offered a vociferous defence of the kingdom and, by extension, its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and dismissed a report from his own intelligence officers that concluded the prince had ordered the murder. Trumps continued public support of the man known as M.B.S. has pointed to the role that Saudi Arabia plays as a Middle East ally against Iran and the kingdoms agreement to buy weapons from American suppliers. And then theres oil: They have worked closely with us and have been very responsive to my requests to keeping oil prices at reasonable levels, Trump said last week in a statement rife with exclamation points. But the presidents strong support for the crown prince, whom he will almost certainly see this week when he flies to Buenos Aires for the Group of 20 meeting, may have the opposite effect to the one intended. Rather than end the conversation, it has invited a new one that could go on for months, if not years. Congress is now making noises about doing what the president would not: a public investigation that could lead to real sanctions (if this sounds familiar, its because it is a replay of what happened a year ago after Trump refused to punish Russia for meddling in our elections). Diplomacy is never simple, and its not a given that a forceful rebuke would have been enough to keep Congress particularly the Democrats who have captured control of the House from opening their own investigation. Presidents have chided partners before, sometimes lightly and sometimes harshly, and business has gone on as usual. But Trump has sought to cast blame anywhere but the crown prince: Maybe the world should be held accountable, because the world is a vicious place, he said last week. And politicians from both parties made it clear that they would push for a more direct approach one that could complicate matters for businesses far more than an admonishment from the president would have. Make sense of major business and policy headlines and the power-brokers who shape them. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a staunch Trump backer, said the crown prince wouldnt get a pass if he was making the world a more dangerous place. And Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said it was a grave mistake for Trump to ignore the C.I.A.s assessment. If the president does not reconsider what actions our government should take toward the Saudi Government & M.B.S., Congress must act instead, she wrote on Twitter. Graham and Collins are among three Republicans who have co-sponsored the Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act, which was introduced the week before Thanksgiving. And House Democrats, fresh off their midterm triumphs, are also rattling their sabers. Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had been briefed by the C.I.A. and believed the president was being dishonest. I think, in part, he feels that by saying that we dont know or that the world is a dangerous place or everybody does it, he thinks it makes him look strong, Schiff said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union. It actually makes him look weak. Not only has Trump increased the chances that Congress will enact restrictions on the Saudi royal family or make it harder to do business with the kingdom, he has prompted Democrats to question his financial ties to Saudi Arabia. Schiff, who is expected to take over as chairman of the Intelligence Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January, has promised to investigate those, too. Is his personal financial interest driving U.S. policy in the gulf? Schiff said on CNN. An investigation that examines not only the activities of the crown prince but any financial links that Trump may have with the kingdom would almost certainly be a ponderous affair, and cast a lingering cloud that would chill business leaders enthusiasm for investment in, and from, the Saudis. Trump may think he has gained the loyalty of the crown prince by standing by him, but if Congress moves to enact sanctions, the economic fallout could be serious for the kingdom, which the president has been encouraging to hold down oil prices. Between the economic pressures that Saudi Arabia is increasingly facing the price of oil is hovering around $50 a barrel when the kingdom needs it to sell for $70 to maintain its budget and the executives who are rightly skittish about investing there, Trump may have pushed Congress toward taking actions that create more problems. In more normal times, the president of the United States would publicly condemn the crown prince and the kingdom, and extract some kind of concession that was meant to reflect American values. One such measure, for example, could have been the release of all political prisoners and journalists and the lifting of restrictions on the media and civic debate, Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, a professor in the practice of international relations at Georgetown University, wrote in an essay for Foreign Policy. This would help spur significant change that would serve both the Saudi people and the countrys economy. Such a response could have mollified critics of the kingdom and made possible a return to business as usual in six months. Theres an argument to be made that by throwing his support behind the kingdom without any half-measures or virtue signalling, Trump is in a way being straight with the American people and the world. He was just candidly acknowledging the core tenets of U.S. foreign policy for decades, Glenn Greenwald wrote for The Intercept. Even if there is something honest about his overtly candid approach in this case, diplomacy is in many ways about outcomes rather than honesty. And Trump has done more than just leave him and the United States open to criticism that we embrace despots as long as there is a buck to be made. He has inadvertently created more economic uncertainty for the business community that he says is so important to him. Read more about: Last year around this time Prince William congratulated his younger brother Harry on his engagement to American actress Meghan Markle (now his wife). Harry popped the question at home while a chicken roasted in the oven, a detail that is relevant because where the British royal family is concerned no fact is too small for publication. Everything is a revelation, even a duchess shutting a car door. Were very excited. Delighted for them both, Prince William told reporters about Harry and Meghan during a visit to Finland last November. And for me personally I hope it means he (Harry) stays out of my fridge. It will stop him scrounging off all my food, which hes done over the last few years. This quote made headlines around the world because, like the roast chicken detail, it humanized a family who appear alien to many of us. Whats more, it didnt invite us to envision a lifestyle of unmatched excess in a palace of grand rooms, but something far more thrilling: a prince raiding a fridge at three in the morning. What did he take? Leftover Chinese in a container labelled Will? Maybe he scarfed down one of Kate Middletons famous curries. Maybe he drank all the milk or worse, drank only a little but left the carton open on the counter to spoil overnight. He seems the type. Either way, if recent events are any indication, its possible Prince Harry may have raided his brothers fridge one too many times. News surfaced this week that early next year, Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, will be moving out of Kensington Palace in London and into Frogmore Cottage at Windsor Castle, roughly a 40-minute drive from the city. Read more: Harry and Meghan moving to suburbs, Kensington Palace announces Prince Harry took the sweetest picture of Duchess Meghan and her growing baby bump Prince Harry, Meghan expecting child in spring This news has been met with extreme curiosity as anything royal invariably is but also extreme disappointment at the possibility that Will and Harry have had a falling out. There is no shortage of unverified rumours circling the internet about tension between the brothers. Some tabloids insist the source of that alleged tension is a fraught relationship between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle; the latter, the story goes, is a free thinker who is having trouble adjusting to the confines of palace life. The tabloids meanwhile portray Kate as a team player who toes the line. Markle (according to the Sun) is regarded as difficult and demanding. According to the Daily Mail, she gets what she wants, and what she wants, allegedly, is out of Kensington Palace. As Patricia Treble writes recently in Macleans, To some, the former Meghan Markle is the Yoko Ono of Kensington Palace. To these royal watchers, Markle is the reason for the planned move and the alleged discord between brothers. In other words, Meghan Markle broke up the band. Or, heres another idea: Maybe adulthood did. Its a far less sensational and sexist explanation, but maybe Prince Harry is moving on from Kensington Palace and a good, long, scenic drive away from his family because hes 34 years old and he and his wife have a baby on the way. Maybe they want to make love on the kitchen table without the knowledge that Prince and Princess Michael of Kent are somewhere on the grounds. Or as the Daily Mail reports, maybe they want to raise their kids away from the rapacious paparazzi culture of London. Whatever the reason, its hilarious that in a moment where millennials who live at home with their immediate families well into their 30s (usually for financial reasons) are mocked and ridiculed in the media, the world goes into crisis mode when one insanely rich 34-year-old man does the socially acceptable thing and gets his own place. This should be cause for celebration, not distress and finger-pointing. We should rejoice, not mourn. That said, from diagrams Ive seen online of Kensington Palace, the place looks big enough that you could live your entire life there and never run into anyone you know. But its perfectly natural and healthy that a couple in their 30s expecting their first child together should desire to move into their own house where they can roast a chicken in solitude. And raid their own fridge. Read more about: Why did Canada kill you? the brother of the murdered Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam repeatedly called out in Tamil, hugging the coffin at his funeral on Sunday. How did he become a victim of alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur? These are good questions, always asked when the hunt for a possible serial killer begins, whether in Sri Lanka, Canada or the U.S. How could it have been allowed to happen? And are there changes that will make it less likely to happen again? Serial killers are figures from nightmares; we expect such psychopathic creatures to vanish with daylight. But there they are and always will be. Its a game of chance. When the police dont know youre missing or cant be bothered to search for anyone with a high-risk lifestyle, they have helped make you a perfect victim. Kanagaratnams family in Sri Lanka hadnt called police, assuming he had gone underground after his refugee claim and appeal were turned down. Its not clear why federal officials didnt deport or at least track him. He became an unperson, which made him the most desirable target for any serial killer: someone no one would look for, and with no visible connection to anyone who would bring him death. When the late Laura Babcock vanished in 2012, her desperate boyfriend went to the Toronto police. The officer wasnt interested in another missing girl living on the edge. If he had been, perhaps another of Dellen Millards victims, Tim Bosma, might be alive today. At 78, Samuel Little, just revealed as perhaps Americas most prolific serial killer, resembles Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer of the 1980s, who said prostitutes were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. They both targeted sex workers, vulnerable poverty-stricken women addicted to drugs and alcohol, in other words, women without power. Little speaks of his crimes so quickly, with such excitement that his words are hard to follow, police say. Serial killers like highways. As Ginger Strand wrote in Killer on the Road, a revelatory 2012 book on violence and the U.S. interstate, the endless highway turns a nation into nondescript nowhereland peppered with truckstops that attract murderous long-haulers and isolatos. Did that truck briefly stop? Who got into its cab last night? No one knows. The deregulation of industry undersupervised temp truckers, Uber, Airbnb has created sweatshops on wheels that make it easier to commit murder. Driverless trucking will come with one unforeseen advantage: fewer rapes and killings. Kanagaratnam was getting by as best he could in Toronto, a sanctuary city. The concept is a humane one. Undocumented people living here illegally can obtain services like health care, public transit and shelters without being questioned about citizenship status. But it makes the city more dangerous for everyone does this person have a criminal record or even auto insurance? and worse, helps cement the vulnerability of the undocumented. Canada assumes that failed refugee claimants or immigrants will obey the law and leave the country. But if they dont, they are forever vulnerable to blackmail, torment, or death at the hands of monsters. By allowing this, cities ultimately leave the survival of these people to chance. Canada does not work by chance. Canada is an organized country. Toronto is a city of regulation. How wonderful it is to live under that umbrella of paperwork and obligation, how pleasant to drift along following the rules. I am haunted by Kanagaratnams lonely life in cold, unfriendly Toronto. We dont know what his killer may have offered him: sex, money for sex, or small-scale work that paid in cash. And then the police reluctantly released a photograph of the face of a corpse. They admitted it was an indignity but had nothing else to help them discover his name and his loving family. Strand writes that every crime requires the intersection of three elements: a criminal, a victim, and a place. A city can work on each, dissuading the criminal, removing the victim, or changing the place. That might mean altering the sanctuary city to keep alive the very people we were trying to help in smaller ways. The federal government is vowing extra help for General Motors workers as the auto giant prepares to close its Oshawa plant and shuns offers of aide to keep the assembly line rolling after December 2019. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the promise Monday after talking to GM Canada president Mary Barra and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Ford called for extra unemployment insurance benefits and retraining as the automaker restructures to concentrate on next-generation electric and self-driving vehicles, a move that earned him rebukes for not fighting for about 2,600 Oshawa jobs. We will always support our workers, Trudeau said in French, noting Canadian auto workers are on the front lines of innovative technology and clean technology that is the future of this industry. The federal government said it will consider all options and did not offer specifics on any potential help for displaced autoworkers. Both Trudeau and Ford called the automakers decision disappointing barely 10 years after GM and Chrysler shared $13.7 billion in life-saving support from Ottawa and Queens Park during a devastating recession. Read more: Union vows one hell of a fight after GM confirms Oshawa plant will halt production Ottawa looking at all options as GM closes Oshawa plant A timeline of GMs century of building cars in Oshawa Were doing everything we can, said Ford, who dispatched the provinces plant-closure SWAT team to Oshawa to start arranging job retraining for affected workers. Well do whatever it takes to make sure they get back on their feet. Ford also pressed the federal government to redouble efforts to get the Trump administration to lift punishing tariffs of 25 per cent on Canadian steel. The premier and federal Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said General Motors indicated no willingness to keep assembly lines running in Oshawa or any need for financial support to bring new product lines into the plant. At this stage they have not. Theyve said this is part of the overall global restructuring plan, that this is the path, Bains said in Ottawa. Well see what options exist to help the workers. Ford was more blunt at Queens Park, saying he asked repeatedly if there is anything the province can do. I was shot down numerous times, he said. Basically, the ship has already left the dock. They didnt ask for anything. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is vowing to support workers affected by the General Motors plant closure in Oshawa. The federal government says it is weighing all options to assist auto workers. Opposition parties said they expected more from Ford, who has been touting the Open for Business signs his Progressive Conservative government is erecting at border crossings. Ive never seen a government roll over so quickly and throw in the towel, said Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. Critics said the province needs a strategy to attract the auto industry jobs of the future amid fears what happened at GM Oshawa could hit other plants in the province assembling traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. They blamed the PC government for axing plans for electric vehicle charging stations, green vehicle purchase subsidies for motorists and cancelling green energy contracts. That sends a signal to investors that Ontario is not embracing the economy of the future, said Green Leader Mike Schreiner, MPP for Guelph. We have to skate to where the puck is going, not where its been. This better be a wake-up call to the premier to stop attacking clean-economy job creators. Jerry Dias, the president of the Unifor union representing autoworkers, said he was shocked Ford appears resigned to the closure and is asking Trudeau to extend unemployment insurance benefits to GM workers to 50 weeks. (Workers at the Toronto Star are represented by a different Unifor union local.) Listen, this isnt about an extra five weeks, its not about an extra severance, its about preserving the jobs in this community. A leading Canadian automotive consultant said GM is responding to huge challenges in electrification, autonomous vehicles, ride-sharing and subscription services with its Monday announcement to close Oshawa, four U.S. plants and three overseas, saving about $6 billion a year. All these are costing each and every vehicle company billions and billions, said Dennis DesRosiers of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. General Motors employs about 8,000 workers in Canada, including an SUV assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont., an engine plant in St. Catharines and a research and development lab in Markham. They do still have jobs in Canada but this is a significant loss, Bains said of the looming Oshawa closure. Although Ontario Economic Development Minister Todd Smith blamed 15 years of mismanagement from the previous Liberal government for the looming closure, Ford said he is not pointing fingers over the GM decision. They didnt mention anything about hydro rates or labour laws, the premier acknowledged before moving in to a defence of his highway signs going up at border crossings. We have to tell the world were open for business because GM has leftits terrible news but we have to pick ourselves up and get back on our feet and be as positive as we can. It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Read more about: VANCOUVERThe head of security for British Columbias legislature Gary Lenz said he hasnt been able to sleep more than three hours at a time since he and his highest-ranking colleague, house clerk Craig James, were publicly suspended Tuesday last week. The two were placed on paid leave by MLAs in an unprecedented and unanimous vote, amid what the House Speaker said was a nine-month probe by his office and an RCMP criminal investigation thats been in progress since September. On Monday just hours after the NDP and Greens blocked the BC Liberals urgent debate motion on the scandal Lenz spoke out for the first time alongside James in their lawyers Vancouver offices. It was a shock when this took place, Lenz told reporters Monday afternoon, appearing to get choked up. When I got home, I didnt have a phone or any way to communicate to my family. Im not just the sergeant at arms; Im a father, Im a husband. All of these levels impact what happened Right now, Im lucky to get three hours of sleep at a time. Hard to eat. Neither Lenz nor James has been charged with any crime. Both insist they have not been informed of what they are accused of doing nor offered a chance to speak to police or two special prosecutors appointed to investigate them. Read more: What we know and dont know about the B.C. legislature criminal probe Suspended B.C. Legislature officers hoping for a fair resolution, lawyer says Two key officials at B.C. legislature on leave amid criminal probe As clerk, James essentially oversaw the administrative and procedural aspects of how things run in the Legislature, including its operating budget, while Lenz was head of security for the whole property. The pair were the Legislatures two highest-ranking non-partisan officers, and both reported to Speaker Darryl Plecas. It was Plecas own opaquely titled special adviser Alan Mullen who quietly probed the unspecified allegations since January before involving the RCMP in late September. On Friday, former B.C. attorney-general Wally Oppal took over that special adviser role from Mullen, a decades-old friend of Plecas from his work in Corrections. The BC Liberal opposition have honed in on Plecas role in the investigations. On Monday, Lenz said only Plecas could have authorized Victoria Police Department officers on to the grounds where they hold no jurisdiction without an invitation to escort the employees away. Neither Plecas nor Oppal could be immediately reached for comment, but as the Speaker left the chamber Monday he was asked by CTV News about his offices investigation. Im not going to make any comment on that, he said. I think what you people need to do is understand that when you talk about investigations, its a huge continuum, and one of those is called due diligence and Im thinking that you might want to do some of your own. Plecas is a former member of her party who was expelled when he broke ranks to take the speaker role in the minority NDP government, thus helping strengthen its narrow hold on the House with the Greens backing. Immediately after business resumed in the legislature itself at 10 a.m. Monday, Plecas recused himself. The B.C. Liberals Mike de Jong had tabled a request to debate a matter of urgent public importance, calling the suspensions deliberately designed to inflict the maximum degree of public humiliation and embarrassment to describe what has taken place as a crisis is, I dont think, to exaggerate, he said. To say that British Columbians are troubled and questioning the confidence they can have in this institution is, I think, an understatement. B.C. NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth who is B.C.s public safety minister and in charge of policing replied that there is an active police investigation underway. It is that simple ... That investigation needs to be allowed to do its work and to come to completion. Thats why, at this point, a debate would not be in order. Farnworth was swiftly backed by his Green Party ally, party head Andrew Weaver, whose caucus is propping up the current minority NDP government a government that, without Plecas as a non-voting, independent speaker, would see the B.C. Liberals and NDP tied for seats. The danger of having such a debate in the absence of information while a police investigation, a criminal investigation, is ongoing with not one but two special prosecutors, is very worrying, Weaver said. I would argue that it is in the public interest that the police investigation be allowed to proceed unheated from political interference. But countless questions remain about the weeks chain of events, both for media and still-bewildered Legislature employees and politicians alike. The damage to my reputation is irreparable, James told reporters. The healing can only begin with my return to work. I cannot imagine what concern there is about how I have acted in the administration of the Legislative Assembly which would warrant my being removed from my office. The office of the clerk dispenses advice and recommendations in a completely non-partisan and professional way. Both repeatedly insisted to reporters that they have had no contact with police nor the special prosecutors in the three months since RCMP opened its probe nor in the week since their suspension. Asked by StarMetro whether either had received some other type of request, such as bank account records or security logs or time records, Lenz replied: At this point, we dont even know what the allegations are or what theyre about ... Were completely in the dark. Were just waiting We just want to get back to work. Speculation has swirled about the nature of the criminal investigation. The Speakers office has stated the matter is not political but related to administrative matters. Lenz said its not the investigation itself thats causing his insomnia. What keeps me from sleeping at night is my family and everyone around me, he said. I know Ive done nothing wrong Let the process continue, let the investigation take place, lets get to this as quickly as possible so I can get my name cleared and we can live. It looks as if you appreciate our journalism. Our reporting changes lives, connects communities and effects change. But good journalism is expensive to produce, and advertiser revenue throughout the media industry is falling and unable to carry the cost. That means we need you, our readers. We need your help. If you appreciate deep local reporting, powerful investigations and reliable, responsible information, we hope you will support us through a subscription. Please click here to subscribe. Read more about: VANCOUVERConcerned citizens and members of a pair of advocacy groups took aim at representatives of the Canada Pension Plan on Monday over the CPPIBs continued investment in two companies responsible for migrant detention centres. Vancouver-based social justice organization Leadnow and Toronto-based consumer watchdog SumOfUs organized a group appearance at a meeting of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in downtown Vancouver, where they reiterated their demand that CPPIB divest in two private prison operators: Geo Group in Florida and CoreCivic in Tennessee. Emma Pullman, a campaign organizer for SumOfUs, said the CPPIBs senior managing director, Michel Leduc, had clearly communicated that the scope of civilian concern over the implicit support suggested by CPPIBs investment in the two companies was not lost on the CPPIBs board. It was very clear from what we were hearing from the CPP that theyve heard this (message) not just from groups like SumOfUs and Leadnow, but also from concerned citizens, she told StarMetro in an interview. Our next step is to keep the pressure on and to keep engaging with CPPIB. SumOfUs focus on the issue was roused by an investigation published by The Guardian in collaboration with Documented on Oct. 12. According to the investigation, CPPIB which manages $368 billion in pension funds on behalf of roughly 20 million Canadian retirees holds $8 million of stock in both Geo Group and CoreCivic. And both companies, said Pullman, profit from the detention of migrants stateside. Questions surrounding the mechanics and morality of such an investment dominated the board meeting, with Leduc explaining that the two companies had been chosen by computer algorithm, since personally investigating and meeting with each of the thousands of companies the CPPIB invests in would be impossible. The CPPIB is carefully considering the input it has received on the issue, Leduc said. But the framework within which it has to consider such input is influenced by the fact the CPPIB is in charge of managing a significant amount of money on behalf of a large number of Canadians, he said. And in making such decisions, the board adheres to criteria its investment framework grounded in legislation and designed to ensure it accounts for a diverse array of factors, including the importance of observing the impact of its investments on global human rights. Every time we come under pressure, if we immediately divest, thats pretty easy to do, but that actually is contrary to the investment framework that was created for us for an organization that is built to last and to endure, Leduc told the audience. Its not to say were not going to look at these things very carefully. (But) we have to be very judicious in how were going to do that. Leduc also noted during his Monday presentation that the purpose of board meetings is to allow Canadians the chance to hold CPPIBs feet to the fire over issues which carried weight for them personally. And following the meeting, Pullman said she felt concerned parties had so far been successful in doing just that. No timeline was offered on when deliberation over CPPIBs investment in Geo Group and CoreCivic would be complete, but Leduc said stakeholders would be informed when a decision had been reached. Meanwhile, both SumOfUs and Leadnow continue to collect signatures on their own online petitions calling for CPPIBs divestment in the two companies. As of Monday those petitions shared more than 54,000 signatures between them. And Pullman said she suspects the CPPIBs final meeting, scheduled to take place in Toronto on Friday, will see an even stronger turnout in support of divestment. And while Leadnow and SumOfUs specifically claimed in a joint statement two weeks ago the prison operators enforce the detention and separation of immigrant children and families, both CoreCivic and Geo Group have stated publicly this year that they do not run facilities that manage children separated from their parents. (Under the Trump administrations new zero tolerance immigration policy, adults are criminally prosecuted for crossing the border illegally and sent to federal prisons, thus forcibly leaving their children under the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). In a statement published in June on its website, CoreCivic said it does not know the circumstances of individuals when they are placed in a facility. We also do not enforce immigration laws or policies or have any say whatsoever in an individuals deportation or release. And in August, Johnny Choate, facility administrator at Geo Group, wrote in an op-ed that the company doesnt manage facilities which house unaccompanied minors or provide transportation or any other services for the purpose of separating minors from their parents. Additionally, our facilities are subject to unannounced audits by both federal agencies and independent, third-party organizations; there is dedicated ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) staff on-site at all times, and public records requests can be made directly to the government agency for whom we contract. SumOfUs organizer Pullman, however, told StarMetro such statements do not give her the least confidence that the companies represent a responsible investment for the CPPIB, adding with greater numbers of migrants at risk of detention than ever before, she feels CPPIBs imperative to act is stronger than ever. With file from Jenny Peng Read more about: I must admit that as I sit here this Monday morning, I am having mixed feelings. First of all, I am feeling so happy that I was able to spend Thanksgiving with my daughter and her husband and family. I got to visit both my grandchildren and their families. I got to play with my great-grandchildren and, of course, hold the newest little one. There is something very special about sitting in a rocking chair and holding a little one in your arms. It is as though love is filling your whole being and you feel about as happy as it is possible to be. I know I have probably said this before, but I have two daughters. One is together with her husband and children, and live in this area and I see them almost every Sunday when they come to my home after church for dinner and time to visit. The other daughter and her family live a bit south of Chicago. They are also parents and grandparents, but I dont see them as often so a trip up north is a real treat. While there I was able to visit both grandchildren and their families. The great-grandchildren are growing up. Most of them still enjoy snuggling and having storybooks read to them or using books that have puzzles and things to solve and do. The smallest just enjoy being held and rocked and it is a wonderful feeling to hold those precious little ones and give thanks for the joy of family. Monday morning, I was home and as usual, the washer and dryer were going. I picked up my mail for the last few days and also my newspapers. Dont know how much attention the newspaper will get but I want to stay up to date on whats happening in our location. God has blessed me in so many ways, I feel very humble and blessed. I was born from loving parents. We did not have a great deal of possessions but we had a lot of family. Mother came from a large family as did my father. So, I had lots of cousins. The families on both sides were supportive and loving. On my fathers side, he had two unmarried sisters and an unmarried brother who had a bad arm and leg and had braces. He lived with grandma and grandpa and the two, unmarried sisters and worked at his brothers grocery store. On mothers side of the family, there were lots of cousins. This side of the family liked dancing and so it wasnt unusual that if someone supplied a guitar or an accordion for music. There were dances, in a garage, a barn loft, or what was called a summer kitchen. So, I suppose, it wasnt unusual that we cousins grew up liking to dance. I recall how we could rent a jukebox from a place in Granite City. Youd pay a certain amount and it would play until the funds ran out. Sometimes they wouldnt pick it up for a day or so and we found buttons that fit into the money slots. The man who rented the jukebox would always laugh and give us the buttons back. He was so kind. I guess after school years, my next step towards being an adult was getting a job. I was so very fortunate to find one just before graduation from high school. A bank where my parents had accounts at the time was looking for a new secretary. Now, I was already working sometimes in the bookkeeping department when one day the president came back and asked if anyone could take dictation. I said I studied it in school but didnt know if I was good enough to meet his needs. He said, Lets give it a try. So suddenly I had a desk and was a secretary. And, as far as bosses go, he was a treasure. He kept me super busy, but he was kind and considerate. Even after I married when Bill was released from the Army and I left my job, on special occasions Id do some work for him. I recall when some of the mills moved from Pittsburg to Granite City, and that the bank had banquets to welcome them and we wrote invitations. I was so delighted when at one of those banquets, my boss introduced me and said how hard I had worked to make the night a success. Now, I dont know how much nicer an employer could be. I still recall driving back to Granite City to his home to write out Christmas cards for him. Years have passed and my life has changed with the passing of time. The first change came when Bill was released from the Army and he decided he wanted to farm and we moved to a family farm. It was not what I would have chosen, but we were happy, and lived, and moved on. Later, we moved to another farm we rented from his cousin and we later purchased and lived there until Bills health began to fail. First, we rented the farm and Bill began to sell real estate and one day he asked if Id look at a house that had come on the market. I did, and he had said he thought we should moved into town and hed continue to sell real estate and wed be fine. So, we moved. Ill admit there were some tough years but everything seemed to work out. Our girls were growing up and life was changing fast. After Bills illness and later his death, I continued to live there for some time, but one day I got a call from Eden Village where I had my name on a waiting list for an apartment. I went to look at it. It was called a two-bedroom apartment but one room had a rollback door that opened to the living room and that became my dining room and also held my recliner and desk. It met my needs and had room for Sunday dinners with the family after church. It was a back apartment on the first floor, where family could come visit me without going through the whole building. It was perfect. My life here is different, but it is good. Ive met friendly folks and made some new friends. I could eat all my meals here, but I usually just go down for the noon meal and have the other meals in my apartment. And Sunday is still family day and with the help of my daughter, we can cook the meal and serve the 11 or more folks who come to visit and share the meal. It is an excellent start to a new week. I sometimes look back and think of all the good times that have passed, but then I remind myself of how life is still good and I have a loving family and have made new friends. So dont forget the past, but dont long for it. The past is over and now each new day brings new challenges, and new opportunities. We can choose to mourn the past or give God thanks for the blessings we have had and ask for His help in meeting whatever the future has. God has never disappointed me and I trust that He will be with me until I draw my last breath. That is not insurance but it is blessed assurance and thats what keeps me going, knowing if I do my best, God will do the rest. ALTON Jesse Jemison doesnt like to stay in one place, so its no surprise hes continued to climb the ranks of the Alton Fire Department. During its regular meeting on Nov. 14, the Alton City Council officially promoted Jemison to deputy fire chief. Jemison became the first African American firefighter for the city to rise above the rank of captain. Jemison will assume the new role on Nov. 26, meaning he will become the second-in-command of the Alton Fire Department. Ben Shoemaker will become the departments newest captain on the same date, moving to Jemisons former spot. Jemison was not the departments first African American captain Capt. Robert Fox was the first, promoted to the position in December 1991. It was pretty exciting to see all of my family there, Jemison said of the smartphone photo reception with the mayor, council members and others after the meeting. I have enjoyed being on the ambulances, being in the streets, dealing with people, Jemison said. Thats going to be a challenge for me now, hearing the ambulance go out and Im here, sitting behind a desk. Jemison had no previous firefighting experience when he first applied. When Owens-Illinois closed, one of the ministers I know said the fire department was testing candidates, so I came down, applied and took the test, he said. He said he ranked fourth out of about 260 applicants and he remembers taking the test in the cafeteria at West Elementary School. The department hired him on March 3, 1993. Jemison said he took the EMT/paramedics path through the department. The challenge in my old position was running people to the hospital that I knew family members, friends and people they knew, he said. In his new position, his new obstacle will be not being able to see and deal with the public face to face. Its definitely going to be different Im going to be involved a lot more with medics and EMS and training, Jemison said. I will be training to help us get better and better. Alton Fire Chief Bernie Sebold could not say enough positive things about his new deputy. Hes very community-oriented, Sebold said. Now, he will be here Monday through Friday and hell be here after hours on emergencies and working with younger firefighters. Sebold said he and Jemison were in the same paramedic class and they earned paramedic licenses in 1996. Regarding his leadership capabilities, Im excited for him to start. Hes not just going to impact one shift; his influence will be felt across all four of our shifts, Sebold said. Im truly looking forward to the opportunity of working with him on a daily basis. Sebold described Jemison as tech-savvy, which will be a plus when the department considers buying new equipment or when delivering new or alternative training methods, he said. Jemison graduated from Alton High School in 1984. He attended Southern Illinois University Edwardsville then Illinois State University, where he majored in genetic engineering. In 1985, he joined the U.S. Army Reserves and he served in the U.S. Marines, returning to civilian life in 1989. He married his wife, Cheryl, in 1997. They have three children and nine grandchildren. I have never been one to sit still for very long, Jemison said. That was one of the things I liked about my old position; I was always on the go. Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at 618-208-6450. CHICAGO The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation (ALPLF) will award its prestigious Lincoln Leadership Prize to 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush. President Bushs two terms in office were shaped by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against America. While he responded to the attacks with a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people, he remained focused on his administrations other priorities, including public education, global health and economic growth issues he continues to champion today through the George W. Bush Institute. The Lincoln Leadership Prize to be awarded April 1, 2019, in Chicago is an annual award that recognizes outstanding individuals for a lifetime of service in the spirit of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The award honors individuals who accept the responsibilities imposed by history and demanded by conscience, who show great strength of character and exhibit unwavering commitment to the defining principles of democracy. Much of Abraham Lincolns legacy was defined by his infallible leadership during one of our countrys darkest times: the Civil War, said Ray McCaskey, Chair of the ALPLF Board of Directors. During the first year of his first term, President Bush was faced with, the greatest challenge of any president since Abraham Lincoln, according to his father, 41st President of the United States George H.W. Bush. President George W. Bushs resolute leadership in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and throughout his presidency helped to ensure the safety and security of our country. It is in recognition of his service and with the spirit of Abraham Lincoln in mind that we are honored to bestow this years Lincoln Leadership Prize upon President Bush. President Bush was sworn into office on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001, and again on Jan. 20, 2005. During his administration, President Bush advocated compassionate conservatism, highlighting education, tax relief and volunteer efforts by faith-based and community organizations. President Bush championed a number of health care priorities, including expanded access to Medicare for seniors and billions of dollars in emergency AIDS relief. As Commander in Chief, President Bush led the effort to fight against and dismantle terror networks, and secure freedom for people living under oppressive and dictatorial regimes throughout the region. Following his administration, President Bush returned to his home in Texas. During that time, he and former First Lady Laura Bush founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center, home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the George W. Bush Institute. Additionally, President Bush found a passion and talent for painting. His subjects have included veterans, memorialized in his book, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chiefs Tribute to Americas Warriors, self-portraits and world leaders. Prior to his presidency, he served as the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995-2000. I am honored to be recognized with the Lincoln Leadership Prize, President Bush said. President Lincolns life provides many examples of principled leadership that have often guided me, both as a Commander in Chief and as an engaged citizen. He was one of our Nations greatest Presidents, and I am proud to accept this award which bears his name. ALPLF Board member John L. Nau III will present the Lincoln Leadership Prize to President Bush. Nau, who is the president and CEO of Silver Eagle Distributors, was appointed by President Bush as chairman of the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation and chaired the Texas Historical Commission for 14 years. Naus passion for history started with a bachelors degree in history from the University of Virginia and has grown to a 17,000- piece collection of historical artifacts. It gives me great pleasure to have the honor of presenting the Lincoln Leadership Prize to the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, said Nau. President Bush is the epitome of the characteristics we look for in a leader: great strength of character, individual conscience and unwavering commitment to the defining principles of democracy. Through this award, we celebrate President Lincolns legacy of leadership by recognizing President Bush for his leadership in accepting the responsibilities imposed by history and demanded by conscience. Since 2006, the ALPLF has awarded the Lincoln Leadership Prize to 11 prestigious individuals who serve in the Lincoln tradition. Previous honorees include Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Civil Rights Activists The Little Rock Nine, Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton, former Polish President Lech Walesa, Journalist Tim Russert, Astronaut James Lovell, Jr., Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor. The annual event also serves as the primary fundraiser for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation for the benefit of the Museum and Library, which is not a part of the National Archives Records Administrations federal system of presidential libraries. For more information about the Lincoln Leadership Prize please visit www.alplm.org. For tickets and/or table sponsorship information please call 312/553-2000. Morgan County Sheriff Randy Duvendack is preparing to pass on his badge as he starts his final week as sheriff after 12 years in the role. Mike Carmody was elected to the position earlier this month and will step in next week after serving under Duvendack for 12 years as chief deputy. Randy and I have been working closely together for the last 12 years, Carmody said. Hes prepared me very well. After completing his required courses through the Illinois Sheriffs Association, Carmody is working on preparing to move to his new office and getting the paperwork in place for the transition, he said. Carmody started part time with the department in 1986, before becoming full time in corrections after he graduated from college. He became a patrolman in 1994 and a detective in September 2004. Duvendack named him as chief deputy in 2006. Now, as incoming sheriff, Carmody is looking at things to improve, he said. We are starting out with a clean slate, he said. Well have to see what needs to be corrected. Some plans already are in motion, Carmody said. Those include new cameras at the Morgan County Courthouse, new phone systems in the three county buildings and active-shooter training for county employees at the courthouse and probation office, which Carmody hopes to have complete within six months. Being a public figure also is something he hopes to improve. Id like to get out to community events, interact with the community and give them opportunities to provide feedback, Carmody said. Randy is very good with the public and with people. Duvendack announced his retirement last year. After serving three terms, it was time to retire, Duvendack said. Duvendack will miss the people with whom he works and interacts in the community, he said. Ive always said I wanted this department to be like a family, Duvendack said. Ill miss the family weve created here. But stepping down from the position will allow Duvendack more time to spend time with his grandchildren. While they have no plans to do major traveling, Duvendack and his wife likely will plan more trips to Florida, as well as trips to visit his grandchildren, he said. We have three daughters and eight grandchildren, Duvendack said. Well be spending more time helping with the grandkids and going to different activities. Though hell miss his time in law enforcement, he and his wife are ready to move forward, he said. I wont miss the phone calls in the middle of the night, Duvendack said. Carmody said Duvendack will be missed around the department. He has a strong sense of family and I think thats the reason hes a great sheriff, Carmody said. Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha. The package of criminal justice reform proposals endorsed by President Donald Trump is not soft on crime. Its tough on injustice. And its about time. Known as the First Step Act, the legislation confronts the Titanic failure of the federal governments trillion-dollar war on drugs by reforming mandatory minimum sentences, rectifying unscientifically grounded disparities in criminal penalties for crack vs. powder cocaine users, and tackling recidivism among federal inmates through risk assessment, earned-time credit incentive structures, re-entry programs and transitional housing. Theres nothing radical about giving law-breakers who served their time an opportunity to turn their lives around and avoid ending up back behind bars. More than 30 red and blue states have enacted measures to reduce incarceration, control costs and improve public safety. Texas no bleeding-heart liberal mecca spearheaded alternatives to the endless prison-building boom a decade ago by redirecting tax dollars to rehab, treatment and mental health services. The Lone Star state saved an estimated $3 billion in new public construction costs while stemming the prison population tide. Similar efforts adopted last year in Louisiana long known as the prison capital of the world have yielded promising reductions in the recidivism rate. Pelican Institute for Public Policy analyst Margaret Mire reports that Louisianas re-arrest rate in the first nine months is 19 percent, or 7 percentage points, behind the national, annual re-arrest average of 26 percent. State data show that the re-incarceration rate is down to 6 percent in the same time period on pace to be 9 percentage points lower than its full-year average prior to the reforms, or 15 percent. Mississippi GOP Gov. Phil Bryant overhauled sentencing mandates, embraced faith-based ministries and funded counseling programs for inmates preparing for their transition to life on the outside. Crime is down 6 percent, he reported at a White House prison reform summit earlier this year. We have 3,000 less inmates. We saved $40 million since 2014. And you can do the same thing. Despite staunch support from conservative Republican governors, prosecutors and law enforcement closest to the ground on this issue, the same hyperbolic talking points used by some immovable law and order opponents at the state level are now being used against First Step: Cops will be endangered, critics balk. Violent monsters will go free. Child predators and drug kingpins will flood our neighborhoods. Scary, but deceptive. The plain language of the bill makes clear that its early release provisions must be earned. Moreover, as Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee points out: At all times the Bureau of Prisons retains all authority over who does and does not qualify for early release. Former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, a veteran of the criminal justice system for 20 years, notes that inmates convicted of crimes of violence (including assaults on police), drug trafficking (including hardcore fentanyl and heroin dealing) and child pornography would not qualify for credits. Period. The list of ineligible prisoners is a mile long. As a staunch opponent of illegal alien amnesty for the past 25 years, the most potent attack by First Step critics concerns whether criminal aliens in federal prisons will be let loose en masse. They wont. The law states that no prisoner can earn time credits if that prisoner is an inadmissible or deportable alien under the immigration laws (as such term is defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. And legislative analysts assert that under current Bureau of Prisons regulations, a prisoner subject to an ICE detainer wouldnt be eligible for placement in home confinement, anyway. Critic Dan Cadman of the Center for Immigration Studies is not satisfied and argues that the simplest way to make it a clean bill where immigration enforcement is concerned is to say at the beginning of the bill that none of the sections that follow in this bill apply to incarcerated aliens. That should be a simple fix and is no reason to prevent First Step from moving to the Senate floor for vigorous debate. My own awakening to the systemic flaws and failures of our criminal justice system came from viewing it through the eyes of the wrongfully accused and wrongfully convicted. Prosecutorial misconduct, police malfeasance, investigative bias and a guilty-until-proven-innocent agenda have ruined lives and squandered limited resources. From there, Ive come to appreciate activists and practitioners on both sides of the aisle educating people about sweeping hang em high mandates that ensnare millions of their fellow citizens, clogging up jail space and wasting away productive years. Our system is at its best when all involved can admit policy failures and work to change them. Why wait? Michelle Malkin is host of Michelle Malkin Investigates on CRTV.com. Her email address is writemalkin@gmail.com. John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old missionary who tried to bring Christianity to a primitive tribe that lives on a small island off the coast of India, is dead. Members of the tribe he sought to convert killed him. The Sentinelese people, who inhabit North Sentinel island, are thought to number no more than 50 and comprise one of the last hunter-gatherer cultures known to exist. They are protected by the Indian government from contact with the outside world in order to preserve their way of life and prevent their exposure to diseases against which they possess no natural immunity. Outsiders are forbidden from even approaching the island, let alone setting foot on it and coming into contact with its inhabitants. Nonetheless, Chau hired some fishermen to take him to the island. The Sentinelese didnt take kindly to Chau and shot an arrow at him, which struck the Bible he was carrying. Chau retreated to the fishing boat but returned to the island twice. After his third visit to proselytize this tribe, the fishermen saw the Sentinelese dragging Chaus body to the shore, where they buried him. The Indian government isnt especially sympathetic. The Director General of Police of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands told CNN, We refuse to call him a tourist because he came on a tourist visa but he came with a specific purpose. To preach on a prohibited island. Why did Chau choose to defy the law by journeying to the island and making contact with such a primitive people? He felt a moral obligation to follow what Christians call the Great Commission, which he believed trumped any mere law enacted by civil authorities. The Great Commission can be found in Matthew 28:19-20, where Jesus commands his followers, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Chau interpreted all nations to include even an isolated hunter-gatherer tribe that the government of India had placed under its protection. And he paid for that interpretation with his life. There seems to be a lack of consensus among Christians as to the eternal fate of those who have never heard of Jesus. A book titled What About Those Who Have Never Heard? contains no less than three perspectives: accepting Jesus is necessary in order to avoid eternal damnation; the unevangelized receive an opportunity for salvation after death; and some might be saved even if theyve never heard of Jesus. I was in college when I read Annie Dillards classic Pilgrim At Tinker Creek. Dillard relates a conversation between an Eskimo (Inuit) and a Catholic priest. The Inuit asked the priest, If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell? The priest replied, No, not if you did not know, which prompted the Inuit to inquire, Then why did you tell me? I think that was a perfectly legitimate question under the circumstances. My Catholic upbringing taught me that martyrs are highly regarded among Christians. Is Chau a modern-day martyr? No. Chau was not slain by these tribesmen because they found his Christian message repugnant. The tribesmen had killed two Indians who were illegally fishing near the island in 2006. Like those fishermen, the tribesmen saw Chau as merely another invader from a hostile outside world not a Christian missionary, who wanted only to save them from the fires of hell. Chau wrote in his journal that he ventured to this forbidden area because he wanted to establish the kingdom of Jesus on the island. He was well aware of the risk. Please do not be angry at them (the Sentinelese) or at God if I am killed, he also wrote. Both Proverbs 22:3 and Proverbs 27:12 of the Bible carried by Chau state: The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. Chaus Christian faith was indeed simple and he paid the ultimate penalty. John J. Dunphy is the author of Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois and From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois. His latest book, Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials, will be published next month by McFarland. After two years of the current presidential administration, I feel compelled to share my thoughts. Nearly every day, President Trump undermines our democracy by calling the media an enemy, discounting climate change, alienating our allies, and cuddling up to foreign dictators. But his recent criticism of Navy SEAL hero Admiral William McRaven, similar to his demeaning of deceased former Sen. John McCain, is simply unconscionable. However, we all know President Trump is who he is and will not change. Touched by the compassion of the nurses who tended to her... The Congress and National Conference on Monday questioned the Narendra Modi government about a former prime minister of Norway holding talks with separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. Kjell Magne Bondevik, who was prime minister of Norway from 1997 to 2005, had arrived in Srinagar on December 23 and met All Party Hurriyat Conference leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. This week, Bondevik reportedly travelled to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and met Masood Khan, the president of Azad Kashmir. Bondevik's meeting with the Hurriyat leaders was thought to have been facilitated by the Art of Living foundation. Responding to reports of Bondevik's diplomacy, the Congress on Monday alleged the Modi government had compromised on national security by allowing "third party mediation" in Jammu and Kashmir. Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala demanded that Modi answer why the former prime minister of a third country was holding talks with separatists, when India had always treated Kashmir as a bilateral issue. What are the Norwegians up to in Kashmir? Would either @SushmaSwaraj ji or Doval ji care to put the visit of the former Norwegian PM to both sides of the divided state in the correct context or do we have to rely on rumours & conjecture? Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 26, 2018 Referring to Bondevik's visit, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted, What are the Norwegians up to in Kashmir? Would either @SushmaSwaraj ji [External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj] or Doval ji [National Security Adviser Ajit Doval] care to put the visit of the former Norwegian PM to both sides of the divided state in the correct context or do we have to rely on rumours & conjecture? Abdullah also tweeted that he was not upset with the Norwegian initiative and declared he welcomed any initiative to break the ice. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq tweeted about Bondevik's visit. He wrote, As Norway is known to play a constructive role in conflict resolution across the globe urged Mr Bondevik to help in ending the daily killings and urgent resolution of the festering Kashmir dispute. Bondevik is the founder and executive chair of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. After leaving office as prime minister of Norway, Bondevik served as the UN Secretary-Generals special envoy to the Horn of Africa in 2006-2007. Bondevik had also mediated between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE rebels when he was prime minister of Norway. He was instrumental in negotiating a ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE in 2002. (With PTI inputs) Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik who has been defending his decision to dissolve the state assembly on November 21 was caught in a controversy after his remarks, perceived to be critical of the BJP's plans, went viral on Tuesday. Malik had claimed on November 24 that he was forced to dissolve the assembly because both the PDP-NC alliance and the BJP's ally Sajjad Lone did not present the adequate numbers to show they could form a stable government. Malik made the statement at a function at a college in Gwalior. Malik said he would have gone down as a dishonest person if he had allowed Sajjad Lone to form the government after looking in the direction of Delhi. Malik defended himself from criticism levelled by veteran journalist Ravish Kumar, who spoke before him at the function. Malik claimed if Mufti wanted to form a coalition government, she could have sent emissaries via flight from Srinagar to Jammu. Malik claimed in his speech that both Lone's group and Mufti had claimed their MLAs were being threatened. Malik added that Lone had said he had sent a message on government formation via WhatsApp to the governor's personal assistant. Declaring that corruption was a major problem in Jammu and Kashmir, he said inviting either Mufti or Lone to form the government would have been an invitation to horse-trading. Malik also defended waiting to dissolve the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, noting that it ensured MLAs got funds for development work in their constituencies. Malik further claimed he had got social media messages from people that his decision to dissolve the assembly had saved them from politicians for at least six months. While noting that the Mufti and Abdullah families were patriots, Malik said the All Parties Hurriyat Conference needed Pakistan's permission to visit the bathroom. He declared that the problems of Jammu and Kashmir of the past 50 years were due to false promises of politicians from the state and even said the central governments had been dishonest to the state. The Jammu and Kashmir governor also claimed in his speech that the security situation in the state had improved during his tenure, noting that in the past four months not one new terrorist has emerged from the youth [barring a Noida youth who joined militants] and incidents of stone-pelting have nearly ended. Even as campaigning in the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls ended on Monday, five transgenders who are contesting in different parts of the state continue to attract keen interest from the public. While these transgender candidates, who are contesting as independents, are making headlines like their counterparts from the mainstream parties, they are also bringing new perspectives to the polls. According to the Election Commission, there are 1,410 transgender voters in Madhya Pradesh. Political parties and local people have often used transgenders for campaigning, but this time, five decided to contest. Out of the five, 28-year-old Neha Kinnar who is contesting from Ambah in Chambal, is giving a tough fight to Congress and BJP candidates. The BJP has fielded Gabbar Sakhwar while Congress has fielded Kamlesh Jatav. Interestingly, local residents are supporting Kinnar by running her campaign through social media and door-to-door canvassing. Kinnar seems to be getting lots of support as people of the region claim they are fed up with the false promises of mainstream political parties and they want to teach a lesson to the leaders of big parties. Madhya Pradesh has the unique distinction of electing India's first transgender MLA in 1998 when Shabnam Mausi won a bypoll from Sohagpur assembly constituency in Shahdol. With the Congress and BJP locked in a close contest, these transgender candidates may get sufficient support from the public in case of confusion among voters on whom to vote for. Madhya Pradesh has also elected two transgenders as mayors in Katni and Sagar, when people got frustrated with the mainstream Congress and BJP, even though politics in the state is still bipolar in nature. In Hoshangabad assembly constituency, some 60km from Bhopal, 44-year-old transgender Panchi Deshmukh is contesting against assembly speaker Sitasharan Sharma, who is locked in an interesting contest with his former BJP colleague Sartaj Singh. Sartaj Singh was forest minister in the BJP government, but he crossed over to the Congress at the last moment when he was denied a ticket from Seoni Malwa. Deshmukh, who is illiterate, is the candidate from the little-known Hindu Mahasabha party. In Damoh assembly constituency in Bundelkhand region, 36-year-old Rehana Bua is contesting against Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya. Rehana is also illiterate but very active on social media and says that she is contesting polls to give every person a government job. Similarly, in Indore town, transgender Bala Waishwara is fighting the elections on the issue of employment for women and transgenders. Like Shalu Mausi, 30, who is contesting from Jaisinghnagar seat, Bala claims that if she is elected, her primary focus will be employment to all. All the five contestants said their role models are Shabnam Mausi who was an MLA, Kamala Bua who became mayor from Sagar in 2009 and Kamala Jaan who became mayor of Katni in 1999. Bihar assembly passes GST Bill amid ruckus created by opposition Patna, Nov 27 (PTI) The state Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed the Bihar Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018 with voice vote amid pandemonium by the opposition over an another issue pertaining to "deteriorating" law and order situation. The Assembly could not transact any business in both the sessions except for passage of the Bill on GST. The House proceedings lasted for eight minutes during pre-lunch session while the post-lunch session could barely run for 17 minutes. The central government has already got the amendments passed by the Parliament over GST and states have to ratify them as the state government had brought an ordinance due to the fact that the state legislature was not in session. As the House assembled in the post-lunch session at 2 PM, the opposition members from RJD, Congress and CPI(ML) rushed into the well of the House raising slogans against the Nitish Kumar government and demanding discussion on the adjournment motion moved by them on law and order situation. The opposition had disrupted the proceedings in the first half on the same issue, forcing Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary to adjourn the House till 2 PM. The opposition members continued with their demand even during the post-lunch session on the same issue by rushing again into the well demanding that their adjournment motion over "deteriorating" law and order situation be accepted for the debate. The Speaker pleaded with them to go back to their seats and allow the Question Hour as nothing is being heard even LOP's voice in the din created by them (opposition). On this, Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said there was no point in getting the Bill passed when the House was not in order. "The debate on deteriorating law and order situation in the state should be taken up in the House by accepting our adjourment motion. The Supreme Court today came down heavily on the state government during a hearing of the Muzaffarpur shelter home case," Yadav said. He drew attention to a recent incident in which Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had allegedly urged criminals with folded hands to refrain from anti-social activities during the 'Pitri Paksh' fair at Gaya. Amid pandemonium, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi introduced the Bill for its passage after the debate on it. The debate could not take place due to noisy scenes in the House and hence Dy CM tabled his reply on the floor of the House and requested the Speaker to make the text the part of House proceedings. Talking to reporter later in his assembly premises chamber, Modi said as per the amendment Bill, the threshold limit has been increased to Rs 1.5 crore from the existing Rs 1 crore under for composition scheme. He added that dealers under composition scheme will not have to file monthly returns rather they will have to file quarterly returns with one per cent of annual tax. The Bill has withhold the "Reverse Charge Mechanism" (RCM) following the opposition by taxpayers, he said adding that RCM used to be levied on the taxpayer if he/she (taxpayer) purchases goods or services from "unregistered supplier". The matter has been put on hold till GST Council decides on the issue, Modi said. As per the amendment, a trader can get multiple registration done in the state for carrying out his business on a single PAN, the Dy CM said while adding that till now a trader was able to get one registration against one PAN. In the event of disputes on tax amount, a trader has to deposit 10 per cent of the disputed amount for filing an appeal with no capping of upper limit but now the maximum amount has been capped at Rs 25 crore for filing an appeal against any tax dispute, Modi said. PTI AR SNS SNS Beijing, Nov 27 (AFP) Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is among the world's richest people but he has now emerged as a member of another club: China's 89-million-strong Communist Party. The billionaire's Communist bona fides were revealed by the People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China's development. He is not the first nor likely the last Chinese super-rich capitalist to join the party, which counts property titan Xu Jiayin and Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin among its billionaire members. But Ma's membership had not been widely known until now as China's richest man had previously suggested that he preferred to stay out of politics. In Monday's article, the People's Daily said Ma was a party member who has played an important role in pushing China's Belt and Road global trade infrastructure initiative -- a pet project of President Xi Jinping. He has also been honoured as one of the "outstanding builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang Province", where Alibaba is based, the daily said. Joining the party can be helpful to private businessmen and women in the country as they navigate a complicated business environment where the state-led economy dominates many industries and private business can be unwelcome. In China, company chiefs need the backing of the Communist Party to get rich, but they also need it to survive. It is a relationship that -- when the political winds change -- can hang them out to dry, experts say. Party membership did not prevent the abrupt fall of oil tycoon Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy, who disappeared from public view this spring and is thought to be under investigation in China. Ma's business rivals, Tencent CEO and Chairman Pony Ma and Baidu's Robin Li are not affiliated with any party, the People's Daily said. Xi has renewed a push to expand the Communist Party's influence in private business, requiring any company with more than three party members to set up a party cell, or lacking numbers, join with nearby firms. Three in four private companies already host party organisations. Ma did not reveal his Communist Party membership in paperwork filed for Alibaba's 2014 initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. It is not known if Ma was a member at the time. A spokeswoman for Alibaba declined to comment. Alibaba bought Hong Kong's English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), in 2015 and controversies have swirled over the editorial slant of its coverage since the purchase. Ma told the paper he wanted to offer a "fair chance to readers" to understand China when Alibaba purchased it. "The political affiliation of any Alibaba executive will not impact or influence SCMP's editorial or operational decisions," SCMP spokeswoman Andrea Leung told AFP in an emailed statement. Despite being known for its in-depth coverage of China, the paper had yet to publish a story on the party membership of China's top capitalist by Tuesday evening. Ma -- who announced in September that he would step down as head of Alibaba next year -- has previously indicated he preferred to keep the Chinese state at arm's length. "My philosophy is to be in love with the government, but never marry them," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2007. But party members must hold up their right fist and recite an oath upon joining. "Be loyal to the party, work actively, fight for communism all one's life, always be prepared to sacrifice everything for the party and people, and never betray the party," they recite. (AFP) AKJ (Eds: Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PR Newswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.) NEW DELHI, November 27, 2018/PRNewswire/ -- This year will soon come to a close with another memorable moment of pride and honour for the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM). India's leading chain of hospitality management institutes has taken another giant leap into the global arena by starting its ninth centre at Uzbekistan in Central Asia. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789972/SamarkandIIHMCampus.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789971/MrAbdukhakimovMeetsDrBose.jpg ) The new centre will be located at Samarkand, one of the oldest cities of Central Asia that upholds rich cultural, educational and architectural heritage. IIHM in Uzbekistan is the result of the collaboration between IIHM and Samarkand Institute of Economics and Services. The new centre was officially announced at a meeting this month at Samarkand between Dr Suborno Bose, the Chief mentor of IIHM and other officials of Uzbekistan. Dr Bose and his team were greeted at Samarkand with traditional Uzbek hospitality that also included a dinner with officials with a spread of authentic Uzbek cuisine. The new IIHM centre at Samarkand comes as a blessing for the students of Uzbekistan and the neighbouring countries, who aspire to become future hospitality professionals. The Inception: The idea of starting a hospitality institute in Uzbekistan in collaboration with IIHM came from His Excellency Farhod Arziev, the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to India, and soon Mr Uzokboy Shoimkulovich, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan visited the IIHM centre in Delhi, along with Mr Ulugbek Kasimhodjaev, the Acting First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development. Mr Uzokboy was impressed by the methods of teaching, quality of education and infrastructure of IIHM and he also expressed his interest for starting a similar institute in Uzbekistan. Operations at IIHM Uzbekistan: The IIHM centre in Samarkand will start operations as of September 2019, which is when the new academic session begins in Uzbekistan. Teaching will take place in English, although there are three languages in the country, namely, Uzbek, Tajik and Russian. Although the mode of teaching will be English, students who will need clarifications will be given so in the local language. The admission process will start from March onwards. The authorities are currently looking at a batch of 100 students to start with in 2019. The faculty will be a mix of Indian and Uzbek. Core subjects will be taught by teachers from IIHM campuses across India, who will travel to Samarkand from time to time. Some local professors will also be teaching at the institute. International faculty of IIHM from across the world will also be visiting the campus to teach special subjects. A bright future for Hospitality in Uzbekistan: The signing of the MoU was a historic moment for both IIHM and Samarkand Institute of Economics and Services. Dr Suborno Bose, the founder and chief mentor of IIHM, said, "We are delighted to sign the MoU with the Samarkand Institute of Economics and Services, one of the top educational institutes in Uzbekistan. The government of Uzbekistan is very positive and supportive of this initiative and it's a great feeling for IIHM to be associated with this prestigious educational institute. We look forward to share a long-lasting and fruitful association with the institute, Samarkand and with the government of Uzbekistan." Mr Pulatov Mukhiddin Egamberdievich, the Rector of Samarkand Institute of Economics and Services, said, "The MoU signing of IIHM with Samarkand Institute of Economics and Services is a historic event. IIHM is a well-known institute for hospitality education in India and around the world. This memorandum will be beneficial not only for students of the two institutions, but also for students of Central Asia. Tourism is important for Uzbekistan and training students in hospitality will only help to increase tourism in the country. I see this association as a bright future for students who wish to take up the profession of hospitality management in this part of the world." The Prime Minister of Uzbekisthan, Mr Aziz A Abdukhakimov expressed his delight for this association. He said, "We are delighted to welcome you to Uzbekistan and bring global hospitality education to our country." The Ambassador of India to Uzbekisthan, Mr Vinod Kumar, tweeted, "Delighted at announcement of IIHM Hotel School Campus at Samarkand." About IIHM IIHM (International Institute of Hotel Management) is the largest chain of premier hospitality and hotel management schools across India that started its journey in 1994 at Kolkata. IIHM is a part of Indismart Group, the conglomerate that operates the Indismart Hotels. IIHM campuses are located across nine national and international cities with the associate institute IAM-IHM located in Kolkata, Goa and Guwahati. Students passing out of IIHM are armed with an international degree from the University of West London and equipped with global hospitality skills that enable easy placements in any hospitality brand across the world. IIHM is dedicated to its pursuit of excellence in teaching and placements. Real time experience is the key to success in hospitality and that makes the institute popular. In recent years, IIHM has been instrumental in organizing the Young Chef Olympiad, a unique idea and initiative inviting young culinary talents across the world to participate in the biggest cookery reality shows of all times. The countdown has already begun for the fourth edition, Young Chef Olympiad 2018, slated to take place from January 28 to February 2. The institute has bagged several prestigious awards in the past 24 years. The list includes the Best Education Brand Award from Economic Times in 2017. IIHM was also awarded as one among the World's Greatest Brands & Leaders 2015-16 by URS International (IMEA - Process Reviewer PriceWaterhouseCoopers PL) and also received the Best Institute in Hospitality Education 2017 Award by Assocham from Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon'ble Minister of State for HRD (Higher Education), Govt. of India. For more information, please visit: http://www.iihm.ac.in Source: International Institute of Hotel Management PWR PWR Islamabad, Nov 27 (PTI) Burglars broke into the consular section of Pakistan's high commission in Bangladesh and stole computers, prompting Islamabad to summon Dhaka's ambassdor here to lodge a strong protest and demand better security. A case was lodged on Sunday after the officials at the high commission discovered the broken window after the weekly holidays. The Pakistan Foreign Office said the burglary in the high commission, located in a highly secure diplomatic area, is a matter of "grave concern". "We have lodged a strong protest with the Bangladesh's authorities, both in Dhaka and in Islamabad, over this incident," it said in a statement on Tuesday. It is the responsibility of the Bangladesh government to provide full security to the Pakistan High Commission premises, it said. "The Bangladesh authorities have been requested to carry out a thorough investigation, share a detailed report with us and bring the culprits to justice," the statement said. Pakistan summoned Bangladesh High Commissioner Tarik Ahsan in Islamabad on Monday to hand over a protest note, bdnews24.com reported. The CCTV camera footage showed three men broke into the ground floor of the high commission through an air-cooler window on the night of November 22, Gulshan Police Station Officer-in-Charge Abu Bakr Siddique was quoted as saying by the Bangladeshi news portal. "They made off with the air-cooler, three CPUs, a monitor and four UPS by a rickshaw van and an autorickshaw," he said. The relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan hit a new low following Islamabad's criticism of the 1971 war crimes trial in Dhaka. In 2009, Bangladesh set up war crimes tribunal to investigate and prosecute suspects for the genocide committed in 1971 by the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams during the Bangladesh Liberation War. PTI AKJ AKJ Islamabad, Nov 27 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. Addressing a conference in Islamabad, Faisal recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. Prime Minister Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the SAARC summit, Faisal was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Modi. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances" and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. Nineteen Indian soldiers died in the attack. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative. PTI ZH AKJ ZH ZH Moscow, Nov 27 (AFP) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine against any "reckless acts" after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscow's seizure of three of its navy vessels. The Ukrainian parliament late Monday voted in favour of President Petro Poroshenko's request for the introduction of martial law in border areas for 30 days. The move came after Russian forces fired on, boarded and captured three of Kiev's ships on Sunday off the coast of Crimea, sparking the most dangerous crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbours in years. The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country's east. It has raised fears of a wider escalation -- in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 -- and prompted international calls for restraint. Martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas. In a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin expressed "serious concern" over its introduction, the Kremlin said in a statement. He said he hoped Berlin could intervene with Ukrainian authorities "to dissuade them from further reckless acts". Moscow has accused Kiev of planning Sunday's confrontation as a provocation aimed at drumming up support for Poroshenko ahead of elections next year and convincing Western governments to impose further sanctions on Russia. Putin said Kiev's actions were "clearly taken in view of the election campaign in Ukraine". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that Kiev's martial law threatened to cause an "escalation of tensions in the conflict region" in the east of the country. Moscow has so far resisted calls to release the three ships or the 24 sailors it has detained. Some of the sailors will face trial in Simferopol -- the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea -- on Tuesday, the peninsula's human rights ombudsman Lyudmila Lubina told AFP. The rest are expected to face trial on Wednesday, she said, while three others were still in hospital after being wounded in the weekend clash. Moscow accuses them of crossing illegally into Russian waters and of ignoring warnings from its border guards, with officials suggesting they could face criminal prosecution. Sunday's incident has been playing out on Russian and Ukrainian television screens, with dramatic footage of Russian ships chasing down a Ukrainian tugboat that was trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov. Russian state television late on Monday aired footage of some of the captured sailors being questioned by Moscow's security services. One of the sailors is heard saying "the actions of the Ukrainian armed vessels in the Kerch Strait had a provocatory character" -- parroting the version of events put forward by Russian authorities. Ukraine's naval commander, Igor Voronchenko, said the sailors were pressured into giving false evidence. "I know these sailors, they were always professional. What they are saying now is not true," he told Ukrainian media. "They (the Russians) could even say that we came from the sky on a spaceship." Ukraine has accused Russian border patrol vessels of ramming the tugboat, which was accompanied by two small warships, and of firing on the Ukrainian vessels. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev in the dispute, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov and of taking military action without justification. Britain, Canada, France, Germany and others expressed support for Kiev on Monday, with EU President Donald Tusk calling for Russia to return the Ukrainian sailors and ships and "refrain from further provocations". The foreign minister of Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said Tuesday that the EU will next month consider further sanctions against Moscow over the flare-up. Pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia on Tuesday denounced the reaction as "predictably anti-Russian". The UN Security Council met in an emergency session on the crisis on Monday, where US envoy Nikki Haley called the seizure of the ships an "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory." (AFP) KUN KUN Trump to have trilateral meeting with PM Modi, Japan's Abe in Argentina on sidelines of G20 summit: US NSA Bolton. PTI LKJ KUN KUN Moscow, Nov 27 (AFP) Russia has sharply increased its military presence on the border with Ukraine, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on television on Tuesday, warning of the threat of "full-scale war." "The number of (Russian) tanks at bases located along our border has tripled," Poroshenko said in an interview, adding that "the number of units that have been deployed along our border -- what's more, along its full length -- has grown dramatically." He said that the military buildup meant that the country is "under threat of full-scale war with Russia." Poroshenko didn't give Russian troop numbers but said the information on the military buildup was based on intelligence reports. He said that numbers of Russian troops in Crimea had tripled since Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. Russian forces on Sunday fired on and captured three Ukrainian ships and their crews off Crimea, sparking the most dangerous crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbours in years.(AFP) KUN KUN Ahmedabad, Nov 27 (PTI) Union minister Haribhai Chaudhary Tuesday termed as "false and baseless" the charges levelled against him by senior CBI officer M K Sinha, and said he would quit politics if they were proven to be true. The Minister of State for Coal, who represents Banaskantha seat from Gujarat in the Lok Sabha, also sought an inquiry by the Centre over the charges against him. "People whom I never met in my whole life levelled such false charges against me. They made false and baseless allegations without having any evidence," Chaudhary said. He was addressing a gathering at Samdhi village near Palanpur town of Banaskantha, around 150 kms from here. The Union minister said he had denied the charges in a statement that he had issued earlier. "You must have learned about these allegations through the media. I want to tell you that all these allegations are false and baseless. I want the government to set up an inquiry on this. If I am proven guilty, I will quit politics," he asserted. Sinha, in his plea in the Supreme Court a week back, alleged that Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana had said during his interrogation that a few crores of rupees was paid to Chaudhary in June this year. PTI PJT PD NP SRY Nagpur, Nov 27 (PTI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Tuesday over two-lakh stranded non-resident Indians (NRIs) were brought back to India in the last four-and-a-half years. According to her, the Narendra Modi government had given priority to national interests in its foreign policy and India had maintained good relationship with other countries, even as some of them share troubled relations with each other. Swaraj was speaking at an event organised by the Shree Shakti Peeth, an affiliate of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women's arm of the RSS. "There have been many foreign ministers earlier, but was the safety of its citizens abroad ever the priority of the external affairs ministry? Never. I initiated 'pardes mein apka dost, Bharatiya dootavas' (your friend overseas, the Indian Embassy). "There are people (to help) and several other options when a person gets into trouble in his own country. But, he has no one to rescue when he lands into trouble abroad due to fraud and several other reasons. There are several such examples... To give a figure, we have brought back 2,03,666 NRIs who faced troubles abroad," the minister said. According to her, bringing "balance into imbalanced relationship" was India's diplomacy, which it carried out by giving importance to the national interests. "There are 193 member countries of the United Nations and it is not that every country has a cordial relationship with each other. The big countries (super powers) have enmity amongst themselves. "But, from the very first day, we implemented our 'sanskar' of 'national interest first' in the foreign policy... India has maintained a very good relationship with the countries fighting with each other and those which don't have a good relationship, by putting national interest first in its foreign policy," she said. America and Russia share a bad relationship with each other. America has put sanctions on Russia, but India has a very good relationship with both the countries. Despite the sanctions, India purchased S-400 (air defence system) from Russia and did COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) with the US, the minister said. Similarly, the UAE and Iran share a bad relationship. But India has a good relationship with both the countries. The UAE had honoured Modi with its highest civilian honour during his visit there and India continue to purchase oil from Iran despite the US sanctions, she said. "Besides, India has a very good relationship with Israel and Palestine despite their bad relationship. It is all about maintaining balance and putting national interest first in the country's foreign policy," Swaraj said. Talking about India's relationship with its neighbouring countries, she said: "Prime Minister Modi wants 'sabka saath, sabka vikas' (with everyone, for everyone's development)... not only within India, but the neighbour countries should also not be left out in development." PTI CLS NP HMB Kolkata, Nov 27 (PTI) Following are PTI's top stories from the eastern region at 9 pm. STORIES ON THE WIRE: CAL 3 OD-BJP-ORAM 'Pradhan to be BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Odisha' Bhubaneswar: Senior party leader and Union minister Jual Oram Tuesday said Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Odisha. CAL 4 AMERICAN-INVESTIGATION American's killing: Police dismiss winding up case, say moving cautiously Port Blair: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration had no plans to have any confrontation with the Sentinelese tribe, who killed an American national recently, and was moving cautiously on its investigation, respecting the existing laws that protected the reclusive islanders from outsiders, a top police officer said Tuesday. CES 8 WB-MAMATA-PURULIA Mamata flays Purulia dist officials for failing to make a single Kisan Mandi operational Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday flayed district officials for failing to make a single 'Kisan Mandi' fully operational in the backward district. CES 10 BH-ASSEMBLY-GST Bihar assembly passes GST Bill amid ruckus created by opposition Patna: The state Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed the Bihar Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018 with voice vote amid pandemonium by the opposition over an another issue pertaining to "deteriorating" law and order situation. CES 12 WB-NOCONFIDENCE WALKOUT Cong-LF stage walk out from WB House as Speaker dismisses discussion on no confidence Kolkata: There was pandemonium in West Bengal assembly Tuesday as the opposition Congress and Left Front staged a noisy walkout after protesting strongly against Speaker Biman Bannerjee for dismissing discussion on their no confidence motion against the TMC government for want of time. CES 15 MG-ASSAULT-PROBE Meghalaya govt rules out CBI probe into activist assault case Shillong: Turning down the opposition's demand for a CBI probe into the recent attack on an RTI activist, Home Minister James K Sangma said Tuesday the government has decided to form a fact-finding committee to carry out an independent investigation into the incident. CES 21 BH-SKELTONS Huge quantity of human skeletal remains found at Bihar railway station Chhapra: A huge quantity of human skeletal remains has been recovered from the railway junction here and one person arrested in this connection, police said on Tuesday. PTI RG RG Dalit rights not protected under BJP, BJD govts : OPCC chief Bhubaneswar, Nov 27 (PTI) The fundamental rights of dalits are not protected under the BJP rule at the Centre and BJD regime in Odisha, state PCC president Niranjan Patnaik alleged here Tuesday. The Congress on the other hand "has always and will always keep fighting for the rights of the dalits", he said at a gathering of dalits here. When the governments at the Centre and the state are talking on development and financial inclusion they do not give priority to the Dalits, he said. "The atrocities against Dalits will increase if these political parties try to end the reservation system and amend the rule," the OPCC president said. Hitting out at the BJD government of Naveen Patnaik, he said that under its 18-year rule the social and financial conditions of the dalits have worsened. "Minus Dalits there can be no development of Odisha," Patnaik said adding the section in Odisha needs social and financial development. "Some political parties like BJP have never raised their issues". Turning to the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, he said it is "anti-dalit". A number of schemes must be prepared and implemented for the dalits with sincerity as only reservation cannot bring them fortune or develop them. Congress appointed B R Ambedkar as the head of Constitution drafting body of India because it wanted to protect the fundamental rights of Dalits as well as every section of the society, Patnaik said. "But RSS opposed the Constitution written by Ambedkar. It does not want that all sections of the society to get equal opportunities and equal status," he said. Prominent dalit leader Jignesh Mewani, who is also a Congress MLA from Gujrat, too criticised both BJD and BJP for their attitude towards the dalits. The Odisha government is silent on the gang rape of a minor dalit girl at Kunduli in Koraput district. A 14-year old girl had alleged that she was raped by four men in uniform in October 2017. The girl committed suicide earlier this year. "It is surprising that the BJD government is not raising its voice against the BJP government at the Centre on the Rafale scam. BJP and BJD are two sides of a coin. They support each other in every act," Mewani alleged. PTI AAM KK KK Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn (Source: VNA) PM Phuc suggested that the two foreign ministries continue reviewing high-level agreements and fix existing shortcomings in the collaboration of trade, investment, transportation, agro-forestry, and education-training. He called for joint work to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the victory over the genocidal regime (January 7th, 1979), reflecting the profound solidarity in combat between the two nations and raising the two peoples awareness of the importance of the historic victory. The PM asked both sides to legally recognise 84 percent of the border demarcation and marker planting, and process legal papers for Vietnamese-Cambodians. PM Phuc urged Sokhonn to continue working closely with relevant Cambodian authorities and localities in the relocation of floating houses of Vietnamese-Cambodians on Tonle Sap lake in Kampong Chhnang province, as directed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. Sokhonn, for his part, said he always gives priority to developing the friendly neighbourliness, comprehensive cooperation and solidarity between the two countries. He vowed to work closely with the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to build on their past achievements. Regarding the relocation of the floating houses of Vietnamese-Cambodians, he said the province also has plans to ensure new housing for the residents, expressing his belief that both sides will soon be able to make suitable solutions in this field./. New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) The Centre formally announced the appointment of seniormost election commissioner Sunil Arora as the Chief Election Commissioner Tuesday. A notification issued by the Law Ministry said the 62-year-old former bureaucrat would take over his new position Sunday. The incumbent CEC, Om Prakash Rawat, demits office Saturday. The Election Commission will hold the 2019 general election under him. Moreover, Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim are scheduled to be held next year. A CEC or an EC can have a tenure of six years or hold office till the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. The convention is to appoint the senior-most election commissioner as chief election commissioner. A former bureaucrat, Arora was appointed as the election commissioner in August last year. He had been the information and broadcasting secretary, and secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. A 1980-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, Arora had worked in ministries such as finance, textiles and also at the Planning Commission. He had also served as the joint secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation from 1999-2002 and the chief managing director (CMD) of the Indian Airlines for five years. In Rajasthan, besides district postings in Dholpur, Alwar, Nagaur and Jodhpur, he was secretary to the chief minister during 1993-1998 and principal secretary to the CM from 2005-2008. He had also handled information and public relations (IPR), industries and investment departments. PTI NAB HMB New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) The ruling BJP attacked Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Tuesday over reports about his "gotra", saying he was faking his identity and making a joke of himself. Dinanath Kaul, a priest at the Pushkar lake in Rajasthan who performed a "puja" for Gandhi Monday, claimed that the Congress president's "gotra" was "Duttatreya" and he was a Kashmiri Brahmin. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said the entire caste-communal narrative of the Congress in the ongoing Assembly elections (in five states) showed that the opposition party was "bereft of issues and its leader Rahul Gandhi is faking his identity and making a joke of himself". He went on to compare Gandhi with controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who has been staying abroad to evade arrest in various cases in India, saying the Congress chief was swinging from being a "Hindu basher" to being "sold" as a "devout Hindu" and it was as farcical as "Islamic bigot" Zakir Naik claiming to be a "paragon of peace". "In the election season, such cynical attempts show the intellectual bankruptcy of the Congress party and its inability to engage with the BJP on our government's stellar developmental performance," Rao said. The priest claimed that he possessed old records containing Gandhi's family tree and his ancestors had performed pujas for Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru and other members of the family at the Pushkar lake. He also presented documents showing the names of Gandhi's ancestors, for whom pujas were performed at the lake. The Congress chief had visited the Ajmer dargah and Pushkar Monday, before addressing rallies in Rajasthan. PTI JTR RC Jammu, Nov 27 (PTI) The Congress in Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday said that Governor Satya Pal Malik's remark on government formation in the state has vindicated the opposition charge that the BJP wanted him to install a government through "unconstitutional act". Malik on Saturday said had he looked to Delhi, he would have had to install a government led by Sajad Lone, and history would have remembered him as a "dishonest man". Jammu Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief Gulam Ahmed Mir said that this vindicates our stand that the governor had to dissolve the state assembly since he had no option to defeat the claim of single largest party led by Mehbooba Mufti for government formation. "As the governor had no option except to invite the single largest party claiming majority to form the government, the governor resorted to dissolving the assembly to prevent the government formation, since he was under pressure to install the BJP-supported government," Mir added. The governor had abruptly dissolved the state Assembly last week after the PDP staked claim to form a government with the backing of rival National Conference (NC)and the Congress. This was followed by another bid from the two-member People's Conference led by Lone which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties. Mir said Malik had to resort to "unconstitutional act" of dissolving the House in haste without exercising the constitutional obligation of inviting the single largest party claiming strength to prove majority on the floor of the House. He also regretted that Malik was "lowering" the august office of the governor by repeatedly changing stance and retracting statements. "But the cat is finally out of the bag now that the Modi government was putting a pressure on the governor to install a chief minister with the backing of the BJP by arranging numbers apparently through horse trading," he added. Mir said for over five months, the Centre and the governor waited for the BJP ally to cobble numbers by hook or crook for government formation, but as soon as there was a genuine claim from the other side (PDP) having their own numbers for the same, he (governor) had to rush for dissolving the assembly by closing all channels of communication. Although a week ago he had stated that the assembly shall not be dissolved but kept under suspended animation even for full term of six years, he said. During a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior, Malik had said,"Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jata...(Had I looked to Delhi, I would have had to install a government led by Lone, and history would have remembered me as a dishonest man)." PTI AB KJ Muzaffarnagar, Nov 27 (PTI) Citing lack of evidence, a fast track court has acquitted six persons accused of allegedly raping a 32-year-old married woman, filming the incident and circulating the clip on the social media. Justice Balraj Singh pronounced the order Monday letting off Irshad, Nazer, Sajid, Salauddin, Naushad and Sattar saying the prosecution had failed to substantiate its story in the case. According to the complaint filed by the victim, she was abducted and gang-raped by the six accused in 2013 at Kailawda village under Khatoli Police Station in the district. The accused shot a video of the incident and circulated the clip on social media. The victim was blackmailed into submission for three years after the incident and threatened of dire consequences if she approached the police, the complaint had said. In January, 2016, police had arrested Irshad and Nazer and booked three shopkeepers in the village for allegedly leaking the video on social media. The incident had caused tensions between two communities in the village prompting the state government to deploy extra police force in the area. PTI CORR RHL (Eds: Incorporating related stories/adding details) New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) Days after chilly powder was flung at Arvind Kejriwal, a visitor at the Delhi chief minister's residence was arrested Tuesday after a bullet was found in his purse during frisking, triggering a fresh round of war of words between the ruling AAP and the BJP. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) asked the Centre to get over "petty politics" and pay attention to the chief minister's security. It also slammed the BJP and its government at the Centre over what they claimed was a "third attack" on Kejriwal in last one month. The Delhi BJP unit, meanwhile, said it was a ploy of Kejriwal to distract attention from the "failures" of his government. It said the AAP supremo was coming up with such "dramatic" things as the elections were nearing. The saffron party also sought a detailed probe into the chilly powder attack to unearth a "conspiracy" by the AAP, which, it said, was playing the "victim card". A 39-year-old man, who was going to meet the chief minister at his residence here, was arrested after a bullet was found in his purse during frisking, police said Tuesday. Mohammad Imran, a caretaker of a mosque in Karol Bagh and resident of Seelampur locality, was arrested when he was going to attend a Janta Darbar (public meeting) at the chief minister's residence on Monday, they said. A senior police officer said Imran had come to meet the chief minister at the Janta Darbar around 11:15 am. He had come with 12 imams and maulvis to discuss the issue of increasing salary of the staff working at the Delhi Waqf Board, the officer said. During the search, a live cartridge of .32 bore was found in his purse by the security staff deputed at Kejriwal's residence. Imran was handed over to the local police and accordingly, a case was registered at the Civil Lines police station under relevant sections of the Arms Act, police said. "It is a very serious matter that a man carrying a live cartridge managed to reach the chief minister at his Janta Darbar. We appeal to the Centre to set aside petty politics and pay attention to his security," AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said. The AAP leaders noted that last week a man had attacked Kejriwal at the Delhi Secretariat by throwing chilly powder on him. They also alleged that Delhi BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari "along with his goons had tried to hurt Kejriwal during the inaugural of the Signature Bridge". Bhardwaj also alleged that the Delhi Police was not paying attention to the attacks on Kejriwal. He said no charge sheet was filed in an attack on the AAP chief at Chhatrasal stadium. A woman had thrown ink at him during an event at the stadium in January 2016. Reacting to the development, the Delhi BJP unit chief said, "If anybody wanted to kill, he would carry a firearm not merely a bullet. It is all a ploy of Arvind Kejriwal to distract attention from failures of his government and he is coming out with these dramatic things quite regularly as elections are nearing". The Delhi BJP legislators also sought a detailed probe into the chilly powder attack on the chief minister. The MLAs met Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and submitted a memorandum. They demanded the arrest of an aide of Kejriwal, who, they alleged, facilitated the entry of the man who threw chilly powder on the chief minister at the secretariat here last week. "It is surprising that the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and the AAP have not filed a complaint. Do the CMO and AAP have nothing to do with the safety and security of the chief minister?" Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said. "The high voltage drama by the AAP in Delhi smells of a conspiracy to play the victim card over the issue," he said. Gupta alleged there were "discrepancies in the allegations of the Delhi government, Home Minister Satyendar Jain and the AAP, and still the BJP was being targeted over the issue, although the police interrogation of accused (Anil Sharma) revealed that he had no affiliation with the (BJP) party". The AAP called a special session of the Delhi Assembly, which ended on Tuesday, to discuss the recent attack on the chief minister and other issues. A resolution was passed by the House, dominated by the AAP, seeking the city government's control over Delhi Police. Kejriwal had on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step down if he cannot ensure the Delhi chief minister's security. PTI AMP SLB VIT TDS SRY New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) 'Suicide is the last resort of depression' and 'Existence is suffering' were found scribbled in red and black paint on the floor of a house in Chhatarpur where a man allegedly committed suicide after killing his live-in partner, sources said. The 26-year-old man committed suicide after slitting the throat of his live-in partner as he suspected her of infidelity, police said. The sources said after killing the woman, the man painted the walls of the room, the floor and mirror with messages in red and black paint. The woman was fond of painting and he used her pencil and colours to scribble messages and pen a two-page suicide note in which he wrote about loving her and losing his mobile phone which had some "special moments" of the couple, they said. Another friend of the couple was staying in the same flat. The man apparently wrote on the door of her room, 'You were spared', the sources said. Two diaries of the couple were also found from the spot in which they had written about 'special moments' spent with each other and their daily routine, they said. Messages like 'We are all evil', 'Suicide is last resort of depression', 'Existence is suffering', 'I'm suicidal', 'infidelity' were found scribbled on the floor of the room where the body of the woman was found, they added. The man, a digital marketing executive, was living with the 23-year-old woman, who was a graphic designer, in the flat since July this year. Experts said such cases require psychological autopsy. An officer privy to the probe said, "The deceased had scribbled on unconventional surface. Investigators, in cases like these, should opt for psychological autopsy to ascertain the mind set of the person". Three teams from the Forensic Science Laboratory inspected the crime scene on Monday night. On Tuesday, the teams again visited the spot to inspect a laptop and mobile phones of the deceased. The Forensic Science Laboraory, Rohini, now has a psychological autopsy unit and the Delhi government had written to Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik about the unit being available for probe in such cases. The unit was set up after the Burari case in which 11 members of the Chundawat family were found dead under mysterious circumstances. PTI SLB SRY New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) Former Odisha cadre IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi joined the ruling BJP at the residence of party chief Amit Shah here Tuesday. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a native of Odisha, was also present on the occasion. Sarangi, a 1994-batch IAS officer, recently opted for voluntary retirement. She was working as the joint secretary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) under the Ministry of Rural Development. Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Odisha unit chief Basant Panda handed over the membership slip to Sarangi in the presence of Shah and Pradhan. Sarangi became quite popular in Bhubaneswar during her tenure as the commissioner of the city's municipal corporation. PTI JTR RC Nov 27 (PTI) Polling in Mizoram will be held on Wednesday with over 7.70 lakh voters expected to exercise their franchise in the state where Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is seeking a third consecutive term and the BJP looking to defeat the Congress in its last bastion in the Northeast. The Congress and the Mizoram National Party (MNF) have ruled Mizoram since 1987 when it became a full-fledged state. Interestingly, no party has been able to form government thrice since that year. Elections to the 40-member assembly in Mizoram, which has a population of about 10 lakh, is significant for the BJP that considers it to be the 'final frontier' in the region. In the 2013 elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while its main opposition, the Mizo National Front (MNF), got five and the Mizoram People's Conference bagged one seat. The Congress and the MNF have fielded 40 candidates each, while the BJP is contesting in 39 seats. The Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM), an alliance formed by two political parties and four groups, is contesting in 35 seats. A total of 209 candidates are in fray for the November 28 polls and the fate of the candidates would be decided by 7,70,395 voters, which include 3,94,897 women. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be used in the polling that would begin at 7 am and end at 4 pm. Ahead of elections, the state witnessed intense protests by civil society groups over the place of voting for 12,026 Bru voters. The issue led to replacement of Chief Electoral Officer SB Shashank in less than two weeks before the polls. Ashish Kundra, who replaced Shashank, said on Monday that the Election Commission has made extensive preparations for the Brus lodged in six relief camps of Tripura to cast their votes at Kanhmun village in Mamit district where 15 temporary polling stations have been set up. The village is located on the state's border with Tripura. "The people of Kanhmun village have even erected a welcome gate at the border expressing heartiest welcome to Bru voters," Kundra said. Campaigning in the state saw paradigm shift this election season with political parties making extensive use of social media platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp to woo young voters. The ruling Congress banked heavily for the elections on its flagship New Land Use Policy (NLUP), which brought the party to power for two consecutive terms. The campaign had reached its peak in the final week with the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Other prominent leaders who campaigned in the state included Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh, National People's Party (NPP) leader and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma. PTI HCV JM SOM SOM ANB ANB Jaipur, Nov 27 (PTI) Using the word 'Gorakh Dhanda' to describe unethical practices will be a punishable offence if the BJP is voted to power again in Rajasthan, the party said in its poll manifesto Tuesday. Releasing the manifesto for the December 7 assembly polls, the party said the word hurts the sentiments of the followers of saint Gorakhnath and therefore its use should be stopped. In the election manifesto unveiled Tuesday by Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Prakash Javadekar, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the BJP said a law will be made to ban and punish for using 'Gorakh Dhandha' word which is commonly used for unethical and unfair practices. Explaining the rationale behind the promise, Onkar Singh Lakhawat, member of the manifesto committee, told PTI, "Guru Gorakhnath was a saint and using this word hurts sentiments of followers, therefore, this will be banned." Besides, the party also promised to include the details of Gorakshnath or Goraknath in the textbooks of the Rajasthan State Textbook Board. As per the manifesto, a national memorial of Guru Gorakhnath will be made and Mutt/Aasan of the Nath community will be renovated. A library of Gorakhnath's literature related with Yoga and Tantra will also be set up. In Rajasthan, Jodhpur is the main centre of the Nath community. Gorakhnath was a Hindu yogi and saint who founded the Nath Hindu monastic movement in the country. PTI SDA CK \R Guwahati, Nov 27 (PTI) A tribal organisation has appealed to Mizoram's powerful Presbyterian Church to support Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla in the Assembly election, describing him as a "prominent Christian leader" in the country. The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHRT) -- a Manipur-based organisation of the Kuki tribe -- has alleged that the current political climate was promoting religious intolerance and affecting the Christians. In his letter to Rev. Lalrinnunga, the moderator of Mizoram synod of the Presbyterian Church of India, KOHRT chairman T Lunkim said he considered Thanhawla as a prominent Christian leader in the country. Thanhawla is also considered to be a conscientious and inclusive leader for all the Kuki, Chin, Mizo people across the globe, Lunkim said. He alleged that money power was being used in the northeastern states, terming it a great shame to any state where the larger population follows Christianity." The Kuki leader, however, did not say who was promoting religious intolerance or using money power in the northeastern region. When contacted, state Congress spokesperson Lallian Chhunga alleged that the religious factor was a major issue in this election because of a "secret understanding" between the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party. "They (KOHRT) have rightly said that Thanhawla is a good Christian leader. We can even say that the church is now supporting us at the last moment of the campaigning," Chhunga said. Mizoram goes to polls on Wednesday. PTI TR NN HMB Jaipur, Nov 27 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not highlight his government's achievements in the Parliament. "Why doesn't the prime minister speak about the achievements in the Parliament? Why is he highlighting the achievements in desert areas? Because lies cannot be said in Parliament and there is no one to verify his claim in the desert," Azad told reporters at the Congress office here. He said Modi was the first prime minister of the country who did not present the account of his foreign visits in the House. "Whenever a prime minister returns from a foreign visit, he briefs the Parliament about the visits and his meetings... But Modi never tells that to the Parliament. Parliamentary traditions are being broken," the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said. Azad said Modi did not reply to any questions in the Parliament. "If he works so much, they why doesnt' he speak in the Parliament?" On the other hand, the Congress targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its manifesto for the Rajasthan Assembly election, saying it was a document of illusion. "The BJP has just presented an illusion. Instead of this, the party should have presented the reality of the 665 promises made in the 2013 elections," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said. He termed Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley a "blog minister" and said the public had already rejected Vasundhara Raje as chief minister. Surjewala also released facts related to the agriculture sector in the state, saying 62 per cent of the farmers' families were debt-ridden. He wondered if Jaitley and Raje could waive off Rs 2.63 lakh crore of a handful of industrialists, then why not the debt of farmers. PTI SDA HMB New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday directed the Delhi Chief Secretary and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to deposit Rs 1 crore each with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for their failure to prepare an action plan for utilisation of treated waste water from the sewage treatment plants (STP) in the national capital. The green panel said failure of the Chief Secretary as well as DJB to prepare an action plan on the issue was detrimental to environment and also to the rule of law. "There is thus clear failure on the part of the DJB as well as by Chief Secretary Delhi to carry out the directions of this Tribunal and also to utilise the treated waste water. This is also failure of their duties, entrusted to them under the law resulting in continuing waste of available treated water," the NGT said. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said water is scarce resource and proper utilisation of waste water was necessary to reduce the pressure on the ground water and to conserve the same. "To compensate the environment for the loss caused on account of inaction, in spite of directions being given, it is necessary to reiterate the direction already issued and require DJB as well as Chief Secretary, Delhi to remedy situation to upload the rule of law. "Accordingly, we direct the Chief Secretary, Delhi and DJB to deposit a sum of Rs 1 crore each with the CPCB for loss caused to the environment and to now prepare and furnish action plan positively within one month. The Chief Secretary must resolve any inter-se issue of responsibility of the concerned departments," the bench said. The tribunal also warned that if there is further failure, the DJB and the Chief Secretary, Delhi will be liable to pay further sum of Rs 2 crore each after one month, apart from other actions which may have to be taken. The NGT also asked all the States and Union Territories to prepare and furnish their action plans for ulitisation of treated waste water in their respective States/UTs within three months. "Such action plans may be furnished to the CPCB. The CPCB may review such action plans and issue appropriate directions in the matter and furnish a report of compliance to this Tribunal on or before April 30, 2019 by email at ngt.filing@gmail.com," the bench said. The tribunal had earlier directed DJB to prepare an action plan for utilisation of treated waste water from the sewage treatment plants (STP) in the national capital and said efforts should be made to ensure that the treated water is used as resource and not wasted. The direction came during the hearing of a plea filed by Mahesh Chandra Saxena, who claims to be associated with an NGO working in the field of ground water conservation. He has sought directions to the SDMC to stop construction of rain water harvesting system in a nearby park near the Chhattarpur temple in South Delhi and restriction on ground water usage through borewells. The petitioner has also sought directions for the use of recycled treated water from DJB's sewage treatment plant at Qutub Metro Station to avoid wastage of water. PTI PKS UK RCJ Mahbubnagar, Nov 27 (PTI) Attacking the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday urged the people to ensure not a single candidate of that party wins in the forthcoming Telangana assembly polls. Addressing an election rally here, Modi asked the people "to take a pledge in the memory of the martyrs for Telangana's cause and ensure not a single Congress candidate wins" in the December 7 assembly elections to the state. Recalling the role of Sardar Valabhbhai Patel in uniting India after partition, Modi told a large gathering that had it not been for the Iron Man, Indians would have needed a Pakistani visa to visit Hyderabad. The Prime Minister said both the Congress and the ruling TRS engaged in caste politics and vote bank politics. PTI TVS TVS TVS Telagana polls: Transwoman candidate missing, feared abducted Hyderabad, Nov 27 (PTI)A 32-year-old transwoman activist, who is contesting the the December 7 Telangana Assembly elections, has allegedly gone missing Tuesday, following which a missing case was registered, police said. Chandramukhi M, who is contesting on a CPI(M)-led Bahujan Left Front or BLF ticket from Goshamahal constituency in the city, went missing from her home. She is pitted against senior Congress leader Mukhesh Goud and BJP leader T Raja Singh. Friends from the transgender community, who arrived to help her with campaigning were unable to locate her all day, the police said based on a complaint. "She has been unreachable and her mother has been in a state of extreme despair. She is feared to be kidnapped," the complaint filed by Chandramukhi's followers with the Banjara Hills Police Station, said. "Following the complaint, a missing case has been registered," Banjara Hills Police Station Inspector R Govinda Reddy told PTI. As an activist with 'Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti' Chandramukhi had protested atrocities upon members of the transgender and hijra communities, and had always been an outspoken voice at many rallies and public events upholding the self-respect of transgender people, her followers said. Her decision to contest was also a decision that she felt would help the entire community, they said. "We fear for her safety and condemn the lack of safety measures organised for her and for other women and transgender candidates, which acts as a strong force that dissuades transgender people and women from joining politics," they said. Chandramukhi's campaign kicked off just one day before she went missing, her supporters said and demanded that police act immediately to trace her. Reports of Chandramukhi going missing come even as a candidate from Gajwel constituency, who had reportedly gone missing after filing his nomination papers on November 22, was produced before the Hyderabad High Court Tuesday, a day after the court directed the police to produce him before it. The Samajwadi Forward Bloc party, represented by its national president L Muralidhar Rao, had filed a petition in the court complaining that the party candidate K Dinesh Chakravarthy's whereabouts were not known after he filed his nomination papers. The constituency is represented by Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. PTI VVK BN BN BN New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) A speeding autorickshaw rammed into a school van from behind, resulting in the death of an eight-year-old boy and severely injuring a girl in north Delhi's Timarpur on Tuesday, police said. The deceased was the son of an assistant sub-inspector in Delhi Police's Crime Branch, they added. The incident took place near Nirankari Sarovar area when the school van was taking back students of a private school in Model Town to their homes at around 2 pm, a senior police officer said. The Maruti Eco van was hit by the autorickshaw carrying goods. An eight-year-old boy, who was sitting behind, sustained severe injuries and was rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to injuries, police said. The impact of the accident was such that both the auto rickshaw and the school van turned sides. The 10-year-old girl was admitted to the Sushruta Trauma Centre in Civil Lines. She is out of danger now, the senior officer said. Others who sustained minor injuries were also taken to a private nursing home nearby where they were given first-aid, he said. Police said the accused driver, however, escaped unhurt. A case has been registered. The accused auto-rickshaw driver identified as Salman (21), a resident of Azadpur Mandi, has been arrested in connection with the incident, he added. Police said there were reportedly 10 students in the van from a school in Model Town. Further investigation is underway. In April this year, a seven-year-old girl was killed and 17 students were injured after a milk-tanker rammed into a private school van near the Kanhaiya Nagar metro station in northwest Delhi, following which the Delhi government ordered a magisterial probe into the incident. The Delhi Traffic Police has issued 6,532 challans to school vans and cab drivers who violated traffic rules this year, almost three times the number of challans issued in the last year. PTI AMP NIT HMB Sir Philip Green is looking to substantially reduce his empire's footprint on the High Street. The retail tycoon's group, Arcadia, plans to close down poorly performing shops by allowing leases to expire when they come up for renewal. Arcadia's brands include Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge and Wallis & Evans. Change of direction: The retail tycoon's group, Arcadia, plans to close down poorly performing shops A source close to 66-year-old Green said his group would 'love to reduce the size of all the chains substantially'. They told Property Week: 'It has shed quite a bit of space in the past few years, but it is a slow process. At least all the brands are still profitable, unlike many others in the High Street.' Stephen Boyce, Arcadia's property director, said the business regularly reviewed its property portfolio. He said: 'When a lease expires, we taken the opportunity to review the store location and lease terms and decide whether to renew. There are no plans to change this approach.' In its latest accounts, Arcadia holding company Taveta revealed it had shut 234 stores in the year to August 26, 2017. It comes after hundreds of Arcadia concessions were put under threat because of potential Debenhams store closures. Green's retail empire reported sales of 1.9 billion in its latest accounts, down from 2 billion the previous year. Investment platform AJ Bell is gearing up for its flotation on the London Stock Exchange and has published the price range for the new shares. The group said it is seeking between 1.54 to 1.66 per share, giving the firm an estimated market capitalisation of 626million to 675million. The Manchester-based group, which offers savers the chance to invest in stocks and funds through its website, surprised analysts by setting a higher-than-expected price range. Price range: AJ Bell has said it was seeking a price range of between 1.54 to 1.66 per share Experts had not been expecting the group's market capitailisation to be above the 500million mark. Final pricing is expected to be revealed on or around 7 December, with trading of the group's shares set to go live on the London Stock Exchange or around 12 December. The group is publishing a full prospectus later today. AJ Bell's projected valuation makes the company cheaper on a price to earnings multiple compared to larger rival and dominant investment platform market heavyweight Hargreaves Lansdown, which has a valuation of over 9billion. Andy Bell, chief executive of AJ Bell, said: 'There has been significant interest in our IPO which reflects the potential for expansion in our market, the strength of our business model and our track record of sustainable growth. 'The application period for the IPO is due to open later today and our customers will be able to apply for shares via our investment platform where they will find the prospectus to help inform their decision.' The company confirmed the share offer would comprise 'existing ordinary shares expected to be sold by certain existing shareholders, directors and employees', a targeted offering to institutional investors within the UK and the offer of shares to qualifying UK-based AJ Bell customers. In charge: AJ Bell's boss and founder Andy Bell AJ Bell also confirmed that each of its directors and selling shareholders will be subject to 'customary lock-in arrangements' in respect of their shares for a period of time following next month's listing. DEAL TERMS Price range: The price range at which a company expects to sell its shares when it first launches on a stock market like the London Stock Exchange. The price quoted is for one share. Market capitalisation: In this case, the total estimated value of the company listing its shares. The market cap gives an indication of a company's size. Prospectus: A formal legal document which can be hundreds of pages long and covers every aspect of the proposed stock exchange listing. The rules for what goes in a prospectus are derived from EU law. Lock-in period: A restriction that prevents those holding a company's stock from selling the stock for a specified period of time. Boss Andy Bell retains a 28 per cent stake in the company and is believed to be selling up to 14million worth of shares in the listing AJ Bell, which was founded by Andy Bell in 1995, has almost doubled assets under management over the past three years to 46billion and has just under 200,000 customers. In its most recent financial year to the end of September the company grew pre-tax profits by 31 per cent, to 28.4million. Looking ahead, the group said in its latest results that it aims 'to become the easiest platform to use and, in a market that is constantly evolving, our continued investment in innovative technology and our core infrastructure is critical in delivering this ambition.' On the Brexit front, the firm remained cautiously optimistic: 'A changing macroeconomic environment presents both opportunities and challenges for the business and we expect further market volatility for the foreseeable future with the backdrop of the UK's exit from the EU. 'The business has experienced a variety of economic conditions during its twenty-plus years of history, and it has always operated profitably during that time.' Square, Inc. provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions. The company also provides Square Point of Sale software; Cash App, which provides access to the financial system, allowing customers to electronically send, store, and spend money; Caviar, a food ordering platform for restaurants to offer food ordering, pickup and delivery, to their customers; and Square Capital that facilitates loans to sellers based on real-time payment and point-of-sale data. Square, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Read More Unum Group is engaged in providing financial protection benefits. It operates through the following segments: Unum US, Unum International, Colonial Life, Closed Block and Corporate. The Unum US segment comprises of group long-term and short-term disability insurance, group life and accidental death and dismemberment products, and supplemental and voluntary lines of business. The Unum International segment engages in the operations of UK business, which includes insurance for group long-term disability, group life, and supplemental lines of business that include dental, individual disability, and critical illness products; Poland business primarily includes insurance for individual and group life with accident and health riders. The Colonial Life segment includes insurance for accident, sickness, disability products, life products, and cancer and critical illness products. The Closed Block segment consists of individual disability, group and individual long-term care, and other insurance products no longer actively marketed. The Corporate segment refers to investment income on corporate assets and other corporate income and expenses not allocated to a line of business; and interest Read More Giuseppe Pino DiMeo, 51, of Eagleville, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $463,738 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for conspiring to defraud the IRS and filing false tax returns, authorities announced Tuesday. DiMeo was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a special assessment of $1,100. DiMeo and his business partners at restaurants defrauded the IRS of income taxes and payroll taxes, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney Generals Office for the Eastern District in Philadelphia. From 2008 through 2014, DiMeo took cash from his restaurants and paid many of his employees in cash under the table, then hid his cash skim and the cash payroll payments from his accountant and from the IRS in order to evade payment of income and payroll taxes, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said in the release. In total, DiMeo failed to report to the IRS approximately $2 million in gross receipts from his stores. DiMeos cash skim and cash payroll payments occurred at DiMeos Pizza of Lafayette Hill, (closed); Pizzeria DiMeos of Philadelphia (now sold); Allegro Pizza of Philadelphia, (closed); and DiMeos Pizzaiuoli Napulitani of Wilmington, Del. For years, DiMeo maintained that his businesses were barely profitable, all the while living a lavish lifestyle bankrolled by the money he owed the IRS, McSwain said. His actions reveal a deliberate disregard for the law. Todays sentence sends a powerful message to those who cheat the tax system: you will not get away with it. Not only did Giuseppe DiMeo skirt his income tax obligations, he also failed to withhold and remit, to the IRS, income taxes for his employees, IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Chart Guy Ficco said. This sentence should serve as a reminder that IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Justice have no tolerance for such criminal behavior. The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Maria M. Carrillo and Tiwana L. Wright. SCHENECTADY As the city responds to last year's death of Andrew Kearse in police custody, two things are unknown: when patrolman Mark Weekes will return to the police force, and when the department will clarify its policies to guarantee that a person under arrest who requests emergency medical help will actually get that care. Kearse, 36, died in police custody on May 11, 2017, after dozens of cries for help were ignored by Weekes. The Bronx man had tried to flee on foot after police pulled him over for driving erratically. Revisions to the department's policies were recommended in October by the state attorney general's office, which investigated Kearse's death. Any changes, however, are on hold until Police Chief Eric Clifford returns from the prestigious FBI training academy in Virginia. Public Safety Commissioner Michael Eidens said Tuesday that Clifford is expected to be back at work in Schenectady sometime in mid-December. Referring to the recommended changes, Eidens said, "We've looked at that and we will continue to look at it, but we aren't going to finish that up until (Clifford) gets back." The findings by Attorney General Barbara Underwood, appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a special prosecutor to look into the case, also urged the Schenectady police department to work towards state accreditation. Additionally, she called on state lawmakers to act immediately and create a uniform statewide policy for every police department requiring officers to treat breathing difficulties as medical emergencies, and not to assume that because a person under arrest is talking that they can breathe. As part of the attorney general's probe, a county grand jury determined Weekes did not commit a crime in relation to Kearse's death from cardiac arrhythmia. Video footage taken from Weekes' patrol car cameras showed Kearse in the back seat, repeatedly telling the officer he couldn't breathe and asking him to roll down the window. "Regardless of the grand jury's decision, Mr. Kearse's death was a tragedy that never should have happened, and reforms must be made to prevent similar future tragedies," the attorney general stated. "We need to make sure that our policy is capable of dealing with real-world situations," Eidens said, "but is also general enough to be flexible so that it applies across the board, and also deals with the specific way that the Kearse incident unfolded." Attorney Andrew Safranko, who is representing Weekes, has previously said that they were working on getting the 10-year veteran of the force back to work. Neither Safranko not Weekes returned requests for comment Monday. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Eidens said Weekes is "not being paid as a police officer right now" but declined further comment when asked if he could face disciplinary action. Such sanctions are usually concealed from the public. Weekes, who has been on unpaid leave since the summer, voluntarily testified before the grand jury. An Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan, Weekes testified that he learned in the military, police academy that "if someone can speak, they can breathe." The 33-year-old said he suspected Kearse had asked him to lower the window in a bid to escape. Underwood's report said a cardiologist surmised Kearse would have survived had he received prompt medical treatment. Still, that medical expert acknowledged that without proper medical tools, "even he would not have recognized from observation alone that Mr. Kearse required advanced cardiac life support measures," the report stated. Kearse's widow, Angelique Negroni-Kearse, is suing the city of Schenectady for alleged wrongful death for $25 million in U.S. District Court in Albany. A 21-year-old Coeymans man was arrested Monday in connection with a stabbing at a Lewis County farm, deputies said. Albany County Sheriffs office said that Lewis County deputies were called for a fight between two employees at the Demko Farm in Lowlville. They found one man with a stab wound to the chest. He was transported to a Utica hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. An investigation revealed that the man deputies believed to be involved in the stabbing was German Abelino and that he worked at a business in Coeymans. Albany County deputies, along with New York State Police, charged Abelino with felony assault. He was transported to Lewis County for arraignment. SARATOGA SPRINGS - Thefts of purses from two vehicles parked a the YMCA on West Avenue Monday afternoon appears to be the work of a loosely knit group of thieves known as the "Felony Lane Gang," police said. Police said two men took the purse after the windows on both cars were smashed at around 4 p.m. The men drove off in a black Toyota Avalon with heavily tinted windows and what appeared to be a New York license plate on the back of the vehicle. It had no front plate and no inspection sticker or registration sticker. Three former employees of privately run disability centers and hospitals have gone to court alleging racial bias by their employers and, notably, by the state Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs. The legal actions allege that the Justice Center wrongfully upheld charges against three black workers after they were targeted by patients and fellow employees because of their race, according to the suits. Minority workers are getting the huge short end of the stick here, said Michael Diederich, a Rockland County-based lawyer who filed suit on behalf of the former employees. The suits raise a legal question for the five-year-old Justice Center: How much weight should be given to statements or complaints from people who are institutionalized because they are mentally ill, suffering from drug addiction or otherwise disabled. Diederich charged that his clients are guilty only of "working while black." The Justice Center was set up in 2013 following newspaper stories regarding problems with the way New Yorkers with disabilities are cared for. The agency has a hotline for complaints about the care of people in state or privately run, state-licensed centers. Administrative law judges for the Justice Center can rule on whether employees can tag fired workers as being guilty of patient neglect or worse: they can ultimately ban individuals from working in the direct care industry. In one case, a disabled woman, known in the court filing as Sylvia Doe, who lives at a residence in Wappingers Falls, Dutchess County, said one of her caretakers, Kerry Walker, neglected her and failed to move her over to prevent bed sores. The residence is operated by Greystone Programs, which provides services to the disabled. According to the court complaint, Doe had previously expressed racial bias against Walker, who is from Jamaica. She had a racial bias, Diederich said of Doe. Diederich added that other staffers who followed up on Does complaint, found no evidence of bed sores or other signs of neglect. Additionally, the record showed that Doe had previously complained about being ignored by other workers as well, but recanted her statements when learning that they could be fired. In another case, a patient care technician at Westchester Medical Centers adolescent psychiatric ward, Rotimi Salu, was fired after he was accused of taking his eyes off a patient in his charge when he was attacked by another patient. Diederich contends that one of the nurse supervisors at the hospital was racially biased, and noted that there was no official written policy about keeping ones eyes on the patients. Diederich also questioned the video surveillance that was used since the Justice Center investigator collected only bad quality video surveillance still shots of the relevant events, without saving the entire video. Videos of Doe werent preserved either. In the third case, a substance abuse counselor at was St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, Gerard Lynch, was suspended and then fired after a recovering drug addict complained that he made suggestive remarks and put his hand on her buttocks. There were inconsistencies in the dates of the supposed violation and the patient may have confused Lynch with another black employee at the center, according to the court filing. This small, recently formed (2013) state agency appears to have become a tool for firing minority (Afro-American) health care workers, the legal filing states. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The cases have been filed in federal court as well as, for procedural reasons, state court. At the Justice Center, which is located in Delmar, spokesman William Reynolds said the agency doesnt comment on ongoing litigation. Representatives of Greystone and Westchester Medical Center, which also operates the psychiatric ward and what used to be known as St. Frances Hospital, didnt return calls or emails by deadline. It looks like they are trying to be a super human-resources department which is not a proper government role, said Diederich. Other lawyers who have sued the Justice Center agreed the use of statements from people who are disabled, mentally ill, or otherwise deemed to be incompetent is problematic. Its definitely a witness issue. An evidence issue, said Kevin Luibrand, who has represented aides and other caretakers he believes were wrongly accused by the Justice Center. Accusations by a disabled client is usually given through an affidavit with interviewers. Because such people arent cross-examined, their statements are given proportionately less weight than testimony, but they still play a significant role in Justice Center proceedings, Luibrand said. Its definitely unique. They can use them but they are not given the same weight because they are not subject to cross-examination, he said. Demonstene Romanucci, another attorney, said the process of discovery could potentially turn up patterns that may exist regarding racial bias. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU ALBANY - When Assemblyman John McDonald isn't working for his constituents in the 108th District, the Cohoes Democrat is often on the clock serving customers at Marra's Pharmacy in his hometown. His involvement in the business predates his career in politics, and he said it will continue to be a part of his life, even if the state adopts restrictions on outside income for legislators. "I love serving, so I would figure it out," McDonald said. Good government groups, some Democratic members of the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo have proposed limiting the amount of money state legislators can earn outside of their official duties as a way to address the recurring cases of corruption at the Capitol. Last year's State of the State address from the governor included a push for a constitutional amendment creating a full-time Legislature with outside income capped at 15 percent of the base legislative salary of $79,500, which was set two decades ago. The plan failed to gain any momentum, but it has renewed life heading into the 2019 legislative session as a committee is considering awarding legislators a pay hike and Democrats gain control the Senate. McDonald, whose financial disclosure form indicates he earned between $75,000 and $100,000 in 2017 as owner and pharmacist for the family business, doesn't think the restriction is the right approach to battling corruption. He wants more transparency measures, including making financial disclosure forms easier to access and more readily available, and supports increased funding for the state's watchdog entities. "Banning or limiting outside income won't solve bribery or graft," McDonald said. That sentiment was echoed by Assemblyman Phil Steck, a Colonie Democrat, and Sen. George Amedore, a Rotterdam Republican, who make the bulk of their annual income from outside employment. Steck, who earns more than $100,000 annually as an attorney, is open to a salary restriction if it was accompanied by a substantial pay raise. Amedore, who makes in excess of $325,000 leading his family's home construction business, said limitations would be a "horrible idea." Opponents of limits on outside income argue that it would restrict the type of people who could serve in the state Legislature and foster a culture of career politicians. They also note that the income limitations on members of Congress haven't ended corruption in Washington, D.C. If restrictions are enacted without a significant salary increase, Steck said he "might not have any choice" but to give up public service and focus on his law practice because of his financial obligations, including college loans for his children. "I don't see how we could afford to pay those loans if it were the current salary plus 15 percent, as the governor has proposed in the past," he said. Amedore said he would have to review any enacted proposals before deciding his political future. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Sen. Neil Breslin, a Bethlehem Democrat who scaled back his legal career when he joined the Senate in 1996, said he would again adjust his law work if needed in the future. He earned between $20,000 and $50,000 for his practice, which mostly involves real estate and estate planning work. Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, a Ballston Republican, earned between $20,000 and $50,000 from her private law practice. She said she could adjust her business to comply with any potential restrictions in the future, but warned that it might not be the case for everyone else. "There could be an unintended consequence of losing some very good people," Walsh cautioned. When asked about limiting outside income, incoming Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins declined to espouse her own position, saying she is waiting for a report due next month from a committee considering pay raises for state legislators. In the past, while leading the Senate Democrats in the minority, Stewart-Cousins supported a cap on income from outside employment, saying in 2015, "It's very, very hard to serve two masters, and it's time to put an end to it." A public hearing for the compensation committee is scheduled for Wednesday. David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87 ALBANY Labor unions representing state court officers in the New York City area on Tuesday accused the state Office of Court Administration of reconfiguring security patrols whose duties include keeping watch over courthouses at night and on weekends as retribution for their complaints about staffing levels. The union representatives contend courthouses will be less secure as a result of the move, an allegation that OCA disputes. "The restructuring, which is a reallocation of resources, not some form of retribution, has increased the Mobile Security Patrol coverage during the day, when all courts, not just arraignments, are open and the busiest, from two cars on patrol to five," said Lucian Chalfen, an OCA spokesman. "In addition, the four largest New York City criminal courts do, and will continue to have, round the clock officer coverage inside the facilities." Chalfen said OCA shares the unions' concern that more court officers are needed and that the 34 officers are being redirected to criminal and family courts in New York City. "We are also anticipating approximately 400 newly hired recruits being ready for deployment starting with 130 next month and the remaining 270 by late spring," he said. Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Court Officers Association, said the approximately 21 courthouse facilities in the New York City area will be "less secure" when the officers who patrol them during off hours are reassigned, which is expected to take place later this week. "The redeployment is in retaliation to our demands and they are only hiring new court officers as a result of our campaign," Quirk said. "The chief judge will be held accountable when someone is seriously injured or killed. We need the courthouses protected 24/7." The unions' battle over staffing shortages boiled over last month when they protested outside a Manhattan event attended by New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who then accused the unions of anti-Italian stereotyping when some wore T-shirts printed with the words "OCA, Office of Court Administration, Organized Crime Association, Beaver Street Bullies." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The slogan, DiFiore wrote in a letter, "was clearly directed at me both in my capacity of Chief Judge of the state of New York ... and as the first chief judge of Italian-American descent in state history." Quirk and Patrick Cullen, president of the New York State Supreme Court Officers Association, called DiFiore's accusation "spurious," saying the slogan was simply "a play on the OCA acronym." When the (new training) academy is dedicated and the seats are filled with 270 officers then and only then will we believe in the commitment to making our courts safer," Cullen said. "Until then, its the same cycles of unfulfilled promises we have encountered on every level for the last few years." ALBANY A new coalition pushing for publicly funded elections in New York has an unusual composition: It includes organizations whose explicit aim is electing Democrats and defeating Republicans, and also several bipartisan nonprofit groups, which by law cannot engage in electoral politicking. On Monday, Fair Elections For New York issued a letter calling for campaign finance reforms, including publicly funded elections along with voting rights to be the state Legislature's top priorities in 2019. Proponents of those measures are optimistic, given that Democrats are set to gain control of the state Senate in January for the first time since 2010. Many of the groups listed as part of the coalition are dedicated to electing Democrats such as a number of "Indivisible" groups that sprung up in resistance to Republican Donald Trump's election in 2016. Also prominently in the coalition efforts: A number of labor unions, which spent millions helping Democrats gain support of the state Senate. But the coalition also includes several nonpartisan charities pushing for the same reforms, but with bipartisan credentials, and different stated motivations. By law, the tax-exempt charities cannot engage in electoral politics. Those groups signed on to the letter include the good-government groups NYPIRG and Reinvent Albany, as well as the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit arm of New York University law school. Laura Friedenbach, a spokeswoman for Fair Elections New York, said the organizations involved in the push are operating independently and have their own funding. No broader umbrella organization is being created that would financially tie the charities with the electorally-focused groups. Friedenbach, for instance, is an employee of the union-backed Albany-based nonprofit Citizen Action, not Fair Elections itself. "Many of these groups have been working on the issue for decades, and they are coming together now because they see a unique opportunity to win on bringing a small donor matching system to New York," Friedenbach said. "Each of the groups involved are independent organizations engaging in activities consistent with their own mission." As the Times Union reported in 2016, prominent good-government groups in New York have at times taken funding from interest groups with other, narrower types of business before the state Legislature, such as the state teachers union. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Tax records from 2013 show Common Cause got $50,000 and Citizens Union received $15,000 in "sub-grants" from an arm of Citizen Action, the Albany-based, union-backed nonprofit, whose political action committee works for Democratic control of the state Senate. The money from Citizen Action in 2013 was used to fund reports by the good-government groups primarily focused on the role of funding in politics. Still, many observers believe a byproduct of publicly funded elections would be to help elect more Democrats in New York. The fact that an arm of Citizen Action was funding those reports was not disclosed in the reports themselves, which were part of an unsuccessful 2014 push by many of the same groups for publicly funded elections. John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany, said he does not expect his or other good-government groups to receive funding for this year's push. "We are not getting any funding for participating in the Fair Elections campaign, nor to our knowledge is NYPIRG or Brennan Center," he said. "We view these measures as part of our core work to reduce the influence of money on politics. ... It's true that campaign finance reform has become a partisan issue in Albany, but so have many of the things we work on, including curbing corporate subsidies, which, until Amazon, has been mainly championed by right-leaning critics of Cuomo." Designer babies might be here sooner than anyone reckoned. A Chinese researcher who says he created gene-edited babies crossed what most scientists consider a forbidden line. It's not clear if the claim is true and if so, how the twin girls whose DNA reportedly was altered will fare as they grow. There is wide scientific agreement that rewriting DNA before birth to prevent an inherited disease or to give a baby some "designer" trait isn't yet safe to try outside laboratory experiments that do not lead to human births. "Grossly premature and deeply unethical," is how noted U.S. bioethicist Henry Greely of Stanford University characterized the claim. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos when parents were undergoing fertility treatments to change a gene so that it might provide the resulting babies with a trait few people naturally have protection against future infection with the AIDS virus. "This is probably the worst gene you would choose" to test in pregnancy because it doesn't fix a disease the children were destined to get, said Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University, who in laboratory-only experiments studies how to repair gene defects in embryos. "Where is the assurance this mutation now will result in resistance to HIV?" Mitalipov added. "He's testing his hypothesis on babies." Here are questions and answers about Monday's claim and the state of gene editing: What is gene editing? It's a technology that lets scientists alter the DNA of living cells from plants, animals, even humans more precisely than ever before. It's like a biological cut-and-paste program: An enzyme that acts like molecular scissors snips a section of a gene, allowing scientists to delete, repair or replace it. How is it used? Researchers routinely use gene-editing tools in labs to study diseases in cells or animals, and they're altering crops and food animals for better agriculture. But in people, gene editing still is highly experimental. One first-in-human study is testing intravenous infusion of gene-editing ingredients to fight a killer metabolic disease. Other researchers are developing ways to gene-edit damaged cells and return them, repaired, into patients with sickle cell disease and other disorders. But unlike Monday's announcement, none of those experiments would alter DNA in a way that patients would pass to their own children. What did He do? Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The researcher said he used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to alter a gene named CCR5 in embryos for seven couples during their fertility treatments; one pregnancy resulted. A particular mutation in that CCR5 gene is thought to confer some resistance to HIV by making it harder for that virus to enter cells. Today's medications have turned HIV from a death sentence into a manageable disease in much of the world, but He said he chose that gene because HIV remains a big problem in China. But He's claims have not been verified by outside scientists, and there are questions about how the work was conducted. Why is Monday's news so controversial? Altering genes in sperm, eggs or embryos means those changes can be passed down to future generations people who would have no way to consent to those changes. Plus, long-term negative effects might not become apparent for years. In 2017, the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine said lab-only research to learn how to alter embryos is ethical but said it's not ready for pregnancies yet. The academy said if it is ever allowed, it should be reserved for cases with no good alternatives. Moscow Ukraine's president put his nation on a war footing with Russia on Monday, as tensions over a shared waterway escalated into a crisis that dragged in NATO and the United Nations. Russia's seizure a day earlier of three small Ukrainian naval vessels and 23 sailors including at least three wounded in a shooting by the Russian side was the first overt armed conflict between the two sides since the beginning days of the conflict in 2014, when Russian special forces occupied Crimea. The opening of an additional front at sea, even if Ukraine lacks a real navy, introduced an unstable element into what had been a shadowy war. The conflict pitting Ukrainian soldiers against Russian-backed separatists in the breakaway Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, has sputtered along for almost five years with more than 10,000 people killed. The Kremlin, along with some Ukrainian opposition figures, called the martial drumbeats echoing from Kiev a domestic political ploy by its embattled president, Petro Poroshenko. They accused him of fearmongering in order to delay or at least reconfigure the March 31 election that he had seemed certain to lose. Poroshenko delivered a speech to Ukraine's parliament asking it to approve the declaration of martial law starting Wednesday, with the military already on full alert. The attack on the naval vessels near the shared waterway, the Kerch Strait, represented a new stage of aggression in what he called Russia's "hybrid war" against Ukraine. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Members of the 450-member Verkhovna Rada, the parliament, who were present voted 276-30 to support the measure after the president agreed to dilute its scope. Ukraine also received a boost from the international reaction, underscoring both the isolation of Russia from the West over the Ukraine conflict, and the desire to protect the international maritime convention that allows for unimpeded shipping through any strait. "What you saw yesterday was very serious, because you saw actually that Russia used military force in an open way," said NATO's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, during a news conference in Brussels after a meeting requested by Ukraine. "This is escalating the situation in the region and confirms a pattern of behavior which we have seen over several years." ALBANY Five years ago, Mariam gave birth to her fifth child as bombs fell, trapping her at home in Syria, before her family escaped to Jordan. Two days before Thanksgiving this year, the 36-year-old refugee resettled in Albany, fried kibbeh, a bulgur wheat pastry crust filled with lamb, nuts and onions, in a steaming pot in a food pantry kitchen on Livingston Avenue. She was one of four refugee women bustling about the industrial kitchen cooking two holiday celebration orders as part of the budding catering business Syrian Delights. Dalal, 38, drizzled knafeh, fried cheese, with syrup then dusted it with pistachios. After one of her sons almost died when a missile hit her front door in Aleppo, she walked, pregnant, with her husband and five kids to Turkey and gave birth 15 days after crossing the border. Farah, 22, rolled up ftayer be jibneh pastries filled with cheese and parsley. She fled Damascus with her parents and got married in Jordan, but her first daughter died suddenly in her sleep. Fadia, 46, famed for her chicken shawarma, took a break on a stool. The single mother hid for six days in the bathroom when her home in Homs was being bombed before she took her six children by bus to the coast and by boat to Egypt. The four women, who because of cultural sensitivity prefer that their names be changed, are among 10 female refugee cooks behind the catering service "Syrian Delights." The budding enterprise opened operations out of Sister Maureen Joyce Center, run by Catholics Charities, in August. The business has received 15 orders for everything from a student meeting to a church event, a birthday party to a wedding. Now, a handful of women who said they arrived in a new country scared and overwhelmed after war are able to help support their families and share their culture. "I like to cook and I want to offer cooking to the American community so they get to know our Syrian food," Farah said. RELATED: Check out timesunion.com/immigration "I will feel better if this business will grow because I will help my family," Dalal said. "Syria was a great country. We were in peace. People love each other and are generous. This is the Syria I remember." The women were all resettled as refugees in Albany within the last three years. The number of refugees resettled in Albany has since plummeted from more than 400 in 2016 to less than 100 in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. None of the women worked in Syria, where it was customary for their husbands to support them. Syrian families resettled in the Capital Region often have upwards of six kids, according to the Albany-based New York for Syrian Refugees. Refugees get initial temporary support from a government-contracted resettlement agency, but they struggle to survive long-term on social services and low-income jobs. Mariam's husband constructs homes. Farah's parks cars at a hotel. Dalal's makes pizza. Fadia's 21-year-old son works at a gas station. With limited English skills and sometimes a lack of transportation, men often have little and inconsistent income. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Dr. Ilham AlMahamid, an assistant professor at UAlbany's School of Public Health and a Syrian-American who founded New York for Syrian Refugees, saw the need and capacity of the community. "When you help them to stand on their feet, they become contributing members of society," AlMahamid said. "Everyone would like to work. They are so motivated to do anything to improve their situations." "We realized that these women are very talented, they really are good and do delicious food, why don't we let them work at these talents and use their skills to improve their financial situation," she said. AlMahamid partnered with volunteer Jan Coles to open the business earlier this year making a deal to use the Catholic diocese's food pantry kitchen free of charge three days a week, securing a permit from Albany County and getting insurance and training for women to work in the commercial kitchen. They included 10 out of 20 interested women in this project after taste-testing food, although women are only able to work depending on the size and type of each order. The women buy their own ingredients from a Middle Eastern grocery store in Latham and are paid per order, making an average of 10 dollars an hour. Although it's still not enough for their families, every little bit helps and as the women learn, the business grows. "I can see that over time, they've gotten better at understanding how this all operates and who does what when and they do work beautifully together," said volunteer Coles, who now manages the business. "You're with these people who have found each other here, bonded in this beautiful way and then included us in that as well." When she once said to the women that it's so nice they're all friends, they corrected her they are family. GLEN On Tuesday morning, Trooper Jeremy J. VanNostrand was in his Nissan Altima waiting to turn into the State Police barracks in Montgomery County to start his day when a box truck rear-ended his car and pushed it into the path of a pickup truck. The vehicles collided, gravely injuring the 36-year-old trooper from Rotterdam. The husband, father and six-year veteran of the State Police was later pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital. State Police are now investigating the crash the latest in an already devastating year in which four troopers have lost their lives in the line of duty, according to State Police Superintendent George Beach. Beach was choked up as he delivered the grim news to reporters at Troop G headquarters in Latham. "It's a brotherhood and a sisterhood. This has been a particularly bad year," Beach said, noting it has been only 4 months since the last death of a trooper. Two troopers died from chemicals they had breathed while working at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York City. Another trooper was shot and killed by a suicidal man. Throughout the morning and afternoon, troopers visited Albany Med to show support for their colleague and his family. State Police said VanNostrand was reporting to work at the barracks in Fultonville when he stopped his Altima in the westbound lane of Route 5S. They said as he waited to make the turn, a box truck driven by Aaron M. Munsie, 32, of Amsterdam, rear-ended the Altima, sending it into oncoming traffic where it was struck by a pickup truck driven by Robert E. Crews, 52, of Fort Plain. No charges have been lodged against either driver. Police said the investigation was ongoing. Munsie was not injured. Crews was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam for injuries police said were not believed to be life-threatening. The crash was roughly 14 miles from where Trooper David W. Cunniff, 35, was killed on Dec. 16, 2013. The trooper's patrol car was crushed by a tractor-trailer that rolled onto the shoulder of the Thruway. Cunniff stopped a vehicle for speeding just east of the Exit 27 ramp to Amsterdam. The truck driver, Gary Blakley, had been working 16 minutes beyond the 14-hour limit for truck drivers. Cunniff, a nine-year veteran of the State Police who lived in Princetown, died from massive injuries the next day. Blakley was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to three years in state prison. Now 70, he completed his prison term in August. Trooper Timothy Pratt died Oct. 26, 2016 outside the State Police barracks in Wilton when he was sideswiped by a passing vehicle. Pratt was helping a lost truck driver stopped in the turning lane when he stepped off the 18-wheeler's running board into the eastbound lane at 6:30 a.m. and was immediately struck by a SUV traveling at about 55 mph. "The State Police is a large organization but it is a family and we all take these deaths very personally, very personally," Beach said. "This is a true tragedy and not just for the State Police but for the community at large, which loses the service of a tremendous public servant, someone who devoted his entire life to public service, to a good family man, so it's bad." VanNostrand, since becoming a state trooper in 2012, had worked in Liberty, Middletown and Granville. He previously worked as a state correction officer for eight years. VanNostrand, who had a master's degree from The College of Saint Rose, is survived by his wife, 6-year-old daughter and two siblings. "He was an outstanding trooper, a very aggressive, hard-working kid," said Maj. Robert Patnaude, Troop G commander. He said VanNostrand was one of the "kind of troopers we like on the road and the public should like on the road, out there stopping cars, talking to people, doing excellent investigations, good interdiction work. He's going to be sorely missed by us." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Two to four inches of snow had fallen in the area of the crash about 7:45 a.m., said Joe Villani, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Albany. He said the snow was wet and dense, which could make an untreated road slick. Beach said pending the investigation, he did not believe road conditions played a role in the crash. He and Patnaude were mum as to what might have led to the tragedy. "We don't know what caused this accident yet," Patnaude said. "Was it speed? Was it driver inattention? Was it a vehicle malfunction? We don't know. But every (driver) is subject to this type of tragedy." Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed all flags be flown at half staff. In a statement, he said VanNostrand's "legacy of service, as a State Corrections Officer and then as a member of the New York State Police, was an inspiration to us all, and his example will live on for generations to come." VanNostrand's body was transported from Albany Medical Center in the afternoon. Albany firefighters stood outside their station as police cars, with their lights flashing, and the vehicle carrying VanNostrand passed by. The firefighters stood up straight, raised their right arms and stiffly brought the side of their hands to their foreheads a final salute to VanNostrand. State Police cars lined the route as well, lights flashing as troopers stood at attention nearby. "Trooper VanNostrand served the people of the state of New York with pride and professionalism. He made the ultimate sacrifice and he will never be forgotten," said State Troopers Police Benevolent Association President Thomas H. Mungeer. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and co-workers of Trooper VanNostrand during this difficult time. Sara Cline contributed to this story. ALBANY The culture of the state Capitol is notoriously resistant to change, but New Yorkers can be sure of one small but significant adjustment in the months ahead: At least for now, the days of "three men in a room" are over. Andrea Stewart-Cousins will in January become the first female leader of a legislative chamber in New York, making history at a critical time for her party. The Yonkers lawmaker, who has led the Senate's Democrats through six especially frustrating years of minority status, vowed to lead a conference that operates with "intelligence and integrity." "In January, people will finally get the government they've been voting for for so many years," Stewart-Cousins said at a press conference at the state Capitol just after the leadership vote. (Here is a link to video of press conference courtesy of Kyle Hughes NYSNYS News.) It has been nearly eight years since the Democrats briefly held the upper chamber. With both houses in the party's control next year, the Legislature is expected to immediately focus on a flurry of bills on issues such as electoral reform, gun control, and abortion protections that for years were blocked by Senate Republicans, leaving New York lagging other blue states like Massachusetts and California. New York voters signaled their support for these initiatives as well as their disdain for President Donald J. Trump's party by flipping a record number of Senate seats in November's election, granting Democrats a roomy 16-member lead in the 63-member chamber. The state has also lagged when it comes to electing women to the state's top offices. But 2018 was a watershed for female representation: New York saw the appointment of Attorney General Barbara T. Underwood, the first woman to hold the statewide office, and the election of Democrat Letitia James to succeed Underwood. (Like James, Stewart-Cousins will be the first woman of color to hold her post.) The state Senate also added five new female members, a 33 percent increase over the chamber's current makeup. Women in the Assembly grew from 42 to 47, primarily on the Democratic side. Stewart-Cousins will be the first woman to have negotiating power during the state's opaque budget process. The governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader typically meet behind closed doors to negotiate the state's $163 billion budget and significant policy measures. Stewart-Cousins, when asked if she would push for a more transparent budget process one that perhaps included Republicans despite their loss of power demurred: "I've not been in the room. After I'm in the room, then we will have a conversation about what I think about the experience," she said. Next year will be the first year in which black lawmakers lead both legislative houses: Assemblyman Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, made history in 2015 when he became his chamber's first African-American speaker. Stewart-Cousins got her start in politics in 1992, when she was appointed director of community affairs for Yonkers. She went on to serve for a decade in the Westchester County Legislature before being elected to the state Senate in 2006. She was tapped as the Democratic conference's leader in 2012 following a chaotic period for Senate Democrats. The conference briefly controlled the chamber in 2009 and 2010, but that term was marred by dysfunction including a coup attempt by Republicans, the effects of which would be felt for years to come. Several of the key Democratic players of that period including conference leaders Malcolm Smith and John Sampson were eventually convicted on corruption charges. After a breakaway faction known as the Independent Democratic Conference formed an alliance with Senate Republicans, bolstering its slim majority in the chamber, Stewart-Cousins was selected as the minority leader to be a unifying force for the battered and weakened Senate Democrats. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. As the breakaway Democrats grew from four to eight members, retaking the majority seem increasingly out of reach. In April, a post-budget reunification deal between the Democratic factions was announced, but the conference was still one vote shy of passing legislation. In September's primary election, six of the former IDC members including leader Sen. Jeff Klein were ousted by left-flank challengers. One challenge ahead for Stewart-Cousins will be to get all 39 members of a conference surging with ambition and new blood on the same page. "I do have 15 new members. We will be getting together over the next few weeks ... then I will be in a better position to say this is what we are going to do," she said. "But I do believe we are all of one mind." Still unclear is what will become of Sen. Simcha Felder, the rogue Democrat from Brooklyn who caucused with Senate Republicans since he was first elected in 2012. Stewart-Cousins said Felder asked to meet with her to discuss his future in the conference, and she agreed. Outgoing Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, R-Long Island, congratulated Stewart-Cousins in a statement on Monday, calling her "a good listener and a good leader." "She is a class act and a truly extraordinary person, and I wish her well," he said. Sen Michael Gianaris of Queens was elected deputy leader of the majority conference (a post he relinquished to Klein after April's reunification), and Sen. Jose M. Serrano of the Bronx will be its chairman. TROY Leaky roofs over Troy High School classrooms has led the city school district to ask voters to approve a $3.85 million bond for repair costs, which will be mostly paid by state aid. Voters in Troy and Brunswick will go to the polls Tuesday, Dec. 4 to cast ballots on approving the borrowing for 15 years. After examining the roofs at Troy High School, it was determined that they would need to be replaced rather quickly in order to avoid any further damage and leaks, Superintendent John Carmello said. We are proud of our facilities and our never-ending commitment to the safety of our students and staff. This proposal will allow us to uphold that responsibility with no additional impact on taxpayers. The city school district will draw on $577,500 from its capital reserve fund with the remaining $3,272,500 coming through a 15-year bond. State aid would cover repaying the bond. Repairs would start on the project this coming summer if voters approve the bond issue. The Board of Education began the process for the vote in October when it voted unanimously to proceed. At that time, the school board also approved emergency repairs to the high school gym roof. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The school board will hold a town hall meeting on the roof repair when it meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday at School 16. Another presentation will be at 6 p.m. Thursday with the School 16 PTA at the school. Voting will be from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 4, at Carroll Hill School, School 2, School 12, School 14, School 16 and School 18. TROY What makes a dog dangerous? City officials are wrestling with that question in response to public outrage over Troy's existing law that resulted in a canine facing euthanasia. We need to be a little more flexible. Were looking into the one-bite penalty, Councilman David Bissember, D-5th District, said Monday. Any changes to the law wont help Luna, a 6-year-old mixed breed that bit another dog and its owner on Oct. 25. Luna was declared dangerous and ordered euthanized under the current law. Luna is being held at the Mohawk Hudson Human Society in Menands while an appeal of her sentence is pending. The appeal was filed Nov. 21 in City Court. Luna likely has at least few more months to live as the case makes its way through the legal process before Rensselaer County Court Judge Jennifer Sober, said Jonathan Schopf, the humane societys attorney. Bissember called a Public Safety meeting for Dec. 4 to review the current ordinance, which was written in 2006. One possible change is to the language in the dangerous-dog ordinance and giving judges and animal control officers more flexibility in considering how to enforce the law, said Bissember, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. Bissember said the modification would be to drop the confusing words shall may with just may so the ordinance reads, Any dangerous dog which attacks a human being or animal may be ordered destroyed." The Public Safety Committee will investigate setting a two-bite offense for declaring a dog dangerous instead of the current first-time offense, Bissember said. The councilman pointed to the San Diego dangerous-dog law that classifies a canine dangerous if it attacks or bites two people within 48 months or has attacked or bitten an person causing substantial injury or death. Were working on a specific definition for when a dog is defined as dangerous. What are the procedures to determine if a dog is dangerous? Bissember said. Schopf said going to a two-bite criteria would bring Troys ordinance in line with the state's Agriculture and Markets Law. Mayor Patrick Maddens administration will work with the council on developing legislation, said John Salka, a mayoral spokesman. The Luna situation is something that has gotten a lot of exposure. We need to do the right thing for the public, City Council President Carmella Mantello said. City officials consider a review of the dog ordinance critical as plans develop for a dog park. Bissember said clarifying the ordinance and making adjustments would help prevent the controversies surrounding the current law. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Mantello said the police, animal control, dog owners and the dog park task force have to be involved in discussions with the City Council about the citys response to dogs that bite people. She advised against rushing to a conclusion in order to make sure the redrafted law is clear and acceptable. Bissember said the rewritten law wont have an impact on Lunas case. Luna was ordered destroyed after a hearing in City Court in which her owner, Cade Saba, turned down a set of conditions for avoiding euthanasia as being unaffordable. This led her attorney Margaret Donnelly to secure a stay of the order that would have resulted in Lunas demise. Donnelly could not be reached for comment Monday about the appeal and the citys plans to rewrite its law. Shopf said the humane society is assisting in the case on Lunas behalf. He said evidence is being collected for the appeal. Salka said the city doesnt like to see any dog euthanized and is dealing with the continuing court case. Lunas bites were described in court documents as minor injuries. Schof pointed out that a minor physical injury and a first offense, which was Lunas case, would not lead to her being euthanized under state law. Luna bit an American Eskimo dog, named Light, leaving him with bruises and cuts to his pelvis and abdomen area. Lights owner was bit while trying to break up the fight, according to court documents. Light's owner, Alexi Carpenter, previously told the Times Union that Luna's owner paid Light's veterinary bill and that Luna is "not a bad dog." Mohawk Hudson Humane Society does not plan to charge the city or the owner for Lunas board while the case is pending, according to Shopf. Fundraising that is underway, he said, will be used to cover the costs. Last week President Donald Trump annoyed some of the victims of the California wildfires when he suggested that the disaster might have been avoided if Californians had taken lessons in forest management from Finland. The Finns, Trump said, "spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don't have any problem." But if Trump believes that Finland is ahead of us in forest management, what other good ideas might we find there? Publicly funded higher education for all students? It works well in Finland. Universal health care? The Finns have figured out how to do it. And here's another idea that we should think about: In 1983 the Finns passed legislation prohibiting striking a child under any circumstances, including spanking your own child in your own home. This is a drastic notion for Americans, a majority of whom believe that spanking is an appropriate tool for disciplining children. In fact, we use spanking generously despite considerable evidence that it not only is ineffective but actually does harm. This has been the opinion of the American Academy of Pediatrics for two decades. In 1998, when more than 90 percent of American families admitted to using spanking, the academy, representing 64,000 doctors, strongly discouraged its use even in its most benign forms. Parents who spank, the academy said, are also more likely to use more abusive forms of punishment. And the more children are spanked, the more anger they report as adults. Further, children who were spanked are more likely to spank their own children and to approve of hitting a spouse. The academy's report, Guidance for Effective Discipline, is clear and emphatic: "Spanking has been associated with higher rates of physical aggression, more substance abuse, and increased risk of crime and violence." In the 20 years since the academy's guidance was issued, the evidence against spanking has become stronger and clearer. Last week, The New York Times reported that, in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics, the academy will update its guidance on spanking based on research that was not available in 1998. Recent research confirms that children do not benefit from spanking and, in fact, ordinary spanking as practiced in many American homes is associated with increased aggression and defiance at levels comparable to those of children who have suffered more extreme forms of abuse. Thus the science on spanking is solid, and the doctors who know most about children agree: Do not spank your children, under any circumstances. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Our use of spanking has diminished. In 2013 a Harris poll indicated that 67 percent of American families use spanking, compared with 90 percent in 1998. And in 2014 another poll reported that 70 percent of American adults still agree that a "good, hard spanking is sometimes necessary to discipline a child." Nineteen states allow corporal punishment in public schools. So despite what experts say about the harm that a "good, hard spanking" can cause, our national mood doesn't seem particularly open to meaningful reform on corporal punishment. Our president publicly embraces violence. Here's one example, representative of many: Trump said of a protester at a rally "I'd like to punch him in the face." And as Trump demonstrated last week, he is more likely to reject the moral principles of Finland in favor of those of Saudi Arabia, a country that still uses brutal corporal punishment on adults. In 2014 Raif Badawi, a Saudi writer and dissident, escaped the fate of Jamal Khashoggi but was sentenced to 1,000 lashes. So the outlook isn't promising for American children, who, despite the evidence against it, are regularly subjected to corporal punishment that often scares, humiliates and hurts them. It's odd: In general, we have stringent rules against hitting each other. I can't hit you; you can't hit me. For the most part we've made hitting against the law. Just about the only group of Americans that we hit with impunity is made up of people who can't defend themselves and who are the most likely to suffer harm from it: children. John M. Crisp lives in Georgetown, Texas, and can be reached at jcrispcolumns@gmail.com. Voters in New York have sent a resounding message that it's time for progressive change in this state. Behind the highest midterm turnout in a quarter century, voters on Nov. 6 rejected the status quo that served special interests over real New Yorkers, and they embraced a wave of insurgent Senate candidates me among them who promised a state Legislature that would finally take action on long-overdue policies chief among them, criminal justice reform. The rejected status quo was embodied by the now-defunct Independent Democratic Conference, a bloc of Senate Democrats who effectively handed control of the chamber to Republicans in exchange for plum committee assignments and other perks. The IDC blocked bipartisan justice reform efforts, siding with special interests. Now that they're out of power, we must seize this moment to fix New York's broken and unjust criminal justice system. There is broad bipartisan support for creating a more fair, effective, and compassionate criminal justice system in New York. We waste enormous resources packing our prisons with people who are still awaiting trial or who have been convicted of minor offenses people who need treatment, not jail, and who are valuable members of their families and communities. The economic costs of this outdated system are staggering. The human costs are unspeakable. Reform should begin with our broken pretrial system. Cash bail discriminates against low-income New Yorkers and drives mass incarceration. Thousands of people are sent to jail not because they are dangerous or likely to flee, but because they cannot afford to pay bail. Harvey Weinstein walks free while poor people wait for trial behind bars, sometimes for years. The problem is enormous in scope. More than 75 percent of defendants spend time in jail merely because they cannot afford bail. Between 2010 and 2014, in just eight of New York's 62 counties, more than 35,000 New Yorkers spent at least one night in custody on a bail of $1,000 or less. In New York City, three-quarters of people in jail have not been convicted of a crime and are awaiting trial. Reform means not just removing money from the equation, but ensuring that we dramatically reduce the number of people detained before trial. Even a few days in jail can mean the loss of homes, jobs, or custody of children. People jailed before trial are more likely to plead guilty, even if they are innocent. They are also more likely to plead to more serious charges and receive harsher sentences. These burdens disproportionately fall on people of color. In fact, over 88 percent of people on Rikers Island are black or Latinx. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. This system also places a huge financial burden on taxpayers. New York City, for example, spends $116 million each year incarcerating people who have not been convicted of a crime. That is a tremendous waste of resources. There is a lot at stake for criminal justice reform, and we as newly elected state legislators must break the cycle of inaction. Any further delay will ensure that thousands of New Yorkers, still presumed innocent, will continue to languish in jails solely because of their poverty. It is time to do better. November 27, 2018 According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, more and more companies plan to invest in artificial intelligence in the next years. Indeed this technology is considered as a way to scientifically change most business processes. Originated in the middle of XX century, the field of artificial intelligence combines a wide range of scientific fields: knowledge representation, machine learning, processing of big data, etc. Machine learning systems attract a lot of attention from computer programmers. In contrast to the classical algorithmic methods, machine learning is not based on solving a specific problem, but on learning to solve similar problems and finding the subsequent solution of the specific problem. The spectrum of the methods used is extremely wide: optimization methods, mathematical statistics, probability theory, graph theory, and artificial neural networks. Neural networks often come to the fore. Despite the fact that, like artificial intelligence in general, neural networks have been developing since the middle of the last century, only in recent years have they really become actively used. This is due to the large amounts of data available for processing and training of neural networks. At the same time, the advent of more powerful computers allows such data volumes to be processed quickly, primarily using graphics accelerators and neuromorphic processors like IBM (News - Alert) TrueNorth. As with the use of any other technology related to data processing, the information security specialists are confronted with the question of possible threats and measures to counter such threats when using artificial intelligence systems. In information security, the use of artificial intelligence is usually considered in the context of fighting existing cyberattacks, such as phishing, new types of malware, DDoS, etc. At the same time, such tools can provide a new level of running the previously mentioned attacks if AI is used by cybercriminals. Like any other technology, the use of artificial intelligence is accompanied by a wide range of previously unknown threats that extend from social and ethical problems related to the restriction of civil liberties and pluralism of opinion in decision-making automation, as well as responsibility for their consequences. Other issues have to do with the security of technical implementation of artificial intelligence systems, and relating, for example, to ensuring confidence in the decision-making process or the security of the stored and processed data. How to ensure AI ??systems security The principle of preliminary learning noted above (when data gets processed by methods of artificial intelligence) leads to the fact that the final decision depends not only on the decision-making algorithm but also on the previously and currently processed data. As a result, there are two completely new types of attacks on the systems of this type in addition to the classical ones typical of any information system: Manipulation of input data during learning\training in order to change the subsequent decision-making process, or the so-called Data Poisoning. Selection of wrong input data at the decision-making stage, leading to their incorrect classification, or the so-called Data Evasion. These and other attacks are applicable not only to neural networks but also to machine learning methods that use, for example, the apparatus of mathematical statistics. This is a consequence of the fact that all such methods actually approximate the parameters of the data being processed by some functional relationships. Actually, the accuracy of such an approximation determines the possibility of implementing this type of attacks. It should be noted that at present there is no universal methodology for protecting AI systems. However, researchers have identified a number of approaches, which are currently being actively studied. Protection against attacks on the decision-making process In this case, the training data is formed in such a way as to exclude the possibility of using any possible attacks. In fact, systems learn to recognize the rogue data (presented by attackers) thus trying to weaken the influence of certain classes of attacks. The idea of ??protection integrated into the learning process is based on limiting the set of input data. As already mentioned, the data parameters can have a complex functional form, and the decision-making rule actually approximates them with a simpler form. So, for example, a ban on the use of data that is in some sense far from the average value of the training sample reduces the impact of attacks at the training stage. In conclusion it is important to note that working with AI systems, it very crucial to ensure the security of input data and in particular the security of personal data of users. Processing large amounts of data by machine learning systems is undoubtedly endangering private user data in the first place. At present, attempts are being made to combine systems of this class with such actively developing and promising areas of cryptography, such as homomorphic encryption and secure multi-party computation protocols. However, we are still far from real implementation of such systems. November 27, 2018 Were undoubtedly approaching the end-game when it comes to Brexit, with Theresa Mays much-maligned Brexit draft deal still on the table for her colleagues to sign. While some have suggested that the deal does not deliver on the promised made by prominent Brexit campaigners, this is arguably not Mrs. Mays fault and her draft text at least minimises the economic disruption likely to be experienced by businesses throughout the UK. So despite concerns about a potential brain-drain post-Brexit, the proposed withdrawal deal could soften the blow over the course of the next few years. Of course, some sectors may already be ideally placed to enjoy a significant boom after Brexit. Take the tech sector in the UK, for example, which is worth in excess of 180 billion and leads the way in fields such as fintech and financial services. How has the Technology Market Fared in the UK Since the Vote? The tech market (and particularly the fintech sector) is particularly important to the UK, with Londons so-called Silicon Roundabout central to its continued success. From a global perspective, the UK market only trails the U.S. and China in terms of size, while London is more than match for cities such as California when it comes to market reach and funding. When it comes to investment, tech firms in the UK have continued to benefit from a steady flow of capital, receiving more than 5 billion in venture capitalist funding since the June 2016 referendum vote. During the same period, France (1.55 billion), Germany (2.15 billion) and Sweden (644 million) have failed to get anywhere near this number, despite reporting superior economic performance overall. This trend is set to continue, with the worlds leading tech firms yet to be deterred by the impending prospect of Brexit. In fact, Apple is due to move into a brand new European HQ in London in 2021, while Facebook (News - Alert) is currently doubling the size of its existing office in the capital. Will we See a post-Brexit Boom in this Market? Of course, some may argue that this investment has been amplified by the weakened pound, which has continued to trade in a narrow range since the referendum vote. Its also widely believed that the growth of the technology market in the UK depends largely on the acceptance of a viable Brexit deal, similar to the one that Mrs. May has already proposed to the Cabinet. Remember, an estimated 70% of UK tech executives wanted to remain in Europe prior to the 2016 vote, while there was also staunch criticism from the sector following Mrs. Mays war-like rhetoric in the autumn of the same year. However, the picture is a little more complex in the current climate, especially with some firms having benefitted from the drop in the pound. Companies that deal predominantly with U.S. customers or nations outside of the EU will also be un affected by Brexit, so the prospect of a no-deal is not so concerting for them. This is reflected by a survey of mid-market tech, media and telecoms companies commissioned by consulting firm RSM, which revealed that 40% believed that a no-deal Brexit would be favourable for them. A further 31% said that this would have no impact on their future turnover, with just 20% suggesting that it could harm revenues. This positive sentiment, coupled with continued investment into British tech firms, seems to have fortified the industry and increased its capacity to cope whatever happens post-Brexit. This could well see the market experience some kind of boom after March 29th, 2019, especially if the pound experiences a further decline in value. For now, of course, theres nothing to do except see how the final negotiations play out and wait for the final exit deal to be announced. This will still have a significant bearing on the short and longer-term future of the technology market, and it must be remembered that a no-deal could still wreak havoc if its not managed effectively. [November 27, 2018] ImpediMed's SOZO Digital Health Platform Voted Among Top Five Finalists for Southern California ABBY Awards ImpediMed Limited (ASX: IPD), a global provider of medical technology to non-invasively measure, monitor and manage tissue composition and fluid status using bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS), announces that its SOZO Digital Health Platform has been voted among the top five finalists for ABL Organization's 19th Innovations in Healthcare ABBY Awards in the category of Innovative Health IT or Digital Health Technology. Richard Carreon, managing director and CEO, ImpediMed, will present key information about SOZO, a leading, non-invasive and FDA-cleared BIS digital health platform that measures, monitors and manages fluid accumulation in patients with certain conditions resulting from cancer treatment, such as lymphedema (LE) and heart failure (HF). "This recognition further elevates the importance of SOZO to enhance cancer survivorship," says Carreon. "It is breakthrough technology that provides physicians with easy access to an unprecedented level of information and data without the need for an invasive procedure. With increased adoption in healthcare systems nationwide, and with new research validating its effectiveness, an even greater number of cancer survivors can benefit with better health outcomes and improved quality of life." Carreon points to the recently published MD Anderson study to assess the validity of L-Dex BIS measurements for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to treat lymphedema. Using ImpediMed technology, researchers conclude that the L-Dex correlates most closely with all measures and is the recommended metric when using BIS. Findings support the adjunctive use of the L-Dex ratio with limb volume measurements for objective diagnosis, evaluation of lymphedema severity, longitudinal serial evaluation of lymphedema, and response to conservative and surgical interventions. About ImpediMed Founded and headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, with U.S. and European operations, ImpediMed is the world leader in the design and manufacture of medical devices employing bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) technologies for use in the non-invasive clinical assessment and monitoring of tissue composition and fluid status. ImpediMed produces a family of FDA cleared and CE Marked medical devices, including SOZO for multiple indications, including heart failure and lymphedema, sold in select markets globally. Visit www.impedimed.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005103/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Invivoscribe Submits LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay both in the US and Japan to Support Daiichi Sankyo Submissions for Quizartinib SAN DIEGO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In support of an ongoing partnership with Daiichi Sankyo, Invivoscribe is pleased to announce submissions of the LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay to both the US FDA and the Japan PMDA (Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency) as the companion diagnostic for quizartinib, which follows Daiichi Sankyos respective FDA and PMDA applications for quizartinib in the US and in Japan. Invivoscribe developed the LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo as the companion diagnostic that bridges to the global phase 3 QuANTUM-R clinical trial (Europe, United States, Asia excluding Japan) in patients with relapsed/refractory FLT3 ITD AML. Together, the QuANTUM-R clinical trial and open-label phase 2 study of quizartinib (Japan) support the Daiichi Sankyo New Drug Application (NDA) to Japans MHLW/PMDA and the FDA in the US for use of quizartinib for treatment of adult patients with relapsed/ refractory FLT3 ITD acute myeloid leukemia (AML) . Timing of this submission reflects the efficiencies of Invivoscribes Streamlined CDx program, which integrates a range of CDx activities including development, clinical trials support with rapid patient screening for enrollment, regulatory support and, importantly, commercialization. n addition, they complement Invivoscribes prior regulatory approvals of this LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay as an AML companion diagnostic in support of midostaurin for Novartis (United States and Europe), and gilteritinib fumarate for Astellas (Japan). Astellas and Invivoscribe have also submitted applications for the drug and device to the CDER and CDRH, respectively, in the United States. This milestone also establishes the LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay as the international gold standard for comprehensive FLT3 assessment for critically ill acute myeloid leukemia patients as this CDx identifies even the largest ITD mutations, is available worldwide, and generates standardized signal ratios for both ITD and TKD mutations. These criteria are already resulting in more consistent stratification of patients which will help prescribing doctors identify personalized therapy options for their patients and accelerate new drug and therapy approvals by establishing more homogeneous patient populations for clinical trials. These LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay submissions and continuing Daiichi Sankyo partnership represent significant milestones for our company. We welcome opportunities to partner with global pharmaceutical companies interested in developing and commercializing companion diagnostics, whether their therapies are targeting hematologic diseases or solid tumors, said Jeffrey Miller, Invivoscribes CSO and CEO. About the Invivoscribe LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay The LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay is a PCR-based, in vitro diagnostic test designed to detect internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations and tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) mutations D835 and I836 in the FLT3 gene in genomic DNA extracted from mononuclear cells obtained from peripheral blood or bone marrow aspirates of patients diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. This globally standardized test includes software that interprets data, generates mutant/wildtype signal ratios for ITD and TKD mutations, and predicts response to both gilteritinib fumarate and midostaurin. This extensively validated assay helps standardize the detection of genetic mutations in the FLT3 gene as one of the most important driver mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). In serving as the companion diagnostic to the Daiichi Sankyo sponsored clinical trials, this test reports out FLT3 ITD mutations alone. The LeukoStrat test is currently available as a test menu service through the Invivoscribe subsidiaries, LabPMM LLC (San Diego, CA, US), LabPMM GmbH (Martinsried, Germany) and LabPMM GK (Kawasaki City, Japan). LeukoStrat CDx FLT3 Mutation Assay kits are currently distributed in Europe. Distribution of kits in Japan, United States, and China are planned. About Invivoscribe Invivoscribe is a privately held biotechnology company dedicated to Improving Lives with Precision Diagnostics. For nearly twenty-five years, Invivoscribe has improved the quality of healthcare worldwide by providing high quality, standardized reagents, tests, and bioinformatics tools to advance the field of precision medicine. Invivoscribe has a successful track record of partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies interested in developing and commercializing companion diagnostics, and provides expertise in both regulatory and laboratory services. Providing distributable kits, as well as clinical trial services through its globally located clinical lab subsidiaries (LabPMM), Invivoscribe is an ideal partner from diagnostic development, through clinical trials, regulatory submissions, and commercialization. For additional information please contact Invivoscribe at [email protected] or visit www.invivoscribe.com . [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Lacework Achieves AWS Security Competency Status MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lacework, the industry's first solution to bring automation, speed and scale to cloud security, has achieved Amazon Web Service (AWS) Security Competency status. Qualifying for this status validates Lacework's leadership as a provider of cloud security account, workload and container security for AWS customers. This designation is the result of a rigorous review of Lacework's technology capabilities and ability to effectively serve AWS customers. Achieving AWS Security Competency differentiates Lacework as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that delivers comprehensive cloud security solutions designed to help enterprises adopt a more rigorous security posture for their cloud workloads. "Lacework is proud to be among the APN members who have achieved AWS Security Competency status," said Stefan Dyckerhoff, CEO of Lacework. "Our team is focused on giving customers visibility and control over thir cloud operations at cloud scale so they can protect AWS accounts, workloads, containers, and other resources. The Security Competency status validates what we're trying to do and provides us with a better path to supporting AWS customers." Lacework is participating at AWS re:Invent 2018 (booth #1705) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Executives will be available to discuss how Lacework addresses the unique demands of the cloud: speed, scale and automation, and will demonstrate how security teams can minimize security risks for workloads, containers, and accounts, all without slowing down the pace of innovation. For more information on Lacework, please visit www.lacework.com . About Lacework Lacework is the industry's first solution to bring automation, speed, and scale to cloud security enabling enterprises to safely innovate fast in the cloud. Unlike conventional security tools built for static datacenters, Lacework is designed to self-adapt to the cloud ever-changing configuration and workloads. Just like DevOps automates code deployment, Lacework automates cloud security, empowering IT to continuously keep cloud environments secure and compliant. Based in Mountain View, California, Lacework is a privately held company funded by Sutter Hill Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Spike Ventures, the Webb Investment Network (WIN), and AME Cloud Ventures. Find out more at www.lacework.com . Media Contact Jacqueline Meyler Lumina Communications on behalf of Lacework (669) 234-9775 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lacework-achieves-aws-security-competency-status-300755834.html SOURCE Lacework [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] MedX Signs MOU to Launch DermSecure in the Netherlands MedX Health Corp. ("MedX") (TSX-V: MDX) announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a consortium of Dutch companies that will be launching an easy-access skin scanning/assessment program in the Netherlands, using MedX's SIAscopy and DermSecureTM technologies. The consortium will integrate DermSecureTM with their existing platforms, which includes a suite of software applications used by a large majority of general practitioners in the Netherlands, and will build awareness campaigns through established healthcare initiatives and programs. "The Dutch team is impressed with SIAscopy's unique scanning technology, and the ability to seamlessly integrate our DermSecureTM platform into their suite of medical software applications that are used by more than 4,500 physicians in the Netherlands makes it a natural fit," noted Scott Spearn, MedX's President and CEO. "The broad reach of telemedicine from this many potential locations, with DermSecureTM providing the highest quality tools for the assessment by a team of trained Dermatologists, and the awareness built through their marketing relationships can enable the group to meet their objective of a truly national scanning/assessment program in the Netherlands, where there is a focus on cancer prevention and early screening." Pieter Severijns, Director of IvPG, one of the partners in this project and a company involved in progrms and initiatives to improve healthcare in the Netherlands through the internet, noted "We have the ability through our programs to make people aware about the risks of melanoma, and allow those with higher risk or suspicious moles to easily access skin scanning and assessment by our top Dermatologists using DermSecureTM, through the large network of scanning centres that will be available to them." MedX will be working during the coming months to integrate its platform with those of its partners, while physicians are recruited to include DermSecureTM and MedX's SIAscopy devices in their practices, and selected Dermatologists trained to provide timely assessment. About MedX MedX, headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, is a leading medical device and software company focused on skin cancer with its DermSecure telemedicine platform, utilizing its SIAscopy technology. SIAscopy is also imbedded in its products SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate, which MedX manufactures in its ISO 13485 certified facility. SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate include hand-held devices that use patented technology utilizing light and its remittance to view up to 2 mm beneath suspicious moles and lesions in a pain free, non-invasive manner, with its software then creating real-time images for physicians and dermatologists to evaluate all types of moles or lesions within seconds. These products are Health Canada, FDA (US), ARTG and CE cleared for use in Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and Turkey. MedX also designs, manufactures and distributes quality photobiomodulation therapeutic and dental lasers to provide drug-free and non-invasive treatment of tissue damage and pain. www.medxhealth.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This Media Release may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005308/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 26, 2018] TU Wien and Silvaco Collaborate on New MRAM Device Technology Development Silvaco, Inc. today announced the opening of a second Christian Doppler Laboratory (CDL) in partnership with the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien. The new CDL, officially opened November 12th will develop new device simulation solutions for MRAM, a novel non-volatile memory technology. "The fact that memory components are constantly becoming smaller and smaller is driven by the constant need for devices with lower power and higher capacity," said Dr. Siegfried Selberherr, Professor at the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien. "Conventional technologies are now reaching the limits of miniaturization and new technologies are being developed to replace them. The new CD lab will make an important contribution by exploring the foundations of possible memory alternatives and harnessing this new knowledge to the advantage of semiconductor businesses and their customers." Magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile memory technology with the potential to become a dominant alternative to DRAM and SRAM, and the future possibility to become a universal memory for digital devices. MRAM has the operation speed close to SRAM while using lower power and less area for an equivalent memory density. This characteristic makes MRAM suitable for a large number of applications, such as automotive and industrial where both performance and non-volatile memory are required. "New digital device technologies will enable the next generation of smart components for consumer and industrial applications," said Dr. Viktor Sverdlov from the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien, and who heads the new Christian Doppler Laboratory. "MRAM has the potential to deliver both more memory density and much lower power consumption extending memory beyond the current solutions. TAD device simulation of this new device technology is an essential step in making this change possible for the industry." "TCAD simulation always plays a significant role launching, supporting and optimizing new technologies and this is also true for novel memories such as MRAM," said Dr. Eric Guichard, VP and GM of the TCAD Division at Silvaco. "Silvaco has a long history pioneering new technologies and this new CDL is the latest addition to Silvaco's TCAD development which is also progressing on high speed TCAD, atomistic simulation for advanced logic and cryogenic simulation for supercomputing. We are pleased to undertake this second technology partnership with the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien, and together we will continue to deliver research at the leading edge of semiconductor design." About TU Wien Institute for Microelectronics The TU Wien Institute for Microelectronics' main research focus is the development of models, software algorithms and tools for the simulation of semiconductor devices and technological process steps. These tools are applied either to the improvement of existing ULSI semiconductor devices or to support the development of new technologies. As the Institute does not have any direct access to fabrication facilities, the successful research strongly relies on intensive co-operation with national, European, and international industrial partners. The Institute is also involved in Austrian and European research programs. www.iue.tuwien.ac.at About Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG) The Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG) is considered a pioneer in Austria for successful collaborations between science and the private sector. For 25 years, CD Laboratories have opened the door for cooperation partners to perform application-oriented basic research of mutual benefit for companies and science. The Christian Doppler Research Association, funds application-oriented basic research and gives companies effective access to new knowledge and operates as the interface between business and science. www.cdg.ac.at About Silvaco, Inc. Silvaco Inc. is a leading EDA tools and semiconductor IP provider used for process and device development for advanced semiconductors, power IC, display and memory design. For over 30 years, Silvaco has enabled its customers to develop next generation semiconductor products and meet the ever-growing demand for mobile intelligent computing. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has a global presence with offices located across North America, Europe, and Asia. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181126005796/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 26, 2018] National Impact Investment Practitioners Table applauds Canada's commitment to invest $805 million in a new Social Finance Fund over the next decade VANCOUVER, Nov. 26, 2018 /CNW/ - The National Impact Investment Practitioners Table (NIIPt) applauds the Government of Canada's commitment to invest $805 million in a new Social Finance Fund over the next decade, including $50 million in investment readiness measures in the first two years. By leveraging the long history of co-operative and community enterprise in this country, the Social Finance Fund will support collaboration across the social finance sector and help meet the rapidly-expanding demand among investors to simultaneously achieve social, environmental and financial goals. Members of the pan-Canadian National Impact Investment Practitioners Table represent 20 established funds which have raised $520 million, now being deployed in communities across Canada, and 7 new funds actively raising another $1.2 billion. This new Federal support for social finance is warmly welcomed by a robust network of impact investors able to effectively amplify and accelerate new capital into social finance initiatives from coast to coast to coast. The Federal Social Finance Fund will support and strengthen a thriving ecosystem of intermediaries and entrepreneurs who are developing new business models to create jobs delivering positive social and environmental outcomes. With our colleagues across the social finance ecosystem, we look forward to leveraging the SocialFinance Fund to continue building more affordable housing, reducing our carbon footprint, employing vulnerable people and creating a more equal, generous and sustainable Canada. In mobilizing the commitment and capital of public, private and philanthropic capital in support of triple bottom-line outcomes, Canada has an extraordinary and unparalleled opportunity to model an inclusive economy to the world mobilizing its strong foundations and very good fortune to be among the first countries to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. About the National Impact Investment Practitioners Table The National Impact Investment Practitioners Table was established in 2014. It is a pan-Canadian, mission-driven, bilingual and practitioner-led community of practice. Its members are Canadian-based and Canadian-owned; have an established capital base, provide capital to generate financial and social and/or environmental returns; invest primarily in non-publicly traded Canadian enterprises; and provide publicly accessible reports on their activities. The Table brings together a wide range of Canadian expertise and works collaboratively to share best practices, identify shared policy priorities and speak as a single voice in shaping a strong, enabling environment for social finance in Canada and around the world. The NIIPT currently represents 20 social finance funds valued at $522 million. Individual funds range in size from $300,000 to $140 million with a median fund size of $17.3 million. The Table also includes 7 new funds under development valued at $1.2 billion. A complete list of NIIPt member fund mandates can be found here. Reports published by the NIIPt in support of the Social Finance Fund include: Leveraging Canada's Social Impact Funds (October 2018) and Eight Tracks: Impact Investing in Canadian Communities (May 2014). SOURCE New Market Funds [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 26, 2018] RevX Announces aiCube, an Intelligent Engine for Mobile Advertising & Analytics BANGALORE, India, November 27, 2018/PRNewswire/ -- aiCube addresses publisher quality, fraud, brand safety and performance optimization problems in the mobile programmatic ecosystem through app store data intelligence, audience intelligence and artificial intelligence RevX, a mobile advertising technology company, announced an intelligent mobile advertising engine 'aiCube' that brings app store data intelligence to mobile programmatic buying. The aiCube technology automatically validates every app publisher across 20+ programmatic exchanges with data from Google and Apple stores for quality issues such as malware, adware, misleading app data, and brand-unsafe contents. Further, aiCube fills missing data such as app category and publisher names in bid requests for precise targeting and optimization. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/788901/RevX_Logo.jpg ) In addition, aiCube also adds a layer of audience intelligence and artificial intelligence for cohrt analytics, look-a-like modeling, and budget allocation for performance optimization. Apart from driving re-engagement on active and lapsed users, advertisers can connect their first-party data to aiCube for programmatically acquiring new users through look-a-like audience models along with running high-impact brand experience campaigns. "In-app programmatic is relatively new and advertisers don't yet have tools to verify publisher quality and make informed decisions to buy brand-safe inventory, transparently, that delivers performance and value. aiCube is an industry-first platform that builds a holistic profile of every publisher combining programmatic data with app stores' data and historical media performance for better media planning, targeting and optimization," said Mukesh Agarwal, RevX CEO. "Google and Apple continue to unpublish malicious apps from the stores. In 2017, Google removed 70,000 such apps from the Play Store. However, these apps continue to sell ads through different channels including programmatic and deceive ad buyers into buying poor quality, fraudulent inventory. aiCube engine removes about 18% of the programmatic inventory from hundreds of thousands of apps based on AI-driven quality scoring that utilizes app store metadata," added Mukesh Agarwal. RevX drives growth for 8/10 top mCommerce apps in India, Middle East, and South East Asia with its aiCube engine. Further, some of the leading mobile ad networks license RevX platform to drive the growth for their customers across the globe. aiCube is available as part of RevX's self-serve DSP platform or managed service to execute app performance and brand marketing campaigns. RevX's DSP platform is integrated with more than 20 leading mobile and video exchanges, giving access to 1.2B verified mobile devices globally. Media Contact: Shakshy Seth [email protected] +91(0)80676-96743 SOURCE RevX Technology Pvt Ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] At the reception (Photo: baodansinh.vn) So said Doan Mau Diep, MOLISA Deputy Minister, during a reception on November 26th for representatives from Germanys Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, who are on a visit to Vietnam for vocational training cooperation. During the reception, Mr Diep stressed that Vietnam always attaches great importance to expanding cooperation with Germany, including in vocational training. According to him, the overseas labor centre has been assigned to sign a cooperative deal with the Vivantes Company for recruiting, training and bringing Vietnamese to Germany to study and work in nursing and caring for the elderly. After 3 years, the number of trainees has increased from 114 to 404, with 299 having been approved to be sent to work. Deputy Minister Diep confirmed that the cooperative programs between the two sides have reported their efficiency, including in vocational training. We consider Germany standard the international standard, and are following this standard, he said. Standard criteria, including standards on green growth, are being developed for satisfying businesses requirements during international integration. Showing their pleasure with the efficiency of the cooperative programs, representatives from the Germanys Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development said that the success comes from sustainable development, and that they hoped the programs will be expanded in the future. Germany attaches great importance to carrying out technological and financial cooperation with Vietnamese partners by equipping schools and sending experts to localities./. [November 26, 2018] Canadian Capitalist, a Heavy Weight Finance Blog hailing from Ottawa, the Canadian Capital is now celebrating its 10th Anniversary OTTAWA, Nov. 26, 2018 /CNW/ - The Canadian Capitalist started a small financial blog 10 years ago from the downtown area in Ottawa. Since its humble beginnings it has grown to be a considerable go-to destination place for Canadians and their financial needs and information. In 2009, James Dean, owner of MONEY.CA and Money Magazine looked to grow its online presence and clout to increase attention to its start up full 4 color magazine publication. CanadianCapitalist.com was a great way to increase attention and awareness to such cause. MONEY.CA and Money Magazine benefited greatly because of the turnkey success of the widely popular website that caught the attention of Canadian financial consumers, industry professionals and the advisor channel. The CC website attracted and retained the attention of the exact target market for MONEY Magazine and helped to establish it as going concern amongst great competition. Rogers and other media giants were interested in acquiring the site because of its Canadian financial traffic. Rogers MoneySense magazine stepped up and paid to lease the site to promote their flagship financial magazine for two years. MoneySense magazine lost interest in both the website and the publication industry. In 2017 Rogers Publication decided to shut down Canadian Business, Profit and MoneySense magazine then decided not to renew their lease with CanadianCapitalist.com for several reasons. Good news for MONEY Magazine and a great encouragement to take over retail store shelves and online prowess with a bigger and better offering with MONEY.CA and Money Magazine. The Canadian Capitalist is now ripe for renewal with a new logo and an "Out for Business" attitude and once again a shining brand that is ready, willing and able to promote MONEY Magazine in an industry lacking in business, finance, personal finance and financial literacy. Canadian Capitalist has been recognized by the industry as a top 25 personal finance blog and has reached a threshold of over 150,000 new unique visitors in a one-month period and is very well liked and enjoyed by Canadians with a reasonable following of 10,000 avid Twitter followers. https://twitter.com/CCapitalist Help MONEY and the CanadianCapitalist.com be a leader in poverty alleviation and financial literacy for the next 10 years. Congratulations to CC and other like-minded financial blogs in doing the right thing always and for never giving up. SOURCE Money.ca [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 26, 2018] Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Updates Notice of Filing of Class Action Suit against Jianpu Technology Inc. Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/jianpu/) updates its notice of the filing of a class action on behalf of purchasers of Jianpu Technology Inc. (NYSE:JT) American Depositary Shares ("ADS") in and/or traceable to the Company's initial public offering (the "IPO") on or about November 16, 2017. Robbins Geller previously announced that an action was filed on October 25, 2018 in the Southern District of New York captioned Panther Partners Inc. v. Jianpu Technology Inc., et al., No. 18-cv-9848, which addressed false statements made in connection with the IPO that minimized the regulatory risks to Jianpu's revenues. Since the case was filed, Jianpu conceded that its loan recommendation revenue has already declined by 49% year-over-year due to credit tightening. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased Jianpu ADS in and/or traceable to the Company's IPO on or about November 16, 2017 to seek appointment as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than December 26, 2018. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff's counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at [email protected]. You can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/jianpu/. The complaint charges Jianpu, certain of its officers and directors, its paren company and the underwriters of the IPO with violations of the Securities Act of 1933. Jianpu operates an on-line platform under the brand name "Rong360" in the People's Republic of China. The Company's revenues are primarily generated from fees paid by financial service providers for loan recommendation services. On October 20, 2017, Jianpu filed with the SEC (News - Alert) a Form F-1 Registration Statement (the "Registration Statement") for the IPO, which was declared effective by the SEC on November 15, 2017. On November 17, 2017, Jianpu filed with the SEC a prospectus for the IPO (the "Prospectus"), which forms part of the Registration Statement. Jianpu sold 22.5 million ADS at $8.00 per share in the IPO, raising net proceeds of approximately $164.9 million. The complaint alleges that the Registration Statement and Prospectus for the IPO contained inaccurate statements of material fact and/or omitted material information required to be disclosed in order to make such statements not misleading. Specifically, the Registration Statement and Prospectus failed to disclose, among other things, that the China Banking Regulatory Commission and three other Chinese regulators had issued rules in August 2016 requiring peer-to-peer ("P2P") lending companies to, among other things, appoint qualified banking institutions as custodians and disclose their use of deposits, and that China had determined to create the Financial Stability and Development Committee ("FSDC") under its State Council to coordinate major financial reforms, as well as to implement market regulation and monetary and industrial policy, all of which would likely result in the disqualification of a significant majority of P2P lenders in China resulting in a dramatic reduction in the total number of existing, as well as potential, financial service providers that had been the primary source of Jianpu's revenue. The complaint alleges that on November 21, 2017, just two business days after the IPO, several new sources announced that the FSDC had issued an urgent notice to provincial governments urging them to suspend regulatory approval of new internet micro-loan companies. Thereafter, the price of Jianpu ADS fell more than 38% during the three-day period ended November 24, 2017, to close at $4.90 per ADS. Then, after the close of trading on November 19, 2018, Jianpu announced its third quarter 2018 financial results for the interim period ended September 30, 2018. Attempting to explain why the Company was reporting lower revenues than it had led the investment community to expect, defendants conceded that "lending activities [had] slowed down in July and August" 2018, citing "credit tightening across the retail financial services sector," and that, as a result, Jianpu's "revenues from the loan recommendation [had] decreased by 49% year-over-year." Jianpu reported revenues of just $64.6 million, far less than the $89.7 million the investment community had been led to expect. The price of Jianpu ADS declined another 15% on this news when trading resumed on November 20, 2018. Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Jianpu ADS in and/or traceable to the Company's IPO on or about November 16, 2017 (the "Class"). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud. Robbins Geller is one of the world's leading law firms representing investors in securities litigation. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history. For five consecutive years, ISS Securities Class Action Services has ranked the Firm in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report as one of the top law firms in both amount recovered for shareholders and total number of class action settlements. Robbins Geller attorneys have helped shape the securities laws and recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of aggrieved victims. Beyond securing financial recoveries for defrauded investors, Robbins Geller also specializes in implementing corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit http://www.rgrdlaw.com for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181126005810/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 26, 2018] CAMPBELL SOUP 24 HOUR DEADLINE ALERT: Approximately 24 Hours Remain; ClaimsFiler Reminds Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Campbell Soup Company - CPB ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have only until November 27, 2018 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB). Investor losses must relate to purchases of the Company's shares between August 31, 2017 and May 17, 2018. This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Get Help Campbell investors should visit https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-campbell-soup-company-securities-litigation-1 or cal to speak to our claim center toll-free at (844) 367-9658. About the Lawsuit On May 18, 2018, the Company disclosed disappointing financial results, for the third straight quarter, including the poor performance of its Campbell Fresh division that forced it to take a $619 million pre-tax non-cash impairment charge, a $19 million quarterly loss for the division, further revisions to its fiscal year 2018 earnings guidance, and that the Company's CEO was stepping down immediately. On this news, the price of Campbell's shares plummeted. About ClaimsFiler ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations. To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181126005560/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] IoT Roadshow Launch @ IoT Tech Expo NA 2018 -- showcasing Highlights of the Korean IoT Industry SANTA CLARA, California, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ministry of Science and Internet Communication Technology[1], together with Korea Internet & Security Agency[2] will be showcasing 10 rising IoT companies for the North American market. The plan is to open a joint booth at the IoT Tech Expo to create meaningful business relationships between the Korean IoT companies and potential U.S. partner companies. The companies representing Korea will be introducing products that include smart city (location tracking), smart home (home automation technologies) and other innovative products -- in various areas where the latest IoT technology has been implemented. The participating companies are looking to find a partner to cooperate on the technological / business growth aspects in the U.S. market but also to see business opportunities with major companies and distributors who are looking to expand their business using the latest IoT technologies. The abovementioned roadshow will be part of the IoT Tech Expo North America 2018 event which is being held at the Santa Clara Convention Center from November 28 to 29 under the title -- "Connected Innovation, Korea IoT Highlights". On the 29th at 14:00, there will be a networking function hosted by the Korean IoT companies for the opportunity to meet with various professionals of the industry. Anyone is welcome to join the event and those who sign-up through Eventbrite will be offered a free drink at the booth. Location -- Stand 573, Santa Clara Convention Center Convention Center The "Networking Mixer" event registration link - http://bitly.kr/eRu9 Both MSIT and KISA hope that the Expo will be an opportunity for the two countries to become strategic partners by creating business synergies and collaborating on IoT knowledge through active dialogue. Below is a chart of the participating companies and a short description of their products. Participating company Product being introduced Bluesignal Corp. Name Predictive Drive Description Smart traffic solution using AI engine and big data analysis Website www.bluesignal.co.kr Brunt Co. Ltd. Name Blind Engine Description IoT Blind controller that makes ordinary blinds and window shades become a smart device Website www.brunt.co Corners Name COSES(COrners Smart Evacuation System) Description System that enables effective evacuation at times of active shooting Website www.corners.co.kr DNX Co.,Ltd. Name Gray Friends Description Safety and care service for elderly with wearable devices Website www.dnx.kr J2C Name Iris Recognition Solution Description Iris recognition solution and optical components for integrated biometric security suite Website www.jtwoc.com Magpie Tech Name VH-80 Description The world's first bilateral laser distance measurer Website www.magpie-tech.com ROWAN Inc. Name AIREA Description Asset management solution for healthcare facilities Website www.creativerowan.com SmartGolf LLC Name Smart Golf Description Motion sensor analysis technology that captures, analyzes and virtually reenacts the golf swings Website www.smartgolf.biz Spacosa Name Gper Description Location information service based on LoRaWAN and 3G Tracker Website www.spacosa.com Toy's Myth Inc. Description Customer analytics solution based on IoT, big-data and machine-learning Website www.toysmyth.com [1] MSIT -- Korean governmental division overseeing policies regarding science technology and info-communications. [2] KISA -- Government agency supporting Korea's internet portal services and security of information on the internet. Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) is a governmental agency overseeing Korea's Internet portal management and web security protocols. The agency is developing and spreading intelligent convergence security technologies to meet current trend demands over the Internet. Other responsibilities include - securing the safety of the country/citizens in cyberspace, maintaining high level of information protection systems to ensure a sustainable growth engine of the future. If you would like more information about the Expo or KISA's representative KEI, please contact Woori Han at [email protected]. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iot-roadshow-launch--iot-tech-expo-na-2018-----showcasing-highlights-of-the-korean-iot-industry-300754136.html SOURCE KISA (Korea Internet and Security Agency) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] OWC Continues to Bring Clean Water to Thousands by partnering with charity: water WOODSTOCK, Ill., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OWC , a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company announced they are continuing to bring water to those in need by partnering with charity: water this #GivingTuesday and holiday season. Starting today, OWC will donate $25,000 to charity: water and will match dollar for dollar raised by the public up to $125,000 match, for a total campaign of $250,000. In addition, OWC will donate $1 for every newsletter sign between November 27 and December 21, 2018. Join OWC in bringing the difference of water with charity: water. According to charity: water, there are more than 663 million people living without access to clean water. That is nearly 1 in 10 people globally and twice the population of the United States. With clean and accessible water, we can improve education, income and health especially for women and children. "OWC is all about solutions and charity: water is an exceptional solution for a great need," said Larry O'Connor, Founder and CEO of OWC. "By helping bring clean and accessible water to communities in need, we are not only providing better health conditions, but we are freeing up time in the day for a renewed focus on education, building and bettering these communities." This latest partnership is part of OWC's continuing effort to bring awareness and funds for clean and accessible drinking water. OWC has previously funded 17 wells in Ethiopia as well as sponsoring Florian Wagner and his African Waters project. In addition, OWC will be making an additional $25,000 donation to Splash.org, if the first $25,000 is raised by the public by December 1st. Notable people like Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith, Tyler Perry, Kristen Bell, Jessica Biel, Tony Hawk, Alyssa Milano, Nathan Fillion, Adrian Grenier have generously supported charity: water. OWC will be matching funds through charity: water now through Friday, December 21, 2018. For more information on charity: water, visit charitywater.org. About OWC Other World Computing (OWC) was founded by Larry O'Connor when he was 14 years old in 1988. OWC is dedicated to helping tech enthusiasts and industry professionals do more and reach higher. Our trusted storage, connectivity, software and expansion solutions enable creative professionals, producers, educators and government entities to get the most out of their technology investments, protect valuable digital assets and expand their hardware's capabilities to keep up with the demands and evolution of their work. OWC features an award-winning technical support team that is on hand 24/7 as well as an unparalleled library of step-by-step installation and support videos. In everything we do at OWC, we believe in making a better world where technology inspires imagination and everything is possible. Get social: follow OWC on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter and follow CEO and Founder, Larry O' Connor on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. About charity: water charity: water is a nonprofit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. With a radically transparent model that sends 100% of public donations straight to the field, charity: water funds sustainable water projects in areas of greatest need and works with local partners to implement them. The organization proves every project, using innovative technology and powerful storytelling to connect donors with their impact. Since 2006, charity: water has funded more than 29,000 water projects around the world to help 8.4 million people get access to clean water, hygiene and improved sanitation. 2018 Other World Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. Other marks may be the trademark or registered trademark property of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/owc-continues-to-bring-clean-water-to-thousands-by-partnering-with-charity-water-300755560.html SOURCE OWC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Thoughtonomy Launches Industry Initiative to Combat the Threat of Poor Quality Automation Damaging Enterprise Operations LONDON, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New intelligent automation tool, Wireframer, enables business users to create enterprise grade process automation at speed as standard Thoughtonomy, the award-winning Intelligent Automation provider, is today launching the first tool on the market that ensures any business user can develop enterprise-quality automations as standard. The new "Wireframer" feature within Thoughtonomy's Virtual Workforce platform, incorporates best practice engineering knowledge in a new simple to use automation builder interface that guides business users through the design phase, reducing development time by 70% and pre-populating new automations with robust, controls as standard. The enterprise market for intelligent automation, which includes artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation is set to grow from $12.4billion in 2018 to $232 billion in 2025 according to global consultancy KPMG[1]. Against this backdrop of explosive adoption, Thoughtonomy is leading the industry in taking action to ensure that companies can rest assured that the automations underpinning critical processes are being accredited and will be developed to a consistent standard across any function. This approach turns on its head the current trend for individuals to be certified in utilizing automation software while ignoring the dangers of allowing the process automations they create to be launched unchecked at wildly different levels of quality. "Without enforcing standards in automation, we run the risk of creating the next generation of legacy technology issues that will cost huge amounts of time and money to rectify. You would not allow builders working on separate floors to install their personal interpretation of plumbing and wiring. Similarly, the industry cannot afford to propagate the release of automations that are of disparate quality across organisations. With the introduction of Wireframer we are taking the lead in preventing the rise of future echnology debt," said Danny Major, CTO at Thoughtonomy. Commenting on the breakthrough capability, Sarah Burnett, Executive Vice President and Distinguished Analyst from leading industry analyst firm, Everest Group said, "Wireframer is an interesting development. Having seen a demo of it, I believe it makes it easier for business users to automate processes using RPA. This is another step in helping organizations implement better quality software and deploy robots faster. I believe this type of development over time will evolve into automating automation." With the new feature, business users define the high level structure of an automation within Thoughtonomy's virtual workforce platform and then Wireframer autonomously builds out the process structure, ensuring that the appropriate controls are in place for everything from application interaction through to exception handling. Specialist, intelligent automation integrator, Symphony Ventures has been trialing the Wireframer tool on early release. "We have been impressed by the speed with which we can create new automations using Wireframer. The long term benefits for enterprises of being assured that their network of automations can be easily maintained and operate to a consistent level is game-changing," said Lukasc Gargasz, Head of Digital CoE. "Wireframer" builds on Thoughtonomy's internal standardization of best practice standards for automation design amongst its team of experienced automation experts. Tom Blackburn, Head of Product Architecture at Thoughtonomy, said: "It's easy to build an automation, but it's a lot less easy to build a good automation. With Wireframer, we're allowing business users to tap into and benefit from the extensive knowledge of our own dedicated Automation Designers, as well as leverage the expertise of more than 200 clients whose experiences in Intelligent Automation have shaped the new tool. By doing so, we are accelerating progress towards the definition of ITIL-4 standards for process automation." Through its Virtual Workforce Platform, Thoughtonomy provides companies with access to a pool of cloud-based intelligent digital that can take on the time-consuming, repetitive tasks that impede the productivity of human workforces. By integrating these digital workers with human teams, companies can accelerate growth and achieve a step change in efficiency. On the back of rapid international expansion and revenue growth Thoughtonomy was recently ranked fourth in the Sunday Times Hiscox Fast Track 100 and 11th in the Deloitte Tech Fast 50. 1. KPMG study: Ready, Set, Fail?: Avoiding setbacks in the intelligent automation race [https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2018/new-study-findings-read-ready-set-fail.html]. (2018) About Thoughtonomy Thoughtonomy is a UK-headquartered AI software company that enables organisations and the people they employ to do more and achieve more. The company's award-winning SaaS platform, gives companies access to a pool of cloud based intelligent digital workers that can perform the repetitive, time-intensive tasks that slow people down. By integrating this digital workforce with their human teams, companies can accelerate growth and achieve a step change in efficiency. Thoughtonomy was founded in the UK in 2013 and now supports more than 200 clients spread across a wide range of industries in 29 countries. The company has offices in London and Manchester in the UK, as well as New York and Austin in the US. For further information, please see http://thoughtonomy.com/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] UCL Spin-out Engitix Closes 5m Financing to Progress Liver Disease and Pancreatic Cancer Drug Discovery Platform and Pipeline Engitix Ltd, a company pioneering the development of both tissue-specific and disease-specific human extracellular matrix (ECM) for accelerating and improving the drug discovery process, today announces it has closed a 5 million Series A financing, led by a private investor. Engitix has validated its proprietary tissue-specific and disease-specific human ECM platform in determining drug efficacy in liver fibrosis through successful collaborations with a number of biotech and big pharma companies. With this new investment, the Company is now evolving its business model to in-house drug discovery, to develop a pipeline of candidate drugs targeting liver fibrosis and liver and pancreatic cancers. Engitix was spun-out of the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health (ILDH), Division of Medicine, University College London (UCL) in 2016 by Dr Giuseppe Mazza, an inventor of decellularization protocols for human liver and other tissues, and Professor Massimo Pinzani, Director of ILDH and a world-renowned expert in the field of liver fibrosis. The Company acquired an exclusive license in 2017 from UCLB, UCL's commercialisation company, to enabling ECM patents and other intellectual property. The Company's mission is to increase the efficacy and to the reduce cost of later stage drug failure by establishing more advanced platforms for drug target identification and validation in which healthy and diseased cells can be tested with potential therapeutic agents within their natural physiological and pathological microenvironment. A key current limitation in developing more effective treatments in fibrosis and various solid cancers has been the failure to include human ECM in experimental models, with the majority of compounds failing in late stage clinical trials because of lack of efficacy. The Company plans to double the size of its R&D team, recruiting at least an additional 10 scientists in London in the fields of drug discovery, bioinformatics and immune oncology, as well as establishing a presence in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Giuseppe Mazza, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said: "The traditional drug discovery process in fibrosis and solid tumours relies on artificial in vitro substrates and anial models. So far, these models have been shown to have limitations in providing efficient therapies for patients affected by these devastating diseases. The Engitix platform technology has already shown we can revolutionise our current understanding of human diseases while discovering more realistic targets for future drug development." Steve Arlington, PhD, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, former Lead Global Partner, Life Sciences and Pharmaceuticals at PWC and recently appointed Chairman, said: "Engitix is developing a unique platform with many research applications, which allows the study of human pathophysiology leading to the discovery of novel targets and therapeutics that will benefit patients through the acceleration of drug discovery in liver disease and cancer." -ENDS- About Engitix Ltd Engitix was established in 2016 to develop and commercialise research at the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, Division of Medicine. The Company was founded by Professor Massimo Pinzani and Dr Giuseppe Mazza and has an exclusive license from UCLB to enabling ECM patents and other intellectual property. Engitix is based at the Royal Free Hospital in London, UK. For more information, please visit www.engitix.com About ECM ECM is the non-cellular component present within all tissues and organs which provides not only essential physical scaffolding for the cellular constituents but also regulates crucial biochemical and biomechanical processes required for tissue morphogenesis, differentiation and homeostasis. Loss of regulation of ECM remodelling is associated with pathological conditions such as tissue fibrosis and cancer. About the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health The UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health (UCL-IL&DH), part of the UCL Division of Medicine, concentrates the entire clinical and scientific activity in Hepatology at UCL (University College London) in close coordination with Hepatobiliary Medicine, Surgery and Liver Transplantation. UCL-IL&DH is a major education site in the area of Liver and Digestive Medicine and provides training for UCL medical students, specialist registrars, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from the UK, from other EU Countries and from the rest of the World, including developing Countries. About UCLB UCL Business PLC (UCLB), part of UCL Innovation & Enterprise, is a leading technology commercialisation company that supports research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK's top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics. UCLB has a strong track record in commercialising medical technologies and provides technology transfer services to UCL's associated hospitals; University College London Hospitals, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Free London Hospital. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from laboratory to market. www.uclb.com www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005353/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Data Analytics Adoption Rate in Large Indian Firms is 64%: Study by Analytics India Magazine and INSOFE BENGALURU, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent study titled, State of Analytics At Domestic Firms In India 2018 by Analytics India Magazine and INSOFE suggests that Indian analytics, data science and big data industry is estimated to be $2.71 billion in revenues and growing at a healthy rate of 33.5% CAGR. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/690836/Analytics_India_Magazine_Logo.jpg ) For the study, more than 50 large Indian firms across the country were analysed by revenues as of 2017. IT companies were not a part of this study. The study was conducted on key metrics of analytics penetration, analytics maturity and analytics adoption. According to the study, telecom, financial services, ecommerce and private sector banks have almost 100% adoptions rates, whereas infrastructure sector has no adoption of analytics. In terms of cities, 44% of all analytic functions for Indian firms are based out of Mumbai, followed by Delhi NCR at 31%. It also suggested that almost 94% of analytics functions are based out of just three cities - Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi/NCR. It was an interesting finding that the average tenure of analytics professionals at Indian firms is 3.4 years. While public sector banks have the highest analytics tenure among India firms, at almost 5 Years, Ecommerce has the lowest at 2.5 years. The study also found out that there does not seem to be a correlation between maturity an penetration. Till last year, maturity and penetration were negatively correlated implying that as firms grow their analytics penetration they tend to lose on depth and maturity. This might be changing now as firms get more mature in deploying their analytics solutions. In terms of analytics penetration and maturity, private sector banking in India score high on maturity of analytics and data science, whereas public sector banking has among the lowest analytics penetrations among other sectors. It is just slightly higher than oil drilling and refineries sector. Ecommerce has emerged as one of the largest adopters of analytics and is evident with their focus on hiring senior analytics professionals. Bhasker Gupta, CEO & Founder, Analytics India Magazine said, "The study is indicative of a fact that Indian domestic firms are doing quite well for themselves and is slowly becoming deep-rooted with its presence in various industries. It positively indicates in terms of adoptions as well as relative maturity of analytics functions within these sectors, even for traditional businesses energy and utilities. We hope to see this trend maturing in coming years." "Matured organisations are beginning to treat AI/ML not as a specialization but truly as another way of solving problems. They want every senior executive, middle manager and non-tech team member to be capable of enabling this transformation," said Dakshinamurthy V Kolluru, Founder and President, INSOFE. About Analytics India Magazine Founded in 2012, Analytics India Magazine has since been dedicated to passionately championing and promoting the analytics ecosystem in India. It chronicles the technological progress in the space of analytics, artificial intelligence, data science, and big data by highlighting the innovations, players in the field, challenges shaping the future, through the promotion and discussion of ideas and thoughts by smart, ardent, action-oriented individuals who want to change the world. It has been a pre-eminent source of news, information and analysis for the Indian analytics ecosystem by covering opinions, analysis and insights on the key breakthroughs and developments in data-driven technologies as well as highlighting how they are being leveraged for future impact. Visit: http://www.analyticsindiamag.com. About INSOFE INSOFE is the world's leading research-driven educational institution in Applied Engineering with 12 full-time and 4 adjunct world-renowned faculty members holding PhDs from elite international universities and having worked as CXO's in large analytics firms. INSOFE has campuses located in Hyderabad, Bangalore and offers its flagship program PGP in Big Data Analytics in collaboration with Kirloskar, Pune. In addition to training over 1000 students a year through its classroom program, INSOFE works with over 100 corporations globally to train CXO's, Mid-Level managers and engineers Visit: http://www.insofe.edu.in Media Contact: Bhasker Gupta [email protected] +91-9916006869 Analytics India Magazine Pvt. Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Paradigm4 Launches Precision Medicine Platform for UK Biobank Data And Announces Industry-leading Adopters The UK Biobank is a groundbreaking international health resource with more than 1.5 petabytes of data planned for collection and analysis: medical records, genomic data, imaging, and measurements donated by 500,000 UK citizens. Paradigm4's newly launched REVEAL Translational Informatics (News - Alert) Platform with its PheGe Browser enables bioinformaticians and scientists to readily work with the scale and diversity of public and proprietary multi-omics, behavioral, clinical, health outcomes, and environmental data generated today. Built on Paradigm4's scientific data computational engine for complex data analysis and machine learning, REVEAL accelerates integrative, multi-modal, longitudinal, population-scale data science exploration and discovery. Alnylam, a global leader in RNAi therapeutics, has selected Paradigm4 as its partner to exploit the power of the UK Biobank data. Paradigm4's REVEAL and PheGe software will help Alnylam to identify patient cohorts based on medical records combined with advanced phenotype technologies such as imaging and wearables to uncover genetic and metabolic drivers of disease. "The absolute scale and diversity of the data in the UK Biobank will drive transformational GWAS/PheWAS research," said Paradigm4's CEO Marilyn Matz. "Our aggressive timelines provide Alnylam-along with our other top biopharma customers-with best-in-class performance and services to rapidly mine this valuable data set." "The UK Biobank dataset redefines our view of Real World Evidence to support active clinical development projects where new insights into cohort selection for recruiting or stratifying patients are very valuable," added Zachary Pitluk, Ph.D., V.P. of Life Sciences. "The UK Biobank data in REVEAL is a unique resource for in-silico trial simulations with its ease of data selection and support for optimizing machine learning parameters. Enabling customers with a truly private analytical environment offers a distinct advantage in a competitive market like drug development." About Paradigm4 Paradigm4, a scientific information solutions provider, advances scientific and engineering insights by enabling scientists and data scientists to take full advantage of the scale, resolution, and diversity of public and proprietary scientific data to accelerate their research. Leading Life Sciences, IoT, instrument, and research institutes use Paradigm4's REVEAL discovery engine for collaborative, reproducible research. The company was founded by renowned database researcher, Turing Award laureate MIT (News - Alert) Professor Michael Stonebraker. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005106/en/ [November 27, 2018] FatPipe Inc To Present Real-Time SD-WAN at Nutanix .NEXT Europe 2018 LONDON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FatPipe Inc, a Nutanix alliance partner, announced today that it will host a booth at Nutanix's annual .NEXT Europe conference to introduce integration with Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor for dynamic, intelligent, real-time SD-WAN. FatPipe, the creator, inventor, and multiple patents holder in SD-WAN and next-generation hybrid WAN solutions, will be at Nutanix .NEXT Europe to showcase MPVPN, a dynamic, intelligent, real-time SD-WAN networking solution that is ideal for Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and powerful multi-cloud architectures. Unique FatPipe Real-Time SD-WAN benefits include: Providing the highest possible WAN reliability up to 99.999% Inbound load balancing and SmartDNS providing inbound network reliability for servers up to 99.999%, and sub-second failover of DNS queries without the need for BGP propagation of addresses Reducing bandwidth needs by 40% to 70% using a combination of WAN optimization and patented transmission technologies Patented technology is automatically failing over VoIP, video, VPN and data sessions in a sub-second without dropping calls or videos or data sessions, including failover to LTE. Patented technology providing a unique block chain like security for data transmission providing the highest possible WAN transmission security. Seamless integration with layer 2 and layer 3 networks Seamless integration with SDN, extending SDNs from the Datacenter-to-Desktop Ability to process over 10 million sessions and ore than 2 million BGP routes and combine up to 16 data lines Compatibility with multiple MPLS lines. November 27th - 29th in London . "FatPipe is pleased to offer virtual machines and VNFs to partners to expand the delivery channels for its products and partners. We look forward to working with Nutanix in reaching out to global companies which require full networking solutions," said Ms. Sanch Datta, President and CTO, FatPipe Networks. "STI put extensive effort into defining our next-gen global technology stack, independently choosing FatPipe and Nutanix as key elements. We are thrilled that they have since established a technology alliance, ensuring long-term interoperability and reliability between their solutions. I personally see the alliance between Nutanix and FatPipe as a strategic advantage for STI, providing us a seat at the intersection of two industry leaders," said Michael Fitzpatrick, CTO, Sequential Technology International. .NEXT Conference is the IT industry's leading datacenter and cloud conference where executives, IT infrastructure and operations leaders, architects, DevOps practitioners, and partners learn and discuss state-of-the-art practices on how to build and run enterprise clouds, on their terms, that provide agility and foster innovation to give businesses a competitive edge. This year's Europe conference will be held on November 27-29 at ExCeL in London, UK. About FatPipe Networks, Ltd. FatPipe Networks invented the concept of software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and hybrid WANs that eliminate the need for hardware and software, or cooperation from ISPs and allows companies and service providers to control multi-link network traffic. FatPipe currently has 11 U.S. patents and more than 180 technology claims related to multipath, software-defined networking and selective encryption of broadband networks. FatPipe technology provides the world's best intra-corporate wide area network solutions that transcend Internet and other network failures to maintain business continuity and high transmission security. FatPipe, with several thousand customers, has headquarters in Chennai, India, and the United States with offices around the world, with resellers worldwide including almost all national resellers in the US. For more information, visit www.FatPipe.com. Follow us on Twitter @FatPipe_Inc. Contacts: FatPipe Networks, Ltd Pachaiyappan Subramanian +91 44.6670.7200 x3227 [email protected] Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654439/FatPipe_Networks_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] KBRwyle Helps Air Force and Air Force Families Recover After Hurricane Michael HOUSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) announced today that its global government services business, KBRwyle, is helping the U.S. Air Force (USAF) recover in the wake of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida. KBRwyle is assisting with the recovery efforts at Tyndall Air Force Base which sustained catastrophic damage from Michael's 150 mph winds. In addition, KBRwyle has donated to the Air Force Aid Society's (AFAS) hurricane relief fund to help Airmen and their families who have been impacted. According to the U.S. Air Force, the Category 4 storm damaged every building, including all base housing and the elementary school. The hurricane, one of the strongest in U.S. history, completely devastated the flight line and wiped out the marina, destroying all of its structures and docks. Hours after Hurricane Michael devastated the base, KBRwyle was activated under the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program (AFCAP) contingency support contract. KBRwyle personnel arrived on site within 48 hours to assess damage and establish critical life support services. Since arriving at Tyndall, KBRwyle's team has been working around the clock to help the Air Force restore the base. Employees have been tackling a spectrum of tasks, including providing temporary fixes to severely damaged buildings, removing debris, and supplying critical resources for recovery operations. These resources include food, water, ice, emergency power and satellite communications. KBRwyle is also assisting with airfield management to keep the flight line open for additional supply and relief efforts. "KBRwyle has been working closely with the Air Force, as well as numerous small and local subcontractors, to get the base up and running as soon as possible. It's been a tremendous demonstration of teamwork," said Byron Bright, President, KBR Government Services U.S. "We are committed to the recovery efforts at this base." Beyond the physical restoration efforts at Tyndall, KBRwyle also made a donation to the AFAS fund to benefit displaced Airmen and their families at the base, as well as others impacted by Hurricane Michael in the hardest hit areas of Florida. AFAS is the official charity of the U.S Air Force and provides emergency financial assistance, educational support and community programs for service members. "Our thoughts are with those impacted by Hurricane Michael," said Bright. "Just as KBRwyle stands by our service members on the frontlines, we are proud to support them on this oad to recovery in the aftermath of the storm." The international footprint and expertise of KBRwyle enables it to mobilize and respond to customer needs within 24 hours. It executes this work through a variety of contingency contracts with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and the Department of State. As part of KBR, the company also leverages its business success to benefit those in need. Since 2007, KBR has contributed nearly $18 million dollars and provided over 87,000 employee volunteer hours to benefit charitable causes around the globe. About KBR, Inc. KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs approximately 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 75 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses: Government Services, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full lifecycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics Technology, including proprietary technology focused on the monetization of hydrocarbons (especially natural gas and natural gas liquids) in ethylene and petrochemicals; ammonia, nitric acid and fertilizers; oil refining and gasification Hydrocarbons Services, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU); program management and consulting services KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver. Visit www.kbr.com Forward Looking Statement The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company. KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kbrwyle-helps-air-force-and-air-force-families-recover-after-hurricane-michael-300755526.html SOURCE KBR, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Asterias Biotherapeutics Announces Fourth Patient Dosed in First-in-Human Clinical Study of Immunotherapy VAC2 in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: AST), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer and cell-based therapeutics to treat neurological conditions associated with demyelination, today announced enrollment and dosing of the fourth subject in the first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of VAC2 in the United Kingdom. This is the first patient enrolled and dosed at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK. This initial clinical trial, which is being sponsored, managed and funded by Cancer Research UK, will examine the safety and tolerability of VAC2 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as the studys primary endpoints. Secondary and tertiary endpoints of the study include evaluations of the immunogenicity of VAC2 in NSCLC. We are excited to be participating in this clinical trial using Asterias groundbreaking dendritic cell technology, VAC2 for NSCLC, commented Gary Middleton, Professor of Medical Oncology at The University of Birmingham and Principal Investigator at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the trial center. The patient received their sixth and final injection of VAC2 this week and there have been no reported complications. We remain excited about the potential of VAC2 for NSCLC and we are thankful for Cancer Research UKs sponsorship of the clinical trial and look forward to more patients being enrolled at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as well as at the third trial site that CRUK is planning on opening, commented Michael Mulroy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Asterias. The enrollment timeline for this trial remains on track and we are continuing to evaluate further development of VAC2 as a monotherapy or in combination with other therapies in various cancer indications that may benefit from this therapy. About VAC2 VAC2 is an innovative immunotherapy product that contains mature dendritic cells derived from pluripotent stem cells. These non-patient specific (allogeneic) VAC2 cells are engineered to express a modified form of telomerase, a protein widely expressed in tumor cells, but rarely found in normal cells. The modified form of telomerase invokes enhanced stimulation of immune responses to the protein. Similar to an earlier, Asterias-sponsored, hematological cancer program using an autologous approach, the VAC2 dendritic cells instruct the immune system to generate responses against telomerase and, through this mechanism, target tumor cells. VAC2s mode of action is complementary to and potentially synergistic with other immune therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors or other immune pathway inhibitors. About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and the VAC2 Trial Lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell) is the leading cause of cancer-related death, accounting for about one-quarter of all cancer deaths and more than colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers combined. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 80% to 85% of lung cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. The three main types of NSCLC are adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. The American Cancer Societys estimates for lung cancer in the United States for 2017 are: about 222,500 new cases of lung cancer, and about 155,870 deaths from lung cancer. Despite the large number of people afflicted by non-small cell lung cancer, patients remain vastly underserved due to a scarcity of effective treatments. According to statistics published by Cancer Research UK, the five year survival rate for lung cancer patients in England and Wales is less than 10%. As currently designed, the first VAC2 clinical trial will enroll up to 24 subjects into one of two cohorts, depending on the stage of their non-small cell lung cancer. The first cohort will evaluate VAC2 in up to 12 subjects with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Subjects in this cohort, who carry the major histocompatibility gene, HLA-A2, will receive six weekly injections of VAC2 and will be followed for safety, immune responses to telomerase and overall clinical survival. These survival results will be compared directly to a control grop who meet all of the other inclusion/exclusion criteria but do not possess the HLA-A2 gene. Assuming safety is demonstrated in the first cohort, enrolment will advance to a second cohort. In the second cohort, early stage subjects who have had successful resection of their tumor with no evidence of metastasis will be enrolled. Up to 12 subjects in this second cohort who carry the major histocompatibility allele HLA-A2 will receive six, weekly injections of VAC2 and will be followed for safety, immune responses to telomerase, overall clinical survival and time to relapse. These survival results will again be compared directly to a control group who meet all of the inclusion/exclusion criteria of cohort 2 but are not HLA-A2+. Subjects will be followed for one year for immune response to telomerase and for 2 years for the survival endpoints. The supply of VAC2 to be used in this trial is being manufactured by Cancer Research UKs Biotherapeutics Development Unit. Asterias and Cancer Research UK are exploring the combination of VAC2 with an immune pathway inhibitor. About Asterias Biotherapeutics Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing cell-based therapeutics to treat neurological conditions associated with demyelination and cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer. Asterias is presently focused on advancing three clinical-stage programs which have the potential to address areas of very high unmet medical need in the fields of neurology and oncology. OPC1 (oligodendrocyte progenitor cells) is currently in a Phase 1/2a dose escalation clinical trial in spinal cord injury. VAC2 (antigen-presenting allogeneic dendritic cells) is an allogeneic cancer immunotherapy. The Company's research partner, Cancer Research UK, has commenced a first-in-human clinical trial of VAC2 in non-small cell lung cancer. Asterias is also sponsoring pre-clinical work in two conditions with a demyelinating component: Multiple Sclerosis and White Matter Stroke, and is evaluating other cancer indications where its immunotherapy platform could provide therapeutic benefit. Additional information about Asterias can be found at www.asteriasbiotherapeutics.com. About Cancer Research UKs Clinical Development Partnerships Cancer Research UKs Clinical Development Partnerships (CDP) is an initiative that aims to develop promising anti-cancer agents from companies that are not able to take them through early phase clinical trials themselves. Under the scheme, Cancer Research UK sponsors and funds early clinical development, while companies retain all underlying rights to their programmes. At the end of the study, companies can decide if they wish to develop the drug further based on the clinical trial results. If they choose not to, the charity may secure an alternative partner and ensure the drug has every possible chance of reaching patients, with a share of future income returned to Cancer Research UK. About Cancer Research UKs Centre for Drug Development Cancer Research UK has an impressive record of developing novel treatments for cancer. The Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development, formerly the Drug Development Office, has been pioneering the development of new cancer treatments for 25 years, taking over 140 potential new anti-cancer agents into clinical trials in patients. It currently has a portfolio of around 30 new anti-cancer agents in preclinical development, Phase I or early Phase II clinical trials. Six of these new agents have made it to market including temozolomide for brain cancer, abiraterone for prostate cancer and rucaparib for ovarian cancer. Two other drugs are in late development Phase III trials. This rate of success is comparable to that of any pharmaceutical company. About Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK is the worlds leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Cancer Research UKs pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives. Cancer Research UK receives no funding from the UK government for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on vital donations from the public. Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years. Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UKs ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses. Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Statements pertaining to future financial and/or operating and/or clinical research results, future growth in research, technology, clinical development, and potential opportunities for Asterias, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as "will," "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates") should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and/or commercialization of potential products, uncertainty in the results of clinical trials or regulatory approvals, need and ability to obtain future capital, and maintenance of intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the businesses of Asterias, particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in Asterias' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Asterias disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Contacts: Investor Relations (510) 456-3892 [email protected] or EVC Group, Inc. Michael Polyviou/Todd Kehrli (732) 933-2754 [email protected] ; [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Pepperdine Graziadio Leaps 10 Spots in Bloomberg Businessweek Best Business Schools Ranking The Pepperdine Graziadio Business School continues to increase its rankings, recently climbing to #65 on Bloomberg Businessweek's list of Best Business Schools, a ten-point leap over last year's position of 75. "Considering there are nearly 2,000 business schools globally, to be ranked in the top 65 sends a clear message to high-achieving professionals that we are delivering positive outcomes, both on-site and online, for our students," said Deryck J. van Rensburg, dean of the Graziadio Business School. The Graziadio School also improved by one position to #14 Best Online MBA on the Princeton Review's list of Best Business Schools, and claimed #7 on Princeton Review's list of the "Greatest Resource for Minority Students" due to Graziadio's diverse student body, supportive campus culture, and significant resources available for minority students. "The Graziadio School is honored to be named a top business school by both Bloomberg (News - Alert) Businessweek and the Princeton Review," noted Van Rensburg. "The continued recognition as one of the country's finest institutions for business education is driven in part by our core values of integrity and innovation, as well as our desire to shape leaders that drive meaningful, positive change in their global organizations and communities. We are committed to developing Best for the World Leaders who strive not just to be the best, but to do their best on every level." The Graziadio School was also recognized by the Princeton Review for enrolling competitive students who thrive in a fast-paced learning environment. Graziadio prides itself on preparing graduates to succeed in a rapidly evolving business landscape, and all of the Pepperdine Graziadio MBA programs provide a values-centered, collaborative, and experience-driven approach to developing students' leadership skills. The full-time MBA program features a certificate in the award-winning Socially, Environmentally, and Ethically Responsible (SEER) Business Strategy program; provides an accelerated one-year program; and more than 40 international study abroad opportunities. The online MBA caters to working professionals with its flexible learning options, but is designed to embrace any student interested in experience-driven learning that can be immediately applied to real-world business situations. Bloomberg Businessweek ranked 124 business schools around the world, 93 in the US, based on self-reported employment reports and surveys sent to graduating students, relatively recent alumni, and employers. Its ranking of full-time MBA programs is based on four indexes: compensation, networking, learning, and entrepreneurship. The Princeton Review Best Online MBA rankings use a combination of factors including institutional and student survey data evaluating career outcomes, admissions selectivity, and academic rigor, among other topics. Its list of Top 25 Online MBA Programs incorporates student opinions that were collected through its online MBA student survey and institutional data reported by administrators at the business schools. About Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School For the last 50 years, the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School has challenged individuals to think boldly and drive meaningful change within their industries and communities. Dedicated to developing Best for the World Leaders, the Graziadio School offers a comprehensive range of MBA, MS, executive, and doctoral degree programs grounded in integrity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The Graziadio School advances experiential learning through small classes with distinguished faculty that stimulate critical thinking and meaningful connection, inspiring students and working professionals to realize their greatest potential as values-centered leaders. Follow Pepperdine Graziadio on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005276/en/ [November 27, 2018] Indian Head Casino gains an IT network with better security, improved reliability and is easier to operate with Tellabs Optical LAN DALLAS, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tellabs, the leading provider of Passive Optical LAN (POL) solutions, and ITConnect, a premier network integrator, installed a Passive Optical Local Area Network (LAN) at Indian Head Casino and Plateau Travel Plaza firmly positioning the Warm Springs Tribes at the forefront of fiber optic technology for their IT network. Located in Central Oregon, the Indian Head Casino is a modern 40,000-square foot building housing 500 slot machines, blackjack tables and a top-notch restaurant. The contemporary Plateau Travel Plaza includes parking for up to 70 trucks, laundry facilities, fueling service, a 3,000-square foot convenience store, home style seated dining and 30 slot machines at the indoor casino. ITConnect, a qualified network integrator of casino gaming and casino surveillance, worked with Indian Head Casino IT staff to research the differences between traditional switch-based copper LAN and the more progressive Tellabs Optical LAN (OLAN). After a thorough investigation, all parties agreed with confidence to move forward at both Indian Head Casino and Plateau Travel Plaza with the OLAN design based on these four (4) unique differentiators: Smaller footprint in the main data center, telecom closets and cabling pathways Better security with a reduction in points of network vulnerability and less human touch Improved reliability with redundancy at the main data center equipment and fiber route diversity Ease of operations due to OLANs centralized intelligence and management With the OLAN design, we were able to reduce the number of switches our team managed, by 60 to 70%, which was big help for us, said James Welden, Systems Administrator at Indian Head Casino. Managing and troubleshooting the old-style networks was a nightmare and not user friendly at all. Our experience with our new Optical LAN is that it is less complicated, and more secure, to manage a whole IP network with a few IP addresses versus the many IP addresses we managed with our former legacy switched network." Tellabs is very pleased to help the Warm Springs Tribes achieve their goal of being a regional IT technology leader with our Passive Optical LAN installation at Indian Head Casino and Plateau Trvel Plaza, said Jim Norrod, Tellabs President and CEO. Its great to see how OLANs small form-factor, simplified design, better security, improved reliability and ease of operations has delivered many advantages for their IT staff, their customers and the surrounding community they serve. This comes as a direct result of Tellabs ongoing effort to replicate this success with many other tribal nations across the country." The amount of network uptime required for this installation, with the simplicity of managing the system presented, ITConnect with the opportunity to showcase the Tellabs Type-B PON protection alongside the enhanced features of Tellabs Panorama PON Manager. This allowed for virtually no downtime including during maintenance periods. said Brian E. Hardy, Executive Vice President of ITConnect. For the Casino and Travel Plaza just finding a maintenance window without lost revenue is a challenge, with Type-B PON protection, this was undeniably the best solution as it guaranteed network uptime. For more details about the Tellabs Optical LAN equipment, that was skillfully designed and installed by ITConnect, at Indian Head Casino and Plateau Travel Plaza, you can access our user case study - https://www.tellabs.com/optical-lan-positions-indian-head-casino-at-forefront-of-technology/. About Warm Springs Tribes Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a nation where the sun shines most every day, and time turns to the pace of a culture thousands of years in the making. It is the land of the Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute Native American Tribes, stretching from the snowcapped summit of the Cascade Mountains to the palisaded cliffs of the Deschutes River in Central Oregon. We invite you to visit Warm Springs. We invite you to escape to another nation. https://warmsprings-nsn.gov/ About ITConnect ITConnect designs and deploys infrastructure configurations for all types of businesses, from start-ups to legacy migrations, offering business stability and management ease. ITConnect provides its data customers with the strategies, solutions, technologies and services that can help to maximize the network availability mandated by real-time networking and the operational costs containment or reduction that can result. ITConnect holds all the qualifications necessary for casino gaming and casino surveillance plan, design and build activities. ITConnect has extended years of experience integrating Passive Optical LAN and all possible Internet of Things (IoT) and smart/intelligent building connected devices. http://www.itconnectinc.com/ About Tellabs Tellabs is leading network innovations with access technologies built to exceed todays demands while delivering modern high-performance solutions for the future. Fast and secure access has never been in more demand for enterprise and government connectivity. Tellabs sole focus is to deliver simple, secure, scalable, stable access to optimize network performance. Tellabs has delivered carrier-class access solutions to service providers for more than two decades. We are now expanding that leadership by defining the future of enterprise networking that connects the campus, buildings and inspires people. http://www.tellabs.com Media Contact John Hoover +1-707-206-1751 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Katipult Reports Record Revenue in Third Quarter 2018 Financial Results 22.3% Year over Year Increase in Total Revenue and 37.2% Quarter over Quarter Increase in Subscription Revenue VANCOUVER, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - Katipult Technology Corp. ("Katipult" or the "Company"), an industry leading and award winning fintech company, is pleased to announce its third quarter (Q3) financial results for the nine month period ended September 30, 2018. Katipult continued new customer acquisitions during the quarter and the subscription revenue has continued to grow. Katipult is pleased to report that the revenue recorded during the third quarter represented the Company's highest reported subscription revenue to date. The Company also continued development efforts to ensure the platforms of new clients go live more rapidly and and into decentralized ledger technology. "This quarter we are delighted to report our highest quarterly subscription revenue in Katipult's history. As a software infrastructure company, we have had a long focus on product development and R&D and we have now begun to implement our sales and marketing strategy which we expect to drive growth in the future" said Brock Murray, CEO of Katipult. Financial Highlights Third Quarter 2018 Total revenue for quarter ended September 30, 2018 increased by 37.8% to $0.3 million , compared to $0.2 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2017 . increased by 37.8% to , compared to for the quarter ended . Subscription revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 increased by 32.4% to $0.2 million , compared to $0.1 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2017 . increased by 32.4% to , compared to for the quarter ended . Gross margin percentage for Q3 2018 was 73.9% compared to 62.2% in 2017. Total comprehensive loss for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 was $0.5 million . was . As at September 30, 2018 ,the Company's cash balance was $2.9 million compared to $0.3 million at December 31, 2017 . ,the Company's cash balance was compared to at . Katipult was awarded $120,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to support the development of an "Investor License" application on a decentralized network. The Investor License is intended to address all mechanisms of investor onboarding and auditability necessary for regulatory compliance. from the of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to support the development of an "Investor License" application on a decentralized network. The Investor License is intended to address all mechanisms of investor onboarding and auditability necessary for regulatory compliance. In November 2018 , the Corporation won an award and secured a cash prize of $100,000 SGD (c $95,000 ) at the 2018 Singapore FinTech Festival, the world's largest platform for the global FinTech community. 40 finalists were shortlisted from more than 280 global submissions, with entries evaluated based on four criteria: impact, practicality, interoperability, and uniqueness and creativity. The winners were selected by a panel of 17 judges who represented a cross-section of international and local experts from the private and public sectors, including representatives of HSBC, Deloitte, DBS Bank. Accenture and Boston Consulting among others. This award was strong validation of Katipult's technology and the market need it addresses. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statement: Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements: Certain disclosure in this release, including statements regarding the increased or continued industry interest in the Company's product, converting existing sales interest and pipeline growth into revenue, expanding the sales force, generating new sales opportunities, effectively and efficiently utilizing proceeds from financings constitute forward-looking statements. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company, including, but not limited to, the Company's anticipated cash needs, that the cash available to the Company is as expected, the Company's product will continue to operate as expected, the industry will continue to see value in the Company's product, the Company will be able to recruit talented and experienced sales, support and other individuals required to execute the Company's plans. Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors may include, among others, the risk that cash available to the Company is not as expected, the Company's pricing and product offering is no longer relevant, the Company isn't able to recruit the personnel it requires on terms acceptable to the Company, regulatory changes that may require significant rework of the Company's product. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. SOURCE Katipult Technology Corp. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] 16th edition of the Canadian Awarding ceremony of the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science fellowships MONTREAL, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - During a ceremony held on November 26 at the French Embassy in Canada, five Canadian researchers were honoured and rewarded through the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science program, with the support of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. In presence of Kareen Rispal, Ambassador of France in Canada, host of the event and the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, these 5 young women joined the international scientific community of 102 Laureates and more than 3000 young women researchers, who, over the last 20 years, have benefied from increased recognition within the scientific community. Women continue to be under-represented in public and professional life, particularly in science, where the glass ceiling is still a reality. Today, only 28% of scientists are women and 3% of Nobel Prizes for Science have been awarded to women since the awards began in 1901. Despite this, there are many eminent women scientists, and raising their profile is vital to promoting greater gender equality in science. Annually for the past 20 years, the L'Oreal Foundation has recognized exceptional female scientists, in partnership with UNESCO, and taken action to improve the balance of women and men in science. The 2018 Canadian Fellows Since 2003, L'Oreal Canada and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO reward 5 young doctorate and post doctorate women researchers. The L'Oreal-UNESCO 2018 Excellence in Research Fellowships, each worth $20,000, are awarded to support major postdoctoral research projects undertaken by young Canadians at a pivotal time in their career. They reward excellence and allow top scientists, selected by a panel of experts, to further their research. Dr. Liette Vasseur, President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, had the pleasure to present them to: Dr. Jacquelyn Cragg , Postdoctoral Fellow, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia ; , Postdoctoral Fellow, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), ; Dr. Stefanie N Rezansoff, Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University and Member of the Somers Research Group. A $10,000 NSERC and L'Oreal-UNESCO 2018 For Women in Science Supplement was awarded by Dr. Pierre Charest, Vice-President, Research Grants and Scholarships Directorate, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to a Canadian scientist involved in a promising research project, namely: Dr. Erin McConnell , Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University . To support the mission of the France Canada Research Fund (FCRF), Ruby Heap, Co-president FCRF, awarded two fellowships of $5,000 each to encourage and develop scientific and university exchanges between France and Canada, in all areas of knowledge, from fundamental science to human and social sciences. The L'Oreal Canada France Canada Research Fund 2018 fellows are: Jalina Bielaska Da Silva , PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto ; , PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the ; Adina Madularea, PhD Candidate, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies at the University of Ottawa . In his closing remarks, Frank Kollmar, President and CEO of L'Oreal Canada, said: "Tonight, we honor women of science, because the L'Oreal Foundation and UNESCO have a conviction that is also obvious: the world needs science and science needs women. These 5 young researchers represent the future of scientific excellence in Canada and the advancement of our society." *Nobel Prizes and UNESCO Science Report Toward 2030, 2015 About L'Oreal Canada L'Oreal Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of L'Oreal Group, the largest cosmetics company in the world. Headquartered in Montreal, the company had sales of $1.192 billion in 2017 and employs more than 1,300 people. It holds a portfolio of 39 brands, encompassing all aspects of beauty, and is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, salons, pharmacies, drugstores, and branded retail. About the Canadian Commission for UNESCO The Canadian Commission for UNESCO serves as a bridge between Canadians and the vital work of UNESCOthe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. By promoting UNESCO values, priorities and programs in Canada and by bringing the voices of Canadian experts to the international stage, the Commission contributes to a peaceful, equitable and sustainable future that leaves no one behind. SOURCE L'Oreal Canada Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Dataguise Supports GDPR Compliant Cloud Initiatives at AWS re:Invent 2018 FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dataguise , a leader in data privacy protection and compliance, today highlighted the companys newest generation software at AWS re:Invent 2018 in Las Vegas, November 27-29 in booth 2422. New capabilities in the software are designed to make it easier for organizations to extract maximum value from available data without the unplanned exposure of sensitive customer information. At the event, Dataguise will demonstrate how DgSecure is supporting enterprise administrators using Amazon Redshift, Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) as the basis for secure data analytics, application testing and development, and the general protection of sensitive data across enterprise cloud repositories. Dataguise DgSecure delivers a one-stop solution for the detection, auditing, protection, and monitoring of sensitive data and personally identifiable information (PII) across the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud storage portfolio as well as structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data repositories located on the corporate premises. New in DgSecure are enhanced capabilities that support General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance across some of the most data-rich environments in the enterprise, including: Expanded GDPR platform support and streamlined flow of Right of Access (RoA) and Right to Erasure (RtE) across data platforms; Unique and Total Counts of sensitive information detected for use in GDPR Breach Reporting; New GDPR view within the DgSecure dashboard; Enhanced isolation for multiple groups using the product within multi-tenant environments, and New built-in scheduler for GDPR compliance related procedures. As Trov continues to reinvent the notion of insurance with simple and transparent approaches, we needed a cloud solution that offered unmatched protection of our sensitive data. Dataguise and AWS gave us the confidence we need to rapidly innovate while maintaining compliance," said Tyrone Mills, Chief Information Security Officer, Trov. When we became aware of Dataguise, wht really clicked was the ability to find sensitive data in our structured and unstructured data sources, including Amazon S3 buckets, MySQL, MongoDB databases, and so on. Customers are increasingly looking for new ways to efficiently protect their data, said Ken Chestnut, Senior Manager, Partner Ecosystem, Amazon Web Services, Inc. We are happy to support Dataguise as they help customers get the most value from data, especially in highly regulated industries, with a comprehensive, scalable, and enterprise-grade infrastructure that is secure and compliant. Organizations benefitting from the use of Dataguise DgSecure with AWS have a complete visual on where sensitive data is located and whether it is properly protected to comply with a wide-ranging set of data privacy regulations. Dataguise allows customers to further gain from the value of data within Amazon Redshift, Amazon RDS, and Amazon S3 and invites data and security administrators with data infrastructure(s) deployed on AWS to see how Dataguise and its team of GDPR experts can assist with cloud-based data privacy protection and compliance. It is now mandatory for organizations with any business operations in Europe to protect or erase sensitive customer data as mandated by the GDPR, said JT Sison, VP, Business Development and Marketing, Dataguise. Detecting that information has been a challenge for many data privacy and compliance officers, especially at large enterprises with petabytes of data. DgSecure provides the tools necessary to make this possible. We look forward to sharing case studies of customers in highly regulated industries at the event this week, showing their use of DgSecure to comply with a wide range of privacy data mandates. For more information about DgSecure on AWS, visit Dataguise's page at https://www.dataguise.com/amazon-web-services/ . Additionally, access a free educational webinar available at: https://www.dataguise.com/webinars/aws-dataguise-finserv-webinar-092018/ . Tweet This: @Dataguise Supports GDPR Compliant Cloud Initiatives at AWS re:Invent 2018 - http://bit.ly/2pi1bQm #GDPR Resources: Follow Dataguise on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/dataguise Follow Dataguise on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/company/dataguise Follow Dataguise on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/dataguise Contact Dataguise directly at: http://www.dataguise.com/contact_us/ About Dataguise Dataguise is the leader in sensitive data governance, providing data privacy protection and compliance solutions that discover sensitive data and keep it secure. DgSecure by Dataguise precisely detects, protects, audits, and monitors sensitive data across the enterprise, on premises and in the cloud. Delivering a single, dashboard view of sensitive data security, policies, access, and trends, DgSecure gives IT and business leaders the insights they need to manage risk and compliance while maximising the value of information assets. The company is proud to secure the data of many Fortune 500 companies committed to responsible data stewardship. To learn more, visit: www.dataguise.com . Contact: Joe Austin (818) 332-6166 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] StrongKey Expands Market Share with Tellaro Line of Data Security Appliances CUPERTINO, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- StrongKey announced today that its Tellaro data security appliance line has reached significant milestones in customer adoption, with more than 49 percent growth in hardware sales already this year. StrongKey has government, military and large enterprise customers with production implementations on six continents. The company also serves mid-market businesses such as legal firms, local healthcare providers, educational institutions and accounting firms. Click to Tweet: [email protected] Expands Market Share with Tellaro Line of Data Security Appliances: https://tinyurl.com/y8wvkmqg #encryption #authentication The StrongKey Tellaro line provides secure key storage and management within each of the appliance's standard FIPS-certified Trusted Platform Module (TPM) or optional Hardware Security Module (HSM) cryptoprocessors. The unique Tellaro T-100 is a smaller, more employable data security appliance ideal for proof of concept and branch office data protectionproviding enterprise-grade security at an affordable price. Unlike many single-purpose security appliances, Tellaro uniquely integrates several critical cryptographic components into one security solution: data and file encryption, strong authentication, digital signatures and hardware-backed key management with simple-to-use web services that can be integrated within hours. Obaidullah Kazmi, technology head, CREDO Technology Services LLC Dubai (UAE), said: "Tellaro offers unmatched data encryption and authentication capabilities in the industry today at a competitive price making the ROI for our customers a no-brainer." Arshad Noor, CTO, StrongKey, said: "Organizations are beginning to see that firewalls and malware detection software, while necessary, are of no help once an attacker is inside the network. A smarter data security strategy is to make network breaches irrelevant by encrypting data at the application layer so that it is inaccessible to cybercriminals. Our solutions have the robustness that secures the mission-critical and revenue-generating applications for Fortune 50 companies as well as the affordability that enables mid-sized businesses to comply with the most stringent security regulations." About StrongKey StrongKey, Inc. is a privately held company based in Silicon Valley, California. It is the leader in enterprise key management infrastructure, bringing new levels of capability and data security at a price point significantly lower than other solutions on the market. Providing products and services in symmetric key management, encryption, tokenization and strong authentication, StrongKey is focused on securing data in cloud computing, e-commerce, healthcare, finance and other sectors mandating protection of sensitive data. StrongKey's solutions are installed at customer sites around the world and are key components of mission-critical business operations. PR contact: Katrina Porter Nadel Phelan, Inc. 831-440-2406 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/strongkey-expands-market-share-with-tellaro-line-of-data-security-appliances-300755667.html SOURCE StrongKey [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Savi Introduces Two New Sensors for IoT Asset Tracking for the Government and Military Savi, an innovator in big data/machine learning analytic solutions, supply chain management software and sensor technology, today announced it has added two new devices to its current suite of active RFID transponders and interrogators available for use by the US Department of Defense (DoD), NATO, and Federal Government agencies. The new devices are Savi Locate, which is a GPS location sensor and Savi IoT, which is a hybrid active RFID interrogator (reader) and transponder (transmitter). Savi Locate will deliver real-time, in-transit visibility data from the Savi Visibility solution to the DoD's Radio Frequency In-Transit Visibility (RF-ITV) system. Both devices send data over a mobile network. Because the Savi IoT device is backward compatible, it can both transpond or interrogate active RFID data to and from the thousands of active RFID tags and readers the military has already deployed. Savi IoT can also send active RFID ata over a mobile network without the use of fixed readers. When acting as an active RFID reader, data is sent over a mobile network to Savi Visibility and to the DoD's RF-ITV system. Now, whenever a mobile network is available, the location of government assets in a yard, or in-transit, can be known in real-time. "Today, military logisticians must provide a more mobile, agile fighting force with the equipment, materiel and supplies they need for a global mission. Sensors that can go anywhere, streaming real-time data on the count, location and condition of critical assets support always-ready, cost effective lethality," said Rosemary Johnston, Senior Vice President of Operations, Savi Technology. "Savi Locate and Savi IoT both provide enhanced support to military supply chains, recognizing the need for more flexible implementation options. The new products we are offering demonstrate our commitment to continued innovation in the active RFID environment and provide a bridge to new IoT technologies." The Pentagon just completed a multi-year audit of $2.7 trillion worth of DoD inventory as part of its Department of Defense Agency Financial Report FY 2018. The audit identified major flaws in IT security processes and inaccuracies with its internal asset tracking databases. These findings reinforce how sensors that pinpoint the location of vehicles, weapons, heavy equipment, technical tools and supplies from moment to moment are crucial to tracking and managing that valuable inventory with the potential to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Savi Locate and Savi IoT have recently received HERO certifications and will be ready for sale to government and military customers upon Notice to Proceed in Savi's sole-provider active RFID-IV contract (#W52P1J-14-D-0014) with the U.S. Department of Defense. About Savi Technology Savi delivers live streaming facts and insights about the location, condition, and security of in-transit goods. Using big data and analytics, Savi equips shippers, carriers, 3PLs, and governments with actionable insights to optimize supply chains before, during and after transit, reducing costs and inventory while improving service. Savi is trusted to support some of the world's largest and most complex supply chain networks for large CPG companies, Pharma, the US DoD and over a dozen government agencies around the globe. To learn more, visit www.savi.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005160/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] AchieveIt Completes Exclusive Atlanta Venture Fund Program ATLANTA, Nov. 27 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AchieveIt Online, LLC, a leading provider of cloud-based enterprise software for planning and execution, today announced it has completed the Engage Ventures 2018 go-to-market growth program. Engage is the largest strategic grouping of major corporations in an independent venture fund. Engage's mission is to provide talented entrepreneurs with access to capital, customers, and distribution channels through its corporate partnerships, with a focus on helping companies gain access to enterprise-level opportunities. "Anytime the most prominent Atlanta companies can come together to support smaller, innovative companies like ours to create value, it's a win for the entire community," said Christy Johnson, CEO, AchieveIt. "This program not only provided invaluable learnings on how large enterprises buy and what they value, but it also gave us unprecedented insights from their senior executives. We benefited greatly from the experience." The 13 partners supporting Engage include: AT&T; Chick-fil-A; Cox Enterprises; Delta Air Lines; Georgia-Pacific; Georgia Power Foundation Inc.; Georgia Tech; The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE); Invesco Ltd.; The Home Depot; Tech Square Ventures; and UPS. Invest Georgia has also joined the fund, which is managed by Tech Square Ventures. "AchieveIt was a great fit for Engage. While the Engage corporate partners span many markets and verticals, the pains and complexity of managing strategic plans and initiatives are felt by all large organizations," said Thiago Olson, Managing Director of Engage Ventures. "AchieveIt is changing how companies execute and manage initiatives by increasing visibility across multiple strategic plans. At Engage, we are excited to be a part of their journey." AchieveIt's cloud-based platform helps companies manage a portfolio of plans and their outcomes. Built-in accountability and update automation make reporting more efficient and accurate, and the system's 360 cross-plan visibility provides better insight into how initiatives work together to impact the organization at an enterprise level. The company was recognized this year on Inc. 5000's list of fastest growing private companies for the second year in a row, with three-year growth revenue of 204 percent. About AchieveIt Hundreds of businesses are growing faster and more efficiently with the AchieveIt platform. AchieveIt gives organizations unprecedented visibility across all their planning efforts, taking them from spreadsheets to automated plan tracking and monitoring so results can be managed not just measured. Learn more at www.achieveit.com and follow us on Twitter @goachieveit. About Engage Engage is a venture fund and platform that gives entrepreneurs what they need most customers and market access. The Engage partners contributing capital, expertise, time and resources include AT&T, Chick-fil-A, Cox Enterprises, Delta Air Lines, Georgia-Pacific, Georgia Power Foundation, Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Invesco Ltd., Tech Square Ventures, The Home Depot and UPS. These corporate partners, along with the Georgia Institute of Technology's Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and Tech Square Ventures, provide tools, portfolio support, and resources to companies on the platform. Engage is headquartered in Georgia Tech's Technology Square. For more information, visit engage.vc. Media Contacts: Paulette Brown Kathy Berardi Carabiner Communications Carabiner Communications 770-714-0678 678.644.4122 [email protected] [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/achieveit-completes-exclusive-atlanta-venture-fund-program-300753519.html SOURCE AchieveIt [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] ShieldX Disrupts Cloud Security Market with Exponential Growth in 2018, Displacing Multiple Recognized Security Incumbents ShieldX, the leader in elastic security, today announced record growth and momentum since its launch in 2017, going from zero to several million dollars in bookings in just under nine months. Propelled by the demand for its innovative product which provides a scalable and elastic security platform for highly-virtualized data center and multi cloud environment, the company has grown its customer base with new customers such as IDT Corporation and Alaska Airlines. Conventional security vendors' technology focuses on containment to produce restrictions, bottlenecks and chokepoints at data center boundaries. However, as the Equifax breach demonstrated, security must evolve to an elastic approach that protects the dissolving traditional perimeter. In the past, data and infrastructure was contained and controlled in discrete environments due to the fear of loss and compromise. By contrast, ShieldX ensures security understands and maintains vigilance over cloud-enabled operations and workflows by continuously translating a security team's intention into controls as cloud infrastructure rapidly evolves. As a result, over the last 12 months, ShieldX displaced several traditional firewalls with customers such as IDT Corporation and Alaska Airlines. In addition, security leaders in networking, legal and retail organizations have turned to ShieldX to optimize their cloud security. "Many of the tools that we've gotten used to over the years really don't fit and apply well in the environments in which we operate. ShieldX provides us additional visibility in our cloud environments. We're able to spend less time and manpower scaling these up and running them in the environment - and that's a major win for us. We're probably running somewhere between a third, and a half, of the cost that it would normally take us to ru such an environment," said Golan Ben-Oni, global chief information officer at IDT Corporation. As part of its ability to deliver new disruptive technology, ShieldX has received significant industry recognition. For instance, the company was recently named: Gartner (News - Alert) Cool Vendor in 2017 Finalist in the Innovation Sandbox at the 2018 RSA (News - Alert) Conference One of Red Herring's Top 100 Companies in North America "Vendor to Watch" by Enterprise Management Associates Gold Winner in Info Security Product Guide's Global Excellence Award Cloud Computing Security Excellence winner by TMC (News - Alert) Winner in the 2018 Stevie Awards for Women in Business Awards Finalist in the 2018 Women in IT Awards An additional component driving the company's success is ShieldX's ability to develop and deliver innovative new capabilities designed for the dynamic nature of the cloud. With experts dedicated to cloud innovation, ShieldX's veteran research and development team has filed 22 patent applications in 2018 alone. To date, two patents have been granted. Users can leverage ShieldX's patent-pending technology to automatically identify and implement the security policies for essential controls-including microsegmentation, including IPS, firewall, malware detection and more-across multi-cloud deployments. "When we started ShieldX, the security industry was at a critical stage in its evolution, with many traditional players offering cloud security support, but not really understanding the dynamic demands of the cloud," said Dr. Ratinder Ahuja, ShieldX co-founder and CEO. "Our understanding of the shifts in the market enabled us to develop technology that empowered customers to securely move their data and applications into the cloud. We brought together a veteran team that understands the nuances of the cloud, so security can be an enabler of business operations, not an obstacle. I'm excited by the incredible momentum we've built in the past year and look forward to additional expansion in the months to come." For additional details about ShieldX's solutions, visit: https://www.shieldx.com/product/. About ShieldX ShieldX makes security the easiest thing enterprises do in the cloud. ShieldX is a cloud-native network security platform that elastically delivers a full stack of agentless security controls-microsegmentation, IPS, firewall, malware prevention, and more--to protect data centers, cloud infrastructure, applications and data. Our driving philosophy is to bring cloud speed, scale and orchestration into the hands of security. Based on cloud agnostic microservices technology, ShieldX ensures security understands and maintains vigilance over cloud operations and workflows by continuously translating a security's intention into controls as cloud infrastructure rapidly evolves. Today, our customers, such as Alaska Airlines and IDT, have saved millions by eliminating control sprawl and consolidating processes to dramatically reduce tactical systems management. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005158/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Kheiron's deep learning software for breast screening receives UK Government funding as part of a new artificial intelligence strategy for early-stage cancer diagnosis CHICAGO, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RSNA - Kheiron Medical Technologies has been granted government funding to test its deep learning breast cancer screening software within the NHS. The funding comes as part of NHS England's Test Bed Program . The Royal College of Radiologists has recognised a workforce crisis in breast screening, as each mammogram currently requires two consultant radiologists to interpret them, but staff shortages and impending retirements threaten the service. Kheiron is the first UK company to receive CE marking for deep learning technology in radiology. Their product, Mia, which can read screening mammograms like an independent reader alongside expert radiologists, is the first deep learning image analysis system to be tested within the NHS at this scale. Deep learning uses powerful artificial neural networks and high performance computing to analyse complex medical images with tremendous precision. Dr Liz O'Riordan, breast cancer surgeon and breast cancer patient said "As a patient and public advisor on this NHS testbed, an important part of my job is to help the general public understand how AI can benefit them. Right now there is a major shortage of breast radiologists in the UK and what most womn don't know is that every screening mammogram has to be looked at by two radiologists, which takes time. The deep learning software Kheiron is testing has been developed to ease this workload crisis, potentially speeding up the time it takes to get a screening result and hopefully allowing radiologists to spend more time looking after cancer patients." Kheiron are working in partnership with the East Midlands Radiology Consortium (EMRAD), an established collaboration of seven NHS Acute Trusts in the East Midlands. EMRAD is the largest collaborative network of hospitals in the UK to share a singular image sharing platform, supported by GE. Dr Jonathan James, Consultant Breast Radiologist at the Nottingham Breast Institute said "Successful breast cancer screening in the UK and Europe involves the double reading of mammograms by two professionals. We know that this approach maximises cancer detection rates whilst maintaining low numbers of women recalled back for additional tests, but is highly labour intensive. There are considerable workforce issues in breast cancer screening with unfilled posts and many centres in the UK struggling to meet targets. AI has the potential to provide a solution to the workforce crisis by supplementing at least one of these human mammography readers, freeing up professionals to speed up the patient journey through the rest of the diagnosis and treatment pathway. There are also wide variations in cancer detection and recall rates across screening programmes and this technology should bring an element of consistency to the reading process. I believe Kheiron's AI technology has the potential to revolutionise the reading of screening mammograms in the UK and beyond." Kheiron was featured in the BBC Horizon documentary entitled "Diagnosis on Demand? The Computer Will See You Now", which aired on November 1st 2018 on BBC Two. Dr Hannah Fry explores the incredible ways AI is revolutionising healthcare - and what this means for all of us. About Kheiron: Founded in 2016 by Dr Peter Kecskemethy and Tobias Rijken, Kheiron was incubated in Entrepreneur First in London. Kheiron combines novel deep learning methods, data science, and radiology expertise to enable an entirely new level of diagnostics that are designed to detect cancers and improve patient outcomes. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] EPC Expands Asian Team to Unleash the Power of Innovations for Customer Solutions To support its accelerating sales growth in Asia, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce the expansion of the sales and FAE team in Asia Pacific to support its expanding customer base, maximize new business acquisition, and capture new market opportunities. Darren Shang, Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific, EPC, has over 20 years of experience in various multinational power semiconductor companies with extensive sales and business development experience. His primary responsibilities at EPC are creating and implementing sales strategies to achieve the company's sales objectives in Asia Pacific. Darren joined from Taiwan power semiconductor distributors including Pantek Technology Corporation (Alltek Group). Prior to that, he served regional roles in Boston Power, Avago (now Broadcom (News - Alert)), and Infineon. In representing EPC, Darren supported ITRI's Wireless Power Workshop held at Taiwan University in Taipei on October 30th, 2018. The event was highly successful with commercial and academic experts sharing practical examples and experiences. EPC demonstrated an eGaN-based large surface area wireless power application on site which attracted engineering participants who are actively contributing to the latest development of wireless power applications for the industry. At the Open Data Center Summit held on November 16th, 2018, in Beijing, China, with presentations by Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu, Chris Cheung, EPC's China Sales Director, together with Henry Qiu, Senior FAE Manager, China, explored the opportunities of working with data center partners using eGaN technology, which is the choice of technology for the latest designs at 48V input. Chri Cheung has over 10 years of sales experience at International Rectifier (now Infineon). Prior to joining EPC, he worked for GTC Technology Limited in managing eGaN product sales opportunities and earlier for ENW Electronics Limited with a combined 9 years. Henry Qiu has more than 6 years of experience in DC-DC power supply design. He has been working with customers in creating design solutions using eGaN devices to optimize circuit performance well beyond silicon FET-based solutions. During his 3 years at Huawei (News - Alert) Technologies Co. Limited in Shenzhen, China, he managed power module projects, adopted eGaN FETs in power supply applications, and is very familiar with leveraging the advantages of eGaN technology in customer solutions by incorporating eGaN benefits into DC-DC, wireless power, and LiDAR designs for EPC customers. Shoichi Yasuda joined EPC as the Vice President of Sales for Japan and Korea in October 2018. In the past decades, Yasuda worked for a wide range of semiconductor companies, holding positions as a FAE, as well as sales management. Before joining EPC, he worked for Mitsuiwa Corporation, where he acquired in-depth knowledge of eGaN products. Yasuda captured the latest executive speaking opportunity for EPC at the Techno Frontier 2019 exhibition and conference, to be held at Makuhari, Tokyo, on April 19th, 2019. Robert Beach, Partner and Co-founder of EPC, will be sharing with engineers the latest technological development of gallium nitride at this speaking opportunity. Nick Cataldo, Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing, said, "In our journey for continuous improvement in the fast-paced semiconductor industry, our new sales and FAE members have all come from power electronics companies with solid sales, customer, and distribution management experiences in multinational organizations, including strong experiences in ramping power technology sales. Each member has a proven track record of supporting customers through combined sales and FAE efforts in shortening customers' product design cycles and time to market. Our new Asian team members, together with our regional distribution channels and sales representatives, provide the technical and business support for our customers in 21 regions throughout Asia Pacific." About EPC EPC is the leader in enhancement mode gallium nitride-based power management devices. EPC was the first to introduce enhancement-mode gallium-nitride-on-silicon (eGaN) FETs as power MOSFET replacements in applications such as DC-DC converters, wireless power transfer, envelope tracking, RF transmission, power inverters, remote sensing technology (LiDAR), and Class-D audio amplifiers with device performance many times greater than the best silicon power MOSFETs. Visit our web site: epc-co.com, epc-co.com.cn, epc-co.com.tw, epc-co.com/epc/jp. eGaN is a registered trademark of Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005234/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Frederick County Bank Names Bill Talley President & CEO Frederick County Bancorp, Inc. (the "Company") (OTCPink Marketplace: FCBI), the parent company for Frederick County Bank ("FCB"), announces that it has elevated longtime Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Bill Talley to the role of President and Chief Executive Officer. Talley replaces Marty Lapera who will retire effective March 31, 2019 to spend more time with family, traveling, and being an even bigger advocate for the Frederick community. Talley, 63, was born and raised in Frederick. He became Frederick County Bank's first employee in May of 2001 and has been an integral part of the bank's growth and success. Lapera, 65, will assist with Talley's transition and the Frederick fixture will continue to serve as an asset for the bank over the next several months until his retirement in the spring. He will continue to represent FCB at events, engage with clients and prospects, and develop business and community relationships. Raymond Raedy, the Chairman of the Board of Frederick County Bank said, "We thank Maty for all he has done since we started the bank in 2001 and wish him well in the next chapter of his life. We are fortunate to have someone as capable, experienced and trustworthy as Bill to step in and become our next President and Chief Executive Officer. Bill is a well-known member of our community and I am confident that the transition will be a seamless one and our clients will be unaffected and continue to receive the great service they have come to expect from our outstanding team." Frederick County Bank is headquartered in Frederick, Maryland and offers financial products and services to businesses and individuals through five bank centers located in Frederick County, Maryland. The award-winning bank has been celebrated repeatedly over the years. Some of the accolades include: 2017 & 2018 "Best Bank" and 2018 "Best Company To Work For" Finalist by The Frederick News-Post; 2018 "Best Bank" by Frederick Magazine. The team at Frederick County Bank is very active in the community through volunteerism. FCB employees have volunteered with the United Way, Blessings in a Backpack, Habitat for Humanity of Frederick County, the Frederick County Humane Society and Downtown Frederick Partnership. In addition, the bank has supported events including First Saturday, Movie Night on the Creek, Alive @5, It's a Wonderful Life at the Weinberg, Blue Crabs & Blue Prints, Catoctin Affair, the Great Frederick Fair and more. --- www.FCBMD.com --- View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005541/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Tyler Technologies to Provide Odyssey Case Manager Solution to Bell County, Texas Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) announced today that it has signed an agreement with Bell County, Texas, for Tyler's Odyssey Case Manager solution. All courts in Bell County will use the solution to build workflow, automate processes, and support pre-trial office procedures. Bell County's previous case management solution had been in place for more than 25 years but was not able to keep up with the evolving needs of the county's staff or its constituents. After an extensive evaluation of multiple vendors and meetings with several neighboring clients, Bell County ultimately selected Tyler to provide its Odyssey solution. "We are impressed by Tyler's product innovation with court case management and the number of positive client references we received during our evaluation process," said Adam Ward, director of Technology Services, Bell County. "Bell County not only has one of the best pretrial service departments in the country, but also operates a number of courts with different goals. We needed a flexible case management solution that would improve processes and automate workflows for all of them. We're pleased with our decision to select Odyssey, and we look forward to creating efficiencies for our staff across all of our court levels." Bell County will ue Odyssey Case Manager in all county-level courts - including civil, criminal, juvenile, probate, mental health, and other specialty courts - as well as district courts, which see civil, criminal, and family cases. Additionally, Odyssey Case Manager will serve the county and district clerks' offices, all six Justice of the Peace offices, adult probation office, county court coordinators' office, pretrial services, and provide financial data to and interface with the county auditor and county treasurer. Odyssey will enable better management of court schedules and court dockets, automate court notices, make more information available on pretrial release, and allow for staff to analyze case data trends. In addition, Bell County staff expect that using Odyssey will decrease the amount of paper used, improve workflow, eliminate duplicate data entry, and provide for better scheduling. "Bell County has been at the forefront of technology for many years, especially with their pretrial services, and continuously proves to be an innovative county," said Bruce Graham, president of Tyler's Courts & Justice Division. "We're looking forward to working with them to implement Odyssey Case Manager for all of their county courts, saving their staff time and resources so they can provide the best services to their community." Bell County, home to the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area, is the 16th largest county in Texas. With the Bell County agreement, 19 of the 20 largest Texas counties will use Odyssey. Across the country, Odyssey is used by more than 1,000 counties, serving over 40 percent of the population of the U.S. About Tyler Technologies (News - Alert), Inc. Tyler Technologies (NYSE: TYL) is a leading provider of end-to-end information management solutions and services for local governments. Tyler partners with clients to empower the public sector - cities, counties, schools and other government entities - to become more efficient, more accessible and more responsive to the needs of their constituents. Tyler's client base includes more than 15,000 local government offices in all 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and other international locations. In 2017, Forbes ranked Tyler on its "Most Innovative Growth Companies" list, and Fortune included Tyler on its "100 Fastest-Growing Companies" list. More information about Tyler Technologies, headquartered in Plano, Texas, can be found at www.tylertech.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005100/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Andersen Global Expands Presence in Africa with the Addition of Mondon Conseil International Today, Andersen Global announced a collaboration agreement with Mondon Conseil International, a notable Western African tax consulting, legal, accounting and financial advisory services firm based in Ivory Coast. The agreement further establishes Andersen Global's footprint in Africa. The global organization now has a presence in nine locations since entering the African tax and legal market less than two years ago. "I started my career over 30 years ago at Arthur Andersen, so my values of transparency and seamless, best-in-class service are already well-aligned with Andersen Global's core values. It is only fitting that the growing market leader of tax and legal services in the region collaborate with Andersen Global, a name I respect," said Pacome Mondon, Founder and Managing Partner of Mondon Conseil International. Founded in 2001 with the goal of becoming the premier tax firm in the region, Mondon Conseil International advises locl and international clients on fiscal and business law issues including trade, labor, and foreign exchange regulations, and works with CFOs, treasurers and other financial leaders on transitioning to the new accounting requirements introduced by regulators and tax administrations. "Pacome and his team at Mondon Conseil are paramount to the growth of our global organization in West Africa. Their current firm is already larger than other practices in the region and Pacome and his colleagues can provide leadership in supporting the French-speaking sector of Africa," said Mark Vorsatz, Andersen Global Chairman and Andersen Tax LLC CEO. "On top of expanding legal capabilities in the region with Mondon Conseil, we have the added pleasure of welcoming an Arthur Andersen alumnus back into the family and I expect that Pacome will be a key player in the expansion in West Africa." Andersen Global is an international association of legally separate, independent member firms comprised of tax and legal professionals around the world. Established in 2013 by U.S. member firm Andersen Tax LLC, Andersen Global now has nearly 4,000 professionals worldwide and a presence in over 122 locations through its member firms and collaborating firms. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005014/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] OVHcloud Disrupts Cloud Status Quo with New Digital Pricing Strategy RESTON, Va., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OVHcloud , a global cloud provider specializing in delivering industry-leading performance and cost-effective solutions to manage, secure, and scale businesses today announced a progressive new pricing strategy for bare metal servers that offers an everyday low price that is lower than promotional offers made by competing providers to disrupt the cloud status quo. The pricing change reflects OVHcloud's commitment to web developers, technology entrepreneurs, founders of small businesses, and gamers who require speed, availability, flexibility, portability, and performance from their hardware providers without paying a premium for these benefits. "OVHcloud is investing aggressively in the US market. Our new pricing strategy showcases our commitment to bringing more users onto the OVHcloud platform," said Russell P. Reeder, US President & CEO, OVHcloud. "We have been serving the global community of tech builders for almost 20 years and now they will have more options in the US. Whether for entry-level hosting, development sandbox, small dev and test workloads, or custom applications, they can build with confidence on OVHcloud dedicated servers. And now, they can take advantage of our everyday low prices." "Many cloud providers are just now offering bare metal solutions," Reeder said. "The market is beginning to understand that some workloads require dedicated resources to run optimally. OVHcloud has been offering these servers to customers outside of the US for years." In addition to price and value, OVHcloud has enhanced the customer journey by providing a seamless, easy way to consider, compare and ultimately purchase OVHcloud digital products on the website. True to OVHcloud's commitment to transparency, purchasers have complete visibility into what they will be paying for. The new prices provide customers with an affordable entry point for bare metal dedicated servers. On the lower end, customers can purchase a server with an Intel E3-1270 v6 chip, 32GB of RAM and a SoftRaid 2x2 TB SATA disk as low as $69.00 per month. For more information on prices and to purchase, visit: https://us.ovhcloud.com/ About OVHcloud OVHcloud is a global cloud provider that specializes in delivering industry-leading performance and cost-effective solutions to manage, secure, and scale businesses. OVHcloud provides a smarter alternative for bare metal servers, hosted private cloud, and public cloud solutions. Vertically integrated with its own network, server technology, and green data centers, OVHcloud operates more effectively and passes these benefits to its customers and partners. Openness, freedom of choice, and freedom to innovate are at the core of OVHcloud and what businesses depend on to run their most critical applications. Learn more about OVHcloud . OVHcloud in the US is provided by a subsidiary of OVH, one of the largest European hosting providers with over 2,500 employees worldwide. OVH is trusted by more than one million customers across 138 countries, with a global network consisting of 28 data centers, 33 points of presence, and thousands of miles of dark fiber. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ovhcloud-disrupts-cloud-status-quo-with-new-digital-pricing-strategy-300755687.html SOURCE OVHcloud [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] IEX Group, Inc. Announces Senior Appointments to Drive New Ventures IEX (News - Alert) Group, Inc. announced two senior appointments, Joseph (Joe) Hipps and Prerak Sanghvi, to help capitalize on strategic growth opportunities outside of the company's core stock exchange business. Mr. Hipps was hired to develop the IEX Group's new independent analytics business. Previously, he was Head of Client Service and Support at Trade Informatics (News - Alert), a provider of trading data analysis and systematic trading solutions. "The trust and credibility IEX has earned from the institutional investor community is unparalleled, and I'm excited to help build a unique business that can assist investors and brokers in navigating extremely complicated markets," said Mr. Hipps. "I'm looking forward to helping investors unlock the full value and potential from Big Data." Mr. Sanghvi, one of IEX Group's first employees and a critical member of the technology team, was promoted to Head of Ventures Technology. In this newly-created role, he will be responsible for technology powering non-exchange vntures, including the analytics business led by Mr. Hipps. Before joining IEX, Mr. Sanghvi was the Head of Electronic Trading Technology at RBC Capital Markets. "Our scalable, robust and resilient systems currently process over 1 billion messages per day in a heavily regulated, highly-interconnected marketplace," said Mr. Sanghvi. "I look forward to finding new high-impact applications for our systems and using our experience building a stock exchange to develop new technology solutions in and outside of finance." "The credibility, expertise and technology we've built at IEX have the potential to transform businesses far beyond the stock exchange," said IEX Co-Founder and President Ronan Ryan. "Joe and Prerak have the right experience and vision to expand the scope of IEX Group and execute on new ways to build fairer markets." Mr. Hipps started in October and reports to Mr. Ryan. Mr. Sanghvi begins his new role effective immediately and will continue to report to Rob Park, IEX Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. About IEX Group, Inc. IEX Group is on a mission to build fairer markets. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, IEX Group introduced its first trading venue in 2013 and launched the Investors Exchange (IEX), an independent U.S. stock exchange, in 2016. IEX exceeded 3.3% of intraday market share in U.S. equities on November 1, 2018 and averaged approximately $11 billion in U.S. equity trading per day for the month of October. IEX listed its first public company, Interactive Brokers, on October 5, 2018. Learn more at iextrading.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005579/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Carroll Organization and PGIM Real Estate acquire three Southeast multifamily portfolios valued at nearly $600 million Carroll Organization and PGIM Real Estate have continued to advance their multifamily joint venture partnership with three portfolio acquisitions in Raleigh-Durham, Ponte Vedra Beach and Charleston, totaling nearly $600 million. Carroll Organization, acting on behalf of its latest investment vehicle, Carroll Multifamily Real Estate Fund V, LP, is one of the country's leading privately held real estate companies focused on multifamily investment, management and development. PGIM Real Estate, acting on behalf of institutional investors, is the real estate investment business of PGIM, the global investment management businesses of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005583/en/ These transactions mark the fifth joint venture between PGIM Real Estate and Carroll Organization since December 2017. To date, these joint ventures have resulted in $2 billion in acquisitions across 45 properties and approximately 15,000 units throughout Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina. All of the assets are managed by Carroll Management Group. "These latest portfolio acquisitions are consistent with PGIM Real Estate's strategy to pursue workforce housing investments in well-located, pro-business metropolitan markets with a limited supply of apartments and a robust demand for affordable housing options," said Alfonso Munk, Americas chief investment officer for PGIM Real Estate. "Our ongoing partnership with Carroll Organization will enable us to create an enhanced living experience for the residents at these 13 communities, while delivering compelling, supply-resistant investment opportunities to our investors." The venture's latest Southeast multifamily investments include: Eight-Property Portfolio in Raleigh-Durham An eight-property, 2,883-unit multifamily portfolio located in the Raleigh-Durham area. The portfolio includes: Copper Mill in Durham; Meadows at Kildaire in Cary; Oaks at Weston in Morrisville; Spring Forest in North Raleigh; Crest at West End in Carrboro; and Reserve at Lake Lynn, Walnut Creek, and Woodland Court in Raleigh. Two-Property Portfolio in Ponte Vedra Beach An adjacent two-property, 480-unit mutifamily portfolio located in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The portfolio includes Soleil at Ponte Vedra Beach and Seaglass at Ponte Vedra Beach. Three-Property Portfolio in Charleston A three-property, 680-unit Class B multifamily portfolio in Charleston, South Carolina. The portfolio includes Cooper's Pointe Apartments, Springhouse Apartments and Hibben Ferry Apartments. "These investments are based on our thesis that quality workforce housing is currently an underserved segment of the multifamily market, which has created a supply/demand imbalance when homeownership or new-supply rents in desirable locations may not be attainable for most Americans. The outlook for multifamily performance in the Raleigh-Durham, Jacksonville and Charleston markets remains strong going forward due to their diverse economies, business-friendly governments, job and population growth, and overall quality of life," said M. Patrick Carroll, Chief Executive Officer of Carroll Organization. "We are thrilled to continue our positive momentum with PGIM Real Estate with these acquisitions and look forward to doing more business together in 2019." The Raleigh, Ponte Vedra Beach and Charleston acquisitions were led by Jim Mehalso, Atlanta-based managing director and head of Southeast Transactions at PGIM Real Estate, and Josh Champion, president and chief investment officer for Carroll Organization. About PGIM Real Estate PGIM Real Estate is the real estate investment business of PGIM, the global investment management businesses of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU). Redefining the real estate investing landscape since 1970, PGIM Real Estate has professionals in 17 cities in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific with deep local knowledge and expertise, and gross assets under management of $69.2 billion ($49.5 billion net) as of June 30, 2018.. PGIM Real Estate's tenured team offers to its global client base a broad range of real estate equity, debt and securities investment strategies that span the risk/return spectrum. For more information, visit pgimrealestate.com. About Carroll Organization Carroll Organization is among the leading privately-held real estate companies in the United States. Founded in 2004 and based in Atlanta, Carroll Organization focuses on multifamily properties, including acquisitions, property and asset management services, and fund management. The firm provides investment vehicles for a broad range of investors to access the multifamily real estate asset class and has raised over $2 billion of equity through Carroll Organization sponsored funds and joint ventures. Carroll has successfully purchased, developed or sold over $9.0 billion of real estate. Carroll Organization's regional offices are located in Houston and Orlando. Today, the company manages over 30,000 multifamily units in eight states and has purchased other multifamily owner/operators throughout the U.S. The firm has also developed student housing, single-family residential and retail properties, and has overseen more than $125 million of construction management for both its owned and fee partners. From due diligence to execution, Carroll Organization has the internal capabilities and the external relationships to identify, underwrite, and close transactions. For more information, visit CarrollOrganization.com. 2018 PGIM is the primary asset management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (PFI). PGIM Real Estate is PGIM's real estate investment advisory business and operates through PGIM, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Prudential, Pramerica, PGIM, their respective logos as well as the Rock symbol are service marks of PFI and its related entities, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. PFI of the United States is not affiliated with Prudential plc, a company headquartered in the United Kingdom. Ref: 18BDUFF-B6GLJB View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005583/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods Partner to Transform the Future of Sustainable Energy RICHMOND, Va. and SMITHFIELD, Va., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) and Smithfield Foods, Inc. are joining forces in an historic initiative to transform the future of sustainable energy and agriculture, announcing their first projects in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah. The companies are forming a joint venture called Align Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)? that will capture methane emissions from hog farms and convert them into clean renewable energy for residential home heating and power for local businesses. "At Smithfield, we recognize true, enduring sustainability initiatives require collaboration with other proven innovators who share a similar vision," said Kenneth M. Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods. "Dominion Energy is one such proven innovator and we are proud to partner with them in our longstanding pursuit of renewable energy. Align RNG is part of our nationwide expansion of Smithfield Renewables, innovative projects designed to help meet our goal to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2025." By capturing methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, the use of RNG leads to a significant reduction in methane emissions from the agriculture and energy industries. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions RNG is produced from the methane generated from hog or dairy farms, landfills, wastewater treatment plants and food processing facilities. Capturing the methane from hog farms reduces the use of traditionally-sourced natural gas and keeps greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. It can be stored and delivered to homes and businesses through existing natural gas infrastructure, making it a cost-effective, renewable option. The new joint venture will leverage Smithfield's relationships with contract farmers, who raise and care for its hogs, and the decades the company has spent studying and perfecting the commercial viability of 'manure-to-energy' projects. Using a technology known as anaerobic digestion, the projects will capture and process methane from large clusters of Smithfield's company-owned and contract hog farms. Once collected at the farms, the natural gas will then be transported to a central conditioning facility where it will be converted into RNG. "Our companies recognize the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the future of our planet. RNG is an innovative and proven way to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry by converting it into clean renewable energy," said Thomas F. Farrell, II, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dominion Energy. "RNG is considered carbon-negative because it captures significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than are released from its end use in homes and businesses." Supporting Virginia and North Carolina's Greenhouse Gas Initiatives Governor Ralph Northam and Governor Roy Cooper have recently announced historic initiatives to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions in Virginia and North Carolina over the next decade. RNG will play an important role in supporting these initiatives and help both states achieve their ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets. Because methane is at least 25 times more potent than CO 2 as a greenhouse gas, reducing methane can have a more dramatic impact on the envionment than other carbon reduction initiatives. "Across our electric and natural gas fleets, Dominion Energy is becoming a national leader in sustainable energy," said Farrell. "On the electric side, we are one of only three utilities in the nation to reduce its carbon intensity by more than 40 percent in the last decade. On the natural gas side, as an industry leader on methane reduction programs, we have already saved more than 10 billion cubic feet of methane emissions. We have made tremendous progress, but we recognize we need to do more. RNG will build on the progress we've made and accelerate our momentum toward a sustainable energy future." "This partnership with two leading Virginia based companies shows the power of Virginia's largest industryagricultureto promote cleaner energy, sustainable family farms, and a brighter future for rural communities here in the Commonwealth and nationwide," said Bettina K. Ring, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry. "I'm excited about the technological advances for capturing methane that escapes into the atmosphere from farms," said Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert. "That methanewhich we call renewable natural gascan be used to heat our homes, generate low-carbon electricity and drive industry. This bodes well for Utah's environmental health and economic development." Global Industry Leaders Bring Resources, Expertise & Economies of Scale As global leaders in the energy and agriculture industries, Dominion Energy and Smithfield have the resources, expertise and market access to expand this proven technology on a wide scale across the region. The companies are jointly investing at least $250 million in this initiative over the next decade with initial application on 90 percent of Smithfield's finishing spaces in North Carolina and Utah. In addition to these states, projects will be implemented in Virginia and have the potential for wider-scale application across the country. "With a longstanding commitment to sustainability, and through considerable research and exploration of ways to transform manure into energy for many years, we are well-positioned to make unprecedented and revolutionary progress that will positively impact the future of the agriculture and energy industries," said Sullivan. Building on the success of Smithfield's Optima KV pilot project, the new joint venture will immediately expand the program to two larger farm clusters in Duplin and Sampson Counties, North Carolina; Waverly, Virginia; and Milford, Utah. Construction of these facilities is expected to begin in late 2018 with the first projects scheduled to be in-service in late 2019. Renewable Meets Reliable Renewable Energy You Can Depend On RNG provides energy 24/7, 365 days a year and can be used on-demand to meet the real-time needs of homes, businesses, utilities and manufacturers. "With this transformational partnership, we are combining the environmental benefits of renewables with the reliability of natural gas to meet the around-the-clock clean energy needs of consumers and businesses," said Farrell. New Revenue Stream for Family Farmers & Enhanced Protection from Storm Events RNG will provide a new revenue stream for family farmers. In fact, the initiative will turn one of farmers' largest costs into a new revenue source. Farmers who participate in the program will be paid for the energy their farms produce through long-term contracts. "This project is a true win-win for all involved and reflects Smithfield's innovative, value-driven approach to sustainability," said Sullivan. RNG facilities will also help protect hog farm lagoons from storm-related damage. In addition to converting 'manure-to-energy,' the covered lagoon digesters mitigate potential issues associated with severe rain events such as hurricanes. Covered lagoon digesters prevent rain from entering the lagoon during severe weather events providing enhanced environmental protection. For more information about Align RNG, visit alignrng.com. About Dominion Energy Nearly 6 million customers in 19 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy, headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to sustainable, reliable, affordable, and safe energy and is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy with over $80 billion of assets providing electric generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas storage, transmission, distribution, and import/export services. As one of the nation's leading solar operators, the company intends to reduce its carbon intensity 50 percent by 2030. Through its Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation, as well as EnergyShare and other programs, Dominion Energy plans to contribute more than $30 million in 2018 to community causes throughout its footprint and beyond. Please visit www.DominionEnergy.com, Facebook or Twitter to learn more. About Smithfield Foods Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, Farmer John, Kretschmar, John Morrell, Cook's, Gwaltney, Carando, Margherita, Curly's, Healthy Ones, Morliny, Krakus, and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com , and connect with us on Facebook , Twitter, and LinkedIn . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dominion-energy-and-smithfield-foods-partner-to-transform-the-future-of-sustainable-energy-300755958.html SOURCE Dominion Energy [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Tradewind Launches VaultChain Silver Tradewind Markets, a financial technology company, announced the addition of silver to the VaultChain platform, providing users with the ability to leverage the benefits of digital custody, electronic trading, and blockchain-driven provenance management for this important investment and industrial-use metal. Building on the successful launch of VaultChain Gold, Tradewind is adding different metals, different storage and refining locations to allow institutional precious metals market participants to more securely and efficiently manage their businesses. Daniel Izzo, Manager at SCMI USA Inc. commented, "As a global leader in the precious metals business - SCMI US Inc. is always looking to leverage developments in technology to better serve our customers. With the recent addition of silver to complement its current gold offering, the Tradewind platform provides SCMI US Inc. with an opportunity to capture efficiencies through the digital trading and custody of these precious metals." VaultChain Silver provides a simple, secure and low-cost alternative to traditional silver investment options with the added benefit of being able transact on reliable supply chain information. Backed by the Royal Canadian Mint, VaultChain Silver is fully deliverable and free of mnagement fees. "Our customer base has expressed strong interest in a digital silver solution to complement our gold products, making it a logical next step in our development," said Steve Lowe, Head of Business Development at Tradewind. "Users can now digitally trade and custody silver alongside their gold positions, and importantly, offer another compelling investment solution to their end clients." "The team at Tradewind is excited to continue working in partnership with the industry to listen, learn, and develop solutions that create new opportunities and make existing business operations easier," said Fraser Buchan, Co-Founder. "The successful launch of silver on was an important step towards that goal." VaultChain Silver is available through a network of institutions and dealers. Please visit www.tradewindmarkets.com to learn more. About Tradewind Tradewind Markets has built a technology platform for digitizing the ownership and trading of physical assets. The Tradewind solution combines the world-class exchange technology of IEX (News - Alert), the fair, simple and transparent stock exchange with a blockchain application tailored for precious metals. Tradewind is operated by a team of 24 professionals with extensive experience in electronic trading, gold investment management, market operations and blockchain technology, and has been financed by industry leaders such as Sprott Inc., Goldcorp Inc., Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., IAMGOLD Corp, and Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.. For more information please visit https://tradewindmarkets.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005612/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] iQ4 Corp. Named First National Sponsor for the U.S. Department of Labor Virtual Apprenticeship Program in Cybersecurity iQ4 Corporation, a centralized platform, which helps students, academia, business and government collaborate to transform and scale the workforce of the future, announced today that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has named iQ4 as the first sponsor of the Virtual Apprenticeship Program in cybersecurity based on skills and competencies standards set by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE). As the first national sponsor for the Department of Labor Virtual Apprenticeship Program in Cybersecurity, iQ4 will help enable employers to identify and train their future cybersecurity workforce with digital, scalable apprenticeship programs. Powered by iQ4's proprietary Academy platform that combines technology with industry-driven standards and content, iQ4 is a leader and innovator in mobilizing companies, government and universities in bridging the global cybersecurity workforce skills gap through its applied learning programs led by industry subject matter experts. iQ4's Academy platform is also the centerpiece that will develop soft skills using cybersecurity projects to develop to train 10,000 students for CyberNYC, a new initiative by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to transform NYC into a global leader of cybersecurity innovation and talent development. "By launching this incredible initiative based on NICE standards and with the DOL's vision to extend digital apprenticeships to corporate technology needs, we are transforming the learning economy," said Frank Cicio, founder and chief executive officer, iQ4. "There are currently over 300,000 jobs open in cybersecurity and the national cybersecurity workforce is expected to experience a shortfall of two million cybersecurity professionals by 2022. Early leaders, such as our partnership with T-Mobile (News - Alert), will embrace their current cybersecurity programs under iQ4's registered apprenticeship standards. The time to act and develop our students is now and our virtual apprenticeship program is the key to filling jobs, training the workforce of tomorrow and setting standards." The NICE framework is the underpinning of the apprenticeship program where private and public sectors and students will now be able to speak the same language when identifying and defining their needs and their skill sets. These standards will help drive academic learning and certifications that are all industry driven - changing the future of the cybersecurity industry. In addition, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework is the foundation of iQ4's courses in which students collaborate on teams to address real-world case studies developed by industry professionals. Throughout the ourse, the students virtually present risk policies, governess and processes to prevent cyber attacks to seasoned professional mentors who offer feedback and knowledge transfer. The iQ4 curriculum empowers students with the knowledge to confront current and future cyber threats while developing and enhancing vital soft skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, data analysis, communication, and collaboration. "Partnerships like this represent one of my favorite outcomes from having a national cybersecurity framework, the NICE Framework," said Bill Newhouse, deputy director, National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE). "The framework provides a scalable standards-based, usable taxonomy of cybersecurity and a common lexicon that enables our national employers, who need more people ready to join their workforces, to be able to communicate clearly and work directly with education providers in order to develop apprenticeships and skills needed to graduate and get a job in the real world." How the Apprenticeship Program Works iQ4 engages with the prospective academic institution on delivering cybersecurity project courses that align to existing credited courses, and then the curriculum is developed in accordance with the needs of the enterprise partner. Student interns, who are selected as part of the program, are assessed over a 14-week virtual mentorship course as potential digital apprentices. The students who perform well are then asked to participate in the digital apprenticeship program with the partner company - which will provide 2000 hours of paid on- the-job training while the student completes his/her academic degree. At the conclusion of the digital apprenticeship, the partner company guarantees the student a full time job upon graduation. iQ4 handles all paperwork and process flows between DOL, company and students. What our Partners have to say "Apprenticeships are a cornerstone of President Donald Trump's plan to close the skills gap and ensure the American workforce is prepared to succeed in the jobs of today and tomorrow," said U.S. Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta. "The expansion of apprenticeships makes the greatest workforce in the world - the American workforce - even stronger."1 "The program has been an amazing addition to our curriculum and we appreciate being partnered with iQ4 to make this happen," said Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Ph.D., executive director, Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurityin Education CAE-CDE, University of Washington. "The digital apprenticeship has allowed us to verify that University of Washington students are learning the content and soft skills to be workforce ready, and that they align along the NICE framework. As a Center for Academic Excellence we are required to show that we are effectively preparing students for the workforce and this tool allows us to demonstrate with metrics that we are properly preparing our students to be emerging professionals in the field of cybersecurity." "In June 2017, President Trump issued an executive order on expanding apprenticeships in America which laid-out an expansive vision for apprenticeships, such as in cybersecurity, that will increase apprenticeships to an unprecedented level," said Carolyn Renick, program analyst, Office of Apprenticeship, U.S. Department of Labor. "Research has shown that employers that invest in the apprenticeship model, have high return on investment. For every $1 invested, they see $1.47 returned, and reduced turnover and better retention. 91% of the apprentices retain employment after conclusion of their apprenticeship program. 89% are still in their job after three years of their apprenticeship program as compared to only 70% of college graduates. Congratulations, iQ4, we are excited to see and use your model to expand the increase in cybersecurity apprenticeships throughout the country." About iQ4 iQ4 is a workforce and mobility platform, which enables applied learning through the strategic collaboration between students, academia, and the business world. The acquisition of skills during the mentoring program empowers students with pertinent knowledge for future prospects. Companies are able to develop the next-generation workforce in accordance with the demands of the market. iQ4 facilitates the creation of a competent workforce by uniting the independent initiatives of industry and academia. 1 https://www.constructionequipment.com/labor-secretary-acosta-discusses-apprenticeship-development View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005635/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Booz Allen Executive to Speak Nov. 28 at the Credit Suisse 6th Annual Industrials Conference Booz Allen Hamilton (News - Alert) Chief Financial Officer Lloyd Howell and Nick Veasey, Director of Investor Relations, will attend the Credit Suisse 6th Annual Industrials Conference in Manalapan, Florida. Mr. Howell will speak about the company's performance and strategy at 1:15 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Nov. 28. A link to the webcast will be available at http://investors.boozallen.com/events.cfm with a replay option available for 30 days afterward. About Booz Allen Hamiton For more than 100 years, business, government, and military leaders have turned to Booz Allen Hamilton to solve their most complex problems. They trust us to bring together the right minds: those who devote themselves to the challenge at hand, who speak with relentless candor, and who act with courage and character. They expect original solutions where there are no roadmaps. They rely on us because they know that-together-we will find the answers and change the world. We solve the most difficult management and technology problems through a combination of consulting, analytics, digital solutions, engineering, and cyber expertise. With global headquarters in McLean, Virginia, our firm employs approximately 24,600 people globally, and had revenue of $6.17 billion for the 12 months ended March 31, 2018. To learn more, visit www.boozallen.com. (NYSE: BAH) BAHPR-FI View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005652/en/ [November 27, 2018] Express Logic Initiates FIPS 140-2 Certification Effort for the X-Ware IoT Platform Crypto Library Express Logic, provider of the comprehensive X-Ware IoT Platform powered by the industry-leading and widely deployed ThreadX RTOS, has partnered with one of the world's leading security labs atsec information security to execute the design and implementation of the X-Ware IoT Platform's NetX Crypto libraries for compliance with Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 cryptographic standards. The certification authority for this effort, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), issued the FIPS 140 Publication Series in May 2001 to align the requirements and standards for cryptography modules that include both hardware and software components. FIPS 140-2 was instituted to protect sensitive or valuable U.S. government data and data from commercial industries (such as financial and health-care institutions) that is collected, stored, shared, and disseminated electronically. With more than 20 billion devices expected to be on the IoT by 2020, security has become the primary concern of the embedded industry. To address this concern, Express Logic has established itself as the safety and security leader in the embedded IoT space with its industrial-grade approach, including pre-certificationto SIL 4 and ASIL D safety standards and EAL4+ security common criteria certification for X-Ware IoT SC, TLS/DTL, and IPsec security protocols and standards. The FIPS 140-2 certification effort represents another significant step forward in focusing directly on IoT security needs of the embedded industry. Industrial-Grade Performance, Connectivity, and More The X-Ware IoT Platform is more than just an RTOS with connectivity capabilities. In addition to the ThreadX RTOS and NetX Duo, the X-Ware IoT Platform includes the safety-certified FileX embedded FAT-32/exFAT file system, the GUIX GUI development and embedded runtime framework, and the USBX embedded host/device USB stack. This enables embedded developers to leverage the entire X-Ware IoT Platform solution to solve IoT applications that need to do more than just communicate with other devices and/or networks. "Security is the major topic in the embedded IoT community today," said William E. Lamie, President, Express Logic. "Without security, sensitive data might be compromised, which can lead to costly liability and loss of market share. At the same time, securing the IoT is technically very challenging for embedded developers. Our X-Ware IoT Platform FIPS 140-2 certification effort addresses this challenge by easing the task of securing embedded IoT devices and data, thus improving time-to-market and greatly reducing the risk for device manufacturers." About Express Logic and ThreadX Headquartered in San Diego, CA (News - Alert), Express Logic, Inc., offers the industry's most advanced run-time solutions for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX RTOS, the high-performance NetX and NetX Duo embedded TCP/IP stacks, the FileX embedded FAT-compatible file system, the USBX Host/Device embedded USB protocol stack, and the GUIX embedded graphical user interface development toolkit. Express Logic products include full source-code and are available free of run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or e-mail [email protected]. ThreadX, TraceX, FileX, and X-Ware IoT Platform are registered trademarks, and Safety-Critical Certification Pack, NetX, NetX Duo, USBX, GUIX, GUIX Studio, LevelX, preemption-threshold, picokernel, and UDP (News - Alert) fast path technology are trademarks of Express Logic. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005244/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] BIOPHYTIS to Host Key Opinion Leader Meeting on the Biology of Aging and its Application in Neuromuscular Diseases PARIS, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biophytis (Euronext Growth Paris: ALBPS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of drug candidates to treat the disabilities caused by age-related degenerative diseases, will host a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) meeting on the Biology of Aging and its Application in Neuromuscular Diseases in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday, November 28 at 12:15 PM to 2:00 PM CET. The meeting will feature a presentation by KOL Professor Jean Mariani, from Sorbonne University, who will discuss his research behind the biology of aging and the current treatment landscape for patients with sarcopenia, a degenerative loss of muscle mass and quality that leads decreased patient mobility and loss of independence in the aging population. Prof. Mariani will be available to answer questions at the conclusion of the event. Professor Jean Mariani is Director of the Institut de la Longevite Charles Foix [Longevity Institute], and a practitioner at the hospital, director of the CNRS-UPMC (UMR 7102) Laboratoire de Neurobiologie des Processus Adaptatifs [Laboratory of Neurobiology of Adaptive Processes]. Professor Jean Mariani is an expert in neurobiology, central nervous system and pathologies, and neurodegenerative illnesses. Biophytiss Chief Executive Officer, Stanislas Veillet, will provide an overview of the Companys lead candidate, SARCONEOS, a MAS receptor activator that is in clinical development for sarcopenia and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness. This event is primarily intended for institutional investors, sell-side analysts, and business development professionals. Please RSVP in advance if you plan to attend, as space is limited. For those who are unable to attend in person, a live webcast and replay will be accessible via the link here . If you would like to ask a questin during the live Q&A, please submit your request via email link here . About Biophytis Biophytis SA, founded in 2006, is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of drug candidates to treat the disabilities caused by age-related degenerative diseases. Our clinical-stage pipeline is comprised of SARCONEOS, a MAS receptor activator, to preserve mobility in sarcopenia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients and MACUNEOS, a drug that binds PPAR to prevent vision loss in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other degenerative eye diseases, including Stargardt disease. Biophytis is based in Paris on the Sorbonne Universite campus and in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Biophytis collaborates with expert scientists from several Sorbonne Universite institutes including the Paris Seine Biology Institute, the Institute of Myology, and the Vision Institute. Biophytis is listed on the Euronext Growth market of Euronext Paris (ALBPS; ISIN: FR0012816825). For more information: http://www.biophytis.com Follow us on Twitter @biophytis Biophytis is eligible for the SMEs scheme Disclaimer This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company's actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors (Facteurs de Risque) section of the Listing Prospectus upon the admission of Companys shares for trading on the regulated market Euronext Growth of Euronext Paris filed with the AMF, which is available on the AMF website (www.amf- france.org) or on Biophytis website (www.biophytis.com). This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to shares in Biophytis in any country. Items in this press release may contain forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. The Companys actual results could differ substantially from those anticipated in these statements owing to various risk factors which are described in the Companys prospectus. This press release has been prepared in both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall prevail. Biophytis Stanislas VEILLET CEO [email protected] Tel: +33 (0) 1 44 27 23 00 Citigate Dewe Rogerson International media & Investors Laurence BAULT/Antoine DENRY [email protected] [email protected] Tel: +33 (0)1 53 32 84 78 Mob: +33(0)6 64 12 53 61 LifeSci Advisors Chris MAGGOS Managing Director, Europe [email protected] Tel: +41 79 367 6254 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] CentralSquare Technologies to Host Local Students for an Hour of Code CentralSquare Technologies, an industry leader in public sector software, will host its third Hour of Code session on December 4 for 30 students from Lake Como Elementary, an Orange (News - Alert) County public school in Orlando. Held in conjunction with Computer Science Education Week, Hour of Code is a nationwide initiative to introduce millions of students to computer science and programming. Participating students will spend an hour at CentralSquare's headquarters in Lake Mary developing their understanding of coding, an instructional language that programmers write for computer operations. Using an age-specific exercise that teaches the basics of Python, an easy-to-learn open source programming language, students will learn how computers work and how computer programmers write their code. "We're thrilled to continue our partnership with local school districts and Code.org," said CentralSquare CEO Simon Angove. "It's particularly rewarding for us to be able to bring together two of our greaest passions, technology and public service, with the hope that this passion ignites further discovery and learning among these young thinkers." CentralSquare will host a January session of Hour of Code at its Center of Excellence in Greensboro, NC. About CentralSquare Technologies Formed by the merger of Superion, TriTech along with Zuercher, and the public sector and healthcare business of Aptean, CentralSquare Technologies is an industry leader in public safety and public administration software, serving over 7,500 organizations from the largest metropolitan city to counties and towns of every size across North America. Its technology platform provides solutions for public safety, including 911, computer-aided dispatch, records management, mobile, citations, evidence management, and corrections. For public administration agencies, CentralSquare provides software for finance, human capital management, payroll, utility billing, citizen engagement, asset management, regulatory compliance, and community development. For hospitals and clinicians, it provides patient information, compliance, and analytics software. CentralSquare's broad, unified and agile software suite serves 3 in 4 citizens across North America. More information is available at www.CentralSquare.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005685/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] ROTH Capital Partners to Host 6th Annual ROTH New Industrials Corporate Access Day in New York City ROTH Capital Partners (ROTH), www.roth.com, a full service investment bank focused on serving emerging growth companies and their investors, today announced that it will host its 6th Annual ROTH New Industrials Corporate Access Day on December 11, 2018 in New York, NY. This invitation-only event will give investors the opportunity to interact with senior management of a select group of small/mid-cap firms across the sector, including leaders in energy storage, biofuels, water/environmental services, grid infrastructure, fuel cells, alternative fuels, auto parts providers, wind, green plastics and energy efficiency. While most companies have discrete drivers, uniting themes are expected to include growth driven by innovation, the rebuilding of U.S. manufacturing, and niche market success. Following introductory remarks from ROTH's Senior Cleantech and Industrial Growth Analysts Craig Irwin, Phil Shen, Gerry Sweeney and Matt Koranda, investors will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with the participating companies. "Despite continued industrial manufacturing strength in the US economy, market volatility has spiked and better stock entry points are revealed as investors contemplate the Fed, trade war dislocations, and a weakening housing market. We have assembled a wide array of industrial and cleantech companies to offer investors a look at some of the underlying growth trends within the New Industrial Economy, many of which provide a buffer to greater uncertainty," said Jesse Pichel, Managing Director of Investment Banking at ROTH. "At our New Industrials Corporate Access Day the 1x1 format provides an opportunity for investors to meet directly with company management to delve further into their business strategies and ascertain how they are positioned for continued growth in the New Industrial Economy," said Gerard Sweeney Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at ROTH. Since 2012, ROTH has been involved in approximately 100 transactions for its Cleantech & Industrial Growth clients, with total transaction value over $3.8 billion. (Source (News - Alert): ROTH Capital Partners, 11/26/2018) The event is for institutional clients of ROTH and is by invitation only. For more information, please contact your ROTH sales representative at (949) 720-5700 or e-mail: [email protected]. Agenda Tuesday, December 11, 2018 8:00AM - 9:00AM | Morning Coffee 9:00AM - 4:45PM | 1-on-1 / Small Group Meetings 12:00PM - 1:00PM | Lunch Break Venue Lotte New York Palace 455 Madison Avenue New York City, NY 10022 Participating Companies at the time of this release include: ADOMANI, Inc. (ADOM) Ameresco, Inc. (AMRC) American Superconductor (News - Alert) (AMSC) American Vanguard Corporation (AVD) Aqua Metals, Inc (AQMS) AquaVenture (WAAS) ASV Holdings Inc. (ASV) Blue Bird Corporation (BLBD) Broadwind Energy, Inc. (BWEN) Capstone (News - Alert) Turbine Corporation (CPST) CECO Environmental Corp. (CECE) Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. (CWCO) EnviroLeach Technologies (EVLLF) Fluence Corporation Limited (ASX:FLC) H2O Innovation Inc. (OTCQX: HEOFF) HC2 Holdings Inc (HCHC) Hudson Technologies Inc. (HDSN) Hydrogenics (News - Alert) Coroporation (HYGS) Jason Industries, Inc. (JASN) Just Energy Group, Inc. (JE) Lakeland Industries, Inc. (LAKE) LightPath Technologies (News - Alert), Inc. (LPTH) Limbach (LMB) Lydall, Inc. (LDL) Manitex International, Inc. (MNTX) Ormat Technologies Inc. (ORA) Pacific Ethanol, Inc.(PEIX) Quest Resource Holding (QRHC) Renewable Energy Group, Inc. (REGI) SG Blocks (SGBX) Spark Energy, Inc. CLA (SPKE) TPI Composites, Inc. (TPIC) Transcat, Inc. (TRNS) Trecora Resources (TREC) UQM Technologies, Inc. (UQM) Willdan Group, Inc. (WLDN) XPEL, Inc. (TSXV: DAP.U) (As of 11/27/2018 - subject to change) Clients interested in attending should contact their ROTH sales representative. Members of the media who would like to attend should contact Isabel Pain at 949-720-7117 or [email protected]. Sponsors The Blueshirt Group, Business Wire, Equisolve and Lowenstein Sandler. About ROTH Capital Partners, LLC: ROTH Capital Partners, LLC (ROTH), is a relationship-driven investment bank focused on serving emerging growth companies and their investors. As a full-service investment bank, ROTH provides capital raising, M&A advisory, analytical research, trading, market-making services and corporate access. Headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., ROTH is privately-held and owned by its employees, and maintains offices throughout the U.S. and Hong Kong. For more information on ROTH, please visit www.roth.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005686/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Toppan Vintage Uses VDI and IGEL Endpoints to Support Growth Through Strategic Acquisitions SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IGEL, a world leader in endpoint management software for the secure enterprise, today announced that Toppan Vintage has made a substantial investment in new virtual desktop and back-end IT infrastructure to support business growth through strategic acquisitions. In March 2017, Toppan acquired Vintage Group, a division of PR Newswire, to effectively double in size to over 200 staff, with the business announcing on August 1, 2018 and again on September 4, 2018 the acquisition of Merrill Corporation's Capital Markets and Marketing and Communications Solutions (MCS) businesses. Thomas Mangan, Toppan Vintage's Vice President, Information Technology and Production Design, explains, "To reduce complexity and eliminate the need for 24/7 IT staff support, we've always used virtualized desktops; we just didn't want traditional PCs and multiple endpoints to manage. However, our previous thin client solution was inadequate as the software was difficult to use and limited to a single display protocol. With so many systems and people coming over with the first Vintage Group acquisition, we needed to scale up and find a better and easier to manage desktop solution for our HQ and remote sites." Toppan Vintage offers 24/7 boutique-like financial printing and communications solutions for private and publicly traded companies that need to produce shareholder materials like prospectuses, proxy statements and annual reports, and submit this information to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other global regulators. Services range from content editing, design, prepress, printing and data conversion to SEC acceptable HTML standards or any format a customer desires. US headquartered in Manhattan, New York, with additional locations throughout the United States, Toppan Vintage is part of the Toppan Printing Group, the world's largest printing group based in Tokyo with approximately $14 billion in annual sales. A Modern Desktop Environment Delivers True Flexibility After the Vintage Group acquisition, Toppan Vintage standardized on IGEL technology following a demonstration where it saw the capabilities of IGEL's Universal Management Suite (UMS) software which enables the whole endpoint infrastructure to be centrally managed. Today, around 150 UD3 multimedia endpoints have been deployed along with Citrix XenDesktop all running on Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure. IGEL Cloud Gateway was purchased to manage and provide access to endpoints located at its branch offices. Furthermore, IGEL's UD Pocket solution is being used which enables IT staff to temporarily repurpose any 64-bit x86 laptop. The UD Pocket which is the size of a few paper clips simply plugs into a USB slot and after "booting to USB" enables the device to run IGEL's Linux OS. This provides access to Citrix and their own desktop session without an actual UD3 terminal having to be used. The endpoints were sold by IGEL reseller, Gotham Technology Group based in Montvale, NJ. As part of the project, Toppan Vintage also updated its server interconnect technology installing 10 gigabit Ethernet switches from Mellanox. Investment in the whole IT project totals around $1 million. IGEL Provides a Comprehensive Enterprise Desktop Solution In addition, IGEL was selected for a range of other reasons: Support for multiple virtualization protocols. This allows Toppan Vintage to manage two environments: its existing legacy VMware Horizon View platform along with the new Citrix XenDesktop and Nutanix infrastructure so that some staff - particularly the Mail and Data Team who look after variable print mailings - can still access core business applications such as BCC software and lanet Press Connect from Objectif Lune. Mangan explains, "Because of licensing and legacy configurations, it was going to be risky to move off VMware Horizon View completely. Instead, we found a solution in IGEL that supports multiple display protocols so that staff can toggle back and forth between the two environments, seamlessly." Ability to run multiple displays from the UD3 endpoints. All production staff have multiple screens so they can hop between applications yet keep everything open. New Dell screens have been provided for them with existing ones re-used for sales and other business areas where resolution isn't so important. Mangan explains. "Multiple screens allow us to not only work on regular production jobs but monitor email inboxes for client requests or anything that might shift the priority of jobs." Provision of tailored desktops based on job role. When a user logs in, and it doesn't matter which endpoint they sit at, they get a tailored and personalized desktop based on their location this is important as Toppan Vintage is a 24/7 operation and runs three daily shifts with staff sharing desks. Employees in New York and Denver log into Citrix-based desktops, with those in New Jersey given the option to choose between Citrix or VMware based on the software they need to access. These policies are managed within the UMS along with other features: Shadow policies. This allows an administrator to shadow a user's screen to troubleshoot any issues with the virtual desktop. It means no plug-ins or complex helpdesk software is required. Network policies. Toppan Vintage has various physical networks and different groups get different network access. Mangan adds, "Depending on what network an IGEL endpoint is linked to a completely different profile is applied. And in the event a device has to be replaced, all we have to do is disconnect it, plug in a new one in and in minutes, the user is back up and running." Easy Roll Out The installation of the whole IGEL solution was completed quickly. In New Jersey and New York, endpoints were implemented over a weekend. The IGELs were powered on and the profiles sent to the devices over the network with each one then tested. Mangan says, "We worked with IGEL's software engineers to create our policies, then plugged the UD3s into power and our network, the UMS discovered them and did the rest for us. It was remarkably easy." VDI and IGEL Terminals Delivers a Range of Commercial Benefits Mangan adds, "The UMS is the management console we'd always hoped to find but didn't get with our previous supplier. That's why we switched to IGEL. I can't say enough good things about it and, even though our fleet of UD3s isn't in the thousands, it's of fundamental benefit. We define a policy and drag and drop this to individual IGEL devices or groups of installed endpoints, with firmware updates simplified too." In addition, Toppan Vintage is realizing a variety of other benefits: Endpoint reliability is first class and Toppan Vintage has not had one single valid device failure since installation. This is because the UD3 endpoints don't have moving parts meaning they are practically fail-safe, noiseless with minimal heat generation; To support a company with over 200 staff operating in shifts, Toppan Vintage estimates it would have had to hire three additional people if PC desktops were used in terms of break/fix and hardware management. Put another way, the business has avoided doubling the size of the IT department by using VDI and IGEL endpoints; Power savings are significant given each UD3 terminal is highly energy efficient; Collaboration is enhanced as staff working together on projects can login next to each other and work seamlessly as if they were at their own desks. Security is maximized. Mangan says, "This was part of the strategy back in 2012. There's zero company data stored on our endpoints, eradicating the risk of someone stealing a PC or laptop to gain access to confidential information." A Platform for Growth Moving forward, as the business continues to expand, it is easy to incorporate new users into the overall corporate architecture. David Henkel, Toppan Vintage's VP and Chief Technology officer, comments, "While it is early days with the integration of the Merrill divisions into the business, our new VDI architecture could easily be extended and we'll be working on this over time. Ultimately, Toppan Vintage will be known globally as Toppan Merrill, reflecting our organization's scale and enhanced offerings." Jed Ayres, President and CEO, IGEL North America, says, "Toppan Vintage's senior management put a lot of trust in its IT team given they've completely changed their desktop infrastructure. It's the strength of IGEL's technology, combined with Citrix and Nutanix solutions, that has facilitated this. VDI with the right endpoints and right endpoint management software provides everyone in the company with a first-class work environment." About Toppan Vintage For more information about Toppan Vintage, visit www.toppanvintage.com IGEL on Social Media Twitter: www.twitter.com/IGEL_Technology Facebook: www.facebook.com/igel.technology Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101270758605662221044 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/igel-technology IGEL Community: https://igelcommunity.slack.com/messages IGEL Community on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12057395 YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/IGELTechnologyTV About IGEL IGEL delivers powerful unified endpoint management software that is revolutionary in its simplicity and purpose-built for the enterprise. The company's world-leading software products include the IGEL OS, Universal Desktop Converter (UDC), IGEL Cloud Gateway (ICG), IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal Management Suite (UMS). These solutions enable a more secure, manageable and cost-effective endpoint management platform across nearly any x86 device. Additionally, IGEL's German engineered and manufactured thin, zero and all-in-one client solutions deliver the industry's best warranty (5 years), support (3 years after end of life) and management functionality. IGEL enables enterprises to precisely control all devices running IGEL OS as well as Windows OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices worldwide and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/toppan-vintage-uses-vdi-and-igel-endpoints-to-support-growth-through-strategic-acquisitions-300756155.html SOURCE IGEL [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Luminar and Volvo Cars Offer a First Look Into Path to Autonomy Today at AutoMobility Los Angeles, Luminar and Volvo Cars revealed advancements in perception capabilities that are accelerating the development of its R&D efforts. Together the companies are working towards a shared vision of safe, driver-out-of-the-loop autonomy. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005236/en/ Video of data from Luminar's LiDAR sensor platform in Venice, CA (News - Alert). (Graphic: Business Wire) Volvo is the first of Luminar's partners to fully develop this capability, and the Luminar team has worked closely with Volvo Cars R&D to create advanced perception technologies. In June, the companies announced its partnership along with an investment in Luminar from the recently formed Volvo Cars Tech Fund. Since then, Volvo Cars has introduced its vision for full autonomy with its 360c concept. The demonstration in Los Angeles gave a look into long-range perception capabilities on a live drive along Los Angeles highways and streets to show Volvo Cars long-range vision at highway speeds leveraging Luminar's sensing platform. "The Volvo Cars R&D team is moving at an impressive pace to solve some of the most advanced problems in the development of autonomous driving," said Luminar founder and chief executive officer, Austin Russell. "As we've scaled up, they've remained on the forefrontof developing an autonomous system to take the driver out of the loop - ultimately enabling deployment in real consumer vehicles." Long-range perception is key to achieving Volvo Cars' vision for 360c. Luminar's high performance sensing platform finally delivers the range, resolution, and fidelity necessary to achieve safer-than-human understanding of core driving tasks and edge case scenarios. The fidelity enabled the Volvo Cars R&D team to achieve and demonstrate the first ever LiDAR-based pose estimation for autonomous driving. Pose estimation is used to understand and predict pedestrian body language, behavior and intention, but has traditionally only been achieved with dense 2D data from cameras. With LiDAR that achieves camera-like resolution in 3D, this is one of many perception & prediction challenges that can now be reliably solved at distances near and far. "Autonomous technology will take driving safely to a new level, beyond human limitations. This promise to improve safety is why Volvo Cars wants to be a leader in autonomous drive. Ultimately, the technology will also create new benefits for our customers and society as a whole," said Henrik Green, senior vice president for research and development at Volvo Cars. "Luminar shares our ambition in making those benefits a reality and this new perception technology is an important next step in that process." About Luminar In April 2017, Luminar came out of stealth after five years in development to debut a new sensing technology that is poised to become the core platform to enable safe, fully autonomous vehicles. The company is funded by Canvas Ventures, GVA Capital and 1517 Fund, and has built a team of over 400 people across three offices, including a 125,000-square-foot manufacturing campus in Orlando. Luminar has partnered with sixteen of the top AV programs, including Volvo Cars and Toyota Research Institute. For more information: https://www.luminartech.com/. About Volvo Car Group Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 571,577 cars in 2017 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company (News - Alert) of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding. In 2017, Volvo Cars employed on average approximately 38,000 (30,400) full-time employees. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company's main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skovde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofstrom (Sweden). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005236/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Digital Technology Supercluster kicks into high gear Funding will help the British Columbia-based supercluster create more than 13,500 jobs VANCOUVER, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is committed to growing the economy, creating good jobs and keeping Canada competitive. That is why the Government is teaming up with small, medium-sized and large companies, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations from five high potential sectors to develop them into major engines of growth and job creation under the Innovation Superclusters Initiative. Today, Marco Mendicino, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, announced the signing of an agreement to invest up to nearly $153 million, matched dollar for dollar by the private sector, in the British Columbia-based Digital Technology Supercluster, a group of businesses, post-secondary institutions and non-profits working together to create digital solutions for the growth of Canada's top industries. The funding agreement means the supercluster can move forward with activities to unlock the potential of data using augmented reality, cloud computing and other cutting-edge technologies to improve service delivery and efficiency in the natural resource, precision health and manufacturing sectors. It is projected that this supercluster will create more than 13,500 jobs and add more than $5 billion to Canada's economy over 10 years. The Innovation Superclusters Initiative is a centrepiece of the Government of Canada's Innovation and Skills Plan, a multi-year strategy to prepare Canada's businesses for the economy of tomorrow and our workers for its good middle-class jobs. Quotes "The Digital Technology Supercluster is set to unlock the potential of Canada's digital industries to create thousands of good jobs and grow the Canadian economy. By teaming up with companies of all sizes, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations, we're building a crucial hub for this sector and developing a culture of openness and collaboration that leads to more innovation, successful commercialization and scale-up." The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development "We are thrilled to officially launch Canada's first-ever Digital Technology Supercluster and to join forces with employers in key industries throughout B.C. and across Canada. Our agreement with the Government of Canada's Innovation Superclusters Initiative, along with signed member agreements with our initial cohort of members, brings the total amount of committed funding to more than $360 million. Our leadership team and Board of Directors are excited to launch ambitious collaborative projects that will propel Canada to be a global leader in our digitally driven future." Sue Paish, CEO, Digital Technology Supercluster Quick facts Superclusters are dense areas of business activity where many middle-class jobs are created. They attract large and small companies that collaborate with universities, colleges and not-for-profit organizations to turn ideas into solutions that can be brought to market. The Innovation Superclusters Initiative is projected to create more than 50,000 jobs and grow Canada's GDP by more than $50 billion over the next 10 years. GDP by more than over the next 10 years. Canada's five superclustersthe Digital Technology Supercluster, the Protein Industries Canada Supercluster, the Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster (NGen), the AI-Powered Supply Chains Supercluster (SCALE.AI) and the Ocean Superclusteroffer ongoing opportunities for collaboration to individuals, businesses and post-secondary institutions across the country. five superclustersthe Digital Technology Supercluster, the Protein Industries Canada Supercluster, the Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster (NGen), the AI-Powered Supply Chains Supercluster (SCALE.AI) and the Ocean Superclusteroffer ongoing opportunities for collaboration to individuals, businesses and post-secondary institutions across the country. Together the five superclusters represent more than 450 businesses, 60 post-secondary institutions and 180 other participants in sectors covering 78 percent of Canada's economy. Associated links Innovation Superclusters Initiative Digital Technology Supercluster Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Twitter: @ISED_CA Find more services and information at Canada.ca/ISED SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Cigna Foundation Grant to Help Improve Health of Native American Moms and Babies Through Prenatal Care, Drug and Addiction Education and Recovery The Cigna Foundation announced it will provide a $100,000 grant to the St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation in Billings, Montana to help improve the health outcomes of Native American women and babies through increased access to early prenatal care, drug education and intervention when needed. The grant addresses drug addiction that has reached into Native American communities.1 This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005733/en/ Kassie Runsabove, community health worker at St. Vincent's hospital in Billings, Montana. (Photo: Business Wire) "Addiction is a national crisis, and tribes are experiencing its impact along with the rest of the country. St. Vincent's is a mission-driven health care facility dedicated to serving the Native American community, and Cigna Foundation is helping us develop a sustainable maternity care delivery model," said Vicki Birkeland, St. Vincent Healthcare Director of Women's Services. "This is important work and we look forward to seeing improved health outcomes for the moms and babies we serve." Previously, the Cigna Foundation provided grant funding to St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation to support an American Indian Health Disparities Coordinator who serves as a community health worker. St. Vincent's chose Kassie Runsabove, a Native American, for this role to work as an advocate and cultural liaison, and to be responsible for implementing projects to identify and reduce health disparities. The new Cigna Foundation grant provides an additional year of funding to help St. Vincent's further its mission to improve the cultural competency skills of maternal health care providers, and to work with tribal community partners to provide prenatal education on healthy nutrition, stress management, and other healthy lifestyle topics. The St. Vincent' program is expected to result in measurable outcomes, including: Earlier access to prenatal care with the goal of improving birth weights Increased participation at prenatal clinics at St. Vincent Healthcare's Midwifery & Women's Health Center, the midwifery clinic on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, and at the health care facilities of community partners including Indian Health Services (IHS (News - Alert)) Decreased numbers of NICU admissions Decreased numbers of babies born prematurely Increased participation in substance abuse recovery programs "We are focused on improving health equity and are working with organizations such as St. Vincent's to eliminate disparities that create barriers to health care," said Mary Engvall, executive director of the Cigna Foundation. "St. Vincent's community health worker is integral to effectively coordinating care between the rural reservations and an urban hospital setting in a culturally sensitive manner, while building a safe environment of trust for patients." For more information on the Cigna Foundation's partnership with St. Vincent's, see the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-RT9qlLQCA&feature=youtu.be About the Cigna Foundation The Cigna Foundation, founded in 1962, is a private foundation funded by contributions from Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) and its subsidiaries. The Cigna Foundation supports organizations sharing its commitment to enhancing the health of individuals and families, and the well-being of their communities, with a special focus on those communities where Cigna employees live and work. About Cigna Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) is a global health service company dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and sense of security. All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Life Insurance Company of North America, Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, or their affiliates. Such products and services include an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits, and other related products including group life, accident and disability insurance. Cigna maintains sales capability in over 30 countries and jurisdictions, and has more than 95 million customer relationships throughout the world. To learn more about Cigna, including links to follow us on Facebook (News - Alert) or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com. For more information about Cigna's proposed acquisition of Express Scripts, please visit www.advancinghealthcare.com. 1 "Illicit Drug Use, Illicit Drug Use Disorders, and Drug Overdose Deaths in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas - United States," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, (MMWR), Surveillance Summaries / October 20, 2017 / 66(19);1-12, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005733/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster officially launches with $153M in funding from the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and funding commitments of over $200M from members VANCOUVER, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster is excited to announce its official launch and celebrate the funding allocation by the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) and funding commitments by its initial cohort of members. The Government of Canada is investing up to $950 million over five years to support industry-led innovation superclusters across the country and accelerate economic growth, productivity, and competitiveness across five Superclusters. The British Columbia-based Digital Technology Supercluster will receive $153 million of this funding. This federal funding has enabled the Supercluster to secure additional commitments of over $200 million from its initial cohort of 29 members, representing 33 organizations. Members represent a broad spectrum of organizations across sectors including 14 SMEs, 13 large companies and six post-secondary institutions. In addition, there are more than 500 organizations including SMEs, colleges, research organizations and not-for-profits that have become Associates of the Digital Technology Supercluster. As an industry-led consortium, the Supercluster will leverage BC's strengths and position Canada as a global hub for digital technology innovation, generating new jobs, growing GDP and increasing Canada's global competitiveness through the application of data analytics, quantum computing, and virtual, mixed/augmented reality. The Supercluster will invest in solutions to enhance industry productivity, sustainability and competitiveness and the development of a diverse and skilled digital - ready workforce. There are already several collaborative projects in development that will support the competitiveness of BC's natural resource sector, improve health outcomes for Canadians, and secure new markets for industrial manufacturing. Canadas Digital Technology Supercluster is active with the recent appointment of a cross-industry board of directors, the leadership team, and the support and guidance of members, associate and government partners. "We are thrilled to officially launch Canada's first-ever Digital Technology Supercluster and join forces with leaders from industries across the province and country," says Sue Paish, CEO of the Digital Technology Supercluster. "With funding from the Canadian government's Innovation Superclusters Initiative and in collaboration with a consortium of diverse organizations. Our leadership team and board of directors are looking forward to launching Canada into a digitally-driven future." "The Digital Technology Supercluster is set to unlock the potential of Canada's digital industries to create thousands of good jobs and grow the Canadian economy," says the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. "By teaming up with companies of all sizes, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations, we're building a crucial hub for this sector and developing a culture of openness and collaboration that leads to more innovation, successful commercialization and scale-up." Members of Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster Avcorp Industries Inc AMPD Holdings Inc. Boeing Vancouver Careteam Technologies Inc. Canfor Corp. Change Healthcare Convergent Manufacturing Technologies Inc. Deloitte Canada DNAstack D-Wave Systems Inc. Finger Food Studios Inc. GE Digital Genome British Columbia Hatch Ltd. Joule Inc. Llamazoo Interactive Inc. LifeLabs MDA Systems Ltd. Microsoft MetaOptima Technology Inc. Molecular You Corp. Providence Health Care Business Corp. Post-Secondary Education Network: BC Institute of Technology, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Simon Fraser University , University of Northern BC, University of Victoria , University of Northern BC, Teck Resources Ltd TELUS Terramera Inc. TimberWest Forest Corp. University of British Columbia UrtheCast About Digital Technology Supercluster Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster is an industry-led innovation consortium centered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Supercluster aims to position Canada as a global leader in digital technologies by bringing together small, medium-sized and large companies, post-secondary institutions, research organizations and not-for-profits. The Supercluster co-invests in ambitious technology development projects and new solutions to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of natural resources, healthcare and industrial sectors and energize the economy. Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster manages the investments provided by the Government of Canada and the public and private organizations which constitute its membership. www.digitalsupercluster.ca. Media Enquiries: Interview opportunities with Sue Paish, CEO, Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster, are available upon request. Media Assets: For media assets, please click here. SOURCE Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Getnick & Getnick Whistleblower Case Exposes NY Heating Oil Scam Leading to $3.2M Recovery for Consumers, State, Towns & Schools Getnick & Getnick LLP has secured a settlement in New York's first ever whistleblower case leading to a criminal restitution recovery for individual consumer fraud victims. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood today announced the $3.2 million recovery from Morgan Fuel & Heating Co. Inc., also known as Bottini Fuel Co., which provides heating oil throughout the Hudson Valley. The settlement agreement states that Bottini Fuel from 2004 to 2016 "did not inform customers that they had overpaid for heating oil; instead, the company swept excess customer balances out of customer accounts and utilized these proceeds to benefit its owners and employees." Victims include individual homeowners, business customers, local schools, prisons, towns and state agencies. The resolution marks the first time that the New York False Claims Act, which empowers and rewards whistleblowers who report a fraud against governments, also led to a criminal conviction and restitution for victimized New York consumers. Getnick & Getnick represents the whistleblower in the case, whose identity remains protected. The whistleblower will receive 23.5 percent of the government's recovery in today's settlement, the largest percentage ever for any New York False Claims Act case not involving Medicaid. Getnick & Getnick partners Richard Dircks, Margaret Finerty, and Neil Getnick worked closely with the Attorney General's Office in the successful prosecution and resolution of this case. "We appreciate the effort of the Attorney General's office to work with us and our client t prosecute this important case and bring justice and restitution to hundreds of customers throughout the Hudson Valley, ranging from homeowners and businesses to schools, towns, and state facilities," said Richard Dircks. Margaret Finerty, a former NYC Criminal Court Judge and former Deputy Chief of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office Frauds Bureau, said, "This case demonstrates how the New York False Claims Act can be used as a fraud-fighting tool alongside the criminal law to achieve justice for all the victims, private individuals as well as government entities." Managing Partner Neil Getnick added, "This case illustrates the unusual strength of New York's False Claims Act and serves as a guiding example for how this whistleblower law can be used to target scams aimed directly at consumers. This approach will become increasingly important as mandatory arbitration and class action limitations impede consumer fraud enforcement." The biggest victims, according to the settlement, include: the Taconic Developmental Disabilities Services Organization ($281,630), the Greenhaven Correctional Facility ($145,957), Roundout Valley Central School District ($83,044) and Beacon City School District ($10,375). Towns getting restitution include Saugerties, Blooming Grove, Monroe, Hunter, Wappinger and Stanford. Bottini Fuel, located in Wappingers Falls, NY, will pay restitution of $1,171,884 to private-sector and individual victims, and $590,887 to government customers, plus $1,500,000 in False Claims Act damages and penalties to the state. Also, Bottini Fuel entered a guilty plea today to the crime of falsifying business records in the second degree. Today's press release from the New York Attorney General is here. Getnick & Getnick is a Manhattan-based law firm dedicated to fighting fraud and promoting business integrity. The firm works with whistleblowers, government agencies, and companies, guided by the principle that anti-fraud is not anti-business. The firm's whistleblower cases have recovered more than $1 billion for taxpayers, and clients have received record awards, including the largest ever award for a single whistleblower. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005751/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] McNally Capital Appoints Strategic Advisor to Enhance Opportunity Zone Investment Activity and Deployment of "Direct Family Capital" McNally Capital ("McNally"), a leading provider of direct family capital through its Direct Investing and Merchant Banking services, has added real estate expert Joseph Cahoon as Strategic Advisor, as the firm works to actively source Opportunity Zone ("OZ") investment opportunities for its growing network of family offices. With favorable tax benefits designed for long-term oriented capital, McNally believes that OZ investment opportunities can provide family offices with tax efficient returns on investment while assisting low-income community redevelopment efforts. In partnership with Joseph Cahoon, the firm has closely followed and analyzed evolving Treasury legislation around OZs and has begun actively courting partnerships with national commercial real estate developers and business operators. Established by Congress as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Opportunity Zones are a new economic development program to encourage long-term investments in low-income areas, as determined by US Census data. States were able to designate 25% of eligible census tracts as Opportunity Zones representing over 8,700 distinct areas across the country for favorable investment. Importantly, Opportunity Zones enable investors to put realized capital gains to work in low-income and rural communities while experiencing multi-layered incentives, including deferring tax due on capital gains for up to seven years. Maximum benefits accrue to those investors with a long-term holding horizon of 10 years or longer. Joseph Cahoon has over 20 years of experience as a real estate investor, developer and educator. He currently serves as the Director of the Folsom Institute for Real Estate at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and as a Senior Advisor to HR&A Advisors, a leading national real estate and economic development consulting firm. Joseph commented, "I am pleased to join the team at McNally and look forward to continuing my extensive work helping family offices to more efficiently invest in commercial real estate opportunities. In particular, I am excited that McNally shares my vision for how to transform the approach families take when investing in OZ areas." Ward McNally, Managing Partner of McNally Capital, expressed, "Having formed our firm over 10 years ago to assist family offices to make and manage their private investments, I am proud to lead a team that strives to remain at the forefront of innovation and collaboration among our large and diverse network of family offices that has grown to over 800 across the US and abroad. Opportunity Zones require long-term patient capital from investors who also have the desire to make a significant social impact around the country. These investor characteristics, combined with the enhanced tax benefits of the OZ legislation, make this strategy appealing for our family office co-investors. We are pleased to partner with Joseph Cahoon and devote our resources to help our family office network capitalize on these opportunities while strengthening low-income communities across the US." McNally Capital is pursuing a two-pronged OZ strategy to harness and leverage the firm's robust and dep family office network to bridge the gap between private sector investment and urban development while capitalizing on the benefits of the OZ investment framework. First, McNally is working to identify those family offices who have either recently realized capital gains or intend to do so in order to participate within 180-day reinvestment periods as designated by OZ regulations. Second, McNally is sourcing and screening real estate and operating company investments using a proprietary investment framework. In summary, McNally Capital has created a proprietary "Opportunity Zone Atlas" to facilitate access, screening and capital alignment. We believe that family offices are poised to actively participate in OZ capital formation and to facilitate the development and welfare of under-developed urban and rural areas with attractive double bottom-line investments that provide investors with favorable "social impact" and appealing financial returns. According to Frank McGrew, Managing Partner at McNally Capital, "We are pleased to have received a strong following of support since pursuing Opportunity Zones earlier this year and have come to understand just how much potential they offer for new investments in real estate and operating companies as designated according to Treasury regulations. Our strategy is driven by a focused, talented and professional team governed by an articulate investment committee process designed to highlight specific census tracts and then identify the most attractive investments possible within those designated zones. In addition, our investments are intended to be made alongside local partners bringing long-term and deeply-rooted community and political relationships." McNally has published several informational publications related to Opportunity Zones and intends to maintain its early leadership status to help educate family offices on the unique benefits of Opportunity Zones. Interested parties should contact the firm for further information or visit https://www.mcnallycapital.com/opportunity-zones. About McNally Capital Formed by the McNally family, who owned and operated Rand McNally & Company, McNally Capital is dedicated to upholding a 140+ year legacy as a family-owned and operated company. Today, McNally Capital is focused exclusively on Direct Family Capital through Direct Investing and Merchant Banking services. With an emphasis on partnership, we harness the financial, intellectual, and human capital of our family office ecosystem to build value for family office investors, management teams and operating companies. We maintain a private network of over 800 family offices with whom we collaborate to make and manage direct investments. For more information, please visit: http://www.mcnallycapital.com. About Joseph Cahoon Joseph Cahoon has over 20 years of experience as an investor, developer and educator in the Real Estate Industry. Joseph joined the Southern Methodist University Cox (News - Alert) School of Business in January 2014 as the director of the Folsom Institute for Real Estate. In his role with the Folsom Institute, Cahoon is responsible for leading the Institute's initiatives in academics, research and outreach to the real estate industry to enhance the institute's and students' relationships with alumni and other industry leaders nationally. In addition to his role with the Folsom Institute, Joseph is a Professor of Practice in the Cox School and teaches real estate finance courses for both MBAs and BBAs. He also currently serves as a Senior Advisor to HR&A Advisors, a leading real estate and economic development consulting firm in Dallas, TX. Previously, from 2009 to 2014, Cahoon was the managing director of the Real Estate Finance and Investment Center in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. Prior to joining UT Austin, Cahoon was with Gables Residential in Dallas, Texas, and was responsible for sourcing and underwriting multifamily and mixed-use acquisition and development opportunities in Dallas. Before joining Gables in 2006, he was a partner with Champion Partners in Dallas where he focused on value-add office investments. Prior to attending business school in 2003, Cahoon was a project manager with Century Development in Houston, Texas. DISCLAIMER: McNally Capital and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for information purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction. All securities are offered through McNally Capital Securities, LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of McNally Capital, a registered broker dealer with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") and a member of FINRA and SIPC. > Read full McNally Capital Disclaimer View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005744/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] U.S., European Consumer Groups Call on FTC to Investigate Google for Deceptively Tracking Android Phone Users; Charge Users are Unfairly Manipulated into Enabling Location History, Says Consumer Watchdog LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An association of more than 75 consumer groups on both sides of the Atlantic is asking the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google for unfairly and deceptively manipulating users of mobile phones with the Android operating system into being constantly location-tracked. In a letter to the FTC the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) charged: "Google is removing individuals' control over their data by deceit." Read the TACD letter here. "Location data and history can reveal in detail an individual's lifestyle, daily routines and interests," the TACD letter said. "Over time the data can be used to infer highly sensitive information such as religious beliefs, political views and sexual orientation." The TACD complaint is based on a just released research report, "Every Step You Take" from the Norwegian Consumer Council. In addition to the TACD complaint to the FTC, European consumer groups are filing complaints with their respective data protection authorities charging that Google has violated to General Data Protection Regulation (DPR). Read the "Every Step You Take" report here: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/undersokelse/no-undersokelsekategori/every-step-you-take NCC's report shows Android users are being manipulated into enabling Location History and Web & App activity settings, including through: Deceptive click-flow. The click-flow when setting up an Android device pushes users into enabling "Location History" without being aware of it. The click-flow when setting up an Android device pushes users into enabling "Location History" without being aware of it. Hidden default settings . When setting up a Google account, the Web & App activity settings are hidden behind extra clicks and enabled by default. . When setting up a Google account, the Web & App activity settings are hidden behind extra clicks and enabled by default. Misleading and unbalanced information. Users are not given sufficient information when presented with choices and are misled about what data is collected and how it is used. Users are not given sufficient information when presented with choices and are misled about what data is collected and how it is used. Repeated nudging . Users are repeatedly asked to turn on "Location History" when using different Google services. . Users are repeatedly asked to turn on "Location History" when using different Google services. Lack of individual service choice. Google bundles all features and turns on invasive location tracking even if a user wants just one feature with location, e.g. photos sorted that way. The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) is a forum of US and EU consumer organizations which develops and agrees on joint consumer policy recommendations to the US government and European Union to promote the consumer interest in EU and US policy making. Visit the organization's website here: http://tacd.org/ View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-european-consumer-groups-call-on-ftc-to-investigate-google-for-deceptively-tracking-android-phone-users-charge-users-are-unfairly-manipulated-into-enabling-location-history-says-consumer-watchdog-300756248.html SOURCE Consumer Watchdog [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Intrahealth Canada Achieves Infoway 2017 Edition Certification TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and Intrahealth Canada Limited announced today that Intrahealth Canada, a global software and associated services company, has achieved Infoway's certification under the 2017 Edition of pre-implementation certification requirements. "Intrahealth Canada is the second organization to achieve certification after meeting Infoway's requirements in the areas of privacy, security and interoperability," said Mark Nenadovic, ACCESS Ecosystem Group Director at Infoway. "Meeting these requirements ensures private and secure standards-based solutions are uniformly applied across the country." Intrahealth develops leading-edge software for the health care market, with an emphasis on information tools that support delivery integration. The company received certification for its electronic medical record and ambulatory electronic medical record, approved for deployment at customer sites with interoperabilitycapabilities with client registry, laboratory, drug and clinical documents. Infoway Certification provides assurance that digital health software complies with specified requirements and standards, which helps ensure the protection of personal health information. The 2017 Edition requirements build upon Infoway's original certification requirements and are harmonized to increase alignment between Infoway, provincial requirements and international standards, and to reduce testing redundancies. "We take a patient-first approach using technology to reduce costs and improve services for the health care provider community," said Silvio Labriola, General Manager, Intrahealth Canada Limited. "By achieving this certification status, we are showing our customers our continued commitment to standards and compliance." About Canada Health Infoway Infoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. About Intrahealth Canada Limited Incorporated in 2005, Intrahealth Canada provides medical software solutions to general practitioner clinics and public health authorities. Privately owned and founded by two New Zealand medical doctors, the company offers robust, secure, and scalable solutions via innovative technology that keeps pace with today's mobile lifestyles. The platform functions across multiple community-based practice types primary care, specialist physician, community care, home care, residential care, and more. Our solutions meet the needs of front-line professionals by delivering core information to coordinating hubs, implementing programs more rapidly, and reducing the compliance burden on physicians and other clinicians. We help our customers capture structured data that holds context, meaning, and can be analyzed and processed automatically. Media inquiries: Karen Schmidt Director, Corporate Communications Canada Health Infoway Tel: (416) 595-3167 Email Us Follow @Infoway Silvio Labriola General Manager Intrahealth Canada Limited Tel: 604-980-5577 ext. 112 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Canada Health Infoway [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Skechers Donates Thousands of Supplies for Those Impacted by Fires in California Skechers is taking Giving Tuesday to heart in partnering with local non-profit organizations to donate much-needed goods for thousands of wildfire victims who have lost their homes and personal possessions after multiple disasters in Northern and Southern California. Additionally, the Company is announcing a state-wide fundraising campaign at Skechers California retail stores through the holiday season. Skechers is donating more than 10,000 items, including new shoes, socks, apparel, hats, totes, and gift bags filled with toys, snacks, and more, to those devastated by the Camp Fire through the Salvation Army in Chico. Additionally, Skechers donated shoes, socks and apparel to Woolsey Fire residents this past weekend. Today, Skechers also launched a register roundup at its 100 California stores to raise money for the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Relief Fund, which provides intermediate and long-term recovery support for wildfire victims. "The scope of California's wildfires is unfathomable - the city of Paradise and neighboring areas have been decimated. These people have lost their friends and families, their homes, their jobs. And as a California-based company with many friends who evacuated and some who lost everything in the Woolsey Fire - this disaster strikes very close to home for us," said Michael Greenberg, president of Skechers. "Giving Tuesday is a special reminder that every day is an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those in need. And this holiday season, more than ever, is a chance for all of us to come together as a community and as a state to rally for these devastated people." "The experience of seeing so much loss around me has inspired me and my family to do all that we can to help our community," said Brooke Burke, a Malibu resident who has organized donation outreach in support of the Woolsey fire victims. "As a Skechers ambassador, I know that Skechers has a beautiful history of being there for families when they most need it - and I'm touched to see all the ways that they're trying to uplift thousands of California families. We are Malibu Strong, we are able!" Knowing the need is ongoing, the Company is also collaborating with charity organization Delivering Good to donate more than 1,500 pairs of BOBS from Skechers donation shoes for children impacted in the Paradise area in December. Skechers' Giving Tuesday disaster relief is the latest in the Company's ongoing commitment to families who have been impacted by natural disasters. Through its BOBS from Skechers program and corporate efforts, the Company has contributed to numerous natural disaster events dating back to Hurricane Katrina - most recently donating to floodvictims in Texas and Florida following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and sending thousands of new shoes, socks, apparel and backpacks in care packages to Hurricane Maria victims throughout Puerto Rico. To date, the BOBS from Skechers program has donated more than 15 million pairs of new shoes to children in need in the United States and more than 60 countries worldwide. About Skechers U.S.A., Inc. Skechers U.S.A., Inc. (NYSE:SKX), based in Manhattan Beach, California, designs, develops and markets a diverse range of lifestyle footwear for men, women and children, as well as performance footwear for men and women. Skechers footwear is available in the United States and over 170 countries and territories worldwide via department and specialty stores, 2,802 Skechers Company-owned and third-party-owned retail stores, and the Company's e-commerce websites. The Company manages its international business through a network of global distributors, joint venture partners in Asia and the Middle East, and wholly-owned subsidiaries in Canada, Japan, throughout Europe and Latin America. For more information, please visit about.skechers.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This announcement contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, Skechers' future domestic and international growth, financial results and operations including expected net sales and earnings, its development of new products, future demand for its products, its planned domestic and international expansion, opening of new stores and additional expenditures, and advertising and marketing initiatives. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking language such as "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "project," "will be," "will continue," "will result," "could," "may," "might," or any variations of such words with similar meanings. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include international economic, political and market conditions including the challenging consumer retail markets in the United States; sustaining, managing and forecasting costs and proper inventory levels; losing any significant customers; decreased demand by industry retailers and cancellation of order commitments due to the lack of popularity of particular designs and/or categories of products; maintaining brand image and intense competition among sellers of footwear for consumers, especially in the highly competitive performance footwear market; anticipating, identifying, interpreting or forecasting changes in fashion trends, consumer demand for the products and the various market factors described above; sales levels during the spring, back-to-school and holiday selling seasons; and other factors referenced or incorporated by reference in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended September 30, 2018. The risks included here are not exhaustive. Skechers operates in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time and the companies cannot predict all such risk factors, nor can the companies assess the impact of all such risk factors on their respective businesses 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. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. Moreover, reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005775/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] NASA Scientist to Discuss "The Science of Space: Heliophysics and the Parker Solar Probe" at Library of Congress Lecture WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The public is invited to a free talk called 'The Science of Space: Heliophysics and the Parker Solar Probe,' with Dr. C. Alex Young, Associate Director for Science, Heliophysics Science Division. The talk will occur in the Pickford Theater, third floor, Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue SE, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Dec. 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST. Young, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland will discuss how NASA studies the Sun and how its constant outflow of magnetic fields and solar material influences the very nature of space, the atmospheres of planets, and human technology. Heliophysics missions explore places never before visitedtraveling through pockets of intense radiation, interstellar space, and right into the Sun itself. Earlier this year, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, the first spacecraft in history to fly through the Sun's inner corona. Dr. C. Alex Young will take the audience on a journey through the solar system, discussing how the Sun interacts at the largest and smallest scales, from complicated motions at the particle level to giant eruptions thousands of times bigger thanthe Earth. Young is a speaker in the 2018 NASA Goddard Lectures Series at the Library of Congress. Earlier talks in the NASA series included the topics of space weather, improved global water security and sustainability, how Mars has changed over time, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. The Library of Congress maintains one of the largest and most diverse collections of scientific and technical information in the world. The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world and holds nearly 151.8 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The library serves Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill. For inquiries about this or upcoming talks at the Library of Congress, the public can contact the library's Science, Technology and Business Division at 202-707-5664. ADA accommodations should be requested five business days in advance at 202-707-6382 (voice/tty) or [email protected]. The lecture will be later broadcast on the library's webcast page and YouTube channel "Topics in Science" playlist. For directions, visit: http://www.loc.gov/visit/maps-and-floor-plans/ or www.loc.gov For information about Dr. Young, visit: https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/c.a.young For information about NASA research on Parker Solar Probe, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-scientist-to-discuss-the-science-of-space-heliophysics-and-the-parker-solar-probe-at-library-of-congress-lecture-300756351.html SOURCE NASA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Ellie Mae Extends Deadline for Encompass Innovation Challenge to December 20, 2018 Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI), the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, today announced that the deadline has been extended to December 20, 2018 to submit nominations for its Encompass Innovation Challenge. The company is inviting users of the Encompass digital mortgage solution to build and submit innovations leveraging the Ellie Mae Encompass Lending Platform and Application Program Interfaces (APIs) for an opportunity to be showcased at the company's Ellie Mae Experience 2019 conference in San Francisco. One grand prize winner, who will be announced in January 2019 will be invited to present their solution onstage during the Developer General Session at Ellie Mae Experience 2019 and will receive a complimentary pass to the conference. Five finalists will be selected to present demonstrations via WebEx. The winner will also receive choice of travel to Universal Studios Hollywood and/or a destination of their choice and/or a variety of Apple (News - Alert) products and/or a selection of items from Amazon and/or b8ta*. Full details can be found on the Ellie Mae Experience 2019 website. The collaborative competition will highlight the inventive ways mortgage industry professionals are leveraging the platform's flexibility and capabilities to improve processes and create solutions to their unique challenges. The contest welcomes all innovative ideas, whether they are already built-out and in use, in process or merely in the concept stage. Entrants are asked to provide their original solutions for using the platform and APIs in ways that address one of the following categories: Lowers cost of loan origination Reduces time to close loans Ensures higher quality loans through greater compliance Improves user experience for homebuyers Entrants must submit a 500-word description of their innovation or concept to the Ellie Mae Encompass Innovation Challenge website. The extended deadline to submit is December 20, 2018. Finalists will be judged by a panel of Ellie Mae executives. Entries must leverage the Encompass Lending Platform APIs and will be judged on a scale of one to 10 on the following criteria: Increased ability to close more loans Increased ability to close loans faster Improved consumer experience Innovativeness (or "X Factor") Potential to change the mortgage industry "The Encompass Innovation Challenge showcases the innovation, best practices and ideas from our lenders that will help drive the industry toward a fully digital mortgage while helping them engage with their borrowers," said Joe Tyrrell, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Ellie Mae. "We look forward to sharing our clients' creativity as they innovate to power the American Dream of homeownership." The Ellie Mae Encompass Lending Platform gives customers, partners and independent software vendors a secure, scalable platform, plus a suite of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and developer resources to enable them to extend Encompass with new functionality, easily integrate Encompass with external systems and data and build custom applications in the cloud. To learn more, visit the Ellie Mae Customer Innovation Challenge website: https://cic.secure-platform.com/ *Up to $5,000 USD value About Ellie Mae Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI) is the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry. Ellie Mae's technology solutions enable lenders to originate more loans, lower origination costs, and reduce the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality, and efficiency. Visit EllieMae.com or call (877) 355-4362 to learn more. 2018 Ellie Mae, Inc. Ellie Mae, Encompass, AllRegs, Mavent, Velocify, the Ellie Mae logo and other trademarks or service marks of Ellie Mae, Inc. appearing herein are the property of Ellie Mae, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Other company and product names may be trademarks or copyrights of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005781/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] First National Bank of Louisiana and FHLB Dallas to Award $18K in Grant Funding to Louisiana Nonprofits First National Bank of Louisiana and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) will award $18,200 in Partnership Grant Program (PGP (News - Alert)) funds to Crowley Main Street and Empowering the Community for Excellence (ETCFE). Local dignitaries will join bank representatives in awarding the funds at a check presentation at noon Thursday, November 29, 2018, at First National Bank's offices at 128 North Parkerson Avenue in Crowley, Louisiana. The media is encouraged to attend. Crowley Main Street, whose mission is to revitalize and promote the historic, cultural, social and economic significance of Crowley's downtown historic business district, will receive $16,000 in PGP funds to pay for a computer and software to assist with business and fundraising operations. ETCFE, a nonprofit that provides free academic tutoring to underprivileged students, will receive $2,200 in funds from the banks to purchase two laptop computers and supplemental materials including language arts, reading and math workbooks. The structure of the PGP enables FHLB Dallas member institutions such as First National Bank of Louisiana to make a contribution of $500 to $4,000 to a community-based organization (CBO), which FHLB Dallas will match at a 3:1 ratio. For more information about the PGP, visit fhlb.com/pgp. WHAT: Check Presentation WHEN: Noon, Thursday, November 29, 2018 WHO: J. Randall Prather, President and CEO, First National Bank of Louisiana Cynthia Miller, Senior Vice President, First National Bank of Louisiana Audrey Spencer, Founder, Empowering the Community for Excellence Jill Habetz, Advisory Board Vice President, Crowley Main Street Connie John, Board President, Crowley Main Street Melanie Dill, Community and Economic Development Product Manager, FHLB Dallas WHERE: First National Bank 128 North Parkerson Avenue Crowley, Louisiana 70526 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005854/en/ [November 27, 2018] Promo video of Wuhan's East Lake makes stunning appearance WUHAN, China, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The promo video of the central Chinese city of Wuhan featuring its East Lake was unveiled at China International Friendship Cities Conference in November. Popular short video platforms and accounts in China, including the Yangtze River Daily, Xinpianchang, Hubei TV and Wuhan Broadcasting and Television, went viral for it. The cumulative play counts have reached 100,000 as of noontime on Nov. 16. More than 1,000 viewers posted their comments. For broadcast-quality video footage and high-res images, please visit the Multimedia News Release: http://news.medianet.com.au/xinhua/promo-video-wuhan-east-lake-makes The creation team of the video includes Li Sheng, a senior writer and director who was also the writer for the promo video of Wuhan. Li, 74, had been touring the East Lake for inspiration every week since April. After half a year of working and polishing, he finalized the 1,768-character article for the video. Classical Chinese expert Shu Bangxin said the writings for both the East Lake and the city of Wuhan are classic, with the former being even better. Li wrote with all the love he has for the city. Deng Siming, a history expert, also spoke highly of Li's writing. Zhang Wen, granddaughter f Zhou Cangbai who built the East Lake Park and daughter of China's famed soprano Zhou Xiaoyan, sent her congratulations in the early hours of Nov. 16 to Li, saying "It's so beautiful!" three times. She said Li's words were so touching and hearty and made her proud. When she revisited the lake in April, she could barely recognize the lake park. "The promo video is a better way of story-telling to let more people know the East Lake and Wuhan at large." Photographer Guo Dagong, also nephew of Zhou Xiaoyan, said the words and pictures complemented each other that "fill viewers with boundless imagination". "It never occurred to me that Wuhan has such a beautiful lake just in the city, reminding me of the movie Avatar," said a viewer. "Many shots were new to me even though I've been living here for so many years. How did they get all those brand new perspectives?" another viewer said. Huke Image is the shooting and production team of the video. Its members were born in the 1980s and 1990s, most of whom had overseas study and shooting experiences. Song Xiaohu, the director and videographer, was once invited to shoot promo videos for Russia, Romania, Malaysia and Indonesia. He said his team of over 60 members immersed themselves in the environment of the East Lake for nearly a year. They applied cinema-level equipment worth over a million, hired voice actors that work for BBC, and produced an English version for the convenience of overseas broadcasting. "Many valuable scenes are rarely seen, as they were shot under special circumstances of weather and timing. The shooting crew often had to wait in the early hours in the morning or late after the dusk. Some moments of special visual effects only existed for a couple of minutes. For example, cloud shadows can only be captured when the air is crystal clear, and shrouding mist has to be captured patiently after the sunset," he explained. According to the management committee of the East Lake, the Wuhan promo video concentrated the city's 3,500-year-old history into 1,500 characters through the lens of everyday changes, while the promo video of the East Lake is the "green heart" of Wuhan that reflects the harmony of human and nature, city and lake. Thanks to the "green heart", Wuhan shines even brighter as a city of bridges, a city of forests, a city of universities. Before the hosting of 2019 Military World Games, Wuhan's image has once again surprised the world. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/promo-video-of-wuhans-east-lake-makes-stunning-appearance-300756416.html SOURCE The Management Committee of the East Lake [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Sysdig Joins New AWS Marketplace for Containers and Achieves Amazon Web Services Container Competency Status AWS re:Invent 2018 - Sysdig, Inc., a cloud-native intelligence company, today announced that Sysdig Secure and Sysdig Monitor are a part of the newly launched AWS Marketplace for Containers, which was just announced by Amazon Web Services (News - Alert), Inc. at AWS re:Invent 2018. Sysdig is also one of the first companies to achieve AWS Container Competency status, and for enterprise customers, Sysdig is now a member of the Enterprise Contract for AWS Marketplace Program. "We are happy to welcome Sysdig to the new AWS Marketplace for Containers, which will help over 200,000 AWS customers find, buy, and deploy solutions specific to their container environment," said Garth Fort, Director, AWS Marketplace, Amazon Web Services, Inc. "I'd also like to congratulate Sysdig for achieving AWS Partner Network (APN) Container Competency status." What Sysdig Offers AWS Customers The complexity of modern cloud architectures involves many moving parts, including containers and orchestrators like Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) and Kubernetes. With containerization on the rise, there is a real need for purpose-built solutions at every level of the stack. Sysdig leverages metadata from Amazon ECS, Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (Amazon EKS), and containers running on top of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) in order to provide more meaningful security enforcement, compliance, and monitoring. By extracting rich data using its unique ContainerVision technology, Sysdig gives enterprises the power to solve security issues within the containerized environment and ensure reliability. Sysdig uses a single point of instrumentation to unify security and monitoring, which saves enterprises time, effort, and money. The Sysdig Cloud-Native Intelligence Platform, the platform on top of which both Sysdig Secure and Sysdig Monitor run, is purpose-built to protect cloud-native envirnments, ensure they are running smoothly, and meet compliance requirements. Sysdig enables enterprises to gain full visibility into their environment at the container, host, and application level. Both products are available on AWS Marketplace for Containers. "Ebates has grown into one of the largest, free cash back loyalty program in the U.S.," said Amit Patel, Chief Executive Officer, Ebates. "Both Sysdig and AWS play a critical role in how we deliver a scalable, secure, and reliable service to our members. Sysdig helps us monitor our containers on AWS and provides far more data about our application environment than we would get with other approaches. It's great to see two of our key solution providers continue to advance their relationship." The Sysdig and AWS relationship has rapidly accelerated. This announcement comes on the heels of Sysdig announcing that they became an APN Advanced Technology Partner last month and were listed on AWS Marketplace earlier this month. What This Announcement Means for AWS Customers AWS Marketplace for Containers Sysdig is one of several companies to join the launch of AWS Marketplace for Containers. AWS users are able to browse and customize contract terms and pricing through AWS Marketplace for Containers, simplifying the procurement process. By purchasing Sysdig through AWS Marketplace for Containers, users get the power of Sysdig monitoring, security, and simplified billing. AWS Container Competency By achieving AWS Container Competency status, AWS users can select Sysdig knowing that the Sysdig Cloud-Native Intelligence Platform is a reliable and secure solution, and that Sysdig has vast experience successfully securing and monitoring AWS-based environments. AWS Enterprise Contracts for AWS Marketplace AWS customers enrolled in AWS Enterprise Contracts can now purchase Sysdig subscriptions using established, pre-approved enterprise licensing terms, simplifying and speeding up the procurement process. "Since day one, we have been focused on meeting our users where they choose to design," said Loris Degioanni, Chief Technology Officer and Founder, Sysdig. "Our goal of teaming with AWS so deeply is to provide customers with seamless cloud-native security and monitoring on top of AWS's already powerful capabilities." For More Information Sysdig is built on open source cloud-native technologies, including Falco, the runtime security project; sysdig, the open source container forensics tool; and Prometheus, the Kubernetes monitoring and alerting toolkit. Sysdig recently published a blog post on the AWS blog describing how to pair the open source technologies from Sysdig with AWS services. Sysdig is currently demonstrating the Sysdig Cloud-Native Intelligence Platform at AWS re:Invent 2018, in Las Vegas at Booth #2811. Come meet the Sysdig team and learn more about how Sysdig is utilizing AWS in order to make modern architectures more reliable and secure. About Sysdig Sysdig is the cloud-native intelligence company. Enterprises depend on Sysdig to deliver reliable, secure containerized applications. We have created the only unified platform to deliver container security, monitoring, and forensics in a microservices-friendly architecture. Our open source technologies have attracted a community of over a million developers, administrators and other IT professionals looking for deep visibility into applications and containers. Our cloud-native intelligence platform monitors and secures millions of containers across hundreds of enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies and web-scale properties. Learn more at www.sysdig.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005878/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] JT ALERT DEADLINE: Rosen Law Firm Reminds Jianpu Technology Inc.; Investors of Important Deadline in Class Action - JT Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Jianpu Technology Inc. (NYSE:JT) pursuant and/or traceable to the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in connection with Jianpu's initial public offering on or about November 16, 2017 (the "IPO"). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Jianpu investors under the federal securities laws. To join the Jianpu class action, go to https://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1436.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. or Zachary Halper, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. According to the lawsuit, the documents filed in connection with Jianpu's IPO contained materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the China Banking Regulatory Commission and three other Chinese regulators had issued rules in August 2016 requiring peer-to-peer ("P2P") lending companies to, among other things, appoint qualified banking institutions as custodians and disclose their use of deposits; (2) Chna created the Financial Stability and Development Committee to coordinate major financial reforms, as well as implement market regulation and monetary and industrial policy; (3) the aforementioned would likely result in the disqualification of a significant majority of P2P lenders in China resulting in a dramatic reduction in the total number of existing, as well as potential, financial service providers that had been the primary source of Jianpu's revenue; and (4) as a result, Jianpu's Registration Statement was materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims investors suffered damages. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than December 24, 2018. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. If you wish to join the litigation, go to https://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1436.html or to discuss your rights or interests regarding this class action, please contact Phillip Kim, Esq. or Zachary Halper, Esq. of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn (News - Alert): https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter (News - Alert): https://twitter.com/rosen_firm. Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 3 each year since 2013. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005888/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 may be the middle child of the S10 lineup, but don't sleep on this powerful smartphone or its beautiful display. The 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 may be the middle child of the S10 lineup, but don't sleep on this powerful smartphone or its beautiful display. Make way, Galaxy S10. The Samsung Galaxy S20 series is here, which bring advanced cameras, 120Hz displays and improved performance to the company's flagship phone. That brings up an interesting question: should prospective buyers entertain one of the newer models, or snag a Galaxy S10 on the cheap, while many retailers have heavily discounted their stock? That all depends on how badly you want the S20's upgrades. The S20 models packs 5G connectivity and Snapdragon 865 power; a triple-lens rear camera with a 48-megapixel, 3x optical zoom lens; a 120Hz display; and a larger, 4,000-mAh battery, among other upgrades. es. You could save nearly a quarter of what the S20 costs and still get one of last year's finest phones in the Galaxy S10, with its dazzling OLED display and great (if not class-leading) cameras that come alive when shooting low light. Even with the S20 looming large, the S10 is still every bit the jack-of-all-trades premium Android handset it was when it launched not to mention one of the best smartphones money can buy. If you're on the fence, be sure to check our Galaxy S20 versus Galaxy S10 comparison to see all the differences. And see how Samsung's flagship stacks up against Apple's in our Galaxy S10 vs iPhone 11 Pro face-off. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Price and availability You can buy a Galaxy S10 from all major retailers. The big four U.S. carriers AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile carry the S10, as do U.S. Cellular and Xfinity Mobile. You can also order an unlocked Galaxy S10 online. Following the Galaxy S20's launch, Samsung began offering the 128GB Galaxy S10 for $749 and the 512GB model for $899. Those models cost $899 and $1,149, respectively, before the S20 entered the picture. Check out our roundup of best Galaxy S10 deals for more opportunities to save. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Specs Price $899 Display (Resolution) 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED (3040 x 1440) Rear Camera(s) 16-MP ultrawide (/2.2), 12-MP dual-pixel wide (/1.5, /2.4), 12-MP telephoto (/2.4) Front Camera 10-MP dual-pixel (f/1.9) CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 RAM 8GB Storage 128GB, 512GB microSD Yes, up to 512GB Battery 3,400 mAh Colors Prism Black, Prism White, Prism Blue, Prism Green (except U.S.), Flamingo Pink (except U.K.) Size 5.9 x 2.77 x 0.3 inches Weight 5.5 ounces Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Display Almost every other smartphone maker has eliminated bezels by adding a notch that swoops down from the top of the device to disguise the front-facing camera. Samsung avoided that trend altogether with all three Galaxy S10 models, instead developing the unique Infinity-O display, which embeds the front-facing camera lens directly in the screen. The midsized S10 sports a hole-punch-size cutout for its single selfie lens, which is far less distracting than the S10 Plus' oval-shaped cutout. I read lengthy New York Times articles, raced my trusty Mitsubishi Lancer in Asphalt 9 and took multiple selfies with the S10, and the hole punch never took away from the experience. When snapping photos of myself, I realized that the obvious cutout ensured I always looked directly at the lens. For those of you who never seem to nail eye contact with the camera lens, the S10's cutout is a great feature, making this task ridiculously easy. You can also hide the hole punch with Samsung's cleverly designed wallpapers. That won't help when you're streaming videos or browsing the web, but the disguise looks pretty damn good when you show it off to friends. The slightly curved glass practically cascades from the phone's frame. That curved glass also makes it a little too easy to accidentally press something simply because you were holding the device; this was also a problem in past generations of Galaxy phones. If you want to hide the cutout altogether, thats an option, but that effect is so ugly that you may as well buy another Android device with a notch and call it a day. The S10 broke DisplayMate's records for display brightness, color accuracy and image contrast, and the list goes on, so the S10 earned an A+ for a virtually perfect display. We found the same in our testing. The S10's AMOLED display covers 208.2 percent of the sRGB color gamut and notched a 0.38 Delta-E rating for color accuracy (numbers closer to 0 are better). The S10 hit a peak brightness of 611 nits when we shone a flashlight on its sensor, making the phone's panel almost as bright as that on the S10 Plus (625 nits). The Pixel 3 is ultra dim by comparison, hitting just 362 nits. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Design Aside from the hole-punch display, the Galaxy S10 is the same as every other smartphone on the market. That's not a bad thing, but if you're waiting for innovative smartphone design before spending close to $1,000 (or far more) for a new device, you'll have to hold out for the foldable phones arriving this year. The 6.1-inch S10 has the exact same dimensions as Apple's 6.1-inch, $749 iPhone 11 but is more than a full ounce lighter. The S10 isn't a one-handed device for those of us with petite paws; the 5.8-inch S10e is both smaller and cheaper, so go for that device if size is the deciding factor for you in phone selection. The S10 comes in the same colors as the larger $999 Galaxy S10 Plus, which offers a few simple options (like white and black) and some bolder ones (blue, Flamingo Pink). I tested the Prism Black model, which is a terribly boring glassy black slab. I suggest going with Prism White, or one of the more interesting hues, which will help you stand out. The black model collects so many fingerprints that you'll look like a really uncool forensics investigator. Like all Galaxy S models, the S10 is rated IP68 water-resistant, meaning it can survive in up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water for a half-hour. That's respectable in the flagship phone realm, and thus earns the Galaxy S10 a spot on our list of the best waterproof phones. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Cameras The S10 and S10 Plus have one key difference, aside from the larger phone's bigger display: The Plus sports an additional 8-megapixel, depth-sensing, front-facing camera for better selfies. Both devices have a selfie-portrait effect, which enables other effects, including wind-swept and black-and-white backgrounds. But the S10 achieves those effects using software instead of an additional depth-sensing lens, and it shows when comparing the two side by side. As you can see in the black-and-white Live Focus image above, the S10's camera software gets a little messy around my curls. Meanwhile, the S10 Plus seamlessly softens the background around them, creating a more natural effect. Otherwise, the S10 and S10 Plus have the same rear triple-lens camera array, with telephoto, standard and wide-angle shooters for capturing a variety of viewpoints. I compared the S10 with a Pixel 3 by capturing a Brooklyn storefront. Both images capture the detail in the brick and the gleam of the coffee shop's sign, but the S10 is more color-accurate; the neon "No Sleep Till" sign glowed more yellow than blue-white in real life. I also compared the S10's telephoto lens and optical zoom with the iPhone XS cameras by playing tourist with a photo of the Statue of Liberty as seen from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. It's an almost impossible shot, because Lady Liberty is extremely far away and the midday sun is not helpful. The iPhone's optical zoom fared better, as the S10's image is darker, with more artifacts in the photo. The S10's cameras are good, though if you want more dramatic photos, the Pixel 3 and newer Pixel 4 remain better options, while the latest iPhones capture more-natural shots. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Security Samsung can't compete with Apple on biometric authentication, and we're not sure the Galaxy maker is even trying. This is one area where Samsung needs to work harder to ensure that unlocking your phone and authenticating payments are locked down with the most secure biometric scans that money can buy. In our testing, the S10's facial recognition is easily fooled by a photograph of a person's face. That's just plain embarrassing. The photo trick doesn't work if you turn off Fast Facial Recognition in the S10's settings, but the facial-authentication method is still less secure than it should be. That's because Samsung doesn't use hardware to create a 3D map of your face the way Apple does with its Face ID. The S10's in-display reader is more secure, due to an ultrasonic sensor that maps the 3D curves of your fingerprint. You have to press a little longer on the sensor than you would think, but the phone unlocks quickly enough, and I appreciate that it's not a two-step process, like on the iPhone XS. (On that phone, you have to wait for the camera to scan your face and then swipe up.) There have been some complaints about the Galaxy S10's ultrasonic fingerprint sensor not working properly when a screen protector is applied to the phone. In fact, one woman claims that anyone could unlock her Galaxy S10 after she purchased a screen protector off of eBay. Fortunately, Samsung issued an update designed to fix this problem shortly after release. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Performance The Galaxy S10 Plus and smaller S10 have the same exact specs, and it shows in their performance power. With Qualcomm's 7-nanometer Snapdragon 855 processor and 8GB of RAM, the S10 easily matches the larger S10 Plus' speed. The two devices scored evenly on Geekbench 4, a synthetic test of overall system performance. The S10 notched a multicore score of 10,813, sneaking just ahead of the larger phone's performance (10,732). Both phones lag behind the iPhone XS' A12 Bionic processor, which blows away the competition with a 11,420 score. But both S10s handily crush their Android rivals, including the Pixel 3 (7,316) and OnePlus 6T (8,972). MORE: Best phones: Here are the 10 best available And the S10, like the S10 Plus, pulled ahead of both the iPhone and competing Android flagships in the 3DMark Slingshot Extreme graphics-performance benchmark. The S10 notched a score of 5,606 on the OpenGL ES 3.1 test, just behind the larger S10's score (5,648) and easily ahead of the results from the OnePlus 6T (5,183), Pixel 3 (4,396) and iPhone XS (4,339). I unlocked one premium race car after another in my favorite graphics-intensive game, Asphalt 9, easily killing 45 minutes burning rubber around the globe. The S10 never lagged or felt warm to the touch. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Battery life The Galaxy S10's 3,400-mAh battery isn't as large as the massive, 4,100-mAh pack inside the S10 Plus. And as expected, the smaller device doesn't last as long on a charge, though you can still go a long time without topping off your battery. The S10 eked out 10 hours and 19 minutes on the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which consists of continuous web surfing over 4G LTE. The S10 Plus landed near the top of our list of longest-lasting smartphones, reaching 12 hours and 35 seconds on that test. MORE: Smartphones with the longest battery life The Galaxy S9 Plus, released in 2018, also lasts longer on a charge than the S10, but that older phone has a slightly larger, 3,500-mAh battery. The S10e and its smaller, 3,100-mAh unit died after 9 hours and 42 minutes. The S10 outlasted both the iPhone XS (9:41) and the Pixel 3 XL (9:30). In the iPhone 11 Pro vs. Samsung's S10 face-off, the Pro lasted four minutes longer (10:23) than the S10. All three Galaxy S10 models have a new Wireless PowerShare feature that we wish every smartphone on the market offered. The tool, which you toggle on in the shortcuts menu by swiping down, lets you charge up any Qi-compatible device. I used this to charge up Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active, and the process works quickly and seamlessly. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Software The OneUI software on the Galaxy S10 is streamlined as promised and fairly to easy to use. The settings menu, for example, presents a lot fewer options than previous Galaxy phones. By default, theres a Recent Apps, Home Button and Back button along the bottom of the display. But you can switch to full-screen gestures. You'll swipe up from the bottom left to see recent apps, up from the bottom to go home and up from the right to go back. The Galaxy S10 also now offers some of the more compelling software features of the Galaxy Note 10. These include Live Focus video for applying bokeh effects to your footage and Samsung DeX for PC, which allows you to see notifications and send and receive messages on your laptop without having to fire up your phone. Samsung Galaxy S10 review: Verdict Even more than a year since its release, the Galaxy S10 offers superfast performance and a beautiful display, with a less distracting camera cutout than on the larger, pricier S10 Plus. I also love that the S10 offers my favorite feature, Wireless PowerShare. That means you don't have to splurge on the priciest Galaxy to reverse-charge all of your devices. Apple and Google's latest flagships sport better cameras, depending on whether you prefer more dramatic or more natural shots. And if you want longer battery life, the S10 Plus is a better bet, provided you can handle a larger, 6.4-inch screen. We do prefer the S10 to the value-priced OnePlus 6T, based on our face-off. Sure, the Galaxy S20's redesigned triple-camera stack and 5G connectivity could put the Galaxy S10's photography and data speeds to shame. But at the end of the day, if all you're looking for is a well-rounded, well-crafted Android flagship that can do it all including work with a pair of good old-fashioned wired headphones for a price you can sleep easy at night spending, the Galaxy S10 remains an unbeatable proposition. Malvertising is nothing new. But a malvertising campaign that targets specifically iOS users in the United States, then racks up more than 300 million impressions in about two days that's something we haven't seen before. A cybercriminal group known as ScamClub recently redirected millions of users to shady phishing sites, all through seemingly legitimate advertisements that had been vetted by a major ad exchange. (Image credit: What the scam looked like on an iPhone. Credit: Confiant/Tom's Guide) The story comes from Confiant, a New York-based security firm that studies the confluence of online ads and cybercriminality, with additional information from ZDNet. MORE: Here's the One Gmail Setting You Should Activate Now The method of attack is tried-and-true; the interesting thing here is the scale. For Nov. 12 and 13, ScamClub worked through a major online ad exchange (both sources were too gentlemanly to name it), and got a bunch of malicious advertisements to show up on iOS-optimized websites. The malicious ads have been removed from this ad exchange, but it continues on smaller ad networks that have been running ScamClub ads since August. These ads redirect users, against their wills, to shady sites. (One reason why malvertising is so pernicious is because it often doesn't require user input.) Once redirected, users would face the usual gift cards and pornography. The sites promised Amazon shopping sprees and/or the promise of attractive young ladies to coax e-mails, passwords, credit card information and other personal information. Confiant already got in touch with the major ad exchange and stopped the bulk of the campaign dead in its tracks. But as it's still going on, albeit at a lower rate, and other malvertising attacks will happen in the future, you can prevent malvertising hijacks by running an ad blocker on your phone. However, doing will prevent publishers (like this one) from generating revenue. If you get redirected to a phishing site, close your browser and don't give it any information. There is no infectious malware involved in this campaign, so if anyone has lost his or her information, it's because he or she volunteered it. It's not clear whether ScamClub has successfully phished anyone's data, but considering the phishing sites got 300 million impressions in two days, we'd be surprised if no one has fallen for it. MORE: Best VPN Service - Reviews of Top-Rated VPN Providers One interesting aspect of the attack is that 99.5 percent of impressions came from the United States, and 96 percent of them came from iOS devices. While iOS may be more secure than other OSes in general, it is clearly still susceptible to some of the most common cybercriminal tricks as are its users. Furthermore, ad blockers are considerably more common on desktop PCs, which could lead organizations like ScamClub to turn their attention to mobile instead. As for why a large ad exchange let this scam slip by, part of the reason is because ScamClub hid the destination websites very well. Many advertisements used "play.google.com" as their click-through URL, which suggests a legitimate app from the Google Play Store. (Why advertisers would want to push Google Play Store apps on iOS users is worth questioning, but it's not inherently suspicious.) Furthermore, Google had not yet identified the two scam-ridden domains (hipstarclub.com and luckstarclub.com) as threats, leaving Chrome users on iOS wide open. If there's a lesson here, it's that malvertising is becoming just as dangerous as researchers feared and as cybercriminals hoped. With two days and two domains, one enterprising group managed to capture 300 million impressions from a highly targeted demographic (American iOS users). And worse attacks could be on the way. Extensive details have finally emerged surrounding Motorola's next midrange handset, the Moto G7, as the phone maker looks to grab the budget smartphone crown back from Nokia's clutches. (Image credit: Droid Life and FCC) For years, Motorola has dominated the budget landscape with its G-series phones, which typically deliver solid features for sub-$300 prices. It's a feat few phone makers have been able to pull off at least until the Nokia 7.1 came along. That was one of the best budget devices we saw in 2018, and it really challenged Motorola to come up with a better midrange offering in response. What will Motorola come up with this year? Here's what we know so far about the G7. Latest News & Rumors (Updated Jan. 30) An invitation to Brazilian media for a supposed Motorola event on Feb. 7 is making the rounds. Additionally, several product pages for different G7 models briefly surfaced on the company's website, but have since been taken down. A range of models In keeping with tradition, Motorola is planning several variants of the G7, each with different specifications, according to Gizmochina. The G7 Plus is believed to lead the range with a Snapdragon 636 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 3,000-mAh battery. At the rear, Motorola is expected to implement a dual camera system with 16- and 5-megapixel image sensors, presumably for depth effects, along with a 12-MP selfie shooter above the display. The normal G7 will be mostly similar, save for lower-specced cameras all around, as well as a Snapdragon 632 CPU in place of the Plus model's more powerful silicon. Both will carry 6.2-inch full-HD+ LCD displays with notches. At the lower end, Motorola is expected unveil the G7 Power and G7 Play. This pair is purported to employ single-lens rear cameras. The Power should receive a screen that is sized similarly to those in the more expensive models, though it is lower resolution. It's also likely to inherit the 632 processor of the standard G7, but will drop RAM to 3GB, Gizmochina's report claims. However, the Power's main draw could be a 5,000-mAh battery, which would be 2,000-mAh larger than those of the other models. Finally, the G7 Play is believed to be the most compact of the lineup, with a 5.7-inch HD+ screen, and may only contain 2GB of RAM. Every version of the G7, from the low to high end, are all expected to sport notches and fingerprint sensors though carrier-exclusive versions may differ in select aspects. What the Moto G7 will look like Motorola is building the G7 with a notch, according to a report from Droid Life. The photos you see here were lifted from the FCC's teardown of the lower-end Play variant of the Moto G7. And this leak is so comprehensive, it leaves almost nothing to doubt from the phone's processor to the size of its battery and even a few pages of the instruction manual. On the outside, the G7 Play looks very much like the current Moto G6, aside from the notch. The fingerprint sensor has now been shuffled over to the back, with a narrow chin and Motorola logo taking its place. There's still a single-lens camera, and we presume the regular G7 will receive a dual-lens solution, if Motorola's recent history is a trustworthy guide. (Image credit: Droid Life and FCC) There's still a headphone jack, fortunately, as well as a USB Type-C port for charging and data and a microSD slot for expandable storage. The inclusion of Type-C is new for this generation of the Play line, as is the processor a Snapdragon 632, which offers a sizable bump in power over the outgoing Snapdragon 430 in the last model. MORE: Nokia 7.1 Review: A New Budget Champion Has Arrived Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the 2,850-mAh battery, which is 1,150 mAh smaller than the gargantuan 4,000-mAh pack in the G6 Play. That device wasn't particularly fast, but the performance deficit was balanced out by the long-lasting battery. It's hard to imagine the G7 Play will come anywhere close to the G6 Play's longevity if these figures are true. (Image credit: Droid Life and FCC) There's some good battery news, though, for a different version of the G7. XDA-Developers spotted an FCC filing for a Motorola phone with a 5,000-mAh battery. That's probably too much battery power for the standard G7, but again, rumors suggest Motorola could be working on as many as four different variations of the next G-series device. In addition to the G7, G7 Play, and G7 Plus, Motorola would also come out with a phone called the G7 Power that's likely to be the one with the massive 5,000 mAh battery. Finally, the FCC's G7 Play documents tell us the phone is optimized for bands common with GSM carriers, like T-Mobile and AT&T. Previous G-series products have launched on CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint as well, but it's possible those variants will be carrier exclusives, while this one is an unlocked model. We won't know for sure until Motorola's budget roster for 2019 is revealed, likely in the spring so stay tuned. How to make your Android phone charge faster There are several ways to make your Android phone charge faster. Here, we outline them all so you can learn how to juice up your device more quickly. In the slowly escalating trade war between the United States and China, laptops and iPhones could be the next casualty hit by tariffs. U.S. President Donald J. Trump said an interview with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Monday that the levy could be as high as 10 percent. "Maybe. Maybe. Depends on what the rate is," Trump said of smartphones and laptop computers to the WSJ. "I mean, I can make it 10 percent, and people could stand that very easily." His aides, however, have reportedly suggested that those items be exempt from the tariffs in fear of consumer reaction. Apple, which is currently exempt from the existing tariffs, didn't comment to the WSJ, but has suggested to U.S. trade authorities that tariffs would put the California-based company at a disadvantage against competitors overseas and that it could mean higher prices for U.S. consumers. Additionally, Trump said that he expects to boost tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products to 25 percent in January. He may also add $267 billion of tariffs to goods not already targeted under the existing tariffs. Trump told the WSJ that companies importing goods from China should move plants to the U.S. Apple builds its phones and laptops overseas, though many parts come from its home country. "What Id advise is for them to build factories in the United States and to make the product here, Trump said. And they have a lot of other alternatives." Following the report yesterday, Apple's stock went down a little under two percent in after-hours trading. The potential tariffs come at a time when Apple has decided to stop reporting sales for specific items, including iPhones, as it works through reported issues with demand. It could also make prices on the company's latest devices, which are higher than usual, even higher. Of course, Apple is far from the only U.S. tech company to be potentially affected, though it's certainly among the most high-profile. Jacksonville Aviation Authority names new CEO - Kansas City Business Journal The Jacksonville Aviation Authority board Monday voted unanimously to name Mark VanLoh as its new CEO. VanLoh, previously the CEO of the Tulsa Airports Authority in Oklahoma, had been put forward by the board's search committee out of a pool of 73 candidates. The reality is that this dude was "retired" after voter, council and civic discontent with his double talk on the need for a new airport. Thanks to TKC readers who followed this story all the way to his new gig that seems like a more active "retirement" than most. Take a look: KCK Murder Today Homicide investigation underway near 10th and Ohio in KCK KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Kansas City, Kansas police are investigating a homicide Monday. It happened before 10 a.m. near 10th and Ohio. Police said the victim and suspect were inside the home together before the suspect fired multiple shots at the victim. Inner-Burbs Wanted Info Blue Springs teen sought in fatal shooting Blue Springs Police are searching for a 17-year-old boy in connection with the Nov. 10 triple shooting that left another 17-year-old dead and two others injured.Police are looking for Aden Kaler as a person of interest in the death of Jayden Lockett. Kaler is described as 5-foot-11, 136 pounds, with brown skin and black hair. Discount Crook Caught On Camera Kansas City police looking for suspect who robbed Family Dollar store KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City police are asking for the public's help to identify a man seen on surveillance video robbing a Family Dollar store. The robbery was reported shortly before 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 9 at the Family Dollar at 3017 Prospect Avenue. Po-Po Implications Officer caught stealing from drug take back PLATTE COUNTY, MO (KCTV) -- Platte County Prosecutors say a part-time police officer's body camera recorded him stealing prescription pills from a DEA drug take back program inside a police station. Drug take back events are supposed to give us a safe way to get rid of medication. More Weed Complications??? Missouri's medical marijuana law could affect guns, truckers | The Kansas City Star When Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2014, the state saw a spike in drug screening failures by truckers, with as many as 60 percent flunking tests required by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Golden Ghetto Stealing Spree These women left an Overland Park store with their arms full of clothing, police say OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) -- Police hope you can help them find a group of women accused of grabbing a whole armful of clothes and dashing out the front door of a local shop. They apparently pulled the move twice this month, once on Nov. All of the important Crime links from today's news cycle . . .Developing . . . Cross-border contraband trade facing heavy police crackdown Joint efforts by police from China and Vietnam have awed and frightened drug dealers in the border region, helping to improve the fight against contraband smuggling, the Ministry of Public Security said after transferring a Vietnamese national suspected of drug trafficking to Vietnamese police on Monday. Nong Van Khoi is accused of helping gang members traffic over 100 kilograms of heroin to China. He was apprehended by Chinese authorities in Huizhou, Guangdong province, on Oct 25 before being handed over to Vietnamese police representatives in Pingxiang, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Monday. I am listing ten must known facts about the 2019 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. Its quite something. Heritage, brand recognition, buyer base and, of course, the technology, do that as well. One needs to build on all of these virtues to be considered premium. And, the Range Rover Evoque has it all. Novel approach by its engineers injects a new life into it with the help of the introduction of some amazing features. As one of the most successful Land Rover products of all time, the Range Rover Evoque has just been thoroughly reworked. Despite looking eerily similar to the first generation car, the new Evoque is actually entirely new - based on an all-new platform, with all new exterior and interior looks, and most importantly, with the tech that complements the change and launches the Evoque into the premium stardom of the future better than ever before. As you may know by now, the looks in themselves do not make a car premium. Range Rover Evoque ClearSight rearview Mirror and ClearSight Ground View Let me start with something that makes the 2019 Range Rover Evoque dramatically different compared to any of its soft, urban competition. I find the ClearSight rearview mirror technology and the ClearSight Ground View really progressive and almost avant-garde in its execution. The ClearSight rearview mirror is actually technology that projects a camera feed onto the rearview mirror display. In all its entirety. The camera is positioned at the top of the shark-fin thingy on the roof. The lens is made of a special dirt and water repellent glass, and it is dimensioned in a way to provide 50-degree wider field of vision compared with what you could see in a mirror. However, the rearview mirror is still a rearview mirror as the display is covered with a reflective film. Now, you may ask, whats the point. Get this - the Evoques design (that is one of its main selling points) requires a continuously rising beltline which, in effect, reduces the space for the rear window. Fill up the trunk to the roof, or, seat two at the back with their heads blocking the way and you can see the problem. The ClearSight is mandatory. Now, this is not exactly new technology. Intelligent Rear View Mirror camera debuted on the 2018 Nissan Armada. Of course, in the Range Rover Evoque, one can easily switch between the HD display and an actual mirror at a touch of a button. While you may find the ClearSight rearview mirror less than stellar, the other tech feature called the ClearSight Ground View is just that - stellar. Thanks to cameras in the door mirrors and in the grille, the Ground View system actually creates a 180-degree wide angle view that covers surfaces under the car, in front of the car, and at the sides. The system projects the image on the large central screen and basically allows you to see everything in front of the front wheels. Use the system, and you can guide the wheels with precision unmatched by any other SUV out there. The concept version of this system debuted in 2014 in the Land Rover Discovery Vision Concept Transparent Hood. True, for the Concept, Land Rover made the system project the camera feed onto the hood, practically making the hood a see-through estate. I find that this is a rather clever idea. Heck, I will say that projecting the video feed on the central display is even better than making a see-through hood (that would be extremely expensive for mass production anyway). Obviously, a feature like this separates the Evoque from any other similarly sized SUV and showcases the intention of Land Rover to make its least beasty machine an off-road worthy crossover. I like it even more now. Flush door handles You know what? Only cool and quirky cars have cool door handles. In order to prove the point that the 2019 Range Rover Evoque is a cool SUV, designers imagined awesome flush door handles that look a bit like those on the Tesla Model S. They are basically retracted into the car to lower the drag and look awesome in the process. I am not interested in drag coefficient and stuff like that for the time being. Let me just tell you where the 2019 Range Rover Evoque fits with door handles like these. These are some cars with awesome door handles I can picture right now in my head: Nissan GT-R C3 Corvette Fiat Barchetta TVR Tuscan Tesla Model S See the pattern yet? There are no boring or conventional cars here! At all! Kudos to you Land Rover! Slim front lights In an effort to create a seamless design, sophisticated looks, and add even more to the aerodynamic efficiency, the 2019 Range Rover Evoque received super-slim Matrix LED headlamps. Bear in mind, without the LED tech onboard, headlights like these would not even be possible. Furthermore, rear headlights are even neater and slimmer. This created a unique look reminiscent of the Velar. Range Rover is obviously building a unique family look that is translated throughout the lineup. Making thin headlights isnt easy. At all. Car companies are continuously struggling to reinvent headlight technology so it can save energy, provide better illumination, and make it possible for the designers to translate their ideas into reality. The new BMW 8 Series, for example, has the thinnest headlights of any other Bimmer on the market. The Bavarians could achieve this only thanks to the use of LED headlights with BMWs LaserLight tech installed as standard. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to actually measure the headlights on the new Evoque, or the new 8 Series, but just by the looks of it, the headlights on the 2019 Evoque seem even slimmer compared with the ones on the Bimmer. I am positively amazed by this - more so than with that 180-degree camera vision that shows stuff underneath the car. Boy is this a well-executed car, I am falling in love with it just as I am writing and researching about it. It Will Shut Off At Speeds Below 10.5 mph During Braking Those in the U.S. may not even get the diesel versions of the new Evoque, but we will get the Evoque with a 48-volt system and a cool mild-hybrid setup on gasoline-powered models. Nevertheless, for now, the 48-volt system and the mild-hybrid setup on diesel-powered models in Europe offer a quite smart solution for saving fuel. The Start-Stop system, which is standard, actually works thanks to a special starter motor which is a part of the mild-hybrid setup. Well, it allows the car to switch off the engine completely at speeds below 10.5 mph under braking. In effect, the 2019 Range Rover Evoque, which is specifically tailored to save as much fuel as possible, and emit the least amount of pollutants as possible, will do that in an even more efficient way than ever. The mild-hybrid setup apparently saves up to 6 percent of fuel, but also adds additional 75 pound-feet of torque. It is a standard equipment on all versions, save for the entry-level model. The battery for a concoction like this sits under the co-driver seat without intruding into the footwells. You will never notice it actually. As you may already know, 48-volt electrical systems are becoming standard in the industry. The new Evoque obviously follows the trends. Surprisingly, it is heavier compared with the preceding model Contradictory to market trends, the new Range Rover Evoque is a tad heavier compared with the predecessor. The hybrid setup, a bit more safety gear, and a slightly different layout of basic architecture made it a bit chubbier on the scale. One could argue that Range Rover should have used aluminum instead of the super-high-strength steel for the architecture, but the thing is that the Range Rover Evoque had to remain a city SUV. Apparently, if it were built of aluminum, Range Rover engineers would have had to integrate much thicker structural supports thus, actually, increasing the size of the crossover. Nevertheless, I am quite sure that using thin steel instead of thicker aluminum enabled engineers and designers to create a roomier cabin. After all, even the wheelbase is a bit longer compared with the predecessor. Creating the car out of steel had another important benefit. Thanks to this, the engineers could form shorter overhangs. Steel can absorb more energy and surfaces that are to absorb a crash can be shorter. This is something you really need if you want to have a compact SUV with the best imaginable safety characteristics. Obviously, using steel dramatically lowered the development cost, eased the production, and consequently made the car competitive on the market. 53 500ml plastic bottles inside This is strange, isnt it? Well, there arent actually 53 500 ml bottles inside the cabin of the new Range Rover Evoque. Instead, in an effort to be as eco-conscious as possible, Range Rover reached out to a Danish company called Kvadrat. This is a high-end company specialized in creating upholsteries for cabins and interior spaces altogether. If you have enough money, I am sure you can even have something upholstered by Kvadrat upholstery in your home. Nevertheless, Land Rover previously partnered with the company on the Velar, one of the first cars out there to have wool upholstery inside. As the Evoque feels like it is the kid of the Velars, the same principle was applied here. Kvadrat upholstery is made of wool and polyester. Apparently, there is enough of it inside to make 53 500 ml bottles. Is this premium enough? Of course, it is. Upholstering the Evoque interior like this is far more eco-conscious compared to, say, all-leather upholstery. Some other cabin options include the Dinamica suedecloth, as well as Eucalyptus and Ultrafabrics options. The use of recycled and natural materials in the Evoque along with the addition of the hybrid powertrains not only enhances its appeal but also underpins our approach to sustainable luxury, says Chris Thorpe Land Rover Head of Sustainable Business. Off-Road The Range Rover Evoque is a small compact SUV. A crossover if you will - one that can compete with the likes of the Volvo XC40, or the BMW X1. Despite its competition, as it carries the name Land Rover and Range Rover, it simply has to be good at off-roading. You already learned it has cool ClearSight Ground view, but I about to tell you more about its capabilities. First of all, its new platform and chassis enable it to ford through 600 millimeters of water (100 millimeters more than before). Second of all, it has a ground clearance of 8.3 inches. Third of all, the 2019 Range Rover Evoque approach and departure angle is at 25 degrees up front and 30.6 degrees at the back. Obviously, the FWD Evoque does exist, however, you dont want that one. It is a Range Rover for goodness sake. Two AWD versions are available. One for mid-range versions that include a brake-based torque vectoring systems, and the other with a proper coupling torque distributor for the more expensive models. Add to this a Terrain Response 2 system and you have yourself one small, extremely capable crossover. Possibly the most capable crossover you can possibly imagine. Horizontal tail lamp arrangement stretching across the tailgate The rear lights are curiously narrow. Not only do they look awesome and feel like slightly evolved tail lamps from the Velar, but they offer another curious association with the latest trends in the industry. The lights are linked with a thin black bar. Yes, the last Evoque had something similar to +show, but in this case, everything feels a bit more upscale. I do not think that the rear bar can actually light up. Instead, it could be that the bar will light up in time for a facelift. Nevertheless, the rear light arrangement is different compared with the previous Evoque. It looks really cool though. Linked rear lights are a big thing in the industry right now. Porsche uses it, Lincoln uses it, Lambo uses it. Why wouldnt Range Rover? Twin-touchscreen Touch Pro Duo Taking the technology right from the likes of the I-Pace, the Velar and other Range Rover SUVs, the new Evoque is blessed with a twin-touchscreen Touch Pro Duo system with the newest infotainment system. Two 10-inch touch displays sit at the dash. In addition, the Evoque has a Digital cockpit, a full-color head-up display, and that cool rearview mirror. Heck, it basically has five distinct displays to present information. Finally, the Apple CarPlay and the Android Auto are available for the Evoque. The infotainment, in itself, includes six USB ports, WiFi hotspot that can support eight devices, and an InControl Remote capability. Actually, the InControl Remote is a smartphone app that enables you to check up on fuel range, lock and unlock the vehicle remotely, as well as pre-heat or cool the cabin. Smart Settings technology Ok, the Smart Setting technology is actually part of the infotainment system, however, I had to make an all-new entry for it. See, Smart Settings actually debuts in the Evoque for the whole Range Rover brand. It is a smart technology that learns the drivers habits. Thanks to an advanced artificial intelligence software, the Smart Setting can automatically adjust certain features of the ride. Land Rover explains it like this: The self-learning technology recognizes the driver from their key fob and phone and will set up their seat and steering column position on approach, allowing for up to eight profiles to be registered. After a few journeys, Evoque remembers the drivers preferred temperature settings, media preferences and commonly dialed numbers depending on the time or day of the week. If this does not sound too impressive, bear in mind that I am writing here about an entry-level Range Rover. Smart Setting will most certainly be further developed for high-end cars. Back in 2017, Mercedes-Benz revealed the Energizing Comfort Control. It is an all-encompassing system that automatically adjusts climate controls with fragrances, heater, ventilation, and massage options in the seats, music, and ambient lighting to create a soothing atmosphere in the cabin. As it learns the drivers habits, it will actually tailor the settings for all of these comfort features creating a special, custom ambiance for every driver. I can only imagine that the Smart Setting will do exactly the same for Range Rover SUVs. Now you can have it in the entry-level model. Amazing. Final Thoughts The 2019 Range Rover Evoque is novel, it takes known design cues to the next level, and teems with quirks only special cars or SUVs are blessed with. It is a premium city SUV, now garnished with advanced technology and enough new things to make it matter more than ever. It is a worthy successor to one of the most successful Land Rover cars of all time. Further reading Read our full review on the 2020 Range Rover Evoque. Read our full review on the 2015 - 2017 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. Read our full review on the 2008 Land Rover LXR Concept. The nearly-intact wreckage of the ship was found this summer below Lake Huron in Canada and, beyond the unexpectedly good condition of the vessel itself, it also nestled a vintage car that survived through the disaster and was found practically undamaged. The Manasoo, a ship that sank back in 1928, was finally found this June and it revealed something unexpected: a 1927 Chevrolet Coupe inside the steamers hull. While its one of the thousands of shipwrecks lying at the bottom of the Great Lakes, its surely one of the few to feature a car onboard. The 90-year-old Chevrolet was found inside the belly of the Manasoo Imagine finding the shipwreck of a steamer that last set sail back in 1928. Granted, its been said time and again that the worlds ocean floor is littered with as many as 3,000,000 shipwrecks and that maybe 2% of these have been found and investigated, so finding one isnt a miracle. Whats more interesting is when the ship you run into is in amazing shape and, moreover, hides a Chevrolet in its cargo that somehow remained intact after all these years. Thats exactly the story of the Manasoo. The ship sank on September 15th, 1928 after midnight on Lake Huron, its final resting place being some 200 feet below the Georgian Bay north of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. The ship started taking on water during a storm that night and never reached the shore, costing the lives of 16 people as well as over 100 cattle on board. Donald Wallace, the owner of the car that was found below deck, was the only passenger to survive the incident along with three sailors and the Manasoos captain. His car, a 1927 Chevrolet AA Capitol 2-door Coupe is an unusual find when it comes to items discovered on shipwrecks. The Capitol debuted in 1927, the year when Ford switched from the Model T to the Model A which is why Chevy outsold Ford. At the time, the AA Capitol - which was based on the A platform - was touted as being "The Most Beautiful Chevrolet Ever" although it looked similar to the Series V and Series K models of previous years. A total of eight body styles were available for the Capitol in 1927 which helped Chevy sell over 650,000 of them. A popular engine choice was the 2.8-liter straight-4 engine although all engines were fitted for the first time with oil and air filters. A 3-speed transmission was the standard option. As for the Manasoo, maritime historian of the Great Lakes area, Chris Kohl, talks about the bad luck that hides behind changing a boat's name. The Manasoo, built back in 1888 in Scotland, was originally known as S.S. Macassa and was used to take tourists between Toronto and Hamilton on Lake Ontario for almost four decades. Then, in 1928, it was bought by Owen Sound Transportation Company and put to work on the Manitoulin Island - Sault Ste. Marie route. However, it never made it through its first year in the hands of the new owner. Theres a superstition among sailors that you dont rename a ship because it will bring bad luck and sure enough it brought bad luck, said Kohl quoted by MSN. Whether bad luck was involved or not, its been determined that the 178-foot-long ship sank after it started filling up with water at the stern. The question thats rising now centers around that mussle-covered Chevy. Should it be brought back to the surface and put in a museum? Or should it be left alone as an integral part of the Manasoo which it has been for the past 90 years? Source: CNN Ural revised its lineup ahead of MY2019 with a host of improvements to the drivetrain, and the CT is one of the units buffed to carry the marque into the 21st century. As with all of Urals products, the CT mounts an old-fashioned sidecar that, in turn, acts as a platform for a number of stock accessories. This is a more urban-centric of Urals products and not the terrain-tackling Gear Up model meant for use off the beaten path, so its best for folks who plan on staying on relatively civilized roads. Its also the cleanest base model that Ural has to offer, so lets check out this entry-level sidecar and see how it stacks up against some of the others in the three-wheeled field. 2019 Ural CT Design This is the descendant of that long-lost ancestor that was doubtlessly captured somewhere between Stalingrad and Berlin when the Eastern Front collapsed. Since most of the updates are under the hood as it were, the CT shows its deep roots going all the way back to the 1940s when the Red Army captured a German sidecar that would become the great grand-daddy of this very model. The overall look of the thing has scarcely changed in the intervening decades. I mean, it still looks like late 30s early 40s German architecture, doesnt it? Even if we ignore the sidecar that hangs off the right side, the oddities start up right out of the gate with a leading-link front suspension utilizing plain steel tubing and a pair of coil-over shocks to articulate the front wheel. You could be forgiven if you thought the boxer engine was one of Beemers lumps, but its the descendant of that long-lost ancestor that was doubtlessly captured somewhere between Stalingrad and Berlin when the Eastern Front collapsed. The fact that the induction has been modernized is hardly apparent at a glance, and the sidecar is similarly dated with a boat/plane-like nose section and windshield to protect your passenger. A lockable trunk provides 2.9 cubic-feet of dry, secure storage, but the Tonneau Cover arguably turns the whole of the sidecar into cargo space, and if you need room for a tandem passenger youll have to spring for an accessory two-up seat since the stock CT rocks a solo saddle. Personally, Ive leave the solo seat and throw a luggage rack over the rear fender instead, and over the sidecar trunk would be one of the universal spare tires that, as its devilishly clever name suggests, will bolt right up in any of the three possible positions. A single round halogen headlight rocks a nacelle that doubles as a housing for the round analog speedometer. Theres a host of idiot lights set in the blackout face with an LED screen for the odometer/trip-meter to round out the instrumentation. The flange-type, five-gallon fuel tank compliments the retro look, and its impossible to miss the genuine nature of the design; more about function than form, and decidedly dated from the IMZ front end to the unpretentious rear fender strut. 2019 Ural CT Chassis A trio of 18-inch Heidenau hoops are almost automotive in style for their squared-off profile; and if you opt for the spare, it'll fit on any of the three wheel positions. Tubular-steel members make up the frame, and all the sheet metal including the sidecar body is steel, as well. Yeah, its heavy with a 700-pound dry weight that will add up to over half-a-ton once fluids and cargo/passengers are added on, so its definitely not an exercise in subtlety. Though the front shock has fixed values all around, the two, coil-over Sachs shocks on the swingarm and single strut on the swingarm all come with a five-position preload feature to give you some flexibility for changing loads. A trio of 18-inch wheels run with aluminum rims and steel spokes in an effort to keep unsprung weight low with Heidenau hoops that are almost automotive in style for their squared-off profile. Clearly not your typical motorcycle tires, thats for sure. A single, 295 mm brake and four-pot Brembo caliper slows the front wheel with a 256 mm disc and HB big-bore anchor on the rear wheel, plus a twin-piston Brembo anchor and 245 mm disc on the sidecar. Front suspension: IMZ leading link fork Rear suspension: Double sided swing-arm with two Sachs hydraulic spring shock absorbers, 5x adjustable Sidecar suspension: Single sided swing-arm with Sachs hydraulic spring shock absorber, 5x adjustable Wheels: 2.15 x 18 Aluminum rims with steel spokes Tires: Heidenau HF-308, 4.018 Front brake: 4-piston fixed Brembo caliper with 295 mm floating NG rotor Rear brake: HB big bore single piston integrated floating caliper with 256 mm fixed NG rotor Sidecar brake: 2-piston fixed Brembo caliper with 245 mm floating NG rotor 2019 Ural CT Drivetrain One of the few visible upgrades from the original engine is the throttle-body induction-control unit that replaces the old carburetor. A flat-twin boxer engine delivers the power with a 78 mm bore and stroke for a square layout and moderate, 8.6-to-1 compression ratio. That puts the displacement right at 749 cc with a pushrod-actuated valvetrain to keep things simple with only two large poppets per jug. One of the few visible upgrades from the original engine lies in the intake tract. This new version replaces the old carburetor with a throttle-body induction-control unit to help it meet emission standards. It may sound silly to younger riders, but I have long since become wise to the benefits of a kickstarter, and I find it especially important on a sidecar since you probably wont be able to pop-start one in an emergency, at least, not by yourself. You wont want to have to push it around in any form or fashion in fact, but the factory took pity and chucked in a mechanical reverse gear thatll preclude any kind of Fred Flintstone action. Thats one in reverse and four forward with a shaft drive to carry power to the rear wheel, but what the CT doesnt have is drive-on-demand at the sidecar wheel; its just not set up that way, and this makes it less suitable for off-road and winter/urban work. If you want power on the sidecar, youll have to spring for a Gear Up. Normally, Id complain about how exposed the air-cooled jugs are where they protrude from the sides, but since a sidecar is infinitely more stable than a two-wheeler, it doesnt present quite the same level of risk. Max power comes on at 5,500 rpm, and max torque tops out at 4,300 rpm with a max recommended cruising speed of 70 mph and a 31-to-37 mpg fuel efficiency rating. The heads were reworked with a shorter exhaust port and larger cooling fins to minimize heat transfer from the exhaust stream and radiate that heat more effectively. Teflon treatment on the piston skirts reduce friction and wear along with manganese phosphate-coated compression rings that also get a plasma-sprayed molybdenum treatment on the face for increased durability. Engine: OHV air cooled 2 cylinder 4 stroke boxer (flat twin), 2 valves per cylinder Displacement: 749 cc Bore and stroke: 78 mm x 78 mm Max output: 41 hp @ 5,500 rpm Max torque: 42 lb-ft @ 4,300 rpm Compression: 8.6:1 Fuel system: Throttle body EFI Starting: Electric & Kickstart Clutch: Double-disc dry Transmission: Manual, 4 forward/1 reverse Primary drive (rear wheel): Driveshaft Final drive ratio: 4.62 Engageable sidecar wheel drive: No 2019 Ural CT Pricing MSRP is $14.5k as long as you stick to a stock color and up to $16k with a camo colorway. This is the least expensive model for Ural, and it rolls for $14,499 in Burgundy Satin, Slate Grey or OD Green. For another grand you can get one of the nine premium colors, and for another $1,500 you can score one of the camo packages in Urban or Woodland colorways. Standard Accessories: Sidecar Power Outlet, Sidecar Tonneau Cover, Sidecar Windshield Warranty: 2-years parts and labor unlimited mileage Colors: Burgundy Satin, Slate Grey, OD Green, Urban Camo, Woodland Camo, Burgundy Metallic, Cascade Green, Grey Metallic, Bronze, Rainier White, Sahara, Taiga, Terracotta Metallic, Baikal Blue Price: $14,499, Camo: $15,999, Premium Colors: $15,499 2019 Ural CT Competitors Ural has the only game in town as far as sidecars are concerned without a kit or custom work. Ural has the only game in town as far as sidecars are concerned without a kit or custom work. However, if I just think of it as a trike, suddenly we have a few more options, so I want to take a quick look at some of the alternatives. First up is the Harley-Davidson Freewheeler that carries itself in the classic, two-in-back trike configuration. I picked it over its tour->mot-tastic big brother, the TriGlide Ultra, for its Spartan nature and similar short-range bent. Harley brings the tech to the party with ABS and traction control, both of which work through the linked-brake system. The MoCo packs in the inches with a total displacement of 1,868 cc and whopping, 122 pound-feet of torque for performance that will leave the Ural in the dust. Youll pay for it at the checkout though, cause MSRP clocks in at $28,099, roughly double the price of a CT. At the opposite end of the tech spectrum from Urals 40s-looking machine is the Can-Am Spyder F3. It rocks a Delta configuration with two wheels in front opposite a single out back to make it the most inherently stable of the three competitors. Spyders corner like theyre on rails, and they carry an electronics suite that includes traction control, ABS and a vehicle stability feature that increases safety further yet. The powerplant is likewise a vast upgrade over the Ural. Its a water-cooled triple, and it churns out 105-ponies and 96-pounds o grunt that puts the CTs a distant third in the engine category. At $15,999, the Spyder F3 is in the same ballpark pricewise which makes it a lot more bang for your buck (but that still doesnt make it a sidecar). He Said At the end of the day, I think the people who will want a Ural sidecar, will want it regardless of (or maybe in spite of) power, looks and price. You can pencil me in as a fan as well, though if Im honest, I do prefer the two wheel-drive models, and now that Ural is making an electric sidecar, Id have to throw that into the mix as well. She Said My wife and fellow motorcycle writer, Allyn Hinton, says, Yeah, its a difficult task to find an apples-to-apples competitor for an off-the-showroom-floor sidecar. The CT rocks, thats a given. Even if you do carry a passenger, the trunk has massive storage. If youre looking at a sidecar because you dont want to hold the bike up and the big trikes are too expensive, Can-Am introduced the Ryker this year with an MSRP well under $10k. 2019 Ural CT Specifications Engine & Drivetrain: Engine: OHV air cooled 2 cylinder 4 stroke boxer (flat twin), 2 valves per cylinder Displacement: 749 cc Bore and stroke: 78 mm x 78 mm Max output: 41 hp @ 5,500 rpm Max torque: 42 lb-ft @ 4,300 rpm Compression: 8.6:1 Fuel system: Throttle body EFI Starting: Electric & Kickstart Clutch: Double-disc dry Transmission: Manual, 4 forward/1 reverse Primary drive (rear wheel): Driveshaft Final drive ratio: 4.62 Engageable sidecar wheel drive: No Chassis: Front suspension: IMZ leading link fork Rear suspension: Double sided swing-arm with two Sachs hydraulic spring shock absorbers, 5x adjustable Sidecar suspension: Single sided swing-arm with Sachs hydraulic spring shock absorber, 5x adjustable Wheels: 2.15 x 18 Aluminum rims with steel spokes Tires: Heidenau HF-308, 4.018 Front brake: 4-piston fixed Brembo caliper with 295 mm floating NG rotor Rear brake: HB big bore single piston integrated floating caliper with 256 mm fixed NG rotor Sidecar brake: 2-piston fixed Brembo caliper with 245 mm floating NG rotor Dimensions & Capacities: Overall length: 91.6 inches Overall height: 53.8 inches Overall width: 63.6 inches Seat height, (unladen): 31.0 inches Ground clearance (unladen): 6.5 inches Dry weight: 700 lbs Fuel grade: 91 Octane, unleaded Fuel tank capacity: 5.0 gals Reserve: app. 1 gal Estimated fuel economy: 31-37 mpg Estimated range: 155-185 miles Recommended max cruising speed: 70 mph Max permissible weight: 1,325 lbs Trunk volume: 2.9 cu ft Electrical: Alternator: Denso, Peak Output 40 Amp @ 14vdc, 560 Wt Battery: FAYTX20HL (12V, 20A) Headlight: H4 Spark plugs: NGK BPR6HS Details: Standard Accessories: Sidecar Power Outlet, Sidecar Tonneau Cover, Sidecar Windshield Warranty: 2-years parts and labor unlimited mileage Colors: Burgundy Satin, Slate Grey, OD Green, Urban Camo, Woodland Camo, Burgundy Metallic, Cascade Green, Grey Metallic, Bronze, Rainier White, Sahara, Taiga, Terracotta Metallic, Baikal Blue Price: $14,499, Camo: $15,999, Premium Colors: $15,499 Further Reading Harley-Davidson Freewheeler See our review of the Harley-Davidson Freewheeler. Harley Davidson TriGlide See our review of the Harley-Davidson TriGlide. Can-Am Spyder F3 / F3-S See our review of the Can-Am Spyder F3 / F3-S. Ural Gear Up See our review of the Ural Gear Up. Can-Am Ryker See our review of the Can-Am Ryker. Ural Motorcycles Read more Ural news. Africa needs to unite and work hard to reverse colonial infrastructure systems which promoted the extraction of profitable agricultural and mineral wealth for export at the expense of local communities and the continent, Zimbabwes Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Joel Biggie Matiza said Monday. Speaking during the opening session of the 2018 PIDA Week in Victoria Falls, Mr. Matiza said for Africa to fully develop and integrate, there was need for the continent to focus on infrastructure development, in particular transboundary projects, to ensure it was competitive enough to make a difference. Historically African countries inherited under-developed infrastructure geared towards exports-imports transportation rather than focusing on transforming and improving local production capacity as well as promoting intra-Africa trade. This is reason for us to reverse this legacy and as a continent we have crafted a new trajectory through PIDA, a turning point we should follow to ensure we transform the current state of affairs, he said. Mr. Matiza hailed PIDA for its efforts in trying to bridge Africas infrastructure deficit. He said PIDA Week offered a valuable opportunity for policymakers, project developers, private sector, civil society, and academia to exchange views and proffer solutions towards the implementation of regional infrastructure projects on the continent. PIDA is such a vital initiative, not only to catalyse intra-African trade but perhaps more important to provide a wider platform to encourage investment, he said. For his part, Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Agency, Mr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, said Africa needs to accelerate the development of transboundary infrastructure projects if it is to fully integrate. He said a lot of progress has been made since African leaders adopted PIDA in 2012. We recognise that optimal solutions for continental problems lie in regional integration. We are getting there progressively, but we need to accelerate implementation if we want regional integration. Its not a question of lack of financial resources, it is a question of lack of bankable projects and sound rules. So we need to do our homework, said Mr. Mayaki, adding that local, national and regional governance was key to the success Africa seeks in closing its infrastructure deficit. Challenges The African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid said the current low levels of infrastructure on the continent posed one of the biggest challenges to Africas industrialization and development agenda, which is having a negative impact on Africas competitiveness and participation in the global markets. According to the World Bank, the poor state of infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa in respect of its electricity, water, roads and ICT, reduces national economic growth by 2 percent annually and reduces productivity by as much as 40 percent. Meeting Africas infrastructure needs and developing cost-effective infrastructure services requires significant investments, the Commissioner said, adding the continent should turn its challenges in infrastructure development into an opportunity. The financing gap in Africa for infrastructure development is estimated at between US$130-170 billion per year. Despite encouraging investments on infrastructure, both at the domestic and international levels, which averages about US$75 billion per year, there is a need for significant increase in infrastructure investments on the continent, Dr. Abou-Zeid added. She added: There have been remarkable achievements within a short period of time considering the many barriers that exist within the continent. However, the scale of the challenge in infrastructure development on the continent calls for more accelerated implementation and innovative approaches to meet-up with the increasing demand for infrastructure services. For his part, the African Unions High Representative for Infrastructure Development, Mr. Raila Amollo Odinga, said that Africa needs to move away from the conference and feasibility study syndrome and move to implement agreed projects if it is to successfully integrate and achieve sustainable development and change the lives of its citizens for the better. Transformational decisions have to be taken if we are to move ahead. Africa must deal with political bottlenecks that hamper its development or we shall never compete, said Mr. Odinga. We must also overcome the habitual of feasibility study after feasibility study syndrome without implementing. We must change. Ms. Carla Montesi, European Commissions Director for Planet and Prosperity and a representative of COMESA Secretary General, Ms. Chileshe Kapwepwe, also spoke in the opening session in support of Africas desire to invest in infrastructural development that will support Africas growth. Ms. Montesi said the EU will continue to support Africa in its quest for an integrated infrastructure that generates jobs for the youth; helps reduce poverty; and supports regional integration. Mr. Xiao Weiming, Director-General of the Belt and Road Unit, National Development and Reform Commission, the Peoples Republic of China, said his country will continue to work with African nations to help build their infrastructure capacity. He said China will continue to enhance cooperation with Africa through infrastructure development, adding PIDA was a transformative initiative that will change the face of Africa if fully and successfully implemented. The 4th PIDA Week is being held under the theme Realizing Africas Integration through Smart Infrastructure and Good Governance, and it intends to build on the relative achievements and the momentum created in the previous three events to continue to engage stakeholders on the effective delivery of infrastructure on the continent. The event welcomed more than 400 participants brought together an impressive line-up of top-level government representatives, influential industry leaders, private sector, leading thinkers from international institutions, government, academia, business and finance. It aims to provide a platform for stakeholders to engage in accelerating and synergizing their efforts to accelerate projects preparation and implementation; mobilize adequate financial and technical resources for projects; increase private sector participation in PIDA implementation; and mobilize Member States to integrate the PIDA projects into their national development plans. Brevard Music Center (BMC) First Mondays concert - held at the Porter Center of Brevard College - features saxophonist Henning Schroder and percussionist Gerald Noble in a rhythmic and rousing program including works by Andy Scott, Russell Peterson, Alex Orfaly, David Lang and BMC composition faculty member Greg Simon. BMC's free First Mondays concerts in Brevard continue through May 2019. There will be no First Mondays concert in January. December's local First Mondays Charity Partner is Rise & Shine. "As 2018 draws to a close, we extend our thanks and gratitude to the many musi... Judicial Watch Sues Defense Department for Records on POWs and MIAs in Vietnam Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch , 202-646-5188 WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch announced today that it sued the United States Defense Department to obtain government records from 1973 to the present regarding U.S. soldiers who were prisoners of war or missing in action in Vietnam and Laos (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:18-cv-02276)). Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after the Pentagon failed to respond to two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. A May 21, 2018, request sought: Any and all lists of American prisoners of war/missing in action ("POWs/MlAs") provided to North Vietnam as part of the Paris Peace Accords process seeking the return of those. All materials used to brief President Nixon in 1973 about remaining American POWs/MIAs in North Vietnam and Laos. A May 22, 2018 request sought: All live sighting reports of American POWs in Vietnam and Laos from January 27, 1973 to the present. All data... Read more... Share Tweet The pink pigeon and echo parakeet are just a few of the animals that biologist Carl Jones has saved with his unconventional approach. Ah, humans ... what a bunch of odd birds we are, so to speak. We are so smart we just landed on Mars, for heaven's sake, but we're also remarkably short-sighted. We squabble about things as the planet is falling apart, thanks to climate change, pollution, and plummeting biodiversity, among other disasters. Did you know that in the last 50 years, humanity has wiped out 60 percent of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles? According to WWF, as of now, one in eight bird species are threatened with complete extinction. You thought the loss of the dodo bird was bad? You won't believe what happens next... As we are losing species at an alarming rate, however, there are happier stories; conservation efforts that have proven successful and that's a wildly heartening thing. But as it turns out, there's squabbling in that department too. And here's where I introduce you to biologist Carl Jones. Jones is currently the chief scientist at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the charity founded by Gerald Durrell and he has done a remarkable thing. He has rescued more animal species from extinction than anyone else. When there were just four Mauritius kestrels left, he brought them back. He saved the pink pigeon, the echo parakeet, the Rodrigues fody and the Rodrigues warbler, all of which had fewer than 12 known individuals left in the wild, and all of which are thriving now. What's his secret? A terrific sense of optimism and a complete bucking of the traditional tenets of animal conservation. Or in his words about saving a species, "Its very easy. Its no secret at all.". As Patrick Barkham writes for The Guardian: "Jones challenges the classic conservation wisdom that we must first precisely understand the reasons for a species decline and then restore its habitat. Instead, he argues that scientists must tweak the limiting factors on a species population food, nesting sites, competition, predation, disease with practical fieldwork. 'If theres a shortage of food, you start feeding. If theres a shortage of nest sites, you put up nest boxes. You dont need endless PhD students studying a species for 20 years.' Conservation science, he argues, is often too remote. 'Do you sit back and monitor a sick patient or do you treat them and see what works? A lot of species have been studied to extinction.'" He does things that are generally shunned by the conventional conservation school of thought. He uses captive breeding and double-clutching, in which a bird's eggs are removed and hand-reared so that the female is encouraged to lay a second brood. He is very hands on with the birds; he trained the wild Mauritius kestrels to take white mice hoping they would lay more eggs. By stealing those eggs and putting them in incubators, I could get them to lay second clutches. When Id hatched eggs in captivity, I put some of the youngsters back in the wild and I fed the wild parents so they could look after them. In talking about the kestrels, Barkham writes: "Then, when he discovered that mongooses brought to the island in 1900 to control rats were raiding nests, he designed mongoose-proof nest boxes for safer wild breeding, trapped mongooses around nest sites and, if he encountered a mongoose during his fieldwork, killed it with his bare hands. His bosses were 'very sceptical', he says: 'Traditional conservation is all about preserving animals and being hands-off. Here I was doing completely the opposite.'" He even went so far as to introduce a non-native species the biggest no-no of all to an island in a scheme to bring the ecosytem back ... and it worked. And in fact, most of his efforts have paid off. There are now hundreds of kestrels on Mauritius. His hands-on techniques were successful with the pink pigeon (photo below), now numbering 400 wild birds, and the echo parakeet, now numbering 750. There are now 14,000 Rodrigues fodies and 20,000 Rodrigues warblers. Michael Hanselmann/CC BY 2.0 While some conservationists find his work too controversial, Jones just keeps on saving animals and in 2016, was recognized for his work by winning the prestigious Indianapolis Prize, which is like the Oscars of the conservation world. I know of no other conservationist who has directly saved so many species from extinction, said Dr. Simon N. Stuart, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, who nominated Jones for the award. And indeed, while a whole lot of scientists are (valiantly) studying habitats and working on conservation plans, Jones is just getting right in there. While youre doing big landscape stuff, the species can disappear and you can say: Oh well, you know, these things happen, he says. Theres a great reticence to do hands-on conservation in Britain. Think about your dying patient. You get in there and start looking after them, rather than standing back and watching them through binoculars. Given his track record, I think he's on to something, and I hope that the conservation world starts paying attention. We don't have time to wait we're in a downward spiral and if it takes captive breeding and stealing eggs to save a species, we owe it the planet to get down and dirty and start doing it. We've messed everything up and if there's a way to fix things, we better get busy, even if it's just one small bird species at a time. For more, read the whole essay in The Guardian, or visit the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Treehugger and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Treehugger.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors) Tiny Homes From van and bus conversions to trailers and tiny homes, discover the best in small living and find out how to downsize your own living space. Ms. Nguyen Quynh Mai speaking at the event (Photo: nhandan.com.vn) Speaking at the event, Mr. Nguyen Van Tao, Head of the Authority of Grassroots Information under MIC, said that the exhibition is an opportunity for Vietnam to introduce to Russian people, the Vietnamese community in Russia and international friends, the innovated country of Vietnam with a lot of potentials; dynamic and creative Vietnamese people on the path of development and integration; having a friendly and cooperative relationship with other countries in the world, through images of economy, politics, culture, country, people, and the sea and islands of Vietnam. This is also an opportunity for the Vietnamese community living abroad and international friends to get a better view of Vietnam. In addition, the exhibition is also an opportunity for overseas Vietnamese and international friends to seek Vietnams guidelines and development policy, encouraging patriotism, national pride and affirming the belief of overseas Vietnamese on the path of innovation and development of Vietnam. Besides, the exhibition also introduced images of professional and modern Vietnamese revolutionary press, as well as important milestones in the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia in recent times. Ms. Nguyen Quynh Mai, Counselor and Charge d'affaires of the Vietnamese Embassy to Russia, expressed her hope that the exhibition will provide more information about the land and people of Vietnam to Russian friends and the Vietnamese community in Moscow, thereby contributing to improving mutual understanding between the people of the two countries, strengthening and intensifying the friendly relations and strategic partnership between the two countries. The exhibition included dozens of photos and special handicraft products of Vietnam. It had five main themes of Sea - existing space of the Vietnamese community; living with the sea and islands; Vietnam through the media perspective; friendship between Vietnam and Russia; and essence of Vietnam. In addition, the exhibition also introduced stamp paintings about Vietnamese ethnic groups; Vietnamese tourism map; books about the land and people of Vietnam - view from the sea and island; photo book about "Vietnam's roads" and some press publications of Vietnam. After the exhibition, MIC will present all photos and documents displayed at the exhibition to the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia to serve the diplomatic communications of the embassy./. sanjiv@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 28 The stage is set for the people of Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram to elect new governments for their respective states today. The BJP hopes to retain power in the Hindi-speaking Madhya Pradesh for a fourth straight term thwarting the Congress, which plans to do an encore in Mizoram. The Congress lost power in MP, a state with 230 Assembly seats in 2003 when the BJP rode to power for the first time under Uma Bharti. Since then, it has kept up its winning streak unhindered with incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the helm for the past 13 years. Tomorrow, over 5 crore voters will have the option to elect candidates of their choice from among some 2,800-odd candidates fielded by the BJP, Congress, BSP, SP, Gondwana Gantantra Party and the Aam Aadmi Party and others, including 1,094 Independents. Chouhan, popularly known as mama(maternal uncle), is battling both anti-incumbency that resulted in the party denying re-nomination to 47 legislators and aggressive campaign led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The Congress is straining at the leash to take a realistic shot at power. Opinion polls indicated the ruling BJP is up for a challenge, largely from the Congress. The 2013 results show that the BJP secured 44.88 per cent votes and reaped a rich harvest of 165 seats as against the Congress share of 36.88 per cent for 58 seats. The outcome for either party would depend on the vote share of the BSP that had got 6.29 per cent votes last time. The Congress attempts to have Mayawatis BSP on its side have proved futile. Incidentally, both Uma Bharti and Chouhan are from the OBC category and part of the new approach adopted by the BJP under then party incharge Narendra Modi, who, in 1998, brought to fore a new line of leadership by co-opting OBC members. Irrespective of whether issue like demonetisation and GST would cast a shadow on the functioning of the Chouhan government or the series of welfare measures initiated by his government would carry the day, for the BJP, much is at stake in this state. The Congress feels the mahoul (condition) is ripe to shake this BJP citadel, which then gives impetus to its attempt to alter the power structure through LS poll. PM tears into family-ruled parties Congress and TRS are two faces of the same coin. Both are competing against each other on who tells more lies. They are family-ruled parties playing a friendly match in Telangana The CM and his family think they can get away with doing no work like the Congress. Narendra Modi, prime minister Saffron citadel since 03 The BJP has been in power in MP, which has 230 Assembly seats, since 2003; incumbent CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is at the helm for past 13 years 5 crore voters will elect candidates of their choice from among some 2,800-odd candidates Congs last bastion in N-E rchopra@tribunemail.com Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 27 The names of a former CM and his deputy engraved on an infrastructure project mooted by the Centre for Punjabit is not a one-off case that shows closeness between the BJP and ally SAD amid predictions of separation by naysayers. Several recent incidents show that all is well between the saffron party and its old allies, including the Shiv Sena, despite the latters constant needling of the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, and that they are working together as a team for the 2019 general election. A controversy erupted recently after the Congress objected to the names of former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and son Sukhbir engraved on the foundation stone to be laid for the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. The presence of Sukhbir by the side of Union minister Nitin Gadkari at an official press conference in September had also evoked interest. After the Cabinet had cleared the Sirhind Rajasthan Feeder Canal, the press conference at the Transport Bhawan had seen Sukhbir sharing stage with Gadkari, who acknowledged the Akali Dals perseverance for the projects and lauded former CM Parkash Singh Badal for his persuasive role in getting them cleared from the Centre. Recently, Narendra Modi was seen attending Gurpurab celebrations at the residence of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. So far as the Sena is concerned, it recently alleged that a lack of political will is delaying the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and advised Modi to stop the political drama on the issue. Taking potshots at the PM for his 56-inch chest remark during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Sena said the Congress did not have the courage to build the Ram temple, so it was thrown out of power, and a man with a 56-inch chest was given the keys to the administration. Despite the open offensive or the political posturing as per political observers, they say not only are the Sena and the BJP ideologically matched, they have no option but to stand with each other if they want to survive 2019. In fact, the Senas posturing in Ayodhya is said to have the support of the BJP, which is now being accused of outsourcing the pet project to its ally. The BJP, they say, is not worried about Maharashtra or the Sena taking lead there but about Uttar Pradesh and its huge kitty of 80 Lok Sabha seats. The ground reports do not favour UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and the Samajwadi Party and the BSP getting together is a major apprehension. And the Ram temple build-up by the Sangh, the VHP and the Sena are all aimed at ensuring that the crucial Hindu vote remains undivided. gspannu7@gmail.com Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, November 27 Members of the Maratha community have begun fresh protests for reservation in educational institutions and government jobs even as the Maharashtra Government announced that it was introducing a Bill towards this on Thursday. Groups of youth mobilised by the Maratha Kranti Morcha, an umbrella body of several organisations from the community, were sitting in protest at Azad Maidan in Mumbai demanding introduction of reservations with immediate effect. On Monday evening, police stopped vehicles carrying youths from entering Mumbai. However, the numbers continued to swell on Tuesday as the protesters made their way to the city unobtrusively. The opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party raised the issue of quotas for Marathas at the state legislatures winter session forcing the House to be adjourned twice. While the opposition parties are demanding that the report of the Backward Class Commission recommending reservations for the Marathas be tabled in the assembly, the government has refused to do so. The Commission has tabled 52 reports so far. Of these none of the 51 reports have been tabled in the House, Fadnavis told reporters. The government however indicated that it was prepared to table the Action Taken Report in the state legislature. With the protesters turning belligerant, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asked his confidantes to hold talks with the MKM. The government indicated that it would drop criminal cases filed against protesters from the community earlier this year. MKM leaders said youths of the community are holding protests in Pune, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nashik and Aurangabad. The protests would be stopped only after the reservations for the community is finally introduced. The Maharashtra Government has indicated that it would provide reservations for the Marathas under the Socially and Educationally Backward Community (SEBC) category so that the existing 52 per cent reservation for various other communities are not disturbed. However, sections of the Maratha community fear that quotas for the Marathas would be struck down by the courts since the Supreme Court has already capped reservations in educational institutions and government jobs at 50 per cent. gspannu7@gmail.com Guwahati, November 27 A teenage girl from Assam has taken on US President Donald Trump for his tweet mocking the phenomenon of global warming. On the mercury dropping to -2 degree celsius on November 21 in Washington, Trump had tweeted Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming? To it the 18-year old girl, identified as Astha Sarmah from Jorhat in Assamm, commented, I am 54 years younger than you. I just finished high school with average marks. But even I can tell you that WEATHER IS NOT CLIMATE. If you want help understanding that, I can lend you my encyclopedia from when I was in 2nd grade. It has pictures and everything. I am 54 years younger than you. I just finished high school with average marks. But even I can tell you that WEATHER IS NOT CLIMATE. If you want help understanding that, I can lend you my encyclopedia from when I was in 2nd grade. It has pictures and everything. Astha Sarmah (@thebuttcracker7) November 22, 2018 The comment received over 22,000 likes from across the world and Twitter users from the USA appreciating the teenager for her reply to the US president. The teenagers tweet was also retweeted 5.1 k times with many praising Astha as hope of the future. Some people even offered her an internship to study the effects of climate change on the Arabian Sea. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, November 27 A 39-year-old man, who was going to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his residence here, was arrested after a bullet was found in his purse during frisking, police said on Tuesday. Mohammad Imran, a caretaker of a mosque in Karol Bagh and resident of Seelampur locality, was arrested when he was going to attend a Janta Darbar (public meeting) at the Chief Ministers residence on Monday, they said. He is a maujjim at the Masjid Bawli Wali. Last week, a man threw chilli powder at Kejriwal inside the Delhi Secretariat. Imran had come to meet the CM at the Janta Darbar around 11.15 am, a senior police officer said. He had come with 12 imams and maulvis to discuss the issue of increasing salary of staff working at the Delhi Waqf Board, he said. During the search, a live cartridge of .32 bore was recovered from his purse by security staff deputed at Kejriwals residence, the officer said. Imran was handed over to the local police and accordingly, a case was registered at the Civil Lines police station under relevant sections of the Arms Act, he said. During interrogation, Imran said he was a maujjin at Masjid Bawli Wali in Karol Bagh and two to three months ago, he found a cartridge in the mosques donation box. He said he had planned to throw it in the Yamuna but did not do so and kept it in his purse, the officer said. Further investigation is under way. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Yavatmal, November 27 A head constable of police was killed and his two colleagues injured when they were allegedly attacked by a 32-year-old history-sheeter in Maharashtras Yavatmal district on Monday, police said on Tuesday. The police personnel, including head constable Rajendra Kudmethe (51), had gone to arrest Anil Meshram in Hiwri village against whom a court had issued a warrant, a police officer said. When the police personnel reached the house of Meshram, he and his mother Indira Meshram (62) came out armed with wooden clubs. When the police personnel tried to arrest Meshram, they were attacked by him and his mother, the officer said. He said the trio were rescued by villagers and rushed to hospital, where Kudmethe was declared dead. The injured constables are identified as Madhukar Mukhe (52) and Pramod Fufare (31). The accused is on the run while his mother Indira was arrested, the officer said. A case had been registered, he said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 27 Two months after India ignored US sanctions to announce the S-400 Triumf air-defence missile deal from Russia, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to visit the US in December, making it the first high-level visit since then. Sources confirmed to The Tribune that the Defence Minister is slated to travel to the US. Progress of the Indo-US military relations will be reviewed during the visit. India has a strategic partnership with the US but has made it clear to Washington that India-Russia military relations stand separate from the India-US ties and that these are not inter-connected. On October 5, India-Russia announced the deal after the Narendra Modi-Vladimir Putin meeting in New Delhi, saying: Both sides welcomed the conclusion of the contract for the supply of the S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile system to India. On October 10, US President Donald Trump during an interaction with journalists at the White House had said India would find out what action the US took against it for defence deal with Russia sooner than you think. India is going to find out, arent they, Trump said while responding to a question about India-Russia S-400 deal. Trumps comments were in contrast to previous remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis. Both argued for a waiver to India and not impose sanctions. Mattis had testified before a Congress committee favouring a waiver as the US views India as a key ally. Ironically, in September, India and the US signed an agreement on exchange of military information Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement. The US, in June, passed the Countering Americas Adversaries through Sanctions Act that requires imposing curbs on nations that have significant defence relations with Russia. There is a provision for a waiver and New Delhi has argued out its case to the US. The waiver authority is not a blanket waiver. Waivers are considered on transaction basis. We cannot prejudge any sanctions decisions, the US had said after the deal. editorial@tribune.com Islamabad, November 27 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after a deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to prevailing circumstances. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet. Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative. Addressing a conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, Faisal recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan in his victory speech had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. Prime Minister Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the SAARC Summit, Faisal was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. He said that Prime Minister Khan, in a letter to his Indian counterpart, had expressed Pakistans openness to resolving all outstanding issues through dialogue with India. We fought a war with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly, Faisal said. SAARC summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association. The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Modi. Faisal also said that the Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, is expected to be completed within six months. In this century diplomacy has completely changed, he said, adding policies are now made based on citizens emotions and wishes. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com United Nations, November 27 Any person who takes part in terrorist attacks or any acts of violence should be brought to justice, the UN has said as India marked the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. About 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the terror attack carried out by 10 LeT terrorists over a period of three days. Nine of the attackers were killed by the police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was captured and hanged after he was handed down death sentence by an Indian court. As a matter of principle, we believe that those who are responsible for violence, random violence, for acts of terrorism should be brought to justice, Spokesperson for Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said at his daily press briefing on Monday. Dujarric was responding to a question by PTI on the 10th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks and the US State Department announcement to offer a five million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual who was involved in planning or facilitating the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Spokesperson for President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Monica Grayley, also said that any person or persons who took part in terrorist attacks or any acts of violence should be held accountable and they should be brought to justice. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the barbarity of the Mumbai terror attacks had shocked the entire world, adding that it is an affront to the families of the victims that, after 10 years, those who planned the Mumbai attack had still not been convicted for their involvement. We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to uphold their UN Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates, Pompeo said in his message. He added that the US is committed to seeing that those responsible for this attack faced justice. The Department of State Rewards for Justice (RFJ) Programme is offering a new reward for up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual who was involved in planning or facilitating the 2008 Mumbai attack, he added. PTI editorial@tribune.com Smita Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 27 With an eye on global oil prices, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fly on Wednesday to attend the G20 summit in Argentina. A decade since the Group of 20 leaders came together to discuss ways out of the 2008 financial crisis, this summit will seek to evaluate the groupings achievements and chalk out a future blueprint. Themed Building consensus for fair and sustainable development, the Buenos Aires summit will include three sessions and informal leaders retreat. PM Modi will make lead intervention in first session on Putting People First. He is expected to dwell on digital revolution, flagship projects of Jan Dhan and Mudra Yojana, reform initiatives Aadhaar and GST, combating terror financing and money laundering. He will advocate strongly that G20 should not be reduced to a singular issue of trade war. PM Modi will meet President Xi Jinping for the fourth time in less than a year for a bilateral pull aside as well as during a BRICS heads of states and governments meet in the G20 margins. Taking place amid possibilities of US-China agreeing on some kind of a trade deal in Argentina, the Modi-Xi meet is indicative of kind of political exchanges and contacts between India and China post Wuhan, said Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale. The whole purpose of these meetings is to build mutual trust. It was decided at their meeting in Wuhan that they would take the opportunity wherever and whenever they could meet to discuss issues on either leaders mind or of mutual concern, said Gokhale. India has confirmed a bilateral meeting along the sidelines sought by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, also with German Chancellor, New President of Chile and counterpart from Spain among others. A meeting with French President Macron is possible even as the Rafale row plays out politically at home. But there is no clarity yet if President Donald Trump will have a pull aside with Modi. The two have not met since the PMs visit to DC in June 2017 and they last spoke on phone in February. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 27 The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Bihar Police for their failure to file correct FIRs under stringent provisions of law in shelter home abuse cases and gave them 24 hours to add charges under Section 377 (sodomy) of the IPC and POCSO Act in the FIRs. "If we find that there were offences under Section 377 of the IPC and POCSO Act and you did not register the FIR we will pass order against the state government, said Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur posting the matter for further hearing on Wednesday. The petitioner informed the court that the staff members of the shelter home were involved in sexual abuse and physical violence and the Bihar Police had been soft on the accused. The petitioner said the offences fell under Section 377 of the IPC and POCSO Act but the state police registered cases under minor charges. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, had found instances of aggravated offences in 17 shelter homes in Bihar. But criminal cases were registered only in connection with 10 under lesser offences. In one such case, TISS found sexual violence at a shelter home for boys but the FIR didnt include stringent IPC provisions on sodomy. In another, a child who refused to cook food suffered a three-inch long scar on his cheek. In both cases, the state police filed a case only under the Juvenile Justice Act. Only God can save, the Bench said and hinted at transferring all abuse cases highlighted in TISS report to the CBI. What are you (Bihar government) doing? Its shameful. If the child is sodomised you say its nothing? How can you do this? Its inhuman. We were told that matter will be looked with great seriousness, this is seriousness? Every time I read this file its tragic, the court said. The Muzaffarpur shelter home abuse case came to light in July was only one of the 17 shelter homes indicted in a study by TISS. But criminal cases had been registered only against 10 shelter homes. This too was not done under the appropriate criminal provisions, the Bench noted. The top court has been coming down heavily on the Bihar government for its handling of the probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home where 30 of the 42 girls were allegedly sexually abused. Former minister Manju Verma eventually surrendered earlier this month following warning from the court. The CBI had seized ammunition from her home during a raid in connection with the sexual abuse scandal. She had to resign as social welfare minister in August after it came to light that her husband Chandrashekhar Verma was a frequent visitor to the Muzaffarpur shelter home. editorial@tribune.com Mukesh Ranjan Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 27 Following a request from the HRD Ministry, officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) are working out norms for waiving the prior security clearance clause, which is currently mandatory for recruiting foreign faculty for higher education institutions. Senior MHA officials, who are in the know of the development, said the HRD Ministrys request for an automatic clearance in hiring foreign faculties is aimed at internationalising and improving global perception and thereby, it could improve education institutions rankings in the world. Sources said senior MHA officials recently met with their counterparts from the ministries of external affairs and HRD and decided, in principle, in favour of the direct recruitment of foreign faculty in higher educational institutions. Once it is notified, this will pave the way for removing the current mandatory prior clearance norm, which is required to be taken from the MHA and the MEA, a senior official said. The MHA officials, however, contended that those coming from the Prior Reference Category countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan, foreigners of Pakistani origin and stateless persons will continue to require approval. Even those who want to visit restricted areas will continue to follow the current norms, they added. editorial@tribune.com Vishav Bharti Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 27 It was 49 years ago that access to Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib was first envisaged by the powers that be. In 1969, during Guru Nanak Devs 500th birth anniversary celebrations, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had promised the state government that land-swap would be done with Pakistan for the purpose. The need for access to the gurdwara was felt soon after Partition. The Guru had spent his last days at Kartarpur Sahib. The shrine housed a bir of Guru Granth Sahib, which had been dictated by Guru Arjan Dev and written by Bhai Gurdas. As per a report published in The Tribune on January 4, 1948, the Akali Dal, during a conference in Patiala, passed a resolution demanding immediate resolution of the dispute between India and Pakistan over the land of gurdwaras at Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur. Amid refusal of visas to Sikh pilgrims to visit gurdwaras in Pakistan, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Chief Khalsa Diwan insisted that India should get back the gurdwara land. Prior to the India-Pakistan border discussion on December 21, 1959, the Chief Khalsa Diwan, in a letter to the Prime Minister, reiterated the demand. However, the Congress government in Punjab had written to the Centre that it was not advisable to modify the boundary fixed on the basis of the Radcliffe Award. About a decade later, Indira Gandhi said the Centre would approach the Pakistan Government for exchange of Kartarpur Sahib with an adjoining Indian area. The Prime Minister also gave an assurance on granting free visas for visitors to Nankana Sahib. Over the years, visa-free access became the new demand. In view of hostilities between India and Pakistan, the dream of free access faded away. It got an impetus around 15 years ago, when the idea of building a corridor was floated. Akali leader from Jalandhar Kuldeep Singh Wadala was approached by Sikhs from Gurdaspur. The gurdwara was virtually abandoned till 2003. It served as a cattle shed for the villagers and the land was occupied by mujharas (sharecroppers). US-based Dr Pritpal Singh, along with my father and others, played an important role in getting the building restored and convincing the Pakistan Government, said Kuldeep Singh Wadalas son and Akali MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala. editorial@tribune.com Rajmeet Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 27 The BJP-led NDA government is under fire from senior Congress leaders for politicising the yesterdays stone-laying ceremony by trying to give mileage to its alliance partner SAD, even if it meant violating the protocol. Apparently on the back foot for not speaking against the Badals at the event, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today tweeted that MLAs were rightly irked over the names of the Badals on the plaque. He said it was wrong of Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal to rake up the 1984 issue on the historic religious occasion. He alleged that the Akalis were in the habit of exploiting religion for political gains.Cabinet Ministers and MLAs are learnt to have taken up the issue with the CM. Even as Cooperation Minister and Dera Baba Nanak MLA Sukhjinder Randhawa turned tables on the SAD-BJP leaders by questioning the conduct of the event by the BJP, PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar termed it a deliberate attempt by the BJP to hog the limelight and salvage the sinking ship of the its alliance partner. What took the BJP government four months to take a decision on the corridor? Sidhu has already been credited with reviving the issue during his previous visit to Pakistan in August. Instead of choosing 26/11 terror attack anniversary for laying the stone, the BJP could have facilitated simultaneous ground-breaking ceremony for the corridor on both side of the border, said Jakhar, questioning the BJPs intention. Sukhjinder Randhawa, who had strongly objected to Union Minister Harsimrat Badals speech wherein she highlighted the achievements of the Modi government and raked up the issue of the anti-Sikh riots, said it was wrong on part of the BJP to use the occasion for political gains. BJP praises Capt for declining Pak invite Former state BJP presidents Manoranjan Kalia and Kamal Sharma and partys national general secretary Tarun Chug have appreciated Capt Amarinder for declining the invitation to attend the event in Pakistan. It is unfortunate that this wisdom has not dawned upon Sidhu, who preferred friendship with Imran Khan over nationalism. The NDA government must insulate the functioning of the corridor in such a way that Pakistan is not allowed to misuse it, said Kalia. sanjiv@tribunemail.com Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 27 In a major policy shift, all NDPS cases registered in Punjab will now be monitored by the Special Task Force (STF). These were earlier handled by the district police. Talking to a few mediapersons here on Tuesday, Mohammad Mustafa, DGP, who took over as STF chief two months ago, said they were ready with a list of 62 persons who could be detained for a year under the NDPS Act. He refused to reveal their identity or if they had political connections. Citing a study, he said more than 1,300 persons nabbed for smuggling in the past two months had escaped the law either due to police negligence or lack of co-ordination between the STF and the district police. Also, 97 men from the Intelligence wing deployed with the STF had failed to provide any input. "All of them have been repatriated to their parent cadre," the DGP said. As many as 725 accused of smuggling drugs had been granted bail by various courts owing to the failure of the district police to file a challan within the stipulated period. We have suspended an ASI in Amritsar for such negligence. Similar action is being taken in other cases too." The STF, the DGP said, had identified 137 proclaimed offenders (POs) against whom it would lodge fresh FIRs under 174-A of the IPC that entails a three-year prison term for dodging the law. This Section was rarely used in Punjab earlier, the DGP explained, adding the STF had also identified 328 smugglers who were never arrested. He said the Prison Department had been told to inform the STF if an accused under the NDPS Act had to be taken to court for trial or hospitalised. "I have written to the Health Department to set up a separate wing for such cases." On the de-addiction initiatives by the STF, the officer said 5,5414 patients had been registered with the Out-Patient Opioid Assisted Treatment. The retention rate has risen to 92.85 per cent in just two months." Jammu couple held with 10-kg heroin Ludhiana: The STF in Ludhiana nabbed a couple from Jalalabad Sunjma village in Jammu with 10.25 kg heroin in boxes of walnuts. Mohammad Arbi, 48, and his wife Jamila Begum, 36, confessed to supplying drugs to clients in Punjab. Snehdeep, AIG, said the duo had links with Pakistan-based smugglers. TNS sanjiv@tribunemail.com Bhartesh Singh Thakur Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 27 Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar on Tuesday attacked the Supreme Court for the delay in Ram temple case hearing. He also flayed Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, calling him a gaddar (traitor). Addressing a gathering at a function organised by Joshi Foundation in Panjab University (PU) here, he cliamed that the Supreme Court Bench, by declining Uttar Pradeshs plea for an early hearing in the Ayodhya title suit case, insulted 125 crore people. The Supreme Court could hear terrorists plea in the middle of the night, but peace is mocked and insulted... Even the British didnt dare to do this kind of injustice, he claimed. Stressing that the Modi government wanted to introduce a legislation for raising Ram Mandir, he cautioned: A freak, however, could approach the court and todays Chief Justice may order a stay. Turning to Sidhu, the RSS leader said whosoever called him Punjabs hero was not true to the Gurus. On the issue of Khalistan, he retorted: Will Khalistan cover all religious places of the Sikhs? Will it cover all five Takhts? The whole of India is Khalistan. PVT bill on ayodhya New Delhi: BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday said he would bring a Private Member Bill in Parliament for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Tiwari made the announcement after meeting VHP leaders. IANS monicakchauhan@gmail.com Tijuana, November 27 A migrant mother photographed running with her daughters from tear gas at the U.S.-Mexico border said she never expected the US Border Patrol to fire gas canisters at children and families. After traveling north from Honduras and spending a week in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, Maria Meza, 35, set out on Sunday with her five children to claim asylum at the U.S. border crossing. She and hundreds of other Central American migrants were blocked by Mexican police and staged a protest in front of the border, some rushing the U.S fence. Three tear gas canisters shot from the U.S. side landed around Meza and her children, who range in age from toddlers to teenagers, she said in an interview at a Tijuana migrant shelter. "The first thing I did was grab my children," said Meza. A photo of her clutching the hands of twin five-year-old daughters Saira and Cheili, as her 13-year-old daughter Jamie runs alongside, has gone viral and sparked angry reactions from some lawmakers and charities. "I was scared, and I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas," said Meza. Her young son James nearly fainted when a canister landed near him. Meza fell and struggled to get up amidst the gas. A young man gave her his hand and pulled her to her feet. "We never thought they were going to fire these bombs where there were children, because there were lots of children," said Meza, sitting in view of the rusted-steel U.S. border fence. "It wasn't right, they know we are human beings, the same as them," said Meza. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were struck by projectiles thrown by the migrants. Around 5,200 people who traveled in a caravan across Mexico are packed into the shelter in a stadium in Tijuana, living in makeshift tents. President Donald Trump has taken a hardline stance against the migrants, who have made their way north from violent and impoverished Central American countries. On Monday, he said Mexico should send them back to their home countries. The U.S. Border Patrol said most of those assembled at the border were economic migrants who would not qualify for asylum. "I came here for one reason, and that's because there is a lot of violence in Honduras," said Meza, as her children played with empty tear gas canisters shot by the Border Patrol. The United States shut the crossing for several hours on Sunday and Trump has threatened to close the border entirely. "If they close the border I ask God that here in Tijuana, or in another country they open doors to us, to allow me to survive with my children," said Meza. Reuters harinder@tribunemail.com Singapore: Singapore has sent back 51 Indian star tortoises on a Singapore Airlines flight as they were illegally trafficked here as prized exotic pets. This is the largest number of Indian star tortoises, coveted for their star-patterned shells, to be repatriated from Singapore, The Straits Times reported on Tuesday. Their striking, intricate appearances make them an easy target for poachers, who are often part of organised crime rings that profit from animal trafficking. The lucky few saved are just a fraction of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 taken from the wild to meet the global demand for exotic pets, according to the Singapore daily. AP Superhero posters can trigger people to help others Washington: Looking at posters of superheroes can trigger prosocial behaviours in people, encouraging them to lend a helping hand to others, a study has found. Superhero movies set inspirational moral examples for many people, but whether they encourage people to help a stranger or donate money is not known. The researchers exposed 245 individuals to common household pictures with either subtle superhero images-such as Spiderman and Superman-or neutral images. Participants primed with superhero images reported greater intentions to engage in prosocial behaviours. PTI Sleeping pilot overflies Australian island destination Melbourne: Airline officials say a pilot is under investigation after falling asleep in the cockpit of a freight plane and overflying his Australian island destination by 46 km. Airline Vortex Air says the pilot was the only person aboard the twin-propeller Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain and was flying on autopilot during the flight this month from Devonport city on Tasmania northwest to King Island in Bass Strait. The Melbourne-based airline said in a statement on Tuesday that the pilot unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft. It said: The issue became apparent when air traffic control was unable to contact the pilot in-flight. AP After Khashoggi, Saudi prince looks to rebuild image Dubai: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans first trip abroad since the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi will offer an early indication of the repercussions he faces from the gruesome slaying. The prince is visiting close allies in the Middle East before attending the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on November 30, where he will come face to face with President Donald Trump, who has defended US ties with the kingdom, as well as European leaders and Turkeys president, who has kept pressure mounting on Riyadh since Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2. AP harinder@tribunemail.com Luxembourg, November 27 Lawyers acting for a group of Scottish politicians argued before the top European court Tuesday that the British Parliament should have the power to unilaterally halt the countdown to Brexit. A Scottish court has referred the case, which hinges on whether Westminster MPs could simply revoke Britains Article 50 EU withdrawal process, to the European Court of Justice. Prime Minister Theresa Mays British government argues it has no intention of halting Brexit anyway and that the case has been brought as a political tactic by pro-European opponents. Once Pandoras box is open, its always difficult to close it, warned lawyer Lord Keen of Elie, urging the ECJ to throw out the case and show respect for the UK parliament and the position of UK Government. May is trying to sell an agreement on a smooth and orderly Brexit to a hostile House of Commons, arguing that their choice is to back a deal or face the economic calamity of crashing out of Europe without a plan. But pro-Europeans hope that if the European court confirms that Britain has the right to stop the countdown then a third option would emerge: stopping Brexit altogether and remaining in the EU. It is fundamental to the treaties-and to the values of the European Union that a member state can choose to revoke its withdrawal from the Union without the need for the unanimous agreement of all the other member states, argued lawyer Aidan ONeill. The European Union institutions also oppose the Scottish case, fearing member states will tempted to launch their own speculative exit bids to extract concessions from Brussels-only to reverse course. Under Article 50 of the Lisbon EU treaty, any member state can declare its intention to quit the union, a decision which for Britain comes into effect on March 29 next year. Britain invoked the article on March 29, 2017, after voters backed Brexit in a national referendum. The decision remains hugely controversial, however, and a group of politicians members of the Scottish, UK and EU parliaments has brought a case arguing that Britain should have the right change its mind. But EU legal experts argue that all 27 remaining member states would have to agree to suspend the Article 50 process once it is launched. The European Parliament has investigated the clause in the treaty and concluded, as did the Scottish courts that took up the legal challenge, that only the ECJ can make a legal ruling on the matter. A court source said the decision could well be made before the end of the year, but the judges must first decide if the ECJ even accepts jurisdiction in the case. AFP Possible immediate scenarios Resign: Prime Minister May could resign as leader of the Conservative Party, triggering an internal contest to replace her without a General Election Ousted: A long-running effort by some members of Mays own party to get rid of her could gain renewed impetus. If 48 out of 315 Conservative lawmakers want her to go, the party holds a confidence ballot Renegotiate: The government could try to renegotiate the terms of the deal, seeking extra concessions from the EU, and then call a second vote asking lawmakers for their approval on amended terms No-confidence vote: The opposition Labour Party could call a confidence vote in the government, seeking to take control of the country without holding an election Back to the ballot: If Mays government loses a confidence vote and Labour is unable to form a new government, an election is called sanjiv@tribunemail.com Washington, November 27 NASA's robotic InSight lander, designed to dig deep into the rocky surface of Mars to reveal its secrets, has successfully touched down on the red planet after a supersonic plunge through its rose-hued atmosphere, the US space agency said on Tuesday. The lander sent signals indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface, InSight mission team said in a statement. "Aaah...soaking up the Sun with my solar panels. After a long flight, and thrilling #MarsLanding, it feels great to get a good stretch and recharge my batteries," the InSight Twitter handle posted. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals of the landing, which were received on Earth at about 5:30 pm PST (7 am IST, Tuesday). Solar array deployment ensures the spacecraft can recharge its batteries each day. Odyssey also relayed a pair of images showing InSight's landing site. The lander touched down near Mars' equator on the western side of a flat, smooth expanse of lava called Elysium Planitia, with a signal affirming a completed landing sequence at approximately 3 pm EST (1:30 am IST, Tuesday). The probe was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, US, on May 5. "InSight will study the interior of Mars, and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars," said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New York, November 27 A Pakistan-born woman has pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State (ISIS) by participating in a scheme under which she wired over USD 150,000 to individuals and shell entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for the terror group. Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, of Brentwood, New York, pleaded guilty before US District Judge Joanna Seybert, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers said. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal last December, Pakistan-born Shahnaz was a naturalised US citizen. She had come to the US using a family-based immigration system, under which she had got the US visa because of her family ties. According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, between March 2017 and the date of her attempted travel to Syria on July 31, 2017, Shahnaz engaged in a scheme to defraud numerous financial institutions. Specifically, Shahnaz obtained a loan for approximately USD 22,500 by way of materially false pretenses, representations and promises. She also fraudulently applied for and used over a dozen credit cards, which she used to purchase approximately USD 62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies online. She then engaged in a pattern of financial activity, culminating in several wire transactions totalling over USD 150,000 to individuals and shell entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey that were fronts for the ISIS. During the time she was committing bank fraud and laundering money overseas, she was accessing ISIS propaganda online, including violent jihad-related websites and message boards, and social media and messaging pages of known ISIS recruiters, facilitators and financiers. Additionally, she conducted numerous internet searches for information that would facilitate her entry into Syria, but ultimately was intercepted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) at John F Kennedy International Airport while attempting to board a flight with a multi-day layover in Istanbula common point of entry for individuals travelling from Western countries to join the ISIS in Syria, prosecutors said. As part of her plea agreement with the government, Shahnaz admitted to defrauding numerous financial institutions and laundering the stolen proceeds out of the country with the intent to support a specified unlawful activity, namely the provision of material support to ISIS, after which she attempted to leave the United States and travel to Syria. Shahnaz faces up to 20 years in prison, as well as restitution, criminal forfeiture and a fine. PTI A FLEET change has been on the cards for majority State-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) for the past three years. After the decision to replace the existing fleet to Boeings Max-8s was put on pause in 2019, following two fatal crashes of the aircraft, CAL went ahead with the contract which it first entered into in November 2018. In this first instalment of Lady Elizabeth, we meet the matriarch of the Montano clan, Elizabeth Lady Montano, during her childhood in Carenage. It seems that from even then, God was preparing her for the eventful lifelong journey shes been on alongside her husband and sons Marcus and Machel. Along the way there have been obstacles to overcome, challenges to conquer, falls, getting back up, dusting off and moving forward again. The first child in Trinidad and Tobago to die from Covid-19 was a seven-year-old boy who wen AS the world is making so many efforts to eliminate violence against women, we in Trinidad a Got a good seat sale from Westjet 3 weeks before departure and decided to check out a new (to us) area of Mexico. General impressions - we loved the area, especially the small town feel and abundance of nature. Loved the laid back atmosphere and friendly locals and fellow tourists. - HUX is tiny and easy to navigate for both arrivals and departures - we walked off the airport property and picked up a cab at the OXXO across the highway for 160 pesos to the Holiday Inn in Santa Cruz. - Had a one night stay at the Holiday Inn. We were very pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. Super clean and comfortable room, nice location right across from the tourist corridor and the Santa Cruz square. - the tourist corridor walkway was a pleasant 20 minute walk into Crucecita. Love nicely landscaped pedestrian corridors like this. - Loved Crucecita. The zocalo was packed by 9 pm and very festive with live music and lots of families out and about. Lots of non pushy vendors and food stalls. Food and drink is @40-70% of what it would cost in Puerto Vallarta or Quintana Roo. - walked to Chedruai the next morning for sunscreen etc. Sunscreen was 160 - 220 pesos for 200ml. We were happy with those prices compared to having to check in a bag just to bring it from home. - picked a cab up right outside the Holiday Inn for Zipolite for 600 pesos - ride to Zipolite was 1.25 hours with some heavy traffic and construction. It's a very windy road. I'm prone to motion sickness and used a patch and am glad I did. Pretty sure I would have thrown up otherwise. - Loved Zipolite. Stayed at Posada Brisas Marina, a budget hotel on the beach. Beach was great, food was great, and we dug the atmosphere. Probably not for everyone, but the beach and the posada really grew on us. - last part of the trip was at Dreams. Mixed feelings about this property. Lots of really great things (service, drinks, pools, room), some negatives (food, lack of shade). Had a great time, but might not return unless we got a really good deal. All in all, really liked the area and would like to return to do more exploration. Thanks to all the posters here who helped me research for this trip. Hello! We are looking for a little help with our vacation planning. My husband and I are avid travelers, but since having our little bundle of joy- we know it will be different, but love the chance to take him with us! We will be in Sydney Dec 28- Jan1, flying to Cairns Jan 1 to 6th and flying to the Gold Coast Jan 6 to 12th. We will have a car in Cairns and the Gold Coast. Also, we plan on hiring a babysitter for a few of the days so we can dive (we are both certified) and snorkel. Random question- we are bringing a carseat (UppaBaby Mesa 2018) and no one can tell me if this will be okay to use in Australia since their car safety standards are different VS the US. Can someone point me in the right direction? Any must do hikes or animal parks suggestions would be must appreciated!! Hi, When I'd researched earlier about Vietnam and transit visas, i was led to believe that no transit visa is needed in Vietnam I was traveling from Cambodia to Hong Kong via Ho Chi Minh city airport. I was booked on flights which were 2.5 hours apart and only needed to transit between flights. However, I was made to buy a Visa for Vietnam before boarding my flight to HCMC. it cost me USD 200 as it was a last minute buy i.e. I spent roughly the amount for my transit visa that i spent on my entire flight tickets for my short vacation I'm posting this for general awareness that you may need to get a visa on arrival in HCMC airport, even if you are merely transiting. So please apply beforehand and save yourself some money, if you find yourself in the same position I was If your luggage is checked through, you only need to be back at JFK 1 1/4 hours before the plane leaves. You would have to be very, very clear on how to get there, so as not to waste time. Take the JFK Airtrain to Jamaica; Take the E subway train Queens Plaza; Wait there for the R train to Whitehall Street This all should take around 70 minutes. The reverse will get you back. This will cost you (on one Metrocard) a grand total of $32. Get a single Metrocard at the transfer station in Jamaica for $31 + $1 for the piece of plastic (you can use a credit card). Then one person swipes the card for the other to exit the Airtrain, then him/herself; then do it again to get into the subway. See what you want; then use it again to get back on the R train to Queens Plaza, then get the E to Sutphin Blvd/JFK, the swipe again onto the Airtrain to your terminal. You will get about 1/2 hour to look at the Statue of Liberty and part of the Financial District. You can download a park map (or pick one up if you pass an information booth) If you're planning a round trip I'd walk up to Columbus Circle and enter the park somewhere on the SW corner and wander through the park to the Met. Then on your return wander more down the 5th Ave side within the park to exit on the SE corner near the Plaza hotel. While 5th Ave is a reasonably pleasant walk there's too much to see within the park IMO It's not the middle of nowhere (although some bits feel quite bucolic), so if you feel lost ask somebody or look for the buildings along the edges of the park for orientation - there are some new tall glassy buildings on Billionaires row to the south that make reasonably good compass points - the buildings along the east/west are mostly older stone or brick buildings RENSSELAER, N.Y. Funeral services were held for late Rensselaer Mayor Daniel J. Dwyer Monday morning in Rensselaer. Family, friends and city officials paid their final respects to the longtime mayor at the Church of St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph. Dwyer, 84, who was initially elected mayor in 2005, died from a prolonged bout with cancer at Albany Medical Center on Tuesday, Nov. 20. In his third term as mayor, Dwyer dedicated a lifes worth of public service to his country and community, first fighting in the Korean War, then becoming a member of the Civil Service Commission in 1963 and Chair of the Zoning Commission from 2002 to 2005, prior to becoming mayor. Dan was a very good friend. We served together as mayors and then the last six years weve worked together in that state and local government role, Assemblyman John McDonald III said of his relationship with Dwyer, which dated back to McDonalds time as Cohoes Mayor. He was a real class act he never sought the limelight or fanfare he was just focused on the issues that were important to the residents. To his credit when he first started it was very difficult, the city had some financial challenges, some organizational issues and he really buckled down and dealt with getting the finances in shape, McDonald said of how Dwyer tackled tough issues important to his constituents during a tough time for the city. City Attorney Paul Goldman echoed McDonalds sentiments on Dwyers character. He just was a regular unassuming individual who just decided singlehandedly that he wanted to do something for his community, made me proud to know him. Its sad because the guy was just unbelievable and were better for him, Goldman said. As every good mayor knows, you need good finances to move an agenda forward and once that was in place he made sure he had the right people in place, which he did then and he has today and he focused on revitalization of the citys precious waterfront, which hes done a remarkable job, has laid out a great vision and its something I believe all of us will continue to rally behind to make sure it sees its utmost success, McDonald added of the citys turnaround under Dwyers leadership. Its sad because Dan really loved this job and this city and in the same token hes made sure the right people are there to make sure the city carries on because as all good mayors know, the citys not one person its the community and Dan made that pretty clearly known, McDonald said of what he believes will be Dwyers enduring legacy and impact on the community. Dwyer is predeceased by his wife of 51 years, Kathleen, and is survived by their two children and five grandchildren. BRUNSWICK, N.Y. State Police in Brunswick and Department of Environmental Conservation Officers made a handful of arrests on what was opening day of whitetail deer rifle season on Nov. 18. Gregory M. King, 34, of Troy, John M. Bergmann, 44, of Averill Park, Kurt W. Danish, 43 and Cathy M. Danish, 46, both of Wynantskill, were arrested and charged with trespassing, illegal discharge of a firearm within 500 feet of a residence and other ENCON violations. Troopers and ENCON officers responded to a home on Langstaff Lane in the Town of Brunswick for a report of shooting deer on private property. All four were located close by at a home on Menemsha Lane with two dead deer. Troopers say the four hunters admitted to being on private property without permission. According to State Police, evidence at the scene revealed they fired their rifles too close to homes in the area. The hunters were arrested and issued appearance tickets for the Town of Brunswick Court. The ENCON Officers confiscated both deer. - The new speed limiters will be informing NTSA on the vehicle's location, speed and Sacco - They are tamper-proof and will seal out anyone attempting to change their configuration - Traders interested in supplying them must seek clearance from NTSA and KEBS - They will also be connected to electronic drivers licenses making it easier to identify and punish careless drivers Players in public transport sector have up to March 2019 to upgrade from traditional speed governors to the latest model which remits real time data to authorities. The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) boss Francis Meja said the latest technology of speed limiters will help reduce road carnage and also net rogue drivers. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye mwanamke anayelipwa mshahara mkubwa zaidi ulimwenguni? Francis Meja said the latest technology of speed limiters will help reduce road carnage and also net rogue drivers. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Interior CS Fred Matiang'i breathing fire as crackdown on errant road users kicks off Speaking in Nairobi on Monday, November 26, Meja revealed that the KS 2295:2018 safety equipment had capacity to relay real time information about a vehicle to the NTSA regardless of time and location. He added the limiters had been made to lock out fraudsters who had taken advantage of earlier versions of the equipment by manipulating their configurations. READ ALSO: 7 stringent traffic rules that died with late Transport Minister John Michuki "Manipulation of the current speed gadgets has made it hard for us to monitor speeding vehicles which have led to numerous deaths but with the new device we will be able to monitor vehicles in real time and take action against those speeding, said Meja. According to him, the equipment will always inform the NTSA on the vehicles speed, location, Sacco it belongs to and also contain vital information on the driver. He further ordered that all vehicles carrying heavy freight be fitted with speed governors. According to Meja, the equipment will always inform the NTSA on the vehicles speed, location, sacco and also contain vital information on the driver. Photo: UGC Source: UGC The limiters, Meja reveled, will be linked to the latest version of electronic driver's licenses which the government recently rolled out. We will be able to curtail accidents caused by speeding because through the new device, we are able to see speeding vehicles and take action before an accident happens, added Meja. Owing to increase in supply of substandard speed governors, the NTSA directed all business people seeking to supply the equipment to seek clearance from Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) The revised speed limiter standard requires that every supplier must meet laboratory tests and installation specifications, he added. Interior CS Fred Matiang'i stated that the crackdown will be extended to boda boda operators who he he said were in spot for increased accident in the country. Photo: CS Fred Matiang'i Source: UGC READ ALSO: William Ruto meets requirements to finally get his PhD This development comes amid a spirited crackdown by the government on rogue road users and has been back dropped with a spate of killer road accidents. A heavy clampdown on rogue motorists started on Monday, November 12, with the view of breathing fresh life in traffic rules that were largely ignored. Interior CS Fred Matiang'i stated the crackdown would be extended to boda boda operators who he said were on the spot for increased accidents in the country. He ordered them to be traffic compliant by February 2019 or risk being prosecuted. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans React To Reinforcement of Michuki Rules | Tuko TV. Source: Tuko.co.ke - IPOA said it was unacceptable and criminal for anyone to take the law in their own hands - It said such acts were likely to foster anarchy and break the established order - The statement from IPOA came after a tuk tuk driver was caught on video stoning police officers in Nakuru Following the viral video of a tuk tuk driver attacking police officers on duty, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority ( IPOA) has cautioned members of the public against the same. While strongly condemning the incident, IPOA noted it was unacceptable and criminal for anyone to take the law in their own hands. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Raila's cousin accuses ODM of mistreating Moses Wetang'ula READ ALSO: Musalia Mudavadi attacks DP Ruto, asks churches to decline contribution from loot money In a statement released by the authority and seen by TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday, November 27, the authority said such activities were likely to foster anarchy and break an already established order. "IPOA strongly condemns the attacks. These criminal actions interrupt the dispensation of security services and inconveniencing law abiding Kenyans and even the attackers themselves who by constitutional right ought to access quality policing services," read the statement. The authority added it had clear mechanisms and structures for receiving and investigating public and police complaints while urging members of he public to take advantage of them. READ ALSO: Tuk Tuk driver who clobbered two traffic police officers in Nakuru explains the confrontation In the video that was shared on the interwebs on Sunday, November 25, a tuk tuk driver was seen pummeling stones at two police officers who had confronted him. The unnamed driver operating vehicle registration number KTWB 757D said a scuffle ensued between him and the officers after they broke his vehicles side mirror and windscreen. Kenyans called for the immediate arrest of the tuk tuk driver for assaulting the officers with impunity. READ ALSO: Tuktuk driver captured on video stoning traffic officers in bizarre case of road rage According to the motorist, he was provoked into the daring action after one of the men in uniform pushed and manhandled him severally. The dark skinned officer raised his club and broke my side mirror and windscreen. Both of them were shattered completely after they fell into the car, he said. He then said he was pummeled using the club but chickened out of reporting the issue because he thought justice would not be served. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans Mixed Reactions Over The 2/3 Gender Rule Bill - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - The governor argued Nairobi boasts one of the most developed infrastructure in Africa - He said the city also served as an economic hub and a gateway to and from many parts of the world - For these reasons and others, he asked that the city be made headquarters of the blue economy - The conference is being co-hosted by Kenya, Japan and Canada in Nairobi Nairobi governor, Mike Mbuvi Sonko, has urged organisers of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference to consider making Nairobi City their international headquarters. The governor argued the capital city boasts of one of the most developed infrastructure in the East and Central Africa region. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Delegations from 183 countries gather in Nairobi to attend 3-day blue economy conference Nairobi governor, Mike Mbuvi Sonko, urged organisers of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference to consider making Nairobi City their international headquarters. Photo:Mike Sonko. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Kenyan delegation attends Donald Trump meeting without notebooks Addressing a delegates' dinner at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on Sunday, November 25, the governor said the city served as a strategic commercial and economic hub and a gateway to and from many parts of the world in the region. Due to the presence of many research centres, the city continues to be a regional centre for innovative thinking and would play a catalyst part in creating a partnership role for the establishment of Sustainable Blue Economy Headquarters," he said. READ ALSO: Uhurus secret as he sets out to meet three powerful world leaders in a week The governor added the city already hosts a number of United Nations (UN) organisations programmes and indeed proudly the headquarters of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Nairobi is strategically placed and has as such played key roles in the maintenance of regional peace and the infrastructure exists for Nairobi to offer a global partnership that transcends geographical and political boundaries, Sonko said. READ ALSO: President Kenyatta witnesses signing of investment deals worth KSh 23.9 billion in Washington DC Nairobi, the governor continued, was also ranked the third most innovative city in Africa among the top cities in the world because of its innovation, livability and capacity to re-invent itself. He said the blue economy was an emerging concept which encourages better stewardship of the oceans, rivers, lakes and all other water bodies collectively referred to as blue resources. "Kenya is endowed with great catchment areas like Mount Kenya, Mt Elgon, the Aberdares and the Mau complex. Indeed, it enjoys favorable climate," Sonko said. READ ALSO: Governor Joho holds closed-door meeting with ex-president Moi at his home Over 17,000 delegates from across more than 180 countries came to Nairobi to attend the conference which officially kicks off on Monday. The blue economy conference seeks to brainstorm on how leaders can harness the potential of ocean resources to promote economic growth and improve livelihoods while at the same time preserving the health of the oceans, lakes and rivers. The 2018 conference is themed, The Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Protecting the Blue Economy for Future Generations. The participants will discuss among other things the importance of marine protected areas in blue economy planning and how sustainable development furthers social progress and economic growth. They are also expected to brainstorm on how to meet the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the challenges facing countries as they move towards a sustainable economy and how to work together to overcome the challenges. Additional reporting by Dan Ole Muhuni 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. Small Business Ideas for Kenyans With Low Investment - On Tuko TV Source: Kenyan Breaking News - Trouble started when Khalwale called ODM party's Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna, a "nobody" in politics - Oparanya's boy, Ian, felt offended by Khalwale's belittling remarks and his reaction was fiery - Irked by the young man's sheer gut, the bullfighter pushed back as he warned Ian to stop messing with his elders - But Ian, who by now had grabbed attention from other Twitter users, was not done with Khalwale yet A war of words has erupted between former Kakamega senator, Boni Khalwale, and Governor Wycliffe Oparanya's son, Ian, after the ex-senator called ODM party's Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna, a "nobody" in politics. The governor's son seemed offended by Khalwale's rather disrespectful and belittling remarks about Sifuna and decided to give the bullfighter, as he is sometimes called, a piece of his mind. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Boni Khalwale heavily criticised after claiming Mashujaa Day celebrations demeaned Luhya leaders Former senator, Boni Khalwale, and Governor Wycliffe Oparanya's son, Ian Oparanya, exchange bitter words after the ex-senator called ODM party's Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna, a nobody in politics. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Boni Khalwale loses big in a recent Infotrak poll and TUKO.co.ke has the numbers Appearing on NTV on the morning of Tuesday, November 27, the bullfighter said Sifuna was nothing in local politics. "Edwin Sifuna is a nobody in the politics of this country! He is nothing! He has contested in Bungoma, in Kanduyi constituency, and he has not been able to go beyond nominations," the ex-senator said. READ ALSO: Khalwale hits Raila after the NASA leader indicated ODM would go it alone in 2022 But his comments were not taken kindly by Ian who found the opinion about the senior ODM party official a bit unsettling. "Boni Khalwale, its high time you stop measuring people on the number of times they lose elections. You lost elections to Oparanya in Ikolomani. We can also consider you as nothing...nobody loses an election in their own home," the governor's son fired the first salvo. READ ALSO: ODM replaces Ababu Namwamba, Steven Kariuki and Joyce Lay as the Orange party changes guard Many reacted to Khalwale's attack on Sifuna, but it was Ian's tweet indicating the bullfighter was also nothing, that caught the former senator's eyes. He responded in kind. "Your fathers loss to me in 2017 is in public domain. Be contented with his computer generated win, and if you are looking for battle, choose from your ilk," he told Ian, who promptly fired back. READ ALSO: Khalwale told to apologise after he rubbished Raila's swearing in At this juncture, all gloves were off as Ian, who TUKO.co.ke understands is pursuing Economics at the University of Bradford in England, continued to lecture his father's bitter political rival. "Boni, I respect my elders but I lost respect when I realised you are a professional liar who uses lies to lie to poor people to vote for you. I cant wait for you to lose in 2022...We will pop another bottle of champagne to celebrate your loss," the governor's son told Khalwale . Dust was yet to settle by the time this piece was published. READ ALSO: Raila leaves for US just hours after landing top AU job Khalwale is, nevertheless, not new to social media fights. The bullfighter previously found himself on the receiving end when he sensationally claimed Mashujaa Day celebrations on October 20 demeaned Luhya leaders. Shortly after the event that was convened at Kakamega's Bukhungu Stadium, Khalwale took to social media where he staged a protest citing lack of recognition. "Todays was a national function in Kakamega. We know! But blocking all of us from speaking after state protocol was breached has left us and our people seriously demeaned. But we are there," he claimed, opening an avalanche of reactions. 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. Raila Odinga - Kenya's Fuel Crisis Will Not Occur - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - He said he was hurting because he had not been given any treatment apart from painkillers - Irungu's lawyers argued his family's economic status could not allow for treatment at a private hospital - He claimed his parents had paid KSh 20,000 to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) - The accused also claimed he was being tortured at Kamiti Maximum prison after transfer from Industrial Area remand Popular TV news anchor Jacque Maribe's lover Joseph Irungu alias Jowie says he has been denied access to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) after he was denied bail. Irungu who has never tasted freedom since his arrest on Tuesday, September 25, in relation to the murder of businesswoman Monica Nyawira Kimani said he was being mistreated by being denied access to medical attention. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Mt Kenya University chairman taps Johnstone Mwakazi to head new TV station Jacque Maribe and Joseph Irungu alias Jowie in court. J0owie was denied bail and has decried being denied access to Kenyatta National Hospital. Photo: The Star. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye mwanamke anayelipwa mshahara mkubwa zaidi ulimwenguni? In an application made by his lawyers Cliff Ombeta and Sam Nyaberi, he alleged he was hurting and only surviving on painkillers. "Our client is suffering because he hasn't received specialised treatment at KNH. He has not been given medical attention for his gunshot wound. The only remedy he has received is getting painkillers," the defence team said. The lawyers told the court Irungu's family could not afford treatment at a private hospital given their financial status and wondered why KNH where he was directed to seek medical attention had denied him admission. "Our client has been denied admission at KNH . The family had paid KSh 20,000 for admission as advised by a physician," the lawyers stated. Joseph Irungu's lawyers said Kenyatta National Hospital had refused to admit him despite paying a down-payment of KSh 20,000. Photo:UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Former Kakamega senator Boni Khalwale clash with governor Oparanya's son on Twitter Irungu's lawyers said their client who was denied bail and referred to as a flight risk had been transferred from Industrial Area remand prison to Kamiti Maximu prison without their knowledge. We have been made aware our client was transferred to Kamiti Maximum prison. He has raised concern of being tortured ," the lawyers added. TUKO.co.ke understands Justice James Wakiaga who Irungu wanted recuse himself from the murder case had ordered he gets admitted to KNH on Tuesday, November 27, but Kamiti Maximum officers said they did not have transport means to facilitate that until Wednesday, November 28. State Counsel Catherine Mwaniki said the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions would probe the torture allegations. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans Mixed Reactions Over The 2/3 Gender Rule Bill| Tuko TV: Source: Tuko - The Bill sailed through the second reading on Tuesday, November 20, despite some opposition - Opponents of the Duale-sponsored draft claim it is aimed at creating more positions for politicians - Ruto said the two-third Gender Bill is a government project for the good of the Kenyan women - The Bill seeks to amend Article 90, 97 and 98 of the Constitution Deputy President William Ruto has given a though tongue lashing to male politicians opposed to the two-third Gender Bill, branding them homosexuals. Ruto who was in Nyandarua county on Monday, November 26, to commission roads and open Ol Kalou CDF office told off a section of lawmakers from the region for opposing the Bill, terming it a worthwhile government project. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Murang'a Women Rep Sabina Chege puts MP Ole Sankok to task over slay queen remarks DP Ruto addresses residents of Ol Kalou on Monday, November 26. Photo: William Samoei Ruto/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa says gender rule likely to bring slay queens to Parliament This was after host MP Jeremiah Kioni of Ndaragua constituency weathered into the thorny issue, arguing proponents of the Aden Duale sponsored draft are seeking to create more positions for cronies under the guise of constitutional change. But the DP could have none of it. "If you have a mother, a girlfriend, a wife and a daughter, why oppose the gender rule? This is a government policy. No sane man comes out openly opposing or fighting women. Why do men want to compete with women? Those opposed to the law must be homosexuals, said Ruto. The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2018 sailed through the second reading on Tuesday, November 20, despite fierce opposition from a section of legislators led by Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa and nominated MP David Ole Sankok. "I am lobbying fellow parliamentarians not to pass the two-thirds gender Bill unless with amendments to give Kenyan women an opportunity to choose who represents them. The Bill as proposed gives room for political parties to nominate slay queens as has been the case in the past," said Barasa. The Bill seeks to amend Article 90, 97 and 98 of the Constitution to ensure both the Senate and National Assembly do not have more than a third of either gender. A heated debate is therefore expected on Wednesday, November 28, when the Majority Leader Duale reintroduce the Bill for the final third reading before a vote is taken. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenyans Mixed Reactions Over The 2/3 Gender Rule Bill| Tuko TV Source: Kenyan Breaking News There was a time when a 2kg packet of maize flour cost Kshs. 2.50, that is right, two shillings and fifty cents! Compared to what Kenyans are now paying for the same quantity of maize meal, one can only say that things are not getting any better for the lovers of ugali. But why is it that it is becoming more and more expensive to consume the Kenyan staple food? Well, one reason could be because of the multi-million maize scandals that keep rocking the country. Read on to find out about the biggest maize scandal in Kenya so far, together with more details about the effects of all the maize scandals experienced in the country. SOURCE: busiacounty.go.ke (modified by author) Source: UGC READ ALSO: List of top 8 constituencies found to be misappropriating taxpayers money Corruption is not a new thing to many Kenyans. It might even be said that Kenyans are becoming disillusioned to the point where we do not see ourselves ever recovering from the shackles of corruption. Day in day out, we are rocked by headlines of millions and even billions of taxpayers money being stolen. But where did we go wrong? Is the government doing anything to save the country from plummeting into its grave due to corruption? Do the indicted pay for their wrong-doings? We may not have the answers to these questions, but what we do know is this: we need a better vocabulary to describe Kenya rather than a corruption zone. Major maize scandals in Kenya Let us now take a look at the agricultural sector in the country. You would think that greedy cartels would spare the countrys food security. Well, we are sorry to say that when it comes to corruption, no stone is left unturned. We have all heard about the mercury-contaminated sugar, the plastic rice, and the contaminated maize, all being sold to unknowing Kenyan consumers. To iterate, there exist corrupt dealings even where you would not expect. Let us take a keen interest in maize, the biggest commodity in Kenya. Here are the biggest maize scandals in Kenya that have greatly affected maize prices in the country. We have listed them from the latest to the oldest. Please note that just because the scandals are old does not mean that the guilty were arraigned. 1. 2018 maize scandal Currently, the country is facing a Kshs. 1.9 billion maize scandal. The maize scandal 2018 that involves the National Cereals and Produce Board arises from a collusion by the NCPBs top officials and scrupulous traders who cheaply imported maize from Uganda and Tanzania and delivered the maize to National Cereals and Produce Board(NCPB) depots in Western Kenya while local farmers were being turned down at depots. The cartels received prompt payment while there are still farmers who have not yet been paid for deliveries made to the NCPB. It is important to note that the NCPB still owes maize farmers approximately Kshs. 2.1 billion. Also involved in this scandal is the buying and repackaging of fertilizers by the cartels. The cartels would buy the subsidized fertilizers at approximately Kshs. 1500 and later sell them to unsuspecting farmers in Nakuru, North Rift, Kericho, and Bomet at a whooping Kshs. 3000 to Kshs. 3,500. According to Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri, 152 people, mainly NCPB officials, were involved in the scandal, taking advantage of the poor recording systems. The Cabinet Secretary also reveals that the cartels claim to have delivered two million 50kg bags of maize out of the overall 6.52 million bags delivered to NCPB. He further states that the cartels claim that they were only paid between 63% to 90% of the quantities they delivered by December 2017, amounting to Kshs. 2.053 billion, and that they are still owed an additional 1.47 billion. READ ALSO: SGR management vows to punish Chinese employees suspected of fraud 2. 2017 maize scandal The 2017 Kenya maize scandal involved the creation of an artificial maize shortage in the country. According to the government, the maize shortage was caused by the drought that faced the country. Kenyans, however, have not been buying this story as the meteorological department had, in the previous year, given a warning of the coming drought. Given the maize shortage, the government went ahead to pass a supplementary budget, hereby issuing a gazette notice that lifted the import duty on maize. The government then stated that it would import Mexico maize, a move that the Mexican government denied. Just three days after the lift on the ban, the Mexico maize arrived at the port of Mombasa. The hurried nature in which the maize arrived made many Kenyans question the legitimacy of the maize shortage. It seemed like someone who wanted to benefit from the import of the maize might have created the artificial shortage of the commodity in order to have the ban lifted. The 2017 maize scandal Kenya did not end there. Once the Mexican government refuted claims that the maize originated from their country, the story was flipped and Kenyans were now told that the maize came from South Africa. Did we consume Mexican or South African maize in 2017? Only a few individuals can tell. Just three days after the lift on the ban, the Mexico maize arrived at the port of Mombasa. The hurried nature in which the maize arrived made many Kenyans question the legitimacy of the maize shortage. It seemed like someone who wanted to benefit from the import of the maize might have created the artificial shortage of the commodity in order to have the ban lifted. The 2017 maize scandal Kenya did not end there. Once the Mexican government refuted claims that the maize originated from their country, the story was flipped and Kenyans were now told that the maize came from South Africa. Did we consume Mexican or South African maize in 2017? Only a few individuals can tell. READ ALSO: COTU boss Francis Atwoli breaks into prayer against wanton corruption in Kenya 3. 2009 maize scandal The 2009 maize scandal in Kenya that took place during former President Mwai Kibakis rule cost taxpayers a whooping Kshs. 150 million. The maize scandal involved the following: Briefcase maize millers (those who exist on paper only) being awarded large quantities of maize by the Strategic Grain Reserve(SGR). They did this by inflating their milling per hour capacity. The briefcase millers and local businesses re-directing maize outside the country in order to avoid price controls stated by the government. They did this in order to make profits. Importation of contaminated maize by cartels and the releasing of this contaminated maize into the market after the direction of senior government officials. The 2009 maize scandal, which came to light in January 2009, might have been fueled by the lifting of the ban on imported maize in 2008. The ban was lifted in order to allow businessmen to import maize to supplement local produce which was too little to satisfy the demand in the country. Secret cables sent by the then United States of America Ambassador Michael Ranneberger to Washington revealed that top government officials and their families were involved in the maize scandal. The cartels involved bought maize from the National Cereals and Produce Board. Though it is not illegal to buy maize from the National Cereals and Produce Board, the sale of maize is usually restricted during times of famine, as the country was experiencing. More interestingly, a senior politicians son was named as one of the people who exported thousands of tones of government maize from the National Cereals and Produce Board. This was all while Kenyans were experiencing an acute shortage of the commodity. READ ALSO: 3 Chinese SGR officials found trying to bribe detectives with KSh 500K to face charges Furthermore, the maize that was imported from South Africa was contaminated with dangerous levels of aluminium phosphide. Instead of destroying the maize, a senior government official facilitated the distribution of the contaminated maize all over the country. Many Kenyans fell ill once they consumed this maize. Maize prices in Kenya Last week, a cabinet meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House Nairobi approved the proposal by the Ministry of Agriculture to purchase maize as part of the ongoing efforts by the government to support farmers who have been crying foul over delayed payments. The cabinet meeting, held on Thursday last week, was also attended by Deputy President William Ruto, and it reached a decision to purchase two million bags of maize from local farmers at Kshs. 2,300 per 90 kg bag. This pricing, however, was not what farmers expected. The farmers, who have long cited the lack of an assured local market for their produce as a major problem, have not yet accepted the price as they say that the Kshs. 2,300 barely covers production costs. Political leaders from the North Rift have also sided with the farmers, saying that the Kshs. 2,300 can only purchase a 50kg bag of maize. Governors from the North Rift Economic Bloc(NOREB) say that the prices should be reviewed. They also continue to complain, saying that the task force that was formed to look into the plight of maize farmers in line with President Uhurus directive was not consulted on the new prices. Furthermore, the NOREB governors say that their representatives in the team will relinquish their positions if the Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund fails to review the prices. They argue that a 90kg bag of maize should be sold at Kshs. 3,600. They, furthermore, do not understand why the price has fallen from last years Kshs, 3,200. They also continue to argue their case, saying that the price should be higher than last years owing to the 8% VAT imposed on fuel and subsequently, agro-chemicals. The Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund announced that a 90kg bag of maize would go for Kshs. 2,300. The fund also said that it aims to purchase approximately 2.5 million bags of maize from the 2018/2019 harvest. The chairman of the fund, Dr. Noah Wekesa, said that they have already requested Kshs. 5.7 billion from the government and it would start purchasing the maize once the funds are released. Dr. Noah Wekesa continued to say, The purchase of the stocks will start through our contracted agent, the National Cereals Produce Board as soon as the funds are released by the National Treasury, NOREBs chair and Uasin Gishu Jackson Mandago had this to say: The Sh2,300 price announced by SFR is not what we agreed on as the maize task force. In our first meeting, we told the Fund the least they can buy maize from farmers is Sh2,500 considering the production parameters Let us give farmers a reason to continue producing food as we target to make food security a reality as one of the Big Four agenda pillars The new prices clearly indicate that some officials in the Ministry of Agriculture are taking the Presidents directive lightly Elsewhere, on Sunday, Gatundu Member of Parliament had something to say about the move by the North Rift politicians to reject the price stated by the SFRTR. Moses Kuria claimed that the prices are justified and accused his Rift Valley counterparts of blackmail. Moses Kuria said, Vegetables usually served with ugali comes from Central Kenya but we dont talk about it. They should be thankful that the government has considered them and stop issuing fake threats. A senate ad-hoc committee led by Moses Wetangula has also rejected the new prices, terming them as unacceptable. Given the above history of the maize scandal in Kenya, is there any hope for Kenyan maize farmers? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments section below. READ ALSO: Over 60 traders to be charged for fraudulently supplying maize to cereals board List of farmers who were fraudulently paid by National Cereals and Produce Board Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior warns alleged ticketing scam at SGR is adding insult to injury DPP approves charges on 2 top NHIF officials for obstructing corruption investigations Why cost of corruption in county governments should worry us Source: Tuko - This was in reaction to FORD Kenya's threat to sue ODM over sharing of political parties' funds - FORD Kenya claimed ODM was pocketing all the money at the expense of other NASA affiliate parties - The Wetangula-led party wanted the funds shared among the four parties arguing they were equal partners - ODM, however, maintained it ought to control the lion's share of the money due to its large membership The bitter quarrel between FORD Kenya and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) parties has graduated to a new level of absurdity, with senior officials from the two NASA coalition affiliate parties now calling each other names and issuing public threats. All hell broke loose when ODM party Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna, branded FORD Kenya a slay queen's party, a moniker that was not well received by his counterpart, Eseli Simiyu. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Boni Khalwale clashes with governor Oparanya's son on Twitter The ODM party's Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna (L), nicknamed FORD Kenya a slay queen's party. His FORD Kenya counterpart Eseli Simiyu was not happy with the new name. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Moses Wetangula to sue Raila Odinga's ODM over political parties' money Appearing on NTV on Tuesday, November 27, Simiyu termed as very unfortunate Sifuna's slay queen remarks and warned the senior ODM party official to watch his tongue and desist from such language. "The unfortunate comment by ODM's secretary general likening FORD Kenya to a 'slay queen' is very unfortunate. Please watch your language, politics is a very hard game. You should refrain from using such derogatory language," the MP told the Orange party official. READ ALSO: William Ruto hosts Hassan Joho as 2022 realignments gain momentum TUKO.co.ke understands Sifuna uttered the controversial remarks in response to a threat by FORD Kenya leader, Moses Wetangula, who had earlier called a press conference to inform Kenyans he was planning to take ODM to court over sharing of Political Parties Funds and members' monthly contributions. FORD Kenya is like a slay queen insulting the spouse and then expecting to be sent rent. ODM will not give Ford Kenya even a penny. Whatever they contributed to the NASA coalition has been negated by their propaganda, the Orange party official fired at Wetangula. READ ALSO: Joho and Ruto war of words hots up The Bungoma senator has on numerous occasional accused ODM party leader Raila Odinga of making unilateral decisions in the NASA coalition, which is made up of four parties, others being Wiper led by Kalonzo Musyoka and ANC party headed by Musalia Mudavadi. The Bungoma senator who fell out with Raila following his dramatic ouster from the Minority leadership position in the Senate further accused the ODM leader of abandoning the Opposition after the March 2018 peace agreement he signed with President Uhuru Kenyatta. It was for these reasons and others that the senator wanted the Treasury to stop wiring members contributions to the NASA secretariat, claiming the affiliate parties were not getting their fair share except ODM. Members of Parliament belonging to the NASA coalition have reportedly been contributing KSh 20,000 each every month. The money is then split into half between partner parties and the coalition's secretariat, but Wetangula, who believes NASA died after the Raila-Uhuru peace agreement, want all the funds to be shared among the four affiliate parties. READ ALSO: Wetangula joins long list of politicians whove been badly bruised after working with Raila The Orange party, however, maintained it had a right to control the bigger share of the money owing to the fact that it had the highest number of MPs in the coalition. The Raila-led party also claimed it contributed the highest number of votes to the coalition during the August 2017 General Election. The ODM party won 73 parliamentary seats and 20 senatorial slots in the 2017 polls followed by Wiper with 21 MPs and three senators. Mudavadi's ANC party had 13 MPs and three senators whereas FORD Kenya managed to get 12 MPs and a senator. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans' Reactions to President Uhuru's VAT Bill - On Tuko TV Source: Breaking News - Lawyer Nelson Havi is seeking to get contact details of parents or guardians of the students - Havi said it was not right for the court to bow to executive decisions to punish the boys - The students are currently detained at children cells in Ugunja Police Station - They were presented before court on Monday, November 26, but did not take plea - Prosecution requested for seven more days to conclude investigations Lawyer Nelson Havi is seeking help of the public to get contact details of parents or guardians of the eight Ambira Boys High School students who were filmed in a viral video hurling insults at Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i and his Education counterpart Amina Mohamed. The vocal lawyer offered to represent the students who were detained for seven more days at the Ugunja Police Station children cells. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: 8 Ambira Boys caught insulting CS Amina to remain behind bars for 7 more days Lawyer Nelson Havi has offered to represent the eight students. He is seeking for contact details of parents or guardians of the students. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Uhuru wants Ambira High School boys who bragged about cheating in exams taught a lesson In a Twitter post seen by TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday, November 27, Havi said the court was more than willing to bow to executive's decisions and ensure the boys were punished. "We have offered to act for the eight Ambira High School boys. If you know the identities and contacts of their parents or guardians, please notify us ASAP. We cannot have a high handed executive decision to punish children and a more than willing court assisting in the transgression," read the tweet. The eight were presented before Justice Gladys Adhiambo on Monday, November 26, but did not take plea after the prosecution asked for more time to conclude investigations. READ ALSO: Police arrest 3 Ambira High School students captured in video saying they cheated in KCSE Among the things to be investigated are their ages and assessment of the footage for actual offences to be leveled against them. The regional DCIO Michael Baraza said he was yet to take statements from both CSs who were mentioned in the vile video. The case will be mentioned on Monday, December 3, 2018. READ ALSO: Authorities dismiss cheating claims advanced by 8 Ambira High School students in viral video President Uhuru Kenyatta while addressing the public on Saturday, November 24, issued a stern warning to the young people saying his government would not tolerate indiscipline among students. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenyans Mixed Reactions Over The 2/3 Gender Rule Bill| Tuko TV Source: Tuko - John Mwirigi spent a night at Mikunduri Police station following his arrest - Mwirigi had mobilised motorists to protest the ongoing crackdown on traffic offenders - He was charged with two counts of obstructing of a police officer and aiding a prisoner to escape A court on Tuesday, November 27, ordered Igembe South MP John Paul Mwirigi not to step in Meru county for the next 14 days. The youngest MP was charged with two counts of obstructing a police officer and aiding a prisoner to escape when he appeared before Meru Senior Principal Magistrate Stella Abuya. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Pleasant surprise: Uhuru donates brand new Toyota Prado to 'broke' 23-year-old MP as he promised John Paul Mwirigi is visited by former Tigania East MP Mpuri Aburi. Photo: Kendi Muruga/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye mwanamke anayelipwa mshahara mkubwa zaidi ulimwenguni? Though his lawyers Ken Muriuki and Peter Khaemba, Mwirigi denied the charges and was released on KSh 1 million bond with surety of similar amount or KSh 500,000 cash bail. The court was told the lawmaker committed the felony on Monday, November 26, along Meru-Mikinduri road during a protest he organised to oppose the new traffic rules which saw him spend one night in police cell. The defense team opposed the prosecution's request to have the MP denied freedom pending investigations. Prosecution said owing to his standing, he was a flight risk and could easily tamper with witnesses. The case resumes on December 6 for mention before hearing slated for February 25, 2019. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenyans Mixed Reactions Over The 2/3 Gender Rule Bill| Tuko TV Source: Tuko Photos of hot Kenyan songstress Avril getting all cosy with washed up rapper VBO have emerged and boy will they leave you gasping for air. In case you forgot VBO, he was a famous rapper in the early 2000s when he formed a group called The Bugz alongside Bobby Mapesa to release hits like Naskia Utamu. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Otile Brown flaunts new lady days after Vera Sidika said he's poor in bed READ ALSO: Diamond Platnumz dating actor Nick Mutuma's hot ex, Tanasha Donna Photos spotted by TUKO.co.ke show the one hit wonder lying in bed with beautiful musician Avril as they canoodled like teenagers on heat. The collection of romantic photos were reportedly taken in Malindi after the pair performed together during a concert. READ ALSO: TV anchor Ahmed Bhalo weds sweetheart in colourful Islamic wedding Of course the two have never come forward to admit they were dating or doing the bedroom dance at any point but it goes without saying the photos speak volumes. VBO's rap group fizzled shortly after it was formed and each artist embarked on personal projects. At some point in the past, rumours were rife the rapper went broke prompting him to become a tout for survival after his music career flopped. However, VBO denied the rumours claiming he only loved hanging around touts because they were his close confidants. I decided to take a break from music and let Bobby Mapesa continue. During my free time I bond with the touts plying Komarock route who are my friends and nothing more. Yes, it is true I assist them sometimes but that is just about it. Despite everything, I intend to make a music comeback soon," the rapper said in a 2017 interview with Pulse. Story done by Peter Karanja, TUKO correspondent. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans Mixed Reactions Over The 2/3 Gender Rule Bill| Tuko TV: Source: Tuko Newspaper - The Bungoma senator said his party had a right to demand for equal distribution of funds among the NASA coalition parties - Raila's party and FORD Kenya have been at loggerheads after Wetang'ula said he was moving to court to sue the former over money - ODM secretary general branded the senator's party as one of slay queens for demanding the cash - The Orange party dismissed Wetang'ula saying it had a right to control the bigger share of the money The back and forth between FORD Kenya and ODM parties has gone a notch higher after Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula hit out at the latter in a rather unsavoury manner. Wetang'ula hit back at the ODM saying the party was behaving like a "gigolo" suffering from "chronic syphilis". Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: ODM claims FORD Kenya is a party of slay queens FORD Kenya party leader Moses Wetang'ula said he was moving to court to have NASA coalition money split equally among the partners. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Moses Wetangula to sue Raila Odinga's ODM over political parties' money In a Twitter post seen by TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday, November 27, the irate leader maintained his party was keen on sharing the Political Parties Funds and members' monthly contributions. " ODM is behaving like a gigolo that's suffering from chronic syphilis, Queens or Kings, Wiper, FORD Kenya and ANC must and will get their share of the Political Parties Funds. Those wailing louder than the bereaved were nowhere when we were staking out our all for Raila," said Wetang'ula. Replying to the senator's tweet, ODM party said it was not ready to be thrown into a historic hyperbole and such comments could only come from a "first year student" in university. READ ALSO: Raila planned, executed my ouster as Senate Minority leader - Moses Wetangula The unending quarrel between the two parties started after ODM Secretary General, Edwin Sifuna branded FORD Kenya a slay queen's party, a moniker that has not been received well by members of the latter. TUKO.co.ke understands Sifuna uttered the controversial remarks in response to a threat by the senator who had earlier called a press conference to inform Kenyans he was planning to take ODM to court over sharing of the monies. FORD Kenya is like a slay queen insulting the spouse and then expecting to be sent rent. ODM will not give Ford Kenya even a penny. Whatever they contributed to the NASA coalition has been negated by their propaganda, the Orange party official fired at Wetangula. READ ALSO: Wetangula joins long list of politicians whove been badly bruised after working with Raila Tongaren MP Eseli Simiyu also weighed in on Sifuna's remarks terming them as unfortunate and warning him to watch his tongue and desist from such kind of language. "The unfortunate comment by ODM's secretary general likening FORD Kenya to a slay queen is very unfortunate. Please watch your language, politics is a very hard game. You should refrain from using such derogatory language," the MP told Sifuna. Wetang'ula has on numerous occasions accused ODM party leader Raila Odinga of making unilateral decisions in the NASA coalition, which is made up of four parties, others being Wiper led by Kalonzo Musyoka and ANC party headed by Musalia Mudavadi. ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna said FORD Kenya was behaving like a slay queen asking for money from their spouse using threats. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Boni Khalwale clashes with governor Oparanya's son on Twitter It was for these reasons and others that the senator wanted the Treasury to stop wiring members contributions to the NASA secretariat, claiming the affiliate parties were not getting their fair share except ODM. The Orange party, however, maintained it had a right to control the bigger share of the spoils owing to the fact that it had the highest number of MPs in the coalition. 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 From a houseboy to a member of Parliament | Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke Lee Njiru, a former information officer of Kenya's founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta has disclosed the former Head of State purchased a brand new vehicle for a dog he was gifted by a very close friend. The late president who was not known to have a penchant for pets reportedly made the gesture in honour of his bosom friend, the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: ODM behaving like young lover suffering from syphilis - Moses Wetang'ula According to Lee Njiru, Jomo Kenyatta and Haile Selassie wer bosom friends. Photo: The Standard. Source: UGC READ ALSO: KDF recruit collapses during exercise in Malindi, dies in hospital Speaking during an interview with NTV, monitored by TUKO.co.ke, Njiru who got in to State House at age 28 in 1976 after Selassie was overthrown by Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1974 said Kenyatta and former the Ethiopian leader had a bond from the soul like the Biblical Jonathan and David. TUKO.co.ke understands during his 15-year reign, Kenyatta went for only two trips abroad, one to England in 1964 and another to Ethiopia in 1969 where he was not only honoured by fighter jets' formation of the pattern 'Jomo' in the sky but gifted an Ethiopian poodle by Selassie. "Mzee had few bosom friends. One of them was the animal loving Emperor Haile Selassie. The friendship was so deep that when he was gifted the white little dog during his visit to Ethiopia, he bought it a Mercedes Benz 280S," said Njiru. Lee Njiru said despite Jomo Kenyatta not being one to keep pets he tended and valued Addis, an Ethiopian poodle gifted to him by Emperor Haile Selassie. Photo: Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kenyas strategic assets could be seized by China over pilling debts - Ratings firm Moodys According to the veteran information officer, Kenyatta was not fond of pets but due to his close friendship with Selassie, he took very great care of the animal that it would travel in its own car. "Whenever Mzee went to Mombasa, the dog used to sit on the back left seat of the lucrative car alone with its own driver. That's how much he valued Selassie," Njiru said. Kenyatta's other friend was Marshal Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia. 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 From a houseboy to a member of Parliament | Tuko TV Source: Tuko - Benard Mung'au stabbed his sister-in-law eight times before he ran away - Mung'au is said to have killed two women in Nairobi before he went back home - The woman had gone to ask him to replace her children's books that were torn by the suspect's - Police have launched a search for the man who fled after the committing the crime Police in Kakamega county have launched a search for a man who stabbed his sister-in-law at Khayega village in Shinyalu Sub-county. Bernard Mungau who is known to have killed two women in Nairobi before he went missing is alleged to have stabbed Naomi Njeri, 26, on the stomach, thigh, private parts and chopping off her three fingers. READ ALSO: KDF recruit collapses during exercise in Malindi, dies in hospital Naomi Njeri was rushed to Mukumu hospital before she was referred to Kakamega county hospital. Photo: UGC Source: Depositphotos READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye mwanamke anayelipwa mshahara mkubwa zaidi ulimwenguni? In a report by the Standard, the notorious man is said to have pounced on Njeri after she went to his house to inquire why the former's children had torn books belonging to her children. Njeri wanted Mung'au to replace the books before the suspect got irate and stabbed her. She wanted Mung'au to replace the books which had been torn by his children but the suspect descended on her and stabbed her severally. He inflicted injuries on her body including the stomach, private parts, the thighs and three fingers were cut off, said Respa Shihaji, the victim's mother. READ ALSO: KDF recruit collapses during exercise in Malindi, dies in hospital Neighbours responded to distress calls by the victim and called on police who rushed Njeri to Mukumu hospital before she was referred to Kakamega Referral Hospital. Confirming the incident, Shinyalu OCPD Robert Makau said police had launched a search for the man who ran away after committing the heinous crime. "We are currently compiling all the leads that will help us arrest the suspect who went missing after the incident, once arrested he will be charged with murder," said Makau. 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 From a houseboy to a member of Parliament | Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - Kenya entered into a deal with the Japanese government for KSh 9.23 billion loan for rehabilitation of Olkaria Geothermal Power Plant - Kenya also signed deal with Kuwait government for KSh 2.3 billion loan construction of the Modogashe-Wajia Road - In addition, KSh 3 billion would be sourced from the African Development Bank to train youth on better agricultural skills -The biggest of them all is KSh 77.48 billion from US Exim Bank which would be used to bail out Kenya Airways - Kenya's national debt staggered at KSh 5.1 trillion as of November 2018 with China being the biggest lender Just when a section of Kenyans thought the country had accrued enough debt and therefore needed to take a break from borrowing, reports emerged the national government had struck fresh deal with foreign lenders. The new loans collectively valued at KSh 92 billion are expected to arrive batches and would be channeled towards construction of roads, improving agriculture and access to energy and bailing out cash-strapped Kenya Airways. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: 9 countries Kenya has borrowed from, China leads at KSh 534.1 billion The National Treasury tabled a report in Parliament indicating the government had entered into a number of deal with foreign lenders to borrow more funds to fund projects. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kenya's debt to China could soon cross KSh 1 trillion TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday, November 27, established the National Treasury had tabled in Parliament a report indicating the government had signed a number of deals with foreign lenders to borrow more funds. According to the exchequer, Kenya on March 16, 2018, entered into a deal with the Japanese government for some KSh 9.23 billion loan to facilitate rehabilitation of Olkaria Geothermal Power Plant. READ ALSO: Yes, it costs KSh 1 billion every month to run Standard Gauge Railway - DP Ruto Kenya also in May 2018 signed another deal with Kuwait government for a KSh 2.3 billion loan to fund construction of the Modogashe-Wajia Road. Additionally, the Treasury note, another loan of KSh 3 billion was signed between Kenya and the African Development Bank. The treasury said the loan from the African Development Bank would go towards training youth on better agricultural skills. READ ALSO: Standard Gauge Railway registers KSh 1 billion in revenue one year after launch by Uhuru The biggest of all the new loans, according to the exchequer, would come from the United States Exim Bank which would be used to revive Kenya Airways in attempts to turn around the airline's fortunes. The treasury noted the loans would be repayable within a period of between 25 to 30 years. The new loans could push higher the country's national debt which staggered at KSh 5.1 trillion as of November 2018. The are concerns that Kenyan's public debt is likely to hit KSh 7 trillion by 2022 when President Uhuru Kenyatta's 10-year reign comes to its end. The debt has risen steadily from KSh 1.8 trillion in June 2013 when the Jubilee government came to power. 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. Small Business Ideas for Kenyans With Low Investment - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko Former Police Commissioner Gary Griffith says what the public wants to see in the person who The page youre looking for cannot be found. Check the address and spelling are correct. If youre still encountering problems, please Contact Us. NATO allies intend to discuss the situation in the Black Sea region with two close partners - Ukraine and Georgia. The relevant meeting at Ministerial level will be held next week. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated this at a press briefing following the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. NATO has increased its presence in the Black Sea region on land, but also with air policing over the Black Sea region, including the Black Sea, and we have a regular NATO presence in the Black Sea, with naval capabilities. Then of course we have three littoral states: Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria; and we have two very close partners: Ukraine and Georgia. And we are working with the two partners and we will also meet next week, here at Ministerial level, with Foreign Minister Klimkin. He will come to NATO and we will meet with Foreign Minister Klimkin, but also with Georgia, and we will discuss issues also of course related to security in the Black Sea region, he said. iy Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with a visiting delegation of permanent representatives of the U.N. Security Council members in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a visiting delegation of permanent representatives of the U.N. Security Council members here on Monday. Calling the U.N. a symbol of multilateralism, Wang stressed that all parties should adhere to international rules such as the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter to maintain the healthy development of multilateralism. He said that international society needed the U.N. to play a stronger role, and the Security Council, with the responsibility of maintaining international security and stability, should jointly safeguard multilateralism and international rules. "China firmly upholds the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter, determines its position on the merits of each case, and is committed to boosting cooperation among the members of the Security Council," Wang said. The permanent representatives said they appreciated China's safeguarding of multilateralism, its support to the U.N., and its outstanding contribution to U.N. peacekeeping operations and to promotion of global development. They expressed willingness to work with China to safeguard international peace and security. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] Russia has currently deployed about 500 combat aircraft and up to 340 helicopters along its border with Ukraine, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Vadym Skibitsky, has said. He said this at a briefing entitled "A military and strategic assessment of the threat of invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Armed Forces" in Kyiv on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "The buildup of the aircraft group of the Russian Aerospace Forces near the state border of Ukraine attracts special attention. Since 2013, the Russian Federation has been modernizing its entire airfield network along the Ukrainian border, upgrading the fleet of combat aircraft, and expanding the capabilities of army aviation. About 500 combat aircraft of tactical aviation and up to 340 helicopters of army aviation have currently been deployed along the border with Ukraine," Skibitsky said. He specified that the crews of combat helicopters and tactical aircraft participated and are participating in hostilities in Syria. "This means that crews have enough experience to use bombs, high-precision weapons against the civilian population," Skibitsky said. He added that the combat radius of aircraft deployed by Russia along its border with Ukraine covers the entire territory of the Ukrainian state. According to Skibitsky, during the period of Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine, a significant buildup of troops has been recorded, and new groups and units are being formed near the state border of Ukraine and in the European part of the Russian Federation in general. "Russia pays considerable attention to the creation and training of battalion tactical groups, which have currently been deployed along the border of our state. The total number of Russian battalion tactical groups capable of carrying out combat missions in our territory is 25," he said. Skibitsky also said that during the Kavkaz-2016, Vostok-2018 and Zapad-2017 strategic exercises, Russia was working out the creation of assault forces in the Ukrainian direction, mobilization, and the redeployment of reserve forces and means from the central regions of the Russian Federation to the border with Ukraine. op Russia's aggression against Ukrainian navy vessels in the Kerch Strait will not affect the Canadian military mission in Ukraine. "We currently have no indication that events in the Sea of Azov might affect the mission or the security of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel," the Department of National Defence of Canada said in a statement, CBC News reported. The Department of National Defence added that Canada would continue actively monitoring the situation. "Officials would not say if there was heightened security in light of the fact many of Ukraine's eastern provinces have been put under martial law and on war footing with fears of a direct invasion," the statement reads. In addition to the mission in Ukraine, the army also has over 450 soldiers stationed in Latvia as part of a NATO mission to deter potential Russian aggression. "Due to operational security reasons, information about force posture and protection measures cannot be released," the department said about the Baltic deployment. As known, Canada has 200 soldiers stationed in western Ukraine on a training mission. ish The Permanent Representatives of France, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom to the UN Security Council have expressed their grave concern about the escalation of tension in the Azov Sea and called on Russia to release captured Ukrainian sailors. The permanent representatives of these countries said this in a statement published by the French side. "The Permanent Representatives of the Members from the European Union of the Security Council at informal exchanges of views, held on their request, of the members of the Security Council during their visit to Beijing, expressed grave concern about the recent escalation of tension in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait," reads the statement. In addition, the permanent representatives of these five EU member states reaffirmed their full recognition of the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and called on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea. On Sunday, November 25, after a new act of armed aggression by the Russian Federation in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian side appealed to the country presiding at the UN Security Council (China) with the request to discuss the situation at an urgent meeting of the Security Council. op Germany and France stand in full solidarity with Ukraine and express support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity. Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the UN Anne Gueguen said this during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in the Kerch Strait on Monday. I want to assure Ukraine of our solidarity and strongly declare the loyalty of France and Germany to the full sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, she said. Anne Gueguen, also speaking on behalf of Germany, stressed that Moscow must respect the right to free passage in the Kerch Strait and should take immediate action to reduce tensions, including by releasing all those detained in the incident. The European Union will work to de-escalate tensions in eastern Ukraine through its role in the Normandy format, she said, stressing that adherence to the Minsk Agreements are the only way forward towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict. As reported, on November 25, Russian ships opened fire on three Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait and then seized them. At least six Ukrainian servicemen were wounded. ish In Pakistan, UNHCR staff load tents onto a plane bound for western Afghanistan, where drought and ongoing conflict have seen over quarter of a million displaced in the region since April. UNHCR/Asif Shahzad UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, this past Saturday began the first in a series of airlifts to western Afghanistan bringing thousands of tents for people displaced by a mix of conflict and an ongoing severe drought. Together the drought and ongoing conflict have seen over quarter of a million Afghans being displaced in this region of the country since April. Currently, some 220,000 families are living in makeshift shelters in the western provinces of Herat, Badghis and Ghor. And, with winter approaching, in conditions that are increasingly desperate. Already we are seeing an increase in child deaths. UNHCRs airlift will comprise 12 flights in total, bringing 15,100 family size tents with the aim of easing the plight of almost half the displaced population. The tents are being loaded in Pakistans Lahore and being shipped in as close as possible to the affected populations via the airport at Herat. There, ground crews have been handing them over to our partners for delivery. The tents are part of a larger aid delivery being organized by the Afghan Government and its partners to Herat and Badghis. With many displaced having settled on private land and facing risk of eviction, UNHCR is also supporting the Governments efforts to make land available. For more information on this topic, please contact: KABUL, Afghanistan Rula Ghani, the First Lady of Afghanistan, believes women in her country are resilient and should be in leadership positions. If we really want to bring change We need to recognize women are the agents of change and that we should really integrate them into any kind of project we do, Ghani said in a recent interview in the Afghan capital Kabul. They should be in leadership positions. They should represent their families. They are the ones who carry the whole the whole burden on their shoulders, she added. Nearly four decades of conflict have made Afghans one of the largest displaced populations in the world, with at least eight million people living in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan and other countries. Additionally, there are over one million children, women and men displaced within Afghanistan. Despite the great challenges that they face, Ghani believes Afghan women have untapped potential, and should be in leadership positions. I find Afghan women pretty resilient. You can see them now they're working. Walking in the streets head high with a purpose, she said. They're in a lot of professions. They're doctors nurses, lawyers, judges, prosecutors in the government. We have some of them are ministers we have quite a few deputy ministers. The First Lady has gained recognition for her advocacy for women, children and the most vulnerable in Afghanistan, among them the millions forcibly displaced by nearly four decades of conflict. She is in Geneva this week to take part in the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan, where she is a keynote speaker at a side event on professional training for Afghan women. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, moderates the Afghan Conference side event, People on the Move: Return and Reintegration in Afghanistan. UNHCR/Susan Hopper GENEVA As the Afghanistan conflict approaches its fortieth year, finding solutions for the millions who remain displaced is key to the countrys future, the UN refugee chief told a conference in Geneva. The question of Afghan displacement, and solutions to Afghan displacement, continues to be central to any debate about the future of Afghanistan, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a side event at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan. Grandi, who was moderating a panel on People on the Move, said that some eight million Afghans are living away from home, six million in neighbouring countries and beyond, and two million displaced internally within its borders. I strongly believe that, as we are now approaching the end of the fourth decade of Afghan displacement, we must intensify the quest for solutions, even if solutions appear complex and challenging, he added. "We must intensify the quest for solutions, even if solutions appear complex and challenging." Grandi noted that it was vital to maintain and reinforce refugee protection in the region and beyond. He also noted the complexity of ongoing Afghan population movements, calling for a broader migration management approach, and welcomed recent steps by Iran and Pakistan towards the regularization of undocumented Afghans. "Managing the complexity of Afghan movements ... should be how we approach together the solutions for this situation in support of the Afghan Governments national plan for sustainable reintegration moving forward," he said. The needs of millions of Afghan returnees are high on the agenda of the Conference at the Palais des Nations November 27- 28. Led by the Government of Afghanistan and supported by the UN, the forum aims to take stock of the progress made in recent years, and the long-term interventions and investments needed for return and reintegration to be sustainable. See also: Returning Afghan refugees rebuild despite challenges Since the early 2000s, some 5.2 million Afghan refugees have gone back home, although the pace of return has slowed in recent years amid a challenging security environment. Some 2.5 million refugees remain in the two neighbouring countries. In his keynote address to the panel, the Chief Executive of the National Unity Government, Abdullah Abdullah, thanked Pakistan and Iran for generously hosting Afghan refugees for years, and highlighted some of the challenges that still need to be addressed. Much work remains to be done to create an environment that is conducive to return in safety and dignity, allowing us to promote sustainable reintegration, he said. "Work remains to be done to create an environment that is conducive to return in safety and dignity." Abdullah said a just, inclusive and durable peace was needed to protect the gains made since 2001, and noted the need for continuing efforts by the international community to support the creation of conditions for voluntary and safe return. The way forward lies also in strengthening the partnerships that foster conditions inside Afghanistan that will bring about longer-term solutions through job creation, community development and empowerment and investment, to create a society that can prosper and is ready to receive our Afghan brothers and sisters back home. Addressing the forum, Afghanistans First Lady, Rula Ghani, called on participants to remember the humanity of those on the move. These are people like you and me, these are people that need to be treated with human dignity please treat them as human beings, she said. The First Lady called on the forum not to overlook the contribution of women in facilitating returns. Dont forget the women. They may be the main actors of change, she said. Once the wife, the mother, the woman of the family is resettled, then the whole family is resettled. The U.S. calls on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that the United States calls on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to engage directly to resolve a recent escalation in the Black Sea. "We call on both parties to exercise restraint and abide by their international obligations and commitments. We urge Presidents Poroshenko and Putin to engage directly to resolve this situation. In that regard, we reiterate our support for the Normandy Four format," Pompeo said in a press statement on November 26. The United States expresses its deep concern over the incident in the Black Sea that occurred November 25 as Ukrainian vessels attempted to transit through the Kerch Strait, he said. "Reports that Russian vessels rammed and fired on the Ukrainian ships, injuring Ukrainian crewmen, before seizing three vessels, represent a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law," he said. "The United States condemns this aggressive Russian action. We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters," Pompeo said. The United States has reiterated it supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters, as well as the right of its vessels to traverse international waters. "As stated in our Crimea Declaration, the United States rejects Russias attempted annexation of Crimea," Pompeo said. Read alsoParliament green-lights martial law in Ukraine: 30-day period in certain districts Poroshenko's press service in turn reported about a phone conversation between the Ukrainian president and the U.S. Secretary of State. Poroshenko informed Pompeo about the act of armed aggression against Ukraine in the Kerch Strait committed by Russia, as well as the relevant steps of the Ukrainian side, in particular the introduction of the martial law regime. "The two officials coordinated steps to further counteract Russian aggression against Ukraine, including in the Kerch Strait," Poroshenko's press service said. Navymen who have earlier been interrogated by the Russian FSB are well aware of the pressure and measures that the occupation forces take during 'questionings,' according to the Navy Command. The Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine realize the nature of the so-called testimonies of the Ukrainian crew illegally captured by Russia in the Kerch Strait, because the methods of Russian special services are no secret to anyone, that's according to an official statement of the Ukrainian Navy. In 2014, in Crimea, some of our people were in the Russian FSB dungeons and are now well aware of the pressure and measures that the occupiers take during interrogations. These are our men in the video. We know these guys well. Now they look completely different, so everyone can see the consequences of insane pressure exerted on them. But these are our men. They acted lawfully, in accordance with the norms of international maritime law and the treaties in force," the report says. Read alsoVolker comments on Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships Ukraine is making all possible efforts to free the military from captivity, including involving the international community. As reported earlier, the Russian FSB published a video where the Ukrainian crew provide the so-called testimonies. The crew member of the Nikopol armored boat, Andriy Drach, stated on video that the Ukrainian ships had entered the territorial waters of Russia. The commander of one of the Navy units, Volodymyr Lisovyi, said in a video that he deliberately ignored requests coming from Russia and realized that the actions of the Ukrainian vessels are provoking. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the country's parliament, has invited maritime states to deploy warships to the region of the Black and Azov Seas and the Kerch Strait in order to stem the escalation of tensions by Russia. The relevant call is laid down in the appeal, adopted Monday, to the UN, European Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, NATO PA, OSCE PA, PA GUAM, national parliaments in the lights of yet another aggressive act against Ukraine on the part of the Russian Federation, according to an UNIAN correspondent. The parliament expresses resolute protest against Russia's aggressive actions in connection with the armed attack and the seizure of the Ukrainian military boats Berdyansk, Nikopol and the tug boat Yana Kapu, as well as the wounding and capture of their crew. The Rada also demands that Russia provide emergency medical care to wounded Ukrainian sailors, ensure their immediate safe return to Ukraine, as well as return of illegally seized military property and compensate for damages. The Verkhovna Rada urges the international community to take effective measures to stop Russian aggression both on land and at sea, including by applying new and strengthening existing sanctions until full restoration of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders. Read alsoUkraine Armed Forces on full alert Parliament calls on international partners to increase military and other types of assistance to Ukraine to protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Ukrainian parliament also stresses that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project bypassing Ukraine, which is now under construction, is not a project in the interests of Europe, but in the interests of Russia, posing a threat, including security, for the entire Baltic and Northern Europe region. It is noted that impunity of the aggressive policy and actions of the Russian Federation can lead to global consequences. The appeal says that on November 25, 2018, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out an armed attack on military boats of the Ukrainian Navy, which carried out a scheduled sea passage from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol, in compliance with the provisions of existing multilateral and bilateral international treaties and navigation rules. Read alsoRussia's 'Don' coast guard ship rams Ukrainian tugboat amid transfer from Odesa to Mariupol (video) Such actions of the Russian Federation are an act of armed aggression against Ukraine, as defined in Article 2 of the UN Charter and the provisions of the Resolution of the UN General Assembly 29/3314 of December 14, 1974 on the definition of aggression, as well as a violation of Article 2 and Article 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of Sea, underlines the appeal. It also says that Russia's actions are a continuation of the armed aggression against Ukraine, which began on February 20, 2014, and the result of which was the illegal occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine - the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukraine is ready to settle the situation through political and diplomatic means, the diplomat said. Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko has said there is a clear threat of Russia invading and seizing the Azov Sea port cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk in eastern Ukraine. "Further escalation of the situation by the Russian Federation should not be ruled out. According to available intelligence data, there is a clear threat for invasion and seizing of Mariupol and Berdyansk. Further aggressive acts and provocations by the FSB border guard service and Russian navy remains a realistic possibility," he said at an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council regarding the situation in Ukraine. Read alsoUkraine's Rada proposes maritime states to send warships to Black-Azov seas region "Ukraine is ready to settle the situation through political and diplomatic means," the diplomat said. "The Kremlin's criminal regime has once again demonstrated that it won't stop its aggressive policy and is ready for any acts of aggression against the Ukrainian state," Yelchenko stressed. This is a normal practice of providing counterintelligence support to the Ukrainian Navy units. Head of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak confirms the information about the SBU's military counterintelligence officers being on board the Navy boats attacked and seized by the Russian coast guards near the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018 Officers of the Ukrainian special service were carrying out tasks in the framework of counterintelligence support of the Ukrainian Navy unit as provided for by article 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Security Service of Ukraine." "For more than four years of the Russian aggression, the Ukrainian military counterintelligence officers have been on the forefront, alongside their brothers in arms from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard and the State Border Guard Service. And it will always be this way. The 'surprise' of individual Russian officials regarding the presence of SBU personnel on board the boats does not at all indicate the absence of such practice in the counterintelligence agencies of the aggressor country. But the real surprise is that Russians used six 'FSB' and four naval vessels, as well as combat helicopters and aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces against two Ukrainian boats and a small tugboat. By the way, according to confirmed operational information of the SBU, one of the Russian attack aircraft used two combat unguided missiles against Ukrainian boats, resulting in one of the SBU officers being seriously wounded," according to the SBU's press center. Read alsoParliament green-lights martial law in Ukraine: 30-day period in certain districts A trial against 23 captured Ukrainian sailors may start in occupied Crimea today, November 27. The court hearings will be held in the occupied city of Simferopol. The Russian Federal Security Service said they had interrogated Ukrainian sailors who were detained near the Kerch Strait. The Russian Federation claims two Ukrainian SBU officers have been allegedly "exposed" among Ukrainian sailors. The FSB also published a video with Ukrainian sailors where they claimed they had allegedly violated the "territorial waters" of the Russian Federation. However, Moscow will never stop its desire to continue military aggression. Expert of international affairs Taras Semenyuk has said the introduction of martial law in some regions of Ukraine will not provoke greater aggression on the part of the Kremlin. On the contrary, it will for some time hold Russia from further escalation. "Moscow has not given up on its plans to resume the 'Novorossiya' project. Such tensions in the Sea of Azov, which could later shift to the Black Sea, may be due to the fact that Moscow is restoring the Novorossiya scenario and put an eye on Mykolayiv and Kherson regions. Therefore, these areas are included in the military plan. Moscow will never stop them from pursuing with military aggression," Semenyuk told Ukraine's Priamyi TV Channel. Read alsoMartial law in Ukraine introduced from Nov 26, Turchynov clarifies As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian coast guard ships opened fire on a group of vessels of the Ukrainian Navy two small-sized 'Berdiansk' and 'Nikopol' armored artillery boats and the 'Yany Kapu' tugboat as they were leaving the Kerch Strait on Sunday evening. Prior to that, on Sunday morning, the 'Yany Kapu' (Yani Qapi) tugboat of Ukraine's Navy was rammed by a Russian coast guard ship while the Ukrainian vessels were carrying out a planned transfer from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian side said notification about the transfer plans had been done in advance in accordance with international rules to ensure safe navigation. Russia, in turn, claims that the Ukrainian vessels "illegally" entered the temporarily closed water area of the territorial sea of the Russian Federation. The FSB alleges that the Ukrainian side did not file an application for passage and its boats were not included in the timetable for navigation through the Kerch Strait. Read alsoUkraine intercepts radio comms of Russian coast guards with Command amid attack on Ukraine Navy boats (Transcript) The Ukrainian Navy's command insists that under Articles 17 and 38 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and Article 2 of the Treaty between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, Ukrainian warships enjoy freedom of navigation, and therefore can pass through the Kerch Strait at any time, subject only to navigation safety regulations. Later, it became known that a Russian special ops unit had seized all the three Ukrainian boats when they were leaving the Kerch Strait. Six members of Ukraine's Navy were reportedly wounded, two of them were in serious condition. Highlighting that lack of unity, it was unclear on Tuesday whether all 28 EU member states would be able to agree a joint text calling on Russia to free the Ukrainian ships and sailors. Several senior European politicians on Tuesday raised the possibility of new sanctions against Russia to punish it for capturing three Ukrainian vessels at sea, an incident the West fears could ignite a wider conflict. Financial markets have responded to the prospect of new Western sanctions that could hurt Russia's economy, though the rouble on Tuesday clawed back some losses from the previous day as investors bet any sanctions would not be swift, Reuters said. Senior German conservative Norbert Roettgen, a close Merkel ally, said the European Union may need to toughen its sanctions against Russia, imposed partly over Moscow's annexation of Crimea. Karin Kneissl, foreign minister of Austria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the EU would consider sanctions depending "on the exposition of facts and the further conduct of both parties." Poland and Estonia, both hawkish on Russia, expressed support for more sanctions. Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki told Reuters the incident in the Kerch Strait vindicated Warsaw's call for a more unified Western stance towards Russia. "Russia remains wrongly convinced that the reaction of the West isn't unified... because in energy matters there is one stance and in defense matters there is another," he said, noting that some EU states such as Germany backed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that increases Europe's reliance on Russian gas. Read alsoUkraine's Rada proposes maritime states to send warships to Black-Azov seas region Highlighting that lack of unity, it was unclear on Tuesday whether all 28 EU member states would be able to agree a joint text calling on Russia to free the Ukrainian ships and sailors. Asked about possible new sanctions, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian declined to answer. EU foreign affairs ministers are due to discuss the matter on December 10, and EU leaders are expected to agree to extend the bloc's existing sanctions on Russia, including the economic ones, later next month, diplomatic sources said. They said the latest escalation weakened the hand of Italy and other doves keen to dilute the bloc's sanctions regime against Moscow for its past actions in Ukraine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel acted as an intermediary. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he tried to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russian forces had captured Ukrainian boats near the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea, but the Russian side did not respond. "That night, I ordered a [phone] conversation with Russian President Putin, but there was no response, and I had to ask the German chancellor to talk with Putin on the immediate release of Ukrainian servicemen and Ukrainian vessels," he told Ukrainian TV channels on Tuesday evening. Read alsoReuters: European politicians call for new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine "We must stay united and defend our people till the very end," he added. As UNIAN reported earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a telephone conversation on the evening of November 26, called on Putin to engage in dialogue in connection with an attack by the Russian military on Ukrainian vessels. The vessels were captured by Russian forces at sea near the Kerch Strait, which is the only outlet to the Sea of Azov and controls access to two major Ukrainian ports, when two Ukrainian artillery boats and a tugboat were heading from Odesa on the Black Sea to Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Petro Poroshenko warned Russia would "pay a huge price" if they invaded Ukraine. The president of Ukraine has a message that he wants President Donald Trump to personally deliver to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina: "Get out of Ukraine, Mr. Putin," Petro Poroshenko said Tuesday. Poroshenko made the comments in a one-on-one interview with NBC News' Richard Engel, which was conducted two days after Russian forces created an international crisis by attacking and seizing three Ukrainian vessels that were trying to pass through the Kerch Strait, a narrow artery that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Read alsoPoroshenko says he tried to contact Putin after capture of Ukrainian boats in Black Sea In the interview, Poroshenko also warned the Russians that Ukraine will not roll over if war comes. "We will fight for our freedom, we will fight for our democracy, we will fight for our soil," he said. "The Russians will pay a huge price." Poroshenko said his military is ready to defend its country but is counting on the United States to live up to its pledges to support Ukraine. "I count on the United States," Poroshenko told NBC News. "I count on the United States people." Asked point-blank if he can count on Trump, Poroshenko answered diplomatically: "This is the international obligation of the United States." The Synod will last until November 29. On November 27, a three-day meeting of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate begins in Istanbul, which is expected to approve a Tomos of autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It is reported that the Synod of the Patriarchate will announce the date when the Unification Council will convene in Ukraine. At the Council, the creation of a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church shall be announced and its new head selected. Read alsoHoly Council of Ukraine's Orthodox Church scheduled for December Ecumenical Patriarchate The Unification Council is tentatively set to meet in December 2018. Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Rostyslav Pavlenko will attend the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where a decision will be made on the approval of the Tomos. According to Voronchenko, the most important task now is to bring the Ukrainians back home. Ukraine is making all possible efforts to this end. Ukraine Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ihor Voronchenko through lawyers has handed a letter to the Ukrainian sailors captured by Russian coastguards off Crimea coast Nov 25. "I understand how hard it is for you now. All naval sailors look with understanding at the so-called testimonies they [Russians] are now trying to get from you. After all, the methods of the Russian special services are no secret to anyone. I went through this in 2014 and I know well how to be a prisoner and what is behind the words you're saying during interrogation," the letter says, according to journalist Anton Naumlyuk who posted a copy of the relevant document. Read alsoFiring to kill: Photo shows aftermath of Russian warship's attack on Ukrainian Navy boat According to Voronchenko, the most important task now is to bring the Ukrainians home. Ukraine is making all possible efforts to this end. "You acted within the law, professionally, in accordance with the norms of international maritime law and your contracts. Law is on our side and the whole world understands this. Fear is a natural thing. The main thing is to believe in your own strength of spirit, preserve dignity, and remember that the whole of Ukraine, the entire civilized world stands by your side," the letter says. Three enemy troops were killed and another three were wounded, intelligence reports say. Russia's hybrid military forces mounted 18 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action. "Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the past day. According to intelligence reports, three occupiers were killed and another three were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update published on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on November 27, 2018. Read alsoRussian-led troops use proscribed weapons in Donbas in past day, Ukraine reports casualties Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the defenders of the town of Krasnohorivka. The villages of Stanytsia Luhanska, Malynove, Vilniy, Luhanske, Pivdenne, Verkhniotoretske, Opytne, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Vodiane, and Shyrokyne were also under attack. The enemy also employed 120mm mortars against the defenders of Malynove, while 82mm mortars were used against the Ukrainian fortified positions near Vilniy, Luhanske, Opytne, Hnutove, and Vodiane. "Since Tuesday midnight, Russian-led forces haven't attacked the Ukrainian positions yet," the report said. A Su-30 fighter jet launched two missiles, the military official says. Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces Gen. Viktor Muzhenko has said Russian aviation was used, among other means, during the attack on the Ukrainian Navy boats in the Kerch Strait. "Today it became known that Russian aviation was also used during the attack on the Ukrainian ships. A Su-30 fighter jet launched two missiles," Muzhenko said at an extraordinary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada on Monday, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read alsoRussia fires to kill: Ukraine's General Staff elaborates on Russian attack on Ukrainian boats Muzhenko said three Ukrainian military were wounded and another three were injured during yesterday's events. He said the three wounded soldiers, according to the Ukrainian intelligence agencies, were hospitalized to the Kerch Pirogov hospital. Ukrainian boats had been tugged to the Kerch port. Muzhenko stressed the response of the Russian Federation could be qualified as aggression since the territory of any vessel is a sovereign territory of the state to which it belongs. The move was caused by the latest developments in the Black-Azov seas area. Military units of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) have been put on full alert. "By order of Commander of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation, Lieutenant-General Serhiy Nayev, military subunits and units have been placed on full alert," the JFO's press center said in a statement on November 27. Read alsoJFO: Two Ukrainian troops wounded in Donbas in past day The move was caused by the latest developments in the Black-Azov seas area. As UNIAN reported earlier, the situation in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov escalated after Russia attacked and seized three boats of the Ukrainian Navy near the Kerch Strait on November 25. The Russian side captured 23 members of the Ukrainian Navy; six of them are reportedly wounded, while two in grave condition. It was not the propeller section but the cockpit that the Russian shooter aimed at. A photo of the consequences of the Russian military attack against the Ukrainian 'Berdiansk' artillery boat has been published on social networks. "Damage to the Berdiansk artillery boat. Armor obviously does not save people these times..." head of the Ukrainian Military Center Taras Chmut wrote on Facebook. As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian coast guard ships opened fire on a group of vessels of the Ukrainian Navy two small-sized 'Berdiansk' and 'Nikopol' armored artillery boats and the 'Yany Kapu' tugboat as they were leaving the Kerch Strait on Sunday evening. Prior to that, on Sunday morning, the 'Yany Kapu' (Yani Qapi) tugboat of Ukraine's Navy was rammed by a Russian coast guard ship while the Ukrainian vessels were carrying out a planned transfer from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian side said notification about the transfer plans had been done in advance in accordance with international rules to ensure safe navigation. Read alsoUkraine intercepts radio comms of Russian coast guards with Command amid attack on Ukraine Navy boats (Transcript) Russia, in turn, claims that the Ukrainian vessels "illegally" entered the temporarily closed water area of the territorial sea of the Russian Federation. The FSB alleges that the Ukrainian side did not file an application for passage and its boats were not included in the timetable for navigation through the Kerch Strait. The Ukrainian Navy's command insists that under Articles 17 and 38 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and Article 2 of the Treaty between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, Ukrainian warships enjoy freedom of navigation, and therefore can pass through the Kerch Strait at any time, subject only to navigation safety regulations. Read alsoRussia's 'Don' coast guard ship rams Ukrainian tugboat amid transfer from Odesa to Mariupol (video) Later, it became known that a Russian special ops unit had seized all the three Ukrainian boats when they were leaving the Kerch Strait. Six members of Ukraine's Navy were reportedly wounded, two of them were in serious condition. The number of Russian troops on the occupied peninsula has tripled. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the number of Russian troops over four years of its occupation of Ukraine's Crimea has tripled, while the number of Russian aircraft, multiple rocket launchers and ships has grown by five to ten times. Speaking in an interview with TV journalists on Tuesday evening, he also noted a sharp increase in the number of Russian warships in the Sea of Azov, an UNIAN correspondent said. Read alsoPoroshenko says he tried to contact Putin after capture of Ukrainian boats in Black Sea "We see that Russian ships are stationed throughout the entire water area in the Sea of Azov, but particular concentration is seen in the Kerch Strait area. That is they knew, they were getting ready. These were targeted actions, with engagement of necessary aviation, electronic warfare, assault forces, special forces," the president commented on a recent incident when Ukrainian boats were attacked and captured by Russian forces near the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea. Poroshenko also provided certain statistics about troops Russia deployed in Crimea from October 2014 to October 2018. "The number of soldiers has tripled, the number of armored personnel carriers has grown by five times, that of artillery systems by almost 10 times, aircraft, multiple rocket launchers, ships by at least five to ten times. The build-up is still under way now," the president stressed. As UNIAN reported, three Ukrainian vessels were captured on November 25 by Russian forces at sea near the Kerch Strait, which is the only outlet to the Sea of Azov and controls access to two major Ukrainian ports. The two Ukrainian artillery boats and a tugboat were heading from Odesa on the Black Sea to Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. In the statement, not a word was mentioned about Russia's role in the latest developments. The Hungarian government is in "continuous communication" with Ukraine's ethnic Hungarian KMKSZ party over recent developments in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday. Speaking at the University of Bonn on Monday, Szijjarto called it "obviously bad news" that "martial law has been declared in a neighboring country," according to the Hungary Journal. Read alsoHungary to continue blocking Ukraine-NATO Commission "It is in Hungary's interest that peace should prevail "in countries in which lots of Hungarians live," he said, adding that security for Ukraine's 150,000-strong Hungarian community was "crucially important." Szijjarto said hopefully the situation in Ukraine would be resolved soon. In the statement, not a word was mentioned about Russia's role in the latest developments. As UNIAN reported earlier, countries across the world and various politicians have reacted to Russia's attack on Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov and called on Russia to stop violating international law. Russia's behavior is deeply worrying, Roettgen said. Norbert Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union who chairs the German parliamentary foreign affairs committee, does not rule out tougher sanctions against Moscow following Russia's attack and seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait. "So far there are no talks about tougher sanctions but I generally would not rule this out," he told Deutschlandfunk radio, as reported by Reuters. Roettgen added that Russia's behavior was deeply worrying and that tougher sanctions were an option. "In my view, such behavior cannot remain without consequences and I don't think one should say that there won't be any further sanctions," he said. Read alsoFull support of Ukraine: World reacts to Russia's attack near Kerch Strait As UNIAN reported earlier, on the morning of November 25, Russia, using a tanker they claimed had "ran aground," blocked the passage in the Kerch Strait for Ukrainian "Yany Kapu" tugboat and two small-sized "Berdiansk" and "Nikopol" armored artillery boats. The vessels were on a scheduled redeployment from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. According to Ukraine's Navy, the Russian side was informed about transfer plans in advance in accordance with international rules. However, Russia's "Don" coast guard ship rammed a Ukrainian tugboat contrary to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Treaty between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on Cooperation in the Use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. As a result, the tugboat had been damaged. In addition, when leaving the Kerch Strait, Russian ships opened fire on the Ukrainian vessels that were returning to Odesa, having failed to receive information about the possibility of passing through the strait. Six Ukrainian soldiers were wounded, while the rest of the crews were captured. According to various sources, a total of 23 or 24 Ukrainian sailors were captured. Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Liudmyla Denisova, says that a preventive measure will be elected for the Ukrainian sailors today in the so-called "court" in Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. Concurs de granturi adresat COMUNITATILOR (APL) pentru sporirea rezilientei lor la schimbarile climatice si FEMEILOR ANTREPRENOARE in vederea dezvoltarii unor afaceri prietenoase mediului November 27 2018 Hyatt Hotels have been selected to operate a new spa and conference hotel at Edinburgh Marina, centrepiece of a newly formed 340-berth dock. The 187 room Hyatt Regency will include a two-bedroom presidential suite as well as 98 serviced apartments as well as an obligatory restaurant and bar. Guests will eb enticed through the doors with the lure of a 20,000sq/ft health spa and fitness centre, a 10,000sq/ft conference & banqueting centre all overlooking the marina. Guido Fredrich, Hyatts regional vice president development, Europe, remarked: I am thrilled that we will be opening our first hotel in Edinburgh, as part of the exciting new Edinburgh Marina development. The Edinburgh Marina is the perfect springboard for us to launch our brand in Scotland, opening a new era for the company and creating a great new tourism opportunity for Edinburgh. The complex has been designed by Wilson + Gunn and includes retirement flats as well as a health hub and marina infrastructure. Ethiopian and Chinese businessmen on Tuesday expressed high hopes that an Africa-China business forum scheduled to be held in Ethiopia from December 3 to 5 would further deepen ties between Chinese and African businesses. ADDIS ABABA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Ethiopian and Chinese businessmen on Tuesday expressed high hopes that an Africa-China business forum scheduled to be held in Ethiopia December 3 to 5 would further deepen ties between Chinese and African businesses. Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa will host the high-level forum next week as some 41 Chinese companies are expected to participate, aspiring to create business partnerships with their Ethiopian and African counterparts. Aynalem Abayneh, board member of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (ECCSA), said on Tuesday that the forum focuses on deepening the comprehensive partnership of Ethiopia and China so as to encourage the operation of industry and commerce of the two countries. Chinese companies that are engaged in 29 different sectors will take part at the high-level forum, which will also host various other side events, including the China-Ethiopia industrial capacity cooperation forum, investment promotion conference, visit to some of Ethiopia's industrial parks, as well as business to business meeting sessions among Chinese and Ethiopian as well as other African business people, according to the organizers. China International Exhibition Center (CIEC) Deputy Manager Liu Jian said that the forum, sponsored by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in partnership with the China-Africa Development Fund and Ethiopia's ECCSA, will serve as a platform in creating linkage among African and Chinese business people. Hyundai Motor Co. on Tuesday launched the G90 sedan under the independent Genesis brand in South Korea, with a plan to introduce the flagship model in overseas markets next year. SEOUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Hyundai Motor Co. on Tuesday launched the G90 sedan under the independent Genesis brand in South Korea, with a plan to introduce the flagship model in overseas markets next year. The G90, the facelifted version of the EQ900, comes with a 3.3-liter gasoline turbocharged engine, a 3.8-liter gasoline engine or a 5.0-liter gasoline engine. It has the same eight-speed automatic transmission, Hyundai Motor said in a statement. Hyundai said it will gradually ship the G90 to global markets, including the United States, Canada, Russia, Australia and the middle East, starting in the first half of 2019. The maker of the Sonata sedan and the Santa Fe SUV plans to complete the Genesis lineup, currently composed of the G70, G80 and G90, by adding three SUV models by 2021, the statement said. The rear-wheel drive G90 starts at 77 million won (US$68,000), and the price goes up to 120 million won depending on options. In the January-September period, Genesis vehicle sales rose 1.2 percent to 60,093 units from 59,370 in the year-ago period. But G90 sales plunged 42 percent to 7,902 from 13,709 during the same period, according to Hyundai. The G90 is a face-lifted model of the EQ900. The EQ900 was launched in 2015 as a successor to Hyundai's Equus sedan. Genesis brand models are available in Korea, the U.S., Canada, Russia and the Middle East. Genesis brand cars have yet to advance to Europe and China. Hyundai has received pre-orders for 6,713 G90s after it unveiled the model on Nov. 8. The G90 underwent major design changes and now features a wide and deep crest grille, quad headlamps, 18-inch or 19-inch multi-spoke wheels and mufflers that resemble the crest grille. It boasts the most advanced safety features that have appeared in Hyundai and Kia vehicles. They include rear cross-traffic collision-avoidance assist, forward collision-avoidance assist, safe exit assist and lane following assist. Globally, Hyundai Motor sold 3.77 million Hyundai and Genesis vehicles from January to October, up 2.6 percent from 3.68 million units a year earlier. Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Monday night said that holding of across the board accountability was imperative for ending corruption and provide equitable justice to all segment of the society for the progress and prosperity of the country. LONDON, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Monday night said that holding of across the board accountability was imperative for ending corruption and provide equitable justice to all segment of the society for the progress and prosperity of the country. "Nobody was above the law and no leniency would be tolerated on accountability and everyone whosoever was involved in corruption would face accountability irrespective of political affiliations", he told a press conference after attending a Fund raising dinner for Diamer-Basha and Mohmand dams at Inter Continental Hotel London on Monday. The Gala dinner was hosted by World Congress of Overseas Pakistanis (WCOP) in the honour of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mr.Justice Mian Saqib Nisar. The gala dinner was attended among others by Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan to United Kingdom (UK) Muhammad Ayub,renowned British-Pakistani businessman Sir, Anwar Pervaz, Lord Qurban, Chairman WCOP Naheed Randawa ,General Secretary Majid Chaudhry, Arif Anis Malik Executive Director WCOP, its former Chairman Syed Qamar Raza, diplomats, councillors, journalists and British Pakistani diaspora. On the occasion the British-Pakistanis donated one (1) million Pounds in the Diamer Basha and Mohmand Dams Fund. The speakers on the occasion highly appreciated Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar for initiating a Fund for construction of Diamer-Basha and Mohmand Dams for the socio-economic prosperity of the country. They also assured the CJP of their complete cooperation and financial support to the construction of Diamer-Basha and Mohmand Dams for the prosperity of Pakistan and overcome the looming future water crisis. Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar thanked British Pakistani diaspora for their generous donations for the building dams in Pakistan which was more then his expectations He crticized the successive past governments for not constructing dams and called it a criminal negligence on the part of the governments. He added that last dam was built some forty years ago. Speaking at the press conference , the CJP said that a strong judiciary was vital for ensuring rule of law and the provision of speedy and equitable justice to the people of Pakistan for the solidatity of the country. Replying to question , he said that Pakistani diaspora were playing an important role in the development of their motherland and thus they have equal rights and facilities like their brothers and sisters in Pakistan. "There is no discrimination in terms of rights and facilities to Overseas Pakistanis in Pakistan ", he remarked. He added that he has established a separate cell in the Supreme Court of Pakistan Human Rights wing , for overseas Pakistanis ,in order to address their problems being faced by them. Replying to a question regarding Diamer-Bashadam and Mohmand dam Funds , he said that a web- Site has been developed for transparent utilization of the fund and every penny spent on the dam would be uploaded the website to inform the general public about the spending on the dams, in order to make the accountability process transparent. He added that a conference was organized to discuss water issues in Pakistan recently , in which the Chairman WAPDA said that those donors who were earlier not ready to give funds for the construction of the dam were now ready to finance for the Diamer Basha Dam. He added that Kalabagh Dam would be Built after achieving consensus among the four provinces as the unity was important for building this project. He vowed to build more dams to secure the future generations in the country. He informed that Pakistani media that Government of Pakistan and the United Kingdom Government have signed a protocol for sharing the data regarding the properties of Pakistanis existed in UK. He added a Pakistan government has received a plenty of information regarding properties owned by Pakistanis in the UK. The top judge said that initially" we have selected fifteen people in this regard out of which seven persons have appeared before the court of law and we are expending the data of more people who owned properties in the UK". The CJP Mian Saqib Nisar thanked and lauded the Pakistani media based in UK for giving extensive coverage to his the Fund raising campaigns for Building Diamer Basha and Mohamand Dams in various cities of the UK. Australian High Commission to Pakistan here Tuesday screened a film on indigenous issues as part of the annual 'Human Rights through Cinematography' festival. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Australian High Commission to Pakistan here Tuesday screened a film on indigenous issues as part of the annual 'Human Rights through Cinematography' festival. 'The Song Keepers' tells the uplifting story of women from the oldest known culture who are preserving some of the world's oldest sacred songs. The film also explores the impact of European settlement on Aboriginal cultures, a press release issued by the Australian High Commission said. Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margaret Adamson noted that human rights for indigenous peoples was one of five focus areas for Australia's 2018-20 term on the United Nations Human Rights Council, along with gender equality, freedom of expression, good governance and robust democratic institutions, and strong national human rights institutions. "Australia is committed to assisting indigenous peoples, both in Australia and around the world, to overcome social and economic disadvantage through our foreign policy, trade policy and overseas aid program," Ms Adamson said. "Australia and Pakistan are working on these and a range of other issues as members of the Human Rights Council during their simultaneous Council membership," Ms Adamson said. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with the Australian filmmaker, Naina Sen, and Pakistani human rights activists about the importance of cultural and religious diversity. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Saqib Nisar on Tuesday lauded the role and love of Overseas Pakistanis for construction of dams in the country. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) : Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Saqib Nisar on Tuesday lauded the role and love of Overseas Pakistanis for construction of dams in the country. Talking to a private news channel, he said construction of water reservoir was imperative for next generation. The expatriate Pakistanis had exhibited true love for the country, he said adding they had great sentiments for their motherland. Expressing his firm resolve for building dams, he said whenever we had opportunity and found place, we would build water reservoirs. Admiring the interest of Overseas Pakistanis, he said they had deposited funds for construction of dams. "Practically, Overseas Pakistanis were taking keen interest for water reservoirs in the country, " he said. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar Tuesday said construction of dams in Pakistan was vital for the future generations of Pakistan. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar Tuesday said construction of dams in Pakistan was vital for the future generations of Pakistan. "There is a dire need to build several dams in Pakistan to avert the looming water crisis in the country and vowed not to let anyone misappropriate the funds being collected for construction of dams to resolve the country's water crisis". "Pakistani Diaspora has shown utmost affection to the cause and they have been extremely generous in the campaign by donating huge sums in the fund-raising campaign which I wasn't expecting", he said while talking to media in London. The Chief Justice said he never expected such an immensely positive response of the overseas Pakistani community and was grateful to them for such an overwhelming response towards the dams fund-raising events. Regarding the ongoing campaign in Britain for fund raising for the dams, he said that failure to construct uncontroversial dams in the country was a criminal negligence. "Construction of new dams in the country was critical for its survival as water is a hope of life for our coming generations and we have to take steps to save water from being wasted", he added. He said the water level in Pakistan was falling sharply, which has affected daily life in all big and small cities. He regretted that governments during the last 40 years kept ignoring the alarming issue of water crisis and did not pay any heed to need of building dams. He recalled that the last dam was built in Pakistan some 40 years back. Justice Nisar said Rs40 billion were spent on 'Saaf Paani scheme, but the citizens could be provided with clean drinking water. 'It's now high time to render sacrifice to save the next generation," said the chief justice. He said the dams initiative was for humanity and it related to lives of tens of millions of people. Justice Nisar said he was thinking of forming a bench to keep a watch on the money spent from the dam fund so that it cannot be used for any other purpose. He said Manchar Lake, which was a main source of water supply for Karachi, was now contaminated. "Similarly, all waste is being dumped in River Ravi in Lahore." "Ground water was around 40-feet deep in the past, but now it has reached 400-feet in Lahore and 1500-feet in Quetta, which is alarming," the CJP said. He said construction of new dams was now inevitable in Pakistan. Justice Saqib Nisar said, "Pakistani Diaspora has shown utmost affection to the cause and they have been extremely generous in the campaign by donating huge sums in the fund-raising campaign which I wasn't expecting." He said a proper mechanism needs to be developed for usage of dam fund money a website would also be created to keep public informed about spending of their donations. He also called upon the experts to share their expertise to how we can collect more funds for dam constructions as this fund raising campaign was not enough for this cause. CJP said the dam fund was property of the public, "and I would ensure to leave it in secure hands before I leave." Justice Saqib Nisar also talked on the affair of Pind Dadan Khan and ensured that the water scarcity issues of the people of Pind Dadin Khan would be resolved soon. To another question the CJP said, "The nation pays its hard-earned money as taxes and we cannot allow people to loot it." "A team has been formed under the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor to bring back looted money to the country," he said. Justice Saqib Nisar said, "There is room for improvement in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws."Stressing the need for across the board accountability, the chief justice said, "In the Supreme Court, we do not see who is on whose side and we only see the law." Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar Tuesday said that Pakistan was committed to make meaningful contribution in the reconstruction and rehabilitation effort of Afghanistan by carrying out various development activities. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar Tuesday said that Pakistan was committed to make meaningful contribution in the reconstruction and rehabilitation effort of Afghanistan by carrying out various development activities. He termed that development in Afghanistan was development for Pakistan. The Minister in his capacity as Deputy Chairman Planning Commission was chairing the 14th Meeting of the Committee for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Afghanistan here. Additional Secretary Planning Ali Raza Bhutta, senior officials from relevant ministries and consultants of the projects were also present in the meeting. The Minister said that Pakistan was determined to play its role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and in this regard it had undertaken various initiatives and projects in diverse sectors to help in the development of its neighbor. He underlined that the present government is committed to work in tandem with the Afghan Government to ensure timely completion of all ongoing projects. 'Pakistan's commitment for development of various projects in Afghanistan demonstrates Pakistan's priority, it attaches to bilateral relations with its neighbour', emphasized the Minister. During the meeting, it was apprised that Pakistan, being a neighbor and brother country of Afghanistan, had launched a relief package 'Programme for Reconstruction & Rehabilitation of Afghanistan' in 2001 with a pledge of grant of US $ 100 million which was gradually enhanced over the years to US $ 1000 Million in 2016. It was informed that between 2002-2013, 14 projects were implemented in Afghanistan whereas presently 15 projects worth Rs. 32.45 billion are being executed in Afghanistan in a number of areas including construction of hospitals, hostel building, provision of scholarships to Afghan students and up-gradation of road between Torkham and Jalalabad. During the meeting, a briefing was also given on the projects and initiatives being undertaken presently in Afghanistan. Landa, commonly known as poor and white collars' satisfaction,is swiftly losing its market for high prices and availability of export leftovers at local markets and online at comparatively better rates. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Landa, commonly known as poor and white collars' satisfaction,is swiftly losing its market for high prices and availability of export leftovers at local markets and online at comparatively better rates. The markets are witnessing influx of those garments that for some reasons could not be imported or rejected by the buyers and manufactures sell them to local whole-sellers at throw away prices. "I came into this business two years ago out of the blue as one of my friend's (a factory owner) whole lot of products manufactured on order to import abroad could not be picked by the importer. I purchased his export leftovers and received a very encouraging public response and earned handful of profit," said Raja Imran, a trader. He said, "I actually own my own brand of ready-made replicas but this opportunity proved a good omen for me to deal export leftovers." Imran said leftovers are high quality products not picked by their real buyers for any minor issue or some technical problem and they are offered at very reasonable rates to the traders as compared to the local stuff and landa. He said every major city had export leftovers outlets which were now also coming from China and the number of these outlets was ever increasing in the country for their affordability and quality. "Landa is not a cheaper option now, which remained over the years, and people look for new leftovers, available comparatively at low prices," Saleem Ali a shopkeeper at Saddar's Landa Bazaar said. He said his business was not that good enough now as it was in recent past. Miss Saadia, a doctor in Cantonment Hospital Rawalpindi said leftover products in winter was his ultimate choice as they were manufactured in accordance with the international standard and low price and also brand new stuff. She said people could not afford to buy these international brands with actual price so they searched in hand-me-down items or go for the local production and leftovers were a blessing for them. But with the advent of left behind material shops their problem has been resolved as these were fresh and economical too, she said. Rashid Butt, a teacher by profession said, "I am relieved due to these shops as I can buy enough good clothes for my whole family moreover I manage their purchase in my budget as well." "There are particular international brands such as Mark and Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger, Alcott,which remained out of my reach until last year but at present I can wear those beautiful top brand pullovers as well," Sara Kamala college student said. "I never wanted to buy smelly and worn jerseys from used items market, but I was compelled to purchase, said a house wife Hina Saddiqui. I ampleased to buy from newly settled shops of firsthand warm clothes (leftovers)and minor invisible defect which cannot be detected from a naked eye is not a problem for me" she explained. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sahibzada Dr Noor-ul-Haq Qadri on Tuesday said that the government wanted to make Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) effective and seek its guidance for making country's banking system interest free. Talking to media, he said encouraging interest free banking is imperative for transforming the country into a welfare state on the patterns of Madina. Flanked by Chairman CII Dr Qibla Ayaz and State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, he said the implementable recommendations of CII should be implemented as soon as possible. He said efforts were underway to maintain a close liaison among Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Interior, education Ministry and Ministry of Law and Justice to get guidance from scholars to cope with challenges being confronted by the country. He said the Prime Minister would soon meet the members of CII to discuss recommendations and other issues. The foremost step towards establishing welfare state is to completely eliminate interest system from the country. State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said Pakistan will become a welfare state and a criminal negligence was made in this regard by previous governments. CII was badly neglected in past, now onwards CII is independent in forwarding its recommendations. He urged the members of CII to occasionally witness the proceedings of National Assembly and Senate for getting guidance from legislators. Chairman CII Dr Qibla Ayaz said the meeting of CII was very thought provoking. The members extensively discussed the issues being confronted by the country. The meeting also discussed to maintain a close coordination with various departments and ministries for exhibiting positive image of the country before the world as such will restore peace besides bringing investment in the country. He said the members of CII were agreed that declaring anyone permissible to kill or saying and declaring anyone infidel was not the handy work of any individual or a group of persons and the meeting was of the opinion that the punishments of such persons should be made more strict. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Monday said the government and the people of Pakistan greatly value its relations with Tunisia and the Tunisian brethren. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Nov, 2018 ) : Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Monday said the government and the people of Pakistan greatly value its relations with Tunisia and the Tunisian brethren. In a meeting with Adel Elarbi, Ambassador of Tunisia who called on him here, he said Pakistan would like to further strengthen these ties as both the countries were tied in strong bonds of friendship, steeped in history, culture, traditions, and common faith. The information minister emphasised the need to enhance cultural cooperation which was vital to understand each other's values and traditions besides boosting people to people contacts. He said the PTI government was keen towards Africa and consider Tunisia an important country with whom we have close bilateral linkages with similarity of views on regional and international issues. Ambassador Adel Elarbi said Tunisia was a gateway to Africa and offered lot of avenues of cooperation in diverse fields for the mutual benefit of the people of both countries. The ambassador underscored the need to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries and sought the minister's cooperation to facilitate Tunisian traditional Music Band coming to Pakistan to demonstrate its performance in various cities. The information minister assured his full support and assistance in this connection. The ambassador also appreciated the PTI government for according top priority to human development and reforming important sectors of health and education. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration has advised all petrol pumps and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations to ensure provision of neat lavatories facility at their outlets with prominent display 'washroom' signboard under the Clean and Green Pakistan Programme. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration has advised all petrol pumps and Compressed Natural Gas CNG ) stations to ensure provision of neat lavatories facility at their outlets with prominent display 'washroom' signboard under the Clean and Green Pakistan Programme. "Directives have been circulated to all the outlets operating in the capital for strict compliance of the new regulations regarding cleanliness of washrooms," official sources told APP here Tuesday. The district administration has also asked to both petrol and CNG stations to display Labour Registration Certificate and follow minimum wages fixed by the government for eight-hour work. Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner Potohar Islamabad Mehreen Baloch inspected three petrol filling stations along with Labour Inspector Mohsin and issued warning over the rules and standards violations with regard to measuring and quality of petroleum products. Moreover, the officials sealed Al-Wahid PSO filling station on Kashmir Highway, Al-Riaz filling station and HASCOL pump Tarnol Phatak, while warning have been issued to Khan Filling Station TOTAL pump Golra More on such violations. Sharing details, the officials said three nozzles of Al-Wahid filling station whose petrol measurement fell 5-10 ml short of one litre mark were sealed while three nozzles showing deficiency in Al Riaz filling station were also sealed. The sources said the district administration had issued warning to Khan filling station with directions to fix faulty nozzles not measuring properly. Besides, it warned two petrol pumps over sale of petrol and diesel in bottles and gallons. When contacted, a senior official in Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority said the gauges on the dispensers of petrol pumps and CNG stations are regularly monitored for accuracy by the Weight and Measurement Departments of each province under the Weight and Measurement Enforcement Rules, 1976. The department of each province, he said, under Rule 9 (4) of the said rules calibrates the gauges at the petrol pumps and CNG stations and issues a certificate for the period of one year or on biannual basis. Whereas the OGRA, the official said, in the best public interest carries out random inspection of the petrol pumps of the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC), and carries out annual safety inspection of operational CNG outlets to ascertain compliance to CNG Rules, 1992 Standard code of practice as well as to monitor the accuracy of their filling units and calibration less filling and takes action (@ChaudhryMAli88) A solo exhibition of paintings by established artist Iqbal Hussain was concluded here Tuesday at Tanzara Art Gallery featuring a collection of around 30 stunning art pieces. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :A solo exhibition of paintings by established artist Iqbal Hussain was concluded here Tuesday at Tanzara Art Gallery featuring a collection of around 30 stunning art pieces. Iqbal Hussain's retrospective show focused on way of life in ancient tradition and portrayed it with stark reality. He is one of the most important living Pakistani artist, for nearly 50 years, he pursued a singular career with a love for painting and its intrinsic challenges. For Iqbal, painting was an integral part of his struggle which allied itself with the forces of liberation, said Noshi Qadir, Curator of the show. Over the course of his five decade career, he committed himself to address the plight of Lahore's old walled city dancers and musicians. Through his paintings, he looked beyond the glitter and addressed the darkness, despair and desolation that enveloped them. John Wall, Former Country Director World Bank Pakistan, was instrumental in supporting Iqbal Hussain's cause by organizing various art exhibitions and giving the artist his due respect and recognition. This major retrospective, part of John Wall's collection, honored the artist by presenting some of his most iconic works and key moments of his career. The exhibition offered a grand overview of the artist's achievements across all media including paintings, drawing and printmaking. (@mahnoorsheikh03) The actress stressed that we need counselors for students, parents and teachers Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News 24th November, 2018) Actress Mahira Khan has urged the people to speak about mental illness after a student of a private university in Lahore committed suicide on Monday. Sharing a heart breaking post, Mahira asked, When will we start taking mental health seriously? When will we stop calling people mad or ridicule them for how they feel? The actress said that we need counselors in schools. Not just for students. We need to educate parents and teachers! she stressed. A student of Beaconhouse National University (BNU) committed suicide on Monday after jumping from the rooftop of the university. Rushaan Farrukh, a student of visual arts, suffered severe injuries after the fall. She was rushed to the hospital where she succumbed to the injuries during treatment. Although the reason for the suicide has not been ascertained yet, posts from her friends and fellow students hint that she was suffering from depression. A critical defect was discovered on Russia's Vostochny space center's launch pad for the Soyuz-2 rocket, according to a work contract placed on the state procurement website. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) A critical defect was discovered on Russia's Vostochny space center's launch pad for the Soyuz-2 rocket, according to a work contract placed on the state procurement website. "The expansion joint... was made not in line with the draft... the defect is critical," it said. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve in Abu Dhabi on its Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. ABU DHABI, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve in Abu Dhabi on its Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. The global recognition underscores the efforts of EAD in developing the Reserve since its designation as a protected area in 1998, and is a realisation of the vision of the UAE's Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to provide a safe environment for migratory birds and breeding area for the Greater Flamingo. This is not the first time Al Wathba has receives international recognition; in 2013, it became the first area to be designated a Ramsar site in Abu Dhabi for protecting the Emirate's natural biodiversity and several endangered species. Al Wathba is the first site in the region to make the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, after completing a series of comprehensive evaluations and assessments that have confirmed EAD's success in managing Al Wathba in accordance with internationally-benchmarked models of governance, design and planning, management and conservation. The announcement was made during the Fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 14) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, which is being held from the 17 - 29 November 2018. Stressing the significance of this important milestone, Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary-General of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, commented, "To see Al Wathba secure its status as a globally recognised Green List Area is a matter of great pride for Abu Dhabi and the UAE. The conservation of protected areas, natural resources and local biodiversity continues to be a key priority for the Agency. Biodiversity is an integral part of our cultural identity too, and something we want to preserve for present and future generations to come." The IUCN Green List is a global standard for protected areas that ensures all certified sites fulfil three major criteria: good governance, effective management, and sound design and planning. In addition, the standard requires that the site demonstrate successful results from conservation efforts. The certificate is valid for 5 years, where the site should continue making improvements to the protected and conserved area on the Green List. The programme includes a set of 17 criteria that measure several indicators for the protection of wildlife and ecosystems, as well as an assessment that evaluates the role of protected areas in providing services to people and communities. Dr. Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Executive Director of EAD's Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector, said, "EAD was one of the first organisations to adopt the Green List initiative when it was officially launched at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Australia in 2014. Since then, EAD has worked closely with IUCN to activate and implement the Green List Standards for Protected and Conserved Areas in the Arab region. The Agency also provided the necessary technical support and hosted the first training programme for IUCN Green List Expert Assessment Groups, allowing them to evaluate and assess regional applications from protected areas wanting to gain Green List status." Al Wathba Wetland Reserve, the first area to be designated, is home to over 4,000 flamingos and 260 other birds, 320 invertebrates, 35 plant species, 16 reptiles and 10 mammals. It is the only site in the Arabian Gulf where the Greater Flamingo breeds regularly; this year, 601 flamingo chicks hatched at the Reserve the highest number ever recorded at Al Wathba. Since opening to the public in October 2014, Al Wathba has attracted approximately 20,000 visitors and bird watching, hiking and photography enthusiasts alike. The Reserve re-opened for the 2018-2019 season on November 1, and is welcoming visitors from 8 am to 4 pm (last entry at 2 pm) every Thursday and Saturday. (@FahadShabbir) The office of UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura confirmed on Tuesday his participation in Astana talks slated to start later this week and said the envoy would chair a meeting with the representatives of the Syrian ceasefire guarantor states GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) The office of UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura confirmed on Tuesday his participation in Astana talks slated to start later this week and said the envoy would chair a meeting with the representatives of the Syrian ceasefire guarantor states. Earlier in the day, Aidarbek Tumatov, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry's director for Asia and Africa, said de Mistura would take part in the talks on Syria scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan's Astana on Wednesday and Thursday. "The Special Envoy, in consultation with the Secretary-General, accepted to be in Astana where, within the framework of the Geneva process and in accordance with Security Council resolution 2254 (2015), he will chair a meeting with senior representatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey in their capacity as the conveners of the Sochi meeting of January 2018," de Mistura's office said in a statement. Over 40 Russian nationals have been denied entry to Ukraine after taking a flight from the Belarusian capital of Minsk, a spokesman for the Belarus customs authority told Sputnik on Tuesday. MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) Over 40 Russian nationals have been denied entry to Ukraine after taking a flight from the Belarusian capital of Minsk , a spokesman for the Belarus customs authority told Sputnik on Tuesday. Media reported earlier that 30 Russians were turned away on Monday by Ukrainian border protection officers after flying to Kiev with Belarus's Belavia flag carrier. "Over 40 Russian citizens have been returned to Belarus since yesterday morning aboard Belavia's Kiev-Minsk flights, a total of four flights," Anton Bychkovsky, of the State Customs Committee, said. He said Ukraine had not notified the customs authority about any changes to entry rules. Rail and road border crossings between the two neighbor countries continue to operate as usual, the spokesman added. Dubai Industrial Park (DI), one of the largest industrial hubs in Dubai and a member of TECOM Group, has reaffirmed its commitment to China as a key investor in the burgeoning Middle East food industry and to further expand its bilateral relations, during the visit of a senior DI delegation to China. DUBAI, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Dubai Industrial Park (DI), one of the largest industrial hubs in Dubai and a member of TECOM Group, has reaffirmed its commitment to China as a key investor in the burgeoning middle East food industry and to further expand its bilateral relations, during the visit of a senior DI delegation to China. The delegation, led by Saud Abu Al-Shawareb, Managing Director of Dubai Industrial Park, held several meetings with government organisations and business partners in China to introduce Dubai Industrial Park and highlight its role in advancing Dubai's economic diversification efforts and increasing the UAE's non-oil GDP, according to Emirates news Agency (WAM). In addition to providing a detailed overview of the diverse components of DI, the delegates also highlighted a range of offerings for their Chinese counterpart to increase local food production, benefitting from the country's world-class ground, marine and aerial infrastructure as well as its strategic location at the crossroads between East and West. The delegation attended meetings with and toured the facilities of DI's 100th business partner, the industrial group Lesso, in the major cities of Fushun and Guangzhou. Spanning an area of 600,000 square feet, the one-stop facility provides all services related to cover sanitary ware, integral kitchen, PVC profile doors and windows, decorative plates, fire-fighting equipment, hygiene materials, environmental protection, home furnishing and building material. The delegates exchanged experiences and best practices in manufacturing and logistics with their Chinese hosts, examined potential synergies, and explored the most effective ways to boost cooperation with the Chinese stakeholders. In addition, they discussed how Dubai Industrial Park can help companies from Fushun and Guangzhou achieve their international business expansion objectives. The strategic visit followed a signed agreement in 2017, between DI and the Chinese enterprise Ningxia Forward Fund Management Company to build a China-UAE industrial food hub in the emirate. Speaking on the occasion, Al-Shawareb said: "The synergy between China and the UAE is an exemplary model of cooperation, understanding and mutual interest. Today, China is in DI's burgeoning expansion of the trade industry." (@ChaudhryMAli88) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned the authorities of Greece and Greek Cyprus against "reckless" behavior in the eastern Mediterranean, adding that actions undermining hydrocarbon exploration by Turkey were dangerous. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned the authorities of Greece and Greek Cyprus against "reckless" behavior in the eastern Mediterranean, adding that actions undermining hydrocarbon exploration by Turkey were dangerous. "The reckless behavior of Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration by receiving support from several European states has become a threat and danger primarily for themselves ... As Turkey, we will not make the slightest concession from our theses neither in the eastern Mediterranean or any other region and will defend our rights up to the end," Erdogan said at a ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting, as quoted by the Daily Sabah newspaper. On October 18, Turkish media reported that the Turkish Naval Forces had stopped a Greek vessel from "harassing" a Turkish research ship in the eastern Mediterranean, where the Republic of Cyprus is situated. Prior to that, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that a research vessel owned by the Turkish Petroleum International Company started seismic research in the area. On October 9, the Turkish minister of energy and natural resources announced that Ankara would start exploratory drilling at oil and gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea in late October. Gas reserves off the Cyprus coast were discovered by the US Noble Energy company in 2011. Cyprus then granted oil and gas exploration licenses to French Total, Italian Eni and US ExxonMobil. Ankara has been opposing offshore oil and gas exploration off the coast of Cyprus by foreign companies, claiming that it violates the rights of the Turkish community living on the island. Turkey also said that it would start exploratory drilling in the area at the request of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, that was proclaimed on the island in 1983 following Turkey's invasion and has not been recognized by any state except for Turkey. TALLINN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Estonia will support the UN global compact on migration at the UN General Assembly session in New York in January, Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said on Tuesday. Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid met with Prime Minister Juri Ratas earlier in the day to discuss the outcome of an urgent parliamentary meeting at which the Estonian lawmakers adopted a declaration in support of the global migration pact. The Estonian Foreign Ministry had to decide who would represent the Baltic country at an inter-governmental conference in Morocco as Kaljulaid said she would not attend. "The president was supposed to attend the inter-governmental conference in Morocco. I will not go either. But this will not affect Estonia's support for this UN pact. We will express our views on this document at the UN General Assembly vote. I ordered the representative of Estonia to the UN to support the migration pact at the vote," Mikser told the ERR news portal. Several EU nations, including the Czech Republic, Austria and Bulgaria, voiced their reservations about the global agreement, which aims to regulate the treatment of migrants and refugees. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved on July 13 by all UN member states except the United States, which withdrew from the pact last year. The paper represents the international community's attempt to establish a common global approach to all aspects of international migration. The paper comprises 23 objectives for better managing migration at local, national, regional and global levels. The agreement is expected to be formally adopted at an intergovernmental conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on December 10-11. (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) A senior civil servant of the French Senate was detained over suspicions of spying for North Korea, local media reported on early Tuesday. According to the TMC broadcaster, Benoit Quennedey, who was working on the real estate of the Senate, is suspected of an attempt to submit top secret information to North Korea. French security services are currently carrying our searches in Quennedey's offices, according to the broadcaster. French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly aware of the ongoing police operation. The civil servant may face up to 30-year imprisonment over espionage. UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) All 23 Ukrainian crew members and three ships captured by Russia in the Kerch Strait should be freed promptly, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko said to the Security Council on Monday. On Sunday, three Ukrainian naval ships illegally entered the temporarily closed area of the Russian territorial waters and violated international law while moving from the Black Sea into the Azov Sea, according to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). "Ukraine demands Russia to immediately release 23 captured Ukrainian soldiers and all three Ukrainian ships," Yelchenko said. "We also call on the international community to implement a new set of sanctions aimed at addressing the situation in the region, including against the Russia's Azov ports. " Yelchenko also called upon Russia to guarantee the freedom of navigation in the regions of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The FSB said it intercepted the ships after they failed to respond to warnings and made dangerous maneuvers, prompting the agency to detain the vessels along with the crew members on board. The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decided to introduce martial law on the country's territory after the capture of the 23 crew members and the three ships by Russian. The martial law is now set to be approved by the Ukrainian parliament. (@FahadShabbir) VILNIUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) Vilnius is considering the option to increase military assistance to Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict in Donbas, as Ukraine's security is related directly to Lithuania's security, the Lithuanian presidential office said Tuesday. "Ukrainian security is inherently essential to Lithuania's security and Europe's security as a whole, Lithuania therefore is considering the possibility to increase military aid to Ukraine. Next week, the Lithuanian president will pay a visit to this country in order to support Ukrainians in this difficult time," the presidential office said in a statement. In 2018, Ukraine received more than $40 million in lethal weapons and other military assets from the United States, Lithuania, the United Kingdom and Canada. Russia has repeatedly warned Western states against plans for arms deliveries to Ukraine, since this step would only escalate the Donbas conflict and hinder implementation of the Minsk agreements. Many European politicians also expressed opposition to the supply of arms to Ukraine. Former OSCE chairman, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, stated that deliveries of arms to Ukraine was a very risky and counterproductive way to resolve the crisis. (@rukhshanmir) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a meeting with Ecuador's Foreign and Finance Ministers on Tuesday, welcomed expanded bilateral cooperation, but a summary of the meeting omitted any mention of likely the most vexing issue between the two nations - the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "He [Pompeo] recognized Ecuador's significant support to Venezuelan refugees and migrants and welcomed further Ecuadorian cooperation on a democratic solution to the man-made crises in Venezuela and Nicaragua," US Department of State spokesman Heather Nauert said in a readout on Tuesday. The ministers also discussed bilateral trade and Pompeo praised democratic reforms in Ecuador while remaining silent on Assange, the readout said. US Federal prosecutors earlier this month inadvertently disclosed the existence of a secret US indictment of Assange, according to published reports. Assange has lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, first to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape charges that were eventually dropped and later to avoid arrest by the United Kingdom on bail jumping charges. WikiLeaks has been targeted by US officials for releasing classified documents on US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange also played an important role in the 2016 US presidential election by releasing documents from the Democratic National Committee showing a rigged nominating process to favor candidate Hillary Clinton, and he later published emails stolen from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. In the past, Pompeo has denounced WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile intelligence service. (@FahadShabbir) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The guarantor states of the ceasefire in Syria will meet in the Kazakh capital for the eleventh round of the peace talks on November 28-29, focusing on forming a constitutional committee, the situation in Idlib and the exchange of the detainees, along with the issue of returning refugees and the post-conflict restoration of the country. The meeting on Syrian settlement will bring together the guarantors of the Syrian ceasefire, Russia, Turkey and Iran, delegations representing Damascus and the country's armed opposition, with Jordan as an observer. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who has been working as the special envoy for the crisis-torn country since 2014, but announced he would leave the post in the end of November, did not yet confirm his presence at the meeting. FORMING THE CONSTITUTIONAL COMMITTEE The formation of Syria's constitutional committee is expected to be one of the main issues on the agenda of the upcoming Astana-11 talks. The creation of the committee, which is expected to draft Syria's new constitution, was agreed upon during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian resort city of Sochi in late January. The committee will consist of three groups representing the Syrian government, opposition, and women, experts and leaders of various tribes living in Syria. The composition of the third part of the body, the so-called middle third list, set to comprise civil society representatives, has been a stumbling rock in the negotiations. Damascus has objected to the list of 50 Names that was prepared and proposed by the United Nations. After his visit to the Syrian capital on Friday, de Mistura said that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem did not accept the role of the United Nations in selecting the middle third candidates. The upcoming Astana talks can help advance the drafting of the remaining list of the constitutional committee members, which remains the last obstacle for the launch of the body. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would "actively participate" in creation of the constitutional committee of Syria which he hoped would be agreed on by the end of the year. Putin stressed that such a committee should be recognized as legitimate by all parties in Syria and be respected in order to be "be able to prepare and implement a mature constitutional reform that will strengthen Syrian statehood and unite Syrian society." He added that "the work on forming a committee must be serious, painstaking, and it needs to be done fundamentally." Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned against a rush in forming the constitution committee, saying it was "much more important to have a functional and mutually acceptable constitutional committee than to have an artificial deadline in order to ruin the Astana process." EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS AND REFUGEE ISSUE The Kazakh Foreign Ministry confirmed that a working group on prisoner exchanges will meet for a regular, sixth session during the upcoming Astana talks. On Saturday, Damascus and the Syrian armed opposition have already exchanged hostages as part of implementation of the agreements reached during the talks in Astana. The hostages swap had been organized with the participation of representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry in the working group operating under the Astana format of the Syrian reconciliation talks. Representatives of Turkey, Iran as well as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent also took part in the event, which became a pilot project of prisoner exchange between Damascus and the armed opposition. According to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, Russia, Turkey and Iran are also planning to discuss the possibility of holding an international conference devoted to Syrian refugees during the consultations in Astana. According to the ministry, the three countries intend to start cooperating with major international humanitarian organizations. "The plan of the guarantor countries is to establish close cooperation with such authoritative international organizations as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross. As you understand, in this case, we are talking about humanitarian issues, first of all, about issues related to refugees," Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said last week. The representatives of the ICRC invited to take part in Astana-11 format, along with the representatives of the UN high commissioner on refugees office, confirmed their presence to Sputnik "as an observer and technical adviser." Syrian refugee repatriation has become one of the priorities for the Syrian government as most of the heavy fighting in Syria is now over. In late October, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said that Russia was working to organize an international conference dedicated to Syrian repatriation and urged other countries to join the humanitarian mission in Syria. ONLY EFFECTIVE FORMAT FOR SYRIA PEACE PROCESS Being the platform where the representatives of Damascus and the armed opposition sat together at the negotiations table for the first time, Astana remains the main format for the Syrian peace settlement. "The Astana process was the first step to wake up the UN process, which was dormant ... Then we managed to convene the Sochi congress on the Syrian national dialogue which decided to create a constitutional committee. Before that nobody was lifting a figure," the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week called the Astana-based peace talks the only format that brought tangible results in Syria. "I think the only policy that has worked in Syria is the Astana process ... The only countries that could prevent a disaster in Idlib were Iran, Turkey and Russia," Zarif said. The Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, who represents the Turkey delegation at the talks, said that the importance of this format of the talks which enabled the UN-mediated Geneva talks between the government and the opposition, cannot be diminished. The US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey, who will not take part in Astana-11 meeting, said Washington would welcome the results if the meeting is effective. "We welcomed the Istanbul summit at the end of last month with the Russian president and his French, German, and Turkish colleagues. And if Astana can be as productive as the Istanbul summit then we'll be pleased," Jeffrey said. The head of the opposition delegation to the November 28-29 consultations, Ahmed Tomah, also said the Astana consultations are currently the only effective platform for resolving the Syrian conflict. Romania is worried about the situation in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait amid Russian-Ukrainian naval tensions, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) Romania is worried about the situation in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait amid Russian-Ukrainian naval tensions, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. "Deeply concerned about the developments in #AzovSea & #KerchStrait. Aggression & violation of international law undermine the security of the whole region. #RO fully supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and its rights to use its territorial waters," the ministry said via its Twitter account. On Sunday, three ships of the Ukrainian Navy, in violation of Articles 19 and 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, crossed the Russian sea border, entered the temporarily closed area of the Russian territorial waters, and were moving from the Black Sea toward the Kerch Strait, according to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Another group of ships was heading for the Kerch Strait from the Azov Sea port of Berdyans'k. The FSB later said that the same three ships of the Ukrainian Navy Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu had been detained after violating Russian state border. The Ukrainian ships did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them and made dangerous maneuvers, the FSB noted. Earlier on Monday, the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) decided to impose martial law on the territory of Ukraine for a period of 60 days. The chief of the Ukrainian General Staff has ordered to put the country's armed forces on full combat alert. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Romania is ready to take on the EU's rotating presidency despite domestic political problems and a scathing Brussels report on controversial judicial reforms, Bucharest's new minister for Europe said Tuesday. Vienna, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2018 ) :Romania is ready to take on the EU's rotating presidency despite domestic political problems and a scathing Brussels report on controversial judicial reforms, Bucharest's new minister for Europe said Tuesday. "We're well prepared," George Ciamba said in an interview with Austrian daily Die Presse. "I hope that, at the end of the day, everyone is on board. This task requires the broad cooperation of all institutions." Romania, one of the EU's poorest members, takes over the six-month presidency -- which coordinates the European Union's agenda and meetings -- from Austria in January. But doubts have been raised about whether it should do so given constant tensions between the head of state, President Klaus Iohannis, and the Social Democrat government under Viorica Dancila. Romania has also come under fire from Brussels over judicial reforms seen as a possible threat to the rule of law and democratic values. Ciamba's predecessor, Victor Negrescu, resigned earlier this month. Last week, the ruling Social Democrats announced a major cabinet reshuffle that was seen as a bid by the party's embattled chief, Liviu Dragnea, to tighten his grip on power. Ciamba insisted that the personnel changes were no reason for Romania not to assume the presidency. "There have always been countries that held elections during their EU presidency. Take Malta, for example. In such cases, all ministers are changed sometimes," he argued. Regarding the EU report, which urged Romania to revive efforts to fight corruption and ensure judicial independence, Ciamba said Bucharest "did not agree with some of the harsh wording. "But we'll take a look at it and will try to assuage some of the concerns."During the six-month presidency, Romania would focus on continuing the excellent work done by Austria and put its own national interests on the back burner, Ciamba added. EL PASO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) Many residents in the Mexican border city of Tijuana are concerned by the newly-arrived caravan of migrants from Central America as violent clashes escalate between police and protesters and the US military boosts its presence on the other side of the border. On Friday, Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum said he would not have the city residents bear the burden of sustaining asylum seekers arriving from Central America because the city was already suffering from a humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Mexican Interior Ministry said that around 5,600 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador had reached the towns of Tijuana and Mexicali both located just across the border with the United States. The initial caravan of illegal migrants set out from Honduras in the direction of Mexico and the United States on October 13, hoping to get asylum in these countries. According to UN estimates, the caravan included more than 7,000 migrants. Another caravan of around 3,000 asylum seekers followed suit later in October. Antonio Cimota, 36, is an organizer of Mexicanos Unidos, a group opposing the migrant caravan. He helped organize a large protest in Tijuana on Sunday against the arrival of the convoy from Central America. Cimota told Sputnik that the caravan had disrupted cross border travel and littered the community. "The border has been closed for short periods of time causing lots of heavy traffic and a division within our community because as much as we have the opposition to this caravan we also have supporters in the community," Cimota said. "We had them [caravan members] camping out in Playas de Tijuana [a tourist area] and [they] left us trash. A foul smell of urine, and donated goods were left behind." Cimota pointed out that many of his friends who cross the border daily have been discouraged to do so because of the hours-long waiting lines. It is frowned upon how the migrants in the caravan forced their way into Mexico on the border with Guatemala, Cimota added. Oscar Dioses, 27, of Tijuana, told Sputnik that he accepts US President Donald Trump's efforts to protect US citizens especially considering the failure of the Mexican government to address the crisis. "Our government in Mexico ... does not take any action to solve this migration [issue] and take a census of people who arrived in the country and are receiving help from our taxes," Dioses said. Over the weekend, hundreds of residents in Tijuana clashed with police and pro-migrant demonstrators, local media reported. Meanwhile, Trump has ordered the deployment of 5,900 military troops at the southern border to deter migrants from crossing it. The White House on Tuesday authorized the troops to use lethal force against illegal migrants if needed. Cimota said he does not support Trump but believes that the US president has a right to protect the United States and its citizens. However, Cimota emphasized that force should not be used against innocent people. "What we should be doing is trying to find a way to resolve the situation in a humanitarian way, this is in my opinion a politically-influenced movement that is affecting the people of Mexico," Cimota said. Although some have speculated that Mexicans have shown hostility toward the migrants due to bigotry, Dioses rejected the notion. "My opposition to the migrant caravan is nothing in relation to racism or xenophobia," Dioses said. "It's just expressing my dissatisfaction with the Mexican government." Local media reported on Thursday that at least 600 members of the caravan of migrants from Central America have been detained by the Mexican authorities in the country's southern state of Chiapas. On Tuesday, a US district judge in San Francisco blocked a proclamation signed by Trump that bars migrants from applying for asylum if they enter the United States without authorization. The presidential order was challenged by several advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union. Mexico is working to create a program aimed at providing job opportunities to the people from the migrant caravans who have arrived in the country, Mexican Ambassador to the United States Geronimo Gutierrez told Sputnik on Tuesday. GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) Russia is pushing for the UN-hosted ministerial conference on Afghanistan in Geneva to mention this month's Moscow talks in its final communique, Russia's presidential envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said. "We do not just want it, we have been demanding it," Kabulov told reporters after he was asked whether Moscow wanted ministers to acknowledge the commitments made in Moscow on November 9. The Geneva Conference on November 27-28 plans to take stock of progress made since the Brussels Conference in 2016 and set an agenda for reaching peace and stability in war-torn Afghanistan. The envoy, who also leads the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asian Department, said ministers going to the event did not seem interested in walking the talk. "Unfortunately, there is no avoiding joint documents or generalizations like this communique. They are a must for international forums. But it's up to participants whether any concrete steps or proposals will follow. We don't see many participants who are keen on taking action," Kabulov said. The consultations in Moscow were the first ever meeting featuring the Doha-based Taliban political office with the High Peace Council of Afghan mediators, backed by ex-President Hamid Karzai. The Afghan government did not endorse the council. (@FahadShabbir) Russia is ready to continue the practice of joint humanitarian supplies to Syria carried out together with France, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) Russia is ready to continue the practice of joint humanitarian supplies to Syria carried out together with France Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. "We confirmed to our French colleagues our readiness to continue the practice of joint humanitarian supplies to the Syrians," Lavrov told a press conference after talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian. Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and militant and terrorist organizations. Russia, along with Turkey and Iran, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria. Moscow has also been providing humanitarian aid to residents of the crisis-torn country. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The main share of humanitarian aid provided by Russia in 2017 fell on Syria and amounted to $19.6 million, a new report by Russia's Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy and Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) said. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) The main share of humanitarian aid provided by Russia in 2017 fell on Syria and amounted to $19.6 million , a new report by Russia 's Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy and Russian Presidential academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) said. "The recipient of the most humanitarian aid of the Russian Federation [in 2017] was the Syrian Arab Republic. The share of aid provided to it reached 84 percent of the total volume of Russian humanitarian aid, which is $19.6 million in value terms," RANEPA's Head of International Trade Studies Department Alexander Knobel said as quoted in the November issue of the review dubbed "Monitoring of the economic situation in Russia. " In total, Russia allocated humanitarian aid worth $23.3 million in 2017, which is by 120 percent more than in 2016, the Russian Federal Customs Service said, as cited in the report. Russia, alongside Iran and Turkey, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria. Moscow has also been assisting Damascus both through supporting the struggle against the terrorist groups and by providing humanitarian aid to the residents of the crisis-torn country. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Russian delegation that is set to attend the upcoming consultations on the Syrian settlement in Astana, Kazakhstan will be led by Russia's Special Presidential Representative for the Syrian settlement Alexander Lavrentyev, Director of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry's Asia and Africa Department Aidarbek Tumatov said on Tuesday. ASTANA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) The Russian delegation that is set to attend the upcoming consultations on the Syrian settlement in Astana, Kazakhstan will be led by Russia's Special Presidential Representative for the Syrian settlement Alexander Lavrentyev, Director of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry's Asia and Africa Department Aidarbek Tumatov said on Tuesday. The meeting on Syrian settlement in the Astana format is set to be held on Wednesday and Thursday in the Kazakh capital. The consultations are expected to be attended by the guarantors of the Syrian ceasefire Russia, Turkey and Iran delegations representing Damascus and the country's armed opposition along with Jordan as observer. "The Russian delegation will be headed by Russia's Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev," Tumatov told journalists. According to the diplomat, the Turkish side to the talks will be represented by the country's deputy foreign minister, Sedat Onal, while the Iranian delegation will be led by Hossein Jaberi Ansari, the foreign minister's special assistant in political affairs. Tumatov added that the first day of the talks would see bilateral and trilateral consultations among experts along with the sixth meeting of the working group on the release of detainees and the search for missing people and bodies of the deceased. Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been invited to attend the working group's meeting, according to the diplomat. The plenary meeting, bringing together all participants, is scheduled for Thursday. Serbia is grateful to Russia for having helped block the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo's bid to join the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) earlier this month, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Monday. BELGRADE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) Serbia is grateful to Russia for having helped block the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo's bid to join the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) earlier this month, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Monday. "We are very grateful to Russia for loud and consistent support during the recent session of the Interpol General Assembly in Dubai, where our country has made great strides succeeded in having Pristina's application for membership refused," Dacic said, opening the exhibition "Serbia - Russia, Yugoslavia - USSR", dedicated to the 180th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Serbia. Dacic praised a high level of bilateral relations between Serbia and Russia and highlighted that they had developed into a comprehensive strategic partnership. The Kosovar official also mentioned that he had already visited Russia four times this year, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to come to Belgrade in January. Earlier in November, Kosovo's application for Interpol membership failed to secure a two-thirds majority at the organization's general assembly meeting in the United Arab Emirates' capital. Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognized by over 100 UN member states. Serbia, as well as Russia, China, Israel, Iran, Spain, Greece and others, do not recognize Kosovo's independence. (@FahadShabbir) CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Sudanese capital Khartoum will host a meeting on the settlement of the Libyan crisis on November 29, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. "The meeting will focus on the latest developments in Libya, the exchange of views between the neighboring countries as well as ways to advance efforts to restore security and stability in the country," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will represent Cairo at the meeting. Meanwhile, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said that the talks would be attended by the representatives of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), the United Nations, the Arab League, the European Union as well as France and Italy. Libya has been in a state of turmoil since the overthrow and killing of its long-time leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011. The country is divided between two governments, with the eastern part controlled by the Libyan National Army, and the western part governed by the UN-backed GNA, led by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj. (@rukhshanmir) Russia has played an important role in ensuring Gaza receives humanitarian aid and looking for a political solution for the regional issues, Matthias Schmale, the director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, told Sputnik. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) Russia has played an important role in ensuring Gaza receives humanitarian aid and looking for a political solution for the regional issues, Matthias Schmale, the director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza , told Sputnik. "I think the responsibility of the international community is twofold ... I think a part of the role of international community is advocacy, is influencing the dialogue, including holding Israel accountable for needing to be a part of finding a political solution and not blocking it. The other part of the international community's responsibility is providing support including the humanitarian aid ... And [Russia] is an important player in both respects. Russia has massively supported UNRWA and with a multi-year commitment," Schmale said. The UN official added that the Russian government was very involved on the political level in the attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Russia for sure is an important member state of the United Nations and is an important partner for UNRWA. In our work we acknowledge that very much. I don't think you have any major political process in the world and certainly not in the middle East where Russia does not need to be involved if we want to move forward," Schmale said. The UNRWA Gaza director added that such organizations as his would require the support of the international community until a political solution to a decades-long territorial conflict has been found, to help ensure that food, education and healthcare are being provided to the people in need. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The US government has given the go-ahead to sell ten Boeing Apache ground-support attack helicopters to Egypt for $1 billion, the Department of State said in an announcement. "The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Egypt of ten (10) AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopters for an estimated cost of $1. 0 billion," the announcement said on Tuesday. The State Department has also approved determination of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Egypt of 46,000 M831A1 and M865 rounds and 10,000 APFSDS-T rounds for an estimated cost of $201 million. The United States is disappointed that Hungary has denied a US request to extradite two suspected Russian arms dealers, the State Department said in a press release on Tuesday. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) The United States is disappointed that Hungary has denied a US request to extradite two suspected Russian arms dealers, the State Department said in a press release on Tuesday. "The United States requested the extradition of two suspected Russian arms dealers, Vladimir Lyubishin Sr. and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr., pursuant to the US-Hungary Extradition Treaty," the release said. "Hungary denied the US request and instead extradited the suspects to Russia. The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia." (@ChaudhryMAli88) The United States is disappointed that Hungary has denied a US request to extradite two suspected Russian arms dealers, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a press release on Tuesday. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) The United States is disappointed that Hungary has denied a US request to extradite two suspected Russian arms dealers, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a press release on Tuesday. "The United States requested the extradition of two suspected Russian arms dealers, Vladimir Lyubishin Sr. and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr., pursuant to the US-Hungary Extradition Treaty," Nauert said. "Hungary denied the US request and instead extradited the suspects to Russia. The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia." Nauert said Hungary's decision raises questions about its commitment to cooperate with US law enforcement. The US had a strong case against the Lyubishin's, which was developed with the cooperation of Hungarian law enforcement officials, she added. Hungary's decision will ultimately make the world less safe, she said. According to a Federal indictment filed in 2016 and unsealed the following year, the Lyubishins allegedly conspired to send narcotics into the United States and supply weapons to protect those shipments, including an anti-aircraft missile. The two men were apprehended after they interacted with undercover informants for the US Drug Enforcement Administration who they believed were operatives in a Mexican drug trafficking ring. (@ChaudhryMAli88) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The United States has sanctioned Nicaragua's Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo as well as National Security Advisor Nestor Moncada due to corruption and human rights abuses, the US Treasury Department said in a press release on Monday. "OFAC imposed sanctions on two of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's closest associates: the Vice President of Nicaragua and First Lady, Rosario Maria Murillo De Ortega (Murillo), and Nestor Moncada Lau (Moncada), who has acted as a national security advisor to the President and Vice President," the release said. The Treasury added that the action was taken against Ortega's supporters because of their engagement in "rampant corruption, dismantling of democratic institutions, serious human rights abuse, and exploitation of the people and public resources of Nicaragua for private gain." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the release that the Trump administration is committed to holding Ortega and his government accountable for the violent protests and corruption that has led to the deaths of hundreds of people, and destroyed the country's economy. Treasury's actions block Murillo and Moncada from accessing any interests or property they may have in the United States and prevents US citizens from doing business with them. Turmoil erupted in Nicaragua on April 18 when people took to the streets to protest unpopular social security reforms announced by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. After several days of protests, Ortega canceled the reforms, but the protests have nevertheless continued. Earlier this month the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said 198 people were killed, including police officers, and more than 1,200 others were injured due to the protests. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ST. PETERSBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The fire on the Viktor Chernomyrdin icebreaker in the Russian city of St. Petersburg was probably caused by safety breaches during the works carried out by the contracting organization, the Admiralty Shipyards told Sputnik on Wednesday. On Tuesday, a fire erupted on board of the Viktor Chernomyrdin icebreaker, which is under construction at the Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg, leaving two people injured. One of the injured people was sent to a hospital. "As of now, the fire on board of the Viktor Chernomyrdin icebreaker is extinguished. According to the preliminary version, the fire in the boiler room of the icebreaker occurred because of the safety breaches during the works carried out by employees of the contracting organization," the shipyard's statement said. According to the statement, the fire area amounted to about 100 square meters (over 1,070 square feet). The shipyard has already created a commission to investigate the incident. The ship has been under construction since 2011. It was initially expected to enter service in 2015, but is well behind the schedule. The icebreaker's construction was estimated to cost some 8 billion rubles ($119 million), but ended up costing at least 11 billion rubles. When completed, the 22,000-tonnes Project 22600 Viktor Chernomyrdin will be the world's largest diesel-powered icebreaker. The Bishops of Australia respond to the Shadow Attorney Generals announcement of the introduction of a bill repealing an exemption for religious schools necessary for an authentic presentation of Catholic sexual moral ethics. By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp On Tuesday, Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne, the spokesperson for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference on religious freedom, responded to an announcement by the Shadow Attorney General of the introduction of a bill by the Opposition. The bill seeks to repeal exemptions in place in the Sex Discrimination Act. The exemption is not used by Catholic schools to discriminate against students or to expel students based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Archbishop said. Rather, these exemptions are important to us because schools want to maintain the capacity to teach a Christian understanding of sexual ethics and marriage according to our faith tradition. Our right to continue to teach Catholic beliefs is threatened by proposals to repeal existing faith-based exemptions for religious schools and institutions. Furthermore, having the exemption in place protects the Church against claims that its beliefs are discriminatory. We need to have the assurance that we can pursue our religious mission without legal risk, Archbishop Comensoli said. Archbishop Comensoli further proposed that the law recognise religious freedom in a positive way. This would allow religious schools to continue to educate based on religious principles while leaving the exemptions in place since they have the benefit of established acceptance and meaning in law, he said. Finally, the Archbishop said that attempts to repeal these protections should be rejected by Parliament, particularly without establishing other positive protections in place to allow religious schools to continue to operate according to their faith. The Pope emeritus corrects an article by theologian Michael Bohnke and rejects as absolutely false the insinuation that Benedict has called into question the foundations of Jewish-Christian dialogue. By Vatican News In a correction sent to the German monthly Herder Korrespondenz, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI affirmed that Christians are called to a dialogue with the Jews, rather than a mission. The Pope emeritus was responding to an article by theologian Michael Bohnke of Wuppertal. In the September issue of the journal, Bohnke had commented disapprovingly on statements made by Benedict concerning the relationship between Jews and Christians. A completely false insinuation Judaism and Christianity, said Benedict, are two ways of interpreting the Scriptures. For Christians, the promises made to Israel are the hope of the Church, and those who abide by it are in no way questioning the foundations of the Jewish-Christian dialogue. The accusation contained in the article, he continued, is grotesque nonsense and has nothing to do with what I said about it. I therefore reject his article as a completely false insinuation. Bohnke had argued that Benedict XVI, in an article for the theological journal Communio, had demonstrated a problematic understanding of Judaism, and had ignored the suffering Christians had inflicted upon Jews. Not "mission," but "dialogue" In his correction, Benedict also addressed among other theological issues the delicate question of the mission to the Jews; that is, the question of whether the Church should proclaim the Good News of Christ to the Jews. Benedict wrote: A mission to the Jews is not foreseen and not necessary. At the same time, it is true that Christ gave His disciples a mission to all peoples and all cultures. For this reason, Benedict affirms, the missionary mandate is universal with one exception: a mission to the Jews was not foreseen and not necessary because they alone, among all peoples, knew the unknown God. For Israel, then, it was not a mission, but a dialogue about whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, the Logos, for whom, according to the promises made to His people, Israel, and the whole world without knowing it, was waiting. Taking up this dialogue anew, Benedict said, is the duty given us at this time. Benedicts correction appeared in the December issue of Herder Korrespondenz, and was signed Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI. Reflecting on Relations with the Jews The original article in Communio, critiqued by Bohnke, was intended as an in-depth study of a document published in 2015 by the Holy Sees Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, entitled, The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable (Rom 11:29): A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Nostra aetate (no.4). The sixth heading of that document, The Churchs mandate to evangelize in relation to Judaism deals precisely with the questions raised by Bohnke: It is easy to understand that the socalled mission to the Jews is a very delicate and sensitive matter for Jews because, in their eyes, it involves the very existence of the Jewish people. This question also proves to be awkward for Christians, because for them the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ and consequently the universal mission of the Church are of fundamental importance. The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelisation to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views. In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews. While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of Gods Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah The Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need has launched their Christmas campaign: three new projects to help Christians remain in Syria. By Francesca Merlo 7 years and 552 thousand deaths later, the war in Syria is still not over. As the country is being destroyed, the small Christian communities which, before the war broke out made up around 10% of the population, are trying to survive. Aid to the Church in Need in Italy has launched their Christmas campaign. Three gifts, as an effort to help these Christians, in hope that Christianity does not disappear completely from the Middle East. The gifts tackle three difficult areas that have been affected by the war in Syria: Food, Sanitation and Education. Food The first involves the distribution of 1,725 food parcels to Christian families living in absolute poverty. 1,090 of these live in their own homes though they have been severely damaged by the war. The remaining 635 families live without any roof over their heads. Sanitation The second project aims to help 700 people in Aleppo who are suffering medically. Due to the incessant warfare, the number of people in need of medical assistance, whether to tend to wounds or illnesses, is huge. The war has not only caused the illnesses and wounds, it has also destroyed over half of the health facilities that would have previously provided assistance. The war has caused poverty, and when poverty stops you from being able to feed your family, it also prevents you from being able to buy medicine. Education The third project is aimed at children, those who are suffering most from this war. The Pontifical foundation in Aleppo is providing the money necessary to rebuild and render functional a nursery, destroyed by bombs, that welcomes 15 autistic children. Here, Sisters from the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, will be able to once again assist and love those who need them. This Christmas, Aid to the Church in Need in Italy has found a way to make a difference for these Christians who are suffering as a consequence of others indifference. A migrant, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America, climbs the border fence between Mexico and the US Ninety eight Central American migrants from the Caravans, who tried to force their way over the Mexican/US Border are being deported. James Blears reports that the rest are being warned that breaking the law isn`t the answer to their problems or the desperation which led a few to try a futile dash. By James Blears Mexico`s National Migration Institute confirms that 98 migrants are in the process of being deported due to them breaking Border Security. The US Border Patrol fired tear gas into Mexico to stop migrants who`d broken through the wire from crossing into the United States. Mexico`s Ministry of Interior estimates that 500 attempted to do this. The US side puts the number as double of that. Mexico`s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo says there are good Mexican immigration laws and that the migrants would be well advised to observe them. Mexico`s National Human Rights Commission states: "Members of the Caravan who cross over our country must have respect and not take part in actions that affect the communities they`re passing through." Francisco Vega, the Governor of Baja California says there are now nine thousand Central American Migrants there. And he`s appealing for the Federal Government to take responsibility for feeding and sheltering them. The Russian government has warned that Ukraines declaration of martial law over Russias seizure of three Ukrainian ships might trigger a flare-up in hostilities in eastern Ukraine. The comments came as Kiev blamed Russia for parading captured Ukrainian seamen on television. By Stefan J. Bos Russia's security service has released controversial statements by three captured Ukrainians after Russian ships fired on also, seized three Ukrainian boats off the coast of Russian-annexed Crimea. One of the men, Volodymyr Lisovyi, said he was aware of the "provocative nature" of the Ukrainian action. Ukraine's navy commander said the men had been forced to lie under duress. At the same time, a court in Crimea ordered the first of 24 Ukrainians capture on Sunday to remain in detention for 60 days. Western nations have condemned Russia's use of force, four years after it seized Ukraine's southern Crimean peninsula. The Secretary-General of the NATO military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, urges Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors. "There is no justification for the use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel," he said. "So we call on Russia to release immediately the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized...And we call for calm and restraint," he added. Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose country is a NATO member, says Poland would support international initiatives to enhance sanctions on Russia following its seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships. Baltics concerned Also, his Estonian counterpart Kersti Kaljulaid said the Russian attack on Ukrainian military vessels constitutes war in Europe. However, Russia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy blames Ukraine. What Kiev has been doing, in coordination with the U.S. and others, to promote a conflict line against Russia, is fraught with very dangerous consequences," he said. "We are going to curb any infringement of Russian sovereignty and territorial integrity including the Sea of Azov and that area. We do hope that that is clear to everyone. In response, Ukraine's parliament has adopted a motion by the president to impose martial law for 30 days after Sundays clash between the two rivals in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. No mediation? Despite the turmoil, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he doesn't see "a need for any mediators. He spoke after Germanys foreign minister suggested that Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine could work together to resolve the tensions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the German chancellor that he is seriously concerned about the weekends escalation near Crimea and developments in Ukraine. Europe's security organization OSCE is closely monitoring the situation. It said in a statement that Russia and Ukraine must refrain from what it called any further provocations and engage in dialogue to reduce tensions after the two countries standoff near Crimea. Saturday night (November 24, 2018), legendary actor and comedian Pauly Shore was spotted attending the hit show ABSINTHE at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas (Photo courtesy of Joseph Sanders/Spiegelworld). Enjoying a night on The Strip, Shore was seen taking in ABSINTHEs outlandish acts and hilarious antics during the 8 p.m. performance, Shore went backstage after the show for a photo with The Gazillionaire and later took to Instagram to express his enjoyment of the show sharing, Amazing show tonight in Las Vegas at absinthe. Las Vegas headliner Murray SawChuck aka Murray The Magician was surprised on his birthday this week when Johnny Kats walked on stage in the middle of his show at The Tropicana to surprise him with a Proclamation from the Mayor of Las Vegas stating that November 25 is Murray The Magician Day (Photo credit: Ira Kuzma www.IraKuzmaPhotos.com) The proclamation was given to Murray because of all his charitable contributions and for giving back to the community of Las Vegas. Murray said, For once in my life I was speechless and shocked when John walked on stage to present me with this honor! The Vietnamese government has issued Decree 69/2018/ND-CP (Decree 69) to regulate the temporary import and re-export of goods in Vietnam. The two major stipulations focus on Vietnamese traders processing goods for foreign merchants and the time limit for temporary import and re-export of goods. Decree 69 is already in effect. Processing goods As per Decree 69, Vietnamese traders are allowed to process goods for foreign firms, except for goods that are banned or temporarily suspended. For goods that are on the list of conditional business lines, traders have to meet the production or trading conditions to be eligible for overseas exports. In case of imported or exported goods, which need to have permits, Vietnamese traders can sign the processing contracts on behalf of the foreign traders only after they receive licenses from the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Processing merchants are exempted from import and export tariffs according to the tax laws for temporarily imported goods. However, they have to pay the import and export tariffs for materials and supplies purchased in the country. Time limit for re-export According to Decree 69, goods imported for re-export cannot be kept in Vietnam for more than 60 days once the customs formalities are completed. Once the 60 days are complete, traders have to either re-export their goods or destroy them. All goods are subject to inspections by customs officials. If an extension is required, firms have to send a written request to the customs department that handles import and re-export procedures. At most only two extensions can be granted with each extension of not more than 30 days. In addition, the decree stipulates that temporary import and re-export of goods can only be conducted through two contracts, export and import contracts, which need to be signed by traders of the exporting and importing countries. For re-exported frozen goods, Decree 69 has stipulated certain specific conditions. Firms need to have a warehouse and yard with a minimum capacity of 100 containers (40 feet each) on a minimum area of at least 1,500 m2. In addition, the warehouse and yard need to be surrounded by fences, with a minimum height of 2.5m. In terms of capital, they need to deposit VND 10 billion at credit institutions in cities/provinces where the firms have their warehouse and yards. The new decree will lead to a reduction in violations related to temporary import and re-export of goods. Earlier, some of the goods to be re-exported were sold in the domestic market, including goods that are banned from import or domestic consumption. This issue not only leads to a violation of international trade norms but also disrupts the local market, as these goods are not subjected to taxes which make them cheaper. The growth in foreign direct investment in Vietnam, driven by its strategic location, low wages, and improvement in the business environment, is the major factor that transformed Vietnam into a manufacturing hub in the region. In the long-term, this trend is expected to continue if Vietnam is able to maintain its competitive advantages. In addition, FTAs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA) will diversify the export markets for Vietnam. Near-term outlook Industry, exports, and services growth The growth in manufacturing in the second half of 2017, driven by a rise in exports, boosted Vietnams GDP growth to 6.8 percent. Goods exports in 2017 grew by 20 percent. However, according to HSBCs report Navigator: Now, next and how for business, services sector grew faster at 8 percent in 2017. Services sector In the services sector, tourism, which accounts for over 60 percent of total services exports, will continue to remain a major contributor to the GDP. The sectors contribution to GDP is predicted to rise from seven percent in 2017 to 10 percent in 2020. Growth drivers Vietnams growth drivers in the near-term will continue to be its low wages, extensive trade agreements, and investor-friendly business environment, which will drive FDI into the country. Export markets Demand in Vietnams export markets, especially China, Japan, and Korea which account for a third of Vietnams merchandise exports will continue to grow in the near-term, according to HSBC. Outside Asia, Vietnam will continue to benefit from growing demand in markets such as the US and EU. Long-term outlook Similar to its near-term outlook, Vietnams long-term outlook also looks positive, if it manages to remain competitive. Exports According to HSBC, Vietnams merchandise exports will grow at 10 percent from 2021 to 2030, while services exports will grow annually at seven percent by 2030. Total exports in 2030 are predicted to reach US$750 billion, four times higher than 2016. ICT will dominate the goods exports, while tourism will lead in the services sector. Electronic goods, which currently account for 27 percent of goods exported, will continue its momentum and account for a third in the incremental growth in merchandise exports by 2030, followed closely by clothing and apparel at 20 percent. In the textiles and ICT segments, Vietnam can also move ahead of India and Bangladesh. Industrial machinery and precisions instruments, which are high-tech goods, will grow but at a slower pace as the country moves higher in the value chain. Export markets According to the HSBC study, by 2030, US, China, Korea, Japan, and UAE will be the top export markets for Vietnam. China and the US will contribute around 35 percent to the increase in goods exports between 2017 and 2030 for Vietnam. However, exports to the US will be less diversified than the exports heading to the regional economies in Asia. US will import half of the total clothing exports of Vietnam, while Asia will import 30 percent of ICT goods, and 25 percent of clothing exports. Asian markets such as China, Korea, and Japan will continue to be the growth markets for Vietnam, due to its proximity and strong regional supply-chain linkages. Increase in imports In 2016, 24 percent of the goods imported were industrial machinery, an increase of 18 percent from 2010. According to the study, industrial machinery imports will continue to grow and account for 25 percent of the increase in imports by 2030. In addition, components for ICT equipment and wood & textile manufacturers will account for a fifth of the increase in imports by 2030, while over half of the imported goods will be manufactured goods. Import markets The top import markets for Vietnam in 2030 are predicted to be China, Korea, India, Singapore, and Japan. China and Korea, which currently account for 68 percent of all ICT imports and 90 percent of clothing industrys raw materials, will continue their dominance in the long-term. Japan will be a major source of parts and materials for assembly, while imports from India will grow the fastest by 2030. Services sector In services exports, tourism will continue its dominance, accounting for 66 percent of the exports by 2030. Transportation and distribution, driven by an increase in trade and tourism will account for 18 percent of the exports. Services exports markets China, US, Japan, Singapore, and Australia will be the top destinations for Vietnams services exports. Other regional economies will continue to grow and increase their share in the exports. India will be the fastest growing services exports market for Vietnam, growing annually 11 percent by 2030, followed closely by China at 10 percent. Going forward In the services sector, the government, as well as the domestic firms, need to take full advantage of the rapid growth in tourism. Tourism can create diversified opportunities in different sectors such as F&B, transportation, distribution, and hospitality. As for the manufacturing industry, Vietnam needs to focus on moving higher up in the global value chains, and move away from labor-intensive to skill-intensive processes. This will allow them to remain competitive, diversify exports, and integrate further into the global economy. E-commerce platforms like Tiki.vn offer stunning promotions, but customers are often disappointed by real gains and dishonest business practices, photo :e Toan Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year, taking palace on the day after Thanksgiving Day and the Friday before Cyber Monday in the US, when all e-commerce platforms launch campaigns featuring the biggest promotions of the year. In the week leading up to Black Friday, most e-commerce platforms in Vietnam, including Lazada.vn, Tiki.vn, Shopee.vn, Sendo.vn, and Adayroi.com, have announced huge promotions of up to a 91 per cent discount. However, while these shopping events often declaim themselves the biggest or most attractive of the year, in fact, discounts are not significantly bigger than usual. Despite accumulated losses of nearly VND600 billion ($26 million), Tiki.vn, which is invested by Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, Inc. and domestic tech giant VNG Corporation, has still poured a great deal of money into television commercial. Accordingly, between November 23 and 26, 2018 for Black Friday, the prices of numerous goods on Tiki.vn will be discounted by 91 per cent, such as consumer goods for mothers and children, fashion items, and cosmetics, while the prices of some famous cosmetics from Japan and South Korea will be reduced by 60 per cent. A large variety of goods will be sold for VND11,000 ($0.5). Meanwhile, the promotions of the two conglomerates Vingroup and FPT, via Adayroi.com and Sendo.vn, are more modest, with 50 per cent off for household products and electronics such as laptops, mobile phones, watches, and associated accessories during November 20-23. Discounts all year round E-commerce platforms run promotion programmes throughout the year, appealing to customers not only on Vietnamese holidays, but during major international shopping seasons as well. Only two weeks before Black Friday, e-commerce platforms launched big promotion campaigns for Single Day (November 11). With the support of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, the founder of this event, the Shopping Festival of Lazada presented hundreds of vouchers, dropping a lot of hi-tech items to VND0, while other e-commerce platforms such as Tiki, Shopee, and Sendo were offering 90 per cent discounts for a range of items. However, online shoppers were rather disappointed to find Single Day little different from other events. They advertised it as the biggest sales event of the year, but that is exactly what they said before the previous events, like April 30 (Liberation Day) or September 2 (National Day). There is nothing special, because the prices on normal days are already affordable. There is a lot of hype, but prices are not much cheaper, it gets very old and vexing after a while, said customer Thanh Phuong. This might not come as much of a surprise as according to Nguyen Huong Quynh, managing director of The Nielsen Vietnam, a market research company in the world and in Vietnam, promotions are an absolute must for e-commerce companies not to get ahead but to keep from falling behind as the abundance of promotions results in very limited customer loyalty. Customers prefer online shopping for the promotions. Thereby, e-commerce platforms need to know how to lure in customers. Because they will simply give up online shopping or switch to another platform if there are no promotions, Quynh added. Promotions with abnormally high prices To boost shopping demand during big sales seasons like Black Friday, Christmas, and Single Day, e-commerce firms have been regularly making people think that they bought goods at discount prices. Along with trading in fake goods, Lazada.vn, Southeast Asias leading e-commerce platform, has been constantly frowned upon selling items at very high prices. For example, a box of chocolate chip cookies made in South Korea was discounted by 30 per cent to VND94,990 ($4.1) from VND136,000 ($5.9) on Lazada.vn in the Flash Sale campaign for Single Day. However, these cookies are sold for about VND70,000 ($3) in groceries, and are discounted to VND72,000 ($3.1) from VND84,000 ($3.6) in convenience stores. This means that the discounted goods on Lazada are still more expensive than in groceries or supermarkets. Recently, a customer noticed that Tiki.vn advertised Hue Royal Tea with a 12 per cent discount at VND79,000 ($3.4). However, the normal price of this item was VND68,000 ($3) before. Fake promotions are nothing new, however, they have been part and parcel of e-commerce operators arsenal for long years now. During Black Friday two years ago, Lazada.vn advertised iPhone 7 for VND15.2 million ($660) at a 42 per cent discount. However, some experienced consumers stated that this price was higher than the market price at the time and the discount was referring to the introductory price of iPhone 7, which was VND25.99 million ($1,130). When contacted with regards to these issues, Vu Quoc Tuan, representative of Lazada.vn, told VIR, Lazada is just an e-commerce platform connecting vendors and customers. We do not control or interfere in the selling prices or the introduction of items. It is totally up to the vendors, just as buying is entirely up to customers. Lazada does not take any responsibility for fraud committed by other parties. This stance partly explains why Recess Co., Ltd., the owner of Lazada, received the largest number of complaints among e-commerce platforms last year, according to the Vietnam Competition Authority. While it is questionable whether e-commerce platforms can truly refuse responsibility, customers are advised to be more circumspect when approaching deals and reach out for more information before making a purchase. Fines for violators Decree No.81/2018/ND-CP permits 100 per cent discount in specific circumstances, particularly during sales promotions organised by central or provincial authorities and during public holidays, such as the Lunar New Year and all national holidays. Besides, the decree allows 100 per cent discounts of the sale value during the 30 days leading up to the Lunar New Year. There may be other sales events centrally organised by the government where the 100 per cent discount is allowed, but it remains to be seen how the Ministry of Industry and Trade will schedule and organise such events. Nguyen Thanh Ha, chairman of SB Law, told VIR, Based on Decree 81, we can conclude that Black Friday, Halloween or Cyber Monday are not among the promotional programmes with specific durations such as happy hours, big sale days, monthly or seasonal sales or special trade promotion programmes that require the prime ministers approval. According to Ha, in case e-commerce platforms issue promotions that do not match the regulations of Decree 81, they will have to pay between VND20-30 million ($869.5-1,304) in fines. In case the promotions in questions are available in more than one central city and province, the fines will be between VND40-60 million ($1,739-2,608). Toh See Kiat, chairman of Singapore-based Goodwins Law Corporation, told VIR that if there is a need to quickly stop this rising offence then the penalty should be at least confiscation of all the offenders profits. First offenders should be sentenced to two weeks of jail and/or a fine of 5 per cent of the value they earn from the tricks, while repeated offences should draw increasing penalties, Kiat said. It would help if the law allowed the government to block retail websites by executive orders to the internet service providers ISPs. The best way to stop such violations is to ensure that e-commerce platforms verify the identity of their sellers, have a rating system to highlight the best sellers and issue demerits or remove those with a bad track record, as well as educate consumers on using these platforms. Tourists at Phu Cat Airport in Quy Nhon City, Binh Dinh Province.-Photo baogiaothong.vn The move was made after the provincial Peoples Committee asked the Ministry of Transport to allow international flights to operate out of Phu Cat Airport to cope with the growing number of tourists. Domestic carriers Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways have a plan to open international flights to serve tourists from Quy Nhon to Thailand, Japan, South Korea and China in 2019. Ho Quoc Dung, chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee, said tourism development was a priority for the local economy. To promote tourism development, the province had implemented tourism promotion activities, he said. In 2017, Binh inh welcomed 3.7 million tourists, up 15.6 per cent over 2016, and 3.4 million tourists in the first nine months of this year. The Vietnam Airlines Corporation (ACV) has completed infrastructure at the airport including a parking lot and domestic terminal to meet the demands of domestic and international passengers. ACV is also upgrading the airports old terminal to serve international tourists. At the recent meeting with Binh Dinh Province, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The supported the plan to open international flights to and from Phu Cat Airport and to improve infrastructure to meet international standards. In May, ACV officially moved its operations to Phu Cat Airports new terminal. Vietnam Airlines is operating 35 flights per week to and from the city, including 14 flights between Hanoi and Quy Nhon and 21 flights between HCM City and Quy Nhon. Quy Nhon City is striving to welcome 4.67 million tourists by 2020. Mobile World aims to boost the coverage of its Dien May Xanh system in the northern market The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) Investment recently met the shareholders to announce the corporations first nine month business results. The meeting came after the company Vietnams top retailer (ticker: MWG) had lost trillions of Vietnam dong (tens of million US dollars) in capitalisation after a recent commotion related to an alleged leak of customer data. Accordingly, in just three days earlier this month, the company lost nearly VND2 trillion ($87 million) in its stock market capital value after the information about the alleged leak had appeared in the media, forcing the company stock into a freefall. The MWG ticker lost 3.64 per cent, equal to VND4,000 ($0.17), falling to VND106,000 ($4.6) apiece by the end of the November 9 trading session. In the afternoon of November 9, right after the Ministry of Information and Communications Information Safety Authority informed that it found no signs of a breach in MWGs IT system, the company immediately sent emails to ease the minds of investors and shareholders, but this was not enough to fully ease concerns. Specifically, MWG is one of two tickers making Pyn Elite Fund one of the largest foreign investment funds currently operating in the Vietnamese stock market to suffer the most in 2018 through losing around EUR12.28 million ($14.01 million), while MWG was this funds growth engine last year. MWG is the largest investment accounting for about 15 per cent of Pyn Elite Funds investment portfolio currently. Enlarging market share amidst booming e-commerce At MWGs recent meeting with investors, the companys new business strategy grabbed the greatest attention, surpassing investors concerns over the alleged information leak. At MWGs recent meeting with investors, the companys new business strategy grabbed the greatest attention, surpassing investors concerns over the alleged information leak. Accordingly, the company envisages opening 900 electrical appliance stores in the next two years to seize up to 50 per cent of the market. MWG currently holds 35 per cent of the Vietnamese home and electrical appliance market. In the near future, the company is set to expand its Dien May Xanh outlet chain from 747 units at present to 900 units, while simultaneously upgrading Tran Anh stores which also sell home appliance products and have the potential to reach and surpass their set business targets, while closing underperforming units to save costs. According to industry experts, combining the two brand names into a single one (Dien May Xanh) is a smart move as the marketing cost for developing both brands is hefty. An expert in the home appliance field anticipated that MWG would increase the coverage of its Dien May Xanh store system in the north as it proves easier to find space, especially small lots, for network expansion. In addition, from December 2018, MWG will test its new dual-pricing scheme and promote online sales to boost revenue. The new approach aims to push up online sales revenue, the segment the company has not paid due attention to until present. We want to increase value-added services to each product we sell, said MWGs chairman Nguyen Duc Tai. Accordingly, each item will have dual pricing: one tied with many utilities, such as quick delivery, assembly, and guarantee services, with another lower price available where customers need to pay for technical support. The new move is part of the companys new approach to retain growth: selling products that the company has yet to sell and providing services to the customers it has yet to serve. In the online business, the company will focus on three product branches: handsets, electric appliances, and fast manufacturing consumer goods (FMCG). Targeting Generation Z Experts assume that MWGs current development was mainly driven by its Dien May Xanh chain as the electronic, home, and electric appliances segments have accounted for 40 per cent of the companys revenue. Based on its current scale, it would be hard for the store chain to maintain its robust growth in the near term, while its handset retail shop system has seemingly reached saturation and the scale of its Bach Hoa Xanh shop system remains modest. Figures by market research firm Euromonitor suggest that Vietnam is one of the countries taking the lead in electric appliance sales revenue and the single nation in Southeast Asia posting double-digit growth in this segment during 2018-2022. The leading retailer has thus decided to turn towards Generation Z consumers (people who are born between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s). According to chairman Tai, there are stark differences in the consumer behaviours of middle-aged people and Generation Z, and MWG will work out plans to effectively serve this customer group in the years to come. MWG has studied the Generation Zs consumption habits and is contemplating changes to its business plans to fit this customer groups requirements. Without change we would face losing this customer group to the hands of foreign retailers, Tai said. VEPG Technical Working Groups sharing their recommendations to impvove Vietnam's renewable energy policy This was announced by Bruno Angelet, head of the delegation of the European Union to Vietnam at the second high-level meeting of Vietnam Energy Partnership Group (VEPG) with the theme Joining hands for a sustainable energy future in Vietnam. Notably, the meeting discussed the policy recommendations of the VEPG Technical Working Groups, which aim to promote the development of Vietnam's energy sector in five priority areas including renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy sector reform, energy access, and energy data and statistics. Each Technical Working Group presented and discussed a number of specific policy recommendations, drawn from studies and dialogues among members of the groups during the past year. Notably, the first technical working group reviewed the current incentive regime for wind and solar energy. At the prime ministers Decision No.39/2018/QD-TTg on mechanism for provision of assistance in development of wind power projects in Vietnam, the FiT for wind power will be raised to 8.5 cent (onshore) and 9.8 cent (offshore) per kW/h, respectively, for projects implemented before November 1, 2021. The VEPG was established in June 2017 through an agreement between the government of Vietnam and development partners with the purpose of strengthening mutual partnerships and better aligning and co-ordinating external support to the energy sector in Vietnam. VEPGs members mostly agreed that the main reason behind the lack of investment is the fact that the standard power purchase agreement (PPA) does not correspond to international standards by putting major financial risks on RE projects, pointing out several issues that should be revised. In addition, the existing net metering scheme (Decision No.11/2017/QD-TTg and the related circular) has not yet initiated relevant investment mainly due to a lack of implementation and unsolved taxation questions. Furthermore, the technical working group mentioned challenges to energy efficiency improvements, saying that there is no national energy efficiency programme in place since 2016. It also noted the lack of mechanisms, tools, and policies to enforce compliance with the legal requirements as well as to encourage investment in energy efficiency technology and innovation. The monitoring and inspection of energy efficiency compliance lacks co-ordination among governmental agencies and local departments. The third technical working group focused on energy sector reform, the main content of which is the development of the Vietnam Wholesale Electricity Market (VWEM). Especially, for the direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) mechanism to be rolled out, it may be necessary to start with existing laws and gradually improve the legal framework based on outcomes from the pilot mechanism. Besides, the Technical Working Groups mentioned challenges related to administrative procedures governing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements and pointed out shortcomings that need to be addressed with concrete action, including the fragmented legal framework and lack of an integrated strategy for energy statistics as well as the lack of a comprehensive data quality assurance framework. The EU confirms to support Vietnam to transfer to using clean energy with a suitable selling price. During the past year, the VEPG issued proposals and recommendations in order to support the government to build a complete framework of mechanisms to develop the renewable energy sector. We hope that these proposals will be added to the governments strategic policy and then be implemented, said Bruno Angelet. Vietnam received nearly 40 policy recommendations which are the results of the work of VEPGs five Technical Working Groups. These policy recommendations are valuable and truly relevant to the policy development of the Vietnamese energy sector. The VEPG was established in June 2017 through an agreement between the Vietnamese government and development partners with the purpose of strengthening mutual partnerships and better aligning and co-ordinating external support to the energy sector in Vietnam. Eighteen people were killed and more than 200 injured when the Puyuma Express derailed in Taiwan. (Photo: AFP/Daniel Shih) The crash on the popular east coast line also injured more than 200 people and left the Puyuma Express lying zig-zagged across the tracks in the island's deadliest rail accident for a quarter century. The dead included eight members of a family returning from a wedding and three school children returning from an exchange program in South Korea. The report, released by a special cabinet taskforce probing the crash, said the train was travelling at 140kmh nearly double the speed limit imposed due to a curve in the track as it approached Xinma station, the crash site. "Speeding is the direct cause of this accident," Railway Bureau deputy director Yang Cheng-chun told reporters. "Indirect causes" that led to the speeding included mechanical problems with the train's main air compressor and the driver turning off the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system used to monitor speed in a bid to try to fix the problems, he added. "A string of protective measures in the whole process failed one by one, and as a result the train was travelling at excessive speed at the curve," said Yang. The driver was still communicating with dispatchers about the mechanical problems and did not slow down or hit the brake two minutes before the train flipped, according to the report. When asked about the driver's responsibility, Yang said the cabinet probe was aimed at clarifying the cause rather than "assigning blame." In a separate, ongoing criminal investigation into the crash, prosecutors have said the driver is suspected of "professional negligence" over speeding and for switching off the ATP. Wu Tse-cheng, a minister without portfolio who heads the taskforce, said there had been problems with the compressor since May but the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) has yet to clarify the cause. "As to TRA's responsibility, the authorities will be investigating. My view is that there will be administrative responsibilities as well," Wu said. Passengers recalled how the train had been shaking intensely during the journey and was going "too fast" before it derailed. According to TRA, a Puyuma Express train also derailed last year on the same line but no one was injured. In total, Taiwan has a fleet of 19 Puyuma Express trains, all made in Japan. Photo taken on Nov. 26, 2018 shows the United Nations Security Council holding an emergency meeting on the situation on Russia and Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York. UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday urged both Russia and Ukraine to step away from further confrontation at sea. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday urged both Russia and Ukraine to step away from further confrontation at sea. Briefing the Security Council, in the wake of Sunday's confrontation between vessels from the two neighboring countries off the coast of Crimea, DiCarlo urged them "to refrain from any ratcheting up of actions or rhetoric." An "immediate de-escalation" of tensions is needed in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, she said, underlining the importance of "earnest attempts" to find a peaceful resolution to years of simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine. "(We) remind both (Russia and Ukraine) of the need to contain this incident so as to prevent a serious escalation that may have unforeseen consequences," she said. DiCarlo also recalled her previous calls on all parties to avoid any unilateral steps that could deepen the divide or depart from of the spirit and letter of the Minsk Agreements, which set out the necessary steps to restore peace in eastern regions of Ukraine. DiCarlo noted that the UN fully supports regional efforts to find a peaceful settlement, and that the "renewed and constructive action" was needed by all concerned to overcome the apparent impasse in diplomatic negotiations, she added. The Security Council meeting followed a procedural vote rejecting the agenda of the day's first meeting on the issue, requested by Russia, which argued that its borders at sea had been violated by Ukraine. Dmitry A. Polyanskiy, the first deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, argued that Ukrainian naval vessels had "illegally' crossed into Russian territory and did not acknowledge efforts made by Russian ships to warn them off. Such actions were in violation of the UN Charter and norms of international law, he said. He said responsibility was "borne by those people" who gave the Ukrainian crew "the illegal command." Polyanskiy told Security Council members that the Ukrainian ships were being held in Russian ports, pending an investigation. In a second meeting the same day, Volodymyr Yelchenko, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN, informed the Security Council of his country's account of events, stating that what the Russian representative spoke earlier were an "outright lie." On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. 6 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] Delegates share experiences about their business startups at a seminar for students held on Monday at the University of Food Industry in HCM City. - Photo Courtesy of VTVCorp.vn Nguyen Hoai Thi, chairman of Viet An Group, said that before starting their own business, students should select one or two subjects and learn those well. Thi spoke at a seminar on student startups held on Monday at the HCM City University of Food Industry. To learn skills and gain experience, students should also attend contests organised by their universities, such as the HUFI Young Leader of the HCM City University of Food Industry. Contests teach us what we are bad at and what we can do better. If we experience failure, it doesnt matter. Failure will teach us the way to achieve success, Thi said. He said that English classes should be taken at university because students will have little time to study English while working. The first two years after graduation is the best time for graduates to learn new skills. Students should try to apply for jobs in a company related to their university major to see if they are suited for the job. When they feel confident and have enough skills, then they can start their own business, he added. Last year, the country had 126,000 new enterprises, the highest figure in the last seven years. Duong An Giang, accounting and administration general manager at Bridgestone Vietnam Tire Sales LLC, said that young people should have a startup mindset first and do their job well even though they are working at a company. They should take advantage of internships in companies when they are in their third or fourth year at university, Giang said. Tran Van Son, general director of Gia Bao Cashew Nuts Joint Stock Company, said that students should set goals and identify ways to reach them. He described the ways he approached his business and increased cashew exports. The seminar was organised by the Vietnam Entrepreneur Development Centre, Vietnam Startup Network, the Universityof Food Industry, and CPVietnam Corporation. On the same day, the Vietnam Startup Network kicked off the programme Startup Journey to help young people connect with startups in the country to learn from their experiences. Dinh Thi Phuong, director of the Vietnam Entrepreneur Development Centre, said that more than 900 startup projects with 300 products received investment funds in 2016 and 2017. Tran Phuong Binh and Phan Van Anh Vu appearing at the trial starting today (Photo: tuoitre.vn) The defendants, who number around two dozen, include: Tran Phuong Binh (59), former general director cum vice chairman of the DAB management board; Nguyen Thi Kim Xuyen (60), former deputy general director cum member of the DAB management board; Phan Van Anh Vu (43), also known as Vu Nhom, former chairman of Bac Nam Construction 79 JSC; Pham Van Phuoc (56), former director of VN Food 1 Nam Dinh JSC; In addition to DongA Bank as the civil litigant, the court also summoned 332 companies and individuals to testify. These include the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), DongA Capital Fund, Phu Nhuan Jewelry JSC (PNJ), Bac Nam Construction 79 JSC, Viet Wealth Fund Management JSC (VFW), Cao Thi Ngoc Dung (general director of PNJ, wife of defendant Tran Phuong Binh), and other high-profile people. According to the initial investigation, since its establishement in 1992, DongA Bank revised its business registration certificate 39 times to increase its charter capital to VND5 trillion ($217.4 million), 10.24 per cent of which was held by Tran Phuong Binh and his family, 7.7 per cent by PNJ, 12.73 per cent by Bac Nam 79 JSC, and 12.79 per cent by the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Office. Tran Phuong Binh was the legal representative of the bank between March 1998 and August 2015. While inspecting DABs operations, SBV detected numerous violations, for example, the amassing of VND20.233 trillion ($0.88 billion) in total loans, much of which are non-performing loans. Of this, VND7.96 trillion ($0.35 billion) is difficult to recover and VND5.6 trillion ($0.24 billion) is impossible. On August 13, 2015 SBV issued the decision to bring DAB under special supervision due to the loss of VND2.089 trillion ($90.8 million) and 62,154 taels of gold from the headquarters treasury and VND416 billion ($18 million) from its branches. The Ministry of Public Security's investigation agency began prosecution on December 9, 2016. Up to date, the investigation agency found evidence that Tran Phuong Binh abused his powers and position to appropriate property, violated the Law on Accounting, Law on Credit Institutions, and colluded with other staff to cause a damage of VND3.608 trillion ($156.9 million) to DAB. Tran Phuong Binh was found to have directed the spending of VND1.16 trillion ($50.4 million) to acquire 74.2 million DAB shares, ordered VND500 billion to be exchanged into $13.9 million, and ordered Vu Nhom to buy DAB shares, as well as took VND349.6 billion ($15.2 million) for himself. He appropriated over VND2 trillion ($88 million) from DAB. Binh caused an additional damage of VND1.56 trillion ($69 million) to cover under-the-table interest payments as well as loans, gold, and foreign currency transactions. Moreover, while Dong A Bank was in the red in 2013, Binh proposed to raise the banks charter capital from VND5 trillion ($220.3 million) to VND6 trillion ($264.3 million). At the end of 2013, Binh and Vu Nhom agreed that Vu would buy 60 million DAB shares for VND600 billion ($26.4 million). Vu Nhom mortgaged his land holdings in Danang city to collect VND400 billion ($17.6 million) from Dong A Bank, then used this money to purchase DAB stocks. The remaining VND200 billion ($8.8 million) was paid by the bank as per Binhs instructions, after which Vu signed fake documents showing that he had already repaid the sum to Dong A Bank. Due to the unsuccessful raising of charter capital, in April 2014, Binh directed the bank to return VND600 billion ($26.4 million) to Vu Nhom. Vu declared that he would pay back the VND200 billion ($8.8 million) acquired by falsified documents to Dong A Bank when he sold the land in Danang. Then Vu Nhom bought 50 million DAB shares from four shareholders at the price of VND500 billion ($220 million). In August 2015, Vu continued to purchase an additional 13 million DAB shares at the price of VND136 billion ($6 million), but he only paid VND46 billion ($2 million) of this. The additional conclusion noted that the VND200 billion ($8.8 million) Vu Nhom claims to have paid Dong A Bank was fake, but the VND200 billion ($8.8 million) DAB sent to the account of Bac Nam Construction 79 JSC was real. This money was transferred illegally from DAB to Vu Nhoms company, causing VND200 billion ($8.8 million) in damage to DAB (plus VND3.2 billion ($0.14 million) of interest). Totally, the indictment noted that Tran Phuong Binh, Phan Van Anh Vu, and two other accomplices abused their powers and positions to appropriate VND2.057 trillion ($89.4 million) from DAB. Additionally, Tran Phuong Binh deliberately violated regulations to cause a damage of VND1.551 trillion ($67.4 million) to DAB and ordered staff to spend VND467 billion ($20.3 million) for his private purposes. Ferrari's German driver Sebastian Vettel is considering his future. (Photo: AFP/Andrej Isakovic) The four-time champion German, whose Ferrari car was often the fastest on the grid, conceded he had to look at himself first and the team secondly after he had finished second behind new five-time champion Hamilton in Sunday's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. "I don't think I ever have any problems raising my hand if I made a mistake," he said, conceding that in 2018 he had made a few. "I have to look at myself first." In a spectacular season that saw the title race ebb and flow as Ferrari and Mercedes battled for supremacy before an exceptional purple patch from Hamilton secured both titles for the Silver Arrows, Vettel was, he admitted fallible. "Knowing as well, as a racing driver, how quickly things can go wrong, how quickly things could have gone differently this year, I think I have to review a couple of things," he said. "But there's other things that went wrong and don?t need a lot of reviewing or over-complicating too much. "I know what I need to do. Certainly, here and there, looking back I haven't been at the top of my game so - I look at myself first." In his home German Grand Prix, Vettel crashed out of the race lead and handed the initiative in the title race to Hamilton who, in the rain, claimed a famous victory. In Italy, at Ferrari's home race, he tangled with Hamilton on the opening lap with a similar outcome - another Hamilton triumph that added to the gathering momentum of the 33-year-old Briton. While Vettel admitted his own faults, he was prepared also to concede that Ferrari had not been faultless in an inconsistent season overshadowed by team upheavals following the death of Sergio Marchionne. "Things didn't come together so obviously we did a step back towards the end of the year, which enabled us to be more competitive again," he said, explaining how the team had been forced to abandon an update package that saw them under-performing. "But I think we've understood what went wrong. We obviously will try to do a better job in the future. That was one key thing. On the other hand, I think we had a lot of lessons. It was a tough year in general. "The team is strong and the team has potential, but surely it was a lot of things that happened inside the team?. "It's up to us to look into every single detail and make sure we come out as a stronger group, enabling us to build a stronger package for next year and for the future." Vettel will be joined at Ferrari next year by a new team-mate in Monegasque prodigy Charles Leclerc who replaces Finn Kimi Raikkonen in a bid to rejuvenate the drivers' line-up and add competitive focus. On Sunday, Raikkonen bade farewell to the Italian team with an early retirement after losing power. It was a downbeat end to an often colourful career with Ferrari before he moves to Sauber, but a signal that Ferrari are ready for change. Vietnam has won a three-year dispute with Indonesia regarding safeguards on certain iron and steel products. -Photo www.trav.gov.vn The World Trade Organisation (WTO) late last week announced the agreement of Vietnam, Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, on the one hand, and Indonesia, on the other, that a Indonesia would have to implement the recommendations and rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) regarding safeguards on certain iron and steel products by March 27, 2019. This means Indonesia will have seven months from the date of adoption of DSBs recommendations and rulings. On August 27, 2018, the DSB adopted the Appellate Body report which found the duties applied by Indonesia on imports of galvalume were not a safeguard measure subject to WTO safeguard disciplines. The report also found that Indonesias specific duty on imports of galvalume was inconsistent with Article I:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. On October 11, 2018, Indonesia informed the DSB that it required a reasonable period of time to comply with the DSBs recommendations and rulings because it was impracticable for Indonesia to do so immediately. The dispute was initiated on June 1, 2015 when Vietnam requested consultations with Indonesia regarding a safeguard measure on imports of certain flat-rolled iron and steel products from July 22, 2014. The safeguard measure consisted a specific duty applied from July 2014 and reduced from Rp 4,998, 784 (US$345) per tonne to Rp 3,629,538 per tonne. With the DSBs ruling, Indonesia must stop the application of specific duties as a safeguard measure on flat-rolled iron products and non-alloy steel from Vietnam. According to the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam, more than 60 per cent of Indonesias flat-rolled iron products and non-alloy steel came from Vietnam. Iron and steel are major export products from Vietnam to Indonesia. Customs statistics showed that Vietnam exported 612,700 tonnes to Indonesia in 2017 at an average price of $731.3 per tonne. The authority said the decision was important to Vietnamese firms becaus eit would help them cope with trade defense mechanisms applied by importing countries. The United States and China prepare to meet again on trade. Complications continue in the recovery of an American's remains. Pakistani students study in rival India. A huge miss in the Chinese retail market. Early human hunting, and landing on Mars. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Ukraines parliament voted Monday to impose martial law for 30 days as tensions spiked between Kyiv and Moscow. The action comes after Russian coast guard ships rammed and fired on three Ukrainian naval vessels Sunday in the Black Sea. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more. President Donald Trump is defending his administrations use of tear gas to stop a group of Central American migrants who tried to force their way into the United States. The unrest represented a serious escalation of the crisis, with authorities on both sides of the border arresting migrants and pledging to prosecute those engaging in violence. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more. In 2008, the eight nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, agreed to create the South Asian University in New Delhi - an institution meant to serve as a center of excellence for students from different countries in the South Asian region. But students from Indias long-standing rival, Pakistan, had often failed to gain admission for various reasons, but this year five Pakistani students have been enrolled. VOAs Ritul Josh reports. A humanitarian group working in northern Nigeria says it has recorded 10,000 cases of cholera there and that at least 175 people have died from the disease since the start of November. The Norwegian Refugee Council says most of the cases were found in camps for displaced people in Borno state, where thousands seek refuge from Boko Haram attacks. Timothy Obiezu reports from Maiduguri. Ministers and senior officials from around the world are attending a conference aimed at affirming international solidarity for Afghanistan's efforts to promote development and stability. Two years ago, the international community pledged more than $15 billion as part of a four-year development plan for Afghanistan. The Geneva meeting is seen as a good opportunity before the next pledging conference in 2020 to gauge progress made on the countrys reform agenda. Toby Lanzer, the deputy special representative for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, says the conference will look at how well Afghanistan is following through on its commitment to battle corruption and make public financial management more sound. And, that people who have been engaged in corruption are brought to brook, prosecuted, arrested, and put in jail if found guiltyIt is the primary purpose of why we are here. And, yes, I think quite naturally, the question of peace, the question of ongoing conflict, he said. Lanzer notes a seminal moment occurred at the end of February when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he was ready for talks with the Taliban without preconditions. Afghan forces have been battling a Taliban insurgency which considers the government illegitimate. While new opportunities for peace have arisen, Lanzer tells VOA they will not be explored at this Geneva session. It is a conference about development first and foremost. But, we have carved out some space Senior officials will not just be in the building attending the conference. OK. They are going to be in the sidelines. They will be discussing matters and I think that peace, stability, trade will be very high on their agenda, he said. Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of war and conflict in Afghanistan. After four decades of instability, Lanzer says most of the country has a tremendous hunger for peace. He says the international community can lend support and guidance in moves toward peace, security, trade and development. But, for them to be sustainable, he notes these processes must be Afghan-owned and Afghan-led. Last year Mukhtar Robow had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head. Now the former Islamist al-Shabab militant has downed his guns and donned the garb of a democrat. While Robow is not the first ex-militant to enter Somali politics, the momentum behind his bid to become a regional leader has turned his effort into a watershed moment in the stand-off between the federal government and Somalias seven semi-autonomous regions. How Mogadishu and those states ultimately find ways to share power including via elections such as the Dec. 5 vote in the South West state where Robow is running is critical. "Its a pivotal point in the confrontation between the government and federal member states, which is probably a much greater threat to Somalia security than al-Shabab itself, said Matt Bryden, head of the Nairobi-based think tank Sahan Research. That confrontation is now being played out through Robow, a key figure in the countrys troubled recent history. Somalia has been trying to claw its way out of the civil war that engulfed it in 1991, when clan warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on each other. Al-Shabab has been fighting for more than a decade to topple the weak central government and implement strict Islamic law, often sending suicide bombers against civilian targets. Once a charismatic spokesman for the group known for his military fatigues and long beard, Robow fell out with the leadership in 2013 following a power struggle. He laid low with his militia for several years before renouncing violence and recognizing the authority of the federal government in August 2017. He is now running as an independent. During this time the U.S. withdrew a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture and removed him from their list of sponsors of terrorism, although other international sanctions remain on him. The former insurgent, who once spent time training with the Taliban, has cast himself in a civilian role, donning dark suits and a clerical cap. After the Shabab bombing that killed around 500 people last year, Robow was photographed donating blood. On Sunday, the state electoral commission announced it had accepted his candidature, dismissing federal demands that he be barred because of remaining U.S. Treasury Department sanctions. Other states like Jubbaland and Puntland, who have their own polls slated for the coming months, are watching closely whether the government tries again to block Robows candidacy. "If they [the government] try to force the candidate that people want out, they can also do that in other areas. Then there will be no peace," a senior Somali regional official told Reuters. Somalias Ministry of Information did not respond to requests for comment on Robows case after the Sunday ruling of the election commission. A propaganda coup? Robow's allies and some analysts suggest central government is less concerned with his past and more worried his popularity with the Rahanweyn clan one of Somalias most powerful will propel him to victory ahead of their chosen candidate. Robow himself has not yet reacted publicly, but hours after submitting his papers to the electoral commission, five other candidates threw their support behind him. "All the intellectuals, youth and traders of South West state, have... decided Sheikh Mukhtar Robow will be our candidate," Hassan Haji, who had himself been a candidate, said just after the commission's announcement. Robow is campaigning on a security card, promising in an October rally: "If I win, I will eliminate the al-Shabab militants, bandits in government uniforms and other clan militias who disturb our South West state." For many Somalis, Robows rehabilitation as a politician would be a step too far. Much of the online debate about him refers to the attacks he helped coordinate with al-Shabab. Yet despite their misgivings and those of the central government, Robow could also become a potential thorn in al-Shabab's side, some analysts believe. Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group think tank argued that allowing him to stand for office could be portrayed as a propaganda coup for the central government as it tries to encourage more insurgent defections. "It's about people seeing the potential of democracy," he said. "If there's no reward for coming over, it just encourages a fight to the death." Apple is launching a new program designed to address the technology industry's scarcity of women in executive and computer programming jobs. Under the initiative announced Monday, female entrepreneurs and programmers will attend two-week tutorial sessions at the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters. The camps will be held every three months beginning in January. For each round, Apple will accept up to 20 app makers founded or led by a woman. The app maker must have at least one female programmer in its ranks to qualify. Apple will cover travel expenses for up to three workers from each accepted company. Like other major tech companies, Apple has been trying to lessen its dependence on men in high-paying programming jobs. Women filled just 23 percent of Apple's technology jobs in 2017, according to the company's latest breakdown. That's only a slight improvement from 20 percent in 2014, despite the company's pledge to diversify its workforce. The idea behind the new camp is to keep women interested and immersed in the field, said Esther Hare, Apple's senior director of world developer marketing. Apple's training camp is "a great step forward," said Lorraine Hariton, CEO of Catalyst, a group that fights for equal rights for women workers. "There a lot of talented women in technology. Hopefully, this helps set a tone for the entire industry." But it's not clear how much of a dent Apple's new program will make. Google also offers training for girls and women pursuing careers in technology, but its program hasn't done much to diversify the workforce so far. Women were hired for nearly 25 percent of Google's technology jobs in 2017, up from nearly 21 percent in 2014, according to the company. Apple and other technology companies maintain that one of the main reasons so many men are on their payrolls is that women traditionally haven't specialized in the mathematical and science curriculum needed to program. But industry critics have accused the technology companies of discriminating against women through a male-dominated hierarchy that has ruled the industry for decades. Apple isn't saying how much it is spending on the initiative, though beyond travel expenses, the company will be relying on its current employees to lead the sessions. Argentina is on the verge of signing a deal with the United States that would allow two-way trade of fresh beef for the first time in nearly two decades, the South American country's international trade secretary, Marisa Bircher, said. The agreement, expected to be signed within days, would simultaneously open beef imports to both countries, Bircher told Reuters in an interview. "We are negotiating the reopening to happen over the days ahead," she said. "All the technical and administrative questions have been settled." At a time when the South American nation is seeking to boost beef sales abroad, the agreement would allow Argentina to show other prospective buyers that its meat is healthy enough to enter a country with some of the world's toughest sanitary protocols. The deal would also open a new market for the U.S. cattle sector, although demand for U.S. beef is low in Argentina. The country is famous for its quality steaks, some tender enough to be cut with a spoon, as demonstrated with a flourish by waiters in the iconic steak houses of Buenos Aires. Argentina will have a 20,000-ton limit on its exports to the United States, Bircher said, while there will be no limit on U.S. beef going to Argentina. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative's Office in Washington declined to comment. The U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires did not respond to a request for comment. U.S. beef passed a bureaucratic hurdle needed to access Argentina last week, according to a notice posted on Wednesday on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service website. But before any U.S. beef can be exported to Argentina, meat companies need to register their products, processing plants and labels with Argentina's National Service for Agrifood Health and Quality, said Joe Schuele, spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a trade group. The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service formally approved imports of fresh beef from northern Argentina in 2015, according to a document posted in the U.S. Federal Register. The USDA still needs to certify Argentine processing plants that would ship meat to the United States to make sure they meet safety standards, said Bill Bullard, chief executive of U.S. cattle producers' group R-CALF USA. "Opening the border to raw beef from Argentina is certain to put downward pressure on U.S. cattle prices, and meat packers will be able to use this cheaper, undifferentiated beef as a direct substitute for beef produced by U.S. cattle producers, he said. Cattle disease Bircher said Argentina stopped exporting beef to the United States about 17 years ago due to U.S. concerns about contamination of Argentine cattle by foot-and-mouth disease. "We have eliminated that through a vaccine program in our livestock sector," she said. Another senior Argentine official, speaking on background, confirmed that Argentina and the United States were "close" to striking a deal. The last time the United States sent fresh beef to Argentina was in 1999, according to Argentina's official statistics agency. Once one of the world's top five beef suppliers, Argentina was hobbled under the anti-farm policies of the countrys previous president, Cristina Fernandez. The country fell off the top 10 list of beef exporters during her eight-year presidency. It is back in the top 10, according to USDA data and could get into the top five next year thanks to the free-market policies of President Mauricio Macri and a sharp weakening of the local peso currency this year. The United States produced 11.9 million tons of beef last year and exported 1.3 million tons, according to USDA data. Argentina produced 2.8 million tons of beef and veal in 2017, exceeding its domestic consumption by 293,000 tons in 2017. It is a delicate time for the world food system. Traditional trade routes of grains and oil seeds have been interrupted by a trade war between Washington and Beijing, and the world's two biggest economies are now looking for new commercial partnerships to strengthen their positions. Brazil's right-wing president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Monday picked retired General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz as his minister in charge of political relations with Congress, adding a fifth military man to his cabinet. Bolsonaro, a former army captain turned politician who surged to victory on a pledge to end years of corruption and rising violence, made the announcement in a Twitter post. Moving to deliver on his law-and-order platform, Bolsonaro's choice for justice and public security, former anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro, said he would coordinate federal and state police forces to better fight organized crime and slow the growth of Brazil's powerful drug gangs that control swaths of cities. Some Brazilians are concerned that the appointment of Santos Cruz, who led United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other current or former military officials marks a return to a militarized government. Bolsonaro takes office on Jan. 1. Seeking to defuse those concerns, Bolsonaro, a fan of the 1964-85 military dictatorship, has vowed to adhere to Brazil's constitution and has moderated some of his more extreme views expressed during almost three decades as a federal congressman. Bolsonaro, who has long been a critic of the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, again appeared to tone down his strident views on regional migration, saying that Venezuelans fleeing to Brazil could not be returned to their country "because they are not merchandise." In comments to reporters on the weekend, he also floated the idea of creating a refugee camp for Venezuelans in the northern border state of Roraima, while defending strict checks on who enters "because there are some people we don't want in Brazil." A nongovernmental organization working on the Venezuelan exodus into Brazil said refugee camps were an "extreme option" for war zone areas and would worsen the plight of the immigrants. "The camps would be far from urban areas and the Venezuelans want to be in urban areas to be able to rebuild their lives," said Camila Asano of Conectas rights group. She said the crisis has subsided in Roraima where there are 6,000 Venezuelans in shelters and the number living on the streets was down to 600. Asano said, however, that a Brazilian Air Force airlift to move Venezuelans out of Roraima and to larger cities appeared to have slowed down. In Brasilia, where Bolsonaro's transition team is preparing to govern, Moro told reporters that he will create a secretariat of police operations to coordinate all Brazil's security efforts by federal and state police forces to curb violence in the country that has more murders than any other. Brazilian states have control over nearly all the police forces in the country, and Moro underscored he would respect their sovereignty. But he said federal coordination was badly needed to improve street policing across Brazil and to tame the country's overcrowded prisons, which are under the control of drug gangs who recruit from jail and where bloody uprisings are rampant. Congolese opposition scion Felix Tshisekedi returned home to Kinshasa on Tuesday greeted by tens of thousands of supporters as he kicked off his campaign to replace longtime president and foe Joseph Kabila in December elections. "We will go with the people and we will win," said Tshisekedi, the 55-year-old son of the late Etienne Tshisekedi, the face of the DR Congo's opposition for decades. He vowed to deploy teams of observers to combat election fraud, while his running mate Vital Kamerhe, a former speaker of parliament, said on Twitter that the pair made a "winning ticket". Tens of thousands of supporters from Tshisekedi's main opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party and Kamerhe's Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) were on hand to greet them as they arrived at Kinshasa's airport. Under an agreement reached Friday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, if Tshisekedi wins the presidency in the December 23 polls he will make Kamerhe his prime minister. Kamerhe, who ran against Kabila in 2011, will be Tshisekedi's campaign director. The pair withdrew from an agreement hammered out in Geneva earlier this month in which seven opposition parties coalesced around a joint candidate in order to boost chances of victory. Their surprise choice, little-known MP Martin Fayulu, will now vie against Tshisekedi as well as former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, Kabila's hand-picked successor. Tshisekedi, who does not enjoy the same degree of popularity as his father, last year told AFP that if he won the presidency he would set up a "truth and reconciliation commission" to call Kabila to account, but would allow him to stay in the country. He has promised a return to the rule of law, to fight the "gangrene" of corruption and to bring peace to the conflict-wracked east of the vast central African country. Fayulu enjoys the support of opposition heavyweights Jean-Pierre Bemba and Moise Katumbi, both barred from running. Bemba, a former warlord who was Kabila's vice president from 2003 to 2006, saw his conviction for war crimes overturned at the International Criminal Court after serving two years in prison. Once touted as a consensus opposition candidate, popular business tycoon Katumbi, who lives in exile in Belgium, has been accused of training mercenaries to topple Kabila and was convicted in absentia for real estate fraud. Shadary, a hardline former interior minister, is one of 15 Congolese individuals under European Union sanctions, accused of human rights violations between December 2016 and early 2018. In all, 21 candidates are registered to run in the race to replace 47-year-old Kabila, who has ruled since his father, president Laurent-Desire Kabila, was assassinated in 2001. Kabila's second and final elected term in office ended nearly two years ago, but he has remained in office thanks to a caretaker clause in the constitution. The volatile, poverty-stricken nation has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was "the boss" of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, a witness told jurors in the accused Mexican drug lord's trial in Brooklyn federal court on Monday, contradicting the claim by Guzman's lawyers that his dominance of the drug trade was a myth. Miguel Angel Martinez, who described himself as a former manager in the cartel, took the witness stand on the sixth day of Guzman's drug trafficking trial, testifying under an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors. For his safety, court sketch artists were ordered not to draw an accurate likeness of him. "I knew that he was the boss," Martinez said when a prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Robotti, asked him about Guzman's role in the organization. "Since I met him, he would give all of us orders." Guzman, 61, was extradited from Mexico in January 2017 and faces life in prison if convicted. His lawyers are seeking to prove that another drug lord, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, actually ran the cartel and used Guzman as a scapegoat. Martinez said he began working for Guzman as a pilot and as a guide to other pilots on drug flights in 1987. He said one of the pilots he assisted that year, on a flight carrying 170 kilograms (375 lbs) of cocaine, claimed he had flown in the U.S. Navy. Martinez said he was soon relieved of his pilot duties after damaging a propeller in a botched landing with Guzman on board. Guzman, he recalled, told him he was a "really bad pilot" and sent him instead to Mexico City to open an office for the cartel. Posing as attorneys, Martinez said, he and others at the office directed bribes to government officials so the cartel could operate undisturbed. The beneficiaries included a high-ranking police official, Guillermo Calderoni, who fed Guzman information about law enforcement activities "every day," Martinez said. Martinez said he and Guzman became close, and that in 1989, Guzman became the godfather to Martinez's newborn son. Martinez said he often talked by radio to the Colombian cartel pilots who would bring cocaine to Mexico, using code words to avoid detection. Drug shipments, he explained, were "parties." "Wine" meant jet fuel, and "girls" were planes. In the 1990s, Martinez said, U.S. authorities became more capable of intercepting planes, and Guzman and his Colombian suppliers largely switched to using fishing and merchant ships. Martinez is expected to continue testifying on Tuesday. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort broke his plea agreement with U.S. federal prosecutors by lying to investigators, special counsel Robert Mueller's office alleged late Monday. Manafort, who faces up to 10 years in prison for various financial crimes, had agreed to cooperate with investigators looking into possible collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russian meddling in the 2016 election. In exchange for his cooperation to answer questions "fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly," some of the charges against Manafort were dropped and prosecutors could have asked for a lighter prison term. But Mueller's office says Manafort broke his promise and also broke federal law with "crimes and lies." It did not specify what Manafort lied about, but promised to provide details at a later time. Manafort's attorneys denied the allegations. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Trump continued his attacks on the Mueller probe, claiming that the U.S. national news media "builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it wont be Mueller and his terrible Gang of Angry Democrats." "Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie," Trump said. "Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue." Despite Trump's views on Mueller, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said later that the president "has no intent of doing anything" to fire Mueller and that there are no discussions of pardoning Manafort. "He knows there was no wrongdoing" on his part, she said of Trump. "There was no collusion" between his campaign and Russia. The developments in the Manafort case could mean some of the charges against him that were dropped could be reinstated, while prosecutors are no longer likely to ask for a lighter sentence. Manafort is in jail awaiting sentence, which both sides now say there is no reason to delay. Another Trump associate, former foreign affairs adviser George Papadopoulos, began serving a 14-day prison term Monday for lying to investigators in the Russian probe. A federal judge rejected his appeal to delay his prison term while he waited for an appeals court to rule on whether the Mueller appointment was constitutional. Judge Randolph Moss reminded Papadopoulos that he had already waived his right to an appeal and that two other judges had upheld the legality of the Mueller appointment. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in January 2017 about the extent of his contacts with people who had connections with Russia. Trump has consistently called the Mueller probe a "witch hunt" and strongly denies any collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. Both U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are expressing disappointment with General Motors announcement it is slashing 15 percent of its salaried workforce and halting production at five facilities across North America, "We don't like it," Trump said. "I believe they will be opening up something else (in the state of Ohio). The president told reporters at the White House that he had spoken with the chairman and chief executive officer of Americas top carmaker, Mary Barra, and that he was very tough with her. I spoke with her when I heard they were closing and I said, You know, this country has done a lot for General Motors. You better get back in there. Trump, speaking Monday afternoon prior to boarding Marine One to head to political rallies in the state of Mississippi, added: They say the Chevy Cruze is not selling well. I said, well, get a car that is selling well and put it back in. I think youll see something else happen there. He also pressed Barra to close down GMs production in China, the president told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Trudeau, on Twitter, said his government well do everything we can to help the families of those affected by this news get back on their feet. The Canadian prime minister added that he had spoken with Barra on Sunday to express my deep disappointment in the closure of the factory in Oshawa in the province of Ontario. Barra, in a statement, said her companys decision is motivated by market pressure and she will transform GM to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future." This industry is changing very rapidly," Barra later said during a briefing for reporters. These are things we are doing to strengthen our core business. Besides Ottawa and Ohio a critical swing state for the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign GM will shut down the Detroit-Hamtramck factory in the U.S. state of Michigan. Plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and another in the suburban Detroit community of Warren, which make powertrain components, have no products assigned to them after 2019 and risk being closed, according to the automaker. It also revealed it will shutter two unidentified factories outside North America. GM says said it is shifting its focus to electric and autonomous vehicles, but the transition will mean the loss of 6,300 hourly and salaried workers. Declining demand for sedans and the anti-globalist policies of the Trump administration have taken their toll on the automotive manufacturer. The company has said that steel tariffs imposed earlier this year have cost it $1 billion. Shares of GM, which reported surprisingly strong third quarter earnings, closed Monday up nearly 5 percent, after rising 7.9 percent during the trading session on the New York Stock Exchange. Countries must hit China with sanctions over the mass detention of ethnic Uighurs in its western Xinjiang region, hundreds of scholars said on Monday, warning that a failure to act would signal acceptance of "psychological torture of innocent civilians." Beijing has in recent months faced an outcry from activists, academics and foreign governments over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the Muslim Uighur minority and other ethnic groups that live in Xinjiang. In August, a United Nations human rights panel said it had received many credible reports that a million or more Uighurs and other minorities are being held in what resembles a "massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy" in the region. Representatives from a group of 278 scholars in various disciplines from dozens of countries called on China at a news briefing in Washington to end its detention policies, and for sanctions directed at key Chinese leaders and security companies linked to the abuses. "This situation must be addressed to prevent setting negative future precedents regarding the acceptability of any state's complete repression of a segment of its population, especially on the basis of ethnicity or religion," the group said in a statement. Countries should expedite asylum requests from Xinjiang's Muslim minorities, as well as "spearhead a movement for U.N. action aimed at investigating this mass internment system and closing the camps," it said. China rejects criticism of its actions in Xinjiang, saying that it protects the religion and culture of minorities, and that its security measures are needed to combat the influence of "extremist" groups that incite violence there. The country's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said the world should ignore "gossip" about Xinjiang and trust the government. But after initial denials about the detention camps, Chinese officials have said some people guilty of minor offenses were being sent to "vocational" training centers, where they are taught work skills and legal knowledge aimed at curbing militancy. Michael Clarke, a Xinjiang expert at Australian National University who signed the statement, told reporters that China sought international respect for its weight in global affairs. "The international community needs to demonstrate to Beijing that it will not actually get that while it's doing this to a significant portion of its own citizenry," Clarke said. A group of Iranian doctors has staged a protest outside Irans parliament to demand hospital treatment for a detained human rights activist who has been on a hunger strike for months. Photos received and verified by VOA Persian on Monday showed the doctors standing and holding signs in support of activist Farhad Meysami outside the parliament building in Tehran. Lawyer Mohammad Moghimi, who represents Meysami, told VOA Persian in a phone call that the protest happened on Monday morning. Iranian security forces arrested Meysami, a physician in his late 40s, at his office on July 31. Authorities said they found books they believed were illegal and badges with slogans protesting Irans Islamist policy of forcing women to veil themselves or wear the hijab in public. Rights groups have said Meysami faces charges of committing national security offenses, including encouraging women to remove their headscarves in public. They also have said he began refusing food on August 1 to protest his detention in Tehrans Evin Prison. In one photo of Mondays protest outside parliament, a group of more than 30 doctors and their supporters held identical small signs calling for Meysami to be taken to a hospital emergency room for treatment. Some of the protesters also held a large sign saying the hospital to which Meysami should be transferred must be well-equipped. In an open letter to Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani, the protesters and other Iranian doctors who apparently signed the letter reiterated their demand for Meysami to be hospitalized, saying they were very concerned about their colleagues health. Iranian reformist newspaper Etemaad Online published a report about the letter on Monday. Etemaad said about 400 doctors had written to Larijani, telling him that Meysamis weight had dropped from 78 to 44 kilograms as a result of the hunger strike, which they said continues to this day. The doctors wrote that Meysamis weight loss has been accompanied by numerous physical and psychological problems that constitute a medical emergency. Our religious and professional ethics compel us to ask you to instruct the relevant authorities to transfer Meysami to a specialized hospital, the doctors told Larijani, adding that, any unfortunate development for Meysami could become a pretext for criticism of Iran by its foreign enemies. Rights activists have said Meysamis hunger strike also is a protest against government harassment of other activists, including his friend and prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and her husband Reza Khandan. Iranian authorities arrested Khandan in September after he campaigned publicly for the release of his wife, whom they imprisoned in June. Both have been charged with national security offenses after expressing support for Iranian women who have staged public protests against the nations compulsory hijab law this year. This article originated in VOAs Persian Service. Iran is determined to fight against U.S. President Donald Trump's anticipated Israel-Palestinian peace plan, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday according to semi-official news agency ISNA. Trump has dubbed his administration's long-awaited plan the "ultimate deal", which has already unsettled the Palestinians although no details have yet been disclosed. Speaking in Tehran, Larijani said the "deal of the century" was a "plot" between Iran's arch foe Israel and the United States to establish the Jewish state's domination in the Middle East. "We will stand against the regime of Israel and won't let this deal take place in the region," Larijani said at an annual conference on Islamic unity. "If Americans are imposing sanctions on Iran today and are putting pressure on Iran, the reason for it is because Iran has stood against Israel," he added, quoted by ISNA. Earlier this year, Washington pulled out of the landmark international nuclear accord with Iran and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran. "In order to achieve their objective they try to create new political arrangements in the region," Larijani said of U.S.-Israeli strategy in the Middle East. The parliament speaker also singled out regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as he warned countries against normalizing relations with Israel. Countries in the region "should know that they would not benefit at all by letting [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to their countries", Larijani said. "People in the region, in any country, regard Israel as a cancerous tumor and hate it," he added. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this year reaffirmed his country's "steadfast" support for the Palestinian cause, after coming under fire for saying both Israelis and Palestinians "have the right to have their own land". Israel has diplomatic relations with just two Arab states - Egypt and Jordan - but Netanyahu has been pushing for broader regional ties. The Israeli premier traveled to Oman in October, while two of his ministers visited the UAE. Iraq's parliament will vote next week on whether to approve the remaining eight candidates for Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's cabinet, the speaker's office said Monday. The session initially scheduled for Nov. 27 was delayed late Monday night by one week. Lawmakers last month confirmed 14 out of the 22 ministers Abdul Mahdi initially presented, but nevertheless approved a confidence motion, allowing him to become prime minister. Eight ministries, including the vital defense and interior portfolios, remain vacant. Parliament initially said it would vote on the remaining ministers earlier this month, but the vote was delayed due to disagreements over nominees. The new government faces the daunting task of rebuilding much of the country after a devastating war against Islamic State, as well as solving acute economic problems and power and water shortages. U.S. Representative Mia Love, the only black Republican woman in Congress, lashed out on Monday at President Donald Trump and her party, saying in her concession speech that they had failed to fully embrace minority voters. Love, a conservative from Utah, narrowly lost her bid for a third term to Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, a Democrat, according to the final vote tally from the Nov. 6 elections. Weeks before the race was called, Trump criticized Love at a news conference for not supporting him enough. "The president's behavior toward me made me wonder, what did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican?" Love told supporters in Utah on Monday. "This gave me a vision of his world as it is. No real relationships, just convenient transactions." Democrats gained at least 37 seats in the House of Representatives in congressional elections, more than enough to wrest control from the Republican majority. The results of some close races are still being calculated. Republicans retained a slim hold on the Senate. On Monday, Love, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Haiti in the 1970s, accused the Republican Party of keeping minority voters at a distance and driving people who might otherwise support conservative policies into the arms of Democrats. "Because Republicans never take minority communities into their homes, as citizens into their homes and into their hearts, they stay with Democrats," she said, noting that Democrats had just elected new black and female representatives to Congress. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Christiana Purves, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said: "Candidates who lost in safe Republican districts lost because they couldn't connect with voters." Trump won Love's district by nearly 7 percentage points in 2016. The day after his party lost its lock on Congress, Trump used a White House news conference to call out several Republicans who failed to hold on to their House seats. "Mia Love gave me no love," he said. "And she lost. Too bad." Love, 42, reaffirmed her commitment to conservative principles and did not rule out another run for office. "I'm not going away," she said. "But now I am unleashed. I am untethered and I am unshackled and I can say exactly what is on my mind." Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is denying a Guardian newspaper report that he met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange three times, including at the time he joined the Trump campaign. "This story is totally false and deliberately libelous," Manafort said through a spokesman. "We are considering all legal actions against The Guardian, who proceeded with the story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false." Assange is in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid possible arrest and a trial in the United States. The Guardian said Manafort went to the embassy three times in 2013, 2015 and March 2016 about the same time he started working with Trump's presidential campaign. The newspaper did not say what the two allegedly talked about. It also did not cite sources for its story. WikiLeaks also denies the story, calling the reporter a "serial fabricator." "WikiLeaks is willing to bet The Guardian a million dollars, and its editor's head, that Manafort never met Assange," it tweeted. Manafort is in jail awaiting sentencing for financial crimes. WikiLeaks published thousands of Democratic Party emails hacked by Russia in with the aim of hurting Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Special counsel Robert Muller's investigation into Russian campaign meddling includes an effort to determine whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia or WikiLeaks. Meanwhile, U.S. prosecutors admitted theyd made a mistake when they accidentally referred to charges against Assange during an unrelated case. Free-press advocates have asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to unseal the charges. They have argued that everyone knows Assange is in the Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid arrest and that there is no longer a reason to keep those charges a secret. Prosecutors have said the inadvertent remark that Assange was charged does not constitute confirmation of the charges. They also have said that under legal precedent, charges against a defendant are not made public until his arrest. Brinkema declined to rule immediately, saying, "This is an interesting case, to say the least." Assange first took refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid being prosecuted for alleged sex crimes in Sweden. While whatever charges he may be facing in the United States are unclear, WikiLeaks has published hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and classified military documents. Results released Monday show voters in Mexico approved all 10 pet projects of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in a referendum questioned because of low turnout. Lopez Obrador has touted referendums as a way to give people power in determining policies, but critics say the latest process was hurt by the way the questions were worded, a lack of information and the fact that only about one in 90 registered voters participated. Lopez Obrador's most controversial plan, a train that would connect the main tourist attractions across the Yucatan Peninsula, had the highest level of rejection at 6.6 percent, but was still approved by 88.9 percent of voters. The president-elect has set a starting date for pursuing the "Maya Train" after he takes office on Dec. 1, although he hasn't submitted environmental impact statements or consulted indigenous communities. A group of environmentalists sent a petition asking him to rethink the project. "Mr. President-elect, we have just come off 30 years in which past administrations have imposed mega-projects on the country without sufficiently serious studies," they wrote in November. The ballot for the referendum assured voters the train "will not affect the environment," but did not cite any evidence. Lopez Obrador brushed off experts' criticism, accusing them of being out-of-touch with the people. "Look at what the petition-signers don't know, I say it with all respect and I recognize the majority are very smart people, but as amazing it sounds, they need to make contact with the people in the countryside," Lopez Obrador wrote of his critics. The train aims to connect the colonial city of Merida with resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum before it continues through sparsely populated areas like Bacalar, Calakmul and Palenque. Some experts say the northern leg of the route makes economic sense, but the southern part runs across a jungle. A total of 946,000 people participated in the weekend referendum, which was the second that has been held since Lopez Obrador was elected in a landslide. Also approved The referendum also approved plans to construct an oil refinery, build a rail link between the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, raise supplementary payments for the elderly, implement a massive reforestation program, and offer free internet and better health care. Each ballot measure, including those concerning youth scholarships and work-training programs, received between 90 and 95 percent approval. Gustavo de la Vega, a 30-year-old industrial designer, was one of those lined up at a Mexico City voting booth to participate in the referendum. He voted against the train project because of its cost. "The idea of a referendum is good, but it was badly organized," said de la Vega. "If it is not done well, it runs the risk of people losing faith in referendums." In a move that throws into question Lopez Obrador's respect for the constraints on presidential power that have been forged in Mexico over the last 25 years, workers have already started clearing land in a coastal mangrove area for the oil refinery. The project hasn't been formally approved and some doubt whether it makes much financial sense. Lopez Obrador is irritated by the fact that Mexico imports much of its refined gasoline from the United States because its own refineries aren't up to the task. A native of the southern state of Tabasco, he also has vowed to champion projects in the country's often poor and underdeveloped southeast. The final U.S. Senate contest of the year is being settled Tuesday in the southern state of Mississippi, with voters choosing between the incumbent Republican, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, and her Democratic challenger, Mike Espy, in an election that has recalled images of the state's racist past. The runoff election in the deeply conservative, Republican stronghold is being held because neither Hyde-Smith, who is white, nor Espy, who is black, won a majority of votes in a four-way race held three weeks ago. Hyde-Smith, appointed to the seat when Sen. Thad Cochran resigned for health reasons, and Espy, a former U.S. agriculture secretary, are looking to fill the remaining two years of Cochran's term and would face another election in 2020. Red state, confederate past Hyde-Smith appeared headed to winning the contest, in part because Mississippi has a long history of electing Republicans and has not elected a black senator for more than a century. But comments she made during the run-off campaign raised doubts about the outcome, prompting President Donald Trump to stage two election-eve rallies in the state to show his support. On Tuesday morning, he tweeted, "We need Cindy Hyde-Smith in Washington." Mississippi was one of 13 southern U.S. states that seceded from the United States in the 1860s over the rights of white plantation owners to possess slaves, declaring themselves the Confederate States of America. The secession led to the country's deadly Civil War that ended with the South's defeat and surrender in 1865. But racial disputes endured for decades in Mississippi, with lynchings of black residents and segregation of the races in virtually all aspects of life, including schools, restaurants and other public accommodations, until the 1960s. Lynching comments Hyde-Smith drew quick scorn when she said that if a political supporter invited her "to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." She apologized "to anyone offended" by the remark, but photos of her also surfaced of her holding Confederate memorabilia from the Civil War. In another campaign comment, she suggested "maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult" for liberal college students to vote. Hyde-Smith contended that Espy had misconstrued her lynching remarks. But the Democrat rebuffed her. "No one twisted your comments because your comments were live, it came out of your mouth. I don't know what's in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth. It's caused our state harm. It's given our state another black eye that we don't need," he said. On Monday, state authorities removed two nooses and six hate signs they found on the grounds of the Mississippi State Capitol. Corruption charges Republicans have depicted Espy as out of touch with the state, where he once served as a congressman, and lacking in judgment. He once faced corruption charges receiving favors while he was the country's agriculture chief in the 1990s although he was acquitted. If Hyde-Smith wins, Republicans will have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, compared to the current 51-49 edge. An Espy win would limit the Republican gain to a single seat. Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the November 6 voting for the first time in eight years, gaining at least 38 seats, with two tight contests still undecided. Kenyan politicians must pass a bill that would ensure women one-third of seats in parliament or risk plunging the country into a constitutional crisis, MPs supporting the bill warned Tuesday. Despite Kenya's 2010 constitution stating that no more than two-thirds of any elected or appointed body can be of the same gender, women hold 22 percent of seats in the country's lower house of parliament, and 31 percent in the upper house. Court rulings since 2012 have directed parliament to pass legislation to enforce the gender rule or risk being dissolved but previous attempts have failed with female MPs accusing male lawmakers of deliberately blocking efforts. If parliament is dissolved, a general election would need to be called. Kenya held a controversial, highly polarized and violent election last year. Amid increased scrutiny from the courts, Kenya's lower house is expected to vote on a bill Wednesday. "The truth is we, as parliament, are unconstitutional," said Rozaah Buyu, representative for the western region of Kisumu. "What authority do we have to bring others to account when we are not acting within the constitution by disregarding the gender rule?" The high court in 2017 stated the chief justice can be petitioned to advise the president to dissolve parliament if a law was not enacted, said Buyu, who is vice president of the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association. Time to be counted Kenya's economy has grown on average by 5 percent annually over the last decade, but the benefits have not been equally shared. Women and girls remain disadvantaged socially, economically and politically. Women make up only a third of the 2.5 million people employed in the formal sector, says the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. And while women provide 80 percent of Kenya's farm labor, they own 1 percent of agricultural land. The percentage of women in Kenya's parliament is lower than its east African neighbors such as Ethiopia, South Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda, according to Inter-Parliamentary Union. Gender experts say women in politics around the world face a barrage of challenges from physical and sexual violence to a lack of money to fund their campaigns. Quotas, they say, help create a more level playing field and ensure their voice is represented. The bill, which was introduced in parliament last week, provides for special seats to be created if elections fail to achieve required numbers, with candidates from the under-represented gender nominated to fill them. Backed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, many MPs have voiced support for the bill, citing recent moves in Ethiopia where half the cabinet, the election chief, head of the supreme court and the president are women. 'Slay queens' and sexist slurs But the bill faces stiff resistance. Previous attempts to vote on a bill have flopped, largely due to quorum hitches where MPs have failed to be present, and there is a fear that this could happen again. Gender rights experts say critics have also whipped up opposition by using populist comments and sensationalist sexist slurs, to portray the draft legislation as a "womens' bill." Positions, they add, will be given to mistresses of senior politicians or "slay queens" a slang term used to describe a beautiful woman who only dates wealthy men rather than based on merit. One MP suggested women who are nominated for parliamentary seats undergo an "integrity test" where their children's DNA be checked to ensure they are all of the same father. Gender rights experts say this has fueled public misconceptions about the bill resulting in a debate which has been dominated by sexism instead of facts. "There is a misunderstanding by citizens that gender is women, and the bill is meant to favor women in political representation," said Zebib Kavuma, head of U.N. Women in Kenya. "This provision could be men or women, like in the case of Rwanda where currently more men are nominated to achieve the threshold of two-thirds. Passing the gender rule is important for posterity. Men may need the law in some years to come." Male opponents have also argued that creating additional parliamentary seats would cost Kenyan taxpayers millions of dollars in extra salaries, but campaigners cite studies from the Institute of Economic Affairs which estimate the cost per person to be around six shillings ($.06) annually. "All of these are just side shows of irrational patriarchy," said Marilyn Kamuru, a prominent lawyer and gender rights commentator. "Politicians are trying to rile up anti-women feeling as a basis to justify their voting no. That's why they don't want to have a discussion about the fact that this bill is a constitutional requirement." Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will lay the foundation stone Wednesday for what is dubbed as a cross-border "corridor of peace" to allow religious devotees from India's minority Sikh community to make free visits to one of their holiest gurdwaras, or temples, on the Pakistani side after more than seven decades. The temple, known as Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, is considered to be the first temple ever built and the final resting place of Guru Nanak, the Sikhism founder. Indian leaders, on behalf of the Sikh community, have long been demanding Islamabad provide unrestricted access to the holy site in Kartarpur, in Pakistan's Punjab province. India's and Pakistan's independence from Britain in 1947 divided the Punjab province, where Sikhism was born. Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu performed the groundbreaking Monday on his side of the corridor at a ceremony just two kilometers from the Pakistani border. The mutually agreed-to project is rare between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals. Historically strained ties have deteriorated in recent years and bilateral official talks remain suspended. The fenced corridor of about five kilometers aims to connect the Kartarpur temple to the Sikh holy shrine at Dara Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district. Officials say the corridor will be in place for the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak's birth in November 2019. Khan's government has invited, among others, Indian officials and journalists for Wednesday's groundbreaking in Kartarpur, three kilometers from the border with India. An Indian ministerial-level delegation is expected to attend the ceremony as special envoys of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Pakistan calls this a corridor of peace. I call it the corridor of infinite possibilities of peace," Indian Punjab provincial minister Navjot Singh Sidhu told reporters shortly after arriving in Pakistan for the ceremony. He crossed the border by foot at the Wagah crossing near the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore to attend the event at the invitation of his friend, Prime Minister Khan. Members of the Sikh community on both sides have welcomed the construction of the cross-border corridor linking the two holy sites. Indian pilgrims currently must seek visas to enter Pakistan and travel more than 200 kilometers to visit the Kartarpur shrine. The temple is visible on clear days from a viewing stage on the Indian side, where religious devotees gather every day to have a glimpse of it. India and Pakistan have fought three wars, and mutual tensions often hamper pilgrims' plans to get timely visas to visit the shrine. Two of those wars have been over the disputed Kashmir region, which remains at the center of tensions. When Democrats hold leadership elections this week, they will be choosing the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for the 116th Congress the 55th person in U.S. history to serve in this critical government position. Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi of California is favored to win the role for the second time, returning as the only woman to serve in the job, and the only woman to serve twice. If she wins, Pelosi will take over the position when the new Congress is sworn in next January, claiming the role from Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, who has served as speaker since 2015. Ryan is retiring from the U.S. Congress at the end of this term, but he would have been unable to continue as speaker even if he had decided to stay on. The position ostensibly is elected by the full membership of the House, but in fact the party in power gets to select one of its own to lead the House. Democrats won back control in the November midterm elections and likely will hold at least 233 of the 435 seats in the chamber. Selection process By tradition, the speaker is chosen from within the majority party's senior leadership, but there are few official rules governing the process. Technically, anyone even someone who is not a member of the House of Representatives could be elected speaker. But this has yet to happen. The speaker of the house continues to serve as the representative of his or her congressional district, handling constituents' concerns and voting on legislation, as well as tending to the larger administrative duties of running the House. Speaker elections are held every two years when a new Congress is sworn into office. The selection of a new speaker also occurs if a speaker dies in office, is removed for wrongdoing, or steps aside partway through a Congress. This was the case when Speaker John Boehner resigned in 2015 under pressure from his own Republican members, initiating the election that resulted in the selection of Ryan. Broad powers The position of speaker was established in 1789 by an article of the U.S. Constitution. Over time, the speaker assumed important political responsibilities beyond the procedural responsibilities laid out by the founders of the United States. Of utmost importance, the speaker is second in line to succeed the president behind the vice president, and ahead of the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. If the president and vice president die or are incapacitated, the speaker would become acting president of the United States. This scenario has yet to occur in U.S. history. In modern times, the speaker has wielded power in a number of ways. He or she is key in setting the legislative agenda for the majority party, serving as his or her congressional party's public face, making committee assignments, and governing the bill debate process. The speaker is also in charge of managing the complicated rules and procedures governing the House. All government spending and tax legislation must originate in the House under the Constitution, which gives the speaker and his or her committee chairmen considerable leverage in negotiating with the Senate and the White House. Over the decades, power has shifted back and forth between the speaker and House committee chairmen. In the mid-1990s, when Republicans took control of the House for the first time in 40 years during the Clinton administration, Speaker Newt Gingrich consolidated power within the speaker's office and enhanced its role as a political force. Gingrich, an iconoclastic Georgia Republican, said he saw his position "as essentially the political leader of a grassroots movement seeking to do nothing less than reshape the federal government along with the political culture of the nation." Challenges This broad political power can generate significant problems. The speaker has to manage the often-conflicting demands of factions within his or her party and marshal enough votes to pass pieces of legislation. Ryan's tenure was marked by the challenges of governing his own caucus including negotiating the concerns of the House Freedom Caucus, a powerful conservative voting bloc within the Republican Party. Ryan also had to find a way to pass legislation while contending with President Donald Trump's mercurial leadership style. He was often called upon to answer for some of Trump's more controversial public statements and tweets. Speaker elections are usually decided in party meetings before the decision goes to a full House floor vote in January. By tradition, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of votes from all members to be elected. The last time a speaker election was contested on the House floor was in 1923. Pelosi faces a challenge from within her own party from younger and newly elected members who have publicly said it is time for Democrats to have fresh perspectives in leadership. Sixteen Democrats signed a letter last week vowing to oppose Pelosi for speaker on the House floor, while several others including freshmen Mikie Sherill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia have threatened to do the same. Pelosi, 78, who was first elected to the House in 1987, can only afford to lose 15 Democratic votes and still win the speakership. If she can't secure the necessary majority of Democrats in Wednesday's party caucus, the battle will move to the House floor, where she could use the additional time for further negotiations with dissident members of her own party or far less likely attempt to win over Republican votes for a majority. So far, no one within the House Democratic Caucus has emerged to challenge Pelosi. Representative Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio weighed a run but announced last week she would vote for Pelosi in return for support of her legislative priorities. Clowns on stilts and trampoline artists entertained Britain's Prince Harry on Tuesday when he visited a youth circus in Zambia which is supported by one of Queen Elizabeth's charities. Harry spent the last of his two days in Zambia visiting World War Two veterans in the capital Lusaka before heading to Circus Zambia, a project that helps vulnerable young people to gain skills, education and employment. The monarch's grandson posed for pictures surrounded by performers at the circus, which is funded by The Queen's Commonwealth Trust, a charity supporting young leaders around the world. "All the stories we heard today are powerful reminders of the great work underway here. All brought about by young people, like you, who have stepped up to make a difference for others," Harry, who is president of the trust, said in a speech. "Too often funders and investors miss what you're doing because they can't find you or see what you're achieving. We established The Queen's Commonwealth Trust to be your platform." Harry sent "best wishes" from his wife Meghan who is pregnant and remained at home. On Monday, Harry met Zambian President Edgar Lungu, pledging to help boost the country's dwindling elephant population through another of his charities. Harry is a frequent visitor to southern Africa for his charity work and holidays. Harry and Meghan have enjoyed romantic getaways together in Botswana. Prosecutors asked a judge Tuesday to sanction the defense team for Joaquin El Chapo Guzman for facilitating unauthorized contact between the Mexican drug lord and his wife during his federal trial in Brooklyn. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York filed heavily redacted court papers citing surveillance footage in which Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, was seen in possession of a cellphone in violation of courthouse policy. Prosecutors said the impermissible contact happened in concert with an attorney visit to the defendant following two trial days last week. An attorney for Guzman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Federal authorities have imposed tight security measures throughout Guzman's proceedings. Tuesday's court filings referred to a determination by the Attorney General that communications and contacts between the defendant and other persons could result in death or serious bodily injury to others. Guzman has been denied contact with his wife as a security measure since being brought to New York City to face drug conspiracy charges. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, citing security risks, ruled that Guzman could not even hug his wife before the trial got underway, even as he praised the infamous drug smuggler for good conduct in solitary confinement. The request for sanctions came as the trial entered its third week. The jury heard testimony Monday that Guzman orchestrated massive cocaine shipments that made him so rich he could pay multimillion-dollar bribes to a powerful police commander. Miguel Angel Martinez told the jury that he worked for Guzman in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and that the Sinaloa cartel paid $10 million in drug money bribes at least twice to Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, a top law enforcement official in Mexico City. Calderoni, in exchange, tipped off the cartel about investigations and offered other protections that helped keep Guzman from getting caught, Martinez testified. A court in Russia-annexed Crimea ordered 12 of 24 Ukrainian sailors who were apprehended at sea Sunday by Russian naval forces following a confrontation to be detained for two months. Russia accused the sailors, who were manning three Ukrainian navy ships, of illegally entering Russian waters and ignoring warnings from Russian border guards, charges Ukraine has denied. Ukraine has imposed martial law in some of its border regions in response to the incident, and with a growing number of other European countries, has urged Western allies to impose additional sanctions on Moscow. President Petro Poroshenko said the martial law will help "strengthen Ukraine's defense capabilities amid increasing aggression and according to international law a cold act of aggression by the Russian Federation. Ukraine's parliament voted Monday to approve martial law in 10 of the country's 27 regions effective Wednesday. The measure calls for 30 days of martial law, an apparent concession to opponents, which would allow for the countrys presidential elections to be to be held as scheduled, on March 31 of next year. Russia fired on two Ukrainian naval ships and rammed a third vessel Sunday in the Black Sea, seizing the ships and accusing them of illegally entering its territorial waters. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Ukraine and Russia Tuesday to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation in the region. The North Atlantic Council, the main decision-making body of NATO, said "there is no justification for Russia's use of military force against Ukraine" and called on Russia to release the sailors "without delay." U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley condemned Russia for its "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory." "This is no way for a law-abiding civilized nation to act," Haley said at a Monday emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. "Impeding Ukraine's lawful transit through the Kerch Strait is a violation under international law. It is an arrogant act that the international community must condemn and will never accept." When asked at a White House media briefing Tuesday whether U.S. President Donald Trump would condemn acts of Russian aggression against Ukraine, National Security Advisor John Bolton replied "we'll stand on" Haley's comments at the U.N. At the U.N. Security Council, most members condemned the escalation, urged restraint and called for the unconditional and immediate release of the Ukrainian sailors and the return of their ships. Poroshenko is demanding Russia immediately release the Ukrainian sailors and ships. At the U.N. Security Council, most members condemned the escalation, urged restraint and called for the unconditional and immediate release of the Ukrainian sailors and the return of their ships. Poroshenko is demanding Russia immediately release the Ukrainian sailors and ships. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg also called on Russia to release the Ukrainian navy ships, saying "there is no justification" for Moscow's actions, while European Union chief Donald Tusk condemned Russia's use of force and reiterated the EU would stand in support of Ukraine. Reacting to Kyivs imposition of martial law, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday against committing any reckless acts, saying he was seriously concerned about the developments. Russia's deputy envoy to the U.N., Dmitry Polyanskiy, blamed Kyiv and its Western supporters for the escalation. "This provocation was pre-planned, that's obvious, and it was with the full connivance of Western states that de facto have just given carte blanche to any actions taken by their subordinates," he said at an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council Monday. Ukraine's U.N. ambassador, Volodymyr Yelchenko, said his government would like to see a tightening of economic sanctions on Moscow. "The sanctions is the only real tool that can make Russia at least start thinking of their behavior," Yelchenko said after the meeting. "Sanctions, they do bite." "We think our sailors committed no crime whatsoever," Yelchenko said, noting that Crimea is not recognized as Russian territory by anyone except Russia. "What are they claiming, that Ukrainian sailors committed a crime by crossing the Russian border? Where is this border? It does not exist." Sunday's incident began when a Ukrainian tugboat set out to escort two navy ships from Odessa, on the Black Sea, through the Kerch Strait to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, in the Sea of Azov. The Kerch Strait is the only passage between the two seas. Ukraine said Russia used a tanker to block access to the Kerch Strait, which under a treaty is shared territory. The Trump administration has previously warned Russia against trying to strangle Ukraines economy by harassing international shipping through the Kerch Strait. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, claiming its ethnic Russian majority was under threat from the Ukrainian government. A month later it fomented a pro-Russia separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine in an ongoing conflict that to date has claimed more than 10,000 lives. Ukraine and the West repeatedly have accused Russia of fueling the conflict by providing rebel forces with weapons and other support, a charge Moscow has been denying despite strong evidence to the contrary. VOA's Fern Robinson and Wayne Lee contributed to this story. By 2090, days when it is too hot or too smoggy to work will cost the U.S. economy up to $155 billion each year in lost productivity. That's one economic impact cited in the National Climate Assessment released Friday by 13 U.S. federal agencies. "Without substantial and sustained global mitigation and regional adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century," the report said. "I don't believe it," President Donald Trump responded when asked about the report Monday. Trump has for many years rejected the scientific consensus that human activities are the main drivers of climate change. Since his first day in office, he has worked to undo regulations that aim to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. The focus has been on boosting the economy. According to the government's new report, failing to cut those emissions ultimately will take a significant toll on economic output. Since the last congressionally mandated report was issued four years ago, scientists have developed a more granular understanding of how climate change will affect particular regions of the United States, and they better understand "how some of the damage caused by climate-related events is uniquely attributable to climate change, as opposed to what would happen normally," said Andrew Light, distinguished senior fellow at the World Resources Institute and co-author of the chapter on mitigation. The report tallied up $118 billion per year in damage to coastal property by the end of the century, along with a $20 billion hit to roads and $1 billion to bridges. It also says deaths from extreme temperatures will cause $141 billion in losses per year. Increases in rates of one disease West Nile Virus will cost $3 billion per year. The Trump administration dismissed the report as alarmist. "The report is largely based on the most extreme scenario, which contradicts long-established trends" said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters. It assumes that, "despite strong economic growth that would increase greenhouse gas emissions, there would be limited technology and innovation." In announcing his intention to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, Trump cited a study funded in part by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that said the United States would lose 2.7 million jobs and nearly $3 trillion of gross domestic product by 2040. Critics questioned those figures, especially since, as the report itself notes, it does not take into account benefits of reduced emissions. Others see significant opportunities in cutting greenhouse gases. Nearly 500 companies have pledged to reduce their emissions to meet their portion of the Paris climate agreement. "These guys are not doing it for the good of the planet," said Wesleyan University economist Gary Yohe. "It's because the bottom line says this is a good idea." Russias attack on Ukrainian military vessels in the Black Sea marks the first time the Kremlin has staged open aggression against Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea four years ago, and launched a destabilization campaign in the Donbas region. In the past, the Kremlin has used so-called little green men Russian soldiers without an insignia to stage provocations or battle Ukrainian forces, denying they are directed by Moscow. Sunday marked a new departure, however, with the hybrid war being stepped up, a development that risks igniting a broader conflict and spiraling out of control. Putin power play So why did the Russian leader decide now to stage such overt aggression especially at a time when the Russian economy is struggling and could well do without any escalation of sanctions by Western nations? Putin's move comes just days before he's due to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump during the G20 summit in Argentina to discuss Syria and the recent U.S. decision to withdraw from a nuclear weapons treaty. Some Western officials and analysts point to President Putin's slumping popularity at home, the consequence of unpopular pension reforms, to explain the attack in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and is officially a waterway shared by Russia and Ukraine. They say it is calculated to boost Putin's approval ratings that are now at a five-year low. On Twitter, Alexei Navalny, the prominent Putin critic, said the decision to ram, fire on and seize two gunboats and a tugboat is straight out of the Russian leader's traditional playbook in which he uses foreign adventures to divert domestic attention and encourage a siege mentality, whereby Russians feel Western nations are ganging up on them. We can expect 30 talk shows a day over the next month with discussions of aggressive warmongers from Kyiv, he tweeted. Captured sailors on display Russia has moved fast to deepen the crisis, say analysts. A court in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, has ordered one of the 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia to be held for two months and Russian media are reporting the man faces a charge of illegally crossing Russian borders, which carries a sentence of up to six years in prison. The other sailors are likely to face similar court action. And the Kremlin moved quickly to blast the Ukrainians for what it paints as aggression against Russia, with state television Tuesday broadcasting interrogations of three of the captured sailors. "I recognize that the actions of the ships with military hardware of Ukraine's navy had a provocative character," one of the sailors, identified as Vladimir Lisov, said in one of the interrogations, which Kyiv claims are being conducted under duress. "I was carrying out an order," Lisov added. Dark intent? The presence of Ukrainian counterintelligence officers on board the vessels also is being highlighted by the Kremlin and on state media as evidence of Kyiv's dark intent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov labeled the whole incident a dangerous provocation by the government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Russian officials accuse Poroshenko of trying to manufacture a crisis to boost his desperately low poll ratings ahead of next year's presidential elections, which he appears to be in danger of losing. The exchange of accusations is par for the course in the long-running conflict between Moscow and Kyiv since the Euro-Maidan uprising led to the 2014 ouster of Ukraine's pro-Kremlin president, Viktor Yanukovych. Certainly Poroshenko has seized on Sunday's clash, pressing for the imposition of martial law in 10 of the country's 27 regions, a decisive move that some say may boost his poll standings. Jan Surotchak, senior director for Transatlantic Strategy at the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based democracy-promotion non-profit, acknowledges that Poroshenko could profit from the clash in domestic political terms, if he is able to focus his allies in the West to be more supportive. But he says, In the end, of course, that is not what this is about. Surotchak sees Sunday's incident as not just being about Putin's short-term domestic political needs or Poroshenko's seizing on it to try to improve his own election prospects. Most importantly what Moscow was trying to achieve is what it has tried to do now for the better part of the last five years, and that is destabilize Ukraine. Western and Ukraine officials say there has been a pattern of heightened Russian activity in the Donbas region, as well as the Sea of Azov for the past few weeks. Speaking three days before the maritime clash, Stepan Poltorak, Ukraine's defense minister, cautioned that the Donbas conflict was re-entering an "active phase," saying he expected more open moves by Russia. Western officials say they are taking those Ukrainian warnings seriously and acknowledge there has been a ratcheting up by Russia of incidents in the Sea of Azov since Russia completed in May the building of a bridge across the strait linking the Russian mainland to Crimea. Russia has increased sharply the number of armed vessels patrolling the Kerch Strait, and cargo ships trying to reach Ukraine's Azov ports Mariupol and Berdyansk have found themselves subject to more Russian inspections and week-long delays, resulting in a 33 percent decrease in freight traffic. West shares blame Sunday's incident, Ukrainian officials say, is a direct result of the lack of Western reaction to the unfolding imposition of a de facto sea border, which has been slowly but surely throttling access to the Sea of Azov and the Ukraine's important Mariupol industrial region. The Kremlin felt emboldened, they say. How all this will play out when Trump and Putin meet in Buenos Aires later this week isn't clear. When asked whether it will have any impact on the encounter between the two leaders, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said the clash in the Kerch Strait won't affect preparations for the meeting. Putin may be banking, say American officials, on reducing any fallout from the Kerch clash by pledging to enforce U.N. sanctions on North Korea ahead of a planned U.S.-North Korea summit next month, something he was urged to do earlier this month by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during an exchange at an Asian summit meeting. WATCH: US responds to Russia-Ukraine conflict Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Egypt on Monday, the third leg of his first trip abroad since the murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last month. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi greeted the heir to the throne of the world's top oil exporter at the airport in Cairo when he arrived from Bahrain after a visit to the United Arab Emirates. The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago has strained Saudi Arabia's ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammed's image abroad. Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said last month that Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has said the killing was ordered by the highest level of Saudi leadership but probably not by King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on the 33-year-old crown prince. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have bolstered ties since Sisi took power in 2013 after ousting President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, which both countries have banned and designated as a terrorist organization. The prince, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, and Sisi are expected to discuss biltarel relations and enhancing them in various fields "in addition to discussing political issues of mutual interest," Egypt's state news agency MENA said. The crown prince was accompanied by several high-ranking Saudi officials, including the foreign, trade and interior ministers and the head of general intelligence, the official Saudi Press Agency said. Prince Mohammed is expected to travel to Tunisia after his two-day visit to Egypt before heading for a G20 meeting in Buenos Aires at the end of the month which will be attended by leaders from the United States, Turkey and European countries. Dozens of Tunisian rights activists and journalists staged a small protest in the capital Tunis on Monday against Prince Mohammed's planned visit over the Khashoggi killing. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has said the killing was ordered by the highest level of Saudi leadership but probably not by King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on the 33-year-old crown prince. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is making a high-profile visit to Riyadh's major Arab allies before heading on to the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of the week. After visiting Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, the crown prince went to Tunisia, where protesters denounced him for his alleged involvement in the killing of a Saudi journalist. Members of civil society and women's groups chanted slogans against Crown Prince Mohammed in the center of the Tunisian capital, Tunis. They blamed him for the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi intelligence agents at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul last month. Saudi Arabia has said the crown prince had no prior knowledge of the killing. The crown prince's visit Tuesday went ahead, despite calls from Tunisian journalists to cancel his invitation. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi defended his decision to welcome Crown Prince Mohammed. In Cairo, small crowds of Egyptian supporters chanted slogans in favor of Crown Prince Mohammed, as government officials, including President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, gave him a strong welcome, in what was being billed as his sixth visit to the country since his father became king in 2015. The crown prince last visited Egypt in March to sign economic agreements, including those pertaining to a bridge between the Sinai and the Saudi mainland, a joint economic zone, and efforts to join the electricity grids of both countries. The Saudi daily Asharqalawsat said Riyadh was the largest Arab investor in Egypt, with trade between the two countries surpassing $7.3 billion in 2017. Cairo and Riyadh also cooperate militarily in patrolling vital shipping lanes in the Red Sea and in Yemen. Egypt does not, however, have ground troops in Yemen. Washington-based Gulf analyst Theodore Karasik told VOA that Crown Prince Mohammed's visit was aimed at garnering geopolitical support for Riyadh in regional conflicts, including the economic embargo against Iran. The visit to Tunisia is really about Iran and guaranteeing that Tunisia is on Riyadh's side when it comes to confronting Iran, he said. Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at American University of Beirut, said the Saudi crown prince's visit to the region was aimed at telling his domestic audience that he was given a strong welcome by the kingdom's Arab allies. "The Saudi media will focus on the official reception, Khashan said. As far as [the crown prince] is concerned, he will be sufficiently satisfied with the outcome of the visit. Civil society does not count in the Arab region, so he is not really expecting a warm reception by the people. He is focused on the ruling elite with whom he shares the same political values." Khashan said he thought the crown prince was likely to survive the political storm that followed the killing of Khashoggi and that the issue was gradually losing steam in the Arab media. He noted that many pundits predicted the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after conflict broke out in 2011, but the Syrian president went on to survive the storm. Scientists warn that Brazil's president-elect could push the Amazon rainforest past its tipping point with severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. Jair Bolsonaro, who takes office Jan. 1, claims a mandate to convert land for cattle pastures and soybean farms, calling Brazil's rainforest protections an economic obstacle. Brazilians on Oct. 28 elected Bolsonaro, a far-right candidate who channeled outrage at the corruption scandals of the former government and support from agribusiness groups. Next week global leaders will meet in Poland for an international climate conference to discuss how to curb climate change, and questions about Brazil's role in shaping the future of the Amazon rainforest after Bolsonaro's election loom large. New Brazilian government data show the rate of deforestation a major factor in global warming has already increased over the past year. Brazil contains about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest, and scientists are worried. It's nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Amazon rainforest to the planet's living systems, said Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist at the University of Sao Paulo. Each tree stores carbon absorbed from the atmosphere. The Amazon takes in as much as 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year and releases 20 percent of the planet's oxygen, earning it the nickname "the lungs of the planet." It's also a global weather-maker. Stretching 10 times the size of Texas, the Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. Billions of trees suck up water through deep roots and bring it up to their leaves, which release water vapor that forms a thick mist over the rainforest canopy. This mist ascends into clouds and eventually becomes rainfall a cycle that shapes seasons in South America and far beyond. By one estimate, the Amazon creates 30 to 50 percent of its own rainfall. Now the integrity of all of three functions as a carbon sink, the Earth's lungs, and a rainmaker hangs in the balance. On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro promised to loosen protections for areas of the Brazilian Amazon designated as indigenous lands and nature reserves, calling them impediments to economic growth. "All these reserves cause problems to development," he told supporters. He has also repeatedly talked about gutting the power of the environmental ministry to enforce existing green laws. "If Bolsonaro keeps his campaign promises, deforestation of the Amazon will probably increase quickly and the effects will be felt everywhere on the planet," said Paulo Artaxo, a professor of environmental physics at the University of Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro's transition team did not respond to an interview request from the Associated Press. Brazil was once seen as a global environmental success story. Between 2004 and 2014, stricter enforcement of laws to safeguard the rainforest aided by regular satellite monitoring and protections for lands designated reserves for indigenous peoples sharply curbed the rate of deforestation, which peaked in the early 2000s at about 9,650 square miles a year (25,000 square kilometers). After a political crisis engulfed Brazil, leading to the 2016 impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, enforcement faltered. Ranchers and farmers began to convert more rainforest to pastureland and cropland. Between 2014 and 2017, annual deforestation doubled to about 3,090 square miles (8,000 square kilometers). Most often, the trees and underbrush cut down are simply burned, directly releasing carbon dioxide, said Artaxo. "In the Brazilian Amazon, far and away the largest source of deforestation is industrial agriculture and cattle ranching," said Emilio Bruna, an ecologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Now observers are parsing Bolsonaro's campaign statements and positions as a congressman to anticipate what's next for the Amazon. Bolsonaro who some call "tropical Trump" because of some similarities to U.S. President Donald Trump is a former army captain with a knack for channeling outrage and generating headlines. As a federal congressman for 27 years, he led legislative campaigns to unravel land protections for indigenous people and to promote agribusiness. He also made derogatory comments about minorities, women, and LGBT people. Much of his support comes from business and farming interests. "These farmers are not invaders, they are producers," said congressman and senator-elect Luiz Carlos Heinze, a farmer and close ally of Bolsonaro. He blamed past "leftist administrations" for promoting indigenous rights at the expense of farmers and ranchers. "Brazil will be the biggest farming nation on Earth during Bolsonaro's years," said Heinze. Indigenous-rights advocates are worried about the new direction signaled. "Bolsonaro has repeatedly said that indigenous territories in the Amazon should be opened up for mining and agribusiness, which goes completely in the opposite direction of our Constitution," said Adriana Ramos, public policy coordinator at Social Environmental Institute in Brasilia, a non-governmental group. In a Nov. 1 postelection interview with Catholic TV, Bolsonaro said, "We intend to protect the environment, but without creating difficulties for our progress." Bolsonaro has repeatedly said that Brazil should withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, a treaty his predecessor signed in 2016 committing to reduce carbon emissions 37 percent over 2005 levels by 2030. After the election, he has publicly wavered. Meanwhile he has named a climate-change denier, Ernesto Araujo, to become the next foreign minister. Nelson Ananias Filho, sustainability coordinator at Brazil's National Agriculture and Cattle Raising Confederation, which backed Bolsonaro's campaign, said, "Brazil's agribusiness will adapt to whatever circumstances come." Whether or not Brazil formally remains in the Paris Climate Accord, the only way for the country to make its emission targets is to completely stop deforestation by 2030 and to reduce agricultural emissions, said Nobre, the climate scientist. "If Bolsonaro keeps moving in the current direction, that's basically impossible." There's another danger lurking in deforestation. Aside from the oceans, tropical forests are the most important regions on the planet for putting water vapor in the air, which eventually becomes rainfall. "It's why we have rain in the American Midwest and other inland areas it's not just the Amazon, but it's the largest tropical rainforest," said Bill Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. Carlos Nobre and Thomas Lovejoy, an environmental scientist at George Mason University, have estimated that the "tipping point for the Amazon system" is 20 to 25 percent deforestation. Without enough trees to sustain the rainfall, the longer and more pronounced dry season could turn more than half the rainforest into a tropical savannah, they wrote in February in the journal Science Advances. If the rainfall cycle collapses, winter droughts in parts of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina could devastate agriculture, they wrote. The impacts may even be felt as far away as the American Midwest, said Laurance. Bolsonaro's rhetoric about potentially dismantling the environmental ministry and rolling back indigenous rights worries Nobre who says, "I am a scientist, but I am also a Brazilian citizen, and a citizen of the planet." George Soros' Open Society Foundation said on Monday it would cease operations in Turkey, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the billionaire philanthropist of trying to divide and destroy nations. The organization said it was no longer possible to work in Turkey after it became the target of "baseless claims" in the media and a renewed investigation by Turkish authorities into mass protests against Erdogan's government five years ago. It said the Turkish Interior Ministry was renewing attempts to prove that the Soros foundation was behind the 2013 Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest political challenges to Erdogan's 15-year rule. The foundation denied any link to the protests. Erdogan denounced Soros last week while speaking of the detention of 13 activists and academics accused of supporting attempts by jailed businessman and rights advocate Osman Kavala to revive the Gezi protests. "The person [Kavala] who financed terrorists during the Gezi incidents is already in prison," Erdogan told a meeting of local administrators Wednesday. "And who is behind him? The famous Hungarian Jew Soros. This is a man who assigns people to divide nations and shatter them. He has so much money and he spends it this way." One of the 13 people detained on Nov. 16 was Hakin Altinay, who helped establish the Open Society Foundation in Turkey. Others were staff members of Kavala's Anadolu Kultur center, which campaigns for human rights and cultural diversity. All but one of the detainees were later released, but not before the European Union and United States expressed concern about their cases. Ankara's Western allies have repeatedly criticized the arrest of tens of thousands of people since a failed military coup in Turkey in July 2016. Money transfers Kavala, in detention for more than a year, said on Monday in a statement posted on his website that he was still waiting for an indictment to be prepared so he could prove that claims that he had helped to direct and finance the Gezi protests and wanted to overthrow the government were "unfounded." The pro-government Sabah newspaper, citing reports from financial crime investigators, said on Monday the Open Society Foundation had made financial transfers to Kavala's organization to support the spread of the Gezi protests nationwide. It said nearly 1.9 million lira had been transferred between August 2011 and April 2017. The foundation said it informed the Turkish authorities every year about which institutions and projects had received donations, and the authorities had approved them. "However, with the new investigations that have been opened, it is seen that there is an effort to link the Open Society Foundation to the Gezi incidents in 2013. These efforts are not new and they are outside reality," it said. The foundation said it would apply for the legal liquidation and winding up of the company's operations as soon as possible. "The increase of baseless claims and disproportionate speculation in the media in recent days has made it impossible for the foundation to continue its operations." Soros, a U.S.-based financier and philanthropist, and his Open Society Foundation have also come under fire in Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orban accuses Soros and the liberal causes he backs of trying to undermine Europe's Christian culture by promoting mass migration, a charge the financier denies. Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to the FBI and special counsel investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges, breaching his plea agreement, according to a court filing on Monday. Manafort said in the same filing he disagreed with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's assertion that he lied to investigators. Both the special counsel and Manafort's attorneys agreed there was no reason to delay his sentencing and asked the court to set a date for that. Mueller, who is probing Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, said in the filing that after signing a plea agreement: "Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters." Mueller said in the filing that those lies breached Manafort's plea agreement. Manafort's attorneys said in the same filing that Manafort had met with the government on several occasions and provided information "in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations." They said Manafort disagreed with the characterization that he had breached the agreement. Manafort, a longtime Republican political consultant who made tens of millions of dollars working for pro-Kremlin politicians in Ukraine, ran the Trump campaign as it took off in mid-2016. He attended a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a group of Russians offering damaging information on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who lost in an upset to Trump in the presidential vote that November. Since September this year when he took a plea deal in return for reduced charges, Manafort has been cooperating with Mueller's inquiry. Russia denies U.S. allegations it hacked Democratic Party emails and ran a disinformation campaign, largely on social media. Trump denies any campaign collusion and calls the investigation a political witch hunt. While Syria's 7-year civil war has had an impact on nearly all aspects of life in the country, it also has provided many Syrians working in the oil sector with new job opportunities. In the northeastern corner of Syria, the large oil fields have one common theme: makeshift oil refineries. The refining process involves an ad hoc oil burner and large containers with crude oil. But many locals complain that such primitive ways to produce and refine oil are leaving a major impact on their health and the environment they live in. Oil workers recognize the risks that come with their profession, but they say unemployment forced them into it. "We work at these oil refineries because there aren't many job opportunities in our region," Nasir Talif, an oil worker in the town of Tirbespi, told VOA. "It's dangerous and unhealthy, but we don't have many choices," he added. WATCH: Syria's Makeshift Oil Refineries Spark Concerns Since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, nearly half of the country's 22 million people have been displaced. Those who remain face high rates of unemployment. Local economy Hamid Maiouf, another oil worker, said "there are many factors leading us to work in this dangerous profession. The war in Syria has impacted the local economy." He told VOA that "working in agriculture is not as profitable anymore because of the drought. That's why you see a lot of people getting into the business of oil refining, despite its risks." Syria's richest oil fields lie in the Kurdish-majority Hasaka province. There are more than 1,300 oil wells across Hasaka. Prior to 2011, daily production of crude oil in the province reached about 22,000 cubic meters, or approximately 150,000 barrels per day, according to Syrian government statistics. In total, Syria produced about 47,696 cubic meters, or 300,000 barrels per day, before the war. "Working in the oil business is the only source of income for many families around here. So, we can't call for ending this practice," said Saleh Ali, a resident of the province. "We just need to find a way to eliminate the risks involved with it. Our children and environment are heavily affected by this practice." Local health groups recently have reported a dramatic increase in diseases caused by oil pollution. "In the last two months, we received about 675 people who have been diagnosed with diseases resulting from oil refining, such as allergies, respiratory complications," said Hind Osman of the Kurdish Red Crescent. She added that at least 80 of those people were patients with pre-existing diseases such as asthma. Local officials said they have been running awareness campaigns to help educate people on the risks of refining oil locally. "Three months ago, we issued a public notice that all workers at local oil burners must use gas flares that destroy sulfur dioxide, which is a toxic component that pollutes the environment," Tariq Mohammed, an official at the Kurdish-led Environment Commission, told VOA. YPG The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) took control of the region in 2012 after Syrian government troops withdrew to focus on fighting rebels elsewhere in the country. The YPG has since benefited financially from producing and transporting oil to other parts of Syria. But the war against the Islamic State terror group halted oil transportation from the Kurdish region to the country's two refineries in the Syrian regime-held cities of Banias and Homs. In early 2015, IS damaged the major pipeline that was connecting the oil fields in the northeast to both refineries. According to a local oil engineer who requested anonymity, the YPG has continued shipping oil to regime-held areas, using a private cargo company. He estimated the current oil production in the Kurdish region at 6,359 cubic meters, or 40,000 barrels per day. In July, a Kurdish delegation met with Syrian government officials in Damascus to talk about the future of northeast Syria. Oil was one the main topics discussed, according to local media reports. Hundreds of Tunisians staged the first protests of the Arab world against Saudi Arabia's crown prince as he arrived on a visit on Tuesday, denouncing him as a murderer involved in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The protests were a rare occurrence for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler who faces no overt criticism at home and who received lavish receptions earlier in his tour in visits to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Since the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprising, which unseated several entrenched rulers in the region and triggered turmoil, Tunisia has undergone a democratic transition and is one of the few Arab countries to allow protests. Prince Mohammed was welcomed by Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on arrival at Tunis airport, the presidency said, and the two went into talks shortly afterwards at Carthage Palace. The crown prince told Tunisian state television that Saudi Arabia has long had good relations with Tunisia, adding, "I cannot come to North Africa without visiting Tunisia...Tunisia's president is like my father." A Tunisian presidency statement issued later said Prince Mohammed and Essebsi reviewed ways to improve cooperation on the "economy and finance, investment promotion and security and military cooperation to counter extremism and terrorism." The mood in the streets was less friendly. In a second day of demonstrations against Prince Mohammed, hundreds of protesters marched along central Habib Bourguiba avenue in Tunis, scene of the mass protests that toppled autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. They chanted "the murderer is not welcome in Tunisia" and "shame on Tunisia's rulers" for receiving the crown prince. The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 has frayed Saudi Arabia's relations with the West and tarnished Prince Mohammed's image abroad. Saudi Arabia has said the prince, heir to the throne of the world's top oil exporter, had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said last month that Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. Protesters raised a large poster which depicted the Tunisian president pouring water on the bloodied hands of the Saudi crown prince - suggesting Tunisian complicity in washing away guilt. Demonstrators also called for an end to the Saudi-led military campaign in neighboring Yemen, which was launched by Prince Mohammed in his role as defense minister in 2015. The protests were in sharp contrast with earlier parts of the crown prince's tour of allied countries in the region. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi underlined the strength of Cairo's ties with Riyadh and called Saudi Arabia's security and stability "an inseparable part of Egypt's national security." Democratic Tunisia diverges from Saudis Tunisian journalists on Monday put up a huge banner at their union showing the prince with a chainsaw, which Turkish sources have said was used to dismember Khashoggi in Istanbul. It read: "No to the pollution of the Tunisian revolution." In an apparent attempt to avoid embarrassing the prince, the presidency only invited photographers to cover his visit. It will not hold a news conference, a usual event at top visits. Last week Essebsi adviser Nourredine Ben Ticha said the truth about the killing of Khashoggi must be established but the incident should not be used to harm the kingdom's stability. Tunisia and Saudi Arabia have very different political systems. The kingdom is an absolute monarchy while Tunisia has been holding free elections since 2011 and agreed three years later on a constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights. Tunisia was a strong Saudi ally under Ben Ali but ties have since been strained at times. The kingdom granted exile to Ben Ali after he flew to Jeddah on the Red Sea following his ouster, resisting calls by some Tunisian parties to hand him over. Another irritant is that moderate Islamists have been sharing power with secularists in Tunisia since 2011. Some critics have likened the Tunisian Ennahda party to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Saudi Arabia. In contrast, Tunisia has since 2011 expanded cooperation with Qatar, with which Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states severed trade and transport ties in June 2017. The four accused Doha of supporting terrorism and Iran, charges Doha denies. Tunisia also has strong ties with Turkey, whose relations with Saudi Arabia have been strained by the Khashoggi killing. The crown prince departed Tunisia on Tuesday evening after a visit of several hours, Al Arabiya television said, and is expected to fly on to a G20 summit in Argentina. Prime Minister Theresa May made a blunt appeal to skeptical lawmakers Monday to back her divorce deal with the European Union: It isn't perfect, but it's all there is, and the alternative is a leap into the unknown. In essence, she urged Parliament: Let's agree and move on, for the sake of the voters. Britain and the 27 other EU leaders signed off on a Brexit deal Sunday after more than a year and a half of tough negotiations. It was a day many doubted would ever come, but May was anything but triumphant as she reported back to Parliament, which now controls the fate of the deal. May confirmed that British lawmakers will vote Dec. 11, after several days of debate, on whether to approve or reject the agreement. Scores of legislators from both the opposition and May's governing Conservative Party have vowed to oppose it. Rejection would plunge Britain into a political crisis and potential financial turmoil just weeks before it is due to leave the EU on March 29. "No one knows what would happen if this deal didn't pass," May told the House of Commons. "Our duty as a Parliament over these coming weeks is to examine this deal in detail, to debate it respectfully, to listen to our constituents and decide what is in our national interest." Before then, May plans a frantic two-week cross-country campaign to convince both the public and lawmakers that the deal delivers on voters' decision in 2016 to leave the EU "while providing a close economic and security relationship with our nearest neighbors." But May's defense of her hard-won deal in Parliament was followed by a torrent of criticism, from hard-core Brexit-backers, pro-EU lawmakers and previously loyal backbenchers alike. Trade with U.S. In another potential blow for May, President Donald Trump said her deal would make it more difficult for the U.K. to strike a trade deal with the U.S. Brexiteers see a wide-ranging trade deal with the U.S. as one of Britain's main goals after leaving the EU. Trump said that "right now if you look at the deal they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn't be a good thing." "I don't think that the prime minister meant that and hopefully she'll be able to do something about that," Trump said outside the White House. "But right now as the deal stands, she may not, they may not be able to trade with the U.S. and I don't think they want that at all." In response to Trump's comments, May's 10 Downing St. office said that under the deal agreed with the EU, "we will have an independent trade policy so that the U.K. can sign trade deals with countries around the world including with the U.S." Criticism But during Monday's debate in Parliament, legislators again expressed their deep unease, if not hatred, of the deal that keeps Britain outside the EU with no say but still subject to the rules and the obligations of membership at least until the end of 2020 while a permanent new relationship is worked out. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the "botched deal" would leave Britain worse off, with "no say over EU rules and no certainty for the future." "Plowing on is not stoic. It's an act of national self-harm," he said. May argued that the British people are sick of endless debates about Brexit, and backing the deal would allow "us to come together again as a country whichever way we voted." "The majority of the British public want us to get on with doing what they asked us to," she said. The majority of lawmakers appear unconvinced. Dozens of Conservative legislators say they will reject the deal, either because they want a harder or a softer break with the EU. Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May's minority government, also opposes it, as do all the main opposition parties. "The Prime Minister and the whole House knows the mathematics this will never get through," said Brexit-backing Conservative Mark Francois, who described the deal "a surrender" to the EU. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay conceded that "it's going to be a challenging vote." But he said Britain would be in "choppy waters" if the deal was rejected. Both Britain and the EU are adamant that the U.K. can't renegotiate the agreement, and opponents of the deal do not agree on what should happen next if Parliament rejects it. Some want an election, others a new referendum, and some say Britain should leave the bloc without a deal. "I can say to the House with absolute certainty that there is not a better deal available," May said. She said rejecting it "would open the door to more division and more uncertainty, with all the risks that will entail." Ukraine's parliament has approved an executive order signed by President Petro Poroshenko imposing martial law in parts of the country, in response to Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crew members off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea the previous day. Poroshenko also said intelligence data suggested there is an extremely serious threat of a land-based operation against Ukraine by Russia. "I have a document of intelligence in my hands. Here on several pages is a detailed description of all the forces of the enemy located at a distance of literally several dozens of kilometers from our border. Ready at any moment for an immediate invasion of Ukraine," he said. Martial law would "in the event of an invasion allow us to respond quickly, to mobilize all resources as quickly as possible," he said. What does martial law do? The new measure is being imposed in areas of the country bordering Russia, Moldova and along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts. According to the text of Poroshenko's martial law decree published online, it would allow authorities to restrict the rights and freedoms of citizens provided for by Articles 30-34, 38, 39, 41-44 and 53 of Ukraine's constitution.As Mustafa Nayyem, a Ukrainian journalist who was elected to Ukraine's parliament as a member of Poroshenko's faction, noted in a Facebook post on Monday, these constitutional provisions guarantee, among other things, the inviolability of the home; the secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations and other correspondence; freedom of movement; freedom of thought, speech and expression; freedom of assembly; and the right to strike. Poroshenko insisted Monday that the martial law decree does not include any measures restricting citizens' rights and freedoms or introducing censorship. "I hope politicians and the media will act responsibly and appropriately under the current circumstances and will not attack Ukraine with the theses borrowed from Russian propagandists," the Ukrainian president said. Impact on 2019 election? When the president first mentioned imposing martial law in response to Russia's naval aggression, some critics called it a "threat to democracy." Those included three former Ukrainian presidents, Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko, who declared in a joint letter made public Monday that imposing martial law would delay presidential elections expected early next year. Under the measure passed in parliament, martial law is scheduled to start November 28 and remain in effect for 30 days. Under that schedule, it's not expected to interfere with the start of the presidential election campaign season. Also Monday, Parliament approved Poroshenko's request for the presidential vote to take place March 31, 2019. A federal judge deferred action on deciding whether to reveal charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the existence of which was accidentally made public. Free-press activists had asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia to unseal the criminal complaint after prosecutors in an unrelated case unintentionally mentioned charges against Assange. Prosecutors opposed the case, arguing the public does not have a right to know if a person has been charged until they have been arrested, while claiming the accidental reference to charges does not necessarily mean Assange has been charged. Various media outlets have reported Assange is facing charges. The nature and existence of the charges are of particular concern to Assange. The Australian has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London under a grant of asylum since 2012 over concerns he could be deported to the United States to face charges related to his role in various leaks of classified government information. The move comes the same day the Guardian reported former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with Assange at the embassy around the same time he joined the presidents election bid. Months later, Wikileaks released a trove of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Wikileaks hit back aggressively on Twitter, describing the journalist behind the story as a serial fabricator. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange, the organization tweeted. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will brief the U.S. Senate on Wednesday on the latest developments related to Saudi Arabia, Senator John Cornyn, the number two Senate Republican, told reporters on Monday. Many U.S. lawmakers, including some of President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans, have rejected Trump's embrace of Saudi Arabia. They have called for a strong U.S. response to the murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the war in Yemen, which has created one of the world's most urgent humanitarian disasters. Trump vowed last week to remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia and said it was not clear whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew about the plan to kill Khashoggi last month at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The president cast doubt on the CIA assessment that the prince ordered Khashoggi's killing, telling reporters the agency had not formed a definitive conclusion. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said earlier this month he wanted Pompeo, Mattis and CIA Director Gina Haspel to come to the Capitol for a classified Senate briefing. A Senate aide said Haspel is not scheduled to be involved in Wednesday's briefing, which will take place at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). A House of Representatives aide said no similar briefing had been scheduled in that chamber. Cornyn also said he thought the Senate would vote on a Yemen resolution introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders seeking to pull back any U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Asked if the measure, which failed earlier this year, stood a chance of passage now, Cornyn said he did not want to "give Iran a pass." Gulf Arab states have been battling since 2015 to restore a government in Yemen driven out by the Houthis, Shi'ite Muslim fighters that Yemen's neighbors view as agents of Iran. Still seething over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. senators on Tuesday demanded the Trump administration share all it knows about who ordered last month's killing of the Saudi dissident and U.S. resident at the kingdom's consulate in Turkey. Lawmakers of both parties blasted CIA Director Gina Haspel's exclusion from Wednesday's scheduled classified briefing on Saudi Arabia, in which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are to speak with the full Senate behind closed doors. "I want the CIA I want somebody from the intelligence community to brief the Congress about what the president's heard about [Saudi Crown Prince] MBS [Mohammed bin Salman]," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters. "Why would we not have the director of the CIA briefing us?" Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons said. "Because she might tell us what they actually concluded." According to persistent news reports, the CIA assessed that Salman ordered Khashoggi killed. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegation, blaming the death on rogue agents. U.S. President Donald Trump has echoed Riyadh's denials and said the matter remains an open question. "There are a lot of tough questions that need to be answered [at Wednesday's briefing]," Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado said. "I would like to know exactly what our intelligence has and who is responsible [for Khashoggi's death]. I think we have that information. It would be nice if they shared it with us." "We don't accept the explanations given," said the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey. "It's not credible that no one in the hierarchy of the Saudi kingdom knew about this [killing]. And there have to be consequences." The Trump administration has sanctioned 17 Saudi officials but argued against tougher measures to punish Riyadh, with the president highlighting the economic importance of U.S. arms sales to the kingdom. Trump's stance has been widely criticized by lawmakers, including some of his most vocal backers. "He [Trump] is focused on the strategic [U.S.-Saudi] relationship, which I understand," Graham said. "The difference I have is that to give MBS a pass if he clearly is complicit is a huge mistake. One of the most dangerous things is for an ally of the United States to disrespect our values and be so flagrant about it." Senate vote In coming days, the Senate is expected to vote on ending U.S. backing for the Saudi-led coalition's military campaign in Yemen, a measure that was defeated earlier this year but has been revived amid mounting anger with the kingdom on Capitol Hill. "I think we have a real good shot at doing this [passing the resolution]. There is a growing understanding of the humanitarian disaster [in Yemen]. People are understanding the despotic nature of the Saudi regime," said Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who co-authored the measure. "We shouldn't be rewarding regimes that are indiscriminately bombing civilians in Yemen, and I'm for ending the arms sales that we have with Saudi Arabia," Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said. "On both sides of the aisle there is a growing frustration with the lack of willingness by the administration to challenge the Saudis, particularly on the Khashoggi killing but also on the question of Yemen," Menendez said. "You just can't let an ally do anything they want simply because they're an ally. And if you do, you send a global message that you can kill with impunity." Not all senators endorse a heavily punitive treatment of Riyadh, however. "I think our challenge here is how to express our disappointment and condemnation to Saudi Arabia without rupturing the relationship," Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy said. "The president has said: This murder was wrong, we may never know with 100 percent certainty who ordered who to do what, but that Saudi Arabia needs to be held responsible. And I agree with that." "We should be very careful," Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma said. "Yes, we don't want to accept the brutality surrounding the murder. But we've got to maintain a relationship and I anticipate that we will." CIA reports For many lawmakers, Trump's penchant for downplaying or dismissing the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community, whether on Khashoggi's killing or Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, is a grave concern. "The intelligence community needs to provide us with the facts," Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said. "By all accounts, their report is that the [Saudi] crown prince was very involved in the decision to murder somebody, and so we need to make sure that the intelligence community isn't hijacked by the politics of the president." U.S. President Donald Trump told supporters at a political rally late Monday that his administration has no intention of allowing Central American migrants who traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the United States. "We are sending a simple message to the lawless caravans and to the illegal trespassers marching toward our border," he said at the rally in the southern state of Mississippi. "Its very simple: turn back now, go back home, we will not let you in." His comments came a day after clashes in the area around the San Ysidro border crossing that divides the U.S. city of San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico. A group of migrants had been peacefully protesting long wait times for their asylum claims to be heard when some migrants split off and tried to breach the border. U.S. border patrol agents responded with tear gas to repel the group. Trump praised the work of border patrol agents and the members of the U.S. military he sent to the border last month, while downplaying the seriousness of using tear gas. "First of all, the tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself. It's very safe," he told reporters Monday. Trump also claimed three border patrol personnel "were very badly hurt, getting hit with rocks and stones." WATCH: Trump comments on border clash That contradicted a statement earlier Monday by Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan who said, "Four agents were hit with rocks, but were wearing protective gear and did not suffer serious injuries." The incident prompted U.S. authorities to temporarily close the San Ysidro crossing, something McAleenan said his agency was prepared to do again if necessary to ensure safety. Vicki Gass, Oxfam America senior policy advisor for Central America, called the use of tear gas "a shameful response," and said those fleeing violence and persecution should instead be met with compassion. "The people at the border are exercising their legal right to seek asylum, as they are entitled to under U.S. and international law," Gass said. "Rather than prioritizing a militarized response to women, children and men seeking refuge, the Trump Administration should focus on providing resources for an orderly asylum process." Mexico's Foreign Ministry said Monday it sent a note to the U.S. Embassy regarding Sunday's events asking authorities to conduct a full investigation into the use of non-lethal weapons from the United States toward Mexico. It also reported 98 migrants involved in the clashes were being deported. The several caravans of migrants came mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Their reception as they moved through Mexico was largely positive, but the situation in Tijuana has been more strained as the group of thousands of people now waits for their next step in an area that was already sheltering people who hope to have their asylum claims heard by U.S. authorities. Al Otro Lado, a group providing legal assistance to the migrants, is among those calling attention to the processing times at the border. It said CBP processed 60 asylum seekers on Monday, and that the backlog that existed even before the caravans arrived means another 2,000 people will need to be processed before any of those from the caravan can have their cases heard. "CBP has the capacity to process asylum seekers faster," the group said on Twitter. "They are very obviously trying to force another confrontation like yesterday's, and we need to ask ourselves why. More border closures? A total shut down of the asylum system? More prison camps? None of it is good." Francisco Vega, governor of Baja California state where Tijuana is located, said there are about 9,000 migrants there, most of them in Tijuana with others in Mexicali. He appealed to President Enrique Pena Nieto and the federal government to consider the situation a matter of national security and to take responsibility for coping with the effects of having so many people at the border. Vega said that while in the past people in the state have welcomed others with open arms, he faulted the government for allowing the caravans to advance through the country without any type of immigration control. "And now we are paying the consequences," he said. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen echoed some of Trump's sentiments in her own statement late Monday, saying "the overwhelming majority of these individuals are not eligible for asylum in the United States under our laws." She pointed to historically low approval rates for those seeking asylum from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and she said most of the migrants are seeking jobs or to join family members already in the United States, and had "refused multiple opportunities to seek protection in Mexico." Mexico's interior ministry reported in early November that more than 3,000 caravan members had requested refuge in Mexico. Even though five-year-old Kamila is used to getting blood drawn, she cried out when the needle pricked her arm, clinging to her mother for comfort in a classroom-turned-clinic in the northern Colombian city of Riohacha. Venezuelan Kamila was born premature at 30 weeks, weighing just 900 grams (2 lbs). Her early entry into the world came with kidney problems and cerebral atrophy that have delayed some parts of her development and kept her limbs spindly. She is one of thousands set to receive treatment this week from doctors and dentists from United States Navy hospital ship the USNS Comfort. Many are Venezuelan migrants who have fled economic crisis across the border. Others are Colombians, including indigenous Wayuu, seeking care amid constant delays in Colombia's overcrowded health system. The United Nations on Monday pledged $9.2 million in aid for Venezuela, where hunger and preventable disease are soaring due to food and medicine shortages. President Nicolas Maduro blames the country's problems on U.S. sanctions and an "economic war" led by political adversaries. Most patients, pre-screened by local authorities, will receive care on land in two clinics set up in schools, while those needing surgery will be flown by helicopter to the ship itself, anchored far offshore. "The tests we needed for her would have cost so much in Venezuela, but here they did it in a few seconds," said Kamila's mother Yennymar Vilchez, 24, who arrived four months ago. The ship's staff last week treated more than 5,400 patients over five days in Turbo, a city near the jungle border with Panama, including 131 who had surgery. An estimated 2,500 will be seen in Riohacha, 91 kilometers (56 miles) from the border with Venezuela, through Friday. The arrival of Venezuelans has burdened the beleaguered Colombian healthcare system, especially in border cities, where patients can wait months for basic care. "The migration crisis has certainly played a factor," Captain William Shafley told journalists after an opening ceremony. "We're here to help the Colombian government and their obviously strained healthcare system." Colombia, which has received about one million Venezuelan migrants, could be hosting four million by 2021, the government has said. Many cross the countries' porous land border without documentation, heading onward to other Latin American countries like Ecuador and Peru. Outside the dentistry room, Yessica Epiayu, 29 and a member of the Wayuu indigenous community, corralled her six children, aged 3 to 11, as they took turns getting cleanings. Her eldest son Orlando grinned broadly, proudly showing off a gifted dental mirror. Some surgeries require too much follow-up to be performed on the ship and are referred back to local authorities. Venezuelan Belkis Chirino, 29, a former restaurant manager, had hoped her 11-month-old daughter Jade could get pelvic surgery to guarantee she will walk despite a congenital deformity. But the doctors need further X-rays and the intense procedure, which risks damaging some nerves, will require significant time in the hospital. "I'm grateful even though she doesn't get the surgery," said Chirino. "At least they can help my Venezuelan brothers and sisters." But others like Vilchez, Kamila's mom, got good news. Her daughter's kidneys are getting healthier and a new medication will help her other symptoms. "It's wonderful!" she said, as she clutched the brown pharmacy bag, Kamila in her arms. The U.S. military in Afghanistan says three of its service members were killed and three others wounded when an improvised explosive device exploded near the troubled central eastern city of Ghazni. An American contractor was also wounded in the blast. A brief statement issued in Kabul said, The wounded service members and contractor were evacuated and are receiving medical care. It did not share further details. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Ghazni is the capital of the Afghan province of the same name where the Taliban has overrun several districts in recent months. The insurgent group has recently come close to overrunning the provincial capital. Tuesday's fatalities bring to 11 the number of American soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan this year. Hours earlier, NATOs Resolute Support mission clarified its investigation into Saturdays killing of a U.S. soldier, saying Sgt. Leandro Jasso was likely accidentally shot by an Afghan partner. There are no indications he was shot intentionally, the mission said in a statement. It added the U.S. casualty occurred during an operation to eliminate al-Qaida militants in the southwestern Afghan province of Nimroz, next to the border with Iran. Early interviews indicate the tragic accident occurred when the partnered force became engaged in a close-quarter battle during an assault on one of multiple barricaded al Qaida shooters, the statement noted. It quoted General Scott Miller, U.S. commander of the international military coalition, as saying that the loss of Sgt. Jasso is felt by his family and loved ones, by all who served with him and by all on this mission to protect our country and our allies." There are around 14,000 American soldiers fighting terrorist groups and advising and training Afghan forces battling the Taliban insurgency. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could reach a new trade deal between the world's two largest economies when they meet in Argentina this weekend, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Tuesday. "The president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it," he said of Trump. But he cautioned that obstacles remain. Kudlow said the two leaders must resolve the issues of "fairness and reciprocity" at the center of the dispute. "China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," he said. "Their responses have disappointed because ... we can't find much change in their approach." WATCH: Ahead of G20, Trump Open to Deal with China The U.S. and China over several months have imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports arriving from each other's shores. On Monday, Trump voiced doubts that a deal would be reached when he meets with Xi Saturday night in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of the world's largest economies. Trump has threatened to impose more tariffs on Chinese exports if the two sides cannot reach what he considers fairer trading between the two countries. Kudlow said "certain conditions have to be met. ... Intellectual property theft must be solved. Forced technology transfers must be solved." He said Trump is "not going away" if no deal is reached. "I hope they understand that," he added. The wife of a retired member of the Zimbabwe National Army has petitioned the High Court seeking an order compelling President Emmerson Mnangagwas government to investigate and account for the whereabouts of her husband, who was abducted by some unknown assailants on Sunday. According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Elliot Pikis wife Sibongile Sarukato filed the urgent court application Monday on behalf of Retired Lieutenant Colonel Piki seeking an order compelling the State to do all things necessary to determine his whereabouts including advertising on all State-run print and broadcast media. Sarukato, who is represented by Jeremiah Bamu of Mbidzo Muchadehama and Makoni Legal Practitioners, affiliated to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, cited Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Defence and War Veterans Minister, State Security Minister, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Commissioner-General and the Director-General of the Central Intelligence Organisation as respondents to the application. Sarukato wants the High Court to order the setting up of a team of investigators, to work closely and in conjunction with lawyers appointed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to search for Retired Lieutenant Colonel Piki at all places within Zimbabwe as may be reasonably practical, and report on such search to the Registrar of the High Court, on every alternate Friday. The ZLHR said, She also wants the respondents to be ordered to inquire from, and where necessary obtain any such information as may be necessary for the investigations from mobile service operators to try and locate Retired Lieutenant Colonel Piki through tracing the mobile numbers that were on his person at the time of his abduction as may be provided by his family. In the court application, Sarukato said Retired Lieutenant Colonel Piki was kidnapped by some unknown assailants on Sunday around 16:30 hours from his Waterfalls suburb residence in Harare. Sarukato said the manner in which her husband was taken (abducted) betrays sinister motives as he was taken in similar style and fashion to pro-democracy campaigner Itai Dzamara, who still remains missing since 9 March 2015. She said her husband was abducted by some unidentified people wearing face masks, who bundled him into an unregistered Toyota double-cab vehicle. During the tussling with the unidentified men as they abducted him, Sarukato stated that one of the abductors tersely said to him in vernacular,takakuudza kuti regai kuita document rauri kuda kuita, uri kuda ku protector Chamisa, chii chako?, which she loosely translated to mean, We warned you not to work on the document you are working on, you want to protect Chamisa, who is he to you? VOA Studio 7 could not ascertain the contents of the so-called document mentioned by the alleged abductors. Sarukato said as the unidentified men continued to wrestle and tussle with her husband, one of the assailants produced a pistol and fired two shots which lodged into the ground and the firearm was then pressed against her husbands ribs and he was forced into the vehicle before they sped away. She said her husbands whereabouts are presently unknown and his right to life is therefore at serious risk and in real jeopardy. According to Sarukato, a report has been filed with ZRP under RRB 3784040. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Piki was scheduled to appear on Monday before the Commission of Inquiry into the 2018 post-election violence, which is currently conducting public hearings in Harare on the killing of innocent civilians in August this year in Harare soon after the July 30 elections. The ZLHR said, Sarukato charged that she is convinced that the motive behind her husbands abduction was to prevent him from giving his testimony before the Commission of Inquiry. On Monday 26 November 2018, Bamu wrote to the Commission of Inquiry notifying the probe team of the abduction of Retired Lieutenant Colonel Piki and indicated that he could no longer appear before it to testify as he is now a victim of enforced disappearance. Police and the spokesperson of the Commission of Inquiry led by Kgalema Motlanthe were not reachable for comment. Columbus Mavhunga Some villagers in one of Zimbabwe's driest areas are appealing for food and fear their livestock, their source of livelihoods, will die due to a lack of water. The World Food Program is asking for funds to ensure food stability during the country's "lean season." In the dry Matabeleland region, animals are not only a sign of wealth but a source of livelihoods; they are sold or exchanged for grain, especially corn, to prepare Zimbabwes main staple food sadza or isitshwala a thick porridge, which is served with a relish. Crops usually fail due to low rains, so they depend on domestic animals. Standing next to a dry well, which they had dug to get water for their cattle, 29-year-old Mpumelelo Dungeni fears for his herd. This years drought has been severe. Our cattle are dying because there is not enough water to drink. We travel long distances for cattle to survive...We are appealing to the government to intervene and solve our water problem and food as well... It must fix our dam so that we can survive...We want food and water for us and our cattle to survive, Dungeni said. The villagers in this Gatsheni-Matopo area say the Mabigwe reservoir dried up, leaving them with no reliable source of water for their animals. Sixty-year-old Linah Mhlanga said she now walks for hours upstream with her cattle to find water. The donors keep saying they will come and fix the dam (Mabigwe reservoir), but they are not coming. There is no one who can come to fix it. So when the water is finished here we have to go further down there for the cattle to get something to drink, Mhlanga said. The World Food Program says it needs about $75 million to ensure food stability for Zimbabwes lean season for the next six months for dry places like Gatsheni-Matopo. Eddie Rowe, the WFP director in Zimbabwe, told VOA that about 2.4 million people in this southern African nation need food aid because of unusually long dry spells during the rainy season. As we speak, we know that in almost every district, most of these households have run out of their harvests and now depend on the market and we all know the problem we are facing. not just a commodity availability problem, but prices in purchasing these basic commodities. In Zimbabwe, we have an estimated 28 percent of the rural population that is considered in a very challenging [situation] when it comes to access to and availability of food for this agriculture season 2018/2019, Rowe said. USAID's Food For Peace program has given $22 million to the WFP to ease Zimbabwes food insecurity. As a result, places like Gatsheni-Matopo in Matabeleland probably will get decent meals. But their animals will need water and more drought is predicted. Zimbabwe's drought-prone southwest is facing food insecurity as livestock the main source of livelihood is struggling to survive and going long distances in search of water. The United Nations World Food Program says it needs about $75 million to ensure food security for Zimbabwe. A Huntsville woman who nearly died more than a decade ago trying to save a stranger's life died in a tragic crash. Joy Vaughn's family is now grieving her death after she was killed while sleeping in her sister's south Huntsville home. Police said a truck Antony Wu was driving barreled into the house late Saturday night, and Wu may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Joy's sister shared with us their last conversation just hours before the accident. "I tucked her in. I gave her a kiss. I said, 'I love you. I'll see you in the morning,' and she said, 'Thank you and I love you too,'" said Jessica Vaughn. She said it sounded like an earthquake around 11:30 Saturday night when Antony Wu drove into the back side of her home. The crash burst water pipes, set off the smoke detectors and spread debris and glass everywhere. "It felt like I was still sleeping and in a really bad dream, but it wasn't and it just kept going and it's still going," she said. Jessica said she was trying to get to her sister Joy who was pushed through two rooms when the truck went barreling into her bed. "All I could see was clouds of smoke and the wall was everywhere. The wall was in pieces and then I saw the car in my sister's bedroom where my sister had been sleeping, I kept telling him, 'You hit my sister, you hit my sister,' and he just looked at me like I was nothing," she said. 48-year-old Joy escaped death about two decades ago when she nearly drowned in Costa Rica spending about seven minutes underwater. After more than a month in a coma, she started to relearn motor skills. "She relearned how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to move one arm then the other and then both at the same time," Jessica said. Vaughn explained her family provided around the clock care to her older sister, following that accident. Joy only ever had about a 10 minute memory span after that accident. "Her initial accident left her with a brain injury. We were close before but because of her circumstances, we had to stay close no matter what," she said. Vaughn said now she's left holding on closely to their final weekend together. "I've been taking care of her since I was 14. I don't know what I'm going to do without her. I don't see her everyday, but when I do it may be a low-key day everyday I have her, but those are the days that I have my Joy," Jessica said. Antony Wu is charged with manslaughter. Jessica says police had to physically drag him out of the car when they arrested him. Jessica Vaughn is an employee at WAAY 31. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Investigators plan to release a more detailed timeline of a mass shooting at a Southern California bar that killed 12 people. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department is releasing new details about the shooting Tuesday at the first news conference since the week of the Nov. 7 attack. Investigators haven't said what they believe motivated 28-year-old Ian David Long to open fire at the Borderline Bar and Grill in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. Sheriff's Capt. Garo Kuredjian says FBI investigators gathered evidence at the scene of the shooting for about nine days, as well as seized items from Long's home. Investigators hope evidence taken from the house helps them learn why Long attacked the bar, and that evidence from the bar better explains how he carried it out. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) Athens Police confirmed a female was hit and killed by a train Monday night in Athens near South Street crossing. An investigation is being conducted, but police say they believe this was probably a suicide. The name of the female has not been released as family has not been notified of her death. Authorities in Connecticut said an 81-year-old man confessed he killed his 76-year-old girlfriend at the nursing home where they lived by saying, "She had to die. She was evil," The Hartford Currant and the Associated Press reported. Bond for John Jensen was set at $1.5 million despite the defense attorney's claims that the man has dementia. It was Jensen's roommate who buzzed workers at the nursing home when he saw blood on the floor. It was determined the blood came from the victim's ear while she was strangled in her wheelchair. The employee said Jensen had a look on his face like "he was determined to do it." According to his arrest report, Jensen told police he and his girlfriend, Patricia Way, got into a fight earlier in the day. He said he was "tired of being taken advantage of" and immediately began to figure out how he was going to kill her. Jensen does have an arrest record, which includes an armed robbery in 1966. A custom steel manufacturing company in North Alabama just got bigger and is bringing new jobs with its growth. Redline Steel opened their new facility on Endeavor Way in Tanner Tuesday morning. Thats where WAAY 31 learned more about the company and their goals. Being a Huntsville native, theres nothing that makes me more proud than to employ almost 60 employees currently here at Redline. Colin Wayne is only 29 years old but is the founder and CEO of one of the top companies in the nation for wall art decor. In just two years, the company has grown tremendously, with a facility going from 5,000 square feet to more than 100,000 square feet; and with that expansion comes new jobs, so Wayne is looking to hire. A resume to me, in specific areas, doesnt mean anything," Wayne said. "I dont care really what your background isif you have a degree or if you dontI look at value contribution. So, Im one of the few companies that will give people a second chance. The company just hired nine new employees last week and is looking to add about ten more. As long as youre willing to show up. Right place, right time, right uniform, 100% every daythe value youre going to contribute to me is also going to be given back to the employees," Wayne said. Wayne is proud to say his company is veteran-owned and operated, and he says he would love to hire more. I think thats a huge outreach that wed like to be connected to other programs so that we can hire veterans that are transitioning out of the military or that are reserve or guardsmen that are looking for employment. And Wayne says hes not planning to stop expanding any time soon. My vision for Redline, within the next five years, is a pledge to employ over 200 people at Redline Steel. There will be two hiring events on Wednesday. One will be at 10:00 a.m. and the other will be at 5:00 p.m. Both will be held at the new plant. Serendipity played a large role in saving a mans life in Lincoln County, Tennessee on Monday morning. I'm glad I was where I was at when I seen it...cause there ain't no doubt in my mind if someone hadn't pulled him out, he would've been dead, said Tennessee State Trooper, Jon Judge. A still image from dash cam video shows flames spreading from an SUV that collided with a Lincoln County School bus on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. No students were on board the bus at the time. A still image from dash cam video shows flames spreading from an SUV that collided with a Lincoln County School bus on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. No students were on board the bus at the time. Fortunately, thats not how the story ended. Judge happened to be patrolling traffic along Huntsville Highway 231 just south of Fayetteville when he spotted a Lincoln County Schools bus turned sideways and blocking the southbound lanes. An SUV was alongside it against a utility pole. After he blocked off oncoming traffic with his car, Judge noticed the SUV was starting to smoke. He and the bus driver tried to put out the flames with their extinguishers to no avail. When the fire started, I was more in fear for the driver that he wasn't going to be out or I wasn't going to be able to get him out, said Judge. At first, Judge tried to get the driver out through the driver's side, but unfortunately, the steering wheel and the dash were pushed down and pinned his legs inside. Judge then rushed around to the passenger's side of the car and, with the help of the driver, Judge was able to pull him out just moments before the flames really started to spread. When I pulled him free and looked back, the fire was coming into the passenger compartment, said Judge. Judge worked for the state for 25 years and spent the last 14 with the Tennessee State Troopers. He said even though he was well trained to respond to situations like this, he was still stunned at just how perfectly things timed out. I'm thinking he was lucky and we was lucky. All of us were lucky that we didn't have a fatal crash out of this, said Judge. As of Tuesday evening, the driver of the SUV was still being treated in Huntsville Hospital. Troopers told WAAY 31 that he was in stable condition. Meanwhile the driver of the bus was going through tests following the crash and was expected to be released from Lincoln Medical Center on Tuesday. State Troopers determined that he was at fault for the crash and issued him two citations: one for due care and the other for failing to yield the right-of-way to the SUV. Lincoln County Schools Transportation Supervisor, Keith Gill, said the bus driver has driven for the school system since 1990 and this was his first accident where he was determined to be at fault. In this WAAY 31 I-Team investigation, we take a close look at what it takes to get a concealed carry gun permit. We examine not only the right to get a permit, but the responsibilities that go along with it. Last month in our viewing area, a 10-year-old boy found a gun in his fathers vehicle and accidentally killed his twin sister. That was just outside the Shoals in St. Joseph, Tennessee. Back here in Alabama, a student took a gun to Blossomwood Elementary and accidentally shot another student in the hand. The student who brought the gun took it without his father's knowledge. That man is a felon who clearly never should have had the gun in the first place. We had already been talking with a former FBI agent about what he considers gun owners responsibilities that go above what Alabama law requires. We also talked with a woman who started carrying a gun for her own protection. I literally realized how much goes on in this city that I didnt know went on, Susan Sims told WAAY 31. We caught up with Sims at Larrys Pistol and Pawn. Her eyes were wide-open to the crime happening around her in Huntsville when she started working as a gun seller and pawn broker. She wasted no time getting a concealed carry permit to follow the law because I do like to carry a gun in my vehicle when I travel. Sims insists getting a concealed carry permit is only the first step. I think you have to be a responsible firearm owner, she told us. Just going out with your friend or significant other to shoot, they may not teach you the safety you need to know. A recent Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study shows seven states -- West Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee -- have a disproportionate share of unintentional firearm deaths. Im a retired FBI agent. I spent 32 years in the FBI, Ed Marshman told WAAY 31. Marshman puts his FBI experience to use training people at his shooting MTC Training Range. It's just off I-65 near the Alabama Tennessee state line. Obviously, I believe in firearms," Marshman said. "I like firearms. I dont want to have a lot of gun control regulations. Still, Marshman sees a serious need for education and training even if Alabama law doesnt make it mandatory. "You need to school yourself and to learn," he told WAAY 31. "You've got a responsibility to yourself, to your family, to your neighbors and to the community." The most recent information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows in 2016 in Alabama, there were 18 accidental deadly shootings. In Tennessee, there were 17. Compare that to the fifty state average of nearly ten. "Alabama requires a permit to carry a weapon concealed," Marshman explained. "However, there is no training requirement. There is no classroom training requirement. And there is no minimum qualification course you have to shoot." Alabama issues more concealed carry permits than any other state. About 20 percent of adults have permits. The basic requirements: you must be a resident, be 18 and agree to background checks. Like the vast majority of other states, there's no real obstacle standing in the way of your 2nd amendment right to bear arms. Everybody has the right to carry and have it," Marshman said. "But, along with that right comes responsibility. Across the state line, Tennessee does require a concealed carry permit course. Part of that training includes learning about the use of deadly force under Tennessee law. "The law tells you what you can do," Marshman told us. "More importantly, you need to know what you should do." Knowledge could save your life or keep you out of legal trouble. Marshmans mantra: avoid, escape, defend. He gave us this example: "You're in the back of your house in the kitchen. Two guys bust through your front door. Yes, legally you can stay there. But, you shouldn't. You should, if you can go out the back door and go to your neighbor's house, you should leave." Marshman underscored that advice. "The only gunfight that I can guarantee you won't lose is the one you don't get into." Training helps you avoid shooting an innocent bystander and figure out whos the real bad guy. Muscle memory may be your best weapon. "Can you shoot on the move?," Marshman asked. "Can you shoot quickly? Can you shoot one-handed? Can you shoot in low-level light conditions?" Back in Huntsville, Susan Sims backed up what Marshman said. Training and practice," she said, tops her list of shooting priorities. "Dont come and take a class and think thats all the training that you need and youre protected. Youre not. Gun safety is so important to Sims, she now teaches it. Sims says a concealed carry permit comes with a powerful responsibility. If you have a firearm, you have to keep other people safe. Sims also told us gun safes are critically important, especially with children in homes. But, she adds having access to your gun is also critical. She recommends a biometric safe you can activate with your fingerprint. the complete review - fiction Stand-in Companion by Shiraishi Kazufumi general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author Translated by Raj Mahtani - Return to top of the page - Our Assessment: B : intriguing, appealing little story of human relationships See our review for fuller assessment. Review Summaries Source Rating Date Reviewer The Japan Times . 26/1/2019 Nicolas Gattig From the Reviews : "The novella has a great premise, richly imagined and rendered with playful skill. (...) At just over 50 pages, however, it feels more like a teaser than a complete work, with a lengthy exposition and a sudden, pat resolution. One would have loved to see what Shiraishi could do with the material if he had fleshed it out into a novel." - Nicolas Gattig, The Japan Times Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure. - Return to top of the page - The complete review 's Review : Stand-in Companion is a futuristic story involving very life-like androids, but that probably isn't a premise readers have difficulty accepting; a greater stretch, however, is another: that, some twenty years earlier, the United Nations had issued The World Population Explosion Declaration, warning of: "a world in the grips of a population explosion", one consequence of which was government policies outlawing, for example, IVF treatment (in all but the rarest cases). Maybe fifty years ago unchecked population growth was a real global concern, and certainly there are pockets of the world (including an entire continent, Africa) where it still is, but mostly, in recent decades, demographic concerns have shifted to that of rapidly aging populations, and population collapse -- certainly in Japan, with its fertility rate of 1.44, catastrophically below the replacement rate (of at least 2.1). The story doesn't suggest that that has changed in the time it is set, and so procreation by any means would surely be strongly encouraged ..... Procreation is central to Stand-in Companion: its two protagonists -- in a novella that's otherwise very effectively almost barren, with barely any other human presences making themselves felt --, the married couple, Hayato and Yutori, continue to try, and fail, to conceive. Arguably, each is partly responsible for their continuing failure: Hayato's sperm count is extremely low, while: "there was also a problem, to some extent, with at least one of Yutori's fallopian tubes". The novella opens with yet another disappointment, Hayato and Yutori on yet another trip to a hot-spring resort which has not had the hoped for results. But not everything is as it at first seems: the couple's situation is considerably more complex than the initial impression suggested: Yutori had in fact gotten pregnant several years earlier -- by another man. She had left Hayato, had a child, and the couple had gotten divorced. But in this futuristic world Hayato was able to apply for an android unit, a 'Stand-in Companion', imprinted with all of Yutori's memories (which she was compelled to supply). And so the 'Yutori' he has lived with for the past two years is, in fact, an android-substitute for the woman he had married, not the real thing, who now has an entirely separate life and family. Shiraishi complicates the moral-philosophical scenario further in several ways. For one: Hayato had requested that (the original) Yutori's memory of his low sperm count no be transferred into the android -- so the substitute-Yatori is unaware of his contributory role in their failure to procreate, and blames herself for her continuing inability to get pregnant. Of course, Hayato is well aware that regardless of his medical status, procreation is impossible: he's having sex with an android, and advanced though it might be, it ain't going to get pregnant. Meanwhile, the alter-Yutori nevertheless feels tremendous sadness and guilt about their inability to conceive ..... Among Shiraishi's other twists is to make the 'Stand-in Companion' technology one that users can only rely on for a ten-year span, at the end of which the android shuts down. So there's a fundamental existential dilemma here, Hayato burdened by the awareness that his replacement-Yutori isn't just 'mortal', but that he knows, almost exactly, when she will be lost to him. Stand-in Companion is something of a thought-experiment, a dramatization of philosophical issues. The arbitrariness of some of the premises -- notably the ten-year-limitation on android-use/life -- gives it a slightly awkward feels, but the issues and their presentation are sufficiently interesting for the reader to accept Shiraishi's starting-points. Helpfully, Shiraishi adroitly spins his philosophical tale: he tells a good story well -- complete with a satisfying further twist to the identities of the characters and their relationship(s). Stand-in Companion is a wisp of a novel. Shiraishi does effectively and cleverly pack a lot into such a small space, but it almost cries out for more expansive treatment. Still, it's an accomplished little work, and a good -- and quite haunting -- piece of fiction even just as is. - M.A.Orthofer, 27 November 2018 - Return to top of the page - : Red Circle publicity page Shiraishi Kazufumi at Red Circle See Index of Japanese literature See Index of Science Fiction and Fantasy books Other Red Circle Minis under review - Return to top of the page - About the Author : Japanese author Shiraishi Kazufumi () was born in 1958. - Return to top of the page - Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Check out our testimonies this great homosexual gay porn online internet websites. 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Rider said it understands some may view the decision as a "form of exclusion" but that the university wanted to be "faithful to our values of inclusion." Rider plans to hold a campus forum on the issue. The United States and China have been locked in an escalating trade conflict for much of this year. Trump has slapped tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products, supported new limits on Chinese investment in the United States and taken steps to restrict exports of advanced technologies to China, saying Beijing has treated U.S. companies unfairly for decades. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before departing from the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Nov. 26, 2018. Donald Trump said here on Monday that he hopes the current confrontation between Ukraine and Russia will get "straightened out." (Xinhua/Ting Shen) WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that he hopes the current confrontation between Ukraine and Russia will get "straightened out." Speaking to reporters before leaving the White House for campaign rallies, Trump said that "we do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out." He added that European leaders and the United States were working on the situation, noting "they're not thrilled. They are working on it. We're all working on it together." Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were set to meet later in Argentina on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina. The Ukrainian Navy said on Sunday that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six Ukrainian military sailors were wounded in the attack and two of them were in serious condition, the Ukrainian Navy said. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that three Ukrainian ships, namely Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of the accompanying vessels from the FSB and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called for on Monday morning over the escalating situation. Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations who chaired the meeting, told the UN Security Council that China has noted the altercation between Russian and Ukrainian naval ships, adding that China is "concerned with the tension arising thereof." "China hopes and calls for the relevant parties to exercise restraint to avoid any further escalation of tension and properly resolve the relevant issues through dialogues and consultations," said Wu. 5 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] 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 Fewer sightings doesnt necessarily mean the iconic giants are dying off, or that theyre not still migrating to the islands. But the disappearance of many whales from this historically predictable location is causing concern. Some researchers believe theres a link between warmer ocean temperatures in Alaska and the effect that has on the whales food chain. The drop in sightings is estimated at 50 percent to 80 percent over the past four years. Most humpbacks were taken off the endangered species list in 2016 but are still protected by the U.S. government. At first I drew a few natural sponges amorphous shapes, blobs which was the correct thing to do biologically as a marine science teacher, he told The Washington Post in 2001. But the character of SpongeBob originally SpongeBoy until the name was changed for copyright reasons didnt look funny until Mr. Hillenburg reshaped him as a yellow household sponge with square pants, a white shirt and tie and an irrepressibly cheery, childlike manner. If he is found to have breached the deal, he would lose any sentencing credits for acceptance of responsibility, prosecutors said. Evidence of other crimes could also subject Manafort to an increase in the seven-to-10-year sentence he faces in Virginia. He is set to come before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of Alexandria for sentencing in February. BEIJING, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In the context of the 45th anniversary of the Sino-Spanish diplomatic relations,A the visit of President Xi to Spain, a boost to economic relations between both countriesA China is the secondA largestA importer of Olive Oils fromA Spain . InA a single year ofA 2017,A a total of 31,262 tons of this precious product entered ourA daily lifeA A Thirteen years after the visit of former President Hu Jintao to Spain, China will again strengthen its ties with the Southern European nation. With the upcoming visit, President Xi Jinping will take advantage of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries to strengthen cooperation in various areas, to promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between both countries and to increase exchanges at a new high-level. A A A A (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/788919/Olive_Oils_China.jpg ) One of the Spanish economic sectors that has shown the greatest interest in the Chinese market is olive oil sector. Not surprisingly, Spain leads the production and marketing of this product throughout the world, especially in the Chinese market. According to the data of the Customs of China, in 2017, Spain exported 31,262 tons, which counts 80% of all olive oils imported by the country. Figures have shown that China is the second largest client of the Olive Oils from Spain outside the European Union, closely following the United States. Thus, China consolidates itself as one of the most dynamic markets for this product in the entire globe. In fact, only 73 tons of olive oils were imported 20 years ago, of which 40 tons came from Spain. That figure has multiplied by 800 times, and sales from Spain reached a total of 140 million euros in 2017. The Spanish olive oils sector, grouped under the brand Olive Oils from Spain, with the collaboration of the European Union, launched a three-year promotion campaign last September, aiming primarily at the travelers at the gathering point with the largest human traffic of the country. An initiative was presented at a press conference in Beijing, with the aim of increasing the demand for a product of the highest quality and reaching a larger segment of the population. http://www.oliveoilworldtour.cn WeChat @a-c-a- ISTANBUL, November 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Turkey has lowered the minimum amount of capital investment required to obtain Turkish citizenship from $2 million to $500,000 while the lower limit for granting citizenship to foreigners that buy real estate was also decreased from $1 million to $250,000. It has been a month since the amendment has been passed, and according to data gathered by Antalya Homes, the leading international real estate agency in Turkey, residence sales to foreigners increased a record-breaking 151.1% year-on-year since last September. In Turkey, which allows dual citizenship, the residences sold to foreigners in the first nine months of 2018 was purchased by citizens of Middle Eastern countries, Russia, Germany, U! K and China. A A A A (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/774997/antalya_homes.jpg ) Foreigners that intend to buy property in Turkey, which offers visa-free entry to citizens of 102 countries, prefer mostly Istanbul, Antalya, Bursa, Yalova, and Trabzon. Antalya Homes, which has helped thousands of people from 74 different nationalities buy homes in Turkey since 2004, offers foreign nationals full support through the entire real estate purchasing process with its Istanbul Homes, Trabzon Homes, and Bursa Homes brands. If requested, the company also assists the buyers in executing purchasing transactions through power of attorney and carries out all citizenship procedures. Bayram TekAe, Chairman of Antalya Homes explained that the Asian countries are significant for property sales. He answered the most frequently asked questions with his 15 years of experience in the sector: "Turkey does not require purchasing one single residence or land for citizenship but allows buying multiple properties amounting to at least $250,000 in total. The property deeds bear an annotation that they cannot be sold for three years, while the owners, their spouses and minor children can finalize citizenship procedures in approximately 12 months. We at Antalya Homes communicate our recommendations to the authorities about facilitating citizenship procedures. Asian countries are especially important to us. For all your questions about obtaining Turkish citizenship, please visit the website of Antalya Homes at https://www.antaly! ahomes.co m/citizenship-in-turkey." Meanwhile, the Saudis, who had hoped to snatch Obaid in Beijing, were furious that he had slipped their grasp. They sent agents to search hotels in Beijing, looking for the Abdullah clans operative. In Shanghai, Obaid received a call from Gen. Yousuf bin Ali al-Idrissi, deputy head of Saudi intelligence, telling him to fly back to Beijing and get on the Saudi plane that had been sent to pick him up, according to a source briefed on the case. Obaid turned again for advice to his patron, Prince Turki, who called Idrissi. According to a knowledgeable source, Turki said: If the king wants it, it will be done. On whose behalf are you speaking? Idrissi gave an ambiguous answer about who had ordered Obaids forced departure from China. Obaid stayed in Shanghai under close guard of the Ministry of State Security for another week. The last point is perhaps the most significant. The United States has generally been blessed by having a strong executive branch, which has been a necessary source of adaptation and leadership. In the normal course of events, however, a president appoints officials who will join him in the faithful application of the law and the defense of the Constitution. The goal is not to appoint men and women willing to serve him outside those boundaries. So, just as it is not appropriate for Trump to order his director of national intelligence to be his personal valet at the White House, it is not appropriate to ask his DNI to provide political cover during an ongoing FBI investigation. (This is exactly the kind of thing that brought Nixon to the verge of impeachment.) It might be a reasonable talking point this week, but in three months, six months, a year it will not look like a solution to anything, said Cecilia Munoz, an analyst at the liberal New America think thank who served as President Barack Obamas domestic policy adviser. For all this administrations efforts, can anyone in America say this situation is better now than it was two years ago? This crisis at the border is entirely of this administrations making. Timbss case has united a range of groups that are not often on the same page among them the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative American Civil Rights Union. They all urge the court to take a hard look at civil forfeiture laws, which Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in an opinion last year have become widespread and highly profitable. The dusky gopher frog so named because of its color and because it lives mostly underground, in gopher tortoise burrows hasnt been seen in Louisiana since the 1960s. It was once thought to be extinct and was listed as an endangered species in 2001, after a single colony of 100 frogs was discovered in southern Mississippi. Hyde-Smith has cast herself as a Trump clone. She has hopscotched the state on a campaign bus emblazoned with a massive picture of her and the president together and dubbed The MAGA Wagon, a play on Trumps Make America Great Again campaign slogan. She brags that she has voted with Trump 100 percent of the time, including to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. On issue after issue, from trade to immigration, she parrots the presidents talking points. It is unclear who is behind BH Group or what it does. But public filings show that the entity was one of the largest contributors to Trumps inaugural committee, which raised a record amount of $107 million in private money, including from wealthy donors and corporations that cut six- to seven-figure checks. Well, were talking to him, and were doing a count, Trump said Monday in Mississippi of his discussions with McConnell. We want to make sure that we have the votes because we dont want to bring it if we dont have the votes, but another thing were looking at right now is that we have more than enough. So at a certain point, well have a talk. But we have the votes, and Im sure that well be voting soon. We need Democrat votes to have a wall, Trump said. Now, if we dont get it, will I get it done another way? I might get it done another way. There are other potential ways that I can do it. You saw what we did with the military, just coming in with the barbed wire and the fencing, and various other things. First elected to a six-year term as president in 1984 as head of the Sandinista party, he lost the next three electoral rounds, only to win the next three, most recently in 2016, when his wife, Murillo, ran as his vice president. The Nicaraguan people, he said, would have a 50-50 presidency between the two of them. Murillo, 67, is outspoken and well-organized compared with Ortegas somewhat bland public persona and had already long been a visible wielder of power. The total number of U.S. military casualties during the 17-year Afghan war is more than 2,400. The great majority of U.S. forces withdrew by the end of 2014, but those still in the country often are involved in supporting combat situations on the ground as well as by air. This is a sort of acknowledgment, through their teeth, that the Ukrainian side is also at fault, even from their point of view, Grushko said on the sidelines of a conference in Berlin, according to the Interfax news agency. From a military point of view, this incident has now fully run its course. The unsuspecting victims answered ads on Gumtree, hoping to buy a second-hand car. Instead, guns were shoved in their faces and their money stolen. When Tyson Jessen learnt he was a suspect over the terrifying crimes, he fled north. It was a move that came to a dramatic end when he was shot dead by police in a Queensland hospital this month. Heavily tattooed across his neck and face, Jessen arrived in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, looking vastly different to the 19-year-old man who had walked into a Melbourne court, alongside his mother, nearly 10 years ago. Jessen pictured here in 2009. Credit:Justin McManus Back then, Jessen was in court to answer charges over setting a 60-year-old man alight. Exotic fish worth thousands of dollars were killed when a suspicious fire ripped through a pet shop in Sydney's west on Monday, police say. Just before 10pm, fire crews were called to the business at Emu Plains and took around half an hour to extinguish the blaze, a Fire and Rescue NSW spokeswoman said. Exotic fish worth thousands of dollars were killed after a fire ripped through a pet shop Credit:Google Maps Police said the business had been broken into and dozens of fish tanks smashed before the fire, killing exotic and pet fish. On arrival, police patrols found hundreds of dead fish on the floor. Youve just seen the Apollo astronaut movie First Man and youre as pumped as Neil Armstrongs spacesuit. You want to get into the heavens yourself and further humanitys cosmic calling. Well for you my friend, theres never been a better time to be alive. Virgin Galactic will soon be taking up space tourists, the European Space Agency is talking about building a Moonbase, and for the truly starstruck, NASAs working on rocketry to take astronauts all the way to Mars. Elon Musk even claims hell be regularly launching 100 Marsnauts at a time to live on the red planet: hes talking colonisation. (No he didnt announce that while smoking that joint on air.) I too am over the Moon about our sci-fi-like space future, but heres the thing: the human body was never designed for living in space. You dont hear much about it, but many of the astronauts who have already spent a few months up there have developed, for example, vision problems - and at least some of the eye damage could be permanent. (Its caused by the lack of gravity, which means pressure builds up in the head.) And this is after just being on board the International Space Station, which orbits a miserable few hundred kilometres up. If interplanetary pilgrims were to settle on the Moon or on Mars, far away from the Earths protective magnetic field, theyd also have to contend with deadly space radiation. A solicitor who stole almost $2 million from various trust accounts at the Perth law firm she worked at has been jailed for more than seven years. Tolson stole almost $2 million over 4 years. Credit:Louie Douvis Over a four-year period Helen Marie Tolson made nine separate transactions from the trust fund accounts. Between 2013-2017 she stole about $1.9 million. The court heard the money she stole was held in trust accounts at her fathers law firm which belonged to clients of the firm, some of whom were elderly, and in other cases related to deceased estates. There will be a tinge of sadness among staff members at Landsdale Farm School in December as some employees decide to move on after a change in operators. Farm manager Martin Roger, who has been involved in the farm school for five years, is one staff member who has chosen to leave the job he loves next month despite having an exceptional experience. Farm manager Martin Roger, centre, with other Landsdale Farm School employees and volunteers. Credit:Facebook Mr Rogers said he never thought hed leave the farm school but, following the announcement of the change in operators from the Department of Education to Family Support WA, the best option for him was to retain his permanent position with the department and move on. I thought Id be retiring here but its not going to happen, he said. The coastal drive from Perth to Margaret River via the Pemberton tree tops has been voted Western Australia's most popular road trip route. The 830 kilometre round trip topped RAC's Best of the West public survey, which asked nearly 4,000 people to choose between 16 shortlisted WA drives. Perth to Margaret River has topped the list of WA's best road trips. Credit:Tourism WA The survey comes only weeks after the state government announced WA's new tourism campaign, The Roadtrip State, which focuses on WA's open spaces and untouched landscapes. The 2,960 kilometre trip from Perth to Exmouth along the Coral Coast was the second most favoured trip, followed by Perth to Albany via the Porongurups, Kununurra to Broome via the Gibb River Road and Perth to Albany via Esperance. Julia Banks was caught in her Melbourne home with a news photographer camped outside when she started to wonder why she was still in the Liberal Party. It was the week after Banks had delivered a damning judgment on the bullying and intimidation she witnessed during the August leadership spill, and she was the subject of a whispering campaign to cut her down. Banks had done what so few politicians do in Parliament called out the bruising behaviour of her own party rather than pretend the problem was contained to the other side. The reward for that speech on bullying, made on August 29, was a series of claims by anonymous Liberals who tried to blacken her name. In public, Liberals hinted that Banks could not stand the heat of the political kitchen. In private, they claimed she had been a "difficult" woman who needed enormous help to win her seat at the 2016 election. In recent years, Elon Musk has become one of the most vocal critics of artificial intelligence, issuing numerous warnings about the threat that powerful machines pose to the future of mankind. Now the 47-year-old billionaire inventor and Tesla chief executive has unveiled a potential way for the meager human brain to compete with a superior force that Musk has compared to "an immortal dictator" and "the devil." Elon Musk says humans should be infused with artificial intelligence. Credit:AP During an interview with Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen that aired Sunday, Musk said humans must merge with artificial intelligence, creating a "symbiosis" that leads to "a democratisation of intelligence." "Essentially, how do we ensure that the future constitutes the sum of the will of humanity?" Musk said. "And so, if we have billions of people with the high-bandwidth link to the AI extension of themselves, it would actually make everyone hyper-smart." Washington: The three-bedroom house in Conroe, Texas, came with a fenced yard, gleaming hardwood floors, and an open-concept kitchen. It would be perfect for a young couple, real estate agent Kristin Gyldenege thought. Whatever it takes: a home for sale. Credit:Bloomberg But for more than a month, hardly anyone even looked at the listing, Gyldenege told the Houston Chronicle. Maybe it was because the city of Conroe, which is located 60 km north of Houston, experienced catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Harvey that left some homes a total loss. And although FEMA maps show the risk of flooding at this particular address to be minimal, other homes in the River Plantation subdivision were swept off their foundations during the 2017 storm. So Gyldenege tried something new: hiring scantily-clad fitness models to pose in the listing photos for the $230,000 house.